On July 7th Victoria held its breath awaiting the Premiers announcement. A return to lockdown was fated with an original plan for 6 weeks. As we would know, this was never to come to fruition and Victoria remained in lockdown for 112 days. This lockdown would cause massive economic and social repercussions with thousands losing their livelihoods and mental tolls caused by the isolation.
These restrictions came about as a result of an exponential rise in cases uncontrollable by lockdowns of various institutions and public housing. By August 4th there would be 700 new cases discovered that day alone. Over the next few months would be intense, constant political, social and cultural debate. All these wars fought from the comfort of our couches, connected virtually but disconnected.
Part A: The Media
Google, Define Media
Media /ˈmiːdɪə/
the main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the internet) regarded collectively.
For many a routine was formed in the mornings. With the cool air of the winter night frosting our windows we would reach across to our bedside tables. Upon grabbing our phones, for many of us we would go straight to our news source looking for hope. The media was the primary way millions of Victorians gathered the most recent rules, case numbers and opinions. The power that these institutions held over general sentiment was immense and only grew the deeper we fell into the canyon of recovery.
Australia’s print news industry which encompasses physical newspapers, billboards, radio and television is largely concentrated¹. An IBISworld study (2016) found that over 90% of the industries revenue is split in between Fairfax Media, News Corporation Australia, Seven West Media and APN news.
This is further backed up by a study conducted by New Zealand researchers in which News Corporation was found to have 57.5% of the total market share.² This enormous oligopoly meant that opinions were able to be spread widely across print newspapers hitting a large audience.
The first of these examples being the formerly mentioned News Corporation and their damning criticism of the Victorian Government. Throughout the time of the lockdowns there were countless stories and opinion pieces aimed at weaknesses and failures of the government. This is one of the many reasons that media exists, existing to put a check on government mistakes allow a populace to become better-educated on the shortcomings and can influence their future vote.(See Sidenote**)
A nightly show that is broadcasted on the Sky News network is the political commentary show Sky News After Dark. This is where a variety of conservative personalities comment upon the daily events and give their opinion.
Overwhelmingly, the Sky News team tended to promote the ideas of freedom and self-autonomy and heavily pushed-back upon the ideas of a self-claimed “police-state.” Through various headlines and opinions pieces they created an image of a disastrous government in chaos.
Headlines such as these:
Interestingly, other News Corporation papers shared similar views, such of that being the Herald Sun, a Melbourne based print news publication, or the Australian.
The reason in which these papers choose to attack the government is uncertain. However, ideaologically the News Corporation has been closer to the ideals of the Liberal party and is therefore more likely to align with their views.
The impact of these stories were the decrease of public confidence in the government and possible social unrest that follows.
Even more damaging however was the inaccuracies that various parts of the media showed during the lockdowns. Peta Credlin from Sky was forced to apologise following a suggestion that “South Sudanese Australians were not following social distancing measures.”³
This racially insensitive comment had the potential to cause widespread issues amongst the community. In an already highly volatile society under pressure financially there was potential for violence to occur at maximum, and racial prejudice to be formed on the basis of these falisties.
On the contrary, the state broadcaster the ABC and the nine-entertainment owned The Age were far more positive about the lockdown broadcasting opinion pieces such as
These inspired public hope behind the lockdown and reassured the populace that life was going to get better. It was a strong message amongst all the negativity that was being portrayed.
These pieces focused on the positives such as the dropping case numbers and the steep decline in deaths. They also contrasted upon other countries such as the USA and UK and drew parallels to reinforce what could happen, namely an outburst of case numbers. This acted as a balance with a less opinionated and more fact-based reporting meaning Victorians were able to digest both sides in order to gain a fairer view.
Social Media sites on the other hand were rife with controversy. Prominently, Twitter was a location for intense debates every single day showing up under hashtags such as #danliedpeopledied #dictatordan #istandwithdan and also under the relevant persons and @VicGovDHHS twitter handle itself. These trends were leading the Australian-wide trending page consecutively for months.
In a research article created by Timothy Graham he demonstrates the volume in which these trends were shared.
So what does this mean in relation to the general public opinion?
Apparently nothing so, according to various articles around the internet these trends were spurred by “botting”⁴. These articles claim that hyper-partisan groups created over 37% of positive tweets and 54% of negative tweets⁵. Social media was unhelpful in generating any positive conclusion due to the ease of manipulation.
So throughout this 112-day lockdown there were countless more mistakes made in reporting, these had the potential to undermine the government response and cause public unrest. The role of the media in times like these should be for factual reporting and beneficial insight on public issues. As a whole, the impact that media has on the general populace is huger, and throughout this even some news comapnies were better at remaining unbiased and truthful than others.
Part B: Interest Groups
Interest Groups are groups that act to advocate around issues and public policy. During the lockdown many interest groups advocated for different ideals and plans that benefit their sector. They do this through various methods such as running social media campaigns, publishing of articles, petitions, protests, and lobbying.
Those in the business sector warned of extreme closures and that businesses would be losing incredulous amounts of money should they continue with the lockdown.
