The Liberals have a Morrison problem — and so does Australia

How do you solve a problem like Scott? It looked like it might go away. But it is not… budging.

It now seems that former prime minister Scott Morrison is sticking around for a little longer than first thought and may cling on to his seat of Cook until the next election. The logic is that the Liberals are reluctant to risk losing Morrison’s southern Sydney seat to the teals in a by-election, if Liberal sources cited by The Australian are correct.

Meanwhile Morrison continues to sit in Coalition partyroom meetings where, according to recent reports, he has fired off a warning that Anthony Albanese should not be “too keen” to meet China’s President Xi Jinping. Leaked comments had it that Morrison cautioned against the government’s “acquiescent and concessional approach” towards restoring relations with China.

Quoted by the ABC, Morrison’s partyroom remarks went further abroad and were later woven into commentary by The Australian’s Greg Sheridan who suggested that while Albanese should meet the Chinese president he should heed Morrison’s note of caution in his dealings with him.

Yet there is a problem with this picture.

While sounding off about Australia’s approach to China, Morrison remains on the board of the China Centre, which is part of influential US policy think tank the Hudson Institute. (The institute receives generous funding from Rupert Murdoch.)

Here he sits side by side with China Centre board chairman Mike Pompeo, former US secretary of state in the Trump administration. Pompeo marked himself out as the most belligerent of China hawks while in office and remains close to a network of China hawk Republicans. One of these is influential Republican Mike Gallagher, profiled by Crikey. Morrison, of course, is close friends with Pompeo, a fellow Pentecostal Christian whom he had on speed dial as prime minister.

It means that through Scott Morrison there is a direct line of influence from a US policy think tank to the Coalition partyroom, and from there to the Australian media via partyroom leaks.

When Morrison took his role at the Hudson Institute after his election loss last year, it appeared that any overlap with his time as a member of Parliament would be temporary.

Yet it appears the job offers have not flowed Morrison’s way. His dual roles have become more permanent than anyone imagined.

The Australian Parliament appears to be stuck with a member who is also part of a powerful Republican-leaning US policy think tank, with no clear end in sight.