IT’S time to listen to blind Freddie. When COVID first struck it was both common sense and politically astute for governments to design the communication response on the advice of the best medical minds in the country.
Now as the second wave rolls up the beach it is neither common sense nor politically astute to use doctors as a handy excuse for clumsy messaging. The COVID-19 communications now need to be sophisticated, well-rounded and comprehensive.
FORMER Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed his frustration at the mindless suggestion that Australians were sharing the pain of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic.
In a wide ranging interview with the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) published last Wednesday, Mr Abbott made it clear that the “doing class” – and not the “talking class” – had worn the brunt of the crisis.
IN THE NSW town of Bowral last week it was hard to find a car space. Motels, hotels and virtually every restaurant were booked out.
The queue outside the main-street pie shop extended, with social distancing, 100 metres along the footpath. This was a town in recovery mode. Not a sign of Coronavirus. The hotels alone had been turning people away every night, at weekends up to 50 per night.
WHEN so-called “experts” forced most of the western world’s population into home detention earlier this year they said we had to accept medical science. A few years earlier, when other so-called “experts” scared the western hemisphere into de-industrialising, they told us climate science was settled.
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison blasted journalists yesterday telling them to “get with it” after a blatant attempt to wedge him in a race baiting storm.
Australia’s mainstream media, which has been obsessed with 10th order issues since the invention of Twitter, provoked a furious lecture from the Prime Minister.
“I CALL the meeting to order. Jim, please move your chair away from Kath. Social distancing please. We’re here to get some figures for Gladys. Let’s get underway…
“Buses, currently we have 12 passengers, not counting school kids. Ideas?”
IF YOU’VE ever had phone problems, you might have experienced Telecom Syndrome.
You started off liking those overseas operators who promised they could easily solve your issues, but gradually you grew to hate them as the issue remained unfixed for days then weeks, while you hung on the line, got transferred, listened to Muzak, repeatedly gave your personal details “for security purposes”, waited for call backs and stayed home for technicians.
WHEN Tony Abbott’s government came to power just seven years ago, it promised to have Australia live within its means, to get back into the black, to free our children and grandchildren from the coming burden of massive debt.
It was a fear campaign with relevance to those who had worked, scrimped and saved. That debt – then around $175b – was promoted as a significant threat to Australia’s future generations, and when the Labor Government was thrashed in the election, it seemed that most voters must have shared the view.
THE motto of Australia’s political class could well be the reverse of that old saying, “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”.
The May release of more fake than usual unemployment statistics has exposed the emptiness of the propaganda slogan ‘We’re all in this together.’
SUCH is Australia’s success that politicians boast about their performance and citizens are regularly congratulated for their obedience in conforming to government dictates, including shutting down businesses and closing schools. But not all are happy.
