30/07/2021 11AM ZEDLINES
Your 11am Zedlines with Ivy, Chloe and Alayna.
Image credit: TripAdvisor
Dental waitlists hit hard in Brisbane and Ipswich
According to Queensland Health’s latest statistics, 45% of Queensland patients on dental waitlists reside in Brisbane and Ipswich.
Shadow Health Minister Ros Bates claimed Labor is losing control of the state’s dental waitlist saying every Queenslander deserves to see a dentist without waiting years for an appointment.
Brisbane's COVID latest
Queensland has recorded its 13th "incursion" of COVID-19 in the community in the past six weeks when a man tested positive after leaving hotel quarantine.
He was potentially infectious in the community from July 22 and was staying in the City Backpackers hostel on Roma Street in Brisbane.
Guests at that hostel as well as another city backpacker lodge next door are both in lockdown awaiting test results.
Contract tracers are compiling a list of where the man has been.
Chermside has just been added to the list of exposure sites.
Education Department's mishandling of school asbestos exposure
During the installation of air conditioning units in Queensland state schools under the government’s Cooler Schools program in 2019, there were 19 separate incidents of asbestos exposure and disturbances.
In November of 2019 at Sunnybank State High School contractors disturbed asbestos and it took the Education Department seventeen days to dispatch a clean-up crew to the site.
A teacher at the school reported the asbestos disturbance 3 times before the report was escalated to the Education Department, which was then immediately referred to Workplace Health and Safety.
Christian Porter's case findings remain suppressed
The ABC's defence from the now-settled case brought by the former federal attorney-general Christian Porter will not be made public after a Federal Court ruling today.
Mr Porter took action against the ABC over a story about an unnamed cabinet minister accused of an alleged historical sexual assault.
Mr Porter later revealed himself to be the subject of the allegations but denied any wrongdoing. The case was discontinued in May but details of the ABC's defence have remained suppressed.
Australia leads the way in ASX200 women leadership
A UQ research report has revealed Australia is only 1 of 3 countries to exceed 30% of women on top listed ASX200 boards without legislated quotas.
The research shows a jump from 8.3% of women on boards in 2008 to 33.6% percent in 2021, a rise of about 2% each year.
The research is encouraging, showing Australia is leading the progress for women on boards internationally despite the challenges women still face for gender parity.
NASA's newest deep-space antenna
NASA has announced it will be building a new multi-million dollar deep-space antenna at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Centre in Tidbinbilla.
The new antenna will be used to communicate with spacecrafts more than one hundred thousand kilometres away from Earth.
30/07/2021 10AM ZEDLINES
Your 10am Zedlines with Ivy, Chloe and Alayna.
Image credit: Michael Rennie (ABC News)
COVID case found at Indooroopilly SHS
Indooroopilly State High School is closed today after one student tested positive for Covid-19.
State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the school closure ensures they can ‘double-check’ it’s not a false positive.
The premier says there is no need to worry at this stage as they’ll be immediately testing close contacts.
However, she said “we are told there is no association with any international travel so that is a bit of a concern,” she says.
Sky News avoids defamation case
Sky News has paid $40,000 in legal fees to avoid a defamation suit being filed against them by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Sky News falsely broadcasted claims that Hanson-Young took her infant niece to a dangerous environmental protest in South Australia where protesters were blocking heavy machinery.
Hanson-Young’s solicitor Rebekah Giles says the claims were, quote, “false and completely indefensible.”
Hanson-Young said she was, “never given an opportunity by Sky News to comment on the entirely false allegations before they were published.”