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Elias Visontay (now) and Nino Bucci and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

New restrictions in NSW as medical chief says ‘missing link’ in cases still unknown – as it happened

A Sydney train passenger wears a mask
A train passenger wears a mask after the NSW premier announced restrictions for greater Sydney from 5pm on Thursday following new coronavirus cases. Mask-wearing became mandatory on public transport and in all indoor public venues. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

What happened Thursday 6 May 2021

We’ll leave it there for today. Thanks for tuning in.

Here are today’s main developments:

Updated

Stranded Australian cricketers leave India for Maldives

The vast majority of Australia’s 38-strong Indian Premier League contingent has departed for the Maldives, beginning their long and indirect journey home from the aborted Twenty20 tournament.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India and franchises are overseeing arrangements for outbound players after the IPL was halted because of Covid-19 cases among players and staff.

Cricket Australia released a statement on Thursday night confirming that Australian players, coaches, match officials and commentators are en route to the Maldives.

Read more:

Union lawyers accuse Labor party national executive of 'preselection stacking'

Union lawyers have accused the Labor party’s national executive of “preselection stacking” in plans to choose candidates for safe Victorian seats in the next federal election by Friday, reports AAP.

Nominations for candidate preselection in 21 safe federal seats in Victoria and one new seat opened on Tuesday and are due to close on Friday morning, in what some party members claim is an unprecedented rushed process.

In a last-minute hearing, a Victorian Supreme Court judge on Thursday night banned any finalisation of the process before 4pm Friday, dashing plans for the national executive to have confirmed candidates in safe seats by early afternoon.

The Victorian branch of the Labor Party is under the control of the party’s national executive, after allegations of branch stacking were raised against former minister Adem Somyurek. He denies the claims.

The takeover means voting rights for Victorian party members who would ordinarily have a say in the preselecting candidates are currently suspended, and decision-making power is instead in the hands of the national executive.

But a group of ALP affiliated unions and their members have taken issue with the speed of the process.

“Preselection usually takes a minimum of two weeks but a two to three day setup, I’m instructed, is unprecedented,” their barrister Ron Merkel QC told the urgent court hearing on Thursday.

Merkel has been ordered to formally file by Friday morning.

He said there was obviously an “ulterior purpose” for the hasty process, suggesting it was designed to achieve “as little competition for nominations as possible”.

“Looked at objectively, it looks like preselection stacking justified by branch stacking which has got nothing whatsoever to do with any conduct or misconduct alleged against the plaintiffs,” Merkel said.

As well as the federal takeover, Labor stalwarts Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin were appointed as administrators of the Victorian branch and a review of membership was ordered to ensure the rank and file are all valid and paid up.

Merkel said that process had ended in February, leaving no valid justification for “singling out” the 22 electorates three months later.

But Peter Willis SC, who is representing members of the national executive including federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese, says the process is entirely conventional and unremarkable.

One of the 22 seats is a new electorate, while the rest are considered “safe” seats where it’s expected the sitting members will renominate and face little or no challenge, the court heard.

Willis said preselection was in train in other states, including in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

He has also challenged the urgency of an injunction preventing the national executive going ahead with preselection because the result is not set in stone.

“If Mr Merkel has a winning argument then that argument will be upheld, and if it’s upheld the process will have to be redone,” he said.

“It’s not really as if the situation would be irreparably or irretrievably changed.”

He said while there is no date yet for the next federal election, it’s possible a snap election could be called by the Liberal government as early as September.

Justice Tim Ginnane will hear more arguments on Friday.

Updated

Shooting stars will light up the early morning sky across Australia this weekend.

Those willing to brave the cold over the next few days will be rewarded with a spectacular show of streaking lights.

The best time to see the Eta Aquarids meteor shower will be from 2.30am to 3am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings – and you won’t need a telescope.

Here’s everything you need to know:

Updated

A leading anti-nuclear weapons campaigner, Beatrice Fihn, will tonight call on the Australian government to rethink its opposition to a new international treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Joining by video link, the Geneva-based head of the Nobel prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) will present the annual Red Cross Oration at the University of Tasmania.

I’ve been speaking with another participant in tonight’s webinar-based event, Tara Gutman, the national manager for government relations at the Australian Red Cross, who said she did not think many Australians would be aware of the government’s position.

Australia does not support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, a relatively new agreement that requires parties not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons.

It instead regards the long-standing Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – which is backed by more than 190 states – as the “cornerstone” international agreement on nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, the Labor party has settled on a position of signing and ratifying the new ban treaty if it is elected to government – but it has also added a range of tough conditions, such as working “to achieve universal support”.

Gutman said:

We are very pleased to see any political party committing to sign the treaty and we welcome support from all sides.

Gutman said that although a nuclear weapons attack was “a low-probability event in many people’s eyes … we say this is not the case because of the potential for human error and the potential for cyber attacks and miscalculations and mistakes”.

For more on this story, see our scene-setter piece:

Updated

The pausing of the quarantine-free travel bubble from NSW to New Zealand could yet create a logistical headache for Australia’s Super Rugby franchises, which are due to start their trans-Tasman competition in little more than a week.

Both sides of the ditch will wrap up their regional competitions this weekend, with the Queensland Reds playing the Brumbies for the Super Rugby AU title and the Crusaders facing the Chiefs in the Super Rugby Aotearoa decider.

The five Australian-based teams are then supposed to compete in a single-round, six-week competition against the five New Zealand-based teams at venues in both countries.

The first game is not until 14 May, so there is time yet.

But if the initial 48-hour pause of the bubble is extended, organisers could run into trouble.

The Waratahs are scheduled to host home games against Kiwi teams at the SCG, Brookvale Oval and WIN Stadium, and play another two in Auckland in Dunedin.

Updated

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally has stood by the biosecurity legislation that has allowed the government to issue a determination that returning to Australia from India would be a criminal offence.

At the same time, Keneally criticised the government for issuing the criminal offence determination only for arrivals from India and not during earlier outbreaks from other countries including the UK and the US.

She called for the government to do more to repatriate citizens, but insisted: “The legislation is not the problem.”

Speaking to the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas, Keneally said:

What I think we have here is a problem of double standards. Throughout this pandemic, the government of the day, the Morrison government, chose not to apply the penalties and that legislation when there were outbreaks in Europe, when they were outbreaks in the United States.

But suddenly, when there is an outbreak in India, the government threatens jail time and severe financial penalties to Australian citizens who seek to come home in the middle of a humanitarian crisis.

Asked if the legislation needed to be revised, Keneally said:

There may be circumstances where such penalties need to be applied. But not in the middle of a global pandemic and a humanitarian crisis in India.

When asked what circumstances she believed would warrant such criminal penalties, Keneally did not answer specifically, saying: “There may well be circumstances but it’s up to the government of the day.”

Updated

Penny Wong, the opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, has scolded Scott Morrison after he incorrectly characterised Australia’s policy on Taiwan in a radio interview in which he also declared he “stood for freedom”.

Despite Australian government figures publicly warning about the risk of war in the region, the prime minister appeared to endorse a formula for Taiwan that is actually Beijing’s stated vision for unification with the self-governed island.

When speaking about Taiwan, Morrison referred to “one country, two systems” – the principle that China pledged to apply when Hong Kong was returned to Beijing’s control in 1997. But this is not Australia’s policy in relation to Taiwan, and both sides of Taiwanese politics reject the idea.

Wong told Guardian Australia:

The Morrison government is too obsessed with spin and chasing headlines and not focused enough on the hard work and detail of governing to deliver in Australia’s interests.

In diplomacy, especially on issues of our national security, words matter. There are few more sensitive issues for our security than Taiwan and Mr Morrison’s lack of focus on detail is enough to keep you up at night.

Days after his government was beating the drum for conflict over Taiwan, today Mr Morrison appears to have shifted Australia’s bipartisan position to abandoning Taiwan entirely.

‘One country, two systems’ has never been Australia’s position on Taiwan – it would put Taiwan in the same category as Hong Kong.

Morrison made the blunder on the same day a Chinese government agency suspended a form of economic dialogue with Australia – in what experts described as a mainly symbolic move indicative of the worsening relationship between the two countries.

Read more:

Updated

New Zealand pauses travel bubble for NSW arrivals

New Zealand has announced that quarantine-free travel from New South Wales will pause at midnight tonight, after two community Covid cases were detected in Sydney.

The Covid response minister, Chris Hipkins, told reporters that quarantine-free travel from NSW to New Zealand would stop while the source of infection of the two cases announced in Sydney in the past two days was investigated.

The bubble would be “under constant review”, Hipkins’ office said in a statement.

Hipkins said the bubble would initially pause for 48 hours.

He said the pause would be under constant review, and if more information came to light that prompted the country to reopen sooner than 48 hours – or alternatively, to extend the pause – they would do so.

At this stage, it applies only to NSW, not all of Australia.

“We’ve weighed this up very carefully,” Hipkins said, and the government was aware it could be disruptive for travellers.

People queue at a Covid testing clinic in Sydney after the new cases were reported
People queue at a Covid testing clinic in Sydney after the new cases were reported. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

Updated

Back in the federal court, the solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, defended Australia’s outbound travel ban after lunch by invoking the commonwealth’s recent win in the high court against Clive Palmer’s challenge against Western Australia’s travel ban.

Donaghue said that in both case, the court would have to consider not just the steps the government took but whether they were “proportionate” to the threat (of Covid-19), and that the federal court should decide in the same way: that once the minister’s powers are enlivened by such a crisis, they have wide-ranging powers to respond.

As a last resort, Donaghue argued that even if the commonwealth loses the Libertyworks case, the “worst case” scenario is that the health minister can’t ban Australians leaving Australia but it can ban airlines from taking Australians out of Australia (unless they have an exemption).

Justice Katzmann noted this would have “the same effect”, if there were no conveyance, vessel or aircraft able to take Australians out.

In his reply, Libertyworks’ counsel rejected the claims that the minister’s powers in the Biosecurity Act would be neutered if the challenge was successful. He rattled off a series of measures that would still be within power, such as requiring incoming freight to be disinfected or banning the private purchase of medical devices.

He said:

The powers and uses of section 477 are still ample and very wide. They are still of significant utility even with the limitation for which we contend.

The court reserved its judgment.

