What we learned: Tuesday, 13 April
That’s where I will leave you on what has been an eventful day. Here’s what we learned:
- Former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate unleashed on her former organisation’s board, the government and senior ministers she says abandoned her after she was allegedly “bullied and humiliated” out of her job.
- Holgate, who left the job in October last year after it was revealed she awarded four Australia Post executives $5,000 Cartier watches in 2018, took aim at the chair of postal service’s board, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, for “lying to the Australian people”.
- Health authorities have concluded a second case of a rare blood clot syndrome in Australia “is likely” linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine. The case occurred in a woman in her 40s who received the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine in Western Australia.
- A man in his 80s became Australia’s 910th Covid-19 death after passing away in a Queensland hospital. The man contracted the virus overseas.
- Two people died in a light plane crash in the Yass Valley just across the ACT border. NSW police said that emergency services were called at about 4.30pm to a property north of the ACT after reports a light plane had crashed into a paddock.
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Brittany Higgins announced a book deal with Penguin Random House. The book will be “a call for desperately needed reform, and a watershed moment for Australian women in public life”. She says half of the royalties from sales will be donated to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre.
- The agency that runs the national disability insurance scheme has quietly established a new taskforce aimed at cutting growth in funding packages and participant numbers.
- NSW Labor named former coalminer and union boss Jeff Drayton as the party’s candidate in the upcoming by-election in the seat of Upper Hunter. Labor has never held the seat, but internal opponents of under-fire leader Jodi McKay are seeking to turn it into a referendum on her leadership.
Updated
Porsche driver Richard Pusey is set to contest a charge of assaulting a woman in Melbourne.
But AAP reports that other charges, including that he threatened to kill her and placed a noose around her neck in December, are likely to be dropped.
Pusey’s lawyer Vincent Peters told Melbourne magistrates court on Tuesday the assault charge was “trite”.
He said Pusey would plead not guilty.
“It seems hardly worthwhile pursuing,” the lawyer said.
Prosecutor Meagan McDonnell replied that it was not a trivial matter.
“There was screaming and distress observed,” she said.
The court was told prosecutors were set to drop five other charges from the same incident, including the noose allegation.
Meanwhile, Pusey was expected to admit to another charge of using a carriage service to menace the woman. He would also plead guilty to an unrelated charge of damaging a motorbike worth $3,400 at Richmond in 2019, the court was told.
Pusey is due back in Melbourne magistrates court on 13 May.
He is awaiting sentence in the county court for other charges including outraging public decency after he filmed a fatal police crash last April.
He repeatedly described the scene as “amazing” and zoomed in on the injuries of the dead and dying officers on the Eastern Freeway.
Judge Trevor Wraight during a pre-sentence hearing for those charges said Pusey was “probably the most hated man in Australia”.
Updated
The independent MP for the federal seat of Indi, Helen Haines, has written to prime minister Scott Morrison calling on the government to “change course” on the vaccine rollout.
She’s raised concerns that GPs are not being supported in delivering the vaccine that regional communities are being left behind, and says frontline healthcare workers are not being vaccinated quickly enough.
Haines has outlined quite specific – and concerning – issues with the rollout in her electorate.
Over recent weeks, I have spoken to many GP clinics across Indi and it is abundantly clear that they are not receiving the support they need from government in terms of equipment or clear advice
“Some GPs have told me they received half as many vaccines as they ordered, others told me they receive significantly more than they ordered. For a small clinic, booking in an additional 100 appointments at the last minute, or cancelling 100, is a huge impost. Both of these circumstances are untenable. Some clinics have pulled out of the program for reasons such as this.
“Many clinics have told me that vaccines arrive without notice, on irregular intervals, and the clinics have no assurance that the will continue to receive their orders. This means they are having to book appointments into the future with no guarantee they will be able to administer them.”
On frontline workers she says:
I am deeply alarmed at many local instances of frontline healthcare workers not being able to access vaccinations. I have heard from local ICU nurses and residential aged care workers unable to book in for a second dose of Pfizer, and hospital staff being given no advice about how they can get vaccinated or being made to travel hours to access a vaccine.
There are still many frontline healthcare workers in my electorate who were supposed to be in Phase 1a who have not been able to be vaccinated. As we move into winter, it is not acceptable to still have not completed Phase 1a. We cannot have aged care workers and ICU nurses being unvaccinated. The government needs to urgently expedite the completion of Phase 1a.”
Today I have written to @ScottMorrisonMP urging him to change course on the vaccine rollout. I have been reluctant to publicly criticise the Government on this but after hearing many stories of problems in the rollout in Indi, I feel duty-bound to raise these concerns. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/CwphcsDAgC
— Helen Haines MP (@helenhainesindi) April 13, 2021
Updated
Cessna 'seen spinning' before it crashed.
The New South Wales police have confirmed that two people have died in a light plane crash. Here’s the brief statement:
About 4.30pm today, emergency services were called to a property on Tallagandra Lane, Sutton, north of the ACT, after reports a light plane had crashed into a paddock.
Two people on board died at the scene.
Officers from the Hume police district have commenced inquiries and a crime scene has been established.
While the cause of the crash has not yet been confirmed, I can tell you witnesses reported seeing the plane – a Cessna 172 – spinning before it crashed.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will be responsible for investigating how the crash occurred.
Updated
Two dead after light plane crash near ACT border
In breaking news, two people have died in a light plane crash in the Yass Valley just across the ACT border.
The NSW Rural Fire Service say the Cessna fixed-wing aircraft crashed about 4.35pm in Tallagandra, near Sutton. I’ll bring you more on this as it develops.
Two people have died following a plane crash in Sutton, outside Canberra. Details in 7NEWS at 6pm. https://t.co/TWh1KQycs4 #Sutton #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/p6m5W7pJ8u
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) April 13, 2021
Updated
Brittany Higgins announces book deal
Brittany Higgins has announced a book deal with Penguin Random House. She says half of the royalties from sales will be donated to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre.
In a statement, Penguin said Higgins’ book would be “a call for desperately needed reform, and a watershed moment for Australian women in public life”.
“This is the personal account of a young woman who took on the most formidable institution in the country, spoke truth to power and sparked a reckoning with systemic abuse that will be felt for years to come,” the statement reads.
Higgins said:
I feel privileged to be afforded the opportunity to share my experience inside Parliament House with readers. This book will shine a light on the toxic workplace culture inside the corridors of power and provide a firsthand account of what it was like surviving a media storm that turned into a movement.
I’m proud to commit half of the royalties for each book sold to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre who were a lifeline for me in the wake of my sexual assault. It is an absolute honour to sign with Penguin Random House and join the ranks of their many esteemed writers.
Penguin Random House chief executive Julie Burland said:
I was moved and angered by Brittany’s story. Her fearless pursuit of justice for herself and her resolute truth‐telling is an inspiration to me and so many other women. She has named behaviours that we have tolerated for far too long. I’m so proud that Penguin Random House will stand by her side and bring her story to readers everywhere.
I feel privileged to be afforded the opportunity to share my experience inside Parliament House. I’m proud to commit half of the royalties for each book sold to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre who were a lifeline for me in the wake of my sexual assault. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/VWdxmwp4ei
— Brittany Higgins (@BrittHiggins_) April 13, 2021
Updated
That last hour was spent on whether or not there are plans to privatise more of Australia Post’s services. That’s denied by the executives.
That finishes up the hearing – although there will be another hearing scheduled, and some witnesses – such as Christine Holgate and Lucio Di Bartolomeo – will be called to reappear.
Updated
In New South Wales politics, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party MP Helen Dalton has accused the Nationals of treating female candidates “in a disgraceful way” ahead of the Upper Hunter byelection.
The reason? The junior Coalition partner’s habit of registering the names of Shooters party candidates ahead of elections.
On Monday the Shooters – who have a decent shot at taking the Upper Hunter from the Nationals at the looming byelection – announced Singleton Business Chamber president Sue Gilroy as their candidate.
They soon realised that the domain name suegilroy dot com had been registered to NSW Nationals state director Joe Lundy.
The website reads: “vote shooters, risk Labor”.
It’s not the first time it’s happened. The Nationals have also registered the name of Victorian independent MP Ali Cupper. That site reads: “who really is Ali Cupper?” and lists her previous political affiliations.
Dalton – the NSW Shooters MP for Murray – says the Nationals also did the same to her, prompting her to complain to Australia’s domain name regulator. She says she will now write to the deputy premier, John Barilaro, and the federal Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, to ask them to stop.
Dalton said:
I felt violated when the Nats stole my own name. It’s like someone stealing your farm property.
When Nationals MP Michael Johnsen resigned from parliament in disgrace following rape allegations, the Nationals said they’d turned a new leaf.
But they continue to target female MPs in a disgraceful way.
Updated
The last session of the day has moved on to Australia Post executives, including the acting chief executive, Rodney Boys.
So far, not a lot has been learned. Asked if they had problems with the gifting of the Cartier watches, most say that they were not in the roles at the time (2018) and unaware until later.
Susan Davies, head of people and culture, who was in the role, is asked the same question and said vouchers and cash bonuses was what was usually seen.
Updated
ClubsNSW is expected to drop a legal bid to force the state’s gaming regulator to hand over correspondence with a whistleblower who alleged there was widespread money laundering through the pokies. Christopher Knaus has the story:
Having read through my notes in that brief break, it is worth pointing out that Lucio Di Bartolomeo said the shareholder ministers (then minister for finance – Mathias Cormann and communications minister – Paul Fletcher) were informed of Christine Holgate’s resignation through their chief of staff(s) ahead of it being made public.
It was reported on Sky News as ‘rumours’ and Holgate said she had not spoken to Sky News.
Updated
The agency that runs the national disability insurance scheme has quietly established a new taskforce aimed at cutting growth in funding packages and participant numbers. My colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes has the story:
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson is trying to head off criticism, or coverage, that the government may be considering further privatising Australia Post.
There has been a report – the BCG report – which is looking at ways Australia Post can make more money. Lucio Di Bartolomeo has previously said there were no recommendations, just options, and nothing has been agreed to.
One of the ‘options’ is the privatisation of the parcel delivery business. Holgate said she was against any attempts to further privatise the business. Henderson asks Di Bartolomeo if there was any indication from the shareholder ministers that the government would privatise more of Australia Post’s services:
“None whatsoever,” Di Bartolomeo said.
Updated
The health minister, Greg Hunt, has been quite cryptic about how many Pfizer doses Australia will get per week.
What we do know is Australia has two orders: the original order for 20m doses to be delivered by the end of 2021, and an additional 20m to be delivered from October to December.
On Friday Hunt said the Pfizer deliveries will ramp up from about 130,000 per week at the moment, increasing through April and May, before a “near doubling” in July.
Today, Hunt added that a very significant number of the original 20m will be delivered from July to September then “almost a similar number during the last quarter”. Some 1.172m Pfizer doses have already been delivered.
Putting those clues together, and making certain assumptions about uniform increases, I suggest the Pfizer delivery schedule is likely to look like this:
- The remainder of April – about 0.5m doses total.
- May – about 1m doses total, rising from 210,000 doses per week at the start to 290,000 per week by the end.
- June – about 1.2m doses total, at a rate of 310,000 per week.
- July to September – 8m, at a rate of 620,000 per week.
- October to December – 28m, consisting of the final 8m of the original order and the entire additional 20m, a rate of 2.15m doses per week.
Hunt said that the entire additional 20m coming in the final quarter “will mean a significant sprint for those who had not been vaccinated by then”.
Given this schedule implies that 70% of Australia’s 40m Pfizer doses will be coming in the final three months of the year – that certainly would be a sprint.
Updated
One Nation senator Pauline Hanson is giving a very impassioned defence of Christine Holgate, and asks Lucio Di Bartolomeo to give one example of when he had ever defended her.
There was no way I could go to the media and say it’s not right, she never did this because I don’t know what she did. That was what the investigation was going to do, it’s what the work we were going to do. And my personal view is, I don’t believe she did anything out of the ordinary ... but I had no proof of that. The investigation had to take place.
