Why were the Northern Beaches shut down so quickly, and yet Bondi remained open? Why so slow off the mark compared to other countries to get a variety of vaccines? Why can it still take hours to get a covid test? Don’t governments realise this turns people off getting tested? Spend, train, employ more testers! You’ve had 18 months!
Every state except NSW didn’t hesitate to shut down hotspots – HARD – and close borders. Where was the urgency to get frontline nursing staff, doctors, paramedics, police, teachers etc vaccinated? Surely, 18 months into the pandemic, the vast majority should be done by now!
Now the ADF (Australian Defence Force) is deployed, same as the bushfires – too little, too late! Morrison and Berejiklian aren’t asleep at the wheel – they’re not in the car!
At last laws are being toughened up and the slack rules tightened, but it’s still okay to visit your holiday home? You can sunbathe at Bondi, still, but don’t dare poke your head out elsewhere.
Yes, we are lucky to be an island in the Southern Hemisphere with a relatively small population. We have watched other countries struggle with major covid problems, many deaths, heaps more crook, not enough respirators, losing frontline medical staff who take years of training to replace. As a leader wouldn’t you be taking note, talking to medical and scientific groups about how we should be preparing, putting into place not just plans, but actual infrastructure for when Australia is invaded by the virus?
First there were cruise ships, or were they just incubators? So what was the plan? Put potential ill people into hotels, ships on land, not in remote areas, but smack in the middle of our largest populations. Maybe this was only the first short-term option, and then there were minimal efforts to get Howard Springs operational and… nothing else.
The consequence is, for the sake of a few million dollars to build or modify some more regional or remote quarantine camps, we now have lockdowns all over the place, costing the nation billions of dollars. Not good enough and that is a direct, federal, responsibility!
Afghanistan. Again, far too little and far too late. What, no one discussed the possibility of a collapse of resistance and the Taliban controlling in Kabul within weeks? Oh well, just like we’re discovering with covid, just a few more deaths!
I can only hope there is a warehouse with lots of respirators, PPE, beds and maybe ADF staff available for rapid deployment to anywhere in Australia.
Finally, why can’t the states and federal government work collaboratively and democratically? Why can’t adults sit down, outside political bias, and resolve to create one plan for everyone, one list of rules, that apply across our ONE nation. No confusion over when a lockdown will be applied, when a border will be closed or what isolation, quarantine, stay at home, etc mean and no confusion about what penalties will be applied, instantly, for breaking community health rules.
This is our World War III, treat it as such!
Richard White
East Ballina
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
