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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Nino Bucci and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

Morrison doesn’t rule out further financial support for those hit by lockdown – as it happened

That's it for today, cheers for reading.

Here’s the main news on Friday, 9 July:

  • New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian tightens restrictions in greater Sydney, as the state records 44 cases - the highest daily number of the recent outbreak;
  • Prime minister Scott Morrison announces Australia has secured 1m Pfizer doses earlier than expected, but the company refutes any suggestion this means Australia has secured increased supply;
  • South Australia agrees to a two-week pilot program of home quarantine, meaning travellers who have been vaccinated could avoid hotel quarantine;
  • The Morrison government has been forced to abandon a controversial proposal to introduce independent assessments to the national disability insurance scheme, after state and territories ministers baulked at the plan;
  • Environment minister Sussan Ley will appeal yesterday’s federal court declaration she had a duty of care to protect Australian children from climate harm that would be caused by the expansion of a coal mining project; and
  • No new Covid-19 cases recorded in any other jurisdiction other than NSW.

That’s it from Morrison. Not much that wasn’t mentioned earlier today. A little more detail on incentives possibly being offered to drive vaccinations in private enterprise. Says it could be “vouchers in the corporate sector”.

And Morrison is repeating the line from earlier regarding Israel being the only country in the world with a vaccination rate over 65%.

We need to get some perspective. Other countries are opening up because they have had millions of people who have actually contracted the virus and there is more antibodies in that population than other countries that have been riddled with coronavirus. We sit very strongly on the table of the low number of deaths in the country.

Updated

Morrison is mostly being pressed on the decision to back AstraZeneca, given the hesitancy in Australia to taking it. No real new ground here; talks about how heavily it has been used in the UK (40m doses), encourages over 60s to get it, etc.

Updated

Of the decision to tighten restrictions, he says:

They are wise judgements from the premier. Wise judgements from the premier. Wise judgements from Sydney and we stick to the rules that have been set because it we don’t do that it makes coming out of the lockdow more difficult.

Prime minister Scott Morrison is on A Current Affair. He is repeating the sentiment from earlier today regarding Sydneysiders pushing through:

We push through and hopefully it is as brief as it can be and as long as it has to be to make sure we suppress the virus and most of recent outbreak and we are able to get to where we are a few weeks ago. They have had a great record. As a fellow Sydneysider, we have to push through. It is understandable we are tired and frustrated. We have to pull through not just for New South Wales in Sydney but for the whole country.

Updated

The disability community has welcomed a federal government backdown on a plan to introduce independent assessments to the NDIS, with one senator calling it a “beautiful thing”.
The Every Australian Counts spokesperson El Gibbs said:

We are glad that the state and territory disability ministers have listened to the thousands of people with disability and their families who have contacted them this week to ask them to say no to the NDIS independent assessments. Minister [Linda] Reynolds and the NDIA now need to commit to working with us to make the NDIS deliver on its promise.

Greens senator Jordon Steele-John, who lives with cerebral palsy, said the outcome was a “beautiful thing”.

I am so proud of the work everyone has done this week. It’s incredible. [People with disability] made politicians listen to them today. They proved tonight their power.

Labor’s NDIS spokesman, Bill Shorten, who has also campaigned against the plan, said:

It makes you wonder. They’re breathlessly inflating the numbers of a financial crisis ... and now apparently it’s not that important. If they actually believed what they’re saying, they’d be pushing. I think that proves my hypothesis that a lot of this was just disaster war-gaming from them.

The NDIS minister, Linda Reynolds, has confirmed the changes, and says a new “person-centred model” wil be designed with the sector.

Updated

NSW health has updated its venues of concern (this list is now running to three pages, so please take a close look):

Morrison government abandons NDIS independent assessments

The Morrison government has been forced to abandon a controversial proposal to introduce independent assessments to the national disability insurance scheme, after state and territories ministers baulked at the plan.

The NDIS Minister, Linda Reynolds, met with her counterparts today to seek “in principle” agreement for sweeping changes to the scheme, as revealed by Guardian Australia, including the overhaul of how people are assessed as eligible.

In a statement, Reynolds said a new “person-centred” model would be designed with the sector.

She said the meeting had agreed “to undertake further work to understand the assumptions and cost drivers that underpin the actuarial modelling. This will allow Ministers to form a unified understanding in order to develop a pathway forward together.”

NSW disability services minister, Alister Henskens, said he welcomed the decision to scrap independent assessments.

“Ministers agreed to the co-design of a new person centred model that delivers consistency and equity in access and plan outcomes consistent with assessment requirements under the Act.”

Emma Davidson, the ACT disability minister, said: “This is a massive win for the sector and it is clear that the voices of people with disability were heard loud and clear in today’s meeting.”

Victoria’s disability minister, Luke Donnellan, and WA’s Don Punch, also welcomed the backdown.

Updated

And just a reminder these greater Sydney restrictions came into force about an hour and 15 minutes ago...

A significant NDIS development. We covered the background to this in detail this morning.

But apparently they’re a little less sure in Victoria.

Updated

Restrictions have been tightened in Sydney, with the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warning the “really concerning” increase in Covid numbers could stymie plans to lift lockdown at the end of next week.

Of the 44 new cases recorded up to 8pm on Thursday, 29 were either partially or fully in the community and not isolating during their infectious period.

It is the highest number of NSW daily infections since the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, and Berejiklian said she expected cases would continue to rise over the next few days.

FULL STORY:

I don’t have any context to add to this, and I don’t think I need to?

Prime minister Scott Morrison on Thursday urged Australians to get their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine after two months instead of three, given the spread of the Delta variant in New South Wales.

Australians are understandably wondering how effective the available Covid-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca and Pfizer – are in protecting against the more transmissible variant. Every week there are new comments being made from health ministries around the world about the variant and vaccine efficacy, and studies analysing the impact of vaccines, all of which add to the confusion.

Restrictions have been tightened in Sydney, with the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warning the “really concerning” increase in Covid numbers could stymie plans to lift lockdown at the end of next week.

Of the 44 new cases recorded up to 8pm on Thursday, 29 were either partially or fully in the community and not isolating during their infectious period.

Berejiklian at a press conference on Friday.
Berejiklian at a press conference on Friday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

It is the highest number of NSW daily infections since the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, and Berejiklian said she expected cases would continue to rise over the next few days.

If you’re in Sydney please don’t use the stinky weather as an excuse to go shopping inside.

Wet and empty in Fairfield on Friday.
Wet and empty in Fairfield on Friday. Photograph: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Waiting for a Pfizer shot? You might need three:

Just in time for the end of school holidays.

A little more detail about the pilot program announced earlier in South Australia for returned travellers.

The Victorian government earlier announced some support for midwife services amid a Covid baby boom in some areas (which we have done a little reporting on).

Here’s a snazzy (if you can call things that are a little worrying snazzy) chart of the situation in NSW:

John Barilaro to challenge Friendlyjordies' defence

Lawyers for John Barilaro will launch a “wholesale attack” on the defence filed by the YouTube comedian Jordan Shanks in his defamation battle against the New South Wales deputy premier, saying there is “barely a paragraph” of the document that will “survive” their challenge.

NSW deputy premier John Barilaro.
NSW deputy premier John Barilaro. Photograph: James Gourley/AAP

Friday was the first case management hearing for Barilaro’s defamation case against Shanks, a former male model and YouTuber who uses the nom de plume Friendlyjordies, over two videos the deputy premier claims are “vile and racist” and brought him into “public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt”.

Barilaro alleges the videos, published in September and October last year, carried the imputation that he was a “corrupt conman”, committed perjury nine times, corruptly gave $3.3m to a beef company and corruptly voted against a royal commission into water theft.

Updated

Butler’s concern about the communications campaign come after he was asked about the increased police presence in south-west Sydney:

I think what those communities are keen to avoid is a misunderstanding about the public health orders [and] being dealt with too harshly. I think the government in NSW needs to be careful about the optics of this, and any perception that those communities are being dealt with differently to communities in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

One of the things I’ve been arguing for some time as well is that the commonwealth needs to do much more to ensure that there were strong, clear, targeted communications, going to different communities, different language communities, in our country ... particularly about vaccinations ...

Updated

Scott Morrison said earlier that a new communications campaign regarding the vaccine would be launched on Sunday. Butler is dissatisfied about how that element of the program has gone so far. When he is told about the new campaign, he says: “Hallelujah.”

The commonwealth has been too lazy, I think, in relation to its information campaigns about vaccines. I think particularly we have made the point that it has not been targeted enough.

Updated

Butler says he hopes the idea that we can “live with the virus” – which was raised in NSW this week, particularly by health minister Brad Hazzard – is put to bed.

That will not just be an incredibly dangerous thing for the people of Sydney, but it would pose risks for the whole country.

Updated

Mark Butler, Labor’s health spokesman, is speaking to the ABC.

Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler.
Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

He has concerned about how many businesses are still open in Sydney, despite the extent of the outbreak, and says that while it’s welcome that we are getting 1m Pfizer doses earlier than expected, we need those doses now, not in August.

Updated

Christian Porter is seeking to prevent the ABC’s redacted defence from ever being viewed by the public, a move lawyers for Nine and News Corp Australia say would amount to “special treatment” for the former attorney general.

Following Porter’s sensational decision to drop his highly-anticipated defamation bid against the national broadcaster in May, both parties agreed to destroy the still-redacted defence which had been put forward in the case.

But a number of news organisations have sought access to the confidential file, and at a hearing in June justice Jayne Jagot questioned whether the parties could make that decision as part of the out-of-court deal.

Industry minister and former attorney general Christian Porter.
Industry minister and former attorney general Christian Porter. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Morrison had a little more to say right at the end about the pilot program of home quarantine to run in South Australia (does not appear a date has been set for this program):

South Australia have only indicated at today’s meeting that they intend to host the pilot and so we will work with them now to set up a timeframe of how that will be put together and transparency arrangements for the other states and territories.

I think this is an important development. I think it’s trialling out these new quarantine arrangements which will take significant pressure off, if it’s successful. Of course the quarantine, the formal quarantine system, you know, if you are able to make this work, it means in phases, particularly phase three but even potentially in phase two, you have a great opportunity for Australians who are vaccinated to be able to leave Australia and come back and put no pressure on the hotel quarantine system and that can see some of these restrictions ease with very low risk. The program will focus on ... low-risk countries.

Updated

Scott Morrison has finished speaking in Sydney

The main bits and pieces were:

  • An agreement out of national cabinet for mandatory vaccination of aged care and disability workers (Victoria has a different legislative framework to other jurisdictions so needs to do some work before confirming), and support for an incentive system.
  • South Australia confirms it will run a home quarantine pilot program for those returning from overseas.
  • Further financial support not ruled out for NSW.
  • Morrison again rejects that the slow rate of vaccinations has contributed to the Sydney outbreak.

Updated

Morrison is asked about the TGA banning a publican in Melbourne from giving free beer to the vaccinated. He says he asked health minister Greg Hunt to speak to the TGA about it.

.

I mean, the rule is that – they are doing their job, the TGA – and the rule is that companies should not provide incentives of alcohol or cigarettes to get people to buy prescription medicines ...but this is a national interest vaccine program and will be making some changes to ensure that these goodhearted, good-natured sort of initiatives that people may take on of their own volition [are allowed] ... I think it was done in good faith and in good spirit by the publican ...but I think also to be fair to the TGA, they are just doing their job.

Common sense will reign once again, and cheers to the PA [Prince Alfred].

Updated

Morrison is asked about financial support for NSW. He does not rule out further assistance:

We will keep working with the NSW government and I was talking to their treasurer today ... on the national cabinet call today also, on what may be required, pending further decisions the NSW government may have to make to suppress this latest outbreak.

So we will work specifically in a partnered way on that and we will do the design and the targeting and in a way that is appropriate to that problem.

Updated

Morrison is pressed – as he was yesterday – on whether Sydney is in lockdown because of the slow pace of the vaccination program:

There has not been a country in the world except for Israel who has had a two doses 65%. Israel is the only country in the world who has that.

In Australia, in Australia, the number of cases we have had in our community means that, say, compared to the UK which had as many cases in one day as we’ve had in 18 months, so there’s far more antibodies that exist in the UK than in the general population than in Australia, and that’s fully so because we’ve saved over 30,000 lives in this country by ensuring that we did not lose that battle in the first round against the coronavirus.

So it was always known at this time of the year, in July of this year, that we would still be in the suppression phase and that means that in the suppression phase, you need to keep your systems as tight as possible. We’ve had breaches here, there have been breaches in other places, and when there are breaches it’s about trying to contain it as quickly as possible and move as quickly as possible to get us in that situation, which is what the NSW government is doing.

Updated

Morrison also had this to say regarding outbound travel from Australia:

.

Finally, on outbound, it will be our strong preference for those who are given an exemption – and there are very clear and limited reasons why people are able to travel outbound presently – it is our strong preference that they are vaccinated if they are travelling overseas. That reduces the risk both to them personally, because as we know Covid is through many countries around the world and many other places Australians will travel to, and that of course reduces the risk when they return to Australia.

Updated

Morrison was also asked earlier whether the Pfizer doses being delivered earlier would allow under-40s to receive that vaccine.

.

He said: “Both decisions at the moment have not changed in terms of the age eligibility and they will be considered further based on the supply.”

Updated

Morrison is asked whether the federal government had to pay more to bring these doses forward. He says the Pfizer negotiations are commercial in confidence, but that we “shouldn’t read anything into that”.

Morrison says Labor is “hoping for the worst” by talking down his earlier announcement regarding 1m Pfizer doses.

In the middle of a pandemic, this is very disappointing. They are wrong. We’ve been able to bring forward these important doses out of our contracted program which means they’re available now, in July. It’s real. I don’t understand why Labor always hopes for the worst.

South Australia to trial home quarantine program

Morrison has confirmed that South Australia will run a pilot program of people returning from overseas quarantining in home, rather than hotels. The state had previously been reported to have expressed an interest in running the trial.

We also agreed today that a National Cabinet pilot would be established for home quarantine that would be done in a jurisdiction, South Australia has indicated their intention to go forward as the jurisdiction for that trial.

It will be a two week trial based on the advice from the medical panel and we will be working with others tell you to put that pilot in place as soon as possible. That will be a transparent project with all the other states and territories. It will be run of course by South Australia but with the active engagement and visibility of all the other states and territories. So they are in a position to pick up that project on the completion of a successful pilot program.

Morrison says a “new campaign” will be launched on Sunday in relation to the vaccination program.

This is the next phase of the communications campaign and coincides neatly with the additional supply that is being brought forward to support the vaccination program.

Morrison said WA premier Mark McGowan suggested an incentive system for vaccinations among the private sector and aged care workers, which he supported.

Morrison says the Doherty Institute is doing modelling on the “spectrum of risk ... across various levels of vaccination in the population” and will report later this month. That modelling will inform the four phases of the path out of the pandemic flagged last week.

That information will be combined together with the capacity of the health system, and the advice of treasury and the treasury secretaries around the country to ensure we get the best assessment of what the thresholds are to move from phase one to phase two to phase three and ultimately phase four.

Updated

Morrison:

Many other cities particularly down in Victoria and Melbourne have gone through this before and Sydneysiders I have no doubt will continue to push through. I know it is tiring, exasperating and frustrating. But we need to keep pushing through. My thoughts are with all of my fellow Sydneysiders today.

Scott Morrison is speaking after national cabinet

He says Sydney “will get through it together”.

“This is a very necessary set of restrictions that have been put in place by the New South Wales government, I strongly support them.”

Updated

A thorough look at Australia’s vaccination program, from Amy Remeikis:

Updated

It is Friday afternoon, so why not treat yourself to something a little less newsy:

All the global Covid-19 news can be found over here compadres:

I like this game. I’ve got eight other PMs to think about though. And the main points of comparison, I feel, are the way premiers have reacted. I think Rudd would have been like Andrews: a press conference almost every day. Howard as McGowan seems a decent comparison. No obvious Keating fit. Gillard and Palaszczuk both have classic Labor backgrounds and are former lawyers, but I don’t know if they would have reacted to a pandemic the same way.

Updated

Righto then ...

Updated

NZ delays flights from NSW over Covid outbreak

New Zealanders hoping to be repatriated from NSW on “return green flights” will have to wait until the New Zealand government is confident the outbreak has been contained.

New Zealand’s Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, said cabinet had decided to delay the flights due to leave from midnight Friday.

The earliest flight back to NZ will be on Tuesday but more information will be available from the airlines and on the Covid-19 website within the next 24 hours, Hipkins said.

“Clearly there is an escalating risk in New South Wales and no one wants to see Covid-19 coming into New Zealand, which is why we have made this difficult decision,” Hipkins said.

Returnees will also be required to spend 14 days in managed isolation when they return.

Hipkins urged New Zealanders in NSW who do not have a pressing need to return home to “hold back” to free up space for those with urgent needs.

Flights for returning New Zealanders in Queensland will resume at 11.59 tonight.

An empty Air New Zealand checkin at Sydney airport.
An empty Air New Zealand checkin at Sydney airport. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Updated

Australian cyber security experts have warned foreign state actors could be waiting within Australia’s critical infrastructure already, ready to launch attacks.

The parliamentary joint standing committee on intelligence and security is currently reviewing legislation that would give the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) much greater powers to intervene when private companies are under cyber attack, including the ability to compel companies to install its ASD software onto their systems.

This prospect has alarmed large global tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google, who argue they are best positioned to know what would work on their network, and that compelling international technology companies to install government software could lead to a worse outcome.

On Friday, the committee heard from a group of cyber security experts, including the former director of cyber security under the Trump administration, Chris Krebs, who was ultimately fired by US president Donald Trump over contradicting his claims about election tampering.

The committee chair, Senator James Paterson, asked the experts whether foreign state actors could have already infiltrated Australian critical infrastructure and be waiting to attack.

Two of the experts said it was “100% possible”, while Cyber Security CRC chief executive Rachel Falk said the spate of ransomware attacks was a good example of how that occurs.

Often ransomware ... will sit and lie and wait and prepare a network for a long period of time. It’s entirely possible without good threat hunting and good surveillance of your own network, and legacy networks being particular prey to this, that you would have an adversary sitting there for a long period of time waiting to flip the switch.

Labor has been pushing for laws to require companies to alert the Australian Cyber Security Centre before they pay ransoms in ransomware attacks, and Krebs said such a policy was essential.

We have to get to the denominator of ransomware attacks, and the easiest way to do that is to require ransomware victims to make a notification to the government.

The second [reason] is if you’re going to make the payment we also want to make sure the information, specifically the wallet to which the ransomware payment is going, can be tracked by law enforcement and intelligence officials to light up the economy.”

On Thursday, a number of companies, including Toll, Qantas and AGL were all asked to put on the record that they had never hindered ASD assistance during a cyber attack, after the committee had heard an unnamed Australian business had brought in lawyers when ASD offered assistance, and ASD was only alerted to the attack via media reports.

Updated

Police have stepped up their presence throughout western Sydney, with officers spotted on horseback and in shopping centres, looking to ensure residents are complying with the public health orders.

Officers were seen warning and fining residents for mask compliance in Centro Bankstown, a central shopping centre in the region, with local barista Yorgo telling me he felt police were exaggerating the rate of non-compliance in the region.

“I saw cops fining people outside Woolworths for not wearing a mask properly.

“I think they are overdoing it. They seem to be targeting some different racial groups in the area. I see everyone abiding by the rules, and I think it’s exaggerated.”

A sense of paranoia and fear was palpable in the centre. A woman tipped me off about police fining people at a certain entrance, but did not want to give any further details. “Be careful,” she whispered, adjusting her mask.

Another shop owner, who didn’t want to be named, told me he’d seen many officers patrolling the shopping centre already.

“They’re everywhere.”

A staff member at the centre, who also didn’t want to be named, said police had walked by her stall every 15 minutes from early in the morning.

“They’re doing the rounds, but everyone is doing the right thing anyway.

“From the day the lockdown started, there hasn’t been that many people without masks, everyone is doing the right thing. And if I see anyone without a mask, I offer them a mask and they always take one and say ‘I was just about to buy one!’

“I think people are aware of the situation, and the quicker we can get through this, the better.”

Updated

So Pfizer are apparently working on another vaccine to specifically target the Delta variant. And reported “promising results” for those who received a THIRD DOSE. Please team, we’re struggling to just get one in our arms at the moment:

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd is with you Sydney (all except for the “Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest, extreme libertarians”):

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

With that, I shall hand you over to the fantastic Nino Bucci who take you through to the weekend.

See you next week!

I think we all need a little bit of distraction right about now.

An Australian beetle has been observed walking upside down along the surface of water – the first instance that such behaviour has been visually documented.

The tiny aquatic beetle, about 6mm to 8mm in length, has been recorded scuttling along the undersurface of a pool of water in New South Wales.

John Gould, a PhD student at the University of Newcastle, discovered the beetle by accident while researching a frog species in the Watagan Mountains.

Gould had been crouching down next to a body of water, searching for tadpoles, when he noticed what initially appeared to be a bug swimming.

In a rare documentation of the behaviour, Gould said he then realised the beetle seemed to be walking on the underside of the water’s surface as if it were a pane of glass.

You can read the full story below:

Updated

WA Premier Mark McGowan.
WA Premier Mark McGowan. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Updated

The Morrison government’s decision to appeal a federal court declaration it had a duty of care to protect Australian children from the climate impacts of expanding a coalmine are “honestly, pretty embarrassing”, according to one of the Melbourne schoolchildren who brought the case.

Anjali Sharma, 17, and lawyer David Barnden have released statements following the news of the appeal. The eight schoolchildren, with a nun as a court guardian, failed in May to have the Vickery coalmine expansion blocked.

But yesterday, the court formalised that the environment minister had a duty to take “reasonable care” Australians under 18 were not harmed by the emissions from Whitehaven’s coal plans.

Barnden says:

We question the Morrison government’s intent to appeal the duty. This is a duty about life and death for Australian children. It seems inconceivable that an environment minister, a member of parliament representing the people of Australia, would seek to rid herself of this sensible responsibility.

We will vigorously defend the rights of children not to suffer injury or death from climate change at the hands of a government intent on approving new fossil fuel projects.

Sharma says:

When I heard the news I found it funny and honestly pretty embarrassing that the environment minister plans to appeal. As a person in power, her job should be to act for, not against, the young people of Australia.

But instead of doing her job of safeguarding our future, she is prepared to spend public money fighting for her right to make climate change worse, harm the environment and risk the injury and death of Australian children.

It should be an unwritten rule that the government and every minister has a duty to safeguard the future, but instead it needed to be written into law, and now the Morrison government wants to erase that.

This is an embarrassment for minister Ley. A challenge favours the profits of coal companies above safeguarding the health of our environment and children and young people like me.

David Barnden (lead lawyer), Laura Kirwin, Izzy Raj-Seppings, Ava Princi and Liv Heaton outside the federal court of Australia in Sydney, 27 May 2021.
David Barnden (lead lawyer), Laura Kirwin, Izzy Raj-Seppings, Ava Princi and Liv Heaton outside the federal court of Australia in Sydney, 27 May 2021. Photograph: James Gourley/AAP

Updated

Here are all the new restrictions (and the old ones) in one handy explainer.

Just a note on that explosion of close contact numbers in NSW.

2,000 of the new 7,000 contacts have come from just one exposure site.

Ikea Home Furnishings at Tempe.
Ikea Home Furnishings at Tempe. Photograph: Richard Milnes/Alamy

Updated

ACT, my dude, come on. You have GOT to stop flexing straight after the NSW press conferences!

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says there is no change in the number of doses the company has contracted to deliver to Australia over 2021 – contradicting reports asserting the Morrison government had secured a “game-changing deal” to triple its access to the jabs.

The prime minister – who has been under significant political pressure because of the slow pace of the vaccination rollout, pressure that has ramped up during the lockdown of greater Sydney – embarked on a media blitz on Friday to argue the pace of the vaccination rollout was accelerating.

The prime minister’s comments came ahead of New South Wales confirming 44 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19, including 29 where people were infectious in community, and ahead of a national cabinet meeting later on Friday.

During Friday’s media blitz, Morrison told 2GB that, in June, Australia was getting 1.7m doses of Pfizer a month. He said this month that would increase to 2.8m doses and by August Australia would get 4.5m doses, “so that is quite a ramp-up”.

You can read the full report below:

Epic Games has won an appeal to have its case over the ban of the Fortnite game from the Apple app store heard in Australia, but Apple has vowed to appeal.

Epic Games has commenced litigation in a number of countries, including Australia, seeking to overturn a ban of its popular Fortnite app from the app stores of Apple and Google after the company sought to bypass the in-app payment systems and cut both companies out of the slice they take from every payment.

The full federal court on Friday overturned a judgment earlier this year preventing Epic Games from challenging the case against Apple in Australia while a US court case was being heard.

The three judges found the US court could not consider the potential breaches under Australian consumer law Epic alleges against Apple as a result of the ban, and said the case could be heard in Australia.

An Epic spokesperson welcomed the decision:

Epic Games is pleased that our case will proceed with the federal court and be examined in the context of Australian laws. This is a positive step forward for Australian consumers and developers who are entitled to fair access and competitive pricing across mobile app stores. We look forward to continuing our fight for increased competition in app distribution and payment processing in Australia and around the world.

A spokesperson for Apple confirmed the company plans to seek leave to appeal the decision in the high court.

The US case was heard in May, with judgment reserved.

Fortnite game app.
Fortnite game app. Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

Updated

Environment minister to appeal historic climate change duty of care declaration

Environment minister Sussan Ley will appeal yesterday’s federal court declaration she had a duty of care to protect Australian children from climate harm that would be caused by the expansion of a coal mining project.

The historic judgement, from Justice Mordecai Bromberg, placed into law the minister’s responsibility after a case against the Vickery coalmine expansion was brought by eight schoolchildren and a nun.

In a statement, the minister’s office said:

After carefully considering the judgment, the minister has formed the view there are grounds on which to appeal.

Following the handing down of orders by the Court yesterday, the Minister has now instructed the department to lodge a notice of appeal.

The case came in two parts. A request to block the mine expansion was denied by the court in May, but the claim the minister had a duty of care to protect Australians under 18 from harm caused by greenhouse gas emissions from the mine was formalised yesterday.

