Asides from the border restrictions, and with Melbourne as an unlucky exception, Australia and NZ did comparatively well at minimizing restrictions on the domestic population, as well as doing amazing comparatively at saving lives.
Luck had little to nothing to do with what we were subjected to here. It was all very deliberate (although also very haphazard and reckless) and has left a scar in many ordinary people in ways that will impact their voting behaviour for years.
You also leave out that restrictions in Melbourne and Sydney, interstate and overseas travel restrictions, etc impacted regional Australia economically and socially too. People in states without restrictions themselves had impacts cascading to them. Whether or not this is a net good when factoring in theoretical worst case death toll scenarios is irrelevant when it's what actually defined the last few years for you: not seeing family and friends, plans being ruined, losing income, just ballooning uncertainty everywhere.
Luckily for Labor the Australian population seem to be largely docile. There's no strong tradition of standing up for human rights. It's not something that activates a majority of people, unfortunately. However, there is still a portion of people who ought to be labor-leaning who have gone a little nutty because of the abuse they've endured. It is what it is.
Mate, the reality is that virtually no one is voting on lockdowns because we're not insane.
The only two parties explicitly anti-lockdown are Cliver Palmer's New Vanity Project and the Liberal Democrats. They are both tiny fringe parties polling less than the Greens.
You might even go so far as to say that there is a portion of people who ought to be labor-leaning who have gone a little nutty because of the abuse they've endured. It is what it is.
TBH, Australia isn't alone in being what it was being subjected to. As they used to say during wartime, it was "for the duration".
And if you want to know what leads people to be voluntarily docile, it's because they're left with the unflattering impression that this kind of "standing up for human rights" is, in practice, kinfolk to something like Christian conservative or men's rights types claiming to "stand up for human rights".
Yes, the media poisoning the well by associating all protestors with fringe lunatics was disappointing. Unfortunately we also do not have a strong tradition of independent media, so this is the impression many got. If all anti-lockdown people are kooks, I can safely ignore them. I will also push down my own feelings because I don't want to suffer similar social consequences.
As for the "for the duration" comment, we enjoyed some of the most asinine, pointlessly cruel restrictions in the world. We were also late in common sense measures (encouraging the use of masks, effective contact tracing early on) and stuck with measures that had no measurable impact seemingly out of spite/political weakness (curfews, restrictions on time spent outdoors, etc). At the federal level, we had to apply for special permission to even
leave. It was insane. The fact that the general population seem to think this was all for the best is very worrying for what the political class now knows they can get away with in the name of public health. This theme is already underway. The Liberals are saying the mental health impacts of harassment on social media need to be addressed. You can be sure these will be laws setup to be used as a shield to prosecute anyone too influential who wants to express dissent towards the wrong politicians and policies.
Why do you blame Labor for this when it was very much a cross party thing?
I am speaking mostly of my own experience, as a Melbournian. In any case, it was the state Labor governments that were the most heavy-handed. Even Albo's policies seemed to be "we need to do what the Liberals are doing but even more intense." The biggest failures of the Liberals to me were the vaccine rollout, handing out money to businesses and not workers, and locking down travel for the entire country for everything but emergencies. And of course, neither major party is interested in doing anything meaningful to tackle one of the most frustrating impacts: the housing market.
I'm not gonna lie, in late 2020 after our first lockdown I was pretty smug and thought we were doing it right even if I disagreed strongly with some of the stricter restrictions we had. As restrictions began rolling in and out again and I sat waiting for a second dose until October, well..
