Does anyone seriously think Premier Andrews would have promised to end Melbourne’s lockdown from midnight next Thursday unless he’d been shamed into it by Perrottet?Think: Andrews ordered Melbourne’s sixth lockdown last August when there were just eight new infections, but on Sunday ordered it end when there were almost 2000, with seven people dying.But Andrews had to let go after Perrottet sped up Sydney’s opening, filling TV news bulletins with happy shots of Sydney residents partying, having haircuts and hugging friends, while new infections in NSW kept falling to just 301 on Sunday.Andrews had excuses, of course. Doesn’t he always?He said on Sunday he could now end Melbourne’s lockdown five days earlier than planned because Victorians were getting vaccinated faster, and the sick weren’t staying in hospital as much as Burnet Institute modelling predicted just a month ago.Garbage. Andrews should have known the Burnet modelling he used to justify his lockdown was junk. As I noted last month, it bizarrely claimed that nearly 1000 people would die in the last six months of this year even if Melbourne stayed locked down, and 2202 would die if it slowly opened up.But who could believe that more people would die in six months of lockdown, with nearly 70 per cent of them now vaccinated, than died in all Australia the first 15 months of this pandemic, when nobody was vaccinated?The Burnet modelling was obviously alarmist, and a brave Premier would have called it out, instead of waiting for the Institute to now admit it was wrong and slash its estimates by half.But Andrews – unlike Perrottet – is not brave. He’s the last person to question the useless or disproportionate virus bans of his “health experts”.Why else is Melbourne this week still under a curfew that makes no sense? Why else does Andrews insist face masks be worn outside, even after Thursday, when almost nobody gets infected in the open air? Why else does Andrews say it’s safe from next Friday to have 20 people inside a pub, but not safe if 21 people meet outside on a beach, footy ground or park?This shows Andrews is still a control freak who’d never have relaxed his grip on the lives of Victorians, unless Perrottet had reminded them what a joy freedom is.
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