The plan offers “further certainty” on the months ahead, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday.
It is based on three key vaccine milestones.
The first phase commences on the Monday after New South Wales reaches 70 per cent double dose coverage of the eligible population.
Based on the current trajectory, that’s expected to be on October 11.
Sydney pubs will finally reopen! Credit: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images
It allows vaccinated residents to have up to five people in their homes and the reopening of hospitality, retail, hairdressing and gyms with tight density limits.
[Note: That must mean 100% of retail. I'm roughly 7 miles from Sydney center and as i've posted many times to you people who love to pull Australia down to boost yourselves up most all retail in my area has been open throughout lockdown.]
The second phase, newly announced on Monday, comes into place when the state reaches 80 per cent double-dose vaccine coverage.
That’s expected to kick in about a fortnight after 70 per cent is reached.
[So roughly by September 1.]
From then, vaccinated residents will be able to freely travel to the regions.
The limit for fully vaccinated guests at weddings and funerals will be scrapped.
[conix, and other mud-slingers, thankfully Australia and NSW will have many, many, fewer funerals per capita than the U.S. in cluding Georgia will suffer.]
Customer caps for personal services, such as hairdressers, will also be axed.
Those who are fully vaccinated will be able to welcome 10 fully vaccinated people to their homes. They will be able to participate in community sport and access hospitality venues, where drinking while standing will be permitted.
All premises will operate at one person per four square metres indoors, and one per two square metres outdoors.
“I know people are counting down the minutes until we reach 70 per cent double dose and the freedoms that will provide, and today we are providing further certainty by announcing the 80 per cent roadmap and future settings,” Berejiklian said.
“Vaccination remains our ticket to freedom so we need to work even harder to get jabs in arms, to help stop the spread, minimise outbreaks and ensure people are protected when we open up.”
The third phase commences on December 1, when the state is hoped to reach 90 per cent vaccine coverage.
Further changes will then be introduced, including all venues moving to the two square metre rule, masks will not be required indoors at offices, indoor pools and nightclubs can reopen, and unvaccinated people will have greater freedoms.
A nurse holds a needle containing Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Qudos Bank Arena vaccination clinic in Sydney. Credit: BRENDON THORNE/AAPIMAGE
Berejiklian said that the roadmap offers a clear incentive to be vaccinated.
“The message is if you want to be able to have a meal with friends and welcome people in your home you have to get vaccinated.
“That is a simple message. If you don’t and you choose not to that is OK. You will have to wait a long time before you can participate in other activities.
“We are taking a very conservative approach - we don’t want to overwhelm our hospital system.”
She added that the roadmap may be “fine-tuned” as the COVID situation continues to unfold.
Interactive
The state officially reached 85 per cent first-dose coverage on Monday.
More than 60 per cent of the eligible over-16 population are fully vaccinated.
New South Wales on Monday reported 787 new cases of COVID-19, the lowest daily increase in several weeks.
There were 12 virus-related deaths.
