Opinion: Prime Minister’s globetrotting highlights his lack of a plan to let Aussies visit family overseas
Scott Morrison travelled around the world to hang out at someone else’s party but shamelessly refuses to give everyday Aussies any idea of when they can do the same.
OPINION
Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison trod a path millions of Australians have done before.
He boarded a plane here, transited through Singapore, and then a day later landed in the UK.
He then headed to the G7 summit in Cornwall. Many of us, understandably, were underwhelmed by the spectacle.
It was a shameless display of “do as I say, not as I do”. Mr Morrison made this jaunt overseas while steadfastly refusing to give Aussies any idea of how long they will be prevented from doing the same.
It’s not about a date, it’s about the fact the PM won’t even set out a plan – a vague undulating adjustable plan even – towards opening borders when most of us are vaccinated.
At least 7.5 million Australians have every right to feel furious.
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According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 29.8 per cent of Australia’s population were born overseas.
That’s around 7.5 million people, almost the equivalent of the entire population of New South Wales, who may have parents or other close family members abroad.
The PM seems unable, or unwilling, to enunciate when these seven million Aussies will be able to see mums and dads, grandkids, aunties and uncles again. If ever.
Will it be when 80 per cent of us have had one shot? When 70 per cent have had two? Will it be if data from heavily vaccinated countries shows serious cases plummeting?
Who knows? Because the PM ain’t saying.
The PM has talked of “options” once people are vaccinated; of not wanting borders closed for “any longer” than necessary. But these statements are as soft as the clotted cream the PM may have enjoyed with a scone while in Cornwall.
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PM decided to travel while most of us cannot
Australia was invited as a guest to the Cornwall jamboree – it wasn’t even our party. It wasn’t crucial for Mr Morrison to be there in person at the G7. He could have dialled into the overseas event, like so many of us have had to do.
He wasn’t even ushered into the event until after the official snap was done.
If the G7 were a wedding, Australia would be the distant cousin. A welcome face, but not necessary for the family photo. The wedding would still go ahead without us.
There’s probably scores of family weddings Aussies have missed over the last year and scores more that will be missed during the next as Mr Morrison keeps the frontier firmly shut.
Of course, the PM should be able to travel for important meetings. But if he can travel, other Aussies should be told the circumstances of when they will be able to do the same.
When he was asked by a journalist in the UK what percentage of Australians would need to be vaccinated before travel could resume, the PM said “we haven’t set any mark on that”.
When he was pushed on when travel could restart, he could have said “when Australia’s vaccination rates have gone up and it’s been shown that overseas vaccine campaigns have reduced serious illness”.
But he didn’t say that. Mr Morrison replied, “When the medical advice suggests that we should.”
It could barely be a more vague response. What medical advice? From who? What question are you asking?
RELATED: G7 summit UK explained
Don’t just read the room, lead the room
A cynic might say Mr Morrison’s reticence is due to a pesky federal election due next year.
That he observed the landslide Labor victories in the Queensland and Western Australia elections following state border closures and said he’d have a piece of that too, thank you very much.
That he took note of various polls that have found a majority of Australians believed the border should remain shut until some golden day in the future when covid has vanished.
The PM could say he’s simply read the room. But his job is not just to read the room, it’s to lead the room.
It’s to lead the country onto the next stage of coronavirus where the virus will likely become endemic. To tell people that zero cases, which many Australians are laser focused on, might not be the metric to stick too if vaccines are proven to be effective.
That a new metric might be low numbers of serious illness and hospitalisations.
He could listen to the advice of the nation’s former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth who has said “we have to start a conversation with the community” about opening borders to the vaccinated from early 2022.
Because the alternative, that Mr Morrison is not saying, is we never fully open borders except to nations like New Zealand which also have zero cases.
On his Singapore transit, he mentioned creating a bubble with the city state. But even that might not be for “some time”.
RELATED: Zero cases: The Covid-19 statistic Australia has to wean itself off
Seven million reason for PM to have a plan
Mr Morrison has used the rising number of cases in Britain as another excuse not to give Australians a plan.
And it’s not unreasonable that we should wait to see what happens in a country where around half of people are fully vaccinated, mostly with the same vaccines as us.
But what Mr Morrison isn’t saying is that deaths in the UK still remain low despite the rise in cases. He’s also not mentioned that very few of those people in hospital have had both covid jabs.
It’s very possible that in a few months the take out from the UK will be that covid cases are far fewer and generally far milder among the vaccinated.
If that’s the case, it beggars belief that Australians should not be permitted to travel. And it baffles that Mr Morrison should not be outlining that as a possible pathway to borders being relaxed. It would be utterly craven if the reason he wasn’t doing so was to win a few more votes at election time.
Right now seven million Australians are furious at the PM’s gallivanting around the English countryside while prevaricating about when they might be able to do the same.
And they’re heartbroken that if this continues until next year’s federal election – or beyond – they may never see some relatives again, even if the covid threat lessens.
It’s seven million reasons for Mr Morrison to give those Australians the faintest glimmer of hope.
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