It’s the first day back at school for our politicians and despite the shadow of the pandemic hanging over parliament, there will still be room for the usual playground antics.
No, not even COVID-19 can stop the scandals and Muppet Show theatrics of our current cabinet.
We’ve already had an early taste, with Peter Dutton attacking Western Australia’s lockdown only to have the PM contradict him within hours.
With the polls still close and the Canberra press gallery still seizing on them, we’re also set for an interminable year of early election speculation.
The government will continue with disingenuous denials, the opposition will continue scrambling to be on war footing, and the media will continue to see everything through the prism of what it means for the polls.
The first Newspoll of the year on Monday — with the two parties tied on 50-50 despite Morrison’s strong edge as preferred PM — was a stark reminder that the government’s seemingly unassailable electoral position is based on a one-seat majority.
Federal Liberal sources are already sounding concerns about the numbers they are seeing in Queensland, where the strong performance in 2019 was key to their upset win and will be difficult to maintain. Hence the recent flurry of photo ops of the PM in Queensland.
ALP leadership speculation is shaping up as another focus, although it’s unlikely to amount to much right now. Bill Shorten’s recent pot-shot about Labor’s “tiny” policy agenda already looks dated given the government’s virtually non-existent one.
The PM has actually been upfront about that, announcing that the priority is COVID. The tone was set yesterday, with the prime minister’s National Press Club speech. It was a classic Scotty From Marketing exercise: lots of spin without much substance.
His comments that he wanted to get Australia to net-zero emissions “preferably by 2050” were hailed by some as “his strongest formulation to date”. But that’s not saying much given he is coming off a very low, barely discernible base.
Elsewhere it was more of the mealy-mouthed responses we have seen from the PM of late. On Craig Kelly’s dangerous COVID misinformation, Morrison smart-arsed that “he is not my doctor and he’s not yours”. That stood in stark contrast to the earnest statesmanlike image he wants to project for the upcoming COVID election — one which will be all about the jabs.
How the government handles the vaccine rollout is the big unknown this year. But they will be buoyed by the Essential poll in The Guardian this morning showing two thirds of Australians have faith that the vaccine will be rolled out efficiently and safely.
Of course, the pressure will be on to live up to that confidence and any errors will be judged harshly.
The other big unknown outside the government’s control is the shaky global economy. Our fortress mentality on COVID might not be enough to weather the inevitable downturn no matter how well our economy is performing at the moment. Much will depend on the fallout when JobKeeper is finally totally withdrawn in March.
All the government can hope is that we continue to look better than the rest of the world. It could well be the 2021 election slogan.
Interesting to see that Kelly is being thrown to the wolves as his backer in Morrison distances himself from this fool.
He has no hope at pre selection as his support base is dwindling.
I read in Daily Mail that Dutton ( on SKY ) where else? is lambasting McGowan in W.A on the Covid outbreak there, this fool ought to hide in a dark room so he us not seen nor heard.. Ruby Princess comes to mind and the abject failure of Duttons Military in enforcing that disaster.
Dutton is no more than a sad excuse for a individual.
Also read where some one from L/NP in N.S.W was trying to preach to McGowan, this from a State where I.C.A.C has taken up permanent.residence in there Parliament House.
The maze of tendrils if Adolf Kipfler was locked in a dark place!!
No friend of Dutton but here in the West I think the premier was suffering from ADD. He’s seen his colleagues lining up day in day out delivering banalities with Churchillian gravitas and he wants a bit of that action especially as he wants to crush the LNP a 2nd time. So, 1 case and we cause a major disruption, no warning and no justification given beyond the usual motherhood statements about keeping us safe. Businesses that are already on the verge of collapse take another hit to boost electoral fortunes and egos. WA would have no problem managing a 10 fold increase in the number of infections, that would … er … 10 and if we can’t handle that what what are we paying these people for?
Well, a hotel quarantine worker testing positive with the UK strain and a list of dozens of places he visited is hardly “A disruption with no basis”.
So far no community spread!
Do you really think doing what he did plays into his hands Pat?
Me personally I believe it would have the reverse psychological effect as no one wants to be locked up at home ( as seen in Victoria) after the second wave.
I believe you guys had a great run at avoiding it over the duration and it was a proof positive at how border closures stopped the spread there.
March is your State Election, idiots like Dutton, Sky and Muckracke Murdoch will throw everything at McGowan.
None of the halfwits who work for or employed by Muckraker will be with him as the combined lot would not have enough intestinal fortitude to go against Muckrackers views.
“Me personally I believe it would have the reverse psychological effect as no one wants to be locked up at home ( as seen in Victoria) after the second wave.”
Have you checked the opinion polls. In a climate of fear it’s offing safe harbour is a self-fulfilling prophecy,
… Morrison smart-arsed that “he is not my doctor and he’s not yours”. Good call – it was a smart-arse comment.
But they will be buoyed by the Essential poll in The Guardian this morning showing two thirds of Australians have faith that the vaccine will be rolled out efficiently and safely. I have confidence that the vaccine roll-out will be efficient but my opinion is quite unrelated to the federal government. It is an expression of confidence in my GP and others like her who roll out flu vaccines every year and made sure I had the shingles shot as soon as it became available.
Once Morrison starts to tell us we should all go get covid jabbed, the appropriate response is to tell him ‘you’re not my doctor’.
That’s not to encourage anyone to not get jabbed – just don’t do it because the PM says so.
I would not take advice from Morrison, would be akin to asking Dracula how to get to blood bank..either way it would end in disaster
Clarification: Morrison is not a doctor, he’s a snake oil merchant. In fact, quite an effective one.
Couldn’t agree more. I won’t pick the one he recommends either. I’ll do it when I think the thing is SAFE. His recommendation wouldn’t make it safe.
Scotty from Marketing
Again – all fart and no follow through!
Bazza
Where do the Feds and the NSW government get off telling other states what their Covid response should be? Barilaro, don’t go for elimination, putter along like us fools here, oh, by the way we closed the border to Victoria when things were bad there, and Barilaro himself told people from Sydney they weren’t welcome in the regions early in the piece. Full of bravado but barely a brain between the lot of ‘em.
Barilaro, of all the humanoid political throw-backs?