Ten's Peter van Onselen left the stunned PM almost speechless by the revelation
Astonishing moment Scott Morrison is ambushed with text messages from Gladys Berejiklian calling him a 'horrible, horrible person' and another minister saying he's a 'complete psycho'
Press Clubbed: Scott Morrison’s everyman act cops it from journalists
The prime minister started his National Press Club address on a note of contrition. But the assembled journalists weren't about to let him off that easily.
Scott Morrison PM - ADDRESS, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB
Analysis: Scott Morrison was forced to admit he doesn't know the cost of a loaf of bread, a tank of fuel or a rapid antigen test.
It begs the question if the leader of the nation doesn't know the cost of living, how can he improve it?
The Prime Minister was peppered with difficult questions during his first major speech of the election year at the National Press Club.
“It’s a new year. So, a good opportunity to clear the air. You’ve acknowledged today you didn’t get everything right. And that you understand the frustration people have felt over the summer. But do you want to take this opportunity to actually say sorry for the mistakes you have made as Prime Minister?
“Not just about Covid. Everything from going to Hawaii during the bushfires through to not having enough rapid antigen tests in place, even as you foreshadowed the switch to a greater use of them, and for failing to live up to your pledge to hundreds of thousands of people on the NDIS that you would make sure the scheme was fully funded, uncapped and demand driven? Will you apologise to people who’ve had funding arbitrarily cut under the scheme?”
He also admitted he was "too optimistic" heading into a summer swallowed by the Omicron wave.
Mr Morrison conceded that he should have put the military in charge of the vaccine rollout earlier.
But he wouldn't directly apologise for any mistakes.
"We're all terribly sorry for what this pandemic has done to the world and to this country," he said in a carefully framed reply.
While Mr Morrison couldn't brush past the problems of the last few months, it was clear he wanted to focus on the future and in particular, jobs.
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US CRS Report – Stop the Presses? Newspapers in the Digital Age, January 27, 2022: “During the last 20 years, more than 200 local daily newspapers have either reduced their publication frequency or ceased publishing altogether. Among those that survive, many employ a fraction of the journalists that they did at the turn of the 21stcentury, and publish far fewer original local and investigative news stories than they did previously.
As a result, in order to get local news, thousands of U.S. communities rely on “ghost newspapers” that are shells of their former selves or, if they have internet service,on websites or chat groups that rarely employ full-time professional journalists. Among other societal effects, researchers report that the lack of a daily newspaper to monitor local governments and publicly traded companies and hold them accountable can lead to increased financing costs to make up for investors’ lack of trust.
Daily newspaper revenue, adjusted for inflation, has fallen approximately 80% since it peaked at $89 billion in 2000. Several factors have led to the contraction of the newspaper industry, with the exception of large, national newspapers. Technological developments enabling citizens to access news without a subscription from websites and mobile apps have increased competition for readers.
Revenue gains from online newspaper subscriptions have not replaced revenues lost as subscriptions to print newspapers decline. In addition,a large share of advertising that formerly appeared in newspapers has shifted to online platforms. Likewise, for local and regional newspapers, revenues from online editions of newspapers have not replaced revenues lost from print editions.
Business decisions by news aggregators such as Apple News and Google News and by social media platforms such as Facebook also affect the viability of newspapers. As intermediaries between newspapers and their readers, these online platforms can help increase newspapers’ readership. However, they can also impede the ability of newspapers to sell subscriptions and collect data about their readers, which can be key to selling online advertising…”