Hanson then pushes Di Bartolomeo on what he expected the investigation to find, given that it wasn’t the role of the board to approve the watch purchases.
There’s no doubt she has delegated authority that’s far higher than $20,000, correct. But that doesn’t mean that she can do anything she wishes with her delegation. The delegation still has to be used with absolute discretion and consistent with using taxpayer funds, that’s the whole purpose of this exercise.
And what did she spend $20,000 on. And I said, if I was there and I was aware of it, obviously I wasn’t there and I wasn’t aware of it, I would have said something about it. I said, I would have my experience in my time working for government business enterprises was that you don’t do things of that, elaborate nature, because it’s not appropriate.
Di Bartolomeo said under Holgate’s contract, she had to give six months notice. She says the board agreed to her request she be released immediately. He said there was also a non-compete clause, which meant Holgate could not take a job with a business which competed with Australia Post for six months.
Updated
Asked by Labor senator Kim Carr whether or not he has lied, as was Christine Holgate’s testimony, Lucio Di Bartolomeo said he has “never lied to Senate Estimates”.
Asked about “evidence in general”, Di Bartolomeo says he has had to correct two statements, over correspondence he didn’t think he had seen, but had seen. He said he corrected that.
As to what else Holgate is referring to, he says he has “no idea”.
Updated
'I will not be resigning': Australia Post chair says he won't quit over Holgate scandal
Asked by Nationals senator Matt Canavan if he should remain in his role, given Christine Holgate has called for his resignation, Lucio Di Bartolomeo says:
I think Australia Post has, has been taken through a very difficult patch. And my view is, until I believe differently, I will not be resigning, I certainly don’t believe it would help, I think, I think it would further, further hinder the organisation going forward.
Di Bartolomeo denies he or the board leaked an unsigned and unagreed to resignation letter to Sky News, as claimed by Holgate.
Updated
Greens senator and committee chair Sarah Hanson-Young asks Lucio Di Bartolomeo whether it was right to “hound” Christine Holgate out of her job.
“We did not hound her out of a job,” Di Bartolomeo says.
“But you didn’t stand up for her either,” Hanson-Young responds.
Di Bartolomeo says there was going to be an investigation regardless of what the government ministers had said.
Di Bartolomeo said it was “a significant shock” when Holgate resigned.
I said in my opening statement, Christine was a good CEO and there’s no doubt she had a lot of support [from the organisation and licensees] and rightly so.
But we’ve got to move on, we’ve appointed a new CEO. I believe we’ve appointed a CEO that will take up the reins of what Christine left us with, and will continue [going] forward.
Updated
Australian businesses report best performance on record during March
In finance, Australian businesses have taken the end of the successful jobkeeper program in their stride for now while consumers appear happier they can take a break in New Zealand rather than worrying about the vaccine rollout.
Businesses enjoyed their best performance on record during March, with strong forward orders pointing to growing activity in coming months.
AAP reports that while the monthly National Australia Bank business survey released on Tuesday also showed a dip in confidence, it remains well above average.
“This in combination with a very strong read for forward orders points to ongoing strength in activity, which hopefully sees conditions remain elevated, even as we pass through the end of the jobkeeper program,” NAB chief economist Alan Oster said.
The NAB business conditions index rose eight points to a record 25 index points, while confidence eased three points to an index of 15.
The end of the jobkeeper wage subsidy last month has raised concerns over what impact it will have on employment.
Treasury has forecast as many as 150,000 people could lose their job without the subsidy.
The weekly ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index also jumped 5.9%, reaching its highest level since September 2019 and sprinting past its long-run average.
“The receding of the Brisbane lockdown and announcement of the trans-Tasman travel bubble has seen confidence jump sharply,” ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said.
“The jump has occurred despite the delay in the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.”
The confidence survey, conducted at the weekend, would have captured last week’s decision by the nation’s health authorities to recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine not be given to people aged under 50.
This followed cases abroad of blood-clotting among younger people after having the vaccine. Two such cases have been recorded in Australia.
Prime minister Scott Morrison has since announced the government will no longer set targets for the remainder of the vaccine rollout, a timetable that was already in tatters.
“Those surveyed appeared to shrug-off concerns about the delayed coronavirus vaccine rollout and JobKeeper wage subsidy expiry,” Commonwealth Securities senior economist Ryan Felsman said.
But he expects as government household stimulus support is reduced, and uncertainty increases around the delayed Covid-19 vaccine rollout, the government will announce a bunch of targeted business policy measures in next month’s budget.
New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show payroll jobs rose by 0.8% over the month to 27 March, and were up 0.1% in the last fortnight, ahead of jobkeeper ending.
Over the year, payroll jobs were 1.0% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
The data is a prelude to Thursday’s full labour force report, which economists expect to show employment grew by a further 35,000 in March, taking the unemployment rate down to 5.7% from 5.8%.
Updated
A serving South Australian police officer will face court over assault allegations involving four people.
The officer has been summonsed to appear over three counts of aggravated assault causing harm and two counts of aggravated assault.
The assaults allegedly occurred during four separate incidents between August and December 2020.
The officer has been suspended and will appear in Adelaide magistrates court on 19 April.
Updated
Labor senator Kimberley Kitching asks Lucio Di Bartolomeo whether he thinks Paul Fletcher overreacted:
I think parliament as a whole overreacted [to] it from the questions that were put by the opposition to the responses that were given.
Kitching reminds him that when she has asked for a breakdown of the credit card spending for senate estimates, she has not been able to receive it.
Updated
Labor senator Kim Carr is trying to get to the bottom of what Lucio Di Bartolomeo considered to be a “formal direction”.
A few minutes ago we heard Di Bartolomeo said he considered it a “strong desire” not a “formal direction” when Paul Fletcher, the communications minister, said he wanted the board to support an investigation into Christine Holgate and stand her aside while that investigation was carried out. Fletcher was speaking on behalf of the Australia Post shareholder ministers at the time.
Di Bartolomeo is asked how it wasn’t a formal direction, given the statements both Paul Fletcher and Scott Morrison had made in question time:
I think, as, as board members, you take on board the concerns the desires the wishes of the shareholders. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean that the board will then do as, as, but, but it doesn’t also mean that you don’t consider all the circumstances including their desires, but the circumstances that came, came to the fore [earlier that day].
The questions move on to the announcement of the appointment of the new CEO less than 24 hours before today’s hearing. Di Bartolomeo says the announcement was made as soon as things were finalised, and that’s how it worked out.
Liberal senator David Van says Di Bartolomeo would have been criticised for the timing whether it was before, or whether they waited until after the hearing.
Updated
Lucio Di Bartolomeo says he “absolutely” spoke to Christine Holgate after question time. Holgate says she only spoke to Di Bartolomeo before question time. She says she spoke to Tony Nutt after that, but not Di Bartolomeo.
Di Bartolomeo says he has phone records to show he spoke to Holgate after 4pm that day (question time ended around 3pm).
He admits she was “very reluctant” to stand aside.
The board wanted her to stand aside, because then they could appoint an acting CEO. If Holgate was on leave, then there was no way to appoint an acting CEO.
Updated
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has criticised the Morrison government for pressing ahead with ratifying a major regional trade deal among 15 countries including Myanmar.
The deal, known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), was signed last year and brings together Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries (Asean). Myanmar is one of those 10 Asean countries.
The ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, told a parliamentary inquiry this afternoon that Australia should hold off ratifying the deal that included Myanmar “so long as the military coup leaders are in power”.
The people of Myanmar are putting their lives on the line and are taking action to bring the economy to a halt because they do not want military rule and want to stop the flow of money to the regime. By pushing ahead with ratifying the RCEP and not imposing sanctions the Morrison government is undermining their efforts.
(It’s worth pointing out the ACTU had been highly critical of RCEP even before the coup, raising concerns about what it labelled a lack of workers’ protections in the agreement.)
Updated
Communications minister Paul Fletcher wanted Australia Post to stand Christine Holgate aside: chair
Lucio Di Bartolomeo confirms that Paul Fletcher wanted the board to stand Christine Holgate aside.
But Di Bartolomeo says he didn’t take that as a direction, but as a “strong desire”.
Di Bartolomeo:
He [Fletcher] wanted us to support the investigation. And he wanted us to look at standing Christine down. I queried whether that was what he really wanted. He said, ‘Look, I am going to come back to you’. We had the later discussion where that was all reaffirmed.
Sarah Hanson-Young: The minister asked you to stand Christine Holgate aside?
Di Bartolomeo:
Yes.
Hanson-Young: Did you give him the background to the gifting of those watches?
Di Bartolomeo:
No. Because I had no background on the gifting of those watches, other than what I’d heard.
Hanson-Young: ... when you spoke to him at 1pm?
Di Bartolomeo:
Yes. At 1:09.
Hanson-Young: Then when he [called again] at 1:30pm he confirmed that that is what he wanted you to do?
Di Bartolomeo:
Yes. Correct.
Hanson-Young: At any point in that conversation did he say he’d spoken to the prime minister?
Di Bartolomeo:
No.
Di Bartolomeo says he has “never in his life” spoken to the prime minister and didn’t that day either.
Hanson-Young: OK. So, at 1:30, when it was confirmed that the minister was asking you to stand Ms Holgate aside?
Di Bartolomeo:
Yes.
Hanson-Young: Did he say that was at the direction of the prime minister or that he’d had a conversation with other members of the cabinet?
Di Bartolomeo:
No. What he did say is that he had a conversation with his fellow shareholder ministers, so that it was coming from the shareholder ministers.
Hanson-Young: Did you regard that as a direction?
Di Bartolomeo:
No.
Hanson-Young: What did you – how did you categorise it?
Di Bartolomeo:
Well, it certainly wasn’t a direction, but clearly a strong desire on the shareholder minister’s part.
Updated
AAP reports that a years-long contest over an ill and childless lawyer’s $27m estate has been settled by the NSW supreme court, delivering former union official Kathy Jackson a million-dollar payout.
Sydney barrister and former local mayor David Rofe QC wrote seven wills and two amendments in the six years before his death in 2017, aged 87.
Described by one barrister friend as “famously tight with money”, the Woollahra man lived for the legal profession, had a mischievous sense of humour and loved wining and dining “in the patrician lifestyle he enjoyed”, Justice Geoff Lindsay said.
But, owing to his “notorious inability or disinclination” to use computers and a diagnosis of vascular dementia in or about 2010, Rofe’s final will in December 2014 was strongly contested.
The estate included about $7.6m in Sydney property, company shares worth $9m and super nearing $6m.
One nephew contended his uncle lacked the capacity to make any will after 2010, while solicitor and lover Nick Llewellyn took issue after a $1.2m debt forgiveness was taken out of the final will.
Llewellyn admitted erratic behaviour and mental health issues to the court, but denied ever threatening the man he loved and who’d claimed him as a “son”.
His relationship with Rofe was described as “unusual” by the court while he was regarded by some in Rofe’s circle as self-seeking and a “leech”. Like Llewellyn, the final will left Jackson one-tenth of the estate after the distribution of about $5m in property and cash.
The former head of the Health Services Union, spared jail for rorting more than $100,000 in member funds, became a trusted companion of Rofe after being introduced by broadcaster Alan Jones in 2012.
Despite sustaining attacks on her credit stemming from her criminal convictions, Jackson had endeavoured to be truthful to the court and there was no basis to find she’d ever knowingly misled the ailing Rofe, Justice Lindsay said.
At a time when each of them felt in need of friendship, with their worlds collapsing about them, they drew comfort from their friendship.
Ms Jackson’s primary motivation in dealing with the deceased was not a prospect of financial gain.
A doctor present when Rofe made his final will told the court the wealthy lawyer understood the nature of what he was doing.
Noting the deceased allowed those around him to have a voice in his estate planning deliberations “to an unusual degree”, the court found an amendment to an earlier will in 2014 came after Llewellyn exercised undue influence.
But Justice Lindsay on Monday determined Rofe had capacity when executing his final will in December 2014.
