What happened today, Friday 21 May
And that’s where we will wrap things up for the evening. Here are the day’s main events:
- The high court has turned down an application from Qantas workers and unions to hear an appeal over what they claim is the airline’s refusal to pay sick leave entitlements to stood-down staff.
- There were 101,146 vaccine doses in the past 24 hours.
- Thousands of students held climate strikes around the country, the first school strike for climate marches in Australia since 2019.
- The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service says it has to freeze the intake of new clients because it did not receive enough funding in yesterday’s state budget to recruit new lawyers to cope with growing demand.
- A diver was taken to hospital after being bitten on the arm by a shark off the coast of Broome.
Thank you for joining us through the week. We’ll be back with you on Monday.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has issued a statement urging residents of, or people who visited, the outer Melbourne suburb of Epping to monitor for any symptoms of Covid-19.
It comes after the Department of Health picked up traces of Covid-19 in the wastewater around the Epping and Wollert area and after the wrong supermarket was identified as an exposure site linked to a confirmed Covid-19 case nearly two weeks ago.
“While the detections may be due to someone who has had Covid-19 that is no longer infectious continuing to ‘shed’ the virus, it is also possible that it is due to an active but undiagnosed infectious case,” Sutton said.
“This detection is of note because there are public exposure sites in the area relating to the Wollert case, who has been isolating in a health hotel outside the catchment.”
The original exposure site was listed as Woolworths Epping, on the corner of Cooper and High Streets, Epping, on 8 May – a location which is adjacent to other exposure sites. This was an error, Sutton said.
The correct exposure site is Woolworths Epping North supermarket, on the corner of Epping Road and Lyndarum Drive (2 Lyndarum Drive), from 5.40pm to 6.38pm on Saturday 8 May.
Anyone who was at the supermarket is being asked to get tested and isolate until they return a negative result.
Updated
And if you’re after some background on what that forthcoming free trade deal with the UK is all about, Phillip Inman has written an explainer for you right here:
Australia in 'sprint to the finish line' on UK free trade deal, Tehan says
Australia’s trade minister, Dan Tehan, has characterised the process of the forthcoming UK-Australia free trade deal as a “sprint to the finish line”.
Tehan said his recent face-to-face meetings with Liz Truss, the British secretary of state for international trade, had been so productive that both sides were left encouraged to have a deal in place as soon as possible and dedicated time to finalising an agreement each week since.
“By the end of it, we built such momentum then we decided, well, why don’t we go for the sprint for the finish line,” he told an Australia-British chamber of commerce event on Friday.
“I can’t thank Liz enough for the way that she’s cooperatively just worked to try and get this deal done.”
Tehan said both sides had made an agreement not to get into any of the finer details until the deal was done, but he said he was confident that any concerns UK farmers had could be mollified.
“What I would say to UK farmers is that together the Australian agricultural industry and the UK can work together, I think, to enhance agricultural production in the UK and enhance agricultural production here in Australia,” he said.
“We shouldn’t fear the economic relationship, we should embrace it and we should seek to learn from each other. We should seek to grow agriculture in the UK, and here in Australia.
“We get the partnership right and do it right, there is no reason why we can’t do that.”
Updated
The high court has turned down an application by Qantas workers and unions including the Transport Workers Union to hear an appeal over what they claim is the airline’s refusal to pay sick leave entitlements to stood-down staff.
Earlier today, we reported the story of a former Qantas worker who claims he was forced to take redundancy last year as he was battling cancer after the airline forced him from his sick leave salary onto a jobkeeper wage, and was at the centre of the legal push.
The matter was previously heard in the federal court, which ruled in Qantas’s favour, however the TWU attempted to appeal the decision in the high court because it noted there was one dissenting judge who stated workers in Australia could be denied protections and entitlements because of the decision, and warned about “far-ranging effects … across all manner of leave entitlements”.
The TWU claimed that “some seriously ill workers had their sick leave stopped in the middle of critical treatments and operations, while others have since had to take redundancy from Qantas to pay their bills”.
Michael Kaine, the TWU national secretary, said “we are very disappointed by the high court’s refusal on legal and technical grounds to hear workers’ application to use the sick leave they have built up”:
It is a disgrace that sick workers have had to battle Qantas through the courts to use their leave while the federal government continues to pump $2bn of taxpayers’ money into Qantas with no conditions on how it treats its workforce.
There is a pattern of behaviour by Qantas management whereby it is acting immorally outside the law or on the edge of it. It has denied sick workers their leave, misused jobkeeper and outsourced its entire ground crew, and it has goaded workers that if they don’t like it they should take them on in the courts.
Updated
And with that I bid you adieu. The brilliant Lisa Cox is your blogger for the evening. Happy Friday.
Updated
Slightly weird story out of South Australia, where plainclothes police have been cracking down on QR code compliance, Australian Associated Press reports.
A crackdown on the use of Covid-19 QR codes across South Australia has resulted in a big increase in compliance.
In a week-long operation, police used plainclothes officers to monitor people checking in at various venues including retail outlets, cafes and restaurants.
It resulted in a daily increase in the number of check-ins of between 500,000 and 600,000 to a high of 1.78 million on 15 May.
Police also issued 563 cautions and one fine to individuals and 83 cautions to businesses.
The fine was issued to a person who was operating a massage parlour and came after repeated non-compliance.
Operation Trace was prompted by a dramatic fall in the use of QR codes in recent weeks, largely attributed to complacency with no local cases of coronavirus for months.
The police commissioner Grant Stevens said checks would continue over the weekend and police would consider maintaining a higher level of oversight.
“We know there was complacency and we’ve proven that,” Stevens told reporters on Friday.
“But people have responded exceptionally well over the course of the past week and have done the right thing.
“We now need to maintain that.”
Stevens said if the public’s diligence with the codes dropped again, police would consider re-running the operation.
“We may simply just do it in key locations at key times to keep people focused,” he said.
QR codes allow health officials to quickly trace people who may have come into contact with Covid-19, and are mandatory in almost all SA venues.
The information is only kept for 28 days and is only available to SA Health’s contact tracing team.
SA reported just one new coronavirus case on Friday, in a man in his 40s who recently returned from overseas.
The state currently has five active infections, all returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Updated
This just in from Australian Associated Press, wrapping up the first week of the royal commission into Crown casino in Melbourne:
Crown’s anti-money laundering chief told an independent risk expert the group had a “mindset” and “culture” problem and was “too focused on wealth”, a royal commission has heard.
The inquiry into whether Crown remains suitable to keep its licence for its Melbourne operations on Friday saw the group’s anti-money laundering chief, Nick Stokes, grilled about his first impressions upon taking over in December 2019.
Stokes, it was revealed, aired concerns about Crown’s junket operations and their potential exposure to organised crime and money laundering with the Deloitte partner Murray Lawson.
Lawson, a risk expert, was engaged by Crown in 2020 during a NSW inquiry that found the James Packer-backed group unsuitable to run its newly built casino in Sydney’s Barangaroo.
Stokes told Lawson that Crown was “too focused on wealth and not enough on risk”, according to notes of the meeting read out to the inquiry.
When the Deloitte partner asked Stokes what was the biggest obstacle to change, he said: “Mindset, culture.”
The Crown employee told the inquiry these notes were not a transcript of his meeting with Lawson.
The former federal court judge Raymond Finkelstein QC, who is overseeing the royal commission, then asked Stokes if, at that time, he did in fact believe Crown was too focused on profits rather than the risks of money laundering.
“I cannot say with any certainty that I had thought about it in that way,” Stokes said.
Finkelstein then asked: “Does that mean you are reluctant to answer the question?”
Stokes denied this.
“This is not a conversation that happened 10 years ago,” Finkelstein responded. “And it was an important conversation – but you don’t remember it. Alright.”
Notes from the meeting with Lawson also had Stokes saying his anti-money laundering team “definitely needs to be strengthened”.
But on Friday he said Crown’s anti-money laundering team now had the “foundation of a robust framework”.
Junket operators brought customers to the casino from overseas, in exchange for a cut, and netted Crown Melbourne more than $900m between 2017 and 2019.
However, they exposed the gaming giant to money laundering, with one criminally-linked junket group gambling $20.5bn at the Southbank casino from 2015 to 2018.
Crown ceased all junket operations in November 2020, following the NSW inquiry led by the former supreme court judge Patricia Bergin.
The Bergin inquiry found Crown facilitated money laundering, partnered with junket operators with links to organised crime groups even after being made aware of these connections, and exposed staff to the risk of detention in China.
The Victorian inquiry, set up by the Andrews government, began its public hearings this week.
It has been told Crown lied to Victoria’s gambling regulator about what it knew of China’s foreign casino crackdown after its own staff were arrested overseas.
The Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation looked into the arrests of 19 Crown staff in China in 2016.
All were charged with gambling promotion offences, and remain the subject of an ongoing class action against Crown.
The inquiry also heard a Crown representative was “furious” and threatened to call Victoria’s gaming minister after the VCGLR probed its scrutiny of junket players.
It continues on Monday.
Updated
Quite a funny scene detailed in this Australian Financial Review piece: the reporter went to lunch at an Italian restaurant in Melbourne recently with the former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate. Who should sit down at the table next to them but the Labor senator Kimberley Kitching, whose questioning of Holgate contributed to her leaving, and Martin Pakula, the Victorian minister.
Updated
Trillions of litres of water released into the Murray-Darling Basin to benefit the environment have had “no overall beneficial effect” on the populations of threatened species, according to new research.
In a damning assessment of the monitoring of eight threatened species, the research from Australian National University scientists says the public reporting of the benefits of environmental watering was fragmentary and not backed by evidence.
A “major rethink” of the way water was released for the environment through the $13bn basin plan was now needed, the research said.
Diver injured in shark attack off the coast of Broome
A shark has attacked a diver near Broome, Australian Associated Press reports:
A diver in his 40s is recovering in hospital after being bitten on the arm by a three-metre tiger shark off the coast of Broome in Western Australia.
The man suffered a laceration from the attack while diving 300 to 500 metres offshore at Quondong beach on Friday.
He was brought by boat to Cable beach and taken to Broome hospital, where he was in a stable condition.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development advised beachgoers to take additional caution in the area.
Broome last year recorded its first fatal shark attack in almost 30 years when 58-year-old Charles Cernobori was mauled by a bull shark at Cable beach.
A surfer survived a shark encounter at the same beach weeks later.
Updated
The Victorian government’s $3.8bn overhaul of the mental health system was the centrepiece of Thursday’s state budget, but business groups have criticised the decision to cover part of the ongoing cost of the reforms by imposing a new tax on big business.
Facebook has removed more than 110,000 pieces of Covid-related misinformation generated by Australian accounts in the first year of the pandemic, the company has revealed.
In February, Facebook, along with Twitter, Google, Microsoft, Redbubble and TikTok, signed on to a new voluntary industry code aimed at combating misinformation and disinformation online.
As part of the code, members are required to publish annual reports on how they are implementing the code’s obligations, with the first report due this month.
In a blog post on Friday, Facebook’s head of public policy in Australia, Josh Machin, revealed that between March and December 2020, Facebook removed more than 14m pieces of misinformation related to Covid-19, including content about fake preventative measures or exaggerated cures.
Machin said Facebook had identified 110,000 of those posts came from Australian accounts or pages.
Updated
The always excellent Weekly Beast column is up:
A shot of the climate protest in Melbourne, brought to you by the people at VicRoads.
If you're travelling through the CBD this afternoon, please be patient as @VictoriaPolice manages closures for a planned protest. Tram and bus services are also impacted. Check the @ptv_official app for service updates. #victraffic pic.twitter.com/1bLl7Ux4js
— VicTraffic (@VicTraffic) May 21, 2021
I’m now going to leave you in the hands of my colleague Nino Bucci. Have a lovely weekend.
The climate strike came to an epic conclusion in Sydney, with all the protesters organised to spell out “fund our future, not gas”.
Thousands of strikers had marched through the CBD, bringing the city to a halt amid the driving rain, as they chanted for a cleaner, greener future.
MC and organiser Ruby Bron, from Santa Sabina College in Strathfield, said she felt uplifted seeing all the support for the strike:
It’s truly amazing to see so many people at the rally. We were a bit unsure about our turnout at first, but to see this many people is truly inspiring.
I’m so glad so many people came out and supported our demands for climate justice.
Police maintained a very visible presence around the students as they marched into Prince Alfred Park, with some officers on horseback, watching on.
Earlier, a spokesperson for NSW police confirmed there were “specialist police” present, but did not say why they were deployed at a student protest.
As Bron was speaking, the strikers spontaneously burst into what is perhaps a fitting chant for the day, saying:
The youth are rising, no more compromising.
Updated
Australia has welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after almost two weeks of deadly warfare, reports AAP.
The fighting flared up after Israeli forces tried to forcibly evict Palestinians from their homes in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
It triggered 11 days of airstrikes and rocket fire that killed at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, and 12 people in Israel.
Cabinet minister Simon Birmingham said the truce was welcome news.
He said:
We hope that it endures and we hope that it provides scope for Israel and representatives of the Palestinian people to come back to the negotiating table and to ultimately work towards a two-state solution.
Credit should be given to president Biden and the United States, as well as Egyptian leaders, who have engaged carefully with both Israel and Palestinian representatives and Hamas to get to the point of this ceasefire.
Birmingham urged both parties to respect the terms of the ceasefire and engage in negotiations to advance long-term peace.
Updated
The PM also spruiking today’s vaccine numbers.
A record 101,146 doses of #COVID19 vaccines were administered in Australia in past 24 hours, bringing the total administered to nearly 3.5 million. Our vaccination program continues to ramp up. I encourage everyone to roll up their sleeves and get their jab when it’s their turn.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) May 21, 2021
Note the emphatic last sentence here.
101,146 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the last 24 hours, another record. Thank you to all those who have come forward to be vaccinated.
— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) May 21, 2021
We are encouraging every eligible Australian to be vaccinated as early as possible – it protects you and protects every Australian. pic.twitter.com/2vCMblPr1i
Porter noted earlier that the winning company would need to “show the sustainability of a facility over a decade, over a 10-year period”.