Updated

New hard lockdown rules in greater Sydney

OK, here is what we learnt in that hour-long press conference.

What new rules will be in effect from 5pm tonight?

  • No more than two people, or a household, exercising together.
  • You must only exercise within 10km of your home or within your local government area. (We will clarify what means.)
  • You can no longer carpool to go exercise with anyone outside your household.
  • Only one person per household can go shopping for essential items. (I assume this is “at a time” but again we will clarify.
  • Funerals will be limited to 10 people.
  • Auctions and open house inspections cannot go ahead.

What is still allowed?

  • You can still travel to visit your intimate partner if you do not live with them.
  • Online auctions and private inspections can take place.
  • You can still move house, but you cannot have family or friends coming to help you.

Who does this apply to?

The new rules apply to everywhere and everyone currently in lockdown, including:

  • Greater Sydney
  • Central Coast
  • Blue Mountains
  • Wollongong
  • Shellharbour

How long will it last?

It’s unclear. It’s very likely that the lockdown will last past the previous end date for the lockdown, 16 July.

Berejiklian said she could not yet provide an end date but emphasised that there must be “zero or close to zero” community transmission. (Although she clarified this means no new cases that have been active in the community – new cases in close contacts who are already in isolation are less concerning).

She was extremely clear that “living with Covid” would not be considered until vaccination rates rise astronomically.

What about school?

We currently don’t know if learning from home for students in greater Sydney will extend past the end of next week.

Updated

OK, that’s the presser. I’ll whip up a summary for you with all the most important parts – stay tuned.

Updated

And here is the closing, sobering statement from the health minister.

Hazzard:

We were told some years ago by former prime minister [John] Howard, I think it was, to be alert but not alarmed.

Right now, here in greater Sydney, as health minister, I am both alert and alarmed.

I have seen the figures of people who are out and about in the community. I have seen what health is concerned about, and I share that concern.

We must stress to each individual, we have a responsibility to stop the virus in its tracks. The only way that we can do that is not leave our homes unless we absolutely have to do, and don’t visit our family. Don’t visit our friends. Keep them safe. That is the one thing that is in everybody’s power.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Intimate partner visits still allowed in greater Sydney lockdown

Also, good news, just confirming, there will be no bonk ban in this harder lockdown.

You are still able to travel to stay at the home of your intimate partner.

The NSW health minister Brad Hazzard:

We have made very clear that we don’t want people to leave their homes.

We don’t want people, unless it is for the essential reasons we have talked about. We also made clear that what we are doing is trying to strike a balance of compassion and common sense.

So if you have a partner who doesn’t live with you, obviously your intimate partner can attend with you.

Updated

The premier has been asked how an increased police presence in Sydney’s south-west will solve the central issue of government messages not reaching people due to cultural and language differences.

Well, there are multiple things that we are doing in all communities to make sure that people firstly feel they understand the health orders, and also the risks.

It does not matter where you live. Whether it is different communities, elderly communities who have had specific messaging for specific industries and workplaces who have had specific messaging for people whose second language is English, there are lots of different parts of the community that we have specifically targeted messages to.

I don’t want anybody anywhere in New South Wales to feel that they are being somehow singled out. All of us are in the same situation.

If you are doing the wrong thing, no matter where you live, it is a problem ... if there is one message I want people to take out of today, do not leave your home unless you absolutely have to do. That is the bottom line.

Police are walking in the shopping district in the southwestern suburb of Fairfield in Sydney.
Police walking in the shopping district in the southwestern suburb of Fairfield in Sydney Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Reporter:

Do you admit, in some ways, that people do feel targeted out in the south-west? They do feel like they are being treated differently to other people.

Berejiklian:

Please, no, I don’t want anyone to feel like that.

But what you should feel ... if you are not doing the right thing, please know that we will have to have the law come down on you, because the simple fact is, people doing the wrong thing means that all of us suffer. And we know that many people acquire the disease quite unknowingly to them, they may be in the community unknowingly to them, and we don’t want anybody in that situation to feel guilty.

If you are knowingly doing the wrong thing, you are hurting those closest to you and you are hurting all of us. So I do expect the law and compliance to make sure that people are doing the right thing. If we don’t have those measures in place and people think they can cut corners, we won’t get out of this in the timely way that all of us are hoping. And that is why it is really important.

Updated

In previous days the federal government has been pretty clear that JobKeeper would not be reinstated in NSW during the lockdown, but Berejiklian still seems confident more financial support from the commonwealth will be coming, and coming soon.

Yes, please note that the state treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, myself, the prime minister and the federal treasurer are in ongoing discussions.

The federal government accepts that they will provide support to New South Wales, which we are grateful for, those conversations are ongoing.

And of course, given the situation we are in, we are considering all options and how we can provide greater support. When we provided business support to New South Wales, we didn’t just focus on the areas in lockdown, we focused on all of New South Wales because we know that businesses in the regions who have not had the tourists come during the holidays I hurting almost as much as those subject stay at home orders.

So please expect us to say something positive about that. I don’t want people to stress about their financial position. Please know that we are working hard on what extra measures that we might need to support businesses, but also households, who are doing it tough. I look forward to saying something about that in the next few days.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.
NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Guardian Australia’s own, amazing Anne Davies has asked if the police response in the city’s south-west has been skewed by the racially diverse population in the area.

I believe it is deputy police commissioner Jeff Loy answering, but I’ll double-check.

Loy:

Commissioner Fuller made an operational decision to push more police into south-western Sydney.

That was the same when we put police on the border and on the Murray River, similar decisions were made when we pushed the police into Bondi recently, around the beach area*, and a similar decision was made not that long ago in the Northern Beaches when that area was locked down.

The operational decision is based on the public health orders and the fundamental response that police have to enforce those health orders.

*Hmmmm, but Bondi didn’t have the fanfare of an additional 100 officers sent in for a “high visibility” enforcement operation.

Updated

Chant has urged people not to delay getting tested because they are afraid of the internal guilt that is often associated with a Covid-19 diagnosis.

Chant:

One of the things coming up, sometimes when getting a Covid diagnosis is [people feeling] as if they have done something wrong.

But can I say, you have not done anything wrong in acquiring Covid. In most cases! *laughs*.

But the point I’m trying to convey is that it’s important that you actually don’t put your head in the sand and think “if I just stay at home, I’m OK, I don’t really want to know, I will get better”.

The reason for that is knowing your diagnosis that you have Covidmeans that we in New South Wales Health can provide better care if we know what diagnosis you’ve got and your condition deteriorates we know how to treat you and respond to you and also, which is probably even more important to you, you may have exposed other people.

Members of the public at a pop up Covid testing clinic at Roselands shopping centre.
Members of the public at a pop up Covid testing clinic at Roselands shopping centre. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

By the way, Chant says we are likely to get information on how many of the people infected in this outbreak (and how many of the people hospitalised as a result) were vaccinated, tomorrow.

The premier has been asked what she thinks of the reports that those within her own cabinet have been advocating for “living with Covid”.

Everybody is entitled to their view. My job is to speak to the facts and to speak to what New South Wales has to do.

And I appreciate many in the community will think we have gone too far and some will think we have not gone far enough but what we need to do is rely on the health advice. And the health advice is based on the most recent data we have and I urge everybody to get out of your head please acknowledge we cannot live with this when the vaccination rate is only around 9%.

Not that it makes that much of a difference but I believe today’s vaccine update has us up to about 10% of the population vaccinated.

Updated

Now, I’m sure any parents reading this right now must be wondering what this means for schools in greater Sydney. Will homeschooling extend past next week?

The premier admits, that she doesn’t yet know.

Berejiklian:

The current arrangements around childcare centres and the like will stay in place. But I cannot really comment on what school might look like until we get more information and more data on where numbers are heading.

But it is my job to be more direct and upfront, given where we are today, and I just want to get rid of any speculation about us living with this variant.

We cannot live with this variant. No place on earth has unless they have their vaccination rates are much, much higher than what we have.

Otherwise it subjects the population to thousands and thousands of hospitalisations, thousands of deaths.

Reporter:

What is your advice on how long it will take us to get to zero cases?

Berejiklian:

The best advice on what it will take us to zero community transmission is up to all of us.

The reporter asks again how long the premier expects this new lockdown to last.

Berejiklian:

I can’t give that answer today, because it will depend on how the community responds to all the restrictions, and how the community response to the situation we have now.

It is really up to us how long we are in the situation for.

What I can say is that our target has to be zero or close to zero community transmission before we can live a normal life like we did prior to the lockdown.

That is because of how contagious this is. And that is because our vaccination rates are only at 9%.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

When it comes to directly answering questions asked by journalists, Berejiklian doesn’t seem to be a massive fan.

Reporter:

Premier, you said you couldn’t be clearer, we two weeks into a lockdown and it is only now that we are actually seeing a full cohort of lockdown restrictions. Why didn’t you implement them at the start?

Berejiklian:

Well, firstly, we have to [follow] health advice. And health advice relies on the data.

