COVID-19 RESPONSE A BUMBLING MESS

Wrong phone numbers, missed emails, broken promises and finger pointing has turned the country’s Covid-19 response into a debacle. Yesterday was peak stupidity from our federal and state politicians.

It started off with the blame game over quarantining of Townsville’s defence force who flew out to help the people of Afghanistan.

Accusations from Defence Minister Peter Dutton that Queensland was locking them out because there were not enough quarantine spots turned out not to be true, according to the state government.

State Health Minister Yvette D’ath went on the attack in a fiery press conference, accusing Mr Dutton of not returning her calls. He hit back saying he never received calls from Ms D’ath despite the Health Minister showing journalists the text she sent.

Turned out the state’s Health Minister had sent the text to the wrong number … what the?

... time pollies put the politics aside

It was a very ordinary moment but one that was soon eclipsed by her federal counterpart. Emails released under Freedom of Information showed Pfizer sent an email asking to meet the government about the rollout and the number of vaccines available back in June 2020. The company asked for a meeting with Health Minister Greg Hunt but that wasn’t able to happen.

Instead an assistant secretary took a meeting with the company and a deal wasn’t announced until November. Labor was quick to pounce, saying Mr Hunt didn’t do enough, but Mr Hunt says that’s not true. Really?

In the middle of the country’s worst pandemic the minister didn’t have time to talk to the company with the solution? Come on.

The whole pandemic has been a stuff up from day one. It’s time pollies put the politics aside and worked for the nation, not themselves.