Freedoms eroded in the name of COVID-Zero

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In response to the emergence of the Delta variant, Australia’s experience of the coronavirus pandemic dramatically changed in June. Sydney has entered its third month of lockdown while Victoria has floated in and out of lockdowns. Meanwhile, the rest of the country remains on a knife’s edge. Is it time our politicians admitted that their authoritarian measures aren’t working?

Much of the media has become a cheer squad for the blunt instrument of lockdowns and a moral hall monitor that polices thought crimes. Yet recent polling commissioned by CIS suggests that Australians are unlikely to accept lockdowns once vaccination reaches high levels. COVID-Zero is not a viable policy.

Hosted by Tom Switzer with prominent Nine News political editor Chris Uhlmann they discuss how Australia must move on from lockdowns and learn to live with COVID in society.

Chris Uhlmann is political editor at Nine News and a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Tom Switzer is executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies and presenter of Between the Lines at ABC’s Radio National.