Coronavirus: Albanese’s attacks on crisis plan could backfire
The coronavirus has spawned an entirely new governing beast in Australia, but the Labor leader is out of step.
The coronavirus has spawned an entirely new governing beast in Australia — one that has provided us with unprecedented federal-state and bipartisan co-operation aimed at “stopping the spread of the pandemic and saving lives”.
For the national cabinet to succeed it will require equally an unprecedented appreciation of just how Australia is governed, particularly in a time of crisis; a less hysterical and narcissistic approach from the legions of opinionated experts unleashed on social media; and a shedding of the politicking and pointscoring that seeks to damage the credibility and authority of the bipartisan body’s decisions and that spreads dissent and confusion behind the camouflage of being “constructive”.
Unfortunately, the novelty of the national cabinet — which brings together all nine Australian government jurisdictions represented by the Prime Minister, the six premiers and the two territory chief ministers — along with a general misunderstanding of how it operates, and a calculated and deliberate political attack from federal Labor to damage Scott Morrison and seek relevance threaten to undo a singular achievement at a time of crisis.
The national cabinet, which was formed as a functioning committee of the federal cabinet and arose from a Council of Australian Governments meeting only a month ago, has had a difficult birth and has experienced meteoric growth to become an apex of emergency decision-making, the likes of which we have never had in this country.
The Prime Minister believes the national cabinet is essential during the greater existential threat of the COVID-19 pandemic to minimise divisions, conflicts, power games and blame-shifting that were so apparent from duelling press conferences and political fights during the lethal bushfires of the Black Summer.
Morrison is the chairman of, and spokesman for, the national cabinet, which was originally envisaged as having one virtual meeting, via teleconference, of all nine leaders every week, but has quickly grown to hold three or four meetings a week, sometimes late into the night.
Defending the creation and decisions of the national cabinet, the Prime Minister told Inquirer on Friday after the latest virtual meeting that “the national cabinet is Australia’s federation working at its best; there is no red or blue team in those meetings, we are all in it together”.
“We’re all working under a fog of war on two fronts: on health and the economy, to save lives and to save livelihoods,” Morrison said.
“We’re pulling together everything we know, all the insights we can get and then acting on the best advice and information we have.
“Everyone understands the gravity of the health and economic challenges this pandemic represents. We know how important it is for us all to co-operate to get Australia’s response right for what we are facing as a country, but also in each of our jurisdictions.
“Plainly, what one state needs as they tackle this challenge is going to need to be different to other states, and the national cabinet gives everyone a process to work through those issues, share resources and learnings and get the best outcomes.”
At the press conference in Canberra on Friday after another long meeting, Morrison said: “It’s a great team to be part of, with the premiers and chief ministers, all of whom understand they have to share each other’s burdens.”
As the spokesman for the meeting, Morrison consistently used the terms “we” and “us” as he describes the national cabinet and underlines their acceptance of the twin crises facing “lives and livelihoods”.
“But I can tell you in my entire working life, in public life, I have never seen the states and territories work together like they are working together right now, and I thank them for that,” he said.
Morrison repeated time and again that the views he expresses on the twin nature of the threat — the reluctance to move to full “lockdowns”, the emphasis on saving “lives and livelihoods”, the acceptance of the expert medical advice and the necessity of regional differences in approach — are shared views.
He has made it clear from the beginning this is a co-operative body in which he has no powers of compulsion, and for most of the decisions being made it is up to the states to exercise their own judgments and implement most of the decisions.
Anthony Albanese has sought to downgrade, denigrate and damage the very existence of the national cabinet, Morrison’s role in it and its effectiveness and efficiency. But, in contrast to the Opposition Leader, the state Labor leaders — a majority of five in the national cabinet, who agreed not to include opposition leaders — are enthusiastic participants, fully supportive, understand its importance and endorse Morrison’s role in it.
There are no political considerations around the virtual cabinet table and there is a unanimous view that it should be composed only of elected leaders of executive government and be advised by medical and economic experts free of political pressure.
It seems Labor support for the national cabinet — its decisions, adoption of expert advice, acceptance of twin threats, the need for diverse decisions depending on regional requisites, scaleable, proportionate responses to the pandemic and a co-operative unifying approach — depends on whether you are Labor leader in the cabinet or a Labor opposition leader outside it.
