Morrison was the slippery slope

And the media is having a Skyler moment

Image from the Guardian

Whatever divine origins Scott Morrison himself assigns to his prime ministership—the picture of the Eagle that spoke to him, no I’m not kidding—the fact is, his political career arose from a particular set of circumstances that had developed in Australia over the last forty years.

Without the neoliberal reforms that began in 1980s and continued through the Howard years and into the present day, Scott Morrison doesn’t make sense. He certainly doesn’t get to be prime minister.

So, while none of us, I don’t think, could have predicted the precise nature of Morrison’s behaviour—assuming multiple ministerial positions to himself—I’m a little baffled by those in the media who proclaim to be shocked at all this. This has been building for a long time and there were good reasons to suspect that Morrison himself might manifest as a particular version of the problems with our democracy.

As Richard Flanagan wrote this week:

[N]one of this should come as a surprise given how ov…