Not sure if I'm a whinger but happy to throw in a few suggestions as I'm firmly of the view that the federal government is missing in action.. They may be limited in what they can compel but there's no limits on how they can help.
1. Massive advertising campaign to get everyone on the same page re COVID. Not recorded messages telling people what to do but well presented, engaging campaigns. The recent NB wedding fiasco is clear proof that the message has not been sold. It was a wedding, not a drug run. If it was felt to be socially inappropriate, no-one would have been there.
2. Clear definition of hotspots and rapid shutdowns of same. SA showed the way to go. Premise may have been found to be false, but the reaction was first class. Stop everything and assess the situation. In the SA case, shutting the whole State was extreme but this is where discussion should happen. Federal compensation should be available to those affected.
3. Engage a large number of skilled persons to deal with exemptions to the rules, compassionate and otherwise. Bottom line is that if people can genuinely show that they do not present a risk, why restrict them? Current situation is everything goes through standard State bureaucracies who just repeat basic policy and have have no authority to do anything apart from repeat basic policy. There's a need for a Federal body to provide consistent assessments
4. Get rid of hotel quarantine. It's fundamentally flawed and has been the basis for too many leaks. Hierarchy of controls, in diminishing order, is elimination, substitution, engineering, administration and PPE. Hotel quarantine is relying on the bottom two. The failures reflect this.
There's a few off the cuff suggestions to hopefully stimulate discussion. The current situation is a mess. What was acceptable in March is looking shabby the following January. Why are emergency powers still being used?
