What happened today, Tuesday 30 March 2021
With that, I’m going to wrap things up here. Thanks for following along today.
Before I leave you, here’s a summary of the main stories of the day.
- Queensland reported eight new cases of Covid-19, as greater Brisbane continued its snap three-day lockdown and federal authorities declared the city a hotspot under Commonwealth guidance.
- The NSW National leader John Barilaro and the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, called for the upper house MP and former Nat Michael Johnsen to quit parliament, following reports alleging he sought to arrange for a sex worker to visit him in the state’s Parliament House.
- The Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, remained in self-isolation after developing cold-like symptoms.
- The first day of Labor’s national conference took place over Zoom, with the opposition unveiling a new manufacturing policy, and Anthony Albanese being introduced by former leader Bill Shorten.
- Scott Morrison’s new ministers were sworn in by the governor-general, also over Zoom.
- The Victorian government rejected a controversial AGL gas import terminal at Crib Point, in a win for environmental campaigners.
We’ll see you tomorrow.
NT declares Byron Bay a hotspot
With the Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, in self-isolation, his deputy, Nicole Manison, has been providing an update in Darwin.
She says from 4.30pm NT time, the territory will declare Byron Bay a hotspot.
It means anyone who is travelling to the NT from Byron Bay after 4.30pm will be required to go into mandatory supervised quarantine – at a cost of $2,500.
Anyone now in the NT who was in Byron Bay after 26 March will also need to remain in self-isolation for 14 days. They must also get tested.
People who have been in the Gold Coast are now in the NT who have cold-like symptoms should also self-isolate and get tested.
Updated
AAP has this markets update at the close of play.
Australia’s share market had a downbeat day as spikes in bond yields prompted investors to sell equities, while Brisbane’s growing coronavirus outbreak hit Easter travel plans.
The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index closed down 61.1 points, or 0.9%, to 6,738.4 on Tuesday.
The All Ordinaries closed lower by 66.6 points, or 0.95%, to 6,969.8.
The indices rose early but soon moved lower, then extended losses.
The heavyweight sectors of materials and health lost 1.88 and 1.05% respectively.
There were notable losses for the smaller sectors of utilities and energy, down 1.77 and 1.56%.
Deep Data Analytics chief executive Mathan Somasundaram said losses were to be expected nearing the end of the financial quarter, as fund managers tried to lock in profits.
He also noted rises in US and Australian bond yields, which he said was part of the reflation trade. The Australian 10-year bond yield was 1.7%.
Investors expect governments’ reflationary policies, which stimulate the economy by increasing money supply, to eventually lead to inflation.
This has been particularly the case in the US, where investors expect strong economic recovery from the pandemic.
Investors have already demanded better returns in the bond market.
“If yields are higher, bonds become more attractive, which has the opposite effect on equities and other asset classes,” Somasundaram said.
Domestically, Queensland tourism operators’ Easter trade has been hit by the unfolding virus outbreak.
Authorities reported another eight infections have emerged, totalling 15 since the initial case last week.
People in Brisbane are in their first full day of a three-day lockdown.
IG Markets analyst Kyle Rodda said while it was tempting to believe ASX losses may have been tied to the outbreak, higher yields were the cause.
The Queensland doctors’ union has called for a full investigation into how a doctor and nurse at the same Brisbane hospital contracted coronavirus, leading to two separate clusters of community transmission and a city-wide lockdown.
Ben Smee has the story.
NSW Health has provided updated advice for venues visited by previously confirmed Queensland cases of Covid-19 who visited the Byron Bay area.
The following are close contact venues.
Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed must immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days from the date they were at the venue, regardless of the result:
- Byron Bay: Beach Hotel, 1 Bay Street, Friday, 26 March, 7.15pm-9pm
- Ewingsdale: Three Blue Ducks restaurant – Terrace, 11 Ewingsdale Road, Sunday, 28 March, 8.45am-9.30am
The following is a casual contact venue. If you have been to this location at the listed time, you should get tested immediately and isolate until a negative result is received. Continue to monitor for symptoms, and if they appear, get tested again:
- Ewingsdale: The Farm – any other area not listed above (including Poppy and Fern, Wormticklers and other sections of Three Blue Ducks) 11 Ewingsdale Road, Sunday, 28 March, 8.30am-10.30am
NSW Health says:
The fourteen people still in NSW have been directed by NSW Health to undergo a Covid-19 test and to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result. These people will receive regular follow-up contact from NSW Health during this time.
Liberal senator Amanda Stoker, who was among the Coalition women handed additional responsibilities in the recent Morrison government reshuffle, says she is not seeking to run in Andrew Laming’s seat at the next election.
24 hours later and Amanda Stoker has announced she will politely decline the membership push in Bowman for her to switch into the House of Reps.
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) March 30, 2021
That means the rumble in the jungle between her and Senator James McGrath for the winnable Senate spot is still ON. Don your hard hats https://t.co/cxmU4k4Yls pic.twitter.com/LYei3JcWrr
Some of Western Australia’s most vulnerable people are flocking to receive their coronavirus jabs as the rollout begins in remote Aboriginal communities, reports AAP.
About 200 people were expected to be vaccinated on Tuesday in Beagle Bay, on the Dampier Peninsula in the state’s north.
It is the first remote community in WA to receive the vaccines, which are being administered by Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services.
Medical director Lorraine Anderson says the successful start bodes well for keeping the virus out of vulnerable communities.
“We’ve been blown away today by the enthusiasm of the community coming to be vaccinated, and especially the older people,” she told AAP.
“There’s queues of people here wanting to get the vaccine. We’re really excited that people are accepting this vaccine as well as what they are today.”
Tourists and travellers remain barred from entering more than 200 remote Aboriginal communities across WA as part of the state’s Covid-19 response.
But the vaccination program remains a major safeguard for when access is eventually restored.
“I think it’s fairly well-known that people in remote Aboriginal communities have a much higher rate of chronic disease, in particular diabetes and heart disease,” Anderson said.
A thousand doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered to Broome on Friday.
KAMS reaches just over half the Aboriginal population in the Kimberley, and it’s aiming to vaccinate 90% of people in the remote communities it looks after.
Health workers spent about eight weeks visiting remote communities to discuss the vaccine and address any concerns.
The KAMS graphics team also went to work on translating the health department messaging to make it more accessible.
Updated
Liberal MP Jason Falinski is on the ABC with Labor’s Peter Khalil, who has criticised the speed of the vaccine roll out.
Falinksi says:
I mean, you can say a lot about this federal government but to suggest that the vaccine rollout has not been well planned and well executed by the federal government is, I think, a total miscarriage of the facts that are in front of us.
Khalil replies:
This is your responsibility. The one thing that Morrison has actually claimed that they have full responsibility for can’t handball it off, fob it off, throw it to the states, it is your responsibility. You promised four million by the end of March and you have failed? OK?
Updated
When will phase 1a be completed?
Kelly says:
On the phases, we are looking to complete the 1a in the coming weeks, and then by the middle of the year 1b will be completed.
On reports AstraZeneca has been suspended for people under 55, Kelly says Australian authorities are “aware of it” and “looking at it closely”.
But for the moment we are pushing ahead with that same AstraZeneca rollout, and that is our workhorse at the moment in our state and territory clinics.
And that’s the end of the press conference.
Updated
Should states have a unified response to outbreaks, and with the vaccine program rolling out, when will states chose to “stop closing their borders in response to outbreaks”?
Kelly says:
Firstly, as we have said all the way through the pandemic, the public health responses are a responsibility of the states and territories, they need to do what they see fit to protect the populations of their own states and territories. I would beg to differ about states and territories taking different responses. I am actually very much, I very much welcome what has been pretty much the same response all the way through in relation to the events in Brisbane over the last few days. Western Australia has gone a bit further than the others, and particularly in their geographic understanding of the hotspot being the whole of Queensland, but most of the rest of the states have been, have taken a similar approach to grated Brisbane.
On the second question, he says there have been “very frank and productive conversations over the last couple of weeks in relation to how the vaccine rollout will assist us and modify responses to these sorts of outbreaks”.
We are in a situation where we are as a higher risk as we have been since the beginning of the pandemic. We know as we mostly open and there are very few restrictions on our movement, on the things we can do as a society, that means that the outbreaks can spread quickly, and so that’s why that very strong public health response is absolutely crucial at the moment, and the more vaccine that gets out there, the more people that are protected, that will decrease the outbreaks in the spread over the coming months.
Updated
Asked about reports of vaccine wastage, Kelly says “cold chain logistics is a challenge for any vaccination program” and says he’s aware of a “small number” instances but does not have figures on hand.
Updated
First question to Kelly. Why is the vaccine rollout so slow?
He says:
We have a fantastic partnership with the states and territories and that is working very well and has done from the beginning, and I’m not going to call out any particular state or territory in this regard. We are working very closely together on this massive logistic exercise. I will make one point though, and I recognise that this has been said differently in other press conferences today, but from the beginning, we have been very clear from the commonwealth how much vaccine is coming in and how much is being distributed to the places where the vaccine can be given, including each state and territory. We have been very clear in relation to the Pfizer vaccine, because the second dose needs to be given is three weeks after the first, the commonwealth, as part of our responsibility. will be keeping a second dose available for every single person that gets a first dose. There is no need for a state or territory to be keeping any vaccine aside for that purpose, that is the commonwealth’s responsibility.
Updated
Kelly says authorities “will be watching very carefully what happens in Brisbane over the coming days and indeed in northern New South Wales”, because there were confirmed cases that also visited that area.
Kelly says:
Two clusters have been identified in the community in Queensland. There has been eight cases in the second cluster and they are both related to the B1 17 variant, the so-called UK strain which we know isa variant of concern and is more transmissible in the community. We also know that they are likely to be two quite separate incursions of this into the Brisbane community and so at this stage they are not connected outbreaks. Numerous locations have been visited by cases during their infectious period including locations in Gladstone, Moreton Bay regional city council, Byron Bay and Toowoomba.
Due to this increased risk posed by the B1 17 variant and the variance of cases that have been in the community while infectious over a number of days and other factors indicating the risk of transmission, this is proportionate to the change in circumstances and the commonwealth has offered therefore the Queensland government support and assistance as is the case with a hotspot declaration.
Updated
Greater Brisbane now a national hotspot for commonwealth support
The chief medical officer Prof Paul Kelly has stepped up.
He says that he is declaring greater Brisbane area a Covid-19 hotspot for the purposes of commonwealth support.
Updated
This is quite a statistic.
The Labor Party achieved 69.7% of the two-party vote at the 2021 WA election, leaving the Liberal and National Parties needing a uniform swing of 23.5% to win the 2025 election. https://t.co/zfm5dTBFqL #wapol #wavotes
— Antony Green (@AntonyGreenABC) March 30, 2021
We are expecting an update from the chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, shortly.
AGL plans to split business in two amid growing pressure for green shift
Today’s development that the Victorian government has blocked AGL’s gas terminal at Crib Point is not the only news coming out of the energy company today.
As AAP reports, AGL today confirmed it wants to split its business in two as it comes under increasing pressure to move to clean energy.
AGL, which has traded for more than 180 years, on Tuesday unveiled plans for a “New AGL” business focused on low carbon-emitting technologies offering consumers electricity, gas, internet and mobile services.
The other business – dubbed PrimeCo – would continue operating its coal-fired power stations to generate electricity.
AGL has the coal-fired Bayswater and Liddell power stations in NSW, and Loy Yang stations in Victoria.
The gas-fired power station on Torrens Island, South Australia, has also been controversial for its environmental impact.
There are plans to build grid-scale batteries at each site, which will provide clean energy.
PrimeCo would mostly serve wholesale and industrial customers, and be less consumer-focused.
The chief executive Brett Redman said concerns about climate change, shifts in government policy and cheaper technology had changed the electricity market.
He said structural separation would give each business the freedom to execute its own strategies.
The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility’s Dan Gocher was sceptical of the proposal.
He said any responsible investor would surely avoid PrimeCo, due to its coal-fired power stations.
“The demerger does nothing to reduce emissions, but it may appease some institutional investors who have been demanding AGL do something to reduce its carbon exposure,” he said.
The splitting of the business will need shareholders and regulators to approve.
Updated
Greens blame Queensland lockdown on slow Covid vaccine rollout
The Greens are blaming the Queensland lockdown on the slow vaccine rollout and, therefore, also blaming the Morrison government.
In a statement, the party’s Senate leader Larissa Waters said:
The people of Brisbane and Queensland can thank the Morrison government for this lockdown.
The PM promised us that four million Australians would be vaccinated by early April. But with two days until April less than 15% of that number – 550,000 people – have received a dose. In Queensland that number is only 65,000.
The PM must explain why there are still unvaccinated frontline healthcare workers treating Covid patients in Queensland hospitals.
Not only has this government failed the people of Queensland and Australia with its flawed vaccine rollout, it’s abandoned businesses and workers by pulling away the safety nets that have allowed hundreds of thousands to remain employed and kept millions above the poverty line.
By ending jobkeeper the government consigned 150,000 to unemployment nationally, right at the time when the jobseeker unemployment benefit is being slashed to $43.57 a day. The Brisbane lockdown will guarantee that more people will be forced out of work and into poverty.
It’s unconscionable that this government can leave thousands of businesses and millions of workers to fend for themselves knowing full well that their failure to bring Covid under control leaves them vulnerable.
Updated
Handful of Sydney flood evacuations still current
A floods update from AAP:
A handful or residents in Sydney’s north-west are still awaiting the all clear to return home more than a week after being ordered to evacuate amid major flooding.
Large tracts of NSW went under water over the past two weeks as rivers filled by torrential rain broke their banks.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from homes across the state, with Sydney’s Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley and the mid-north coast the hardest hit.
As the cleanup from the widespread flood continues in earnest, evacuation orders remain in place for four areas along the Hawkesbury River.
Residents living in parts of Pitt Town Bottoms, Cornwallis, Freemans Reach and Pitt Town North are still waiting for the State Emergency Service to allow them to return after evacuating on 21 March.
A sewage spill has also kept some people from returning home in Stuarts Point, near Nambucca Heads on the NSW mid north coast.
An evacuation order was issued on 26 March, after septic systems overflowed into yards and streets, impacting 45 homes, police say.
NSW Health deemed there to be a health risk from faecal matter and bacteria in the discharge.
Impacted streets have now dried out and been disinfected, and all roads are open again.
Individual homes are still part of the exclusion zone however, with authorities assessing them before people are allowed to return.
Updated
My colleague Nino Bucci has taken a close look at the experiences of alleged rape victims in the Australian court system.
His piece is worth your time.
- In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000. International helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org.
South Australia records no new local Covid cases
South Australia has recorded no new community cases of Covid-19, with the three infections detected over the past 24 hours contained in medi-hotels.
South Australian COVID-19 update 30/3/21. For more information, go to https://t.co/mYnZsGpayo or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/NtIRmNtFKc
— SA Health (@SAHealth) March 30, 2021
Updated
As we noted earlier, the New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, has called for upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen to immediately resign from parliament following reports alleging he sought to arrange for a sex worker to visit him in the state’s Parliament House.
For more details, my colleague Michael McGowan has filed this report.
Updated
Northern Territory chief minister still in self-isolation
The Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, remains in Covid-19 self-isolation after coming into contact with family members visiting from Queensland and developing cold-like symptoms, reports AAP.
Gunner’s family arrived in Darwin from Toowoomba on Friday, a week after a man infected with the UK strain of the virus started moving about the state’s south-east.
“He’s at home isolating waiting for his Covid test results to come back,” the NT deputy chief minister, Nicole Manison, told reporters on Tuesday.
“The advice from the chief health officer is that the risk is very low.”
The NT declared Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, the Toowoomba region, the Moreton Bay region and Redland hotspots from 4.30pm on Monday.
Another eight coronavirus cases emerged overnight in greater Brisbane, which was locked down for three days at 5pm on Monday to slow infection rates.
Gunner went into self-isolation late on the same day after calling into an NT’s Covid-19 state emergency management committee meeting from another office at NT Parliament House.
“Some family members arrived and he’s got some minor cold-type symptoms and he’s doing the right thing and taking extra precaution here,” Manison told reporters on Monday afternoon.
Manison said Mr Gunner’s family members were also self-isolating and would be tested for the virus.
“Clearly there’s a risk. I think the risk is really small but the fact the chief has some symptoms it’s very appropriate to go and get a test,” the NT chief health officer, Hugh Heggie, said.
Manison said she did not know when the chief minister’s Covid-19 test results would be made public.
Updated
I won’t go through the new ministry again, but the new ministers have now been sworn in.
Morrison and Hurley have just taken a photo with the new ministers, which is to say they stood on either side of a large TV screen, where the ministers’ faces were visible on Zoom.
And that’s that.
Virtually swearing in ministers COVID-style #auspol pic.twitter.com/uDu2ryKqk7
— Paul Osborne AAP (@osbornep) March 30, 2021
Christian Porter, who has been shifted from attorney general to minister for science and industry, has been sworn in.
It is the first time Porter has appeared publicly since he took mental health leave.
For those wondering, the oath is:
I, Charles Christian Porter, do swear that I will well and truly serve the people of Australia in the office of minister for industry, for science and to and that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, so help me God.
Linda Reynolds also appeared for the first time since she took leave for health reasons.
Updated
New Morrison government ministry sworn in
Scott Morrison is currently sitting down with the governor general, David Hurley, to present his new ministry.
The swearing in is taking place online, meaning the new ministers are hoping up their signature to their computer screen after taking the oath.
It’s all a bit weird, but so are the times, I guess.
Updated
Academy apologises for welcoming Christian Porter
This is from AAP.
The Australian Academy of Science has apologised for welcoming incoming minister Christian Porter to the portfolio after copping widespread backlash.
The organisation of Australia’s top research scientists has backtracked on an initial statement, which read: “We look forward to working with incoming Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Christian Porter.”
It described the tweet as “poorly worded” after dozens of people replied by raising historic rape allegations against Porter, which he strenuously denies.
“We apologise. We are deeply aware of the challenging circumstances created by the reshuffle. We will always work to advance science in Australia for all,” the academy said on Tuesday.
The backlash highlights ongoing problems plaguing Scott Morrison after rejigging his frontbench lineup.
Porter has been demoted as attorney general but will remain in cabinet.
Linda Reynolds will also stay on the frontbench – moving from defence to government services – despite mishandling rape allegations raised by former staffer Brittany Higgins.
Morrison has used a cabinet reshuffle to try and lift his government out of a crisis over the treatment of women.
The number of women in cabinet has been restored to seven and a new ministerial task force has been established to deal with women’s equality, safety and economic security.
The prime minister and governor general David Hurley will attend a swearing-in ceremony in Canberra on Tuesday, while ministers gaining new roles will appear via video conference.
Updated
AGL’s chief executive, Brett Redman, has responded to the Victorian government’s decision to reject the company’s proposal for a new gas terminal and pipeline at Crib Point off the Mornington Peninsula because it would have unacceptable impacts on the environment.
At an investor briefing on Tuesday, Redman said the government told the company it was blocking the project based on the recommendations of an independent review by an inquiry and advisory committee.
Redman said:
As you can appreciate, it’s quite a complex decision, we were given a copy late last night, the team is still pulling it apart to understand it.
I’m not really in a position therefore to talk to it directly today beyond acknowledging the decision of the minister, and the detail that has come out that we need to consider properly.
He told investors that in the context of AGL’s broader gas portfolio, the project was one proposal among “many sources of supply”.
“I note that in this financial year alone, in the last nine months, we’ve signed around 150 petajoules of new supply arrangements, and that’s in this financial year alone,” Redman said.
“So, while I had been hoping to have made a seventh announcement today, clearly we will be satisfied with six for the moment, and the seventh we still need to understand properly.”
Updated
Apple will allow independent repairers in Australia and New Zealand to sign up to a new program this week that will provide access to its tools and spare parts, as the company faces heat on the right to repair.
Josh Taylor has more.
Updated
Greens MP to quit South Australian parliament early
Long-serving South Australian Greens MP Mark Parnell will quit parliament early after previously announcing plans not to contest the state election in March next year, reports AAP.
Parnell has served in the upper house for more than 15 years, but says he will retire from politics next week.
The Greens recently chose former senator Robert Simms to be the party’s lead candidate at the state poll, giving him a strong chance of being elected to the Legislative Council.
Simms will now be named as the party’s nominee to fill the casual vacancy caused by Mr Parnell’s decision.
“As I won’t be re-contesting the next election, it makes sense to give Rob an opportunity to make his mark in state parliament and to become more familiar with key state issues before the election next year,” Parnell said on Tuesday.
Updated
The Australian Academy of Science has apologised for this tweet, after members from the scientific and research community questioned Porter’s record https://t.co/QL3SwIT9T4 pic.twitter.com/UjKt0CFUd9
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) March 30, 2021
Hello everyone, Luke Henriques-Gomes here. Thanks to Matilda Boseley for her excellent work steering the ship. I’ll be with you for the afternoon.
You can get in touch by email via luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com or on Twitter at @lukehgomes.
Let’s get into it.
And with that, I will hand you over to Luke Henriques-Gomes, who will guide you through the afternoon.
Updated
Victoria’s latest round of $200 travel vouchers was snapped up in three minutes, AAP reports.
The 50,000 vouchers for travel in regional Victoria were released on Tuesday morning.
It is the largest release of the vouchers, with 200,000 now taken up by Victorians.
The website crashed when the first batch was released last December.
“It’s quite it’s quite extraordinary how quick, whether it’s the 40,000 we had allocated for greater Melbourne or all the rounds of vouchers for regional Victoria – they just go like that,” said acting premier James Merlino.
The scheme was launched to boost the local tourism sector, which was ravaged by the state’s Covid-19 lockdowns.
Each of the latest vouchers involves $400 being spent on accommodation, tours or attractions in Victoria between 6-31 May.
Updated
If you are playing the blog drinking game (which I’ve just made up) it’s time to take a shot because Annastacia Palaszczuk has once again delivered some truly baffling graphic design choices on Twitter.
Queenslanders always step up in times of need.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) March 30, 2021
44,444 tests have been conducted since we identified community transmission on Friday.
Testing is one of our best weapons to stop the spread.
Let’s keep it up, Queensland 💪 pic.twitter.com/Kb3d7Dbz5M
I beg you, if the premier’s social media person is reading this right now, please message me. I need to know if she demands these or if you have just gone totally rogue.
Updated
We knew this already but no new local cases in NSW over night!
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) March 30, 2021
Five new cases were acquired overseas, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,099.
There were 7,303 tests reported to 8pm last night. pic.twitter.com/LExrY8JMI7
The amazing Amy Remeikis is doing the Lord’s work and is liveblogging the ALP national conference, something I have neither the know-how or the patience to do.
And, most amazingly, she is making it really interesting.
Check it out here:
Updated
Victoria blocks AGL's gas import terminal in Western Port on environmental grounds
The Victorian government has rejected AGL’s proposal for a gas import terminal in Western Port in the state’s south because of unacceptable impacts it would have on the environment, including internationally significant wetlands.
AGL had proposed constructing a terminal at Crib Point off the Mornington Peninsula and building a pipeline from the terminal to Pakenham.
The proposal had attracted fierce opposition from local councils, community and environment groups, the local federal MP, Greg Hunt, and the Victorian Liberal and National parties.
On Tuesday, the state’s planning minister, Richard Wynne, said the government had concluded that marine discharge from the project would have unacceptable effects on the environment of Western Port, which is listed under the Ramsar convention as an internationally significant wetland.
He said his decision was based on both AGL’s environment effects statement and an independent review by an inquiry and advisory committee that had received more than 6,000 submissions.
This has been an exhaustive, open and transparent process and this is the right outcome for the local community, the environment and Victoria as a whole ...
It’s very clear to me that this project would cause unacceptable impacts on the Western Port environment and the Ramsar wetlands – it’s important that these areas are protected.
Updated
South Australian government denies party data harvesting
The South Australian government had denied using state websites to collect and track data for the Liberal party, reports AAP.
Recent media reports suggested people accessing government websites were being redirected through a data harvesting platform called NationBuilder.
But premier Steven Marshall said in a statement on Tuesday there had never been any retention of information.
No data is being collected or retained when clicking on the links referred to in media reports...
As NationBuilder has confirmed this morning, ‘this URL is not redirecting any users to NationBuilder’s platform – it is a reference link generated by Mimecast, a website analytics provider and no data is being collected or retained when users click on these links.
Marshall said it was likely that when parts of media releases were copied and pasted into SA government websites, the original links were still being detected by Mimecast.
The premier said to ensure there was no confusion among journalists or members of the public, the government would now use a different system for distributing media releases.
But the Labor opposition called for an independent inquiry into the issue.
