No Newspoll this week it seems. News you can use:
• Queensland’s elections on the weekend are covered in extensive and ongoing detail here. To cut a long story short: the state by-elections of Bundamba and Currumbin resulted in victories for the incumbent parties, namely Labor and the Liberal National Party respectively; Adrian Schrinner of the LNP was re-elected as lord mayor of Brisbane; and the LNP have almost certainly retained a healthy majority on Brisbane City Council. In Bundamba, the LNP ran third behind One Nation (and probably shouldn’t have bothered to run), whose presence in the field also took a bite out of the Labor primary vote. Labor did manage to improve their primary vote at the LNP’s expense in Currumbin, where One Nation is a lot weaker, but the latter’s presence means they will get a lower share of the combined preferences and thus fail to bite into the LNP’s existing 3.3% margin. There has been no notional two-party count, but scrutineers’ figures cited by Antony Green suggest Labor received an uncommonly weak 71% share of Greens preferences.
• Roy Morgan’s promise that it would provide further detail on its half-way intriguing findings on trust in political and business leaders (see here and here) has borne disappointing fruit. Rather than provide the trust and distrust scores as most of us would have hoped, a follow-up release offers only blurry impressions as to the specific attributes that caused the various leaders to be trusted or distrusted, in which “honest/genuine” and “integrity/sincerity” were uselessly listed as distinct response options.
• The Tasmanian government has delayed the date for the periodical Legislative Council elections, which this year encompass the seats of Huon and Rosevears, but only from May 2 to May 30. The Tasmanian Electoral Commission says this will give it more time to “ensure electors have access to the voting process and to maintain the integrity of the 2020 Legislative Council elections during the COVID-19 pandemic”, which presumably means a greater emphasis on postal, pre-poll and maybe telephone voting.
Mavis says:
At the same time Morrison let slip that his children are now at home. Is he still telling people to send their children and, if so, why is he not practising what he preaches?
From the same article:
Bu
“Tibetans are Tibetans”
The majority of Tibetans may think so, and I might agree. But to the Chinese Communist Party leadership, Tibetans are Chinese. To them, Tibet is Xizang, a province of the People’s Republic of China.
Mex….we actually do not know and likely never will know where the first index case arose. Maybe DNA sequencing will reveal that. Maybe it will reveal that genesis in humans occurred somewhere in Central Asia and that spread occurred at varying rates into China, Iran and Lombardy in the same few months or so.
Right now we do not know. The chest beating directed at any one source is premised on no more than supposition.
C@tmomma @ #337 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 1:26 pm
No, that’s not why you were called out.
Bushfire Bill @ #390 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 2:14 pm
You just broke your promise.
Kakuru:
Also considered so by the ROC leadership across the strait as well.
It’s Time.
That is not what I said. Perhaps you should read the post again before jumping in with your desperate attempt to imply racism.
Sorry if you don’t like the fact that the virus originated in China but all the evidence points to that being the case. Live with it.
Barney, not to mention Uighurs.
Autonomous Province. There are a lot of Tibetans in other areas of China like Gansu and Sichuan. Many in Autonomous prefectures (I think that is what they are called).
I once went for a walk into the mountains with a Tibetan monk in Gansu. He pulled a photo of the Dalai Lama out from his robe along with a map of what he called “true tibet” that took in quite a large part of China as well as India.
I recall reading somewhere that overseas Chinese who visit China are regarded by locals as foreigners.
I’ll give up because you don’t accept good advise when it’s given to you.
Great zogs, you are channeling zoidlord there!
caf
“Also considered so by the ROC leadership across the strait as well.”
This may depend on the ROC leadership of the day. It’s my understanding that the Democratic Progressive Party of the ROC is more open-minded on the issue of Tibet than the Kuomintang.
Then in two weeks time he will have no trouble going to a hospital with coronavirus victims, shaking their hand and asking them to cough on him.
Looks like a segment of the ALP right wing are looking at One Nation for inspiration:
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has warned of a ‘mass foreign buy-up’ as Australia’s economy crashes amid the coronavirus crisis.
‘I won’t tolerate China or any other country coming in here and buying Australia up for a song, leaving our people without a say.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8153379/Pauline-Hanson-warns-mass-Chinese-buy-Australia-amid-coronavirus-recession.html
Ansell up 20% on the ASX today
Bucephalus says:
Monday, March 30, 2020 at 2:09 pm
How does Dr Swan qualify for a test under the current protocols?
