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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Stephanie Convery (earlier) and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Parliament to sit for just 10 days in first half of 2022 – as it happened

Summary

And that’s where we’ll leave you today. Here’s what we learned:

There have been five Omicron cases confirmed in Australia at the time of writing – four in New South Wales and one in the Northern Territory. All those diagnosed are returned travellers.

We still don’t have stacks of information about the seriousness of the variant, but national cabinet is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the response to Omicron and border restrictions have tightened as a precaution.

Parliament will sit for just 10 days in first half of 2022, which has given rise to all kinds of federal election date speculation, with the Labor party tipping it to be called for May.

Victoria reported 1,007 new Covid cases and three deaths this morning, while NSW recorded 150 new cases and no deaths.

Queensland will “proceed” with reopening its borders, even though it’s keeping an eye on Omicron, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said today.

The royal commission into veteran suicide began hearing evidence today, with a suicidologist and the mother of an army veteran who took his own life the first witness to appear at its first round of public hearings.

And there were all kinds of shenanigans in question time in parliament, as usual.

We’ll be back at the same time tomorrow with more.

Updated

Ben Doherty has been listening to the royal commission into veteran suicide today. The commission has been tasked with investigating “systemic issues” around defence and veteran suicide, and will hear 10 days of evidence in its first set of hearings this year, with a focus on people with lived experience, such as serving defence personnel, veterans and bereaved family members. Here’s the report from today’s proceedings:

Some more information about those new Omicron cases: both passengers arrived in Sydney from southern Africa on Singapore Airlines flight SQ211 yesterday (that’s Sunday, 28 November). They are fully vaccinated and isolating.

Everyone on the flight is considered a close contact and will need to get tested immediately for Covid-19 and isolate for 14 days, regardless of their vaccination status.

Two more cases of Omicron have been confirmed in New South Wales

That brings to the total in the state to four.

Do you need a First Dog on the Moon fix? I definitely do. Here’s an absolutely true story in which only the names have been changed (and some of the details that weren’t funny).

Queensland reopening still on track

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said the state will move ahead with reopening its borders, even though it’s keeping an eye on Omicron, AAP reports.

Palaszczuk says it’s too early to know if the variant will impact plans to scrap quarantine for vaccinated domestic arrivals once the state hits the 80% vaccination target.

“At this stage the plan is still to proceed,” she told reporters on Monday.

The premier sidestepped a question about what could derail the plan, but she said more information about Omicron would be shared at Tuesday’s national cabinet meeting.

Let me have a look at the report first, but as I said, we’re in a good position because we have mandatory hotel quarantine ... So if there is anything, it’ll be detected in hotel quarantine ...

I am a bit worried about how many people are in Australia at the moment that are not in hotel quarantine, so I’d like some answers on that tomorrow.

Updated

A new Aboriginal heritage alliance will advise the Morrison government on possible law reform, a month on from a parliamentary report which found “countless instances where cultural heritage has been the victim of the drive for development and commercial gain”.

The new group held its first roundtable meeting with environment minister Sussan Ley and the minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, on Monday.

It will look at ways to reform legislation, and at how to set standards for states and territories to follow, according to the chairman of the National Native Title Council and co-chair of the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance, Kado Muir:

This gives us Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples around Australia a brief pause for hope that, together with the federal government, we can come up with a set of legislative reforms that protects sacred sites to a national standard.

Good evening. Thanks so much to the inimitable Amy Remeikis for her blog-wrangling today.

If you’re just joining us and would like a quick catch-up on how our elected representatives are responding to the emergence of the Omicron variant, here is a handy 2.23-minute video on the matter:

On that note, I will be handing you over to the very lovely Stephanie Convery who will take you through the evening shift.

The Senate is still going through its condolence motion, and the house is dealing with non-controversial legislation – the government hasn’t brought on voter ID yet – that is still in the house, but is listed for tomorrow.

The government MPs who have been threatening to withhold their votes appear to have been pulled into line, but who knows what will happen tomorrow.

Tuesday morning is also party room/caucus meeting day – the last one before the parliament rises, so prepare yourself for a lot more talk about unity and the like.

And no, no one other than the prime minister knows when the election may be called as yet, despite what the sitting calendar for 2022 says.

A very big thank you to Mike Bowers who as always, kept us all sane and informed (and well caffeinated) as well as Paul Karp, Daniel Hurst, Sarah Martin and Katharine Murphy, who are still toiling away with stories. Anthony Albanese will be on 7.30 tonight, so we’ll let you know if there is any major announcements from that, but mostly, the parliamentarians are in holiday season mode, which means the (Covid safe) end-of-year events are taking up the evenings once parliament has risen. No one is going too wild though, I am not sure anyone is particularly in a celebratory mood.

Thank you to everyone who followed along with us today. I know that switching off comments gets frustrating, but it is for all of our protection in these legal climates. You can always reach me on email, or here or here if you have a burning question or comment. I’ll answer what I can.

I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – in the mean time, take care of you.

Updated

Nationals minister David Gillespie is now on the ABC quoting WWII slogans when asked about the omicron covid variant:

I think we’ll take it all in our stride.

By all accounts so far we just know it’s a new variant with a lot more mutations on it. But the original reporter of it described it as a milder illness with a lot of muscle aches and tiredness that faded after a couple of days. When these viruses do mutate and they will continue to mutate, because that’s what viruses do, sometimes a lot of the potency fades away with mutations.

So we are obviously being cautious. We are not panicking. Keep calm and carry on is what I say.

Kristy McBain on the sitting calendar:

Look, there is no doubt there’s an election coming up next year, but to have only 10 sitting days in the first quarter of 2022, doesn’t really allow anyone to hold the government to account for range of announcements that they have made over a number of years and are yet to deliver on.

We’ve seen for the first time ever a budget in March which indicates to many people that an election will be called very shortly after that which means there won’t be any sittings in May or June.

There’s an obligatory break in July as always. And that means we probably wouldn’t be back to this parliament until August under this government. I don’t think any Australian is happy with members of parliament only sitting for 10 days in the first three months of 2022. I want to be here and asking questions to the government on behalf of my electorate. I think there will be many MPs right across this building who are very unhappy about this sitting calendar.

Matt Canavan on the sitting calendar:

The prime minister doesn’t determine the constitution. And the constitution says we have to have an election by May. (No, but the PM does determine the election date, and knows when the election has to be held by).

I think it’s right and appropriate that the prime minister is being, the government, not the prime minister’s calendar, it’s the parliament’s calendar, the parliament has been transparent around the fact we can’t have a budget in May because it has to be an election by then.

We’ve outlined one in – that doesn’t mean we’ll even get there. Perhaps we’ll have an election early next year. I don’t know.

At least the provision is there for it. There’s provision in the budget for estimates as well. So that’s very important. That’s the Senate effectively sitting. And doing their work.

So I think it’s exactly right the parliament has done these things. In terms of the budget being in May, that’s not something that was outlined in the constitution. It’s a relatively modern innovation and there have been many years where the budget has been shifted for a variety of reasons. It is almost certainly next year.

Updated

Labor frontbencher Ed Husic is also asked about the debate over freedoms vs lockdowns and how it is being presented as a binary choice when it comes to public health responses:

Having represented a part of Western Sydney that had to live through a very long lockdown, with very different sets of rules for the west compared to the east, where a city was divided and the health advice said you didn’t need to do that, I understand full well that people don’t want to face the prospect of another lockdown or going through that and want to have their freedoms.

But I’m very mindful of this, this lame political line the Prime Minister has been putting out that people will want their freedoms back. They would have if the federal government had done their job properly, if they had seriously undertaken a vaccine program that would get people vaccinated early.

A public health program that would have backed it in, a public education campaign to potentially reduce some of the stuff that we’ve seen going around, sunning things about the vaccine that simply doesn’t stack up.

If that stuff had been done thoroughly and quickly, then maybe we wouldn’t have had to have had the lockdowns as long and widespread as they were.

So the stuff that’s been said now by a federal Liberal government that didn’t do its job on vaccines, we are seeing a rewriting of the history that’s going on. They’ve still got to get their job and act together on local mRNA manufacture that I said a year ago we would be right to go right now.

All we’re seeing is an announcement about future announcements that don’t end up providing any substance and we still have got no local mRNA manufacture of vaccine which would be important, with respect to variants, which will be important with respect to boosters and it should be happening in line of what they’ve said to us a year ago.

Ed Husic is on Afternoon Briefing where he is asked about the proposed sitting calendar (which Labor is not opposing, FYI):

I think this is more a slouch than a sitting calendar. If we look to go and do the budget which they’re suggesting in this calendar that we will, have we got 10 days? There is no legislative agenda.

It’s all political agenda. A lot of the stuff they’ve announced they say we’ll do, the parliament is not even... the stuff they’ve been talking about today with respect to reform of online bullying, and the stuff around Facebook and other social media, they still haven’t got legislation for that or the anti-corruption commission.

It’s all talk. No action. And I’ve never seen, I have to say, a Liberal party so focused on winning and gaining power and then doing nothing with it when they get in. And this sitting calendar is testament to that.

They get back from the Christmas and January break. They hav a bit of a yawn and a stretch. And 10 days are over and we’re into an election campaign. I think most Australians would expect their parliament to sit longer and do more.

Updated

In Victoria, locally transmitted cases (not omicron) are being linked to the recent protests:

For those keeping an eye on borders as we head into the holiday season (where expectations for reunions are sky high), Michael McGowan has you covered on what international travel changes have been made.

Again – the omicron variant is not one anyone knows a lot about as yet, so it is watch and wait, but there is no need to panic. Health experts are still gathering data, but the early indications is that this is a more mild variant. We will bring you the updates as they come (and we’ll know more tomorrow afternoon following the national cabinet meeting)

Moving away from politics for a moment, AAP has an update on Jarryd Hayne’s appeal:

Jailed former NRL star Jarryd Hayne should be acquitted or at least retried due to a number of issues in convicting him of sexual assault, his appeal hearing has been told.

Hayne’s barrister Tim Game SC told the NSW court of criminal appeal on Monday that his trial judge’s directions to the jury were “flawed in almost every possible way”.

The former representative player faced a re-trial after his first ended with a hung jury, and was found guilty of assaulting a woman in her Hunter NSW bedroom on the night of the 2018 NRL grand final.

Hayne, 33, only stopped the assault when the 28-year-old victim started to bleed, not when she told him to stop, the sentencing judge said.

He was jailed in May for five years and nine months with a non-parole period of three years and eight months.

Game outlined four main grounds of appeal including “the jury verdict in respect of both counts was unreasonable”.

He also said trial judge Helen Syme was in error to give certain directions to the jury he described as “highly problematic”.

Words such as “may” and “might” confuse the legal issues, and a jury could not be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt in convicting him, Game said.

Prosecutor Brett Hatfield did not say the judge’s directions were in error, but rather the language could have been tighter, and that “perfection is not required”.

Game says there was ample evidence that showed the victim had an “abiding interest in having sex with Jarryd Hayne”, and the Crown ran the gauntlet with its case.

Hayne’s appeal hearing against his conviction continues while he watches on via video link.

Updated

And the big issues

Over in the Senate, a condolence motion is being held for Alex Gallacher.

Updated

Here is how Mike Bowers saw QT:

Darren Chester catches up on some reading
Darren Chester catches up on some reading. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Tony Burke tees off on the governments sitting schedule for 2022
Tony Burke tees off on the government’s sitting schedule for 2022. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Bridget Archer during question time
Bridget Archer during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Anthony Albanese also catches up on some reading
Anthony Albanese also catches up on some reading. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Just for those playing guess-the-election-date game (which is fruitless, you have be warned) there can still be an election before May, despite what the sitting calendar proposes.

There can be an election any time Scott Morrison wants one (before 22 May).

Sittings just get cancelled.

Updated

Labor is assuming that the election, based on those sittings, would be held in May, which would delay parliament’s return until August (because of the break between elections and new sittings).

Updated

Just so you can see what that looks like – here is the sitting calendar the government has proposed.

Parliament to sit for just 10 days in first half of 2022

The sitting calendar has been released.

Tony Burke says he can’t remember a sitting calendar where there were less sitting days in the first half of the year.

None in January – that is normal.

Seven in February – that is not normal.

THREE in March – that is definitely not normal. The three days in March are set for the budget.

The parliament then doesn’t sit again until August.

So that makes 10 sittings days from Friday until 9 August.

Updated

Kristy McBain to Scott Morrison:

The prime minister proclaimed his emergency response fund would fund immediately response activities [to the tune of] $200 million every year. Why then did the prime minister spend nothing for two years and has only recently spent the first $17 million. With people in my electorate still living in caravans and parts of NSW now flooded, why didn’t the prime minister use the money for immediate response activities like he said he would?

Morrison:

I thank the member for her question in the very serious issue of providing support to constituents, as a result of those bushfires. The answer is we have already provided $1.7 billion from the National bushfire fund. It has been used to deliver efforts on the ground, including $350 million for local economic recovery projects impacting communities, including those in the member’s electorate, but also in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia, and funding to support a range of mental health assistance and counselling, small business advice, and primary produce assistance. The $280 million black summer bushfire recovery grants program assists communities directly impacted by the black summer bushfires to address remaining priority bushfire recovery needs, and applications opened on 22nd July 2021.

The emergency response fund was meant to be there when there weren’t other funds available. We created those funds during the middle of the fires themselves, that allocation of funding was made, $1.7 billion provided. ... the emergency response fund has [been] drawn on where there is a need for support in addition to funding already available. We will continue to provide those resources if needed, for what was then the Bushfire Recovery Agency and is now the agency led by the Honourable Shane Stone that has people on the ground working with them to make sure they can get the support they need. One of the most important of those is, the Member will recall, and I thank the state member for Bega*, we worked closely with to make sure the small business grants program was able to be more responsive to the needs on the ground.

We worked together on that program and I know he was pleased we could deliver that support on the ground. $1.7 million delivered already on the ground directly, with more funding to follow because the recovery effort takes time, as the minister in the previous answer to the last question indicated. It is important we are in there for the long haul and there will be hundreds of millions of dollars that will continue to flow to affected communities in building the resilience for the future.

*That is a shout out to Andrew Constance, who Morrison wants to run in the Labor seat of Gilmore. Constance and Morrison were on the outs during the bushfires, but have since made amends. The branch has not agreed to preselect Constance, so there is a bit of a fight brewing – Morrison is reportedly looking at using special powers to install who he wants, which risks a war with the branches more widely.

Updated

Scott Morrison is going on about “technology not taxes” again, as well as non-existent mandates in regards to Labor’s (still-to-be-announced) climate policy (there was never an electric vehicle mandate).

Putting aside that the government’s ‘plan’ relies on yet to be developed technologies, there are those who have looked at the modelling released by the government on its net zero by 2050 plan and found the government has embedded ... a carbon price.

Don’t believe me? Here is the AFR on that exact point earlier this month:

Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor – sitting atop the party that destroyed Julia Gillard’s carbon tax in 2013 and Bill Shorten’s climate plan in 2019 – have done the unthinkable.

For the first time, they have acknowledged Australia cannot and will not get to net zero by 2050 without a carbon price of some form.

The stunning and politically explosive concession, which is embedded in modelling released without fanfare last Friday afternoon of the government’s long-term emissions reduction plan, reveals every household may need to pay a carbon price equivalent of more than $1400 a year.

That’s because the full reduction in net emissions by 2050 that Morrison and Taylor promised the world at this month’s UN climate summit in Glasgow requires a carbon price of $80 a tonne, according to the model.

Clearly, for the Coalition, such a price is completely politically untenable. Which is why the government’s plan is modelled on a far less threatening price of $24 a tonne.

The irony? Gillard’s short-lived carbon price – before Tony Abbott’s government legislated to abolish it – began at $23 a tonne.

Updated

Anthony Albanese will be the interview guest on ABC 7.30 tonight.

Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:

What impact will the government’s proposed controls on social media have on the reported activities of the Member for Bowman?

Morrison:

Mr Speaker, the question may ask for a legal opinion and I will leave that in your guidance, Mr Speaker. I can tell you what our laws do do, Mr Speaker...

