Significant electoral developments of the past few days:
• The federal government’s package of four electoral bills, which were explained in this earlier post, whizzed through parliament this week with the support of Labor (UPDATE: It’s been pointed out to me that one of the four, dealing with the threshold for registering as a political campaigner, was in fact not considered). Most contentiously, this will give the Liberal Party exclusive rights to the word “liberal” in their registered party name, with the effect that the Liberal Democrats and the New Liberals will have to change names before the next election. It is unclear what the former plans to do, but Victor Kline, leader and registered officer of the New Liberals, says the party will simply identify itself as TNL.
• The new laws also mean that parties will need to have 1500 members to maintain their registration unless they have a sitting member of parliament, which by the reckoning of Kevin Bonham could affect as many of 24 out of the 45 currently registered parties. Those privy to the sitting member exemption include Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, thanks to former Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s decision join, along with the Centre Alliance, Jacqui Lambie Network, Katter’s Australian Party and Rex Patrick Team.
• The state redistribution for New South Wales has been finalised, without much change to the draft boundaries that were published last November. Antony Green has a pendulum with estimated margins for the final boundaries.
Two minor by-elections coming up:
• For the Northern Territory parliament: a by-election will be held on September 11 for the Darwin hinterland seat of Daly, where Country Liberal Party member Ian Sloan has retired due to ill health a year after an election at which Labor was returned to power. Sloan held out against Labor by 1.2% at the election, at which he succeeded retiring CLP member Gary Higgins. The CLP’s candidate is Kris Civitarese, a Barkly councillor; Labor’s is Dheran Young, a former advisor to Chief Minister Michael Gunner.
• For the Tasmanian Legislative Council: a by-election will be required for a yet-to-be determined date early next year for the seat of Huon, encompassing the southern edge of Hobart and its hinterland, after Labor member Bastian Seidel announced he would quit parliament at the final sitting for the year in December. Seidel has complained of a “toxic environment” and “obvious problems” in the party, which would appear to refer to the sexual harassment allegations against David O’Byrne, who was compelled to resign as party leader in July after just three weeks in the job and is now facing calls from within the party, including leader Rebecca White, to quit parliament.
Twin explosions have erupted outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, killing dozens of civilians and at least 12 members of the US military.
A Taliban official said there were children among the dead from a pair of suicide attacks at two different locations.
“Our initial information shows between 13 and 20 killed and 52 wounded,” the militant group’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, condemning the attack.
But those official numbers are certain to increase.
Multiple media outlets, citing a senior Afghan health official, report “more than 60 Afghan civilians” have been killed and 150 have been injured.
Kabul’s main emergency hospital said six bodies had been brought in, and they had also treated more than 30 people for injuries.
A second city hospital said it had tended to another 60 patients.
Gaslight Gladys’s further failure exposed.. conformation NSW contact tracing so overwhelmed it’s text contact not phone contact.
Parents with COVID must isolate from their kids. But NSW Health isn’t taking their calls
Health officials, including more than 1000 staff in contact tracing teams, are under immense pressure as the Delta variant outpaces their efforts to keep up with surging case numbers.
People who test positive are now first contacted by a text message, rather than a phone call, and data released on Wednesday revealed fewer than half of all positive cases receive a full interview by contact tracers within one day of testing positive, down from 76 per cent of cases to 46 per cent since last week.
It only seems reasonable that the current 10day doubling time for cases will shorten rapidly. Sept 13 looks more like stage 5lockdown than happy picnic day
India’s drug regulator has approved the world’s first DNA vaccine against Covid-19 for emergency use.
The three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 66% of those vaccinated, according to an interim study quoted by the vaccine maker Cadila Healthcare.
ZyCov-D is also India’s first needle-free Covid-19 jab.
It is administered with a disposable needle-free injector, which uses a narrow stream of the fluid to penetrate the skin and deliver the jab to the proper tissue.
