On Monday, measures including a night-time curfew came into effect for people living in Sydney’s 12 local government areas of concern.
As residents in parts of western and south-western Sydney come under harsher COVID-19 rules, community leaders have called on the state’s premier to “heal the divide that has emerged in Greater Sydney”.
On Monday, measures including a night-time curfew came into effect for people living in Sydney’s 12 local government areas of concern.
Twenty-one councillors across the LGAs of concern wrote a joint letter to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over the weekend calling for more “consistent” restrictions and enforcement across the Greater Sydney region.
For many weeks now, our LGAs have faced restrictions over and above the rest of Sydney. The recent implementation of a curfew, exclusively for the LGAs of concern, despite your prior statements that curfews weren’t effective, being the latest example.
Clear, consistent and easy to follow information during a crisis saves lives, especially amongst low socio economic and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
The councillors wrote that the “inconsistency” of additional geographic-based restrictions coupled with “statements from politicians and media commentators and footage of other parts of Sydney of people congregating in large numbers” creates confusion, and has left locals feeling “ostracised” and “subject to double standards”.
“The constant changes in public health orders and the exclusion and inclusion of certain LGAs and suburbs has made interpreting and disseminating important public health information difficult.
“It has also formented a dangerous undercurrent of resentment in our community, creating a deep divide between the ‘LGAs of concern’ and the rest of Sydney,” they wrote.
Canterbury Bankstown Mayor Khal Asfour told ABC Radio on Monday the community felt punished by the curfew, even though case numbers had stabilised.
“I mean, the premier is the one that’s kept saying that curfews don’t work,” he said.
“What most people were upset about isn’t necessarily the curfew. But it’s the fact that it’s not applying to everybody, just the 12 areas of concern, when there are some suburbs and some areas of concern that really don’t have any COVID numbers at all.”
When asked why LGAs with lower cases numbers such as Burwood and Strathfield remained under tighter rules, Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Marianne Gale told reporters on Monday the issue was proximity and close links between social groups.
Source via SBS News