Updated

Two-time NRL player of the year Jarryd Hayne has been given more than five years’ jail for raping a woman in 2018.

Hayne was sentenced on Thursday to five years and nine months with a non-parole period of three years and eight months, following his conviction in March on two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.

At Newcastle district court, judge Helen Syme stayed true to her word that the 33-year-old faced an “inevitable” jail term, marking the end to a two-year case that included a new trial after a hung verdict in Newcastle in December.

The second jury spent almost 18 hours deliberating before returning the guilty verdicts, along with not guilty verdicts for the more serious charges of aggravated sexual intercourse without consent and recklessly inflicting actual bodily harm.

Read more:

Jarryd Hayne arrives at court on Thursday.
Jarryd Hayne arrives at the Newcastle court for sentencing on Thursday. Photograph: Darren Pateman/AAP

Updated

Thanks for that, Nino.

I’m Elias Visontay, and I’ll be taking you through the next part of the day.

If you see anything you think I should be aware of, you can get in touch with me via Twitter @EliasVisontay or via email at elias.visontay@theguardian.com.

Updated

I’m off, thanks for tuning in. The marvellous Elias Visontay is driving for the rest of the afternoon.

Dan Tehan, the minister for trade, tourism and investment, has released a short statement regarding China’s decision to “indefinitely suspend” all activities under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue.

It is disappointing to hear that the NDRC [National Development and Reform Commission] has made this decision. The Strategic Economic Dialogue, which was last held in 2017, is an important forum for Australia and China to work through issues relevant to our economic partnership. We remain open to holding the dialogue and engaging at the Ministerial level.

Updated

Here’s a longer post about the Mark McGowan press conference, in which he also wished NSW well and said he had offered help (obviously didn’t get offended by that little shut down the “whole city” comment from Gladys Berejiklian earlier):

McGowan said re the Pan Pacific security guard cases:

All 115 close contacts to case 1,001 have now been tested and all of them are negative. I repeat all close contacts associated with the Pan Pacific security guard and two of his housemates have all tested negative. That is great news. Those close contacts will all remain in quarantine.

As has always been the case, close contacts will be required to complete a full 14 days of quarantine to give us extra confidence going forward.

Everything is being done to minimise even the slightest risk of community transmission. So far, based on the information we have, there is no evidence of spread from case 1,001 and his two household contacts. This is pleasing news and helps us to move forward.

Updated

AstraZeneca comments on blood clotting in Australia

AstraZeneca has finally commented on the clotting issues in Australia after a couple of weeks of silence. The statement says:

AstraZeneca is aware that there have been additional cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopaenia (TTS) reported in people who recently received the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, and that they are receiving treatment.

Patient safety remains AstraZeneca’s highest priority and we continue to support regulators in Australia and overseas. Tens of millions of people have now received our vaccine across the globe.

The extensive body of data from two large clinical datasets and real-world evidence demonstrate its effectiveness, reaffirming the role the vaccine can play during this public health crisis. Our global commitment remains to play an important role in addressing the current global health emergency posed by Covid-19 by providing a safe and effective vaccine, at no profit during the pandemic.

Earlier today the head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration Prof John Skerritt said five new TTS cases had been reported in the past week, and that five cases reported last week were recovering well. The rate of cases in Australia – there have been 11 – is no higher than elsewhere in the world, he said.

Updated

Whoa, the ABC dropped McGowan pretty quickly there. He didn’t announce any hard border with NSW, and was basically running through the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, so all very west coast.

McGowan is now going through the lifting of restrictions in WA. Masks will only be required on public transport or at events/venues with more than 1,000 people, and in hospitals, disability or aged care venues.

“I know how frustrating and annoying it can be to wear masks so thank you to everyone for doing the right thing during this period,” McGowan says.

Updated

He says all close contacts associated with the Pan Pacific security guard and his two housemates, who tested positive on Saturday, have tested negative.

Mark McGowan is speaking in Perth. He says nobody has arrived in WA from the Sydney exposure sites.

Fairly wild photo of former Australian cricketer Brett Lee and broadcaster Neroli Meadows on a flight out of India (not sure where they’re going, surely we won’t lock up Bing, it’s been a big enough week for former Australian test cricketers as it is).

This is quite a wonky but important national security story: there’s concern that the independent monitor of intelligence and security agencies could become too close to them.

A government member of parliament’s security committee has questioned whether the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is too close to the agencies it is supposed to be monitoring, AAP reports.

The committee is scrutinising proposed laws intended to keep Australia’s close-knit network of intelligence agencies in check.

Liberal committee member Celia Hammond gathered evidence at Thursday’s hearing about the practice of intelligence agencies getting pre-operational advice from IGIS.

“Overall I think the danger, even with the best will in the world, is huge,” said Bret Walker SC, chair of the Law Council of Australia’s constitutional law committee and member of its criminal law committee.

“I think it is depriving oversight agencies of a critical degree of detachment.”

Just like judges don’t have lunch with litigants, consulting the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission about a transaction that might be insider trading was a very bad idea, Mr Walker said.

“There is a real risk, a constant one, of all oversight supervisory bodies engaged in this sector of government activity, of those of us doing that work, being duchessed by the people we are meaning to be supervised.”

The new bill will expand the remit of the inspector-general to include ACIC and AUSTRAC, which gathers financial intelligence on money laundering, organised crime, welfare fraud, tax evasion and terrorism financing.

The committee also heard that the oversight bill is not dependent on the passage of the identify and disrupt bill that will add to surveillance powers and warrants for the Australian Federal Police and ACIC.

Inspector-General Christopher Jessup QC said it was critical in a democracy that intelligence agencies were subject to strong oversight and accountability mechanisms.
“Indeed, independent and credible oversight of intelligence activities is a core element of the public’s trust in intelligence agencies and their operations,” Dr Jessup said.

But the bill doesn’t include any intelligence functions of the federal police and Home Affairs.

Commonwealth Ombudsman Michael Manthorpe said there were already overlaps engineered into the system and the bill would add to them, but they could refer complaints or matters to IGIS.

“I have very specific oversight powers with respect to the various covert and intrusive regimes that exist for law enforcement,” Mr Manthorpe said. “But I also have a broad jurisdiction as the ombudsman under the Ombudsman Act to look at and inquire into complaints of a very wide array about administration in the Australian public sector.”

For the Morrison government, the bill introduced last December is in line with last year’s review of intelligence laws by former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson who also served as Defence secretary and foreign affairs chief.

Critics say the latest Richardson review is a watered down version of the Independent Intelligence Review of 2017, which found a “compelling case” to also include the federal police and Home Affairs.

George Williams, head of the Gilbert and Tobin Centre of Public Law, said the bill would leave significant gaps and wanted it extended to include all intelligence functions across government.

“It requires a specialised kind of oversight - the gold standard that IGIS provides,” Professor Williams said.

He also called for a broader body of work on Australia lacking the parliamentary oversight enjoyed by other members of Five Eyes, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom where parliamentary committees exercise more influence on powerful agencies.

Updated

Here’s a little bit of off-Broadway quarantine news, from AAP. It relates to a plan to quarantine foreign workers at a Darwin mining camp.

Here’s the report:

The Northern Territory Health Minister has cast doubt on an ambitious plan to quarantine foreign workers at a former Darwin mining camp used by the US Marines.

Industry groups have urged the Commonwealth and NT government to retask the Bladin Point Worker Village as a COVID-19 quarantine facility.

The facility is currently used to quarantine Marines arriving in the NT with the US Rotational Force Darwin but the Australian Defence Force’s lease expires on July 15.

NT Farmers Association says the camp could help alleviate the critical national worker shortage faced by the agricultural and hospitality sectors.

But NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles says Bladin Point isn’t a government facility and bringing it up to specification could be tough.

“It’s a private property so if there was to be a facility set up there it’s more than having the chief health officer tick off on what’s there,” she told reporters on Thursday.

“[The NT government doesn’t] control who comes into Australia and we don’t own that facility, and who would pay for it?”

Ms Fyles said it was “hugely” expensive to run a quarantine facility and it would need to be run at the same high standard as the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

Any proposal would also need the Commonwealth’s backing and consider the potential impact on the local health system, she said.

NT Farmers chief executive Paul Burke has previously said industry is struggling to find suitable facilities to quarantine overseas workers.

“Farmers around the country are begging politicians for a solution to the massive seasonal workforce shortage that has arisen due to the COVID-19 border closures last year,” he said.

“Without additional workers, farmers will be forced to let produce go to waste and food prices will rise for all Australians.”

Under the proposal, various industries from around Australia will be able to use the facility to quarantine their own workers.

The agricultural industry alone is facing a shortage of 20,000 workers, Mr Burke said.

Updated

We’re expecting WA premier Mark McGowan to speak in Perth in the next 20 minutes or so to provide a Covid-19 update. His NSW counterpart, Gladys Berejiklian, has implored other states to not close their borders in the wake of two new Covid-19 cases, but McGowan, as we know, loves a hard border.

WA health minister Roger Cook and WA premier Mark McGowan after receiving AstraZeneca jabs on Monday
WA health minister Roger Cook (left) and premier Mark McGowan after receiving AstraZeneca jabs on Monday. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Updated

Albanese has finished speaking. He’s had a final crack re the India situation. Not quite as punishing as a Michael Slater-esque slash through off-side, but some runs there:

We’re now at May 2021 and the government’s scrambling for an appropriate response – issuing media releases in the middle of the night without appropriate consultation and just not being able to deliver sensible outcomes that keep Australians who are here safe whilst also making sure that the obligations that we have to Australian citizens are fulfilled.

The Australian passport has to mean something. And what that means is that Australia has an obligation to our own citizens.

Here’s what Scott Morrison said earlier about that late-night media release (which the media reported on, causing this whole problem, see?).

Updated

Albanese says he supported restrictions on flights to India, but not an outright ban:

Well, we think that it’s sensible to place restrictions on commercial flights. That’s occurred with the UK, it happened with the United States. But even when it came to Wuhan, at the height of this outbreak, we had flights, charter flights, to bring Australians back home.

Here what we’ve had is a policy of locked out or locked up by this prime minister. And now he’s seeking to blame anyone else but himself for the locked out policy producing a backlash against the government.

