Australia/New Zealand New Thread

[Kokeshi123]

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/pandemic-australia-still-liberal-democracy/619940/

Intrastate travel within Australia is also severely restricted. And the government of South Australia, one of the country’s six states, developed and is now testing an app as Orwellian as any in the free world to enforce its quarantine rules. People in South Australia will be forced to download an app that combines facial recognition and geolocation. The state will text them at random times, and thereafter they will have 15 minutes to take a picture of their face in the location where they are supposed to be. Should they fail, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person. “We don’t tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes,” Premier Steven Marshall explained. “I think every South Australian should feel pretty proud that we are the national pilot for the home-based quarantine app.”

This is... really really disturbing, honestly.

I grew up admiring (and, let's be honest, envying) Australians because as a nation, they always came across as a down-to-earth, fearless lot who had a healthy skepticism of authority while also being basically very civic/community minded.

What's gone wrong?

[quote Warhertisuff]@Ozgirl75

I'm glad it seems many Australians - in Sydney at least - are being philosophical about Covid, and recognise that we can't live in fear of it forever.... It seems that other parts of Australia, and all of NZ has a way to go before it reaches that point though![/quote]
I’m in Adelaide and like to think l’m philosophical about Covid but I’m probably in the minority here. There is state election March 2022 so I expecting an over cautious approach until then. Hard to believe we have an indoor mask mandate and bans on singing and dancing with no active cases in the community!

Making the decision to let Covid in won’t be an easy decision for a politician to make. I’m pretty sure they’re hoping it gets in by accident in a few months once vaccine rates are up.

@thingsarelookingup

I'm glad people are feeling so positive in Sydney Ozgirl. I would say the mood is a lot less positive in Melbourne. Most people I know support the vaccine mandates because they just want this all over. The vaccine rollout is considerably slower here and the glacial pace is very depressing after all we've been through. It's got to the point now where I watch the NSW rollout waiting for the point when they slow down as they reach their goals and then we can have the leftovers.

I've found being allowed to meet people outdoors absolutely brilliant for my mental health but it has been a minefield in terms of working around how everyone feels because everyone is just so fragile after the last two years. I agree with IndigoC that zero covid was not worth it and we really need to start being OK which much higher numbers.

I can only start to imagine how everyone in Melbourne is feeling right now. It really does feel like we’re all living in different countries at the moment rather than states and territories of the same country.

I really feel for the people in Melbourne, it must feel never ending there.
I feel so much better and happier having met a variety of friends and chatted about future plans and holidays, I’ve even booked a holiday for January! My beauty place and hairdresser have got me booked in for late October and it just feels like people are raring to go.
The first time the kids saw each other it was a bit heartbreaking. They were a bit shy and awkward and then started playing tag and were soon laughing and just looked so happy. Then yesterday they were all bundling up on a flying Fox together, just talking talking talking. It showed me how much they need the social interactions so much.

I’m reading more and more that the “freedom day” for NSW will be 11 October but I’ve heard nothing about return to school dates changing. My two are, at this stage, not due back until 8 November, a month after people are going to be able to go on holiday, go to the hairdresser and go out for dinner? Has anyone else heard whether the return to school dates are going to be changed in line with everything else opening up?

Making the decision to let Covid in won’t be an easy decision for a politician to make. I’m pretty sure they’re hoping it gets in by accident in a few months once vaccine rates are up

Or they can have it forced on them, as Gladys has done to Victoria.

She hardly forced it, it’s a virus, it was always going to spread between two populous states, next to each other.

I wouldn't say Gladys forced the virus on Victoria but she definitely happily gobbled up all the vaccine supply leaving Victoria with only the scraps. Although to be fair that was ScoMo and Greg Hunts job to allocate not hers. Just today we hear that we are still having to ration Pfizer because we can't get any guarantees about supply for October. ScoMo runs everything along party lines so even if it's about getting the economy going again if you're in a Labor state, or worse still a Labor local government in a Labor state you've got fuck all chance of getting anything.

The virus was always going to spread if no effort was made to contain it.

Yep. I dont get the way victoria blamed sydney for the virus.

@bluetongue my family are in adl and they're fully aware that they are in the weird position of possibly being put under more restrictions once Australia hits the vaccine targets and opens up as a country. Whilst covid is kept out they are living such 2019 lives but hard to see that as sustainable once covid is in the community, vaccines or no vaccines. Do you find others are thinking this, my social media feed of friends from there seem to think they will just open up borders and everything will be A OK

@echt

Making the decision to let Covid in won’t be an easy decision for a politician to make. I’m pretty sure they’re hoping it gets in by accident in a few months once vaccine rates are up

Or they can have it forced on them, as Gladys has done to Victoria.

