THE COMMENTARIAT After the lockouts, the palpable excitement of Sydney coming alive — Tyson Koh (Sydney Morning Herald): “The lifting of Sydney’s lockout laws this week could not have come soon enough for the city’s ailing night-time sector. For the past six years, venues have been forced to turn patrons away at 1.30am, which had the effect of emptying out the streets well before that time as people abandoned the entire inner-city in favour of suburbs that accommodated their late-night tendencies.” Well-meaning help might hinder fire victims … the best shoulder to cry on is one you know — Ian Hickie (The Age): “We know it is critical to move swiftly to support communities to re-establish normal daily activities. If people move away because they can’t be housed, children can’t attend school, adults can’t engage in productive work or communities can’t participate in their regular community events, sporting fixtures and church services, then everyone is at a much greater risk of poor mental health outcomes.” Our greatest security threat is climate change, so mobilise the ADF — John Hewson (Sydney Morning Herald): “The declared focus of the Morrison government is to ‘keep Australians safe and secure’. Surely climate change is our major national security issue, out-ranking the risk of invasion, terrorism and regional insecurity. The role of our defence forces should be broadened to include specific national disaster responsibilities, to be expeditiously mobilised amid fire crises, and then for recovery.” |