O75 Public Administration

In NSW thousands in isolation as cluster threatens regions

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Original article by Kieran Gair
The Australian – Page: 5 : 6-Jan-21

New South Wales recorded four new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on 5 January, while an additional case will be added to the total for 6 January. The additional case is a young man who travelled some thousands of kilometres in rural NSW while unknowingly infectious, visiting towns such as Orange and Broken Hill. Shoppers who attended the Berala Woolworths between 20 December and 31 December have been urged to get tested and self-isolate until they get the result, while people from ‘hotspot’ suburbs linked to the Berala cluster will be fined $1,000 if they try to attend the Test at the SCG.

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PM powerless on border closures, defends slow rollout

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Original article by John Kehoe
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 6-Jan-21

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he hopes lower numbers of COVID-19 cases in Sydney in recent days could see border restrictions between Victoria and New South Wales "eased as soon as possible". However, he has conceded he does not have the power to stop premiers and chief ministers closing their borders for health reasons. Morrison rejected criticisms that the federal government was taking too long to rollout a COVID-19 vaccine, saying that the Therapeutic Goods Administration needs to rigorously examine vaccine testing data, while vaccine batches in Australia will also need further testing.

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AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Deliveroo safety reps elected in milestone

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 5-Jan-21

Riders from food delivery company Deliveroo in Sydney recently elected seven health and safety representatives (HSRs) from among their ranks. It represents the first election of HSRs in the Australian gig economy, with the HSRs having various powers, such as being able to issue emergency stop work directions, while Deliveroo will pay them for their time when they are involved in tackling safety issues. The Transport Workers’ Union has described the election of the seven HSRs as a milestone for the gig economy, while Deliveroo has urged riders with any safety concerns to contact their HSR.

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DELIVEROO AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, TRANSPORT WORKERS’ UNION

British court blocks Assange extradition to US

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Original article by Jacquelin Magnay
The Australian – Page: 1 : 5-Jan-21

Westminster District Court judge Vanessa Baraitser has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the US to face espionage charges. Baraitser stated jail conditions for Assange in the US could be so bad that he might seek to take his own life. The charges on which the US is seeking to extradite Assange could see him face a maximum jail term of 175 years if convicted, while US prosecutors immediately filed an appeal to Baraitser’s ruling with a higher court. Assange was returned to prison until 7 January, when an application for bail and costs will be heard.

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WIKILEAKS

Wuhan biological weapons lab leaked the virus

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Original article by Didi Tang
The Australian – Page: Online : 5-Jan-21

US Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger claims there is strong evidence that the coronavirus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology rather than developing in a Wuhan livestock ‘wet market’. The Institute is located 17 kilometres from the Wuhan market, with Wuhan reporting the first COVID-19 cases in December. Pottinger was speaking on the eve of a visit by World Health Organisation experts to China to investigate the source of the coronavirus, although some claim the investigation will be a "whitewash". A majority of scientists are of the view that coronavirus originated in nature.

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WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Office staff get to keep pandemic flex time

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 24-Dec-20

The Fair Work Commission has extended flexible working arrangements for employees who are covered by the clerks award until the end of June 2021. The ordinary hours of work for clerical employees while telecommuting were extended beyond traditional working hours earlier in 2020, in response to the coronavirus. The FWC has also introduced additional flexibilities with regard to the hours of work for clerical staff while working from home.

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AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION

Cyber spy agency on high alert over hack

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 24-Dec-20

More than 18,000 companies and government agencies worldwide are believed to have been targeted by the SolarWinds cyber-attack. The Australian Cyber Security Centre is assessing whether the computer systems of any government departments and agencies have been compromised. The SolarWinds Orion software is used by federal agencies such as the Department of Defence, Home Affairs and Austrade. Sergei Shevchenko, the co-founder of cybersecurity firm Prevasio, says that even if SolarWinds clients have not been targeted, they should assume that they are vulnerable to second-stage attacks.

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AUSTRALIAN SIGNALS DIRECTORATE. AUSTRALIAN CYBER SECURITY CENTRE,AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF DEFENCE,AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HOME AFFAIRS,AUSTRADE,PREVASIO

Australia did 2020 pretty damn good

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Original article by Terry McCrann
Herald Sun – Page: 45 : 24-Dec-20

Despite the spectacular failure of Victoria’s first hotel quarantine program – which has accounted for nearly 90 per cent of Australia’s COVID-19 death toll – the nation’s policymakers have handled the pandemic remarkably well. Three factors enabled the nation to get it right – not perfect, but right – in containing the virus and balancing the economic and medical costs of the pandemic. Closing the nation’s international borders prevented an outbreak on the scale seen in Europe, while the national lockdown and stimulus measures ensured that the decline in economic growth in the June quarter was limited to just seven per cent.

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COVID-19 reinfections are likely much worse than we know

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Original article by Jill Margo
The Australian Financial Review – Page: Online : 24-Dec-20

More than 78 million people worldwide have contracted COVID-19, although there have been just 31 confirmed and 2,200 suspected cases of reinfection to date. However, Professor Ivo Mueller from the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research believes that the number of reinfections has been underestimated; he says the genome sequencing data that is necessary to confirm two separate infections is often not available, while many reinfections may not be detected because the person is asymptomatic. There has been one confirmed case of reinfection in Australia, and just two confirmed deaths from reinfection worldwide.

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WALTER AND ELIZA HALL INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL RESEARCH

How Christmas muddied the decision to ease NSW restrictions

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Original article by Tom Rabe,Mary Ward,Jenny Noyes
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 24-Dec-20

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced a "very modest" easing of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Sydney’s northern beaches region. The revised rules will apply for three days from 24 December, and will allow households in the local government area to have a limited number of visitors over this period. The number of visitors will depend on whether a resident lives north or south of Narrabeen Bridge. A government minister has conceded that the temporary changes would not have been at any other time of the year. NSW reported eight new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 on 23 December, while genome sequencing has linked a female healthcare worker to the northern beaches cluster; it was previously thought that she had contracted the virus after driving returned travellers from Sydney Airport to a quarantine hotel.

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NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET