5 MAY, 2020.
More than 4 million people had already downloaded the app. What could possibly go wrong?
There were skirmishes in the forecourt, now empty. All the economic forecasts were bad. 4 billion a week the cost of the lock down, so screamed that day's headlines.
There was more than one way to skin a cat. There was nothing more totally and completely irresponsible than the behaviour of both the government and the government controlled or manipulated mainstream media in squashing alternative views to what could easily be argued was their dire mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis.
There were many leading experts who queried what the Australian government had done.
Even on the face of it it all sounded insane.
Quarantine the healthy. Crash the economy. Throw millions onto the dole queues. Convince the public even more surveillance will be good for them and the country.
Was it possible that an inept and strife-torn government could mismanage the health of the public while blatantly using the opportunity to wipe sorry story of their past.
Of course it was.
In the end he didn't even know why he cared. It was not as if the favour was returned. The setups became more elaborate, more conspiratorial, nastier at heart. They sang songs they thought he would understand. Say hello. Wave goodbye. You were the standing joke of the year.
He was witnessing the birth of gods and devils, for this is how it had all begun, all those eons ago, the matching of organic lifeforms to vastly intelligent machines.
That drama, those dramas of so long ago, now being played out on this most fecund, and in some senses most unfortunate planet.
He could reach them screeching in the sky, but there was no way out and no way back. They weren’t kind. They weren’t interested. And no matter how much they were beseeched, they shed not a single tear.
So when he was asked to play a role, to be a transmission point, to ably gild the lily or oil the path, to make life easier for the transgression of ideas, he willingly agreed.
Until there was time for no more play. Until the forecourts really were empty. Until those millions on the dole queues found their own voice. Until the chronic disastrous mismanagement of the situation became not a matter of argument but of historical record.
If policy was not well-informed by vigorous public debate then all that was left was the word of self-serving politicians, jobworths, military henchmen or those who could survive their own mismanagement or prosper at the hands of chaos.
There wouldn't be too far to go to find our own resource. There wouldn't be a lightning rod which would rescue us. It wasn't just the forecourts, it was the empty carriages, the quiet streets, the closed shops, the ghosts of hope and enterprise that already hung everywhere.
How was it even possible, that these people could have done this to themselves? That the nation’s politicians could get away with implementing this level of a debacle on the populace, and convincing them it was for their own good.
To save them from the virus.
They had finally found a point of fear to implement their terror. Forget Islamic terrorism. Forget climate change. Forget domestic violence. They had found their perfect point: an invisible, deadly enemy.
Except one day it would all came crashing down: because nobody believed them anymore. They had cried wolf once too often.
When questioned on her stance by Stefanovic during an appearance on Today this morning, Senator Hanson was blunt.
“I don’t want them tracking me. I don’t trust the Government,” she said, before citing the data retention laws of 2015 and claiming this latest app would also wind up passing personal information into the hands of other companies.
“Why the hell would I let the Government give it to them personally to download my information?” Senator Hanson questioned, causing Stefanovic to fire back with a reminder about civic duty.
“You have a responsibility to the Australian people if we want to try and control this COVID-19 and we want to try to track people,” he told her. “I've been self-isolating. I haven't got the COVID-19, besides when you have only a few cases in the blasted country and they lockdown the whole bloody country still and they want to put this app on your phone when we're on very much on the decrease … Come on, Karl. I don’t trust them.”
Australians can now download the government’s controversial coronavirus contact tracing app, Covidsafe, amid ongoing concerns about privacy of those using the app.
Australia's coronavirus contact tracing app Covidsafe: what we know so far
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The app, based on source code from Singapore’s Tracetogether software, maintains a log of bluetooth connections a person’s phone makes with the phones of those they have come into contact with, making it easier for health authorities to trace potential Covid-19 carriers in the case of a positive diagnosis.
For the app to be successful, just under half the population would need to carry it on their phones.
From 6pm Sunday, users will be able to go to the Apple app store or Google Play store and install the app, and register their name, phone number, postcode, and age range.
Scott Morrison, after saying it was not his “preferred option”, confirmed downloading the app would not be mandatory, and instead has likened it to a civic duty, such as buying war bonds in the second world war. He also flagged it as a necessary step to relaxing restrictions.
The coronavirus pandemic has made Australians more anxious, more confused — and a lot more bored, a new survey suggests.
The COVID-19 Monitor, a new research project from Vox Pop Labs in partnership with the ABC, takes us inside the homes of Australians to reveal how they're really feeling as they live in self-imposed exile. It finds:
The number of Australians reporting poor mental health has more than doubled compared to a month ago.
The number frequently feeling despair has more than tripled.
Those frequently feeling confusion is up more than five times.
On a more positive note, the number of Australians frequently feeling a sense of solidarity has also jumped.
The COVID-19 Monitor also provides insights into what Australians think about governments' response to the pandemic — and the extent to which they're following the nation's isolation regime.
Most Australians back the Federal Government's response
Stay up-to-date on the coronavirus outbreak
You can also get up-to-date information on the Federal Government's Coronavirus Australia app, available on the App Store, Google Play and the Government's WhatsApp channel.
And a clear majority approve of the job PM Scott Morrison and the premiers are doing
More people are worried about the economy than about catching coronavirus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/australia-economy-news-deepest-downturn-in-90-years-is-coming
Australia Is Heading Into Its Deepest Downturn in Almost 100 Years
It’s likely to take years for wage growth and inflation to bounce back.
Australia appears to have succeeded in flattening the coronavirus curve, but such an optimistic health outcome won’t prevent the economy from experiencing a deep downturn. Our base case anticipates the largest contraction since the 1930-1931 Great Depression.
Significant stimulus — both monetary and fiscal — is cushioning households and helping businesses to survive and retain workers. Despite this, Australia’s small open economy has already seen considerable damage and faces headwinds from subdued global demand and trade. Significant monetary-fiscal coordination to provide further stimulus will be required to recover the economy over the years ahead.