Tuesday 12 January
With that, we’ll be closing the blog for today. Here is everything that happened:
- Acting prime minister Michael McCormack has generated outrage over comments comparing the deadly US Capitol siege to Black Lives Matter protests. The Nationals leader’s comments, which included using the phrase “all lives matter”, prompted Labor, the Greens, and Amnesty International to demand he retract the comparison.
- McCormack also defended Morrison government colleagues who have made controversial posts on social media touting unproven claims about coronavirus. McCormack said “facts sometimes are contentious” when refusing to rebuke Craig Kelly, a Liberal MP who likened children wearing masks to limit Covid-19 spread to child abuse. The Australian Media Association has called on the government to fund an online ad campaign countering medical misinformation.
- New South Wales health authorities are concerned at the low number of residents presenting for Covid-19 testing, as the state recorded five new locally acquired cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday.
- Western Australia’s premier Mark McGowan stood by his call for NSW to pursue a coronavirus elimination strategy, despite NSW deputy premier John Barilaro demanding he stop lecturing the state.
- The Australian Capital Territory will no longer require travellers from NSW’s central coast, Wollongong and parts of greater Sydney to quarantine upon arriving in the territory. However anyone entering the ACT from 11 local government areas in Sydney will still be required to quarantine.
- The Northern Territory has also removed greater Sydney as a whole from their Covid-19 hotspot list, retaining entry restrictions for several specific LGAs across Sydney’s western suburbs.
- About 1,200 players and staff from all corners of the globe will be subjected to what the Victorian government has described as the “strictest rules for tennis” in the world when they fly into Melbourne for the Australian Open from Thursday.
Updated
Federal Coalition senator Gerard Rennick has posted a series of tweets that question the risk of Covid-19, and the measures that the “Labor party, the media and health bureaucrats (are) imposing”.
“While all loss of life is tragic, I’ve put together some information to put some perspective around the impact of Covid.”
While all loss of life is tragic, I’ve put together some information to put some perspective around the impact of Covid.
— Senator Gerard Rennick (@SenatorRennick) January 12, 2021
In 2020, 909 people die from Covid and the median age of deaths to date in Australia from Covid is 86 years. #auspol pic.twitter.com/YnAcZCYx13
In 2019, 4,124 died from Influenza & pneumonia & the median age was 88.8 years. No border closures or lockdowns were imposed.
— Senator Gerard Rennick (@SenatorRennick) January 12, 2021
In 2009, under the then Rudd Government there were around 38,000 cases of Swine Flu & 191 reported deaths, including 41 deaths in Queensland.
The Queensland senator’s tweets follow acting prime minister Michael McCormack’s defence of Coalition MP Craig Kelly on Tuesday, who likened children wearing masks to child abuse, and who touted unproven Covid-19 treatments.
Why is the Labor Party, the media & health bureaucrats imposing much harsher measures now given the severity of Swine Flu, rather than rely on the health system as they did back in 2009?
— Senator Gerard Rennick (@SenatorRennick) January 12, 2021
Updated
About 1,200 players and staff from all corners of the globe will be subjected to what the Victorian government has described as the “strictest rules for tennis” in the world when they fly into Melbourne for the Australian Open from Thursday.
The tournament, which will begin on 8 February after warm-up events that start on 31 January, is the largest international sporting event to be held in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic and in effect will broadcast the country’s Covid-19 response to the world.
The Victorian police minister, Lisa Neville, said on Tuesday players and staff would need to test negative for the virus before flying to Australia and then undergo 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine.
Quarantining players would be able to leave their rooms for up to five hours a day, but only to attend dedicated quarantine training venues set up at Melbourne Park, the National Tennis Centre and Albert Reserve. They will only be allowed to leave to train after a day two negative test, and players will be tested daily.
All other staff and officials will need to remain in their rooms at all times for the 14 days of quarantine.
Western Australia’s premier, Mark McGowan, has stood by his comments that all states, including New South Wales, should pursue a coronavirus elimination strategy.
His comments follow criticism from NSW deputy premier John Barilaro on Tuesday morning, who demanded the WA premier “stop lecturing” his government on how to respond to community spread of Covid-19.
Later on Tuesday, federal agriculture minister David Littleproud also accused McGowan of trying to score political points in calling on NSW to pursue a Covid elimination strategy, while NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said “anyone who thinks we’re going to eliminate or eradicate this disease, unfortunately, doesn’t appreciate what the pandemic means”.
On Tuesday afternoon, McGowan said:
It is far better we don’t have the virus in the community in Australia. That is my position and I think that should be all states’ position.
If New South Wales says it is better to have it in the community than not have it, let it be their position.
Updated
NSW Health has been advised of a new venue in the Northern Beaches visited by a confirmed case of COVID 19.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) January 12, 2021
This information will be updated on the website shortly. pic.twitter.com/uDoMEZVzCF
What a way to catch Covid.
I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked down in a secured room at the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask but recklessly mocked colleagues and staff who offered them one.https://t.co/wVmgroKsdf
— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) January 12, 2021
Qatar Airways says it will give priority to passengers flying home for compassionate and medical requirements and consider the “commercial value” of bookings in deciding which prospective travellers will be bumped from the flight list after hotel quarantine caps for Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth were halved this week.
The airline has resumed flights to Adelaide to increase the number of seats available on flights returning to Australia, but said it was looking at existing bookings for Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to fit in with the new quarantine caps.
A spokesperson said:
Qatar Airways analyses each flight based on a range of criteria, including compassionate and medical requirements, connecting flights, booking class, party size and commercial value. In order to ensure the continued viability of our operations to Australia commercial value of tickets sold must also be taken into consideration to be able to operate each flight.
However, each passenger’s case is treated on an individual basis regardless of what cabin class they have booked. We have been assisting many passengers with emergency/compassionate issues as first priority to help them get on a flight home to Australia as soon as possible. We continue to work closely with all our passengers to find alternative flights if they are unable to travel on their original intended flight.”
Qatar has run the most commercial flights to Australia of any airline since the pandemic began, ferrying 180,000 passengers.
The reductions to hotel quarantine numbers in New South Wales, Queensland and WA were announced following national cabinet on Friday and will extend until at least 15 Febuary.
Emirates said it had also made changes to its flight schedule. A spokesman said:
We are working closely with passengers on affected flights to minimise disruption as much as possible. In addition, Emirates, in conjunction with Embassies, Consuls and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), continues to assess compassionate and humanitarian grounds as a priority to assist passengers seeking to return to Australia on the earliest possible flights.”
You can read the responses from other international airlines here.
Our AUSMAT heroes have now cared for 2500 repatriated Australians at Howard Springs in Darwin since the start of the pandemic.
— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) January 12, 2021
They are the SAS of the medical world, and I extend my deepest thanks to Len Notaras and his extraordinary team for their world-class support. pic.twitter.com/PGc865oUu7
Victoria police have said that the death of a woman whose body was found in St Kilda botanical gardens this morning is being treated as not suspicious.
Police were called to the gardens about 6.40am on Tuesday following the discovery.
Pictures in the Herald Sun show a soccer ball found near the scene.
When the scientists on the World Health Organization’s mission to research the origins of Covid-19 touch down in China as expected on Thursday at the beginning of their investigation they are clear what they will – and what they will not – be doing.
