Coronavirus Australia: Pauline Hanson is blind to the bleak winter ahead

Pauline Hanson thinks we have gone ‘over the top’ in responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

This will be a bleak winter for people like my good self. No sport on the television means the Netflix movie menu will be one of the most-read documents in the world over the coming months.

While this will help, nothing could fill the gaping hole in my life when — for the first winter in my 70 years — I will be unable to cheer on the mighty St George Illawarra Dragons in the NRL competition.

Ben Hunt in action for the St George Illawarra Dragons on March 20 before the NRL competition was suspended. Picture: AAP

The pandemic raises many questions. How long will it last? Where did it come from? How long before a vaccine is produced? Why would developed countries like Spain and Italy — where the underlying health of the population should be pretty good — be hit so hard? How effective are our social-distancing regulations? And should face masks be compulsory for anyone leaving home?

As Australians pull together behind what some might consider tough regulations, I would only have to give you one guess as to who might raise a discordant note. Pauline Hanson thinks we have gone “over the top”. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

With Sky News on in the background as I write, I note that even Donald Trump cannot be faulted for his approach recently.

The US President has been flanked by serious health officials who speak freely. No world leader is game to play fast and loose on this. They cannot afford to look anything but cautious — with a touch of zealotry.

It has taken Trump too long to realise how big this catastrophe is, having dismissed it a few weeks ago. Now, though, he is on board and directing his considerable energy and enthusiasm to join a battle we cannot afford to lose.

US President Donald Trump in the White House in Washington. Picture: AP

An uncommon but welcome dose of a hard truth came from Trump this week when he suggested that almost a quarter of a million Americans will die from the virus.

It is eerie to see Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall practically deserted. On a normal day, tens of thousands of pedestrian’s trudge through the shopping strip. Today you could fire a shotgun there and be certain of not hitting anyone.

Suburban shopping centres are in much the same state. The stock market is expected to continue falling. It is becoming impossible to find safe havens for your health or your money, with interest rates so low.

It is amazing just what a royal commission can achieve. I have just heard part of a television interview with Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn. When you hear bankers of his standing talking about compassion, you know the royal commission did its job very, very well.

Hanson’s complete misread of the national mood in regard to this crisis gives me hope that more people will wake up to her manifest inadequacies as a politician. If ever Australia was crying out for leadership, it is now. Our Prime Minister needs to do more to, if not inspire, then at least reassure Australians that we will eventually emerge from this.

The news on the virus is mixed. While infections in New York continue to increase, the rate of infection is slowing in Italy and France. It is to be hoped that China, because it is the biggest elephant in the room, does not come out of this unscathed. As they export medicine and equipment to Africa to prevent the disease taking hold there, it must be remembered why we are in this dreadful situation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: AP

Totalitarian regimes are never attractive. When basic human rights are trampled on, the perpetrators need to be called out. China should not be allowed to use its considerable “soft” power to massage the media into moving on quickly from this.

Xi Jinping, China’s President for life, has a lot to answer for.

Believing published numbers is becoming near impossible as the Chinese machine gets into high gear. If you believe Beijing, you accept that more people have died in the US from this disease than in the place from which it came — China. I wonder if the Chinese realise or care about how silly they look at the moment.

Of particular concern in our neck of the woods are the indigenous communities in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory. The health of our indigenous community is considerably worse than in the rest of Australia. Diabetes, kidney failure and a host of other health problems are constant worries in the north and we will be fortunate if we can keep that area free from the pandemic.

Australians enjoy the best health system in the world and our hospitals will cope with this. The recall of retired health personnel is a necessary step. It undoubtedly will be successful as everyone seeks to play their part in the fight.

But the pandemic will take more than the Dragons from yours truly.

My wife has always resisted my desire to embark on a cruise at sea. I shall have to concede that is one bucket-list item that will never happen.