Sometimes you wonder. Did he just say that? But yes, he did.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
A NSW Liberal Party powerbroker in a convo this week: "I don't care what anyone else thinks. Tony Abbott would be handling this crisis so much better ... there, I've said it."
And this: "People in the party are saying the chances of re-election would be much better if Morrison stayed in isolation."
But will absence make the heart grow fonder? Unlikely.
It certainly didn't during the Black Summer emergency, when word got out that while the east coast was either burning or choking on bushfire smoke the PM was enjoying a holiday in Hawaii. Morrison's ham-fisted attempt to rescue a shred of credibility by laying on the hands in a destroyed Cobargo backfired awfully.
Then, Wednesday, emerging from iso, he flew into Lismore to inspect the flood devastation and talk to locals. Stage-managed to avoid a repeat of Cobargo, the media was locked out, to respect victims' privacy the PM said, even though his own official photographer was on hand to record the event.
That didn't stop a furious grilling by local journalists, whose own lives had been upended by the disaster they were reporting on, at the following press conference.
If this optics-obsessed marketeer thought taking a low profile would be a better look, he was mistaken. It looked terrible. Another case of image management gone horribly wrong.
Morrison's steadfast refusal to face either Leigh Sales or Laura Tingle on the ABC's 7.30 also ended in a train wreck.
Here was poor, bumbling Barnaby, the deputy PM and human shield for Morrison, facing a steely grilling from Sales, whose demeanour reflected the incredulity the whole nation seems to be feeling right now.
He dodged. He weaved. He stumbled. He fell. Question after question - why the federal government had been so slow to respond, why a National Party electorate had federal assistance extended while the Labor one next door, also wracked by floods, did not - was met with non answers.
It was the look on Barnaby's face, not his words, that betrayed the most honest truth. In the language of the bush it seemed to say, "My God, were are totally stuffed." Also: "Why am I taking the heat? Where is the Prime Minister?"
What we saw Wednesday was yet another example of Morrison failing at marketing. For a man so obsessed with massaging his own image, he gets it wrong on every occasion. Stringing up the Christmas lights when other families were cancelling get-togethers. The New Year's Eve curry when everyone else was in self-imposed omicron isolation and supply chains were collapsing. The tone deaf ukulele recital. The poor-me COVID post from iso. They've all gone down like lead balloons.
The desultory mood in the NSW Liberal Party is understandable but it's caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. On the one, the less the country sees of Morrison, the less his missteps are seen. On the other, an invisible PM only stokes the narrative the nation is rudderless.
Either way, you can't win.