CV and mad panic behaviour

[Mav]

I think LP had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, alluding to the outrage over Victoria going with private security.

In reality, there was nothing surprising about governments using private security. Perhaps police might have been better suited but they have political power and were never likely to accept the responsibility. Governments know that ordering police to do something they don’t want to do would result in the Police Association mobilising members to actively campaign against the government. And there are over 21,000 of them. Prison guards and nurses would probably be either too brutal or not brutal enough and are needed in their day jobs. Soldiers are hardly trained for this responsibility, especially where the powers over quarantined people are a bit unclear. But would troops come with strings attached: e.g. if you don’t open up schools & businesses right now, we’ll pull out the troops?

When State Governments have been stripped down to eliminate excess capacity, the neo-conservative model dictates that governments need to rely on pivate enterprise to fill the gaps.