14 September

I’ve been so proud to be an Australian in this pandemic. Our magnificent public institutions stuffed full of expertise have been allowed to flex their muscles. We’re the envy of much of the world. At the same time though the depressing thing the pandemic has shown is how much the American model of politics has now infected us, and is undermining what we have. Populism is rampant, ScoMo closed the entire parliament for months and nobody even whimpered. And he’s spent most of the pandemic trying to undermine the work of those magnificent public institutions, leading the anti-lockdown QAnon-type charge, slashing funding for universities, replacing parliament with a committee of fossil fuel executives, and now this - a new gas plant. This is American politics, lobbying groups buying decisions. All in the name of God too, pure US politics.