They intend to visit Wuhan, the site of the first major outbreak of Covid-19, and talk to Chinese scientists who have been studying the same issue. They will want to see if there are unexamined samples from unexplained respiratory illnesses, and they will want to examine ways in which the virus might have jumped the species barrier to humans.
What the mission will not be, several of the scientists insist, is an exercise in “finger pointing at China”.
More from my colleague Peter Beaumont:
An Australian Open qualifier has been halted mid-match to tell a player he had Covid-19.
Denis Kudla was rushed into quarantine at the Australian Open qualifying event in Doha after testing positive for Covid-19.
Fourth-seeded Kudla downed Moroccan Elliot Benchetrit 6-4, 6-3 but the match ended in controversy.
Kudla’s positive Covid test result reportedly came through with Kudla leading 5-3 in the second and, according to Benchetrit, they had to finish the game in progress.
Because world No 114 Kudla won that game, which wrapped up the match, he was declared the winner.
Had Benchetrit won the game to extend the match, it would have been declared a walkover in his favour.
“At 5-3, they got the result. So to sum up: if I’d won that game at 5-3 to make it 5-4, I’d have qualified for the second round,” Benchetrit said on Instagram.
In another blow, Benchetrit may also have to isolate in Doha if he is deemed a close contact.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian urges more people to come forward for Covid testing
The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is “pleading” with people to come forward for testing after five cases of community transmission of coronavirus were identified in the state overnight, while in Queensland a man was in the community with an infectious UK strain of the virus for two days before going into isolation.
As we see, the disease is still bumbling along in the community and we need to be vigilant about that. And that’s why I’m pleading for people to come forward and get tested. We know that it takes some time to completely get to the target of zero community transmission after there has been an outbreak, but it’s so critical that we raise those testing levels.
There were 14,700 tests reported in NSW on Monday to 8pm, which the premier said was “not really enough for where we’re up to in the pandemic”.
Of the five new cases included in Tuesday’s NSW numbers, two were announced on Monday: a man in his 40s who tested positive at Mount Druitt hospital emergency department, and his household contact.
NSW Health are investigating the source of their infections. A further two cases were identified in the northern beaches and the source of their infections is also under investigation. The fifth case, a woman in her 40s, is linked to the Berala cluster and is a known close contact of someone already identified and in isolation.
Berejiklian said:
Until we finish the mopping up, we don’t want another super-spreading event but the one restriction we want everybody to focus on at the moment is not having more than five people into your household on any given day, and please keep up the rates of testing.
Updated
More than 31,000 permits to enter Victoria have been approved since the state launched its new “traffic light” system some three hours after border changes came into effect, AAP reports:
The permit system wasn’t available on the Services Victoria website until about 8.55pm on Monday – despite the changes happening at 6pm.
Among them was the introduction of a $5,000 fine for those arriving without a permit.
The state’s emergency services minister, Lisa Neville, on Tuesday apologised to Victorians who were unable to apply for a travel permit, describing the delay as “terrible”.
“There were technical issues of trying to get this set up properly, with Services Victoria working through some of the glitches to make sure it was working properly before it went online,” Neville said.
“A number of people absolutely were inconvenienced, frustrated and probably quite anxious as a result of that. I thank them for their patience and apologise for what happened.”
She confirmed no one was fined as a result of the delays.
“It is now working very, very smoothly: 31,000 people applied and have got a permit,” Neville said, adding it takes about five minutes to apply.
Under the system, regional NSW became an “orange” zone, meaning stranded Victorians can come home if they apply for a permit and get tested for Covid-19 with 72 hours of their return. Greater Sydney and greater Brisbane, however, remain “red” zones.
Updated
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has welcomed the announcement from health minister Greg Hunt that GPs who wish to be part of Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination program will be invited to begin coordinating the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout from next week.
RACGP president Dr Karen Price, who appeared alongside Hunt at the announcement on Tuesday, said Australia’s vaccine rollout will be “a massive undertaking for our country” that and GPs will be “essential”.
Price said:
The majority of Australians go to their GP for their vaccinations and for many Australians they will do the same for their Covid-19 vaccine.
General practice is well positioned to support the rollout – there are GPs living and working in communities right across our country, in cities, rural towns and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
There are many challenges ahead, including the need to build community confidence in the new vaccines through evidence-based information campaigns that address the community’s specific concerns and deal with misinformation and myths.
At the announcement, Hunt said hospitals will be better suited to injecting the Pfizer alternative because that version of the vaccine must be stored at significantly colder temperatures.
Last week, the government announced an accelerated rollout of the vaccine, bringing it forward to mid-to-late February. High priority groups will receive the vaccine first.
Updated
WA records one new Covid case in quarantine
Western Australia has recorded one new case of coronavirus – a man who returned from overseas and tested positive while in hotel quarantine.
There are 14 active cases of Covid-19 in WA.
Updated
Some more information on the ACT’s relaxed entry conditions taking effect from 3pm today.
From 3pm today, the ACT Public Health Direction will be amended to remove the Central Coast and Wollongong from the list of COVID-19 affected areas in NSW.
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) January 12, 2021
The COVID-19 affected areas of Greater Sydney will also be reduced to 11 specific Local Government Areas (LGAs) 👇 pic.twitter.com/Dcb9wqMpZQ
The Greens have called on Michael McCormack to apologise for using the phrase “all lives matter”, saying it is a “racist dog-whistle”.
The acting prime minister has faced criticism for his comments comparing last week’s deadly US Capitol siege by pro-Donald Trump rioters to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
Nick McKim, the acting leader of the Australian Greens, said in a statement issued a short time ago:
Last year, the Senate united to block Pauline Hanson from using this racist dogwhistle in Parliament. Now, the acting PM is using it in press conferences to defend his own racist dismissal of black deaths in America.
Michael McCormack knows what he’s doing by using this phrase. He’s telling Australia’s racists that he is taking their side. He needs to apologise immediately.
Rejecting calls from Amnesty International to retract the comparison of the Capitol siege to Black Lives Matter protests, McCormack told reporters today:
I appreciate there are a lot of people out there who are being a bit bleeding heart about this, and who are confecting outrage, but they should know that those lives matter too. All lives matter.”
The federal opposition’s health spokesperson, Chris Bowen, was also critical of McCormack’s language, saying the acting prime minister’s apparent attempt “to diminish the Black Lives Matter movement was beyond disgusting”.
Updated
Human Rights Watch’s Australian director, Elaine Pearson, has joined a chorus of outrage in response to acting prime minister Michael McCormack using the phrase “all lives matter”.
🇦🇺's acting PM now being deliberately provocative using the "All Lives Matter" slogan. What a cheap, divisive & dangerous political stunt. https://t.co/MPOTZLqX2E
— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) January 12, 2021
We've just seen how political speech can fuel a deadly riot in Washington. We need our leaders to condemn those actions instead of parroting the language of far-right movements.
— Elaine Pearson (@PearsonElaine) January 12, 2021
ACT eases entry conditions for NSW
The Australian Capital Territory will no longer require travellers from NSW’s central coast, Wollongong and parts of greater Sydney to quarantine upon arriving in the territory.
