After months of speculation, Scomo is stepping away from politics. The former Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison announced his retirement from the backbench yesterday, after Australian news outlets reported on his imminent departure as the Member for Cook. He will retire from his role at the end of February.
Morrison’s 16-year political career, including four tumultuous years leading the country, was not without controversy. On several occasions, he said some things and made some decisions that would go down in history – and not in a good way.
Women’s Agenda has collated his not-so-finest moments and the “legacy” he has left behind, particularly for women in Australia.
LIVE PICTURES of people congregating at Parliament House to mourn the end of Scott Morrison’s time in politics pic.twitter.com/bjkZ1uhQbD
— The Shovel (@TheShovel) January 23, 2024
As we say goodbye to Scomo, here’s the legacy he’s left behind for women.
Women can have power, but not at the expense of men
Feminism means equality, ladies! And equality means women are not allowed to even think about touching positions of power held by men. Ever.
In what was probably the worst time and location to express this old, twisted yet widely-held sentiment, the newly elected Prime Minister stood up and did just that at an International Women’s Day breakfast in 2019.
“We want to see women rise,” Morrison said, “but we don’t want to see women rise only on the basis of others doing worse.”
Read the room, mate.
Women should be lucky they can protest without being shot
On March 15 2021, thousands of women gathered outside of Parliament House in Canberra, demanding equality, justice and an end to gender-based violence for women in Australia.
Organisers of the event called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to make time to speak with them and hear their voices.
Scomo chose to ignore their request and instead reminded us just how “lucky” we are.
“Not far from here, such marches, even now, are being met with bullets,” he said during Question Time.
If there was no danger, no violence, no “bullets”, then what was Scomo’s excuse to not come out and look those women in the eyes? Must’ve been a very busy day in Canberra.
Women’s political opinions can’t be taken seriously
In February last year, Hollywood icon Pamela Anderson revealed an “insensitive” and “smutty” comment Scott Morrison made in response to her advocacy for Julian Assange.
In her memoir Love, Pamela, Anderson writes about her interaction with Morrison when she approached him as an advocate and vocal supporter of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. She had publicly urged him to appeal to British and American authorities to free Assange, appearing on 60 Minutes to make the case.
“While I was in Australia, I had hoped to meet with PM Scott Morrison, to make a plea in person to the Australian government to help Julian,” she wrote.
“After I wrote an open letter to Mr Morrison, he responded cheekily in the press by saying he’d love to meet me if he could bring a few of his buddies along. That didn’t go over well — women were unimpressed with his insensitive remarks, which, by then, had reached the international press.
“You trivialised and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family. You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion.”
Morrison never apologised to Anderson.
He can only take allegations of rape seriously from his perspective as a father – not as a leader
In 2022, the government launched a review into parliamentary workplace culture, following Brittany Higgins’ allegations of rape inside Parliament House in 2019.
But Morrison didn’t launch this review because he thought it was the right thing to do as a leader. He did it because his wife, Jenny, reminded him to “think about this as a father”.
“Jenny and I spoke last night and she said to me, you have to think about this as a father. What would you want to happen if it were our girls?”
Astonishing.
Climate activism does nothing but raise “needless anxiety”
Greta Thunburg was just 16 years old when she bravely spoke out against our world leaders and their lack of action on the climate crisis.
“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones,” she said.
Morrison didn’t even attend the UN Summit on Climate Change to hear her powerful words in person. Yet he still had something to say about it.
“Yes, we’ve got to deal with the policy issues and we’ve got to take it seriously, but I don’t want our children having anxieties about these issues,” he said.
Pulling the wool over the next generation’s and his own eyes.
Maybe Jenny should ask Scomo – what if it were our girls facing the consequences of Australia’s lack of climate action?
Oh, that’s right, they are.
It’s totally fine to go on holiday when your country is in crisis
Shhhh! Don’t disturb the PM with a climate crisis! He’s on vacay!
This is probably his most infamous move. As a huge portion of his country was burning from devastating bushfires over the 2019-2020 Black Summer, Morrison was sipping cocktails in Hawaii.
“I don’t hold a hose mate, I don’t sit in a control room,” he flippantly said, doubling down on his decision.
Please, future world leaders, future Australian Prime Ministers – do not take notes.
No one else was capable of leadership by him during the COVID-19 pandemic
Months after he had lost the election in 2022, it was revealed that Scott Morrison had secretly appointed himself to five different ministerial portfolios during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a backbencher in Parliament House, he had very little reason to defend himself and justify his action. Bizarrely, yet absolutely on brand for Scomo, that’s exactly what he did.
“As Prime Minister, only I could really understand the weight of responsibility that was on my shoulders and on no-one else, and as a result I took the decisions that I thought I needed to take,” Morrison said.
It took him weeks before he actually apologised for his actions, which almost the entire country condemned him for.
That’s all, folks!
Well, that’s a wrap for Scomo in politics.
What’s next for him, you may ask? Upon his resignation, he will be taking up several global strategic advisory positions and roles on private boards. His main area of focus will be on the US and the Indo-Pacific region.
Morrison also said he plans to spend more time with his family and his Church community.
And in just a few months, his new book, Plans For Your Good, will be published. His book on “pastoral encouragement” will be released on May 21, exactly two years since he was booted out as Prime Minister of Australia.
Somehow, I don’t think this is the end of Scomo in the news cycle. Not just yet, anyway.