Reg served in Korea as an aircraft engineer. When I called round today he was in his dressing gown - said he was crook. Two hours later he’s at my front door. (He can’t do the steps.) “Thanks for getting me out of the miseries. It’s a nice day - I needed someone to get me going!”

Manglish Maintained. Murray’s is a good Canb.-Syd. coach service. A bonus for pedants: the pre-recorded message to passengers as they set off still has a piece of eye-watering Manglish. They are asked to ensure that “No large items are attempted to be flushed down the toilet”.

Don’t you just love the English language! Today I heard “The construction sector is under pressure because of sawing prices.”

Enough changed voting intentions when election set, campaign irrelevant. Bogus excitement. Only useful q. in vox pop: Are you changing vote? If Yes, Why? Frustration with usual party? View of Leaders? New person locally? See Election coverage etc in aggravations.org

Campaign vox pops: randoms summarise agenda set by 3 years govt/media. Zero relationship btw this and voting intention. Cumulative view of majority of events over three years is fixed before campaign. See Election coverage: ridiculous questions etc in aggravations.org

The 47 truly 'rural' electorates are identified, using AEC classification plus area (size). Nats/LNP hold 19 of them, Liberals 13, ALP 12, Ind. 3. So Coalition has 68pc. Read in Sadly, 'regional' policies are the enemy of rural areas. aggravations.org.

Nationals regional policy promises $Bns for mining infrastructure. Benefits would go to large industry in 9 of Australia's 47 rural electorates. Without reform of rural health, inc. soc. determinants, people in other 38 will still have poor access/health aggravations.org

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Dutton & McKenzie are wrong: National Cabinet has not agreed anything jurisdictions must do, only a set of measures they may choose to adopt. See The Clayton’s but secret Covid national plan - johnmenadue.com/the-claytons…

Govt wants proceedings of National Cabinet to be 'Cab. in Confidence', so exempt from FoI. PM said before opening up, a State wd have to meet both national & state criterion. No sign of this! johnmenadue.com/the-claytons…

Yesterday was 17 September. I wonder what mix of circumstances there is in Australia’s 2600 residential aged care facilities this morning? Spare a thought for those having to do extra shifts.

Vaxing Australia: insufficient urgency? (26 Aug); Vaccine: Let’s not forget the first priorities (1 Sept); Vaccination:Accounting for muddle (3 Sept). A summary -"COVID vaccination: highest priorities not met – so let’s focus on new ones!” Read at aggravations.org

‘Omar’ - RIP

Why does COVID National Plan have thresholds for the nation? Pretty sure if it’s >60/>70% in all jurisdictions it’s likely to be >60/>70 nationally. (Need to avoid confusion with requirements for a constitutional change.) – at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

National Cab. should provide public data on covid mgt. esp detailed schedule of vax to be delivered to Aust. Priorities re-done, hard choices! 'Most vulnerable' doesn't cut it. Feds also to lead on employees & mandated vax. & on marginal groups. See aggravations.org

With shortage of vaccine, setting priorities for use is critical. New priorities being suggested before highest priorities fixed eg aged care. Public discussion needed, informed by more data. See Covid: ill-disciplined approach to vaccination priorities - aggravations.org

Changes to Medicare: how will they affect the cost to patients of specialist treatment such as surgery? A punter's guide to the review of Medicare items and the impact on patients' out-of-pocket costs. It's at aggravations.org

cont. - Sure, plenty challenges: different views about 'truth'; who sits R and L of Speaker; what to do re elections and claims made; how to give someone else a turn; etc. Despite all these, such a rethink would distract us from the galling reality revealed in Sec Gen's speech.