Liberal Senator Jane Hume has blamed a “cheap and lazy” political smear campaign on recent (and various) unfavourable character assessments of Scott Morrison, suggesting she’s “never seen a Prime Minister of the country attacked for the sake of his character because there is no basis to attack him on policy”.
During a press conference earlier this week, Hume claimed that the government’s record on easing Australia out of crisis remains strong, and Morrison’s leadership central to that.
“The economy is doing exceptionally well after an amazingly difficult couple of years”, she said. “We now have unemployment at four percent and heading down toward something with a three in front of it. We have growth that’s the envy of the developed world. And yet, because there is nothing to attack this Prime Minister about on the basis of policy, they attack his character. I think it’s cheap and lazy politics”.
She suggested that Australians and media should “check the motivation” behind accusations made against the PM, adding “I don’t dislike him, and neither do my colleagues. In fact he’s been a leader who has seen us through the most difficult of times”.
Unfortunately, despite the Senator’s valiant efforts to create a defence for the PM, there are two glaring fallacies tied to her assertions.
The first, is that the vast majority of accusations pummelling Morrison right now are coming from his own party and colleagues. They’re not coming from the opposition. It’s a point that’s been rehashed time and again, but the list continues to grow with what seems like a new LNP member each week branding the PM an insufferable bully (and that’s putting it mildly in some cases).
Barnaby Joyce, Julia Banks, Catherine Cusack, Gladys Berejiklian, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells… it’s an unprecedented and seemingly unending torrent of pointed fingers. Sure, they may be frustrated with his decisions in leadership, but as each of the above have made abundantly clear, they’re more fed up with his character.
The other issue with Hume’s assessment, pinpointed by several commentators across Twitter, is the fact that far more unforgivable character assassinations have occurred against a national leader in recent times, with Julia Gillard subjected to daily sexism and smear campaigns during her tenure. Unlike Morrison, these tactics weren’t employed by anyone within Gillard’s party, but by Hume’s own colleagues.
Surely, the Senator’s memory isn’t that short?
Surely she remembers when grinning Liberal leader Tony Abbott attended an anti-carbon tax rally outside of Parliament House, standing in front of placards branding Gillard “a bitch” and “a witch”.
Surely, she remembers a Liberal Party dinner menu that sickeningly referred to “Julia Gillard Kentucky Fried Quail: Small Breasts, Huge Thighs & A Big Red Box”.
Surely she remembers Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan describing Gillard as “deliberately barren” or George Brandis labelling her a “one dimensional person” for choosing not to become a parent.
Surely she remembers former John Howard staffer, Grahame Morris literally encouraging Australians to be “out there kicking her to death.”
The depths the Coalition sunk to only a few short years ago to smear the character of our first female Prime Minister was unprecedented. More importantly it was 1000 times more egregious than what is occurring with our Prime Minister today.
Morrison and his few remaining allies (like Hume) can stand there and claim that accusations made against him represent pure politics, but in doing so they dismiss the very real concerns many in the party clearly hold against him– and the very real concerns Australians do too.
Surely, a better approach would be to listen?