Scott Morrison has urged prime ministers to avoid further Covid-19 lockdowns or mask mandates, declaring: “We are moving forward.”
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, the Prime Minister ruled out holding daily press conferences on the virus and said he did not want Australians to live in fear of new lockdowns if he wins the election.
Western Australia became the latest state to remove mask mandates three weeks ago.
Asked whether prime ministers, who have the power to impose health restrictions, should stay out of the lives of Australians, Morrison said: “I think we need to move forward from where we’ve been and that’s always been my view.”
“We are living with Covid, and we will not go back to those daily press conferences where people talk about Covid every day, and we will threaten closures and lockdowns and interfere in people’s lives again, that is not what I am going to do.” do if I will be re-elected on Saturday,’ he stated.
“I will not drag Australia back to those times.”
Morrison said that even if a new variant emerged, he would urge prime ministers to avoid severe restrictions.
“I think it’s incredibly important that we manage the pandemic and its future carefully, but we don’t go back to those days of closures and lockdowns,” he said.
‘Australians want to move forward and that is certainly what I want to do.
‘We live with the pandemic, we live with the virus and we make sure our economy comes back to life and people get jobs again.
‘I’m not going to crush their dreams by bringing Australia back into that environment.
Pictured: Police monitor people walking on Bondi Beach during Sydney’s lockdown in August 2021.
In an optimistic message, he added: “We are moving forward, we have many years ahead of us, we are prepared to take advantage of the opportunities that await us.”
Anthony Albanese has repeatedly stated that he will “follow health advice” on managing the pandemic if he becomes Prime Minister.
The Coalition says he will be a pushover for Labor premiers such as Mark McGowan, Daniel Andrews and Annastacia Palaszczuk.
Speaking at the National Press Club, Albanese said he wants a “national strategy” to deal with Covid.
He said: ‘How can we spread the information so that people get their booster shots?
‘What can we do to minimize the impact of Covid, which continues to have an ongoing impact on people?
‘There are many younger people who this can also affect and who are in hospital.
“We need to continue to be vigilant and recognize that this pandemic still has a real human impact.”
Scott Morrison blames states for any excessive energy use during the Covid-19 pandemic in an interview with Daily Mail Australia
The Prime Minister loves to trumpet how Australia fared better than comparable countries on health and economics during the pandemic, but rarely mentions the brutal crackdown on civil liberties and human rights.
Melbourne was in lockdown for 252 days, the longest in the world, as state premiers across the country closed their borders, causing misery and pain for separated families.
In a tragic case that captured national attention, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk prevented a 26-year-old nurse living in Canberra from returning home to say goodbye to her dying father, despite the Prime Minister’s pleas for her to I would let her in.
Sarah Caisip (pictured) was not allowed to enter Queensland to see her father before he died of liver cancer. She was later granted a private view of her body, in full personal protective equipment, surrounded by guards and prohibited from seeing her devastated mother and her 11-year-old sister. It was one of the most heartbreaking news during the pandemic.
Morrison also took a hardline approach, even threatening his own citizens with five years in jail if they entered the country from India during the Delta wave in May 2021.
But looking back, he says only state premiers were guilty of any excessive use of power.
“Ultimately, if there were excesses, they were excesses in the decisions made at the state level,” he says.
‘Take mandatory vaccines as an example. At the federal level the only mandatory vaccines that were agreed upon were in high health risk situations and care situations. That’s all.
‘Otherwise, customary law applied. The states made unilateral decisions that were not decisions of the Commonwealth Government.
Morrison said the virus developed differently across the country so there will always be “a spectrum” of responses in which states exercise the power to impose lockdowns.
“Our model was like the US, where we saw a very similar spectrum of responses, but the difference in Australia was that I was able to get them all in one room on more than 60 occasions and try to achieve as much consistency as I could. “he said in reference to his “national cabinet” meetings with prime ministers.
Asked if he managed to bring the prime ministers together, he said: “I think the results speak for themselves.”
The Prime Minister (pictured at a rugby league club in Brisbane) believes state premiers were responsible for “any excesses” during the pandemic.
Labor has relentlessly attacked Morrison over the slow vaccine rollout, which was derailed by concerns about blood clots with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which Australia had relied on to do the heavy lifting.
In a televised debate last week, the Prime Minister admitted he should have viewed the launch with more urgency after repeatedly saying it is “not a race”.
Morrison now admits he made mistakes, but also insists he was under extreme pressure.
“In many of the areas where we have had imperfections, many of them had to do with the extraordinary circumstances in which we were operating,” he says.
“And in those circumstances I don’t think anyone can claim to be able to get every decision right, especially when you look back, which is largely what Anthony Albanese did over the last three years.”
Melbourne (pictured July 2020) was in lockdown for 252 days, the most in the world.