The introduction of measures prohibiting people from meeting in groups of more than two, with some narrow exceptions, and which ban them from leaving their homes unless they have what the New South Wales legislation calls “reasonable excuses”, is a dramatic escalation in the distancing measures that have been progressively rolled out in recent weeks by state and federal governments in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

These measures, unacceptable in virtually any other situation, are justifiable to prevent an escalation of infections. Distancing measures are widely accepted by epidemiologists as an important step to prevent viruses escaping out of control. They were one reason why the number of those hospitalised with the virus was significantly lower in Guangzhou, China – which implemented such measures early in the outbreak – than in Wuhan, where authorities delayed putting them in place for a month.

The problem is that governments in Australia introducing them have justified the decision to do so by arguing that irresponsible people have left them no choice but to enforce the measures with extraordinarily punitive fines and potential jail terms. Photographs of hundreds of people in public parks and thousands at beaches, ignoring distancing measures, have been brandished as evidence that people must accept not just the tightening of distancing measures but also a much bigger role for the police in enforcing them, along with substantial fines of up to $20,000.

But it’s likely that the vast majority of people would be willing to engage in social distancing voluntarily, if the reasons were clearly explained and the measures consistently applied. Instead, governments have encouraged social distancing to be disregarded in the interests of profit-making, while giving the police a free hand to determine which individuals will be hit with enormous penalties for disobeying unclear but sweeping restrictions.

That governments resort to such arguments and highly punitive fines is cover for their own responsibility for the current situation.

There is no doubt that there have been cases of irresponsible behaviour that cannot be condoned, whether involving wealthy residents of Portsea or crowds of locals and backpackers at Bondi Beach. In some cases, those involved have been outright denialists, refusing to accept the public health grounds for distancing measures. Others have simply been selfish egotists who refuse to accept any social responsibility for their actions.

But taken as a whole, such cases are a small minority. The overwhelming problem is that the politicians have been talking out of both sides of their mouths for weeks and undermining their ability to speak with conviction when they do do the right thing. Prime minister Scott Morrison, who tells us that he is introducing tough new distancing measures because we have not complied with the last round, was less than three weeks ago boasting of his plans to join a crowd of tens of thousands at a footy game. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews refused to cancel the Australian Grand Prix, which was expected to attract a crowd of 300,000 – it was only a revolt by the drivers that stopped it going ahead. How can the politicians expect to make a convincing case for social distancing when they behave so irresponsibly themselves?

Even more seriously, at the same time as governments are telling couples that they cannot have a friend over for dinner or that children cannot visit their grandparents, they are also instructing millions of people to catch public transport and go to work for eight hours every day, supposedly only in “essential industries”. But most things still running do nothing to keep the population alive, housed and fed. This is probably the single biggest contributor to the community transmission of the COVID-19 virus.

Construction and engineering workers are hard at work building Adani’s new Carmichael mine in central Queensland. FIFO workers are still being flown to and from mining, energy and resource projects across Queensland and Western Australia, where they risk infecting each and putting a big strain on the health facilities of remote regions if they fall sick. Labourers, plasterers and crane drivers are still working long shifts in central Melbourne building apartment blocks and hotels that, given the economic crash, will lie empty for years. Hairdressers are still able to ply their trade in salons.

The only reason governments will not shut down industries such as these is because they back the rich moneybags whose wealth depends on workers showing up for work every morning.

Already we can see the results of the politicians’ irresponsibility: a construction worker at Multiplex’s $2.8 billion Melbourne Square worksite at Southbank tested positive on 29 March and 20 of his workmates are now in self-isolation. Despite this, the site was reopened 24 hours later.

As the days and weeks go by, workplace COVID-19 clusters will become an increasingly pressing problem.

Just as important in explaining the reluctance of some to accept previous rounds of distancing measures is the fact that politicians are liars and hypocrites (sports rorts, anyone?). Why would anyone listen to what they have to say about measures needed to safeguard public health? Their well-earned lack of trustworthiness is why figures such as the ABC’s Science Show host Norman Swan have come to be regarded as national authorities on the virus and how to deal with it effectively.

If government ministers had the credibility of Norman Swan and his medical colleagues, if they themselves acted in line with the distancing measures they are now introducing and with the seriousness that the public health crisis merits, they would not need to reach for $20,000 fines because there would be more widespread adherence to the measures.

The reason why the politicians’ natural instinct is to reach for the legal blunderbuss rather than sound medical and scientific authority is because sooling the police onto crowds does not threaten business profits like shutting down construction would. By focusing on individuals or small groups who can be shamed in the media for flouting health precautions, governments can dodge responsibility for the pandemic. It’s far easier to fine people more than $1,000 for sitting on a park bench or in their own car without a “reasonable excuse”. And the introduction of extraordinary fines fits with the general knee-jerk authoritarianism of all governments in response to any crisis.

Ultimately, the “irresponsible” ones who have done the most to spread COVID-19 are not the beachgoers and the partygoers but the politicians. They have been playing with our lives since January, when they refused to prepare the country for the arrival of the virus and who continue to do so today by sending millions off to work for the sole reason of making rich people richer. They deserve to face public shaming for their role in this crisis.