Two posts featuring Scott Morrison disappeared from Bible Society Australia & Vision Christian Radio websites in March 2020

A similar article to the below one quietly disappeared from a Bible Society Australia website, Eternity News, along with a video.

Vision Christian Radio:

PM Joins COVID-19 Prayer Effort
Tuesday, March 31st, 2020

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has joined Christian leaders and believers online to pray for Australia as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak.

The prayer session was coordinated by the Australian Prayer Network, the Canberra Declaration and Pastor Margaret Court.

The Toowoomba Regional Prayer Network reports, the Prime Minister prayed through two Scriptures: Psalm 34:17-19 and Isaiah 58:11-12.

The first Scripture speaks of the Lord hearing the cry of the righteous and delivering them from trouble and the second tells of the Lord’s guidance and restoration from the ruins.

More than 600 people took part in the national Zoom call over a period of 25 hours with Pastor Margaret Court overseeing the final hour of prayer.

The Prime Minister’s participation was reported by Molly Joshi, national representative of the Toowoomba Regional Prayer Network.

She says it was the church at its finest, ministering together without walls.

Photo credit: Kristy Robinson / Commonwealth of Australia [CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)]

This article has also disappeared from view.


The reason these articles and a video were removed?  Perhaps Morrison decided his prayer had only been meant to be heard by the 600 people taking part in that prayer session or he may have thought his Christian prayer might not be well received by every voter who heard it.

However, little actually disappears completely from the Internet and this YouTube video of the prayer session was posted by Queensland Parents For Secular State Schools on 31 March 2020.



https://youtu.be/khANQLVfttc

Morrison begins to quote the bible at 2:45 minutes and offers his personal prayer at 3:40 minutes.

The times are not kind to the elderly living alone

The Daily Examiner, 3 April 2020:

Elderly Clarence residents without internet access and mobile phones have been left to fend for themselves, one Coutts Crossing resident claims.

“Lola”, 64, says elderly people have been forgotten as the community sets up systems to navigate enforced coronavirus disruptions.

Without internet or a mobile phone, Lola has found it difficult to access many services set up to help during the crisis.

A telling encounter was a call to a major supermarket to find out options for setting up a home delivery service.

“I don’t want to go shopping for food,” she said.

“I have medical reasons and they’re asking us to self-isolate.” Lola called the company’s helpline but found it less than helpful. “They put me on hold for so long the battery in my landline handset went flat,” she said.

“When it recharged I rang again and eventually I got a recorded message to email my request to the company.” Lola said she did not have family or friends in the region and had found going shopping a nightmare.

“There’s nothing on the shelves,” she said.....

“Last time I went shopping in Grafton I had to go to four different supermarkets and I still couldn’t find everything I needed.” The rules designed to discourage hoarders had not helped.

“I want to buy enough so I don’t have to go shopping again for at least two weeks,” she said.

“The two-pack limit is no help to me at all.” She has been less than impressed with other shoppers, who appear to pay no attention to social distancing rules.....

Even for the elderly with Internet connections life is increasingly difficult.

Coles does not home deliver to anyone except those already registered with NDIS, Red Kite or My Aged Care - in other words predominately people who already have home care packages or other forms of assistance.

Woolies doesn't deliver to the Lower Clarence but will supply by Australia Post an $80 basics box of mainly low nutrition/ high sugar & salt canned and packaged food of its own non-negotable choice and again, people have to already be registered with the same three agencies. Although proof of eligibility may be widening so it might be wise to contact customer service to check.

The changing face of livestock sales in the NSW Northern River region

The Daily Examiner, 3 April 2020:

For the first time, online bidding of cattle took place at the Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange this week.

Using StockLive, buyers could bid for weaners through the online portal in the comfort of their own home. The timing couldn’t be better.

NRLX operations manager Brad Willis confirmed livestock sales would continue at the Casino saleyards with only essential staff, agents and registered buyers permitted on-site.

He said he was actively working to ensure the continuity of business while taking into account the public health consequences of the COVID-19 situation.

Victoria has cancelled live cattle sales but NRLX has no plan to follow suit. Mr Willis said it would stay open as long as it complied with the rules.

“The NRLX is a vital cog in the food supply chain and we need everyone’s co-operation to ensure the facility can operate for as long as possible,” Mr Willis said.

“If everyone uses common sense, we’ll get through.”There were 258 viewers and 27 registered buyers online for the sale.

ABC News, 2 April 2020:

The Northern Rivers Livestock Exchange has reported its highest sale week in its history, with nearly $8.29 million in sales generated at the saleyards in Casino last week.

A total of 7,784 head of cattle were sold across three days of operations — the prime sale and the annual weaner sales — up from around 3,000 head last year totalling just under $3 million in sales for the same week.

The prolonged drought resulted in the tough market last year, but this year coronavirus delivered a different challenge with NRLX using StockLive to host an online auction for the first time since its $14 million upgrade.

Australian-led team proves that as a species we are older than we thought

The Guardian, 3 April 2020:

Homo erectus cranium outline. The earliest known skull of Homo erectus has been unearthed by an Australian-led team in South Africa. 
Photograph: Supplied by La Trobe University

The earliest known skull of Homo erectus has been unearthed by an Australian-led team of researchers who have dated the fossil at two million years old, showing the first of our ancestors existed up to 200,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The lead researcher Prof Andy Herries said the skull was pieced together from more than 150 fragments uncovered at the Drimolen Main Quarry, located about 40km north of Johannesburg in South Africa. It was likely aged between two and three years old when it died.

Herries, a geochronologist and head of archaeology at Melbourne’s La Trobe University, said he “could not stress how rare it is” to find find enough fragments to piece together an intact brain case, especially given juvenile skulls are thin and fragile.

“At this age they are so susceptible to damage,” he said. “It’s so exciting, because our fascination with human evolution is because it’s the story of us, and when we go back this far with a discovery like this, it’s the story of every person living on the planet.

“The group this two or three-year-old was a part of could have been the origin of everyone alive today.”

He said while there was a lot of disagreement of opinion in the field of archaeology and human evolution, one of the reasons Homo erectus is significant is because everyone agreed: “This is the beginning of us, this is the beginning of our genus.”...... 

Herries said the finding was particularly special because in 1924 the Australian anatomist Raymond Dart identified the the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominin closely related to humans and discovered in South Africa. 

“Nobody believed him at the time because they thought the origin of humans would be in Europe,” Herries said. “And now, 100 years later, DMH 134 will go sit in the same room as that child he identified, further proving what he found. It’s a testament to the work of Australians on human evolution.”.....

State of Play COVID-19: NSW Northern Rivers Region by 3 April 2020

A visual reckoning......

Physical area the first two graphs cover.....

Cartoons of the Week

David Rowe

John Shakespeare

Peter Broelman

Tweet of the Week

Many Australians have made brutally clear their disdain in their own Prime Minister. Now they've done something about it.https://t.co/ZHcHsDk2UR

— nzherald (@nzherald) March 30, 2020