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NSW Premier Dominic Francis Perrottet (left) and Australian Prime Minister Scott John Morrison (right). IMAGE: Crikey, 6 October 2021 |
It has been painfully obvious since he first gained a federal government ministry that the Liberal prime minister of almost 200 social media 'nicknames', Scott John Morrison, is firm in his belief that his own political and personal decisions have the blessing of his god.
It is also becoming apparent that, in his turn, the current Liberal premier of NSW, Dominic Francis Perrottet, is unshakeably convinced his way is always the right way for the state and for the country.
The belief of both these proudly Christian, rigidly authoritarian, xenophobic, chauvinistic men in the rightness of their 'leadership', means they wield power with little thought to the public good or the safety of their citizens.
No matter how parlous their respective budgetary bottom lines are or how close economic neoliberalism is to their hearts, in the midst of a global pandemic is not the time for ego-driven 'one-upmanship' by the 'Prime Minister of NSW' and the 'Premier of Australia'.
Communities and families right across the country will suffer if these two politicians won't cease pawing the ground, tossing heads, snorting and bellowing, in a foolish attempt to establish dominance & territory.
Financial Review, 15 October 2021:
A couple of weeks ago, without consulting the states, the Prime Minister announced he would be re-opening the international borders in states where the vaccination rate had hit 80 per cent.
“It’s time to give Australians their lives back,” Scott Morrison said, in what appeared for all intents and purposes to be a move designed to ensure he was the bloke getting the credit for opening things up, whatever states and territories might be doing, not to mention giving the whole opening up thing a good nudge along the way.
The fact he hadn’t mentioned it to the states – despite the significant ramifications it has for them as the ones responsible for trying to manage the spread of COVID-19 and the quarantine system (offloaded by the federal government) – meant the Prime Minister could hardly complain on Friday when the new NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet returned the favour by announcing his government would be removing both quarantine requirements and caps on overseas arrivals from November 1.
Perrottet didn’t mention it to any of the other states either of course, leaving the country in an apparently ludicrous shambles of restrictions: as many people have pointed out, of being able to travel from Sydney to Paris, but not Brisbane, Perth, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or even Canberra.
The last vestiges of the “national plan” – if there were any after Morrison’s move on international borders – have thus been smashed: that is, the stated idea that no one would open up until everyone had reached 80 per cent, regardless of individual states’ vaccination figures.
There’s so much to contemplate in this development: the humiliation – if the federal government was apt to feel such a thing – of a state government appearing to unilaterally end quarantine arrangements (the responsibility of the federal government) and overseas arrivals caps for starters
It looked for all the world as if the state government was running the joint. Perrottet the premier of Australia. Just as Scott Morrison has been dubbed the prime minister for NSW.
Before Perrottet’s announcement, we had heard nothing this week from the PM since Monday – when he emerged out of The Lodge to once again try to share in the joy of (and credit for) the end of lockdown in NSW……
Read the complete article by Laura Tingle here.
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