The truth of the matter is we didn’t order enough of the vaccine. But that’s not all that’s wrong.
1 On Twitter last week, a comment suggested that my constant blame laying of an initial vaccine supply lacked evidence.
I thought I would write an entire piece on the subject, but when I started researching stuff that might satisfy this person who goes by the name of ‘Arabeing’, I thought to myself; “No, if Arabeing wants to know these things, then he can find out for himself.”
Just saying! I’m not taking sides or defending the PM.
I remember news that he ordered heaps of Pfizer early but it was held back Europe needed it more. We’re told that we have lots of AZ here, at one point they were going to ship some out to those that needed and wanted it🤔🤷♀️— Arabeing☀️🐑😊 (@arabeingicloud1) September 2, 2021
Sorry, I’m in a grumpy mood today. I need to get a few things off my chest.
The truth of the matter is this: In August 2020, Opposition Health spokesperson Chris Bowen was already on the warpath about us not doing enough to develop a coronavirus vaccine.
In an interview with Sky News, he said:
Australia was “way behind in the queue” for a vaccine.
He said other countries, including Japan, had already signed multiple supply agreements for vaccines that might work.
“We haven’t signed one,” Mr Bowen said.
Anyway, Arabeing should read this ABC fact check. It finds that Bowen’s claim that a suggested tally of 1 billion doses would only be reached if so-called “optional” doses were included, as well as the deal with the European Union for 200 million pre-purchased doses and 100 million optional doses, is drawing a longbow.
However, the fact check added that:
“On November 5, 2020, the Government announced it had reached a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech for the supply of 10 million doses of its vaccine to Australia, subject to regulatory approval.
As previously mentioned, the vaccine requires two doses, spread out over a number of weeks, to be effective, meaning the deal would provide enough vaccine to inoculate 5 million Australians.
At the time of the deal, no mention was made of any option being included in the contract to purchase further doses.”
This is where Scott Morrison stuffed up. With a population of 25 million, including children, the amount ordered was totally inadequate. Other points of interest are covered here, here, and here.
The evidence of what I have written is supported by the fact that the Government is crisscrossing the world, borrowing as much Pfizer vaccine as it possibly can when it could have placed an order last November.
Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, said at the time:
“We have enough vaccines to meet a population of 67.5 million, and we will address all priorities identified by The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).”
2 I was watching ABC Insiders on Sunday morning, and several things commanded my attention, some trivial, some not so.
Firstly, why on earth does David Speers never draw a relationship between what is being discussed and what it might mean in a general election? With but six months in front of us, I think it’s time they opined on the subject.
3 I have become used to Speers trying for a “gotcha moment” every week. It is a little tiresome, but I thought he went close with Stuart Robert on paying back the JobKeeper money. Robert may have been correct in that according to the legislation, companies aren’t obliged to pay it back, but I couldn’t help but remember that line of Tony Abbott when repealing the carbon price:
“After all, what is done by legislation can be undone by legislation.”
In Liberal land, it seems that real anger has arisen from small businesses that didn’t receive the job keeper payments. As much as they try to brush it off with a “the law is the law commentary,” the morality of it is dreadful. It was nothing more than a taxpayer-funded transfer of money. At least Rex Patrick and Jackie Lambie are standing firm on their demand that a list of companies is published. This one is likely to grow some legs.
I received a message from a friend after watching 60 Minutes last Sunday, saying that after seeing the programme Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg should be hung and quartered over the JobKeeper payments scandal.
Anyway, Stuart added that “the plan” that we are all supposed to stick to could change at any moment if you get what l mean. Well, according to Stuart, who seemed to be trying overly hard to know everything.
4 Murdoch’s journalists are advised by The Guardian’s Nick Cohen that:
“If someone says it is raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the window and find out which is true.” The world only had to look at the weather outside to know who was trying to fool it.
That the Fourth Estate as the custodians of the public’s right to know might act responsibly and report fact and not just express biased opinion.
5 I’m quoting from Peter Fitzsimon’s interview of Grace Tame for the Sydney Morning Herald:
Fitz: Has Scott Morrison failed here?
Tame: Yes.
Fitz: How?
