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Speaker 1: So much you're listening to a Muma Mea podcast. Mumma

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Speaker 1: Mea acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters that

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Speaker 1: this podcast is recorded on.

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Speaker 2: Hey, I'm Taylor Strano. This is Mumma MIA's twice daily

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Speaker 2: news podcast, The Quickie. Five years ago, almost to the day,

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Speaker 2: Australia went into its first COVID nineteen lockdown, Schools closed,

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Speaker 2: offices emptied, and toilet paper became more precious than gold.

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Speaker 2: Half a decade on, we're taking a look at how

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Speaker 2: those unprecedented times have permanently changed the way we live,

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Speaker 2: work and relate to each other. Before we dive in

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Speaker 2: to the lasting impacts of lockdown, here's Clare Murphy with

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Speaker 2: the latest from the Quickie news room for Monday, March

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Speaker 2: thirty one.

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Speaker 1: Thanks Taylor. Labor has searched ahead of the Coalition in

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Speaker 1: the latest News poll as primary support for the Conservative slumps.

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Speaker 1: The poll has Labor ahead fifty one percent of forty

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Speaker 1: nine on a two party preferred basis. The twelve hundred

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Speaker 1: and forty nine voters asked for their prefers. In the

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Speaker 1: wake of the government handing down the federal budget last Tuesday.

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Speaker 1: Labour leader Anthony Alberanezi has retained and increased his lead

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Speaker 1: over Opposition leader Peter Dutton has preferred Prime minister. This

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Speaker 1: pole is the third in recent times that shows Labour

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Speaker 1: gaining ground. A Yugov poll shows Labor on track to

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Speaker 1: win seventy six seats and the coalition sixty parties need

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Speaker 1: seventy six for a majority government. A Resolve pole also

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Speaker 1: has Labour in a winning position, with less than five

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Speaker 1: weeks until Australians cast their ballots. A tsunami warning has

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Speaker 1: been lifted after a seven point one magnitude earthquake struck

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Speaker 1: near Tonga. The quake hit around one hundred kilometers northeast

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Speaker 1: of the main island in the early hours of this morning.

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Speaker 1: A few hours later, a six point one tremor hit

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Speaker 1: the same area. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii

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Speaker 1: issued the alert following the first quake, but have since

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Speaker 1: downgraded it, saying there was no longer a threat of

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Speaker 1: damaging waves. There have been no initial reports of damage

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Speaker 1: across tong As one hundred and seventy one islands, despite

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Speaker 1: the country really from a seven point seven magnitude earthquake

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Speaker 1: that struck me and mah On Friday, living around seventeen

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Speaker 1: hundred people dead. The ruling military has continued air strikes

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Speaker 1: on villagers. The toll from the quake continues to rise

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Speaker 1: as foreign rescue teams and aid was rushed to the country.

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Speaker 1: Hospitals are overwhelmed with more than three thy four hundred

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Speaker 1: people injured and more than three hundred still missing. Mianmar

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Speaker 1: has been locked in a civil war with multiple armed

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Speaker 1: opposition groups to the military junta who overthrew the democratically

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Speaker 1: elected government and imprisoned leader Ang Sansu Chi. In twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty one, the Karen National Union, one of Myanmar's oldest

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Speaker 1: ethnic armies, released a statement saying instead of prioritizing relief efforts,

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Speaker 1: the military has instead focused on deploying forces to attack

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Speaker 1: its people. Advocates are calling for law reform after it

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Speaker 1: was revealed that many companies are using non disclosure agreements

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Speaker 1: as standard practice in sexual harassment cases. Under the Work

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Speaker 1: Health and Safety Act, workplaces have a duty to ensure

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Speaker 1: that employers are not exposed to psychosocial hazards, including sexual

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Speaker 1: and gender based harassment, but blanket NDAs prevent employees from

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Speaker 1: ever being able to talk about their experiences which can

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Speaker 1: even extend to speaking to their healthcare professionals. The Working

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Speaker 1: Women Center, a national body advocating for fair and safe

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Speaker 1: workplaces for women, say the agreements have become standard, which,

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Speaker 1: when signed, can perpetrate the silencing of women and cover

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Speaker 1: up systemic issues. They're calling for an inquiry into the

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Speaker 1: use of NDAs, recommending they only be used if a

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Speaker 1: victim survivor has sought and received independent legal advice from

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Speaker 1: practitioners who receive specific trauma informed training. Greenland's new prime

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Speaker 1: minister has made it very clear that they will not

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Speaker 1: be handing any control to the United States after a

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Speaker 1: very quick visit from Vice President j D Vance and

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Speaker 1: his wife Usha, Democrats leader Jens Frederick Nilsen took to

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Speaker 1: social media yesterday to fire back at the Trump administration,

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Speaker 1: who've been mounting pressure on the semi autonomous territory, saying

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Speaker 1: President Trump's as the United States is getting Greenland. Let

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Speaker 1: me be clear, he wrote, the United States won't get that.

