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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Justine Landis-Hanley and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

Australia Post chairman rejects Christine Holgate’s claims – as it happened

Christine Holgate at a Senate hearing last October
Christine Holgate appearing at a Senate hearing last October. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

What happened today, Wednesday 7 April 2021

It’s been a huge day – here’s what you need to know:

  • The International Monetary Fund has upgraded Australia’s post-Covid economic outlook, but warns that recovery from recession still depends on the rollouts of coronavirus vaccines.
  • Speaking of which, the Morrison government continues to defend its bungled national vaccine rollout. A whopping 3.1m of the 3.8m AstraZeneca doses Australia pre-purchased from European suppliers have not been delivered.
  • Australia has hit 920,334 vaccinations, health minister Greg Hunt says (but, for context, Australia had planned to have 4 million people vaccinated by the end of March). Around 3,000 general medical practices are administering the vaccine.
  • Women who were implanted with defective vaginal mesh products filed a new class action against pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Ethicon in the federal court today.
  • Rugby league legend Tommy Raudonikis died today, aged 70.

And with that, I finish up my first shift running the live blog! Hope you’ve enjoyed our time together.

Tune in tomorrow morning for another day of news with the original, the best, Matilda Boseley. This is Justine Landis-Hanley signing off.

Updated

Australia Post chairman rejects Christine Holgate's claims

The Australia Post chairman, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, has issued a statement contradicting much of what former CEO Christine Holgate submitted to the Senate inquiry about her removal for the gift of $20,000 of Cartier watches to senior executives.

The central disagreement is whether Di Bartolomeo “unlawfully” stood Holgate down. Holgate claims she offered to take annual leave pending an investigation but resisted standing aside; Di Bartolomeo claims she stood aside voluntarily and therefore Holgate’s claim that she was “unlawfully” stood down was not correct.

He said:

The agreement for Ms Holgate to stand aside was reached between myself and Ms Holgate in telephone discussions late that afternoon, in breaks during a board meeting that commenced at approximately 4pm. The board did not stand down, or suspend, Ms Holgate from her role – that being an unnecessary consideration given her agreement to stand aside.

Ms Holgate claims that she did not speak with me that afternoon at all after question time (the relevant parts of which occurred between approximately 2.30pm and 2.40pm). However, phone records support my recollection – including that we had conversations at 4:27pm and 5.50pm on that day.

Di Bartolomeo rejects Holgate’s claim she was not supported, citing support from the executive general manager of People & Culture – “confidential and regular” support which he said continued even after her resignation on 2 November.

He also rejected her account about post-employment restrictions:

Ms Holgate claims that I made a counter-offer which would have prevented her from working for 12 months without pay. That is not correct. The existing provisions of Ms Holgate’s contract of employment contained non-compete provisions, as is common for such senior executive roles. These provisions apply only to working for a competitor for a period of six months from the end of Ms Holgate’s employment – and therefore expire on 2 May 2021.

The Senate inquiry has hearing scheduled for 13 April before it reports back on 30 April.

Lucio Di Bartolomeo
Lucio Di Bartolomeo has contradicted Christine Holgate over her departure from Australia Post. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

The government announced a national women’s safety summit around an hour ago, and already people are taking to Twitter to raise their concerns.

The main fear is that this summit is just delaying real action against sexual assault and domestic violence.

The national survey on domestic violence, also announced this afternoon, has been criticised for similar reasons; the government already knows that frontline support services are overstretched and under-resourced and that urgent additional funding is required.

End Rape on Campus Australia founder and director, Sharna Bremner, warned against asking people to share their trauma without also providing additional resources to frontline services to support them.

China's ambassador warns against Australia imposing sanctions over rights abuses

China’s ambassador to Australia has warning that Beijing will respond “in kind” if Canberra follows other countries in imposing sanctions against its officials over human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The ambassador, Cheng Jingye, was speaking this afternoon at his official residence at an event that included a video hookup with officials in Xinjiang region and was intended to push back at growing international criticism of what some western countries have said amounts to genocide.

During questions from Australian journalists, Cheng several times declined to comment in detail on the current low in the relationship between China and Australia, but said the “difficulties” were not initiated by China.

The ambassador was more forthcoming when asked what would happen if Australia followed the UK, EU, US and Canada in imposing sanctions against officials over the plight of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. (So far Australia has welcomed those sanctions, but has not immediately replicated them, partly because of the lack of Magnitsky-style laws that would allow swift targeted sanctions for human rights abuses.)

Cheng Jingye
Cheng Jingye: ‘If we are provoked we will respond in kind.’ Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Cheng said China flatly rejected the allegations about what had happened on the ground in Xinjiang and that the sanctions imposed by other western capitals were a “flagrant violation” of international norms and were “based on disinformation or misinformation”.

He said people should not be under the illusion “that China would swallow the bitter pill” of interference or meddling its internal affairs, nor attempts to mount a “pressure” campaign:

We will not provoke, but if we are provoked we will respond in kind.

We will have more coverage soon.

Updated

Conversation turns to Scott Morrison’s treatment of Christine Holgate, the former Australia Post chief executive, over her controversial gift of Cartier watches to senior executives.

McKenzie says Holgate’s submission to a Senate inquiry that she was wrongly stood down raises a number of valid concerns.

I think it’s important for Christine to have the opportunity to put her case on the public record, which the submission has done. And that we’ll be able to prosecute next week as senators during the hearings so it is publicly transparent around these issues, and we will be able to prosecute obviously the department and talk to licensed post offices and the chair himself next...

Leigh compared the way Morrison lambasted Holgate at the time of the scandal to the way he has treated former attorney general Christian Porter.

If only Christine Holgate had got the sort of measured, thoughtful response to her decisions that Bridget outlined there. But she didn’t. She got the prime minister thundering in the parliament “She can go”.

We know now that the independent inquiry started two hours after that. It is a complete contrast from the treatment of Christian Porter where the prime minister said he was entitled to the presumption of innocence and the rule of law. None of that applied to his treatment of Christine Holgate.

This inquiry is going to bring to light not only the way in which the prime minister operates, but also the need for an overhaul of the Australia Post board. It is too important an organisation to be run like a Liberal party branch meeting.

Christine Holgate appearing at a Senate hearing last October
Christine Holgate appearing at a Senate estimates hearing in October last year. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Moving on from the presser:

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie and Labor MP Andrew Leigh are appearing on ABC News to talk about the government’s just-announced women’s safety summit.

First up: how hopeful are they that this could be something that leads to actual change?

McKenzie says that “it’s exactly what women and men around the country have been calling for”.

I have been saying for quite a few weeks now we need to have a bipartisan approach to dealing with the issue of sexual assault, harassment and violence against women and I’m very proud to be part of a government that’s called a national summit into women’s safety, end of July. And I know governments of all colours will come together on that day to end violence against women and children. We have seen a lot of crime statistics go down over Covid-19, but the one appalling statistic that’s gone through the roof is that of domestic violence.

I’m looking for ward to not just the budget and seeing initiatives announced that will support the economic empowerment and the safety of women and children, but also, I think, individuals saying as one that not more to that sort of behaviour.

Leigh says Labor will support the women’s safety summit, but cautions that the government has a history of being all talk and no action when it comes to tackling gendered violence.

What we have seen in the parliament is the Coalition voting against Labor’s call for there to be 10 days of domestic violence leave for victims, and instead putting forward a hare-brained idea that family violence victims dip into their own superannuation. This isn’t just an issue of violence, it’s also an issue of equity...

But from Scott Morrison, we have got somebody who’s consistently made cuts when he was treasurer and now as prime minister to these frontline services. They have got cuts coming down the pipeline as a result of the government’s decisions.