Tame: There are many examples, but let’s go with the obvious. There is his blatant refusal to take any accountability for anything, which we all saw so clearly in his failure to swiftly address the situation with Brittany Higgins. He had the Respect at Work report gathering dust on his desk for a year, with its 55 recommendations that could have been applied to workplace culture, but he did nothing until Brittany’s story made headlines, which made him do something.
Together with One Nation, the Government combined to defeat Labor amendments that protected women from workplace sexual harassment. The Government is forging ahead with a hopelessly weak response to the landmark “Respect@Work report – adopting just six of the 55 recommendations.” However, that is a little misleading because some don’t need legislation. Labor tried to make it better by putting a positive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment so that harassment is stopped. But when it comes to abandoning women and workers – the Government can always rely on Pauline Hanson.
I agree. In a speech on Monday morning, September 6, to the National Women’s Health Conference, the Prime Minister advocated a culture change. He should start with his party’s attitude toward women.
Hypocrisy, anyone?
6 Which reminds me that the Gaetjens Report into what the PM knew about the Brittany Higgins rape seems to have been successfully buried in the ‘never to be revealed’ file.
7 “Ultimately everything is a state matter,” the Prime Minister said in Parliament last Tuesday. Did that make him redundant? One would hope so.
8 This week will mark 1000 days since Mr Morrison promised to establish a national anti-corruption commission.
9 In Parliament, Josh Frydenberg declared, “JobKeeper was well targeted.” Terri Butler interjected: “If that’s well targeted I’d love to play darts with you!”
The notion that a few privileged individuals can own the vast majority of a countries wealth and the remainder own little is on any level unsustainable, politically, economically or morally.
10 The Parliament returns in November when the Glasgow Climate Change Conference will be front and centre. Will we have the courage to change tact, or will we continue to be the international embarrassment we are?
11 The Poll Bludger reports that Roy Morgan published its regular fortnightly (for so it now seems) federal voting intention poll on Wednesday, which recorded an incremental improvement for Labor on their already previous solid result:
Labor was credited with a lead of 54.5-45.5 on two-party preferred, out from 54-46 last time, from primary votes of Coalition 37.5% (steady), Labor 38.5% (up one), Greens 11.5% (down one) and One Nation 3% (down half).
Well, now that I have that off my chest, I can get back to my next post for The AIMN. Part 2 of “Why are you so concerned, Poppa?”
My thought for the day
Sometimes wisdom jumps a generation. Well, we can always hope.
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15 comments
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John Hanna
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New England Cocky
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Return to home pageWhen discussing the “Jobkeeper ” rort one (especially Robert” needs to mind his hypocrisy in relation to the Robodebt fiasco where the LNP went to illegal lengths to recover a paltry (by comparison) amount of overpayment to welfare recipients. Robodebt for the rich would in these circumstances be much more worthwhile …and legal.
“After all, what is done by legislation can be undone by legislation.”
Just last week Justice Richard White of the AAT handed down a judgement finding that the national cabinet was not, as the prime minister had insisted, a subcommittee of the federal cabinet. That meant that none of the documents sought by Senator Rex Patrick under Freedom of Information and which Morrison refused to handover were an “official record of a committee of cabinet” and were, therefore, not covered by the cabinet exemption.
So, rather than disclosing the formerly secret documents under FoI, Morrison introduced legislation into the parliament to make the national cabinet a subcommittee of federal cabinet and thus claim cabinet confidentiality.
Morrison is a very stubborn and pig-headed man and like Abbott he manipulates our democratic arrangements to suit himself and his political ambitions. Whether this legislative manoeuvre will work is up to the senate and in particular the vote of One Nation…………………the coalition know that to get Pauline’s vote they just have to give her another government handout to announce so it will probably pass.
One would hope that Scummo is the most incompetent member of the Liarbral Nazional$ Coalition misgovernment, except hard experience since the 2013 Murdoch inspired election dumped Barnyard Beetrooter in our laps to prove that private schools do a wonderful job as exclusive child-minding facilities keeping the agricultural idiots from contaminating the general public.
