1. Scott John Morrison was born on 13 May 1968 and is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022.
119 Facts About Scott Morrison
1. 2.
Scott Morrison held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and was the member of parliament for the New South Wales division of Cook from 2007 until 2024.
3.
Scott Morrison worked as director of the New Zealand Office of Tourism and Sport from 1998 to 2000 and was managing director of Tourism Australia from 2004 to 2006.
4.
Scott Morrison was state director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004.
5.
Scott Morrison was first elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 2007 election as a member of parliament for the division of Cook in New South Wales, and was quickly appointed to the shadow cabinet.
6.
Scott Morrison was later promoted to the role of Treasurer in September 2015, after Malcolm Turnbull replaced Abbott as prime minister.
7.
In that ballot, Scott Morrison was seen as a compromise candidate and defeated both Dutton and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to become party leader and thus prime minister in August 2018.
8.
Scott Morrison won a second term after leading the Coalition to an upset victory in the 2019 election.
9.
In foreign policy, Scott Morrison oversaw the signing of the AUKUS security pact and increased tensions between Australia and China and Australia and France.
10.
Scott Morrison directed logistical support to Ukraine as part of the international effort against Russia in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
11.
Scott Morrison has been criticised for his government's response to the 2022 eastern Australia floods, and his perceived inaction on climate change.
12.
The government was defeated at the 2022 election and Scott Morrison stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party; Peter Dutton was elected unopposed to replace him.
13.
Scott Morrison was born in the suburb of Waverley in Sydney, the younger of two sons born to Marion and John Douglas Scott Morrison.
14.
Scott Morrison is descended from William Roberts, a convict who was convicted of stealing yarn and transported to Australia on the First Fleet in 1788.
15.
Scott Morrison had a brief career as a child actor, appearing in several television commercials and small roles in local shows.
16.
Scott Morrison's honours thesis, a demographical analysis of Christian Brethren assemblies in Sydney, was deposited in the University of Manchester Library's Christian Brethren Collection.
17.
Scott Morrison contemplated studying theology at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada, but he instead chose to enter the workforce after completing his undergraduate education, in part due to the disapproval of his father.
18.
Scott Morrison then moved into tourism, serving as deputy chief executive of the Australian Tourism Task Force and then general manager of the Tourism Council of Australia; the latter was managed by Bruce Baird, whom he would eventually succeed in federal parliament.
19.
In 1998, Scott Morrison moved to New Zealand to become director of the newly created Office of Tourism and Sport.
20.
Scott Morrison left this position in 2000, a year before the contract schedule.
21.
Scott Morrison returned to Australia in 2000, to become state director of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party.
22.
Scott Morrison oversaw the party's campaigns in the 2001 federal election and in the 2003 New South Wales state election.
23.
In 2004, Scott Morrison left the NSW Liberal Party post to become the inaugural managing director of Tourism Australia, which had been established by the Howard government.
24.
Scott Morrison's appointment was controversial due to its openly political nature.
25.
Scott Morrison's contract was terminated in July 2006, which at the time was attributed to conflict with tourism minister Fran Bailey over the government's plans to further integrate the agency into the Australian Public Service.
26.
Scott Morrison had been awarded a pay rise by the Remuneration Tribunal three weeks before his sacking.
27.
In January 2020, Scott Morrison referred to the name as a "snarky comment" used by the Labor Party to discredit him.
28.
Scott Morrison sought Liberal preselection for the division of Cook, an electorate in the southern suburbs of Sydney which includes Cronulla, Caringbah, and Miranda, for the 2007 election, following the retirement of Bruce Baird, who had been the member since 1998.
29.
Scott Morrison lost the ballot to Michael Towke, a telecommunications engineer and the candidate of the Liberals' right faction, by 82 votes to 8.
30.
At the general election, Scott Morrison suffered a two-party swing of over six percent against Labor candidate Mark Buttigieg, but was able to retain the seat on the strength of winning 52 percent of the primary vote.
31.
In September 2008, Scott Morrison was appointed to Malcolm Turnbull's coalition front bench as shadow minister for housing and local government.
32.
In February 2011, Scott Morrison publicly questioned the decision of the Gillard Labor government to pay for the relatives of the victims to travel to funerals in Sydney, arguing that the same privilege was not extended to Australian citizens.
33.
In February 2013, Scott Morrison said that the police should be notified of where asylum seekers are living in the community if any antisocial behaviour has occurred, and that there should be strict guidelines for the behaviour of those currently on bridging visas while they await the determination of their claims.
34.
On 18 September 2013, Scott Morrison launched Operation Sovereign Borders, the new government's strategy aimed at stopping unauthorised boats from entering Australian waters.
35.
Cabinet documents from this time revealed in 2018 that Scott Morrison asked for mitigation strategies to avoid granting permanent visas to 700 refugees.
36.
Scott Morrison's office reported that there were 300 boats and 20,587 arrivals in 2013 to only 1 boat and 157 arrivals for all of 2014.
37.
Scott Morrison asserted that to reveal details of operations would be to play into the hands of people smugglers who used this information to plan illegal smuggling operations.
38.
On many occasions Scott Morrison refused to answer questions about the status of asylum seekers or boats coming to and from Australia, often on the basis that he would not disclose "on water" or "operational" matters.
39.
In November 2014, the Australian Human Rights Commission delivered a report to the government which found that Scott Morrison failed in his responsibility to act in the best interests of children in detention during his time as Minister.
40.
In early December 2014, Scott Morrison had the Migration and Maritime Powers Legislation Amendment Bill 2014 passed through the Australian Parliament.
41.
Scott Morrison insisted that he did not desire to take over the position of Treasurer despite his strong performances.
42.
Scott Morrison was the minister who established the Robodebt scheme that sent out an estimated 526,000 incorrect automated debt notices to mostly low-income Australians.
43.
Scott Morrison took the proposal to cabinet without necessary information as to what it actually entailed and without the caveat that it required legislative and policy change to permit the use of the ATO PAYG data in the way proposed in circumstances where: he knew that the proposal still involved income averaging; only a few weeks previously he had been told of that caveat; nothing had changed in the proposal; and he had done nothing to ascertain why the caveat no longer applied.
44.
Scott Morrison failed to meet his ministerial responsibility to ensure that cabinet was properly informed about what the proposal actually entailed and to ensure that it was lawful.
45.
Scott Morrison was appointed as Treasurer in the Turnbull government in September 2015, replacing Joe Hockey.
46.
In May 2016, Scott Morrison handed down the 2016 Australian federal budget.
47.
Scott Morrison originally opposed the creation of a royal commission, believing that a Senate inquiry would be sufficient.
48.
Scott Morrison handed down the 2018 Australian federal budget on 8 May, reporting a $14.5 billion deficit.
49.
Scott Morrison defeated challenger Peter Dutton by 48 votes to 35.
50.
Scott Morrison thus became leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister-designate.
51.
Scott Morrison was widely seen as a compromise candidate, who was agreeable to both the moderate supporters of Turnbull and Bishop and conservatives concerned about Dutton's electability.
52.
Several months later, Scott Morrison introduced new criteria for leadership spills, requiring that a two-thirds majority vote from party members would be required to trigger one, in an attempt to stop "coup culture".
53.
The Scott Morrison government remained in minority after Turnbull's seat of Wentworth was lost to independent Kerryn Phelps at a by-election.
54.
Scott Morrison made his first overseas trip as prime minister less than a week after acceding to the office.
55.
In October 2018, Scott Morrison announced Australia was reviewing whether to move Australia's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
56.
In December 2018, Scott Morrison announced Australia has recognised West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but will not immediately move its embassy from Tel Aviv.
57.
In November 2018, Scott Morrison privately raised the issue of Xinjiang internment camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Singapore.
58.
In March 2019, Scott Morrison condemned the Christchurch mosque shootings as an "extremist, right-wing violent terrorist attack".