Immediately after Rofe’s former long-time partner and later full-time carer, Llewellyn was the largest beneficiary – given a tenth of the residual estate, cash and a $1.35m unit in Surfers Paradise’s Q1 tower.
The enforceability or otherwise of debts by Llewellyn will be decided at a later date.
Updated
South Australia not stockpiling Covid vaccine, health officials say
South Australia is not stockpiling the coronavirus vaccine, health officials say, despite figures suggesting it is lagging behind other states in the rollout.
AAP reports that health officials in the state say SA has actually received more doses than originally requested at this stage in the program.
While health minister Stephen Wade says the government will open its first mass vaccination centre in Adelaide later this month, to be followed by two more centres, which will help scale up the number of jabs being administered.
South Australia’s vaccination rate is very close to its share of the national population.
His comments came after figures showed SA had so far used 57% of the doses in its possession. This compared with 100% in both Tasmania and the ACT, 82% in Western Australia while all other jurisdictions were above 70%.
Deputy chief public health officer Emily Kirkpatrick said SA had received a variable supply of vaccines so far. She said:
In fact, we’ve had an oversupply coming in above what our requested numbers were. But it is important for the community to understand we are not stockpiling the vaccine. We are managing a steady and safe vaccine rollout to make sure the community can have access.
Wade said SA was also looking forward to a meeting with the federal government on Wednesday, which should provide more clarity on further supplies of the Pfizer vaccine, now the preferred option for people aged under 50.
The first mass vaccination centre, to be established at the Wayville Showgrounds, will be a dedicated Pfizer clinic and is expected to administer about 3,000 doses each week.
About 6,000 people in SA aged under 50 had been given the AstraZeneca vaccine, including some still potentially at risk of showing symptoms associated with a rare blood clotting reaction.
Kirkpatrack said SA’s progress included 85% of all people working within the hotel quarantine system. Of the remaining 15%, some had so far elected not to receive the vaccine but were being provided with advice and counselling over its importance.
According to figures released by SA Health on Monday, 39,206 vaccine doses have been administered so far. Although that figure does not include those provided to aged care residents by the federal government and those delivered by GPs.
SA reported eight new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, all returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Updated
Bridget McKenzie moves her questions on in an attempt to get a guarantee that the costs of any further planned changes to the Australia Post model won’t be borne by LPOs – licensed post offices (the privately owned ones).
That’s about a report that had been kept secret that looks at options to further privatise Australia Post services – things like the parcel delivery. He can’t. He says the report had no recommendations, but just explored options and nothing has been agreed to.
I can guarantee that the work we’re doing today, in our corporate plan, the corporate plan that is currently in place and the new corporate plan, as our annual strategic planning process is if place, we have absolutely no plans to change the LPOs and particularly the rural and regional arrangements.
That’s what Christine Holgate was talking about earlier and what she said she had opposed – she says that the government can’t cancel the licences, but it can make the businesses unviable through decisions it makes about the services which are provided.
Updated
Holgate badly treated but not owed apology from Australia Post: chair
Bridget McKenzie asks Lucio Di Bartolomeo whether Christine Holgate an apology.
Di Bartolomeo:
Christine Holgate has been treated abysmally, but I believe the board and management did the right things by her.
McKenzie: So, no apology? For Ms Holgate from Australia Post?
Di Bartolomeo:
I don’t believe Australia Post owes her an apology but I do believe she has been badly treated.
McKenzie: It is all the doing of somebody else?
Di Bartolomeo:
The environment that was created at the time, from that afternoon on through parliament and the media thereafter, and everyone else who bought and, certainly created a set of circumstances that made her job and her life very difficult.
Sarah Hanson-Young:
Does the prime minister owe Christine Holgate in apology?
Di Bartolomeo:
I’m not here to talk about anybody else as to who owes an apology, I’m saying I understand the hurt she felt and appreciate it and we tried to do as much as possible to assist her.
Updated
The committee moves to questions and Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie is up first, because she can’t stay much longer.
McKenzie asks Lucio Di Bartolomeo if Christine Holgate breached any internal policies, by awarding the watches as an executive gift.
Di Bartolomeo:
There was no policy [at the time] that she contravened.
So why did the board want her to stand aside, McKenzie asks.
Di Bartolomeo:
First of all, she did not act within the boundaries of the Act, as she was obliged to do so, as the Maddocks’ report identified. She wasn’t stood down, she stood aside.
McKenzie: What is the difference, I have noticed that difference between stood aside and stood down. What’s the difference?
Di Bartolomeo:
What I wanted and had lots of discussion on this in the afternoon I wanted her to stand aside for four weeks for the duration of the investigation, so she could concentrate on fully work on preparing for that investigation, while at the same time we could appoint someone on a net basis to do the CEO role as we were in the middle of planning and preparing to execute the largest parcel delivery exercise that we had ever had. At the time when Covid-19 restrictions.
He is asked again what the difference between stood down and stood aside is, and says he wanted Holgate to stand aside for four weeks.
Updated
Lucio Di Bartolomeo is in the witness chair.
He says the Australia Post board, which he chairs, is taking the matter very seriously. He says Christine Holgate was a valued and highly effective CEO and he had hoped she would return to the role once the investigation was completed.
He said those hopes were dashed when she sent her letter of resignation on 1 November.
While the board understood her rationale, I wanted to be clear that neither I, nor the board’s sought or encouraged Christine’s resignation.
The events that Christine referred to was not so much the purchase of the four watches as a reward for executives who had secured a valued Bank@Post deal, a deal that would prove highly [important] for the long term viability of many [licensees], rather it was the increasingly acute public scrutiny, including media focus and commentary from right across the community spectrum that developed on the back of the estimates appearance and showed no signs of diminishing.
Di Bartolomeo maintained he would not have approved the 2018 gift of the watches, if he had been aware of them (Holgate says they were approved by the CFO, as was policy).
You are likely to be aware that after Christine resigned last year I told Senate Estimates that if I had been the chair at the time of the giving of the watches, I would have vetoed the purchase of the watches.
As the report ultimately found, the purchase of the watches was inconsistent with both obligations imposed by the act and public expectations.
Again, Christine and her public statement on 2 November last year acknowledged this, I deeply regret, quote, “a decision made two years ago has caused so much debate and distraction and I appreciate the optics involved do not meet the pub test”.
Christine’s hope that was through her resignation the organisation could remain fully focused on serving its customers, I view the purchase of the watches as an error of judgement made in good faith by an otherwise highly effective CEO.
I also recognise the circumstance as around the departure of the former CEO were difficult for Christine and everyone involved, all through the process her welfare remains a priority for Australia Post and we made sure the organisation continue to support her through what has been a trying time.
Updated
The Australia Post senate inquiry is back following the lunch break and Christine Holgate’s ‘in-camera’ evidence (testimony which is given confidentially) and Susan Davies, executive general manager, people and culture (who was Holgate’s support person within the organisation) is now giving her evidence.
She is also wearing a white jacket. Davies seems to be in a tough place – she is still working at Australia Post, and is testifying after she was asked to by the committee, and has heard just one side of some crucial conversations (the board’s side). So she can’t say whether or not Holgate agreed to stand aside voluntarily. She didn’t hear Holgate’s side of the conversation.
Asked by Pauline Hanson how she thinks Holgate was treated. Davies said she was “disappointed”.
I’m disappointed with how, how she was treated from, from the point of the senate [estimates], you know, from, from that point on, I’m very disappointed about a lot of things that have happened, of the process.
They’ve been some very dark days for all of us. And especially for Christine. I, again, it’s hard to separate myself from my role as executive of people and culture, and me as an individual but you know I, I do believe that, you know, we’ve certainly, we have done everything to try and support Christine through them.
I think that, different, different minds look at this, this differently.
You know, I just think that if we could all reflect and go back and hope that something could have been done differently, I think there’s probably lots of things that could have been done differently.
And that is it for Susan Davies – at this point.The next witness is the chair of the Australia Post board, Lucio Di Bartolomeo.
Updated
And that’s all from Greg Hunt.
Hunt says the reason the government is not announcing the exact numbers of Pfizer arrivals at the request of the company.
The company has asked us not to foreshadow the increases in exact numbers but we are increasing from what we have had at approximately 130,000 plus so far and that will increase over the course of April and will then significantly increase again during the course of May and it will then hold until the start of July and then we will have very significant numbers during the course of July.
He says the additional 20m doses are scheduled for the final quarter of the year, meaning, he says “a significant sprint for those who had not been vaccinated by then”.
It meant enough vaccines for everyone but that is the timeframe at the moment and, again, I apologise for not providing specifics it is just that that is the request of the company on a global basis.
Updated
John Skerritt is asked how far off the Novavax vaccine might be from being available in Australia. He says the company still needs to complete clinical trials and establish a large scale manufacturing agreement.
So, don’t hold your breath.
We probably are still sadly a couple of months away, June, before we will get the Novavax data [we have] a big meeting on Thursday and obviously we want to hurry them up [but] clearly you cannot make clinical trials go faster.
Updated
Hunt is asked whether the government has data on cancellations after the announcement re AstraZeneca. He says he doesn’t have any numbers.
He says he has heard reports of some cancellations but that the government has been “surprised” at the high rate of vaccinations given steps taken by, for example, Victoria, to pause the rollout to under 50s.
Updated
John Skerritt says that while there are “very large numbers” of reports of clotting coming through to the TGA, there currently aren’t any that look “highly suspicious” in terms of a link to AstraZeneca.
Updated
Hunt is asked how many aged care and disability workers have been vaccinated. He doesn’t give an answer, saying the government is reassessing its rollout for those workers after the decision last week with AstraZeneca.
The average age of aged care workers, he says, is 46, and the government is redoing its assessment of the rollout to those workers.
That is what we are meeting with the states and territories about.
Updated
Second blood clot case confirmed as linked to AstraZeneca vaccine, TGA head says
The head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, John Skerritt, has confirmed that second case of the rare blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Last night our vaccine safety investigation group, an external group of experts including blood clotting experts met to look at a second possible case of this rare condition of thrombosis. It confirmed that this case which occurred in a woman in her 40s, vaccinated in WA, did fit the criteria.
So we have a second confirmed case. The good news is, and I want to avoid getting into too much detail because of privacy issues she is in a stable condition. So the committee looked at the case and all the information on the case. It did take a while to sort out because the initial imaging was a bit ambiguous and some of the blood tests were redone to confirm results but it did confirm that we have a second case of this syndrome that we call thrombosis clotting, a short and low level of platelets that is unusual.
Now to put this in perspective, of the over 1.2m doses of vaccine, 700,000 or more have been AstraZeneca. That means that two from 700,000, [it is a ] one in 350,000 [chance].
When you look at the British data that quoted about one in 250,000, that is an extremely remote and unlikely event. It is a very rare finding. As I said before, your chances of winning Lotto a much higher.
Skerritt notes that he had his first dose of the vaccine last week:
I was aware of the ... risk but knew I wouldn’t win lotto last week so I figured a one in 350,000 chance was good to take and I’m glad I did.
Updated
He says 56,379 vaccines have been administered in the past 24 hours. Of those about 40,000 were delivered across primary care and aged care. It brings the national total to about 1,234,681.
In terms of updating rollout to allow under 50s to receive the Pfizer vaccine, Hunt says he’s been meeting with state health ministers to update their plans, without, it seems to me, providing any clarity at all about what those plans are.
Updated
Health minister Greg Hunt is now speaking in Canberra. He’s talking about the death in Queensland of a man with Covid-19. The man, who was in his 80s, acquired Covid-19 overseas and died in a Brisbane hospital. It’s the first death in Australia from the virus since October last year and the 910th life lost from the virus.
“Each life lost is to be mourned,” Hunt says.
Man dies after boat capsizes in New South Wales
Police in New South Wales say a man has died after a boat capsized at Ballina on the state’s north coast earlier today.
At about 8.45am emergency services were called to Lighthouse Parade, East Ballina, following reports two people were in the water after a boat capsized while crossing the Ballina Bar.
