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:
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 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
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.
