Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Nursing home residents evacuated
Hundreds of critically ill aged-care residents are being evacuated from Victorian nursing homes into hospitals, after elective surgeries were suspended to free up capacity to deal with the Covid-19 crisis. Victoria recorded 384 new cases on Tuesday, with another six deaths, including four in aged care. The suspension of elective surgeries means thousands in chronic pain will be left awaiting their procedures. John Fawkner Private Hospital in Coburg is the latest private facility to open its doors to nursing home residents, while a specialist medical team and nurses from the Australian Defence Force are being deployed into aged-care facilities. The Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer has reported 88 cases, St Basil's 86 cases, 82 at Epping Gardens Aged Care, and 76 cases at the Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes. The Australian Medical Association is calling for every nursing home in Victoria to undergo an urgent risk assessment, reports The Age. Most cases are in private facilities that are the responsibility of the federal government, but the state health department provides advice to all residential aged care facilities in the state.
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia vice-commodore Noel Cornish has been identified as the link between two Covid-19 outbreaks at restaurants in Sydney, reports The Daily Telegraph. Cornish and his partner were infected after attending both the Apollo and Thai Rock restaurants in Potts Point in the same week. The yacht club in Rushcutters Bay was closed on Tuesday for deep cleaning. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s senior advisor Nico Louw is among the Apollo restaurant diners ordered to self-isolate. As Louw tested negative, the prime minister will not have to self-isolate. New South Wales recorded 14 new cases on Tuesday, with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk issuing a new call for Queenslanders to avoid travel south of the border.
A presentation on the final report of the National COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission NCCC manufacturing taskforce recommends “cutting red and green tape” to ramp up gas extraction, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. The report, finalised in late May but yet to be published, recommends tax incentives for the construction of gas infrastructure and letting pipeline owners charge higher prices. The presentation suggests the recommendations will benefit developments such as the proposed Narrabri Gas Project, despite fears the project could damage groundwater in NSW communities.
A host of Australians have been nominated for the 2020 Emmy Awards. Hugh Jackman is up against Jeremy Irons and Mark Ruffalo for Best Actor in a limited series for Bad Education. Cate Blanchett received her first Emmy nomination as Best Lead Actress in a limited TV series or movie category for Mrs America. Toni Collette also features in the limited series or movie category, nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the Netflix-produced Unbelievable, while Sarah Snook was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her role in HBO's Succession. Award winners will be named in September.
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This week
What led to Victoria’s extraordinary shutdown
The Andrews government cannot identify any legislation it needed to override, but experts say that is the point.When Daniel Andrews signed a declaration for a state of disaster in Victoria at 1.43pm on Sunday, it was a part of a final salvo in a battle to control a resurgent and invisible enemy.
Super funds transformed by Liberal ideology
The Morrison government’s superannuation changes risk turning the scheme into ‘privately funded unemployment insurance’.
Opening the Ghislaine Maxwell files
New files ordered released in the Ghislaine Maxwell case reveal the depth of her involvement in child sex-trafficking offences that implicate Prince Andrew, the former leader of the US senate and others.
Murray–Darling could need Reserve Bank-style regulator
As the ACCC hands down its interim report on the Murray–Darling water markets, one architect of the current system says a Reserve Bank-like body is needed to manage the rights.
Wiradyuri conceptual artist Amala Groom
For Amala Groom, making art is a collaboration between herself and her Wiradyuri ancestors. Drawing on her history and culture, as well as her legal training, she seeks to subvert the colonial project. “Colonialism affects all of us … To be change agents we have to be inclusive, and Aboriginal culture is inclusive.”
Policing as part of the national psyche
There are two striking aspects of Australia’s response to coronavirus: the first is that it’s being increasingly led as a police issue, and the second is that this is happening while the rest of the world works to reform and curtail police powers. As other democracies talk about abolition, we’re sending armed officers into housing blocks and calling it public health.
Morrison backtracks on WA border closure
Scott Morrison keeps misreading the mood of a nation gripped by fear. Nowhere is this more obvious than his now-abandoned legal case against state border closures – or, to be more precise, against the lockouts in the Labor-governed states of Western Australia and Queensland. The Liberal-governed states of Tasmania and South Australia escaped his censure.
It was quite something to tune in to the first episode of Bunter and Georgina Downer’s geopolitical podcast, where they discussed the recent AUSMIN meeting, the upcoming United States presidential election and the future of war. Father and daughter get along famously as they take us on a wide sweep through the trickiest global thickets, with memos about Condoleezza Rice’s determination to play golf, China’s dominance in the rare earth market, Joe Biden’s “flaky” interviews, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, fishing quotas in British waters and Russia’s anti-satellite rocket program.
Andrew Bolt has made a career finding vulnerable people and devising new ways of punishing them. When you consider this, his views on the elderly are not surprising, just inhumane. Bolt doesn’t want the old to die, but he believes we overstate the tragedy of their deaths. “Note: 40 per cent of aged-care home residents die within nine months. The average stay is just under three years,” he writes. “So Victoria’s bans are doing huge damage to – essentially – save aged-care residents from dying a few months earlier.” Quixotically, the column is titled “How to save Victoria from the coronavirus”.
Could Adani drop its Qld mine and head to NSW?
As fossil fuel prices collapse, there is growing speculation that Adani might throw in its Carmichael operation to buy BHP’s massive Mount Arthur thermal coalmine instead.
Pandemic and inequality keys to November poll
Presidential candidates adjust convention plans due to Covid-19. US death toll passes 158,000. Democrat Joe Biden has lead in latest polls.
As a dark comedy about self-absorbed millennial killers, Search Party focuses heavily on the lies that bind. In doing so, it also tells a lot of insightful truths.
Bill watches Joyce gather the kids for a photo. He’s seated on the front lawn, next to the overgrown bougainvillea, an oxygen tank by his side, tubes to his nose. He watches Joyce arrange the children – their adult daughters who both turned up in striped jumpers and jeans. The two of them are laughing about the coincidence. Ratty sneakers too, which can apparently be edited out on the computer. Would a dress have killed them? But he should be kind. Mel and Jennifer kissed him fondly, and Jennifer even slipped him a half-pouch of Drum. Luke, always the youngest child, is doing that funny thing where he picks up one of the small children and plays them like a guitar. It may be their last photo, although nobody is saying that.
The beverage director for Andrew McConnell’s restaurants recommends her current favourite drops.
In August 1981, MTV began its very first broadcast with which song?
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