Melbourne’s Only Spectator Sport
As Victoria records a further 217 coronavirus infections – thankfully, a massive decline from yesterday's figure – distraction-starved Melburnians are finding their own fun.
As Victoria records a further 217 coronavirus infections – thankfully, a massive decline from yesterday's figure – distraction-starved Melburnians are finding their own fun:
Dozens of people crowded around a large tree to watch a dramatic cat rescue at Edinburgh Gardens on Friday afternoon.
Judging by photographs, correct social distancing protocols were observed throughout the rescue and very few security guards had sex with anybody.
On that issue, here’s John Ferguson:
[Victorian premier Dan] Andrews is still refusing to account for how the quarantine debacle was ever allowed to happen, even though he well knows the broad narrative. He knows what policy and departmental decisions failed yet has kept the community uninformed.
This undemocratic response has allowed Andrews and [Victorian health minister jenny] Mikados to hide behind a looming judicial investigation that will be over ridiculously quickly. This is deliberate. While it officially starts on Monday, its findings will be in the hands of Governor Linda Dessau on September 25. Evidence will not be heard until next month.
It was reported this week that senior health officials were warned from the get-go that the quarantine scheme would struggle under the security guard arrangements and that police should be called in. If so, this is an unforgivable oversight that deserves retribution against those responsible, including the minister.
[Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett] Sutton says it is conceivable that all the active virus cases in Victoria were linked to quarantine failures. On what we know today about Andrews’s mistakes during the pandemic, he normally would have walked or been forced into the mother of all mea culpas. So far we have neither.
Weird place. Weird government.