Empty car belonging to Adele Morrison, 78, was pulled from swollen river in March during torrential rain on mid-north coast
A body believed to be an elderly New South Wales woman whose empty car was pulled from flood waters has been found washed up on a riverbank.
Adele Morrison, 78, was last seen at a shopping centre in Gloucester after leaving home in Port Macquarie on 16 March, as a one-in-100-year flood event began on the mid-north NSW coast.
Continue reading...Australia’s bushfires were devastating for bee populations. But steady rain and community efforts are seeing the return of the pollinators
You could say that Adrian Iodice is something of a stickybeak neighbour. On Iodice’s once-lush bushland property, nestled within the Bega Valley of New South Wales, there stands a majestic rough-barked apple tree that the beekeeper used to, every now and then, jam his head into.
In the hollow of the trunk lived a flourishing wild colony of European honeybees that Iodice had been keeping an eye on for years. “I’d have a chat with them,” he laughs. “Stick my head in and see how they’re getting on in life. They were very gentle bees; they never had a go at me.”
Continue reading...José says he hasn’t been able to sleep since alleged assault, which was described as ‘cuddling’ in incident report
A man who walked in on his 70-year-old wife with dementia being allegedly sexually assaulted by a fellow resident at her Sydney aged care home has blamed under-staffing for failing to properly monitor residents.
The 75-year-old man, José, said he has not been able to sleep properly since the alleged 20 March assault on his wife, Shannon, and that he wants answers about why his wife was able to wander off alone down a corridor and into the man’s room.
Continue reading...Angela Kitzelman and Don Jarmey joke their secret is having ‘no goals’, a philosophy that’s worked for the pair over more than three decades
Names: Angela Kitzelman and Don Jarmey
Years together: 36
Occupations: public servant and lab technician
“If you can travel together successfully, that is a sign of a strong relationship,” says Don Jarmey. “If you can sit for 41 hours on a bus from Istanbul to Budapest with about 2 metres of snow outside, where the bus stops three times in that 41 hours and you still love each other at the end, then yeah.”
Continue reading...Lack of transparency over deals with private consultants, logistics companies and healthcare contractors adding to ‘layers of confusion’ over rollout
The Australian government is funnelling millions of dollars to private contractors for its beleaguered Covid vaccine rollout using opaque deals – some of which are hidden from the public and ignore transparency standards.
The government is relying heavily on contractors to aid its vaccine rollout, including multinational consultants PwC and Accenture, logistics companies DHL and Linfox, and healthcare contractors Healthcare Australia, International SOS, Sonic Clinical Services and Aspen.
Continue reading...The coroner says she has received an application for a fresh inquest into the fire that killed six boys and a man in Sydney
The New South Wales coroner will consider a fresh inquest into a fatal fire at Sydney’s Luna Park in 1979 after allegations the blaze was linked to an underworld figure.
Seven people including six boys were killed in the blaze while riding the theme park’s ghost train.
Continue reading...Australian prime minister says he hopes Queen Elizabeth will ‘find great comfort in your faith and your family’
The Australian prime minister and governor general have paid tribute to Prince Philip, who has died aged 99, saying he was “no stranger to Australia” having visited the country more than 20 times.
Scott Morrison said Australians sent their love and deepest condolences to Queen Elizabeth and the royal family. He stated Philip “embodied a generation that we will never see again”.
Continue reading...Taskforce initiated after five riders died on the job recommends ‘refining the App’ and offering free mobile phone holders
A taskforce set up to improve safety after five delivery riders died on the job in the space of two months has suggested only minor changes to the industry, according to a draft of its report to be released next week.
The action plan has been criticised for “caving to the demands” of delivery companies by not setting any enforceable actions, and not mentioning the impact of time pressure, wages and working conditions.
Continue reading...Vaccine rollout faces delays as authorities scramble to secure alternatives to AstraZeneca such as Pfizer for under-50s over blood clot fears. Follow updates live
Labor MP Josh Burns has criticised the government for failing to deliver vaccines to aged care staff and residents, noting the issue is unrelated to fresh concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine causing blood clotting in those under 50.
Burns’ comments follow reports in the Guardian this morning that the federal government is expected to miss a self-imposed target on delivering “pop-up” hubs to vaccinate critical aged care staff and has given no details on the proposal to workers, despite multiple requests for information and meetings from the nursing union.
We’ve not had any federal aged care providers in Macnamara receive their vaccinations or have any indication on what day they are going to be having them, not to mention the staff that are still vulnerable and haven’t been vaccinated.
The frustration that Australians rightly have is that the promises that have been made have not been made by the Labor Party, they’ve been made by Greg Hunt, they’ve been made by Scott Morrison, they’ve been telling Australians that they’ve got it under control, that all is well, they are going to be vaccinating Australians and they haven’t been.
Related: Australia’s aged care nurses still in the dark about promised ‘pop-up’ vaccination hubs
Women need more information about contraceptive options, experts said, after concerns over rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca Covid jab prompted a debate over side-effects caused by certain forms of the pill.
On Wednesday the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that evidence that the jab could be causing a rare blood clotting syndrome was growing stronger. As a result the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended that healthy people under the age of 30 who were at low risk of Covid should be offered a different vaccine if possible.
Related: Contraception blood-clot risk: ‘public need better access to advice’
Continue reading...Doctors say their phones have been ‘running hot’ and some states bar anyone under 50 getting the AstraZeneca jab
States and territories have been left scrambling to respond to government advice recommending against vaccinating anyone under 50 with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, leaving tens of thousands of people in the lurch.
