The Rats of Tobruk in 1941 denied Axis forces a sweeping advance through North Africa. Similar to the halting of the Japanese advance on the Kokoda Track a year later it is a significant part of Australian military folklore.
Sergeant Bert Le-Merton was there with the 2/13 Battalion.
Now at 102 years young he has been echoing the achievement of Sir Thomas Moore and walking in the name of charity. Where Sir Thomas Moore raised money for the NHS, Sgt Bert has been raising funds for Soldier On, a not for profit charity founded in 2012 to support veterans by John Bale, Cavin Wilson and Danielle Clout. Bale had been close friends with Lieutenant Michael Fussell who was killed in Afghanistan. 3,000 veterans and their families are supported by the charity with a holistic approach to their physical and mental wounds with employment programs, health and wellbeing services, learning and participation activities.
After the war, Bert worked for the Australian Taxation Office for 41 years before retiring at age 61. Sgt Bert whose children and grandchildren have continued to serve the nation and the community set out to walk 96kms and raise $10,000 Australian dollars. Bert who is known as ‘The Walking Man’ around his local suburb averaging 1-2kms every day has reached his milestone and has just kept on walking daily. He is now at 107.3kms and has raised $107,191 from 92 donors of which I am proud to say I am one.
March On Sgt Bert.
While mentioning this great Australian and soldier and the ongoing work to support veterans in our community which is an interest of mine. I should maybe address recent news coverage of Australian special forces allegedly committing atrocities in Afghanistan.
War crimes have occurred since war began, there are some who have said junior soldiers are being thrown under the bus from a hypocritical command and politicians who sent them into fight a dirty war where these things were going to be inevitable.
Others have pointed to the culture in the special forces as a contributing factor.
My own take is that people do terrible things in war, at some point the potential to cross a line can occur.
If any Australian soldiers at any level are found to have done something illegal contrary to the law of the army then they should be held accountable by the laws they operate under.
Same for anyone higher up who encouraged, covered up or turned a blind eye to such things.
We hold ourselves to standards, we are accountable when we fall short of them otherwise it all falls apart.
But if we merely use these soldiers as scapegoats expect the military to become more disillusioned with their leadership.
For those who have come forward to tell their story and hopefully have truth come to light. If the allegations turn out to be true well then we owe them thanks for their courage. Some of them are no longer with us already.
Thursday the Prime Minister Scott Morrison had made a call to the Queensland Premier making a request to see if a young woman based out of the Australian Capital Territory could come out of hotel quarantine where she was spending 14 days.
She had made the trip to Queensland to see her father who was ill.
Sadly he had passed away and now the Prime Minister was asking if there was a way to have the young woman attend the funeral with her family.
Apparently there wasn’t.
Scott Morrison had lost his father earlier in the year in the wake of his failures during the worst bushfires this country had ever experienced. His father had not lived to see his son’s political fortunes turn around and public support grow. It was evident that Morrison adored his father as most children do. His public discussion of his attempts to have this woman attend her own father’s funeral were the first real time he had spoken of his loss.
Alas the Queensland Premier did not make it happen and did not appreciate the call. Although it must be noted the young woman was allowed out of quarantine later to say goodbye to her father on that day away from her family. She also subsequently came out publicly and said she felt the issue had been made political which she was not happy about.
Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk did have a few things to say about the incident after speaking in Parliament to say she would not be bullied.
While the Premier did throw support for the border exemption unit she had created the previous Friday she did say all decisions were ultimately to be made by her Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young which could be inferred as a gesture of throwing her under the bus given the political heat the Premier was receiving or a steadfast resolution that policy would be decided by those who were best placed to make these health decisions regardless of the political context.
There had also been 31,000 freight exemptions granted and 170,000 border zone exemptions granted according to the Premier.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Sonya Bennett also advised that Queensland Health was working to make things easier for the NSW family of 39 year old Mark Keans who was in a Queensland hospital fighting cancer to visit him.
There were two new cases in Queensland overnight with 28 active cases in the state. In the past 24 hours there had been 9,216 tests carried out.
Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles advised one active case had a positive development.
An eighty-one year old COVID-19 patient who had been in hospital for 77 days already having contracted it on the Ruby Princess cruise ship was now scheduled to move out of Intensive Care next week.
Scotland reported 244 new cases, the most since the 6th of May according to Reuters.
From Monday England was to bring in new bans on social gatherings to combat the rise in figures.
In Queensland the apolitical Australian Medical Association Queensland came out publicly with a strong show of support for the state’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young. As their Dr Bav Manoharan put it, “Do we want more people at funerals or do we want more COVID funerals?”.
Good on them, Dr Young has done nothing but her job to the best of her ability and her actions have been of overwhelming benefit to Queenslanders.
The Queensland Premier was prepared to put it all on the line with an upcoming election in six weeks.
The World Health Organisation reported there had been 28,696,020 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally with a daily increase of 313,614.
There had been 919,724 deaths around the world with a daily increase of 5,660.
In Australian there had been 26,607 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 42. There had been 803 deaths with a daily increase of six.
In Canada there had been 135,626 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 702. There had been 9,163 deaths with no daily increase.
In the United Kingdom there had been 365,178 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 3,497. There had been 41,623 deaths with a daily increase of nine.
In India the day before there had been a new record for daily cases with 97,570. That record would be broken again on the 17th of September with 97,894 cases on that day alone. On the 16th of September there would be 1,290 deaths reported in the country, only the reporting of 2,003 deaths on the 17th of June had been larger.
On the 13th of September in India there had been it was 4,754,356 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 94,372. There had been 78,586 Indian deaths due to COVID-19 with a daily increase of 1,114.
In the United States of America there had been 6,386,832 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 45,523. There had been 191,809 with a daily increase of 1,022.
September 14
On Monday it was reported that the Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young had received death threats and now had a permanent police protection with officers at her home and travelling with her.
Queensland’s Health Minister Steven Miles refused to discuss individual cases of families trying to see each other following the media coverage of one daughter trying to attend her father’s funeral with the Prime Minister calling the Queensland Premier.
The QAMA President advised Dr Young had been working 5am to 10pm every day to go through hundred of applications for border control exemptions at one point.
Amazing how we can complain when we don’t leaders who stand up to media spin and relentless opposition but when we finally do we don’t show our support. There was an upcoming election in Queensland and Premier Anastacia Palasczuk was about to find out how much support she had.
In Australia there had been 26,513 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 48. There had been 788 deaths with a daily increase of eleven.
In Canada there had been 134,294 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 546. There had been 9,155 deaths with a daily increase of two.
In the United Kingdom there had been 358,142 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,919. There had been 41,608 deaths with a daily increase of 14.
In Iran there had been 395,488 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,063. There had been 22,798 deaths with a daily increase of 129.
In Chile there had been 428,669 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,642. There had been 11,781 deaths with a daily increase of 79.
In Argentina there had been 512,293 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 12,259. There had been 10,713 deaths with a daily increase of 256.
In Spain there had been 554,143 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 10,764. There had been 29,699 deaths with a daily increase of 71.
In South Africa there had been 644,438 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 2,007. There had been 15,265 deaths with a daily increase of 97.
In Mexico there had been 647,507 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 4,647. There had been 69,095 deaths with a daily increase of 611.
In Colombia there had been 686,851 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 7,338. There had been 22,053 deaths with a daily increase of 236.
In Peru there had been 772,706 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 6,586. There had been 30,236 deaths with a daily increase of 113.
In Russia there had been 1,051,874 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 5,504. There had been 18.365 deaths with a daily increase of 102.
In Brazil there had been 4,197,889 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 35,816. There had been 128,539 deaths with a daily increase of 1,075.
In India there had been 4,562,414 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 96,551. There had been 76,271 deaths with a daily increase of 1,209.
In the United States of America there had been 6,304,181 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 31,988. There had been 189,709 deaths with a daily increase of 1,101.
Globally – there had been 28,041,822 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 288,966.
The daily increase in deaths was 6,118.
The World Health Organisation reported 906,094 people had died from COVID-19.
First off come the 13th of September, the curfew would be eased to 9pm to 5am. Exercise increased to two hours per day, single social bubbles, public outdoor gatherings of two people or a household for up to two hours and playgrounds would be re-opened.
This was Melbourne, the plan would be different for rural Victoria.
If daily averages in Melbourne could remain between 30 – 50 over those two weeks then on the 28th of September there would be further lowering of restrictions.
