Prime Minister Scott Morrison has finally broken a very strange silence in regards to the new Melbourne coronavirus lockdowns, set to come into effect from midnight tonight, addressing media in a typically meandering press conference in Canberra that, at one point, saw the Prime Minister list the calendar months of the year.
Morrison, who has been curiously absent from the public eye throughout the past handful of days as the Victorian coronavirus situation worsened, fronted press in Canberra a short time ago to give his take on the issue, which will see over 5 million people put back under Stage 3 Lockdown conditions from tonight.
Addressing the six-week lockdown Melbourne residents will be embarking on from tonight, Morrison asserted “We’re all Melburnians now when it comes to the challenges we face. We’re all Victorians now because we’re all Australians and that’s where the challenge is right now.”
Curiously enough the Prime Minister then listed the calendar months of the year in an extended, indirect point about how on-going efforts will be required for Victoria – and Australia – to get back on top of the coronavirus crisis.
“We need to continue to apply or focus on our effort and work together as we did in March and in April and in May and in June and so we will do it in July, August, September, October, November, December, and into next year if necessary. That is what we will do and that’s what we’ll continue to do,” Morrison stated.
In what was otherwise a press conference announcing a $3 billion aged care package that a Victorian response statement was shoehorned into, Morrison was pressed on extending JobKeeper and JobSeeker packages for Victorians, many of whom are once again suddenly out of work thanks to enforced business shutdowns.
Morrison asserted there would be not state-specific extension of the packages, stating “We’re running a national support of support. That national program of support will give people in the same areas of need the same support. So it’s – it’s not a state-based or – program or anything like that.”
There’ll be a further phase of support that goes beyond September. And I said that to the Victorian Premier and as I said to Alan Joyce some weeks ago when the specific issues of Qantas were raised and the Treasurer has said the same thing. There will be a further phase of how we continue to provide support,” Morrison asserted.
Despite his curious absence from the public eye – one that saw the Prime Minister put off acknowledging the Victorian lockdowns for nearly 24 hours – Morrison still sought to claim that “It’s my job, as the Prime Minister, to rally the governments of Australia and our own Government and the people of Australia to support Victorians in this time of need.”
We’ll see about that, I guess.
