I Live in An Affected Local Government Area: Can I Leave it to Work?

We felt great pity for Melbournians last year when the ‘ring of steel’ was assembled around the metropolitan area, with various police checkpoints to ensure that people were only leaving or entering for ‘authorised’ reasons under the state’s public health order.

Well, now it’s Sydney’s turn.

The Sydney ‘ring of steel’ has been in place since 12am on Saturday 17 July 2021 and will remain effective until at least 30 July 2021.

It affects residents in Greater Sydney and it’s surrounds, including Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour.

Ring inside a ring

During outbreaks of COVID, authorities have encouraged residents of Greater Sydney to work from home, wherever possible.

But that changed on 17 July 2021, with the State Government introducing harsher new restrictions throughout the region.

The strictest rules, though, apply to the Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool, where authorities say the outbreak is the worst.

Exempted workers

The Government first announced that only essential health and emergency workers could leave these LGAs for work.

However, it has since released a revised list of those permitted leave to these areas to attend work.

These ‘exempted affected workers’, or ‘authorised workers’, are:

Fines for businesses

There are $10,000 fines for employers who force their employees to attend work where it is possible for them to work from home.

The new restrictions come and businesses are feeling particularly fragile on the back of the 2019 bushfires and foods, and last year’s pandemic restrictions. People too, are feeling the strain of uncertainty, and in some cases, a sense of cynicism that the tough sanctions being placed on personal freedoms to save the health system could end up costing the economy greatly for years to come.

The New South Wales Government has put the current restrictions in place until July 30, but has already warned that the lockdown could last even longer if case numbers don’t subside. If more suburbs become ‘COVID hotspots’ there is also the possibility that  restrictions could be widened to include other areas.

Know the rules, or risk tough penalties

And it’s important to know the rules. New South Wales Police have increased their presence in LGAs where people’s movement is restricted and have the authority to issue on-the-spot fines.

At the beginning of Sydney’s lockdown 3 weeks ago, the police stated that they would take an ‘enforcement approach’ to the public health orders, which basically means that they won’t be generous with handing out warnings.

• You can be fined $1,000 if you don’t follow public health orders.
• You can be fined a further $5,500 for each day that you don’t follow the orders.
• You can be fined $200 for not wearing a face mask.

While you can challenge the fine in court, courts across New South Wales are currently dealing with a pandemic-related backlog, so this could be a long and drawn out process.

It is also important to be aware that those who are sent to court by police for alleged COVID breaches, or who elect to have their cases determined in court, face a fine of up to $11,000 and/or 6 months imprisonment if they are found to have committed the offence of failing to comply with a public health order.