[Theme Music Starts]

RUBY:

From Schwartz Media I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

This week Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the National Press Club in Canberra, hoping to reset his relationship with the public ahead of the federal election.

Instead, it raised a series of questions, questions about just how out of touch Scott Morrison is with the Australian people – and with his own party.

Today - columnist for The Saturday Paper Paul Bongiorno on what the price of bread and a series of leaked text messages have to do with Scott Morrison’s leadership.

It’s Friday, February 4.

[Theme Music Ends]

RUBY:

Paul, this week, the prime minister addressed the National Press Club in this speech that was widely seen as the unofficial launch of his re-election campaign. How would you say that it went?

PAUL:

Well Ruby, Scott Morrison's reset speech at the press club didn't go exactly to plan.

Archival Tape – Clapping

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

Well, thank you very much. It's great to be back here at the National Press Club again at the start of another year.

PAUL:

The prime minister was verbosely defensive of his record, and he refused to apologise for his handling of the pandemic. Though he admitted mistakes…

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

So I understand, and I acknowledged the frustration. Especially with how this global pandemic has played out over this past very difficult summer.

PAUL:

But things really went from bad to worse when it got to the questions from the journalists in Canberra.

Archival Tape – Andrew Clenell:

What are you going to do about these problems? Have you lost touch with ordinary Australians?

PAUL:

He was asked by Andrew Clenell from Sky News about whether he was in touch with ordinary Australians.

Archival Tape – Andrew Clenell:

On that theme off the top of your head and you tell me the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of petrol and a rapid antigen test?

PAUL:

I got to say it's a pretty classic gotcha sort of question that's wheeled out at elections, so it's surprising the prime minister was caught off guard.

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

Now, I'm not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread, and I buy a litre of milk. I'm not going to pretend to you that I do that and I'll leave those sort of things to you, mate.

PAUL:

Now, his fobbing off of the question ensured that the next morning in the media, every politician would be asked the same question to show how in touch they were with everyday concerns of ordinary people.

RUBY:

Hmm. OK, so how did other politicians fare Paul? Did they know how much bread costs?

PAUL:

[Chuckles] Well, Ruby, forewarned they took the cue and unlike the PM… did their homework.

Archival Tape – Patricia Kouvalis:

The prime minister was unable to name the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of petrol and a rapid antigen test. Can you?

Archival Tape – Stuart Robert:

Of course I can! but it depends what you're shopping for.

PAUL:

On RN breakfast Patricia Kouvalis asked one of Morrison's best mates - acting Education Minister Stuart Robert, if he could tell her how much a loaf of bread and a carton of milk costs. His answer was almost excruciatingly detailed.

Archival Tape – Stuart Robert:

So I go to Woollies and my milk's two bucks, but my wife likes to pay the highest price because she's from a dairy farm, so she thinks that supporting dairy farmers.

PAUL:

Got to say one would hope he pays as much attention to his portfolios…

Archival Tape – Stuart Robert:

My oldest son likes almond milk. I don't know how you get milk from almonds. My youngest son is into beans. I think it's called soy.

PAUL:

And that he himself likes a baguette.

Archival Tape – Stuart Robert:

Goodness. The range of bread options our family has on a big French baguette guy.

PAUL:

He also defended Scott Morrison, saying that if his wife, Jenny was with him, she'd be able to rattle off all the prices of all the things they buy.

Archival Tape – Stuart Robert:

And I'm sure they have that conversation often as all families do. My wife and I certainly do.

PAUL:

And Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese… he got into the act.

Archival Tape – Host:

Do you know how much? Do you know how much a loaf of bread costs though?

Archival Tape – Anthony Albanese:

So like I do mate, Kim's hot bread in Illawarra road Marrickville...

PAUL:

He said he absolutely did know the price of bread…and it's a dollar eighty, and they have both types - wholemeal and white.

Archival Tape – Host:

Yeah alright you’ve done your bread research.

Archival Tape – Anthony Albanese:

Well, I'm on my diet until I can't have those anymore, but I still have the little iced doughnuts for 30 cents each!

Archival Tape – Host:

You gotta lay off them. They don’t sound very prime ministerial.

PAUL:

Well Ruby, Scott Morrison ended up defending his bread knowledge on sunrise. He said There are so many different types of bread these days.

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

I mean, It depends on which bread. I mean, how many different types of bread of people got in their homes these days? How many types of different milk? I mean, not even all the milk actually comes from a cow anymore! I mean there are so many different things that people have available…

PAUL:

And when asked when he was a sourdough or multigrain, of course, he responded - he's just a normal white bread kind of man. [laughs]

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

I've just normal white bread, white bread toast. That's me.

Archival Tape – Kochie:

Oh you’re a fibber. Alright.

RUBY:

Right okay, so it sounds like the whole thing turned into a bit of a circus, Paul. And in some ways, this is one of those kind of gotcha questions that you hear in the lead up to elections. But I think the real point is that the Prime Minister should know what everyday essentials cost because those prices are important to most people, right?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, no one expects prime ministers to do their own shopping. But his predecessors, John Howard and Bob Hawke for two, were always briefed ahead of key speeches like this because they knew it sent a concrete message of how in touch they were.

