Susie O’Brien: Leaving millions in limbo is simply not good enough

Victorian businesses and parents can’t afford to “take it one day at a time” like the Premier seems to think.

Once again, we are left asking, “What’s the plan, Dan?” Victorians need to know when this unpopular, crippling lockdown will end.

Or will it be extended because the government lacks confidence in its ability to manage a handful of cases?

Or will we come out of lockdown but be hit with more needless restrictions?

Or will the government allow us to get back to Covid normal?

As I write, Victoria has one new community case and one new case in quarantine from 25,000 tests.

There are just 21 corona cases out of six million people, so there’s no reason for Premier Daniel Andrews to prolong this politically motivated lockdown.

And yet at Monday’s lengthy press conference, all we got were empty assertions and meaningless chitchat.

“The numbers are pleasing and we are well placed,” Andrews said.

Well placed for what?

Victorians need to know when our lives can restart. We can’t afford to “take it one day at a time” like the Premier.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has locked down his state again.

We are entitled to know what may be ahead.

Leaving six million people in limbo is simply not good enough.

Andrews said it was “hard to put a number on it” – but his government did this throughout last year. Benchmarks were set giving people a small amount of certainty in uncertain and unpleasant times.

Victorians, weary after endless months of lockdown last year, are aware the authority for lockdown extends to February 26.

But we’ve had no assurances from Andrews that this will only be a last resort in case of a catastrophic spiral in numbers.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she avoids lockdown “at all costs”, but Andrews is proud of his “abundance of caution” approach.

Doesn’t he realise this attitude has further crippled Victorian businesses, closed schools again and forced us back into our homes?

At the very least, Andrews should give us some assurance that unless there is a major spike in numbers, kids will go back to school.

And he should assure struggling country areas will be excluded from any further lockdown unless they’re direct hot spots.

Surely by now Government leaders understand the need to look after the mental needs of Victorians, and not just our physical health.

What about the vulnerable kids -and I know a few – who have regressed since last Friday after learning they wouldn’t be going to school this week?

And the businesses who together will lose a billion dollars over these five days?

People get their daily exercise along the Yarra River during lockdown. Picture: David Crosling

The bigger picture is the lack of justification for lockdown in the first place. We should not be going back into lockdown every time there’s a new strain of the virus or two to three new cases a day.

We are one year into this crisis and Victorians should be offered a more targeted response than shutting the entire state.

People are right to draw comparisons with New South Wales.

When that state had a growing Northern Beaches cluster which reached 150 people, their Premier didn’t send the whole state home, she locked down relevant areas.

This approach works when quarantine processes are effective: that state has just marked 29 straight days without a local case.

Andrews has repeatedly played up the virulence of the disease, but it’s not so wildly infectious as to justify the entire state closing down.

He can’t have it both ways. He can’t paint a picture of a rapid, out-of- control virus requiring lockdown and then still insist that contact tracing is “above what is required”.

If that was true, then we wouldn’t need lockdown, would we?

Victorians are also frustrated and outraged by repeated infection control mistakes. After all this time we can’t excuse repeated mistakes by staff and managers of hotel quarantine over infection controls and equipment use.

There was also a week’s delay in tracing procedures after a Coburg family function because one woman returned a false negative amid weak positives. Doesn’t sound like a “rapid response” to me.

The optimism that accompanies the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine in Australia is hampered by such bungling.

Managing this virus is not “up to the shared efforts of all Victorians” as Health Minister Martin Foley says. It’s up to the government to do its job properly.

We shouldn’t need to shut the economy and retreat behind closed doors to control the virus.

It makes me realise there’s now a fifth reason for Victorians to leave our homes – moving to NSW.

Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist

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