Meme of the Week

COVID-19 has returned to the NSW Northern Rivers after 48 days free of active infection

Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 16 July 2020:

One case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in the last 24 hours in the Northern NSW Local Health District (NNSWLHD). 

This brings the total cases to 56, as at 8pm Wednesday, 15 July. 

The new case is a person who travelled to Northern NSW from Melbourne, arriving at Ballina airport on Sunday, 12 July on Jetstar flight JQ466. This person was screened on arrival at Ballina airport. 

Since arriving in Northern NSW, this person has been in mandatory 14-day self-isolation. 

Any potential close contacts are being followed up. 

Of the 56 cases in Northern NSW Local Health District, 53 have recovered. There are no cases being treated in hospital. 

NNSWLHD cases by likely source of infection: 

Overseas or interstate acquired – 52 
Locally acquired –contact of a confirmed case or in a known cluster – 2 Locally acquired – source not identified – 1 
Under investigation – 1 
Total 56 

NNSWLHD is encouraging anyone with symptoms, however mild, to self-isolate and get tested. Anyone with symptoms is also advised to refrain from visiting aged care facilities and hospitals. Everyone is also reminded to maintain physical distancing and hand hygiene. 

Anyone who is unable to practise physical distancing should wear a mask. 

More than 4,900 people have been tested during the last fortnight in NNSWLHD. 

Testing is free and available to everyone in the region, including visitors. The site locations are/can be found at: https://nnswlhd.health.nsw.gov.au/about/covid-19-clinic-information/

Will U.K. based multinational mining corporation Rio Tinto Ltd be stripped of its status as a human rights leader following its destruction of an Aboriginal sacred site showing evidence of 46,000 years of human habitation?

"The fact that nearly half of the companies assessed (49%) score 0 across all indicators related to the process of human rights due diligence is particularly alarming. These indicators focus on the specific systems the company has in place to ensure that due diligence processes are implemented to assess the real-time risks to human rights that the company poses, to act on these findings so as to prevent and mitigate the impacts, and to track and communicate those actions. Human rights due diligence is a fundamental expectation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The three companies that top the 2019 ranking (Adidas, Rio Tinto and Unilever) all score full points on the human rights due diligence indicators...Eleven [of the 56 extractive] companies score above 50%, with Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Freeport McMoRan and Repsol in the highest scoring band of 70-80%" [Corporate Human Rights Benchmark 2019 Key Findings]

The New York Times, 8 July 2020:

MELBOURNE — Aboriginal and human rights groups on Thursday called for miner Rio Tinto Ltd to be stripped of its status as a human rights leader following its destruction of an Aboriginal sacred site showing evidence of 46,000 years of human habitation. 

With state government approval, the world's biggest iron ore miner in May destroyed two sacred caves in the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia as part of a mine expansion. 

 Rio's response to blowing up the caves was "far from adequate", 35 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and human rights groups said in a letter requesting the miner be suspended from the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB). 

Netherlands-based CHRB is a public benchmark of corporate human rights performance. 

It lists Rio as the highest ranked extractives company globally on human rights issues, with a score in the second highest possible band.  

"We are calling on the Benchmark to ensure that the company's human rights ranking reflects the reality for people here on the ground," said Wayne Bergmann, a Kimberley Aboriginal leader and chief executive of Aboriginal charitable trust KRED. 

Rio apologised for the distress it caused to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people and launched an independent investigation into how the destruction occurred.

Thursday's letter disputed Rio's explanation of the incident as a "misunderstanding", saying that the indigenous land owners had brought to Rio's attention on several occasions the archaeological and ethnographic significance of the site. 

Rio declined to comment on the letter......

Prior to the November release of its Corporate Human Rights Benchmark 2020 CHRB issued this:

Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), media release, 9 July 2020: 

Due to the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site by Rio Tinto at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia on 24 May 2020, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) have decided to append this statement to Rio Tinto’s latest CHRB results. 

It would be inappropriate for CHRB to continue to assess and rank Rio Tinto in one of the highest-scoring bands and as the top mining company without reference to this incident. 

The CHRB seeks to provide robust and credible information on companies’ actions to respect human rights across their business, and it would be misleading not to reference this severe impact as a complement to the latest results. 

The statement appears in the homepage banding table, in the company's latest scorecard and in the latest overall dataset.

