WHEN NOT ALL LOCKDOWNS ARE CREATED EQUAL
Are sun lounges essential? Why can we practise pilates but not pump iron? When it comes to communication and this lockdown, the devil is in the details.
IF we’re going to do it, let’s do it right.
I think we can all agree – anti-maskers and pro-vaxxers alike – that lockdowns suck.
Plans and events are cancelled, businesses are all but bankrupted, children are (not) learning from home … but we have to suffer through this because the ends (stopping the spread) justify the means (all of the above).
Yet for this painful process to be successful, we rely upon the government to communicate a clear and consistent lockdown message.
And the only thing made clear this week is that not all lockdowns are created equal.
Just ask Simone Tunbridge, co-owner of the Imlach Hospitality Group which includes Hideaway Kitchen and Bar and Bine Bar and Dining, who took to social media this week to vent her frustration: “If I have to close my venues and pivot to takeaways … someone please explain to me how is Pacific Fair and any other retail still allowed to be open?”
Simone is not protesting against the lockdown but the perceived unfairness of it all.
Because while gyms are closed, pilates and yoga classes continue. While hospitality venues are all but shuttered, retail can apparently be considered “essential” – meaning clothing shops, tobacconists and more are still operating.
While I have every sympathy for anyone undergoing a fashion crisis, the truth is that these simply do not exist in lockdown. After all, if an outfit disaster occurs and no one is there to see it, did it really happen?
But ultimately, it’s not the business’s fault for opening if, technically, they are allowed to.
Indeed, National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb says Queensland retailers are expected to haemorrhage more than $800m during the current lockdown and need clarity.
“There are some difficulties every time we have a lockdown in a different state in Australia in that there isn’t a lot of consistency, so right now we have had the
Health Minister make a number of comments about retail not being essential but retailers are not excluded from opening,” she said.
Indeed, Deputy Premier Steven Miles has already warned that “now is not the time to buy outdoor furniture … there will be time before summer to buy sun lounges”.
But is it really the customer’s fault if they want to buy a sun lounge and the sun lounge store is open? If you don’t want us buying sun lounges, shut the damn sun lounge store. Otherwise, it’s just a mixed message.
Although that seems to be the theme of this lockdown.
Just on Thursday, Mayor Tom Tate hit out at the state government for leaving him “in the dark” over mystery Covid exposure sites in Southport, including a Thai restaurant and service station.
Queensland Health has not confirmed what, if any, connection the sites have to the current Delta strain outbreak in Brisbane.
“They really need to advise why they’re not (sharing the information) because then I can communicate and understand why we’re in lockdown,” Mr Tate said.
“To say they’re an exposure site? What does that even mean?
“Did someone drive 140km to a Thai restaurant, then fuel up and go home?
“My point is, it’s not logical. It’s a good restaurant but it’s not that good.
“I’m at a loss.” Meanwhile, although we have repeatedly been told this is our “harshest ever” lockdown, when it comes to the details of what that really means, we’re simply told to check the Queensland Health website.
And let’s have a raise of hands … how many people have actually checked?
It doesn’t matter that I can’t see you because we all know the answer: zero.
Mr Miles, if you have the time to talk about sun lounges, you have the time to get explicit about the changes in this lockdown – like masks on when outside, even when exercising (wait, is that right? I actually just checked the website and I couldn’t figure it out), like no visitors to your home at all, like no travelling beyond 10km from your home unless essential. (Essential like working in a sun lounge shop?)
Chief health officer Jeannette Young has tried to clarify essential vs inessential but it didn’t really work.
“If you’ve got to question whether you’re an essential worker, then you’re probably not,” she said.
The key word being “probably”.
Let’s be real, if retail is haemorrhaging more than $800m and you can find a way to open … you’re going to open.
If the government want us to go hard-core in this lockdown, they need to get hard-core with their messaging.
Of course I appreciate the difficulty in this job but the devil is in the details.
And we need to do more than just pray that we’re doing this right.
...if an outfit disaster occurs and no one is there to see it, did it really happen?