Coronavirus: Scott Morrison’s China inquiry bid enhances reputation

Voters strongly endorse Scott Morrison’s push for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.

Scott Morrison. Picture: Adam Taylor

Voters strongly endorse Scott Morrison’s push for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, and believe China’s resistance to the review “is putting us all at greater risk”.

Focus group research by Victorian company RedBridge says voters believe the inquiry “isn’t just about blame but about helping us find a vaccine (or) cure, and fight the virus”. The firm, which conducted up to three COVID-19 focus groups of 10-12 people each a week for the past four weeks, says participants believe China “should have acted quicker and told the world”.

According to Redbridge’s latest report to its political and corporate clients, Australians are sceptical of suggestions that the virus was intentionally released from a Wuhan laboratory, believing China would not deliberately be “killing their own people/children and economy”. “Interestingly, the claim that China created the virus in a lab is very strongly associated with Don­ald Trump — and this undermines its credibility,” the report said.

“Trump is seen to have done such a poor job on COVID that he holds no authority on the topic and … trying to deflect blame for the ­catastrophe … unfolding in the US.”

The Prime Minister, whose personal approval rating has soared in recent Newspolls, has declined to back Mr Trump’s push to link the virus to Chinese scientists, saying it was more likely to have come from a Wuhan wet market.

This week, Mr Morrison revealed he had written to all G20 leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, seeking support for his proposed inquiry.

According to the focus groups, “there is good support for such an investigation”, seen as a way to “get on and solve the problem”.

“Any country that gets in the way of that … runs a significant risk of being vilified,” its May 6 report said.

The polling reveals strong support for Australia to become more self-sufficient after the pandemic.

Participants said the crisis had exposed us as “over-dependent” on other countries, and believed it could have a silver lining if it meant Australia “goes back to building and making things here”.

There was a feeling Australia should “learn from our mistakes”, and that “selling out our companies, our jobs and our land to foreign companies” had been a big mistake.

RedBridge director Kosmos Samaras said research suggested the crisis was prompting Australians to “rally around the flag”.