EVERY crisis that has ever threatened, whether it is on an individual level or a global scale, has presented opportunities. COVID-19 is no exception.
The crisis we now face has exposed many problems and the Australian government is recognising these and taking up the challenges. The Australian manufacturing sector in 2000 produced 15 per cent of GDP; today it is a mere six per cent. Since the 1990s we've become a resource nation exporting raw materials and buying manufactured goods with around 5000 per cent added value. This is a loss-making equation.
Treasurer Frydenberg said that we cannot think we can just start making 90 per cent of (manufactured goods) but what we can do is develop our markets and have a strategy that create(s) manufacturing industries we can develop.
The Australian government is now looking at re-establishing manufacturing through a new task force chaired by former Trump advisor Andrew Liveris, who has signalled the end of off-shoring manufacturing.
We already have manufacturers of solar panels and batteries, science companies, water purification, high value medical and surgical treatments and many advanced technology producers and exporters. These sectors have been limited by competition through free trade agreements, government red tape and lack of supports.
The COVID crisis, it seems, has opened the eyes of the government to the self-imposed limitations on our economy. Perhaps, at last, we are to see a liberalisation of our economy which will see Australia at last become the booming economy that Bob Hawke envisaged back in the '80s.
Scott Bell-Ellercamp, Clarence Town
NOT 'APPY ABOUT TRACKING
A PHONE tracking app, whoever it comes from, may help stop the coronavirus epidemic in Australia but it is unacceptable unless it has effective and verifiable privacy safeguards.
I believe there is already too much cyber-spying on Australian citizens by government and business. We see only the tip of the iceberg.
The usual government excuse for it is that it is protecting us from terrorism, hostile foreign nations, the drug trade, scamming, tax fraud or welfare cheating. Now the government wants to protect our health.
With good reason, we should be suspicious of government intentions. We should remember previous government forays into electronic data collection and spying. They were bumbling and cheap. The data collected was easily accessed by other entities.
We should remember the MyHealthRecord debacle, the Department of Home Affairs and ASIO metadata scandal, and ASIS spying on the poor East Timorese on behalf of big oil. We should remember the Australia card.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
VIRUS FIGHT IS ORWELLIAN
CONSIDERING the dystopian conditions currently imposed upon us (for our own good?) I believe one can't help but turn to George Orwell's 1984 novel for parallels.
That novel, being first published in 1949, was naturally viewed by most contemporaries as a fantasy disconnected from reality. Considering it was published four years after the Nazi regime was destroyed and the first atomic bomb was exploded in a civilised country, it's not too difficult to recognise where George Orwell found his concept. It's not particularly fantastic at all.
Fast forward to coronavirus in 2020 and I suspect if George Orwell had published the story of our current times in 1949 his readers would have found it equally incredible and fearful as 1984.
At this time we have police with alarmingly wide discretionary powers. Some local newspapers are shut down, unemployment is at its highest since the Depression and public gatherings are illegal. Although at this time many people have died, my understanding is that those deaths are still nowhere comparable to the average deaths we normally tolerate in this country for the flu, suicides or road deaths.
Few authorities appear to be able to agree as to the cause of this pandemic, with a wide range of possible causes suggested such as some kind of laboratory mistake or a Chinese wet market escape. George Orwell would be impressed.
George Paris, Rathmines
PLENTY TO APPRECIATE
HOW fortunate are we, living in Australia and in particular the Hunter? This crisis is affecting everyone in different circumstances and the limitations imposed upon us are necessary to protect the health and welfare of all Novocastrians. Instead of looking for quick-fix options we must support the long-term agenda of our health professionals and governments ('Stick to it', Newcastle Herald 21/4). We will adjust to these restrictions in the normal Aussie way and still protect the welfare of the aged and frail within our Hunter communities. Let's remember the Anzac spirit and support the eradication of this cruel virus by following the rules.
