Picture ‘whingeing’ Aussies need to see

With Saturday approaching I’ve got a suggestion for how to spend it.

First, go to your local sportsground and have a look. If it’s anything like mine you’ll see hundreds of little kids running around playing soccer or AFL with their parents cheering on from the sidelines. Turn the clock back a year and those fields were bare.

Next, go to a cafe where, but for a quick check-in via a QR code, you can eat what you like and chat with who you like for as long as you like. Revel in the freedom.

Finally, round out the day by watching an Australian classic such as Crocodile Dundee, The Castle or Gallipoli to remind yourself of what it means to be a resourceful, resilient and easygoing Australian.

After all that, if you still feel the need to complain I suggest you shut up.

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As the pandemic continues apace for a second year, it seems we’ve lost both patience and perspective. We’re moaning about delays in the vaccine rollout, despite them being largely outside the Government’s control. We’re critiquing border closures for being shambolic and unfair without considering that rules and policies need to change by the day to keep the majority of us safe.

And while most of us sympathise with the 34,300 Australians who are stuck overseas, we need to remember that they make up 0.12 per cent of our population. The other 99.88 per cent are presumably safe and content with where they are.

Perfection, as Voltaire pointed out, is the enemy of the good. Yet as our stadiums once again fill with sports fans, our arts sector comes to life and our economy continues to battle unprecedented challenges we seem less threatened by a global pandemic than an epidemic of whingeing.

This is not us. This is not who we are.

We’re battlers. We’re people who get going when the going gets tough. We lead, whether it’s gun policy in response to a horrific mass shooting, a groundbreaking system of care for our disabled, or royal commissions into industries and institutions which are dangerous or dysfunctional.

Right from the start, the pandemic was not an excuse for us to lose our heads but an invitation for us to showcase our strengths of mateship, tolerance, community, kindness and valour. Recently, however, we’ve failed to get a grip.

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The MCG is filling with fans, the betrothed are snatching the golden autumn days for their weddings, Tasmania is bursting with visitors, galleries have opened their doors, birthdays are back on, pubs are noisy with laughter and yet the Twitterati and their fellow keyboard warriors are tapping harder than ever. Everything is “a joke”, everyone is “a clown”, every policy is “ridiculous”.

You’d think we were Poms, who after months in lockdown genuinely have something to whinge about. Or Indians, who are dying in their thousands, or Papua New Guineans who, mercifully, are being sent our vaccines. Or, indeed, any number of the nationalities who don’t make our news because we don’t have journalists there to tell their stories.

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Perhaps we need a refresher in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to realise that most of us have what genuinely matters: fresh air, food, drink, warmth, shelter, clothing and sleep. We’re also safe and supported by a Government which acted promptly to ensure our health, finances and wellbeing were protected.

To date, there’s no doubt Victorians have suffered the most but both the Commonwealth and the states have leapt into action to support those struggling. JobKeeper and JobSeeker have been extended, from October the Government made available an additional 10 Medicare subsidised psychology sessions for anyone needing such support and even income lost in short lockdowns, such as the restrictions on Sydney’s Northern Beaches over Christmas or the recent West Australian lockdown, is being compensated by state grants.

History tells us we overcome challenges if we approach them with a combination of hard work, humour and heart. We’ve recovered from wars, natural disasters, the Aids epidemic and terrorist attacks and, while there is always a toll, we build from the loss. As our national anthem proclaims, we toil with “heart and hands” to makes this Commonwealth of ours “renowned of all the lands”.

This is not a Pollyanna approach to the pandemic but a pragmatic one. Of course, there are concerns, notably the vaccine apartheid which is seeing wealthier nations immunised but poorer ones not. But instead of whingeing about an Indian wedding, or a celebrity being allowed into Australia over a civilian, or a cricketer choosing to head overseas, let’s galvanise over the real issue – beating a virus that has impacted us all. Ultimately, none of us are safe until all of us are safe.

Angela Mollard is a freelance writer. Continue the conversation @angelamollard

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