Zydus Cadila: India approves world’s first DNA Covid vaccine https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57774294
And I’ve read stories of people being notified that they are a close contact and must isolate for 14 days is when police contact them to ensure they’re isolating! They did not receive any notification from NSW Health, despite having scanned into the premises that made them a close contact.
I think the system is just crumbling under the weight of all the cases. It’s a massive FAIL.
I’m of the view that this is a good outcome. Liberal Democrats, Liberals for Forests and New Liberals are just the Liberal Party with another name.
I can’t help but regard TNL as a shipping or freight company though.
I’m wondering whether The Country Liberal Party in the NT and the Liberal National Party in Queensland will now have to change their name to The Liberal Party? In Queensland especially, the Nationals won’t like that.
C@t:
Aren’t they simply called the LNP?
The NT mob might be different though.
‘fess,
I thought LNP was just short for Liberal National Party? I could be wrong. One of the Queenslanders would know for sure.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers
Matthew Knott reports that dozens of people, including at least 12 US soldiers, are dead after two suicide bombers set off explosives outside the international airport in Kabul, plunging the US-led withdrawal effort into chaos.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/explosion-occurs-outside-kabul-airport-us-officials-say-20210826-p58mb7.html
Matthew Cranston says that President Joe Biden is rapidly losing control of the evacuation of Kabul after 12 US service members were killed in terrorist bombings as they defended the city’s international airport only four days out from an agreed deadline of a full withdrawal of American forces.
https://www.afr.com/world/middle-east/biden-s-administration-in-turmoil-as-americans-killed-in-kabul-20210827-p58mck
How fitting that the 20th anniversary of the Tampa affair should fall at this moment, while Afghanistan is collapsing and nearly 60 per cent of Australians are in lockdown, writes Waleed Aly who wonders if we can turn the tide on empathy twenty years on.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/twenty-years-since-tampa-can-we-turn-the-tide-on-empathy-20210826-p58lzp.html
David Crowe identifies that stretched hospital will be Morrison’s next big test.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/stretched-hospitals-are-the-pm-s-next-big-test-20210826-p58m69.html
Phil Coorey reckons Morrison’s grasp on power hangs on offering hope while Albanese hopes Morrison falls over.
https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/morrison-s-hold-on-power-hangs-on-holding-out-hope-20210825-p58lqy
In a telling contribution, Michael Pascoe writes about Team Morrison v Team Australia, and where NSW went wrong.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2021/08/26/morrison-team-australia-berejiklian/
Jenna Price writes that Morrison needs a second opinion about the Doherty report. She says it “is hard to get your head around even if you are an epidemiologist. I could not find one epidemiologist who believes Mr Morrison has read the Doherty report, and I don’t think I’ve ever asked a question as a journalist which has elicited so much laughter.”
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7404457/why-the-pm-needs-a-second-opinion/?cs=14264&utm_source=website&utm_medium=home&utm_campaign=latestnews
The Grattan Institute calls for a new modelling and a revised plan.
https://theconversation.com/opening-with-70-of-adults-vaccinated-the-doherty-report-predicts-1-5k-deaths-in-6-months-we-need-a-revised-plan-166659
The route Gladys Berejiklian is taking is defined by vaccination rates and hospitalisations – and it’s going to be brutal, explains Anne Davies.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/26/more-than-1000-covid-cases-a-day-in-nsw-and-we-are-told-we-can-have-a-picnic-welcome-to-the-future
In this op-ed NSW Liberal MP Tanya Davies tells Morrison and Berejiklian straight that the freedom they are spruiking is fake freedom. She says, “Our leaders will congratulate themselves when we reach 80 per cent. But at what cost?”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/this-is-fake-freedom-an-unhappy-liberal-mp-tells-her-premier-and-pm-straight-20210826-p58lzz.html
And Matilda Boseley writes that public health experts say the new freedoms to be awarded to fully vaccinated New South Wales residents are “based more on hope than they are on science”, and are the result of the premier “politically backing herself into a corner”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/27/gladys-berejiklians-picnic-plan-is-based-more-on-hope-than-science-experts-say
Michelle Grattan writes that in a week when the NSW government lost control of COVID, the state’s daily new cases rising above 1,000 and hospitals under severe strain, and with Victoria on the brink, Morrison made a dramatic pivot to focus on opening the country. He’s hailing “days of hope”. Sounds like a prayer to me, and we know how useful they are.