Schools would see a staggered return, childcare centres would re-open and more workplaces, outdoor pools. People could gather in public in groups of up to five from two different households. Personal trains could train two people at a time and religious gatherings could have up to five people with their leader of faith.
Then on the 26th of October, 2020 subject to public health advice and the daily average of new cases across the state was five and if there were less than five cases from unknown sources over the previous 14 days state wide well then there would be even less restrictions.
The curfew which began on the 2nd of August would be dropped all together.
People would be able to leave their homes with no restrictions on travel in terms of distance or reasons why.
Public gatherings outdoors could be up to 10 people.
You could have up to five visitors to your home from another household.
Years 3 to 10 could start returning to school based on the staggered approach.
Retail shops and hairdressers could open.
In hospitality in outdoors settings a group of ten could attend.
A staged return for non-contact outdoor sport for adults and for under 18s sport contact and non-contact could return.
If you stop and think about these restrictions and think about what had been in place and how many weeks Victorians had endured them you start to appreciate all they had been through and how for the most part they had weathered it and you start to think about the way people have behaved for far less in other countries and you appreciate how proud Victorians should be. Even the ones from Brighton…mostly.
Finally on the 23rd of November if there were no new cases for the previous 14 days there would be public gatherings of 50 people outdoors allowed. You could have up to 20 people visist your house. All of retail would be open. Hospitality, indoor limit of 20 and outdoors it would be 50. Real estate would start up again, contact sport for all ages. Weddings and funerals could have a maximum of 50 people attend and Church gatherings could resume subject to density limits.
There was also the use of a term COVID Normal where if there were no new cases in 28 days, no active cases and no outbreaks interstate then most restrictions would be dropped due to safety conditions and a phased return for those who had been working from home.
The World Health Organisation reported there had been 2,806,901 confirmed COVID-19 cases globally with a daily increase of 308,572.
There had been 878,682 deaths with a daily increase of 5,605.
In Australia there had been 26,207 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 71. There had been 748 deaths with a daily increase of eleven.
In Canada there had been 131,124 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 631. There had been 9,141 deaths and thankfully there were were no daily increases on that day.
In the United Kingdom there had been 344,168 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,813. There had been 41,549 deaths with a daily increase of twelve.
In India there had been 4,113,811 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 90,632.There had been 70,626 deaths with a daily increase of 1,065.
In the United States of America there had been 6,144,138 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 49,131. There had been 186,663 deaths with a daily increase of 976.
Following a National Cabinet Meeting the Prime Minister was advising he was trying to get the states to agree to having their borders open by Christmas. To manage travel around the country there was discussion around “hot spots” and how to define them so as to identify when and what to shut down. Only Western Australia with its Premier riding high in the polls had declined. However that didn’t mean some of the other states were varying in their conditions to going ahead with such a plan.
Economic pain aside, the virus didn’t care if it was Christmas and so setting a deadline around that and not where we were with the virus seemed ill advised at best.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison was in ongoing talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in setting up a travel bubble with that country to aid both their economies with tourism dollars. Given New Zealand’s hyge success in containing the virus this seemed like it posed more risk for them than for us.
Yet remarkably the same principle didn’t seem to apply to state borders in some media commentary.
While it was stupefying that some couldn’t handle a trip to Port Macquarie or Dubbo instead of the Gold Coast or that people couldn’t consider a trip to Hervey Bay over Byron Bay or Ballarat over Adelaide or Gumeracha over Mildura or Fremantle over Darwin or Alice Springs over Bali or Cairns over Sydney. It took me six years to get to Newcastle for a long weekend trip and I survived for example.
I would point out that jobs were lost all around with this slowdown in international tourism.
Job loss led to debt, domestic violence, family breakdown, poverty and suicide. All from the type of people we rely upon to give us our holidays, that keep towns afloat, that build communities. That’s why where we could we needed to reach out and support each other.
After the National Cabinet Meeting on Friday, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian called on the Queensland Premier to show compassion in her remarks to border closures.
The remarks did bring to mind recent events like one pregnant mother in Northern New South Wales choosing to seek treatment in Sydney rather than continue through the bureaucracy to get into Queensland. She had subsequently lost one of her twins.
These words had impact, they referenced lives lost not just inconvenienced. They failed to acknowledge the proposal to move the border closures into New South Wales which the Queensland Premier had suggested and the New South Wales Premier had rejected but they did hold to account the idea that things could be done better particularly by the Queensland government to support the people of Northern New South Wales who they share close ties to.
