Andrew Bolt: Premier’s new plan shows he doesn’t trust bungling bureaucrats
Uncle Dan’s latest stringent plan shows he’s freaking out about infection rates NSW can handle without a sweat. And as several scandals still rock his team, it’s clear the Premier has zero trust in his own bureaucracy to even do the basics, writes Andrew Bolt.
Opinion
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Uncle Dan keeps smashing Victoria with his hammer, freaking out about infection rates that NSW can handle without a sweat.
Sure, it’s great that Daniel Andrews yesterday said he’d finally release Melburnians from 14 weeks of home imprisonment.
They can go outside again, for as long as they like, but to do what?
The bad news that retail shops and in-door restaurants will stay shut for yet two more weeks, with some chance of opening a few days earlier if infections stay this low.
But see how low they are already! Why cause so much financial havoc when Victoria has had just five new infections – less than one per million people – in three days, and no deaths?
NSW in that time has had 12 new community infections, yet its government has kept Sydney open. It’s trusted its contact tracers, who contained what seemed a mini-outbreak to just one new community infection on Sunday.
But it seems Victoria’s Premier has zero trust in his own bureaucracy to do those basics.
In fact, Andrews staged a tantrum on the weekend at hearing that 17 New Zealand tourists allowed to fly into NSW had then flown to Victoria, without the Premier – allegedly – knowing.
I say “allegedly” because this very thing was discussed last Monday at a federal meeting that included Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, and his deputy.
Sutton claims he was late to that meeting and missed any reference to flying Kiwis.
But this same bloke said he never knew private security guards were guarding Victoria’s quarantine hotels, despite responding to an internal email on March 27 which said exactly that – one the Government conveniently failed to pass on to the inquiry into that hotel disaster.
Such stuff may explain why Andrews still cannot trust his team to do the basics well: test, trace, quarantine the infectious, and protect the vulnerable.
But his paranoia about tourists from a country that’s recorded just one new infection in three weeks suggests something else.
Andrews said he’d said no to Kiwis coming, but why? What’s the danger?
And what’s the danger, weighed against the positives, of letting shops open now, provided masks are worn, sanitiser used, temperatures checked and social distance kept – as in Taiwan?
No, more than fear of the virus is driving Andrews. Fear of his government’s incompetence is the only explanation.
Originally published as Andrew Bolt: Premier’s new plan shows he doesn’t trust bungling bureaucrats