Unconfirmed assertions have Liarbrla unelected political hacks planning Christmas feral elections with “Scummo as Saviour” citing his excellent work managing the COVID crisis and so everybody is expected to vote for him … the same way that Marcos in the Philippines was always re-elected with 90+% of the vote.
Any body for a free hand out of government money?? Corporations only need apply.
It’s time ….. AGAIN!!!!!
John,
Scotty of the Marketing is incapable of being proactive (except where it involves helping corrupt maatteess and big business) and can only react and then blame everyone else for his stuff ups or tries to bury them under bs secrecy acts.
Alan Tugstodger…I mean Tudge is attempting to apply the super strength and obscuring rose coloured jingo paste to the teaching (preaching?) of the right wing happy happy joy joy (apologies to Ren and Stimpy) version of ‘strayan history.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/08/alan-tudge-says-he-doesnt-want-students-to-be-taught-hatred-of-australia-in-fiery-triple-j-interview
Government’s “appalling” error, rejects offer of 40 million Pfizer doses in July 2020
“We could have had 40 million doses by the start of January and the same coverage rates of adults as seen in US, UK and Israel.”
Unless an axe, figurative or not, falls on the Morrison neck with terminal velocity, the living manifestation of a turd with tonsils will struggle on kampfing. (Adolf never gave up after jail in his failed putsch) He is a self seducing, superstition drenched, ego-infatuated anus of no decency, actual morals, ethics, honesty. This nation has suffered greatly from the machine politics of conservative corporate crony capitalist con men conspiracy, whereby a huge and filthy conglomeration of eager greedy ambitious narrow turdlies in conservative parties join with the evil manipulation Merde Dogs and their maggots to impose a bloodsucking continuum of regime extraction on us, the outsiders. This great conspiracy, a brotherhood, (no sisterhood except for some roughrooting) enlists the hanging on parasites as needed, in promotion, distortion, legalities, accounting and plotting. The whole pile of filth is supported by a chosen front, Morrison currently, who followed the Manly Masturbator and the Wonder from the Wentworth Wankery, to impose this daily crookedness and bent behaviour on us all…
Morrison is right that he had more then 2 jobs. There were these jobs;
1. Fit for purpose quarantine facilities. FAILED.
2. A speedy vaccine rollout. FAILED.
3. An efficient and cohesive vaccine procurement policy. FAILED.
4. Prioritise vaccine for vulnerable first nation people. FAILED.
5. Prioritise vaccination for vulnerable NDIS recipients. FAILED.
6. Prioritise vaccination for aged care workers. FAILED.
7. Prioritise vaccination for NDIS workers. FAILED.
8. Bringing home stranded Australians overseas home by Christmas 2020. FAILED.
9. Produce an efficient and effective energy policy. FAILED.
10.Protect and safely bring home all Australians from Afghanistan and protect and remove from harm those Afghanis who put theirs and their families safety in jeopardy by standing with the ADF. FAILED.
11. Create a collaborative, cooperative and cohesive National Cabinet. FAILED.
Benjamin Franklin famously said “by failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”.
MORRISON FAILED TO PREPARE AND FAILED AUSTRALIA.
I have a small inheritance from a deceased aunt, and I am looking for somwher to put it where it will be of benefit to me, and my “family”. I would rather have my aunt. She was a brilliant lady, the PA for a series of MD’s at Kraft here in Melbourne, and she used to personally type my uni reports.
I have been told over and over “You need a diversified portfolio, with as much as you can afford of as many as you can get”.
I don’t have that much, but that is a different story.
YES. Our pm buggered up. From the get go.
He put all of our eggs into the AZ basket, and that was it. (And ultimately that was proved a poor choice)
He has since run around like a headless chook begging for scraps, and trying to bignote himself whenever someone throws him a bone, like Poland, or Malaysia?, or wherever next. The mantra of “Go Big, Go Early” has been a proven winner since before books were a thing. I mean, adolf got out teched and out-willpowered, not out muscled, otherwise Fawlty Towers would have been very different.
The pm himself knows exactly how well this works, with the last erection strategies of $100M for sports stuff, and nearly $3/4B for carparks as erection publicity and fighting funds back in 2019. (Sadly, this has been backed up with $64M for the Ladies of Australia in his “keynote speech” at the National Summit on Women’s Safety. I should say ONLY $64M, because this amount works out to about $3.50 each for Australia’s female population.)
Victoria’s Dictator in Chief is busy calling out the pm for his underhanded and unfair distribution of a vey scarce and valuable resource in the Phizer vaccine, which does very much seem to favour the shambles that is Sydney, but scotty has defended his actions by declaring that “I went and got some from Poland”
Was that on his way to or from Fathers Day celebrations at home? And what was the Polish reaction to being invaded again, this time by a godbotherer from the shire?
At least the sharks are out of the finals, so there will be no tales of the pm at the nrl.
Stay Safe Australia.
Please don’t do anything dumb when the erection happens.
You always know what you will get with the L/NP. Consistency! Lots of consistency. Consistent corruption at all levels of government, consistent poor and inept leadership, consistent avoidance of scrutiny, consistent lack of accountability like ” I dont hold a hose, mate”, consistent lies, consistent obfuscation, consistent pillaging of the environment, consistent stacking of boards committees commissions and delegations with L/NP stooges, consistent branch stacking, consistent religious nutters, consistent incompetent and corrupt members, consistent rorts, consistent slush funds, consistent jobs for the boys, consistent failed members kept on the taxpayer gravy train, consistent complacency like ” its not a race”, consistent blame shifting, consistent photo ops; consistent do nothing and ineffectual policies, consistent attacks on unions, consistent lack of support for workers, consistent demonising of those on social security, consistent divisiveness, consistent poor governance, consistent bad judgement, consistent rewarding of political donors at the expense of the needy, consistent scotosis to implement policies that take Australia forward rather then impeding its progress to benefit donors plus consistently more and more corruption and theft of taxpayers money. Rather then the “comeback” being on the truth is “the fix” is on.
On another issue, confirms the denialism aspect…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/08/nsw-covid-update-gladys-berejiklian-considers-home-quarantine-as-state-records-1480-new-cases
9 In Parliament, Josh Frydenberg declared, “JobKeeper was well targeted.” Terri Butler interjected: “If that’s well targeted I’d love to play darts with you!”
Wrong Butler. Including Robodebt and massive rorting, the well off and dole bludgers were very well targeted.
Morrison has tried hard to cover up and muddy the waters, as he does, on where when & what Pfizer vaccines were ordered.
“These papers confirm that Scott Morrison simply didn’t take Pfizer seriously enough when he should, while every other developed country on the face of the planet was busy securing early supplies of Pfizer vaccines.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-08/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-meeting-health-minister/100443360
Yet more meaningless platitudes and bullshit from Emperor of the Vomit Inducing Nothing Words Saint Scotty of the Marketing –
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-09/scott-morrison-message-australians-stuck-overseas-covid19/100445680
What a shame they aren’t all big donors or maatteess of the LNP.
BB, the PM, who I will never vote for, might have had an insider’s knowledge of the way Pfizer does ‘deals’
https://www.wionews.com/world/how-pfizer-tried-to-bully-argentina-and-brazil-in-exchange-for-vaccines-366037
“- – Pfizer is holding governments to ransom, interfering with their legislation, and even demanding military bases as guarantee. – – Pfizer wanted Argentina to put its bank reserves, military bases and embassy buildings at stake.”
Women’s status starts and ends with christianity not the LNP.
Until the churches afford women equality, man’s superiority will be accepted and taught by the believing themselves inferior religious women.
Sorry but women are demeaned and called girls because, speaking generally or generally speaking, they act like god’s girls Sunrise had a go at hunt over a controversy.
What about bringing up the bribes oops inducements oops the gifts to PHON for their support in the senate, AlbTany??
The wisdom that decided ‘it’s time’ should have been reached 15 years before but LNP luck kicked in with immigrants and catholics appearing and creating ming’s miracles and we marched on the spot or wandered aimlessly ‘all the way’ till 72. Where, for me, real miracles happened but for conservatives, without the will nor the intelligence, to gather the knowledge needed for wisdom, Whitlam is an everlasting disaster. You are right ajo’grady consistency anytime over taking a chance with extremists.