Australian House of Representatives 22 November 2021: on the subject of Prime Minister Scott Morrison's December 2019 family holiday in Hawaii during the Australian east coast bushfire crisis

Morrison rising to his feet in the House of Representatives at approx. 16:00 on 22.11.21 followed on from Anthony Albanese on his feet at 15:11 pic.twitter.com/cVnUXjwKz5

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) November 22, 2021

NSW Delta Variant Outbreak Update: Lives could have been saved if the NSW Government's Covid-19 Crisis Committee had followed the medical advice it received

After 16 June 2021 when the Delta Variant Outbreak began, the NSW Coalition Government’s COVID-19 Crisis Committee was composed of up to seven permanent members – these included then Premer Gladys Berejiklian, then Deputy-Premier John Barilaro, then Treasurer & now NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, the Minister for Health and Medical Research Brad Hazzard, Member for Penrith & now Deputy-Premier Paul Toole and, the then members of government now ministers in the Perrottet Government Victor Dominello and Stuart Ayres .The state’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kerry Chant advises/makes recommendations to this committee.

It seems what many have long suspected about this committee is true……..

News.com.au, 22 November 2021:

Newly released documents reveal the NSW government ignored health advice to apply the same coronavirus lockdown rules across all of Sydney.

An email sent by NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant to Health Minister Brad Hazzard on August 14 showed she recommended “consistent measures across greater metropolitan Sydney”.

But the extra-tough lockdown rules in Sydney’s west and southwest were not brought in line with the rest of the city until September 20.

A virus expert has said lives could have been saved if the harsher rules were implemented across Sydney instead of just in select areas.

Former premier Gladys Berejiklian, who was leading the state’s pandemic response at the time, consistently argued she was relying on health advice in decisions around the lockdown.

A western Sydney opposition politician said the email proved locals “were right to feel targeted” and called the revelations “absolutely horrific”.

“The Government hated it when we pointed to a Tale of Two Cities. They accused us of being political – evidence we were speaking the truth,” Lakemba MP Jihad Dib said on Monday.

“When the health advice said one thing, the Government did the other. We were right to feel targeted.”

Sydney’s latest lockdown began in the last weekend of June, after an airport breach caused the Delta variant of the coronavirus to spread in the city.

Although the outbreak began in the eastern suburbs, the spread soon got worse in the city’s west.

By the second week of July, police had begun a crackdown in the western suburbs to make sure locals adhered to the lockdown.

And by the time Dr Chant wrote her August 14 email, the rules had tightened several times in an expanding area of western and southwestern Sydney where the virus was spreading the fastest.

Among the harsher rules was a ban on leaving hotspot LGAs, whereas people in other parts of the city were allowed more freedom of movement.

But the top doctor recommended the rules be made consistent.

“Implement consistent measures across greater metropolitan Sydney with outdoor masks, consistent 5km rule and authorised workers only,” she wrote in a list of recommendations.

The email was written at a time when Covid-19 infections were rising fast.

“Case numbers are high and escalating and likely to reach 1000 cases a day very quickly ... this is the worst outbreak in Australia during the pandemic,” Dr Chant wrote.

The first recommendation contained in the email was to “intensify the action in western Sydney and Nepean Blue Mountains where case numbers are escalating”.

The same recommendation was made for rural and regional Aboriginal communities, where Dr Chant also wished to see the vaccine rollout prioritised.

She also recommended further restrictions such as a limit on who could take advantage of child care services, closing retail stores further, and reducing “non-essential activity in manufacturing/construction”.

Other recommendations in the email included “1 hour of exercise per day”, “mandate vaccination in aged care, disability, and health care” and “urgently extend the isolation payments to all LGAs of concern”.

Dr Chant also recommended locking down regional NSW, advice which the government heeded within hours of receiving her email.

An epidemiologist shown the health advice on Monday said it was difficult to say exactly what the chief health officer was advocating for based purely on her email.

University of South Australia epidemiology professor Adrian Esterman said it was “ambiguous” as to whether Dr Chant called for western Sydney’s rules to apply across the city.

“If I was chief health officer, I would have wanted to come down hard across the whole of greater Sydney,” he said.

“They would have had a much better chance of driving down numbers, and secondly, they would have avoided stigmatising people in those western suburbs.”

Professor Esterman also said lives could have been saved if all of Sydney had been locked down harder.

“Of course, if you cut down cases you cut down on deaths,” he said.

