Hi Nail,
The  chemist had to phone around - he said there were 3 wholesalers
in Melbourne -
The first 2 had none left - the 3rd one had only a few packets
& I got one of them.
Even though the place was in Rowville - this side of town -
the wholsalers are not allowed to dispense drugs.
Therefore I had to wait 30 hours to get my Tamiflu.
It's only 1 hours drive away but Govt procedures prevented me or a friend
from picking it up for me.
The chemist was full of weak excuses as to why it couldn't be faster than 30 hours.
Anyway - I missed the vital 72 hours from time of exposure so
the $45  I paid is flushing money down the toilet.

I cannot believe that this country is run by such a bunch of bungling incompetents.
Who would employ people like that?
I wouldn't - they should all be jail for criminal negligence.

There are a bunch of public servants knocking off for the weekend just about now who have just completed another arduous week toiling away at their desks in the office of the State Services Authority.

I’ve talked to people who used to work there at 3Treassury Place just two doors down from Premier Baillieu’s office. So I have some idea how they have spent their week.

Trying to fill in their days, writing position papers and ethical guidelines and brochures and pamphlets which will eventually get printed and read by very few people and then be out-of -date and get pulped. They even design book marks and postcards.

And their publications have titles like:

Managing Poor Behaviour in the Workplace. Great Manager, Great results And Developing Conflict Resilient Workplaces. They even put out an Ethics Resource Kit.

One person who obviously didn’t read the ethics kit, or if she did read it she didn’t follow the suggested guidelines, is the head of the department Karen Cleaves.

She’s been away from her desk in recent months – stood down on full pay. It’s about five months since she lied to Police and tried to run interference for her teenaged son after a car accident.

Even pretended she had been the driver of the car and took a breath test after her son decamped. He’d just hit a tree in Malvern in her Government-issued car and done about $40,000 worth of damage.

The accident happened in February. Ms. Cleave finally fessed up when an eye-witness – who happened to be a QC --  dobbed her in. And she’s been collecting her taxpayer-funded wage of about $25,000 a month ever since.

I presume she is still getting it today, even after appearing in Court yesterday, admitting she had lied to Police, been ordered to pay $500 to charity and told to write a letter of apology to the police officer involved.
The Acting Premier Peter Ryan says it’s up to the Premier to decide whether Karen Cleave keeps her job when he returns from vacation.

She should have been sacked today or at least had her pay stopped and I believe if she had any moral compass she would resign.

I mean, how can a person who is in charge of the public service ethics and standards agency, be allowed to stay in the job and adjudicate on other people’s transgressions when she has so deficient herself?

There are still a lot of questions about all this?

Weeks after  the accident Ms. Cleave finally told Police that she ‘panicked’ because after the accident her  18-year-old son, Morgan, had left the scene and walked home ‘to cool down’. And yet some witnesses say that after the accident two people arrived at the scene. Ms Clease stayed and the son drove away with the other person.

According to the Police summary: ‘Cleave states that on seeing Police arrive she immediately panicked as Morgan had left the scene’. Why had he gone, leaving his mother to face the music? In her ‘panic’ she concocted a story about how she had been driving, must have got a flat rear tyre and lost control of the car.

The Police summary says there was’ no evidence of any conspiracy to pervert the course of justice’. Really? No evidence that alcohol was involved. Well, there couldn’t be. The driver had scarpered so was not tested and the non-driver, Karen Clease, happily and safely took a negative breathalyser test.

Magistrate Simon Garnett noted that references tendered on Ms Cleave's behalf all spoke of her good character and integrity. She showed no integrity that day.

And should get no brownie points for ‘fessing up because she didn’t come clean until after Police received a call from a credible witness, Jack Hammond QC.

Under the diversion program, which I thought was designed for young first offenders, Cleave walked away from court without a conviction being recorded.

I’ll concede, the embarrassment, even public humiliation, and loss of her high-powered, highly-paid job, is punishment. But she should not appear at Treasury Place on the taxpayer’s payroll on Monday.

Footnote: This is ironic. Last year, Karen Cleave’s organisation worked closely with Jack Rush QC on that inquiry into the Command, Management and Functions of the Senior Structure of Victoria Police. Imagine if those recommendations were applied to her case.

The public needs to prepare for the next pandemic by stockpiling
their own anti-viral medication - items such as Relenza & Tamiflu.

Hope you're on the mend bobby.

Good advice bobby. I'm off to the medicine man today to get some to bring back, you can't rely on our over paid, over fed government to care about our health. I realised how  useless they are when they couldn't even get baby formula and milk into Qld when we had the floods.

Is there anything in the news about our government allowing this situation to occur? It should be at the forefront of the news, bureaucratic incompetence is incomprehensible.

its the flu people!! not the ebola virus.

your get sick and then you recover - just like every other disease you get during your life.

1968

Hong Kong flu pandemic kills 700,000 people, due to the H3N2 virus.

1918

The “Spanish Flu” pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus, kills more than 40 million people. The origin of H1N1 remains a mystery, but may have involved incubation in an intermediate host, such as the pig, or another as yet unidentified animal host.

I dont see how its the government thats responsible for how much stock chemists keep.