James Campbell: Why open border with South Australia is too risky

Victorians have just come out of the longest lockdown in the world, so why are risking our freedoms by keeping the border open with South Australia, writes James Campbell.

Given the hair triggers of Victorian health authorities, it’s hard to understand why the border is still open with South Australia.

Victorians — and especially Melburnians — have just come out the other side of the longest lock down anywhere in the world.

Are we really prepared to put our newly returned freedoms at risk so quickly?

If I have to see Daniel Andrews’ North Face jacket again, I might lose all hope. Picture: Daniel Pockett

I don’t know about you but I couldn’t bear to be locked up again watching Daniel Andrews and Brett Sutton at their daily press conferences.

If I have to see that North Face jacket again, I might lose all hope.

And I’ll bet I’m not the only one.

By any objective measure I realise this emotional response an over-reaction to what looks to be a hat-full of cases.

But that’s what Dan and Brett’s brutal lock down has done, made us all unreasonably scared.

It’s not just that despite all the brave talk about how our contact tracing is now the best going around, we’d rather not put it to the test so soon after the last debacle thanks-very-much.

No, it’s because the one thing we know about our state government, acting on the advice of our public health authorities, won’t hesitate to drop the hammer.

And it’s not like we owe South Australia anything.

Their showboating little premier’s treatment of Victorians living in the west of our state was absurd.

If the citizens of his state have to put up being locked in for a while, well tough luck.

I couldn’t bear the daily press conferences to start again.

We just can’t risk it.

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