A graph showing the world what happens to an economy when a nation allows fundamentalist ideologues to run its pandemic public health response

 

ANZ graph Week to January 2020 to Week to January 2022
via Laura Tingle, @latingle 7 January 2022

Consumer spending in Sydney, New South Wales is the lowest it has 

ever been over the entire course of the COVID-19 pandemic to date and, 

there is no prize for guessing that what caused this was Australian Prime 

Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison's favourite three-word 

slogan, 'living with COVID'.

Which he so disastrously urged fellow Liberal & NSW Premier Dominic 

Perrottet to put into high-gear action by further reducing key protective 

elements of the public health response in NSW while at the same time 

opening up the state, then doubling down on dismantling what remained 

in place after the Omicron Variant entered Sydney and began to spread.

.

Might as well go to the cricket pic.twitter.com/vbC8T5vuIw

— Laura Tingle (@latingle) January 7, 2022

 

ABC News, 6 January 2022:

Escalating COVID-19 cases in New South Wales have not reduced appetite for travel, with tourist hotspots across the state still buzzing with activity.

However, many regional hospitality businesses are missing out on the potential windfall because staff shortages are preventing them from operating at full capacity…..

It's a similar scenario on the state's north coast.

Ballina RSL chief executive Bill Coulter said they had to reduce trading hours due to a lack of staff.

"It's challenging in terms of rostering. We're down about 20 per cent in staffing numbers and have been for quite some time now," Mr Coulter said.

"I think there is ongoing uncertainty about hospitality. When there's a COVID outbreak or issue, then it gets knocked out pretty quickly. And I think people's uncertainty in that space has heightened their anxiousness and they've sought alternative employment."

He said it was a problem across the region.

"We've had visitors in the club in the last week … and they say they just can't get into any business in town because nothing's open."….

Jane Laverty, regional manager of the NSW Business Chamber, said the latest surge in COVID cases had been a huge challenge for regional businesses.

"Our hospitality businesses … did see this as the time that they would be able to claw back some of the losses that they had previously, and they've been looking forward to this holiday period."

She called for government support to be reinstated for businesses across the state.

"We're certainly not back to any level of normal … we're still very much in the grips of COVID pain.

"That support will give the businesses and their employees some level of hope and support and dollars in their accounts during the period of time where we've still got such instability."

Just because it is beautiful........(17)

Here's some slow-mo whale watching action from the weekend with @sydneywhales... talk about non-stop breaching!  pic.twitter.com/2BdZIcpyS5

— Australia (@Australia) November 7, 2016

Tale of an unsolicited proposal approved by the NSW Iemma Government and distorted out of all recognition by Baird Government

When the people of New South Wales were told of a successful unsolicited proposal for a section of Darling Harbour foreshore land in 2007, this was what they were told the Barangaroo development would eventually look like:

Since then the approved development plan has undergone nine modifications until around a third of the total foreshore parkland area has been reduced to a “promenade” in order to satisfy the Packer family’s desire to build yet another private casino and hotel complex – this one 71 stories high at an estimated cost of $2 billion.

According to the Crown Resorts Limited website:

The Crown Sydney Hotel Resort will be world-class and will feature 350 hotel rooms and suites, luxury apartments, signature restaurants, bars, luxury retail outlets, pool and spa facilities, conference rooms and VIP gaming facilities.

This is what that est. 33 per cent of public parkland in the plan is now expected to look like per the June 2016 NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) approval:

Millers Point Fund Incorporated has been formed by local Millers Point community groups and the matter is now before Justice Nicola Palin in the NSW Land & Environment Court with Minister for Planning Robert Gordon Stokes,  Barangaroo Delivery Authority, Crown Resorts, Lendlease, and the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority as respondents.

On behalf of the Millers Point Fund the NSW Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) will be arguing that the PAC was wrong to remove public parkland for private profit.

Sue Higginson, the chief executive officer and principal solicitor at the Environmental Defenders Office, which filed the claim in the Land and Environment Court on Tuesday, said her client's argument was that the PAC had "fettered" its own decision-making.

"Basically we are saying the Casino Control Act doesn't dictate the planning decisions that are made in NSW," Ms Higginson said. "In fact the PAC really is required to make a decision about where a casino can and cannot be built based on planning law," she said.

Ms Higginson said the PAC's error was "so significant that its decision to approve the latest modification to the concept plan and approve the actual construction of the project is invalid and of no effect."

I suspect that the EDO could do with a little financial help as it takes on the legal might of the super-rich and politically powerful. Online donations can be made here.

* Images from the Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald