Why Scott Morrison wants to talk about coronavirus rather than bushfires

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks about coronavirus during a press conference in the Blue Room at Parliament House on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison doesn’t want to talk about else anything but coronavirus.

Bushfire recovery measures? Nuh.

Budget surplus? Nuh.

Sports rorts? Nuh, definitely.

Anthony Albanese wants to talk about anything but coronavirus.

Bushfire recovery measures? You bet.

Budget surplus? All the time.

Sports rorts and the Prime Minister’s office? Yep, definitely.

The explanation as to why Australia’s political leaders want to talk about different things is simple: politics.

Morrison was right when he declared at his press conference on Tuesday that Australians are concerned and interested in what is happening with coronavirus. He’s also right in saying it's a health crisis not a financial crisis and different measures need to be applied than were used to address the global financial crisis.

The whole-of-government approach, including parliamentary answers by every minister, works in the government’s favour as it demonstrates it is handling the pandemic threat seriously and successfully.

Morrison is able to bolster his own trustworthiness just by being associated with Greg Hunt as Health Minister and most importantly Brendan Murphy the chief medical officer at a time of crisis. He wants to project an image of — and encourage — calm, common sense, normal business and practicality.

For Morrison coronavirus provides an antidote to the criticism he faced over the summer bushfires and a diversion to labor’s concentrated attack over the sports rorts as the Opposition leader tries to blacken Morrison’s miracle image.

Albanese’s frustration is clear as the bad publicity for Morrison over bushfires is subsumed by the anxiety about the current virus crisis and he struggles to get traction for his complicated prosecution of the Prime Minister’s role in the sports rorts scandal that cost Bridget McKenzie her ministerial job.

Labor quickly realised Albanese’s attempt to politicise the coronavirus briefings from the chief medical officer was a mistake and are desperately trying to revive the bushfire antipathy and maintain interest in sports rorts.

Of course, both sides want to work to limit the impact of the virus but while they’re doing that there is still an eye to politics.