COVID Latest: Eden-Monaro By-Election Hit By Coronavirus Fake Email Hoax
Friday: uni fees to double; landlord vs tenant assault over COVID repayment plan
Morning! It’s Friday, June 19. Here is today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’ — 5 things to know about COVID-19 today, + 5 non-corona things as well.
Latest AU stats: as of 9pm Thursday, Australia has 7391 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +21 since the day before), with 6877 reported as ‘recovered’, and 102 deaths, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. More stats below.
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Eden-Monaro hoax emails link election to COVID
A by-election for the federal seat of Eden-Monaro will be held on July 4, after the retirement of former local member Mike Kelly. The campaign has been marred by a series of outrageous and wildly false emails targeting the Labor candidate, Kristy McBain. The ABC has previously reported on chain emails being sent around Australia which falsely link McBain “with the George Pell court case and the COVID-19 pandemic” and “also claim the people of Eden-Monaro are being punished by God with bushfires” (link).
Now, further emails — purporting to come from Catholic-linked organisations — have again (falsely) claimed McBain was diagnosed with coronavirus, that her staff on the campaign trail are not respecting social distancing and potentially spreading COVID, and that progressive campaign organisation GetUp! is also somehow involved.
I’ve spoken to McBain’s campaign and GetUp!, and both say every one of the claims made about them are utter bullshit.
McBain’s team told me she has definitely not tested positive for COVID, and that other claims in the emails going around (which I’m not going to detail) are also untrue. In a prior response to previous emails along the same lines, McBain called the claims “wrong, false and offensive.” GetUp! told me that they don’t even have any campaigners on the ground in Eden-Monaro, for a start, and are not working with McBain’s campaign either.
The latest set of emails — which were sent seemingly at random, including ending up in the inbox of a music venue in Sydney’s inner-west — are made to look like they came from the address of a Catholic welfare organisation based on the NSW south coast. That group, which I’ve decided not to name, declined to comment directly but said “these emails have affected many organisations”.
In a statement to the ABC on prior emails, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said the church “has denounced a number of malicious emails being sent to random recipients claiming to be from Catholic parishes, dioceses and other organisations.” Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro, Fiona Kotvojs, also told the ABC that she “fully” condemned the previous emails, saying “it is offensive and inappropriate. There is no place for this sort of thing in our politics or our society.”
Such offensive chain spam emails are sadly becoming a common feature in Australian elections. Emails similar in tone and content also appeared in the 2018 Wentworth by-election, making vile claims about Kerryn Phelps and Dave Sharma. The emails appear to be sent through programs that ‘spoof’ email addresses, making it appear to come from a sender which it did not.
The latest email ends with the Hebrew phrase בברכה, which translates to “regards”.
It is unclear exactly how far the emails have spread, and if they would have any impact on the election — but considering someone (or some group) is trying to weaponise the pandemic for political impact, I thought it was worth reporting.
Landlord allegedly assaults tenant on COVID payment plan
A landlord and his mate face court over claims they assaulted a young tenant who was behind on his rent (link). The 24-year-old renter said he believed he’d entered into a repayment plan with his landlord, due to financial difficulties he faced thanks to the COVID crisis — but police allege the tenant came home yesterday to find the 56-year-old landlord and his 57-year-old friend at the Surry Hills house, who police allege “threatened then assaulted him and prevented him from leaving the premises until he’d paid the outstanding rent in full.”
The 56-year-old man was arrested and charged with detain person for advantage. He will reappear in court in August. The 57-year-old was charged with take/detain in company with intent to obtain advantage occasioning actual bodily harm, and will appear in court today.
Some uni fees to double in COVID recovery
A surprise announcement today that university fees for arts degrees are set to more than double, while fees for nursing and tech degrees will decrease (link). It’s linked with the government trying to plan jobs for the post-COVID economy, with education minister Dan Tehan encouraging people toward study “in areas where there is expected growth in job opportunities”. It’s also expected that demand for uni courses will surge in coming years with more young people finishing year 12, and fewer leavers looking at a gap year due to COVID travel restrictions and a cratering job market.
The country where it “feels like the coronavirus never happened”
CNN has this interesting look at Iceland, where COVID initially wreaked havoc, but was then wrestled under control through strict tracing and quarantine. In Iceland, “the bars and restaurants are full. People are out enjoying themselves. Spectacular geological attractions are wide open to tourists. Anyone visiting Iceland right now could be forgiven for thinking they've arrived in a parallel universe where the coronavirus never happened.”
By contrast, Florida looks to be the next big epicentre for the virus in the USA, with numbers spiking there recently (link). Globally, Brazil is nearly at one million confirmed cases, while India has suddenly shot up to number four worldwide with more than 366,000 cases. There is also concern about rapidly growing numbers in Africa, especially South Africa, and Latin America. Three of the top nine countries for caseload are in South America (Brazil, Peru and Chile), while numbers are also ballooning in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mexico (link).
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 9.30am AEST Friday) report 8,453,080 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 452,520 deaths.
The United States has 2,187,876 confirmed cases; Brazil is next on 978,142, then Russia (560,321). The U.S. has the most deaths (118,381), then Brazil on 47,748 and the United Kingdom third (42,373).
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Thursday) show 7391 cases, 6877 people recovered, and 102 deaths.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
PM Scott Morrison just called a surprise morning press conference to announce Australia is under cyber attack from a “sophisticated state-based cyber actor” — but his announcement was quickly met with confusion, as Morrison couldn’t or wouldn’t detail what form the attack had taken, exactly what parts of the government or society were being targeted, or by whom, or for what purpose (link).
88 ads from Donald Trump’s campaign have been removed from Facebook, after they violated the platform’s policies against ‘organised hate’, by using an upside-down red triangle — a symbol used by Nazi concentration camps — to identify ‘antifa’ supporters. Facebook said “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol” (link).
Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton has now released his long-awaited and controversial book ‘The Room Where It Happened’, detailing some blockbuster stories about his time in the White House — including Trump asking China for help to win re-election, offering favours to dictators, and his stunning lack of knowledge about history, geography and politics. The Guardian has detailed “eight of its most stunning claims” here.
TV legend Ernie Dingo has spoken out after he was racially abused at a Perth train station this week (link). Dingo said he shoved the man after being hit with a vile racial slur, saying he was sick of copping such language his whole life.
Australia’s federal minimum wage will increase by $13 a week, thanks to the latest ruling from the Fair Work Commission (link).
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
Be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here; Australian government latest statistics here.
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Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh
Disgusting move by the Government re Uni fees today! These Year 12 students have had enough to deal with this year already. It’s too late to change their subject section now. Absolutely appalling to throw this at them at this stage of the year! Typical of this bumbling Government to not think about these things before students make their subject selections that are what is required for Uni selection in the first place! Now there is a whole group of Year 12 students being held to ransom for an extra $10,000 a year in Uni fees in many cases. DEPLORABLE!