Scott Morrison oversaw Australia’s pandemic response
Australia’s former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced he will quit parliament to join the private sector.
Mr Morrison, a conservative who was first elected in 2007, was the country’s leader from 2018 to 2022.
He oversaw Australia’s pandemic response, the Aukus defence pact, and was embroiled in a historic scandal for secretly appointing himself to several ministerial positions while PM.
“The time has come for me to return to private life,” he said on Tuesday.
In a statement Mr Morrison, 55, said he would now take on “strategic advisory roles” across Asia to focus on security matters in the Indo-Pacific.
A devout Christian, he said he was “looking forward to being more active” in his church and spending time with his family.
Mr Morrison’s retirement has long been expected following a shattering election loss to Labor’s Anthony Albanese in 2022, which left the Liberal-National coalition with its lowest ever number of seats.
Australia’s reputation as a climate laggard was a major factor in his government’s demise – with voters favouring candidates committed to more ambitious emissions cuts.
Mr Morrison’s initial response to Covid – which included border closures, lockdowns and test and trace protocols – is credited with helping to contain early outbreaks, although a delayed vaccine rollout later drew criticism.
During his time in office, the prime minister had a particularly rocky relationship with China, Australia’s largest trading partner.
His government led calls for an international investigation into the origins of Covid, prompting a tit-for-tat trade dispute and a years-long diplomatic freeze.
In a strategic pivot, Mr Morrison instead focused on bolstering regional security alliances, helping to set up the Quad partnership with India, Japan and the US, and signing the Aukus nuclear submarine deal with the UK and US.
But public support for him had begun deteriorating rapidly following his decision to holiday in Hawaii during Australia’s deadly 2019-2020 bushfires.
Later, he apologised after being widely criticised for his initial muted response to a string of sexual misconduct allegations which rocked parliament.
After his 2022 election defeat – described by an internal review as the “most serious” loss in coalition history – Mr Morrison returned to the opposition backbench.
He became the first former prime minister to be censured by parliament – over secret powers he had given himself during the pandemic.
Mr Morrison said his decision to make himself the joint minister for health, finance, treasury, and home affairs while leader had been in keeping with the “extraordinary times” the country was facing.
Ultimately, an investigation found his appointments were legal, and that he used his extra powers only once.
Mr Morrison first garnered national attention in 2013 when he was appointed to cabinet as immigration minister and oversaw Operation Sovereign Borders – which hardened Australia’s controversial asylum seeker policies.
He then served as social services minister and treasurer, before succeeding Malcolm Turnbull as Liberal Party leader and prime minister.
Mr Morrison famously defied polls to win the 2019 federal election, having pitched himself to voters as an everyday family man the nation could trust, and adopting the nickname “ScoMo”.
After a decade of political leadership challenges in both major parties which upended governments, he became the first prime minister to serve a full term since John Howard in 2007.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
