Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour has spoken out about the way members of his community are feeling as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions placed on the area.  

Canterbury-Bankstown is one of 12 local government areas in Sydney that has been under tougher COVID-19 restrictions than the rest of the city, and Asfour says his community is “angry” and “frustrated” over what they see as the double standards these differing restrictions have caused.

Speaking on ABC’s QandA on Thursday night, Asfour expressed concern that moving forward, Sydney would have “two classes” of people, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, and that their rights and freedoms would differ accordingly.

He also expressed concern about small business owners in his area and their ability to police who visits their store and whether they’re vaccinated or not. Asfour said that when he raised these concerns with Premier Gladys Berejiklian, her response was that business owners should call the police.  

Asfour went on to discuss how many residents of Canterbury-Bankstown felt upon seeing photos of Eastern Suburbs residents enjoying their designated recreational time in outdoor locations. “I don’t begrudge anyone that lives close to the beach to be able to go there.  

“But when we’re stuck at home and we don’t have any hours of recreation, it makes my community angry, frustrated. We’re fatigued after 11, 12 weeks of lockdown now. Not being able to go outside. It really does hurt, and it shows you a double standard. A double standard in policing, people there weren’t wearing masks, weren’t social distancing. Yet when someone in my community attends a funeral yesterday, wearing a mask, social distancing, they get arrested and taken by police.”

Asfour is most likely referring to the arrest of four mourners at Rockwood Cemetery on Thursday as the result of a funeral that had more than 10 mourners in attendance, in breach of the current restrictions.

Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services and MP for Barton in Sydney’s inner and south west, agreed. “I am absolutely seeing two cities. “And what I’m hearing from people — and I’ve had a lot of interaction with individuals, including Khal over the last week or so — there is an absolute feeling of two cities.”