https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-as-covids-third-wave-worsens-scott-morrison-pivots-to-the-future-166842
David Crowe explains how Labor premiers hold a clear lead over Scott Morrison in support from voters on the response to recent outbreaks, highlighting the power of the states in a national cabinet debate on lockdowns.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/voters-back-labor-premiers-over-berejiklian-and-pm-on-outbreak-response-20210826-p58ma0.html
Richard Holden warns that with vaccine thresholds come the danger of repeating past mistakes.
https://theconversation.com/vital-signs-with-vaccine-thresholds-come-the-danger-of-repeating-past-mistakes-166754
The SMH editorial declares that it is too soon for major relaxation of NSW’s lockdown rules. About yesterday’s announcement it says, “The tweaks are just that – modest at best – and they might have been more of a morale boost if Ms Berejiklian had not overpromised and under-delivered.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/too-soon-for-major-relaxation-of-nsw-lockdown-rules-20210826-p58m91.html
The new dawn looms. Where the unvaccinated are Morrison’s scapegoats and our children are used as guinea pigs, writes Peter Wicks.
https://theaimn.com/someone-else-to-blame-the-unvaccinated-the-queue-and-the-guinea-pigs/
Authorities in Shepparton fear people who have visited exposure sites are still not coming forward for testing as the regional city braces for more COVID-19 infections over coming days.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cases-tipped-to-rise-in-shepparton-as-authorities-call-for-more-testing-20210826-p58m90.html
The NSW government will soon trial reopening one-on-one industries such as hairdressing for fully vaccinated people to prepare for the easing of most restrictions once inoculation rates reach 70 per cent in mid-October.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-to-trial-the-reopening-of-industries-for-fully-vaccinated-people-20210826-p58m9b.html
Parents with COVID must isolate from their kids, but NSW Health isn’t taking their calls.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/parents-with-covid-must-isolate-from-their-kids-but-nsw-health-isn-t-taking-their-calls-20210826-p58m93.html
Liam Mannix explains how Delta affects children.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-does-the-delta-variant-of-covid-19-affect-children-20210826-p58m1i.html
The Age’s editorial says that an ineffectual opposition is failing Victorians.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/ineffectual-opposition-is-failing-victorians-20210826-p58m2c.html
Carrie Fellner reports that disgraced MP Daryl Maguire may have required a real estate agent’s licence due to the windfalls he was receiving on property deals, according to advice from bureaucrats that was withheld from the public by NSW Minister Kevin Anderson’s office.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/minister-s-office-withheld-advice-that-daryl-maguire-may-require-licence-20210826-p58m9a.html
The ownership and direction of a majority of the media, in Australia, is based in London and New York. They have no intrinsic interest in Australia and its welfare as a nation but only as a source of revenue and, as a piece of what they see as the western cause. They influence our foreign policy formulation, through their editorial choices and, we help them do it, writes Richard Butler.
https://johnmenadue.com/white-mans-media-controlled-from-afar-and-against-the-national-interest/
NSW counter-terrorism police are tracking more than 1000 people of interest as growing concerns about right-wing extremism add to the long-standing threat posed by radical Islamists.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-police-monitor-1000-on-terrorism-continuum-as-neo-nazi-risk-grows-20210826-p58m5o.html
Mike Foley and Peter Hannam tell us that incentivising private investment in dispatchable power is no subsidy for coal, Angus Taylor says, but he faces a challenge in gaining support from state governments.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/taylor-proposes-technology-neutral-energy-grid-reforms-but-states-are-wary-20210826-p58m4b.html
Meanwhile, Lisa Cox and Adam Morton report that a New South Wales plan for Australia’s largest renewable energy zone in the state’s New England region has been overwhelmed with investor interest, with registrations coming in at more than four times the available capacity.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/27/clean-energy-interest-soars-in-nsw-as-states-resist-rules-to-prop-up-coal
Is the Governments response to the Second Anniversary Review of the National Redress Scheme a Royal Commission waiting to happen in 10 years? The Government’s response has been slow, demonstrating little leadership, accountability or empathy for survivors and their families argues Mark Jones.
