Andrews looks inward as NSW looks beyond Covid

The contrast in outlooks between the leaders of the nation’s two most populous states is striking. In preparation for Friday’s national cabinet meeting, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been looking ahead, suggesting a shake-up in the management of the next phase of the pandemic. With NSW recording 46 days with no new local COVID-19 infections and the vaccine being rolled out, Ms Berejiklian will suggest the possibility of stopping daily infection updates. The proposal has merit. Daily updates will be phased out at some point and it is time to start the conversation. If not, “it will be too long before we change”, she says. Living with COVID in future, she says, could mean judging “how well we’re doing by keeping people out of hospital”.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, in contrast, is looking inward, refusing to say when he will allow the resumption of international flights into his state. He barred overseas travellers, including returning Australians, from Victoria more than a fortnight ago. Despite his fatuous boasting last month that Victoria’s hotel quarantine system had “higher standards” than those of other states, he seems to have little faith in it or in the state’s contact tracing system.

Mr Andrews also appears to hanker after a risk-free world. He has asked the state’s medical experts to look at the impact of variants of the virus on the risk profile in hotels. When “we can have a system where we have the lowest possible risk, then flights will start again”. The risk of a “wildly infectious strain” of COVID-19 escaping into the community, he says, is too high to allow international arrivals. He refuses to give a date when Melbourne will reopen to returning Australians and others.

NSW, by comparison, is taking 3010 people a week, Queensland is taking 1000 people, South Australia 530 and Western Australia 512. Victoria’s refusal to co-operate shows scant regard for the liberties and wellbeing of 39,000 Australians stranded overseas who are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wanting to return. About 5000 of them are considered vulnerable. Before Mr Andrews called Victoria’s five-day lockdown from February 13, the state was taking up to 1120 travellers a week. West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has backed down from his plans to extend some border restrictions beyond the pandemic. But, keen to be the strongman of “fortress WA”, he now wants police at the border to be able to search vehicles for drugs as they enter the state.

National cabinet also is expected to discuss the vaccine rollout and a framework for keeping domestic borders open after lobbying from Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. Keeping state borders open is crucial to ongoing economic recovery, especially in the airline and tourism sector. Qantas has warned of further job losses if state borders continue to be slammed shut and international borders remain closed beyond October. Qantas domestic and international chief executive Andrew David told a Senate committee this week that border closures had cost the airline $11bn in lost revenue and forced 8500 job cuts. Lifting the ban on international students entering Australia should be part of the next phase of recovery.

COVID-19 remains a serious problem in many nations, but vaccines have sent new case numbers plummeting. The US recorded 57,700 new infections on Tuesday, down from about 250,000 a day in January. Britain is recording about 6300 cases a day, down from about 60,000 on some days in January. While the flu is obviously far less contagious and has lower mortality rates than COVID-19, living with the virus could resemble living with the flu in future, as Ms Berejiklian says. After the strongest six months of growth in recorded history, with GDP in the December quarter smashing expectations to lift by 3.1 per cent, Australia’s recovery is far ahead of most of the world. It is time to face the future with confidence.