Coronavirus: Scott Morrison appeals to public as premiers threaten reopening plan

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: Tertius Pickard

After six months of Anthony Albanese attacking Scott Morrison over a delayed vaccine rollout and the premiers blaming him for a lack of vaccines, the Prime Minister has hit back at both and emerged as the crusader for ending lockdowns and reopening the economy.

Morrison has challenged the premiers and Labor to support targets of 70 and 80 per cent for the reopening of borders, easing of social restrictions and freedom of business, and to accept that we “need to learn to live with the virus, not live in fear of it”.

After the Opposition Leader’s damaging attacks for the delayed vaccine rollout, criticism from both extremes about liberty and freedom and facing blame-shifting from the premiers for outbreaks, Morrison is seizing the relative recent success of vaccinations accelerating by the million and the proximity of actually reaching target vaccination levels of 70 and 80 per cent to launch his own campaign.

It is a pivotal political moment for the Morrison government and the fate of the national economy.

Morrison wants to emerge as the champion of opening up lives and the economy as the pall of the pandemic dulls the national psyche and depresses business.

Reopening is the goal, the dawn and the hope that Morrison is using as a new springboard to restart the Covid-19 health and political narratives and regain leadership momentum.

While the Prime Minister did not name any premiers as his targets – and specifically included the Opposition Leader – the states inclined to hot-button border closures have reacted already and shown they consider themselves on the other side of the reopening argument.

As Albanese sided with the premiers about continuing to use daily Covid case numbers as a guide to continuing lockdowns, Morrison accused him of undermining the efforts to fight the pandemic and seeking to keep the economy shut.

Morrison declares that the premiers have struck a deal, they must stick to it, the equation on reopening society has changed because of vaccination levels and that he is determined to fight for the end of lockdowns.

“The national plan we have developed and agreed is our pathway to living with this virus. That is our goal, to live with this virus, not to live in fear of it. It is a plan based on the best possible scientific, medical and economic advice,” he said on Monday as he called on the public to back him and support the phased reopening nationally.

Josh Frydenberg warned in parliament that easing restrictions at the recommended targets would not mean the end of Covid cases, hospitalisations or indeed “tragic deaths”, but the Treasurer, who has warned the commonwealth can’t fund relief for states forever, said we could not continue living as we are.

Vaccine supply, slow take-up and poor messaging have ensured plenty of criticism for Morrison, and damage to his personal standing, but the super surge of vaccinations, the clear Doherty Institute guidelines, the positive experience in Britain and the crying need for some return to normality have given the Prime Minister a cause to fight for, which is backed by medical advice, will be attractive to all groups and frames Albanese as negative and against reopening the economy.

Just as additional vaccines changed the momentum of the public debate, so too has the pace of vaccination and having a goal in sight.