Scott Morrison has been forced to fork out another Covid-19 job subsidy under the guise of a “disaster payment” in the face of Victoria’s latest, and fourth, lockdown, which could cost the commonwealth an extra $50 million a week.
It’s a political solution aimed at helping Victorians who lose their jobs because of health restrictions but it’s presented as a national disaster payment not restricted to people locked down in Melbourne.
The Prime Minister and Josh Frydenberg simply had no choice other than to find a way to help Victorians because, unlike the lockdowns last year, the rollout of vaccination, particularly among the most vulnerable people in aged and disability care, is a factor in the spread of the coronavirus.
Morrison does not want the decision to be seen as an admission of federal fault in the latest outbreak because of the sluggish administration of vaccines among nursing homes or as an extension of JobKeeper, which the Treasurer so forcefully ruled out.
The Coalition was under pressure from the Victorian state Labor government, Victorian workers and its own MPs to do something and avoid further backlash or political damage over vaccinations or quarantine lapses.
The temporary disaster payment made in a defined Covid “hotspot” was the answer on vaccination, with a memorandum of understanding with Victoria on a designated quarantine centre the answer on hotel outbreaks.
These were Morrison backdowns. Yet despite three days of the Coalition under pressure on an economic issue, Labor did not shift its focus from an attack on Morrison and the line that he will not take responsibility.
For an entire week, including the day of the release of the national accounts, Jim Chalmers as Treasury spokesman asked only one question in parliament.
Question after question to Morrison was brushed aside without effect and without changing tactics.
When asked whether he took responsibility, Morrison retreated behind medical advice or the decisions of national cabinet. “Of course I do,” he said. “That is why I take matters to states and territories together to get this job done, working with doctors, pharmacies, and I can tell you that in the last 10 days there have been one million doses delivered.”
Labor’s queries were buried in numbing numbers and the political response that the government is “fighting the virus while Labor is fighting us”.
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