Joe Hildebrand: Sydneysiders would rather die in battle than in their beds

In the midst of Melbourne’s brutal and lengthy lockdown last year I wrote that my hometown had been caught in a tale of two cities.

There were the lockdown luvvies, largely in affluent and inner-city suburbs, who delighted in posting self-congratulatory “We can do this!” type messages on social media alongside the ubiquitous doughnut emojis.

Then there were the frustrated and desperate residents in the poorer and migrant-heavy northern and outer southeastern suburbs – where I grew up – who were clearly just jack of the whole damn thing and wanted to go to work, see their families and live their lives.

In Sydney this time around we have seen a remarkably similar pattern. The well-heeled residents of Bondi and the Eastern Suburbs, despite being the source of the outbreak, were also extremely compliant in containing it. Most were able to work from home and language barriers were all but non-existent.

Sure, they still loved to strut on the beach but that is a genetic predisposition for that part of the world. And such activity is not high-risk. Thus the contact tracers were still neck and neck with the hyper-contagious Delta variant as long as it was centred there.

RELATED: ABC duped by Scott Morrison QAnon conspiracy report

But when the virus jumped the tracks to southwest Sydney – across the road from my neck of the woods – it was a very different story. Instead of blue blood these people had blue collars. They did not have the luxury of working from home, nor did they have the luxury of not working at all.

There was also the issue of language barriers – as we saw with the troubled and tragic case of the removalists – and the strong emotional connections to extended family among migrant communities that perhaps some white-picket fenced WASPs find easier to suppress.

And so the first point to make is that the people of southwest Sydney should not be pilloried for the second-phase spread that finally overwhelmed NSW’s once world-beating contact tracers. On the contrary, the main drivers appear to have been an irrepressible work ethic and commitment to family – qualities that would otherwise be celebrated in Australia.

But the second point, and perhaps the more significant one, is that there is a fundamental difference in the way that Sydney and Melbourne view Covid-19 and all its accompanying carnage – both biological and man-made.

Sydney is a city built on risk. It was a risk for the first white settlers to come here – not to mention the ones who came 40,000 years earlier – and it has been a battleground for survival ever since.

RELATED: Are Aussies ‘too dumb’ or ‘racist’ to answer this question?

It is the most aggressive, competitive and outward-looking city in Australia. It is not a place where you go to be safe, it is a place where you go to make it or break it – and maybe get broken. It is, in short, a pretty tough place.

And so there is little tolerance for the paternalistic and protectionist zeal that other states have so enthusiastically embraced when it comes to tackling the coronavirus pandemic.

As others locked down and shut their borders at the slightest hint of an outbreak there was a sense of both pride and expectation that NSW would not do the same, and this is why Premier Gladys Berejiklian now finds herself in a spot of bother.

Certainly there has been interstate criticism of her for not going harder and faster but aside from a few noisy exceptions NSW citizens never wanted her to. And now that she has had to tighten restrictions she finds herself attacked by both those tut-tutting voices and others on the freedom-fighting side who are deeply angry and uncomfortable about their liberties and livelihoods being summarily taken away.

It is of course well within the rights of other state residents to want their leaders to keep them safe at all costs and it would be a foolish politician to deny them. But NSW is a different beast and one Berejiklian has now been drawn into battle with.

RELATED: Bonds introduces new ‘genderless’ clothing range

In Sydney, more than anywhere else in the country, there is an acceptance that life is a game of risk and reward and all their accompanying repercussions.

Underpinning all of that is a sense that life has to go on, that we have to keep moving or we atrophy and die. And most Sydneysiders would rather die in battle than in their beds.

And so there is a burning appetite to preserve or reclaim as much of our lives as we can even if the virus still moves amongst us. The cult worship of the elusive god of elimination – a “false idol” as one former top federal public health advisor put it – has barely a toehold in this chaotic and crazybrave city.

Of course no sane person is suggesting that we simply let the virus rip through our community and kill whoever gets in its way – no one is calling for buffet breakfasts or nightclub moshpits – but there are certain fundamental values that are considered just as vital as any government guarantee to protect us from one specific ailment at the cost of all else.

RELATED: Anti-vaxxers and pro-lockdown crowd now running Australia

The most primal of these are the rights of children to go to school and adults to go to work. Education and employment are everything.

Giving kids the best possible start in life and giving parents the ability to provide for them aren’t optional extras that can be stripped or suspended by governments on a whim, they are the very foundations of a civilised society.

Other states are clearly happy for such things to be swiftly whisked away on the promise they will be just as quickly returned. NSW citizens, more accustomed to freedom over these past 18 months, seem to guard them more jealously.

Perhaps this has led to a longer lockdown but it has also produced political leaders who are fearful of taking away those liberties unless as an absolute last resort — and even then with the most apologetic reluctance.

And that, pandemic or no pandemic, makes me feel a hell of a lot safer.