What we learned today, Saturday 6 November
We’ll leave our rolling coverage there for the day. Here’s what’s happened today:
- Australia has reached its 80% double-dosed target, with 80.16% of people over the age of 16 now fully vaccinated.
- A man is missing, feared dead, following a reported shark attack at a popular beach in Fremantle, Western Australia.
- Police in Tasmania have referred a double fatality shooting in Devonport to the state’s coroner.
- The Northern Territory reported one new case of Covid-19, bringing the outbreak which prompted a three-day snap lockdown of Darwin and Katherine to three. All cases are linked and fully isolating but authorities still don’t know where the infection came from, with anyone who was at popular bar Monsoons on 29 October urged to get tested.
- New Zealand has hit a new daily record for coronavirus cases, reporting 206 cases overnight.
- New South Wales reported 270 cases and three deaths.
- Victoria recorded 1,268 new cases and seven deaths.
- Queensland reported one new case, and health authorities were on alert following the news that the woman who tested positive to Covid-19 in Darwin had recently flown out of Cairns.
- Thousands of people marched at an anti-vaccination rally in Melbourne, and thousands more marched in rallies for climate action around the country.
Thanks for your company. We’ll see you tomorrow.
Updated
Western Australia has recorded no new cases of Covid-19.
The WA government has declared this weekend to be “super vax weekend”, with pop-up vaccine clinics all over Perth and regional areas.
Some of those clinics are at Bunnings, prompting this interesting bit of government communication on premier Mark McGowan’s TikTok account.
Huh? This is... um... what? pic.twitter.com/3pO3rxoy2E
— Dougal Wallace (@DougalWallace) November 5, 2021
Updated
South Australia has been hit by a severe storm, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning of damaging winds in the Flinders and Riverland districts and parts of the Eastern Eyre Peninsula, Mid North, Murraylands and North East Pastoral districts.
Port Augusta, at the top of the Eyre Peninsula, recorded 15mm of rainfall in 15 minutes and wind gusts of 82km/h.
The ABC reporter Eliza Berlage, who is based in the Riverland, says Renmark – which is 20km from the Victorian border, level with Mildura – had 14.6mm of rain in 30 minutes, with winds gusting up to 104km/h.
Huge storms sweeping across the Riverland. Strong winds, heavy rain, trees uprooted, hail and power outages. pic.twitter.com/KTr6CvjszT
— Eliza Berlage (@verbaliza) November 6, 2021
I filmed this in the bottle shop where fridges were flinging open, paper towels were unravelling and beef jerky was flying off the counter. Bought some wine just before they shut down.
— Eliza Berlage (@verbaliza) November 6, 2021
The McDonald’s sign fell down in the wind.
The McDonald’s Renmark sign is down.
— Eliza Berlage (@verbaliza) November 6, 2021
(Credit: Riverland forum) pic.twitter.com/4QxY2bCtaY
That system is now heading east, over northern Victoria and southern NSW.
Updated
Four children are trapped on a carnival ride in Geelong
Four children are trapped on a stuck carnival ride in Geelong, with two of them suspended up to 35 metres in the air, AAP reports.
Emergency services were called to the family carnival being held at Waurn Ponds shopping centre in southern Geelong about 2pm on Saturday.
Fire Rescue Victoria says two children are suspended around 35 metres in the air, with another two trapped on the ride “though significantly closer to ground level”.
Crews have raised a ladder and are working to free them.
There are no reports of injuries so far and rescuers are expected to remain on the scene “for some time”.
A possible thunderstorm and gusty winds are forecast for the Geelong area on Saturday afternoon.
From AAP:
Two men have been charged over the murder of David King in the NSW Hunter region earlier this year.
The 45-year-old was found shot dead inside his Ford Ranger that had crashed into a tree at Salt Ash in Port Stephens on 29 August.
Police believed the shooting was a targeted attack, with a man allegedly seen running from the ute to a Hyundai Santa Fe SUV that was later found burnt out in nearby Heatherbrae.
On Friday police arrested Tyson Stamp, 27, following a traffic stop at Raymond Terrace.
A few hours later Adam Garvey, 39, was arrested at a Charlestown shopping centre.
Stamp has been charged with murder, kidnapping, property damage and weapons offences, with Garvey charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder and kidnapping.
Both men appeared at Newcastle local court on Saturday and were formally refused bail.
They are due to face Raymond Terrace local court on Monday.
Updated
Yes, Halloween was last weekend and no, you haven’t fallen through a time slip – this faintly terrifying koala is from the climate justice rally in Sydney today.
I’d just like to take a moment to point out the seamless incorporation of the mask. Covid-safe, climate-aware, and looks like they’re ready to drop on unsuspecting backpackers. 10/10
Updated
Almost $40m worth of Sydney’s seven-year-old trams have been taken out of service to fix cracking, in a situation the state’s opposition transport spokeswoman has called a “total mess”, AAP reports.