What we need to appreciate is, as soon as anybody has symptoms, they must get tested and stay home and wait for the advice. So we must follow the health advice.

We must ensure that the settings we have in the community, at any time, at any time, bring the community with us. We are 18 months into the pandemic, some people say we have gone too hard, some people will say we have gone too soft.

But the reality is, every action we ask the community to take, every update we provide, is based on the best health advice at that time.

Updated

The premier is leaving no room for doubt on her opinion of the “live with the virus” rhetoric that has been floating over the last few days.

(Although, worth remembering the man standing behind her, health minister Brad Hazzard, is largely responsible for starting that discourse.)

We have a very low level of vaccination in New South Wales. It is only 9%. We do not have the option of living with this.

We have to quash the community transmission. Because if we don’t, we will see thousands and thousands of people in hospital, and lots of people thousands of people, potentially, dying.

Until we get those vaccination rates higher, we do not have the luxury of considering living with this virus.

We don’t have that as an option.

An empty plaza is seen in the south-western suburb of Liverpool in Sydney.
An empty plaza is seen in the south-western suburb of Liverpool in Sydney. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Despite the tightening restrictions, Berejiklian still reluctant to mandate that all stores that are not absolutely essential close.

Reporter:

Do we need to see all retail except those major department stores closed?

Berejiklian:

What we need is for everybody to follow the rules that are in place. The biggest challenge we have is lack of compliance.

That might be because people are complacent and don’t think this is serious, because previous types of the virus, previous strains of the virus, have acted differently...

The vast majority of people want to follow the rules. Our challenge is to make sure people understand what the rules are, in place, but also to follow those rules, those settings. We are pretty clear, I don’t know how much clearer we need to be.

Please do not leave your house. Do not leave your home, unless you absolutely have to. Those exceptions but we have given are literally exceptions. Most of us should be spending most of our time within our household unless there are those exceptional circumstances otherwise.

Close contacts double in NSW overnight to 14,000

Concerningly, the number of close contacts have doubled overnight, with a number of large venues added.

Chant:

At the moment, we have over 14,000 close contacts. Now, yesterday, it was 7,000.

Now, the reason is, we have had a number of larger venues, in terms of people being out and about...

In relation to those venues of concern, one new case is linked to Ikea at Tempe on the 6 July.

So anybody who attended Ikea at Tempe on 6 July from 10am to 9pm is a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result...

Anyone who has also been at these other venues are also a close contact, and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days.

So Sahar Market in Auburn [and] the post office at Merrylands.

In relation to the supermarket it is 1:30pm to 2pm and on the post office, 2pm to 3pm.

Aldi Merrylands on Monday the 5 July from 1:30pm to 3:30 pm.

Kmart Merrylands from Monday 5 July from 1:30pm to 3:30 p.m.

Auburn fresh city vegetables from Monday 5 July from 3:30pm to 4:30 pm.

And again, the Sahar Market in Auburn from 5 July from 3:30pm to 4:30pm.

Pedestrians make their way through the general shopping district of Auburn.
Pedestrians make their way through the general shopping district of Auburn. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Updated

Here is the geographical breakdown of the greater Sydney cases:

Of the 44 locally acquired cases, 21 from south-west Sydney, eight from the south-east and seven from the west.

Chant:

So, people in Sydney’s south-east, Sutherland, Carrillo, Sylvania, Hurstville and Maroubra, need to stay particularly vigilant and continue coming forward for testing and share important health messages and follow the health advice.

The other suburbs where we are seeing a number of cases is in the Bossley Park, Smithfield, Fairfield, Glenfield, West Hoxton, Bass Hill, Greenacre, St John’s Park, Bonnyrigg Heights, Casula, Bankstown, Canley Vale, Aramark, because Euler, Chester Hill, [couldn’t hear], Edmondson Park, Greenfield Park, Moorebank, Narelle and Dale and St John’s Park.

I’ll double-check all the names and spellings of those suburbs when I have a second and get that missing suburb.

An empty street in the shopping district is seen in the southwestern suburb of Fairfield in Sydney.
An empty street in the shopping district is seen in the southwestern suburb of Fairfield in Sydney. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

NSW now has 14 people under 55 hospitalised with Covid-19

Chant:

I would also just like to emphasise that we have currently got 43 people in hospital due to Covid. Ten people in ICU. Four of whom are ventilated...

We have 14 people admitted to hospital at the moment with Covid, under the age of 55, and of those, seven are under the age of 35.

I’m just going to read this next piece very slowly. Of the 10 people in ICU, one is in their 20s. One is in their 30s. One is in their 50s. And five are in their 60s. And two are in their 70s.

Updated

The NSW leaders seem united today in placing the blame of this lockdown on the federal government and the sluggish vaccine rollout.

Here is the NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant:

I know that this has been a long journey in the fight against Covid but we cannot stumble over this hurdle. This is an incredibly challenging time and I want to stress I am incredibly concerned.

I need all members of the community to follow the public health advice. And at the times when we had the lockdown in March, people were seeing images from overseas which sort of reinforced the fear and concern about Covid. And now people are looking at countries overseas where they are seeing people go about their work and pleasure in a sort of normal way.

I think that is important to highlight, that is because those countries have got vaccination coverage for the adult population and, in some cases, down in the childhood population. That is very different from our situation. We have only got 9% vaccination coverage. We cannot let this virus takes further foothold and lead to an exponential rise in cases.

While clearly valid, it may be worth keeping in mind that the NSW government is having to do a HEAP of damage control today over why they did not lockdown sooner and harder.

NSW must reach zero case infectious in the community before restrictions can ease

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian:

This Delta variant is far more contagious than any other part of the virus we have seen, it is far more transmissible, it’s transmitting in different ways and the health data that we’re seeing says that if we open up before we get as close to that zero as possible – and again, I’m not necessarily talking cases – but we need to have zero people who have been infectious in the community because that tells us they still could be undertaken with strains of community transmission.

So the figure, to be really mindful, overnight, 29, imagine yesterday and the last few days we had 29 people with the virus in the community in some way. And we cannot see that continue. It is up to all of us.

Updated

Berejiklian also noted that a person in their 20s was now on a ventilator from Covid-19 related illness.

Updated

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says it is highly unlikely that lockdown will end as planned next Friday.

[New lockdown restrictions] will commence from today, five o’clock. Please know that from today those restrictions are in place...

I said just a few days before we had to go into lockdown that this was the scariest period for New South Wales during the pandemic, unfortunately those words are absolutely the case.

New South Wales is facing the biggest challenge we have faced since the pandemic started and I don’t say it lightly.

And unless there is a dramatic change, unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the numbers, I can’t see how we would be in a position to ease restrictions by next Friday.

Updated

Berejiklian is laying out the new, harder lockdown rules:

Do not carpool, you are not allowed to carpool with anyone outside of your household when it comes to exercising and we need to be very clear about that we will stress again the health orders will reflect, unless under exceptional circumstances or health reasons, one person from the household should go out shopping to buy essential items. Browsing is not allowed...

This next one is a heartbreaking restriction but from Sunday, funerals will go back down to 10 people because when you have the rate of transmission that we do in the community, we are now not only looking at areas where the transmission has occurred but we are trying to prevent any what we call superseding events, we got to prevent any opportunity where someone with the virus turns up and super-seed it to others.

Updated

Lockdown hardens for greater Sydney

Berejiklian says NSW needs to “crush” the virus now and as such will tighten lockdown in greater Sydney.

Please, do not think that the New South Wales government thinks we can live with this when our rate of vaccination is only at 9%. Because if we chose to live with this while the rates of vaccinations are at 9%, we will see thousands and thousands of hospitalisations and death...

So until we get to zero or close to the zero, we cannot ease restrictions. In fact, based on the health advice the government received late last night and early this morning, NSW will be further tightening restrictions in those areas that already have stay-at-home orders.

So previously we’d set up to 10 people can exercise outdoors. That is now two people. Before we had said. Two people however, obviously, households are OK and parents and kids, whatever your household is you can exercise together. But apart from that, it’s only two.

And the other restriction on top of that is that you can only exercise within your local government area or within 10km of where you live.

People are seen in Rushcutters Bay Park.
People are seen in Rushcutters Bay Park. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Updated

Berejiklian: 29 infectious cases

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian:

To 8pm last night there were 44 cases of community transmission. Regrettably, 29 of those were either partially or fully exposed to the community and that is the number that is really concerning us we always, New South Wales, aim to have zero community transmission.

Updated

NSW records 44 new local Covid-19 cases

We are just standing by now for NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to stand up and give us the state’s daily Covid-19 numbers.

National cabinet will also revisit international passenger caps today, which will be halved in five days, reports Matt Coughlan from AAP.

The foreign minister said the reduction would be in place until 31 August despite Morrison stating it would be in place until at least the start of next year.

Marise Payne said work was underway to increase the amount of government-facilitated flights as demand soars from Australians stranded abroad.

