Scott Morrison’s caveman comments alienate Western Australia

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has angered an entire state by appearing to liken its residents to cavemen.

The Prime Minister has alienated and angered an entire state after appearing to liken Western Australia to cavemen during a bizarre television interview.

Scott Morrison was discussing Covid-19 vaccination rates when he said it was “absurd” for any state to think they could protect themselves from the Delta strain forever, in a clear dig to states like WA.

“Now it’s like that movie The Croods,” he told The Today Show on Tuesday, in reference to the children’s film about cavemen.

“Some wanted to stay in the cave and the young girl wanted to deal with the challenges of living in a different world. Covid is a different world ... we can’t stay in the cave.”

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the Prime Minister’s comments were odd. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the Prime Minister’s comments were “an odd thing to say”.

“We are not in lockdown, we are the freest community anywhere in Australia, perhaps anywhere in the world. We don’t have any restrictions,” he told reporters.

“Sometimes people are too focused on where they are and they don’t realise that outside of NSW it’s a very different situation. Australia is bigger than just NSW.

“We are not living in caves — we are living a normal life.”

Mr McGowan also noted WA was providing a great deal of the revenue being used to help NSW during its outbreak.

Meanwhile, many people took to social media to poke fun at the Prime Minister’s unusual film reference.

“NSW should have watched The Croods earlier and harder, and saved the entire country from this mess,” Naaman Zhou wrote.

Several people also joked about getting a copy of the film on DVD when vaccination rates reached 80 per cent.

Others humorously compared Mr Morrison’s comment to famous quotes by other world leaders in the past, such as Winston Churchill.

New South Wales should have watched The Croods earlier, and harder, and saved the entire country from this mess

— Naaman Zhou (@naamanzhou) August 23, 2021

Some people said things like “too much screen time” and “go outdoors” but now, as somebody who watches kids movies every single day of the week and watched a Croods movie just two days ago, they will say things like “known political academic Fiona Hardy” instead

— Fiona Hardy (@fionathehardy) August 24, 2021

During a series of media appearances on Tuesday, Mr Morrison spoke about the vaccination rollout, lockdowns and reopening the country.

He said there was no reason families could not be reunited for Christmas — but only if all states stuck to the agreed national vaccination plan.

“Let me be clear, there is nothing more powerful to deal with Covid-19 than the vaccine,” the Prime Minister told Sunrise.

“There is no government, no individual, no set of border protections that is more powerful than the vaccine.

“Once the vaccine is there at 70 and 80 per cent, you do more harm than good to your people by locking them down and locking them up and keeping them in the cave.”

Mr Morrison said if the plan was followed then there was “no reason” why Australians couldn’t be reunited for Christmas.

“I believe we will be able to be in that position if we had those marks of 70 per cent and 80 per cent because there is no reason why you shouldn’t be,” he said.

Aside from WA being an obvious blocker to the plan, Queensland has also shown some hesitancy.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday said “the goalposts have changed” since she agreed to the plan.

Scott Morrison has urged state premiers not to waiver from the national plan. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

The plan, Ms Palaszczuk argued, was modelled on an initial outbreak of 30 cases, noting there were now thousands of cases across Australia.

“This is a book that hasn’t been written, folks. This is uncharted territory,” she said.

But late Monday evening, the Doherty Institute – which mapped Australia’s way out of the pandemic – said reopening the country was still safe despite higher case numbers.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel – once we achieve 70 per cent to 80 per cent vaccination we will see less transmission of Covid-19 and fewer people with severe illness, and therefore fewer hospitalisations and deaths,” a statement read.

“Covid-19 won’t go away but it will be easier to control in the future.

“This level of vaccination will make it easier to live with the virus, as we do with other viruses such as the flu.

“However, it won’t be possible to maintain a situation where there are no cases at all.”

The Doherty Institute estimated at phase B – or 70 per cent – Australia could see 385,983 symptomatic cases of Covid-19 and 1457 deaths over six months.

Testing and tracing cases as well as isolating and quarantining those who test positive, will assist in keeping the numbers down.

Mr Morrison said the restrictions in this phase was just “common sense”.

“There is not zero restrictions, there are common sense baseline level restrictions and I wouldn’t even call them restrictions, it’s just common sense behaviour,” he told the Today Show.

“Washing your hands and maintaining good hygiene and doing all that sort of common sense stuff.”