‘Vaccination certificates will soon become part of the new normal’

Reasons to be cheerful: The fully-inoculated in NSW will enjoy greater freedoms under the latest plan announced by Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: iStock

Gladys Berejiklian injected some hope into the lockdown gloom in announcing a plan whereby bars, restaurants and gyms would reopen to the fully inoculated once vaccination coverage across NSW reaches 70 per cent. Michelle was maximum bullish:

“Release the double-dosed!”

Norm reckoned:

“Vaccination certificates will soon become part of the new normal. The British and European way. Australia will follow in due course. Have your dose as soon as you can.”

Bill’s view:

“It’s obvious that vaccinations are very important to be able to live with this virus but I think it is a mistake to reward people who refuse to get vaccinated through laziness or stupidity. Therefore I am now leaning towards vaccine passes. These to be used for work and play. To require a doctors certificate to prove a medical reason for not having one. If something like this does not happen we are going to in and out of lockdown and border closures for years to come.”

Lee was worried:

“I am at a loss as to the very few comments that recognise the strain our health services are currently under, and the incredibly fine balance Gladys is treading to ramp up vaccination capacity with the limited number of health workers. They are in a prime group for catching the virus. When elective surgery in PRIVATE hospitals is stopped, we should know we are in a critical phase. My daughter who works in government in Canberra tells me 500 health care workers are in isolation there. Just get vaccinated!”

Steve said:

“NSW government need to ensure it has made contingency plans for the unrest that will unfold in coming months as people are becoming increasingly fatigued with the rolling lockdown restrictions. For me to travel two minutes across the QLD border for a regular dental appointment I need to have three documents for entry, sit in a long line of traffic for approximately 1-2 hours waiting to be ‘processed’ before being allowed to travel two minutes across the QLD border. Reminds me of all those old war time movies where people were asked for their “papers” to move about.”

Brian backed Berejiklian:

“Gladys is still the only politician showing leadership under duress, hang in there NSW you will be the first and only state for a good while back to normal. We in the other states in 6 months will watch on in awe, as ultimately all our populist state leaders confront the inevitable of having to live with Covid. We can only hope they don’t destroy our businesses and economies before they accept that inevitability.”

GFC agreed:

“Finally a reward for doing the right thing. Whilst Oct is a long way away this is hope for the kids to return to school and fully vaccinated in non-affected LGAs to get some of their broken life back.mWell done Gladys. Leadership!”

Peter’s position:

“Set a date and open up. If you are not vaccinated by then it is on you.”

Cry freedom: Gladys Berejiklian takes one for the team. Picture: NCA Newswire

HeyZeus said:

“I don’t support mandatory vaccination but if the choice is between mandatory lockdowns and vaccinations I am in favour.”

Fred said:

“Well, a plan is better than no plan. Still reckon they should set a date by which everyone will have had the opportunity to get vaccinated, and then remove all Covid measures.”

Paul was unimpressed:

“Mandatory vaccination by another means. Soft totalitarianism. The government is telling us what rights we have.”

Doom and gloom from David:

“Before making promises of ‘freedom’ we need to look at what’s happening in countries ahead of us and learn from their experience. Israel is a small country (one-third the size of Tassie). It has strong borders and a high vaccination rate; 78pc over 12. It is also in lockdown dealing with a 3rd surge with 62,000 cases. ‘Freedom just around the corner for you, but with truth so far off, what good will it do.’ Bob Dylan.”

John E asked:

“Will unvaccinated people be able to walk into a supermarket? A bottle shop? Attend their children’s school? Yes of course. So, this is pure theatre.”

Sophie said:

“Lockdowns would not be needed if people could test themselves for Covid (lateral flow tests or rapid tests) as they do in the UK. The Walgett outbreak could have been prevented if the person who travelled to Walgett and spread the infection, had a rapid Covid test (takes 15 mins) before he was released from the Bathurst Jail.

“All the trouble we experience in Australia is because we do not have widespread access to these tests. And no-one is looking into this. I checked the Australian register of therapeutic goods and these tests can legally be used and are approved. So, why are they not be promoted? Our economy suffers, this nation pays a fortune for lab tests, curfews are imposed on us, but we cannot test ourselves and we do not introduce a common sense approach using these tests to facilitate our movement and access to services. Why?”

Russell’s fear:

“If people are given ‘freedom’ then you will see here what is happening in Florida and some other recalcitrant states in the US. Numbers of infections soaring and the health care system on the verge of being overwhelmed.”

Robert’s comparison:

“Two headlines, side by side:

‘Freedom plan for fully vaccinated in NSW’

‘Andrews weighs longer lockdown’

Says it all, really.”

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Cloak and dagger: Is the Andrews government being economical with the data? Picture: NCA NewsWire

Damon Johnston revealed that the Andrews government was engaged in a deliberate and dangerous cover-up of critical mental health data that Victorians – especially parents of teenagers – deserve to see. Paul was perturbed:

“The deaths of 90 year olds leads the evening news. The mental health of our children is a state secret. So much for staying apart to keep together.”

