Santa says, “Be realistic,” to which the baby responds, “End of Covid-19.”

This stumps Santa and he then concedes, “911 Carrera or Turbo?”

We laugh because there have been so many false dawns: “two weeks to flatten the curve”, “two jabs for freedom”, “we are all in this together” etc.

Some in our midst seem to have developed an addiction to panic. For them coronavirus is simply an excuse to stay in a perpetual state of alarm.

But if we act as adults though we can deliver the baby’s wish and end the Covid-19 panic this Christmas.

The vaccines work to drastically reduce hospitalisation and death from coronavirus. We should celebrate that the vaccines mean we can now get on with our lives.

During 2020 the coronavirus killed just over 3 per cent of Australians who got the disease.

This year that figure has been just 0.6 per cent.

And since the emergence of Omicron, Covid-19 has killed just 0.3 per cent of people with the disease.

Thanks to the vaccines, and possibly a less fatal variant, coronavirus is becoming more like the flu and no one ever suggested we should have QR code check-ins for that.

But the vaccine unfortunately does not stop the spread of coronavirus. Vaccine mandates are therefore ineffective.

One night at the Argyle Nightclub in Newcastle, where a vaccine passport policy was enforced, led to 150 coronavirus cases among patrons.

Countries with vaccine passport policies in Europe are experiencing record outbreaks.

Coronavirus will still be with us. Unfortunately it will probably be with us forever.

It will become another way that some people tragically, and too early, die, just like the flu, cancer and heart disease.

The question is, will the divisions that coronavirus has created be with us forever.

Over the past few weeks mandates have segregated Australians based on their medical treatment.

I think the vaccine has been a wonderful blessing for us, but I abhor draconian policies that seek to force people in a free society to get a medical treatment, especially when that policy will not eradicate the disease anyway.

The NSW Government is apparently considering charging unvaccinated people for their hospital visits.

How is it that we would treat people who choose not to take a medicine worse than those who take illegal drugs and have an overdose?

I believe in universal health care for every Australian regardless of their life choices.

I start every morning by raising the Australian flag outside my home because I love this country and I am grateful to have been born here.

There are some who do not feel part of Australia at the moment unfortunately.

Our goal should be that by next Christmas, QR codes become just fading stickers on the entrances of some businesses, when you find an old crumpled-up mask in a pair of shorts it simply reminds you of “that time” and no one lives in fear of hearing a “ping” on their phone that consigns them to 14 days’ imprisonment.

We owe it to all the young children on Santa’s lap this year that we make a country that returns to the world of 2019 – a free country where everyone got a fair go and we dealt with the cruelties of life and death with courage and an Australian “she’ll be right” attitude.