Key events
Who is Labor’s Paul Erickson?
In his victory speech on Saturday night, Anthony Albanese described him as “a “magnificent campaign director”.
But who is Paul Erickson, the mastermind behind Labor’s win? Henry Belot traces his rise from student politics in Melbourne through the Labor machine. As one observer says: “He’s a true believer who wants to beat Tories and get Labor governments elected to do good things.”
Read the whole piece here:
Flu vaccination rates ‘dire’, expert warns
Natasha May
Experts are urging people to get vaccinated for the flu this season with cases already relatively high for this time of year in all jurisdictions.
Prof Julie Leask from the University of Sydney said the flu is the “underdog of infectious diseases”, in that people underestimate its severity.
As a result, flu vaccination coverage remains perpetually low, with current data showing the national rate for people above 65 years of age receiving flu vaccines is only 62%, and far lower for other age groups. These vaccination rates are “dire” and not improving, Leask says.
Flu vaccination needs to be a habit for Australians, with data showing once they receive a vaccine one year, they tend to continue it the next, so it is important for healthcare workers to encourage patients to initiate that habit, Leask said.
Prof Patrick Reading, the director of WHO collaborating centre for reference and research on influenza based at the Peter Doherty Institute for infection and immunity, said flu case numbers in Australia between January and April have already been higher than usual in all jurisdictions.
However, experts cannot predict the severity of the upcoming flu season as the virus is so unpredictable that an early peak does not always predict greater severity, Reading said.
Leask said “it’s always a bad flu season because it results in hospitalisations and deaths”, but the more people can receive recommendations, reminders, and easy access to flu vaccines, the better.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Rafqa Touma with the main action.
Tim Wilson is projected to reclaim his inner-Melbourne seat of Goldstein from the teal independent Zoe Daniel today but several other races are going down to the wire. Another class-of-2022 independent, Monique Ryan, is less than 100 votes ahead of Liberal Amelia Hamer in Kooyong next door to Goldstein; there is also a too-close-to-call race in the Sydney seat of Bradfield between the Liberal Gisele Kapterian and independent Nicolette Boele. And back in Melbourne, Greens leader Adam Bandt may lose his seat. We will have the latest on all the races over the day in the blog.
Back with the Liberals, whoever replaces Peter Dutton faces a period of “instability” and must be prepared to be regularly criticised and challenged as the party wrestles with its future after its disastrous election defeat. We will have the latest on this other important race.
Speculation about the makeup of Anthony Albanese’s new ministry continued with Labor insiders saying assistant trade minister Tim Ayres’s move to pass up promotion last year in favour of female colleagues will all but guarantee him a spot in Anthony Albanese’s looming reshuffle. And economists hope that the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will be able to pursue structural reform after the fall of inflation.
Experts are warning this morning that flu vaccination rates in Australia are “dire” ahead of the flu season this winter. Flu cases have already been higher than usual this year and one specialist urged people to take up the jab because flu was the “underdog of infectious diseases” and easy to underestimate its severity.
