Ganesh Sahathevan

 by Ganesh Sahathevan                                               NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard  NSW Health Minister  Brad "100%" Hazzard has declared that he will not be " comfortable" with 5% of the NSW population unvaccinated. His comment goes against the generally held belief that herd immunity by vaccination can be achieved once 90%-95% of the population is vaccinated, but he has not explained why. On the other hand, he might be playing a game of distraction, hoping that his comments will distract voters eyes away from grave quarantine fee cost and accounting errors (see story below). A 100% vaccination rate, indeed any measure of persons vaccinated is meaningless unless waning immunity is accounted for. Hazzard has never acknowledged the consequences of waning immunity despite (or perhaps because) he being in that cohort of person...

 by Ganesh Sahathevan  The following excerpt is from the  Sydney Local Health District 2019-2020 Annual Report:  Special Hotel Accomodation is better known as NSW hotel quarantine. The Berejiklian Government  commenced hotel quarantine on 29 March 2020; the financial year end is 30 June. In July 2020, the government started charging those it ordered into quarantine a fee.  It is not clear whether SLHD received additional SHA funding in the 20-21 financial year; financial statements for the period have not yet been published.  However, the imposition of quarantine fees by the NSW Government, which are invoiced by the SLHD for the provision of health services, does look like a case of double dipping, given the quantum of the stimulus budget payment.  Readers will recall that NSW Minister for Finance Damien Tudehope considers the fee partial recovery of costs.   However,  management of that fee by Revenue NSW and the manner in wh...

 by Ganesh Sahathevan                                                                   Premier Dominic Perrotet, the former Treasurer As  previously reported on this blog: On 21 February 2021 the SMH quoting  NSW Minister For Finance and Small Business Damien Tudehope reported;  NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope said  your invoice for hotel quarantine includes  a contribution towards security, testing, cleaning, police, health personnel and other expenses . It has also been reported  here that   Tudehope is relying  on the  Health Services Act (HSA) to recover costs that fall outside the Act .   Invoices for the costs associated with the  quarantine program are issued by the Sydney Local Health District.That creates accounting problems at the SLHD...

 by Ganesh Sahathevan                                    Tough talking Damien Tudehope may not have the power to impose the                                   bulk of his quarantine fee, if any On 21 February 2021 the SMH quoting  NSW Minister For Finance and Small Business Damien Tudehope reported: NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope said hotel quarantine was a key safeguard in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and Australians returning from overseas or interstate needed to contribute to the cost. "When it comes to paying your invoice for hotel quarantine, the message is a simple one - payment of your fee is not optional," Mr Tudehope said. "Don't ignore it. If you are facing hardship or difficulty paying, contact us about making payment, entering into a payment plan, an extension to pay or other hardship m...

 by Ganesh Sahathevan  On 21 February 2021 the SMH quoting  NSW Minister For Finance and Small Business Damien Tudehope reported:  The NSW government has called in debt collectors to chase $16.4 million owed by more than 7000 returning Australians for their stay in mandatory hotel quarantine in Sydney. NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope said hotel quarantine was a key safeguard in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and Australians returning from overseas or interstate needed to contribute to the cost. "When it comes to paying your invoice for hotel quarantine, the message is a simple one - payment of your fee is not optional," Mr Tudehope said. "Don't ignore it. If you are facing hardship or difficulty paying, contact us about making payment, entering into a payment plan, an extension to pay or other hardship measures." Mr Tudehope said the b ill was not just for the accommodation and food but also a contribution towards security, testing, cleaning, police, health...

 by Ganesh Sahathevan                                       Premier Dominic Perrotet, the former Treasurer The SMH revealed in J une 2021:  The NSW government has attempted to cover up how it artificially inflated the state’s budgets by tens of billions of dollars after it shifted the rail network’s costs onto a corporation that still hasn’t been able to properly operate six years after it was launched The corporation, known as the Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE), was part of a plan hatched in 2014 to set up a shell corporation to shift billions of dollars of expenses off the state budget and into a new rail body. NSW Treasury was able to use the corporation, with the approval of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, to inflate the budget to help mask the government slipping into deficit in 2018. Premier Dominic Perrotet  was Treasurer from 2017 to 2021; he succeeded G...