What we learned today, Saturday 20 November
Well, dear readers, Saturday evening is upon us, so I’ll leave you here for now. Thanks for being here, check out the highlights below, and we’ll be back tomorrow morning.
- Thousands marched across Australia in the so-called “freedom” rallies.
- The youngest Australian to die with Covid is a Victorian boy – he was under 10.
- The search for William Tyrrell could go for months, and new evidence has emerged.
- Parts of NSW are bracing for wild weather.
- Allegra Spender, daughter of late fashion designer Carla Zampatti, will challenge the Liberal MP Dave Sharma in Wentworth.
And I did promise something a little lighter after all the Covid news, so please enjoy this eggcellent goog recipe from Nornie Bero!
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Ready for some big numbers? There have been at least 256,678,601 Covid cases globally, and at least 5,140,194 deaths. And at least 7,338,228,587 vaccine doses have been administered, according to a snapshot pulled together by AAP.
In Australia, the national death toll is 1,938. Some 91.37% of Australians 16 and over have had at least their first dose and 84.87% are double dosed.
OK I’m going to hunt around for something a little less heavy to share with you now.
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Here’s Andrew Stafford’s lovely, sad, nostalgic and beautiful piece on the Warumpi Band. Chuck My Island Home on the old ghettoblaster and have a read. “We just wanted to give our music to everybody”:
I suspect the comedian Adam Spencer isn’t being entirely complimentary of the United Australia party MP Craig Kelly here ...
Craig Kelly plays the Melbourne vs Sydney card
— Adam Spencer (@adambspencer) November 20, 2021
Always good to see an act start with some local material
He writes all his own stuff to
One to keep an eye on https://t.co/TX82SjLzo1
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Thousands apparently at the Adelaide protest. Which is, on one measure, even more ridiculous than the other “freedom” rallies. Covid-free South Australia has barely been locked down, and is in the weird situation where it’ll open its borders next week and let Covid in ...
The ‘freedom’ protest in #Adelaide heading east along Grenfell St, from the @1395FIVEaa balcony.
— Matthew Pantelis 🎙 (@MatthewPantelis) November 20, 2021
They’ve been walking past for 20mins at this stage, thousands are here. pic.twitter.com/zXGgNUiVYv
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Once upon a time, Clive Palmer (now the United Australia party boss) gave my soccer team a half-time pep talk. It was about as useful as this.
Clive Palmer has begun addressing the freedom rally in Brisbane | @brisbanetimes pic.twitter.com/O1fNo3ppvb
— Cloe Read (@cloe_read) November 20, 2021
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Here are some more details about the ongoing search for William Tyrrell. Police have only searched a small fraction of the area near Kendall in NSW where they are hoping to find his remains, and it could take another nine weeks to cover the whole area. Catch up here:
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Here’s a great, nuanced read from Myke Barlett on arguing with anti-vaxxers.
I have given up on the idea that facts alone will change a zealot’s mind. Just as I have abandoned any notion that being a good, decent and intelligent person will immunise you against conspiracist paranoia.
Wrap your noggin around the whole thing here:
Allegra Spender – fashion designer Carla Zampatti’s daughter – will challenge Liberal MP Dave Sharma in Wentworth. She wants more action on climate change, including a 2030 target of at least a 50% reduction in emissions.
Spender worked with her mother before becoming chief executive officer of the Australian Business and Community Network.
Read all about it here:
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Wild weather to hit parts of NSW tomorrow
Severe weather will hit parts of NSW tomorrow. Thunderstorms, hail, strong winds and heavy rain are expected across the Blue Mountains and the north-east of the state.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued flood watches for the Upper Macintyre, Gwydir, Peel, Castlereagh, Belubula, and Macquarie to Bathurst.
The NSW State Emergency Service has called on people to be prepared, and not to drive, walk or ride through flood waters on roads.
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Thousands of protesters march in Sydney and Adelaide
Lots of great observations and colour from Stephanie Convery in Melbourne below.
