COVID-19 nears NSW cabinet
Why hasn’t the NSW Premier acknowledged that a COVID-19 hotspot linked to Tangara school could impact her own cabinet?
Given that NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian expects the COVID hotspot linked to Tangara School for Girls “will grow” … it’s curious she hasn’t mentioned the cluster could impact her own cabinet.
Three of Treasurer Dominic Perrottet’s six children attend the private school’s primary campus, in the building next to Sydney’s latest mystery coronavirus outbreak. And he thought the icare scandal was his biggest problem!
There have been 17 confirmed cases linked to the Cherrybrook school in Sydney’s leafy Hills District so far —11 senior students, one teacher, three household and two social contacts. To make matters worse, health authorities are baffled by the source of the outbreak.
“I anticipate the number of that cluster will grow,” Berejiklian said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, people who live in that same household are extremely susceptible; if someone in your family in your household has it, is very difficult not to get it, so that’s why we ensure everybody in the household self-isolates, follows the rules and makes sure they provide all the advice they can to your health authorities”.
Contact tracers are using all resources available to investigate, after the Opus Dei-run school shut down rumours it started at a retreat. HSC Year 12 trial exams have been cancelled, with all students and staff at Tangara’s secondary campus forced into two weeks of self-isolation.
Strewth understands each one will undergo mandatory testing, even if they are asymptomatic. The secondary campus is closed until August 24, with the junior school scheduled to reopen next Wednesday for parents who need to send their kids in. Perrottet’s three primary-aged children — Charlotte, Amelia and Annabell e — are back on the home school bandwagon. His office informed Strewth the health advice says there is no need for the Perrottet family to quarantine. Junior students and their parents have been told to monitor for symptoms and get tested if anything mild appears.
Perhaps this is why Berejiklian confessed: “All of us have to be on guard, all of us are on high alert. I’m absolutely paranoid about what I do myself. The worst thing would be to unintentionally give it to others and unfortunately many people — I don’t want people living with the guilt of passing on the disease.”
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Home sweet home
Peter Dutton sent the resignation rumour mill into overdrive when he updated his property portfolio on the Register of Members’ Interest last week.
The Minister for Home Affairs’ latest purchase is a family farm in Dayboro, a 50-minute car ride north of Brisbane within his electorate of Dickson. Dutton also owns investment properties in Moreton Island, Palm Beach and Spring Hill, having sold his Canberra apartment in Kingston after that failed leadership spill.
The real estate reshuffle — plus his perceived sidelining during the pandemic — sparked some Liberal colleagues to suspect he was planning to follow Mathias Cormann out the door. However, rumours of his political death have been greatly exaggerated.
Dutton’s office told Strewth the frontbencher sold his principal place of residence at Camp Mountain earlier this year (it was removed from his register on March 31) and has moved to Dayboro. For the record, he plans to contest the next election.
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Feline relaxed
One big name has resigned this week — Palmerston, the Chief Mouser for the British Foreign Office.
The black and white rescue cat (age and pension unknown) posted a “letter” to his more than 100,000 Twitter followers announcing he was hanging up his claw-ses and paw-licy after four years to “spend more time relaxing away from the limelight”.
Here’s my favourite tree to climb ⬇ï¸ðŸ‘Œ pic.twitter.com/RXmbQxmSQz
— Palmerston (@DiploMog) August 7, 2020
Palmerston — named after the famously interventionist and amorous 19th-century foreign secretary and prime minister Viscount Palmerston — has allegedly been moved to an undisclosed location in country Whitehall and is now climbing trees rather than “overhearing all the foreign dignitaries’ conversations”.
In the “letter” addressed to Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Simon McDonald, Palmerston “writes” that while in service he “pawed numerous memorandums”, set up his own “parallel network” for intelligence gathering and photo-bombed foreign dignitaries. Just like any political animal, Palmerston had his rivals. Namely Larry, Number 10’s main mouse-catcher. Their decidedly undiplomatic disputes have sparked several hissy fits and a stand-off in full view of the Downing Street press. Sounds just like a Canberra Bubble™ partyroom!
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Bubble brevity
Peter McKay was announced as the Canberra Liberals “high calibre” candidate for the inner-city seat of Kurrajong on Sunday. By Tuesday afternoon, he was gone. How’s that for a public vetting process!
McKay was dumped for describing Indigenous Welcome to Country ceremonies as “animistic religious practices” that should be “condemned”. And his claim that ACT Policing was “influenced by the homosexual Chief Minister” Andrew Barr.
Peter McKay has resigned as Canberra Liberals replacement candidate for Kurrajong, at the request of leader Alistair Coe, Mr Coe says.
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) August 11, 2020
He was announced as a candidate on Sunday.
Why? See this from @abccanberra's @mickinman: https://t.co/gokoVZ5cLO#canberra pic.twitter.com/QSqHmP9tD4
We prefer McKay’s earlier work. In 2011, he warned an inquiry into the Prostitution Act that Canberra’s sex industry was a “drain on the ACT housing budget” as men’s infidelity led to break-ups and split homes.
In a Sunday statement, Canberra Liberals leader Alistair Coe said McKay brought “a real-life understanding of so many long-term Canberrans who want to make sure that Canberra can be the best place to retire”. Until he didn’t.
Coe kowtowed two days later: “My vision of ensuring Canberra is the best place to live, work and raise a family includes ensuring Canberra is inclusive of all people, regardless of their culture, ethnicity, faith, gender or sexuality.”
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Take a mark
Bill Shorten reluctantly thinks Melbourne should handball the Aussie rules grand final to the Gabba.
“I’ve been really thinking about this because my in-laws live in Queensland,” the former Labor leader said.
“My concern is that if it goes to Western Australia, they’ll never give it back. So, I mean, part of me says a traditional AFL state should get a guernsey. You know, Adelaide or Perth. But AFL wants to expand nationally. So probably Brisbane. But, oh, God, it just kills me that it’s not in Melbourne. It just kills me. Like, it’s a disaster.”
A bit dramatic?
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Worth a shot?
Here’s a headline from satirical news site the Betoota Advocate: “Unsullied Eunuchs To Guard Melbourne’s Quarantined Hotels From Now On, Says Premier Andrews”. Quick, someone get Dan or Brett on the phone!
strewth@theaustralian.com.au
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