Crikey,
13 July 2020:
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| FLIGHT CENTRE FOUNDER GRAHAM TURNER (IMAGE: AAP/LUKAS COCH) |
For
some business leaders and lobby groups, the return to lockdown in
Melbourne is intolerable. The most prominent is the Australian
Industry Group (AIG).
Last
week it condemned the Melbourne lockdown, saying “widespread
shutdowns is a strategy that can be used just once.” The following
day it called for the reopening of the NSW-Victorian border on the
basis that the Melbourne lockdown — which it had opposed the
previous day — had removed any threat of community transmission of
COVID-19 outside Victoria.
The
carefully chosen words of last week, though, were replaced by an
altogether harsher view articulated by AIG head Innes Willox to The Australian over the weekend.
State
premiers, Willox complained, were trying “to outdo, outbid and
outrace each other to smother any chance of economic recovery” —
a couple of days after Queensland had reopened its borders.
“Putting
up artificial barriers, closing borders and turning Australians
against each other is not going to get us there.”
That
coincided with the head of Flight Centre, Graham “Skroo” Turner
calling for Australia to “learn to live with the virus”, which
would get “society and business back to a reasonable level of
normality”.
After
dismissing herd immunity, and the tens of thousands of deaths that
would require, as “not a great option”, Turner, or his
ghost-writer, suggested that Australia had embraced a “model of
states, territories or governments who have no COVID-19 objectives or
clear science and data-based strategies”.
Despite
complaining about this alleged lack of clear objectives and
strategies, it wasn’t clear what Turner’s “living with the
virus” meant beyond “containment by proven health and hygiene
practices, widespread testing and tracing but without hard lockdown.”
Unsurprisingly for the head of a travel company, Turner wants
international borders and tourism reopened as soon as possible. The
Australian backed Turner in an editorial.
Turner’s
“strategy” would amount to letting the virus rip, with contact
tracers — let alone hospitals — rapidly overwhelmed. That’s
exactly the scenario that is unfolding in places like Florida and
Texas right now. Funnily enough, that’s not very good for consumer
sentiment, even without hard lockdowns….. [my yellow highlighting]
Read
full article here.
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| CEO OF THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP INNES WILLOX (IMAGE: AAP/LUKAS COCH) |
The New Daily, 13 July 2020:
A group of six Victorians has been fined more than $24,000 after trying to cross the border into Queensland in a minivan.
The group, who had lied on their border declaration forms, told police patrolling entry the state’s points that they had been working in NSW for three weeks.
However, evidence on their phones revealed they had been in coronavirus hotspots in Victoria during the past 14 days.
“Police intercepted a minivan on Saturday night, where all six occupants were refused entry at the M1 border control check point,” Queensland Police said.
“On Sunday, officers intercepted the same van on Stuart Street in Coolangatta around 2pm.”
All six in the group – two 19-year-old women and four men aged 18, 19, 23 and 28 – were fined $4,003 for failing to comply border directions and turned around immediately....
NSW Police, 13 July 2020:
The group, who had lied on their border declaration forms, told police patrolling entry the state’s points that they had been working in NSW for three weeks.
However, evidence on their phones revealed they had been in coronavirus hotspots in Victoria during the past 14 days.
“Police intercepted a minivan on Saturday night, where all six occupants were refused entry at the M1 border control check point,” Queensland Police said.
“On Sunday, officers intercepted the same van on Stuart Street in Coolangatta around 2pm.”
All six in the group – two 19-year-old women and four men aged 18, 19, 23 and 28 – were fined $4,003 for failing to comply border directions and turned around immediately....
NSW Police, 13 July 2020:
A man has been fined after failing to follow self-isolation ministerial directions in the state’s south west.
At 2.30pm on Wednesday 8 July 2020, a 24-year-old man was stopped by police on the Newell Highway at Tocumwal, as part of border enforcement patrols.
The man was issued a direction under the Public Health Act to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days and was provided with information before being allowed to leave.
Officers from Murrumbidgee Police District attended the man’s home in Leeton at 12pm and again at 4pm on Thursday 9 July 2020, and found the man was not home as directed in the orders.
Police attended the home again at 5.30pm and provided the man with a formal warning in relation to self-isolation.
About 8pm on Friday 10 July 2020, police attended the man’s home and again found he was not home.
About 4.20pm yesterday (Sunday 12 July 2020), police attended the man’s home and issued him with a $1000 Penalty Infringement Notice (PIN) for failing to comply with a direction under Section 7 of the Public Health Act 2010 (NSW).
Since Operation Border Closure started at midnight on Wednesday 8 July 2020, police have facilitated the movement of tens of thousands of vehicles crossing the border from Victoria into NSW.
To date, more than 300 people have been issued with directions to self-isolate as they enter NSW.....
At 2.30pm on Wednesday 8 July 2020, a 24-year-old man was stopped by police on the Newell Highway at Tocumwal, as part of border enforcement patrols.
The man was issued a direction under the Public Health Act to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days and was provided with information before being allowed to leave.
Officers from Murrumbidgee Police District attended the man’s home in Leeton at 12pm and again at 4pm on Thursday 9 July 2020, and found the man was not home as directed in the orders.
Police attended the home again at 5.30pm and provided the man with a formal warning in relation to self-isolation.
About 8pm on Friday 10 July 2020, police attended the man’s home and again found he was not home.
About 4.20pm yesterday (Sunday 12 July 2020), police attended the man’s home and issued him with a $1000 Penalty Infringement Notice (PIN) for failing to comply with a direction under Section 7 of the Public Health Act 2010 (NSW).
Since Operation Border Closure started at midnight on Wednesday 8 July 2020, police have facilitated the movement of tens of thousands of vehicles crossing the border from Victoria into NSW.
To date, more than 300 people have been issued with directions to self-isolate as they enter NSW.....
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