An article written by the Sydney Morning Herald‘s political and international editor Peter Hartcher is going viral on Twitter today thanks to some pretty bold claims about NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
The SMH opinion piece, entitled: Even Berejiklian is fed up with the PM, who she privately regards as an ‘evil bully’ (lol) uses some “Liberal sources” to illustrate, fairly bluntly, that Gladys Berejiklian can’t stand Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Who among us, etc.
This might not seem like a huge revelation, given that most of plebs can’t stand the bloke, but let’s remember that these two politicians are in the same party, are both Sydneysiders, and are supposed to be “fighting the same fight” against COVID-19 at the moment. But according to Hartcher, internally Berejiklian has a few choice words to describe Morrison.
The main zinger from the article is this claim that behind closed doors, Berejiklian will tell anyone she’ll listen that she thinks Peter Dutton should be in the top spot.
Berejiklian is a Liberal team player who keeps her grievances about Morrison private. But, in private, she is scathing. The NSW Premier has told Liberal colleagues she’d have preferred that Peter Dutton had won the last federal leadership ballot – she’d rather be dealing with Dutton because Morrison is so unpleasant, she’s said. She’s described the PM as a “bully”.
Christ, you know things are bleak when Peter fkn Dutton seems like better option.
Elsewhere in Hartcher’s piece are claims that Scott Morrison has repeatedly undermined Berejiklian by contacting political journos (called “briefing against” her) “in an effort to discredit her”, particularly around the vaccine rollout. The SMH article quotes one of Berejiklian’s “loyalists” as saying:
“Usually he briefs against her for doing her job with some measure of competence. He doesn’t like the contrast – he makes himself look big by trying to make others look small.”
OOOFT.
Hartcher claims that because of this alleged bullshittery, “Berejiklian went so far as to tell a colleague that Morrison’s behaviour was ‘evil’.”
And it’s not just Gladys Berejiklian — Hartcher’s article also claims that Morrison has alienated the Labor premiers (which probably wasn’t hard to do). He singles out Queensland’s Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was stung by Morrison refusing to play ball with her “quarantine camp” plan, which she is now just going ahead with after the Prime Minister dragged his feet for too long.
Hartcher concludes the piece by saying that: “The premiers have had enough of Scott Morrison, and the Labor premiers would relish the opportunity to say so. Especially during a federal election campaign.”
It’s all very spicy, all very “sources claim”, all very take it with a grain of salt, but honestly it’s the juicy Auspol drama I didn’t know I needed today.
You can read the whole thing on the Sydney Morning Herald (whose parent company, Nine Entertainment Co., also wholly owns this publication) right HERE. Grab a biccie and enjoy the tea.