In WA he would not be tested. Let’s see if he’s positive. I know of about 20 people now who have experienced Covid19-like symptoms and who have been refused a test or discouraged from seeking one because they don’t qualify. In at least one instance transmission has been via a group of high school students from Victoria who attended WOMAD in Adelaide, held from 6-9 March, where people from all corners congregated. Students and teachers alike have since exhibited Covid19-like symptoms. Since they are in Victoria they do not qualify for testing.
How is it that there are so few test kits and that there’s such a shortage of PPE in Australia? In China, the authorities did not know what they were facing. We have never had that excuse. We have just failed to think ahead and to act.
In China, the shutdown of Wuhan occurred 11 days after the first attributed death, and about 40 days after the first case confirmation was made. The first case in Australia was confirmed on 25 January. We have still not really got to grips with the scope and locus of infection here.
We are run by complete idiots.
Ballantyne @ #407 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 1:28 pm
You obviously fail to appreciate the context in which the origin of the virus in Wuhan is being used by some posters as a proxy for a general faulting of “Chinese”.
Democrats are trying to get Republicans to stop referring to COVID 19 as the ‘Chinese virus’. They should also advise right wing ALP stooges too:
Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), among several other Democrats, condemned Trump’s usage of the term: “Will stop spread of the coronavirus: washing your hands/staying home if you’re sick,” she said, adding, “Won’t stop the spread of coronavirus: racism/xenophobia.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/cdc-director-robert-redfield-condemns-trumps-china-virus-tweet
Vogon Poet,
Mrs Bucephalus was teaching a Year 1 Class and 3 girls were playing together. One of them said something about Asians. One of the girls said something along the lines of “I’m Asian”. The other little girl said “No, you’re not – you’re Chinese.”
‘Bucephalus says:
Monday, March 30, 2020 at 2:09 pm
How does Dr Swan qualify for a test under the current protocols?’
You are right in line with the Murdocracy which took upon itself to flay Dr Swan for having the intelligence, the consciences and the temerity to question Scotty the Salesman’s pseudo-medical claptrap.
The answer to your bastard of a question is that Swan is a medical person.
A new website logs incidents of anti-Asian racism in the US related to the ‘China virus’ rhetoric.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/03/27/822187627/new-site-collects-reports-of-anti-asian-american-sentiment-amid-coronavirus-pand
citizen – normally school kids are home from school on the weekend.
nath @ #413 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 2:36 pm
The ALP ideology has definitely shifted away from the Greens and towards PHON.
“Bucephalus says:
Monday, March 30, 2020 at 2:44 pm
citizen – normally school kids are home from school on the weekend.”
He was obviously referring to the kids being home from school before the term ends (on 9 April in NSW).
citizen:
[‘At the same time Morrison let slip that his children are now at home. Is he still telling people to send their children and, if so, why is he not practising what he preaches?’]
Agree. Unlike state premiers and chief ministers, Morrison is at sixes and sevens. In the one breath he’s telling us to only leave home when it’s absolutely necessary; the next, go out to buy jigsaw puzzles to keep the kids amused. As for the schools’ policies, I don’t think it has been expressly said, but it seems that those that are still open are so to supervise the children of essential workers, mainly in health & allied sectors. Now that he’s told Oz that his own kids aren’t attending school, it would be fairly safe to conclude that many parents will follow his lead, maybe thinking: what does he know that we don’t(?).
The constitutional status of ethnic minorities in China:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_minorities_in_China
I have been advised that all 1.386 billion citizens of China are not only suffering the huge disruptions, the social tensions and the grief arising from the Virus, they can also hardly sleep because the outcomes of the Great Bludger Racism Flame War are, as yet, unknown.
Boerwarsays:
Monday, March 30, 2020 at 2:44 pm
I’m not sure why you think I’m attacking him. I was just asking a very relevant question.
Yes he has Medical qualifications and he is a journalist (and I like a lot of his work) but he is not clinical medical person dealing with sick people. I’m not clear on the protocols outside WA but here unless he has recently returned from overseas or had contact with a confirmed case or (as of a day or so ago) falls into some specific high risk categories (none of which I think he belongs to) he doesn’t get tested. And I have been following the protocols closely as I had flu like symptoms starting Saturday 14 March and I am still recovering and they won’t do any testing on me. I can cope with the coughing but it would be nice to get my sense of smell and taste back.