Jeffrey shared:

“My son’s partner is a teacher and she has been telling me that this 6th lockdown is a lot worse – parents are always angry and kids have lost the will and desire to learn. Today playgrounds, skate parks – the last remnants of normality for a lot of kids – are closed. I think that now we’re in our second year of lockdowns in Melbourne – to turn the screws even tighter on our kids is something that only a unsympathetic, totalitarian dictator could dream up. Andrews never mentions the welfare of our kids, the next generation, at his press conferences.”

Douglas declared:

“Andrews’ performance today indicates he is now in full blown panic mode and why wouldn’t he, with Melbourne looking more like Detroit every day, businesses left with no reserves after last year’s debacle and The Age has been hammering his failures on a number of fronts surrounding his major projects all week. He knows his legacy will be a bankrupt and demoralised state.”

Michael mooted:

“He does not care. Look at the way he addresses the media re people who in his eyes have done the wrong thing. Its all about him, he takes anyone doing the wrong thing as a personal affront rather than the human condition of people trying to live to have some fun.

Gladys has made mistakes but you can tell she really hates what she is putting people through, she is aware of the financial and mental cost. I would much rather have her in charge than Andrews who seems hell bent on making everyone pay for the mistakes of a few.”

Argus argued:

“The lockdown is having a terrible effect on kids and their parents. Our 2 grandchildren are very well-balanced individuals but they desperately miss the physical contact with their grandparents whilst their parents are struggling with work demands during the pandemic as well as running home schooling two active young teenagers.

“On the other side of the coin my wife is grieving for the lack of contact with her own children and grandchildren whilst Chairman Dan is running the state with all of the charisma of a punitive and dictatorial 19th-century headmaster without compassion. All in all a very sad situation.”

Michael Albert stood with Dan:

“725 daily Alpha variant infections last year down to zero doughnut days is not fake, they are FACTS. Seeing off not one but two delta outbreaks down to zero and now seeing of a third are FACTS. (In the three instances NO jurisdiction in the world has done this. FACT) And now the third outbreak? He’ll be able to do it again because its been done before.”

Claudia’s cri de couer:

“As a parent and teacher I can see the toll this is having on our kids. Speaking to many other parents it seems Dan has lost a lot of voters. Parents won’t forgive people messing with their kids like this no matter how far away the election might seem.”

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Confederacy of dunces: Alan Tudge said it was back to the drawing board for a draft curriculum that supported ‘ideology over evidence’ and presenting an ‘overly negative view’ of the nation. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Education Minister Alan Tudge gave the new draft national curriculum a thumbs down, much to the relief of worried parents everywhere. Tony’s tips:

“Good start Mr Tudge but the rewriting, politicisation and dumbing down of the curriculum is unfortunately a bi-product of what is going on in the universities. Much of what is being proposed is based on the content of humanities/social science courses, a number of which, are blatantly hostile to western civilisation coupled with increasingly questionable standards in other disciplines to accommodate foreign students. There is also a prevailing culture which discourages challenges, honest criticism and freedom of expression.

“A second step is to review the pipeline (i.e. the tertiary institutions) that promote the left wing agenda which is finding its way into school teaching. Are these bodies really fit for purpose as centres of open inquiry, rigorous learning and objective research? The best news is that at tertiary level, as Federal Minister for Education, you hold the purse strings. So perhaps its time to pull them!”

Deborah L wondered:

“How on earth can hard-nosed progressives at ACARA possibly rewrite the curriculum to include everything they despise. I hope we’re just going through a process where they fail again and are ultimately sacked. Now that will be progress.”

Boris reckoned:

“Dragging an ideologically committed group away from its ideology is inefficient and likely, at best, to be only partly effective, better that they resign en mass, but unlikely. Tudge has drawn a line in the sand, now watch them try to kick up dust around it.”

C agreed:

“Education has been veering off the track since the 60s in one form or another. One must question why. In my view it has been to do with certain educators wanting to put their own stamp on things whether it helps or not. They are simply ruining what works to give their own egos a boost under the guise of improving education. You can read Aristotle on ethics written about 300BC and it could have been written yesterday because little has changed in human nature.”

William’s theory:

“I suspect the reasons a rewrite was requested rather than a complete reboot of the system, relate to the difficulty inherent in replacing the 13 nominees of the Curriculum Reference group in a timely fashion.

“A visit to the ACARA website shows almost 100 names who may have an input into this process, including the 13 people in the group. The old joke about a camel being a horse designed by a committee, springs to mind, and with a total of 30 persons in the Disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Advisory Groups, offering input, a change in philosophy will not be a quick process.”

Ian added:

“The other thing that is in play here is the conflict of interest in an education establishment that keeps academics in jobs by demanding more and more credentials of trained teachers who already have years of classroom experience. When they first introduced the DipEd in NSW, my excellent history teacher told of having her classes ‘observed’ by a much younger, inexperienced teacher.

“A relative who did 2 years of 9 to 5 teacher training in NSW and taught for many years, with parents keen to have her, had to do a further year and then someway down the track they added another. That’s four years (two of them equivalent to a full time job) to teach primary. “My daughter teaches high with a degree plus one year DipEd. She just missed out on having to do two years, which would have made five all up. At which point, given the pay, I would have strongly advised a different career. And yet all this credentialism is having absolutely no effect on declining outcomes. All it does is turn the best candidates off teaching. For goodness sake just recognise the equivalence of classroom experience and top people up with professional development as required.”

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