Meme of the Week

 

via @bubblytest

Quote of the Week

 

” It seemed that the part he was most sensitive about was whether I was going to expose his invisible role as a ringleader – of the coup, and of the treatment I’d received since. He asked the same question in various different ways, along the lines of ‘It’s not anything I have done is it?’ ‘You don’t have a problem with me, do you?’ ‘Are you sure there’s nothing I’ve done to make you want to leave?’ Would I expose that he was a bully? That he was a man who could not be trusted?” [Former Liberal MP for Julia Banks quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 July 2021]

These days they are singing about their prime minister in Australia - feel free to join in

Well @MrDenmore it's done. I think this song's called "He Doesn't" oh and i just STOLE a Men at Work chorus to be an utter bastard. Coz it fitted nicely. Poetic license. Parody not plagiarism pic.twitter.com/UJAiF975QQ

— Glenno and Ruben (@mad6duck) July 1, 2021

Lyrics for "The Ballad of Scotty" aka "He Doesn't" courtesy of @MrDenmore 

 

I made a song out of all the hashtags & nicknames for Scott Morrison.
According to legend, if you play the song 3 times, he will be conjured from hiding and start DOING HIS JOB#ScottyFromMarketing #UnderTheDoona #MorrisonLockdown #auspol #COVID19Aus #ScottyDoesNothing pic.twitter.com/bYv96omfh7

— Nathleigh (@Nathleigh) July 1, 2021

 

Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

David Pope

 

Mercury, 30 June 2021

Prime Minister Scott Morrison caught out in yet another lie about Australia's closed national border

“Australia's borders were slammed shut in March last year as the coronavirus spread across the world, with the federal government trying to take advantage of the nation's island geography to safeguard it from the worst of the deadly virus. In an interview with News Corp, Mr Morrison said he did not believe Australians had an "appetite" for opening borders if it meant having to deal with more coronavirus outbreaks, lockdowns and social restrictions. "We have to be careful not to exchange that way of life for what everyone else has," he said. In a later post on Facebook, he warned borders would only be opened "when it is safe to do so". [ABC News, 9 May 2021]

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has revealed more than 36,000 Australians remain stranded overseas with 4,860 considered vulnerable.…...In September, Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised to get as many people as possible on the list home by Christmas.” [AAP General News Wire, 24 March 2021]

If one reads the aforementioned quotes it would seem that Australia has had an all but impenetrable border since the COVID-19 global pandemic began and, that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made it his priority to repatriate his fellow citizens stranded overseas by travel restrictions.

Then as the country braces for what is feared will be a widespread outbreak of a highly infectious SARS-Cov-2 variant*, this appears in the media - revealing that after being thwarted by the National Cabinet in his desire to open the national border at the earliest opportunity Morrison then found an underhand way of doing so. 

Note: * the Delta variant of SARS-Cov-2 which causes a highly infectious form of COVID-19 came into this country via an infected overseas traveller.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 2021, excerpt:

The data obtained by the Herald and The Age is collated from incoming passenger cards and is designed to capture the main reason for the journey for both visitors arriving and residents returning to Australia. The government publishes the data online.

During April, 2226 cards listed the passengers’ reason for arriving as “business, conferences or exhibitions”.

In the same month, 8067 cards listed “visiting family or friends” and “taking a holiday” as the reason for travel. The number was down from its peak last December when there were 10,536 arrivals for those reasons in the lead up to the Christmas holidays.

Employment was given as the reason for 5200 passenger movements while 817 of the April arrivals were for education.

Seventy two people were “attending a conference” in April – marking 533 total trips for conferences made since July last year.

The Herald excluded travellers from New Zealand from the statistics, which accounted for many of the 53,872 arrivals recorded in April…..

It was revealed by the Queensland government that its latest outbreak spawned from an unvaccinated traveller allowed to “come and go repeatedly” between Australia and Indonesia, doing multiple stints in hotel quarantine.

Meanwhile, in South Australia, the ABC reported authorities allowed a family to fly in from Indonesia on a privately funded medevac flight after testing positive for the highly infectious Delta strain.

The data shows 2400 arrivals were citizens of the UK, 1900 were citizens of China, 1400 were citizens of India and 1100 were US citizens.

“Thousands of people are being allowed to travel here who are not stranded Aussies,” Mr Miles said.

“In addition to the non-Australians returning, every month about 40,000 Australian citizens and about 6000 permanent visa holders are allowed to leave the country.

“Many of them seek to return. Rejoining the queue, going back through hotel quarantine, putting our community at risk.”

However, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accused the Queensland government of misrepresenting the data.

“The data from the Australian Border Force sets out very clearly that, on average, 80 per cent of returning travellers to Australia are either Australian citizens, permanent residents, or immediate family members,” she said.

She said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was “arguing against her own travel to Tokyo” to attend the Olympics.

In response to questions about the infected traveller from Indonesia, Ms Andrews said the government was “going through a process of looking at” exemptions allowing people to make multiple trips despite the border closures.

However, she did not believe it was necessary to lower caps on overseas arrivals.

“It’s one of the issues that we have to deal with now, which is dealing with specific needs of our economy while at the same time making sure that we are able to bring in as many vulnerable people and return as many Australians as we possibly can,” she said.

According to the Australian Border Force, between March 2020 and the end of May this year, 156,507 Australian citizens and permanent residents were granted exemptions to depart Australia, while 84,031 requests were denied.

Over the same period 49,017 foreign nationals were granted an exemption to travel into Australia and 104,507 had their request denied.

“More than half of these approvals were for those proving a critical skill to Australia,” a Border Force spokesperson said.

A request may cover more than one person and individual travellers may have made multiple requests.

ABC News, 1 July 2021:

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has expressed his anger at the "large group of people" leaving Australia during the pandemic to travel overseas, some of whom he said had been enjoying foreign holidays.

Mr McGowan said 82 people had been on four overseas trips, while eight people had left five times and two people six times.

"In other words, there's a large group of people who have been overseas on multiple occasions. And every time they go overseas, they increase the risk," he said.

The Premier said many of those trips were unnecessary, and allowing people to go overseas was "the biggest [COVID] threat vector" Australia faced.

"People book a conference in Europe, and then have a holiday while they're over there, and then come back and join the queue," Mr McGowan said.

"It's just not right. We need to crack down on this."

He said it was time to limit the number of people allowed to travel internationally.

"I actually think there is a strong argument that before anyone can go overseas, they should be vaccinated, and then we should actually crack down hugely on the number of people allowed to go overseas." 

This is nuts!!! I must find a conference, I guess. ::sigh::#auspol #COVID19Aus #Quarantine
Figures from just WA. McGowan reported today. pic.twitter.com/NZ019AU4XD

— 🍩🍩CreatetheWorldYouWant🍩🍩 (@JL_Whitaker) July 1, 2021

 

Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

Matt Golding

Finally, NSW Premier & Liberal MLA for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian appears to be rebelling against Scott Morrison's unreasonable & dangerous demands for the state to shoulder more of the federal government's constitutional responsibilities

News.com.au, 7 June 2021:

The NSW Premier has issued a warning to the Prime Minister, declaring if the federal government wants to increase quarantine capacity it’s going to have to “do it themselves”.

“If the feds (federal government) want to increase capacity in NSW they’re going to have to build and operate a facility themselves,” Gladys Berejiklian told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

The state welcomed home thousands of Australians every week and there were between 5000 and 5500 people in hotel quarantine across NSW at any given time, the Premier explained.

Any more than that “isn’t good”, Ms Berejiklian declared, citing advice from police and health officials.

Ms Berejiklian warned once international borders opened those hotels could no longer be used as quarantine facilities, presenting an enormous challenge for the government.

“In the future you can’t have a hotel built for tourism as a quarantine facility,” she said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued a warning to Scott Morrison. 

Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia

 

“I said to the feds ‘5000 is all we can do in NSW and we’re doing it’. I don’t know any state that comes close to that and we do it without complaining.

“I am having a bit of a whinge today but rightfully so.”

She said another 10 new quarantine facilities would need to be built to match what NSW was already doing….. 

Very quickly after this article was published the Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt went to the media with this statement:

"The PM has confirmed with the premier that at this point they're not seeking any additional quarantine facility in New South Wales".

I suspect that the premier's confirmation, if it was indeed supplied, was not enthusiastically given to 'Bully Boy' Morrison.

COVID-19 Pandemic 2020-21: Morrison Government still not listening to the experts

 

The New Daily, 30 May 2021:

The numbers used by the federal government to defend the effectiveness of hotel quarantine are wrong, one of Australia’s leading epidemiologists has said.

The criticism comes amid growing calls for every state and territory to have a purpose-built facility, as new analysis shows purpose-built quarantine costs a fraction of the economic cost of lockdowns.

Last month Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought to downplay concerns Australia would keep yoyo-ing in and out of lockdown until issues in hotel quarantine were fixed.

“A system that is achieving 99.99 per cent effectiveness is a very strong system and is serving Australia very well,” Mr Morrison said.

