We are now at a critical juncture in the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. The outbreak continues to grow in Sydney and constantly threatens to spill over to the rest of the country. The NSW Government’s decision to delay a lockdown has led to a crisis. Now, instead of taking measures to halt the spread, they are shifting the goalposts. Gladys Berejiklian has abandoned the goal of returning to zero transmissions, the only way to adequately protect the health of the population. Instead the Liberals now speak of “learning to live with COVID”.

Rather than eradicating the virus, they now speak of vaccination rates of 50, 60, or 70 per cent of the adult population as a path to “freedom” and the lifting of restrictions. Mass vaccination is a crucial step, but the Government’s plan is not to use vaccination as part of a strategy to drive transmission back to zero, but based on recklessly lifting restrictions in the middle of an outbreak and accepting large numbers of cases. This is a shift which will lead to hundreds, if not tens of thousands, of unnecessary deaths, and many times more of hospitalisation and suffering. Already, our underfunded NSW hospitals and staff are stretched beyond capacity.

As epidemiologists Quentin Grafton, Mary-Louise McLaws and Tom Kompas wrote recently:
“Relaxing lockdown prematurely based solely on an arbitrary (and much too low) vaccination rate will likely lead to escalating cases and impose huge costs on Sydney and the rest of Australia… Crucially, Sydney’s lockdown needs to continue until the number of new daily cases who weren’t in full isolation reaches zero.”

In both the UK and the US, which already have those levels of vaccination, huge numbers are being hospitalised and dying every day from the Delta strain. It is appalling that Australian health policy seems to be inspired by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is alleged to have declared, “No more f***ing lockdowns, let the bodies pile high in their thousands.”

This represents a massive attack on the health of the population, in particular on the working class, poorer and migrant communities who have borne the brunt of this pandemic globally. COVID-19 has killed nearly 5 million people around the world, disproportionately those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

The NSW and Federal governments have consistently been driven not by the health concerns of the population, but by concerns for the “economy”, ie, by the profits of their business backers and party donors. Their failure to build proper quarantine facilities, and to vaccinate the population, including those working in the quarantine system, has led to repeated outbreaks. In NSW, this failure has been compounded by Berejiklian’s refusal to lock down Sydney early or hard enough. Her callous prioritisation of profits over health led to the outbreak shifting from the wealthy Eastern suburbs to West and South Western Sydney, home to huge numbers of people who cannot work from home, and who are tragically often carrying the infection home to their families.

The cries of business-owners and their lobby groups, some media columnists and shock-jocks, and far-right, anti-vax protesters, that lockdowns are an unacceptable infringement on their “freedom”, only reveal how little they care about the health and safety of the working class.

Workplace transmission is clearly what is driving the current outbreak, and yet the NSW government is still refusing to close all non-essential workplaces and pay people to stay at home. Retail stores like Bunnings have not even been moved to click-and-collect only. Not enough is being done to make essential work safe. Incredibly, they are now pushing to re-open schools, and have lifted restrictions on the construction industry. To cover for their failed policies, Gladys Berejiklian and Brad Hazzard spend every press conference trying to shift blame onto individuals, households and the unvaccinated.

In addition, the economic measures needed to support the working class and allow people to stay home remain woefully inadequate. Measures like paid pandemic leave, including special leave for workers to get tested, to isolate or to get vaccinated, remain virtually non-existent.

Lockdown to Zero - Health Before Profits is a new campaign devoted to fighting back against the reckless shift on COVID-19 health policy taking place before our eyes.

We demand:
- A return to the policy of getting community transmission back to zero, as the only way to adequately protect the health of the population.
- A proper lockdown to achieve this goal, especially the closure of non-essential workplaces, which has repeatedly been shown to work in other states. No lifting of lockdown measures until community transmission is back to zero.
- An increase in the amount and accessibility of support payments, regardless of visa status. Pay people to stay at home! Protection of tenants, rent reductions and a ban on evictions.
- No return to schools until it is safe. Free laptops and wifi access for all public school students to learn from home.
- Thorough measures to make essential work safer, including mass testing, the transformation of workplace environments to ensure better ventilation, restricted rostering, better PPE, etc.
- Vaccination programs that include children, and target essential workers, including paid vaccine leave, workplace vaccination drives, and proper vaccine education campaigns.
- Purpose-built, Delta-proof, quarantine facilities, which can prevent the constant outbreaks caused by leakages, while allowing for as many returning citizens, refugees and migrants as is safely possible.
- A massive increase in health funding, hospital and ICU capacity and staffing levels.