For Premier Berejikian despite the subsequent waves that had occurred in New South Wales and break-out clusters around the country not to mention the devastating second and third waves seen around the world she saw no reason not to have the country opened up again.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Premier Gladys Berejiklian can certainly hold their heads high for their consistency. The PM has consistently not wanted to have schools close nor borders. Not just for the education of our children but also because of the economic impact. When New South Wales closed its borders to Victoria months after other states had at the initial height of the pandemic, the New South Wales Premier looked genuinely sad.
As popular as border closures have been politically they do cause enormous pain to the economy and when we say that we mean business and when we say that we mean people. Not international corporations who still have people buy online, not mining companies who still have their ships of steel or oil or coal or whatever sailing across oceans. Not banks who are advertising low interest rates but still collecting debt and still having customers deposit their doll cheque as much as one from an employer. No we’re talking about people who get hired when somebody builds or renovates a house, or takes a trip down the road and buys a meal or ticket with their disposable income. Those people are as flesh and blood as any life we are trying to save from a pandemic and right now they’re under the kind of pressure that could sink them for good.
The acknowledgement and concern for these people will stand Berejiklian and Morrison in good stead in the months ahead. Looking at the reports coming out of Newmarch will stand Palaszczuk in just a good a stead on the border closures.
Coincidentally the Queensland Premier referenced such circumstances in her press briefing on the same day.
But where the majority lies can change in an instant as the fear of the virus switches to despair over the economy and the support offered by the Federal government will have an impact on how people are dealing with the economic impact of State border closures.
What I saw though was a concerted push in the media and other governments to bring pressure for the Queensland government to end its current policies despite the fact that they were popular. I smelt bullshit, I smelt coercion from big money and I admired my Premier for holding firm.
Throughout the week the narrative was now around instances where border control had gone wrong, predominantly the mother who had tragically lost a twin.
Treasurer Josh Frydenburg had weighed in on Wednesday on the television program A Current Affair.
Which was fair enough, these were heartbreaking stories that did make you wonder if we could do things better around the borders maybe even open them up. As heartbreaking as any one of the stories of deaths in nursing home and people being unable to see their parents in their last days and the complete lack of dignity those last days had for them.
Restrictions whether you like them or not having saving far more lives than they are taking.
Getting them right to avoid any death is the end goal but I had a sneaky feeling that’s not what this was about.
This was about getting those borders down to make some money and not the battling small business owner but the kind of money that donates to political parties and runs rag sheets and major television networks.
I don’t mean this as a conspiracy force and this is all conjecture.
What I’m talking about about is how media in cycles and how certain narratives get pushed, certain things get coverage and certain things fade to the background. Right now the story was about why Palaszczuk was keeping the border and if it was necessary and I’m saying yes she should keep it shut and yes it is necessary and yes all these stories were about changing that and I call bullshit and I’m not falling for it.
And next week the story would be different and maybe even support border closures and that is you have got to wonder about these things.
By the way plenty of celebrities have been allowed into New South Wales and other states for film and tv productions and other valuable trade activity as well as Queensland. The Australian Football League has never held its Grand Final outside Victoria in 124 years until now and you can bet your ass after this pandemic is over they will be fighting hard to have it back there forever again just like the National Rugby League grand final is held in Sydney and Joshy boy won’t be heard saying then that we’re Australians first and last then.
Of course that didn’t take into account that success over COVID allowed restrictions to lower faster and have greater economic freedom. The prosperity that had come for Queensland from hosting the AFL grand final, from having people travel to the Far North from the South East and vice versa for holidays while there was ring of steel around Melbourne and stage 3 restrictions in regional Victoria.
Of course the fact that boarding schools in Queensland had been to re-open so quickly was no cause for celebration, the education of our children weirdly was not of concern here. Minister Littleproud probably knew all too well how desperate farmers were for their boarding children to come home in their breaks and help, how much they were struggling, how difficult it was proving to find workers due to the lack of international students. That was true and was painful but what that had to do with a footy grand final that other states had bid to host seemed a convenient stretch.
But hey maybe that was just me.
For her part Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk was holding firm.
