"This is my leader and I'm ambitious for him!" Credit:Artwork: Dionne Gain

Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size When a reporter asked Scott Morrison if he had ambitions for Malcolm Turnbull's job at a joint press conference, he responded by throwing a friendly arm around his prime minister's shoulder. "This is my leader and I'm ambitious for him!" he declared exuberantly. That was on August 22, 2018. Two days later, Turnbull was gone. Morrison had taken his place. Morrison has been careful to cultivate the appearance of the "accidental prime minister", a loyal member of the Turnbull team who only stepped up to contest the position once his prime minister gave him his blessing to do so. Yet today stories circulate in the Liberal party that suggest Morrison was already quietly preparing to contest the leadership should it come into play. Then-Treasurer Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during question time on August 21, 2018. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Only two days before his public declaration of loyalty, Morrison had spoken to Health Minister Greg Hunt in a phone call about shoring up support for Turnbull. Yet Hunt told colleagues at the time that the then treasurer had also subtly sounded him out to see if he was interested in joining a possible Morrison leadership bid as his deputy. It was the day before Turnbull brought on the initial spill motion of that fateful week.


Morrison dismisses this version of events as false. And the day before his public declaration of loyalty, a member of Peter Dutton's conservative support group approached Morrison to see if he was interested in running as deputy to Dutton in a widely expected second spill. Loading Morrison turned down the suggestion. As the conservative envoy later recounted to colleagues, the treasurer refused because he believed he was better qualified than Dutton to be prime minister. "I've been immigration minister (a component of Dutton's job as Home Affairs Minister) and I've been treasurer, and I know it's too much of a leap for an immigration minister to become prime minister," Morrison said, according to the envoy. "It's a much smaller leap for a treasurer to become prime minister." Morrison has since said he has no recollection of this conversation in a long night of many conversations.


Because of these - and other - accounts circulating in the party, Dutton has told colleagues that "Scott was in it from the word go". Morrison has consistently denied plotting against Turnbull, or any other colleague. As he puts it publicly, "I was not part of the movement" to dispatch Turnbull. But, in retrospect, the evidence suggests that he was positioning himself to take advantage of any such upheaval. Even as he did, he was also defending Turnbull in public and even to some of his colleagues in private. "Plausible deniability was very important to Morrison," says a senior Liberal who supported Turnbull. He wanted to come to the prime ministership with clean hands so he could unite the party and avoid recriminations. "But he was in it right up to his neck." And Morrison's acolytes within the Liberal caucus were very much part of the movement to get rid of Turnbull. They employed a devious tactic in the balloting for the leadership. The first vote of the week, on August 21, was a two-man contest between Turnbull and Dutton. Morrison was not in the contest. His numbers men organised for five Morrison supporters to vote for Dutton in the first spill ballot. Then-deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speak to the media after the first challenge. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen It was a ruse - those five were not aiming to install Dutton as leader. They were "parked" temporarily as votes for Dutton in a bid to slam Turnbull. Then, when Turnbull's position became hopeless, the way would be open for Morrison to enter the contest. The five would then switch support to Morrison. It worked.


So while Morrison himself was vowing support for the prime minister, his organisers acted to inflict maximum damage on Turnbull's prime ministership. Morrison's inner group has taken a pledge not to divulge any of their machinations. "We pulled off the miraculous," one boasted, and miracles are beyond explanation. No briefing of journalists, no writing of books, they all agreed. But it was too late. Because Morrison's people spelled it out for one of Turnbull's, face-to-face, during the week of the leadership contest. Here's how. Once Turnbull had realised he probably couldn't survive, his key numbers man, Craig Laundy, the workplace minister at the time, agreed to talk to Morrison's backers about the situation. They were now openly doing the numbers for Morrison. The Turnbull and Morrison camps were united in seeking to block Dutton. Laundy sat down in the office of one of Morrison's key organisers, Alex Hawke, on Thursday afternoon, two days after the first ballot. He found himself in a meeting with Morrison's core support crew - Hawke, Stuart Robert, Ben Morton, Lucy Wicks and Bert van Manen. It was the Morrison prayer group that met on Tuesday nights in parliamentary sitting weeks. They asked Laundy for a rundown on Turnbull's numbers and compared notes. As the group worked through the names of MPs and senators and how they lined up behind the contenders, the ruse of the five parked votes emerged.


Laundy took his news immediately to the prime minister's office. He walked in on a huddle of senior Turnbull staffers. They were struck by how shocked Laundy seemed. Laundy laid out the story. He advised the staff not to tell their boss - the depth of the double-dealing would break him. The staff informed Turnbull nonetheless. Peter Dutton addresses the media at Parliament House on August 21. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Was Morrison personally involved? Did he know what his numbers men were up to? Turnbull's supporters and staff didn't know. Barnaby Joyce had warned Turnbull against Morrison's intentions. While Joyce was still leader of the Nationals and deputy prime minister, the pair met weekly in private. Joyce called them "the state of the union" sessions. More than once, he ran through the three top contenders for the Liberal leadership and dismissed two of them. "You don't have to worry about Julie Bishop because her colleagues don't take her seriously, and Peter Dutton is too right-wing," Joyce told Turnbull. "But Morrison is a schemer. Watch out for him. He's going to come for you." To be noted as a schemer in a profession of schemers is a professional compliment. Such was Morrison's reputation in the Coalition. It's not entirely without foundation. A striking feature of Morrsion's ascent to the prime ministership is that it has never been explained. Australia is baffled. Why was Turnbull struck down? Who is Scott Morrison? And why is he prime minister?

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