‘A week is a long time
in politics,’ the saying goes. Within less than a week, two internal Federal
Liberal Party (equivalent to the American Republican Party and the British
Tories) meetings saw the toppling of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull. On the same day, 24 August 2018, Australia received a brand-new PM:
Scott John Morrison, known by the nickname ScoMo.
Since 2010, there have
been 6 prime ministers in 8 years. While the internal blood-letting of changing
PM’s in the middle of a government term began with the Australian Labor Party
(ALP), Malcolm Turnbull challenged Tony Abbott in September 2015 for the
Liberal Party Leadership. Now, Malcolm Turnbull has been replaced by Mr.
Morrison. Mr. Morrison did not directly challenge Turnbull nor demand a change
of leadership. Indeed, he pledged his support to the Prime Minister.Once the
second vote came about and Turnbull declined to run again, Morrison put up his
hand, and prevailed.
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Source Clrdms.jpg
What caused the demise
of the Turnbull government? While the Australian media seemed to be at a loss to
explain the downfall, there were ominous and obvious signs. First, the
traditional conservative base of the Liberal Party was alienated by Mr.
Turnbull’s ‘progressive’ politics’ and were deserting the party in droves.
Though he ‘won’ the 2016 federal election, he also managed to ‘lose’ 14 seats,
thus forfeiting the party’s comfortable majority to a mere one seat. Finally,
the Turnbull government lost 30 consecutive Newspolls in a row - a portent of
an electoral wipeout.
WISHLIST FOR SCOMO
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison has, at most, 7 months to turn around his political party’s flagging
polls before the next federal election, scheduled for May 2019. The wish list
is daunting:
1.
Unity:
Former Prime Minister John
Howard called the Liberal Party a ‘broad church’ of conservatives and
moderates; Morrison needs to unite both sides without totally capitulating to
one side, thus alienating the other;
2.
Win
Wentworth: Malcolm
Turnbull quit his blue-ribbon Wentworth parliamentary electoral seat,
triggering a by-election. The loss of Wentworth, and the Liberal Coalition’s 1
seat majority, would force Morrison in a minority government. While not a fatal
result, it would be a tremendous setback for Morrison and the Liberals;
3.
Peter
Dutton: The former
immigration minister launched a frontal
attack on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, leading to his fall. Dutton’s
eligibility to be in Parliament is being questioned by the opposition Labor
Party and Turnbull, and possibly former deputy leader Julie Bishop, are pushing
for the same. If Dutton loses his seat, another by-election would shake the
Morrison government. The PM needs to silence Turnbull and keep Bishop from
crossing the floor. The former PM left parliament but apparently not politics;
4.
Bullying:
General accusations of
‘bullying’ by male Liberal politicians of female MPs in the leadership battle
have to be soundly addressed;
5.
Recapture
the base: Morrison needs
to try and regain conservative voters, who defected from the Liberals under
Turnbull due to his climate and moral policies, which were more akin to
progressive politics;
6.
Economy:
Keep it growing;
7.
Farmers:
Drought has hit Australian
farmers hard; Morrison needs to do something and be seen to do something.
Turnbull’s April 2018 $444 million donation to the private Great Barrier Reef
Foundation, which is linked to big resources companies - while Australian
farmers and livestock are suffering with drought - may have been the last straw
for many.
8.
Power
prices: It is time to
reduce them and secure Australia’s energy future;
9.
Infrastructure:
Work on building power
generators, dams, and roads;
10.
Win
the polls: Reverse the
Liberal Coalition governments greatest slump in the polls; and;
11.
Shorten:
Bill Shorten, Opposition
Labor Leader, has to be ‘knocked out’ of the race.
This will not be easy,
though Shorten is not personally popular with the electorate. The Liberal Party
is double-digit behind Labor in the polls. The time is short.
However, there are some
signs of hope for Morrison. Though his party is behind in the polls, Morrison
wins as ‘preferred Prime Minister’ over both Shorten and Turnbull. He has been
packaged as a ‘mortgage-holder,’ thus identifying with ordinary Australians.
Contrast this with the ultra-wealthy Turnbull, who was called a (Sydney) ‘Harbourside
Mansion owner.’
Morrison’s focus on farmers, energy, and mortgages
resonates with voters. There also appears to be a trend of the conservative
voters slowly returning back to the party.
In the natural, ScoMo
is a long-shot to win the polls and the next federal election. Yet, miracles
can happen and if Shorten continues to languish in personal popularity, and if
the Labor Party overplays its hand, or if Morrison gets some quick wins, things
could change. After all, as we said in the beginning,’a week is a long-time in
politics.’
MORRISON THE CHRISTIAN
Scott Morrison has gone
from the Presbyterian Church, to the Uniting Church, to the Australian
Christian Churches and Horizon Church. Whereas American Presidents all claim to
be ‘Christian,’ and since 1977 all claim to be ‘born again,’ Australian
political leaders make no such claim. Of the last nine Prime Ministers,
Morrison is only the second to be a regular church goer (the other was Kevin
Rudd). Thus, Scott Morrison is Australia’s first Pentecostal Christian Prime
Minister.
He has been quoted to
say ‘the Bible is not a policy handbook, and I get very worried when people
try to treat it like one’[1] Though he would be properly secular, Morrison also pledges to help
defend the religious liberties of all Australians.
Whether
it is Turnbull or Shorten or Morrison, born-again Biblical believers are
mandated to pray for political leaders I Timothy 2:1-4. And the time to pray is now!
[1] Nick Bryant (February 2012). "Scott Morrison: So Who the Bloody Hell Are
You?". The Monthly.
Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 7
February 2018., as found in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Morrison#cite_note-bryant-5 Accessed 16 09 2018.
Comments
Post a Comment