A mandate preventing people unvaccinated against COVID-19 from visiting many public venues in Queensland will be eased from next Thursday.
People will no longer need to prove they have had two doses of a vaccine before heading into cafes, pubs and clubs from 1:00am on April 14.
This also includes theme parks, casinos, cinemas, weddings, showgrounds, stadiums, galleries, libraries and museums.
The mandate will still apply for vulnerable settings including schools, hospitals, correctional and aged care facilities….
“The restrictions we had in place did their job, keeping our community safe and encouraging vaccination,” she said.
That’s an admission that the restrictions coerced people into taking a dangerous, untested “vaccine” against their will.
Coencidentally, the Northern Territory has eased exactly the same restrictions (yes I know, it’s a Territory not a State, you do the headlines, then):
The Northern Territory will no longer require residents to provide proof of vaccination to enter a range of hospitality and entertainment venues.
Health authorities announced on Tuesday the Territory Vaccine Pass has been removed, allowing the unvaccinated back into venues they were locked out off for several months.
The axing of the vaccine pass is in response to high inoculation rates in the Territory and the continual move towards living with COVID-19.
“From today, you are no longer required to show your vaccination status to enter certain venues such as bars, pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, casinos, cinemas and theatres,” NT Health said.
“High inoculation rates” due to coercion. Again, they admit it.
In South Australia they’re even letting teachers go back to work, because idiotic isolation rules are affecting staff levels:
Unvaccinated teachers and school staff in South Australia, as well as public transport workers and taxi and rideshare drivers, will be able to return to work tomorrow.
Vaccine mandates on workers in the school and passenger transport sectors will lift at midnight, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced.
Both sectors have faced workforce pressures amid escalating COVID-19 cases in South Australia.
Pureblooded South Australian teachers will still be treated as second class citizens, however:
Unvaccinated workers in public schools will be required to wear masks at all times indoors and use a rapid antigen test (RAT) every day.
They will not be able to work in remote Aboriginal schools, in special schools or one-on-one with vulnerable students.
I’d tell ‘em to get stuffed. Western Australia is also giving back some but not all of its citizen’s freedoms:
The easing of restrictions to Level 1 measures will be done with some modification based on risk.
Mandatory check-ins will be abolished except at venues that also carry proof of vaccination requirements.
“But you will at a restaurant, café or the pub.”
Indoor mask-wearing is set to remain, including for children in years three and above, but restrictions on gatherings have eased.
Indoor home gatherings will be capped at 30 people again, up from 10.
Private outdoor gatherings will be limited to a total of 200 people, with a two square metre rule in place.
I hope they’re not expecting a thank you.
So we see a similarity in timing of the easing, a similarity in the policies being eased and in the wording used to justify the easing of restrictions. Covid cases are escalating across the country to a degree which would have sent the entire country into lockdown in 2020-21 before Putin did that thing.
It doesn’t take a cynic then to suggest that the common denominator is the upcoming Australian federal election, due in the first half of this year. It is worth revisiting the wordsof NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet:
“I get criticized for being the ‘Open Up Guy,’ he [Daniel Andrews] gets critized for being the ‘Lockdown Guy.’ So, if we could some how work together and have similar settling in place, the ability for the media to criticize and instil fear in the community based on the approach we were taking, we would take that off the table.
“So, it was a strategic plan for both of us to mirror our settings where possible, and that has proven to be incredibly successful.
Of course it’s coordinated. Scott Morrison has clumsily deflected the blame for the vaccine mandates for two years onto the Premiers, and now he has convinced them to back off just before an election just to make him look good. That really takes some doing.