newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 10:20 pm Obviously, if Australia is at 100% vaccination, then suddenly opening up the country won’t cause any spikes. Maybe - few months to at most a year away.

How much pain is it suffering from it’s self-isolation?

Any Aussies know?

Australia (in my view as an always sceptical Kiwi outsider) is booming because of it's self isolation.

The death rate, the economy, the cohesion of it's society. All going swimmingly.
And especially - not having far too many outsiders pouring into the country every day, as was the case before.

The local tourist industry is starting to boom too (after a big hit initially).
Australians spent 3x as much on tourism o/seas than foreign tourists ever spent here in a year.
And guess what? It turns out that the Great Australian Outdoors is even better than a 10 day package holiday in Bali.
Australians are rediscovering their own country and have fallen back in love with it.

Sure, poor sad fuckers like me get stranded from going "home". But in the big picture that is a small price to pay for not being one the fucked-up horror shows that most countries are these days.

(just my view, others may differ)

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 1:49 am Fact is, Oz is sitting pretty and is in a position to continue to choose the best commonsense/scientifically- guided response with great success.
- As it always has. Look at the evidence.

The price to pay: Questionable tactics by the Australian govt include the refusal to allow Australians to return to their country from India, and also limiting the quarantine places for returning Australians. If you are an Australian citizen then you have the right to enter your country according to all international human rights' agreements.
I agree that the government is not there to "nanny" returning expats, but if Australian expats are willing to pay all expenses for quarantine in order to return home (which is also questionable IMO), then they should be helped and not hindered.
The airlines are not to blame for the shortage of flights and their mounting prices, because the Australian government has made this necessary through the quota system.
The government let Australians travel to India for various reasons, usually family, so surely they should step up and let these people return ?

Anchor Moy wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 2:17 am

SternAAlbifrons wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 1:49 am Fact is, Oz is sitting pretty and is in a position to continue to choose the best commonsense/scientifically- guided response with great success.
- As it always has. Look at the evidence.

The price to pay: Questionable tactics by the Australian govt include the refusal to allow Australians to return to their country from India, and also limiting the quarantine places for returning Australians. If you are an Australian citizen then you have the right to enter your country according to all international human rights' agreements.
I agree that the government is not there to "nanny" returning expats, but if Australian expats are willing to pay all expenses for quarantine in order to return home (which is also questionable IMO), then they should be helped and not hindered.
The airlines are not to blame for the shortage of flights and their mounting prices, because the Australian government has made this necessary through the quota system.
The government let Australians travel to India for various reasons, usually family, so surely they should step up and let these people return ?

They have. First plane load arrived yesterday

Didn't the Australian government tell people to return pronto at the start otherwise they may have problems later?

I do get AM's point about allowing citizens entry back into their own country, but yeah, most of those who are stranded could have taken more responsibility themselves.
They are not mostly stranded tourists or visiting sick relatives o/seas.

Fact is, they are mostly....
- high paid skilled expats who did not want to give up their jobs and come home earlier, despite the Gov's warning.
- people who ventured o/seas since the pandemic was well under way. ie, not stranded by something unforeseen.
- non Au-born australian citizens living back in their original country of birth, and who now suddenly want to flee back to safe australia again when it all goes to shit in the place they have chosen to live.
- went back to the "hometown" country 2 weeks ago (when it was already near catastrophic there) for the big family wedding of their wife's 4th cousin and now demand to return to australia. Immediately!!

Besides - you gotta break eggs to make an omelette. There is no avoiding that.
For sure some aspects could have been done better. eg, NZ does not restrict exit or entry of it citizens so harshly. - but really, they are only relatively small grievances or failures in the much much bigger picture.

Fact is, those strict entry restrictions have saved Australia from a whole rest-of-the-world full of pain.

What % of Aussies actually travel a lot of my friends only travel domestically so international boarder closed don't affect them, if all the states are open life goes on as normal

Yeah ^^ 'pretty much agree with Clutch.

And i do think the tough talk is related to the elections - At every state election since Covid hit, voters have voted for strong effective measures.
I think they are also preparing Australians for the reality that vaccinations are not a totally effective magic bullet which will take the world back to the halcyon BC times. ( < Before Covid)

It is also possibly a bit of a carrot and a stick to hurry up those with vax hesitancy.
All the Pfizer doses are now going the the under-50s due to the clotting issues with the AstraZen. The over 50's are hesitating because they perceive they are getting "second best" AZ. (including me, in part)
Most of us are waiting to see if we get more Pfizer or Moderna - but if it comes to opening up the borders earlier i think we will jump in and take the AZ pretty quick.

Damm sure this hyper-Cappo, BigBiz government will want to open up the borders as soon as it is "economically rational".
but yeah, most of all they want to win the election first.

newkidontheblock wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 10:20 pm Obviously, if Australia is at 100% vaccination, then suddenly opening up the country won’t cause any spikes. Maybe - few months to at most a year away.

eh, we are never going to get 100%, too many people who a hesident to be vaccinated... as soon as we hit the point where we have a surplus of vaccines, we need to open to those who are vaccinated.

Nicolas wrote: ↑Sat May 15, 2021 11:42 pm

nemo wrote:The vax rate is very low there, Scummo probably thinks it is The Mark of the Beast given his proclivity for speaking in tongues.

4.4% of the Australian population is actually fully vaccinated. That’s not much.

The issue is we put all our eggs in the AZ basket, then the blood clot issues started occurring. So now we must import Pfizer for those under 50... luckily it seems that the US is entering oversupply territory, so we might get our vaccines earlier than planned

atst wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 8:07 am What % of Aussies actually travel a lot of my friends only travel domestically so international boarder closed don't affect them, if all the states are open life goes on as normal

I don’t really enjoy traveling Australia, it’s expensive and doesn’t do anything to me.

Living in Australia is not as good as used to be.
You can still find a traditional Greek-Aussie hamburger (with beetroot) , The World's Best By Far, but it is getting harder.
Mostly either Maccas style garbage or overloaded over-lubricated "gourmet" abominations these days.

(Greeks ran nearly ALL the hamburger joints in Oz since post WW11, hence the famous greek-aussie burger - but have now retired rich and fat and their grandkids these days don't want to work that hard.
- and the new chinese owners, of course, will never get a grip on a real burger
ffs, they tried to top my cappuccino with sweet chocolate syrup the other day)

What else have i enjoyed about living most of my life in this very foreign land??......
oh yeah, the beaches are not near as good as in Kiwiland but at least you will not die from getting a frozen dick.

....... ummm.... i'll get back to you if i can think of anything else