What happened Tuesday 4 May 2021
We’ll leave it there for today. Thanks for tuning in.
Here are today’s main developments:
- Scott Morrison claims it is “highly unlikely” that anyone will be jailed for returning to Australia from India under the country’s harsh biosecurity laws, as he resists calls from the peak medical association for the penalties to be dropped.
- The Morrison government is battling a significant backlash within its own ranks over the controversial decision to criminalise returning to Australia from Covid-ravaged India, with Coalition MPs characterising the move as “extreme” and “heavy-handed”.
- The Indian Premier League Twenty20 cricket tournament has been indefinitely suspended due to the Covid-19 crisis in the country, raising questions about an evacuation of Australian players living in the tournament’s bubble.
- The New South Wales government is exploring how it can establish an mRNA vaccine manufacturing industry in the state.
- A man tested positive in Western Australia to coronavirus after returning from Melbourne where he was quarantining after a trip to Poland. Authorities believe his infection is historic with his test returning a “very weak positive result”.
- The family of an Indigenous teenager who was allegedly assaulted by a police officer in Sydney last year have welcomed the decision to lay charges, saying they want the law to be “applied with fairness and justice”.
And here’s our report on the Indian Premier League news.
The IPL Twenty20 cricket tournament has been indefinitely suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis in the country, IPL chairman btold Reuters on Tuesday.
“The tournament stands suspended, we are looking for another window,” Patel said.
“Right now we can’t say when we can reschedule it.”
Monday’s match in Ahmedabad had to be rescheduled after two Kolkata Knight Riders players tested positive for Covid-19 and two non-playing members of the Chennai Super Kings franchise contracted the virus in Delhi.
India’s tally of coronavirus infections surged past 20 million on Tuesday, following 357,229 new cases over the last 24 hours, as the country battles a second wave of the disease.
Read more:
Further to that news that the Indian Premier League has been suspended:
Australian Cricketers Association is right now in discussions with .@CricketAus and the federal Govt about how they can bring back Aussie players as COVID crisis worsens
— Julia Bradley (@_juliabradley) May 4, 2021
In case you missed it earlier in the day, the NSW government is exploring a plan to manufacture mRNA vaccines like those created for Covid-19 by Pfizer and Moderna.
But with the time frame of a successful pilot stretching to 24 months, the government admits its efforts are centred on “future-proofing” health needs, rather than immediately impacting the Covid-19 pandemic, reports AAP.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday she was pulling together a team, led by NSW chief scientist Hugh Durrant-Whyte, to oversee the creation of an mRNA therapeutics industry.
He predicted that a successful pilot program for commercial-scale mRNA vaccine manufacturing in NSW would take 12 to 24 months.
Last month Victoria’s acting premier James Merlino committed $50m to manufacturing mRNA coronavirus vaccines in Melbourne.
Updated
Indian Premier League suspended
The Indian Premier League cricket competition has been suspended indefinitely, according to multiple reports.
This follows positive test results in players in the competition’s bubble.
A significant number of Australian cricketers and commentators are currently in India living in the competition’s bubble.
Scott Morrison claims it is “highly unlikely” that anyone will be jailed for returning to Australia from India under the country’s harsh biosecurity laws, as he resists calls from the peak medical association for the penalties to be dropped.
Facing a backlash from within Coalition ranks and mounting community anger over the government’s decision to criminalise returning to Australia from Covid-ravaged India, the prime minister on Tuesday was forced to walk back the threat, describing it as a “tool” that was available to Australian Border Force if needed.
“I think the likelihood of anything like that occurring is pretty much zero,” Morrison said. “It’s highly unlikely … The sanctions are there, they exist, but they will be exercised proportionately and responsibly.”
He said the sanctions had been in the Biosecurity Act for the past 14 months, and no one had been penalised using the “extremes” of the available penalties, which include a fine of up to $66,000 and five years’ jail, or both.
Read more:
Thanks Mostafa for taking us through the last part of the day.
I’m Elias Visontay, and I’ll be bringing you developments for the rest of the day.
And with that, I will hand over the blog to the ever-reliable Elias Visontay to take you through the evening’s news. Thank you for joining me this afternoon.
Updated
Katharine Murphy’s latest column is a must read, on the PM’s attempts to bat back at critics of the government’s India travel ban.
The coronavirus pandemic has forced the governments of Australia and the governments of the world to make very tough decisions. That’s what catastrophes do. But we all need to be very clear about the potential consequences of this decision for our fellow citizens who can’t get home.
We need to understand that people who had been given permission to travel to India by the Australian government are now being left by the same government to fend for themselves until authorities can clear a backlog of Covid cases currently in Australian quarantine. Michael Slater articulated this point economically with his pointed contribution on social media, noting he had “government permission” to work on the Indian Premier League “but now I have government neglect”.
You can read it in full here:
Updated
Apropos of the government’s $10bn reinsurance pool announcement, subsidising cyclone and cyclone-related flood cover in northern Australia, it’s worth noting this was not recommended by the competition regulator.
As recently as November 2020 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommended the government not use reinsurance pools to subsidise disaster insurance in northern Australia.
“There do not appear to be issues with the availability of reinsurance to cover natural catastrophes for home, contents or strata insurance in Australia,” it said.
The ACCC noted a reinsurance pool is more likely to be used to “improve affordability” – by subsidising the insurance industry – rather than improve availability of insurance.
“The costs of providing a subsidy via a reinsurance pool can be high and we consider that if there is a desire by government to lower premiums by providing a subsidy, there are more efficient ways to do so.”
At the time, the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) opposed the establishment of a reinsurance pool, arguing it would “create a significant financial liability for government, provide only marginal – if any – benefit to consumers, and potentially disincentivise investment in critically-needed disaster mitigation”.
“Insurance premiums in Northern Australia are high for some policyholders simply because the risk is known to be high and remains unmitigated,” it said.
On Tuesday, the ICA had a change of heart, welcoming the $10bn commitment to underwrite cyclone and cyclone-related flood cover.
The ICA chief executive, Andrew Hall, said the industry “has done considerable work on the key fundamentals of a public reinsurance scheme, and if properly designed and implemented a reinsurance pool can put downward pressure on premium costs”.
Updated
So David Littleproud, the minister for agriculture, drought and emergency management, was on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas, and engaged in a bit of back and forth on the India travel ban.
Karvelas grilled Littleproud on the legality and morality of the ban, and especially on the implementation of fines and jail time for anyone who defies the ban.
PK: Do you acknowledge that the decision to criminalise people returning from India is a suspension of one of the rights of citizenship – key rights – which is the right to entry?
DL: Let’s put this in perspective, this is part of the Biosecurity Act, one in which has been in place since before this time last year. One in which has been put in place for extreme times where the nation’s public safety is at risk and that’s when governments use it. The penalties that apply to that legislation have rarely ever really been used. I don’t think we need to conflate the issues here ... in a pragmatic and practical sense ... (CROSSTALK).
PK: Do you accept that it does remove a fundamental right of citizenship?
DL: Part of being a functioning member of society is acknowledging that you are part of a society that has laws. These laws were created by a democratically elected parliament, one in which uses its responsibly to make sure that it keeps its people safe, and when you are in the middle of a global pandemic, the primary responsibility of any government is to keep its people safe.
Obviously there will be people that find themselves on the wrong side of the border when these pandemics start and it is important to understand that we try and get them home as quickly as we possibly can, but we need to protect the Australian population and our country and our island.
Updated
The Western Australian Department of Health has reassured the Collie community that a local man’s positive Covid test is most likely a “historic infection.”
The man, who is in his 30s, had returned to Australia from Poland and completed his 14 days of quarantine in Melbourne.
Although he tested negative during his quarantine, he was tested again as part of Vic Health’s follow-up of people post-quarantine and returned a weak positive result.
WA Health believes the test result most likely reflects an historic infection but out of an abundance of caution has retested the man to clarify his infection status.
As a precaution, the man’s three closest contacts have been asked to isolate pending further test results, including antibody tests, which are expected back tomorrow.
We are asking the community not to panic and to be assured that WA Health will advise the community if results indicate this is an infectious case.
Updated
The chair of the independent Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC), which advises the federal government about endangered wildlife, has told a committee she is concerned about the government’s proposed changes to Australia’s environmental laws.
Helene Marsh appeared before the committee examining the government’s proposed national environmental standards bill on Tuesday afternoon.
She was asked by the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young if she was concerned that the parliament was preparing to debate legislation “that alters Australia’s environment laws without attached outcomes for improving protection for threatened species”.
“Yes I am,” Marsh responded.
Marsh said the TSSC had contributed extensively to the review of Australia’s environment laws, chaired by the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel.
She said she was disappointed that interim national environmental standards proposed by the government did not reflect those Samuel had proposed in his recommendations.
“We spent a lot of time with his team and we worked very closely on the standards and I don’t think that his standards are perfect but I think that legally enforceable outcome focused granular standards are really, really important,” Marsh said.
“And I am disappointed that the proposed interim standards don’t reflect the considerable amount of work that was done towards outcome-focused standards.”
Updated
Ok, this isn’t technically news, but I did want to share this extremely odd looking photo of the Carters along with Joe and Jill Biden:
We’re pleased to share this wonderful photo from the @POTUS and @FLOTUS visit to see the Carters in Plains, Ga.!
— The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) May 4, 2021
Thank you President and Mrs. Biden! pic.twitter.com/QcA33iUev4
It honestly looks like they’re in a dollhouse of sorts? Is it a perspective thing? I’m pretty confused.
A four-year-old boy has been left with a graze to his thigh after being bitten by a dingo on Fraser Island.
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said in a statement on Tuesday the boy didn’t require treatment.
“The boy received two small red marks and a slight graze to his thigh, but didn’t require medical treatment.
“The parents chased the dingo into the bush, and it snarled at them and didn’t want to leave the area.”
The boy was with a friend, aged five, at an Orchid Beach home on the island, also known as K’gari, when they were approached by a dingo on Saturday.
The animal sniffed one of the boys, prompting them to run towards the house before the bite occurred.
Rangers are investigating to try to determine which dingo was involved.
Residents and visitors to the island, particularly the Orchid Beach area, have been advised of a dingo pack approaching people for food.
It’s believed the dingo pack has been inadvertently or deliberately fed by residents and visitors, and has lost its natural wariness of humans.
People are reminded not to feed or interact with the wild dogs as this can contribute to their habituation and cause them to become aggressive while seeking food.
The incident follows the mauling of a toddler by a dingo on the island last month that left the two-year-old with wounds all over his body.
Updated
Crossbench MPs issue joint call to PM to undo India travel ban
The entire lower house crossbench (minus Craig Kelly, plus two senators) has written to the PM, calling on him to undo the India travel ban and bring back Australians stuck there.
Zali Steggall, Greens leader Adam Bandt, Helen Haines, Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie, Bob Katter, senator Rex Patrick and senator Stirling Griff have all co-signed the letter.
#breaking The entire lower house crossbench (and senators Patrick and Griff) have written to PM asking him to (1) tear up India travel ban (2) repatriate Australians in India (3) build surge capacity for quarantine. #auspol pic.twitter.com/jCEbCRAo0W
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 4, 2021
Steggall says Australians are “dismayed” at the government’s decision, and called for a clearer and more “compassionate” response:
Australians in all regions are dismayed at the ad-hoc nature of the government’s response to Covid-19. We crossbench members are calling for a clear, sensible and compassionate response from the government to the current crisis in India. Leadership is tested in difficult times and it is wrong that the prime minister’s response is to abandon Australians overseas. We stand by each other in a time of need.
Bandt called the ban racist and “possibly illegal”:
The ban is racist, it’s possibly illegal, it’s not based on health advice and it must be rescinded. The Greens will move in the Senate next week to overturn the ban and we believe it will have widespread support amongst senators.
And Haines called on the government to fix its quarantine program:
The government has had well over a year to get this right. What we need are impenetrable, fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities that can manage surge capacity for situations like this and pose zero risk to our Covid-safe community. Treating Australians seeking safe passage home as criminals is not the answer.
Updated
Ultra-low interest rates have lit a fire underneath the residential property market, with the RBA and regulatory bodies alert to runaway house prices.
“Given the environment of rising housing prices and low interest rates, the Bank will be monitoring trends in housing borrowing carefully and it is important that lending standards are maintained,” said the RBA governor, Philip Lowe.
The central bank also maintained its yield target on the three-year bond yield of 0.1%.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year, the RBA has cut the cash rate three times in a bid to support the economy.
It has also introduced support measures, including a term funding facility, which provides banks with cheaper debt funding to be passed on to households and businesses.
The RBA deputy governor, Guy Debelle, is set to speak on monetary policy during Covid-19 at Perth on Thursday and the RBA’s statement on monetary policy is due on Friday.
Updated
RBA tips stronger economic growth but only modest lift in wages and inflation
Stubbornly low inflation has kept interest rates at a record low 0.1%, though Australia’s drop in unemployment and strong economic recovery prompted the Reserve Bank to revise its growth forecasts upwards.
Following its May meeting this afternoon, the RBA governor, Philip Lowe, said the economic recovery in Australia had been stronger than expected and was forecast to continue.
“This recovery is especially evident in the strong growth in employment, with the unemployment rate falling further to 5.6% in March and the number of people with a job now exceeding the pre-pandemic level,” he said in the post-meeting statement.
The RBA has revised its GDP growth figures higher, and now expects a 4.75% increase over 2021 and a 3.5% increase over 2022.
The bank also expects unemployment to continue to decline and hover around 5% at the end of this year, and around 4.5% at the end of 2022.
Once again, Lowe has ruled out a lift in the cash rate until the inflation target of between 2% and 3% has been reached.
“Despite the strong recovery in economic activity, the recent CPI data confirmed that inflation pressures remain subdued in most parts of the Australian economy,” said Lowe.
The latest consumer price index for the March quarter showed the annual inflation rate at just 1.1%.
“A pick-up in inflation and wages growth is expected, but it is likely to be only gradual and modest,” said Lowe.
The RBA expects inflation to pick up to 1.5% in 2021 and 2% in mid-2023.
Updated
India coronavirus cases pass 20m
India’s official count of coronavirus cases has surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, after 357,229 new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to Tuesday. There were 3,449 new deaths, taking the official death toll to 222,408. The true figures are believed to be far higher.
Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.
India reports 3,57,229 new COVID19 cases, 3,20,289 discharges and 3,449 deaths in the last 24 hours, as per Union Health Ministry
— ANI (@ANI) May 4, 2021
Total cases: 2,02,82,833
Total recoveries: 1,66,13,292
Death toll: 2,22,408
Active cases: 34,47,133
Total vaccination: 15,89,32,921 pic.twitter.com/Zr1mimN4vH
Updated
RBA leaves interest rates on hold at 0.10%
The Reserve Bank has announced that it has decided to maintain the country’s interest rates at a historic low of 0.10%.