However the ACT still considers the following local government areas in Sydney to be Covid-19 affected, and therefore requires anyone entering the ACT from the LGAs to quarantine for 14 days.
- Northern Beaches
- Blacktown City
- Burwood
- Canada Bay City
- Canterbury-Bankstown
- Cumberland
- Fairfield City
- Inner West
- Liverpool City
- Parramatta City
- Strathfield Municipality
The relaxations will come into effect from 3pm today. It will mean some people currently in quarantine in the ACT will be able to leave quarantine later today.
Updated
#BREAKING: Quarantine requirements for travel to the ACT from the Central Coast, Wollongong and some parts of Greater Sydney are being removed as of 3pm today. Restrictions for travel to Canberra from certain areas of South-western and Western Sydney will remain in place. #9News
— Harry Frost (@9HFrost) January 12, 2021
Health Minister Greg Hunt is asked about his Liberal party colleague Craig Kelly's comments on mandatory mask wearing. He urges the public to listen to official advice: "We follow the advice of the medical advisors, and many people, as I just said, will put out differing views."
— Stephanie Dalzell (@steph_dalzell) January 12, 2021
Malcolm Turnbull slams Murdoch media for sowing 'hatred, division and madness'
Malcolm Turnbull has blamed Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and other media outlets for promoting “the hatred, division and madness” that prompted the US Capitol attack last week.
In an opinion piece in Crikey, the former Australian prime minister has called for Murdoch’s media empire to “be brought to account”, and asked businesses to reconsider advertising with the company’s outlets.
Turnbull wrote:
Until a few weeks ago Fox News’ relationship with Trump was like that of a state-owned broadcaster in a dictatorship: flattering the great leader, supporting his friends, denouncing his allies, covering up his failures.
Fox News has promoted and exacerbated America’s deep social and racial divisions, supporting Trump’s exploitation of them at every turn.
And when the election result was clear, Fox was once again in the forefront supporting Trump in his claims of election fraud, undermining Americans’ faith in their electoral system.
Murdoch did not directly dispatch the mob as Trump did, but his media, more than any other, amplified the narratives of hatred, division and denial that made the mob possible.
I have been with Trump and Murdoch and the power relationship was all too obvious. Trump was deferential, almost obsequious, to Murdoch. In fact when Trump and I first met he wanted Murdoch to join our bilateral discussion. I told him I wouldn’t do that – something Murdoch did not appreciate no doubt.
Freedom of speech must never mean freedom from responsibility.
Updated
General practitioners in Australia who want to provide the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine will next week begin coordinating with health authorities about the rollout of the vaccine.
Speaking from Mount Martha in Victoria to announce $38m in government funding for diabetes and cardiovascular care, health minister Greg Hunt said the invitation to commence the first stage of the vaccine rollout would be extended to GPs next week.
He said hospitals are better suited to injecting the Pfizer alternative because that version of the vaccine must be stored at significantly colder temperatures.
Giving a national Covid update, Hunt also said there were six new cases across Australia in the previous day of reporting, with just one Australian currently in intensive care due to coronavirus.
We have a national vaccination network which last year saw us deliver 17 million vaccinations for flu, approximately. And that vaccination network is built around our general practices.
When we compare the international with the Australian outcomes, we see that our doctors and our nurses have not only kept us safe, they have delivered an outcome that is, in so many ways, the envy of just about all of the rest of the world.
Updated
AMA calls for government advertisements to counter online "misinformation"
The Australian Medical Association is calling on the Morrison government to invest in a “long-term” and “robust” online ad campaign to counter health misinformation online, including anti-vaccination messages and the “countless conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic”.
The plea from AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid follows the federal opposition’s health spokesman, Chris Bowen, blasting Scott Morrison and his acting prime minister Michael McCormack for standing by comments from coalition MP Craig Kelly that tout unproven coronavirus treatments, and liken mask use by children to child abuse.
Khorshid said:
Many groups in our community already have lower levels of health literacy – people with lower levels of education, from cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people who are unemployed, people with disability, and people with lower socioeconomic status.
Traditionally, people have learnt about healthy choices from their families, schools, doctors, and government advertising campaigns. However, people are increasingly seeking information from websites and social media.
The internet has the potential to significantly magnify health misinformation campaigns, as people can easily absorb misinformation delivered directly to them through advertising, celebrity influencers, and people in positions of power.
We have seen this with the anti-vaccination movement, and the countless conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic that circulate constantly on the internet.
We need an Australian Government-funded campaign to counter this misinformation and promote healthy choices, including information about vaccine safety and the health risks associated with alcohol, junk food, tobacco, and other drugs.
Social media companies must also acknowledge their responsibility and work actively to counter health misinformation on their platforms.
Updated
Thanks for blogging what was an eventful morning Matilda.
I’m Elias Visontay, and I’ll be taking you through the next part of the afternoon.
If you see anything you think I should be aware of, you can contact me via email at elias.visontay@theguardian.com or via Twitter @EliasVisontay.
With that, I might leave you.
I can’t hog all the news from the talented Elias Visontay who will be taking over for the rest of the afternoon.
Bowen has also addressed McCormack’s comments comparing the deadly insurrection of the Capitol building in the US to Black Lives Matter protests around the world, including stating the anti-BLM catchphrase “all lives matter” a short time ago.
The acting prime minister has compared the insurrection, the violence in the Capitol to the Black Lives Matter protests today and yesterday. Michael McCormack might speak for the government. He does not speak for Australians.
Those people around the world who engaged in peaceful protests in the Black Lives Matter movement deserve better than to have their acting leader, their acting prime minister, compare them to the violence and thuggery we saw at the US Capitol last week.
Australians of colour deserve to know that the government thinks more of them than that, and to have the acting prime minister spout the words, “all lives matter”, to diminish the Black Lives Matter movement, was beyond disgusting. Michael McCormack has a response to fix this.
He can come out and say on both measures he was wrong. He can condemn the medical disinformation and conspiracy theories of his colleague, Craig Kelly. He can accept that the Black Lives Matter movement was legitimate and peaceful protest – not the violent attempt at insurrection we saw in the US last week.
What we saw in the US last week was incited by the president. It was violence. And it was an attempt to undermine democracy, and we should just be honest about that. It had nothing to do with the Black Lives Matter movement.
This is a man who last year, incorrectly claimed that Black Lives Matter protests had been a super spreading event without a shred of evidence and incorrectly.
Updated
Chris Bowen labels Craig Kelly a 'menace' for spreading misinformation
The federal shadow health minister Chris Bowen is speaking now about Michael McCormack’s refusal to condemn Craig Kelly and George Christensen for spreading misinformation online.
Acting prime minister has said that Craig Kelly’s campaign of medical disinformation is a matter where facts can be contentious. Well, facts are facts. And the fact is that Australia has done well through this medical crisis because we’ve listened to the experts, the chief medical officer and the health officers and the TGA.
Craig Kelly has engaged in a systemic and deliberate attempt to undermine our medical health professionals. He has accused the chief medical officers of engaging in, and I quote, “Crimes against humanity.”
He has, today, said that mandating masks for children is child abuse. Here in New South Wales, masks are mandated for children over 12. The premier of New South Wales deserves more support from the acting prime minister than she’s getting. She deserves better than to have federal MPs, Liberal MPs, accusing her government of child abuse and the same applies to Premiers across-the-board and mandating of masks across-the-board, across Australia.
