What we learned, Tuesday 20 April
That is where we will leave the blog for Tuesday. Thanks for following along. Here’s what we learned today:
- The United States is ramping up pressure on countries including Australia to commit to stronger action on climate change.
- Approximately 1.7m doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia, with 67,000 in the past day alone.
- Just 6.5% of disability care residents have received a vaccine shot so far.
- An airport worker in New Zealand has tested positive for Covid-19 just one day after the trans-Tasman bubble opened up to Australia. The worker cleaned planes from red zone countries, and was fully vaccinated. Contact tracing is under way.
- The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says in order to regain public trust, the government needs more data about the AstraZeneca vaccine, as states prepare for a supercharged vaccine push.
- The federal education department ditched two videos, including the controversial milkshake consent video from The Good Society website, following criticism that the videos were bizarre and confusing. The project cost the government $3.8m.
See you tomorrow.
Updated
'Handful' of Australians trying to buy vaccines on the dark web
The Therapeutic Goods Administration boss, John Skerritt, just told the committee there were very few Australians trying to buy vaccines on the dark web, but it was mostly just scams:
There’s been a small amount of activity on the dark web and this is more individuals who fear if they pay a certain number of Bitcoins they can have two doses of Pfizer turn up in an esky on their doorstep. It turns out many of those cases simply lose their money. Either nothing has turned up. We don’t think there’s hundreds of thousands of Australians doing that.
If they’re paying “a certain number of Bitcoins” based on the current value of Bitcoin, they’ve definitely been ripped off.
Updated
Here’s a run down of the latest vaccination stats from AAP:
- There have been 1,653,286 doses administered in the national Covid-19 vaccination rollout up to Monday, including 67,034 in the past 24 hours.
- Of the total, 990,382 have been administered by the Commonwealth (an increase of 50,756 in the past 24 hours).
- 812,862 have been doled out in primary care (+46,121), and 177,520 in aged and disability facilities (+4,635).
- 662,904 have been administered by the states and territories, including 16,278 in the past 24 hours.
- 177,733 have been administered in NSW (+3,881), 168,250 in Victoria (+4,205), 126,011 in Queensland (+3,146), 78,215 in Western Australia (+1,971), 48,115 in South Australia (+1,524), 29,417 in Tasmania (+484), 22,056 in the ACT (+724), and 13,107 in the NT (+343).
Updated
Novavax is a while away.
A few weeks ago, Brendan Murphy said Novavax approval process was "well advanced".
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) April 20, 2021
Today, TGA's John Skerritt saying they won't submit final data until late June early July... pic.twitter.com/B1OipZSOQk
Some shots of the officials at this afternoon’s Senate Covid committee from our photographer at large, Mike Bowers.
Updated
Joyce said he was confused by the milkshake consent videos:
I watched them and didn’t really understand what they were talking about. It was so cryptic it was too obtuse. I didn’t quite know what the point was. You’ve got to be straight and honest about these things and I didn’t get it so was probably a waste of money because obviously nobody else got it either.
I feel like every time a politician says that these videos need to be clear in their language with kids, we need to remind the public what they said during the whole Safe Schools controversy.
Updated
Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton is getting vaccinated tomorrow at one of the new mass vaccination hubs at the Royal Exhibition building in Carlton. It sounds like he is getting the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Our health services have worked hard to deliver the AstraZeneca vaccine to the highest safety standards. The risk of really serious adverse events is rare, which is why I'm getting my vaccination. The best vaccine to get is the one available right now.
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) April 20, 2021
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing and was asked about the PM’s comments around net zero emissions by 2050.
He says it can’t get in the way of Australia gearing up against China:
What I do know is that Australia only has on job and it’s our biggest job and that is to make ourselves as powerful as possible as quickly as possible. With the advent of China’s rise as the totalitarian regime that runs out. And the possible shrinking of United States incomparable power. Anything that stands in the way of us doing that, anything that takes precedence over us doing that puts at risk the capacity of our children to live with the liberties and freedoms we have enjoyed. For my part, I think basically that is the main thing that is on the table.
Obviously, if that puts at risk our capacity to deal with the biggest issue in our region which is now a superpower that is projecting power and constructing aircraft carriers and taking over the South China Sea and incarcerating over a million people of a certain ethnic group because they are of that group and building access roads into northern India. That is a developing fifth generation fighting capacity. We want our issues to be carbon neutral by 2050 and think that is going to stand as some sort of proxy and China will say don’t worry too much about that because they are actually carbon neutral and therefore they are jolly good people and that leave them alone.
We can do anything providing it doesn’t compromise the capacity to fulfil what is our major goal.
Updated
My colleague Naaman Zhou has more on the milkshake video.
An interesting sidenote to all of this is that there was originally $2.8m to be spent on the Respect Matters program in this financial year, but that was cut to $1.4m in the budget in October.
After Labor’s Tanya Plibersek asked the PM in question time about this funding cut in October, six days later the funding was quietly restored.
The government has claimed in a response to estimates questions it was just moving the money around to stop money unspent in the height of the pandemic going into consolidated revenue.
Updated
Just 6.5% of disability care residents vaccinated
Labor’s Katy Gallagher has returned to disability residents, after the revelation that 25,000 have yet to be vaccinated.
The health department associate secretary, Caroline Edwards, said that just 1,448 disability care residents have had their first doses and 192 have had their second, a total of 1,640. She accepted it had been “a very minor part of our program to date”.
Gallagher notes just 6.5% of disability care residents have received a vaccine, and Edwards replies it is a “small proportion” but authorities are “ready to ramp up”.
Brendan Murphy intervenes to remind everyone that while both are high priorities, aged care residents are at greater risk because age is the “single biggest” factor increasing the chance of death by Covid-19.
Gallagher asks if anyone in the government has ever explained that disability care residents would get lower priority than aged care. Edwards says, no, if anything they have told officials to accelerate the disability rollout.
Murphy commits that disability care residents will be vaccinated “very soon”.
Updated
The Victorian health department has issued an alert for some parts of the state after viral fragments were detected in sewerage in Moonee Ponds and Ringwood.
It could be shedding after the infectious period, but these are the dates of concern, and anyone with symptoms is urged to come forward for testing:
• Moonee Ponds Main for 13-16 April
– Ascot Vale, Brunswick, Brunswick West, Coburg, Essendon, Essendon Fields, Flemington, Kensington, Moonee Ponds, North Melbourne, Parkville, Pascoe Vale, Pascoe Vale South, Strathmore, Travancore
• Ringwood South Branch for 6-16 April
– Bayswater, Bayswater North, Boronia, Croydon, Croydon North, Croydon South, Heathmont, Kilsyth, Kilsyth South, Montrose, Ringwood, Ringwood East, Sassafras, The Basin, Tremont, Wantirna
Updated
Three new cases in South Australia today, all in medi-hotels.
South Australian COVID-19 update 20/4/21. For more information, go to https://t.co/e4B14lR2Vd or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/HipVzYLpyi
— SA Health (@SAHealth) April 20, 2021
The independent senator Rex Patrick has asked if the warning applied to AstraZeneca caused a spike in vaccine hesitancy.
Brendan Murphy: “Correct.”
The Atagi advice recognises the safety concern will “likely impact on confidence in being vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine in all age groups”.
The chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, says health authorities “absolutely” recognise the advice has caused people to be more hesitant to take the AstraZeneca vaccine, but notes this effect is not as great among older Australians as younger.
Earlier, Allen Cheng explained that Atagi had to weigh the risk (of clots) with the benefit (of not getting severe Covid-19). A person in their 80s who gets Covid has a 50% chance of hospitalisation and from there a 30% chance of dying, so a “one in 200,000 event shouldn’t put them off”, but for someone in their 20s the benefit is a lot smaller.
The difficulty is Atagi had to consider the future benefit of a vaccinated population, not just the benefit at this instant, which Cheng describes as “very, very small” (because there is no Covid in the community).
Cheng also acknowledges that Australian authorities will have to consider the effectiveness of mixing different types of vaccines.
Updated
It’s getting colder.
💨SE Australia will experience another early taste of winter as a duo of cold fronts brings #rain, strong #winds, #hail, & #snow for elevated areas. Temperatures will drop 5-10°C behind the change, but the icy SW winds will make it feel much colder. Info: https://t.co/fDw0gARfPf pic.twitter.com/RWOF2FHQZH
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) April 20, 2021
The Greens senator Rachel Siewert has asked what the new timetable for the vaccine rollout is. Murphy replies that the aim is still to ensure all vulnerable people are vaccinated by the middle of the year.
From there, authorities will look at the mix of AstraZeneca and Pfizer, and how big the population excluded from AstraZeneca is (because they’re under 50).
Murphy notes there is “plenty of Pfizer coming” – 40m doses total – but they are “backended more to the end than the beginning of the year”. Murphy says the gap between two Pfizer doses is a three-week interval, compared with 12 for AstraZeneca, so “we gain back some of that time”.
But ultimately, Murphy says he is “not able to give an update” on the timetable. He cites “a number of uncertainties” including increased vaccine hesitancy and the international supply of Pfizer.
He says:
They’re doing their best to increase supply. The forward view that can be given with certainty is limited. It’s going to be hard without reliance on domestic supply to be absolutely clear about targets. We will share targets when we have them.
Murphy says Australia has contracted for 51m doses of Novavax, and 10m have been promised by the middle of the year, but Novavax is also experiencing “delays and restrictions”. Some will come in the third quarter, but it’s unclear how much.
There are still talks with Moderna, the second mRNA vaccine that Australia hasn’t yet purchased. But Murphy says they are likely to only be able to supply in the fourth quarter.
Murphy says Australia is “likely to need to have” a mRNA capability in the long term, confirming the government is considering an investment in manufacturing. This would take “at least 12 months”, Murphy says:
It’s unlikely [homemade mRNA vaccines will be] able to help us with our primary vaccination program. But we may need boosters in the future. If these are ongoing and necessary, these vaccines are of interest to the government and we’ve been asked to provide options.
Updated
25,000 disability care residents still waiting for vaccine
The health department associate secretary, Caroline Edwards, reveals that the residents of just 17 disability care facilities have had both doses, while 93 facilities have had their first dose, leaving 25,000 residents in 6,000 facilities still to receive their first dose.
Edwards says the department has “deliberately focused on aged care” residents within 1a, which is almost complete.
Labor’s Katy Gallagher expresses surprise that there are priority cohorts within the first phase.
Edwards says:
There was a range of cohorts. When we discovered aged care was more difficult, we did focus on aged care. Not because people with a disability are any less of a priority, but the experience of Covid-19 has been that the absolutely greatest risk are elderly in aged care.
Edwards notes aged care facilities tend to be larger, whereas disability care facilities are smaller and so outbreaks would be easier to stop.
The Nationals senator Perin Davey is asking about potential to expand the Pfizer rollout in regional areas, given a relaxation on the refrigeration storage requirements. Davey also raises that some people under 50 have already received the first dose of AstraZeneca.
The health department first assistant secretary Lucas de Toca says Queensland paused its whole-of-community AstraZeneca approach in some remote communities and will now consider a mix of AZ and Pfizer based on age there, but in general the advice is if you’ve received the first AZ jab you will get the second.
Allen Cheng, the chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, confirms the advice is if you’ve had the first AstraZeneca dose without adverse effects, the second dose is still recommended.
Updated
Covid committee seeks national cabinet briefing on vaccinations
The Covid-19 inquiry has started with the ritual dance of the committee seeking national cabinet documents, and health department officials claiming they are cabinet in confidence.
In this case, Labor’s Katy Gallagher wants the briefing that was given on Monday about the vaccine rollout.
Murphy:
We don’t normally provide national cabinet documents to the committee – they are cabinet in confidence.
Officials agree to answer questions (phew that’s a relief). Murphy says the commonwealth believes the “vast majority” of phase 1a (frontline workers including quarantine, health, aged and disability care workers) has now been completed.
However, Murphy says there is still a “significant amount of work” to complete the rollout for the disability and aged care workforce (who are also in 1a) “because of the changes to the AstraZeneca recommendation”. Basically, there are not enough Pfizer doses to complete the rollout for under-50s, who are no longer recommended to receive AstraZeneca. Murphy says this will be discussed by national cabinet on Thursday.
The health department associate secretary, Caroline Edwards, notes the national cabinet has decided on continuing the Pfizer rollout for aged care residents because it is already well advanced, notwithstanding that they are by definition over 50.
Murphy says there is only a “small amount to complete” and it would be “very disruptive” to stop the Pfizer rollout for this group.
Updated
The health department secretary, Brendan Murphy, has made opening remarks at the Covid-19 Senate inquiry. Murphy said Australia is “still in a very good place” even as comparable countries are battling fresh outbreaks and a fourth wave of the novel coronavirus.
He said:
We are in a very fortunate place, even though we have border measures in place we are basically living a normal life – we have full football stadiums, restaurants, things are back to normal.
On the vaccine rollout, Murphy said that primary care (GPs) are now the “single biggest” site of doses being administered “despite issues that have arisen in the last few weeks with confidence and the AstraZeneca vaccine and limitation in population due to Atagi advice” (ie under-50s are advised not to get AstraZeneca).
Murphy described the GP rollout as a “highly successful endeavour”, notwithstanding well publicised complaints such as not getting enough doses.
Finally, he addressed the rare blood clot syndrome that has resulted in a warning applied to AstraZeneca.
Murphy accepted this has led to “some vaccine hesitation” and changes to the program – such as national cabinet agreeing in principle to accelerate the rollout for over-50s (who are still recommended to get AstraZeneca).
Updated
Two state education ministers, Labor and Liberal, had criticised the milkshake video earlier today, via AAP.
Victoria’s education minister, James Merlino, called for the federal government to pull all content featured on The Good Society website, which launched as part of the Department of Education’s Respect Matters program last week.
“I was pretty disappointed. It was confusing. It was cringeworthy. It just did not hit the mark,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“The feedback I’ve heard from students is they’re confused about what it’s even trying to say.
“It’s a big fail and it’s not a resource that I’ll be recommending to Victorian schools.”
The NSW education minister, Sarah Mitchell, described the videos as “pretty woeful”.
“It’s a missed opportunity about an issue that’s really important,” she said.
“I don’t really see the benefit of a milkshake or taco metaphor. I think we should be a lot more upfront with young people when we talk about these issues.”
Updated
The secretary of the health department, Prof Brendan Murphy, is giving evidence to the Senate Covid committee this afternoon. We will bring you the updates on this as they come through.
Government removes two Respect Matters videos
Two videos on The Good Society website have been removed “in response to community and stakeholder feedback”, the education department secretary, Dr Michele Bruniges, has just announced:
The website contains about 350 resources aimed to support teachers and parents to educate students across all age groups about respectful relationships more broadly.
The website is designed to be a live and dynamic resource, with content added, removed, and modified, to ensure it remains current and appropriate.
The department will continue to engage with experts to evaluate the materials that appear on the website to ensure they are fit for purpose and reflect current experiences and community issues.
It looks like the milkshake video is gone after substantial criticism yesterday.
Updated
At the end of the press conference, Hunt is asked about that milkshake consent video, and he isn’t going to be drawn on it:
Q: You’re aware of the Milkshake video, the consent video, which has been described as woeful, missing the point. Have you seen it? And what’s your opinion?
Look, I’ll let others make their judgments. We’ll refer that to the experts in that communication. I’m not going to draw a judgment on it. I’ll leave others to do that. We’re always providing ...
Q: Can you tell us who made it, how much it cost?
No, I’d have to take under advice. But the answer is, there are many ways to communicate with Australians. What really matters is that people know that the vaccines can save their lives, they can protect their lives and they can open up the opportunities for Australians to travel.
Updated
Hunt says the Australian Olympic Committee is working to ensure that if there is an Olympics, that athletes and others who need to attend the Olympics can get out of Australia safely, and can return safely without taking the place of other Australians waiting to come back through hotel quarantine.
Hunt is asked about the comments from the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, criticising him for talking down opening up globally once people are vaccinated. Hunt says he wasn’t talking about staying closed, but “progressively opening” once we have more confidence and data on the impact of vaccinations on transmission:
My point was actually a very simple one, that at this very moment, as it was framed last week, ‘at this very moment’, if something were to have occurred in terms of total vaccination, all want to see what is the impact on transmission. What we’ve got to, I think, is a very clear, common, national position of progressive opening, as we see the safety.
Greater vaccinations, more information about longevity and, indeed, more information about transmission. So our approach is to open as quickly and as safely as is possible but subject to safety. We want to continue to protect Australians. And then, as we have greater vaccination, we have more data globally, because we do have that access to data globally, all of that allows us to make better and informed choices.
He points to the NZ airport worker, who was fully vaccinated, as an example of someone still being able to be infected with Covid while vaccinated, but said more needs to be understood about retransmission from those vaccinated.
Updated
On vaccine hesitancy, Hunt says there is still “good uptake” of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but recognises there will be some people who rethink having the vaccine.
He says the government is considering fast start programs for pharmacies in regional areas without access to GPs to be able to vaccinate people in the near future.
Updated
Australia has 'full confidence' in NZ Covid controls
Australia’s health minister, Greg Hunt, says he’s been briefed by his NZ counterpart about the airport worker who tested positive for Covid-19, and Australia is confident NZ has it under control:
They’re onto this. We have full confidence in New Zealand’s system. We’ve seen them deal with the inevitable outbreaks, and there will be other days when there are cases in Australia. We saw the outbreak recently in Queensland and NSW – two states. And yet, we were able to deal with it.
So we know how to deal with this. New Zealand knows how to deal with this and the advice I have from the chief medical officer who had been in a meeting with the medical expert panel, or Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, today is that they’re watching New Zealand, but they have high confidence that New Zealand has this in train.
Updated
In aged care facilities, Young says they’ve completed vaccinations at 749 of the 2,500 residential aged care facilities, with 1,341 having received at least the first does.
Of the 330,000 doses issued last week, there was a strong uptake from the 50 and over cohort, he said, but a reduction in the under-50s numbers, as expected, due to the advice around AstraZeneca.
Updated
We are now hearing from the vaccine operations commander, Commodore Eric Young:
Whilst it is complex, we have one very simple mission – to make sure that we can get the vaccines that we have available around the country when and where they’re required to protect our most vulnerable Australians. And that’s what we’re focused on doing every single day.
He says the Therapeutic Goods Administration will be conducting batch testing in the coming days on 173,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and 468,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
More than 600,000 doses of the vaccine were distributed around Australia last week, and Young said the country was on target for slightly more to be distributed this week.
Updated
Greg Hunt again confirms national cabinet last night agreed in principle to bringing forward the vaccinations of over-50s using the AstraZeneca vaccine.
This will be confirmed at either the national cabinet meeting on Thursday or in meetings after.
He said the other in-principle agreements are a potential larger role for mass vaccination centres, and GPs remaining the primary vaccine distributor for over-50s.
Updated
More than 67,000 vaccinations in past 24 hours, Greg Hunt says
Australia’s health minister, Greg Hunt, says there has been a six-fold increase in total vaccinations in the past four weeks, with the total number of vaccinations in Australia now standing at 1.653m.
There were 67,034 vaccinations in the past 24 hours, Hunt said, and Australia will pass 1.7m vaccinations today.
Updated
Matilda mentioned earlier the Victorian government would be looking at lighting up Melbourne blue again to mark the first anniversary of the horror truck crash that killed four police officers. Looks like it’s confirmed now, via AAP.
Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, 60, Senior Constable Kevin King, 50, and constables Glen Humphris, 32, and Josh Prestney, 28, were killed while on duty on the Eastern Freeway at Kew on 22 April 2020.
The crash was the single greatest loss of life in Victoria police’s history, with the truck driver responsible jailed last week for a maximum of 22 years.
The acting premier, James Merlino, has confirmed the state’s landmarks will be lit blue on Thursday, the first anniversary of the deaths.
“To light up as many buildings and bridges in blue to honour the lives of those four police officers who lost their lives in the most tragic and devastating circumstances, that has been something that we’ve been planning to do,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“It will be things like the Bolte Bridge, other government buildings across the city, we’ll identity and light up as many as we can.”
Updated
And just like that we are waiting for a press conference being held by the federal health minister, Greg Hunt.
Updated
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has derided the federal health minister’s warning that mass vaccination won’t lead to the borders opening as “the biggest load of rubbish I ever heard”, AAP reports.