Which is not to say that New South Wales would always been more likely to end up with more cases due to its proximity as the business and cultural centre of the nation, nor that they have not been doing a good job of handling the virus as best they can nor that border closures will stop an outbreak occurring in Queensland and that we won’t need the support then of these states that require our support now.
Just to say that this virus is hard to mitigate and anything that you can do beat it you should and maybe just maybe when our political leaders they deserve our support. But where would the news story be in that? That was last week, we need a new angle this week.
And the story of a baby that maybe didn’t have to die is an important story, to tell and to hear and if it means we take a harder look at these border policies then good.
When I trained as a wardsman they took us into a room and they showed us a little box on a trolley. They told us about how it might be a job to collect a baby who had died and take it to the morgue. That little box got us all thinking and it broke our hearts.
I feel very grateful that I never had to push that box down that long corridor.
Seeing babies on life support in the intensive care nursery was enough to make your eyes glisten.
So that is what we’re talking about here but it’s not only what we’re talking about here.
Following this press coverage a new specialist care unit began to operate to help with border crossings due to health reasons. The unit consisted of eight people including doctors, paramedics, nurses and social workers. It was part of a larger ongoing team of 80 working on cross-border travel exemptions. In the week where these tragic individual instances were in the news, 900 New South Wales residents had received treatment in Queensland hospitals.
In a spot of good for boarding students the Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young also said the town of Moree in northern New South Wales could be added to the travel bubble allowing boarding students to return home for the school holidays.
The European Union was urging member nations not to shorten quarantine periods as Germany made plans to follow Norway and the Netherlands in doing exactly that down to five days.
The head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon warned that at least 3-4 per cent of cases present themselves after the standard 14 day quarantine period.
In Victoria there were 89 new COVID-19 cases and 59 deaths. 53 of them were newly reported but not from the previous day but from the previous few months and related to aged care facilities where there had been recent changes in reporting.
The Treasurer Tim Pallas announced the moratorium on evictions in Victoria would be extended until 28MAR2021. Rental relief grants of $3,000 would be also be available until the same date.
In some circles there was an ongoing discussion about how the virus really only killed people over 60 and in nursing homes. Perhaps in response to recent comments by a former Prime Minister of Australia who had only too recently risked his live to save others during the recent bushfires but had wondered what causes the greater loss of life, the economic disenfranchisement of so many or the virus.
Professor Sutton said something in regards to this.
If the definition of an economic recession was two consecutive quarters of downturn than Australia was officially in a recession. It’s first since 1991 which Paul Keating famously referred to as “The recession we had to have.” In that year the March quarter went backwards 1.3 per cent and in the June quarter 0.1 per cent. In 2020 there had been a decline of 0.3 per cent in the March Quarter and the in the June quarter……. 7 per cent. Three times more than the previous record record quarterly fall of 2 per cent in 1974.
A trade surplus and increased government spending had helped as much as it could but a massive plunge in private spending had hit the economy hard. A 12.1 per cent drop in household expenditure and a 17/6 per cent fall in services spending. Many businesses had been shut down for three months or operated within limitations, the accommodation and food sector took a hit of 39 per cent in the second quarter.
The biggest drop in private spending came from a massive 12.1 per cent plunge in household expenditure, led by a 17.6 per cent fall in services spending, as many of these businesses were shut for part of the three-month period and restricted for the rest of it.
Accommodation and food was by far the hardest hit sector, with output down a whopping 39 per cent in the three months to June 30.
Cafes and restaurants that were shut down often have staff that are not elligible for jobseeker or jobkeeper.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported with government payments boosting incomes, less activities and gatherings to spend money and increased uncertainty from the pandemic and the recession were driving people to save at significant rates. Twenty Australian dollars from every $100 earned, a significant increase up from $6 from every $100 at the start of the year.
Given the Jobseeker and Jobkeeper payments were to be scaled back Westpac Bank’s Senior Economist Andrew Hanlan thought this gave people, “a considerable buffer to draw upon in coming quarters.”
Oh really, well thank you Mr Hanlan, thank you very much.
Compared to other countries Australia’s downturn of 7.3 per cent was nothing compared to Spain and the United Kingdom who were both north of 20 per cent. The United States of America was under 10 per cent.
Deloitte Access Economics senior economist Sheraan Underwood drew upon the very clear link between successfully combating the virus and helping your economy to recover.