On Friday, New South Wales halted its AstraZeneca rollout entirely for several hours while patient consent forms with the latest information about the rare risk of severe clotting associated with the vaccine were added. The state’s rollout for people aged 50 and over has since resumed.
Continue reading...Guardian Australia database tallies the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who have died in police and prison custody since 1991
At least 474 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have died in police and prison custody since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody handed down its final report in 1991, new research has revealed.
Guardian Australia has spent the past three years tracking Indigenous and non-Indigenous deaths in custody for the Deaths Inside project.
Continue reading...Downing Street will not confirm or deny report that more than 700,000 Covid jabs were sent after EU blocked export
British ministers and officials did not deny that more than 700,000 shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine were secretly dispatched from the UK to Australia a few weeks ago as the EU blocked the drug’s export.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that 717,000 AstraZeneca doses were dispatched in late February and March from the company’s British operations – also during a period when the EU was demanding the vaccine from the UK.
Continue reading...Australian government yields to expert advice that Pfizer should now be the preferred coronavirus vaccine for adults under the age of 50
Australia’s vaccine rollout has suffered a major shock, with an advisory slapped on the AstraZeneca vaccine warning people under 50 it may cause extremely rare but potentially deadly blood clots.
On Thursday evening, the Australian government announced it had accepted expert advice that Pfizer should now be the preferred vaccine for under 50s, who will be warned AstraZeneca should only be taken if it is clear the benefits outweigh the risks.
Continue reading...Footage has been released showing a gigantic fireball engulfing the port engine of the Australian Antarctic program's resupply vessel, the MPV Everest. The ship faced the emergency on Monday and has continued travelling north using its starboard engine room
Continue reading...Captain heads for Fremantle at reduced speed after blaze engulfs supply ship’s port engine room and destroys two inflatable boats onboard
Dramatic images have revealed the scale of a fire that erupted on the Antarctic supply ship MPV Everest on Monday while the ship was days away from returning to Australia.
No one was injured but the captain changed course for the closest Australian port at Fremantle, Western Australia, after the fire engulfed the port engine room and destroyed two inflatable rubber boats stored on the deck.
Continue reading...Cheng Jingye hosted a media event at his residence in Canberra that included a two-hour video conference with officials in Xinjiang
China’s ambassador to Australia has warned that Beijing would respond “in kind” if Canberra followed other countries in imposing sanctions against its officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The ambassador, Cheng Jingye, said people should not be under the illusion “that China would swallow the bitter pill” of meddling in its internal affairs, nor attempts to mount a “pressure” campaign.
Continue reading...No new properties have been purchased under the Queensland government program since 2017, a report finds
Cape York Indigenous groups have warned that a successful Queensland government program to return land to traditional owners is on the verge of stalling, potentially leaving large and significant swathes of the peninsula at the mercy of mining speculators.
The Cape York land tenure resolution program has returned more than 4m hectares of land to traditional owner groups since 2007, including about 2m hectares that is designated as national park.
Continue reading...Gladys Berejiklian says a NSW Covid immunisation centre will be capable of administering 30,000 doses a week; EU denies blocking further shipments of AstraZeneca earmarked for Australia. Follow the latest updates, live
Australia needs to manage the increasingly complex relationship with China, even as the government seeks areas to diversify its export markets, according to a new report out this afternoon.
The Asia Taskforce – which includes the Business Council of Australia and Asia Society Australia – calls for a target of boosting Australia’s exports to 35% of GDP by 2030 (up from 29% in 2019).
Popular support for the open economy cannot be taken for granted. Retreating to old familiar relationships in western markets, falling behind in Asia literacy and failing to build connections with new Asian business partners should not be seen as a serious default choice when consumption in Asia will likely fuel future global growth.
The Greens are once again calling for an independent rapid review into the vaccine rollout to identify any issues and restore public confidence.
Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for health, said in a statement:
With targets missed, persistent problems with vaccine supply, and troubles getting the available vaccines to where they’re needed, the rollout of these vital jabs hardly inspires confidence...
We shouldn’t let this devolve into a game of finger pointing and blaming shifting between the federal and state governments. This pointless squabble doesn’t inspire confidence in the rollout, and can only serve to add further delays to the process.
Continue reading...Australia has accused the EU of ‘semantics’ after European Commission said just one shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses has been formally blocked, but Coalition says AZ has not been able to secure an export licence from Europe
Scott Morrison denies his government has presented the public with overly rosy assessments about the state of its Covid-19 vaccine rollout, as he steps up calls for the European Union to allow 3.1m outstanding AstraZeneca doses to be shipped to Australia.
While declaring that vaccine supply issues were a matter of “straightforward maths”, the prime minister also attempted to calm a growing diplomatic dispute between Australia and the EU, insisting he had not made any criticism of Brussels over its handling of the matter.
Continue reading...Prime minister refuses to say how many doses of AstraZeneca vaccine CSL is producing in Melbourne each week
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has rejected claims Australia’s vaccine rollout has been held up by the batch testing of 2.5m domestically made doses and instead blamed international supply issues.
At a press conference on Tuesday after New Zealand announced a trans-Tasman travel bubble, Morrison said Australia had not received 3.1m AstraZeneca doses from overseas. He said that was to blame for the massive discrepancy between the 855,000 vaccinations administered so far and the missed target of 4m doses by the end of March.
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