I’m very aware, particularly given the extraordinary amount of work my department has been doing with Australians endeavouring to return, this does create an additional layer of difficulty.

Australia has offered companies the chance make their case for the contract to provide vaccination passports for international travel.

Payne said it was a work in progress with international regulators and airline groups looking at similar options.

Australia wants to make sure we’re fully engaged in that process.

Updated

Australia is set to trial home quarantine for fully vaccinated overseas arrivals with NSW and South Australia likely to be the first states to participate in a pilot scheme, reports Matt Coughlan from AAP.

Prime minister Scott Morrison will discuss the idea with premiers and chief ministers at a national cabinet meeting today.

Foreign minister Marise Payne told ABC radio the proposal would look at alternative options including home quarantine for fully vaccinated travellers.

One of the things the work done so far tells us is that a vaccinated person quarantining for seven days is stronger than an unvaccinated person quarantining for 14 days...

We will start that in the coming period when the medical advice enables us to do so and the processes are put in place.

NSW and SA have expressed interest in participating a small-scale trial.

The ACT has allowed diplomats, government officials and the prime minister to quarantine at residences during the pandemic. But the territory government is reluctant to immediately expand the program to the general population.

Updated

Just a reminder, we are standing by for the NSW daily Covid-19 update at 11am (AEST).

Yesterday the state reported its most infectious day in the outbreak so far with 38 new local Covid-19 cases, 20 of which were in the community for part or all of their infectious period.

'I promised one hell of a party': Territory Day 2021 to combine with Freedom Day festival

If you remember, last year the Northern Territory chief minister Michael Gunner was forced to cancel the annual Territory Day or “cracker night”.

Back then, he promised the following:

Cracker night will be back in 2021, and we will make it the best one yet.

We’ll get back to parties and beers in the backyard, and back to doing what we really love to do once a year, blowing stuff up.

So take it from me, as your Territory chief next year’s Territory Day will be a cracking one.

Now, the celebration is usually held on 1 July, but as you might remember much of the NT was in hard lockdown for much of last week, making it impossible.

But Gunner, as proven to be a man of his word, and has announced the day will go ahead, just a little later in the year.

Now, I said I would keep you safe. I said I would only go back to blowing things up when we were safe to the virus. I think that is what most of you are waiting for. Territory Day, firecracker night. This year it will be held on Sunday, 29 August.

Why this date? Let me explain. This Territory Day is our Freedom Day. I promised one hell of a party. This year, as we celebrate our freedoms, Territory Day is linking arms with the annual freedom day festival held on August 27 to 29.

Freedom Day marks one of the pivotal events in the Territory and Australian history when the ringleader led the 1966 walk from Weyhill Station...

This set the stage for land rights in Northern Territory and ultimately the national native title legislation.

It is fitting that Territory Day ‘21 sees all Territorians come together to honour Vincent and the legends of the walk off.

Fireworks display during Territory Day celebrations at Mindil Beach on 1 July 2018 in Darwin, Australia.
Fireworks display during Territory Day celebrations at Mindil Beach on 1 July 2018 in Darwin, Australia. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Updated

Gunner:

We came close. We could have been in a very different situation.

It started as just one case from Queensland, it quickly grew to 19. It spread across four jurisdictions and we had over 700 close contacts on the mine site who all locked down in Tanami....

Since the first and my case, there have been 5,000 tests.

I want to give a shoutout, I won’t get tired of doing this, to those Territorians who have gone out and got the vaccination. It is a pretty sensational figure. We as Territorians are leading the country with the national rate at just 9% for top and remote areas, with 32% vaccinated. Legends.

Updated

'We did it': restrictions ease across NT

Okay, we are popping over to Darwin now, where chief minister Michael Gunner has announced: “We did it!”

As of 1pm today we are lifting restrictions.

That means you can take your masks off, you can go back to the gym, you can line up for a lux at the markets and if you really want to celebrate you can hit the dance floor tonight.

Territorians, this is all down to you. You masked up when you had to and you keep your distance, you checked in. Over 1.2m times in the last week alone. Thank you to 99.9% of you for being the best.

Naturally, there were a few who had words, but they have been served a grilling from police and are now thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Updated

From this morning it has also become mandatory for businesses to have the correct check-in QR codes on display in all retail and hospitality venues.

Yvette D’Ath:

The check-in app became mandatory at 1am this morning.

Can I give a shout out to the businesses at Redcliffe because I did a tour around the businesses yesterday afternoon and the compliance rate was fantastic. Big shoutout to those businesses for what they are doing.

They all have the check-in app up on walls and a whole lot of places, I have seen a number of businesses having a tablet that has the business app so anyone who doesn’t have a personal smart phone, the business can check those people in electronically as well.

Overnight, we have had over 8,000 extra businesses register with many of those over 5,000 are approved in the system already. Well done to all of those businesses for getting online and making sure they are registered for the out. If you haven’t yet, time is up. You need to get online and register your business and make sure you are getting that signage up straightaway.

Updated

The health minister Yvette D’Ath has started with, what I’m sure a lot of Queenslanders are feeling right now:

Thank you Queensland, and best press conference ever!

To be able to say zero today is such a great outcome. As a chief health officer has said we’re not through this yet.

Updated

Here is the chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young who is also celebrating this morning.

Excellent news today. Zero new cases. None in the community and none in hotel quarantine.

We do still have a lot of people in home quarantine and hotel quarantine and I want to thank every single one of them. So today, there are 8,679 people in quarantine...

We are not totally out of it yet. We must keep up quarantine and testing. So thank you to every person over the last few weeks who has come forward and got tested.

Updated

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk:

We are delighted that through the hard work of Queensland is that we have gotten to that situation today.

Well done everyone and let’s keep up the good work. We still have just around one week to continue wearing our masks and doing the right thing and checking in. Don’t forget as well that the check in app is mandatory today.

Queensland records no Covid-19 cases overnight

Okay, the Queensland premier is standing up now and has some brilliant news.

The state has recorded no Covid-19 cases tonight, local or otherwise!

Updated

Pfizer says no extra vaccine doses are headed for Australia

Pfizer has put out a statement this morning that appears to somewhat contradict what Scott Morrison has been spruiking this morning.

Although the prime minister was primarily talking about the rate at which doses would arrive in the coming months, this has been widely interpreted as an actual increase in the number of vaccines that will eventually become available as well.

Pfizer says this is not the case:

Pfizer is committed to delivering 40m doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Australia over 2021.

The total number of 40m doses we are contracted to Pfizer is committed to delivering 40m doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Australia over 2021.

The total number of 40m doses we are contracted to and continue to progress in line with our weekly delivery schedule.

We expect the remainder of the 40m doses to be delivered by the end of 2021.

Updated

So, just drifting back to the police operation in Sydney’s south-west. Why don’t we check in with the federal MP who represents that district?

In this case, that would be opposition frontbencher Chris Bowen who’s McMahon seat includes the impact local government area of Fairfield.

Bowen told ABC that Fairfield “didn’t start the fire” and shouldn’t become a scapegoat for Sydney’s ongoing issues containing the virus:

The police will be made welcome in my community, as any government support is. I want to make it crystal clear the people of Fairfield are law abiding people.

We’ve a vibrant, resilient, and strong community. If anyone is breaching the rules, my community want the book thrown at them. Where there’s been genuine misunderstandings I trust and expect that will be dealt with appropriately...

We didn’t start this pandemic in Fairfield. This is not a Fairfield caused issue. This was a breach of quarantine. While we didn’t start the fire, we’re certainly playing our role in dealing with it...

It’s important that communication is crystal clear, not only in language, but taking into account the sorts of family situations that people have.

As I said, often in my community you have large families living in close proximity to each other, cousins, brothers and sisters, with separate families, and they treat the family dinner as something a big different as we would in an Anglo Celtic background. You have large family gatherings on a nightly basis. Now everyone has comply with the law and the vast majority of people are complying with the rules. Everyone wants to see it dealt with.

Communications that may be effective in other communities may need a bit more attention and care in communities like this.

Police walking in the shopping district in the south-western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Friday, 9 July 2021.
Police walking in the shopping district in the south-western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Friday, 9 July 2021. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Oops! Well, it looks like there might be a bit of a clash coming up.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszscuk is also slated to stand up for her daily Covid-19 update at 10am (AEST).

I’ll do my best to bring you updates from both.

Now, if I remember correctly we should be hearing from the Northern Territory chief minister Michael Gunner in about half an hour.

Residents in the NT will find out about rule changes during this press conference. The ABC reports that gyms will likely be allowed to reopen and masks no longer needed.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison has reshuffled the leadership of three key public service departments after receiving governor general David Hurley’s blessing.

The federal government has announced the appointment of new secretaries to the department of foreign affairs and trade, department of social services and attorney general’s department.

