With an election looming, the federal government has been giddily optimistic about Australia’s hot vax summer, spruiking success stories of families reunited over Christmas and relaxed restrictions among a highly vaccinated population.
But 2022 has not been sunshine and rainbows. Supply chain and staffing problems have caused shortages in supermarkets. Rapid antigen tests are near-impossible to come by. Thousands were turned away from PCR testing sites over Christmas. Across New South Wales, events are being postponed and cancelled. In Queensland, school starting dates have been delayed. Once again, Australians are confused about COVID-19 isolation rules and social restrictions.
It’s like 2020 all over again, only this time the shock of a new pandemic is no excuse. It seems the government has been so excited about pushing its narrative of success it forgot to plan for reality.
Boasting about boosters
The clusterfuck of the initial vaccine rollout was well-documented, so Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt were quick to congratulate themselves on their success in scoring booster doses, describing how well-prepared Australia would be for winter.
“[Australia is] one of the most highly vaccinated, one of the most recently vaccinated, one of the first to commence a whole-of-nation booster program after Israel, and with one of the lowest rates of loss of life,” Hunt said on November 30.
But even with reduced time frames for boosters, Omicron arrived faster than the rollout. Only 4.6 million Australians have had their third dose; the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine wanes to 35% protection against symptomatic disease at four to six months.
But by December the booster program was already behind, slowing dramatically across Christmas and the new year and threatening the government’s promise to have all aged care residents boosted by the end of the month.
Economy in crisis
On December 10 Morrison said what Australians need to focus on in 2022 was “optimistically, confidently … to secure our economic recovery”. In August, he said he remained “confident in the Australian economy because there is no issue with the Australian economy”, blaming restrictions for holding the country back.
And in his new year message he said Australia was “one of the strongest advanced economies in the world to come through COVID” with “more people in work, more apprentices in training, a secure credit rating and businesses investing in their future with confidence”.
But this blind optimism hides the facts. Omicron has choked Australia’s supply chains. We have more staff shortages now than during the peak of the Delta outbreak. Even before Omicron hit, employers were short 400,000 workers.
Since the pandemic, the labour force has barely grown. There are warnings the Reserve Bank needs to tighten monetary policy to address inflation faster than it is.
The economic catastrophe was totally predictable and avoidable — but the government was focused on protecting the economy in the short term rather than planning for the long term.
Impacts on education
On November 10 Morrison told students to “get excited, be positive, be optimistic”. Speaking to Year 11 and 12 students, he said that although the pandemic had robbed them of much of their high school experience, they’ll be “a resilient generation … unlike others, because of what they’ve had to get through”.
But once again, optimism was short-lived. Queensland pushed back school starting dates by two weeksand very public spats have emerged between COVID-19 experts calling for unvaccinated kids to be kept safe in schools.
“We’re not going to be beaten by it, we’re not going to get depressed about it,” Morrison said in the same speech, disregarding the impact COVID has had on young people’s mental health.
Preparedness would have been great
Optimistic messaging emerged even before we knew much about Omicron. Australia’s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said in late November his “number one Christmas present” would have been for a less virulent variant of the virus.
After two long years of restrictions, the Morrison government was quick to inject hope and optimism into its rhetoric. But what the government didn’t do was to plan for the worst. Anyone with two eyes could see opening borders and easing restrictions across Christmas when festivals and family get-togethers are on steroids would cause a huge surge in cases especially as a more transmissible variant emerged.
Optimism as a tactic could have worked if it was supported by planning — bolstering the PCR testing workforce, getting RAT supplies, sorting out boosters in aged care homes, the list goes on — behind the scenes. As it is, we just got the optimism.
“As it is, we just got the optimism.” Exactly. I loathe optimism. With a bit of effort just about every disaster inflicted on humanity by its leaders can be ascribed to optimism.
Simon Birmingham was just terrible on ABC RN Breakfast this morning. He never gave a straight answer to any of the questions. He kept insisting nobody could foresee this, nobody anticipated Omicron, it was fine to stick with the old modelling and the old plan for opening up as Omicron emerged and began to spread. (So perhaps I should not say he was terrible, he actually put on a very competent performance of lies, evasion and obfuscation.)
