I AM one of the lucky ones. I'm among the one in four people who have been granted a travel exemption to go back to my home country of Germany so that my terminally ill mother can meet my four-month-old son, her first grandchild. My whole family is still in Germany and I used to reassure myself that if the worst were to happen I could be home within 24 hours. It would be stressful, but achievable. The worst has happened and this is no longer the case - it has taken weeks of red tape before I could leave, and that's because some anonymous bureaucrat decided that I can leave at all.
At times I feel that I'm a prisoner in my own country. The only crime I've committed is choosing to make Australia my home. I understand the desire to protect our citizens, but at some point you have to trust people to do what is required of them, and for the most part we will. Implementing travel bans and self paid hotel quarantine don't allow people even the opportunity. I thought that we lived in a society that punishes people after they break the law, not preemptively.
This situation isn't made any less frustrating by the revelation that the Victorian cluster was most likely spread by staff working within the hotel quarantine scheme. You have to wonder whether the outbreak could have been avoided if people had been sent straight home, well away from contact with others. If we're all in this together, why do I feel like the enemy?
In Germany the Nazi government employed similar techniques to help ensure the cooperation of citizens. They called them concentration camps. Don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing hotel quarantine with concentration camps. What I'm saying is that the approach of taking away one's freedom is frighteningly similar.
I believe there is some irony in the Australian government condemning China's actions in Hong Kong while at the same time restricting the basic freedoms of their own citizens. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights requires that everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own. Are these current circumstances enough to overrule our basic human rights?
I apprehensively call myself lucky. The burden of this luck is a heavy one. This journey puts my young family under significant financial stress. We have to pay for quarantine and will likely need to front up for business class airfares, and all the while there are corporations paying dividends by rorting the JobKeeper scheme. I have to face the emotional turmoil in feeling that I'm letting my German family down because I'm stuck on the other side of the world, all while navigating the early days of motherhood. These should have been some of the happiest days of my life.
I feel empathy for the three in four people who have had their applications rejected. How is it up to some faceless person in an office to decide what circumstances warrant allowing someone to go home to their family? Pandering to popular fear is leading our leaders to play politics with real lives. Real leadership requires a compassion for, and a trust in, the people you represent. History will decide whether our government treated our vulnerable citizens with anything less than disdain.
Lara Jones, Stockton
Brake cycle of risk averse overkill
AS Australians, we like to think our national character is one of larrikinism and brash impertinence towards authority. The opposite is far closer to the truth. Issues big and small repeatedly reveal the authoritarian streak in our governments and how easily we fall into line.
So it is that motorists will now meekly crawl along harbour foreshore roads at 30 km/h ('Foreshore roads go 30km/h', Herald 18/8). Many of us will be quietly resentful at this new bureaucratic incursion, but conformity will still be swift and utterly complete. What's next? 20 km/h? 10? Don't snigger - it's possible.
Why not dispense with this incrementalism and make people walk? At least that way there'd be a fitness dividend.
Driving cannot be made completely safe. Ease of transit is one of the hallmarks of a liveable city. We need more dedicated paths for bicycles rather than trying to make them the fastest things on the roads. Enough of this mindless meddling.
Michael Hinchey, New Lambton
Don't throw away COVID caution
I ATTENDED John Hunter Hospital today and was impressed with the COVID protocol. Everybody was tested for temperature, supplied with a mask and tagged for the purpose of your visit.
The downside is similar to the smokers who ignore the no-smoking edict, and now it's the grubs that discard the masks all over the campus and put their stickers on any piece of structure. There are bins at the only exit to discard masks, but these people seem to think they are privileged to toss their refuse anywhere.
Alan Cameron, Eleebana
Venues alone can't halt the spread
SCOTT Dorman (Letters, 19/8) writes that owners "are all over the protection measures to keep venues safe for their patrons". I have previously written (not published) about the attitude of patrons at The Junction. I am not about repeating my angst.
The prevailing behaviour of many families and some tradies at The Junction shopping area seem devoid of social mores in my opinion. I guess they don't notice their unacceptable behaviour because most of them are doing the same.
In case you don't appreciate the seriousness of this pandemic, I remind you the world is in a very uncompromising situation regarding health. Just because, as Mr Dorman notes, the venues "are all over" protections doesn't mean they should operate "business as usual", or that the virus won't infiltrate our community.
Pat Garnet, Wickham
Costs may extend beyond site
THERE has been little public comment since the announcement of Costco's intention to open a category killer at Boolaroo ('Boomaroo: $300m coup for suburb', Herald 1/8). The retailer sells everything from jewellery to petrol, so it seems obvious that retailers nearby will be affected.
I believe the jobs created may come at the expense of others lost at other retailers. Councils collect significant rates from commercial premises, a cost which is passed on in one form or another to the retailer by the owner of the premises.
There was reportedly at least one other interested party for the site that claims to have been willing to pay more ('Minister confident on land's price tag', Herald 1/8). Because this category killer will cause havoc with other retailers, could the council please give ratepayers an indication as to how it will rate the Costco Boolaroo site, bearing in mind it has accepted a price which could apparently be considered less than the highest available offer?
In my opinion the council needs to ensure that there is a level playing field which will not disadvantage its other retail ratepayers.
Richard Devon, Fishing Point
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@newcastleherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name, suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words and Short Takes fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.
SHORT TAKES
MY understanding is that 95 per cent of Victoria's second wave of COVID-19 has been caused by people returning from overseas. Maybe the Australian border should have been closed in April. No one gets in.
Darryl Tuckwell, Eleebana
TONY Mansfield (Short Takes, 18/8) aren't you the person who took off in your caravan a couple of weeks ago because Newcastle was a hotspot for the virus? You're contradicting yourself, I think.
Darren Sparks, North Lambton
MAYBE Queensland should have its federal government funding removed until it's ready to join the rest of Australia. Someone needs to tell Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that the state is part of Australia and, oh my God, Australians live there. My grandfather fought and died for all of Australia.
Brenda Kime, Cameron Park
YOU can fully understand the reluctance of the Warabrook residents having a pet crematorium built in their neighbourhood ('Pet crematorium rejected', Newcastle Herald 19/8). With the El Nina weather pattern predicted, it could have ended up raining cats and dogs.
Tony Bennett, Broke
PETA'S Emily Rice ('How's eating animals still seen as essential?', Opinion 19/8) states that money talks. Well, so does stupidity. How on earth are these ridiculous animal groups allowed to continue or be funded? I believe they are an absolute embarrassment to normal human intelligence.
Brad Hill, Singleton
JOHN Davies argues that Newcastle's ammonium nitrate tanks are safe because there is no evidence the Beirut explosion was not caused by terrorism (Letters, 18/8). Apart from the clear logical fallacy here - there is also no evidence it was not caused by aliens from Alpha Centauri - is it not possible that a terrorist could attack here? That makes it risky, in my opinion, and the results would be catastrophic.
Michael Gormly, Islington
WHAT better way to make coal mines profitable; sell them to China. They have already leased out our ports; they own our farms and water. Pay us $1.50 an hour. This would create jobs for thousands. Third world, here we come. Pauline Hanson predicted this years ago.
Mick Kembrey, Cessnock
AFTER reading Barry Toohey's article ('Cutting loose', Herald 19/8) I am convinced there is no nepotism in the NRL. Lol.
Bill Slicer, Tighes Hill
HOW sad to see the two customers, enjoying a coffee at Pegs ('Cafe a labour of love', Herald 19/8), communicating to each other via their phones - or maybe they were communicating with someone else!
Sue Kenny, Lambton
A SICK person makes doctors more money than a cured patient. A cured patient is a lost customer. Money speaks all languages, even in medicine. Imagine if we had no sickness in the world, doctors would be sacked, just like our scientists ('Newcastle CSIRO jobs on the line', Herald 31/7).