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"It would be inappropriate for CHRB to continue to assess and rank Rio Tinto in one of the highest-scoring bands and as the top mining company without reference to this incident....The severity of the impact and the context in which it took place, including the process that led to it and allegations of other similar impacts involving the company, raise concerns that go beyond this specific incident and point to possibly more systemic weaknesses in the company’s approach to human rights." [CHRB response to the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site by RioTinto at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia on 24 May 2020]

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Hopefully this statement means that Rio Tinto Ltd will get more than a small red flag next to its ranking with a brief one line explanation for ongoing human rights issues, such as was afforded to another extractive industry high flyer, BHP Billiton.

BACKGROUND

ABC News, 5 June 2020:

Mining giant Rio Tinto was alerted six years ago that at least one of the caves it blasted in Western Australia's Pilbara region last month was of "the highest archaeological significance in Australia".  

Advice delivered to Rio Tinto and the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Indigenous people of the region six years ago was never publicly released. The ABC has been given a summary of the contents of the report, as well as earlier archaeological survey work and excavations at the sites dating back to 2004. 

The documentation of the 2014 report by archaeologist Dr Michael Slack confirmed one of the sites that was blasted, the Juukan-2 (Brock-21) cave, was rare in Australia and unique in the Pilbara. 

"The site was found to contain a cultural sequence spanning over 40,000 years, with a high frequency of flaked stone artefacts, rare abundance of faunal remains, unique stone tools, preserved human hair and with sediment containing a pollen record charting thousands of years of environmental changes," 

Dr Slack wrote. "In many of these respects, the site is the only one in the Pilbara to contain such aspects of material culture and provide a likely strong connection through DNA analysis to the contemporary traditional owners of such old Pleistocene antiquity."....

Before and After

Juukan Gorge caves, BBC News, 31 May 2020

Australia During Pandemic 2020: Portraits in Selfishness & Self-interest

Crikey, 13 July 2020:

FLIGHT CENTRE FOUNDER GRAHAM TURNER
(IMAGE: AAP/LUKAS COCH)

For some business leaders and lobby groups, the return to lockdown in Melbourne is intolerable. The most prominent is the Australian Industry Group (AIG).

Last week it condemned the Melbourne lockdown, saying “widespread shutdowns is a strategy that can be used just once.” The following day it called for the reopening of the NSW-Victorian border on the basis that the Melbourne lockdown — which it had opposed the previous day — had removed any threat of community transmission of COVID-19 outside Victoria.

The carefully chosen words of last week, though, were replaced by an altogether harsher view articulated by AIG head Innes Willox to The Australian over the weekend.

State premiers, Willox complained, were trying “to outdo, outbid and outrace each other to smother any chance of economic recovery” — a couple of days after Queensland had reopened its borders.

“Putting up artificial barriers, closing borders and turning Australians against each other is not going to get us there.”

That coincided with the head of Flight Centre, Graham “Skroo” Turner calling for Australia to “learn to live with the virus”, which would get “society and business back to a reasonable level of normality”.

After dismissing herd immunity, and the tens of thousands of deaths that would require, as “not a great option”, Turner, or his ghost-writer, suggested that Australia had embraced a “model of states, territories or governments who have no COVID-19 objectives or clear science and data-based strategies”.

Despite complaining about this alleged lack of clear objectives and strategies, it wasn’t clear what Turner’s “living with the virus” meant beyond “containment by proven health and hygiene practices, widespread testing and tracing but without hard lockdown.” Unsurprisingly for the head of a travel company, Turner wants international borders and tourism reopened as soon as possible. The Australian backed Turner in an editorial.

Turner’s “strategy” would amount to letting the virus rip, with contact tracers — let alone hospitals — rapidly overwhelmed. That’s exactly the scenario that is unfolding in places like Florida and Texas right now. Funnily enough, that’s not very good for consumer sentiment, even without hard lockdowns….. [my yellow highlighting]

Read full article here.

CEO OF THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP INNES WILLOX
(IMAGE: AAP/LUKAS COCH)

The New Daily, 13 July 2020:

A group of six Victorians has been fined more than $24,000 after trying to cross the border into Queensland in a minivan. 

The group, who had lied on their border declaration forms, told police patrolling entry the state’s points that they had been working in NSW for three weeks. 

However, evidence on their phones revealed they had been in coronavirus hotspots in Victoria during the past 14 days. 

“Police intercepted a minivan on Saturday night, where all six occupants were refused entry at the M1 border control check point,” Queensland Police said. 

“On Sunday, officers intercepted the same van on Stuart Street in Coolangatta around 2pm.” 

All six in the group – two 19-year-old women and four men aged 18, 19, 23 and 28 – were fined $4,003 for failing to comply border directions and turned around immediately....

myPolice on Jul 13, 2020

NSW Police, 13 July 2020:

A man has been fined after failing to follow self-isolation ministerial directions in the state’s south west. 
 At 2.30pm on Wednesday 8 July 2020, a 24-year-old man was stopped by police on the Newell Highway at Tocumwal, as part of border enforcement patrols. 

