Australians are extremely melodramatic. Yes, this looks bad but the government is focused on the right things (i.e. a focus on testing, tracing, increasing vaccination uptake and restricting movement). Having closely watched the response in the UK, don't take for granted a state that actually runs an effective test, trace and isolate system. Lots of nit picking, but it's unreasonable to expect the system to be 100% effective especially considering the Delta variant.

I see lots of quibbling here about whether the rules should be tighter and whether individuals should be blamed. The fact is, compliance with the rules is an individual decision. Everyone who says that the rules should be tighter is tacitly endorsing a 'minimum compliance' culture, where essentially everyone should behave like mindless drones and do the minimum of what is asked. Rather, people should look at the rules spirit of the rules and interpret them in the most restrictive manner. Take the 10km rule: just because I can exercise 10km away from my home, doesn't mean I should.

On whether to close non-essential businesses, my understanding so far is that most cases are a result of inter-household transmission rather than super-spreading retail events. So the question is, would those additional restrictions materially change the direction of this outbreak? The answer based on current data seems to be no.