It’s worth reminding everyone that our Prime Minister, Scott Morrision, was mysteriously sacked as Managing Director of Tourism Australia in 2006. He’s never explained why he got the boot, despite being at the helm when the “So where the bloody hell are you?” campaign launched.
I say despite, because SWTBHAY was as successful as it was controversial. Controversial for vulgarity, tone-deaf to the social and religious mores of the countries it targeted, and because it failed to challenge the stereotype of Oz as more than just coastlines, kangaroos and bikinis.
Comedian Dan Ilic’s response was awesome, and more accurate.
But SWTBHAY was also a bloody great success.
For all it’s detractors, it painted Scott Morrison as an advertising genius. Fifteen years later, how many of us don’t know the ad or that Scott Morrison was responsible for it? But that was ’06, and it’s now ’21. Scotty is now, somehow, Prime Minister of Australia…
In June 2019, journalist Karen Middleton published an article alleging Scott Morrison was in fact not sacked for his famous dispute with tourism minister Fran Bailey, but rather for mishandling $184M in contracts.
Try to get a copy of the relevant Annual Report for Tourism Australia. You can’t. Why? Because it’s ‘missing’… The Auditor General’s report doesn’t mince words, though, and flatly states “relevant guidelines were not followed” unquote.
Middleton suggests there was something Scotty-goes-to-gaol about the tendering process. If this sounds familiar (clears throat, coughs, $100M Sports Rorts) you’d be correct. A pattern of behaviour? Forget the mere pittance of $30M taxpayers paid for $3M of land to build the Western Sydney airport…
But I’m starting to see our PM in a whole new light.
ScoMo stole preselection from Michael Towke in 2007, was appointed to Malcolm Turnbull’s shadow ministry in 2008, betrayed Turnbull to join Tony Abbott in 2009, betrayed Abbott to rejoin Turnbull in 2015, then betrayed Turnbull again in 2018 to become PM.
Don’t let the smirk fool you, he’s utterly ruthless.
Sam Dastayari, former ALP senator for NSW, interviewed on KIIS 106.5 radio described Scott Morrison, saying “there is no line he won’t cross” — and that he never believed ScoMo would be PM once the true story of his gutter politics got out.
But it never did. Why was that?
As KIIS FM host Kyle Sandilands, himself a ruthless psychopath, counters, what’s wrong with a no-holds barred attitude to winning? Supporters of ScoMo would deflect, pointing to the skeletons in past-Labor PM’s closets.
Glass houses and stone-throwing, etc.
Fair enough.
The fact ScoMo’s been able to keep the wet-work at arm’s length, slip the noose and retain plausible deniability proves one thing: he may be useless at everything else, but Scott Morrison is a bona fide self-marketing genius.