What we know today, Thursday March 31
Job vacancies in February reached 423,000 across Australia – almost double pre-pandemic levels – as demand for workers continues to run hot.
- Record job vacancies expose labour shortages
- COVID stretches SA schools as resources dwindle
- Xenophon launches stinging rebuke to Rex’s Huawei claims
- Warnie given rockstar farewell at the MCG
- Albanese to hand down Labor’s budget reply
- Bruce Willis retires from acting after aphasia diagnosis
Record job vacancies expose labour shortages
Job vacancies in February reached 423,000 across Australia – almost double pre-pandemic levels – as demand for workers continues to run hot.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said job vacancies in February were 6.9 per cent higher than in November and around 200,000 more than was recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In South Australia, vacancies have increased 110 per cent since February 2020 to almost 25,000.
“Job vacancies continued to reach new record highs through the pandemic,” ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said.
“The high number of vacancies shows the strong demand for workers across the economy, as businesses are responding to disruptions to operations, together with labour shortages across the economy.”
This week’s budget and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s most recent forecasts point to the unemployment rate hitting 3.75 per cent this year, a level not seen since the early 1970s.
The jobless rate sits at four per cent, its lowest level in 14 years.
The ABS also released building approvals figures which showed a massive increase in February, rebounding after the disruptions caused by the Omicron variant outbreak.
Total building approvals soared 43.5 per cent in February to 18,675 after slumping 27.1 per cent in January.
In SA, building approvals rose 35.9 per cent to 1127.
COVID stretches SA schools as resources dwindle
South Australia’s schools remain under pressure as the state’s COVID-19 cases continue to climb, with close to 900 education staff absent from the workforce and well over a dozen classrooms temporarily closed across the state.
The rate of children absent from school has also grown to 4.1 per cent, according to Education Department figures, well up from around two per cent at the start of the month.
There are now 883 teachers and SSO staff absent due to COVID, up from 758 last week.
Around 200 unvaccinated school staff will be welcomed back into the workforce today after the vaccination mandate for teachers – and passenger transport workers – was scrapped on Wednesday.
It comes as SA recorded 5496 new cases yesterday – second only to the 5679 it recorded on January 14 at the height of the Omicron surge – while hospitalisations increased by just 10 to 180, with eight people in intensive care and one on a ventilator.
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The state also recorded two new deaths of people with COVID, a man in his 70s and a woman in her 80s.
Education Department CEO Rick Persse admitted it was a “challenging” time for the state’s schools but emphasised a state-wide approach to school closures was still not appropriate.
He said there are currently 16 schools across the state where there’s a temporary three-day class closure to halt the spread of COVID-19.
“We also have a couple of our large secondary schools on a remote learning program at the moment,” Persse told reporters yesterday.
Persse named Adelaide High, Wirreanda secondary school in Morphett Vale and Roxby Downs Area School as among those to close down.
Sacred Heart College, meanwhile, has told parents it will be setting aside two student-free “preparation days” – one at the end of term one and another at the start of term two – to help teachers prepare learning materials amid a wave of COVID-19 cases
“For the past two weeks we have had around 20 per cent of our students (400-550) absent each day along with a large number of staff (20-30) who are either COVID Positive, Close Contacts or Carers,” Sacred Heart principal Steve Byrne told parents on Wednesday.
“The preparation days are intended to be used by staff to to prepare materials for Term 2 with a focus on preparing materials that can be readily accessed by students who are forced to quarantine, as well as being ready to deliver remote learning if that becomes necessary.”
Persse also told reporters yesterday that the Education Department is “eating into … pretty seriously” a pool of 4000 temporary relief teachers established at the start of the year to respond to local staffing issues.
“Teachers, SSOs are members of the community and as cases rise that no doubt manifests itself in our schools and preschools,” he said.
“We are obviously feeling pressure in our specialist teaching areas and the further away from the metropolitan area make it’s a little bit more trickier.
“But we’re going OK.”
Xenophon launches stinging rebuke to Rex’s Huawei claims
Federal senate candidate Nick Xenophon has hit back strongly against Rex Patrick for questioning his links to Chinese telecommunications company Huawei, labelling the attack a “miserable attempt to dredge up some votes”.
Patrick, who previously worked as a Xenophon staffer and is now pitted against his former boss in a federal senate race, used parliamentary privilege on Tuesday to slam Xenophon’s links to Huawei, likening it to doing PR for German arms manufacturers under the Nazi regime.
Xenophon’s law firm – to which he returned after his political career crashed in 2018 – was controversially retained as “strategic counsel” to Huawei in 2019, after the federal government banned the Chinese titan from taking part in its 5G rollout, citing security concerns over its ties to Beijing.
“It’s a huge Chinese corporation, intimately connected with the CCP, which supports Chinese state espionage and which, according to documents published in the Washington Post in December last year, has helped Chinese authorities create the surveillance network that targets that country’s Uighur minority,” Patrick said in parliament on Tuesday night
“There can’t be any compromise when it comes to Australian national security, nor can there be compromises on human rights.”
But Xenophon hit back on Wednesday, saying Patrick “needs to get his head out of the clouds with his military obsessions”.
