
Apart from a nine month stint in Canberra, I have lived in Victoria my whole life. I was born in Melbourne, raised in regional Victoria and now my family – husband, two daughters, goats and cats - are growing up here too.
I have always been proud of living in the ‘Garden State’, the ‘Education State’ and all the other numberplate versions of Victoria there have been. I love the people, I love the vast regions and culture, I love the community.
Yes, even with the surge of COVID-19 numbers within Victoria, I have always been absolutely in love withand proud of the state that I live in.
Until today.
Because today everything changed. Today I was let down. Millions of Victorians were let down by members of our own community.
When Premier Andrews announced our second biggest number of positive cases – 627 – second only to yesterday's 723, he also announced that one in four of the people who were meant to be in isolation were not home when door knocked.
One in four COVID-19 positive people were not self-isolating. They were not at home.
Watch: Daniel Andrews announce that masks will be mandatory across Victoria. Post contiues below.
130 Victorians who should have been at home, in isolation, doing the responsible thing, the right thing for the health and safety of themselves, their family, their friends, their colleagues, their neighbours, their community, of all Victorians were NOT. AT. HOME.
And like being kicked in the guts when you are already down, some of these people had been doorknocked by the Australian Defence Force more than once and had not been home either time.
Premier Andrews said it was "difficult to understand" why the 130 people who were door knocked were not at home.
But I disagree with Mr Andrews, because it isn’t ‘difficult’ to understand. It is more than ‘difficult’ - it is completely impossible to understand.
It is absolutely inexcusable.
Before today I had thought that what was happening in my home state was immensely sad, it was incredibly unfortunate, but ultimately it was the result of a highly infectious virus that together as a state we were doing our best to beat.
I had thought that there was only the odd person here or there doing the wrong thing, just a handful of ‘bad eggs’.
But after seeing those numbers today – ‘one in four’ - it has become clear to me that instead of it being sad, or unfortunate and due to a virus, it is really our own fault. Or, more accurately, it is the fault of a particular group of people. This one in four.
Top Comments