![]() ![]() Compared to post-lockdown period, lockdown was associated with a significantly lower levels of physical activity, poorer mental well-being and sense of control over one’s life, and a higher level of loneliness. ResultsĪ total of 547 complete responses were obtained. A content analysis approach examined responses to the open-ended questions with frequencies and variations in responses determined using Chi-Square tests. Sex differences were examined using the Mann-Whitney U test. Changes between the lockdown and post-lockdown period were assessed using Wilcoxon signed rank test and One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Normal tests as appropriate. Open-ended questions explored key issues in greater detail. ![]() Participants provided information on their socio-demographic status, lifestyle behaviours, mental health, and psychosocial health during and post-lockdown. Participants competed a 25-min questionnaire adapted from the Western Australia Health and Wellbeing Surveillance system. MethodsĪpproximately 2 months after a three-month lockdown, a cross-sectional study was opened to Western Australian adults for an 8-week period (25th August – 21 October 2020). The aim of this study was to examine the effects of COVID-19 lockdown on the community’s physical, mental and psychosocial health. In the words of Tennessee Williams in The Glass Menagerie, ‘How beautiful it is and how easily it can be broken’.Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western Australian government imposed multiple restrictions that impacted daily life activities and the social life. That is being undermined in Australia, as state authorities impose one law for ordinary citizens and another for the rich and famous. A functioning liberal society is a difficult thing to create and, once established, it needs careful nurturing. The police even tried to censor coverage of their own actions – which was hardly a surprise given their track record of aggressive and brutal policing.Īustralia should stand as a warning about how easily fundamental rights and freedoms can be eroded. Unlike the BLM protesters, however, they were faced with riot police armed with rubber bullets, truncheons and pepper spray. Having endured more than 250 days under lockdown, many Melburnians took to the streets to protest against the ever more authoritarian controls over their lives. Yet the state government was so sympathetic to their cause that police decided before the event not to fine any of the protesters.Ĭontrast this with what happened a year later. They did so in direct contravention of health directives, at a time when there were thousands of Covid cases in Australia. When the Black Lives Matter protests swept across the world in 2020, 10,000 BLM protesters gathered in Melbourne. Such inconsistency has also affected the right to protest. While those involved in the Australian Open were welcomed into Victoria, Australia’s own citizens were turned away. The Victorian government even denied entry to residents from neighbouring states. At that time there were more than 37,000 Australian residents stranded overseas and unable to return home due to the ‘danger’ they posed to the quarantine system. In early 2021 the state government decided to let in 1,200 tennis players, staff and VIPs from around the world to attend the Australian Open. The hypocrisy has also been clear to see in Victoria, whose capital, Melbourne, is the most locked-down city in the world. It seems that Australia’s class divide has widened during the pandemic – and compassion has been thrown out of the window.
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