Shame on merciless bureaucrats

If we heard about such cruelty in another part of the world we would be appalled at the loss of humanity. The refusal of Victorian health bureaucrats to allow grieving mum Skye Meinen to hold a normal funeral for her eight-year-old son, Cooper Onyett, on Friday during the Covid lockdown takes heartless officialdom to a new low. Cooper drowned at the Belfast Aquatics pool in Port Fairy on the Victorian coast a week earlier during his first overnight school camp.

Acting Premier James Merlino was right when he said such a tragedy was “every parent’s worst nightmare – giving your kids a kiss, they’re excited to go off to camp, and then we have this tragic incident”. For parents, the grief that follows such a sudden and unexpected loss of a child is immeasurable. Chief health officer Brett Sutton also fell back on fine words. “This is the most tragic of circumstances,” he said. “I can’t express enough how sorry I am for the family.” But not sorry enough to grant their request for an exemption. Neither Dr Sutton nor Mr Merlino, unfortunately, had the guts to rock the boat and tell their underlings to do the right thing. Claiming bureaucrats had to consider “equity issues” won’t wash in this case. On a day when just four new Covid cases were reported, nowhere near Warrnambool, the family’s home town, an exemption would have been highly unlikely to endanger anyone. What should have been a large funeral was set for Friday. It would have given the family, friends and Cooper’s grade two classmates from Merrivale Primary School the chance to farewell a little boy who smiled from the depth of his washed denim-blue eyes. Ms Meinen said the event would have been held out of doors with everyone in masks. But as the whole school grieved, the funeral went ahead with just 10 people.

“We really need support from family and friends to get through this,” she said. “We’ve all been so strong, and to rip away the support that we’ve really opened to is just something that I just think would be detrimental.” As family member Tennielle Owen wrote on Facebook: “I haven’t had a chance to teach you how to drive the Polaris yet. Jett hadn’t taught you how to mow the paddocks. The world hadn’t even seen the half of you yet. Nothing anyone can say will ever be able to take away the pain.”

Lockdowns supposedly protect the public. This abomination hurt it. Last year, a NSW family mourned the loss of an unborn twin after border barriers with Queensland delayed urgent medical treatment. Too much in the way of freedom has been sacrificed to Covid. It is time to take it back.