Mike's Minute: Our Covid review will mirror Australia's
If this Government wants a money saving idea then they should cancel the two Covid inquires and simply adopt Australia's. Australia's review released this week is damning, as indeed will ours be. Ours will be pretty much the same as Australia's because, within a margin, we did pretty much the same thing. If there was any irony, it's that they had “versions” of theirs, and in that is a major lesson. Even with versions, it is broadly accepted none of them turned out to be much chop. If we were a state of Australia we would have come in at the tighter, or more restrictive, end of the Australian version. Places like Victoria were very much like us because they were run by two very similar people: Dan Andrews and Jacinda Ardern. They were hard-left control freaks. Western Australia was an outlier in the sense they had a lot of rules but not many of them applied inside the state. In other words, they locked themselves off, but because they were self-reliant, they got on with life. New South Wales, run by conservatives, had the most lenient response. But this is the biggest out-take - no matter what the response, faith and trust has been lost. The rallying cry post-Covid has been to learn the lessons, so we are ready for next time. Are we ready for next time? No. Will we ever be? No. Will it be worse? Yes. Why? Because, as the report suggests, the big lesson we have learned is that the people who run us aren't up to much, and they did a lot of things we would never go along with again. Which does of course present a very real issue because it's entirely possible there will be a next time. These reports are also predicated on the idea that those who ran it all learn their lessons. Will they? Of course not. The public service is full of Ashley Bloomfields, and Jacinda Arderns, and Dan Andrews and Gladys Berejiklians, and if it's them or their ilk running things, next time will look exactly like this time. Except, and this is where the carnage will ensue, we won't be along for the ride. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.