Peter Gleeson: Australia has become soulless and heartless
The poll-obsessed politicians who continue to validate the unfair regimes we’re being forced to live by don’t give a toss about the vulnerable and the sick, writes Peter Gleeson.
Opinion
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As you read this, a little part of Australia is dying.
This pandemic has changed the country irrevocably and not in a nice way. We’ve become soulless and heartless and it’s not the country I grew up in.
The worst part is that people are giving these decisions validity by continuing to support regimes that couldn’t give a toss about the vulnerable and the sick.
If it doesn’t affect me, why should I bother? What a cop out.
The sad fact is we’re not all in this together.
Just ask those 80 per cent of ABC employees who opted for pay rises as the rest of the country goes broke.
Just ask those country and regional small businesses and tourism operators that have gone to the wall, pillaged because of a “one size fits all’’ approach to lockdown and border restrictions.
Just ask those people, mostly Victorians, cooped up in their homes and apartments, going stir crazy at the lack of exercise and purpose in their lives.
But the real shame of this pandemic has been the heartless, disgraceful way in which some people have been treated. The lack of empathy and common sense is a damning indictment on our leadership. It has scarred people for life.
By now, we all know of the extraordinary circumstance of Sarah Caisip, 26, who couldn’t attend her father’s funeral in Brisbane, despite her Canberra home not having had a COVID-19 case in more than 60 days.
There are many other horror stories.
A friend of mine has been a lifelong Labor supporter, but not anymore. His mother died recently in a Brisbane hospital, succumbing to cancer. The family pleaded with hospital authorities to see her in those final two weeks and they were refused entry. It was only in the last 24 hours did they farewell her – one at a time – and by that stage she was so drugged up on morphine that she didn’t recognise them.
On the phone, she lamented to her kids that her greatest fear was dying alone.
The family volunteered to have COVID-19 tests to prove they didn’t have the virus, but their efforts were stonewalled. “These are the rules,’’ they were told.
Former Sydney man, Gary Ralph, was one of Australia’s best greyhound trainers in the 1980s, putting the polish on superstars, Gold Spring and Roanokee, among others.
Ralph, 71, underwent lifesaving surgery in Sydney for brain cancer last week and returned to Brisbane where his application to quarantine at home was refused.
Instead, he had to quarantine with his wife Wendy Child in a hotel, where he had twice fallen. He was also told he must travel to chemotherapy appointments from the hotel in a taxi. He is dying.
Fighting tears, Ms Child said she just wanted compassion.
“I love this country but what I’m seeing right now breaks my heart,’’ she said.
The couple had hoped to quarantine at home because of his condition, and his surgeon Charlie Teo wrote to Queensland Health to support the home rehabilitation option, arguing it was much more beneficial than a hotel. Queensland Health just runs the line that these are the rules.
Health Minister Steven Miles runs the line that these are the rules. As does chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young.
Yet the rules were relaxed for footy players and officials, actors and entertainers.
They were not in life and death situations like Gary Ralph.
It’s not as if Mr Ralph would be out partying until 4am in Surfers Paradise like a couple of exempt footballers did recently.
Sanity prevailed on Friday and Mr Ralph was allowed to quarantine at home but how many other medical cases are being declined?
Stories like Gary Ralph, Sarah Caisip and the case of my mate’s mother are just the tip of the iceberg.
There are thousands of people who are being treated with disdain. Where are the mass protests in the streets for Sarah Caisip and Gary Ralph? Do their lives matter? There’s something wrong when a country starts treating its own with a lack of humanity like we are seeing right now.
Australia is a nation built on freedom, liberty, innocence, fragility and our natural way of life. We need governance that embraces humility, compassion and empathy. But we’ve lost something in the last six months.
We’ve let overzealous bureaucrats run the show, emboldened by politicians obsessed with polls. We’ve let dictators get away with far too much. We’ve accepted lies and deceit as par for the course. We’ve seen hundreds of people die because others dropped the ball and we owe it to them to learn from these mistakes.
It’s shameful. As Aussies, we need to reclaim our generosity of spirit. We need to exercise common sense and let people die with dignity and farewell their family members with compassion. And banish from public life those that perpetuate such opportunistic rubbish.