Police, along with NSW Ambulance paramedics, Surf Lifesaving NSW and the Westpac Helicopter commenced a rescue operation.
A police spokesperson said that a short time later, a 17-year-old boy assisted a 90-year-old man to shore.
A member of the public commenced CPR on the older man until NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived but he died at the scene.
The boy was not injured.
Former Australian ambassador to Myanmar calls on Coalition to cut defence ties
A former Australian ambassador has called on the Morrison government to end, rather than simply suspend, defence cooperation with Myanmar in the wake of the military coup.
Nicholas Coppel, who served as Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2015 to 2018, said while the defence cooperation scheme had always been a small program, it should now be ended altogether. Canberra suspended the program last month but Coppel said: “It is now a source of embarrassment if not shame.”
Coppel argued the program was too small to have significant impact on the culture of Myanmar’s military, and “it does not buy us access or influence”.
He also said Australia should be be united with likeminded countries in sanctioning Myanmar’s commander in chief and military-related business entities: “If other countries can move quickly on these issues, why not Australia?”
Coppel offered a bleak assessment of the current situation in Myanmar:
We don’t know how long the military junta will last or how it will come to an end, but we do know that it hasn’t gone according to plan. Resolutions and statements of concern and outrage unfortunately will not bring about change. Nor will targeted sanctions and an arms embargo. Nor will dialogue and calls for reconciliation. There’s not going to be an international intervention force.”
Coppel said Australia could and should support the people of Myanmar by taking a series of steps – but change would be determined in Myanmar, by Myanmar people. “The bottom line is change can only come from within Myanmar.”
Manny Maung, a Myanmar researcher for Human Rights Watch, told the same hearing that Australia should make clear to the military leadership that there would be financial and legal costs to its actions – but this would only be effective if coordinated internationally. She said:
So far the US, UK, Canada, EU and New Zealand have all strengthened sanctions on Myanmar but Australia has not.”
Ben Bland, director of the south-east Asia program at the Lowy Institute, said Myanmar was at risk of becoming a failed state.
Updated
Second blood clot case 'likely' linked to AstraZeneca vaccine
Health authorities have concluded a second case of a rare blood clot syndrome in Australia “is likely” linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The case occurred in a woman in her 40s who received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab in Western Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration announced on Tuesday. She is receiving treatment in hospital and is in a stable condition.
My colleague Paul Karp has the full story here:
Updated
'Scott Morrison had one job', Albanese says of vaccine rollout 'shambles'
Albanese has also had a crack at prime minister Scott Morrison for announcing that the government was abandoning its vaccine rollout timeline over Facebook.
He doesn’t even give press conferences these days. We’ve now had a major health announcement done through Facebook yesterday. Quite extraordinary that the government and Scott Morrison is removing himself from any scrutiny after he said, ‘Do not take your advice from Facebook when it comes to the pandemic’ he is now giving advice on Facebook. The two things can’t be right.
Scott Morrison had one job, which was to get the rollout of the vaccine right. And it is a shambles. A shambles where by now he is saying that they won’t even have a timeline or a target for when people will be vaccinated.
Updated
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference in Perth. He says the evidence of former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate today has been “damning”.
You can do whatever you like as a government minister in Scott Morrison’s government and you get to keep your job but if you are Christine Holgate you get treated very differently and her evidence today is damning.
Albanese has also called on consumers to back Menulog over its gig economy rivals after the company said it would move towards an “employment model” beginning with a trial among its Sydney couriers.
I welcome that they will seek to move people from being just contractors into being employees with that employee relationship and that they will make an application before the Fair Work Commission to work with the Transport Workers’ Union to make sure that their employees can actually get decent wages and proper conditions.
Now this is a major breakthrough. When we raised this in my industrial relations speech earlier this year outlining our policies to include gig workers, a growing part of our economy, as part of our industrial relations system, to give them more security at work, to make sure they’re paid at least the minimum wage, Christian Porter said it was all too hard, it was all too complicated. Well what Menulog’s response shows is that it is not complicated. That with a bit of goodwill it can be achieved and here you have a circumstance where by a major corporation is prepared to do. I call upon consumers to back Menulog against their competitors.
Updated
University lecturers have told a Senate committee that insecure work and “Uber-isation” is one of the biggest factors affecting academic independence and issues of free speech.
The National Tertiary Education Union and the Casualised, Unemployed, and Precarious University Workers (CUPUW) have both spoken before the committee into job security today.
The president of the NTEU, Dr Alison Barnes, said insecure piece work and the “Uber-isation” of work had been occurring on campuses for years.
Barnes said this insecurity also “attacked” academic independence and the confidence of academics to speak freely.
Dr Yaegan Doran, a casual academic at the University of Sydney, also spoke representing the CUPUW.
Do we plan for a family? I don’t know if I will have work for another three months.
These personal impacts ... fully impact education. I got my contract for this semester on a Wednesday to teach a course of 100 students starting the next Monday.
Updated
Christine Holgate has asked to give some evidence to the committee “in-camera” – that means, it’s given away from the public.
Then it moves to the lunch break, after which the committee proceedings will move back into the public.
I’ll be back with updates when the committee comes back – around 2pm.
Updated
Hi! Michael McGowan here taking you through the afternoon.
In some non-Christine Holgate news, the Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, has today visited the cyclone-devastated town of Kalbarri.
Located about 580km north of Perth, as many as 70% of homes in the tourist town suffered damage after the category-three cyclone Seroja made landfall just south of the town at about 8pm on Sunday night.
McGowan says the town looks like a “war zone”.
As we flew in, we saw the damage to people’s homes and businesses ... it’s a devastating experience I am sure for many people in these communities.
It shows the enormous power of the cyclone. This was a one in 50 year event, an extraordinary cyclone which caused massive amounts of damage throughout this community and throughout this region ... It’s remarkable nobody was injured or died as a consequence, absolutely remarkable. We can be very thankful for that.
Updated
OK, we have gone back to the transcript to see what Christine Holgate was saying about the executive bonuses, and what Lucio Di Bartolomeo told the board about it, and what Di Bartolomeo told minister Paul Fletcher about it.
Sarah Hanson-Young: “Just to come back. What did Minister Fletcher say?”
Holgate: “He said, we had agreed with Lucio. Back in August, he’d agreed that you could pay the managers if the executive forego their bonus.
I said but he couldn’t have done because he met with us the next day on the sixth of August and told us all to trust him. And so you may not have understood but every member of the board understood what Brian Belling was putting in this letter.
I actually believed Mr Fletcher when he said to me that he was confused why Lucio had not told the truth and told us we were not getting paid. I believe, Minister Fletcher, that that was the truth. And I think Lucio actually, uh, sorry, I shouldn’t call him that I apologise.”
Hanson-Young: “So are you suggesting that the chairman misled the minister?”
Holgate: “I’m suggesting the chairman misled the board and all of the executive team. I’m believing he made an agreement with both ministers.”
Hanson-Young: “He took the minister’s marching orders and then he misled the board?”
Holgate: “Yes, I believe he made an agreement with both ministers, misled the board and misled myself. And that’s why Mr Brian Belling put it in here. And he made it very clear that we were questioning – we wrote this and we sent every time we wrote to the chair we wrote to the whole board, because we were questioning to the whole board why are you supporting this man when we all know that he lied once before?”
Updated
Kimberley Kitching asks Christine Holgate who told her the prime minister had not been properly briefed on the watches issue.
She says she doesn’t want to breach the confidentiality of people who “are trying to help me” but that “numerous people” told her he had not been briefed.
Christine Holgate says if she had her time again, she would probably gift Seiko watches.
But am I proud of the moment that I gave those people recognition for working 24 hours a day? I think that’s what you would want your CEO to do.
And am I proud of what they did working hand-in-hand? And, by the way, you know Josh Frydenberg was a very large part of making this happen. Absolutely. Without it, it would have been devastating.
So, I probably might buy them a Seiko watch in future, but I hope I never step away from recognising and rewarding licensees – we’ll be happy to buy them Cartier watches, if we can get the Bank@Post renewed.
Holgate said she was asked by people how she managed to get a Cartier watch for $5,000 and said they were the cheapest of the watches in the Cartier store. But she says it is important that it be known that the watches were awarded two years before – not in the middle of the Covid crisis.
I appreciate it doesn’t pass the pub test and the pub test that I was being judged against was handing out gold watches in the middle of a crisis, that’s not what happened.
The prime minister and the minister at no point said this was for bringing in something transformational years earlier, two years earlier, I was told in fairness, Senator, that [the prime minister] was not briefed properly.
I hold the chairman accountable for not briefing them properly, you will have to find that out yourself what he said on the call.”
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young jumps in to say it is not the first time the prime minister has responded without being properly briefed, but the committee moves on.
The committee is running out of time. There is another hearing date which has been set for those who they don’t get to, but Christine Holgate has also offered to come back later today, if there are other questions.
The committee wants to talk to Holgate after the Australia Post board hair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, gives evidence.
Updated
Christine Holgate tells Matt Canavan and the committee that there was no one from the board who tested whether her resignation was really what she wanted to do, which she says they should have, given her health situation.
I believe, on the night of October, the 22nd, the chair unlawfully stood me down and took the action on his own account without involving the other board members, but a lot of the other board members are lawyers, and they would be aware that under Fair Work that actually if somebody is on sick leave, which I was, and they were aware of it, it was formally sick leave with a doctor, and they knew I was on Temazepam, and they knew I was suicidal, that when that is the situation, they have an obligation of duty to – if somebody offers to resign – to test that that resignation is real.
None of that happened.
Updated
Nationals senator Matt Canavan is now asking questions.
He asks Christine Holgate about the support she has received since the controversy.
She gives this speech in answer:
I don’t know how many headhunters have called me and said to me they’ve never had a CEO before when their franchisees are arguing to bring them back, and the union’s gone on the news and say she’s been treated unfairly.
I have had thousands and thousands of letters from people saying what has happened to me is unfair as well. And if someone was in Bourke Street today I think you’ll find the floors of people wearing white jackets.
It is not about a political standing, it’s about workplace bullying, and our people have not supported what has happened to me. Angela will address you later on, not as an individual, but as the chair of the LPOS with other members of her board.
If that is not evidence of the divide that this is causing, I don’t know. I knew if I did not resign, not only would there be more harm to me personally, and I was seriously concerned how long I could take it, but I knew it was causing great damage, I had customers calling me up saying, ‘Just go back in the office and get back to work’.
And the government’s aware of that. You know, and I’m not criticising anyone for saying that, but everybody was aware of it. That is not good for our business.
Our employees were turning up at my house. My husband will tell you, they created a barricade. In our road, to stop people getting to me.
This is ordinary every day mums and dads. This is not high paid executives or politicians. This is people in communities. That’s why the chair of Australia Post must go, not because of me. Because he’s lied to you all.
Updated
Wow, it’s been a busy few hours! With that, I’m going to hand you over to Michael McGowan to take you through the rest of the afternoon.
Christine Holgate gave some evidence about executive bonuses. It is a little confusing and we’ll come back to it, because even the senators seem a little confused about what is being said. And it’s important we get it right, so I’ll head back over the transcript to see what she was saying there.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson has the question call now. She says she has been very moved by Holgate, and what she went through. She asks whether she thinks the questioning on the 22 October estimates hearing was fair.
Holgate:
In all honesty, I didn’t consider whether it was fair or not fair. I absolutely respect and Senator Carr, forgive me but you’ve asked me many tough questions over my time with you (“that’s my job,” Carr says) ... and I was about to say ‘that’s your job’.
Holgate said she did believe there was an attempt to undermine her though, but she has no idea who may have told Labor senators about the watches. She said “thousands of people” knew about the executive gifts.
Updated
Myanmar activists and community representatives have urged the Australian government to support a peacekeeping mission in the country, saying if there is no action “atrocities will continue to escalate”.
Sophia Sarkis, a member of the Burmese Community Development Collaboration who was born and raised in Myanmar but now lives in Australia, told a parliamentary hearing in Canberra that the military “continues to deploy brutal force to suppress dissent, killing over 700 people including children, pregnant women, young students and professionals” since the 1 February coup.
Sarkis said basic human rights “are being violated in unimaginable ways and people of Myanmar are living in fear for their lives and liberty” and they no longer felt safe in their own homes.
As our hearts go out to them, we can not sit back and watch their suffering. They’re in a dire state and they need a lot of urgent help, including humanitarian assistance and medical aid.
Sarkis said it was “extremely vital that the Australian government should join other governments to take immediate and decisive actions to stop these terrible and brutal acts of violence on unarmed civilians”.
Therefore the Australian government should urge the UN for immediate and urgent interventions with a peacekeeping mission. If the Australian government does not take actions against [the] military, the atrocities will continue to escalate in Myanmar, more innocent lives will be likely [lost]. We, the Australian Burmese community, request the Australian government in solidarity with the Myanmar people to do what it can to stop those atrocities, to stop an imminent civil war occurring, a humanitarian crisis and to assist Myanmar becoming a true democratic country like Australia under civilian government so that rules of law will be upheld.
April Khaing, a representative of Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy, told the same parliamentary hearing the Australian government should extend visas to “ensure those currently residing in Australia are not required to return to Myanmar where they will face the violence and oppression of the military junta”.
Updated
Unsurprisingly no Covid-19 cases in the ACT today.
However, I have to say I’m not a fan of their Covid-19 graphic colour scheme.
ACT COVID-19 update (13 April 2021)
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) April 13, 2021
▪️ Cases today: 0
▪️ Active cases: 0
▪️ Total cases: 123
▪️ Recovered: 120
▪️ Lives lost: 3
▪️ Test results (past 24 hours): 217
▪️ Negative tests: 193,825
▪️ Total COVID-19 vaccinations: 18,059
ℹ️ https://t.co/YGW9pOHG3e pic.twitter.com/NmNgvQZIeo
Remeikis says it best:
Christine Holgate has spilled enough tea to fill Sydney harbour in this senate inquiry
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) April 13, 2021
Electricity prices have fallen by almost 9% since June due to renewable generation and falling fuel costs, according to analysis that shows Australian households could be saving $900m a year if they switched to cheaper plans currently offered in the market.
Data released by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission shows that households stand to save $126 per year on average, compared to June 2020 prices, if they switch to the cheapest retail offers currently available to homes in New South Wales, Victoria, South East Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory – regions in the National Energy Market.
Households in Melbourne stand to save the most by switching to the cheapest plans on offer, about $181 per year on average – a 12.7% fall. This is followed by $126 per year on average savings in South East Queensland. Households in Canberra only standed to save about $46 per year on average.
Despite electricity prices falling by 8.8%, ACCC chair Rod Sims has issued a stern warning to energy providers to pass on the lower prices to all their existing customers, noting that new energy market laws from June 2020 require retailers to make reasonable adjustments in line with the costs of procuring electricity.
Companies could be fined up to $10m or 10% of their turnover if they don’t pass on the savings.
The ACCC expects prices to continue to fall, and will monitor retail price changes.
Sims said the lower energy prices follow “a decade of sustained electricity price increases that placed unacceptable pressure on households and small businesses”.
Sims said:
A significant increase in generation capacity, attributed to renewable generation and falling fuel costs, has led to much lower wholesale electricity costs and it’s vital that all Australians now see the savings.
There are two ways that households and small businesses can get the hip-pocket benefit of recent reductions in retailers’ costs: by changing to a new, cheaper plan; or, by waiting for their retailer to lower the rates on the plan that they’re already on.
While we encourage consumers to cash in on the available savings by switching to a better deal, new laws require electricity retailers to pass on cuts in the wholesale cost of electricity.
Christine Holgate said she was told by Tony Nutt that she had no choice but to stand down.
“I was told, Christine, you need to understand it was the prime minister.”
Holgate said that Nutt was “probably the most balanced person” she was dealing with in the board, despite his close ties to the Liberal party.
“He often was the person who would be more balanced with all community parties than the other politically appointed people,” she said. “And I think that’s probably because of his previous life in government. When he worked for prime minister, you know prime minister John Howard, he had to work with all the political parties, to be able to get law through so he was used to working with different political parties.”
As an aside, Christine Holgate says she believes 20,000 $5 notes have been sent to the prime minister’s office, as part of a campaign from supporters to repay the cost of the Cartier watches.
Kimberley Kitching says she has asked for an exact figure through a question on notice, but no answer has been forthcoming.
The questions have moved to Labor senator Kimberley Kitching (who was the senator who raised the questions about the watches in the 22 October estimates hearing which kicked this whole thing off).
Kitching asks Christine Holgate whether she is saying the Australia Post board is “not independent”.
“Yes,” says Holgate.
Holgate is going through the board members, and why she does not believe they are independent, under direction from Kitching.
Holgate points out the Liberal party links, or close ties to former Liberal MPs, of each member of the board.
Updated
US investment group Blackstone has loosened the conditions of its $8bn takeover offer for James Packer’s Crown Resorts, saying it is willing to take on more of the risk that inquiries in WA and Victoria will find the company unfit to hold a casino licence.
Blackstone has also said it hopes to get approval to run the Melbourne and Perth casinos from authorities by September and dropped a condition that it find a bank to lend it the money needed to buy the shares before the deal can go ahead.
But it has not increased the offer price of $11.85 a share, which is below the current share price of $12.12 because investors are hopeful there will be a bidding war for control of the troubled gambling empire.
Other conditions, including approval from the Crown board, also remain in place.
Royal commissions are underway in WA and Victoria after a NSW inquiry in February found that Crown had facilitated money laundering and that junket operators who brought high-rolling gamblers to its casinos were linked to organised crime.
Blackstone is now willing to take on the risk of adverse findings being made against Crown after it takes control where previously it required a blanket assurance it would be able to operate the group’s casinos.
It already owns 9.99% of Crown – shares it bought from Hong Kong casino magnate Lawrence Ho’s Melco Resorts for $8.15 each in April last year
Updated
Scott Morrison, February: "Don't go to Facebook to find out about the vaccine"
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) April 13, 2021
Scott Morrison, April: listen to me on Facebook talking about the vaccine pic.twitter.com/k6BuO5RekX
Bridget McKenzie pops back in – she wants to correct the record. In 2012, when Angela Cramp (the Australia Post licensee who is giving evidence today as well) said the treasurer didn’t “raise an eyebrow” about the spending of the previous chair, it was Wayne Swan, not Scott Morrison.
It was 2012, and the Coalition wasn’t elected until 2013.
Updated
Christine Holgate said she was suicidal and begging for a meeting with someone from the government over what had happened. She says Simon Birmingham originally offered to set up a meeting with the communications minister, Paul Fletcher, but it never eventuated:
He offered to organise a meeting to help me get a resolution. And I think if you read that note and I apologise in advance, that it is rambling and it is rambling because I was seriously ill, I was on Temazepam. I was suicidal. You know?
That’s why it [the email to Birmingham] was rambling. Simon Birmingham and I used to co-chair the trade board together so I knew him independently of his role as minister for finance and that’s why I sought his help.
He had just been made the head of the Senate, and so I wrote to him and said surely now that you’re minister for finance, minister of trade and head of the enate, you will help me get a resolution and stop what’s happening to me. I honoured everything, Senator Hanson, that they asked me to do. I just asked to be treated with respect.
Updated
This is important - Christine Holgate says she wants her phone records released to the committee - not just her outbound calls, but her inbound ones.
She says she has asked Australia Post for her phone records, and they didn’t give her the inbound calls - so she does not have the records of who was calling her:
There was approximately I think 70 - 80 calls, and I clearly have a got a copy of my emails, I’ve given you the emails, post the time we are talking about [after question time]
He [Lucio Di Bartolomeo, the board chair] said I agreed to stand down just around that time. I have never agreed to stand down. I think it was pretty obvious when the prime minister said if she ‘won’t agree to stand down, she can go.
He was very aware that I hadn’t agreed to stand down. My phone was constantly ringing and I have no problem with this committee seeing my phone records.
Holgate says she has also asked for her call records to Australia Post board member and former Liberal party chair, Tony Nutt, who she said she called 14 times.
Australia Post, in its submission, says Holgate agreed to stand down in a phone call between Holgate and Di Bartolomeo after question time on 22 October.
Holgate says she never spoke to them after question time:
If you look at the timing of the email I wrote to the chair - so I’m somehow on the phone to him writing to him saying I will take annual leave because that’s what Tony Nutt has told me to do, he has told me to write to the chair and formally put in for annual leave which is the phone call right before the one to the chair, it would mean in 33 seconds he got that email, opened it, read it, convinced me that I will be paid and I didn’t need to do that, didn’t need to use up my annual leave and that I agreed to stand down.
I put it to you I’ve never heard so much nonsense in all of my career, that a woman of 35 years of a career in 33 seconds is prepared to do that.
Side note: No local Covid-19 cases in NSW.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 13, 2021
Five new cases were acquired overseas, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,155.
There were 5,510 tests reported to 8pm last night. pic.twitter.com/D88C3yFxio
Bridget McKenzie asks if Christine Holgate would consider coming back to Australia Post:
Senator, I believe that you’re aware I’ve been asked by many people from all political parties about whether I would return to work. And my answer has been very consistent – I love Australia Post. There’s no day that I don’t admire and respect the people, but I cannot work for a chair that lies in the Senate and does not have integrity. The chair would have to go.
One Nation senator Pauline Hanson now has the chair. Christine Holgate has support from almost across the political spectrum – a very rare occurrence in Auspol.
Hanson asks Holgate if she still considers herself to be the chair of Australia Post and Holgate says:
My contract has never been resolved and many people will know that on LinkedIn it still says CEO of Australia Post.
Holgate has signed no deed of release from her contract. She maintains she was “unlawfully” stood down.
Updated
Meanwhile, in yet another committee hearing, Labor’s Julian Hill reached for a constipation metaphor to describe the speed of Australia’s response to the military coup in Myanmar:
There’s a theme through this discussion that you’ve got a lot under consideration, there’s a lot in review, and there’s a lot of internal talking in the bureaucracy – it sounds somewhat constipated shall I say, so I do hope that some of these actions can brought to bear soon and that things unblock.
Updated
One of people giving evidence in this session, along with Christine Holgate, is Angela Cramp, an Australia Post licensee who is giving evidence in a private capacity. She is also wearing white.
Cramp takes a question from Bridget McKenzie about previous gifts which were awarded by former Australia Post chairs and says there was, in her view, no transparency.
Cramp:
It [the bonus information] wasn’t given to the licensees, but we were certainly aware of a lot of excessive expenses. We have often requested information about how many people that were not related to business of Australia Post were taken on a 5-star luxury jaunt to the Olympics in 2008 – 2012, sorry – with [previous chair] Mr Ahmed Fahour. Five-star, first-class.
And it was at, we believe, licensees’ expense, taxpayers’ expense.
Cramp says the treasurer at the time did not raise an eyebrow at that spending.
And who was the treasure back then?
Scott Morrison.
Updated
The CEO of the Australian Retailers Association, Paul Zahra, has responded to the announcement that Menulog will make its food deliverers employees, rather than contractors.
The food delivery company said yesterday in a Senate hearing that it would move away from the controversial independent contractor model used by the gig economy, and aim to have all its couriers become employees within a “few years’ time”.
Zahra today told the same committee he was concerned this would create issues with “flexibility”:
Flexibility is the key issue here ... We are concerned under the Fair Work Commission that that would be problematic,” he said. “We are concerned that many of these organisations may no longer afford on-demand work the same level of flexibility.
The ARA do support the opportunity for work ... [we need to] ensure the flexibility be maintained for employer and employee.
He added:
The gig economy does allow people to supplement their income by taking on extra work. We want to ensure that people can move in and out of workplaces on demand. As opposed to being tied to a contract with fixed employment or minimum hours.
Independent contractors are not guaranteed the same rights as employees such as minimum or award wages and sick and annual leave. However, contractors are not required to work fixed hours.
