Australia must emerge from the coronavirus crisis a fairer society

The recovery won’t mean business as usual but we can all do our bit to make it happen.

It’s easy to be cynical about sharing wealth but now is the time to overcome differences and work together to rebuild a better, fairer, more entrepreneurial Australia emerging from the pandemic. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling

And so to the recovery, or at least to a world where Australians, cut off from free-flowing interaction with the rest of the globe, can go about the business of rebuilding the economy. I have no doubt the next few months will be exhilarating as businesses and livelihoods recover from enforced hibernation. But there will be limits to the recovery. Some businesses won’t re-emerge, while others may be wary of taking on too much risk.

What is required is a national program designed to encourage small and other businesses to plan boldly and confidently for the year ahead. The government acted early in the pandemic by introducing the JobKeeper income support program, which undoubtedly saved many businesses. But I think we can do more. Much more.

It’s so easy to sit back and pontificate about “what the government should be doing”. How about we ask what every single Australian can do to help this nation recover from the worst economic and social calamity since the Great Depression? I don’t care whether you are rich or poor, left or right, old or young, we can all do something.

We can choose to support local businesses. Buy local; check the “made in” label on supermarket products; take holidays; do that kitchen renovation; say something nice to a service provider, give them feedback. Encourage those who have the courage to run a business, especially at this time.

But wait, there’s more. Once I have every Australian doing something every day to help rebuild our glorious nation, I want to infiltrate our institutions. I think the next Australian of the Year award should go to someone who creates a business that employs people, that pays taxes, that is respectful of the environment. It’s not so much the award as the inspiration it would provide to others. It’s a statement that Australians value people of enterprise, people able to balance entrepreneurship with a sense of civic duty. Surely we can find someone to fit the bill.

How about we ask the national broadcasters to run a weekly television program that celebrates free-market entrepreneurship? If ever we needed to inspire two million small business owners to think boldly about the future, it is now. I want to see human interest stories that showcase, say, a 28-year-old bricklayer from Dubbo starting a business and taking on an apprentice, or a 38-year old mother starting a medical practice in Hervey Bay while volunteering on the side. I want to see stories of grit and determination, of optimism and goodwill, of the irrepressible hope of youth, of the heart and soul of the Commonwealth of Australia coming together as a people to make a better nation. That’s the stuff that inspires a nation, and our national broadcasters do so well during calamities such as bushfires, flood and drought.

The 2020 pandemic has knocked Australia off its comfortable trajectory. Even if a vaccine is successfully introduced in the coming year there are things that have irrevocably changed. I doubt, for example, we will recover the easy prosperity of unfettered (or untroubled) trade with China in the 2020s. I think we will be manufacturing much more product within Australia.

I have always been struck by the inclusivity of the formal name of our nation. “Commonwealth of Australia” is such a sharing concept. I know it’s easy to be cynical about sharing wealth but now is the time to overcome differences and work together to rebuild a better, fairer, more entrepreneurial Australia emerging from the pandemic.