Closed and fed up: Australian voters warn prime minister

SYDNEY, Aug. 20 (Reuters) – Sydney-based art studio Kathy Chalker is the kind of voter Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison needs to win the country’s next election: a Conservative supporter of long party time with a small company in a swing seat.

But Chalker has already decided to vote Morrison.

With her business closed indefinitely under a COVID-19 closure in Australia’s largest city, Chalker blames the Morrison government for what she sees as the mismanagement of a vaccine deployment that is behind almost every other developed nations.

“Why weren’t they ready? We were all seeing this happening all over the world: it’s pure incompetence,” Chalker told Reuters from his home on the western outskirts of Sydney, the epicenter of a COVID-19 outbreak that is the worst in the country since the pandemic. it began.

Chalker is not alone in her feelings. In the current polls, the coalition led by Morrison’s Liberal Party is likely to lose its meager majority in the country’s 151-seat parliament in an election scheduled for mid-next year.

Australia’s exposure to the coronavirus pandemic remains small compared to many other developed nations, with a total of just over 41,400 cases and 971 deaths, and for several months it appeared to emerge from the crisis. But the fast-moving Delta variant has exposed a major weakness; the country’s slow-moving vaccine program.

“The problem is that Morrison set such high expectations,” said John Hewson, a former Liberal Party leader. “Australia was on horseback with few or no cases, and now it has to manage those minimums.”

The country recorded 754 cases on Thursday, the highest increase in a single day, from the previous peak a year ago. Most were west of Sydney, which includes the Lindsay federal electorate, where Chalker lives and works.

West Sydney is home to around 2.5 million people and represents the third largest economy in the country after Sydney’s central business district and the city of Melbourne.

Anger is growing in the region that a two-month blockade does not appear to have slowed Delta’s outbreak, but it has severely affected local businesses.

Chalker voted in favor of the Liberal Party in the 2019 election, but believes small businesses have been overlooked during the current closure.

“My whole family feels the same way. I have adult kids and they tell me, ‘Yeah, we’ll vote for what you need mom.’

With more than half of Australia’s 25 million people living under some form of blockade, economists say the national economy is now at risk of falling into its second recession in so many years.

Lindsay residents and surrounding electorates are subject to the strictest measures in the country, with most confined to their homes, except exercise and purchase of essential supplies.

“People here are the engine of Australia; they have to work, many live from melee,” said Jody Reeves, another Lindsay resident, who describes herself as a swing voter.

“Morrison will need a strong advertising campaign to make us forget, but I’ll be here to remind everyone what went wrong.”

VACCINE FALLOUT

While Australia’s political responses to the pandemic are a mix of state and federal responsibilities, the Morrison government has taken much of the blame as the organizer of the national vaccine program.

Only 30% of people aged 16 and over have been fully vaccinated after a major push in recent weeks to improve decision-making.

The delays were due in part to the change in health advice on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine (AZN.L), which was to be the backbone of the country’s vaccination program, due to rare cases of blood clots. among some receivers. Since then, Australia has struggled to increase the supply of the Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) vaccine and has invested some advice on AstraZeneca.

Representatives from Morrison and the office of Liberal MP Melissa McIntosh, who represents Lindsay, did not answer questions.

Morrison said government measures have kept people at work and in businesses and helped Australia avoid the fatalities suffered elsewhere.

According to Australian rules, the government is due to call and hold elections in May next year. It is believed that it will be done as soon as possible to allow the vaccination program to move forward and travel to resume, raising the mood of the public.

In doing so, Morrison will hope to retain the support that drove him to a victory that challenges the 2019 poll.

Morrison outlined a narrow path to victory in this election through marginal seats in Queensland and Western Australia (where mining and agriculture are dominant industries) along with snatching Lindsay from the opposition Labor party.

Labor enjoys strong support for Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, and could return to power for the first time since 2013 if it won some of these marginal contests, with Lindsay firmly in sight.

Reports by Jonathan Barrett; edited by Jane Wardell

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