Gladys has given NSW a target of 6 million jabs by August 28 which is 50% of the doses to fully vaccinate everyone in the state. She said she would ease some restrictions at 50% vaccinated (must be double vaccinated) . Thats what made the WA Premier so angry today - she keeps talking about easing restrictions at 50% but today she walked that back a bit and is now emphasising 70% - shifting the goalpost to give herself more time.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/nsw/berejiklian-says-vaccination-milestones-will-be-key-to-ending-lockdown-20210801-p58euz.html
Interesting that Gladys also said today that if they get to 50% the restrictions eased would be for vaccinated people. How the hell are they going to enforce that unless they are developing their own vaccine passport system

Like the Popovic Family

I just don't get these people.
I have been a regular business traveller for the last couple of decades, away every month, I have not wanted to go near a airport let alone a flight since this started.
Not even domestic flights.
They are playing with their lives imo and the hassles of checks/tests at times quaranteen feck that but thats my train of thought.

TBH I don't understand or hear her saying promise at all but possibly depending on the jab numbers and whats to become later in Sept early Oct.
Yes Business is asking for a better understanding what you can and cannot do IF and when you have your workforce jabbed.
Commonsense to me BUT at this stage you cannot promise anything but get a plan set out how you can Trade and where for eg.....
Sure wouldn't be in Red Spots I expect.
Thats what people are frustrated about, whats the go to stage plans ahead, in saying that it is a revolving door this problem so how can any of us expect answers.
I think they know whats going to happen but are afraid creating the mayhem that will follow, were going to have bucket loads of infections in the future coupled with heaps more deaths.
No matter who is leading has the gun pointed at them, unchartered ground incl the main 3 States.

I just have concerns its all about jabs and whats to become after in whatever capacity of opening.
For lets face it, a good % won't be jabbed rightly or wrongly.

I'm not comfortable period once we open up for we all know the Jab isn't 100% and everyone's body is different.
I'm having my 2nd jab in about 3hrs, I'm not feeling too confident in the big picture but thats what we read and told.

Anyone else watching the Victorian press conference today? Some person who's clearly not mentally 100% found the location and is screaming his head off at Dan, he's been there for a while now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUgUilMycFw

Yeah I know lots of Australian based foreign born friends who have come and gone. They are making it harder but its pretty bullshit when we have such a long waiting list

Of all the Premiers to open up with the possibility of deaths in the unvaccinated its Gladys - she's promised more freedoms after vaccination, Sydney is going through a torturous lockdown, business community is demanding less restrictions, her LIberal party colleagues and ministers are criticising her over restrictions. Will be interesting if she has the courage to do it. Definitely wouldnt be done in any other state in the foreseeable future. I hope she keeps her nerve and does it

Just found out my neighbour has been to europe twice during corona....
I also know 3 people who have been trying to come back for six months but cant get here.

Not blaming him, but it appears if you're flying business class you can get back in the country and get exemptions to travel.

Thats the reality of Australia. Like I said, CHOs wanted them when they were predicting 20%-60% of people will get infected. They have the power to enforce whatever they want. Masks are here to stay

Get CHOs to run the country and you end up with this. No balance. Just a 100% health response. Anybody who thinks this is about big droplets vs little droplets are kidding themselves

Bit like asking the PFA to run the A League really

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aMFIWHpBvE

So in a nutshell unvaccinated people will get Covid. Even more reason to keep jabbing people.

Anyone vaccinated is not 100% covered but still 100 of times better off.

I agree with the ICU surge capacity issue. They've said that the Wollongong case was because of logistics, but I remember reading we have up to 1000 beds ready for ICU in NSW. 

The current angle being taken in NSW regarding deaths is, "they weren't vaccinated" after every announcement. So I think when they open up, and there are deaths, the message would be, they could have been vaccinated and didn't take it, etc etc. 

Masks for years and years according to Experts. This could trigger some on here

"Dr Griffin said people should expect to be wearing masks in some capacity "for years to come – it won't be weeks or months"

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-11/qld-covid-face-mask-hygiene-cloth-vs-surgical/100363746

In my opinion the shitshow is only just beginning:
On current trends Sydney wont exit lockdown till Xmas if it wants to get to zero cases. Thats economically and socially unsustainable. Gladys has been recently suggesting that once they get to certain vaccination targets she will ease restrictions. If she doesnt follow through with that suggestion and they are still under hard lockdown come end of Sept she is in the shit and compliance will drop. If she does follow through then cases will undoubtedly spread. Then what? Reimpose lockdown? Interstate borders wont open to NSW again this year and its inevitable cases will leak to QLD and Vic.

Its all easy for political leaders when you have zero cases but when you have cases and lockdowns then you're in the shit. The go to now for Premiers is to talk about  vaccination targets but thats just hiding the inevitable anger when they either move the goalposts or reimpose lockdowns after inevitably having cases as we will have cases unless we get extremely high vaccination rates (95% which is impossible).

The pollies dont know what to do. Because there is no exit plan. Because they cant be honest with people and tell them that we will have to open up and have a lot of cases and hundreds of deaths. They just dont know how to break this very difficult news to Australians let alone really go through with "living with covid".

On another point. Remember last year when we were trying to flatten the curve so we could buy time to build ICU capacity and mass buy ventilators for inevitable mass ICU cases. NSW has 68 covid patients in ICU and they are already transferring hospital patients to Wollongong. WA having to import 2000 foreign doctors because of mass shortage.  What the actual fuck!!!!! How have we not got the surge capacity in place 18 months after this start!!!

Vic/NSW/QLD and the Feds - not just the pollies but the public service and the medical authorities - this has been such a failure of governance across the board. The loss of trust in governments and authorities after COVID will have an incredibly long lasting legacy.

Most on here saying we should open when everyone who has had chance to get a vaccine. I totally agree. But it just wont happen. Most countries with very high vaccination rates are having outbreaks then leading to reimposing restrictions (e.g. Iceland at 85% adults vaccinates is having a surge and just reimposed restrictions).

As I've been ranting on about for a while. We will get to 70-80% adults vaccinated quite soon (October in some states) but when this doesnt stop lockdowns this is when the shit will really hit the fan. The public will find out they've been sold a lie, the vaccinated will be pissed they have to have restrictions while unvaccinated hold us hostage. The AFL GF will be moved, the Oz open tennis and f1 GP cancelled. Just because we decided on trying for Covid zero.

Could be a summer of disobedience and protests me thinks

Intersting article

Delta variant renders herd immunity from Covid ‘mythical’

Head of Oxford Vaccine Group rules out overall immunity, but also questions need for booster jabs

Reaching herd immunity is “not a possibility” with the current Delta variant, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group has said.

Giving evidence to MPs on Tuesday, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard said the fact that vaccines did not stop the spread of Covid meant reaching the threshold for overall immunity in the population was “mythical”.

“The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated. And that does mean that anyone who’s still unvaccinated at some point will meet the virus … and we don’t have anything that will [completely] stop that transmission.”

Although the existing vaccines are very effective at preventing serious Covid illness and death, they do not stop a fully vaccinated person from being infected by the virus that causes Covid-19.

Data from a recent React study conducted by Imperial College London suggests that fully vaccinated people aged 18 to 64 have about a 49% lower risk of being infected compared with unvaccinated people. The findings also indicated that fully vaccinated people were about three times less likely to test positive after coming into contact with someone who had Covid (3.84%, down from 7.23%).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/10/delta-variant-renders-herd-immunity-from-covid-mythical

He deflects from the real conversation of what are we doing to get out of this?

I'm assuming different standards but I don't know.  Would be interesting to know why. 

But yeah I think years ago the TGA said (and I'm not sure when) that if it was OK by XYZ countries then it'll be OK here. Was something to do with the fact that it wasn't worth a big drug company funding a trial in a country with such a small market. As such we were missing out on drugs that were proven overseas.

Actually, what makes me laugh is that the TGA here has to do their own tests to make sure vaccines and medicines are OK because you cant trust those foreign scientists in Europe or the USA. Approx 200 million doses of Moderna have been dispensed in the US and western Europe and Aus TGA has only just approved it,seriously WTF is going on??

