A conga line of #COVIDIOTS - Part 4

NSW Police, News, 16-19 August 2020:

Police in the Riverina region have issued two Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) in the past 24 hours for non-compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Orders.

As part of proactive compliance operations, officers from Riverina Police District attended a restaurant on Fernleigh Road, Mount Austin, just before 7pm on Saturday (15 August 2020).

After speaking with the 39-year-old male owner, officers conducted a walk-through and established that a COVID Safety Plan had not been completed.

Further, the owner, who was also the chef, claimed to be the designated COVID marshal.

The owner was informed he would receive a $5000 PIN for non-compliance with the Public Health Orders, which was issued yesterday (Tuesday 18 August 2020).

In a separate and unrelated incident, officers from Riverina Police District have been conducting inquiries into suspected non-compliance of self-isolation directions since late last month.

On Saturday 25 July 2020, local police were contacted after a 25-year-old woman, who had arrived in Wagga Wagga from Victoria on Thursday 23 July 2020 on a valid permit, was reportedly not self-isolating.

Police conducted a number of inquiries, including repeat compliance checks, during which it was established she had not been self-isolating.

Officers advised the woman she would receive a $1000 PIN for fail to comply with noticed direction in relation to s7/8/9 – COVID-19 and reminded she must complete the full self-isolation period.

The woman was issued with the PIN yesterday (Tuesday 18 August 2020).

Police continue to appeal to the community to report suspected breaches of any ministerial direction or behaviour which may impact on the health and safety of the community.

Anyone who has information regarding individuals or businesses in contravention of a COVID-19-related ministerial direction is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.

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Two people have been issued with Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) since the last update:

About 6pm on Sunday (16 August 2020), officers from Eastern Beaches Police Area Command responded to reports of a large gathering at Jack Vanny Memorial Park, Maroubra. Officers spoke with a 33-year-old man who was one of the organisers of the event, before the crowd was dispersed without incident. Following inquiries, the man was issued with a $1000 PIN yesterday (Monday 17 August 2020) for fail to comply with noticed direction in relation to s7/8/9 – COVID-19.

On Friday 14 August 2020, a 57-year-old man attended Bourke Hospital with possible COVID-19 symptoms. He was tested for the virus and directed to self-isolate at home. About 3.30pm yesterday (Monday 18 August 2020) the man was located at a friend’s house. Further inquiries revealed the man had attended a local shop the same morning. He was issued with a $1000 PIN for fail to comply with noticed direction.

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Two people have been charged and 19 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) have been issued since the last COVID-19 update.

CHARGES INCLUDE:

About 12.30pm on Saturday (15 August 2020), police attended the Albury-Wodonga railway bridge and spoke with a 24-year-old man, from West Wodonga, was who was wanted in NSW on four outstanding warrants.

It’s alleged the man had crossed the border into NSW illegally, with officers also locating and seizing a set of knuckledusters when he was searched.

The man was taken to Albury Police Station where he was charged with the outstanding warrants, along with go onto running lines, resist police, possession of a prohibited weapon, and fail to comply with the Public Health Order.

He was refused bail appeared at Wagga Wagga Local Court yesterday (Sunday 16 August 2020), where he was formally refused bail to appear in Albury Local Court today (Monday 17 August 2020).

In another incident, about 4.20pm on Friday (14 August 2020), a 37-year-old man attended Eastwood Police Station for a meeting. While waiting, the man allegedly coughed directly towards two female officers, aged 30 and 33. He was arrested and taken to Ryde Police Station.

Police will further allege that while in custody the man damaged a station phone during a call.

He was charged with not comply with noticed direction re spitting/coughing – COVID-19, two counts of assault officer in execution of duty, two counts of intimidate police officer in execution of duty without actual bodily harm, and destroy or damage property.

The man was granted conditional bail and is due to appear in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday 25 August 2020.

In addition, 19 people and businesses were issued with PINs. PINS INCLUDE:

- About 12.30pm on Saturday, police were called after a light aircraft, which left Victoria, had landed at Deniliquin Airport. The 61-year-old male pilot did not have a valid permit to enter NSW. He was directed to return immediately to Victoria and was issued with an infringement notice.

- About 11.30am on Saturday, officers from Sydney City PAC were called to a unit on Hay Street, Haymarket, after reports of a party occurring inside. Officers attended and found a gathering in progress with approximately 30 people inside. Officers spoke to the 20-year-old female occupant who told police she booked the premises online. She was issued with a $1000 infringement for failure to comply with noticed direction.

- A man who organised a dance party on the North Coast of NSW last month has been issued an $1000 infringement for ‘Not Comply Noticed Direction’. Police allege the man held the unauthorised party on Saturday 4 July 2020 at Wilsons Creek Road, Wilsons Creek, which attracted an estimated crowd of 1000-1500 people. Following inquiries, the 50-year-old man was issued a PIN on Friday.

- About 10.20pm on Saturday 8 August 2020, officers from Murray River Police District visited a licensed premise on End Street, Deniliquin, where they saw patrons not practicing social distancing. Following inquiries, police issued the licensee – a 65-year-old woman – a $1000 fine on Friday.

- Another licensee of a hotel on Station Place, Wagga Wagga, was also fined $1000 on Saturday, after officers from Riverina Police District identified breaches, including patrons not practising social distancing and an out-of-date COVID safety plan, during a visit on Saturday 8 August 2020.

- On Friday evening, licensing officers from Murray River Police District conducting business inspections spoke with a 54-year-old man at a club in Mulwala, and a 58-year-old woman at a club in Barooga, who were both drinking alcohol and playing gaming machines. Both were from Victoria, with the man entering NSW with a working permit, and the woman entering NSW on a permit strictly stating she was only entering the state to provide care. The man and woman were each issued $1000 PINs.

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Victoria Police, Breaking News, 19 August 2020:

Moorabbin Highway Patrol members grabbed a man for excessive speed, drink driving and breaching Chief Health Officers restrictions in Brighton last night.

Police detected a white BMW sedan on Nepean Highway travelling at 138km/h in a 80km/h zone about 8.10pm.

Police spoke to the driver, a 43-year-old Beaumaris man, who underwent a preliminary breath test.

He was taken to a local station for an evidentiary test where he returned an alleged reading of 0.157%.

His car was impounded at a cost of $878.50 and his licence was immediately suspended for 12 months.

He is expected to be summonsed to appear at a Magistrates Court at a later date for traffic related offences.

The driver was also found to be in breach of the directions issued by the Chief Health Officer and issued a $1652 penalty notice.

The directions by the Chief Health Officer, under the State of Emergency declared in Victoria, have been enacted to help stop the spread of Coronavirus.

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Scott Morrison: Political Parasite - the short 'film'

https://youtu.be/oZXvGfoV0uo 

#WhatTheBloodyHellHappened

At least one former Fairfax & News Corp (Sky News) journalist journalist currently freelancing does not like this video - which in itself is a recommendation to view.

Fourteen days before the start of Spring and bushfires begin to be reported on the NSW Far North Coast

It might still technically be winter, but bushfire season stops for no one.

These are the scenes currently at Duranbah, on the NSW North Coast, where a 164 hectare 'advice level' bushfire is currently burning out of control.

RFS crews are one scene. #9News pic.twitter.com/hcP1aOaRkM

— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) August 19, 2020

Advice Level Fires at Whiteman Creek and Duranbah

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 August 2020:

A fire in the NSW far north-east has triggered the state's first major deployment of water bombers for the 2020-21 bushfire season, with crews battling to keep the flames away from properties and the Pacific Motorway.

The blaze near the town of Duranbah, not far south of the Queensland-NSW border had burnt through about 180 hectares swampland and grass by late Wednesday afternoon, Angela Daly, a NSW Rural Fire Service spokeswoman, said. 

"It's the first response [involving water-bombers] for a fire of a bigger scale," she added. 

At least six trucks and crew joined the fight to keep the flames away from nearby properties. 

Since July 1, the state has recorded 702 bush, grass and scrub fires, with about 10 burning on Wednesday. By contrast, this time last year, NSW had recorded triple that number or 2224 blazes.... 

The cause of the fire near Duranbah was not clear although the RFS suspects it was a fire on private property that the owners had not been able to control. 

Smoke could be seen many kilometres away, including from the popular resort town of Byron Bay....

Perspectives on the Qld-NSW border closure

Perspective One

Echo NetDaily, 18 August 2020:

Queensland is closed. Annastacia is showing us she knows how to deliver some serious borderline discipline. It’s a show of strength – perhaps, some might say, a borderline disorder. There’s a state election around the corner (31 October) and she’s not about to let a few hundred NSW cancer patients in need of treatment soften her public displays of tough love for her Queensland constituents.

There’s been endless stories of seriously ill people who have been severely affected by the sudden border closures and the quarantining requirements. I even heard the heartbreaking story of a very ill man who had received treatment at a Queensland hospital and was made to cross into NSW to meet his wife by foot. At a local doctors surgery as many as ten doctors can no longer attend. Is that a show of strength Ms Palaszczuk?

In the previous border closure earlier this year I knew of people who were able to get border passes for a day trip to IKEA. Just a few months ago we could print a pass and return home with a flat pack. Now we have to beg for chemo. That’s nuts. We don’t even have COVID here. In Northern NSW we’ve become refugees in our own country.

We are standing at the border knocking, ‘Hey Queensland, you’ve been coming down here every weekend for years now, clogging up our roads, swimming at our beaches, enjoying our kooky hippyesque charm… we don’t want to come in for a holiday, we would like to go to hospital.’

Until COVID, borders were something that only meant something in the State of Origin. Or if someone cut you off on the highway and had a Queensland numberplate you mused it was because of their statewide merging disorder. For over half the year they’re an hour behind us because of their silly reluctance to take on daylight savings. But now the Queensland border has been sealed shut. They’re sailing into the distance. Who knows how far behind they may be once the border reopens? Will we need passports to enter?

COVID has carved Australia into a quarantine pie, it has made us separate people. It has made Queenslanders distrustful of us. And here in NSW, it has made us suspicious of Victorians. Every time we see a VIC numberplate we hit down hard on the hand sanitiser. State premiers who previously seemed a tad irrelevant in the big game of politics have become the major players. They get to play Big Daddy or Big Mummy to keep their state safe. I’m not sure what’s happened to Scott Morrison – he appears to have gone to sleep. Every time I turn the telly on, it’s not Scotty’s face I see, it’s Daniel Andrews. And I have to admit I really feel for him. He has to bring the COVID-19 outbreak under control, otherwise the rest of Australia will blame Victoria for their financial ruin. He does look very tired.

The pandemic has ugly impacts. It has made us territorial. We are one country – at least we used to be. Our lockdown has sent us to our burrows – it has made us conspiratorial and suspicious. It is causing us to lose trust. When Annastacia created a travel bubble between Queensland and NSW, she cut Mullumbimby and Byron Bay out. I doubt that was an accident with the protractor in the planning department. ‘We ran out of arc’. It’s because people from Sydney come here. It’s because we’re perceived as loose – after all we’re famous for immunising with a turmeric poultice.

So, farewell Queensland. We’ll see you on the other side. Or perhaps, we won’t.

Perspective Two

Yes this border closure can be hard on individuals, families and communities.

For those living in the Northern Rivers region who need to access health services in southern Queensland and medical personnel who can no longer cross the border to work in our hospitals and clinics unless they leave their families and don't return until the border opens, it is more than hard.   

However, the Northern Rivers is part of a state, New South Wales, which allows its residents free movement within its own borders during this global pandemic.

This means that people can freely travel from local government areas where COVID-19 infection growth is active to areas where infection growth is low or where there are no known cases of the virus.

New South Wales has a premier who appears to be in thrall to a prime minister whose constant push to prematurely ease public health order restrictions put in place by the states destabilised the national response to the pandemic.

So here in New South Wales we remain one of only two states with a high cumulative number of confirmed of COVID-19 cases, a relatively high death toll and active community transmission of the virus.

Currently the other six states and territories are managing to keep infection rates very low.

Additionally, we have people travelling within our state who crossed into New South Wales from Victoria which is in the middle of an infection surge and, we are not sending them home. Because quite frankly the Berejiklian Government has no idea where these Victorian travellers are.

Even within our state trust in the 'experts' engaged by the NSW Dept. of Health has taken a battering - given the release of the Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess Report on 14 August 2020.

It is no wonder that the Queensland Government does not trust any assurances given by either Scott Morrison or Gladys Berejiklian that new cases of the virus are unlikely to cross the border if Anastasia Palaszczuk were to reopen Queensland to people from New South Wales right now.

What wages growth in the Australian private sector looked like over the last 20 years

It is noticeable that in the Abbott-Turnbull- Morrison Coalition Government years 2014-2020 private sector wages growth slows markedly.

Graphs: The Guardian, 16 August 2020

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Bulletin- June 2019:

The low wages growth in recent years has contributed to a decline in the growth of household disposable income and consumption, and has been associated with a decline in inflation….. government policies have capped wages growth in most public sector EBAs, while delays in renegotiating some EBAs have resulted in a temporary wage freeze.

Now it is obvious that Scott Morrison intends to gather as much power as possible into his own hands, local government begins to fight back

Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison has chosen a global pandemic as a suitable time to both extinguish the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and increase the level of secrecy and lack of procedural transparency surrounding decisions and actions of the federal government he leads.

COAG represented all three tiers of Australian governments - federal, state and local - and its role since 1992 was to manage matters of national significance or matters that need co-ordinated action by all Australian governments. 

The President of the Australian Local Government Association had been a member of COAG since it was first convened. It was included because all parties recognised that Australia has three levels of government and that the tier with most impact on people’s daily lives in terms of the provision of local services and infrastructure is Local Government - as well as it being the most accessible form of government for citizens.

In early March 2020 Morrison created the ultra-secret National Cabinet comprising of himself as prime minister, all state premiers and territory chief ministers and, he appears to be the sole spokesperson for this body.

On 29 May 2020 Morrison announced that COAG was indeed dead. That the National Council was now going to be the centre of a new National Federation Reform Council (NFRC) and that the existing Council on Federal Financial Relations (CFFR), consisting of federal and state treasurers, will report to the National Cabinet. 

According to Morrison all these bodies now fall under the confidentiality privileges of the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet which will also act as meeting coordinator. As will all the previous 8 COAG sub-councils and 32 ministerial forums, in whatever form they take after a planned review.

No minutes of meetings will be available nor will all issues discussed be made public.

According to the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet the NFRC has been agreed to by Premiers, Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister.

Local government was not consulted and now has no representative on the peak national body, as neither the National Council or the new National Federation Reform Council include a local government member.

Local government is not amused.

Clarence Valley Council. Ordinary Monthly Meeting, Minutes, p. 3, 28 July 2020:

Unless local government has an official seat at the table - in both the National Council and the National Federation Reform Council then neither of these bodies can be, either in name or practice, genuine national councils of Australian governments.

It is not hard to see why Scott Morrison & Co do not want local government included as a member of these two national councils. 

It can be seen in the titles of the six new National Cabinet Reform Committees created on 12 June 2020 as part of the NRFC-National Council: 

• Rural and Regional Australia 
• Skills 
• Energy 
• Infrastructure and Transport 
• Population and Migration 
• Health

Federal and state governments are not enamoured with the planning & decision-making powers which still remain with local government - only finding local councils useful as a vehicle to cost shift their own financial obligations onto ratepayers.

Mining companies, heavy industry and property developers in particular would like to see local government sidelined at policy level and, it appears that Scott Morrison is willing to oblige groups which include the Coalition's largest and most consistent political donors.

