Australia in a mess - NZ with a plan

[StartupRepair]

More than half of Australia is in lockdown now, sparked (imo) by the intransigence of the NSW Premier who ignored all warnings about Delta. Our procurement of and messaging around vaccines has been dangerously incompetent.
It all feels a bit bleak today. At least NZ seems to have a plan.

True @Ozgirl75 but I just wonder how she's going to enforce it?
It will be wonderful if it happens but I can see people abusing the system.
Love to you in NSW from a weary Melburnian!

Yes I wonder that too, to be fair. I’ve got my vaccination certificate saved on my phone but I was thinking today, how can I arrange little groups so maybe 4 of us drop off our kids and one parent stays - but then I was like “what if we bump into people we know?”
It is so hard to find the right balance but I know that the beaming smile my 8 year old gave me when I said we would be able to see some friends again was so lovely to see. And he has a brother he gets on very well with. I have no idea how hard it must be for only children or children who don’t get on with siblings.

Is it 5 vaccinated people inside? Or do you have to be outside?

I’m pleased your children are excited about it ozgirl! Lockdowns are tough on the little ones

5 outside.

Are they supposed to still distance?

I was so relieved when we could meet up with a friend for mine to play with. 2 was fine for adults and older children but actual children need an adult with them so needed it to be more than 2!

An interesting read in the latest issue of The Spectator:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/prison-island-australias-covid-fortress-has-become-a-jail

It’s an article written by Alexander Downer, who was the Australian High Commissioner to the U.K. until 2018 (The Spectator has a paywall but you get 2 free articles before it kicks in).

Downer was a right wing cabinet minister in a conservative government. Tarnished by a number of acts such as joking about domestic violence and bullying and spying on the fledgling nation of East Timor.

@StartupRepair

Downer was a right wing cabinet minister in a conservative government. Tarnished by a number of acts such as joking about domestic violence and bullying and spying on the fledgling nation of East Timor.

It’s a good article, though. And Downer was a (relative) moderate in the Howard government, if gaffe prone.

Alexander Downer is a right wing, entitled, privileged dickhead.
Pay no attention to him.

Alexander Downer is a right wing, entitled, privileged dickhead.
Pay no attention to him.

🤣👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 this ^

It’s a good article though. As I say to my kids - just because you don’t like a person, doesn’t mean everything they say is wrong.

Perhaps not everything 🤷🏼‍♀️ but cute "jokes" about domestic violence are enough to do it for me.

Not to mention the too-clever-by-half novelty cheque his daughter (a candidate, not the local MP) made sure she was photographed with at a golf club funding handover.

Entitled ✅ privileged ✅

From the SMH 18/12/2004:

This was, after all, a man who had lost the Opposition leadership after joking that his party's domestic violence policy could be called "the things that batter"

amp.theage.com.au/national/opening-up-living-with-covid-in-australia-20210826-p58m36.html

This article in The Age is good. It’s more positive and forward thinking that just a negative Australia is a fortress type of article that points out the problem well but doesn’t really help.
It’s suggests following the U.K. / US and Europe of living with the virus, rapid testing
etc .
It may be received badly (?) but it is sensible and shows the debate moving on.

Compared to below from New Zealand Stuff which is still very much stuck in 2020 and very defensive.

i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/126199362/thanks-for-bringing-us-closer-together-scomo

Having differing political views doesn't make another person wrong.

Ignoring what informed people say because you don't agree with a lot of what they say on other topics is not wise. If they are correct, denying what they say can lead to trouble.

Exactly. Listen to what someone says, and decide what to think based on that. For all I know James Watt was a horrible person (sorry, James Watt!) - does that mean you think the lightbulb is a load of old rubbish?

Downer is consistently tone deaf. He just tweeted today about what a lovely holiday he is having in France.

Absolutely right. And the debate emerging in Australia should absolutely be seen in the context of an election due by May next year. And the desperation among some to ensure that the problems in Australia are framed around premiers and closed borders (bad, obvs ) and not the federal govt and Scott Morrison's abject failure on federal responsibilities - quarantine and our delayed vaccine program ().

Lord Downer, let me tip my forelock

Tip your hat

Touch your forelock

Cheers @Blackbird2020 mixing my metaphors

How on earth is he in france!?

@l1ttleseahorse, he lives in London not Aus.

Ah that makes more sense!!

Theres a horrible story of a NSW 18 year old who was v ill with covid out on the guardian australia site. Sounds awful. I hadn't realised they were moving people to quarantine hotels. It must have been so frightening at 18.

I dont recall stories like that here.... are they actively focusing on the "fear factor" of kids being ill or are their kids more ill...?

One of these threads suggested Sage think 40-70% of school kids here have had it...

I've read numerous stories about British kids getting really ill in the Times and the Guardian. It's unusual but so awful.

All over 12s are going to be vaccinated in Aus starting in September, so we're going that direction to get the immunity rather than let them catch it unvaccinated.