Anna Caldwell: NSW Lockdown 2021 has been too little, too late
Sydneysiders have been like frogs in boiling water while our government has dilly-dallied over how to deal with this latest wave of Covid, writes Anna Caldwell.
Opinion
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The people of Sydney want to know one thing: When will we be free again? The answer is almost certainly not in four weeks, despite a very carefully managed “four-week lockdown extension” announcement by the NSW Premier this week.
We have been frogs in boiling water here in Sydney, beset by a rolling series of too-slow realisations that we’re in more trouble than we realised.
Gladys Berejiklian has been trapped in a damaging cycle of doing too little, going back to the drawing board when the problem inevitably grows, then announcing a suite of measures that fall just short of something that might turn the dial back down.
As NSW recorded the grim milestone of 239 new cases on Thursday — the highest daily number of the entire pandemic — we saw the latest iteration of this pattern.
Almost five weeks since the decision to lock Sydney down, Berejiklian stood up and announced masks would be mandatory outdoors in virus hot spots.
She also announced those same virus hot spots will be subject to additional restrictions that prohibit people from travelling more than 5km from their home, and handed police stronger powers to enforce compliance.
Outdoor masks and tightened travel distances are ideas that have been floated for weeks — ideas that were adopted in Melbourne and Adelaide as they stopped their own Delta outbreaks.
I can reveal that the NSW decision yesterday to ramp up restrictions in hot spots with outdoor mask rules and a 5km radius limitation was made after Police Minister David Elliott and Police Commissioner Mick Fuller approached key crisis cabinet members with their demands on Wednesday.
The pair intervened, urging the government to strengthen their ability to enforce compliance – this included the plans for an increased police presence but also the requirement for masks outdoors.
There was no pushback when Elliott and Fuller requested the changes. But it is stunning that it took police intervention for the NSW crisis cabinet to come to the conclusion that stricter steps needed to be taken, as cases continue to climb.
Premier Berejiklian and her allies had previously been dismissive of the Melbourne-style restrictions of outdoor masks, a curfew and tighter travel limits as “symbolic”.
On Thursday afternoon, Commissioner Fuller revealed he’d gone a step further, calling in 300 army troops to assist with the police compliance efforts — an offer the PM made personally to Berejiklian on July 7 and then continued to push for weeks.
It was telling that Fuller, who the Premier also called upon to sort out Health’s Ruby Princess fiasco last year, brought a far sterner tone when he joined the daily press briefing yesterday, stopping short of thanking citizens and instead focusing directly on what is clearly a significant compliance problem.
Fuller delivered much-needed messaging: people who breach the rules are forcing the rest of us to stay in lockdown for longer.
I can also reveal there were deep concerns among senior government officials about the “optics” of the army involvement, with these conversations continuing yesterday.
This concern was not from the Premier, who was supportive of the decision reached by the police, but from other senior officials.
Police Minister Elliott, who backed the call for the army, believes the people want stronger compliance.
He said that for every person who attended last Saturday’s putrid protest, about five people took steps to dob others in — a sign of where the sentiment is.
People are sick of being locked down and are furious when they see others taking steps that risk locking us down a day longer than necessary.
If these measures are being deemed necessary by police at the coalface, it is entirely reasonable for citizens to ask why they weren’t put in place earlier and, if so, would we be closer to freedom now?
What’s worse, if tougher measures had been put in place on the eastern suburbs, we would not see swaths of the west and southwest face these burdens.
It is even more jarring given Berejiklian stood up only on Wednesday to announce the four-week lockdown extension with the major accompanying announcements weakening restrictions — construction was back and singles could meet up with a buddy at home.
Instead, the Premier should have used this critical milestone — extending the lockdown — as an opportunity to present a stronger, clearer plan to chart our way back to freedom.
This softly, softly piecemeal approach had its genesis way back on July 26 when the Premier announced a lockdown but didn’t want to call it a lockdown.
Mobility data shows that we just about wasted our first week in lockdown, with the increase on time spent at home well below that recorded from about day eight onwards.
Had we got it right at the start, we may not be in this mess now.
But, thankfully, the data shows that across the course of the lockdown, Greater Sydney residents have been spending more time at home than Melbourne residents did over the course of their own lockdown last year.
The crisis cabinet has taken comfort in this, knowing that, broadly, our measures are working to keep people from moving about unnecessarily.
Their success in this space is likely why NSW has been able thus far to avoid the wrath that Delta has inflicted on other countries.
But we are taking the lessons of other cities on board too slowly.
What worked in 2020 isn’t working in 2021 against Delta.
There are only two pathways to freedom. Either authorities get this outbreak under control, or enough of us get vaccinated to live with the virus. It is likely these two scenarios dovetail much later in the year and there is no sooner escape.
But what is utterly damning is that there is more government could do — and indeed should have done — on both fronts to hasten our journey back to normal.
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