Government accountability spokesman Tom Koutsantonis said South Australians turned to government websites for trusted information and had every right to ask what was happening to their personal data.
Updated
This weekly infographic shows the total number of people vaccinated against #covid19 in Australia, as of 28 March. To see a more detailed breakdown of Australia’s vaccination program, visit: https://t.co/3KQOsZOFuB#coronavirus #covid19vaccine pic.twitter.com/eChh9nsMro
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) March 30, 2021
Breaking: The Victorian government has blocked AGL's plans for a gas import terminal at Crib Point in Western Port because it would have "unacceptable effects on the environment". @theheraldsun #auspol #springst
— Tom Minear (@tminear) March 30, 2021
Albanese:
We are going to invest in Australian workers and Australian skills, a new era of national reconstruction to achieve our potential, a country that makes things and creates better jobs to go with them.
Victory over the pandemic followed by victory for those whose sacrifices made it possible.
This new platform that will be considered by our delegates reflects many things that I know to be true – my unwavering belief in Australians, my respect for the frontline workers, underpaid and undervalued, who endured so much to keep our country safe, the nurses, the aged care workers, the childcare workers, the retail workers, the cleaners, the truckies, the public servants and those in emergency services and more.
I am determined to repay them with a better future, but words, of course, aren’t enough. So let’s win the next election and give Australians a government that’s on their side, a government that believes in their capacity to build a stronger, more secure nation.
Updated
Anthony Albanese is going hard on the election pitch, and is also speaking in extremely long sentences:
Unlike [the Liberals], we refuse to accept that the world before the pandemic, with all its imperfections, is the best our nation can do, because the pandemic laid bare some unacceptable truths, about an aged care system in crisis, about millions of Australians in jobs that simply aren’t safe or secure, millions more in jobs that don’t pay enough or have enough hours, women’s voices going unheard, a voice for First Nations people being denied, and the realities of climate change being ignored.
A government so addicted to marketing spin that it is now spinning itself and the country into the ground. They have no plan for the future, none.
My question for the country is this: after such a year of sacrifice, is this all they can offer us in return? Labor will offer more. We will say to Australians, we are on your side.
Updated
Anthony Albanese addresses ALP conference
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking now at the ALP conference in Sydney.
He will officially launch his proposed $15bn kitty to drive pandemic recovery and bring manufacturing jobs back home.
I have the feeling this is going to be very dull but I shall bring you the best bits.
Updated
Dark Mofo may be replaced by Blak Mofo in 2022 – reports
Reports are emerging from Hobart that next year’s controversial arts festival Dark Mofo may not go ahead.
The Mercury is reporting that following the furore caused by Spanish artist Santiago Sierra – who was calling for First Nations people to donate their blood into which a Union Jack flag was to be immersed – the festival’s organisers, the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), are pulling the plug for the 2022 event and replacing it with an all-Indigenous event called Blak Mofo.
Authorities from the museum and festival have yet to confirm the rumours, which the Mercury says were outlined in an email sent to staff on Monday.
The Guardian is seeking comment from MONA owner David Walsh and Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael.
Updated
Infected male entertainer visited Gold Coast aged care home
One point from that press conference that’s worth highlighting again is one of the five new cases from the Byron Bay hen’s cases was a man who has since visited an aged care home in the Gold Coast.
He was reportedly the entertainer at the party.
Palasczcuk says all residents of the home had been vaccinated with at least one dose, but the staff had not:
One of the positive cases in that second cluster attended the hen’s party as an entertainer.
And he came back and he lives in the Gold Coast and he works as a tradie, and he did go to an aged care facility in the Gold Coast.
But every resident in that aged care facility has already been vaccinated, had their first dose. I haven’t got confirmation about whether any have received their second dose.
He’s one of those five [new cases from the nurse cluster].
So, we’re working with the commonwealth to respond to that aged care facility. The team down at the Gold Coast are organising to go to the facility today and vaccinate the staff of that facility.
Updated
This is the lineup at one of Townsville’s COVID-19 testing facilities in double speed - just to give you an idea how seriously regional Queenslanders are taking this latest threat @9NewsNorthQld @9NewsQueensland pic.twitter.com/vMnTh2BCdg
— Erin Buchan (@Erin_Buchan9) March 29, 2021
News from South Australia:
BREAKING: Density limits in pubs, clubs, restaurants, churches and cinemas will be eased as planned from midnight tonight despite the growing Brisbane COVID-19 cluster. #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/rGu9fkJbk3
— Mark Mooney (@MarkMooney7) March 30, 2021
Australians stranded overseas due to strict caps on quarantine spaces have filed a petition against the Australian government to the United Nations’ human rights committee in Geneva.
The group StrandedAussies.org is claiming that Australian government has “arbitrarily breached their right to return to the land of their birth or citizenship”, and that the caps on incoming flights have prevented them from returning, despite the fact that they are willing to comply with all necessary public health measures, including 14 days’ quarantine in Australia.
Their petitions also point out that Australia has breached the UN’s international covenant because they have no effective remedy – they cannot go to court to require the government to live up to its obligations to permit its citizens to return home.
The action is backed by constitutional law Professor Kim Rubenstein, who has provided evidence, as well as Geoffrey Robertson QC, who has given legal advice to the petitioners.
Robertson said:
International law recognises the strong bond between individuals and their homeland and no respectable government would impose travel caps to prevent, for over a year, its citizens from returning if they are prepared to do quarantine. Both our political parties have, in the past, done what they can to help Australians overseas but Mr Morrison is behaving as if in a moral vacuum – he does not seem to care very much about the suffering caused to fellow Australians.
More than 36,000 Australians remain stranded overseas as a result of the arrival caps – limits requested by state and territory governments to ease pressure on their quarantine facilities that the commonwealth government, which manages international borders, mandates. Labor have called for the government to introduce more commonwealth quarantine facilities to help boost capacity for Australians to return.
The Australian National Audit Office is currently examining the caps as part of its audit of the international border management during Covid, while constitutional law experts first raised concerns about the caps in August.
Arrival caps have also proved controversial in other countries. Earlier this month, Israel’s high court annulled its government’s daily arrival cap of 3,000 – far larger than Australia’s intake – ruling it was unconstitutional as it was disproportionate and violated the country’s civil rights.
Updated
Queensland vaccination summary
The next thing to figure out is what happened with health worker vaccination.
Some are blaming the federal government for not rolling out the vaccine fast enough; others are blaming the state government for not prioritising health workers.
Here is what we heard today from the state government:
- Chief health officer Jeannette Young says it was always the plan that once all frontline health workers were vaccinated THEN the state would dictate that only vaccinated workers could interact with Covid-19 positive patients.
- This is set to come into effect tomorrow when the first dose vaccinations are completed. About 89% of frontline health workers are vaccinated now.
- The infected/unvaccinated nurse did work on Covid-19 wards BUT it’s not believed this is where she picked it up.
- Young says she was infected on 23 March during a shift where she had no direct contact with infected people, which means another hospital worker could have had the virus and spread it from a traveller to her.
- The nurse wasn’t vaccinated yet as she was on leave.
- Young says because of the boom in infected returned travellers they had too many Covid-19 positive people in hospital to only use staff who had had a vaccine dose.
- Queensland health minister Yvette D’Arth blamed the slow vaccination of healthcare workers on the slow and stuttering supply of vaccine doses from the federal government. She says they couldn’t use all the Pfizer vaccine doses they were given because they had to save half, as there was uncertainty on if the second dose would be delivered from overseas.
Updated
Queensland Covid cases summary
OK so let’s break down what we just learned:
There are eight new locally acquired cases of the UK variant of coronavirus: five of those active cases are definitely linked to a known cluster, one active case that’s probably linked, and two historical cases that are likely linked to the old cluster.
Rather than there being one large cluster, as was suspected yesterday, there is actually two totally distinct clusters both starting at the Princess Alexandria Hospital in Brisbane. We will call them the “doctor cluster” and the “nurse cluster” for now.
Doctor cluster – likely seven cases (not including original traveller):
- The first person in this cluster was a doctor at the Princess Alexandria Hospital who was diagnosed in early March. It was originally thought she did not infect anyone.
- A man in Stafford was diagnosed last Friday and it’s believed he infected a man in Strathpine. The brother of one of these two men was found to be a historical case. He is no longer infectious but is believed to be the missing link between this cluster and the doctor.
- Two of the the Strathpine man’s workmates were diagnosed on Monday, including one who travelled in Gladstone while infected.
