Disgraced former PM Morrison denies he is Angela the Sun Bear.

Disgraced former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has denied allegations that he is dressed as a sun bear at a Chinese zoo, describing them as “disproportionate, wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear evidence”.

In a fierce speech from the Sun Bear enclosure of Hangzhou Zoo in China, the former prime minister doubled down on his previous criticisms, saying three of the key allegations against him – that he had dressed up as a Chinese Sun Bear, repeatedly pretended to a large number of innocent zoo visitors including many distressed children that he was a Chinese Sun Bear and that he had ruined a rented Sun Bear suit by stretching it around the tummy regions until it was undeniably baggy, were wrong.

Waving to visitors while dressed in a large, ill-fitting bear suit, Mr Morrison said, “I have played no role and take no responsibility for any so-called Sun Bear scheme. I do completely reject each of the allegations against me as unfounded and wrong.”

Hangzhou Zoo in China has been forced to confirm that its four-year-old sun bear "Angela" is a real bear after photos and video footage surfaced of Mister Morrison eating a chicken curry dressed in a bear costume while in the zoo’s Sun Bear enclosure.

Sun Bears do not normally grow much larger than a well-fed Labrador, but the current occupant of Hangzhou Zoo’s Sun Bear exhibit stands nearly six feet tall and is frequently seen waving to zoo visitors and saying “Hello” in a thick Australian accent which is somewhat muffled by coming from within a rented bear suit.

A 12-second video clip shows ‘Angela the sun bear’ standing on its hind legs again and removing it’s ‘head’ to spoon a few more mouthfuls of chicken curry into a human-looking face which many observers have compared to the former Australian Prime Minister.

Mister Morrison, who has struggled to transition to a new career since losing the 2022 Federal election, denied he was seeking employment outside Australia, or indeed outside of Parliament. Morrison has reportedly missed out on a number of high-level jobs since being criticised by the Robodebt Royal Commission for allowing Cabinet to be misled, providing untrue evidence to the commission and pressuring departmental officials over the failed and illegal debt racket. The defeated prime minister insisted he remained happy and proud to represent the voters of his home Shire in the electorate of Cook, as he pulled a large, rented Sun Bear mask over his head and accused the Albanese government of conducting a “campaign of political lynching” against him. He went on to play the ukulele for a group of visiting Chinese schoolchildren.

Angela the Sun Bear expressed “deep regret” for Robodebt’s unintended consequences but pointed out that as a real sun bear from the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, he could not be held responsible for anything. The bear then peddled in tiny circles on a novelty tricycle while explaining that the Robodebt policy was developed and prepared for consideration by cabinet as a whole, and that while an early executive minute had suggested legal changes would be needed, subsequent submissions had not raised a legal problem about the scheme. Angela stopped peddling long enough to remind onlookers that as a small bear, standing only 28 inches at the shoulder, it was nothing to do with him.

The damning footage emerged as a panel of zoological experts from Sky News said that the fully grown Australian man in the viral footage was definitely a real sun bear. Sky’s senior sun bear correspondent Sharri Markson did concede, however, that sun bears do often "look a lot like people from the Shire in bear costumes".

Markson explained that the visible zipper running down the bear’s back was a well-known anatomical feature of the sun bear.