COVID-19 Delta Variant Outbreak 2021: It seems that in New South Wales a percentage of the state population has reached 'peak herd stupidity'

 

NSW Police Public Site, 3-4 July 2021:

An unregistered car parked in a ‘no stopping’ zone in a Central West town has led police to issue $1000 fines to three Sydney people who breached Public Health Orders overnight.

Officers from Orana Mid-Western Police District noticed an unregistered car parked in a no parking zone outside a hotel on Bolaro Street at Dunedoo, 90km north-east of Dubbo, about 8.50pm (Saturday 3 July 2021).

They identified the driver and discovered he was one of three people who’d travelled from Sydney that day and were booked to spend the night in the town. A 44-year-old man from Haberfield, a 51-year-old man from Fairfield West and a 38-year-old woman from Burwood have now been issued $1000 PINs for not comply with noticed direction 7/8/9 Covid-19. They have also been issued traffic infringement notices for driving an unregistered vehicle and being parked in a ‘no stopping’ zone.

Four people were yesterday each issued with $1000 PINs after being stopped by Chifley Highway Patrol at Little Hartley, about 150km west of their home in Maroubra. Officers stopped the group – two women aged 23 and 25, and two men aged 25 – on the Great Western Highway about 9am (Saturday 3 July 2021). All four were directed to return to Sydney.

The owner of a Mascot fruit shop and an employee of the same shop were also issued with PINs for breaching the PHO overnight. Officers from South Sydney Police Area Command attended a fruit shop on King Street, Mascot, about 6.30pm, after receiving complaints from the public the business was not using QR sign-in protocols and staff were not wearing masks.

Police spoke with the owner, a 57-year-old man, and an employee, a 26-year-old man, neither of whom were wearing masks. The older man was issued a penalty notice for not comply with noticed direction 7/8/9 Covid 19, while the younger man was issued a penalty notice for not wear fitted face covering in retail/business premises. They have been fined $1000 and $200 respectively.

Staff from a store in Bowral have also been charged with further breaches of the Public Health Act after officers attached to The Hume PD conducted a compliance check yesterday, and found 20 people inside allegedly not wearing face masks. Police requested those not consuming food or drink to put a face mask on; however, will allege the female staff, aged 62 and 43, refused. They were arrested and taken to Southern Highlands Police Station where they were charged with not wear fitted face covering in retail/business premises. They’ve been bailed to appear in Moss Vale Local Court on Tuesday 17 August 2021.

In total, 86 PINs were issued yesterday and of those 55 were $200 infringements for failing to wear a fitted face covering.

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 women have been charged after further breaches of the Public Health Act were detected at a café in the Southern Highlands today.

About 11.45am (Saturday 3 July 2021), officers attached to The Hume Police District attended a food store on Bowral Street, Bowral, to ensure compliance with the current Public Health Orders.

Police observed 20 people at the store - including two female employees serving customers – allegedly not wearing face masks while inside the premises.

Police requested staff and customers, not consuming food or drink, to put a face mask on.

The employees expressed they had no intention of complying and the two women, aged 62 and 43, were arrested and taken to Southern Highlands Police Station.

Both women were charged with not wear fitted face covering in retail/business premises and will face court at a later date.

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.

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At 2 July 2021 NSW Government media conference it was revealed that a person left Greater Sydney lockdown, travelling by bus to the Brisbane area. At some point decided to turn around and head for Grafton in the Northern Rivers region where he was intercepted by NSW Police. 1/2

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) July 2, 2021

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9News, 3 July 2021:

Police and health authorities are again pleading with the Sydney public after hundreds across the city were seen out and about on Saturday, some ignoring social distancing rules as dozens of fines were handed out for face mask breaches.

As the city was treated to a warm sunny winter weekend day, hundreds were seen packing local beaches and parks to soak up the rays.

With NSW recording 35 new local cases of coronavirus today, nine of which were exposed to the public while infectious, health authorities are warning the lockdown may not be lifted on July 9 as hoped….

Hundreds were out at community markets today, in close proximity to each other. (9News)

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 July 2021:

Up to a dozen St George Illawarra players are under investigation for a potential biosecurity breach involving a reported house party hosted by star forward Paul Vaughan that prompted noise complaints from neighbours…..

NSW Police said officers attended Vaughan’s Shellharbour home around 9.40pm on Saturday night following reports of visitors there. Police are considering fining the group due to the public health order breach…..

NSW Health, 4 July 2021:

Stay at home orders apply to Greater Sydney including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour until 11.59pm on Friday, 9 July 2021.

