An Australian senator has issued Scott Morrison a blunt goodbye after the former prime minister announced his exit from parliament.
Mr Morrison called time on his political career on Wednesday, ending two years of speculation.
While his former Labor and Coalition colleagues issued tributes upon hearing the news, Greens senator McKim offered his brief thoughts on the member for Cook’s exit to ABC News Breakfast on Wednesday.
“He shouldn’t let the door hit him on the backside on the way out,” Senator McKim said.
Mr Morrison spoke to 2GB on Wednesday after revealing his post-politics ventures before leaving parliament at the end of February.
He is poised to work as vice-chair of a security firm headed by former Trump security adviser Robert O’Brien while also acting as a strategic adviser to assessment management firm DYNE, led by former CIA director Mike Pompeo.
“We’ll be staying here in The Shire,” Mr Morrison said.
“We can do these things overseas … and often when people leave jobs like this you take on some strategic advisory board roles. I’ve mentioned two of the ones I’ll be doing – I’ll be doing two others.”
Mr Morrison said he had a “good relationship” with embattled former US president Mr Trump while also defending his contentious decision to secretly appoint himself to multiple government ministries in 2020 and 2021.
“I took the decision to take some precautions which thankfully I never had to use … I understand how people felt about that later when it came out,” he said.
Anthony Albanese said he wished Mr Morrison well.
“I thank him for his service and I wish him and Jenny and his family all the very best,” the Prime Minister told reporters in Canberra.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham, who acted as finance minister under Mr Morrison’s leadership, came to his former boss’s defence, calling him a leader “who saw Australia through the most unprecedented time in my lifetime.”
“I think over time these things will be looked back on as being more and more significant with a more and more positive legacy attached to them,” he said.
Former Australian of the Year Grace Tame had some tough words for Mr Morrison following news of his resignation.
The 2021 Australian of the Year has been a fierce critic of the former leader, accusing him of bungling allegations of sexual assault and toxic workplace culture in federal parliament.
“Everyone’s favourite daggy demagogue is leaving politics. The mystic eagle painting must have told him it’s more profitable to posture in the corporatist hellscape of America,” Ms Tame said on social media.
“Good riddance to the climate-change-denying, coal-cuddling killer of culture, curries and common sense.”