‘It’s time for ScoMo to step up and seize the moment and retake control’
Welcome to the column where you provide the content. In Simon Benson’s judgement, Scott Morrison has only two options before him to deal with the political pile-on from the Labor premiers over the vaccine rollout and lockdowns. To lead by consensus … or by decree. Greg favoured the latter:
“I live in Queensland and I find the actions and words of the Premier (by default) and her CHO as blatantly, embarrassingly mischievous and irresponsible. They have treated this issue as a political football, immaturity at the highest level. Time for ScoMo to step up and seize the moment and retake control. Carpe Diem …”
Scott agreed:
“Parochialism and an over reliance on ‘best health advice’ has left Australia flat-footed with respect to Covid. Most of the country appears to be of the belief that they will catch the illness just by being out in the community, and that the only way to save themselves is to obey ever increasingly silly looking edicts from their political leaders. Compare this to what is happening in other developed countries – Covid is being treated as an endemic seasonal illness. And they are getting on with life.”
According to another Greg:
“Yesterday’s three person pantomime and widely reported display of the Queensland triumvirate of political and medical leaders’ parochialism and obfuscation would have to evidence a new low in their competence and leadership.”
From James:
“It’s not the PM who’s being held hostage, it’s Australian taxpayers.”
Poor, said Rich Results:
“The ‘Quiet Australian’ has had it with these grandstanding second tier leaders. ScoMo needs to stand up today and lance this boil.”
Scott was savage:
“The Queensland Premier has continued to set new lows across the pandemic. It is hard to imagine anything lower than ‘Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders’ but the Queensland premier has certainly done so. In at least two events of recent times the Queensland Premier has invoked memories of the behaviours described in Animal Farm. The self entitled walk to the front of the queue to get a preferred vaccine and most recently the rewriting of events and the classic refusal to acknowledge let alone apologise for the misquote.”
Alison demanded action:
“Burn the Hydra by necking the State governments altogether. Time to get rid of them and reform the Federation.”
Reform, cried Rob:
“Or at least bypass them with emergency federal powers, then amend the constitution accordingly after a Royal Commission into how our federation was found lacking in dealing with the pandemic.”
Robert’s recipe:
“Having ceded leadership of this country to ‘medical experts’ and their only-too-willing-to-follow State Premiers, the Prime Minister will struggle to wrest back control more particularly over the ‘Labor States’. His electoral fortunes are now clearly at stake and he needs to go into battle because a consensus in this so called national cabinet has not been there since its early days and is unlikely to be forthcoming now.
“They can model all they like but this variant of the virus is unlikely to be the last and by the time the vaccination mass reaches say 80pc there will be other more infectious types. Time has come to accept we will need to return to our normal lives and for each and every Australian to accept that the responsibility for avoiding this insofar as is possible rests on the shoulders of each individual. Time to stand up Prime Minister lest you die by a thousand cuts on your knees because while you are down there so is the country.”
Linda lashed out:
“State premiers (have) grown too big for their boots. We have had enough.”
Christine counselled:
“Where has the federation gone? This country is now totally divided. The PM must take action to reunify Australia and take control of the laws pertaining to our federated nation. Living in Queensland has become an embarrassment. National cabinet has overruled the PM and made Scott Morrison almost redundant. Get a backbone and take back your position, Mr Morrison.”
Meh, said JohnB:
“I am a Queenslander born and bred. I am not embarrassed by that. I am an Australian born and bred and I am not embarrassed by that either. There is too much emotive claptrap being spouted about that sort of thing.”
: T: reckoned:
“You cannot have one Covid policy when there are eight states and territories, each one having the ability to implement their own health policies and lockdowns. Morrison can have the best intentions and sensible ideas, but they will always be usurped by idiot premiers (e.g. Palaszczuk, McGowan and Andrews). Australians should now be realising that our federation does not confer power to the federal government and its agencies to handle a pandemic.”
Jim said:
“National cabinet has turned out to be a disaster. It has let loose a pack of feral premiers who through their actions are in the process of destroying a 120 year federation. I very much doubt Morrison can get the genie back in the bottle today. The only way out is to wait until the public finally turn on this pack of grandstanding control freaks. Thankfully there are signs this might be happening thanks to the petulance and arrogance coming out of Queensland.”
Terrence added:
“In so many ways this is not a ‘leadership’ problem, it is a ‘constitutional’ problem. Morrison should lead by pointing that out because although it is obvious to him it is not remotely understood by the Australian people who do not have a clue about ur system of government. Every nation in the world, of any note, learns about their system at school – our kids get lectured about climate change, invasion and gender.”
Michael S said:
“It is an absolute disgrace that some of the State Premiers and their politicised Chief Medical Officers have made statements in contradiction of the scientific facts. The incidence of blood clots in Astra Zenica is 1 in 250,000. The incidence of blood clots in those taking the contraceptive pill is 1 in 1,000. That is the risk of taking the pill is 250 times more than receiving the Astra Zenica vaccine. I don’t hear these people warning against the risks of taking the pill.”
Rod got shirty:
“Queensland’s CHO overstepped the mark this week with her premier’s absolute backing as in a spineless attempt to shirt-front Morrison. WA’s premier will shirt-front anyone at any time to make himself look good against any eastern state leader. The stalking horse to watch over the next weeks will be red Dan as he has had time off to consider the historical epic failure of his government during Covid and the electoral whirlwind he must charm before the judgement (election) day.”
