Susie O’Brien: We shouldn’t be at the mercy of vain state premiers

Politicians should drop the interstate war games and work to properly manage hotel quarantine so borders can open and stay open.

Victoria needs new number plates slogans.

We used to be The Garden state and The Education State, but now we’re The State of Disappointment.

After four lockdowns, we’re Alive but hardly Alert.

We’re not The Place to Be. And we’re no longer On the Move.

It’s less than a week to yet another school holiday, and many of us have little hope of going anyone going anywhere.

If we get tested we might make it to Mt Hotham or Mt Buller, but we’re still barred from travelling anywhere warm and tropical.

Even if restrictions lift by next week, it will be too late for most of us to honour bookings up north.

We’re at the mercy of vain state premiers obsessed with eradicating the virus in their states rather than helping all Australians learn to live with the disease in a sensible way.

The national Covid outbreak is well under control and the disease isn’t ravaging our 25 million residents. Across Australia there were two locally acquired cases in the last 24 hours, 132 active cases overall and 36 people in hospital.

No one is in intensive care. No one is dying. There are no new cases in aged care.

Our efforts in controlling and managing the disease are admired across the world.

But it’s come at a great cost to our country. State premiers are so busy bringing in nonsense measures to keep each other’s residents out they are not working together to make the whole country safer.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has made it clear that it’s “Queensland first”.

The federal government, presided over by the lacklustre Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his new mouthy Nationals deputy Barnaby Joyce, is weak and ineffective. The feds have been unable to rein in the egotistical premiers and stop petty border closures and lockdowns.

Making matters worse, there is absolutely no consistency or reason governing the border restrictions between states.

Take a look at where we stand right now.

Queensland, for a start, is still declaring the whole of greater Melbourne a hotspot, even though we have 54 cases – most of them in quarantine. The lockout includes areas that haven’t had a case for more than a year.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has made it clear that it’s “Queensland first” but locking out southerners with money to spend is hardly putting Queenslanders first.

NSW is only keeping out Vics who have been to places of close contact in Victoria. Given the low risk, this makes much more sense.

NSW has shown it is possible to live with the virus without locking a state down. While other states have pulled up their drawbridges, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has continually held her nerve and instituted localised restrictions.

And yet as a cluster in that state grows, the residents of NSW are now being punished by other premiers who don’t have the same courage or conviction.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has proven how to handle the pandemic.

South Australia is more hard line, closing its borders to greater Melbourne. Even South Aussies who’ve been in Melbourne (not even in contact areas) have to get tested three times and self-isolate if they want to go home.

WA is more generous, now declaring Victoria “low risk”. We can all enter with a G2G pass and must be in self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.

Tasmania will allow all Victorians into the state from Tuesday after earlier dividing us between country and city.

People from greater Melbourne are welcome in the Northern Territory but they must spend 14 days at Howards Springs.

Victorians would be better off going to the ACT, where we only have to monitor ourselves for Covid symptoms for 14 days and get tested if needed. Those who have been to exposure sites need an exemption.

Doesn’t that make more sense? The rest of the rules are nonsensical, inconsistent and unnecessary.

The premiers are forgetting the enemy is not Victorians, it’s poor hotel quarantine procedures.

Indeed, Victoria has had one new case acquired locally over the last 24 hours and eight from hotel quarantine. Every single case that’s escaped has been traced back to hotel quarantine.

Instead of fighting against each other, why aren’t the premiers working together to get a series of hotel quarantine facilities up and running as a priority? The issue isn’t even on the agenda of Monday’s national cabinet – the only topic is the botched federal vaccine rollout.

Politicians should drop the interstate war games and work to properly manage hotel quarantine on a national level so borders can open and stay open.

Then we could get a new number plate slogan: Victoria – Get me Out of Here. Please.

SUSIE O’BRIEN IS A HERALD SUN COLUMNIST