Morrison Slams ‘Un-Australian’ Hoarders, and Wins Back Support
Morrison Slams ‘Un-Australian’ Hoarders, and Wins Back Support
(Bloomberg) -- For Australians, getting called “un-Australian” is one of the most grating insults around.
So when Prime Minister Scott Morrison used the term to shame hoarders on Wednesday while seeking to calm panic over a surge in coronavirus cases, it got the public’s attention. He insisted the chaotic scenes in the nation’s supermarkets, which have seen shoppers battle over food and toilet rolls, “must stop.”
“It’s been one of the most disappointing things I’ve seen in Australian behavior in response to this crisis,” Morrison said sternly during a one-hour press conference at Canberra’s Parliament House. “That is not who we are as a people.”
The performance showed Morrison regaining confidence just two months after his popularity plunged over his handling of a wildfire crisis, which saw his pro-coal government refuse to take steps to punish greenhouse gas polluters blamed by scientists for exacerbating the crisis. He was heckled by angry residents, some of whom refused to even shake his hand.
After drought-breaking rains brought relief in January, the virus is now giving Morrison, 51, an opportunity to reclaim some of the momentum he enjoyed after leading his conservative Liberal Party to an unlikely election victory last May. A poll released this week showed a boost to his personal popularity among voters even as the crisis cripples Australia’s economy and society.
“It’s a big turnaround as until recently Morrison looked cooked,” said Andrew Hughes, an expert in political branding at the Australian National University. “There’s obviously a long way to go and his management of the economic impact of this crisis will be a huge test, but he seems to have his mojo back at a time when Australians are crying out for strong leadership.”
Morrison has dramatically escalated Australia’s response to coronavirus, which has infected at least 450 citizens and left six people dead. The former advertising executive warned all Australian citizens not to travel abroad indefinitely and banned non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people.
His government is preparing to inject further stimulus into the economy after last week announcing a A$17.6 billion ($10.6 billion) package aimed at small businesses and welfare recipients.
“This is a once in a 100-year type of event,” Morrison said, as the nation teeters toward its first recession in almost three decades. “There is no two-week answer to what we are confronting,” he said, adding his measures would need to be implemented for at least six months.
Medical experts are debating the merits of his self-described “scalable and sustainable” response to the disease. He’s been accused of wasting a chance to halt transmissions within the community despite an initial strong reaction through enforced quarantining.
Morrison’s government implemented measures such as a mandatory 14-day quarantine in a barely used asylum-seeker detention center on Christmas Island, and then in an outback mining camp for all people entering Australia.
Too Little, Too Late
Yet Bill Bowtell, from the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity, has been critical of the government’s actions since then. He’s appeared in television interviews saying that a public education campaign to limit the coronavirus released in the past week had come too late, and a total lockdown for all public events and schools was required.
Morrison is adamant the Australian response has been adequate, and has been backed up by the nation’s Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy, who says the way disease spreads on the island continent is different to places like Singapore. The nation-state was one of the first countries to impose restrictions on anyone with recent travel history to China and parts of South Korea. It has a strict hospital and home quarantine regimen for potentially infected patients and is extensively tracing anyone they may have been in contact with.
Other leaders have also been criticized for their response to the pandemic. U.S. President Donald Trump has been rebuked by medical experts for initially downplaying the impact of the disease, while U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has had to defend himself against allegations that his policies allowed the disease to run rampant and could overwhelm the National Health Service.
Still, Australian voters seem to warming to Morrison again. The poll released this week showed Morrison is the preferred prime minister over Labor leader Anthony Albanese, a reversal from during the bushfire crisis. And other medical experts have said his government’s efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus had worked.
“Australia has been keeping a lid on its cases pretty well, which has allowed the medical community more time to mobilize,” Kathryn Snow, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, said in an interview on Monday. “But the number was always going to increase; it was never possible to completely quarantine ourselves.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.