Peta Credlin: Morrison under attack from Labor Premiers as election nears

Labor premiers have gone rogue by abandoning national cabinet decisions and their only intention now is doing as much damage as possible to the PM ahead of the election, writes Peta Credlin.

Scott Morrison has bent over backwards to “play nice” with the Labor premiers but they were never going to return the favour.

In practice, the only one bound by National Cabinet decisions has been the Prime Minister. Indeed, the sooner the “national cabinet” is replaced by a revamped federal system where the Commonwealth is not expected to pick up the tab for states’ decisions, the better.

Not only have Labor premiers abandoned the national cabinet decision to open borders and to drop restrictions once vaccination rates reached 80 per cent but they’re now ganging up on the PM in a bid to help Anthony Albanese into the Lodge.

The Labor Premiers are ganging up on Scott Morrison to get Anthony Albanese in the Lodge. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

Last week, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles accused the PM of wanting to see Queenslanders catch Covid because Morrison made the perfectly reasonable point that he didn’t want to see the unvaccinated denied their right to go to a cafe.

And Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews accused the PM of dog-whistling to extremists when he made the equally reasonable point that people were “over” being bossed around by officials. Given that vaccination provides 90 per cent protection against hospitalisation with Covid and all the expert advice that an 80 per cent vaccination rate is enough to prevent the health system being overwhelmed, the unvaccinated minority are only a danger to themselves.

So once vaccination rates have passed 80 per cent the premiers really have no excuse to keep their borders shut and the unvaccinated effectively excluded from normal life.

Daniel Andrews accused the PM of dog whistling. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Despite the cruelty of border closures and the misery of lockdowns, Australia has come through the pandemic with far fewer deaths and somewhat less economic damage than most other countries.

Despite a slow start, our vaccination rates are now among the highest in the world.

And while the Prime Minister’s reluctance to take on authoritarian premiers has frustrated people, he’s now positioning the Coalition as the champion of “can do” capitalism over “don’t do” government and of “getting our lives back” over restrictions and vaccine apartheid.

For everyone yearning for a return to normal life, this has to be a strong pitch.

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