Now, maybe Morrison's ignorance here explains, for example, why he leaves the Newstart Unemployment Payment below the poverty line. He just doesn't know the real cost of daily staying alive.

RUBY:

Mm it's a good point, Paul, but to go back to the prime minister's speech, the main takeaway of it all wasn't actually about the cost of living, the cost of bread or petrol or even a RAT test, because there was this other very interesting question around some text messages that were sent about the Prime Minister. So let's talk about those.

PAUL:

Sure. Well, the text messages, which were purportedly sent between the New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the time, and an unnamed federal cabinet minister, go right to the heart of Morrison's personality and character and his political judgement.

And the leaking of those messages have exposed fractures at the heart of the government, and even in the broader Liberal Party.

And it's at the worst possible time, just months out from the federal election.

RUBY:

We’ll be back after this.

[Advertisement]

RUBY:

Paul, we're talking about a text message exchange between two people, two colleagues of the prime minister who said some fairly scathing things about him in this private text message exchange. That exchange is now public, so let's unpack it. What did the messages say exactly?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, they were read out loud by Channel 10's Peter van Onselen to a stunned National Press Club.

Archival Tape – Peter van Onselen:

I wanted to ask you about another close friend, Gladys Berejiklian. And there's somebody that you wanted to run at the next election, I've been provided with a text message exchange between the former New South Wales premier and a current Liberal cabinet minister. I've got them right here…

PAUL:

According to him, in one text message, the former New South Wales liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian describes the prime minister as a horrible, horrible person.

Archival Tape – Peter van Onselen:

Going on to say she did not trust you. And you're more concerned with politics than people.

PAUL:

But it gets worse than that. The other minister in the text exchange alleged to be an unnamed federal cabinet minister, so a direct colleague of Morrison, well, he wholeheartedly agreed with Berejiklian.

Archival Tape – Peter van Onselen:

The minister is even more scathing, describing you as a fraud and quote a complete psycho.

RUBY:

Mm strong words Paul.

PAUL:

Yeah, well, they certainly are. Scott Morrison was terse in his reply when those messages were read out.

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

Well, I don't know who you're referring to or the basis of what you've put to me. But I obviously don't agree with it, and I don't think that's my record.

PAUL:

For her part, Gladys Berejiklian has no recollection of sending those texts… which is hardly a denial. But she was willing to issue a statement of support for Morrison as the best to lead the country.

RUBY:

Right OK, but what about the other person, Paul, the person that she was texting? Do we know who they are?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, we haven't been told. A number of cabinet ministers have denied it was them.

Archival Tape – Patricia Kouvalis:

For the record, was it you?

Archival Tape – Greg Hunt:

No, and that's the third time I’ve been asked and the third time I’ve said no.

PAUL:

So far, no one's owning up to it.

Archival Tape – Karen Andrews:

I can definitely rule myself out, I’ve certainly have said no such thing.

PAUL:

But in a series of interviews and on 10 news Thursday night, Van Onselen revealed his source was the minister himself, and the texts were at the height of the 2019 bushfire catastrophe. Van Onselen himself sees it in terms of destabilisation of the prime minister. In other words, the view is gaining momentum that the government can't survive with Morrison in charge.

And I have to tell you, the latest Newspoll has certainly spooked the government benches. It shows an astounding 51 point collapse in Morrison's approval over the past year - to land 19 points in the negative. No longer the asset he was, the prime minister is now less popular than his party.

RUBY:

Right, so, Paul, Scott Morrison started his week at the National Press Club, hoping to lay out his case for re-election, but he spent most of the week fighting a battle on the cost of living and also defending himself against his own colleagues thoughts about him, as well as fending off a resurgent Labor opposition.

So, do you think that any of this changes the government's political strategy?

PAUL:

Well, Ruby, it leaves the prime minister hoping and praying the economy keeps powering along, and the pandemic miraculously ends before May.

Morrison is now urging people not to see the election as a referendum on his handling of this pandemic, but a choice between himself and Anthony Albanese; who is best to run the country?

I've got to say it's a huge ask, and all the polls suggest a majority have already concluded, Albanese is the least worst option.

RUBY:

Paul, thank you so much for your time today.

PAUL:

Thank you, Ruby. Bye.

[Advertisement]

RUBY:

Also in the news today,

A serving SAS soldier who alleged that war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith was involved in the execution of two Afghan detainees gave evidence in a defamation trial on Thursday.

The soldier told the court that he witnessed Roberts-Smith shooting an Afghan civilian in the back during an SAS mission on Easter Sunday in 2009.

Over a dozen serving and former members of the Australian Defence Force are due to give evidence in the defamation trial launched by Roberts-Smith, after several articles about him which alleged war crimes were published in Nine newspapers.

Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing.

And the leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese has called on the federal aged care services minister to resign.

Albanese criticised Richard Colbeck for attending the cricket instead of appearing before a senate committee inquiry.

Since the start of this year there have been 566 deaths in aged care due to Covid-19.

7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. It’s produced by Elle Marsh, Kara Jensen-Mackinnon, Anu Hasbold and Alex Gow.

Our senior producer is Ruby Schwartz and our technical producer is Atticus Bastow.

Brian Campeau mixes the show. Our editor is Osman Faruqi. Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief.

Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See you next week.

[Theme Music Ends]