NSW Berejiklian Government moves itself behind the veil in September 2021 as state pandemic numbers grow to record levels

THE THREE AMIGOS: Premier Berejiklian (left) Prime Minister Morrison (middle) & Deputy Premier Barilaro (right),
Architects of the 2021 NSW Delta Variant Outbreak
 IMAGE: The Northern Leader, 16.010.2019

By the last day of 2020 in News South Wales there were 4,739 recorded COVID-19 infections for that year and only 2,043 (or 43.11%) of these were due to community transmission. Total deaths with a COVID-19 diagnosis stood at 56 people.

However, as a state population we had cause to be cautiously optimistic.

We had weathered two ‘waves’ of the global pandemic – the initial one in March-April when the original SARS-CoV-2 virus began to spread and total cases passed the 3,000 mark and then later in June-September when the number of people falling ill began to climb again until the total reached 4,038 individuals.

Compared to other regions around the world infection numbers and the death toll was relatively low in proportion to the NSW population.

And the federal government had promised Australia a national vaccination program in early 2021 to be completed within six to eight months.

News South Wales is now in the last quarter of 2021.

The national vaccination program is still nowhere near complete – it is plagued by vaccine shortages, poor distribution planning and the Morrison Government's outright mismanagement. Lengthy wait time for vaccination appointments are still being experienced and eligibility for vaccination is problematic given children have been excluded for much of the roll out to date.

As of 9 September 2021 only est. 33% of the total population of 25.8 million men, women & children in Australia have been fully vaccinated. In New South Wales that percentage is still well below a safe level at an est. 42.11% fully vaccinated.

The highly infectious NSW Delta Variant Outbreak began on 16 June 2021 and, despite being initially told by members of the Berejiklian Government that this variant form was unlikely to make people as sick as the original SARS-CoV-2 strain, it was not long before public hospitals admissions began to steadily climb.

From 16 June to 9 September 2021 the Delta Variant has infected via community transmission 34,804 men, women and children in New South Wales and 162 of these people were dead.

Those particular deaths represent 74.31% of all COVID-19 related deaths in NSW since the SARS-CoV-2 virus first entered the state in January 2020.

Public hospitals have a combined total of over 1,000 COVID-19 inpatients occupying hospital beds on every day now and by 9 September the total number currently in intensive care units reached 205 very ill individuals.

The Berejiklian Government has been repeatedly warning the general public that we are going to see the rise in infection, hospitalization & deaths continue during September and October and, that the date or month the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak will peak is still uncertain.

Despite this scenario, on 10 September 2021 NSW Premier & Liberal MP for Willoughby Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that the 11am daily government COVID-19 update press conference would cease from Monday 13 September 2021. Being replaced by a NSW Health video giving daily updates, on which the Premier & some of her Cabinet Ministers may appear from time to time.

The reason given for her personal absence from any future structured daily television appearance concerning the COVID-19 pandemic is that these daily press conferences prevent her "doing my job properly”.

This walk away from public scrutiny and accountability for the decisions made by the premier and her ministers is worrying. 

Coming as it does on the heels of the removal of a section of the NSW Health daily online media releases after 26 August 2021 (which contained the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases who had been infectious in the community and for how long), the cessation of publication of a full list of "venues of concern" known to have been frequented by infectious individuals, combined with an obvious reluctance to mention in front of television cameras the total number of fully vaccinated NSW residents who have later contracted COVID-19 and the total deaths to date in this cohort.

That a gradual contraction of the range of statistics now included in NSW Health's daily media releases is being considered has been hinted at by the Premier in recent days and, it is possible that a daily confirmed case count will disappear by the end of the year - even though it is likely epidemic levels of confirmed cases are still being recorded each day.

Such a contraction of easily accessible pandemic information would not be for the benefit of the general public. Rather a muting of information on the status of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak would be more likely to benefit the Morrison Government, as its MPs and senators gear up for the next federal election.

