The Informer: There's a lot to unpack, just from today

It wasn't the news that families could start being vaccinated together from next month after children aged 12 to 15 were added to Australia's rollout. Nor was it that truckies intend to strike; that HSC exams have been delayed; or even that new spy powers were rushed through Parliament despite anger from the crossbench over a lack of consultation.

The "wow really?" moments - in no particular order - today came when it was revealed NSW was planning to get students back to school in term four; that a federal politician labelled the vaccination rollout "a bit piecemeal"; and that 19,000 people went to a single Bunnings store in one day.

As the facilitator of any corporate training session would say: "there's a lot to unpack." And indeed there is.

The blanket headline that NSW is planning a return to the classroom doesn't tell the whole story. Any council area identified as one of concern under health orders will continue to learn from home until that designation is removed, the secretary of the NSW Department of Education, Georgina Harrison, told a parliamentary inquiry.

For schools outside the hotspot areas, Ms Harrison said, the back-to-school plan could be contingent on the rates of community transmission remaining below 50 cases per 100,000 people.

Meanwhile as part of new COVID restrictions announced for the ACT today, the mass movement at a Bunnings store was revealed.

If you have a hard time envisaging 19,000 people, stats reveal it to be just about equal to the population of Wangaratta, Murray Bridge or Grafton. Either way, it means click and collect or delivery-only rates will soar in the ACT.

And as attention finally turns to small, remote communities in NSW now enveloped by COVID-19, Wilcannia finds itself in the nation's glare.

Nearly one in 10 residents of the small western NSW town have tested positive to COVID, including the town's Land Council leader Michael Kennedy.

Mr Kennedy and his wife are both fully vaccinated but still contracted the virus along with their two children.

"It seems like they're winging it every day," he said. "There should have been a plan put in place a long time ago around these smaller communities. We always felt like we've been left behind and alone out here and it's no different now."

The region's federal MP, Mark Coulton, said communities were being supported, but the recent outbreak had ramped up the urgency.

"It's been a bit piecemeal in a way, but bit by bit we're getting it covered."

And fnally, no, the horror attack on Kabul has not escaped our gaze. As the toll from the attack continues to climb, so too does the likelihood of more violence and more loss. And as horrifying as the incursion may be, it's sadly not unexpected.

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