Zahra also said he did not believe that insecure work was a problem in the retail sector.
Updated
Now back over at the other Senate inquiry:
Nearly 80% of workers in aged care are in “low-hours, part-time” insecure work, a Senate inquiry has heard.
Lloyd Williams, the national secretary of the Health Services Union, told the Senate committee into job security that insecurity is rife in the aged care sector. He said some aged workers were classified as “part time” even if they worked only one or two hours a week.
Williams said this meant even part-time employees were “effectively casualised”.
Part-time employees are employed on extraordinarily low hours – as low as one or two hours a week. There is no minimum in the award. Employees are effectively casualised but called part time.
The only fulltime work is basically in the administration area.
Williams said this creates a “lack of continuity of care”.
Can you imagine what it is like to have a different person to come in to shower you every day?
He also said it made it harder to attract people to the work.
We need to attract and retain literally hundreds of thousands of workers in this sector over the next 10 years.
Those arrangements as we have seen in both the aged care rc and disability rc, those arrangements are leading to poor outcomes for care recipients and poor outcomes for those workers.
Updated
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who has spoken in support of Christine Holgate in the past, now has the question call. She starts her questions by thanking Holgate for turning the Australia Post business around.
There are a lot of Australia Post franchisees in Nationals electorates – those business are very important parts of regional and rural towns. The Bank@Post initiative, which turned a lot of post offices into banks as well, saved many of those licensees in areas McKenzie’s party represents.
McKenzie asks if the Cartier watches was an unusual bonus and whether it was in her authority to gift:
Holgate:
It absolutely was in my authority. There is no question that it wasn’t in my authority. They were rewards for four people.
The chairman was aware.
You’ve seen the card [accompanying the watches] – I’m sure I don’t have to tell everybody. I think it’s been well publicised in many newspapers of the words of both myself and the chair.
It was a moment of great pride in our people. I could have given those – awarded those four people up to $150,000 each as a bonus. I chose not to. I chose to give them a watch.
It was a moment of pride for them and those gifts, rewards, were given on – I can’t remember the date but it is inside my submission so I’m sure you’ve got that date – but it was a moment of celebration in the organisation and they were signed off by the CFO at the time. Fringe benefit tax was in there. They were audited. There was never any question whatsoever from anybody that they were not in any way a breach of any policy.
Updated
Just on that last post, here’s the statement from the stock market index, S&P, on Adani Ports:
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone will be removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices following a Media & Stakeholder Analysis triggered by recent news events pointing to heightened risks to the company regarding their commercial relationship with Myanmar’s military, who are alleged to have committed serious human rights abuses under international law.
The Australian government’s Future Fund will likely come under increasing pressure to divest a $3.2m stake in a flagship Adani company – Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone – which has been removed from the influential Dow Jones sustainability indices over its dealings in Myanmar.
In 2019, Guardian Australia revealed Adani Ports had signed commercial deal with a holding company controlled by the Myanmar armed forces, who had been accused by UN investigators of committing genocide and crimes against humanity.
The deal has been brought back into focus after a military-led coup in the country.
Adani Ports also has a presence in Australia. It is the parent company of the Bowen Rail Company, an Adani entity created to haul coal from its under construction Carmichael coalmine.
Last year, the ABC revealed the Future Fund had invested $3.2m of taxpayers’ money in Adani Ports.
As recently as last month, the fund indicated it had no intention to divest.
But the decision by S&P [market index] to delist Adani Ports from the Dow Jones sustainability indices, effective from Thursday, will ramp up pressure on the government and other institutional investors to divest.
The executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, Rawan Arraf, said:
Investors everywhere should seriously consider the risk of continuing to invest in Adani Ports.
Pablo Brait, from investor action group Market Forces, said companies such as BlackRock, Barclays and JP Morgan should cut ties with Adani “if their claims of corporate responsibility are more than greenwash”.
Updated
Kim Carr is asking about a report, which was not publicly released, which investigated the further privatisation of Australia Post.
Christine Holgate said she was unable to talk about it, even at senate estimates, and when questions began to stray in that direction (mostly around Australia Post losing its parcel delivery service) in previous estimates, the Liberal chair of the committee stopped those questions. Holgate says she was against the plan and it was worse than Carr knew:
I know you will appreciate this and I apologise that I was never able to speak up before, because I do appreciate you’ve asked me many times. But we are silenced. We are told very clearly that we are not allowed to speak in it.
I think even at the last Senate hearing on March 23, when several people round this table asked questions, the Senator, Senator [Jane] Hume, who was sitting here, stopped those questions, and stopped Australia Post being able to answer them.
I believe this is an important review, we should stop having secret reviews. Australia Post is an asset for all Australians.
Senator, I actually think the implications are worse than what you think, if you don’t mind.
It talks about 190 post offices to close. You see, there are 4,327 post offices or postal points. Of those, approximately 725 of them are what we would call ... Australia Post own them.
They are predominantly metro, so the 100 and something you are referring to are the ones that Australia Post own.
Then, if you step back from that, there are approximately 3,600 which belong to mums and dads just like Angela [another witness at the senate inquiry] people who, on average, invest $1m to take a post office licence.
They can’t force their closure so easily but if they take away their services, those people will go bankrupt and I’m sure the reason why the post offices have campaigned so passionately behind me is because they know it’s not just about Bank at Post, it’s about them remaining viable and being able to pay their debts, so those numbers are not inside this submission because if the government makes arbitrary decisions that impact the community post offices, they do not have to deal with the debt. The mums and dads do.
Updated
Second case of possibly AstraZeneca-related blood clots recorded
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has released a safety alert announcing the second case of blood clots believed to be related to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
This affected a woman in her 40s who was vaccinated in Western Australia. It was not a fatal clotting episode and she remains in a stable condition in hospital.
The rare but potentially deadly blood clot syndrome resulted in the AstraZeneca vaccine being no longer recommended for people under 50, throwing the Australian rollout into disarray.
The TGA said:
The vaccine safety investigation group (VSIG), a panel of expert advisers to the TGA, met yesterday evening and has concluded that a recently reported case of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia is likely to be linked to vaccination. This is the second Australian report of a case of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia following the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
The panel concluded that the case is similar to cases seen in Europe and the United Kingdom of a rare clotting disorder, referred to as ‘thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome’.
There have been about 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine administered in Australia to date, so while numbers are small, two cases ... equates to a frequency of 1 in 350,000.
The UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, has concluded from its review of cases reported in the UK that the overall risk of these rare blood clots was approximately 1 in 250,000 who receive the vaccine.
The TGA has asked people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine to be on the lookout for symptoms including:
- severe or persistent headache or blurred vision
- shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling or persistent abdominal pain
- unusual skin bruising and/or pinpoint round spots beyond the site of injection.
Updated
Christine Holgate is handling this Senate inquiry as a woman with nothing left to lose. She says she was deliberately silenced and isolated, and was unable to defend herself following the October 2020 Senate committee, which led to the events this Senate committee is now discussing.
Asked by Labor’s Kim Carr whether she believes her treatment was because of gender and what role politics played, Holgate says:
Senator, it’s a very hard question for me to answer and you probably have a view than me, on the latter one at least – but I think it would be fair to say I’ve never seen a media article comment about a male politician’s watch and yet I was depicted as a prostitute for making those comments, humiliated.
I have never seen any male public servant depicted in that way. So do I believe it’s partially a gender issue? You’re absolutely right I do.
But do I believe the real problem here is bullying and harassment and abuse of power? You’re absolutely right I do.
Updated
Christine Holgate is wearing suffragette white – women in the firing line have taken to wearing the colour as a statement.
She takes her first questions from a Liberal senator – David Van – who asks her about her comments in the senate inquiry last year, when she said she wasn’t spending taxpayer funds as Australia Post was a commercial organisation when she awarded the Cartier watches as bonuses. Holgate says she has already apologised for those comments and hands Van a verbal smackdown.
Van:
Putting aside your evidence that you were within your rights to reward those watches, do you understand now what caused offence in this place – and I was in this chamber, on this committee, on the night that those questions were put to you by Senator Kitching, do you understand that that statement caused the offence?
Holgate:
Senator Van, I really hope you are not saying to me that I was hung in parliament, humiliated – not just hung, but run over by a bus and reversed again – because after four hours of a Senate process I may have made a wrong comment? When it would be perfectly OK to abuse women and that would be acceptable ...
Van:
I think you’re conflating a number of issues there. Just to be clear, you don’t stand by that statement any longer?
Holgate:
I have already apologised for this statement.
Updated
Christine Holgate is being questioned by the chair of this committee, Sarah Hanson-Young, about why she thinks the prime minister said what he did. Hanson-Young asks if it was over the further privatisation of Australia Post.
Holgate:
I don’t know why the prime minister took the action he did. I’m putting to you today I was unlawfully stood down and my contract got repudiated. I’ve only ever asked for respect. And I have never been allowed it. So, maybe I answer that slightly differently. I don’t know why the prime minister did what he did. But I was unlawfully stood down, I believe, because he instructed it to do so.
Does Holgate believe she was treated differently?
Holgate:
I absolutely do, Senator. No one afforded me the opportunity. The chair spoke to me briefly twice. I am told the prime minister was not briefed properly. I still do not believe that really allows those actions to take place. allows those actions to take place.
You would have hoped–- I don’t just lead Australia Post, I co-chair the trade board for this country with one of his ministers. You would have hoped I may have been deserved the opportunity for either the minister or the prime minister to speak to me. Neither did. The prime minister has never spoken to me and I am sure his team has looked through comprehensively the evidence I provided to the Senate.
Updated
Holgate accuses Australia Post chairman of 'lying to the Australian people'
Holgate has turned her attention to Australia Post chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo, accusing him of fabrication and lying.
Suffice to say if it was not for this committee, [the] Australia Post chairman would likely have succeeded in getting away with lying to the Australian people, to their Senate, to the employees and partners of Australia Post, not least would he have ever been held to account for the bullying of myself.
My evidence is backed up by hard facts, written proof. It is undeniably independent witnesses, it is veritable. In contrast, the evidence of the chairman of Australia Post is fabricated. He fabricated the agreement by myself to stand down and he continues to do so today. I believe he did so to save his own position from political peril and because it amounted he would never be called to account for his actions.
He has also lied about very important matters relating to the future of Australia Post. This must not be allowed to stand.
Updated
Christine Holgate says she was 'bullied' out of her job
Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate is at the Senate inquiry now and is not holding back in her opening statement, swearing the men involved in her dismissal will be “held to account”.
I do not want what happened to me to happen to any individual ever again in any workplace. I have only ever wanted what was best for Australia Post and its people. I have passionately wanted to help the organisation grow and to support the communities of Australia to thrive.
Yet I lost my job, a job that I loved, because I was humiliated by our prime minister for committing no offence and then bullied by my chairman. Lucho unlawfully stood me down under public direction of the prime minister. This made my leadership at Australia Post untenable and seriously threatened my health.
I have done no wrong. Their bullying of me was far from over. I was subjected to a biased investigation and intimidated with constant threats of further allegations and criticism. Throughout this time, my health had deteriorated to the point where I could not find my voice to fight back. This is a day the chairman of Australia Post and the other men involved in what happened to me will be held to account.
Here is a bit of background on the situation from Amy Remeikis:
Holgate resigned from Australia Post on 1 November, 10 days after a Senate estimates hearing revealed she had used company funds to purchase four Cartier watches as a thank-you for senior executives involved in the Bank@Post project – an initiative franchisees have credited with saving their businesses.
The designer watches, worth $20,000 in total, had been awarded as bonuses two years before the October 2020 Senate estimates hearing. There were immediate calls for an investigation into the gifts and Scott Morrison castigated Holgate, telling the parliament if Holgate did not “wish [to stand aside] she can go” that same day.
She has since, in a submission to the Senate, disputed she ever voluntarily stood aside from her role, and alleged the Australia Post chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, unlawfully stood her down and “lied repeatedly to the Australian people” and misled parliament by stating she had done so voluntarily.
