Narrabri police are enforcing public compliance with the NSW government’s stay-at-home order.

The local response comes as part of the state-wide Operation STAY AT HOME, introduced by NSW Police in response to heightened COVID restrictions in NSW.

Speaking with The Courier about the new level of restrictions, Officer-in-Charge of Narrabri Sector, Inspector Robert Dunn said local police will enforce compliance with the restrictions.

As part of the lockdown restrictions, people should only leave their home for essential purposes. If people are out of the home for an essential reason, they should only travel with other members of their household.

“If people are travelling around in a vehicle with two or more people in it, they will be stopped,” Insp Dunn said.

Insp Dunn advised the community to expect police to ask questions about their reasons for their movement and the people travelling in the vehicle.

“A big issue is the amount of people who are going out with no reason,” Insp Dunn said.

Insp Dunn’s comments similarly echo those of Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon who described non-compliance of the health orders as unacceptable.

“We will be doubling down with compliance and enforcement to make sure we get ahead of the Delta strain,” Dep Comm Lanyon said.

“It only takes one person to do the wrong thing to facilitate considerable spread of the virus.

“We will be issuing $5000 fines to people and closing any businesses which continue to breach the health orders, and will not apologise for these increased enforcement efforts going forward.”

Deputy Commissioner Mick Willing, Regional NSW Field Operations, said preventing movement to regional areas from Sydney, and between regional areas, would be a key focus of the operation.

“There will be more roadblocks on main arterial roads and backroads … these operations will continue to expand throughout this week in order to enforce the permit system [for people to leave Greater Sydney]  announced by the NSW government,” Dep Comm Willing said.

“There will be nowhere to hide if you are doing the wrong thing. If you travel anywhere beyond your LGA at the moment, you are putting everyone else in NSW at considerable risk.

“From the start, this has been about reducing movement across the state and protecting the health and safety of everyone, and this operation significantly strengthens those efforts.”

Increased penalties for public health order breaches

As part of the NSW government’s strengthened restrictions across the state, penalties for breaching public health orders have increased.

Increased fines for Public Health Order breaches (from 12.01am on Monday, August 16):

$5000 on the spot fine for breaching self-isolation rules;

$5000 on the spot fine for lying on a permit (already a criminal offence);

$5000 on the spot fine for lying to a contact tracer (already a criminal offence);

$3000 on the spot fine for breaching the two person outdoor exercise/recreation rule; and

$3000 on the spot fine for breaching rules around entry into regional NSW for authorised work, inspecting real estate and travelling to your second home.

Why can you leave home?

Everyone must stay at home unless they have a reasonable excuse to leave. They also cannot have visitors in their home from outside their household, including family and friends.

It is a reasonable excuse to leave your home for work – but only if it is not practicable to work from home.

Reasonable excuses include:

Obtaining food or other goods and services locally.

Leave home to go to work if you cannot reasonably work from home and the business is allowed to be open.

Leave home for education if it is not possible to do it at home.

Exercise and take outdoor recreation in the local government area you live in or if you need to cross into another local government area, stay within 5km of your home.

Going out for medical or caring reasons, including obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination.

Anyone who has information regarding individuals or businesses in contravention of a COVID-19-related ministerial direction is urged to contact Crime Stoppers: https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au. Information is treated in strict confidence. The public is reminded not to report crime via NSW Police social media pages.

More information on the restrictions can be found at the NSW government’s website here.

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