Morrison’s Companion of the Order for Gaslighting Australia

Scott Morrison – known for his inability to hold a hose and shirking all responsibility – has been handed the highest accolade in the land, a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

The award was presented to the former PM (IA emphasis):

‘For eminent service to the people and Parliament of Australia, particularly as Prime Minister, to notable contributions to global engagement, to leadership of the national COVID-19 response, to economic initiatives, and to national security enhancements, especially through leadership of Australia's contribution to AUKUS.’

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Morrison’s tenure as PM was neither eminent nor notable, except in its complete failure to serve the Australian people.

The only notable contributions for which the former PM will be remembered are wildly egregious, such as Robodebt and Hawaiian holidays during natural disasters.

Indeed, the end of his political career was mired in scandal after it emerged he had secretly, undemocratically, sworn himself into five additional ministries during the pandemic in a concentrated power grab.

Good riddance Scott 'Five-Ministries' Morrison

As Scott "Five-Ministries" Morrison finally exits parliament, to what achievement can he point as his claim to fame?

REWARDING CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

1. COVID-19 negligence

That Morrison should be singled out for recognition based on his COVID-19 pandemic response is simply absurd.

Even if the reality of Morrison's horrific prime ministership has already slipped people's minds, or if his latest accolade makes us question what we saw and heard with our eyes and ears, we can still read the truth of what happened – and Morrison’s part in it – since it has all been documented, right here on this publication.

Let's begin with a brief rundown of what Morrison actually did in relation to the pandemic:

ignored medical advice and pleas by state premiers, doing nothing whatsoever for as long as possible;
courted herd immunity, advised children it was safe to go back to school and laughed off expert medical advice;
ignored social distancing and downed beers at the footy, without wearing a mask;
permitted thousands of passengers to disembark from the cruise ship, Ruby Princess, which led to 28 deaths and more than 700 cases of the virus (the greatest single source of infection in the country), and then blamed the states;
allowed ignorant members of his Government, like anti-vaxxer Craig Kelly, to spread dangerous misinformation about the pandemic without consequence;
botched the vaccine rollout;
ignored the need for secure quarantine facilities;
refused to provide free rapid antigen tests;
set up a National Cabinet comprised of the state premiers to deal with the crisis, effectively absolving himself from any responsibility but leaving the door open in case the Cabinet's strategy succeeded;
after a ban on events with more than 500 people was announced, he allowed the international Hillsong conference to proceed, attended by thousands;
spent over $21 million on the COVIDSafe app, which identified a total of two COVID cases that hadn’t already been identified through manual contact tracing and was used by less than 800 people;
politicised the pandemic by declaring NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's response as the gold standard, while simultaneously undermining Labor Premier Dan Andrews' handling of the virus, publicly deriding him and denying requests for purpose-built quarantine facilities;
then blamed the hotel quarantine disaster on Victoria; and
when Victoria's preventative measures (which Morrison opposed) succeeded in containing the virus, he took the credit.

As we have said before, Morrison’s negligent response to the pandemic and Australia’s overall enviable position on an international scale had little, if anything, to do with the PM, and everything to do with the National Cabinet’s response, additional measures taken by individual premiers and Australia’s geographic advantage.

2. AUKUS debacle

Put simply, Morrison botched the AUKUS pact from the outset. He first struck a deal for submarines to be supplied by France, and then secretly reneged on the agreement in favour of a new deal with the UK and U.S. in a spectacular international betrayal of one of our most important allies.

Morrison then tethered Australia into this expensive, largely unexplained agreement with the U.S. and the UK.

The future of the AUKUS deal is now uncertain, but Morrison's deceptive and inept handling of the whole affair is on the record and it is hardly an achievement for which he should be rewarded.

3. The crime of Robodebt

The fraudulent Robodebt scheme, which led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands more, is something with which Morrison can be credited, since he was the architect.

Not only did Morrison fail to show a duty of care, he actively allowed the unlawful debt assessment method to continue, hounding people incessantly, in many cases to their deaths, all while fully aware of its illegality.

Not only did he fail to apologise or take any responsibility for Robodebt’s horrendous consequences, he sat sneering and unmoved at the ensuing Royal Commission into its criminality.

Inexplicably, despite misleading parliament, lying repeatedly about it and then denying all wrongdoing, Morrison was still able to access Legal Aid to cover his personal legal costs for Robodebt.

4. Assorted negligence/ineptitude/mendacity

As fires raged across three states during the Black Saturday bushfires, Morrison was living it up on an island paradise and when asked if, under the circumstances, he should cut his holiday short, he famously said, "I don't hold a hose, mate".

Morrison cosied up to Donald Trump. There was money for donors. Money for mates. Money for fellow happy-clappers. Money for fossil fuel corporations. Money for everyone who already had it.

There was his dismantling and erosion of anything remotely beneficial to the populace: Medicare, the Fair Work Commission, women’s rights, Indigenous rights, education, environment and climate change policy, energy policy, the ABC and time spent smirking while waving lumps of coal around in parliament.

Morrison showed zero compassion throughout his entire political career, even celebrating the misery of the many people he sent to gulags on Nauru and Manus Island with a self-awarded trophy in the shape of a boat, engraved with the words, ‘I Stopped These’.

So completely devoid of empathy was Morrison (and many of his Coalition colleagues), he employed external empathy coaching for the entire Cabinet in an attempt to appear human.

This person diminished, destroyed and undermined everything that did not suit his personal agenda.

And at almost every juncture, this man demonstrated his contempt for our laws, institutions, the separation of powers and the Australian people.

Morrison's many other unconscionable deeds, for which he was never held accountable, are too numerous to list here, though they are comprehensively detailed on Independent Australia.

But even if you don't have days to devote to reading all the ways in which the former PM failed Australia, what is clear is that giving this person the nation's highest achievement award diminishes the contributions of the worthy recipients with whom Morrison shares the accolade. And it diminishes us all.

Yet this is the man the Council for the Order of Australia considered deserving of reward — the nation’s highest award, in fact, the Companion of the Order of Australia, which: