Coronavirus: What matters is what we all do now

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, right, listens to Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy as he speaks to the media during a press conference. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

I have been as critical as anyone when it comes to some of the ways the Australian government has responded to the coronavirus crisis. Especially the contradictory messaging which both confuses people and at least initially left them with a lack of “leadership by example”.

On this score Scott Morrison just two weekends ago saying he wanted to go to the football was very irresponsible. As was the Chief Medical Officer shaking hands and saying doing so was fine to do.

Those actions are in sharp contrast to what they are saying and how they are acting now.

They must have known from their briefings what was coming, surely? If not don’t we have a right to question what briefings they are receiving from the “experts” they keep telling us about to justify decisions made?

And surely common sense should have told them if just days later they were going to expect Australians to instantaneously start following ever stricter social distancing rules, they needed to have been setting the example themselves much earlier?

It takes time to enact cultural and social change. Especially when leaders aren’t showing “best practice” decision making with the example they set.

In other words, the lag time on younger people doing the right thing is at least in part the fault of leaders not setting the example early enough. And not showing common sense by realising it takes time for people to start doing what they are told to do.

But what is done is done. That’s both trite to say but also true. There will be plenty of time to pick over the entrails of failures after this is over, at which time our politicians can go into full blown spin mode, acting like they acquitted themselves well in the circumstances. Slamming anyone who disagrees. By that time I think I’ll be more focused on the various sporting codes resuming normal operations for my own sanity. Assuming the health and economic crisis doesn’t bring me down before then like it will so many Australians.

The times we live in are thoroughly devastating, and we are a long way from the worst of it. A very long way.

For now, all that matters is that we all as individuals do whatever we possibly can to protect ourselves and our loved ones. And as members of a community we must not let our own failure to be cautious harm the vulnerable who are trying to get through this crisis.

Australia should do better than other nations when it comes to managing this crisis. Of course we should. That’s because we started with significant advantages over elsewhere. We are an island nation. The virus started its spread here later than elsewhere, meaning we have been able to watch and evaluate other national responses and hopefully emulate the good decisions not the bad ones.

So Australians having higher expectations for the outcomes our society can manufacture through this crisis is reasonable in the circumstances.

We have done better than many other countries across the public policy spectrum, even if we aren’t the best. Such as acquiring medical equipment. Testing rates are good for the size of our population. Low death rates to infection rates is a very encouraging outcome so far. We moved towards lockdowns early — relative to infection and death rates — even if some of us didn’t think we did so early enough. Stimulus measures have been legislated and despite kinks in the system, such as within Centrelink, support is there for people who need it.

It is easy to criticise but hard to get every decision right when you are the politician charged with the responsibility of making the big calls. Scott Morrison makes it easier to be a critic because of his leadership style, which from the outside appears to be rather absolutist and uncompromising about the courses he takes. As though there was no other viable way. Policy decision making is rarely so obvious.

And I see a sense of stubbornness in the way he operates. But unless any of us are in the room when briefings and decisions are made, it really is hard to know for sure if those outwards features of his leadership style are accurate or just unfair observations.

The shutting down of parliament and refusing to include the opposition in the national cabinet feel like belligerent calls, but maybe there actually is some sort of advice internally which justifies such decision making on reasonable grounds. It really is hard to know.

Either way, he’s our Prime Minister and whether we like it or not, Morrison makes the decisions at the national level. The same goes for all of us when we look to our particular state Premiers who make the decisions at that tier of government.

If we think they aren’t the best and brightest to be running the show during a crisis like this, guess what? That’s our fault for thinking a career in politics is a mug’s game.

Peter van Onselen is political editor for Network 10 and professor of politics and public policy at the University of Western Australia and Griffith University.