for another few weeks. Then he’ll be on here whinging about ‘the east’ and how selfish we all are. WA is lining up to be the biggest basket case of all.

Hey Mr. TL,

I didn't say WA was 'in lockdown'.......What I did say was that if you want more details, then 'Google WA Lockdown news'......THAT is the heading I used to get to the site, THAT is all.... (Lurve your current address by the way...)
Aussies from other states can still get here - SUBJECT TO the various conditions / quarantine / testing.
"Under the 'extreme risk' category, the list of approved travellers is significantly reduced, and includes.......It then goes on

Hey Mr G.,
Re 'WA is lining up to be the biggest basket case of all'....
You might well be correct.

A 'popular' opinion over here is that the WA Gummint has allowed the WA Health System to deteriorate so far, that it is now incapable of being able to address / accommodate the number of patients expected should this virus 'get out of hand'.
Our hospitals simply could not cope. We don't have sufficient Nursing Staff either. Ambulance 'ramping' is at an all time high without the virus....
That is a 'popular' opinion.
Cheers

"...a popular opinion"... really :ugh: Are you serious?
What rock have you been hiding under not to see the bleeding obvious for the past three years in Perth?
It's cold hard FACT, not opinion and I see it daily, first hand! Multiple ambulances lined up outside the hospitals with sick pax waiting on board, even before the day has started.
It's no joke when multiple Hospitals call their Code Blue or Yellows even without any Covid issues.
A huge red flag indicating blatant long-term neglect, underfunding and mismanagement by the megalomaniac "Sneakers" McClown Govt, who is sitting a huge pile of gold coins. "Emporer with no clothes..."?
His neglect of the aviation industry there is the same.
TripleM Perth Tuesday morning talk back with Baz Zemplas had 4 out of the 5 callers saying open the border immediately, as it's killed businesses, families, Ag & crops (the list goes on).
Put simply, WA with just 2.4 million people is not self-sustaining. It requires industry, labour, cash & goods from interstate and overseas for the whole economy to survive. The last two years it's only been treading water, with only the public sector (Govt/Councils etc) being happy as Larry with their regular untouched incomes. It's been a private sector pandemic as many a business has shut shop for good. Just look around the city at all the vacant shops for lease. Sure, nowhere near as bad as Melbourne but still the same effect.
A wise man mentioned to me last week that this "pandemic" is not one about covid now but one about people's IQ. :D

All of 'that' is a 'popular opinion' Mr S

I have neither the resources nor the time to answer your emotive response - I would rather just deal with the facts.
Nor am I able to actually CHANGE any of the above.

The facts ARE, as you so elequently describe.....

Unfortunately, I am NOT able to actually CHANGE any of the above, being just ONE of 'the great unwashed'.

I have pointed out that the hospitals are 'up to their armpits' - and YOU have verified that.

I did not even venture into the 'economics' of WA food supplies being supported by the 'Eastern States', as those various companies have chosen, a looong time ago, to close processing facilities in WA to 'SAVE $'s', and increase their profit margins.
Just the same as various 'industries' purchasing everything from clothing to building supplies etc etc from....CHINA??
NOT under my CONTROL
In MY 'younger days', almost EVERYTHING was 'Made in Australia'. But it cost.......That means it was 'cheaper' to import 'stuff' from 'overseas'.
Unfortunately, ALL of those 'domestic factories' have CLOSED. You didn't work in the Motor Vehicle industry by any chance??
No difference.
Please feel free to 'vent ya spleen' on them.
Happy New Year.

Perhaps you can assist in this matter...???

I'll leave YOU to 'read between the lines'......
Ta Ta

If a public hospital doesn’t have ambulances ramped and an 18 month waiting list for surgery, it is considered “over-resourced”.

A bit like an airline - if it’s not constantly running 40 minutes late then the turnaround times are too generous and the aircraft are “under-utilised”.

Governments like to waste money on everything other than what is actually important to the population - like education, health, and a viable manufacturing industry.

