Peta Credlin: We can learn to live with a virus that’s not as dangerous as we first thought
COVID-19 is clearly not as dangerous as we first thought, so why are we still largely stuck in the policy response established back in March? It’s time we learnt to live with this virus, writes Peta Credlin.
Opinion
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Scott Morrison is doing his best to show that his National Cabinet is working but, for all the gloss he puts on it, it’s plainly each state for itself and the Prime Minister’s role is merely to announce what each state is prepared to do or, worse, sign the cheques.
It was always going to be that way, in a gathering of nine separate governments, each with their own areas of responsibility, given that’s how our federation was set up.
Wishing it otherwise — even going as far as saying state government has had its day — might make us feel better, but that just denies the constitutional reality.
To his credit, the PM has always done his best to discourage pandemic panic, and to remind the premiers that government has a responsibility for livelihoods, as well as lives.
But the sugar-hit popularity of weak leaders acting tough and closing borders, coupled with looming elections, means politicians like Annastacia Palaszczuk have sacrificed good sense for cheap populism, forcing families to miss last farewells and funerals while giving footballers and movie stars the royal treatment.
But the border doublespeak didn’t end there.
Last week, Queensland’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles blundered his way through a press conference demanding the federal government bring back all travellers overseas and that Canberra pay for it.
He really isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed — or even factual, given it’s his government that sets the cap for Queensland, not Scott Morrison.
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So far, almost 400,000 Australians have returned home from overseas since 13 March. There’s 25,000 who still want to come but are being bumped off flights because the states have put limits on how many people can enter quarantine.
By unilaterally announcing the caps on international arrivals would be lifted from 4000 to 6000 a week, the PM outfoxed states such as Queensland demanding more people be allowed to come home but refusing to make it happen; or, worse, expecting the commonwealth to pay for it.
Already doing the lion’s share by taking 2500 people per week, NSW readily agreed to take another 500 more, upping its cap to 3000.
Queensland and Western Australia reluctantly agreed to take more, but not for several weeks, and even then we’re only talking about 1000.
It’s worth pointing out, too, that 40 per cent of people who quarantine in Sydney are actually residents of other states, which shows NSW has more faith in its quarantine management and contract tracing than other states.
But there are two massive issues here. The first is states that insist on running quarantine, but won’t take responsibility for funding it — even though, collectively, the states have so far committed just $51 billion to pandemic programs, compared to the commonwealth’s $314 billion.
And the second is the painfully slow rate of learning to live with a virus that’s clearly not as dangerous as we first thought.
In Europe, infection numbers have risen sharply, but not deaths, which is why there are no new lockdowns.
But here we’re still largely stuck in the policy response established back in March.
Yet every major airport has several empty hotels nearby. Cairns and Townsville are massive tourist centres with almost no one staying there. CBD hotels right around the country are almost deserted.
If we stopped quarantining Australians merely trying to move around the country — excluding Victorians for the time being — there would be no shortage of places for the Aussies keen to come home.
But it’s not just about getting returning Australians home any more, is it? What about any of us going overseas? If we’re prepared to pay for quarantine on return, what’s the reason to stop anyone?
I called for the travel bans back in February because people were not doing what they should and self-isolating at home, but now we’ve got our hotel quarantine systems in place, self-funded free movement should be permitted.
Given that we can’t eliminate it — and we can’t count on a vaccine either — we have to learn to live with this virus.
And the sooner our state leaders grow up (or get thrown out), the faster our recovery will be.
MINISTER SHIRKS RESPONSIBILITY IN ARTS GRANTS FURORE
At a time when we’re in a deep recession and no small business operator has money to waste, Australia’s premier arts body must inhabit a different planet.
The federally-funded Australia Council has allocated $7.6 million out of a special “resilience fund” to keep artists going through the financial stress of the pandemic.
These grants include $10,000 to a Melbourne artist performing “live self-inseminations to elevate the experience of queer reproduction”. One of this artist’s previous works involved placing knitting yarn inside her vagina for 28 days to mark the menstrual cycle.
There’s $10,000 for a “diasporic Koori” artist to lie on a stage and receive 147 surgical cuts in protest at black deaths in custody.
There’s another $10,000 for a Tasmanian artist to explore “epic impossible ideas” by sending artworks into outer space.
Asked for comment, federal arts minister Paul Fletcher said that individual funding decisions were made by the Australia Council not him.
That’s such a cop out from a minister that we expect to spend our money wisely but clearly abrogates that job to unelected, unaccountable arts officials.
I’m not against funding for the arts, not at all. And I recognise artists have been hit hard by the pandemic.
Next year is 100 years since the election of the first woman to any Australian parliament, Edith Cowan, in Western Australia. Wouldn’t honouring her be a better way to honour women today than grants to pull wool out of some artist’s vagina?
Or art to commemorate all those who have been awarded the Victoria Cross defending our nation and our values? Or Indigenous campaigners who fought for change in the 1967 Referendum?
If the Morrison government can’t spend the millions wisely, I reckon pensioners who can’t pay their power bills might be a better option.
THUMBS UP: A longer and harder lockdown surpassing even Wuhan last week, Melbourne’s 5.5 million residents deserve credit for surviving this virus — and an appallingly incompetent government.
THUMBS DOWN: Queensland’s ‘Ken doll’ Deputy Premier Steven Miles trying to obscure his state’s debt and policy failures by taking on the role as attack dog against Scott Morrison highlights just how shallow the gene pool is in state politics. Makes me miss the days of Jackie Trad (not quite…).