But you can be sure that as soon as NSW's case numbers come down enough, the Federal Government will pressure them to start lifting restrictions, as they did towards the end of Victoria's 4 month lockdown last year.
An interesting difference to highlight - the statement "government looks after us" is something many folks in the US would find strange. The US views government more "of the people, by the people, for the people" - ie the government is us governing ourselves.
I'm not sure who my favorite broadcaster is supposed to be, I don't live in Australia. Maybe Alan Jones? He seems controversial but I've never listened to him.
Works great until the situation changes and you need people to wear masks. Not only do people question why things have changed, they start to ask what else you’re lying about for “the greater good”.
I hope a disinterested and calm australian user can see through what's going on and educate the rest of us.
I suspect he fundamental difference between US citizens is while both cultures aren't authoritarian, unlike the USA Australian's don't hold authority in disdain either. They aren't scared it - they are happy to delegate responsibility and decisions to a central authority where that makes sense. I suspect that is precisely because they are confident in questioning it, and confident they can overturn it if it isn't working out.
The lock down's were far more controversial at the start, when nobody had an idea what the cost of them where compared to the alternative. There were vigorous discussions in the media and elsewhere about the right approach, to the extent that different states took very different approaches, one literally shutting it's borders to all other states.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then. It is now clear what the right approach both economically and health wise - and that is to stop the disease dead in it's tracks so you can re-open the economy a soon as possible. That's obviously is the best approach health wise, and it turns out it's also the best approach economically. We know that because the state that locked down hardest and returned to growth before everyone else, and Australia is now growing economically faster than it has in years, and this happened before just about every other country on the planet.
Lock down's are highly intrusive on personal liberties of course. You have to stay at home unless you have a reason, you have to wear masks, you have to "check in" at every shop you visit by scanning a bar code. The rules are policed. It is with a light touch you will get several warnings and you will be given a mask if you don't have one, but if you continue refuse to comply the law you will be prosecuted.
Still, it's acknowledged by everyone except nutters it works exceptionally well (and in fact it appears to be the only thing that does work short of full vaccination), and the governments are very careful to lift the restrictions as soon as the threat passes. And as I said, Australian's aren't afraid of authority. It's just a tool - you deploy it when it works.
For a start, there's no "curfew". There is a stay-at-home order, but people are still allowed go out where necessary for shopping, exercise, education and work. The main restriction is on visiting other people's homes.
Military personnel have been deployed to provide logistical support and additional bodies to help police, medical and welfare services. They're helping set up and staff covid testing facilities, and doing checks on infected people quarantining, both for compliance and welfare. And yep there's also some walking around the streets with police, but there's basically no hostile engagement with citizens or anything remotely like martial law. Mostly it's polite reminders to people of what they need to do - i.e., just wear masks and avoid gathering in big groups.
Most people are accepting of it as Australians are not accustomed to or comfortable with a serious disease just tearing through the community causing significant numbers of deaths, so they're accepting of measures to prevent that from happening.
> No doubt any video about a lab source of Covid would have been banned too.
Nothing remotely like this has happened. I've watched plenty of videos about this, as well as many about vaccine concerns, ivermectin, etc. Australia isn't restricting any content like this at all.
The only blocking of content is being done by YouTube in the USA.
In reality it’s a few uniformed personnel out with police saying “hey guys if you could just put a mask on that’d be great”. Sure if people refuse they get fined by the police, because, you know, rule of law matters.
The reality of this is not as outrageous as some people want to imagine. Various forms of lockdowns have happened all over the world, with varying degrees of success. Australia has so far kept total covid fatalities under 1000, avoided medical systems being overwhelmed, and kept the economy going quite well.
We can debate the relative merits of masks and lockdowns vs “letting it rip”. I continue to contemplate and research it and waver in my own position. I don’t know how anyone couldn’t, given that no position is without huge costs, whether to short-term liberties and economic wellbeing or to long-term health and survival.
But if you’re going to have restrictions, like so many other countries have done, Australia’s use of the military as a part of managing them has been very restrained and benign. Australians are accustomed to the military helping out during natural disasters - bushfires, floods, etc. They see this involvement no differently.
If you want to continue the discussion, it would be helpful for you to consider and signal whether you actually want to understand the way things are in Australia, vs just heaping scorn on it.
Some of those restrictions are stricter than any in Australia have been. And, as per the article, they're being actively enforced by the police, same as Australia. The military isn't doing that kind of enforcement in Australia.
And nothing but support. Seems like some of the authoritarian culture of SE Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, etc) has rubbed off on them? The UK is far more anti-authoritarian.
No doubt any video about a lab source of Covid would have been banned too.