‘A policy of elimination was realistic and NZ went for it’

Going viral: Stay where you are New Zealand, we’re coming over. Picture: Getty Images

Welcome to the column where you provide the content. Adam Creighton concluded that if New Zealand was the coronavirus role model then we were in serious strife, while going on to note that intelligence and logic had been the greatest casualty of the pandemic so far. Luffs wanted some long white cloud:

“I think PM Ardern has done an excellent job, but NZ has one-fifth the population of Australia and never anything like the case numbers of Australia to contend with. It’s also much smaller geographically so isolating people physically is easier in a sense. They don’t have the massive NSW/Vic border to contend with for instance.

“A policy of elimination was a realistic prospect for them and they went for it and seemed to have succeeded. Well done. Wish I was in NZ right now tbh.”

Prophet of Boom was bust:

“I for one am totally sick of articles about NZ and Jacinda in particular that falsely portray her as the second coming. The lockdown there has destroyed many NZ businesses and was a typically hamfisted and over the top Leftist response. Queensland did better and we still have an economy to keep running with.

“The main concern, though, is that the press refuse to ask any hard questions of the Ardern govt, paper over the incompetence and grossly overinflate any successes. The press need to be balanced and prepared to investigate issues, but the current lot just pass through press releases from Jacindas office with no attempt at review.”

Border force: Jacinda does her bit to block access to New Zealand. Picture: Getty Images

Michael remarked:

“NZ has more tourists in a year than people who live there. The loss of the tourism industry has decimated their economy and they cannot open their borders until their is an effective vaccine. And that is some way off and will take some time to be distributed.”

Steve said:

“ ‘Loss of tourism has decimated their economy’. Not according to Treasury figures. But if you say it, it’s true, right?”

Nick giggled:

“Haha. You’ve fallen for their Treasury ruse as well hey? They’ve kicked the can down the road until after their election. The pain is coming.”

Lawrence prophesied:
“She is the second coming, second coming of Helen Clarke.”

Soylent Majority said:

“I admire your efforts to reason with people, Adam but there is a saying that you can’t reason a person out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. It’s become impossible to get through to too many people. They are determined to be terrified and don’t care about the consequences. We just have to hang on and hope there’s something left in the smoking wreckage of our country that’s worth saving when they finally come to their senses.”

Sam surmised:

“Regardless of how damaging emotive decisions are they still need to be dealt with and considered. Fear, for many, is just as real as scientific debate.”

Michael mused:

“There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.”

George grumbled:

“The fact that the younger generation are acting in an irrational and hysterical manner comes as no surprise. They have been taught that their feelings trump logic and analysis.”

Philb fulminated:

“And they spend far too much time on social media listening to and reading about rubbish opinions, dramatic claims to gain media attention and virtue signallers. Many don’t have the life experience or education to sensibly analyse what they come across and ignore most of it.”

John wanted numbers:

“Whilst the populace would certainly benefit from the study of logic, the medical experts on whom the journalists rely would greatly benefit from some comprehension of basic statistics. The pandemic is a study of probabilities and I have not seen an article in which a statistician is quoted. The press is anecdote driven rather than considering the probabilities.”

Actuary, said Arvid:

“Give it to an insurance actuary. That would fix it. Hence the massive gap between probabilities and actual results. Someone should build a gullibility meter. ... run off searching for phoney Sydney Harbour Bridge share certificates to sell.”

Anthony averred:

“Adam’s viewpoint has been consistent since the beginning of this crisis, and he will be proven right. The long term financial, geopolitical and cultural impacts of this self-preservation first approach are enormous. We’ve hardly scratched the surface, and annoying part is that damage is mainly self-inflicted.”

Wesley wondered:

“Why can’t we have a open discussion about herd immunity — protect the vulnerable of course, but we are killing our economy for decades now. The affect of that will be worse with suicide rates increasing, domestic violence and social unrest.”

