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?

@milkyaqua

I'm sad about Gladys. I wish they'd let her just get through this year, and this part of the pandemic response before hauling her over the coals.

If she's corrupt she's corrupt and shouldn't be in office.

Trust me, its good that corrupt politicians be hed to account.

That no longer seems to be the case in the UK.

They've let it wait a year. If she is corrupt, which has yet to be proven, then she was guilty of corruption this entire time. Why now? Two weeks before the state comes out of lockdown. It's going to be a mess.

They are clearly very confident there is a strong case. She has brought this on herself
Can't believe the responses of 'oh but she is so great , the corruption doesn't matter.,.'.

I don't think anyone has said 'oh, she is so great'... I certainly haven't. It's the timing I object to. They could make their strong case some other time.

I don't think someone who is being investigated for corruption should continue in their job. Wish we had a federal ICAC.

I’m hoping home quarantine is only temporary.

Once Covid is endemic it seems pretty fuckIn pointless. There will always be the cries of ‘what about new variants’ but the good thing about Delta is that it’s so contagious that it seems pretty unbeatable, at least for now.

Better to have a transition period of borders opening with home quarantine than no free movement at all.

@bluetongue

I’m hoping home quarantine is only temporary.

Once Covid is endemic it seems pretty fuckIn pointless. There will always be the cries of ‘what about new variants’ but the good thing about Delta is that it’s so contagious that it seems pretty unbeatable, at least for now.

Better to have a transition period of borders opening with home quarantine than no free movement at all.

Anything more contagious than Delta is unlikely to be contained by hotel quarantine anyway.

@milkyaqua

They've let it wait a year. If she is corrupt, which has yet to be proven, then she was guilty of corruption this entire time. Why now? Two weeks before the state comes out of lockdown. It's going to be a mess.

I'm seeing a lot of this thinking on LI.

They need to do a preliminary investigation to see if there is a need to launch a formal investigation. Which they have now done.

Gladys has let the people who voted for her down.She should have just remained in her role and gone through the investigation.

To say an investigation shouldn't happen because of the pandemic/bushfire/any-other-excuse is bonkers.

If she's guilty I hope she is punished fairly. If she's innocent she has lost the ability to continue with her head held high.

I just don't understand why she resigned, unless she knows something is about to come out.

I think ICAC could have waited two weeks. That's all. Given it's about a year since she went before them to give evidence on old dodgy...

And what if in 2 week's time there was another reason to wait? Would you recommend to keep postponing?

What if it's already been postponed due to the outbreak in NSW?

We are reopening/lifting restrictions next week. As I've said multiple times, it is my view this is not the ideal time to swap out a premier who has been hands-on throughout the pandemic. The timing is appalling; a couple of weeks could make all the difference. I would rather it was someone with lived experience guiding the state this month, not some bloke hastily handed a portfolio.

I can't answer your hypotheticals. Just dealing with the known knowns, it is going to be very rocky in the coming months.

Not sure it's ideal to put investigating corruption on hold until there's a convenient time. When might that be?

Maybe it's just best to get on and weed it out where it's found 🤷🏼‍♀️.

But equally, it's not like now Gladys has gone they're going to bring in a bunch of year one recruits to replace her. All the likely premier contenders are members of the NSW crisis cabinet - they know what's been going on, Glad is just the spokesbod.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting them to pass around a hat or give the post to an office boy.

I'm not sure who is actually in the crisis cabinet, apart from Dominic Perrottet, who has stated his job is to advocate for businesses and keeping people in jobs, and who most probably does not have his finger entirely on the pulse of the health system. I also don't quite see how you bounce from tourism, like Stuart Ayres, to managing a state that is in all probability about to explode with covid cases. I don't know if other potential candidates like Andrew Constance, Rob Stokes, Mark Speakman, or Matt Kean are even in the crisis cabinet - or how informed any of those who are in it are, given the cabinet did not even bother meeting at many key points in the recent few months.

On a different note, I’m giving a bit of a hard clap for this…. Where will Dom find the time?

I also don't quite see how you bounce from tourism, like Stuart Ayres, to managing a state that is in all probability about to explode with covid cases.

You surround yourself with experts and listen to them. Like Gladys did...🤔

I'll give you that she was probably the best of a shit bunch. Which isn't saying much.

But she let the state of NSW, and Australia, down AGAIN by resigning and maybe being corrupt AF instead of holding steady and steering NSW like she could have done.

Wow the new Premier, Perrotet, is a Trump loving, anti abortion, Opus Dei guy who wanted to let the virus rip from day 1. Good luck NSW.

New Zealand have officially abandoned their aim of elimination and are moving towards easing lockdown restrictions:

www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-extends-auckland-lockdown-eases-some-curbs-2021-10-04/

Does that make the parts of Australia that aren't NSW and Vic the only places in the world still currently going for covid zero? Is any other country still attempting to eliminate cases altogether?

I think those Aus states are now on their own. New Zealand has always said it would move away from the elimination strategy when the time was right. Whether now is the right time though is still up for discussion.

We’re in week 7 of lockdown in Auckland. Kids due back at school on the 18th (by which point they’ll have been at home for 10 weeks) - but PM won’t commit to Re-opening schools. Auckland is 80% vaccinated (first dose). Looks like we’ll be in lockdown until December.

Parts of Waikato now also in lockdown and the PM had the fucking brass neck to say “if more people were vaccinated we wouldn’t need to go to lockdown” - vaccinations were only made available to the general public when we went to lockdown in mid August!!!

I’m enraged and also despairing

Wow, I didn’t realise that vaccines weren’t available up until August in NZ. There’s been much in the press about Australia’s slow vaccination roll-out, but NZ’s seems to be even worse. Why is that?

China is still pursuing elimination. Also, HK and Taiwan.

Not sure where else--the North Senetal Islands, I guess! And maybe some Pacific island nations.

I suppose the Zeroes will have to go full-on tankie at some point, which might be quite funny to watch.

I am in Perth, and so far as I know none of the states are pursuing' zero Covid' for ever, just until we get the vaccination rates up to a satisfactory level. Which seems pretty reasonable to me!

Yes @Blackbird2020 it is worse (to be fair they’re probably about even now but our roll
out was even later than Australia’s). I don’t know why - complacency Insusie t. Our politicians genuinely seemed to think we had “beaten” Covid and that it would be “unethical” to use up doses ahead of other countries. Fucked 🤯

Complacency *I suspect

I also suspect our Ministry of Health’s procurement process was just a bit shit.

Agree re Aus being a nanny state, and I also notice how Aus/NZ are more reverential to and less questioning of their leaders than say Europe or the US.

I've been amazed how docile people have been about their rights being eroded.