BEST NEWS!!! So happy for this little one and her family. I hope she can heal from whatever she has been put through in the last 18 days. I'm sure with the support of her loving family she will. Congratulations to all the Police involved.

I watched this the other night, and it was very insightful. What a tough job, the stress must be massive. 

@sammyrk ...I have done some research, we are are Tier 3 business which makes it a grey area in terms of mandating vaccination. Unfortunatly small businesses can't take the risk, legally it could break a small business if we had to fight it in court. So far it has been big business with big pockets who have been testing the law successfully. Hopefully this will pave the way for small business, it would just be nice to have clear laws that meant we could do it without the risk. 

As a small business owner I am really struggling with one unvaccinated staff member. We cannot tell staff they need to be vaccinated without risking legal action under anti discrimination laws. I also have a vaccinated staff member who has a child under going chemo. I just wish the governments would back allowing small business to require vaccination unless medically exempt. 

Beautifully written Cate. It's such an important story, when people observe such driven, highly successful, inspirational people (which all apply to you), it is easy for people to forget that like cancer, mental health issues do not discriminated. You should be proud of looking for help and going through the tough process of finding yourself once again. Just for the record my 12 year old competative swimmer watched every swim you swan in Tokyo with awe and excitment. I hope you realise that despite your struggles you inspire an entire generation of young people to chase their dreams. 

Geeze....Handmaid's tale anyone!!!! Buckle up NSW

I'm in currently Covid Free Tassie and I agree. Once the eligible population has had adequate time to be vaccinated (which I would think for most would be late Nov/early Dec) we need to start getting on with life. We are one country after all!

Business in some of these States must be so frustrated. We had 20k holiday booked in QLD that we have had to cancel twice. I’m not worried about that but the poor tourism provides in QLD are devastated (think those in other states … like restaurants etc). This attitude of staying locked up forever has to end. Get vaccinated, get open, get on with it !!!

Oh it's such a terrible time. We had to make the call with our 13 year old cat this year. At some point, you just wake up and look in their eyes and you know it's time :( As terrible as it is, it's also a blessing to be able to comfort your buddy and ensure they don't suffer at the end. 

Love it … can’t wait for my second jab!! My kids are rapidly turning into tweens and I want those travelling opportunities while they still like being in the same room as us !!! 

At the end of the day, it will be the unvaccinated that will suffer most, as per what is happening in America right now. The pandemic will become a pandemic of the unvaccinated. Once everyone has had the opportunity to have a vaccination, those who have not will need to accept that the nation will no longer lockdown to protect them. 

@katp ...I agree with you on both fronts. I agree we can and should do more, but it is complex. Australia has a small population, we have around 14.7 Million Tax Payers in our population, Germany for example is roughly 4x as many!!! So to say we can do the same as a country like Germany is ridiculous. Are our 14.7 Million Tax payers happy to pay more tax? Do we increase GST so everyone is paying more? In some States  eg Tasmania at the moment we don't even have enough rental properties for our existing community. We do need Government (of any type) to have a long term approach to the issue, unfortunatly our 3 year political cycyle makes a long term approach to anything a bit crap.

@kylie … well said. In usual circumstances I would agree … your body, your choice. However in a global pandemic where 80% of Australia is in lockdown, people are dying … people eligible for a vaccine who are sitting on their hands waiting for their “vaccine of choice” are putting more lives at risk every day. That’s why I think it’s selfish. The media also have a lot to answer for Pfizer has its own rare and serious side affects … but the “I want my Pfizer” camp don’t seem to have a clue about those risks. Again why most of these people are ill informed or don’t really understand the numbers at the end of the day. These same people are happy to wait for a different vaccine but if in the meantime they get Covid , they will still expect hospital care and ICU and ventilation (all while potentially still exposing those caring for them to Covid) because it’s “their right” to choose which vaccine they have. 

Good on you! I've been frustrated by several 50+ people in my life that have remained unvaccinated awaiting Pfizer. I see this attitude as totally selfish and ill informed! Thank you for doing your bit to protect yourself and those around you, 

Gosh, it's so easy to forget how important language is. I hope you felt confident to pass your feedback onto the doctor. Unless these things are pointed out it's hard to change. Your daughter is gorgeous BTW. 

I agree...mass vaccination should be offered in NSW. I'm in Tassie.....currently waiting for my Pfizer shot in 2 weeks but we have no covid here at the moment....we should be diverting as much Pfizer as we can to NSW. It's in the whole countries interest that we get that state vaccinated....nothing else is going to stop the NSW outbreak now...Genie is well and truly out of the bottle.   

All elite Athletes know the rules for their sport … all of them. Even kids in club sports these days are educated about banned substances. There is no excuse here. It’s absolutely terrible she lost her mum, it’s no surprise she looked for an outlet but that doesn’t change the rules of the sport. 

He's an Australian treasure. 

I'm 41 and have no issue having AZ...the only thing that I'm debating is that I have heard Pfizer offers more protection against Delta...So do I have AZ this week, or wait 6 weeks for my scheduled Pfizer. That's my only question. 

I really agree....In whole I think our Federal and State governements have done a great job managing COVID. Yes it hasn't been perfect but compared to the rest of the world we have done well. However...the vaccine rollout has been an epic fail!! Yes there have been complexities...buy geeze...we really need to step up the gas on this now/