Updated

Finally, questions for Ruston turn to besiged Liberal National MP Andrew Laming.

The reporter is blunt:

You would like him to go?

Ruston is about as blunt as a politician can be when talking about one of their own, saying:

Look, I think we need to give Mr Laming a couple of weeks to reflect on that. I will be very interested in his response when he returns from that moment, that time of reflection...

I think everybody in Australia thinks what’s he has done is abhorrent.

Updated

One reporter makes a good point: the government has had an eight-month inquiry into family sexual and domestic violence where it heard from experts about what should be done to tackle this national emergency. So why is the government only opening up discussion to the public now through this national survey?

Ruston:

Well, of course, all the information that was contained if that inquiry will be very valuable for the development of the next plan. But we wanted to say to any Australian, as we go out and say that we are starting this formal consultation process specifically on the plan, if you want do have your say, there is a mechanism by which you can do it.

Some people may prefer the anonymity of being able to go online and just fill out a survey as opposed to making a formal submission to a committee.

So, we just want to make sure that we ... give every single Australian the opportunity to have their voice heard as we move towards the next plan. Because, as I said, it must be a very ambitious plan and we need for us to be able to inform the plan [with] the voices of every Australian.

I get the sentiment. But women’s lives are on the line, and Ruston doesn’t get to the heart of the question: if we already know what we need to do, why don’t we just get on with it?

Updated

Ruston is asked what kind of content the national women’s summit will cover.

Reporter:

On the national summit, there are growing calls from your colleagues here and now from Annastacia Palaszczuk in Queensland to expand it to take in gender inequality, superannuation, the gender pay gap. Should the Morrison government consider facilitating a bigger summit than one that focuses just on women’s safety?

Ruston:

The summit that we are talking about is a women’s safety summit. It’s principal purpose, as it was originally intended, back last year when we said that we were going to have a summit, which unfortunately wasn’t able to go ahead because ofCOVID, was around informing the next national plan to end violence against women and their children. But the scope of the summit is obviously something that we will begin consultation with the state and territories over coming months. It is very focused around women’s safety, and making sure that we have the best possible information base to be able to inform the next plan.

Reporter:

Would you be in favour of a second summit, a broader summit, that Annastacia Palaszczuk is flagging?

Ruston:

Look, certainly the issue of this particular summit is very focused around a single goal that we want to achieve. And that’s informing the next plan and so that’s what my focus is on at the moment.

Ruston has been asked whether any additional funding has been discussed for frontline sexual assault and domestic violence services.

Frontline services wrote to the minister for women today asking for additional funding to keep up with the spike in family and domestic violence during the pandemic.

Ruston fell back on the government’s talking points, speaking about the $150m made available to these services last year in response to the pandemic (yes, the very amount that frontline services says was insufficient to tackling this crisis). But Ruston said she understood that not all of this money had been spent.

The $150 million was paid directly to state and territory for them to be able to respond to demand in their individual state and territories. The last information that I have is that not all of the money has been spent.

I’m looking forward to receiving the information from the state and territories about how much of that funding has been spent and also to receiving the data around where the demand has been for increased services to make sure that whatever we do into the future is targeted at initiatives that address the demand areas.

Updated

Government to launch national domestic violence survey online tonight

Ruston says the government is also launching a national online survey tonight to ensure that its plan to end violence against women is informed by “the lived experience of people who have experienced domestic violence”.

Today we start the consultation process. As part of that, there will be a number of consultation elements, including opening tonight a national online survey, where any Australian can have input into the next plan and provide us with information about their experiences. So, anybody who wants to commence or to be part of that process can go on to Engage at DSS and participate.

Updated

Morrison government to host national women's safety summit in July

Social services minister Anne Ruston has announced that the government is planning a national women’s safety summit to be held on 29 and 30 July this year.

The announcement comes after Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wrote to Scott Morrison this morning, calling for the government to convene a national summit to tackle gender inequality.

Senator Ruston said:

I’m pleased to announce that the summit will be held on the 29 and 30 July this year. As part of that, which will look at a number of issues, we need to inform the next plan and make sure that we get as many people together – as many stakeholders – so the next plan is informed by voices of all Australians.

This plan needs to be a very ambitious plan. We need to make sure that we move from just reducing violence against women and their children to ending violence against women and their children. We must have a goal towards zero and the next plan will be an ambitious blueprint to stop the rot that is domestic violence across our national landscape.

Anne Ruston
Anne Ruston: ‘very ambitious plan’ needed. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Another presser!

This time senator Anne Ruston is speaking to the media following today’s meeting between federal and state women’s ministers on violence against women and children.

More to come.

Updated

Nine News is reporting that the 31-year-old captain of the Roosters, Jake Friend, is retiring due to repeated concussions.

The Guardian has not independently verified the story yet.

Updated

Remember this morning when Scott Morrison was introducing health minister Greg Hunt and kinda almost called him, uh, something else?

Well, “Minister Khunt” is now trending on Twitter in Australia.

Because Aussies go crazy for the PM dropping an accidental c-bomb during a presser.

Updated

Women launch new class action over defective vaginal mesh products

Women who were implanted with defective vaginal mesh products filed a class action against pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Ethicon in the federal court today. The women are being represented by Shine Lawyers.

On 4 July 2017, a separate trial for Australia’s largest product liability class action against Johnson & Johnson began in Sydney, with thousands of women suffering painful and life-altering complications from the mesh implants. At the time, the court ordered that 4 July 2017 marked the cut-off for entry into this first class action against Johnson & Johnson and Ethicon.

The women excluded from that first class action because they received an implant after that cut-off date filed a second class action on Wednesday. The first class action resulted in the court ordering Johnson & Johnson to pay $2.6m in damages.

Shine’s class actions practice leader, Rebecca Jancauskas, said women excluded from the first action felt distressed that their suffering would not be recognised and they would not be eligible for compensation.

She said:

We know there are thousands of women who were implanted with these defective products or who have developed complications after this date, that’s why we’ve continued to fight for justice for these women, so none are left behind.

Hundreds of women have been identified as potentially eligible group members in the new proceedings, and anyone who believes they are eligible has been urged to approach Shine.

Women implanted with the pelvic floor mesh repair systems may have experienced symptoms of complications such as chronic pain, painful intercourse and incontinence.

Jancauskas said:

These defective mesh products have eroded in some women’s bodies, moving through tissue and penetrating or sticking to organs, causing debilitating chronic pain.

Rebecca Jancauskas (centre) speaking on behalf of victims outside court in Sydney in 2019.
Rebecca Jancauskas (centre) speaking on behalf of victims outside court in Sydney in 2019. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Updated

Albanese, on Morrison’s dismissal of Christina Holgate:

There is evidence attached to her submission – including the thank you cards that went with the watchers, signed by the chairman of the Australia Post board – that she was acting consistent with the response of the board, and consistent with the rules that were in place there.

Scott Morrison, of course, got rid of Christine Holgate on the floor of the House of Representatives in question time, and yet he stands by Andrew Laming.

Ask yourself, whose actions were worse? Those of Christine Holgate, providing watches, in my view, inappropriately but in accordance with previous practices of the Australia Post board, an organisation, over a period of time? Or Andrew Laming?

But Scott Morrison stands by Andrew Laming but dismissed Christine Holgate without an opportunity for her to put her case.

Updated

Albanese is hitting all the talking points this afternoon, taking swipes at Morrison’s handling of disgraced Liberal National MP Andrew Laming and former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate.

