Residents in lockdown buildings across New South Wales are being limited to six drinks per day and maintain that their deliveries are being opened and examined by authorities.
The state’s health department has introduced a drink limit in controlled buildings and maintain the measure will ensure the safety of health workers and residents.
Common Ground in Camperdown, a housing commission building in Sydney’s inner west, is the latest building to fall under a full lockdown after some cases were reported in the complex, with locals protesting about the remarkable denial of freedoms.
A resident and artist Ms Saffaa posted to Twitter and asked the NSW Police, that Common Ground residents were wondering what happened to the booze and tobacco items dropped off to them? And under which powers were they permitted to seize them? And that the last time she checked those things were legal to consume in the country.
One Nation MP Mark Latham was outraged by the alcohol limit and the intrusion of health measures into people’s legal rights, and Mark Latham tweeted, is there any end to the authoritarian tendencies of this NSW Liberal Government?
The Common Ground building, sponsored by Mission Australia, comprises 104 units, many of which provide homes for homeless people throughout the area.
The building was cast into an extreme lockdown almost two weeks ago after four cases were confirmed on the site.
Residents have received food from charities, but have only received a case of canned food lacking nutritional substance.
People identified the alcohol rations as a particular point of contention, with residents only permitted to have either six beers or pre-mixed drinks, one bottle of wine or one 375ml bottle of spirits.
These limitations are the same as those locked in hotel quarantine after arriving from overseas.
Ms Saffaa said that a member of their community had delivered multiple baskets of fresh food, booze, and cigarettes. However, the alcohol and some cigarette packs had been removed.
She said that the NSW’s police were systematically examining their parcels, post, and their belongings and they now have things missing.
Health officials say the measures are for the resident’s good and that of their neighbours, and a police spokesperson said that in all residential lockdown areas, NSW Police are there to ensure compliance with the Public Health Orders and support NSW Health if needed.
Is this Australia anymore? Because the country appears to have gone to the dogs, and now it seems to be showing the hallmarks of authoritarianism, and it’s not really the government’s business how much a person drinks or smokes. Next, the police will be checking groceries and removing anything they don’t approve of.
But what really makes my blood boil is when I hear the words, ‘You can get some of your freedoms back.’
We’re not slaves or prisoners, so no one has that power to take away a person’s freedoms, and anyone that follows just does that by consent, and just as quickly as it can be given, it can be taken away.
And Australians are now being treated like toddlers by tantrum-throwing politicians. Australia, the world’s biggest prison, the world’s biggest nanny state, or is it both?
First, they came for the socialists and people didn’t speak out because they were not socialists. Then they came for the trade unionists and the people didn’t speak out because they weren’t trade unionists, and then they came for the Jews and the people didn’t speak out because they were not a Jew, and then they came for me, but there was no one left to speak for me!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 