Last year, the NSW Premier sailed through the Covid crisis with overwhelming support. But now, her state is in turmoil – and her future hangs in the balance.
Just a few short months ago, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was riding high.
Her state had escaped the fate of Daniel Andrew’s Victoria, with residents living relatively normal lives as Covid ravaged Victoria and plunged Melburnians into a gruelling, seemingly endless lockdown.
In fact, NSW had sailed through the pandemic so successfully Ms Berejiklian was credited with having Australia’s “gold standard” when it came to her Covid response, and she enjoyed high levels of public support as the pandemic raged on.
But today, things are looking very different.
‘Lots of positive things’ ahead
Despite the chaos engulfing NSW, a defiant Gladys Berejiklian still insists the state has brighter days ahead in the near future, and that NSW is on track to beat the virus and return to normal life.
“There are lots of positive things to look forward to and that will depend on our double-dose vaccination,” she said today.
“While a 70 per cent double dose gives those of us vaccinated freedoms, 80 per cent double dose allows us to look at international travel, welcoming home all Australians.
“How wonderful would it be to welcome back all Aussies who want to be reunited with their families by Christmas and NSW will step up to support that cause and that case and I stress to everybody the importance of vaccination.”
Crisis deepens
But despite Ms Berejiklian’s positivity, the numbers paint a grim picture.
Greater Sydney is staring down its tenth week of lockdown, with no end in sight.
Case numbers are out of control, hitting a sobering record high of 1290 on Monday, with 21,208 locally acquired cases reported since June 16, when the current outbreak began.
The death toll since that date has soared to 96, and there are now 871 Covid-19 cases in NSW hospitals, with 143 people in intensive care and 58 requiring ventilation.
And Ms Berejiklian is facing an increasingly bitter public battle, with many lashing out at the series of decisions that changed NSW’s fate so drastically.
So where did it all go wrong – and what does it mean for Ms Berejiklian’s reputation, and political future?
Gladys’ first mistake
“Last year the Premier gained a lot of trust, having preserved a positive image as the pandemic commenced and consumed the country and state,” public relations expert Nicole Reaney told news.com.au.
“The public sensed strategies were working and that Gladys had the best interests at heart of various competing community interests.
“She confidently tackled daily press conferences and the icing was bringing and maintaining a zero level of cases in the state and living in the freedoms the public was generally accustomed to.”
But Ms Reaney said Ms Berejiklian’s first major mistake was underestimating the threat posed by the deadly Delta strain, both to public health and to her own image.
“There are a number of factors that could have played a part in maintaining confidence in the NSW Government this year and in turn containing the spread of Delta,” she explained.
“With this strain having entered the UK in March and claiming 90 per cent of Covid-19 cases there by June, it would be a fair assumption that the Premier would have been informed of its threat well ahead of the state’s first case.
“Measures to minimise its arrival and a communication plan to properly educate the public on the difference of this strain could have saved the burden this spread is placing on the state’s health, lifestyle and economy.”
Instead, Ms Reaney said the NSW Government’s chaotic approach of first announcing a swift one-week lockdown, followed by a one-month extension and then a string of new rules and extensions had “left the public uncertain with a sense of lockdown-fatigue”.
“Communicating a longer-term lockdown from the outset then cutting it short based on success would have contributed to a more understanding and supporting public,” Ms Reaney said.
“There is now general lack of trust as each lockdown end date is announced and (as) decisions are being made ‘on the fly’ as cases and strategies regularly pivot.
“The ever-changing rules and guidelines have made it challenging to grasp and follow.”
Ms Reaney said the government had also failed to adequately prepare for vaccine hesitancy and to communicate with those from non-English-speaking backgrounds, which would have helped reinforce a greater “we’re in this together” culture.
Shock Twitter move
Another misstep was Ms Berejiklian’s decision to announce a statewide lockdown in mid-August via Twitter, instead of in person during her daily press conference, which sparked fierce backlash at the time.
“Twitter is not a primary public channel, and certainly not a forum to ‘own a narrative’,” Ms Reaney said.
“A lockdown measure inflicted upon the entire state requires a formal channel upfront such as a press conference to enable wider coverage and the ability for questions to be posed and responded to.”
Exit plan
And while Ms Berejiklian has been spruiking her plan to soon begin reopening the state once the 70 per cent vaccination target was met, that too has attracted criticism.
“The reaction is a fair one, given the exploding cases, the communication approach adopted for the vaccines and the fact that vaccines have not been readily available for many community groups,” Ms Reaney said.
Many health experts have also lashed the reopening plan, with many claiming the move was a recipe for disaster while cases were still climbing, despite modelling from the Doherty Institute supporting the move.
In a sobering interview on The Project on Monday night, Professor Nancy Baxter, clinical epidemiologist and head of Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, said it would not be possible while NSW case numbers continue to spike.
“I think the Doherty model gives a pathway that’s quite reasonable if you’re at the kind of levels of Covid that, you know, you’re able to do contact tracing,” she said.
But Professor Baxter explained that while opening up was reasonable in places with 70 per cent vaccination and low case numbers, NSW did not meet that criteria.
“This isn’t a place where NSW is so they don’t have those options,” she said.
“You can’t do that with 200, 300, 400 cases. You need to have a small number of cases to be able to do that.”
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