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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Mostafa Rachwani (now) and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

Scott Morrison says WA border policy doing ‘more harm than good’ – as it happened

What we learned today, Monday 8 November

And with that, we will wrap up the blog for today. Here is what went down:

  • Prime minister Scott Morrison said WA premier Mark McGowan will be doing “more harm than good” with his border policy.
  • Northern Territory chief minister Michael Gunner announced that the Darwin “lockout” has been extended for 24 hours, to Tuesday night. The lockdown in Katherine will lift on Tuesday night.
  • NSW recorded 187 new locally acquired cases today, and seven deaths. Victoria recorded 1,126 local Covid-19 cases and five deaths. The Australian Capital Territory has recorded 13 new local Covid-19 cases.
  • Police arrested and charged a registered nurse in Western Australia for allegedly faking a Covid-19 vaccination on a teenager.
  • Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce lashed out at former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull, calling them a “dipstick”.
  • Adem Somyurek, the alleged architect of a vast branch-stacking operation in Victoria, gave evidence before the state’s anti-corruption commission on Monday.
  • Rapid antigen tests will be distributed to 20 government schools across the state. They will be used to test unvaccinated students who are close contacts of positive cases at their school.

Updated

The employment minister, Stuart Robert, has spoken to 4BC Radio and got stuck into Queensland’s quarantine requirements.
Robert said:

“I am sitting in quarantine on the Gold Coast. Home quarantine because I’ve arrived from Canberra. So I’ve arrived from the sitting of the federal parliament from the most vaccinated city on earth, Canberra, and I have come to Queensland on a plane with the defence minister amongst others. We went straight into quarantine yet if I was in New South Wales, I could fly to Mumbai and back again and go to the footy and go out dancing all night. Indeed whilst I have been in quarantine the prime minister has gone to the G20 in Rome and COP 26 in Glasgow and come home and he’s now in the Hunter Valley, connecting with Australians and yet I went to the most vaccinated city on Earth and it is still a hotspot? I mean it’s ridiculous, Scott just ridiculous.”


Robert also took aim at the fact some Queensland residents won’t be allowed to return until 17 December, when the state reaches the 80% vaccination threshold.
He said:

It is dreadful. No government should ever have the power to decline one of its residents, one of its citizens, returning home like this. It is a wider discussion for another day but I find that simply outrageous and a complete negligence of duty by Premier Palaszczuk.

Robert is a frontbencher in the Morrison government, which not only has the power to prevent its citizens returning home but exercised that power temporarily excluding citizens returning from India to prevent the Delta strain entering Australia, in a move that was upheld by the federal court.

South Australia has again recorded zero new locally acquired cases:

Updated

The prime minister has released a statement, offering his condolences to the family of former Victorian governor Sir James Gobbo QC:

Sir James was rightly proud of his rich Italian heritage and of the multicultural nation he served. In so many ways Sir James was the father of modern multiculturalism in Australia, which stands as one of his most significant legacies.

He had a deep Catholic faith and was a recipient of the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Gregory from The Vatican.

Sir James gave generously of his time to so many causes throughout his life including the Council for the Order of Australia, the National Library of Australia and the Australian Multicultural Foundation.

On behalf of the Australian government, I extend my condolences to Lady Shirley and his family.

A state funeral will be held next Tuesday for Sir James, who also served as the lieutenant governor of Victoria and a Victorian supreme court judge.

Updated

Returning to the Northern Territory, acting chief health officer, Dr Charles Pain says that the current cluster in Darwin has been linked to Victoria via genomic testing.

He said there was “quite a lot of extra work to do now” to trace all potential contacts, and urged people to come forward if they feel sick, saying they “will find out eventually.”

Earlier, chief minister Michael Gunner had said it had taken a while to piece together the source case’s movements and that “there may be unknown close contacts.”

Updated

Lockdown in Katherine lifted from 5pm today

NT chief minister Michael Gunnar has confirmed that there are no new cases in the town of Katherine, and that the government has decided to end the lockdown from 5pm today.

He said the mask mandate will remain until Friday, however, and that people must wear masks when they cannot maintain social distancing.

Updated

Some more from the new Lowy Institute podcast with Penny Wong:

Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson was asked how she would reassure Southeast Asian countries about the Aukus arrangement. Wong said it required “engagement” and less emphasis on Anglosphere narratives:

“Whenever we’re dealing with Southeast Asia, we have to remember the way in which historical narratives can shape people’s interpretation of events. We still have a way to go in demonstrating to the Southeast Asian nations that we’re not simply a primarily Anglo-outpost post-colonial power, and we’ve only recently had a prime minister who kept talking lovingly of the Anglosphere.”

(That would be Tony Abbott.)

Wong continued:

“So, we have to remember that how some things are understood and received is in part informed by historical frames, and so we need to be very clear about the modern Australian narrative about who we are. Part of that on Aukus, I think is to remind people that this is ‘in addition to’ not ‘instead of’. So a partnership between the US, Australia and the United Kingdom that shares greater technology that is actually quite unremarkable. It’s what we already do. It’s been formalised into an agreement between governments. It’s not an alliance, it’s not a treaty. It’s an articulation and a formalisation of what we already do. And part of the problem with the way in which it was announced is because Mr Morrison sought to make it as big as he did, it was interpreted, I think, differently in the region.”

On China, Wong said Australia’s relationship with Beijing had “deteriorated in great part because China has chosen to become much more assertive, and at times aggressive, and ... because China is engaging in coercive economic activity”. She said that was “something all of us should be pushing back on”.

Wong argued there were enduring differences in the relationship that would need to be managed regardless of who was in power in Canberra - including on human rights and the South China Sea - but added that the Australian government should not inflame rhetoric for domestic political purposes. Wong said as foreign minister she would “talk much more openly about the experience of Chinese-Australians through this period”, pointing to research showing it had been “a very difficult time”.

The full podcast can be found here.

Lockout in Darwin extended by 24hrs

Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner has announced that the Darwin “lockout” has been extended for 24 hours, to Tuesday night.

It comes as NT did not record a new case, but Gunner said a venue that held a Melbourne Cup party was not properly maintaining the territory’s Covid protocols, which was where the source case visited.

Gunner said the lack of check-ins meant contact tracers need more time to find all the close contacts, which is why the lockout has been extended.

The Bureau of Meteorology has escalated a severe thunderstorm warning for areas in greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury, Maitland/Cessnock, Gosford/Wyong and Sydney areas.

