If you are reading this, I assume you know about the Australian Prime Minister’s Fathers Day jaunt to Sydney.
To be clear, I am not too concerned about the trip itself.
I am not overly annoyed he received permissions and dispensations difficult if not impossible for others to obtain.
I am not rampaging about the cost or the use of a RAAF passenger aircraft.
I am not even all that concerned he gets to visit his children in Sydney when I cannot do the same.
I am however deeply concerned about what this simple Canberra to Sydney return may tell us about the Prime Ministers Office and our security.
For example, the Prime Minister (or his office) advised the PM intended staying in Sydney and working from there for the next few weeks. They said he only returned to Canberra on Sunday in order to Chair the Security Committee meeting on Monday.
Is the Prime Minister’s office so shambolic, so incompetent and so disorganised that a scheduled and important meeting 2 days later was not known to them? If so, and it appeared it must be so, we should all be concerned, as should our international partners and allies at such a high level of disorganisation and the appearance they are making it all up as they go
And amid such chaos, how did Scott Morrison hope to prepare for such an important meeting.
Australia’s leader may well be a very clever person however even the best and brightest would prepare in advance for such a meeting. Afterall, such preparation is one of the reasons they are the best and brightest. It is a concern that no preparation would be possible or planned in advance.
However, it seems we did not originally have the full set of facts.
Following further questioning, it was revealed the Prime Minister was aware of the upcoming Security Committee meeting and planned to attend “remotely”. However, for security reasons it was decided he should head back to Canberra and perform his role in person.
So, what had transpired in the less than 48 hours between departing Canberra and deciding to return to trigger such security concerns in the communication channels between the PM’s official residence on Sydney and Government offices in Canberra?
Only a week before, several attendees at a Security Committee Meeting did so remotely so something must have changed.
What happened between Saturday morning when the PM departed Canberra and Sunday afternoon when he returned that resulted in severe security concerns for remote attendees?
Was there a cyber-attack, computer failure, security breach meaning a secure connection was impossible all of a sudden or something else more sinister.
If no secure link was possible between Sydney and Canberra a secure international communication channel would have been impossible.
Would our Government have been forced to exclude itself from conversations in the event a major international incident, a military action, major accident or disaster occurred? The only conclusion is we would have excluded ourselves potentially leaving Australian citizens unrepresented.
This communications security issue may be the real reason President Biden did not discuss the Afghanistan matter with the leader of their most loyal and trusted ally until the evacuation was complete.
Finally, I am concerned about the quality and intelligence of those supporting and advising the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister has been clear he was not being secretive about his trip.
However, all the actions of his support team clearly “misrepresent” his “lack of secrecy”. Specifically, the family photo posted to his Instagram account for Father’s Day gave every impression of creating the illusion he was away from his children on the day.
While there has been much criticism, comment and outrage about the Father’s Day trip, I contend there are far more important matters that should be exercised that come to light only because of this trip.
My final observation is, Scott Morrison gives the appearance of someone confident he is always the smartest the person in the room. Based on what appears to be the quality and competence of those who support and advise him, he will surely remain the smartest for the foreseeable future.
