BALI FORMALLY BANS THE HIRING OF MOTORCYCLES BY TOURISTS

IN A SHOCK MOVE, THE GOVERNOR OF BALI HAS INSTIGATED AN IMMEDIATE BAN ON THE HIRING OF MOTORCYCLES TO TOURISTS, EXCEPT UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.

Governor Wayan Koster

The Governor of Bali has made a series of announcements that will heavily impact travellers planning their trip to the island.

In the last few weeks, the provincial government has proposed a ban on all tourists driving on the island. Late on Sunday, 28th May, following a press conference on Sunday evening, Governor Wayan Koster has taken the first steps in formalising the ban. This proposed policy would include foreign tourists and ex-pats and would ban any non-Indonesians from driving motorcycles or cars on the island, except under certain conditions:

1. Tourists can only rent a motorcycle from a registered travel agent (it excludes all those side of the road family run rentals). As well, tourists cannot use companies such as Grab or Gojek, as they are not recognised as formal travel agents.
2. Tourists looking to hire motorcycles must have officially recognised International or local driving licences, including a motorcycle licence.
3. Tourists must be covered by insurance and have the documents to prove it. This insurance appears to be the responsibility of the tourist before they hire the motorcyle.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES WILL ENFORCE THE BAN

Governor Koster said, “Those tourists have to travel, walk, and use cars to travel. It is no longer allowed to use a motorcycle or anything that is not from a travel agent.”

His announcement was received with a mix of responses from both locals and frequent visitors to Bali. Some local motorcycle rental owners urged the provincial government to rethink the ban.

On Sunday, Governor Koster called local residents in Bali to play their part in ensuring that tourists obey the rules and regulations of the island.

Governor Koster told reporters, “Bali residents are prohibited from facilitating foreign tourists who wish to commit activities that are inconsistent with their visa permits or the provisions of law.”

Moving forward, until any further ban on tourist driving is written into legislation, tourists can only hire a motorcycle from a business that is registered with the relevant trade agencies or the transportation renting association in Bali.

Tourists cannot simply rent a motorcycle from a guesthouse owner, local friend, or rental owner who is not a formally registered motorcycle rental company. 

SYDNEY GETS HIT BY A MASSIVE SWELL – AND THERE’S MORE ON THE WAY

‘THAT’S JUST THE LEMON NEXT TO THE PIE!’

These immortal words were uttered by Bear, the eponymous former owner of Bear Surfboards in the famous surf flick, Big Wednesday. Whenever the film shows up at summer festivals, it’s always full of fathers and their grommet kids, getting their surf buzz on. Bear, of course, had been surf famous but was now down on his luck. His screen time is spent regaling the young surfers about swells to come, each one bigger than the last, culminating in the biggest swell of them all, the one that becomes Big Wednesday.

It wasn’t a Wednesday, but last Monday in Sydney was Big. Massive, in fact. Standing on the point overlooking Wedding Cake Island in Sydney’s East, locals were saying they’d never seen it so big. With only a few brave souls willing to take it on, 20+ foot sets pounded the coast.

It wasn’t only big, it was as good as it gets.

THE FIRST OF THE WINTER LOWS……

So what caused the wild surf (and the cold, gale force winds that came with it)? Most of the surf predictors and even BOM didn’t help much. For that sort of detail, you have to head to sailing sites. The Windy site showed it best. An intense low making it’s way up the east coast before heading out to sea. Here’s a great view of the low in action, with winds pushing 50 knots (heaviest winds in purple).

….BUT NOT THE LAST

But as Bear would have said if he was watching it with us, ‘That’s just the lemon next to the pie!’ telling us that while we think that was big, there’s even bigger to come. Checking back in with Windy, but zooming out and down towards Antarctica (a great option on the site) it shows a looming winter low that dwarfs the one we just endured. In fact, it’s so big and strong, it’s pushing the last one out into the Pacific Ocean.

And it’s so big, that it stretches over an area bigger than the whole East Coast of Oz. With the same force in the winds, it looks like we should get ready for another massive swell. Get out your guns and big wave legropes, it looks like we’re in for a Big Winter of Swells this year.

Government Incompetence Means Over ’60’s Will Be Last Vaccinated

Restricted to Astra Zenica, the over ’60’s will be the last group to be fully vaccinated.

Scott Morrison Declares Vaccine Rollout

The Federal Government yelled from the rooftops when they announced that the group of Australians most vulnerable to Covid 19, the over ’60’s, would be the first (amongst other groups including essential workers) to be vaccinated against the illness that has ravaged the world for the last 18 months. That, however, is no longer the case.