Greg Hunt cautioned last Tuesday that international borders could stay closed even if the whole country was vaccinated.
“That’s the biggest load of rubbish I ever heard,” Berejiklian told reporters on Tuesday.
“The vaccination program will change our lives. The vaccination program will allow us to live with Covid in a better way,” she said.
Asked if she had communicated her views on Hunt’s statement to the prime minister, the premier responded: “That’s a private matter for me.”
Berejiklian’s government has been urging for a more flexible rollout, and particularly for vaccination of over-50s to be brought forward.
She said on Tuesday that 2.9 million of the 6 million adults in NSW were over 50. The health advice is for those under 50 to get the Pfizer over the more plentiful AstraZeneca vaccine because of clotting risks.
“That’s still a lot of people to get vaccinated,” she said.
Berejiklian also waved away concerns that a positive test for an Auckland airport worker could burst the trans-Tasman travel bubble.
A manageable “case or two” should not impede the opening up of borders, she said.
A “managed outbreak should be dealt with and life moves on”.
Updated
The Northern Territory has recorded another six Covid-19 cases in quarantine, adding to the 10 already recorded in the past four days, AAP reports
A woman aged 71, who arrived on the repatriation flight from Chennai on Thursday tested positive for the virus, NT Health said on Tuesday.
Two men, aged 33 and 42, three women, 33 and 34, and a girl aged four have also tested positive after arriving in Darwin from New Delhi on Saturday.
All are under the care of the Ausmat team at the Howard Springs quarantine facility, except the 71-year-old woman, who is at Royal Darwin Hospital for medical treatment unrelated to coronavirus.
It follows four new cases, which were recorded on Monday. All were passengers on the repatriation flights that arrived from Chennai on Thursday and New Delhi on Saturday.
A further six passengers on the Chennai flight were diagnosed with the virus on Saturday.
Ardern said the worker was tested on the 12th and then tested positive on the 19th. Contact tracing is underway, with the isolating of close contacts.
Ardern said Australia would expect these sorts of border cases, and our respective health ministers are in contact.
Look, when we opened on both sides we of course knew we would continue to have cases connected to our border. In fact when we announced the date for opening the trans-Tasman bubble, Queensland was dealing with cases linked to its border. We accept that’s going to be part of our journey together. I think Australia accepts that. And for both sides, we’re always looking for clear connection to the border in this case there is.
Q: Have you spoken to Scott Morrison?
No, I haven’t but our minister of health has kept in touch with his counterpart. So they are directly communicating, so are our officials. Everyone therefore knows the case we have and that it’s connected to the border. And these are the kinds of scenarios where we would anticipate moving continuing.
Updated
NZ airport worker cleaned planes, is vaccinated: PM
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says the airport worker who tested positive is someone who boards planes to clean them after they have come from “red zones” where there is Covid-positive passengers. She said the worker was also vaccinated against Covid-19.
Updated
Queensland is moving to bring its defamation laws into line with the changes put through by NSW, Victoria and South Australia ahead of the new laws commencing on 1 July, AAP reports.
Attorney general Shannon Fentiman introduced amendments to the Defamation Act – which she says will provide clarity to courts, the community and the media – to parliament on Tuesday.
Queensland laws already allow people to make potentially defamatory statements if they have a legal or moral duty to so, such as in employment references or when reporting suspected crimes.
Fentiman says the changes would allow journalists to prove in court that they reasonably believed that publishing an allegedly defamatory statement was in the public interest.
“In order to guard against the potential ‘chilling effect’ defamation laws have on debates on matters of legitimate public interest and to protect reasonable public interest journalism, the bill will introduce a new public interest defence,” Fentiman told parliament on Tuesday.
The amendments are based on existing UK laws, but they will add a list of factors courts can take into account when considering the public interest defence.
Those considerations include the seriousness of the defamatory imputation, whether it relates to a person’s official public activities and the importance of freedom of expression.
Fentiman said the proposed laws will also put the onus on plaintiffs to prove allegedly defamatory statements caused serious harm to their reputations.
Updated
With that, I shall depart, but Josh Taylor will take you through all the New Zealand updates for the afternoon.
Updated
Here are the New Zealand prime minister’s comments about the trans-Tasman from earlier today:
We know that we had roughly 1,800 Australian citizens cross the border yesterday, and then, of course, a number of Kiwis travelling on Kiwi passports. But knowing that we were welcoming so many Aussies on day one across 30 flights was absolutely magnificent.
We will treat any cases in a very similar way as you see the different states do.
If there’s a hotspot and it is, for instance, a case of unknown origin and that state goes into a short lockdown, we may pause travel for a time. But if, for instance, it is a known situation that’s connected to a border worker for instance, then we wouldn’t anticipate changing up travel arrangements.
So we will not be unlike the way that you’ve already seen states work. We’ll be predictable, so for anyone thinking about travel, think of us as like any other state in Australia – except better!
Updated
Police investigating death of woman on Gold Coast
AAP have another update on the body of a woman found on the Gold Coast. Just a warning, there are some pretty confronting details below:
The burned body of a woman has been found in the backyard of a Gold Coast home and police have arrested a seriously injured man nearby.
Officers are treating the woman’s death as a homicide, and possibly an act of domestic violence, that may have been witnessed by three young children.
Queensland Police were called to the Spikes Court residence in Arundel at 6.40am on Tuesday to conduct a welfare check after neighbours reported raised voices coming from the home.
The woman’s body was found in the backyard. Forensic police are examining the area and a crime scene has been declared.
A semi-conscious man with burn injuries was found on the front lawn of a house about two blocks away.
He was taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital under police guard and is undergoing medical treatment.
Detective Inspector Chris Ahern spoke about the incident:
One of the lines of inquiry that we are following is that the male person we located and the deceased female person were known to each other, and potentially in a previous relationship.
He has some burns to his hands area, and we believe he also might have some internal burns in his airway.
Three children all under the age of nine were found at the house. Police say they are safe and will be interviewed as part of the investigation.
Police are also speaking with local residents and have stopped rubbish collections because potential evidence may have been dumped in a bin.
We’re canvassing residents in that area to get a better determination of that residence and who lives there and what the movements were there this morning.
Our intention is to lock down that area and conduct a good examination of that whole area to determine if there’s any evidence from this matter that has been removed from the area, from that scene, from their residence.
Det Insp Ahern said gathering the forensic evidence will be a painstaking process.
Police are not seeking any other persons in relation to the investigation so far.
If this incident has raised any issue for you can call the national family violence prevention hotline on 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or helpline Lifeline 13 11 14
Updated
We should hear from New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern soon about this new case.
Just this morning Ardern on was TV, reassuring the Australian public that NZ would not shut down the travel bubble to Australia if a state recorded a single case in a border worker.
How quickly the tables turn. Fingers crossed for those travellers that our government is on the same page.