Updated

Albanese has this to say about today’s news regarding China’s latest action against Australia.

Well, this is unfortunate. We do need dialogue with China. It can’t be just on their terms, though. It’s got to be on both countries’ terms. And so this is regrettable.

He barely stumbles on a segue into India, saying:

What’s also regrettable is that the government says that it wants to have better relations with countries including the Quad that includes, of course, the United States, Japan and India. Well, if anyone thinks that our relations with India have been improved in the last week, then they’re kidding themselves. The fact is that this government’s response to the terrible circumstance which India finds itself in has been regrettable, has been short-sighted and hasn’t been thought through.

Updated

Oh and here’s Anthony Albanese, speaking in Sydney. He’s having a pre-budget whack, mostly at jobkeeper and childcare funding.

Updated

Here’s another little snippet of what I think is new info contained in the New Zealand health update released earlier today.

It is an update on that Brisbane Airport green zone breach from last week.

Thirty-two people in New Zealand have been advised to isolate at home and continue to isolate until they receive a negative result from a day-5 test. To date, 22 have returned a negative result.

Remaining passengers who weren’t at the locations of interest at the specified times previously advised should continue monitoring their health and if symptoms develop, call Healthline and get a test.

The risk from this event continues to be assessed as low.

Updated

China’s move to suspend a form of economic dialogue with Australia is being viewed as a response to the Australian government’s cancellation of the Victorian Belt and Road agreements and the newly announced review of the Port of Darwin lease.

But its concrete impact is “zero”, according to trade expert Dr Jeffrey Wilson.

The suspension relates to activities under the China-Australia strategic economic dialogue (SED).

Wilson, the research director at the Perth USAsia Centre at the University of Western Australia, tells me the last time such a meeting was held was in 2017.

Scott Morrison, the then-treasurer, and Steven Ciobo, the then-trade minister, took part in the third SED in Beijing in September 2017. At the time the pair described the SED as “one of our premier bilateral economic meetings with China”.

Wilson says:

They suspended something we haven’t held since 2017. The concrete impact is zero … It’s only been held three times and it’s been in abeyance longer than it’s been in action.

Wilson describes today’s announcement by China’s National Development and Reform Commission - the agency that had partnered with Victoria on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) - as a “tit for tat” move.

It’s absolutely retribution for the BRI [agreements being cancelled] and in the last couple of days Peter Dutton ordering yet another review of the Darwin Port.

Wilson contends that after Beijing took action against a range of Australian export sectors last year, it had “run out of ammunition”. He says China is not willing to go after sectors like iron ore because it needs it.

The Australian government had already complained that ministers have been unable to secure talks with their Chinese government counterparts since early last year. The free trade agreement remains in effect.

Updated

The broadcast of Skerritt’s press conference has finished, but here’s one final (quite important) point:

[The adverse events] are pretty much along the trajectory we expect. If you are only vaccinating people over 50 years of age, if you’re doing another million vaccinations, and as we heard we expect that by night-time today we’ll be up at 2.5 million vaccinations, so the numbers are increasing and accelerating.

So this is a rare adverse event but we believe it’s staying at the expected frequency and at the frequency that we’re seeing internationally.

Updated

Skerritt also mentions that 16 people were treated for anaphylaxis in Australia after getting Pfizer doses.

Generally it’s after the first dose for Pfizer because it’s like an allergic reaction to something new, and the recommendation or the strict advice, I should say – it’s more than recommendation – to doctors is don’t give a second dose of Pfizer to those people.

Updated

Just clarifying a point from earlier: Skerritt says that of the five cases reported this week, they are all in hospital, but that of five hospitalised from earlier adverse events, four are at home, and several have recovered well enough to work.

He said:

So all the new people are currently hospitalised and that’s a mixture of both the seriousness of the presentation but also the importance of them being closely monitored.

The really encouraging news is that of the five people hospitalised from earlier adverse events, four of them are now at home and several are at work.

Of the clotting cases, Skerritt said:

Many of these people had quite serious and significant underlying health conditions but there was a range of underlying health conditions.

A lot of these people did have other serious conditions but there’s not a common thread.

He also notes that it’s obvious these cases are likely to occur in those aged over 50 as they are generally – with few exceptions – the only ones receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Updated

He emphasises that the rates detected in Australia are “very similar to those both publicly and confidentially reported to us in places like Canada, UK and continental Europe”.

Updated

Dr John Skerritt from the Therapeutic Goods Administration is speaking now about the weekly report. He says four of the five cases reported in the past week as having serious blood clots recovered quickly and are home.

Updated

Five blood-clot cases 'likely' linked to AstraZeneca in past week

Just circling back on news from earlier relating to cases of blood clots in people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The reports from Tasmania (case details here) and Queensland (case details here) were linked to the release of the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s weekly vaccine safety report, which was published today.

The full report is here and it’s detail heavy, but here’s a particularly interesting snippet:

Since the last weekly Covid-19 vaccine safety report was published on 28 April, five reports of blood clots and low blood platelets have been assessed as TTS [thrombocytopenia syndrome] likely to be linked to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. The cases were in a 74-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman from Victoria, a 66-year-old man from Queensland, a 64-year-old woman from Western Australia and a 70-year-old man from Tasmania. Symptom onset ranged from seven to 32 days after vaccination.

These take the total Australian reports of probable TTS following the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to 11. To 2 May there had been approximately 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine administered.

The AstraZeneca vaccine
The AstraZeneca vaccine. Photograph: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Updated

Australia-China rift deepens

China has suspended one of the channels for economic talks with Australia as the rift between the countries continues to grow.

Beijing had reserved the right to take further actions after the Morrison government last month cancelled Victoria’s two Belt and Road-related agreements with China. Those cooperation agreements were with China’s National Development and Reform Commission

That commission announced today that it had decided to “indefinitely suspend” all activities under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, Reuters reports.

The commission said in a statement:

Recently, some Australian commonwealth government officials launched a series of measures to disrupt the normal exchanges and cooperation between China and Australia out of Cold War mindset and ideological discrimination.

Comment on the significance of the step is being sought from the Australian government, which has previously complained that ministers have been unable to secure talks with their Chinese government counterparts since early last year.

Australian and Chinese flags
China today suspended one of the channels for economic talks with Australia. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

Updated

Before the challenge to the India travel ban, there was the Libertyworks challenge to the outbound travel ban which is being heard by the full federal court today.

Rather than argue that the outbound travel ban is disproportionate, the challenge is narrowly focused on whether health minister Greg Hunt can impose a blanket rule rather than using the Biosecurity Act’s provisions that allow restrictions on individuals, subject to higher safeguards.

Counsel for Libertyworks told the federal court that parliament had made a “deliberate and conscious choice” that “even in the context of a biosecurity emergency ... if one wanted to subject someone to a restriction infringing on their rights, those measures could only be done through a human biosecurity control order”. And that is not how the travel ban was enacted.

The hearing hearkened back to simpler times, when the Act passed in 2015 and the biosecurity emergencies everyone was worried about were things like foot and mouth disease but not Covid-19.

At one point, the explanatory memorandum was read including the prediction that the “the human health provisions contained in the bill will also be seldom used”, prompting justice Anna Katzmann to quip drily “ha-ha”. The joke is on all of us, in hindsight.

The solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, argued that before the health minister can start making blanket determinations the governor-general must first declare a human biosecurity emergency, a “severe and immediate threat” of a “nationally significant scale”.

Donaghue warned if Libertyworks’ interpretation of the law is right, “all sorts of things” can’t be done to a group of people without individual orders, including contact tracing or prescribing people from visiting aged care centres. Protective measures would be “eviscerated”, he said.

Donaghue said:

[The plaintiff’s construction] destroys the efficacy of emergency powers when it is important to be able to break glass [in case of emergency], to override other laws to respond to the magnitude of the threat.

The hearing continues after lunch.

Updated

New Zealand health authorities have just released the following statement relating to the case in NSW:

New Zealand officials are in contact with Australian counterparts following the confirmation of a positive case of Covid-19 in the community in Sydney reported yesterday.

Information about locations of interest visited by the case is available on the New South Wales health website.

Anyone in New Zealand who has been at any of the locations of interest at the specified times should contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453, self-isolate and be tested as soon as possible.

Individuals in Australia who were at a location of interest at the specified times should follow New South Wales health advice regarding isolation and testing, and should not travel to New Zealand. The ministry has requested airlines communicate this message to anyone before flying to New Zealand from New South Wales.

At this stage, our public health assessment is that the risk remains low.

We expect to be able to provide a further update on the situation in Sydney later today.

Updated

With that, I shall leave you for the day! Nino Bucci is here to take you through the next few hours of news. (Hopefully they will be more positive than the last few.)

Updated

Just in case you were wondering, the two local cases listed in the NSW numbers today include the woman announced today and her husband, who was announced yesterday (after the cut-off for Wednesday’s numbers).

Updated

Man, 70, in hospital for blood clots 'likely' linked to AstraZeneca jab

News has just come through of a second blood clotting case with likely links to the AstraZeneca jab, this time in a 70-year-old man from Tasmania.

The health department has just released a statement:

The Tasmanian Department of Health has convened an expert alert advisory panel to review a case of suspected thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) following vaccination with the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

The patient, a 70-year-old man, reported symptoms seven days after receiving the vaccine. He is currently in hospital receiving treatment and remains in a stable condition...

The TGA has today confirmed that this case (together with four cases from other states) has been assessed as TTS, likely to be linked to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Tasmania’s acting director of public health, Dr Scott McKeown, urged people to still sign up for the vaccine.

He said in the statement:

I want to reassure Tasmanians that vaccination remains the best way to protect against severe illness and death from Covid-19 and is a core element of the pandemic response.

TTS is rare, newly described and has been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine. Australian immunisation experts report that the overall rate of this rare syndrome is about 6 per million people vaccinated.

In people aged 50 years and over, the benefits of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine outweigh the rare risks associated with vaccination. This is due to the lower risk of the syndrome and the increased risk of severe Covid-19 outcomes in those over 50 years of age. People who have received a first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine without serious adverse events can be given a second dose, regardless of age.

Updated

Competition tsar Rod Sims has rejected a proposal from Qantas and Japan Airlines to expand their existing code-sharing deal into what they call a “joint business agreement”, saying the hook-up would undermine competition as international travel recovers from the pandemic.