Transport minister Rob Stokes announced on Friday all 12 trams on the city’s inner west line would be decommissioned for up to 18 months to fix cracks in the train cars.
NSW Labor transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen has described the move as a “light rail fail”.
The government needs to guarantee alternative work for employees and clarify whether the time the trams spend off the tracks will crossover with the conversion of the Bankstown train line to Sydney Metro, leaving commuters with “inferior” replacement buses instead of two types of rail transport, Haylen said.
Transport for NSW chief operations officer Howard Collins has said he wants the tram fixes “to be done and dusted” by the time the Bankstown line is closed down, and the 18 months the trams could spend off the tracks leaves “a small amount of headroom”.
“We want to fill a workshop with these trams with very competent engineers from Australia who can retrofit, strengthen and sort out these cracks permanently,” Collins said.
Haylen said the government “should have been reaching out to add domestic manufacturers here in Australia to build these in the first place”.
Stokes said the 18-month timeline is the “worst-case scenario” and replacement services were being provided for customers who “won’t be expected to pay anything more” for them.
“People from the inner west and across Sydney are furious they are going to be forced onto slower replacement buses for up to a year and a half,” Haylen said.
She is calling on the government to make the replacement service completely free instead.
Customers “shouldn’t have to pay for the government’s procurement mistakes”, she said.
Updated
More than 1,000 Pacific Islander farm workers attempted to run away from their employers last financial year, according to a report by Cait Kelly.
Cait writes that 1,181 workers attempted to run away, mainly from labor hire companies in 2020-2021, up from 225 the previous financial year.
The figures were provided by the department of education, skills and employment, which said that the number was not as large as it appeared as some may have returned to work, or been “redeployed to another placement”.
And while you’re digesting those figures, chew on this: the Australian government has just launched a campaign to prevent workers from fleeing by warning they may “bring shame to their families” and risk having their visa cancelled if they run away from a job.
It comes as Australia’s seasonal worker program is hit with claims it has subjected people to “inhumane conditions”, with a class action being built against the government.
You can read her full story here:
Western Bulldogs AFLW players and staff have been sent into isolation after a member of the program tested positive to Covid-19.
The club said the individual, who is fully vaccinated, attended training free of symptoms on Thursday but later returned a positive test.
The individual has not been named.
Saturday’s planned training session was cancelled after the club was made aware of the positive case on Friday night.
“[The individual] received a negative result from a rapid antigen test on arrival [at Thursday’s training session],” the Bulldogs confirmed in a statement on Saturday.
“PCR Covid tests were also administered at the training session for all staff and players, in line with regular AFL testing protocols, with one test returning a positive result on Friday.
“All other members of the AFLW program received negative results from both their rapid antigen test and PCR test.”
The Bulldogs are working with the AFL and the Victorian Department of Health to determine the period of isolation required.
It is unclear when the AFLW team will be allowed to resume training.
The sixth season of the AFLW competition will begin on January 6.
Updated
More on the Fremantle shark attack, from reporter Justine Landis-Hanley.
WA water police search for person missing following reported shark attack
Water police in Western Australia are coordinating a marine search for a person who is missing following a reported shark attack off Port Beach, North Fremantle.
WA police said they were alerted to the incident at 10.10am local time.
A spokesperson for the St John Ambulance service in WA said they received a call at 10.03am to help a man who had allegedly been involved in a shark bite incident.
They have not been able to locate the man.
The water police, police air wing, surf lifesavers, the surf rescue helicopter and two government departments with search boats are looking for the man.
As we reported earlier, local councils have closed a 4km stretch of the beach, from Leighton dog beach down to Sand Tracks.
Updated
It’s Calla Wahlquist back again, thank you to Justine for taking you through the last hour.
We’ll continue to bring you details of the apparent shark incident in Western Australia as they unfold.
The ABC has reported that authorities are searching for a person who was swimming in the area and has not been seen since the shark was sighted.
Surf Life Saving Western Australia has closed Leighton and Cottesloe beaches in response to the reported shark bite incident.
#CLOSED Lifesavers have closed Cottesloe Beach due to an ongoing incident in the area #myCottesloeBeach
— Surf Life Saving WA (@SLSWA) November 6, 2021
Updated
Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development has confirmed it is investigating a reported shark bite incident at Port Beach in North Fremantle.
The shark bite incident was reported at 10.06am local time today.
Updated
Our friends at AAP have more information about the climate protests in Melbourne, including that giant burning koala puppet.
A giant koala emitting plumes of smoke and dozens of skeletons on bicycles have converged on a beachside suburb of Melbourne as part of a climate protest.
Dozens of Extinction Rebellion activists marched through Catani Gardens in St Kilda on Saturday, holding a mock funeral with several people dressed in red walking ahead of the burning koala.
Blinky the koala, which is part-skeleton and stands about four metres high, let out groaning and crying noises as the protest went by.
About 21 people dressed as skeletons on bikes rode from Melbourne’s Princes Bridge to St Kilda earlier in the day, carrying briefcases full of money.
A similar protest was held in Ballarat on Saturday as part of an international day of action.
“Koalas and humans face a risk of extinction given the failure of governments to take the emergency action that is so desperately needed,” Extinction Rebellion Australia said in a statement.
The protest comes as the Cop26 Climate Change Conference continues in Scotland.
“UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has said that it’s code red for humanity. But Australia has gone to the last-ditch Cop26 climate negotiations as a laggard and a wrecker,” Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Jane Morton said.
“We are approaching the point of no return for out of control warming and billions of deaths. Today we are conducting a funeral.”
The climate protest is one of two demonstrations in Melbourne on Saturday, with thousands of people also rallying outside the state’s parliament to protest the Andrews government’s proposed pandemic legislation.
Climate activists had made their way back to the CBD and were protesting outside the State Library on Saturday afternoon, around the corner from the pandemic protest.
Updated
Reports of shark attack at Fremantle beach
There are reports of a shark attack at Port Beach in Fremantle.
We are chasing further information about the incident.
Updated
As previously reported, thousands of protesters opposing vaccination mandates and government lockdown restrictions have marched through Melbourne’s CBD today.
But climate activists have also taken to the streets today in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne to protest the government’s inaction on climate change.
In Sydney, two protesters have dressed up as Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison with a lump of coal.
Lots of people here at the Sydney rally calling for climate action. On the periphery: Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison with his lump of coal security blanket pic.twitter.com/tisqpDdzHR
— Briony Neilson (@Briony_Neilson) November 6, 2021
Indigenous activists have spoken about the impact climate change will continue to have on First Nations communities.
Strong Black voices open climate justice rally
— Padraic Gibson (@paddygibson) November 6, 2021
Nadeena Dixon (Gadigal) gives us a powerful Welcome
Bruce Shillingsworth (Muruwari) says without a revolution to return the land to First Nations, Country will perish
Raymond Weatherall (Gomeroi) condemns Santos CSG plans pic.twitter.com/cgxqKYXUko
Protesters in St Kilda, Melbourne, have marched with a puppet of a burning koala.
Just another Saturday in #StKilda… a burning koala marching through the park 🐨 Climate change protest making some noise in #Melbourne today. @abcnews @abcmelbourne @BreakfastNews pic.twitter.com/JLeV2mDW9F
— Jess Lodge (@jess_lodge) November 6, 2021
Updated
New Zealand has passed 200 daily cases of Covid-19 for the first time in the pandemic, placing it on a worrying trajectory for the summer and raising expert concerns that the growing outbreak could overwhelm the health system.
On Saturday there were 206 cases announced – 200 in Auckland, the city at the centre of the outbreak. There were 73 people in hospital with the virus, seven in intensive care.
The record case numbers arrived as the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, gave a speech promising the country better times ahead. “To all of New Zealand, but especially Auckland, I say: he rā ki tua, better times are coming,” she said on Saturday at the Labour party conference.
“Over the coming weeks, we will see the level of protection in our communities increase as more people are vaccinated. In fact, we’re on track to have amongst the highest vaccination rates in the world, already having overtaken the likes of Australia, the US, the UK, France, Germany and Ireland.”
Updated
The NSW opposition plans to introduce a private member’s bill to legislate the state government’s net zero by 2050 target, which the Coalition government is yet to write into law.
More from AAP:
Labor leader Chris Minns says the move will provide certainty for business and industry, and his party’s “very reasonable” bill “mirrors similar approaches already taken in Victoria and the ACT”.
The NSW government is targeting a 50% reduction in 2005-level emissions by 2030, and net zero by 2050.
The Labor bill seeks to make the targets law and establish a commission to ensure they are met, while seeking bipartisan support from premier Dominic Perrottet’s government to get through.
Minns announced the legislation on Saturday morning, although not before environment minister Matt Kean issued a release to say the state’s National Parks and Wildlife Service would become Australia’s first to commit to being carbon positive.
Kean said the plan would ensure the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by national parks would exceed the emissions they generated by 2028.
“This is a visionary plan that highlights the importance of the national parks in combating climate change alongside the critical role they already play in the conservation of biodiversity providing home to 85% of threatened species in the state,” he said.
“It’s all designed to position NPWS at the forefront of global environmental efforts.”
NPWS will switch to 100% renewable energy, electric passenger vehicles and onsite solar PV, as well as reducing waste and updating refrigeration and air conditioning assets.
It will also trial electric vehicle charging stations in key park areas.
Opposition energy and climate spokesman Jihad Dib meanwhile insisted Labor’s bill was needed for the government’s net zero and interim targets because “meaningful action on climate change is too important to open up to changes in government ... we have to go beyond aspiration”.
Kean is credited with pushing the government to make aspirational commitments to emissions reduction but Labor is concerned he will soon be leaving the environment portfolio.
Asked on Sky News this week why the parliament had not been committed to a net zero target, he said the government had “in regulation”.
He dismissed the question as an attempt to play “word games”.
He last week told a budget estimates hearing the state would need new policies to hit the 2050 net zero target but technologies and opportunities would arrive to help.
Updated
Speaking of anti-vaccination protests, there is one happening in Melbourne at the moment and protesters have, without irony, chosen to sing Strange Fruit.
Protesters arrive at Parliment House as singer performs ‘Strange Fruit’ by Billie Holiday which references the lynching of black Americans @theage pic.twitter.com/WaJDti2trk
— Rachael Dexter (@rachael_dexter) November 6, 2021
According to the Age’s Rachael Dexter, it was a crowd of thousands.
Time lapse to show how many people are here - had to stop recording as crowd came to a halt but there were hundreds more after this point https://t.co/gU0JSg8P2d pic.twitter.com/cLf9H3UHqM
— Rachael Dexter (@rachael_dexter) November 6, 2021
Updated
The Northern Territory police commissioner, Jamie Chalker, says police may consider using roadblocks to stop a planned ‘freedom rally’ from taking place in Darwin later today.
The organisers of the “march against the mandates” plan to hold the protest every Saturday at 3pm. Today’s plan involves a car convoy through the city, culminating at Parliament House.
Chalker says that attending a protest is not one of the five permitted reasons to leave home in a lockdown.
We’ll go through our roadblock methodology, which is part and parcel of our compliance sheet to be able to engage with people there and then. If there are any large gatherings that occur we have got commensurate resources to respond.
Chalker says police are talking to the rally organisers in an attempt to get people to “apply commonsense”.
He says the response from organisers has been “quite positive”.
Again, we know within these types of groups there might be a very small minority within that don’t necessarily seek to accord to the generalist view of what the movement is all about. So we are conscious of that and we have appropriate plans in place if we need to respond in that regard.
Updated
Gunner says it is still not clear how the virus came into the NT and officials have not yet found the source of the outbreak.
While the three cases reported so far are all “linked and locked”, he says that does not mean there is no risk to the broader community.
In particular he asks anyone who attended Monsoons party bar and restaurant during the exposure period to get tested.
If you were at Monnies on 29 October, please get tested. We know 793 people checked in there. Please get tested. Just get tested if you were there. We will keep doing that contact tracing and see if there were other potential sites where it may have come from.
Having said that, there may be still, upon investigations, you know, as you do, with police and the contact tracers, it might be that one of these three is the missing link.
Updated
Territorians who are outside the lockdown area will not be allowed to travel into Darwin or Katherine until the lockdown lifts, and people subject to the lockdown will also not be allowed to leave, Gunner says.
We don’t want you leaving to go to other parts of the territory and potentially carry Covid with you.
Double-vaccinated essential workers will be allowed to leave to deliver crucial repairs or food supplies, and people who live interstate will be allowed to return home provided that their home state is prepared to accept them.
I can confirm that while you cannot move about the territory and leave the lockout or lockdown areas, you can leave the territory to go to another jurisdiction that is happy to receive your. We let that jurisdiction make the choice.
There is one important caveat on this: you can only leave by plane. The reason for this is obvious. If you want to fly direct to Melbourne you present no risk to the Territory but if you are to drive through the Territory en route to Victoria you present a clear risk to the Territory on your way out because you will be stopping at roadhouses.
Gunner also says people will not be required to show a vaccine certificate to access essential services, such as the grocery store or supermarket, during the lockdown. But unvaccinated people will not be allowed to dine in at a restaurant.
Updated
Yesterday was the second-busiest day for vaccine appointments in the Territory since the rollout began.
Gunner says more vaccine appointments have been made available to meet demand.
I understand there are booking slots available now, both today and tomorrow, in response to demand. Thank you to every Territorian who has been vaccinated over the last few days, it’s great to have you on board. Every person vaccinated adds a layer of protection to the Territory – one less person likely to catch Covid, one more person less likely to get seriously sick, one more person less likely to die from Covid.
Updated
Northern Territory reports one new case of Covid two days into lockdown
The Northern Territory has reported one new case of Covid-19 on the second day of a three-day snap lockdown of Darwin and Katherine.
The chief minister, Michael Gunner, says the new case is a 21-year-old woman who arrived in the NT from Cairns on Friday 29 October.
She is a close contact of the original case and has received one dose of a vaccine.
The original case is an unvaccinated man in his 20s. An unvaccinated man in his 50s who lives with the first man has also tested positive.
Gunner says the woman became symptomatic today:
She is being interviewed right now and contact tracing has commenced. There may be more exposure sites for Darwin so it is critical that everybody in the Top End pays very careful attention to these and looks for updates throughout the day. We will communicate these as soon as we can.
