Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s response to Brittany Higgins saying she was raped in Parliament House:
“..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.”
Jenny has never needed to clarify the purchase of nuclear submarines or Labor’s supposed ties to China or relaxing isolation rules in Covid. Just this.
This was not an isolated incident. It is a pattern of behaviour that demonstrates Scott Morrison’s position on the things women need from government: not his issue, not his problem.
And it goes further than that.
Morrison’s so-called missteps – “I don’t hold the hose, mate” – are designed to strengthen his ties to people who agree with his stance that government does not have to provide a safety net for people in trouble (explained very well by Tim Dunlop in this piece).
For example:
- People in poverty: RoboDebt, JobSeeker and Sole Parents (and their children) living below the poverty line, the failed ParentsNext program re-instated after senate inquiry recommended against it
- Disasters: Response (or lack of it) to 2019 bushfires, didn’t distribute emergency funds after bushfires, failed to send help to 2022 flood victims
- COVID: Not enough RATs or vaccines ordered, refusing to make them free when they did become available, ignoring the crisis in aged care and disability care
- Men’s violence against women: Funded advertising, report writing, conferences and inquiries instead of crisis services, behavioural change programs, and community legal services
The list is much longer, that’s just off the top of my head in the last five minutes. I know there are more.
In fact, I want to make list of Scott Morrison’s failures to respond to the things women need from government. It’s going to be long, and I might miss some. I’d love it if you could send me the ones that stick in your mind. Send them to me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