On Laming, he says:

Andrew Laming should not be in the parliament and he should go today and the government should withdraw their support for him. I find it extraordinary that Scott Morrison says that he cares about issues relating to gender and he has, as someone in his Liberal party room, someone who he wrote to the pre-selectors of Bowman asking that they re-endorse him for the 2019 election, and Andrew Laming is someone who has harassed his own constituents, women, on Facebook and on social media.

He has harassed a woman’s state member in Kim Richards and asked for people to basically report her whereabouts and what she is doing, and offered a cash and support prizes for people reporting that. He is someone who took a photo up a skirt of a woman at work in her place of work and, only when confronted, was forced to delete that from his mobile phone. He is someone who apologised in parliament on the last sitting day with just minutes to go on that sitting Thursday, and then on the Friday, the day after, said he didn’t know what he had apologised for.

This is a guy who is not fit to be in the parliament and Labor will reserve all options to take action when parliament resumes ... But quite frankly, while he sits in at the Liberal party room, Scott Morrison will have no ability on these issues.

Updated

Albanese has brought up how Queensland premier, Labor’s Annastacia Palaszczuk, this morning wrote to the prime minister asking the government to host a national women’s summit to tackle gender inequality.

The opposition leader said he’d only support the summit if Labor is invited.

I support that summit as long as it is not a controlled summit of Scott Morrison’s friends being invited to not produce any great outcomes. As long as it is one of substance, not just of announcing the summit and then that is the end of the process. And with this government, so often we see it as the announcement of a process that is the end in itself rather than outcomes.

Albanese took the opportunity to criticise the meeting of Morrison’s newly established women’s cabinet taskforce on Tuesday.

Yesterday was a great example whereby the meeting that was held in the cabinet room didn’t produce any outcomes. And to say that the government is now going to consider these issues. When I was a cabinet minister, cabinet submissions had within them an area that had to take into account what the impact on gender was of any policies coming forward. I would have thought that should have been just standard practice.

Updated

One press conference ends, another one starts.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking in Launceston on his favourite topic: all the ways the federal government is failing right now.

First up: Australia’s bungled vaccine rollout.

We know that there was once shipment of a quarter of a million blocked from Europe. We know that occurred but we also know that is the only shipment that was blocked because that has been confirmed today, not just by the Europeans but by the Australian government itself.

Albanese swiftly segues to talk about how Morrison is failing women.

This is a government that has failed when it comes to delivering for 52% of the population. It has failed when it comes to women’s services, dealing with domestic and family violence. It has failed when it comes to women’s access to workforce participation through childcare support. It has failed when it comes to the gender pay gap of more than 13% that exist in this country. It has failed when it comes to women’s superannuation, who retire with far less than their male counterparts. All of these issues need to be dealt with by the government...

Updated

Reporters want to know whether the fact that Australia has fallen behind on its promise of 2m locally manufactured AstraZeneca doses by the end of March; is it a manufacturing problem or a Therapeutic Goods Administration approval problem?

The answer: manufacturing.

Hunt:

I don’t think there’s any question about that. The approvals have been done on the same day that the data has been received.

It might be valuable to talk people through these steps. There’s the production or some might call it the brewing. Then there is the bottling, which is the fill and finish process. Then there is the external safety assessment and that does involve working with AstraZeneca, that’s part of the international contracts which have been done around the world with AstraZeneca. And then once that is done, that’s provided to the TGA and then the TGA assesses it. So far they have assessed and released on exactly the same day that they have been provided the data.

Then that’s distributed and the release for distribution has, again, occurred on the same day that the TGA’s been provided the information. And then that is distributed around the country and then what we see is we’re in constant continuous distribution.

So, for example, that we have doses that have been in place which allowed us to get to the 920,000. We then have, from that, doses that have now been delivered for this week – over half a million for this week. And then doses that are being distributed over the coming days for next week again over half a million and then doses for contingencies.

Updated

CSL has released 1.3m AstraZeneca vaccine doses, Hunt says

Back to our AstraZeneca supply, given that Australia is 3.1m doses short of its vaccine order from Europe, reporters want to know how the government’s deal with CSL to make a 50m doses locally in 2021 is going.

Workers at CSL roll out onto a truck the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 24 March 2021 in Melbourne, Australia.
Workers at CSL roll out onto a truck the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine on 24 March 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. Photograph: Luis Ascui/Getty Images

Reporter:

Minister, on the CSL issue, this is a press release from the company in February: they said that they expected to release 2m doses of the vaccine by the end of March. Obviously it’s April and we have had less than 1m actually released. What’s gone wrong?

Hunt:

So actually we have had 1.3m releases of CSL. It comes through in batches so it’s what we call a continuous release program – continuous release program...

The days might change, depending on their safety protocols and their assessments, but what we’re expecting – because I know there have been some questions so I’d thought I’d prepare for that. We have received the 1.3m that have been cleared and then we’re expecting later this week over 470,000.

Updated

Hunt is also asked about how much Pfizer doses Australia has received from Europe.

So the Pfizer doses, I think, approximately 870,000. They have been very regular. They oscillate in a band between sort of just over 110,000 to a little bit above 150,000.

But they have been giving us good guidance in advance and that’s been continuing and continuing on time.

Hunt is also being asked to respond to reports that aged care workers are being denied their second Pfizer doses because their first jabs weren’t recorded properly.

Hunt:

There was one report that we had of one facility where there was some additional dosage required. We have taken steps to make sure that will be made available to the – made available to the workers. And that’s one of the things we do.

Everyday in a rollout of this size, there are reports and actions that are taken to immediately respond. So it’s appropriate to ask, absolutely. And it’s appropriate that we have been able to respond.

Updated

But despite Hunt’s attempts to put a positive spin on our below-expected vaccination numbers (our target was to hit 4m doses by the end of March), reporters are pressing on.

One wants to know when Hunt expects 1m jabs to be completed.

Hunt’s response is ... vague:

So that’s a figure that we’ll reach soon. It will depend on post-Easter just the rate of which people are returning in practices and some of the larger vaccination clinics are scaling up. But the answer is very soon.

We’ll reach that mark and then we’ll just continue to roll the vaccines out and as we move over the course of the coming weeks to more than 4,000 practices.

Ah yes, GPs on Easter holidays: the real culprits behind vaccine delays. Nothing to do with the fact that Australia is missing 3.1m AstraZeneca doses from overseas.

Updated

Australia hits 920,334 vaccinations, health minister Greg Hunt says

Hunt is now turning to talk about Australia’s heavily criticised vaccine rollout.

He’s focusing on the positives: Australia has just hit week three of its vaccine rollout, and has gone from 1,000 general medical practices administering the vaccine to around 3,000.

So that process is continuing and as part of that, the Tuesday numbers were 65,351 vaccinations around the country. That takes us to 920,334 vaccinations.

The states have done 485,000 vaccinations or 23,800 in the last 24 hours.

Updated

Health minister Greg Hunt is speaking about Australia’s performance during the pandemic, compared to the rest of the world.

We have seen 579,000 cases around the world in the last 24 hours and 11,500 lives lost.

Another way to look at it is across the world cases this year already around the world and over 1.068 million lives lost ... or more than 500,000 cases a day on average during 2021 and 10,000 live lost a day on average during 2021.

So we are in an extraordinarily fortunate position by comparison.

Updated

Health minister Greg Hunt is in Melbourne providing a Covid-19 update.

More to come.

Updated

On the Australian government’s request for 1m AstraZeneca doses to be made available for Papua New Guinea, a spokesperson for the European Union has told Guardian Australia this afternoon:

We confirm that the president of the European Commission has received a letter from the Australian prime minister on this topic and we will reply in due time.

Updated

Finally some good news (for us, at least).

Australia has ranked last on the international comparison of excess deaths figures for Covid-19. The same unfortunately cannot be said for Peru or the US.

