A tale of two Sydneys: City's 'double standards' lashed as police flood south-west

Sydney's south-west needs doctors and nurses, not hundreds of police officers flooding their community, according to Bill Shorten.

Sydney has woken as a city divided this morning.

Residents in the south-west are furious they're facing a police crackdown to combat a rise in cases, when Bondi, the origin of the coronavirus outbreak that plunged Sydney into lockdown, did not.

READ MORE: Cops flood Sydney suburbs at centre of new COVID surge

Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten says the police presence needs to be dialled down.

"This is a health emergency, not a law and order emergency," he told Today.

"My advice to Gladys (Berejiklian), not that she has asked, is put more people in doctors and nurses gear out there doing tests and perhaps dial back the police presence a bit."

Mr Shorten said the police crackdown is similar to the situation faced by Melbourne's public tower residents last year.

"In my electorate, we had the public housing towers lockdown," he explained.

"In the space of an hour there were 600 police doing their job, but when you wake up or when you go to your window and see hundreds of armed police, you think, well, where has this come from?"

Mr Shorten said poor communication has lead to the outrage.

"What's happened is there has been poor communication, I suspect, but of course the people in some of these suburbs feel the double standards," he said.

"Other people around Sydney and elsewhere might say 'What's the problem? A few police walking up and down.'

"But if you don't think that has been the standard applied elsewhere, it will get your back up. Somehow you're being treated as second class.

"The answer is communicate, vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate, and talk to people".

NSW yesterday recorded its highest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in more than a year with 38 infections recorded to 8pm on Wednesday.

It came a day after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged residents in Fairfield, Canterbury, Bankstown and Liverpool in Sydney's south-west to stay at home amid the spike in infectious.

NSW Police deputy commissioner Mal Lanyon insisted the doubling of police presence is nothing more than a reflection of health concerns.

"This is not about discrimination. This is not about racism. This is about enforcing the health order and we will do that fairly and we will do that in a balanced way," he said.

"Health are absolutely concerned about the spread through the south-western suburbs.

"We've had a very visible presence right across Sydney since the health orders came into place and the lockdown of Sydney took place approximately two weeks ago.

"The fact that we have doubled up into the south-west of Sydney is simply a reflection of the serious nature of the spread of this virus".

Speaking to Today this morning, Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone said his community is being unfairly targeted.

"The community needs to feel like they belong," he said.

"At the moment there are cases all over Sydney. So I really don't understand. This should be the same rule for everybody.

"I agree we should be isolating and getting testing no matter where people live but this narrative about dividing the city is really poor.

"We are not the wild west, we are the working west."

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