Trust is a delicate creature. No relationship can survive without it and every relationship (personal or professional) will eventually have its trust tested. Some survive, some don’t. You know how it goes. Casting my mind back 18 months to the start of this pandemic, I would have said at the time that I had a great deal of trust in our state and federal governments. I would have said that I trusted in the fact their motivations weren’t political and that I trusted them to steer us out of this thing without being divisive, without using our lives and our freedoms blithely.
What a difference a year makes. I want to reiterate what I’ve said before in these pages. Nobody has been here before and in the initial stages, mistakes were made like they were always going to be made. Two weeks to flatten the curve. A short, sharp border closure to flatten (again) the curve. We will not bounce in and out of lockdowns. And of course, the absolute doozy, we’re all in this together. All these promises have been broken. Repeatedly. Audaciously.
If it was a relationship, your mates would be staging an intervention, but they can’t because more than likely, they’re in lockdown somewhere.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like I’m out of trust.
This past week, it was reported that a wealthy Australian born, British businessman was allowed to leave his mandatory hotel quarantine just three days after arriving in Perth via Doha to attend his father’s funeral. To be clear, I’m personally very pleased this chap was allowed to go and say goodbye to his dad. Nobody should be denied this, but countless Australians here and abroad have been and continue to be not allowed to do the same.
Governments in this country have forced Australian citizens to farewell their dying parents via Skype. They’ve kept newborn infants from their parents. They’ve kept parents from sick children. You name it, they’ve done it, and all in the name of our own safety, all the while knowing there are two sets of rules.
Let me put it this way. If it was safe for this gentleman to break quarantine and farewell his dad, why isn’t it safe for everyone? What was the deciding factor? His significant wealth? We don’t know because neither WA Health, WA Police nor the office of Premier Mark McGowan will comment.
In this same week, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he doesn’t want to appear cold for denying a NSW woman entry to Victoria to care for her daughter, a mum of two small kids, who has aggressive and advanced breast cancer.
Andrews said health department officials make the decisions and he’s just the poor sod tasked with delivering crappy news. Gosh it must be tough not taking any responsibility at all.
Does anyone believe any of the premiers and chief ministers would allow themselves to be separated from their own children if they were sick and in need? Or a dying parent if they were in this position? The audacity of politicians who, by now, have realised that fear buys votes and accountability is at best, years away electorally at least, has reached truly breathtaking heights.
Look no further than South Australia, which has decided to force returning Olympic athletes to quarantine for 28 days. So shocking a decision it drew immediate criticism from leading infectious diseases specialists. The Australian Olympic team released a formal statement warning of the serious mental health risk it poses for the athletes. The South Australian Premier is hiding behind the South Australian chief health officer who, as a public servant can’t be voted out and can’t be legally challenged. The most bastardised term in Christendom “health advice” is the secret weapon that enables this wretchedness.
You tell me if they deserve our trust. Australia has become an international pariah, ridiculed for a zero Covid obsession.
The fruit of this season politically has been the development of a shameful, two-tier society where the rich, connected and wealthy travel more or less at will and while every day Australians must beg their governments for permission to care for their sick children and bury their parents. Poor fellow my country.
Socially there has been deep division within Australia broadly and within communities. It’s not just the decisions being made, some of which I can understand, it’s the inconsistency with which they are executed and the secrecy over the justification. Secrecy is not the currency of democracy. I wonder what the cost will be to the relationship between you and I and the governments we elect.
Trust. It’s a delicate creature. Sure, you can rebuild it, but it’s like a piece of paper. Once you rip it up, you might tape it back together but you can never hide the tears.
Gemma Tognini is executive director of GT Communications.
Settler-colonial ethos is our least worthy export
Like other Australians confronted with daft academic ideas, I blamed the US or France and ignored my own country’s contribution. It was easy, but unfair.
What have our universities become?
A lurch towards activism and a focus on funding have desecrated our universities. They should once again become safe spaces – for the getting of wisdom.