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The Guardian - AU
National
Elias Visontay and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Queensland stops quarantine-free travel from New Zealand as NSW, South Australia ease restrictions – as it happened

The Senate chamber today
The Senate has passed the bill on the news media bargaining code after 11th-hour amendments. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

What happened today, 24 February 2021

With that, I will leave you for the day. Here’s a recap of today’s news:

  • The doctor responsible for delivering four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to two elderly residents of a Brisbane nursing home did not receive immunisation training. The doctor has been stood down after an 88-year-old man and a 94-year-old woman were each given the wrong dose, and subsequently hospitalised.
  • Peter Dutton has confirmed police told him about the alleged rape of former government staffer Brittany Higgins several days before the prime minister, Scott Morrison, says he was made aware of the incident.
  • Defence minister Linda Reynolds, who Higgins used to work for, has been hospitalised and will take medical leave after more than a week of escalating controversy.
  • Australia’s landmark news media bargaining code passed the Senate on Wednesday evening. It will return to the lower house, where amendments can be agreed to, before it is passed into law.
  • New South Wales will further ease Covid-19 restrictions from 12:01am on Friday. Households will be able to welcome up to 50 guests, and weddings can have up to 30 people on dancefloors.

Have a great evening, we’ll be back tomorrow.

Updated

NSW issues Covid alert for New Zealand arrivals

NSW Health has issued a health alert for arrivals from New Zealand, after three cases of coronavirus were reported in Auckland yesterday.

Travellers arriving in NSW from New Zealand have not had to quarantine upon arriving, because of the one-way travel bubble in place.

NSW Health is contacting travellers who have arrived from NZ since 20 February on quarantine-free flights to check if they have been to any new venues of concern attended by an infectious person.

NSW Health’s statement said:

As a precaution, people who have arrived since Saturday 20 February are also being asked if they are well and are being asked to get tested for Covid-19 and isolate until they get a negative result, or for 14 days if they attended one of the venues.

A notice is now in effect specifying Auckland as a hotspot. This requires people arriving in NSW from New Zealand who have been in Auckland, including the airport, to enter hotel quarantine for 14 days. Alternatively, they may choose to depart Australia.

The new hotspot identification under the air transportation public health order will become effective as of 12.01am on Thursday 25 February.

Updated

The media bargaining code bill will now return to the lower house, where the amendments can be agreed and passed into law.

For more on the amendments, and Facebook’s backflip, here’s Peter Lewis’ take from yesterday.

Updated

Media bargaining code passes Senate

The landmark media bargaining code has passed the upper house.

The bill was passed after 11th-hour amendments were made to address concerns of Facebook, after it blocked news for Australians.

More to come.

Updated

Australian bosses say the climate crisis is the biggest challenge facing their businesses – in contrast to their overseas counterparts, who have ranked recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic their top concern.

“Climate change impacts” were rated the No 1 concern by 18% of 155 Australian executives surveyed by accounting firm Ernst & Young, followed by technological disruption (17%) and “the continuing Covid-19 pandemic” (15%).

Globally, the positions of climate change and the pandemic were reversed, with the pandemic considered the biggest challenge by 18%, the economy second with 12% and global heating a distant third at just 9%.

EY’s managing director of strategy and transactions, David Larocca, said:

We think this reflects both the fact that locally the pandemic has been handled comparatively well and also our C-suite consider Covid’s impacts to be short-term.

It also reflects the priority position investors are now giving sustainability and climate change when making their decisions.

Over the past few years investors, including large superannuation funds, have ramped up pressure on boards and executives to commit the companies they lead to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to investor pressure, Australia’s two big miners, BHP and Rio Tinto, have said they will attempt to reduce their emissions to net zero by 2050, while major banks ANZ and NAB have committed to reducing or eliminating their funding for coal projects.

The election of Joe Biden has also increased pressure on Australia and its corporate sector to do more on climate.

Read more:

Updated

Nine Entertainment’s outgoing chief executive, Hugh Marks, has pledged to give $2m in jobkeeper payments back to the government after the nation’s biggest local media company posted a $182m net profit.

“This is a remarkable reflection of a period where much of Australia spent time in lockdown, or recovering from lockdown, and the Australian economy was in recession,” Marks told staff.

“In the face of this, we’ve reported a 42% increase on last year in earnings before interest and tax of $355m and a total revenue of $1.16bn for [the first half of the financial year].”

Hugh Marks.
Hugh Marks. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

In his final results presentation after five years leading Nine, Marks said the multimedia company had resumed talks with Facebook, and was continuing talks with Google, for the digital giants to pay for its news stories. It is understood Nine’s deal with Google is worth $30m a year.

The Nine results were delivered the day after Facebook reversed its ban on Australian news on its platform after coming to an arrangement with the government on the news media bargaining code.

Read more:

Updated

Queensland could take a significant step towards hosting the 2032 Olympic Games this week when a recommendation for a preferred bid candidate is made to the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC’s executive board is set to meet on Wednesday night (AEDT), when it will hear a presentation from its newly formed Future Host Commission.

If, as expected, the commission recommends the south-east Queensland bid, more detailed negotiations can begin between the IOC and Australian officials with a view to being confirmed as the preferred host candidate at this year’s IOC session.

Under normal circumstances, that would take place just before the Tokyo Games, starting in July this year, but Covid-19 has clouded timings and there may be a delay to the scheduled meeting.

But given the IOC’s new bid process, once installed, the preferred host candidate would be in a strong position to win rights to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“Should the IOC announce as speculated it’s another step in the process – positive – but just another step,” a Queensland government spokesperson told Guardian Australia.

The Australian Olympic Committee said it would wait to hear of any overnight developments from the remote meeting before responding.

Read more:

Patricia Sparrow, the chief executive of Aged and Community Services Australia – the peak body representing church, charitable and community-based providers of aged care – has labelled the vaccine overdose administered to aged care residents in Brisbane “completely unacceptable”.

Sparrow was speaking to ABC TV shortly after the health minister, Greg Hunt, revealed that the doctor who administered the vaccines – which have left two people in hospital – did not undergo Covid-19 vaccine training.

Sparrow said:

We cannot compromise on the health and safety of these important older Australians.

I think we need to find out exactly what has happened. The government needs to be clear and it needs to take decisive action.

However, Sparrow was not in favour of pausing the vaccine rollout across aged care facilities:

At this stage we think it is really important that we proceed and proceed cautiously, and make sure that there is no compromise to the health of older Australians.

An ambulance is seen at the entrance to the Holy Spirit Nursing Home Carseldine in Brisbane on Wednesday.
An ambulance is seen at the entrance to the Holy Spirit Nursing Home, Carseldine in Brisbane on Wednesday. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Updated

Queensland removes New Zealand as safe country, closes border

Travellers from New Zealand who arrive in Queensland from 6pm local time tonight will have to complete quarantine after the state removed New Zealand’s “safe travel country” status.

According to Queensland Health, the move comes after the AHPPC was told that the level of risk in New Zealand had increased. AHPPC discussed the need to change all flights coming into the country into red flights due to the further community transmission in New Zealand.

Authorities are also asking anyone who has been in New Zealand since 21 February and is now in Queensland to come forward for testing.

The Queensland chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said the move was designed to protect Queenslanders.

Young said:

Unfortunately, over the past few days New Zealand has been recording some new positive cases, which is why we are closing the border from 6pm.

Anyone who is permitted to travel to Queensland from New Zealand will be required to quarantine on arrival.

Acting with an abundance of caution has kept Queenslanders safe and that’s exactly the path we will continue to take.

Things can change really quickly with this virus – we’ve seen that in other countries around the world, which is why I am asking Queenslanders to reconsider their need to travel to New Zealand.

Updated

Thanks for taking us through the day so far Amy.

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

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

I am going to hand you over to the lovely Elias Visontay who will take you through the evening.

Thank you again for everyone who joined me today – we will be back tomorrow for the last sitting day of this session.

It has been a really awful few weeks so I hope everyone is being gentle with themselves.

I’ll be back with you early tomorrow – until then, take care of you.

Updated

There are still people in this place talking about this – but the government will not be budging:

Updated

Adam Bandt also says he has had it confirmed by Simon Birmingham that the staffer alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins was listed on the attorney general’s lobbyist register:

We got another piece of the information today and that shows us that the individual in question has actually been a lobbyist on the attorney general lobbyist register, which raises questions about how it is that someone who has been sacked from a position in the government for what the government says was a security breach, but we suspect something more, and that is allowed to start operating as a lobbyist and all the privileges that gives.

We now need to know whether or not as a lobbyist this alleged rapist has been coming back and having meetings with ministers, ministerial staff, departmental officials, because not only would they be incredibly inappropriate but it was putting staff in a situation they may be having to meet with someone that the government knows has serious questions about them, is now an alleged rapist, coming back into the building and potentially having meetings.

We now need further information to come out, but what we have learned today about this individual being on the lobbyist register the attorney general maintains raises some very serious questions.

Updated

Adam Bandt is also asked about a doctor being able to administer the Pfizer vaccine, without receiving the required training. (The government had to correct the record, after originally being advised that the doctor had received the necessary training.)

I guess I want to know why and how this situation could happen. It is concerning. I am a supporter of people getting vaccines. I got mine earlier this week as a show of my support.

I was asked by health authorities to do that and I said I would happily do it because I think it is important and I think the vaccination program and the role it needs to occur in a way that people have confidence in, and I am very concerned about anything that could undermine confidence in the rollout, and that is my main concern.