- On Tuesday two more historical cases were discovered and are believed to be linked to this cluster.
Nurse cluster – likely seven cases (not including original traveller):
- An unvaccinated nurse was infected while at work and had the exact same genomic sequences as a traveller from India who was admitted to the hospital on 22 March.
- She worked in the Covid-19 ward on 18 March but is NOT believed to have contracted it then.
- She then worked on 23 March in a non-Covid-19 ward. She is believed to have been infected that night but they do not know how yet. Another worker may have been infected by the traveller and then infected her.
- She then infected her sister.
- Before they knew they had Covid-19 but while infectious they travelled to Byron Bay, reportedly for a hen’s night.
- Five other attendees at the Byron Bay party have now been infected.
- One of those infected was a male entertainer who works as a tradie on the Gold Coast. He visited a Gold Cost aged care home afterwards, but all residents had been vaccinated with at least one dose.
- All have returned to Queensland, one may be in Hervey Bay.
One other case –
- There is one other local case. They are definitely a close contact to another case but they aren’t sure which cluster they belong to yet. (Go figure!)
Updated
Chief health officer Jeannette Young says there may be a case in Hervey Bay related to the nurse cluster:
There’s a case in the Hervey Bay area that we’re just looking at, at the moment. There may or may not be an issue there, but we’re looking at it ...
That’s one of the cases related to the second cluster.
Updated
Queensland deputy police commissioner Doug Smith says while no fine has been handed out, one man was arrested in part due to Covid-19 infractions:
We’ve seen one arrest related to Covid but that person was intercepted for serious criminal offences and during the arrest, decided to cough on police and has been charged with a serious assault as a result of that ...
A number of intercepts, street checks and the like. No fines have been handed out and all of the concerns so far have been reports of people coming out of affected areas and checking on them. In all instance, no reports of parties. We’ve handed out 216 masks to date and we’ll continue to do that and we’ll work with the community to make sure that they continue to do the right thing.
Updated
Queensland health minister says infected nurse hadn't been vaccinated because she was on leave
Yvette D’Ath says the infected nurse hadn’t been vaccinated as she was on leave:
Inevitably, there will be staff who were on leave and this nurse at the PA had actually been on leave for a month was due to get her vaccine this week.
So there is always going to be those on leave, who are sick and for other reasons, hadn’t come forward and got vaccinated yet.
And we are identifying all of those people now so we can get them vaccinated, but irrespective of whether they’re vaccinated or not, we’ll get to that point as of tomorrow that we have to use only vaccinated staff.
Updated
Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath has taken a gentle swing at the federal government, aiming to push the blame for unvaccinated healthcare workers back on the slow national vaccine rollout, rather than decisions made by the state:
In relation to the vaccine, first of all, the amount of vaccine that we have been supplied by the commonwealth did not all arrive on the first day. So it has progressively increased, just as our vaccinations have progressively increased.
In fact, we did 6,004 vaccinations yesterday, so that is a record number of vaccinations and we’ve done 65,129 now. So 65,129 as of yesterday.
So every day, we’re increasing the vaccinations, but, we had to wait for consistency of supply.
Also remember, we also had to keep some in reserve for the second vaccination because particularly around Pfizer, so the majority of all of our 1as, this the Pfizer. So certainly in the six major hubs, they all got Pfizer. We have to hold back enough Pfizer to give them their second vaccination because we can’t be sure and even the commonwealth can’t be sure when that Pfizer delivery is goings to come to Australia, and also when it is going to get out to the individual states ...
Until we get the CSL AstraZeneca out to every state on a weekly basis, we have to be careful to make sure that we manage the vaccines.
Updated
Young has defended the state’s vaccine rollout program for health workers.
(It’s interesting to note that the nurse wasn’t working directly on the Covid-19 ward the night it’s believed she was infected, as was previously assumed. However non-vaccinated workers were still allowed on the ward generally.)
Young says all frontline health workers will be vaccinated in the next 48 hours:
So, as of tomorrow, I will mandate, as I have been saying now for several weeks to the hospital and health services, that only people who have had their first dose of the vaccine, whether it be Pfizer or AstraZeneca, can work directly with confirmed cases of Covid, and that was always our plan.
So, we did set ourselves that target for between four and six weeks to get all of 1a workers vaccinated. We’ve reached that. We believe we’ll have finished that by tomorrow. And then the plan was always, once we had people vaccinated, because we needed to have people available to look after all these cases.
As you heard earlier, we’ve gone very, very rapidly from five cases in just over a month to 78. So, we need staff to look after these cases. And I’m very grateful to the staff who have been doing this work ... And now all of those staff will have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, so it will be mandated that only vaccinated staff can work directly with Covid-positive cases.
Updated
All these clusters are a bit confusing but Young has broken it down a bit:
I have initially got three cases related to the PA doctor back earlier in March [the doctor cluster]. Right?
Then I’ve got an additional five cases that are confirmed that are related to that cluster [the doctor cluster].
Then I have got two more cases that I’m investigating that I suspect are related to that cluster, right? So, that’s one cluster. [These are the two historic cases, likely linked to the doctor cluster.]
Then my second cluster, I’ve got seven confirmed cases related to that cluster [the nurse cluster].
Plus, of course, the original case who travelled from India that has led to that cluster.
So, one plus seven.
Then I’ve got another case that’s one or the other cluster.
Personally, I’m still confused. I’ll bring you a simpler version as soon as the presser is over.
Updated
Young says she doesn’t know which cluster that last community transmission case is linked to but she does know they are a close contact of a previous case.
It sounds like all the information gathering for this press conference was pretty down to the line.
Updated
Young says the two cases under investigation are historic cases that are likely linked to the older “Doctor cluster”:
So, there are two cases that I believe at this stage – but I do need more confirmation – are linked to the first cluster. And they are positive on serology ...
So we’ve just got to do some more work on those two cases. They’re PCR-negative, so they are not currently infectious, but they are reactive on serology and they are close contacts of people involved in the first cluster.
Updated
Five new Covid cases linked to Byron Bay cluster
Young:
Then there are a further five cases that I’ve been informed of overnight linked to that nurse or her sister.
So, they’re all linked cases, and they all attended a party together down in Byron Bay. So, we’re just working through all of those specific details. This is very recent information. So, we have those five cases linked to that nurse, so we now have seven in that cluster.
Updated
Unvaccinated nurse acquired Covid-19 at work, Queensland chief health officer says
Young says it’s believed the Covid-19 positive nurse she announced yesterday acquired Covid-19 while at work:
The first cluster is related to that doctor at the PA Hospital who treated a confirmed case. And you would remember that she acquired it from a confirmed case in the hospital, and also that case had passed it on to another traveller in the hotel when they were in hotel quarantine. So, there were those three cases earlier [in] March.
Then since then we now have these new cases that we picked up in the community. And I’m very grateful to that first young man who came forward and got tested, and the second gentleman – so, they live in northern Brisbane – so, those two cases. Then we’ve had other cases connected to those. And we know they’re all linked because of the genome sequence. They’re all a B117 linked back to that case at the PA Hospital.
Then we have a second cluster, and this is the nurse that I told you about yesterday. So, she worked at the PA Hospital on 18 March in the Covid ward.
But we now have the genome sequence result back ... she has exactly the same genome ... to a gentleman who arrived and was treated in the PA Hospital and was tested on 22 March.
So, after the nurse worked in the Covid ward, she did do a shift on the night of 23 March, so that shift started 10pm that night, she worked through the night into the next day on the 24th.
So, my hypothesis ... is that she has acquired the infection when at work that night.
Now, I don’t know whether she’s got it directly from that patient, because she wasn’t working with Covid cases that night, but we have to confirm that, or whether she’s got it from someone else in the hospital.
Updated
Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young says the two cases under investigation are likely linked to the older cluster:
So, we’ve had 10 new cases overnight.
Six of them are locally acquired cases. Five of them related to the second cluster ...
One, we’re still working out which cluster they’re related to, but we know they are a contact of a case.
So, we have six linked locally acquired cases, which is good – they’re all linked.
Then we have two cases that were acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine. So, both came from the Philippines via Papua New Guinea into Queensland. So, they’re fine and being managed.
Then we have two other cases that are under investigation, so we’re just working through those cases. We believe they’re older cases linked to the first cluster.
Updated
Palaszczuk:
The good news is that these cases are linked and we now believe that there are two distinct clusters.
