Extract from The Guardian
Our incurious prime minister will not be able to manage his way out of this crisis with obfuscation and evasion
Last modified on Mon 1 Mar 2021 19.54 AEDT
Scott Morrison was clear about a few things on Monday.
He’d heard last week (Wednesday, to be precise) that allegations had been levelled against one of his ministers in a letter from friends of a now-deceased woman who had accused the unnamed minister of raping her in the late 1980s.
The prime minister said he had spoken to the minister on the same day, and to the commissioner of the Australian federal police that evening.
After that, the fog descended.
Asked whether he had heard about the claims outlined in the letter before last week, Morrison replied: “No, not really of any substance, no.”
The prime minister’s strange, hedged, locution triggered a follow-up question. What had the prime minister heard?
“Only rumours of an ABC investigative journalist making some inquiries,” Morrison said airily.
“That’s all I’d heard.
“I didn’t know the substance of them.”
(Just for context, this would be “some inquires” for a Four Corners program that the government really didn’t want broadcast. The pressure applied to the public broadcaster before that program aired was “extreme and unrelenting”, according to the program’s executive producer, Sally Neighbour. Ita Buttrose later accused the government of a pattern of behaviour which “smacks of political interference”.)
Given that we were now lost in the fog, journalists on Monday made a concerted, but ultimately futile, lunge for clarity.
Did Morrison know who these “rumours” were about?
“I tend to not pay attention to the rumours,” he said.
Our incurious prime minister was not aware of the substance of the allegations, and was consequently not in a position to pursue whatever they might be. “I had no idea what or who it was about.”
On Monday Morrison said the correspondence (also addressed to Penny Wong and Sarah Hanson-Young) had taken a while to reach him.
He had heard about the letter on Wednesday but it arrived on Friday and even then, Morrison suggested, he didn’t read it, though the material was addressed to him.
The prime minister said he was “aware of the contents”.
He’d been “briefed on the contents”.
It’s strange that the prime minister didn’t read the letter, given the seriousness of what’s being alleged – a criminal allegation against a member of the cabinet.
Material of that sort of gravity screams read to me.
But then again, I’m just a journalist. A reader.
If the prime minister had read the letter from the woman’s friends (I’ve read it) he would have seen a paragraph early in the recount that says: “The prime minister was briefed on aspects of this story … in the lead-up to the Four Corners episode, and in further discussions after the programme aired.”
As I’ve just relayed, the prime minister gave his own account of what he knew, and didn’t, and sort of/might have known on Monday.
For the record, Morrison’s office says what is alleged in the letter about the prime minister’s prior knowledge is not true.
Also, for the record, Morrison says the minister who has been accused of the crime absolutely denies the conduct.
Quite honestly, as these gut-wrenching scandals thunder through the news, shaking the Morrison government, it is increasingly hard to keep up with the various knowing and the unknowing.
Morrison apparently knew that something needed to be done about the former Liberal Craig Kelly’s adviser Frank Zumbo (an aide who is now the subject of an apprehended violence order and allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by young interns, allegations which he denies) – although that didn’t come to a head until late last month.
But Morrison didn’t know about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins on a couch in the defence minister’s office in 2019 – even though lots of people in proximity to him did know, including a couple of ministers, the presiding officers, police in parliament, security, members of parliamentary staff, and at least one member of Morrison’s own staff.
In this latest terrible instalment – the saddest of stories – the prime minister doesn’t read things, isn’t inclined to pursue rumours to ascertain truth, and won’t launch an independent inquisition to get to the facts (at least not yet) because he’s not a police force, which sounds a lot like the logical extension of not holding a hose, which was the lesson he was supposed to learn during the bushfires – the last crisis Morrison fumbled in full public view.
I’m not sure why this isn’t obvious to the prime minister yet because it is blindingly obvious to anyone watching on.
The current situation is untenable for everybody and Morrison can’t manage his way out of it by attrition, omission and evasion.
He needs to lead.
• If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault or family violence, call 1800-RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au.
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