As the longest-serving premier and most senior Labor leader, Victoria’s Daniel Andrews told Inquirer there was a common focus in the national cabinet to save lives. “National cabinet is an important forum and is working well. None of us underestimates the magnitude of the task we’re facing and the impact our decisions are having on thousands of Australians,” Andrews said on Friday.
“We are all focused on slowing the spread of the virus and saving lives. That’s why it was so important that national cabinet made clear that different states and territories will need to take different steps at different times to combat this virus.”
Earlier in the week, Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who is facing an election later in the year, publicly commended Morrison for his leadership and praised the national cabinet. “The national cabinet is working extremely well and can I commend the Prime Minister for how he is chairing those meetings and bringing everyone together,” she said.
“Let me make it very clear to the public. What happens is that all the chief health officers around the nation meet first absolutely free of any political interference, there are no health ministers present; they then provide their advice directly to the national cabinet and we accept that advice,” she said.
“We are listening to the experts when we make these decisions for the good of the community.”
This is a point Morrison reinforced after Friday’s meeting; that the premiers and chief ministers accept the strategic approach from the health and economic advice, act on it and believe the economic impact of the virus can claim the lives of Australians as easily as direct infection.
Yet federal Labor has declared the national cabinet is failing, is confused and divided and sending mixed messages. The Opposition Leader and his fellow frontbenchers — deputy leader and Labor defence spokesman Richard Marles, health spokesman Chris Bowen, industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke and home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally — have all sought this week to reject Morrison’s positions, and those of the national cabinet, on how the health and economic challenges of the pandemic should be met, and to provide an alternative Labor agenda.
Central to this political aim is the personal attack on Morrison and the undermining of the national cabinet as a decision-making body. On Friday, Keneally said the horrific blunder in allowing 2700 passengers to disembark from the Ruby Princess cruise ship and subsequent coronavirus infections was “a breakdown of the national cabinet processes; ultimately border security sits with the commonwealth government”.
The blunder on the NSW border, which Keneally, a former NSW premier, said was not Gladys Berejiklian’s fault, terrible as it was, had nothing to do with a decision from the national cabinet.
Marles said on Friday: “We need to have really clear messaging and really clear policies.” He said the national cabinet decision to lift its 30-minute limit on hairdresser appointments “literally 24 hours later” was evidence that “there has to be one clear, consistent message, based on the idea of doing everything we possibly can do right now”.
“There has to be a plan from the government,” Marles said. “And what we are seeing is a kind of step-by-step, almost death by 1000 cuts, here. We actually need to know what is the plan to make sure that we are doing everything we can to see the stopping of the transmission of this disease.”
The decision to limit the time for a haircut to 30 minutes was a joint decision of all the leaders — Liberal and Labor, state and federal — after considerable discussion, and was not in Morrison’s power to implement. When it became obvious the limit was too short and would cost jobs, the national cabinet quickly reversed the decision to keep people in work.
A miscalculation on the length of a haircut is hardly a failure of the national cabinet that warrants undermining the peak governing council of Australia. Yet this is consistent with Albanese’s criticisms of Morrison personally, the national cabinet as a body and the entire approach of all governments to deal with the twin crises of health and economic threats.
Albanese pointed to different decisions on schools being open in different states, the haircut limit and social-separation rules as being confusing.
“Australians are confused. They are confused that teachers can’t have a wedding with more than five (people) but are expected to teach classes of more than 25 students. They are confused that each day the government seems to be making different announcements about the way they should act, about what activity they can undertake, and about social-distancing measures that are confusing,” Albanese said.
“What the government needs to do is to adopt some very clear principles, and one of those is not that there is a tension between dealing with the health issues and dealing with the economic issues. That is a false distinction.
“Let’s be very clear, the government has a responsibility to deal with this health emergency; that is the first priority,” he said as a defining difference between Labor and the Morrison government. “It seems to me the government hasn’t got that sense right, and that’s resulting in some actions which are confusing. It seems also to me the government needs to announce what it’s doing today and to foreshadow what will happen later on so people can plan for it.”
But again, the position he is taking as devil’s advocate in the name of advocacy from opposition and Labor’s attacks on Morrison’s position are attacks on the position of all the Labor leaders who are in government and working virtually cheek-by-jowl with the Prime Minister.
It is dangerous for Albanese, who may face a backlash from people who consider he should be concentrating more on helping the national cabinet.
There is a risk federal Labor will be seen as nitpicking, negative and naysaying at a time of national emergency when state and territory leaders are working hand-in-glove with Morrison in the national interest based on the best advice they can get.
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