2020: Coronavirus, bushfires, the Claremont Trial and Tiger King — how we’ll remember the year that was

There have been many mysteries of 2020. How Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire — a requiem for modern life — did not chart again is one such chin-scratching topic. While the past 12 months can be best illustrated with a large bin on fire, We Didn’t Start the Fire could provide the soundtrack. The 1989 song, originally written to reference the big news stories of the piano man’s life which included the Korean War, the space race, Woodstock, Watergate and Beatlemania, still perfectly encapsulates our collective exacerbation and exhaustion. Matt Warburton, a writer for The Simpsons, summed up 2020 in one tweet: “Today was like if ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ was a day,” he posted back in early March. “Schools close, Tom Hanks, trouble in the big banks, no vaccine, quarantine, no more toilet paper seen. Travel ban, Weinstein, panic COVID-19, NBA, gone away, what else do I have to sayyyyyy.” The original version contained 40 years’ worth of world events. But we could produce a remix with the news, events, people and politics that happened throughout the past 360-odd days. Speaking of fire, it’s exactly how 2020 started all those months ago. Since then we’ve seen royals quit and replaced with a Tiger King, borders closed, zoom became a verb, champions were lost and creeps copped karma. MAKING HIS MARK “There’s nothing unlawful about going for a run and having a kebab,” Premier Mark McGowan giggled during a press conference in April. It’s a phrase that signalled the beginning of his meteoric rise in popularity and the sentence which sums up 2020, given that if he said something like this last year we wouldn’t have also been in hysterics with him. There’s a good chance, too, that if you had asked your wider circle who the WA Premier was over Christmas lunch in 2019, a majority would be blissfully unaware. Then COVID hit. The pandemic stifled the globe but McGowan’s approval rating reached stratospheric heights thanks to his regular press conferences that attracted thousands of viewers online, but mostly he ingratiated himself by deciding to go full Sandgroper. The boy from NSW has been able to tap into WA’s deeply parochial nature which has only intensified since he listened to calls by health experts to close our borders with the east. A decision which saw him pull in an 89 per cent approval-rating for making many feel safe, allowed most of us to resume life as we knew it and delivered a Budget surplus. McGowan is also one of the only rational voices in the ongoing diplomatic dispute between China and Canberra, calling for calm, measured and immediate action by the Federal Government to repair the relationship with WA’s biggest trading partner. “We have a $96 billion trade surplus with China. That results in over 200,000 WA jobs,” McGowan told the crowd during this year’s CEDA State of the State address. “You cannot discard that relationship lightly. It is important to all our prosperity. I’m just very keen and I make the offer, anything the State can do to repair the relationship, it is very important, for all of our futures but also our children and our prosperity in the future.” His continual sass towards his Federal and Eastern States counterparts, all the while taking on billionaire Clive Palmer in the courts, has also helped endear him even more to the WA public, conveniently just 76 days until we head to the polls. But he hasn’t done it alone. Auslan interpreter Fiona Perry, who was by his side during those daily briefings, became a selfie magnet, but the Robin to his Batman has been Health Minister and his unflappable deputy, Roger Cook. Followed closely by the more reserved chief health officer Dr Andy Robertson, the devastatingly witty president of the WA chapter of the Australian Medical Association Dr Andrew Miller and every doctor, nurse and carer in WA. As well as dealing with the $11 million trial which saw Bradley Edwards convicted as the Claremont serial killer and sentenced to 40 years behind bars, WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson got an additional job. Since March, as WA’s State emergency co-ordinator he has also been overseeing the COVID response around the State. He’s also probably the only other public figure who would match McGowan’s popularity. Dawson took a quick break down south in winter and despite not shaving for days, wearing a beanie and sunglasses he was still stopped in the street by fans asking for photos. Over east, the queen of self-deprecation on Instagram, Celeste Barber, experienced a similar reaction from the general public when she raised more than $51 million for the NSW Rural Fire Service in the midst of the worst bushfires we’ve experienced since Black Saturday. The fires which raged across the eastern seaboard destroyed more than 2400 homes in NSW and scorched more than 5.3 million hectares of the State including 80 per cent of the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains area. According to conservationists, 800 million animals also perished in NSW. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was heavily criticised for his response to the disaster and for holidaying overseas at the time, confirmed 33 people died during the crisis. The first we encountered as a nation in 2020. Oh how naive we were. TRUMPED As bushfires simmered down over east, another fire was being stoked in the US. President Donald Trump was fanning the flames of “fake news” while racial tensions hit a modern-day high after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician who was shot eight times in her home by white police officers. These incidents sparked global outrage, online black outs and protests, even here in Perth, with issues about the incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians taking centre stage at local Black Lives Matter rallies. Meanwhile the Trump administration found itself at the end of its first, and now only, term and continued to carry on like a soap opera which produced more political performance art than the series of VEEP, The West Wing and House of Cards combined. One of the most obscene scenes was in June, in the thick of #BLM movement gripping the country and lapping at the steps of the White House, when peaceful protesters and journalists, including a Seven News crew, were forcibly moved on and sprayed with tear gas so Trump could pose outside a church holding a Bible over his head. Prior to that he fronted a press conference where he said injecting bleach might cure COVID and promised a vaccine in mere weeks, much to the chagrin of actual scientists and medical experts. His incongruous actions continued as the 2020 Presidential election campaign hit fifth gear. Hosting huge public rallies where his supporters were not encouraged to wear masks even though his family members did when on the hustings. Which is where he was infected with the virus. Trump’s positive COVID-19 result came days after he attended huge Make America Great Again rallies, addressed a press conference, attended several fundraisers and took part in a presidential debate with Democrat opponent Joe Biden — all of which involved him travelling across multiple states, potentially infectious the entire time. After losing the election in a particularly longwinded way which took weeks to decide that Biden had secured enough electoral college votes, Trump then went on a pre-Christmas pardon spree. Last week alone he pardoned and issued commutations to 29 people, 20 of those went to his allies, including two people who pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller’s inquiry on Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. He also let Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, off the hook after he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and witness-tampering when he hired a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law, filmed the encounter then sent it to his sister in an act of retaliation. In a weird twist, Kushner was prosecuted by Chris Christie, a former US attorney and New Jersey governor who was a Trump loyalist. Now other criminals, mainly ones with public profiles, are agitating for the President’s attention. Jailed Tiger King star Joe Exotic — who is serving 22-years for plotting to kill his rival Carole Baskin — has taken the US Justice Department to court to force it to submit his name to Trump for a pardon. Meanwhile, president-elect Biden is getting ready to move into the White House in January with the first female vice-president-elect Kamala Harris. As Trump busied himself tweeting and appearing to try to equal Bill Clinton’s pardons list of 140 people in the final hours of his presidency, Biden and Vice-President Mike Pence received the first doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine at televised events just as the death toll from coronavirus surpassed 318,000 in the US. HEIR WE GO ... Royals have always been trendsetters but not for the reasons the royal highnesses formerly known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would have hoped. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle shocked the world in January when they announced they were quitting their jobs as senior members of the royal family. They published their resignation letter, reportedly before consulting the Queen, on their now defunct Instagram account where they said they they made the decision “after many months of reflection and internal discussions”. “We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.” They craved a life of freedom, solitude and more simple pleasures — like living in sprawling compounds in the UK and Canada — and wanted to avoid unnecessary public duties and focus on philanthropy and making podcasts for Spotify from their LA mansion. “This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity,” the couple said. Then the world followed suit and we were all sent home thanks to COVID. It was supposed to be the year of the rat and ended up being the year of the sloth. Lockdowns, DIY beauty treatments, working from home and activewear was rebranded “inactivewear” as staying in became the new normal for most parts of the world and Australia. House parties became virtual and hosted by an app of the same name, while Zoom was no longer a speed but a corporate buzzword. Culturally we all took a giant step in a new direction. Some of us honed our dancing skills making TikToks and filming things like the Blinding Lights challenge by jumping around in our trackies with young members of the family to The Weeknd’s song. And why not? It was a chance to interrupt the trauma of home schooling, because in 2020 the home became an office, a classroom, a banana bread factory and toilet paper storage facility. Board games made a huge comeback thanks to enforced stay-at-home orders and the premiere of The Queen’s Gambit, the drama series about an orphaned girl’s inexorable rise to chess stardom which is now Netflix’s most-watched scripted limited-series of all time. Since the show dropped online, “numerous chess board manufacturers have reported big surges in sales, with increases anywhere from 21.5 per cent to 1000 per cent”, according to The Guardian. The common refrain from leaders was “we’re all in this