Photo credit: ABC news/ NSW Police

​UPDATE: 23/08/21 A new curfew implemented at Western Sydney comes into effect today. Gladys Berejiklian continues to use heavy handed punitive measures on our communities that will not solve a health pandemic. This curfew gives reason for more cops to intimidate our communities of colour and working class people. This double standard is a stark difference in the treatment in the richer, whiter suburbs in the East since the start of the pandemic, and it has to stop.  What we need is appropriate pandemic support, not more police. Premier Berejiklian must call on The Morrison Government to step up and support for everyone to stay home.  

Gladys Berejiklian – We need Pandemic Support, Not Extra Police! 

Everyone deserves to stay safe during lockdown  without worrying about how to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. Essential workers living in Western Sydney deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, not like criminals everytime they go to work.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will this week send 500 more military personnel to the streets of Western Sydney. That’s 18,000 cops and a total of 800 Defense personnel whose job it is to intimidate communities of colour and working class people. 

We’ve seen time and again that you can’t police your way out of a pandemic. Many in Western Sydney can’t afford to stay home, and many others can’t work from home because they’re essential workers. 

Sending armed police and military into the community to intimidate and punish people isn’t the answer. We need clear public health messaging that is culturally appropriate and in the languages that people speak. We need to make sure people aren’t being forced to go into work if they don’t need to – and that means simple, easy, access to pandemic payments for anyone who can’t work due to COVID-19. Currently, only residents in certain Local Government Areas in NSW are entitled to Test and Isolate Support Payments that pay people to stay home as they wait for their test results.

And we need to end the double standard.  At a time when our city and state needs to be united, our leaders – the Berejiklian Government – are seeking to divide us. By blaming the working class and people of colour they’re trying to shift the blame away from their own mismanagement, and we won’t stand for it. 

We need consistent financial support for everyone struggling to survive during lockdown. Premier Berejiklian must call on The Morrison Government to step up and support for everyone to stay home.  

Send an email to Gladys Berejiklian now urging her to extend the Test and Isolate Support Payments across all of NSW and to call on the Morrison Government to pay people to stay at home.