Is health advice an on water matter?
Anthony Albanese can hardly be blamed for his reluctance to engage with David Speers’ line of questioning on Insiders regarding the number of deaths that would be tolerable in the name of avoiding lockdown — the multiple responses to this provocation are likely more palatable in an undergraduate philosophy class discussion of utilitarianism than an Australian public with visceral and wildly divergent social, economic and health concerns and desires. It is an infinitely complex ‘trolley problem’ that requires that loss of life, livelihoods and ways of life be scientifically predicted and their value evaluated. However, by their words or actions, our leaders have, and will continue to, implicitly communicate their views on the problem. They may rely on medical, economic and social modelling and advice in deciding whether and when to lock down a city or state, but this should not distract from the fact that these are policy judgements which balance all considerations (including expectatio...