THE Victorian Government celebrated “donut day” only to predictably eat humble pie the next.
After Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton again forgot his real role and tried to lift his social media following with a tweet of a swimming coach celebrating zero cases, the state was plunged into yet another lockdown before we had really come out of the previous one.
Our front doors were still latched tight, with no visitors allowed, before Dan Andrews again slammed the door shut on small businesses late on Thursday.
So Professor Sutton’s tweet was not only ill-considered, it highlighted the lack of understanding government bureaucrats have for the general mood of the community.
COVID-19 has taught Victorians that any freedom will be fleeting. And that we can not afford to look too far ahead. Not even one day.
Victorians know now, through tortured experience, that it will only take a couple of cases in the western suburbs of Melbourne for the government to again shut down a pub in Orbost, to again thrust kids in Murrayville back into home schooling and to close the hairdressers in Robinvale.
We know that for all the political posturing from Andrews demanding NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian put a ring of steel around Sydney, that he had no intention of doing the same around Melbourne, for that would cost him city votes.
We know that there will be no nuanced approach and that Victoria’s on-again, off-again total lockdown strategy will be with us until the country is at least 80 per cent vaccinated.
We are stuck in a state of paralysis and it is taking a heavy toll.
So hold the tweets, Brett. Stop telling us how great we are, Dan.
You see, outside the government’s Spring Street bubble, there are no party balloons. It’s just gut-wrenching.
