Playing the Covid-19 blame game is a gamble

Acting Premier James Merlino, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and Health Minister Martin Foley announce new COVID lockdowns as infection rates rise. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

Victoria has deliberately turned Lockdown 4.0 into an intensely political event.

Which is a bold gamble given the state’s record on lockdowns, contact tracing and hotel quarantine.

Acting premier James Merlino is well within his rights to attack Canberra’s record on the vaccination rollout and the appalling delays in building alternative quarantine facilities.

But by doing so, he has opened up Victoria and his government to legitimate political attacks and scrutiny of its own record.

It’s probably not the time for it.

While Victoria under Daniel Andrews had an admirable result in turning around Lockdown 2.0, no-one will forget that the 2020 marathon shutdown started under its watch and was a direct result of an inept health department.

Most Australians will not know Merlino.

Acting premier James Merlino. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Andrew Henshaw

He has presented well in Andrews’s absence, but his default position can be to throw punches, even when he is lying on the canvas.

This explains the strategy of highlighting the Canberra shortcomings during the same press conference where Victorians were finding out details of the lockdown.

It was rather clear during 2020 that few voters were even remotely interested in the politics of the pandemic; they were just looking for outcomes.

To that end, the vast number of exposure sites in 2021 suggests that, if anything, this lockdown will probably go longer than it will be shorter.

In other words, logic suggests that if the virus is not contained substantially to the large cluster, then don’t expect Labor to suddenly lift the lockdown.

Labor’s default position has been to go longer and harder; to dig deep and throw haymakers at anyone who dares challenge their strategy.

Merlino remained coy on Thursday about when Andrews would return to work.

Can you imagine Andrews, who is recovering from a major back injury, returning to his old role as Grim Reaper in chief during another (potentially) killer lockdown?

The fact is that both Canberra and Victoria have fallen short during the pandemic.

While the big picture outcomes in Australia have been strong by global standards, the response from both levels of government has been imperfect.

Which raises the very real question of whether Thursday was the day to really start hitting out.