Confused? Weak NSW health orders put police, public on the spot
Weak NSW Health orders are putting police in an impossible position and confusing the public, writes Anna Caldwell.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Weak NSW Health orders put police in an impossible position and confuse the public.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard berated The Daily Telegraph for seeking specific answers to what the health order means when it says you must wear a mask “near” a coffee shop.
He said the health orders were a “guide” and attacked the journalist for looking for loopholes.
The Telegraph is not looking for loopholes.
But the Telegraph does have an expectation that if the government is going to hit people with fines of up to $1000, it puts clear rules in place.
Remember this is not the first time there has been a problem with lax health orders.
It’s only a month ago that health orders failed to make it mandatory for airport transport workers to be vaccinated or to wear a mask.
Hazzard ordered police to launch a full scale investigation into the airport limo driver who was found to be the index case of this outbreak - only for police to come up short.
Why did they come up short? Because the health orders were limp and failed to actually mandate individual responsibility for the message the government had been pushing.
At the time, Gladys Berejikilian bizarrely said “it doesn’t matter where it’s written” and claimed that people know what’s expected of them.
It actually matters entirely where it’s written - just ask the police being sent out on the beat to fine people.
The same thing happened last year when Berejiklian and Police Commissioner Mick Fuller forcefully demanded no one leave home to travel to the regions and no one go to their holiday homes.
But the police were left out in the cold, slapped down by the department of public prosecutions because the health orders didn’t actually make the relocation an offence, despite what the Premier had been saying.
Now, mask orders - a message heralded about by Premier Gladys Berejiklian almost daily - are underpinned by a desperately unclear public health order which simply mandates you must mask up when “near” a cafe.
The Premier was about 8m from a cafe waiting for coffee on the weekend and only applied her mask when she spotted a photographer.
It is reasonable to seek certainty and clarity on precisely what the rules are for everyone.
Credlin: Why fuel excise cut was a Coalition master stroke
Properly pushed by a strong grassroots campaign, the Coalition’s fuel tax cut should make Labor’s traditional working-class seats vulnerable, writes Peta Credlin.
Credlin: How PM washes hands of any blame
For the past three years, the Albanese government has put the Australian public last, and now it’s our chance to return the compliment, writes Peta Credlin.