The Board decided to maintain the current policy settings, including the targets of 10 basis points for the cash rate and the yield on the 3-year Australian Government bond, and the parameters of the Term Funding Facility and bond purchase program - https://t.co/UDaLF4niTV
— RBA (@RBAInfo) May 4, 2021
The NSW government has announced it is looking to create a “medical manufacturing and research industry” in the state.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian, health minister Brad Hazzard and NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant met experts in mRNA technology yesterday to discuss the capacity of NSW to manufacture its own vaccines.
Australia has no mRNA manufacturing capacity, and both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology.
Berejiklian said the private sector, universities and the NSW government can work together to produce “world-leading technology, new-generation therapies and life-changing research.”
NSW is well placed to provide the advanced manufacturing workforce training, the scientific expertise and the physical location of a future RNA-based manufacturing hub.
The state has an established advanced manufacturing capability and is well placed to be the home of mRNA manufacturing in Australia.
Updated
Dr Omar Khorshid, president of the Australian Medical Association, is giving a press conference now, repeating his call for the government to immediately withdraw its threat to jail or fine anyone returning to Australia from India.
Khorshid slammed the government’s measures, saying it was an overreaction and a “slap in the face” for Australians seeking to return home.
I actually think this move is not necessarily heartless or callous but an overreach, an overreaction by the government, and possibly an overreaction due to the media pressure around the loopholes with returning cricketers from India.
Our point is it is unnecessary, a slap in the face for Australians after they were asking for help. Instead they feel as though been pushed away.
Khorshid also said the government should start looking at what a post-hotel-quarantine future looks for Australia:
We believe that there is a clear way forward here. We need to fix the issues of the government have now confirmed are occurring on hotel quarantine to make hotel quarantine as safe as possible to make it fit for purpose so that we can bring Australians home from all over the world without the risk of the virus getting into the community.
In the longer term, there is also the need to replace hotel quarantine with purpose-built facilities and I’ve had a conversation with the minister for health expressing the view today. And I will continue the fight for that.
Updated
Rowena Orr QC appointed Victoria's solicitor general
The Victorian government has announced that Rowena Orr QC will be the state’s new solicitor general.
Orr will take up the role of the state’s most senior legal adviser and advocate after a 20-year career as a barrister, which included several milestones such acting as senior counsel assisting the commissioner in the banking royal commission in 2018-19.
Orr is the third woman in history to be appointed Victorian solicitor general and replaces Kristen Walker QC, who was recently appointed a judge of the court of appeal.
Attorney general Jaclyn Symes welcomed the appointment, calling Orr’s career a “testament to her tireless work ethic”:
Rowena Orr’s impressive career is testament to her tireless work ethic, relentless drive and dedication to justice – attributes that will serve her well as Victoria’s next solicitor general.
We’re privileged to have the benefit of Ms Orr’s breadth of experience and legal ability to advise and guide the government on important matters.
Updated
More now, on the NSW police officer charged with allegedly assaulting a teenager in Surry Hills last year.
The officer was a constable who has worked for NSW police for three years, and was placed on restricted duties in June after police professional standards launched an investigation.
The officer is due to appear before Downing Centre local court on Thursday 24 June.
You can read more on the story here:
Updated
In some interesting but seemingly inevitable news, it appears there’s been an IP application for Fox News International for the Australian market.
There have been rumours for a while that Sky News Australia would be rebranding to keep in line with Rupert Murdoch’s American cable news giant, and it appears that change is on the way.
"It seems almost certain that Sky News Australia will rebrand as Fox News in the coming months, if not weeks, according to multiple sources" https://t.co/kHMK60vcma
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) May 4, 2021
Updated
Gabriela D’Souza, a senior economist at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, has just given an interesting speech at the National Press Club that I thought was worth highlighting.
Her core argument was that increasing migration rates were necessary to Australia’s post-pandemic recovery, which flies in the face of the more conservative outlook that migrants will vaccum up jobs and impede growth.
Some have argued that migrants take away the jobs of local workers, and that particularly following recovery from a recession, that migration must be scaled back. But a study across different countries has shown this to be untrue. In research I conducted in 2019, I found that recent migrants had not harmed the outcomes of local workers. To the contrary, an influx of migrants was associated with an increase in the workforce participation of local workers.
To be able to increase migration intake, D’Souza argued the government needs to rethink the quarantine program.
Purpose-built quarantine seems like our best bet for keeping Australia at Covid-normal, however we are going to have to accept that there is some risk in welcoming back returning Australians and migrants.
This is the new normal.
She said the government should look at alternate quarantine measures, such as allowing returning travellers to quarantine at home. Ultimately, she said, the closed border policy the government has adopted was only harming Australia.
To continue our closed border policy is a threat to our commitment to globalism, especially as other countries begin to vaccinate the populations and open up their borders and welcome migrant.
No other advanced western country has put in place such measures. For many of us, our lives are not completely in Australia. Our loved ones live elsewhere, and we going to see them again.
Updated
Sydney police officer charged with assault
NSW police has released a statement saying the officer involved in the arrest of an Indigenous teenager in Surry Hills in June last year, has been charged with assault:
A police officer has been charged after an alleged assault at Surry Hills last year.
Officers from professional standards command have been investigating an alleged assault during the arrest of a teenager at Ward Park on Monday 1 June 2020.
Following inquiries, a male constable who is now attached to a command in southern region was issued with a court attendance notice today for the offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.
The officer is due to appear before Downing Centre local court on Thursday 24 June.
His employment status is under review.
Updated
The president of the National Council of Churches Bishop Philip Huggins has written to prime minister Scott Morrison asking him to be an “inspirational leader” on climate change and announce improved emissions reduction targets as soon as possible.
Huggins, president of the group of 18 churches that includes Anglicans, Roman Catholics and the Uniting Church, says Morrison needs to back US president Joe Biden by announcing improved targets well before the next major climate talks, known as Cop26, in Glasgow in November.
Huggins writes:
I faithfully urge you to make a humble and generous immediate announcement as to how Australia will help ensure UN Cop26 is the success it must be.
Huggins said he was part of a Cop26 planning workshop with the World Council of Churches, which is an umbrella organisation for about 500 million Christians around the world.
In April Morrison told a virtual climate summit, hosted by Biden, that Australia’s goal was to get to net-zero emissions “as soon as we possibly can” but it should not be done using taxes that he suggested would eliminate major industry.
Huggins says:
Can I urge that you include an Australian announcement not only to match that of the many nations already committing to net zero emissions by 2050, but also make vivid our commitment to real zero emissions asap?
Morrison is a Christian, but his Pentecostal faith is not represented among the members of the National Council of Churches.
Updated
Good afternoon everyone, and before I begin, a quick thanks to Matilda for expertly guiding us through the morning’s news once again. I’ll be here for the afternoon’s news, so let’s get stuck in.
Updated
With that, I shall pass the blog over to the amazing Mostafa Rachwani to take you through the rest of the day.
Here is the full exchange between Cameroonian woman Lillian and Scott Morrison.
She is has begged the prime minister to provide support to her family in the African nation.
"My people are being killed. I go through trauma everyday, everyday. Please, help me!"
— Pablo Viñales (@pablovinales) May 4, 2021
A woman has begged Scott Morrison to help her family in Africa. @SBSNews #auspol pic.twitter.com/tE3BNSrRoP
The cut flower industry says biosecurity in its sector isn’t up to scratch – flower shipments becoming a “super highway” for exotic pests.
