Pom in Oz with Derek Goforth: Backlash over close contact and isolation rules has Labor losing support

As much as I hoped they would not do it, or at least change it, WA Labor has gone ahead with the new, very high caseload settings for close contacts and isolation rules. The backlash — online and in the community — has been intense and swift. With many not only voicing their concerns publicly, but also making the decision not to vote Labor again, citing lack of trust as their main reason. Once again I am left shocked and confused by the State Government’s decisions based (in their words) on health advice. Once again I am grateful to work where I do, but I am fearful for my friends and families’ places of work. But I am trying to look at it subjectively. I am still trying to get answers from various pollies and ministers, but I feel the barn door is open and the horse has well and truly bolted. In essence, if we are classed as a close contact we can now still come to work (in most situations). Provided we and our employer agree, but there is little clarification on what that actually means. As in if you say ‘no, actually I am not prepared to do that’, do you still access paid leave? But you must isolate outside of work. Students can come to school and attend after school sports but also must isolate outside of that time. So summarising some of the concerns online — we can go to work, but not fill up our car to get to work. We can drive ourselves to work, but not our own children and we certainly cannot car pool (as is popular with fuel prices so high). We can mix with possibly hundreds of people at work but we cannot attend the gym, even at 4am when no one else is there. The list goes on and on, with single parents having to isolate from their own children and husbands from wives. You get the picture. So, this is all based on health advice? Are you kidding me? Remember this is my opinion, but it seems like it is based well and truly on keeping the economy going. Its primary purpose is to keep kids going to school and keep people going to their places of work. Which I think is a good thing, the best place for kids to learn is in a classroom and the best thing for our State is to keep people working. But not at the expense of their mental health and well being. Expecting people to keep working but not having any contact outside of work is bordering on cruel. It has been argued it’s only for seven days, surely we can suck it up? And yes if it was just that, I am sure we could manage. But people are being classed as close contacts over and over again, sometimes back-to-back. So what seems like seven days at most could turn into weeks at a time. Work, work and more work, with no social interaction. I petitioned our local Member a while ago now to ask for a simple change to be made. Simply add “whenever possible” to the instruction. “Isolate outside work whenever possible”. Two words that would make a huge difference. Those two words say to our critical workers — we trust you. We have trusted you to do the right thing so far, we trust you to carry on doing the right thing. We trust you that if you can isolate, you will. If you can avoid the supermarket and do online delivery, you will. If you can phone your mate, you will. If you can get someone else to drop your kids at school, you will. But we know that sometimes, you can’t. Sometimes it will be impossible to isolate, and we understand that. Whenever possible. How hard would that have been to add? Derek Goforth is a teacher at Geraldton Christian College