Our Prime Minister, "Go slow, Scomo", was slow arranging the COVID vaccines. He was slow arranging dedicated quarantine stations leaving thousands of Australians stranded overseas. He was slow ordering sufficient RAT kits. Asked how many aged care residents, Aged Care workers and First Nation People are vaccinated, he says it's a lot, and he doesn't need to know because he doesn't have that responsibility. I think it's time Prime Minister had a new name and it should be "I don't know Scomo".
He was asked where his ex-minister Christian Porter received donations for his legal fees from from, was it from the proceeds of crime or a foreign government? Scott looked surprised and replied that he didn't know. He was asked how a staff member could be allegedly sexually assaulted in Parliament House or how a staff member could perform a sex act on a Minister's desk. Our Prime Minister looked sad and said that he didn't know. Even after all the Government scandals, when asked about a Federal ICAC. Our Prime Minister seems confused. Ask him what the latest infection rates are, and he says that we don't need to know. Author Ray Bradbury wrote, "It is folly to mistake a three-word slogan as truth". Some are great with three-word slogans or deflecting issues, passing the buck or just pretending that he doesn't know. As President Macron said, "I don't think, I know" - it's time for him to go.
Dennis Briggs, Cronulla
Shire Independents Day
Has the day arrived to support a vote for independent voices in the federal parliament?
People who care and place disinterest above self-interest.
Our sitting member for Cook has been variously portrayed in the media as:
A smirks and mirrors marketing muppet.
A man who obfuscates responsibility for everything.
A PM to whom statesman leadership is incomprehensible.
A liar.
A meaningless leadership where yesterday's utterings are contradicted or denied by today's.
We don't need a SHOWMAN. We need people who SHOW UP (to hold a hose)
So, the question to any independent-minded locals in the words of Zoe Daniel (independent for Goldstein)
"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"
Axel Tennie, Caringbah South
I smell a RAT
Scott Morrison's smile is like a measuring tape. It lengthens as he decides what it is he can get away with.
A simple enough question was asked, How many rapid tests have you personally paid for?
"Um, well," he said, "I'd have to check with Jen because she, um, she's the one that goes and, and gets them, um, for, for those situations."
What was really being asked was: Do you understand how difficult it is to get them, that symptomatic people are going from pharmacy to pharmacy because of a supply failure?
The smile arrived as Morrison said his wife's name. The measuring began.
"When they're being used for private use, then Jen's popped around to the chemist or wherever she's gone," Morrison continued. "I think recently she went to one here in Canberra, um, for that reason, and was able to find one eventually. Just like everyone else, driving around looking to find one."
A few weeks ago, he claimed he bought his own test at a pharmacy in Terrigal. "Picked one up. Took the test. It was negative. I didn't need the government to tell me to do anything." But, of course, that's not true: Morrison is the government. He waited in a Comcar while a staffer bought the test for him. He called this "a real-life example".
Morrison governs through anecdote. He lives entirely in the first person. He's in it, just like you. Except he's not. He's the prime minister. He shouldn't be driving around looking for tests. No reasonable person expects that. What he should be doing is making them available. If his wife is driving around looking for them, it is not because he's on your side - it's because he's not. He has failed you and he has failed the country.
Morrison is fundamentally confused about the role of the prime minister. He remains a state party director at heart: he works for the people who voted for him and no one else. This has been the fundamental failure of the pandemic. He never believed himself responsible for the country as a whole. Now he has failed even those who put him in charge.
Morrison's response is the same as it has always been: to smile and hope the country will look after itself; that he will continue life as the ordinary man who found himself miraculously prime minister, the King Ralph of Australian politics.
Sally Lamont, Jannali
An act of kindness
I have lived in Engadine for 60 years and always look forward to reading the local news in your paper. On Thursday, 13th January, I was shopping in Coles Supermarket and being 90 was a bit slow in the checkout queue, when the lady, ahead of me, who said her name was "Deb", kindly added my shopping to hers and paid for mine along with hers.
It brought tears to my eyes that act of kindness. She said she hoped someone might do the same for her mother. I hope to pass on her spontaneous good deed. It was nice to have a happy story to tell friends among all the worrying ones.
Elaine, Engadine
Very Thankful
I am most grateful for the assistance given to me by the male and female nurses at Sutherland hospital emergency department and South Care from Sutherland hospital. These people have treated me for the past 16 weeks. In addition, I must give special thanks to Alison from South Care and Jovanna from Allied health at Sutherland hospital and the vascular surgeon Professor McMullin and my GP, Dr Bill Tierney from Gymea.
All these people have shown me the care that I needed to get back to good health and I am most grateful for what they have done, particularly in this challenging time of COVID.
Tony Day
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