Australia shifted - from a country that was dealing with the coronavirus effectively to one confronted with an epidemic raging out of control in NSW. This is uncharted territory; a new challenge demanding a new response. The task is to make sensible choices for the reality of today - attributing blame can come later.

Three simple requirements stand out.

Firstly, vaccinations need to be rolled out across the nation as swiftly as possible. Yes, the government chose the wrong jab (AstraZeneca) but, from a public health perspective, anything is better than nothing.

Secondly, urgent measures need to be put in place to protect vulnerable groups. This means, Gladys Berejiklian, that "reaching 70 per cent vaccination" is irrelevant until you've achieved these targets not just on the (Liberal-voting) north shore of Sydney Harbour, but in vulnerable Indigenous communities in the bush.

Finally, Scott Morrison needs to provide a concrete plan to show us a way out of this world of pain, instead of picking fights with premiers and squabbling about border restrictions. It's called leadership - a commodity that our current government appears to lack completely.

Instead they're trapped, debating ridiculous assumptions in an alternate universe.

Three months ago we lived in a very different world. Then an unvaccinated Sydney taxi driver helped some (infected) air crew with their luggage, and a Premier failed, disastrously, to implement an effective lockdown. Delta is different, and Berejiklian didn't pivot. Her daily press conferences became nothing more than performance art. Empty rhetoric for nonsense policy. Her words, "follow the evidence; use the data; take the health advice," were confident and reassuring but completely at odds with everything she did.

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So the state remained one step behind the virus, and every measure to stop its spread came just that little bit too late.

The critical priority is buying time. Simple figures show where failure will lead. NSW has 22,649 active cases as of Saturday; Victoria 1301. Now Sydney wants to export its inadequate and feeble policy settings to the rest of the country. Australia will need to open up, but not today and not until we're ready. One month's respite will make all the difference.

A strong Prime Minister would be supporting states that haven't been hit by the virus, distributing vaccines to hard-hit Sydney and Melbourne, and reassuring rural areas they won't be left behind. Instead we have an angry little man who's jumping up and down and picking, like a bully, on anyone who questions his failures.

Everyone is tired of the restrictions, and often it's the most marginalised who are angriest of all. But simply shouting louder than anyone else doesn't make an argument right. This is an inflection point. We need to retain our focus and maintain our efforts for a little bit longer, until everyone has had a chance to be vaccinated.

What happens over the next two months will demonstrate exactly who our politicians value.