New Telstra CEO David Thodey is telling all and sundry that he’ll improve Telstra’s customer service. Meanwhile, its now-defunct Trading Post arm run by Sensis certainly gave newsagents a dose of its current woeful customer service standards. The Trading Post ceased publication last month.

Newsagents didn’t receive a final invoice, instead receiving calls from a credit debt collection agency demanding payment. Nice.

To make matters worse, when invoices were finally issued, the newsagents were billed for Trading Post editions that were never published. VANA has advised its members not to pay this final invoice until corrected. Meanwhile, Telstra’s Sensis seems to be under the impression that The Trading Post is still being published every Thursday.

Wasn’t ex-CEO Sol Trujillio supposed to sort out these billing issues across Telstra’s departments?

Which leading indigenous activist and intellectual worked her way through university by modelling at car and boat shows, and is now anxiously scanning Youtube for footage she thought had long disappeared from historical memory …?

Crikey received a tip that CSL had encountered difficulties with its seasonal influenza vaccine production due to contamination with a chicken virus. We checked it out, but it seems the problem, while worth noting, is no cause for alarm or concern.

The TGA said:

The TGA was recently informed by CSL that chickens used to produce eggs for use in the manufacture of one of the component virus strains in the 2010 seasonal influenza vaccine have shown antibodies to Chicken Anaemia Virus (CAV).  There is no evidence of human transmission of CAV, or of CAV causing illness in humans, in the scientific literature.

There is no evidence of a risk to public health resulting from the CAV infection in the flocks used to produce eggs for the manufacture of vaccine.  The TGA has not yet received an application from CSL for approval of the 2010 seasonal influenza vaccine, so the TGA has made no regulatory decision regarding the vaccine at this stage.

This report does not relate to any vaccine currently in use in Australia. The PANVAX H1N1 pandemic vaccine is not affected in any way.

Dr Rachel David, from CSL, said:

A manufacturing seed (small quantity of vaccine used to grow larger batches) tested positive to the Chicken Anaemia Virus.  This is not a virus that affects humans but it meant that the batch was out of spec and it has been discarded. The pathogen was present in the eggs that we received from our supplier.

The seasonal vaccine will be delivered in February as usual and its licensing and safety will be unaffected.

Will Ben continue to work in his wife’s department now that she is the Premier?