Daily Telegraph Editorial: Sydney CBD needs people for its survival
Nature abhors a vacuum. And so too does the once thriving organism that used to be the city of Sydney, writes The Daily Telegraph.
Opinion
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Nature abhors a vacuum. And so too does the once thriving organism, the buzzing hive of activity that used to be the city of Sydney.
Take a walk today through Sydney’s central business district. It won’t take long. Few lights or sights or shops will distract you and you won’t be competing with many other pedestrians.
The place is eerily empty. Martin Place could double as a set for the Twilight Zone.
But it won’t stay empty for long. Cities in disuse or a state of abandonment generally fill themselves by one means or another.
If present trends continue, and Sydney fails to re-energise its CBD, its dominant population will be the transient and homeless – and frankly they deserve better too.
We cannot allow Sydney to fall. We need to restore the dynamism and drive of the CBD as it existed prior to Covid.
In fact we need to redouble it in order to make up for our two lost years.
Of course there are certain changes because of the pandemic that will doubtless continue to influence city life. Perhaps some measures and habits will be with us indefinitely.
Some CBD workers have changed careers or may continue to work from home.
For those that come back a full-scale return to office routines as we knew them is unlikely.
We may see the regular five-day-a-week commute reduced to perhaps just three.
So be it. The important thing is that Sydney regains at least some momentum from the return of its workforce, and the activity and sense of energy that brings.
And Sydney is not just a city of office buildings. We need to find new ways to use the city and new ways to attract people to it. Red tape must be slashed and incentives put in place so every square metre of footpath and rooftop is serving its best purpose.
We all know that when it comes to our bodies the maxim for survival and good health is “Use it or lose it”.
Unused muscles atrophy and die. And the same applies to cities, as we’ve seen in the US.
When cities such as Baltimore, Los Angeles and San Francisco allowed some neighbourhoods to become no go zones they fell into spiralling disadvantage and disrepair. Sydney faces a similar risk, but for a different reason.
In the US metropolises this was due to a crime problem but Sydney has an inactivity problem. And CBD inertia can just as swiftly do for Sydney what the abandonment of policing has done in the US.
A combined campaign of revitalisation involving councils, the state government and federal government is needed to bring movement and life back to the centre of Sydney.
But this should not be solely a matter for governments.
Throughout history people have needed cities in which to work, live, socialise and be entertained. Now our greatest city needs people.
We all know that Covid has frightened much of the population – and frankly there are some public figures who have delighted in frightening the population even more.
But you cannot frighten away the facts. We are an incredibly highly vaccinated population and both the case numbers and hospitalisations of this wave have long-since peaked and are on the decline.
While the health system has at times been strained, as it so often has been long before Covid came along, the truth is it has coped incredibly well and the numbers have been below even the government’s own best-case scenario modelling.
And, again, they are going down. If we are not now to emerge from our doonas and re-engage with our city and the world then when?
After the last old friend has been lost? After the last business has closed its doors?
A society is more than an economy but it needs an economy to support it.
Or, perhaps more accurately, society and economy are inextricably intertwined.
It won’t take long after one dies for the other to wither and fade.
And so let’s save our city. Starting today.
PERROTTET MUST NOT REPEAT PANDEMIC MISTAKES
Faced with challenging new circumstances, most of us will make initial errors.
Then, as we begin to appreciate the details of those new challenges and learn from our early errors, we eventually move towards a solution.
This is true of everything from Rubik’s cubes to learning how to use a new phone.
In those examples, however, the cost of failure is measured only in time. By contrast, the cost of errors made in the state government’s Covid response are measured in taxpayer dollars. Many millions of them.
A NSW Health audit now reveals that a blundered order for substandard face masks alone cost us more than $158m. Overall, nearly $776m worth of Covid-19 inventory was either written off or wouldn’t be usable before it expired.
Labor leader Chris Minns is well within his rights to condemn this level of waste.
“It’s staggering that the government would waste hundreds of millions of dollars on throwing out PPE or buying PPE that didn’t even meet regulations,” Minns said on Wednesday.
“That money should have gone into bolstering our critical health resources.”
True, but that doesn’t take into account the learning phase of how best to respond to an ever-changing pandemic.
Mistakes – regrettably expensive mistakes – were always going to be made, and were in many cases only going to become apparent in hindsight.
The key now is to learn from errors and use that knowledge to function more effectively during new pandemic phases.
In specific terms, the need for schoolchildren to be subject to RATs should be reviewed.
The expense of such testing, at a time when the Omicron variant is known to present far fewer dangers than previous Covid variants, clearly appears to be excessive.
In more general terms, the government now has a much wider perspective on the pandemic and therefore a reduced need for rushed decisions.
The costs of every new proposal to combat the pandemic can now be more carefully considered. The government has some time on its side.
There was a need for quick responses as the pandemic hit. That is why, among various successes, there were also failures.
But now the Perrottet government should clearly know how best to proceed.
PM GRILLED AND BREADED AT PRESS CLUB
It wasn’t exactly sorry day in Canberra for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, but it came very close.
The PM expressed considerable contrition during his Press Club appearance, telling media: “I haven’t got everything right, and I’ll take my fair share of the criticism and the blame. It goes with the job.”
