The Edition: Australia's zero Covid trap
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 26 August 2021
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With former Australian High Commissioner, Alexander Downer; chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, Layla Moran MP; Spectator columnist Lionel Shriver; York University's Dr Remi Adekoya; Spectator contributor Mark Mason; and QI elf Anna Ptaszynski.
Presented by Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Cindy Yu and Natasha Feroze.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You can get 10 weeks of The Spectator as well as unlimited access to our website, app and archive if you subscribe today. |
| 0:07.7 | Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash PIMS to get a free bottle of PIMS and 10 weeks of the issue for just £10. |
| 0:15.6 | That's spectator.com.com.uk forward slash PIMS. But hurry, it's only while stocks last. |
| 0:23.5 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator. Every week we look at some of the |
| 0:29.1 | most important and intriguing stories from the issue with the writers behind them. I'm |
| 0:34.4 | Lara Prendergast. On this week's episode, we'll be taking a look at the fortress |
| 0:40.9 | that Australia has built around itself and ask, will it zero COVID policy ever end? |
| 0:48.2 | Plus, we'll also be asking whether it's racist to point out Britain's changing demographics. |
| 0:55.0 | And finally, we'll be looking at whether trivia is just another way for men to compete with each other. |
| 1:01.3 | First up, has Australia trapped itself in its quest to eradicate COVID? |
| 1:06.5 | Only a quarter of the population is double-jabbed, and while hotel quarantine is as strict as ever, the country can't seem to get itself out of a cycle of lockdowns. |
| 1:15.7 | Alexander Downer, the former Australia High Commissioner, takes a look at Australia's strategy during this pandemic, and he joins the podcast now. |
| 1:23.9 | I'm also joined by the Liberal Democrat MP Leila Moran, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, who has been championing a zero COVID strategy. |
| 1:33.6 | Alexander, we have this image of Aussies as being tough and resilient, but you say in your piece this week that COVID has actually betrayed a different part of the character. |
| 1:42.1 | How so exactly? |
| 1:43.5 | Yes, well, Australians look, uncertain and timid in this environment. |
| 1:48.8 | Instead of doing what I thought Australia was going to do initially, which was to take a whole |
| 1:54.8 | series of precautionary measures, including in relation to its external borders, and then make sure the health system was able to cope with a disease |
| 2:05.1 | which sadly is endemic. |
| 2:07.4 | The state governments in Australia just completely panicked |
| 2:11.3 | and started to pursue a policy of zero COVID, |
| 2:16.8 | much supported by the public, much supported by the public. |
... |
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