Gladys Berejiklian’s promises smeared out of existence

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

Barely a month ago, Gladys Berejiklian assured the voting public that she would never resort to brash and ill-conceived strategies to try arrest the state’s rising number of Covid-19 cases, not least of all by immiserating residents with further erosions of their liberty.

Here is what Berejiklian said on July 23: “I am not the type of premier that is going to be asking citizens to do things that we don’t think are going to have any effect.”

And if that was not abundantly clear, she continued with an outright dismissal of curfews and associated snap-to-grid strategies.

“When I get questions about curfews or exercise or whatever else, the fact is that will not … reduce the number of cases. There’s no point, for symbolic reasons, locking down or having more restrictions if we don’t think they’re going to work.”

These promises were smeared out of existence on Friday when the NSW government announced that, from Monday, a 9pm-5am curfew would be imposed across 12 of its local government areas of concern. Exercise would be restricted to one hour per day and masks would be mandated outdoors across Greater Sydney, among other restrictions.

Some of these measures are not entirely unreasonable, and there are strong arguments that they could have been introduced much sooner in regions where the virus remains concentrated.

But, in politics as in life, abstract words conceal confusion and uncertainty, and Berejiklian has outdone herself with the use of verbal camouflage during daily press briefings over the past eight weeks.

So, too, have some of her chief advisers, who stunningly supported her government’s about-face on Friday.

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, who just days ago dismissed the use of curfews, told reporters he now needed them to address an uptick in young people congregating after dark in at-risk areas, as though this had not been already happening for many weeks.

Equally confusing was the messaging from the state’s chief health officer Kerry Chant, who conceded that the evidence in support of curfews was both “mixed” and “not strong”.

“But,” she said, capitulating to the very optics Berejiklian insisted she would never pursue, “I also think that it sends a significant signal about the crisis we are facing.”

Unforgivably late and confusing in their delivery, these announcements should leave very little doubt in the minds of voters that they are witnessing a shell-shocked and panic-stricken government currently in the fight of its life.

For Berejiklian, the damage caused during this period stands to hold severe consequences for her leadership and legacy over the coming months. She has already lost confidence among backbench and frontbench MPs, who believe their seat margins may be put at risk by the government’s ineptitude.

Thankfully, voters have short memories, and they are forgiving as well, but this holds true during crises that tend to peak and drop off to manageable and forgettable levels of discomfort.

This crisis is achieving the opposite. It is sustained at peak levels of discomfort, increasing in severity, and causing personal devastation to enormous numbers of people who are deeply connected to the decision-making and affronted by the lack of transparency.

It will be extremely difficult for them to set aside their frustrations at the ballot box in 2023. If Berejiklian does not reclaim their confidence, it is likely that this period will define her legacy as Premier – even once the crisis is over.