All of a sudden there are other priorities rather than saving Australian lives and livelihoods. There’s not enough money for free rapid antigen tests for everyone but there’s a stash of $16 billion to buy votes ahead of the election. We got a couple of installments at the weekend. There are one billion dollars for the Great Barrier Reef and $50 million to save koalas, both programs announced in North Queensland by the Prime Minister on the deadliest days of the Omicron wave. Despite assertions, Omicron is less severe, it has a four-times higher death rate than the original Delta outbreak. Four hundred elderly Australians in aged care died in January alone, more than the 300 over the entire 12 months of 2021. Experts are warning with the return to school we are sure to see another surge in infections, which can only prolong supply chain disruptions and staffing shortages. And yet calls from doctors, businesses and the opposition for free rapid antigen tests for everyone as a surveillance check on the spread of the virus continue to be rejected.

Source: Paul Bongiorno: Coalition offers a sick excuse for pandemic inaction