The Daily Telegraph, 15 December 2021, p10:
The CEO of an organisation that managed an East Lismore group home where significant issues arose has apologised on behalf of the service provider.
Life Without Barriers CEO Claire Robbs addressed the Disability Royal Commission on Tuesday.
Ms Robbs addressed issues including those which arose in relation to a particular resident of the group home, referred to by the pseudonym Sophie and another, known as Natalie.
“It deeply saddens me that for the people who have shared their stories with the disability Royal Commission, our organisation has not met this promise,” Ms Robbs said.
“The physical abuse Sophie experienced is unquestionably not in keeping with Sophie’s right to feel safe and respected in her own home.” “I do not condone the violence towards Sophie, and I offer Sophie and her family our sincere apology for the harm caused to her, including for the manner in which our investigations into the matter was undertaken.” She has condemned the misconduct toward another resident, known as Natalie. “For Natalie and her family, the sexual misconduct by a staff member is completely unacceptable, and I acknowledge the pain and trauma that has caused Natalie and her family,” Ms Robbs said.
“Our priority should have been to protect Natalie earlier.
“I offer this apology to both Natalie and her family with a full understanding that our delay in offering a genuine and human response was also unacceptable.” Ms Robbs is continuing to give evidence before the commission in relation to multiple abuse, mistreatment and neglect allegations at homes run by Life Without Barriers.
The organisation’s Director of Policy Reform and Business Development Stephen Doley appeared before the commission on Monday.
Mr Doley was the director of disability and aged care for NSW and the ACT at the time of the incidents in Lismore but was also questioned about the cases of residents in a Melbourne home…..
The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 2021, p1:
More than 1.9 million coronavirus case alerts have been issued in the Service NSW app over the past fortnight as end-of-year celebrations drive an upswing in the state's cases.
The alerts, issued between November 29 and December 13, include directions to monitor for symptoms, as well as to test and isolate as contacts of a case.
There have been several instances of all patrons at a hospitality venue being placed in isolation for a week as clusters linked to nightclubs and pubs threaten to push daily cases into the thousands by the end of the year…..
A NSW Health spokesperson said they were unable to confirm how many people were considered close contacts.
Half of Sydney's systemic Catholic schools elected to learn from home this week as families attempt to avoid being deemed a close contact before Christmas.
But hundreds of other families are awaiting their fate after their children were potentially exposed at school…..
Christine Rooke's daughter, who is too young to be vaccinated, caught COVID-19 on the last day of term at her eastern suburbs private school this month.
She tested positive on day six of her quarantine period so will spend the first 20 days of her holidays in isolation.
Ms Rooke says she hopes the rest of her family, all of whom are vaccinated, will avoid catching the virus. If they test positive, the clock on their isolation will be reset and they will be housebound until after Christmas.
"If none of us test positive, we could be out on the 19th. If any of us test positive now, we will miss it," she said.
"It's frustrating because we've been sold this story ... that we are going to live with COVID and life is going to get back to normal, but that isn't really the case."…..
Courier Mail, 13 December 2021, p5:
This week, police will embark on their biggest operation since the Commonwealth Games and the G20 summit – the reopening of Queensland.
Late on Sunday afternoon, stranded Queenslanders and travellers began to fill Tweed Heads, filling side streets, car parks and service stations, poised for the border to open at 1am.
Julie Aubrey and her family parked their caravan at a service station just 9km from the border, setting up camp chairs for the long wait.
Ms Aubrey travelled from Brisbane to Victoria in June to care for her sick mother-in-law. She passed in October, but Mr Aubrey couldn’t return because of hard border closures. “I haven’t seen my kids for six months, so that’s been tough. I just can’t wait to see them,” she said.
The borders have been closed to southern hotspots for the past 141 days, leaving families ripped apart, Queenslanders stranded and the tourism industry reeling.
The border has now been closed three times for a total of 435 days since the pandemic began.
But the long wait and the uncertainty is over.
FIFO dads will see their kids again – some meeting babies for the first time – grandparents will reunite with families, couples will celebrate homecomings and some locals will simply be allowed to go home.
Health authorities, including Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and new chief health officer Dr John Gerrard, have reassured Queenslanders there are no plans to shut the state down again.
Greeting the interstate arrivals at road checkpoints and airports will be officers from a 500-strong contingency, tasked with ensuring border openings today and vaccine mandates on Friday go smoothly.
The state’s top Covid cop, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said it was the biggest police operation since the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane attended by world leaders, including then-US president Barack Obama.
“We could see up to 60,000 vehicles (crossing into Queensland) per day,” he said.
“The pandemic response has been by far the largest and most sustained major operation in QPS history but the anticipated numbers (of people) we will have to deal with when the border reopens will be significant.” Business and tourism leaders, along with long-suffering border residents, say the reopening has been a long time coming and there can be no more crippling closures.
“There’s enormous relief that the state government has held its nerve and stuck with the road map despite the emergence of the Omicron variant,” Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said.
“It should help rebuild shattered consumer confidence about travelling anywhere across borders.
“We have to learn to live with the virus and accept that it will spread in Queensland, but we can manage it.” Mr Gschwind said holiday bookings and inquiries had surged since the border reopening announcement.
He said the decision to reopen four days earlier than scheduled, after Queensland’s double dose vaccination hit 80 per cent last week, had reinforced confidence…..
Manning River Times, 10 December 2021, p3:
Health systems coping "at the moment" Local health systems, not just in the Mid Coast, but in other regional and rural areas around NSW, seem to be coping well at the moment, thanks to high vaccination rates in most areas. But it still wouldn't take much to tip the situation to a serious level, health workers say.
"The problem is things might seem to be going alright but then they can go pear shaped very, very fast," Dr Holliday said.
"I guess with small hospitals, and the Manning (Base Hospital) is really under funded, what will happen is that people will do their very best, but we don't have the capacity."
Paramedics and nursing staff in rural and regional areas keep saying there is a chronic staff shortage, and that the capacity of a hospital to deal with an increase in COVID cases will not come down to a lack of beds, but a lack of staff.
Tim McEwan, an Australian Paramedics Association delegate and working paramedic from Yamba, near Coffs Harbour, says that staff are "dead on their feet"
"It's been relentless. Not necessarily COVID related, just generally speaking," Mr McEwen said,
"What we're finding now is that both NSW Ambulance and the hospitals are struggling to staff their units.
"Even NSW ambulance can be two or three cars short each shift, and they just can't find paramedics to fill them. The casuals don't seem to be putting their hand up as much; certainly the full time staff are not putting their hands up for overtime.
"If the hospitals can't staff their wards, then the flow on is that the ED can't get their patients out of there onto the wards," Tim says…..
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