Was the Morrison government fascist?

Allegations of fascism are thrown around frequently to describe the far right, and often the term is misused to incite an emotional response against political ideologies that opponents don’t agree with.

However, in the case of the Morrison government, the use of the word may have had some merit.

Wikipedia describes Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology.

It is characterised by a dictatorial leader, centralised autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation, control of the media, and strong regimentation of society.

When Morrison became Prime Minister in 2018, he started to close down the Australian Public Sector (APS) and outsourced much of the work to private contractors who simply paid lip service to him so they could retain their lucrative contracts.

Adding to this, he appointed a fairly mediocre public servant, Philip Gaetjens, as Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC). Gaetjens was a yes man, who obediently ensured that all other political advisors in all other ministries dutifully agreed with Morrison’s demands about the running of government.

In this manner, he became a virtual dictator; a ruler who has total control over a country, with no checks or balances to prevent abuse of power.

As for centralised autocracy, it came to light after the 2022 election that Morrison had secretly sworn himself in to at least five ministries that we know of.

If he had won the election, it is almost certain that he would have sworn himself into other ministries, cementing his total control over how the government performed, and allowing himself to overrule his own ministers if they disagreed with him.

Militarism is the desire of a government that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests, and the predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state.

In this respect, we need only look at the AUKUS deal, whereby the US and the UK will assist Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

The pact also includes cooperation on advanced cyber, artificial intelligence and autonomy, quantum technologies, undersea capabilities, hypersonic and counter-hypersonic, electronic warfare, innovation and information sharing.

The pact will focus on increasing our military capability, separating us from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance that has in the past included New Zealand and Canada.

On the home front, Morrison also appointed General John J. Frewen as the head of the National COVID Vaccine Taskforce, which was clearly a move to give the military control of state policy. There were many other instances where the military was given such control, but this was the most prominent.

Add to this the militarisation of our immigration program, such as Operation Sovereign Borders and the paramilitary organisation Border Force, and we see a pattern emerging. These operations were instigated in 2013 when Morrison was the Minister for Immigration and Border Control and Peter Dutton was Defence Minister.

As far as forcible suppression of opposition goes, most will remember Morrison’s threats to impose penalties on environmental protesters who threatened the operation of mining companies.

He also sought to impose limits on free speech against those who spoke against the government. These were steps towards turning Australia into a police state.

This also leads us to the subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation. The crackdown on protesters and freedom of speech was followed up by police raids on the ABC, mainstream media journalists and political opponents, as direct intimidation tactics to stop them reporting unfavourably about the government.

It also points to Morrison’s attempts to control the media. He already had the Murdoch media in his pocket (or perhaps Murdoch controlled Morrison), but he used police tactics to force them to stop unfavourable reporting. Added to this was his stacking of the ABC board with allies sympathetic to the government’s stance.

His belief in belief in a natural social hierarchy is well documented by his constant referrals to his religious beliefs as guiding his formulation of policies. This was also evident in his campaigns against Muslims, refugees and just about anybody who wasn’t a white Christian.

He also sought to divide the community, with the rich at the top end of the scale, and Centrelink recipients, refugees and immigrants ostracised.

All these examples combine to show his desire to regiment society and to control it. This is totally incompatible with democracy, but democracy seems to have been the furthest thing from Morrison’s mind.

Looking at the principles of fascism, it appears that Morrison was intent on being a fascist leader. In many respects, he succeeded, but was voted out before he could complete Australia’s transformation to a fascist state.

It is to Australia’s credit that democracy still works, and always has. We are one of the few nations that became independent through a vote, and not through war.

Likewise, we are one of the few nations that rid ourselves of fascism by the same method. Let’s just hope we learn from this sad chapter in our history, and never let it happen again.

Craig Hill is a Brisbane-based Social Justice Campaigner, Writer, Teacher and Business Consultant. He has campaigned for social justice in Australia, promoted human rights in China and worked with the homeless in Honolulu. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Education and a degree in Management.