18months is surely a political stunt to manage expectations and stop the media asking everyday when the borders will reopen.
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The Queensland governmentâs attitude towards NSW residents is just as bad as NSW Governmentâs attitude towards Victorian residents, when it comes to border closures.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, health minister Jenny Mikakos and chief health officer Brett Sutton are currently fronting the state parliamentâs public accounts and estimates committee via video link, answering questions on the bungled hotel quaratine. Andrews then fronted the daily press conference at 11.45am.
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I donât see it as âbadâ. It makes sense that they want to avoid the return of panic like the stuff caused by those two criminal bimbos who returned from Melbourne without any screening.
Iâd rather be optimistic than negative. Stage 4 will also have been in place for 6 weeks in just over a month, and almost 10 weeks when you include stage 3.
Iâm also looking at the data. 10 days ago we were getting 2 or 3 days a week in the 600-700 range. In the past week weâve driven that down to low 300s where itâs sat for for 3 days in a row. Thatâs a pretty big drop without stage 4 even taking effect. Dan Andrews says today we now have a 90% reduction in movement on the transport network. So I donât think thereâs any reason that numbers shouldnât continue to drive down quite significantly very soon.
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Those of us in Melb have to be. 
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8 of the 22 is linked to Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook in Sydneyâs north west. The school has now recorded 17 confirmed cases (11 students, four teachers and two social contacts of school community members) since the first infection was discovered in a student last Thursday.
Berejiklian said four of the 22 new cases were returned international travellers in hotel quarantine, while another two acquired their infections in Victoria.
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Huge spike in Denmark, almost matching their April peak.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she âcanât apologiseâ for leaving about 100 Canberrans stranded at the NSW-Victorian border after a sudden rule change on Friday.
Mr Barilaro suggested Canberrans had plenty of time to get home, given NSW flagged plans to close the borders on Wednesday.
But Greg Robinson - one of the people caught by the border closure - said the announcement made no reference to people with NSW transit permits.
Mr Robinson said he was moving to Canberra with his partner who was due to start as a critical healthcare worker in a Canberra hospital, which is why they were able to get permits to enter the ACT.
He said the couple had a fully-loaded car so they couldnât fly.
Their permits were approved almost instantaneously when they applied on Wednesday - the same day the NSW announcement took place.
Mr Barilaro said on Tuesday morning a solution was âimminentâ after the NSW government was accused of âdragging their feetâ in finding a resolution.
As disappointed Canberrans continue to wait at the border, a handful of MPs received an exemption to drive from Victoria to Canberra at the weekend, after new rules came into effect on Friday.
âIf these MPs were given special treatment to cross the border, at the same time weâre denying ACT residents, well those residents should be upset and I donât think itâs acceptable,â he said.
Yet days after the NSW governmentâs abrupt revocation of just-issued permits, still no resolution, but more examples of privileged people such as MPs not having to follow the rules.
This sort of thing is just appalling.
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You canât compare the fundamental functioning of the government with a couple of Victorians who are in a huff because they canât move to Canberra (they arenât even ACT residents yet according to the article!).
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While I fully support parliamentary scrutiny during the pandemic, it can be done safely, and there shouldnât be double-standards; the virus doesnât care if someoneâs a medical worker or the prime minister.
The NSW government shouldnât have lied to these people (not just the particular couple you referred to but the others stuck too) and suddenly decided to not honour their approved transit permits.
Qld at least gave people fair warning (although their border area exemptions may need some tweaking).
The risk of a few people who are driving 3 hours between the Vic border and the ACT (where theyâll then isolate for a fortnight) isnât as huge as a bunch of whinging MPs who donât want to isolate for a fortnight.
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New Zealand set to introduce stage 3 lockdown in Auckland as one case of COVID has been identified.
Thatâs overreaction given itâs just one case, and the lockdown lasts only four days.
Not at all an overreaction if itâs an unknown / community transmission considering the country has zero restrictions at present.
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Not if you want an elimination strategy to work.
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Its 4 cases.
For elimination, they need to do this.
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Not in New Zealandâs case. Itâs only for 4 days until they can workout where itâs come from.
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I dont get the point of locking down for only 4 days, well under the incubation period, and when they donât seem to be doing a Wuhan-style universal testing blitz. if there was community transmission today, then an infected person will still be asymptomatic when the lockdown ends, and will be most contagious when everything is back to normal.
I wish Australia had gone this hard earlier.
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