Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Tanya Plibersek, NewSouth Books, $32.99.
It is hard to imagine how the world will be different after COVID-19 … because unfamiliar it will be to what we remembered it to be in February-March 2020.
Australian health researchers have played a leading role in the global fight against this pandemic. Many of our assumptions have been disproved. In some cases, we have done better than we could have expected. However, we still have a long way to go before we get out of this predicament.
COVID-19 has resulted in changes none of us could have imagined, but what happens next? People have sacrificed so much in 2020. Upturn delivers what is a convincing vision for a stronger economy, a fairer society and a more environmentally sustainable future. That is the foresight with which some of the country’s most interesting thinkers have imagined a better Australia, and are ready to fight for it.
Edited by Tanya Plibersek, a Member of Parliament for Sydney since 1998, the book’s contributors include Annabel Crabb, Sally McManus, Gareth Evans, Jenny Macklin, Professor Rae Cooper, Ian Chubb, Peter Garrett and Greg Combet. They focus on gender equality in work and care in Australia plus where we go next as a society after COVID-19.
If the question had been asked a year ago, there would have been no way that school children would have shifted overnight to online learning. It would have been impossible to double unemployment benefits, offer wage subsidies, for banks to offer mortgage holidays, unfeasible to house rough sleepers or put a hold on evictions and undeniably impractical to get Australians to stay home from the beach and the pub.
Easing back into life after lockdown will not be easy. It has to be done slowly as we rebuild relationships, look for opportunities, seek help early, reflect on our experiences, remember the advice about washing your hands regularly, keeping a safe distance from others and keeping up with the rules as they change so you know what you can and cannot do. Remember these are the rules that have been effective at keeping the infection rate low in Australia.
