Opinion: On Scott Morrison’s watch, Australia has lost standing on the world stage
Australia confronts a paradox of affluence and influence. It continues to count itself, with justified pride, as one of the world’s truly resilient economies. On present trends, we are likely to leapfrog both Russia and Brazil by the end of this year to become the 11th largest economy in the world – a position we have not held before in the globalised age.Prime Minister Scott Morrison with his Solomon Islands counterpart Manasseh Sogavare in 2019.
By 2004, Howard was on best friend terms with Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his gift of $1 billion in aid to following the Boxing Day tsunami ranks as one of the most generous acts by any Australian leader.What is unique about Morrison’s position is the accumulation of bad blood. No prime minister since Billy Hughes has had this many disputes running at the same time.
We now know that he tried the sport and church play with Sogavare. He had flown to Honiara immediately after the election. As he told journalists last week, “I spoke to Prime Minister Sogavare on that occasion about the threats that China presented to the region. And we discussed those issues back on that occasion and there’s been an ongoing dialogue over that entire time.”
Sogavare pocketed this and other assistance, signed with Beijing anyway, and now accuses Australia of hypocrisy. Histhat there are two sides to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that Christians are thriving in China were calculated to offend not just Australia, but the United States. They are not the words of a neighbour acting in good faith.
There is an all-too-familiar pattern. We saw it in the blow up with Macron last year, and continue to observe it in the ongoing shouting match with Beijing. Morrison has yet to develop the statesman’s filter. He is still too quick to anger in his dealing with foreign leaders. And he can’t resist the urge to issue loyalty tests to his Labor opponents at home.
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