Putting the handling of the COVID vaccine in military hands sends a worrying message to the people of Australia: when the going gets tough, the tough are put in charge.
Wow, I’m watching the global news on TV, and in some tin-pot country somewhere in the world, there’s a lieutenant general who’s going to be talking with business groups, drawn in to work with him on the distribution of the COVID vaccine.
Those poor bastards are really in trouble, whoever they are. It must be one of those landlocked Latin American banana republics, right down in the southern cone — Australaguay or something. Wait a second, I’ve tapped into the radio of their national broadcaster, El ABC, and the leader of the unions is on, telling Sister Francisca Kelly that they welcome the move, even though they have been excluded from any role in the workplace rollout. Must be a right-wing Peronist union outfit, tucked neatly into the armpit of the junta…
Yes, yes, it’s not a junta. And our side of politics have a habit of predicting nine out of the last three coups. But really, when you have a military leader charged with responding to a disease which required steady application, rather than suspension-of-democracy crisis management, and is now drawing on that old pre-coup standby — the roundtable of concerned businessmen (and women too – viva la diversitia!) forming a de facto committee of the national interest — then if you can’t hear the mariachi band, you have no ear for war music.
