'Politics off the front page' is part of Scott Morrison's bid to dial down the volume

Extract from The Guardian

Australian politics

PM wants to make politics less personal, lest the government become yet another dreaded leadership story

Sarah Martin Chief political correspondent

Sat 20 Jul 2019 06.00 AEST

Scott Morrison has effectively told his MPs: shut your collective trap, and go and do your jobs. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

When Sky News opened its new Canberra studio in Parliament House late last year, the Liberal MP Craig Kelly was jokingly asked where his office would be.
The “member for Sky’s” regular appearances had become a running joke in Canberra, particularly as the outspoken conservative helped hammer the final nails into Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministerial casket.
The ability of a relatively unknown backbencher to have exerted such influence through pay TV was particularly remarkable given Sky has so few viewers. Indeed, its most popular programs – Andrew Bolt and Paul Murray – secure an average audience on any weeknight of around 30,000. Peta Credlin’s daily show, Credlin, is regularly outranked by repeats of Peppa Pig. Add into the equation that the average age of a Sky viewer is in the mid-70s, and its difficult to understand why MPs bother.
The prime minister’s office appears to have had the same brainwave.

In the last week of June, Morrison’s media unit ran an informal audit, finding that in the space of just six days, 29 government MPs appeared as talking heads on Sky.
MPs and senators were talking about all sorts of things. The news of the day, mostly, sticking to feelpinions and talking points, with the occasional catchy grab kicking the story along until the next news bulletin. But it was all white noise.
Morrison has now issued an edict, effectively telling MPs: less talk, more action.
MPs were given the order at the first partyroom meeting of the new parliament, but Morrison has made his views clear countless times about what he believes the Australian people expect of the executive.
Shut your collective trap, and go and do your jobs.
He makes a fair point. Politicians in Canberra, including many of Morrison’s colleagues, have been obsessed for years by internal ideological divisions and personality clashes rather than their actual job of serving the Australian people.
Turnbull expressed frustration at the same thing back in 2015 when he urged his colleagues to get over themselves and focus on the job at hand. “The less we talk about ourselves and the more we talk about the people who elect us the better,” he said.
History shows, of course, they didn’t heed the suggestion.
Rewind to 2012 and it was Julia Gillard saying the same thing: “What do people want government to do? Talk about themselves, or deliver results? Well I want government to deliver results and that’s what I’m doing as prime minister,” she said (before the talking to themselves crescendoed and blood was spilled.)
Morrison’s fresh attempt to dial down the volume of federal politics has been coupled with a stepping back from the limelight after an election campaign run solo.

The past fortnight has seen ministers Ken Wyatt, Anne Ruston, Jane Hume and Karen Andrews take the leading role for their respective portfolio matters.
Morrison is taking a leaf out of the playbooks of Bob Hawke and John Howard, believing he needs his cabinet to shine for the government to ultimately succeed.
As the Hawke cabinet minister Kim Beazley described in his eulogy for the former PM in June: “He told each of his ministers, “You know the policy, you know your resources, you proceed. I will interfere when you invite me. My reputation will rise or fall on the quality of my ministers’ performance.”
Morrison has made clear to his ministers that he wants them to be across their briefs, and out on the front foot to the media – but only when they have something of substance to say. No more talking for talking’s sake. It’s also an attempt to make federal politics less personal, lest the Morrison government become yet another dreaded leadership story.
If Morrison’s mission is Let’s Make Politics Boring Again, then this week he chalked up a win. The issue of a flammable cladding taskforce, being spearheaded by Andrews, became a four-day news story. This came after news of a shake-up of the Australian prudential regulator managed to stay in the headlines for two days running. What a time to be alive.
But while the “politics off the front page” pitch is part of the strategy, Morrison also seems determined to bypass the media and talk directly to voters as much as possible.
Following the well-trod path of Donald Trump and Pauline Hanson before him, Morrison has declared war on the “Canberra bubble”, taking to social media to directly communicate to voters while accusing the media of being out of step with the concerns of everyday Australians.
It is the same bubble that Morrison declared he had “popped” with his election win (which he observed, perhaps somewhat ironically, on Sky News the day after his victory), and one which he is attempting to starve of some oxygen by reining in his most loquacious MPs.
There is some merit in his criticisms of federal political reporting.
Most participants are happy to acknowledge its shortcomings: there is too much focus on conflict, too little interest in policy, and an unfortunate culture – cultivated by politicians, Morrison included – of “dropping” stories to friendly media.
But if Morrison is genuine about wanting to reform the culture of the derided “bubble” to ensure that journalists and MPs both share a laser-like focus on the Australian people, then there should be some acknowledgment that successive governments have made the job of public interest journalism more difficult.

Furthermore, he could show the Australian people that he is genuine in wanting to get the best results for them by ensuring journalists can do their job of holding them to account, properly.
The list for reform is long. So-called Freedom of Information is a farce. Whistleblower protections are rubbish. Defamation laws are a mess. And raids on journalists show the government’s national security laws now criminalise public interest reporting.
So while no one is expecting politics to stay dull for long – it never does – Morrison could certainly help make it worthier.

That way everyone could get on with doing their jobs.