Peta Credlin: Anthony Albanese rolls over to Premiers on Covid isolation payments

Anthony Albanese has proven that he is no match to the crisis-mongers by reinstating pandemic support in full, which will come at great expense to the taxpayer.

And here I was about to give Anthony Albanese due credit for holding the line on the cancellation of the $750-a-week Covid isolation payment.

But after a series of orchestrated hissy fits from the Premiers, and a push from the union movement calling into question his Labor credentials, it seems the Prime Minister is just as addicted to pandemic spending as his predecessor, despite all the rhetoric that we’ve got to learn to live with this virus.

I saw news reports that Monday’s national cabinet “emergency meeting” was being brought forward and almost straight away came the leaked word that the PM was going to roll over on the pandemic largesse. And he did.

At great cost to the taxpayer, Albanese reinstated the pandemic support payment in full, at least until September 30. Worse still, given new variants mean you could be infected on an almost rolling basis, expect some people to work out that this provides a ready cash-grab because there are basically no checks and balances on payment access.

So there you have it. Despite some of the world’s highest vaccination levels, we’re back to treating this virus as an emergency, with the PM recommending masks and work-from-home practices too.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NewsWire Photos, July 16, 2022: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces the Australians will be able to access the $750 Covid isolation payments until September 30,2022. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Australians are now two-and-a- half years into this pandemic, with the worst of it well behind us; but you wouldn’t know it from all the gloom and doom in recent days about “fourth waves”, “hospitals at breaking point”, and the supposed need for more restrictions, especially compulsory masks.

Don’t underestimate the power of the crisis-mongers. Citing more than 10,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, more than 40,000 new infections a day and more than 4000 people in hospital, there are plenty who will whip up fear and panic.

There are the epidemiologists who no one had ever heard of before the pandemic; the state premiers who’ve enjoyed their time in the national spotligh; the businesses that have had loads of Covid subsidies; and the workers who have to work from home and pick up lots of extra Covid payments.

Most of all, there’s the health sector, which has a new bogeyman to blame for everything going wrong with public hospitals, regardless of whether it’s due to Covid.

Thanks to the one-size-fits-all JobKeeper payments, many people had more money in their pockets than ever before, while not actually having to earn it. But at some stage normal life had to resume: no government can keep paying people to stay home, keep schools and workplaces closed, and generally stop people living for fear of dying.

Peta Credlin portrait for use with Sunday election tips

In a big speech overseas last week, former PM Scott Morrison defended our Covid response as world’s best and noted that it probably saved 40,000 lives.

But with the federal government alone spending more than $300 billion on Covid measures, that works out to about $7.5 million for every life saved. Not to mention all the other damage the restrictions caused: the funerals that couldn’t be attended; the lost school years; the other illnesses that weren’t adequately treated; and the mental trauma associated with enforced isolation.

As a taxpayer, the PM’s backflip is disappointing because the era of endless spending (and constant restrictions) must come to an end. And backflipping on emergency money sends a worrying signal to the states that if the continuing crisis means the money is back, then why shouldn’t they reintroduce the mandatory restrictions too?

If that happens, what was the point of 95 per cent of us getting double-vaxxed and 70 per cent triple-vaxxed? That was the promise – “get jabbed and you’ll get your life back”.

Unlike the politicians, most Australians are taking Covid in their stride and wear a mask if they feel they need to, but don’t want a return to mandatory restrictions and lockdowns which, for the most part, didn’t stack up. And still don’t.

Masks are compulsory on some flights and not compulsory on others. Picture: Eleonore Sens / AFP

Take masks – now optional on flights to London but compulsory on flights between Sydney and Melbourne. Where’s the “science” in that? It’s just different levels of bureaucratic officiousness, isn’t it?

I’m not saying Covid shouldn’t be taken seriously or we didn’t need tough restrictions early on. But now vaccination really has turned Covid into not much more than standard, seasonal flu, we need to start treating it in much the same way. It’s high time we declared that the pandemic is officially over, that we’re living with this virus, and that any attempt to stop each and every death would make real life next to impossible.

FMD COMPLACENCY PUTS FARMERS AT RISK

THE federal government was quick to declare a “climate change emergency” at the Pacific Forum this week over a degree or two of possible global warming decades hence; but doesn’t seem very worried about a foot and mouth disease outbreak, even though that could immediately devastate our cattle, sheep, pig and goat industries worth upwards of $80 billion.

Maybe the government is half-hoping that foot and mouth disease might spread here from Bali, where there’s a major outbreak, because a massive cull of Australian beef, sheep and pig numbers would drastically reduce emissions from agriculture and force more of us to become vegan? Certainly, farmers are aghast at the government’s complacency and its refusal to mandate airport foot baths for the thousands of Australian travellers returning each day from Bali.

Without stronger precautions, they say, it’s only a matter of time before the disease arrives on the contaminated shoes of an Australian who’s visited Indonesian farms. A federal agriculture department spokesman justified refusing foot baths at airports on “safety grounds” as “children could trip or fall into the bath”.

NSW Farmers president James Jackson quite rightly ridiculed this, saying the government might as well ban detector dogs on the grounds children could get bitten, or takeaway coffee on the grounds that children could get scalded.

As well, the department said, people “cannot be exposed to an antiseptic on bare skin”. Yeah right. What about the litres and litres of the stuff we’ve been pouring on our hands during this pandemic? To add insult to injury, the new federal agricultural Minister, Murray Watt, a Brisbane suburbanite all his life so without any understanding of farming, announced a paltry $14 million to try to stop the disease getting here; most of that going into a pointless communications campaign once people land back in Australia and the damage is done. For a sector worth tens of billions of dollars, it’s the ultimate slap in the face.

On top of all the other economic woes right now – supply-chain disruption and massive energy price hikes – the last thing we need is a potential recession as the pastoral and dairy industries start killing their stock, and all the jobs that go with it.

If it was all right to ban travel to stop Covid, at the very least the government should warn travellers not to bring any shoes back, except the ones they wear, and make sure those are thoroughly disinfected.

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