SCOTT MORRISON: I don’t accept the assertion you are putting to me, Leigh. I mean you are making accusations…
LEIGH SALES: I just gave three examples.
SCOTT MORRISON: …like the Labor Party does.
LEIGH SALES: I gave you three concrete examples.
SCOTT MORRISON: These are minor matters Leigh, that I don’t think go to the issues you are talking about.
LEIGH SALES: But that’s my point.
SCOTT MORRISON: But if you want to join in on the accusations that the Labor leader makes in Parliament every day, well, you can join in.
LEIGH SALES: I am not interested in what the Labor leader has got to say.
This is a tiny excerpt from a fiery interview between the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Leigh Sales on ABC’s 730 program on Tuesday night.
Watch @leighsales's full interview with Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP on iview. #abc730 #auspol https://t.co/MM4mIk4tdx
— abc730 (@abc730) March 3, 2020
Sales pressed and Morrison dug in at every turn as the conversation ranged from the sports grants scandal to Angus Taylor to managing the economy to emissions reduction to Morrison’s Hawaiian holiday and the invitation of Brian Houston to the US state dinner.
“How is it possible that you don’t have an economic centrepiece beyond a slogan for jobs and growth?,” Sales asked the PM.
“I completely reject that,” he answered.
Sales came back: “Let me run through some of it with you…You have done nothing on IR or superannuation, nothing on GST reform, nothing big on company tax reform, no target for emissions reduction beyond 2030, business leaders feel there is no agenda.”
On the subject of trust Sales raised the same question a number of times.
“Why the secrecy of stuff on the surface that doesn’t seem that big a deal?,” Sales asked.
“Those things aren’t that big a deal you have spoken about. I am focused on the things I took to the local people.”
“You are not answering what I am asking,” she said.
He wasn’t and he didn’t.
.@leighsales: "What about the Brian Houston thing, why did you keep that secret?"@ScottMorrisonMP: "I was in the US. We had a meeting with the President. It was not a matter I was intending to be distracted by … At the time I could have answered the question differently." pic.twitter.com/c483kN2aL5
— abc730 (@abc730) March 3, 2020
On the issue of the Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston being invited to the White House, last year Morrison was dogged in ignoring and avoiding any questions on the subject. On Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before his ABC interview Morrison admitted to 2GB’s Ben Fordham that, yes, Houston had been on the list.
To Sales he said he could “have been more candid at the time” but also that it was ‘not a big deal’. If that was the case why then did Morrison not simply say that last year when reports first emerged?