Back to everyone for themselves
“TODAY we act to protect our nation’s sovereignty,” so said
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on April 8, 2020.
This was his bold opening gambit in a speech to the House of Representatives. He was presenting the historic JobKeeper to the nation and he wanted everybody to see that this was a bit of a presidential moment.
Today, the transcript makes for interesting reading. It is peppered with “us” and “we”. They were heady times, when we were watching our world disintegrate into remote working and lockdowns and shut down industries everywhere.
It feels like centuries ago. Pandemic time does that.
Bleeds into a mess of events and feelings rather than landmarks of critical shifts.
But for context, this speech was back before the vaccine had even been invented, well before our order had been misplaced. Back when we all hoped that Covid-19 was something no worse than a “bad flu”, but we could see what was happening in the Northern Hemisphere and we all knew it was going to be bad for all of us before it got worse.
It was back when Donald Trump was still the US president (yikes!) and he was literally asking medical professionals on live TV to investigate the concept of an “injection” of disinfectant into people who may be infected, like a “cleaning” and suggesting that maybe a bright light could be used to shine inside the body and kill the virus. Even back then, that seemed like madness but dude, that was reality.
Now, Donald Trump is double vaxxed and he’s even received his booster (how about that?). But back then, it was patently clear to any casual observer that the political leaders we had elected to lead us had no idea about science or public health. No … Morrison, Johnson and Trump had not mixed with boffins before.
They may have done some photo-ops at Pharma facilities, but prior to the pandemic, who needed science, right? Research was for nerds and guys named “Beaker”.
Don and Boris and Scottie were used to being the self-proclaimed smartest guys in the room. Politics beat out everything. Getting elected was evidence of a “meritocracy” and our world was in their hands. They really wanted a magical cure for the virus. Fast and cheap. Something that could be rolled out, so we didn’t have to shut down. Something that allowed us to just “live alongside the virus”.
History shows that we learned it takes a little longer to develop a vaccine than another campaign slogan.
And so, it was in this landscape that our Prime Minister stood in the House and reminded the Opposition that today was a day to “leave ideology at the door”.
JobKeeper was a radical new scheme that was needed to protect the nation’s health and our “sovereign borders”. It was in this furnace of threat and imagery that our conservative PM set out his argument for a temporary installation of radical socialism.
His government abandoned their belief in The Market and decided this economic crisis was a moment for community responsibility, instead of individuality. Commitment to massive debt was the only way to save the economy and keep the housing market in the stratosphere. The need for a universal wage was recognised and JobKeeper was legislated.
Scott concluded his historic speech with the simple line:
“We will get through this, together, Australia.”
Well, it’s 2021 now and who the heck remembers that speech, right? Today we are all exhausted and it is clear that the culture of “personal responsibility” has emerged as the dominant variant of “We are all in this together”.
The “we” and “us” has been replaced with “me” and “you”.
Now the boffins have gifted us a vaccine, we can keep the economy going and get back to the business of being individuals who prioritise individual freedoms over community health.
Massive debt saved our country from ruin. This debt was necessary so that when this whole thing was over, “Australians would still be Australians”.
Today, as we go in and out of isolation and get tested for the Christmas of 2021, we know for sure that quiet Australia is returning to the land of every man for himself. Welcome back to the good old normal.
… IT IS CLEAR THAT THE CULTURE OF ‘PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY’ HAS EMERGED AS THE DOMINANT VARIANT OF ‘WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER’.