WE MADE IT! A note from the other side.

Yesterday was a good day.

After 112 days of hard lockdown, the people of Melbourne can finally breathe.

There was no sweeter sound than the voice of premier Dan Andrews played on loud speaker, echoing throughout the office, declaring that “it’s time for Melbourne to open up”. Cheers and whoops bounced around the room. I still cannot contain my excitement even as I’m typing this.

The state of Victoria recorded 0 new coronavirus cases on Monday. With a population of 6.4 million people, that’s not a bad effort.

Nevertheless, it came with a high price.

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Since March 2020, Melbourne and regional Victoria endured some of the toughest COVID policing in the world, despite having some of the lowest case numbers recorded. For months we faced night curfews, 5km travel limits, only one hour allowed outside for exercise/food shopping. If you were caught breaking any of the rules you faced a $1600 fine, which was then increased to $5000.

And trust me when I say the police were everywhere.

Yes, it wasn’t as violent as the US or as deadly as Brazil. We didn’t have uncontrollable protests, we weren’t fired upon with gas and rubber bullets. It was a quieter, more sinister control that still allowed society to function under suppression with our basic freedoms stripped away.

It was what a future under a totalitarian government could actually look like.

That’s an exaggeration. Still, up until Sunday the government was starting to record 1000 job losses a day. Hospitality and small businesses were pushed to breaking point and many won’t make it to 2021. And don’t even get me started on the damage done to the population's mental health.

What got us here in the first place? I’ll tell you what. We had this shit under control back in June until the government made a huge mistake.

Somebody, somewhere, agreed to hire private security contractors to guard and secure the quarantined guests in a hotel. It was later revealed that the guards were not briefed properly, did not follow regulations, allegedly slept with the guests, and for a long time no one accepted accountability. Andrews said he had no recollection of signing off on the decision and the media still grills him endlessly for answers. Juicy gossip here.

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People were pissed off. I was sad and frustrated as my final year in Australia is spent in lockdown (and still am).

Yet last night I found myself scrolling through Dan’s Instagram, and felt an unexpected sense of respect and admiration for him as he sat there with his whiskey, celebrating the “success” of his leadership and the strength of Victorians.

What has intrigued me about the aftermath of this news is how easily we can move forward and forgive the hardships. In the blink of an eye, Dan Andrews went from ‘Dictator Dan’ to ‘Dan the Man’. Two weeks ago someone literally flew a plane down the coast pulling a sign saying ‘Sack Dan Andrews’, and people were trashing his office.

In hindsight, what he did actually worked. Maybe that's easier to say as I still managed to work, I didn't have a family to feed or a business to support. Yet we are now looking at a summer of relative freedom, and if they can control any outbreaks, dare I even say it was all worth it. We are enduring a health crisis, and lives have been saved. Isn’t that the ultimate goal, after all?

It’s safe to say that any hopes of returning to Oceania will be dashed until 2022 at the earliest. There is no way in hell Australia or NZ will open their borders to the Americas or Europe if they won’t even allow their own citizens to cross state.

I’m hoping for an Asia-Pacific travel bubble to float around in while the rest of the world catches up. We’ll have to wait and see.

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