Coming, ready or not

In early days of the pandemic, people stuck to COVID rules. They’re easing off but border openings loom, say

T HE Tasmanian spring has delivered en viable freedoms for many—casual greetings with hugging, dining in restaurants and friends’ houses, trips around the state, even parties with shared platters. But we always knew it could be fleeting, and Tasmanians will be forced to face reality next week when borders begin to re open.

The University of Tasmania’ s Institute for Social Change has been tracking attitudes to border restrictions and to COVID-safe practices and rules since early in the pandemic. The Tasmania Project has done a series of surveys which have each included more than 1000 adults from all parts of the state, of different ages, education and background. Responses indicate support for keeping borders closed until COVID-19 has been eradicated from Australia has declined—from 45 per cent in our first survey in April to 36 percent in our last survey in September and October.

Many Tasmanians have felt

THE RESEARCH HAS ALSO HIGHLIGHTED THERE ARE THOSE WHO DO NOT TAKE THESE PRECAUTIONS AND HAVE NO INTENTION OF DOING SO

unusually safe. We adapted a question the Lowy Institute has asked most years since 2005— “Thinking about world events, how safe do you feel ?” Nationally, only 4 per cent of Lowy Institute respondents said they felt very safe in 2020, compared to 18 percentthepreviousyear.In contrast, when we asked the same question but added “in Tasmania” in our third survey in September ,45 percent of the 1133 respondents said they felt very safe. This feeling of safety and increasing desire for open borders has existed alongside general support for restrictions put in place. But support does not equate with practice. Compliance has declined overtime.

The Tasmania Project’ s first survey was in April during full C OVID -19 restrictions. A clear majority supported the state government’ s C OVID measures, agreed they were not too strict, stayed home and only went out for essential purposes, and comp lied with distancing rules to connect with family and friends.

In early May, Tasmania began to ease restrictions in three stages. Our second survey was done in this time and we found as restrictions started to ease, fewer respondents indicated they were comp lying with the measures that remained.

For example ,81 percent of survey 1 respondents reported following social/physical distancing rules, compared with only 64 percent of survey 2 respondents. In our third survey, after stage three ea sing of restrictions, only 47 percent indicated they were following physical distancing rules.

Trust in the government and health officials to provide reliable information about COVID-19 has remained high (more than 75 percent in all surveys ). However, between the second and third surveys, there was less agreement that future outbreak sin Tasmania would be managed well (81 per cent of survey 2 participants agreed, compared with 63 per cent of survey 3).

In our recent survey, focused on border restrictions and community health, more than half of our respondents agreed they were more complacent about COVID-safe behaviours compared to the start of the pandemic, and three quarters were concerned about other Tasmanians not comp lying with C OVID-safe practices. Most respondents (86 percent) agreed that when borders opened, they would be more vigilant with C OVIDsafe practices. For example, half of the 1353 respondents indicated that at the start of the pandemic they were always washing and sanitising their hands throughout the day. When asked about current behaviour, this figure decreased to only one-third. However, more than twothirds said they intended to always was hand sanitise their hands throughout the day once the borders re opened.

We found a similar pattern in relation to hugging family and friends, with 60 percent saying they had always avoided hugging or shaking hands at the start of the pandemic, compared to 24 per cent currently. Interestingly, only 39 percent said they planned to always avoid these activities once borders re opened. There search has also highlighted there are those who do not take these precautions and have no intention of doing so, including wearing am ask in public (30 percent ), being vaccinated if a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available (5 percent) or being tested for COVID-19 if they showed mild symptoms (4 percent ).

Our findings continue to present a complex picture of life in Tasmania–one where people feel far safer than elsewhere, but where discrimination is commonly witnessed and experienced; where more people than average suffer food in security and carry high caring responsibilities but feel generally satisfied with their lives. Yet when it comes to C OVID-safe practices, the findings are very clear. We need to again become vigilant about compliance measures or risk future out breaks.

Findings from The Tasmania Project and access to our latest survey, designed to inform the Premier’ s Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council, areatwww.utas.edu.au/ tasmania-project.

Nyree Pisa nu and Ariel Re mund are research associates for The Tasmania Project at the Institute for Social Change and PhD candidates at the University of Tasmania. Professor Lib by Lester is the leader of the Tasmania Project and director of the Institute for Social Change at UTAS.