The innocuous-sounding phrase “it’s not a race” is having quite a time. After we started the week with the hapless Michael McCormack tangled up in it, yesterday it ensnared both the prime minister and his political crutch, health secretary Brendan Murphy.
Invited by Labor, in the face of a growing outbreak in Victoria, to repeat that “it’s not a race”, Scott Morrison immediately noted that it was Murphy who had first used the phrase. “I affirm his remarks”, said Morrison, insisting that it was simply a case of following expert advice.
Upstairs in Senate estimates, however, Murphy was busy distancing himself from the phrase. First he argued that he had only used the phrase in relation to approval of a vaccine in January, not the rollout itself. Approval of vaccines “was the context in which it was made”, Murphy said, and he hadn’t used the phrase since then.
Except, that wasn’t correct, as Murphy later admitted. Here’s Murphy on March 10, responding to the question “so can we expect that before the CSL arrival kicks in that hopefully we will have given out more than that one million or 1.3 million?”
We are. This is not a race. We have no burning platform in Australia. We are taking it as quickly and carefully and safely as we can. We’re not like the US or the UK or most other countries in the world where they’ve got people in hospital dying. We can take our time, set up our systems, do it safely and carefully, we are expanding our rollout every day … so we’re not in any hurry to race this rollout. We want to do it safely and carefully…
But Murphy did acknowledge that “it’s not a very helpful phrase now because we’re going, we’re in action, we’re fired up and we’re doing it as quickly as possible”. So now, apparently, it is a race.
Morrison, McCormack and the rest of the ministry can now retire the phrase, with only the humiliation of Murphy as political damage.
Now that it officially is a race, though, it would be helpful if we knew how fast we were going. Yesterday the Department of Health struggled to provide figures for the number of vaccinated aged care workers. It turned out that around 32,000 aged care workers nationally have been fully vaccinated, or less than 10%, and around 8000 in Victoria.
Aged care staff, along with disability care staff, and aged and disability care residents, were supposed to be the top priority in the government’s only priority this year — rolling out the vaccination. Two months on from the government’s own deadline for vaccinating them, 90% of staff remain to be vaccinated fully. Until this week, the government wasn’t even requiring aged care facilities to maintain records of staff vaccinations.
The government insists the figures are far higher because aged care staff are arranging their own vaccinations through state-run mass vaccination centres — which amounts to the government claiming credit because people have given up relying on it to do the job it promised to do.
The Department of Health — never a star performer in the public service — has offered no explanation for why the top priority phase of the rollout has been such a debacle. Its officials showed up to estimates yesterday without even the most basic data about the rollout to aged care facilities. The useless aged care minister Richard Colbeck at one stage even refused to accept the Commonwealth was responsible for the vaccine rollout in aged care (despite the data from his own department being labelled “Commonwealth remit”). Morrison had to contradict his minister later and — unusually for Morrison — accept the Commonwealth was responsible.
In the Howard years, when a useless minister (one Tony Abbott) was at Health, the place was more or less run from Howard’s office to ensure politically sensitive issues were anticipated and managed. Scott Morrison, who arrived after that time, evidently never learnt that lesson.
The Department of Health — never a star performer in the public service.. Certainly true of recent governments and recent ministers for health.
But I recall when Dr Neal Blewett was minister for health during the AIDS pandemic. He was an absolute leader in stepping up, taking advice and adopting a social science based approach rather than following the medical model pushed so strongly by the AMA (the doctors union).
Of course the times were very different. Then opposition health spokesperson, Dr Peter Baume, recognised the depth of the problems and cooperated fully with the health department.
Now both Hunt and Colbeck are proving incompetent and, even if the program had been run by the PM’s office, Morrison is always looking for someone else to blame. Whether, as Guy discusses above, this gross incompetence is enough to provoke a change of government is not an outcome I would wager good money on.
Who can easily forget the AMA fighting tooth n nail against Medicare those odd 40 yrs ago !!?…Yeh, probably most of the *silent majority quiet Australians* have …
The AMA fought against Medicare all those years ago fearing, exactly what has come to pass, made worse by this dysfunctional and dishonest 3rd term government.