Chinese embassy to push back at Xinjiang criticism

Readers may have seen that Scott Morrison was asked this morning about a planned press conference arranged by the Chinese embassy, which is due to start at 2pm Canberra time.

I’ll be heading along to the event and will file news afterwards. But the 90-minute press conference is expected to include some sort of video hook-up with officials from the Xinjiang region, where China has been accused of gross human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities. The Canadian and Dutch parliaments and the US government have described the situation in Xinjiang as genocide.

The fact the Chinese embassy in Australia has arranged this event suggests it is eager to push back at the growing international criticism of what is going on in Xinjiang. Chinese officials have previously argued that its conduct in Xinjiang is “above board”.

Morrison did not comment specifically on Xinjiang in this morning’s presser, but said the world was “a lot more uncertain at the moment than it has been for a long time”. The prime minister said while he wanted a positive relationship with China, Australia would also act “in accordance with its values and its national character – and that will never be, that will never be something that we would yield for the sake of a relationship”.

Updated

Frontline domestic and sexual violence services in New South Wales and Queensland have written today to the federal government calling for an additional $150m injection of funds to state and territories to deal with the spike in family and domestic violence during the pandemic.

The move comes ahead of federal, state and territory women’s safety ministers meeting today to discuss the issue of violence against women.

Minister for women Marise Payne also said yesterday that the government was developing an “ambitious” package of measures to help women ahead of the next budget.

But frontline services have made it clear that they don’t want government talk, they want action.

Women’s Safety NSW CEO, Hayley Foster, said:

Violence against women is at crisis point in this country. We need a more ambitious National Plan to address this epidemic, but we can’t wait until 2022 to act...

Words and promises won’t help women and children who need to escape right now and over the next 12 months.

Dr Alison Evans, spokesperson for the Centre for Women’s Safety and Wellbeing said:

The Covid-19 pandemic has amplified pre-existing issues for specialist family, domestic and sexual violence services working with victim-survivors. It has created a marked increase in demand for services and growing complexity of what client’s need.

Additional funding provided to these services to assist with the response was welcomed by the sector in 2020. This was a start, but more funding is urgently needed to account for the pandemic’s ongoing effects on the levels of family, domestic and sexual violence across the community.

Updated

Australia needs to manage China relationship and diversify export markets – report

Australia needs to manage the increasingly complex relationship with China, even as the government seeks areas to diversify its export markets, according to a new report out this afternoon.

The Asia Taskforce – which includes the Business Council of Australia and Asia Society Australia – calls for a target of boosting Australia’s exports to 35% of GDP by 2030 (up from 29% in 2019).

Australian wine is seen on a shop shelf in Shanghai, China.
Australian wine is seen on a shop shelf in Shanghai, China. Photograph: Alex Plavevski/EPA

The report says Australian business now “stands at a crossroads”. It says not since the 1970s, when the UK turned towards Europe, “have we witnessed a major re-alignment in how we trade and invest in the world”.

The taskforce, which also involves consultants PwC and the University of Sydney’s business school, argues the disruption of Covid-19 also brings forward stark choices, as “protectionist policies that seemed unthinkable a year ago are creeping back”.

Popular support for the open economy cannot be taken for granted. Retreating to old familiar relationships in western markets, falling behind in Asia literacy and failing to build connections with new Asian business partners should not be seen as a serious default choice when consumption in Asia will likely fuel future global growth.

The report backs the need to diversify Australia’s export markets, but says this does not mean abandoning the economic relationship with China, the largest trading partner. It says diversification for Australia means trading with China will also build up other relationships in the region.

The report – titled A second chance: How Team Australia can succeed in Asia – says that “learning to navigate a more complex relationship with China is imperative and efforts to ensure both countries engage constructively must be a priority”.

Other recommendations include adopting a “Team Australia” approach to developing new opportunities; play to our strengths by adopting country sector strategies; rebooting Asia literacy; and championing the talent in our Asian-Australian and diaspora communities.

The trade minister, Dan Tehan, is expected to launch the report at an event in Canberra later today.

Updated

The Greens are once again calling for an independent rapid review into the vaccine rollout to identify any issues and restore public confidence.

Senator Rachel Siewert, Greens spokesperson for health, said in a statement:

With targets missed, persistent problems with vaccine supply, and troubles getting the available vaccines to where they’re needed, the rollout of these vital jabs hardly inspires confidence...

We shouldn’t let this devolve into a game of finger pointing and blaming shifting between the federal and state governments. This pointless squabble doesn’t inspire confidence in the rollout, and can only serve to add further delays to the process.

An urgent, rapid and independent review into the vaccine rollout problems will find improvements to speed up the rollout, reassure the public that the process is going as well as can be, and take the politics out of the response.

Updated

Have a story you think I should be blogging about? Let me know 👉 @justinel_h

Lunchtime news recap

Just tuning in? Here’s what you need to know from the last few hours:

  • Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called for a national women’s summit to address domestic violence, the pay gap and other gendered issues, following the meeting of the new national cabinet “women’s taskforce”. She has written to Morrison offering to host the summit in Queensland.
  • NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said the NSW government will set up a vaccination hub in Homebush capable of administering 30,000 doses a week to assist the federal government in the vaccine rollout. It will be operational in a couple of months.

Updated

Whoopsies

Updated

Tegan George from 10 News has dipped into the archives to find Scott Morrison’s comments about former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate from late October vs today.

Let’s just say the difference is fairly stark:

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There have been no local Covid-19 cases in South Australia today. The state recorded one case in hotel quarantine.

Matilda mentioned before that the Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced she would be writing to the prime minister urging him to hold a national women’s summit to address issues of family violence, the pay gap and other gendered issues.

She has just tweeted out the letter she has sent.

However fast Covid-19 is spreading in Papua New Guinea, Save the Children workers on the ground say that misinformation is spreading even faster, hampering efforts to suppress the outbreak.

The NGO is now launching a series of targeted radio ads across the country to try and clear up exactly how Covid-19 spreads, and how to reduce the risk of contracting the disease.

Save the Children PNG Country Manager, Gerry Dyer, described the situation on the ground:

What we are seeing in PNG is a tsunami of misinformation about the virus and the vaccine that will cost lives...

People may encounter a social media post containing misinformation, and then repeat it in the real world as established fact. This is dangerous when accurate information is key to stopping the spread of the virus...

Radio works well in countering misinformation as people trust the medium and it is accessible to remote communities.

The misinformation is coming from every direction and spreading faster than the virus itself.

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Thanks Matilda!

Hello, it’s Justine Landis-Hanley here bringing you this afternoon’s live news updates. Wish me luck.

With that, I will leave you for the day, but never fear the amazing Justine Landis-Hanley is here to guide you through the afternoon’s news.

OK so the ABC is reporting the Ben McGregor, the Tasmanian Labor party’s state president and candidate for the seat of Clark has resigned over text messages sent seven years ago. This has not yet been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia.

McGregor told theABC the move to push him out was “selfish” and “tawdry”:

A complaint has been made to the Labor party by a person in relation to two text messages I sent seven years ago.

Though it does not allege sexual misconduct or sexual harassment, its purpose is appallingly clear.

The complaint seems to pervert and weaponise the current justified public outrage at the treatment of women in this country for selfish, tawdry and political purposes.

Updated

ABC Hobart is reporting that the Tasmanian Labor candidate Ben McGregor has resigned from his candidacy over “inappropriate” text messages.

More to come.

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Laming to be investigated by electoral commission over 30 Facebook pages

The Australian Electoral Commission has confirmed that it will investigate Liberal National MP Andrew Laming over more than 30 Facebook pages that he operates without any disclosure of his involvement.

