Weak Scott Morrison has failed to keep state premiers on the same Covid page

Australia has never been more divided, with premiers warring like characters in the hit series Game of Thrones. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is to blame.

Steve Price

@StevePriceMedia

4 min read

October 1, 2021 - 6:16PM

Australia is starting to resembe Game of Thrones.

News

Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.

Australia right now resembles a real-life version of the hit series Game of Thrones.

The Covid virus might be the invisible enemy, and the Delta version has taken it to a new level of disruption, but no one saw the impact it would have on Australia’s state relations.

Like the warring families of the fictional Westeros, the states are at war, attacking each other at these daily media appearances where Daniel Andrews from Victoria and Gladys Berejiklian of NSW can barely utter the other’s name.

As Victoria’s case numbers rocketed past New South Wales’ total for the first time to set a new state record this week, Gladys could barely hide her pleasure.

She would deny that, but the flak she copped for not going early enough and hard enough by a smug Victorian Premier stung her 94 days ago when she finally put Sydney in a lockdown.

Now, NSW — with lockdown “light” and a sensible plan to re-open — is going to be used by the Victorian Premier as the experimental bunny.

Like the families on the fictional Game of Thrones, Australian states are at war, attacking each other.

Watch very carefully now what happens if numbers explode and Daniel Andrews uses that as a reason to keep Victorians locked up. If they were honest the pair would admit they can’t stand each other.

Gladys is a stubborn, career-driven politician of the centre-right of Liberal politics in NSW.

She considers former Treasurer Joe Hockey a friend and mentor.

From the lower north shore of Sydney she has zero connection with the massive working- class suburbs of Sydney’s western and southwestern suburbs other than her migrant background.

To her credit, although born in Manly, she spoke only Armenian until the age of five and picked up English as a second language.

The contrast with Dan Andrews couldn’t be starker. He is two years younger and as an eight- year-old, his family moved to the country Victorian town of Wangaratta where he had a Catholic education.

Both have Bachelor of Arts degrees — his in politics, hers in international studies with a Masters degree in commerce. She at least worked for a while in banking, but both are political careerists in the Liberal Party for Gladys and Labor for Daniel.

Daniel and Gladys are our Game of Thrones stars, and when you throw in bit players, such as Queensland’s Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk and West Australia’s Mark McGowan, you have a full-on battle of egos and political stubbornness.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is one of the real-life Australian version of GoT stars. Picture: Ian Currie

Pre-Covid there were the annual state versus state battles surrounding GST distribution, plus federal funding fairness around schools and health, but it didn’t get personal and wasn’t playing with the mental wellbeing of Australians.

Border closures that have snapped shut at a moment’s notice, locking out residents from their homes, have become a national disgrace.

Telling Victorians to camp on the NSW border in vans while allowing elite sporting stars to jump on planes to spend a couple of weeks at a Perth golf resort was a slap in the face.

For Mark McGowan to then tighten his border even harder as AFL players flew back to Melbourne was an extra whack.

Then this week, Queensland stages the NRL grand final despite a Covid outbreak, with the expectation that once the game has been played, they will be in lockdown again.

The political players in this Game of Thrones are supposed to be members of the national cabinet, a so-called gathering of the main players to all get on the same page. It has been a miserable failure and has let down all Australians.

This country has never been more divided, and here I blame Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has not been anywhere near strong enough in wrangling these prima donnas on to the same page.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has not been strong enough in keeping premiers to a National Plan. Picture: Saeed Khan

His bungling of the vaccine ordering at the beginning put him on the back foot and he’s never recovered.

The premiers then discovered they had powers they never thought they either had, or would have had to use, and it went to their heads.

The PM should have taken border closures to the High Court and made the argument that it was unconstitutional and forced them to stay open.

Victorians’ holiday plans have been destroyed for the second year running. No one has any confidence to head interstate, worried the Victorian border will slam shut behind them again, trapping people.

Queensland is off the itinerary possibly for a year or more, WA is unlikely to open any time soon, and there’s only a slim chance of going to SA or NSW and Canberra.

Families are ripped apart with births and deaths missed, and this, despite heavy rates of vaccination. Victoria has finally caved in to allow their own citizens back if vaccinated and Covid-free, and then makes them isolate for 14 days.

Like Dan Andrews, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is proving egotistical and stubborn. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

This is not the Australia any of us grew up in. We can all remember the first time we crossed an interstate border and as kids we all jumped out and straddled the invisible line.

We need to get back there - to being Australians first and then Victorians - or in my case South Australian. And it’s the job of the national leader Scott Morrison to get us there, and quickly.

Daniel, Gladys, Anastasia and Mark need to back-off stop sledging each other we are sick of it.