Victoria’s pandemic response is the elephant in the room this election

This is part of our Victorian election series “Talkback”, featuring legendary broadcasters Neil Mitchell and Jon Faine’s takes on the campaign every Sunday. Read Faine’s piece here.

It’s the war nobody wants to mention. It’s the elephant in the room of this state election campaign, and it has two heads.

This is what is being ignored: first, Daniel Andrews’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Victoria’s world-record, business-kicking, 262-day, six-part lockdown. That’s up to him to defend and the opposition to prosecute.

Both Daniel Andrews and Matthew Guy must address how Victoria would respond to future COVID-19 threats.Credit:

Second, how will the crisis be handled if COVID resurges? That’s a question both sides must answer.

In 100 years there has been no more important event in Victoria than this pandemic. The way the state was led through it should be an election issue because it shows what style of government is seeking to be re-elected.

This week, as the pandemic rules were lifted in Victoria, there was talk it is over. It isn’t.

While we pretend it has gone, COVID is changing and spreading across Europe. In the UK there was a 37 per cent surge in COVID hospitalisations in the first week of October. Major hospitals are again reaching crisis point.

The Doherty Institute has been responsible for some crucial modelling through the crisis. Its head, Professor Sharon Lewin, warned as restrictions lifted that Victorians should be aware “measures may well come back” if a new variant emerges or cases surge.

So what’s the plan, premier? What’s the plan, Matthew Guy? How will you get the health system ready? What is the strategy should, God forbid, COVID mutation XYZ lurch into our lives?

None of your shiny new hospitals will be ready for years. Where is the extra hospital capacity? Where are the staff?

Does Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton stay in Dan’s “freezer”, barely trusted or consulted. Do we get locked inside again?

The opposition opposes lockdowns, but what is their solution if a new strain takes hold? Do we return to vaccine mandates and masks?

If the government believes it did well, it should say so. Beat the drum. Is it proud or ashamed?

But the government does not want people to remember. The Premier seems to have dumped his North Face jacket, presumably because it is a reminder of bad times.

If the opposition believes the government failed, why not say so? Book the ads.

In those scary times of early 2020, they started well. Antivirals and vaccines weren’t available and urgent action was needed. Government took it and explained why. Privately, ministers warned of catastrophic failures in health, fearing decisions would be needed on whom to save and whom to let die. Lockdowns were the only option. There was unity of purpose.

But doughnut days became an obsession. What began as an effort to reduce the case curve to stop hospitals from being overrun, developed into celebrating attempts to “eradicate” the virus, which was never possible.

The premier began to believe his own publicity. He was dictatorial. Democracy was butchered. Objections were ridiculed.

The closure of playgrounds during lockdowns infuriated many parents with young children.Credit: Joe Armao

We lived it. We don’t want to think about it. But we must. So let’s work with trigger phrases only:

Ring of steel, closed playgrounds, nighttime curfew, no visitors in the home, closed schools, restricted hospital visits, people condemned for watching the sunset outdoors.

“Travel papers” to leave home, people locked in towers with little notice (and still no apology), the fuzzy memories around a hotel quarantine mess that cost 801 lives.

Watching loved ones die on an iPad.

Now, when it all seems like a hideous dream, the question is whether Andrews was a hero or a bully.

The Daily Dan was not information, it was instruction. The Victorian people were not led – they were forced into compliance. The premier painted anyone who questioned the government’s response as an irresponsible fool encouraging mass death.

There’s no doubt that in the early days lives were saved. But it didn’t last.

NSW has a population about 1.5 million more than Victoria. On one count it had 359 fewer deaths. But NSW did not treat its citizens as Victoria did. It adopted a more lenient approach, trusting citizens to do the right thing. Victoria didn’t. Andrews mocked it for that. But fewer people died. Why?

There was a sniff of a hard line from Guy this week when he promised to launch a royal commission into the pandemic. He was right to. We must learn from the mistakes.

But the commission was first promised by then leader Michael O’Brien in September 2020. This was not a fresh and aggressive attempt to make the pandemic central issue it should be.

If an election is about getting better government, the questions for the campaign should be: was all that pain necessary? Was it worth it? Did the government mess it up because of a dictatorial premier who would not take advice? Or did they get it right?

Before a royal commission, Victoria needs an open debate on the way the pandemic was managed, what was learnt by both sides, and how they would do better if required.

That needs to happen now. The opposition will try to avoid it because its strategists see political risk in negativity, and it has few answers. The government will be evasive and defensive because it knows the community has been traumatised and may treat the election as pay back time.

For Victorians such a public debate would be an uncomfortable reminder of what was, and a chilling suggestion of what may be.

But it must happen. At some stage in our future, lives will depend on it.

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