59.
Scott Morrison stated that Australians and New Zealanders were family and that the Australian authorities would be cooperating with New Zealand authorities to assist with the investigation.
60.
Scott Morrison condemned "reckless" and "highly offensive" comments made by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
61.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith, had determined that there was a prima facie case and, in voting down the motion, the Scott Morrison government became the first government since Federation to refuse a referral from the Speaker.
62.
Scott Morrison was criticised by Gay Alcorn of The Age for not accepting more Afghan refugees, who were fleeing the country after the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021.
63.
Scott Morrison agreed to give humanitarian visas to 3,000 Afghan refugees, fewer than other countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
64.
Scott Morrison was heavily condemned for his government's response to the 2022 eastern Australia floods; criticism was levelled against him for campaigning in Perth instead of being present in New South Wales, causing a relief package for flood victims to be delayed, with many critics suggesting that Scott Morrison was prioritising marketing over the flood response.
65.
On 15 August 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced an investigation by his office into claims that Scott Morrison secretly appointed himself to administer several government departments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
66.
The health minister at the time, Greg Hunt, was understood to have agreed to Scott Morrison's position administering the health department; however, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, was unaware that Scott Morrison had appointed himself in a joint ministerial position.
67.
David Littleproud, who was the agriculture minister in Scott Morrison's government, criticised the self-appointments as "pretty ordinary".
68.
Later that day, the Governor-General's office confirmed that Scott Morrison had been appointed to a number of ministerial offices, without stating which.
69.
Scott Morrison had got himself appointed as joint resources minister in order to be able to overrule a decision on gas exploration by the resources minister.
70.
Scott Morrison was appointed to administer the Department of Health on 14 March 2020; the Department of Finance on 30 March 2020; the Department of Home Affairs on 6 May 2021, the Department of the Treasury on 6 May 2021, and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources on 15 April 2021.
71.
Scott Morrison recommended legislation to ensure all ministerial appointments were made public.
72.
Two former senior judges have reported to the Commonwealth Attorney-General that, shortly before the 2022 Australian federal election was called, the Scott Morrison government got an unusual number of people with political connections to the Coalition appointed to highly paid positions on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
73.
The Scott Morrison government allocated it $18m in funding over five years, with no formal process of approval.
74.
In October 2019, Scott Morrison criticised the 2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria.
75.
Scott Morrison stated that he was concerned for the safety of the Kurds living in the region and feared that the offensive could result in a resurgence of ISIS.
76.
Later that day, Scott Morrison called a press conference, calling the image "offensive" and "truly repugnant", and demanding a formal apology from the Chinese government.
77.
In mid-February 2021, Scott Morrison defended the Australian policy of revoking Australian citizenship for dual nationals engaged in terrorism.
78.
In late May 2021, Scott Morrison made his first state visit to New Zealand since the COVID-19 lockdown, meeting New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern in Queenstown.
79.
In February 2022, Scott Morrison condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and imposed sanctions on travel bans on individuals perceived to be supporting the invasion.
80.
Scott Morrison said Australia would begin sending lethal aid to the Ukrainian government.
81.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia prompted Scott Morrison to establish the National Cabinet on 13 March 2020.
82.
Scott Morrison supported an international inquiry into the origins of the global COVID-19 pandemic and opined that the coronavirus most likely originated in a wildlife wet market in Wuhan.
83.
On 2 March 2022, Scott Morrison announced he had contracted COVID and was suffering from flu-like symptoms.
84.
Scott Morrison sought a second full term at the 2022 Australian federal election.
85.
The Coalition suffered heavy losses, and it soon became apparent that there was no realistic scenario for Scott Morrison to stay in office.
86.
The incoming Labor government ordered a departmental inquiry, which found that officials had been pressured by the immigration minister, apparently urged by Scott Morrison, to make a quick announcement with release to selected journalists as well as social media, but had refused do so; although, at the minister's insistence, basic factual information was given limited release in time for a press conference by the prime minister.
