Our little haven of calm here in Tasmania is being disturbed more and more by the scourge of Covid. On December 15, we had no cases, but this morning I note that we have more than 10700 and 13 people have died. How do the people who made the decisions to open the borders cope with that knowledge? Do they wake up every morning and reach for the briefing notes with trembling hands? Do they somehow maintain the confidence to be sure that their decision was the right one? Or do little fingers of doubt insinuate themselves into their consciousness? I’m glad it wasn’t me having to decide when the border should open. I think I would always put the good of individuals ahead of business profits but, then, I’d never allow myself to be in that position.
It’s an interesting outcome from the Djokovic trial. The judge was quite firm in his ruling that Djokovic had done all he was required to do to get to Australia. Whether he was vaccinated or not was irrelevant. There was a lawyer on ABC Radio this morning commenting on the case and he suggested that the Federal Government’s intervention was no more than a stunt to highlight what they claim are strong border protection policies. There must be an election coming up. The costs will probably amount to around $200000 which will be paid for by the taxpayer; a small price to remind the voting public that the Government is intent on keeping out riff-raff.
The stunt backfired a bit and I wouldn’t want to be Immigration Minister Hawke this morning deciding whether he should cancel Djokovic’s visa anyway. Whatever he does will alienate a large section of the electorate, the last thing you want to do in an election year. One unintended outcome has been that people are reminded of the appalling situation where refugees are incarcerated in cheap hotels for years at a time with no prospect of ever getting a visa.
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