Good morning, this is Imogen Dewey bringing you the news on Friday 29 January, as a Senate inquiry into Australia’s handling of the pandemic continues, and Europe wrestles with questions over coronavirus vaccines.
German authorities have advised that the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab should not be given to those aged 65 or above, citing a lack of data – a decision which will no doubt raise questions about Australia’s vaccine rollout plan. With Australia relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine for the bulk of its doses, the country’s vaccine advisory body said it was too early to say whether they’ll put age limits on who receives it here. The UK maintains the vaccine produces a good immune response in all ages.
The biotechnology company set to manufacture 50m Covid-19 vaccines in Australia, CSL, was a no-show at a parliamentary inquiry yesterday, saying it was too busy to explain its role in the $1.7bn AstraZeneca supply deal. That prompted independent senator Rex Patrick to accuse it of behaving “improperly” by not submitting to scrutiny. Australia’s peak doctors body also told the inquiry that the Christmas Covid outbreak was a result of governments prioritising reopening the economy over people’s health, and said the Avalon cluster came as no surprise. The inquiry was also warned the government might not meet its target of 4m vaccinations by the end of March due to supply disruptions – but representatives from Pfizer and AstraZeneca told the committee they were on track to deliver the first shots by late next month – and vaccine hubs in Sydney have already been revealed.
The federal government has promised to change “ridiculous” rules that were forcing parent visa applicants on dangerous trips overseas in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Liberal MP Andrew Laming has suggested overhauling hotel quarantine with resort stays, but medical experts say it’s too early to know if the vaccines will allow measures to be eased. Australia yesterday announced the trans-Tasman travel bubble pause would be extended until Sunday after New Zealand recorded two additional cases of the variant linked to the Pullman hotel in Auckland, where it is suspected the highly infectious South African strain of coronavirus has spread. A dozen people who stayed at the hotel travelled on to Australia, authorities revealed.
Australia
Victoria’s peak organisation for women’s health, equality and violence prevention says Australia has fallen behind in gender equality thanks to a succession of “gender ignorant” federal treasurers.
Yesterday’s Labor reshuffle tells us Anthony Albanese knows he has a fight on his hands, writes Katharine Murphy, and not just against Scott Morrison.
The national crime watchdog has been asked to investigate suspicious betting on the 2021 Australian of the Year awards. Some 180 people reportedly knew of the winner before the announcement and had signed non-disclosure agreements.
A man has escaped with minor injuries after reportedly prising the jaws of a crocodile off his head during an attack in far-north Queensland.
The world
Shares in the GameStop video game company at the centre of small investors’ gathering assault on Wall Street have plunged 60%, after the amateur trading platform Robinhood barred users from investing in stocks including GameStop’s.
The Facebook board shortly set to rule on Trump’s ban has reversed four content removal cases, including content on Covid misinformation and hate speech.
The UK has been urged to end its “unlawful occupation” of the Chagos Islands, after Britain’s claim to sovereignty over the strategically important islands was comprehensively rejected by a UN court in favour of Mauritius.
Alexei Navalny’s release bid has failed and senior aides have been charged over protests in Moscow. The Kremlin critic will remain in jail until a parole hearing next week, and could be sent to a penal colony.
Recommended reads
This bucolic animal shelter in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges might be what you once imagined on being informed a beloved pet had “gone to the farm”. James Shackell visits Edgar’s Mission in Lancefield to investigate one of their more unusual programs: reading to animals. “I settle down inside a corrugated shed and pull out my copy of Roald Dahl’s Going Solo. ‘I’m not sure if you’ve read this before,’ I say, slightly self-conscious, ‘but it’s always been one of my favourites’. Lady Samantha gives me an inscrutable sheep stare.”
“When I was growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s, we didn’t have the word ‘grooming’,” writes Gemma Carey, a survivor of child sexual grooming and abuse. “It took me 20 years to really understand that what had happened to me wasn’t my fault.” Australian of the Year Grace Tame reminded us this week that talking of abuse openly can help victims to place blame where it belongs – as Carey says: “Difficult, confronting, stories need to be told. If they are not, we fail to break the cultures of silence and shame that surround these actions, these acts of violence.”
A former speechwriter’s first novel aims to provoke but its easy parodies are unlikely to elicit more than a shrug, writes Beejay Silcox. Australian politics may be “over-ripe for literary skewering” but doesn’t get one in this book, which its reviewer calls “less a skewer than a comedic sledgehammer”. All the same, Martin McKenzie-Murray’s The Speechwriter has a quiet ace up its sleeve.
Listen
Why Brazilians are taking the Covid crisis into their own hands: In today’s episode of Full Story, Tom Phillips, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, looks at the surge of infections in the Brazilian state of Amazonas that has left many hospitals without the most basic supplies and has prompted yet more protests against president Jair Bolsonaro.
Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.
Sport
Collingwood drew first blood in the AFLW season with a hard-fought, if a little unexpected, win over a side fancied by many to go all the way in 2021. Here’s how it played out.
The same day, the AFL issued new guidelines around head trauma, with players now to be sidelined for at least 12 days if they suffer a concussion. It’s a doubling of the mandated recovery time, amid an increasingly high-profile conversation over the impact of concussion on athletes.
Media roundup
Some employers have signed up jailed criminals, people living outside Australia and even the dead to receive $1,500-a-fortnight jobkeeper payments, the ABC reports. According to the Australian, Canada and Russia want to step in on Australia’s WTO dispute with China, citing concerns over “the legal and global trade impacts” of Beijing’s tariffs on our barley exports. And the AFR reports that Japan is now urging Australia to boost its presence in the East China Sea amid increasing incursions by Chinese vessels and aircraft into Japanese and Taiwanese territory.
Coming up
A parliamentary inquiry is putting independent MP Zali Steggall’s climate change bill under the microscope.
And if you’ve read this far …
Think about dropping by your local Vinnies, like this Canberra academic who stumbled on a $2,125 pair of Manolo Blahniks while shopping for a replacement for her Hush Puppies. And not just any fancy pair, but a style made famous by Sex and the City – now at the centre of swirling rumours about their previous owner.
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