Australia federal election 2022 live: Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese to make final pitches on last full day of campaign
Jason Clare #JasonClare
Over on Melbourne radio 3AW, Scott Morrison is being pushed on whether he still claims he won’t make any deals with the crossbench in the event of a hung parliament and he turns it into an attack on Simon Holmes à Court.
Neil Mitchell asks if he would “rather lose” than form government with the crossbench:
Morrison:
I would rather run a government that can do the job and not trade away important policies that are really critical for Australia’s future.
If people want to support our policies, fine.
But if people want us to change things that we think would damage the economy and damage Australia’s national security, that’s why I’m saying do not vote for those teal independents. And then we saw the true colours on them.
This week with Simon Holmes à Court, I mean, that is behind all this money coming out of that big family.
And what we’re seeing in the comments that were made about John Howard as the “angel of death”, and then the bullying we saw of Jane [Hume] the other day at the polling booths.
Mitchell: Simon Holmes à Court says he wasn’t talking about Josef Mengele when he said “angel of death”.
Morrison:
Well, who else was he talking about?
Mitchell: [He says] He was quoting a Liberal insider who had said John Howard was the angel of death who turns up when the seats in real trouble.
Morrison:
I think that’s a bit cheeky, and frankly, a bit unbelievable.
I mean, everybody knows what angel of death means. And I think the use of that phrase was absolutely disgusting …
There is a great respect for Mr Howard and his service to the country. And what has been exposed by what Simon has called him and said is the real sort of hatred of the Liberal party and and he’s motivated by these things.
And the way he’s spoken about this to John Howard, I just found absolutely disrespectful. And I think people in those communities, expect their candidates to be respectful, and I think it has exposed those people attendance for exactly who they are just people who hate the Liberal party.