The one thing Prime Minister Scott Morrison hates more than anything is being questioned. He absolutely cannot stand it when people query the things that he has either said or done. If he does a dumb and stupid thing – like he so frequently does – and somebody asks him why he did the dumb and stupid thing, he cannot handle it. It fills his skull with a seething rage that he finds hard to contain. To question the Prime Minister is to do a great personal unkindness to him. He feels an undeniable urge to fire back when it happens. And his weapon of choice in this regard is “yell and sook like a big whinging bitch”; a card he plays frequently with low success.
Morrison’s visceral distaste for being questioned overflowed in Parliament this afternoon, after opposition leader Anthony Albanese pressed fairly gently against the Prime Minister’s comments yesterday regarding the nationwide March 4 Justice protests.
Yesterday, Morrison asserted fairly deliberately that “This is a vibrant liberal democracy, Mr Speaker, not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets, but not here in this country, Mr Speaker” in reference to the March 4 Justice demonstrations; a deeply weird equivalency that hints, on a base level, that they could be shot at if the levers of power really wanted to.
In the kind of coincidence that can only occur when you truly do not give a shit, Morrison’s comments also happened to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the Christchurch Massacre, in which an Australian far-right terrorist murdered 51 people across two mosques.
In Parliament today, Albanese asked of Morrison “Does the Prime Minister regret that comment, particularly on the second anniversary of the Christchurch Massacre, conducted by an Australian citizen?”
Sneering through a typically lowered brow, Morrison bit back:
“The leader of the opposition has engaged, I think, in a very unworthy… an egregious slur, in this place. Mr. Speaker, when has it been a bad thing for a Prime Minister to proclaim the strength of democracy in our country, Mr. Speaker?”
Morrison’s voice further raised as he continued his diatribe:
“What issue does the leader of the opposition have with celebrating democracy and the right to protest, Mr. Speaker? What issue could he possibly have, Mr. Speaker, other than a twisted attempt – a twisted attempt, Mr. Speaker – to try and pervert what has been said in good faith in this place to celebrate the fact that Australians anywhere in the country can come and express their concerns. This demonstrates, Mr. Speaker, that on this issue the leader of the opposition does not act in good faith. He does not act in good faith. But on this issue, Mr. Speaker, over many weeks now [Albanese] has simply tried to twist this issue for his own partisan advantage. He is proving himself unworthy of the office even holds now, let alone the one he seeks to take.”
https://twitter.com/tegangeorge/status/1371661016149323776
Interesting that the Prime Minister’s chief political strategy seems to be lifted direct from The Mighty Ducks.
Take the fall. Act hurt. Get indignant.
