Chip Le Grand
@Melbchief
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Chief reporter for The Age newspaper.
Melbourne
Joined February 2011
Peta Credlin is back interrogating Daniel Andrews at a press conference today. Yes, she works as a broadcaster and is employed by a media company but she is not a journalist, she is a partisan, political operative. Mr Andrews is within his rights to tell her to bugger off.
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I’m sitting in an empty waiting room at the Showgrounds having just got my second AZ jab. My attending nurse, the lovely Sujata, started her shift at 8.00am today and I’m her fifth only customer for the day. If you are an oldie and not yet vaccinated, come down and see her.
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My head is aching from the torrent of gibberish being written about Serena Williams. What happened in NY has nothing to do with gender, race or equality and everything to do with a tennis player who can't stand losing. Just watch the video.
[VIDEO]: If Serena Williams is "fighting for women's rights and for women's equality" why does she have a history of harassing and intimidating women line judges/players? She told one woman she was "unattractive inside" and threatened to hit another. When is it feminsim?
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The hatred of Toby Greene is football tribalism at his worst. He’s been dealt a lousy hand in life and made his way. He’s got a mean streak to his game but he’s no Rod Grinter. Every opposition supporter hoeing into him would love him on their team.
BREAKING: Giants star Toby Greene’s father has been arrested for allegedly head-butting a female police officer.
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Good news stories tend to get overlooked in a pandemic but what is happening with contact tracing in Victoria is unambiguously good news. It hasn’t come about by accident.
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How long before a class action is launched against the Victorian government by business owners claiming their livelihoods were destroyed by the quarantine debacle?.
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Very telling listening to @DanielAndrewsMP today. Total shift in focus away from restrictions and compliance and towards the benefits and availability of vaccines, possible use of rapid antigen screening and home quarantine. This is what happens when you ditch doughnuts.
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We can't quarantine, we can't contact trace and politicians and senior public servants can't remember making phone calls from one day to the next. But boy, do we know how to hand out fines.
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This is a great example of the new bully pulpit. David Koch invites the pastor at the centre of the Thorburn scandal on his program, verbals him, refuses to let him finish an answer and doesn't acknowledge anything he says anyway.
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George Calombaris admits to underpaying 500 staff $7.8 million and is vilified as a wage thief. The ABC admits to underpaying 1900 staff $12 million and it barely rates a mention. Curious.
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An institution which systematically covered up the rape and molestation of children says it needs to discriminate against teachers in loving, same sex relationships to strengthen “the moral fiber of the country.” God strike me.
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Whatever you think of Victoria’s pandemic response, it is bizarre that it isn’t a central issue in this election. Politicians don’t want to talk about it and many voters don’t want to remember but how can we ignore the most disruptive event in our lives?
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I’m not sure we should be taking public health advice from Novak Djokovic.
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On a truly wretched day for El Paso, it’s a small mercy having a plain speaking cop willing to call it straight. Well said Sheriff Richard Wiles.
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It took NSW 37 days to go from zero to 80 cases. It has taken Victoria 23 days, despite Melbourne going into lockdown after the first case.
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Having watched Senate Estimates questioning of the aged care response to COVID for 90 minutes, two things are clear. 1) The situation in Victoria is not as dire as some would have you believe. 2) The quality of our politics is more dire than most would have imagined.
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Could someone please remind me why we still have border restrictions between Victoria and NSW?.
Reported yesterday: 867 new local cases plus an additional 149 new local cases reportable on previous days (see notes below). 0 cases acquired overseas. Sadly, 4 people with COVID-19 have died. More later: #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/3]
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Sam "blackface" Newman confirms his bigotry by attacking all Muslim Australians over a hug. A frigging hug. When will Peter Costello and the Nine bosses do the humane thing and put this sad, hateful old man out to pasture?
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@BastienFachan Then he lifted up the trophy (which was filled with beer) and declared: “But it came in a very big cup!” Cue Djokovic scull and crowd goes nuts.
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Interesting that George Calombaris has suddenly embraced the benefits of collective bargaining. .
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Strong editorial in tomorrow’s The Age. Now that it has abandoned COVID zero the government should have greater flexibility to give people more control over their lives.
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Daniel Andrews has placed great faith in epidemiological modelling which, by its nature, is an inexact science. He should start placing more in business, industry and others with a significant stake in Victoria’s social and economic revival.