Of course new variants of covid were foreseen. Many months ago many voices, right across the political spectrum and in business too, were warning about the need to prepare for the possibility of such developments. This crap from ministers about not being able to foresee shows they are wholly unfit for office. It’s as ridiculous as saying nobody can foresee cyclones might appear during the summer. Sure, nobody can say well in advance exactly where a cyclone will be or how dangerous, but everybody knows damned well there will be cyclones.
I fell out of love with Sen. Wong a couple of years back after her loud assertions that Birmingham was a friend and someone with whom she could work.
“WHY?” would be my question.
Penny Wong? Didn’t she used to be somebody?
No.
She was only ever a dumb person’s idea of a worthwhile politician.
Wrong! I think she was an excellent politician once. She might still be but how would one know…
Cheap shot, what’s that got to do with anything apart from deflection from LNP incompetence?
A gay woman in a long term, committed relationship with all the trappings, designer child & dog who consistently argued against Labor MPs being allowed a conscience vote on SSM is someone whose ethics & principles are questionable.
As Groucho put it, “these are my principles and, if you don’t like them, I have others available.”
This should not be about Penny Wong or her lifestyle. It is about Birminghams lies and Morrisons totally imcompetent government ., This is just mote Liberal BS deflection
It’s about her ethos – factional politics over ethics, being able to countenance pond weed like Birmingham, happy to do deals no matter how dirty, even when in conflict with her beliefs, purely for power.
Whitlam opined that “only the impotent are pure” but I doubt that he foresaw the likes of Wotevs Richo.
And hope that he would not have micturated on him even were he ablaze.
Thanks, Drew that was needed to be said.
Well, we can’t have people working together can we?
Two points – the govt only had to watch the SBS news every night since November to see how Omicron played havoc with the economy.
Also, imagine if this had been a bushfire summer like 2019. People crammed into evacuation centres, supply line failures, firefighters off sick with Covid. It would have been totally beyond the competence of this government to manage it. Probably would have handed over to the ADF and gone to ground at Kirribilli.
That is Smirko’s SOB isn’t it?
That is a dead set certainty, not this year perhaps – at least on the east coast, praise be to La Niña – but the plague has no plans to leave and climate change guarantees that her nasty brother El Niño will revisit, sooner rather than later.
It would be hapening now in WA were it not for McGowan’s fortitude in ignoring Scummo’s bleatings and so having almost no plague.
“Nobody could see this?”. Perhaps nobody in the Federal Government could foresee this. But I could foresee this, and many others in the community could foresee this too. The most obvious conclusion you can draw is the entire Federal Cabinet are totally useless at their job, and the community suffers as a result.
Blind Freddy could see this happening. Perhaps if Morrison pulled his head out of his arse he might see it.
Yes, Yes, you got it. But will the rest of the mental midgets gt it right in May at election time???
Birmingham only ever glibly parrots the party line. Your comments dead right
He’s one of the most vacuous Libs ever, and that is saying something.
That is why he is the Govt ‘go to guy’- he can speak without actually saying anything and just keeps saying it; he usually does not stuff up, just puts people to sleep, so I guess mission accomplished.
Good word, glib. Birmingham makes it sound effortless. I’m reminded of the highest praise such characters could be given by their party colleagues in Orwell’s 1984 : a double plus good duck speaker
I quite like watching Simon Birmingham perform his routine.
He always has his talking points down pat and never ever deviates from them!
That means that for the rest of the day or week, we know what the government is going to say, reliably.
I’m with you on optimism. It’s inherently fake, because it simply can’t be learnt or derived from experience. What Birmingham and every other member of the ‘government’ failed to pay attention to is the precautionary principle. You’d think the virus’s already having mutated significantly three times – each more deadly than the previous in some way – would have elevated the precautionary principle, and the whole question of risk calculation versus cost, to the forefront of our leaders’ thoughts. It’s not as if there weren’t, as you say, many voices warning Morrison and his troupe of scoundrels. But was it the optimism which really took hold – as opposed merely to being spouted for propaganda purposes – or just plain LNP arrogance shot through with sheer, abject laziness? Morrison’s belief in miracles, maybe?
Extremely well put Sinking Ship Rat.
From what you say this is the perfect example of the drones following the moral compass of the leader Morrison has made being a serial liar a moral virtue of cleverness rather than what it really is a sure pointer of moral bankruptcy.
