‘We didn’t learn’: Expert’s frank admission about Sydney lockdown

Panellists on Q&A have slammed NSW’s failure to learn anything from Victoria’s Covid lockdowns, deeming the state “a beast of its own”.

Experts and panellists alike on Q&A have slammed New South Wales’ failure to learn anything from Victoria’s repeated Covid-19 lockdowns over the last 12 months, deeming the state “a beast of its own” as it continues to battle its most significant outbreak since the pandemic began.

After a day of traded barbs — some more subtle than others — between NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her Victorian counterpart Daniel Andrews, the panel on the ABC show were asked to weigh in — with University of NSW epidemiologist and World Health Organisation (WHO) adviser, Mary-Louise McLaws, offering a frank admission that “we haven’t really learnt” anything.

“You (in Victoria) learnt from the second wave to go in early and go in hard and then get it out early. You locked down on the third day when you had about 25 cases. We didn’t lock down until we had 54 cases. You were in lockdown for 100 days until you got your last case. That was on day 28. We’re at day 29 and we have 930 cases. So, did we learn? No, sadly we didn’t learn from your experience,” Professor McLaws said.

“We didn’t learn from the UK experience … telling us about their anxiety of Delta. We didn’t learn from the anxiety of the UK and the USA … We certainly didn’t learn from your North Melbourne experience where you went in very heavy handed and didn’t use your multicultural community … We’ve got a recipe for an area where the virus will take off.”

Radio broadcaster and The Project guest panellist Steve Price echoed a similar sentiment but didn’t mince his words, saying, “NSW doesn’t think it needs to learn anything from Victoria.”

RELATED: States slam borders shut to Victoria

Epidemiologist and WHO adviser, Professor Mary-Louise McLaws. Picture: ABC

Radio broadcaster Steve Price. Picture: ABC

“NSW is a beast of its own. They just looked at Victoria and thought, ‘Ah, poor old Victoria, they’re in lockdown. Bad luck.’ You had the chief health officer, Kerry Chant, asking, ‘What is essential retail?’ She said, ‘I can’t define that.’ ‘What is essential work?’ ‘I can’t define that.’ You have to define that,” he said.

“In Victoria, nothing was open except for a petrol station, chemist and bottle shop, of course.”

Did NSW learn from Victoria’s second lockdown experience of last year? #QandApic.twitter.com/Y3VS7w0zaT

— QandA (@QandA) July 15, 2021

The topic of what qualifies an “essential” business in NSW has been a hot one all week — but particularly yesterday, with Mr Andrews taking a subtle dig at Ms Berejiklian and her health authorities for allowing retail stores to remain open, while in his state they’ll be closed for the next five days.

“Just for clarity, retail is shut,” the Victorian Premier said.

“It’s not open. There will be no browsing, it’s click and collect. That’s what it has to be. That’s what is safe. That’s what has worked before in Melbourne and it is what will work again.”

But when asked whether his northern neighbour should have taken learnings from his own state’s lockdown last year, Mr Andrews said he wasn’t there to “scoff or sneer” at anyone.

“That doesn’t work against this virus. This virus doesn’t care if you’ve got a big ego or not,” he said.

“Just get on and get the job done. I can’t control what happens and doesn’t happen in NSW. These cases started in NSW, but I’m determined they will end here.”

RELATED: Dan’s desperate pitch to the PM

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Sarah Matray

During tonight’s episode, Price also touched on another aspect of Sydney’s lockdown that has been criticised over the past week — the “double standards” between the capital’s eastern and western suburbs, and in particular, the “targeting” of the Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown LGAs.

While NSW’s current dilemma began in Bondi, nine suburbs across the three red zones in Sydney’s west are now regarded as the centre of the horror outbreak, with the virus running rampant at out-of-control rates there.

The disturbing volumes of cases and the speed at which they were acquired saw additional police units deployed to the area to patrol for Covid-19 rule breaches — a harsh move that was widely condemned by members of the public, who accused authorities of racially discriminating against people in the west.

In a bold step to further slow transmission in the Fairfield LGA, the NSW Government on Tuesday introduced new rules requiring people who need to leave the area for work to have a Covid-19 test every three days, regardless of whether they have symptoms.

Is Sydney’s south-west being treated differently than other parts of the city? #QandApic.twitter.com/OiAshKCyhw

— QandA (@QandA) July 15, 2021

It’s been argued that during the initial outbreak in highly populated areas across Sydney’s inner east, the same force was not used — despite massive crowds seen gathering outdoors — a notion echoed by Price on Q&A.

“The question about the targeting of Fairfield, that has been a disgrace,” he said.

“I mean those suburbs that make up that LGA are full of hardworking Sydneysiders who have to go out all over Sydney every day of the week — tradies, plumbers, sparkies — and we are targeting them and saying, ‘You’ve done the wrong thing. You can’t spread this at home.’ They can’t afford to stay at home. If they stay at home, they can’t put food on the table.”

Pointing out the double standard at play, Price added that he spoke to the three mayors of those LGAs during the week, declaring that the State Government “didn’t even ring them up and say, ‘We’re going to have to lock you down. You’re going to have a harder lockdown than the rest of the city’”.

“Yet all of the people in the area that the [audience] question was just talking from. They looked at Bondi and no one said that Bondi had to be locked down,” he said.