Craig Kelly has accused Daniel Andrews of being a Nazi. He’s compared policies of the World Economic Forum to the Cambodian genocide of Pol Pot. Craig Kelly continually promotes discredited or unproven medicines, whether it be hydroxychloroquine, or the latest being betadine in relation to Covid-19, undermining confidence in the TGA.
He’s claimed that these drugs are more effective than vaccines. What does that do for confidence in the vaccination program which is about to be rolled out across Australia?
Craig Kelly is a menace, and at every turn, Scott Morrison, and now Michael McCormack, acting prime minister, have failed to call him out.
Updated
Just a bit more from that McCormack press conference. The politician was asked about his comments to ABC this morning that “facts can sometimes be contentious” when he refused to rebuke a Coalition MP who said making children wear masks was akin to child abuse.
Reporter:
Earlier today you said that facts are sometimes contentious, what you may think is right, someone else can think is untrue. [But] the definition of a fact is something known and proven true.
McCormack:
I can see it’s grey, you may see the sky is blue. There’s probably blue patches. There’s a lot of subjective things. I was asked about a colleague who puts material up on Facebook. Well, some of what my colleague puts up on Facebook is very much true, but the people on Twitter-sphere, they don’t always like it. You know, toughen up, I say.
George Christensen is doing a great job for the north. People have different views from time to time.
Two Emirates flight attendants are in isolation in Australia after testing positive to Covid-19 on Sunday, two days after Australia introduced mandatory quarantining and testing of international flight crews.
The positive tests were included in Monday’s numbers.
The crew members had worked on the incoming Emirates flight EK430 from Dubai to Brisbane on Saturday and were due to crew outgoing flight EK 431, back to Dubai, on Sunday. After they tested positive, Sunday’s flight was cancelled and the rest of the flight crew was classified as a close contact and repatriated to Dubai.
A spokeswoman from Queensland Health said:
The crew members identified as positive cases are being managed per usual processes and remain in Australia.
Since the incoming Emirates flight EK430 from Dubai to Brisbane was serviced by the same crew, as per the airline’s safety protocols the remaining crew members were determined to be close contacts. As a precautionary measure, the decision was therefore made to cancel flight EK431 from Brisbane to Dubai for the safety of its passengers.
All passengers who arrived into Brisbane on EK430 are in mandatory hotel quarantine, as per the regulations applicable for international passenger arrivals, and will be tested as per the usual process on day 3 and 10 of their quarantine period.
There is no risk to the general public.
A spokesperson from Emirates said:
The health and safety of our crew, customers and communities remains our top priority, and we continue to work closely with all relevant authorities to implement the latest health and safety protocols.
Updated
Acting prime minister states "all lives matter"
And just when you thought acting prime minister Michael McCormack’s controversial day was over, he has now used the controversial rightwing phrase “all lives matter” at a press conference when discussing the “Black Lives Matter” protests.
The Nationals leader has come under fire today and yesterday for comparing the insurrection at the Capitol building by far right rioters to the Black Lives Matter protest and riots earlier in the year.
He was criticised heavily for this comparison but has spent the day doubling down.
I abhor violence of any form. The Black Lives Matter protests, as at mid-last year, cost 19 lives. That’s 19 lives that should not have been lost. I’m not going to apologise because I said that violence in any form should not happen, from a protest...
I appreciate there are a lot of people out there who are being a bit bleeding heart about this and who are confecting outrage, but they should know those lives matter too. All lives matter.
People shouldn’t have to go to a protest and lose their life...
Those 102,000 names on the War Memorial in Canberra, they went to war so we can have free speech. But in Australia, we’re concentrating on rebuilding our economy. On making sure we’ve got the health outcomes. Now, America, yeah, look, there’s things going on there at the moment which are very unsavoury. But our concentration of the federal government, of myself acting prime minister this week, is on rebuilding our economy, and protecting living and saving livelihoods.
Updated
Just on those posts that Craig Kelly and George Christensen have been in hot water over for the last few days.
Journalist ABC Casey Briggs has published this list of Facebook posts from Australian politicians that receive the most engagement each day.
Well it’s clear that these posts aren’t flying under the radar.
The top Facebook posts from Aust federal pollies on Jan 11 were from
— auspol_posts (@auspol_posts) January 12, 2021
1: Pauline Hanson
2: Anthony Albanese
3: Jacqui Lambie
4: Craig Kelly
5: Jacqui Lambie
6: Craig Kelly
7: Craig Kelly
8: Malcolm Roberts
9: Craig Kelly
10: Craig Kelly
11: Craig Kelly
(ranked by interactions)
A scuba diver in distress has been saved off the Adelaide coast thanks to the faint light of her torch.
The 45-year-old woman was among a group involved in a night dive at Port Noarlunga late Monday evening when a strong current swept her out to sea.
Her torch was spotted about one kilometre off the coast and she was picked up by the Sea Rescue squadron.
She was treated for fatigue but had no other injuries, police said.
Updated
SA grass fire under police investigation
A large grass fire which threatened the South Australian southeast town of Lucindale is now the subject of a police investigation reports the AAP.
Officers will look into the cause of the blaze which burnt through 16,800 hectares after being sparked on Monday.
It burnt into Lucindale but there are no confirmed losses of houses or major structures.
Livestock and fencing have been destroyed and more than 3,000 properties are without power.
The Country Fire Service has reduced the alert level to a bushfire advice but still has crews in the area strengthening containment lines.
About 45 fire trucks and 200 firefighters were deployed at the height of the fire.
Water bombing aircraft conducted more than 100 drops across the fire ground and were expected to continue their work on Tuesday.
The fire was fanned by strong winds with a cool change pushing it towards Lucindale and Naracoorte.
CFS duty commander Brenton Hastie said as the cool change moved through it caused the fire to expand rapidly and change shape.
We don’t have any confirmed losses at this stage but we are aware of a number of properties that have been impacted.
The fire came amid dangerous conditions across much of SA on Monday, with very high temperatures and rising winds.
Fire crews were on standby across the state with command centres established and water-bombing aircraft prepared.
By early afternoon Adelaide had climbed past its forecast maximum of 37C with a high of 38.3C, while in regional centres the mercury soared into the low 40s.
Cooler conditions prevailed across the fire ground on Tuesday with temperatures in the mid-20s forecast for the rest of the week.
Updated
Greater Sydney no longer a NT hotspot
The Northern Territory has removed greater Sydney as a whole from their Covid-19 hotspot list, replacing it was specific local government areas across Sydney’s western suburbs.
This came into effect at 11am today.
The NSW local government areas that remain as a declared hotspot include:
- City of Blacktown
- City of Canada Bay
- City of Canterbury-Bankstown
- City of Fairfield
- City of Parramatta
- Cumberland Council
- Inner West Council
- Municipality of Burwood
- Municipality of Strathfield
This means those arriving in Northern Territory from greater Sydney except for those LGAs will no longer have to quarantine.
Anyone currently in quarantine from the areas in greater Sydney that have now been revoked as hotspots will be able to exit.
Updated
Spotify removes Pete Evans' podcast from platform
Spotify has confirmed it has removed the podcast hosted by celebrity chef and conspiracy theory promoter Pete Evans for posting false claims about Covid-19.
