It’s easy as ABC to push for harsher coronavirus lockdowns

‘From March last year Norman Swan has been catastrophising COVID in Australia, predicting 70,000 to 80,000 cases by early April. As of Monday morning, the number stands at 28,483.’

ABC broadcaster Norman Swan has become a nifty symbol of much that is wrong with the public bureaucracy. Swan has been castigating the NSW government for not locking down the Greater Sydney area earlier and harder.

And why not? Sinecure Swan, who has been on the public payroll since 1982, can continue to work as before, dialling in his views to the public broadcaster, his taxpayer-funded salary intact. He is comfortably insulated from the costs of rolling lockdowns.

Not so most Australians whose lives and livelihoods have been, and will continue to be, hit hard by lockdowns. That reality means it is incumbent on every government, federal and state, to balance the social, economic and other health costs of lockdown.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has managed that balancing act better than every other state leader, and better than Scott Morrison, too. The Prime Minister made important early, and easy, decisions, closing borders and spending billions of dollars. More a manager than a leader, Morrison has fallen well short when it comes to the harder jobs of getting states and territories to agree to a national definition of a hotspot or asking the High Court to rule on the limits of state separatism.

Nor is Morrison sensibly balancing the interests of Australians when it comes to international borders and vaccinations. Thousands of Australians overseas still cannot come home because the Prime Minister has walked away from that responsibility. And he is refusing to bring forward the vaccine rollout even after approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, despite the suffering imposed on Australians by premiers far less capable than Berejiklian.

To be fair, Swan has sensible things to say about the need for a faster vaccination timetable. But there is no downside to that suggestion. Swan’s doggedness about lockdowns is another matter.

From March last year Swan has been catastrophising COVID in Australia, predicting 70,000 to 80,000 cases by early April. As of Monday morning, the number stands at 28,483 and more than 20,000 of those infections, along with 820 of the national tally of 909 deaths, happened in Victoria because the Andrews government could not safely manage hotel quarantine.

1700 on Monday, 3400 on Wednesday or Thursday, 7-8000 by next weekend. True number by then 70-80,000 possibly. Primary school maths. Someone should go figure. No magic fairy will bring that down. 14-20 days behind Italy. Believe in maths not magic. https://t.co/wDysEg13CW

— Norman Swan (@normanswan) March 21, 2020

Swan’s role as doomsday activist reveals how easy it is to demand a lockdown when you are protected from the costs of that policy. And because Swan is treated as a godlike creature at the ABC, he has set off a drum beat for lockdown right across the public broadcaster from those equally insulated from the harsh reality of lock­downs. Swan describes himself as a broadcaster and journalist. But he is a commentator, espousing opinions on myriad ABC platforms and Twitter.

There is no problem with the ABC having a commentator on staff. But it is a breach of the ABC’s legislative mandate when the broadcaster fails to balance Swan’s calls for a lockdown with other views that make the case for different measures to manage COVID outbreaks.

The best Christmas present the Fed Gov can give - if they don’t want more lockdowns - is to get on their bikes and bring in a decent number of Pfizer and/or Moderna doses right now to help get the clusters under control. Brewing in QLD? Hope not. Are we really in this together?

— Norman Swan (@normanswan) December 24, 2020

ABC chair Ita Buttrose has no excuse. The ABC charter is a clear and simple document that demands balance from the ABC in return for it receiving more than $1bn from taxpayers. So far, Buttrose’s legacy on that front is a failure. The legacy of the Morrison government is not much better. Keen to be seen as a man of the people, Morrison has proven unwilling to address the worsening state of the haughty ABC.

But here is an idea for Morrison to mull over. During the next federal election campaign, the Prime Minister should make no promises about ABC funding. In other words, do not repeat the foolish mistake of Tony Abbott at the 2013 election. If re-elected, Morrison can propose an exciting new era for ABC independence: cut the urban centres of the ABC loose from the public teat and let them fund themselves from voluntary subscriptions.

I’m afraid we’ve known since the 1st wave that the NSW incremental approach doesn’t work & risks a very prolonged lockdown. A proportionate response is the maximal one and has been all along. Plus what’s their root cause analysis saying about the overseas’ leaks we know about?

— Norman Swan (@normanswan) January 2, 2021

Those who fill city offices, mostly in Sydney and Melbourne, tell us frequently that the ABC is overwhelmingly supported by Australians. If so, those running the ABC should jump at the chance of genuine independence. Imagine the liberation from appearing before pesky Senate estimates hearings.

Australians who genuinely love the ABC can pay for ABC Breakfast radio hosted by Fran Kelly, the chorus line on Insiders, the sleep-inducing Q&A, Media Watch, surely one of the most over-produced bits of TV in the country, and so on.

It is very frustrating to see that the lessons from Victoria have not been learned by NSW. Half measures fail. Act fast.

— Norman Swan (@normanswan) December 30, 2020

To prove his roots with the regions, the Prime Minister could propose turning the ABC into a well-funded regional powerhouse producing news and programs in areas that have been abandoned by commercial media organisations.

Any watchful director of the ABC knows that regional ABC centres are closely connected to their communities. And that is reflected in their output: less bias, less conceit, and far less preaching to the Australian public.

The exact opposite problem infects the ABC’s city hubs. And Swan is a poster boy for the disconnect that produces bias, conceit and preaching.

Swan’s great fortune to be protected from the consequences of lockdown is also a symbol of a broader problem within the public service where bureaucrats have little understanding about the poor outcomes of their policies.

The Sydney Test should be played with no spectators

— Norman Swan (@normanswan) December 30, 2020

Regulation grows in most countries because bureaucracies do not run businesses that must abide by their rules. They have little understanding of rules that lack common sense, stifle innovation and growth, waste time and money for no purpose, or all of the above. With no perception about the problems they create, and cocooned from the risk of losing their jobs, they continue to create more of the same problems.

This bureaucratic bias among policymakers who are immune from the consequences of their own policies is hard to fix. But an insulated bureaucracy can be better managed. The role of government ought to be to weigh up advice from the public service against the obvious insulation bias. And, instead of complaining privately to journalists that bureaucrats are blocking government plans, government min­isters ought to do what we elect, and pay, them to do. Otherwise, why bother electing someone to represent us at all?