Arab Council Australia chief executive Randa Kattan said residents of the hotspot council areas were punished for having working-class jobs and living closely with their extended families. “The NSW response to Covid in western and southwestern Sydney has had the effect of criminalising nearly 50 per cent of our city,” she told a state parliamentary hearing on Friday. “That’s what happens when you find yourself flanked by police as you leave the 7-Eleven store. That’s how it feels when you wake up to hear choppers hovering overhead.“That’s what happens when the state shifts blame and treats an entire community as suspect and non-compliant”. She said her organisation and other community advocates had asked NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to include local leaders in the Covid-19 response “before and not after the fact”. “We are the experts on the ground, we know the communities, we know their values,” she said.“And we know what and where the support is desperately needed.” Ms Kattan also said local leaders should get a seat at the table when the plan for coming out of lockdown was devised. The city’s western and southwestern parts have borne the brunt of the current coronavirus outbreak, with a large part of the more than 42,000 community cases recorded there. A dozen local government districts in the area have also been under much tougher lockdown restrictions than the rest of the city.Ms Kattan appeared alongside other community leaders at a parliamentary inquiry looking into the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
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