With COVID-19 numbers down there was a renewed vested interest to see the Queensland borders open. Vested being the term.
The border closures were popular but public opinion can always be swayed by media buy in and Premier Anastacia Palazszuk was facing an upcoming state election.
As the danger receded and more and more people battled through debt and unemployment there would a change and politicians need to be two steps ahead of such things.
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland sent an open letter to all state Premiers and the Prime Minister the same week call for a national framework around future border closures. The CCIQ acknowledged border closures have been an important part of dealing with COVID-19 but asked for “a transparent and easily understood set of nationally consistent principles is urgently needed”.
The interesting thing is we had such shut down national borders and when there is an outbreak of a cluster we seek to shut down localities and suburbs and cities. Goods and people were still travelling across these “closed” borders too but state borders were becoming more and more a political issue.
It was a reality that border closures don’t ensure that people don’t cross interstate with the virus either but following people lying on their declarations, the policing of such people and stopping them at the border had proved much easier when borders were “closed”.
I can’t pretend the answers but Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young had proven prescient, cautious and dedicated to the safety of Queenslanders throughout the crisis. If she thought it was a good idea and the Premier was prepared to stand her ground I was of the opinion that they were doing something right. Quite frankly I was about sick of the hypocritical media coverage of it all.
But Premier Palasczsuk had chosen her words poorly.
The Premier had advised state hospitals were for “our people.” That was simply inaccurate and inept.
Days later a pregnant woman from northern New South Wales flew to Sydney and lost one of her twins in surgery rather than present in Queensland.
When asked if she had regretted her earlier comment the Premier replied “No.”
You could understand if people observed wryly she was all heart.
A few things to warm your heart during COVID-19.
August 31
Monday, the 31st of August and the World Health Organisation reported there had now been over 25 million cases of COVID-19. Globally there had now been 25,155,586 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 269,420. The number of dead 844,963 with a daily increase of 5,422.
In Australia there had been 25,670 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 123. There had been 611 deaths with a daily increase of eleven.
In Canada there had been 127,673 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 315. There had been 9,113 deaths with a daily increase of five.
In the United Kingdom there were 334,471 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,715. There had been 41,499 deaths with a daily increase of one.
In India there had been 3,621,245 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 78,512. There had been 64,469 deaths with a daily increase of 971.
In the United States of America there had been 5,899,504 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 43,983. There had been 181,689 deaths with a daily increase of 1,000.
Victoria recorded 73 new COVID-19 cases and 41 deaths. A record number of deaths recorded in one day but to be clear 33 were historical cases that could now be confirmed as due to COVID-19 and linked to aged care settings.
Premier Daniel Andrews did announce that he provide a roadmap out of regional stage 3 lockdown and Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdowns which were scheduled to expire 13SEP2020.
There were 195 fines handed out in the state including to a woman who drove outside a 5km radius because as she advised there was no good coffee in her area.
Seventy-three new daily cases were the lowest in a day since July. The number of active cases in the state dropped overnight from 2,830 to 2,620.
Active rural cases dropped from 166 to 154.
The number of health care workers with COVID–19 down from 406 to 378.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton urged Victorians to stay the course.
New South Wales reported 10 new cases, 6 from hotel quarantine.
In Queensland there were 24 cases linked to the Wacol outbreak. Public places near where my parents and older sister lived continued to be listed in health alerts.
There were two new cases overnight in the state.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk commented there would be no changes to the borders for the month of September.
A Victorian man who had tested positive some time ago in his home state but had been missing flew into Queensland and was caught by Queensland police.
As a result of the cluster at the Youth Detention Centre, all prisoners across South-East Queensland were in stage 4 lockdown, confined to their cells.
On the 23rd of August, Planet America from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation covered the Democratic National Convention and showcasing President-Elect Joe Biden’s stutter as well as some interesting statistics about how COVID-19 has affected education in America.
August 22
Saturday and there were nine new cases in Queensland, six from the Wacol Youth Detention Centre cluster and three up in Townsville related to cargo ships. So far 56 tests from the Wacol cluster had come back negative.
On the 23rd of August 60 Minutes Australia was interviewed by Dr Anthony Fauci who remained interesting to listen to and diplomatic to a fault.