Updated
Environment group the Humane Society International has nominated the spectacled flying fox for a critically endangered listing under Australia’s environmental laws due to what they say are “catastrophic” drops in population numbers in recent years.
The bat is found in northern Queensland and is an important pollinator in rainforests in the wet tropics.
It was listed as endangered, up from vulnerable in 2019, after a long delay by the federal government to act on declines in spectacled flying fox numbers.
But the HSI says the most recent population figures, combined with climate change projections, mean that listing is already out of date.
In the summer of 2018/2019, just before the government acted on the recommendation to list the species as endangered, a third of the spectacled flying fox’s population was wiped out by a heatwave.
Evan Quartermain, the HSI’s Australian head of programs, said:
Even though the spectacled flying-fox endangered listing was made after the shocking Cairns heat stress event, it was actually a delayed decision and didn’t reflect the catastrophic losses the species experienced.
We now have a clearer picture of the event’s consequences and there’s no question an uplisting to critically endangered is appropriate and necessary.
Flying-foxes struggle to regulate their temperatures in extreme heat, with heat waves exceeding 42 degrees often proving fatal for the animals.
Extreme heat events are predicted to increase in frequency and intensity across their habitat in the wet tropics.
Quartermain said the spectacled flying fox was at the point where major investment was needed to restore and protect its habitat.
He said it was alarming that in a 20-year period under Australian law the species had moved from being considered non-threatened to vulnerable to endangered with a case now being put forward for a critically endangered listing.
We cannot delay further protections any longer or we will be witnessing the end of a keystone species.
Updated
Government officials have pushed back at criticism that Australia hasn’t moved as quickly or strongly as other countries in responding to the military coup in Myanmar, where hundreds of civilians have been killed by security forces.
The Australian government is considering whether to expand targeted sanctions over the developments in Myanmar, but has not given a timeframe for such a decision. Labor has also called for visa holders currently in Australia to have their visas extended so they are not forced to return to danger.
At a parliamentary hearing this morning, the Greens senator Janet Rice asked the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about criticism that Australia had not been “quick off the mark” and had not gone as far in its response as other countries such as the UK, the US and EU countries.
Ridwaan Jadwat, who is in charge of Dfat’s south-east Asia division, replied:
I think that’s a misrepresentation of how Australia has responded.
Jadwat said the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, had made a statement on 1 February, the day of the coup, making clear Australia’s deep concerns – so the government was “straight out of the gates on that”.
He said Australia had signed up to a joint statement of concern a few days earlier based on reports the military was contesting election results. He said Payne had since made over 20 phone calls on the matter. The government had “called in” Myanmar’s ambassador to Australia about eight times and had suspended defence cooperation and redirected foreign aid.
Jadwat instead characterised the response as “active, engaged and sustained diplomacy”.
We are considering our sanctions regimes … and that is something the minister is looking at very carefully … I think we’re doing as much as we can right now … I think you will see more in coming weeks and months.
Asked whether Australia was looking at applying sanctions to the family members of military figures, Jadwat said he would not speculate on who might be subject to such measures, but he wanted to make it clear that “nothing is off the table”.
Updated
Chief health officer Jeannette Young has confrimed the man who died of Covid-19 was in hotel quarantine, travelling from the Philippines via Papua New Guinea.
Young says he very likely contracted the disease in the Philippines and there is no risk to the Australian community from this case and all his flight-mates went into two-week quarantine.
But, if I remember correctly, as he was diagnosed in Australia that means his death will be added to the official death tolls.
Updated
Man dies from Covid-19 in Queensland
Queensland recorded only two cases, both in hotel quarantine.
However, a man in his 80s has died of Covid-19 in the state.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young is giving details now:
He tested positive on 25 March, was admitted to the Prince Charles hospital for care, and then passed away late yesterday.
Updated
The Queensland health minister is holding a press conference now:
COVID-19 Update: Queensland Health Minister and Chief Health Officer @YvetteDAth speaking in Brisbane. #covid19 https://t.co/PzgPojJiu5
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 13, 2021
I can’t stop laughing at this photo:
The new Upper Hunter Vallley candidate Jeff Drayton (the subject of the tweet) can barely be seen, isn’t looking at the camera and is behind opposition leader Jodi McKay.
This has huge Kanye West energy, and honestly, I’m here for it.
Delighted to announce Jeff Drayton as Labor’s candidate for the Upper Hunter by-election. #nswpol pic.twitter.com/GUq2BJcsFj
— Jodi McKay (@JodiMcKayMP) April 13, 2021
Updated
Amazon’s Australian warehouses hired only labour hire casuals – and no permanent new staff – even as it made “tremendous” profits during Covid-19, the retail union has said.
A Senate hearing into job security has been told that insecure work and low-wage work is rising in Australia.
Gerard Dwyer, the national secretary and treasurer of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), used the multinational giant Amazon as an example. In October, the company revealed it had tripled its profits during the pandemic.
Amazon had a tremendously profitable Covid.
But their four sites in Australia saw the number of employees by labour hire increase.
Dwyer said that labour hire casuals were paid the lower award rate, rather than a higher site rate. He said that when Amazon first started in Australia, all floor staff were labour hire casuals.
After pressure from unions, the company committed to 1,500 direct employees across the initial two sites. Now, across four sites, “we are not aware of that figure being altered”, he said.
With the onset of Covid and the growth in sales, the additional jobs created since then have all been labour hire casuals ... their track record of providing secure employment has not been satisfactory.
Updated
Hmmmm, usually we would have has the Queensland Covid-19 numbers by now. I’ll do some digging and check if we have a press conference coming up from premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today.
New South Wales haven’t released them either but that’s pretty normal as they usually publish at 11am.
Updated
Confused about this whole blood-clotting AstraZeneca situation? You certainly aren’t alone.
But luckily medical editor Melissa Davey has written an explainer to answer all your most pressing questions about this extremely rare vaccine side effect called “thrombosis with thrombocytopenia”.
Here is the first of many answers she provides:
What do we know about this syndrome?
Platelets are cells that usually help to stop bleeding by clumping together to form a blood clot. In AstraZeneca vaccine recipients affected by this rare clotting syndrome, the number of platelets drops. A unique immune system reaction occurs involving the remaining platelets and white blood cells, and it is this reaction that makes the blood more clumpy, leading to clotting.
The condition is very similar to another relatively rare but serious clotting condition caused by the use of a blood thinner called heparin. In both heparin use and administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the rare clotting disorder appears within two weeks, usually between day four and 20.
In those affected after being given heparin, the immune system makes antibodies to a complex of heparin and a protein called “platelet factor 4”, triggering this dangerous clotting. Those affected by the syndrome after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine also have the same complex, with antibodies to platelet factor 4 in their plasma.
You can read the full explainer below:
Updated
Littleproud said this was an unprecedented natural disaster event. (Hmmm, sounds an awful lot like climate change if you ask me).
You’ve got to understand the significant event that this cyclone posed to Western Australia. In fact, the Bureau of Meteorology has been unable to find in their records a cyclone that has crossed the coast so far south in Western Australia.
So many of those communities were not prepared for the extent of a Category 3 cyclone that was impacting their communities. So obviously, this is an extreme event that those communities have had to endure.
I’ve also reached out this morning to the insurance industry as a result of that because we’re concerned about the extent of insurance cover in those communities considering how far south they are, and we want clarity from the insurance industry about their support and their contractual arrangements with those policyholders, being household and small businesses.
So can I say that the federal government is working as close as we can – not only with the Western Australian government but with industry, to make sure that whatever support is required is provided.
Updated
Emergency services minister David Littlerproud is speaking now about the damage caused by a tropical cyclone in Western Australia:
On behalf of the Australian government, [we have] sent over a C-130 with aerial medical support team to be able to be on the ground to support those communities there. We have an Australian Defence Force liaison officer also in the crisis centre working out whether there is further support that is required by the Australian government.
But Joe and his team have also brought together the Fire and Emergency Service commissioners from around the country. And as a result of that, we have coordinated 40 personnel from around the country to go in and support Western Australia. And there will probably be further requests required in the coming day, and we expect to work with the West Australian government in understanding what that need may be.
Littleproud said the disaster recovery payment would be available to those impacted:
[That’s] $1,000 per adult and $400 per child. And [there is a] joint support payment with the West Australian government that would be $200 per individual and $800 per family in addition to that as well.
So that’s just initial support and we give a strong commitment that whatever it takes, the federal government will be there with those residents that have been impacted in Western Australia.
Updated
Important international update:
Beluga whale playing fetch near the north pole.#Tiredearth pic.twitter.com/g80MPumh8u
— Rebecca Herbert (@RebeccaH2030) April 12, 2021
An ANZAC day updates from Victoria:
Opposition spokesman for veteran affairs Tim Bull says he’s disappointed there’s a restriction of 1400 people at the ANZAC Day dawn service. “Two hours later and less than two kilometers away, we have 75,000 football fans gathering,” he says. pic.twitter.com/5Bi1wHbx0W
— Benita Kolovos 🐯 (@benitakolovos) April 12, 2021
That happened at the same press conference as this annoucment:
The Victorian Opposition announcing their support for a Royal Commission into veterans suicide @abcmelbourne #springst pic.twitter.com/sSWNTeX3OA
— Bridget Rollason (@bridgerollo) April 12, 2021
Updated
Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate to front inquiry today
Former Australia Post boss Christine Holgate is set to face questions about her bitterly contested departure from the organisation at a much-anticipated inquiry, reports AAP.
Australia Post chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo will also appear before the hearing after Holgate levelled scathing accusations against him over the handling of her departure.
Holgate resigned late last year after it was revealed four Australia Post executives were gifted luxury watches for sealing a lucrative deal.
She has attacked Di Bartolomeo in a blistering submission to a Senate inquiry, accusing him of lying to parliament and humiliating her.
The Morrison government’s decision to announce the appointment of new chief executive Paul Graham, who was Woolworths supply chain boss, on the eve of the hearing, has come under heavy fire.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said she is deeply unimpressed with the timing of the appointment, describing Holgate’s treatment as a tragedy.
She said the former postal boss was critical to ensuring the financial stability of rural and regional post offices.
Committee chair and Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the appointment sought to undermine the inquiry.
Hanson-Young said it was shameful a new CEO was appointed the day before Holgate airs her allegations and that she was thrown under the bus and humiliated.
One must also question whether this is a case of jobs for the boys, given all the evidence pointing to one set of rules for the boys’ club and another for women in politics.
Even One Nation leader Pauline Hanson published an excoriating statement, saying the timing was an unmistakable contempt of the process.
The announcement of a new Australia Post chief executive and managing director ... shows absolute arrogance on behalf of the prime minister and two of his most senior ministers ...
Scott Morrison is attempting to deliberately destabilise witnesses ahead of the Senate inquiry.
An alliance of local post offices calling for Holgate to be reinstated is also set to give evidence.
Updated
The Morrison government faces fresh calls to allow more than 3,000 Myanmarese citizens to stay in Australia once their visas expire, amid fears about the dangers they face if forced to return home.
With more than 600 civilians now estimated to have been killed in violent crackdowns by security forces since the 1 February military coup, Labor has written to Australian ministers to demand help for temporary visa holders and the expansion of sanctions against junta figures.
“No one should be involuntarily deported to Myanmar if they don’t want to go back,” the opposition’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, and her home affairs colleague, Kristina Keneally, said in the letter to the government.
There were 3,366 visa holders from Myanmar in Australia at the end of February, government figures show. They included 1,680 students and 612 bridging visa holders.
You can read the full report below:
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ABC News Breakfast host Madeleine Morris asked Butler about the somewhat confusing vaccine numbers Greg Hunt announced last night.
Morris:
Going back to that Greg Hunt interview last night, he made clear we had received 3.7m doses of vaccine in total, yet we’ve only rolled out 1.2m doses.
Now, he said that’s because of a clearance and release process. Is that process clear to you, about why it takes this period of time, and why effectively we’ve only rolled out a third of the vaccines that we currently have in this country?