Peak florist association Flower Industry Australia is urging the new federal government agricultural biosecurity package to include funding to ramp up cut flower shipment inspections.
Anna Jabour, chief executive of Flower Industry Australia, told Guardian Australia only about 20% of each shipment is properly scrutinised.
While the biosecurity announcement is welcome news, I hope some money from this package goes toward better inspecting cut flowers that come into this country.
The cut flower industry is an exotic pest and disease super highway and while the department claim to inspect 100% consignment, in reality less than 20% of each load is physically examined. It’s just not good enough.
It is a huge concern for me and industry colleagues as diseases that could come in on cut flowers, such as xyella, could wipe billions from the local agricultural sector and devastate local flora and fauna.
Jabour has urged the government to use the funding to help establish compulsory country of origin labelling on flower shipments.
One way to more easily track pests is if cut flowers are added to country of origin labelling. I believe they are currently the only fresh produce in the country excluded despite being one of the highest risk pest pathways.
Updated
A woman has fallen to her knees next to the prime minister begging him to help her family in Cameroon.
This woman named Lillian fell at the feet of the PM today, desperate for help for her family that live in Cameroon. Her partner says she wants to highlight many horrific human rights issues. pic.twitter.com/Cm1MbIu2Bw
— Kath Sullivan (@KathSully) May 4, 2021
Breaking: Woman falls to her knees and prays to the Prime Minister begging he help her family in Africa. Happened after he finished his press conference in Rockhampton #7NEWS #auspol pic.twitter.com/cv7kUa16IS
— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) May 4, 2021
Updated
Now back to the environment protection and biodiversity conservation inquiry, looking at proposed changes to Australia’s national environmental laws.
Environmental groups have told the hearing the standards proposed by the government are a “backward step” and a “lose-lose for every sector”.
Nicola Beynon, of Humane Society International, told senators she was first shown the government’s draft national environmental standards in a meeting and was “shocked” they did not reflect those recommended by the former competition watchdog head, Graeme Samuel, in his review of national environmental laws.
I told the minister [Sussan Ley] I was shocked. I didn’t see any of the standards we had been discussing in the consultative group.
Beynon added that the Morrison government had defended its bills by stating the reforms were agreed to by national cabinet. But she said that process had not been transparent and the specifics of what was agreed between the federal government and the states and territories were unclear.
“It’s a backward step,” Beynon said of the proposed changes.
Giving all those decisions to states and territories but with all the discretion that’s in the current act.
That to us is very dangerous without the standards that Prof Samuel recommended and safeguards with some outcome-focused national standards.
Dermot O’Gorman of WWF Australia said the proposed reforms were a “lose-lose for every sector”.
He was concerned the government had presented its standards and environmental deregulation bills as a first step, with stronger standards to be developed within two years.
I think the risk is this is being conveyed as the first step when it’s the only step the government has been willing to take in seven years.
Updated
The Business Council of Australia told senators on Tuesday that it supported the standards and assurance bill because it would begin a process of reform of Australia’s laws.
“By no means is the work done,” the BCA’s chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.
We’re calling for the government to release a roadmap on how it will roll out the rest of Prof Samuel’s report.
The final report was handed down last year and the government is yet to respond in full to the 38 recommendations.
Westacott said the council members supported a reduction in duplication of processes at state and federal levels and was prepared to work with the conservation movement to achieve better environmental outcomes.
She agreed the Samuel standards should be used as the baseline for new national environmental standards and there was an opportunity to move more quickly than the two years set by the government.
But we do believe it’s essential that the government now lays out a roadmap for how the rest of Professor Samuel’s report will be implemented.
WA premier Mark McGowan to give $2m to support India
Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has announced he will allocate $2m from the state budget to support India as it tackles astronomically high Covid-19 cases.
McGowan was one of the key voices calling for a ban on direct flights from India after a recently returned traveller from the subcontinent unwittingly infected other hotel quarantine guests who were released into the community, triggering a three-day lockdown.
The premier said providing aid was the right thing to do:
It is about trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances, and setting an example.
I raised it actually last week with the other premiers and prime minister. I said we should all do it.
The commonwealth government’s already doing a range of initiatives to get oxygen and ventilators and PPE and the like to India. Considering the risk to all of us, including Australians but also countries around the world, posed by the situation we face, it’s the right thing to do.
It is the humane, compassionate thing to do but it is also a practical thing to do to help everyone.
Updated
The full story on former Test cricketer Michael Slater’s “blood on his hands” comments is up on the Guardian website now:
Former Test cricketer turned commentator Michael Slater has accused Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, of having “blood on his hands” as the Covid-19 crisis escalates in India.
Slater, who has been in India to commentate on the IPL, said in a Twitter post on Monday night that the government’s policy of temporarily preventing Australians from returning home was a “disgrace”.
With Covid cases soaring, flights from India have been banned by the Morrison government until 15 May. Penalties include a hefty fine or even jail for citizens attempting to repatriate.
Slater, who reportedly flew to the Maldives with no way back to Australia after the ban was introduced, said fellow citizens stranded in India were being neglected by their government.
You can read the full story below:
Updated
AMA demands sanctions be removed for Australians returning from India
The head of Australia’s top medical association has written to the prime minister and health minister today, calling for the immdiate reversal of “the order to fine or jail Australians returning home from India”.
The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, has urged the federal government to “commit to the repatriation of vulnerable Australians in India at the end of the current travel ban”.
Morrison has insisted repatriation flights will resume after 15 May, but it remains illegal to attempt to return to Australia if you have been in India in the past 14 days.
In the letter – published this morning – Khorshid said:
The pause in flights from India to Australia was warranted to manage the risk associated with large numbers of infectious people entering our fragile hotel quarantine system.
However, given the exponential growth in infections in India, expatriate Australians there now face a health risk that requires an Australian government health response.
Rapid escalation of community transmission of Covid-19 in India is exposing Australians to a risk of avoidable illness and death, because of poor access to vaccination, poor or no access to healthcare, and the ban on travel to Australia.
The order to imprison or fine those who might breach the current ban is seen by the medical profession as mean-spirited at a time when Australia should in fact be aiding India by bringing Australians home in order to avoid further burden on their collapsing health system.
Korshoid has urged the government to use the two-week ban on flights to ramp up federal-run quarantine efforts.
Before the pause is lifted, hotel quarantine arrangements must be improved to ensure minimal risk of breaches, particularly following yesterday’s WHO confirmation that the virus is spread through air, rendering some current hotel quarantine arrangements inadequate.
Planning for alternatives to hotel quarantine also must be commenced now, so that Australia is not continuing to rely on imperfect hotel quarantine as the pandemic enters its third year.
Updated
Continued from last post.
Brendan Wintle, the director of the threatened species recovery hub, told the hearing he feared if the parliament passed the government’s bills as proposed, with the weaker interim standards, there would be no appetite to strengthen them over a two-year period set by the government to develop final standards.
I just don’t think there will be an appetite for all of the players to actually reform and produce standards that do the right thing by the environment in that time if we tick off on devolution and streamlining now ...
We need that as the carrot at the end of this two-year tunnel.
There had been no evidence in the past five years that the government took the decline of Australia’s wildlife seriously:
It’s actually 30 or 40 years we’ve known about biodiversity decline in this country ... The lack of action is astonishing.
Updated
Scientists have told a Senate inquiry that national environmental standards proposed by the Morrison government are “not scientifically credible” and the lack of action by governments to address the decline of the country’s wildlife is “astonishing”.
