Criticism of Morrison Government's "overhyped and underdelivered" national COVID-19 vaccination program continues

 

news.com.au, 5 April 2021:

Yesterday, four million Americans received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as the country continues to rapidly accelerate its rollout.

By comparison, that’s the same number of Australians who were meant to have gotten a jab by the end of March … a target that the Government fell short of by 3.4 million people.

Just two per cent of Australians have received a jab so far, compared to 30 per cent of the US population and 46 per cent of people in the UK.

A number of frontline health workers, hotel quarantine workers and vulnerable aged care residents remain unvaccinated, despite the significant risks.

Supply from overseas has dwindled, distribution of what the country does hold has been marred by issues, communication between authorities and the GPs tasked with administering jabs is chaotic, and fury is growing, experts say.

Instead of seeking solutions, critics accuse Prime Minister Scott Morrison of being distracted by politics and a petty blame game while still insisting that all is going well despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

By the time the US, UK and major European Union nations were six weeks into their respective schemes, those countries had vaccinated several times more people.

When pressed on why the program began so late and has been plagued by so many issues, the Prime Minister has repeated his mantra: “It’s not a race.”

But this overly casual attitude is one of four major mistakes the Government has made, argues Stephen Duckett, director of the Grattan Institute’s health program, who describes the vaccine rollout as “overhyped and underdelivered”.....

Instead of four million Aussies getting a jab by last week as promised, the figure was just 600,000 and Health Minister Greg Hunt won’t say when everyone in the first groups will be vaccinated. 

That’s not to mention the second major group of intended recipients, covering some six million Australians, who were “encouraged to call their GP to organise a vaccination”, Mr Duckett said. 

“(Greg Hunt) made this announcement knowing Australia didn’t have enough vaccines to meet demand. 

“GPs hadn’t been warned of the impending tsunami of calls, nor did they know how many doses they would get and when. The Federal Government didn’t have a robust logistics system to ensure the right doses got to the right places at the right times. GPs were, rightly, extremely angry. 

“The logistics nightmares continue, with the Federal Government persistently failing to provide clarity about dose distribution to either states or GPs.” 

At a media conference yesterday, Mr Hunt couldn’t say when everyone in the first two groups – health workers, hotel quarantine staff and aged care residents – would get their first jabs. 

He also seemingly backed away from another of the Government’s major commitments – that every Aussie who wants a COVID-19 jab will have it by October. 

“As to the rate … that will depend simply on the supply,” Mr Hunt said when pressed on the timeline. 

“The supply at this stage is looking strong. We are in a very fortunate position given the global circumstances (and) with our (locally made AstraZeneca) production.” 

Those firm commitments are now a thing of the past, it seems....

For his part, Mr Duckett blames the Morrison administration’s tendency to prioritise political messaging for much of the confusion and unpreparedness. 

“The Federal Government has seen the vaccine rollout not as a public health program but as a political issue, complete with the Liberal Party logo on a vaccine announcement,” Mr Duckett wrote. 

“The focus has been on announcables and good news stories, with the glory to shine back on the Government in the lead-up to an election. 

“This focus has meant the Government’s initial priority was a rollout through GPs and, later, pharmacies. 

“Involvement of GPs was the right call – it’s good for doctors to provide a comprehensive range of services to their patients. But reliance on GPs was the mistake. 

“GP clinics rarely have the space for significant numbers of people waiting to be vaccinated and to be observed after being vaccinated. 

“Mass vaccination requires large centres such as sports venues and town halls.” 

While maintaining everything is fine, Mr Hunt and the PM have attempted to shift the blame to the states, who in turn have revealed staggering shortcomings on the part of federal authorities. 

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard reacted with fury to criticism from the Federal Government, detailing instances when vaccine stock had not arrived when it was meant to, or arrived suddenly and without warning, akin to “dumping”. 

