When can we stop writing about, thinking about, listening to Scott Morrison? It’s been three months since voters unceremoniously booted him. A new government is in charge and must be scrutinised for its actions and failures.
But Morrison has dominated media coverage all week, and seemingly will continue to do so when Parliament returns and his ever-stranger secret multiple ministries scandal receives more attention. No former prime minister has ever had such a high-profile life after election loss.
While few of her colleagues are prepared to join Karen Andrews in publicly demanding that Morrison leave Parliament, plenty must be wondering how long they’ll have to endure his presence. Given the likely lack of corporate gigs coming his way, that could be some time. He’s still relatively young for a former leader and could yet have a third career — but in exactly what, other than Pentecostalist preaching, isn’t clear. Perhaps a Hillsong-style How Good Is Jesus Ministries is the next step.
One can have a little sympathy for the Liberals because the rest of us are stuck with Morrison’s toxic legacy as well, and in much more direct ways than the trashing of norms.
This week’s wages data showed that the era of wage stagnation engendered by the Coalition since 2013 will remain for a long time. Not merely did Wednesday’s wage price index numbers show no increase in the rate of wages growth in the June quarter, yesterday’s average weekly earnings data actually showed a fall in earnings growth from 2.1% in the six months to last November to 1.9% in the six months to May.
The official reason was more people moving into low-paying jobs in areas such as hospitality, but the more fundamental reason is that we’ve tilted the balance of power between corporations and workers in favour of the former — and deliberately so.
Morrison’s achievement — and that of Josh Frydenberg, his joint treasurer — was to turn wage suppression and stagnation into real wage falls as inflation took off, driven by external factors but also by the Coalition’s continuing massive deficit spending. The result: households with 3.5% less spending power, on average, than last year, facing much bigger mortgage repayments. It was the fastest fall in real wages on record. No wonder it needed two treasurers to do it.
That leads to another unfortunate legacy: a decade of deficits built into the budget founded on a permanent increase in the size of government undertaken with no interest in determining how to pay for it. Not merely did Morrison trash his own party’s pretensions to being the party of fiscal discipline — a claim at odds with basic facts — but he left his successors with a serious fiscal problem.
We can go on about the other legacies Morrison has left like dried slicks of cat vomit hidden in the corner — the submarine debacle, a beleaguered higher education sector, and most of all our continuing role as one of the world’s worst per capita CO2 emitters — but the broader point is that no prime minister has inflicted such a damaging impact on crucial parts of our polity.
In a way it’s apt that he’ll remain in Parliament: he can serve as a permanent reminder of how not to govern, not merely for Labor but for his own side. As we collectively undo the damage he’s done, at least we know he has to sit there and watch.
Should he go, or stay as a stark reminder of his and the Coalition’s stuff-ups? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
