Morning mail: vaccine rollout delay, deaths in custody, royals 'not a racist family'

Good morning, it’s Imogen Dewey on Friday 12 March with an update on Australia’s vaccine rollout, more grim news about Indigenous deaths in custody, and concerns from several quarters about China’s surveillance policies.

Aboriginal justice advocates have expressed their devastation following a third Indigenous death in custody in a week and demanded the Australian prime minister urgently meet with bereaved families to progress reforms. Victorian Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has described the justice system as “deeply racist”.

An Aboriginal man died in Victoria’s Ravenhall Correctional Centre on Sunday – news released yesterday as it was found that Aboriginal man Nathan Reynolds died from an asthma attack in 2018 after an “unreasonably delayed” response from prison staff. In New South Wales, a man in his 30s and a woman in her 50s also died in custody in the past week, but their deaths were only revealed under questioning during a state parliamentary hearing this week.

Court documents have shown that Townsville police used a controversial neck hold banned in jurisdictions across the world during the arrest of an Indigenous man who died in 2018. The 39-year-old, known as Noomba, was arrested after his wife called police because she was concerned about his mental wellbeing.

“Thirty years on since the royal commission, how is it possible that our people are still dying in custody and not a single person or institution has been held to account?” Thorpe said yesterday. “When will we have peace?”

Labor has accused the Morrison government of walking back on its commitment to get Australians “fully vaccinated” by October. Officials told the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry yesterday that some people may have to wait until December to get their second shot. (UK researchers have warned that delaying the second Pfizer dose leaves cancer patients at risk – though data from Israel shows it is highly effective against the virus.) Labor also had questions about the $1.2bn tourism package unveiled yesterday, providing cheap flights (which has also been criticised by the sector): specifically, why regions with marginal seats are getting new half-price flights while neighbouring areas miss out.

In other Covid news, it turns out that HealthEngine, the company responsible for Australia’s vaccine bookings was previously fined for sharing patient data. An outage yesterday locked customers out of the Service NSW Covid check-in app for four hours. And an investigation into cases of blood clots has prompted several European countries to pause their use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, though Europe’s medicines agency says it can still be used.

Australia

Human Rights Watch says its research has found there is ‘a very deep fear of being watched, of being reported on’.
Human Rights Watch says its research has found there is ‘a very deep fear of being watched, of being reported on’. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Chinese students in Australia are afraid to speak out on politically sensitive issues because of potential repercussions for relatives back home, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.

Australia’s proposed anti-corruption commission creates a “retrograde” system, lobby group Transparency International has warned. It says the government’s draft legislation lacks credibility – and could actually degrade the existing integrity framework.

Home affairs minister Peter Dutton has triggered a political backlash in New Zealand by characterising the transfer of deportees across the Tasman as “taking the trash out” to “make Australia a safer place”.

A jury took just two hours to convict four men for the “breathtakingly evil” deaths of two people whose bodies were found in a toolbox submerged in a Queensland lagoon.

The world

Ted Hui, a former democratic lawmaker now in Australia, who co-signed the letter, said the EU ‘must search their conscience’.
Ted Hui, a former democratic lawmaker now in Australia, who co-signed the letter, said the EU ‘must search their conscience’. Photograph: Lam Yik/Reuters

Hong Kong democracy activists are urging the EU not to ratify a new investment deal with China, saying it should refuse to sign until national security laws are repealed and restrictions on who can stand for election are lifted.

Three Palestinian fishermen have died in an offshore blast. According to the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza, an explosive-laden Israeli drone had fallen into the sea and blew up in their nets.

MEPs have voted to declare the EU an ‘LGBTIQ freedom zone’ in a symbolic protest against discriminatory policies promoted in Poland and Hungary where regions have set themselves against the “ideology” of equality.

Donald Trump requested a mail-in ballot for his local municipal election this week, despite a long record of attacks against what he has labeled a “fraudulent” voting method. Speaking of former White House residents, Michelle Obama says she’s moving towards retirement to “chase summer” and spend more time with husband Barack.

Recommended reads

‘There are a range of ways in which our legal system and our institutions investigate credible allegations and provide the opportunities for all parties to have their perspectives heard.’
‘There are a range of ways in which our legal system and our institutions investigate credible allegations and provide the opportunities for all parties to have their perspectives heard.’ Photograph: Alexander Kirch / EyeEm/Getty Images/EyeEm

“No, prime minister, sexual assault allegations are not only a matter for the police.” Karen O’Connell and Liam Elphick suggest that despite attempts to reform it, the criminal law in Australia remains a terrible tool for dealing with gender-based sexual violence.

And several years after #MeToo, Katherine Angel writes that we also need to take bad sex more seriously. “Consent has been portrayed as the cure for all the ills of our sexual culture. But what if the injunction to ‘know what you want’ is another form of coercion?”

“If ever there’s a case where the headline doesn’t tell the full story, it’s the news that Victoria’s Yallourn power generator – one of Australia’s oldest and dirtiest coal plants – will shut earlier than planned.” Outcry over such closures misses the point, says Adam Morton: change is coming. “Trying to heavy owners won’t hold back the renewables tide. It’s time to plan, and the blueprint exists.”

Plus: Gurrumul, Omar Souleyman, 9Bach and DakhaBrakha … the best global artists the Grammys forgot.

Listen

“We’re very much not a racist family,” said Prince William, defending the royals against accusations made by Prince Harry and Meghan in an interview with Oprah that sent shockwaves around the world this week. (Prompting, among other things, Piers Morgan to leave Good Morning Britain.) Tens of millions tuned in as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex aired revelations about racism, mental health and what goes on behind the scenes in the British Monarchy.

There are now fresh calls for Australia to become a republic, but will it ever come to pass? Today, the Guardian’s news editors discuss.

Full Story is Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.

Sport

The Chinese Olympic Committee has offered vaccine doses to be used for participants at this year’s Tokyo Olympics and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022, the International Olympic Committee confirmed. A final decision on whether overseas fans can attend is still to come.

Sonny Bill Williams has announced his retirement from professional rugby, with the dual-code New Zealand international also suggesting he may return to boxing.

Australia wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Philippe has pulled out of the IPL for personal reasons, prompting Royal Challengers Bangalore to sign uncapped New Zealander Finn Allen as a like-for-like replacement.

Media roundup

Australia will “fight back” on the EU’s decision to impose carbon levies on countries with weak emissions laws, reports the Age ($), with a plan to scrap tariffs on green industries. Asio says a Liberal party donor engaged in “acts of foreign interference” for Beijing, according to the ABC. Also on the ABC, the ATO has revealed it is still owed hundreds of millions of dollars in jobkeeper rorts and overpayments. And a Sydney private girls’ school is setting up an external complaints process after former students recently came forward with concerns over grooming, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Coming up

It’s 100 years since Edith Cowan, Australia’s first female parliamentarian, won the election for the WA state seat of West Perth.

A Senate inquiry report is due on changes to fair work laws, and a report on increasing the dole payment is due to be tabled.

And if you’ve read this far …

Spare a thought for the good people of Adelaide, where a bumper cloud of megabats is wreaking havoc on the power network. Protected grey-headed flying foxes, Australia’s largest bat, have wingspans of up to one metre … and there are 25,000 of them still learning to steer, plunging households into multiple blackouts a week

source: theguardian.com