Scott Morrison has awkwardly fended off accusations from one of his own female senators that he’s a ‘bully’ and an ‘autocrat’ in a tense interview on morning radio.
Ben Fordham grilled the Prime Minister after Concetta Fierravanti-Wells laid into Mr Morrison during a late night appearance on the Senate floor on Tuesday evening, hours after the Budget was handed down.
Asked for his response on Fierravanti-Wells’ claims he was ‘not fit to lead the country’, Mr Morrison suggested she was disgruntled after losing the NSW Senate pre-selection.
‘I know Connie is disappointed that on the weekend 500 members of the Liberal party went to a pre-selection and they didn’t select Connie,’ he told 2GB on Wednesday.
Scott Morrison has awkwardly rubbished claims by Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells that he made racist remarks when entering Parliament as a member for Cook
‘I know there are many disappointments in political life, and when you are prime minister, people hold you to responsible for many things.’
Senator Fierravanti-Wells’ also claimed when Mr Morrison entered Parliament as a member for Cook he said ”we can’t have a Lebanese person in Cook”.’
Mr Morrison emphatically denied making the racist remark, dismissing it as ‘rubbish’.
‘That’s not true,’ he said.
The Prime Minister also rejected the senator’s claims her NSW pre-selection loss was due to a factional fix courtesy of his allies.
Brushing off all the accusations, the Prime Minister claimed he was ‘not the only one’ who had been on the receiving end ‘of those sorts of comments’ from Connie’.
‘I wish her the best, and if she would like to make an official complaint, we have specific party processes to do so.’
Senator Fierravanti-Wells (pictured) made the bombshell claim Mr Morrison said: “we can’t have a Lebanese person in Cook”
Mr Morrison said he was unrattled by the bombshell claims that shocked Parliament on Tuesday and overshadowed the fiscal announcement.
‘I was focused on the budget last night Ben, I wasn’t focused on those issues,’ he said.
‘As Prime Minister, there are a lot of people who disagree with you, lots of people who say all sorts of things about you.’
Speaking under the protection of parliamentary privilege, Ms Fierravanti-Wells said: ‘He (the Prime Minister) is adept at running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds, lacking a moral compass and having no conscience.
The senator’s speech was an unwelcome surprise for Prime Minister Scott Morrison (above, watching Josh Frydenberg’s Budget speech)
‘In my public life, I have met ruthless people. Morrison tops the list, followed closely by (party powerbroker and Immigration Minister Alex) Hawke.
‘Morrison is not fit to be Prime Minister and Hawke is certainly not fit to be a minister.’
Ms Fierravanti-Wells was recently dropped to an unwinnable spot on the Coalition’s Senate ticket for the Federal election.
The election date is expected to be announced in days, meaning her 17-year parliamentary career is rapidly coming to an end – at least for now.
During her spray, the senator claimed Liberal supporters are despairing at the party’s prospects, ‘and they blame Morrison for this’.
‘It is his way or the highway – (he’s) an autocrat, a bully who has no moral compass,’ she said.
The outgoing Liberal also told Parliament Mr Morrison made racist comments during his preselection for the seat of Cook in 2007.
‘I’m advised that there are several statutory declarations to attest to racial comments made by Morrison at the time that we “can’t have a Lebanese person in court”.’
Ms Fierravanti-Wells also claimed there is a ‘putrid stench of corruption emanating from the NSW division’ of the party.
She alleged Mr Morrison and Mr Hawke had deliberately contrived a crisis in the NSW branch of the Liberal party for the past year so they could have their own candidates installed.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells’ Senate spray cast a pall over the government on an evening where the
‘I am appalled (party president Philip Ruddock) has allowed Morrison to bully his way to a situation where the next election has been put at risk all to save Hawke’s career.’
Mr Hawke was facing a preselection challenge for his own seat of Mitchell but was re-endorsed.
Tasmanian Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson was left stunned by the MP’s evening tirade. ‘Holy smokes,’ he said.
Earlier this week, Senator Fierravanti-Wells took aim at the ‘Liberal sisterhood’ for failing to speak out against toxic parliamentary culture.
She referenced the death of Labor senator Kimberley Kitching to a heart attack at age 52 and how she was ostracised by Labor’s so-called ‘mean girls’.
‘We both had factional enemies who desperately wanted to see us defeated and they worked very hard at it,’ she said.
‘We were both outspoken and not constrained by prevalent groupthink within our political parties.’
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