COVID-19 Sequestration – The Shutdown, The Rules, Government Assistance

We were cruising along having a grand old time in our adopted home.  We had just come through our first month chock full of activities.
  
We’d hardly had time to take a breather and then COVID-19 arrived. The first thing the Government did was implement the 2 people per 4m² rule which put a severe crimp on the business of restaurants and pubs. Restrict the drinking of Aussies and there’s no better way to get the attention of the public.

Friends of ours joined a group of their grown children’s friends for dinner.  Sensing it might be a final get together, they staged a photograph of the Last Supper. Although they had a sense of the future, none of those assembled could have fully envisioned what was to come; and how quickly it would arrive.

When that didn’t work, within days the pubs, restaurants and other natural gathering places were closed. That triggered the irrational run on toilet paper. News Flash: It’s not about the runs you fools!

When a warm stretch of Indian Summer arrived and thousands flocked to Bondi Beach in Sydney ignoring the social distancing rules, the NSW Government closed the beaches. Days later when idiots in Victoria flocked to the beaches, they also closed their beaches.  Good behavior in South Australia has resulted in our beaches remaining open; albeit relatively empty.

As more and more companies allowed employees to work from home, shops began to close.  Myers, one of two large department stores in Adelaide closed leaving remaining business to David Jones. People began irrational runs on grocery stores.  Fights broke out.  Grocery stores had to hire extra security to protect workers and customers. For a few days, the wild wild west was alive again.

Every day ScoMo, the Prime Minister took to the podium to announce new restrictions and new Government economic assistance and recovery programs. He formed a National Cabinet.  The National Cabinet consisted of the Premiers and Chief Ministers of the Australian ‘states’: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territories and Australian Capital Territory. By chance, the make-up was 5 members of the PM’s party and 4 members of the Opposition. The National Cabinet is making decisions.  By all accounts, decisions after spirited debate but near unanimous decisions. Evidence that consensus is the name of the day is that they often announce what has yet to achieve consensus maintaining transparency. The PM is announcing them.  Australia is being ruled in these extraordinary times by a consensus of the National Cabinet!

Pause for a second and imagine the good that could come from a decision making body in the US consisting of 4 GOP Governors and 4 DEM Governors each elected by their respective party governor’s conference.

Within a couple of weeks, the 4m² rule was history. More businesses including CJ’s physical therapist were forced to closed.  Adelaide city vibrancy and bustle were reduced to a post-war trickle.  From our 9^th floor balcony we watched the city and its Central Business District (CBD) grind to a halt.  The line of taxis that snaked from the Railway Station and Intercontinental Hotel down North Terrace past our apartment evaporated. The free-flowing river of thousands of pedestrians who walked to work and to university below us slowed to merely a trickle.

Before COVID-19 ScoMo was regularly skewered by the Opposition and in many cases ridiculed in the press. With formation of the National Cabinet, it was obvious all Aussies were in this together. The PM’s daily briefings were for as long as they needed to be to discuss the topic of the day.  He imparted only data and information.  He was followed by the expert Minister (think Cabinet member) who spoke uninterrupted. Each session informed.  Each session explained what the Government was doing, why the Government was doing it, what the Government expected to achieve by doing it and that it was subject to review by the National Cabinet for effectiveness. They spoke not only of why now, but of why this would help bring Australia out the other end and into recovery.

Here we sit in Oz, stranded for an indeterminate period.  Our dream to spend more time in Oz realized but under the most unfortunate of circumstances. We can’t enjoy the incredible restaurants of Adelaide. We can’t enjoy our friends. We now must Skype with friends who normally live nearby as if they were the friends we Skype with in the US and France.

One of our close friends has retreated to the safety of the Yorke Peninsula and another to the country down south. Yet, there is little reason to complain.  We are not in Florida where a wishy-washy Governor will likely let his misguided ideology kill many.  We are not in our house where the only thing we can see is the same two houses.  We are in Adelaide where the city below us changes by the minute and where we can still take walks in the presence of beautiful structures, much wildlife, and a gorgeous river; and we can vary it daily. We have our health and are being as careful as possible.  We’re doing far better than many.