These days they are singing about their prime minister in Australia - feel free to join in

Well @MrDenmore it's done. I think this song's called "He Doesn't" oh and i just STOLE a Men at Work chorus to be an utter bastard. Coz it fitted nicely. Poetic license. Parody not plagiarism pic.twitter.com/UJAiF975QQ

— Glenno and Ruben (@mad6duck) July 1, 2021

Lyrics for "The Ballad of Scotty" aka "He Doesn't" courtesy of @MrDenmore 

 

I made a song out of all the hashtags & nicknames for Scott Morrison.
According to legend, if you play the song 3 times, he will be conjured from hiding and start DOING HIS JOB#ScottyFromMarketing #UnderTheDoona #MorrisonLockdown #auspol #COVID19Aus #ScottyDoesNothing pic.twitter.com/bYv96omfh7

— Nathleigh (@Nathleigh) July 1, 2021

 

Queensland, West Australian and Victorian state police services have admitted trying to access logs of contract tracing services created since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – the other five state & territory police services denying having done so thus far

 

Crikey, 1 June 2021:

Police across the country are attempting to access personal data from mandatory COVID-19 check-in apps for reasons other than contact tracing, despite promises that the data would only be used for public health reasons.

Police in Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria have all owned up to trying to access logs of data created by Australians using check-in applications as part of their investigations, and enquiries by Crikey suggest that police in other states could also access this data using a warrant.

Privacy advocates have slammed state governments for lying to Australians about what the data would be used for.

“We were told this data would only be used for contact tracing. Police made that a lie,” Electronic Frontiers Australia’s Justin Warren told Crikey. “People will remember that next time governments want us to give them data about ourselves.”

One of the major tools in fighting the spread of COVID-19 and managing outbreaks has been contact tracing, which has been aided by various tech solutions.

When the federal government first proposed the contact tracing app COVIDSafe (which used Bluetooth to log close contacts), it responded to fears of a mass surveillance state by announcing the data would not be used by police.

But adoption of a QR code check-in system — the widely used, low-tech alternative now mandatory in many places around the country — was left to states to implement. As it turns out, these states did not assume the same protections for their citizens, meaning that data volunteered in the name of public health has been accessed for other reasons…..

Read the full article here.

Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

David Pope

 

Mercury, 30 June 2021

Quote of the Week

“Climate change continues to influence Australian and global climate. Australia's climate has warmed by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C over 1910–2019, while southern Australia has seen a reduction of 10–20% in cool season (April–October) rainfall in recent decades.” [Australian Bureau of Meteorology, “Climate Driver Update” , Issued 22 June 2021]

Prime Minister Scott Morrison caught out in yet another lie about Australia's closed national border

“Australia's borders were slammed shut in March last year as the coronavirus spread across the world, with the federal government trying to take advantage of the nation's island geography to safeguard it from the worst of the deadly virus. In an interview with News Corp, Mr Morrison said he did not believe Australians had an "appetite" for opening borders if it meant having to deal with more coronavirus outbreaks, lockdowns and social restrictions. "We have to be careful not to exchange that way of life for what everyone else has," he said. In a later post on Facebook, he warned borders would only be opened "when it is safe to do so". [ABC News, 9 May 2021]

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has revealed more than 36,000 Australians remain stranded overseas with 4,860 considered vulnerable.…...In September, Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised to get as many people as possible on the list home by Christmas.” [AAP General News Wire, 24 March 2021]

If one reads the aforementioned quotes it would seem that Australia has had an all but impenetrable border since the COVID-19 global pandemic began and, that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made it his priority to repatriate his fellow citizens stranded overseas by travel restrictions.

Then as the country braces for what is feared will be a widespread outbreak of a highly infectious SARS-Cov-2 variant*, this appears in the media - revealing that after being thwarted by the National Cabinet in his desire to open the national border at the earliest opportunity Morrison then found an underhand way of doing so. 

Note: * the Delta variant of SARS-Cov-2 which causes a highly infectious form of COVID-19 came into this country via an infected overseas traveller.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 July 2021, excerpt:

The data obtained by the Herald and The Age is collated from incoming passenger cards and is designed to capture the main reason for the journey for both visitors arriving and residents returning to Australia. The government publishes the data online.

During April, 2226 cards listed the passengers’ reason for arriving as “business, conferences or exhibitions”.

In the same month, 8067 cards listed “visiting family or friends” and “taking a holiday” as the reason for travel. The number was down from its peak last December when there were 10,536 arrivals for those reasons in the lead up to the Christmas holidays.

Employment was given as the reason for 5200 passenger movements while 817 of the April arrivals were for education.

Seventy two people were “attending a conference” in April – marking 533 total trips for conferences made since July last year.

The Herald excluded travellers from New Zealand from the statistics, which accounted for many of the 53,872 arrivals recorded in April…..

It was revealed by the Queensland government that its latest outbreak spawned from an unvaccinated traveller allowed to “come and go repeatedly” between Australia and Indonesia, doing multiple stints in hotel quarantine.

