00:37
Shepparton fruit and vegetable processor SPC says 98% of its employees have now booked in for their first and second Covid-19 vaccine since the company mandated the vaccination in August.
On August 5, SPC became the first corporate company in Australia to require all staff and contractors to be fully vaccinated in order to work.
At the company’s West Sydney facility, 100% of employees have now booked in for their second vaccination.
SPC says it’s now well on track to reach 100% compliance by its end of November target, and is “in conversation” with employees who haven’t yet complied, McPherson Media reports.
Last month, Shepparton police began investigating social media threats against the canned processor made in the wake of mandating the vaccine.
Since SPC’s announcement, a number of organisations including Qantas and LaTrobe University have introduced mandatory vaccination requirements.
You can read Guardian Australia’s previous reporting on this below:
00:26
Australians will need to adjust to less forensic tracking and tracing of Covid-19 infections even as case numbers continue to rise, according to the expert leading the Doherty Institute’s epidemiological modelling.
Prof Jodie McVernon has confirmed she is currently working with governments to gradually de-escalate the public health responses rolled out during the first, second and third waves of the pandemic.
McVernon said the new policy development process involved identifying the “core response actions that will get you the majority of the impact”. She said higher vaccination rates were enabling the necessary step-change in infection control strategies such as contact tracing.
“We can’t discuss this in detail yet, but we are obviously looking at what is happening in the public health response right now, and understanding what is making the biggest impact,” she told Guardian Australia.
You can read the full report below:
00:01
The former federal frontbencher Darren Chester has declared the National party needs to have a “credible policy” on emissions reduction and sustainability which includes an aspirational target of net zero by 2050.
Chester’s intervention, which follows public positioning by metropolitan Liberals this week, comes ahead of a speech the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will make to business leaders on Friday highlighting changing dynamics in global capital markets and problems associated with carbon risk.
Chester was dumped from the ministry by Barnaby Joyce when he returned to the Nationals leadership in June. The Victorian National told Guardian Australia he supported the commitment by the National Farmers Federation to an economy-wide target of net carbon zero by 2050.
He characterised the NFF’s position as “eminently sensible”.
You can read the full story from Katharine Murphy and Daniel Hurst below:
