A new year challenge for all in pandemic control

Yet again, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has shown judgment, balance and empathy in attempting to calibrate her government’s response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak across Greater Sydney. Her pragmatic, nuanced approach is evident in her attempts to offer people some opportunity to celebrate the end of a very challenging year while minimising the risks of accelerating the spread of the infection through large gatherings. While Sydney will be illuminated by its traditional fireworks display, there will be significant restrictions on crowds assembling in public foreshore parks and vantage points near the harbour. Although regrettable, this is justifiable. The Premier has attempted to provide some reasonable respite for residents by allowing smaller outdoor gatherings while urging people to avoid creating so-called superspreader risks by forming large crowds around Sydney Harbour.

It is easy to conclude that the ghastly year of 2020 thus will end with a whimper rather than a bang. However, Ms Berejiklian is attempting to ensure that the show still will go on, albeit in a safe and somewhat abbreviated manner. The Premier knows that after a year that began with the state’s capital shrouded in bushfire smoke and ended with many residents confined to their homes, people are craving some civic rituals that offer reassuring familiarity and hope for the coming year. By refusing to impose a total lockdown, an unjustified curfew and compulsory mask wearing to maintain a pulse of community life, Ms Berejiklian is demonstrating her capacity for true leadership. Her ability to balance community safety with the maintenance of some semblance of social normality and economic activity has been commendable. It has required judgment. It has required faith in her key advisers. It has required a degree of trust in her community. And it has required no mean amount of moral courage.

The stovepiped, ponderous Victorian system over which Premier Daniel Andrews presided so long as health minister has been ruthlessly exposed by this pandemic. Its lack of accountability was revealed when the Coate inquiry into Victoria’s botched hotel quarantine program reported last week. Lives have been lost through the incompetence of a top-heavy, highly centralised bureaucracy. Despite its authoritarian disposition and fondness for sweeping intrusions into the lives of citizens, the Victorian bureaucracy was rudderless in the headwinds when it counted. Victoria excelled at arresting its citizens, not the coronavirus. Crucial decisions, on which lives and livelihoods depended, evidently occurred by osmosis. No one actually made such decisions. It would be comical in an episode of Yes Minister, but it has had real consequences that are no laughing matter.

Accordingly, the leadership of the NSW Premier has provided a stark and unflattering contrast with that of her counterparts in the other states. In commending Ms Berejiklian, we are not making a partisan political point. In the face of small outbreaks, South Australian Liberal Premier Steven Marshall demonstrated the same knee- jerk authoritarianism as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, West Australian Premier Mark McGowan and Mr Andrews. Their responses have been panicky border closures that have crippled businesses and inflicted cruel and arbitrary separations on families or denied vital medical treatment in their states. Celebrities and AFL stars entered Queensland to fawning from the fangirl incumbent while ordinary Australians suffered.

Of the Australian states, NSW alone attempted to balance public health and economic viability. So, we support Ms Berejiklian in imposing a graduated series of measures to ensure that Sydneysiders can still view the New Year’s Eve fireworks and draw some comfort from loved ones or gather in some communal spaces to farewell a year that most will prefer to forget, and to welcome one in which we hope our entire nation can begin the long road back to the Australia we recognise. The performance of the NSW authorities has been vindicated in the rapid suppression of case numbers. However, it is not alarmist to acknowledge that complacency at this point still could be dangerous. To govern is to choose. And we believe that Ms Berejiklian, in trademark fashion, has chosen a middle course. She has avoided a draconian cancellation of all public celebrations, with consequences for mental health and civic morale, while recognising that the virus has infiltrated postcodes well outside the northern beaches and even Greater Sydney.

Those who dismiss this pandemic as a hoax or a conspiracy designed to establish some form of one-world government would do well to examine the parlous circumstances of Europe and the US, where infection and fatality rates are climbing at an alarming rate. This is neither “fake news” nor a “great reset” fabricated by the deep state. Real people are dying; far too many of them. Inept or complacent governments are reaping a grim harvest. Despite our criticism of some state leaders, our nation across the board can face 2021 with more hope than most nations. Watching fireworks on television at home is a small price to pay to ensure that our largest, most vibrant state continues to function with its economy and civil liberties largely intact.