Does Anthony Albanese have the worst advisers in the democratic world? Or are his media team, like Joe Biden’s one suspects, constantly tearing their hair out at their boss’s utter, utter dunderheadedness?
Or are they as stupid as each other?
Because little else would seem to explain Albanese’s cloth-eared behaviour since becoming prime minister. At least Joe Biden has the excuse of a brain that’s turned into mush over the last couple of centuries.
What’s Albo’s excuse?
Anthony Albanese says workers don’t need pandemic leave because employers are already allowing them to work from home while sick.
Just in case anyone, anywhere, missed the ivory-tower stupidity of that statement, Albo doubled down by reiterating that casuals could work from home, like everyone else.
Which will surely be news to all those casual waitresses and baristas, not to mention the builders, plumbers, sparkies, truckies and forkies who are working from home.
Of course, the chances that Albanese has tripped over a labourer or a retail worker in his Canberra bubble are less than the chance of him actually staying in Australia for more than a few days at a time.
As a satirical blog noted recently, “Man Promising Net Zero Carbon Emissions Sure Loves to Fly a Lot”. Albanese has, since becoming PM, spent more time out of Australia than in it. This is the man who, remember, sneered at Scott Morrison, “I won’t go missing when the going gets tough, or pose for photos and then disappear when there’s a job to be done”.
In a stunning twist, posing for endless, fatuous selfies and buggering off overseas at the drop of a hat is all he’s done. Just as well the going isn’t tough in Australia, right now: no energy crisis, no catastrophic floods, no inflation crisis, no spiralling interest rates…
Remember when Labor was “the party of the worker”? No, neither do I. Neither does Albanese, either.
Mr Albanese is under pressure from the unions, state leaders, the opposition and members of his own backbench who have called the decision to axe the sick leave payment into question [..]
On Friday, social media users were quick to point out the hypocrisy in the Prime Minister’s comments, given many casual workers who hold jobs in retail and hospitality could not just work from home.
“Doing my previous jobs of forklift driver, and longshore/warehousing from home as a casual. Yeah, makes nothing but sense,” one tweeted.
“Trying to buy a coffee but the barista is sick so they’re working from home,” another joked.
Meanwhile, opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston called on the government to explain why it was abandoning workers.
“What we’re questioning is the timing of the removal of these Covid supports as we’re just heading into what the medical experts are saying is a very dangerous wave,” she told Radio National.
“Is the decision being made by the government based on the health advice?”
The Australian
Ooh, ooh — we know the answer to that one! All we have to do is ask Dictator Dan.
The premier who presided over the longest, harshest lockdowns in the world because, he said, “expert advice”, is now completely disregarding “expert advice” and refusing to go back into lockdown or reinstate mask mandates.
The fact that he is facing an election in just a couple of months surely has nothing to do with it.
Because, then we might start thinking that it was all only ever about politics, after all.