The two airlines had asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for permission to coordinate flights between Australia and Japan for three years, with Qantas telling the watchdog in a submission that the deal was “critical to sustainably restoring air links across a wide range of routes between Australasia and Japan”.

They needed permission because the arrangement would breach competition laws.

On the proposal Sims said:

The ACCC can only authorise these agreements if the public benefits from the coordination outweigh the harm to competition...

At this stage we do not consider that Qantas and Japan Airlines’ proposal passes that test.

Sims said the deal might have had short-term benefits but “would appear to undermine competition significantly by reducing the prospect of a strong return to competition on the Melbourne-Tokyo and Sydney-Tokyo routes when international travel resumes”.

Protecting competition in the airline industry is critical to ensuring recovery in the tourism sector once international travel restrictions ease...

Granting this authorisation would seem to eliminate any prospect of Qantas and Japan Airlines competing for passengers travelling between Australia and Japan, as they did before the Covid-19 pandemic. This elimination of competition would benefit the airlines at the expense of consumers.

Updated

This is coming up later today, but I’m mostly just sharing because I’m impressed with the framing of the bridge in the background.

Well, there is some good news from WA at least!

Man, 66, in intensive care for blood clots after AstraZeneca jab

Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young say the Therapeutic Goods Administration will annouce this afternoon that Australia has recorded another case of blood clotting likely caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Importantly, the man was over 50, and therefore eligible for the AZ jab under the current health advice.

So TGA later today, I understand, is going to go out and announce a case of thrombosis following AstraZeneca vaccination in a 66-year-old gentleman in Townsville.

So he has been admitted to the ICU in Townsville and TGA has confirmed with me that they believe that his illness is a direct result of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

He received the first dose of the vaccine on 30 March, subsequently developed some abdominal pain and presented to the Townsville hospital, where he was admitted and tested and it’s now been confirmed that he has most likely developed that syndrome. So, of course, my thoughts go out to him and to his family at this very difficult time for them.

Updated

Queensland mandates hotel quarantine for NSW travellers who visited hotspots

Queensland health minister Yvette D’ath says the state is upgrading its quarantine measures with NSW, but will not close the border.

From 1am tomorrow morning, anyone who arrived from New South Wales who has been to any of those venues at the prescribed times and dates, they will need to go into hotel quarantine.

So we ask that people shouldn’t be travelling from New South Wales who have been to those venues. They should be following the advice of the New South Wales health authorities. But anyone who does arrive from 1am tomorrow morning, who has been in those venues will go into hotel quarantine and we will have police and health workers meeting flights coming in to Queensland to just check with passengers whether they have been at those venues.

We also understand that this list of venues is likely to be increased. So anyone who has been in New South Wales since 27 April, we ask this of you: if you have any symptoms whatsoever, please get tested.

If you arrive after 1am tomorrow, and while you were in Queensland identify new venues that you have been at, please immediately quarantine and call 13HEALTH so that we can put in place arrangements to quarantine you in hotel quarantine.

Updated

We are hearing from the Queensland government now following the news that NSW still has at least one “missing link” case out in the community.

The video games industry is chuffed to benefit from the government’s “technology cash splash” announced this morning.

Local video game developers are set to receive a 30% tax offset from 1 July 2022 in next week’s budget, with eligible businesses required to spend a minimum of $500,000 on Australian game development.

Australia is home to game studios like Hipster Whale, League of Geeks, Mighty Kingdom and SMG Studio that have created games ranging from the famed Untitled Goose Game and Fruit Ninja to the award-winning Armello and Paperbark.

The industry says the government’s tax offset is likely to spur Australia’s exports and attract inward investment, while upskilling a whole new generation of Australian digital workers.

Ron Curry, CEO of the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association, says:

This is a very welcomed day for Australian-made video games.

Video games have an important place alongside TV and film in Australian screen production and storytelling.

Curry says the new commitment will help create new Australian game studios, support existing studios to take on ambitious new projects, and attract international studios to Australia.

Call-of-Duty creator Sledgehammer Games recently opened a large Australian office in Melbourne and international names like Gameloft, Wargaming and Firemonkey have all invested into Australian development.

The global video game market is estimated to be worth almost $250bn, with the Australian industry worth around $3.4bn, jumping 6% during Covid-19, according to PwC.

Looks like it’s game on.

A man in front of a monitor at the Intel Extreme Masters in Sydney
The Intel Extreme Masters global tournament at Sydney Olympic Park. The video games industry has welcomed the federal government’s ‘technology cash splash’ announced today. Photograph: Helena Kristiansson/ESL

Updated

NSW press conference summary, part 2

Here are all the rules that are changing in the greater Sydney area from 5pm tonight.

This is the area stretching from the Central Coast to Sydney and down to the Illawarra.

These will be in place until 11.59pm Sunday.

New restrictions

  • No more than 20 people allowed to gather in private homes.
  • No singing or dancing in indoor venues, including places of worship and entertainment venues. The only exception is weddings, where it’s recommended no more than 20 be allowed on the dance floor at a time. Onstage performers can still sing and dance.
  • Compulsory mask-wearing at all public indoor spaces, including public transport, supermarkets, hospitality venues and any indoor event.
  • Only two visitors are allowed for aged care residents and masks must be worn.

Updated

Trade minister softens stance on protecting vaccine intellectual property rights

Trade minister Dan Tehan says Australia is “engaging constructively to find a proposed solution” to the issue of intellectual property rights on vaccines, but he stopped short on following the US’s lead and wholeheartedly supporting the World Health Organisation’s efforts.

But this still seems to be a softening of Australia’s previous stance on the topic of vaccine IP.

Hunt has just released a statement:

We welcome this positive development and look forward to working with the US and others to find solutions that boost the global rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.

The WTO Director General has been working on an outcome for some weeks and I was pleased to discuss a way forward with her, including the proposal put forward by the International Chamber of Commerce, when we met in Geneva recently.

Close collaboration between governments and vaccine manufacturers will remain vital.

For more, check out Elias Visontay’s story below:

Updated

NSW press conference summary, part 1

Here is what we learnt in that press conference:

New cases

So NSW Health learnt three important things overnight:

  1. The wife of the 50-year-old man was diagnosed yesterday, but she has a relatively new infection, meaning he likely infected her and she isn’t the source. Several locations she visited have been added to the hotspot list.
  2. By running the genomic sequences, NSW Health learnt that this strain of the virus is the same as in a traveller who recently came back from the US and spent time in both the Park Royal at Darling Harbour and the Sydney Health Accommodation facility. The person tested positive on the first day of hotel quarantine but authorities still don’t know how the virus got out.
  3. The traveller from the US and the 50-year old man have not come into contact, as far as anyone knows, meaning there is a “missing link” case – an unknowing infector person currently roaming the streets of greater Sydney.

Updated

OK, that’s about it from the press conference. I’ll wrap up all the main points into one easy-to-read post shortly.

Updated

Berejiklian has been asked if people will be fined from 5pm onward today for not wearing a mask on public transport – presumably considering that many will already be at work and won’t have brought a mask with them.

And it looks like the answer is yes – so, Sydney readers, I would start looking for one!

Berejiklian:

Look, we appreciate that for some people they will have to go out of their way and get a mask. Most workplaces have them. Most shops have them, it’s pretty accessible. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. I think people will work it out.

Updated

Berejiklian urges other premiers not to close borders to NSW

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says other state premiers should “absolutely not” shut the borders to NSW:

Oh, look, we are not shutting down anything in New South Wales, so any other premier shouldn’t even think about that, absolutely not.

Updated

Chant has clarified you are still allowed to check aged care residents out of their homes to celebrate Mother’s Day.

She says:

Yes ... we want people to preference outdoor environments. We have always done that.

If you’re taking your mother out [sit] outdoors in cafes and restaurants, and also gardens and other environments outdoors. But clearly we want to make sure that we have the minimum impact on aged care residents but keep them safe.

So again, the people taking them out would still be required to wear masks and take all of those measures.

Updated

Chant says all seats on public transport can still be filled, but commuters have now been asked to wear a face mask.

I’m still just a little unclear on if this is a mask-wearing mandate or just a request. I’ll try to get an answer for you on that now.

A woman wearing a face mask boards a bus in Sydney
A woman wearing a face mask boards a bus in Sydney. Photograph: James Gourley/AAP

Updated

Sydney outbreak caused by variant from India

Chant says the current outbreak is made up of an Indian variant of Covid-19, although the index case seems to have come from the US.

This variant is not currently listed as a “variant of concern”.

It’s an Indian variant under investigation. It is not listed as a variant of concern at this point. But obviously we’re watchful of all of these questions as we get more information.

Updated

Berejiklian really isn’t pulling any punches towards McGowan or Palaszczuk in this press conference:

We’re in the middle of a pandemic. What happens if follow we find 20 cases? People say we haven’t gone hard enough. What if we find 10 cases on Monday? People will say we didn’t go hard enough. Our decision is based on advice. It’s proportionate. If this was Queensland or WA or anywhere else, they would have shut down the whole city, they would have shut down businesses....

I’m requesting everyone to enjoy Mother’s Day. The precautions we’ve put in place will protect everyone. The key messages are please don’t go to Mother’s Day if you’ve got Covid symptoms. Get tested. People need to know there’s a risk and we’re taking a proportionate response.

Updated

Berejiklian:

If this was WA or Queensland, they would have shut down the whole city. They would have said: stay at home. They would have said: don’t go about your business.

We’re saying the opposite. We’re saying go about your normal business. Enjoy Mother’s Day. Enjoy what you do normally, enjoy what you do normally.

The main bit of care is in relation to mask-wearing and how many people you welcome to your home. These are basic things you would do to make sure you don’t cause a super-spreading event...

If you’ve got a booking, go to the booking. Enjoy Mother’s Day. Do what you would normally do. This is the opposite approach. We’re saying to businesses to keep doors open.

A woman wearing a mask in Sydney
A woman wearing a mask in Sydney. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Updated

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has rejected the characterisation by a reporter of the new Covid-19 restrictions as a “Palaszczuk-McGowan response to two cases.”

This is nothing like that – it’s extremely proportionate, she says.

