A contact called me with news about the PM. It left me with a moral ...
Opinion
Two-and-a-half years ago, in October 2021, a source told me the prime minister of Australia was suffering significant mental health problems and was “in a bad way”.
The source was not a troublemaker or a leadership aspirant. This was not an ALP stunt. It was a person concerned for the man, and the country.
Scott Morrison, pictured in Parliament last year, has revealed he took medication after suffering anxiety while prime minister. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
The call provoked an intense ethical dilemma for me.
Mental health is a private issue. But surely whether a leader is fit to lead is in the national interest. I trusted the source, but there was no way to prove it unless the PM or his medical staff confirmed it.
Now, we know it was true, and that means facing tough questions about how we monitor the health of our leaders and how much we rely on people who may be in a dark place to self-report.
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Back in 2021, privately and publicly Scott Morrison denied to me his mental health problems. Now, in his book, Plans for Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, he has described a “debilitating and agonising” battle with mental health so severe he was medicated.
Although such issues are now far less demonised and better understood, his former political colleagues believe if his mental health battle had been made public it would have been so politically damaging he would have been convinced to stand down, or there would have been a challenge.
They say Josh Frydenberg would have become PM, and given how tight the election was in 2022, would have “walked it in”.
Here’s the dilemma: mental health problems are, rightly, private.
Morrison now says at times he dreaded the future, struggled to get out of bed, and was wracked by “debilitating and agonising” anxiety.
Has the country got a right to know that? And if a leader is so afflicted, can they be expected to self-report and step down? What are the options?
Morrison was at least twice offered the opportunity to tell the Australian people about his debilitating anxiety and decided against it.
After my tip, on 27 October 2021, in a regular radio interview I delicately raised the topic, asking how he personally handled the stress, including the pandemic:
Morrison: “My faith and my family, that’s what sustains me.
“As you know Pat McGorry (prominent psychiatrist), a great Victorian, a great Australian, has been a constant source of counsel and advice to me over the course of these last two years particularly, and I’m very proud of the work we’ve done in mental health in the pandemic.”
Mitchell: “But what do you do for your own mental health if you get stressed, if you get down?”
Morrison: “Oh, I exercise, that’s the main one that I try to do. And spend as much time as I can with family and friends that doesn’t involve talking politics.”
With the leak I had, this was unconvincing. So, on 11 November 2021, I arranged a private telephone call with Morrison where I told him what information I had.
I suggested if it were true we should discuss it on air and handle it “sensitively”. I asked for confirmation but got none.
He was wary, and defensive, but made the reasonable point that mental health was a person’s private business.
Without his confirmation, I decided against broadcasting what I suspected. I was uncomfortable because I sensed, without proof, that my information was correct and what has now been made public was the reality.
Was that in Australia’s interests? Do voters have a right to know the mental and physical health of their prime minister? Can we expect a person in such a situation to make a decision on their own ability to function?
Or does Australia need a mechanism that sidesteps self reporting and requires the mental and physical health of political leaders to be independently and regularly medically assessed.
People living with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease are required to take annual checks if they wish to drive a car. Many major companies have annual medical reviews for senior staff.
It is not unusual for doctors to advise patients who hold senior positions to stand down because of their illness.
Was this ever suggested to Scott Morrison? Did he ever consider it?
Morrison is overseas and declined an interview. I told him I planned to report our private conversation. He said he remembered it. Then this: “The key point is these things don’t need to hold you back. In the midst of all this I landed AUKUS. Dealing with the crises was not the issue, the issue was the combination of exhaustion and personal/political media attacks.”
He later posted on Facebook that his aim was to “normalise and destigmatise” something many Australians face.
Fair enough, leaders are human too. The question is whether he owed it to the public and the party to be open with them.
Given it was leaked to me, some in Canberra knew what was going on and were concerned. Former colleagues contacted on Friday were surprised by his revelations, which indicates he hid it well.
But they said it would have created pressure for Morrison to stand down or face a challenge because any talk of mental health issues would spook already alienated voters.
Warren Entsch, the Liberal National member for Leichhardt, thought at the time Morrison should step aside for Frydenberg.
“I didn’t know about this,” Entsch said on Friday. “But it does join a few dots.
“It’s sad he was not comfortable enough to share it. I feel for him.
“If I had known, I would have quietly suggested to him that he step down for his own sake, for the sake of his wife and children, and for the sake of the country.”
John Alexander, the former Liberal member for Bennelong, believes Frydenberg teamed with new Nationals leader David Littleproud would have “walked in” another term. A Morrison critic, he too was unaware of the mental health battles.
“It would certainly have been relevant to the party room,” he said. “To be fit for the job you have to be in good mental and physical and emotional health. It’s fundamental.”
Some questioned whether health was part of the reason for Morrison’s bizarre decision to swear himself in secretly to various portfolios.
Between March 2020 and May 2021, he was sworn in as minister for the portfolios of health, science, finance and treasury. Did that have anything to do with his state of mind?
Scott Morrison is not the first leader to suffer mental health problems in office: think Winston Churchill. He won’t be the last.
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But now he’s raised it, and given some of the inexplicable decisions, it is reasonable to ask what can be done to manage this when it happens.
Mental health can be treated. People with crippling anxiety are not dangerous lunatics. We have grown out of all that.
But at times Morrison says his problems risked shutting him down “mentally and physically”.
A police officer in that state would probably not be allowed to sign out his weapon to start duty.
Should a prime minister that unwell be running the country?
Crisis support is available from Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Neil Mitchell broadcasts on 3AW and hosts the weekly podcast “Neil Mitchell asks why?”
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