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The Newscorp obsession with the ABC needs to stop. The hyper-criticism and micro-policing of ABC broadcasters is unbalanced, nasty and frankly, a little creepy. There must be more important stories for its media writers to cover.
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Not only has the Andrews government stopped following the health advice, it no longer asks to see it.
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Sydney and Geelong are the two best clubs of the past 20 years in terms of recruiting, administration, coaching, culture and consistency of performance. It feels like a fitting end to a terrific season to have them both in the grand final.
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My wife went to Coles today, got freaked out by the lack of meat and panic bought a duck. Anyone know how to barbeque one of these suckers?.
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I know the work of @neighbour_s and @Milliganreports. I certainly wouldn't describe it as lazy, bad or deceitful. I hope that is not what my old paper is suggesting here.
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Everyone has a lockdown limit. I fear my wife has reached hers. She is tonight drinking rose wine from a can.
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John Millman is a class act. In the biggest moment of his tennis career he is respectful to Roger Federer and humble in victory. That's how you do it.
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I'm not having a go at Kos here but his question demonstrates what we have lost sight of. Stay at home orders and curfews are only justified under emergency powers. Who seriously thinks that 20 COVID cases a day in a city of 5 million is a genuine public health emergency?.
@silas_pc You live in Melbourne? The only reason people around my neck of the woods are strolling around after 9pm is if they are scoring. No one goes for a stroll that late in winter.
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The news out of Ukraine is awful and Warnie was such a shock but now this? How can we go on?.
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Melbourne was put into lockdown five weeks ago to prevent the exponential spread of the virus. It didn’t work. Is continuing with a failed public health intervention still worth the mounting cost to people’s livelihoods and our children’s education and wellbeing?.
Reported yesterday: 450 new local cases and 0 cases acquired overseas. - 39,148 vaccines administered .- 42,765 test results received . More later: #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2]
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Breaking: Nova Peris has quit her leadership role with the Australian Republical Movement over co-chair Craig Foster's "inaccurate and divisive'' public intervention against Israel.
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For those complaining about @AlboMP getting rough treatment from reporters, @andrewprobyn cut to the chase tonight by describing the campaign as policy-light. If either party was offering a serious policy choice they would get more serious policy questions. Just saying.
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Is this the same police force that pushed for private security guards to look after hotel quarantine? Glad to see them allocating resources to the important stuff.
First time @VictoriaPolice has done this? Checking IDs of cyclists in St Kilda to ensure they’re within 5km of home.
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Victoria desperately needs a new approach. One case? Deep breath? And this from a highly qualified public health professional. The obsession with tiny case numbers and the ongoing restrictions on business and family life are ridiculous.
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When Stephen Charles KC, a former Court of Appeal judge and leading integrity campaigner calls the Andrews government crooked, people should start taking notice.
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So NOW they want to see the health advice….
Monique Ryan on the decision to scrap mandatory Covid isolation: calls for health advice and national cabinet minutes to be published. "deeply disturbing and must be clarified to the public"
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Victoria’s Chief Health Officer appears to have misled the inquiry into hotel quarantine. This has only come to light because of the reporting of Richard Baker and his courageous sources. That is journalism, folks.
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Today is my final day with @australian . In keeping with the then and now tradition started by @James_Jeffrey, these pic bylines show what 25 years of daily reporting can do to a man and his hair.
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Big call I know, but this double quarantine nonsense from SA could be the most bone headed decision by any government throughout the pandemic.
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Protester Chantelle Jurcic, 30: "I came because I’m sick of this, I came because I can’t work. I’m done with lies, I’m done with the manipulation, I’m done with the fear mongering.” Political leaders need to understand this sentiment, not dismiss it.
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Imagine if the uptake for vaccines was as fast as the rush on toilet paper.
In Bentleigh. no toilet paper minutes after lockdown announced. why is this always the response. @TheTodayShow
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@BastienFachan 1/2 I was at that party. The funniest line from Djokovic was when he got on stage and apologised for only having one beer that night. Cue mock boos from the crowd of tournament staff and volunteers….
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This piece by @SquigglyRick raises a pressing question. If we have reached a point where the fire season stretches for six months and mega fires burn for weeks on end, how feasible is it to rely on volunteers to fight them?
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Interesting story. Given more than 20,000 people work for @VictoriaPolice you’d expect a diversity of opinion but there is no question Victoria’s pandemic response is frustrating for cops who spend their days policing non-crimes.