New Zealand airport worker contracts Covid-19
New Zealand has recorded a local Covid-19 case after a worker at Aukland airport tested positive.
Their ministry health of health has put out this statement:
There is one border worker who has returned a positive test result for Covid-19 – they work at Auckland airport. The usual protocol of isolating the case, interviewing them, and tracing their contacts and movements is underway. More information will be provided later today and this case will be included in tomorrow’s totals.
Updated
The Northern Territory has recorded six cases of Covid-19 today, all in hotel quarantine.
Their health department has put out the following release:
Six new Covid-19 case have been recorded in the Northern Territory in the past 24 hours.
A female, aged 71, who arrived on the repatriation flight from Chennai on 15 April 2021 has tested positive for Covid-19.
The patient is in the care of Royal Darwin Hospital for medical treatment unrelated to Covid-19.
Additionally, two males aged 33 and 42, and three females aged four, 33 and 34 who arrived on the repatriation flight from New Delhi on 17 April 2021 have tested positive for Covid-19.
The 42-year-old male is displaying mild symptoms while the other cases are asymptomatic.
Updated
Looks like things are heating up down south! And no, I’m not quoting a line from the government’s new sexual education videos, I’m talking about the Tasmania state election.
Liberal politican Felix Ellis has been slammed across social media after labelling vegan food as “unethical”, reports the Examiner.
On Sunday Ellis, who is seeking reelection posted a photo of himself on Facebook eating what looks like a hamburger, accompanied by the comment: “Allergic: vegan food ...”
One person commented:
Liberal values allow freedom of choice, Vegan or not, it’s not for you to decide what people should or should not eat.
To which the politician replied:
Fear not, while I think vegan food is unethical I don’t think it should be illegal.
In which a Liberal MP supposedly representing a vegetable-growing region says that fruit and vegetables are “unethical”. #politas pic.twitter.com/Fugx17DPAO
— Jon Stanger (@jonstanger) April 19, 2021
And gosh, it hasn’t gone well. There were hundreds of angry comments and reactions, and opposition politician didn’t miss the chance to join in.
Labor’s Sarah Lovell said:
This kind of puerile, petulant post from Mr Ellis is indicative of his views about a large portion of the Tasmanian community.
Mr Ellis claims to be a big supporter of agriculture, yet he thinks vegan food is unethical.
Vegan food is a significant income stream for our hard working Tasmanian farmers and Mr Ellis’ comments not only bring into question his support for Tasmania’s agricultural workers, but his maturity as a member of parliament representing the Tasmanian community.
And Greens Darren Briggs even got on board:
It’s difficult to understand how Mr Ellis can consider grain, vegetable and fruit businesses to be unethical, given the diversity and reputation of the farms and growers in his own electorate.
Mr Ellis might like to remember that potato growers in the North-West bring in $65m a year to our state’s economy.
His comments are an insult to our state’s hard working farmers and highlight just how out of touch he really is from his own electorate.
Felix Ellis’ childish joke about vegan food is incredibly naive, and his belief that vegan food is unethical is ignorant.
I would say that these politicians “have beef”, but I can’t bring my self to stoop to that level.
Updated
Protesters from the Community Action for Rainbow Rights have interrupted a committee hearing for Mark Latham’s controversial education bill in NSW Parliament House today.
The Education Legislation Amendment 2020 proposes to prohibit trans issues and discussion of gender identity to be included in school curriculums. (Because heaven forbid we let children be educated about, and comfortable in, their own identities.)
The NSW One Nation leader has previously pitched the bill as “re-establishing the primacy of parents in shaping their children’s development and sense of identity”.
Check out the video below:
Activists from @lgbti_sydney have interrupted A committee hearing for Mark Latham’s controversial Bill which seeks to prohibit schools from discussing gender identity and transgender issues as part of course curriculum. pic.twitter.com/gUGjoDUzt4
— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) April 20, 2021
Updated
No local Covid-19 cases in NSW
Some good news! NSW has had another Covid-19 free day.
This comes after there were fears over the weekend that quarantine hotel workers could have become infected after the virus jumped between two rooms to infect other travellers.
But, so far, it seems the disease hasn’t spread further.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 20, 2021
Three new cases were acquired overseas to 8pm last night, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,198. pic.twitter.com/lDG5WMPk9J
Updated
I mean, you have to give it to him, this is a fairly sick burn from Albo here:
In Australia, the Government can't even tell us when all frontline health workers will be vaccinated. https://t.co/OyLKZEZvCM
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 20, 2021
Thousands more teachers needed in NSW
NSW will need thousands of new teachers to meet burgeoning demand in the next decade as student numbers in public schools surge, the state’s teachers’ union says.
A union-commissioned report by education economist Adam Rorris found at least 11,000 new teachers need to be recruited by 2031, as the state deals with record enrolment growth, reports AAP.
The number of new teachers required rises to almost 14,000 if the student-teacher ratio is lowered to the national average, the research released on Tuesday reveals.
NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said NSW already had more students per teacher than any other state or territory in public primary and secondary schools.
NSW would need 13,724 new teachers in the next 10 years if the state had a student-teacher ratio equivalent to the national average.
Teacher numbers would increase from 54,502 full-time teachers last year to 68,225 in 2031 – an increase of 25%.
This additional number of teachers would still be below the required numbers considering the projected rise in student needs and complexity in NSW schools ...
NSW is facing a classroom crisis. The independent Gallop Inquiry was clear that the NSW government won’t fix the shortages or recruit the additional teachers required without a significant increase in salaries.
Teachers workloads had increased every year while salaries had fallen in comparison with other professions.
If we don’t pay teachers what they are worth, we won’t get the teachers we need.
The government’s proposed 1.5% salary increase per year for the next three years would only make the profession less attractive, he said.
Updated
Scott Morrison has claimed that businesses will save an estimated $430m annually from deregulation measures, including cutting greenhouse gas, pharmaceutical, occupational licensing, childcare and international education reporting requirements.
In a speech to the Business Council of Australia on Monday, Morrison announced $120m would be spent on deregulation in the budget. The prime minister also flagged further expansion of the digital economy and revamping skills education as key planks of the “second phase” of Australia’s economic recovery.
Morrison trumpeted the Australian economy’s achievements, such as recovering 947,000 jobs since the Covid-19 pandemic recession, arguing it “wasn’t luck” but “world-leading” policies such as the jobkeeper wage subsidy that had built a V-shaped recovery.
Morrison said the Coalition would aim to alleviate the “depressing level of regulation that prevents [businesses] employing more Australians”, insisting that the government had a detailed plan not “lofty communiques” promising reduced red tape.
You can read the full report below:
Updated
OK, I’m kind of obsessed with this story.
A semi-clad Queensland man found himself trapped in a manhole on a busy road while searching high and low for his missing dog.
The man got wedged in the middle of traffic on Brisbane Road in Ipswich on Sunday afternoon after trying to climb out of a stormwater drain in nothing but his underwear.