https://johnmenadue.com/redress-on-sexual-abuse/
Mike Foley reports that a new law to force big oil and gas producers to pay the cost of removing their offshore rigs from the ocean passed through Parliament this week, with federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt warning industry that taxpayers will not foot the bill to remove their old infrastructure.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/new-laws-force-offshore-oil-and-gas-industry-to-pay-60-billion-clean-up-cost-20210826-p58m70.html
As a block, the two major parties voted to give our money, public money, to corporations to drill for coal seam gas in the Northern Territory, to open up a gigantic new territory, the Beetaloo Basin, for fracking, says Michael West.
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/beetaloo-boondoggle-political-bribes-beat-the-planet-as-gas-fracking-gets-public-hand-outs/
A political party with the sole purpose of eradicating Federal Government corruption has been registered in time for the next election, but may not make it to the starting gate, writes Ross Jones.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/corrupting-democracy–we-need-to-say-fin,15447
Sarah Thomas looks at elder abuse, saying that the biggest risk to elderly people is from those they trust. But when it’s hard for victims to acknowledge hurt by their loved ones.
https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/different-from-the-dodgy-scammer-the-hidden-story-of-elder-abuse-20210818-p58jsp.html
Law professor Andrew Schmulow argues that Frydenberg’s directions to ASIC throw the banking royal commission under a bus.
https://theconversation.com/frydenbergs-directions-to-asic-throw-the-banking-royal-commission-under-a-bus-166813
Katina Curtis reports that Brittany Higgins has been advised to consider not participating in an investigation into who in the Prime Minister’s office knew of her allegation of being raped by a colleague in case it prejudices the trial.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/prosecutor-advises-higgins-to-consider-steering-clear-of-pm-s-office-inquiry-20210826-p58m66.html
Ziggy Switkowski will replace Coonan as Crown chair, reports Patrick Hatch,
https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/ziggy-switkowski-to-replace-coonan-as-crown-chair-20210826-p58mb6.html
Vaccine mandates are beginning a march across America, constricting the places that people who have shunned the jabs can work, shop and play.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/get-jabbed-or-get-out-us-companies-are-telling-workers-20210826-p58m0v.html
Capitol police officers who were attacked and beaten during the insurrection at the US Congress on 6 January by extremist supporters of Donald Trump filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the former Republican president, his ally Roger Stone and members of far-right extremist groups.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/26/donald-trump-capitol-attack-police-officers-lawsuit-far-right-roger-stone
Cartoon Corner
Cathy Wilcox
David Pope
Andrew Dyson
Jim Pavlidis
Matt Golding
Mark David
Peter Broelman
Glen Le Lievre
Mark Knight
John Shakespeare
John Spooner
From the US
C@t:
I know that is what it stands for. I just thought they’d rebranded as LNP.
The NSW government never had control of Covid to start with! If it had been in control from the start, we wouldn’t be experiencing the crisis we’re having now.
Confessions @ #10 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 7:15 am
That’s what I said. The Queenslanders will know for sure what is on their ballot papers.
‘How fitting that the 20th anniversary of the Tampa affair should fall at this moment, while Afghanistan is collapsing and nearly 60 per cent of Australians are in lockdown, writes Waleed Aly who wonders if we can turn the tide on empathy twenty years on.’
.
And the Liberal party is in government again.
Does that make it any clearer Wally.
It’s bloody cold up here this morning. Paddocks are frosted over, hoses frozen and even the alpacas’ coats are frosted!
It’s a beautiful Sydney morning. I’ve been out for a walk to watch the sunrise – best part of the day.
