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National
Nino Bucci and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

Tokyo-bound athletes to be vaccinated; flights suspended over crisis – as it happened

Australian Olympic team uniforms
National cabinet has agreed to vaccinate Australian athletes and support staff headed to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games under priority group 1b in the vaccine rollout, the federal government said on Tuesday.
Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

That's it for today, thanks for reading

Here’s a recap of the main news on 27 April 2021:

Updated

Covid fragments detected in Melbourne wastewater

The Victorian health department says wastewater sampling has detected viral fragments of Covid-19 in Melbourne’s eastern and northern suburbs.

It said in a statement:

Given the current prolonged period of no community transmission in Victoria, it is most likely that this is due to a person or persons continuing to shed the virus after the infection period. However, it could also be due to a person living in or travelling through the area in the early active infectious phase.

The alert relates to those living in or visiting:

Balwyn, Balwyn North, Blackburn, Blackburn North, Box Hill, Box Hill North, Bulleen, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Donvale, Mitcham, Mont Albert, Mont Albert North, Nunawading or Templestowe Lower from 20 April to 24 April; and Epping, South Morang or Wollert from 17 to 22 April.

Updated

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian (who we heard earlier spoke to prime minister Scott Morrison about the India plans before they were announced) also shares her views on the development (Palaszczuk backed them earlier):

Olympians, Paralympians and support staff secure Covid vaccine

National cabinet has agreed to vaccinate athletes and support staff headed to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games under priority group 1b, the Morrison government has confirmed in a statement.

Health minister Greg Hunt and sports minister Richard Colbeck announced about 2,050 people would be vaccinated.

Hunt said:

We want to see our athletes head to Tokyo to compete and then return to Australia safely

The vaccinations will comprise both Pfizer and AstraZeneca (for team members aged over 50).

Colbeck said:

While vulnerable Australians remain an absolute priority as the vaccine rollout continues, national cabinet understands the pressure our high-performance athletes have been facing as the Tokyo Games draw closer.

This will be a very different Olympics and Paralympics, but our athletes deserve the opportunity to compete.

The Games are set to start on 23 July.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch relay runners wearing protective masks wait in a bus in Osaka
Tokyo 2020 Olympic torch relay runners wearing protective masks wait in a bus in Osaka. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

Updated

Associate Prof Charlotte Hespe, the chair of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners NSW and ACT, has told the inquiry into the government’s handling of Covid-19 that the “bizarre” delivery of vaccines to doctors is a major issue, even as supply has begun to increase.

She said:

There does seem to be a rather bizarre way that the vaccine numbers have been allocated around the country. So the increased numbers have gone sometimes to practices that don’t have large numbers of their own patients, whereas practices where they do actually have large numbers of patients who are waiting to have their vaccination done by their own trusted general practice [are still waiting].

For instance, my own practice, where we’ve got well over 8,000 patients waiting for vaccines, we get 50 doses a week.

But Hespe said the GP clinic down the road was receiving 400 doses a week despite being a smaller clinic with far fewer patients.

Updated

The family of a Gold Coast woman who was found dead inside a wooden chest last week are pleading for help to bring her body back to Melbourne.

The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Omar Khorshid, said the outskirts of major cities would be more appropriate locations for hotel quarantine, and they would need to be built to be fit for purpose. It’s something he has been speaking about publicly throughout the week.

He is currently speaking before the Covid committee hearing, which has just begun for the evening. On Saturday, he told Guardian Australia it was his personal view that hotel quarantine would be required until at least the end of next year.

He said:

It’s about achieving the appropriate separation to avoid contamination to other residents in the quarantine facilities, and in particular, avoiding transmission of any infectious disease to the staff that are providing care in those facilities.

The facilities should still be within reasonable distance of healthcare facilities, he said, “because people do get quite sick, particularly with Covid, quite quickly”.

It’s been suggested, and we agree, that the outskirts of major cities, maybe, are places where you could build an appropriate facility that would have access to health care.

Khorshid added that he was concerned by vaccine hesitancy due to the combination of the slow vaccine rollout and communication around the AstraZeneca vaccine. He blamed “sensational reporting of a single potential side effect”.

In a vaccination program that’s already gone out to getting close to 2 million people, it is really not helpful and it harms confidence, way out of proportion to the actual risk to any individual. It is really difficult to communicate a clear understanding of what a one-in-a-million risk actually looks like.

It is important to be transparent but we’ve got to make sure we’re not being sensational in being transparent.

Associate Prof Charlotte Hespe from the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners agreed, saying:

Because we have no Covid in the country, it’s hard for people to understand what that risk means to them when we just otherwise really seem to have a normal life.

Whereas we know medically that what we’re trying to do is prevent the awfulness that is happening overseas, and I think we need some more conversation around that.

Updated

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk supports the decision to suspend flights from India.

A judge says he’s astounded and disturbed by a Corrections Victoria report finding Porsche driver Richard Pusey is too high-profile and unpopular to serve his sentence in the community.

Pusey was assessed for a community correction order ahead of his sentence on charges including outraging public decency following Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway crash that killed four police officers last April.

Black deaths in custody are a “national crisis” that requires urgent action, Greens senator Lidia Thorpe says, following confirmation today that another two deaths have occurred, in NSW and Victoria.

Seven Aboriginal people have died in custody across Australia in the past two months. Four of the deaths have been in NSW.

A man died at Port Phillip Prison in Melbourne’s west on Monday night, Corrections Victoria said. It is believed he suffered a medical episode. A smoking ceremony was being arranged.

Separately, NSW authorities confirmed a 37-year-old man was found dead in his cell at Cessnock Correctional Centre on Tuesday morning.

Senator Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai Gunditjmara Djab Wurrung woman, said:

Another two people dead. More suffering, and more pain.

What kind of country asks that its First Peoples bear this kind of pain and trauma? What kind of government refuses to act in the face of this kind of crisis?

Our grief is constant. It is never-ending.

We are heartbroken. We are outraged. We have no words left to describe our endless grief and our ongoing trauma.

Our thoughts are with these families today that are suffering in a way that no one should ever have to experience.

Because of the ongoing effects of colonisation, land dispossession, forced separation of families and attempts to destroy our culture, our people are the most incarcerated on Earth.

How is it possible that our people keep dying in custody – 476-plus in the 30 years since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody – and not a single person or individual has been held to account?

Blak families across this country are terrified that their sons and daughters will go into custody and not come out.

We cannot bear to go on like this.

The answers are clear. They’ve been clear for 30 years. This is a national crisis, and until every single recommendation from the royal commission is implemented, this will not end.

Updated

Liberal MP Dave Sharma and Labor MP Anne Aly are speaking to the ABC. There’s a fair bit of bonhomie here: they agree about the measures announced today regarding India, and that it was appropriate for the prime minister Scott Morrison to speak authentically about his faith to a Christian conference.

But one of the things on which they have differing opinions are the comments made by home affairs department secretary Mike Pezzullo.

Sharma said:

I think it was a statement that wasn’t dissimilar to what we have been hearing from our political leaders over a number of months now.

Peter Dutton, since he has become defence minister has spoken in these terms.

I think it is an observation in the sense that we face more difficult and uncertain strategic environment and the prime minister made that observation himself last year at the defence strategic update which is more challenging for Australia and whilst we strive to maintain peace and harmony in the world and ... good relations with any number of countries that are in our region, this cannot be at the expense of our values or the integrity of our political system or any other number of features of our sovereignty.

Aly said:

I think it is concerning that we have a senior public servant quite cavalier, to be honest, with his statements about war. What Australians need now, and particularly those who rely on trade with China, is a de-escalation of the tensions between Australia and China, not an escalation of those.

War, as we come out of Afghanistan, as we have now decided to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan after a long war that didn’t achieve what it was intended to do, this so-called war on terror, I think it is very prudent to look at war as absolutely a last resort and be very careful about how we talk about armed action.

Updated

The New South Wales health department has issued a warning about poor air quality in Sydney after residents awoke to the city shrouded in bushfire smoke on Tuesday.

As our colleague Paul Karp reported yesterday, the former Liberal turned independent MP Craig Kelly has announced he’ll put forward a private members’ bill to stop social media giants from being able to de-platform people.

The move follows Facebook’s removal of his page but is something he and George Christensen (who has had posts removed) have been talking about for a while.

Kelly is basing his bill on one which was just passed in the Florida Senate, so you know it absolutely 100% applies to what is going on in Australia.

Why Florida? Because it also bars social media companies from being able to remove political candidates from the platform. So if you wanted to be able to continue to share your views on, say, disproven, unproven or conspiratorially based Covid-19 treatments and vaccines without being kicked off for breaching a particular social media company’s rules, you could just run for parliament and they would have to keep your page up!

Craig Kelly speaking in Canberra last month
Craig Kelly says Facebook has acted as a ‘self-appointed censor’. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Kelly says it is about freedom of speech, though. Because of course.

The ever increasing market power of the foreign-controlled social media giants and their ability to censor political speech is an immediate and direct threat to our democracy.

We have seen in Australia Facebook acting as a bully, and self-appointed censor, that believes they are above the law and are the arbiters of truth.

Governor De Santis of Florida has acted to hold these social media giants to account. Australia needs to do the same.

I look forward to at least one other member of the Australian House of Representatives being prepared to stand up and be a ‘seconder’ for this bill, which will enable me to introduce it on the floor of parliament in the next session.

Given the prime minister has made his views clear on social media and the “evil one”, I’m not sure if there will be a lot of support for this.

Updated

A refugee activist being sued by defence minister Peter Dutton for defamation says he plans to “vigorously defend” the case.

Here is a slightly edited copy of a statement recently released by Shane Bazzi:

O’Brien Criminal and Civil Solicitors have been instructed to vigorously defend defamation proceedings brought by the minister for defence, Peter Dutton, against our client, Shane Bazzi.

Mr Bazzi expressed an honest opinion on Twitter ... based on a number of publicly reported statements that had been attributed to Mr Dutton. Statements that were about matters in the public interest and that would undoubtedly provoke a number of different opinions, including that expressed by Mr Bazzi.

A robust and vibrant democracy like ours should cultivate and encourage a diverse array of expressions of opinion on matters of public interest.

We believe that the decision of Mr Dutton to sue Mr Bazzi for having this opinion raises genuine concerns about freedom of speech in Australia. Freedom of speech is a value that our firm will strongly defend.

While there must be some limits to that freedom, we will always defend the right of people to hold opinions, especially against politicians.

Those who are elected to public office must expect to be subject to adverse opinions and society is entitled to expect a greater level of tolerance from such persons.

For a politician to use the defamation law to stifle the expression of a public opinion is cause for real concern.

We look forward to defending Mr Bazzi and airing our concerns in court.

Updated

Crown fined $1m over junkets at Melbourne casino

Crown Resorts has been fined $1m – the maximum available under weak Victorian laws – for failing to control junket operators at its Melbourne casino, the largest operated by the James Packer-controlled gambling empire.

The decision by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) comes after an inquiry in New South Wales found that junket operators who brought high rollers to Crown’s casinos in Melbourne and Perth were linked to organised crime.

But at the same time as hitting Crown with the maximum fine, the VCGLR also said it would keep its reasons for the decision secret at the request of the company, which asked for confidentiality because they “could provide those wishing to exploit the [Melbourne] casino’s operations with valuable information in relation to how [Crown’s] controls and procedures operate, particularly those procedures and controls designed to identify, mitigate and manage money-laundering risks”.

The VCGLR is likely to be replaced as casino regulator following the inquiry in NSW and complaints that it has consistently failed to properly oversee Crown Melbourne.

Royal commissions into Crown are also underway in both Victoria and Western Australia.

In an extremely rare public statement, VCGLR chairman Ross Kennedy said it was the first time the regulator had imposed the maximum fine available on Crown.

He said:

That fine reflects the seriousness of this matter, and the fact that Crown’s failure to implement a robust process occurred over an extended period.

Robust processes must be implemented to ensure that Crown’s Melbourne casino remains free from criminal influence and exploitation. These are strict and legislated regulatory requirements, and this is an area where Crown has repeatedly failed.

Crown has been approached for comment.

Crown casino in Melbourne
Crown casino in Melbourne. The $1m fine reflects that ‘Crown’s failure to implement a robust process occurred over an extended period’, Victoria’s gambling regulator said. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

Updated

Equal parts amused and terrified by this update from the mice plague.

Also see this excellent bit from last month filed by my co-blogger Matilda Boseley.

And the Australia Post hearing wraps up for today – it will be back on 3 May with Tony Nutt.

“And thank you to Hansard,” Sarah Hanson-Young says as she wraps up her thank yous to end the torture that was that committee hearing.

“My pleasure,” answers one of the senator’s phones.

Updated

Two more Indigenous deaths in custody confirmed

AAP is reporting that two recent deaths in custody in New South Wales and Victoria both involved Indigenous inmates.

Here is the AAP report:

Seven Aboriginal people have died in custody across Australia in the last two months, following another two deaths confirmed in NSW and Victoria.

A man died at Port Phillip Prison in Melbourne’s west on Monday night, Corrections Victoria said.

It is believed he suffered a medical episode. A smoking ceremony was being arranged.

Separately, NSW authorities confirmed a 37-year-old man was found dead in his cell at Cessnock Correctional Centre on Tuesday morning.

Both deaths have been reported to coroners in each state.

It follows the deaths of five other Aboriginal people in custody across Victoria, NSW and Western Australia since 2 March.

They include a man aged in his 30s at a NSW prison hospital, and another man and a woman at Victoria’s Ravenhall Correctional Centre and in custody in NSW, respectively.

Barkindji man Anzac Sullivan, 37, died during a police pursuit in Broken Hill and a 45-year-old man died in hospital in Perth.

More than 470 Indigenous people have died in detention since a 1991 royal commission report into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

And here is the Guardian Australia Deaths Inside series, which has recently been updated.

Updated

The Australian government has left the door open to toughening up the nation’s laws against modern slavery amid concerns about human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region.

But officials who gave evidence at a Senate hearing this afternoon raised concerns that a Xinjiang-specific bill proposed by the independent senator Rex Patrick would be impractical.

Patrick’s bill would prohibit the importation into Australia of goods from Xinjiang “as well as goods from other parts of China that are produced by using forced labour”.

Vanessa Holben, an Australian Border Force group manager, told the hearing the government was “deeply concerned” about reports of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

She noted the foreign minister, Marise Payne, had described the situation in the region as “amongst the world’s most egregious human rights abuses”.

Holben said the government would continue to call for “unfettered, meaningful access” for United Nations observers at the earliest opportunity.

Leaving the door open to changes, she said the government would review its modern slavery laws “to ensure it is delivering a targeted, effective response”.

The government will continue to monitor reports of forced labour globally, including in Xinjiang, and assess Australia’s policy settings and engage with stakeholders and partners with a view to supporting international efforts to reduce the risk of modern slavery, including forced labour, in Australia’s supply chains.

But Holben raised concerns Patrick’s bill “conflates distinct policy matters and does not take into account the practicalities of implementation”. She said the bill suggested it was possible to identify goods produced by forced labour or the regional and provincial origins.

During questioning, Patrick raised concerns that the government had not examined a US government-issued blacklist of companies linked to forced labour in Xinjiang to see if any Australian companies were working with those suppliers or importers. He said:

You’re all sitting on your hands.

Updated

Just wrapping up a little more from that Scott Morrison presser. Here’s the more complete response to the Pezzullo comments:

My goal as prime minister – and I know the foreign minister feels the same way, and the entire cabinet – our objective is to pursue peace. That’s what we’re doing. We’re pursuing peace for a free and open Indo-Pacific. All of the agency that we have as a country and as a government is designed to achieve that.

But it’s also at the same time designed to ensure that Australia’s national interest always are advanced. And that’s we have invested considerably to ensure the capacity of our defence forces. Two per cent of our economy each year, the size of our economy, is spent each year ensuring we have a capable defence force in this country. That’s a significant increase from where we were when we came the government, when the size of our investments fell to below the levels before the second world war.

We have restored that and we have done that to ensure that Australia’s national interest can always be protected. But our goal is to pursue peace and stability and a world order that favours freedom.

Morrison was then asked if he would consider increasing the defence budget to 3% of GDP.

We’re already above 2%. What we’ve got is a platform and program of defence investment that stands this government out against its predecessors and ensures that Australia can meet the needs it has.

I refer you to the strategic update that I gave last year – that highlighted the new areas of focus that we have as part of our defence plan and in particular that related to strike capabilities at that time and I made subsequent announcements about that as well.

But the purpose here, Australians want us to pursue a peaceful outcome. That’s what is in their interests, ultimately, that’s what the government is doing, working with our partners in the region, working with as Asean, our strategic partners, that includes China, so we can have an open and peaceful trade community in the Indo-Pacific. So I believe that’s in the interests of all countries in the region.

Updated

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese says the decision to suspend flights is a direct result of the Morrison government failing to establish a national quarantine facility.

Updated

Morrison was asked how he feels about the fact that some Australians in India who wish to come home could contract Covid-19 and die in the next two weeks.

He said:

It is a humanitarian crisis and one gripping the world. This has been the case around the world for the last year, that is the nature of a global pandemic. That is why we have been repatriating citizens from Australia ... to get as many people home safely as we can.

He went on:

I don’t see this as a problem. I see this as a group of people we are trying to help. I don’t see those Australians of Indian heritage as a problem we had to solve, not at all. I am concerned that is how some may have been seeing this. These are Australians and Australian residents that need our help and we intend to make sure we are able to restore ... the repatriation flights.

Updated

Morrison said he discussed the decision to pause flights from India with the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, given Sydney accepts the majority of direct flights from the country.

I spoke to the premier about that on the weekend, she supports that, to allow the system to rebalance ... This is a rapidly escalating situation. We took a series of decisions last week and we believed to date we needed to go further with the pause

Updated

The initial package (and Morrison stressed initial) of health supplies to India will include 509 ventilators, 1m surgical masks, 500,000 PPE masks, 100,000 surgical gowns, 100,000 goggles, 100,000 pairs of gloves and 20,000 face shields.

Morrison also said the government would commence procurement of 100 oxygen concentrators with tanks and consumables to send to India.

Morrison was asked about the hotel quarantine system, and about how its failings essentially meant the government’s hand was forced to ban flights from countries with a high rate of infection such as India.