The man was issued a direction under the Public Health Act to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days and was provided with information before being allowed to leave. 

Officers from Murrumbidgee Police District attended the man’s home in Leeton at 12pm and again at 4pm on Thursday 9 July 2020, and found the man was not home as directed in the orders. 

Police attended the home again at 5.30pm and provided the man with a formal warning in relation to self-isolation. 

About 8pm on Friday 10 July 2020, police attended the man’s home and again found he was not home. 

About 4.20pm yesterday (Sunday 12 July 2020), police attended the man’s home and issued him with a $1000 Penalty Infringement Notice (PIN) for failing to comply with a direction under Section 7 of the Public Health Act 2010 (NSW). 

Since Operation Border Closure started at midnight on Wednesday 8 July 2020, police have facilitated the movement of tens of thousands of vehicles crossing the border from Victoria into NSW. 

To date, more than 300 people have been issued with directions to self-isolate as they enter NSW.....

A Short Explanation Of 'The Dismissal': Queen Elizabeth II and her lawful representative in Australia knowingly betrayed the people of this nation

The Age, 14 July 2020:

The Palace letters have proved to be every bit the bombshell they promised to be, and neither the Queen nor Sir John Kerr emerge unscathed. In his vast, increasingly frequent letters and telegrams to the Queen, the governor-general provides the most extraordinary vice-regal commentary on the decisions and actions of a prime minister and elected government imaginable. They provide a remarkable window onto Kerr’s views of Gough Whitlam, his planning, his options, his fears, and his eventual decision to dismiss the government. 

Letter by letter, particularly from late August 1975, months before supply had even been blocked in the Senate, Kerr draws the Queen into his planning regarding the crisis unfolding in the Senate, including the possible use of the reserve powers. Kerr details options and strategies, which are then discussed with the Queen through her private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris.

These include Kerr’s concern that prime minister Whitlam might recall him as governor-general, which he discussed with Prince Charles in September 1975 in a profound breach of political and constitutional practice. Charteris writes: "Prince Charles told me a good deal of his conversation with you and in particular that you had spoken of the possibility of the Prime Minister advising The Queen to terminate your Commission with the object, presumably, of replacing you with someone more amenable to his wishes. If such an approach was made you may be sure that The Queen would take most unkindly to it." 

It is a defining feature of a constitutional monarchy that the monarch "has to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters", that the Queen must remain above politics at all times. Hundreds of pages challenge that claimed political disinterest, as Kerr relays conversations, meetings, and events to Buckingham Palace in the context of the most intensely political situation unfolding in Australia.

On September 30, "I had an interesting conversation yesterday with the Prime Minister about the current political and constitutional problems"; on September 20, "The Prime Minister and I had a detailed and important talk … and he has told me privately that he has another tactic in mind." What is pivotal throughout these letters is that the Queen, through her private secretary, engages with Kerr on these inherently political matters, even advising him on the powers of the Senate and, critically, the existence and potential use of the contentious and contested reserve powers to dismiss the government. 

Let’s take just one example, from the first glimpse at the letters, Charteris’ letter to Kerr of November 4, 1975, on the reserve powers: "Those powers do exist … but to use them is a heavy responsibility … I think you are playing the 'Vice-Regal' hand with skill and wisdom. Your interest in the situation has been demonstrated, and so has your impartiality. The fact that you have the powers is recognised, but it is also clear that you will only use them in the last resort and then only for constitutional and not for political reasons."

Charteris followed this up the next day with the clearest suggestion that the reserve powers may need to be used which, Charteris wrote, "places you in what is, perhaps, an unenviable, but is certainly a very honourable position. If you do, as you will, what the constitution dictates, you cannot possible [sic] do the Monarchy any avoidable harm. The chances are you will do it good". He ends with a reference to the "discretion left to a governor-general". These critical letters provided Kerr with the advice and comfort he needed to feel secure that the Palace accepted the existence and potential use of the reserve powers as he moved towards dismissing the Whitlam government......

Read the full article by inaugural Distinguished Whitlam Fellow with the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University, Emeritus Professor at Monash University, and former Director of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University, Jenny Hocking.

Read all the 'Palace Letters' at https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/kerr-palace-letters.

With barefaced lying becoming more commonplace in Murdoch & Nine newspapers, perhaps it's time that Australians consider the Liverpool solution?

The Sun (U.K.) first published in 1965 is owned by News Group Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

For the last 31 years the people of Liverpool in England have boycotted this newspaper because of its barefaced lying about the events of one single day.

