Southwest Sydney Covid messaging not getting through

Fairfield residents are failing to follow strict health orders to mask up and stay home because the message is not getting through fast enough sparking the huge Covid outbreak, community leaders say.

Community leaders say a lag in Covid messaging getting to non-English speakers is the main reason for the alarming Fairfield outbreak.

NSW Police came down hard on compliance in southwest Sydney last week and said yesterday it was evolving its operational response from compliance to enforcement as Covid cases continued to grow, with a focus on Fairfield and other areas in Sydney such as Bondi.

The NSW Government has attributed compliance issues in southwest Sydney to the definition of the family unit including extended family and the large numbers of non-English speakers.

Empty streets and closed shops in Fairfield on Monday (July 12). Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

But Vietnamese Community Australia federal president Kate Hoang suggested the explosion of cases in Fairfield has little to do with multicultural differences, such as the extended family unit, and more to do with this delay in Covid messages getting to non-English speaking communities.

She said people who could not understand what was being said on the news must wait for the information to be translated.

She said it was then shared on social media, where most non-English speakers in the community are getting their Covid information, which also offers some confusion because the information changes so rapidly and is often out-of-date.

“We are doing our best to follow the rules. It’s the information lag,” she said.

Vietnamese Community Australia federal president Kate Hoang. Picture: Supplied

“We don’t get (information) the day after the announcement, we get it a week later,” she said.

“Southwest Sydney is different from other suburbs of Sydney, the government has to be more cautious in how they deliver the message to be effective.”

She said over the last few days, the government had begun to change its approach.

Fairfield councillor Sera Yilmaz had a similar view.

“It’s not a western Sydney problem because it’s multicultural and there are big families (here),” she said.

Cr Yilmaz said sending extra police into the region was not really assisting the community in their understanding.

“Finally the government has listened and is starting to push out multicultural messages but perhaps we wouldn’t have been in this position if they had done so earlier. It’s hard enough for people with English proficiency to understand the (Covid) changes,” she said.

Fairfield City councillor Sera Yilmaz.

Other community leaders, such as the Arab Council Australia CEO Randa Kattan said translated information from the government has always been available but said the issue was more with the clarity and the directness of the messaging.

“Whatever messages come from the government in English and Arabic, we promote them that way,” she said.

“When messages are obscure or wishy washy they tend to get lost”.

Prospect state Labor MP Hugh McDermott blamed the government for a slow multicultural strategy.

“There is no strategy by the government to target multicultural communities in regards to the Covid-restrictions message and this has led us to the situation in the Fairfield LGA we are now,’’ he said.

He said in a meeting with the government and local MPs recently, they had resolved to distribute information to non-English speaking community through religious leaders, who they relied on for information, not the “five o’clock’’ news.

Mr McDermott also criticised the unclear wording around lockdown orders that was relayed to southwest Sydney, many whom class families as “an entire village”.

“The messaging that has come out is about ‘staying at home with your family or doing something with your family’,’’ Mr McDermott said.

“Well to them, family is a much wider thing to mum, dad and the kids, and that’s key to them.

“Our families are not just nuclear family — mum, dad and the kids — it’s your grandparents, it’s your cousins, it’s your uncles and aunts and then there’s people who may be from your village from overseas who may be very close to you … who live in Australia with your or close to you.

“So their idea of family is the entire village, not just the nuclear family.’’

UNSW infectious disease social scientist Holly Seale said often small-budget community organisations “have to have the capacity to receive and digest the (government) information themselves and then be able to translate and send out or wait for the government translations to come through. That is where there can be time lag.”

A new 24/7 Fairfield West Laverty Pathology pop-up drive-through clinic has opened. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

She said more government support for these community groups, such as small grants, could go a long way.

However, Assyrian Resource Centre program manager Carmen Lazar said the community understood the message through print and several community radio stations.

“I’m overloaded with information that’s translated in the Assyrian language, about Covid, about health, about safety,’’ she said.

Ms Lazar also defended the “obedient” community.

“They did their utmost to flatten their curve and they obeyed because they are very resilient, they are the most obeying community because of what they’ve been through in the Middle East,’’ she said.

“They’ve been through torture, trauma, coming to Australia, they think ‘Oh my God this is heaven for us’ so obviously they respect the decision of the government of the day.’’

Fairfield local government area accounted for 64 of the 89 locally transmitted cases in NSW in the last reporting period.

It is understood Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Immigration Minister Alex Hawke met with community groups on Tuesday afternoon ahead of a press conference to discuss the business support package.

A NSW Health spokeswoman said the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS), and Multicultural NSW have worked closely to engage with multicultural groups

throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure all members of our community

understand the public health advice.

“The multifaceted engagement and communications campaign has included direct engagement with religious and community leaders to share information through their networks, outreach work by the local health districts, including ensuring there are bilingual support workers and staff at testing and vaccination clinics, translated resources covering specific health information including stay at home orders in almost 60 languages, religious, community and multicultural online media forums with hundreds of leading representatives, online videos in multiple languages shared with community organisations and networks and increased presence on multicultural community radio, print and online channels,” the spokeswoman said.

“Interpreters are free and available when requested by those visiting testing clinics and hospitals.”