Sorry for the jump scare there, but yes, this article will almost entirely be about [REDACTED] Defence Minister Peter Dutton. As you could probably imagine the man has gone and said some dumb shit again. It’s the only reason I’d voluntarily write about him.
Peter Dutton has made two rather scary claims about how the Coalition government is willing to utilise the Australian Defence Force to help with work shortages during COVID. The first claim was made yesterday and the second was on Friday morning. Alright, let’s get into it.
Shortly after Malcolm Turnbull made an appearance on ABC’s 7:30, Dutton joined the program to defend Prime Minister Scott Morrison‘s response to the COVID outbreaks.
Someone out there’s gotta support the PM, may as well be Dutton.
“There was no rule book for this. When we were first as a national security committee on COVID, we were preparing for morgues at public hospitals, for defence personnel to be deployed to turn people away from hospitals,’’ he said.
I’m sorry? Using the ADF to prevent people from entering a hospital? Military force preventing healthcare in a fucking pandemic? So comforting to know the government has this as an option for whenever shit hits the fan…
https://twitter.com/NearlyTheNews/status/1489347812382806019?s=20&t=j1HyFBqRGCe-0LlIWj_Efg
“We had supply chain issues. We would have had tens of thousands of more deaths than we had today and without JobKeeper, hundreds of thousands of businesses in this country would have closed. They’d be in receivership today. People would have lost their houses,” he continued.
“I’ve known Scott Morrison for my time in parliament. I see him daily in leadership meetings and the national security committee, in Cabinet, in the expenditure review committee. I can tell you he puts the interests of this country first and foremost.”
To make matters worse, Dutton joined Nine’s Today Show on Friday to flag the idea of aiding the workforce crisis in the aged care sector with, you guessed it, soldiers from the ADF.
“There’s no limit on what we’re prepared to invest here to make a bad situation… better,” he said.
“If that is what is required to fix this problem and to provide dignity to these people, that is what we will do.”
Normal stuff.
The defence force in aged care pic.twitter.com/pzlqvncFDW https://t.co/hYuTZ1a6ns
— 🏳️🌈 • Matty • 👾 (@_mattfiacchi) February 3, 2022
However, on Jan 13 just a couple of weeks ago, Morrison went on the record to say that the ADF replacing staff wasn’t a possibility, saying he wanted to “dispel this notion that the defence forces can come in and replace workforces all across the country.”
So I dunno what’s going on anymore, to be honest.
If you need me though I’m going to be cradling myself at the thought of Morrison sending in the tanks to fight COVID-related disasters. Idiocy.
