O75 Public Administration

New Zealand Labour/Greens lead by over 20% points in March with women’s support for Labour underpinning the big lead

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Apr-21

The latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll on voting intention shows that support for the Labour/Greens government was down 1% point to 57.5% in March. However, support for the Labour Party was up 0.5% points to 45.5% in March, while support for the Greens dropped 1.5% points to 12%. Support for the National Party dropped 6% points to 23% in March. The National Party is now 22.5% points behind Labour – the largest gap since last year’s election when National trailed Labour by 24.4% points. Meanwhile, Act NZ now has the support of 11% of electors, up by 3.5% points from February. This is a record high level of support for Act NZ, beating the previous record of 10.5% set in November 2020 following the election. Support for the Maori Party is unchanged at 1% in March. This latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll on voting intention was conducted by telephone – both landline and mobile – with a New Zealand-wide cross-section of 924 electors during March

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, MORGAN POLL, LABOUR PARTY (NEW ZEALAND), GREEN PARTY OF AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND, NATIONAL PARTY OF NEW ZEALAND, ACT NEW ZEALAND, THE MAORI PARTY

Census system rebuilt and ready to go

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Original article by Tom McIlroy
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 9 : 12-Apr-21

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is hoping for 95 per cent participation in the 2021 census, which will take place on 10 August. The ABS has engaged Amazon Web Services, the Australian Cyber Security Centre and PwC to redesign and bolster the systems that operate and protect the census as it seeks to avoid the major failures that hit the 2016 one. Around 63 per cent of Australian households completed the 2016 census online, and the ABS is hoping to increase that figure to 75 per cent in 2021, while around 38,000 temporary jobs will be created as part of the 2021 census.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, AMAZON WEB SERVICES LLC, AUSTRALIAN CYBER SECURITY CENTRE, PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS

Australians still set to take the vaccine: but opinion is divided on PM Scott Morrison’s handling of all COVID-19 related issues

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Apr-21

Now 83% of Australians have either already been vaccinated (7%), are willing to be vaccinated (69%) or would be willing to be vaccinated once the Pfizer vaccine becomes available (7%) – a total of 83% and an increase of 3% points since February, according to a special Roy Morgan Snap SMS survey conducted on Friday April 9 and Saturday April 10, 2021. Although the vast majority of Australians across all ages, genders, States and political party allegiances are willing to take the vaccine or have already done so, there is a political divide. Only 13% of L-NP voters say they will not be vaccinated, while more than 1-in-5 Labor and Green voters and those who vote for Independents and other parties express unwillingness to be vaccinated. The nation is evenly split on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of all COVID-19 related issues with 51% disapproving of Morrison’s handling of the pandemic and 49% approving. Clear majority support for Morrison’s handling of all COVID-19 related issues is recorded among Australians aged 65+, people in country areas, NSW, Queensland, WA and Tasmania, as well as L-NP supporters. In contrast a majority of younger Australians, women, people in capital cities and Victoria as well as supporters of the ALP and Greens disapprove.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

PM shelves vaccination targets

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Original article by Remy Varga
The Australian – Page: 4 : 12-Apr-21

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advised that the federal government will not set a revised target for all Australians who want to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to receive their first dose. Morrison said there are too many uncertainties regarding the vaccine rollout to set a new target, although he stated that the preference is still for all first doses to be administered by the end of 2021. The government has ordered an additional 20 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine following a recommendation that people under the age of 50 should not be given the AstraZeneca vaccine due to concerns about blood clotting.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASTRAZENECA PLC, PFIZER INCORPORATED

UK halts AstraZeneca jabs for under-30s

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Original article by Hans van Leeuwen
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 14 : 9-Apr-21

Britain’s Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has recommended that people under the age of 30 should not be given AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine due to the potential risk of blood clots. MHRA CEO June Raine says the decision was made out of "utmost caution", and notes that the incidence of blood clotting is extremely rare. More than 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered across the UK to date, with 79 cases of blood clots having been reported; 19 of them were fatal. The MHRA has stated that the benefits of vaccination outweigh any risks.

CORPORATES
GREAT BRITAIN. MEDICINES AND HEALTHCARE PRODUCTS REGULATORY AGENCY

Clot fears force vaccine switch

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Original article by Natasha Robinson
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 9-Apr-21

The federal government has acted on the advice of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, which has recommended that AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine be restricted to people aged 50+. ATAGI stated that Pfizer’s vaccine is now preferred for people under the age of 50, after the European Medicines Agency concluded that there is a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a blood-clotting syndrome. Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy says the government has acted out of an "abundance of caution", given that the extremely rare syndrome mainly affects younger people. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has conceded that the target date for giving all Australians at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will need to be revised.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN TECHNICAL ADVISORY GROUP ON IMMUNISATION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, ASTRAZENECA PLC, PFIZER INCORPORATED, EUROPEAN MEDICINES AGENCY

PNG man dies of COVID-19 in Qld hospital

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Original article by Stuart Layt, Lydia Lynch
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 7-Apr-21

Queensland Health has advised that a 77-year-old man has died of COVID-19 complications in intensive care at a hospital near Brisbane. The man had been flown from Papua New Guinea to Redcliffe Hospital on 28 March after his condition deteriorated. It is the first COVID-19 death in Queensland since early April 2020; however, the man will not be included in the state’s official death toll as he had been diagnosed in PNG, and he had dual citizenship of PNG and the UK. Queensland has recorded no new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, and there are 70 active cases in the state.

CORPORATES
QUEENSLAND HEALTH

Australia’s growth to beat forecasts: IMF

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Original article by Adam Creighton
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 7-Apr-21

The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its economic growth forecast for Australia in 2021 to 4.5 per cent. Its previous forecast in January was for growth of 3.5 per cent. The IMF now expects the global economy to grow by six per cent in 2021 and 4.4 per cent in 2022. However, the IMF’s chief economist Gita Gopinath says the COVID-19 pandemic will require governments to continue to provide economic support measures. Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe expects the domestic economy to record above-trend growth in both 2021 and 2022.

CORPORATES
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

AstraZeneca blood clot illness given own name

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Original article by Jill Margo
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 7-Apr-21

The UK, Germany and Norway are among the countries that have reported cases of the blood-clotting syndrome that may be linked to AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. The novel syndrome has been designated as vaccine-induced prothrombotic immune thrombocytopenia (VIPIT) by German scientists. The Thrombosis and Haemostasis Society of Australia and New Zealand has established a national committee on the new syndrome; Associate Professor Vivien Chen says it has some similarities to existing immune-driven clotting syndromes. A 44-year-old Melbourne man is Australia’s first suspected case of VIPIT.

CORPORATES
THROMBOSIS AND HAEMOSTASIS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

One in two given COVID vaccines report mild side effects

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Original article by Kate Aubusson
The Age – Page: Online : 7-Apr-21

Data from AusVaxSafety shows that 49.7 per cent of Australians who had received the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine by the end of March had experienced at least one mild side effect. Some 1.2 per cent were sufficiently concerned to see a doctor or go to a hospital’s emergency department. More than two-thirds of people who received their first dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine reported an adverse event, and 25.4 per cent said they had to take some time off from work, study or their daily duties. Meanwhile, 36.3 per cent of people reported an adverse event after receiving their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine; some 4.3 per cent had to miss work, study or routine duties.

CORPORATES
AUSVAXSAFETY