Coronavirus Australia: Tim Minchin says ‘credit doesn’t go to’ Scott Morrison in COVID-19 response

Aussie musician Tim Minchin has lashed out Scott Morrison saying the “credit doesn’t go to” the PM for Australia’s COVID-19 response.

2 min read

April 10, 2020 - 10:14PM

Australian writer and performer Tim Minchin and hip-hop artist Briggs have released a new song satirising Scott Morrison’s leadership during the bushfire and coronavirus crises, with Minchin telling hosts on the Today show the “credit doesn’t go to” the PM for the nation’s COVID-19 response.

Minchin said while he doesn’t “sort of loathe Scott Morrison or anything”, he’s “always slightly disappointed at the level of rhetoric”.

The purpose of the song, titled HouseFyre, is to “give people a laugh and to give people a bit of outlet for their frustration about some of the stuff that’s gone on”, Minchin explained.

The lyrics cover everything from Mr Morrison’s mid-bushfire family holiday to the Ruby Princess debacle, as well as the PM’s planned mid-COVID-19 trip to the NRL, with Minchin singing, “We’re good little citizens sitting in the bunker just watching the boss fumble like my befuddled uncle does”.

Tim Minchin is keeping us entertained during isolation! #9Today pic.twitter.com/HnGsczO1II
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) April 10, 2020

He acknowledged that “Scott’s had a pretty good couple of weeks” to hosts Deborah Knight and Alex Cullen, before adding “not that standards are very high”.

When asked to give “credit where credit’s due” regarding the PM’s actions in response to Australia’s outbreak of the potentially-deadly virus, Minchin responded: “I don’t think any leader would have failed to do what he’s done in the last couple of weeks because he’s just taking advice from people.”

“The credit doesn’t go to Scott, it goes to everyone,” he said, adding the song was written to poke fun at some of the “poor choices” Mr Morrison has made.

“I don’t think just because he’s done well in the last week means that he’s not up for some criticism.”

He also called out the Prime Minister’s decision to not (yet) extend financial aid packages to artists or asylum seekers during the pandemic.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Minchin said the entertainment industry had been “the least supported and the hardest hit because we are seen as a luxury product”.

“Being an artist is an economically insecure thing anyway but it is not just the actors who are used to being out of work,” he told the publication.

“It is the technicians and the crews and people who don’t have those months at a time where they are all out of work, they are out of work too. We have got to keep shouting about it and as for artists, we just have to keep making stuff.”

All proceeds from the song will go toward assisting and raising awareness of indigenous Australians affected by the coronavirus crisis – which has infected more than 6100 Australians and killed 54 people nationwide.