COVID-19 is something to Bragg about

20 March 2020
| By Outsider |
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As Outsider sits in his big red leather chair enduring what some are now choosing to call self-isolation, he has been given to reflect that in these days of social media ‘self-isolation’ doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re actually isolated.

Take for instance, NSW Liberal Party Senate tyro, Andrew Bragg, who not only announced his COVID-19 positive status but then proceeded to use social media to deliver chapter and verse on how it happened and what his intentions were and then followed through with up to the minute commentary on issues such as Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg’s constitutional right to sit in the Parliament.

Similarly, US actor and apparent all-round good guy in terms of providing selfies, Tom Hanks, was not silent while confined in hospital isolation on the Gold Coast (how else would Outsider know about the vegemite toast?) while Australia’s ever-lovable Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed after leaving hospital and via social media that, yes, he gets along with his dog even if the rest of the family sensibly left the house.

But Outsider digresses. What he is really concerned about is whether Senator Bragg’s presence in Senate Estimates last week might have compromised the health of some of

Australia’s most senior financial services regulators given the presence of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) management teams.

But, of course, public servants appearing before Senate Estimates sit some significant distance away from their Senate inquisitors and are only likely to have been compromised if they saw fit to shake Bragg’s hand or indulged in an intimate chat which, given his line of questioning, seems most unlikely.

That said, Outsider will be closely monitoring the health of the ASIC and APRA executives on the basis that actions sometimes speak louder than words.

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