Medicare has had the Newstart treatment and the only bulk billing GP practices have young mostly OS trained doctors on contract, with 5 minutes to get your history, examine you and send you for pathology and radiology (owned by the same company, all receiving huge bulk billing subsidies which are not available to a small GP practice) and write you a script.
Did you know that if you receive treatment in a private hospital and Medicare decides not to pay (outsourced payment system which is basically answerable to no one) then your private health fund doesn’t pay either?
Please give me the name and phone number of a plumber/ builder/ carpenter who will give you their 15 years of training for $120 per hour and no call out fees.
Medical practitioners overheads include $72,000 for medical indemnity insurance, consulting rooms, equipment, a minimum of a receptionist……………
What was feared has come to pass. Howard allowed the big insurers into our medical insurance field and now, we are paying for 10 lords of London’s spending money (BUPA).
Times were very different, MJM. And Blewett was a member of a Labor government. Like Brian Howe, Nicola Roxon and Tanya Plibersek, who were all effective Health Ministers in Labor governments. Most of the recent Libs – Wooldridge, Abbott, Dutton, Hunt – have been worse than useless.
Wooldridge did OK for himself after leaving government with his Rolodex of contacts.
Isn’t that par for the course?
Didn’t he feature as a brilliant businessman managing several companies into Bankruptcy – or liquidation?
The very one, that’s him, the gombeen.
There was no AIDS pandemic [ it may have been an epidemic]- it was confined to a segment of the population – definitely needed a social science approach .
This a pandemic involving all of the population in a medical emergency and requires a medical model to save societies around the world
Assuming that “…to save societies around the world.” is the plan.
Rather than depopulation.
As someone said, lotsa useless eaters.
Dear Desmond,
Whatever portion of the population, in whatever part of the country you live in must have an altered state of being and the reality must be so pretty and quaint with a similar outlook to Ronnie Regan.
Even Doris Day and Rock Hudson didn’t agree with Ronnie’s ideas.
Ronnie had early stage Alzheimer dementia and so we can excuse some of his more bizarre decisions.
Ronnie was/ is one of the leading contenders for the “largest number of dead” mass murderers using a viral vector (the decision came back at least 30 years ago, it is just the body count has now slowed in developed countries.)
It was because Ronnie decided that the “gay plague” would be contained to the homosexual community ( his social science approach) which got him his nomination for the “Mass Murderer award”.
That AIDS was/ is a full blown pandemic before the extent of it was seen clearly, thanks to Ronnie refusing to commit fund to research for its treatment.
This is the main reason why it has still not been completely contained and certainly not defeated.
In the first world, mostly AIDS is now a chronic disease with a drug regime that is exacting
The “social science” approached is the reason why hemophiliacs world wide died slowly and painfully and neonatal babies died like flies, and people receiving heart surgery in the 1980’s in Australia died from all sorts of things associated with having no immune system.
Now, back to your reality, which certainly is not shared by any of we mere humans who toil for the greater good, I hope you donate to African communities where children are being raised by their grandparents due to HIV being treated with garlic.
As for Covid19, well the kicker in this pandemic is that any country which has let this virus rip (Sweden, Netherlands, Russia, Belgium, Britain, US, Brazil, and all the impoverished nations) will have approximately 1 in 3 of its survivors aged 18 to 40 suffering from long Covid, which includes people with damaged hearts, kidneys, lungs, brains and immune systems).
Now that will be a great asset to any opening economy
Confined to a segment of the population? It was a threat to ALL. Hence the need for a campaign letting everyone know that they were at risk.
Not really. Just the 4H.
And fornicators.
And the closetted.
And their unsuspecting partners.
And… oh,…umm, as you were.
As opined elsewhere in Medialand, SCOVID will live on well after the Australian community deals with the original virus in spite of Federal Government interventions. If only the nation could be vaccinated against the dreaded SCOVID cooties. As the LNP will never participate in such a health initiative in the national interest, the superspreader will continue to wreak havoc in the manner of the Grim Reaper of 1987.
I remain at a loss to understand why Brendan Murphy left his role as an independent Chief Medical Officer of some standing to voluntarily assume the position of a sycophantic frontman and nodder in the SCOVID roadshow. As the ex-CMO has now discovered the driver of the show bus is willfully blind to any collateral damage to his band of happy go lucky slappers – they are just transient players in an antipodean off off Broadway tragicomedy.