“If I was to tell you [last year] that would achieve a 99.99 per cent success rate, you wouldn’t have believed me. No one in this country would have believed me. I would have found that hard to believe.”

But Mary-Louise McLaws, an infectious diseases expert at the University of New South Wales and member of the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 response team, said the PM’s figure was wrong.

“I have no idea where it’s been plucked out of,” Professor McLaws told The New Daily.

Around 70 per cent of total cases since Australia closed its borders on March 20 last year have directly and indirectly come from quarantine breaches and exemptions, she said.

Approximately 21,000 people have been infected due to those breaches and exemption.

Professor McLaws said the Australian government needed to “turn 180 degrees and rethink” the quarantine system, to save itself money and protect its citizens.

“Lockdown costs $1billion a week for NSW or Victoria,” she said.

Pointing to the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility, which has not leaked a single case into the community, she said states need their own purpose-built facilities, not hotels.

“Victoria has estimated they could make a purpose-built for $700 million. That’s less than the cost of a one-week lockdown,” Professor McLaws said.

“In WA, they could make a 1000-bed facility that would cost between $80 million and $200 million – that’s still a fraction.

“So when people say this is too expensive, I say try $1 billion a week.”…..

News.com.au, 29 May 2021:

A Melbourne doctor has delivered a spray at the PM on national television as frustration boils over about the Government’s biggest headache.

Frontline emergency physician Dr Stephen Parnis took aim at Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday morning after Victoria was thrust into its fourth lockdown since the pandemic began.

He told the ABC that Victorians are “getting tired of hearing excuses” about things that “should have happened earlier this year, at least”.

He was referring to delays in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and the Commonwealth’s slow take-up of advice to build a fit-for-purpose quarantine facility that does not involve placing infected people in hotel rooms.

“It’s taking too long,” Dr Parnis said. “It should have happened earlier this year, at least. We need to do it right now. [New quarantine facilities] has the same urgency as vaccinating our nursing home populations.

“We know that this virus has airborne transmission. We know that the best protocols will still not be foolproof in hotels that are designed for tourists. Each state and territory will have plans for these things. But they are waiting for the checks to come from Canberra and those checks have been delayed,” Dr Parnis said.

“That is unacceptable, I think, to the medical profession, and it should be unacceptable to the wider population.”

It is a sentiment shared by Melbourne GP Dr Vyom Sharma. He told news.com.au there is nowhere near enough being done to stop leaks from HQ.

“There are no nationally consistent guidelines for infection prevention and control,” he said.

“Different states have different standards for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) — some will use simple surgical masks when near travellers, others will use N95 respirators.

“Some states have performed ventilation audits and upgrades. Others either have not, or have not reported this publicly. This inconsistency risks further instances of airborne transmission within quarantine.”

He said staff working in medi-hotels are not being protected.

“Any staff within line of sight of a returned traveller should be wearing an N95 mask. That is a no brainer, and an instant fix — source the materials, fit test all staff.

“Also, and I can only hope this is the case in all states, make vaccination mandatory for all staff, and do not allow them on site until two weeks after the second dose.”

Dr Sharma said the problem was no going to disappear and that only fit-for-purpose accommodation would prevent more outbreaks.

“More leaks are inevitable if things stay the same. Only a fool would bet otherwise.”

The problem with using hotel quarantine to house overseas arrivals from Covid-19 hotspots was raised with the Prime Minister on Thursday after Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino revealed the holdup in building an broadacre facility was at a federal level.

“We are waiting on the green light in terms of going ahead,” he said in relation to a proposal to build such a facility at Avalon or Mickleham partly funded by both state and federal governments.

Mr Morrison said he was “highly favourable” of the Victorian plan but did not make a firm commitment.

Melbourne surgeon Dr Eric Levi expressed his frustration at Victoria being forced into another lockdown because quarantine issues had not been sorted.

“Let’s learn from this. AGAIN,” he wrote on Twitter.

“One person was Covid negative on multiple swabs, spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. Caught Covid from the room next door. Flew back to Melbourne. Tested positive.

Now thousands of primary and secondary contacts. One person in ICU.

“More than 150 exposure locations. And a state in lockdown. Again. It’s 16 months into the pandemic. Should we not have learned this last year. Can we fix upstream quarantine problems before it causes downstream catastrophe?

“Covid is airborne. Majority of those with Covid have no symptoms. By the time they know they’re positive, they’ve shared the virus with others. We now have vaccines to reduce transmission. New variants are emerging.”

