Coronavirus 3 - Al Pacino's turn to mumble

[What'sinaname]

Is anyone else concerned that the Australian Open is going ahead? I just can't see how it won't lead to a covid-out-of-control situation.

India are here playing cricket?

[What'sinaname]

Enjoy the last of the donuts. The zeros keep disappearing from the scoreboard.

[Tannin]

Is anyone else concerned that the Australian Open is going ahead? I just can't see how it won't lead to a covid-out-of-control situation.

India are here playing cricket?

Not that anyone has noticed. Well, they can bowl more than a bit, but their batsmen ... less said the better. Second innings, all out for 36 ... hmmm.

[stui magpie]

^ Paragraphs 226 to 228 of Chapter 5 make it plain that, in the Inquiry's view, the Chief Commissioner of Police made the effective decision - in substance, it was Ashton's preference and the other public servants simply accepted that and ran with it.

Paragraphs 107-109 of Chapter 5 refer to the levels of accountability.

107.
But no one was able to say who it was who committed Victoria to the enforcement model
that placed such heavy reliance on private security; a commitment that was understood
by all concerned to have been made by the evening of 27 March 2020.
108.
Despite examination and cross-examination, evidence, submissions and counter-submissions,
no person, agency, Minister or department has been willing or able to identify that the
engagement of private security commenced as a result of some action, instruction, agreement
or understanding on their own part.
109.
No one denied that a decision was made but, equally, no one admitted being the one to have
made the decision or knowing who did. The Inquiry has been offered accounts of what was
said to be a, shared governance, and ‘shared accountability’ model for the Hotel Quarantine Program. I accept that, in this context, the decision was most likely contributed to by a number of people. But none of those people have accepted accountability or responsibility for, or acknowledged their role in, the decision-making process. Shared accountability in this context has amounted to no accountability in that no person has accepted they were involved in the decision making and this represents a failure in the very first stages of the governance model
for this Program.

Paragraphs 280-282

280.
I am satisfied that, while the evidence did not identify a single person who decided to engage private security in the Program, there were clearly people who influenced that outcome, which
was the position adopted at the SCC meeting at 4.30pm on the afternoon of 27 March 2020.
281.
I am satisfied that the first of those was Mr Eccles. The second was Mr Ashton.
282.
Mr Eccles’s oral and written evidence was that he did not make a decision or express any opinion.368 I accept that Mr Eccles did not make the ‘decision’ within the strict meaning of that word as it relates to formalised government processes that would require documents to be produced and signed off.
I also accept that Mr Eccles did not have the power to make any such decision on his own.

Yet Eccles was the one who effectively told Ashton that private security would be used.

Finaly, para's 289-292

289.
I acknowledge the haste with which these decisions were being made. I note, too, the separate controversy that emerges with respect to the appropriateness of engaging private security for the various roles it ultimately performed, a matter I consider in Chapter 6. However, the fact remains that not one document was produced to the Inquiry that demonstrated a contemporaneous rationale for the decision to use private security as the first tier of enforcement, or an approval
of that rationale in the upper levels of government. Such a finding is likely to shock the public. Unlike the formal application through the ERC process for the funding for the CEA Program, no such process has been uncovered for the use of private security in the Hotel Quarantine Program. It was a decision made in haste, without regard to its financial implications, and with no person made responsible for reviewing the decision as those financial implications became apparent.
290.
The people of Victoria should understand, with clarity, how it was that millions of dollars of public money was ultimately spent, and we should be able to be satisfied that the action to proceed in this way was a considered one that addressed the benefits, risks and options available in arriving at such a decision. There was no evidence that any such considered process occurred on 27 March 2020 or in the days and weeks that followed.
291.
The decision to engage private security was not a decision made at the Ministerial level.
The Premier and former Minister Mikakos said they played no part in the decision. Similarly, Minister Neville and Minister Pakula stated they were not involved in the decision. Minister Neville was aware of the proposal but not responsible for it and Minister Pakula appears not to have been told until after private security had been engaged. Enforcement of quarantine was a crucial element of the Program that the Premier had committed Victoria to adopting, but neither he
nor his Ministers had any active role in, or oversight of, the decision about how that enforcement would be achieved.
292.
On its face, this was at odds with any normal application of the principles of the Westminster system of responsible government in that individual Ministers of the Crown are ultimately responsible to the Parliament (and thereby the people) for the actions of their departments.
That a decision of such significance for a government program, which ultimately involved
the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars and the employment of thousands of people,
had neither an owner nor a transparent rationale for why that course was adopted, plainly
did not accord with those principles. I have addressed this issue further in Chapter 8.

Accountable, responsible Government are clearly not words that can be used when describing Andrews and his mob.

[stui magpie]

I'm intrigued as where the Vic Police will have set up their checkpoint preventing people crossing into Victoria at Tocumwal.

The town is on the NSW side, where Vic Police have no jurisdiction. The river and bridge are in NSW, Victoria doesn't start until; the high water mark on the Victorian side, where it's all bush and no where for a car to turn around.

I assume that, logistically, they'll need to set up on the Victorian side , I just can't picture where they could do it.

[stui magpie]

You are wasting your time. The haters here don't do facts or evidence.

Spot on, they just blame Morrison for everything they can't blame Trump for.

[Pies4shaw]

There are now 36 more community transmission cases in Antarctica than there are in Victoria.

[eddiesmith]

Up on the border all pregnant women are being told to call an ambulance rather than try and drive to hospital through Victoria’s poorly run road blocks

[stui magpie]

NSW seems to be yet again showing how to do things properly. Meanwhile, Dandrews is finally correct, thanks to some dubbing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UONGxcKJ5gY

[Tannin]

^ NSW just lifted restrictions on the Northern Beaches, despite multiple cases of unchecked community transmission. It's a huge risk, and a stupid one.

[stui magpie]

^

Maybe, time will tell. An alternative view is that she's treating people like adults rather than children and putting faith in her systems.

[eddiesmith]

If NSW keeps this under control it will be proof of competent government can do it without draconian measures and statewide lockdowns.

To think so far you can succeed with a localised lockdown, remarkable and Dans cult says it couldn’t be done, just because he $@&^# it up...

Good on Gladys giving people a couple of days relief to celebrate Christmas. If Victoria even had one community transmission we’d be back in stage four and Christmas cancelled.

[Tannin]

It won't be anything of the kind, Eddie. If it doesn't get away in NSW, it will be down to one factor only: dumb luck. They are taking a huge punt, for no good reason.

[think positive]

^ NSW just lifted restrictions on the Northern Beaches, despite multiple cases of unchecked community transmission. It's a huge risk, and a stupid one.

Yeah I saw the extrications, and even if it wasn’t Christmas I would not count on people to do the right thing, personally I think kids would behave better than the adults- it wasn’t kids protesting and being selfish arseholes in Victoria either!

Dumb dumb dumb

[eddiesmith]

It won't be anything of the kind, Eddie. If it doesn't get away in NSW, it will be down to one factor only: dumb luck. They are taking a huge punt, for no good reason.

Oh yes. Every other state has just been lucky and Victoria was extremely unlucky