REOPENING PLAN
Gatherings in the home and outdoor public spaces
* Up to 10 visitors will be allowed in a home (not including children 12 and under) * Up to 20 people can continue to gather in unregulated outdoor settings * Up to 200 people can attend COVID Safe events * Up to 500 people can attend controlled (ticketed and seated) events * Community sport permitted * Those who are not fully vaccinated may only gather outdoors in groups of 2 people
Venues including hospitality, retail stores and gyms
* Retail stores can operate at one person per 4 sqm (those who are not fully vaccinated will continue to only have access to non-critical retail via click-and-collect) * Personal services such as hairdressers, spa, nail, beauty, waxing, tattoo and massage) can operate with one person per 4 sqm (uncapped) * Hospitality venues can operate with one person per 4 sqm inside and one person per 2 sqm outside, with the requirement to be seated while drinking indoors removed. Group bookings will be limited to 20 people. Those who are not fully vaccinated can only access hospitality settings for takeaway * Gyms and indoor recreation facilities (excluding indoor pools) can operate with one person per 4sqm, capped at 20 people per class
Major outdoor recreation facilities
* Major recreation outdoor facilities including stadiums, racecourses, theme parks and zoos can operate with one person per 4 sqm, capped at 5,000 people (or by exemption). * Entertainment, information and education facilities * Entertainment facilities (including cinemas, theatres, music halls) can operate with one person per 4 sqm or 75 per cent fixed seated capacity (whichever is larger) * Information and education facilities (including libraries, galleries and museums) can operate with one person per 4 sqm * Amusement centres and nightclubs will remain closed
Working from home
* Employers must continue to allow employees to work from home, if reasonably practicable * Employers must require employees who are not fully vaccinated to work from home, if reasonably practicable
Education
* Return to school with COVID Safe measures on 25 October (as previously announced)
Weddings, funerals and places of worship
* One person per 4sqm (uncapped) for weddings with dancing permitted and eating and drinking allowed while standing. Those who are not fully vaccinated may only attend weddings with a maximum of 5 guests (no receptions) * One person per 4 sqm (uncapped) for funerals. Those who are not fully vaccinated may only attend funerals with a maximum of 10 people * Churches and places of worship can continue to open with one person per 4 sqm, with no singing. Those who are not fully vaccinated will be allowed
Travel
* Unrestricted trips between Greater Sydney and Regional NSW will be permitted * Caravan parks and camping grounds can operate, including for those who are not fully vaccinated * Carpooling is permitted. Those who are not fully vaccinated can only carpool with their household
Masks
* Masks will remain mandatory for all indoor premises and settings, except children under 12 * Only hospitality staff will be required to wear a mask while outdoors
Mandatory vaccination for NSW essential workers is valid, court rules
"AUSTRALIA - Far-right extremists hijacked tradie Covid anger to fuel chaos and groom new recruits, expert claims "Construction union condemns 'neo-Nazis' at Melbourne vaccine mandate protest"" -- Related: conix, Mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations in the workplace "zab--you are becoming a bit unhinged here." P - conix, And you complain about others insulting you. You don't believe people should be 'forced' to be vaccinated. You believe they have the right to choose. Ok, they do, but you let them off scot free with that. Others believe those refusing to be vaccinated should be condemned outright. And that every legal means to encourage them to be vaccinated should be followed. P - No one deserves to be becoming unhinged just because they disagree with you. zab, has not said anything to suggest he is becoming unhinged in any way. If you believe he has it in on you stated exactly on what you base that insult. P - You say leave these sores to fester on the body of population. Others say no, where possible put healing lotion on those sores. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=166365024 -- Supreme court dismisses appeal by 10 workers that public health orders should be overturned as they impinge their rights
The NSW supreme court has ruled that public health orders requiring health workers, teachers and some construction workers to be vaccinated are valid. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters
Australian Associated Press Fri 15 Oct 2021 19.32 AEDT
Public health orders requiring New South Wales health workers, teachers and some construction workers to be vaccinated to keep working are valid, the NSW supreme court has ruled.
The Sydney construction worker Al-Munir Kassam, Byron Bay aged care worker Natasha Henry and eight others had argued the public health orders should be overturned as they impinged on various rights, including a right to bodily integrity and a right to freedom of movement.
But Justice Robert Beech-Jones said arguing the health order impinged on rights was of little assistance when such abrogation was what the legislation set out to achieve.
When all was said and done, the public health orders in question restricted freedom of movement, he said.
“So far as the right to bodily integrity is concerned, it is not violated as the impugned orders do not authorise the involuntary vaccination of anyone,” he said.
“So far as the impairment of freedom of movement is concerned, the degree of impairment differs depending on whether a person is vaccinated or unvaccinated. Curtailing the free movement of persons, including their movement to and at work, are the very type of restrictions that the Public Health Act clearly authorises.”
The judge also dismissed claims the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, acted outside his powers by not asking the right questions or failing to take into account relevant considerations.
The case was the first in a series across Australia challenging various limitations for unvaccinated people.
The court’s decision deals a blow to another NSW case to be heard in November, involving the paramedic and regional deputy mayor John Larter.
Friday’s case also heralded a new era for Australian courts with video streams of the case’s hearings being watched 1.4m times on YouTube.