We believe this is a very serious issue! We believe this is an incredibly serious issue! I doubt there is a parent in this country who does not on a nightly basis have concerns about what their children are being exposed to online and the abuse and harassment that can take place. I know I feel that way is a parent, Mr Speaker and I know Jenny does, Mr Speaker and I think every single parent in this place would! Mr Speaker, this is a serious piece of legislation the government is bringing forward...

There is now an argument about whether or not the prime minister’s answer is relevant or whether the question is asking for a legal opinion.

We don’t really resolve that, but Morrison is brought back to the question.

Morrison:

The legislation we will be bringing forward means that everybody should identify themselves online, Mr Speaker when they are making statements or posts. That applies right across the country. Where the social media companies do not identify that individual, Mr Speaker, they will be identified as the publisher (they are already identified as publishers and have been for years). That is what the bill does.

That is what our proposed remedy is, Mr Speaker, and it builds on the world leading work that has been done in the online safety act, Mr Speaker, the work being done to combat the use of the Internet by terrorists, Mr Speaker, it builds on the work done by the world’s first eSafety Commissioner.

All we are doing is standing up for Australians who are at risk in the online environment, and those most at risk, Mr Speaker, are our young people and our women.

Mr Speaker, I would hope this would have bipartisan support. I would call for it to have bipartisan support, Mr Speaker, and not be used in the typical, political games playing we’re getting from the Opposition, and this is a very serious issue, Mr Speaker, and I would have thought the Labor Party would be only too quick to support it but it seems that is not the case by the jeering and interjections we have had on this matter today.

Just wondering how many young people and women have the resources to begin defamation actions?

There is no bill – it is meant to be coming very soon, but right now, no one knows what is in it, beyond what the government says is in it. Social media platforms are already counted as publishers. State laws cover a lot of what the government says this bill will be able to do. It does not ban ‘anonymous’ accounts, and it does not make it any easier to unmask an anonymous account. We don’t know what will happen if the account in question has an international IP address. Plus, the laws will give you, best case scenario, an email address. That’s about it.

Updated

Catherine King to Scott Morrison:

Does the prime minister’s model of a national anti-corruption commission have the power to investigate the purchase of land in the Leppington Triangle for 10 times its actual value?

Morrison sends this one to Paul Fletcher:

I do thank the shadow minister for her question. The facts are, Mr Speaker, that our government has a well-developed model for a commonwealth integrity commission. The full exposure draft of the bill underpinning our model is in the public domain and has been there for many months. We have committed $150 million of funding for our Commonwealth integrity commission and stand ready to proceed with the legislation, should the Labor Party indicate it wants to engage seriously on this matter, rather than engaging in the kinds of cheap political stunts that we have heard from the Shadow Attorney-General and now the Shadow Minister. We are getting on with engaging seriously with an important question of public policy and we stand ready to introduce this legislation as soon as the Labor Party shows us that they are ready to work seriously on this, and work with us!

So apparently, the government can’t bring on its bill, in the chamber where it has a majority, because the opposition won’t support it.

The opposition does not support the voter ID legislation (among countless others) and that has been introduced, so it doesn’t really seem to make sense.

Updated

Peter Dutton finishes with this (which is becoming one of the pseudo election slogans):

The fact is this government has and will continue to invest record amounts into the Australian Defence Force because Mr Speaker, we are not on weak national security. We are strong on national security. We have demonstrated through our actions, and the Labor party through their weakness condemns their own actions.

Updated

Peter Dutton is doing his now daily “How safe are you, defence edition” dixer.

Updated

Richard Marles to Scott Morrison:

Does the prime minister’s model of an anti-corruption commission have the power to investigate the energy minister meeting the environment department about an investigation into illegal poisoning of endangered grasslands on land on which he had a financial interest?

Morrison:

The minister representing the attorney general will respond to that. That’s part of nine frivolous questions that were dismissed.

“Mr Frivolous,” yells someone from the government benches, which many on the government side find HILARIOUS.

The minister representing the attorney general does not take the question.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

I note it has now been more than 1,000 days since the prime minister announced a national anti-corruption commission. It is the last week of parliament for the year. Isn’t the prime minister delaying the legislation to make sure a national anti-corruption commission won’t be established this term?

Morrison:

The Member will be aware there is a 349 page legislation (it is not legislation, it is an exposure draft) the government has prepared in relation to the design of our proposal for a Commonwealth integrity commission, we have $150m in the budget (which was missing in the last budget).

The Labor Party proposal, it is two pages. The government has a proposal for such a commission, the Member for Indi has a proposal, the Greens have a proposal, the Labor have no proposal on this matter. The government has set out legislation that will be made available and carefully decided upon and the Labor Party [can] support it. The government position on an integrity commission is very clear, 349 pages of well drafted legislation to back it up. The Labor Party has no such proposal and no integrity on this issue.

Again, there is no bill from the government – there is an exposure draft.

So Albanese asks Morrison to table the legislation. Peter Dutton denies leave.

(So the government just refused leave to table its own ‘legislation’ that the prime minister was just talking about – because it is not actually legislation, it is an exposure draft.)

Updated

In case you missed this in the Senate.

Updated

Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:

If he doesn’t know how many funds in his budget are allocated at the discretion of the minister and the total value, we provide this answer at the end of today’s Question Time. Shouldn’t the Treasurer know how much of his trillion dollars in debt he has borrowed to spray around marginal seats?

Frydenberg (who now has a document to read from)

So there are programs like roads of strategic importance, the bridges renewals programs, building better regions program, the blackspot program, the stronger communities program. I would ask that the Shadow Treasurer if he would actually go and inspect... Probably something he hasn’t been able to do because reality is these various programs, these areas support the economy... Roads of strategic importance, the bridges renewal program, the building better regions program, stronger communities, blackspot program, what is the Member for Rankin got against those?

Frydenberg decides he has said enough and sits down.

Chalmers asks him to table the document.

Andrew Wallace asks Frydenberg if it is a confidential document, and Frydenberg says no, it’s publicly available. Tony Burke enters the fray and says in that case, he needs to table it, because Wallace didn’t ask if it was publicly available, he asked if it was confidential. Wallace seems lost. Peter Dutton gives him an out.

We move on.

Updated

Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:

How many funds in his budget are allocated at the discretion of the minister and what is the total value?

That’s related to this story from Murph:

Frydenberg (who does not seem at all prepared for this question)

Mr Speaker, there are various funds which are in the Budget which provide grants across various important areas of the economy, Mr Speaker, and what I can tell you, what I can tell you ... we have important programs across the budget providing for competitive grants processes.

Updated

Greg Hunt is using his statesman voice again for dixers.

That’s how you know the government is back in your life.

He keeps pointing out Australia’s low fatality rate from Covid – which is true, thanks to the border closure. But where did most of the fatalities occur? Aged care homes. Which are a federal government responsibility.

Updated

Andrew Wallace is still struggling in the Speaker’s chair.

He is now saying he is “not in a position to determine whether the treasurer should allocate a certain percentage of his answer” to a particular topic. That’s after Josh Frydenberg spent almost his entire answer speaking about “alternative approaches” of the opposition – which is just an excuse to sledge Labor on the floor of the parliament.

Tony Burke points out that determining how much of an answer can be dedicated to something is kinda the Speaker’s job:

If you’re not in a position to deal with how much of a proportion of a question is dealt with in different areas, how on earth are the rulings about preambles?

It is the role of the Speaker [to determine] whether or not the question time is used for ministers to be accountable for their portfolios!

Wallace says the treasurer is relevant.

All is going really well with the new Speaker. He is totally nailing the bipartisan thing (upside down head emoji).

Updated

Scott Morrison ends his answer to Bob Katter with this attack on Labor – which takes Peter Dutton’s commentary and steps it up:

It took our government to do that and invest in defence capabilities, took our government to stand up to those who would seek to coerce us. We didn’t have an each way bet on national security on this side of house, we have always stood up strongly to those who would seek to coerce. Others may wish to appease, our government will always stand up who would seek to coerce Australia.

Scott Morrison makes a reply during question time.
Scott Morrison makes a reply during question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Bob Katter asks a question which I think is on national sovereignty. I think.

It’s always a little hard to find the question in the preamble.

