ALP traditions no help with Covid

For a citizen of the great southern state of Australia, it is hard not to agree with Nick Cater’s sentiments regarding the strained nature of this latest lockdown on a despondent people (“Dan’s state of disaster is a self-fulfilling prophecy”, 10/8). The reason for our fatigue and frustration — and perhaps understandable worries that the cure is becoming worse than the disease — is that we simply went through a rollercoaster ride of expectations in the previous months, only to be strapped back in for an even more pernicious journey.

There was a truckload of goodwill and stoicism for the first lockdown, with strong doses of Zoom gatherings broadcasting happy faces and Instagram shots featuring families becoming reunited with the simple joys of cooking sourdough and completing jigsaws. We even got a taste of domestic normality with a return of all students to the classrooms for a few weeks and the tantalising restart of pre-season training for vital community sport.

Now during lockdown 2.0 it is almost impossible to over-estimate the toll that these ongoing social restrictions are having on the mental welfare of millions of weary Victorians as they see their businesses closed — perhaps now for good — all sport cancelled, a whole school term of remote learning, a nightly curfew, drastically reduced communal interactions and a general ban on those kinds of daily experiences that give a necessary rhythm to daily life.

What is abundantly clear is Victorian Labor’s inefficient ability to operate adequately in a time of civil crisis. Indeed, the rate of COVID infections here cannot simply be reduced to a matter of bad luck or sheer coincidence. My observation is that Labor feels overwhelmed by the crisis at hand, almost stunned; hence the reason there are very few apologies or admissions of wrongdoing, and instead plenty of buck-passing and blaming of the citizenry.

We are supposed to be all in this together, but as we witness the rest of the country gradually opening up to a renewed sense of normalcy, it is difficult to not feel a tinge of jealousy regarding how other states and territories have successfully navigated a pathway to restoring civil life as it ought to be.

Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn, Vic

In portraying Margaret Thatcher as a ruthless and heartless individualist, Anthony Albanese betrays a misunderstanding of her political philosophy (“The helping hands of Labor tradition”, 10/8). He, like many of her socialist foes, takes her famous dictum, “There is no such thing as society”, out of context. But, unlike some, he at least quotes her further words: “There are individual men and women and their families.”

There is the clue to her real intent — an espousal of traditional ideas of liberal conservatism where “society” is an abstract concept, its reality being an agglomeration of individuals, their families and local communities. It is their efforts that build national prosperity, not an unproductive dependence on government that, unrestrained, leads to national poverty. Yet, and shown by her own record, government, society’s alter ego, has a vital economic role. Apart from policies to foster self-reliance, it must relieve against poverty those whose circumstances preclude self-help. Hence, the temporary policies presently pursued in today’s pandemic emergency.

John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld

Anthony Albanese is like a man giving a speech at a wedding who knows he has to say something but can’t remember why and fails to mention the married couple.

He references Billy Bragg, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. One was a rock singer who has made more appearances on Q&A than hit records. The others were leaders who changed the world.

It’s indicative of Albanese that he reveres the socialist singer, sneers at successful politicians and fails to refer to Daniel Andrews.

Rather than attacking individualism, dreaming of Labor “tradition” and praising rock stars, Albanese might strengthen his leadership if he were to tell Victoria’s bumbling Premier to get his act together or get out.

Michael Doyle, Ashburton, Vic

Anthony Albanese acknowledges the ideological flexibility displayed by Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg in managing the economic crisis imposed by COVID-19 but gives no indication of the ideological flexibility required of him to drive a recovery from the economic malaise.

David Lion, Bondi, NSW