Butler:
No, it’s not clear. What is clear is that there are about 2.3m or 2.4m doses that have been cleared and batch-approved by the TGA for many, many days. It’s not clear to anyone, I don’t think – certainly not to me – why those are not in people’s arms already.
There is another million or more that have been produced by CSL in Melbourne and ready for batch approval that have been sitting there for some time not approved.
So, again, we just need clearer answers from the minister and the prime minister than we are getting.
One million is simply not enough doses. The Americans are up to almost 190m compared to our 1 million. The UK, 40m. 60% of their adult population vaccinated. They’re in a very strong position to deal with the possibility of mutations or variants to this virus, needing booster shots later this year. And their economy, their jobs, will recover much more quickly...
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Butler is now having a go at the prime minister for using Facebook to communicate vaccine messages with the public, which, honestly feels a bit rich given how many TikTok pages the Labor party is running nowadays:
We’ve got a prime minister that’s retreated to Facebook and a minister who’s making announcements through a spokesperson without clear background information ...
This is a critical juncture the nation faces at the moment. We’ve got a vaccine rollout that’s run off the rails and the prime minister needs to come clean with Australians about what the new plan is, what the new timelines and targets are.
Business groups, the Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Industry Group, have made it clear this morning that the strength of our economic recovery depends on a clear plan that has clear milestones, clear targets. Without that, business simply won’t be able to plan the future.
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Opposition federal health minister Mark Butler has come out this morning to have a dig at Greg Hunt over the news that Australia will not be looking to purchase the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine that is all the rage in the US right now, because it’s pretty similar to AstraZeneca.
The news broke after ABC published a response from a government spokesperson, presumably in response to a question posed to the health minister’s office. Butler says this isn’t good enough. (No surprises there):
It’s simply not good enough for Australians to receive this information from the minister’s spokesperson without any background explanation.
We have been making the point now for some time Australia needs more vaccine options on the table. Most other countries have been looking at five or six vaccines. The UK, for example, has seven deals. And so with this very important vaccine that’s rolling out through the US, will start to roll out through the United Kingdom very soon, if there is a decision not to go with it, what are the reasons for that?
And I think this is the problem Australians and Australian businesses are having right now – the communication channels from the government have shut down.
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Victoria records no new Covid cases
No Covid-19 cases in Victoria overnight! But only 2,426 vaccines. This is lower than usua.
Yesterday there were no new cases reported.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 12, 2021
- 2,426 vaccine doses were administered
- 10,338 test results were received
Got symptoms? Get tested.
More later: https://t.co/0xmnS4N9DN#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/zohPmDYrss
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30,000 buildings still without power in Western Australia after cyclone
In Western Australia today the name of the game is “clean up”, after Tropical Cyclone Serjoa destroyed potentially hundreds of properties.
No deaths or major injuries have been recorded so far after the cyclone tore across WA’s mid-west coast on Sunday night, but the tourist town of Kalbarri’s infrastructure took a serious hit.
Craig Waters from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services gave an update on ABC News Breakfast just before:
Kalbarri in particular has been extensively damaged. And we’ve obviously got a massive clean-up operation going over the next few days in particular, but this is gonna be going on for some time into the future until it’s fully cleaned up, and obviously restoration of the damage to the properties in that are a...
Our main priority going forward in the next couple of days is the restoration of critical electrical infrastructure and power supplies back into the affected area.
And then obviously the assisting the community to get back to some level of normality, notwithstanding the significant construction that’s going to need to be undertaken to replace some of the buildings in the area....
Waters said there was still around 30,000 buildings without power:
Our rapid damage assessment teams are continuing to do assessments of all the buildings. We’ve done around three-quarters of the buildings in Kalbarri and Northampton at this stage, but there’s still a lot of work to do. And that work will go on into next week.
Premier Mark McGowan will on Tuesday visit Kalbarri, where up to 70% of properties are thought to have been damaged.
About 40% of those properties are believed to have sustained major damage including total loss.
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Some more from Shorten:
Well, the reality is that if we become a backwater from the rest of the world and we drop off the pace, there will be a price to pay for it.
Now, for a lot of people who don’t have to worry about dealing with the rest of the world though and there is no outbreak either, some might say what’s the problem?
The problem is we were promised that we would be doing better than we are, the problem is that we do need tourists to help fuel our economy. We do need international students. We do need international students. We do need our people to be able to go overseas.
The problem is that this has now wrecked the confidence in the vaccine program. This is the other unspoken story. It’s not just the economy.
But a lot of people are saying well, “if there’s a problem with one vaccine or if there’s a cloud over it, maybe I just shouldn’t get vaccinated at all”. That has really undermined the whole process.
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Australia 'held hostage' by 'botched' Covid vaccine rollout, says Shorten
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten says Australians are being “held hostage” by the vaccine rollout.
The opposition frontbencher spoke to the Today show this morning:
It’s a very bad week for timelines for Australians. The reality is that Australians are being held hostage to a botched vaccine rollout.
I mean, people were hoping that the vaccines were a path or a ticket back to normal. But now we find out that travel might not be a thing until 2024.
And it’s really, I think, undermined the confidence of a lot of Australians, especially younger ones, in the vaccine program full stop. It’s very bad news.
Australians are being held hostage by a botched vaccine rollout. The Morrison Government must restore confidence and vaccinate our frontline workers. #auspol pic.twitter.com/ENR8BZOCUc
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) April 12, 2021
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OK, this is international news, but I think you will agree that it’s in the public’s best interest to know.
A rabbit proclaimed the biggest in the world has been stolen from its home in Worcestershire in the West Midlands region of England, police have said.
West Mercia police believe the 129cm-long continental giant rabbit, named Darius, was taken from its enclosure in the garden of the property in Stoulton overnight on Saturday.
The rabbit was awarded a Guinness World Record in 2010 for being the biggest of its kind.
His owner Annette Edwards has offered a £1,000 reward for his return, saying it was a “very sad day”.
Edwards pleaded on Twitter for those who took Darius to “please bring him back”, saying he is “too old to breed now”.
You can read the full story, and see more photos of this very chunky rabbit below:
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Bushfire warnings for South Australia
A burst of warm and windy weather rushing towards South Australia today has prompted severe bushfire warnings in nine districts, including the Adelaide Hills.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Seroja will be captured by a cold front moving across the state from the west. This could bring gusts of up to 90km/h for a short time on Tuesday, stirring up a huge amount of dust and raising temperatures to the mid 30’s.
The Country Fire Service says these hot, dry and windy conditions has put nine districts a significant risk, include the west coast, the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas, Kangaroo Island, the Adelaide Hills and the south-east, where total fire bans are in place.
The lack of rain in recent weeks has left Adelaide’s reservoir supplies at 48% of capacity, compared with 41% at the same time last year, and the Kangaroo Creek and Little Para catchments are the driest at just 23% and 29%.
Elevated fire dangers for SA on Tuesday, due to warm, dry & windy conditions ahead of a gusty change. Severe fire danger for 7 districts, including #MountLoftyRanges. Extreme fire danger for #YorkePeninsula & #LowerEyrePeninsula. Be prepared, stay fire aware @CFSAlerts @CFSTalk pic.twitter.com/Gm9TTx87Cv
— Bureau of Meteorology, South Australia (@BOM_SA) April 12, 2021
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Former coalminer chosen as NSW Labor's byelection candidate
NSW Labor is expected to name a former coalminer and union boss as its candidate in the Upper Hunter Valley byelection as a new poll shows most voters in the area back a moratorium on coalmines.
The ALP has never held this key regional seat, but it is hoping to change this with opposition leader Jodi McKay formally naming their candidate, Jeff Drayton, this morning.
The former coalminer and CFMEU mining and energy district vice president will fight for votes in a three-way between the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party’s Sue Gilroy, and the Nationals’ David Layzell.
The byelection was sparked by Nationals MP Michael Johnsen’s resignation on 31 March after he was accused of raping a woman in 2019, which he denies.
But the Nationals still hope to re-win the seat – which the party holds by a small 2.6% margin – to preserve the Coalition government’s one-seat parliamentary majority.
One Nation is also expected to contest the byelection but their candidate has yet to be announced.
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If you want to know more about Laming situation, Guardian Australia chief political correspondent Sarah Martin, has you covered:
The Liberal National party in Queensland has blocked Andrew Laming from recontesting his seat at the next federal election after he backflipped on his decision to quit parliament.
Laming faced the state executive on Monday night after he met with the party’s applicant review committee earlier in the day. The ARC decided not to endorse him for preselection and the state executive accepted that recommendation.
The party has also agreed to reopen nominations for the safe Liberal seat, paving the way for a contest between barrister Maggie Forrest, LNP small business committee chair Fran Ward and former state candidate Henry Pike.
A statement from the LNP said the state executive had “accepted the ARC’s recommendation that Dr Laming not proceed as a candidate”.
You can read Sarah’s full report below:
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WA authorities treating international shipping crew member with Covid
Western Australia is already grappling with the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Seroja, but now state health authorities are on high alert after an international crew member was diagnosed with Covid-19 off the waters of Karratha.
The infected man, aged in his 50s, is a crew member on Aquagenie bulk carrier vessel, which is currently sitting in Australian national waters.
Yesterday the Western Australian premier McGowan said the man became unwell last Thursday and returned a positive rapid Covid-19 test.
He was brought to shore on Sunday and Karratha Health Campus, where he returned a positive PRC test and was expected to be flown to Perth for treatment.
McGowan said all possible safety precautions are being taken.
Only a small number of specialist staff are involved in the patient’s care, and continue to adhere to Covid-safe protocol at all times.
... Last night the crew member arrived at the Karratha health campus via ambulance … his diagnosis of Covid-19 was confirmed with a positive rapid PCR test.
I was advised that all personnel involved in the retrieval wore full PPE.
It’s unclear how many other members of the crew may be infected, but as the boat is in commonwealth waters Australia will be coordinating the health response, McGowan confirmed. However, the ship has been ordered not to berth at the port.
We’ve advised the captain of the Aquagenie to remain in commonwealth waters; our expectation is the ship will leave.
This situation is very serious – I’m advised health authorities are taking all precautions to manage the risk.
It’s a timely reminder that Covid-19 remains a very real threat.
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Good morning all, I’m Matilda Boseley and why don’t we kick off the cold Tuesday morning. (It’s cold in Melbourne, I’m just assuming it’s cold everywhere else too.)
This morning it looks like the single-dose Janssen Covid vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson won’t be part of Australia’s rollout, with the government confirming they will not be purchasing doses to help supplement the shortfall of vaccines created by AstraZeneca no longer being recommended for under 50s.
This is due to the similarity between the two vaccines, the office of health minister Greg told Guardian Australia.
The Janssen vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine, the same type of vaccine as the AstraZeneca vaccine ...
The government does not intend to purchase any further adenovirus vaccines at this time.
There has also been another update in the never-ending Andrew Laming saga, after the disgraced Liberal MP backflipped on his decision to quit parliament, only to be immediately blocked the state party executive.
The 54 federal MP is under investigation by the electoral commission over more than 30 Facebook pages operated without political authorisation disclosures. He has also been accused of – and has admitted to – harassing two female constituents and was ordered to go on leave and undergo empathy training at the request of prime minister Scott Morrison.
After the first of these scandals broke, Laming promised he would not contest the next election, and his act of contrition was used by senior federal politicians to justify not removing him from the Liberal party – a move that would plunge the government into a minority.
But on Monday night Laming faced the Queensland Liberal party’s application review committee after declining to withdraw his nomination for preselection for his safe seat of Bowman, which he has held for 17 years.
The applicant review committee (ARC) decided not to endorse him for preselection and the state executive accepted that recommendation. A statement from the LNP said the state executive had “accepted the ARC’s recommendation that Dr Laming not proceed as a candidate”.
But I don’t know, I reckon like two more weeks of empathy training will fix it, don’t you?
OK, that should get us started for today. Why don’t we jump into the news!
If there is something you think I’ve missed or that should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or email me at matilda.boseley@theguardian.com.
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