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When The Left And Right Join Forces It’s Not Always Good!

When both teams complain about the umpire’s decisions, there’s a tendency to presume that there was no bias because both were upset about perceived injustices. Of course, there is the possibility that the umpire was just terrible.

A few days ago, I started to feel sorry for Scott Morrison because he was being attacked from both sides of politics. While the IPA and business interests were telling everyone that we needed to end restrictions because the economy’s more important than a few deaths here and there, there were some on the left that saw the lockdown as part of a conspiracy to stop protests and to impose a fascist state…

Now, I’m not dismissing either viewpoint entirely. While I think that some people have expressed it badly, there is a case for saying that we need to work out a cost-benefit analysis for easing restrictions. On one hand, too much restriction on the economy may lead to deaths anyway and letting the virus rip will mainly kill old people, speeding up your inheritance and possibly getting rid of Rupert…

Ok, calm down people, I didn’t say that I supported this view. I just said there was a case to be examined. I’m not John Kehoe who wrote that his father had had a good run at 68 and he was sure that his dad would be happy to give up his life for the good of the economy. Clearly his parents weren’t among those who weren’t prepared to give up their franking credits for the good of the budget a year back, but a lot can change in a year.

Take Alexander Downer who tweeted: “We either save avoidable deaths & destroy society OR accept avoidable deaths & save society. The moral dilemma of our time.” In the short time since he’s left his public role, he’s managed to develop a concept of a “dilemma”. That’s progress.

And I do understand the concern from some of the more paranoid among us… particularly those who are concerned that 5G will activate the vaccines that they refuse to have because polio was a made-up disease and then there’ll be no stopping the lizard people from taking total control. Without subscribing to any of the various conspiracy theories, I do share the concern that Covid-19 shows how easily a government can just impose restrictions, shut down Parliament and start making decisions with little or no oversight. While Labor objected, the media did manage to treat this as though Parliament was another one of those bureaucratic bits of red tape that we don’t need in an emergency.

So there I was feeling like I should write a considered piece on the difficulties of doing anything right in such a troubled time. There I was thinking that we could move on and say: “How good is ScoMo?” and just forget the trip to Hawaii, the inability to actually deliver a surplus, Robodebt, his refusal to say that he’d tried to get Brian Houston an invite to the White House, the sports rorts, his refusal to even think about a solution for the people on Manus and Nauru, Watergate, the corruption, the Ruby Princess debacle, his annoying habit of suggesting curry as the solution to any problem big or even bigger, his insistence that his religion is a private matter which can only be used by him in statements as PM, his inappropriate smirk when disaster strikes… Yes, we could just forget all that and press the reset button. Yes, because he hasn’t completely stuffed things up this time we could start writing him up as one of the great Australian Prime Ministers. Wait, did I say “Australian”? Too limited. He was bordering on being one of the great all-time leaders with his consistent messages once the rugby stopped and the Hillsong conference was over.

And then today, he makes a statement suggesting that teachers shouldn’t force parents to choose between homeschooling their child and “putting food on the table”. This just shows that Morrison could limbo under a snake’s belly without limbering up.

Ideally, of course, every kid should be at school. So let’s start with the idea that this is not an ideal situation. Here in Victoria, the government has announced that second term will be done via remote learning as far as possible with provision for parents to send kids to school “if they need to”. It’s not ideal, but it’s clear.

Now when Morrison makes his pronouncement suggesting homeschooling is forcing people into starvation, he conveniently overlooks that it’s not teachers who are making these decisions. When our PM asked teachers to “reopen the schools”, he conveniently overlooked the fact that most of them don’t have alarm keys and they’d be soon grabbed by police or security guards. Just like when he closed Parliament, but to keep schools open there was no teacher input into that decision. Teachers who felt at risk only had the choice of letting down their students and taking sick leave.

It struck me as odd several times that playgrounds had to be closed to stop children picking up Covid-19 but it was just fine for them to potentially pick it up at school because it doesn’t affect young people that badly, according to our Chief Medical Officer. Which always begged the question, “But what about the people they take it home to?”

I could list several other reasons why Morrison’s statement is inconsistent and potentially dangerous, but I’ll stick to one main one: Yet again he seeks to suggest that someone else is to blame, that like his role model Trump, he has limited power but he’s the one in charge. I can’t make that decision, but you don’t get to make this one.

You know how it goes. I can’t help with the bushfires because it’s a state thing and Gladys didn’t want any help, but now I’m sending in the army because it’s about time I took charge which I couldn’t do before because it wasn’t my job but I can do it now because I want to take some credit for something that’s going right.

Recently, Scottie compared himself to Moses. To be fair to Moses, he led people around in the wilderness for forty years because he was commanded to by God. I trust that isn’t ScoMoses’ excuse.

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11 comments

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  1. Harry Tosis

    The left joining with the LNP is like a rabbit teaming up with a fox to beat a snake.

  2. New England Cocky

    “When our PM asked teachers to “reopen the schools”, he conveniently overlooked the fact that most of them don’t have alarm keys and they’d be soon grabbed by police or security guards. Just like when he closed Parliament, but to keep schools open there was no teacher input into that decision. Teachers who felt at risk only had the choice of letting down their students and taking sick leave.”

    Uhm ….. As a former teacher it appears to me that the most efficient way to spread COVID-19 is to allow kids close proximity to asymptomatic carriers among their peers and teachers so that just like the Aged Care Centres, more individuals at home over well dispersed geographic locations may be infected thus pushing up the demand for hospital intensive care services.

    Victoria has the responsible strategy for schools by staying on-line for Term 2 at least. NSW is too infected with Scomo-itis and the unelected political hacks who influence COALition misgovernment decisions to listen to epidemiologists who understand the dynamics of epidemics like COVID-19.

  3. Harry Lime

    Scomoses’ forty years in the wilderness sounds just right.It will take the country that long to recover from this plague of gross stupidity.

  4. Jack Cade

    New England Cocky

    When I was a disability claims manager I had a client who had cancer and had stem cell replacement treatment, more or less ‘cured’. But being a teacher, she was forbidden to return to work by her oncologist. Because I had to justify continuing her benefit, I had to get written confirmation from her specialist that she could resume more or less a normal life, bar return to work. ‘Stem cell replacement treatment’, he wrote, ‘removes all your life-acquired immunities; classrooms, especially primary school classrooms, are classic incubators. Everything children, get they pass on.’
    You cannot possibly exercise social separation in primary schools. Two of my children are primary school teachers, and won’t come near me in case they are inadvertent carriers.

  5. Keitha Granville

    Not sure what is happening on the big island but down here on the moated apple isle children are only to go to school if both parents have to work and have no other choice. Everyone else is expected to keep their children at home and utilise the resources provided online if they have access, or in school packs which every teacher is preparing. It is not ideal. and I am sure that teachers are cautious, nervous and doing everything they can to keep children as distant as they can during the day. I know that in my grandson’s school before the break began they were teaching the children rigorous hygiene and social distancing rules.

    Like nurses, teachers are some of the best people in the country.

  6. Neil Hogan

    Hey ScottyFromMarketing, when parliament sits again in full on a regular basis people will think about sending kids back to school, until then, GFY!!!

  7. jake

    the state’s were managing the school thing to the best of their ability – they do not need a moron to add his 2 cents worth and muddy the waters

    my grandchildren are adorable but the youngest has a nickname of typhoid mary because she gets every bug going (preschool) and being a caring sharing child has passed on everything no matter how careful we have been – i doubt that she’s the only one like that

    the teachers have been given a thankless task and it’s not helped by attention seeking idiots (yes thats you the moron with one hand patting himself on the back and the other ……… checking his wallet)

  8. Innkeeper

    Think about it do you really like being confined to quarters. Theres lots of ways to die out there and so far this is one of the lesser. Then of course maybe because we are not allowed out some of us won’t die in a car crash or have a heart attack or fall off a cruise ship.Then of course on top of this just to keep it even ordinary everyday influenza kills far more people. Oh and before anyone starts asking for stats do a little research yourself and look up the internet. Do a search for Australian causes of death the figures for heart disease and similar areas are really scary in themselves. Its not about the economy or the corona virus its about the right of each and every human on this planet to be free.

  9. wam

    The heading seduced me into thinking of the the extremists who joied the rabbott in dec 2009 and again in dec 2013.
    The school message in the NT was clear of you can keep the kids home if not send them to school. The NTNews, not surprisingly for a rupert paper, reported the idea of parental choice as confusing. The ABC for the umteenth time took the same view as he paper..

    But the bottom line is schooling and attendance assumes an importance far beyond its worth and kids will not be disadvantaged by staying home. and taking lessons by distance, either on line pr post.

  10. Andy56

    Innkeeper, let me correct your thinking. You have missed some obvious steps in your logic. The reason WHY we have so few deaths from Covid 19 is because we are taking precautions. We are self isolating, wearing face masks and cleaning our hands thoroughly. We have an A grade medical system that is coping. In america, people on ventilators have a 50% chance of surviving. Its a pandemic because it spreads fast AND we have little data to go on. So we take precautions , we plan for the WORST CASE. By acting quickly, we have slowed it right down. I can assure you, if we did nothing or waited another 2 weeks and let it rip, the death toll would skyrocket. Thats the experience in America, italy, spain, france and england.
    Its not a question of being free, its a question of survival for a great number of people. Most of us are willing to make some short term sacrifices so others get a chance to survive, you clearly dont get it. total Freedom is no good when your dead.

  11. silkworm

    Forget about 5G. Huawei has already started work on 6G.

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