As reported by us on Tuesday, Laming has set up dozens of Facebook pages under the guise of community and news groups, including one that poses as a fake education institute.

According to the Australian Electoral Commission, political authorisation is required for “information that is a matter communicated, or intended to be communicated, for the dominant purpose of influencing the way electors vote in a federal election”:

This includes, but is not limited to, a communication that expressly promotes or opposes a candidate, political party, member or senator.

The disclosure laws, which were updated after the 2016 election, also explicitly include social media posts, requiring authorisation details either in the message or through the page’s biography details.

Laming is on leave for clinical and empathy counselling after revelations that he stalked two Brisbane women online and took a photograph of a woman’s bottom with her underwear exposed.

You can read Sarah Martin’s story that broke this news below:

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Brad Hazzard confirmed that the hub would also service the general population when Australia reaches that stage of the rollout.

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NSW vaccine hub to be operational in 'couple of months'

Golly gosh the NSW government loves to condescendingly offer help to the federal government. I’m only including about 20% of these comments in the blog and it’s still overwhelming!

Brad Hazzard as gone in for another dip when asked if the new vaccine hub would be used to supplement the GP vaccine network:

I just said that first and foremost the federal government are rolling out to their area of responsibility through GPs and through Aboriginal health service as well in New South Wales and GPs are certainly the frontline and will remain the frontline.

What the New South Wales government is saying is we are here to help you achieve the targets that you thought the commonwealth could do but for various reasons haven’t yet been achieved. We are there to support you*.

We will have this mass vaccination centre available. Leases are being signed in the very near future and then there will be lot of work – it is not just a case of walk in and start vaccinating, there is a lot of infrastructure that has to be provided and that should be up and running within the next couple of months or so depending on vaccine availability and we’ll get more information on that.

*Oooooft that’s gotta hurt.

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Brad Hazzard has been asked if, in retrospect, cancelling Bluesfest in Byron Bay was overkill, given that only one case has been discovered in the area in the last week:

The decisions that were taken and are taken all the time are based on our best public health advice. I don’t think anybody in Australia could say that we don’t have – I think we have – the best chief health officer in the country and the best public health team, and we take advice on that basis.

If we had not made that decision we may be standing here today trying to explain why we had hundreds, if not thousands, of people who actually did have Covid. It is always good to be able to say that we got a very positive outcome from the decision that was taken.

Reporter:

Is there an update with the organisers about when it might be able to be held?

Hazzard:

A lot of work going on behind the scenes with Peter Noble and with Bluesfest.

I’m really keen to see the Bluesfest come back on and I think there are a lot of us in the community are keen to see it come back on but that has to be worked through by Peter and it is a big challenge. It was a very big festival that he was going to be having and I’m sure it will be on again sometime hopefully this year.

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NSW health minister Brad Hazzard says Australians need to get in the habit of using QR codes to prepare for international borders eventually opening:

At some point, our international borders will open up – at some point well down the track – at that point if we are still not in the habit of using those QR codes and understanding the significance of being able to track and trace and head off any outbreaks then we could face further issues.

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Gladys Berejiklian is going to great efforts to future proof her statements, given that we know it’s a dangerous game committing to hard and fast numbers when it comes to vaccines.

The NSW premier is making it very clear from the outset if the state falls short, it’s on the federal government’s shoulders:

Can I also make this really critical point – our ability to do 60,000 vaccinations a week depends on us getting the supply of the vaccine from the commonwealth.

At the end of the day, the commonwealth is responsible for getting the vaccine to the states. They’re responsible for making sure we have those doses to be able to give out and as you also know, the New South Wales government is incredibly proud of our record ...

But our ability to complete the 300,000 that we had responsibility for in addition to doing the 60,000 extra a week is dependent on the commonwealth getting us those doses.

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Mass vaccination hub to be established in Sydney's inner west

Gladys Berejiklian says the NSW government will set up a vaccination hub in Homebush capable of administering 30,000 doses a week to assist the federal government in the vaccine rollout:

Firstly the New South Wales government is already in the process of establishing a 100 sites across the state to provide access to the vaccine. One hundred sites, around 80 of them are already up and running, and this is to make sure that everybody in rural and regional New South Wales as well as other locations outside of Sydney can get access to the vaccine to complement the GP network.

As we know, the federal government has the responsibility for making sure everybody is vaccinated ... In addition to those 100 sites the New South Wales government will also be setting up a vaccination hub at Homebush and this is to allow us to support the commonwealth in distributing the vaccine once we have finished the 300,000 that we said we would do ...

So the New South Wales government, even after we’ve done the 300,000 we were asked to do, we’ll continue to have 100 sites up and running across the state in addition to a mass vaccination hub at Homebush. We anticipate that post-the 300,000 that we are responsible for we will be able to do around 60,000 vaccinations a week, half will be done at Homebush and the other half across the other 100 sites across.

Did you notice the not-so-subtle dig at the feds in there?

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NSW reports no new locally transmitted Covid cases

NSW has recorded no locally acquired Covid-19 cases overnight.

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NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is speaking to media now.

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Josh Butler from the New Daily saying the quiet part out loud!

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Guardian Australia political reporter Daniel Hurst asked Scott Morrison about his assertions that the blocked AZ shipments were what was affecting supply.

Hurst:

You said that the supply issues were a matter of simple mathematics. But on March 5 your health minister said, when Italy’s 250,000 doses were blocked: “We are very clear that this does not affect the pace of the rollout.”

Morrison:

We’d already adjusted the rollout. We’d already adjusted the rollout to not include the 3.1m.

Now Daniel has very kindly tracked down that quote from health minister Greg Hunt on 5 March when the blocked AZ shipment became public:

I would note there are reports today of one particular shipment from one particular country, which has not been given – authorised to proceed from the particular country. And the European Commission accepted that advice from Italy.

We are very clear that this does not affect the pace of the rollout. That shipment had not been factored in to our distribution, to the states and territories.

And in fact, we received the first shipment of AstraZeneca this week of 300,000 doses. And AstraZeneca has a deep, broad global supply chain. And we have indeed been reassured that they will continue to draw on that deep, broad global supply chain. So I think that’s important reassurance for every Australian. It is a reminder, it’s a very, very, very competitive world.

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Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has paid tribute to rugby legend Tommy Raudonikis who died today aged 70.

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Scott Morrison has been asked whether if AZ doses aren’t able to come from the EU, if Australia will offer PNG a portion of our domestically produced vaccine:

We obviously want those million doses and that’s why I started today’s media conference to say that, given statements made overnight, that apparently there is no obstruction to that and then I would hope that that could be readily addressed.

If that doesn’t occur, then we have been working with a number of other partners around the world to see how we can address that. And we’re also considering what it might mean for Australia’s provision of doses directly. But those issues haven’t been finalised yet.

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Scott Morrison is asked if the government is being “overly rosy” about the state of the vaccine rollout. He says no:

We had already taken into account, and we’d already shared with this very gallery, in this very place in late January, the concerns that we had about the European distribution at that point. And I’ve gone through the timeline again with you.

I mean, I think what I’d urge the media to do is – circumstances change. There are a lot of variables in this process. Supply chains get disrupted. Medical evidence comes forward which requires us to address it, and may cause us to make changes to the program in the interests of public health ...

Even when we released numbers in early January, we flagged that this is conditional on events and events will have a way of impacting on the distribution and rollout of the vaccination program ... We have our clear target and that is to get through 1a and 1b by midyear and to have offered to Australians, that first dose for adult Australians by the end of October. That’s what we’re working to. It is obviously subject to supply issues, medical evidence and medical advice and we will continue working on both of those principles.

