Politics

‘It’s hard’: Scott Morrison’s wife reveals toll his job has on their daughters

May 11, 2019

Scott Morrison replaced Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister just nine months ago. Source: Getty.

Scott Morrison replaced Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister back in August following a second leadership spill, moving his wife and two young daughters into Kirribilli House. But now the PM’s wife Jenny Morrison has revealed their children find the attention that comes with their father’s job “hard”.

Speaking in an interview with Nine News ahead of next weekend’s federal election, the mother-of-two said their daughters Abbey, 11 and Lily, nine, turn the volume down on the radio whenever they hear negative adverts or comments about their dad.

“It’s hard for them to deal with a whole lot of cameras in their faces,” she told the news outlet on Friday.

The registered nurse added: “Commercials are everywhere at the moment. We’re hearing them on the radio as we go to school and we’re hearing them on the news when the kids are … doing their homework and the news is on in the background.

“It comes on and I say ‘Well we know dad, we know what dad’s like and we love dad, so take no notice of those things’. Sometimes the children will just turn down the radio when a bad commercial is on, they’ll just turn it down.”

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Jenny, 51, also revealed that if her husband is successfully elected on May 18, she will use her platform as the prime minister’s wife to advocate for causes close to her heart, including infertility and multiple sclerosis.

Mrs Morrison’s brother lives with MS and she struggled with infertility herself, undergoing 10 rounds of IVF, before the couple welcomed two daughters, the eldest of whom was born when Jenny was 39-years old.

“I suffered from it for a long period of time and it’d be nice to be able to help people…because I understand it and I get it and it’s hard,” she said.

Last month, Morrison delivered an emotional speech as he announced a $527 million royal commission into the disability sector, after gaining the necessary support and approvals from the Governor-General and individual states and territories.

The prime minister teared up as he spoke about his brother-in-law, Jenny’s brother Gary Warren.

“As my brother-in-law Gary also said to me, ‘It is not flash being disabled but the good thing is that that’s the condition you live with in Australia and that you’re an Australian, that has always meant a lot to me,” he said in a press conference at the time.

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability will be based in Brisbane and run over the course of three years. Former Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville will lead the commission, supported by five commissioners