Mr Merlino said expressions of interest had been sent out on Friday for the building of a facility at either Avalon or Mickleham, 30km and 56km from the CBD respectively.

But nothing will happen without the Morrison Government’s approval. It will have the final say.

“Both sites could work and that will ultimately, because these are both Commonwealth pieces of land, be the decision of the Commonwealth,” Mr Merlino said.

Cartoons of the Week

Mark David

 

Tweets of the Week

 

Nailed it @slpng_giants_oz @markhumphries pic.twitter.com/HEnfOJkg2n

— GurpreetSgill (@gurpreetgill) May 1, 2021

 

So, Scott's "war footing" lasted exactly 3 weeks, during which the vaccination program was not fixed, the hotel quarantine system nearly collapsed and he made it a criminal offence for our own citizens to come home. Bravo.

— marquelawyers (@marquelawyers) May 7, 2021

 

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ordered an urgent review of the 42 year old National Australia Day Council

On 1 May 2021 The Saturday Paper reported that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ordered an urgent review of the board of the National Australia Day Council, established as the Australia Day Committee in 1979. 

National Australia Day Council Limited (NADC) is a not-for-profit Commonwealth owned corporation, within the Prime Minister's portfolio responsibilities, as well as being a tax exempt charity which is the “coordinating body for Australia Day celebrations across the nation and for the Australian of the Year Awards. The NADC heads a network of eight state and territory Australia Day affiliate organisations and 780 local Australia Day committees….reports to the Commonwealth Parliament under the provisions of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. The operations of the company are overseen by a board of Directors appointed by the Prime Minister”.

The NADC board of directors in 2019-20 were:

Ms Danielle Roche OAM Chair

Ms Robbie Sefton Deputy Chair

Ms Stephanie Foster PSM

Dr Robert Isaacs AM

Dr Stepan Kerkyasharian AO

Ms Jane McNamara

Major General (Ret’d) Maurie McNarn AO

Mr Richard Rolfe AM

Mr Norman Schueler OAM

Ms Naseema Sparks AM appointment ended 25 June 2020.

As of 1 May 2021 the position of Chair, Deputy Chair, and two Director/Non Executive Director positions are vacant. Danielle Roche and Maurie McNarn are no longer on the board. Robbie Sefton is no longer Deputy Chair but remains a Director/Non Executive Director and Alison Page became a board member in September 2020.

NADC employs around 12 people full-time and is located in Canberra, ACT.

In its last published annual report NADC stated that:

During the period ended 30 June 2020, the NADC and Network continued to deliver both national and state programs. The Australian Government, through the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, provided a total of $14,665,913 funding for the company. Sponsors provided a total of $2,109,860 for national programs, and part of this funding was allocated to state and territory Australia Day affiliates for local projects.

NADC does not appear to have any significant debt. There appears to have been no ministerial directions received, no government policy orders received and no judicial decisions or decisions of administrative tribunals were made concerning NADC during the 2019-20 reporting period.

So what has made the Prime Minister hot under the collar? After all, he makes those NADC board appointments.

Could it be that Morrison is uncomfortable with the fact that from January 2020 NADC through its “The Story of Australia” advertising placed a much greater emphasis on the histories and stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? That he didn't like the NADC commitment for 2020-21 to "work to expand the reach of our Respect, Reflect, Celebrate: We’re all part of the story message into Australia Day events in every State and Territory, every town and city"?

Or was he incensed to the core of his narrow, historically inaccurate world view by this event?

"At dawn on Australia Day 2020, Port Phillip City Council in Melbourne and the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council, with the support of the NADC, held a We-Akon Dilinja (Mourning-Reflection) ceremony."

Chronologically it seems that Morrison's unusually short extension of Danielle Roche's contact as a NADOC director, which saw her ending her association with the National Australia Day Council on 31 March 2021, possibly may have followed on from his personal dissatisfaction with the 2020 Respect, Reflect, Celebrate Australia Day message which acknowledged Aboriginal dispossession commencing in 1788.  Within four weeks of becoming prime minister Scott Morrison in 2018 was on record as viewing any such acknowledgement as "indulgent self loathing".

Or is it that in 2021 NADC made Grace Tame @TamePunk Australian of the Year and she refused be cowed by his ‘eminent’ position or pull her punches when it came to publicly speaking of institutional sexual abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment? 

Or is Morrison upset that on 25 January 2021 the NADC Board made a referral to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) of the leak of some Australia Day award recipients' names, given strong suspicions that there was an attempt by a person or persons to manipulate the betting market? For operational reasons about 180 individuals were informed of the winners names in December 2020 and that possibly would have included one or more staff in the Office of Prime Minster and Cabinet. No award finalists are ever informed before the official announcement on 26 January.