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This is horrendous. What sort of society sacrifices the well-being of its young for the sake of its old?
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This is a telling thread. Melbourne spent 262 days in lockdown. Any rational person would accept that the socio economic impacts of this could be immense and long lasting. Yet, apparently, asking questions about Victoria’s approach is partisan hackery. Jesus wept.
“If I’m looking for a place where I’m likely to see the psychological harms from lockdowns, I would look here,” expert Dr Jay Bhattacharya said during a visit to Melbourne this week. | Chip Le Grand
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Sorting the beast from the bull dust. Experts have their say.
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Elijah Taylor is 19. His girlfriend is 18. We all understand the importance of quarantine but seriously, has everyone forgotten what it is to be young?.
A young Sydney Swans player has been suspended for the rest of the season for having his girlfriend visit him at the club's quarantine hotel. @ElleGeorgiou #7NEWS
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It seems like most punters have an open mind about nuclear power and are up for a sensible debate. It’s a pity — though predictable — that they’re being fed a stream of Simpsons memes instead.
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Not pointing the finger at anyone here but stacks on the next dipstick who tweets a doughnut.
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The Herald Sun would have us believe this is the worst Australian Open ever. They must have been to some very, very good ones.
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CFA chief Steve Warrington was there on Ash Wednesday and Black Saturday and says these fires are unlike anything we’ve seen. “The world has changed,” he says.
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This is simply not correct. Defence approved a request on 24 June by Victoria’s Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp for 850 ADF personnel to provide “compliance and monitoring support” at quarantine hotels. The request was in writing and has been provided to @theage.
Daniel Andrews says ADF staff were not offered to run hotel quarantine scheme
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Brighton, Sandringham, Hawthorn; it’s a blue rinse massacre. Victoria hasn’t voted, it has revolted.
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They sacked their best player, were humiliated at the World Cup and parted ways with their coach. But it’s been positive for inclusivity. So there’s that.
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To understand a debacle of this scale, you need to break it down to individual decisions made, the reasons given and why contrary advice was ignored. To this end, I bring you the story of the Armstrong Creek acquatics centre.
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@ClarkyHeraldSun Essendon supporters will be stoked. You can tell the Bombers really struggled last year with digital marketing, especially in the third quarter.
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Why does @qanda describe this bloke as the “people’s panelist”? The people have rejected him at three elections.
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I read today that there is a “tussle over Kitching’s story, and who can assert the right to tell it.” We can probably agree that the friend who held her hand while she died has that right.
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Can’t help but think that the Anzac Day match, a poignant and powerful concept pioneered by Kevin Sheedy and Bruce Ruxton, has metastasised into a five-day palaver that risks losing something essential to the original concept.
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An important story that cannot be reported in Victoria for legal reasons will soon be trending on Twitter. At some point, courts need to give consideration to the practical limits of non-publication orders in a global media market.
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I can proudly report that three generations of adults in my family are now vaxed with AZ (although my 19 yo still needs a second shot). There is oodles of the stuff available. Get it in ya!.
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@penbo takes aim at 2020’s silliest hashtag: “I cannot for the life of me see how any sentient being can look at the performance of the Andrews government and regard it as deserving some showy statement of solidarity on social media.”
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These sort of numbers make a strong case to shift to home quarantine in Victoria and bring people home for Christmas. Overseas acquired infections aren’t our problem anymore.
Reported yesterday: 324 new local cases and 1 case acquired overseas (currently in HQ). - 37,604 vaccines administered .- 54,242 test results received . More later: #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2]
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Gerard, if you are going to dedicate your life to smashing the ABC, you should make the distinction between journalism and light entertainment programs. Charlie Pickering isn’t a journo and what he presents isn’t news. He’s just a guy with a TV show.
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This is adorable. The ACT chief minister gets his own feature-length, televised press conference to talk about one new COVID case. #JesuisACT.
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It is amazing what $200 billion buys you these days — a fleet of nuclear submarines or, in Victoria, a new train line.
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This could and should have been done months ago. The safety of AZ hasn’t changed a jot but finally, the zero-case obsessives running our pandemic response have acknowledged the virus will inevitably spread here, just as it has in every other country.
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This is a very good piece by epidemiologist Catherine Bennett which points out the limitations of the modelling relied on by Daniel Andrews to justify another six weeks o lockdown and lack of attention paid to how the virus has actually spread in Victoria.