This effort to move the NSW Government behind the veil and answerable to no-one also began as the Berejiklian Government commenced a staged opening up of regional New South Wales, ahead of that 70% fully vaccinated target for those between 15 years of age and over 90 years which triggers a statewide opening that is optimistically pencilled into industry diaries for sometime in October-November this year.

In New South Wales this trigger will apparently be used independently of where other states or the national average vaccinated percentage is with regard to the 70% fully vaccinated target.

One cannot avoid a suspicion that Berejiklian may have gone into 'hiding' because she has not been quite truthful with the general public about the road this Delta Variant is expected to travel and at what speed.

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"All of us have to start accepting that we need to live with Covid. Because Covid will be around for three or four years and it’s not practical to do everything the same [ie continue to suppress the disease]…..we have to make sure that as a government we normalise the way we do things every day…..But we also have to accept, that we all of us have to start thinking about what living with Covid really means…"  [NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the 11am daily government COVID-19 update press conference on 10 September 2021]

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“I want to welcome the New South Wales plan to reopen,” he said on Thursday. “This plan keeps the deal, keeps the faith with the people of Australia and the people of New South Wales, set out in the national plan.”  [Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook in NSW, Scott Morrison on 9 September 2021 - as quoted by columnist Laura Tingle in the Financial Review, 11 September 2021]

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A new normal Friday morning in New South Wales “living with Covid”…..

DAY 87: NSW Health data showed that, as of 8pm Friday 10 September 2021, the number of locally acquired COVID-19 infections since the 16 June beginning of the Delta Variant Outbreak in NSW now totals 36,374 people - inclusive of 170 deaths. There are currently 1,164 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 221 people in intensive care, 74 of whom require ventilation.

NSW recorded 1,599 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 up to 8pm.

From January 2020 to 10 September 2021 the cumulative total of COVID-19 infections from all sources had reached 42,000 cases.

The deaths up to Day 87 of the NSW Delta Variant Outbreak represent 75.22% of all NSW deaths with a COVID-19 diagnosis since the pandemic first entered Australia and the state in January 2020.

According to NSW Health a cumulative total of 1,037,036 NSW residents had been fully vaccinated by 8pm on 10 September 2021 out of an est. state population (ABS Dec 2020) of 8,172,500 men, women and children. That figure reveals that only est. 12.68% of the entire NSW population was fully vaccinated. *It should be noted that a different figure and percentage might be reached using the Australian Government’s ADF managed Operation COVID Shield data for the same period.

NEWSPOLL 28 August 2021: like a screw worm fly* burrowing into the side of humanity, Scott John Morrison survives and thrives

"Coalition falls as Morrison rises" reads one News Corp headline on 30 August 2021, signalling the latest Newspoll has been published.

At least one NewsCorp journalist assigns the blame for a further fall in support for the federal Liberal-Nationals Coalition to "discontent in the two lockdown states that happen to be the largest by population and electoral weight".

The poll results are reportedly the lowest federal primary vote intention for the Coalition since March 2019 and the highest for Labor since 2018, according to AAP General News Wire.

Newspoll voting intentions of 1,528 respondents polled between 25 and 28 August 2021:

PRIMARY VOTE

Coalition  36 (down 3 points)

Labor 40 (up 1 point)

Greens 10 (down 1 point)

One Nation 3 (no point change) 

Minor Parties 11 (up 3 points)

TWO PARTY PREFERRED

Coalition  46 (down 1 point)

Labor 54 (up 1 point)

SATISFACTION WITH LEADERS PERFORMANCE

Scott Morrison (Coalition) 

Approve 49 (up 2 points) Disapprove 47 (down 2 points)

Anthony Albanese (Labor)

Approve 40 (up 2 points) Disapprove 47 (up 1 point)

 PREFERRED PRIME MINISTER

Scott Morrison (Coalition) 

Preferred 50 (up 1 point)

Anthony Albanese (Labor)

Preferred 34 (down 2 points)

NOTE:

* The  Screw worm fly lays its eggs in the flesh of living humans and animals and its maggots grow to maturity feeding on this flesh.