Driver Clinton Jackson stopped to assist the man, and told Nine News about what he saw.
He went through the tunnels, and he tried getting it back ...
He definitely would have had to arm crawl. I was pretty amazed he could fit to be honest ...
But when he got out he was happy. He was very lucky.
Nine News reported that the man had been seen swimming in the river hours earlier before entering the stormwater pipe.
The fate of the dog remains unclear.
#WATCH: The man stuck in a manhole in the middle of a Brisbane road, and the heroic stranger who pulled him out.@anniepullar has the story. #9News pic.twitter.com/71pe7fVOVh
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) April 19, 2021
Updated
Oh, speaking of Victorian acting premier James Merlino, he isn’t too happy about the milkshake sexual consent video either.
Vic Acting Premier @JamesMerlinoMP on Federal Government’s educational videos on consent: “disappointed, cringe worthy, didn’t hit the mark, missed the mark entirely.” “It’s a big fail,” @10NewsFirstMelb #springst pic.twitter.com/fYUBzsmt1D
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) April 20, 2021
Vic Education Minister @JamesMerlinoMP says he won’t be recommending Fed Gov’s consent video be used in schools here. “It’s disappointing, confusing and cringeworthy and it missed the mark entirely.” @abcmelbourne #springst pic.twitter.com/ObVLl0QAen
— Bridget Rollason (@bridgerollo) April 20, 2021
Updated
An update on the one-0year anniversary of the fatal Eastern Freeway crash that killed four police officers in Victoria.
Acting Premier @JamesMerlinoMP says Government is this week looking to light up buildings across Melbourne in Blue, one year after the Eastern Freeway tragedy. Bolts Bridge, other Govt buildings. @10NewsFirstMelb #springst pic.twitter.com/s0ij0u2nqc
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) April 20, 2021
Last week the truck driver involved in the crash, Mohinder Singh, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Updated
An update on the body found by police in a home on the Gold Coast.
The body is believed to be that of a woman and was located in the backyard of the residence, reports AAP.
A man was located at a nearby address and is assisting police with inquiries.
Police were called to a Spikes Court residence in Arundel at 6.40am this morning to conduct a welfare check.
Regional crime coordinator Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith is expected to speak about the police investigation in about 10 minutes.
Updated
Rather than just bringing up problems with no solutions, here is a less euphemistic consent graphic that might be worth have a chat with you young ones about.
This is how we teach consent.
— Deanne Carson (@DeanneCarson) April 19, 2021
No euphemisms.
No milkshakes.
No moving the line.
No minimising harm.
Just clear, simple opportunities for examining values and having conversations for ALL students pic.twitter.com/0CU4HqMxBp
'Milkshake' consent education campaign cost government $3.8m
Remember that rather confusing government consent education video series from yesterday? You know, the one that has been nearly universally panned?
Well looks like it cost the government $3.8m.
Reporter Naaman Zhou has more:
The government paid a digital media agency nearly $3.8m to create the campaign and website that included a bizarre video about milkshakes and sex consent.
The campaign, called the Good Society, was heavily criticised yesterday for the “confusing” video.
Developed as part of the Department of Education’s Respect Matters program, the Good Society contains more than 350 videos, digital stories, podcasts and teaching materials that are designed to teach sex and consent to school-age children.
According to AusTender, the government paid a media company $3,790,600 for the campaign – up from an initial $2,128,500.
This contract was for “Online learning solutions - Educating against Domestic Violence measure” between 28 June 2017 to 28 June 2019.
yeah cool looks like that confusing consent video and site cost $3.8 million pic.twitter.com/NPPY0WhgYh
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) April 19, 2021
Catch up on the whole drama on the official Guardian Australia TikTok account:
Or read the full article below:
Updated
Queensland records no new Covid cases
Would you look at that! No local Covid-19 cases in Queensland either.
Tuesday 20 April – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 19, 2021
• 0 new cases
• 20 active cases
• 1,518 total cases
• 2,408,709 tests conducted
Sadly, seven people with COVID-19 have died. 1,449 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/Oqqjq0br4u
Updated
NSW coast experienced wettest week since records began
The Bureau of Meteorology has put some numbers behind what we already knew to be devastating flooding that hit parts of coastal New South Wales and Sydney last month.
In a special climate statement, the bureau says the week ending 24 March was the wettest for the NSW coast since national daily records began in 1900.
The most exceptional aspect of the event was the spatial extent of the heavy rainfall, both in coastal and inland areas. Almost the entire New South Wales coast experienced heavy rain.
The bureau has looked at records going back to 1900 for the coastal region – the area that drains into the Tasman Sea – and found the week ending 24 March was the wettest.
An average across the region of 252.9 mm of rain fell, beating the previous record of 240.4 mm set from 7 to 13 February 2020.
Since 1900, there have been only 53 times when the coast had an average rainfall above 50mm in one day. But the week ending on 24 March had five of those days.
The bureau’s statement said several weather and climate systems had combined to deliver the drenching.
But the statement also said that natural drivers of the downpour “were set against the background of the long-term trend.”
As the climate gets hotter, “Australia’s heavy rainfall events are expected to become more intense as moisture in the atmosphere increases by about 7% per degree of warming.”
ICYMI - The @BOM_au Special Climate Statement on the extreme rainfall and flooding in eastern and central Australia in March 2021 has just been released. ☔️🌧️ https://t.co/54jsKHwRiq
— AMOS (@AMOSupdates) April 19, 2021
There was already evidence, the bureau said, that a higher proportion of Australia’s total annual rainfall was coming from heavy rainfall days.
I wrote an explainer about the role that climate change could have played in those floods or if you’d rather sit back and hear a whole Full Story podcast episode on that, then you can do that too.
Updated
Oaktree and Blackstone battle to buy Crown
There’s a bit of a stoush brewing over what to do about James Packer’s 37% stake in troubled casino operator Crown Resorts, with a new proposal lobbed yesterday that would get the billionaire off the register.
Packer’s influence over Crown was singled out by an inquiry in NSW as one of the key problems confronting the company.
Oaktree, which is often described as a “vulture fund”, has offered to lend Crown Resorts up to $3bn to buy Packer’s shares off him.
It comes after US private equity group Blackstone offered to buy the entire company, in a deal worth up to $8bn, and opens the possibility of a bidding war over Crown.
Crown’s board is now considering the Oaktree proposal, the company said in a statement.
Updated
Public need more data on AstraZeneca, Queensland premier says
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says in order to regain public trust, the government needs more data about the AstraZeneca vaccine, as states prepare for a supercharged vaccine push.
Yesterday prime minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders agreed to an in-principle deal to bring forward vaccinations for over-50s, as well as prepare mass vaccination sites for the rest of the population.
But before this, Palaszczuk says more data about the AstraZeneca vaccine should be made available, after being linked to extremely rare but potentially fatal blood clots in the under-50s.