Most of those views occurred during the hearing itself, with the audience peaking at 58,000 during a directions hearing. More than 20,000 tuned in on Friday.
“The court’s use of YouTube to accommodate the increased public interest in these cases is indicative of the court’s principle of open justice,” a spokesperson.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Sign up to receive the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
The federal court has also turned to streaming public interest cases during the Covid-19 pandemic, including Christian Porter’s defamation fight and the related Jo Dyer v Sue Chrysanthou case.
Each peaked at more than 2,000 viewers while about 900 turned into a hearing involving the former soldier Ben Roberts-Smith.
Prof Rick Sarre said broadcasting court proceedings went back as far as the coronial findings into the death of Azaria Chamberlain in 1981.
But concern about preserving evidence, lawyers playing to the camera and the work involved in setting up a courtroom for broadcasting had made such events rare.
The University of South Australia adjunct professor of law cannot see jury trials being streamed but suggested judicial explanations for sentencing should be broadcast.
“The idea is it will happen a lot more but judges will be more particular about what they will subject to that,” Sarre said. “Leave it in the hands of the judge and he or she will be in the best position to make a call.”
Public faith in the administration of justice requires that justice must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done, the Law Council of Australia president, Jacoba Brasch QC, said.
“The courts’ willingness and adaptability to shift online during Covid has not only enabled Australians to continue to access justice during this time, but made it possible for more members of our community to observe our legal system in action if they so wish,” Brasch said.
However, she said the shift did create potential challenges that must be managed, such as ensuring people did not record the proceedings.
AUSTRALIA -George Christensen advocates for civil disobedience as vaccine mandates rock Coalition
"AUSTRALIA - Far-right extremists hijacked tradie Covid anger to fuel chaos and groom new recruits, expert claims "Construction union condemns 'neo-Nazis' at Melbourne vaccine mandate protest""
Labor leader calls on Morrison to condemn member for Dawson after he likened mandates to decrees by ‘Hitler and Pol Pot’
Government has tweaked vaccine indemnity scheme to secure votes of two rebel Liberal senators as George Christensen calls for civil disobedience. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp Wed 24 Nov 2021 21.38 AEDT
Last modified on Wed 24 Nov 2021 21.40 AEDT
Scott Morrison is continuing to battle insurgencies within his own ranks, with Queensland National George Christensen .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/george-christensen .. sanctioning civil disobedience in response to vaccine mandates, and veteran Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent declaring mandates “without reasonable exemptions are not only unconscionable, they are criminal”.
Senior ministers on Wednesday persuaded two rebel Liberal senators, Gerard Rennick and Alex Antic, who have threatened to withhold support for government legislation, to support the government on procedural votes during the final sitting fortnight. The government has agreed to a tweak to the vaccine indemnity scheme.
[INSERT: Word is ultra-right Peter Dutton, .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=143098397 .. who lost to Morrison in the last Coalition leadership challenge, is out for revenge. If he upends Morrison it would represent a dangerous move to the right for the main conservative party in Australia. A move as the GOP has experienced in America. A negative move for all.]
But divisions were on show in the lower house where Christensen and Broadbent used the opportunity of member’s statements before question time to ventilate their objections to mandates, with Christensen comparing the requirement to decrees by dictators like “Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Pol Pot”.
Christensen contended the solution to the overreach was “the rediscovery of human dignity along with, and I don’t say this lightly, civil disobedience”.
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, demanded Morrison “unequivocally and without reservation” condemn Christensen’s call for a public uprising.
Morrison responded by telling parliament that, as “the son of a police officer”, he believed everyone should obey the law.
Albanese returned to the dispatch box to invite Morrison “to directly condemn the member for Dawson for the very specific comments that he has made”.
Morrison said he condemned “any encouragement, any encouragement whatsoever by any person in any place regarding acts of civil disobedience” and then attempted to return fire by drawing attention to a historical comment by the ACTU’s national secretary, Sally McManus, arguing if laws were unjust then there wasn’t a problem with breaking them.
