March 28 – April 3, 2020
News
Comment
Comment
Peter Doherty
The pandemic we had to have
“What is clearly different with this outbreak is that SARS-CoV-2 is completely new to us. Unlike with flu viruses, to which we all have some prior immunity, the world is experiencing a ‘virgin soil’ pandemic, where everyone is both susceptible and a potential transmitter. This doesn’t mean it’s unstoppable, though.”
Comment
Paul Bongiorno
Government’s crashing failure in face of crisis
“If anything crystallises the brutal impact of the coronavirus crisis in Australia, it is the thousands queued outside Centrelink offices around the country this week. The lines began forming the day after the prime minister announced that vast sectors of the economy were to be shut down, with income support for those affected. Here was the intersection of life or death measures, crashing the livelihoods of millions and again exposing a government response that was poorly thought through and executed.”
Letters, Cartoon & Editorial
Culture
Profile
MICF director Susan Provan on shutting down the show
Susan Provan has been director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for 27 years, taking it from strength to strength. So, the decision to cancel this year’s event – for the first time in its history – was no laughing matter. “We were in a position where we had to move quickly. We were literally building venues. We needed to minimise the fallout.”
Television
The Plot Against America
HBO’s The Plot Against America, based on the Philip Roth novel, brings together Winona Ryder and John Turturro in a reimagining of America’s World War II history. Now the slickly produced series is more pertinent to current times than the creators could ever have imagined.
Books
Life
Puzzles
Quotes
HUMILITY
“We are much better prepared than we would have been because of the work I did back then in my day as Health minister.”
The former prime minister takes credit for Australia’s Covid-19 preparedness. Experts predict the country will run out of ICU beds within the fortnight.
TECHNOLOGY
“MyGov has not been offline, it’s simply suffered from a distributed denial of service attack this morning.”
The Government Services minister suggests hackers crashed the Centrelink website. It was actually just hundreds of thousands of baristas, pilots, retail workers, chefs and travel agents who lost their livelihoods overnight.
HINDSIGHT
“I’d have said, ‘Yeah, maybe we should hold them on the ship.’ ”
The New South Wales Health minister expresses regret that cruise ship passengers were allowed to disembark in Sydney without being tested for Covid-19. But who could have imagined 2700 people crammed into a boat would be at risk of spreading a highly infectious virus?
REVOLUTION
“We will learn to kiss and hold each other through the waves of the web. We will feed each other, redistribute wealth, strike. We will understand our own importance from the places we must stay.”
The pop star, who once implored her fans to “Work Bitch”, appears to call for the end of capitalism on her Instagram. Seize the means of production, comrade.
OPTIMISM
“You know, this is an opportunity.”
The billionaire furniture salesman finds a silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic. He was later mortified the public now sees him as “a heartless, greedy old bastard”, which apparently wasn’t the point of the interview.
HEAVY-HANDEDNESS
“Coronavirus will continue to be one of the biggest challenges facing balustrade related industries (ABA) in modern times.”
The peak body says it will be profoundly impacted by Covid-19. If no other plea for social distancing has moved you, please think of them.