Tweets of the Week

 

In the kitchen. Just heard my daughter yell "where's the remote? I don't wanna listen to Scott Morrison's bullshit!"
She's 7.
I have taught her well 😂

— Wrennyren (@Wrennyren1) April 28, 2021

 

Scott Morrison and I went to the same school. On behalf of the old boys, staff and students of Sydney Boys High School I wish to offer a profound apology to the citizens of Australia. #auspol

— Victor Kline (@victorklineTNL) April 28, 2021

 

Cartoons of the Week

CathyWilcox

Alan Moir

CathyWilcox

Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott John Morrison has attracted at least 125 political opinions expressed as nicknames and descriptive terms

 

The following non-exhaustive list probably became inevitable the day it dawned on the Australian people that Scott Morrison has given himself the nickname "ScoMo" as form of political self-promotion and, that previous to this creation, he was known to family, friends and acquaintances simply as "Scotty".

However, what was not inevitable was the sheer number of names and terms he attracted - that was entirely due to own his utterances and actions first a federal cabinet minister and then later as prime minister. One hundred and twenty-five.

I honestly don't think even Donald J. Trump during his time as US president had this many.

Scott 'ScoMo' Morrison's other politically-inspired nicknames and descriptive terms - as found on social media and in no particular order:

#LiarFromTheShire #ScottyFromMarketing #ScumMo #SloMo #SmoKo #StuntMo #ScamMo #ScoMoFo #ScoMocchio #ProMo #FauxMo #CoalMo #GunnaDoMorrison #CrimeMinister #PrimeSinister #MorriScum #SloganBogan #ScoMoses #KoalaKiller #SmirkyMcSmirkface #TyphoidScotty #Bullshitboy #NotMyPM #ScottyFromSportsRorts #GrottyScotty #SideshowScott #TheJerkWithTheSmirk #TheEngadineShitter #HappyClappySloganBogan #ScottyNoMates #ScottyBornToShill #SnollygosterInChief #TrumpsBitch #ScoMoron #SmirkingSnake #SignificuntScotty #DeathMaker #ScottyTheAnnouncer #TheSmugThug #ScuntMo #JobShirker #JobDodger #ShirknSmirk #ScottyTheSaviour #MissionCreepMorrison #ScottyTheSimp #ScottyFromGilead #MaliciousMorrison #TrumpLite #ScottyTheBully #ScoFuckingMo #ScottyGanda #FoghornLiehorn #MansplainerInChief #Scooter #ScottyForPhotoshoots #ScottyThePoser #PerformativeShitclown #BunningsBoy #ScoVid #ScottyTheSkiver #PinchfartMorrison #ScottyWotty #ScottyNeverHelped #SnottyTheGrifter #RoboScomo #ScumNut #ScottyFromGasMarketing #ScottAllMouthNoTrousersMorrison #KimJongScottyUn #Scrotum #Fullofshiticus #ScottyGaveMeShingles #CaptainSmirk #McFuckface #SideshowScott #ScottyFromPhotoOps #DoughMo #ScottyTheUninvited #ScottyStoppedTheExports #ScottyThePutz #scottyfkntrump #SmirkAndMirrorsMorrison #ScottyNeverHelped #ScottyMIA #Slomoaf #InactionMan #SnakeOilScumo #NoShowMo #WhatsInItForScotty #ScottyTheFukwit #ScottyTheCharlatan #ScottyDoNothing #SnottieTheSpiv #ScottyTheVile #ShonkyFromTheStartScotty #ScottyKnew #ScottyFromCoverUps #ScottyTheRapistProtector #ScottyTheUnsavoury #ScottyTheQueueJumper #ScottyTheMisogynist #ScottyDoesNothing #PastorBumblefuck #ScottyIPromiseNotToShootWimmensMorrison #Squirmo #Scrotum #ScottyTheUnhinged #ScottyUnfitForOffice #LordSmirkington #ScottyTheGaslighter #ScottyFromDamageControl #SpinMeisterMorrison #ScottyTheLiar #ClotMorrison #Scoflake #ScareMo #MilkshakeMorrison #MealeyMouthMorriscum #ScottyBlahBlah #CanDooDooMorrison #MorrisonTheSpiritualAbuser #ScottyTheChosenOne #ScottyFromHillsong #ScottAlmighty

#ScottyThe

125

Meme of the Week

 

