Coronavirus: Rift deepens as Scott Morrison and Labor lock horns on lockdowns

Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are determined to keep open Australia’s productive economy. Morrison criticises those calling for “lockdown” and affirms his goal is to save as many jobs as possible.

The conflict between the Morrison government and the federal Labor Party over Australia’s core strategy to fight COVID-19 has deepened with Morrison doubling down on Friday. “You can’t run a country without an economy,” was his message.

He doesn’t want a complete lockdown of the economy and doesn’t like the word lockdown. Morrison said Australia was in two fights and faced two crises — health and economic — and both were important.

He said keeping a person in a job for another day “is worth fighting for”. Morrison touched on an issue of extreme sensitivity that is being widely discussed — saying some of the people demanding lockdowns are “going to keep their jobs”.

This was Morrison’s firmest statement rejecting the push from some medical experts, politicians and commentators demanding that Australia go into lockdown. Morrison acknowledges states will take different approaches and that NSW and Victoria are heading towards retail shutdowns.

Morrison and Frydenberg are anxious to ensure critical industries stay open — mining, manufacturing, factories, energy, construction and finance — which deliver access to markets. If some sections of the productive economy are closed they may never reopen.

ALP leader Anthony Albanese and his senior colleagues argued explicitly this week the health battle had to take priority. They rejected the notion of a balance between health and economic measures — Morrison’s position. They called for stricter shutdowns but didn’t spell out how strict. They say the best result for the economy is to beat the virus by tougher measures now. Senior Labor sources confirmed to The Weekend Australian on Friday that while Labor believed in being bipartisan and constructive on the fiscal package it disagreed fundamentally with the strategy in place to fight COVID-19. It also disagrees with many of the fiscal measures as it explained during the parliamentary session last Monday. These differences will be critical at the next election.

Morrison said the third fiscal package, coming within days, seeks to “hibernate” businesses — that is, to ease the costs imposed by banks, power companies, landlords and other service companies to enable businesses to restart on the other side the bridge.