Kick off the doona and start heading out of isolation

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ lackadaisical reaction to the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix has exposed his reluctance to throw off the constraints and economic shackles of the pandemic. Major events such as the Formula One race at Albert Park would go ahead, he said, only when most of the population was vaccinated. Why would that not be the case by November 18 to 21, when the event was due to be held? The halving of travel caps (insisted on by him and other Labor premiers) and the slow vaccine rollout (which has picked up pace, as it must) meant staging international events was “very challenging”. Indeed. “We’ll get to that point by the end of the year, but until that point we have to do everything to safeguard not bringing the virus in, particularly the Delta variant,” Mr Andrews said. The third week of November is close to the end of the year. So in the interim, presumably, we roll back under the doona for another snooze as more opportunities are lost. It’s no way to plan or to take advantage of a chance to signal that by November Australia will be well on the road to reopening for business.

After being cancelled at the height of the pandemic last year, this year’s race had been postponed from May to November. Which raises the question: how many more years will Grand Prix organisers allow themselves to be mucked about? Victorian Racing Minister Martin Pakula said the state was unable to give F1 management and MotoGP certainty the race would go ahead in November in time for organisers to arrange the travel of the 1600-person Grand Prix contingent. The key question is how hard did they try? Not hard enough. Neither Mr Andrews nor Mr Pakula seems to have taken much notice of their own website. It boasts that the Grand Prix, one of the nation’s four largest sporting events – all of which are in Victoria – takes Melbourne to the world, with “images beamed to an estimated global audience of 80 million”. Major events, it says, “generate an estimated $1.8bn of economic benefit annually for Victoria, supporting 4700 full-time equivalent jobs”.

For all Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s complicity in forcing Scott Morrison’s hand to halve the cap for international arrivals, she has made the right decision to travel to Tokyo this month to make the final pitch for Brisbane to host the 2032 Olympics. As former Olympic 400m runner and International Olympic Committee vice-president Kevan Gosper says, it is imperative she do so. Federal Sports Minister Richard Colbeck and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner are expected to join her. After Ms Palaszczuk’s repeated calls for a reduction in hotel quarantine caps, the frustration of 40,000 people who signed an online petition titled “Deny Annastacia Palaszczuk an exemption to leave Australia to attend the Tokyo Olympics” is understandable. But it is badly misguided. Australia needs to demonstrate we are fully committed to the Olympic bid.

The absence of the Premier, as Mr Gosper says, would introduce a doubt. Ms Palaszczuk must go because it is in the interests of her state and the nation. The issue underlines the foolishness of Deputy Premier Steven Miles’ comments last week that the international border should be closed to business and leisure travellers because they were putting Queenslanders at risk. Nor does Ms Palaszczuk’s argument that she should go because she has been vaccinated stand scrutiny. So have millions of Australians who also have excellent reasons for travelling overseas. That part of the Prime Minister’s four-phase plan for reopening the nation should be brought forward. There is no good reason fully vaccinated citizens should be denied the right to travel overseas any longer. On returning, they should be trusted to quarantine at home and steer clear of elderly and vulnerable relations, friends and colleagues. Their doing so would not endanger anyone. Those travelling for business, in particular, would further the nation’s pandemic recovery.

That recovery is stronger than expected and is forecast to continue well, Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said after the bank’s decision to keep interest rates steady. One near-term uncertainty, however, was “the effect of the recent virus outbreaks and the lockdowns”, Dr Lowe said. But once outbreaks are contained and restrictions eased, the economy bounces back quickly.

While the vaccine rollout proceeds, restrictions need to be proportionate to the threat of Covid-19 facing communities. On Monday, we argued that as the nation’s vaccination rate ticked up, the public, politicians and the media would need to adjust to new mindsets in anticipation of a return to a freer way of life. What we do not need is the ludicrous situation in which international flights to Australia will be restricted to as few as five passengers, and in some cases zero, from next week. The farce has been caused by the extraordinary restrictions imposed after Mr Andrews, Ms Palaszczuk and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan twisted the arms of Mr Morrison and fellow premiers to halve overseas arrivals to ease pressure on quarantine. As Robyn Ironside reports, with Sydney’s capacity slashed to 215 arrivals a day, a third of flights will be “zeroed out”,– meaning they cannot carry anyone. The rest will be restricted to 25 or 26 passengers. It will be no surprise if more airlines give up flying Down Under, in addition to the 18 that have already pulled out. Halving our already limited arrivals deepens our isolation just as the rest of the world is opening up. It is intolerable and must be short-lived.