Is Scott Morrison actually prime minister or simply an onlooker-in-chief who has nothing to do with managing the pandemic?
Scott Morrison’s failings as a national leader are once again on display, just as they were earlier in the year. And his response is the same: treat everything as a political problem that can be addressed with announcements and spin.
The outbreaks across the country at the moment — the one that has locked down Sydney, and the one that has locked down the Northern Territory and sent other states into border closures or precautionary lockdowns — are the direct result of the failings of Morrison’s government.
Failure to get even a substantial minority of Australians vaccinated months into the rollout, failure to vaccinate staff in aged care and residential disability care — the one area where the Health Department had full responsibility — and failure to establish an alternative to hotel quarantine nearly a year after being warned of the weaknesses of relying on tourist facilities to accomplish medical goals.
