With its vaccine rollout badly behind schedule, the government’s instinct is to blame-shift rather than get back on track — and the economic costs could be significant.
It feels like a broken record, but the lesson continues to apply: the Morrison government is only capable of political management of complex issues, and as the last few weeks have shown, its talent for political management is proving no match for what it’s up against.
Now that lesson applies to what, by the government’s own assessment, is the only political and policy game in town: the vaccine rollout.
Remember that not merely is it a political no-brainer that the government has to get the vaccine rollout right, and will trumpet its success if it does, but Scott Morrison has made clear it is the government’s biggest priority this year. “Suppress the virus and deliver the vaccine” was the number one priority on the government’s agenda, according to Morrison’s National Press Club speech on February 1. Morrison even made a point of saying he wouldn’t be pursuing any economic reform because he was too busy dealing the pandemic and rolling out the vaccine.
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