The Prime Minister’s office points out that it reset it’s end-of-March goal when the European Union blocked the export of millions of doses of vaccines. 

But even on its revised target, it still fell short by more than 1.2 million vaccinations....

Read the full article here. 

It is unfortunate that so few have been vaccinated to date, given that outbreaks of community-transmitted COVID-19 infection are still occurring. 

On 30 March 2021 Queensland Health announced that it had recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 that day, including six locally acquired cases. 

All six locally acquired cases were linked to a Brisbane nurse, who in turn could be linked back to the unvaccinated Princess Alexandra doctor who tested positive on 12 March 2021.

Three new cases linked to this cluster were announced on 3 April 2021.

“The story of a little town in the Clarence Valley and a growing problem” - Part Two

 

On North Coast Voices blog on 1 April 2021 I placed a post titled “The story of a little town in the Clarence Valley and a growing problem”

The problem is flood risk – in a coastal town surrounded by ocean, river, channels and lake, with only one access road leading out to the wider Clarence Valley – and a growing population which may need to evacuate in times of major to extreme flooding.

When it comes to where water first appears within Yamba town limits this second post is a little more specific than the first.

I want to introduce what might be called the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to local flood waters. Yamba Road and the six streets listed below are fairly early indicators of what may possibly follow once the full flood front reaches the town.

These canaries are important, because during times when flooding occurs at the same time as ocean storms and surges, the volume of water entering Yamba is coming from both the Clarence River and the sea. Which means people in Yamba may only have as little as 6 to 12 hours notice of what is heading their way.

During flood events to date the only access road in and out of the town, Yamba Road, can have water either lying across the road surface or it can be cut by flood water sometimes long before the flood front reaches the town - at Oyster Channel, in the vicinity of Palmers Channel, at the Maclean-Pacific Highway interchange and later at Maclean town limits.

That part of Yamba Road within town limits - when it becomes a mixed commercial and residential street can have water across the road (sometimes at depth) at the intersection with Carrs Drive, in the vicinity of Lake Kolora and at the intersection with Angourie Road.

During these flood events water can also be found lying across other residential streets (again sometimes at depth) - such as Shores Drive, Golding Street, Telopea Avenue, Angourie Road, Carrs Drive and Sullivans Road. This is not an exhaustive list of streets where water pools or runs during flood events.

According to Clarence Valley Council’s own flood mapping extreme flood height predictions for these named roads and the houses that line them are:

Yamba Road – a height of 3.68-3.8 metres;

Shores Drive – a height of 3.21-3.33 metres;

Golding Street – a height of 3.68-3.8 metres;

Telopea Ave – a height of 3.56-3.58 metres;

Angourie Road – a height of 3.33-3.8 metres;

Carrs Drive– a height of 3.68-3.8 metres; and

Sullivans Road– a height of 3.68-3.8 metres.

The majority of houses in the town are single story. These listed floodwater heights are well above the average ceiling height of a single storey house which is est. 2.74 metres. In fact, part of the roof of such a house would be submerged at that water depth.

Ironically, Yamba Bowling and Recreational Club which is the town’s designated evacuation centre – at which Yamba residents are advised to assemble, register & then self-evacuate to accommodation with family or friends on higher/dry ground – will itself have floodwater threatening to enter the building during an extreme flood event.

The number of dwellings estimated to be at risk of some degree of inundation in Yamba is 0 in a 1-in-5 year flood, 122 in a 1-20 year flood, 1,223 during a 1-in-100 year flood and 2,144 in an extreme flood.

The fact of the matter is that even in a 1-in-20 year flood Yamba Road will be cut at multiple points on its route through the town at predicted levels from 1.66-1.77m to 1.97-2.08m, which will see quite a few local residents with floodwater running through their homes from either about shoulder height of an average adult female or up to and over to the full height of a tall adult male.

That same flood event would likely see some residents in Shores Drive and Golding Street with floodwaters over the heads of both male and female adults in the household. Some adults at the vicinity of the Angourie Road turn-off will have at least chest-high water in the house. While Carrs Drive will be blocked by 1.35-1.66m of water and some Sullivans Road properties will be inundated to a height of 1.35-1.46m.

In three of the flood scenarios mapped for Yamba – commencing with the 1-in-20 year flood – the town is looking at between 3%-28% of all housing at risk of part or complete inundation in major flooding along the Clarence River and, up to 49% of all the current housing in the town at risk of total inundation in an extreme flood.

In 2008 when the flood frequency table cited was drawn up that last percentage represented the homes of est. 5,360 men, women and children.

As a significant portion of the remaining natural flood storage areas just outside of and within Yamba town limits continues to be drained, filled and covered with houses over the next 25 years or so; where flood waters enter the town, how fast these flood waters move and how much area they cover is likely to change from what has been seen in historical floods since the 1830s.

From this resident's perspective it's time all three tiers of government walked the walk as well as talked the talk when it comes to creating or maintaining sustainable populations on floodplains and in coastal zones in the face of ongoing climate change.

So I ask NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Deputy-Premier & Minister for Regional New South Wales John Barilaro, Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott, members of the Northern Regional Planning Panel and Clarence Valley Council – when are you all going to recognise that Yamba cannot keep growing its population without escalating risks to life and property during future floods and other natural disasters?

When as a way of curbing population growth on this section of the Clarence Valley floodplain are you going to place realistic, in the public interest, restrictions on housing density per hectare in both Yamba and the West Yamba Urban Release Area?

Of NSW Nationals MLA for Clarence Chris Gulaptis I also ask those questions – given that as a former surveyor, development application consultant, land developer and shire councillor he significantly contributed to three decades of urban development on the Lower Clarence section of the floodplain.

In addition I ask the Berejiklian Government, Clarence Valley Council and NSW State Emergency Services when are you finally going to address the fact that there is no viable evacuation plan for Yamba residents during major to extreme flooding events?

I’m sure those families with children and the estimated 37 per cent of the Yamba population 65 years of age and older would be most interested in your answers.

PRINCIPLE SOURCES:

Clarence Valley Council documents including flood mapping at

https://maps.clarence.nsw.gov.au/intramaps97/

Yamba Community Profile at https://profile.id.com.au/clarence-valley/about?WebID=240

2016 Census Quick State - Yamba (NSW) at 

https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/SSC14458#:~:text=In%20the%202016%20Census%2C%20there,up%204.5%25%20of%20the%20population.&text=The%20median%20age%20of%20people,State%20Suburbs)%20was%2056%20years

Images of Yamba during the 2009 flood

TOP: The Daily Examiner photograph of Yamba from the air showing a section of Crystal Waters, Oyster Cove and West Yamba.
MIDDLE: Fletchers Fotographics' Dave Brandon photograph of flooding during the night.
BOTTOM: Vicki James blog had this shot of Shores Drive, Yamba.

Image of a section of Yamba Road during March 2021 flood

The Daily Telegraph, 24 March 2021

Morrison & Co continue to turn the National Disability Insurance Scheme into a hollow husk of its former self

The Saturday Paper, 3 April 2021:

The minister formerly in charge of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Stuart Robert.
CREDIT: AAP / MICK TSIKAS

Last Saturday, shortly after lunchtime, it all exploded. The WhatsApp group – set up between state and territory disability ministers and the then Commonwealth minister, Stuart Robert – had been seething with anger for a while. Then suddenly it was too much.

“I may actually self-combust with incendiary rage before this thing is over,” the ACT minister for Disability, Emma Davidson, messaged her colleagues.

It had been more than 24 hours since a leaked proposal for changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme was reported in Nine newspapers. But state and territory ministers, who share half the oversight of the $25 billion scheme, had still not been given a copy of the legislation. None of them had seen even a briefing note.

At no point since has the federal government – or Stuart Robert, who was moved from the NDIS portfolio earlier this week in a cabinet reshuffle – made the document available to the states and territories.

The Saturday Paper has spoken with several members of the WhatsApp group and the Disability Reform Council, both of which include Robert.

“He thinks it is okay to have state ministers begging to see a copy of the draft legislation,” one minister for Disability says.

“Robert says he is up to draft 80 on this and no one outside of the federal government has seen it. Not state ministers and certainly not people with disability.”

“Stuart Robert is taking all of the King Henry VIII powers,” one legal source said. “You cannot get a more pure power grab. That is a God power.”

After Davidson’s message, New South Wales Liberal minister Gareth Ward offered her a thumbs-up. Within moments, he phoned to express his support.

In the Northern Territory and Western Australia, ministers called for Robert to release the official draft. Until that happens, state and territory ministers are working from a leaked document that outlines an alarming future for the NDIS, including a “God power” for the federal minister to remake the scheme at will.

Robert offered no reply to his fellow ministers at the weekend. It was only after Scott Morrison’s Monday cabinet reshuffle – which saw Robert transferred to the Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business portfolio – that the Queensland MP popped back up in the chat.

Robert told the other ministers he was removing himself from the group and adding in the new minister for the NDIS, Linda Reynolds.

Reynolds, who remains on paid medical leave following revelations about her handling of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation, politely said hello to the ministers with whom she soon would be working.

Sensing an opportunity, they again requested the draft NDIS legislation. Reynolds did not reply, and has not been in the chat since.

The Saturday Paper has obtained a leaked copy of the proposed changes to the NDIS Act, dated December 2020.

The documents signal plans for a broad, sweeping and potentially irrevocable consolidation of power within the scheme to a single person: the federal NDIS minister.

In its 323 pages, bureaucrats have taken the current NDIS Act and tracked changes throughout. They have added entirely new sections to the legislation and deleted key clauses that have underpinned the very nature of the scheme.

Central to the seismic shift is a new ability of the Commonwealth minister to make so-called “rules” at any time, which the chief executive of the National Disability Insurance Agency must follow when interpreting the legislation…...

The Commonwealth minister would be given unilateral power to rule on general supports that will be provided under the scheme, and to dictate the criteria for “determining the total amount of funding allocated for the purposes of a plan”.

This change will strip the states or territories of the veto power they now hold.

But this is not the only significant proposal. The draft legislation includes an expanded debt recovery power, which would allow the NDIA to claw back money from participants who breach the new rules, sparking concern about its similarity to the controversial robo-debt scheme.

In effect, the agency could raise a debt on an individual if they spent their NDIS funding on “ordinary living expenses” or on a service or support the Commonwealth minister decides should have been funded by a state or territory government. These decisions could be entirely arbitrary.

Moreover, as one sector source pointed out, the government is “building a capability to surveil” NDIS participants in order to watch what they spend and where, in close to real time. Using technology solutions such as blockchain – already trialled in the scheme – the government wants to see what people are spending and will launch a new NDIS app in coming months to consolidate these features.

A new section of the act, 46C, would hand the Commonwealth minister the extraordinary power to ban any kind of support and to force states and territories to potentially fund others.

“A participant who receives an NDIS amount, or a person who receives an NDIS amount on behalf of a participant, must not spend the money to acquire goods or services prescribed by the National Disability Insurance Scheme rules for the purposes of this subsection as goods or services acquired as part of ordinary living expenses,” the documents read.

These banned “goods or services” – note, the scheme’s common language of “supports” is not used here – may be things the minister decides ought to be funded by “other general systems of service delivery or support services, whether or not they are currently being so funded or provided”.

The states and territories are concerned this will shift responsibility back to them – as, prior to the introduction of the NDIS, they were the major providers of disability services.

This particular clause, 46C, appears designed in response to a number of Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) findings made against the NDIA…...