BOM says that “damaging, locally destructive winds” and “large, possibly giant hailstones and heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding are likely.”

The SES is advising people to move their cars to cover, secure items around the house, and to stay indoors where possible.

Labor has called on the Australian government to conduct an internal review of the handling of the Aukus nuclear-powered submarines announcement.

Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, said she believed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had become less influential in Canberra, and she hoped that was “part of the explanation for the latest debacle”. She told the Lowy Institute podcast, The Director’s Chair:

“In terms of most recent diplomatic stoush, I hope that DFAT and the national security community do undertake an internal review about what has gone wrong in terms of the Aukus announcement and the clear diplomatic problems with the French, and some of the public statements of the Americans.

If it is the case that the advice was good, but [Scott] Morrison didn’t take it, then there’s clearly only an issue at the political level. But I suspect there are also things that should be learned about how this was managed in government, in terms of the advice of the department and whether that advice was influential. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

The submarine announcement is grounded in a capability argument and there is a compelling capability argument [for nuclear-propelled submarines]. But as you know, when you make a decision in the national interests which you know is going to be a difficult decision to land, you have to do the whole job and you have to focus on what is it that we can do to minimise the blowback, minimise the damage to Australia from landing such a decision. Clearly, that was not done. And I hope those in the leadership of the department and the broader national security community take this opportunity to reflect on that.

I think there are demonstrable failings from our leaders, politicians, some demonstrable failings from Mr Morrison, but I hope at a bureaucratic level that there is some thinking about it.”

The podcast was recorded on Friday but released today. Incidentally, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating is due to address the National Press Club on Wednesday and has been scathing about the Aukus plan.

Updated

So I wanted to just go back to agriculture minister and deputy leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud’s appearance on the ABC this afternoon. He was asked why Australia hasn’t moved further away from coal, especially in light of international pressure.

But Littleproud stood firm in his support of coal, arguing it is needed to “keep the lights on”:

We are believing in technology. We are getting back to the first principle is that it is about reducing emissions. If technology can reduce those emissions with coal and gas then why wouldn’t we invest in those technologies?

The Biden Administration is taking the same trajectory as us. If we get back to first principles and all this lauded advice that comes from overseas, is to reduce emissions. You can go do that with technology.

The ABC’s Patricia Karvelas brought up that Australia could immediately achieve that by elimination coal, but Littleproud said coal is essential:

You have to be able to turn the lights on at night and you have to be able to turn the air conditioner on when you need it. You need baseload power and that is the challenge we have.

Isn’t that the point of batteries?

That is where that technology is moving but it is not to the scale that would support a reliable energy source.

That is why we are moving as quickly as we can, not just investment in renewables but also in terms of carbon capture and storage. If you can reduce emissions, who cares how you do it, as long as you are reducing missions that are the first principle you want to get back to and that is what we will try to achieve with technology.

Making sure we are making the investment and not just adopting here in Australia but around the world. Those men and women that are working in mines will not just have jobs today but will be in 2030, 2040 and 2050 and we will have reduced emissions, I would have thought that is a good thing.

Updated

Save the Children was not alone in stressing the scale of the crisis in Afghanistan in a Senate inquiry this afternoon.

Tim Watkin, director of policy and advocacy at at the Australian Council for International Development, said the worst was yet to come as winter set in.

Watkin told senators:

“If there is one point we want to impress upon you, it is the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding across Afghanistan and the urgency that is needed in response … Over half the country is living in extreme poverty; 23 million people are forecast to face acute hunger; in the middle of a pandemic, the health sector is ‘hanging by a thread’; the situation is so desperate that starving Afghans are being forced to sell their own children to feed the rest of their family. We know the Australian government is working with its counterparts on how to deal with the Taliban, but the longer we take, the more the Afghan people will suffer.”

Watkin urged Australia to take an active and leading role in multilateral efforts to resolve operational challenges which are restricting the provision of life-saving aid.

“That means making the case for humanitarian safeguards in the UN sanctions regime. There are precedents at the UN on similar sanctions regimes, but for Afghanistan they are not being exercised. Beyond the immediate crisis, Australia – with its international partners – should plan to preserve the development gains that have been made. Humanitarian assistance is a bandage solution: it will not replace the provision of public services which are under threat and at-risk of collapse.”

Watkin also said the Australian government must strengthen efforts to support safe passage for those seeking to leave Afghanistan and increase the humanitarian refugee intake.

An aid group has told a Senate inquiry that Afghanistan is “rapidly evolving into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.

Addressing a committee examining Australia’s engagement with Afghanistan, Save the Children said more than 10 million children were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance to survive.

“Without immediate action from governments like Australia, the situation will become catastrophically worse,” said Mat Tinkler, the deputy chief executive of Save the Children Australia and the director of international programs.

Tinkler called on the Australian government to increase funding, with a commitment of at least $100m in new flexible humanitarian funding provided on a multi-year basis. He also reaffirmed called for the government to increase the humanitarian intake to a minimum of 20,000 places for Afghans, and support their safe passage.

“We have supported a number of our own staff to evacuate and have appreciated the cooperation and support of the Australian government.”

Weighing in to the contentious issue of talking with the Taliban, Tinkler said Australia should also work with other governments to determine “a common, constructive and principled modality for engaging with the Taliban both in Doha and in Afghanistan”. He said this engagement “should be grounded in and pursued with the view to ensure the protection of rights including women and girls’ rights, humanitarian access, and the provision of essential services”.

The inquiry also heard from Save the Children’s Afghanistan country director, Chris Nyamandi, who joined the hearing from Kabul.

Nyamandi said Save the Children had had a measure of success in negotiating access with the Taliban:

“I think the biggest issue that we are negotiating on is for female aid workers to be allowed to work and we have seen positive signals on that. However it’s clear that the Taliban authorities do not have the capacity, they do not have the resources, they do not have, in some ways, the political will to move on some important pieces. There is a general sense of a lack of urgency. If children are dying here in Kabul, then you can imagine what has happened in remote districts that we do not have access to. It will be important to exert a little bit more pressure so that there is a sense of urgency on what needs to be done to save lives.”

Agriculture minister and deputy leader of the Nationals, David Littleproud, is on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, squirming under questioning of the government’s climate policy.

Asked if Australia is ignoring the calls of its neighbours in not setting out a more ambitious climate target, Littleproud danced around the question:

No, we are acting. We took a commitment of 26- 28%, we signed up to that. We believe that we will meet somewhere closer to 35%.

I think we have a lot to be proud of, there will be plenty that we’ll see from the sideline with gratuitous advice, but our record is strong. We will meet the 2030 commitment and we have a target or net zero by 2050. We have said to the world clearly that we are going to try and reach that and we have a strong record of achievement.

Pushed on the matter, and with reference to the UK government’s climate change committee chair, Lord Deben saying Australia is “a real disappointment to the world”, Littleproud reproduced his line:

Well, look, there is plenty of free, gratuitous advice playing around the world at the moment. But what counts is action. When you go and make a national commitment and you live up to it, that speaks louder than a lot of the platitudes that applauding around the world at the moment. We have credibility and standing in meeting our commitments and beating them.

Updated

The Northern Territory has passed the 80% first dose mark today, leaving Queensland as the only state or territory yet to reach that mark.

NSW is expected to hit 90% fully vaccinated today or tomorrow, with Victoria sitting on 84% double-dose vaccinated.

Queensland currently has 67% fully vaccinated and 79.9% single dose rates.

Western Australia is currently sitting on 64% fully vaccinated, and the ACT is on 95.1% double dosed.

Updated

NSW Health have released a report on the vaccination status of Covid cases in the NSW Delta outbreak, and found that a majority were unvaccinated.

The report looked at cases between June and October this year, and showed that 63.1 % of cases during the Delta outbreak reported they were not vaccinated.

Over 9% reported having one dose and 6.1% were fully vaccinated. 21.7% of respondents had an unknown vaccination status.

Throughout the NSW outbreak, across all ages, people who have received two doses of vaccine have substantially lower rates of Covid-19 and severe Covid-19 than unvaccinated people.

However, vaccination does not completely protect people from infection and other recommended public health measures should continue to be observed.

Of the 47 cases who died with Covid-19 who had two doses of vaccine, their average age was 82 years; 29 (61.7%) were residents of aged care facilities and the other 18 had significant comorbidities.

Of the 30 admitted to ICU, 26 (86.7%) had significant co-morbidities and 4 had no reported comorbid conditions.

Updated

An email notifying electric vehicle drivers in New South Wales that they can now apply for support on new car purchases has revealed the contact details of 400 people.

The data breach occurred when an email titled “NSW EV Strategy - Rebate and Stamp Duty Exemption incentives now open for applications” from the Tax Reform Taskforce was sent out on Monday morning.

Roughly 400 people who had previously expressed interest in the program were CC’d into the message making their personal email addresses visible to everyone in the chain.

A sender of the message later attempted to recall the email, but by then it was already too late. The New South Wales Treasury was contacted but did not immediately respond for comment.

Electric vehicle drivers in New South Wales can now apply to have stamp duty on vehicles which cost up to $78,000 reimbursed on purchases of new and used cars, while $3000 rebates are being offered on the first 25,000 EVs sold in the state.

Updated

Now onto some delightful weather news, with the Bureau of Meteorology issuing severe thunderstorm warnings for large parts of Australia, and with an ‘exceptionally wet and stormy’ week of weather ahead for eastern and central Australia. Fantastic.

In south-east Australia, temperatures are forecast to be between six and 16 degrees below the seasonal average, with snow above 1,000 metres expected in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as the cold front continues.

In Melbourne, showers are expected from Wednesday through to Sunday, with a peak of up to 30mm of rainfall expected on Friday along with southerly winds of between 25 and 45km an hour.

You can read more on the report from Caitlin Cassidy at the link below:

Guests at a Melbourne Cup afterparty are being urged to get tested, after three people tested positive at a party to celebrate winner Verry Elleegant.

The event was held at the Society Restaurant on Collins Street, and included two jockeys, owners and racing industry figures. The party reportedly complied with state guidelines, with all attendees needing to be double vaccinated.

But Brae Sokolski, a part owner of Cup winner Verry Elleegant, told the SMH that guests should get tested, after he returned a negative test.

It comes after two people at the Melbourne Cup tested positive last week, with calls for those who attended to get tested.

Updated

The Victorian state opposition are calling for the government to introduce ‘test and stay’ policy for students.

Under the current policy, unvaccinated children will be allowed to return to school after they’ve been exposed to the virus at school, after returning a negative test on day six. They will then need to take a rapid antigen test before school on days eight and 14 of their quarantine.

Shadow education minister David Hodgett has called for the government to adopt an alternate approach, and allow children to stay at school while doing daily rapid antigen tests, with no quarantine:

Test and stay is a successful policy that is being used in Massachussetts. If you Google it, you’ll see that policy initiative saved 48,000 in-person school days. We think it’s a good policy and it’s worth trying here.

Updated

Hospitality workers are holding a “funeral” in Adelaide to protest the effect Covid restrictions have had on the industry.

Marching down Hindley Street in Adelaide’s CBD as part of a staged funeral procession, marking the “death” of the industry.

Restrictions on the industry won’t lift under the state’s reopening plan until 90% of the eligible population are double vaccinated, which might not happen until early next year.

An unvaccinated man in his 30s has died of Covid in NSW, one of the seven people who died overnight.

The man, who had no underlying health conditions, died at Royal North Shore hospital.

NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty again urged people to get vaccinated in his update:

Remember, Covid has killed more than 5 million people internationally, so please book in for your jab and book in for your booster if you’re due for one.

It comes as NSW is poised to hit the 90% double-dose vaccination mark today or tomorrow. Premier Dominic Perrottet called it a “momentous” day, saying:

I believe the vaccination rate has been key for NSW to be able to open up safely.

Perrottet said while at a Matildas football training session:

We’re not just bringing sport back, we’re bringing crowds back and we’re really getting back to normality here in NSW. That’s a testament to everybody right across the state going out and getting vaccinated.

Dominic Perrottet
‘Momentous’ vaccination milestone: Dominic Perrottet. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you this afternoon. A quick thanks to Matilda Boseley for her typically expert blogging this morning.

Updated

With that, I shall leave you in the capable hands of Mostafa Rachwani, who will guide you through the rest of the day.

See you tomorrow morning!

Time to catch up again with Nino Bucci, and his coverage of Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.

Updated

I hate to break this to you all, but the election campaign Canva graphics have begun.

We should not have made the graphic design this accessible to politicians with Twitter accounts!

