Image from The Guardian
By Situation Theatre 9/1/2020
“I’ve really committed to this one.”
Hats off to Prime Minister Scott Morrison who has done the unthinkable and actually stuck to his New Years’ Resolution.
Mr Morrison said that he formulated his plan to become the most reviled Australian back in about September last year. This was a time when even once serious bushfires had broken out, he continued to ignore calls for a meeting by former emergency service leaders to help deal with the crisis.
By December he stepped up his early commitment to the resolution with a series of loathsome behaviours.
On December 10, with about three million hectares burnt, many human lives lost, hundreds of homes destroyed, and millions of animals incinerated, the PM gave a press conference about his proposed religious discrimination bill. At this presser he rejected the idea of offering help to volunteer firefighters, saying they “want to be there”.
On December 12, he deflected blame and responsibility onto the states and again rejected demands for more support. He dismissed a report which ranked Australia as having the worst climate policies of 57 surveyed countries.
On December 15, with over 100 fires burning across NSW predicted to worsen due to extreme temperatures, the PM went on holidays to Hawaii without notifying the public, then tried to cover it up.
A week later, he returned from holidays for some publicity shots in a helicopter and a narcissistic press conference in which he shut down the idea of doing more to fight climate change.
Images from Twitter
On December 29, Morrison finally announced some financial support for volunteer firefighters, but then only to those in NSW who were self-employed or worked for small or medium-sized businesses.
On New Year’s Eve, he had a party in Kirribilli and enjoyed the fireworks.
On New Year’s Day, he posed for some photos with the Australian Cricket Team.
On January 4, he launched a Liberal Party ad spruiking his announcement of the involvement of the ADF, without telling RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons.
Mr Morrison’s office spent much of this period backgrounding journalists against state Liberal colleagues, blaming resource delays on the NSW Government.
Publically, the PM called for an end to the blame game.
Kind of like how he can call for kindness while torturing refugees in concentration camps, and still sleep at night.
So just nine days into the New Year, a heartfelt congratulations to the Prime Minister. You really are Australia’s most repugnant creature.
*Credit to Nick Feik who catalogued these actions in his excellent article in The Monthly called A National Disaster.
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