The Locked-up Country

Learning the Lessons from Australia's Covid-19 Response

Tom Chodor, Shahar Hameiri

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English

Queensland Univ. Press
31 October 2023

Australasian & Pacific history; History: specific events & topics; Social impact of disasters; Political structure & processes; Australian Society

A timely analysis of Australia's response to the pandemic, which asks what have we learned?

Donald Horne famously called Australia 'the lucky country'. So how did we become the locked-up country and how might the future look different?

Australia has changed enormously since Horne's 1960s, but its response to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the enduring truth of his thesis that our 'luck' was undeserved and wouldn't last. By closing its borders and imposing a nationally coordinated lockdown, Australia unexpectedly eliminated COVID-19 in 2020, achieving one of the world's lowest excess mortality rates.

But as governments proceeded to bungle key planks of the pandemic response, by mid-2021, Australia was 'locked up' - closed off to the world and fragmented along state and territory borders, with its major cities enduring repeated and extended lockdowns. It soon became clear that Australia's regulatory state had let us down. But these failures were not inevitable, and we can manage future crises more successfully.

In The Locked-up Country, political experts Tom Chodor and Shahar Hameiri identify the source of Australia's recent challenges and suggest a better way forward.

By: Tom Chodor, Shahar Hameiri
Imprint: Queensland Univ. Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 227mm, Width: 154mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 288g
ISBN: 9780702266379
ISBN 10: 070226637X
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 31 October 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for The Locked-up Country: Learning the Lessons from Australia's Covid-19 Response

'This book is a primer on the big fix needed to keep us safe and make governments authoritative and accountable.' Julianne Schultz AM FAHA, author of The Idea of Australia