We’re sorry we looked down on you Victoria - see you on the other side of lockdown

Listen, Victoria ... We’re sorry, OK? A couple of months ago, Gladys Berejiklian spoke for much of the state when she said: “I fear for Victoria and I worry about what their government may do. I hope we have demonstrated to other states it is possible to manage an outbreak and not shut down a city.”

Not one of us shouted her down, at least not publicly. We so assumed that in this state our systems were better than yours that we either just pitied you and your endless lockdowns, or looked down our long noses at how badly you had stuffed it up.

And now look at us. We stuffed it up by not doing what you told us to do: go early, go hard.

Sydney is in a stricter lockdown and we might be here some time.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Sigh. With a nod to the doomed explorer who accompanied Scott of the Antarctic ... we are going inside, and should be some time.

Can-do Kaldas

It has been an enormous week for the well-known former NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas, regarded by many – including me – as singularly unlucky not to have succeeded Andrew Scipione as NSW Police Commissioner back in 2017, after his stellar 34-year career as a police officer. But could any role be more important, and exalted, than the one announced by the Prime Minister for him this week, as chair of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide?

Kaldas himself doesn’t think so.

“I have had some important roles where I have been honoured to serve,” he told me when I called him on Friday, “and each time I think this is the most important job I’ve had.”

(Beyond being NSW deputy police commissioner, he’s also served in Iraq, helping rebuild the local police in a war zone, worked with Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the 2005 murder of Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, as well as working in more recent times for the United Nations, in the Hague – investigating among other things the use of chemical weapons in Syria.)

“But yes, this is at another level. I am told I am the first non-lawyer to fulfil such a role, and I think the government has come to the conclusion that the most important thing is to be able to investigate, and I can do that. I and the other commissioners are humbled to serve, and will do our utmost to ensure to listen to the families, take their views on board, and do our best to get to the bottom of the problem.”

With the tragic spate of suicides among veterans and serving personnel in recent years, Kaldas has been handed a sacred trust, and he is a very worthy appointment. (And interesting that while NSW did not fully recognise his talents, both the United Nations and the federal government have.)

Former NSW deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas is embarking on another chapter in his post-NSW Police career.Credit: Nic Walker

The folly of invasion

On this, the week the last of the Americans pull out of Afghanistan, bringing to a close the whole disastrous sortie into Iraq and Afghanistan two decades ago, even as the Taliban closes in, I bring to your attention once more the words of the former US Presidential candidate and notable right-wing nutter Pat Buchanan, just before the Iraq War started: “This invasion will not be the cake-walk neo-conservatives predict. Terrorist attacks in liberated Iraq seem as certain as in liberated Afghanistan. For a militant Islam ... will never accept George Bush dictating the destiny of the Islamic world ... Pax Americana will reach apogee but then the tide recedes for the one endeavour at which Islamic peoples excel is expelling imperial powers by terror and guerrilla warfare ... We have started up the road to empire, and over the next hill we will meet those who went before.”

The “one endeavour” slur aside, he was right in every particular. The Islamic world drove the Brits out of Palestine, the French out of Algeria, the Russians out of Afghanistan, the Israelis out of Lebanon, the Americans out of Somalia and now, finally, the Coalition of the Willing out of Afghanistan. It was madness from the first, and John Howard aside, there can be few who can still defend it.

Save the blue line

With Olympics in the wind once more – sadly, a Clayton’s-COVID Olympics in Tokyo, held in the middle of the full-blown Plague – we can be forgiven a little nostalgia for the Sydney Olympics, yes? My favourite carry-over from those 15 shining days of September 2000 was the fabled “thin blue line” that marked the course of the marathon around the Emerald City. A few months after the Games were over, one Annelise Pearce wrote to the Herald to say that if they ever removed the Olympic blue line that went all over the city, then she feared she might never see her parents again. “Being country folk from Warialda, NSW, they find Sydney traffic bamboozles them easily, so they are quite happy to drive the very long route through and around many Sydney suburbs until they stumble across the blue line. They then follow it meticulously into the city to my Pyrmont home. They assure me it’s a very scenic journey!”

