Building confidence is key amid virus mini-outbreak

Scott Morrison and outgoing Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy put Victoria’s mini-outbreak of COVID-19 in its proper context after Friday’s national cabinet meeting. The situation was being tackled and under control; such occurrences were expected; similar outbreaks were likely in other states and the nation was well equipped to deal with them. That reassuring message, based on the expert assessment of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, was designed to instil what is needed most in all the nation’s regions and economic sectors: confidence. In launching the government’s $250m support package for creative arts on Thursday, the Prime Minister said: “We can’t go stop, go, stop, go. We can’t flick the light on and off, and on and off, and on and off, and on and off.” The point was worth labouring. It sums up where we are as a nation, in a position most others envy.

Businesses and households need certainty that limited outbreaks such as that afflicting Melbourne will not stop or reverse the opening up of our economy and resumption of normal life, or as close to normal as possible. States and territories need to provide that certainty by lifting restrictions as scheduled and, most important, by opening borders on the dates expected. Western Australia, unfortunately for recovery and jobs, has set August 8 for reopening its borders. Better late than never, but it must not be delayed further as Premier Mark McGowan has suggested. In other jurisdictions there is no reason, as Mr Morrison said after national cabinet, that borders should not reopen next month. In view of increasingly dismal unemployment figures, especially in the travel and tourism sectors, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk must not postpone the reopening of the Queensland border beyond July 10. The sooner she sets the date, the better, to allow businesses and prospective travellers to make plans.

Across recent months, since it became apparent that Australia, through good management and the good fortune afforded by our island geography, had missed the worst of the wave of coronavirus still devastating other nations, we have pointed out that the fallout from the crisis necessitates major economic reform. Improving conditions for investment, corporate tax reform, federation reform, freeing industry from unnecessary red tape, improving productivity and better workplace relations all matter. So does investing in and building productive infrastructure. Before the economy can run with such initiatives, however, it needs to learn to walk again with certainty and confidence. Mr Morrison has struck the right note, reassuring business that regardless of the Victorian mini-spike and others likely to follow, Australia will be living alongside the virus as sectors pick up the reins and return to business as usual, albeit with sensible health precautions. Retreating under the doona by returning to lockdown is not on the radar.

Even a smooth road to recovery presents daunting challenges. Job losses remain an enormous problem. Nor are the imposts on taxpayers at an end. Mr Morrison has indicated the government understands the need for further support for the worst-hit sectors once JobKeeper ends in September. After sales bounced back last month, retailers are concerned about the likely impact on shops when subsidies and superannuation withdrawals end. The more businesses that can open and function, the less the drain on the public purse and the greater the boost to consumer confidence.

Australia is changing, perhaps less than many nations, but the life we knew is being stripped back, Paul Kelly writes in Inquirer: “That initial joy we felt a month ago that ‘things are opening up’ is now tinged with harsh realism … For many people any certainty about jobs, wages, retirement income and family prosperity is inexorably called into question.” At this stage, Australians are unlikely to be travelling overseas until well into next year.

In a world where a million new COVID-19 infections are being diagnosed every week, the stakes in containing the mini-outbreak in Victoria are high. Any perceived failure would be a dampener on confidence and jeopardise economic recovery. The decision on Friday by national cabinet for states to test international arrivals on entry to hotel quarantine and before they leave quarantine was wise. It was necessitated by the revelation that 30 per cent of people in quarantine in Melbourne had refused testing. Such truculence is intolerable. In the interests of protecting the community, the states have the power not to release those who refuse testing, as Dr Murphy pointed out. Ongoing testing in “hot spots” is also one of the most important frontline defences in containing outbreaks. Victoria recording new infections at a rate of 20 or 30 a day is unnerving to many. But containment rather than eradication of COVID-19, with world-class medical care to help patients, was always the best strategy to promote Australians’ wellbeing.