The Prime Minister for Word Salad
Courtesy of @stevethompson49

Quotes of the Week

"Picture the scene: an endless warming sea of hardhats and high-vis and blokes. Giant trucks. “Working class man” pumping over the PA. Morrison’s exhausted PR manager presumably celebrating the stagecraft by jizzing on a desk somewhere or fucking in the Parliamentary prayer room. Cameras rolling, shutters clicking, the curated image of “Scomo”, man of the people beamed far and wide, the media’s stenography for this self-interested sociopath in full swing." [Coloumnist Dave Milner witing in The Shot, 23 April 2021] 

Australian Prime Minister and Liberal MP for Cook Scott John Morrison continues his inglorious progression through 2021

 

The following April 2021 news media excerpts indicate that the current Australian Prime Minister is not good at the practicalities of governing a nation.

In fact they suggest that if Scott Morrison started his working life with any form of management skills, they were and still are, best suited to the lowest rung of middle management in a modestly-sized business.

The Saturday Paper, 10-16 April 2021:

The National Disability Insurance Scheme has set up a secretive “sustainability action taskforce”, which is instructed to “avoid” a forecast budget overrun by cutting access to the scheme and the level of funding to participants, leaked documents reveal.

An internal memo, marked “sensitive” and obtained by The Saturday Paper, shows that senior agency figures know there will be a “forecast… cost overrun in the 2021-22 financial year… on top of the scheduled increase in annual budget allocation”.

The document, dated April 2021, notes that the Sustainability Action Taskforce (SAT) has been working on “actions we need to take to avoid this forecast overrun”.

In order to do this, the SAT plans to limit both the number of new applicants joining the NDIS and growth of spending on current participants.

The memo provides the clearest evidence yet that a suite of proposed legislative reforms to the NDIS, key among them the introduction of mandatory “independent” assessments, are smokescreens for severe cuts to the scheme’s budget.

“The actions of the SAT will make immediate changes to slow growth in participant numbers, slow growth in spend per participant and strengthen operational discipline,” the memo reads. “We need to act now to ensure we can deliver a better NDIS.”

“From the very beginning of the Morrison government trying to force these changes upon disabled people we said very clearly, ‘We can see exactly what you are doing because you feel disabled people are a burden on government finances’.”

For further information, the document directs some staff to a “Scheme reform intranet hub”. Details from this reform hub were sent to staff as recently as last week with updated “talking points” regarding the rationale for the changes.

Senator Jordon Steele-John, the Greens’ disability spokesperson, told The Saturday Paper that this leaked document is “the smoking gun”.

“It reveals the government’s real intention with these reforms is to kick disabled people off our NDIS,” he said on Tuesday. “In addition, from the very beginning of the Morrison government trying to force these changes upon disabled people we said very clearly, ‘We can see exactly what you are doing because you feel disabled people are a burden on government finances’.

“And every single time the Morrison government looked us in the eye and said, ‘You are being ridiculous.’ ”

A spokesperson for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) told The Saturday Paper that “any long-term financial risks will always be a consideration for government”…..

The Saturday Paper, 16 April 2021:

Back in 2015, when he was Social Services minister, Scott Morrison distinguished between disability support and welfare. He argued there needed to be cuts to welfare to help pay for the NDIS rollout. His distinction was that those on welfare are somehow blameworthy, or at the very least prone to cheat the system. Those with a disability, meanwhile, were seen as hapless victims of fate worthy of support so they can live with as much dignity as possible.

But now people with disabilities are to be seen through the same prism as those on welfare. By the Morrison government’s thinking, they are a burden on the budget and a taskforce has been established with the aim of cutting the growth in funding packages and participant numbers. This comes with the revelation that the public servants who designed the illegal computerised “robo-debt” scheme are busy at work for debt recovery from the disabled.

One of the original architects of the NDIS, Labor’s Bill Shorten, says the plans are a disgrace and a betrayal. There is also anger on the government’s backbench. So much so that the portfolio’s former minister, Stuart Robert, feared his plans to introduce privatised tick-and-flick assessments would not get approval from the party room.

Veteran Liberal MP Russell Broadbent says people with disabilities and their families “deserve special care and consideration”. He says, “They need all the support that is promised by the NDIS.” The new NDIS minister, Linda Reynolds, isn’t inspiring confidence, telling The Age she supports quality outcomes that are “fair and affordable” – a loaded motherhood statement if ever there was one. What’s affordable is what the government is willing to spend, according to its value judgements.

Overlooking people with disabilities in the vaccine rollout is symptomatic not only of the government’s poor priorities but of the mess the whole project has become.

