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Sydney extends lockdown for another month; imposes partial curfew

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34 Comments

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Serious question: are Australia and New Zealand "democracies" with free elections? If yes, there's one heck of a reckoning coming for their politicians.

8 ( +25 / -17 )

Serious question: are Australia and New Zealand "democracies" with free elections?

Yes.

If yes, there's one heck of a reckoning coming for their politicians.

Why would there be? Their covid policies have been extremely popular with the people. NZ had an election late last year for that matter, and Ardern won by a landslide.

Right-wingers from other countries can't vote, so the leaders of these nations don't have to worry about them.

-4 ( +18 / -22 )

Strangerland- why would New Zealanders or anyone else enjoy being locked down? In March 2020 it made sense, but 18 months and many tools (like highly effective therapeutics- just ask India) to combat COVID later, lockdowns seem archaic.

I'm betting the same folks that run U.S. elections run NZ elections, too.

-7 ( +16 / -23 )

Strangerland- why would New Zealanders or anyone else enjoy being locked down?

Ask them, I'm not a kiwi. I'm just relaying the facts mate.

0 ( +14 / -14 )

I'm betting the same folks that run U.S. elections run NZ elections, too.

You believe the Federal Election Commission of the US also runs NZ elections?

Wow - you really do have some reading to catch up on.

7 ( +15 / -8 )

Their covid policies have been extremely popular with the people.

which people !?

-5 ( +12 / -17 )

which people !?

The ones that matter.

1 ( +16 / -15 )

Still seems to be the best (and maybe only) way to go

businesses closing - FACT

people losing jobs - FACT

businesses going bankrupt - FACT

-3 ( +15 / -18 )

tooheysnewToday  02:20 pm JST

Their covid policies have been extremely popular with the people.

which people !?

Public "servants" and anyone else whose taxpayer-funded livelihood has cushioned them from the impact of these draconian rules. Anyone on the public purse who isn't a frontline emergency worker should have their wages slashed. Apart from the state-paid emergency workers, most public servants don't do that much of value anyway.

2 ( +15 / -13 )

Good. Rinse and repeat.

This is how it will go, until we reach an equilibrium with this virus. Like the equilibrium we have with the flu.

Vacines, masks, 6', and hand washing. It ain't rocket science. It's medical science.

Not to say science is perfect. It ain't. There is no perfect. Perfect is false idol. Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Embrace the good. Embrace reason, skepticism, and empathy. Embrace secular humanism. Embrace science.

1 ( +11 / -10 )

Nobody is saying Aussies or Kiwis 'enjoy' lockdowns. But the vast majority there understand why the lockdowns have been put in place so far. Not sure if that feeling will continue forever but that's another issue.

6 ( +16 / -10 )

I'm betting the same folks that run U.S. elections run NZ elections, too.

I think the same folks have been involved every time the candidate I preferred lost. Pick your country. This is on a global scale.

Nothing else could explain it.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Serious question...

Yes, it is a serious question. How to best balance the needs of the many with the needs of the few, or the one.

The proposition that individual liberty is absolute is as stupid and horrible as the notion that the whole of the community is all that matters. It's all about balance. Siddhartha and the too taught v the too loose string and all that.

So what is the golden mean? If I could unequivocally say, I would be a very powerful and respected man. But I'm not. Just as no man or woman could ever be. 'Cause life just work that way.

But I tell you this: If I need to endure a partial curfew to save the lives of the elderly and the immunocompromised, I will gladly do so. Because that is the moral thing to do.

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Nobody is saying Aussies or Kiwis 'enjoy' lockdowns. But the vast majority there understand why the lockdowns have been put in place so far. Not sure if that feeling will continue forever but that's another issue.

That pretty much nails it. The febrile right are having their usual hysterics and are to be ignored in reasonable conversations, but you wonder how long patience with this will hold up. I read vaccinations are speeding up in Australia after a bungled start, and I have enough respect for Australians to think they don’t have more than the usual quota of delirious anti-vaxxers.

Get the vaccination rates up.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Tooheysnew

where do you happen to get all your facts?

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Sad to watch this authoritarian takeover of what I thought was a free society. And sad to see that there are people who are actually applauding this. This is how fascism always starts..... we have to restrict indivial rights for the common good. The typical excuse.

