Jimmy_041 wrote:Ah well, we’ve got your word for it.
And Dan Andrews is therefore an effing liar
I’ve never met Scott Morrison so don’t know whether he is or isn’t what you say
But if your cousin is speaking out of school, then he probably deserves how he’s treated
I speak to my family all of the time and you’re amazingly arrogant to assume otherwise considering you don’t know me or them.
Cheers
Well, that matches your arrogance and rudeness in your previous post stating that the only reason my cousin would contact me would be to break national security (which he didn't), so I guess we are even. I do apologise for my comment though.
No, my cousin is not speaking out of school; he is just frustrated at the way he is muzzled by Scott Morrison. In his interview today, you could also see that Dan Andrews wanted to close schools but all premiers have taken a vow to follow the national stance set by Scott Morrison.
Now for a critique of the current situation, IMHO:
Knowing that immunologists and infectious disease experts (Bill Bowtell, David Caldicott just to mention two) are saying that we need to act early and decisively and that there are now 73 countries who have either fully (56) or partially (17 – in major cities) closed schools, here are my humble thoughts on how this can be done in Australia so as to keep people safe and with very little financial or personal cost or interruption to key services:
It is much safer to have children and young adults in small groups rather than in schools of up to 1500, that is pretty clear. We also need to ensure that people’s work lives are not limited too much (particularly if they are in essential services). We can do this by ‘Australians being Australians’, by ‘being community’, by ‘caring for one another’.
IMHO, we can have small groups of families work together to achieve this in the following way: A few families (limited to approx. 6 or 7 children) team together to look after the children of each family. Each parent who can either work from home, or who is willing to take a day off work (with pay from the government, as the cost involved will be a lot less than the health cost involved if Covid-19 takes off) can take it in turns to look after the children. Each parent would be required for up to one day per week. Parents who work in essential services (e.g. health workers, law enforcement officers) can be exempted from this. If we can’t get enough parents for a group, then school staff (each with their own Working With Children clearance) can be involved. This could all be coordinated at the local school level.
Grandparents would not be needed to do more than they already do (in fact, if they wish at this time, their contact with children can be reduced… to keep them safe).
We have world-best technologies available for teaching remotely (SEQTA, Educator Perfect, Zoom, Skype, Moodle, Podcasts. Screencasts, Kahoot… just to name a few) plus we can have constant contact with emails to and from students. This will ensure that teaching can still be extremely productive whilst schools are closed.
As an educator, I care about the young adults entrusted to me, their families, my fellow staff and the wider community. I believe we need to act early. Do our leaders care enough about their community to take this bold action? I pray they do. I believe we are better than our Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, believes we are. With good parenting and care for children, they will not be aimlessly wandering down malls.
With kind regards and prayers,