Predictions of when international flights may resume/bans lifted

But the point was being made that we shouldn't allow celebrities into Australia to do jobs that Australians could do. Fruit picking has a bad reputation for harsh conditions and low pay. I'm sure if fruit growers were willing to pay hefty salaries we could find the required 1500?

The fruit growers would happily pay hefty salaries if they could recoup the cost back from the Australian public, which they can't, so they won't.

The role of a producer can directly impact the direction and success of a show. From choice of director to creative decisions to marketing. Zac Efron's brother - no matter how 'green' - is possibly going to understand his brother's intentions for the show, and open more doors in Hollywood, than an Australian.

This is utterly & completely incorrect and I don't know why you keep on defending the government.

There are multiple producers on these shows, they produce segments / parts / episodes or assigned to specific angles. They have nothing to do with the selection of the director(s), nothing to do with the marketing (perhaps they will supervise an edit of a trailer at best) and will have nothing to do with 'opening more doors in Hollywood...'You clearly have little understanding of how TV/movies are made these days, my family is in the business. If it wasn't Monday morning I'd ask how many drinks you have had!

Zac Efron's brother was just waved in as a part of the overall 'We will spend $$$ if you do XYZ' for us in their paperwork, pure and simple. There are hundreds and hundreds of producers in Australia that could have executed the same role with ease.

Like I've said, anyone can get to Australia, you just have to wave $$ at the right people.

Let's just all call it for what it is ok.....
 
He's not a celebrity. Understand about Zac. His brother? Possibly going to understand his brothers intentions? 😉 Grasping at straws maybe?

Why would you swap out your brother, who knows exactly what you want from the show, the direction of the show, and how you're going to promote and market the show, for an Aussie you don't know? It would be like bringing in an outsider to a small family run business.
 
Why would you swap out your brother, who knows exactly what you want from the show, the direction of the show, and how you're going to promote and market the show, for an Aussie you don't know? It would be like bringing in an outsider to a small family run business.
I understand you are supporting Government decisions. That's fine. In the large scheme, so do I even though I have great frustrations with the exit Policy and quarantine schemes. The Feds have very much supported small businesses of which we are one. But for the life of me, I simply cannot support any authority that thinks it is ok to isolate Australian family members even under severe mental distress, and who have the audacity to live in another country and wish to see each other, after what? 18 months now but think it's perfectly acceptable for a non entity non Australian citizen nor even PR brother to join his, well, more celebrity brother, (well, in some circles anyway,) on the pretext of intellectual value. Just one example but it completely highlights the absolute farce this process has become.
 
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Why would you swap out your brother, who knows exactly what you want from the show, the direction of the show, and how you're going to promote and market the show, for an Aussie you don't know? It would be like bringing in an outsider to a small family run business.

Incorrect, that is not what a producer does. Sorry, find another excuse 🤪
 
The pressure to close to India came from certain states who threatened to cease taking arrivals altogether. McGowan was very vocal, the acting Vic Premier publicly backed him. The only state who publicly spoke out against closing to India prior to National Cabinet was NSW, Gladys has compassion.

Tv/movies have multiple producers and they don't necessarily have to be onsite (unlike a director). Many a US production has been filmed in Australia before without all producers being in Australia. Efron's brother part of the growing number of celebrities and athletes getting special exemptions and its galling to Aussies still trying to get home.
 
Can you give more details? Not a subscriber.
For an advocate for reopening the borders it was a well balanced article. In a short post I can only capture a small part of what was said and I'm choosing to focus on the positives.

In Britain well over 50 per cent has had the vaccine (including nearly everyone that's in a vulnerable group) and over 70% have antibodies.

"If Australia's plan is to ensure COVID-19 never enters Australia, then it will have to cut itself off from the rest of the world indefinitely".

He contends that
  1. we need to complete the vaccination rollout asap
  2. we need to add countries to the "green lit" list (that currently includes on NZ) such as some Pacific island nations, Singapore and even the UK.
  3. we need to accept that vaccinated travellers should be able to do home quarantine until they receive a negative test result
 
The role of a producer can directly impact the direction and success of a show. From choice of director to creative decisions to marketing. Zac Efron's brother - no matter how 'green' - is possibly going to understand his brother's intentions for the show, and open more doors in Hollywood, than an Australian.

You're not serious are you? Have you seen the credits on any tv show? You know that they give out "producer" credit to half the cast right?

Are you seriously actually saying that Efrons brother is legitimately needed and that he is the reason this show will bring millions to the Australian economy? A guy who has actually never produced a show in his life before? You can't actually be serious can you?
 
For an advocate for reopening the borders it was a well balanced article. In a short post I can only capture a small part of what was said and I'm choosing to focus on the positives.

In Britain well over 50 per cent has had the vaccine (including nearly everyone that's in a vulnerable group) and over 70% have antibodies.

"If Australia's plan is to ensure COVID-19 never enters Australia, then it will have to cut itself off from the rest of the world indefinitely".