together”. Some celebrities didn’t get that memo, including some of the biggest names of the past decade who found themselves at the centre of online outrage. In 2020, as we were all forced into varying degrees of isolation, we were given the space to reconnect with what’s important and discover that some people we idolise and call celebrities are filled with self-importance. Harvey Weinstein, the movie mogul who was at the heart of a decade-long investigation and Ronan Farrow’s subsequent book, Catch and Kill, is now serving a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted in New York earlier this year on charges of rape and sexual assault against two women. The 68-year-old also faces similar charges involving five women in California, stemming from alleged assaults in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013. Facebook banned chef Pete Evans for repeatedly publishing misinformation about coronavirus and the entire internet turned on Kim Kardashian for not only hosting a lavish 40th birthday party but bragging about it on social media. “Undeterred by an ongoing pandemic, Kim Kardashian West has revealed she threw a party for herself and dozens of friends on a private island that swapped social distancing for dancing, bike-riding and swimming with whales. But at least she did it humbly,” the BBC reported back in October. LOSING YOU In addition to the sorrow and sadness caused by COVID, the world lost more than just civil liberties this year. In August, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded occurred in a Beirut port when more than 2700 tonnes of explosive material blew up after being incorrectly stored for six years. Two hundred people were killed, thousands more were wounded and it devastated swathes of Lebanon and the world. Especially the local Lebanese community after it was discovered the only Australian victim of the explosion was two-year-old Isaac Oehlers from Perth. Throughout the year, Jeannie Little, Sean Connery, Eddie Van Halen, Helen Reddy, Kelly Preston and 43-year-old Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, after a secret four-year battle with colon cancer, all shuffled off this mortal coil. One of the most horrific stories, though, was the helicopter accident which claimed the lives of NBA icon Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others on board when the chopper crashed in heavy fog. The public mourning was immediately and enduring. Bryant’s sudden death took the entire sporting world by surprise. Athletes across the globe united to mourn the basketball legend. From the world of tennis, it was Nick Kyrgios who sent the most heart-warming tribute by wearing his famous LA Lakers jersey to warm up at the Australian Open. “I wore his shirt the day he died at the Australian Open and cried during that day,” Kyrgios, who is also a talented basketballer, said in an Instagram video. “I watch basketball every day and it is an important part of my life. I can never imitate what Kobe did, but there may be times in my life when I try.” Another sporting fixture in Diego Maradona passed at just 60, albeit his life was a touch more colourful and controversial than most, he was an icon to many not just soccer fans and his countrymen and women at home in Argentina. His teammate Jorge Valdano broke down when remembering his friend and eulogised about the importance of their 1986 World Cup win: “That moment had a great symbolic value for us and Maradona was transformed into this great patriotic leader, comparable to the national heroes of our independence”. Closer to home and despite being the safest place in the world in 2020, WA endured some losses that challenged us. Rio Tinto’s detonation in May of the Juukan Gorge caves in May prompted an outcry from the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura traditional owners up in the North West and triggered a global controversy that cost chief executive JS Jacques and two of his most senior executives their jobs. An excavation at the rock shelters before they were destroyed recovered stones, animal bone fragments and ash from beneath the cave floor that showed the area had been inhabited as far back as 46,000 years ago. A federal parliamentary inquiry released a scathing interim report calling for Rio to negotiate a restitution package with the traditional owners, worth more than the $177 million it valued the ore during initial surveying of the site. A loss which puzzled and frightened us was the killing of Rebels boss Nick Martin, which worried police and organised crime squads about an impending public bikie war. The bikie kingpin was shot dead by an alleged sniper as he watched the drag races at the Kwinana Motoplex on a balmy December night. His funeral, which the family opted to live stream, was some of the most captivating viewing ever broadcast on the internet. A casket covered in replica $100 bills, eulogies laden with expletives, six-foot tall patched-up blokes with face tattoos openly weeping and a soundtrack ranging from Bob Dylan to Adele to a final hymn about strippers and gangsters was an eye-opening insight into the world of motorcycle gangs and their way of life. However, there was some light at the end of the 2020 tunnel. Families flocked back into the CBD to enjoy the Christmas lights trail through the city. There were more people in town last Sunday night than the 2019 Skyworks crowd. Here’s hoping the bright lights continue to shine all over the State. And here’s to a happy, healthy and hygienic 2021 in WA.

2020: Coronavirus, bushfires, the Claremont Trial and Tiger King — how we’ll remember the year that was

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