Scott Morrison has copped an extraordinary attack from someone on his own side of politics, with a prominent conservative giving the Prime Minister an blistering spray.
Gideon Rozner from the Institute of Public Affairs said Mr Morrison had strayed from the values of his party.
“Scott Morrison would have to be in my opinion the worst Prime Minister the Liberal Party has put up since Billy McMahon, except that Billy McMahon had principles,” Mr Rozner told the ABC’s Q&A on Thursday night.
“My concern is what Scott Morrison has done to the Liberal Party and to liberalism.”
Mr Rozner, a policy director at the right-wing think tank, also stunned the panel by agreeing with raising taxes to fund better aged care.
“Prisoners have it better than our elderly do in some of these institutions,” he said.
When pressed if he would raise taxes to pay for better care, Mr Rozner said there were ways to do it that would provide value for money.
“You‘re shocking me,” host Virginia Trioli replied.
Mr Rozner listed a string of policy decisions made by Mr Morrison that were more damning than personal misgivings aired over recent weeks.
He listed a trillion-dollar debt, ramping up of online censorship, robodebt welfare recovery and the locking out of Australian citizens during the pandemic.
Mr Rozner said the policy made it a criminal offence for Australian citizens to re-enter their own country during the pandemic, rendering them stateless.
“Those are much more important issues to talk to the Prime Minister‘s character and his judgment and his leadership,” he said.
Mr Rozner’s observations were especially staggering given the icy reception he received prior to appearing on the current affairs show.
Several leading left-wing commentators were demanding he be pulled from the Q&A lineup over the IPA’s antagonistic views towards climate action.
Various activists also called for a total boycott of the program.
While the panel mostly agreed with Mr Rozner that the Prime Minister was a liability in the lead up to the election, one person leapt to his defence.
Social Services Minister Anne Ruston questioned the timing of the attacks.
“On the eve of an election we start seeing these things coming out of the wood work. I would question whether it is a political hit job,” Senator Ruston said.
“I’ve got to say the commentary that I have heard by some of these people is just not the Scott Morrison that I know.
“I can only say that the Scott Morrison is a completely different person to some of the things I’ve heard in the media of recent times.”
