The impressive thing was, he did it with aplomb, it was a $hitty gig but he did it well.
The media, tried unsuccessfully to nail him to the wall over it, but couldn't. That took some skill.
Yes I think Abbott had a lot of faith in Morrisson and was disappointed, but the media had made Abbott's position untenable, Morrisson did the only thing he could which was to back the change.
Hopefully Abbott realises, his job was shot and nothing could rescue it, the media are still obsessed with him. He will never get back in, and should realise his strengh's are needed in a cabinet.
Look they did turn things around, no pun intended but I don't believe it's been as successful as the general public believe, what they excelled at was stopping the media reporting on boats. I say this as someone who recently had a mate return from border force operations, he said enough to indicate the boats haven't stopped but it's all very hush hush, of course we wouldn't want the people smugglers working out out technique