On April 9, not long after Australia announced it would be abandoning its’ pursuit of a locally created vaccine, Mr Morrison told the country that we would be implementing the Astra Zenica Vaccine, beginning with the over ’60’s. the AZ vaccine (which required two shots, 3 months apart) was chosen over other brands, including the Pfizer Vaccine (which also required 2 shots, but only 3 weeks apart). It seemed reasonable, since that group was the most vulnerable and had the highest death rates. Around the same time it became aware that, in a small number of cases attributed to younger recipients, a rare type of blood clot could form from the AZ Vaccine. The decision was made to phase out Astra Zenica for younger recipients. Seems reasonable.

However, the over ’60’s have now been frozen out of receiving the Pfizer Vaccine. The result has been longer wait times for over ’60’s to book to receive their first shot (stretching out to late August in some cases), and a 3 month wait to receive the second shot. In the meantime, people under 60 can now receive their first shot of Pfiser, and only have to wait 3 weeks to recieive their second dose. They will be fully vaccinated by the end of July, but the over ’60’s, by and large, won’t be fully vaccinated until at least the end of November.

A total cock up, by anyone’s standards.

TRUMP v BIDEN WHO IS LIKELY TO WIN?

With the U.S elections only six days away, the race is on to see whether the voters in America are happy with Donald Trump’s performance (in which case he’ll be re-elected) or they’ve had enough of the experiment with changing how politics are conducted in the U.S. and elect Joe Biden, a seemingly safe return to normality.

BIDEN HAS A 9 POINT LEAD IN THE POLLS

If you follow social media, you won’t get much of an idea. As we’re becoming increasingly aware, algorithms within social media sites are geared towards sending you videos and articles connected to your searches (try watching a pimple popping video on You Tube – you’ll be inundated with neverending videos of the icky stuff for months). If you look at something criticising Donald Trump, you’ll get Democrat supporting information. If you click on a vid of Joe Biden mumbling, pretty soon you’ll practically be a subscriber to Fox News.

So, for me, if I really want to know how the election is going I look to three sources of information.

Firstly, betting sites. People can mouth off all they like in favour of the candidate they support, but when they are gambling with their hard earned, they tend to leave their emotions at the door. Gambling sites currently have Biden the favourite, with someone needing to bet 63c to win $1. For Trump, he’s a bit of a longshot, at 41c to win a dollar.

Secondly, where are campaign funds being spent? As of today, the Trump campaign pulled money out of the south, most notably the closely fought swing state of Florida, a state he must win to retain the presidency, to go all in with campaigning in the rust belt states of Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania (strangely not Wisconsin). Joe Biden, of course, has a lot more money in the kitty, but Trump must feel he has Florida in the bag to withdraw advertising funding. The strategy is possibly that if Trump can influence the rust belt states to move in his direction, in the age of universal connectivity, it will influence the other states to move in his direction as well.

Thirdly, and most importantly for me, election polls, or more accurately, poll-aggregating organisations, such as Five Thirty Eight. Now, and as was evidenced in the 2016 election, polls are not always right, but as an aggregator, 538 was the closest. It gave Trump a healthy 30% chance of winning the election when a lot of individual polls gave him a chance in the single digits.

So what does 538 show us this time around? As you’ll see from the graph above, Joe Biden currently has a 9 percentage point national lead over Donald Trump. That, of course, is not the Electoral College, which ultimately decides who the president will be, but a lead of that size, with less than a week to go, bodes pretty well for Joe Biden. Along with the betting odds and the change in campaign funding for Donald Trump, at this stage it signals a Biden win. We’ll keep you updated with any changes.

Massive Surf Exposes Coogee’s Past

The largest swell to hit Sydney’s beaches in years has provided thrills for both big wave surfers and the throngs of people who have turned out to watch them. Young surfers to the surfing GOAT himself, Kelly Slater, took advantage of offshore conditions to surf waves you would only expect to see in Hawaii (surf so big even Slater broke a board!)

However, not just great surfing was exposed. With the mix of huge swell, large tides and the advent of strong onshore winds, part of Coogee’s history from almost 100 years ago has risen from the ocean. The concrete supports of the Coogee Pleasure Pier have once again been coughed up by the sea.

The Exposed blocks from the Coogee Pleasure Pier

Local Barry Watterson dropped down for a look at the surf in between rain showers and was surprised to see the pier’s foundations so prominently showing. ‘You often see the tops of them after a major storm system goes through, but I’ve lived in Coogee for over 20 years and the East for all my life, and I don’t think I’ve seen the pier as exposed as this. They’re standing almost a metre out of the sand, and only about 20 metres from the promenade.’

The exposed pier foundations provide a window into the past. The original Coogee Pleasure Pier was designed to replicate the great piers in the United Kingdom, and it was massive in scale. With shark nets and a 600 person ballroom, it began construction in the 1920’s, but a huge storm damaged it so severely that it had to be demolished in 1934.

