Now we know what was occupying Scott Morrison in the latter stages of last week: not addressing the aged care emergency, not responding to the sector’s plea for boots on the ground in facilities across the country, but scripting a pantomime to respond to the revelation that Barnaby Joyce, less than a year ago, thought Morrison was “a hypocrite and a liar… over a long time” who “earnestly rearranges the truth to a lie”.
Joyce, of course, had just days earlier demanded that the perpetrator of the “psycho” text out themselves, prompting Brittany Higgins to point to Joyce’s hypocrisy by releasing his text.
That Joyce is a hypocrite is hardly news. Nor is his stunning — indeed, colossal — lack of judgment, particularly his enthusiasm for opening his mouth when good sense suggests he should keep it firmly shut. Even now, some in the press gallery peddle the myth that Joyce is some sort of avatar of authenticity, some plain-speakin’ tribune of the inarticulate, whose inability to talk in coherent sentences elevates him to political genius. In fact he loses votes for the Coalition every time he opens his mouth, which he does with alarming frequency.
But it took the genius of Morrison to make Joyce look even more of a fraud than he normally does.
The pantomime confected by Morrison and his office was that Joyce would apologise, offer to resign and explain that while he’d never worked closely with Morrison, he had completely changed his opinion now that he had. Morrison generously forgave Joyce his indiscretion.
That story was rushed to News Corp in order to get ahead of the publication of the text by Nine’s James Massola, who’d contacted the PMO to seek a response. Niceties like the fact that Joyce’s position is the gift of his partyroom, and not the prime minister, were overlooked.
Of all that, the excuse that Joyce hadn’t worked closely with Morrison was the most risible, given they’d been in cabinet from 2013-18, including two years when Joyce was deputy prime minister and Morrison was treasurer.
Two budgets’ worth of expenditure review committee meetings is more than enough to qualify as working closely with someone, but perhaps Joyce was distracted during all those meetings or suffering a health issue of some kind. Certainly Morrison seemed to suggest all was not well with Joyce, referring to how he had been “in a different headspace last year, both professionally and personally”.
But that’s Morrison’s way — criticism of him by colleagues is always brushed off as the result of some sort of implied mental health issue. Julia Banks’ criticism of the bullying, abuse and misogyny she’d endured from Liberal colleagues when Morrison ascended to the prime ministership saw Morrison suggesting she needed support. “My first concern is for her welfare and well-being and she is taking the time to ensure that that is taken care of,” he said, in effect saying her criticisms were the result of her own version of a “different headspace”. Same thing with Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer after she crossed the floor last year, only to be dragged into a meeting with Morrison which the gaslighter-in-chief later described as “I wanted to ensure that she was being supported”.
It takes a special kind of ego to see any criticism by colleagues as a product of a mental health issue, rather than being grounded in reality. But that’s Morrison.
While this pantomime was being staged by Morrison and his office, more seniors were dying in aged care, tens of thousands were continuing to endure lockdowns, and providers were struggling to ensure residents had basic services. The possibility of using ADF personnel in residential care, floated at the end of last week, vanished again. Perhaps Morrison knew any announcement that he made on that would be overwhelmed by questions about why so many people who have dealt with him say he is a liar.
In any event, there were, it seems, more high-priority political problems to deal with than the deaths of hundreds of seniors and the misery of thousands. Aged care residents are in a “different headspace”, as well. It’s one that the government continues to inflict on them through its inaction.
