The Wildest And Most Awful Things Scott Morrison Said In 2021
It's been one horrifying blunder after another.
2021 is coming to an end, so what better way to celebrate an absolutely hellish year than by taking a stroll down memory lane and looking back at some of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s most infuriating and bewildering moments.
It’s been a very long year for the prime minister — with the pandemic and subsequent mess of a vaccine rollout to the ongoing climate disaster to majorly pissing off France to just about everything else. And honestly, it can be easy to forget some of the truly batshit crazy things that our national leader did this year — luckily for you, we’ve compiled the worst of them.
January 26 “Wasn’t A Flash Day” For Anyone
Throwing it right back to January, Morrison came under fire for criticising a Cricket Australia initiative to promote inclusivity on January 26.
Cricket Australia announced it would drop all references to Australia Day in an effort to make the Big Bash League more inclusive for First Nations people — who associate January 26 with, you know, genocide, colonisation and the start of hundreds of years of trauma. But instead of commending the move — which is quite frankly much needed in Australian sport — Morrison slammed it, asserting that January 26 is “all about acknowledging how far we’ve come.”
“When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn’t a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either,” he said at a press conference in Queensland at the time. “What that day, to this, demonstrates is how far we’ve come as a country and I think that’s why it’s important to mark it in that way.”
He “Bet It Felt Good” For Grace Tame To Talk About Her Sexual Assault
When Grace Tame won the prestigious Australian of the Year award on January 26, 2021, she gave a powerful speech about grooming, sexual assault and her horrific personal experiences. In an interview with the Betoota Advocate months later, Tame shared what the leader of our nation said to her following her brave speech.
“Do you know what he said to me, right after I finished that speech and we’re in front of a wall of media?” She told Betoota. “I shit you not, he leaned over and right in my ear he goes, ‘Well, gee, I bet it felt good to get that out’.”
That Time His Wife, Jenny, Had To Teach Him How To Be Empathetic Towards Alleged Sexual Assault Victims
Following Brittany Higgins’ parliamentary rape allegation in February, Morrison publicly admitted the reason he took action was because his wife, Jenny Morrison, made him think about if it had happened to his daughters.
“Jenny and I spoke last night,” he said. “And she said to me, ‘You have to think about this as a father first. What would you want to happen if it were our girls?’
“Jenny has a way of clarifying things; she always has.”
During her National Press Club appearance, Grace Tame was asked to address Morrison’s need for his wife to contextualise the allegations made by Brittany Higgins. “It shouldn’t take having children to have a conscience,” she replied, not specifically naming Morrison but making it clear she was referring to his earlier comments. “And, actually, on top of that, having children doesn’t guarantee a conscience.”
She added that Morrison was “clearly not” living up to his 2019 comments on rape survivors deserving to be believed.
Bullets For Protesters
In response to the powerful March 4 Justice in March, in which thousands of women rallied outside Parliament, Scott Morrison made a particularly weird comment about protesters being met with bullets.
“Not far from here, such marches, even now are being met with bullets, but not here in this country,” Mr Morrison told Parliament. “This is a triumph of democracy when we see these things take place.”
The “Prime Minister For Women”
Following the allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, Morrison announced a major cabinet reshuffle — including his new “Prime Minister for women.”
As part of a lengthy speech introducing Minister for Women Marise Payne, Morrison asserted she would “effectively…the Prime Minister for Women” in her role as co-chair of a new cabinet task force on women’s equality.
When questioned later if he was the PM for women, he clarified that his point was “misunderstood” and that “of course I’m the prime minister.”
He Clarified The Engadine Maccas Situation
If you needed any more proof that Australian politics is a literal shit show, the leader of our country went on national breakfast radio in July to clarify that he did not shit his pants at Engadine Maccas in 1997, which is definitely what I’d say if I did it.
“It is the biggest urban myth ever,” the Prime Minister clarified on air with Kyle and Jackie O. “It is complete and utter rubbish…I found the whole thing incredibly amusing, I always joke about it…it is absolute and total rubbish.”
He Blamed Our Vaccine Issues On ATAGI
It’s no secret that Australia’s vaccine rollout was a hot mess, but instead of taking responsibility for it — as the leader of the country — Scott Morrison simply blamed this on the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations for “putting us behind.”
“They shouldn’t [take it] without talking to their doctor – that’s all I said: ‘Go and talk to your doctor.’ People have informed consent, it’s a free country, they can decide to have it or not to have it when it comes to these things,” Morrison said of the AstraZeneca when the rollout began. “It slowed it considerably and put us behind — and we wish that wasn’t the result, but it was. Those decisions are made independently of government, and should be.”
While it’s fair to say that ATAGI is responsible for vaccine advice, rather than politicians, the AstraZeneca blood clotting issue was just one part of our bungled vaccine rollout — which was Scott Morrison’s responsibility.
That Time The Croods Became Part Of Our Political Discourse
In August, in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreaks and vaccine mishaps, Morrison compared the country’s return to COVID normal strategy to the 2013 Dreamworks animated film The Croods.
“Now, it’s like that movie in The Croods — people wanted to stay in the cave … and that young girl, she wanted to go out and live again and deal with the challenges of living in a different world,” he said. “Well, COVID is a new, different world, and we need to get out there and live in it. We can’t stay in the cave and we can get out of it safely. That’s what the plan does.”
Australia Is “Really Good At Digging Stuff Up”
Back in September, Scott Morrison noted — at a clean energy summit, of all things — that Australia is “really good at digging stuff up”. “This is about … pulling together a very clear work program as to how clean energy supply chains can be built up,” Morrison said. “We are really good at digging stuff up in Australia and making sure it can fuel the rest of the world when it comes to the new energy economy.”
I mean, if this didn’t foreshadow Australia’s lacklustre commitment to net-zero, I don’t know what would’ve.
He Lied About Lying
In an interview with Neil Mitchell back in November, Morrison spectacularly claimed he has never told a lie in public life, which is quite literally a lie within itself. Morrison was asked in the interview if he has ever told a lie in public life, to which he replied: “I don’t believe I have, no. No.”
However, a quick fact check makes it abundantly clear that this is actually not the truth, Ellen.
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