“The heartbreak for business owners today is the realisation that many of them who have been desperately hanging on for months will see their businesses fold and they will have to look their employees in the eye and tell them that they no longer have a job” — Paul Guerra (Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry)⁷
The lockdown had one of the most significiant economical impacts of any event in recent human history. Australia’s GDP growth became negative in the first time since 1990. This was partly as a result of the Victorian economy essentially shutting down for months at a time.
Jenifer Westacott, the Chief Executive of the Business Council of Australia (BCA) demanded that there be a plan that brings forward the easing of restrictions in early October.⁶ She comparatively showed how NSW had created 30,000 jobs in the short time upon opening up their economy again. The reason in which these interest groups are acting in this manner is because it is in the best interest of its members. With thousands of small and large businesses behind each group they have a relatively large sway in the political field.
However, a different group which has a larger sway on public opinion was a group of doctors who called for Victoria’s coronavirus lockdown to end. These doctors appealled to the Premier directly and used their expert knowledge to place pressure onto him. Their largest issues were that the lockdowns were creating a “spike in mental health issues” and “worrying decline in tests for medical conditions”⁸
“The current restrictions are unnecessary, disproportionate and must be lifted,” “The response to the virus will cause more deaths and result in far more negative health effects than the virus itself.”
Interestingly, the reasoning behind why they chose to do this is unknown, however it can be reasonably deduced that this was a mix between self-preservation and a caring nature for others.
For others, such as the AEU this was an issue of government support. The AEU believed that the government had not taken into account the hazards to members mental health and safety.¹⁰
The key fear in the AEU’s statement is that parents are keeping their children home in fear of their health, all-the-while not having the facilities to participate in remote-learning leaving them without education.
The method in which the AEU acts to remedy this is by appealing to members to contact their local MP and discuss the problems that colleagues and students are facing in the classroom.
However, by far the most polarising interest group throughout this lockdown were the Freedom Day Rallies. These far-right groups largely organise on Facebook and Telegram messaging app.¹¹
These rallies which broke restrictions and were blatantly illegal all with the same message. They wanted the abolishment of restrictions and “freedom”. They have many misinformed claims about the state of affairs such as believing that there is “no pandemic” and that vaccines were a form of coercion. These self proclaimed far-right activists have become a manifestation of misinformation. Their beliefs are circled around in these closed groups legitimising their beliefs. Many at home may think, “wow these guys are idiots” and those views aren’t uncommon. These protests have been condemned by all sides of politics as well as heavily on social media and in the news.
As a whole, interest groups had an impact to a relatively-standard extent. Interest groups may lobby for changes however there is no guarantee that under the pressure they place anything will happen.
Part C: Political Parties
In Victoria we have two major parties, those being the Labor Party (ALP) currently in government and the opposition the Liberal Party (LNP*)
In politics, the opposition is used as a check on the government. They bring up points of interest on legislation and act to call out mistakes and failures all-the-while offering a different alternative.
They do this as a way of potentially swaying voters towards their cause in the next election.
Michael O’Brien, the states opposition leader called for restrictions to be lifted on the 16th of October. He claimed that
(results have been) “built on the hard work and sacrifice of Victorians” who now should be allowed to get back to their lives.”
“”It means that Daniel Andrews now has no excuse not to take his foot off the brake on Sunday.”
The issue with this roadmap is that it came too late. By this point the daily case numbers was 2. The opposition failed to propose an alternative when case numbers were awful and rather just acted to criticise but never offer any plan themselves. This, combined with the fact that the Liberal Party had many issues internally led to the high approval rating and two-party preferred swinging heavily towards Labor.
This was further expressed by Greens leader Samantha Ratnam as she expressed that she believed O’Brien’s divisive politics had failed the party in terms of popularity, and that this combined with the phenomenon in which incumbent leaders gain popularity during crisis has caused this polling.
Interestingly the act of divisive politics is one which could backfire heavily. In generating hysteria around legislation the general populace could take it in one of two ways. Unfortunately for O’Brien it was negatively for the Liberal Party.
So how do they all come together?
These 3 groups all relate to an issue and press their point of view. They all look to promote benefits for their target group and for some these benefits may overlap.
Holistically, the Victorian Lockdowns of July-October were extremely polarising and had players from all sides of society weighing in and giving their opinions. For what it matters, we may never see a society so divided and connected ever again, but at least we can agree that this chapter in human history is coming to a close.
In text references:
Bibliography: https://pastebin.com/adV2cCDE
¹ Concentrated pertains to the idea that a small amount of businesses account for a large percentage of market share
²https://theconversation.com/is-australias-media-market-one-of-the-worlds-most-concentrated-68437
** Important to note that online articles are a form of new media and not apart of old print media however corporations usually create both forms of content. Social Media is seperate to the two and is a new form of media
⁴ Botting is the act of creating fake accounts and acting as a group, all the while under the guise of a real person
¹⁰https://www.aeuvic.asn.au/covid-19-tell-victorian-government-support-school-staff-and-students
*Coalition between the National party and the Liberal Party
