Fund fight risks a dangerous precedent

There is a strongly held view within the senior ranks of the Morrison camp that to cave into the Victorian state government and fund its lockdown would be to do nothing other than reward bad behaviour.

It is a precedent the federal government cannot afford to set. Literally.

When the Andrews government goes into its fifth or sixth lockdown, which is entirely possible considering its track record, it will simply come cap and hand to Canberra.

It would also send a signal to other state and territory premiers, who have so far managed their own outbreaks well, that they can do the same.

So far, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have held firm in the first seven-day lockdown.

As the Prime Minister said in question time on Wednesday, it was the state government and not the commonwealth that decided to lock down the entire state so it was the state government’s responsibility.

Yet the politics will make it very hard for Morrison to stay the course for a second week.

So far, it is ridiculously unclear as to what Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas is asking the commonwealth to do.

The call to restart the JobKeeper program for Victoria appears to be a deliberate obfuscation of the purpose of that program and the plight of those whom the Andrews government says will be most affected by its actions.

JobKeeper was a scheme aimed at part and full-time workers with permanent ties to employment. It’s no surprise that the bulk of JobKeeper funds went to Victoria in the first place due its second-wave lockdown last year.

Casual workers who were employed for longer than 12 months were also given access to JobKeeker.

For other casual workers they have access to JobSeeker. Mutual obligation requirements and waiting periods were waived.

The Victorian government claims those standing to suffer the most during this enforced stay-at-home rule will be casual workers. Hence the income support mechanism that they are calling for to assist them already exists.

The Victorian government knows, though, that a narrative that suggests that they all go and line up at Centrelink is not one the Treasurer can carry

This is a Spring Street political machine at full tilt, evidenced by an unsubstantiated claim by the state’s chief health officer that this outbreak was spreading at a rate they hadn’t seen before.

This is vigorously disputed by infectious disease experts.

Victorians may recall this was the argument used in the second-wave outbreak when Daniel Andrews said the UK strain at the time was travelling at light speed.

As a scientist, Sutton would know nothing can travel faster than that.

Morrison, who continues to maintain a passive posture to try and rise above the fray, is aware of the political trap. When Frydenberg is forced to buckle and agree to a federal bailout, the Victorian government will take the money and claim it as a commonwealth admission that it was to blame for the outbreak in the first place.