Susie O’Brien: Andrews’ cake crumbs are insulting to Melburnians
Daniel Andrews has thrown tiny nonsensical changes our way and expects us to be grateful, but his confusing and overly harsh restrictions expose a glaring double standard, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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Five new COVID-19 cases. Just five.
When NSW had five cases, it was operating as normal and Premier Gladys Berejiklian opened up sports stadiums to 40,000 people. Restrictions were in place in hot spots, but people could shop, socialise and work.
Why aren’t the people of Melbourne allowed to do the same here?
In announcing further easing of restrictions on Sunday, Premier Daniel Andrews was throwing cake crumbs to the peasants — and we were expected to be grateful for the bits that came our way.
He doesn’t have his own house in order, but he’s more than happy to tell the rest of us what to do in ours.
There are now large swathes of our city with no cases at all and yet the fines for indoor gatherings have been increased to a whopping $5000 per person.
However, the five households that caused the Casey cluster got off scot-free.
Many of the changes unveiled on Sunday make no sense. Small businesses are still not allowed to operate, but 90 per cent of union-heavy manufacturing is.
I’d like the Premier to show me one example of the virus being transmitted at a book shop, hair salon, or bike repairer. It’s a kick in the guts to small businesses when JobKeeper is being scaled back and JobSeeker is reducing.
The same goes for the curfew, which has been quietly dropped. It was one of the most draconian pieces of social engineering in Australia’s history, but we weren’t told why it’s no longer needed. That’s because it was never needed.
As usual, the new restrictions are hypocritical, nonsensical and overly onerous.
You can walk your dog on a golf course, but you can’t play golf.
Real estate agents can now let people look through houses, but no one is allowed to buy or sell a car in person.
You can get a dog professionally washed, but you still can’t go through a car wash.
Hell, people can get their dog a haircut, but not go to the hairdresser themselves.
People can now also exercise 5km from work, but most people are still being told to work from home.
Some of the new rules are hardly worth the effort.
Now groups of up to five people from two households are allowed to meet outside. That’s two sets of parents and just one kid — too bad if they’ve got a friend. And the 5km rule applies to such groups, which mean many families are still banned from seeing each other.
Scarves, face shields and bandannas can no longer be worn instead of face masks. But you’re exempt if you are jogging, cycling or walking with a coffee cup.
The obsession with minor and irrelevant details continues. For instance, outdoor pools will be open with limits but pool change rooms will be closed.
We’re got 400,000 people out of work, thousands of businesses closed and sky-high depression rates, and the Premier is worrying about pool changing rooms?
As always, the treatment of schoolchildren is inconsistent and illogical. It’s good that primary school kids are going back, but why not in week one of term four rather than week two?
And why are years s7-10 missing out and staying home for another week?
Such restrictions serve only to punish those who obey them, at great social and economic cost.
Elderly parents are still forced to pick just one of their children to visit them, causing great anguish.
Teens at the most vulnerable age — 14 — are still not back at school.
And family violence is said to be soaring, particularly among those who have never reported cases before.
These issues should not be ignored. So, what should the Premier be doing?
With cases as low as they are, restrictions that don’t make any difference to case numbers should be dropped immediately.
For a start, all businesses should be open with appropriate limits in place. Shopping and obtaining services should be a reason for people to leave the house.
All hospitality venues should be open for socially-distant dining and drinking.
Beauty, hairdressers and personal care services should operate with strict controls and numbers.
The 5km rule should be abolished and people should be free to meet in medium-sized groups outside.
All efforts should be concentrated on hotspot areas, high-risk industries like abattoirs and indoor gatherings, which should be strictly controlled as they are directly linked to infections.
However, it’s not going to happen because Despot Dan is on a giant power trip and is ignoring our lowest COVID case numbers in three months.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist