The Informer: Shark fighter punches bad news off front page

Let's start with an immense act of individual bravery. Port Macquarie surfer Mark Rapley put his hand up for husband of the year (make that century) after he jumped on a juvenile great white shark that had latched onto his wife's leg and punched it until it released her.

In a more collective effort of looking after your family, childhood immunisation rates have risen to record levels, with coverage for all five year olds now at 94.77 per cent, which federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says is an incredible result at a time of a pandemic.

Continuing the positive perspective, Hunt is cautiously optimistic that a vaccine to conquer the coronavirus will be available next year. He said very significant progress was being made in producing a vaccine.

While there is no upside to 16 more Victorians dying in the past 24 hours, case numbers are trending down, dropping below 300 for the first time in three days.

As expected there is nothing up-beat coming out of economic data with Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe delivering a grim outlook as the number of Australians unemployed topped one million for the first time and wage growth slumped to a record low.

While Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Prime Minister Scott Morrison play the blame game over who should take the heat for the aged-care disaster in Victoria, Labor's Bill Shorten had a shot at the prime minister by suggesting that focusing on making a profit from aged care was at the heart of the problem. This follows royal commission revelations that the federal government still has no plan to cope with the crisis.

New South Wales has reported just five new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, its lowest number in more than a month. One man has died.

In Queensland no new cases have been reported.

In world news, Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has appealed for assistance from Vladimir Putin to help suppress the growing wave of dissent, which has left his regime facing its biggest crisis since he first came to power 26 years ago.

US President Donald Trump's younger brother, Robert Trump, has died after being hospitalised in New York, the President said in a statement. He was 71. The cause of his death has not been revealed.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may recall congress to attempt to deal with the downsizing of the US postal system, which will affect its ability to deal with the expected wave of postal voting for the US presidential elections due to the pandemic.

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