Re Victorian situation:
“Rafael Epstein@Raf_Epstein · 26m
Hearing today’s Vic Covid number is lower than yday (80) but not by much”
So if anyone were to found an actual liberal party in Australia, one that qualified for and wanted to join the Liberal Internationa, they wouldn’t be able to use the word “liberal” in their name because that word is taken by hard-right reactionaries.
At least Victoria’s numbers are heading in the right direction. 😐
Steve777:
If you were a genuine liberal would you want to be associated with the Liberal Party in any way, even if only by name.
Steve777 @ #17 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 7:52 am
I thought there was a distinction between liberal and Liberal.
As I explained to my Liberal voting brother in-law, I vote Labor because I’m a liberal. Confused the shit out of him.
I’m going on a limb here but I see what’s happening.
Scotty is going to campaign on his record just like Johnny campaigned on trust.
The outcome will almost certainly be the same.
Morning all. BK I sympathise on the cold. I’m in no hurry to get out of bed. Thanks for the roundup.
Here is another article about quite detailed modelling showing NSW cannot afford to “open up” until well after 70% vaccination is achieved. Even then there are risks, and some social distancing measures will need to be kept.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-26/covid-peak-in-nsw-still-six-weeks-away-modelling-shows/100411220
Greg Jericho did some graphing to show the exponential growth function NSW covid is following has barely changed in ten weeks. As Confessions said, Gladys and Hazzard never got this under control, and show no sign of doing so.
We know what your record is like, mundo.
So you see Morrison campaigning on his record, eh? The one that let Covid run rampant in Australia because of his failures in quarantine and vaccination?
Okay, got it. 🙄
mundo says:
Friday, August 27, 2021 at 8:01 am
I’m going on a limb here but I see what’s happening.
Scotty is going to campaign on his record just like Johnny campaigned on trust.
The outcome will almost certainly be the same.
——————-
Are you predicting
Morrison to be the 2nd sitting prime minister to lose his seat in the last 30 years ?
Confessions @ #19 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 7:57 am
Being an avid watcher of general knowledge quiz shows I’d hazard a guess that the average punter wouldn’t actually know the meaning of the word liberal.
Apply these tests to some politicians and leaders we know!
https://alan-12169.medium.com/how-to-identify-a-pseudo-smart-person-faf5e7a50f9b
Scott @ #24 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 8:06 am
Not that election.
The ‘who do you trust’ election.
Think about it for a while.
The story behind the Mark Knight cartoon:
Why the Nirvana ‘Nevermind’ baby, now 30, is suing the band over the album cover photo
https://www.usatoday.com/videos/entertainment/entertainthis/2021/08/25/nirvana-nevermind-baby-now-30-sues-band-child-pornography/5595667001/
Morning all
Thanks BK for todays reports.
So very sad that the Intel was correct about a terror attack happening in Kabul.
What a tragedy. Sigh……….
mundo says:
Friday, August 27, 2021 at 8:08 am
Friday, August 27, 2021 at 8:01 am
The ‘who do you trust’ election.
Think about it for a while.
—————————-
1998 Howard government didn’t win on trust – his government only survived due to the landslide win in 1996
2001 – Howard government didn’t win on trust – His government was retained on lies
2004 -Howard government didn’t win on trust – His government was retained on lies
so which election was on trust , if you said the howard government like the current lib/nats were elected on gullibility you would be right
Jaeger @ #27 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 8:13 am
Because he’s greedy.
If the people of NSW believe that Gladys and her announcement yesterday was acceptable, I dont think there is any hope.
Yesterday she rattled off test and vaccine numbers, then a cursory mention of cases and deaths. Which did include a young man dying at home.
Then she makes this bloody picnic announcement for the 13th September.
Warped doesnt even begin to describe it.
No one trusts Scott Morrison. That’s the difference.
The Liberals have to have a warped perspective on reality to be able to brazen their way through this mess of their own creation.
