opinion

'I live in the middle of Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. All weekend I watched people bend the rules.'

I spent the majority of the weekend inside the walls of my apartment, which is situated smack bang in the middle of Sydney's current COVID outbreak. 

I cooked a lot. I painted some furniture. I watched season two of Too Hot To Handle in its entirety and I Facetimed my family and friends. 

I left the house to exercise and buy groceries both days, but during the handful of times I ventured outdoors I found myself quite taken aback. 

There were people... everywhere. 

It's all so contradictory and for every rule there's a sub rule. Pair that with the fact that we're a country fatigued and fed up with giving up our lives and our fun. 

Melbournians have been conditioned into compliance after four separate lockdowns. But for most in Sydney, particularly in the east where I am, this is all new again. And quite frankly many people have tuned out of the news for the aforementioned reasons; it's a place of confusing, political bickering. 

On the weekend I saw Sydneysiders enjoying their days off and bending the COVID rules in the middle of what we're being told is NSW's most "dangerous" outbreak yet.

But given we spend our week watching our politicians delivering mixed messages, and allowing non-essential services and businesses to remain open for trade, can we really blame them from taking advantage of that? 

It's hard to take month 16 of a pandemic seriously when those in charge aren't leading by example.

Feature image: Getty/AAP.

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Top Comments

caring mother 3 years ago 1 upvotes
Perhaps they will take lockdown more seriously when more people get sick.

millie1986 3 years ago 4 upvotes
This is what happens when a) the lockdown is not properly enforced and b) the population has been conditioned to believe lockdowns aren't necessary. Gladys has fallen into both these traps. The Victorian lockdowns worked so well because Daniel Andrews enforces the rules with an iron fist and doesn't worry about upsetting people. Gladys needs to stop begging and start enforcing. At the moment she is coming across as weak and apologetic. It isn't going to get the job done. Of course none of this would be necessary if the Federal Government would fix quarantine and speed up the vaccine rollout, but that is another article in itself.
cat lady 3 years ago
@millie1986 I agree with this 100%.  I’m in WA and because our lockdowns are hard and fast, for the majority of the pandemic we’ve been able to live normal lives (except for travel obviously).  I am horrified at what is going on in NSW. 
cat 3 years ago
@cat lady WA has never had the sort of situation NSW is dealing with, where someone highly infectious was in the community for many days. If someone with Delta walks through Forrest Chase and everyone becomes a potential carrier, then it might be comparable. Until then, get off your high horse, while WA has sheltered behind its border NSW has taken on the vast majority of the risk from returning travellers & done exceptionally well until now.