I personally didn't care whether or not this year's footy season went ahead and it annoyed me greatly that quite a few footballers didn't seem to appreciate how privileged they were, as there were several reports of them breaking the rules on their restrictions.

The news now is that agriculture ministers, at state and national levels, are begging state governments to allow agricultural workers to move freely between states.

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They say that if current restrictions continue, farmers wont be able to harvest their crops, or shear their sheep, or care for their animals.

This means that all our farmers' hard work, and our national food security is put at risk.

Football is more important?

The first duty of a private enterprise business is to make money for shareholders and many entrepreneurs have made money out of aged care.

At about the time when John Howard was prime minister, investors were encouraged to establish private enterprise aged care in the hope that this would provide less pressure on the public system.

These places put emphasis on a home environment rather than being like a hospital or institution.

As time passed those needing aged care were living longer, more likely to have diverse health problems, as well as dementia.

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Care for them requires staff with a higher degree of qualifications and employment conditions, as well as procedures and protocols suitable for the more complex situation but the private enterprise business model seems to have failed to cope.

Cracks in the system have been glossed over, but recently, as the pandemic exposed the mismanagement of aged care homes, evidence of severe neglect and a very high mortality rate, as well as suggestions that the aged are expendable, has shocked us all.

This situation is outside the norms of a civilised society.

Perhaps our future economy will come up with new types of employment and exports, as predicted by Dr Marshall from the CSIRO, but also new social systems which will be worthy of our advancing nation.

I noted with interest that Dr Tariq Rana, of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, addressed an international water and food sustainability webinar on August 13, 2020.

He spoke about the importance of education, capacity building, sharing knowledge and information, and stakeholder engagement in responding to the current and future challenges posed by COVID-19.

If the MDBA is to give advice in any of these areas, it must be planning a totally different approach to what we have seen in the past decade.

To me, it seems a bit of a joke that the MDBA is advising others on "stakeholder engagement" and "capacity building".

It is indeed a shame that the MDBA is so blinkered inside its Canberra bubble that it cannot see its failings, led by its constant refusal to admit the basin plan has serious shortcomings which need to be addressed.