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Scott Morrison is a man of many parts, as anyone might know who remembers his startling secret acquisition of a string of portfolios to add to his job of prime minister during the COVID lockdown years.
Now he has a new image altogether to add to his curriculum vitae.
He is the latest of 30 former prime ministers to be memorialised with a sculptured bust in Ballarat’s Avenue of Australian Prime Ministers.
The bronze bust, created after a series of careful measurements during sittings with sculptor Martin Moore in the end days of Morrison’s political career several years ago, betrays changes wrought by time.
It presents the fleshy face of a man who had enjoyed years of prime ministerial dining, long hours at a desk and travelling in the comfort of chauffeur-driven cars and VIP jets.
“I’ve shed a few pounds since back then,” conceded the former prime minister, peering at the image that will forever sit on a pedestal in the avenue of political leaders that stretches through old Ballarat’s gardens on the shore of Lake Wendouree.
“I’ve had a bit more time to sort of have a bit more exercise [post politics].”
Indeed, Morrison, who travels the world these days meeting the demands of a series of international consultancies and pushing the attributes of the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal that he squired as prime minister, has transformed into a trim, slim fellow in a much better-fitting suit than those he once wore.
He declared himself humbled to be part of what he described “a magnificent tradition here in Ballarat” – the only avenue in Australia of the sculptured busts of every prime minister since federation.
He reflected at some depth on part of his own political career, speaking of the isolating challenges he faced during the pandemic, and musing about the unpopularity attached to leadership under pressure.
Former PM John Howard, he said, had advised him that “there is no ideology in a crisis, there is just fixing it and seeing your country through; you put everything else aside, politics no longer means anything to you”.
Morrison drew a curious parallel with one of his unlikely political heroes, Joe Lyons, a Labor minister until he quit the ALP during the Great Depression of the early 1930s, joined the United Australia Party and became prime minister.
Lyons was ever after considered a “rat” by Labor, but Morrison said he steered Australia away from 25 per cent unemployment and began to rebuild the nation’s economic foundations.
“I wanted to tell that story about Joe Lyons today because, like him and many others who stand behind me [in the avenue of prime ministers], they were not always loved.
“Often they were loved and unloved over the course of their administration; I have some sense of that.
“Very few political stories end well.”
It sounded as close to an exposure of Morrison’s inner turmoil concerning his turbulent prime ministership as you are likely to hear from him.
Indeed, the avenue of prime ministers had a moment a few years ago that spoke comically of his unpopularity in some quarters.
In 2022, sculptor Louise Pratt and activist Rob Beamish created a bust of Morrison and hoisted it to a pedestal on Ballarat’s celebrated avenue.
It was created from coal-impregnated resin, satirising Morrison’s production in parliament of a lump of coal to reinforce his argument that coal should not be demonised in the debate about climate change.
The activists’ effort was swiftly removed from the avenue. But the Ballarat Art Gallery purchased it, ensuring it would continue to be a reminder of a climate of controversy during Morrison’s leadership.
It’s not every former prime minister who has two sculpted busts in Ballarat, he might reflect, though no one spoke of it when he came to the shore of Lake Wendouree on Friday.
He wasn’t prepared to speak about the current political turmoil for the Liberal-Nationals Coalition in Canberra, either.
“I’ll leave those things to the politicians who are still serving,” the former PM said.
As to whether he has been asked by his former colleagues for advice about what to do in the emergency, Morrison wasn’t about to break his self-imposed code of silence.
“One of the things I pledge to my colleagues, which I’ve honoured, is that any advice I give them I give to them privately and personally.”
He allowed that “it’s a challenging time for all of them, but I really commend Angus for what he had to say on Thursday night [in his budget reply].”
A glimpse of the former Liberal politician came through when he added: “I think he [Angus Taylor] set out a very comprehensive alternative to how Australia needs to face the very serious challenges that are ahead of us, and I think that Angus’ invitation to ‘believe again’ was a good one, and it’s certainly one that I share a belief in.”
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Tony Wright is an associate editor and special writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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