The_Big_M

Just as with his own willingness to cruise if it sails from Sydney Harbour for example, despite all the negativity he says about ships and cruise companies, there's always been more than a little hypocrisy in the commentary. His mob were suggesting building a cruise terminal in a National Park on Sydney Harbour as a better alternative. Yeah, sure, it's all about the environment.

Apparently, business cases don't matter to some.

That's not a great basis to claim it's incorrect. It can equally be pointed out that "The WHO at the outset stated that" international travel restrictions should not be applied. And that is the process NZ (and Australia, and others) did NOT follow. The WHO was criticised for their early commentary on a number of matters, in addition to the above. Which to be fair was very early on so did not have a lot of scientific/medical evidence to support, so could possibly be viewed with a political eye. That doesn't change the scientific viewpoint right now.

I don't think there's any scientific/medical disagreement on the wearing of face masks - they're viewed as likely beneficial. That's also just a political stance that was taken to try to justify not using them when there were shortages initially. It wasn't a good look to walk that position back so they came up with 'the false sense of security' argument. While using them is not a guarantee of safety, on the science and medical side masks are viewed as preferable to reduce the spread.

Oh, there's been a fair bit of guess work, especially around the rapid reopenings. And not all is related to solid science e.g. the declaration from the CMO back on 14 Mar (around Ruby Princess time!) that it was fine to not isolate if you'd been in contact with a coronavirus carrier as long as the contact was at least 24 hours out. Or the whole scandal on a Friday with 'we need to limit gatherings to <500 people... but only on Monday. After the football. Which I'm going to tomorrow, as should everyone!" And that's just a couple of examples... Simple fact is we've been lucky due to being an island isolated from the rest of the world. It only got controlled here by two things: 1) international border closures, 2) enforced quarantine

Yeah, I expected something like that. As seen in the past, people can and will lie so it isn't reliable.

Not sure how they'll police that. Even if they ask for id, someone could still present a passport to fly here, without address. Unless they change legislation just for this - and then get the airlines onboard - which sounds unlikely.

All depends who you're asking. For the cruise companies, yes. Remember, P&O already does that effectively. For the politicians, no.

The only time that area is used is when there is a southerly wind. Wind from all other directions excludes that use as a flight path. When a southerly exists, there are also alternate flight paths that can be used for the same routes. Therefore the location is not a problem in terms of flights. As for passengers, it's not uncommon to see flights from a port, and I actually think it's pretty cool. They'd probably prefer that then have the hassle of a 3 hour connection somewhere and worry about connection times.

Well, it doesn't seem to be given the restart of footy, travel of teams and military internationally.

That's fine as a point, just the example wasn't correct.

Can even skip the double handling of passports and check-in if they're smart about it.

No, Gateway and this are separate things, hence the comment. The Port Botany freight rail line isn't connected to the passenger network. That duplication will only improve freight handling, it doesn't relate to passenger traffic. It'd be a whole other business case to add a passenger link, and not readily feasible. It connects to the network around Macarthur, so people wouldn't want a detour out all that way to get to/from the city, or even the airport. Plus it was built to provide freight capacity so interrupting that with passenger traffic would be a no-no. Highly unlikely to be used for anything related to the cruise terminal (aside from provisions!).

You're getting 40k new cases a day?! Mindblown.

Got a link?