Evans, who was removed from Facebook last month for similar breaches of policy, posted on Instagram – also owned by Facebook – that his podcast had been removed from the platform on Tuesday morning.
On Instagram he wrote:
Could it have something to do with the many brave doctors and scientists that we interview, that are warning people about these poisons that’s disguised as medicine?
A spokesman for Spotify confirmed the podcast had been removed from the streaming audio platform for promoting misinformation.
Spotify prohibits content on the platform which promotes dangerous false, deceptive, or misleading content about Covid-19 that may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health ...
When content that violates this standard is identified it is removed from the platform.
The podcast was still available on other podcasting apps, at the time of publication.
Evans routinely posts misinformation about Covid-19, the response to the pandemic, and the vaccine. Before he was kicked off Facebook he posted a cartoon with a neo-Nazi symbol, but later deleted it and claimed not to know what the symbol was.
Despite continuing to post misinformation about Covid-19 and the US election results, Evans has not yet had his Instagram account removed.
Updated
1,200 tennis players and staff headed to Melbourne
Victorian police minister Lisa Neville, who is currently in charge of the state’s hotel quarantine programs, has just spoken about Melbourne’s (very intense) plan to quarantine 1,200 tennis players and staff coming from overseas for the Australian Open.
So from Thursday this week, from 5pm, we have 15 different charter flights that will land in Melbourne that will bring around 1,200 players, support staff and other tennis officials to Melbourne.
And they will then begin the process of going to three different hotels in Melbourne ... They’ve had to transform their venues and I had a chance to look at the Grand Hyatt yesterday. They literally have had to transform their whole venues in terms of the bubbles and in terms of cushioning and carpets and the whole thing. It’s been transformed to make it a quarantine hotel ...
We are assuming that every single tennis player that arrives and their officials has the potential to be positive ... We have put in place the strongest, the strictest rules that apply for tennis across the world ...
Before they leave the country they’re in, they must be tested and they must have a negative result. For those who find out that they have a positive on the plane, they are immediately put into health hotel when they arrive here and everyone who is with them is treated as a close contact ...
Secondly, they have to stay in their room. We have RSOs, like we do at every mandatory quarantine hotel on every floor. Every emergency exit has an alarm system, so we know if anyone attempts to go out that way. We have police on-site, and of course, we have our health services on site. Those health services are Aspen Health, and all up, we have 1,500 staff.
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Berejiklian has rebutted suggestions that NSW health officials have given up on finding the source of the northern beaches cluster.
We’ve never given up in New South Wales. Sometimes it takes hours or sometimes weeks, but we always get to the bottom of what we think happened, and I’m confident we’ll get there.
But we also have to give our experts time to make the connections. And often, it can take one expert in one kind of example to work out a crossover between two people who are completely unrelated, to work out those answers. And I’m confident that we’ll get there. I don’t know when that will occur. But as Dr Chant and Dr McAnulty say, I’m confident that if anyone can get there, it will be the New South Wales team.
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Agriculture minister David Littleproud tells 'petulant premiers' to 'bugger off'
The federal agriculture minister, David Littleproud, has told “petulant premiers” to “bugger off” if they can’t work together to resolve border restriction issues.
In a spray on Sky News, the deputy leader of the Nationals also accused WA premier Mark McGowan of trying to score political points ahead of a state election with his remarks about NSW’s Covid-19 strategy.
Readers will recall that McGowan yesterday called on the NSW government to look at “what other states and territories are doing in order to crush and kill the virus”. The WA Labor premier said: “You need to eliminate the virus from Australia. The idea that you tick along with the virus and somehow that is a better model is wrong.”
But Littleproud said McGowan should “just grow up”, and reaffirmed his previous criticism that “our federation is failing this country at the moment”.
Littleproud pointed the finger of blame at “petulant premiers just wanting to act like teenagers, trying to score cheap political points rather than lead”.
“Federation was meant for us to work together, and though it was a line put in a map 120 years ago, and at the moment it’s failing us, because it’s parochial politics. McGowan’s going to an election in March, he’s using it as a political advantage to himself – and I get that, that’s politics. But this is above this; this is a crisis, a national crisis, where we’ve got to back one another …
“So, it’s time for the premiers to grow up – they want to be big boys and girls now and have ownership of a lot of the public health and make all the big calls, but with that comes a responsibility of working together. And unless they’re going to do that, they should bugger off, because effectively the rest of the country’s had a gut full of this.”
Littleproud said he was opposed to “hard lockdowns of straight borders right across the line” but instead favoured localised lockdowns – such as those that occurred in greater Brisbane and Sydney’s northern beaches – so that regional Australia was not punished.
“Instead of just reverting back to old type of having that parochial politics at the state border and looking after your own dung heap, we have to work together.”
Littleproud also accused the Victorian government of “sitting on their hands” over a proposal to allow the entry of workers from Pacific nations to fill fruit-picking labour shortages.
“There is no impediment to us stamping the visas of those people. So, it is in your court. National cabinet, Dan Andrews, big man beat his chest and said this was important, we need these workers in, we will take responsibility. He has been sitting on this since October and still will not make a decision.”
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Hazzard alluded to it before but Berejiklian has now been asked explicitly if there have been issues with people not tell the truth during the contact tracing process for fear that they will be punished if they have broken the law.
There have been situations because people are afraid to tell us everything because they’re worried about getting in trouble or worried about having broken the rules I assure you that that is not the case.
Health [officials] are so good, they don’t pass on to me, including me and other government authorities, they don’t pass on any confidential information. And what’s really important for us is for people to feel open and not scared and not fearful.
We just want to know the information so that we can deal with it. So I just appeal to everybody – when you’re speaking to a health expert – please just give us all the information you have. Don’t be concerned about any judgments, don’t be concerned about any retribution. Quite the contrary.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian has taken a slight dig at the Western Australian premier Mark McGowan after he publicly stated yesterday that NSW should be pursuing an eradication policy when it comes to Covid-19.
Berejiklian said this showed a misunderstanding of how the virus operated.
I support what national cabinet has endorsed. That is zero community transmission.
Anyone who thinks we’re going to eliminate or eradicate this disease, unfortunately, doesn’t appreciate what the pandemic means. But we’ve signed up to zero community transmission and that is something New South Wales strongly supports, endorses and works towards ...
Now, every state might have a different way of getting to zero community transmission and that’s a matter for them. I don’t believe keeping your borders closed and inflicting pain and suffering on thousands of people is the way to do that, but that’s just the New South Wales strategy. But all of us have the aim of zero community transmission.
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NSW health minister appeals to leaders in multicultural communities to spread public health message
NSW conducted only 14,700 tests yesterday, which health minister Brad Hazzard says is not good enough.
We’ve seen some incredible work done by the area of the northern beaches and western Sydney, but as Dr Chant and the premier emphasised, yesterday was not our finest moment in terms of getting numbers of people out for testing.
Hazzard also called for leaders in multicultural communities to redouble their efforts to engage people:
I understand, particularly in our multicultural community, that some members have come from countries where information doesn’t remain private when you see your health official.
Here in Australia, 100%, when you go and see your doctor, it’s confidential. When you talk to a public health official, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how many people you’ve had to your place, you need to know it’s confidential.
