Quarantine Fiasco Continues, Media Clampdown, The Beast Of The NSW Labor Right

Victoria will complete a two-week lockdown soon but if the Morrison government had done its job properly on quarantine management and the vaccination rollout, the lockdown – which will cost around $2 billion in lost revenues and other expenses – may have been avoided. And it’s nobody’s fault, except for the fault of the Morrison government. And their performance has been so bad that it’s a performance that seems to have been directed by the Big Q. It’s frustratingly puzzling as to why they are refusing to build quarantine managements centres across Australia.

Conservative governments are usually the advocates of free speech but in shades of the infamous East German Stasi secret service, the Liberal National government now wants to monitor the social media accounts of ABC journalists, publicly humiliate them, and sack them. The only parts that are missing are the megaphones shouting out “you know what you've done wrong” and the re-enactment of Kafka’s ‘The Trial’ will be complete. Of course, it's free speech for all, except for you, you, you and you, and anyone else the government disagrees with.

The NSW Labor Right faction is an unusual beast in Australian politics, and in most cases is more concerned about its own influence, rather than the critical task of winning elections. They were the instigators of the resignation of NSW Labor leader, Jodi McKay, and now they have their man in the leadership, Chris Minns. And no-one should kid themselves that the Liberal Party is the only party that treats its women poorly: Labor has close to 50–50 gender equality within its ranks, but that doesn't stop it from undermining the women already in leadership positions, or making sure they don't get there in the first place.