In 2016 even some Liverpool taxis carried the boycott message.

The Echo, 19 September 2016

This boycott is said to have markedly affected sales of this newspaper up to the present day.

The boycott is still being regularly reported. 

In November 2019 two academics from Department of Government, London School of Economics & Political Science & Department of Political Science, University of Zurich published a study which suggests the the number of Liverpudlians who did not vote for Brexit was possibly increased in number by the fact that The Sun was not read it that city.

Given how loose-with-the-truth News Corp Australia journalism in particular becomes during election years, perhaps it is time rural and regional communities considered whether they too might like to drive a newspaper such as The Australian or The Daily Telegraph out of their towns and villages.

It is painfully obvious that The Daily Telegraph hopes to step into the print space left vacant after News Corp banished the Clarence Valley's 161 year old The Daily Examiner to a digital website.

I imagine its editor is also hoping to pick up readers in other regional areas along the NSW coast.

BACKGROUND

The Overtake. 19 July 2018:

After the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 in which 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death in overcrowding, the Murdoch-owned newspaper printed pages of false claims that not only blamed Liverpool fans for the disaster, but accused them of urinating on police officers and other fans, beating up officers attempting CPR, and pickpocketing the dead. 

These reports have since all been proven as fabrication. 

The effect that the disaster had on the people of Liverpool is huge, not least for those who attended the match, but also those who lost friends and family. 

The saddest of these is Stephen Whittle, known as the 97th victim of Hillsborough. Whittle had work commitments and therefore sold his matchday ticket to a friend, who tragically died there. 

In 2011 Whittle took his own life, with the coroner citing depression and likely survivor’s guilt caused by the events of Hillsborough. Whittle left £61,000 to the families of those who died at Hillsborough. 

In the aftermath of Hillsborough, the city of Liverpool came together to stand up to the figures of authority who were lying to their faces.....

The truth eventually became official record 27 years after Hillsborough, when a jury exonerated the fans of any wrongdoing, and condemned the police present at the match of unlawful killing by gross negligence. 

However, there is still a way to go before the people of Liverpool will consider justice served, as many of the police officers still await trial, and many who attacked Liverpool supporters, including The Sun and Boris Johnson, have only felt repercussions from the fans themselves....

Communities in Liverpool have truly come together and forced a decline in the newspaper’s readership and therefore local sales figures. It makes a lot of sense that both Liverpool and Everton football clubs have banned The Sun’s reporters from press conferences at their stadiums, but the real power of the people is shown by the actions of national companies. 

The fact that supermarkets such as Tesco, which stopped stocking the paper purely due to a lack of demand rather than any political or moral affiliations, say it isn’t worth selling the paper, shows the power of the city and its people.....


The boycott in Liverpool occasionally extends further than Merseyside, usually with travelling Scousers, and is now reaching further with the use of Twitter through accounts such as Total eclipse of the S*n and people encouraging others to hide copies of The Sun when they see it on sale.

Enhanced border controls for Queensland, New South Wales & ACT

COVID-19 travel restrictions currently in place on east coast of the Australian mainland.

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Enhanced border controls to enter Queensland are now in place.

Queensland Border Declaration Pass available online 
myPolice on Jul 3, 2020 @ 12:30pm 

The online portal enabling members of the public to apply for the Queensland Border Declaration Pass is now live. The completed declaration is a requirement for everyone including Queensland residents who are returning to Queensland as of midday on Friday, July 3. 

State Disaster Coordinator Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said previous border entry passes into Queensland would be invalid from midday. 

“Each person travelling must have a completed Queensland Border Declaration Pass and those travelling by road need to have one clearly displayed within their vehicle to enable priority passage,” 

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said. “They must also carry identification which show a residential address. 

“The Queensland Border Declaration Pass is a print-at-home document and issued following the completion of an online questionnaire. 

“It is everyone’s responsibility to understand and listen to the Queensland public health directions and follow them closely, including those who intend to travel into Queensland from other states. 

“Border restrictions apply to all travel to Queensland by air, sea, rail or road. 

“Police will conduct random interceptions of those progressing through priority passage to ensure the validity of declarations.” 

 Anyone coming to Queensland who has been in Victoria or another hotspot within the last 14 days will be required to quarantine in a designated hotel at their own cost. 

This includes Queenslanders returning home from Victoria or other hotspot areas. 

Failure to comply with quarantine directions and border restrictions can result in on-the-spot fines of $1,334 for individuals and $6,672 for corporations. 

Providing false information on the declaration or entering Queensland unlawfully could result in a $4,003 fine. 

