Ministerial Positions


Minister for Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
In office 15 April 2021 – 23 May 2022 Serving with Christian Porter (2021); Melissa Price as Science and Energy (2021–2022); Angus Taylor as Industry (2021–2022)
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Christian Porter
Succeeded by	Madeleine King
Minister for Home Affairs
In office 6 May 2021 – 23 May 2022 Serving with Karen Andrews
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Karen Andrews
Succeeded by	Clare O'Neil
Minister for Finance
In office 30 March 2020 – 23 May 2022 Serving with Mathias Cormann (2020); Simon Birmingham (2020–2022)
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Mathias Cormann
Succeeded by	Katy Gallagher
Minister for Health
In office 14 March 2020 – 23 May 2022 Serving with Greg Hunt
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Greg Hunt
Succeeded by	Mark Butler
Treasurer of Australia
In office 6 May 2021 – 23 May 2022 Serving with Josh Frydenberg
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Josh Frydenberg
Succeeded by	Jim Chalmers
In office 21 September 2015 – 28 August 2018
Prime Minister	Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by	Joe Hockey
Succeeded by	Josh Frydenberg
Minister for the Public Service
In office 29 May 2019 – 8 October 2021
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Mathias Cormann
Succeeded by	Ben Morton
Minister for Social Services
In office 23 December 2014 – 21 September 2015
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by	Kevin Andrews
Succeeded by	Christian Porter
Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
In office 18 September 2013 – 23 December 2014
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott
Preceded by	Tony Burke
Succeeded by	Peter Dutton

Member of the Australian Parliament
for Cook

In office
24 November 2007 – 28 February 2024

Preceded by

Bruce Baird

Succeeded by

Simon Kennedy

Personal details

Born

Scott John Morrison

13 May 1968 (age 55)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Political party

Liberal

Other political
affiliations

Coalition

Spouse

Jenny Warren

(m. 1990)

Children

Parent

John Douglas Morrison (father)

Education

University of New South Wales (BSc Hons)

Signature

Nickname

ScoMo

Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian former politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. He was the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales seat of Cook from 2007 until 2024. On 23 January 2024, he announced his departure from politics, and resigned on 28 February 2024.

After leaving office, Morrison became involved in a scandal after it was revealed that he had secretly held several ministerial positions while serving as prime minister, which led to Parliament passing a censure motion against him.

Early life and education
Early career
Prime Minister of Australia (2018–2022)
- Relations with New Zealand
Post-prime ministerial career
Political views
- Social policies
- Environmental policies
Personal life
- Marriage and children
Honours
- Foreign honours
See also

Early life and education

Morrison was born in the suburb of Waverley in Sydney, the younger of two sons born to Marion (née Smith) and John Douglas Morrison (1934–2020). His father was a policeman who served on the Waverley Municipal Council, including a single term as mayor. Morrison's maternal grandfather was born in New Zealand. His paternal grandmother was the niece of noted Australian poet Dame Mary Gilmore. In 2012, on the 50th anniversary of her death, he delivered a tribute to her in federal parliament. Morrison is descended from William Roberts, a convict who was convicted of stealing yarn and transported to Australia on the First Fleet in 1788.

Morrison grew up in the suburb of Bronte. He had a brief career as a child actor, appearing in several television commercials and small roles in local shows. Morrison attended Sydney Boys High School before going on to complete a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) honours degree in applied economic geography at the University of New South Wales. His honours thesis, a demographical analysis of Christian Brethren assemblies in Sydney, was deposited in the University of Manchester Library's Christian Brethren Collection. 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.

Early career

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. He also was state director of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2000 to 2004. He was first elected to the Australian House of Representatives at the 2007 election as a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Cook in New South Wales, and was quickly appointed to the shadow cabinet.

After the Liberal-National coalition's victory at the 2013 election, Morrison was appointed Minister for Immigration and Border Protection in the Abbott government, where he was responsible for implementing Operation Sovereign Borders. In a reshuffle the following year, he became Minister for Social Services. He was later promoted to the role of Treasurer in September 2015, after Malcolm Turnbull replaced Abbott as prime minister.

Prime Minister of Australia (2018–2022)

Morrison with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on his first overseas visit as prime minister

Morrison with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires

Morrison with U.S. President Joe Biden at the UN General Assembly in New York City

Morrison with East Timor's president Francisco Guterres

Morrison at 45th G7 summit in Biarritz, France

Morrison at a National Cabinet meeting

At the 2019 Lowy Lecture, Scott Morrison argued that the "distinctiveness of independent nations is preserved within a framework of mutual respect".