“Governments have terrible decisions to make, do we close up and kill the economy? Or do we open and accept there are going to be deaths and people who get seriously ill? It‘s a horrible equation.”.

Dr Chant has previously testified to a parliamentary committee she would give a mix of verbal and written advice to the government.

The government had kept most of her health advice secret until Labor MPs recently managed to access parts of it through an order in parliament…..

The curfew was in place in the western Sydney hotspots from August 23 to September 25, and prevented people in those areas from leaving their homes between 9pm and 5am.

Another email released to parliament showed Dr Chant had recommended a curfew as early as July 29, although she specified it would be to achieve a “messaging effect” and underscore the importance of complying with the other rules that were in place.

“A curfew should be considered for the messaging effect as we need to signal the absolute urgency of the current situation with strong compliance presence,” Dr Chant wrote in the email to Mr Hazzard…..

NSW-Qld Border Zone to open up for cross-border travel by all zone residents from 17 December 2021 - with conditions

Tweed Daily News online, 19 November 2021:

As of December 17, anyone entering Queensland from a declared hot spot will be required to have a border pass, be fully vaccinated and have a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours.

NSW, Victoria and the ACT are currently considered hot spots by Queensland.

Medicare covers the costs of a Covid-19 test for anyone experiencing symptoms however the tests are not covered for travel purposes.

Residents who live in the border zone, which extends south to the Clarence Valley and out to the western boundary of NSW, are permitted to cross into Queensland for work and volunteering with a single vaccine jab requirement.

NED-4769 Queensland's Roadmap to Freedom

Crossing is also permitted for health, essential shopping and providing care for border zone residents.

However it remains unclear how the negative Covid-19 test will be feasible for border residents, especially the estimated 16,000 who cross daily for work.

Cross Border Commissioner James McTavish said he had repeatedly requested advice on the expected conditions for cross border residents regarding the issues.

“The Queensland Government is yet to provide that advice,” Mr McTavish said.

“We’d like to see full vaccinated people exempted from the testing requirement entirely if they are from the border region.

“If the testing regime is enforced, it should be free for border residents.”

He said advice was also sought about how the Queensland Government planned to manage traffic and conditions ahead of the 80 per cent mark.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said there would be a border zone in place to ensure all border zone residents, regardless of vaccination status, could continue to enter Queensland for essential purposes once the border opened in December, without the need to meet the traveller testing requirements.

“There may be less testing requirements for fully vaccinated people entering the border zone or entering Queensland from the border zone for non-essential reasons,” she said.

“We are continuing to work through the specific requirements for the 80 per cent vaccination milestone.

“Detailed information will be made public when available.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was questioned in parliament on Thursday night about residents being asked to fork out $150 for a Covid-19 test and why the state would not cover the cost.

“These are really strict requirements and I make no apology for them being strict because we are keeping Queenslanders safe,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Acting chief health officer Peter Aitken on Friday said it would be a challenge to force Queensland visitors to fork out $150 for a Covid-19 test.

Dr Aitken said health authorities were considering scrapping the requirement or making the test free.

“We recognise that... enormous challenge for people, for police, and it’s a discussion we’re having as to ensuring that double-vaccinated people have greater access,” he said.

 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison appears to view the very real danger that Australia is heading towards political violence from extremist mobs as all just part of the game to keep him in power

IMAGES: ABC NEWS & Herald Sun

The Monthly, 18 November 2021:

 Scott Morrison is, if nothing else, painfully predictable. As many (including myself) anticipated on Tuesday, the prime minister’s belated condemnation of the threatening mob outside the Victorian Parliament was always going to come with a “but” – a dog whistle to the protesters, an endorsement of their cause, a swipe at overbearing state governments. Today, following the disturbing news that a right-wing extremist had been charged over threats to kill the Victorian premier, and reports that neo-Nazis, seeking to radicalise other protesters, had infiltrated rallies against the state’s pandemic bill (not to mention anti-vaxxers’ rape and death threats forcing the shutdown of the WA premier’s office), Morrison did exactly as expected.

Asked this morning for his response to the violence being incited against politicians, the PM said that threats and intimidation had no place in Australia. But after a few cursory sentences about “civil society” and “respect” (just enough for many media outlets to report it as a rebuke), Morrison pivoted to justification and understanding. “There are many people who are feeling frustrated,” he said, arguing that it was time for governments to stop “telling Australians what to do”. “Australians have done an amazing job when it comes to leading us through this pandemic, but now it’s time for governments to step back. And for Australians to take their lives back,” he added ominously.

Morrison’s sympathy for the “frustrated” protesters has more than a minor whiff of Donald Trump’s “very fine people” comments after the deadly Charlottesville riots, not to mention the “I know how you feel” video during the also-deadly January 6 Capitol insurrection. While some media outlets declared that Morrison had “hit out” at the protesters, there’s little doubt that, as with Trump’s comments, the dog whistle was louder than the denunciation.

Eighty per cent of the PM’s answer, in fact, was focused on the protestors’ justified frustrations and state government overreach, with an added pushback against mandates and restrictions for the unvaccinated (policies to which, as Niki Savva notes, he owes the impressive vaccination rates he loves to crow about). People should be able to get a coffee in Brisbane, added Morrison, regardless of whether they’re vaccinated – a swipe at the Queensland government’s newly announced restrictions. (The state government has since labelled Morrison’s comments a “reckless” undermining of its vaccination efforts.) There’s little doubt that Morrison is trying to appease some of his own senators, who are still vowing to withhold their votes unless he pushes back against mandates. But he’s also indulging the “frustrated” protesters, with little concern for the dangerous levels of misinformation flying about......

Guy knows that the Victorian government needs some sort of bill to be able to manage the pandemic – which is very much ongoing – beyond December, and as supporting crossbencher MP Fiona Patten noted on RN Breakfast, the alternative (state of emergency legislation) “is far more draconian than the legislation we were trying to put through”. But once again, the facts don’t really matter to the PM – all that matters is that the very “frustrated” people know he’s in their corner, even if it means encouraging extremists and continuing to confuse those they are seeking to influence.

This is all getting very real and very dangerous, and many fear that we are on a dark path to the kinds of political violence increasingly being seen in the US and the UK. But to Scott Morrison, it is just another game.

Read the full article here.

IMAGE: news.com.au

 

You obviously support this, otherwise you'd be calling on the police to arrest her. pic.twitter.com/oJYOTw1kBy

— Guildford (yes him) 😕🙁😐 (@Guildford) November 16, 2021

Not just Vic Premier being threatened - seems members of his government are possibly being targeted too pic.twitter.com/PJbet14Q9e

— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) November 17, 2021

 

7 News, 17 November 2021:

WA Premier Mark McGowan’s electoral office has been closed due to ongoing security risks.

In a doorstop interview on Wednesday, McGowan revealed that his Rockingham office had been the target of death threats and bomb threats ever since the state government announced mandatory vaccination for much of the state’s workforce.

A week after an armoured tank rolled up outside his electoral office, McGowan has confirmed that his staffers had even been subjected to rape threats.

Cartoons of the Week

Peter Broelman

David Rowe

Cathy Wilcox

 

A win for Ballina Shire Council and its Local Environmental Plan

 

IMAGE: White v Ballina Shire Council [2021] NSWLEC 1468

Echo, 16 November 2021:

A new precedent has been set in the NSW Land and Environment Court (LEC) that could give property investors and developers a reason to rethink project designs.

It’s cost Ballina Shire ratepayers around $100,000 of the council’s budget to win the landmark case but independent councillor and Labor mayoral candidate Keith Williams says the benefits to the environment and for protecting local planning rules are priceless.

‘I actually trained as an environmental economist,’ Cr Williams told The Echo on Monday, ‘we tried to measure the environmental value of what we’re protecting by doing this stuff but it’s impossible to come up with the figure’.

Court decision proves council staff advice wrong

Ballina Shire councillors elected to take on the case against council staff advice.

But whereas certain Byron Shire Council candidates accuse staff of pursuing their own agendas and undermining elected representatives, Cr Williams chose to give the Ballina team the benefit of the doubt by emphasising how uncharted the legal waters of the local case were.

The Echo has so far been unable to contact the property owners in question, Jason and Joanne White, who last month appealed a council decision against their plans to build a new house on their rural block along Newrybar’s Old Byron Bay Road.

The block is part of a protected environmental area between one and two kilometres long on a ridgeline known as the Scenic Escarpment.

‘It’s a little bit of our 1987 local environment plan (LEP) that we’ve hung on to, because the state government won’t let us have environment zones,’ Cr Williams said.

‘So in Ballina, we actually decided that we wouldn’t adopt the new zones and we would leave a whole bunch of things as what’s called “deferred matters” in our new LEP,’ he said, ‘and so the old provisions for 1987 still apply’…..

The trouble with causeways

The main concern, and the focus of the case, was a driveway the Whites had illegally built in 2016.

