Rita Panahi: NSW Premier makes Daniel Andrews look like an amateur

While other states set the gold standard in ineptitude, the NSW Premier is mindful of the cure not being worse than the disease.

Victorians who lost loved ones or saw their livelihoods destroyed during the state’s draconian 112-day lockdown must be looking on with envy at NSW.

If you want to see what real leadership looks like, then have a gander at how Premier Gladys Berejiklian is handling a spike in COVID-19 infections.

Thus far she has shown a level of competence, calm and acumen missing not just from Victoria, but South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.

In many ways the easiest, most politically expedient option for Berejiklian would’ve been to give into the abundant media hysteria, and the pressure from other states, and immediately impose illiberal, economy-destroying restrictions including shutting down non-essential businesses, statewide mask mandate and stay-at-home orders.

Premier of New South Wales Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Gaye Gerard

But she has declined to use a nuclear weapon to kill a bug. While other states set the gold standard in ineptitude and fearmongering, the NSW Premier is mindful of the cure not being worse than the disease and trusting the state’s contact tracing to contain the virus.

It’s early days but we’ve seen the number of new locally acquired cases in NSW fall from 30 on Sunday to 15 on Monday and eight on Tuesday. The low numbers are particularly impressive given the state has done two consecutive days of record-breaking testing, with 38,578 and 44,466 people tested.

What’s just as impressive is that the majority of Monday’s cases were already in self-isolation and all but one of the new infections over the past two days has been linked to the Avalon cluster.

And, yet to listen to the panic-stricken media coverage you’d think eight positive out of 44,466 is a “second wave” and a “crisis” worthy of ruinous Victorian-style lockdowns.

It’s not only politicians across the country who have indulged in fearmongering; the media have succeeded in terrifying the population witless.

The Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday afternoon was pushing for mandatory masks and further limits on public gatherings. This after it carried a piece with the headline “Why Sydney is facing a super-spreading disaster” where a “biosecurity expert” wrote “we could be looking at 3000 cases (a day) by January 8.”

The same expert predicted in March that “25 to 70 per cent” of Australians would be infected and a local coronavirus death toll could go into “hundreds of thousands”.

Meanwhile, the dimwitted celebrity class are calling for immediate crippling restrictions. Peter FitzSimons posted: “Ok Victorians give us your advice on dealing with the plague”. Magda Szubanski tweeted that NSW was playing “Russian roulette with a mutating virus” and should do a hard lockdown. While Julian Burnside wrote “#ScottyfromMarketing and #GladysB seem to have forgotten how well Dan Andrews managed the Coronavirus in Victoria. They should take a lesson”.

The truth is Victoria has a coronavirus death rate of 130 per million of population, compared to just four deaths per million for the rest of the country. Then there is the grim fallout from two sets of lengthy lockdowns.

If the political parties were reversed, then you can be sure that the same media and Twitter blowhards attacking Berejiklian — who think Victoria having a per capita death rate that’s more than 32 times the national average is a wonderful achievement — would be elevating her to heroine status while condemning the toxic white male Victorian leader for his shambolic response.

There would be dozens of glowing puff pieces on Gladys the Great, the single ethnic female who showed the inadequate, privileged man down south how to keep the community safe without destroying the economy.

Not only has NSW carried the heaviest load in taking back international arrivals, it has led the way in re-opening the economy and society. NSW has taken around 90,000 overseas arrivals into hotel quarantine, more than all the other states and territories combined.

Meanwhile, what we have learnt from the Andrews government is that actions don’t have consequences and words don’t have meanings. It’s like reverting back to childhood and unlearning the fundamental lessons of life.

Victoria suffered through the nation’s worst lockdown. Picture: David Crosling

Premier Andrews assured the country that he would take ultimate responsibility for the catastrophic series of decision that plunged Victoria into a state of disaster with more than 800 deaths. He repeatedly said the “buck stops with me”. But as the long-awaited Coate inquiry into Victoria’s bungled hotel quarantine program was released on Monday, Andrews again dodged responsibility.

The Premier wanted a whitewash and a whitewash is what he got. The Coate inquiry is to thorough investigation what a Big Mac meal is to fine dining.

If Andrews is the luckiest politician in Australia then second luckiest is his Jobs Minister Martin Pakula. How he remains employed is astounding given it was his department that contracted the private security firms, handing over tens of millions of taxpayer money to a questionable Sydney outfit that was not on the government’s approved list of contractors.

The fact that Andrews along with the premiers of South Australia, Queensland and WA have shut their borders to NSW raises the question of whether they have faith in their respective states’ contact tracing programs.

Australian families and businesses have suffered enough. We should be allowed to cross the border to visit family and friends during the festive season without being subjected to 14 days of hotel quarantine in our own country.

IN SHORT

Merry Christmas and good riddance to this annus horribilis. Hope all readers have a safe and joyous festive season. Here’s to a stellar 2021.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist