11.04pm EST
23:04
The Morrison government – which has been under pressure over shortages of rapid antigen tests during the Omicron wave – has gone on the attack over Anthony Albanese’s free RAT policy.
The Labor leader told the ABC’s Insiders program today that the free rapid antigen tests would be subject to “limits based upon the health advice”, including a cap on the number of tests a person could receive each month, in order to “control supply”. Albanese said:
What you’ve had from this government is a ‘let it rip’ approach when it comes to the market delivering and the market hasn’t delivered.
A statement issued by the government this afternoon tried to claim Albanese’s comment represented a “backflip”. The statement – attributed to the health minister, Greg Hunt, and the industry minister, Angus Taylor – says:
He is a weak leader who doesn’t know what he stands for … Under the slightest pressure to explain what he intended, Mr Albanese’s vague, sound-good pledge has collapsed to simply endorsing the Government’s program which in the first five days has delivered two million RATs, through 2600 pharmacies and to 467,000 concession card holders.
The federal finance minister, Simon Birmingham, fronted the cameras in Adelaide to accuse the Labor party of “thought bubbles”:
It sounds like it’s a great big hoax, and it’s a policy that is falling apart at the seams.
Let’s pause for a moment of analysis: the federal government has been under significant heat over RAT shortages amid accusations it failed to properly plan for “living with” the virus. It’s unclear how much this will influence the coming election, due by May, but generally the fierceness of a government response is a good guide as to how much an issue is biting with the general voting public.
Birmingham was also asked about the friendly fire the federal government received from the NSW Coalition government today, with the state treasurer, Matt Kean, expressing disappointment that the commonwealth had not chipped in funding for an economic support package.
The federal finance minister defended the level of economic support the federal government had provided to date, and contrasted the NSW announcement with the one made by the South Australian Liberal government a day earlier “without any fuss, without any demands of the commonwealth.”
Updated
at 11.15pm EST