Morrison began the week by resorting to Facebook to retreat and regroup. He ended it by putting the national cabinet – the Zoom meeting with premiers and chief ministers – on a weekly war footing. What exactly that means, and how it will meet the almost inexcusable shortfall of vaccines, isn’t clear. We may need to rely on more leaks from the public service and revelations from the disgruntled to find out.

ABC News, 16 April 2021:

Having last year promised to put Australia at the front of the global coronavirus vaccination queue, the Federal Government now finds itself under pressure over the pace of its vaccine rollout.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison this month defended the Government's record, claiming Australia had outperformed Germany, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan at the same stage of their vaccination rollouts.

"It is true that at this stage of our rollout, it is actually better than where Germany was, better than where New Zealand was, better than where South Korea and Japan was, and so I think there will be some important context in the weeks ahead as we see the significant ramp up of the distribution network," he said.

How does Australia's vaccine rollout compare? RMIT ABC Fact Check investigates.

The verdict

Mr Morrison's claim is misleading.

When he made his claim during an April 6 media conference, Australia's vaccination program had been underway for 43 days.

At that point, a total of 854,983 jabs had been given — equivalent to about 3.4 for every 100 people.

That was slightly behind where Germany was 43 days into its vaccination program, but ahead of New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

Mr Morrison was therefore not accurate when he suggested Australia "at this stage of our rollout" was outperforming all four of the countries he chose to list.

Moreover, by the standards being set by member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Australia's vaccination program was slow to get started, and has ramped up more slowly.

The OECD's 37 member nations had delivered an average of 6.2 jabs per 100 people at the 43-day mark of their respective vaccination programs, compared to Australia's 3.4 doses.

And in terms of their overall efforts, an average of 22.4 doses per 100 people had been given across all 37 OECD nations by April 6.

Whether Australia's relatively cautious approach when it comes to vaccine approval — and hence its slower start for the rollout — represents a prudent strategy is a different question.

Moreover, not all vaccines are equivalent, making international comparisons difficult…….

Mr Morrison made his claim 43 days after Australia began its rollout, and compared its progress with that of Japan, Germany, South Korea and New Zealand.

Fact Check, therefore, assessed the rollout of vaccines across various countries 43 days from when their first jab was given.

The cumulative number of vaccines is expressed as a rate per 100 people, to account for variations in population.

Mr Morrison adopted the same approach when using a Facebook post to argue Australia's rollout was advancing in a manner consistent with other countries.

In terms of assessing a country's progress, the focus would ideally be on the number of people partly and fully vaccinated relative to the population, rather than on cumulative vaccine doses…...

Mr Morrison appears to have chosen for his vaccine comparison countries that are among the most sluggish in the OECD.

After 43 days, Australia's rate of 3.4 jabs per 100 people placed it eighth lowest in the OECD, ahead of Mexico, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Canada, France and Chile.

It was also below the OECD average of 6.2 jabs per 100 people.

After 43 days, Israel had administered about 57 jabs per 100 people, while Switzerland and the UK had both administered more than 10 jabs per 100 people. In the US, 9.6 shots per 100 people had been given…..

The Guardian, 17 April 2021:

It’s not entirely clear how encouraging words cleared the gritted teeth of the New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, this week, but he managed it.

The precursor to Hazzard gritting his teeth was Scott Morrison dropping a statement to media outlets on Tuesday night declaring the national cabinet would resume meeting twice a week to deal with the mess of the vaccination rollout.

Morrison was rewarded with amplifying headlines on Wednesday morning about the country returning to a “war” footing – whatever that meant. It was unclear whether Australia (led by new defence minister Peter Dutton) intended to invade Europe and storm the factories of Big Pharma to commandeer some jabs, but in any case, Hazzard responded to his conscription to national service by observing that collaboration across the jurisdictions was welcome.

Previously, Hazzard thought, when it came to the vaccination program, decisions had “largely been a one-way street, with states and territories being told that this is how it is going to work”. The minister kept rolling. “That hasn’t worked so well so far, so maybe it’s time to have a rethink”. For good measure, Hazzard also noted “vaccine rollouts are state and territory core business”.

If you aren’t fluent in the passive-aggressive dialects of commonwealth-state relations, this short homily from Hazzard could be a little opaque.

So let me spell this out.

According to well-placed people who have been involved in the management of Covid-19 since the beginning, the states and territories (and some other experts) have been telling Morrison and the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, for months that their preferred mode of rollout of coronavirus vaccines carried significant downside risks.