Scott Morrison says his government is protecting Australia’s sovereignty in his answer, so let’s just stick with that

Ed Husic to Scott Morrison:

More than a year ago the industry minister announced Australia would be producing its own mRNA vaccines by now. Since there have been several announcements promising further announcements, yet nothing has happened, why not?

Morrison:

The member for industry may wish to add to my answer – we have been progressing strongly with discussions we have had regarding mRNA vaccines in Australia ... before the commencement of those negotiations, to proceed to discussions with premiers about the support they can provide. We are progressing well with this initiative, working with those who have that capability.

Angus Taylor then takes the answer, but he doesn’t really have anything to say other than ‘we are working through it’.

Updated

The trade minister, Dan Tehan, is not in the House. He flew to Geneva late last week in expectation of attending the 12th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (which was due to begin tomorrow). But in an unfortunate turn, the meeting was cancelled while he was up in the air.

As the WTO explained it: “The General Council agreed late Friday to postpone the imminent ministerial conference after an outbreak of a particularly transmissible strain of the Covid-19 virus led several governments to impose travel restrictions that would have prevented many ministers from reaching Geneva.”

Tehan popped up on Sky News yesterday morning, when he explained that he would still meet with the director-general of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Speaking from Geneva yesterday, Tehan explained:

So, Kieran, I was obviously in the air, I took the 17 hour flight from Darwin to London and when I got off the plane heard the news that the WTO MC12, the ministerial meeting had been postponed. They took the decision that because seven, eight or nine Southern African countries couldn’t attend in person, and it’s a consensus-based organisation you need all 164 countries to agree to be able to get rules changed, that the meeting would need to be postponed because those countries couldn’t attend. Also, there was, the variant was found in Brussels so there was also something done to stop people from Brussels coming. So obviously incredibly disappointing for this ministerial meeting, a lot of time and effort that has gone into it. It’s incredibly important that we continue to set global trading rules not only for Australia but for all our trading partners. And I will meet with the Director-General of the WTO tomorrow [Monday], plus the chair and the other vice chairs, Australia was a vice chair at this meeting to work out what we will do to proceed with MC12 now, when it will take place next year, whether there will be virtual meetings in between that, so important discussions with the Director-General of the WTO tomorrow.”

Updated

The current deputy prime minster, who took an online rumour which did not have a huge amount of traction and spoke about it publicly on mainstream media, thereby amplifying it well beyond a social media echo chamber, is now speaking about anonymous accounts on social media and the issues with that.

Mark Butler to Scott Morrison:

Why doesn’t Australia have any federal quarantine facilities to strengthen our defences against new variants?

Why does the prime minister always go missing when he has a job to do?

Morrison:

In response to the previous question, from the leader of the opposition I made it very clear the 2,000 space facility in the Northern Territory has been serving Australia very well, enabling Australians to come in from all around the world, when Australians were coming back from parts of the world especially with the Delta strain, now those coming on facilitated flights out of southern Africa, they have been accommodated there in federally supported facilities. The ones in Melbourne are under construction and also facilities in Western Australia and Queensland which full be there not just in the near term, but for the longer term to ensure those facilities are there to do with other pandemics when they will inevitably come to this country.

In this country, Australia has had one of the lowest fatality rates in the world in relation to Covid-19, (because the international border was closed) Australia has also had one of the strongest economies among the advanced world, as we pushed through Covid-19, Australia now has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.

It was this government that closed the borders, this government that made sure Australia was protected early on in the pandemic, and saved more than 30,000 lives, working together, the states and territories around the country to produce one of the best responses to Covid-19 in the world. Those opposite, they want to talk down the achievements of Australians who responded to Covid-19, we will keep leading them through the Covid-19 crisis.

Updated

Scott Morrison in this dixer is claiming his social media legislation will “unmask the trolls”.

It won’t. That is not what it is about. It’s about defamation – which is an option open to a very select, powerful few.

Updated

National cabinet will meet tomorrow afternoon.

I am told that the 2022 sitting calendar will be tabled after question time ends.

Let the election guessing games get even more intense!

Question time begins

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Nearly two years after Covid reached Australian shores, how many new federal quarantine facilities have opened?

Morrison:

I think that the opposition leader would be aware of the national facility at Howard Springs which has a capacity of nearly 2,000. That was the facility that the most recent facilitated flights, where we’ve been running the flights to bring Australians home from around the world and those flights that more recently over the last few weeks had come in from South Africa.

There of the one case of Omicron that came up to be identified there and they’re in quarantine at that federally supported and funded facility.

Anthony Albanese reacts during House of Representatives question time.
Anthony Albanese reacts during House of Representatives question time. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Bob Katter is using his 90-second speech to call for a ban on all oil/petrol exports from Australia.

“It’s disgraceful,” he says.

He wants one of the major parties to support him.

“We’re going to ban it,” he says.

Asked about her own former anonymous social media account ‘Mandy Jane’ (you can catch up on that whole 2020 snafu here) Amanda Stoker tells the ABC it was more of a ‘technical” issue than anything.

First thing, it was more of a technical snafu, me being a bit of a boomer rather than anything calculated!”

Stoker is well and truly a millennial. In some of the posts ‘Mandy Jane’ made, Stoker defended Amanda Stoker by referring to herself in the third person.

Stoker later admitted ‘Mandy Jane’ was her personal profile.

Fantastic, Great Move, Well done.

Updated

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi says it is time for Australia to step up and co-sponsor an intellectual property waiver on Covid-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organisation.

India and South Africa suggested the intellectual property waiver over a year ago.

Faruqi:

The global Covid crisis continues to evolve but Australia is missing in action. Omicron has put further pressure on wealthy countries like Australia to step up and support vaccination across the world.

It’s absolutely critical that Australia comes out in strong support of the intellectual property waiver as proposed by India and South Africa.

By refusing to co-sponsor the waiver, Australia has taken the side of big pharmaceutical companies over the health and wellbeing of millions of people.

In addition, Australia should substantially boost funding to the COVAX vaccine facility to ramp up vaccination in low-income countries. Our per capita contributions, to this point, have been miserly.”

Updated

First Nations Justice campaign director Larissa Baldwin has responded to the failure of the Senate to disallow the public funding for fracking exploration in the Beetaloo Basin:

“Parliament’s vote today to greenlight a $50 million handout to help the gas industry frack the Beetaloo Basin is an unmitigated disgrace. Despite strong crossbench opposition, the Morrison Government voted to give their gas industry donors free rein to desecrate the Beetaloo – against the express wishes of Traditional Owners.

“First Nations communities across the Northern Territory have been fighting the incursion of fracking in the Beetaloo Basin for years. Their resolve will not be broken just because the Morrison Government would rather give gas corporations handouts than listen to Traditional Owners.”

An exploration well in the Beetaloo Basin.
An exploration well in the Beetaloo Basin. Photograph: Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources

Updated

More hearing locations have been announced for the royal commission into veteran suicides:

The royal commission into defence and veteran suicide has announced public hearings will be conducted in Sydney, Canberra, Townsville and Wagga Wagga.

More details will be available once dates have been confirmed.

The announcement was made in Brisbane today, at the first public hearing to hear evidence from witnesses.

In his opening address, counsel assisting the royal commission, Kevin Connor SC, said for many veterans, defence service was an “enriching experience from which they progressed to other fulfilling roles and careers”.

“Unfortunately for others, this is not their reality. They suffer and their families and loved ones suffer.”

Connor revealed two public hearings will take place in Sydney, in February and March. The February hearing will run for 10 days.

Connor also confirmed the royal commission would conduct hearings in locations where ADF facilities were located.

These include:

  • Wagga Wagga, where the army recruit training centre is located Kapooka
  • Townsville, where the Lavarack army barracks and a Royal Australian Air Force Base are located.
  • Canberra, which is home to the Royal Military College Duntroon, the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Departments of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs.

Updated

Less then an hour until QT and we have only heard from the prime minister in two commercial TV breakfast interviews this morning.

We’ve heard even less from Anthony Albanese. Seems like everyone needs a bit of a break.

Updated

As expected:

Katharine Murphy has an update on the Kate Jenkins review into parliament workplace culture:

The Australian Human Rights Commission has agreed to brief the former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins before it hands over the much-anticipated review into whether parliament house has a toxic workplace culture to the Morrison government.