He contends that
  1. we need to complete the vaccination rollout asap
  2. we need to add countries to the "green lit" list (that currently includes on NZ) such as some Pacific island nations, Singapore and even the UK.
  3. we need to accept that vaccinated travellers should be able to do home quarantine until they receive a negative test result

I agree with that it is a good article - the issue however is that unfortunately, apart from a few people here and there, the large majority of people want borders shut indefinitely. The criminalisation of Aussies coming home should have been met with absolute uproar from Aussies - yet hardly anyone (in Australia) has bat an eyelid. What the hell is going on?

There is basically fury here in the UK/Europe about this - but Australians and the governments continue like its another day. Mind-boggling.
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Why would you swap out your brother, who knows exactly what you want from the show, the direction of the show, and how you're going to promote and market the show, for an Aussie you don't know? It would be like bringing in an outsider to a small family run business.

Efron's brother doesn't even know what he wants from the show - the guy has literally never done this before. Continuing to justifying this is beyond ludicrous.
 
I watched Greg Hunt's Q&A he tends to do about weekly, and media asked him the same questions and he replied the same way. When can we open international borders, his response, when we get vaccination levels higher we can look to add freedoms to the border situation. Media re-phrased same question and he repeated his answer. Looked pissed off as he gets this question every single media session.
 
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An excellent opinion piece: Australia must escape the dystopian closed shop of COVID-19

I hope he’s right and that the UK does become a “green light” country.

That’s an excellent article. Pretty much agree with everything said. Will try to find an non paywalled version for the forum.
I wasn't a big fan of AD when he was foreign (or any) minister but I think his thoughts reflect mine as well. You can read the whole article by clicking on link below (sorry does not work now :( )
 
Well if the Feds would announce a threshold/target for opening up, people would stop asking. They dont need to have met the target to announce a plan.

Suspect a huge part of the problem is the zero tolerance for any risk or cases from the labor states. I'm sure McGowan wants 100% vaccination rate which is an unachievable target as there will always be some people who cant be vaccinated and right now we don't even have an approved vaccine for under 18s. 16s (kids)

When you have states slamming internal borders shut to whole other states because of 1 or 2 cases, hard to see them accepting that we need to be ok with low volumes circulating in community in order to open up. Vaccination wont see Covid disappear, we have flu shots readily available and great uptake but people still get the flu every year and some die. Some better perspective is needed.
 
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Cheapskate move, often you have a second or two before paywall kicks in. Screenshot and paste to word, the refresh, page down, screenshot, then repeat. Takes a while but I read whole article.
 
Well if the Feds would announce a threshold/target for opening up, people would stop asking. They dont need to have met the target to announce a plan.

Suspect a huge part of the problem is the zero tolerance for any risk or cases from the labor states. I'm sure McGowan wants 100% vaccination rate which is an unachievable target as there will always be some people who cant be vaccinated and right now we dont even have an approved vaccine for under 18s.
This is not correct. Pfizer is an approved vaccine for 16 years and up.
 
I watched Greg Hunt's Q&A he tends to do about weekly, and media asked him the same questions and he replied the same way. When can we open international borders, his response, when we get vaccination levels higher we can look to add freedoms to the border situation. Media re-phrased same question and he repeated his answer. Looked pissed off as he gets this question every single media session.

Because its a non answer....

But I think people won't like the % required to answer either.... I mean look at Canada - 30% 1 dose and they are struggling with a big third wave. We are at about 7% 1 dose. So its going to be higher than that!
 
This is not correct. Pfizer is an approved vaccine for 16 years and up

Ok thanks for the clarification I have corrected my post, but my point largely holds given nothing for kids (and there is just under 7 million Australian aged under 16s ). The current Pfizer orders not enough to include Phase 3 (under 16s) even if it is eventually approved for kids.

On the lighter side, kids not being vaccinated, may mean when borders do open initially there will be lots of lovely kid free long haul flights.
 
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I wasn't a big fan of AD when he was foreign (or any) minister but I think his thoughts reflect mine as well.
As our longest-serving minister for Foreign Affairs, he's as qualified as any former politician to provide a constructive opinion on this subject. Now that he's retired and has no intention to return to politics he's completely free to speak his mind.
Because its a non answer....
I'm sure when the government is ready to announce or foreshadow positive changes they'll be so keen to let the media know that the media won't have to ask them. They'll be keen to finally no longer have to answer that question.
 

The nation’s top medical expert says he advised the federal government to stem the flow of Australians returning from India because of COVID-19 but made no recommendations to jail or fine those who circumvent travel bans.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said the expert health advice group, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, told the government that the risk coming from India had reached a “benchmark of concern”.

“Our advice was that we needed to do something about the number of positive cases coming into our hotel quarantine [system],” Professor Kelly told ABC’s RN Breakfast on Monday morning.

“There was no advice given in relation to fines or jail terms, that’s just how the Biosecurity Act works.”
 

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