Obviously a lack of quality health-care staff wouldn’t have anything to do with pay and conditions, would it?

Dear SR and EFSOG,
I see you guys as being in agreement,
Love Shot.

In my younger days… things were made in Australia or England. My mother ( now 86) before I was born, worked at a company that made boxes to put ( amongst other things) .. washing machines. And guess what???… it was next door to the Simpson washing machine factory in Sydney.

And our Govt, faced with the prospect of spending maybe $1B/year for maintaining an automotive manufacturing industry in the country, chose to spend $100B during covid just to try to keep the economy ticking. I’d rather my son get an apprenticeship at Holden.

Omicron proving a non event to the fully vaccinated here in UK. Mandatory isolation being cut to 5 days next week.

Yes but our media keep up their tactic of focussing on total case numbers. Funny they never mention each day how many people have fully recovered from their infection. I guess that 98.5% of people infected is not newsworthy.
As long as they keep playing that game then people will be fearful, which is their aim. People are missing the point, we will all get it.

SOPS I see Facebook groups with a petition calling for McGowan to keep the border closed in WA until it is “safe” to open. When do you think that will be? If the rest of the country has Covid in varying levels then WA could never open up.

Does it relate to this change.org petition? In that case don't worry, it only has 28,000 signatures, or 1% of the state's population. The one calling for borders to remain closed in vaccine free 2020 attracted 10x as much support. And apart from a few extremist epidemiologists there's no one of substance backing this petition, even the AMA toned down their calls for borders remaining closed recently. The Chambers of Minerals and Energy, and Commerce and Industry support reopening and that's pretty much all that matters.

And if governments did what every petition called for them to do then we'd have no "religious discrimination" bill about to be enacted and we'd have a Royal Commission into Murdoch media.

Even Basil is saying we must open up now. There doesn’t seem to be any movement from MM on the date. Not yet anyway. Remember everyone thought Bill Shorten would be PM.

To be fair there are some good arguments in that petition. The other petition is over a year old so it stands to reason it has more signatures and was done at a time when there wasn't widespread vaccination, so hardly apples and apples. I expect the AMA and industry are all still keeping their powder dry to see what happens in the next fortnight.

It's a wonder there is any Covid in NSW..... what with everyone being on holidays up in Bali

Yes absolutely... the world does not circulate around Bali....I mean who would even want to be there at the moment?

Out of interest …how many flights a day are operating from the Eastern States to Bali at the moment?

Why would someone not want to be in Bali at this current time?

you might catch a cold

A mandatory 7x24 hours quarantine is set for fully vaccinated travellers.....I believe this is still valid?

thanks you are correct. I thought they were quarantine free for fully vaccinated

Is this what you're looking for?



https://covidlive.com.au/report/active-per-population



https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....fc1aa7d168.png

Not really, how many people have RECOVERED from the infection. Never see it reported.

Yes they are. If you check the COVID live website , they are listed day by day. Just scroll down the page for each state.

I don’t think you understand my point.
Yes I can go and research it and find the numbers myself but I am saying that our ever helpful media only REPORT total cases, deaths, hospitalisations etc
They do not offer the number of recoveries.
Their focus is only on the doom and gloom and how bad it all is.
Their barely disguised glee when the new terrifying Omicron variant arrived. Unfortunately it did not play their game as it is less damaging than Delta. Hardly ever see that mentioned do you?

When has it ever been any different for pretty much anything else? The news media don't cover ordinary events. The only time that the media covers survivors is where the act of survival was extraordinary ... Man fights off shark. Baby survives plane crash. That sort of thing.


The reporting that Omicron is less severe than Delta is there if you look.

https://www.news.com.au/world/corona...c89dd0db654d9d
https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/healt...ests-c-5070312
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-...elta/100722338
https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavi...elta-c-5066060
https://www.economist.com/science-an...rlier-variants
https://www.news.com.au/world/corona...5b19da975f2f36
https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/...pitalizations/

When we read an article about aviation, we all react with laughter at how little the media know about aviation, can't even get basic facts correct etc. If you apply the same rule to everything that you read, you won't be disappointed.
My biggest pet hate is opinion articles... Your a journalist, your a no body. Unless your opinion is about journalism, what would I care about your opinion on health, the economy Or aviation etc.