And there would need to be an undertaking to maintain the sovereign capability onshore for the entirely of that 10-year period.
Updated
Porter notes the government has been “speaking directly with Moderna about their potential capacity to establish onshore manufacturing of mRNA vaccines in Australia”.
One of the important points about this approach to market – what makes it somewhat different from other approaches to market of the same type – is that all the proponents who might engage in this process over the next eight weeks will also acknowledge and accept we have already started direct negotiations and discussions with other companies, and that is something that they will be fully aware of as they go into the process.
Updated
The industry minister, Christian Porter, is speaking in Perth about the government inviting proposals from companies to establish domestic manufacturing of mRNA vaccines.
He is asked how long this would take and acknowledges it is unlikely to be less than 12 months.
Porter says:
In the requirement and approach-to-market document I recall the language that is used is a 12-month period. We obviously welcome submissions that considered, on the part of the proponent and the consortia, they could do it inside 12 months. All the advice we had during the period we were having this business case by McKinsey suggested anything inside an end-to-end scalable population scale capacity would be very unlikely to be developed inside 12 months.
If someone thinks they can do it, we are very interested in that ... but it would likely be somewhat longer than 12 months.
Updated
A sizeable climate strike today in the Victorian town of Ballarat.
Ballarat #ClimateStrike @StrikeClimate #FundOurFutureNotGas
— Belinda Coates (@BelindaCoates) May 21, 2021
“What do we want? Climate Action! When do we want it? Now!!!!”#climatechange #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency pic.twitter.com/vdMCd8XCnd
Updated
A school striker has responded to the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, who said earlier today that the environment was her “top concern”.
Ley told the ABC she would “come out on the pavement and talk to the students because I respect the students have a right to protest”.
But I can tell you the last time I did that, in Parliament House, actually, they were surprised at the number of things that we are doing – that we are world leaders in the take-up of renewables, that the contribution we are making to technology when it comes to climate adaptation, hydrogen, blue carbon.
Ley said that “there is no one with more ambition [to reach net zero] than me”.
David Soriano, 16, told me that Ley’s support for new gas projects meant that this was “a big, bad lie”.
Sussan Ley – the environment minister, our environment minister – bears a serious duty of care with concern to the livelihoods and futures of young people like me across the nation.
Through her unwavering support for ... gas projects like the Kurri Kurri power station – minister Ley is demonstrating just how comfortable she is with grossly neglecting said duty of care.
Minister Ley says environmental issues are her top concern ... so long as you continue supporting prime minister Morrison’s policies ... That claim will remain a big, bad lie.
Updated
Big turnout in the Sydney rain.
This. If I hear another grumpy adult say that I am only striking to "get a day off school" I'll show them this. No one goes out in this cold weather for fun, a classroom is a whole lot warmer and dryer. We're striking because we have no choice. #ClimateStrike https://t.co/oGGRaM9TF0
— School Strike 4 Climate Australia (@StrikeClimate) May 21, 2021
Updated
Here’s the scene at today’s climate strike in Hobart.
Good turnout for #ClimateStrike in nipaluna/Hobart today @thecitizenweb pic.twitter.com/oYMJcK9mVV
— Angus Thomson (@_justgus) May 21, 2021
The opposition leader was on one of the morning shows this morning.
Do you say 'SPAG BOG' or 'SPAG BOL'? --
— Wade Shipard (@wadeshipard) May 21, 2021
on @Studio10au this morning, Opposition Leader @AlboMP may have started the the most important #auspol debate yet... pic.twitter.com/D2hyJvnHit
I like this one from Brisbane: “Climate action is punk rock.”
Some of the signs from young crew here in Meanjin #ClimateStrike #FundOurFutureNotGas #schoolstrike4climate pic.twitter.com/GykHnJWGof
— CounterAct - Building People Powered Action (@CounterActOz) May 21, 2021
Annastacia Palaszczuk says she’ll be getting the Covid-19 vaccine after the flu shot.
This update is from AAP.
The Australian Medical Association has urged prominent Queenslanders to step up and get this “damned vaccine” after the premier said she would delay her COVID-19 jab.
Palaszczuk hasn’t spoken to her doctor about a coroanvirus vaccine, but says she will do so after her flu shot next week.
She said on Friday:
A lot of people are getting their flu shots first because we’re coming into the flu season, so I’ll be doing that, and then I’ll be getting my COVID vaccine.
No politician or top-ranking official in Queensland has had a Covid-19 vaccine, including Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young who plans to get the Pfizer jab.
The only other Australian leaders who haven’t got the jab are Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Acting Premier James Merlino, who are both under the age of 50.
However, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton have been vaccinated.
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Professor Chris Perry said prominent Queenslanders should lead by example and not worry about jumping the queue.
He told AAP:
Well the queue is now looking at them and expecting them to get the vaccine.
It’s high time people stepped up, prominent people in our political sphere, prominent celebrities, even though they’re sometimes a bit vacuous in the head, sporting identities, and get this damned vaccine now.
The posters at the School Strikes for Climate are always entertaining.
The tiger quoll is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus Dasyurus native to Australia that has committed to NOT SCREWING OVER the future by sloshing $$$ to its gas industry buddies 🐯#ClimateStrike #FundOurFutureNotGas pic.twitter.com/jAyqCE9gWz
— School Strike 4 Climate Australia (@StrikeClimate) May 21, 2021
Thousands of striking students march for more climate action
Thousands of school students are striking today to call on the government to take more action on climate change.
Defying pouring rain in Sydney, strikers chanted for climate justice and against the gas, coal and fossil fuel industries.
A heavy police presence surrounded the striking students, many of whom attended in defiance of their schools.
Speakers at the protest called on the Morrison government to fund clean, renewable energy and to scrap plans to build a $600m gas-fired power plant.
The strikers are now marching through the CBD, soundtracked by a group of drummers, keeping rhythm with the chants for people power and a clean future.
Updated
More than 100,000 extra jabs administered
Here is the latest vaccines data.
There were 101,146 doses in the past 24 hours. Scott Morrison had suggested we were on track for that figure in his press conference earlier.
It takes the total number of vaccines administered to 3.472 million.
Here's the updated figures. #auspol pic.twitter.com/Lwjp5FOfoa
— Tegan George (@tegangeorge) May 21, 2021
Unfortunately, the figures for aged care and disability are still being presented together.
It means we don’t know how many additional jabs have been given in disability care, following the news only 999 had been administered as of Monday.
Hello everyone and thanks, Ben. Luke Henriques-Gomes here.
I’ll be with you for the next short while. Best way to contact me is probably via Twitter @lukehgomes.
Let’s go.
Updated
The climate strikes are ongoing across the country and this blog is now leaving sunny 23C Brisbane and heading to (probably) cloudy and cold Melbourne.
I’ll leave you in the hands of Luke Henriques-Gomes.
Thanks for your company.
Another top effort from our budding young activists at the climate strike.
We cri everytiem for Camilla Morrone 😭😭😭 #FundOurFutureNotGas #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/ebV7YLc9AG
— School Strike 4 Climate Australia (@StrikeClimate) May 21, 2021
Updated
Remember a few weeks back, when the Morrison government vetoed public funding for the proposed Kaban wind farm and battery project in north Queensland?
It prompted this great Clarke and Dawe style interview with federal resources minister Keith Pitt on Sky News.
This morning the Queensland government has come to the rescue of that project, announcing a $40m investment to upgrade transmission lines.
Shots fired on renewables, it seems.
We’re unlocking renewables and jobs in Queensland’s Far North 🙌
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) May 21, 2021
Our first major investment in the Northern Queensland Renewable Energy Zone will see us invest $40 million to upgrade transmission lines and create 97 jobs for local workers. pic.twitter.com/4HGF91iGfz
Comedian Dan Ilic kicks us off in the Climate Strike sign stakes.
A solid effort, but I suspect we’ll see some better ones today.
Sign Ready (and fixed) #schoolstrike4climate pic.twitter.com/xWGZNB2sfK
— Dan Ilic 😷 (@danilic) May 21, 2021
With authentic looking bum fluff (chest hair) pic.twitter.com/8SxL7VC3nW
— Dan Ilic 😷 (@danilic) May 21, 2021
Updated
In other Victoria vs the commonwealth news, this too comes from AAP:
The Victorian government’s plan to tax Australian businesses to help pay for the overhaul of the state’s mental health system has been slammed by the federal government.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Levy, unveiled by treasurer Tim Pallas on Thursday, will hit businesses that pay more than $10 million in national wages with a 0.5 per cent surcharge.
Businesses with national payrolls above $100 million will pay one per cent.
The tax was a main mental health royal commission recommendation and will affect less than five per cent of employers, Pallas said.
Spruiking the budget on Friday, the treasurer said the tax would ensure the mental health sector gets the funds it needs to commit to “decades worth of work”.
Pallas told a gathering of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia:
A levy is so vitally important. Without it, we know what the problem is, we know how to fund it but we’re not interested in doing it because the political discomfort associated with the levy is something we’re not prepared to bear.
Any politician that squibs it on that basis is part of the problem, not the solution.
But prime minister Scott Morrison said on Friday the impost was irresponsible:
This is the worst time that you could increase taxes on the Australian economy. This is self-defeating.
Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg called the tax a handbrake on the economy, saying:
Labor is whacking Victorian families and businesses with higher taxes.
Pallas said the state approached the commonwealth to incorporate the costs into the Medicare levy, given mental health is a “national problem”.
They had very little inclination in that regard. So we were left, once again, to our own devices.
