Gladys wants you … to fight coronavirus, so take some responsibility
NSW’s public health messages are about to change to remind us that the choice of going back into lockdown depends on our actions, not just the state government’s, writes Anna Caldwell.
Opinion
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It’s time to ramp up our expectations on our fellow citizens to play by the rules when it comes to this virus.
With Victoria in the grips of a full-blown crisis, our own precarious position here in NSW — and the real risk of a local second wave forcing more lockdowns — should be on everyone’s mind.
But it’s not.
As if the “Bunnings Karen” and other anti-mask crusaders hadn’t already exposed that some people are purely too selfish to think beyond their own immediate comfort, a Brisbane duo this week confirmed we simply can’t trust our fellow citizens to play by the rules.
Yes, first and foremost we need our political leaders not to make massive bungles a la Dan Andrews’ hotel quarantine disaster.
But we also need a fresh focus on the responsibility of the individual.
As with so much else, we cannot rely on governments to simply solve the COVID-19 problem for us.
Brisbane duo Olivia Winnie Muranga and Diana Lasu had their faces and names splashed across the media this week in the first real instance of covidiot naming and shaming.
We aren’t talking minor indiscretions here; by last night they had been charged by detectives including for allegedly lying on their border declaration to hide having been in Victoria.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll didn’t hold back, labelling the girls’ actions “deceitful”, and “deceptive”.
The girls, statistically as young women, are unlikely to suffer severe COVID symptoms themselves after testing positive this week.
But there’s a chance they have put hundreds of other far more vulnerable people at risk.
They also forced Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to shut the border to NSW again, affected the closure of a string of businesses they visited, and disrupted who knows how many family units by sparking fears of a new outbreak in Brisbane’s south.
There was some criticism on social media yesterday over the decision by news outlets to name and shame the women, with some arguing that other spreaders had not been similarly outed in the past.
But, if we are in a new phase of expecting a new standard of personal responsibility in this pandemic is that really a bad thing?
This is certainly the message that state government officials in NSW have been receiving from behavioural psychologists.
I can reveal today that the state’s “behavioural insights unit” told NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello that they saw an opportunity to tweak official virus communication with the general public to focus on responsibility at an individual level.
“Don’t let YOU be the one who forces us back into lockdown,” was one slogan that was discussed. The team also wants to promote “loss aversion” in the campaign as a means to drive compliance.
This may mean including individuals reflecting on the consequences (“loss”) that may result from their behaviour such as lockdown, not being able to go to the gym or able to even work.
The team is also closely examining ad communications that can target and appeal to younger people.
Because, while we in NSW can be tremendously confident in the contact tracing efforts of chief health office Kerry Chant and her team, we can’t be equally as confident that everyone around us cares as much as they should.
In short, Premier Berejiklian needs every one of us to do the right thing.
And it’s not until you see the selfishness of the Brisbane border bandits that you realise not everyone is invested in stopping the spread.
Perhaps the naming and shaming of these characters will give others pause for thought.
The idea of levelling personal blame is a complicated one, particularly when our own political leaders have had oversight and responsibility for the beginnings of our most significant outbreaks.
The regular spectacle of Dan Andrews blaming Victorians for failing to do the right thing in the wake of the Rydges Hotel disaster has been distasteful to say the least. And in Queensland and NSW — now that the disastrous Ruby Princess fiasco is behind us — the case outbreaks are essentially tied to the Victorian wave.
It is the job of all of us to make sure the Victorian crisis does not penetrate our state more than it already has.
If naming and shaming careless alleged fraudsters works to make each of us take that little bit more care and to stick to the rules when we think no one is looking then that’s a good outcome.
The unequivocal message from today going forward is that people who don’t tell the truth on their border permit applications can expect in this pandemic to be publicly identified.
Quite simply, authorities will need to do this so they can ascertain where people have been.
If someone swans in to NSW straight out of Melbourne and lies about it, we are going to want to know where they’ve been hanging out.
Yes individual freedom of movement is important but it becomes a more complicated equation when you are weighing it against the price of life. We blame criminals for their own actions. We name them and we shame them.
How is this any different to naming and shaming someone who deliberately breaks virus rules that can put others at risk of death?
Each of us has the potential to cause serious harm with this virus and we should treat this burden with the appropriate care and responsibility.