None that I’m aware of due to afore mentioned quarantine restrictions into Bali.
However Jetstar has re-commenced flights to Phuket from Sydney and Melbourne, arguably a much better place to visit anyway.

No international flights from anywhere into Bali. Its set up but no one flying direct there. Pretty much all quarantine done in Jakarta (a few in Manado and Surabaya.)

2 years in we are still whinging, what a cluster, We might achieve quarantine free travel after 2 years lol, forget WA though they are long gong.

QF international could run into issues with their U.S flights. I didn’t even know the UK had a “avoid travel” to Australia. US have just upgraded their travel advice for their citizens to avoid travel to Australia. This is a long way from over I guess.

Just about every country has a warning about every other country and travel insurance probably won't cover you against C19 as a result. There needs to be a significant step back in view of very reduced risks.

Insurance companies take a step back from an opportunity to not pay out?
Good luck with that.

Is it time to review where we are at. Here in South Australia we opened the border on the understanding that we are all vaxxed, we are all going to be infected, few of us will require hospitalisation and very few will die. What we didn't expect is that we will still require testing and isolation if you are infected or suspect you may be infected.
The consequence of that is that business is seriously nobbled worse than previous restrictions when borders were closed. Some schools not reopening, serious supply chain disruption at transport and production level. While I can't speak for the state, I am of the view that if we knew this would be the outcome we would never have supported opening the borders.
West Australians should know what to expect when they open their borders, I wouldn't judge if they didn't.

Nothing is new, the US and UK have been through the exact same thing, and still going through it. Shops and businesses in the high spread areas are closed and supply chains and maintenance all reduced due to sickness. I think the last data out had 1/3rd of businesses in affected areas still closed to avoid contracting covid/staff shortages. The only difference is our death toll is starting from a much lower base, and we're in a much better position fiscally. Like it or not, Australia is still much better off than much of the world, until now anyway.

Almost half our staff are required to isolate for the next 10 days, half of them don't even know if they are actually infected. The other half of our staff can't function without them, we are about to close the doors, we'll take orders but can't provide a supply date. How long will that be acceptable.

I agree the forced isolation is a dogs breakfast, but the other option is your workforce all gets sick at once. Maybe that's ok as it gets it over and done with, but how long does each one stay sick, and 'what ifs' the length of a piece of string. I'm hearing a lot of people taking sick leave from being worked off their feet due to shortages in various workplaces, which will only add to the problems.

The problems in construction are ridiculous, with numerous trades from different companies all working in confined spaces, it only takes one idiot to come to work sick and a schedule for several worksites and multiple companies is sent backwards a week or two.

New Info....
Announced at 1930 WST, CH 7, WA Premier;

Because of the effects of the 'Omicron' version of the virus, - As at 5th Feb., the 'hard borders' will remain but with more focus on compassionate grounds.

See the WA Gov site for more details.
T'ain't borders 'open' as expected...as yet......
That is all...for now.

p.s. I gotta add, when asked by a 'journo' if WA's Health System situation has anything to do with this decision, Mr Premier said something like, no, our WA Health System
is healthy and strong...or words to that effect.

Has anybody else noticed a resemblance to the character 'Frank Burns' from 'M*A*S*H*....when these claims are made....??
Maybe its just moi.......

But if you get to come in you have to isolate, as do all others in that household. What a joke. There's no way they can police that.

Actually it's probably just a way to keep Covid slowly spreading out into the community so eventually he can reopen but not have to have it seem as if a fixed decision of his was the cause, ie passing the buck.

He can't even claim WA is better than anywhere else because of the mask mandates and event restrictions.

I look forward to when McClown has to fly commercially somewhere, I imagine a glass of red wine will accidentally be spilled on him 😝

Nope, it's not just you