Victoria’s coronavirus incompetence puts NSW in jeopardy
NSW was looking like it was getting back to normal - and the difference in approaches between Gladys Berejiklian and Dan Andrews point to exactly what the problem is, writes Louise Roberts.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
For a brief, shining moment, we had a glimpse of what was life in the BC — Before Corona — days. Having seen the disease well under control in Australia, we began to feel bold enough to book holidays, lock in wedding dates and maybe even order a few kilos of prawns for a backyard shindig to celebrate a milestone birthday for an elderly relative.
And now it feels like we’re right back where we started.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has indicated she is loath to force us here in NSW back into lockdown, even as the state deals with a growing cluster of cases in the southwest of Sydney.
Which is all to the good.
MORE LOUISE ROBERTS
Only in 2020 would cereal and pizza be up for PC debate
Meghan may rue the day she threw BFF under a bus
Want to ruin a woman’s career? Just call her a racist
Berejiklian, who at the start of the pandemic proved herself to be among the most panicky of premiers, seems to have found her backbone.
Unlike, of course, Dan Andrews in Victoria, who has been quick to deflect blame onto the fawning voters of Victoria for failing to do the right thing, rather than take responsibility for his own government’s incompetence which is already costing the entire country billions.
We now have proof via genomic sequencing and some terrific virus detective work that a unique Victorian strain of COVID-19 has ties to Sydney’s Crossroads Hotel outbreak.
A link has also been confirmed between Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter protests and the group of cases in public housing high rise in the city’s northwest.
Until this, we were doing OK here in NSW.
We could show our kids the benefit of all being in this together.
Ms Berejiklian said on Monday: “Every time we have an outbreak, we can’t afford to lockdown, reopen, lockdown, reopen.”
And she’s right. It’s also a courageous thing to say, when too many people are focused simply on infection numbers as the government’s sole key performance indicator.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, meanwhile, issued a timely reminder yesterday about complacency being a “killer”.
“We are still effectively in a war zone. This is one stealthy virus. It will win any race against us we need to get on top of it,” Mr Hazzard said.
Certainly we were all in this together until some people in Melbourne broke the deal and Victoria Police have fined 351 of them for breaking the rules.
A mothballed social life is something we can all recover from.
But a truncated education, an obliterated small business, a redundancy and no clue how next week’s groceries will be paid for or the unexpected death of someone with coronavirus?
No, these are wounds that cut deep. With the threat of widespread community transmission in NSW, it is critical we still pull together in the name of health like iron filings to a magnet.
We know a virus cannot travel on its own. It needs us.
And we liked knowing that we were the gold standard of obedience when it came to putting everyday life on hold while COVID-19 tried to torch our communities only weeks after summer bushfires did just that.
Real government leadership is someone willing to take responsibility
And it’s not just about keeping cases down but influencing citizens to keep focused and motivated.
How can continued lockdowns be sustainable either economically or on a mental health basis?
Compare the Daniel Andrews approach of blaming Melbourne citizens. “If people do not do the right thing we will have to move to additional restrictions. and potentially prolong where those restrictions are in place,” Mr Andrews said.
“The time for warning, the time for cutting people slack is over.”
And the Berejiklian tactic which is more empowering.
“Whether we like it or not, the reality is that life is not normal and it will not be normal until we have a vaccine or a cure,” she said.
“Life will not be normal during the pandemic and so the question we ask in NSW is what can we do to reduce the risk, to reduce the spread so we continue to have a good level of activity in our community, a good level of people staying in their jobs and going about their business.”
We’re reminded that our health is in our hands. And that’s the only message we should be giving our kids.
Social distancing, work from home, hand sanitiser, cough and sneeze in your elbow — we are all fluent in this new language.
Remember how, as restrictions eased at the start of this school term, parents nudged elbows while swapping battle stories of life in the homeschooling trenches. I wouldn’t want to be that mum or dad again, we joked with heavy meaning.
On Monday my children are poised for term three.
But how long will they be in the classroom?
Many of us know family, friends and colleagues who are exhausted with anxiety.
We all feel restless, living our lives by numbers as we log on with trepidation to see today’s toll.
The year has been punctuated by the weddings we cancelled or scaled back from a lifelong plan for the full silk fairytale event.
And the funerals we held which at times seemed like an insult than a tribute because guests had be cherry picked as we totted up our numbers.
Personally, I’d rather be living in the times BC (Before Corona) than having to bear the brunt of the mistakes of AD (Andrews, Dan).