Driving to Alexandria today (exactly 5km, according to my app, so ‘within area’) I was undertaken by a speeding Mercedes GLA which then cut in front of me, crossing a solid white line to do so. Driving to and from the radio station where I work (out of area, but my voice on air, introducing Brahms’ second symphony, is apparently an ‘essential service’, and I carry a letter attesting to the fact) I’ve noticed the increasing numbers of tradies’ utes tearing along at 20kph over the limit and blithely lane-swapping, clearly untroubled by the prospect of police disapproval.

Clearly the police have reordered their priorities, and the poor dears simply don’t have the time both to enforce the Road Traffic Act AND protect the community by beating up, pepper-spraying and water-cannoning its citizens for protesting at the removal of their liberties. And it’s a good thing I do carry that letter, because I’ve no doubt that, should I once forget to bring it, a cop would magically appear, bale me up at the roadside and issue me with a ticket, even as the utes sped by, unmolested.