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The last 18 months have been tough. Many of us have lost jobs, savings and businesses. We’ve cancelled weddings and missed births and funerals. We’ve put our lives on hold, followed the rules and done everything we can to keep each other safe.
Because of the millions of sacrifices we’ve made together, we bought Scott Morrison time to procure enough vaccines to protect us all from Covid-19. We’ve held up our end of the bargain — but he’s failed.
The stark truth is that Australia now ranks last out of rich developed countries for our vaccine rollout.1 We are lagging 4.8 million jabs behind where the Morrison Government said we’d be.2 Many nurses, teachers, aged care workers and other frontline workers are in danger right now — they, and we, should all be safe.3
During a crisis that’s called for honesty and clarity, we’ve been hit with spin, deflection, and contradiction from our Prime Minister.4 When generosity has been required, those left high and dry have been made to beg for support.5
Let’s not mince words: this is a failure of leadership. That’s why we’ve penned an open letter to Scott Morrison, on behalf of all of us who’ve sacrificed so much. Because Scott Morrison needs to know that his spin is not good enough. And that thousands of us expect him to take responsibility and start to fix these failings immediately.
If enough of us sign it, we’ll publish this open letter in a national newspaper and plaster it across social media newsfeeds. Scott Morrison won’t be able to hide from his failings – and the thousands of us demanding solutions.
So will you read and sign the open letter today? Then share it with everyone you know.
| SIGN THE OPEN LETTER ❯ |
But it’s not good enough. Even in crucial sectors like aged care and disability support, a majority of workers have been left unvaccinated.8 In one aged care facility, only 15% of workers are vaccinated.9
Now, instead of providing the financial support people need to survive the most recent lockdowns, the Government is offering far less than it provided last year and hoping we’ve forgotten what decent support looks like.10
At every turn, Scott Morrison has ducked, weaved and tried to avoid accountability for his failings. When vaccine rates were lagging behind government targets, the government told us it’s “not a race”.11 Now that cases are rising and many people have been forced into lockdown, that lack of urgency is an insult to those of who’ve sacrificed so much.
So our letter is simple in its demands. We’re calling on Scott Morrison to take responsibility for his failings, and:
- Stop the spin and be straight with us.
- Urgently vaccinate every single frontline worker and vulnerable person in the community.
- Stop withholding proper income support from those who need it.
| SIGN THE OPEN LETTER ❯ |
When women across the country rose up earlier this year and called out a toxic culture of misogyny in our society, Scott Morrison said protestors were lucky to be in a country where the police didn’t shoot at them.13
And as the growing climate crisis threatens every single aspect of our lives, Scott Morrison has poured public money into polluting fossil fuels that threaten our future and our way of life.14
His handling of the Covid-19 crisis is just another example in this long line of failures.
It’s time we called out his failure, in our thousands. Sign the open letter today.
| SIGN THE OPEN LETTER ❯ |
In strength,
Emily – Head of Campaigns for the GetUp team.
References:
[1] Covid Australia vaccine rollout tracker: total number of people and per cent vaccinated, daily vaccine doses and rate of progress, The Guardian, 14 July 2021.
[2] See Note 1.
[3] Two-thirds of staff in aged care homes not vaccinated, The Age, June 26 2021.
[4] ‘Stuffed’: how Australia’s ‘unconscionable’ gamble on Covid vaccines backfired, The Guardian, 10 July 2021.
[5] ‘Covid Australia live update: Morrison announces NSW support package after 89 new cases and one death; three cases in Victoria’, The Guardian, 12 July 2021.
[6] See Note 1.
[7] Federal government projects little need for AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine after October, ABC News, 23 June 2021.
[8] See Note 3.
[9] Major Australian aged care provider reveals just 15% of staff vaccinated as sector demands changes to rollout, The Guardian, 8 July 2021.
[10] See Note 5
[11] VIDEO: Prime Minister defends saying the vaccine rollout is “not a race”, ABC News, 1 June 2021.
[12] Scott Morrison apologises for taking holiday during Australia’s bushfire crisis, The Guardian, 20 December 2019.
[13] Morrison praises protest response as others are ‘met with bullets’, 9News, 15 March 2021.
[14] Scott Morrison to spend extra $539 million on new ‘clean’ energy projects. But will they reduce emissions?, ABC News, 21 April 2021.
GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. We use new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues. We receive no political party or government funding, and every campaign we run is entirely supported by voluntary donations. If you’d like to contribute to help fund GetUp’s work, please donate now! Please note we’ve updated our privacy policy. If you do not wish to receive updates to drchryschrystello@gmail.com from GetUp, please unsubscribe. Our team acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work. We wish to pay respect to Elders – past, present and emerging – and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.
Authorised by Paul Oosting, GetUp, Sydney.