You need to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That helps us get this virus under control. I emphasise that.
I call on community leaders in western Sydney to make sure that the various multicultural communities, our wonderful multicultural communities that make up this fabulous nation, get the message to their communities to stick to the limits at the moment, listen to the public health advice.
Updated
NSW has also recorded 11 cases from overseas travellers in quarantine. (Things really are heating up overseas).
Dr Jeremy McAnulty is giving an update now on those three additional local cases.
One is linked to the Berala cluster. It’s a woman in her 40s, who had been a known close contact and in isolation. [She] had visited the BWS in Berala on 29 December.
This case was in isolation during her [infectious] period and it reflects, as the premier said, the importance of doing the right thing and staying in isolation. Sometimes we can have quite long incubation periods. People need to stay in isolation for the full 14 days as directed by public health officials. It’s also important that people are tested at the beginning of the time they go into isolation and at the end, and if you get any symptoms throughout.
Another two cases whose source of infection remains under investigation, reside in the northern area of the northern beaches. A man and a woman in their40s and they’re household contact of each other. This highlights the importance for everyone in the northern beaches to maintain vigilance because we’ve seen now a couple of cases or so in the last several days of people in the northern beaches being diagnosed with Covid-19.
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NSW records five new cases of community transmission, four of them a mystery
The NSW premier Glady Berejiklian is speaking to reporters now. The state recorded five cases of community transmission overnight, two of which were already reported yesterday but weren’t included in official numbers. There were just 14,738 tests reported to 8pm last night, which is extremely low.
Two of the cases we had already discussed yesterday, which was the gentleman that presented to Mount Druitt Hospital and his household contact so those two cases were reported yesterday.
There have been an additional two cases in the northern beaches. Obviously, Dr McAnulty will again report on that and one case linked directly to the Berala cluster. So, as we see, the disease is still bumbling along in the community and we need to be vigilant about that. And that’s why I’m pleading for people to come forward and get tested.
Updated
Body found in suburban Melbourne park
Some sad news from Melbourne
A body has been found in a suburban Melbourne park. Police were called to the St Kilda’s Botanical Gardens about 6.40am on Tuesday following the discovery.
Pictures in the Herald Sun show a soccer ball found near the scene. The park has been closed to the public as investigations continue.
Police say exact circumstances surrounding the death are yet to be determined.
Updated
Heads up we are going to be hearing from Victoria in the next 10 minutes or so. The state recorded no new Covid-19 cases overnight.
Updated
Young has closed out the press conference, warning people that the greater Brisbane area isn’t out of the woods yet.
Just remember the incubation period is 14 days and there is no evidence that the incubation period for this new variant is any different.
We just have to wait and we need to maintain all of the systems and processes we have all got in place as individuals to protect ourselves if this were to spread.
We just have to do what Queenslanders have done so brilliantly right from the start, in terms of following all the advice and minimising the risk for everyone.
Updated
Queensland is conducting an investigation into how exactly this cleaner actually contracted the vrius while working in the hotel.
Peter Martin assistant commissioner has given an update on this:
I should mention that the joint Queensland Health and Queensland Police investigation into how the breach of the hotel quarantine occurred is under way.
It will be an investigation that, as we, and if we identify things that need to be improved in the system, that we will implement them immediately and keep you advised of what’s happening with that.
He outlines some of the work being down behind the scenes:
There is CCTV that we have to go through for this and it is probably four days’ worth. That will take some time.
What we do is reconstruct the whole process that needs to be followed from the time that that person has entered into the quarantine system and how that is dealt with and we timeline that.
It is then a matter of going through and checking with the people and agencies and others that are involved. It will be a reconstruction of everything that has happened so we can understand the process completely.
It still may be that we will never get to the bottom of what has actually happened because it could be something incidental to do with how infectious this disease is but we will look at everything in the whole process.
Updated
Victorians no longer have to get tested and isolate upon arrival in Queensland.
Victorians are no longer required to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result when entering Queensland says, Dr Young.
We do not require Victorians who come into Queensland as of today to get tested unless they have symptoms.
So we were requiring them to be tested when they came into Queensland and isolate until they had a negative result. We now only require them to get if they have any symptoms.
So that’s a change because we’ve done a risk assessment of Victoria and given the reduction in risk, Victorians can still come into Queensland as they have been able to all along, but they only need to get a test if they have any symptoms no matter how mild.
Updated
New UK strain Covid-19 case could still be a risk to Queensland
Chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young says there is still a small infection risk from the partner of the hotel quarantine who was infected with the contagious UK variant of Covid-19. He tested positive yesterday and has been in isolation since 7 January.
So, he became unwell the evening of the 7th. So he went into quarantine in the morning and was tested in the morning and he tested negative in the morning. So that’s really good.
Then he developed some extremely mild symptoms that evening.
So the two days before he went into quarantine, potentially could be a risk. So I am asking people who went to any of the venues that he went to, to please, immediately come forward and get tested. The risk is low, but the risk is there.
Young outlined the two new potential exposure sites.
So those two venues went to on January 5, he went to the Bunnings warehouse at Acacia Ridge between 2pm and 2:40pm.
Then, the next day, on January 6, he went to the Sunnybank Cellars at Heller Well Road in Sunny Bank Hills between 2:05 pm and 2:15.
He also went to work those two days but he works at a fantastic workplace who had already tested all of their staff because his partner had tested positive. So they’ll do that again now and they’ve done a fantastic job. So no one needs to worry about the workplace he works at.
Updated
Only one new local Covid-19 case in Queensland
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is giving an update now on the Covid-19 situation in the state:
We have three new cases. One was the partner of the cleaner that we advised every one of yesterday afternoon. And we have two further hotel quarantine – a father and a daughter.
So that is fantastic news, and once again, I do want to thank everybody for doing the right thing.
Updated
Here is a bit more information about the confusion going on around the Victoria/NSW border at the moment.
Victoria’s state’s border with regional NSW reopened on Monday night following the launch of a new permit system.
Anyone planning to enter Victoria from interstate now needs to apply for a travel permit, but the online system allowing people to submit their application was delayed Monday evening, still offline when the deadline passed.
A government spokeswoman apologised for the delay.
“The teams from DHHS and Service Victoria worked as quickly as possible to get the permit system up and running, as they worked to draft directions and experienced some technical issues,” she said.
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton took to social media to deny reports the delay stemmed from the new public health directions not being signed on time.
Apart from Victorian-NSW border community residents, anyone arriving in Victoria without a permit faces a $4,957 fine.
Updated
Just a bit more from acting prime minister Michael McCormack’s controversial media rounds this morning. He was also interviewed on Nine’s Today Show.
The nationals leaders has been criticised for refusing to censure government MPs including George Christensen for spreading misinformation about last week’s siege on the Capitol by pro-Trump supporters.
Christensen has been pushing conspiracy theories and unproven treatments throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
George Christensen is a free spirit ...
While George might sometimes push the boundaries of controversy on social media, he also sticks very much up for communities.
Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten also spoke on the Nine Network, urging senior government ministers to pull rogue backbenchers into line.
Our own leaders need to stamp down on the conspiracy rubbish - not everything on the internet is true.
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ACT border restrictions affect NSW visitors to Jervis Bay
As you may know, there has been increasing border restrictions between the ACT and NSW.
