Where to from here?

Australians are used to adversity, every year significant tracts of our land are subject to bush fires, floods and/or drought. These natural occurrences seem to be compounded by what the citizens and governments do or don’t do.

The aftermath of the most severe of these occurrences is usually the creation of a Royal Commission. These Royal Commissions are generally chartered with the responsibility to determine what happened, what was done wrongly, what was not done that should have been done and what should we do to get a better result next time.

They always take ages to run their course, the media gives a couple of headlines in the early stages of public hearings and highlight the headline items of the often 100+ recommendations. Governments usually issue a statement saying that they will consider the findings of the Royal Commission and where they deem it appropriate will draft new legislation to give effect to the matters that the government intends to adopt.

Then, it seems to all go away until the next time!

I am certain that we will end up with at least one Royal Commission, but quite possibly each state or territory could initiate one of their own. These are the things that I would like to see come out of the review process.

1. All states and territories to enter into a formal and enforceable accord with the Australian Government to manage any crisis that is deemed to be national. A National emergency should be centrally managed by the Australian Government with no autonomy for states or territories. States and territories should not be able to agree at a “national cabinet” on measures of control and then go home and change their mind like has happened with COVID.
2. The Commonwealth should automatically offer states and territories the use of Federal assets and personnel to assist with the management of any state or territory-based emergency.
3. The management of any medical emergency such as COVID should initially concentrate on containment, with resources devoted to risk evaluation running parallel with containment efforts. The target should always be bringing the situation to manageable levels.
4. A reporting protocol should be established so that there is 100% uniformity between the various jurisdictions of how matters are measured, when they are reported, eligibility for tests etc.
5. We should be very wary of the concept of self-isolation, wherever possible keeping people away from the community should be done by quarantine or failing that home detention protocols (e.g. ankle bracelets).
6. Banning flights should mean banning flights, not letting people (even if they are Australians), come back into the country and be put up in hotels at our expense. If we declare that it is dangerous for us to let people into our country, anyone who wishes to come should prove their uninfected status prior to arrival and pay for their own quarantine.
7. We should adopt the concept of infection zones, being places of high- density infection. People who are within those zones should not be able to leave those zones other than for medical repatriation, or after satisfactory proof of being uninfected.
8. We should be able to adopt the concept of sensitive zones where there is no detected infection, but also insufficient medical resources (personnel, institutions, and supplies) to be able to properly manage any outbreak. These would be “do not enter areas”, rather than do not leave. Re-entry should be subject to satisfactory proof of being uninfected.
9. These zones should not be entire states/territories unless circumstances inarguably warrant such treatment. The entire nation is responsible for the management of a National Emergency and we are all Australians. A Queensland resident should have no greater or lesser importance than a resident of any other state or territory.
10. We should correct for all time the appalling lack of preparedness that prevailed at the beginning of 2020, for any emergency such as the COVID pandemic. We must ensure that we have sufficient PPE equipment and have significant mobility of personnel and equipment to get to the area of greatest need promptly.
11. We must always have a high degree of scepticism about data, it should be constantly under scrutiny to ensure that it has credibility. Data produced in the early parts of any breakout should be acted upon if it can’t be rationally contradicted, but it should be urgently scrutinised as more information comes to light.
12. Any restriction of movement or closures of businesses should have a sunset component, i.e. a specified target which means that the achievement of the target will result in the modification or removal of the ban. This sunset target should be publicly disclosed, if it requires modification due to subsequent events, then it can simply be re-announced.

Here is the Timeline of 'open' confirmed cases, recoveries, and deaths that I want you to see.

The opinions expressed in this article are my personal opinions and the information that I have provided within the article is, to the best of my understanding, factual. I respect the right of others to have differing opinions. Any errors or inconsistencies are entirely my fault.

Posted By darryl

Updated : 22nd June 2020 | Words : 845 | Views : 1627

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