We are going to an election

in just eight weeks. It is a state election. We have a federal election coming up later in the year.

In both cases the government is expected to lose the election. In both cases the opposition is claiming they could have handled the Covid situation much better. That alone will probably be enough to get them over the line. That it isn't the reality is beside the point. They simply need to say it and people will believe it. There is no need for them to say how they would have handled it any more effectively - even with the benefit of hindsight. They simply need to convince people that they would have done better. 

It's nonsense of course. One of the things about an epidemic - it becomes a pandemic when it crosses to another continent - is that it is not possible to accurately predict what is going to happen. Why did some people die, others get critically ill and recover, even more get mildly ill and recover, and some not get the disease at all? Governments trying to plan for that sort of thing face an almost impossible task. 

Ours have actually done a pretty good job. I don't agree with everything they have done but it is a fine balancing act between getting most people to do the right thing and keeping everyone as safe as possible.  

There were many critical comments from the opposition about the "delay" in the vaccination program and suggestions that the federal government had not ordered enough doses of vaccine quickly enough or planned how to get them out into the community. Those comments were unjustified. Yes, there have been some hiccups but the reality is that those responsible have actually done an extraordinary job in getting this done. I am even getting a booster shot tomorrow. (I feel a little guilty about this knowing that there are so many people in other parts of the world who have not had any shots at all.)

I do wonder how much longer we will be required to check in with QR codes or manually and how much longer we will be required to wear a mask in most venues. I can only assume that this is what the Chief Medical Officer is saying is necessary. It would be good to have some idea of when she believes that can stop. If that stops then it is likely that it will be possible to visit more freely in aged care - and too many people are using the present situation as an excuse not to see people in aged care. 

But all those things are likely to have been much the same whichever party was in power. That is not what we should be looking at. We should be looking at the other policies and how much the present governments have managed to achieve. We also need to look at how many times the government of the day has not been able to implement a policy simply because the opposition has found a way to prevent it from happening.  

I thought of all this yesterday when a very senior figure in the state opposition gleefully informed me that they had managed to prevent some key policies going through. With minor changes they plan to push the same policies through themselves. It's a common tactic.

And so, in about nine weeks from now we will almost certainly have a new government. It isn't going to halt the virus.