Asked on Friday about releasing the modelling, the Prime Minister waffled. Asked on Sunday, he avoided the question again. This despite the fact we know the government recently increased its spending, by several million dollars, on analysing data on the virus. Loading The national cabinet, we are told, is not taking its decisions lightly. We are told how difficult issues are, how complicated the choices. As a former political staffer I’ve always had sympathy for the difficulty of the decisions our leaders are called upon to make. But right now this is particularly irrelevant. The role of those of us lucky enough to have a public voice isn’t to empathise with the Prime Minister. It’s to make sure Australians are given the information that will provide the best chance of saving lives. In almost any other situation, you might say: we’ll get the information later, then we’ll vote at the election. We’ll deliver our judgment then. But not this time – because the decisions taken now can never be reversed. This is about giving experts – not just those advising government - the best chance to spot mistakes as the crisis unfolds. Mistakes, unchecked, will lead to deaths. In recent days, Scott Morrison has been saying contradictory things. He tells us he is following medical advice. But at the same time, he says he is trying to strike a balance between the twin challenges of the economy and health. Both can’t be true.

Loading Granted, he has tried to knit these justifications together by talking about the health impact of recessions. This sounds reasonable at first. But think about it a little more. Will the health impact of the recession that will come if we shut shops now be that much larger than the health impact of the recession when we shut shops in a few weeks’ time? In either situation, the recession will be deep. And will that relatively small extra health impact outweigh the lives lost as the virus spreads? We can’t know for sure, but we have a right to see the government’s workings. If the government has decided to, say, save 100,000 jobs over the long term at the cost of 2,000 lives now, it should tell us. Instead, we are being treated like children. There is a political saying that the voters always get it right. It’s a judgment that is hard to sustain if you look at events in the United States. And with that in mind, it is worth recalling the last election here. There were many factors, but mostly it seemed as though we had chosen to stick with a sitting prime minister, a knockabout Aussie bloke with no big plans, in the hope of ending a long period of chaos. We wanted a leader who would manage, not act. Who wouldn’t bother us. My deep concern is that the government is still acting from that instinct. Certainly many medical experts seem to share that concern and in the past days criticism has intensified. There have been serious warnings that we may share Italy’s fate, that our intensive care units will be overrun. The government’s experts have said these predictions are wrong but not with the level of detail that might give us confidence.

Given we don’t have detailed epidemiological information, because the government won’t provide it, I can only offer you my political judgment. When the virus first began to spread, Morrison acted quickly, banning travel from China. But since then, he has been slow – he was off to the footy until the outcry grew too large, he delayed wage subsidies until the need for them became undeniable. And this is his usual habit, to wait to act until he absolutely must. It was there during the bushfires. It was there in the way he took the prime ministership. The government is doing some good things, like this weekend's announcement on mental health and the launch of a new app. But these are not the main game. The intensified measures announced on Sunday night were a hopeful sign that the government's attitude might be changing. We must hope these new rules have come in time. About a week ago, a small push began for more transparency. After Morrison gave a slightly more detailed press conference, it was largely forgotten. Perhaps soon we will have the latest modelling. But that will be no reason to relax either. Getting answers from Morrison has always felt like pulling teeth. This crisis will last for months. So will the necessity of hounding this government for information. Sign up for our Coronavirus Update newsletter Get our Coronavirus Update newsletter for the day’s crucial developments at a glance, the numbers you need to know and what our readers are saying. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald’s newsletter here and The Age’s here.