Updated

WA nurse charged over alleged vaccine fraud

Police have arrested and charged a registered nurse for allegedly faking a Covid-19 vaccination on a teenager.

Western Australia police say the 51-year-old, who worked at a private medical centre, was administering the vaccine to a teenager.

They allege that after inserting the syringe into the teen’s arm, the nurse did not insert the liquid and instead threw away the syringe, still full of vaccine. The nurse then allegedly recorded in medical records that the teen had been vaccinated.

Here is what WA police have to say:

It will be alleged the woman obtained approval from her employer for persons known to her to be able to attend the medical centre and be administered a Covid-19 vaccine, and for those vaccines to be administered by her.

Yesterday, Sunday 7 November 2021, a person known to the nurse attended the [Perth] medical centre where she was working and arranged for their teenage child to be administered a Covid-19 vaccine. As per standard practice, a second medical practitioner – on this occasion a doctor – observed the process.

It will be alleged the nurse inserted the needle into the teenager’s arm but failed to administer the vaccine.

It will be further alleged the syringe, with vaccine liquid still inside, was disposed of and a false entry was made on the medical records system indicating the teenager had received the dose of the vaccine.

Further, it will be alleged the nurse recorded that another employee of the medical centre had administered the dose, and not her.

The woman, from Byford, was arrested yesterday at her residence and has been charged with one count of “gaining benefit by fraud”.

She was refused bail and is due to appear in the Perth magistrates court today.

Updated

Some more Somyurek Ibac updates from Nino Bucci:

Updated

The Collins St Falcons in Melbourne are taking flight!

My little heart!

Updated

Queensland has recorded no new cases of Covid-19 amid concerns about potential exposure at opposite ends of the state, reports Marty Silk from AAP.

Health minister Yvette D’Ath says no cases emerged after 5,879 tests in the past 24 hours to 6.30am on Monday.

We’ve had zero new cases today, which is fantastic news, so well done...

Queenslanders are doing the right thing and making sure that you’re socially distancing, good hygiene, wearing the masks where required, and of course coming out and getting tested.

Deputy chief health officer Peter Aitken said it was relieving that no new cases had emerged in the far north after a case who triggered a lockdown in the Northern Territory was also infectious in Cairns and Mission Beach two weeks ago.

The lockdown in the NT town of Katherine will be lifted on Monday, with Queensland announcing it will also lift travel restrictions on people who had visited there from 4pm.

However, concerns remain about potential exposure at Toowoomba hospital linked to an outbreak in Goondiwindi in southern Queensland.

Darling Downs Health restricted visitors on Sunday afternoon and D’Ath said limits would remain in place indefinitely.

Yvette D’Ath
‘Queenslanders are doing the right thing’: Yvette D’Ath. Photograph: Jono Searle/AAP

Updated

A dozen Canberra schools have been impacted by Covid-19 exposures and some groups of students have been told to stay home, as the ACT records 13 new infections, reports Andrew Brown from AAP.

Students from select year groups at five schools in Canberra’s south have been advised not to attend school following exposures at campuses

Education minister Yvette Berry told ABC Radio on Monday that while she did not know the exact number of cases that had been identified, all close contacts have been contacted by health authorities.

There is still contact tracing occurring, but there is only one school that’s had infections contracted in the actual school.

There were 13 new cases in the ACT reported on Monday, as the territory’s vaccination rate reached 95.1%.

One patient is in hospital with Covid-19 in Canberra and is in intensive care on a ventilator.

Health authorities have said there are 136 active cases in the community. There have been 1,742 cases in Canberra since the outbreak began in August.

The ACT cabinet will meet later today and discuss whether to bring the easing of restrictions forward.

Chief minister Andrew Barr had previously flagged that the easing, originally set for 26 November, could be brought forward to the middle of November.

Those rule changes would see home-visitor limits scrapped, density limits increased and face masks used only in high-risk indoor settings.

Updated

Updates from Guardian Australia’s Nino Bucci on former Victorian Labor minister Adem Somyurek’s appearance at the state’s anti-corruption commission:

Updated

In case you were wondering what changed in NSW overnight, and what the new freedoms are, check out this handy explainer by the wonderful Elias Viontay below.

Updated

HSC students must still wear masks during exams, NSW premier Dominic Perrottet says.

Updated

New Zealand reports 190 new Covid cases

New Zealand has recorded 190 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, bringing the total in the outbreak to 4541.

The ministry of health announced two people with Covid-19 have died – one a recent returnee in managed isolation and the other a patient in their late 60s who was admitted to Auckland hospital on 23 October for a trauma incident and then tested positive. Investigations are under way to determine if the deaths were Covid-related.

There have now been a total of 33 deaths of people with Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

Of Monday’s cases, 182 are in Auckland, seven are in Waikato and one is in Northland. Another four cases emerged in Northland this morning, but due to the ministry’s cut-off time for publication will appear in Tuesday’s tally.

110 cases are yet to be epidemiologically linked to the outbreak, bringing the total of unlinked cases in the past fortnight to 700. There are 81 people in hospital, up from 74 on Sunday, and seven are in intensive care.

Just over 86% of eligible New Zealanders have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and 75% are fully inoculated.

The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, will update Auckland and Northland about their lockdown settings on Monday afternoon.

The Auckland cityscape
Auckland has 182 of New Zealand’s 190 new Covid cases. Photograph: denizunlusu/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Updated

ACT records 13 new infections

The Australian Capital Territory has recorded 13 new local Covid-19 cases overnight.

Impressively, 95% of its over-12 population is now fully vaccinated.

Updated

Queensland records no new Covid cases

No Covid-19 in Queensland, by the way!

Updated

NSW Health has released further details on the seven people infected with Covid who died in the last reporting period.

Sadly, NSW Health is today reporting the deaths of seven people with Covid-19 – four women and three men.

One person was in their 30s, one person was in their 60s, one person was in their 70s, three people were in their 80s and one person was in their 90s.

Two people were from Albury, two people were from Sydney’s inner city, two people were from south-western Sydney and one person was from south eastern Sydney.

Three people were not vaccinated, two people had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and two people had received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The two people from Albury – a woman in her 80s who had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and a woman in her 90s who had received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine – died at the Mercy Place aged care facility, where they acquired their infections. There have been eight deaths linked to an outbreak at this facility.

A man in his 80s from south-eastern Sydney died at Prince of Wales hospital, where he acquired his infection. He was not vaccinated.

