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Reopening the nation will need a change of mindset

For the sake of our health and economic wellbeing it is time to break a cycle that is increasingly harming, not serving, our national interest. Instead of looking inward, focusing on the morning announcements of new Covid-19 cases, the numbers that matter from now on are those that take us closer to normality, freedom, travel, economic expansion and an end to homeschooling. More than 335,500 Australians were vaccinated last weekend; 1.8 million during the past week. The national total of vaccinations has passed 17.1 million. More than half of all Australians aged 16 and older have had at least one jab; almost a third are fully vaccinated. We are on track, Scott Morrison said on Monday, to ease restrictions when 70 per cent of adults have had both jabs. Under the plan agreed by national cabinet, the nation will open up further when the total reaches 80 per cent.

Possibly to damage the Morrison government’s chances in the upcoming federal election, the Labor states of Queensland and Western Australia are crab-walking back from the deal. They do so at their own peril and that of the national economy. Queensland has backed away from easing border restrictions when national vaccination rates reach 80 per cent; WA Premier Mark McGowan is clinging to a zero-Covid policy. The two states are the laggards in the vaccine rollout. While NSW has given 59 per cent of eligible adults their first dose, WA and Queensland are sitting at about 46 per cent. Victoria is on 51 per cent. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has refused to rule out imposing lockdowns after our second-most populous state reaches 80 per cent, although he says it would be “extremely unlikely”.

As Australian National University infectious diseases specialist Peter Collignon says, slow-to-vaccinate states should get as many people as possible vaccinated and avoid being caught out by a Delta outbreak. The bloody-mindedness of the WA and Queensland governments also will have economic consequences for their people. S&P Global Ratings has warned that states would put their credit ratings at risk if they failed to end lockdowns once 80 per cent vaccine coverage was achieved. Business groups point out that a two-tier strategy would create economic chaos. As Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox says, states that are slower to vaccinate will find the cost of isolation is much higher than the cost of striving for the future unrealistic dream of zero Covid. States clinging to that goal “will be left behind economically and socially, and they will make our national Covid recovery harder to achieve”. Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott is correct to urge state leaders to stick with the plan: “If leaders walk away from the national reopening plan or make the targets meaningless, it will cripple community and business confidence and send a terrible signal to the rest of the world.’’

The Prime Minister delivered a frank message on Monday, one that was overdue and that the nation needed to hear. It will be welcomed by Australians eager to return to normality and with the maturity to realise we cannot isolate ourselves “in the cave” forever, supported by government borrowings. Josh Frydenberg already has made it clear that is not sustainable. The nation’s public hospital system needed to be ready for an increase in Covid cases that would occur when it was time to open up, Mr Morrison said. “Dealing with serious illness, hospitalisation, ICU capabilities, our ability to respond in those circumstances, that will be our goal,” he said. “And we will live with this virus as we live with other infectious diseases.” As other nations have reopened they also have shifted focus to lowering death rates and hospitalisations.

The preparation includes ensuring as many older people as possible are vaccinated. More than 85 per cent of people over 70 have had one dose; 57 per cent have had two. Lockdowns were taking an “extremely heavy” toll on the mental and physical health of Australians and on our economic success, Mr Morrison said. “If not at 70 per cent and 80 per cent, then when? We must make that move and we must prepare to make that move and we must prepare the country to make that move,” he said. “We have to break this cycle. The national plan is the way to cut through and for us to emerge from that. This groundhog day has to end, and it will end when we start getting to 70 per cent and 80 per cent.”

Returning to normal will not be smooth sailing; far from it. That is the nature of a pandemic. But after 18 months of sacrifice and suffering it is time to move forward.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/editorials/reopening-the-nation-will-need-a-change-of-mindset/news-story/db0018f3268ceb42ad44bad98c7ec922