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Why is Melbourne’s second COVID-19 lockdown important? Why have we closed down the city? Why do we practise social distancing? How is COVID-19 different to influenza?

COVID-19 is a new virus. It is something we have never been exposed to. We have no immunity. There is no vaccine. There is no cure. 20% of Australia’s population are at great risk from dying the virus.

The statist implementation of private property presently depends on central control of cadastral maps and land registers, operating under state monopolies.

Clearly this wouldn't be an option in a stateless society, which isn't a problem for classical anarchism (communism, collectivism, mutualism, or individualism) since its goal is to abolish private property anyway.

There is at present an external threat to Australia and Australians. It goes by the name of ‘China’. The Morrison-led Coalition is gearing up for the 2022 federal election with a campaign reminiscent of the successful Menzies-led campaigns of the 1960s, the ‘Yellow Peril’ and ‘Reds Under the Bed’, which won him elections many times over, despite the economic conditions in the country at the time.

As a British colonial outpost, in a land violently taken from its people, Australia is insecure about its place in Asia. Are we worried we will have stolen what we have stolen ourselves?

The Paycheck Protection Program has ended. The good news is that most of the companies that wanted to participate were eventually able to. The bad news is that the program was incompetently administrated and is ending as we enter the second wave (or the second part of the first wave, depending on how you count).

Even with government assistance, the first wave still brought unemployment to 15%. The second wave, with dramatically reduced government assistance, will probably be worse.

Ryanair is known to be hostile to trade unions and this has been proven once again in the Czech Republic.

A union for cabin crew workers on the airline was recently registered there and the company was duly informed of this.

The new union asked to meet with management.

But just one day after telling Ryanair that a union now existed, three union leaders -- Matteo Pizzolato, Andrea Schiraldi, and Izhar Arcos Poveda -- were sacked.

Disclaimer: I am very aware that the majority of Australians are not like the person I had the misfortune to deal with. I am also very aware that other minority races, such as the African Americans and the indigenous communities in Australia, have been coping with worse systematic discriminations. My experience was nowhere near as bad.
The reason I am sharing this is to bring awareness - what I have experienced, what I have seen, here in Melbourne, 2020.

Some surprising statistics were released late in 2019, before COVID-19 took hold. They revealed that Australians are the second highest medicated people for anxiety in the world. Australia has a lot going for it as a society, compared to other countries, so you have to wonder why this is the case. Is it down to the individual Australian psyche? Or does it have to do with the institutional structures we find ourselves in?

About 2,000 people every year receive Queen’s Birthday and Invasion Day honours, awarded by a private organisation. They comprise a hierarchy of gongs! At the top you have the Companion of the Order of Australia medal. Tony Abbott, no less, received this honour last week. This is the man who tried to privatise Medicare. You also have philanthropists in the mix, those tax-evading individuals granting charity to the 'deserving poor', along with has-been's and media celebrities.

The most interesting part of this is that the Trump campaign had tried to move to a simpler, more streamlined platform, which is something I'm broadly in favor of for the Democratic Party.

"Party officials and senior Trump campaign aides had previously discussed ways to pare down the 58-page document to a single note card or abbreviated list of principles, but the effort broke down after several conservative groups registered complaints with the White House....

Yesterday the Australian Scott Morrison said that those attended the Black Lives Matter protests should be charged.

"Mr Morrison has previously urged Australians not to attend the mass protests against Indigenous incarceration rates and deaths in custody, citing the risk of COVID-19."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-11/black-lives-matter-protests-morri...