“The law firm acted for Huawei Australia – they were under ruthless attack and we defended their legal rights, as lawyers do,” he said in a statement.
“We were not lobbyists for them. We didn’t engage with Canberra at all. We advised them on their legal options in defending themselves.
“Is Mr Patrick suggesting that if you are a Chinese company or person you are not entitled to a legal defence? Is that the Australia he wants?
“How dare he question my loyalty as an Australian. It is a disgrace upon him.”
Warnie given rockstar farewell at the MCG
The State Memorial Service for cricket legend Shane Warne at the MCG in Melbourne, Wednesday, March 30, 2022. Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP.
A showman in life and death, Shane Warne has been remembered as a cricket immortal, loveable larrikin and devoted dad at a stunning state memorial service in Melbourne.
About 55,000 people flocked to the MCG for Wednesday’s service after the spin king’s death, at age 52, from a suspected heart attack in Thailand on March 4.
In a touching speech, Keith Warne led tributes and described his son’s death as the “darkest day in our family’s life”.
“Mate, your mother and I can’t imagine a life without you. You have been taken too soon and our hearts are broken,” he said.
Warne’s father spoke of his son’s community work after Victoria’s devastating and deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, and using his unsuspecting younger brother, Jason, to hone his love for outwitting opponents.
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Warne’s children – Jackson, Summer and Brooke – unveiled the renamed Great Southern Stand as the Shane Warne Stand after each delivered emotional speeches.
Brooke, Jackson and Summer Warne unveil the Shane Warne Stand. Photo: James Ross/AAP
Summer Warne, his youngest daughter, said she and her father shared an impromptu dance to Bryan Adams’ Summer of ’69 two days before his death, when he came to collect a travel bag.
As well as cherishing the lighter moments, she said her father helped her cope during difficult times.
“You told me that I could either live with these demons or fight with them and come out stronger at the end. You saved me, dad. You truly did,” Brooke said.
His wildlife conservation work with the United Nations was also revealed, with the intergovernmental body announcing a set of new grants to be named in Warne’s honour.
Musician Elton John followed a minute’s silence with a pre-recorded version of Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin sang a remote rendition of Yellow, while singer Robbie Williams performed a stirring in-studio version of Angels.
Australian actor Hugh Jackman added his voice to the chorus of virtual tributes, saying Warne made the most of every second in his 52 years.
“Man, he sucked the marrow out of life. There was no one like you, Warnie, and never will be again,” he said.
Others at the MCG, the site of Warne’s hat-trick in 1994 and 700th Test wicket in 2006, included former Australian captain Allan Border, ex-English skipper Nasser Hussain and West Indian great Brian Lara.
Albanese to hand down Labor’s budget reply
Labor leader Anthony Albanese is set to unveil his budget reply speech, but the opposition has stressed it will not be an alternative economic approach.
The federal opposition leader will use Thursday’s address as a crucial pre-election speech, just days out from Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling the upcoming federal poll.
His speech will follow sharp criticism of the budget from Labor treasurers across the states, including South Australia’s Stephen Mullighan who yesterday said South Australia was now at risk of losing its submarine jobs and had “completely missed out” on important federal infrastructure funding.
The Morrison Government’s federal budget included several measures designed to address the rising cost of living.
Among them was a halving of the fuel excise for the next year, as well as a $420 one-off tax break for more than 10 million Australians, while six million concession cardholders will receive a $250 cost of living payment in April.
While the prime minister challenged Albanese in parliament on Wednesday to deliver an alternative budget in his address, the opposition has stressed Albanese would give a speech.
Albanese previously labelled the budget as a government bid to buy votes ahead of the election.
“(The budget) has all the sincerity of a fake tan, and will last just as long,” he said on Wednesday.
“They may as well be handing out cash stapled on how-to-vote cards, but Australians know that once the election is over and done with, it’s all gone.”
But the federal government’s cost of living measures passed the parliament on Wednesday with the support of Labor after a late-night Senate sitting – the last time the upper house is due to sit before Australians go to the polls.
The budget reply speech will be handed down on Thursday night, the last sitting day of federal parliament before the election will be called.
Bruce Willis retires from acting after aphasia diagnosis
Bruce Willis at a movie premiere in New York on Friday, Oct. 11, 2019. Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP
Die Hard franchise star Bruce Willis will retire from his acting career after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disease that is “impacting his cognitive abilities,” his family says.
Willis, 67, who achieved initial fame for the 1980s comedy-drama TV series Moonlighting before he became the action hero who shouted “Yippee Ki Yay” in five Die Hard films, has appeared in about 100 movies across his four-decade career, winning acclaim for roles in Pulp Fiction and The Sixth Sense.
He has won one Golden Globe Award and two Emmys.
“This is a really challenging time for our family and we are so appreciative of your continued love, compassion and support,” the family statement said.
“We are moving through this as a strong family unit, and wanted to bring his fans in because we know how much he means to you, as you do to him,” the statement said.
Aphasia is a condition affecting an individual’s ability to speak and effectively communicate with others, including to speak and write.
It can occur after strokes or head injuries but can also arise over time due to brain tumours or degenerative diseases, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Fans shared sadness, shock and tributes to Willis on social media as news of his diagnosis broke.
– With AAP and Reuters
