Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia to hold elections on May 21 stating that polls are for nation’s “future” amid global challenges of Chinese economic coercion, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic
Morrison was widely criticised for taking a secret family vacation to Hawaii at the height of the crisis while his hometown Sydney was blanketed in toxic smoke.
He cut his vacation short due to the public backlash, but was further criticized over his explanation for his absence: “I don’t hold a hose.” His government was criticized for its responses to the fires and also record flooding this year in some of the same areas in Australia’s southeast that were razed two years earlier.Morrison was widely criticized at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in November for failing to set more ambitious targets for the end of the decade.
The government aims to reduce emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels, while other countries have made steeper commitments.Australia was initially successful in containing the death toll from the Covid-19 pandemic largely through restrictions on international travel.The opposition criticised the government over the pace of Australia’s vaccine rollout, which was derided as a “stroll out,” as it fell months behind schedule.
The government has defended its pandemic record and takes credit for Australia having the third-lowest death toll among the 38 Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation countries.