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REDFLAG | 14 JUNE 2021 PUBLICATION OF SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE REDFLAG.ORG.AU

4

Why the federal government

can’t be trusted to manage

the pandemic

Ben Hillier

ne of the key slogans of Scott Mor-
rison’s 2019 federal re-election cam-
paign was “keeping Australians safe”.
The situation today shows just how
O big a lie that was: almost everything
that the Coalition needed to do to keep people
safe during the pandemic it either refused to do
because it opposed public health measures, or it
did only under pressure—after foot dragging and
against its own better judgement.
How on Earth can it be that so many aged-care
residents have not been fully vaccinated against
COVID-19 when we know that it kills them in the
greatest numbers? Why were so many aged-care
workers not vaccinated when we know that they
are the first point of transmission into the aged-
care centres?
Why, when there have been regular breaches in
the city-based hotel quarantine systems—breach-
es that result in crippling lockdowns to protect Scott Morrison
public health—are there no built-for-purpose PHOTO: Reuters
federal quarantine facilities to minimise the risk
of transmission? Why was Canberra reluctant to
offer financial support when Victoria again went initiative, abide it. It’s a political dogma holding its vaccine rollout, she boasted of the more than
into lockdown recently? that government services are akin to socialism $100 million funding increase to the Australian
How can the federal response in general be and should be indulged only when circumstances Criminal Intelligence Commission and Australian
explained? Financial cost can be ruled out as the dictate that there is no avoiding it. Federal Police. She then goaded hecklers from the
primary driver of inaction. Treasurer Josh Fryden- Whether it’s public infrastructure—telecom- opposition benches:
berg proved last year, and again in this year’s munications systems, ports, rail lines, freeways “As soon as we start to make the point that this
budget, that, when under pressure and in excep- and so on—the health and education systems or government is absolutely committed to keeping
tional circumstances, he is prepared to spend. The welfare and social services, there is nothing of our community safe, the interjections start from
evidence from around the world also makes clear which the federal Liberals don’t try to rid them- those opposite. That is a very good indication of
that eradicating the virus quickly is in fact the best selves of ownership or responsibility for. At every the softness that those opposite have on crime and
thing for the Liberal Party’s much-loved capitalist chance, services and assets are outsourced or how the Morrison government has always had the
economic system. privatised. The prospect of electoral annihilation strength to stand up to outlaw motorcycle gangs
A desire to win a popularity contest can be is probably the only thing preventing them from and to stand up to criminals in our community.”
ruled out as well. The federal government would dismantling social welfare completely. When the Liberals say, “keeping Australians
no doubt be more popular, rather than less, were There is no doubt a mix of factors underpin- safe”, they mean spending hundreds of billions
it to have taken the initiative and established safe ning each government failure during the pan- of dollars on weapons to kill people, such as
quarantine facilities outside of the major cities. It demic. But the root of the broader failures surely they are providing to the military. They mean
would be more popular if it got the vaccine rollout is political instinct: the reflexes emanating from spending billions on the refugee concentration
right. And, clearly, being the bearer of good eco- a life spent using the state to undermine, rather camps and on Navy patrols to turn away asy-
nomic news in the form of JobKeeper, JobSeeker than increase, the collective security of working lum seekers. They mean hundreds of millions
and emergency payments to those in lockdown people—opposing wage rises, attacking trade for the security services to spy on people. They
was immensely popular last year and would have unions, cutting social welfare, privatising public mean more resources for cops and for prisons to
been again in Victoria’s lockdown. assets and so on. lock people away. (Even when it comes to these
Incompetence can’t be totally ruled out. But Ask anyone who has become a master in a things that they like or love, they still make sure
the government has shown competence in other profession about how they got to where they are. that, as much as possible, it’s someone else in
areas—the ability to deny refugees their right to The response invariably will involve declarations the private sector being paid to do as much of
claim asylum, for example, by preventing mar- of love and passion for the thing it is that they the work as possible.)
itime arrivals and creating a system of offshore do well. The Liberals hate government services By contrast, they instinctively baulked at doing
gulags. It might be disgraceful, but the Liberals for working-class people. So how could they ever the things required to keep us safe in this killer
are good at it. become proficient at delivering them when their pandemic, before then calculating that the eco-
Perhaps it comes down to the government’s main concern is to undermine them? nomic and political consequences would be dire
ideology, one so deeply embedded that it has When Liberals talk about safety, their instinct if they didn’t act. Yet still they remain reluctant,
entered the Liberal Party’s collective unconscious. is to define it in terms of boosting the capacity of and still they abrogate their responsibilities, as
It’s a revulsion so strong to the idea of govern- the state to commit violence, as Home Affairs Min- the ongoing quarantine debacle demonstrates.
ments providing services and doing good things ister Karen Andrews did during question time on It’s almost like right-wing ideology provides the
for the public, that it simply cannot, of its own 1 June when, as the government was under fire for perfect breeding ground for COVID-19.