The Politics gives a big shout-out to Scott Morrison AC’s eagle. Look closely. There it is, right behind the former prime minister in photographs that commemorate his elevation to Australia’s highest honour.
Observers of Morrison will remember that this soaring eagle captured in a large framed photograph holds special significance: it is the very eagle which God used as a medium to speak to Morrison when he was at his lowest ebb during the “miracle” election of 2019. Not every PM has been personally touched by God in this way.
Leaps of faith
Should Morrison have been made a Companion of the Order of Australia in yesterday’s official announcement? Some say yes. Some say an emphatic no. But it’s good that he’s back in the spotlight. It serves as a reminder of how twisted Australia had become, how easy it is to forget that, and how easily democratic institutions can be threatened again — as they were during the Morrison years. It’s something many in our media barely recall.
Morrison is a unique example of someone who occupied the highest position in government and at the same time was hostile to that very institution — or at least sceptical of it. He said so explicitly at a gathering of churchgoers soon after he lost the prime ministership. His secret grab of ministerial powers was judged by former High Court judge Virginia Bell to be an act which could undermine faith in government.
In an off-the-record meeting with his co-religionists during COVID times, he depicted himself as a man of destiny chosen by God for “such a time as this”. He set out to Christianise the Liberal Party as a precursor to Christianising government. He confided in pastors more than he did in cabinet colleagues. He even did this while secretly cogitating on AUKUS. His natural kinship is with the dubious prosperity preachers who hold sway in Donald Trump’s America. And last week he was spruiking for business linked to Trump’s fantastical Golden Dome defence project, in a move which would tie Australia even closer to the reprobate US administration. (Let us for the moment put aside the secular abominations such as robodebt.)
In God he trusts
Morrison will no doubt frame in his mind that his AC is somehow (if not totally) linked to his faith. He’s entitled to his beliefs. The rest of us, however, might wonder how and why a man who eroded faith in government could be honoured for his efforts in government.
The Australian honours system looked very tatty over the period of the previous Coalition government. Things were so out of whack that it gave rise to a grassroots organisation called Honour a Woman. There was a disproportionate number of gongs handed out to conservative political figures, some of whom were backroom operatives whose service appeared to be more to the party than the public. During Morrison’s prime ministership, Australian tennis great and Pentecostal pastor Margaret Court was honoured with an AC.
Some of the awards process has been highly questionable, but the process is opaque so it’s never been possible to get a straight answer from the governor-general’s office.
Class warfare
There is a legacy from all those years. In short, the honours system carries a certain odour: the feeling that it has been besmirched by political influence. Like other agencies of Coalition government, it was tainted by a disdain for process.
By coincidence, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has used a National Press Club speech today to underline the importance of maintaining democratic institutions. In the age of Trump, the theme of good, stable government is suddenly a political plus. It’s also a basic competence the opposition cannot claim to have.
The Albanese government has undertaken to clean up the honours system. There’s a new council of government-appointed advisers which better reflects the country’s makeup. It’s a time-honoured custom that every PM is awarded the highest honour, whatever their political allegiance and however well or badly they performed. Will that change? Probably not. Paul Keating memorably refused to accept one. The Sun-Herald published this on January 26, 1997: “Mr Keating said there could be no greater honour for him than being prime minister of Australia, which he believed was sufficient recognition.” He remains the exception.
Scott Morrison AC is a beneficiary of a quaint, secular custom with its roots in the British class system. His appointment is both a miracle and a farce. And it serves as a reminder of how fragile democracy can be.
Come on…if they give one of them to the likes of John Howard and Tony Abbott it doesn’t seem like much of an honour…
Indeed. Three wrongs don’t make a right.
Apparently, three wrongs do make the Right.
Ah, yes. Our own national comedy festival performing not just once but biannually. Lucky bloody us. The laughs never stop
Oh My God! well that is making a mockery of the whole supposedly honour. All just a crock of shit I would venture to say.
