Please Explain podcast: How the pandemic revealed inter-state tribalism

In 1898, Edward Braddon, an early proponent of Australia’s federation, said “we should cease to feel that we belong to this state or to that, and only acknowledge that we belonged to the Commonwealth”.

More than 100 years later, as the fog of coronavirus continues to cloud the country, state-based parochialism is stronger than ever.

State borders and cities shut at a moment’s notice, police turn away residents returning from interstate while confidence in premiers and their governments has reached record highs.

Meanwhile, Twitter has become the battleground for inter-state rivalries usually reserved for sporting grounds, premiers are pandering to populist sentiments and the difference in attitudes between Melburnians and Sydneysiders could not be more stark.

Today on Please Explain Daily, Nathanael Cooper joins national affairs editor Rob Harris to explore the parochialism that has reared its head in recent times.

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