COVID-19 updates comments and concerns

[Tha_Phantom]

The point of a fine is to be "excessive", so people think twice before breaking the law.

[1AZRAEL1]

Context is key. Some dude was told to move on by police, he disregarded them. Spits at police. They arrest him. Some people have no respect and they get the fines/charged as they deserve.

[griffin]

My workplace has applied for the Jobkeeper program, and even though they haven't yet been accepted, they sent out emails to us workers yesterday to have us fill in a form if we want to participate, which suggests that they will close down our worksite as soon as they are accepted by the government (which would mean, no more money until the Jobkeeper payments start in about 6 weeks time (which is meant to backdate the payments to when you were laid off).

Finding out more about the program, that assumption above is most likely incorrect, as the payment is meant to keep people at work and keep their worksite open - even if there isn't any work to do or your business isn't allowed to be open (the business would be paid to have it's workers doing something, like work for the dole).
So even as my worksite is slowly cutting back on its labour costs due to the sales drying up, if $750 of our wages are to be covered by the government, we'd just be called in 4 days a week, doing menial work like cleaning, until we reach $750 worth of hours each week.

However, I think mid-May (3 weeks time), we will have enough states with zero new cases for several days, to warrant almost all businesses being allowed to open up again (while keeping the borders closed until there is a vaccine, or 2 weeks isolation for every arrival). Some states are already having days with zero new cases, while quite a few new cases recently are from Hospitals and foreign arrivals. We still have about 20-30 thousand Australians overseas, and quite a few of those still want to return, not to mention a couple of cruise ships still in our waters, so foreign arrivals will still be bringing the virus here for a few more weeks.
It looks like the number of new cases each day dropped as fast as it climbed, thanks to an almost complete lockdown here. Some might claim that it was over-exaggeration or fear-mongering, but if we had taken less strict actions, we would have had casualties like some of those other countries that acted slowly. It's like when we are told to prepare for a coming cyclone or flood and it doesn't end up being as bad as expected, does that make us wrong to prepare for it? All it will do is have us not be as prepared next time, and the next time could end up being worse than predicted.

[Unicran]

Well, those who don't listen / care can be putting the lives of others at risk. In that context, a $13,000 fine seems reasonable, given lives are at stake.

$5K fine for spitting on an essential worker, includes to & from work. $13k for being caught not 1.5m apart (excluding members from same household). Hmmmm....

[dirge]

$5K fine for spitting on an essential worker

Well, I'm not sure there's a valid reason for spitting on anyone, in truth.

[Unicran]

Well, I'm not sure there's a valid reason for spitting on anyone, in truth.

You’d think deliberate spitting would elicit >$50K fine in comparison.

The spitting recreation scene on Seinfeld was pretty funny though.



Well, the same thread over TFW has been removed. Not surprised at all.

[DELTAprime]

What? That seems excessive.

Apparently that's the fine here in Queensland. I assume other states landed on different numbers.

[Unicran]

Finding out more about the program, that assumption above is most likely incorrect, as the payment is meant to keep people at work and keep their worksite open - even if there isn't any work to do or your business isn't allowed to be open (the business would be paid to have it's workers doing something, like work for the dole).
So even as my worksite is slowly cutting back on its labour costs due to the sales drying up, if $750 of our wages are to be covered by the government, we'd just be called in 4 days a week, doing menial work like cleaning, until we reach $750 worth of hours each week.

However, I think mid-May (3 weeks time), we will have enough states with zero new cases for several days, to warrant almost all businesses being allowed to open up again (while keeping the borders closed until there is a vaccine, or 2 weeks isolation for every arrival). Some states are already having days with zero new cases, while quite a few new cases recently are from Hospitals and foreign arrivals. We still have about 20-30 thousand Australians overseas, and quite a few of those still want to return, not to mention a couple of cruise ships still in our waters, so foreign arrivals will still be bringing the virus here for a few more weeks.
It looks like the number of new cases each day dropped as fast as it climbed, thanks to an almost complete lockdown here. Some might claim that it was over-exaggeration or fear-mongering, but if we had taken less strict actions, we would have had casualties like some of those other countries that acted slowly. It's like when we are told to prepare for a coming cyclone or flood and it doesn't end up being as bad as expected, does that make us wrong to prepare for it? All it will do is have us not be as prepared next time, and the next time could end up being worse than predicted.

I’m not sure griffin. An employee can be stood down & still get JobKeeper payment if Employer & Employee meet the criteria. It’s to stop them migrating over to JobSeeker, which reflects on Jobless rate.

Furlough. That’s a new word I learnt during COVID-19.

[jazzcomp]

$5K fine for spitting on an essential worker, includes to & from work. $13k for being caught not 1.5m apart (excluding members from same household). Hmmmm....

Does that mean you get fined twice? For you to spit, it's possible that you are less than 1.5m away.

[jazzcomp]

Well, those who don't listen / care can be putting the lives of others at risk. In that context, a $13,000 fine seems reasonable, given lives are at stake.

The point of a fine is to be "excessive", so people think twice before breaking the law.

Then we should have a single excessive fine for everything and not break any law. Make the fine a factor of your income so the fine impacts everyone fairly. In a time where people could be losing jobs, I don't think fines is a good idea.

I would understand if a COVID-19 person did stuff knowingly to spread the virus, then I would agree to these kind of excessive fines. But then they could have mental health issues and that's why they did it. Example a retired soldier with PTSD was shot/killed by a police officer for violating social distancing (overseas). He doesn't have COVID-19 (FYI).