Legal experts who spoke with The Saturday Paper were astonished at the breadth of this section in the proposed changes.

“He [Stuart Robert] is taking all of the King Henry VIII powers,” one legal source said. “You cannot get a more pure power grab. That is a God power.”

In law, Henry VIII clauses are often described as subordinate pieces of a primary legislation – in this case NDIS rules under the NDIS Act – that subvert or amend the legislation itself, typically through executive power.

This consolidation of power continues throughout the document.

Proposed changes to section 27 of the act would give the Commonwealth minister unfettered ability to decide, for example, whether people are mentally ill to the degree required for NDIS support. It could allow the minister to deny early intervention funding if they believed the evidence about its “benefit” in the future was unclear.

Most strikingly among the draft changes, though, is the removal of the entirety of section 34, which currently declares that participants will be given “reasonable and necessary” support funding “to pursue [their] goals, objectives and aspirations”.

Contrary to other media reports, there has been no suggestion from the Commonwealth that this is a mistake in the drafting or that it will be unwound.

On March 26, Stuart Robert tweeted, “We are introducing reforms to the NDIS because we believe access to the scheme and a participant’s plan should not be determined by your postcode or how much someone can pay for a report.

“This does not extend to removing the term ‘reasonable and necessary’ from NDIS legislation.”

Robert’s wording is deliberate. The term will likely remain in the legislation but not as a descriptor for what participants should receive in terms of support. Now, the term “reasonable and necessary” will describe a participant budget. The difference is subtle, but the latter places more emphasis on the financial metrics of the NDIS and, according to legal sources, would allow rationing of support without an avenue for legal challenge.

Where the draft discusses what is currently written as “reasonable and necessary supports” for individuals with disability, the reference is struck through and replaced only with “funding for supports”.

No less alarming to disability advocates, but more discreet, is a slew of language changes throughout the new document.

Under this proposal, for example, people with disabilities will no longer be entitled to “reviews” of their own funded support package but will instead be submitted to a “reassessment”. This language is changed throughout, and the word “request” has been changed to “requirement” for assessment information. Privately, NDIA staff and Stuart Robert’s office believe they do not need legislative force to introduce controversial independent assessments (IAs) – by government contractors who will examine disabled people to determine their functional needs, breaking the often years-long relationship between people and their treating health professionals – but these are included in draft proposals.

“A requirement … may specify that the assessment or examination is to be conducted by a person included in a class of persons made known to the prospective participant,” the draft clause says.

Public Interest Advocacy Centre senior solicitor Chadwick Wong, who leads the organisation’s project to institute a fairer NDIS, says the combined effect of independent assessments and the leaked legislative changes create new “transparency, accountability and governance issues”.

“The government’s cost-cutting overhaul of the NDIS includes a number of disturbing changes that will erode the ‘choice and control’ promised by the scheme to people with disability,” Wong says.

“The removal of the word ‘co-design’, as seen in documents leaked to the media … also points to a concerning step away from meaningful engagement with the disability sector.

“We urge the government to stop the implementation of these changes immediately, and to properly consult with the community so that improvements to the NDIS may be co-designed with people with disability.”

Taking all of the proposed and planned changes together, the impact on people with a disability is significant. Here’s how independent assessments will work with the government’s desired legislative overhaul.

The eight-year-long experience of people turning up to a planning meeting, expressing their goals and ambitions to live life in the community and having each of those goals funded through a “reasonable and necessary” support to achieve them are over.

Instead, a person’s first experience of the NDIS will be a functional assessment carried out by a team of strangers for a few hours. This assessment will automatically generate a “draft budget” based on software that splits them into categories. These categories will be informed by the functional need score, their age and, according to the agency itself in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, “the impact of their environment, such as the informal supports available to the participant and other contextual factors such as locality or circumstance”.

Rather than building a support package from scratch, participants will arrive at their first planning meeting with a generic draft budget and then have limited opportunity to argue for individual changes.