So, we have a cluster linked, of course, to that PA doctor. And we have a second cluster linked to the PA nurse.
So, close contacts of both of those clusters. And Dr Young will go into more details.
No words yet on how those two under investigation cases are linked to these clusters.
Updated
Queensland reports eight new locally acquired cases of UK Covid variant
Annastacia Palaszczuk is speaking now:
I can report that we have 10 new cases overnight.
Now, eight of these are community acquired cases. Six are close contacts of confirmed cases. And two are currently under investigation, but we believe that they are also linked to the two people.
So, two are also overseas-acquired, and once again coming via Papua New Guinea.
BREAKING: Important COVID-19 information for Queensland. #covid19 https://t.co/efXe1RCpx0
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) March 29, 2021
Updated
Criminal charges against the missing Sydney conwoman Melissa Caddick will be dropped by the corporate watchdog, five weeks after her badly decomposed foot washed up on a beach.
A warrant for the 49-year-old’s arrest had been issued on behalf of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which had laid almost 40 charges against Caddick.
The charges will be formally withdrawn in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court on Tuesday.
The fraudster went missing last November, a day after Asic executed a search warrant at her eastern Sydney home.
You can read the full report below:
Updated
Victoria reports no new Covid cases
Yesterday there were no new cases reported. 12,892 test results were received. Thanks for getting tested - #EveryTestHelps. More later: https://t.co/2vKbgKHFvv #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/0EAzRkqNP8
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) March 29, 2021
Updated
We are standing by now to get a Covid-19 update from Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
That’s due to start any moment.
Foreign affairs minister and, as Scott Morrison said yesterday the new “prime minister for women” Marise Payne has spoken to Sydney radio station 2GB this morning.
She was asked for her reaction to reports that NSW state nationals MP Michael Johnsen had allegedly sought to arrange for a sex worker to visit him in Parliament House.
Johnsen stepped aside from his position as a parliamentary secretary and moved to the crossbench after it was revealed he was the subject of a six-month police investigation into rape allegations made by the same sex worker.
It is completely, absolutely, utterly inappropriate, and it is deeply, deeply distressing for many of us who work and have an enormous respect for the role that we’ve held for so many years ...
We as parliamentarians have to own the problems, have to own the failings, and frankly, we must own the solutions because if we don’t, it won’t change and that’s our obligation.
But despite talking about owning solutions, the minister for women didn’t seem too open to the “solution” to the “federal Liberal MP Andrew Laming problem” that many are calling for.
Laming has been accused of harassing two women online and “upskirting” another. He has said he will not contest the next election but the Liberal party has not asked him to move to the crossbench or resign from parliament, a move that would plunge the government into minority.
Radio host Ben Fordham asked if Payne was comfortable with him retaining his roll with a salaray of “more than $200,000 a year”:
Well, importantly, he has taken responsibility for his actions and there are two things that are happening as a result of that.
The first is that he is [has] been taking time to do the sorts of training and instruction, and awareness-raising that frankly should have been in place before, and that is something that he has decided to do of his own volition, and he should.
Secondly, he has indicated that he has taken a very serious decision to leave parliament at the completion of [his term]. He’s been elected by the people of Bowman, they made that decision, they’ll serve out his term, and then he leaves the parliament.
I think that that is the response to these behaviours but importantly, I hope it shows that others would seek to engage in this sort of activity that is completely unacceptable and that it must change.
Updated
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking now about Labor proposed policy to bring manufacturing back to Australia if elected:
Australians making sacrifices to look after each other is seeing us through the pandemic, but it’s also shown up some of the weaknesses in our economy.
The fact that we’re not resilient enough, that we’re susceptible to shocks, the fact that we didn’t have enough PPE, we didn’t have enough ventilators, there’s a whole range of products that we’re simply not producing ...
[The] Australia’s national reconstruction fund that Labor would create, of $15bn, to partner with the private sector, including superannuation funds, will drive future jobs growth and our economy.
It will be particularly beneficial for our regions. It will apply to sectors across the board, such as defence industry, such as existing businesses that need to transition towards zero net emissions. It will be an important tool going forward to build confidence in our economy.
We know that investment is actually going backwards, that we’re not seeing enough business investment in this country. And we also know that Australia has been fantastic at research and innovation, everything from new solar energy technology through to wine casks, through to wi-fi...
It’s a part of Labor’s focus on jobs, which will be the centre of our recovery.
You can read more here:
Updated
Over the past year, various members of the Redfern Shanty Club found different ways to cope. Robert Boddington, with his thespian’s voice and easy stage patter, gathered a few friends and tried to sing in public places, “just turning up in the dead of night and quietly singing away”. Robin Howard says he got “the shakes”. Emma Norton, a train driver with a soaring Celtic voice, says: “I sang to myself a lot, I guess.”
On Monday night, as restrictions in Sydney were almost completely lifted – with relaxed caps on capacity in bars, and no limits on singing – this devoted and joyous community finally returned to their favourite weekly ritual.
The sea shanty night, which operates out of the Dock bar in Redfern, was put on hold early last year. It had been running for seven years, after being started by the Sydney comedian Carlo Ritchie, who Boddington says “used to sing in Berlin with some mates over a roast dinner on Mondays”, and brought the idea back home.
You can read Naaman’s full (very entertaining) story below:
Updated
Blood supplies low after NSW floods, Red Cross says
The nation’s stocks of blood after running low after widespread, record-breaking floods across NSW saw a drop in donations, reports Tiffanie Turnbull from AAP.
The Australian Red Cross is calling for more people to roll up their sleeves ahead of the Easter weekend, with O-negative bloods donors in particular need.
O-negative is particularly important over the Easter period when supplies are often challenged, Lifeblood executive director Cath Stone said in a statement:
O-negative is the universal blood type and can be given to anyone in an emergency, such as a road trauma, when there simply isn’t time to find out someone’s blood type ...
Only 9% of Australians have O-negative blood, but it makes up 17% of orders from hospitals because it saves lives in emergencies.
An extra 8,000 donations are needed to boost stocks back to normal levels.
We understand so much has been asked of Australians over the last 12 months, from bushfires, to the pandemic and now floods ...
While we’ve appealed for donors multiple times already this year, the number of people responding simply isn’t meeting patient demand.
Updated
Berejiklian has flagged the possibility of stricter Covid-19 restrictions in NSW if cases are discovered.
If you’ve attended any of the venues in New South Wales which New South Wales Health has identified, get tested, stay home and isolate for the full 14 days and, as Dr Chant said, we also expect you to take a second test towards the end of your isolation period to make sure you haven’t developed the disease or been diagnosed in the meantime ...
This all is all to keep the broader community in New South Wales safe. This is to make sure that we do everything we can to not unnecessarily burden our citizenships.
We want to continue the path that we’re on in New South Wales. But I want to say the situation is evolving and if cases are identified in New South Wales, we will have to respond. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that but, given that we did have two infected people at a number of venues in New South Wales, we should brace ourselves.
Updated
Berejiklian 'wouldn't be surprised' if Covid-19 cases are discovered in NSW
NSW is on high alert after two of the Covid-19 positive people in the Queensland cluster visited Byron Bay while infectious.
Gladys Berejiklian says there are no cases identified in the state so far but has urged people to renew their hygiene efforts.
We’re asking everybody to be alert, to make sure you get tested if you have the mildest of symptoms and, of course, if you’ve been to Brisbane since 20 March, please make sure you continue to update yourself on the venues which the Queensland government have stated have been attended by infected persons.
Please also make sure that if you returned to New South Wales [from] Brisbane, that you comply with whatever lockdown provisions are in place in Brisbane. If you’ve come back since 20 March and the Queensland government said that Brisbane residents have to be in lockdown for three days, you hve to follow that here in New South Wales, but for those exemptions that are available.
I hope that we do not have any cases arise in New South Wales but I would not be surprised if we did, so we must brace ourselves.
The New South Wales government is confident that we have provisions in place to get on top of it if any cases are revealed. Dr Chant is in regular contact with Queensland authorities and she will be able to provide an update on those conversations but suffice to say we are expecting more cases from Queensland and hopefully most of those cases will be people in isolation although we have to assume this is an evolving situation.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian press conference
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is speaking now.
Updated
Michael McGowan has more on that news from NSW:
The New South Wales deputy premier and leader of the Nationals, John Barilaro, has called for Upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen to immediately resign following reports in the ABC claiming he had sought to arrange for a sex worker to visit him in Parliament House.
