No end in sight to this lunacy

Despite endless press conferences that catastrophise the situation daily, there is precious little clarity about objectives.

A frightened, sanctimonious mob mentality makes us unrecognisable as a nation.

They thank us for staying home, and for getting tested. They thank us for getting vaccinated, and for checking in. And they thank us for snitching on our neighbours. In short, they thank us for our compliance – and we could do without all these thanks, thank you very much. They are, at best, patronising – and more likely manipulative and desperate.

We might prefer our politicians work sensibly through a crisis, taking tough decisions and accepting responsibility, rather than outsourcing to unelected officials the most draconian restrictions imposed on our society, while refusing to detail the “medical advice” or canvass any sort of public debate about costs and benefits – let alone defining outcomes.

Despite endless press conferences that catastrophise the situation daily, there is precious little clarity about objectives. Political leaders, health officers and media ignore how the vulnerable have been protected through the vaccination of aged care services and the over-70s – the nirvana we dreamed of last year – and instead focus on national adult full vaccination rates.

A University of Western Australia study this week said we might need 90 per cent vaccination of the entire population to put lockdowns behind us. The Grattan Institute went for 80 per cent. But to what end?

Are we in this to make sure there are no Covid-19 outbreaks? The aim should be to give the vulnerable a chance to accept protection – and then get on with life as openly as we can possibly manage.

Leading infectious diseases experts such as Catherine Bennett, Peter Collignon and Clay College have concluded separately that vaccination rates and the change in the season will mean we should be able to put lockdowns behind us by October. Even Scott Morrison said this week that we would be in that position “by Christmas”.

This places an enormous question over the Sydney lockdown, now extended until the end of ­August and toughened, including with the addition of military enforcement. Why would we impose such a severe and extended lockdown in pursuit of zero Covid by September, when the aim is to be opening up and living with the virus – to some degree – by the following month or so?

Such questions are disregarded in what passes for our debate, with most media still treating the virus like ebola and demanding ever more paranoid responses. One reporter this week asked whether it was time to ban the unvaccinated from supermarkets, and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard did not dismiss it out of hand.

A man performs in front of a crowd in Sydney, as thousands of people gathered to demonstrate against the city's ongoing stay-at-home orders. Picture: AFP

The federal government is considering research on all this from the Doherty Institute, but we have had precious little debate or explanation about our desired outcome. It needs to be a long way short of the zero-Covid strategy imposed without being publicly debated.

Many readers responded with recognition to my lament about the apparent loss of our national character last week, and I am sad to say there are many specific examples that exemplify the point. Sadly, unlike the Great Barrier Reef, no case can be made to remove from the endangered list a host of other national assets such as resilience, fairness, mateship, and self-reliance.

The same states that refused to shunt additional Pfizer vaccines to their “mates” in Sydney have relied disproportionately on Sydney to bring home their citizens when they cancelled and limited inter­national flights into their capitals, never shouldering their share of the burden, and relying disproportionately on NSW’s hotel quarantine system. Most of these states rely heavily on NSW taxpayers to fund their lockdown support packages too, yet in Sydney’s hour of need they hoarded their vaccines like serological Scrooges.

Perhaps if Cyclone Tracy struck 50 years later, these premiers might shrug and say the Territorians had it coming when they built Darwin in a cyclone zone. In my lifetime there has never been such intense interstate resentment and disconnection,

And no wonder I compared the vibe at locals supermarkets to my time in pre-unification East Germany; this week politicians boasted of 10,000 calls from people snitching on their Sydney neighbours for seeing friends or, perhaps, attending a protest. One of those boasters, NSW Police Minister David Elliott, seemed more self-conscious about this on Friday. “Remember, going by last ­Saturday’s rally,” he said, warning against protests this weekend, “you’ve got probably five of your fellow citizens that are prepared to dob you in. Now, I don’t like that, that’s awful, it’s counterintuitive to everything that I believe Australians stand for – but what they do believe in is a free future.”

NSW Minister for Health and Medical Research Brad Hazzard speaks with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian during a Covid update on Friday.

We used to value fairness in this country too, in a visceral way, and some of the anomalies in these ridiculous rules test our sense of a fair go. Even after their fifth lockdown, Victorians cannot have their neighbours over for a cuppa, or visit their parents’ house for meal, but they can have a liaison at the local brothel.

We also see an ugly lynch mob attitude to people who inadvertently spread the virus, like the Sydney removalists who took their masks off while doing heavy lifting in Melbourne. They did not break the law, they were making a living and providing a service – yet their angry critics carry on as though they deliberately became infected to spread the virus.

Some sense of proportion is ­required. This is not ebola – most people are either asymptomatic or have a mild illness. Yet there was a similar demonising of last Saturday’s lockdown protesters, with alarming groupthink between the politicians and media. They tarred all the protesters with the indefensible actions of a few thugs, and even pretended a bloke punched a horse, Blazing Saddles style, when video showed otherwise.

This frightened, sanctimonious mob mentality makes us unrecognisable as a nation. The most vigorous condemnation of the pro­testers came from the same commentators and politicians who last year defended Black Lives Matter protests during pandemic restrictions.

The heartlessness towards fellow Australians wanting to return home is terrible, as is the pathetic spectacle of Victorians, led by ­Daniel Andrews, campaigning to impose their lockdown misery on Sydney, even though we are a year on and the vulnerable are vaccinated. Spare us.

In South Australia, the latest lockdown – like its previous “pizza box” one (as well as both in Perth this year, and at least one of the Brisbane lockdowns and the Valentines Weekend shutdown in Melbourne) – did not assist in the suppression of its minor outbreak. If the virus was not detected outside close contacts who were ­already isolated, ipso facto the lockdown was superfluous.

Yet they pretend the opposite, everybody thanks each other, and the media plays along. The ruse is unnecessary because people are so paranoid and afraid that if Steven Marshall levelled with them and said the lockdown was a precautionary measure that did not come into play on this occasion, most of the population would still support the move. So why not be honest?

This brings me to the most compelling evidence of how the national character has mutated – people now choose to trust politicians. In one pre-pandemic moment, your compatriots would tell you they know MPs are lying because their lips are moving, yet now they ignore all the medical and expert ­advice about kids being best off at school and accept that the Premier says everyone should stay home.

Citizens have been locked down unnecessarily at least six times by premiers in four states – the data makes that clear – but they applaud the premiers for keeping them safe. Reality matters no longer, and the politicians are the heroes. No wonder they thank people for following their contradictory and aimless directives.

Language is becoming meaningless. Andrews said Sydney was “on fire” with the virus and demanded a “ring of steel”, while Hazzard said the virus was “targeting” various suburbs. Mate, it is a virus, it does not use Google Maps.

Authorities changed the name of the Indian variant to Delta lest we blame a place or a people – yet they dub the havoc in Western Sydney the “Bondi outbreak” because they want to blame it on ­another place and group of people.

In April, the Prime Minister called a night-time press conference to warn us, dramatically, that the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had recommended against administering the AstraZeneca vaccine to the under-50s; later they tightened that to exclude the under-60s. Consequently, the workhorse vaccine that saved the UK has been shunned here.

This week, ATAGI said everyone over 18 should consider the jab and one of the group’s members, Kristine Macartney, suggested the ATAGI advice had been consistent all along. “I don’t think it’s a change of advice,” she said.

There was a time most Australians would have laughed at the ­lunacy around us, and journalists would have exposed the contra­dictions. But we are not the same.

If we settled the country now, we would hunker down at Farm Cove to stay safe, waiting until a fast train could take us inland.