As I wrote to one of my mates, earlier this evening, before I read this excellent expose of the fragility, the stupidity of both the “honours” system and the need to award such to former PM’s, who, these days are paid far more than the great majority of ordinary Australians and for that matter, the President of, would you believe the good ol’ US of A!
‘Mate, what did I say when we were talking, earlier this evening when I raised the subject and I suggested we, Labor, have lost the plot? The bloke who didn’t “…hold the hose…” during the disastrous bushfires a few years ago when he was PM, awarded our top honour just because the shit was PM and it is the “tradition” to provide such to former PM’s?
Talk about incongruity and yet another betrayal of Labor’s claimed values!’
I am still waiting to see if any prior recipients have the grace or the gall to return theirs.
Excellent point. Scott Morrison’s award of an AC, given his incompetence, is an insult to the many other Australians who have received lesser (or even no) award for greater service. Automatically giving an AC to former Prime Ministers is a ludicrous idea – serving is not the same as service. Those who advise on these awards need to take a good hard look at themselves and do a better job.
Clean up the honors system. Easy, all politicians are ineligible unless it is proven that in their private capacity they provided an outstanding service to the community. The awards are irrelevant today to most simply because of the obvious political handouts, however those who get them and truly deserve them will be recognised by those they know as being just recipients. I would think the chances of doing the obvious, no PM should ever get one, for anything they did in office, won’t happen under Albanese, he simply hasn’t the guts for anything substantial. A manager, that is all he ever will be. As for Morrison getting one, his Robodebt acts canceled anything at all this man did on the positive side (which as PM was his job in the first place). Should be in jail for Robodebt, not handed an award.
It is a relief to a lot of people to have a manager in charge after the coalition mismanagement and chaos.
AwadNo this award should stay. In this case it is a reminder that life is more fun than comedy alone. When PeterSellers played Chauncy Gardner in Being There he set a benchmark we had to wait 40 years for a better performance of the role. What a part he played. If a tool was required he was it. There was a new photo of him every day. Governing is the only slip he made. Well deserved award for a …..
On the same level as a knighthood for the Duke. What a joke!
Yes Kevin G, this is on the same level as a knighthood for the Duke. The cartoon showing the Duke on the ground laughing his head off was a beauty! I’m sure there are cartoons being drawn now, soon to be published, revealing the joke and the mockery of it all!
A striking debasement of the Australian honours system – there is hardly a less worthy recipient. They couldn’t honour a less dishonourable person if they tried!
Surely you mean ‘less honourable’ or ‘more dishonourable’ – not ‘less dishonourable’!
For a solid gold arsehole who’s entire being is constructed of lies and cant,what could be more fitting?Like the knighthoods of old, handed out like lollies to the apparently most successful criminals and cheats of the day.
It renders our awards and honours system worth less than two knobs of goat shit.They need to be taken out behind the shed and put down with an axe.
And start again.
On balance between good and bad deeds, Scott Morrison surely does not deserve to be honoured or praised in this way.
The honours system is, and has been for years stretching back to when it was the British system transposed here, rotten to the core. History has many examples of knighthoods (in particular) and lesser awards being bought by way of contributions to political campaigns or accepted in return for favours given. Think the knighthood for Joh …
For that reason alone it has always lacked credibility, and the farce has only continued with this award to Scotty from Marketing. It would be hard to imagine a less deserving recipient. It is beyond time that we scrapped it and moved on. Paul Keating was absolutely right – the satisfaction of serving in public office should be sufficient reward for having held it. There is no need for a trinket or bauble to mark the fact.
Mr smirky face “I’m on the bus, I just got off”, getting that award makes a complete mockery of the whole shebang. Why do politicians,sports people and actors get this award when all they are doing is their job? I worked at Holdens for 24 years on permanent night shift and no-one gave me a gong. I wouldn’t expect it, cos I was just doing my bloody job
My husband was part of a group proposing a very worthy recipient. Having observed the process I am wondering what scomo’s proposers actually wrote …
“Give him the gong”?
Maybe they just misunderstood the cultural reference.
I’m all for an awards system. People who have worked selflessly, out of the limelight, to achieve outcomes that benefit society, should be recognised. But those already in the spotlight, due to their position or sporting abilities should never be the recipients of these awards. They already have recognition of achievement.
Under Howard any poor slob who played for Australia’s cricket team ended up with a gong or Aussie of the year. Professor Fiona Wood and her ilk are the worthiest recipients.
Keating was right… as always
I agree. Time to tear up this antiquated now degraded and meaningless award for an award that recognises outstanding service by those who improve the community without remuneration; as well as those who in the course of dedicated service such as science and health bring life saving and innovative ideas to fruition.
Morrison’s delusions of grandeur and abuse of power, harm done to many must never be recognised in the same arena as our wonderful self sacrificing and worthy recipients
I wonder whether God, or the eagle for that matter, has ever told Morrison or anyone else that they were disappointed in the job they did. After all, if you’re given such powerful helping hand and you still stuff it up you should really be put in the naughty corner.
Morrison’s award is an insult to all those who suffered from the Robodebt debacle and the people who lost houses whilst he and his family sunned themselves in Hawaii.
I’ve posted this comment on The AIM webpage as well……
What in the heck were these people thinking?
The Council for the Order of Australia determines the nominees for the King’s Birthday Honours List. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet explains that the Council makes recommendations directly to the Governor-General, who then makes the final appointment.
Talk about handballing responsibility somewhere else! And certainly does not say much about the office of the GG, however we know how controversial that has been with Kerr, Hollingworth, and Hurley. So what was Moyston thinking?
I feel sad for those awarded lesser honours for greater public service. The people who do the hard yards as volunteers, the everyday workers who go above and beyond, the real
innovators and the genuinely creative. Politicians? Maybe one every decade might be worth it, usually independents.
Me too. I know recipients who were awarded honours for services to their community. This dreadful person should never have been considered let alone awarded.
He is and always will be a pariah in any civilised society…and therein lies the problem.
I recall Yes Minister and CMG, KCMG, GCMG. The equivalent of a gold watch. All we can hope is that ScoMo’s watch blows up.
I read Scum-mo was given the award in part for his leadership during the COVID pandemic.
?????
I must have fallen through the looking glass early 2020 and stayed there for 2 years.
Christianise???? Very interesting that the King’s birthday honours came the day after the feast of Pentecost. If I had to choose between the conservative “Pentecostal ” version of the message of Jesus and that proclaimed by Pope Francis and Popes Leo, (former and current) the latter would be the “Just” choice. Better not to listen to Eagles, legal or otherwise.
Thanks Peter .. good pick-up on the Pentecostal date.. Christianese is a word but today I went with the thought that Morrison’s Pentecostal beliefs are well known..so I didn’t specify it.. but the coincidence of the Pentecostal date will be a big deal for a lot of people. Thanks again.
I agree that Scomo doesn’t deserve his Kings birthday award. But that’s not the point. Every prime minister is offered this award as a matter of protocol. We must change the criteria – but it is difficult to work out what they should be when every prime minister makes good and bad decisions. This is typical of high level decisionmaking.
For example, our present government continues to approve export fossil fuel projects because the international rules mean the countries that burn our exports carry the carbon impacts, not Australia. This allows our government to manage the powerful unions, fossil fuel businesses and business organisations that demand the right to destroy our planet and humanity.
In contrast, APRA is requiring big businesses to report scope 3 carbon emissions (those they influence but don’t control). The Greens would require the Australian government to consider scope 3 emissions, but the international agreements don’t require it. Ignoring scope 3 emissions and focusing on scope 1 and 2 emissions is a convenient way for the government to say it is meeting its obligations while they approve projects that undermine the future viability of humanity and the planet. But their position was less bad than that of the opposition…..
In politics, it’s all relative. Too bad for the laws of physics and mother nature’s response to our madness.
