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The Apocalypse Handicap

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. A man on a small pony chases them holding a toilet roll banner labelled, 'Panic buying'. Text at the top: 'The Fifth Horseman'.

‘Stop doing it. It’s ridiculous. It’s unAustralian, and it must stop,’ Prime Minister Scott Morrison scolded the nation in the face of Australia’s panic buying frenzy. By August researchers had found that we led the world in pandemic-induced panic buying. As retailers imposed purchase limits in March, one local Twitter user responded: ‘A “restriction” of 12 bottles of wine per person …? WTF?! That’s not a restriction, that’s a liver transplant!’