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Dear all,
The New South Wales leadership announced today a further two-week extension of the lockdown instituted several weeks ago, plunging us even deeper into this self-inflicted dystopian nightmare. Other Australian states too have called snap lockdowns over the past month, at times with no or precious few covid cases, and to the puzzlement of many in countries overseas (including the UK and also Singapore) that are now getting back to normal, often despite still seeing far more suffering and death with covid than Australia has ever seen. Our governments have approved and released manipulative, misleading dramatisations that fan the fear of covid amongst young people, while paying mere lip service to the punishing costs of their lockdown edicts that continue to fall disproportionately on the young and the disadvantaged. All of this further underscores the dysfunction that has set into Australian policy-making.