A man in his 30s from south-western Sydney died at Royal North Shore hospital. He was not vaccinated and had no significant underlying health conditions.

NSW Health expresses its sincere condolences to their loved ones.

Updated

Continued from next post:

Well, today it’s Newcastle, with the PM and Angus Taylor (he’s the energy, industry and emissions reduction minister, though we assume the reduction bit only applies to emissions, but you never know) turning up to announce ... wait for it...

“The Morrison government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), will deliver an extra $1.5 million to support Macquarie Group’s Green Investment Group, the Port of Newcastle and project partners to conduct a $3 million study on the hub’s potential,” the official media release reads.

The prime minister said:

Newcastle and the Hunter will be a key part of the $1.2 billion we’re investing in Australia’s hydrogen industry.

By that score, we could get many more media events, dragging journalists and various minders and fixers from far and wide, if they’re going to hold a presser each time they’re dropping a cool $1.5m.

As a curious aside, our sources tell us NSW government officials were all but absent from this morning’s event in Newcastle.

Perhaps the feds didn’t want to have someone like NSW treasurer Matt Kean (who is still energy and environment minister) reminding all and sundry the Coalition-led state has a goal of cutting carbon pollution by half by 2030 compared with 2005 levels. The lack of a federal 2030 target is a hole Morrison and Taylor hope everyone forgets about.

Oh, and NSW is also pumping $70m plus into hydrogen hubs in the Illawarra and Newcastle, giving that $1.5m outlay today some perspective.

Updated

It’s pretty clear that the Morrison government is going to make the economy its election campaigning strategy.

Take the flurry of Josh Frydenberg interviews this morning, as well as the front page “drop” in the Australian, and the accompanying oped penned no doubt by the treasurer himself.

Presumably, it’s all about getting “the engine room firing” so that Frydenberg and Co don’t get fired by electors, come May or whenever the election is held.

Faster growth might indeed by what we see, shy of some unforeseen setback like a Covid outbreak or a remnant summer cyclone sweeping through the Gold Coast, say.

Last week, the Reserve Bank last week predicted 2021 could see 3% GDP growth despite a contraction of 2.5% in the September quarter. That growth should then accelerate to 5.5% in 2022 before easing back to 2.5% in 2023.

The economy, in other words, could be at its growth peak around about mid-year next year – handy timing for the Morrison government.

And just how far will they go to spruik the economy?

Continued in next post:

Updated

Inquest into Covid outbreak at St Basil’s home to begin today

Sixty-six witnesses are expected to give evidence at a five-week inquest into a coronavirus outbreak at a Melbourne nursing home which resulted in 45 deaths.

The inquest into the outbreak at St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner is due to begin today.

The nursing home suffered a significant coronavirus outbreak during Melbourne’s second-wave outbreak in winter 2020. Some 117 residents contracted the virus and 50 died during the outbreak — 45 of them from Covid-19.

The inquiry is being held by the Victorian state coroner, Judge John Cain.

At a final directions hearing on Monday, the counsel assisting, Peter Rozen QC, said the witness list currently stood at 64 people, with two more expected to be added this week. Twelve of the witnesses are family members. Limits have been placed on the cross-examining of witnesses to ensure the inquest doesn’t run over time.

We are on a very tight timeframe here with this.

Rozen said the court had received more than 7,000 pages of material to date and the coronial brief, which was still being finalised, consisted of 12 tabbed volumes.

Cain and Rozen conducted a viewing of the nursing home last month.

St Basil’s aged care home in Fawkner
St Basil’s aged care home in Fawkner, Melbourne. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Updated

To finish off the press conference, the prime minister has been asked if children aged five to 11 can expect to be vaccinated before the year is out.

Morrison says the government is proceeding with caution, suggesting studies in the US may not be sturdy enough to base Australia’s decision on.

We discussed this last Friday, the TGA and the technical advisory group on immunisation have not yet formed a medical opinion that that should proceed at this point. And the studies we revised last Friday that have led to the decision in the United States were based on a sample of some 3,000 individual cases.

Now vaccinating children aged five to 11, you know, we need to be very careful. We need to be very cautious, and I can tell you that we won’t take a further step on this unless there is clear medical advice that it should proceed....

We’ve also been advised by the chief medical officer that the incidence of serious disease amongst younger children with Covid is not the same for the rest of the population. So the risk is different for children aged five to 11 to those who are older.

So we’ll be ready to go if and when the medical experts say it’s safe to do so, and we won’t be authorising a vaccination arrangement for children aged five to 11 until the medical experts say it’s safe for your children to be vaccinated.

Updated

Morrison says McGowan doing 'more harm than good' in border closure plan

Oh by the way, Morrison is wearing high-vis and a hard hat. Just in case you were wondering.

Now he is being asked about Western Australia’s commitment not to open the border until 90% of the state’s over-12 population is fully vaccinated.

Morrison says WA premier Mark McGowan will be doing “more harm than good”.

The modelling done by the Doherty Institute makes it very clear – and that’s what was agreed in the national plan, not just once but twice – and that is once you hit 80% double-dose vaccination rates, then you’re able to move forward...

Of course, there’s a big difference between 70 and 80%. When you look at the curve of the pandemic, once you hit 80% – whether it’s a low number of cases you’re going into, like would be the case in Western Australia, or a high number of cases like we’ve seen in New South Wales and Victoria – once you hit that 80% threshold, there is a scientifically-backed in position which says that you can take the next step.

And the advice we have from the secretary of Treasury, from Dr Kennedy, is once you go over 80% and you keep things locked down, you are doing more harm than good to your economy.

You’re actually putting a price on Australians when you continue to put heavy restrictions on your economy, once you hit 80% vaccination rates.

Scott Morrison and Mark McGowan
Scott Morrison and Mark McGowan. Composite: Richard Wainwright/Lucas Coch/AAP

Updated

Morrison is now talking about his recent (questionable) commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Apparently, we are doing it “the Australian way” – which, given our track record on the climate crisis, doesn’t fill me with confidence.

The prime minister says:

Net zero by 2050 is not going to be achieved by legislating jobs away. It’s not going to be achieved by forcing people to do things*. It’s going to be achieved by getting the costs of the technologies that change the world down, not by putting the cost of other things up.

You don’t have to put electricity prices up to get emissions down. You don’t have to sell out your economy and the jobs in your economy to get your emissions down.

