How are you? Are you doing ok? It has been an incredibly tough six months, and who would have thought we would face yet again such disruption to our lives with a return to Stage Three ‘Stay At Home’ restrictions in play.

Australians are known for their resilient, ‘can do’, ‘she’ll be right mate’ attitudes, and this was evident when the Covid pandemic first broke. People heard what was needed to ‘flatten the curve’ and even though it was difficult both from a personal and financial perspective, everyone pulled together and got the job done. There was an outpouring of kindness and strong sense of duty to each other.

Fast forward to now and there is a different mood. I am sensing many in our community are tired, stretched, fragile and some at breaking point. This is resulting in some having less patience, less tolerance and a waning of the resilience displayed at the start of the pandemic. Many small businesses aren’t sure they’ll survive this time.

Your Council understands the issues our Community faces and is actively doing all it can to provide timely and targeted Relief, Response and Recovery efforts from both a community health and wellbeing perspective as well as economic perspective. It is an evolving situation, which is requiring Council to juggle the immediate needs of a Covid response with ongoing delivery of the core services our Community expects of us – a mammoth task not experienced before.

Acknowledging the mood change and the greater burden a second lockdown has had on many, I ask that each of us dig deep and find the resolve to soldier on. To remember to be kind to each other, no matter what adversity we are presented with. Council is here for
you. We have a range of Relief, Response and Recovery efforts in play and are already casting our minds to what more is needed in the months ahead. Everything we do,
aims to complement State and Federal Government initiatives to ensure there is no duplication of effort and that no-one falls through the gaps.

If we all do our bit, following the guidelines re staying at home, social distancing, displaying cough and sneeze etiquette, wearing masks as appropriate, using hand sanitiser etc., we will get through this and life will return to some form of new normal.

Councillor Nicole Seymour

For more, see knox.vic.gov.au. Also visit the Knox Council Facebook or Mayor’s Facebook pages for daily updates.