When it docked in Sydney, NSW, cruise ship "Ruby Princess" & its more than 4,000 passengers and crew were primarily the responsibility of the federal Morrison Coalition Government - but almost no-one gets off unscathed in recently published NSW Commission of Inquiry report

"The human consequences of the scattering upon disembarkation have not yet played out. That is the salient feature of an uneliminated infectious pandemic." [Report: Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess, 14 August 2020]

Evidence of human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (as COVID-19) emerged almost immediately following the discovery of the virus in Wuhan, China in early January 2020.

On 6 January 2020 a traveler returning by air from China arrived in Sydney, New South Wales, carrying the COVID-19 viral infection.

As the global pandemic grew so did the number of factors to be considered when implementing infection controls.

By early February 2020 concerns were being raised around the world concerning the number of international cruise ships which potentially might be carrying infected passengers.

As of 19 March 2020 the number of confirmed COVID19 cases in the NSW totaled 307 and community concern was mounting.

The “Ruby Princess” - a foreign-owned cruise ship which has capacity for 3,080 passengers and 1,200 crew members - docked in Sydney to board and disembark passengers from its 24 February to 8 March 2020 and 8 March to 19 March 2020 voyages. 

When it entered Sydney Harbour it became a Commonwealth responsibility under federal statutes; Customs Act 1901, Migration Act 1958, Australian Border Force Act 2015 and Biosecurity Act 2015 (an act which in part addresses human biosecurity and whose provisions are administer by the federal departments of Health & Agriculture, Water and the Environment).

By 19 March it was suspected that a number of passengers and crew might possibly have contracted the highly virulent COVID-19 infection.

Five days before the ship's docking Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison had informed the general public that Border Force had implemented measures to screen incoming cruise ships for the coronavirus - "In specific cases where we have Australians on cruise ships then there will be some bespoke arrangements that will be put in place directly under the command of the Australian Border Force to ensure the relevant protections are put in place".

However, it seems that the "Ruby Princess" was exempt from some of Morrison's so-called "bespoke arrangements", in that it had permission to come into Sydney when as a safety measure it should have been refused permission until after 15 April 2020.  It was exempt because it had departed a port outside of Australian waters before midnight on 15 March 2020. 

So, despite the prime minister’s statement on the morning of 19 March 2020 at least 2,700 passengers – a mix of Australian nationals and overseas visitors - were allowed to disembark in Sydney without being screened for the virus.

This mass disembarkation was the direct result of the NSW Dept. of Health Expert Panel classifying the "Ruby Princess" as 'low risk', together with an ongoing failure of a federal department to fully perform its legislated biosecurity functions and, finally verbal permission being given by an unauthorised Border Force official for all passengers to leave the ship on that morning.

With Border Force refusing to release cruise passenger details to airlines, there was no way of tracking passengers once they had left the ship and so infected passengers spread out across the state, across Australia and then by air across the world as oveseas travellers returned home.

Ruby Princess passengers dispersed around the world in the days after it docked. Some of them later displayed coronavirus symptoms.(ABC News: Emma Machan) 

It has been calculated that at least 662 "Ruby Princess" passengers contracted COVID-19 and over time 26 of these died.

By the time the "Ruby Princess" sailed out of Sydney on 23 April 2020 it was thought to be responsible for about one in every ten existing COVID-19 cases in Australia.

An est. 183 crew members were also thought to have become infected.

On 15 April 2020 the NSW Berejiklian Government created a Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess.

The Morrison Government did not assist the Inquiry in that it refused to allow a federal bureaucrat to answer any summons received from the Inquiry.

Indeed a summons to a Commonwealth officer to attend and give evidence about the grant of pratique for the "Ruby Princess" resulted in steps being taken towards proceedings in the High Court of Australia.

The Inquiry was due to report the the NSW Governor and Premier by 14 August 2020.

Report: Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess, 14 August 2020, can be read and downloaded at:

https://www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/assets/dpc-nsw-gov-au/publications/The-Special-Commission-of-Inquiry-into-the-Ruby-Princess-Listing-1628/Report-of-the-Special-Commission-of-Inquiry-into-the-Ruby-Princess.pdf.

This report contains a litany of errors at federal, state and cruise ship operator level, as well as uncovering deficiencies in current legislation and regulations.