How could the NSW Parliament, which sits in the middle of a COVID hot-spot, go ahead as normal last week as the virus was sweeping through Sydney? It's a question bewildered Cessnock MP Clayton Barr is asking himself as he faces a stint in voluntary isolation. Here's how it happened . . .
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Ten days ago, seven local government areas in Sydney were declared as areas of concern after a growing Covid outbreak. One of these was the Sydney CBD, where NSW Parliament is based.
Nine days ago, before I left Cessnock to go into the Sydney CBD for Parliament, I rang Parliament to ask an obvious question: "Surely regional MPs are not being asked to come from their Covid-free communities into the Covid hotspot of the Sydney CBD?".
The answer was that Parliament would continue, business as usual.
That night, four of my regional MP colleagues went out for dinner, in the Sydney CBD. This is what regional MPs generally do, given that they are often otherwise in a motel room with very limited cooking facilities.
This very obvious activity seemed to be lost on NSW Parliament in its decision to take a "business as usual" approach.
Eight days ago, those four regional MPs came into Parliament and the day did indeed progress, as usual. All MPs mixed and mingled, sat close to each other in the chamber, walked and talked along the corridors, lined up at the café, etc.
Seven days ago, those four MPs were told that the restaurant in which they had dinner had also, at the very time they were dining, been attended by a now confirmed Covid case. Those four MPs, nor Parliament (my employer) could have known this at the time of the dinner.
Those of us working in Parliament waited nervously that day while those four MPs were tested. For privacy reasons it was not possible for us to know who these MPs were which prevented each of us from understanding if we had been a "close" or a "casual" contact of the MPs.
On that day, seven days ago, at 2pm regional MPs were told that they could leave Parliament and travel home. It was officially no longer "business as usual". And then six days ago it was confirmed that the Northern Tablelands MP, Adam Marshall, had tested positive to COVID.
Adam and I get on really well and we will generally have a chat most weeks in Parliament. Last week was no different. We had sat down and chatted briefly on the Tuesday, eight days ago.
I was now a "close" contact to a COVID case and I had come home into our community.
I took a "lockdown" and a "quarantine" approach as quickly as possible, to limit the risks. I had a COVID test, which came back negative, and I will self-isolate at home for 14 days, with further tests on days seven and 12.
None of the four MPs did anything wrong. Nor did the person who went to the restaurant and later tested positive. But this is the nature of the current COVID strain - the "Delta strain". It is just so contagious.
The serious threat of this new Delta strain is not new news. This is why I cannot believe that Parliament went ahead "business as usual".
I am just a regular guy who reads the news. It was pretty clear to me that the risk in those seven LGAs that was identified ten days ago was going to be high.
Parliament sits right in the middle of one of those LGAs, and yet we pretended the risk was low.
I can't help but think that the throwing of stones and rocks at other states like Victoria, when they have gone into lockdown in the past, by the NSW Premier and the NSW-based Prime Minister, had us painted into a corner.
It seems to me that the health and wellbeing of our state, of our regional MPs and their communities, was taken to a Covid casino and gambled. She lost!
And now it may cause deaths and months of heartache to get things back under control.