Johnsen is a Nationals MP who stepped aside from his position as a parliamentary secretary and moved to the crossbench after it was revealed he was the subject of a six-month police investigation into rape allegations made by a sex worker.
On Tuesday the ABC reported Johnsen had offered the woman $1,000 to attend NSW parliament for sex, as well as sending the woman a string of lewd text messages and an obscene video while parliament was sitting.
Responding to the reports, Barilaro said he had contacted Johnsen on Tuesday morning and “expressed the view that his position as member of parliament is untenable”.
This is disgusting behaviour and will never be acceptable, nor should it be and I’m calling for him to resign from parliament immediately ...
It is now up to Mr Johnsen to reconsider his position as an independent member of parliament.”
Also responding to the reports, the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the reports were “beyond disgusting”.
If that’s correct I’m absolutely disgusted ...
For many women in public life we know challenges that exist, but when colleagues and former colleagues do that type of thing it’s beyond disgusting. I want people, not just in politics but in all spheres of life, to be respectful of women and treat them equally.
Johnsen stood aside from his position as a parliamentary secretary and moved to the crossbench after the Labor MP Trish Doyle used parliamentary privilege to claim that an unnamed member had allegedly sexually assaulted a sex worker.
He released a statement saying he was “devastated” by the allegations, and that he was “confident any investigation will conclude that I am an innocent party”.
I have voluntarily spoken with NSW police and I have and will continue to fully cooperate with their inquiries.
I am confident any investigation will conclude that I am an innocent party.
Johnsen said “as the matter is with the NSW police I will make no further public comment”.
Updated
NSW Nationals leader calls for former Nationals MP to resign from NSW parliament
NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier John Barilaro has called on MP Michael Johnsen to resign from parliament immediately.
This came after an ABC report alleged he paid a sex worker $1,000 to come to parliament for sex and sent the woman lewd text messages and an obscene video while he was sitting in the parliamentary chamber.
The report comes a week after the Upper Hunter MP went on leave and moved to the crossbench after denying allegations he raped the same woman at the Blue Mountains in 2019.
This morning Barilaro released this statement:
There is currently a police investigation under way which we must let proceed without prejudice.
In light of this investigation, last week Michael Johnsen was removed from the Nationals and Coalition party rooms and suspended from the National party.
Following reports this morning I contacted Mr Johnsen to express the view that his position as a member of parliament is untenable.
This is disgusting behaviour and will never be acceptable, nor should it be, and I’m calling for Mr Johnsen to resign from parliament immediately.
It is now up to Mr Johnsen to reconsider his position as an independent member of parliament.
Updated
With a lockdown in Brisbane and fears in NSW over two of the infectious people travelling through Byron Bay, testing around the country has ramped up.
In the ACT there aren’t that many testing clinics still operating, given the territory has had approximately one trillion days since a locally acquired infection. Looks like that this has lead to some pretty extensive lines this morning.
@MatildaBoseley if you’re interested in what covid test waits are like in Canberra, I waited 5 hours yesterday at the drive through testing centre at EPIC. I picked the wrong day to get the sniffles.
— Pip R (@friggin_pippin) March 29, 2021
Mandatory read for this morning is political editor Katharine Murphy’s analysis on the federal cabinet reshape: “Morrison’s cabinet reshuffle makes women responsible for helping men who should know better, be better.”
Incredible, really, (and yet crushingly predictable, somehow) that Andrew Laming would have the audacity to make an appeal for privacy while finding the time to front his local radio station and dish some alternative “facts” about unsavoury incidents that have forced him to signal time on his parliamentary career.
Also incredible (and yet not, somehow) that the Nationals MP Anne Webster would need to make a formal complaint to the party leadership after being sexually harassed by a male colleague in the House of Representatives chamber (a public place last time I looked) during a week where the government was lurching from disaster to disaster.
You can read the full story below:
Berejiklian 'disgusted' by reports a Coalition colleague sent lewd texts to sex worker from parliament
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says she’s disgusted by a report that a Coalition colleague offered a woman money to have sex with him at NSW parliament, AAP reports.
The NSW premier was asked about an ABC report that NSW National party MP Michael Johnsen offered a sex worker $1,000 to come to parliament for sex and sent the woman lewd text messages and an obscene video while he was sitting in the parliamentary chamber.
The report comes a week after the Upper Hunter MP went on leave and moved to the crossbench after denying allegations he raped the same woman at the Blue Mountains in 2019.
The woman told the ABC she exchanged hundreds of messages with Johnsen after responding to his online advertisement for sex in August, 2019.
Berejiklian was asked about the latest report on Sydney radio 2GB on Tuesday.
If that is correct I am absolutely disgusted ...
For many women in public life when you know the challenges that exist – when colleagues or former colleagues do that type of thing – it is just beyond disgusting.
Berejiklian said police were investigating the rape allegation “so I can’t really say more than that”.
I want all workplaces and not just in politics, in all spheres of life, to be respectful to women and to treat them equally.
She wanted people to acknowledge the subconscious bias that exists against women – “especially those in leadership positions”.
My job and the job of others is to lead by example and to call out what is unacceptable behaviour.
Updated
Not strictly Australian news, but it certainly affects us: maritime passage through the Suez Canal can finally resume after the giant Ever Given cargo ship has been fully refloated.
Navigation in the canal resumed at 6pm local time (4pm GMT and ADET), the head of the Suez Canal Authority said, with livestock ships the first to be allowed through.
At least 113 of over 420 vessels that had waited for Ever Given to be freed are expected to cross the canal by Tuesday morning, but analysts expect it could take at least another 10 days to clear the backlog on either end.
If you want to know more, check out Guardian Australia’s TikTok channel where I’ve broken the whole situation down into bite-size chunks!
Updated
The Queensland premier has been asked if the state government will step in to provide economic support to business during the lockdown given the federal jobkeeper system has now expired.
Palaszcuck didn’t really give a straight answer on this point:
I have been very strong that I absolutely believe that jobkeeper should have been extended, and especially targeted at some further relief measures for especially those businesses in the tourist industry that have been hard-hit by the closures of international borders.
A lot of operators across Queensland, of course, are very much looking forward to the school holidays. And we are keeping our fingers crossed that this current breakout can be contained in the three days, which will allow people to go ahead and enjoy their Easter plans.
But it’s unfortunate, but we’ve gotta keep the community safe. And I think the tourism industry would be very unforgiving if there was a mass outbreak in one of their tourist hot spots. That would be damaging not just locally, nationally, and in the future internationally.
Palaszcuck has been questioned as to why Queensland health authorities could not handle an outbreak of seven cases without locking down the city:
Well, we need to do this because this is a highly infectious strain. And we needed to do it quickly. We needed a sharp, hard lockdown. It worked effectively when we did it last time.
It is a very big and a very tough call, but I have to take the advice of Health, and I took the advice of Dr Young... And her advice was to do this because we were seeing community transmission out there.
And when you have free-flowing, unlimited restrictions in a lot of areas, that means a lot of people gathering, a lot of people meeting, and we needed to contain it quickly, so we needed to do this snap lockdown.
Annastacia Palaszczuk says the number of active Covid-19 cases in returned travellers has dramatically increased:
We currently have 73 active Covid patients in our hospitals at the moment. Sixty-three of those, I’m told around 63, are people who have acquired that from overseas, that have been in our hotel quarantine.
So, a few months ago, we were down to, I think it was two or three positive Covid patients in our hospitals. We have seen a dramatic increase, particularly over the last month, because we are seeing large numbers of returned travellers that are testing positive and are testing positive to that UK strain.
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Annastacia Palaszczuk says the nurse who has Covid-19 worked one shift while unvaccinated:
Well, what I can say is that 41,000 of our frontline health and our hotel quarantine staff have actually received their first vaccine. That’s around 89%.
So, that’s a good sign and it’s just unfortunate in this issue that this particular nurse worked one shift in this ward where she was unvaccinated.
My understanding is that over the next couple of weeks that will be 100% of people vaccinated, and around 7,000 people have been getting their second vaccinations. So the vaccination rollout is going ahead. But, of course, we want to make sure that that particular cohort gets their vaccine as soon as possible.
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The Queensland premier says she will give an official update on Covid numbers at 9am Queensland time – 10am in Melbourne and Sydney.
She is speaking with ABC News Breakfast now.