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Speaker 1: We don't belong to anyone else. We determine our own future.

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Speaker 1: The comments come after just a three hour visit from

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Speaker 1: the Vansas, where they spent their entire time at the

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Speaker 1: US military base, canceling a planned visit to watch a

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Speaker 1: sled race after it was made clear they were not

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Speaker 1: welcome and that everywhere they planned to go would be

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Speaker 1: met with protest. Van spoke to the press saying they

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Speaker 1: cannot ignore President Trump's desire to get Greenland.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 4: The President said, we have to have Greenland, and I

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Speaker 4: think that we do have to be more serious about

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Speaker 4: the security of Greenland.

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Speaker 2: We can't just ignore this place. We can't just ignore

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Speaker 2: the President's desires.

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Speaker 5: But most importantly, we.

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Speaker 2: Can't ignite ignore what I said earlier, which is the

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Speaker 2: Russian and Chinese encroachment in Greenland.

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Speaker 5: We have to do more.

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Speaker 1: Well. Trump back at home said, it's not a question

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Speaker 1: of whether they need the territory or not.

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Speaker 4: We need Greenland very importantly for international security.

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Speaker 3: We have to Greenland.

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Speaker 4: It's not a question of do you think we can

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Speaker 4: do without it. We can.

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Speaker 1: Comedian Chelsea Handler has told Jimmy Kimmel that she loves

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Speaker 1: microdosing so much she handed out drugs at the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five Vanity Fair Oscars party. She told the talk

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Speaker 1: show hosts that she was walking around handing the drugs

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Speaker 1: to people, telling them, take this, You're going to have

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Speaker 1: a great time. She didn't disclose who she handed the

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Speaker 1: substances too, but said that people have a stigmatization around

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Speaker 1: drugs that she says she finds annoying. She's stressed. She's

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Speaker 1: not into bad street drugs like cocaine or heroin, but

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Speaker 1: prefers natural drugs like ssilo, cybin and LSD. She says

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Speaker 1: the dosa she takes are much smaller than anything that

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Speaker 1: would be associated with a full psychedelic high.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Clerk. Next, how COVID lockdowns reshaped Australia. March twenty twenty.

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Speaker 2: Do you remember we were Chances are you were at home

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Speaker 2: watching Scott Morrison announce the first nationwide restrictions on gatherings,

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Speaker 2: travel and business operations.

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Speaker 5: The Human Biosecurity Emergency was declared under the Biosecurity Act

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Speaker 5: by the Governor General, and that regards the recognition of

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Speaker 5: the threat the coronavirus and the need for the federal

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Speaker 5: government to take actions in relation to limiting that spread.

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Speaker 2: For some states, those initial lockdowns lasted weeks. For others,

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Speaker 2: particularly Victoria, they stretched into months. Melbourne would go on

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Speaker 2: to become the most lockdown city in the world, with

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Speaker 2: residents spending a total of two hundred and sixty two

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Speaker 2: days under a stay at home order across six separate lockdowns.

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Speaker 2: But while the immediate impacts were clear, like empty streets,

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Speaker 2: nailing the art of taking Zoom meetings and your trackees,

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Speaker 2: and those daily press conferences, the long term effects of

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Speaker 2: the unprecedented period are only now becoming apparent. So with

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Speaker 2: the benefit of hindsight, we're looking into just how COVID

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Speaker 2: lockdowns impacted our lives. Starting with what we were doing

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Speaker 2: online back in twenty twenty, Ozzies were all about staying

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Speaker 2: informed and connected to Goo. Google searches were dominated by

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Speaker 2: the pandemic, with terms like coronavirus and hand sanitizer making

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Speaker 2: the list. Also, US election was hit up quite a

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Speaker 2: bit because, yes, in amongst a global pandemic, the US

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Speaker 2: also had to hold an election. People were also asking

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Speaker 2: things like can I leave Australia and where can I

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Speaker 2: buy toilet paper? As lockdowns kicked in, Zoom saw a

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Speaker 2: huge jump in usage. Daily meeting participants shot up from

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Speaker 2: around ten million to just over three hundred million in

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Speaker 2: just a few months, and the app became essential for

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Speaker 2: remote work, online classes and even catching up with friends.

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Speaker 2: Maybe you were one of the people that joined a

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Speaker 2: Zoom trivia night. Then there's the toll lockdowns took on

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Speaker 2: our mental health. According to the World Health Organization, the

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Speaker 2: pandemic triggered a twenty five percent increase in anxiety and

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Speaker 2: depression worldwide. Psychologist and policy coordinator for Australian Association of

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Speaker 2: Psychologist Karli Dover says here in Australia the impact was

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Speaker 2: particularly pronounced in areas that experienced longer lockdowns across the board.