Australia has had a 20.8% fall in our emissions since 2005. And we’ve had a 45% increase in the size of our economy. And at the same time we’ve actually developed one of the largest LNG industries in the world, our emissions intensity has fallen by 56%...

We’re doing this here in the Hunter. We’re doing it up in the Pilbara. We’re doing it up in Darwin. We’re doing it up in north Queensland. We’re doing it down in Belle Bay in Tasmania. Australia is doing it our way – the Australian way.

The Australian way is not legislating jobs away. It’s not putting costs on businesses. It’s actually providing the right incentives and the right investments to make technology a reality.

*Doing things like ... reducing emissions?

Updated

So, Scott Morrison is out and about in the Hunter region today.

So far they are just introducing the new candidate for the area.

Updated

By the way, we will be hearing from SA health minister Stephen Wade at 12pm ACDT (12.30pm AEDT).

He will be talking about the state’s plans to handle Covid-19 within their hospital system once the borders open.

Updated

Federal health minister Greg Hunt has had to correct his tweet from earlier this morning. At first, he said the booster shots were available to anyone over 18 who had their first dose more than six month ago.

In fact, it’s for those who had their second dose six months prior.

Updated

News from Victoria: rapid antigen tests will be distributed to 20 government schools across the state, before a broader rollout.

They will be used to test unvaccinated students – primarily those under 12 – who are close contacts of positive cases at their school.

This will notionally allow them to miss just one week of school while isolating rather than two.

A Covid rapid antigen test
A Covid rapid antigen test. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Continued from last post:

At the Senate inquiry, Hugh Poate was also scathing about the comments by the chief of the Australian defence force, General Angus Campbell, expressing surprise about the speed of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

Poate told the Senate hearing into Australia’s engagement in Afghanistan today:

Well, somebody who holds the highest office in defence ought to have been prepared because the rest of the country – including to the best of my knowledge every service person who served in Afghanistan – knew exactly what was happening, knew that the Taliban would again take over the country and could see that Afghanistan was falling.

I mean, all you had to do was read Al Jazeera or TOLOnews and it was so obvious to everybody. So why was the chief of the defence force not aware of this?

Poate added:

I’m really concerned about the future of the Australian defence force if this is indicative of the leadership throughout the chain of command.

Poate said the “cascade” was “facilitated” by the US move at the beginning of July to vacate the Bagram air base, leaving behind weaponry and vehicles.

Campbell told a forum in early September:

I don’t know of anyone who predicted, other than in the glory of 20/20 hindsight, how quickly it would occur – accelerated by, I think, some interesting force deployment choices, and also by the departure of their president.

You can see Campbell’s full comments from our story in September:

Updated

Hugh Poate, the father of an Australian soldier who was killed in Afghanistan, has told a Senate inquiry the killer of his son “was released as a result of the Americans making a treaty with the enemy”.

Poate’s son Private Robert Poate was one of three Australian soldiers - the others being Corporal Stjepan Milosevic and Sapper James Martin – who were murdered as they played cards at a patrol base north of Tarin Kowt in August 2012.

A former Afghan soldier known as Hekmatullah was convicted of murdering the soldiers. The Australian government last year said it would continue to push “as hard as we can” for Hekmatullah’s continued detention, after reports he could be released as a result of US-backed peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. He was transferred to Qatari custody last year.

However, Hekmatullah was released in recent months – shortly after the fall of the Taliban – and the Australian government is unclear of his current whereabouts.

Hugh Poate was asked during the Senate hearing this morning what he thought this war should teach us about Australia’s alliance with the US, particularly in the context of the release of Hekmatullah and other prisoners. He replied:

I’ve got a lot to say about that, but I will try and restrict what would take days and anger to be a little bit more mellow … Hekmatullah was released as a result of the Americans making a treaty with the enemy to release him and 5,000 other Taliban inmates. It was bad enough anyway with the revolving door – every time we would arrest somebody, invariably they would be caught again because they were let out. So those prisoners who were still incarcerated were the more dangerous ones …

He had been sentenced to death - that sentence was never carried out. He’s never had to face the international criminal court for his war crime.

Updated

OK! Looks like we will be hearing from the Queensland health minister for the Covid-19 update at 10am Brisbane time, 11am Sydney and Melbourne time.

Updated

Oh in case you are interested, here is the video of Barnaby Joyce calling Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull “dipsticks”.

As a treat.

A Covid-positive woman who lied on her border entry form when entering Darwin has been identified as the source of the three-person cluster which triggered a lockdown in Katherine.

Restrictions for fully vaccinated people in Katherine lifted yesterday afternoon, but unvaccinated people remain subject to stay-at-home orders until midnight tonight.

Chief minister Michael Gunner said the 21-year-old was issued with a $5,024 infringement notice after she was questioned by Northern Territory detectives for five hours.

Gunner said on Sunday:

Don’t lie, don’t be selfish, think of others. She will pay because she lied to officials.

He said her actions had “put the Territory at risk”, prompting the three-day lockdown for Katherine, 320km south of Darwin, where a close contact travelled and tested positive.

Here is the full report:

Updated

HOW! This is so many interviews!

Scott Morrison has admitted more work is needed to increase Indigenous Covid-19 vaccine rates as the national booster rollout formally begins, reports AAP.

While the national rate for fully vaccinated over-16s has passed 80%, immunisation rates among Indigenous communities are lagging.

The prime minister said there was still a long way to go to bridge the vaccination gap.

He told Newcastle radio:

There is a challenge in Indigenous communities, particularly in [WA and Queensland] ...

In NSW the Indigenous rate of vaccinations have been lifting and there’s been some rally good work there, but that is a challenge we find all around the world.

Updated

Adem Somyurek to give evidence before Ibac today

Adem Somyurek, the alleged architect of a vast branch-stacking operation in Victoria, will give evidence before the state’s anti-corruption commission on Monday.

The upper house MP is scheduled to give evidence each day this week other than Wednesday, with public hearings starting at 10.30am.

Somyurek was dumped from the Andrews government and resigned from the Labor party in the wake of a 60 minutes/Age investigation into factional activities. He has denied being involved in branch stacking, which is not illegal but is a breach of party rules.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission started its investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds by the Victorian branch of the ALP the month before the 60 minutes/Age investigation was broadcast.

It started public hearings as part of its investigation last month, with Somyurek featuring heavily in the evidence provided by witnesses so far.

A factional ally of Somyurek, fellow MP Marlene Kairouz, gave evidence in a private hearing last week. Kairouz stood down as an Andrews government minister because of her alleged involvement in branch stacking but has denied all wrongdoing.

She was permitted to give evidence in private once Ibac received “credible” evidence that appearing before a public hearing would cause unreasonable damage to her wellbeing.

An Ibac spokesperson has confirmed Kairouz’s evidence will not be released in transcript form, but that parts of the evidence may be disclosed during the course of examining a witness in public examination, or in a special report on the investigation.

Updated

Oh my good lord! Someone get this man a sports drink! This is like the 18th interview this morning!

Updated

Victoria records 1,126 local Covid-19 cases and five deaths

Victoria has also published its daily numbers, with 1,126 new Covid-19 cases overnight.

Sadly, five people infected with Covid-19 have died.

Updated

NSW records 187 new Covid-19 cases and seven deaths

The NSW numbers are in and the state has recorded just 187 cases overnight.

Sadly, seven people infected with Covid-19 have died.

Updated

Detectives investigating the mysterious case of two campers who vanished in Victoria’s rugged high country 20 months ago are searching for a car seen in the area.

They want to speak to the driver of the blue four-wheel drive – believed to be a mid to late 1990s model Nissan Patrol – or anyone who might have seen it at the time.

Russell Hill, 74, and Carol Clay, 73, were last heard from on 20 March 2020, while camping in the Wonnangatta Valley.

Hill left his Drouin home on 19 March and picked up Clay from her home in Pakenham in his white Toyota Landcruiser.

You can read more below:

Updated

Jacinda Ardern’s government is holding true to its reopening plans as New Zealand continues to notch unwelcome Covid-19 benchmarks, reports AAP.

Last week, New Zealand reported more than 1,000 cases of Covid-19; a seventh of its total infections through the entire pandemic.

There were also two deaths, both people with the virus who were isolating at home.

Saturday’s highwater mark of 206 cases brought a worrying record hospitalisation count of 74 on Sunday and there is no indication either figure will drop soon.

The outbreak remains centred on Auckland, producing more than 90% of daily cases, which will enter a 13th week of lockdown this week.

This week, despite the roaring case numbers, Aucklanders are set for new freedoms.

Ardern’s cabinet will meet on Monday to confirm its in-principle decision to allow retail and public facilities like libraries and museums to reopen from Wednesday, as well as increasing caps on gathering sizes.

Covid-19 modeller Shaun Hendy, a physics professor at the University of Auckland, told Radio NZ that the government should reconsider:

Relaxations are outpacing the vaccination program’s ability to bring these case numbers down so it may be a while until we see the peak in this outbreak ... A lot depends on this relaxation ... and potentially people’s compliance as well.

Hendy said daily case counts of 1,000 or more by Christmas were “possible”.

Updated

“Two hundred pelicans breeding, 20 whiskered terns, 100 grey teal, 30 black swans, one little pied cormorant … ”

Richard Kingsford, a veteran ecologist, is rattling off the waterbirds he’s spotting below. He clutches his voice recorder closely to overcome the engine noise as our Cessna banks steeply, tracking the shoreline of Lake Brewster, a large lake in central-west New South Wales.

John Porter, a NSW government scientist and fellow veteran bird counter, does the same, dictating the numbers and bird species he glimpses on the starboard side – while giving directions to pilot James Barkell – as we fly at 185kmh and barely 30m above the water.

We’re on a three-day trip that is part of the annual waterbird survey, now in its 39th year. One of the world’s longest continuous bird counts, it’s also among the largest, spanning 2.7m sq km – 11 times the size of UK or six times California.

You can read the full report below:

Updated

We have been talking about the Frydenberg press tour all morning, but there is one place he has very notably not appeared ...

Updated

Health minister Greg Hunt is also on the interview circuit this morning and has been asked if booster shots will be required for people to keep the freedoms given to those who have been double vaccinated:

Not at this stage. it is not our medical advice. What a booster is, is exactly as the name says. It adds to your vaccination. It boosts your vaccination. It boosts your vaccination and protection.

We are opening up today across the country to anyone who is six months or more from their vaccination.

We have had 173,000 people in aged care and disability and older Australians who started early and come forward in the last week and a half to be vaccinated.

A fast start, an early start. But the full program begins today. I think that is fantastic news. We are one of the first countries in the world after Israel to commence the booster vaccination program.

Updated

Julian Assange and his fiancee Stella Moris say they are being prevented from getting married and are preparing legal action against UK justice secretary Dominic Raab and the governor of Belmarsh prison.

The action accuses Raab and Jenny Louis, who runs the prison where the WikiLeaks co-founder is being held while the US is seeking his extradition, of denying the human rights of the couple and their two children.

They say they have had no response to repeated requests seeking agreement that a ceremony can take place at the prison.

Moris, a lawyer, linked the lack of response by British officials to the hostility towards WikiLeaks on the part of the US, where authorities were accused of plotting to kill or kidnap Assange during the years he was in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

You can read the full report below:

Updated

Josh Frydenberg has been asked if the federal government will try to wait for Western Australia to hold the vote, in the hopes that an open border will increase the Liberals’ chances at another term:

WA have announced their roadmap for easing of those borders, but obviously we would have liked it to have been earlier and sooner because other states are opening up at those 80% vaccination rates, and of course if people can travel more freely across the country it’s not only a good opportunity for them to catch up with family and friends, but it’s also good for the economy as well.

We have seen ticket sales on airlines go off. We saw 75,000 Jetstar international seats being sold within 72 hours. Qantas sold 500,000 tickets in a two-week period. People are desperate to get around our great country, particularly as we approach Christmas. Unfortunately for people in Western Australia they’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Sunrise host:

The hard border to remain in place until 90% double vaxxed, the tourism industry is threatening legal action is that something you would support.

Frydenberg:

That’s for them, obviously it’s a high bar the Western Australian government has set. I don’t understand why Western Australia should be different to any other state and ease their border restrictions at that 80% vaccination rate.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg has been asked on Sunrise if we can expect a budget in April and a federal election in May next year:

Look, no dates have been set for either, but I can tell you that we’re out talking about the economy today and every day because this is what matters to people at home.

The jobs are coming back, unemployment is at 4.6%, a 12-year low, it was 5.7%, when we came to government we know that job ads are 30% higher than at the start of the pandemic.

