We can’t afford to Live in fear
Yes, we have been kept safe and sound by the Gutwein state government, but Ingrid Harrison asks how much longer Tasmania’s business sector can afford to run scared of the pandemic
IWAS horrified when I heard our Premier say 90 per cent vaccinations are what Tasmania will now be aiming for before and if, our borders are reopened.
Let’s be honest. The question of opening to the rest of the country, and indeed the rest of the world has become a political football. And the reason? Everyone is in fear of Covid and all politicians are playing on that fear.
Instead of praising our Premier for keeping us safe, why aren’t we up in arms protesting our hospital systems have failed — a systemic failure over decades that is now coming home to roost and a failure for which we are paying a huge cost?
We can have all the new hospital equipment and buildings under the sun, but if we don’t have sufficient frontline staff, this is the result.
Instead, we congratulate the Premier for keeping us safe. Yes, he has to a large degree. But he is doing so because of the poor state of our health system, comforted by the fact he knows the public will applaud his hardline approach.
Headlines saying 100 Tasmanians will die in the first six months if we open at 80 per cent is fear mongering at its best. He was quoting Doherty modelling based on a national outbreak infecting nearly 750,000 people within six months.
The Premier was applying the 100 deaths to Tasmania alone. It also seems to assume that the minute we hit 80 per cent everyone will stop vaccinating which is nonsense.
How about the hundreds of people who die every year from the common flu?
In 2017, 1181 people died and in 2019, 902 died nationwide however no one makes any noise about these statistics. Why? Because they’re not Covid statistics.
All state premiers are at fault because each states’ hospital systems are failing not only their staff but the patients they have to treat.
Premiers are governing through the politics of pandemic fear by closing borders while holding on to their significant power base.
The Queensland premier has threatened to keep borders closed till early next year.
The Western Australian premier seems happy to keep his permanently closed.
To be brutal, it seems that closing borders has become a substitute for governments providing an adequate level of healthcare for their citizens.
Meanwhile, more and more businesses are closing their doors because they cannot afford to stay open any longer.
Look at the sad reality of businesses in Melbourne —
it’s distressing to see a once vibrant city falling apart.
Businesses in Tasmania, particularly in tourism and hospitality, are doing it hard and were hoping for some Christmas relief to keep their workers employed.
But it now seems that’s not likely to happen.
What about the personal toll on everyone? The mental anguish. Nobody is really addressing the mental impact on everyday people many of whom are keeping much of their mental suffering to themselves, not seeking help.
While Australia’s small businesses, employees and our students are suffering, those making the decisions to keep us apart, the politicians and the health bureaucrats, are all comfortably collecting their taxpayer-funded salaries.
I am double vaxed. Our children interstate and overseas are double vaxed and we’re all prepared to have Covid tests. So, when we get to 80 per cent vaccinations why can’t we see each other? Because now the goalpost has been moved to 90 per cent and we’re not being given a reopening date.
Do you really think it’s going to happen before Christmas?
Is this the new reality or just part of the softening up process for no re-opening while Covid exists?
Minister Barnett recently let slip he wanted to see 100 per cent vaccinations. Is what he said the next goal?
This is a nightmare, and we are being spun a massive line because regularly the goal posts are being moved and the messages become more dire. And many Tasmanians are accepting these messages simply because they’re scared.
Wake up, people and demand the truth. Is this the life you want to live?
I sure don’t.