Simon Katich @ #408 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 11:34 am
The problem with comments here is that some commentators see China as a homogeneous region and have little appreciation of the cultural diversity and differences.
Ballantyne says:
Monday, March 30, 2020 at 2:28 pm
…..Sorry if you don’t like the fact that the virus originated in China but all the evidence points to that being the case. Live with it.
No it doesn’t. The incidence shows that contagion escalated in three areas within a short period of each other….Hubei/Wuhan, Iran and Lombardy. Contagion probably occurred simultaneously in Lombardy and Wuhan. What the record also shows is that Chinese medical personnel and health authorities were the first to formally note the apparent emergence of a new disease and then to investigate it. This absolutely does not mean the disease originated in Wuhan. The antecedents of the first noted case are not known.
In any case, while the first case may have originated in China – or not – the question is: So what? There is blame-manufacturing going on here. We are seeing blame for its own sake. This reminds me of nothing so much as the Chamberlain convictions, wherein ‘likely suspects’ were wrongly convicted of crimes on the basis of unreliable so-called ‘evidence’ in order to satisfy a public longing to punish someone/anyone.
The ALP ideology has definitely shifted away from the Greens and towards PHON.
Rubbish
Swan may well have been exposed to the virus, either through an infected social contact or from, say, interviewing a medical colleague who has tested positive.
There really are quite a lot of possibilities. I’m not sure he needs to disclose his justifications publicly, but I reckon he will eventually.
Boerwar: “The answer to your bastard of a question is that Swan is a medical person.”
I doubt that’s the answer. Swan hasn’t practiced medicine since the 1970s and I would be surprised if he had college registration, a Medicare number, and the other things he would need to practice.
I suspect that he rang up a health service, described his symptoms, and the health service concluded that they were bad enough to warrant a test.
Indeed, despite Briefly’s continuing whinging about the people he knows who can’t get a test in WA, I understand that a very high temperature (that is, something in the order of 39 degrees or more) plus a persistent dry cough, breathing difficulties and lethargy would be enough to get you testing in most parts of Australia: possibly even WA.
I am hearing from people in the health sector that a lot of the people who can’t get tested have rung up saying things like “I have a very hot forehead (and/or my home thermometer that I bought 25 years ago is reading 37.6), I have a bit of a cough and I’m not feeling too good, can I please get tested?”
It’s more likely that these people are going to catch coronavirus from the other patients at the health service they visit than they are to have it already. If they don’t report any contact with people from overseas, the health services are telling them to self-isolate for 14 days and not to ring back unless they start having serious difficulties breathing and/or their temperature goes through the roof.
I understand that a lot of people are afraid that they might have the disease, and are looking for reassurance that they don’t, but I reckon this is by far the safest way to go.
Swan, on the other hand, is likely to be seriously ill. I wish him a speedy recovery.
I dont believe that is what BW meant by ‘medical’. Or he would have said ‘doctor’.
RI
Actually, I’m not blaming anyone. I’m simply stating a fact. I wasn’t aware that such a thing was verboten on this blog.
It originated in Wuhan. However, I haven’t got the energy to keep going around in circles with posters who don’t agree. That’s their prerogative. I have a jigsaw puzzles to shop for before the panic buying starts.
Does any one know?
How many cases were in Beijing or Shanghai?
.
Nothing wrong with blame, if correctly attributed. It’s how we decide what needs fixing.
Just suggesting we don’t need to know who’s to blame is burying your head in the sand, too woke to be taken seriously.
FWIW, Swan is upfront about his credentials.
Dandy Murray @ #335 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 1:21 pm
Yes, a good article. However, the article says we have 2400 ICU beds available (other sources say slightly less), but it also seems to assume that these will all be available for Coronavirus cases. But surely, of those 2400 available beds, a certain percentage would still need to be occupied by other urgent medical cases? So we really don’t have 2400 available ICU beds for Coronavirus.
Does anyone know what the normal occupancy rates of ICU beds might be? Would 50% occupancy be a reasonable assumption?
If so, we are still in deep trouble 🙁
SK: “I dont believe that is what BW meant by ‘medical’. Or he would have said ‘doctor’.”
So is there a rule that any non-practitioner with any sort of past or present connection to the health sector can get a coronavirus test if they want one, regardless of risk factors?
No, I suspect, sadly, that Swan is feeling pretty crook.