Simple. Don’t give it to PMs. They are simply doing their job (or not even, more likely than not)
I’m nominating my daughter’s gorgeous dog Coco next year. She’s and angel, so hod should approve.
To have given an award to the architect of Robodebt says it all… He should be residing in the other ‘His Majesty’s Service’ where so many citizens end up for far far lesser crimes
Al o is just plumping for his own gong when he leaves office. He might find that the next LNP government may not comply.
I can accept that current protocol bestows the award on former PM’s.Notably one refused it because ‘he was just doing his job’.If there was any pushback during the selection/nomination process,they should have announced the award just as: “Scott Morrison..for being Prime Minister”
The British class system, name me a country in the world without class.
I have an acquaintance who received a gong for ‘Services to the Insurance Industry’ yet, as far as I know, none of the people working in our local little supermarket have received awards for anything. Obvious discrimination.
If you are a clerk or a cleaner or a copper or a chef and you save a child from being mauled to death by a rampaging lion, you deserve an award. Otherwise, not.
The fact that Morrison got an award confirms their irrelevancy. Albanese will eventually get one too. His should be engraved thus: Attacking a journo with a rubber bullet is horrific. Assisting in a genocide is just fine.
The scummo scorpion, as Prime Minister (and before that a professional liar, ie, advertising guru) was, and who has probably remained an unmitigated liar, was born in swaddling clothes of mendacity, wears the finest Saville Row tailored suit of mendacity, and will cark it in a shroud of mendacity. Also, the scummo scorpion is such a mendacious bastard, I’m surprised that there hasn’t yet been a Pinocchio moment when his lengthening proboscis didn’t poke those he was talking to in the eye. I am surprised, astonished, and astounded that he hasn’t strongly developed a striking resemblance to either a ponderous pachyderm or a proboscis monkey(lol). FINALLY. LET US NOT FORGET THE ‘RUBY PRINCESS FIASCO, WHICH HE ENGINEERED WITH GLUM GLADYS, AND WHICH BROUGHT COVID 19 ROARING UNCHECKED INTO AUSTRALIA, AND DIDN’T LIFT A FINGER TO INITIATE A PUBLIC VACCINATION CAMPAIGN, AND DICK SHOVED THE QUARANTINE RESPOSIBILITIES (CONSTITUTIONALLY A COMMONWEALTH RESPONSIBILITY) ONTO THE CASH STRAPPED STATES!!!!!!!
Twisted indeed.
His stuff ups far outweighed the slim positives.
It is no credit to the nominators that such an award was recommended to a an arrogant self appointed demagogue who thought he could run the country single handed and snubbed his ministers and colleagues.
Giving him such an award diminishes the importance to others who rightly deserved it.
Who gets the task of cleaning the thing?
who could forget the award to Bettina Arndt who climbed the apologist mound in support for mis understood rapists. Morrisson on a par of disgrace and these awards.
Trump also sits underthe symbol of an eagle – ironically pinched from the indigenous people meaning strength, freedom, and courage – what the extreme right wing anti-democracy movement don’t represent! As pointed out the honours system is a Bristish Monarchy heritage relic/idea symbolising not just class (land ownership, wealth, lineage, reputation, colonialism, imperialism etc) but the inequality between the haves and the have nots. Scomo belongs in the Hall of Shame. Keating, forever the great visionary.
Most of us employees are on KPIs. You don’t get special recognition unless you meet your stretch targets, i.e. perform productively above and beyond your job description. It beggars belief that the King’s honours aren’t based on the same principle. There should never be recognition for simply doing your job.
I agree David. It makers no sense to reward Scott Morrison when his record is plagued by incompetence. It’s unfathomable!
We’re a laughingstock and so is the award itself. Look at the load of sycophant recipients and the real winners are rarely there.
Whomever signs off on these nominations should be immediately sacked for approving this latest debacle. Who is looking after those affected by his Robodebt? Not let us forget that we are in the defence debacle thanks to him too. Oh, the list goes on and on. He hasn’t departed the political scene far enough for us to forget him.