Last Wednesday afternoon, on a train between two of Sydney’s busiest stations, Wynyard and North Sydney, a passenger verbally abused a man for not wearing a mask.

Other passengers in the carriage weren’t wearing masks. The abuser, a man in his thirties, ignored them. At the end of the train, the guard was oblivious. Sydney’s trains don’t operate internal television cameras and no one in the carriage thought to use an intercom to contact the guard’s compartment.