The details are down below if you are keen to know more:

Updated

I mentioned just before that Bill Shorten said the prime minister has effectively abandoned Melbourne and Victoria during their recent lockdown. This reaction came after Scott Morrison announced the government would provide an additional 300,000 AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine doses to NSW to help them combat the current outbreak.

Now, Shorten was referencing Morrison’s reluctance to provide financial support to Victorians, but you could be forgiven for thinking he was implying the state hadn’t received any additional vaccine supplies.

This isn’t the case, as the prime minister was quick to clarify when he spoke this morning:

Well in Melbourne we provided 150,000 additional doses when they were going through this exact same challenge. We’ve always had those additional AstraZeneca. So there was 150,000 Pfizer that we sent to Victoria.

And we doubled that down with AstraZeneca here [in NSW] because we know, particularly in the affected areas we’ve got just shy of 70,000 people aged over 60, who have already had their first AstraZeneca dose. We want them to come back and get their second one.

People queued at the NSW vaccination centre at Homebush Olympic Park in Sydney.
People queued at the NSW vaccination centre at Homebush Olympic Park in Sydney. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA

Updated

The prime minister issues are warning for NSW politicians contemplating living with Covid, telling them to “come into line with the premier”.

There have been some reports floating around this morning that some NSW ministers are keen on exploring the idea of abandoning the zero community transmission policy the state holds for combatting outbreaks.

Scott Morrison was asked for his thoughts on this suggestion, this morning:

To come into line with the premier. That is the public health advice I’m receiving. I’m quite certain that’s the public health advice that she’s receiving.

In the discussions I’ve had with NSW cabinet ministers, that hasn’t been relayed to me, so I don’t know what these reports relate to...

The government in NSW I think has shown great resolve and they have led the country in so many ways over the course of this past 18 months.

The virus doesn’t respect our records here. And all it does is seek to have its way and in Sydney, we are in a vulnerable position right now. It is very important that all of us do what we can to comply with these arrangements. But we have to get those case numbers down. And at this stage, this year, we always knew in every state and territory, that we would still be in a suppression phase.

Updated

Morrison said it would be “unfair” to suggest the NSW police operation was skewed unfairly due to race.

I think it would be an unfair conclusion to draw on the behalf of the police to suggest anything other than them just trying to do their job and respond to the situation as it is emerging.

When we’re dealing with a much more serious situation now than was envisaged a couple of weeks ago and the situation is escalating and people just got to do their jobs and we’ve got to do our job, that is the public of Sydney, in ensuring that we comply with those orders.

We’ve had a real problem with compliance. We’ve got to together sort that out.

Updated

Here is the prime minister’s views on the controversial lockdown law enforcement operation currently going on in south-west Sydney.

Well, I think we are in this together. And we have seen these sorts of responses in other states. We certainly saw it in Victoria last year when we were dealing with similar challenges. And the police are there simply just to help with the compliance and to provide assistance.

Those decisions are being made operationally to support the arrangements that are being put in place and they’re made and the judgments are being made by professional police officers. That is what is needed. It is important that that is understood in good faith. And everyone’s doing the best they can, including our police and everyone in the community, we have got to work together to come through this city.

As a Sydneysider, we are all subject to those rules and we all need to comply with them because the virus doesn’t walk by itself.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison told Nine’s Today show that he was confident Pfizer would follow through and fulfil their newly signed contracts to more than triple Australia’s current supply of vaccine doses.

Pfizer’s supply to us – all the way through – what they’ve said they will deliver, they have delivered.

We’re still working in a global market where there’s a lot of strains. And they confirmed those supplies. I can tell you every time Pfizer said they are going to deliver something, they have.

Now, clearly we didn’t have that with AstraZeneca early on in the rollout and there was 3m vaccines that set us right back. But we’re making up that time now. And we’re hitting those marks. We need to hit now. And so we keep that up Australia, we get this thing done.

Updated

Continues from last post.

Dr Katie Allen said the government had the freedom to make decisions despite the Atagi advice.

The Australian government and Atagi and the TGA said that we’re going to be open and transparent about all risks with the Australian population.

We do know that trust and respect comes with transparency and that we are going to be very clear about any side effect and any deaths. That was a commitment we made and have been very clear about that.

Atagi can provide advice but at the end of the day the government should make the decision.

Allen also said the media had “made very clear the side effects of AstraZeneca but not some of the side effects of Pfizer in the same way” but encouraged everyone to get vaccinated.

On Thursday, Morrison encouraged residents in south-west Sydney who have had an AstraZeneca dose to get their second dose closer to eight weeks than the preferred 12.

Morrison said:

Given the risks to people of the outbreak in that area, we believe it’s important that they get the second dose of AstraZeneca as soon as possible.

Atagi recommends the second dose be delivered 12 weeks later for maximum protection but it can be administered a minimum of four weeks after the first.

Epidemiologist Marylouise McLaws told ABC TV shortening the window between doses was a good idea given the threat of the delta variant, but it would probably mean a third booster shot would be required.

Clients socially distance in the observation room at the St Vincent’s Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic.
Clients socially distance in the observation room at the St Vincent’s Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Updated

A quick Q&A recap for those who missed it

A Coalition MP has urged the expert advisory group on immunisation to review its advice on AstraZeneca, saying she is “deeply disappointed” about how the vaccine has been perceived in Australia.

Dr Katie Allen told the ABC’s Q&A program on Thursday that she wrote to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) urging them to review its advice, given the “changing situation internationally”.

The comments came after prime minister Scott Morrison said under-40s could take AstraZeneca and suggested he would prefer an eight-week gap between doses, despite the health advice clearly recommending otherwise.

Allen, a medical doctor who worked in paediatrics before becoming the member for the Melbourne seat of Higgins, suggested that experts in Atagi had varying opinions as to whether AstraZeneca should be recommended more broadly and she was concerned about how the advice had been framed.

AstraZeneca is a vaccine that has been well taken up in the UK … the World Health Organization has backed in AstraZeneca. I’m deeply disappointed about the way the Australian population has perceived the AstraZeneca vaccine.

I would have preferred Atagi would say there are risks and warnings, and I think we can see now that people understand that they can receive AstraZeneca in these other age categories and should speak to their doctor and have a consented process and make the decision for themselves.

Continued in next post.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison has also been out and about this morning, discussing today’s announcement that Pfizer supplies would more than triple in the coming months.

We have been working with Pfizer now for quite some period of time to bring forward our supplies and I commend minister Hunt and Professor Murphy and Lieutenant General Freun for the great job net going those supplies brought forward.

That means we’ve gone from 1.7m in June, 2.8m this month and we will rise to a million a week from 19 July and we will get to 4.5m a month next month. So that’s ramping up.

We’ve got 1,300 extra GPs coming on line this month to deliver the Pfizer vaccine.

And so we are really hitting our marks now. I know we’ve had challenges over the course of the last four months but we’re hitting those marks now. We keep this pace up, we get there.

So it really is the national effort to get there.

Updated

Western Sydney residents say they are being “scapegoated” as New South Wales police announced a major compliance crackdown, including mounted officers, and health authorities struggled to contain the city’s growing Covid-19 outbreak.

The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, on Thursday apologised for singling out three council areas in Sydney’s west for apparent breaches of health orders as locals claimed they were being unfairly “branded as the reason the lockdown was extended”.

NSW’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, has indicated tougher restrictions could be considered for the three council areas.

Police on Thursday announced a “crackdown” on lockdown rules in Sydney’s south-west, with more than 100 extra officers to be deployed to patrol the area from Friday, including mounted police.

You can read the full report from Mostafa Rachwani and Naaman Zhou below:

Victoria records ninth day of no local Covid cases

It’s another day of zero locally acquired Covid-19 cases in Victoria today. What a lovely way to finish off the week.

This marks nine days without a locally acquired case.

Updated

Scott Morrison announced yesterday that an extra 300,000 AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine doses will be made available for NSW, as the state fights to bring an outbreak of the Delta variant under control.

This has raised the hackles of other states who requested financial and vaccine assistant while going through their own crisis.

Opposition frontbench Bill Shorten told the Today show the prime minister had been absent while Victoria was in crisis.

I think the truth of the matter is for Victoria and Melbourne we say “Scott who?”

He doesn’t know where Melbourne or Victoria is.

I’m happy that he’s managed to magic up some vaccines for people in Sydney, that is excellent, but when it came to economic support in Melbourne, the bloke couldn’t even find Melbourne on the map.

He would probably need to do some work in Sydney because in Melbourne he was just MIA.

Shorten:

It’s not the police’s fault, they are doing their job. They have been sent out there, they will be from stations all around Sydney...

They are following orders, fair enough, but I just say to Gladys and the people in charge this is a communication exercise – other people around Sydney and elsewhere must say “What’s the problem? A few police walking up and down”. If you don’t think that has been the standard applied elsewhere, it will get your back up. Somehow you’re being treated as second class.

The answer is to communicate, talk to people but bring people with you.