Meanwhile, thousands of protesters have also gathered in Sydney to march through the CBD. People are waving Australian flags, there are a few United Australia party signs, and they’ve been singing the national anthem. The UAP MP Craig Kelly has addressed the crowd, claiming Australians are living in a “prison camp”.
(Organisers claim there are more than 100,000 people protesting, but that number hasn’t been verified.)
The ABC reports about 2,000 people are protesting in Adelaide. “Freedom” rallies are also being held in other capital cities.
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Speeches have started at Flagstaff Gardens. Rightwing pundit Morgan C Jonas leads chants of “kill the bill” before claiming this is the biggest protest in Australian history (it isn’t, anti-war protests, climate protests and union marches in Melbourne over the last two decades have drawn equal or bigger crowds).
He’s also claiming credit on behalf of the movement for the pandemic legislation bill being delayed in Victorian state parliament this week and expressed admiration for Adem Somyurek, who he says “will not sell out”.
“Are we willing to go to the absolute end?” Jonas says, and the crowd cheers.
“Is it fair to say that we will go to any length necessary to rid our parliament of those traitorous politicians?” More cheers.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we are winning.”
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William Tyrrell search takes hessian sack for testing
Forensic teams digging up a patch in dense bushland in search of the remains of William Tyrrell have found another piece of evidence, which they have taken for specialist testing.
On the sixth day of the search next to the Kendall home William was last seen at in 2014, officers found an empty green hessian sack, understood to have been a sandbag.
Its significance to the investigation is unclear, and it has been taken for forensic testing.
Two other pieces of evidence have also been found at the dig site – a piece of red thread found on Wednesday that initially fuelled speculation it could have been linked to the Spider-Man costume William was last seen wearing.
On Friday, searchers found a small piece of light-blue fabric by a creek next to the dig site that had been pumped.
All evidence is still being forensically examined.
You can read more about the revived search for William here:
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Melbourne’s Flagstaff Gardens is slowly filling up with people as the end of the anti-bill rally snakes through the city.
There’s music playing from loudspeakers at the top of the hill to a particular theme –David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel, John Farnham’s You’re the Voice, the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army – interspersed with chants of “freedom”.
On other cultural touchstones, I’ve seen a few Make America Great Again caps and Infowars T-shirts in the mix since I got here too.
I’m told the anti-fascist counter-rally is moving down Swanston Street now from Carlton.
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Child under 10 dies with Covid in Victoria
A child under 10 has become Australia’s youngest person to die with Covid. The Victorian child had “other serious comorbidities”, AAP reports.
Before that death, a 15-year-old from Sydney was the youngest known person to die with Covid – although the virus was not the cause of his death. Osama Suduh was also being treated for pneumococcal meningitis.
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Some more from the NT, which has just ended its mask mandate – with some exceptions. Masks are still required in Katherine and Robinson River.
The NT outbreak has grown to 21 cases, and there are concerns it has spread into more Indigenous communities. There are also concerns about a positive result in wastewater in the Marlow Lagoon catchment.
Meanwhile, police have been handing out fines to people for breaching the health orders.
Read more about the fears for those Indigenous communities here:
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Northern Territory records one new Covid case
One new Covid case has been recorded in the Northern Territory overnight, the chief minister, Michael Gunner, says.
The 31-year-old woman was in quarantine when she tested positive, so there are no new exposure sites at this point.
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The front of the anti-bill rally is all the way up at Flagstaff Gardens now, which, for anyone who isn’t particularly familiar with Melbourne’s layout, means they’ve crossed almost the entire CBD. When I left Russell Street not long ago, people were still streaming down from Parliament.
There are thousands of people here.
There is a lot of nationalism on display. Not just the Australian flags, which are everywhere, but I’ve also seen flags and scarves from Poland, France and Greece.
I’ve also seen a rainbow flag and an Aboriginal flag. Politically, it all feels completely topsy turvy.
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To give you a bit of a flavour of this protest, here are some of the slogans I can see from my current vantage point:
- Dan Andrews is the #1 enemy of the state
- You divide, We Unite
- Permaculture: local solutions to global problems
- Mandates are keeping families apart
- Silence is compliance
- No jab, no job, no way
- Dan is an Illuminati puppet
- No vax passports
- It is not OK to grant unchecked power to government
The crowd is composed of a cross-section of ages – lots of families – though it is mostly caucasian as far as I can see. A few masks on, not many.
The rally at Trades Hall is on the move now, heading towards the city.
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Thousands march in Melbourne across rival protests
The rally out front of parliament is moving now, heading down Bourke Street, to chants of “Kill the bill”, “Sack Dan Andrews” and “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi”.
This anti-bill rally is huge. People are packed in from Parliament to past Swanston Street now. I’ve seen a lot of protests but I’ve never seen this many people at a rightwing rally in Melbourne.
Numbers at Trades Hall are also growing, I’m told.
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A “cowardly” drive-by shooting of a suburban Sydney home could easily have killed the two men inside, police say. AAP reports the shooting may have been a case of mistaken identity:
Officers were called to a house in Connells Point around 9pm on Friday night after neighbours reported hearing gunshots.
They arrived to find the upper storey of the house and a car parked out the front riddled with bullet holes.
Half an hour later a vehicle that was seen in the vicinity of the shooting was found nearby, burned out and with stolen or fake plates.
NSW police Superintendent Jason Box on Saturday said the two men inside the home at the time of the shooting were lucky to escape uninjured.
“Shooting indiscriminately into a premises in a quiet suburban area is not only a cowardly act, it’s also extremely dangerous,” he said.
“For the number of shots that were fired into the residence ... it could have quite easily been a fatality for them.”
The men don’t have any links to crime groups or figures, and police have found no explanation as to why they may have been targeted.
“(The shooters) obviously have planned this to a certain extent, but it would appear that they have made a mistake,” Box said.
“There’s nothing to suggest that anyone in that street at this point is a target.”
Police will maintain a visible presence in the area as detectives continue to comb over the crime scene.
Anyone with information is urged to contact CrimeStoppers.
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Melbourne protesters gather at state parliament as anti-fascist activists assemble at Trades Hall
Melbourne’s CBD is the busiest it’s been in months, and down by Flinders Street station you’d hardly know there are protests only a couple of blocks away.
Protesters are gathering out the front of state parliament. The relatively small contingent that has been camped out there all week has grown hugely this morning and now fills the whole Spring Street/Bourke Street intersection.
There are a lot of flags here, mostly Australian flags but also Eureka flags and what I think is the Victorian flag. And more people are coming in all the time. On the way here I passed dozens of people holding placards, wearing T-shirts saying “Community building not social distancing”, or boasting slogans about freedom and against “compulsory vaccination”.
Anti-fascist activists are also gathering near Trades Hall. I’m told there are some 300 people up there, with more trickling in.
Needless to say there are also a lot of police, mounted and on foot. Many of the immediately adjacent intersections are blocked off.
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NSW Health has released more Covid information – including that sewage surveillance has detected fragments of the virus in Tumut, Uralla, Wardell, Eden, Jerilderie and Tweed-Kingscliff, where there are no known current cases. Get tested if you have any symptoms, people! They’ve also put out this video with more information:
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Some sad news this morning from Victoria – a toddler is fighting for his life after being found unresponsive in a hotel pool. AAP reports:
Emergency services were called to the complex on Whiteman St in Southbank after the two-year-old boy was discovered unresponsive in its pool about 10pm on Friday.
The child was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to the Royal Children’s hospital in a critical condition.
Police are investigating the circumstances of the incident.
An Aussie start-up is part of a plan to turn space junk into rocket fuel. One company will trap debris, deliver it to another to cut up, then it’ll go to a space foundry to be melted and made into metal rods, which can then power Neumann Space’s propulsion system. Phwoar! (PS. I’m not just putting this up because I wrote it. It’s genuinely fascinating!)
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My colleague Daniel Hurst had a truly extraordinary chat with Chinese diplomat Wang Xining. They covered Aukus, Huawei, Xinjiang, and so much more. Read all the highlights here:
But to get across the whole gamut, it’s in this week’s Full Story podcast:
Good morning, lovely people. I started the day by putting chilli in my eye, hope you are all doing better than me ... and thanks to Stephanie Convery for getting us off to such a good start!
