Annastacia Palaszczuk held a joint press conference this morning with Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young and Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll to announce new COVID19 numbers and Health directives to be enforced by police over the Easter long weekend. The Premier stated:
I’m sorry to say we have had another Queenslander test positive to the extremely infectious UK variant of COVID19 in the last 24 hours, and as a result the Chief Health Officer’s advice is that the lock down should not only be extended, but it is a matter of life and death that the government’s restrictions are vigorously enforced by police.
As a result of following the best scientific advice available, I’m today announcing the immediate funding to expand the Queensland police helicopter fleet from two to five, including the necessary pilots and ground crew. One additional helicopter will be based in Brisbane, where most cases of community transmission have been traced, and the others will be based in the tourism destinations of the Gold Coast and Cairns.
This makes me very sad, that when most Queenslanders are doing the right thing, are not leaving their homes, not even hanging out their washing without a mask on, that some selfish people still insist on endangering the whole state and imposing the hardship of extended, snap lock downs on everyone else.
Do not leave your home, people, unless it’s for essential purposes or an emergency.
The five PolAir helicopters will be using their sophisticated onboard technology to detect when people leave their homes, even if it’s to hang out their washing in the backyard. They will then hover above them and drop a face mask to the suspect. If that person refuses to wear a mask, police will then issue a fine or in some cases, arrest serial offenders.
I want to thank the police for putting themselves in harm’s way, risking infection from the highly infectious UK strain, and fining people for leaving their homes or not wearing a mask and endangering the lives of 5 million other Queenslanders.
When asked by a reporter if the police helicopters would also be used for law enforcement activities like catching criminals, the Premier responded her top priority was keeping Queenslanders safe, and nothing was more important than arresting the Covid19 virus.
Dave Pellowe is a Christian writer & commentator, founder of The Good Sauce, convener of the annual Australian Church And State Summit and host of Good Sauce's weekly The Church And State Show, also syndicated on ADH TV. Since 2016 Dave has undertaken the mission of arming Christians to influence culture through events from Perth to Auckland, videos, podcasts and articles published in multiple journals across Australia and New Zealand. [more]
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