She spoke to the Today show earlier this morning:
We need to make sure we’ve got confidence, we need to listen to the medical experts. We were briefed yesterday by some of the medical experts, I need to see more of that data ...
We’ll have further discussions and the prime minister will update everyone later on this week, so I just think we need to have those discussions first and review the data.
She was also critical of the prime minister’s proposal of home quarantine for returning vaccinated Australian travellers, saying she was very concerned about the risks, especially in regards to mutant, and potentially vaccine-resistant, strains.
The jury’s out on that one, I do have concerns – we’ve got the pandemic raging around countries at the moment, we’ve got mutant strains that are starting to formulate ...
The problem is people going overseas vaccinated, but they could come back with a mutant strain. It’s an uncharted world at the moment.
Updated
Body found on Gold Coast
Queensland police are investigating after a body was found on the Gold Coast.
Police were called to a Spikes Court residence in Arundel at 6.40am on Tuesday where a crime scene has been established.
Regional crime coordinator Detective Superintendent Brendan Smith will speak about the police investigation at 10.30am.
Updated
Oh by the way if you want to read more about the “Byron Baes” bust-up, reporter Justine Landis-Hanley has the full rundown in the article below:
Residents and business owners in the New South Wales beachside town of Byron Bay have held an emergency meeting over the proposed Netflix original series, Byron Baes, and called on the streaming platform to cancel the show.
Locals, including the owners of the Byron establishments the Byron Bay General Store and No Bones restaurant, gathered on Friday night to discuss what could be done to protect the community.
Netflix Australia has described the show, to be made by Eureka Productions, as “a docu-soap series following a ‘feed”’of hot Instagrammers living their best lives, being their best selves, creating the best drama content. #nofilter guaranteed.”
An Arakwal Bumberin Bundjalung traditional owner, Delta Kay, said Byron Baes would “make a fantasy world about our little home town”.
“We have huge environmental issues, huge social issues here,” Kay said. “I don’t want these influencers coming here and painting this fantasy picture that all is well in Byron Bay. It isn’t.”
Updated
Victoria reports no new local Covid cases
No local cases of Covid-19 in Victoria by the way, if you were wondering.
Vaccines also seem to have picked up again after the weekend.
Yesterday there were no new local cases and 1 new case acquired overseas (currently in hotel quarantine).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 19, 2021
- 3,333 vaccine doses were administered
- 10,042 test results were received
Got symptoms? Get tested.
More later: https://t.co/0xmnS54Kvl #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/3N2VxvktwS
Updated
This is shaping up to be one of my favourite stories this week: the controversy over the newly announced Netflix reality series Byron Baes.
The lightly scripted docu-soap series will follow a group of Australian Instagram influencers living in the famous beach town of Byron Bay, and the locals are bloody fuming.
Essentially the argument is that Byron Bay has already been struggling with the influx of rich influencers and celebrities that have flooded to the town in recent years, with house prices soaring and rough sleeping on the rise, and a TV show like this would only make matters worse.
In fact, the show is so controversial that thousands have already signed a petition to have local councils block Netflix from filming on any council land.
Byron Shire councillor Simon Richardson has just spoken to ABC News Breakfast about the show, and he isn’t happy:
I think it would be struggling to find one person that finds it a positive prediction coming forward.
Basically we don’t need it. It will only offer us a threat to who we are as a community. It’s potentially going to threaten businesses if the portrayal of Byron is as absurd as I guess a lot of the doco-soap reality shows are.
And so, for a community that’s spent decades trying to maintain an integrity, we’d love them just to go 40km north to a community that would love to have them, and we’re all happy.
That’s a sick Gold Coast burn, honestly.
Richardson said he didn’t mind influencers individually, but was worried about the economic impacts an influx of social media stars could have.
We got 2.5 million visitors a year as it is. What we need now is a moment for our community to take stock, trying to find support with the state government to get low cost housing, for our rough sleepers, etcetera. We don’t want an intensification of our tourism industry right now ...
It’s not the people themselves, but how it could be portrayed ... If we become a laughing stock through a vacuous fake show it could have big, not just sensitively challenges for us, but also economic challenges.
Updated
Lambie says veterans affairs minister Darren Chester should be removed from the royal commission negotiations altogether.
Absolutely. We don’t want him at all out there having a look at those draft references whatsoever.
He’s under the microscope. He has to answer questions at this royal commission and good luck to him, I can tell you now.
Doing a consulting process with the man and his department that’s going to be under that process, and the eyes will be all over the top of them, I just find that absolutely astounding this morning. Astounding.
Updated
Lambie slams PM's plan for veteran suicides royal commission
Independent senator (and former soldier) Jacqui Lambie said she was concerned that the royal commission into veteran suicides was already being mishandled.
What we don’t want to see and what we’re really disappointed with already this morning – we haven’t even got to the 24-hour mark of this being, of the prime minister coming out and saying he’s going to put this royal commission – he’s putting the minister of [veteran affairs] in charge of the consultation process with the service organisations that sit in-house with the department.
I mean, this is absolutely nuts. This is departmental and the minister that’s going to be put under the microscope in a royal commission and he’s got him out there doing the consulting process on the draft terms of reference.
So, once again, we’ve really got to ask whether the sincerity of the prime minister is coming for. We’ve got a massive trust deficit out there. Not even 24 hours in, and here it goes again.
Updated
Just a heads up from the US, jury deliberations in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, the white police officer charged with second-degree murder over the death of black man George Floyd.
You can stay up to date with everything that happens over the next few hours on the Guardian’s US live blog here:
Updated
Here are some photos of the proposed $1bn upgrades to the Gabba if Queensland wins their 2032 bid for the Olympics.
Here's what it could look like: pic.twitter.com/aZr7vdaOyE
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 19, 2021
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 19, 2021
Updated
International pressure on the Morrison government over the climate crisis is expected to increase as the US and other major countries prepare to make new pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the next 10 years, experts say, and Australia will not be able to “fly under the radar”.
The US president, Joe Biden, has promised to unveil his plan to cut emissions by 2030 before he hosts a virtual summit of 40 national leaders, including Scott Morrison, on Thursday. New targets are also expected from Japan and Canada, while South Korean media has reported it is likely to announce a moratorium on overseas coal financing.
The US administration has promised an “ambitious” target to back up Biden’s pledge that he will work to galvanise global action ahead of a major UN climate conference in Glasgow in November. Analysts have suggested he is considering a target of at least a 40% cut compared with 2005 levels, and possibly up to 50%.
Biden has released a US$2tn infrastructure plan that he said would allow “transformational progress in our ability to tackle climate change” while his climate envoy, John Kerry, has in the past week visited China, Korea and India in a bid to lock in commitments before the summit. But Biden’s policy faces strong opposition from Republicans in Congress.
You can read the full report below:
Gabba set for a $1bn Olympics makeover
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a $1bn makeover to Brisbane stadium the Gabba if the state wins its 2032 Olympics bid, making it the centrepiece of their campaign.
