World watch

 International Relations China/Russia/North Korea/Iran China continues to assert its sovereignty over Taiwan; although, at this stage has stopped short of enforcing such sovereignty. North Korea claims to have tested a hypersonic missile. (Reuters). Russia is engaging in military activity on the Ukrainian border raising fears of an imminent invasion. Hong Kong continues to move toward resembling Chinese political culture with opponents arguing that freedom of the press and democracy itself are being restricted by government. United States/Japan/India/Australia (Quad) Japan and Australia sign an historic bilateral military cooperation agreement and Australia orders tanks from the US in addition to its recent submarine order. The closer links between Australia and Japan and the US are only going to further antagonise China. UK/New Zealand/Pacific Australia Novak Djokovic was detained as he attempted to enter Australia for the Australian Open tennis tournament. After a period in immig...

The challenge of presenting news objectively. Historically, there was a clear delineation, in concept at least, between news and opinion. The premise was that news should report facts objectively, opinion was exactly that and that the two should be clearly delineated. That is simply no longer the case with opinion being passed off as news on a regular basis. But, was the delineation ever achievable or was it just hiding the subject nature of news reporting. Let's take COVID-19 as an example. If you have a worldview that believes that elimination is the only strategy then case numbers are vitally important and so reporting them is imperative. However, if you follow the government view that hospitalisations are the key indicator, then you are less likely to report case numbers and more likely to report the hospitalisation or ICU rates. So it is it objective to report case numbers or hospitalisation rates, or maybe both should be reported, but that also has implications. It seems that...

 COVID The Victorian government has passed a pandemic bill amidst large protests. The bill has sparked outrage amongst many sectors of the community including an open letter from the Victorian Bar and objections from human rights advocates. Interestingly, it largely replicates the NSW government Public Health Act by moving the decision making power to the Health Minister rather than the Chief Medical Officer. The issue seems to be that whereas the NSW Public Health Act was written sometime and is very vague, the Victorian Act spells out the powers in quite some detail. This puts the powers available to the Minister in black and white, which is what seems to have sparked the outrage. The reality is that human rights and liberal freedoms only have very limited protections in Australia under either a state of emergency or a pandemic. This is because the Australian Constitution and the resulting attitude of the courts is to support a representative democracy which means the Government ...

 Disclaimer: This is not legal advice and no warrant is made as to its accuracy. As best as I can understand the draft health order provides the following for unvaccinated people in NSW as from Monday 11 October 2021. Firstly, there is no stay at home order for unvaccinated people. Instead, there are restrictions on where an unvaccinated person may go once they leave home. Unvaccinated people cannot: Visit another residence or allow anyone to visit their residence: s 2.4 - exceptions are provided for in s 2.6 attend outdoor public gatherings: s 2.12 be in a vehicle or vessel with anyone other than members of their own household: s 2.14 - exceptions are provided for in s 2.14(3) including vessels used to carry out work, provide a public transport service and for compassionate reasons. attend premises closed to unvaccinated people: s 2.18 including higher risk premises;  business premises that are hairdressers, spas, nail salons, beauty salons, waxing salons, tanning salons, ta...

NSW PREMIER PRESS CONFERENCE - 7 OCTOBER 2021 Premier: NSW Premier begins by thanking the health staff involved in vaccinating NSW. NSW reached 70% double-dose vaccination rate yesterday. There are some amendments to the roadmap. From Monday, the 70% mark, indoor swimming pools will be open and home visitation doubled, outdoor gatherings increased, lifting the cap from 50 to 100 for weddings and funerals. School timetable, the three-tiered system will be brought forward to a two-staged return completed by 25 October.  At the 80% mark, the mask-wearing requirement in the office will be removed. The 5,000 cap remains but venues can apply for higher caps which can be granted. Outdoor gatherings and home visitations will have higher caps. Deputy Premier: He thanks people for being vaccinated and thanks to the rural health workers for assisting the rural vaccination rate. This is a roadmap for 'everyone'. Regional workers can return to work with 1 dose with a grace period until 1 No...

COVID NSW has hit its 70% double-dose vaccine target leading to the next stage of the roadmap being implemented on Monday, 11 October 2021. Mandatory vaccinations continue to be an issue of concern with multiple court cases in multiple states. Despite the 1 December 2021 date in NSW for unvaccinated to be reintegrated into society and the ACT roadmap not including vaccine-based segregation, mandatory vaccination in certain circumstances continues to move forward. Police, health workers, teachers, Rural Fire Service staff, and others all require mandatory vaccine by set dates to enter the workplace. There seems to be approximately 10% of employees refusing to get the vaccine even in the face of the prospect of losing their job.  In NSW new unions are being created to support those workers who choose not to be vaccinated. The workers who choose not to be vaccinated feel like their unions have abandoned them and so have created their own unions. Concerns have been raised about the QR ...