I honestly won’t mind if it leaks in at a convenient time (not yet please). There will no doubt be howls of protest from some of we don’t lockdown but the state borders need to be scrapped by the end of the year ideally.

I honestly won’t mind if it leaks in at a convenient time (not yet please).

Thing is, living in Vic, I don't think you get to choose. We didn't.

@echt

Making the decision to let Covid in won’t be an easy decision for a politician to make. I’m pretty sure they’re hoping it gets in by accident in a few months once vaccine rates are up

Or they can have it forced on them, as Gladys has done to Victoria.

Didn’t the case that sparked Victoria’s outbreak occur when NSW officially had just two official cases?

This need to lash out and blame is tiring. Soon everywhere in Australia will have to live with Covid. The great thing is thanks to vaccines you will not see anything like the suffering we did in the U.K.

I have family in Melbourne. Between Corona, lockdown and now a bloody earthquake, ffs, I just wish to send all my aroha to all those living there.

No the case that sparked Melbourne's outbreak did not occur when Sydney had two cases. I have no idea how many cases they had but it happened a couple of weeks after they went into lockdown which they took ages to do.

Last school holidays I visited regional NSW and Sydney went in to lockdown while I was there. That was the weird week where there seemed to be covid outbreaks all over the country but not Melbourne. Then school went back then a week later it all started. So no, they were in about week 3 of their lockdown and there were well over two cases.

As much as I agree it's a virus and it will always be hard to control the point most Victorians make is that there were few rules that really prevented people leaving Sydney in the way that had been put in place when Melbourne had its outbreak.

Anyway, just correcting misinformation. I agree it's not really Sydney's fault we have an outbreak. My anger is wholly directed to the vaccine rollout and the level of politics surrounding it.

I’m in Auckland NZ. I’m so fucking over it. Been in hard lockdown for 5 weeks (basically the only thing that is open is the supermarket - no school, no takeaways, hard border round the city so can’t leave the region). We just dropped to level 3 which is still what most of the world would consider lockdown - we just get takeaways. This will go at least until 4 October but in reality who knows how long - could be 4 weeks, could be until Christmas.

I have 2 DC (3 &6) and a stressful FT job that is busier than ever (as is DH’s). We’re both fully vaxxed. There seems to be no end in sight - the Govt won’t announce an offical target (although it seems to be unofficially set at 90% which seems aspirational) and even then won’t make any commitment to what freedoms it might unlock. I just feel utterly defeated by it.

Didn’t the case that sparked Victoria’s outbreak occur when NSW officially had just two official cases?

And the weeks and weeks of mismanagement by the NSW government made it the shitshow it is.

That sounds really hard gennz . We struggled in lockdown so much but we werent vaccinated then so at leadt it had a point. If you're jabbed it must seem so poimtless.

@PileOfBooks

That sounds really hard gennz . We struggled in lockdown so much but we werent vaccinated then so at leadt it had a point. If you're jabbed it must seem so poimtless.

What’s really triggered me is modelling that came out yesterday - clearly briefed by the Govt, as it was announced at the 1pm press conference that the PM fronted and the scientist responsible was also fronting - to say that if we “only” reach 80% double jabbed 7000 people a year would die and we’d still need level 4 lockdowns.

Wtaf - that modelling is not borne out by anywhere else in the world. It’s just ridiculous. And what is the point of us all getting vaccinated if nothing changes. I’ve been broadly supportive of the strategy but it just jumped the shark for me at that point.

Omg so they want to try and maintain low covid rates even after vaccination!? They cant keep nz as a bubble forever!?

Surely compliance will reduce.

Compliance is already reducing.

Yes it seems like they are trying to maintain elimination. It’s fucked

That sounds so rubbish gennz18. Do many people in NZ support the plan?

So now in Australia government sources have leaked that there is a shortage of Pfizer in October, despite the fact that the lying shit in charge still denies it. Now this probably won't be a problem when we get there because NSW will be over 80% double vaxed by then so the other states might actually get a look in at some supply. The thing is though they are still forecasting giving NSW their full allocation the whole way through October despite the fact that demand will drastically drop. The problem with this is that other states need to forward plan and Victoria right now is rationing Pfizer doses to make sure we have enough for second doses as they are due. So this total lack of foresight means that doses that could be used right now are not because the Government cannot model projected vaccine demand and allocate accordingly. That means the protection and reduction in future cases those jabs could have afforded by being given sooner is missed. Greg Hunt is an absolute arsehole. I can't work if he is stupid or malicious.

Hard agree @thingsarelookingup 👍🏻👍🏻. And that shifty little shit Hunt had the nerve to have a crack at Andrews yesterday for revealing the October supply issues.

We must never forget - especially as NSW boasts of its successes and “opening up” - that this is a govt that has pork-barrelled a vaccine rollout. In a pandemic.

It is shocking stuff.