James Morrow: Gladys Berejiklian the best performing premier in Australia

Most state leaders have cynically used the gap left by a gun-shy Scott Morrison to increase their own power and prolong the pandemic, writes James Morrow.

Could there be an easier job in Australia right now than state premier?

Think about it: No matter what sort of performance you put in, good, bad or indifferent, you still get a gold star. All you have to do is front the media, say the words your health people tell you to say, and then bask in the glow of popularity.

On Sunday afternoon, WA’s Premier Mark McGowan slammed two million people in and around Perth into a 23-hour-a-day lockdown, all over one – just one! – case.

Yet far from being a risky thing to do just six weeks out from an election, every indication is that McGowan will romp it in after this little piece of catastrophe theatre, with as many as nine out of 10 WA voters approving of the job he’s doing.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan shut Perth down due to one positive case. Picture: Tony McDonough/Getty Images

As one Perth local told me, no one cares about his complacency in failing to get WA’s house in order to deal with outbreaks: “Everyone’s going to vote for him again, they think he’s keeping them safe.”

Across the country, it’s the same story.

Melburnians had to endure 112 days of virtual house arrest that stopped just short of welding people into their homes Wuhan-style and saw more than 800 Victorians die due to the Dan Andrews government’s hotel quarantine failings.

Despite this, Dan Andrews remains solidly popular, and his post-lockdown call to “get on the beers” was turned into a dance anthem that made the Triple J Hottest 100.

Likewise, Queensland’s Anna Palaszczuk was re-elected handsomely, despite – or perhaps more worryingly, because of – her cruel and capricious border closures (“In Queensland we have Queensland hospitals for our people”).

Nor is this just a Labor thing.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had cruel rules over hospitals. Picture: Matt Taylor

South Australia’s Liberal Premier Steven Marshall arguably overreacted worse than anyone when he put his state into lockdown after a pizza delivery guy picked up the virus and lied to contact tracers. Recall all the sudden panic about some new ridiculously virulent form of COVID that could spread via extra cheese, or whatever it was?

Yet again, there is no sense that in SA their opposition is gaining any traction whatsoever, or any serious political price to be paid by the Marshall government.

Arguably only NSW’s Gladys Berejiklian is doing a good enough job to deserve the praise she receives.

Not only has she managed to put out spot fires such as the Northern Beaches cluster without shutting down the entire city, she has done so in the face of a real opposition – not so much in the form of Labor Leader Jodi McKay, but rather the de facto shadow health ministry at the ABC, which has with the likes of Norman Swan loudly and repeatedly called for draconian restrictions at the first hint of trouble yet whose doomsday scenarios have never once been proven right.

Gladys Berejiklian is the only premier who has done a reasonable job during the pandemic. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

So what’s the point of all this?

Well, simply this.

Coronavirus, and our world-beating response, has created a series of political problems that will be with us long after the pandemic.

Bad governments (i.e. Victoria’s) deserve to be voted out, and good governments deserve the scrutiny and threat implied by a competent opposition. Yet right now neither of these things are happening.

Some have suggested that the behaviour behind this, particularly in Melbourne, is a case of Stockholm syndrome, whereby hostages come to identify and sympathise with their captors.

Perhaps, but it might be more accurate to say what’s happening is more a case of parochial patriotism – “my premier, right or wrong”.

Right now, if state premiers were medicos, it wouldn’t matter if they were Charlie Teo, Dr. Phil, or a guy in an apron with a bucket of leeches. Voters would still happily pay all of their bills, no matter the advice.

And it’s no wonder.

People wait in line for Covid-19 tests at Perth Royal Hospital. Picture: Matt Jelonek/Getty Images

In the middle of a pandemic that was spread in no small part by globalism, people were obviously going to look to local leaders for reassurance and to keep them safe and relatively free – even if as in Victoria, they did neither.

This was a huge missed opportunity for Scott Morrison who, having deservedly accumulated a pile of goodwill at the start of the pandemic for handling both the health and economic aspects well, refused to invest any of this capital on political fights with premiers who have used his relative absence to grow their own power.

That’s why national cabinet, which implies some sort of solidarity or at least co-ordination, between premiers and the prime minister, turned into a bad joke.

When Queensland opened its borders to NSW, Ms Berejiklian heard about it not via a phone call from Ms Palaszczuk, but from Ben Fordham, whom she was talking to live on air on 2GB.

By hiding his talents, the prime minister has let the states run away with the show, and inflate the threat of coronavirus to the point where leaders are seen as strong and tough rather than bumbling and panicky for shutting down a city over a single case.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison squandered much of his goodwill from the beginning of the pandemic. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

And as a result, whether it happens this year or next, Morrison’s re-election is not assured: While still the overwhelmingly preferred prime minister in Newspoll over Anthony Albanese, the Coalition is neck and neck at 50-50. This could tip further into unfavourable territory if Labor freshens up its leadership.

If Morrison is to stop this drift – and, more importantly, save the economic recovery that the incoming vaccine promised – he must start thinking urgently about how to reset this conversation, and be willing to have the same sorts of fights that have characterised every reform effort over the last 50 years.

At the heart of things is this question: How to begin to think about opening up to a post-vaccine world, something that will inevitably involve some risk and probably a spike in cases, if premiers are scaring everyone silly and are thanked for it?