Scott Morrison declares Coalition not going anywhere as he marks three years in top job
Scott Morrison has declared he intends to keep the Coalition in power despite the controversies and missteps of the past few months, as the prime minister gave colleagues a homily about unity, noting incumbents stay in power when they “stay together”.
Morrison used the third anniversary of his rise to the prime ministership on Tuesday to observe the Coalition was in government “and that’s where we intend to remain”. The prime minister took the top job in August 2018 after the right faction of the Liberal party deposed Malcolm Turnbull, but failed to assemble sufficient numbers to install their preferred candidate Peter Dutton.
During Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Coalition party room, Morrison thanked the two leaders of the National party, Michael McCormack and Barnaby Joyce, for supporting his prime ministership, and he acknowledged the loyalty of Liberal colleagues over the past three years.
With the government facing a substantial public backlash about the slow pace of the vaccination rollout, Morrison insisted “good government” had informed the decisions he had made during the pandemic. But he also acknowledged that “not every call is going to be right”.
Morrison wants to prepare Australians for a step down in public health restrictions. But the prime minister has been under pressure in recent days because of a sustained push back from some of the states and territories about the risks associated with moving too quickly given major cities are now battling substantial Delta outbreaks.
With community anxiety and fatigue growing through the second winter of the pandemic, the pointed warnings from premiers have gained some traction. But Morrison’s calculation is Australians are tired of heavy restrictions. The prime minister has attempted to turn the tables this week, insisting that all governments need to stick to the four-phase national plan signed off in July.
While some of the state leaders have pointed out correctly that the Doherty Institute modelling informing the national plan is significantly more nuanced than Morrison’s routine public messaging suggests, on Monday, the prime minister insisted lockdowns needed to end once vaccination rates increased, because Australia can’t “stay in the cave forever”.
On Tuesday, Morrison likened Australia’s current position to the plot of the children’s animated film, The Croods, where a family shelters in a cave to survive a natural disaster. During Tuesday’s party room meeting, the prime minister recounted elements of the plot to colleagues, noting the story ended happily and a sequel had been made. In reference to his political travails, Morrison said he was hoping for his own sequel next year.
As Morrison marked his anniversary in Canberra on Tuesday, New South Wales recorded another 753 new coronavirus infections, Victoria 50, and the Australian Capital Territory 30. State health authorities also confirmed that a woman in her 30s with Covid died in her home in Sydney’s west.
There has been a growing backlash to prolonged lockdowns brewing within the Coalition’s base. On Tuesday, a number of Coalition MPs drew attention to the negative consequences of sustained lockdowns for people and for business, with one government MP branding state leaders attempting to reduce community transmission to zero as “Delta deniers”.
Morrison’s efforts in recent days to regain the political offensive has included levelling accusations that the federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese is “running down” the vaccination program, and standing in opposition to the national plan to reduce restrictions once vaccination rates hit 70%.
Not just two jobs
Albanese has been running a critique for some months that Morrison had “two jobs” in 2021 – presiding over a rapid rollout of Covid vaccinations, and providing purpose-built quarantine facilities to minimise the risk of outbreaks.
In Tuesday’s question time, Morrison responded to Albanese’s sustained critique by arguing “anyone who thinks the prime minister of this country only has two jobs isn’t up to the job”.
Labor used a parliamentary debate after question time to return fire. The shadow minister for infrastructure, transport and regional development Catherine King said this year had been a complete disaster for Morrison.
“It is perhaps fitting today that the prime minister revealed that he’s getting his Covid lessons from the children’s film The Croods,” King said.
“For those who don’t have the joy of small children, The Croods is the story of a group of cave-dwellers who get swept from one chaotic disaster to another, often of their own making, never quite coming to grips with what’s going on.
“It’s hard to think of a better metaphor for this government, because when you look over the course of this government, and this prime ministership, all you see is one disaster after another, one crisis after another, often of their own making, and somehow they’re surprised – ‘we’re in government and we’re responsible for doing something about it’.”