The Queensland Entry Declaration can be accessed at www.qld.gov.au/border-pass and is valid for seven days.

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New South Wales border protections are also now in place.

NSW and Victorian border closures
NSW Government 8 July 2020

Temporary border restrictions now include: 

• road closures between the NSW and Victorian border 
• aircrafts travelling from Victoria and arriving into NSW airports will be met by police and health staff 
• NSW residents returning home from Victoria must self-isolate for 14 days. 

Anyone who fails to comply with the rules could face up to six months prison, a fine of $11,000, or both. 

There will be limited exemptions for people allowed to cross the border. 

This includes: 

• critical service providers including agriculture and mining workers 
• emergency services workers 
• people requiring medical treatment 
• children attending boarding school people needing to meet legal obligations. 

Anyone who needs to enter NSW must apply for a permit from Service NSW.  
A new on-the-spot fine of $4000 will apply for any inaccurate information provided in the permit application process. 

Those allowed to enter NSW will need to comply with any conditions of an entry permit including self-isolation. 

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the NSW Government has moved quickly to implement the border closure following the concerning community spread of COVID-19 in Melbourne. 

“There are around 55 border crossings between NSW and Victoria so closing the border is a mammoth task – but it is the right step to take in order to protect the health and jobs of NSW residents,” Mr Hazzard said. 

Learn more about the NSW border restrictions.

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The Australian Capital Territory has imposed ehanced border restrictions.

Public Health Directions for people travelling from Victoria 
ACT Government 12 July 2020

In response to the escalating COVID-19 situation in Victoria, a new Public Health Direction came into effect at 7:00am on Friday 3 July 2020. 

This Direction has been revised as the situation in Victoria has continued to evolve. 

From 07:00am on Friday 3 July 2020: 

• Anyone who enters the ACT, and has been in a COVID-19 hotspot in Victoria (as defined at the time of their entry to the ACT), is required to quarantine in the ACT until 14 days after leaving the hotspot, or return to their home jurisdiction at the earliest reasonable opportunity. 

• From 11:59pm on Monday 6 July 2020: Anyone who enters the ACT, and has been in the greater Melbourne metropolitan area, is required to quarantine in the ACT until 14 days after leaving Melbourne, or return to their home jurisdiction at the earliest reasonable opportunity. 

• 12:01am Wednesday 8 July 2020: Anyone (other than ACT residents) travelling into the ACT from Victoria will be denied entry unless they are granted an exemption. ACT residents will be able to return home, but they will be required to enter quarantine until 14 days after leaving Victoria, and must notify ACT Health of their intention to return. 

From 12.01am on Wednesday 8 July 2020, the ACT has closed its borders for anyone travelling into the ACT from Victoria, unless they have an exemption to enter. 

ACT residents are approved to return to their home, subject to entering quarantine for a period of 14 days, from the day after leaving Victoria. 

ACT residents must notify ACT Health of their intention to enter the ACT.

Both adults and children are required to get an exemption to travel from Victoria to ACT. 

Your exemption paperwork will indicate if you need to quarantine for 14 days, and we may impose other conditions or restrictions. In most instances, if you're arriving into the ACT from Victoria you will need to quarantine for 14 days. 

If you plan to quarantine at a private residence, it needs to allow for appropriate separation from other household members who are not in quarantine. Household members in quarantine would ideally have a separate bedroom, bathroom and should avoid spending time in communal spaces at the same time as other people in the home who are not in quarantine. If this can’t be done you will be required to quarantine in a hotel or other approved premises. ACT Health can assist in providing details of suitable accommodation which you can book (at your own expense). Please note that we will require evidence of a valid booking if you are using hotel accommodation for quarantine purposes.

For ACT residents returning from Victoria 

All ACT residents returning from Victoria will be required to enter quarantine for a period of 14 days from the day after leaving Victoria. 

All returning ACT residents must notify ACT Health of their intent to return to the ACT and provide details of the premises at which they will quarantine. 

Notify ACT Health 

For other travellers from Victoria to the ACT All other travellers from Victoria to the ACT should not be travelling. If you have an exceptional need to travel to the ACT, you will need to apply for an exemption at least 48 hours (wherever possible) before your intended travel date. 

Persons trying to enter the ACT without an exemption will be denied entry. 

If you are granted an exemption to enter the Territory, ACT Health will assess your proposed length of stay in the ACT as part of its risk assessment. 

A condition of entry may be that you will be required to remain in the ACT to complete a full 14 day period of quarantine in the ACT (at your own expense). We will consult with individuals on a case by case basis.

Apply for an exemption

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