Senator Canavan’s presence on the show was also slammed as ‘a slap in the face to everyone doing the right thing’ while many accused him of spreading ‘misinformation’.
The former cabinet minister and economist raised eyebrows in a comment piece in The Australian Financial Review this week by claiming the cost of saving each life during pandemic lockdowns was ‘$330million’.
Senator Canavan bickered with Q+A host David Speers on Thursday over Treasury’s recent finding that early intervention was the best way to get on top of the virus until we reach high vaccination rates.
When Speers tried to summarise the Treasury findings, Senator Canavan interrupted him saying ‘where’s the numbers?’ and calling some of the findings ‘weasel words’.
Thursday’s Q+A panelists discussed how Australia could end the cycle of costly lockdowns, which health economist Angela Jackson said were causing too much ‘suffering’ to the people of Sydney.
She said it was time to give the people of New South Wales more clarity about how lockdown will end.
‘Sydney needs to know what are the vaccination targets, what do the case numbers need to be at, at each level of vaccination, for them to come out safely.
‘[The NSW government] should have that modelling and I think it is time to share it.’
‘People need certainty and they need a plan.’
Labor frontbencher Catherine King, who holds the infrastructure, transport and regional development portfolios, slammed the Morrison government over the ‘debacle’ of the vaccine rollout.
She said the sacrifices made by Victorians during that state’s long lockdown in 2020 ‘have been squandered’.