And with that, I’m going to handball this here blog over to my colleague Tory Shepherd, who will take you through your brunch-time news. Until next time!
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Theatre is back! Theatre! People performing in front of you while you watch it in the same room as other people!
If you’re in Sydney, Steve Dow recommends you check out the new Sydney Theatre Company production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The new production uses just three actors, he writes, “employing a combination of live and pre-recorded performances that allows the trio to play multiple roles in a work normally requiring an ensemble five times greater.”
Shakespeare seems to be the playwright of choice for theatrical revival campaigns – Melbourne Theatre Company just opened As You Like It a couple of days ago.
Read the four-star review of Julius Caesar here:
ACT records 14 new Covid-19 cases
ACT COVID-19 update (20 November 2021):
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) November 19, 2021
◾ New cases today: 14
◾ Active cases: 179
◾ Total cases: 1,902*
◾ Negative test results (past 24 hours): 2,201
◾ In hospital: 3
◾ In ICU: 1
◾ Ventilated: 1
◾ Total lives lost: 11 pic.twitter.com/boKAdlRHAB
Australian Open rules all players must be vaccinated to compete
Some Australian Open news via Reuters: all players, including world No 1 Novak Djokovic, will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to compete in the tournament next January, Australian Open chief Craig Tiley said today.
Djokovic has declined to disclose whether he is vaccinated and said that he would wait until Tennis Australia revealed the health protocols before he made a decision about playing at Melbourne Park.
Tiley said:
There’s a lot of speculation about vaccination and just to be really clear, when the [state] premier announced that everyone on site ... will need to be vaccinated ... we made that clear to the playing group.
[Djokovic] has said that he views this as a private matter for him. We would love to see Novak here, he knows that he’ll have to be vaccinated to play here.
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I was going to give you a nice neat teaser extract from my colleague Katharine Murphy’s column this week, but it’s one of those pieces that actually needs to be read in full.
She starts with Israel Folau in 2019 and takes us all the way to Scott Morrison “double-speaking to extremists” (as Daniel Andrews put it on Friday) this week in order to, as she says, “set up the final parliamentary sitting fortnight of 2012”.
Get thee to the column, here:
Australians planning to return to Queensland for Christmas say they have cancelled international flights after being told their overseas-born spouses or young children would still be forced to complete two weeks of hotel quarantine.
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced the “plan to reunite families” last month, saying the state had to “give certainty” to the thousands of people who had been locked out during the pandemic.
Under the plan, Australian citizens and permanent residents will be able to return to Queensland and quarantine at home after 17 December. Other international arrivals would be directed to hotel quarantine.
Australian Pip and her husband, Greg, who is a US citizen, had booked a flight to travel from their home in San Diego to Queensland on 18 December, after restrictions were relaxed.
They are both double-vaccinated. But the couple have now cancelled their flights after Queensland Health advised that Pip would be allowed to quarantine at home, but Greg would be required to stay in a hotel.
All the details here:
Those stats represent quite a substantial one-day drop in active cases in Victoria – from 13,813 yesterday to 9,581.
And those vaccination rates are still not quite but oh-so-tantalisingly close to 90% of eligible people. Come oooon Victoria!
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Victoria records five Covid deaths and 1,166 new cases
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) November 19, 2021
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/7tMPdltirY
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If you’re in or heading to New South Wales, please keep an eye on the weather this weekend! It could get a bit gnarly, per the BOM:
Widespread #rainfall will start to move across #NSW later today into Sunday particularly over northern and eastern parts of #NSW. #Thunderstorms are possible with risk of flash flooding, large hail and damaging winds. Check warnings & radar: https://t.co/REl2VBlGnA @NSWSES pic.twitter.com/xP69iExLCn
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) November 19, 2021
An extra $91.5m from the NSW Covid-recovery fund has been set aside to boost eco-tourism in the state’s nationals parks, AAP reports.