The Business Council of Australia wants the Morrison government to set out how it will respond to all the recommendations of a review of Australia’s national environmental laws.
A hearing is under way today examining a government bill to introduce a framework for environmental standards and an environmental assurance commissioner.
These are the interim standards that will underpin a government push to transfer federal environmental decision-making powers to state and territory governments.
But the government’s proposed standards do not reflect those recommended by a review of national environmental laws chaired by the former competition watchdog head Graeme Samuel.
The government standards were leaked in February but only officially published last week.
In the hearing on Tuesday, Craig Moritz of the Australian Academy of Science, said Samuel’s report had reached scientifically valid conclusions – namely that the Australian system of environmental protection was “broken”.
He said interim national standards recommended by Samuel, while not perfect, were measurable, quantifiable and would allow governments to be held to account for what happened to the environment.
Moritz said that was not the case for the “hastily drafted” standards the government had made available for public scrutiny a week ago.
Regrettably the standards that are now proposed as interim standards are not scientifically credible. They will not achieve the goals in the view of the academy.
Moritz added that the government’s push to hand decision-making powers to the states last year, before the Samuel review was complete, had caused “angst” for the community.
Continued in next post.
Updated
Tasmanian MP reportedly referred to police over alleged online dating deception
The ABC is reporting Victoria’s transport department has referred an allegation that Tasmanian Liberal candidate Adam Brooks used a fake driver’s licence to Tasmania police.
This has not yet been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia.
ABC’s Emily Baker reports:
The department confirmed it was investigating the claim on Friday, after the ABC reported a Sydney woman had alleged Mr Brooks showed her what appeared to be a VicRoads licence to convince her he was actually named Terry.
It’s important to note that Brooks denies the allegations, telling his hometown newspaper that he’s been subject to a smear campaign
Updated
This morning Morrison said there was “pretty much zero” chance of Australian citizens being sanctioned for trying to return home within two weeks of being in India.
He asked: “Why have a law if you’re not going to impose penalties?”
Now, instead of saying the chances of the sanction are “pretty much zero”, he has promised they will be “exercised proportionately”
The sanctions are there. They exist. But they will be exercised proportionately and responsibly. Those sanctions have been in place now for 14 months and we haven’t seen the extremes of those sanctions being required.
I think it would be remote, a very remote circumstance, that would see them imposed in these circumstances but they’re imposed seriously because we need to prevent people coming who have been in India during the last 14 days because the risk of infection that they’re bringing is very high. That is the medical advice.
I don’t want to see them necessarily imposed anywhere because I don’t want to see people breaching the rule. If everybody cooperates, then we can get things in a stronger position and that means we can start those repatriation flights again.
I think it hasn’t been helpful for these things to be exaggerated. These powers have been around for 14 months and they have been used responsibly and proportionately and effectively and that is what we are doing now.
Updated
Morrison dismisses 'blood on his hands' comment
Morrison has again dismissed comments from former Test cricketer Michael Slater that he has “blood on his hands” because of his hard-line policies preventing Australians in India from coming home.
No, I don’t agree with him.
I thank all of those who are in this difficult situation for their patience and their understanding. I am working to bring them home safely.
The great risk of not taking the actions the government has taken was that we could see the rate of occasions that we’re seeing come in only increase further and jeopardise our medium- to long-term abilities to bring more Australians home.
This is a decision that has been taken both in the interests of keeping Australians safe now but also to put us in a stronger position to safely bring more Australians home.
I respectfully disagree with the critics on this one but the buck stops here when it comes to these decisions and I am going to take decisions that I believe will protect Australia from a third wave and help me to be able to reach out and bring more Australians safely home from places where they are in difficult situations.
Updated
India travel ban won't be lifted this week: Morrison
OK, we are back on to India.
Prime minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the ban on flights from India will not be lifted at the end of the week. (People began wondering if this was the case after Morrison told Sydney radio station 2GB yesterday that the policy would be reviewed every week.)
As I have said from the outset, we will constantly review this. It is in place until 15 May. That is what the biosecurity order signed by the health minister is. We need that time. That is our advice to ensure we can prepare for the repatriation flights that we hope to start soon after the 15th of May ...
It was a practical decision, made on health grounds. It is temporary; it is until the 15th of May.
Updated
Just ducking over to South Australia for a second. No restrictions will be eased today, and QR code check-in compliance seems to be slipping.
JUST IN: Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford says there’s been around a 20% drop off in QR code compliance, down to 800-thousand check-ins a day, compared with 1 million.
— Andrea Nicolas (@AndreaLNicolas) May 4, 2021
He’s urging us not to be complacent.
No restrictions have been lifted today. @7NewsAdelaide pic.twitter.com/jIuSCZSvVk
Updated
Not going to lie, lots of local cow talk at this presser. Might dip back in when we move on to the whole “Australians aren’t allowed to come home from India” thing.
Updated
Morrison is asked if the next week’s budget will include additional drought funding for farmers after a dry summer in central Queensland.
We have consistently been supporting our farmers through the drought over many years now and just because we have seen rain in many parts of the country, which is welcome, we know there are parts of the country still impacted by drought, including here in Queensland. The flood and drought assistance program ... has been there working with people on the ground all throughout the drought and particularly in the response to those floods we had up here in Queensland.
Those supports will continue. We will continue to stand by our farmers whether it is with drought, whether it is flood and whether there are many other disasters before them. To protect them from the biosecurity risk as well.
Updated
Nope, I wasn’t imagining things. It really does seem Morrison is using this speech about agricultural border security to emphasise his “tough on borders” stance on Covid-19.
That feels like a sort of risky tactic given the mood of today’s political landscape when it comes to borders.
That $371m covers things like new 3D X-rays and screening, boots and paws on the ground when it comes to detection dogs, and others which are keeping secure our agricultural industries.
It is also involving a partnership between the states and territories and the commonwealth because should there ever be a breach, how we deal with any outbreak within the country is also incredibly important as the further rings of containment.
We have seen how important that is in Covid. It is the same when it comes to African swine flu or lumpy skin disease or any of these types of things which can be absolutely devastating to our agricultural sector and particularly our beef and cattle producers that we see on display here.
We are very serious when it comes to border security, on all the elements of border security and I want to commend David Littleproud for the great job he has done in leading the government’s efforts when it comes to border security and keeping our borders strong for our farmers, for our producers.
Updated
Scott Morrison is in Rockhampton for “beef week”, using the livestock industry event to launch his biosecurity funding package for the agricultural industry.
He is stressing “border security” a lot for a man already under fire for harsh border security policies (although, admittedly on a very different topic).
Border security has many elements to it and you have heard me speak about border security on many occasions over a long period of time. A key aspect of border security, how we keep our borders secure, is to protect our livestock industry and how we protect our grains industry across Australia.
A $66bn industry all depends on how well we keep the borders secure from pests and from disease. There’s some 2.5m containers that came through this country last year, 1,000 commercial vessels, 60m mail items that come through, some 35,000 pest and disease detections put in place by our border agencies and our quarantine.
That’s a fantastic job. The risks continue to be out there and they’re ever present and that’s why today we’re announcing $371m in additional investment in Australia’s ring of steel on our border security for our agriculture industry.
Updated
The prime minister is speaking now from Rockhampton in Queensland.
Illawarra to get dual green hydrogen-gas power plant
A dual green hydrogen-gas power plant will be built in the Illawarra region, helping replace the Liddell coal-powered station when it shuts in 2023, AAP reports.