We are further doing genomic sequencing [which] is likely to reveal the origin of the virus over the weekend but it will not reveal the missing link. At this stage though we still cannot be certain of the source of the outbreak. I am reassured that we have fresh wastewater results back for Katherine and greater Darwin areas and we have all negative results after November 3, except where we had expected to see them in the catchment. We cannot rely exclusively on wastewater testing, but this is a good sign.
Gunner says more exposure sites have been added to the NT health department website, and the location of one site has been changed to the correct address. He quips:
Getting hotels wrong is a longstanding Darwin tradition but we now have the correct site.
There are 100 close contacts identified, Gunner says, of which 80 have been contacted and are isolating. Nineteen of those 80 have returned negative tests so far, and authorities are still tracking down the remaining 20.
The number of close contacts is expected to grow.
Updated
The Victorian chief health officer has released the detailed daily Covid update.
As reported earlier, Victoria reported 1,268 new cases overnight and seven deaths.
There are currently 651 people in hospital with Covid, of which 106 are in intensive care and 70 are on a ventilator. The update says that 84% of those in hospital were not fully vaccinated, and 96% of those in intensive care were not fully vaccinated.
In terms of the spread of cases, the 10 local governments with the highest number of cases reported yesterday were Casey, Wyndham, Brimbank, Hume, Greater Dandenong, Latrobe, Melbourne, Whittlesea, Melton and Greater Shepparton.
Virus fragments were detected in sewage at Stawell, Lorne, Mansfield, Aireys Inlet and Apollo Bay.
There are 16,662 active cases in Victoria.
Updated
Back in Melbourne, refugee advocates are planning to hold a rally tomorrow in support of refugees held inside the Park Hotel in Carlton.
There are 46 men held in the hotel, and 22 have tested positive to Covid-19 since 17 October.
Refugee Action Coalition spokesman David Glanz said:
The men trapped in the Park Hotel prison, who have been detained by the Australian government for more than eight years, should have been freed long before this outbreak occurred.
More than 100 fellow refugees brought to Australia from offshore detention for medical treatment are now living and working in the community on bridging visas.
It is nothing more than government cruelty that the men in the Park are still locked up in a building that almost could have been designed to spread Covid.
The advocates are calling for the men who are Covid-positive to be moved to a proper facility for treatment, and those who are negative to be moved to proper quarantine facilities.
And once they are no longer at immediate risk from the virus, they need to be freed from detention and given permanent visas so they can rebuild their lives.
One of the men being held in the hotel, Mustafa Salah, spoke to Guardian Australia’s Full Story podcast this week. You can listen here:
Updated
New Zealand reports 206 new Covid-19 cases
New Zealand has reported 206 new cases overnight, a daily record since the pandemic began.
Two hundred of the new cases are in Auckland, four in Waikato and two in Northland.
There are currently 73 people in hospital, 51 in ICU.
About 78% of New Zealanders are now fully vaccinated, and 89% have received their first dose, with the number of vaccine doses administered in New Zealand passing seven million.
In a statement, the NZ ministry of health said:
The 206 community cases reported today are a reminder of the infectiousness of Covid-19, and particularly the Delta variant, and the importance of vaccination as the number one protection against the virus ...
We urge anyone over 12 who hasn’t yet been vaccinated or have received their first dose at least three weeks ago to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated – it’s never been easier.
The NZ Herald reports that the government made an in-principle agreement to reduce lockdown restrictions in Auckland this week, but the move has yet to be signed off by cabinet.
Updated
Let’s break down the NSW case numbers a bit.
Of the 270 cases reported last night, 73 were recorded in the Hunter and New England local health district.
A further 37 were from the Mid North Coast local health district, 21 in the Murrumbidgee local health district, 10 from Western NSW, six from the Central Coast, five from the Illawarra Shoalhaven area, four from Southern NSW, three from Northern NSW, and one in the far west.
That’s about 60% of cases recorded outside of Sydney.
Sewage surveillance also detected fragments of the virus at Uralla, Dungog, Byron Bay and Denman, where there are no known cases. Anyone in those areas is urged to get tested and isolate at the slightest sign of symptoms.
Updated
NSW has reached 89.4% fully vaccinated, and 93.8% of people aged 16 and over have received their first dose.
In the 12- to 15-year-old age group, 67.4% are fully vaccinated and 79.9% have had at least one dose.
Updated
A woman in her 30s is one of three people to have died with Covid-19 in NSW yesterday.
As reported earlier, NSW recorded 270 new cases and, sadly, three deaths.
The young woman from western Sydney died at Westmead hospital.
A man in his 50s, also from western Sydney, died at Liverpool hospital, and a man in his 60s from Wollongong died at Wollongong hospital.
None of the three were fully vaccinated and all, according to NSW health, had underlying health conditions.
