North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I think most local boat ramps will be busy this weekend.
I will be giving it a miss.
Hope people do the right thing as it would be very unfortunate if boating and fishing was shut down.
Might try some out of the way landbased spots over the break.

More conflicting 'advice'.

In the other Covid19 thread ( going-fishing-f10027/covid-19-regs-t42629-15.html ), Ron (who I take to be a quite knowledgeable chap), pointed out the subtlety between 'legal directions' and 'advice'. Contrary to AFANT's statement in Matt's link above:-

"If you are going fishing, you need to do the right thing and protect all Territorians by following these legally enforceable rules:
Do: Fish alone"

I can see nothing in the legally enforceable directions that would preclude me from fishing in a 5.8mtr boat with my mate from next door. The closest I can find is Direction no 14 (Gatherings) item 7 in relations to 'vessels' " :-

" 7 The operator of a vessel:
(a) must not allow a gathering of more than 10 people on the
vessel, including the operator; and
(b) must not allow the density of people present to be more than
one person per 4 m2 of the deck area."

Being a pragmatist by nature, I personally can see no difference from being in a 5.8mtr boat with a mate, to 3 workers occupying a dual cab ute??

Ther'es certainly no intelligence or logic to it .....

Lots of odd things happening. My beef is why there is no push to make and wear home-made masks. It is out of step with the rest of the world, and defies logic. The CDC recently upgraded the infectious rating of COVID-19 to 5.7, much higher than flu, and it is likely mainly spreading through the air.

I get it that they don't want the commercial masks being directed away from medical staff, and that masks have to be used properly, but it would be easy to teach people to make and use masks.

Slug looks like he's making progress.

You guys have got 6 Directions by your CHO.

Pretty relaxed sort of response but one deemed acceptable by NT Govt. Not much in the way of actual definitions. In the absence of definitions/meanings confusion moves into the vacuum created.

eg social distancing of 1.5m doesn't seem to rate a mention in the Directions and the 4 sq m density seems to apply in respect of vessels which is what users of this forum are mainly interested in.

Qld has 15 such Directions by its CHO.

https://www.health.qld.gov.au/system-go ... act-powers. Look at all the words.

They all contain definitions/meanings especially the meanings of "social distancing 1.5m" and "4 sq m density" AND when and where they apply.

But the number of words contained in Qld's 15 Directions as compared to the NT's 6 Directions is hard to comprehend.

One basic rule of laws and interpretations is that the more words contained in legislation, the more "room to manoeuvre" an "interpreter" has. A lawyer is one such interpreter (a "wordsmith" by profession).

The more words, the more wriggle room.

In an attempt to clarify in detail the intent of the law to avoid confusion, law drafters use more and more explanatory words/definitions and/or meanings which simply create more confusion and thus wriggle room for a "wordsmith" who only has raise a reasonable doubt (mostly).

It ends up that Qld's 15 Directions create many more inconsistencies/confusion than what they set out to clarify.

That's just 1 state. There are another 5 mainland states PLUS another mainland territory(ACT) PLUS the fed govt and each of their methods of putting Directions together differ.

What exacerbates matters is that the av Joe public doesn't know that each state/territory is handling things differently nor that what's being presented on media news may or may not refer to the state in which they live. So what SHOULD they believe?

Read your NT CHO Health Directions. They're law and enforceable in the NT. Take notice and believe those Directions.

Be wary of "advice" irrespective of how well meaning, genuine or credible it seems (mine too).

Read the Directions for yourselves.

At the end of the day, there is a defence included in nearly ALL offences provisions being "without reasonable excuse" and that defence is contained in these NT Health Directions.

Does anybody think that the amount of confusion created by the application of the combined effect of ALL of these different Directions Aus wide and the higgledy-piggledy way they've been presented as fact by the media, might constitute a reasonable excuse"?

The AFANT advice sure gave some useful info about the locations of boat ramps though.

Well, in light of the gong-show that has been created, I'll be cleaning and greasing/oiling reels...and watching the madness unfold..

Never heard of a "gong-show" before. Good description. I like it.

We can all be sure of 1 thing. Pollies (who just love to show that they're in charge) will find plenty of reasons NOT to wind back the restrictions in line with community wishes.

ronje wrote: ↑Tue Apr 14, 2020 5:01 am Never heard of a "gong-show" before. Good description. I like it.

And i assumed you were of a riper vintage Ronje who would have grown up with that one.

Still pisses me that I can sit around a table at home with 10 people sharing a beverage but can’t put just one of them up the front of a 6m boat to pull the anchor and drop a line or two

Nope. Never heard of gong-show. Maybe I'm not so old after all.

Thanks for info Flicken. I won't be using the data.

Is it NT Maritime data repeated by AFANT or AFANT's own?

There was guy in 80s or 90s (part of the old Skyhooks band) called Red Symons who hosted a amateur talent quest called Red Faces who used a gong to tell contestants that they had to go.

Didn't know that was called a gong show.

Advantage of being on FFF. One learns a lot of stuff.

NinjaFish wrote: Still pisses me that I can sit around a table at home with 10 people sharing a beverage but can’t put just one of them up the front of a 6m boat to pull the anchor and drop a line or two

Why is that Ninja?? I thought we'd established that the AFANT 'advice' was BS, and you can knock yourself out in a 'vessel' so long as "the density of people present is less than one person per 4 m2 of the deck area".

Plenty of people fishing over the weekend quite happily ( and legally ) with 2 in a boat who weren't 'co-habitating' ...

I can understand the basis of your comment however - no shortage of contradictions in this debacle.

I hear the Mickett Creek shooting range had to close - they've got individual cubicles meters apart!!

And, why close the TAB where you might see 1/2 doz or so punters as a norm, but quite happily file into the news-agency to get our magazines and tatts with 20 other punters

And Ron's spot on with his comment re pollies reveling in this $hitfight and reluctant to wind back restrictions.

Just saw Fyles banging-on on the evening news that it's much too early to consider any such thing.

FFS - Northern Territory:- NO deaths, No-one in ICU, 8 days since last new infection, and ONLY 24 all up (NONE of which were 'local').

Keep the borders manned and monitor movements, but let's drop all the other 'measures' and return to normal in this very fortunate part of the country.

Why is that Ninja?? I thought we'd established that the AFANT 'advice' was BS, and you can knock yourself out in a 'vessel' so long as "the density of people present is less than one person per 4 m2 of the deck area".
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That’s what I thought Slug. Was taking a decky until it was said that you had to be from the same address, family or not and they were checking on that.

I’m bound to run into the Water Police today as they’re out monitoring all the vessels arriving in Fanny Bay from overseas so I’ll ask for some clarification.

That excerpt is from the Community Advice spiel - my understanding is that unless it is a Legal Direction, it is not enforceable.

I think Ronje's best example is the 1.5m social distancing that we all MUST practice - however this is also only advise, and you can't actually be charged with being closer than 1.5m to ol mate.

From the horses mouth on the water yesterday.

‘Family members from the same address or housemates only’ - Water Police Sen.Sergeant.

Was out on the water before you posted yesterday Slug, I’ll ask them in more detail next time.

Friends got checked on the water by NT water police on the weekend. Had to prove they were all from the same address.
Also heard that NT water police were at Dundee on the weekend handing out infringement notices....although it came from a reliable source I can't confirm this as it was third hand information.