Theres less panic but more savage frustration as Sydney locks down again

July 18, 2021 â€" 5.30am

Future historians will of course look back on this Second Time of the Plague in NSW and try to determine the mood. Allow me . . .

On the one hand it doesn’t feel quite as desperate as Lockdown I, because in this case familiarity breeds less contempt than exhausted stoicism, and we are not quite as panicky as last time.

On the other hand there is a mood of savage frustration, most of it aimed at the Prime Minister and the NSW Premier. The PM is copping it because it is now clear to everyone that it really was a bloody race to get the nation vaccinated and the “vaccine strollout” was madness from the beginning.

Australia is straggling at the rear of the OECD vaccination pack.Credit:SMH

We are also gobsmacked at the commentary pointing out that while the PM could make 55 phone-calls to world leaders to get Mathias Cormann elected as boss of the OECD, he couldn’t make a single one to the international boss of Pfizer to get more vaccines for us. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu made 30 calls. Result? While Cormann is indeed now running the OECD, Australia is a laggard on the list of OECD countries for amount of population fully vaccinated, while Israel is first. Even deeply conservative commentators are conceding that, in terms of stuff-ups caused by wilful neglect, this was one for the ages.

And our Premier is copping it from everywhere. From one side feral commentators like Alan Jones are viciously attacking her for imposing any lockdown at all. On the other hand, while it is obvious to everyone with an ounce of sense that, as demonstrated by Victoria, lockdowns are effective, the Berejiklian version has been anything but. The initial Clayton’s lockdown has tightened, and the Premier finally banned non-essential shopping on Saturday. It has all happened so fast we are struggling to understand how an unvaccinated, unmasked limo driver transferring flight crew from the airport could have been entirely within health regulations of the Berejiklian government, even as he was a key cog in setting Plague II in motion.

We just don’t get it. But it feels like there has been a shift in the political paradigm and these stuff-ups will not be forgotten.

As a final point I note that many of us feel embarrassment and regret when it comes to Victoria. We got the pox, didn’t treat it effectively, and they now have it again. Ummm, sorry about that.

Banks didn’t bite

Interesting. In the first week on sale, the book by the former Liberal parliamentarian Julia Banks, Power Play, has sold as quarter as much in its first full week on sale as Barnaby Joyce’s memoirs Weatherboard and Iron, has in four years. Among other things she gives a gobsmacking account of being groped by a senior cabinet minister. As she is on the National Committee of the Australian Republic Movement, which I chair, and I know her quite well. Of course I did the obvious.

“Julia, I know who it was, so can’t you confirm it to me, so I can break the story and hold the mongrel to account?”

The short answer was no. It was one thing to detail what happened. Quite another to put herself and her family through endless defamation proceedings at the hand’s of such a powerful man.

What she did want to talk about was the Prime Minister.

“We have all his announcements, all his press releases, all his inquiries, all claiming to do something about harassment and misogyny. But no actual action is taken. He is the problem. We need a Prime Minister who actually cares about those things, and will do something.”

Former Liberal MP Julia Banks is outselling Barnaby Joyce.Credit:Kristoffer Paulsen

Against the odds

Ah-HA! With thanks to the famous and venerable Margaret Throsby â€" one and the same â€" I am delighted to report that there appears to be one other bit of the Olympic blue line used for the marathon, that against all odds, still survives on Sydney roads, two decades on.

“It stretches along Victoria Road heading north in Drummoyne,” she reports, “a couple of hundred metres.”

Thank you “Throbbers”, as her ABC contemporaries would affectionately call her (though I never dared).

Joke of the Week

“How was your golf game, dear?” asks Jacko’s wife.

“Well I was hitting pretty well, but my eyesight’s gotten so bad I couldn’t see where the ball went.”

“Well you’re 75 years old now, Jacko, why don’t you take my brother Scott along?” suggests his wife.

“But he’s 85 and doesn’t even play golf any more,” protests Jack.

“But he’s got perfect eyesight. He could watch your ball,” his wife points out.

The next day Jack tees off with Scott looking on.

Jack swings, and the ball disappears into the rough of the fairway.

“Do you see it?” asks Jack.

“Yup,” Scott answers.

“Well, where is it?” yells Jack, peering off into the distance.

“I forget.”

Tweet of the Week

“And as the clock struck midnight, 30,000 Victorian poker machines fell silent, saving gamblers around $45 million over the next 5 days of lockdown. Spend it wisely folks, on food and family in these difficult times.” - Stephen Mayne @MayneReport

Quotes of the Week

“He called me 30 times.” - Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on how hard it was to get Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu off the blower, in his eagerness for Israel to be at the front of the queue for vaccines. They were, and now have the highest vaccine rate in the world. I know.

“Morrison has a choice. He can win the next election as a world-class COVID manager or lose miserably as a historic incompetent.” - Miranda Devine in the Tele.

“The only thing I was worried about was some tiny little something that would get in the way, something that would stop us from getting into space.” - Sir Richard Branson after his not quite outer space flight.

“What we thought was possible turned out to be wrong in practice. We made a miscalculation. We’re disappointed about it, and we apologise.” - Mark Rutte, the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, apologising to his people for the government’s premature loosening of lockdown in June, as COVID cases increase rapidly in the country.

“To be stuck in a bubble with nothing but men around you, if you’re a single bloke, there’s going to be urges at times and it’s going to be extremely hard for certain blokes to be alone for up to two months as the competition ends.” - Paul Gallen, former NRL player.

“No answer is best for everybody. It’s about saying: Who are you? What’s your work? And what are your family circumstances? Do you live with someone vulnerable?” - Royal Australian College of GPs NSW/ACT chair, Dr Charlotte Hespe saying that, while the health advice remained that Pfizer was the preferred vaccine for under 60s, south-west Sydney residents of any age should assess their risk and talk to a GP. The overall messaging on AZT, yay or nay, seems to change every couple of days, yes?

“I have no problem with trying to use fear . . .” - Simon Chapman, Emeritus Professor in Public Health, University of Sydney, about the government’s new vaccination ads.

“It was really strange waking up this morning and just trying to absorb it all. The 50th anniversary for Evonne, NAIDOC week, obviously, back home, and my 10th anniversary from my junior title. It was just like it was meant to be.” - Ash Barty the day after winning Wimbledon.

“I am sickened by the racist abuse aimed at England players after last night’s match. It is totally unacceptable that players have to endure this abhorrent behaviour. It must stop now and all those involved should be held accountable.” - Prince William condemning the “abhorrent” racial abuse thrown at England players who missed penalties in its shootout loss against Italy at the Euro 2020 final. Bravo, though he did cop online backlash for not being seen to have spoken up against the racism his sister-in-law Meghan suffered.

“Most of the congestion in Australian is in Sydney, and yet most of the grants went to Melbourne.” - Independent Senator Rex Patrick on the disgrace of the Federal Government using the $400 million put aside for car parks, for naked pork-barrelling, with 77 per cent of the commuter car park sites selected going to Coalition electorates, rather than without fear or favour, to where the car-parks were actually needed.

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

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Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.

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