We join NSW Health in expressing our sincerest condolences to their families.
It brings the death toll in NSW since the pandemic began to 592.
Updated
Queensland reports one new Covid-19 case
Queensland has recorded a new locally-acquired case of Covid-19.
The woman in her 20s from Goondiwindi tested positive while in quarantine, but authorities said she may have had one day out in the community while infectious.
Speaking outside a Bunnings store, which is hosting a pop-up vaccination clinic, the Queensland health minister, Yvette D’Ath, said:
The message remains clear, if you have any symptoms and if you have been in the town since the 30 October or anywhere in Brisbane please come out and get tested. We still have nine active cases.
D’Ath said officials were also conducting contact tracing on a woman who flew from Cairns to the Northern Territory and later tested positive to Covid-19.
Queensland is currently sitting on a first dose rate of 79.07% in people aged 16 and over.
D’Ath:
Whether you live in Cairns, Goondiwindi, or anywhere else, this virus is close on our doorstep and it could arrive at any time and we need to make sure we continue to come out and get tested, and we know the best thing all of us can be doing is getting vaccinated.
Updated
Coroner to investigate double fatal shooting in Tasmania
Two young children were in a house in Devonport at the time of a double fatal shooting.
Police in Tasmania provided an update to reporters a short time ago.
Det Insp Kim Steven said it appears that one man has shot another man and a woman before taking his own life.
Both men have died and the woman is in hospital in a serious condition, but without life-threatening injuries. The woman is due to go into surgery this morning.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Police said there were two children, a 12-month-old baby and a 10-year-old child, at home at the time of the shooting. They are uninjured but were taken to Burnie hospital for a medical examination.
Steven told reporters that the children have “no physical injury”:
... but they have witnessed what has occurred. So they are seeing a psychologist and are in care of the grandmother at the moment.
There are immediate concerns for the welfare of the children and the surviving lady who is at the hospital at the moment.
We have a large police presence and forensic scientists present, continuing throughout the day.
Our initial investigation, it appears one of the deceased males has committed the gunshot on the other deceased male and female and then appears to have taken his life.
He said there was “pretty confronting” footage captured by police-worn body cameras, and the attending police officers were also being supported by welfare officers.
There will be ongoing welfare for them and also the ambulance team that turned up as well. We are trained for this. But it is only a small amount of police that will attend the scene like that – basically an active person with shots being fired – so obviously concerns are with our members as well as the general community. We will work through that in the coming days.
- In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and ChildLine on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255
Updated
ACT records 18 new Covid cases
The ACT has recorded 18 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking the total numbner of active cases to 136.
There are currently two people in hospital, including one person on a ventilator in intensive care.
A whopping 94.4% of people aged 12 and over in the ACT are fully vaccinated.
There have been 1,7165 cases recorded throughout this outbreak, which began in August.
Sticking with bushfires, the Victorian environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, has given a run-through of the state’s firefighting capabilities as we move into the fire season.
Which is a reminder to me, and to you, to clean out the gutters.
Victoria will field 600 seasonal firefighters this summer, and has hired an extra 154 fire operations officers to Forest Fire Management Victoria.
D’Ambrosio said there were 470 controlled burns conducted in the 2020-2021 financial year, covering 133,000ha of public land or about 0.5% of the state’s total landmass.
Another 49 burns, covering 2,000 hectares, have been completed since 1 July this year.
There have also been 15 cultural burns led by Traditional Owners.
The strategy of conducting controlled burns over the last decade has transitioned from large scale burns to targeted asset protection, focused around protecting homes, catchments, power supplies, schools, hospitals and key transport routes.
D’Ambrosio said:
Victoria is one of the most bushfire prone regions in the world – the impacts of climate change and associated extreme weather events are changing the nature of bushfires.
We’re constantly adapting to the challenges of climate change ensuring the risk from bushfires is minimised and we are prepared for the summer ahead.
Updated
A woman whose house on the NSW south coast burned down in a bushfire in 2018 says the Australian government’s lack of action on climate change is an “absolute slap in the face”.
Jan Harris told AAP:
Platitudes, that’s all we get from [Scott Morrison].
That 2050 target is just an absolute slap in the face to everything that this community has gone through.
Harris joined Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, which in August won a court case in the NSW Land and Environment Court to determine that the NSW Environment Protection Authority had a duty to take serious action on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
She is now living in her fourth rental home in three years and trying to rebuild. She told AAP she is frustrated by the impersonal, “mood oriented” language used by government to describe what she and other bushfire survivors are going through:
‘Rebuilding’, ‘we’re moving forward’, ‘you’re recovering’. You know what? I was never sick ... It’s pretty fucking personal when your house burns down.
Updated
Australia reaches 80% double-dose target
Australia has reached a double vaccination dose rate of 80.16% in people aged 16 and over, the prime minister’s office has said.
