What our pollies should learn from Gladys

Victorians are staring down the barrel of yet another lockdown — but this wouldn’t be the case if Gladys Berejiklian was in charge.

As a fourth lockdown looms for Melbourne, consider how much better off we’d be if Gladys Berejiklian was our Premier, not Daniel Andrews.

At this stage we’re in the same position NSW has been in a number of times, yet the outcome is likely to be very different.

In Victoria traffic is thinning, streets are emptying and businesses are nervous as we brace for another brutal lockdown.

With 15 cases — and more on the horizon — a statewide closure is already feeling inevitable given the Andrews-Merlino Government’s approach to managing Covid.

The same government that’s just announced a big new payroll tax on businesses that are already struggling after the devastating lockdowns of 2020, is considering locking down the state once again.

Things would be different in NSW, as Berejiklian noted on Sky News.

She said she feared for Victoria and urged state leaders to “step back and take a breather”.

“It is possible to manage an outbreak and not shut down a city, and not stop businesses, and not stop people being employed and not stop people having a relatively normal existence,” she said.

I wish she’d come here and show our leaders how.

She’s not the only one fearing for Victoria.

In Victoria we fine people if they leave the house.

In NSW people they urge them to stay home.

In Victoria we fine people for not wearing masks.

In NSW they encourage people to wear them.

In Victoria we lockdown the state at the first sign of Covid.

In NSW they stay open as long as possible.

Let’s hope that any lockdown — if it has to happen — is short and sharp and targets only the affected areas and not the whole state.

Let’s hope our kids get to stay at school. I fear some of our most vulnerable kids wouldn’t survive another period of remote learning.

Let’s hope businesses are able to keep trading. Many are already on the brink after the 110-day lockdown of 2020.

However, I don’t hold out great hopes for this given the government’s punitive, hectoring, disproportionate approach to restrictions.

If we had Gladys rather than Dan or James running the state, we’d be a whole lot better off.

We wouldn’t be saddled with an injecting room at Flinders St station further scaring people from going into the city and threatening the viability of already precarious CBD businesses.

Berejiklian, I am sure, would consult with communities and find a place for an injecting room that was more suitable.

She would also have had the political nous to get on with major road projects such as the East/West link because she’s not weak and arrogant like Daniel Andrews — who pays more than $1 billion not to build a road?

But when you’ve got Captain Incompetence in charge, things often don’t go to plan. We know of one major contact tracing mistake involving the wrong Woolworths, so we have to assume there’s more to come.

As acting Premier James Merlino said, the next 24 hours are critical.

He’s not ruling out further action, perhaps as soon as this afternoon.

It would be great if it was proportionate, sensible and measured.

But that’s not likely in this state.