The Coogee Pleasure Pier was huge in scale

RANDWICK CITY COUNCIL TO EXTEND BEACH CLOSURES INTO WINTER

COOGEE BEACH BLOCKED OFF FROM THE PUBLIC INDEFINITELY

Throughout March, there has been an evergrowing level of restrictions put on Australians in an effort to battle the novel Corona Virus which has been sweeping the world. Admttedly, Australia was a bit slow off the mark. Although authorities in China kept the existence and extent of the problem quiet (when they should have been announcing it to the world) it was still announced on December 31 last year. Countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, on hearing rumours of a new ‘flu strain in China (and with experience from previous epidemics of SARS and MERS), shut their borders earlier that month, and began planning for a possible epidemic. Australia (and other western countries) should have paid attention, and taken steps much earlier.

Regardless, judging from the number of cases evident at the end of February, carriers of the virus had not reached Australia in great numbers. By the middle of March, however, it was obvious more extreme mesures needed to be taken. Firstly, gatherings of people were restricted to 500, then 100. Following quickly, gyms, restaurants, cafes and just about any place people could gather in public were closed, and by the first week of April, outdoor gatherings were restricted to exercise and gatherings (if it could be called a ‘gathering’) were limited to 2 people, and the measures are being enforced by the Police.

So, with everthing shut and most children being schooled at home, the parks and beaches were the public’s only real outlet. Unfortunately, a string of nice weather days brought people out to the beaches in force, causing the councils of the Eastern Suburbs to close them to the public. Those days are gone, of course, as autumn has begun to bite, but the beaches remain closed. So the question being asked by every surfer, swimmer and beach exersiser as they longingly look into the ocean is: How long will the beaches be shut?

A few days ago I witnessed a man swimming 200m off Coogee Beach. Following Council guidelines, he was asked to come in by the beach inspectors, then fined by the waiting police. At the same time,  fishermen in boats were anchored not far away, not affected by the bans. Is this sort of restriction unfair? It’s hard to argue, with the infection numbers coming down quickly, that the restrictions on movement and social gatherings haven’t been effective. What seems like overkill, may in fact be simply the best tool we have to fight the virus.

An official from Randwick City Council told me (anonymously as they weren’t authorised to speak publicly) that the Council will be following the State Government guidelines with regard to social distancing. The Council has been shown the projections for the virus infection (which have been kept in confidence) which show the rapid slowing of infection rates, but Council has made the decision to keep the beaches closed to err on the side of caution.

Following Police Commissioner Fullers’ announcement that the social distancing laws will stay in place for 90 days, Randwick Council has decided to follow suit, and keep the beaches shut, despite the lack of warm weather to encourage large groups of people to congregate at the beaches. That does seem like overkill, with beaches after Easter used mainly by locals for swimming, surfing and other forms of exercise. But for now, and in the near future, unless Council has a change of heart, the beaches are closed until the water turns icy.

The unusual Mardi Gras – Hillsong theory of Coronavirus spread.

Warning!! Nothing in this article is intended to detract from the current medical guidelines regarding staying safe and limiting the spread of Coronavirus. Always follow Government and Medical Professional advice.

Unlikely bedfellows – the 2020 Hillsong Conference and the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

The spread of the novel Coronavirus has swept throughout most of the world, devastating Europe and China, threatening the United States and with great fears surrounding what will happen when the virus hits Africa and the refugee camps of the Middle East.

But what of Australia? We were relatively quick to shut the borders (including self-isolation and quarantining of international arrivals) and there has been rapid and evolving advice from the government regarding how we, as a population, can limit the local spread of Corona virus and safekeep our population.

To date, Australia has reached 565 cases of the virus, with 6 dead, below the world average. Most of those infections have been recent arrivals or directly related to recent arrivals, with (to date) a low spread to the general population. There have been, however, two large events that could pinpoint how successful our approach has been to limiting the spread of the virus, the Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and the Hillsong Colour Conference, both of which took place in NSW over the past few weeks.

Mardi Gras took place on 29 February. 300,000 people attended the parade, with upwards of 10,000 international visitors joining in the celebrations. With a safe quarantine period of 14 days, there was speculation that a surge in Coronavirus infections could take place, due to unprepared exposure throughout the festival. 18 days later, there has not been a major surge in cases, and it appears that the virus had not appeared in Australia in significant numbers up to that point.

The Hillsong Colour Conference, though not as big as the Mardi Gras, was the only other major publicly attended event to take place in the last few weeks. Taking place over the 2 weekends following the Mardi Gras, the Conference had somewhere upwards of 30,000 attendees, with up to 5,000 coming as international visitors. The Conference took place over the time period when the threat of infection grew exponentially.

Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, called a ban on large gatherings of people, to begin on the Monday after the Conference finished. With the 2 week quarantine period due to expire on 23rd of March, it’s a wait and see exercise to see whether the virus grows (as it is expected to do) at a steady rate, or jumps rapidly during that time.