Objections from the states and territories have been expressed at the level of health and treasury ministers.

Premiers and chief ministers have also raised the risks at national cabinet. As one person put it to me candidly this week: “We’ve been watching this slow-moving train wreck right from the beginning.”

There are two main issues: the design of the vaccination program, and decisions about procurement.

When it comes to the design of the rollout, at issue is Morrison and Hunt’s decision to have GPs and pharmacies deal with the jabs as “critical partners” rather than handing over the program to the states to manage.

If you ask around the government why this decision was made, the explanation you get is simple. GPs and pharmacies are politically influential and seen as largely friendly to the Coalition (community pharmacy in particular). People say Morrison and Hunt saw political benefit in a successful national vaccination program being run by friendly health groups, and this was preferable to having to run the gauntlet of the states and their endless naysaying and nitpicking.

This Canberra-led delivery model would enable Morrison and Hunt to own the success of the rollout and sail forth in triumph to the federal election.

People say nobody seemed that focussed on the political risks of owning a debacle, even though the potential for that seemed reasonably high, given the number of moving parts and vagaries outside the control of the Morrison talking points complex…… [my yellow highlighting]

YahooSport!, 17 April 2021:

Another visit to a footy match on Friday night has again landed the nation's leader in the crosshairs of footy fans, with loud boos ringing out at West Coast's Optus Stadium at the appearance of the PM in the crowd.

Mr Morrison was shown sitting next to former finance minister Mathias Cormann on a big screen at the ground, prompting footy fans to loudly boo the PM.

The Prime Minister's approval rating has taken a hit in recent weeks after a number of scandals involving the Liberal Party including his government's response to sexual assault allegations and claims of inappropriate behaviour inside Parliament, as well as the Covid-19 vaccination rollout....

From being booed at the footy in WA to being flipped the bird in SA:

'Just Adelaide Things' has this video of an old fella walking up to Scott Morrison and flipping the bird in his face in South Australia https://t.co/G2IobEiYnA pic.twitter.com/TW5JSZ1cBG

— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) April 18, 2021

Australian Government, Dept. of Finance, retrieved 17 April 2021:

The Emergency Response Fund (ERF) was established on the commencement of the Emergency Response Fund Act 2019 (ERF Act), on 12 December 2019. On establishment, the ERF was credited with the uncommitted balance of the Education Investment Fund, which has now been closed.

The ERF allows the Government to draw up to $200 million in any given year, beyond what is already available to fund emergency response and natural disaster recovery and preparedness, where it determines the existing recovery and resilience-building programs are insufficient to provide an appropriate response to natural disasters.

As of 31 December 2020 the total credits and earning held by the Emergency Response Fund (ERF) was $4.34 billion.

As of 17 April 2021 it appears that neither Prime Minister Morrison, Treasurer Frydenberg or Finance Minister Birmingham have allowed even one cent of this money to be dispensed to fund either emergency response or natural disaster recovery and preparedness.

To date, mainstream media still characterises monies held in the ERf as "unused".

The Australian, 7 April 2021:

The fund is supposed to pay out $200m a year to help local governments deal with cyclones, floods and bushfires, with $150m set aside for disaster recovery and $50m for mitigation, but no money has been spent since the fund was announced in April 2019 and legislated in December 2019. 

A Senate estimates hearing last month revealed there were 74 flood prevention projects worth a combined $250m that had applied for ERF funding but were yet to be assessed. 

Queensland councils in flood and cyclone-prone areas along the coast have criticised the federal government for failing to use the fund. 

Federal Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said the reason no money had been paid from the disaster recovery tranche was because the legislation prohibited the fund from being used before other disaster funds, such as the bushfire recovery fund, were exhausted. 

He blamed the lack of money for mitigation projects on the time required to set up the proper processed to assess applications. “As soon as the legislation passes, you can’t just administer the funds right away,” he said.

“You have to set up the governance around it.....

If readers go to

 https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2019A00090/bd972cb5-be04-4687-807d-674c011df330 and examine the legislative provisions it is not hard to imagine that the ERF was never intended to fully function for the stated purpose of emergency recovery.

It is also noted that the National Bushfire Recovery Fund (NBRF) was announced by Morrison on 6 May 2020. It has a total of $2.1 billion committed over four years if the Economic and Fiscal Update, Appendix A of July 2020 is correct.

Over 11 months later and Morrison & Co. has allocated barely half of those funds, with little or no guarantee that any or all of that amount of financial assistance has as yet actually reached bushfire affected communities, families and individuals. 

 This is a similar scenario to other disaster related funds.