The PM can't spin his way out of this vaccine mess

The sign in walnut on his desk did not say: "But if things go wrong, it's the public servants you need to blame."

That would have shown an absence of leadership. It would also have amounted to low behaviour. The mark of a leader is she or he takes the flak directed at those below. This, the prime minister signally failed to do when he blamed the panel of medical experts for the country's slow rollout of vaccines.

Scott Morrison could have said he, as the prime minister, took ultimate responsibility for the rollout. That would have been the courageous -big - thing to do.

Instead, he said a series of "very cautious" decisions from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) had a very big impact.

"It slowed it considerably and it put us behind. We wish that wasn't the result but it was," he said on the radio on Wednesday.

"Those decisions are made independent of government, as they should be."

Apart from a lack of nobility in his response, it was also disingenuous.

Decisions about the purchases of vaccines and the way a rollout is organised are not "independent of government".

Scientists advise on the medical aspects: is this vaccine effective; is that vaccine the right one for our country which is huge and with many isolated communities?

But a range of scientific scenarios are then considered by politicians who make the ultimate decision - the buck stops with them, as Mr Morrison didn't say. Scientists often offer a range of advice, giving the implications of different options. Politicians then have to decide.

One of the big unanswered questions is why the supply of vaccines is so inadequate. On the face of it, this shortage may be because the government calculated it could keep the pandemic out by closing the international border. That scenario implied vaccination might not be so necessary so early. Choosing it was a political decision.

A further aspect to this sad saga is beating this virus will depend on keeping the trust and the cooperation of the people. If ordinary people lose faith in those at the top, it will be harder to persuade them to do the right thing.

Mr Morrison's acute political antennae may now be twitching. The election is, perhaps, a year away but that time is shorter than it may seem.

He will not want to go into that election with the pandemic still rife and voters looking at him as the leader in charge.

Hence, spreading the blame now may be behind his reason for pulling the rug from under public servants for the slow rollout.

Politicians are quick to take credit when events go their way (sometimes even when success had nothing to do with them). The corollary of that is blame should go their way when things don't work out for the best.

A week ago, it emerged former prime minister Kevin Rudd had made a call to the head of Pfizer to try to secure more vaccine for Australia. Mr Morrison had not made the call (though he had made countless calls to try to get his political colleague Mathias Cormann a plum job in Paris).

Mr Morrison needs to up his game. This pandemic is not just about marketing and image. It is about hard decisions based on evidence; his hard decisions based on evidence.

Blaming underlings is low. We have no doubt voters will see it that way.

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