Certified Legendary Thread Corona, Jamaica ooh I wanna take ya (COVID-19 Information & Discussion Here) Part 2 "The Second Wave"

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radiojake said:
My favourite pub isn't opening til Friday, and they've already booked out Fri & Sat - Got a table for Sunday

A mate and I went for a bike ride around town (glorious day today) looking for an open bar/pub and eventually found one for a feed - Was so good - The little things, eh?

Think quite a few places will take an extra couple days to open up and get their sh*t sorted
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I'm so glad you found somewhere to enjoy that moment.
 
The Age today. So The Government got more input into the decision to use security guards from Trades Hall - technically, not a part of the Government, and the Justice department - than it did from the CMO. And more time was spent on the "broader purpose" than the actual purpose of keeping people safe. Heads should roll. Public safety is not a "nice to have."

"More than a dozen key internal emails from Victoria’s jobs department relating to hotel quarantine have been completely blacked out after the department made a claim to the Board of Inquiry that communications about the appointment of Sydney-based security firm Unified should be redacted.

However, the evidence that is available suggests the department’s senior officials disagreed strongly over the decision to use Unified, which ended up with the bulk of the security work, including at the Rydges on Swanston, the source of the biggest outbreak of COVID-19.

The redacted emails reveal the disagreement was because Unified was not on the department’s preferred list of tenderers. However, some of the public servants in charge of the program wanted to hire them anyway partly because they ‘‘employ loads of Jobs Victoria clients, so it’s actually serving a broader purpose’’. Jobs Victoria acts as an employment agency finding work for the unemployed...

Unified won the bulk of hotel quarantine work in Melbourne, earning more than $30 million in less than four months. But guards working for the company were infected with COVID-19 in the Rydges on Swanston, which has been linked to at least 90 per cent of cases in Victoria’s second coronavirus wave.
The Department of Justice, Precincts and Regions has claimed legal privilege over a number of emails created in early April, just days after the quarantine program began. A lot of them have therefore been redacted. The emails involve correspondence between the department’s legal and procurement teams, which became involved after it was discovered Unified was not on the government’s panel of pre-approved security suppliers.

They also show a highly political element to the selection of security companies. Notes of a meeting between senior official Katrina Currie, department secretary Simon Phemister, deputy secretary Alex Kamenev and another official on March 28 show that Mr Kamenev was given the task of asking Trades Hall for its view of a number of security firms.

Two days later Mr Kamenev reported to Ms Currie and another senior official, Jim Round, that Trades Hall was not keen on Unified. The email also refers to a man whose name has been blacked out who seems to have decision-making power. He ‘‘agreed to Unified for 48 hours initially as they aren’t preferred with Trades’’, Mr Kamenev reported.

Mr Round, a deputy secretary at the Justice Department, worked in the Premier’s office between 2017 and 2019. Before that he was an adviser in the office of Julia Gillard while she was prime minister. Neither he nor Mr Kamenev have been asked to give statements to the inquiry. Mr Round declined to comment on the emails and a spokeswoman for the department said all relevant information had been given to the inquiry and its claims of legal professional privilege were accepted by the inquiry.

An unidentified jobs department official said on March 31 they believed the security company was a risk because it had ‘‘not undergone a due diligence process and has not agreed to the service standards as set out in the Security Services Contract’’. Unified was also not popular with the Victorian department of Treasury and Finance, emails show.

The following day the official in charge of security contracts was even more blunt: Unified ‘‘will not be allocated any additional sites’’, he wrote. But Ms Currie and Mr Kamenev were not giving up without a fight. They won an exemption from procurement rules after pointing out the firm’s Indigenous ownership, responsiveness and flexibility.
 

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fortunatecrow said:
The Age today. So The Government got more input into the decision to use security guards from Trades Hall - technically, not a part of the Government, and the Justice department - than it did from the CMO. And more time was spent on the "broader purpose" than the actual purpose of keeping people safe. Heads should roll. Public safety is not a "nice to have."

"More than a dozen key internal emails from Victoria’s jobs department relating to hotel quarantine have been completely blacked out after the department made a claim to the Board of Inquiry that communications about the appointment of Sydney-based security firm Unified should be redacted.

However, the evidence that is available suggests the department’s senior officials disagreed strongly over the decision to use Unified, which ended up with the bulk of the security work, including at the Rydges on Swanston, the source of the biggest outbreak of COVID-19.

The redacted emails reveal the disagreement was because Unified was not on the department’s preferred list of tenderers. However, some of the public servants in charge of the program wanted to hire them anyway partly because they ‘‘employ loads of Jobs Victoria clients, so it’s actually serving a broader purpose’’. Jobs Victoria acts as an employment agency finding work for the unemployed...