Guardian Australia understands the commission initially flagged Higgins would not be briefed until the final report was made public by tabling in parliament. This is despite the former Coalition adviser being the catalyst for the investigation.

But that position has shifted in recent days.

The briefing is imminent, because the report is due to be handed to the Morrison government on 30 November.

The Greens are again attempting to disallow the public funding for fracking in the Beetaloo Basin – Labor has not been supporting these motions in the past, so this won’t have the numbers to pass.

It is certainly a slower start to the parliamentary week than it was last Monday – looks like there has been a bit of work done behind the scenes to corral the ‘rebels’ and bring about at least the appearance of unity within the government.

NT records first Omicron case

The Northern Territory has reported its first case of a traveller testing positive for the Omicron Covid variant – they are in quarantine and have been since arriving in Australia on 25 November.

There have been two more local cases which have brought the local Katherine cluster to 58.

Updated

Lots of economic data out this week, headlined by Wednesday’s release of September quarter Gross Domestic Product. Since the Morrison government’s handling of the economy will likely be central come next year’s election, the pace of the recovery will be scrutinised closely.

The figures when they land will likely show Australia posted its second-biggest quarter-on-quarter drop on record, in the order of 3%. The only bigger dive came in the June quarter of 2020, when the economy shrank 7% as the first wave of Covid crested.

The quarter just finished, in other words, with be the second big dip, and the rebound now under way is the final leg of a “W-shaped” economy. Whether we get a third downward leg with the Omicron variety omniscient, we’ll have to see.

A couple of stats out today give us more of a clue how bad Wednesday’s overall GDP growth figures will look.

Inventories held by companies fell 1.9% for the quarter, a not-unexpected drop but worse than the median market forecast of no change, according to Westpac (which tipped a 1.1% retreat). That discrepancy will have a few economists pencilling in a bigger September quarter GDP drop.

More promising, though, was a 4% increase in company profits. Westpac had predicted a 5% rise, but the market was only expecting 2.3%.

And who should companies address their Christmas cards of thanks to? Taxpayers, apparently, since our subsidies bolstered that famous bottom line.

“The public sector is using its balance sheet to support the balance sheet of the private sector – households and businesses – to assist them in navigating the lockdowns,” Westpac concluded in a quick note accompanying today’s numbers.

A person is reflected in the window as the indicator boards at the ASX are seen in Sydney
A person is reflected in the window as the indicator boards at the ASX are seen in Sydney Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Updated

Amanda Stoker also spoke to streamed radio station Australia Today, where she was asked about why the prime minister is so against the NSW Icac (this was after his verbal explosion against the anti-corruption commission in parliament last week, while defending former NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian).

Here is what Stoker said:

The New South Wales Icac has been, in many ways, guilty of the kind of abuses of its power that you absolutely would not want to see replicated anywhere else anywhere in the world, let alone the commonwealth level here in Australia.

So, it’s really important we learn the lessons from the New South Wales Icac, make sure that it doesn’t start – that we don’t establish something that has the potential, like New South Wales Icac, to start to ignore the law that it is meant to operate with so we aren’t empowering a system of tyranny in itself.

Once again, Icac investigates. Not all of it is done in public. It does not pass judgement, it does not lay charges. It hands over its report and recommendations to public prosecutors, who make those decisions. It was the same process used with Eddie Obeid, who the prime minister has also been bringing up lately, but in the context of how Labor should be embarrassed.

Anyone who has been through an investigation of any kind knows how uncomfortable and public they can be. Police investigations can also play out publicly, and we have seen recent examples of that. Icac is not doing anything different.

Updated

The assistant minister to the attorney general, Amanda Stoker, spoke to Sky News overnight where she was asked about the new social media legislation Scott Morrison wants everyone to focus on.

There was this bit, which states what the legislation is actually about. The government is focussing on children and women in its sell of the legislation – but it’s actually all about defamation actions. Which, given the expense, is not an option for the vast majority of people.

Stoker:

When defamation ruins reputations and destroys livelihoods, there needs to be an avenue to peel back the mask of the username, get to the identity of the person who’s engaging in appalling and trolling behaviour that breaches our laws if they were don’t face to face, so that person who has been defamed or have their reputations destroyed or faced criminal acts online can get accountability for that, can take them to court, can sue if necessary or can deal with them through the police.

Updated

So no major changes as yet. It’s a watch and wait situation, as more information is gathered.

Greg Hunt finishes on this:

I want to thank everybody and just to remind Australians that we are vastly, vastly better prepared than the overwhelming majority of the world, and I say that with great respect to the immense work that’s been done globally – one of the highest vaccination rates. One of the most recently vaccinated countries.

One of the first whole of nation booster programs after Israel and a hospital system which is well prepared. And there are some heartening signs about what may turn out to be mild symptoms. The coming weeks will show that. But as we approach Christmas, know that out of all of the countries in the world, Australia is as well prepared as anybody.

Updated

Greg Hunt:

What’s our job as a nation? Our job so make sure that we keep Australians safe and give them a pathway. The national plan is that pathway. The national plan always contemplated, as did our vaccine contract, as did our system design, that we would need to respond to a disease which, by its nature, would have not just variants but variations.

I think the [variant] database has almost 30,000 sequences that have been logged. And so that’s the nature of this disease. And where we have to make changes, then we do. But we have a clear direction. Vaccinations up, progressively restrictions down. Those directions remain constant.

Updated

Will there be a change in when people receive their boosters? A shorter time period?

Greg Hunt on Atagi:

We’ve asked them to review. And if they provide advice that there is a change that’s required, then we’ll take it. I wouldn’t speculate on any time frames. We’ve given them an open brief.

Prof Paul Kelly on what they know so far about the variant:

Some reports out of South Africa are that it’s mostly mild. Other information we have is that hospitalisation rates are increasing. So, we need to get further information there, and we are getting that information.

What we do know of the two cases that have so far been diagnosed in Australia – and there may be more, but at the moment, two – both young people, both from South Africa, both fully vaccinated, asymptomatic. That’s just two people.

We know in Hong Kong: two cases there. Young people, a transmission in hotel quarantine from one person to the other, young, fully vaccinated, asymptomatic.

So, we need to see whether that is actually the characteristic of this virus. Of course, if it is, that’s very reassuring, but it’s too early to definitely say that.

The third one is about vaccine effectiveness and treatment effectiveness. And the minister mentioned he’d spoken with the CEOs of our two major suppliers of vaccine at the moment – Moderna and Pfizer.

Both of those companies have put out public statements over the weekend saying that they are on to this.

They know that they can change, and this is one of the other major advances in the last two years.

We did not have vaccines, we did not have proven mRNA technology. We have both of those now. We have contracts with those companies.

They are already starting on considering what they would do as a specific vaccine if it is needed. At the moment, we have no definite evidence, either clinical or laboratory or at the population level, that the vaccines are less effective against this virus. We have no evidence of that.

And Pfizer and Moderna can move quickly, if that was to come to pass, to make a specific vaccine. That’s a major advantage.

Updated

Chief health minister professor Paul Kelly then steps up:

As of Thursday, we’d never heard of this. As of Friday, we had some information. As of Saturday, it became a “variant of concern”.

And as the minister said, we met and we’ve taken actions. This is not the first variant we’ve seen. This virus, we’ve learnt over the last two years, does change.

Most of those changes lead to nothing. Some require further information and information gathering. And then a small number have led to this “variant of concern” designation by the World Health Organisation.

Now, several of those that have been seen – and we’ve gone through the Greek alphabet, we’re now up to Omicron – several of those started with concern, a lot of concern about, for example, vaccine effectiveness, or further severity, or more transmission. Most of those – and some of those have actually lost their “concern” status because with further information as it’s come, that concern was not justified. So, I think that’s really key.

Updated

So far there is nothing new in this press conference – Greg Hunt is going through what we already know:

  • Vaccination rates.
  • Booster program.
  • Quarantine for certain travellers.
  • National cabinet in the next 48 hours.
  • Waiting for more information on the variant.

We’re in a vastly different position from where we were on 1 February 2020. We are one of the most highly vaccinated, one of the most recently vaccinated, and one of the first to commence a whole-of-nation booster program from around the world. And perhaps the most interesting to-be-confirmed early evidence, to which I’ll ask Paul Kelly to speak, is that much of the early evidence is of a mild set of outcomes and symptoms. But there is more evidence to come. The world is looking at this. We’re cooperating with our international partners. We’re well-prepared and we are in, I think, the best scientific hands in the world.

Updated

Greg Hunt press conference

The health minister starts his press conference with an update of Australia’s vaccination progress as well as the booster program.

He then moves into a recap of what has been done:

In relation to the variant, I’ll discuss the actions, and Professor Kelly will take you through the latest information.

The actions taken, as we know: already, we’ve stopped the flights from nine countries in southern Africa.

We have temporarily banned non-citizens who have been in those nine countries from entering Australia.

We’ve required Australians who have been in those nine countries to have 14 days’ quarantine.

We’ve applied those rules to those coming under bubble arrangements, travel bubbles. And we’ve also required returned Australians who have been in Australia prior to the commencement of these rules to undertake quarantine from 14 days after their – for as long as 14 days after their departure from southern African area.

And we’ve worked with the states and territories, who have put in place public health orders to cover all arrivals with home isolation for a 72-hour period if they’re coming into Australia.

There are additional actions which the Australian government is now taking.

Firstly, the prime minister is convening the National Security Committee today to review the evidence and to review the range of actions in relation to the Omicron variant. We will not hesitate to take additional steps if the medical evidence is that more are required. We convened our first meeting on this on Friday, and on Saturday we took the steps to cease those flights and to close those borders.

Updated

The Omicron Covid variant has been ruffling investors globally but it seems the panic button’s not been pressed in Australia yet despite the first cases turning up over the weekend.

The ASX200 benchmark share index did dive at the opening, losing more than 1%. But after two goes at breaking 7200 point mark, it has bounced back, paring losses to about 0.5% for the day.

Still, other markets, such as Japan’s Nikkei is due to open about 1.9% lower, according to Reuters, so there’s still some nervousness around.

Oil prices are also clawing back some of their losses, another sign that the fear factor has eased from late last week.

Of interest to Australians, or course, are interest rates. Omicron’s emergence on Friday sent US Treasury bills lower by the most since March 2020 when the threat of Covid began to emerge. That concern has also moderated a bit today.

Australians, meanwhile, have been flocking to the regions. New data from CoreLogic showed 24 of 25 areas sampled showed at least a double-digit increase in the past year in property prices. Half of the regions posted rises of at least 20%.

The best performing regional areas were the Southern Highlands and Shoalhaven region in NSW, recording an annual growth rate in house values of 35.9%, followed by the Richmond – Tweed region in northern NSW (32.8%) and Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, which recorded an annual growth rate of 32.3%, CoreLogics said.

Laggards included Queensland’s Townsville, where houses rose by 8% in price in the year, while those in New England and north-west NSW took the longest to sell, averaging about 62 days on the market.

Updated

The Northern Territory rights bill debate is momentarily adjourned and the Senate moves on to a health insurance legislation amendment.

Updated

For those with one eye on the Hunter river at the moment.

Flooding seen along the Hunter river at Singleton, NSW on the 28 November 2021.
Flooding seen along the Hunter river at Singleton, NSW on the 28 November 2021. Photograph: NSW SES

Updated

Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy says she does not personally support voluntary assisted dying (which the NT rights bill focuses on) but she thinks the territory should have the rights to set its own laws.

Updated

Zed Seselja has switched the ensuring Northern Territory rights bill (Sam McMahon’s private members bill) to what it would mean for the ACT – and he is not a fan.

This Labor-Greens government would have more powers than the NSW government.

Updated

Greg Hunt will be holding a press conference at 11.30.

Updated

Royal commission into veteran suicide begins

The royal commission into veteran suicide begins today in Brisbane.

AAP has a recap:

A suicidologist and the mother of an army veteran who took his own life will be the first witness to appear at the royal commission into veteran suicide at its first round of public hearings.

Nikki Jamieson will join a panel of experts to give evidence about her own experience, following the death her son Daniel in 2014 and her subsequent work as a university researcher into the impact of “moral injury” within veteran communities.

Evidence from veterans and their families will be the main focus in the first two weeks of the wide-ranging inquiry being held at the Brisbane Convention Centre from Monday.

The commission has flagged its landmark inquiry into Australia’s defence force culture will include confronting accounts of life in the service, including bullying, “concerns over the treatment of women”, sexual and physical assaults and ritual hazing of new recruits.

Evidence will also be heard about the challenges of accessing mental health support after deployment and “the loss of identity and community” after transitioning to civilian life.

Chair of the inquiry, commissioner Nick Kaldas, said on Friday he and his two fellow commissioners believe it is a “once in a generation opportunity for lasting, fundamental change” to tackle the suicide crisis.

Commissioner and psychiatrist Peggy Brown added that “while I don’t believe that any government department ... in Australia sets out to fail, or to lack compassion, there can be no doubt that systemic issues are contributing to the suicide deaths of our defence members and veterans.”

“That is something this royal commission must change – absolutely.”

Updated

Labor’s ploy worked.

Updated

Labor has worked with the crossbench to bring this forward – the bill belongs to Country Liberal party MP Sam McMahon, but it was dropped by the government last week in exchange for Pauline Hanson’s anti-vaccine mandate bill (which the government didn’t support, but five government senators, including McMahon crossed the floor on).

Updated

For those wondering what the parliament will be doing today (legislation wise).

Updated

NSW floods worsen

If you are in the flood zone, we are thinking of you.

Updated

New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet says that a third person in the state has “possibly” tested positive for the new strain of Covid-19, Omicron, but has urged other leaders against making “knee-jerk” reactions to the variant.

The state’s health department announced yesterday that two people who had recently returned from southern Africa had tested positive for the new variant in Sydney.

New rules introduced by the government over the weekend means that people arriving from a series of southern African countries – where the variant was first detected – must undergo 14 days quarantine.

On Monday, Perrottet announced that in addition to the two confirmed cases, NSW Health was reviewing whether there was “possibly” a third case among the 141 people who flew into the state from southern Africa in the past 48 hours.

But the premier – who despite reintroducing quarantine measures has resisted any changes to the state’s roadmap out of Covid-19 restrictions – warned he was not interested in returning to wide scale hotel quarantine or heavy handed restrictions.

We don’t just need to live alongside Covid, we need to learn to live alongside the variants as well.

When there are new variants the response should not be, ‘Let’s shut down.’

Ultimately we need to open up to the world, we need to do so safely, we don’t need to have a knee-jerk reaction, we need to have a proportionate and balanced response to the situation that’s in front of us.

Updated

Parliament begins at 10am today.

Who will be voting for what?

Who knows these days.

The federal government plans on changing regulations to let the telecommunications sector shut down scam text messages.

But that won’t stop you getting spam messages from the Palmer United party. That’s a different thing entirely.

Updated

And ahead of parliament (where the government does not want to talk about an anti-corruption commission) there is also this story from Katharine Murphy:

Scott Morrison enters the final parliamentary sitting week of the year facing fresh questions about the Coalition’s record of administering grants to government electorates.

New analysis has found, since 2013, the bulk of government grant money has gone to government-held seats.

The analysis says $3.9bn has been allocated under seven federal programs since the Coalition came to power, and $2.8bn, or 71% of the total taxpayer-funded pool, has gone to projects in government electorates.

According to the analysis, conducted by the Australia Institute, only $903m was distributed to Labor-held seats in programs that gave ministers discretion over how grants were allocated, while $232m went to electorates held by independents or minor parties.

Victoria records 1,007 new Covid cases and three deaths; NSW records 150 new cases, no deaths

NSW and Victoria have posted their daily updates:

Updated

Radio and TV broadcaster Patricia Karvelas will replace Fran Kelly on RN Breakfast on ABC Radio it was announced this morning.

The host of Radio National’s RN Drive will move into the Breakfast slot next year, replacing Kelly who is stepping down after 17 years.

Known as PK, Karvelas said the radio show set the national agenda each day and it is “the best job on radio”.

Karvelas will host the show from Melbourne, joining ABC TV’s News Breakfast as a Victorian based national news program.

