Should we boycott Qld and WA?

There have been many Australian low points during the Covid period but in terms of sheer heartlessness it is hard to go past Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s declaration that Queensland hospitals were “our people”.

So much for “we’re all in this together” or even for something we used to call Australia.

Just for the record, even if they are squabbling about it, Queensland hospitals receive federal funding.

It is no wonder One Nation’s vote collapsed during the last Queensland election.

Normally that would be a good thing but obviously One Nation was out One Nationed by the Queensland ALP.

Perhaps they should change their party name to “One State”.

The other ALP premier to most obviously benefit electorally from a bellicose parochialism is WA’s Mark McGowan.

He proudly explained to an ALP conference why they almost had an electoral clean sweep: “It’s because we stood up for Western Australians’ health.”

Perhaps he should rename his Labor branch “WA First”.

But where does that leave the rest of us? Especially now that NSW, and much more reluctantly Victoria are starting to reopen.

This has forced even Queensland to peer nervously through the shutters and think about raising them a little.

Perhaps even they start to wonder if hanging up “No visitors allowed – that means YOU!” signs at the border isn’t that conducive to a roaring tourism sector.  

But let’s assume Queensland, and even some time in the far future when every local wears a mask and a face-shield inside a bio-hazmat suit, WA lets outsiders in – how welcoming would they be?

One sniffle and you’ll be sent packing faster than Harvey Weinstein trying to speak at a Hollywood feminist networking luncheon.

When NSW declared “freedom day” and eased out of its lockdown the Twitter WA and Queensland hivemind endlessly echoed one sentiment – “It’s freedom day every day here”.

Being locked in, while some loved ones are heartbreakingly locked out, is not freedom – it is just a very, very spacious jail even if it has some nice outdoor activities.

As they have shunned Australians in the “plague” states, should, when we get the chance. return the favour and shun them like the plague?

Should we boycott Queensland and WA (and, don’t worry, I still see you SA, NT and Tassie trying to shuffle your way off the Federation map)?

Once international travel opens up we can go to Bali or other pacific islands for our taste of tropics. those places would surely be effusively welcoming – and probably cheaper too.

What’s Queensland got that’s unique?

I hear from environmental scolds that the Great Barrier Reef is so pushing up the proverbial daisy polyps that could put what’s left alive your local dentist’s fish tank. so why bother going?

Yes, the Covid-free states might be open to each other but in the Covid-not-so-free states we have soon have the world to go to.

Would you rather Perth or Paris? Brisbane or Barcelona?

So should we boycott Queensland and WA (plus the other quieter ones)? Well – end of article spoiler alert – no, because limiting where you go in the end only limits you.

Pandemics are the price we pay for globalisation.

If you open up to the world, you will get a worldwide virus but thinking you can lock this out until it is “totally safe” misses the essential point… that… it.. will… never… be TOTALLY SAFE!

Even with a 90% vaccination rate, about the highest you can reasonably expect, the hard bit is that some people will get very sick and some will die.

However, shutting that risk has costs and big losses of its own.

Australia spent much of its history trying to shut out the unruliness of the world to become an Anglo outpost of egalitarianism, the “worker’s paradise”.

The self-defeating nature of this idea has been the overriding theme of pollical commentator George Megalogenis.

He argues Australia must welcome in the world to reach its potential. Conversely when Australia turns inward the nation shrinks economically and perhaps even, in a more intangible way. morally.

Fun fact – did you know Megalogenis and Palaszczuk were married? That was, quite literally, a union of two of the biggest names in Australian politics and journalism.

No matter how great their mineral or agricultural wealth is, the states that shut up shop and will lose out to the states that open up.

Talented people will find their way to the places that welcome them and at the risk of sounding like a hokey HR department mission statement – people are the greatest resource of all.

Open beats closed every time. East Germany decided it wanted to be West Germany. One day South Korea will absorb North Korea, assuming Kim the Third doesn’t do anything suicidally stupid.

When finally the shutters shatter we should welcome our fellow Australians. Also not all Queenslanders and Westralians are happy being shut-ins, even if they are out-voted.

So let’s go there and they can come to our states. I’d even be OK with them using “our” hospitals.