The tax is opposed by the Liberal-Nationals opposition but is expected to get the support of upper house crossbenchers to pass parliament.
It will begin on 1 January and is anticipated to raise almost $3bn in four years.
Updated
From Australian Associated Press:
Victoria has hit a snag over its Covid-19 quarantine facility proposal, with the commonwealth preferring Avalon as the site.
State treasurer Tim Pallas has revealed state and federal governments are yet to agree on the site.
The Victorian government has proposed the commonwealth fund a $200 million facility at Mickleham, north of Melbourne.
The state government would contribute $15 million to design the new facility and would operate it.
Prime minister Scott Morrison has said repeatedly the Victorian proposal is comprehensive.
A site at Avalon airport near Geelong is the state government’s second choice, but Pallas has revealed the commonwealth wants the facility built there.
“We prefer Mickleham, the commonwealth have made it clear their preference is Avalon,” Pallas told 3AW.
“So we’re trying to work through that - we’re trying to work through whether or not this is in substitution or replacement of our existing effort.”
On Tuesday, Avalon Airport executive chairman David Fox again spruiked for the quarantine facility, saying it would be a “piece of cake” to build a facility there within six months, potentially for less than $100 million.
He speculated Avalon’s interest was being hamstrung by the Fox family’s ties to the Victorian government.
“Maybe it’s the politics that’s [causing] delays at the moment, but we’re certainly ready to put our hand up,” Fox said.
Victoria has gone 84 days without a new local Covid-19 infection.
Updated
Back to actual news, and the climate strike in Sydney is under way, as are events across the country.
Numbers not likely to top the massive pre-pandemic events in 2019, but it already looks like significant turnout. It’s not like we’ve solved the issue in the meantime!
#schoolstrike4climate on Broadway in Sydney pic.twitter.com/WCg6RPMZkz
— Jess Husband (@Globaliz) May 21, 2021
Updated
OK, as promised. If you can beat this for Friday lunch, holler @BenSmee on Twitter.
Lunch pic.twitter.com/IRZsOd9nlL
— Ben Smee (@BenSmee) May 21, 2021
Updated
Thanks to Naaman Zhou for keeping us in the loop this morning.
As promised, blogging from the banks of the Brown Snake in Brisbane, this is Ben Smee and I’ll be your blog companion for as long as you can stand me.
A special hello to the climate strikers, who are already gathering across the country ready to, once again, take out their frustrations with our policymakers in the best way possible - with brilliantly witty signs and the sort of chutzpah that makes me think the world will might actually be okay in their hands.
I’ve just re-heated last night’s ramen (pictures to follow). On we go.
Updated
With that, I’ll be handing over to my colleague Ben Smee.
Morrison condemns Victoria over tax hike on business
The strangest post budget sell in recent memory continues, with Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg in Tasmania supposedly talking all things budget, but mostly talking all things tax.
The Victorian budget has given both Morrison and Frydenberg a spring in their step - they want the coming election to be all about tax, which is a much more comfortable subject for them, especially when compared to the fact that most of the spend in the budget is coming from borrowings.
So the Victorian budget’s payroll tax, which is being used to pay for its record spend on mental health, is just ballast for the fight the Coalition wants to have over the next year. And Scott Morrison, he of the “responsible spending” mantra, is now trying to explain why actually paying for things from the budget, rather than debt, is in fact not responsible.
We are officially in the twilight zone.
Morrison:
This is the worst time that you could increase taxes on the Australian economy. This is self-defeating. To put up taxes on Australian businesses looking to employ people as we come out on a Covid pandemic and recession is irresponsible.
It slows growth and defeats the purpose. If you put up taxes when an economy and businesses are looking to get up on their feet, it just knocks them down again. You knock businesses down, don’t employ people, more people go into welfare, more people aren’t paying taxes, it self-defeating.
And so that is why we say, it is not the responsible thing to do, it’s not the economically responsible thing to do to put it big tax handbrake on job creation as you are recovering from a pandemic. Our budget is to address the serious economic challenges the country faces. Labor are just putting up taxes again because that is what Labor does.
They are addicted to higher taxes and what you see in Victoria you will see from Anthony Albanese in the Labor party. Labor are addicted to higher taxes. The answer to every question from Labor is higher taxes. That’s not our answer. Our answer is to back Australia in. A strong economy is what pays for social services, not higher taxes.”
So far, the main critics of Victoria’s payroll tax are businesses which have been in trouble for underpaying staff, and Gerry Harvey, who has boasted about how much money he made during the pandemic, while still claiming jobkeeper. Which he is not paying back.
Also, just in case we needed a little context here, the budget papers themselves show an OK next financial year, yes. But beyond that - growth is projected to slow - that’s in both economic terms and wages. So, yes, growing the economy is one way to pay for services. But if that economic growth slows, how do you do it then? You either raise taxes, or cut services (much like the NDIS is now being cut).
