Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Peter Hartcher, Political and international editor for The Sydney Morning, joins Michael to discuss his latest article ‘How Australia defied global health authority on Coronavirus’.

 

Mr Hartcher writes ‘was Australia about to put the cash flow of its universities ahead of the peoples' health in the middle of a pandemic? Was the Morrison government about to bungle the coronavirus response as badly as it did the bushfires?’

 

‘As MPs and senators returned to Canberra this week for a parliamentary sitting, it was a topic of lively concern. Government members knew that the universities had been agitating behind the scenes for the China travel ban to be relaxed as soon as possible. Some 100,000 of their Chinese students are caught by the ban and the unis want them back in Australia. Paying fees.’

 

‘The Chinese government had been complaining about the ban for weeks, too. Australia had been "discriminatory", according to the Chinese embassy in Canberra. In multiple meetings across the government, every week with the politicians who have let them in, China's officials have been pressing their case hard.’

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Michael has his weekly chat with Sue Dodd from the Sydney Markets about what bargains are on offer at the markets this week.

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Lisa Kable, Manager, Communications and Public Relations Insurance Council of Australia, joins Michael to explain how travel insurers are responding to the epidemic.

 

The World Health Organisation officially declared a global emergency on 30 January, pointing to the international spread of the coronavirus as a major concern.

Since then, the Australian government has ramped up its containment efforts by blocking arrivals from China, as health experts warn the epidemic could soon reach pandemic proportions.

 

With this in mind, many Australians are asking questions about how their travel insurance will support them if they're suddenly out of pocket or in harm's way due to the epidemic, but unfortunately the answer isn't exactly straightforward.

Phil Lutton, Sydney Morning Herald Sports Reporter, talks to Michael about the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in the face of coronavirus emergency

 

Mr Lutton wrote yesterday, ‘more than 80,000 cases have been reported around the world, with some 2700 deaths. After originating in China, there are now hot spots in South Korea, Iran, Italy, while Olympic host national Japan has had four deaths. It appears to be inevitable that the World Health Organisation declared the disease a pandemic.’

 

‘As it stands, Tokyo 2020 keeps hurtling towards its opening ceremony on July 24. Preparations continue to progress at pace and in March, an advance team from the AOC will visit, along with officials and coaches from various sports, to familiarise themselves with the venues, accommodation and facilities.’

 

 

It's not quite 'nothing to see here' from Olympic officials but it is now abundantly clear the outbreak has far exceeded the threat of the Zika virus to the Rio Games four years ago.’

Listen to the full show podcast with Michael Mclaren

Michael is joined by Nathan Hancock, the CEO of Citrus Australia, who said earlier this week that major retailers must lift prices to juice growers, who are facing a decline in production due to seasonal conditions.

 

Mr Hancock says prices paid for fresh juice by supermarkets to juice companies does not reflect the seasonal environmental impacts of frost and drought on the 2019/20 Valencia crop.

 

“This limits the amount of money that juice processors can pay growers, which will exacerbate the long-term decline in juice variety production,” he says.

 

“The juice growing industry is under immense pressure and Australian consumers may not have access to fresh Australian orange juice in as little as five years.

Adam Spencer, Sydney Uni’s Mathematics ambassador & author, joins Michael to praise the life and legacy of Katherine Johnson, the American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed space flights and subject of the 2016 film Hidden Figures.

 

During her 35-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks.

 

The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".

 

Johnson's work included calculating trajectories; launch windows and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon.

 

Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars.

 

In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2019 she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.