BGL Update

I used to live in the once great state of Victoria, Australia.

But after 6 lockdowns, this once great state is a shadow of itself.

I am really angry about the scaremongering from the politicians and the media.

Every weekday, I listen to the 8.30 news and all I hear about are infection numbers – scare, scare, scare. They don’t tell me how many people are actually sick or how many are in hospital or how many are in ICU, but they definitely tell me when someone (unfortunately) dies, but not whether they died with COVID-19 or from COVID-19. Scare, scare, scare!

So, let’s first look at the facts.

There has been 37,013 people infected with COVID-19 in Australia from a population of 25,825,438. 30,462 have fully recovered. 5,538 (99%) have a mild condition. Just 70 (1%) are in a serious or critical condition. There has been a total of 943 deaths. My source, before you say he is making these figures up, is https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/australia/. By the way, I should say, more COVID-19 tests have been performed than the population of Australia, costing us some $1.7b. Wow!

So less than .0014% of the Australian population have been infected and on the scale of deaths per million of population (37) we are 168th in the world.

Some people might say this proves our politicians have done a great job – but have they really? You cannot measure performance on just one statistic – so let’s look at a few others….

Mental health of our children is at an all-time low. Kids Helpline data tells us attempted suicide rates among Victorian teenagers have skyrocketed by 184 per cent in the past six months. Teenagers aged 13-18 are the most at risk, accounting for 75 per cent of the total crisis interventions from 1 December 2020, to 31 May 2021. 44% of Victorian emergency interventions from 1 December 2020, to 31 May 2021, were responding to a young person’s immediate intent to suicide, while child abuse emergencies triggered 31 percent. More than 13,000 calls were made by suicidal children last year, including 1,150 with “immediate intentions’’ or a current attempt to kill themselves. Check out the story on news.com.au. So, while our politicians may have protected some people in our community, they have not protected our children…

What about adults? Business people who cannot put food on the table for their families? Business employees who have lost their jobs with businesses that will never return? Politicians seem to think you can turn off and on business like a water tap. Maybe if just ONE had actually worked in a business, they would know better.

Recent ABS data gives us some idea of the extent of the problem. In June 2021, one in five (20%) Australians experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in the last four weeks. Almost one in three (30%) younger Australians (aged 18 to 34 years) experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in June 2021. In June 2021, more people living in Victoria (27%) experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress compared with the rest of Australia (18%).

Before COVID-19, the cost of mental illness to the economy was $60b each year. What is it now?

Small businesses have been decimated. Our governments have introduced schemes to help our small businesses but in reality, most of these are just spin, spin, spin. The grants and loans are simply impossible for most small businesses to get. Again, let’s look at some statistics from the City of Melbourne. Economic output is down 22%. Job losses are up to 75,000 or 15%. Our Lord Mayor Sally Capp should be very proud of herself. Here, hopeless policies around parking and bike lanes, unsafe injecting rooms and her refusal to clean up the streets has turned the City of Melbourne into a ghost town. Check out the stats at www.melbourne.vic.gov.au.

And this is just the city. The cost of the lockdowns to debt ridden Victoria is $150m per day. And we certainly are not All in this together. Our politicians and public servants have had two pay rises since March 2020 whereas the cost of the lockdowns have been borne 100% by business, employees of businesses and the self-employed. 100%. Not 50%, or 75% but 100%. We are definitely NOT All in this together.

But probably the most disheartening thing for me is what this country has become. What has happened to our compassion? The Andrews government lockdowns are brutal and cruel and far worse than they have to be. When I hear of a woman with a baby and her child in a car at the Victorian / NSW border being turned away when she wanted to go less than 100 kms to a farm to isolate or a small business woman who calls the Victorian Government Business Help Line and is recommended a Stress Down program, one has to wonder: our politicians and public servants are simply out of their depth and have lost the plot. When you have clown premiers saying Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders and a child who lives in Tweed Heads cannot cross the border for treatment and subsequently dies, I wonder what has happened to common sense. What has happened to our compassion?

So, what’s the solution? Well I wish someone were listening. Our politicians and public servants are blinkered. All they care about is 0 0 0. They don’t care about people. They don’t care about what the lockdowns are doing to people. They think they can buy their way out by promising money – that is never delivered. The emergency power legislation in Victoria calls for a proportionate response to a medical crisis. So where is the medical advice? Why has NOT ONE PIECE of medical advice been published? The response in Victoria has not been proportionate. It has been cruel and brutal. There is no compassion.

As one of the lucky few whose business has not been overly affected by this government-caused crisis, I am very thankful. But rolling lockdowns have sapped the confidence of what once was a vibrant city. The people of Victoria are fed up.

Our governments keep relying on models. Models that told us in March 2020 150,000 Australians would die from COVID-19. Models that have been wrong time after time after time not only with COVID-19. Models, models, models. And as all the model-creating experts keep saying, they do not know what effect any single restriction has on their models. So really, the models are rubbish. They don’t actually tell us anything. So, what should we do?

A couple of thoughts: If we only isolated people with COVID-19 (or people who are sick), how would this affect the models? Nobody knows.  If we locked down suburbs or communities, how would this affect the models? Nobody knows. And there must be 100 more ways to contain COVID-19 outbreaks. But nobody knows. Because we have not tried. Because lockdowns are easy and scared people seem to love being locked down.

A recent survey in Victoria revealed 38% think if they get COVID-19 they will die. That’s right – 38%! Not surprising considering there’s only scare, scare, scare it’s the 6.30 news! Maybe we should go the way of the UK and Singapore and stop the media reporting COVID-19 numbers? And maybe we need to set a Freedom Day?

Australia is in a mess. Our politicians are oblivious. They don’t know and most don’t care as long as they get their paycheck every month.  The only way they will change what they are doing to us is if 1,000,000 people protest in the streets – like the Vietnam protests many years ago. But of course, today standing still out in the open – is illegal!