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The Virus

Four men in hazmat suits, three are holding red boxes. The man without a box asks, 'Coronavirus?' The labels for the boxes are: 'sports rorts', 'Angus Taylor' and 'Robodebt'.

By the time the coronavirus reached Australian shores, the Coalition government was already in containment mode over three separate scandals. The ‘sports rorts’ saga had forced the deputy leader of the National Party to step down. A class action against the government’s automated welfare debt recovery scheme known as ‘robodebt’ was gathering pace. And Energy Minister Angus Taylor was facing unfavourable headlines over his use of information in a spreadsheet that later proved to have been falsified.