The ABC’s head of entertainment and specialist Michael Carrington said PK “has something to offer every listener from political analysis to important and intriguing social and cultural issues”.

Kelly’s last day is Thursday.

Updated

The Kate Jenkins review into the parliamentary workplace culture will be handed to the government today.

Asked about it last week, Scott Morrison did not commit to making it public.

NSW premier Dom Perrottet is not for closing:

We’re having a national cabinet meeting in relation to developments, I think, tomorrow or later today.

In addition to that, working very closely with the Victorian premier Dan Andrews. We have obviously put in place a 72-hour isolation for people who are overseas travellers coming into Australia.

Over the last 24 hours, we had 141 people from those nine affected countries come in.

There are two possibly three positive cases. Those 141 travellers on five flights over the last 24 hours are in our health quarantine facility.

But ultimately, as I said yesterday, we don’t just need to learn to live alongside Covid, we need to live alongside the variances as well and we are very confident, based on our high vaccination rate.

I said yesterday and I say it again, vaccination is key to NSW being able to continue to open up safely.

And for everybody across NSW who has made the effort, can I thank you? Close to 95% of people have received their first dose vaccination. That is incredibly, incredibly important.

And it addition to that, our booster shot program is up and running as well ... My key measures today is those people across the state where it has been six months since your second dose vaccination, please go out and get a booster shot.

Updated

As is this from Luke Henriques-Gomes:

In case you haven’t seen this story yet from Peter Hannam, it is worth your time:

The Morrison government has used sweeping new powers to override state and territory government support for an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The federal government has deployed recently passed laws to overturn the participation of five states and territories in the global Under 2 Coalition.

In an email dated 23 November, an official with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told his counterpart in the Victorian government that its participation in the coalition was “no longer in operation”.

The email warned the Victorian government that under the new Foreign Relations (States and Territories) Act 2020, sign up to the agreement was now illegitimate.

Bob Katter was apparently thrown out of a Tamworth pub over the weekend for not being able to prove his vaccination status and well, I’ll let you read his statement:

Bob Katter, says Australia’s governments are taking away the right to freely assemble at the local pub, after he was kicked out of a Tamworth Hotel for failing to prove he was fully vaccinated on the weekend.

Katter was in Tamworth meeting with local leaders to discuss issues that affect inland Australia and polices that will reverse its population decline.

“I’ve had both of my Covid vaccinations, but I don’t have a smart phone so I can’t check-in using the state government app, but I did give them options to verify.

“However, the local media and police was called.

“This is un-Australian. We have a right to associate and assemble.

“Full praise to the local police officer carrying out their duties in a very respectful manner.”

Updated

There is no more political a game, than the election date – which rests solely in the prime minister’s hands.

Speculating on when the election might be though, is apparently, a political game, says Scott Morrison, that he won’t be distracted by.

Of course he won’t.

Because it is his decision. He is the only person who knows when it will be:

The election is due by the third week of May. But the point about this, there’s all sorts of political games and theatre that goes on down here.

I’m not distracted by it. Last Thursday we had to send troops into the Solomon Islands. And AFP officers. They’re there right now dealing with a concerning situation there.

We’re dealing with the Omicron variant here. We’re dealing with other very serious issues in our region. We’re getting people back into jobs. These are the things I’m focused on. People play political games down here in Canberra and carry on. I’m not distracted by it. Our team is focused on ensuring we secure this economic recovery. We keep Australians safe whether from virus or other threats we face.

Updated

National cabinet meeting brought forward to discuss Omicron response

National cabinet was meant to meet on Friday, but there will be a meeting either today or tomorrow.

Just don’t call it an “emergency meeting”.

Morrison:

I wouldn’t describe it that way. I wouldn’t describe it that way. I wouldn’t describe it as emergency meeting.

I’d call it as normal meeting we would convene in these circumstances to bring everybody up to speed with the same information.

That’s my primary concern at the moment. I want to make sure we’re working off the best information that we all have that we’re drawing as federal government from our partners overseas and making sure their chief health officers are feeding into that conversation.

So we’ll be looking at that. Making an assessment of it all. If there are decisions, that further decisions that need to be taken then of course we will. What I’d say to everybody is it’s just important we remain calm about this. There’s no evidence to suggest that this leads to any more severe disease. If anything it’s suggesting a lesser form of disease, particularly for those who are vaccinated. One thing everybody can do is get vaccinated. If you have been vaccinated and it’s more than six months get the booster shot.

Updated

Scott Morrison is now speaking to the Nine network (he declined to appear on the ABC) about the possibility of a wider border shut down:

We never rule anything out. No one should read into that. We will take decisions based on the best information.

The national security committee is meeting again this afternoon. This morning I’ve advised premiers and chief ministers that I’d like to get them to get together over the next 48 hours.

So we can all be looking and get the same information and make decisions that are necessary based on the same expert medical advice.

There’s a lot of information starting to come in. It’s still very early days with this variant.

In all states except NSW and Victoria, there is 14-day hotel quarantine. There are capped arrivals into those states and territories. In NSW and Victoria there is a 72-hour home isolation for those who arriving.

If they’ve come from those, any of those affected countries in the last 14 days, they’re going into 14-day health quarantine. They’re the measures we put in place on the weekend.

That started early Saturday morning. When I received that information from our health advisors, the health minister made those announcements. The states and NSW and Victoria followed that up. Just literally got off the phone from the premier in NSW again this morning now. We’re just aligning our decisions and ensuring we’re all working off the best information to keep people safe as we always have.

Updated

Patricia Karvelas announced as RN Breakfast host

Patricia Karvelas will be the new host of ABC RN Breakfast radio.

Fran Kelly, and Patricia Karvelas
The host of RN Breakfast on the ABC’s Radio National, Fran Kelly, and her newly announced replacement, Patricia Karvelas – pictured here in 2017. Photograph: ABC

Updated

The federal government has decided on the new site for Australia’s nuclear waste.

From Keith Pitt’s statement:

Following further consultation, the Australian government today confirmed that a site for the location of our country’s national radioactive waste management facility has been selected, near the town of Kimba in South Australia.

The government has acquired approximately 211 hectares of land at Napandee, 24km west of Kimba, where the facility will be built after detailed designs, technical and heritage studies are completed.

Under the relevant legislation, the effect of the declaration is that the land is acquired by commonwealth.

“I’m pleased to confirm we have reached a major milestone in our work to deliver this national facility, and a solution that has eluded consecutive governments for more than 40 years,” minister Pitt said.

“This new facility will create 45 new, permanent jobs in the local Kimba community, in fields as diverse as security, administration, environmental monitoring, scientific services, health and safety.”

Australia’s radioactive waste is currently spread over more than 100 locations around the country including in science facilities, universities and hospital basements.

Updated

You’ll be finding out very soon.

Updated

Prof Paul Kelly was also on the Nine network, where he was asked about the possibility Omicron could replace Delta as the dominant strain of Covid, and how that could be a good thing, given the early advice is that it seems a more mild version of the virus.

Kelly:

If I was to have a wish list for Christmas, and this is very much an evolutionary biology theoretical process – but if I was to have a wish list for Christmas I would want a variant of Sars-CoV-2 which was highly transmissible and replace other versions of the disease as is happening in southern Africa to a more mild human disease.

If that was the case, then that would be a very good Christmas present. But we do not know that yet for sure. I think it’s very much we need to have a precautionary approach now until we get that information.

Updated

Over on Sydney radio 2GB NSW police minister David Elliott said he met with with premier Dominic Perrottet and health minister Brad Hazzard on Sunday about what NSW would do:

I’m not panicking at the moment because it appears that this is going to be the new normal.

We need to prepare and ... make sure that we’re flexible and agile when it comes to variations and we need to be defensive and that defensive mechanism of course, is the vaccination.

Updated

Professor Paul Kelly is pressed on the border issue, given how important it is to the thousands of Australians hoping to get home for the first time in two years, for Christmas:

So, we’re taking a risk-balanced approach at the moment and concentrating on those nine southern African countries.

We have increased our surveillance at the border, and after the border, we’re working very closely with our colleagues in New South Wales and Victoria, particularly, because they’re the ones that have had quarantine-free travel, as well as in the ACT, as to what is the best approach.