Regardless, with a near universal lockdown of major public events from now on, the 23rd of March will give Australians a good indication of how exposed Australia is to the Coronavirus, and what we can expect as a recovery time frame. Let’s hope we got it right.

 

95% of Australians believe in Climate Change – so why can’t the bushfires be a result of Climate Change?

Unless you are a complete Climate Change denier (usually that’s because you believe the earth is only 6,000 years old, so the climate hasn’t had time to change), you fall into 2 camps. One is that the Climate Change happens in a natural cycle and is exacerbated by human intervention. The other is that Climate Change happens in a natural cycle but is not affected by human intervention. So why is there so much resistance to believing that Climate Change is the reason for the ongoing bushfires?

‘There are two camps – Climate Change with no human intervention v Climate Change with human intervention – but it’s still Climate Change’

It blew up on the internet almost as fast as the bushfires themselves. The bushfires weren’t because of Climate Change, it was because of fuel load and how the Greens have stopped the hazard reduction burns necessary to keep fires under control when they start. Besides the Greens having no legislative power to implement any policies whatsoever, the obvious fact is being ignored – you could have fuel load to the tops of the trees, but if it was wet it wouldn’t burn.

So the reason for the ongoing fires? It’s not raining as it should be. There has been a change to the weather patterns that started a few years ago, and led to the present drought conditions. The next event that followed was the exhaustion of the rivers, which has put farmers under further economic stress. The bushfires aren’t an isolated event, but rather an extension of this change in the weather patterns. Changes to weather patterns are the definition of Climate Change.

So the argument is not whether Climate Change occurs. 95% of Australians believe that it does. So why are so many people unwilling to believe it is responsible for the ongoing bushfire problem? The only reason I can think of is because over the past 10 years, the causes of Climate Change have become the line between the left and right of politics, weaponised to create rock solid bases for voting blocs. So when a situation arises when both sides might be forced to agree, they just can’t, or it goes against the very core of their present day political belief – working together, even if it is for the very future of our country.

GREENS PASS LEGISLATION ALLOWING THE RAIN TO FALL

In what has been hailed as a victory for People Power over Government authority, the Federal Greens have relented and passed legislation allowing the rain to fall in the fire-ravaged south-east corner of Australia.

Dr Pencilneck

‘We’ve shown how powerful we are by strategically not getting candidates elected’

In what can only be described as a dramatic turnaround in policy, previous legislation preventing the rain from falling, has been repealed.

‘I think we’ve made our point’ said Dr Gerald Pencilneck, Media Liaison for the Greens. ‘Although we voted for a Double Dissolution which actually lost us the balance of power and have almost no presence at state level, our handfull of councillors at Local Government level, though not being in control of any specific Council, have been shown to be more powerful than the Federal Government.

Greens legislated Rain on the East Coast

‘A lot of people thought that when we joined with the Co-alition 10 years ago and voted against our own Emissions Trading Scheme legislation that we were political numbnuts but I think we’ve shown how powerful we are by strategically not getting candidates elected into positions of influence. So don’t get to cocky. We can reverse this legislation and stop the rain whenever we want.’

Greens Silent About Bushfires In Case Public Find Out They’re Politically Irrelevant

The Greens Party has been the subject of accusations, particularly from supporters of the Liberal/Nationals Coalition, that they are responsible for the recent bushfire devastation. Sections of the community have accused them of forcing the abandonment of hazard reduction burns, which in turn have led to ground fuel buildup and greater bushfires this season.

Prof. Greengrass

‘Not true’ says Prof. Lucerne Greengrass, Secretary of the Federal arm of the Greens. ‘But if we deny it publically, then we’re admitting that we haven’t had any legislative power in the last 20 years, we expose ourselves as having no political influence at all and we’ll lose the last group of people who actually vote for us.’

‘We haven’t had any real influence since we voted down our own Emission Trading Scheme legislation 10 years ago.’

Right wing commentators and Climate Change deniers have been frantically looking for any reason other than Climate Change to blame for the bushfires, and the Greens have become their favourite target. Media liaison head, Dr. Gerald Pencilneck, agrees with Prof. Greengrass. ‘The right have actually been creating the impression that we have real political power, enough to influence legislation around the country, when the fact is, we haven’t had any real influence since we voted down our own Emission Trading Scheme legislation 10 years ago. Who knows’ he laughed, ‘if that legislation had actually gone through, some of the problems would have been addressed and we may not have had the devastation we have had over the past few months.’

Dr. Pencilneck

‘Regardless’, he added ‘we welcome the criticisms because it makes us appear relevant.’

When pressed for further comment, Dr. Pencilneck referred us to the media arm of the Lib/Nat Coalition. ‘Anything they say is better for us than anything we can make up.’