I touched on some of these comments earlier, but I think it’s worth elaborating on:

It’s not 100% fool proof. And in 0.01%, or less of cases, you’ll see occasional breaches. I make no criticism of any state or territory, on occasion we’ll see breaches. The challenge we’ve seen Western Australia respond to, and other states respond to on other occasions, is the ring of containment that comes in place with their contact tracing system.

That’s what has been achieved again. This is how the system works. A system that is achieving 99.99% effectiveness is a very strong system and is serving Australia very well.

Scott Morrison has finished speaking, but here’s some more detail on why the decision to stop flights from India has been made:

He said 95% of the cases that arrived into Howard Springs originated in India.

So working closely with the Northern Territory government, as well as our medical advisors up around that facility, their advice is we need to slow that pace significantly over the next few weeks to ensure that we can maintain the health of people in that facility.

He said the cut in Western Australia’s overseas traveller admissions contributed to the decision, but he was confident it would not be a long-term measure.

We have always taken a cautious approach. We can speak to a performance that few countries can. We have always listened to the medical advice.

We take our own decisions, whether it’s I as prime minister and the national security committee, the foreign minister, health minister, others, we do that as a national cabinet.

I think that’s put Australia, I think, in a very strong position of so many nations when it comes to our handling of the pandemic. In Australia, we are living like few countries in the world can. And do at the moment. I’m very determined that it remains that way.

Updated

Morrison says the India flight decision was made because the Howard Springs and NSW quarantine facilities needed a breather, given the majority of positive cases they were seeing came from the country.

We needed to slow that pace significantly in the next few weeks.

The flight suspension will last until 15 May.

Updated

Morrison says there will be a 50-50 agreement on governance and on funding for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032, a different arrangement to the Sydney games.

Morrison has also declined to weigh in on the slightly odd speech from home affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo which mentioned the “drumbeats of war”.

He says Australians expect his government to pursue peace.

Updated

Morrison bats away criticism of hotel quarantine, saying that from October to March 140,355 people had gone through the system and there had been only two occasions where an infection had spread seriously to the community, including on Sydney’s northern beaches.

He said:

Ninety-nine point nine per cent success rate I think is pretty good.

I don’t think there’s a country in the world who would not want a quarantine system that has been working as effectively as that.

Morrison is asked whether WA premier Mark McGowan should have locked down Perth last week, but says that is a decision for him.

You will not find me squabbling about this, you will find me supporting the states and territories.

Updated

Morrison says this will be a temporary measure to ensure Australia could safely manage the arrival of people from India.

“We don’t think the answer is to forsake those Australians in India and just shut them off, as some have suggested,” Morrison said.

“We will resume the repatriation flights from India.”

The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, says eight Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade flights had been planned to return from India in May but they would now be paused.

She said she and Morrison felt for Australians and their loved ones in India.

We know this is a very difficult time.

Updated

Australia will also send health supplies to the country, Morrison confirmed.

Updated

Australia to suspend all commercial flights from India, PM says

Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will pause all commercial flights from India.

Updated

While we are waiting for the Department of Finance to step up, I have gone back and had a listen to the whole quote from the former Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson that got Labor senator Kimberley Kitching all riled up.

Ronaldson blames Labor for the whole thing:

What occurred was not of the board’s making. The situation we’re in today – this inquiry, [the] media frenzy, a former CEO who’s clearly suffering, is not of the board’s making. [This is] most definitely not where we wanted to be or ever imagined we would be.

So how did we get here, according to Ronaldson?

The moment senator Kitching asked her question in estimates – and the senator knows full well why that was done and on whose behalf if it was done, and the fact that it was a bit of payback – from that very moment this thing got completely out of control.

At the end of the board’s committee appearance, Ronaldson apologised if he was wrong.

Senator Kimberley Kitching during the committee hearing
Senator Kimberley Kitching during the committee hearing. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Some mystery surrounds the resignation of Richard van Breda, the CEO of Queensland government energy company Stanwell corporation, just days after he announced a substantial pivot from coal to renewables.

Guardian Australia last week broke the story, which said Stanwell – Queensland’s largest generator and Australia’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter – would curtail the operation of its coal plants and begin to plan for the transition of its workers and communities.

This would include changing the way the power stations operated, including putting units into hibernation so they could be used in a flexible way to support peak demand.

The state energy minister, Mick de Brenni, told the Australian Financial Review today the state had “no plans to decommission any of our publicly owned generation assets in Queensland ahead of their time”.

Those comments are not inconsistent with Van Breda’s statement last week, but the very different framing has added to intrigue about why the chief executive left suddenly and whether he was forced aside.

Guardian Australia understands that Stanwell position’s announced last week – and its response to a hastening national energy pivot – had been the result of ongoing discussions at executive and board level over several years.

Sources said it was highly unlikely the board of the organisation, which includes de Brenni, state treasurer Cameron Dick and Labor national president Wayne Swan would not have signed off on the broad transition vision outlined by Van Breda.

A Stanwell spokeswoman pointed Guardian Australia to a statement on the company’s website, which said Van Breda’s resignation had been accepted “reluctantly”.

A source at the company said it was not known why Van Breda resigned, but that it was “totally unexpected”.

He said:

You don’t outline a future vision and then walk away with it unless something has happened.

Updated

So that is it for the board, although the chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, will be returning on 3 May when Tony Nutt will also appear to give evidence. Nutt has to appear in person.

Next up are representatives of the department of finance, representing the department of the shareholder minister.

Updated

Pauline Hanson is still prosecuting the line that Christine Holgate never resigned in writing and the board seemed to take the chair’s word that Holgate resigned.

Hanson believes the board acted without Holgate’s permission – she uses an email Holgate sent to the board, after the board meeting had concluded, saying she was willing to take two weeks’ leave and wants to know why Holgate would say that, after the meeting, if she had agreed to step aside.

Hanson also has issues with the minutes from the 22 October board meeting and says they are “sanitised”.

We’re not learning anything new, but the board is getting uncomfortable.

Updated

Malcolm Turnbull has put the onus on state governments to plan for Australia’s energy future as the system shifts to renewables because of climate change, AAP reports.

The former Liberal prime minister has become outspoken on climate action since being booted from the top job due to clashes over energy policy within his own party.

Turnbull told an online event on Tuesday:

To those who say, ‘Why didn’t you sort this out when you were prime minister?’ – this is absolutely state government responsibility.

The federal government’s levers in this area are very tiny, if existent at all.

Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Turnbull: ‘On the right of politics, coal has become fetishised.’ Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Turnbull was recently picked to lead a climate advisory board in New South Wales but dumped after a media campaign questioning his suitability because he backs a moratorium on new coal mines.

He said:

It’s difficult to imagine an industry that does more damage to the environment than open-cut coal mining. It literally digs the whole environment up.

Turnbull pointed to the NSW Upper Hunter byelection, where the state government is spruiking the coal industry.

The former Liberal leader said the industry was putting at risk other local businesses such as farms, thoroughbred horse racing and wineries.

An industry that is on the way out, that is threatened by decline in coal demand ... is putting at risk industries, and industries that will be with us forever.

It is a shocking abdication of responsibility. And the problem is there is no plan.

The issue was no longer one of engineering and economics but one of ideology and identity.

Turnbull said:

On the right of politics, coal has become fetishised.

Turnbull pointed to politics when asked why the federal government was looking to subsidise an expansion of the gas industry.

He said:

I’ve got to assume it’s largely political, in order to be seen to be supporting fossil fuels of one kind or another.

There is a massive risk in subsiding gas infrastructure right now because it is likely to have a relatively short life. You’re just going to end up with a bunch of stranded assets.

It’s very very dangerous ... Are we really going to be burning gas at higher levels than we are today in 10 years’ time? I don’t think so.

Updated

In response to a question from Liberal senator David Fawcett, each board member says there has not been any discussion of privatising Australia Post and that they would oppose it, if there was.

Fawcett’s job in this committee is trying to kill off any suggestion the government is looking at plans to privatise Australia Post.

Bruce McIver, the former LNP president, says he is the longest-serving board member at five-and-a-half years. He says it has not been discussed in his time. Kim Carr asks if he missed that part in the BCG report (which mentions privatising the parcel services).

Then the board chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, jumps in and says the BCG report had no recommendations, just “reform paths”. A couple of those “reform paths” did map out a privatisation option. But apparently it was not a recommendation. Just a path to reform.

Updated

Australia must call out China over abuses, Uyghurs tell inquiry

This just in from AAP:

Australia must stand up to China’s bullying and call out the superpower’s widespread use of forced Uyghur labour, a parliamentary inquiry has been told.

Every Uyghur in Australia has suffered the anguish of having relatives imprisoned or go missing over the past five years, Australian Uyghur community representatives told the hearing on Tuesday.

Uyghur Association of Victoria president Alim Osman said:

Genocide is unquestionable and is happening as we speak.

The foreign affairs, defence and trade committee is considering an import ban on goods produced using Uyghur forced labour, under proposed laws put forward by independent senator Rex Patrick.

Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association president Ramila Chanisheff said people were afraid of speaking up about relatives being forcibly coerced, separated from their children and sent to mass labour camps.

She said China was bullying countries like Australia not to speak up and slapping them with harsh tariffs.

Committee chair Eric Abetz slammed Australian National University academic Jane Golley’s plans to “debunk” reports of 1 million Uyghur Muslims working in concentration camps in Xinjiang province.

Prof Golley has played down reports about Xinjiang and last week spoke about a paper she received “anonymously” that suggested Uyghur female sterilisation should be regarded as family planning.

