Scott Morrison has goaded Labor into an election contest over character, after the opposition questioned the prime minister’s trustworthiness in the wake of a series of damaging text messages.
Morrison, who has faced a torrid start to the parliamentary year overshadowed by questions about his character, was challenged in question time on Wednesday about a text message sent by the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, and a separate text exchange between a Liberal minister and the former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Joyce’s message for former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins branded Morrison as a “liar” and a “hypocrite”, while Berejiklian allegedly called the prime minister a “horrible person” and questioned his focus on political point scoring during the bushfires in 2019-20.
Also on Wednesday, Labor’s deputy leader, Richard Marles, asked Joyce to confirm he had served with Morrison for 15 years in parliament including six in the cabinet, and therefore “knows what he’s talking about, doesn’t he?”
Joyce, who publicly apologised for the text message and offered Morrison his resignation, said he had a good working relationship with the prime minister, listing their cooperation “defending the nation”, building dams and inland rail, and dealing with “one of the greatest pandemics of modern times”.
“Our working relationship has made sure we have kept this nation safe,” Joyce said.
The Labor MP for the seat of Eden-Monaro, Kristy McBain, seized on the text exchange with Berejiklian and an unknown Liberal minister, with one message sent while fires ravaged her electorate in southern NSW. According to the leaked text messages, the former NSW premier allegedly said of Morrison: “Lives are at stake and he is obsessed with petty political point-scoring.”
“Why was the prime minister obsessed with political point-scoring during the bushfires and why didn’t he just do his job?” McBain asked.
The manager of government business, Peter Dutton, attempted to disallow the question, saying it was based on “an unsubstantiated media gossip speculation piece”.
“This is not a document that can be referred to, or a statement that can be referred to, and certainly it is not within the prime minister’s responsibility to respond to gossip, and it should be ruled out of order on that basis,” Dutton said.
However, the new speaker, Andrew Wallace, ruled the question in order.
Morrison sought to downplay the message, saying Berejiklian “did not confirm any such statement at all”.
“This is what we have become used to from the opposition in putting these matters forward. It’s not about policy,” Morrison said.
“If the leader of the opposition wants to have a character contest with me, bring it on.”
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, sought to return fire on the Labor leader, despite a ruling from the speaker that a question about “alternative approaches” did not allow “carte blanche to undertake a gratuitous character assessment”.
Frydenberg said the “biggest risk to the economic recovery” underway in Australia was the leader of the opposition, and attacked Albanese’s record supporting various tax policies while in government.
“Somebody who has never held a treasury portfolio, somebody who attacks tax cuts for families as being for the top end of town … and a leader of the Labor party too weak to stand up to the unions and the Greens,” Frydenberg said.
The increasingly personal attacks in parliament come as the Guardian Essential poll shows the Coalition lagging behind Labor 46% to 47%, with 8% of people undecided.
Morrison’s approval ratings have plummeted over the past year, but he is still narrowly seen as the preferred prime minister over Albanese.
Speaking to the coalition party room on Tuesday, Morrison urged unity on the proposed religious discrimination bill in the lead-up to the election, appealing for MPs to “come together”.
“I’m going to lead, and I’m asking you once again to follow me to an election victory,” Morrison said.
Albanese said on Tuesday the Coalition did “not deserve a second decade in office”.
“I know they’re distracted by their internal hatreds and feuds, [but] the problem isn’t that. The problem is that because of that, their distractions, their dishonesty and their disunity is stopping them looking after the interests of Australians.”
