Coronavirus Australia: Scott Morrison calls jigsaw puzzle 'essential item'

Introducing a raft of new virus fighting measures, Scott Morrison drew on one example to drive home his point – but his choice left people puzzled.

As Australians face stricter distancing measures to combat the coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has left people puzzled thanks to his rather offbeat example of what he considers an essential item.

Last night Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a raft of new rules that included restricting gatherings to just two people and that people should only leave the house for “for what you need, food and essential supplies”.

When quizzed on what he meant by leaving the home only for what you need and “essential supplies”, Mr Morrison replied: “I will give you an example. Our kids are at home now, as are most kids, and Jenny went out yesterday and bought them a whole bunch of jigsaw puzzles.

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Jigsaw puzzles are definitely essential supplies in the Morrison household. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas.

"I can assure you over the next few months we will consider those jigsaw puzzles absolutely essential.

"It is important that parents and families and households can get the things that they need to completely change the way they are going to live for the next six months at least, and so what we have done is sought to be practical about these issues.

"I mean, people are buying sporting equipment at the moment – gym mats and things like that – so they can exercise at home. These are things they are going to need."

While Mr Morrison was simply explaining what was considered an “essential supply”, choosing puzzles as an example, well, puzzled Australians.

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All good guys, we can still go and buy jigsaw puzzles #COVID19Aus #scomo pic.twitter.com/LzP0NjbUmg

— Amy (@loveamylouise) March 29, 2020

Live scenes of jigsaw puzzle panic buying.#ScoMo #COVID19Aus pic.twitter.com/OF3p0gybVf

— YNWA (@Jpana75) March 29, 2020

At the end of the televised address to the nation last night #ScoMo couldn't get out of there fast enough when asked questions, he pretty much RAN, guess he's training for those 2 person boot camps or to get down to Kmart before everyone panic buys all the jigsaw puzzles #covid19

— Natalie Petty (@Natalie20881698) March 29, 2020

did scomo just say puzzles are an essential item 😭💀💀

— 𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖆𝖍 ⋆antman 3 2022⋆ (@peteymjs) March 29, 2020

Scomo GENUINELY JUST SAID THAT BUYING JIGSAW PUZZLES IRL IS AN ESSENTIAL ACTIVITY !!??? #auspol

— Kelsea✨ (@OkKelsea) March 29, 2020

Good news. ScoMo just finished his first puzzle. pic.twitter.com/ab362yDFij

— Aaron MVC Official (@maher_aaron) March 29, 2020

We’re with #scomo in this house. Puzzles have always been a godsend to keep my 19yo with #ADHD occupied since she was a toddler. Don’t knock the simplicity of quiet focus. #puzzles pic.twitter.com/6DwyfM6x5A

— Camilla Baker (@CamillaBaker1) March 29, 2020

Scomo doing a press conference

What Australia takes away from it: puzzles

— jac💜 (@JackieWarner13) March 29, 2020

'I'M NOT QUITE SURE WHAT THAT IS': PM ON BARRE 

Mr Morrison's puzzle reference comes as he sent Twitter into a spin at a press conference last Tuesday with his confusion over what barre was while announcing the exercise was now on the list of banned activities.

"Community and recreation centres, health clubs, fitness centres, yoga, barre — I hope I pronounced that correctly,” he said.

“I might need some help with that, I'm not quite sure what that is to be honest — but B-A-R-R-E, for those looking for the specific definition, and spin facilities, saunas, bath houses, wellness centres.”

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Mr Morrison gave Australians an unexpectedly hilarious moment last week with his absolute confusion over what barre was.

Mr Morrison clearly had no idea what barre, a ballet-inspired pilates exercise, was and even pronouncing it wrong (he said bar-re, rather than the one syllable barre) was soon seized on by viewers.

Meanwhile, others admitted that, like Mr Morrison, they had no idea what barre was either.

Data from Google showed that searches for the term “barre” surged exponentially at the same time as Mr Morrison’s press conference, meaning that a lot of us also had no idea what the exercise was.

Speaking to reporters again on Friday, Mr Morrison said he had learnt what barre was after seeing all the memes about his slip-up — but still couldn’t quite manage to pronounce it correctly.