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The Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Anthony Albanese, is in Sydney today with the Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Richard Marles, and will hold a doorstop at 9:30am #auspol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) March 29, 2021
Scott Morrison’s standing with female voters has taken a hit as the political crisis triggered by the mishandling of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation became the water cooler issue for the electorate, with the prime minister’s approval rating down 10 points in a fortnight and disapproval up by 10%.
The latest Guardian Essential poll confirms Morrison’s approval rating slipped from 62% to 57% in the past fortnight as the the prime minister sought to contain the fallout of federal parliament’s #MeToo moment – with the slide driven by Australian women.
While Morrison’s approval with women voters is now down 16 points since the Higgins story broke in February, the prime minister’s standing with male voters has remained unchanged through the fracas, with only a minor uptick in disapproval recorded within the poll’s margin of error, which is plus or minus three points.
You can read the full report below:
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A huge reward is being offered for information about the cold case murders of a brother and sister in Melbourne’s south-east more than 30 years ago, AAP reports.
Doris McCartney, 71, and Ronald Swann, 69, were found dead in their Keith Street home in Moorabbin on 22 October 1989. Both had been assaulted but investigators have been unable to discover why they were killed.
Homicide squad Detective Inspector Tim Day said police believed that someone had come to the property to see Doris and there was an altercation:
Doris was a widower and her younger brother had moved into her Keith Street home to support her ... From all accounts, they lived a quiet life and police have never been able to determine why they were both murdered.
Police are now offering a reward of up to $1m for information about who was responsible for their deaths:
There will be someone out there who knows why Doris and Ronald were killed and by who – 31 years is a long time to carry a secret.
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Labor is rolling out its plan to bring manufacturing jobs back to Australia today.
Their plan centres around “a national reconstruction fund”, a $15bn kitty to drive pandemic recovery if Anthony Albanese becomes prime minister.
Essentially the government bank would financially support projects across a range of areas such as mining, food and beverage processing, local train manufacturing, car and shipbuilding.
Medicines, vaccines and medical devices, defence capabilities and other projects across software, engineering and robotics would also be eligible.
Today, I’m announcing that a Labor Government will establish a new National Reconstruction Fund – to reverse the decline in manufacturing, and create secure jobs for Australians. pic.twitter.com/ZEzXGicnkS
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) March 29, 2021
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The former secretary of Andrew Laming’s Bowman branch says she is surprised it has taken so long for complaints against the Queensland MP to be made public, given his history of making constituents “uncomfortable”.
Suzi Foster was one of three branch executive members suspended from the Liberal National party in 2018 when a letter they wrote to members calling for Laming to be disendorsed was made public before electorate pre-selections. Foster told Guardian Australia concerns had been raised about Laming’s “erratic” behaviour from 2016:
What has been alleged doesn’t surprise me. I’m just surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
Foster quit the LNP after the suspension but had been a member since 2007 and was originally a supporter of Laming. She said she and other members had concerns about Laming’s “temper tantrums” and had pressed for change.
You can read the full report below:
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New home affairs minister declines to comment on Biloela family case
Plenty of interesting thing from this interview but finally new home affairs minister Karen Andrews has been asked about the Biloela family– a Tamil family with two young children now being held in detention on Christmas Island while legal fights continue over the government’s attempts to deport them.
Previous home affairs minister Peter Dutton has been steadfast that the family cannot stay, but some hope Andrews may take a different approach. She has declined to make any decisive comments this morning:
So I understand all the issues from the community, I understand that there are a range of legal issues that still need to be addressed, and I will be briefed on that particular case, in more detail, probably tomorrow morning ...
There are a significant number of issues, it would be very unwise and inappropriate of me to be commenting on that particular case or any case until I’m fully briefed on all the issues.
You can read more about the Biloela family here:
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Karen Andrews has also been asked about Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming who has been accused of harassing multiple women both on and offline.
While he says he will not contest the next election he could remain in parliament for up to a year with the government unwilling to remove him from the Liberal party – a move that would plunge the government into minority.
At least one female Liberal MP has come out to condemn Laming, and although Karen Andrews sounded deeply unhappy with him, she stopped short of calling for him to move to the crossbench:
Andrew Laming’s behaviour is just not acceptable. It’s just not, and it cannot be rationalised, it cannot be just covered up, and he does need to take responsibility for that.
Now he has said that he will own mistakes and he will take action to address that through counselling. Good. I’ll be looking to see what the outcomes of that are, but I would expect significant changes in Andrew Laming’s behaviour because it hasn’t been acceptable ...
Fran Kelly:
He could sit on the crossbench.
Andrews:
Well, he could probably do a lot of things. I think the strongest signal that he’s given is that he’s not trying to contest the election.
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Part of Scott Morrison’s renewed focus on protecting women involved cracking down on social media abuse – which many feel is a slight cop-out given that the majority of the alleged sexual harassment issues in parliament have not been online.
New home affairs minister Karen Andrews is being asked about this on ABC radio:
The issues that social media presents is not going to be the only solution that we need to look at.
It’s clearly exacerbating issues. Going back to the days where kids were able to come home from school or at least get a break, that doesn’t happen now …
It has an impact on adults as well, so there are some things that we need to be looking at with social media, and its impact on our lives, not walking away from having to take strong action needed to deal with that.
There’s a level of anonymity in social media that is concerning, that people are not making comments under their own name, and they can hide, and I don’t think they should be allowed to hide.
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Yesterday Scott Morrison announced a major reshuffle of the cabinet, with a special emphasis on women in the cabinet (although he actually added just one woman to the cabinet).
Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds were the clear losers in the reshuffle – getting shunted to lesser portfolios – but one of the big winners was Gold Coast MP Karen Andrews, who is the new home affairs minister.
Andrews is speaking to ABC radio now and says the new woman’s taskforce in the cabinet really will make a difference to women in Australia. She hasn’t provided many specifics on exactly how:
Well, there are specific responsibilities in relation to women ...
[There is] a very concerted effort to make sure that the voices of women are heard. And we are reflecting the views of women in the community ...
I think what is really, really going to happen is a stronger role for women in developing policies to making sure that the policies that are being developed across government, and being mindful of the impact that they will have on women.
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Welcome to Tuesday
Good morning, to everyone, but especially to the Brisbane readers waking up in lockdown today.
Matilda Boseley here to make your morning a little less boring and bring you all the news from around the country (since some of you aren’t allowed out your front door).
Obviously, Queensland is top of mind today. We are likely to have an update on the overnight Covid-19 numbers sometime this morning, which should give us a sense of how likely the lockdown is to continue – although we won’t get any official word until tomorrow.
It’s likely the role the federal government’s slow vaccination rollout played in the outbreak will come to the fore – one of the more worrying community infections in the outbreak is from an unvaccinated nurse working at a Covid-19 ward in a Brisbane hospital.
Yesterday premier Annastacia Palaszczuk took a subtle swipe at the federal government, saying local outbreaks and lockdowns were going to be part of the Australian way of life until everyone was vaccinated:
It is very important that the vaccination rollout continues and that people continue to book in with their GPs, especially those GPs that are administering the vaccine.
But until we have the population vaccinated there is of course the risk of community transmission.
More than 541,000 Australians have received their first vaccines, including 259,000 in the past week, but given that the federal government aimed to have 4 million people immunised by April, people are less than impressed.
This lockdown also came just as jobkeeper support payments ended, so I dare say that will come up a bit today as well.
And it wouldn’t be a 2021 morning without some new news about behaviour towards women in the political world.
(Yesterday I chose to listen to a violent true crime murder podcast rather than an update on the state of the gender relations in the government because it was less stressful.)
Last night Queensland police confirmed they received information about Liberal backbencher Andrew Laming allegedly taking a photo of a woman whose underwear was showing as she bent over in the workplace.
The woman and a witness to the incident on Monday told Nine News they had initiated a complaint with Queensland police.
But police later said in a statement the woman had spoken to them on Monday afternoon and was “not proceeding with a formal complaint at this time”:
Police are in the initial stages of assessing allegations against a man.
Laming claims the photo attempted to show someone trying to fit an impossible amount of stock into a fridge.
Although he says he will not contest the next election the government has refused to remove him from parliament, despite Liberal senator Sarah Henderson calling for it, a move that would plunge the government into a minority.
The backbencher is now on leave and undergoing empathy training.
That might be enough to get us started for today, let’s dive in.
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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