Now, this is interesting enough when you consider how integrated Canberra is with surround NSW areas, but it becomes borderline bizarre when you consider the ACT’s tiny commonwealth-controlled stronghold on the coastline, Jervis Bay.
Well, the Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that NSW cars are being turned away from visiting the beaches in Jervis Bay with the border closures being enforced.
The tiny territory, with a population of around 400, is subject to similar public health orders as the ACT, with people who have visited declared hotspots (including greater Sydney) not permitted to enter without an exemption.
Jervis Bay local and Yuin man Keiran Stewart-Assheton told the newspaper that residents, including members of the Indigenous community of Wreck Bay, were largely supportive of the decision.
It’s just people outside that are having issues now because they can’t go to the national park or their favourite surf spot... Everyone I’ve spoken to about it is supportive of it...
There’s no doctors or anything here so people need to leave for groceries or services. They shut the toll gates down and only allow access routes, or people that are working for the navy.
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NSW government hits back at Western Australian premier
Yesterday we saw some comments from the WA premier Mark McGowan telling NSW that it should be pursuing an elimination strategy, suggesting they were making life more difficult for the rest of the states.
Well, the NSW government has had a crack right back. This is the deputy premier John Barilaro on Syndey Radio station 2GB this morning.
For Mark McGowan, it’s easy. He puts up the borders in Western Australia, cuts off the rest of the nation.
He called me un-Australian when he questioned me on the situation. I returned fire but gave him a level of respect saying it’s his state and he makes the decisions but here he is again lecturing.
We’ve had Covid deaths in this nation but we’re going to have more deaths from mental health from people locked away in isolation, people not being able to reunite with family and MarkMcGowan is what he stands for.
I’m happy to say that this morning and have a go straight back at him. Stop lecturing, look after your own backyard.
Just noting, that Barilaro’s comments about rates of mental health-related deaths due to lockdowns are highly debated.
Updated
So not too many press conferences locked in so far today:
We know that at 9am Queensland time (10am for Victoria and NSW) we will be hearing from Premier Palaszczuk, where she will likely go into a bit more detail about this additional case of the UK variant of Covid-19.
NSW leaders usually step up around 11am, and will likely shed some like on the situation with the Mount Druitt hospital. Yesterday a man tested postive for Covid-19 after being treated in the western Syndey hospital’s emergency room, causing the hospital to temporarily shut for deep cleaning. His wife has since tested positive as well.
Unclear when we might be hearing from Victoria so far.
Updated
Lucindale fire still not contained
A large grass fire on the outskirts of the town of Lucindale in South Australia is still not under control.
It’s unclear exactly what the damage to the town and outlining home has been so far but ABC is reporting that at least some structures have been impacted.
Lucindale is about 345km south-east of Adelaide. The fire was downgraded to “advice” level around9pm on Monday but has not yet been contained.
A devastating sight driving into Lucindale this morning in South Australia’s South East, the Blackford fire has still not been contained. @abcadelaide @BreakfastNews pic.twitter.com/OXUGXGgVNI
— Sarah Mullins (née Hancock) (@sarahmullins) January 11, 2021
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Sydney man charged over fast-food outburst
A man has been charged after allegedly becoming aggressive at a McDonald’s in north-western Sydney when staff asked him to sign in using a QR code, reports AAP.
NSW police will allege in court the man refused to use the Covid-safe check-in at the fast-food outlet in Kellyville Ridge on Saturday evening.
He allegedly became aggressive and verbally abused staff, before pushing a cash register and printer off the counter and leaving the restaurant.
The 25-year-old St Marys man was arrested at Riverstone police station about 4.15pm on Monday.
He was charged with destroying or damaging property, using offensive language in a public place and not complying with a Covid-19 health order.
He was granted conditional bail to appear before Blacktown local court on 1 February.
Updated
Possible shark sighting closes Victoria beaches
Beachgoers have been told not to enter the water at a number of popular beaches on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula following a possible shark sighting, the AAP reports.
The possible sighting occurred about 6.15pm on Monday at Thirteenth beach in Barwon Heads, about 20km south-east of Geelong.
Swimmers have been told not to enter the water at Barwon Heads, Breamlea, Connewarre, Ocean Grove and Wallington.
It comes after a boy who was swimming near Thirteenth beach earlier was taken to Geelong University hospital with lower-body injuries. He is in a stable condition.
Life Saving Victoria’s Paul Shannon told ABC Radio Melbourne it was unclear if the child was a victim of a shark attack.
We don’t have the medical reports back to know exactly was it a shark or was another form of marine animal.
Shannon said relevant agencies were meeting at the beach on Tuesday.
We’ll have a chat about what’s going to be the best actions for the day there, there’ll more aerial surveillance, just to make sure that it’s as safe as it can be.
Updated
Palaszczuk says the snap three-day lockdown in Brisbane was a success.
We acted quickly and decisively and if you recall, I actually asked the other states and territories to declare greater Brisbane a hot spot. The AHPPC, which is the group where all the medical officers meet, they had also said that a much harder lockdown would be needed if this UK variant strain was out in the community and it needed to be much stronger and harder than what had been experienced in the northern beaches. That is exactly what we did and national cabinet also endorsed the actions that we took as well.
The premier was asked if further lockdowns would be needed if more cases keep popping up.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Like Dr Young said yesterday, if it was a close contact and the person was in isolation, then that is fine.
If it was out in the community, this could happen anywhere in Australia, it could happen not just here in Queensland, it could happen in New South Wales, Victoria, WA, I think the advice for the AHPPC would be to go hard and go early.
Updated
Palaszczuk says investigations are still under way as to how the hotel quarantine cleaner contracted the high contagious version of the disease from a traveller in the first place.
There is an investigation happening into that. What we are concerned about is the fact that it is 70% more contagious. This has put everybody on high alert. It has put national cabinet on high alert, it has put the prime minister on high alert.
You would have seen what came out of national cabinet about decreasing the international flights coming in. I welcomed that decision by the prime minister.
We are seeing more people testing positive, returning Australians coming home are testing positive in hotel quarantine which makes it a very risky when you have large numbers coming in.
Yesterday I think we had four in hotel quarantine. Last week we had nine in a single day in hotel quarantine. We are seeing large numbers of people testing positive coming back from overseas. This virus is rampant across the northern hemisphere at the moment.
Updated
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is speaking about this new UK-variant Covid-19 case with ABC now:
We haven’t got the numbers in yet. They usually come in between 7.30 and 8.30, I will update everyone around 9am.
The good news is that the close contact of the cleaner was identified early and put into isolation. That person tested negative initially and now has tested positive.
That was the whole point of having this three-day lockdown was to stop the spread, to enable the contact tracers to do that extraordinary job of identifying all of those people who had been in contact with the cleaner and put them into isolation to make sure that the virus hasn’t spread. So far so good.
Updated
Victoria reports no new Covid-19 cases
Triple doughnuts for Victoria today. Huzzah!
Yesterday there were 0 new locally acquired cases reported, and 0 new cases in hotel quarantine. Thanks to all who were tested, 18,139 test results were received. #EveryTestHelps More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/xaWL80D4BS
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) January 11, 2021
Updated
Commercial airlines that are still travelling into Australia say they are “proactively contacting” people affected by the halving of the hotel quarantine cap in Sydney, Brisbane, and Western Australia, but haven’t said how they are choosing which flights to drop.
People who travel on commercial flights are now required to provide a negative coronavirus test before they board the plane, and wear masks for the duration of the flight.
Singapore Airlines, which still flies into Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, told Guardian Australia:
Singapore Airlines will continue to work with our customers to best manage the situation.
We will be proactively contacting customers to ensure minimal disruption and reduce any inconvenience.
United Airlines says the reduced cap will not affect its flight schedule.
We have been complying with government regulations in Australia and continue to do so. United plans to continue to operate daily service between Sydney and San Francisco and five-times-weekly service between Sydney and Los Angeles.
And Delta Air Lines says the decision about which people are allowed to travel under the reduced quarantine cap is one for the Australian government.
We are in the process of notifying impacted customers who do not meet the new mandate’s strict entry criteria. Delta understands this mandate and its short notice may cause significant disruption to our customers and we are doing everything possible to reaccommodate them as quickly as possible; however, delays can be expected. Customers may contact the nearest Australian embassy or consulate for further questions on new entry guidelines.
The reduction in the hotel quarantine cap will not affect anyone travelling on the Australian government-organised repatriation flights from the UK, US, South Africa and India, because passengers on those flights quarantine at the Howard Springs facility in Darwin and were already required to provide a negative Covid-19 test taken less than 48 hours before travel.
Updated
Federal Liberal backbenchers Craig Kelly and George Christensen, who have accused social media companies of censoring conservatives, are among the most influential Australian MPs on Facebook, an analysis suggests.
Kelly and Christensen have railed against social media bans on the US president, Donald Trump, in the wake of the riot on the US Capitol.
“THE PURGE HAS COMMENCED,” Kelly posted on Facebook on Sunday about what he perceived as escalating censorship of conservatives on social media.
The post had the seventh highest level of interactions with the public among posts by Australian MPs and senators on Facebook in the past seven days, with 5,900 reactions, 4,000 comments, and 1,800 shares.
Kelly and Christensen have amassed more than 86,000 and 70,000 followers respectively on their Facebook pages.
You can read the full story from Josh Taylor and Anne Davies below:
Wow, so a lot to get through in this ABC interveiw.
Acting prime minister Michael McCormack was asked about his comments on social media companies removing the posts and accounts of US president Donald Trump, which occurred after the president appeared to encorage right-wing rioters to siege the Capitol building.
I am not in favour of censorship. I have a former newspaper editor and journalists know that they have the right to free speech.
There is 102,000 names on the war memorial in Canberra etched into that bronze who fought so we could have a democratic country, so we could speak freely and it is every free-born person’s right to uphold that freedom of speech. I do stick by that.
When you see a company and let’s face it, it is up to them to make the decision based on their company and what they feel is right, but to take president’s Twitter feed down, whilst at the same time allowing a soldier, an Aussie digger no less, a doctored image to remain on there of an Australian soldier potentially and looking like he is doing harm to a child – I mean really, that is not right.
McCormack is referring to this incident.
Updated
Acting prime minister says 'facts sometimes are contentious'
McCormack was asked on ABC is some censorship by social media platforms was required when it was being used to stop the spread of misinformation.
This comes after Liberal MP Craig Kelly posted on Facebook with a list of statistics claiming that forcing children to wear facemasks was “child abuse”.
ABC host Georgie Tunny:
Shouldn’t facts then be upheld above all else? What kind of censure is there for party members who maybe spreading misinformation?
McCormack:
Facts sometimes are contentious and what you might think is right, somebody else might think is completely untrue. That is part of living in a democratic country.
Updated
Acting prime minister Michael McCormack has just spoken to ABC News Breakfast following a rather controversial day on Monday where he compared the deadly insurrection of the US Capitol Building by far-right rioter to the Black Lives Matter protests and riots that occurred across the world in 2020.
McCormack has also come out swinging against social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook after they removed US President Donald Trump, suggesting that this was dangerous censorship.
Oh, and also his Nationals MP George Christensen has been out and about posting misinformation and factually incorrect articles suggesting the election was stolen from Donald Trump and that leftwing activists were actually to blame for the Capitol siege.
As I said, big Monday for McCormack.
But seems like he is in for a big Tuesday too because he has now doubled down on his BLM comments:
Any form of violence, any form of protest that ends in death and destruction is abhorred.
The United States goes through great change but any form of protest, whether it is a protest over racial rights or what we have seen on Capitol Hill in recent days is condemned and abhorred.
Host Georgie Tunny asked the acting PM if it mattered that the BLM movement was aimed at condemning the killing of black people by police while the Capitol insurrection was aimed at disrupting the democratic process. McCormack replied:
It involves violence, it involves destruction of property. It involves deaths of people and any violence of that form is condemned.
I understand why these protests happen and let’s face it, in Australia we have gone to two world wars so that people can speak freely, so they can have that democratic right of free speech and we have protests here in Australia.
We don’t want to see the level of violence, the level of wilful destruction to property that we have seen elsewhere and, as I say, that level of violence, those sorts of protests that descend into that violence and ultimately the death of people is condemned.
You can check out the full interview below:
Deputy PM @M_McCormackMP has doubled down on his comparison of the assault on the US Capitol with the Black Lives Matter protests.
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) January 11, 2021
"It involves violence, it involves destruction of property, it involves deaths of people. And any violence of that form is condemned." pic.twitter.com/QrF4tiGZF7
Updated
Good morning all, Matilda Boseley here, bringing you all of the news on this lovely Tuesday morning.
If you see anything in your area or online that you think I should be aware of, make sure you send it through to me on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or by email on matilda.boseley@theguardian.com.
So, what’s happening today?
It looks likes Queensland might have a second Covid-19 case caused by the highly contagious UK variant of the coronavirus, but it’s unlikely that it will spark another lockdown.
The partner of the quarantine hotel cleaner who originally contracted the new strain of the virus has now tested positive, and while technically genomic testing will take another 24 to 28 hours, it seems likely that they are carrying the same varient.
“We know this particular variant of Covid-19 is more contagious, so this result is unsurprising,” Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said.
Luckily that individual has been in isolation since 7 January, but additional contact tracing is now underway as a precaution.
Yesterday Young confirmed to reporters that if another UK variant case appeared in someone who was already in isolation it was unlikely to cause the state to enter another snap lockdown.
Down south at the NSW/Victoria border trapped holidaymakers have been left frustrated after the website required to apply for a permit to enter Victoria still wasn’t working hours after the permit cut off at 6pm last night.
Earlier on Monday, the premier, Daniel Andrews, announced that anybody wanting to enter Victoria, including from areas with no travel restrictions, needed to apply for a permit through the Service Victoria website, with a new maximum penalty of $5,000 for those arriving without the correct documentation.
Regional NSW would be downgraded from a “red” zone to an “orange” zone at 6pm, meaning that Victorian residents could enter the state with a permit.
But by the 6pm deadline, the website to apply for a permit was not operational. The application site did not start working until a few minutes before 9pm with Service Victoria and the Department of Health and Human Services apologising for the delay on Twitter.
Okay, now we are all caught up, let’s get going with the day!
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