Dorothy’s dixer:
“If Jeanette Young is so concerned about what young people may be putting into their bodies, she may want to consider more funds to crackdown on illicit drugs, some fast food joints and Uber Eats.”
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“Tremble and obey” was how Greg Sheridan summed up Xi Jinping’s “bare knuckle speech from the leader of a bare knuckle political party” to mark the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party. Bullie, said Xi, would be met with a “wall of steel”. Wilbur was worried:
“China’s rise to become a real threat to global peace is a damning testament to the blinkered incompetence of our world leaders and the one eyed greed and short term self interest of business. Australia has gifted China the majority of our manufacturing capabilities. Pretty much we dig up stuff, export it and buy it back as products for many multiples of the original.
“Australia, like many other countries, is overly reliant on China for manufactured goods but far worse our economic health is woefully dependent on China. Too late we are realising that a broader diversification would have been extremely prudent. China is proving to be the ultimate ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ and is fast becoming a real threat to world peace and economic stability. An invidious position to be in. But with the benefit of hindsight we really should have seen this coming.”
Jeffery West * wondered:
“So why do we still keep selling our iron ore to CCP-led China to build that wall of steel? When is enough, enough, eh Twiggy?”
John was confused:
“Who exactly is bullying China, that gets Mr Xi hot under the collar? Seems to me that China is the one doing the bullying here.”
still Bryan said:
“Classic bully behaviour; take on a victim role when called out.”
Kung Foucault’s conundrum:
“Emasculating and enfeebling identity politics dominating in the West, an ascendant, totalitarian behemoth rising in the East, what does history tell us should happen next?”
Martyn mused:
“Very worrying as their low self esteem and paranoia makes them a dangerous bully. When their only response seems to be to threaten and intimidate then careful actions need to be taken. I think the days of treating China as a valuable trading partner are now gone and any thought that we can peacefully coexist can be forgotten.
“We need to close any Confucius Institutes in our universities, any student caught bullying or threatening other students needs to have their visas revoked immediately. We need to be the sanctuary that many people of Chinese origin chose to come to.”
Nancy wanted to know:
“How is it possible to remove the ‘developing nation’ tag from this monolith? Like everywhere, it has its poor people. Its power financially, productively, economically and militarily make this the greatest misnomer of our time. Russia was and is bad enough but China is much worse. The greater the power, the greater the corruption in any one party state. One to be feared. We must stop supplying them with materials used for war.”
David’s description:
“Having worked in China I found the place oppressive and a totalitarian communist state with their state officials constantly watching me. Xi’s speech was not at all unexpected he is a smiling assassin, dangerous and never to be trusted as most Australians have experienced. “Only the Australians that are on the CCP payroll disregard the threats from China however their days too are numbered because China will turn on them too, that is how a communist state works, if a communist state cannot punish the person they are aiming for they will punish that persons relatives, that is the same for a company or even a country. Under no circumstances can China be trusted as we are slowly experiencing.
“It is not too late to completely diversify our trade, we must not be held to ransom by our iron ore or other products, the owners of those companies that sell those products to China are certainly not going to starve to death if their exports are stopped by the CCP. The royalties that Australia receives is completely offset by our import of Chinese products directly or indirectly from countries like New Zealand which are the wholesalers of Chinese products.
“Our best option to this diplomatic problem is to ignore China completely, however we must maintain a defensive stance with our allies towards China’s persistence for world domination and military threats towards us and the other nations in Asia which are on China’s hit list.”
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Virgin Australia took to social media to canvas support for a rule change that would allow flyers to take their pooches with them on planes. James voted to jettison the idea:
“Please, please don’t do this. A bad move on safety, passenger comfort, on-time performance and airline efficiency. The operational staff will carry the can for some ridiculous HR inspired feel good agenda.”
Not on, said John:
“I have experienced this in the USA. No, thank you. The cargo bay is the right place for pets.”
Pete3051 proclaimed:
“This is a TERRIBLE idea. Give people an inch, and they’ll take a mile. Stories such as the ‘emotional support Peacock’ from the United States (look it up, it’s true) should be enough to dissuade any airline from allowing pets in the cabin.”
Paul wasn’t persuaded:
“Won’t be travelling Virgin if they implement this. People are bad enough; animals that’s just a bridge too far.”
No mutts, said Maxwell:
“It’s bad enough having to contend with babies and young children on flights. But having to then contend with dogs on planes defecating, urinating, barking and whimpering is too much. Its also indicative of a deeper problem at Virgin Australia that they are desperately looking for ways to create revenue.”
Nickyb bit back:
“I much prefer dogs to children. Each to their own.”
Fady fumed:
“The fact that Virgin used a social media poll was always going to skew the result. It’s not surprising that most people under 30 would be fine with pets on a plane – they are the same group who generally take their pets into cafes. If Virgin do this then they have lost me as a customer.”
Alison asked:
“Do you really want to sit next to a pit bull?”
Last word to Choco:
“I have travelled in the US where little dogs can fly with the passengers. On two occasions the dog pooped and the stink was foul. At the check in counter one time, the dog pooped and the owner ran over the poop with her wheely cabin baggage. I stood in line waiting for 40 minutes to check in and no one came to clean up. I am a dog lover. No way should dogs fly in the cabin except guide and service dogs.”
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