At the moment, we’ve bought time to get more information and to consider that balance, but there’s always pros and cons for these sorts of decisions. That’s what we’re doing at the moment. AHPPC met over the weekend every day.

We’ll have another meeting today. There will be further discussions on that matter and, you know, when decisions are made, of course, we’ll always communicate those.

Does Prof Paul Kelly believe there will be a wider shutdown of the Australian border in response (at this every early stage):

I spoke to a colleague at the ministry of health in Israel yesterday and that’s a decision that they’ve made. And that relates to their circumstances in Israel.

But most countries in the world at the moment are concentrating on that where we know that there’s virus circulating in what could be large numbers and the other nations that we’re looking at.

I’ll continue to give that best advice to the government that ultimately is a decision for the national government, for the federal government and I’ve already spoken to the prime minister this morning and we’ve been talking several times over the weekend and I’ll continue to give that advice.

Updated

Chief health officer Prof Paul Kelly is also doing the morning media rounds.

Here he is on the ABC talking what we do and don’t know about Omicron so far (spoiler – not a lot, but what we do know is cause at this stage to take a breath):

So, what do we know? Firstly, this is a variant of concern, this Omicron variant. It’s the 13th variant that’s had that designation from the World Health Organization.

Why are we concerned? Firstly, genetically, there are quite a few changes to this. I will stress, that it’s still the same SARS-CoV-2 that we’ve become used to, but it is different from previous versions and there are suggestions from that genetic variation that there could be changes in severity, transmissibility or indeed, interference the efficacy of vaccines and treatments.

On those, firstly on severity, there are some signs in South Africa, but particularly those in other countries, and that number is growing overnight, that it is relatively mild compared with previous versions.

But it is early days and we need to be careful of that. But there’s no sign that it is more severe at the moment. Secondly, transmissibility. It does transmit from person-to-person quite readily – at least at well as the Delta virus. And so that means that it will spread.

And thirdly – in terms of the vaccines. There is no solid evidence at the moment that there is a problem with that. Although we will wait for further advice and laboratory studies in coming days and weeks.

Updated

Over on ABC News Breakfast, Bill Shorten responded to the current deputy prime minister:

What really frustrates me is that this government’s constantly surprised. Like every day is Groundhog Day with them.

What I’m referring to is – if we’re going to bring travellers in, and I really support Australians being able to come home, we need to have an effective quarantine system.

We need a short, sharp, effective response to Omicron. We don’t really know all that we should have about yet. Hopefully, whilst it’s more contagious, it doesn’t make you as sick and we are highly vaccinated. But I’m not sure that 72 hours quarantine is enough.

But this Omicron variant shows, yet again, what the government hasn’t done. See, I’ve got concerns with the ethics of hotel quarantine. You put people in there. You know, I read somewhere that one in 100 people who was negative or didn’t have Covid when they go into hotel quarantine gets Covid whilst in hotel quarantine. We need purpose-built facilities.

So I’d say to Barnaby – if we want calm, we’re going to need to work out how to bring people at home in the interim. Perhaps it has to be longer than 72 hours.

The cycle of the virus is longer than that. A short sharp response until we know what Omicron is doing. But also desperately need purpose-built quarantine facilities. Howard Springs is not enough. If Barnaby Joyce wants business-as-usual, then the government has a duty to not be asleep at the wheel.

Updated

I don’t think anyone is talking a shutdown at the moment – the whole world is in watch-and-wait mode on the new Covid variant, as we don’t know that much about it as yet.

Barnaby Joyce though, has views:

There will be new variants and they’ll continue on. And you know, the economy won’t work, society won’t accept it if we just keep shutting the show down.

So, I think that there will be a tempered, sober approach to the assessment of what we do next. The nation has to work as a nation. Trade has to go on.

Businesses have to survive. You know, other factors become more prominent. The economics of how this works is also in play, otherwise, the ramifications from business and the ramifications from our economy, which we must also protect, become dire. We can’t let that happen. So we’ve got ... there’s got to be a balance.

Updated

Radical plan to rehome racehorses

Racehorse trainers, jockeys and breeders will pay part of their income to ensure that racehorses have a long and happy life after they retire from racing under a radical plan designed by the racing industry to improve equine welfare and recover the industry’s crumbling social licence.

The plan would involve setting up a national not-for-profit organisation called Thoroughbred Welfare Australia , which would support training and rehoming programs for the more than 8,000 thoroughbreds that leave the racing and breeding industry each year.

It was devised by a committee of equine, veterinary and agricultural policy experts in the Thoroughbred Aftercare Welfare Working Group, led by former Victorian premier Dennis Napthine. The work was commissioned by the Thoroughbred Breeders Association and funded by the breeders, jockeys and trainers associations, as well as the Victorian Racing Club, Brisbane Turf Club and Sportsbet.

The group was commissioned after reports of ex-racehorses from NSW being killed at an export abattoir in Queensland.

Updated

“Modern Liberal” Tim Wilson is in election mode.

The inner-city Victorian MP tweeted a photo of his electorate office Christmas tree, which included former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian as the “angel”, to get attention late last week.

Now we have “puppet media”:

Updated

Here is a little more from Scott Morrison on the Omicron Covid variant and whether it will mean the reinstatement of the 14-day quarantine for (vaccinated) international arrivals in Australia:

I think it is a bit too early and at present it is a 72-hour arrangement with those states and territories, 14 days’ hotel quarantine in the other states and territories, so the national cabinet will come together over the next couple of days and a key purpose of that is to ensure we are working off all the same information and on all the latest information and on all the latest information we have available.

It is coming through at different rates from different places so it is just very important that we remain calm, the national plan is about opening safely so we can remain safely open.

Let’s not forget also that we have got over 1,000 cases at the moment in Victoria each day but the hospital system that is coping very well and remember that is what it is all about at the end of the day.

The issue is insuring our public health systems are able to cope with any infectious diseases and particularly any new variants that occurs and what we’re saying is that is already being successful in Victoria and NSW where we have had case numbers but the health system has not been overwhelmed, they have planned well for it we have worked well with them and that is keeping people protected.

Updated

Good morning

Welcome to the last sitting week of 2021 – and possibly until the next election.

Who knows.

Scott Morrison attempted another reset at the weekend, using the time off from parliament to make anonymous social media trolling the biggest issue facing the country.

With the government trying to blame Labor for not bringing forward its commonwealth integrity commission legislation and Morrison attacking the NSW anti-corruption commission, Icac, while backing in former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, who he wants to run for the Sydney seat of Warringah, he wants to move away from messy topics.

So after giving the party room the usual “disunity is death” talk last Tuesday, now the prime minister is talking up the rebellion happening within the Coalition’s backbench as a good thing, because apparently, they are not “drones” in the Liberal party. Never mind that six of the seven MPs who crossed the floor did so over public health measures Morrison himself was supportive of until recently. Or that it was Tasmanian Liberal Bridget Archer who received a talking to, while Gerard Rennick was allowed to “negotiate” and offered a talk with constitutional lawyers over his position.

But Morrison may not get his way with attempts to reset the agenda for what seems like the third time this sitting – a new Covid variant has made its way into Australia, just as the reopening was gathering pace.

Morrison was doing the breakfast TV rounds this morning (not the ABC, from what I can see so far) and of course it’s what the hosts wanted to speak about.

Australia has gone from “borders open” to “of course they are not open” very, very quickly. Here’s Morrison on the Seven network:

Let me stress firstly, our borders are not open. The only country to which our borders are open are Singapore and New Zealand, otherwise the only people coming to Australia are those who have very specific exemptions and those who are Australian residents and citizens, we don’t close our borders to Australian citizens, that has only been done once in the case of India and for a very short period of time.

Of course it is concerning and that’s why we’re getting all the information we possibly can.

National cabinet will be meeting either this afternoon or tomorrow to work through the available information.

We will bring you all the information as it comes – on both parliament and any border changes. Mike Bowers is already up and about for you, and Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp are on deck to bring you all the Canberra news. The rest of the Guardian team is also at your disposal for news happening around the nation.

It’s most likely going to be a four-coffee morning. Let’s see how it plays out.

Ready?

Updated

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