Politics

Oops: Someone In ScoMo’s Office Sent Today’s “Talking Points” To Every Political Journalist

Here's everything the government wants you to be talking about today.

by Rob Stott  14 October 2019
scott morrison talking points

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Spare a thought for the poor young staffer in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Office, who’s probably sitting in a Parliament House bathroom right now, hiding from their boss, who’s is preparing to tear them a new one.

Y’see, someone from ScoMo’s office has this morning sent out the government’s talking points to the entire Canberra press gallery.

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The daily talking points are sent out to every government MP and staffer each day, so that the whole team can stay “on message” — which is a polite way of saying “please don’t talk about anything that will get us in trouble”. It’s a way of avoiding distractions and ensuring that the government’s message of the day can cut through and land a nice soundbite on the nightly news bulletins.

The talking points tend to be about emphasising government strengths, but they also reveal the government’s weaknesses. After all, talking points are as much about what the government doesn’t want to talk about, as what it does.

Occasionally, the day’s talking points will be leaked to a reporter in an attempt by someone to embarrass the PM. But it’s rare for them to just be straight-up emailed to every journalist in Canberra. And because Canberra’s journalists are under no obligation to keep these things off the record, they all immediately screenshotted the email and tweeted its contents.

So what is today’s message of the day? Well, let’s go to the tape.

Today’s Scott Morrison Talking Points

Right at the top, we’re told that we see “certainty and stability” from this government, which isn’t really true when you remember that this government has knifed two of its own prime ministers.

There’s also a lot of talk about “a plan” for the future, which involves lower taxes, less regulation, more skills, expanded international trade, infrastructure, and a strong economy, which all sounds nice.

Today’s talking points also take aim at big energy companies, multinational corporations, dodgy unions and employers. And of course, they also take aim at people who “misuse welfare”.

And naturally, there’s some time spent attacking Labor, which the government wants you to believe is divided, with no real policies (not entirely untrue at this point in the electoral cycle).

“Labor just doesn’t seem to know what it stands for or whose side they are on, which means you won’t know what you get from one week to the next,” the talking points read.

There are also sections of the talking points dedicated to helping drought affected communities, building dams, the ACCC banking inquiry, bushfires in NSW and Queensland, and Julian Assange. (“The Australian government cannot interfere in the United Kingdom’s legal processes.”)

So, if you hear any of the above from the government over the next few days, just know that you’re not hearing from some independently minded politician whose capable of coming up with their own thoughts or ideas, but you are hearing from someone who is at least capable of reading and remembering an email. Which, frankly, rules out some Coalition backbenchers.