AT the beginning of May, this column suggested if there were zero active coronavirus cases for another month in regions like Sunraysia, then the Victorian Government should open them up.
And by open up, that meant allowing more than 20 people to sit down at our cafes, pubs or restaurants, and getting the economy turning.
That meant allowing kids to go for a swing at the park.
It meant allowing crowds to attend community football and netball matches.
But the Victorian Government didn’t listen, keeping the locks on a region that remained COVID-free.
By June, as frustrations grew, I wrote how the political point-scoring of state premiers and health officials during the pandemic had become sickening.
And how the childish jabs across state borders from these so-called leaders were serving only to divide our country when we needed to unite.
Months on, here we are, and nothing has changed.
As we head into September, our nation’s politicians have not pulled us together during this crisis, but instead reduced our country into something unrecognisable.
Just think for a minute about where we are right now as a society.
Last week, Sunraysia Daily told the story of a local woman who had life-saving cancer surgery cancelled by the SA Government on the basis of where she lives. Is that the Australia we know?
We have closed schools in COVID-free Victorian regions just because schools in the city are closed down. Our government’s logic is if they are going to deny one kid the right to the best education possible, then let’s deny them all. Is that who we’ve become?
We’ve been reduced to a country where people can’t cross borders to look after their animals, or tend to their crops, unless they live inside a designated bubble.
Reduced to a state that was sports mad but now stops its kids from playing anything. Or from going fishing with their dad. A society that is being lectured not to love thy neighbour, but to dob them in. Fair dinkum, is that really us?
Governments are there to serve their people, not the other way around, but in Victoria we are scolded if we disappoint our leader. The model has been flipped.
It’s not being overly dramatic to say that we are losing our national identity through this crisis. And it needs to change. It has to change.
A colleague of mine lost his mother more than a month ago. She died in Adelaide, but he has been unable to cross the border to lay her to rest. Bureaucracy stands in his way.
That his story is a very common one in Australia right now speaks volumes as to the divided society our governments have created.
To their credit, our two local politicians at federal and state level, Anne Webster and Ali Cupper, have been fighting hard for people in border communities over the past few months.
They may come from different sides of politics, but they have been unified in trying to correct the wrongs imposed on people in this unique tri-state region.
It’s time for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to really stand up to our power-loving state leaders and take this country forward, because right now we are not all in this together.
It starts with some common sense, compassion and understanding in our approach. It starts with helping out our mates in times of need rather than kicking them while they are down.
It starts with being Australian.
