The contrived nonchalance with which federal ministers are attempting to ignore or belittle the ruckus caused by an outbreak of text message frankness is an indicator of how seriously the matter is being taken.
And so it should be.
Senior people within the embrace of the Liberal and Nationals parties have said nasty things about Scott Morrison, then someone within that same embrace has made the insults public.
The texts used the type of language you might expect around the front bar at closing time. Calling the prime minister a “psycho”, “horrible, horrible” and a “hypocrite” is not what US Republicans in another context would classify as civil discourse.
There is a brutality within the messages and their paths to public awareness which cannot be ignored or belittled.
Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud acknowledged on ABC radio on Monday that party MPs would have a “candid conversation” about leader Barnaby Joyce’s role in the text tumult but then argued only press gallery journalists were “excited” by the issue.
And it is instructive to note what the prime minister’s office has done, as opposed to what ministers may be saying.
When the Sydney Morning Herald last Friday afternoon revealed it had the contents of the Barnaby Joyce text, the prime minister’s office moved swiftly into a damage minimisation strategy. It marshalled a cringing apology from Joyce and a statement of saintly forgiveness from Morrison, and arranged an early Saturday morning Joyce press conference to get his contrition on TV and radio news services.
Much out of character – and not just for apologising – Joyce readily accepted being told what to do, because he knew he and the government were in trouble.
That Friday evening, the PMO gave the updated package of statements to the Australian – not the SMH – possibly in the belief the package would receive a treatment more comforting for the government.
This was not the reaction of a government which would like you to think the two sets of texts are a bit of a yawn – of interest only to reporters thriving on the sweepings of politics, not the issues of substance.
It’s important to put the incendiary texts into perspective.
The messages and their unflattering assessments of Scott Morrison by colleagues are a variation of the old practice of passing notes in school.
Instead of the class show-off getting a pasting with sniggering and insults, it is the prime minister, but the similarities are rife.
The contents of the messages were from the heart and probably at least marginally accurate, and were a form of reprisal or revenge within a restricted circuit of consensus. It was never intended for the subject of the terse evaluations to know about them.
And it’s that point which highlights the importance of revelation of the two sets of text messages – one allegedly between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and an unidentified senior Liberal, the other from deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce and intended to be passed on to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, and leaked by a third party not yet named.
Like those scribbled classroom notes and associated sniggers they were not meant to be shared with the subject of the comments.
Other prime ministers have suffered from unwanted assessments. Paul Keating didn’t go to much trouble hiding his nickname for Bob Hawke of “Old Jelly Back”, which spread without the need for SMS technology. Former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello occasionally had descriptions of John Howard the former Liberal prime minister might have considered unkind.
The difference here is that there already is a substantial queue of people who have looked at Morrison’s character and come to the opinion there are large shortcomings. They are indictments the ALP is collecting in its bid to make character a significant election issue.
It’s one thing for the French president to call Morrison a liar, and Labor’s Anthony Albanese can say what he likes with barely a nod from the electorate.
However, when two senior figures who have worked with Morrison for years quite separately conclude “he can never be trusted”, as Joyce put it, the character analysis is given weight.
It becomes the prism through which Morrison’s election promises are viewed and has the capacity to distort them. Distrust spreads quicker than Covid.
The fleeting notion that this scandal could see Scott Morrison toppled should be dismissed. The government is in enough trouble from the uncertainty roused by the pandemic to add to disruption with an abrupt leadership change just months from an election.
One thing Scott Morrison can be trusted to do: he will continue to keep Peter Dutton out of the prime minister’s office.
Malcolm Farr is a political journalist
