My memories of Morrison was that he disputed Albanese as the Labor leader, saying that he had "no experience". He obviously didn't know Albanese, who had been an MP since 1996 in Grayndler, had been the deputy PM under Rudd in 2013, and had held various MP positions under Gillard and Rudd from 2007-2013 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Albanese). He had been Leader of the House, Minister for Regional Development and Local Government and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport.He had been appointed to those positions by ALP. He had taken over from Bill Shorten in 2019 at the party Leader. He knew a lot about government according to Savva in the book, Morrison "had always underestimated Albanese, who was both resilient and street smart" (p.4). According to Alex Hawke, he had "got addicted to executive authority" (p.7).
Savva had accomplished interviews with so many of the people both in LNP and ALP, and included their words in the book. One of those she interviewed said that Morrison "would only step down if God told him to" (p.19), which, after the 2022 election, proved to happen whatever he thought about. Savva said that "every year of his tenure began with a disaster of one kind or another" (p.24), which showed Morrison had no experience as a party leader or a PM.
Morrison often prayed in the PM's office with his colleagues (p.73), those with a belief in religion. The Constitution, Section 42 (https://www.aph.gov.au/constitution), allows an oath OR affirmation. A bible is not essential in the House, nor the Senate. Morrison conducting prayers was scary, for those of us who had no belief. His approach to other people, regardless to his 'control' of them, was based on his belief, and did not ring true to those he was confronting. His disinterest in "rules-based order" was identified by Senate Fierrawanti-Wells who said that Morrison was "not fit to be prime minister" and that he was "an autocrat, a bully who has no moral compass" (p.214). When Morrison fired Holgate from the AusPost, he thought it was "appropriate to publicly admonish her" her (p.127). The Senate "exonerated [her] and recommended he apologise" (p.127). He didn't. Holgate accused him of bullying. When Morrison had found about the rape of Higgins in Reynold's office, he insisted he had not been told by anyone (p.139). According to Savva, "few believed him" (p.139).
Morrison had walked away from the national bush fires, and went to Hawaii with his family in 2019. On his return (earlier than he had planned, due to being asked by his colleagues to be here), he went to Cobargo where fires had ravaged the community. He attempted to shake the hand of a woman, who refused; he took her hand, and didn't even listen to her (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts71iK2Jx_I). Savva said that he had gone "missing when his country needed him the most", and that he was "incapable of accepting responsibility when things went wrong" (p.51). Buzzfeed had 18 ridiculous sayings that Morrison had made (https://www.buzzfeed.com/louisegong/16-times-scomo-humiliated-australians-over-the-past-year) but there were more, like the "I don't hold a hose", written about by ABC (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-18/scott-morrison-acknowledges-saying-i-dont-hold-a/13886694) on 18 May 2022, and New Daily listing a long list of when Morrison had said "it's not my job" (https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2021/04/22/scott-morrison-not-my-job/).
As I looked through Google and Wikipedia, which I am certain Morrison would not use, or would decry them, I found so much info which Savva wrote about throughout the book. Savva acknowledged that Morrison was "to never own up when he got anything wrong" (p.248), had acknowledged that voters "mightn't like him, but at least he got things done" (which he didn't) (p.268), told people that "there are things that we are going to have to change with the way I do things" (which was answered by Albanese who said "If you want to change, change the government") (p.268), supported Katharine Deves for Warringah despite not understanding how she was perceived by women voters and ignored his party members as they asked him to dump her (p.218), and paid no attention to what Barnaby Joyce had been recorded as saying: "[Morrison] is a liar from my observations and that is over a long time." (p.140). This is a very few of what Savva has noted throughout this book.
Savva had an acknowledgement at the back of the book for all the people she got information from, and that list is impressive. The book was an excellent read for me, even though it took me a little bit longer as I went to NZ for a brief visit. It's taken a definite position on my bookshelf, where I can pick it up and re-read it whenever Morrison tries to re-introduce his religion, or still bullies, or still ignores that whatever he does is his job! And he should never have belittled Albanese, who is now a much, much better prime minister than Morrison ever was.
I'm a Kiwi. If you want to understand why I never trusted Morrison, look up Rob Muldoon, a Kiwi prime minister back in 1975-1984, who was, as far I think, far too similar to Morrison (albeit not religious). Thank you, Niki Savva, for this book - you made my day reading it!
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