Scott Morrison said it with a straight face, and repetition for emphasis. “I’m very pleased, very pleased, with the performance of all of my ministers,” he declared on Thursday.
This ringing if unconvincing universal endorsement came as the unfortunate Angus Taylor wallowed more deeply in his mire, which this week took a bizarre turn.
Controversial American feminist writer Naomi Wolf, in an extended phone call (which she videoed) with a Taylor staffer, demanded a correction from the Energy Minister for his inaccurate claim they’d been corridor near-neighbours at Oxford in 1991 and for implying she’d campaigned against Christmas.
This story went back to Taylor’s maiden speech. In that, he mentioned Wolf, then segued to students (without naming her) who opposed having a Christmas tree, against whom he and his “mainstream” friends successfully “pushed back”.
In Parliament on Thursday Taylor insisted he’d met Wolf at Oxford and declared that, given his grandmother was Jewish, her accusation of anti-Semitism was “deeply offensive”. Taylor also argues he didn’t say she was one of the anti-Christmas brigade – although he did leave that impression.
It appears to be another case of Taylor being sloppy with facts and refusing to clean up his mess quickly, or at all.
Read the article by Michelle Grattan in The Canberra Times.