We’re expecting more on this shortly.
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A final few words from that discussion between Nationals MP Darren Chester and Labor MP Amanda Rishworth earlier.
When questioned on Morrison’s climate performance in Glasgow, Chester repeatedly said the Coalition’s position represented “the sensible centre”.
Rishworth replied:
I think a lot of people would have [had] a sense of disappointment that, in Glasgow, I think, the world saw through the glossy brochure that the prime minister kept holding up, because what we need in addition to a policy around net zero is actually a pathway to get there ... When the prime minister announced this agreement, [there] was no modelling. There was no economic modelling. There were no initiatives about how we might get there and that’s a real challenge.
Let’s go back go Glasgow for a moment.
Guardian Australia’s environment editor, Adam Moreton, has sifted through the first week of talks at Cop26 to bring you the five headline points.
Crucially, there was a commitment for developed countries – but not Australia – to phase out the use of coal in the 2030s “as soon as possible thereafter”, and a commitment to halt and reverse deforestration by 2030 – but not by Australia, which claims, according to national accounting of these things, that’s already happening in practice.
You can read more here:
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Good morning, it’s Calla Wahlquist here. Thanks for holding the fort, Stuart!
I just wanted to re-share the statement released late yesterday by the parents of Cleo Smith, Ellie Smith and Jake Gliddon.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those involved in the rescue of our daughter Cleo Smith.
In particular, we would like to thank WA Police, all those involved in the initial search, the Carnarvon community, local businesses and of course our family and friends.
We are humbled by the love and support that we have received from not only our local community but the whole of Western Australia and across the country.
We are so thankful that our little girl is back within our arms and our family is whole again.
As we try to get on with our lives, we ask that you respect our privacy.
Nationals MP Darren Chester and Labor MP Amanda Rishworth were on ABC 24 earlier, being asked whether Scott Morrison had “shamed Australia on the global stage” at the Cop26 summit and worsened tensions with French president Emmanuel Macron. The following exchange took place.
Chester:
I know it’s a spring racing carnival and Labor wants an each-way bet on everything, but the Labor party has supported the Aukus deal. The Labor party has spoken in positive terms ...
Rishworth:
The Labor party has been very bipartisan on the Aukus deal but to say the prime minister has handled this anything but appallingly would be an understatement. There’s no doubt the French were upset, but even President Biden admitted that perhaps this whole thing was handled clumsily. Rather than the [Australian] prime minister work on his diplomatic relationships there, what he’s done is he’s doubled down and allegedly his office has leaked private text messages. And then we’ve had government ministers criticising the press for asking questions. This really goes to the character of our prime minister.
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The rescue of Cleo Smith made global headlines.
The four-year-old vanished from a tent in the middle of the night on a family holiday, sparking an 18-day search involving more than 100 police officers and thousands of volunteers.
She was recovered alive and well in the locked room of a house in the small coastal town of Carnarvon, just minutes from her home, on Wednesday.
The Australian prime minister called it a miracle. Police officers, from the Western Australia police commissioner down, admitted to openly weeping.
The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, travelled 900km from Perth to see the four-year-old and her family, presenting her with two teddy bears in police uniform that he had named after two senior detectives who worked on the case.
But most missing person cases do not run like this. And if the person who goes missing is Indigenous, sometimes there is no report at all, writes writes Calla Wahlquist.
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Victoria records 1,268 new Covid cases and seven more deaths
Victoria has recorded 1,268 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases and seven more people have died.
The health department says the state is managing 16,662 active cases. There are 651 Victorians in hospital, of whom 106 are in intensive care including 70 on a ventilator. The seven-day average is now at 667.
Another 65,410 tests were processed on Friday and 15,058 vaccines administered at state-run hubs. About 82% of people aged over 12 are fully vaccinated.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) November 5, 2021
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/IyTxMxWt0W
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NSW records 270 new Covid cases and three deaths
NSW has added 270 new locally acquired infections to its Covid-19 caseload, while a further three deaths have been recorded.
Some 270 patients with the virus also remain in the state’s hospitals, 55 of them in ICU.
Health officials say there were more than 72,000 Covid-19 tests conducted statewide in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday. Almost 94% of people aged 16 or over have so far received one vaccine dose and 89.4% are fully immunised.
NSW #COVID19 update – Saturday 6 November 2021
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 5, 2021
In the 24-hour reporting period to 8pm last night:
- 93.8% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 89.4% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 72,350 tests pic.twitter.com/FQBVxlF2ja
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Scott Morrison’s appearance at the G20 and Cop26 was supposed to be about consolidating the Coalition’s climate pivot before the next election. But the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had other ideas.
Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, travelled with Morrison to Rome and Glasgow this week. Here is how an extraordinary week unfolded behind the scenes.
Sydney’s inner west light rail line could be out of action for up to 18 months in order to fix significant cracking found on all 12 trams.