On Sunday the 23rd of August, the World Health Organisation reported there had been 23,079,883 confirmed cases globally with a daily increase of 255,857. There had been 801,313 COVID-19 deaths around the world with a daily increase of 5,968.
In Australia there had been 24,602 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 195. There had been 485 deaths with a daily increase of 13. The next day the number of deaths in Australia rose above 500 to 502.
In Canada there had been 124,372 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 499. There had been 9,064 Canadian deaths with a daily increase of ten.
In the United Kingdom there had been 324,605 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 1,288. There had been 41,423 deaths with a daily increase of 18.
In India there had been 3,044,940 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 69,239. There had been 56,706 deaths with a daily increase of 912. The day before on the 22nd of August has seen the largest daily increase of new cases in the country with 69,878.
In the United States of America there had been 5,567,217 confirmed cases with a daily increase of 45,960. There had been 174,246 deaths due to COVID-19 in America with a daily increase of 1,148.
Having attended Indooroopilly Shopping Centre on the 20th of August to see Tenet. A Qld Health Alert who those who had been at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre on the 17th and 19th of August should go and get tested. A timely reminder if any that the situation could change at any time.
I also donated money to Medicins San Fronteres otherwise known as Doctors Without Borders who were involved in fighting COVID-19 around the world as well as responding to all kinds of varieties of disasters, emergencies and ongoing disease outbreaks.
August 26
In Victoria there were 133 new COVID-19 cases reported and 23 deaths – 22 linked to aged care.
It was the lowest daily increase of cases since 05JUL2020.
The Victorian government also announced more funding more help with domestic violence which had increased during the pandemic and even more so during such a lockdown as Victoria was experiencing.
Something to note, there were 391 healthcare workers with active cases, 198 active regional cases and 1,412 active case in aged care settings. Again these were active cases on the 26th of August.
The Republic National Convention was covered by Planet America. Ballbag used the White House for the RNC, an unprecedented move where previously campaigning Presidents had never used the White House to have the people’s house not be part of elections.
In Queensland due to the youth detention centre cluster a new Direction came from the government regarding disability accommodation service. It included non with COVID-19 symptoms in the last 14 days could enter a facility. Specialists who provide support would be able to enter at the discretion of supervising staff.
Back on April 21 I bought a hoodie from the United States of America. There was a lot of handwringing about the getting the right size as I never order clothes online. In June the hoodie arrived and it fit but it was too tight. On the 20th of August I got a new one that fit just at the tail wind of winter in my home town, sunny tropical Queensland. That said I got some good weeks out of it and really love my hoodie. I hadn’t got a new jumper or coat in about 19 years.
Skinny Hoodie. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Copyright Lloyd Marken.
With my new hoodie and less my beard. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
The new hoodie. Copyright Lloyd Marken.
Proceeds from the sale of the hoodie went towards After School All Stars which were delivering meals to kids in low socio-economic areas during the lockdown of schools in America.
The same day I was due to go to a preview screening of the new movie Tenet for Scenestr magazine.
Tenet was the first blockbuster to be getting released in cinemas since COVID had shut down cinemas earlier in the year. Warner Bros. was betting big that people would return to the cinemas but if they did, the blockbuster would have the run of the movie going public.
Attending a preview screening of a blockbuster is always a thrill for me. The preview screening was in a VMax screening at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. There were only other critics present at the screening, familiar faces. People seemed fairly relaxed. At the screening of Waves there was some sense of hopefulness and rustiness at what was for some of us the first screening we had been to in a while. Here things were more relaxed but there was security at this one given the high profile nature of the film. There was a media embargo to enforce.
My review was published the following week on Wednesday the 26th of August with the film premiering the next day.
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Having started in 1993 they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland every month.
I would argue that while Tenet is billed as a blockbuster, it is not a crowdpleaser and in a particularly dispiriting year I think something like Wonder Woman 1984 would have played much better but COVID remains the all too important factor. Its actually a relief to know that people would rather prize their lives over seeing a movie where they deem the risk too much. In Queensland we felt relatively safe with a small number of cases.
Yet on the same day that I went to see Tenet, a supervisor in her 70s at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre in Wacol tested positive for COVID-19. She had been working shifts until she started to have symptoms. She was now admitted to hospital. Her diagnosis led the centre to go into shutdown with testing of 127 youths and over 500 staff at the centre. There were eight active cases in Queensland at the time.
