Inept provincial leaders to be exposed by health crisis

State government is a simple realm, encapsulated in a single word: services. Former NSW premier Neville Wran, in office from 1976 to 1986, said his legacy was “we made NSW a slightly better place in which to live”. “Nifty” did that by delivering services, concentrating on three Ps: petrol, power and public transport. It was a different era but the essence of governing is competency; no need for flashy rhetoric. State politics is a place for technocrats, uppity mayors and officials who mouth a new lingo — “putting customers first”. Of the current crop, Victoria’s Daniel Andrews has got the basics right most often, even though he’s prone to indulging niche causes.

Lamentably, this tier of government is a theatre for infantile games, endless plots and subdistrict grifting. Premiers and chief ministers will be exposed by the coronavirus pandemic. Yet how well they and their interconnected systems respond to the medical, social and economic emergency is literally a matter of life and death. Our success in containing COVID-19 also depends on what leaders bring to the broader fight through the national cabinet and other platforms. With our largest state the epicentre of infection, accounting for 43 per cent of the national total, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is under immense scrutiny and pressure to perform. She has confused the public on schools and appeared immobilised last week as a human tsunami washed over Bondi Beach and elsewhere.

But the epitome of her ineptness was the handling of 2700 cruise passengers from the Ruby Princess a week ago. It was a catastrophic failure by NSW officials. One passenger from the ship died on Tuesday and at least 133 others, dispersed around the country, are infected with COVID-19. At a closed Liberal meeting, Ms Berejiklian blamed Australian Border Force officials for lax screening. That’s not leadership. As one of her colleagues told Yoni Bashan, “it’s arse-covering”. Ms Berejiklian then fudged and fiddled, claiming a need for better co-operation between agencies. ABF commissioner Michael Outram provided pertinent facts and context about the screening system scandal. NSW officials did not allow doctors and nurses to board the vessel to take swabs of passengers, and take those swabs for results, before deciding to allow passengers to disembark. By contrast, he said the handling of cruise ships in Victoria and Western Australia had been done very well by local officials.

Failures in NSW processes and governance were apparent during the Black Summer bushfires. Hazard reduction burns were not carried out ahead of the fire season. As we reported last month, volunteers were sent to firefronts with outdated trucks and personal protective equipment, at-times poor radio communications and substandard technological capabilities, despite multiple reviews calling for urgent upgrades. Yet during the crisis NSW ministers were grandstanding on climate change and constantly throwing state and federal colleagues under a bus. Sadly, this is NSW politics as usual. Canberra’s systems also have been inadequate during the pandemic. Surges at Centrelink offices and serial crashing of websites prove Canberra’s existing infrastructure — a vaunted structural feature of both fiscal rescue packages — cannot keep pace with the demand. Nor can information rollout.

Still, blaming Canberra first is the default mode for states. Earlier this month, just after the national total of COVID-19 cases hit 50, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk blasted Canberra for failing to co-ordinate a response to the outbreak with the states through a Council of Australian Governments meeting. A week later COAG met, with Mr Morrison forming a national cabinet. Canberra is splitting extra health costs with the states. It’s said, never get between a premier and a bucket of money — or a bucket list of wishes. A tension between limited means and unlimited wants is a feature of federation. So is an expectation states are the delivery experts, especially for health, education, infrastructure and emergency services. Canberra’s recent forays, such as insulation batts, school halls and TV set-top boxes, have a special place in the policy hall of shame.

Public hospitals will be inundated with COVID-19 patients. Can health systems cope? On the evidence so far, states are underdone in preparing for a huge caseload. The nation lacks intensive-care beds; there’s a scramble to create more of them and add to the stock of ventilators, protective masks and testing kits. Frontline clinicians fear hospitals will be overwhelmed, as they have been in other countries. Mr Morrison has moved to suspend non-urgent elective surgery to free up bed capacity. As well, he has been forced into rhetorical contortions to maintain the facade of national cabinet solidarity, which is fraying on some issues. He said on Wednesday “there might be a bit of difference at the edge” but the new vehicle was collegiate and essential for common action. Still, Mr Morrison conceded national cabinet was not a compulsory mechanism; states can go their own way, it’s how our federation is built. But stepping away from the herd will focus attention on the talent deficit disorder of provincial politicians. Their unreliability has already exposed vulnerable people to unnecessary risk.