Mayors from Sydney’s twelve COVID-19 hotspot local government areas met with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over three split Zoom sessions.
Cumberland’s Steve Christou, Canterbury-Bankstown’s Khal Asfour, and Burwood’s John Faker attended one of the meetings on Tuesday.
The meetings were scheduled to discuss current restrictions and the vaccine rollout, in light of the state’s recently unveiled roadmap out of lockdown.
Cumberland mayor Steve Christou has been highly critical of his community’s restrictions and labeled the meeting a “PR stunt just paying us lip service”.
“I would warmly support any leader willing to take over who is more sympathetic to the plight of western Sydney residents because we should all be living under the same circumstances and constraints,” he said.
Mr. Christou says he told the Premier that his community was working-class and most could not work from home.
“The Premier got some long overdue realities of what’s happening out here and the harsh circumstances of what people are now experiencing,” he said.
“Our people are hurting, we’ve got families that are not going to recover, that can no longer afford to pay their mortgage, their rent, their bills or put food on the table for their children.”
“Many businesses are not going to reopen, come opening uptime – they’ve been devastated.”
Christou says if he was approached by a law firm over a possible legal challenge to the current lockdown orders, he would consider it.
Source: The Australian
