States must defend public health from mob rule

Illustration: Johannes Leak

If state leaders have a scintilla of common sense and respect for the public, they will lock in behind Scott Morrison’s call for people continuing to protest to be charged with breaking social-distancing rules.

“You can’t have a double standard here,” as the Prime Minister says. Nobody is disputing the importance of the democratic right to protest. But not when it endangers lives, livelihoods and the national economy, especially our most disadvantaged citizens. The wilfulness and selfishness of protesters have enraged most Australians, who for months have made painful sacrifices, personal and material, for the greater good.

Friday’s national cabinet meeting is an ideal opportunity for leaders to unite ahead of further demonstrations. West Australian Premier Mark McGowan, in particular, should take a tough stand. He has urged organisers of Saturday’s Black Lives Matter protest in Perth to postpone the event after a Victorian man contracted coronavirus at a rally in Melbourne last weekend. But Mr McGowan, who seems more interested in keeping WA borders locked down, must show greater determination to deter demonstrators. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Police Commissioner Mick Fuller are giving a lead. Police will be out in force on Friday night, ready to fine participants in a second BLM rally $1000 if they refuse to move along. “Find other ways to protest, like businesses are finding other ways to do business,” as Mr Fuller says. Staying in their driveways, as many people did on Anzac Day, would be an option. NSW police have rightly applied to the Supreme Court to stop a “Free the refugees: National day of action” protest planned for Saturday.

The news that a man who attended Saturday’s BLM protest in Melbourne has tested positive to COVID-19 vindicates the warnings of health officers who pointed out such risks and urged demonstrators to stay home. The infected protester, a man in his 30s, reportedly developed symptoms the day after the event. Given the incubation period for the virus, he is unlikely to have contracted it at the event. But he and others could have passed it on. Time will tell. State authorities, including Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Victoria Police, stand condemned for their failures to exert sufficient strength of leadership — such as arresting and fining those not complying with social-distancing rules — to send the mob scuttling. A few quiet fishermen on the Mornington Peninsula pier were easier prey. Mr Andrews’s efforts over the protest were tepid. Victoria Police’s claim it was too difficult logistically to fine protesters was absurd.

Mr Morrison says the BLM rallies have delayed the accelerated easing of restrictions by a week. At this stage, we see no need to inflict further financial pain on long-suffering taxpayers, struggling businesses, the unemployed, workers trying to make ends meet and the budget bottom line. The health system, thanks to efforts in testing, tracing and building up supplies of ventilators and personal protective equipment, is well placed to manage further small outbreaks of COVID-19. At this stage there is no sign of a second wave of any magnitude. We agree with the Prime Minister that the states should set a date for reopening their borders and get on with it.

Josh Frydenberg, attuned to economic recovery, is correct when he says it is important to move ahead with the three-steps-by-July timetable on easing restrictions, “because we know how many jobs are going to be created and we know how much the economy will benefit as a result”. But, as the Treasurer says, in gathering in the numbers they did at rallies, protesters put the broader community’s health at risk. Mass gatherings of 10,000 to 30,000 people in confined areas were never envisaged as part of “opening up” after COVID-19. The environment of protests is “very high risk … with large numbers of people closely gathering and challenges in identifying all contacts”, as Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy warns.

Well-controlled businesses and their staff have had enough of the “double standard”. Prevented from letting in more customers that would make their operations viable, they have to put up with the sight of noisy mobs flouting the rules as police stand by. The national cabinet needs to show its effectiveness by addressing that injustice — pressing on with opening up the economy and ensuring protests do not jeopardise the process.