These reforms significantly weakened the capacity of the government to act purposefully and mobilise people and resources towards achieving desired goals, even in an emergency. The federal government used its fiscal dominance to force similar transformations on states. State-owned companies were privatised, while the delivery of social services, like health and education, was increasingly marketised. Consultants acquired a central policymaking role. Regulatory agencies and the Reserve Bank of Australia gained considerable independence from democratic controls. Labor initiated reform when it came to power in 1983, and it proceeded over the following decades under both Labor and Coalition governments. Their remedy was to reduce expectations of the state, including by limiting the public’s capacity to influence policy. Leaders from both major parties and senior bureaucrats blamed Australia’s uncompetitive economy on an “overloaded state”, too responsive to demands from workers and protected business. In the 1970s, Australia struggled through a serious economic and political crisis. Over several decades leading up to the pandemic crisis, the capacity of the Australian state to directly address serious problems had been deeply eroded. However, underlying Australia’s surfeit of lockdowns is a deeper problem that is seldom discussed - the hollowing out of Australia’s state capacity and the effect of this on the relationship between government and society. Finally, Australia’s vaccination rate is still quite low, and hence vaccines are currently insufficient to halt the spread of the virus and prevent large-scale serious illness and death.Īll of these have been examined ad nauseam in the media over recent weeks. Second, Australia’s hotel quarantine system, devised over a single weekend in March 2020, is not fit for purposes and continues to leak out cases into the community. First, the Delta variant is far more transmissible than the original coronavirus and earlier variants, and hence is more difficult to contain once community transmission occurs. Several immediate causes are readily apparent. This is not even to mention last year’s extended lockdowns, including Melbourne’s 112-day ordeal. Last month, Brisbane and Perth were also locked down - and not for the first time this year - as was Darwin. Both Sydney and Melbourne are currently locked down - for Melbourne, this is its third lockdown since the start of the year. Australia seems to be lurching from one lockdown to the next.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |