Susie O’Brien: Victorians the casualites of Dan Andrews’ personal war

Daniel Andrews and Brett Sutton are making petty, punitive decisions in a race to triumph over Covid and Victorians are paying with our sanity and livelihoods.

There’s a calculated cruelty at the heart of the Andrews Labor government.

Premier Daniel Andrews and chief health officer Brett Sutton have wanted to keep us locked in and locked down so they could triumph in the race to beat Covid.

They’ve had a point to prove to the other premiers, and don’t care if it comes at the expense of the mental health of every single Victorian.

Their petty and punitive decisions have nothing to do with the wellbeing of six million people; otherwise they would be only restricting activities proven to directly increase transmission of Covid.

Daniel Andrews has been making decisions that play with our minds and curtail our lives on mere whims and thought bubbles. Picture: Getty Images

Instead, they’ve been making decisions that play with our minds and curtail our lives on mere whims and thought bubbles.

For example, just over two weeks ago they closed playgrounds, skate parks, basketball rings and outdoor gym equipment. Playgrounds were marked up like crime scenes to appear toxic and dangerous, with cable ties securing swings and tape prohibiting access.

It was the final nail in the coffin for the state’s 1.5 million families, exhausted by six lockdowns and 150 days of home schooling.

The ban was initially based on a possible case of playground transmission. Although there was no concrete evidence – it was a “working hypothesis” – playgrounds were closed anyway.

With not one death since November, Victorians were plunged into the harshest lockdown since 2020 and one of the most draconian the world.

The decision overlooked the fact that 75 per cent of transmission occurs in people’s homes, and forced people to spend more time at home.

The government’s petty and punitive decisions have nothing to do with the wellbeing of six million people. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Andrews defended the playground ban by saying 50 kids had tested positive, but there was no evidence that outdoor play areas were the location of the transmission.

Despite repeated assertions that the ban was heartless, destructive and unnecessary, playgrounds stayed closed.

A new hypothesis emerged when Prof Sutton became aware that playgrounds were sites of parental fraternisation.

The deadly culprit? Parents supervising their children sitting down, drinking coffee, not wearing masks and not social distancing. They – not the playground itself – were the new “transmission risk”.

There is no parallel between rates of infection and these punitive measures that take so much from us.

Case numbers have soared while we’ve had a curfew, limited exercise periods and a playground ban. Picture: Ian Currie

Let’s remember case numbers have soared while we’ve had a curfew, limited exercise periods and a 5km zone limit – and a playground ban. And yet the government is making us wait an agonising three more weeks for an extra hours walk in the park and the right to venture an extra 5km to see friends – outside, of course.

We know there need to be restrictions, but they must be balanced by measures that give us hope and offer reasonable freedoms as time goes on. It’s telling that a promise to have mental health experts appear at major announcements is yet to happen.

Sutton and Andrews are focused on a more personal war – beating the battle of Covid before anyone else.

We’re the casualties of their endless battles, and we’re paying with our sanity and livelihoods.