Meanwhile, in South Australia, the ABC reported authorities allowed a family to fly in from Indonesia on a privately funded medevac flight after testing positive for the highly infectious Delta strain.

The data shows 2400 arrivals were citizens of the UK, 1900 were citizens of China, 1400 were citizens of India and 1100 were US citizens.

“Thousands of people are being allowed to travel here who are not stranded Aussies,” Mr Miles said.

“In addition to the non-Australians returning, every month about 40,000 Australian citizens and about 6000 permanent visa holders are allowed to leave the country.

“Many of them seek to return. Rejoining the queue, going back through hotel quarantine, putting our community at risk.”

However, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews accused the Queensland government of misrepresenting the data.

“The data from the Australian Border Force sets out very clearly that, on average, 80 per cent of returning travellers to Australia are either Australian citizens, permanent residents, or immediate family members,” she said.

She said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was “arguing against her own travel to Tokyo” to attend the Olympics.

In response to questions about the infected traveller from Indonesia, Ms Andrews said the government was “going through a process of looking at” exemptions allowing people to make multiple trips despite the border closures.

However, she did not believe it was necessary to lower caps on overseas arrivals.

“It’s one of the issues that we have to deal with now, which is dealing with specific needs of our economy while at the same time making sure that we are able to bring in as many vulnerable people and return as many Australians as we possibly can,” she said.

According to the Australian Border Force, between March 2020 and the end of May this year, 156,507 Australian citizens and permanent residents were granted exemptions to depart Australia, while 84,031 requests were denied.

Over the same period 49,017 foreign nationals were granted an exemption to travel into Australia and 104,507 had their request denied.

“More than half of these approvals were for those proving a critical skill to Australia,” a Border Force spokesperson said.

A request may cover more than one person and individual travellers may have made multiple requests.

ABC News, 1 July 2021:

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has expressed his anger at the "large group of people" leaving Australia during the pandemic to travel overseas, some of whom he said had been enjoying foreign holidays.

Mr McGowan said 82 people had been on four overseas trips, while eight people had left five times and two people six times.

"In other words, there's a large group of people who have been overseas on multiple occasions. And every time they go overseas, they increase the risk," he said.

The Premier said many of those trips were unnecessary, and allowing people to go overseas was "the biggest [COVID] threat vector" Australia faced.

"People book a conference in Europe, and then have a holiday while they're over there, and then come back and join the queue," Mr McGowan said.

"It's just not right. We need to crack down on this."

He said it was time to limit the number of people allowed to travel internationally.

"I actually think there is a strong argument that before anyone can go overseas, they should be vaccinated, and then we should actually crack down hugely on the number of people allowed to go overseas." 

This is nuts!!! I must find a conference, I guess. ::sigh::#auspol #COVID19Aus #Quarantine
Figures from just WA. McGowan reported today. pic.twitter.com/NZ019AU4XD

— 🍩🍩CreatetheWorldYouWant🍩🍩 (@JL_Whitaker) July 1, 2021

 

NSW Indigenous Leaders launch the Indigenous Political Party in June 2021 ahead of AEC registration approval

Indigenous Political Party, media release, 29 June 2021:

Indigenous Leaders Launch Australia’s First Indigenous Political Party

Uncle Owen Whyman, a Paakindji man from Wilcannia, has brought together a group of nine Indigenous people from across NSW to start the first political party in Australia that centres the concerns and rights of Indigenous people: the Indigenous Party of Australia.

The Indigenous Party of Australia has already recruited over 750 members, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. The 9 members on the executive are Indigenous people from Dareton, Broken hill, Wilcannia, Mutwinji, Newcastle and Central Coast of NSW.

Mr Whyman has run for parliament twice before as an independent and is now formalising his vision of an Indigenous party run by Indigenous people to tackle crucial community and environmental issues at the federal level.

The party’s strong environmental focus begins with their campaign Barka-Darling River. Emblematic of the ecological issues facing Australia, the drought impacted and now climate and farming impacted river has no flow of water; the river is stagnant and algae is growing, damaging the local community who depend on it for their lives.

Mr. Whyman says it’s time for Indigenous issues to take the centre stage.

"As a national Party, the Indigenous Party of Australia, has to cover a lot of ground and that takes funds. We must get the word out, from Fremantle to Darwin to Port Adelaide to Melbourne and Sydney, that Indigenous incarceration, the highest in the world, must end. Our rivers, like the Baak are ready to break as the natural waters are plundered and sacred sites destroyed. We need free homework centres, everywhere, that run every afternoon for Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids so they can have help with homework, improving reading, getting some fresh fruit. There is a lot of work to be done but we can make it with your help and support. "

Federally, a core element of the party’s platform will be re-designing the approach to education within Indigenous communities, emphasising that equal opportunities must be given to all young Australians, and matching the needs of students to a curriculum and structure that meets them where they are.