Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
Courtney Gould
A wisecrack over Scott Morrison’s secret ministries saga had the former prime minister duking it out with Anthony Albanese on the floor of the house.
Mr Morrison took a place on the opposition backbenches next to his right hand man Alex Hawke, following his bruising election defeat last May.
The back-and-forth between the former sparring partners began when the now-Prime Minister was responding to a question from the Coalition on power bills.
“Now … the predecessor as prime minister, of course, the member for Cook [Scott Morrison], in September 2018 said this: Angus Taylor has one job, get electricity prices down,” Mr Albanese began. “Now, the member for Cook isn’t known for wanting just one job. That won’t be in the biographies that are written about the member for Cook because multiple jobs were given out to all those opposite.”
Mr Morrison, whose contributions in question time are few and far between, waited for a lull in answer before landing a blow of his own.
“You can’t even do one,” he cried out. The former prime minister then promptly returned back to his iPad. Other than a curious glance to Mr Albanese and an eyeroll to a dixer about his government’s history on defence, he offered nothing more.
Mr Morrison wasn’t the only person in the chamber who had their buttons pushed on Wednesday afternoon.
After dressing down a number of MPs for an incident in which a parliamentary attendant was injured, Speaker Milton Dick clearly had had enough.
He was quick to eject the parliament’s tallest man – Hunter MP Dan Repacholi – for disorderly interjections and firmly warned several others. The opposition used question time to try and land a knockout blow on the government for its handling of the cost of living crisis.
In a heated back and forth, the Prime Minister sensationally branded a fired-up opposition leader as “Angry Peter”.
Mr Dutton returned serve, stroking his chin and taunting the Prime Minister, a reference to his accusation that Mr Albanese has a “glass jaw”.