Of course this is concerning. I have only just heard about it very recently. The health minister was forced to correct his answer at the end of question time and that is the first we heard about it.

I want to know why and how this happened because we cannot let anything undermine confidence in the response.

Updated

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is speaking to the ABC, where he is asked about the AFP informing Peter Dutton about the Brittany Higgins allegations the day before journalist Samantha Maiden sent questions to the PMO:

This is another reason that is to be an independent investigation, so we get to the bottom of who knew what when. The result needs to be made public – something the prime minister is not willing to do.

If that appears to be the case, where there are protocols in parliament where there is a serious crime reported to be committed or alleged to have been committed, that has a connection with politics and might involve people who work in parliament or members of parliament, then the protocol says, as we understand it, the home affairs minister has to be reported.

You would have to think the home affairs minister was given and notified about that a couple of years ago.

The home affairs minister has said that only happened recently, which raises questions about why that would only happen recently, but he also said he was told before the prime minister and, again, this raises the question about is it credible that with all of these people, including now a very senior minister in the government, knowing about this over a period of two years, can it really credibly be said that the prime minister did not know about it until the media made inquiries about it?

An independent inquiry into that, with the results made public, would clarify those questions. At the moment what we have – the prime minister has hand-picked someone to conduct an inquiry and he will not commit to releasing the results of that.

Updated

Meanwhile, AAP has details on the first person to be fined for defrauding the jobkeeper scheme:

A man has been fined after becoming the first Australian convicted for rorting the federal government’s jobkeeper scheme.

Raed Saleh fraudulently reaped $3,000 from the wage subsidy program last May by claiming he was a sole trader whose business was hurting from the Covid pandemic.

In reality, Saleh wasn’t operating a genuine business and his actual employer had already nominated him for the allowance.

Saleh was convicted and fined $3,000 in Melbourne’s Heidelberg magistrates court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to three counts of making a false and misleading statement to the tax office.

He was also ordered to pay $3,000 in reparations and $282 in legal costs.

The Australian Taxation Office said the case represented the first criminal conviction for jobkeeper fraud.

Saleh applied for two months’ worth of jobkeeper payments, falsely declaring he met the eligibility requirements and hadn’t already been nominated for the scheme by anyone else.

The first payment went through but the second $3,000 chunk was blocked pending an investigation.

Jobkeeper payments worth $84bn had been made to more than 1m businesses by mid-February, the ATO said.

“We know most people are honest, and we work with employers to overcome genuine mistakes,” the deputy commissioner, Will Day, said.

“However, as this case demonstrates, where people deliberately seek to exploit the stimulus measures, we will put a stop to it and apply the full force of the law.”

Updated

Labor’s health spokesman, Mark Butler, says the government should have been better prepared, given how long it has been planning for the vaccine rollout, to ensure all immunisers were trained:

We have known this was coming for months and months. Pfizer had been approved for many weeks now.

The US, the UK, Canada and Europe, the vaccine was put into people’s arms in less than a week after their medicine authorities gave vaccine approval.

There is no reason why these arrangements were not in place for the aged care facilities and these sorts of arrangements being utterly assured. We have known this was coming for months.

Updated

Mike Bowers has been out and about today.

He caught this cursed image:

Craig Kelly sits in his new seat on the opposition side of the chamber while talking to his new neighbour Joel Fitzgibbon
Craig Kelly sits in his new seat on the opposition side of the chamber while talking to his new neighbour Joel Fitzgibbon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
The Minister for Defence Linda Reynold’s seat remains empty during question time in the senate chamber
Defence minister Linda Reynolds’ seat remains empty during question time in the Senate. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Mood one:

Ed Husic before question time
Ed Husic before question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Mood two:

Barnaby Joyce before question time
Barnaby Joyce before question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Labor’s health spokesman, Mark Butler, will hold a press conference at 4pm.

That will be on the doctor who administered the wrong dose of the Pfizer vaccine to two elderly people in Queensland NOT having completed the requisite training before he became an immuniser.

As we reported just after question time, the health minister, Greg Hunt, was forced to correct the record – he had originally been advised the doctor had received the required training, but it turns out he had not.

Aged care is a federal government responsibility – it is the federal government which is administering the aged care vaccination program.

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has called for national cabinet to convene to discuss what went wrong – Queensland authorities were not advised of the issue until late last night, when it had occurred in the morning.

Updated

You may remember the One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts gave a speech to the Senate in response to the Brittany Higgins allegations on Monday.

He said:

We have already said that this needs to be investigated by the police. I would have expected someone in the prime minister’s position, both within his party and within the parliament, to have acted swiftly, immediately, unequivocally and clearly. We have not seen that.

I go back to August 2019, when I was on the inquiry into the appointments of former minister Bishop and former minister Christopher Pyne immediately after they retired from parliament.

I can remember that Senator McAllister and I, and others, were in the inquiry asking questions, and I persisted and persisted with Mr Parkinson about the investigation he’d been given responsibility to lead.

One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts speaks in the Senate
One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts speaks in the Senate. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Eventually, Mr Parkinson started getting nervous and unsteady, and he admitted that he had no power to investigate the issue. I’m only a junior senator – I’ve only been here five minutes – but he was the prime minister’s chief man.

The prime minister knows that Mr Gaetjens does not have the power to investigate this issue.

So, while we are in favour of a police investigation, we also are not pleased that the prime minister has been sloppy and slow and seems to be avoiding the issue.

What we want is a proper investigation as to what happens in this building and in the corridors of power, because we just cannot accept what happened to Ms Higgins and, as we found out over the weekend, two other people. This building is becoming a blight on the country. We need to have a prime minister who is honest, objective, clear, quick and unequivocal in his response to this.

So it may interest you to know that One Nation rehired a convicted rapist (and Roberts former staffer) to work in the party head office, just months after he was released from prison.

As Michael McGowan reports:

Updated

I’m getting quite a few messages still from people concerned the comment section has been switched off.

We feel your frustration, and we know how much you love the below-the-line community – we do too – and we promise this is not being done as censorship, or that we are being “leaned on” or that we are stopping comments.

As a publisher, we have a legal responsibility over what is published on the site (and on our social media sites as well), which means when we are dealing with legally sensitive issues we have to take extra care – and to protect you, as well as us – we take all necessary precautions.

The volume of comments makes pre-moderating a giant task and it can overwhelm our moderating team, who are responsible for the whole site. Switching off comments is a duty of care issue. We will have them back on as soon as we can. Ax

Updated

Vaccine doctor had not completed training

I preface this by reminding you the aged care vaccine rollout is being undertaken by the federal government.

The health minister, Greg Hunt, corrects the record from a previous answer – he says he was advised through a public statement from Health Care Australia that the doctor who administered the wrong vaccine dose to two elderly people in Queensland yesterday morning had completed all necessary training – but since then “on further investigation, Health Care Australia has now advised that the doctor had NOT completed the required training”.

All other immunisers have completed the training, Hunt says. An investigation has been launched into how this happened.

Updated

Scott Morrison calls time on QT.

He says Linda Reynolds did not provide a reference to the staffer alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins.

Which we knew.

We do not know if anyone else did, given he received two professional references for his job after leaving Reynolds’ office.

Updated

I regret to inform you that Vince Connolly, the WA backbencher who seems to have just discovered how to form words and is very excited to show off his new skill, has also discovered his hands have fingers.

I dread the day he discovers his feet.

The Rev Tim Costello has just put out a release accusing the Nationals in New South Wales of being “captured” by the gambling lobby after our report yesterday which confirmed the party had unanimously voted to oppose a proposal to introduce a cashless gambling card in the state.

Costello, an advocate for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, questioned why the Nationals would oppose the reform, and pointed to previous Guardian reporting that showed Clubs NSW had obtained more access to the deputy premier than any other entity during the first eight months of the pandemic, securing 13 meetings in eight months.

“Why on earth would the Nationals want to reject such a sensible and relatively simple tool to get on top of money laundering and make it that much harder for criminals to operate in our communities?” Costello said.

“We know [Clubs NSW] had the most meetings with deputy premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro during the first eight months of the pandemic ... It is not right that an unhealthy industry like gambling has such seemingly easy access to the deputy premier of the largest state in Australia ... This is a fundamental issue of democracy being bought at the expense of the community.”

The Nationals argue the proposed card comes at the wrong time for pubs and clubs given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and also argues that one of the chief reasons put forward for adopting the card – that it was recommended by the Bergin report into money laundering at Crown casino – is irrelevant to most small pubs and clubs that would be impacted by the gambling card.

But Costello disagrees, saying in his statement that money laundering was “very much on the agenda nationally, and especially in NSW, after the Bergin inquiry into Crown’s fitness to hold a casino licence, coupled with the announcement of a royal commission into Crown this week”.

“We’ve seen video evidence of shopping bags full of cash being laundered at Crown. We know that Crown is not the only place that is happening. Every day in poker machine venues around NSW, hundreds of thousands of dollars are put into machines and very quickly cashed out, minus a few dollars, cleaning drug money and other proceeds of crime, not only legitimising crime, but costing forgone tax dollars on other black money.”

Costello said the proposed cashless gambling card that the Nationals rejected in their party room yesterday would go a long way to limiting the laundering of money via poker machines.

“This money laundering method has long been an open secret,” he said.

