As rumours again swirl that parliament could be postponed - unlikely according to the political figures who would make that call - the Prime Minister's Office is preparing for an unusual couple of weeks.
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Scott Morrison has arrived back at The Lodge and is back at work in Parliament House, spared the ACT's stay at home restrictions on other travellers from hotspot areas.
The cabinet office and prime ministerial suite will become a bubble within a bubble with extra rules for check-ins, mask wearing, hand hygiene and adhering to room capacity numbers.
With much of the country's population in lockdown, it will be reassuring for many that the Prime Minister will be seen working from Canberra in close proximity to the Chief Medical Officer and vaccine advisors during a time when no news is, for those waiting for doses, only bad news.
Morrison and his Australian flag face mask will appear on nightly news broadcasts thanks to in-person media conferences. He has been given a special exemption as an essential worker, the ACT government confirmed.
ACT's Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said he was expected to "absolutely minimise" interactions with other people, clearly less than fully comfortable about the liberties of the arrangement.
"I hope he's wearing a mask."
Morrison has also agreed to have a Covid test daily for 14 days.
None of the inner circle have tested positive since the new lockdowns have the nation on alert. Yet these mitigations are significantly more comprehensive than surrounding some other world leaders who have been exposed - Donald Trump's White House didn't mandate mask wearing until he was already infected.
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It's a very different story for Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who has stayed away from Sydney and used his winter break laying the groundwork for the federal election, basing himself in Canberra and visiting electorates in Queensland and Tasmania but unable to return to his home.
In both cases the leaders are focusing on the work their side needs in the run-up to the election next year.
Albanese will have to shore up a profile for candidates in the electorate Labor's strategists think are winnable.
Morrison's platform needs no additional profile, just good news on the vaccine rollout and a better deal with mRNA manufacturers. His two weeks in almost-lockdown would be well spent calling the top executives to get more supply of vaccine doses or securing the right to manufacture doses in Australia.
By having media conferences in Canberra, Morrison will face a much hungrier press pack who are still keen on answers to numerous problems in his lane: revelations of even more sexist and sexual behaviour at parliament, what demands Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce seeks for the Nationals to play nice, and a rollout not quite going as expected or as hoped.
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