87.
Scott Morrison remained in Parliament as a backbencher until his resignation in February 2024.
88.
In December 2022, Scott Morrison gave evidence to the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, concerning his role in the implementation of the unlawful scheme, which was piloted during his time as Social Services minister.
89.
The commission handed down its final report in July 2023, with Scott Morrison being criticised for misleading Cabinet and failing his ministerial duties.
90.
The commission found that Scott Morrison gave false evidence to the commission.
91.
Scott Morrison maintained that "the serious crises facing Australia" demanded that he take on the joint ministries as a "safeguard".
92.
On 23 January 2024, Scott Morrison announced his resignation from Parliament.
93.
Scott Morrison formally resigned on 28 February 2024 and was succeeded by Simon Kennedy, who won the 2024 Cook by-election on 13 April.
94.
In May 2024, Scott Morrison published an autobiography, Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister's Testimony of God's Faithfulness.
95.
Scott Morrison has declared himself a proud supporter of the Australian constitutional monarchy.
96.
Scott Morrison strongly opposes voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, and has stated that he "believes in the sanctity of human life".
97.
In May 2021, the Scott Morrison government passed laws which would allow refugees to be detained for life in Australia's immigration detention facilities, despite indefinite detention being illegal under international law.
98.
Scott Morrison was an opponent of legalising same-sex marriage in Australia.
99.
All amendments failed, and Scott Morrison abstained from voting on the final bill.
100.
Scott Morrison has indicated support for excluding transgender women from playing "single-sex sports".
101.
Scott Morrison famously presented a lump of coal to Parliament during question time in February 2017.
102.
Scott Morrison was one of Australia's most popular and unpopular prime ministers.
103.
However, by March 2022, Scott Morrison's popularity had greatly declined, and he was found to be Australia's least trusted politician in a study by Roy Morgan Research.
104.
Research conducted by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in December 2023 found Scott Morrison to be Australia's most disliked politician.
105.
The veracity of comments made by Scott Morrison has been criticised, and he has repeatedly made false and misleading statements, despite stating in a radio interview in November 2021 that he does not believe he has told a lie in public life.
106.
In October 2021, French president Emmanuel Macron publicly accused Scott Morrison of lying over the cancellation of a proposed submarine pact between France and Australia.
107.
In January 2022, texts between former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian and an unnamed senior cabinet minister in the Scott Morrison government were revealed, wherein Scott Morrison was labelled a "horrible, horrible person" by the former premier and a "complete psycho" by the minister.
108.
In March and April 2022, New South Wales state Liberal MP Catherine Cusack accused Scott Morrison of being a "self-serving bully", and using the Eastern Australia floods as a political tactic.
109.
Scott Morrison suggested Morrison had used his religion as a "marketing advantage".
110.
Scott Morrison is a fan of rugby union and supported the Eastern Suburbs RUFC during his childhood.
111.
In February 2025, a content creator on TikTok found pictures of Scott Morrison taken in the 1990s at an op shop, some of these images were taken while he was deputy director of the Australian Tourism Task Force during 1995 to 1996.
112.
Scott Morrison subsequently asked for these images to be returned.
113.
Scott Morrison began dating Jenny Warren when they were both 16.
114.
Scott Morrison was raised in the Presbyterian Church of Australia, which partly merged into the Uniting Church when he was a child.
115.
Scott Morrison later became a Pentecostal and now attends the Horizon Church, which is affiliated with the Australian Christian Churches.
116.
Scott Morrison has said, "the Bible is not a policy handbook, and I get very worried when people try to treat it like one".
117.
In late 2017, Scott Morrison stated that he would become a stronger advocate for protections for religious freedom.
118.
Scott Morrison thinks misuse of social media is the work of "the evil one" and practises the Christian tradition of the "laying on of hands" while working.
119.
In 2024, Scott Morrison revealed he had been prescribed medication for anxiety during his primeministership, which he blamed on "pure physical exhaustion" and the "unrelenting and callous brutality of politics".