Brendan Murphy had already put his hand up to be the head of the Department of health when the Covid19 monster had got a good foothold in Australia.
The Chief Medical Officer in Australia is usually not heard of except in the instance of a pandemic.
He is not the personality type to seek the limelight, however he has very good reputation for doing the right thing.
All of which makes Murphy’s decision to enter into the far more politically fraught role of the head of an Australian Government agency in the time of strictly political appointments at that level all the more remarkable, in my view.
The Morrison government is a complete mess of confusing messages to cover up poor planning.
We began this pandemic without any of: federal quarantine; federal quarantine processes; or critical medical supply stockpile. The state saved Australians. The messages were confused, and the priorities distorted.
Now, all the feds have to do is get the vaccinations rolled out. They couldn’t plan it; and they haven’t delivered. Once again, the messages are confused, and the priorities are hard to decipher.
The only question I have, is why we’re not seeing a rolling campaign from Labor, holding the government to account…Albanese looks as out of place in the leadership as anyone since Arthur Caldwell, with only the possible exception of Mark Latham. Even Shorten has come spoken out more convincingly. Where’s the fire? The government desperately needs its feet held to it.
I’m not convinced “The state saved Australians”.
The states got lucky mostly, apart from Victoria where some 800 died.
If the national borders had not been closed the story would have been different. In fact, all our problems still stem from international arrivals, all of them.
I certainly agree the states are doing the heavy lifting. But I say the successes are due to luck and the nature of Covid rather than the ability of state governments.
One thing I find interesting is the blind faith that federal quarantine will “absolutely” solve our Covid problems.
We don’t know that, but it is routinely assumed and implied by those being critical of the lack of federal quarantine initiatives.
In the absence of proof of its effectiveness (or not) it is still presented as a sure fire solution.
I have no doubt that federal quarantine facilities will experience quarantine failures.
PS The only way out of this is via vaccination. Unless you’re ok with years of lockdowns.
Well, I hope that you have noted how many Covid19 outbreaks (leaks) have come from the old mining camp in Howard Springs?
Nope, None, Nada. Boring because there haven’t been any.
Why? Each donga has its own air conditioner and a deck for fresh air, with lots of protocols regarding separation.
Now as Melbourne is entering its second week of lockdown (So lucky, lucky, Melbourne! The man who caught Covid19 in quarantine in Adelaide lives in Melbourne).
The way out of this is vaccination, too right!
The problem is that we have has sexy fingers and Mopsy handling the procurement and distribution and so, our alternatives for vaccination are pretty pathetic.
AstraZeneca was dropped out the European response and the difficulty procuring Pfizer means that the roll out is more of a slow stroll.
I am still firmly of the opinion that the reason why disability and aged care residents and their carers were given a 1A status and then ignored, was that it would be great for the budget bottom line if a couple of care homes had a major outbreak.
The problem they have is that most civilized societies know that the measure of the quality of a society is how they value and look after their vulnerable.
You are completely correct – all the Covid has been imported by the Federal government – right from the
beginning – it was the only government that sent airline into the epicentre Wuhan at the beginning and bought the
Covid carriers into the country. But we are a multi viral community – cannot discriminate.
Though thoroughly evil and as shifty as his latrine dwelling cospecies, the Rodent was competent and therefor despised Abbott.
Also related to the Health Minister, what will this do for his majority in the Victorian electorate Flinders, especially if Labor, Greens and Independent cooperate?
The chances of ‘Labor’ co-operating with Greens & Independents are slimmer than the Second Coming arriving on the Bondi tram.
Shamefully and irrationally, PM Gillard made that clear at her last ALP Annual conference before being dumped by those to whom she was beholden for her brief reign, the hard right ruling faction.
I can’t remember her exact words, too traumatic but, to paraphrase, “Those who set their alarm clocks to get up in the morning have nothing in common with the Greens!” – I’d be grateful if someone could dig out the exact quote.
Anyone remember when she was STB the “leader of the Labor Left”? Back in the halcyon daze of 2007.
Nah, me neither.