It’s a stretch for the former prime minister to claim he saved 40,000 lives – and it is sophistry to use that as justification for the indefensible, writes chief political correspondent CroweDM. | OPINION Morrison auspol Scomo
One basic excuse booms through Australian politics like a foghorn in the dark when Scott Morrison tries to justify the way he blundered through the conventions of good government by taking secret portfolios without telling his ministers, the parliament or the people.
If Morrison wanted more checks and balances over the use of extreme power, of course, he could have disclosed what he was doing and included parliament in the “two-key” system he likened to the shared authority on a nuclear submarine. So his excuse fails at the first hurdle. He confronted a real problem and came up with the wrong solution.The argument over this will run all the way to the next election because Morrison and his supporters will insist the ends justified the means.
The latest data from Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked case numbers and death rates through the pandemic, concludes that Australia has a mortality rate of 51.16 per 100,000 people. This compares to 275.16 for the United Kingdom, 175.61 for Germany and 113.73 for Canada. It also compares to 50.23 for South Korea and 28.23 for Japan. The political spin depends entirely on the countries chosen for the comparison and the timeframe for the comparison.
This is essential to the debate over the pandemic response and, therefore, the argument put by Morrison to justify his strange departure from the usual rules of good government. The claim he saved 40,000 lives is merely an extrapolation. Yes, he was part of a national response that ensured Australia withstood the pandemic better than other countries. It is sophistry to argue that he had to take on multiple ministries to do his job.
Even the governor-general’s language on Wednesday night suggested some broader process because he said he was acting on the advice of the “government of the day” when in fact he was acting on the word of one man only, the prime minister. But the prime minister is not the government. The prime minister is only one member of the government.Why did Morrison do this? Nobody has put forward a compelling justification.
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