The NSW government will tip $78m into the Tallawarra B project, and the federal government will spend $5m to make it hydrogen-ready.
From 2025, EnergyAustralia will buy “green hydrogen” power – in which renewable energy is used to split water molecules and extract energy – equivalent to more than 5% of the plant’s fuel use.
That is about 200,000kg of green hydrogen per year.
Deputy premier John Barilaro said today the plant would power 150,000 homes at peak times and inject $300m into the NSW economy.
NSW has an enormous opportunity to lead the world in the production of green hydrogen ...
Fast-tracking new projects like these will ensure we continue to remain at the forefront of developing new technology while supporting our existing industries.
NSW energy minister Matt Kean said the project would dispatch 300 megawatts of electricity for use in NSW after the closure of the AGL-owned Liddell plant at Muswellbrook in the Upper Hunter.
EnergyAustralia said it would study the potential to upgrade Tallawarra B so its future fuel mix could incorporate more green hydrogen.
Federal energy minister Angus Taylor welcomed the announcement, saying it marked “the first dispatchable energy generation project to be built in NSW in over a decade”.
Last month the NSW government announced it would invest $750m over the next decade to encourage industries to lower emissions.
Of this, NSW will spend $50m over 10 years to develop the green hydrogen sector and guarantee the industry access to cheap renewables.
The state is pursuing a net zero target by 2050.
Updated
Victorian Labor preselections begin today.
Preselections for Labor's safe federal seats in Victoria - including new seat of Hawke - open at 12pm today and close at 10am on Friday. Anthony Albanese has vowed to protect sitting MPs but the national executive will hold a ballot if required on Friday at 2pm. #auspol #springst
— Tom Minear (@tminear) May 4, 2021
Updated
Things I’m obsessed with from the video Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk just posted:
- How long it takes her to realise she has started recording
- The fact that it’s clearly all filmed on the front camera and she is just twisting her arm around.
- The terrible framing on every shot.
- The fact that she is on a boat with some nice teachers for some reason.
- The fact that the people she is interviewing seem so surprised to be being filmed by the premier.
- The people waving from the top and then taking the opportunity to ask for a new road in their estate.
- Palaszczuk telling them to take up the road situation with the council.
- And most of all, the fact that this is all captioned so a media adviser had to sit down and edit it all together but didn’t cut out the first few weird seconds.
This video has singlehandedly made my whole morning. I love it.
Meeting people on the Thomson River Sunset Cruise pic.twitter.com/bO89zUCiD2
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) May 4, 2021
Updated
I haven’t mentioned it yet this morning (no doubt due to my city-slicker bias) but the big government announcement today is a $370m biosecurity plan to help protect Australia’s agriculture sector.
This comes as Queensland kicks off “beef week”, which is apparently a thing. On Seven’s Sunrise Morrison detailed how some of this funding would be used:
It does a range of things. It’s another ring of containment ... With African swine flu out of Australia’s borders now, it’s ensuring we have a national preparedness across the country to ensure we can deal with outbreaks because that’s a state-federal partnership.
It’s not about just ensuring our national security, but the pests that can come into the country and wipe out entire industries, particularly like the beef industry. It’s been great to be in here with them, to put greater protection on our border to keep these diseases and pests out for our crops, as well as our livestock industry.
In particular, there is work being done to ensure we’re protecting against African swine flu; it’s because for concern across the agriculture sector, and this means we’re stepping up to that and it seems like the announcement is getting plenty of great support from the other participants here.
Updated
Morrison on Qld deputy premier's c-word slip-up
I mentioned earlier that deputy Queensland premier Steven Miles accidentally called Scott Morrison a cunt during a speech yesterday.
Miles intended to say “what a contrast”, but got the first syllable wrong to great applause from the Labour Day rally crowd.
Scott Morrison’s in town, he’s holding $5,000-a-seat fundraiser, think about that ...
Albo’s [Anthony Albanese] here with us at Labour Day while Scott Morrison’s charging $5,000 a head to have dinner with him.
What a cun ... contrast.
Well, the prime minister has responded with an equally funny retort telling Seven’s Sunrise that was watching Shrek.
This bloke has a bit of form to defend his own thing. He should step up the responsibility of his position.
For the record, I was at home watching Shrek the musical; there was no events that night. He can’t even get that bit right.
I feel like there is a “get out of my swamp” joke in here somewhere, but I just can’t quite find it. (Tweet me @MatildaBoseley if you can think of one.)
Here is the video, by the way.
**UNCENSORED VERSION**
— 10 News First Queensland (@10NewsFirstQLD) May 3, 2021
Here's the unbleeped version of the above video. pic.twitter.com/2bnsDW43at
Updated
PM responds to question on Tamil asylum-seeker family
Gosh! The prime minister has been speaking to so many media outlets today I can barely keep up. (Only yesterday I was complaining he only did one softball interview with 2GB.) I note he still opted to avoid being interviewed by Michael Rowland on ABC News Breakfast.
Scott Morrison is in Rockhampton today, just 200km from Biloela, the home town of a Tamil asylum-seeker family being held in detention on Christmas Island.
The prime minister has told ABC radio Australia is one of the most welcoming countries for refugees and our standing as a “generous country” was intact as the court process deciding the family’s fate continues.
We’ve been taking people out of camps at a per capita rate second only to Canada ... and so Australia is a generous country, but we do it through a proper process ...
We don’t do it through illegal entry into Australia.
There’s a legal process in Australia, there are policies in Australia, and we don’t customise those for any one individual.
Updated
Labor is in a slightly tricky situation when it comes to India because throughout the pandemic it has always backed moves by the government that are supported by health advice.
The India travel ban is supported by health advice. But the criminalisation of those returning from India ... well that’s much more complicated, and wasn’t directly recommended by health authorities.
So now Anthony Albanese has the job of criticising the government’s action without undermining the chief health officer, Prof Paul Kelly.
A reporter tried to pin him down on this, asking: “Do you support the travel ban? Yes or no?”
Albanese:
We support medical advice, but the travel ban is on commercial flights. We’ve supported that – that has occurred in the United States and has occurred at the UK and across a range of countries.
What we say, though, is that the government put in place mechanisms so that they can get Australians home. When there was a travel ban from China, the Australian government chartered aircraft to get people back from Wuhan ...
The government has done nothing to put in place those measures. What they have done is threaten people and then withdraw the threat and say, it was just a bit of rhetoric and I don’t think there is any chance of it being implemented or – in the prime minister’s own words – pretty much zero chance of its own policy being implemented.
Updated
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has doubled down on his calls for the government to establish federal quarantine facilities:
I stood last June and July and said that we should be using every asset at our disposal, including our air force assets. It’s alright for ministers to take planes to Europe, to travel around and to try to get votes, but we can’t use those assets to bring Australians home?
We have obligations. The Australian passport and Australian citizenship must mean something. And if it doesn’t mean that you have a right to come Australia, then what does it mean?
The government has to explain that and the reason why ... there are issues with regard to bringing people back to Australia, quarantine, and the government’s failure to look after quarantine. It delayed the expansion of Howard Springs for a long period of time.
You have state premiers – including premier Palaszczuk, premier McGowan, premier Andrews – saying since last year about having appropriate facilities.
The [federal] government received its own report from Jane Halton that it hasn’t acted on, and it also hasn’t acted on the recommendations in that report about ventilation systems in hotels and the need to fix that. This is a government that is not fulfilling its responsibilities to Australian citizens.
Updated
This is from yesterday but it’s still hilarious enough to warrant a re-post.
