Letters | Coronavirus: Australia won’t beat Covid or global challenges with ‘them against us’ talk

Name: Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert
Uploaded: 2021-07-23T22:00:26.000Z
Duration: 4 min 55 s
Description: Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert

Deputy PM’s dismissive attitude over Melbourne’s pandemic challenge came at a time when solidarity is needed for a country struggling with a low vaccine rate and economically crippling lockdowns

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A woman walks along Bourke Street mall in Melbourne, Victoria, on July 20, days after the Australian state entered a lockdown in response to a surge in Covid-19 cases. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Published: 6:00am, 24 Jul 2021Updated: 6:02pm, 24 Jul 2021

Australian federal and state governments have consistently made the point during the pandemic that “we’re all in this together”. Perhaps not.

In response to a journalist’s comments about the difficulties Melbourne faced in containing Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was recently quoted in the media that “in country areas we couldn’t give a s***. We’ve got record exports of coal. Record exports of beef. But we look at Melbourne, and go, you can almost smell the burning flesh from here.”

“Them against us” divides Australians.

04:55

Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert

Australia’s vaccine roll-out is “not a race”, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Just about 12 per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated.

The highly transmissible Delta variant is a significant political, social, economic and health concern, while Australia maintains an elimination strategy to protect a largely unvaccinated population and has to impose ongoing lockdowns to manage its outbreaks. More than 12 million Australians are currently in lockdown to contain a Delta outbreak in New South Wales and Victoria.

Perennial politics of tribalism, self-interest and dichotomy are not helping our response to Covid-19 – politically bungled vaccine roll-out, serial lockdowns, hotel quarantine breaches, federal vs state parochialism.

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | Coronavirus: Australia won’t beat Covid or global challenges with ‘them against us’ talk

Letters | Coronavirus: Australia won’t beat Covid or global challenges with ‘them against us’ talk