Unified won the bulk of hotel quarantine work in Melbourne, earning more than $30 million in less than four months. But guards working for the company were infected with COVID-19 in the Rydges on Swanston, which has been linked to at least 90 per cent of cases in Victoria’s second coronavirus wave.
The Department of Justice, Precincts and Regions has claimed legal privilege over a number of emails created in early April, just days after the quarantine program began. A lot of them have therefore been redacted. The emails involve correspondence between the department’s legal and procurement teams, which became involved after it was discovered Unified was not on the government’s panel of pre-approved security suppliers.

They also show a highly political element to the selection of security companies. Notes of a meeting between senior official Katrina Currie, department secretary Simon Phemister, deputy secretary Alex Kamenev and another official on March 28 show that Mr Kamenev was given the task of asking Trades Hall for its view of a number of security firms.

Two days later Mr Kamenev reported to Ms Currie and another senior official, Jim Round, that Trades Hall was not keen on Unified. The email also refers to a man whose name has been blacked out who seems to have decision-making power. He ‘‘agreed to Unified for 48 hours initially as they aren’t preferred with Trades’’, Mr Kamenev reported.

Mr Round, a deputy secretary at the Justice Department, worked in the Premier’s office between 2017 and 2019. Before that he was an adviser in the office of Julia Gillard while she was prime minister. Neither he nor Mr Kamenev have been asked to give statements to the inquiry. Mr Round declined to comment on the emails and a spokeswoman for the department said all relevant information had been given to the inquiry and its claims of legal professional privilege were accepted by the inquiry.

An unidentified jobs department official said on March 31 they believed the security company was a risk because it had ‘‘not undergone a due diligence process and has not agreed to the service standards as set out in the Security Services Contract’’. Unified was also not popular with the Victorian department of Treasury and Finance, emails show.

The following day the official in charge of security contracts was even more blunt: Unified ‘‘will not be allocated any additional sites’’, he wrote. But Ms Currie and Mr Kamenev were not giving up without a fight. They won an exemption from procurement rules after pointing out the firm’s Indigenous ownership, responsiveness and flexibility.
Click to expand...
WOW

Not really surprised, something smells and it's not in the state of Denmark. Backhanders and brown paper bags come to mind.
 
fortunatecrow said:
The Age today. So The Government got more input into the decision to use security guards from Trades Hall - technically, not a part of the Government, and the Justice department - than it did from the CMO. And more time was spent on the "broader purpose" than the actual purpose of keeping people safe. Heads should roll. Public safety is not a "nice to have."

"More than a dozen key internal emails from Victoria’s jobs department relating to hotel quarantine have been completely blacked out after the department made a claim to the Board of Inquiry that communications about the appointment of Sydney-based security firm Unified should be redacted.

However, the evidence that is available suggests the department’s senior officials disagreed strongly over the decision to use Unified, which ended up with the bulk of the security work, including at the Rydges on Swanston, the source of the biggest outbreak of COVID-19.

The redacted emails reveal the disagreement was because Unified was not on the department’s preferred list of tenderers. However, some of the public servants in charge of the program wanted to hire them anyway partly because they ‘‘employ loads of Jobs Victoria clients, so it’s actually serving a broader purpose’’. Jobs Victoria acts as an employment agency finding work for the unemployed...

Unified won the bulk of hotel quarantine work in Melbourne, earning more than $30 million in less than four months. But guards working for the company were infected with COVID-19 in the Rydges on Swanston, which has been linked to at least 90 per cent of cases in Victoria’s second coronavirus wave.
The Department of Justice, Precincts and Regions has claimed legal privilege over a number of emails created in early April, just days after the quarantine program began. A lot of them have therefore been redacted. The emails involve correspondence between the department’s legal and procurement teams, which became involved after it was discovered Unified was not on the government’s panel of pre-approved security suppliers.

They also show a highly political element to the selection of security companies. Notes of a meeting between senior official Katrina Currie, department secretary Simon Phemister, deputy secretary Alex Kamenev and another official on March 28 show that Mr Kamenev was given the task of asking Trades Hall for its view of a number of security firms.

Two days later Mr Kamenev reported to Ms Currie and another senior official, Jim Round, that Trades Hall was not keen on Unified. The email also refers to a man whose name has been blacked out who seems to have decision-making power. He ‘‘agreed to Unified for 48 hours initially as they aren’t preferred with Trades’’, Mr Kamenev reported.