As prime minister, Morrison drew near unanimous condemnation for taking a holiday during Australia's 2019–20 bushfire season and for his government's response to the disaster. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Morrison established the National Cabinet, and Australia received praise during 2020 for being one of the few Western countries to successfully suppress the virus, though the slow initial pace of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout was criticised. To describe Australia's prolonged vaccination rollout, trade unionist Sally McManus coined the term "strollout", with the phrase being named as the country's word of the year by Macquarie Dictionary.

In foreign policy, Morrison oversaw the signing of the AUKUS security pact and increased tensions between Australia and China and Australia and France. Morrison has also been criticised for his government's response to the 2022 eastern Australia floods, and his perceived inaction on climate change.

Relations with New Zealand

Morrison has defended Australia's policy of deporting non-citizens including New Zealanders who had violated its character test or committed crimes. This policy was criticised by his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern, who described it as "corrosive" to Australia–New Zealand relations in February 2020.

In mid-February 2021, Morrison defended the Australian policy of revoking Australian citizenship for dual nationals engaged in terrorism. The previous year, the Australian government had revoked the citizenship of dual Australian–New Zealand citizen Suhayra Aden, who had become an ISIS bride. New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern had criticised the decision, accusing Australia of abandoning its citizens. Following a phone conversation, the two leaders agreed to work together in the "spirit of the Australian-New Zealand relationship" to address what Ardern described as "quite a complex legal situation."

In late May 2021, Morrison made his first state visit to New Zealand since the COVID-19 lockdown, meeting New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern in Queenstown. The two heads of governments issued a joint statement affirming bilateral cooperation on the issues of COVID-19, bilateral relations, and security issues in the Indo-Pacific.

Post-prime ministerial career

Soon after the 2022 election, on 30 May, Peter Dutton was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party. Morrison remained in Parliament as a backbencher until his resignation in February 2024. In May 2023, he took an advisory position with the U.S. based think tank the Center for a New American Security.

Political views

Social policies

Morrison with Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, and other world leaders in Portsmouth, 2019

Morrison has declared himself a proud supporter of the Australian constitutional monarchy.

Morrison's views on immigration have been the subject of media attention, with The Straits Times describing his stance as "hardline" and "uncompromising". As Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, he was responsible for implementing Operation Sovereign Borders, which requires all asylum seekers arriving in Australia via boat to be refused entry and escorted back to the county they came from. In May 2021, the 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.

Morrison was an opponent of legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. After the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, he proposed an amendment to the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 allowing parents to remove children from classes if "non-traditional" marriage is discussed. All amendments failed, and Morrison abstained from voting on the final bill. Morrison's electorate of Cook had a participation rate of 82.22% in the Marriage Law Postal Survey, and 55.04% of those had responded "Yes." By November 2017, Morrison considered the topic to be a "done deal" and a "finished debate", and same-sex marriage ultimately came into law on 9 December of that year.

Morrison has indicated support for excluding transgender women from playing "single-sex sports".

Environmental policies

Morrison's policies and views on climate change have been a subject of interest. Morrison, along with the rest of the Coalition, voted to abolish Australia's carbon pricing scheme in July 2014. Morrison also famously presented a lump of coal to Parliament during question time in February 2017. During his term as prime minister, the 2020 Climate Change Performance Index ranked Australia in last place for its climate policies and was the only country to score 0 for the same metric in 2021. During the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, Morrison dismissed suggestions of a link between Australia's emissions or policies and the intensity of the bushfires and initially downplayed the influence of climate change on the fires, but later admitted that climate change may have contributed. Protests over his government's climate policies took place across Australia amidst the fire season.

Following his attendance of the 2021 Leaders' Climate Summit, Morrison declined to set net-zero emissions or other climate change targets, unlike other world leaders. Morrison allegedly requested climate change policy targets be removed from a proposed 2021 Australia–United Kingdom trade deal and initially suggested he would not attend the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, but later confirmed that he would. Following the conference, Morrison's government pledged that Australia would aim to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but did not introduce this into national law; Morrison said he believed market forces rather than government regulation could address climate change.

His government's climate action plan was criticised by journalist Phil Coorey as "lightweight", and by a Climate Council spokesman as "meaningless without strong action this decade".

Personal life

Scott and Jenny Morrison in March 2019

Morrison is a fan of rugby union and supported the Eastern Suburbs RUFC during his childhood. After moving to the Sutherland Shire, he became a fan of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks rugby league team and was named the club's number-one ticket holder in 2016.

Marriage and children

Morrison began dating Jenny Warren when they were both 16. They married in 1990, when Morrison was 21 and Warren was 22, and have two daughters together. Their daughters attend an independent Baptist school. Morrison has stated that one of the reasons for this choice was so that he could avoid "the values of others being imposed on my children."

Honours

Foreign honours

United States:
- Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit by the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. (22 December 2020)

Scott Morrison facts for kids

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