COVID mania interferes with business at every turn

Small businesses are going to the wall, not because of COVID but because of overreaction to it in the form of rules for rules’ sake and impossible demands. My daughter owns a very successful B&B in a country town, yet if Airbnb doesn’t stop imposing impractical COVID rules she will soon be forced to close down permanently. As it is, the sanitation rituals take twice the number of normal cleaning hours and the latest “recommendation” is for a span of 24 hours between each stay. Airbnb generously suggests if this is not possible, she should wait at least three hours before going in to clean after guests leave. This is impossible in the time between check out and check in. And if she doesn’t comply? They will take down her Airbnb account, with her more than 450 five-star reviews and put her out of business that way. This Covidiocy has gone way beyond common sense.

Steph McCarthy, Eden Hills, SA

Biden trump card

Donald Trump enjoys referring to Joe Biden as “Sleepy Joe” and he loves boasting of his statesmanship in brokering the peace deals between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain (“Knockout blow eludes Trump”, 24-25/20). Had Biden’s advisers not been so “sleepy”, they might have helped him trump Trump by getting him to clarify that both deals are contingent on Israel halting annexation of certain parts of the West Bank. Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu has said annexation plans are “on hold” only, pending further talks with the US. Ergo, the deals are not really done deals. It would be a small win for truth.

Mark Awerbuch, Crafers, SA

Slow to judgment

With a long list of interconnected facts, if a person cannot reach a sensible solution/course of action in seven hours it is unlikely he/she will ever be able to do so (“Family’s long wait for judge to rule”, 24-25/10). Perhaps break the job down into smaller bits, get more people on the job, or get better people on the job.

A Rockhampton-based judge recently took seven years to reach a family law decision. Maybe the jury system has something to offer — juries decide life and death matters. Sometimes (rarely) they can’t reach a decision, but they never hang around for seven years.

We revere the legal system for its honesty and impartiality and judges have served long, demanding apprenticeships. But Australian citizens deserve better than to be waiting seven years for a decision.

Saxby Pridmore, Hobart, Tas

Bonus optics

The classic economics text Parkinson’s Law was published in 1957 and has never been out of print. The chapter on high finance discusses a committee meeting. Item nine is a nuclear reactor at £10 million. After perfunctory discussion, the item is approved in fewer than three minutes. Item 10 is a bicycle shed; £350. The discussion goes for 45 minutes. Finally, item 11 is the annual cost of coffee for the staff. After an hour and a quarter it is referred to a subcommittee.

The smaller the amount of money, the more attention is paid to it. It’s all about optics and symbolism. It might well be argued that $20,000 for luxury watches is not a good look, but had $5000 been given as a monetary addition to a salary of some hundreds of thousands it would probably have escaped anyone’s notice.

James Goding, Princes Hill, Vic

My father was a postman in the UK after he came back from five years overseas fighting the enemy. He worked every day, weekends as well, plus Christmas Day. The story nowadays is very different. We still need our mail, not every other day, but every day. We seem to pay these executives far too much and they don’t deserve it. It’s not the PM who is tired, Robert Gottliebsen, it is the general public. We are tired and fed up.

Patricia M. Smith, Mt Martha, Vic