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Speaker 4: Very clearly, we know that there was increases in anxiety

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Speaker 4: and depression and trauma disorders. Now, different populations were impacted

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Speaker 4: in different ways, and three groups came out with worse

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Speaker 4: mental health, young people, perinatal and personatal people, and also

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Speaker 4: those who had been hospitalized with COVID nineteen.

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Speaker 2: The shift to remote work has been one of the

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Speaker 2: most visible lasting changes. While many companies initially planned for

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Speaker 2: a full return to the office, five years on, hybrid

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Speaker 2: work has become part of the new normal. CBD occupancy

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Speaker 2: rates remain at just sixty five percent of pre pandemic levels.

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Speaker 2: This hasn't just changed how we work, it's transformed where

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Speaker 2: we live. The great migration to regional areas that began

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Speaker 2: during lockdowns has continued, with property prices in coastal and

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Speaker 2: country towns still reflecting this ongoing shift.

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Speaker 3: Obviously, we have copys, in my opinion, ad number of

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Speaker 3: trends that probably were already in progress. We've all become

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Speaker 3: experts in online shopping, for instance. We've all started to

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Speaker 3: understand physical location in a very different way. So these

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Speaker 3: obviously is having a profound impact on our society, not

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Speaker 3: just on our businesses. Some trends that would have probably

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Speaker 3: occurred anyway were significantly accelerated during COVID, and now we

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Speaker 3: are still moving along those trends. So, as I said,

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Speaker 3: it's not just an economic transformation, I think it's a

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Speaker 3: cultural transformation that COVID does, in a sense trigger.

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Speaker 2: That's Vibrizio Kamenyari. He's the head of the School of

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Speaker 2: Business at the University of Southern Queensland and he too

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Speaker 2: has observed many changes in our economy during and since

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Speaker 2: the lockdowns. Perhaps the most profound changes have been and

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Speaker 2: how we relate to each other. Dating, friendships, and family

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Speaker 2: relationships all underwent seismic shifts during lockdown, and many of

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Speaker 2: those changes have stuck.

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Speaker 4: Some people actually really enjoyed spending more time with their family,

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Speaker 4: and they noted that they really liked their family members,

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Speaker 4: which is quite cute. But some people really enjoy being

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Speaker 4: able to have more free time to spend with friends,

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Speaker 4: to spend on hobbies. For many people, they've tried to

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Speaker 4: adhere to that as first as possible, but life has

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Speaker 4: quickened up and their normal schedule has gotten in the

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Speaker 4: way of that, and that's been quite difficult for a

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Speaker 4: lot of people to adjust to. For many people, they

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Speaker 4: realized that how they were living their life just wasn't

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Speaker 4: helpful for them, or they didn't want to continue living

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Speaker 4: that way, and that's been really positive to see. There's

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Speaker 4: a lot of really quality mental health content out there,

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Speaker 4: and it feels like, at least to me, and I'm

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Speaker 4: in a bit of an echo chamber, but it feels

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Speaker 4: like people have really taken that to heart and are

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Speaker 4: really trying to live a life that feels more meaningful

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Speaker 4: to them.

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Speaker 2: The pandemic also changed our relationship with work itself. The

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Speaker 2: Great Resignation saw millions of Ozzies reassess their careers, with

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Speaker 2: large chunks of the working population changing jobs in the

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Speaker 2: two years following lockdown, and that trend continued with job

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Speaker 2: mobility remaining significantly higher than pre pandemic levels.

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Speaker 3: All right, now, unemployment it's very low. The same economy

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Speaker 3: is experienced a plant period of very tight labor market

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Speaker 3: and still now we are experiencing a very low rate

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Speaker 3: of unemployment.

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Speaker 2: And what about the hospitality industry. For every brunch date

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Speaker 2: canceled and small bars shutting its doors, waiters, barristas and

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Speaker 2: file workers were all sat at home, unsure of when

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Speaker 2: they'd step foot back inside their workplace. In twenty twenty,

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Speaker 2: shift work hours dropped by eighty percent, especially in bars

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Speaker 2: and pubs, which saw a massive ninety percent decline at

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Speaker 2: the height of lockdown. On the flip side, cafes and

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Speaker 2: coffee shops adapted quickly and actually saw shift hours rise

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Speaker 2: above pre pandemic levels. For many of us, the daily

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Speaker 2: walk to grab a takeaway coppa and lap the local

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Speaker 2: park was the only chance that we got to connect

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Speaker 2: with the outside world. Health impacts continue to linger too long.

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Speaker 2: COVID effects An estimated one one to five percent of

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Speaker 2: vossies who had the virus, with symptoms like brain fog

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Speaker 2: and fatigue persisting for months and even years. Mental health

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Speaker 2: challenges also remain elevated, particularly among young people who spent

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Speaker 2: crucial developmental years in isolation.

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Speaker 4: A lot of young people feel like they've been ripped off,

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Speaker 4: like they haven't been able to have the same kind

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Speaker 4: of memories or experiences that their parents or their older

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Speaker 4: siblings had, and things that they had planned to do,

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Speaker 4: even just things like sports competitions, they weren't able to

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Speaker 4: engage in. So that's been quite difficult for men generally.

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Speaker 4: Young people's access to mental health care and their current

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Speaker 4: financial status generationally is worse than where it was ten

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Speaker 4: years ago, and that has been a complicating factor too.

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Speaker 2: Economically, the pandemic accelerated existing trends and created new ones.

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Speaker 2: E Commerce adoption jumped forward by about five years in

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Speaker 2: the space of months. We all got really good at

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Speaker 2: online shopping, and contactless pavements became the norm, and government

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Speaker 2: debt reached levels not seen since War World War Two.

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Speaker 2: Job Keeper continues to be a sticking point when we

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Speaker 2: talk about the economy and lockdown. The wage subsidy program

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Speaker 2: that was introduced by the government during the pandemic to

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Speaker 2: help businesses retain employees by covering a portion of their

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Speaker 2: wages has been scrutinized since its inception, from payments not

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Speaker 2: being enough to support workers unable to attend their jobs,

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Speaker 2: to concerns of it being a short term band aid. Workers, employers,

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Speaker 2: small businesses, and the government all had their two cents

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Speaker 2: on the matter. So we asked for Britzio his take

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Speaker 2: on job keeper payments.

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Speaker 3: The main issue with job keeper was that it might

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Speaker 3: have been better targeted. To some extent, and we've seen

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Speaker 3: in the years after COVID there was that were inefficiencies

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Speaker 3: in the way in which job keeper was implemented. As

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Speaker 3: a concept, job Keeper was, in my opinion correct. We

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Speaker 3: were at a time where we wanted to make sure

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Speaker 3: that people who continue to maintain a job and had

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Speaker 3: an income. With such a sharp fast session, that was

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Speaker 3: really the danger of observing a large increasing unemployment which

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Speaker 3: would have triggered additional economicainst social consequences, negative consequences. So

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Speaker 3: the idea to intervene so that people would be guaranteed

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Speaker 3: and income would be guaranteed, the possibility to earn money was,

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Speaker 3: in my opinion current.

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Speaker 2: During Australia's COVID lockdowns, crime rates took a bit of

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Speaker 2: a mixed turn too. Domestic violence, especially domestic assaults, remained

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Speaker 2: steady and even roads in some places. Interestingly, non domestic

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Speaker 2: assaults dropped during this streater lockdown, but quickly returned to

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Speaker 2: pre pandemic levels once things started opening up again. That said,

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Speaker 2: some states have seen a worrying rise in youth crime

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Speaker 2: after lockdowns ended. So, whether it's changes in how we work,

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Speaker 2: how we connect, how we interact with one another, or

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Speaker 2: even how we shop, we've all adapted in ways we

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Speaker 2: never expected. Fabrizio says, if we were to do it

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Speaker 2: all again tomorrow, knowing what we do now, the action

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Speaker 2: is taken across the world and here down Under would

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Speaker 2: largely remain the same.

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Speaker 3: If we were to find ourselves in a new situation

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Speaker 3: like March or February twenty twenty, we're facing an unknown thread. Certainly,

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Speaker 3: we are probably learning how to implement and how to

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Speaker 3: even communicate these measures better. From an economic point of view,

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Speaker 3: job keeper, for instance, we have learned how to better

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Speaker 3: design it so that it's more effective and less inefficient.

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Speaker 3: So there have been a few lessons. But when you

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Speaker 3: face the crisis, when you face uncertainty, there has to

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Speaker 3: be some form of government intervention. Both from a health

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Speaker 3: perspective and from an economic perspective. To me, it's not

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Speaker 3: going to change. We would still have need for safe

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Speaker 3: physical support, physical intervention, and so we would probably follow,

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Speaker 3: at least from a general point of view, the same

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Speaker 3: approach that we have taken in Covide.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for taking some time to feed your mind with

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Speaker 2: us today. Hey, before you go. The Australian federal election

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Speaker 2: has now been announced, but before we head to the

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Speaker 2: polls on May three, we want to hear from you.

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Speaker 2: In the show notes, there's a link to our Muma

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Speaker 2: Mere Vote survey, a chance for you to tell us

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Speaker 2: what issues are important to you this election campaign. The

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Speaker 2: quickie is produced by me tel Estrano and Claire Murphy,

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Speaker 2: with audio production by Lou Hill.