Lockdown lingo we’ll never want to hear again

‘Evidence-free curfews are the go-to restriction for Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews.’ Picture: Andrew Henshaw

There is a lexicon of words and phrases from Covid that many of us never want to hear again. Like “we’re all this in together”. We aren’t. We never were. Politicians who say so are not even fooling some of the people some of the time. This phrase will turn out to be the biggest fraud of all about this pandemic. It is usually a pointer to some other motive.

Sometimes we’re told “we’re all in this together” to encourage us to follow rules. That doesn’t work because, like Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others, like footy players and their families who can enter Queensland, yet the Premier denies a man entry to see his dying father.

Last weekend the phrase was used by 19 Labor local councillors from southwest and western Sydney. In their open letter they said: “Applying a curfew to half of Sydney only is not how you tell them we are all in this together.”

You don’t say. But where were these Labor politicians when the good folk on Sydney’s northern beaches went into lockdown to stem the Avalon cluster last year? Calling for solidarity across Sydney? Demanding that we should all be in this together? It’s hard to find any other reason for the letter except politics. That’s nothing new. But these politicians’ hypocrisy deserves a “call out” – another exasperating Covid phrase.

The notion that a state should not impose different rules for different regions depending on the spread of the virus is utter nonsense. For that kind of crazy, head to South Australia where Premier Steven Marshall is – using Labor’s measure – the most unifying Covid leader in the country. How did the people of Oodnadatta, 1043km north of the capital, feel about being in this together when Marshall shut down the state after one or two cases in Adelaide?

Sensible leaders apply different rules for different risk scenarios. On Monday, of 818 new Covid cases in NSW, more than 700 were from southwest and western Sydney. That’s why different restrictions make sense. Perhaps the councillors could encourage more of their constituents to follow the rules. Clearly many aren’t, otherwise case numbers in their electorates would be falling.

It’s especially unfortunate to see federal Labor MP Chris Bowen, who represents the western Sydney seat of McMahon, trying to score points by confecting a class war between east and west. Bowen should know better. His franking credit policy was a textbook case of how class war backfires. It failed so badly during the 2019 election that Labor won’t touch it next time around.

It’s fair enough for Labor councillors to hold the NSW Premier to account for confused and constantly changing rules in areas where English often is not the language spoken at home. But what makes Labor’s cruder campaign of division especially misguided is there are other legitimate reasons to challenge the Liberal Premier.

The councillors could focus on the lack of medical evidence that a night-time curfew does anything to reduce case numbers. The Premier has told us it doesn’t make a difference. Labor should hold Gladys Berejiklian to account for provable nonsense rather than confecting its own.

But that’s the dilemma for Labor: evidence-free curfews are the go-to restriction for Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews.

Federally, Labor is wedged by premiers who are addicted to hard and cruel lockdowns. Who can forget Andrews locking down 3000 people in nine public housing towers last year? That said, it’s hard not to see the direct line between a federal government that continues to lock 22 million Australians, even double-vaccinated citizens, inside the country and premiers who keep locking down their states. That’s another pointer to the fraud that we are in this together. How many cabinet ministers responsible for turning Australia into a hermit kingdom feel that pain? How many are separated from their children by their closed international border?

Labor would serve the country better by holding the Morrison government to account by demanding the scientific and medical evidence that prevents fully vaccinated Australians from being reunited with family overseas. Or is Scott Morrison’s policy based on parochial politics led by polling, not science?

On Monday, the Prime Minister said: “Once we get to 80 per cent (vaccination levels) we have to move forward. We cannot be held back.” There is another critical question Labor could ask Morrison: what happens if 80 per cent vaccination rates are not reached?

Opening the country is premised on reaching certain vaccination levels: fewer lockdowns when the rate reaches 70 cent and rare and highly targeted lockdowns when it hits 80 per cent. Morrison is plugging a plan that makes no room for plan B.

Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

A few countries have reached 80 per cent (United Arab Emirates and Malta), a handful have reached 70 per cent, and most are between 60 and 70 per cent. Most of these countries started their vaccination programs late last year, not in March this year when the Morrison government started dribbling out jabs.

At the federal level, Australians have endured a dismal vaccination rollout: confused health messages, hysteria from the Morrison government over AstraZeneca, Health Minister Greg Hunt telling Australians they could wait for Pfizer in October, and no discernible marketing campaign. If only Morrison had used the ad guys from Qantas.

How certain is the timeframe to 80 per cent? Given the damage to children, young people, the most mentally vulnerable, people who can’t work during lockdowns, this deserves an answer.

Is next year going to be another one of locking Australians inside their country, being the laughing stock of other countries that are living with the virus sensibly? What if NSW gets to 80 per cent vaccination levels while other states don’t? What about allowing NSW to open its international airports to vaccinated Australians? Why should NSW be forced down the demented rabbit holes of Queensland, WA and SA? That would get these states off their lazy lockdown backsides.

Apart from playing class war, does Labor have a plan out of this recurring lockdown nightmare that is especially horrendous for people who should be Labor’s path to election victory?