Welcome to my regular Friday song/tune day, ladies and gentlemen, where I pick a piece of music that reflects my mood or the times, to share with you.

It makes no sense, ladies and gentlemen. Australia’s borders seem to be both impenetrable and leak like a sieve. On the leaky side, SARS-Cov-2 continues to evade our border restrictions causing virus outbreaks in our largely unvaccinated capital cities. On the impenetrable side, around 250 Australian children are stranded in India without their parents and cannot return home without an adult to accompany them on the flight and in quarantine. Fair enough, but at the same time parents have been refused permission to travel to India to collect their children, and grandparents, with whom the children are staying, have been denied permission to bring children home because they (the grandparents) are not Australian citizens.

Is our government devoid of all compassion and imagination? If it can vaccinate Aussie athletes to attend the Tokyo Olympics, or it can allow foreign movie stars to come to Australia to make a movie, surely it can vaccinate the parents of those stranded kids, so they can travel safely to India to bring their children home or it could bend the rules to allow grandparents to accompany their grandchildren?

If as a country, we can’t solve these easily surmountable problems, what hope is there to solve the really big problems, such as getting to net zero emissions by 2050? So if a government minister tells you that Australia is going to be first in line for vaccines or that we are going to meet our emissions reduction targets in a canter, will you be filled with confidence? Do you even care?

My song choice today is Hunters and Collectors’ Holy Grail. I’m a fool for the holy grail. Enjoy.

Here is another one for US readers.

A little compassion goes a long way, ladies and gentlemen.

Kind Regards.
Tracy.

39 thoughts on “Crikey”

      1. How about this I saw, The hotel quarantine is a joke. The govt pays the Hotel Association with our tax money (inflated costs no doubt) for using their members facilities and the Hotel Association gave the LNP something like $640 million in donations

        Liked by 2 people

      2. I hadn’t heard that but it doesn’t surprise me because it is obvious that those city hotels need the quarantine business to stay afloat. I’ve always suspected that there was a lot of behind the scenes lobbying happening to ensure that the cosy arrangements continue. But huge conflict of interest if money has changed hands.

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  2. Although it’s better now than a year ago there seems often to be no consistent logic in government. It’s a slapdash give with one hand and take back with the other.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Same stuff happening here. Our government found quarantine places for The Wiggles and their entourage (not to mention hoarders of LOTR re-boot people) but not for terminally ill Kiwis who wanted to see whanau before they died. I really fear for the future well-being of the whole generation of kids growing up in these times.

    Love Hunters and Collectors though: thanks for kick-starting my morning music trail.

    Liked by 1 person

      1. Thank you for posting the version for us in the US. I just listened to it. Thanks for the introduction to Hunters and Collectors. The situation you describe in your post is incomprehensible and just, plain wrong.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. There is many an anthem in the Hunters and Collectors discography, Liz.
        I find it terribly hard to believe too, Liz, but surely plans must be in place to ensure the return of the children. The government people aren’t stupid, just slow.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Ditto to all you have said, Tracy.

    There wouldn’t be many Australians that aren’t appalled at the Government’s inability to bring Australian children home from India (or any other age Australian for that matter).

    Why can’t they, (the Government), bring ALL Australians home (that want to come home). How are some of these tourists managing overseas financially, let alone mentally?

    If the Government had got off their backsides and start constructing purpose-built quarantine accommodation mid-last year when it was clear COVID was not going to go away, surely 2021 would see a much better chance of no quarantine transmission at all.

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    1. The Fed gov has seemed overly welded on to the hotel quarantine arrangements. I imagine the deal is pretty lucrative for the hotels and they need the business, but circumstances changed quite some time ago as you mentioned, Vicki. I heard Prof McLaws say in an interview today that purpose built quarantine facilities in all jurisdictions is absolutely vital to mitigate potential harm to the Australian community (or words to that effect).
      I completely agree that the delay in getting people home seems to be a terrible error, at least in hindsight, but it is not as though the federal gov weren’t warned of the possible trajectory of global infections.
      I am sure we must be missing something to explain why they haven’t got their act together, especially as the government’s budget forecasts were dependent on keeping covid out of the country.

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  6. 😢 Absolutely heartbreaking. Wrong and heartbreaking. I’m so sorry for the parents, and the children. How hard for the parents who feel must feel so helpless. I don’t know the situation, but if the children are with their grandparents then at least they are with family. Many prayers for a quick resolution 🙏🙏

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  7. Yes, this government is totally devoid of compassion and imagination. Strangely, an awful lot of Australians seem to be quite happy with it and I wonder what goes on in their heads. Living in a small country town where there are mostly conservatives who vote for the Nationals, makes me realise that many people really don’t care what happens to stranded Australians, refugees, the Biloela family or people struggling to make ends meet due to the pandemic. I was at a lunch recently where people had a go at that old chestnut ‘dole bludgers’ and I had to firmly seal my lips to avoid a catastrophe, as I’m quite sure I was alone in my view. Local people will be quite happy to vote as they have always done when the time comes, so nothing will change.

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    1. Sigh. That’s my feeling too, Jane. I wonder whether it would made a difference if Cassandra Goldie was with you? Perhaps she needs to do a tour of regional areas to have a few chats with the locals. I wonder if she actually does that sort of thing? Probably. Nothing will change. It ain’t called identity politics for nothing.

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      1. I doubt that anyone can change such firmly entrenched views.
        Btw, Hunters and Collectors ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’ is one of my most loved songs.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. There has always been much about government decisions that made no sense to me, but since this pandemic started, the lack of basic common sense, not to mention compassion, has been on the rise.

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  12. Two very contrary feelings here, Tracy: total disbelieve at how the Autralian government is treating their citiczens (those poor children and their parents), and joy for being introduced to this awesome music/band! 😀

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