There’s a feral-ness in the air. The 46th Parliament has just three sitting days left, after a bruising, gruelling fortnight ends pretty much where it started — with the Morrison government looking desperate, shambolic and divided.
Unlike last week, which at least brought policy debate on actual legislation, the past four days saw a tired, grumpy government throwing handfuls of dirt at Labor and seeing what might stick.
The lines of attack were based on things that happened during the Rudd-Gillard years, on long-ditched Shorten-era policies, or on pure McCarthyist fantasy, rather than on anything substantive the opposition leader is actually proposing to do if elected in May.
According to the government’s post-truth narrative, Labor is having its strings pulled by both Adam Bandt and Beijing, will tax you into poverty, and is going to let violent foreign criminals roam freely through the country.
In reality, Labor has repeatedly ruled out a coalition with the Greens, has the same substantive policies as the government on China, has ditched many of Bill Shorten’s most ambitious tax reforms, and has consistently offered the government in-principle support for a bill that would make it easier to deport non-citizens convicted of a crime, waving it through the Lower House this week.
The government’s attacks on China were most egregious. Scott Morrison called Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles a “Manchurian Candidate”. The opposition was accused of “appeasement”, of being the CCP’s preferred party. It was too toxic even for security agencies and the press gallery — both of which have done their fair share of spurious red-baiting on China. The spy chiefs called it out as unhelpful, and journalists did the same before scurrying off to file hit-pieces about Anthony Albanese (shock horror) speaking Mandarin.
But amid all that feral-ness and dirt-slinging was a notable omission from the “debate” (if it can be called that). Aside from euphemistic Dixers about “Australia’s strong recovery”, the government really did not want to talk about COVID and the pandemic.
Maybe that’s unsurprising given the Omicron summer. But with the wave receding, and given Australia’s vaccination rate and COVID fatalities remain the envy of much of the world, the pandemic — usually such a boost for incumbents — should be an electoral asset for the Coalition.
That it currently isn’t speaks to how much the government has managed to erode public trust in its ability to do things competently, and to how many in the community believe Australia’s COVID success is in spite of Morrison’s leadership, not because of it.
Where we did hear about COVID was in the bowels of Senate estimates. We heard that since the start of 2022, nearly 700 aged care residents have died of COVID. We heard that despite Morrison’s belated promise to send the troops into nursing homes this month, just 100 of the promised 1700 personnel had been deployed. We also heard Richard Colbeck, the Aged Care Minister who skipped a COVID inquiry to go to the cricket, wouldn’t be resigning.
It was telling that Labor repeatedly returned to the crisis in aged care in question time over the past fortnight. Blessedly, most Australians don’t watch estimates or question time. But they do worry about their elderly loved ones in nursing homes, whether they’re being properly looked after, and whether they’ll survive a pandemic the government wants neatly wrapped up just in time for May.
It’s a sign that far from the Hill, people are perhaps worried about more immediate things than hypothetical foreign invaders or whether we should be a bit crueller to transgender kids.
The election will be won and lost on “vibes” about the pandemic. It’s why, with Omicron too close in the rearview window, and another bad summer likely to linger in the public memory, the government is pivoting to reds under the bed. It’s why Labor focuses on crisis points like aged care, but avoids any critique that the government could use to disingenuously paint them as the party of permanent restrictions.
It’s why the chaotic, “final days of Rome” vibe currently emanating from Parliament and the Coalition doesn’t mean all that much. It’s the vibe in May, and the shit that stinks then, that matters.
Article on the Guardian Australia about former head of ASIO, Dennis Richardson, ripping Senator James Paterson a new one.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/18/former-asio-boss-accuses-liberal-senator-of-grubby-attack-over-huawei-comments
The sheer dishonesty of Paterson’s comments is quite gob-smacking and Richardson is clearly determined to set the record straight about his previous statements and the positions he’s held on topics such as Huawei.
And it also makes an old Canberran nostalgic for the days when senior public servants did provide frank and fearless advice rather than take a supine position to ministers with no regard for any opinions other than their own narrow partisan view.
Final days of Rome? How about the last few days of the Reich that was to last a thousand years.They are born to rule, after all.
I think it will be a tight election but the government slinging dirt around is a desperate attempt to score some points, the point of reds under the bed is long gone by most people, maybe if they stopped thinking about what’s in it for them and worked for the good of the country and the people then we may get some sort of good government but I wont hold my hopes up on that. I have heard that some have said the young are so self centered, one just has to look at our governments to see were they get it from.
He’s done so much damage to this country. If ever there was an excuse for atheism it is he❗️
Time to actually correct some of the false bits of information being supplied by the purveyors of what they want you to know.
From the 27 of December 2021 until the 13 of feburay 2022 there have been over 2,200 from Covid19 with a little over 700 in aged care.
Yes, that does mean that in the first 8 weeks of some epidemiologist’s experiment, more people have died in Australia in 8 weeks than died from Covid in the previous 12 months.
The deaths have been trivalized with throw away lines such “On the pathway to palliative care”, we begin this the day we are born.
If I was not so involved in living and working, I would put more effort into understanding this lemming like behaviour.
Where have all the infectious diseases specialists gone?
Why is no one explaining that “Epidemic” diseases do not become “Endemic” and the only way forward is to vaccinate the whole world quickly..
I would put more effort into finding out the name of this epidemiologist so that he can be as infamous as Anders Tengel, the epidemiologist who came up with “Herd Immunity by infection” in Sweden, flirted with by our mate Boris, until he got sick and the Netherlands until they found the death rate unacceptable..
I think we have a government (s) who have fallen under the same spell the Swedes did, at the beginning of the pandemic, with lethal results currently being under reported.
This is designed to give “FreeDumb” what they think they want, in order for the LNP to go to an election and the Labor premiers are giving this government.enough rope to hang themselves..
Love the “freedumb”, as an excellent description of what they are. The US is full of them.
The fault lies not with epidemiologists who I’ve seen saying these very things but with the LNP’s anti-science ethos. They distorted what the Doherty report said and when it was no longer needed as a means by which to achieve their goal of letting if rip they outright flushed it down the toilet. The Doherty Institute even wrote a letter warning that overseas evidence indicated there is no such thing as “freedom day”. Then we have oh gee, what a surprise the economy didn’t bounce back the same as when we had no covid despite economic research advising people stay at home to protect their health when covid is rife. It matters not what experts say, and not even those whose advice they paid for and presumably read (tho perhaps they didn’t). They are not imo under the sway of anything but their own agenda whatever it may be. Were their goal to support health and ironically the economy they would have read the research and acted on it – and implemented the Aged Care Royal Commission’s recommendations, vaccinated the disabled in Group A, not fomented protests and noncompliance with Health Orders (Dictator Dan et al) with You’re rights are being violated! He’s seeking unprecedented powers! (despite NSW has same without need to call state of emergency) etc, issued a visa to Katy Holmes so she could broadcast anti-vaxxing and anti-lockdown rhetoric to the country and sowed community division in the process. Agree they are seeking votes from anti-vaxxers etc, as is also evident in Morrison shoving responsibility for vaccine mandates on states etc etc but they have been doing this since the pandemic’s outset so either they were planning for the election back then or something else if going on as well. Whatever it is no number of scientists can address it imo.
Please consider paragraphs, or at least the occasional sentence indent.
will do!!