But Morrison fell short of the full apology he was invited to offer. He did, however, make some sound points in response.
“These are not simple issues with simple solutions,” Morrison said of the coronavirus and Australia’s various measures and tactics to combat the pandemic. “They’re complex and events can work against you.”
This is true, and should be kept in mind when judging the performances of state and federal governments. Still, those governments are not elected in the expectation of error.
Morrison was also on the defensive when challenged over his personal awareness of the price of everyday goods.
“I am not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk,” he said to the assembled crowd. “I’m not going to pretend to you that I do that.”
While it is certainly the case that the Prime Minister is not in that position so he can be a supermarket price inspector, these unusual times do call for an increased knowledge of basic household expenses.
Supply chain problems have caused both price hikes and product shortages. As well, consumers are rightly concerned about any looming risk of inflation, such as we are witnessing in the US.
Generally, prevailing economic circumstances in the US have a way of making their way to Australia. People know this, which is why they are becoming more sensitive to the issue of grocery costs.
The Prime Minister was on significantly firmer ground when lining up his Labor opponent, Anthony Albanese.
“You have to make decisions in real time and ensure that you have the capacity to deal with the challenges that are yet to come and that’s what people will get from me,” Morrison said, hinting at Albanese’s “each-way” reputation.
“That’s what responsibility looks like.”
That might also be what the government’s election campaign looks like. The phrase “each-way” may play quite a role in Coalition advertising.
‘EACH-WAY’ ALBO BETS ON BLEAK CITY
Among his political and media critics, Anthony Albanese is sometimes referred to by the nickname “each-way Albo”.
This is due to the Labor leader’s history of tailoring his message depending on the audience.
For example, when Albanese was talking to climate action enthusiasts on the ABC three years ago, he said that coal was on the way out.
“There will be a transition,” Albanese declared, “that needs to occur.”
But Albanese is friendlier to the mining sector when in the coal-rich state of Queensland.
“Every worker in Queensland has my respect, including people in the coal industry,” Albanese said during a 2021 visit. “Coal will continue to play a role in powering our economy.”
Queensland was also the site of the Labor leader’s finest each-way move yet. Albanese visited a coal mine last year, but declined to inform media until after he’d left.
Albanese’s messages remain dependent upon his location. On Monday, during a visit to Victoria, Albanese talked up what he claimed was Melbourne’s sporting superiority.
“Melbourne is, I say this as a Sydneysider, the sporting capital of Australia,” he said.
“It does events across the board, with the precinct that has been established there, as good as any in the world. In my view, better than any in the world.”
Sure thing, Albo. Melbourne is such a fantastic sporting host that the last two AFL Grand Finals have been played interstate – and the last two F1 Grands Prix haven’t been run at all.
Albanese’s over-the-top praise immediately made his a target for those who know him more as a fanatical South Sydney Rabbitohs supporter.
“With an election around the corner Albo has traded his red and green for a Big V,” NSW Sports Minister Stuart Ayres told The Daily Telegraph.
“I guess we should expect him to put on a Maroons jumper when State of Origin comes around.”
Ouch. More seriously, Albanese’s view is rapidly becoming outdated. Melbourne’s reputation as the sporting capital is largely due to legacy spectacles such as the Melbourne Cup.
Sydney is meanwhile building the future of Australian sport. Sydney is looking at the decades ahead, while Melbourne boosters can only fall back upon past glories.
All words count with Covid-19
They’ve had two years to work on it, and still health bureaucrats are making obvious errors.
Granted, they are working in an ever-changing field. New variants emerge, vaccination rates increase and policies must be altered, sometimes with very little notice.
But the latest error appears to be more due to a lack of proofreading than anything more complicated.
And it may have added to the state’s Covid woes. As The Daily Telegraph reports, confusing advice sent by NSW Health to thousands of people diagnosed with Covid could have led to people spreading the virus by incorrectly leaving isolation early.
At issue was this line, sent via SMS to Covid-positive citizens, outlining required isolation periods and adding: “You may leave isolation if you do not have a sore throat, runny nose, cough, or shortness of breath.”
You see the problem. People can still transmit Covid even when they are free of symptoms.
That is why the period of isolation for those who have tested Covid-positive is set at seven days. This provides sufficient time for most people to not only recover from their symptoms (if any are present) but also to become clear of the virus. The ambiguous wording of NSW Health’s isolation advice, however, appears to allow isolation to end ahead of time if no symptoms are evident.
“Intelligent people with university degrees are reading stuff like that saying they can come out of isolation because they have no symptoms,” University of Sydney infectious diseases expert Robert Booy told The Daily Telegraph.
“I know a lawyer who misinterpreted that.”
And Sanjaya Senanayake of the Australian National University’s medical school underlined the well-established fact that symptom-free Covid carriers may still represent a Covid risk.
“If someone thinks that they haven’t got symptoms early into their illness, and they’re therefore free to leave isolation, they can still be infectious,” he said.
NSW Health has since removed that ambiguous and easily misunderstood line. It is to be hoped that not too much damage was done in the meantime.
Again, the pressure under which health bureaucrats are working is considerable. That is certainly understood.
But caution extends to every single element of Covid policy, including the wording of texts
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