Deputy Queensland premier Steven Miles accidentally calls Scott Morrison a naughty word at a Labour Day rally on Monday:
**UNCENSORED VERSION**
— 10 News First Queensland (@10NewsFirstQLD) May 3, 2021
Here's the unbleeped version of the above video. pic.twitter.com/2bnsDW43at
Updated
Albanese tells PM: 'Do your day job!'
Anthony Albanese is in Mackay to announce Labor’s candidate for the seat of Dawson, but pretty predictably he has taken the opportunity to criticise Scott Morrison on a rapid-fire number of issues.
We need leadership in this country on national quarantine facilities.
We need leadership in this country when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine.
They are things that will keep Australians safe, and what we have in order to hide the failure of the government in those areas is a macho announcement just days ago that the prime minister says won’t actually be implemented, and an interview this morning.
It really is not good enough and I’ve got a message for Scott Morrison: do your day job! Look after quarantine. Look after Australian citizens. Make sure that we fix the rollout of the vaccine. The government has had more than a year to get this right and they continue to get it wrong.
Updated
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking from MacKay in north Queensland.
Updated
While we have a second why don’t we jump back to the prime minister’s comments this morning.
Scott Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise that the government would not jump to conclusions as the defence department reviewed a Chinese company’s 99-lease of the port of Darwin.
With relations between Canberra and Beijing at a serious low, the government has announced it would reassess the national security implications of state-owned Landbridge’s lease.
But Morrison said he wouldn’t pre-empt the decision:
I’m not jumping to the next step ...
This is a matter for our security and defence agencies to advise if there’s been any change in the security status of those port arrangements ...
It is one section [of the port]. It’s not where our military and defence facilities are, that’s in another area..
Updated
BREAKING NEWS: Victoria’s chief health officer is a nerd.
Great day of vaccinations. #MayThe4th see even more! https://t.co/SM3s9k6v11
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) May 3, 2021
(Today is Star Wars day, if you are very cool and were blissfully unaware)
Liberal MPs slam Coalition criminalising Australians wanting to come home
The Morrison government is battling a significant backlash within its own ranks over the controversial decision to criminalise returning to Australia from Covid-ravaged India, with Coalition MPs characterising the move as “extreme” and “heavy-handed”.
Fiona Martin, the Liberal member for Reid, a Sydney electorate with a substantial Indian community, told Guardian Australia the travel ban and related legal penalties were “quite heavy-handed”.
“There are a lot of Australians stuck in India that we should be bringing home as a priority,” Martin said, adding she hoped repatriation flights would begin “as soon as possible”.
The Liberal MP Dave Sharma also raised concerns.
There is little doubt this is an extreme measure and that it is causing significant hardship to the Australian Indian community.
You can read the full report from Katharine Murphy and Sarah Martin below:
Updated
No local Queensland Covid-19, huzzah!
Tuesday 4 May – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) May 3, 2021
• 0 new local cases
• 1 overseas acquired case
• 18 active cases
• 1,568 total cases
• 2,474,437 tests conducted
Sadly, seven people with COVID-19 have died. 1,511 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/XJDSTar73k
Updated
Violent and aggressive parents would face school bans under a law being introduced into Victorian parliament, AAP reports.
The legislation would allow principals to issue school community safety orders to parents or carers who engage in harmful, threatening or abusive behaviour.
The law would also give schools the power to ban parents who use social media to threaten or abuse.
Schools would have the right to stop parents entering their grounds.
Banned parents would still be able to communicate with the school about their children’s education and make arrangements about attendance.
Under the legislation, if a parent did not comply with a safety order the matter could be taken to court.
A parent could also apply to the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal if they disagreed with an internal review of an order.
Acting premier James Merlino released a statement this morning:
No one should be threatened or intimidated at work or at school. That’s why we’re introducing these new laws to protect staff, students and their families.
Updated
Bill Shorten says Coalition's India policy 'discriminatory' rather than 'racist'
Bill Shorten has stopped short of calling the government’s India policy “racist”, labelling it “discriminatory”.
The former Labor leader was asked if he agreed with a headline in the Age newspaper which asked: “If there were 10,000 Australians with white skin, would they have done the same thing?”
It may be a bit harsh in the sense there are Australians with white skin stranded in India. I don’t see it as necessarily being racist – but it is discriminatory.
I was in Lebanon in 2006 when Australia organised a special boat to get people out of Beirut to Cyprus. That is the Australian way, what Australian governments do: when Australians are in crisis, they get them out.
Not only to shut the door – many other countries have banned flights from India, the US and the UK to India included – but to make it a criminal activity is not right. I would not be surprised if the government changed the policy very soon.
Updated
Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten says former Test cricket opener Michael Slater was “saying what a lot of people are thinking” when he twitter accusing the prime minister of having “blood on his hands”.
He appeared on the Today show this morning:
Michael Slater is saying what a lot of people are thinking. We get why the borders have to close. We discussed this last Tuesday on this segment. But I also said they should work out how to repatriate Australian citizens to Australia and keep them in quarantine.
I want to say to the punters who think the people overseas should be left to be stranded: it’s not right. I think Mr Morrison should have created special quarantine facilities here. He’s had 16 months. Michael Slater is just telling the truth.
Updated
PM says chance of sanctions 'extremely remote'
Scott Morrison has continued his “don’t worry about the India travel ban” media tour this morning on Nine’s Today show, where he was asked about former test cricket opener Michael Slater’s comments that the prime minister has “blood on his hands”.
Morrison has dismissed these comments out of hand:
No, that’s obviously absurd*...
This is about getting more people home safely, preventing a third wave here in Australia ...
Every system is going to face its stresses and I’m not going to break the system.
What I’m going to do is take proportionate action to protect the system so I can bring more Australians home and keep Australians safe for the longer term.
The decision to make attempting to return to Australia within 14 days of being in India a criminal offence punishable with up five years’ jail and fines as high as $60,000 has been roundly criticised. Morrison has been going to great lengths to water down this rhetoric this morning.
The likelihood of any sanction, anything like that, is extremely remote.
*Technically, according to health advice given to the PM by the chief medical officer that the policy could result in deaths in a “worst-case scenario”, it isn’t “absurd” at all.
Updated
Turnbull 'can certainly understand' why people think government's India policy is racist
Turnbull says he can understand why people hold the few that the government’s India policy is “racist”, but says he wouldn’t characterise it like that:
I can certainly understand their view. I can understand all of the outrages that have been expressed, but it is not a criticism I would make myself.
My simple point is that every Australian citizen, regardless of where they were born, what their ethnicity or religion or race is, must have the right to come home to Australia, full stop. That is the fundamental point and it is the government’s job to ensure that can be done.
You think about the situations where there have been disasters, earthquakes, civil wars and the length to which ... our courageous Dfat personnel, foreign affairs personnel, have gone to get Australians home. Extraordinary lengths. So we are not actually asking for a lot here ...
This is a bad call by the government, but governments make mistakes all the time. They are human. So let’s not prolong the mistake. Let’s use this as an opportunity to reemphasise the value of Australian citizenship.
Updated
Turnbull:
You can’t live your life backwards naturally, so the prime minister has got to deal with the situation as it is today.
So my belief is that what he should be doing is, firstly, abandoning completely this opposition of finding or jailing Australians who seek to come home. That is appalling. He’s backing away from that already, I see.
