Daily News Roundup

NEWSDESK

MONDAY, MARCH 29

All schools in Greater Brisbane will be closed from tomorrow as part of a general three day lockdown after Queensland recorded 10 new cases of coronavirus, four of those locally acquired.

The restrictions, which begin at 5pm today (Monday), will be reviewed on Wednesday night.

People in the Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Redlands and Moreton council areas will only be able to leave their homes for essential reasons like grocery shopping, exercise, work and medical care. Masks will be mandatory.

Schools will close but will continue for children of essential workers. Childcare remains open.

Exams scheduled for this week, where possible, will be rescheduled to Term 2.   

More than 500 public and independent schools and associated campuses are affected by the lockdown.

Announcing the lockdown this morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was declaring greater Brisbane a hotspot from 5pm and a three-day lockdown was necessary.

“So my recommendation to other States and Territories is that they should declare this greater Brisbane a hot spot as well, she said 

“This is the UK strain. It is highly infectious. We need to do this now to avoid a longer lockdown,” she said..

“This will also enable our health authorities to get on top of the contact tracing.

“This is a huge job now that we have to do because we’ve got more of this community transmission.

“I know it is a really big call, I know it is really tough,” she said.

“We have Easter coming up, we have school holidays coming up but let’s do it right, and let’s see if we can come through it at the other end.” 

Other lockdown restrictions include: 

• Residents can have up to two visitors to their home and can go out and exercise in a family group or if they’re solo, with one other person from a different family group
• Anyone who has been in the Greater Brisbane area since Saturday, March 20 must now follow those same requirements
• Restaurants and cafes can only serve takeaway
• Compulsory mask wearing for all public indoor settings across the state
• A limit of 30 people at household gatherings
• All patrons must be seated at hospitality venues
• Limited visitors to hospitals, aged care homes, disability care facilities and prisons

Ms Palaszczuk urged people not to panic-buy and said supermarkets were well stocked.

The Premier said six of the 10 new cases were overseas acquired and four were community transmission, two of those linked to the 26-year-old landscaper from Stafford who tested positive to the highly infectious UK strain on Thursday night. 

“Two are known cases of one of the previous people, then we have two under investigation but we believe one of them is a nurse from the PA hospital,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“Now what this says to us is the fact that there are now more community transmissions and these people have been out and about in the community.

“And that is of now of concern to Queensland Health and of course concern to me.”

One of the new cases has been infectious in the community while in Gladstone and health authorities are trying to identify where that person has been.

“I know this will mean some disruption to people’s lives but we’ve done this before and we’ve got through it over those three days in the past and if everyone does the right thing, I’m sure that we will be able to get through it again.”

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One of Adelaide’s longest-serving and most controversial radio hosts has been sacked over comments he made about alleged rape victim Brittany Higgins.

FiveAA breakfast host David Penberthy announced that Jeremy Cordeaux’s employment had been “terminated” after Cordeaux called Ms Higgins “a silly little girl who got drunk” on his Saturday morning program.

Ms Higgins alleges she was raped inside federal senior minister Linda Reynolds’s office in parliament in 2019.

Cordeaux, 75, said Prime Minister Scott Morrison should have repudiated Ms Higgins’s story publicly.

“I just ask myself why the Prime Minister doesn’t call it out for what it is — a silly little girl who got drunk,” Cordeaux said.

“If this girl has been raped, why hasn’t the guy who raped her been arrested?

“Apparently everyone knows his name.”

Cordeaux said his sacking was news to him.

Penberthy announced Cordeaux’s sacking this morning.

In a statement read on air, the station apologised “unreservedly” to Ms Higgins and withdrew the comments “without reservation”.

“We acknowledge that the comments were completely inappropriate and offensive,” Penberthy said.

“The views expressed by Jeremy Cordeaux do not reflect those held by FiveAA and Nova Entertainment and we unequivocally withdraw them.

“Mr Cordeaux’s employment has been terminated and FiveAA and Nova Entertainment have immediately taken broader action to ensure this can never happen again.”

Cordeaux worked as a radio host in Sydney before starting at Adelaide’s 5DN in 1976.

He started working at FiveAA in 2014.

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Thirty years into a very successful corporate career, Janelle Delaney suddenly lost her confidence.

She was preparing for an important interview to become an executive in her company, but found she couldn’t concentrate and began spontaneously crying. She worried she’d burst into tears on the day.

“[It] was horrendous. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever experienced,” she tells ABC National RN’s This Working Life.

When Ms Delaney visited her doctor, the diagnosis was simple.

“The hormonal imbalance of perimenopause [the lead-up to menopause] meant I couldn’t deal with this very out-of-the-ordinary stressful situation I was in, in the same way that I usually would have,” she says.

“It was something I’d never heard talked about in my workplace … [and] I really didn’t know what sort of reaction or support I would get if I spoke out about it.”

Once Janelle understood what was happening and received appropriate treatment, her symptoms subsided and she got the promotion.

But the significant symptoms of menopause can see women miss out on job opportunities, leave their roles altogether or suffer at work in silence.

Some women argue that discussing the effects of menopause only increases their exposure to sexism and ageism in the workplace.

Others say without talking about it, many women will continue to face barriers holding them back in their careers.

Menopause (when monthly menstruation has ceased for 12 months), and perimenopause, cause fluctuating hormone levels. And those pesky hormones are responsible for a range of symptoms.

They might include hot flushes, night sweats, insomnia, weight gain, mood changes, anxiety, depression, brain fog and weakened short-term memory.

Melissa MacGowan’s menopause symptoms – sleepless nights, hot flushes in meetings and increased anxiety – were so challenging, she left her leadership role because of them.

“I was the only female on a team of six male executives, in a pretty male dominated industry and environment [and] my first instinct in that situation was to keep things relatively to myself,” Ms MacGowan says.

“I played my cards pretty close to my chest. I [didn’t want] to be seen to be having additional challenges.”

She felt isolated and the stress of dealing with her situation became too high to sustain.

But with adequate support, she says she could have moved through perimenopause “without it being such a debilitating and negative, crushing experience”.

ENDS