Remember the National COVID-19 Commission? Scott Morrison’s hand-picked group of business leaders who were supposed to help guide us through the pandemic, but disappeared from view after talking up a gas-led recovery?
Australia’s response to the pandemic has had plenty of success stories. But there are several of people, bodies or solutions dragged by the Morrison government into the spotlight, framed as central to our pandemic response, only to either spectacularly under-deliver, or quietly exit the stage.
The COVID Commission
Scott Morrison quietly dissolved the National COVID-19 Commission in May, declaring the “emergency” part of the pandemic was over, in a statement that aged like Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
So what exactly was the point of the commission? Led by former Fortescue CEO Neville “Nev” Power, Morrison told reporters in March last year, its job was “quite simply, to solve problems”.
“Problems that require the private sector working together with the private sector, CEOs, to talk to CEOs and to be engaged with by CEOs to ensure that the private to private effort is there solving problems in the national interest and it’s being mobilised,” he said.
The body was stacked from the outset with industry titans. Those who weren’t, like ex-Labor minister Greg Combet, quickly left. The commission’s one real contribution was to lay the groundwork for the Coalition’s gas-led recovery. By the time it left the picture, its members had pocketed thousands in fees.
But the more frustrating story is about what the commission didn’t do. In theory, bringing together industry leaders and bureaucrats isn’t a bad idea. It could’ve played a key role working out how to effectively involve businesses in the vaccine rollout, or incentivise people to get jabbed.
Anyone with any kind of foresight could’ve predicted workplace vaccine mandates might become one of the thorniest industrial relations issues in years. A body with business figures, ex-union leaders and bureaucrats might’ve been useful there.
We’ll also never know how useful the commission was, because its work was deemed cabinet in confidence. But we did get Power telling us the vaccine rollout was “a massive logistical exercise”. Insights clearly worth $267,345.
The COVIDsafe App
It wasn’t that long ago that some journalists told us it was our patriotic duty to download the COVIDsafe app, and that only “Twitter cranks and contrarians” had failed to do so. Scott Morrison compared it to sunscreen but for COVID.
Instead, the app is one of the government’s great pandemic failures, an $8 million white elephant. Less than half the country ever downloaded it. A report into the app found it only helped identify 779 cases, and was rarely a tool in the contact tracing arsenal. It’s been since usurped by the humble QR code, and each state’s individual contact tracing app.
Commodore Eric Young
Where is the commodore? The career navy man entered the picture in April, alongside Health Minister Greg Hunt, as operations co-ordinator of the Vaccine Operations Centre, with the goal to reset the vaccine rollout.
Young has all but disappeared from view since Lieutenant General JJ Frewen was brought in to run the COVID Vaccine Task Force (aka “Operation COVID Shield”).
After Frewen’s appointment, Morrison said Young would “continue to have a senior leadership role in the Commonwealth Vaccine Operations Centre”. But Young’s COVID secondment ended at the end of financial year, and he’s returned to the navy full time.
Perhaps Young’s greatest achievement was symbolic. Drafted in days after Morrison said national cabinet was on a “war footing” to fix the vaccine rollout, his appointment helped accelerate the full-blown khakification of Australia’s pandemic response.
Management consultants
The pandemic has been a bonanza for big management consultants, who’ve made millions providing “advice” to the government nobody will ever actually see, and which seems to have seriously failed to deliver so far.
Take McKinsey, which has raked in over $10 million in pandemic related contracts, many involving the vaccine rollout. One one contract, the firm apparently didn’t provide “specific advice” to the government, and couldn’t produce anything beyond an eight-page report. Last year, McKinsey consultants also convinced the government and Health to go slow on signing contracts with prospective vaccine developers last year.
Then there’s Accenture, which got $8 million to track the vaccine rollout, and produced… an infographic.
Maybe, If all major consulting firms (EY, KPMG Accenture etc) were banned from the ACT for ever and we reconstituted the APS with non-contracted Secretaries, DepSec’s and so on., we may get Governments receiving ‘frank and fearless’ advice, rather than the paid-for drivel from the Big 4 supporting the PM’s thought bubbles…
Gerb – Can’t agree more. You have hit the nail on the head. We no longer see great Australians like Nugget Coombs who served seven Prime Ministers over 30 years with frank and fearless advice. Today they are Party stooges pushing the party line with limited future beyond the next election.
Sadly a lot of the time they’re merely speaking to the next news cycle.
Constant news cycle, social media, algorithms and click bait are really messing with our democracy.
Billionaire technocrats are having an impact as well.
A program on ABC RN today had the guest recalling how Alexander Downer got rid of the best talent out of DFAT and anywhere else; before after and during his bugging for Woodside (got a board position with them as payment), along with his signing off on every shipment of wheat to Hussein and paying Hussein $300m to buy his farmers wheat.
Don’t forget the Big Pharma to whom Morri$sinner is prostrated
Morri$sin’s plan to let it rip by a certain date regardless of safe vaccination rates pales into insignificance in light of his refusal to allow others, apart from his own constituents, access to vaccines. Morri$sinner is playing god as well as doing god’s work as he told the nation, infallible like the pope, a direct line to his brand of god and this has resulted in the god of mammon to whom he prostrates himself happily allowing others to be denied vaccines to appease his donors and bagmen, Big Pharma
As Australia attempts to secure more Covid-19 vaccines, it is siding with major pharmaceutical companies in frustrating global efforts to introduce an intellectual property waiver that would allow generic manufacture. By Lyndal Rowlands.
Even the US has decided it is preferable to allow generic manufacture of covid vaccines rather than risk global societal destabilization. But not Scum Morri$sinner, he’s the hold out.
“The proposal for a temporary waiver on intellectual property rights – originally put forward by India and South Africa in October last year – quickly garnered the support of two-thirds of World Trade Organization member states.
Under the waiver, third parties would be able to manufacture generic vaccines. Developing countries could purchase vaccines at a set price closer to the cost of production rather than the monopoly prices currently being charged..”
SA’s Steven Marshall has sided with Berejiklian and Morrison, saying he was committed to reopening at 70-80%.
SA the next to head for freedom with home quarantine this week starting for Vic and NSW backcomers, any who live in flats, apartments and units will be spreading the virus ASAP as occurred in Vic with your Berjiklian no speaka da English furniture removalists who did not observe public health measures. Great things ahead for SA, freedom to die, freedom to get long covid, freedom freedom freedom, hooray for the Coalition and their live with covid mantra.
Given that Morrison’s skills don’t travel beyond the ability of announcing something, it was hardly surprising that nothing concrete resulted from any of this. And given Morrison’s somewhat shady past, stretching all the way from preselection to car park rorts and beyond, that some of his supporters did extremely well out of these announcements is also depressingly predictable.
But we are to be assured he is doing dog’s work, errr god’s work, yeah that’s it.
Well where is Frewen now too? I’ve not seen him lately
Polishing his medals and awaiting a promotion
Now we have reached this stage of the global pandemic, the Scomo Government are proven to be mediocre at best…supported by the states – apparently, all going in different directions – none among them have the guts to mandate vaccines for ALL Australians, with only medical or exemptions for children and babies allowed. Methinks we will still be chasing shadows and putting out spot fires (in the form of periodic shut downs) well into 2022.
Forgotten all about ‘gas-led recovery’ which has been disappeared by media now too scared to remind the PM or any Minister?
You missed the bit about $600M for a new gas-fired power station in the Hunter, at a spot with no gas supply? Or the bit about “blue” hydrogen production for export, which is based on gas and releases more CO2 than just using the gas directly? The gas-led recovery is going gangbusters. Public money straight into corporate pockets.