Former prime minister Scott Morrison is digging in.
The performative refusal to concede fault in a matter despite an increasing cost to your credibility is one of the standards of ministerial government.
And Mr Morrison, who has had a long career in cabinet and before his full term as prime minister, has lost none of the assured touch – not of an experienced and consequential minister of his generation.
“I will continue to serve – as the member for Cook for the people of Cook with the best of my ability, which I continue to do today,” said Mr Morrison before a crowd of restive reporters on Wednesday.
When a backbencher confirms he does not intend to resign a seat he was sworn into less than a month ago can capture the news of the day, it is plain that we have arrived at a a most unexpected crisis point in Scott Morrison’s post-prime ministerial career.
Usually only a minister must have their face rubbed in their own mistakes while their willpower is tested on live television by journalists whose manners can sometimes be misconstrued as goading.
A practised veteran
Long before, in the spring of his ministerial career, despite occupying portfolios with great profile he never once sought to elevate his own work or acknowledge it in writing – two instincts often seen in those MPs who lead the lengthier ministerial careers.
His most famous refusal to even concede there might be a question that he had done anything wrong, or done anything, was when Mr Morrison tamed an Immigration portfolio that overwhelmed his predecessors, including current effective ministers.
Mr Morrison’s genius was to declare his greatest source of incoming headaches – the continuous body of water via which asylum seekers vessels created so many challenges.
Anything deemed an on-water matter – or which happened on the contiguous body of water covering 70 per cent of the world’s surface and all potential tough questions – was deemed a matter of ministerial secrecy.
For two days he seemed to mock the rising disquiet about how he had secretly run the government by only communicating via a 2GB interview and a Facebook post, in descending order the least credible ways for a politician to subject themselves to media scrutiny.
But Mr Morrison conducted ably. He advanced on questions about the specifics of how cabinet had run under him and drowned them in needless detail about portfolio demarcations that slowed down critical thinking abilities.
A thankless task
On the thornier questions about his conduct Mr Morrison had some rejoinders about the years he had spent toiling ceaselessly to lead Australia through a global pandemic.
Had he forgotten to tell some of his ministers that he was going halfsies on their political power, or the Australian public?
The main thing, he says, is the public’s understanding of how tough Mr Morrison’s time in the PMO must have been – and gratitude.
As for not telling his ministers? He was governing with a rare regard for his colleagues’ self-esteem, like a forward-thinking human resources executive.
“I did not want any of my ministers to be going about their daily business any different to what they were doing before,” he said.
Anger at the former PM for his unaccountable, if not rearrangement of, cabinet government had reached a peak where he had to even defend his right to serve out a term as a backbencher.
A former colleague had questioned whether political life would be best off without Mr Morrison since recent reports on his conduct as PM.
That, and the surest sign that his support from MPs to continue in his job was shaky, there was talk of challengers being sounded out for his seat of Cook, including rumours that Mike Baird, son of the previous MP, had been contacted.
Mr Morrison was fighting for legacy and for sheer credibility like Richard Nixon delivering a much less peppy version of the Checkers speech.
Did he answer the concerns about why he had bypassed accountability measures in seeming contempt of Parliament?
No. But Mr Morrison has to convince fellow Liberals that he has not acted so badly that he must be run out of town, condemning him to forever be associated with administrative scandal.
A source with knowledge of his local politicking said he was now expected to serve up to two years more until the heat dies down, very much keeping his head down.
