There’s more than a whiff of panic from the government about its faltering vaccine rollout, with more spin, if not doses, being hastily rolled out. Today it’s the “war footing” and hastily organised bi-weekly meetings of the secretive “National Cabinet”, presumably in order to try to share the blame with the states.
That comes after vaccinations on Monday fell to just 56,000, a figure hailed by Health Minister Greg Hunt as not a “significant drop”, a peculiar interpretation given the rollout reached 75,000 last week, but anyway.
More noteworthy was another statement by Hunt. The government will no longer even commit to reopening international borders once the full vaccination rollout is complete.
“Vaccination alone is no guarantee that you can open up,” Hunt said. “And this was a discussion that in fact I had with Professor Murphy in just the last 24 hours, that if the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn’t just open the borders.”
Wait, what?
Just a month ago, Scott Morrison stood next to Qantas’ Alan Joyce while the latter announced that “international is some time off, it’s probably not going to happen until the end of October when we have the full adult population vaccinated”. Asked to comment on that, Morrison said: “Well, we haven’t made any firm decision on these things, but I mean, exactly as Alan Joyce has just set out, that that’s our hope and that’s our expectation.”
That garnered positive headlines for the government like “International travel could resume by October if Australia’s vaccine rollout goes to plan” and “International travel by this year ‘more likely’“, exactly as it was intended to do.
Nor was that the result of Alan Joyce pushing the government further than it wanted to go. In February Morrison, asked about the link between vaccination and international travel, said: “I’m confident that as we move through the vaccination process, we can significantly change how things are done here in Australia.” Even before that, Health Secretary Brendan Murphy had told News Corp that vaccination would speed up the return of international travel. Cue positive headlines.
This doesn’t make the long list of egregious Scott Morrison lies — the Prime Minister has always caveated his remarks with statements like “one step at a time” and ensuring the vaccine impact on transmissibility was demonstrated. But the government has been very happy, as part of its intense vaccination PR efforts, to let the media link the rollout — by October — with the return of international travel, all part of the government’s plan to go to an election with a grateful electorate ready to reward its rollout success.
What’s changed now? The debacle of the rollout has forced Morrison to ditch any targets at all — even humiliating one of his own ministers, Dan Tehan, in the process. And that has now extended even to the link, encouraged by the government, between completing the rollout (whenever that might be — on yesterday’s figures, the second half of 2022) and the reopening of borders.
That’s terrible news for travellers and Australians stranded overseas. And it’s not too flash if you’re a business trying to plan with any kind of certainty, either.
The media cuts Morrison too muck slack on this stuff. The headlines this morning clearly should have been: “PM tries to shift blame to states in vaccine cabinet meetings move.”
Plus Holgate clobbers Morrison.
I don’t want our Federal Government to go to “war” with anyone over anything – I just want our Federal Government to fully vaccinate us all with a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as humanly possible!
Given the Federal Government’s abject failure to make a decent start on that for over a year Morrison’s call to a “war” footing is even more absurd than it might be in more normal times. Get a grip Scotty – you could not organise a proverbial “piss up in a brewery” let alone a “war”, even a phoney one.
In the immediate absence of a vaccination I would appreciate some straight talking and facts from Messrs Morrison and Hunt – assuming they know the difference between facts and spin:
With that sort of information even I could hazard a rough guess as to when I might finally be fully vaccinated – barring acts of “war”, acts of God and Federal Government incompetency.
The way things stand we are on course to have a federal election before we are all vaccinated, before lockdowns cease, before the economy opens fully, before travelling again, before you do your job competently … – bear that in mind before your next appearance on stage, on screen or on the radio, Scotty. Less twaddle, more substance is required – man up.
An excellent response.
rang my doctor – all practices are on a ration of 50 per week. They must give daily details of usage to whom to make sure 1a ,1b, etc categories are adhered to – I don’t want to be part of Pfizer test group as the FDA has only given approval for use under the emergency whilst waiting for full approval -and it doesn’t work for the UK,SA other variants. I would rather the AZ vaccine and take the minimal chance of clots. – Why all the fuss,
By using the vaccine debacle as an excuse, ScoMo will delay international travel as long as possible. Why ? Because the billions of dollars Australians spend on international holidays and travel will now have to be spent domestically to prop up the tourism industry and the economy generally.
It’s the most logical thing to do. I personally don’t mind sacrificing any overseas holidays if it means bolstering the local economy. Overseas travel these days is the domain of the rich & wealthy. What about those who lack the afford and will never get the opportunity to travel overseas? Do you think they even care? You know what they say about people living in glass houses
Yes we should all limit ourselves to activities that the poorest can afford. We should all be the same.
Do you have proof of this? It seems at odds with one of Scotty’s favourite pastimes, propping up QANTAS. (Who took JobKeeper then sacked thousands anyway).
Maybe Australians will just save extra funds, due to historic low wage growth. Or, put it into their mortgage, whilst interest rates are at historic lows?
If only. Instead that money seems to be going into investment, fuelling another mini boom cycle on real estate.
You’d get a lot more equivalent holiday inv Australia for what it would cost to go overseas. Hopefully people realise this and see our great land. Even the not-so-great bits deserve a look.
Makes a change when Scomo throws a man under the bus.
He’d throw his own mother if there was something in it for himself.
You mean his widowed mother, surely
Don’t forget ‘sainted’.
Forward planning (beyond the next election) is not this Government’s strong suit. Genius move by Scotty from marketing – the best way to avoid not meeting a target? Remove the target!
Also, don’t gift your execs expensive watches on the tax payer’s purse. From the man who was sacked from Tourism Australia, for mishandling $180m on the tax payer’s purse.