Prime Minister Scott Morrison told the Coalition party room on Tuesday he had made 55 separate phone calls to lobby for Mr Cormann and described the victory as akin to a golden-point field goal in “the ultimate away game”.
This came amid continuing reports that Australia had bungled its negotiations with the company in talks going back to June and July last year which displayed a "rude, dismissive and penny pinching" approach, according to one source. Australia eventually signed a deal for just 10 million Pfizer doses in November 2020, four months behind other countries.