She heads the ANU’s taxpayer-funded Australian Centre on China in the World.

Senator Eric Abetz is chairing the committee
Senator Eric Abetz is chairing the committee. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

“Golly gosh,” senator Abetz said, calling out her naivety in the face of “overwhelming evidence”.

He said:

It now sheds a light onto other criticisms of other people who have sought to highlight human rights abuses in China.

Dr Darren Byler, a researcher at the University of Colorado, said Prof Golley’s advocacy was an example of the “seeding of doubt or disinformation” by China.

He gave evidence of Uyghurs being placed on a “trustworthy” list if they used “long-term birth control”.

East Turkistan Australian Association president and immigration lawyer Nurmuhammad Majid has had two sisters imprisoned for more than 10 years, two brothers taken to an unknown location, and 58 people in his extended family lost since 2016.

He said:

Australia has not made any significant contribution to stop the atrocities against Uyghur people. Australia is now being the victim of China’s economic expansion policy.

Majid said Australian Uyghurs had also been wrongly listed as terrorists by China for sending money to family members and 14 people – including children – have been prevented from returning to families here despite having visas.

Analyst Vicky Xu said the Chinese government regards any investigation of labour conditions of Uyghur workers as “crossing a red line”.

She co-authored the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s report last year that found more than 80,000 people were transferred out of Xinjiang to work in factories across China between 2017 and 2019.

In conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs and other minorities were working in factories linked to almost 100 global brands in the technology, clothing and vehicle sectors.

Majid said China had established a massive cotton production facilities where Uyghurs worked 18-hour days for less than 10c an hour.

Several witnesses told the committee Australian slave labour laws fell short of what was required.

Updated

Bridget McKenzie asks the board how it feels about reinstating Christine Holgate, given the board thinks she was treated terribly, but isn’t owed an apology by them, but also was a great CEO.

The board chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, responds for everyone:

It’s time for Australia Post to move on.

Lucio Di Bartolomeo appears via video link at the Senate inquiry
Lucio Di Bartolomeo appears via video link at the Senate inquiry on Tuesday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie asks the board members who are appearing whether they agree with the chair that the board does not owe Christine Holgate an apology and it was the actions of the parliament and the media which led to the situation.

Board member and former Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson says he is concerned that the committee is moving from asking questions to “taking scalps” and that the moment Labor senator Kimberley Kitching asked her question in Senate estimates the die was cast.

Ronaldson says:

And the senator knows full well why that was done, on whose behalf it was done, and the fact that it was a bit of payback.

Kitching objects, and then Ronaldson objects, which he is told would be easier if he were in the room.

Updated

We have another update from the inquest into the death of Wayne Fella Morrison.

Claire O’Connor, representing the family of Morrison, has broken through this morning’s gridlock with a series of direct questions about the role of the prison officers’ legal fund on the day of the incident.

O’Connor asked Penn, who sat on the executive committee of the legal fund, whether he understood he was being asked if he had directed another prison officer to stop uploading incident reports without legal advice.

With some unease, Penn said he had only done so with legal advice and wanted to be clear in saying he had not told anyone to destroy reports, just that the usual process had been “delayed” to give staff a chance to speak to their lawyers.

In response to another set of questions from O’Connor about whether Penn had any criticism of prison management on that day, Penn initially appeared confused and responded saying he “felt bullied”.

Penn said:

I feel bullied into saying something that should have been protected by legal professional privilege.

When the question was clarified, Penn answered that he wants to know why management was absent on that day.

Penn said:

Where was management? Why didn’t they hunt me down if there was this problem? Where were they? Where were they hiding?

Penn has now stepped down. Prison officer Shirley Bell is up now.

Updated

OK, we are back. With just some of the board members. The committee chair, Sarah Hanson-Young, wants it known that this is not an ideal situation and Tony Nutt will have to appear.

We move on – so far, the questions are about the meeting the board held on 22 October, which was the day of the Senate estimates hearing and the question time where Scott Morrison said “she can go”.

Kim Carr wants to know whether the board received any independent legal advice before it held its private meeting to discuss Christine Holgate’s future.

It takes a while but no, the board did not. At that stage, board chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo says the board just wanted Holgate to stand aside while an investigation took place.

Carr wants to know who asked about the procedural fairness for Holgate.

It doesn’t seem like anyone did – because the board was not looking to sack Holgate but have her stand aside for an investigation.

Updated

It’s time for the Australia Post board to appear – but Tony Nutt, the former Liberal party director who is a member of the board, and according to Christine Holgate’s testimony at the last hearing, told her that the board had to act because the prime minister said he wanted her gone, is “unwell” and will not be appearing today.

He will be appearing at another time, Sarah Hanson-Young says.

The rest of the board is appearing remotely, despite having been asked to appear in person.

The committee can hear none of them – there are massive tech problems and no one can hear anyone’s microphones.

Hanson-Young says this is why the committee wanted the board to appear in person.

“What an absolute shambles,” she says.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson says that is unfair and it may be issues on the Senate’s side.

We are now going to a break while the committee works out what to do – because all but one of the board members can not be heard.

Updated

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson is asking about the support the Australian Citizens party for the LPO Group and Christine Holgate – which Holgate herself was asked about by Kimberley Kitching in the last hearing. Angela Cramp, with the LPO Group, says they are “citizens of Australia” and they are supporting them, so she doesn’t see a problem with getting support from citizens of Australia.

Henderson: “I am questioning why you would be working with an organisation known to be antisemitic, racist, and also with many of its policies foundations in conspiracy theories and Senator Kitching has raised the same concerns.”

Cramp says she has not looked into the group and is getting support from all political groups.

“I have no real understanding of their background, what we were interested in was somebody was prepared to stand up and support us,” Cramp says.

A relative of one of her staff members is “very interested” in the policies of the Australian Citizens party and that is how she first heard of them.

Updated

With that, I shall leave you for the afternoon, but don’t worry, you are in safe hands with Nino Bucci, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon’s news.

Updated

The coronial inquest into the death in custody of Wayne Fella Morrison has picked up again this morning after a two year delay.

Proceedings were, however, slow going as lawyers questioned corrections officer Michael Penn over his movements on the 23 November 2016 in an effort to pin down key events in the timeline.

Council assisting the coroner Anthony Crocker relied on video footage to ask Penn about the order of events, such as when a call for legal advice was made for the staff and when a direction was given to a junior officer to stop uploading incident reports.

Penn, however, insisted the video footage in question was from another day – causing much confusion.

Establishing a timeline of events is important as both management at the facility and the officers who were alone with Morrison in the back of a prison transport van are expected to appear over the next fortnight.

Wayne Fella Morrison was a 29-year-old Wiradjuri, Kookatha and Wirangu man who died on 26 September 2016 at the Royal Adelaide hospital.

Morrison was being held on remand at Yatala labour prison pending an appearance by video link in the Elizabeth magistrates court.

After an incident, up to 14 corrections officers wrestled Morrison to the ground outside his cell and transported him to the prisons high security G Division in a van.

When he was removed from the van, Morrison was non-responsive.

Updated

The incoming most senior US military commander in the Indo-Pacific region has been named as an honorary appointee to the Order of Australia.

Admiral John Aquilino – who has commanded the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet since May 2018 – said last month he thought China was viewing annexation of Taiwan as its “No 1 priority”, and added:

My opinion is this problem is much closer to us than most think.

Aquilino – whom the US Senate confirmed last week to become the new commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and therefore America’s most senior military officer in the region – is being honoured for “distinguished service and dedication to strengthening the military alliance between Australia and the United States”, according to a notice published in the Australian government gazette today.

The notice said the governor general, David Hurley, was “pleased to announce” Aquilino’s appointment as an honorary officer (AO) in the military division of the Order of Australia.

The notice said Aquilino had “a clear eye to the unfolding strategic circumstances in the Indo-Pacific region” and had “systematically driven the US Navy to ever greater levels of interoperability with Australia in the areas of operational doctrine, command and control, fighting techniques, personnel training standards and logistics support”.

His public advocacy for Australia’s naval strategy, and concrete steps to support it, has greatly strengthened and deepened the Australia-US alliance.

Earlier today, the home affairs department secretary, Michael Pezzullo, was urged to “tone down” his language after a speech in which he warned of an increasing drumbeat to war and argued Australia should not avoid conflict at the price of liberty, as reported by my colleague Paul Karp.

The chief of the Australian defence force, General Angus Campbell, said earlier this month that the outbreak of a war over Taiwan would be “disastrous” for the region and indicated Australia would keep pushing for peaceful dialogue.

Updated

Let’s just quickly talk about the tone of the “returning Indian Australians are a danger to our society” messages that politicians have been pushing today.

Just as you are going about your day, maybe try and keep in mind how race is playing a role in how you are feeling about this situation, and how that dynamic might be affecting politicians’ willingness to use pretty condemnatory rhetoric and take more hardline stances.

I know we are many months on from this, but it’s worth remembering the compassion and care we felt towards richer white Australians who were stuck on cruise ships in March last year, even though, they too chose to get on board while a pandemic overseas had been bubbling along for months.

Updated

After a little bump where Angela Cramp mistakenly referred to Labor senator Kimberley Kitching as Scott Morrison’s “leading lady”, something that caused much mirth among the Coalition senators, Cramp says she believes the whole Australia Post board needs a clean-out, and she thinks the whole issue involving the Cartier watches was because of the BCG report and Christine Holgate’s opposition to it.

She describes Scott Morrison’s reaction during that question time in October last year, where he said that if Holgate did not want to stand aside “she can go” as “premeditated”.

If you look at the history of the media that came out, I do ... I believe that the government has an agenda. It is similar to the previous Labor government’s agenda, and we experienced the same response.

Cramp says she is “desperate” to hang on to Holgate.

My business is desperate to hang on to her.

Updated

Angela Cramp finishes her opening statement with this:

We invested our own money to own our community post offices, and we deserve to be respected and we asked the committee to consider recommending an apology from the prime minister and the board of Australia Post, reinstating our CEO and allowing us to continue on our growth strategy, ensuring the board of Australia is balanced, professional, skilled and represents the interests of all stakeholders, dedicating at least one board member to LPO interests, chosen by the licensing board, a commitment to consult on all major strategic changes, allowing licensees to have more commercial freedom so we remain viable, rejecting the BCG strategy and stopping any further secret reports.

We eagerly await the outcome of your inquiry and hope that those responsible for these terrible actions that led to this scene will be held to account and real, meaningful change with time.

The government needs to consider that community post offices that are in every community, every market, seek, and we have a very strong voice.

Updated

'Tone it down': McGowan to federal home affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo

The WA premier has urged the federal home affairs secretary, Michael Pezzullo to “tone it down”, after his Anzac Day speech warning the public of an increasing drumbeat of war and that Australia should not avoid conflict at the price of liberty.

Look, I just urge the commonwealth and people in this position, elected and otherwise, to tone it down. Tone it down.

What good does that do, saying things like that? It’s totally unnecessary.

It gets a headline, no doubt secures you some coverage around the world. And there may be elements in the community who cheer but it’s in no one’s interest, that sort of language.

Diplomacy should be conducted diplomatically by people in elected office and also public servants. I suggest to them they don’t say things like that anymore.

Updated

The committee is really motoring through these early sessions. We now have the LPO – the licensed post office group – Angela Cramp appeared with Christine Holgate at the first hearing, and is again wearing suffragette white in support of Holgate.

LPOs are owned by licensees – people who pay up to a $1m for a licence to run a post office. They LPOs have come in behind Holgate, as they believe she saved them through the Bank@Post program – allowing post offices to essentially become banks – meaning struggling post offices, particularly those outside of the metro areas, saw a huge return to business.

Cramp is giving her opening statement and says the cost of the watches worked out to $7.50 a post office, and she did not believe it to be a waste of taxpayers’ money, as the Bank@Post brought in $200m in capital for Australia Post.

Cramp says the LPO Group have no faith in the board chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo, or the board, and are very worried by the BCG privatisation report.

Updated

McGowan seems to be going hard on the “if you are trapped in India it’s your fault” rhetoric:

Look, I support a suspension because it’s putting at risk this country. And that is a hard thing to say.

Australians or permanent residents or others who want to come into Australia from India, it will be difficult for them.

But I just repeat, many of the cases we are getting a people who went recently ... they didn’t have to do that, but they did. So that is a problem that was not of our making.

Sorry to editorialise but this seems like a very damaging tone to take. It’s extremely villainising to people trapped - their lives now potentially at risk. Many of these people have been trying to get home for months or even a year.

If the leader of a state is going to stand up and say “many” of the cases are there because of their bad decision and are now endangering other Australians, he should provide numbers on what proportion this is, rather than tar thousands with that brush.

Updated

McGowan:

I don’t think people should be going overseas for weddings or funerals.

The Olympics in Tokyo might be an exceptional case but I’ve heard of people going to carnivals or cycling events, people going overseas because they wanted to go and do some course, an undergraduate course at university.

I don’t see the need. Maybe I am unusual and out of step that I think it’s just common sense that you don’t leave Australia, which is essentially Covid-free, and go to a country full of Covid and then get sick and want to come home. I don’t see the sense in it.

Updated

McGowan has been asked if would support the federal government stopping all incoming travellers, not just those from India:

I don’t know what is on their actual agenda. India, there needs to be a suspension.

And if they wish to come up with a new arrangement around India, using Christmas Island or some of the more remote facilities, that is a matter for them, and I think every state is going through this, there is huge pressure now on all our quarantine facilities as a result of people coming from India.

What makes it more galling is people have gone over there, over the course of the last few months, to weddings* or funerals or to play sport or whatever other purpose, and I don’t think that was necessary, and people returning, who are Covid positive, having gone there recently, is a problem that we are all now facing.

*It’s worth noting the vast majority of people have gone over for compassionate reasons, such as caring for dying relatives or attending funerals.

Updated

OK just on this last sentence from McGowan:

And then you have Christmas Island, which is not a defence base but was built for these sorts of purposes. At present they have some people there waiting to be deported, I say to them they should speed them up.

Now at first, it sounds like maybe he is speaking about the Biloela family, who have broad support from federal Labor to be allowed to come home to Queensland, rather than being sent to Sri Lanka. But he has followed up with this:

Christmas Island has people there. How can you put returning Australians in the same facility as people have been deported? Frankly, to make all these things work requires a bit of work, and flexibility. And effort.

Not just pushing back and saying no, can’t do. There are solutions to these things. If they wish to do so.

They could clear Christmas Island of potential deportees and put them into another facility in Australia that is secure they wanted to use Christmas Island. It just requires effort, that’s all.

Also worth noting that the Bioela family isn’t in the same section that was used for quarantining repatriated travellers from Wuhan early last year.

Updated

Reporters have asked which military bases McGowan wants the federal government to consider transforming into quarantine facilities:

They are all over Australia. There is some in Victoria, the Adelaide Hills, the Territory and Queensland has large numbers.

In Western Australia, we have Curtin airbase. Curtin airbase, I saw them out there the other day, saying it’s an operational base. It’s not. It’s an airstrip. It’s used in emergencies. If the country, God forbid, ever goes to war, it operationalises and you use it as a forward base.

It’s a large airport that has virtually no one at it. But it has a large quarantine facility there that was built for asylum seekers. It can take up to 1,500 people.

Then you go to Yongah Hill ... which is a large quarantine facility, largely set up for asylum seekers but they call it a quarantine facility.

And then you have Christmas Island, which is not a defence base but was built for these sorts of purposes.

At present they have some people there waiting to be deported, I say to them they should speed them up. It has accommodation there that could be used. All those options are there.

Updated

The Australia Post Senate committee hearing is now hearing from the communications workers’ union, which includes postal workers, talking about the importance of Australia Post and posties to communities.

They say that is not something which can have a monetised value put on it, but it’s priceless.

Updated

McGowan has been asked why Rottnest Island could not be used again for quarantine purposes like it was early in the pandemic.

The cohort was regarded as quite low risk. The issue with Rottnest Island is that we could use it in an emergency, but for higher risk people, we have basically three separate families, they need to share a toilet, it’s not as good.

We could use it if we need to. But there are actually facilities that do have security, they do have purpose-built facilities, but do have an airport next to them, they are owned by the commonwealth but are not using them.

Updated

A reporter has been asked if McGowan thinks the rumoured plans by Cricket Australia to evacuate the Australian cricket team from India via charter flight is acceptable.

Now his answer has more to do with Christmas Island than cricket, but it’s pretty interesting nonetheless:

It’s a matter for the commonwealth government as to what they do here. That’s why I keep saying you have purpose-built quarantine facilities in remote locations with an airstrip alongside of them, a big airstrip set up for a large aircraft.

I just urge the commonwealth government to take action and make sure they use the facilities that were made available. I realise there’s been an ongoing argument about this, but it’s not a new argument. It’s been going on for the entirety of this year.

When they first evacuated people ... and, there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then, but when they first evacuated Australians out of China in March and April of last year, they took them to Christmas Island and put them in a quarantine facility which has an airstrip, as a hospital, as purpose-built buildings.

Since that time, they have refused to do so. They have done it before and have the capacity should they wish to.

Updated

McGowan says half of all the Covid-19 cases in hotel quarantine are “coming out of one country”.

(That country is India, in case you are just joining us.)

Updated

McGowan has shot down the idea of additional broad compensation programs from business affected by the lockdown, beyond the current electricity rebate.

I’m very sympathetic to retail, hospitality and other businesses that suffered losses over the course of the last three days and we’ll look at what can be done.

But a scheme in which there’s applications and people put in claims for tens of thousands of dollars, that would be very difficult to administer and very expensive and then we have to tax the same businesses to pay for it.

There’s no easy answers with this. The best answer is to get back on our feet, get back to work and get everywhere open as quickly and as normally as possible as soon as possible.

Updated

McGowan has been asked about the economic cost of the lockdown:

It will be in the tens of millions, the impact to the economy and we are analysing that. The initial estimate was around $70m, the Treasury estimate of this obviously if we went into a long-term lockdown, a community spread, the cost would be many billions and tens of thousands of jobs.

That was the choice we faced.

Updated

McGowan says commonwealth looking to ban Indian flights

Mark McGowan has said he believes the commonwealth is in fact looking at stopping flights coming from India.

Well, I think the commonwealth is looking at suspending flights out of India, which is a good thing for this period, and it’s very sad and very difficult to say because people in India are no doubt not happy about being there and it’s obviously a risk for them but it’s also a risk to our hotel quarantine system and you can see the consequences when there’s a problem because we just had the consequence over the course of the last three days.

However, if someone leaves India and gets on a flight in Singapore, Doha, London or wherever it might be back to Australia, that suspension of flights from India clearly doesn’t apply to them. That’s why we need to ensure that the integrity of our testing regime – that is, people getting tested with verifiable and accurate tests in those other locations – is put in place.

Updated

McGowan has been asked if the returned travellers from India have been vaccinated:

I don’t know the answer to that question. But I do know last week we agreed that if you were coming out of India, you would need to spend three days in another location, get tested in that other location, before boarding a flight to Australia. Now, I don’t know if that’s occurring.

I don’t know if that’s occurring, but clearly we agreed back in, I think, November of last year, maybe December, that anyone coming from overseas to Australia had to get a negative test before boarding the aircraft.

Yet what we’re finding is large numbers of people are arriving who are Covid-positive so clearly the system is not working as intended and the way we agreed the other week to try and help with that system was to ensure that anyone who left the very highly infected places, like India, went to another location, for instance, Doha, Singapore, wherever it was, stayed three days there, got a test that confirmed they were negative in that location before on-flying to Australia.

I don’t know if that’s working. I don’t know if it’s even been implemented. We obviously have a problem with India. Some of the tests conducted in India either aren’t accurate or aren’t believable and clearly that’s causing some issues here.

Updated

McGowan said 255 close contacts of WA’s three Covid-19 cases have now tested negative:

I can report we have 368 close contacts of the three positive cases. 255 have tested negative so far. All are in self-quarantine, and we’re awaiting further test results.

There are now 797 casual contacts with 417 negative test results produced so far from those casual contact. Obviously, the numbers grow. The numbers move because more people are identified.

McGowan is sounded a bit nervous at the prospect of 78 or 79 passengers arriving from India over the weekend, where case numbers are at record highs.

We obviously have enormous sympathy for India at the moment. It’s obviously a diabolical situation that is going on in India at the moment, but it does put extreme pressure on our systems here in Western Australia and indeed in other states.

I’m advised that other states are going through exactly the same experience.

WA bracing for significant number of infected returned travellers from India

McGowan:

I can confirm that overnight, at this point in time, we have no new local cases of Covid-19, which is good news. Obviously, we’re still awaiting test results that will come in throughout the day. Today, four cases of Covid-19 have been reported. These are all related to returned travellers from India and they are all in hotel quarantine. They are three males – two in their 30s, one in his 50s – and a female in her 30s.

There’s an additional case that’s under investigation. This case and the other four confirmed cases in hotel quarantine all originate from flight MH125 that arrived from Kuala Lumpur into Perth on Saturday, 24 April. I have just been advised at this morning’s emergency management team meeting that 78 of the 79 passengers on this flight had been in India recently.

Our expectation is the number of positive cases from this group of people will grow and potentially grow significantly.

Updated

OK, here he is!

Updated

Now from what I saw McGowan was meant to step up at 9am Perth time (11am for the east coast). It’s 15 past now, but also last week he was an hour late, so who knows!

Updated

Victoria’s community is Covid-19 free to by the way.

No new local cases in NSW today!

Australian detained in Myanmar in good health, former fellow inmate says

Australian Sean Turnell – Aung San Suu Kyi’s economic adviser – is being detained at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison but appears in good health, a recently freed student activist has told Myanmar media.

Myanmar Now has reported that Zayar Lwin met with Turnell almost daily for a month inside the prison, where he appeared well. Turnell’s daily routine, Lwin said, includes morning exercise, watching TV news in English, and reading.

Turnell reportedly has his own room with bedding, a mosquito net and personal belongings, including access to medication.

Lwin, former chairman of the Yangon University of Economics student union, said:

We mostly talked about the economy.

Turnell told the activist he had not expected the coup to happen.

Lwin was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison in 2019 for performing as part of a satirical troupe that mocked the military. He was released in an amnesty earlier this month.

Turnell was detained days after the 1 February coup which installed a military junta as government. He was initially held at a hotel in Yangon, before being moved into police custody. He was transferred to Insein after being interrogated for about two weeks by military regime officials.

Turnell, Aung San Suu Kyi, and three of her cabinet members were charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act in late March, Reuters reported. The charges carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Since being detained Turnell has spoken by phone to his wife, Ha Vu, and to Australian embassy officials.

Updated

Now it looks like we will be getting an update from WA premier Mark McGowan reasonably soon. I’ll bring that to you when he steps up.

Some strong words from acting Victorian premier James Merlino by the sounds of things. Joining forces with WA and Queensland to condemn the federal government’s lack of action when it comes to federal quarantine facilities.

I’ll bring you those full quotes as soon as I can.

Updated

Victoria will open borders to WA from midnight

While I try and find a live stream for the Victorian presser I shall bring up updates via Simon Love’s tweets I guess!

Victoria looks pretty set to lift the “red zone” destination of Perth and the Peel region at midnight. It will now be orange, which means you must apply for a permit to enter Victoria, and you must agree to get a Covid-19 test within 72 hours of arriving and isolate until you get a negative test result.

Oh, and health authorities have finally tracked down and tested basically everyone that was on the flight with an infectious Victorian man returning to the state from hotel quarantine in Perth where he contracted the virus.

(Fingers crossed that one holdout isn’t infected!)

Updated

Infected tanker crew being treated off the coast of Queensland

Most crew members aboard a British-flagged tanker ship off Queensland have been exposed to coronavirus but only one case is current, authorities say.

Queensland Health staff will treat that crew member on board the Inge Kosan, which is anchored off the Sunshine Coast, reports Tracey Ferrier from AAP.

All 21 crew members had been tested and seven historical cases of the virus were detected, chief health officer Jeannette Young said on Tuesday.

Seven have come back as having fully recovered, they are no longer infectious but they’ve certainly had the infection. Plus then there’s that additional confirmed case.

We’ll be caring for that one case on board ... because they are well.

She said it appeared “most people on that ship have already been exposed to the virus”.

Meanwhile, health authorities are waiting for another ship of concern that’s on the way to Queensland from Vanuatu.

Young said 11 crew were aboard that vessel, and authorities would be managing it when it arrived.

We’ve had, over the last 12 or so months, a lot of experience dealing with ships with positive cases on board.

Updated

We are back to the BCG secret report in the Australia Post hearing. Both the CPEU and the CPSU want the whole report released.

The Liberal senators in the room are asking how anyone can be making assertions there are plans to privatise Australia Post, when the government says there are not. Which brings us back to the union representatives saying we don’t know what the plans are, because the government won’t release the full report. And so on and so on.

The committee hearing chair, Sarah Hanson-Young, is already giving very big heavy sighs, if that is any indication of how the morning is going. We still have the board to go.

Updated

The second hearing of the Australia Post Senate inquiry is being held – and the CPSU is giving evidence.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson is asking the deputy national president, Brooke Muscat, about the statement the CPSU put out in October calling for Christine Holgate’s resignation and for an investigation into the board.

The CPSU has come out in support of Holgate since then. Asked about the original statement, Muscat said since then more information had come out (the privatisation review, which Holgate was against and believes is a big part of the reason the Cartier watch issue blew up as it did) but that, yes, they still have issues with the watches being gifted.

Muscat:

We think it’s an opulent gift at the time when low-paid workers can barely pay their bills and bargaining stopped and started and stopped and started and our members had to face a pay freeze.

Updated

Karen Andrews was asked directly on the Today show if the government would reach a decision on flights to India today:

Look, that’s not clear at this point, what will be the outcome, because we have not had the meeting as yet*.

So, that meeting will kick off in a couple of hours. We will be discussing; we will be looking at what the options are going to be coming out of that. But what all Australians can be assured of is that the federal government will do all that it can to make sure that they are safe and secure.

*Worth noting they have now had that meeting, and there are some unconfirmed reports currently circulating that the government has decided to halt flights.

Updated

Just on that big question – will Australia halt all flights from India as case numbers skyrocket?

Here are some comments from the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, this morning, which seem to show that banning all flights is very much on the table:

Well, clearly the situation in India is absolutely devastating. Hundreds of thousands of new cases each day, multiple deaths. I mean, it’s just an awful situation.

So, you’re absolutely right. The national security committee will be meeting today. That was announced yesterday. That was actually an unprecedented move by the prime minister, to actually flag that that committee would be meeting today. There will be a wide range of issues that are discussed.

As you would be aware, we have already made changes to flights coming in to Australia. We took immediate action last week to reduce the number of flights coming in from India and I’m sure that there will be a broad range of discussions today about what the future action may need to be.

I’m going to be listening to the health advice because, throughout this pandemic, the federal government has been absolutely clear that we will take the advice that the health professionals give to us. So, I think we need to listen to that very clearly.

We also need to look at issues such as the humanitarian support that we can provide to India. There’s already been some discussions about ventilators and oxygen and how we might be able to support India. And, of course, there are issues with getting travellers back to Australia and how we can best manage that.

Updated

Global drums of war beating: security tsar

Your wish is my command! Here is what Paul Karp has to say on the topic:

Australia’s home affairs secretary has declared the global “drums of war” are beating and Australia must prepare for regional conflict.

The home affairs department secretary, Michael Pezzullo, has warned of an increasing drumbeat to war, arguing Australia should not avoid conflict at the price of liberty.

The comments come just days after the new defence minister, Peter Dutton, warned of possible war with China over Taiwan, part of an escalation of rhetoric that Australia could be drawn in to a war over China’s territorial disputes with regional allies.

Pezzullo is tipped to follow Dutton to become defence department secretary, a move that would cement the trend of China hawks being appointed to top defence jobs, despite the Morrison government’s claims it is attempting to reset the relationship.

In his Anzac Day speech – titled The Longing for Peace, the Curse of War – Pezzullo said that free nations “continue still to face [the] sorrowful challenge” of militaristic aggression and “tyranny’s threat to freedom”.

You can read his full report below:

Updated

The best tweet ever tweeted has turned one year old today.

I am, of course, referring to Australian Nobel laureate Prof Peter Doherty accidentally typing “Dan Murphy opening hours” into Twitter instead of Google during the depths of Australia’s first wave and lockdown, perfectly encapsulating the suffering, persistence and joy of a nation in just four words.

Art. Pure, raw and simple.

Updated

I know! I’m sorry for all the Victoria news! But in fairness, it’s not my fault that NSW, SA and NT are being so boring today.

Victoria will extend its popular free dental care program for school kids, announcing an expansion of services after Covid-19 interruptions.

Updated

Sky News reporting flights to be halted to India

Sky News is reporting that the federal government will announce a halt to all commercial flights from India today.

This has not been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia, but Hunt did flag this was a possibility yesterday, saying:

If those additional measures are recommended, we will take them with the heaviest of hearts but without any hesitation.

Updated

A reminder if there is something you reckon I’ve missed or think should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or email me at matilda.boseley@theguardian.com.

Updated

An update of the truck firmly wedged under a bridge in Brisbane:

Vic proposes new commercial cohort of returned travellers

Victoria has revised its plan to return international students and other foreign economic migrants to the state under a separate hotel quarantine scheme, reports Callum Godde from AAP.

The model would bring an extra 120 arrivals into Victoria each week and not be included in the state’s weekly cap of 1000 returned travellers.

Users of the system including universities, stage and screen productions and major events groups would foot the bill, which would be “over and above” hotel quarantine fees for returning Australians.

In a letter to Scott Morrison seen by AAP on Tuesday, acting premier James Merlino outlines the scheme and proposes for it to begin from 24 May.

The economic cohort would catch commercial flights where possible and be housed in a dedicated quarantine hotel away from other returned travellers, similar to the Australian Open program.

We’ve always said that we would work to welcome back international students when it is safe and reasonable to do so.

On the advice of our public health experts and in working with the commonwealth we’ve put forward a proposal for a dedicated quarantine program for economic cohorts, including international students.

We believe we’ve acquitted all of the commonwealth’s requirements to establish a dedicated economic stream so we look forward to their consideration and approval of this proposal.

The Victorian government had previously announced the third iteration of its hotel quarantine program would put aside 120 additional places for economic cohorts once it scaled up to 1,120 returned travellers a week.

But the federal government rejected Victoria’s initial proposal, with the figure subsequently cut to 1,000.

Updated

Nick Evershed has an update for us on how Australia is going with the vaccine rollout. (Spoiler alert, still not great).

You can see all the updates in the explainer below:

Updated

The NSW gambling and liquor regulator has extended three licences to sell alcohol at bars and restaurants in Crown Resorts’ new megacasino at Barangaroo, on Sydney harbour.

But the Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority is still not willing to give Crown a licence to run the Barangaroo gaming floor.

ILGA saids Crown still has a lot of work to do to become fit to hold a licence following a scathing report, tabled in NSW parliament in February, that found it facilitated money laundering and that junket operators that brought high rollers to its Melbourne and Perth operations were linked to organised crime.

ILGA chair Philip Crawford said:

These issues are detailed and complex, and Crown is required to undertake significant change to satisfy the authority that it is on a pathway to regain suitability to hold a gaming licence.

It will take time for Crown to fully implement that change and for the authority to give it proper consideration before determining the most appropriate course of action.

The liquor licences were originally granted in December. The extended licenses will expire on 31 October.

Updated

I mentioned before that Anthony Albanese was critical of Scott Morrison’s comments to a Christian conference last week where he said God was on his side as prime minister.

Here is a little more from that interview with ABC radio.

As a personal matter, I respect people’s own spiritual beliefs, but it’s also important that we have a separation here of church and state.

Albanese was asked if the prime minister needs to be more open and transparent about how evangelical Christianity influences his politics:

I have no intention of making comments on the prime minister’s faith, that is a matter for him.

I think that the separation of church and state are important. I think that the idea that God is on any politician side is no more respectful than the idea that, when someone’s sporting team wins, it’s because of divine intervention.

I think that, for me, that isn’t is inappropriate, but I’m not going to comment, and have no intention of commenting on Scott Morrison’s personal faith.

Updated

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is in central Australia today ahead of the fourth anniversary next month of the Uluru Statement from the Heart. This statement called for national truth-telling processes to expose the suffering inflicted on Indigenous people by colonisation, with the ultimate goal of Australia reaching a treaty.

Albanese has reaffirmed Labor’s commitment to establishing a First Nations Voice to Parliament if elected.

When you look at the Uluru Statement from the Heart, it is an elegant, and a generous statement. It is First Nations people reaching out to us, to the whole country, saying that they want; reconciliation to join them on the journey, and Voice to Parliament enshrined in the constitution.

[It’s about ensuring] that First Nations people are consulted. They don’t get determination, it’s not a third chamber, but they consulted on matters that affect them. That’s just good manners, and it’s a matter of respect.

And until we recognise the fact that our history, didn’t begin with the arrival of the First Fleet that it goes back 65,000 years. And that should be a source of incredible pride that we have the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet right here in our midst, we should value that we should be, should be acknowledged in a national document our Constitution, and we should enshrine a voice so that First Nations people can have that certainty going forward.

Updated

It is a “terrible indictment” on Australia that it took Brittany Higgins’ allegation of sexual harassment in parliament to put gender equality back into focus for the government, according to Michele O’Neil.

In a speech to the National Press Club on Tuesday, the Australian Council of Trade Unions president will put the Morrison government on notice that it must do more to boost stagnant wages and reverse women’s economic inequality.

O’Neil’s warning comes as a new report from the Australia Institute urges the Coalition to deliver a “less sexist” budget, proposing several measures to address what it says has been a “massive bias” towards men in previous Coalition budgets.

O’Neil notes that the October budget was also accused of ignoring women, but at the time the prime minister argued women benefited from all measures – including because they drive on roads – while his office said no credible women had criticised it.

You can read the full story from Paul Karp and Sarah Martin below:

India’s Covid-19 spike has left hundreds of thousands of people grieving the loss of loved ones, and it has hit close to home for Guardian staff as well.

Kakoli Bhattacharya, an Indian journalist who was a researcher, translator, news assistant and friend to Guardian correspondents for more than a decade, has died from Covid-19 in Delhi.

She died on 23 April after being admitted to hospital earlier in the week during a catastrophic second wave of the virus in India that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since it took off in March.

Bhattacharya, 51, worked with every Guardian correspondent in south Asia since 2009. Her daily contributions to Guardian journalism ranged from obtaining the phone numbers of sources with remarkable speed, translating one of the several languages she spoke fluently, accompanying correspondents in the field, and beyond.

You can read the full story on Kakoli Bhattacharya below:

Updated

Speaking of Queensland, they have no local Covid-19 cases today!

Queensland and commonwealth to split Olympics bill

The federal government has agreed to split the infrastructure bill for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic bid, 50-50 with the state government.

With all the talk about India and hotel quarantine, I didn’t even get to mention this news from Annastacia Palaszczuk’s interview before.

The deal was struck yesterday afternoon, just more than an hour before the 5pm deadline for guarantees to be sent to the International Olympic Committee, reports AAP.

As part of the agreement, a jointly owned, funded and run Olympic infrastructure agency will be set up to oversee all projects in the lead up to the games in 11 years time.

Prime minister Scott Morrison released a statement last night:

Our offer is for a genuine partnership, with shared costs and shared responsibilities, working together to make this the best Olympics on record...

This takes the Olympics out of the day to day politics.

It provides a platform for bipartisan support at every level of government and let’s those who we will jointly appoint to get this job done, to just get on with it.

Palaszczuk welcomed the federal funding after calling for the arrangement for at least two weeks, but told the Today Show she wishes the commonwealth “would just get on with it”.

I’m opening a stage of the Ipswich Motorway in a couple of hours, and honestly, we built that together, I mean we actually get on with the job and build things...

But you know, to get the letter (from the federal government ) at 3.57pm, the deadline is, you know, 5pm, you know, it says a lot.

Palaszczuk says Brisbane’s bid for the games should now be “good to go”.

I thank the prime minister for getting me such a prompt response*... He met the deadline, that’s the main thing. Just get on with it, come on.

Anyway, it is going to be great, it means that the Gabba redevelopment can happen, community facilities can happen and the road projects can happen that we need.

So it will set Queensland up for decades to come. So Sydney had its time to shine, and in 2032, Brisbane, Queensland, it’s going to be fantastic.

*Read this with a sarcastic chuckle for the full effect.

Updated

The Indonesian navy today is trying to work out how it can salvage the remains of a submarine from the bottom of the Bali Sea and retrieve the bodies of the 53 sailors who died onboard, reports Reuters.

The German-built KRI Nanggala-402 was discovered lying on the seabed on Sunday broken into at least three parts, four days after it lost contact while preparing to conduct a torpedo drill.

Grieving relatives gathered on the seashore in Bali on Monday to pay their respects to the sailors who perished, and urged the authorities to bring up their bodies from the depths.

Relatives of crew member I Gede Kartika congregated at Celukan Bawang on Bali’s north coast on Monday. Some carried incense and flowers as they clutched framed photographs of him in his naval uniform. Others rowed out to sea to ceremoniously scatter petals in the water.

Wayan Darmanta, the uncle of the submariner, said:

We have already given our son to the government. Now that he has fallen in this operation, we hope the government will return his remains to us after all the official ceremonies.

Family members of another lost crew member also gathered at the port town of Banyuwangi, which is home to the naval base on Java island where the Nanggala was stationed, to pay their respects.

If you want to quickly get up to date with the entire submarine situation you can check my Guardian Australia explainer video below:

Updated

Absolutely love a quirky FOI find on a Tuesday morning!

Updated

AMA calls for flights from India to be suspended

Australia’s top doctor, AMA national president Dr Omar Khorshid has called for flights from India to be suspended, joining a growing chorus of political leaders and health practitioners who say the risk of breakouts in our hotel quarantine systems is just too great.

The situation in India is a tragedy and I’m sure the numbers that we’re seeing are an underestimate of the real scale of the human disaster that is going on there.

So, yes, Australia needs to protect itself by limiting the numbers of flights, because we do have only a certain amount of capacity in our quarantine system. And if we get that wrong, we will be back to outbreaks in Australia and lockdowns, et cetera.

But I think we also need to be looking at what we can do as Australians to assist in India. We understand the government is making some decisions, or potentially some announcements today, but the AMA would certainly call on the government to be generous and to share with India some of the knowledge and some of the equipment, some of the skills that we have that thankfully we’re not needing because we’ve been able to protect ourselves from Covid.

Updated

The Australia Medical Association’s national president Dr Omar Khorshid has called on governments to work together to develop alternatives to the hotels.

We have to acknowledge the hotels have been successful, but we’re now over a year into the pandemic and it looks like there’s gonna be at least another year before we’re not going to be needing these facilities anymore.

So, we can expect more breaches, even with the best systems that we can design, and, of course, the capacity of the systems is finite...

With complete carnage going on overseas, we need to continue to protect our country. And the best way to do that we can see would be to develop specific facilities along the lines of what we see near Darwin at Howard Springs, that are designed to keep people safe, to keep people healthy, to give them a reasonable quality of life while they’re in quarantine, but most importantly to protect Australia from this terrible virus.

Updated

Now the West Australian head of the AMA has some pretty *strong* words about hotel quarantine yesterday, (I believe the term “human rights abuse” was thrown around).

Well, the national president Dr Omar Khorshid has just appeared on ABC News Breakfast, so why don’t we have a look and see if he shares his western colleague’s views.

He seems to be hinting that a national approach might work better:

One of the issues we have is that each state is doing things slightly differently, and not all are operating their hotel quarantine to the highest possible standard.

Now, unfortunately, Victoria has learnt from its mistakes a couple of times, and at this stage, it does appear to have the best system*, as far as we can see.

But some states, like Western Australia, are still mixing the Covid-positive people in hotel quarantine with those who are Covid-negative, which, of course, increases the risk of transmission, and events that lead to lockdowns like we saw just this last weekend.

More can be done in hotel quarantine. We just need to get all those states up to the same level.

*Take that Brad Hazzard and your “gold standard!” (This is a biased Melbourne opinion, not Guardian Australia’s editorial position.)

Updated

Albanese also backed states such as WA and Queensland who have called on the federal government to take a leading role in establishing and running alternative quarantine facilities for returned travellers.

The idea that state governments are in charge of getting people back home is quite frankly absurd, given the commonwealth controls immigration, customs and should control quarantine.

Updated

Anthony Albanese has criticised the prime minister’s comments at a Christian conference last week, where he said he was called to do God’s work as prime minister.

Albanese spoke about the speech, which was revealed yesterday afternoon, on ABC radio:

I think the idea that God is on any politicians side is no more respectful than the idea that when someone’s sporting team wins, it’s because of divine intervention.

You can read more about the Pentecostal PM’s speech here:

Updated

Whoops.

The Queensland police service employs fewer than 90 officers as specialists in domestic and family violence, despite case numbers rising to more than 100,000 a year across the state.

As the QPS attempts to understand its own “failures” to protect murdered Gold Coast mother Kelly Wilkinson, support services and victims’ advocates have spoken out about the chronic under-resourcing of programs designed to intervene to prevent harm to women.

One of those programs involves integrated “high-risk” teams, largely led by non-government organisations, scattered across the state. The role of these teams is to identify cases where domestic abuse victims may be in imminent or serious danger.

Police said in a statement that 20 officers in total were attached to eight teams. According to people familiar with the teams, non-government organisations “do the heavy lifting” but remain severely constrained due to a lack of funding.

You can read the full report below:

Palaszczuk:

We have been putting on the table clear options for some more regional quarantine facilities. I’ve put in place the Well Camp in Toowoomba where the facility would be built right next to the airport.

Mark McGowan said – why not utilise Christmas Island. Howard Springs is being utilised in central Northern Territory. So look – why are we not looking at more options? We have to keep our country safe.

We’ve done a great job up to this point, and I commend the federal government in terms of working with the states through national cabinet in making sure that we’re protecting our citizens.

But, I can’t see that crystal ball into the future. So we have to plan for the future and the pandemic is not going away any time soon.

Updated

Palaszczuk says she is “at one” with WA premier Mark McGowan in calling for the federal government to take a more direct role in running quarantine facilities for returning travellers.

I’ve said this time and time again. Our hotels are not hospitals that can treat infectious issues like Covid.

Our hotels have done a mighty job. And frankly, I’m actually surprised that there haven’t been even more outbreaks. But what we’re seeing is that this virus is being transmitted in the corridors with the opening and closing of doors.

It is highly contagious. It is highly infectious and you know, at some stage, we’re going to have to think in the future – are the hotels the best source of quarantine? Places like Howard Springs has been working well.

Updated

Queensland calls for total ban on flights from India

Annastacia Palaszczuk is calling for a total suspension of flights from India, as case numbers rocket to record highs in the subcontinent.

I sent a letter to the prime minister at the end of last week asking for the suspension of flights coming in from India.

We’re due to have a direct flight in the next week or so coming in to Brisbane. It’s a high-risk proposition. Other countries have done the suspension. And I know that the federal government is considering it today. And I would welcome any response that they have to do that.

This is a mutant strain. Unfortunately, we are seeing over 300,000 cases a day. This is unprecedented. We haven’t seen it anywhere in the world like this before. And with these mutant strains, we don’t know how much more contagious they are.

I think that AMA has been making some really good points recently. Backing in our calls for quarantine. These are all issue on the table.

Updated

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has defended her state’s more hardline approach to borders and lockdowns.

I reject that it’s border politics because you have to make these decisions based on the health advice. And that’s exactly what Mark McGowan has done. That’s exactly what I did. And it’s happened in other states as well.

It’s about protecting our citizens, making sure that our community is safe, and you know, that short, sharp lockdown, has worked. I mean, we had that a few weeks ago here before Easter in Queensland and it worked. It gave our contact tracers that valuable time that was needed to ensure that we didn’t have community spread in Queensland...

Our chief health officer is one of most respected in the nation and I will take her advice over anyone else’s in the nation. And it does work.

Updated

Good morning, it’s Matilda Boseley here ready to take you through this lovely Tuesday morning. (Especially lovely for readers in Perth who are waking up to a lockdown free city.)

While yesterday things were focused inwards at our states, today the main anxieties seem to be stemming from beyond our shores. Specifically from the subcontinent of India, which has managed to set a world record for new Covid-19 cases, every day for the last five days.

Australia is now considering sending oxygen and non-invasive ventilators to India, with thousands of people dying from less severe cases of Covid-19 due to lack of medical supplies and capacity.

Health minister Greg Hunt said yesterday that “India is literally gasping for oxygen”.

The US, UK and Germany have already pledged supplies.

In the same breath, Australia is also considering bringing in harsher inbound travel rules from the country, terrified the higher concentration of infected returning travellers could cause the virus to escape from our hotel quarantine system and into the community.

Australia has already reduced the number of direct flights from India by 30%, and Hunt said yesterday stopping those planes altogether was a possibility:

If those additional measures are recommended, we will take them with the heaviest of hearts but without any hesitation.

The national security committee is expected to meet today to make decisions on this front.

Some other things that might come up today are:

  • State and federal tensions over hotel quarantine remain unresolved, despite West Australia emerging from the Perth snap lockdown.
  • Australia Post’s entire board being hauled before a parliamentary committee with senators set to grill directors over Liberal party ties.
  • Fewer than 50% of over-50s willing to get Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines according to the latest Guardian Essential poll.
  • The Guardian has found Queensland police employs fewer than 90 domestic violence specialist police officers in Queensland to handle 107,000 cases.
  • Tasmania’s Labor opposition leader Rebecca White was declared victorious in the final debate ahead of Saturday’s state election.

Updated

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