What happened with the Ruby Princess
“Late into the night, the conversations went back and forth, a web of interactions that reflects the tangle of responsibilities activated when a cruise ship approaches Australia with sick passengers on board.”
As five separate inquiries examine how the ship became Australia’s largest source of Covid-19 deaths, the messy arrangements at our borders are now under intense scrutiny.
News
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Hundreds facing the sack with ABC cuts
“Senior people are put on rosters that are very, very difficult to work, constantly changing hours and jobs. I think it’s being done to put people under pressure to leave the organisation, rather than have payouts.”
Staff members reveal the significant pressure they are under as the public broadcaster continues to face budget cuts of more than $100 million a year.
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The Newmarch House Covid-19 cluster
With the aged-care watchdog looking into the Covid-19 cluster that has claimed 16 lives at Newmarch House in Sydney’s west, systemic flaws are being exposed. But what comfort is that to the distressed families of residents?
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“I’m absolutely devastated. It’s an indictment of how little value is placed on arts and culture in this country. There is this incredible silence and apathy.”
With the Covid-19 lockdown forcing Sydney arts precinct Carriageworks into voluntary administration, the embattled cultural sector is bracing for worse to come.
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Teachers fear for health and safety
As the federal government pushes for schools around the country to reopen, many teachers are concerned about poor communication and fear for their health and safety.
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Trans-Tasman bubble may extend to Pacific
Jacinda Ardern attends Australia’s national cabinet to discuss regional travel. US–China dispute over Covid-19 origin. Trans rights threatened in Hungary. Migrant workers hit hard by coronavirus shutdowns.
Opinion
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Mathew Trinca
Sharing our lockdown experiences
“The response was clear and immediate. Within minutes of launching the National Museum of Australia’s project to record our collective experiences of the coronavirus, scores of people across the country joined in to share how they were coping with the crisis. ‘I’ve been waiting for something like this to start,’ one woman wrote in our Facebook group that first day.”
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Paul Bongiorno
An economy on life support
“It’s been a long six weeks since Australia’s governments first imposed economy-crushing lockdowns to flatten the coronavirus curve. Scott Morrison has no doubt the pain has been worth it, saying ‘thousands of Australian lives have been saved’. Now he’s leading the charge to get back to business as soon as possible. He adds the qualification ‘safely possible’ but he is taking a huge gamble, risking a relapse that could only lead to a deeper recession.”
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Death and the plague. Whenever Gadfly reaches for his well-thumbed Pears’ Cyclopaedia he finds that plagues turn out worse than everyone had hoped. What does this pattern of history mean in regard to Schmo’s “snapback” or the impressive “V-shaped recovery”? All the economic pundits Gadfly can discover say the PM’s smoking something.
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
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He knew. When he walked into Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in 1993 beside Gerald Ridsdale, a man facing dozens of counts of indecent assault against boys, George Pell knew the priest had been abusing children in the church. According to redacted findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, he had known it for more than a decade.
Culture
Booker Prize-winner Bernardine Evaristo
Anglo–Nigerian author Bernardine Evaristo wrote seven books before her Booker Prize-winning novel, Girl, Woman, Other, catapulted her into the limelight. “I have done the work for people to now engage with it. It’s just the most incredible thing, because at my age – I’m 60 – to suddenly become an overnight success, is very exciting. It’s also a real moment of hope for people who have been writing for a long time and haven’t received the kind of attention they’d like to get. And also, for Black women, and Black British people.”
“A waiting room. It’s mid-afternoon, a Monday, and the chairs are hard blue plastic. Mostly young women today, red-eyed babies on their knees, all busy rustling through their handbags for plastic containers of sultanas or carrot sticks. The babies have the expressions of goldfish, their lips pursed and cheeks bulgy, their eyes wide open and blinking dumbly. A woman sweeps through from the surgery, her child’s bare limbs dangling from her arm. Let me wrap her, the man behind her says. I just want to get her in the car, she snaps back. The patient feels dizzy again, and closes her eyes. She made it here, at least.”
Life
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They were workmates who became friends through their shared love of exercise. When coronavirus struck their relationship grew even closer.
Books
Puzzles
1. Which song links Harry Nilsson, Three Dog Night, John Farnham and Aimee Mann? (Bonus point for naming which film’s soundtrack featured the Mann version.)
2. Name Australia’s shadow treasurer.
3. What is the name of the children’s fiction little helicopter character created by Sarah, Duchess of York?
4. The Yom Kippur War took place in: (a) 1967; (b) 1971; (c) 1973 or (d) 1975?
5. Corona beer comes from which country?
6. Name Jeremy Corbyn’s successor as leader of Britain’s Labour Party.
7. Which chemical element has the symbol Ni and atomic number 28?
8. Is Tanzania north or south of the equator?
9. Steven Bradbury is an Olympic champion in which sport?
10. In education, what does the acronym ATAR stand for?
Quotes
POLITICS
“I mean, I woke up this morning and said, ‘Bugger this for a joke.’ ”
The New South Wales Transport minister pulls out of the race for Eden-Monaro after a rival called him a cunt. He said he couldn’t take five weeks of slurs like that, which makes you wonder what he’s been doing in politics for 17 years.
MEDIA
“The story was wrong. Mr Johns was not leaving the brothel.”
The Murdoch tabloids apologise for a front page that claimed musician Daniel Johns had been on a bender at a Sydney bondage club. Even if it were true, the story should never have run.
JOBS
“By increasing their Newstart allowances there’s no incentive to go out and find work.”
The One Nation leader criticises the government’s welfare package. There are clearly as many jobs out there as there are men falsely accused of domestic violence.
CHINA
“Two Western governments contributed to it, but I will not reveal my sources.”
The Daily Telegraph reporter defends a piece pushing the theory that coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab. It contradicts government intelligence, but it is a good reason to invade Iraq.
ECONOMICS
“As has been remarked, unemployment went up in the elevator, and went down by the stairs.”
The treasurer uses the 1990s recession to explain his plans to get people back into work. The new question is how many sick people are on the stairs.
CELEBRITY
“I am recovering from surgery and barely alive so may my typos b forgiven but, damnit.”
The musician responds to Elon Musk on Twitter, where he was correcting her explanation of their baby’s name. You might say this is what happens when you call your child X Æ A-12, but actually it’s what happens when you reproduce with Elon Musk.