So just breaking down that logic for a second – there are major issues with the supply chain and the rollout, and because the government acknowledges those issues we are apparently not allowed to criticise the rollout any more?

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Brendan Murphy says the TGA and health departments are still working closely to analyse if a case of non-fatal blood clotting in a 44-year-old man had any link to the AZ vaccine:

One case is not a strong signal but we are working very closely with our counterparts in the UK who have now done well over 18m doses of this vaccine, and in Europe, that have done many million, to look at the data that they’re getting from their signals and their regulatory body and their vaccine advisory committees and that’s what’s going to give us the true picture of whether this is a real problem, and whether it has any significance ...

There is a lot of action at the moment analysing the information in Europe and in the UK and we are taking a very close interest in it, because the government and the department have taken the view that safety is absolutely paramount ...

Europe has better data and that’s why we’re looking at their data to see whether this is a real problem and whether we need to do anything about it. At the moment, we don’t have those answers.

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Morrison declines to comment on Holgate accusations

Scott Morrison has also been accused this week by former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate of throwing her under the bus over a scandal last October where it emerged Australia Post gave luxury watches to four senior executives in November 2018 as a reward for clinching a banking deal.

Christine Holgate
Former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

In a fiery speech to parliament, Morrison described the transaction as “disgraceful and not on” and said Holgate could “go” if she refused to stand down amid an inquiry into the affair.

But a federal government-backed report released in January found “no indication of dishonesty, fraud, corruption or intentional misuse of Australia Post funds”, but labelled the purchase inconsistent with public service obligations.

Morrison was asked if he has a response to her recent comments:

I’m aware of the comments and those submissions and I understand that they’ll be addressed through the parliamentary hearing.

This is a matter now that’s substantively between Ms Holgate and Australia Post and that’s where I note the predominance of the comments have been directed.

Ms Holgate decided to leave Australia Post. That’s just a matter of record. There was a review that was undertaken into the matters that were brought up by the Senate at estimates, and before that was concluded, Ms Holgate decided to leave Australia Post.

That’s just a matter of record and these issues now are between Ms Holgate and Australia Post and I’ll leave that matter for the time being.

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According to Scott Morrison the states and the federal government are getting along great, although I’m not sure he has been listening closely to the states if he reckons that’s the case.

Reporter:

Trust in the government is critical for Australians to actually take up the vaccine. In recent weeks we’ve seen blame-shifting with the states. We’re now bickering with the EC about supply issues and, along with the issues with blood clotting, which still remains unclear to a lot of people. Are you concerned that the government’s handling of this may contribute to vaccine hesitancy among the population? And what are you going to do about that?

Morrison:

No, I’m not. And I think much of the conflation of the issues you’ve raised, I think, is more in appearance than in fact. I mean, all I’ve simply done today is set out very clearly that 3.1m vaccines didn’t arrive in Australia. That’s just a simple fact. It’s not a dispute. It’s not a conflict. It’s not an argument. It’s not a clash. It’s just a simple fact.

And I’m simply explaining to the Australian public that supply issues is what’s constraining and has constrained, particularly over the recent months, the overall rollout of the vaccine.

Look, it happens before every single national cabinet. You all write stories about how everybody is disagreeing with each other and we come to national cabinet as always and I’ll stand before you on Friday and talk about the things that are agreed.

So I would just counsel people to see these things sometimes as maybe a lot more dust being kicked up than actual substance. People are working together to deliver these vaccines.

Updated

A reporter has asked Scott Morrison why the CSL plant that produces our domestic AZ doses hasn’t ramped up to producing 1m doses a week yet:

I mentioned yesterday that we already achieved more than 800,000. That’s something that we already achieved. The numbers vary from week to week and we’ve just gone through the Easter period, so that influences the numbers at this precise point in time.

But they’ve already been able to demonstrate the capacity to get over 800,000 produced in a week. And that’s what I believe at least is achievable going forward and we would like to achieve more than that. But the idea of just throwing more money at it – that doesn’t increase the volume.

This is a manufacturing process and the rate of production is very much in the hands of the manufacturing company themselves, CSL. But everyone is doing everything that they possibly can to get that to the best number possible.

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Brendan Murphy says Australia is only holding doses back if they are necessary for back-up:

There are no doses that are in reserve, as you put it. We have a second dose contingency of Pfizer vaccines that we’ve kept in the warehouse waiting to be rolled out three weeks later. Every dose of AstraZeneca, we’re keeping some of those and building a second-dose contingency.

Every other dose is in the process of being pre-deployed or deployed to be in a GP’s surgery the week before it is given and it takes a week to get there.

So there are probably over a million doses in transit being put into position, but there is nothing that is not being allocated to be put in an arm.

That’s to be absolutely clear – there is nothing sitting in a cupboard other than something that we’re planning to give three weeks later as a second dose.

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Brendan Murphy, the former chief medical officer who is now the secretary of the federal health department, is speaking now:

So the point that I want to make again is that our vaccine rollout is going well*.

The only thing that is limiting the rollout is vaccine supply, and obviously, the initial issue with vaccine supply related to that 3.1m doses of AstraZeneca which really put us back in those first weeks because we didn’t have those doses.

Now that we do have the CSL doses, which are starting to increase progressively, that is the right limiting step is the international supply of Pfizer and the amount that we’re getting out of CSL, which was progressively increasing.

*It is not.

Updated

Scott Morrison has broken down, in considerable detail, the communications between Australia, AstraZeneca and the EU:

In late January, the EC introduced strict export controls which were further expanded on March 24.

In late January, mid to late January, AstraZeneca provided updated advice that only 1.2m of the 3.2m offshore manufactured product could be delivered in February and in March. That was 500,000 in February and 700,000 in March.

That was because a range of issues, which included not just the vaccine shortage in Europe and AstraZeneca’s awareness of the increasing restrictions on export controls, and so applications were not made for those 3.8m doses.

In fact, an application was made for 500,000 doses to be released. And in February, that application was made. Those 500,000 doses were being manufactured in Italy. On February 19 minister Hunt called the EU health minister to advocate for the release of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia. On February 20, AstraZeneca was advised by the European Commission to withdraw their application and submit a revised application for 250,000 doses manufactured in Italy ...

Consequently, an application was made for 250,000 doses out of what was to be 500,000 doses, and on March 3 the European Union denied export of those 250,000 doses to Australia.

On March 15, Minister Hunt wrote to them to review their decision to deny exports of vaccines to Australia. On March 17 I wrote to the president of the EC requesting the export of 1m doses from our original 3.8m which were originally for Australia, to make sure that we could make available to Papua New Guinea to deal with the humanitarian crisis that was emerging in that country. We have still not received any response to that request.

Minister Hunt wrote to AstraZeneca Global to request them to resubmit their export application to the EC for further doses and we have been seeking further calls with the president of the EC to discuss these matters. Now, I am pleased to hear that the European Union overnight has indicated that they are not seeking to restrict these vaccines to Australia.

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Scott Morrison says he will write to AstraZeneca again, asking it to help push through 1m more doses:

So I’ll be very pleased, as will the minister, to write, again, in parallel, both to AstraZeneca, to seek the export licences for the full amount of the doses, the 3.8m, to be provided to Australia. And I can assure you that the first million of those will be used to support the humanitarian effort that we’re putting in place for Papua New Guinea.

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OK, just before we go on here are Scott Morrison’s comments from yesterday:

The challenges Australia have had has been a supply problem. It is pure and simple. There was over 3m doses from overseas that were that never came.

And that’s obviously resulted in an inability to get 3m overdoses out and distributed through the network. I think it is really important that these points are made very clearly when we are talking about the rollout of the vaccine.

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Morrison says he never blamed EU for vaccine troubles

Scott Morrison says he did not criticise the EU when he spoke publicly yesterday:

First of all, I want to stress that at no time yesterday did I make any comment about the actions of the European Union, nor did I indicate any of the background reasons for the lack of supply that we have received from those contracted doses.

And so, any suggestion that I, in any way, made any criticism of the European Union yesterday would be completely incorrect.

I simply stated a fact – that 3.1m of the contracted vaccines that we had been relying upon in early January when we’d set out a series of targets did not turn up in Australia. That is just a simple fact.

Now that fact has been the key reason for the early phases of the supply in the rollout in the vaccine. It’s straightforward maths: 3.1m out of 3.8m doses did not come to Australia. That obviously had a very significant impact on the early rollout of the vaccination program until we got into a position when the domestically produced AstraZeneca vaccine would be in place.

Updated

Scott Morrison is speaking now.

He has started by offering his condolences to the family of former PNG East Highlands governor Malcolm Smith who died in a Queensland hospital after contracting the disease in PNG.

He has also offered his sympathies to the family of rugby legend Tom Raudonikis:

He was one of the game’s biggest characters and will be sadly missed in the rugby league family, and sincere condolences to his family and to the rugby league family as well.

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Scott Morrison seems to be going for dramatic effect by keeping us all in suspense waiting for his press conference.

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There is so much we don’t know about the Australian vaccine rollout that we don’t even know what we don’t know any more.

Luckily, my esteemed colleague Christopher Knaus has us covered and has broken down the six biggest question marks still hanging over the rollout.

Here is just one, the volume produced by local manufacturing:

This is a critical question. Australia’s vaccine strategy is heavily dependant on local manufacturing of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Yet, we currently do not know how many doses CSL is manufacturing per day or per week.

Morrison has previously said it was making about 900,000 per week. That figure is wrong, according to CSL.

The acting chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, was unable to answer the question on Monday during a press conference. “So, I can’t actually give you the figures. But we’re happy to check those and get them to you out of session there,” he said.

Follow-up questions from the Guardian have not yet yielded a response. Morrison said on Tuesday he was hoping for 800,000 per week but it would be misleading to provide current averages because it was too early in the manufacturing program.

You can read the full story below:

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We are waiting now for Scott Morrison to step up to the plate in Canberra.

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Rugby league great Tommy Raudonikis dies aged 70

Rugby league legend Tom Raudonikis has died aged 70.

I’ll bring you more as soon as I can.

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This just in, Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 9.40am Sydney and Melbourne time, where he will no doubt receive a grilling on exactly what is going on with EU and the 3.1m possibly blocked AstraZeneca vaccine doses.

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Palaszczuk invites Ardern to holiday in Queensland

Palaszczuk has also invited the New Zealand prime minister to holiday in Queensland after it was announced yesterday that the trans-Tasman bubble would begin in earnest on 19 April:

I had the opportunity to speak to the New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday and I invited her to Queensland at the earliest opportunity and I hope that her family does take up that opportunity.

She was out here, I think from memory, for the Commonwealth Games which was just over three years ago. I know she does like holidaying here.

She has a very busy job but hopefully she can come here in the not-too-distant future and experience all the beautiful things that Queensland has to offer.

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Queensland offers to host a national women’s summit

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called for a national women’s summit to address domestic violence, the pay gap and other gendered issues.

This comes after a meeting of the new national cabinet “women’s taskforce”, and a virtual meeting will be held with all state ministers for women today.

It appears Palaszczuk thinks this is not enough and plans to write to Scott Morrison, encouraging him to hold a full summit:

Back in 2016, when I was the only woman on Coag, I actually asked, back then, the Coag leaders to support my proposal to have a national summit on the prevention of domestic and family violence ...

I actually think the time is now right for our country to have a national women’s summit. This is really important. To look at gender inequality, to look at economic inequality, to look at actions to address the gender pay gap, actions to address the superannuation gap, issues around addressing issues of affordable childcare. This is a huge issue for women out there in our community.

Time and time again my sisters have told me and other members of the community how expensive it is for childcare when you’re working as well. These are really big issues in terms of women’s equality. I also think issues of sexual harassment in the workplace is really important. But what we have seen over the last few months is a huge wave of support for women to have their voices heard and I think the time is now right to have a national women’s summit.

So I will be writing to the prime minister today – I will be asking the other leaders to support this. I am happy to host it here in Queensland or it can be in Canberra. That can be at the prime minister’s discretion but I think the time is now right.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

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No local Covid-19 cases in Queensland

Once again Queensland has recorded no local Covid-19 cases but the state seems to be getting the lion’s share of infected overseas arrivals, with six people diagnosed overnight.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has just spoken to the media. I will bring her comments to you soon.

Updated

Protesters have tried to blockade a rail construction site at the controversial Carmichael coalmine project in central Queensland this morning, AAP reports.

A group of health workers called Health on the Frontlines is protesting against the mine due to the impacts of coalmining and the climate crisis on human health.

A group of about 20 people tried to block vehicles entering a rail construction site off the Gregory Highway. The mining company Bravus said the attempted blockade had not affected work.

“Police have been notified and are on their way,” the company said.

A protester, University of Queensland associate professor Liza Fitzgerald, said climate change was the No 1 public health issue for the current generations and those to come:

I have to do his protest as a role model for my daughters and my students – we cannot have any more climate destruction, we cannot have more coal coming out of the earth.

A UQ senior research assistant Troy Combo, a Bundjalung man, also took part in the protest to bring attention to the impacts on Indigenous health:

I know that for Aboriginal people, health and wellbeing and connection to country are inseparable.

So to hear about native title being extinguished here made me realise the need to come to the frontline and address climate change directly.

Frontline Action on Coal, which is promoting Wednesday’s protest, noted that the the Australian Medical Association had declared climate change a health emergency in 2019.

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Victoria records no new Covid-19 cases

Victoria has again recorded no Covid-19 cases.

International flights are set to resume landing in the state tomorrow.

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Turnbull 'eminently qualified' for the job, says man who just fired him

NSW energy and environment minister Matt Kean says Malcolm Turnbull was “eminently qualified” to be the chair of the Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy board, less than 24 hours after booting him from the position.

The former prime minister was dropped from the roll after a public stoush with deputy NSW premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro over coal. Essentially Turnbull publicly said there should be no new coalmines in NSW on ABC radio, and Barilaro was furious.

Yesterday Kean, a Liberal, put out a statement dropping Turnbull from the board, saying it was important the focus of the role was on “facts, technology, science and economics”, not personality.

Now Kean has gone on ABC radio giving off the air of someone who really didn’t want to sack his mate, and basically admitted he had to do it to appease the Nationals:

I believe in Malcolm Turnbull. I believe that he has a great skillset that would have made a huge difference in this very important area of public policy.

I chose him because I thought he was eminently qualified to do the job. I still believe he is eminently qualified to do the job but it’s not just about having the right person, it’s also about managing the politics and bringing people along on the journey and Malcolm Turnbull does alienate some sections of the community.

I don’t agree with that view but in order to move forward in order to keep reducing our emissions in the way we have in New South Wales, I need to bring the whole community along this journey.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

ABC RN host Hamish Macdonald pointed out it was “no secret [Kean] and John Barilaro don’t get along very well” and asked if there had been “quite a stink” between the two of them of the Turnbull situation. Kean replied:

Not at all. I mean, John is a robust voice for the bush. I need to work with John in order to get things done and it’s about finding a balance between keeping jobs and opportunities in the bush and that balance between needing to reduce our emissions.

That’s something that has been able to be delivered in New South Wales, it’s how we’ve delivered the energy roadmap which is the biggest renewable energy plant in the country. I’ve been able to do that by bringing people like John on the journey.

Updated

Oh my good lord, there are too many interviews about the AstraZeneca vaccine this morning and somehow every minister is saying a different thing!

Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on ABC News Breakfast that the EU has in fact blocked the 1m doses Australia is trying to procure for Papua New Guinea ... or it has at least “not approved it”, which Frydenberg says is basically the same thing:

What we have before the EU is a request for a million vaccines to go to Papua New Guinea as a humanitarian act, because they’ve had an outbreak.

We know that they blocked our initial 250,000 vaccine request and initially we wanted to put in a request for 500,000 of those vaccines to come to Australia. And they blocked those.

And what the EU have said both publicly and privately is that they’ll not be exporting the vaccine until they’ve met their domestic needs. Now, that’s what they’ve said. So the fact that they’re not giving approval is effectively the same as blocking.

Health workers in Port Moresby prepare to administer vaccines to the Papua New Guinea PM and other politicians
Health workers in Port Moresby prepare to administer vaccines to the Papua New Guinea PM and other politicians. Photograph: Kalolaine Fainu/The Guardian

Updated

IMF upgrades Australia’s post-Covid economic outlook

The International Monetary Fund has upgraded its global economic forecasts, including for Australia, but warns the recovery from recession still depends on the rollouts of coronavirus vaccines.

It says multi-speed recoveries are under way in all regions but with stark differences in the pace of vaccine rollout, the extent of economic policy support and structural factors, such as reliance on tourism:

The outlook presents daunting challenges related to divergences in the speed of recovery both across and within countries and the potential for persistent economic damage from the crisis.

In it latest World Economic Outlook it is now projecting a stronger recovery for the global economy in 2021 and 2022 compared with its previous predictions made in January.

You can read the full story below:

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Morrison says EU 'arguing semantics' over blocking vaccines

The Morrison government says the European Commission has “requested we withdraw other export permit applications” for AstraZeneca doses, amid a worsening diplomatic dispute over vaccine access.

The government has also accused the European Commission of “arguing semantics” by saying just a shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses have been formally blocked and says the commission has not yet responded to Australia’s request for 1m doses to be made available to hard-hit Papua New Guinea.

As Matilda has mentioned on the blog this morning, a European Commission spokesman said at a news conference overnight that the only export request rejected out of nearly 500 received has been a shipment of 250,000 doses to Australia in March.

But an Australian government spokesperson said in a statement issued this morning:

  • As the PM has repeatedly said, we were anticipating AstraZeneca would be able to supply us with 3.8 million doses of their vaccine in the early stages of our rollout from the EU.
  • AZ has not been able to secure an export license from Europe to send the remaining doses, and they know they would never be approved by the European Commission.
  • The EC itself has confirmed their export control regime has blocked the export of a number of those doses, including a shipment of 250,000 doses, and they also requested we withdraw other export permit applications.
  • Of the 3.8 million AZ doses Australia has pre-purchased from overseas supplies – only 700,000 have been delivered to date, with the government continuing to seek access to 3.1 million manufactured in the EU.
  • The EC is arguing semantics but at the end of the day, all we want is what Australians have ordered so we can get more vaccines in arms.
  • That’s why our sovereign vaccine manufacturing capability has been so crucial to our rollout through CSL.
  • On 17 March, Australia requested 1 million doses of our contracted supply to help support PNG respond to their outbreak. The EU still has not responded to that request.
  • The EC has been absolutely clear in their public and private statements that no further doses of AZ are to be released until they have had their own orders fulfilled.
  • If the EC has changed their approach to standing in the way of Australia’s vaccine deliveries, we welcome it and look forward to receiving our contracted doses, and the 1 million humanitarian doses we want to get to PNG.

Updated

More coming on this soon from political reporter Daniel Hurst.

Updated

The Dan Tehan press tour continues this morning, moving from ABC TV to ABC radio.

The trade minister was once again asked to explain exactly how many doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been blocked by the EU. His rhetoric has changed slightly from the prime minister’s comments yesterday, suggesting that rather than the EU directly blocking imports, their policies prevent the AstraZeneca company from applying to send vaccines to Australia to begin with:

What we have seen is that the EU has put in export control measures to prevent vaccines from being exported from the European Union to countries, and that has stopped or prevented AstraZeneca, for instance, putting in applications to be able to send the vaccine here to Australia ...

They have said that if AstraZeneca put in applications to export to Australia or to other countries that they will be restricted from being able to do this ...

Well, we had contracted 3 million doses with AstraZeneca, and if the export controls hadn’t been put in place in Europe. then AstraZeneca would have been able to [meet the contracts].

So it seems as though perhaps it’s a matter of semantics on what exactly “blocking” means.

Dan Tehan
Trade minister Dan Tehan.
 Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Good morning all, it’s Wednesday, I’m Matilda Boseley, and let’s jump into the day’s news.

You might remember yesterday prime minister Scott Morrison blamed issues with vaccine supplies as the sole reason the federal government has failed to reach its inoculation targets.

Four million Australians were meant to have received vaccines by the end of March but only about 855,000 had received the jab by Monday.

Morrison said this was due to 3m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine being blocked from leaving Europe for Australia, “pure and simple”.

But it looks as though it isn’t that pure or simple because the EU has come out to deny these claims.

A European Commission spokesperson said at a news conference on Tuesday the only export request rejected out of nearly 500 received was a shipment of 250,000 doses to Australia in March, which was well known:

We cannot confirm any new decision to block vaccine exports to Australia or to any other country.

Another European Commission spokesperson told Reuters that while the bloc had rejected only one of 491 Covid-19 vaccine export requests since it enhanced export transparency in late January, seven requests were now being reviewed – and therefore shipments were on hold until a decision was made.

She declined to say whether a new shipment to Australia was among those being reviewed.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has now just gone on ABC radio and said the EU had made it very clear it wasn’t going to allow vaccine exports before its own contracts had been filled, but it doesn’t appear Australia submitted a formal request for more. Frydenberg mentions only the original application for 250,000 doses that was blocked last month and a request for 1m doses for Papua New Guinea.

Trade minister Dan Tehan has also spoken to the media this morning but was fairly vague on exactly what exports were blocked:

There was an application put in to provide vaccines to Australia and that – that application was blocked*.

Now, what the EU seems to be saying now is that they will not block any future shipments so we should take that as wonderful news**. That means there’s 1m vaccines hopefully on their way to PNG sooner rather than later and also all the other contracts that we have with AstraZeneca will now be able to be honoured and AstraZeneca will be able to send those to Australia.

*It’s unclear if this is the 250,000 doses blocked or the mysterious 3.1m.

**I’m not convinced this is what they were saying.

In Queensland a well-known Papua New Guinea politician has died of Covid-19 in hospital. The 77-year-old former Eastern Highlands governor Malcolm Smith contracted Covid in PNG and was flown to Australia for treatment in late March as his condition became life-threatening.

He died on Monday in the intensive care unit at Redcliffe hospital, with a number of politicians in both countries expressing their condolences.

Queensland Health says it not unusual to offer medical support for PNG citizens:

PNG is one of Queensland’s closest neighbours, and when we can offer support to our neighbours, we can, and we will ...

Since the beginning of the pandemic, aeromedical crews have transferred a number of Covid-positive, and potentially Covid-positive patients to Queensland.

Smith’s death will not be counted in the official Australian Covid toll as he was diagnosed in PNG.

With that, why don’t we kickstart the day. There is certainly plenty to cover!

Updated

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