As we’ve heard, as Dr Chant said, it’s been amazing that our health experts have identified who we believe was the original source of the infection, but what we also know is that at least one person with the virus has been going around their business and we haven’t found them yet.

We don’t know where they’ve been. We don’t know if they’ve been to major events. We don’t know who they’ve sat next to. We know for sure that someone with the virus has been moving around the community and doesn’t know they have it and they may have infected many other people...

Unlike other premiers, we’re not shutting down the city. We’re not changing the 2-square-metre rule. Quite the contrary: we’re saying to everybody business as usual but just do a few things extra ...until we identify those cases – or at least that one person.

Updated

Oh, some additional venues have been added to the hotspot list based on the locations the newly diagnosed wife of yesterday’s case visited.

Updated

Chant says additional hot spot sites have been added in the hopes of identifying exactly where this man picked up the virus.

What we’ve also identified is because this person arrived on 26 April, it really allows us to narrow down the time that our case was exposed...

That’s allowed us to identify some additional venues today where we’re asking people to get tested and isolate and these are venues that he attended in, not whilst infectious, but we’re trying to find if there is a source of infection at those places.

That relates to the Fratelli Fresh at Westfield Sydney and F5 Pitt Street on Tuesday 27 April at 1:15 to 2:15 and at Bondi Beach, the Bondi Trattoria, 34 Campbell Parade, on Thursday 29th, between 12:45pm and 1:30pm.

As you’d be aware, those dates precede when we believe the gentleman was infectious, which was from 30 April.

People exercising at Sydney’s Bondi beach last month
People exercising at Sydney’s Bondi beach last month. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

NSW medical chief says Covid case's 'missing link' still unknown

Chant says that through genomic sequencing, NSW Health has identified the original overseas traveller who brought the virus into the country, but it still does not know how this person spread it to the 50-year-old man who was diagnosed yesterday.

What [testing] showed is that the sequence from our new case matched with an overseas case, who had travelled from the US and went to the Park Royal at Darling Harbour.

The person was tested on day one, and was positive and was moved to the SHA, the Sydney Health Accommodation, on 28 April.

We are currently reviewing CCTV footage to look at how the transmission got from this individual to our case and what we’re concerned about is that there is a missing link, because there is no direct contact that we’ve been able to establish yet, between the cases.

As you can imagine, there are strict procedures around the person being admitted to the quarantine facility and then transferred to our health quarantine facility.

We can’t find any direct link between our case, so what we’re concerned about is there is another person that is as yet unidentified that infected our case.

Updated

Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant is giving details of this new locally acquired case.

There were approximately 10 close contacts of [yesterday’s] case. One household contact has come back as positive. But the nine other close contact have come back as negative overnight.

The person who came back, the household contact who came back as positive had a very, very high CT value yesterday, and that shows that that person is in the early phases, or could be the end phase, but today the person has cooperated and gone for another test for us and we thank that person greatly for that cooperation.

That’s shown her infectious level has increased. So that means that we’ve picked up that person very early in the infection, which is consistent.

Berejiklian says these measures have been taken keeping in mind the money venues may have already invested into Mother’s Day celebrations over the weekend.

As you know, we’ve not affected the number of people that can be at a venue. We’ve not touched the square metre rule or anything like that. As a precaution we’re saying if you’re catching public transport, if you’re at an indoor venue, please ware a mask. Aged care workers, it’s only two visitors and mask-wearing to protect the vulnerable. We believe this is a proportionate response to the risk ahead of us...

We will be enforcing this from 5:00. We recommend if you’re in a position to be able to adopt these changes from now, from upon hearing of them and learning of them, please make sure you do that.

We’ve been careful not to impact unnecessarily businesses and others who might have already made arrangements over the weekend but we ask citizens and workers to be extra cautious and adopt compulsory mask-wearing.

Berejiklian has clarified these new restrictions only apply to the great Sydney area:

The measures I’ve just spoken about will only be relevant for the Greater Sydney area. So Central Coast, Greater Sydney down to the Illawarra.

So anyone outside of those areas is business as usual. But as a precautionary measure, we’re putting in these restrictions over the next three days.

New Covid restrictions announced for greater Sydney

Berejiklian:

As a precautionary measure, the New South Wales government, based on health advice, will be taking the following measures, which will be enforceable from 5pm today.

We ask that you welcome no more than 20 people into your home. And these restrictions or some measures will be in place until midnight Monday morning. So essentially from 5pm today, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we ask that nobody welcome more than 20 people into your home. We know that transmission in the family home is a high risk. I appreciate that it’s Mother’s Day but we also appreciate that 20 people within the home is manageable for people to celebrate that important day.

There will be no singing or dancing in indoor venues, including places of worship and entertainment venues. The exception is weddings – we recommend that only 20 people at a time be on the dance floor.

Outside of weddings, there’s no singing in congregations and no dancing apart from obviously the performers in a show.

In relation to mask-wearing, mask-wearing at indoor places will be compulsory for the next three days. Public transport, if you go to the supermarket, any indoor event, will require compulsory mask-wearing, in addition to hospitality workers and people serving you.

Updated

NSW records one new local Covid case

Glady’s Berejiklian says the wife of the man who tested positive yesterday has also been diagnosed with Covid-19.

The premier says contact tracers have now figured out the original source of the infection.

Updated

We are just standing by now for NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to give an update on the state’s Covid-19 numbers in a few minutes.

The state recorded a mystery case yesterday in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and the premier warned there would be more to come.

The inquest into the death in custody of Wayne Fella Morrison will resume on Friday morning after another delay following legal arguments about how to handle the appearance of several corrections officers.

It had been expected that the coroner would hear from officers Trent Hall, Liam Mail, Darren Shillabeer, Martin Crowe, Jean-Guy Townsend, Neale McLeod and Neil Bradford starting this week – the seven prison guards who were present with Morrison in the back of a prison transport van.

No video footage exists for the three-and-a-half minute trip and the officers have previously sought to claim legal protections in order to avoid having to answer questions about what occurred on the basis their evidence may be used to incriminate them in future proceedings.

As the officers cannot claim legal protections as a group, lawyers spent Wednesday giving submissions about how to handle logistics and what questions the officers will be asked.

The coroner, Jayne Basheer, is expected to give a ruling today before the inquest picks up again tomorrow.

Updated

Technology cash splash to form part of next week's budget

The prime minister, Scott Morrison has announced $1.2bn in the federal budget for a range of projects under the umbrella of the “digital economy”, including more funding for expanding digital ID, My Health Record, artificial intelligence, gaming development and drone development.

Included is $100m for digital cadetships, $124m for AI including a CSIRO Data 61 national artificial intelligence centre.

There’s also $200.1m for an overhaul of myGov (which it allocated $257m into just last September) for a new dashboard for myGov, and for notifications from myGov (an end to the dreaded “you have a message in your myGov inbox” maybe).

As part of that, My Health Record will also be updated to provide people with notifications of their Covid-19 test results and vaccinations.

There’s also nearly $200m for the government’s data strategy, which largely hinges on the passage of the contentious data transparency legislation we reported about last week.

The government is also looking to foster the games development industry in Australia with a 30% tax offset from 1 July 2022 for businesses that spend a minimum of $500,000 on Australian game development.

The government will also spend $31.7m on a test lab for 5G and 6G technology. Interestingly, this was basically what Huawei proposed to the government as a means for lifting the ban on using Huawei technology in 5G, but the government says the lab will test hardware and software used in the networks to make sure they’re secure.

Updated

Look, it might be too early to crack open the bubbly just yet, but it turns out less and less Australians actually want to.

According to research by Fitch Group out this morning, alcohol consumption in Australia is set to keep falling by an average of 1.2% year-on-year over the medium term.

Booze consumption per person is set to fall from 106.3 litres in 2021 to 101.4 litres in 2025, with beer being the most shunned option, according to the research agency.

To be fair, that still means we’ll be consuming 0.36 litres of alcohol per person a day on average ... but it’s a start!

On the flipside, the growth in alcohol-free beverages has surged. Dan Murphy’s and BWS reported sales growth of 103% year-on-year in alcohol-free options, peaking during late March 2020 just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

Of the headache-less hooch that’s in demand, non-alcoholic beer is the most popular category.

Most people taking it easy on the alcohol say health is the main reason, followed closely by the influence of alcohol awareness campaigns such as Dry July, Ocsober and Feb Fast.

These campaigns have seen a huge uptick in participation in recent years, with the Dry July organisation raising $7.7mn in 2018 and $10.9mn in 2019 to support those affected by cancer.

And after the Australian government tipped $3mn into Daybreak, an alcohol support app that helps people manage their relationship with alcohol, the app has seen more than 20,000 people sign up.

So while the clock hasn’t struck noon today, we might indeed crack open a 0% bottle of bubbles to lift the pre-budget newsroom mood.

Updated

The federal court will hear the challenge of the India travel ban at 10.15am on Monday. The case has been split into two halves.

On Monday the court will consider the first two grounds:

  1. The health minister, Greg Hunt, failed to ensure the ban was “no more restrictive or intrusive than is required”;
  2. That the ban is invalid because there is a “common law right of citizens to re-enter their country of citizenship” which can only be overridden by clear language.

In the second half, which is likely to be heard after the ban self-repeals on 15 May, the court will consider whether:

  • (3) The ban is “reasonably proportionate”;
  • (4) The ban infringes an implied constitutional right of citizens to enter Australia.

At the case management hearing on Thursday, the chief justice, James Allsop, said he had found a judge for the case, Tom Thawley.

Allsop expressed concern that ground (2) may stray into constitutional territory and not be able to proceed on Monday, but counsel for the applicant, Christopher Ward, assured him it would not.

Justice Allsop set some deadlines:

  • Midday for Hunt’s evidence (including the brief to the minister);
  • The applicant, Gary Newman, has until 3pm on Friday to file submissions and evidence;
  • A court book will be filed by 9am Monday.

“Sorry about Mother’s Day,” Allsop said to the commonwealth’s barrister.

Sounds like everyone is going to have a busy weekend.

Updated

The amazing Patrick Lum has created this interactive map of all the hotspot location around Sydney.

For the full details of what to do if you have visited any of these places, check out our hotspot explainer below.

No local Covid-19 in Queensland today. We are still waiting on the NSW numbers, which usually come out around 11am.

