Who would have thought we would be exactly in the same situation fifteen months into the pandemic, but here we are again. Sydney is now in full lockdown for the third time. We have been very lucky so far in Australia in comparison to other parts of the world, thanks to our geographical remoteness and harsh government policies shutting the borders and limiting the number of people who are allowed back in, including tens of thousands of Australian citizens stranded overseas. But it is now becoming more and more apparent that the government had failed us completely due to lack of action on many fronts, which will not only keep us in the same state of incompetence for many more months to come, but it would also put Australia far behind the rest of the world when it comes to post-Covid reality. Here’s why.

Vaccine rollout rate is only at 3% of the population, while epidemiologists keep iterating we need to get to 80% to finally beat the virus. The government is not doing enough to get people on the jab. There is no campaign as such, and apparently we simply do not have enough stock in the country. When the Prime Minister is saying “Vaccine Rollout is not a race” you know he must be hiding something. Wrong information is presented to us – Aged Care staff members, Frontline workers like flight crew and airport drivers, are not fully vaccinated. The federal government had failed us. Lack of leadership.

Quarantine system that doesn’t work. We have had so many holes in the system that allowed Covid to escape quarantine hotels, located in our big cities, into the community. For months, experts are saying we should be moving away from hotel quarantines in city centres and move them to remote areas – which we have plenty of in Australia. But consistent finger pointing between the federal and state governments resulted in lack of action. The blame game continues and state premiers use the same weapon against the virus time and time again – shut the borders and their hearts. No compassion for special circumstances, with horrific stories about stranded Aussies not allowed to return home and visit their dying mothers and fathers. We have completely lost it under this government. Lack of leadership.

Climate Action is not something the Australian government is interested in. Rather than leading the world, cutting down emissions and moving to renewable energy, we are again trailing behind the rest of the world due to lack of action. Old-school leadership who insists on relying on coal and gas industries in the name of ‘keeping our economy strong’. A National-Conservative government that protects their mates and doesn’t listen to most Australians who are demanding change. Businesses and Corporations are already making the move forward to renewable energy, while the Aussie government is trailing ten years behind. Lack of leadership.

Sexual harassment is all around the Australian parliament, but not enough is being done to stop it. This year it was revealed how bad the workplace culture is, with rape allegations against federal ministers and staff members making headlines, exposing a culture of mouth-shutting to block complaints from surfacing to the media. It is absolutely appalling that we can no longer trust the leadership in Canberra. They are not only mis-leading by example, they are literally shaming all Australians. Our parliament house doesn’t even have a Code of Conduct in place – a place where Laws are made. Most recently, after a leadership spill in the National party, apparently we got a new Deputy Prime Minister who was forced to quit politics three years ago due to sexual harassment allegations. Any word from the Prime Minister? Nah.  Lack of leadership.

I suppose we shouldn’t expect much from a Prime Minister who went on a holiday to Hawaii while the whole country was burning during the horrific bushfire season in the summer of 2019, just before Covid hit.  Lack of leadership. Nothing more, nothing less.  Back in lockdown again, it seems like we shouldn’t only shut down our cities and our borders, we should also shut down our government.