Scott Morrison must manage to lead rather than lead to manage

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison has finally stepped up on national leadership and is taking on the premiers threatening continued lockdowns.

The Prime Minister is turning the shield of medical advice that states have used to justify border closures and business shutdowns into a sword to fight for reopening.

Morrison is essentially saying the premiers are misinterpreting the Doherty Institute expert medical advice on lifting social and economic restrictions when vaccination rates reach 70 and 80 per cent.

This is an all-out attempt to take control of not only the ­national narrative on Covid-19, the Delta variant and lockdowns but also the national argument.

After months of prolix media conferences where there were too many words and not enough mess­ages, Morrison has reacted to the threat to the national health challenge, the viability of vaccin­ations, the economic recovery and declining social and political state of the public mind by parochial and oppositionist state leaders.

Instead of waiting for parliament to sit or for the 53rd meeting of national cabinet, Morrison has launched a targeted campaign, based on Doherty Institute advice, to use public pressure to get the premiers to honour their collective agreement on a national phased opening of society and the economy when vaccination levels reached 70 and 80 per cent.

The political narrative and medical argument is that low daily Covid-19 case numbers are no longer the most relevant measure to govern lockdowns, border closures, business extinctions and the strangling of personal and social life.

The advice, being put to national cabinet again on Friday, is that once 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates are achieved, lockdowns should be rare and restricted despite what may be high Covid-19 daily rates nationally because the most relevant ­parameters are now the number of hospitalisations and deaths.

The Delta strain is more virulent than the Alpha strain of last year, but there are now vaccin­ations and lower hospitalisation and deaths as a result.

The equation has changed and the success of the vaccination rollout and the possibility of economic recovery next year hinge on an ­admission, like Gladys Berejiklian in NSW, that Covid-19 can’t be reduced to zero but the impact of the Delta strain on lives and health can be mitigated.

The premiers, particularly Mark McGowan in WA, have been threatening lockdowns and border closures even if there is 80 per cent vaccination based on case numbers in other states and Anthony Albanese has immediately cast doubt on Morrison’s campaign to change the equation to ensure a way out of the ­pandemic and towards economic reconstruction.

It’s a fight Morrison has to win, not least for the election next year: it means being more of a leader in the national debate and less of a manager.