GLADYS Berejiklian and Scott Morrison like to portray NSW's approach to the COVID-19 pandemic as the "gold standard". Ms Berejiklian says she doesn't regret a single decision "because it has been based on health advice."
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If that is really the case, then in my opinion her health advisers have got it wrong this time. Gladys' approach has resulted in the present lockdown hardships that are being suffered by the people in NSW. I bet they "regret" her decision not to lock down earlier.
The current outbreak has been spread from an unvaccinated driver on June 16. The driver wasn't required to be vaccinated under NSW's "gold standard" approach. Why the hell not? How many frontline staff can there be?
The timing of the delayed lockdown could not have been worse in one respect.
Private schools closed a week before public schools. With the public school holidays approaching, many infected people will have left Sydney on holidays in the week between June 16 and June 24, when the lockdown was finally imposed and flights were cancelled.
Many families whose children attended public schools withdrew their kids early and headed out interstate or within NSW or maybe to New Zealand. Others would have been the wealthy Eastern Suburbs private school brigade off to their snow holidays or to their resorts in sunny Queensland. Thus the more infectious Delta variant has potentially been spread far and wide. We should expect a lot more cases in regional NSW, other states and in NZ.
The timing of the outbreak was fortuitous in another respect. Schools have closed for the school holidays. This means they cannot act as transmission hot spots for the Delta variant that infects schoolchildren more than previous variants.
Hunker down. Hope the virus doesn't come knocking. Watch TV. Take the kids and the dog for a walk.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
Candid views of candidates sought
WE are now beginning to find out who our candidates are for our council elections ('Labor picks election team', Newcastle Herald 28/6). The past few years have seen many controversial decisions, so now is the time to make councillors accountable or otherwise.
Letters to the Editor have featured Supercars, and transparency of council decisions. The Herald can help us in our decision making by getting prospective councillors to state where they stand on a range of issues which are submitted by readers. They should state quite clearly their intentions, no grey areas.
Derek Thompson, Newcastle West
Jets bosses can't play with fans
HONESTY, in business or in sport, should be the first objective of any organisation that relies on public support. I believe Newcastle Jets fans have a right to question the latest machinations that we have been fed from our new owners and executive chairman. We would first like to question the fact that Craig Deans is no longer our coach and whether we should believe that he was so stressed he could no longer see himself continue in that position.
While the results after his appointment on a full time basis were disappointing, the side wasn't disgraced in any of the matches where he was in charge. Anyone with basic football knowledge could see the obvious shortfalls in the playing squad; we lacked a quality holding midfielder in the absence of Ben Kantarovski, and had neither quality or pace in the final third. The young players signed under the new regime seemed simply cheap options and were at that point short of A-League standard.
From where I sit it would seem to me that the new owners were embarrassed with the poor results and decided to manage Craig Deans out of the coaching position and use him as the scapegoat for the lack of investment in the playing roster. By all accounts the new rebuild will have an emphasis on youth and we are going to bring in a new coach that will have us playing a style of football Barcelona fans would be proud of.
Could I point out to our Jets management team that history suggests that when an A League franchise embarks on a youth policy it is code for a cheap playing roster, the best example being the Mariners under Paul Okon.
There will be those that feel that I am being somewhat ungrateful to the new ownership group. That is certainly not the case, however the football public of Newcastle are not naive and the new owners should not treat us as such.
The question the new owners must surely ask themselves is how they get the loyal football fans of the Hunter back supporting the team in sufficient numbers to make the franchise viable and sustainable in the long term. To achieve that the football people of the Hunter will need to come out in force and in all probability pay more at the gate, however that will require a roster with a core group of quality, experienced players to augment any youngsters that might come through.
Eric Burns, Belmont
We can't embrace stadium's place
WHILE the basketball stadium proposed for Charlestown/Hillsborough will be beneficial to lots of people, there are many reasons why it shouldn't be considered at the proposed site. There is only limited public transport, especially if coming from the western side of Lake Macquarie.
The closest train station is situated at Cardiff, which means patrons will need further transport to arrive at the stadium. There will be parking on-site for daily use, but it will be extremely inadequate for medium to large events.
Parking off-site will be restricted to very narrow local roads to the east and no parking to the west and south and very limited parking to the north. These are just some of the problems that make the proposed site unsuitable.
Wendy Marr, Hillsborough
Farewell to queen of the pool
THE passing of Barbara Sergeant on June 23 may bring back memories for some senior Novocastrians. She grew up as Barbara Evans in Merewether and joined the Merewether Ladies' Swimming Club at an early age. She excelled at breaststroke and was selected to compete in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne at the age of 16.
Although she didn't win a medal, the Australian swimming team dominated the pool events and Barbara, a student at Newcastle Girls' High School at the time, impressed swimming coach, Forbes Carlile. In 1958, after winning the Australian 200 metre (220 yards) breaststroke title, she was appointed captain of the Australian womens' swimming team which included the likes of Dawn Fraser, Lorraine Crapp and Ilsa Konrads, for the British Empire Games (now Commonwealth Games) in Cardiff, Wales. Barbara later studied Physical Education and married the late Graham Sergeant, himself an outstanding Newcastle surf swimmer.
In 2006 I heard about a 50-year reunion that was proposed for Australia's 1956 Olympians in Melbourne. A few weeks later I passed her in a local supermarket and I confused her a little by saying happy anniversary. She gave me a nice smile when she was reminded of her teenage exploits.
David Stuart, Merewether
SHORT TAKES
I HAVE just seen toilet paper being emptied of the pallets in a mad panic buying rush, before the staff had time to put it on the shelves. All of you who are panic buying, please make sure you stock up on condoms so you don't breed any more idiots.
Richard Ryan, Summerland Point
DO retail politicians have a greater markup than wholesale politicians?
Peter Ronne, Woodberry
JUST wondering how the authorities are going to stop the people from the COVID hot spots in Sydney from attending the Roosters v Storm match in Newcastle. It's not the virus I fear, it's the potential of lockdowns in Newcastle. Why don't they play it in Sydney without crowds? Newcastle were overlooked for the nines tournament a few years ago, another example of Sydney using us when it suits them. Whatever.
Matt Ophir, Charlestown
THE Police Commissioner has said that person so called case zero will not be charged with breaking any rules. This is because there were no mandated rules or protocols in place for this vitally important transport task. Again we have been let down by the same incompetent team that gave us the Ruby Princess disaster.
Sandy Buchanan, Largs
JOSH Leeson's coverage of Fatherhood ("Daddy film with Heart", Herald 25/6), interested me because I had just finished watching it. It's quite a while since a movie has engrossed me, almost from the start, and during many times, quite poignant. I agree the outcome is predictable, but I don't think this detracts from watching it.
Daphne Hughes, Kahibah
YOU no longer see stars, but a matrix of satellites in formation traversing the sky. So much for starlight star night....
David Reynolds, Charlestown
YIPPEE! McDonald Jones Stadium gets to host the Roosters vs Storm. Get your tickets sheeple to see first hand how two successful clubs of the last decade master the art of disguising a forward pass from dummy half to first receiver to be seen as fair combined with the slowest reaction of defending players allowing the attacking team to play the ball. Uncle Nick's cherry picks versus the pride of News Corp's dark side.
Rocco De Grandis, Cameron Park
I FIND it amusing reading the regular 'right wing' LNP supporters condemning the 'bad left wing people', who campaigned against Mark Vaile being appointed as chancellor for University of Newcastle, plus the coal industry sycophant, Joel Fitzgibbon.
Daryl Frost, Eleebana
THE POLL
SHOULD State of Origin III come to Newcastle?