The driveway included a causeway across a creek, effectively blocking it in some places, Cr Williams said, and made of compressed gravel that posed a threat to water quality as it eventually eroded and leaked silt.

Cr Williams said the driveway was also a threat to the rest of the rainforest because it could change the way water flowed and was absorbed during rain.

In the neighbouring Byron Shire, the council had, in recent years, started to shift away from causeways in favour of bridges owing to adverse environmental impacts on rivers and creeks.

But in Ballina, the council was so far powerless to have the Whites remove the driveway and causeway, despite successfully prosecuting them over the unauthorised project in an earlier court case.

The property owners received fines but the court failed to give deconstruction orders, Cr Williams said.

Walking the road to destruction

Instead, the Whites lodged a development application [DA] with the council to knock down their existing roadside house in favour of a new one nestled further back in the forest.

Council staff told councillors at the time they could vote only on the matter of the house and couldn’t take the illegal driveway into account because it had already been built and therefore wasn’t part of the DA, even though anyone living in or visiting the new house would presumably rely on the driveway to get there.

Councillors initially accepted the staff advice and approved the DA before carrying out a site visit and having second thoughts, Cr Williams said.

‘We went and walked the road, we went and walked down into this rainforest gully, and it was really the few of us standing there at once going, how can this be?’ Cr Williams said.

‘You know, that’s when we began to really question: is us approving this DA really approving this road?’

Councils on notice to stop ignoring unauthorised works in new Das

The councillors’ concerns inspired Cr Williams to declare a rescission motion against the DA’s approval that won majority council support and sparked another legal battle with the Whites.

Contrary to what council staff had advised, the LEC found that because the 2016 works weren’t authorised and never had been, councillors had to do the new DA assessment from the land’s pre-2016 status.

‘That’s a really clear instruction now to all the councillors and to all those councillors’ staff that where there is illegal works, that’s not your starting point,’ Cr Williams said.

‘Your starting point is actually what was the state before those illegal works were done and if those illegal works aren’t rectified by your DA, should you really be approving it?’

Two wrongs don’t make a right: Labor candidate tells developers they can’t ‘cover’ breaches later

Cr Williams said the LEC didn’t typically award costs but he believed the expensive case would ultimately save the council money as it was a preventative outcome.

Mr and Mrs White now owned a road that led to effectively nowhere and Cr Williams said one of the key criteria for determining whether or not they could build a new house on the block was whether or not there was already a suitable site elsewhere.

‘One of the foundational issues here is that there is because there’s already another house on the block,’ Cr Williams said.

‘I think the message is to developers that you need to work with us,’ the mayoral candidate told The Echo, ‘if you do the wrong thing we’re not just going to allow you to cover it up later on’.

Cr Williams praised the efforts of the Scenic Escarpment Protection Alliance, a group made up mostly of the Whites’ neighbours, and others who supported the council in court.

COVIDIOT Liberal Members of NSW & Vic state parliaments openly supporting their threatening, aggressive QAnon and anti-vax "friends".

The Saturday Paper, Post, 17 November 2021, excerpt:

In Victoria:

• Up to 500 protesters occupying the steps of Parliament forcibly ejected a journalist and issued violent threats, including one speaker who said of Premier Daniel Andrews, “I look forward to the day I get to see you dance on the end of a rope” (The Age);

• Video of the protesters shows them gathered around a wooden gallows on Monday chanting “Freedom”, “Traitor”, and “Hang Dan Andrews” while attempting to place the head of an inflatable doll of the premier through the noose;

• Four state Liberal MPs mingled with the protesters on Tuesday, including Bernie Finn, who last week shared a doctored picture of Andrews dressed as Adolf Hitler;

• Finn posted a selfie with the mob, which he described as “a couple of thousand of my closest friends”;

• The protests are against a bill that gives the premier and health minister the power to declare a pandemic and make public health orders, with debate extending late last night (7News);

• It is all but guaranteed to pass after the government made amendments to secure the support of three crossbench MPs, including that parliament will be given immediate ability to scrutinise any order (The Guardian).

In NSW:

• Premier Dominic Perrottet dumped a bill seeking to expand the state’s Covid-19 emergency powers until 2023 (The Australian);

• It had been approved by cabinet but faced opposition from Liberal backbenchers in a bitter partyroom backlash;

• Health Minister Brad Hazzard had been pushing to retain the powers to require quarantine or self-isolation for people exposed to Covid-19 (7News);

• Perrottet said he’d defer the decision on extending the powers until 2022.