Since leading the Coalition to a historic election wipeout and antagonising his few remaining loyalists over the multiple ministries scandal, censured former prime minister Scott Morrison has been forced to look abroad for friends.
Scott Morrison was described as a “general” in the global battle for freedom and democracy.Credit:John Shakespeare
He’s clearly found them at the Hudson Institute in Washington, where the former PM gave a private speech on Australia’s relationship with China in front of a very friendly crowd last Wednesday.
But even Morrison, who recently joined the Rupert Murdoch-funded neoconservative think tank’s China strategic advisory board, was blown away by the “unique” introduction he received from senior fellow Miles Yu.
“He’s very Australian, he’s very famous, he’s beloved by Australians and Americans,” Yu said, before comparing the former PM to Mel Gibson’s character in Gallipoli. “He is a general, an admiral in a current global battle for a much larger cause of defending the global order, freedom and democracy.”
Yu wasn’t done stroking Morrison’s ego, telling him afterwards that “with a speech like that, you could run for the highest office in the United States and win”.
The speech in question was a brazen attempt by the former PM to rebrand as a sober China expert, which sits uneasily with a reality in which he presided over a historic deterioration in relations with Beijing, only for things to thaw the second he left The Lodge.
And in his words of warning to the West, things took a strangely Trumpian turn. “We need to let the West continue to be the West,” Morrison said. “We need to be mindful of neo-Marxist global justice agendas, which seek to roll back the way Western market democracies operate.”
He was probably just playing to the crowd. Morrison revealed he’d been invited to Hudson by his “dear friend” and former president Donald Trump’s old secretary of state Mike Pompeo. Yu also worked in the Trump administration.
Morrison can count at least one friend from the last government – former minister Ben Morton, who was watching in DC. Morton was so loyal to Morrison he spent the last election campaigning on the PM’s bus and forgot to defend his own seat.
But one thing is for certain – ScoMo’s reception won’t be as welcoming in his upcoming appearance at the robo-debt royal commission.
MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL
It’s been a rough few weeks for News Corp royalty with a propensity to act inappropriately around female colleagues after a few bevvies at work events.
First, it was The Australian’s editor-in-chief Chris Dore who stepped down under a cloud of “lewd comments” towards a woman and “personal issues”.
Next, it was shock jock Chris Smith who was forced to apologise for “upsetting” female colleagues at Sky’s Christmas party – soon before he was grilled by colleagues Rita Panahi and Andrew Bolt and sacked.
It wasn’t the first offence for Smith. His record dates back more than a decade and includes fondling colleagues’ breasts and exposing himself to staff.
So News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller thought it was time to issue a stern reminder on Tuesday, in case anyone was confused. “I want to say something as plainly as possible. Do not let a bad choice you make at a party undermine all the good you have achieved.”
In a classic case of rewriting history, Miller said News Corp staff treat people fairly and the company’s values of respect do not change “once we finish work” (except for when they do).
But in a world where one man’s “bad choice” is another man’s alleged harassment, it seems it’s better late than never to set the record straight.
MOVING OUT
Controversial Liberal councillor Alexander Lew announced at Stonnington Town Hall on Monday night his plans to resign midway through his term, because he’s moving out of the area and thinks it’s the right thing to do.
Lew has racked up a slew of juicy headlines as a regular CBD star – famously being banned from social media for referring to a ratepayer’s “co-morbidly riddled body”.
Could Alexander Lew follow in Tim Smith’s footsteps in the leap from Stonnington to Spring Street?
He’s a love-him-or-loathe-him kind of guy. At the council meeting on Monday night, his regular supporter and fellow Liberal councillor Marcia Griffin was quick to jump to his side, applauding the “scrutiny” the public prosecutor brought to the council’s affairs.
“It did not win you the popularity award in this chamber, but you won a deep respect in our community … In a groupthink world where diversity of opinion is not tolerated, your individual courage is a lesson for us all,” she said.
Lew’s feather-rustling views on the inner-city council, which include condemning photo ops for First Nations recognition and railing against the scourge of “identity politics”, have attracted him more than one opponent. He has been accused of harassing people online, and there was even a petition to push the Libs to disown him (signed by fewer than 150 people).
Lew’s critics became so overbearing that he installed security cameras in his home, funded by the council, and took out a since-discontinued intervention order.
Seven complaints were lodged by four councillors (Kate Hely, Nicki Batagol, Mike Scott and Polly Morgan) about his conduct, to mixed results.
But he’s not giving up on politics. After challenging former Victorian Liberal leader Michael O’Brien in the Malvern preselection battle earlier this year, Lew still harbours ambitions to enter state parliament.
Could he follow in the footsteps of Tim Smith, the car-crash politician who leapt from Stonnington to Spring Street, come 2026?
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