OPINION https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/How-Australia-became-the-world-s-most-luxurious-prison Convict past is key to understanding the country's overseas travel ban Ian Lloyd Neubauer August 13, 2021 Protesters throw pot plants at mounted police during an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney on July 24. ©AAP/Reuters Ian Lloyd Neubauer is a freelance journalist based in Southeast Asia. Four to five years. That has always been my answer when people in Asia ask me how long I think Australia will remain closed and prevent its own citizens from traveling abroad since the country enacted one of the world's toughest border restrictions at the start of the pandemic. There have been some protests. Thousands marched maskless in Sydney and Melbourne last month and again last Friday when the Victorian State government announced a seven-day lockdown -- it is sixth -- after only six cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. They were met with brute force by police sometimes mounted on horseback in scenes reminiscent of videos from Wuhan when the Chinese Communist Party implemented its ruthless COVID-19 elimination there. Individual police officers have posted security footage of protests on social media with crude, cowboy-like promises about tracking down perpetrators and making them pay. Regardless, there have been few times when public protests have changed Australia's foreign policy. A poll conducted by the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think tank, released in May shows only 18% of Australians think they should be free to leave the country for leisure or business, while only 40% believe vaccinated citizens should be allowed to travel. My prediction -- based on advice by World Health Organization chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan that it will take four to five years until the pandemic is under control -- has already proven half true. Under Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's new four-stage plan to greater freedom from coronavirus restrictions, the ban on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians will not be lifted until 80% of the population is vaccinated. Morrison believes 70% of Australians will be vaccinated by the end of the year. But reaching 80% " is going to be a herculean task," according to Dr. Rob Grenfell of Australia's science agency, the CSIRO. "Yes, we could do it but it is a matter of how long it will take," he said, meaning Australia will remain closed well into next year at a minimum. Warning tape shutting off a travelator at Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney, pictured in June 2020: Australia will remain closed well into next year at a minimum. ©Getty Images Along with New Zealand, Australia has probably been the safest place to be during the pandemic. Less than 1,000 residents have died of COVID-19. And even though two-thirds of the country -- 16 million -- are currently under lockdown, the unemployment rate is only 4.9%. The Lowy Institute poll shows a resounding 95% of Australians believe the government has handled the pandemic well. But Australia is one of the only countries in the world that has banned its own citizens from leaving and charged returning citizens more than $2,000 to quarantine. And this month the Federal Government introduced a new rule banning any Australian who is resident overseas but has returned home for a visit from leaving the country without special permission. In May, it even banned its own citizens from returning home from India because of the scale of the outbreak there, reflecting a centuries-old Australian mindset that vilifies outsiders and promotes a fortress mentality to ostensibly protect its citizens from the ugliness of the outside world. The government did this most infamously by detaining thousands of refugees in offshore prison camps between 2007 and 2017 to discourage more asylum-seekers from following in their footsteps. Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court described the camps as "cruel" and "inhumane." Canberra may have lifted the ban on citizens returning home from India, but it has found an easier way to impede the 38,000 Australians who wish to return home: by restricting the number of people who can enter the country every week to 3,000. The move forced commercial airlines, which can only sell a limited amount of seats on every flight, to jack up their fares to levels few can afford: $24,000 from Los Angeles to Melbourne and $6,500 from Jakarta to Sydney. For me, the two-way travel ban hit especially hard. Last year, when my mother got cancer, I was faced with an impossible choice: say goodbye to my fiancee overseas or risk never seeing my mother again. In the end, my mother decided for me, telling me to stay where I was and not risk getting infected at hotel quarantine in Australia, as has happened to many. Fortunately, my mother beat her cancer and while I still cannot hug her, I can still see and talk to her every day on my phone. The same cannot be said by the families of a number of Australians who died of COVID-19 in India and a woman who flew back home to see her seriously ill mother. By the time she was released from mandatory two-week quarantine, her mother had passed away. Now a new law has been introduced that makes it almost impossible for Australians to leave the country, even if they normally work or live overseas, and the woman is being denied the comfort of her partner in Belgium during the grieving process. Australia may still be the lucky country but it is also a big prison: a luxuriously appointed North Korea. "The problem with Australians is not that so many of them are descended from convicts," said Clive James, a famous Australian poet who spent most of his life overseas, "but that so many of them are descended from prison officers."
Probably because of this.... https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...AQFnoECAEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0l7N0e44QNIPB7jRl_t4ci Scott Morrison tells Christian conference he was called to do God’s work as prime minister Australia’s first Pentecostal PM says he practises the tradition of ‘laying on of hands’ while working and calls misuse of social media the work of ‘the evil one’ Scott Morrison has asked a national conference of Christian churches to help him help Australia, while revealing his belief that he and his wife, Jenny, have been called upon to do God’s work. In video that has emerged of the prime minister speaking at the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast, Morrison also revealed that he had sought a sign from God while on the 2019 election campaign trail, and that he had practised the evangelical tradition of the “laying-on of hands” while working in the role of prime minister. He also describes the misuse of social media as the work of “the evil one”, in reference to the Devil, and called on his fellow believers to pray against its corrosive effect on society. While Australians are familiar with the non-evangelical Christian beliefs of John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison is the first Pentecostal Christian to hold the office.
The religous Taliban are liberating the country (that's meant to be a joke) while Morrison is locking up the country.
Another issue we have in Oz, if you are over 60yo, you are given Hobsons choice for vaccine, AstraZenneca or nothing. Who's for a blood clot? Funny thing, Morrison never chose AstraZenneca when he got injected, oh no, he has Pfizer. They only manufacture AZ in Oz, atm and the gummint here have the propoganda machine going full tit about taking AZ. The Pfizer vaccine will be provided to eligible adults under the age of 60 through Commonwealth and state and territory clinics. For people under 40, only those in priority groups are currently eligible for the Pfizer vaccine.
This guy seems far down the road of self-delusion but is Australia as a whole really so religious? Is a large part of the electorate really impressed by such antics?
I think we're actually quite lucky we're not like Oklahoma, that place is real bad. I went there once, got picked up at airport which happened to be a Sunday and taken straight to a topless bar by a work colleague. A day or two later we drove thru town and we went down this long road, witnessed (not Jehovah Witness) church after church next to each other and both sides of the street, scores of churches. A few days later we were in Houston, sheesh, this cop on a Harley came right next to us, never seen such a mean looking motherfukker in all my life. I think he was checking seatbelts, if not I reckon he would have shot the lot of us.