We have new ... data that shows that insolvencies are 40% lower year on year, another proof point that Australia’s economic recovery is on track.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been out and about this morning but before we get to him, here is what shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers had to say about his Liberal counterpart on the Today Show a little earlier:

I think he’s part of the defining feature of this government.

When the economy was bleeding two to three billion a week because of their failures on vaccines and quarantine, it wasn’t their responsibility. Now things are starting to improve, he is there to take the credit. Never there to take responsibility always there to take responsibility always there to take the credit.

We want the economy to recover strongly. It is pleasing to see it is starting to get some momentum. Don’t forget last month in the unemployment figures 138,000 Australians lost their job, 129,000 gave up looking. It’s a mixed bag still.

We want to see it recover strongly. We want to see the government take responsibility for things when they are difficult and not just when they are recovering.

Updated

Australia is likely to be releasing more emissions from deforestation than reported to the UN, new analysis indicates, stoking calls for an independent review of the sector that has delivered the bulk of the country’s claimed reductions in greenhouse gas pollution.

An assessment of satellite imagery of more than 50 properties in Queensland by Martin Taylor, an adjunct senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, has identified significant discrepancies between what is treated as cleared land by Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System and the Statewide Landcover and Trees Study used by the state government.

“It flummoxes me – what’s going on in their models when they are missing such obvious land clearing,” Taylor said. “How can you possibly say that’s still forest … it’s so glaringly obvious something is wrong.”

You can read the full report from Peter Hannam and Lisa Cox below:

Updated

'You are a dipstick': Joyce slams former PMs' criticisms of Morrison

Former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have been busy these last few weeks criticising Scott Morrison’s handling of the relationship with France.

But the deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has had enough, telling Sunrise, via a very complicated horse metaphor, that the pair are real “pains in the neck”:

Look, in politics ... sometimes it’s not so much how you ride the horse, but how you get off it.

Some people get off it with grace and walk to the rail and sit on the rail and people go up and talk to them, but some people just can’t help themselves and they keep a foot in a stirrup and get dragged around in horse manure. And we are seeing a couple of people with their foot in the stirrup and are being dragged around in the horse mature.

They have gone former prime ministers to current pains in the neck.

If I walked in your studio or workplace, or your morning tea at school, or the pub calling everybody a liar, you just look at the person and say, “I don’t care what your former job is, you are a dipstick.” You can’t just walk around, brandishing those sorts of allegations. You have to have some decorum for the office you held, the nation you led, and act like it.

And even if you have a concern, you know how to say it ... subtly in deference, to not create a massive problem.

Because when you leave politics you are supposed to rise above politics. You are always an idealist as you walk up the hill and you’re more broadminded as you walk down the hill, but you are more broadminded with a brain between your ears.

Updated

Happy carbon price anniversary!

If you don’t observe it, don’t worry, you’re not alone – but on this, what would have been the 10th anniversary of the carbon price being legislated – the Greens are hoping to draw your attention to “a world of possibilities lost”.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has released modelling he says shows what could have happened in the reality where Tony Abbott didn’t sweep to power and scuttle the carbon price. The modelling is based on an analysis done by the Greens, taking in projections and what happened in its first two years of operation – and we are dealing with hypotheticals here, so there is no way of knowing for sure.But Bandt says in its first year, the Clean Energy Act cut emissions by 10m tonnes.

In the imaginary world where the Liberals didn’t demonise it by (falsely) labelling it a carbon tax, and Barnaby Joyce didn’t (falsely) claim $100 lamb roasts were just around the corner, Bandt says:

Australia would have stopped an additional 256 million tonnes of pollution going into the atmosphere. Every tonne counts. We’ve modelled it. If the price on pollution had not been murdered on the floor of the parliament, we would have cut over a quarter of a billion tonnes extra of pollution over the last six years.

In 2020 pollution would be 464m tonnes a year, compared with the 512 Mt we reached under the Liberals and the 529-585 Mt forecast under Kevin Rudd’s own poor first draft of a climate policy:

If we had kept the price on pollution, we would have met the Coalition’s weak 2030 targets in 2020. Australia’s pollution would already be 26% below 2005 levels, meeting the Government’s insufficient 2030 target 10 years early. We would be ten years ahead of where we are now.

Instead, Bandt says we are facing “as a country, the humiliation and shame on the international stage Scott Morrison inflicted on us these past weeks”.

The Greens aren’t alone in noting arguable anniversaries – in 2019, Labor commemorated 10 years from when the Greens voted against the carbon pollution reduction scheme, which it claimed would have further reduced emissions by 200m tonnes over the 10 years.

But the truth is, there hasn’t just been one moment which has led to Australia’s climate inaction, there has been many – and for the past eight years, Australians have voted in a government which has only ever promised the bare minimum on climate action.

Bandt says Australia could be facing a minority parliament at the next election, which could give the Greens the balance of power – which is the point of noting today’s “anniversary”.

The Liberals won’t act at all, but Labor won’t act on coal and gas unless the Greens are there to push them ...

For amongst all the tales of alternative history that get told in politics, all the ‘if onlys’ and ‘could have beens’, one stark, historical fact stands out. The only time that pollution has meaningfully come down was when the Greens were in the balance of power. Fortunately, if only a few hundred people change their vote, that’s where we’ll be again after the next election.

Updated

Good morning

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the new week. There’s no better way to start it than with us, coffee in hand and live blog on the screen.

It’s Matilda Boseley here and let’s dive right in.

Everyone in Australia aged over 18 and who had their second dose of vaccine more than six months ago is now eligible for a booster shot.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Sonya Bennett told reporters yesterday that there was “plenty of vaccine for all of us to get our booster”:

For those people 18 and up who had a vaccine at least six months ago we encourage you to make an appointment and get your booster dose.

Staying to date on vaccinations is even more important in NSW from today, as Covid restrictions ease further.

Caps on the number of guests one can have to their home per day have been abolished, as many as 1,000 fully vaccinated residents can gather outdoors while stadiums, racecourses, theme parks, zoos, cinemas and theatres can operate at 100% of their fixed-seated capacity.

Businesses will move to density restrictions of one person for every 2 sq m and fully vaccinated diners can book without number limits.

As of today, schoolchildren can now enjoy music classes, excursions and assemblies but teachers who aren’t fully vaccinated will be suspended.

The unvaccinated will have to wait until 15 December to enjoy any increased freedoms themselves.

So now that we are up to date with all of that, why don’t we jump right into the day!

Updated

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