Jacinta joined in:

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt more frustrated, helpless, hopeless and fearful for our collective future than I do now. The response to this virus has been wrong in so many ways it’s hard to know where to start, but I think primarily the biggest worry is for the mental health of our children, especially those aged between around nine and 13; these kids are growing up with a level of catastrophism promulgated by adults around them who never experienced similar in their own childhoods. It’d be child abuse in any other universe.”

Daniel declared:

“I’ve been wondering for months why we haven’t isolated the elderly and vulnerable, and let those of us in good health get back to work? Over 60, or concerned you may be at risk? You’re in lockdown. The government could throw all sorts of financial, logistical and medical support to these people, and even though some would undoubtedly rort the system, it would be a lot cheaper, and far less damaging in the long term, then the current mess we’re seeing.

“And of course, don’t forget the tendency of all political leaders, from both sides, to keep one eye on their own re-election chances. That will be informing a lot of their decisions as much as the tunnel-visioned advice from medical ‘experts’.”

MFH said:
“It is only a matter of time before NZ has another outbreak. They have relied upon keeping their borders closed but there have been cases of people absconding from quarantine. Plus you have air and ship crews coming in.

“In the meantime their entire tourism industry is on life support. I have just read a piece about how Queenstown is virtually dead. Most of the South Island relies on tourism. I read that Queen Street in Auckland is a ghost town and many shops are now empty. They don’t have cruise ships docking and sending all their passengers out to spend their money.

“I don’t know where NZ will end up. If Labour are re-elected on 19 September it won’t be good. They arrogantly believe they don’t need to release any policy because everything is about COVID-19. Ardern is similar to Daniel Andrews in terms of competence. She has only ever worked as a political staffer and politician and has zero real world experience.”

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Taking a stand: Salvatore Babones of Sydney University sticks his neck out over Australian universities and their approach to international students. Picture: Ryan Osland

The Australian revealed this week that university lecturers were being cowed into lowering their academic standards by “highly organised” networks of international students making co-ordinated attacks against any staff members whose assignments and examinations prove too difficult to pass. Ranga reckoned:

“We should be following the lead of New Zealand by limiting international students per university. They also limit the percentage from each country/university.”

Mark added:

“No more than 10pc foreign students. No more than 5pc of the 10pc from any one country. Multiculturalism in action.”

Stuart wasn’t shocked:

“Over the years when I’ve had to interview potential employees I have gradually put little weight on the degree ... since I suspected that the writing of assessments were often ‘edited’ by a third person. Yes the student might have done of the research and writing, but often it was ‘too perfect’ for someone where English was their second language. To that end I would ask each potential employee to read a document, analyse it and provide a recommendation. “All this was done on site. In this way I had more confidence in the candidate’s ability to read, comprehend, write an argument and then orally present the outcome.”

Kim’s comment:

“Uni management deny it’s a problem. But this is the same management that academics with standards they hate seeing eroded have given up complaining to as they do nothing. The solution is simple. Regulate so that no Australian uni can admit any student (domestic or foreign) to even an undergraduate course without them first obtaining an International English Language Testing System score of 7.0 — which is considered a “good user” of the language — before they can enroll.”

Coffee 101 said:
“Go8 universities are actually sub-par institutions. Any Australian contemplating university should aim for a regional uni as they have less foreign students and a superior teaching reputation. Employers take note: do not expect literacy, numeracy, or academic integrity from graduates of a Go8 institution. Focus on graduates from regional unis instead.”

P proclaimed:

“This is all so true. As a very recent Masters of Law graduate from one of the Sydney institutions named, I can only commend Salvatore Babones and Gigi Foster for their courage and preparedness to speak out. During my 8 units of study required to obtain my Masters degree, I noticed any course that only had 10pc class participation and all other assessment was assignments for submission was full, really full, with foreign students who could not speak, let alone write, a word of English.

“They didn’t even bother focusing on lectures. Their computer screens were in another character language and never on the slides in front of us, the university website or anything that looked like it was even mildly approaching academic material. Online shopping and social media in their native language were the most common screens in front of them. They are adults and shouldn’t require screen checks by lecturers but if the university even thinks they can pretend we aren’t doing serious, long term damage to our educational standards and reputation for integrity they are really kidding themselves.