Gerry Mohan, Shoal Bay
HUMANS ARE NOT ISLANDS
ISOLATION is in general contrary to human health. Indefinite isolation is contrary to human sanity, as shown by the fact isolation has always been among the cruellest of punishments.
I believe imposing police powers to prevent free association is the totalitarian means of punishing a society. Why is there no firm plan, or even a flexible draft schedule, for removing the inhuman impositions we are struggling to bear? Why is indefinite punishment the appropriate response? People are disobeying and bearing punishments upon punishment. For human beings, death is a natural tragedy and isolation is brutality. I say free our minds now.
Jody Bailey, Kahibah
LEADERSHIP FOUND LACKING
The world has two competent women leaders in Jacinda Ardern and Angela Merkel who in my opinion leave Scott Morrison looking like a chook flapping about with its head cut off.
We have never really got over the bushfires and him skipping the country, and now we are hit with a deadly virus.
Letting people off the Ruby Princess and into the public domain has been a huge disaster. Surely the blame lies squarely with those from our end who decided to let passengers disembark without taking temperatures and quarantining.
Lockdown laws are another fiasco in my view. Some people are getting warnings while others are getting on-the-spot fines and publicly shamed.
Now Morrison is angry, incorrectly accusing a healthcare worker from Tasmania of lying about their contacts, and he wants to force an app on us all with the threat that if we don't comply we will be in lockdown for a whole lot longer. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a man way out of his depth.
Julie Robinson, Cardiff
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@newcastleherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name and suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words. Short Takes should be fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.
SHORT TAKES
NOW that people power has suggested to the Roads and Maritime Services a reduction in registration fees, would a new initiative such as a 50 per cent reduction in road taxes for caravans be in line? We have been told to stay at home and van parks are not receptive to travellers. No travel and no road use equals grounds for a reduction, surely.
John Bradford, Beresfield
Maybe just maybe, the trendsetters who travel from the suburbs to the Bathers Way to "exercise" should take a leaf out of 99 year old Captain Tom Moore's book and exercise in their own front garden. We wouldn't expect you to match his achievements, but at least you would be better obeying the spirit of the law.
Graham Jones, Warners Bay
PEOPLE can remember the Prime Minister for various things. I will remember the Prime Minister and his advisors for letting the virus freely into Australia whilst China was reporting having a huge death toll from the virus. Australia has a Border Force that controls things that come into Australia that need quarantining, but no action was taken initially on the virus though it was reported as being bad.
Agner Sorensen, Teralba
THANK goodness the voices of a few have been heard and that investigations will consider conditions on the Ruby Princess from the previous voyage. I hope Mr. Lieben gets his answers and the truth will out. It seems we have much to learn about ourselves as well as this virus.
Vic Davies, Tighes Hill
NEWCASTLE Perm's new TV ad tells how they are putting on more people at their call centres. Maybe if they stopped closing local branches they wouldn't have to do this.
Bruce Cook Adamstown
COULD someone give me a genuine privacy concern they have, to not download the government COVID-19 app?
Bill Slicer, Tighes Hill
THE toilet paper shortage is solved. Thank you, Mr Turnbull.
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
AHH, Rocco De Grandis, I can't wait for the divers and actors to be back on celebrating nil-all draws. Maybe then we can all get some sleep. Yawn.
Matt Ophir, Charlestown
I THOUGHT our morons on Bathers Way were a lost cause, but along comes some dopey redneck Americans with guns and placards demanding to be able to run around willy-nilly. I think this mob and the anti vaccine mob should wear a bracelet and if they get the virus they should not be treated, same goes for the must be seen crowd. Save the hospitals for those that are doing the right thing
Tony Phillip, Kurri Kurri
MESSAGEBOARD
NEWCASTLE Hunters is organising a grocery kit for those who may need a helping hand during the COVID-19 pandemic. The kit is expected to last roughly a week. To nominate someone in need call Judy on 0469 674 549.
