Australians were still counting the costs of the disastrous bushfires of the summer of 2019-2020 when the first case of the virus appeared. Generally speaking the isolation of the island countries of Australia and New Zealand meant that quarantine has been easy to enforce and successful. By 2021, the prospect of a vaccine ‘rollout’ provided some confidence that the worst was over. Community transmissions have been tiny.

In between the bushfires and the arrival of vaccines, the pandemic followed a reasonably predictable course. A Royal Commission into the provision of aged care has just reported with over a hundred recommendations for reform. Tragically, some 75% of Australian deaths from Covid were in nursing homes and there has been a belief that these deaths were mostly preventable. Of course, with our generally low rates of hospitalisation, we have looked in horror at the tallies in familiar countries such as England, Ireland, the USA and Europe, South America, Asia – almost everywhere else but here really.

Economically, there has been no surprise that the impact is felt most by those who are beginning working lives or who do not have established assets such as homes. Data from the financial crisis of a decade ago show that casual workers especially are most insecure. Lockdowns, although short and sharp, have affected many small businesses badly so that the government established a ‘jobkeeper’ allowance which aimed at allowing employers to pay workers even though they were not working. Nevertheless, casual workers and stranded overseas students fell through the cracks and were plunged into poverty.

Working at home became the norm in some industries, and parents learnt new respect for teachers when schools closed and home schooling became necessary. The satirist Sammy J had a marvellous clip about schooling with ‘Mister Dad’ who wondered at what time of the day his children’s teachers usually have their first glass of wine. Entertainment workers were hard hit as the usual venues closed. Tourism slackened as overseas visitors stopped coming. ‘Zoom’ meetings became a new essential skill. New terms such as ‘social distancing’ entered the language.
Although the prime minister and premiers formed a ‘national cabinet’ to discuss responses to the pandemic, strains appeared in the federal system. While the Constitution established free trade between the six states and two territories, states began to close their borders to people who came from Covid ‘hot spots’. This created some tensions with the Coalition federal government which was particularly critical of the Labor held states of Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia, while asserting that the freer policies of the Coalition government of New South Wales represented the ‘gold standard’.

The federal government has emphasised the need to get the economy moving again. Consequently, it has placed great faith in a vaccine. While other measures such as asocial distancing and good hygiene will remain important, there is no doubt that the vaccines will be a great help in both keeping us healthy and getting us back to work. The government always claims it is acting on medical advice – as it should – but some critics have pointed out that it has been reluctant to accept scientific advice in other areas such as climate change and the need to abandon fossil fuels.

Observers have expressed the hope that ideology does not run ahead of the science. Some farmers for example are demanding that exceptions be made to the quarantine requirements for international arrivals so that they can get cheap labour to harvest their fruit and vegetables. As the Coalition government consists of Liberals and the rural based Nationals, there are fears that some rash decisions could be made. It has to be said though that the payments given out by the government ran against the Liberals’ usual obsession with the free market. It criticised the previous Labor Government for its interventionist approach during the Global Financial Crisis, but has seen its way clear to provide support this time around.

Overseas observers should not imagine that they were alone in being amazed that sporting fixtures have continued against the odds. The visit of the Indian cricket team for a series of matches was obviously sacrosanct and organisers bent over backwards to ensure that the Australian Tennis Open went ahead. Perhaps it is a sign of the relative safety in which we live that our system can absorb what seem to be pretty glaring contradictions.
Generally, the number of ‘ex-pats’ living overseas and hoping to return to Australia provides an important lesson. Certainly we are excluded from the worst of the pandemic through fortuitous location. But in the long run, we will not be safe until we are all safe.

© 2020 Tony Smith. Dr Tony Smith is a former political science academic. His writings appear occasionally on Pearls and Irritations.

Lead image photo by Words as Pictures, second image by Direct Media, third image by Alex Wong. All images from StockSnap.