Sydney’s multicultural southwest region will wake on Friday to more police on the streets in a COVID crackdown that has been slammed as heavy-handed and racist.
At least 100 more police will target lockdown rule breakers in the city’s ethnic southwest in a “high-visibility” operation to ensure compliance with public health orders.
It comes as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian foreshadowed the lockdown would continue until Greater Sydney’s worsening Delta outbreak was significantly curtailed.
Meanwhile National Cabinet is due to meet on Friday to discuss a range of COVID measures including compulsory vaccination of disability workers and home quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers.
Ms Berejiklian has hinted the Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield and Liverpool local government areas could be subject to stricter COVID-19 restrictions.
Case numbers are surging in the area, with NSW Health picking up unlinked cases in Fairfield.
The NSW premier held an online meeting with about 250 community leaders and frontline workers following the announcement of the police operation.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the police deployment would involve Dog and Mounted Unit, Traffic and Highway Patrol Command, PolAir and Police Transport Command, as well as general duties officers from the South West Metropolitan Region.
“Our police will be targeting the people who think the rules don’t apply to them,” said Mr Lanyon.
“Those people are putting everyone’s lives at risk, including their own families, and working to prolong the lockdown.”
However some have slammed the police response as discriminatory, given the strong presence of multicultural communities in that part of Sydney.
“There is absolutely NO logic for the direct targeting of Sydney’s black and brown communities,” NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge tweeted.
“The *only* logic for targeting the most multicultural part of Sydney is the racist over policing of people of colour.”
The *only* logic for targeting the most multicultural part of Sydney is the racist over policing of people of colour.
— David Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeMLC) July 8, 2021
Racial justice organisation Democracy in Colour decried the decision, describing the operation as “thinly veiled racism”.
“This isn’t a public health response, it’s explicitly targeting people of colour and working class communities in the western suburbs,” said National Director Neha Madhok.
“Inner city suburbs and the Northern Beaches have had significant cases but they have not been harshly policed like this.”
But Fairfield Deputy Mayor Paul Azzo said the police operation was a small price to pay if it could slow down the spread of the virus.
“The fact that the proposed response was not adopted for earlier outbreaks in eastern Sydney and the northern beaches does not faze me,” Mr Azzo said.
“I see the proposed police response as a positive for South Western Sydney and I congratulate the premier for taking a special interest in the residents of Fairfield.”
Mr Lanyon denied the operation was discriminatory.
“The virus has shown very clearly that it doesn’t discriminate and nor does the NSW Police,” he said.
“That is why we are targeting the southwest metropolitan area as of tomorrow, as we have done where other areas of concern have been identified.”
Police will be asking people who are outside their homes what their reasonable excuse is, and will be cracking down on activities like unnecessary shopping.
Police Minister David Elliott said the virulent Delta strain was a “game changer”.
“Police will be out in the community helping people to comply, but where they don’t get compliance they will be out enforcing the public health orders,” he said.
NSW again recorded its highest number of daily infections since the pandemic’s third wave, notching up 38 new local cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday.
At least 20 of those cases were in the community for part or all of their infectious period.
Eleven people are in intensive care in NSW, with three ventilated.
Home loan help
Small businesses and Australians with home loans who are struggling through COVID-19 lockdowns can count on their banks to help them, says the Australian Banking Association.
A new national support package will be available to all small businesses and home loan customers who are significantly impacted by current lockdowns or recovery from recent lockdowns, the peak body announced on Thursday evening.
Customers will be able to seek deferrals of their mortgage repayments on a month by month basis.
Small businesses with loans in good standing will be able to delay loan repayments by up to three months.
Banks are also promising to refund merchant terminal fees for up to three months.
The package must be given the green light by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Spectators banned as Tokyo declares emergency
Spectators will be barred from Olympic venues in Tokyo, with organisers insisting it was the “only choice” after a new state of emergency was declared in the Japanese capital.
The news is the latest setback for the Games, which was initially postponed for 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The global health crisis continues to have a major impact on preparations for the event, with rising infection rates in the Tokyo region prompting the Japanese government to reimpose emergency measures for a fourth time.
Olympic events taking place in regions of Japan where emergency measures have not been imposed may still admit spectators if the relevant local authorities opt to do so, a statement from the organisers said.
“This is a sorry message that we have to announce, but this was the only choice available to take,” Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee president Seiko Hashimoto said on Thursday.
Last month organisers announced plans to allow 50 per cent capacity at Games venues, up to a maximum of 10,000 people, but the declaration of the state of emergency from Monday forced them into a re-think.
Asked how athletes would feel, Hashimoto said: “They wanted a lot of people to watch their performances, but many of the Japanese public were worried about the COVID-19 situation, even with the solid countermeasures, because of the flow of people and because of various concerns.
“The anxiety is being expressed and a lot of people are opposed. Every person is entitled to have every different thought but overriding these differences, athletes will do their best.”
Organisers had made the decision to bar overseas spectators from the Games back in April.
The Olympic Games officially begin on July 23, with the closing ceremony taking place on August 8.
A decision on spectators for the Paralympic Games – which run from August 24 to September 5 – will be made on July 16.
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