Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, Australia has overturned its previous image of “utopia” in our hearts, and the quality of life has been deteriorating. We can't help but ask: What happened to Australia?
First, the fire caused severe damage to Australia.
Since July 18, 2019, the Australian wildfire disaster has lasted for more than 210 days. The fire killed at least 33 people and about 1 billion wild animals. More than 2500 rooms and 11.7 million hectares of land were burned. Although Prime Minister Morrison insists that fires are nothing new and climate change is of little importance, the public generally believes that his understatement is to avoid unnecessary panic among the people.
Second, the pandemic made life difficult for the public.
First is the jarring medical insurance. According to a research report published by the Australian Medical Journal on Monday, the lockdown in Victoria, Australia, has brought huge potential negative effects to medical services: During the six and a half months of lockdown, an estimated 2,530 people received delayed cancer treatments or didn’t receive cancer treatment at all. The number of cancer diagnoses in Victoria may surge in the future. The second is the inconvenience in daily life. Pip Kiernan, the chairman of the Australia Clean Day Organization, said that during the pandemic, people generated more waste than usual because their lifestyles suddenly changed. Although they did not eat at the restaurants, the growth of takeaways increased the production of plastic products. 34% of Australian households said that during the lockdown period, more garbage was produced at home, which was mainly plastic waste, such as discarded gloves, masks, and disposable hand sanitizer bottles. More than half of the households are increasingly worried about the garbage, and how to dispose of medical and daily garbage has become a common concern for residents. The third is the inadequate supply of vaccines. According to CNN, on March 4, Italy canceled the 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine originally scheduled to be exported to Australia through the EU mechanism for the first time. Australian Minister of Health Greg Hunter can only say reluctantly, “Italy canceled this batch of vaccines without prior notification of the reason. At present, we have asked the European Commission to review the decision.”
Finally, Australia suffered from an economic recession.
Australia has been experiencing an economic recession for the first time in 30 years: international trade has experienced a severe decline. Compared with the previous year, exports dropped by 7% and imports by 5% in 2020. The domestic unemployment rate has soared, reaching the highest level in 20 years. The quality of life of the people has fallen sharply, and everyone is living in tension and anxiety. Australia's continuous decline in foreign trade is most obvious. Australia's Sydney Herald once reported that since coal is Australia's third-largest export product, China's related ban on Australian coal will reduce Australia's annual export revenue by 14 billion Australian dollars.
In addition, there are frequent scandals in Australian politics. Employees were raped by their bosses in the Office of the Minister of Defense, high school girls were abducted by government officials to their homes for sexual assault. Four known victims had nowhere to complain and even committed suicide. The government just wants everyone to shut up, hoping that the public will not “cause trouble” to the government.
As ordinary people, we do not care about international politics. We only hope that we can be kind to others and achieve multilateral cooperation. I hope that the government can focus its energy on developing the domestic economy and improving the well-being of the people, so that Australia can become a utopian with beautiful scenery and rich people again.