So - keep an eye on that.
Updated
Ahead of the school strikes set to start today, charity Save the Children has come out in support of the strikers.
Their deputy CEO Mat Tinkler said he was “calling on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to listen to the voices of children”.
“Children and their rights must be put at the centre of climate discussions, commitments and policies.
“We have children telling us that gas isn’t the future, meanwhile the government has announced $600m towards a new gas-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley. It is clear that politicians are not paying attention. For these young people the climate crisis isn’t academic; they’ve choked on the smoke, they’ve watched their homes burn and livelihoods crumble.”
Updated
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service stops taking new clients due to budget underfunding
The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service says it has to freeze the intake of new clients because it did not receive enough funding in yesterday’s state budget to recruit new lawyers to cope with growing demand.
The 2021-2022 state budget set includes $31.2m over the next four years on preventing Aboriginal deaths in custody, but just $2m of that, allocated for the next two years, has gone toward VALS.
In a statement, VALS said its lawyers are currently handling an unmanageable 130 case files each and without the money to recruit new lawyers, they will have to stop taking on new clients.
Aboriginal people deserve high quality, culturally appropriate legal representation. It would not be fair to our clients if we stretched our resources so thinly that we were not able to maintain the standard of representation they deserve. Our caseloads have also become an OH&S risk for our staff and we will not jeopardise their wellbeing. Their caseloads are already almost 3 times the sector recommendation, despite their remuneration being lower than that of staff at other legal services.
VALS said the freeze meant that their criminal law and family law teams would not take on any new matters, except for existing clients, for three months, and will delay planned expansion of its civil legal services in Gippsland.
CEO Nerita Waight said:
We have been working with the Andrews government for years on our plan to deliver local, culturally safe legal services for Aboriginal people in Victoria. It is so bitterly disappointing that all that time and effort has been wasted when our resources are already stretched to the limit…
I know that Aboriginal people across Victoria will be angry and worried. I am too. But I cannot run a substandard legal service and put the welfare of our staff at risk. We will continue to use what resources we have to deliver high quality legal services to as many Aboriginal people as possible.
Daniel Andrews and Jaclyn Symes have our plans for local, culturally safe legal services.
They have the data that shows that demand for our services has overwhelmed our resources. They can fix this easily and I am hoping they will.
Updated
Both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines have practically the SAME efficacy - upwards of 97% - of preventing severe disease and death. I wish there was an advertising campaign getting this message out to target the AZ vaccine hesitant.
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) May 20, 2021
People get the flu vaccine each year with no clue about what brand they’re getting or any extremely rare and severe side effects of those brands. Transparency is of course great, but it needs to be put into context. We’ve failed to do that well for the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) May 21, 2021
High court considers Qantas leave appeal
A former Qantas worker who claims he was forced to take redundancy last year as he was battling cancer after the airline forced him from his sick leave salary onto a jobkeeper wage is at the centre of push to have the high court consider an appeal about Qantas sick leave entitlements.
The high court will today determine whether to grant special leave to allow an appeal to be heard over a union challenge to allow thousands of currently stood-down Qantas workers their sick leave entitlements.
The Transport Workers Union is frustrated that stood-down Qantas workers are being denied their sick, carers and compassionate leave, and are instead still able to access their annual and long service leave.
The TWU claims that “some seriously ill workers had their sick leave stopped in the middle of critical treatments and operations, while others have since had to take redundancy from Qantas to pay their bills.”
The matter was previously heard in the federal court, which ruled in Qantas’ favour, however the TWU is attempting to appeal the decision in the high court because it noted there was one dissenting judge who stated workers in Australia could be denied protections and entitlements because of the decision, and warned about “far-ranging effects … across all manner of leave entitlements”.
Peter Seymour, the former Qantas employee who first went on sick leave in late 2019 but later took redundancy after he was moved off the payment, said:
It was very hard being forced out of the job I loved and had done for over 30 years. But I had no choice given they took away my sick leave while I was in the middle of my cancer treatment. I’m still angry about it and I hope the high court can back us workers and tell Qantas that what they did was wrong.
Michael Kaine, TWU national secretary, said he believed Qantas’ position on the matter was one of the “most cynical, callous moments of the pandemic”.
Qantas will this year have received $2bn in handouts from the federal government with no conditions attached on how the airline treats its workers or what it pays its already obscenely wealthy executives.
Updated
The acting Victorian premier, James Merlino, has defended the state’s mental health levy announced as part of the budget yesterday.
Some lobby groups criticised the plan, which would tax businesses to help pay for the overhaul of the state’s mental health system.
Merlino told ABC radio this morning that the cost of not taking action was greater than the levy.
It’s a $14bn impact on our economy and a $1.9bn impact directly to employers. This is in everyone’s best interests.
