Aussies reset to the ‘new normal’

By Ian Silvera, Account Director

The cardboard cutouts will soon be replaced with real-life fans at ‘the footie’ as Australia continues to ease its lockdown restrictions and rugby league attendance is put back on the agenda, albeit at a capacity of 25%. 

The arguably rougher and tougher version of the rugby code, which was popularised in working-class Northern England rather than the playing fields of the country’s public schools system, is a quasi-religious institution Down Under so the return of the spectators will serve to be hugely symbolic. 

This news comes as Newgate Research Australia published the findings of its latest weekly national poll of more than 1,200 people, conducted between Monday 8 June and Wednesday 10 June. The research, among other things, found that Australians are continuing their orderly transition towards a post-Covid “new normal”, expressing support for reopening a wide range of activities.

A vast majority of respondents (81%) felt comfortable with eat-in dining at restaurants with appropriate hygiene and social distancing measures in place. There is also support for reopening galleries and museums (73%), pubs and clubs (66%) children’s team sports (63%) adult recreational team sport (58%) and cinemas (55%). 

However, only 30% believe crowds at professional sporting events should be allowed at this stage. And in a further indication of Australians’ cautious support for liberalisation, only 28% think it would be appropriate to see state borders opened up in the next month, 70% think it should happen in the next three months.

In a boost to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the survey also found that three quarters (77%) of people said Australia is responding at an appropriate level to coronavirus, down from 82% last week. 

Attitudes to the rate of easing restrictions have also been fairly stable over the past month, with more than half continuing to believe that restrictions are being lifted at the right pace (53%), three in ten feeling they are being lifted too quickly (31%) and 16% too slowly. It is still unclear, however, when state borders will open up. “We need to get planes flying around Australia and if you want to see planes flying around Australia... we need to open up these domestic borders,” Morrison reportedly told the Australian parliament. Footie, not flying, then.