Premiers lost their nerve, they should be ashamed

A few customers have dinner surrounded by empty tables at a restaurant over the weekend in Melbourne. Picture: Getty Images

State and territory leaders lost their nerve and incited panic across the country by announcing they were effectively shutting down their economies.

Nothing so far in this crisis has had the potential to confuse Australians more than the behaviour of the Victorian and NSW premiers, primarily, and the other state and territory leaders who fell in behind them.

Queensland was the only state to display any common sense. The unilateral decision to announce school closures and a lockdown of all but essential services before the national cabinet was reckless. And possibly the most irresponsible act since Federation. What they appeared to be proposing without any proper detail or explanation would have shut down 70 per cent of their workforces.

What is clear now is none of the states had any idea what they were doing. NSW was clearly skittish after the Ruby Princess cruise ship fiasco. Victoria appeared to need little convincing to go the same route. The Australian understands that what transpired after their announcements was akin to public revolt. A source said that businesses such as accountants, law firms and farm equipment makers began bombarding the government, asking if they needed to close their doors.

Schools were also to be closed within 48 hours, which would have stranded millions of parents.

Fortunately, Scott Morrison managed to walk the states back from the brink following clear and direct medical and health advice that much of what they were proposing was not only unnecessary but absurd.

All leaders signed up to the national cabinet for a reason. It was meant to provide a unified position on a national crisis. Instead the premiers wet the bed and went it alone.

This was a major breakdown in policy response and communication. The net effect of this is critical. People will lose trust in governments to manage the crisis. The NSW government is arguably already at this stage. This directly impacts on the ability of the federal government to convince people to stick to the rules. How can they if they don’t know what the rules are from one minute to the next?

Morrison was clearly agitated on Sunday night when he had to reassure the nation that all the governments were on the same page. The only positive thing to come of it was that it is now very unlikely to happen again.