A Labor member just straight up yelled “bullshit” at Prime Minister Scott Morrison today because after not being able to handle the heat, he ended question time early and literally just… ran off. Classic.
In a press conference in Canberra on Monday, Scott Morrison said lockdowns aren’t sustainable and that Aussies should prepare to come out of them when the country reaches its 70-80% vaccination target as outlined in the Doherty Institute report.
The thing is though, the model is based off earlier case numbers, which were in their 30s. NSW case numbers are a little higher than that, with the last three days seeing case numbers in the 800s. So now, people are obviously a little hesitant at the idea of easing restrictions considering the COVID situation in some places is still incredibly dire.
Morrison, however, is adamant that we have to learn to live “with the virus” instead of in “fear” of it, saying: “If not at 70 per cent and 80 per cent, then when?”
Albanese “In June the Prime Minister congratulated the NSW premier for not going into lockdown, in July he said lockdowns were a necessary tool, in August he pushed NSW to lock down harder .. today he switched again saying lockdowns must end”#auspol #qt #covid19vic #covid19nsw pic.twitter.com/4Oi58BdchO
— Squizz (@SquizzSTK) August 23, 2021
He ~claimed~ that the federal government received advice from the Doherty Institute over the weekend confirming the change in case numbers doesn’t actually affect the model’s results, with the original advice to open up when the population reaches the current vaccination targets still standing.
“As we were advised, the starting point does not influence the overall conclusions of the model, is what we learned on the weekend,” he said.
“The overall conclusions of the model will remain valid. Sensitivity analysis has been done on these issues for many, many months, and we’ll continue to do that.”
Scott Morrison, who has been fully vaccinated for 5 months, has the audacity to stand up and lecture the population about opening up and living with covid when he has catastrophically failed one of the key pandemic responses, procuring and rolling out the vaccines.
— Emma (@emma__jayne14) August 23, 2021
As it turns out, the new advice that the model’s findings still stand regardless of case numbers is news to Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who demanded Scott Morrison table the document because Australians deserve to see the advice that the government is basing their position on.
“I asked that the prime minister table that advice he was quoting from. The prime minister is now saying there is no updated advice, where previously he said that there was,” Albanese said and honestly go off king!
Morrison said he couldn’t because the advice was apparently from a confidential document, and then changed his tune and said that all the Doherty advice otherwise was public. Seriously, I’ve got fkn whiplash over here.
So Morrison said he had “updated advice from the Doherty Institute” then when pressed by @AlboMP to share the detail, scurries to “The Doherty Plan was released in full” (in early August.) Caught out?? 🤷♀️
— Cheryl Kernot (@cheryl_kernot) August 23, 2021
After more questions from Albanese on why he would even quote a confidential report if it’s, you know, confidential, Morrison accused him of “undermining” Aussies who want to get out of lockdown. Okay sir.
Like a toddler throwing a tanty, the PM decided to end question time 30 minutes early and storm off before anyone else could interrogate him. And, of course, a Labor pollie screamed “bullshit!!!” at the PM as he scurried off because this wouldn’t be Australian politics without a bit of friendly cussing. You can check out the Scoxit in the video below.
When the country is on fire, Mr Morrison runs to Hawaii.
When questions are asked about his failing Covid strategy, Mr Morrison runs from the room. pic.twitter.com/RYSGN7vCj3— Mark Dreyfus (@MarkDreyfusKCMP) August 23, 2021
Of course, it’s not been lost upon the Aussie public what an absolute load of bullshit this is. The question time was supposed to be 1.15 hours, and was cut down to 45 minutes because the questions got too hot and Morrison yeeted.
Weekend advice from Doherty was oral, PM says. Should the advice not be provided in WRITTEN form from Doherty in the circumstances? Otherwise Doherty risks being caught in the politics, which would be highly unfortunate
— Michelle Grattan (@michellegrattan) August 23, 2021
Under pressure in Question Time, Scott Morrison literally just shut down Question Time early as and ran out of the Parliament.
🐔 🐓 🍗 #qt #auspol— Julian Hill MP (@JulianHillMP) August 23, 2021
You’d think after the Hawaii situation, Morrison would be more careful not to look like a coward running off with his tail between his legs, but it apparently not. Sigh, this is not the kind of consistency we were asking for.