Morrison was chided by the new House of Representatives Speaker, Andrew Wallace, who told the prime minister to remain relevant to the question. But Morrison was aided by crossbencher Bob Katter who invited the prime minister to reflect more expansively on the comments by McManus.
Later on Wednesday, Christensen crossed the floor to vote with Labor on a litigation funding bill. Broadbent, having signalled his objections, is not intending to join colleagues in refusing to vote for government measures.
On Wednesday, Sam McMahon, the Country Liberal Northern Territory senator, warned she “might not be able to vote” for the voter ID laws, citing “concerns about how they’re going to impact, particularly Indigenous territorians”.
“I think there’s very little, if any, evidence of voter fraud in the Northern Territory,” she reportedly told NITV.
The government wants that proposal passed before parliament rises for 2021, and extended sitting hours in the House of Representatives on Wednesday night to facilitate debate. Labor opposes the change.
Assuming it can corral its own internal rebellion, the government will attempt to persuade Senate crossbenchers to pass the legislation expeditiously without subjecting it to a new Senate inquiry.
But in a report tabled late on Wednesday, the parliamentary joint committee on human rights concluded the special minister of state, Ben Morton, had failed to demonstrate that cracking down on multiple voting is “pressing and substantial enough to warrant limiting human rights”.
It noted the bill’s safeguards to prevent people being excluded from voting but warned of a risk it could “impermissibly limit the right to participate in public affairs” especially for certain groups that would be “disproportionately” affected (such as Indigenous persons in remote communities, people experiencing homelessness and those fleeing domestic violence).
More shootings on Sydney’s streets and yet more police powers – but to what end?
"AUSTRALIA - Far-right extremists hijacked tradie Covid anger to fuel chaos and groom new recruits, expert claims "Construction union condemns 'neo-Nazis' at Melbourne vaccine mandate protest""
Sharing similar problems of waste. A waste of time, energy and resources law enforcement worldwide struggles with. Never forget though, it has been much worse. In Miami, Chicago, NY, and LA. And in Australia, it has in the past been much worse.
Lawyers and experts believe tackling underlying causes of organised crime may be more effective than greater police crackdowns
Increased police powers in the past have done little to stem the deadly gun violence within Sydney’s organised crime. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP
Nino Bucci Mon 23 May 2022 03.30 AEST Last modified on Mon 23 May 2022 06.17 AEST
The New South Wales .. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/new-south-wales .. premier stands outside a police station in Sydney’s west after a spate of shootings, saying he makes “no apologies” for announcing tougher measures to target organised crime.
The police minister is there too, chiming in with: “We’ve seen retaliatory attacks across criminal gangs for too long in Sydney.”
That was seven years ago, when Mike Baird and Stuart Ayres unveiled “the strongest attack on organised crime we’ve seen anywhere in the country”.
Last week new police powers were again announced in response to an outbreak of gun violence, with officers now able to raid the houses of people with a prior conviction for a serious drug offence without a warrant.
There was a new taskforce too, with a new name, and another police minister, Paul Toole, again using the occasion to issue a warning: “We are going … to be out there in the faces of these criminals each and every day.”
But the latest crackdown did little to shift attention from the body count: in the past 18 months, 13 men have been shot dead in a western Sydney turf war and there is no end to the bloodshed in sight.
Mistakes repeated
In their announcement shortly before the 2015 election, Baird and Ayres unveiled serious crime prevention orders, which could include conditions that essentially forced suspected criminals to stay in their own homes and prevented them from owning phones that received encrypted messages. At the time, the harsh orders were of little concern to Ghassan Amoun: he was in prison then.
In December 2020, however, NSW police did apply to slap an order on Amoun. He had a significant criminal history and was the brother of Bassam Hamzy, who founded the Brothers 4 Life gang .. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_for_Life] .
Justice Peter Garling granted the order and issued a troubling portent for things to come, saying there were “rival families … sorting out their differences between themselves in a violent manner and without engaging with the police”.
“This is a course of conduct of rampant serious and violent criminality, involving members of the [Hamzy] family on one side and members of the Alameddine family on the other, occurring in public and intended … to inflict violent retaliation upon each other for perceived crimes and slights.
