The Morrison Government Governing through crisis, 2019-2022

Leading thinkers on the policies and leadership of the Morrison Government from 2019 to 2022. Australia has rarely endured as many difficulties as it did during the COVID-19 pandemic-dominated Morrison Government’s term of office from its surprise 2019 election win to the 2022 poll. How did government perform? How did policy and administration fare during this tumultuous political period? Was Australia’s national government resilient in the face of the massive pandemic challenge, and were its operations reshaped by it? Leading scholars and journalists, including Karen Middleton, Michelle Grattan, Chris Wallace, Julianne Schultz, Katharine Murphy, Stephen Duckett, Brendan McCaffrie and Stan Grant, answer these questions in a searching examination of policy and leadership under the Morrison Government from 2019 to 2022.

Brendan McCaffrie is senior research fellow at the Centre for Change Governance, University of Canberra. Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and chief political correspondent for The Conversation. Chris Wallace is a professor in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra. She is the author of How to Win an Election and Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers.

Contents 1 The Morrison Government, 2019– 2022: A story of crisis and character Institutions 2 Delegating democracy: Parliament in the Morrison era 3 Parties 4 The Australian Public Service under Morrison 5 The Morrison Government and Australian federalism 6 The Morrison Government and the media Policy 7 The (mis)management of the COVID-19 pandemic 8 Economic policy in the 46th Parliament 9 Aged care under the Morrison Government 10 Robodebts and rollercoasters: Social (in)security in the 46th Parliament 11 Higher education 12 From ‘ daggy dad’ to ‘ woke agendas’ : Women and equality 13 Indigenous people and the Morrison Government 14 Foreign policy 15 Communications policy 16 The arts and culture sector under the 46th Parliament: Crisis after crisis 17 The battle for a federal integrity commission 18 Navigating cumulative disaster: Drought, bushfire, flood and pandemic 19 Weekends and wars: The stalling of climate change policy Leadership 20 Experts and democracy in Australia: The case of COVID-19 21 A deep dive into ‘ teal’ territory: A Wentworth case study 22 Scott Morrison’ s crisis leadership Authors Index