COVID? What COVID? Virus virtually forgotten as Coalition goes the full McCarthy

There’s a feral-ness in the air. The 46th Parliament has just three sitting days left, after a bruising, gruelling fortnight ends pretty much where it started — with the Morrison government looking desperate, shambolic and divided. 

Unlike last week, which at least brought policy debate on actual legislation, the past four days saw a tired, grumpy government throwing handfuls of dirt at Labor and seeing what might stick.

The lines of attack were based on things that happened during the Rudd-Gillard years, on long-ditched Shorten-era policies, or on pure McCarthyist fantasy, rather than on anything substantive the opposition leader is actually proposing to do if elected in May. 

According to the government’s post-truth narrative, Labor is having its strings pulled by both Adam Bandt and Beijing, will tax you into poverty, and is going to let violent foreign criminals roam freely through the country.

In reality, Labor has repeatedly ruled out a coalition with the Greens, has the same substantive policies as the government on China, has ditched many of Bill Shorten’s most ambitious tax reforms, and has consistently offered the government in-principle support for a bill that would make it easier to deport non-citizens convicted of a crime, waving it through the Lower House this week.

The government’s attacks on China were most egregious. Scott Morrison called Deputy Labor Leader Richard Marles a “Manchurian Candidate”. The opposition was accused of “appeasement”, of being the CCP’s preferred party. It was too toxic even for security agencies and the press gallery — both of which have done their fair share of spurious red-baiting on China. The spy chiefs called it out as unhelpful, and journalists did the same before scurrying off to file hit-pieces about Anthony Albanese (shock horror) speaking Mandarin.

But amid all that feral-ness and dirt-slinging was a notable omission from the “debate” (if it can be called that). Aside from euphemistic Dixers about “Australia’s strong recovery”, the government really did not want to talk about COVID and the pandemic.

Maybe that’s unsurprising given the Omicron summer. But with the wave receding, and given Australia’s vaccination rate and COVID fatalities remain the envy of much of the world, the pandemic — usually such a boost for incumbents — should be an electoral asset for the Coalition.

That it currently isn’t speaks to how much the government has managed to erode public trust in its ability to do things competently, and to how many in the community believe Australia’s COVID success is in spite of Morrison’s leadership, not because of it.

Where we did hear about COVID was in the bowels of Senate estimates. We heard that since the start of 2022, nearly 700 aged care residents have died of COVID. We heard that despite Morrison’s belated promise to send the troops into nursing homes this month, just 100 of the promised 1700 personnel had been deployed. We also heard Richard Colbeck, the Aged Care Minister who skipped a COVID inquiry to go to the cricket, wouldn’t be resigning. 

It was telling that Labor repeatedly returned to the crisis in aged care in question time over the past fortnight. Blessedly, most Australians don’t watch estimates or question time. But they do worry about their elderly loved ones in nursing homes, whether they’re being properly looked after, and whether they’ll survive a pandemic the government wants neatly wrapped up just in time for May.

It’s a sign that far from the Hill, people are perhaps worried about more immediate things than hypothetical foreign invaders or whether we should be a bit crueller to transgender kids. 

The election will be won and lost on “vibes” about the pandemic. It’s why, with Omicron too close in the rearview window, and another bad summer likely to linger in the public memory, the government is pivoting to reds under the bed. It’s why Labor focuses on crisis points like aged care, but avoids any critique that the government could use to disingenuously paint them as the party of permanent restrictions.

It’s why the chaotic, “final days of Rome” vibe currently emanating from Parliament and the Coalition doesn’t mean all that much. It’s the vibe in May, and the shit that stinks then, that matters.