What he should do as quickly as possible is stop this ban and put in place the facilities to enable people to come back and be safely quarantined. Those facilities exist and if they are not quite up to scratch, well I think people anxious to get home would be prepared to rough it for a few weeks as an alternative to staying in India.
says the government should reverse its ban on Australians returning to Australia. Photograph: Andrew Taylor/AP
Updated
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says Australians must have the right to come home, appearing on ABC News Breakfast to criticise the government’s India travel ban.
Well, look, it must be a fundamental right for every Australian citizen to be able to come home. The... song “I Still Call Australia Home” sounds ironic now, doesn’t it? It has a bitter taste to it.
That is the first thing - Australians must have the right to come home. The Commonwealth has the obligation to make it safe for them to do so.
Now, Jane Halton recommended last year over six months ago now, that the Commonwealth should set up safe quarantine facilities to take account of surges like Howard Springs where, because people are staying in operated villas or little cottages, dongas I think they often call them in the mining business, they are not sharing air conditions. This virus is spread by aerosols and so it is really important to make quarantine safe, that they are not sharing air conditions. We have seen some breakouts in hotels as a result of that. Quarantine is a federal responsibility so, look, obviously the Commonwealth should have done more in the past.
Updated
No local Covid-19 cases in Victoria, and a massive vaccination effort from yesterday it seems.
Reported yesterday: No new local cases and 1 new case acquired overseas (currently in HQ).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 3, 2021
- 6,923 vaccine doses were administered
- 14,325 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/Z7OElyNTxx
Scott Morrison has been asked why Australia didn’t ban travellers from the US or UK despite similar rates of infection during their respective spikes, and if the characterisation of the Indian policy as “racist” is fair.
Morrison’s tactic when asked this is to talk about China, which by the most generous of characterisations is only vaguely related to the issue.
The same accusation was made against me when I shut the borders to mainland China. We all know the wisdom of that decision. Particularly in hindsight, we knew in foresight.
It’s not true to say the infection rate is the same [as the UK or US]. The infection rate is the same – but the infection rate that matters is the infection rate of people who are coming in on the actual planes into our quarantine. That is much higher ...
There was over 80 people alone in the Northern Territory facility; that’s our national resilience facility. That’s the facility we established. It’s an investment about half a billion. The number of places is going to 2,000. This enables us to get the number of case numbers down so we can start getting the repatriation flights out again.
Thus the urgency here – we needed to take a pause to make sure we could put Australia in a stronger position to bring people home.
Updated
Prime minister Scott Morrison has been defending the Indian travel ban this morning, watering down the government’s strong rhetoric from across the weekend.
He stressed to the Sunrise program that it was only temporary:
I would ask them to be patient like everyone else and I should stress ... it is a 14-day pause, as I have said, but also if people have been in other places outside of India for 14 days, then they can return home at the moment.
So this is a two-week pause. This is not a permanent pause. This is not a four-month lockdown. What we are seeking to do here is ensure that Australia doesn’t get a third wave of Covid across the country. That is what we are trying to avoid here.
Updated
New research finds that most Australians fear they won’t have enough savings to comfortably retire when they stop working.
The Australian National University’s centre for social research and methods has released data from a longitudinal survey of 2,460 Australians which found that 56% feared they wouldn’t have enough savings, up from 40% in 2015.
That finding is important context for the Morrison government’s apparent intention to allow the increase in the superannuation guarantee from 9.5% to 10% to go ahead in July. Before that the Liberal backbench – and even the minister responsible, Jane Hume – seemed to be preparing the ground for a freeze preventing increases that are scheduled to take the compulsory saving rate to 12%.
A clear majority of Australians, 55%, think the rate of superannuation payments should be increased from 9.5% to 12% by 2025 – a change already legislated. Another 20.8% said the rate should be greater than 12%.
The findings show 3% of Australians think they will have enough to live comfortably in retirement – a similar level to 2015, 39%.
Report co-author Nicholas Biddle said:
But we have seen a very large decline in the [proportion] of people who said they definitely would have enough money – 21.3% in 2015 compared to just 6.1% in 2021.
The survey also gives a verdict on the government’s decision to remove the temporary $550 coronavirus supplement on jobseeker replacing it with a $50 a fortnight permanent increase.
Most Australians think the rate of jobseeker should be higher. On average respondents thought a rate of $711 a fortnight was more appropriate than the new level of $621.
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Penny Wong has slammed the government’s India policy, labelling it “chest-beating”:
We have supported the public health advice, which means obviously the suspension of flights, and so forth, whether it’s India or prior to that the United States and the United Kingdom were things we supported.
But really, what is the government doing? I mean surely Australian citizenship has to mean something.
We have a situation where Australian citizens not only are prevented from coming home, not only are still stranded in India, but we have this chest-beating announcement about putting people in jail, or fining them up to $60,000.
Now this morning the prime minister said there’s zero chance of these penalties being imposed. Well, we’ve got a simple question, and I think many Australians do too: well, why did you announce it?
If there a zero chance of these penalties being imposed is the only reason you announced it to get a tough headline that’s now blowing up in your face? That’s not a way to handle this global pandemic.
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Penny Wong says she understands why people think government's India policy is racist
Labor leader in the Senate Penny Wong says she can “understand why” some people feel the government policy criminalising Australian citizens returning from India is racist.
Speaking on ABC radio, Wong was asked if she agreed with commentary suggesting the policy was racist.
I can understand why members of the Indian community, and I’ve seen some of those public comments, you know, feel aggrieved.
You know, I can understand why they feel [that way].
We saw dreadful scenes in Europe, we saw dreadful scenes in the United States, United Kingdom, but we didn’t say the sort of rhetoric that we’ve seen [here], nor the sort of announcement of pretty heavy-handed measures in relation to those nations. I can understand why people ... feel that.
I don’t understand why Greg Hunt decided to put a press release out in the middle of the night, with these sorts of threats, which the prime minister now say were empty. I can understand why the Indian community feel as they do.
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Good morning all, Matilda Boseley here and it’s Tuesday, whether we like it or not.
So what’s going on today?
Well the main topic is once again the government’s ban on Australian citizens returning from India.
Yesterday we heard that chief medical officer, Paul Kelly – although supporting a temporary pause on flights – warn the government the ban could cause deaths “in a worst-case scenario”.
Now former Australian cricket opener Michael Slater has added his voice to protests, accusing Scott Morrison of having “blood on [his] hands”.
Slater was in India on cricket commentary duties when the ban was imposed and has fled to the nearby islands nation of the Maldives to try to escape the colossal Covid-19 second wave. He tweeted:
If our government cared for the safety of Aussies they would allow us to get home. It’s a disgrace!! Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this.
If our Government cared for the safety of Aussies they would allow us to get home. It's a disgrace!! Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this. How about you sort out quarantine system. I had government permission to work on the IPL but I now have government neglect
— Michael Slater (@mj_slats) May 3, 2021
And those who think this is a money exercise. Well forget it ... This is what I do for a living and I have not made a penny having left early. So please stop the abuse and think of the thousands dying in India each day. It’s called empathy. If only our government had some!
The potential risk of Australians dying in India has been brought into sharp focus after 23 locals died in one night in a hospital in south-west India after the facility allegedly ran out of medical oxygen.
Shocking footage has emerged from inside the hospital, showing attendants desperately waving towels over patients in a bid to help them, allegedly amid low oxygen pressure in the facility.
The dead were all between the ages of 30 and 45, but local government officials deny all deaths can be directly linked to oxygen shortages.
With that, why don’t we jump into the day. There is certainly plenty to get through.
If there is something you reckon I’ve missed or think should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or email me at matilda.boseley@theguardian.com.
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