Molly’s tribute to best mate Gudinski
MOLLY Meldrum has paid tribute to his best friend, the late Michael Gudinski.
The TV icon has been inconsolable since the passing of his best friend of over 50 years.
While Meldrum has refused all media requests, he released a statement which taps into their friendship which began in the late 1960s and grew strong when Meldrum was running Countdown and Gudinski had started Mushroom Records.
Mushroom act Skyhooks, who Gudinski also managed, have long been hailed as one of the reasons Countdown gained traction.
“Without Skyhooks there would be no Countdown,” Meldrum once said.
Their deep friendship extended to Meldrum being godfather to Gudinski’s daughter Kate, while the Countdown host would spend every Christmas Day with the Gudinski family, as well as holidaying together.
Included in an open letter about Gudinski, Meldrum wrote: “I am unable to translate into words what I am feeling right now. Not only have we lost an icon who was the cornerstone of the Australian music industry, I have lost a best friend, a brother. Michael and Sue are family to me. They have been a staple in my life forever.
“Right now, my love, support and focus are with Sue, Matt, Kate and the grandchildren. The void that is felt is immeasurable; I honestly find his passing very difficult to comprehend.
“Michael and I have been friends for over 50 years and the deep respect we had for each other was profound. He was a huge influence in my life. Like me, Michael’s passion for music is unwavering.
“He dreamed big, worked hard, and had the tenacity, energy, and determination to drive all his ambitions home. Failure was never part of his vocabulary.”
federal government remains behind initial COVID-19 vaccination targets nearly a fortnight into its rollout.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in January he “anticipated optimistically” 80,000 Australians would be vaccinated every week at the beginning of the rollout, before the effort was “scaled up”.
But almost two weeks after the first vaccine was administered, 71,867 Australians have been immunised, including 20,814 residents across 241 aged care facilities.
Health Minister Greg Hunt insisted mid-February that the government remained “on track … for all the milestones we’ve set”, including a target to reach four million vaccinations by early April.
But Labor acting health spokesman Chris Bowen said the government faced an uphill battle to meet that target.
“Australia has a long, long way to go in the vaccine rollout and it will only become longer if supply of the vaccines doesn’t arrive,” he said.
“The government needs to up their game and get the vaccine rollout back on track.”
The nation’s vaccine supply was dented on Thursday when Italy blocked the shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses destined for Australia. But the government insisted the development would not alter Australia’s vaccination timetable.
Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy said one million doses would be administered every week once Australian-produced jabs were rolled out from March 22.
“The value of having that onshore production cannot be underestimated,” he said.
“(It) gives us the capacity to really ramp up and broadly vaccinate our population as quickly as possible.”
The Australian Defence Force will aid the effort from next week, Prof Murphy confirmed, with 60 “nurses and paramedic-style” personnel helping to administer jabs.
“Aged care rollout has been a bit more complex than we thought, and we need to supplement it,” he said.
The next stage of the vaccine rollout – Phase 1b – will include the elderly, Indigenous Australians aged 55 and over, and younger Australians with an underlying medical condition. They will be followed in Phase 2a by adults aged over 50, and Indigenous Australians aged over 19.