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The drips will lap it up but it is dispiriting to read this snide sectarianism. Imagine if we ridiculed Jewish or Muslim MPs like this?
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This is what it looks like when grown ups are in charge of a nation’s COVID response.
Singapore has announced a radical plan to live with COVID, laying out a new vision for life to return to normal, which includes no lockdowns or quarantine for travellers. #TheLatest #7NEWS
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It's refreshing to hear Kerry Chant acknowledge the limits of health advice and the need for governments, not public health officials, to incorprate that advice into workable policy. Hardly a radical proposition, but one that needs restating.
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Victoria Police will take the lead on security at quarantine hotels. Now there's an idea. .
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Apparently the presumption of innocence no longer applies. How can otherwise smart people be so wilfully blind to a fundamental principle of our criminal justice system?.
The High Court has found there was not enough evidence to convict. It did not find him innocent. You are then entitled to maintain your view and you are under no obligation to apologise for holding those views.
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Many documents requested by the board of inquiry into the hotel quarantine shambles haven't been provided on time and others have been provided subject to broad confidentiality claims. Accountability must wait for a further six weeks. It is all so thoroughly predictable.
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The “my flouro vest is brighter that yours” instinct in Australian politics is so tedious. Is there a reason you can’t reduce industrial emissions and enjoy a glass of Pinot Gris?.
Scott Morrison: Inner city 'cafes, dinner parties and wine bars' won't get Australia to net zero emissions
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In case you are wondering whether we'll get an answer today, this from Jenny Mikakos's statement:.Who made the decision to engage private security contractors?."I was not part of any decision-making process. I do not know who made this decision.''.
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What a story this picture tells about our lesser selves. Despite being clearly told that climbing the rock pisses off the locals, we line up to do just that.
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It makes sense to celebrate Humphries’ life in the city he chose to live out his final days but this decision should invite reflection on the dull, censorious tendencies of his home town.
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Late to the party but could I just tweet that @tracygrimshaw is awesome and always has been? Thank you.
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There are 12,711 active cases of coronavirus in Victoria. Of these, zero cases were acquired overseas. Zero. Yep, a fricken doughnut. Could someone please explain why we continue to waste money and scarce resources, such as nurses, on hotel quarantine?
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Some of the criticism published on this platform about @theage's coverage of #VicVotes2022 has prompted me to briefly return from Twitter exile to address a false narrative doing the rounds. I'm sure I'll regret it, but here goes:.
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All seven judges of the High Court have found that George Pell should have never been convicted. Victoria's justice system must now ask how a fundamentally flawed case was allowed to get this far.
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It's too bad so many of Jake's mates chose not to attend grand final day.
Adelaide has advised Jake Lever to miss tonight's best and fairest. Disappointed he won't be able to attend. More @superfooty.
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“I am willing to let you stay up a little bit later, but this is very much a trial. It’s not 9:35, it’s not 9:32. It’s 9:30. If you’re still up after that then we’ll very quickly go back to a 9pm lights out”.
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Only in Victoria; diversity awareness but no infection control training for government employees seconded to quarantine hotels. This is from Luke Ashford, a witness before the Coate inquiry.
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Election campaigns really have become dull affairs. If you are running for PM, wouldn’t you rather hear from a punter than a journalist?.
A local resident in Perth tries to join the media pack and pose a "tough question" to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, who politely declines. #Auspol @SBSNews
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Kevin Rudd: “Thanks to your newspapers, about 10 million Australians think I’m a f. king c. !” They probably do now.
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Saints supporters: we’re now at the front of history’s queue.
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It's the full brass band in Victoria today; the Premier, the CHO, the Commander and the Chief. Anyone else feel like we are going to be in lockdown till Christmas?.
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This is worth reading. I would have loved for @jennineak to have a long career at @australian. Talented reporters who can speak Arabic are a wonderful asset to any newsroom. It’s a shame she faced hostility from a couple of people who frankly, added very little to our paper.
"Anti-Muslim news coverage makes me fear for my mother's safety" @jennineak on why the media needs to take some responsibility for the #christchurchattacks
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The scandal here, one that has been sitting in plain sight for many years, is the AFL’s treatment of Dean Bailey. The threats that were made to him to accept a confected penalty were outrageous; a pattern repeated in the AFL’s handling of the Essendon drug saga.
👀 | Tanking scandal laid bare! The secret documents behind the Demons ploy to intentionally lose games in 2009 have been uncovered. READ THEM HERE - @heraldsunmick
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