New walking trails and improvements to existing facilities will be brought forward. The treasurer and environment minister, Matt Kean, says since the pandemic, visitation levels to parks have skyrocketed – and they were already receiving 60m visitors a year.
“[This highlights] the role parks play in supporting the physical and mental health of the community. Put simply – national parks are good for the soul,” Mr Kean said in a statement on Saturday.
“From western Sydney to the far west of NSW, families are flocking to national parks and we want to make sure facilities are up to scratch and able to meet this increased need.”
The funded projects include an upgrade to the elevated rainforest boardwalk in Budderoo national park in the Illawarra, improvements to road access to the Royal national park and $600,000 for enhancements to the mountain bike track network at Glenrock State Conservation Area near Newcastle, improved visitor facilities in Georges River National Park and Guy Fawkes River National Park, and $795,000 to build short stay accommodation at Kinchega and Paroo Darling national parks in the far west.
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We’re still waiting for Victoria’s Covid numbers this morning ... our favourite teens over at Covid Base say this is much later than usual.
Very late today...
— CovidBaseAU 🦠📊🇦🇺 (@covidbaseau) November 19, 2021
Wednesday: 9:00 AM 😃
Thursday: 9:09 AM 😐
Friday: 9:19 AM 😬
Today: 😱 (hopefully very soon) https://t.co/mD89g0uFLP pic.twitter.com/EeR7MpAgiQ
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And finally, on the “religious freedom” bill, Wilson says it’s incorrect to call it a “religious freedom” bill:
We didn’t propose a religious freedom bill. We proposed a religious discrimination Act. Currently, you have an age, race, sex and disability discrimination commission Act. We don’t have one on the basis of religion, which is what exists in state law.
...Now, there are always, in anti-discrimination laws, tricky, grey areas about how to get the balance right to respect the rights and freedoms of everyone. And that’s the approach the Attorney-General has taken in developing this latest installation of the bill.
There have been two previous exposure drafts to get feedback, like with the anti-corruption body, so that we get feedback so that we get it right. And that’s the approach we’re seeking to take when we introduce this bill into the Parliament. The real question is whether, if we get the balance right, the Labor Party is going to vote for it
Asked about whether we can expect to see the introduction of a legislation for a federal anti-corruption commission in parliament in the next couple of weeks, Tim Wilson says it’s important that they “get the legislation right”:
Because what we’ve had too often is proposals which are designed to establish, kind of, kangaroo courts, and actually would do more to breed distrust in the political conversation. We’ve seen that particularly in the consequence of what’s happening in Icac in New South Wales.
We want a process that’s based around integrity, that’s been consulted with the Australian community, and is actually going to do the job we need it to do, which is actually to breed trust and strength in the political system, not simply to create show trials, as I’ve seen it many times.
The Labor party has referred members of parliament off to the Australian federal police, investigations go nowhere, but they get the headline, and they actually actively breed distrust in our political process for partisan political gain.
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Labor says PM being 'Trump without the toupee' on Victoria protests
Jason Clare is asked if Labor is being “nit picky or pedantic when they compare Scott Morrison to President Trump”. His response:
I think this is pretty simple. You’ve got a group of people marching down the street with a life-sized execution device. You’ve got people threatening to kill the premier of Victoria. If you’re any sort of leader, you just condemn that, full stop. You don’t go on and then say, ‘But I understand why people are frustrated.’
I think it is legitimate to point out that Scott Morrison has pulled the sheet out of the Trump handbook here. Lie, deny, blame other people, never take responsibility for anything, try and divide the community, pander to the extreme right – this is Trump without the toupee. And, seriously, I think the Australian people deserve better than that.
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Liberal MP Tim Wilson and Labor’s Jason Clare have been on ABC News Breakfast this morning. They were asked whether the prime minister – who was accused of “doublespeak” with regard to threats of violence from protesters this week – should have been clearer in his message. Here’s Wilson’s response:
The prime minister has been crystal-clear in condemning political violence, and I would hope that it’s one of the points that unites Jason and myself – which is we condemn political violence, period. There’s no justification for it. There’s no room for it in Australia. And it actually disrespects democracy.
