Dr Farooq Yousaf
Australia and New Zealand, owing to their geographic location, stand in relative isolation from the rest of the world. This geography was one of the key factors that helped the two countries to enforce timely and effective national lockdowns to stem the rising tide of coronavirus in March.
As a result, Australia, in the past week, has recorded less than twenty new cases per day on average, whereas New Zealand’s daily infection rate has plummeted to single figures; with the country reporting a total of only five new cases between 18th and 24th May.
Australia enforced strict restrictions for its citizens, residents, international visitors as well as visa holders. On March 19, the country’s PM Scott Morrison announced to close the country’s borders to all “non-citizens”.
This meant that other than Australian citizens, permanent residents and those on special status visas, no one else was allowed to enter the country. Subsequently, hundreds of thousands lost their jobs, with the retail and hospitality sectors taking the biggest hit. Increased government benefits and financial incentive for businesses, however, took several weeks to arrive in the residents’ accounts. Moreover, the police were also given extended powers to fine anyone disobeying the lockdown restrictions.
Similarly, New Zealand implemented a “Alert Level 4” for the pandemic. Level 4 Alert meant that “it was likely that the disease is not contained”. This “elimination approach” adopted by New Zealand was different from the “mitigation” approach pursued by most countries around the world. It is due to this aggressive approach that New Zealand has more or less controlled the pandemic.
New Zealand’s PM Jacinda Ardern, who was already popular among her countrymen, has seen her popularity grow owing to her “strong but empathetic” leadership. Unlike Australia, where international students and visa holders were completely kept out of the coronavirus stimulus package, New Zealand offered “some” support to international students stranded in the country during the lockdown.
The Australian government and the Prime Minister were especially criticised for their lack of empathy and turning their backs on the international students and temporary visa holders in the country during the crisis. However, when it comes to domestic politics and perceptions in Australia, developments have remained somewhat “stable”.
Australia’s major political parties have also conducted themselves better than many other countries around the world. Both the PM and State Premiers (Australia’s version of Chief Minister) met regularly and briefed the state and national citizens on a daily basis since March. These daily briefings were both concise and precise, covering facts, figures, policies and policy changes.
The coronavirus response in Australia was mainly “apolitical” with the leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese of the Labor Party, refraining from making critical statements against the government until recently. His only major critique came when the government in Australia was criticised for overestimating the “job-seeker” subsidy package, meant to support jobless workers, by $60 billion. The government had initially estimated the number to be somewhere around $130 billion, which was recently revised to $70 billion.
The Australian government, on May 22, also formed a cross-public sector panel – drawn from state and federal ministers – to tackle various digital challenges and improve service delivery for businesses whose employees are working from home.
“Technology is going to drive economic growth as we come out the other side of this pandemic. This isn’t just about the technology sector, it’s about making all Australian businesses across all sectors more resilient, agile and productive through technology,”, said Australia’s minister for industry, science and technology Karen Andrews, who led the panel’s inaugural meeting.
From domestic politics perspective, Australia’s coronavirus response also needs to be assessed in context of recent events. Last year, Australia suffered an unprecedented bushfire disaster; resulting in civilian deaths and heavy damages to properties, flora and fauna. Around five million people in Sydney alone, which is a fifth of Australia’s population, had to breathe in alarmingly high levels of hazardous air quality. The country’s capital Canberra also had to evacuate some of its residents owing to one of the deadly bushfires in the country’s history.
Australian citizens, during this crisis, hoped that their PM would lead from the front and pull the country out of the crisis. Instead, PM Morrison took his family to Hawaii for a family holiday. This PR disaster inflicted enough damage on the PM’s position in the country’s politics. Hence, one could argue that Morrison was not a popular PM in the beginning of 2020.
However, the coronavirus pandemic was a blessing in disguise and provided Morrison with an ideal opportunity to redeem himself in his voters’ eyes. Both his critics and supporters believe that the PM took the lead this time around and dealt with the coronavirus pandemic in an effective manner. Many workers, who had lost their jobs, were also all-praise for the PM for announcing a job-seeker financial support package, which ensured that citizens and residents who had lost their jobs were able to sustain in this interim period.
Australia often compares itself to the US in terms of culture, development and economic progress. However, this time around, coronavirus response is something where Australia is faring much better compared to the US. New Zealand, on the other hand, has taken the lead over both Australia and US in terms of providing an effective blueprint in tackling the coronavirus pandemic.
The author is based in Australia and holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Newcastle.
