Australia must now become the plucky country

“We cannot resign Australia to being a dislocated nation under COVID-19,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison says. He wants to bury annus horribilis 2020 through pro-growth reforms, the opening of state borders, the reopening of Victoria, the resumption of international travel, and the development of a vaccine after Christmas.

It’s a big ask. How we recover, and how quickly, depends to a considerable extent on the relationship between the US and China, plus the future trajectory of the pandemic. These are factors largely beyond our capacity to influence, although Australians feature more on the medical side. One vaccine candidate is under development in University of Queensland labs, and Monash University medical scientists are testing a steroid-based treatment for the virus.