There’s no doubt that as we rebuild our mental health system it will save lives, it will change lives and it will have a massive positive impact on our economy.
What’s the alternative? Is the alternative to make the investment in mental health by reducing services in other areas? These are really, really targeted revenue measures.
Merlino and the treasurer, Tim Pallas, said business was already taking a massive hit because of the mental health issue.
The tax was a main mental health royal commission recommendation and will affect less than 5% of employers, Pallas said.
Merlino said the state’s mental health royal commission found a 15% decrease in the level of need for mental health help would lead to a $1.1bn increase in economic activity per year.
Under the levy, businesses that pay more than $10m in national wages will pay 0.5% and businesses with national payrolls above $100m will pay 1%.
Updated
A new Google artificial intelligence tool that claims it can identify skin conditions based on photos has alarmed health experts.
They say it could lead to overdiagnosis, or rare and complex skin conditions being missed.
Google has developed an artificial intelligence “dermatology assist tool” for people with concerns about their skin. Users of the app can use their phone to take three images of their skin, hair or nails from different angles.
Health editor Melissa Davey spoke to the experts about it:
Federal government calls for proposals for mRNA vaccine manufacturing in Australia
Defence minister Peter Dutton has just confirmed that the federal government has finally approached the market for expressions of interest in manufacturing mRNA vaccines in Australia.
Dutton told Channel Nine it was a “prudent approach” and would prepare Australia for the future.
But the deputy opposition leader, Richard Marles, said the government should have made the decision last year.
“In the midst of its self-congratulation last year they were complacent in the failure to put Australia properly in the queues of the various vaccine projects around the world,” he told AAP.
The mRNA technology has the potential to treat many other diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The government has asked interested parties to submit fully costed proposals to establish mRNA capability, with submissions open for eight weeks.
Applicants need to demonstrate access to necessary intellectual property for manufacturing processes and make products available to the Australian government as required and in priority over other markets.
Any operation would need to be sustained over 10 years with an undertaking to maintain the capability onshore on an ongoing basis.
Updated
In sport news, the Warriors have announced they will stay in Australia for the remainder of the NRL season, despite the existence of the trans-Tasman bubble.
AAP report that the New Zealand team originally hoped they would return to Auckland on 21 June and play their final five regular season home games at Mount Smart stadium.
But Warriors CEO Cameron George said it had become clear that heading home was no longer a realistic option.
We’ve been in constant discussions with the NRL keeping abreast of developments and we’ve mutually agreed it’s in our best interests to remain in Australia.
However, we will continue to explore options to play in front of our fans at home if international border volatility settles later in the season.
The Warriors host Wests Tigers in round 11 at Central Coast stadium on Friday.
Updated
How should we reopen Australia? Experts weigh in:
Yesterday, Guardian Australia broke the news that there were more than 1.5m vaccines sitting unused in clinics across Australia.
Today, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that in NSW specifically, one clinic in south-west Sydney has roughly 3,000 AstraZeneca doses piled up and unused.
The clinic is struggling to fill bookings and only administered 25 shots on Thursday, down from 100 a day at the start of the rollout.
Updated
Man dies after being tasered by police
A man died last night after being tasered by police, AAP report.
The 27-year-old man in the northern NSW town of Gunnedah died after being tasered by police and losing consciousness.
Police were called to a Herbert Street home about 8pm on Thursday and saw the man, who allegedly became aggressive when addressed.
Pepper spray and a taser were used in a struggle with the man and he lost consciousness. He later died at Gunnedah hospital.
The incident will be independently reviewed, according to NSW police.
Updated
Some breaking international news: Israel has agreed to a ceasefire that will halt the now 11-day conflict in Gaza.
More than 230 Palestinians and 12 Israelis have been killed in the 11 days.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just announced that his cabinet had unanimously approved the “mutual and unconditional” ceasefire, which was proposed by Egypt.
Hamas confirmed the ceasefire.
The truce will start at 2am on Friday local time.
Good morning everyone, and welcome back to our Australian news blog.
It’s Friday, and I’m Naaman Zhou here with you.
Today, thousands of school students will take to the strikes to protest government inaction on the climate crisis. It’s the first school climate strike since the start of the pandemic last year.
Protests will take place all over Australia, and here, strikers are particularly protesting the federal government’s new funding for gas-fired coal power.
And in health news, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Sally McManus, says that the government’s mixed-messaging on vaccination is creating hesitancy that will delay Australia’s economic recovery.
“At the moment it’s extremely slow and it’s one of the main things that will hold us back in terms of jobs and in terms of recovery,” she just told the ABC this morning.
Yesterday, federal health minister Greg Hunt had to backtrack comments he made about the AstraZeneca vaccine that were criticised to promoting hesitancy.
And also yesterday, Guardian Australia revealed there were more than 1.5m vaccines sitting unused in clinics across Australia.
Stay with us for all the latest news as it happens.
