If you ever needed a perfect example of how fragile freedom is and how easily it can be snatched away from you – look to Australia as a shining example of how bad things can get.
The Australian army has begun transferring covid-positive cases, and those they have had contact with, into quarantine camps, located in the sweltering Northern Territory, just outside of the city of Darwin.
The Howard Quarantine camp has seen more people pouring in after nine new covid cases were identified in the community of Binjari.
Northern Territory Chief Minister, Michael Gunner said “residents of Binjari and Rockhole no longer have the five reasons to leave their homes,” referring to the five allowable reasons residents are allowed to leave their homes and include, buying food and supplies, exercising for up to two hours, care or caregiving, work or education.
The last two are depending on whether or not they can be done from home, and if so, residents lose those reasons.
In a Facebook statement, Gunner stated that, “They can only leave for medical treatment, in an emergency, or as required by law. It’s highly likely that more residents will be transferred to Howard Springs today, either as positive cases or close contacts,” he continued, adding:
“We have already identified 38 close contacts from Binjari but that number will go up. Those 38 are being transferred now.”
“I contacted the Prime Minister last night. We are grateful for the support of about 20 ADF personnel, as well as army trucks to assist with the transfer of positive cases and close contacts – and to support the communities.”
“We are doing an assessment today of what extra resources we might need from the Feds, and the Prime Minister is ready to help further – I thank him for that”.
Police Commissioner Jamie Chalkner told NT News that:
“We’re conscious of the fact that this can have some impacts on people’s mental health as well as their general well being.”
This all coming from the same government that dismissed the possibility of quarantine camps as a ‘conspiracy theory’.
Government officials have also stated that the measures were strong, but the threat to lives is “extreme”. The population of Binjari is around 220 and Rockhole sits around a population of 130.
The Northern Territory also has the largest population of Aboriginal people and an article published by the Epoch Times illustrated that Aborigines are living in overcrowded conditions stating that:
“According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in 2018-19, almost one in five Indigenous Australians lived in overcrowded dwellings (18 percent), compared to 5 percent of non-Indigenous Australians. Although this percentage had decreased from 27 percent in 2004, it still meant an estimated 145,340 Indigenous Australians were living in overcrowded dwellings in 2018-19.”
“In addition, the more remote an area, the higher the proportion of Indigenous Australians living in overcrowded dwellings (26 percent in remote areas and 51 percent in “very remote” areas), compared to 8 and 22 percent in non-remote areas.”
Malarndirri McCarthy, Northern Territory (NT) senator, stated that overcrowding in Indigenous communities was a “massive problem.”
McCarthy called for more housing to be built in the region stating:
“If we could get housing in there right now, I would be pushing that straight away to the federal government and the NT government to work on that, but we obviously need the resources to do so,” she said.
As of the 23rd of November 2021, as per the Australian Department of Health website, the Northern Territory has had 0 deaths from covid-19.
Yes, you read that right, zero deaths. Nada, Zilch. So much for the threat to lives being extreme.
The only thing that’s been extreme is the governments over reaction.
Australians have slowly had their rights eroded and it seems like the governments in respective states are going for broke.