Morrison doesn’t plan for the well-being of the country, he plans for his own political needs. He looks at the odds of turning things in his favour before the next rapidly approaching election, and if he thinks it’s worth a shot, regardless of the price we the people might pay, he goes for it.
With his election dates options now down to March or May, his strategies for a quick turnaround of fortunes are limited, and risky. He is not concerned with the risk to us, mind you…we are totally expendable. it’s the risk of his political career that is his only worry.
So Plan A was ” let ‘er rip”, with the hope that if the vaccines did their job really well and omicron was mild and no biggie, most people would have a classic Aussie summer, he could declare Covid over, freedom reigns etc, and now we can have an election in March, relying on the goldfish memories of some voters to forget all that has gone before.
Clearly that has not panned out. Collateral death and economic chaos have ensued, but these are annoyances compared to the main tragedy in all of this… and that is, that it’s made it harder for Scomo to win, and now he’s down to the last roll of the dice… plan B… omicron cuts a nasty but rapid swathe of destruction in a giant wave that vanishes as quickly as it came, and people are made to forget what happened, in the time between Feb and the furthest election date poss, in May. Surely with the combined forces of the Murdoch and Mates propaganda arm, and some heavy spending from Clive Palmer, they can make enough fickle aussie voters forget?!?
I wish I knew the answer to that one.
If there is a second wave between Feb and May, then even that slim hope disappears and it will truly be game over for this sh*thouse pm and his heinous ministry.
Excellent analysis. It must be because I have been thinking exactly the same thing. He’s hoping the Omicron wave will wash over with minimal casualties and we’ll all forget the shots how of the last two years. Another variant and I reckon he’ll be cooked.
The death rate and hospitalization rate for NSW is already far higher than it was for the Delta dawn wave.
More people sick, the more people remember.
No, the rates are way down. The absolute numbers are a little higher.
Yes Wade the death rates are down BUT the sheer number of cases (now remember, not to focus on cases – a joke right? means even a lower rate of hospital and ICU cases translates into a greater number of COVID19 patients in those areas and a bigger load on the health system.
Correct. (Except the comment about case numbers, because we’re now discussing hospitalisation and death numbers, which is what the government said we should shift to.)
Hmmm….I’m not sure-
You describe “plans”. I am uncertain that this government has any plans- just thought bubbles and knee jerk reactions. Our Prime Minister’s main strategy is “blame someone/ something else” .
I think you can be certain it has no real plans.
“… the furthest election date poss, in May.”
There are various curious features of our constitutional arrangements that do not appear to be in the national interest, and one of them is that the worst governments are given every incentive to cling on for as long as possible before calling an election. We’ll only get a full three years of this government because it so bloody bad.
I can think of three capable PMs prematurely shafted during their recent reign. But not SM. All of them would surely have been far more adept. Noone wants a pandemic poisoned chalice though. Proof that it was never, ever about the good of the electorate, just a selfish jostle for power.
Capable?
The Rodent, the Abbottrocity & Scummo were certainly capable – of doing great harm, and did so, with even greater glee.
Antony Green (ABC) says on his blog:
There is a highly improbable option for a half-Senate election by 21 May 2022 and a separate House election as late as 3 September 2022
I suspect that’s what will happen.
Scotty has a few more months at the top and more time to stack boards with staffers, and more time for miracles
Well put. Why you read ‘Daggy dad” like an open book – not hard I suppose when all the pages are blank or rinse, cut and paste.
I would like the GG to do a “Dismissal” on ScoMo before the entire country goes down the gurgler!! (won’t happen, unfortunately…)
GG is one of them.
They do not “forget” to PLAN AHEAD. It is just not in their genes OR did they have hold of something else in their other jeans other than the eternal management principle – even while giving media interviews which seems credible given the self satisfied facial expressions. The one-trick ponies have forgotten even the basics of First Year advertising chicanery. The ever elevating optimism in the face enveloping crisis or cogent criticism is the hallmark of party political hacks promoted above their competency level (with appologes to Lawrence J Peter).
When Scotty said he doesn’t “hold a hose” he wasn’t kidding at a practical or managerial level but defining a personal principle.
And their role in the roll-out of this dropped watermelon of a health debacle, of state governments like the NSW?
Inoculated way back with the let-‘er-rip Ruby Princess strain
And a follow-up Delta Dawn booster last year.