Updated

Speaking of that Sydney police operation, former Labor leader and current opposition frontbencher, Bill Shorten said he understands why communities in the south-west feel there has been a “double standard”, and has advised the NSW premier to “dial back the police presence a bit”.

He spoke with the Today Show just before:

It is amazing how history repeats.

In my electorate [in Melbourne], we had the public housing towers lockdown where in the space of an hour there were 600 police doing their job but when you wake up, or when you go to your window and see hundreds of armed police, you think, “well, where has this come from?”

What’s happened is there has been poor communication, I suspect, but of course, the people in some of these suburbs feel the double standards.

They say when it was outbreaking elsewhere we didn’t see any of this reaction, so it’s almost like a seesaw. When there’s too little reaction to begin with, then you get to too much reaction.

This is a health emergency, not a law and order emergency. My advice to Gladys, not that she has asked, is to put more people in doctors and nurses gear out there doing tests and perhaps dial back the police presence a bit.

Updated

NSW deputy police commissioner Mal Lanyon was also asked how police were ensuring they were interacting productively with multicultural communities in the south-west, where significant proportions of the population do not speak English as a first language.

Our police in those areas do an outstanding job of working with local communities right through the year. We obviously build on those networks to ensure those messages get out.

We have disseminated information about the health orders in a wide range of languages as have Health. We will continue to work with those communities to make sure they can understand the nature of the orders...

We’ve been very fair and very balanced right throughout this operation. That will continue to be the case...

We have multicultural liaison officers who we have deployed with the communities to help them understand. We have produced documents in a range of languages to ensure that each of the communities can understand the nature of those orders.

We will continue to work with those communities because it’s absolutely important that the community work with us.

Police outside the Fairfield police station in the south-western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Friday, 9 July 2021.
Police outside the Fairfield police station in the south-western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Friday, 9 July 2021. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Here is a bit more from when the assistant police commissioner was asked about commentary that police were being more heavy handed in Sydney’s south-west due to the low socioeconomic and racially diverse demographic of the population there.

Tony Cooke:

This is a response to the data as we know it now. So, can I just be quite clear so we can take it off the table. The virus does not discriminate and neither do police.

We put in place responses right across Sydney, right across the state in fact since the Covid outbreak really now since we have been dealing with now for 18 months.

So this is about working with our community out here in the south-west to make sure we can get in front of it, get compliance, stop the spread so we can all go back to normal.

We certainly are not taking this from any other perspective other than the advice telling us that here at this moment we have particular issues that we have to get in front of.

Updated

Not all police officers that will be sent in to patrol the streets of south-west Sydney have been vaccinated, the assistant police commissioner has confirmed.

Tony Cooke was asked about this just before on ABC radio:

A proportion of them [are vaccinated].

Look, the police reflect a community so we are working through a programme as the rest of the community is.

Our police are getting [as many] appointments as they can, making them available to them to become vaccinated as soon as they can.

Cooke confirmed it’s currently not mandatory for police to receive a Covid-19 vaccination.

Our people are encouraged, as all members of the community are, to seek the advice of their doctors.

Updated

Foreign minister says 'we’re not going to leave behind anyone' who helped Australian troops in Afghanistan

Foreign minister Marise Payne has vowed that Australia won’t leave any Afghans behind who helped our troops on the frontline, as the Afghanistan war draws to a close.

But here is the catch, we won’t leave them behind if they are “properly eligible and checked to come [to Australia].”

The problem is, a number of Afghan citizens have come forward to say that, despite helping troops and Australian NGO operations, their visa applications have already been rejected.

Payne:

I can’t talk about individual cases there are both privacy and security reasons for that. But I can absolutely assure you, and Australians, that we’re not going to leave behind anyone who worked for us and who is properly eligible and checked to come here.

There’s a number of criteria, which of course are part of the visa application process. But these particular applications are being given our highest priority.

And as long as they meet all of those requirements, of course, they are able to come here.

We have granted 230 of these visas in the past month, and indeed 1,400 Afghans have been welcomed under this visa since it was established some years ago.

Updated

I’ll be jumping between these two topics for a bit, as there are multiple interviews happening at once, but let’s go back to this police operation in south-west Sydney for a second.

NSW deputy police commissioner Mal Lanyon has been asked on ABC News Breakfast, why a similar heavy law enforcement operation wasn’t put in place when the outbreak started in the wealthier (and whiter) Bondi area.

The Bondi outbreak occurred before the Covid orders were implemented and we had a very strong and visible police presence from the moment that occurred. This has been considerable right across the greater metropolitan area for the past two weeks.

We haven’t sought the focus of any particular area that wasn’t of concern so we have been consistent across the greater metropolitan area. As I indicated earlier Health have significant concerns in the south-west of Sydney at the moment and that’s the reason that we have deployed so many numbers to seek compliance.

Police patrolling the shopping district in the south-western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Friday, 9 July 2021.
Police patrolling the shopping district in the south-western suburb of Fairfield in Sydney, Friday, 9 July 2021. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Pressure mounts to get Afghans who helped Australian troops to safety

The federal government has been criticised this morning for failing to provide visas to some Afghan citizens who helped Australian troops on the front line during the war, and who now fear for their lives under resurgent Taliban rule.

John Howard, who was the prime minister who sent Australians to fight in Afghanistan, has spoken out on the issue last night, piling pressure on the federal government to grant protection visas for Afghan subcontractors who risked their lives to help our military operations.

He spoke to SBS:

It was a moral obligation that we shamefully disregarded many years ago when we pulled out of Vietnam...

I do not want to see a repetition of that failure in relation to Afghanistan.

The current foreign minister Marise Payne is speaking with ABC radio about the issue now. She was asked if Australia has a “moral obligation” to help get these subcontractors to safety.

Absolutely we do, and I’ve said that in the past.

So we do have this separate category of special humanitarian visas. They are open only to Afghans and indeed, Iraqis who had an especially close relationship with the Australian government.

And those applications from certified locally engaged staff are given the highest processing priority within our humanitarian programme, but we do still have to ensure, as I know Australians expect, that those Afghans meet rigorous health character and national security requirements and that is what we are doing.

Updated

The NSW state government has come under fire for sending in at least 100 extra police officers to patrol the streets of south-west Sydney as part of a “high-visibility” operation to ensure the community is complying with the lockdown.

Given the high multicultural and migrant populations in the area, this has raised concerns that the law enforcement’s approach to hardline Covid-19 rules enforcement may have been influenced by race and social class.

NSW assistant police commissioner Tony Cooke hit back against these comments during an interview with ABC radio just now:

The virus does not discriminate and neither do police...

We will respond here for as long as it’s necessary, but in our message is really clear ... the better that we comply, we will get in front of these so that will shorten it, so we won’t have illness in the community and so we will get back to being that vibrant community that south-western Sydney.

The crackdown from 7am on Friday comes after premier Gladys Berejiklian hinted this week the Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield and Liverpool local government areas could be subject to stricter Covid-19 restrictions.

Case numbers are surging in the area, with NSW Health picking up unlinked cases in Fairfield.

Updated

Ash Barty is headed to the Wimbledon finals

The first thing to know about Ashleigh Barty is that she loves grass. She won the girls’ title here as a 15-year-old a decade ago, has a game that is perfectly suited to the fast, low bounce and has frequently said she spends much of the season counting down the days until the grass arrives again. While Barty tends to be wary of revealing too many of her ambitions, before this tournament she made it clear that winning the title was an ultimate goal.

Such an affinity with any tournament can come with heightened pressure but throughout the past 10 days she has risen to the challenges in crucial moments. Against the in-form player, Barty produced one of the highest-quality big-match performances of her career, outplaying Angelique Kerber to win 6-3, 7-6 (3) and reach her first Wimbledon final.

After the glorious chaos of the French Open, which produced four first-time grand slam semi-finalists, such is the unpredictability of the women’s game that three weeks later the final stages here could hardly be more orderly. Of the four semi-finalists, Barty is the world No 1, Kerber and Karolina Pliskova are former No 1s and Aryna Sabalenka is the second seed.

You can read the full story below:

Good morning and welcome to Friday.

It’s Matilda Boseley here, ready to finish off the week with you in style.

First up, in breaking news this morning, it looks like Australia will soon have access to up to 1m Pfizer vaccine doses a week, more than tripling our current supply.

In May and June, we received an average of 300,000 to 350,000 vaccines a week, but according to an update from the federal government, from 19 July, this will jump significantly.

Australia received a total of 1.7m Pfizer doses in June, is now expected to receive 2.8m in July, and then more than 4.5m in August.

In a statement this morning, a spokesman for the federal government said:

Due to the nature of pandemic vaccine supply, these numbers are subject to change and will be confirmed closer to the delivery date.

This comes as state, territory and federal leaders are expected to hold an urgent national cabinet meeting today to discuss the Covid-19 situation in greater Sydney.

I’ll bring you the updates on all of this and more this morning, but for now, why don’t we jump into the day.

If there is something you reckon I’ve missed or think should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley.

Updated

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