It's fucked mate. If it's good, gets tested and approved then let's have it. More politics. Biden probably rang Slomo up and said 'don't buy it'.

hahaha that was gold. Goes to walk off, does a double take and 'oh yeah, 5 people died today'. 

Zero fucks given.

He's probably got the shits because the cruisy little media ride they've had for the past 18 months is starting to unravel. Would love to see some real heat applied. And as much as people love to bag the ABC out as 'leftist scum' they're about the only media in Australia that have the time, money and resources to tear these pricks a new one. And ask the tough questions. Have a look at that expose the other night on the vaccine rollout.

People wishing the ABC should be defunded are off their head. If they're gone then what? Rely on Sky News to ask Gladys questions like 'what did you have for dinner last night?'. 

If you're calling Lifeline because you can't pay rent or don't have a job and are about to be evicted or you don't have food on the table then fine but if you're calling Lifeline because you're lonely and can't go out and socialise then fuck right off.

There's zoom, facebook, instagram, facetime, 400 channels of TV, more social media and connectivity than any other time in human history and people are depressed because they're lonely!?

How the hell did anyone ever get through, WW1, The Great Depression and WW2 I'll never know. 

Flame away.

Surely they have to yank him away from the camera. He's terrible. 

Zero redeeming features. 

How was his 5 deaths after thought the other day

Footy! Footy! Footy is still on grouse. Grouse mate. Go Ana!

Oh yeah almost forgot. 

Journo addressing Chant ' how could you not foresee a limo driver shuttling overseas passengers was not a t risk of contracting Covid'.

Brad Hazzard: 'I'm the minister, I'll answer that'. Then proceeded to be rude, arrogant and patronising.

Chant reminded me of Fauci and that sheila who had to sit there when Trump said people needed to inject disinfectant or shove a light up their arse. Guaranteed she's hamstrung by political considerations over health concerns. 

Indeed. Infuriating and the latest from the political PR schools

A - "when were you advised to lockdown"
B- "how dare you insult the hard working nurses of this state"
A- "Um"
B- "Soldiers died for this country. I will not let you desecrate this news conference"

And, I only found out today when the dopey fuckers went through the aged care facilities vaxxing the oldies they didn't do the fucking staff at the same time.

I mean what the fuck?!  

Are you joking? What a friggin shitshow. YOU'RE RIGHT THERE!!!! Vax everyone.

As for Kerry Chant she said we 'underestimated the delta variant' or something along those lines and the journalist said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'how could you not have known seing this had all played out in England in the weeks beforehand.'

Do not one of these clowns ever pick up a phone and say hey England/Norway/Sweden/Italy/Israel, what is and isn't working for you over there? Anything we should know?

Honestly what are these bozos doing. 

100% and I hate this new trend those scum are using to avoid a question.

The faux outrage!

'How dare you, she is working 18 hours a day', 'I will not waste my time answering that', 'I resent the implication' etc.

So that's it folks. Don't ask any tough questions because the people 'managing' covid are working long hours.

What about this little doozy. https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/palaszczuk-government-conducts-half-a-million-dollar-secret-covid-polling/ar-AAN91bu

It's like a Hollowmen episode. Policy by focus group. 

Keep the NRL going because 'bread and circus's'. 

well, I recall how many couldn't recall what they were responsible for during the security/apartment block debacle.

I don't think NSW/Vic Govt's can stand on any moral grounds let alone being honest answering to the public - both tarred with the same brush divided by a border.
One just put on a better show infront of the media, nice deflecting and it works to some of the rank and file.
Spare us, nicely.

well what do you make of this whilst the mention of crooks and incompetance....
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/moment-of-truth-for-victorian-dpp-kerri-judd-on-hotel-quarantine/news-story/c8236a617f13dd3e2891b9e3f9b88c25

Moment of truth for Victorian DPP Kerri Judd on hotel quarantine

Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd on Monday received a 20,000-word, comprehensive report on why she should begin prosecutions against four current or former cabinet ministers and 16 current and past public servants for their role in the 2020 pandemic hotel quarantine disaster.

But the document did not come from WorkSafe Victoria but rather a team of Australia’s top occupational health and safety lawyers bought together and co-ordinated by Ken Phillips, chief executive of Self Employed Australia.

