Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told ABC’s 7.30 program tht he intervened in the preselection process in NSW ahead of the federal election to stand up for “great women”.
A court ruled on Tuesday that the process was valid, despite creating further rifts in the party.
Host Leigh Sales referred to the intervention as a “faceless men scenario”.
“Why did you decide to intervene and dictate this pre-selection process yourself with a small group of people, rather than leave it to local branches to pick candidates?” Sales asked.
Mr Morrison replied he was very serious about having great women in his ranks and that environment minister Sussan Ley and Fiona Martin were “under threat” from party factions.
“Sussan Ley, one of my finest cabinet ministers and one of our most successful women in parliament, was under threat. She was under threat from factions within the Liberal Party and I decided to stand up to it,” he said.
“I’m asked all the time ‘why won’t the Prime Minister do more about getting good women in parliament and stand up for the women in parliament?’ I stood up for the women in my team.”
According to Mr Morrison, half of the candidates he put forward were men and half were women, of diverse backgrounds.
“We put the best candidates in the field to ensure that our government can put the best foot forward,” he said.
Sales went on to grill the Prime Minister over recent attacks from within his party regarding his leadership.
“When you look at the threats to your government‘s survival, they’re almost all own goals. Almost all of the incoming fire are from your own missteps or from inside your own party,” she said.
“Why would the public trust you with another term as Prime Minister when many people on your own side don’t seem to trust you?”
Mr Morrison redirected the question towards policy talking points rather than discuss criticism from within his own party.
“Leigh, over the last three and a half years since I took on this job, I said I wanted to keep our economy strong, keep Australians safe and keep Australians together,” Mr Morrison said.
“Now, that is doing what I said I would do and I don’t get distracted by all the other things, because that’s not my job.”
When asked about polling which put Labor ahead of the Coalition, Mr Morrison again downplayed concerns leading up to the election.
“The last election was tight and most elections are tight,” he said.
Mr Morrison acknowledged Australians were still facing many challenges, which they would take to the polls come election day.
He compared the government’s performance during the pandemic to how it will aim to deal with cost of living pressures.
“We got the budget back into balance – worked hard to achieve that before the pandemic hit, which meant we could do JobKeeper, which saved 700,000 jobs, countless businesses and lives,” Mr Morrison said.
Mr Morrison avoided personal responsibility for his party’s recent issues, saying he had a “tough job”.
Facing allegations from within his own party of “bullying” and playing “brutal” politics, Mr Morrison said that went with the territory of being Prime Minister and would not stop him from making the hard decisions.
“There are always people that are disappointed with outcomes that they wanted, that they didn’t get, and they‘ll have an axe to grind,” he said.
“That’s pretty normal in politics, particularly when you’re going into an election.”
