HOW THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT HAS MESSED UP MY TRAVEL LIFE
"Been Everywhere -Not Going"
The Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews did not cause the pandemic but he sure messed up the management of its spread and as he is the man in charge he is responsible for what is now six months of lost life, confined now to an area of 5 kilometres from my home and then allowed out for only one hour per day wearing a mask.I understaNd the need and why but.... Even today, the mistakes are not clearly defined and months away and so too all the actions to make life normal again in Victoria.
Despite a special cabinet of eight ministers that was formed and looked right politically there was no apparent clear line of responsibility or control. It was politically correct but useless as a management arrangement as we found to our sorrow. The decision to ignore offers of the Australian Defence Force help to assist with hotel quarantine management was again more political rather than thinking about how to get the job done. Some say the govrnment was influenced by union friends in Emergency Services wary of the ADF involvement, again driven by politics. This was despite the clear evidence elsewhere that the ADF had played a valuable role. The use of security guards instead of police or ADF appeared to be driven by a political desire to drive the numbers up in the Work for Victoria Program. If there was management of the program, which one doubts from the outcome little if any training (or controls) for the hired hands who were charged with a significant responsibility which they clearly were not equipped to do.
There were no contingency plans for places like government run high rise homes, should the virus spread and of course it did and rapidly. Add to that petty squabbling by ministers over their turf added little to the exercise. One cannot also forget the stringent rules for those like me but no controls over the various rallies and the thousands that accumulated in the streets without fear of retribution. The total stupidity of allowing people with Covid 19 to walk the streets because of their 'civil liberties' and how in the latest Stage 4 lock-down they seemed to disappear. Finally, the ‘’kick the can down the road’ and have an enquiry further delays actions that is needed now to correct the issues not as some future time when things may have eased and the political pressure is off. Now is the time to understand what changes need to be made and initiate them pronto.
Apart from our life
“in prison” the economic impact is potentially disastrous and I do see how the world
economy can recover and the airlines get back to what they once were.
Over the last two
years I travelled to the following countries.
Latvia , United Kingdom, Lithuania, Brazil, Chile, Finland, Spain, France, Italy, Korea, Uzbekistan, Germany, Japan (more than once),Nepal, Greece (Corfu), Albania, Taiwan, Brunei, New Zealand, Singapore, Romania, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Iceland, China, (Xián, Dunhuang, Guilan) USA (more than once) , Dominican Republic , Panama, Granada, Cayman Islands, Laos, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Columbia, Mexico and of course all those great places in Australia; in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Northern Territory, and least of all Victoria.
I pray now for the time I can walk the Yarra River, have coffee in Flinders Lane, walk the Grampians and watch the ships go through the Rip at Point Nepean. Not to over-look the greasy fish and chips and the cheap chardonnay at some grungy pub or the superb restaurants that once made Melbourne the most liveable city in the world. I hope for a world where politicians are replaced by sound managers who get on with the job of managing but I expect my hope to return to a normal life is more likely than honesty from those that govern us.
Maybe it is prison in “Plague City” that caused this minor eruption on a
blog that has always focused on TRAVEL. That of course is what is all about and
I want to get back to the life we had, seeing new places, getting fresh air , new sights,
meeting different people end enjoying various foods, some good and some bad. Riding tacky airlines and waiting in line at security and arrogant border control all sound great.
I should not be too hard on the Victorian Premier as he does work hard but I sure wish that there were more management skills and less politcs--let us hope they learn but like hoping for this mess to end I am not holding my breath. My small rant incidently does nothing, so I am more useles than those in charge.My pain is so much less than many who have lost family and friends. I should also say, in my humble view this is not the first blunder. The abandonment of the East West Link was one as was the signing up to the Belt & Road initiative without appropriate consultation withe Federal Government but this is a travel blog and I should avoid being political.
"Plague City Syndrome"
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