Coronavirus: Scott Morrison cuts Daniel Andrews loose over road map debacle

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, left, and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Scott Morrison has made a political decision to cast Daniel Andrews adrift as anger grows within Victorian communities over the prospect of being locked up for months to come.

Having cut the Victorian Premier yards of slack for the past three months, the Prime Minister has now questioned Andrews’s ability to manage his own crisis.

He has all but accused state officials of failing in their public health response to the virus while warning the Labor Premier he would have to pay the economic bill for his indefinite lockdown. Morrison’s starting point was that Andrews’s “crushing” recovery road map to nowhere was a doomsday document of questionable scientific basis.

There was little subtlety in his language. The economic damage would also be borne by the nation.

He suggested Victoria’s contact tracing had been inadequate, there was no detailed modelling to justify the continuing lockdown and he was going to put the Andrews plan under the blowtorch by federal medical experts.

Morrison is clearly beyond frustration. The torturous road map announced by Andrews on Sunday has broken his patience.

The image now being presented is that the Andrews government had no idea how to manage the crisis and had become fixated on managing the spin.

The Prime Minister directly disputed Andrews’s claim about the efficacy of its contract tracing. “NSW has a stronger capability … than Victoria,” he said. “What I’m seeing in front of me is a plan that would see Sydney in curfew now.”

There are now fundamental disagreements between the commonwealth, including the medical experts, and the Andrews government. Morrison directly disputed Andrews’s claim that it was not possible to lock down and isolate hotspots and relax restrictions elsewhere. This was a clear allusion to the resistance by Victoria to accept that if it had an efficient and sophisticated system in place like NSW it would most likely be out of lockdown already. Up until now Morrison has resisted confrontation, with a view that people were hostile to political squabbles. But on Monday he effectively ended the marriage in a move to distance the federal government as far as it could from a decision Morrison described as “crushing” for Victorians.

This is a significant pivot point. For months he has played ball with Andrews and accommodated him, despite the Victorian leader resisting commonwealth assistance in contact tracing at every turn. But he is no longer prepared to absorb any political pain from the ongoing Victorian disaster. He is making it known that Andrews’s plan is his own and he will have to bear the consequences of it.

At the same time, he has unambiguously accused the Victorian government of holding the country back, not just economically but in the restoration of personal freedoms and the ability to reopen.

A narrative is now being built into the federal budget, only weeks away, that will hold the Andrews government to account for the deterioration of the national economy. Having probably pondered a policy of saying little and letting Victorians judge for themselves, the PM has decided to express sympathy for the conflagration of anger Andrews has ignited in his own state. At the same time he has offered hope to Victorians that there was another road map on offer if the Andrews government just accepted commonwealth help in contact tracing and information mapping, which has worked so effectively in NSW. Andrews would also have to stump up with his own economic plan, beyond the significant commonwealth assistance, to pay for the indefinite lockdown of his own citizens.

Morrison’s press conference marked a turning point in a relationship that at a personal level had been one of the stronger and constructive ones Morrison had enjoyed through the crisis. While no premier or chief minister has a desire to go back to a COAG model, national cabinet unity is under strain.

What he is saying applies equally to Queensland, perhaps less so WA, but any other state that wants to take a different path to what commonwealth medical experts have been arguing against since the start of the pandemic.

The PM is saying, more forcibly than before, it will be for them to bear the responsibility for whatever the impacts are nationally.