There’s something important to be understood in why for disasters like bushfires, experts lead the effort to…

There’s something important to be understood in why for disasters like bushfires, experts lead the effort to end the disaster, every single day. But for the pandemic, politicians have crowded into the space. Short thread. /1 #auspol #COVID19Aus https://t.co/uAvn2lEEFK

No doubt politicians do make an appearance in bushfires, but overwhelmingly action is decided and driven by experts. You could say the scale of pandemics warrants greater political involvement, but think back to HIV in the 1980s. /2

Do you remember many big political press conferences? Me either. This pandemic has been politicised. It’s not the scale of the challenge of defeating Covid that has caused that, it’s the scale of perceived potential ‘economic’ disruption that has caused political interference. /3

It’s unquestionable that conservative politicians in particular, globally, as they have for climate change, strategised from the first day of the pandemic to make sure they were in a position to control the degree of economic disruption. Our National Cabinet was sold as…/4

…a way to coordinate and unify our response to the pandemic. It’s nothing of the sort. It was designed to deal the federal government into the conversation; it has little constitutional role in dealing with health emergencies. Once there the federal government has used…/5

…the Cabinet to close parliament, introduce unaccountable and unrepresentative recovery committees stacked with vested interests, and divide the States whenever it seemed there might be widespread restrictions. Basically the politicians have mostly just got in the way. /6

Our public health professionals know how to deal with pandemics, they’ve done it many times before. But in this pandemic, they’ve been marginalised and corralled inside politically-controlled mechanisms. Mostly fabulous expertise and will, but constantly neutered by highly…/6

…restrictive terms of reference, determined by politicians. The broader point here is - elected representatives have almost NO place in dealing with emergencies. They have a symbolic, communicative role with the public. But it’s symptomatic of our populist times that…/7

…hardly anybody has thought about or asked, why are politicians determining strategy and direction here? None of them are trained in pandemic management. A pandemic isn’t something where wide consultation should be required either, it’s like a bushfire. There are are clear…/8

…procedures to be used, tested over centuries. No need for public consultation or to represent views, or any of that guff. Just putting the fire out. Elected representatives are for situations where there are no clear procedures to follow, where that’s a…/9

…genuine public conversation, to figure out what to do. Local governments live this every day, very clear and uncomplicated things to get done - roads to be built and repaired, water, sewer etc. But constantly bankrupted and disrupted by populist local elected windbags. /10

Give the power and responsibility back to our institutions that our modern populist windbags keep stripping away from them. Those institutions are all that protect our longevity as a society. /end