‘Ring of steel’ around Sydney would make people feel safer: Janelle Saffin

One local politician says there is no easy answer to stopping people from leaving Sydney, while another says penalties need to be at least 10 times tougher.

People would feel safer if there was a “ring of steel” around Sydney to keep the Delta outbreak from spreading to the regions, according to Lismore MP Janelle Saffin.

Ms Saffin made the remarks yesterday, saying she had received many questions about how people were being allowed to leave the Sydney area.

However neighbouring MP Chris Gulaptis said he didn’t believe people wanted to live in a “police state”, and instead wanted harsher penalties for those who did not follow the rules.

Ms Saffin said she was continually told “too many people were coming up from Sydney, and surely they can police it”, by members of the community.

“But if people get in their car, what can be done? There’s no easy answer,” she said.

“I don’t see how police can patrol every local government area perimeter. How many police would we need to do it?”

Ms Saffin said people expected a tougher lockdown to stop the spread of the virus from the city.

“And people talk about that ring of steel, and I think people in the regions would feel more secure with a ring of steel around Sydney.”

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin called for an early lockdown, and believes people want to see a harder lockdown for Sydney.

Ms Saffin said that for many in the community, they felt it was “when” and not “if” the virus impacted locally.

“People keep asking these questions because they don’t feel secure, and they thought people would come out to the region,” she said.

“That’s why I went so hard to say lock us down early – I asked them do it and we were locked down by 6pm.”

Ms Saffin said she understood that the lockdowns would be hard for business, and sympathised with their plight, but said many of the businesses were thankful of the hard line approach.

Mr Gulaptis disagreed with the idea of a ring of steel, but said harsher deterrents were needed to stop those flouting the law.

“If we are concerned about people who are not doing the right thing then perhaps the penalties need to be greater, because they’re not only putting themselves at risk, but others,” he said.

“So maybe the penalties need to be 10 times high to really discourage people from doing the wrong thing.”

Mr Gulaptis said we needed to rely on people doing the right thing and following health orders, as well as being vaccinated.

Clarence MP doesn’t believe in a “police state” style lockdown.

“To enforce it through a police state-like regimen, I wouldn’t support it, and I don’t think the general public would wear it.”

The Daily Telegraph inquired last month with Transport for NSW about how people, such as a woman who was returned to Sydney when found on an XPT bus in Grafton, were allowed to leave Sydney on the network.

A spokeswoman said that everyone needed to take personal responsibility when using the network to limit the spread of Covid-19.

“Those that need to follow the stay at home orders can only use public transport for the four essential reasons, all other customers are asked to limit their travel and consider all their travel options,” she said.

“Transport for NSW will continue to run all services within the State to allow essential travellers to get to where they need to go, as we have done throughout the pandemic.”

Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna at Newcastle Police Station. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

On Tuesday, NSW Northern Region Police commander Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna said officers from the Traffic and Highway Patrol and all 11 police districts in the Northern Region were conducting high-visibility operations to saturate the main arterial roads throughout Northern NSW.

This was in addition to the operations police already have in place on the M1 Motorway, the New England Highway, the Hunter Expressway and the Pacific Highway, plus numerous rural roads and back routes throughout the regions.

He said officers are conducting mobile vehicle stops and checks to ensure drivers are complying with current Stay at Home Orders in place. Police would also be using automatic number plate recognition as well as data from Roads and Maritime NSW to identify vehicles from outside of the area.