Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[nutwood]

Sitting at Newcastle airport and less than half the pax have masks on. Bit weird after coming from Launceston where they expect you to wear one in the carpark, although only enforced in the terminal.
NTL is a direct BNE flight and I can see JQ484 starting to queue.

 

[Must...Fly!]

That poor guy describing his experience of being taken to hospital. You can tell he is mentally shattered.

Serious questions need to be asked of both the policy of all positive to hospital and the general response in Qld.

That Victorian experience is absolutely insane. Landing at 7pm and then languishing until finally put on a hotel room after 2am.

I am disappointed/angry that after well over 12 months it's still a complete mess. The states are pathetic.

 

[jonboixxx]

That poor guy describing his experience of being taken to hospital. You can tell he is mentally shattered.

Serious questions need to be asked of both the policy of all positive to hospital and the general response in Qld.

That Victorian experience is absolutely insane. Landing at 7pm and then languishing until finally put on a hotel room after 2am.

I am disappointed/angry that after well over 12 months it's still a complete mess. The states are pathetic.

Not that we'll ever get there, but this last 12 months reinforces to me that 3 levels of government is costly and ridiculous.

 

[jase05]

Bluesfest cancelled after new NSW case
In news just in, the Byron Bay Blues Festival has been cancelled , the ABC understands.

The event was supposed to start tomorrow. Organisers were expecting up to 15,000 people to attend.

A raft of restrictions are being introduced in the Byron area after a local COVID infection was discovered overnight.

Minister for Health Brad Hazzard said: “While the cancellation of Bluesfest is disappointing for music lovers and the local community, I hope that ticket holders would support Bluesfest and hold on to their tickets as I understand Bluesfest will be working on a new date as soon as possible.”

 

[Pushka]

oh dear:

Close contact of COVID patient said he had to 'demand' test after initially being turned away from testing clinic

A close contact of a COVID-infected patient says he was forced to explain the urgency of his situation to Queensland healthcare workers and "demand" a test after initially being turned away.

www.abc.net.au

Government apologises after traveller from Brisbane was sent into hotel quarantine

A man who tried to travel to Victoria from Brisbane before it was declared a red zone says he was forced into hotel quarantine, despite repeated assurances from the Department of Health he would not be.

www.abc.net.au

I heard a similar story from a friend who arrived from Brisbane last Friday for a wedding and 60th in SA. We were not in specific lockdown then but was told to quarantine for 14 days when he arrived at the airport. But that edict didnt come into effect until Saturday. He missed everything.

Post automatically merged: Mar 31, 2021

Bluesfest cancelled after new NSW case
In news just in, the Byron Bay Blues Festival has been cancelled , the ABC understands.

The event was supposed to start tomorrow. Organisers were expecting up to 15,000 people to attend.

A raft of restrictions are being introduced in the Byron area after a local COVID infection was discovered overnight.

Minister for Health Brad Hazzard said: “While the cancellation of Bluesfest is disappointing for music lovers and the local community, I hope that ticket holders would support Bluesfest and hold on to their tickets as I understand Bluesfest will be working on a new date as soon as possible.”

It had to happen though, didn't it. Once a guy in the hotel caught it.

 

[stryker]

Not that we'll ever get there, but this last 12 months reinforces to me that 3 levels of government is costly and ridiculous.

Well that's all well and good, but I'd hate to think what would have happened to Australia if it weren't for the National Cabinet.

Checks and balances, especially if you have an out of touch Govt.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Did I say something that was factually incorrect?

Yes the statement that the band would have been outed in the media without the Minister's help is unprovable, but I feel on the balance of probabilities was likely given the name appeared on the Hotel web site and was very well known in the area.

I said the Minister "apologised for the privacy breach and fair enough" - correct I think.

I then compared the band the identity of which "was clearly in the public domain for anyone to find" as it appeared on the hotel website and said this was "unlike Pizzaman in SA" where the identity was unknown - also correct I think.

My only point was that the two instances were different.

I will make my final statement on this matter as clear as possible; sometimes the identity is known (the band, a doctor and a nurse in Brisbane, the QH quest with asthma and the young bloke outed as a holding a party in Brisbane (the latter two by their own hand)}, and sometimes not.

I don't believe I was promoting the naming of people so that we could see violence and other undesirable actions in our community.

Firstly my apologies if you read my reply as you advocating naming people, as I certainly was not implying that. I was just saying that it was important to not name people either directly or in releasing information that allows them to be easily identified..

The part you are perhaps missing though is that no one knew that band member was positive till it was wrongly released. The breach was stating that a band member was positive.

I then compared the band the identity of which "was clearly in the public domain for anyone to find"​

Yes but without the breach, no one would have looked (even if the minister had not named the band).

The venue had only one band, and so then even without the Minister naming the band members of the public could then identify the band, and then the person as they also stated it was the drummer.

Without the breach, the band would only have been part of the many who attended. People may have known that the band was there, but they would not have known that the a member was positive.

As to the nurse. How many nurses does the hospital have? Numerous. So stating it a nurse is positive does not easily lead to them being outed. Stating say a principal at a particular school was positive would be a breach., as there is only one principal. Now the principal may be ok to be named, but they need to be asked first.

Any of the positive cases should be kept private as much as possible, unless there is a strong public health reason to make their identify public.

Which all goes back to what I was discussing with Puskha is that there are privacy reasons why Health Departments do not release all the information they know.

 

[clarkkent]

Home isolation in NSW for 14 days since leaving Greater Brisbane?

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) - Public Health Orders and restrictions

To deal with the public health risk of COVID-19 and its possible consequences, the Minister for Health and Medical Research has made a number of Orders, under section 7 of the Public Health Act 2010.

www.health.nsw.gov.au

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Documents/interstate-concerns-notice.pdf

 

[justinbrett]

Home isolation in NSW for 14 days since leaving Greater Brisbane?

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) - Public Health Orders and restrictions

To deal with the public health risk of COVID-19 and its possible consequences, the Minister for Health and Medical Research has made a number of Orders, under section 7 of the Public Health Act 2010.

www.health.nsw.gov.au

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/covid-19/Documents/interstate-concerns-notice.pdf

It’s 14 days or until the order is cancelled, whichever is earlier.

It was announced by the health minister the timing would be the same as the Queensland health order.

 

[OATEK]

Firstly my apologies if you read my reply as you advocating naming people, as I certainly was not implying that. I was just saying that it was important to not name people either directly or in releasing information that allows them to be easily identified..

When you quote someone's post, they are bound to think you are having a go, especially when introducing arguments that place a poster's comments in the same paragraph as advocating for violence. If you just post the comments to the thread as a new post it is much harder for someone like myself to take offence.

 

[jonboixxx]

Well that's all well and good, but I'd hate to think what would have happened to Australia if it weren't for the National Cabinet.

Checks and balances, especially if you have an out of touch Govt.

What would still have happened, is the most effective decision in this mess, of shutting the international borders. The rest of policy response has just been noise and bother. Checks and balances should be about a strong opposition not politicking and overlap between levels of government. If National Cabinet was effective we would have a useful universal response to quarantine methodology, shutdown responses and the like.

 

[dajop]

If National Cabinet was effective we would have a useful universal response to quarantine methodology, shutdown responses and the like.

Not to mention national regime to make contact tracing much easier (national QR code check in system, etc).

 

[clarkkent]

It was announced by the health minister the timing would be the same as the Queensland health order.

Oh good, the ABC blog didn't include that bit.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

No

What would still have happened, is the most effective decision in this mess, of shutting the international borders. The rest of policy response has just been noise and bother. Checks and balances should be about a strong opposition not politicking and overlap between levels of government. If National Cabinet was effective we would have a useful universal response to quarantine methodology, shutdown responses and the like.

Not sure that it incorporates everything

The Federal Government brought in the travel ban

The Federal Government brought in the COVIDSafe app

The State Governments brought in International quarantine (despite it being a Federal power)

The State/Territory Governments also brought in subsequent lockdowns (after the first national lockdown), closed State borders, QR contact tracing codes, caps on international quarantine places and a host of other things (good and bad).

Some might think the Federal Government not fully taking up international quarantine role was the catalyst of the perception that it was leaving all the covid control work to the Health Departments of the States/Territories.

Would you say a unitary system of government worked better in England ( not UK where eg Scotland has a second layer of government) and New Zealand? Edit to note I believe Singapore, China, Taiwan and France are in practice unitary systems of government. I guess there are more.

 

[Rnwillia]

Ruby Princess aside, the majority of NSW residents disagree and are very happy with Gladys and NSW Health's management of the pandemic.

Ruby Princess aside, the majority of NSW residents disagree and are very happy with Gladys and NSW Health's management of the pandemic.

NSW really have been and continue to be "The Gold Standard" in managing this pandemic. Just wish Qld and SA governments had the same competence as Gladys - so many business would still be alive instead of left to die.

 

[Must...Fly!]

The State Governments brought in International quarantine (despite it being a Federal power)

That is not an accurate statement. National cabinet agreed that the states were the most appropriate to operate hotel quarantine, due to the fact they are the primary deliverers of health care in Australia.

DocumentCloud

www.documentcloud.org

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

That is not an accurate statement. National cabinet agreed that the states were the most appropriate to operate hotel quarantine, due to the fact they are the primary deliverers of health care in Australia.

DocumentCloud

www.documentcloud.org

And perhaps as we now see, quarantine is not just about health care - so perhaps National Cabinet potentially misconstrued the role.

In any case, the overall discussion about whether a unitary or federal system of government works better doesn't seem to have a definitive answer.

 

[justinbrett]

And perhaps as we now see, quarantine is not just about health care - so perhaps National Cabinet potentially misconstrued the role.

In any case, the overall discussion about whether a unitary or federal system of government works better doesn't seem to have a definitive answer.

What was the alternative? Federally run quarantine but state police roadblocks at the international terminals to keep everybody out of the state?

It has to be state run if it's going to use capital city airports, how else would it work?

When the (some) states harp on that it's a federal responsibility, they mean they want it done by the federal government in another location. They don't want the federal government flying in thousands of passengers in their capital city using their hotels and hospitals.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

What was the alternative? Federally run quarantine but state police roadblocks at the international terminals to keep everybody out of the state?

It has to be state run if it's going to use capital city airports, how else would it work?

When the (some) states harp on that it's a federal responsibility, they mean they want it done by the federal government in another location. They don't want the federal government flying in thousands of passengers in their capital city using their hotels and hospitals.

So since you want to argue with one statement that lead to my overall point that the type of system of government does not clearly determine a better covid response, it seems implied that you take the viewpoint of the person I was first responding to who effectively took the position that a unitary system of government would not produce a ridiculous outcome.

 

[justinbrett]

So since you want to argue with one statement that lead to my overall point that the type of system of government does not clearly determine a better covid response, it seems implied that you take the viewpoint of the person I was first responding to who effectively took the position that a unitary system of government would not produce a ridiculous outcome.

I'm disagreeing with your point that National Cabinet may have misconstrued the role. It's like this because there's no alternative. It uses both federal and state resources and the bulk of the effort is in the state's jurisdiction, hence why ALL parties agreed then that the states would lead. The states did not bring in international quarantine as you suggested, it was agreed by all parties to be this way.

The argument like whether federal vs unitary would be better is moot, unitary would only be viable if there were no states, and not having states is a whole other unrelated argument.