Transport for NSW chief operations officer Howard Collins said cracks up to 30cm long on the wheel arches had been discovered.
NSW transport minister Rob Stokes said the 18 months is the “worst-case scenario” and he expects to have the problems rectified and the service back on track sooner than that. But until then “the safety advice has been for these vehicles to be withdrawn from service until they can be fixed”.
A replacement service has been in place this week and is already transporting 5,000 passengers a day, Stokes said.
About 1,000 similar trams are in use around the world, as well as in Newcastle and Canberra, and Stokes said the cracking that was found during routine maintenance by Transport for NSW is likely a design flaw that will have global implications.
“A lot of countries will be looking at what happens here with keen interest,” Stokes said.
He is advising global operators to “let them know this same design flaw is likely to be a challenge for their systems as well”.
Collins said the trams were not unsafe but “if the cracks propagate further it could be an issue” for the seven-year-old trams, and it will be “no quick fix”.
“We want to fill a workshop with these trams with very competent engineers from Australia who can retrofit, strengthen and sort out these cracks permanently,” he said.
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New data shows Aboriginal people in New South Wales and the ACT have been heavily and disproportionately affected by Covid-19 amid concerns that, even after two months of “surge” efforts in 30 Indigenous communities, vaccination rates will not be high enough to withstand further outbreaks.
Ten per cent of all Covid cases in NSW and the ACT are Aboriginal and Islander people, meaning they have been affected at twice the rate of other Australians.
In the past three months, there have been 7,000 cases, 700 hospitalisations, 80 people in ICU and 14 deaths among Aboriginal people, according to data from the National Aboriginal community controlled health organisation (NACCHO).
The NSW Labor party has stepped into campaigning mode, announcing it would introduce a private member’s bill seeking to legislate a net zero emissions target by 2050.
Announced in Bega, one of five NSW seats due to hold byelections in the next few months, by opposition leader Chris Minns, the announcement will seek to put pressure on a Coalition government which has trumpeted its own ambitious emissions targets.
The Coalition government in NSW has already committed to halving its emissions by 2030, a target underpinned by clean energy legislation passed with multi-party support last year which will see the state build 12 gigawatts of clean energy and 2GW of energy storage in the next decade.
The NSW energy and environment minister, Matt Kean, this week insisted the party would “get to net zero by 2050”, but declined to support legislation to commit to the target because, he said, the goal was already committed through “regulation”.
“Well, what we will do is have the policies in place to ensure that we hit the target, but do so in a way that’s going to reduce our emissions and grow our economy,” he told Sky News.
But Labor says the government’s target of net zero by 2050 is merely “aspirational”, and says it will introduce a bill to mirror legislation already in place in Victoria and the ACT.
The party says it would also establish a net zero commission to develop the plan to reach the net zero by 2050 target, as well as monitoring its progress and trajectory “including impacts on jobs and industry, as well as energy prices”.
“This legislation is an important step forward, but it should not be a big leap for Dominic Perrottet and Matt Kean to join with the opposition and support legislating these targets,” Minns said.
“It will give business, industry, and the environment certainty that these targets will be law regardless of who is in power in New South Wales.”
The announcement comes as the state prepares for five byelections brought on by a swathe of resignations. Following the departure of former premier Gladys Berejiklian last month amid the Icac scandal, the former deputy premier John Barilaro, transport minister Andrew Constance, Holsworthy MP Melanie Gibbons and former Labor leader Jodi McKay all announced they would quit state politics.
Two dead after Tasmania shooting
Two men have died and a woman is in hospital after suffering gunshot wounds at a Tasmanian house with two children inside.
Police were called to a property on William Street in Devonport after reports of shots fired about 1am on Saturday.
One woman, two men and two children were found inside.
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Good morning.
Health workers are racing to find the source of the Northern Territory’s first outbreak of Covid-19 in the community after a second person was diagnosed with the virus.
A three-day lockdown in Katherine is underway and a lockout in Greater Darwin is scheduled to last until midnight on Sunday, as contact tracers investigate a traveller from Queensland.
The new case is housemate of an unvaccinated man in his 20s who was diagnosed in Katherine, 320km south of Darwin, on Thursday.
This weekend is the first since restrictions have lifted on travel from Greater Sydney to regional NSW for fully vaccinated people.
On Friday, the West Australian premier, Mark McGowan, announced the state’s border restrictions will remain in place until 90% of its 12-and-over population is fully vaccinated. Australia passed the 80% double-vaccinated mark yesterday.
NSW recorded 249 new Covid cases and three deaths on Friday, while Victoria recorded 1,343 cases and 10 deaths. Among the cases were two Melbourne Cup attendees who subsequently tested positive. The ACT recorded six new cases and one death.
Also on Friday, Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein announced people from low-risk areas will no longer need to provide a negative Covid-19 test before travelling to Tasmania from 15 December.
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