The lawyers and Phillips based their detailed report on the sworn evidence given in the Jennifer Coate inquiry plus Coate’s own comments.

WorkSafe has spent more than a year investigating the disaster and appears to be in breach of the Occupational Health and Safety act because it has not delivered its “investigative materials” inside its statutory deadline.

In turn, as I explained yesterday, this failure of WorkSafe to meet its statutory obligations may be causing Kerri Judd as DPP to be also in breach of the act.

If WorkSafe ever makes a report then Judd, alongside Victoria’s Solicitor-General Rowena Orr, will be able to compare the WorksSafe “investigative material” with that prepared by the OHS experts and Phillips.

Judd and Orr are among Australia’s finest silks (their sex is irrelevant). If Judd was to make recommendations not in accordance with the law it would not only trash Victorian and perhaps Australian OHS laws but would greatly damage the reputation of the legal profession in Australia. I am supremely confident in the integrity of Judd and Orr to put aside the undoubtedly enormous political implications involved and uphold the standards and traditions of Australian law.

Jennifer Coate produced an incredibly detailed 900-page report which was written in language that was difficult to read. Few read the report in full and therefore did not appreciate the huge reservoir of factual revelations hidden within the massive document.

Coate appeared to focus the thrust of her legal conclusions on conventional law and so found it difficult to reach conclusive conclusions.

Coate never looked at material she had assembled under sworn evidence or her comments from the point of view of the OHS legislation. Phillips, with the help of the lawyers, spent many weeks forensically separating out the Coate material that relates to the OHS laws. The facts Coate had uncovered stunned the OHS lawyers, who found the detail unprecedented and damning.

Phillips points out that the OHS Act places duties on employers, employees and others who have control and management of workplaces. On their web site WorkSafe says: “The OHS Act seeks to protect the health, safety and welfare of employees and other people at work. It also aims to ensure that the health and safety of the public is not put at risk by work activities.”

Offences under the OHS Act are indictable criminal offences and carry serious penalties - some including lengthy terms of imprisonment.

With the backing of the lawyers, Phillips concludes: “The Victorian government, and Victorian government departments and senior bureaucrats involved in the hotel quarantine program failed to provide systems of work that were safe and without risks to the health of their employees and to the health of the Victorian public.”

The material presented to Judd shows that the Coate inquiry clearly identifies that it was management failures, starting at the highest levels of government in Victoria, that caused the outbreaks. Those failures amount to breaches of the Victorian work safety laws and require prosecution of the government.

However Phillips and Self Employed Australia emphasise that “they do not offer a view on whether prosecution would result in a guilty finding or otherwise. That is for the courts to decide”.

What makes the occupational health and safety rules different to conventional law is that a person can commit and offence by what they do not do as well as what they actually do.

So, people occupying the position of chairman, chief executive, prime minister or premier (plus boards, cabinets and senior executives) have very clear obligations under the clauses in the act. They cannot escape the consequences of not performing those obligations by simply saying they delegated or ignored the task.

In the Coate inquiry, under oath, the Premier of Victoria stated he did not consider who was going to monitor compliance with quarantine directions. It was not something to which he would “ordinarily turn his mind”. He considered risk management to be an operational matter that he left to others.

If the courts hold that a premier is allowed to delegate that authority, then the whole senior management thrust of occupational health and safety law in Victoria and possibly Australia will be changed.

Nationwide there are clear obligations on corporate and government chiefs, stating that they cannot avoid responsibility for what happens down the chain by simple delegation. The report reveals in great detail what actually happened in hotel quarantine in Victoria, including the squabbles between public servants, the incorrect delegation of responsibility by the public servants and the role of ministers in this affair.

Judd will not be able to use the report itself in any prosecution, but she will be able to call to the courts the people who gave their evidence to Coate under oath. They will either confirm what they said in the inquiry or possibly be subject to a perjury action.

Coate herself can be a key witness given she described the program as having a “lack of proper leadership and oversight”, a “catastrophe waiting to happen” and a “disaster that tragically came to be”.

The program’s design, combined with its dysfunctional management, was the cause of the Covid-19 virus escaping the hotels with the deaths and injury that followed.

Nope. Daily Telegraph will cover for them.