Mr Round, a deputy secretary at the Justice Department, worked in the Premier’s office between 2017 and 2019. Before that he was an adviser in the office of Julia Gillard while she was prime minister. Neither he nor Mr Kamenev have been asked to give statements to the inquiry. Mr Round declined to comment on the emails and a spokeswoman for the department said all relevant information had been given to the inquiry and its claims of legal professional privilege were accepted by the inquiry.

An unidentified jobs department official said on March 31 they believed the security company was a risk because it had ‘‘not undergone a due diligence process and has not agreed to the service standards as set out in the Security Services Contract’’. Unified was also not popular with the Victorian department of Treasury and Finance, emails show.

The following day the official in charge of security contracts was even more blunt: Unified ‘‘will not be allocated any additional sites’’, he wrote. But Ms Currie and Mr Kamenev were not giving up without a fight. They won an exemption from procurement rules after pointing out the firm’s Indigenous ownership, responsiveness and flexibility.
Click to expand...
Suggests 2 things:
  • The Inquiry needs to see the unredacted versions.
  • Kamenev & Currie should be finding themselves on the other side of the desk at Jobs Victoria, as soon as possible.
 
jenny61_99 said:
USA now sitting at 706 deaths per million... while Italy sits at 631. Remember the Trump lover that insisted the US would never be as bad as Italy? View attachment 998470
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It's amazing Trump is still a chance to win the election given his atrocious handling of the pandemic...
 
Mutineer said:
WOW

Not really surprised, something smells and it's not in the state of Denmark. Backhanders and brown paper bags come to mind.
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The sooner we have a proper Australian ICAC, capable of looking into the goings on of any government or business activities, the sooner we start to weed out the dodgy dealings & practices that cost the community as a whole.

Unfortunately not everyone can be trusted to do the right thing.
 
Come on Dan your being outdone by another clown.
you really should sue for copyright infringement.

 

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So how does that ****er Micheal Rowland from ABC get to be in the USA.
He’ll likely be back in Australia next week. Why should he be able to travel when no one else can?
Totally unnecessary as the ABC has multiple correspondents there already.
 
mistylake said:
So how does that f***er Micheal Rowland from ABC get to be in the USA.
He’ll likely be back in Australia next week. Why should he be able to travel when no one else can?
Totally unnecessary as the ABC has multiple correspondents there already.
Click to expand...

You can travel overseas - you just need to get the appropriate approval from the Feds.

You wanting to **** your girlfriend unfortunately won’t cut it.
 
kirky said:
You can travel overseas - you just need to get the appropriate approval from the Feds.

You wanting to **** your girlfriend unfortunately won’t cut it.
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Yes I know, I talked to a visa agent last week. I need a business reason. (To go there) which isn’t straight forward as I have no business dealings over there currently or wait for students to be allowed in here and concoct something.
They said the student market will likely be the first to resume. As they are coming long term and a quarantine period won’t deter them as much as tourism. I know a Bloke that flew from Michigan to Sydney did his 14 days there then attended his daughters birthday in Melbourne and flew back to the US. This was in the middle of the Victoria lockdown.
The agent said don’t hold your breath which I’m resigned to the long haul but don’t like the favoritism offered some.
 
mistylake said:
Yes I know, I talked to a visa agent last week. I need a business reason. (To go there) which isn’t straight forward as I have no business dealings over there currently or wait for students to be allowed in here and concoct something.
They said the student market will likely be the first to resume. As they are coming long term and a quarantine period won’t deter them as much as tourism. I know a Bloke that flew from Michigan to Sydney did his 14 days there then attended his daughters birthday in Melbourne and flew back to the US. This was in the middle of the Victoria lockdown.
The agent said don’t hold your breath which I’m resigned to the long haul but don’t like the favoritism offered some.
Click to expand...

Favouritism unfortunately is how the world seems to works. It ain’t right but that is how it is.
 
Kane McGoodwin said:
It's amazing Trump is still a chance to win the election given his atrocious handling of the pandemic...
Click to expand...

Heard a view today that the modus operandi of Trump was to let the Governors deal with pandemic and take the wrap for closures etc and then when the country does start to open up and cases down he then rides the wave of the economy recover. This was also confirmed in a taped interview with Jared Kushner to Bob Woodward back in April. Well they well truly ****ed up with that.
 
crows dude said:
Not hard when hes up against someone who looks like hes 2 years from his death bed. Seriously do USA not have any younger politicians.
Click to expand...
They must all have come in with Mork From Ork. Biden is actually 7 years old and Trump is 12.
 
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