”
Matthew Knott reports that dozens of people, including at least 12 US soldiers, are dead after two suicide bombers set off explosives outside the international airport in Kabul, plunging the US-led withdrawal effort into chaos.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/explosion-occurs-outside-kabul-airport-us-officials-say-20210826-p58mb7.html
”
According to Dutton Australia evacuation is now complete and he is patting himself for the job well done. I don’t know what happens to people with Australian visas and Citizenships who are left behind
According to ABC news atleast 1000 Australian citizens and Permanent residency visa holders are still there in Afghanistan.
Vic:
I don’t even watch Gladys’s pressers anymore, they’re just not informative.
But the announcement of easing restrictions on the day the state’s Covid case numbers enters the thousands was just tone deaf in the extreme!
We are heading off soon for AstraZeneca2.
Some people are doomed to learn lessons the hard way.
One of my siblings has friend who has lived in Sydney for years. Recently, She has been residing in Melbourne with her partner.
Two of her partners family members in Sydney have now contracted covid. They are not doing well. Turns out they are from western Sydney and believed covid was exaggerated.
C@tmomma @ #12 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 7:27 am
It just shows LNP on the ballot paper but their website is still headed LNP – Liberal National Party so I’m not sure if that answers Confessions question or not.
”
Scepticsays:
Friday, August 27, 2021 at 6:44 am
India’s drug regulator has approved the world’s first DNA vaccine against Covid-19 for emergency use.
The three-dose ZyCoV-D vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 66% of those vaccinated, according to an interim study quoted by the vaccine maker Cadila Healthcare.
ZyCov-D is also India’s first needle-free Covid-19 jab.
It is administered with a disposable needle-free injector, which uses a narrow stream of the fluid to penetrate the skin and deliver the jab to the proper tissue.
Zydus Cadila: India approves world’s first DNA Covid vaccine https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57774294
”
Lot of Australian men will like this type of injection. 🙂
BK @ #36 Friday, August 27th, 2021 – 8:22 am
Wear a thick coat, BK, there is still a bad flu around! Which I appear to have as my Covid test came back negative.
BK We are heading off soon for AstraZeneca2.
Best wishes. I had my second one on Monday – no side effects at all.
EDIT: ” Lot of Australian men will like this type of injection” no needle – what’s not to like?
BK
Have fun!
Thanks, Ballantyne! 🙂
C@t
Had you had this year’s fluvax?
Ballantyne:
Thanks. As I suspected, their branding is LNP.
Not that I think the Liberal Party would force them to change their name anyway.
Victoria has recorded 79 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases.
Contact tracers have linked 53 of the new cases to existing outbreaks.
Victoria processed 50,535 test results on Thursday, when 33,611 doses of vaccine were delivered at state-run sites.
Health authorities said further information on how many of the new cases were in isolation will be released later this morning.
An aged care home in northern Victoria is in lockdown after a fully vaccinated staff member tested positive to coronavirus.
Echuca Community for the Aged said in a statement the Wharparilla Lodge worker was well when they last completed a shift on Friday last week.
There are more than 860 exposure sites across the state, with new sites listed in northern Victoria at Echuca, Kyabram and Mooroopna.
C@t
Yay! No covid. But boo to the flu!
Presumably parallels will be drawn with the failed rescue mission of the American hostages in Tehran.
If Scrotto thinks going to an election in November is best for him then things must be looking bad going into next year.
It would be at a time when the 70% or 80% should be reached but modelling says there will still need to be restrictions.
What if kids aren’t vaccinated and there are horrific numbers for them?
Covid is running it’s own race so everything would be unpredictable.
Albo won’t campaign on covid…it will be whatever his strategy was going to be prior to delta.
Even if delta is under some sort of control voters won’t have forgotten it.
So during the campaign a subtle message from ALP on vaccines, quarantine and bushfires will be in the background reminding voters that despite all of his bluster and talk you can’t trust anything Scrotto says.
Imagine a short ad with Scrotto saying in the space of 3 months he opposes lockdowns, he supports lockdowns and now he opposes lockdowns again