Crippled with confusion by elite with little skin in the game

Covid restrictions and lockdowns are meant to apply across the board, but they are imposed and supported by an elite that suffers no consequent financial harm, writes Louise Roberts.

When I look at my beloved Sydney, I see a city crippled by resentment and confusion.

The key to getting through this coronavirus pandemic is not to make everyone miserable.

It is to motor efficiently to the next stage where the strategic road to economic and social recovery is clear so together we can work to that.

But when our head girl and fellow coffee fan Gladys Berejiklian is caught not wearing a mask near a cafe, after signing off on a confusing rule forcing the rest of us to do so, you get walloped by a sense of hypocrisy.

An apology would have been nice, yes, but mainly for approving the puzzling edict in the first place.

Gladys Berejiklian and Arthur Moses on a coffee run in Northbridge. Picture: Matrix

The people making decisions about how we are (barely) living in 2021 have very little skin in the game, it would seem.

For example, last year we were falling over ourselves to praise tradies and encourage young people to consider a career in electrical, building, plumbing and more because without them we are stuffed.

Remember PM Scott Morrison’s Homebuilder scheme giving people $25,000 to renovate their homes or build a new house?

The policy had a $688 million price tag and was spruiked as a way to provide work for 140,000 tradies and more.

“This investment isn‘t just about helping Australians bring their dream home to life,” Morrison said in June 2020.

“It’s about creating jobs and helping support the more than one million workers in the sector including builders, painters, plumbers and electricians across the country.”

Now in Greater Sydney the lockdown has shackled building sites and tradies – and guess who the most vulnerable are?

Illustration: Terry Pontikos.

Those same tradies ordered to down tools. And plenty from south west Sydney where their wages puts food on tables.

To say the two-week ban will cost the economy billions with work frozen on major road and rail networks plus home building and commercial towers is true but of course just part of the picture.

A “level of construction” would be able to resume after July 30, we’re told, but still no clarity on whether the lockdown will lift at the end of the month.

Or, as apprentice advocate Gary Workman told me yesterday: “The longer lockdown goes on, the employers lose confidence and then it can be too hard to take on or keep a young worker with a view to them completing a four year apprenticeship.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia arrives at Haneda Airport ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Picture: Getty

Tradies were ordered to stop working from Monday as part of stricter lockdown measures.

It is worth noting that the construction sector is allowed to continue operating under Victoria’s lockdown settings.

And this is not to dismiss the catastrophic mental and financial impact of endless restrictions on those who work in retail or hospitality.

Tradies are just the latest victims.

Meanwhile we have frequent flyer Annastacia Palaszczuk settled in a nice Tokyo hotel in order to secure the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

But in this one horse race, the International Olympic Committee had already selected Brisbane as the “preferred candidate city” before the Queensland premier set foot in business class.

It’s a redundant 14,300 km round trip because IOC bosses needed to “eyeball” her when other business leaders seem to cope OK with a free zoom call to secure deals.

Gladys on Monday tried to talk up victory against the Delta strain.

“It is like nothing we’ve seen and we know how challenging it is,” the Premier said.

“But we wouldn’t have thrown everything at it if we didn’t think we had a chance of quashing it.

“And I know that if all of us work together, we can quash it. And I know how difficult it is. Believe me, every decision we take … it’s not easy.

“It’s not easy at all.”

You said it, Gladys.

For all her faults, at least New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern put her money where her mouth is and alongside her public service CEOs took a 20 per cent pay cut for six months “to close the gap”.

If we’re acknowledging skin in the game, it would be nice to see our leadership class take one for the team.

Bad decisions are not being borne by the politicians and bureaucrats fronting the microphones at 11am each day.

We also don’t need Ryde mothers’ Facebook groups asking stressed-out women to send messages of support to Chief Health Office Kerry Chant “because she is one of ours”.

It’s either totally bizarre or the north shore going full North Korea, as a colleague noted on Monday.

The Covid slogan claim that “we are all in this together” has never seemed so fatuous.