quokka

There is at the moment one definition of the quokka in the Macquarie Dictionary, and that reads:

a small wallaby, Setonix brachyurus, found in considerable numbers on Rottnest and Bald Islands, off WA, and as small colonies in south-western mainland WA.

But we are about to have a second definition.

This started with Scott Morrison’s address to the Liberal Party of Australia Federal Council in 2021.  In thanking the premiers on the National Cabinet, he went out of his way to be effusive about the support of Steven Marshall.

And of course, Steven. If Steven was an animal , he'd be a quokka. The happiest animal in the world. There is no one cheerier that I have met in my entire political life than Steven Marshall. If you are having a bad day, ring Steven Marshall and you're going to feel great at the end of it. That's why South Australians trust Steven Marshall so much.

It is now 2022 and the new premier of South Australia has promised that he is not going to be Morrison’s quokka. If the Federal government does the right thing by South Australia he will congratulate them but if they do the wrong thing he will call it out.

The meaning implied here is that a quokka is a yes-man and in the Macquarie Thesaurus that puts quokka in the same set of words as sycophant, lackey, puppet, toady, arse-licker, brown-nose and stooge.

I do hope, for the sake of the quokka, that this is a passing thing.