Anti-Globo ScoMo
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has exuded confidence since his ‘miracle’ federal election victory on May 18. In a phone call with US President Donald
ScoMo survived the nation’s left and media throwing everything at him during the election, but in the end the Quiet Australians, the phrase Morrison himself coined, delivered him the result that mattered at the ballot box.
Trump and ScoMo’s Beginnings
Given ScoMo and Trump’s similar election battles and triumph, the “close cooperation” they promised each other from that post-election phone call has been very visible.
The two world leaders met for the first time post-election at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan in late June. You could say the two had a “perfect conversation” with Trump’s first words to ScoMo reportedly “What a great win.”
ScoMo, in a photo he posted on his Facebook page, emulated Trump’s trademark thumps up. It was a clear sign that ScoMo was more comfortable embracing Trumpian populism.
ScoMo has also developed a Trumpian method for dealing with the mainstream media. If they ask him about internal Coalition politics, his response has been, “That’s a Canberra bubble question, I’m just going to leave that in the bubble”.
Australian China Policy
The most public display of the new Trump-ScoMo special relationship was the much-hyped official state dinner ScoMo was treated to at the White House. The Australian media viewed it as a significant honour, given it was the first such dinner an Australian head of government had been invited to since 2006.
In Australian politics, the main issue of division these past two months has been: how should Australia handle its future relationship with China? Foreign interference in Australia by the Chinese Communist Party, both in the politics and local Chinese communities, has continued to be exposed.
There are also the continuing pro-democracy protests in the Special Chinese Administrativee Region of Hong Kong. Both the Coalition Government and Labor opposition have failed to come up with coherent positions on Hong Kong.
The United States has during successive administrations viewed China as a threat to its sphere of influence in the Pacific. Following his state dinner, Morrison signalled a pivot from Australia’s neutrality in the US-China tension.
In an address to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, ScoMo said “China’s economic growth is welcomed by Australia and we recognise the economic maturity that it has now realised as a newly developed economy” and “The world’s global institutions must adjust their settings for China, in recognition of this new status”.
Although on the surface Morrison appears to be praising China’s economic advancement, it is actually a thinly veiled attack. China is able to obtain economic advantages under its developing country status under World Trade Organisation rules. Morrison has now taken the United States position that this classification is unfair and should change.
Resisting Globalism
In the week following their state dinner, both Trump and ScoMo addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Trump in front of the globalist unelected body declared “The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots”.
Following Trump’s denouncement of globalism and support of patriotism at the United Nations, ScoMo made a similar statement last Thursday in a speech to the Lowy Institute. While not as big a stage as the UN, ScoMo’s speech still attracted massive attention.
His speech went for over an hour but was noted for ScoMo’s attack on what he termed “negative globalism” which “corrosively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-defined borderless global community. And worse still, an unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy”.
He then went on to defend national sovereignty: “Only a national government, especially one accountable through the ballot box and the rule of law, can define its national interests. We can never answer to a higher authority than the people of Australia”.
ScoMo finished by paraphrasing former Prime Minister John Howard’s most famous quote, ‘we will decide our interests and the circumstances in which we seek to pursue them’.
The Labor opposition, an eager supporter of globalism, said in response ScoMo “knows very well that international bodies operate by consensus among countries and don’t dictate to Australia,” claiming “Our international commitments have not been forced upon us; we have taken them on voluntarily”.
Even the Lowy Institute was shocked by the speech, with founding director and former Australian spy boss Allan Gyngell commenting it was remarkably defensive: “I can’t remember a foreign policy speech by an Australian prime minister in which the words ‘sovereign’ or ‘sovereignty’ appear so often”.
Further Attacks on ScoMo
The leftist media and online activists have become increasingly desperate and incoherent in their attacks on Scott Morrison. You could say they are becoming infected with ScoMo derangement syndrome. They still cannot accept he fairly and convincingly won the May federal election.
They jumped upon a White House leak which alleged that ScoMo wanted to invite Hillsong Church pastor Brian Houston as a special guest at the state dinner. However that invitation was reportedly vetoed by the White House.
The reason ScoMo’s enemies attack this friendship is due to the fact that Brian Houston’s father Frank, who founded the modern day Hillsong Church, was accused of child sexual abuse in his final years. Brian has conceded he did not report the allegations against his father, though neither did other senior church leaders at the time.
ScoMo again took a leaf out of the Trumpain media handbook; when repeatedly asked if he lobbied for this invitation, he simply dismissed it as gossip. Attacks on his Pentecostal Christian faith are a regular occurance.
Qanon Friend
After accusing him of being friends with a pedophile enabler, last Saturday the Guardian accused ScoMo of being friends with someone too eager to expose pedophilia.
There is a popular Twitter account with 24k followers called BurnedSpy34 which tweets about Qanon including a theory alleging President Trump is engaged in a war against the deep state which includes a global pedophilia ring. An alleged informant Q posts updates on online forums such as 4chan.
The Guardian discovered that the man behind this account is a life-long friend of the Morrison family, and his wife was employed by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Guardian did its best to imply that BurnedSpy34 was a national security threat, talking to Qanon “experts” who claim the conspiracy theory could incite violence and domestic terrorism.
The Guardian did publish BurnedSpy34’s official response: “I have never spoken to Scott about anything of a political nature. I’m not an adviser. The idea of me talking to him about this … it’s just not true”.
The Guardian story has already died and the news cycle is moving to other news stories and outrages this week.
Engadine Rumour
The most ludicrous and obsense smear the left has thrown at ScoMo is he shat his pants at the Engadine McDonald’s in 1997 while watching his beloved Cronulla Sharks rugby league team lose that year’s Super League Grand Final.
The rumour began on Twitter after ScoMo became Prime Minister in August 2018. It was spread by hip hop artist JoyRide who claimed he had a mate who worked at said McDonald’s on that date in 1997. The rumour has since gone viral.
It was considered so important by popular culture website Pedestrian TV to know whether such a rumour was true that they did a fact check and sent two of their reporters to the Engadine McDonald’s to investigate.
ScoMo appears to be simply amused by the rumour. He still has no problems frequenting McDonald’s outlets during his Prime Ministership. He joked to the media at Parliament House’s annual midwinter ball that if speeches were still off the record at the event, he’d tell the truth about what happened at the Engadine McDonald’s.
The Demoralised Left
The left, with Labor now behind in the opinion polls and with at least two years until another election, appears to just be throwing whatever mud it can find about ScoMo and hope that it sticks. The left is demoralised and desperate.
It is also worth noting that the left expressed outrage at Julia Gillard being called “Juliar” during her Prime Ministership, even claiming it could inspire political violence. But of course double standards are the left’s modus operandi. They have given ScoMo the nickname on social media #LiarFromTheShire, a reference to the Shire of Sutherland which covers his Cronulla-based electorate of Cook.
The reality is Scott Morrison is growing in confidence since his election victory. He feels more confident to express his true political self and to better represent the Quiet Australians who provided him with his own mandate as Prime Minister. Let’s hope that ScoMo continues on his current political projectory.