“Austrac knows this, and academic reports highlight poker machines and how effective they are as money laundering tools.”

Updated

Richard Colbeck, the aged care minister, says Michael Kidd, the deputy chief medical officer, is investigating an incident that caused two older Australians at Queensland’s Holy Spirit Home to be prescribed four times the amount of the Pfizer vaccine. Colbeck says:

The circumstance that occurred in Queensland yesterday, Mr President, should not have happened. It should not have happened. The government is just as concerned as anyone else in this chamber with respect to the circumstance that occurred in Queensland yesterday.

Colbeck says the vaccines were administered by a GP with Healthcare Australia, which was contracted by the Australian government. Labor asks whether the government will take responsibility for the mistake.

Colbeck does not directly answer. Labor then asks why providers have not received proper training for administering the jab.

The vaccines were administered by a trained general practitioner, a doctor, Mr President.

The doctor has been stood down pending an investigation by the deputy chief medical officer. And a full investigation is being conducted by the deputy chief medical officer in conjunction with the Queensland chief medical officer and the [primary healthcare network].

Updated

While we ponder why the AFP only told the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, about the Brittany Higgins rape allegation just days before the story broke, it’s worth revisiting how the AFP determines that an investigation is sensitive.

The current AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, took the job in October 2019 and was immediately thrust into the political fallout of the AFP raids on the ABC and Annika Smethurst.

On 14 October 2019 he commissioned a review by John Lawler into the AFP’s response to and management of sensitive investigations. That report was handed to the AFP in February 2020.

The review found that at the time the AFP had “no organisational definition of a sensitive investigation” - only sensitive matters.

It proposed this definition:

An AFP Sensitive Investigation is a process of inquiry that: 1. Involves, or is likely to impact on and/or be of significant interest to: a. Australia’s international relationships or agreements; b. The operation or administration of the federal government or parliament, or a state, territory, local or foreign government or parliament; c. An/a: i. Elected member; ii. Associate or staff member of an elected member; iii. Election candidate; and/or iv. Senior or prominent member of a public service entity, of a federal, state, territory, local or foreign government or parliament; d. A professional journalist or news media organisation; and/or e. An organisation, entity or individual prominent in the Australian community or politics; and 2. Is or possibly would be of significant interest to the Australian community; and/or 3. Is declared to be a sensitive investigation by the AFP commissioner.

The current guidelines reflect this definition.

The review said:

Importantly, the definition significantly broadens the law enforcement understanding of the term ‘investigation’ to include a new phrase, being a ‘process of inquiry’. This reflects and captures sensitive responses (eg Interpol inquiries) and decision-making, that may not have been viewed within the context of a ‘traditional’ investigation.

It’s unclear whether the process of broadening/clarifying the definition had a bearing on when and how the Higgins complaint was alerted to Dutton - we will ask the AFP why they alerted him at that time.

Updated

Tanya Plibersek tries after the government wins the gag motion:

This minister is running I don’t ask don’t tell of cover-ups.

Christian Porter shuts it down.

Terri Butler tries:

This prime minister is all cover-up and no compassion, he is all politics and no care ...

Porter shuts that down and the final division gets called.

The government has won each one 65 to 60 so far.

Updated

Anthony Albanese gets out:

The greatest waste of money was on the empathy consultant for this prime minister ...

Then Christian Porter shuts down debate.

Updated

The motion Anthony Albanese put forward:

That the House:

1) notes:

a) one member of the prime minister’s staff knew about the reported sexual assault of Brittany Higgins two years ago, a second member of his staff said it would be raised with his chief of staff two years ago, a third member of his staff knew the alleged perpetrator had been dismissed two years ago, a fourth member of his staff checked in with Ms Higgins after Four Corners last year, numerous ministers were aware of relevant facts, but the prime minister says he had no idea about anything until the story broke last Monday;

b) despite a clear call from Ms Higgins for an independent investigation into how her reported sexual assault was handled by the Morrison government, the prime minister has announced a review by his former chief of staff and refuses to guarantee it will be made public;

c) the prime minister knew about the inappropriate behaviour of a staff member employed by the member for Hughes but did nothing and now seeks to cover up his knowledge and failure to act; and

d) whether it is sports rorts, community safety rorts, grassgate, watergate, forged documents, and matters as grave as bushfires, the pandemic and reported sexual harassment and assault, the prime minister always thinks about politics and never accepts responsibility; and

2) therefore, condemns the prime minister for always acting in his political interests instead of the interests of Australians.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese moves to suspend standing orders during question time
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese moves to suspend standing orders during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

While this motion plays out (I am just getting the transcript), here is the open letter Emma Husar released today, to Anthony Albanese.

She spoke about it on Sky News earlier today, saying she could not stay silent:

Updated

Labor is immediately on the offensive over in the Senate.

The opposition asks whether the prime minister, Scott Morrison, retains confidence in the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, after she mistakenly told parliament on Tuesday that she had met with police twice about the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

She has since corrected that she only met with police once, on 4 April 2019. It is the second time she has made incorrect statements about the handling of the case. Labor senator Katy Gallagher asks whether Morrison retains confidence in Reynolds. The government’s Senate leader, Simon Birmingham, responds:

Yes, the prime minister has full confidence in senator Reynolds and of her work in her portfolio and her handling of these very sensitive matters, including her work to ensure the parliament is informed about these matters.

In a supplementary, Gallagher asks about the prime minister’s previous public rebuke of Reynolds for failing to tell him of an alleged rape in her office. Birmingham says the prime minister’s comments on that issue stand.

Updated

We will get no more questions on this – Anthony Albanese is moving to suspend standing orders, while missing MPs who have been kicked out under 94A.

Leave is not granted.

“You’re going to shut it down again? Chicken,” says Albanese, after Christian Porter shuts it down.

Which of course he would, because the motion, which I will transcribe in just a moment, is not something the government would ever allow.

And we still don’t know why the AFP decided to alert Peter Dutton before questions went in to the PMO.

Peter Dutton speaks during question time
Peter Dutton speaks during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Anthony Albanese asks the same question Tanya Plibersek asked yesterday:

Can the prime minister confirm that one member of his staff knew about the reported sexual assault two years ago. A second member of his staff said it would be raised with his chief of staff two years ago. A third member of his staff knew the alleged perpetrator had been dismissed two years ago. A fourth member of his staff checked in with Ms Higgins after Four Corners last year.

Numerous ministers were aware of relevant facts and the prime minister had no idea about anything until last Monday?

Scott Morrison gives much the same answer, but goes harder on the “point scoring” and glass houses attacks.

As I have said repeatedly to this House, I first became aware of the alleged sexual assault on the Monday 15 February.

I’m advised my office was first made aware of this issue on 12 February. I have been very consistent on all of those points. That is the record. That is my understanding of these matters.

That is when I knew about it. Once again, the leader of the opposition can come to this dispatch box and he can seek to state these matters and seek to point-score on them but the issue that is here is the issue that we all must address.

These as we know, are not confined to any one side of politics in this building. We know this to be the case.

I would suggest ... as a chamber, I suggest we remain focused on the main issue and that is the changing of the behaviour that can occur in this building and to ensure the protection of our staff and to ensure the supports are there to deal with these issues when they arise.

That is what I am committed to doing.

I am answering these questions openly and I’m happy to answer them as often as the leader of the opposition wishes to ask them. I have told the House exactly when I knew about this matter.

That is the case. If this leader of the opposition wishes to continue to seek to point-score on politics on this issue, that is a matter for him.

As he knows, as the former member for Lindsay Emma Husar has raised herself today, Mr Speaker, as she has raised today, if the Labor party thinks that they have no issues to address regarding behaviour in their own party, then they are genuinely not understanding the seriousness of this issue.

Updated

Labor does not ask why the AFP decided to out of the blue inform Peter Dutton of Brittany Higgins’ allegations the day before questions are sent to the prime minister’s office, despite having the report for two years.

Instead, it asks the same question we just heard.

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

I refer to his previous answer. Why won’t the prime minister guarantee the review by his former chief of staff will be released in full to the parliament as soon as it is completed?

Morrison:

As I’ve already indicated to the House, I’m awaiting that report and I will report once I receive it.

The leader of the opposition may not be aware but the Australian federal police have advised the department secretary that, in relation to any of these matters, that any report here and the handling of any report must not prejudice any ongoing investigation into the matter itself.

That is just the case.

... Subject to these rule of law issues that obviously the secretary would advise me at the time and any other such important issues that would have to be considered, I said once I receive the report, I will be happy to report further. I have made that very plain.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the prime minister. I refer to the review of the head of his department and his former chief of staff of what the former – what the prime minister’s office knew about the reported sexual assault in March 2019. Why doesn’t the prime minister just ask his staff and then tell the parliament?

Morrison:

I have and I’ve answered that question already.

In terms of the knowledge of my staff of this matter, I’ve already answered that question on numerous occasions.

I’ve asked the secretary of the department to undertake further inquiries to assure me about the advice that I’ve received.

That seems to be a very practical thing to do. The leader of the opposition, the Labor party have been asking me these questions for several days and last week I have answered them honestly.

I have said I have been advised when my office knew of those things, and to assure the House I have asked the department to provide further advice to assure me about the credibility of what I was told by my staff. It is really getting to the point – I have been totally open with this parliament.

I have been open about what is a very sensitive matter, a truly very sensitive and serious matter and there are a number of processes we are now initiating together to address both the cultural issues here and the support that is necessary in cases like this, that staff would need, or indeed a member of this chamber or a member of the other chamber.

That is the issue here. That is what I’m seeking to address. There is a problem for this parliament to deal with about the culture and the practices and support that are available to people who work in this building.

I believe that is the case.

I think we need to address it and I’m putting processes in place with this chamber, with the other chamber to address that.

The leader of the opposition and the Labor party continue to seek to point-score on this. They can. That is their right. He can do this and I’m happy to answer those questions and I’m happy to have the reviews that I have initiated to address this very serious issue.

My focus is on fixing the problem and the rest of the issues, when they relate to political point-scoring, I will leave it to the leader of the opposition to explain.

Updated

There are questions over Scott Morrison’s response to the Frank Zumbo issue as well, as Murph points out:

Richard Marles to Scott Morrison:

It’s been reported the alleged perpetrator against Brittany Higgins used “at least two detailed references” to secure a job after leaving the Morrison government. Did any minister or ministerial adviser give the alleged perpetrator a written or verbal reference?

That’s from Christopher Knaus’s reporting.

There is a very long back and forth over whether the question is in order. Tony Smith rules it is OK and Morrison takes it:

I have no knowledge of any such references, Mr Speaker. As I’ve stated in the House previously, as far as I’m aware, the only minister who had knowledge of an alleged sexual assault in relation to this matter was minister Reynolds.

... I’m not aware of any such references and certainly, in relation to staff members, I would have no knowledge of that, of course, indeed ministers.

I fear the imputation of the question is that ministers had some knowledge of an alleged sexual assault* and apart from what has been declared in both this chamber and the other, it has been very clear that minister Reynolds was the one who had knowledge of that event.

*The staffer alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins was sacked, as has been put on the public record, for a security breach. So it would be unusual if he was provided references given the reason for his termination. Which was a security breach.

Prime minister Scott Morrison speaks during question time
Scott Morrison speaks during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

It is still not clear why the AFP told Peter Dutton about the Brittany Higgins allegations the day before Samantha Maiden from news.com sent her questions to the prime minister’s office.

Maiden has previously reported she sent those questions to the PMO at 2.30pm on 12 February.

And yet the AFP advised Dutton on 11 February.

The AFP knew for two years of the complaint (which was not continued, but there was at least one on-the-record meeting Linda Reynolds had with the AFP assistant commissioner on 4 April 2019).

And now, apparently, the AFP decided to let Peter Dutton know about the complaint – which is something the guidelines say should have happened as soon as it was known – regardless of whether or not the complaint went forward.

So why did the AFP let Dutton know the day before the questions went to PMO?

Updated

Brendon O’Connor:

When did the federal police inform the minister or his office of a reported sexual assault at Parliament House in March 2019?

Peter Dutton:

I thank the honourable member for his question. I was advised on 11 February and I received updates last week and this week.

Updated

In the Senate, Labor has just asked whether Peter Dutton’s office learned of the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins in early 2019.

As reported by the Guardian this morning, the AFP guidelines state that police must inform Dutton’s office as soon as possible of politically sensitive matters, which the alleged rape undoubtedly was. Michaelia Cash, answering on Dutton’s behalf, says he only became aware of the allegations on 11 February 2021.

Cash:

I can advise as follows: I can advise to the Senate that AFP commissioner Kershaw first advised minister Dutton of Ms Higgins’ allegations on Thursday, the 11th of February 2021. This was the first time the minister was advised of Ms Higgins’ allegations. The minister received further verbal updates from commissioner Kershaw during last week and this week. I am advised that the minister’s office was not aware of Ms Higgins’ allegations prior to the minister’s briefings.

Cash says Dutton has sought assurances that the investigation will “leave no stone unturned”.

Labor’s Kristina Keneally says the AFP guidelines make it clear that politically sensitive matters are defined as anything that is likely to be of particular interest to the media or government.

She asks whether the AFP declared the matters as a “politically sensitive” investigation, and, if not, why not. Cash takes it on notice.

Updated

Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:

I refer to the prime minister’s previous answer. Did the prime minister ever raise concerns about the member for Hughes’ office manager’s dealings with girls and women directly with the member for Hughes? If so, when did he first do that?

Morrison:

I can confirm that, on the matters I was just asked about on the previous question that relates to the question the member has just asked, that on 8 July, Frank Zumbo appeared at the Sutherland local court.

That was followed up by a request to my office about these matters*.

These were matters of public record, these were matters that were known.

As you would appreciate at that time, that was the time of the second wave of the Covid pandemic in Australia.

I am outlining the events of the time.

These matters were understood by my office and my office raised these matters both informally and subsequently directly with the member for Hughes.

It has long been my view that Mr Zumbo shouldn’t be employed in the member for Hughes’ office. He has known that. That has gone over a very long period of time. Our electorates adjoin each other and he has known that has been my view for many years based on our own conversations. This is a matter that has been ongoing for a very long time. That relates to a whole series of matters and, most recently, another matter which I raised with him only very recently.

*Eliza Barr, the journalist who wrote about Frank Zumbo’s court appearance, says no one from the prime minister’s office ever got back to her

Updated

Bob Katter asks ‘why do we need China’ when it comes to trade and Dan Tehan starts talking about locally made underwear.

Sometimes I wonder if ministers can hear themselves when they speak, or if it is just white noise.

Tanya Plibersek to Scott Morrison:

I refer to his answers yesterday. How can the prime minister claim he did not know about alleged misconduct towards women and girls by the office manager of the member for Hughes when there were reports – court proceedings in July last year, there was a report in the Daily Telegraph on 8 July last year, media inquiries were made to the Prime Minister’s Office on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of August last year and multiple reports appeared in the prime minister’s local paper, the St George Shire Standard last year?

Tanya Plibersek.
Tanya Plibersek. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Morrison:

I would invite the member to relook at the transcript of the answer I gave yesterday.

What I can say is that on August 3rd and the 4th and 5th, it is indeed true that an inquiry was made to my office about a matter that had been raised and dealt with in the Sutherland local court on 8 July of last year. That is correct. That is a matter of public record.

I haven’t disputed that.

I haven’t disputed that is a matter of public record.

I said I would come back to the house and reply further on those issues on those dates.

What I can tell the House is that following that issue that this matter was raised, this matter was raised by my office both informally and directly in relation to the employment of the person who is at the centre of this, Mr Frank Zumbo with the member for Hughes.

This is what Morrison said yesterday:

The matters that I raised with the member for Hughes when we met several weeks ago related, of course, to the various statements he had made concerning the government’s response to the pandemic and the health measures put in place.

It’s also true that, in the last few weeks, I became aware of some other matters which the Department of Finance –

We have initiated a process that is looking into those precise matters that came to my attention a few weeks ago.

The interjections of the leader of the opposition seem to confuse the fact that I have long held issues regarding a particular staff member and their performance in that office, not related to the issues he referred to in asking that question. That is a matter that I’ve raised on numerous occasions, but that reached a more serious point in recent weeks. I raised those matters with the member for Hughes. He undertook to take certain actions on behalf of those discussions. Those actions were not taken. The member for Hughes has taken his decision today.

For absolute clarity, this was the question from Anthony Albanese yesterday:

I refer to his comments today regarding a staff member employed by the member for Hughes who has been the subject of multiple allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women and girls since 2014. The prime minister said today, ‘I have long expressed to Mr Kelly my concerns about that staff member.’ Given the prime minister’s long knowledge, why did the prime minister do nothing about it for years?

Updated

The current deputy prime minister once again comes up with lines which do nothing but show why Barnaby Joyce has an actual chance of taking back the leadership.

Here is some “gold”.

The member for Dawson fully understands the value of water.

Like most humans, one would assume yes, because he needs it to live.

You only have to listen to the minister for agriculture talk about how water grows the food and fibre worth of our nation to indeed create more jobs, to indeed create more trade.

Groundbreaking. Someone call in the scientists – the Nationals have discovered the importance of water.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Can the prime minister confirm that the government has lost its majority on the floor of the House and, for confidence, now depends on the vote of a crossbench conspiracy theorist, who’s pushing discredited and dangerous treatments during a health pandemic?

Morrison:

What I know is there is more of us on this side than there are more of them on that side. You know who made that decision? The Australian people. At the last election, we went to that election and the Australian people rejected the Labor party to become the government of this country.

Albanese has a point of order on maths:

Point of order – there’s actually 75 there and 75 here.

Morrison:

At the last election, the Australian people rejected the Labor party to govern this country and control this chamber. They rejected that, the Australian people. I know that the members of this chamber understand that even if the leader of the opposition still can’t come to terms with the fact that, at the last election, their $375bn and more of higher taxes they said no – $387bn.

I’m corrected by the treasurer. It was higher than that.

Their phony class war, they rejected it.

They rejected their poor fiscal management credentials and they said “We do not want the Labor party to run this country.” So each and every day, from that election to now, we have held faith with the promise that we made to the Australian people and that they backed us on at that last election and we will continue to do that. If the leader of the opposition wants to test the issue that he seems to so boldly with his back turned to me now, he seems to so boldly puff out his chest on today, Mr Speaker, if he thinks he has control of this house, I invite him to move the relevant motion or stop showing off.

Updated

Scott Morrison takes a dixer on Facebook and he gets very bolshy.

This one has been practiced. At least in his head.

We pursued the low threshold arrangement on companies like Amazon, they left in protest and they came crawling back because our government held its ground.

We have taken up globally the issue of the take down of terrorists and extreme content on the social media platforms and we have led the world through that process with many other partners, including New Zealand and Canada.

On this particular issue, we won’t let big tech companies take a free ride on our free press.

That is not what we’re going to allow. We haven’t allowed that. The measures we’ve introduced into this place and holding these companies to account shows the strength of resolve of our government to stand up for the things that are important to Australia.

Those values of free press which are essential to our democracy, Australia has led the world in standing up for itself, standing up for the rule of law and standing up for citizens of free peoples to ensure that big tech companies get the message, make the changes and adhere to the laws of free democracies.

Updated

Question time begins

Mark Butler to Greg Hunt:

Can the minister confirm that two elderly aged care residence in Queensland have been given an overdose of the Pfizer vaccine with one resident being hospitalised? Can the minister advise the House what steps the government has taken to ensure all health professionals administering the Covid-19 vaccine are suitably qualified and trained?

Hunt:

Thank you, very much. I’m pleased to be able to answer the question. As advised with the chief medical officer earlier today, the government was notified yesterday evening that, indeed, two patients were provided with a higher than the prescribed dose level. This was done in breach of the advice.

The advice that I have from the deputy chief medical officer who has conducted an investigation and provided a preliminary report is, firstly, that the doctor in question was fully registered with APRA, had all credentials met and had indeed – and this has been confirmed by the provider and through examination of electronic records – completed the full training.

That training module involves ensuring that dose administration is carried out, that all stages are carried out, the proper techniques for drawing up doses, the supervisory roles.

All elements of the training, which could have been done and could have been required were put in place.

Most significantly, the number one focus has been on the health of the patients. In fact, at the advice of authorities, both patients are being monitored in hospital and I think that’s appropriate.

We spoke with the Queensland government last night. The deputy chief medical officer, the chief medical officer and myself with our respective counterparts.

In essence, the training of this Australian trained doctor, the credentials of this Australian-trained doctor and the specific training of this Australian-trained doctor were all carried out in accordance with procedures.

Every one of those steps has been checked and rechecked and none of those steps had been breached.

The advice that we have from the deputy chief medical officer is very simple. The doctor involved did the wrong thing and that is a case of human error, a case of unacceptable human error. As a consequence of that, the doctor was stood down.

The relevant body, HCA, has been in dialogue with the government today to make sure that all possible steps can and should be taken to ensure this never occurs again.

However, all of the necessary required steps involving training were carried out. We apologise to the families involved. The important thing – and we make that sincerely – important thing is this is an individual act of human error and we’ve seen, at many times in many circumstances, that whilst a system can prepare if an individual takes a step, it is then how we respond. There were three sets of safeguards put in place, all were brought into being. The nurse, the provider and the government taking those steps to protect these patients.

Health minister Greg Hunt.
Health minister Greg Hunt. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

The Australian Retailers Association has joined several business groups in warning the Morrison government’s $50-a-fortnight increase to the jobseeker payment is insufficient.

The ARA’s chief executive, Paul Zahra, has previously warned that ending coronavirus supports such as the boosted jobseeker rate and jobkeeper scheme would hurt retailers.
Zahra told Guardian Australia on Wednesday:

Jobseeker has been key to stimulating the economy and whilst it’s pleasing to see a permanent increase, we are concerned it doesn’t go far enough and more Australians will be at risk of slipping into poverty and unable to cover essentials.

Despite the uplift in many parts of retail in recent months, our recovery remains uneven and job losses are imminent in some areas. Travel retailers in particular are in crisis and some businesses, like duty free shops, have lost 90% of their revenue since the pandemic started. Many can’t afford to hang on any longer and are in the process of shedding thousands of jobs with the looming March end date for jobkeeper.

Restaurants and catering is another retail category that’s struggling, in particular CBD operators where foot traffic is significantly down and capacity restrictions are still in place.

Updated

Vale lobster. We barely knew thee.

Updated

We’re on the downhill slide to QT.

Ready yourselves.

Updated

Remember how I said yesterday that we compare ourselves to the OECD only when it suits?

This is going to be one of the times it doesn’t suit. We are second last. With the “modest” increase.

Updated

And yes, yes it is

I think this ship (to use the Coalition’s favourite metaphor) has sailed on this one.

Contact your MP if you are upset. And I would hope you are upset. And push back against any “we need to think about the debt” talk, because the debt hasn’t mattered one iota for anything else. Including tax cuts.

Updated

'Set and forget' persists on home loans

People are still forgetting to change their home loans, as AAP reports:

The consumer watchdog wants banks to be required to nudge their clients if they are paying over the odds for home loans.

The “set and forget” mentality meant consumer inertia was still a problem, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.

The watchdog’s home loan price inquiry last year also found tricky “front book” and “back book” practices at banks that made it difficult for would-be borrowers to figure out true costs.

Borrowers with home loans between three and five years old paid on average about 58 basis points more than the average interest rate charged on new loans in the “front book”.

Commissioner Sarah Court outlined three impediments to switching home loans.

People weren’t engaged once they managed to get a loan, high search charges and unclear costs made it difficult to compare products, and banks’ own red tape often frustrated discharging the loan.

Court said requiring and tailoring a regular prompt to a loan amount or interest rate, or an average reference point, and weighing up the regulatory burden on lenders all needed to be considered.

“We are actively engaged in looking at what works and what doesn’t,” she said.

But consumer testing and more research would be needed, even after the government accepted the recommendation.

“We have to make sure communications are clear and are designed to catch consumers’ attention.”

The corporate watchdog, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, is also looking at consumer and market behaviour and what could work to increase fairness.

Updated

It’s understood the government and Naval Group are currently discussing alternative arrangements for a meeting (the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, had been originally due to meet with the French submarine group’s global chief executive, Pierre Éric Pommellet, this afternoon, but she is now on medical leave).

LNP senator Matt Canavan is not the only parliamentarian to have met with Elliott Charng, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Australia. We understand Labor senator Kimberley Kitching – co-chair of the hawkish Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China – will also be meeting with him. There are probably others. We’ll let you know the details when we have them.

Updated

I regret to inform anyone in Canberra that the Press Club has run out of lobster.

Updated

There has been a vote in the House (nothing major) – and Craig Kelly has voted with the government.

Updated

Australia’s competition regulator Rod Sims has told parliament he was surprised at Facebook’s “unusual” decision to block news on their platform last week.

Facebook announced on Tuesday news would be returning to their Australian platform over the next few days after they came to an arrangement with the Morrison government over changes to the news media bargaining code.

Sims, who leads the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission which drew up the code, told the economics committee that even though he expected “brinkmanship” over the code he did not expect Facebook’s dramatic move as he thought they were successfully negotiating with media companies, and “I thought all was well”.

Sims said he was pleased with the code, which would pass into law, despite the last-minute amendments. He said he had spoken to media bosses who were already planning on hiring more journalists and that was the whole intention of the code.

Updated

Daniel Hurst is chasing more details on this meeting.

Updated

Here are all those NSW restrictions being eased:

Restrictions will be eased from 12.01am Friday, 26 February 2021 across greater Sydney and NSW:

  • 50 visitors will now be allowed in the home.
  • 30 people allowed to dance at weddings, with rotation on and off the dancefloor
  • Increased class limits for gyms to 50 people (currently 30) subject to the 4 sq m rule.
  • Number of performers singing indoors increased to 30 (currently five) subject to physical distancing requirements.
  • Singing by congregants allowed in places of worship if masks are worn and subject to one person per 4 sq m (currently no congregant singing allowed, with one per 2 sq m permitted in places of worship).
  • Increase capacity for cinemas to 100%.
  • If current trends continue, drinking while standing up at indoor venues will be allowed in three weeks’ time (from Wednesday, 17 March).

Updated

Linda Burney has also commented on the Western Australian attack:

Updated

Labor MP Michelle Rowland spoke to Sky News this morning, where she was asked about Emma Husar:

Laura Jayes:

Just finally, I spoke to Emma Husar earlier in the program. She has levelled some pretty strong accusations at the Labor party, saying it’s no better than the Liberal party when it comes to the treatment of women. She says she was slut-shamed on the floor of the chamber and then told by her own colleagues that she should cover it up. She also accused Anthony Albanese of treating her as a political problem, using her to undermine Bill Shorten when it suited her. What do you have to say about those allegations?


Rowland:

Well, two things. I can only speak for my personal experience. Being a woman in the Labor party, I’ve always felt supported, particularly in the last 10 years. I’ve had two children while in the parliament, I’ve been put on the frontbench, kept on the frontbench and elevated. I can appreciate that this is an environment where people have gone out of their way to support my career.

As to the specifics of Ms Husar’s comments, she has been through a very difficult public period, and I can certainly appreciate that, including defamation proceedings which would not have been easy. At the same time, I would note that there was a very strong statement made by Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek acknowledging two things. Firstly, that the workplace culture in Parliament House needs to change. But secondly, that Labor conclude its own review of our complaints and harassment processes. We can always do better. The mission is never done to ensure that women are valued, are represented, and have a place in our parliamentary process.

Jayes: Is it still a boy’s club? Is there disdain for women in the Labor party?

Rowland:

Personally, I don’t believe there is. Secondly, from my own observations, I believe that there is a real sense of wanting to be inclusive of not only women, but of diversity generally. As I say, the mission is never done. Twenty or so years ago when we embarked on affirmative action, this was seen as something that was apparently going to be the downfall of the Labor party. It is something that has only made us stronger. Whilst we continue on that quest to make sure we are more inclusive, there will be challenges, there will be opportunities for people, but we need to keep our eyes on what should be the ultimate outcome here, and that should be an inclusive workplace and a party and a Parliament that represents the Australian community.

Michelle Rowland.
Michelle Rowland. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Queensland is doubling the number of Indigenous land and sea rangers who work on conservation and biodiversity projects across the state to 200, environment minister Meaghan Scanlon has just told state parliament.

We can all benefit from listening and learning from those whose lands, air and water we all now share,” Scanlon said.

The government was opening applications for 50 of the new land and sea rangers today, Scanlon said, as part of the extra 100 rangers to be added to the program over the next three years.

She said:

That means new jobs while supporting the critical role of First Nations people in Queensland’s environment and cultural heritage.”

Rangers already worked across a wide range of projects, including protections for marine turtles, dugong, shorebirds and weed and pest management. Rangers also protected cultural sites and carried out youth engagement activities.

Updated

Lincoln Hopper is CEO of St Vincent’s Care Services, which manages the Holy Spirit Nursing Home Carseldine in Brisbane.

He’s held a press conference about the two residents who were wrongly given an excessively high dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Hopper said the health of the two residents is being closely monitored and no adverse effects have yet been identified. The error will be reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency [AHPRA].

This incident has been very distressing to us and to their family and it is also very concerning,” he said.

It has caused us to question whether some of the clinicians given the job of administering the vaccine have received the appropriate training. Certainly, health authorities and contracted vaccination providers should be re-emphasising to their teams the need to exercise greater care so an error like this does not happen again.”

One of the residents is in hospital, Hopper said. The two residents affected by the error are an 88 year-old man and a 94 year-old woman.

The regulator will need to understand what happened and what caused the error but it is distressing to us, our residents and their families,” Hopper said.

You can imagine how upset they would be. Having had this road to travel over the last 18 months to get to this end of the vaccination and then to have an error that threatens the health of their loved ones, they are very concerned about this, as we all are. The families are doing OK in the context of the situation but certainly we need to continue to monitor the residents. They are not out of the woods in that sense and so we are very concerned for their welfare.”

St Vincent’s Care Services CEO, Lincoln Hopper is seen during a press conference at the Holy Spirit Nursing Home, Carseldine in Brisbane on Wednesday.
St Vincent’s Care Services CEO, Lincoln Hopper is seen during a press conference at the Holy Spirit Nursing Home, Carseldine in Brisbane on Wednesday. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Updated

Update: they are doing takeaway.

Updated

Linda Reynold’s hospitalisation meant the National Press Club address was cancelled – and the club has to do something with all those lobsters it bought for the sold-out event.

I wonder if they do takeaway? Asking for a friend.

Updated

I’ve spoken to Laura recently for a Full Story podcast and she is the most wonderful of humans, so if you are interested in the vaccine one she is working on, drop her a line.

Are you, or someone you know, about to be vaccinated and have a story to tell?

Or maybe you’ve already been vaccinated?

Guardian Australia’s news podcast Full Story wants to hear from you, and how vaccination will change your life.

Maybe you will finally be able to hug your grandma, or you’re in a high-risk category and looking forward to feeling safer?

Just email australia.fullstory@theguardian.com, and include your name, a line or two about your story, plus a contact number.

Updated

Annastacia Palaszczuk wants the national cabinet convened to discuss what happened in Queensland – the states aren’t administering the aged care vaccination program, and Queensland authorities didn’t find out about the wrong dosage being given to two elderly people (who are being monitored in hospital) until late last night.

Updated

We are making enquiries as to whether Marise Payne, now the acting defence minister, will proceed with a meeting with the global head of the French submarine builder that had been due to take place in Canberra today.

The ABC’s defence correspondent, Andrew Greene, reported earlier that Linda Reynolds was due to meet this afternoon with Naval Group’s global chief executive, Pierre Éric Pommellet, who recently completed a mandatory two-week quarantine stint in Adelaide.

Reynolds told the Senate yesterday that she was frustrated and “very disappointed that Naval Group have yet been unable to finalise this contract with Defence, but it will not be done at the expense of Australian jobs and Australian industry”.

That was in response to a question from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong, who had accused the government of breaking a promise “that the strategic partnering agreement for the future submarines would be amended by the end of last year to include a 60% spending commitment for local content”.

Payne, the foreign affairs minister, is acting in Reynolds’ place while the defence minister takes medical leave (announced in a statement earlier this morning). Payne is not proceeding with Reynolds’ National Press Club speech.

We will let you know if and when we hear more about the Naval Group meeting.

Updated

There is an investigation into far-right terrorism in Australia, but the government watered it down to include “all terrorism” because ... reasons.

We know our security agencies are worried about it as a growing risk, because they have told us about it. Up to 40% of their investigations are looking at far-right threats.

Updated

Remember how this was never meant to happen again after Rio Tinto?

Some Covid restrictions ease in South Australia

Restrictions are also being eased in South Australia – you’ll be able to dance there again for events with less than 200 people.

With events with up to 1,000 people, 50 people will be able to dance.

And from Friday, you won’t have to get tested if you are arriving in SA from Melbourne.

Updated

NSW has vaccinated 3,200 people in 48 hours.

But it won’t be providing daily updates of how many people it has vaccinated.

Updated

NSW loosens some Covid restrictions

Gladys Berejiklian is announcing an easing of NSW’s covid restrictions.

From Friday (12.01am) you can have up to 50 people in your home again.

You can have 30 people on the dancefloor at a wedding (and it does not need to be the same 30 people).

In other news just announced by Gladys Berejiklian:

You will be able to have up to 50 people in a gym class as long as they are subject to the four square metre rule.

Unlike other venues, gyms are still at four square metres but you can have up to 50 class.

In relation to singing and performance, the limit has now gone up to 30 people indoors, where readers acquire at a place of worship will require another venues you can have up to 30 people performing or singing.

And if congregations want to sing, everyone will have to wear a mask and they will have to go back to the four square metres rule.

Places of worship have the two square metres rule but if congregations want to sing, they can, but we ask that everyone wear a mask and adhere to the four square metres rule.

In three weeks time:

You should be able to stand up and have a drink in outside venues (not inside).

Have more people at your wedding.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Updated

From her shadow minister

Clive Palmer is still Clive Palmering towards the WA state election

In November the high court ruled that the Western Australian border ban does not infringe the constitution, handing a loss to plaintiff Clive Palmer.

However, at the time the court didn’t publish its judgment and reasons for the order. Those were released today.

The high court unanimously – but in separate judgments – found in favour of Western Australia.

Given the separate judgments, it will take some time to evaluate what this means for a possible future challenge, for example, once vaccinations have been rolled out.

But in the meantime, here is more information from the judgment summary:

Today the high court unanimously, in separate judgments, found that the principal question reserved could be answered by reference to the provisions of the Act authorising the Directions. Section 92 was concerned with freedom from unjustified burdens of a discriminatory kind. The Court accepted that s 67 did impose a burden on interstate intercourse. However, by reference to the purpose of the provisions and the statutory constraints on the declaration of a state of emergency and the making of directions, the Court found that the burden was justified and the provisions, at least in their application to an emergency constituted by a hazard in the nature of a plague or epidemic, did not infringe the constitutional limitation in s 92.”

Updated

No new locally acquired Covid cases in NSW

NSW also recorded no new locally acquired cases, keeping its streak going – it is now 38 days since the last case was found in the community.

There was one case in hotel quarantine.

Updated

Brittany Higgins has responded to the news Linda Reynolds has been hospitalised:

Police are investigating a “racially motivated” (they mean white supremacist) attack on a First Nations woman and her 15-year-old daughter in Western Australia.

A white man, who had painted a swastika on his forehead, used a deodorant can and lighter as a blowtorch, which he used against the pair, while shouting abuse at them.

The Greens senator Lidia Thorpe has responded:

Rightwing extremism is real, and the threat is growing.

Racism kills. It harms people. I am appalled at this terrible act of violence –this shocking hate crime.

But it doesn’t come from nowhere. There is a clear link between the politics of hate, and acts of hate. When politicians and prominent public figures spend years encouraging and amplifying the politics of hate, the inevitable outcome is violence.

I’m ashamed that racial hatred and division is a standard being set out of parliament.

Right now, there is a moment of reckoning around the culture at Parliament House. This place should be setting the standard but right now it’s rife with discrimination of all kinds, including racism, sexism and misogyny.

Mehreen Faruqi said it was a “horrendous act of racist violence”:

Far-right extremists and neo-Nazis are feeling emboldened. This is the crisis the government refuses to take seriously.

The Liberals do not acknowledge racism and far-right extremism as existential threats to the community.

The government has refused to commit any funding to anti-racism initiatives, or dedicated programs to tackle the far right. The Liberals even go out of their way to rewrite motions in parliament to remove references to far-right extremism.

This horrific flamethrower attack is yet another wake-up call for the government. They must act now or it’s only going to get worse.

My thoughts are with the targets of this vicious attack, who I hope are getting the support that they need.

Updated

Labor has released a transcript of Matt Keogh’s doorstop this morning, with a typo which might just top most of mine (which includes leaving the ‘o’ out of counting in the sentence ‘the counting continues tomorrow’).

Q: What are you thinking about Craig Kelly’s defecation today?

Keogh: Well, I think, I think with Craig Kelly, sacking himself from the Liberal Party, he’s managed to do the one thing that Scott Morrison couldn’t do and should have done a long time ago.

Updated

This is interesting: Treasury secretary Dr Steven Kennedy is hosting a conversation with Ross Garnaut in Canberra about Garnaut’s new book, Reset:

Tonight in Canberra, Garnaut will be joined by the Secretary of the Treasury, Dr Steven Kennedy to discuss Australia’s potential as a renewable superpower, getting to full employment, Garnaut’s controversial proposal for a universal basic income and much much more.

That will be from 6pm at ANU.

Updated

Nine Entertainment Group, which owns the Nine TV network and the former Fairfax mastheads, has joined the rush to repay jobkeeper subsidies received during the pandemic.

It’s all the rage in corporate circles these days, piling pressure on companies that have so far resisted, such as Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments and Gerry Harvey’s Harvey Norman.

In half-year results out this morning Nine said it would repay $2m in jobkeeper received by it and its subsidiaries. Nine also benefited from $6.5m in jobkeeper received by the real estate ad group Domain, where it is the majority shareholder.

But that business is separately run so it’s not in Nine’s power to hand the cash back.

Updated

The medical community is responding to this morning’s news that two elderly people were given the wrong dose of the Pfizer vaccine:

Updated

Reuters reports that a Lloyd’s of London insurer has pledged not to insure the Adani (now Bravus Mining and Resources) coalmine in the Galilee basin or other associated projects, presumably meaning the rail line it needs to get to the port.

From the Reuters report:

Major Lloyd’s of London insurer Brit will not insure Adani Enterprises’ Carmichael thermal coal mine, it said on Tuesday, adding to a growing list of Lloyd’s insurers who have made similar pledges.

Carmichael has provoked controversy in Australia with its plan to open up a new thermal coal basin at a time of growing concern over global warming, in a region that is in need of jobs.

“Brit does not, has never, and will not write any policies relating directly to the Adani Carmichael coal mine itself,” Brit said in an emailed statement.

“Brit also confirms that it does not plan to renew any risks involving any other works directly associated with the project.”

Twenty-six Lloyd’s syndicates have now said they will not insure the mine, according to action group Insure Our Future.

Updated

'It made me feel really proud of nurses'

The vaccine error in Brisbane comes at a time when federal, state and territory governments are urging Australians to get the vaccine once they become eligible.

Prof Julie Leask at the University of Sydney, a social scientist whose research focuses on infectious disease and immunisation controversies and communication, said the government had done the right thing about being upfront about the situation:

What they have done is to be really upfront and these administration errors, they happen. This is a large, complex program, staff are being newly trained in giving multi-dose vials, and a good safety culture is one that is upfront about these things and addresses them proactively in a transparent way.

She said it was heartening that a nurse had identified the issue and spoke up after noticing a doctor had given two elderly residents of the aged care home an incorrect, high dose.

It made me feel really proud of nurses. They are taught about patient safety and all health professionals are taught to speak up when they see an error, and it’s great that this nurse did.

Of course yes, these things will always make some people feel a bit more cautious about the vaccine, but it’s much better to be upfront rather than it getting leaked out some other way.

Trust is the most precious resource when you have a big health program that needs public cooperation, and what must be prioritised is sustaining trust.

Updated

As the Senate continues to debate the news media code after the government introduced eleventh-hour changes to get Facebook onboard and to restore news in Australian news feeds, opposition senators are concerned the new deal might leave smaller publishers out.

Late on Tuesday, the government announced changes to the news media bargaining code in response to concerns from Facebook about the operation of the code.

Under the amendments, the government will not make the code apply to a digital platform if the platform can demonstrate that it has made “a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry” through deals made with news media companies.

This is ultimately a decision of the minister.

Labor, the Greens and independent senator Rex Patrick are now concerned this means that larger media outlets will get deals, while smaller outlets will fall through the cracks because they won’t have the ability to lobby the prime minister or anyone in government on whether they have been able to get a deal with Facebook.

Patrick:

The minister won’t designate because the deals will have been done with the big guys, and the little guys are going to miss out and the regional guys are going to miss out.

The representing minister, Jane Hume, responded that the minister would take into account the breadth of deals made, and the types of deals made with media outlets in deciding whether the code should apply, and it was too early to say whether Facebook and Google would be designated under the code.

The code also now requires a month’s notice before it would apply to the platforms, and Facebook has said it retains the right to remove news from Australia again in order for the code to no longer apply.

Updated

This was the call Daniel Hurst reported on yesterday:

Updated

This is all happening while tax cuts are going ahead, because apparently everyone deserves some more money, except those we are supposed to be helping:

Updated

There will be no press club event today:

Updated

Josh Taylor is watching this, so follow him for updates:

Updated

Greg Hunt is asked about Linda Reynolds and reads from the statement her office put out.

He then adds:

I had some prior notification that she may have had an illness. I was not aware of the nature of it and, honestly, I think in this situation, we have to remind ourselves that this is the most intense, arguably, environment in Australia.

There are many intense environments and all of us need to be aware of the pressures and pains, the impact of each of us on each other, so reaching out.

And she is a good person and so she needs our support – as she has our support.

Updated

Greg Hunt:

Firstly, the nurse on the scene stepped in and I want to thank her for her strength of character and her professionalism.

Secondly, the contractor has stood down – the doctor in question – from the program.

Thirdly, the monitoring of the patients – which is the most important thing – has been ongoing, the partnership between the commonwealth facility and Queensland Health and I want to thank Queensland Health and in particular the Queensland chief health officer as well as the Queensland minister.

She and he were in contact late last night and early this morning. And in particular the chief medical officer has engaged in the early incident work and the deputy chief medical officer of Australia, Professor Paul Kidd, an esteemed general practitioner, will review the events, make any recommendations, but every participants can only participate in providing vaccinations so long as they have had the training and so we will examine what were the circumstances.

That will be ongoing and we will provide public guidance. But the most important thing is we engage in the transparency.

When we know, we provide that information. And significantly that patients themselves are showing, at this point, on the latest advice that I have, five minutes before joining us, absolutely no adverse reaction.

It is in line with the fact that significantly higher doses than have finally been chosen were chosen as parts of early clinical trials around the world.

An ampoule of the Pfizer vaccine
An ampoule of the Pfizer vaccine Photograph: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Greg Hunt is responding to that case Melissa Davey just wrote of now:

Basically a doctor gave an incorrect dose to two patients yesterday.

I think it’s very important that we’re upfront. The safeguards that were put in place immediately kicked into action and a nurse on the scene identified the fact that a higher than prescribed amount of the dose was given to two patients – an 88-year-old male and 94-year-old female in a Queensland aged care facility.

It’s important that we provide the information as we have it. The important thing is advice that we have – and I’ve spoken with the Queensland Health minister this morning and Paul [Kelly] has been working with his counterpart in Queensland – is that both patients are being monitored and both patients are showing no signs at all of an adverse reaction. But it is a reminder of the importance of the safeguards.

Updated

Woman, 94, and man, 88, given four times recommended dose of Covid vaccine

Guardian Australia is following up reports that an 88-year-old man and 94-year-old woman have been given four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Holy Spirit nursing home in Carseldine, Brisbane.

In the meantime, professor of infectious diseases and physician Peter Collignon said this had happened overseas. He said he had no detail of the Brisbane situation so could not comment specifically on that, but said the Pfizer vaccine vial was designed to contain enough doses for four people.

It is possible for people to receive an overdose if it is not diluted properly, or if a health professional isn’t properly trained and assumes one vial is for one person.

Collignon:

Now I have no idea if this is what happened here, but it has happened elsewhere.

I’m not aware of any adverse events from that occurring but you’d certainly get a more sore arm due to the larger volume of vaccine, and some more prominent side-effects.

The vaccine comes in an ampoule [a sealed glass capsule] and you basically dilute it up, and then draw out the appropriate doses. Depending on the vaccine, it might have enough doses for four to six people. The mistake people sometimes can make if they are not well trained is they may give too much to one person or assume the whole vial is for one person.

But the main issue in most cases will be the waste of the vaccine rather than any serious side-effects, but I need to get more detail about what has occurred in Brisbane.

He said this was why calls to push out the vaccine faster than necessary were ill-advised, because training of staff is a significant component of any rollout.

Given Australia’s enviable position compared with the rest of the world, this training should be being done thoroughly, he said.

Updated

We’ll bring you more on Linda Reynolds as soon as we have it.

Updated

And on that:

Updated

Linda Reynolds had been due to deliver a speech to the press club today.

Defence minister Linda Reynolds has been admitted to Canberra hospital and will take a period of medical leave. In a statement issued a moment ago, the defence minister’s office said:

The Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC, will take a period of medical leave.

This follows advice from her cardiologist relating to a pre-existing medical condition.

As a precautionary measure, Minister Reynolds has this morning been admitted to a Canberra Hospital.

The Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison, this morning phoned Minister Reynolds to express his concern and sympathy, and to wish her a quick recovery.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, will be acting Minister for Defence until Minister Reynolds returns from leave.

Updated

Linda Reynolds taken to hospital

Daniel Hurst says Linda Reynolds is now on medical leave:

Breaking news: Linda Reynolds takes medical leave, admitted to Canberra hospital

We’ll have more soon.

Updated

Crown banned from hosting junkets at Perth casino

The WA gambling regulator has banned Crown Resorts from hosting junkets – where third parties bring in high-rollers – and offering incentives to gamble to non-Australians at its Perth casino.

Crown has already suspended junkets after an inquiry in NSW found that some operators had links to organised crime.

The company told the ASX the WA Gaming and Wagering Commission had issued it directions that “provide that Crown Perth shall not participate in the conduct of junkets, premium player activity or privileged player activity”.

As a result it will not participate in junkets or “table games activity with patrons who are non-residents of Australia with whom Crown Perth has an arrangement to pay the patron a commission, or provide transport, accommodation, food, drink or entertainment, based on the patron’s turnover or otherwise calculated by reference to such play”.

Updated

Sussan Ley has visited a Canberra McDonald’s to see the last of its plastic straws phased out.

The company has phased out straws and plastic cutlery as part of a waste-cutting pledge.

Environment minister Sussan Ley at a recycling plant in Canberra
Environment minister Sussan Ley at a recycling plant in Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Greg Hunt and CMO Paul Kelly will be giving an update at 9.15, when they will also be asked about the reports two elderly people were given four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Updated

We are looking into this:

Updated

Not sure why there needs to be so much consultation when practically everyone agrees it needs to be an independent inquiry.

We then get this exchange:

Q: Do you support your leader, Michael McCormack?

Matt Canavan:

Of course I support the leader, but I have said consistently I like to see the National party take a more assertive and aggressive approach on issues. I think it’s very important that we defend the interests of the productive classes of this country.

Q: He’s not doing a good enough job in your view?

Canavan:

I have consistently said I like to see us take a more assertive role on issues. I don’t think we should be heading down this – giving any credence to this net zero emissions path, that would shut down large sections of rural Australia.

It costs thousands of people their jobs in the agricultural* and mining** and manufacturing*** industries. They’re the lifeblood of our towns. You don’t get – you know, you won’t have towns like Moranbah if you don’t have a mining industry.

Q: OK. Would Barnaby Joyce do a better job if he would stick his hand up for leader again?

Canavan:

He hasn’t done that.

Q: If he he did that, would you support him?

Canavan:

I’d like to see Michael step up to the plate and take up these issues. That’s what I’d like to see. I don’t think changing the captain of the ship**** is the best thing. It’s best to put the ship in the right direction.

* the agricultural industry is already well down this path

** no one is talking about shutting down the mining industry right now, but the market is moving away from coal because it does not have a long-term economic future

*** Australia’s manufacturing sector is small, comparatively, and what is being built has future considerations, such as energy use, being built into it

**** The Coalition has become obsessed with boat metaphors

Updated

Anyways, Matt Canavan is asked by the ABC about Craig Kelly and Barnaby Joyce’s desire to have him join the Nationals. (Joyce is not the leader, but has taken the lead on this, because Kelly would give him a number in the leadership battle, and it’s a warning shot to Michael McCormack.)

Canavan:

This game is ruthless and all about the numbers and I would love to see the interests we push as the National party with more numbers.

I love Craig, he’s a good bloke, but, firstly the ball is in his court.

Secondly, it will be a matter for my National party colleagues, too

But, look, it was disappointing to see him leave the Liberal party and the joint Coalition party room yesterday.

I think he’d be more effective in the tent than outside, but that’s his call. If there’s a way of getting him back into the tent even if that’s with a different party, in the National party in the Coalition, that would be better for all of us.

Updated

Matt Canavan has picked up Barnaby Joyce’s “BUT WHAT ABOUT THE DEBT” narrative and is absolutely running gangbusters with it as the excuse for why we can’t pay unemployed people a somewhat liveable amount.

Which is surprising for a trained economist who knows better than to think a country’s budget is the same as a household’s, but hey – whatever works for the politics, right?

You’re going to see that line more and more from the Joyce-aligned Nationals. You won’t hear that government debt doubled under the Coalition government before the pandemic. Or that none of it really matters because money is dirt cheap for governments right now, and they get quite long locked-in low interest periods, or that in terms of debt-to-GDP ratio, Australia is doing just fine.

You’ll hear that we are spending $9bn on the very, very modest increase to jobseeker, but they’ll leave out that figure is being spent over the forwards – so it’s across the next four years –and you won’t hear that we spent $6bn a year on franking credits, which is $24bn over the forwards.

Selective facts can really be a wondrous thing, can’t they?

Updated

Always handy when public entities refuse to answer questions over whether procedure was followed.

Totally worth keeping secret. Just more evidence that it was absolutely the right decision to move the AFP from the attorney general portfolio and place it under home affairs and Peter Dutton. Never any conflict.

(All of this is sarcasm, in case it needs to be clear.)

Updated

And Murph has the ins and outs of Craig Kelly’s decision to quit the government:

Updated

Anne Davies has another story on Frank Zumbo which you can find here

No locally acquired Covid cases in Victoria

It’s another zero day for the state.

Updated

Craig Kelly talks to the media in the press gallery of Parliament House this morning.
Craig Kelly talks to the media in the press gallery of Parliament House this morning. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Craig Kelly spoke to Fran Kelly on ABC radio RN where he referred to allegations made against his staffer Frank Zumbo, published on Friday by Guardian Australia, as “salacious gossip”.

The now independent member for Hughes (who again ruled out a switch to the Nationals) says he will let the Department of Finance investigation into the claims conclude before acting:

As I say, everyone is entitled to natural justice, there is an inquiry by the Department of Finance. If that inquiry finds there are some issue, I’ll act on them, but at the moment, I’m not going to throw a staff member under the bus and expose the commonwealth to a claim for unfair dismissal, just because it’s politically expedient.

Kelly says he has not spoken to the women who have made the allegations against Zumbo, and the first he heard of many of the allegations was on Friday, when they were published. He says he has gone through those “line by line” with Zumbo, who denies them.

Updated

Christopher Knaus and Katharine Murphy report that Peter Dutton won’t say whether or not he was notified of Brittany Higgins’ rape allegation – as he should have been under AFP guidelines.

From their report:

Internal federal police guidelines suggest that at the time Higgins and Reynolds spoke to police, officers were compelled to alert the home affairs minister “at the earliest opportunity” to any “politically sensitive” matter – unless there was a clear conflict of interest in doing so.

Politically sensitive matters include an investigation likely to be of “particular interest” to MPs, the government, or the media. The alleged rape of a staffer by her co-worker in a minister’s office would have met this threshold.

The guidelines also apply to matters still in their early stages, which had been referred to the AFP but were not yet the subject of a full investigation.

Updated

Defence minister Linda Reynolds will argue the risk of conflict in the Indo-Pacific region “is far less remote than in the past”.

Reynolds will address the National Press Club in Canberra today, amid intense pressure over whether she and her office showed appropriate duty of care to Brittany Higgins after she alleged she was raped by a more senior colleague in Parliament House in 2019.

The minister is set to focus on the defence portfolio in her prepared remarks, including the increasing competition between the US and China in the Indo-Pacific region, building on the themes in last year’s defence strategic update:

This is multiplying potential flashpoints and ratcheting up geopolitical tensions, and with that, comes an increased risk of conflict. We are seeing military modernisation, accelerating technological advances and the use of coercive tactics. Tactics that are increasingly exploiting the grey area between peace and war. Tactics that are also challenging Australia’s interests in new ways. All of these challenges together mean we are contending with a more complex, a more dynamic and a more volatile strategic landscape.

Reynolds doesn’t name the country or countries that she sees as using coercive tactics in the version of her speech distributed to media in advance, but it comes amid growing tensions with China. She says Australia is “not alone” in wanting an Indo-Pacific region that is “peaceful, stable, inclusive, sovereign, prosperous and resilient”.

The minister will also say the future of the region is being shaped by many countries’ interests, and while Australia will work closely with the US, “it is clear that no single nation can address the strategic and technological challenges ahead alone”.

She will also say that in the years ahead Australia will require “courage to call out behaviours and activities contrary to our nation’s sovereign interests”, and countries must be ready “to stand together when our shared interests are threatened”.

Updated

Good morning

We’ve made it to Wednesday and while these last two weeks have felt like a decade, we still have a ways to go.

Linda Reynolds will deliver a speech to the National Press Club come lunch time, where she will make the case that Australia needs to build up its defence forces to respond to growing military risks in the Pacific.

It’ll also be the first time she has faced questions from journalists since her former staffer Brittany Higgins told her story.

Reynolds had to make a correction to the Senate yesterday after saying there had been two meetings with the AFP (there had been one) and then having to review her “recollections” in order to answer properly. There will be more questions today, although Reynolds maintains she supported Higgins at all times once she learnt of the allegations.

It won’t be a comfortable watch, but still, if you get a chance, tune in and we’ll keep you updated.

The fallout from Craig Kelly’s decision to quit the Liberal party and sit as an independent continues, with Barnaby Joyce making the case for Kelly to join the Nationals (and give him one more number for the leadership). Kelly says he won’t and has vowed to maintain supply for the government. Scott Morrison still has some questions over what he knew about the allegations against Kelly’s staffer, so you can expect more questions on that today as well.

We’ll bring you all of that and more as it happens – you have the Guardian Canberra crew at your disposal, as well as Mike Bowers and me, Amy Remeikis, on the blog.

It’s going to be a five-coffee day. I can feel it.

Ready? Let’s get into it.

Updated

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