Comment

It seems unlikely that embracing ‘can-do capitalism’ will prove to be a viable political strategy – especially in the midst of a social and economic crisis that has once again exposed the fraught nature of private markets and reminded us of the importance of community, solidarity and public services – but bizarrely it’s the one Prime Minister Scott Morrison has chosen.

Last weekend, Scott Morrison gave one of his pre-election interviews to Nine newspapers. He spent some time with the journalist. He aped for photographs with his dog. He talked about God but not too much.

At the start of a new year, especially after such a tumultuous year as 2021, and in what will be an election year, it seems reasonable to take a look in the ‘too-hard basket’ to see what policy issues were missed, or deliberately ignored, or simply ‘kicked down the road’ by the current government.

Wishful thinking and an incompetent handling of the pandemic over the summer have shattered the chances of Scott Morrison pulling off another improbable election win. What I would call the ‘Ellis factor’ may yet save him, but it is a long shot.

It’s January already. Here I am, writing yet another opinion piece about the 26th day of this month, the day on which the nation celebrates the invasion and genocide imposed on my people and my sacred Noongar Country and all other Aboriginal people and our lands.

There is an argument that says prime ministers, whatever their qualities, tell the story of the country that elected them. Australia was brash like Bob Hawke and confident like Paul Keating and boring and self-interested like John Howard.

There will not be a sustained economic recovery without a recovery of small businesses, and at this point they are on their knees. They are an essential element of the fabric of Australia and employ millions of Australians. They are the most innovative of our businesses and the developers of new technologies in our country. Small businesses are increasingly fundamental to our overall export performance, too. In 2022, they are ‘the sheep’s back’.

The savage, reckless, wantonly negligent public health policy of the federal government that is supposed to protect us – and above all, make sure people in places like Kooyong and Higgins never face the horror of queues and half-empty supermarket shelves – has plunged Australia into a debacle of massive and unprecedented proportions.

Denial of the science of epidemiology is widespread, even among ‘experts’. We are told repeatedly that SARS-CoV-2 will become ‘endemic’. But it will never be endemic because it is an epidemic disease and always will be.

Scott Morrison’s smile is like a measuring tape. It lengthens as he decides what it is he can get away with. The calibration is sometimes off but this does not affect his confidence. Before he speaks, he sucks air hard through his nose: one last assessment, as if to smell the credulity of the room.