Australians going the distance

As the number of Australians infected with coronavirus races past 3100, our political, medical and community leaders anticipate the health crisis will become more severe in coming days and weeks. Even though officials have had time to prepare for an imminent surge at hospitals, the nation’s resilience and resourcing will be tested as never before. Tougher restrictions are likely in NSW and Victoria, where two-thirds of COVID-19 cases are located. Sydney and Melbourne, our global cities, are the entry points for returned travellers, the main source of virus transmission. The debacle in Sydney, after officials allowed 2700 passengers to disembark from the Ruby Princess without proper testing, supercharged the outbreak and led to new rules. From midnight on Saturday, anyone arriving by plane or ship from overseas will be quarantined for 14 days in a hotel; the monitoring of people in isolation also will be intensified.

On Friday, Scott Morrison thanked Australians for compliance in social distancing but foreshadowed such measures would be in place for many months. “Your response over the past week has been simply magnificent,” he said. One of the few silver linings to emerge from this calamity has been a focus on the vulnerable and acts of kindness among neighbours. Another has been a new co-operation among decision-makers and the powerful, what some of them refer to as Team Australia. The national cabinet is a child of the coronavirus. Sure, more regular and urgent sittings of the principals of the Council of Australian Governments is an administrative no-brainer. But it does have a valuable role to play, working closely with the medicos of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee. Of course, national cabinet is only a tool. There is an in-built tension behind co-operative federalism; keeping the herd together yet allowing jurisdictions to go their own way. It’s a work in progress with an expanding workbook of issues.

Still, it has meant a more unified approach to policy and communication. “There is no red or blue team in those meetings. We’re all in it together,” the Prime Minister told political editor Dennis Shanahan of the bipartisan group of nine leaders. According to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, even though the circumstances of states and territories are vastly different, the priority is “slowing the spread of the virus and saving lives”. The restrictions on incoming travellers will test federal-state co-operation, as ADF personnel and local police officers enforce the mandatory 14-day self-isolation rules.

Canberra and the states, capital and organised labour, are fighting the virus together. It’s a fresh spirit that eludes federal Labor as it pursues a nakedly partisan agenda and accentuates conflict. As large parts of the economy shut down, and vast numbers of people log in to work from home, workplace laws are under pressure. An industrial deal for clerks to work offsite shows common purpose. Mr Morrison flagged measures to allow businesses to go into “hibernation” so they are job-ready when the tide turns. Making sure workers retain skills during the hiatus will not be easy. Some of the older unemployed will not return to the same jobs; retraining, rather than leaving mature workers on the scrap heap, is vital. We are in a struggle where compliance and co-operation will bring out our best. As the Prime Minister put it on Friday, “we might have to keep our distance, but it doesn’t mean we have to disconnect from each other”.