The backlash has been fierce in the days since the Australian government moved to make it a criminal offence for its citizens to return from Covid-ravaged India.

Members of the Morrison government have denounced their own policy, while medical experts and international human rights groups, including the United Nations, have called for an immediate reversal of the Biosecurity Act determination.

On Wednesday, one citizen challenged the law in the federal court.

However, more than 9,000 Australians remain stuck in India in a situation that Australia’s chief health officer has acknowledged could kill them.

Elias Visontay and Naaman Zhou share some of their stories:

Updated

Morrison on Victoria's proposed quarantine facility: 'There is room for states to do more'

The prime minister is in Victoria, so of course the proposed Melbourne quarantine facility has come up.

Essentially, the Victorian’s are super nervous about hotel quarantine (you know, because of the second wave and such) so they want to build a Howard Springs-type facility on the outskirts of the city.

But it’s going to cost $200m, and given that – constitutionally speaking – quarantine is the responsibility of the commonwealth, the state has been urging the feds to foot the bill.

Defence minister Peter Dutton called the proposal “smoke and mirrors politics”, and although Morrison said today that the federal government was seriously considering it, he didn’t sound that enthusiastic.

I welcome the fact, though, the Victorian government is putting this forward and saying, “No, we’ll run it. We’ll put our people there to run this system.” I welcome that.

I think that’s a very good move, because it understands that they are enforcing a Victorian state government public health order.

That’s what quarantine does, I should stress. Quarantine is enforcing state public health orders.* That’s why state governments are the ones actually delivering it. That’s what we agreed at national cabinet in March of last year.

So we will look at this proposal. We’ll look at it carefully. But I do remind, when it comes to the investment the commonwealth government has made in Covid, if you add up every single dollar every single state and territory has spent, both in economic supports and health supports, double it, go a bit further, and that’s what the commonwealth has invested in Covid, some $267 billion.

In Victoria, I think it’s around $44 billion. So I think there is room for all states and territories to do more, just like there is room for the commonwealth to keep doing our bit. We’ve invested half a billion dollars in the Howard Springs facility, which this month goes to 2,000 capacity. And that’s where we’ll be bringing Australians from India home.

*Nope.

Updated

Morrison doubles down on his support of hotel quarantine

The commonwealth is now under immense pressure from state governments, the opposition and medical groups to ramp up federal quarantine facilities.

Now, the commonwealth isn’t keen to do this, so Morrison is now in a position where he needs to publicly and rigorously defend state hotel quarantine facilities, even as some of the state’s own premiers denounce them.

The PM says:

Let’s not forget here in Victoria, while there was absolutely the breach of quarantine that occurred here and the reports of that and the reviews that have been done set that out, but that is not the only protection.

Even more importantly, because there will be occasionally outbreaks from quarantine, it’s the furthering of containment, which is the testing and the tracing. There have been outbreaks in New South Wales, there have been outbreaks in Western Australia, in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, but it didn’t progress to the second wave proportions that we saw here in Victoria. Quarantine is one link in the chain. It’s not every link in the chain.

And Australia’s hotel quarantine has a 99.99%* success rate. If you’d asked me to put in place with the states and territories a year ago a system that I could tell you would have a 99.99% success rate in Australia for breaches from quarantine, you would have said that I was overpromising. But that’s what this country has achieved in the past more than 12 months. That’s what’s been achieved.

So, there can be outbreaks that occur from any quarantine system anywhere in the world. Fortunately, in Howard Springs we still have 100% success rate** there, but no one’s complacent about that.

*Hmm, well yes this is true if you count ALL travellers that have been through the system. But if you look only at infected travellers, our rate of outbreaks is in the ballpark of one breach for every 300 cases.

**Yeah, that’s kind of the whole point the states are trying to make: Howard Springs-style quarantine works better.

Perth’s Pan Pacific hotel
The Covid outbreak at Perth’s Pan Pacific hotel at the weekend was Western Australia’s second quarantine outbreak in a fortnight. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

Updated

A reporter has asked for details on what support the Australia government is providing to our citizen currently trapped in India.

Morrison:

The same things we have been doing for over a year, and that’s to provide the support through our consular offices. We have a hardship fund that already has extended over $30 million of support to people all around the world, not just in India.

We have brought already just 20,000 Australian citizens and residents home from India through repatriation flights, directly arranged repatriation flights and other facilitated flights; 20,000. And the challenge is, as it is all around the world, that as we bring more people home. There are more people who still want to come home and they get added to those lists.

So, through our consular offices and through the high commission there, led by high commissioner Barry O’Farrell, they are providing that support directly to people who are in those situations, as they have done now, and as we have done in many countries, not just in India – in Brazil, in other parts of the world, in Indonesia, in Papua New Guinea...

Our diplomatic corps have been doing an extraordinary job, often at great risk to themselves. You’ll remember that it was consular officials who got in a car and drove from Shanghai to Wuhan, went themselves, personally, volunteered, went there, supported and set up those first repatriation flights when we took people out of Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.

So our consular staff and diplomatic staff around the world will keep doing the great job supporting Australians that they’ve been doing not just recently, for a very long time.

Updated

Back to the Michael Slater situation -

Morrison has been asked to respond to the former cricketer’s rather passionate (and inflammatory) tweets.

I’ve made my comments. I understand his frustration and I understand his deep concern for the people of India.

What I have to say, though, is I’m even more understanding of the many, many, many hundreds of thousands, millions of Australians of Indian descent or heritage and have so many family members who are affected, and will be remaining in India.

That’s why I’m pleased over a thousand ventilators have already touched down in India and that has been welcomed by the Indian government. The foreign minister of India and our foreign minister met yesterday virtually in the UK. That was a positive meeting and the government was very appreciative of the support Australia is giving to India.

They understand the arrangements we have in place and we welcome the very, very strong diplomatic engagement we’ve had with them.

India travel ban likely to end on 15 May, PM says

OK, travel ban time at the Morrison presser. The prime minister said the national security committee of cabinet would get an update today on how the India flight pause is going.

The information I already have is the pause is working. The pause is putting us in a place to ensure that we’ll be able to safely bring people home.

And the early evidence indicates that that temporary pause to 15 May is on track and that we are very hopeful and confident that on the other side of 15 May we will be able to start restoring those repatriation flights.

But that decision hasn’t yet been taken. We will do it on the basis of the evidence, on the basis of the medical advice.

Updated

Turnbull rejects Coalition candidate for Upper Hunter byelection

With all this India talk you can be forgiven for forgetting about the political mud fight currently going on in NSW in the lead-up to the Upper Hunter byelection.

The Coalition government is now fighting to retain its majority by re-winning the seat, but the former prime minister certainly isn’t helping them out.

Many blame the byelection for Malcolm Turnbull’s unceremonious booting from his role as head of a state advisory body on climate change. Today he tweeted out his support of independent candidate Kirsty O’Connell.

That has got to sting!

Updated

So far Scott Morrison’s speech has so many buzz words my poor little brain just genuinely can not understand what he is saying.

Basically, there is new funding for the digital economy and how it will help with the Covid-19 recovery.

Honestly, I’m going to dip back in when we get to the questions.

Thought you had heard enough from the prime minister today? Think again! He is speaking now from Melbourne.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi is urging the Australian government to follow the US and support the World Health Organisation’s efforts to force pharmaceutical companies to waive intellectual property rights over Covid-19 vaccines.

Updated

NRL Roosters isolating after Covid scare

Sydney Roosters players are undergoing Covid-19 tests this morning and the NRL club’s staff have been told to stay at home after yesterday’s known case visited a cafe at Moore Park, close to the Roosters’ headquarters.

The man, who visited a number of venues in Sydney’s eastern suburbs while infectious, was at Azure Cafe on Monday. The cafe in the Entertainment Quarter is less than 100m from Roosters HQ and is frequented by staff of the NRL club – and AFL club Sydney Swans.

AAP reports no Roosters players were at the cafe at the same time as the man, and that the players had left training early after confirmation of Brett Morris’ ACL injury.

But the development casts doubts on the Roosters’ Friday night game against Parramatta.

Updated

It seems the NRL world has been dragged into the latest NSW Covid-19 scare, with the potentially infectious man visiting Azure Cafe on Monday, located close to the offices of the Sydney Roosters and the NRL.

Currently, the state’s health advice says anyone who visited the cafe on Monday is a casual contact and must get tested immediately and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.

Nine News reports that the Roosters have been proactive, putting all players and staff have been put into isolation where they will stay there until all their recently movements have been traced and they’re given the all-clear.

Danny Weidler reports anyone who has visited a hotspot will not be allowed to rejoin the team.

Updated

Linda Reynolds says she is “deeply sorry” that Brittany Higgins, her former staffer, did not feel properly supported after she was allegedly sexually assaulted on a couch in her ministerial office in March 2019.

Reynolds took a period of medical leave on 24 February amid sustained pressure over her handling of the alleged rape of her former staffer. She then extended her leave after it was revealed she had called Higgins a “lying cow” in front of staff after Higgins went public about her alleged rape and the minister’s handling of the matter...

Asked for a response to a number of public statements from Higgins that she did not feel supported in the aftermath of the alleged assault, Reynolds said:

“I am deeply sorry that she felt that way because my chief of staff and I at the time genuinely wanted to provide the support that she wanted.”

You can read the full report below:

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has taken a much more measured approach than his National colleague David Littleproud when it comes to former cricketer Michael Slater.

(Littleroud called him a “spoilt prat” on national TV, in case you were wondering)

Michael Slater is in the Maldives. He’s been able to get to a safer haven for him.

I’ve grown up with him. He comes from Wagga Wagga. He’s a fine cricketer for Australia. I understand he’s upset. I understand there’s a lot of concern amongst our Indian community.

I understand Michael went across to the IPL to commentate. And people have the right to do that. But also the Australian government has the right also to its Australian citizens, to the broader national interest at large, and we’re doing what we said we would do. We are following the best possible medical advice. That’s important and we’ll continue to do that.

Australian deputy prime Minister Michael McCormack.
Australian deputy prime Minister Michael McCormack: ‘We are following the best possible medical advice.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack is speaking at a press conference now.

Another of the proxy advisor (firms advising super funds) who the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, wants to crack down on has responded to his ideas – you may remember a few days ago one of them, Dean Paatsch of Ownership Matters, called it a “Trumpian brainfart”.

Proxy advisers give advice to investors, including super funds, about how to vote on motions at shareholder meetings covering issues including executive pay and the re-election of directors.

Frydenberg wants to force them to hand over their research to the companies they are looking at five days before they hand it to their own clients, and outlaw investors owning advisers – a move aimed directly at the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, which is owned by members including industry super funds, which the government is campaigning against.

This morning, Paatsch’s competitor Val Kolesnikoff, of ISS, says Frydenberg’s proposals are “premised on a misguided notion that proxy advisers do not operate transparently or engage with companies”.

In that sense we believe the potential regulatory options outlined in the public consultation are a solution in search of a problem ...

Asset owners and other institutional investors should have the fundamental right to choose proxy advisers, use independent research and implement voting policies appropriate to their individual stewardship needs without any limitations placed on them by the companies which they own and directors who they elect.

Updated

Scott Morrison has declared that Australia has “always stood for freedom in our part of the world” in response to a question about whether he stands with Taiwan.

But the prime minister also indicated there was unlikely to be any shift in the Australian government’s position on recognition of Taiwan.

The comments come after Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, called on Australia to help defend it against President Xi Jinping’s “expansionism”.

Wu told the Australian Financial Review an invasion of Taiwan was “not imminent” but a military confrontation with China was a genuine threat that Canberra understood.

On 3AW, when asked whether Australia stood with Taiwan, Morrison replied:

We’ve always honoured all of our arrangements in the Indo-Pacific, particularly our alliance with the United States. We’re very cognisant of the uncertainties in our region Neil, and I’m not one to speak at length on these things, because I don’t wish to add to any uncertainty. But that’s why we have the security arrangements we have in place. We have always understood the one system two countries arrangement, and we will continue to follow our policies there - one country two systems, I should say.

(The Chinese government has repeatedly said it regards Taiwan as an inseparable part of China’s territory, and it has spoken of a policy of “one country, two systems” for reunification.)

Pressed again on whether Australia stood with Taiwan, Morrison said:

We always have stood for freedom in our part of the world.

Here is the full statement from the NSW treasurer’s office:

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is self-isolating at his home after being identified as a close contact of the positive Covid case from Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Mr Perrottet went into isolation at his home yesterday evening on learning of the potential contact and in accordance with the current health orders.

A Covid test has since returned a negative result.

Notwithstanding the negative result, in accordance with the instructions from NSW Health, Mr Perrottet will continue to self-isolate for 14 days from last Friday.

Mr Perrottet is classified as a close contact as he was at District Brasserie in the Chifley complex in the CBD on Friday 30 April between 11am and 12 noon, at the same time as the man in his 50s, separately visited the venue.

NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet.
NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet has been identified as a close contact of Sydney’s mystery Covid case. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

NSW treasurer identified as close contact of Covid-19 case

The NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet has been identified as a close contact of the most recent community Covid-19 case.

He was at the District Brasserie at the same time as the man last week, and will now isolate for 14 from last Friday.

So far he has tested negative to Covid-19.

Updated

Trapped former Australia Cricketer Michael Slater has made headlines again today, tweeting from the Maldives (where he was forced to flee when the travel ban was announced) that the prime minister should “take [his] private jet” to India and “come and witness dead bodies on the street”.

Morrison was asked this morning if he had considered giving Slater a call about his situation:

To be honest I haven’t considered giving him a call. I’ve been a bit focused on actually managing the pandemic itself and the many other challenges we have here.

I understand though that he’s upset, I understand that he’s frustrated ... I understand that particularly those in our cricket community have deep connections with India ...

But as prime minister I have to make decisions in Australia’s national interests ...

I understand that Michel disagrees with my decision. I respect that he’s a fellow Australian, and I look forward to be able to return safely home after, after having spent the time where he’s had to spend in the meantime.

Updated

Morrison says 'drumbeats of war' speech was not authorised by Dutton's office

There were a few questions on China during the interview.

Asked if senior public servant Michael Pezzullo’s speech on the rising drumbeat to war had been authorised by the minister, Scott Morrison said: “That’s not the case.”

The prime minister was asked whether he accepted China was a destabilising influence in the region. He did not answer directly but said:

We want China and Australia and the whole region to work together.

Morrison added that the best way to achieve that goal was to ensure the rules-based order was respected and that the South China Sea was kept “free and open” for transit.

That’s what we’re for – a free and open Indo-Pacific.

On the 2015 lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company, Morrison noted that the deal by the Northern Territory government was not opposed by the defence department at the time – but added that “a lot has changed since then”.

He confirmed comments by Peter Dutton earlier this week that the defence department was now taking another look at the deal. It’s unclear when that fresh review is due to be finished.

Updated

Morrison says he does not believe the India travel ban, and the use of the Biosecurity Act to make it temporarily illegal for an Australian citizen to return home, has breached human rights, despite the UN high commissioner on human rights expressing their concern.

I don’t believe we have. We’re doing the right thing, not only by Australians here, but I believe we’re doing the right thing by the Australian residents and citizens we’re trying to bring home to ensure that we can do that safely.

I mean one of the things that we had to be careful of, was that if we hadn’t done this, then we would have probably had to oppose flights coming out of Doha, out of Dubai, out of many other ports where Australians are coming back from many other places. And so this ensured that we could keep those flights going, and those Australians coming home.

Updated

Morrison blames media for India sanctions scare

OK, we are into the juicy bits now. 3AW host Neil Mitchell is pushing Morrison on why the government come out with harsh sanction for anyone attempting to enter Australia if they have been in India in the last 14 days.

Mitchell:

I would argue you’ve perhaps made a mistake in emphasising punishment which is what happened. Would you agree that was a mistake?

Morrison:

We didn’t, but media did to be fair ...

Mitchell:

Well, it was a press statement put out on it over the weekend by Greg Hunt?

Morrison:

There was simply a statement of what the Biosecurity Act does as a way of fact, this is not something that was accentuated by Greg Hunt or me or anyone else. It was picked up on in the media and they’ve highlighted that.

But as I’ve said it’s highly, highly remote that the extremes of those sanctions would apply in these circumstances because they’ve been in place for 14 months and no one’s been to jail.

Updated

Morrison has been asked how long it will take to get all 9,000 Australians back from India, and well, he doesn’t give an answer.

This has been the challenge all the way through. Every time you know you get 1,000 people home and other 1,000 people go on the list, and that’s been the challenge.

I’ll tell you something in the last since the 24th of April, 687 people living in Australia have applied to go to India, all of those 697 applications have been rejected I should stress, but this is one of the challenges that we have.

There is about 9,000 Australians who are registered there. There were 20,000 that we’ve already been able to bring home.

And because of the very serious situation – I mean, John Hopkins University says there were more Covid cases reported last week than in the entirety of the first four months of 2020. So this is the pandemic we’re dealing with and we’ve got to take decisions in the national interest.

Updated

Morrison refuses to give date for first Indian repatriation flight

Prime minister Scott Morrison has repeatedly assured the public during press conferences about the Indian flight ban that repatriations would resume after the pause ends on 15 May.

But when pushed this morning, he refused to give a date for when the first rescue flight to India would take place:

We are not going to commit to that at this point, because we still have to review the evidence when the pause finishes on the 15th of May.

I’m very confident that after the 15th of May, thereafter, those repatriation flights are going to be able to be restored, but I’m not going to make that announcement until we’ve gone through the evidence taking the medical advice.

Scott Morrison has been asked if the lives of the 900 vulnerable Australian’s in India are at risk, and he is trying very hard to not answer the question.

India is a very difficult place to be. There’s no doubt about that. That’s why we’ve already brought back 20,000 Australians registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and many more. And that’s included in 28 specific flights with corners for Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, or Qatar, and we’ve been doing this for a long time...

Host Neil Mitchell has pushed the prime minister again, asking how many people need to be evacuated from India immediately.

Morrison:

Well, there is the capability for medivac that already exists*. And there are exemptions that were built into the order, which was put in place by the health minister. [This was] based on the recommendation that the chief medical officer that these risks ... can be mitigated, and the fact that this is a temporary arrangement, means that that is the best mitigation and that’s why we’re moving quickly to improve the rapid antigen testing arrangements that are in place.

*These can cost over 60K by the way.

Prime minister Scott Morrison addresses.
Prime minister Scott Morrison addresses. Photograph: Scott Radford-Chisolm/AAP

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking to Melbourne radio station 3AW now. I’ll bring you updates.

Updated

Remember I said the US had thrown their weight behind forcing pharmaceutical companies to wave their intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, well the chief of the WHO has responded to this announcement, praising president Joe Biden.

In a statement Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:

This is a monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19. The commitment by the president of the United States Joe Biden and ambassador Katherine Tai, the US trade representative, to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of American leadership to address global health challenges.

I commend the United States on its historic decision for vaccine equity and prioritising the wellbeing of all people everywhere at a critical time. Now let’s all move together swiftly, in solidarity, building on the ingenuity and commitment of scientists who produced life-saving Covid-19 vaccines.

Updated

'A temporary visa is a privilege, and not a right': immigration minister on the Biloela family

Just ducking back to the immigration minister Alex Hawke for a second.

He was asked on ABC radio about the Biloela family who have now spent more than 1,000 days in detention. (The majority of the two young girls’ lives.)

Yesterday the home affairs minister Karen Andrews said she would have an announcement “in the near future” on whether the family could be released from the detention centre on Christmas Island and allowed to live among the community there while their case goes through the courts.

But Hawke says the decision on the family’s future after the courts make their ruling will ultimately rest with him.

Yes, so the family’s lawyers have been advised I’m the primary decision-maker following a decision of the court. And I’ll be doing that in accordance with our legal advice when, when that’s advised to me ...

I won’t comment on the specifics of the case. Obviously, I will be the primary decision-maker. I’ll have to take legal advice, which is subject to a number of legal proceedings that occurred.

I can talk generally about the immigration detention network and I’m happy to say that it is a constantly necessary exercise the immigration detention network and we work to make sure we have as few people in immigration detention, that people are doing the right thing.

But where people do the wrong thing ... a temporary visa is a privilege, and not a right. And so people who are invited to Australia on temporary visas are guests.

Tharnicaa, aged three, who has been held in immigration detention with her family for more than 1,000 days. Her parents are Tamil but she and her five-year-old sister Kopika were born in Australia.
Tharnicaa, aged three, who has been held in immigration detention with her family for more than 1,000 days. Her parents are Tamil but she and her five-year-old sister Kopika were born in Australia. Photograph: Supplied from the office of Kristina Keneally

Updated

The Queensland police service blocked academic research seeking to scrutinise its response to domestic violence cases and the attitudes of officers – sending rejection letters that denied there was a need for studies.

That’s despite increasing case numbers and mounting evidence of cultural problems within the ranks.

In one instance in 2019, highly regarded Queensland University of Technology criminologist Kerry Carrington was refused permission to survey police officers to assess how victim-centric police stations for women and families could work in the state.

As the police reckon with the fallout of revelations about the deaths of Doreen Langham and Kelly Wilkinson – who were killed after repeatedly seeking police help – senior officers now say they want to explore Carrington’s ideas.

You can read the full exclusive below:

Updated

US declares support for patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines

Wow, this is pretty massive for vaccine efforts all around the world.

The United States government has officially thrown its weight behind forcing pharmaceutical companies to waive their intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines.

US trade ambassador Katherine Tai said:

These extraordinary times and circumstances of call for extraordinary measures ...

We’ll actively participate in World Health Organization negotiations to make that happen.

If the WHO is able to enforce this, it could make vaccines vastly more affordable and readily available in developing countries.

Updated

David Littleproud calls former cricketer Michael Slater a 'spoilt prat'

So you know what a GREAT look for the government, calling a man trapped overseas and worried for the lives of his friends and fellow Australians a “spoilt prat”. Surely they wouldn’t go on the Today Show and say that. Wouldn’t they?

They would.

Here is what agricultural minister David Littleproud said when asked about comments made by former cricketer Michael Slater, who fled India for the Maldives when the India travel ban was announced and has publicly said the prime minister has “blood on his hands” and invited Morrison to come to India to see the bodies in the streets.

Yeah, mate. Michael Slater needs to get over himself. He is acting like a spoilt prat.

No one’s underestimating the harrowing impacts on the Indian people, or on the Australians stuck, there but the Australians stuck there, but the Australian government’s primary responsibility is to keep its people safe. Sometimes we have to make tough decisions for the greater good.

Michael Slater can sit on the beach and slam us over here in Australia. These are tough decisions and we’re very empathetic with not only Australians there, but also those thousands of Indians that are dying every day.

But this is a pandemic that he knew he was travelling in. Yes, we granted him authority to travel. But there’s a thing called personal responsibility. So take some personal responsibility.

He actually has the resources to look after himself. And we’re going to try to look after those Australians that are over there and we’re also going to try to help those Indians but he is acting like a spoilt prat and he needs to grow up and think about the big issues at play. We have to keep Australians safe first and foremost.

Former Australian cricketer Michael Slater fled India for the Maldives when the Australian government announced the India travel ban
Former Australian cricketer Michael Slater fled India for the Maldives when the Australian government announced the India travel ban. Photograph: Frank Baron/The Guardian

Updated

A fresh marketing campaign to encourage Australians to book longer holidays within the country and spend as if they’re on an overseas trip will launch today.

Tourism minister Dan Tehan said the government-funded “Go Big” campaign was aimed at getting Australians to take holidays more than five days long to help the tourism sector that continues to be ravaged by Australia’s international border closure. It will run across TV, print, online and social media.

TAS - Wineglass Bay. A new campaign highlights incredible holiday destinations across Australia encouraging Australians to explore the country for longer holidays.
Wineglass Bay in Tasmania. A new campaign highlights holiday destinations across the country. Photograph: Tourism Australia

The $9m the government is spending on the campaign pales in comparison to the $1.2bn spend on the tourism and aviation rescue package – which included the half-price flights initiative – which itself was criticised by tourism operators and accommodation bosses as mostly benefitting airlines and ignoring pleas for a continuation of some form of wage subsidy following the end of jobkeeper.

Announcing the launch of the new campaign today, Tehan said:

This new campaign aims to get Australians to travel further afield, take a longer holiday, and visit those parts of the country typically reliant on international tourism. Australians typically spend more overseas than foreign tourists spend in Australia, so we want Australians to treat their domestic holiday this year like an overseas trip.

Every epic holiday that we take in our own backyard delivers a significant shot in the arm for our tourism businesses, workers and communities. There has never been a better time to book a big holiday in Australia with so many incredible tourism experiences on our doorstep and thousands of half-price airfares still available through the Morrison government’s discounted airfares program.

Tehan said the net impact of domestic tourist spending was a positive benefit to the economy of around $7.5bn in the December quarter; and in 2019, holidays of five nights or longer contributed $31.8bn to the economy.

Updated

'Halfway there': South Australia closer to assisted dying laws

South Australia is a step closer to having a voluntary assisted dying regime, after the state’s upper house passed legislation overnight, reports AAP.

Members of the Legislative Council voted 14 votes to seven to pass a bill sponsored by Labor shadow attorney general Kyam Maher and his lower house colleague Susan Close.

“Halfway there,” Maher tweeted at 1.24am on Thursday after the conscience vote, which followed a long debate that began on Wednesday afternoon.

The bill now goes to the lower house for a final conscience vote by MPs and if it passes, SA will be the fourth state to legalise voluntary assisted dying laws.

This is the state’s 17th attempt in 25 years to introduce such laws.

This bill includes 68 safeguards and a provision that people wishing to end their lives must be resident in SA for at least 12 months and at least 18 years old.

The bill requires patients to show they have decision-making capacity and are capable of informed consent and to undergo an assessment by two independent medical practitioners not related to the applicant. They must have their request verified by two independent witnesses and must be experiencing intolerable suffering that cannot be relieved.

A terminal diagnosis and a life expectancy of less than six months, or 12 months for a person with a neurodegenerative disease, must also be confirmed.

The SA bill is based on Victoria’s legislation and system, which Maher has described as the “Australian model of voluntary assisted dying”.

Most concerns among MPs about the bill related to coercion and pressure, especially on elderly people.

But Maher said ahead of the vote “there’s just been no evidence” of that happening in Victoria, which has been operating its system for two years.

Although Labor MP Clare Scriven told parliament on Wednesday it was too early to judge the impact of the Victoria laws, which came into effect in mid-2019.

A new survey of 511 people by The Australia Institute found four in five South Australians support assisted dying laws similar to Victoria’s.

Western Australia recently passed similar laws that come into force later this year, while legislation has also passed in the Tasmanian parliament.

Updated

Hawke:

The Australian government has been repatriating. We’ve got about 140,000 people since the pandemic, more have left.

We’ve also been very generous as a country in letting people out through exemptions for work purposes for personal purposes for all kinds of compassionate reasons, and it’s a very complex situation, but we also have the right to manage those incomings and outgoings in a safe way because Australia is in such a good position.

The feedback from the roundtables yesterday. Some people had lost members of the family – one family have lost five members in India, in the pandemic – and you know these things are horror stories and you’re reminded in Australia how serious things are overseas, and how dangerous it would be here if we had an outbreak.

Updated

Immigration minister denies that Australian Indian communities think the travel ban is 'racist'

Immigration minister Alex Hawke denies that leaders from the Indian Australian community view the travel ban to the subcontinent as racially motivated or racist.

I’ve been meeting with several groups and roundtables [in] all states and territories for the Australian Indian community, and look, there’s a lot of concern about some of the penalty discussion but overwhelmingly the community here is understanding of the need for the very tough decision to temporarily pause ...

They didn’t suggest it was racist. They reflected on some of the commentary that there was a discussion about race, but no one is really putting their voice to [the idea that] the Australian government made a decision based on race, and that’s all the national and state bodies that say they don’t believe that

*It’s worth noting a number of prominent community leaders have come out and labelled the ban racist, although obviously there is a diversity of opinions across the Australian diaspora.

Alex Hawke.
Immigration minister Alex Hawke. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

A very good morning to you all on this dreary autumn’s Thursday (well, at least it’s dreary where I am, so I demand everyone suffer because of that).

Sydney is dealing with a worrying case of mystery Covid community transmission. The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says it’s likely there will be more community cases to come after a man in Sydney’s east tested positive yesterday, despite not recently travelling overseas, not working in a hotel quarantine, border or a health role and basically having no idea where he caught the virus.

Essentially the hunt is now on for the missing Covid-19 link.

NSW Health believes this man has been infectious, with a high viral load, since last Friday. He has been moving around the community, visiting up to 20 venues, but luckily, health authorities say he had been meticulous about checking in using QR codes.

A list of venues of concern has been compiled which includes a number of barbecue stores in Silverwater, Annandale and Casula, a meat store in Bondi Junction and a petrol station in Mascot.

He also attended a screening of The Courier at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction on Friday before attending Figo Restaurant at Rushcutters Bay.

This has led Berejiklian to warn:

Everybody in the state needs to be on high alert.

Anybody anywhere with the mildest of symptoms needs to come forward and get tested.

And she really does mean everyone, because, on Wednesday evening, NSW Health reported viral fragments had been detected in the Marrickville sewage network in the city’s west.

The catchment includes about 42,000 people and takes sewage from Dulwich Hill, Marrickville, Summer Hill, Lewisham, Ashfield, Haberfield, Petersham, Lilyfield and Leichhardt.

NSW Health is asking everyone in these areas to be especially vigilant in monitoring for symptoms, and if they appear get tested and isolate immediately until a negative result is received.

Berejiklian said it was too early to say if NSW’s coronavirus-related restrictions need to be tightened. Miraculously, so far no states or territories have slammed closed their borders, although most have ruled that anyone who has visited a Sydney hotspot and since travelled interstate must isolate for 14 days.

Now there is plenty to get through (because despite what Sydney thinks, the world doesn’t actually revolve around Sydney), so why don’t we jump into the day!

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

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International Business Times UK
‘It happened to me with a McDonald’s sandwich’: Detroit woman buys Walmart Freshness Guaranteed chocolate sprinkle donut holes. Then she takes a bite
A Walmart customer picks up a container of chocolate donut holes from the bakery section and shares them with her family. She can’t believe what her husband found inside one of them when he took a bite.
The Mary Sue
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