The problem that Australia is having of the same problem all jurisdictions who are struggling to reopen are having. They were too successful in their early lockdown so they never built herd immunity. We completely lost any sense of endgame in our pandemic response.

The best point of comparison is Sweden versus New Zealand. Sweden never had hard lockdowns and they had their spike in cases and then things got better. Now their pandemic is pretty much over. In New Zealand they managed to beat COVID with lockdowns but now the only way to keep it or if the country is to continue authoritarian lockdowns or else the virus will get back in the country and spread.