“What Coronavirus shows us is that all that money needed to build massive architectural glass monuments to various faculties is meaningless if you have no students to use them. That will be the end result of dumbing down and making our degrees available on a user pays basis in any case.”

Charlie complained:

“Student from Monash University here. This week I was moved out of an online tutorial because it was converted into a ‘Chinese only’ tutorial. I’ve often wondered how foreign students with an English ability akin to that of a Year 7 student, students that I’ve personally had contact with, continue to pass their subjects.”

Doh, said D:

“I completed a Masters in the mid 1990s at a Sydney university in finance and back then some of the many foreign students shouldn’t have passed. On group assignments they contributed very little and received the group mark from the work done by the others. It was ridiculous that long ago and could only have got much worse as people are saying here today. The administrators of these universities need to wake up. Their focus on the $$$ is disgusting.”

John joined in:

“There are cultural differences in education and attitudes. Some cultures value the bit of paper at all costs. They want material to parrot learn and exams to parrot it all back. These learners struggle with discussion, critical thinking and assignments as they can’t see any value to be had. This is very obvious in nurse education where the learners won’t challenge anything as the doctor (who is expected to be male) knows everything. It is a frustrating situation for an educator who believes students should engage with the subject.”

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Speak no evil: I’ll take one inquiry, hold the questions. Picture: NCA NewsWire

If genomic testing shows Victoria’s current outbreak is linked to the quarantine system, Daniel Andrews is in for a very ugly period, according to John Ferguson. Michael was cynical:
“This inquiry or whatever is designed to do just one thing: delay the inevitable identification of critical factors in the hash Victoria has made of this pandemic (alone amongst Australia’s states and territories) so that the findings can be sugar coated and then buried at some suitable time after the crisis has passed.

“Clearly, Andrews is treating Victorians like mugs. Equally clearly, Victorians are rewarding this treatment by being so forgiving towards Andrews’ insouciance and incompetence in this crisis. Don’t worry, they’ll keep on rewarding him too with a handsome victory whenever he next goes to an election. None so blind as those who will not see.”

Wow, said Uncle Walter:

“ ‘He says he doesn’t know definitively which department was responsible for it, nor the fine detail of how the policy came to be.’ If Andrews really can’t say, even at this point, how this debacle came to be then clearly neither he nor the ministers who work for him are competent to be running anything more important than a lemonade stand.

“Hiding behind an inquiry when we’re in the middle of a rapidly unfolding disaster has always been a cop-out. If a government bureaucracy is incapable of working out where it’s policies are and aren’t working, and adjusting them as needed, then they are failing at their most basic task.”

Robert reckoned:
“Isnt Mr Andrews just a tiny bit inquisitive as to who is responsible for these decisions?

If I was a leader I would leave no stone unturned to find out for myself, even for my own private knowledge irrespective of any official inquiry. I sense a Pinnochio moment.”

Paul was not impressed:

“From a resident of another state, I have looked long and hard at why you Vics keep re-electing this woke bloke Andrews who seems to be more show than go. The only question it raises to me is how bad is the opposition?”

Roger’s request:

“Give us the result of the investigations of the genomic history of the 2nd wave done by the Doherty Institute. They know, Andrew’s knows, Jenny knows, it seems the only people who cannot know are the citizens of Victoria and Australia impacted. If Scott knows, would he please tell us or someone do an FOI request to make these details public.”

Last word to Mike:

“How come no journalist asked Andrews if he doesn’t know the answers to what went wrong, how can anyone have confidence that he knows the right thing to do now? Surely an analysis of wrong decisions last time is a mandatory precursor to making correct decisions this time, if for no other reason than to not repeat the same mistakes. It’s an obvious question. Andrews would either have to admit he knows what went wrong and why (and therefore have to explain it) or admit he has no idea what he’s doing now. Catch 22, but not one journalist could take that step.

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