MJR Hall, Natural History Museum, London

Less talk about a 2021 federal general election since the impact of Morrison's vaccine procurement & rollout blunders began to bite

 

The hoped for strong surge in support for the Coalition parties is not being realised, while Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's personal support has been falling since his late April high this year.

An October 2021 federal general election is becoming less of a certainty and News Corp media is reporting that Morrison is telling colleagues that the election will not be held until 2022, with 21 May being put forward as a possible date by former senior Abbott advisor and current Liberal Party campaign director Andrew Hirst.

Newspoll 4-5 June 2021

An online survey of 1,516 respondents conducted by YouGov between Wednesday 2 and Saturday 5 June. The previous survey was conducted on 13-15 May 2021.

Primary vote:

Coalition 41% (unchanged)

Labor 36% (unchanged)

The Greens 11% (-1)

One Nation 3% (+1)

Others 9%

* 7% uncommitted excluded

Two party preferred vote:

Coalition 50% (+1)

Labor 50% (-1)

* preference flows based on recent federal and state elections.

Performance Rating:

Morrison - Satisfied 54% (-4) Dissatisfied 43% (+5) Uncommitted 3% (-1)

Albanese - Satisfied 38% (-1) Dissatisfied 47% (+1) Uncommitted 15% (unchanged)

Better Prime Minister:

Morrison 53% (-2)

Albanese 32% (+2)

Uncommitted 15% (unchanged) 

Essential Report 8 June 2021 

A weekly online survey conducted over 5 days with 1,000+ respondents on average.

• 40% of Australians say they now view Scott Morrison’s federal government less favourably than they did a year ago. A quarter (25%) say they view this more favourably than they did a year ago, and 35% say their views on the federal government have not changed.

• Compared to other Australians, Victorians are more likely to say they view Scott Morrison’s federal government less favourably than they did a year ago. Just under half (48%) of Victorians say this, followed by 45% of Western Australians, 39% of Queenslanders, 37% of South Australians and 34% of those in NSW.

• Since peaking at 70% in March, positive rating of the federal government’s handling of Covid-19 has dropped off; falling to 53% this month which is the lowest rating seen since March last year when this question was first asked.

• Positive rating of the federal government’s handling of Covid-19 has decreased in all states since last month, however it has fallen the most steeply in Victoria where it is now 42% (down 15 percentage points from 57% in May); disapproval of the federal government’s handling of Covid-19 has increased to 36% (from 22% last month) among Victorians.

• Just under half (48%) of participants believe that Scott Morrison would make a better PM than Anthony Albanese (50% last month).

Bad news continues for Morrison Government with publication of latest Newspoll analysis in April 2021

 

The last Newspoll of 2020 published on 29 November had Federal Labor trailing the Coalition by 2 points at 49 to 51 on a two-party preferred basis, after starting that year ahead by the same two points.

Come January and February 2021 the polling showed the Federal Coalition and Labor neck and neck on a two-party preferred basis.

On 28 March Labor moved ahead on a two-party preferred basis at 52 to the Coalition’s 48. At that point Scott Morrison’s approval rating as prime minister has fallen 9 points in a month.

Now despite the first published Newspoll analysis of voter intentions in April 2021 revealing that primary voting intentions have Labor at 38 per cent and the Coalition at 40 per cent, according to the Northern Daily Leader the Coalition is losing even more ground on a two-party preferred basis, with a result of 53 to 47 in Labor’s favour if a federal election had been held on 5 April.

The Coalition's two-party preferred polling in relation to Labor’s polling now stands at exactly the same level as it was on 2 February 2020 after that 4 point downwards slide it took once Morrison was discovered secretly holidaying in Hawaii while Australia's east coast burned.

According to AAP General Newswire on 6 April 2021, the polling figures for Western Australia and Queensland has the Coalition trailing by 12 points in WA and dropping 3 points in Qld. Indicating that at the next federal election the Morrison Government could lose 3 seats in Western Australian and 4 seats in Queensland.

In two other states the Coalition is trailing in the two-party preferred polling - by 10 points in South Australia and 6 points in Victoria. The vote is split 50-50 in New South Wales.

On 5 April Morrison’s approval rating as prime minister had actually risen by 6 points compared with the March result. However, the Newspoll analysis shows that he has lost support amongst male voters which now stands at only 41 per cent of all males surveyed – leaving male support on par with female support.

At the end of March 2021 at least one mainstream media masthead was predicting that Labor would need to gain a net 8 seats on a uniform swing of 3.2 per cent to win government at the next federal election. Thus far it is silent on what this latest polling analysis indicates.

Well it didn't take long the undeclared federal election campaign to sink down to the lowest common denominator - abuse of a journalist during an interview

Well it didn't take long for the undeclared federal election campaign, begun in earnest this month, to get nasty after the Liberal Party began to white ant basic rules. 

It's the fact that a general election has not yet been called - which  means that the rules for publicly funded information campaigns still have to be obeyed to the letter - which will cause problems.

Stating a clear intention to go to the polls has never suited the Prime Minister's preference for conducting most of an election campaign before setting a date (which triggers an AEC timeline) so he can milk the public purse for millions of dollars in campaign expenses.

The guidelines and underlying principals are clear.....

https://www.finance.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-11/campaign-advertising-guidelines.pdf

The underlying principles governing the use of public funds for all government information and advertising campaigns are that:

a. members of the public have equal rights to access  comprehensive information about government policies, programs and services which affect their entitlements, rights and obligations;

b. governments may legitimately use public funds to explain government policies, programs or services, to inform members of the public of their obligations, rights and entitlements, to encourage informed consideration of issues or to change behaviour; and  

c. government campaigns must not be conducted for party political purposes. [my yellow highlighting]

For some reason the Minister for Health and Aged Care & Liberal MP for Flinders Greg Hunt - a veteran of seven federal election campaigns to date - decided to make it glaringly obvious that he intended to rack up as much free advertising as possible and well as bill personal campaign expenses to the public purse through his taxpayer funded media team. 

He did this by putting the Liberal Party logo on paraphrased text from a 4 February 2021 Australian Dept. of Health announcement - which skated on thin ice when it comes to publicly funded information campaigns but didn't quite break the rules.

It didn't break the rules because the only place the logo appeared was in visual material on Greg Hunt's free social media accounts, which are officially authorised as the Liberal Member for Flinders even though they carry little local electorate content being primarily geared to display content associated with his ministerial role.  

On the advice of the Scientific Industry Technical Advisory Group on Vaccine lead by Professor Brendan Murphy, the Australian Government has secured an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. pic.twitter.com/OHGZ0eepUx

— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) February 4, 2021

.@mjrowland68 asks Federal Health Minister @GregHuntMP why he attached a Liberal Party logo to a Government announcement about COVID-19 vaccines. pic.twitter.com/ccbwfrvAXk

— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) February 9, 2021

In the end it was Hunt's arrogance and nasty name calling which gave the game away. As for the justification he gave - it was nothing but arrant nonsense.

The NSW Nationals are being a touch more circumspect in tying past federal government grants to the undeclared federal election campaign.  They offered over-egged comment only, which didn't have to skate over any ice at all.

The Grafton Regional Livestock Selling Centre has been given a million-dollar grant by the NSW Nationals in the federal government.https://t.co/bKsImtxQcj

— NSW Nationals (@NSWNationals) February 10, 2021

BACKGROUND

The problems with abuse of process in relation to federal government advertising has been recognised but unfortunately not resolved.

Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), Government Advertising: June 2015 to April 2019, 26 August 2019:

13. The Australian Government’s campaign advertising framework was introduced in 2008 with the express purpose of providing confidence that taxpayer funded campaigns are legitimately authorised, properly targeted and non-political. A decade on, this area of government administration remains contested, with an ongoing focus on the discretion inherent in the framework and the long-term trend of increased campaign expenditure before elections. The persistence of debate over the use of public resources for certain government campaigns indicates that the framework has not achieved its primary purpose of building confidence and is therefore ineffective in respect to this outcome. In these circumstances, there would be merit in the Parliament and Australian Government revisiting the framework. This audit report includes recommendations aimed at improving both the selected entities’ administration and the framework’s transparency. The recommendations reflect the findings of this audit and four previous ANAO audits conducted since the framework’s introduction. Framework-level recommendations focus on: clarifying mandatory requirements to reduce the large measure of discretion which is a feature of the framework; strengthening the third-party compliance advisory function to enable it to review campaigns at any stage of development; improving the transparency of approved campaign budgets and annual expenditure reporting; and applying certification processes to media releases associated with launching a campaign. [my yellow highlighting]

It’s looking more and more like 2021 is going to be a federal election year.

 

It’s looking more and more like 2021 is going to be a federal election year if the actions of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition are anything to go by.

Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has been parading himself before the cameras at Williamtown, NSW.

The PM arrives at RAAF Base Williamtown in the Hunter to make a defence announcement on the Joint Strike Fighter program, with 'Highway to the Danger Zone' blaring in the background. @SBSNews #AusPol #TopGun pic.twitter.com/gSFLg7C8ev

— Naveen Razik (@naveenjrazik) February 8, 2021

Giving thumbs up and knocking elbows at every opportunity.

Leader of the Opposition & Labor MP for Grayndler Anthony Albanese has been busy tweeting assurances.

The Federal Opposition Leader @AlboMP has used a visit to the Fraser Coast to pledge a boost for manufacturing jobs, if Labor wins the next election. https://t.co/kDhhmxDYB0 @TheRosieOBrien #auspol #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/gNM7ia8ttU

— 7NEWS Wide Bay (@7NewsWideBay) February 9, 2021

Child care for when we grow up.

Medicare for when we get sick.

Aged care for when we grow old.

Governments should be there for people.

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) February 1, 2021

In an effort to differentiate the two Coalition brands, Deputy Prime Minister, Leader of the National Party & MP for Riverina Michael McCormack managed to wreck his senior partner's latest crafted 'announcement' on climate change policy.

IMAGE: @QuentinDempster

While Labor MP for Bruce Julian Hill decided to fire an early shot across LNP bows….

Australia’s Global Performance: Falling Behind, February 2021:

When Scott Morrison won the 2019 election, he opened his

victory speech by rhetorically asking:

How good is Australia!?”

Since then, the Prime Minister has developed a truly inane habit of asking that same question over and over and over again.

Expecting that no one will ever bother to answer.

But, it is a question that can be answered.

And, unfortunately for the PM, the answer is:

“not as good anymore – going backwards, and being left behind”

Australia is less productive, more unequal, more corrupt, less happy, more indebted, less affluent, and less trusting of public institutions than when the Liberal National Party government was elected in 2013.

Australia was once a world leader in so many areas – economic growth, reform, democratic innovation, industrial relations, fairness, healthcare and education.

While like any country we have had our faults and historic failures, successive governments and communities were committed to working together to make things better for all Australians.

But now, after seven years of this Liberal government, Australia is no longer a world leader but increasingly a world laggard…..

Australia is going backwards under the Liberals, and falling behind much of the rest of the world. Australians are being left behind in areas critical to daily life and wellbeing.

• Real wages in Australia were 0.7% lower in 2019 compared to 2013, and Australia sat in third last place out of 35 OECD countries for wage growth.

• Australia ranked 5th last in the OECD in terms of its productivity rates. In fact, Australian productivity was negative at -0.3%. Household debt as a share of GDP is 119.4% — now the 2nd highest rate of 43 countries.

• Australia ranks behind Uganda at 87th out of 133 countries globally for economic complexity.

• Australia has the third most unaffordable housing market and is the 11th most unequal OECD nation.

• Australia’s rate of greenhouse gas emissions per capita has been the highest in the world.

• Australian children’s educational outcomes have slipped in both national and international terms.

• Broadband speeds are now so slow that Australia ranks 61st in the world.

• International corruption rankings show Australia is becoming more corrupt, and Australians are increasingly distrustful of government.

• Australia now ranks 8th out of 11 high-income countries for healthcare affordability.

Yes, it is going to be an interesting year.