The short answer is that our government acted slowly, after they already had some idea of the virus, and its spread + apparent lethality (lol), because of vested interests, and it is likely that it came on a flight from China itself...
The longer answer is as follows: China is our biggest trading partner. They're also our largest investor and real estate market (as in, they buy our shit boxes. The reverse is legally impossible, not coincidentally...)
Chinese make up a huge and ever-increasing proportion of our immigrant population. They make up the majority of our international students, on which our increasingly "degree mill-like" universities rely, for cash. Also a MASSIVE source of visa rorting, permanent residency schemes and generally unskilled labour, second only to the subconinent. Etc, etc. Rinse and repeat.
The government knows all this. Big business knows all this. So do the corporate lobbyists. So does the education sector. So does the public sector. And so, they all had significant vested interests in keeping those flights coming, and the Chinese entering, right up until it was no longer politically viable to keep going.
That is how the virus got here. Then they panicked, and went so far in the other direction that we have now become the laughing stock of the world.
And yet, they STILL make exceptions to be able to import foreign students and migrant (unskilled) workers. STILL, even now, when we can't even leave.
Not to mention all the fucking celebrities and rich Americans (amongst others) who came here on holiday, and then were allowed out into the country, to either film shit, or just because they paid lots and lots of money to the government. Including fucking FKA Bruce Jenner, of all people, to film Celebrity Big Brother (I am not making this up). And yet, we still can't leave, 35,000 Australians are "trapped" overseas, and the government literally tried to make it illegal for AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS to return from India, via third countries...
So yeah, you're right, in theory, but in reality... The border is porous, and our federal government is so corrupt, so beholden to China and to the ultra-rich that in reality? It means jack shit. And that's how these fucking "outbreaks" keep happening, and how they continue to have a few cases, every now and again, to continue extending lockdowns, and ruining our fucking lives...
Sorry if I sound "blackpilled", but that's the objective summary of the situation. Everyone with even an inkling of what is going on knows this, however there is so many vested interests, and so much apathy, that no one, seemingly in the entire fucking middle class, gives a shit. And that is how we get to today.
The short answer is that our government acted slowly, after they already had some idea of the virus, and its spread + apparent lethality (lol), because of vested interests, and it is likely that it came on a flight from China itself...
The longer answer is as follows: China is our biggest trading partner. They're also our largest investor and real estate market (as in, they buy our shit boxes. The reverse is legally impossible, not coincidentally...) Chinese make up a huge and ever-increasing proportion of our immigrant population. They make up the majority of our international students, on which our increasingly "degree mill-like" universities rely, for cash. Also a MASSIVE source of visa rorting, permanent residency schemes and generally unskilled labour, second only to the subconinent. Etc, etc. Rinse and repeat.
The government knows all this. Big business knows all this. So do the corporate lobbyists. So does the education sector. So does the public sector. And so, they all had significant vested interests in keeping those flights coming, and the Chinese entering, right up until it was no longer politically viable to keep going.
That is how the virus got here. Then they panicked, and went so far in the other direction that we have now become the laughing stock of the world.
And yet, they STILL make exceptions to be able to import foreign students and migrant (unskilled) workers. STILL, even now, when we can't even leave. Not to mention all the fucking celebrities and rich Americans (amongst others) who came here on holiday, and then were allowed out into the country, to either film shit, or just because they paid lots and lots of money to the government. Including fucking FKA Bruce Jenner, of all people, to film Celebrity Big Brother (I am not making this up). And yet, we still can't leave, 35,000 Australians are "trapped" overseas, and the government literally tried to make it illegal for AUSTRALIAN CITIZENS to return from India, via third countries...
So yeah, you're right, in theory, but in reality... The border is porous, and our federal government is so corrupt, so beholden to China and to the ultra-rich that in reality? It means jack shit. And that's how these fucking "outbreaks" keep happening, and how they continue to have a few cases, every now and again, to continue extending lockdowns, and ruining our fucking lives...
Sorry if I sound "blackpilled", but that's the objective summary of the situation. Everyone with even an inkling of what is going on knows this, however there is so many vested interests, and so much apathy, that no one, seemingly in the entire fucking middle class, gives a shit. And that is how we get to today.