Great Q. Been wondering how those places managed.
ACT public schools are still open but are “pupil free” as teachers develop materials for learning at home. The ACT Education Directorate says children whose parents are unable to care for them at home may come to school. My daughter is a teacher and says her primary school has a small number of children attending on this basis. This term ends on 9 April.
Morrison is a sly dog. And about as thick as a Dalmation.
He was too shy to tell us he had pulled his kids from school. Don’t do what I do. Do what I say. He is silent about Dutton. He is silent about Payne. He refuses to hold a Parliamentary session. In any case, when there are Senate Estimates there are hundreds of questions that are taken on notice and never replied to. They are sitting in the ether as we speak. QT is a parody of accountability. He refuses to answer ‘political’ questions from the press. They are on-coronavirus matters. He refuses to mention any Virus stats until they start to go down. He compares Australia to Singapore when it suits him politically. He then ignores a lot of what Singapore does routinely. He hides his medical evidence. He has yet to apologize for failing to organize enough testing materials, hazmat suits, ventilators, masks and other surgical equipment. He has yet to apologize for a series of spectacular border force failures. He has yet to apologize for his routine messaging shambles. He lays off blame to the premiers, the peoples, the Bondi beachgoers, the journalists… whatever. His decisions have let in hundreds upon hundreds of Virus carriers. For three months inbound travelers have been bunched together like huddled masses in immigration and customs. For three months inbound travelers were waved through with a bit of paper. No temp testing. He has yet to apologize for his too little, too late economic fixes. Even now, most of them are in the class of ‘Where the Bloody Hell are your fixes, Scotty?’ class. Even now, he seems unable to develop a sustained and convincing set of policy that straddle the admittedly extremely complex priorities of population health and economic health. Even now he is hiding his economic choices behind medical advice.
Cunning as a shit house rat but not nearly as smart, IMO.
But what can we expect from the most crooked prime minister and the most corrupt Federal government since Federation?
MB
I am hearing from people in the health sector that a lot of the people who can’t get tested have rung up saying things like “I have a very hot forehead (and/or my home thermometer that I bought 25 years ago is reading 37.6), I have a bit of a cough and I’m not feeling too good, can I please get tested?”
Absolute bollocks. Pure apologia, invented for the purposes of bludging.
Scout @ #429 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 2:58 pm
The ALP right faction 3-eyed ravens can see all past present and future and will regain lost ground in the Qld/NSW outer urbs & regions.
SK: ” Still registered but don’t have a practice.”
If he’s still registered (and that word is a bit ambiguous), then he could reasonably be described as a “medical practitioner” or, in less technical parlance, a “doctor.”
RI: “Absolute bollocks. Pure apologia, invented for the purposes of bludging.”
Well it certainly isn’t bollocks in the eastern states. I can’t speak for what’s going on in WA.
But, if they aren’t testing any people who have had no overseas contacts, then how can they be reporting cases of suspected community transmission?
Catmomma complains about being called a racist. Catmomma calls some one else a racist. What a nong!
Bushfire Bill @ #435 Monday, March 30th, 2020 – 3:05 pm
Why focus on who? The questions we need answers to are how and why. And perhaps when.
c@tmomma………..A little while back….
I was not aiming to “admonish” anyone with reference to the China/Corona Virus responsibility/accountability vortex. My point was, like the Rudd-Gillard wars the Greens V The Rest stoush – and sundry other ongoing verbal brawls here – it is a waste of time and effort.
I do not know if some who want to link China as the cause agent of the pandemic are racist or not as who could tell what anyone is really thinking in a forum such as this?
I would much prefer some thoughts on the erosion of our democracy in the hands of Morrison and his merry band, some consideration of the cost of all this “socialist” hand out of money from a LNP government (though to be fair Labor states are doing their bit in this direction) and the smug hypocrisy of this government when it claims to be working on behalf of all Australians……..
Swan would be more aware if his symptoms match COVID19. He would probably also have been in contact with people in higher risk factors. And he may be very ill.
I know that in SA they are loosening the guidelines to allow more testing without opening the floodgates.
Jim Chalmers demanding a recall of Parliament to pass wage subsidy laws and restore democracy.
I used to chuckle at those here – Puffy comes to mind – who thought Australia was heading towards a one-party police state, suggesting Morrison’s the type to try it on.
But I’m not chuckling anymore. I’m starting to think they were onto something.