Advocates are calling it “robo-planning”. If the NDIS was the greatest policy achievement in a generation, these changes represent the greatest disfiguring of its original intention. They lay the groundwork for an NDIS that is less generous, less fair and less accessible – all under the caprice of a single minister. And he just left the chat.

Cartoon of the Week

First Dog On The Moon

Quotes of the Week

 

“When Scott Morrison says he’s listening, it’s usually to himself.” [Dennis Aitkins writing in The New Daily, 27 March 2021]

“This prime minister speaks almost exclusively to one cohort of voters: men at risk of voting Labor.” [Political editor and journalist Katharine Murphy, writing in The Guardian, 27 March 2021]

As a Byron Bay resident tested positive for COVID-19 on 30 March 2021 new restrictions are now in place for residents and visitors in the local government areas of Tweed Shire Council, Ballina Shire Council, Byron Shire Council and Lismore City Council

Northern NSW Local Health District, media release, 1 April 2021:

With Easter holidays now upon us, health authorities are encouraging people to celebrate safely as health restrictions come into force for certain local government areas in Northern NSW.

Northern NSW Local Health District Chief Executive, Wayne Jones, said the current rules around mask wearing, private gatherings and social distancing shouldn’t mean that people need to miss out on connecting with loved ones and friends over the Easter break.

“If you’re meeting up with friends, hosting a family gathering or celebrating at a religious service, please ensure you are following the current health advice,” Mr Jones said.

New restrictions are now in place for residents and visitors in the local government areas of Tweed Shire Council, Ballina Shire Council, Byron Shire Council and Lismore City Council:

• mask wearing is compulsory on public transport, in retail stores, and in all public indoor settings;

• the one person per four square metre rule will apply at all public indoor settings including hospitality venues;

• the number of household visitors will be capped at 30 including holiday rental properties.

“If you’re going out to celebrate, check-in and then check-out with the QR codes, so if needed, our contact tracers can quickly locate anyone who may have been a venue of concern,” Mr Jones said.

“If you are having people gather at your home, please also keep a list of your guests, because it’s vital that our health teams are able to track down potential close contacts of any positive COVID-19 cases.”

 

There have now been 70 cases of COVID-19 among residents in the Northern NSW Local Health District since the pandemic began, with the latest locally acquired case announced yesterday (Wednesday 31 March).

Prior to this case, the region had experienced 248 days without a locally acquired infection.

NNSWLHD cases by likely source of infection:

Source                                          Total

Overseas or interstate acquired 64

Locally acquired – contact of a

confirmed case or in a known cluster 5

Locally acquired – source not identified 1

Under investigation 0

Total 70

Of these cases, 67 are considered to have recovered.

HOSPITAL VISITOR RESTRICTIONS

Visitor restrictions in hospitals and health facilities have been strengthened to protect patients and staff.

Patients are now permitted to have one visitor for one hour, twice a day, between the hours of 1pm and 6pm. Two separate visitors could visit a patient during these hours.

Temperature checking is in place, and visitors who have been in the Greater Brisbane area over the last 14 days are not permitted to enter. Visitors also need to check in with the QR code.

Maternity services have also further restricted visitors. Women can continue to nominate two support people for her labour and birth, and these support people can also visit after the birth. No other visitors are permitted at this time.

“Wherever you are over this holiday period, it’s critical that you continue to practise COVID-safe behaviours and come forward for testing, with even the mildest of symptoms,” Mr Jones said.

To help stop the spread of COVID-19:

– If you are unwell, get tested and isolate right away – don’t delay. Remain isolated until you receive your test result.

– Wash your hands regularly. Take hand sanitiser with you when you go out.

– Keep your distance. Leave 1.5 metres between yourself and others.

– It is strongly recommended you wear a mask in situations where you can’t physically distance.

To find your nearest testing clinic visit https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/how-toprotect-yourself-and-others/clinics or contact your GP.