In what’s been a busy week in Australian federal politics, ScoMo finally announced he would be leaving the parliamentary building, just as Albo undid one of his predecessor’s signature policies (or land mines) by reworking the Stage 3 tax cuts, creating hysteria among Liberals and the mainstream media, and some relief for those Australians earning less than $200,000 a year.
Scott Morrison used to tell interviewers he wasn’t interested in leaving a legacy, but Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor was having none of that this week, naming AUKUS as his old boss’s major contribution (never mind that the Australian public were not asked what they thought about it, just told in a press conference), along with getting the country through COVID and tax reform.
Less heralded legacies include delivering major blows to Australia’s relationships with France, China, and the Pacific, along with trust in politicians and the truth in general, but with ScoMo’s tax reforms now being undone, subject to what happens in parliament, and his activities during COVID a very mixed blessing, according to both public and premiers, AUKUS and its associated $368 billion American military submarine contracts are pretty much all that’s still standing from this prime minister’s time in office, which is why Mr Morrison’s new job is so fitting.
Through the international revolving door
It seems Scotty from Marketing won’t be spending more time with his family, as previously advertised, or becoming a curry expert on Master Chef, or a ukelele instructor, or a cap salesman.
Instead he’ll be taking up a role as non-Executive Vice Chairman of American Global Strategies, a ’boutique strategic advisory firm’ with international expertise in ‘crisis management’ and strong links to the American defence (arms) industry.
The chairman of this outfit is a former Donald Trump lackey and naval enthusiast named Robert O’Brien. With Morrison’s old mate Trump eyeing a return to the White House, the whole thing looks a lot like payment for his part in engineering the massive military deal with the United States. As Michael West put it, ‘he’s off to flog a few missiles and go to lunch.’
Never happy with one job at a time, as Australia learned too late, Scott Morrison will also be joining Trump-era Secretary of State and former CIA director Mike Pompeo as a strategic advisor with DYNE Maritime, a venture capital company which invests in technologies associated with the AUKUS deal.
Greens defence spokesman, Senator David Shoebridge, said last week, ‘Morrison is leaving politics only to grab his very unfair share of the billions of dollars of public money that he has shovelled into AUKUS.’
Luckily for Scott Morrison, Christopher Pyne, and the rest of them, there’s still no law against using the most inappropriate revolving door imaginable.
ScoMo, the man once described as a ‘complete psycho’ by Gladys Berejiklian was awarded a prestigious honour, the American legion of merit, by Donald Trump in 2020 for ‘leadership in addressing global challenges’, which should place him nicely if the former president is re-elected in November.
The same can’t be said for another former Australian prime minister, our ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd.
Domestic ramifications
The people of Morrison’s electorate of Cook, in southern Sydney’s fabled Shire, who have a history of electing Liberals no matter who they are or what they do, now have the chance to consider alternatives in a forthcoming by-election. The margin there is 12.4 per cent.
They join the residents of Dunkley, who also face a by-election soon to replace the popular ALP member who died last year, Peta Murphy. The margin there is 6.3 per cent.
Despite all the other issues at play, both by-elections will be treated as referendums on the recent tax changes. If there’s a swing to Labor, Peter Dutton’s entire strategy will be in doubt. If there’s a strong swing in the other direction, Anthony Albanese’s prime ministership will come under a greater shadow.
As for ScoMo, the great survivor, he will be smirking somewhere whatever happens, as he was for most of his political tenure, from his dodgy beginnings in Cook, when he displaced popular Lebanese-Australian candidate Michael Towke using racist lies, to his cruelty towards asylum seekers as immigration minister, to the height of his popularity with his ‘get a go’ daggy dad posturing, to his telling Australians they shouldn’t expect to receive the aged pension, to his forcing traumatised fire victims to shake his hand, to Hawaii, and to his unseemly departure from the federal scene.
ScoMo was a politician and prime minister who always prioritised style over substance. In the end there was zero substance, and very little style either.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
Long ago, he did work experience in Parliament House with Mungo MacCallum.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