To my amazement, two decades on, about 100 metres of that line still exist! It’s in the small tunnel that goes under the Victoria Road road overpass, that leads onto Anzac Bridge as you approach from the west, on a narrow bit of bitumen which means no tyres can cross it and wipe it out – and being in a tunnel protects it from the elements. For fun, can we do something to protect and defend that last remaining bit of thin blue line?

The only remnant of the Sydney 2000 marathon’s blue line that remains.Credit: SMH

Joke of the Week

I inherited a painting and a violin which turned out to be a Rembrandt and a Stradivarius. Unfortunately, Rembrandt made lousy violins and Stradivarius was a terrible painter. – Tommy Cooper

Quotes of the Week

“We’re always considering the setbacks that can be achieved ...” - Lieutenant General John Frewen. Co-ordinator General of the National COVID Vaccine Taskforce, speaking to ABC News.

“I described him as like a menacing, controlling wallpaper. He was either doing it through his emissaries or directly. He wanted me silenced, he wanted me to be quiet ... He wanted me out of the Parliament. He wanted me out of the country. And I felt at that time I thought, ‘I’m challenging him and that was his response.’ His response was to sort of drag me through this sexist spectrum narrative, that I was this weak, overemotional woman.” - Former Liberal parliamentarian Julia Banks promoting her book, Power Play, and talking of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“This is really a crunch time for the community, where the destiny is in your hands.” - NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant, encouraging people to stick with the extended lockdown.

“I’m happy, I’m excited. It’s another stepping stone for me. It’s another first, I suppose. It’s a new situation, a new scenario and one that I’m going to look forward to and enjoy, no matter what. It’s a stepping stone to one of my biggest dreams. We just keep chipping away.” - Ash Barty after her fourth-round win at Wimbledon. She ended up beating Karolina Pliskova in the final to become the first Australian woman to win the game’s oldest grand slam since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980.

“These businesses have experience in delivering the flu vaccination [and] have real resources at their disposal, whether it’s premises, logistics, community engagement strategies, broader communication strategy. They will be really willing and able partners for the federal government as they have been from day one of this pandemic [and are] ready to roll their sleeves up. As more supply comes online they can play a greater role.” - Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg endorsing Premier Gladys Berejiklian extending the Greater Sydney lockdown by a week, despite not having had time to consult the business community.

“It’s not just a library, it is the town square. It is the heart of Marrickville. It is such a lively place. There are so many young people coming in. It is not quiet or old or dead. It is lively and youthful.” - Inner West council mayor Darcy Byrne about Marrickville Library, which is one of five finalists for the International Public Library of the Year Award 2021 to be announced in August.

“It might be cold at the moment but it’s important to always be aware of your surroundings in the water, even in winter.” - NSW Ambulance Inspector Andrew Beverley after a surfer was attacked by a three-metre great white shark on the NSW Mid North Coast.

“The school intended it well. There was a mistake and so what? It’s happened, out of a million vaccinations. Move on.” - NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard peeved at reporters asking him about revelations that more than 150 Sydney private schoolboys were vaccinated by his department, while refusing to explain how the situation came about or why no one revealed the error until it was reported in the media.

“I’m deeply disappointed about the way the Australian population has perceived the AstraZeneca vaccine. Two unfortunate deaths from 4.5 million doses.” - Federal Liberal MP Katie Allen: who worked as a paediatrician and public health professor before entering politics.

“It was very much like, it was stepping back in time. I had worked my entire life in pretty much blokey cultures, male-dominated cultures in both the legal and corporate sector. I had seen a transformational change over the years in the corporate world. But then when I entered politics it really felt like I was going back to the 1980s.” - Julia Banks

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz