“It’s not a race.”
It’s one of the most infamous remarks of Scott Morrison’s prime ministership and has come to symbolise a hopelessly bungled vaccine rollout that was eventually rescued by state governments, while areas of Commonwealth responsibility such as disability and aged care saw vaccine crawl-outs that left the elderly and Australians with disability at serious risk.
Once Morrison realised the slogan was being used with deadly accuracy by Labor against him, he had to find a way to neutralise it. Outright denial (as he did with “Shanghai Sam”) was difficult — he’d said it over and over on camera. The PMO got to work, trying to find a way to explain it away, and came up with the explanation that when he said “it’s not a race” he hadn’t meant “it’s not a race”.
Pressed on the statement on breakfast television on July 29, Morrison claimed “when Professor [Brendan] Murphy and I made those remarks, we were talking about the regulation of the vaccines, Nat. I’m not sure if people are aware of that.”
Problem is, that was a lie. It’s true that when Murphy first used the phrase “not a race” he was talking about the approval process for each vaccine. Morrison aped Murphy and used the same phrase. Except, contrary to his claim to Natalie Barr, Morrison kept using it after the vaccines were approved and the stroll-out began.
This is Morrison on March 31:
We are already at over 650,000, I expect by next week we will be into the million, and each week the distribution and the vaccination dosage gets stronger and stronger and stronger. We’re on track for our first dose for everyone by the end of October. In particular, the states and territories are moving through their workforce, as is their part of the responsibility. We are working through the GPs as we move into 1B and the 6 million Australians that are part of that. And so, it’s not a race, it’s not a competition…
Except it was always a race, and hundreds of people dead from COVID might still be alive if the rollout had gone to schedule.
The coming ’22 Election, like the sword of Damocles, is the only race that matters for Morrison. Lies and exposure coupled to rejection of accountability, transparency now self evident to all.
There can be no going back. Should Labor triumph, every Australian deluged with the evidence?
i’m wondering when the election date will be, Morrison seems to be getting into high gear campaigning mode recently – he won’t be able to keep that going for 5 months, or 7 months.
Any momentum he’s hoping to get from this mad flurry of announcements, will surely get dissipated over the xmas break, summer holidays etc.
Also, the longer he waits, the greater the chance of natural disasters (bushfire season) and an uptick in Covid from the opening up of borders etc.
Could he squeeze in an election before Xmas? or is that a bad strategic move?
It’s now legally too late for an election this year. The pundits are predicting an April budget and a May election, exactly the same scenario as 2019. Only problem this time will be it won’t be “Back in Black”.
what’s the time frame between announcing an election, and holding it? is it 33 days?
Like your train of thought Glenn. There exists high possibility, uncertainties. This LNP Govt’s propensity to dispense public monies discreetly sans Public Service procedural safe-guards to and for trusted individuals, corporates, a given. So date of Election and concerns regarding allocation of monies to bulk up support a real possibility? Should polls identify swings to Labor-Greens; Treasury funds re-prioritised, depleted?
The one truth about PM. He has an uncanny gift to posit believability’s?
Well done Bernard, you have summed up Morrison and his ‘it is not a race’ perfectly. Most importantly including all those who died but should not have.
However., just like Trump these COVID19 deaths are more an inconvenience to Morrison than a source of regret or mourning..
“Scammo” Morrison.