Taking the objective long term view, the virus has probably done more good than harm. Simply stopping migration is a major plus, & it has proved we don't actually need high migration to function very well. If the pollies & bureaucrats get this message it will be a major positive.

Then it, & the arguments with China, will have thinned down the university sector. This is almost as useful as the reduction in migration, particularly if it sends a whole raft of poor quality people out looking for a real job, rather than brainwashing ever more kids. One also must wonder just how much intellectual property transfer this has supported.

Yes it has & will kill some oldies, & at over 80, & a few heart attacks behind me, I am probably more likely to be one of them than most. Granted I would rather go out instantly in a 100 MPH crash than coughing my lungs out in a hospital bed, but even then, it shouldn't hurt for very long.

Still I want to keep the international boarders shut, & shut a damn sight tighter than they are now. It is better to gain herd immunity, if that is possible, slowly than in a rush. People do not need to go to Indonesia personally to discuss business, unless it is funny business, & private international travel is not exactly necessary for a happy life. So just perhaps the final result could be positive.

Hi Hasbeen,
Couldn't agree more. However there is no need to disrupt the lives of ordinary Australians to achieve those very sensible goals of decreasing immigration and reducing reliance on foreign students. Simply vote for politicians and parties that support these policies. In addition there are some very authoritarian activities taking place under the guise of "keeping us safe". Such as tracking our movements with "Covid safe apps", the proposal of "vaccine passports". The compulsory vaccination of people which we see beginning with the nursing home workers but is likely to continue to expand to the rest of us. If we wish to remain a free country we need to remove this excuse for government overreach.

I'd support compulsory Vaccinaionce, if there was a choice offered between types. People have rights, sure. But infecting other folks with a killer virus, isn't one of them!

Just because You're too obtuse to see that we need everyone vaccinated including kids, to achieve herd immunity. And something that needs to happen everywhere around the globe to give the virus no new host to replicate with!

Yuyustu a pill? Perhaps. But an injection that kills 99.99% of any coronavirus including the common cold? Almost certain? And possibly available at any pharmacist/district nurse etc? I've heard government ministers reject island quarantine, on the grounds we have no fit for purpose hospitals.

We could if we but fitted out a couple of ships as floating hospitals! Especially if they were powered by MSR thorium. Given anything else and the required energy demand, would be out of the question!

And given adequate maintenance and updates as required, could serve us for up to a century as hospitals, wherever needed! Or as tabletop aircraft carriers, if that were needed! we need folk able to think outside the box, not scarlet fools, rejecting sensible solutions!

Can't afford them? Could if we could just get those costly albatrosses off our necks, we call state governments? And in the process, liberate an additional 70+ annual billion!
Alan B.

Hasbeen. Couldn't agree more! Spoiled brat kids need some missing steel in their spines, that and the required skills could be acquired via compulsory conscription!? And confiscating their phones/personal transport for the duration!

Other than that, farmers who want harvest workers? Need more than anything else, comfortable and private, safe sleeping quarters and a policed, no drugs or alcohol rule!

Can't think of anything more discouraging than a rowdy drunk pestering other tired folks who just need a good night's sleep to earn a quid.

Heat is easier to tolerate if one can cool off under a quick shower or in air-conditioned SEPERATE PRIVATE, SAFE, sleeping quarters! Not in communal bedrooms and stacked in like sardines!

Other than that? Let's give the army a go at addressing rural staff shortages with conscript labour? Hey? And learn the missing teamwork and cooperation now needed as a pre-resiquite to special skills training?

Simply put, the quicker they get with the program the quicker it's over!

Those that think it's not for them could start thinking differently if the pre-training character/leadership building/self-reliant training is repeated as often as necessary? More so for the able-bodied lard asses!
Alan B.

Alan if this stuff gave real immunity I'd be with you in a flash, but it most certainly doesn't. Thus it can't promote herd immunity.

Israel is showing results that 45% of their recent deaths from the virus were fully "immunised" with this stuff. Great result.

I will not infect you, unless I were to visit you, which I guarantee not to do. If you then don't visit me, you will be safe, & so will I.

I don't go out much, & often it is only for a blast in one of the cars, with no stops along the way, so pretty safe. I do go to the local SS or near by village bakery for bread, but I & both venues are pretty careful. You have to take a chance for the finer things in life occasionally.

My only real danger is my home delivery of groceries. I can have no idea of the health of the "picker" who gathers them, but even worse for me is the delivery. The supermarket here uses a contractor for delivery, & it is staffed entirely in my experience by Indians.

These are nice people, & I have become friends with a couple of the drivers, but they are Indian. I have no idea, & would never ask of them, just how recently any of them may have had a humanitarian visit to their homeland, during their recent mass outbreak.

I have no faith in the totally inadequate isolation of returning travelers in hotels. These are more likely to incubate infection than isolate.

So that is my slight chance of infection. I believe this danger is much less than being injected with some concoction rushed into production to make money, rather than save a nation, or the world.

If you are foolish enough to take it, good luck, but don't accuse me of endangering you mate, you are waltzing into danger taking that stuff of your own free will. As I said, Good luck!

Dear Hasbeen,

How's it going old cock?

You claim: "Israel is showing results that 45% of their recent deaths from the virus were fully "immunised" with this stuff. Great result."

I can't find any reference to that figure so I'm wondering if you could supply one.

Also of the 30 people at the super spreader party in Sydney to only 6 not to be infected were those who were fully vaccinated.

That to me is a pretty solid reason to be happy with my choice to have the jab.

I can still be pissed off that it had to be one of the least effective by a long shot of the vaccines available to the rest of the world but pretty typical of this federal government unfortunately.