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EDITORIAL: Lack of freedoms a test for society

What a test for society. Just about every aspect of day-to-day life has gone under the microscope during the COVID-19 threat.

Life has changed for all of us for the moment and has already exposed the fragility of what we have come to expect as Australians.

If you are experiencing everything from fear and isolation to basic boredom you are far from alone. Everyone is trying to endure awkward and in some cases painful circumstances that feel more than a little foreign.

Perhaps one of the things people trying to keep themselves occupied should do is consider what life would be like if we always had to live in such social-distancing conditions.



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The reality is that we’re experiencing a tiny taste of what it would be like to live in a draconian totalitarian society or police state where individual freedoms are more of a luxury than a right.

Imagine if this lack of freedom was the norm based on the repressive whims of a ruthless junta. History tells us this is exactly what has happened and continues to happen in some countries around the globe.

As Anzac Day approaches, it puts into perspective the freedoms we’ve fought for in the past and have come to expect as Australians. 

For many of us it might well be a galvanising lesson in why we should appreciate the opportunities at our disposal.

Thank goodness this latest stripping of freedoms is for an obvious collective good and is hopefully relatively short-lived.

Essential services

The way we go about our everyday lives will undergo change, much of it based on how governments and markets respond to such testing times.

For example, we wonder what this crisis will reveal about how we best manage our various essential-service agencies.

Will we continue to put an enormous amount of faith in private enterprise or private-enterprise modelling where services run based on profit-loss scenarios, to generate the steam needed to get us back on track? Or will we pull much of it back under the wings of central government?

We’re unsure, but it will be different.

On the ground, one glaring Commonwealth department set to attract considerable and immediate scrutiny after the dust settles will be Services Australia and how efficient and seamless the government will be in working directly with everyday people.

Just what will the experience in dealing with our social-security backbone organisation Centrelink be like when we emerge on the other side of this threat?

Again, we are not sure.

People have for years groaned in frustration when wading through the bureaucratic maze of Centrelink complexities and-or times waiting in lengthy queues.

We can only hope the experience is better instead of worse.

The entire April 8, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!