She spoke on ABC just before:
This is fantastic news. We’ve been keeping this under wraps for a few weeks now. We had the big unveil to the cabinet yesterday and then today, of course, the public get to see it. And, of course, we are really proud and this is a really exciting opportunity. So the opening and closing ceremonies would be here.
The Gabba would be completely rebuilt. It would be lifted, so there would be actually a pedestrian plaza over Main Street. So no more concerns about families walking up and down the streets with traffic. It’s linking into our Cross River Rail, which is going to be Queensland and Brisbane’s brand new underground.
This is exciting news. 50,000 seats. There won’t be a bad seat in the Gabba, and a showcase for the nation – a showcase for Brisbane, 2032 Queensland Olympics. It’s going to be a game changer. I’m very excited, as you can tell.
Updated
US ramps up pressure on Australia to set more ambitious emissions goals
The Biden administration is ready to challenge countries whose inaction on the climate crisis is setting the world back, including those that fail to cut their reliance on coal, the top American diplomat has warned.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, gave a speech in Maryland this morning to try to build momentum for countries to commit to stronger climate action. The move comes in the lead up to a virtual summit hosted by Joe Biden later this week. Scott Morrison is among a range of leaders set to join him.
Without naming any particular countries, Blinken said the US state department would “weave” the climate crisis into the fabric of everything it did:
Our diplomats will challenge the practices of countries whose action – or inaction – is setting the world back. When countries continue to rely on coal for a significant amount of their energy, or invest in new coal factories, or allow for massive deforestation, they will hear from the United States and our partners about how harmful these actions are.
Blinken added that the US would “seize every chance we get to raise these issues with our allies and partners and through multilateral institutions”.
There was no direct reference to Australia in the speech, but the Australian government has continued to promote the future of coal and members of the Nationals have been pushing for new coal-fired power plants.
With the US expected to unveil a new 2030 emission cut before the summit, Blinken said: “We need the whole world focused on taking action now and through this decade to promote the achievement of net zero global emissions by 2050.”
To date, the Australian government has resisted pressure to strengthen its target of a 26-28% cut in emissions by 2030 (compared with 2005 levels) - but argues the target “is a floor on Australia’s ambition”, meaning it hopes to do better. Morrison says the government’s policy is to reach net zero “as quickly as possible and preferably by 2050”.
Analysts say international pressure on the Morrison government over the climate crisis is expected to increase and Australia will not be able to “fly under the radar”.
You can read Adam Morton’s story here:
Updated
Yesterday, New Zealand’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, said she was “uncomfortable with expanding the remit” of the Five Eyes intelligence group.
She directly criticised the collective efforts of the group (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand) to put pressure on China.
Ardern has been asked “Why shouldn’t Western nations be collectively voicing their concerns about countries like China?”
Collective countries should. And we should be banding together where we see issues globally that don’t align with the values that we share. The point that our foreign minister has rightly raised is that – is that best done under the banner of a grouping of countries around a security intelligence platform?
Or is it best done under the banner of a group of countries with shared values – some of which may not belong to that Five Eyes partnership? So I think it’s a point well made.
We should be collectively raising issues – be it Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, the United States or, say, Germany and others. You know, those collective voices are important, but let’s just make sure that we do it with the appropriate platform.
Updated
Ardern said it was emotional to see families reunite at airports yesterday.
The New Zealand prime minister is speaking to ABC News Breakfast now:
It was absolutely beautiful … One of the things that really got me was seeing families where clearly they were introducing new babies for the first time, and that was just beautiful to see.
We know that we had roughly 1,800 Australian citizens cross the border yesterday, and then, of course, a number of Kiwis travelling on Kiwi passports. But knowing that we were welcoming so many Aussies on day one across 30 flights was absolutely magnificent.
Ardern has been asked why the travel bubble took so long to start, after discussions of quarantine free travel between Australia and New Zealand have been ongoing for more than a year.
Well, actually, for us, it was all about making sure that when we did it, we did it right. We wanted to make sure, and one of the questions that we’ve had consistently since the reopening is – how will it be managed going forward? How will we make sure that we minimise disruption as much as possible.
You know, that period of time that we’ve taken to make sure that the risk is as low as possible, should also mean that we reduce how much disruption travellers might experience.
We know much more about the virus now than we did even at the end of last year. You’ve seen that both Australia and New Zealand now know how to manage cases that we might see connected to our quarantine. We use short, sharp lockdowns if required rather than some of the, perhaps in the past, some of the longer and more extended ones. So my view is that by taking that time, whilst there is something that could have disruption from time to time, is much more consistent.
Updated
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says she likely would not close the trans-Tasman bubble over individual cases of traceable community transmission:
We will treat any cases in a very similar way as you see the different states do.
If there’s a hotspot and it is for instance, a case of unknown origin and that state goes into a short lockdown, we may pause travel for a time. But if for instance, it is a known situation that’s connected to a border worker for instance, then we wouldn’t anticipate changing up travel arrangements.
So we will not be unlike the way that you’ve already seen states work. We’ll be predictable, so for anyone thinking about travel, think of us as like any other state in Australia - except better!
Updated
Good morning and welcome to the Tuesday blog.
I’m Matilda Boseley and let’s jump into the day’s news.
If you are over 50, there is a chance you could be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine soon than expected. Australia is considering moving to a two-phase rollout plan as states put pressure on the federal government to get needles in arms sooner.
Despite usually being on good terms with the commonwealth, NSW premier Glady Berejiklian blasted the vaccine rollout ahead of the national cabinet meeting yesterday, suggesting anyone over 50 who wants the jab should be able to get one now the supply of AstraZeneca has ramped up.
It was a sentiment echoed by other state leaders as well.
By the end of that national cabinet meeting, prime minister Scott Morrison and the state leaders had reached an in-principle deal to bring forward jabs for over-50s and prepare mass vaccination sites for the rest of the population.
But the plan, which will be outlined in detail on Thursday, will rely on greater supply and distribution of vaccines.
Australia’s vaccine program began spluttering when there was a shortfall in exports Europe and took a second confidence hit with concerns over links between the AstraZeneca shot and blood clots in under-50s.
AstraZeneca supplies are expected to be redirected to over-50s under the revised plan, following advice given to national cabinet by medical experts.
But, although Australian pharmaceutical company CSL is now producing more than a million doses of AZ a week, there is around a month delay before these will be distributed as final safety batch testing is conducted.
After the meeting Berejiklian seemed hopeful, saying Morrison had committed to providing more “precise” information about vaccine supplies (the lack of transparency being one of her main grievances).
She said the vaccination program should give states the ability to “scale up” when supplies become available.
We need to be ready, because the quicker we’re able to vaccinate our population … the better for us, and also in terms of the economy and job and international trade.
With that why don’t we get right into the morning’s news. If there is something you reckon I’ve missed or think should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or email me at matilda.boseley@theguardian.com.
Updated
