Why it’s about time we all started acting like a smart country

There’s a new kind of state versus state battle in Australia. We’re a smart and sensible country - it’s about time we started acting like it.

There are essentially two types of governments in the world – those that trust their citizens and those that do not.

Either you believe that the people you govern are responsible adults who will act in a reasonable way, follow reasonable rules and make reasonable decisions or you believe that they are somehow infantile or incapable of rational thought.

At the extreme ends of politics this is the difference between democracy and dictatorship, the difference between following the will of the people or suppressing it.

But even within the happy narrow bandwidth of moderation we enjoy in Australia there are still telling signs that it is a struggle happening right here at home.

Nowhere is this more acute than in the distinct approaches taken by NSW and Victoria to handle the coronavirus pandemic.

From the outset both states went above and beyond the advice of the federal government’s public health experts and imposed greater restrictions on rights and freedoms than were deemed necessary. The official policy of the national cabinet – which supposedly included all the states and territories – was one of suppression: Keeping the virus under control and keeping the rest of society functioning as much as possible.

But it quickly became clear that all the states and territories had decided individually to pursue an elimination strategy, both via aggressive economic and social shutdowns and personal lockdowns as well as throwing up hard state borders unheard of since Federation.

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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Vic Premier Daniel Andrews and Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Picture: Anna Rogers

Most painful to my heart was the effective shutting down of schools – a practice euphemistically coded as “remote learning” – which had little or no foundation in medical evidence, and which will likely be the measure that causes the most long-term damage to vulnerable children and our whole society over generations to come.

But as the first wave came and went and it was clear that the virus was indeed under control within Australia, significant divisions emerged between the states as to how they would handle this now low-level threat, the starkest being between NSW and Victoria.

Essentially it was a divide between pragmatists and purists. Those who wanted to return to as normal a life as possible while managing risks and those who placed the eradication of one particular disease above virtually every other health, social or economic objective.

NSW pursued the former and Victoria the latter.

As a result NSW placed its faith in its citizens to behave responsibly, its resources into a strict police-run hotel quarantine scheme and its confidence in a smart, modern and well-resourced crack contact tracing team.

The Victorian Government, by contrast, appeared to have no faith, resources or confidence in any of the three.

It had no control over hotel quarantine – indeed, a special commission of inquiry found no one even knew who was supposed to be in charge.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison with state and territory premiers for national cabinet. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

It had no real system for contact tracing – indeed, a parliamentary inquiry found it was a basket case that used pen and paper.

And it had no trust in its people – indeed, it locked its poorest citizens up in public housing blocks, now found by the ombudsman to have been a gross violation of its own human rights charter.

If that’s a smart, progressive and compassionate government then I’m Abraham Lincoln.

The state’s economy has been crushed, lives and livelihoods have been shattered, debt is through the roof and the credit rating is through the floor. And yet still the socialist doughnut munchers like to brag about the number of days with zero transmission as though they’re competing in a non-existent State of Origin.

Meanwhile in NSW life has continued almost as normal for more than six months. Outbreaks occur and they are tracked down and managed. No one has been barricaded in their homes. Children are at school. Grown-ups are at work.

This is not a Labor versus Liberal divide, it is a purist versus practical divide. Frankly it is a stupid versus smart divide.

NSW doesn’t need to shut down a whole state when an outbreak occurs because we trust our citizens to do the right thing and our police and health workers to fix the problem if they don’t.

It is an approach that just happens to have been taken by a moderate Liberal government but the same approach would have been taken by a moderate Labor government. I suspect a Labor leader like Bob Carr, who valued education above all else, would have rather slit his wrists than shut down a single school.

The latest outbreak on the northern beaches is also testament to the folly of believing there is such a thing as complete elimination of the coronavirus. Even if we stamp out community transmission within Australia, we will always be susceptible to it creeping in from elsewhere – be it via vital supplies we need from overseas or bringing our own people home, as Federal Labor has rightly been calling for.

The only question is whether we can manage it or not. NSW, with the highest population, the highest traveller intake and the highest risk, has proven that we can. Other states that have either just thrown up the shutters or locked up their populations have proven nothing except the pretty obvious fact that people in straitjackets can’t pick their nose.

We are a smart and sensible country. It’s about time we all started acting like it.

Joe Hildebrand is the host of Summer Afternoons on 2GB and 4BC.