-4 ( +8 / -12 )

Melbourne will shortly exceed London’s 207 days in lockdown a couple more days. Sydney is still way behind at 100 something. The way things are going Melbourne will soon have the world record for days in lockdown currently held by Buenos Aires at 234

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Black Sabbath

”If I need to endure a partial curfew” ( just call it a curfew) “ to save the lives of the elderly.. .I will gladly do so”

Did those elderly people ask you to do so?

Is that their idea … or is it yours?

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

This is how fascism always starts..... we have to restrict indivial rights for the common good. The typical excuse.

It has never been the case that Fascism always starts when there is a medical emergency or pandemic. Fascism is un-Australian and not something of concern in the lands downunder

0 ( +6 / -6 )

My thoughts are they are buying time till vaccinated rates

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The Australian/NZ have back themselves into a corner, leaving little options/choice other than lockdown.

Both Government citizens are resilient.

However without a clear vaccination program. lives of the venerable are at risk.

Curfew is not a choice of terminology, I would have jumped at.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

It has never been the case that Fascism always starts when there is a medical emergency or pandemic. Fascism is un-Australian and not something of concern in the lands downunder

Yes.

Someone has been peppering the alternative media with ‘fascism’, ‘Stasi’, ‘Scamdemic’ etc. and the sheep have been bleating it.

It’s like teaching your parrot to swear.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Why use staff to test people when they could be vaccinating people?

Past a tipping point, 'covid zero' is not an option. In a pandemic, vaccinate, as quickly as you can. It will reduce severe illness and deaths. Then accept that we have one more thing to add to the list of stuff to be careful of, with HIV, Hep A and B and all the others. And then get on with life, taking appropriate precautions to manage your risk. We need to switch focus to climate change mediation. There are no vaccines to fix that and it will kill many more people if we ignore it.

Interesting to see this appear on a mainstream news site. 'Australia's 'authoritarian' COVID-19 response' https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2021/08/19/commentary/world-commentary/australia-authoritarian-covid-19-response/

It has a good quote from Clive James: 'The problem with Australians is not that so many of them are descended from convicts, but that so many of them are descended from prison officers.'

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Stay-at-home orders will now remain in place across the city until the end of September and residents in virus hotspots will also be subject to a nighttime curfew and limited to one hour of outdoor exercise a day.

Better to call this country China, not Australia anymore. What a disgrace, what a disgrace for Australia (and New Zealand too). What a government of fanatics and primitive idiots. And the majority of the population is just accepting this situation without resistance despite the fact that this shameful and disgusting lockdown imposed on them without any democratic consultation is the result of the complete and utter incompetence of the government which failed to vaccinate the population. They failed, failed miserably and now have the nerds to come up with disgusting authoritarian measures for the name of what? A few hundred positive cases and hygienism? If they are so fearful towards the virus, they should have vaccinated the population, not believing in the utopia of zero COVID. Idiots!

-2 ( +6 / -8 )

Australia is clear evidence that you cannot avoid a virus to circulate among the population, better spend the energy to treat & cure.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

@steve

i am constantly talking to my family & friends.

They pass on to me the real feelings of the people.

What many non Australians don’t understand is the politics involved, between the states & the federal government.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Vaccines need to be shared.

Globally

Simple enough analogy. So difficult to implement

I don't believe or accept for a moment either the Governments of Australia or New Zealand want to implement policies that could be politically interpreted as subjugating the people

The tone, the use of curfews, temporary, partial, call it what it is, could have unintended consequences.

Full disclosure, transparency, win hearts and minds.

Enthuse trust in the choices elected Governments have to make, are genuinely for the peoples protection.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

So the country has effectively reverted to a penal colony once again, with curfews, no freedoms and the like. I feel sorry for the people down under. Those who say that the government overreach is widely popular are the same kind of people who believe in channel 7's polls or lazy SJW's who love to live of daddy Centrelink handouts instead of working hard.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Vaccine politics runs centerstage where the Government of Australia is concerned.

Especially with AstraZeneca, followed soon after by Pfizer.

However a unholy political contretemps with the EU followed with the commission unilaterally hold back a proportion of the original orders.

Then add on the surveys suggesting one third of the population were skeptical of receiving the vaccine mainly due to Governments lackluster approach to providing clear transparent information and guidance on vaccine policy.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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