moneypenny20

Good. The man's a fool. In theory QLD don't have to close borders if everyone around us are! . Wish to dog they'd close the theme parks though.

carcajou

From Palaszczuk's comments I would bet that's in the pipeline.

scrubbedexpat098

Well it seems I may be stuck in WA for the foreseeable future. Being that my family is in Wollongong on the east coast that's not ideal. However with my wife and son about to be jobless, I've got to earn so it's something I feel quite lucky to be able to do. On a remote camp near port hedland so it's ideal for isolation if it comes to it. Hope everyone else is doing ok.

carcajou

Sorry to hear that. I have heard that the mining companies (if that's what you are doing) have significantly extended rotations as a result of the current situation.

In happier times I would have a whole list of wonderful day trip recommendations for you for your day off:

- Jasper and a drive through the Coongan Hills at Marble Bar
- Fishing / swimming at Eighty Mile Beach
- Karajini
- The Pink Pub at Whim Creek
- Millstream

Etc etc etc

Good luck to you.

carcajou

The new measures do not go anywhere near as far as they need to. Morrison is continuing to view this as primarily an economic crisis rather than a public health crisis. Now I know why Berejiklian and Andrews felt a need to dramatically strike out on their own. Speaking to him must be like smashing your forehead into a concrete wall.

moneypenny20

So do the States and Territories continue as they said they would today or do they have to bow down to the flaming dick at the top of the tree? He has not one single clue as to how to handle this, he's following Trump and Johnston and looking just as stupid.

carcajou

My understanding is the states will do what they said they would do, regardless of Morrison. On schools, Victoria and ACT confirmed they still plan to close - but there is widespread confusion about what NSW is going to do.

The West Australian is reporting that WA schools will shut at some point very soon, and likely do online learning from the Easter holidays.

moneypenny20

It's a complete shit show. I live in QLD and work in NSW. I've been making arrangements all afternoon as to how our animal rescue in NSW will run without me and a few of my volunteers. Very very minor in the grand scheme of things but cats cant clean their own litter boxes or feed themselves so it's pretty major for me. Just shut the sodding country down and let's get through this with as little loss of life as possible.

carcajou

Spot on . . . and animal rescue is important work. I wish your organisation the best, that can be expected under the current circumstances.

cresta57

I think he's juggling economics v lives. Trying to keep schools open to keep medical & transportation personnel at work but endangering more people by allowing more social interaction. We know it's going to spread far and wide but the measures in place to "flatten the curve" will only go so far before the country simply runs out of icu beds and then it becomes survival of the fittest.

Jerseygirl

they are saying here that many animal shelters are almost empty, because people have been offering to foster the animals.

Beoz

That's his job. As he rightly said, what's right for Sydney is not right for Gundagai. It's up to the states to make their own decisions based on their own circumstances. A one size cookie cutter doesn't fit all is what he said. For the first time ever, I can see a benefit of having state level government. On schools I have seen no evidence school children, especially primary school kids, are major hosters nor transmitters of COVID19. My kids will be going to school until Gladys pulls the pin.

scrubbedexpat098

cheers, I'd love to go to some of those places again but were at work or we're on camp so no chance of that. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do i suppose.

BEVS

I think it is the same here in NZ cresta57.

carcajou

Gladys has pulled the pin. She's asked parents to keep their kids home from school unless in an absolutely essential industry like health care, or with absolutely no other option. They don't want kids in school in New South Wales from tomorrow, unless they meet that criteria.

I disagree that Morrison's job is economics first. His first priority is to protect the nation and safeguard health and safety. Economics come after. Every single day the newspapers - even newspapers friendly to him, like The Oz - are running stories with doctors slamming him for being weeks behind the curve.

Operationally what Morrison has outlined for schools is not viable and will topple over fairly quickly. You can't have a learning program where kids wander in and out of the building as they and their parents please, and once you get below a certain attendance threshold for the school - and it's a high threshold, about 80% minimum - a lot of standard teaching and learning practises become unworkable. The dominant mode has to be online, or face to face, not halfsies and not both.

This is why overseas, so many school systems shut despite proclaiming that they would stay open hell or high water same as Morrison. Once their attendance dropped to 70% or less, and staff absences rose to about 10% because of illness, self-isolations, needing to isolate because a family member was isolating, etc (not enough relief staff) they couldn't stay open operationally. Remember that schools are subject to laws too regarding health and safety and have a lot of policies etc to that effect. Those are there for a reason and can't be waived off just because someone in government thinks its inconvenient or wants to give the "we're at war" speech.

Not coincidentally, Gladys cited that 70% attendance level as part of the rationale for doing what she's done.

Plus the "kids don't spread it" line is probably bunk. Plenty say it's not true, scores of doctors in Australia are saying to close the schools, and most if not all of the other nations with this number of cases have closed the schools. It's on Morrison to justify why he's going out on that limb when others aren't.