WHEN the Prime Minister of Australia publicly launches both barrels at you, you’d reasonably expect your political career to be in serious trouble.
PM Scott Morrison last week gave his Liberal Party colleague and NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean a dressing down the likes of which is rarely seen in public.
Kean, a “science is settled” global warming activist, was told by the PM that he didn’t know what he was talking about, that he was an unknown in cabinet and that he didn’t have a clue what was going on.
The Prime Minister even gave Kean public instruction on how to do his job.
Any one of these rebukes could have instantly ended a minister’s career. In fact, it’s surprising that Kean failed to tender his resignation.
The PM’s brutal “advice” was backed by NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro who said Minister Kean was not “representative” of government. This is perhaps the most damning condemnation of a Party politician and government minister.
The only major player to remain silent was Kean’s immediate boss NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
HAZARD
Kean’s public dressing down came after he falsely suggested in a Sky News interview that the Federal Government was facing a party room revolt over climate policy.
In his response, the PM didn’t mince his words. “I don’t know what he’s talking about,” he told Nine’s Today show. “I think Matt should focus on [fire] hazard reduction, I’ll focus on emissions reduction.”
Morrison also told ABC Radio: “Matt Kean doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t know what’s going on in the federal cabinet. Most of the federal cabinet wouldn’t even know who Matt Kean was.” [see video below]
In the wake of such criticism, how is it possible for Kean to retain his Ministry? The short answer is that factions are at play.
In NSW, Matt Kean is a big tadpole in a small pond. Along with Trent Zimmerman, he controls numbers within NSW’s aggressive Left-wing faction who refer to themselves as the “Moderates”. Everyone else calls them the Gay Left Mafia.
It’s this faction that supported legalising late term abortion, of going soft on bestiality laws and of blocking the promised religious freedoms that were supposed to follow homosexual marriage.
JIM MOLAN
The Gay Left “Moderates” are a big deal in NSW. NSW Premier Berejiklian could struggle to retain her premiership without its support. Deposed Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull remains in its debt.
But the Moderates are small fry federally. When Kean overstepped his remit he ran into a PM who has the backing of a significantly more powerful faction – the Centre Right. This faction is known as the Soft Right (as opposed to the conservative Right faction).
The Centre Right is lead by Alex Hawke who, with the PM’s blessing, fell in behind Jim Molan to return the NSW senator to Federal Parliament after he was initially rolled by Kean’s “Moderates”.
So while Kean’s political career in NSW remains safe for now, he can kiss good-bye any federal ambitions he may have held.
For as long as Alex Hawke draws breath, Kean’s only path into federal politics would be via the ALP or, perhaps more appropriately, The Greens.
Finally, to answer the headline question: “Is the Prime Minister in charge?” Yes, very much so, and he has an extremely powerful guard of political allies to prove it.PC
Kean should get his facts right, about JFK, his moon landing ambition, and our own PM.
JFK didn’t willy nilly fire rockets into the air and hope for the best. Like our PM he focused on technology advancement to ensure the money spent on the venture was prudently allocated, the moon landing aim also demonstrated the respect for cosmic bodies and their importance in our Earthly function, eg tides caused by gravity, and their relationship to our weather. Has anyone noticed that when there is an eclipse and we want to view it, there are also invariably clouds. And the weather since the recent orbital connection of Earth with Saturn and Jupiter – 2 of the largest planets in our solar system – has been greatly affected. If Kean went surfing he might also notice that the tides are much stronger at the moment than when they are normally only affected by our moon.
So contrary to Kean’s accusation, our PM is very much in line with JFK’s strategy!
As with the Koala Habitat overlay, Kean is way out on attention to detail and as usual his work is very sloppy!!
If the Gay Left Moderates have a favourite planet in our universe it isn’t Earth, it is Uranus. Happy to have them leave our planet and go there anytime they like! Cheers Melanie
I saw Matt Kean interviewed on channel 10s The Project during the bushfires blaming climate change, going along with the zeitgeist that has infected the media. His abdication of responsibility as NSW environment minister who is meant to be managing the environment to minimize bush-fires was a disgrace, and the Channel 10 commentators just lapped it up like the ignorant suckers they are. With him as environment minister we can only expect NSW parks to be allowed to grow wild again, inhibit people clearing to protect their properties and have another major bushfire season in 10-20 years as has occurred in the last decade.
Yes
Matt Kean? Not only Green but some Red also because he has been quoted as siding with one of his constituents who has ALWAYS advocated the abolition of Selective High Schools.
Pity the future of our Nation if excellence in academic studies is prevented. Graduates of the Selective High Schools are the ones who can cope with high level Maths, Science, can express themselves well without ambiguity due to excellence in English studies. They are the ones who become our top Scientists, Medical Practitioners, Engineers and other professionals and who have been responsible for many of the inventions created in Australia.