That, of course, does not stop you debating the issues at hand, and nor should it stop you debating the issues at hand. But we condemn it resolutely.
But there are many Victorians, particularly, who have gone through the world’s largest, longest lockdown, and people have a diversity of views about the legislation being put through the Victorian parliament, and they have every right to debate the substance of the laws. And there are many people who do have their concerns. And to try and use the vehicle to shut down that conversation, I think, is inappropriate as well.
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Bit of chat about this morning regarding the latest Newspoll results, which say Victorian Labor is massively ahead of the Liberal party in public opinion.
Usual caveats with polls but I will be tapping this sign whenever pundits try to suggest an election-deciding chunk of the population are sick of Andrews. https://t.co/KB9wBMTC6w
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) November 19, 2021
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New South Wales records 182 new Covid-19 cases
NSW COVID-19 update – Saturday 20 November 2021
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 19, 2021
In the 24-hour reporting period to 8pm last night:
- 94.3% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 91.7% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine
- tests pic.twitter.com/WQ5qRPPh8O
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A new candidate threw her hat into the ring yesterday for the federal seat of Wentworth – that’s Dave Sharma’s electorate – Allegra Spender, daughter of Liberal politician John Spender QC and fashion designer Carla Zampatti. She’s running as an independent in the blue-ribbon seat.
Hi everyone, I'm Allegra Spender. I'm a mum, chief executive, renewable energy advocate and local Wentworth resident who is so excited to be running for Wentworth as an independent.
— Allegra Spender (@spenderallegra) November 19, 2021
Here’s a picture of that flower moon above the Story Bridge in Brisbane last night.
Australia’s skies were graced by a blood-red moon last night, with a partial lunar eclipse that lasted for six hours and two minutes. Brisbane viewers were reportedly the luckiest, with the clearest skies (I can confirm it was pretty overcast where I am in Melbourne).
From AAP:
The almost-perfect 99.1 per cent coverage of the moon by earth’s umbra creates a dark reddish hue, as the light from the earth’s atmosphere is refracted onto it.
Friday night’s spectacle is also known as a flower moon, the last full moon before the summer solstice.
The partial eclipse was visible around the country, and will also be seen from North America, South America and parts of Europe and Asia.
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If you’d like to understand a bit more about what’s been going on in Melbourne this week, and the various elements feeding into the protests outside parliament, my colleague Nino Bucci has this excellent feature up today that will get you up to speed.
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Good morning, I’m Stephanie Convery and I will be taking you through the news of the day for those of you up bright and early to read about it.
We’re expecting protests outside Victoria’s state parliament to escalate today as anti-fascist activists vow to counter-rally against another wave of planned “freedom rallies” they claim have been infiltrated by far-right groups. The protesters have been campaigning for days against the Labor state government’s pandemic bill.
A series of protests against vaccine mandates and Covid-19 restrictions has been flagged for Saturday in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart, as well as other regional centres, with details circulated via an encrypted social media platform.
The protests in Victoria sparked a heated back and forth between the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and the prime minister, Scott Morrison, yesterday. Meanwhile, Victorians embraced the lifting of a whole swathe of Covid restrictions.
Elsewhere, NSW is in for some wild weather this weekend – the state is bracing for more flooding, with heavy rainfall expected to lash much of the east coast and possible thunderstorms predicted to hit Sydney.
We’ll keep an eye on the developments in the renewed William Tyrell investigation; yesterday detectives drained a creek and found a light-blue piece of fabric which has been sent for forensic testing.
There are fears a week-long Covid-19 outbreak in the Northern Territory that’s grown to 21 cases has spread to two more Indigenous communities.
Authorities have detected viral fragments in wastewater from Binjari, a community on the outskirts of the town of Katherine, 320km south of Darwin. Three close contacts have been identified in the remote community of Yuendumu, 1,600km south of Darwin.
Greater Katherine and Robinson River are currently under a seven-day lockdown order, which is scheduled to end late Monday.
And we will of course bring you all the latest Covid stats as they’re released around the country.
Got your coffee? Good. Let’s get cracking.
