Luke Grant is joined by Jarrod Bleijie, Shadow Minister for Education & NLP member for Kawana, who demands that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stop listening to her “union masters’’ and let all students go back to school as Queensland Health data reveals that only one in 25,000 Queensland children have contracted coronavirus.

“Queensland parents should be able to take their kids to school if they want to, but instead they have a Labor government clearly at the mercy of the union,” Mr Bleijie says.

Professor Jason Kovacic, Executive Director of The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, which is commencing a clinical trial with its partners at three other Hospitals of a certain type of stem cell to dampen down the hyper-activity of the immune system that causes severe heart and lung problems in COVID-19 patients.

The Institute is investigating the potential side effects of drugs being used to try and treat COVID-19.

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Michael speaks to Neil Hansford, Aviation Expert & Chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, regarding where he sees the airline industry heading in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis as warnings circulate that it could take as long as five years to recover to the levels seen before the pandemic.

 

The airline industry has been all but wiped out since the outbreak as several ‘high-quality’ parties express interest in taking over Virgin Australia and British Airways announce plans to cut 12,000 jobs, almost a third of its workforce, due to the slump in demand.

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Michael is joined by Rex Patrick, Senator for South Australia – Centre Alliance, who will renew his push for the Senate to establish a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia’s future relationship with China. 

 

“Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye’s explicit threat this week of a Chinese boycott of Australian services leaves no doubt that a substantial reset of Australia’s relations with China is required,” Senator Patrick said. 

 

“The Ambassador revealed China’s true diplomatic face and confirmed concerns about China’s preference for control and coercion rather than partnership.” 

 

“The Chinese Government’s response to Australian support for an international inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic confirms the increasingly fraught nature of Australia-China relations and makes it all the more important that Australia carefully consider our future approach to dealings with Beijing.”

 

 

“A business as usual approach is clearly not a sustainable proposition. We need a deep dive into the dynamics of Australia-China relations to determine the best strategies moving forward.”

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Michael is joined by Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics at the Centre for Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics, following Ambassador Jingye Cheng suggesting the Chinese public may boycott Australian products, or decide not to visit Australia in the future, if the Australia continues its push for an independent inquiry into the spread of COVID-19.

 

"Maybe also the ordinary people will say why should we drink Australian wine or to eat Australian beef?" China’s ambassador said in a recent interview with the Australian Financial Review.

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James Paterson, Liberal Senator for Victoria & Deputy Chair of Select Committee on COVID-19, joins Michael to discuss his opinion piece in The Australian, where he calls to heed the lessons of history to kick-start the economy after the coronavirus…. noting the parallels between wartime restrictions and the restrictions currently in place.

 

“The lesson of history is that emergency measures in times of crises are unsustainable in normal times. The present measures should be wound back when the pandemic is over”, Senator Paterson writes.