okay I’m giving to popular demand #NPC

he begins by acknowledging “of course” the Ngunawal People, their elders past and present and “importantly, emerging”; and yep, bustles straight on to acknowledging the military. He thanks service men and women for their service #NPC

a year ago he said Australia is good. Stirring oratory here. But if self-congrats, then switches gear to “people are hurting”. He has some anecdata, touching personal stories, a bloke with kids, a bloke called Anthony. “Not the one you think”. Pauses for laughs. Someone obliges.

he got a letter calling for someone to fire the starters gun on the economy and he has good news! Someone will! That someone is Scott! Messiah narrative incoming #NPC

“we have bought ourselves precious time” is a tell. Morrison has moved on from - as well as cutting almost in half - his 30 March announcement, which was reported as “stimulus”. Borrowing borrowed money all borrowed get a heavy workout.

Quotes a Labor leader lol why? What’s that skip? Coz Labor are always elected to sort out the messes made by tories? #NPC

There will be inconsistencies and error and we can expect un- and under-employment to rise. Morrison is building an excuse net for his governments future failures which presumably will look just like his governments current failures, and for the same reasons #NPC

oh dear. A series of long, and wrong, claims. He denies the budget has been in deficit this whole Coalition reign, that public debt is astronomical, and carefully blames the virus for a domestic economy that was tanking and already in per capita recession. #NPC

slogan time. Jobmaker is introduced. Sovereignty gets a bell. Caring for country, he says. This is an Indigenous concept, says Scott. He applies it to the debt and deficit created by his government. #NPC

On the 1967 referendum anniversary, when we commemorate Bringing Them Home, National Sorry Day, on 20 years since Bridgewalk and 3 years of nothing on the Uluru Statement, Morrison said: Burdening future generations with debt violates that important caring for country principle.

sorry I missed a heap of guff while trying to parse just how extraordinarily disrespectful it is to appropriate a set of values as old as time and apply it to his budget deficit obsession. I can not. #NPC

he spoke to Adern. Something something. Skills. Industrial relations. HIGHER EDUCATION AND SCIENCE HAS HE NO SHAME DON’T ANSWER THAT #NPC

deregulation got a mention too. Federation? The timeframe he has chosen (after accidentally dropping the two year timeline he is actually operating to on Sunday) is 3-5 years #NPC

but today the focus is skills development and industrial relations. Classic discovery doctrine rhetoric: here are things wrong with the system he discovered last week to fit his political purposes. White saviour solution comes next. #NPC

Morrison makes the fanciful claim that the complexity of vocational training prompts “students to default to the university system”. Follows up with a bit of class warfare. Eastern suburbs UNSW grad doesn’t want tradies “looked down on”. Trust me, they are not. #NPC

equipping employers, equipping students and their families, says Morrison. It all comes back to money, he says. The funding model is flawed and *has* to change, stresses Scott.
The Commonwealth will tighten the purse strings while pretending to loosen them [paraphrased] #NPC

the PM “made clear to the Premiers” he will not throw good money after bad. Recall he did not invite the opposition to national cabinet, which is not formally dissolved, and will no longer brief the LOTO on Covid. But he WILL take control of funding to blue collar voters #NPC

now that the states are on notice that the federal Liberals will be deciding where public money on blue collar sectors is spent, he moves on to industrial relations. This is for non-small-biz-owning working class voters who are not swinging voters. #NPC

Morrison runs through a checklist of people who are not white male owners of the means of production. Casuals, women, families, regions, multicultural, he says. His government is going to “make jobs” for us! You know, the jobs that private sector “makes”. With our money. #NPC

still obsessed with the CFFMEU lol #NPC

he has decided not to pursue in the Senate (thx Jax) the third? Fourth? Union busting bill in as many years. Throw us a bone, Scott. But he has a little lecture for unions anyway #NPC

Sabra asks if he has sat with small biz council etc. yes, says the PM. What did they say? asks Sabra.
“Well I think I’ll let them speak for themselves... We’ve booked the hall.”
Time machine alert #NPC

there are twenty questions. “Andrew, and then Katharine”, says Morrison. He gets the first genuine laugh of.. this term, by my count. #NPC

Q: opening borders.
A: Sydneysiders may be able to fly to Auckland before Perth, he says, having a dig at Labor Premiers.
#NPC

Uhlmann. Protectionism, or rejection thereof.
A: Global multilateral agreements are incredibly important to Australia. We are an open trading nation “and always will be”.*
*another appropriation. On National Sorry Day. A mess. #NPC

[rate limit exceeded].
I missed most of what Probyn said after he said Katharine couldn’t make it today (Morrison laughed loudly, a few other muted chuckles).

Coorey puts the proposition that industry see the “better off overall test” as a villain that violates the Keating spirit.
It is always so weird* to me the way tories want to simultaneously attack and to own the Keating legacy.
*not really.

that was after Probyn cited Bob Hawke. And now Morrison is quoting [forner SA Labor premier] Jay Weatherall. Don’t these people have any legacy figures of their own?

Katrina Curtis on universities. How can you guarantee that the deal done in the room - with five working groups - will be stuck to?
A: nobody can guarantee anything in any relationship or agreement ever [paraphrased]. Morrison is going to “bring people together again”. #NPC

Morrison is framing the employer-employee relationship as a troubled marriage. Bizarrely creepy. #NPC

THANK YOU GRATTAN: Indigenous recognition?
A: we haven’t had time nor discussed Indigenous recognition in cabinet and have no timeline but [flicks to Wyatt] we will when we do [paraphrased].

Q: more than a million people have signed up to the dole.
A: “I don’t buy into the demonisation of jobseeker. I don’t.”
Indeed. He loves his slogans, just hates unemployed people. He then accuses the Labor Party of accusing him of demonising “the former Newstart”. #NPC

On the $60 billion cut to the announced stimulus spend budget, Morrison says it is better to get it wrong on this side of the line than that side of the line. Defaults back to bagging his political opponents, who are in opposition #NPC

hahaha while tediously milking the Joyce school of comparing household accounts to federal budgets (they are incomparable), Morrison cites Barnaby. Maybe Joyce has been schooling Morrison on this deliberate appeal to emotion fallacy line? Btw households can not print money. #NPC

more jobs jobs jobs blather. Still no question on his governments actual real life record on unemployment and persecution of unemployed people #NPC

van Onselen asks Morrison to take a pay cut. The prime minister tells him - wait for it - that he, Morrison, is just gonna keep doing a good job. That’s it. That’s the answer. #NPC

Shalahlia Medorah asks Morrison to consider asking franking credit recipients to contribute to young people who are doing it tough, for future generations. Morrison drops his tone. He reminds Shalalia that he told an anecdote about an old man and also a funeral #NPC

then he lectures Shalalia in the same tone he used to condescend at Katrina Curtis. Ikr! Who knew? He tells Medorah she shouldn’t be setting generations against each other (she didn’t, he did) and she is being unconstructive (she wasn’t, he is). #NPC

and there he goes. The ABC commentary are enamoured of the idea that the Liberals will put together a version of a Labor policy (the Accord) deary me desperate or what. Nobody seems to have checked if Lambie was going to vote for the bill the government has “dropped”.

I mention this because Lambie’s vote, apart from routine Tassie pork, was contingent on a vanity demand of the CFFMEU, on a personnel decision. And Morrison directly mentioned CFFMEU in that part of his speech. Probably a tell but don’t expect the press to check #NPC

this thread of watching the political class so you don’t have to is from a precariously underemployed casual. Tip jar here https://www.paypal.me/IngridMM