“Whilst the publicity about these events, the intense police investigations which are occurring, and, perhaps, the existence of these proceedings, has led to a pause in these retaliatory attacks, there is no reason to think that the disputes have been finished and settled for all time.”
On a sunny day this January, while he sat inside a car in South Wentworthville, Amoun was shot dead. He was 35.
A burnt-out car, possibly used as the getaway by Ghassan Amoun’s shooter, in South Wentworthville on the day he was found dead. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Earlier this month, another man subject to a serious crime prevention order was also shot, in an attack that killed his colleague.
The fact that the increase in gun crime has been met with an increased show of force by police, rather than a reckoning about why previously introduced measures such as prevention orders may not be working, does not surprise lawyer Ahmed Dib.
“I’ve got kids, I don’t want them growing up on streets where … bullets are whistling by their ears,” says Dib, who lives in the city’s west and has represented a string of men accused of gun crime.
“The reality is, it’s been 20 years and [gun violence] has been increasing, if anything, not decreasing. For police to keep repeating the same mistakes … it’s insanity.”
Lawyer Abdullah Reslan, who represents similar clients to Dib, agrees that new police powers are not the answer.
“This approach provides a Band-Aid solution, which may be considered politically effective but is practically ineffective,” he says.
“The approach fails to take into account the source of the violence.
“The lack of targeted youth programs and failure by law enforcement to properly engage with the community has allowed repeated underworld power vacuums to be filled by younger and more reckless players.”
Recruited as teenagers
Public court documents show recent victims of gun violence had extensive criminal histories dating back to their teenage years.
Mahmoud Ahmad, 39, who was killed in April, first committed offences as a child, a court has heard, and recorded his first shooting-related offences in his early 20s.
A man who survived a shooting in May was convicted of assaulting police as a 15-year-old, court records show, before gradually escalating his offending over the next 16 years, in between stints in prison: firstly he used a dog to maul a man, then he beat another man over a drug deal, leaving him with brain damage, before shooting someone twice in a drive-by shooting.
These interactions with the justice system are seen as an opportunity. But an opportunity for what, exactly, depends on whom you speak to.
Those who think courts are not hard enough say these are inflection points, where crooks could be sent inside for longer rather than set free to cause more trouble.
Those who believe early intervention can prevent a life of crime believe these are missed chances for a child to get the help they need.
NSW police minister Paul Toole has promised another crackdown on gun crime but to what end? Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
Some criminal syndicates actively court teenagers, police sources say, offering them relatively small amounts of money such as a few hundred dollar to complete minor logistical tasks. These tasks can escalate quickly, so much so that some teenagers become comfortable handling firearms well before their 18th birthday.
Dib reckons education is the main factor that helps his clients break free. He says an inability of these offenders to study while on remand and the scarcity of drug rehabilitation beds makes this task harder.
Reslan says examples of young men having extensive criminal records stretching back to their teens suggested that imposing regular or extended custodial sentences did “not work to rehabilitate, rather, in many cases promoting or encouraging antisocial thoughts or ways of life.
“The justice system needs to focus more succinctly on rehabilitation, with the focal point being community engagement, especially among young offenders,” he says.
“Resources should be directed at … youth programs and education, mental health within the justice system and other community initiatives targeting youth from the street level up.”
Dr Michael Kennedy, a former NSW police officer and senior lecturer at Western Sydney University, believes the current spate of shootings are no cause for concern, that the state is not unsafe and that much of the furore has been whipped up by the media.
“There’s nothing new about any of this,” he says. “What’s the difference if Squizzy Taylor cuts your throat with a razor or someone shoots you dead? It’s getting rid of a rival in organised crime.”
A senior NSW detective who spoke to Guardian Australia on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly, agrees that, in many cases, the issues had not changed in decades.
That could mean a new police approach, in combination with other measures, may make a difference, he says, but he agrees there was only so much police could do.
“It’s probably a broad failure societally that we’ve got to this point, but that’s for the social policy makers, not for me,” he says.
“There are some people who actually just do crime because they want to. But there are others who just need someone to tell them they’ve got another option.”
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
