Morning mail: meatworks admission, China wake-up call, life after lockdown

Friday: Cedar Meats knew of two Covid-19 cases for several days before telling staff they could stay home. Plus, will this crisis change the way we work?

Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 8 May.

Top stories

A Melbourne meat processing company linked to 62 coronavirus cases has admitted it was told a second worker had contracted Covid-19 on 24 April – three days before the case that has been widely reported. A spokeswoman for Cedar Meats told Guardian Australia the phone call wasn’t considered “official information” because it did not come from the Victorian health department, which did not call the company until 27 April. It wasn’t until 29 April that staff were told they could stay home to avoid catching the virus. The state’s opposition leader, Michael O’Brien, has called the cluster “Daniel Andrews’s own Ruby Princess”, after it was revealed the state health department had been advised as early as 2 April that a Cedar Meats worker had tested positive.

China’s threats of a consumer boycott against Australia are a “wake up call” to its “coercive behaviour”, a senior public servant has warned. Scott Morrison’s calls for the World Health Organization to be given investigative powers similar to weapons inspectors sparked a war of words between the two nations, drawing the threat of trade retaliation from China’s ambassador to Australia, Jingye Cheng. The former Treasury secretary Martin Parkinson said Australians “shouldn’t be too spooked” by the rhetoric, but urged the nation to accelerate the digitisation of the economy and to encourage greater domestic innovation to reduce trade reliance upon China.

Russia appears to have become a new global hotspot for the coronavirus,with the mayor of Moscow, home to more than half the country’s reported 177,160 cases, saying actual infections could be closer to 300,000. T With medical staff dying at worrying rates, the pandemic is being seen as a significant threat to Vladimir Putin’s authority. Elsewhere, France has announced its borders will stay closed until at least 15 June, Madrid’s public health director has resigned in protest at the government’s plans to begin easing restrictions, and one of Donald Trump’s personal valets has tested positive.

Australia

A government-commissioned report into the cashless debit card trial has raised further questions about the stigmatisation of users. The scheme, which pays welfare recipients 80% of their benefits via a card they can only use at certain outlets, was extended a day before the report was released.

The Law Council has called for reforms to the federal secrecy laws invoked in the defamation case involving the special forces veteran Ben Roberts-Smith. The council’s president, Pauline Wright, said it was a “fundamental rule” that justice take place in open court.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has called proposed changes to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation a “Trojan horse for coal and gas”. The Coalition is looking to amend the act to allow the CEFC to administer a $1bn grid reliability fund, which critics suggest could be a loophole to allow investments in coal and gas.

The world

The parents of Ahmaud Arbery, shot in southern US two months ago, have called for arrests for what their attorney dubbed “a modern lynching in the middle of the day”. A 911 caller rang to report a “black male running” shortly before a father and son duo shot dead the 25-year-old.

Hundreds of people have been taken to hospital in India after a gas leak at a chemical factory that’s feared to have killed at least 11 people. Workers were preparing to restart the plastics plant after a coronavirus-enforced shutdown when two 5,000-tonne tanks released a blanket of gas over a radius of 3km, enveloping local villages.

An international police operation has recovered more than 19,000 stolen artworks and archaeological artefacts including a pre-Columbian gold mask, a carved Roman lion and thousands of ancient coins. The coordinated taskforce included Spanish, Latvian, Argentinian and Afghan police.

A second member of a popular Turkish leftwing folk group has died in an Istanbul hospital after a hunger strike,323 days after the 41-year-old began his protest. The band, Grup Yorum, has been banned from performing in Turkey since 2016 and has been protesting the ongoing incarceration of its members.

Recommended reads

How has the coronavirus crisis changed the way we work? In this first in our series on life after lockdown, which looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic could change Australia for good, Paul Daley takes stock of the changes taking place in workplaces across the country and considers what’s here to stay. “I think there are a lot of Australian employers drooling at the cost benefits arising from getting their staff to work at home. But they should stop and think carefully about their duty of care.”

A country reveals itself in a crisis. “While America had a vacant Times Square and Milan had Andrea Bocelli singing Amazing Grace outside a shuttered Duomo – Australia had a deserted Coogee beach, cordoned off with police tape,” writes Brigid Delaney. It’s not just our towels Australians take to the beach but some pretty complicated baggage as well.

Listen

In the past year Angus Taylor has been beset by two enduring scandals – on this episode of Full Story, Laura Murphy-Oates speaks with Anne Davies about how both the Jamland grass poisoning and the City of Sydney issue have flared back to life over the past week.

Full Story is Guardian Australia’s news podcast. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or any other podcasting app.

Sport

He was hailed as a potential saviour of Rugby Australia just 37 days ago but Peter Wiggs’ resignation as director has seen Australian rugby descend once more into farce, writes Bret Harris. But with leadership the crucial focus, is the board the key factor holding the code back?

Players from English club Saracens are facing censure after five teammates, including England’s Billy Vunipola, were seen out together having coffee in contravention of the country’s physical distancing rules during lockdown.

Media roundup

Icac has confirmed it has begun investigating allegations of misconduct by the University of Adelaide’s vice-chancellor, Peter Rathjen, who went on indefinite leave this week, reports the Adelaide Advertiser. The Tasmanian hospital at the centre of the state’s worst outbreak was battling staff and personal protective equipment shortages weeks before it was shut down, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. And a senior Indian cricket official has confirmed Virat Kohli’s men remain willing to tour Australia in October, in a Test and one-day series that’s believed to be worth $300m for Cricket Australia, according to the Age.

Coming up

The national cabinet will meet today to discuss how Australia will begin to ease Covid-19 restrictions.

And if you’ve read this far …

It’s the country that gave the world Corona – the beer – but now Mexico is out of lager. With beer brewing deemed “non essential” more than a month ago, a dwindling national stockpile has fuelled a thriving black market for the amber gold. Many Mexicans are now entering the US, where Corona is still available.