The Project hosts ask a VERY pointed question to Scott Morrison as 13 million Australians endure Covid lockdown – as Steve Price slams state leaders for putting us in a worse position than last year
- Co-host Steve Price questioned where Mr Morrison was amid Covid outbreak
- Prime Minister is isolating at The Lodge in Canberra ahead of parliament sittings
- The Project panellists said it wasn’t encouraging states were still in lockdown
- South Australia, Greater Sydney, Orange in NSW and Victoria are all in lockdown
Scott Morrison has been criticised for ‘disappearing’ during Australia’s latest Covid-19 outbreaks by a host of The Project.
Co-host Steve Price asked ‘where the Prime Minister was’ during the Channel 10 program on Tuesday night as 13 million residents around the country are forced into lockdown due to an explosion of cases.
Mr Morrison is currently isolating at The Lodge in Canberra after arriving from Sydney on an ‘essential workers’ exemption.
He along with other returning MPs will have to undergo 14 days of quarantine ahead of parliamentary sittings which are due to start again on August 3.
The Prime Minister had been in Sydney to do a press conference with Gladys Berejiklian on July 15, just five days ago, offering financial assistance to millions of Australians locked down in New South Wales.
More than 13 million Australians are in lockdown across the country due to an explosion in Covid cases (pictured an abandoned Pitt Street Mall in Sydney on Tuesday)
But Price accused the prime minister of having gone missing at one of the most crucial parts of the country’s fight against the virus.
‘Can I say one thing – where the hell is the Prime Minister?’ Price asked his fellow panelists.
‘He’s got half his country locked down and we haven’t heard from him for a week.
‘This is the biggest pandemic crisis in the country and the PM is locked up in The Lodge in Canberra and he’s not talking to anyone.’
On Tuesday night, around the same time at Price’s comments, Mr Morrison announced a major financial relief package for locked down South Australians, offering $600 a week to those who have lost income.
Price also highlighted the fact that three Australian states were currently in lockdown despite it being over a year since the pandemic first began, while the rest of the world has begun to open up.
‘As a country we’re in a worse position than we were this time last year,’ he said.
Co-host Steve Price asked where the Prime Minister was during the Channel 10 program on Tuesday night as 13million residents around the country are forced into lockdown due to an explosion of cases
Scott Morrison is currently isolating at The Lodge in Canberra after arriving from Sydney on an ‘essential workers’ exemption
Co-host Carrie Bickmore also weighed in and said it was disheartening the pandemic has had such a lasting impact on the country.
‘If you said this time last year, we’d still be in this situation a year later, I just don’t think anyone was imagining it,’ she said.
‘I’m sure the experts were, but I don’t think everyday people were thinking that’s how long this was going to go for.’
Greater Sydney has been in lockdown for nearly a month while it was revealed on Tuesday that Orange in regional NSW would also be put under the same restrictions for one week.
50,000 people in Orange, Blayney, and the Cabonne Shire Council in the New South Wales Central West will be plunged into lockdown from midnight on Tuesday, enduring the same restrictions as Sydneysiders.
The restrictions were sparked by an infected pet food driver that spread Covid-19 to a local.
Victoria has extended its stay-at-home orders for another week after 13 new cases in the state were announced on Tuesday
Police are seen patrolling Sydney’s CBD on Tuesday to ensure residents are following Covid restrictions
The Covid-positive driver was delivering pet food from locked-down Greater Sydney to the Nestle Purina factory at Blayney, near Orange, where a worker now has the virus.
Major stores in the area including Officeworks, Woolworths and CTC in North Orange Shopping Centre, EG Fuelco Australia, and Pizza Hut have been put on the state’s list of Covid-19 exposure sites after being visited by the unknowingly infected local.
South Australia will also join New South Wales and Victoria in lockdown after a further two cases overnight. From 6pm on Tuesday night, the entire state will enter seven days of lockdown.
Victoria has extended its stay-at-home orders for another week after 13 new cases in the state were announced on Tuesday.