Susie O’Brien: Victoria becoming second-rate state

We have no path out of lockdown, students don’t know when they’re returning to school and Melburnians are running out of hope. Welcome to Victoria — the second-rate state.

Victoria is rapidly becoming the second-rate, second-class state because we don’t have a clear path out of lockdown – or any way forward at all.

Our state is just days out from reaching our 70 per cent first-dose target.

And what does the Premier do?

Nothing. He doesn’t even turn up to the daily press conference.

Daniel Andrews’ inaction is allowing NSW to hold the mantle as the trailblazing state forging a path to freedom.

What do we get? A plan to release a plan.

Andrews’ arrogance is breathtaking. When asked on Sunday when vaccination for teachers might be mandatory – as it is in NSW, he answered: “I will make those announcements when I am ready.”

His egotism allows him to ignore the fact that the rest of us are more than ready. In fact, we’re desperate. But Andrews doesn’t care what the people of Melbourne want or need.

Case in point – reaching the all-important 70 per cent milestone for first doses on around September 19 is going to be marked with a very minor easing of restrictions.

Victorians can soon look forward to an extra hour outdoors with a mask on. Picture: Nicki Connolly

We’ll get one more hour of masked exercise a day, five more kilometres to go shopping and outdoor training with up to … wait for it … three people. Unoccupied houses for sale can be inspected and childminding is allowed for essential workers.

Gee, I can’t wait to walk for an extra hour with my mask on, said no Victorian ever.

Such belatedly meagre freedoms are no incentive for people to follow the restrictions and do the right thing.

NSW is already casting much further head, outlining freedoms for when they are predicted to reach 70 per cent double doses in late October. They could see five vaccinated visitors in homes, 20 people outdoors, hospitality venues open and shops open, along with hairdressers, gyms and sports venues.

A further roadmap for Victoria, which includes plans for schools, will be released when Andrews is ready – which he says will be “in about a week’s time”.

The roadmap of what reaching 70 per cent or 80 per cent would look like, is expected to be full of escape clauses – Andrews calls them “caveats”.

So, we’re still a week off knowing anything more about “where people can go, who they can visit”.

Doesn’t he realise we’ve had enough of being told by an autocratic Premier where we can go and what we can do – particularly by the time eight in 10 of us will be fully vaccinated?

We don’t want to wait longer in lockdown to hear what might be announced in a week’s time and take effect six weeks after that.

Large concrete bollards have been put up at a Glen Iris park to stop kids riding bikes. Picture: Rob Leeson.

A week more of kids being at home instead of at school, businesses bleeding money and relationships and mental health at breaking point. And we’re being told by an out-of-touch government “We’ve got this”.

Thousands of private schoolkids are now on school holidays not knowing if they’re going back next term. If the government cared about our kids as much as we cared about the construction industry, schools would be open with vaccination hubs and regular onsite testing.

School kids had to ring a hotline and wait hours to get through, but construction workers spreading Covid in tearooms can now walk-up at major vaccination sites.

Authorities are concerned some construction sites aren’t following Covid-safe protocols, leading to a massive virus transmission in the industry. So what do they do?

Put the industry on notice, but keep it operating. Wish they’d do the same for schools.

In the meantime, a punitive, mean, overbearing spirit is continuing to sap the life out of all of us.

When kids were doing the “wrong thing” by riding their bikes in a skate park in Glen Iris, authorities came along and put up giant concrete bollards stopping them from getting a bit of harmless exercise.

Boring, sedate adult walks with friends are allowed, but the kind of exercise that kids want to do – such as ride their bikes over massive humps – has been banned. These are the kids who are getting active, getting out and having fun, and immediately authorities stopped them by craning in a series of concrete bollards at great expense.

For me these photos are a sign of the sad, puritanical anti-child era we’re living in – adults doing the wrong thing are supported to do better, while kids get slammed day after day.

At this point, areas that are not hotspots should be open for business, and so should schools. We shouldn’t be waiting another five days for an extra hour of masked strolling and we shouldn’t have to wait many, many more weeks for our city to open up.

Instead, we’re stuck in the second-rate state.