What happened today, Thursday 17 June, 2021
That is where we will leave the live blog for Thursday evening.
In case you missed it, here’s what made the news:
- Australia’s vaccine rollout could be further delayed, after Australia’s vaccine advisory body recommended the AstraZeneca vaccine only be given to people aged 60 years and over, meaning 2.1m more people between 50 and 59 will be given the Pfizer vaccine.
- The 815,000 Australians aged between 50 and 59 who have already had their first jab of AstraZeneca have been advised to still get their second jab.
- New South Wales’s outbreak of the Delta variant of Covid-19 has now reached three cases, with locals advised to remain on alert.
- Unemployment fell to 5.1%
- Witness K pleads guilty to breaching Australia’s secrecy laws.
Updated
The Human Rights Law Centre has welcomed the Senate report on Uyghur forced labour. Human Rights Law Centre senior lawyer Freya Dinshaw says:
The grave situation in Xinjiang has been a wake-up call for Australia to ensure companies are not profiting from or complicit in abuse.
The inquiry heard the harrowing testimonies of the Uyghur community and responded with a set of clear, compelling actions Australia should take to ensure that Australian businesses are not complicit in or profiting from forced labour in Xinjiang or any other part of the world.
We also welcome the other measures proposed by the committee to strengthen Australia’s response to modern slavery. If we want to eradicate forced labour, we need to move beyond voluntary reporting and compel companies to take action.
We call on the Australian government to immediately implement the Senate committee’s recommendations. Australians should have confidence that the goods they purchase are not made at the expense of other peoples’ freedom.
Updated
Akamai confirms it is behind outage
Service provider Akamai has confirmed it is behind an outage that affected dozens of companies on Thursday night.
The issue, believed to be with Akamai’s distributed-denial-of-service protection service, meant banking services with Westpac, St George and Commonwealth were taken offline. The outage also affected Virgin Australia and Australia Post.
It appears it was a global outage but, due to the time it occurred, it was much more noticeable in Australia.
A spokesman for Akamai said the company was aware of the issue and was working to restore services.
Many of the services that went offline were restored by 6pm AEST.
Updated
Victoria has put three NSW local government areas (Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra) into the orange zone, meaning people visiting from these locations must get tested when they arrive and stay isolated until they get a negative result.
Anyone arriving into Victoria from City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra LGAs must obtain an orange zone permit at https://t.co/v9Ej7FMa8U, isolate and get tested upon arrival and stay isolated they receive a negative result. [2/6]
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) June 17, 2021
More on the Witness K case, from my colleague, Christopher Knaus.
The court also heard fmr AG George Brandis had avoided signing off on the prosecution for years. All the while, Witness K was effectively imprisoned in his own home, with the threat of charges looming over him. When Porter became AG, the required sign off was given quickly.
— Christopher Knaus (@knausc) June 17, 2021
The federal government will have until October to file its defence to a civil case representing thousands of Stolen Generations survivors, AAP reports.
The class action is seeking compensation for the forced removal of Indigenous Australians from their families in the Northern Territory between 1910 and the 1970s.
At the case’s first management hearing in Sydney on Thursday, the NSW Supreme Court was told the Commonwealth has posed a series of questions to the lead plaintiff Eileen Cummings since the claim was filed in April.
The government would also in coming weeks formally seek more information on the particulars of the plaintiff’s statement of claim, the court was told.
The plaintiff, who is chairperson of the Stolen Generations NT organisation, is to serve replies to those information requests by July 26, Justice Robert Beech-Jones ordered.
The Commonwealth must file and serve its defence by October 1, ahead of a case management hearing on November 19.
Justice Beech-Jones was told the case was filed in Sydney as the NT lacks a class action regime.
In April, Shine Lawyers’ Tristan Gaven said most states had taken steps to compensate stolen generation survivors but no such action had occurred in NT.
One member of the class action, 84-year-old Heather Alley, was nine years old when forcibly removed from her mother and transported from Mataranka, south of Katherine, to western Sydney.
She later lived in an Alice Springs hostel, where she was flogged, she says.
A family friend of the Murugappan family, Angela Fredericks, is holding a press conference in Perth after she flew from Biloela to reunite with the family on Wednesday.
She said the family were “quite nervous” going into community detention in Perth, considering they do not know anyone in the WA capital. Fredericks, who is from the regional Queensland town of Biloela, also spoke of reuniting with the four:
Just to be immediately greeted by Kopika with her big grin and, ‘Hi Angela’ and just to wrap my arms, I almost got bowled over by the whole family.
Oh, [Priya] is just so incredibly strong, but Priya just wept in my arms and just said, ‘This is so hard’.
This family has been through more than anyone can imagine and to just hold Priya and to let her know that while it’s not over yet and we don’t have a set outcome yet, we’re still going.
We are still determined to protect this family, to get them back home to Biloela, where they belong.
Updated
NSW's Baulkham Hills case likely false positive: Hazzard
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, has told 2GB radio the Baulkham Hills man in his 40s who was mentioned as one of the cases in NSW today and had a low virus detection is “extremely likely” to be a false positive.
Hazzard also suggested it might be difficult to hire drivers for hotel quarantine if they are required to be vaccinated, but said he was looking into why the man at the centre of the NSW outbreak was not vaccinated.
Updated
With the House adjourning, so too is my sanity, at least for today.
The wonderful Josh Taylor will take you through the evening, freeing me to go stare at a wall and finish the jar of (non-palm oil) chocolate hazelnut spread I have been mainlining since about 10am.
Because hasn’t it just been.... quite the day.
I know that is a timeless statement these days, but today really deserves a special shout out for the sheer amount of information which came at us in never ending waves.
As always, it was you who got us through. Your comments, messages and engagement make it all worth it, and keep us going. So thank you. You’re the biggest part of Politics Live and we truly appreciate your support.
A very big thank you to Mike Bowers, who is the eyes, ears and heart of this project, and to Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin and Paul Karp for keeping us fed and sane and informed as we get through the parliamentary days.
And of course to the wider Guardian team, some of whom you know, but others who don’t have a byline but are absolutely critical to what we bring you. From the moderators to the producers (who save me minute by minute) and the editors, this blog has a lot of moving parts. Each makes sure we bring you the most to-the-minute coverage, and everything else happening around the place.
I’ll be back with you very soon. Until then, please – take care of you.
Updated
And the House is adjourned, until Monday.
Scott Morrison will be in quarantine – but should be Zooming in for QT.
Updated
For those following Witness K trial (and you should – it’s a very important one for Australia as a whole), Chris will have a story for you shortly.
I'll have a full report on this up on @GuardianAus shortly. Witness K's lawyers argued this arvo that he should be spared a conviction, saying it will only serve to increase his alienation and anxiety. Described him as a decorated intelligence officer with a spotless record. https://t.co/4f0LQBYoAl
— Christopher Knaus (@knausc) June 17, 2021
Updated
Domestic airline industry has recovered strongly: report
Our international borders might still be firmly shut, but Australia’s domestic airline industry has recovered strongly, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
In its Airline Competition in Australia report, the ACCC has found domestic passenger numbers in March were 55% of pre-pandemic levels, up from 41% in December.
But domestic border closures triggered by smaller Covid-19 outbreaks like Sydney’s Northern Beaches cluster continue to delay a full return to pre-pandemic levels.
Despite a handful of short term domestic border closures, the ACCC found an increase in consumer confidence was behind much of the industry’s success.
The federal government’s $1.2bn initiative to subsidise 800,000 half price flights to tourist destinations also helped stimulate demand for domestic travel, according to the ACCC, as well as Rex’s entry into larger, more popular domestic routes, which triggered greater price competition on some capital city routes.
Based on March 2021 figures, 18% of Australian domestic passengers flew on routes where there was a choice of three airline groups, compared to the pre-pandemic figure of 1.5%.
Interestingly, Qantas Group, the parent company of Qantas and Jetstar, transported 69% of domestic passengers in March 2021, down slightly from 74% in December. But this is still higher than the 61% domestic market share Qantas Group held pre-pandemic, before Tigerair’s withdrawal which has seen budget-conscious passengers largely move to Jetstar.
In addition to the half price flights initiative, Qantas has received significant federal and state government support, with multiple waves of job cuts and a two-year company-wide wage freeze. This infuriated the Transport Workers Union, which estimates the airline has received $2bn in government help since the beginning of the pandemic.
Rod Sims, chair of the consumer watchdog, noted the rosy picture of the domestic airline market did not include the recent Victorian lockdown and associated border restrictions that occurred after March.
Updated
Labor’s Andrew Leigh then answers that:
We are in this position because the government didn’t strike the deals that many other advanced countries struck last year. If we’d had the deals with Moderna, a bigger deal with Pfizer, we wouldn’t be so reliant on AstraZeneca.
The fact is, the government kept on saying this wasn’t a race, didn’t invest in the local manufacturing capacity and (we’re) not even in the top 100 countries in the world for the speed of their vaccine rollout.
Updated
When questioned about not having enough Pfizer vaccines right now, Matt Canavan says, “but we will”.
Which we will. But not now – over winter. Which is the danger time for the virus. We won’t have the other vaccines start to come in large enough numbers until Spring.
Canavan says:
We can only get access to some of these vaccines with the cooperation and contracts of overseas countries.
The reason we were relying more heavily on AstraZeneca was for the logical reason that we could make it here. We cannot make the mRNA vaccines here in Australia. It would be great otherwise but that was not a possible circumstance for the government late last year or through this year.
And so we are left to having to contract and buy the Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines from overseas. They only become available as other countries have met their requirements as you’d expect.
They only export it after they are happy with their own rollout and so we are getting more, we got more Pfizer, more than initially, up to 20 million coming in now and another 20 million will come next year. We will get there. But we can only make decisions based on resources.
Updated
Matt Canavan is the next on the ABC guest list. He is also asked about the change in advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine:
It seems sensible. I think we are right to take the advice. A few months ago, I called for a pause in AstraZeneca when some of these concerns were raised.
I didn’t think we should [rush] that but take a breath and look at what is going on. Obviously, the events we are starting to see a few months ago have proven to have real impacts.
This is a very rare occurrence but does have fatal consequences in some circumstances. Authorities are right to take this seriously. We have to be upfront with the reality that this year, I believe, there have been two fatalities connected to the use of AstraZeneca yet no fatalities connected to the coronavirus in Australia.
We are lucky in that regard with the chance to be cautious and we do have access to other vaccines ... at the moment and others coming late this year. So it seems right, proper and sensible to make these adjustments.
Updated
NSW Health has added a venue to its exposure sites.
The venue is a shop at Harris Farm markets in Leichhardt, in Sydney’s inner west, on Tuesday morning. The alert reads:
NSW Health has been notified of additional venue of concern associated visited by confirmed cases of COVID-19. If you were at the following venue at the time listed, you must immediately call NSW Health on 1800 943 553, get tested and self-isolate until you receive further information from NSW Health.
Leichhardt, Harris Farm
Shop B1, 51-57 Norton Street
Tuesday 15 June 9.50am to 10.05am
Updated
Which makes public declarations like this even more important:
Got my 2nd dose of AstraZeneca in style at Winnunga AMS. Thanks to nurse Michele Clarke for administering the jan and to all the wonderful staff @nimmityjah. It gives me great peace of mind to be fully vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/Fi9dLuBd1K
— Patrick Dodson (@SenatorDodson) June 17, 2021
Updated
The main message health experts want to get out though, is that if you have had your first dose of AstraZeneca, you should have your second:
Difficult decision for ATAGI today. I got AZ vaccine in April and very glad I did. And now booked online for 2nd dose in July. Risk of TTS with second dose is even lower/rarer and I’m very keen to be fully protected against COVID.
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) June 17, 2021
Mark Butler also spoke to the ABC, where he made it clear the opposition’s beef with the vaccination rollout was not with the health advice, but with the government.
Butler:
Our quarrel has never been with the health advice but with the government’s refusal to put in place enough insurance against these sorts of things.
No one last year could have predicted precisely this sort of change to the advice around AstraZeneca. What we were saying is in an emergency at this time, these sorts of things arise and you have to have ... insurance against these things, which allow you to bring another vaccine into the system to back it up.
We haven’t got that because the government didn’t negotiate enough deals last year and the deals they negotiated got to it too late, so we aren’t getting enough supply of Pfizer right now. It is our quarrel, not with health authorities.
The government has done the right thing to follow the advice of Atagi. We all support implementation of that. It has been a thing that has marked Australia well through the course of this pandemic.
It stayed at federal level all parties supporting the public health advice. Our quarrel is not about following the advice.
Updated
Internet outage hits banks, Australia Post and others
The outage affecting a large number of Australian banks, Australia Post, Virgin Australia and others is believed to be an issue with a third-party distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection service provided by Akamai.
Customers of Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, ANZ and others reported being unable to access their online banking services on Thursday afternoon.
It is believed the cause is an issue with a third-party service from cyber security and cloud service company Akamai, who these companies use to protect themselves from DDoS attacks. Guardian Australia has sought comment from Akamai.
It is not dissimilar to the Fastly outage last week, which, due to the way the service keeps websites online, brought down sites across the world, including The Guardian.
Commonwealth Bank has reported its services have started to come back online.
Updated
Dan Tehan spoke to Patricia Karvelas about the advice change for AstraZeneca:
The key thing is the Australian people can have confidence the government is taking the decision based on the best medical advice internationally.
Our medical experts are renowned internationally.
They are the ones who provided their advice to the government. The real worry would be if you were not taking the advice of the experts.
All Australians can have great confidence that we are listening to the expert medical advice.
We had the experts at the press conference providing that advice, so I think all Australians can be reassured that is what the government is doing.
They can look around at the rest of the world, and have a look at how well we have performed compared to nearly every other country, and know that by listening to that medical advice, that is why we are in such a great situation, and that is what the government will continue doing.
Updated
Senate committee reports on Uyghur forced labour
China hawks including three Coalition senators have recommended the Australian government ban the import of goods made with forced labour, and consider condemning the situation in Xinjiang at the UN General Assembly.
The Senate foreign affairs, defence and trade committee was tasked with examining independent senator Rex Patrick’s bill to ban import of goods from Xinjiang due to concerns about forced Uyghur labour.
In a bipartisan report, tabled on Thursday, the committee recommended laws be changed to “prohibit the import of any goods made wholly or in part with forced labour, regardless of geographic origin”.
The committee is chaired by Liberal Eric Abetz and includes Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and David Fawcett, a sign the government’s backbench are even more forward leaning on international human rights abuses than its leadership.
Australia and New Zealand have raised “grave concerns” about human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in China, and welcomed new coordinated sanctions announced by the UK, US, the EU and Canada, but have so far not announced any such measures of their own.
Australia lacks Magnitsky-style laws that would allow targeted sanctions against individuals but the Morrison government is expected to table draft legislation later this year.
This week Scott Morrison has been in the UK and Paris at meetings of the G7 and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development seeking diplomatic support from other world leaders amid Australia’s ongoing tensions with China.
In a speech to the OECD, Morrison lashed China for undermining the rule of law and threatening a world order that “favours freedom”.
Updated
Witness K’s lawyers are arguing for him to be spared a criminal conviction, saying anything less would “simply increase the alienation, the anxiety, and the post-traumatic stress, when it is not necessary”.
Parts of the sentencing proceedings against Witness K have been open to the public this afternoon, including some submissions by his counsel, Robert Richter QC.
“There is no utility at this stage in convicting Mr K,” Richter told the court. Witness K had no criminal history, was a highly decorated Asis officer, and was now suffering depression and PTSD.
He conceded the offence – conspiring with his lawyer Bernard Collaery to disclose sensitive information to Timor-Leste – was not trivial.
But he said that didn’t preclude a non-conviction order. Richter has argued that his client has been effectively imprisoned in Australia for eight years, since his home was raided and his passport taken away.
He then had the prospect of prosecution hanging over him for four to five years, before charges were finally brought. The court heard the then attorney general George Brandis had avoided making a decision on whether to sign off on the prosecution of Witness K for years.
Richter suggested this was because Brandis either had concerns about it or simply wanted to avoid making a decision.
“To withhold that decision for a period of three years is itself imposing additional torment on someone who from the very first day ... has known he was susceptible to being prosecuted,” Richter said.
When Christian Porter was made attorney general, the court heard, the decision to prosecute was approved quickly.
Updated
The Uyghur forced labour report is out. The committee, which includes three Coalition senators, has recommended Australia ban imports made with the forced labour.
Rex Patrick, who has been pushing for moves in this direction, has welcomed the report:
“I am very pleased with the outcome of this important inquiry, which has delivered strong bipartisan recommendations for action to prevent the importation of goods produced using forced labour, and especially in regard to imports from China made using coerced Uyghur people,” senator Patrick said.
“I thank the committee for the work they have done as well as the many people and organisations that made submissions to the inquiry, especially members of the Australian Uyghur community who face harassment from Chinese government officials here in Australia and grave threats to family members, relatives and friends in Xinjiang.
“I am very pleased that my bill has provided the catalyst for this inquiry and the important recommendations adopted by the committee.”
“My concern has always been that action be taken quickly to ensure that Australia’s condemnation of the Chinese government’s shameful persecution and exploitation of the Uyghur people is made absolutely clear. This report is an important step forward.”
The Senate committee has recommended that the Customs Act 1901 be amended to prohibit the import of any goods made wholly or in part with forced labour, regardless of geographic origin.
The committee has further recommended that the government take steps to empower the Australian Border Force to be able to issue rebuttable presumptions for specific goods, companies and/or regions with particularly high risk of being associated with forced labour.
The committee further recommends that, once the issuance of such orders is possible, the Australian Border Force should immediately consider issuing an order, at a minimum, for cotton sourced from Xinjiang.
Updated
Here is some of how Mike Bowers saw question time.
Somehow, Anika Wells’ infant son was still not the biggest baby in the chamber.
An empty front bench.
Brains trust
The last time this sitting we’ll see this
Updated
Mike Bowers rushed back to ensure you all had some shots to brighten your day (and also to help me stay sane and let me know what’s happening beyond the five screens I monitor at all times, which is A LOT, because all the action is behind the scenes).
Here is Pauline Hanson in the Senate on a day when she confused herself, and the chamber, over when her actual birthday is (Hanson said in a speech it was yesterday, then she accused Labor of misleading and lying when they said her birthday was yesterday, because it was actually in May, and then when it was pointed out that she said her birthday was yesterday, she said that was obviously not the case).
Updated
In the ACT, the advice is:
ACT update on AstraZeneca:
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) June 17, 2021
From today ACT COVID booking line won't accept AZ appointments for 50-59s
ACT Health will contact 50-59s w existing AZ appointments *at an ACT Gov clinic*, "priority over the coming days will be to reschedule these people for a Pfizer appointment".
If you’re in NSW and have a WA holiday planned, take a breath – at this point, it is a watch and wait situation.
Mark McGowan is not making any border changes. As yet.
We are carefully and closely monitoring what is happening in NSW. If you have been to one of the exposure sites and come to Western Australia, you are currently required to quarantine and be tested.
Obviously we will monitor that, if we need to put in place stronger measures in coming days, we will. We will monitor and watch what is happening in NSW very, very closely.
Updated
Western Australian premier reacts to new vaccine advice
Mark McGowan is responding to the change in advice on AstraZeneca:
From tomorrow afternoon, 50- to 59-year-olds will be able to get the Pfizer vaccine through our state-run clinics.
So it is important we open up bookings for them in line with the national health advice.
For those 50-59, who have already booked in and are due to receive their first dose of AstraZeneca, they will be contacted by WA Health to have their booking changed to a Pfizer booking.
People age 50-59 who have already had their first dose of AstraZeneca, like myself, like the minister, should keep their booking and continue to get their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, based on health advice.
The clear health advice from the national bodies is that different vaccines should not be mixed.
There is no change to the 40 to 49-year-olds under our rollout program.
It is important to note that from July 5, anyone aged 40 to 49, along with people aged 50 to 59, are able to receive their Pfizer vaccination through the federal government’s GP and respiratory clinics rollout program.
People age 30 to 39, who have made bookings through the rollout for WA website, will have their bookings on it. Bookings with this cohort have been extremely high, and appointments are already booked out until August.
People age 30 to 39 who have not yet made a booking, we encourage you to go to rollup.wa.gov.au to register your details so as when more Pfizer supply becomes available from the commonwealth, we will be able to get you booked in.
Updated
Online banking and app outages reported across Australia
A large number of banking services across Australia have gone offline on Thursday afternoon, with outages being reported by CBA, ANZ, Westpac and St George customers, according to DownDetector.
Customers reported after 2pm AEST that they were not able to log into their online banking accounts, or through the banks’ apps.
Guardian Australia has contacted a number of the banks to determine the cause.
A spokesperson for CBA said the bank was “investigating this as a top priority” and apologised for the outage.
Virgin Australia has also been affected by the outage.
*NAB say they were unaffected by the outage
System outage: Website and Guest Contact Centre. pic.twitter.com/J3qJK5Cy9t
— Virgin Australia (@VirginAustralia) June 17, 2021
Updated
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners wants the government to consider establishing patient subsidies for counselling to combat vaccine hesitancy:
RACGP president Dr Karen Price said vaccine hesitancy remained a serious concern and requires urgent action.
“We are dealing with increasing vaccine hesitancy right across the country, in cities and rural towns, and it’s a serious concern,” she said.
“The change in Atagi’s recommendations reinforces the need for patient subsidies for vaccine counselling, so GPs can take the time required to talk to patients who have concerns.
“Last time there was a change, GPs had to deal with cancelled bookings and had to spend much more time talking to patients with concerns.
“GPs are expert in counselling vaccine hesitant patients and building vaccine confidence in the community, this is what we do, but we can’t do it without appropriate support.
“We also really need a national campaign to build vaccine confidence, and this needs to reach every community, including those who are culturally diverse, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and others who are more vulnerable.”
Updated
Adam Bandt has responded to Michael McCormack’s comments in question time, where he accused the Greens leader of ‘treasonous’ behaviour (he was made to withdraw).
Bandt:
I want to protect our country from the climate crisis, but Michael McCormack is a threat to Australia.
Michael McCormack’s love of coal and gas has our farmers and our future on the verge of collapse.
The real treachery is loving coal more than your country.
Australia’s farmers are at massive risk from the climate crisis but the Nationals are choosing coal and gas over crops and water.
Updated
Labor’s Josh Burns used the end of question time to correct the record, after Paul Fletcher, who is the arts minister, accused Burns of not making comments on arts policy.
Burns says his staff did a Hansard search and found 11 speeches Burns had made on the arts.
They also did a search of Fletcher’s speeches, and found he had mentioned the arts in six speeches.
Burns offers to send his speeches to the minister.
It’s important to repeat that the severe and rare clotting associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine mostly occurs after the first dose, and is much rarer after the second.
Prof Julie Leask, a social scientist with the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sydney, whose research focuses on infectious disease and immunisation, said Atagi had made the right decision.
“The implication of this recommendation is that it will increase demand on the Pfizer vaccine,” she said.
“It is inevitable that some more people will feel more cautious about this vaccine, particularly those already hesitant. This is likely to be a minority.
“There were also many Australians still getting vaccinated with the previous announcement.
“For those over 60 years who are hesitant about AstraZeneca and where it’s the only option for the time being, I would say this: it’s normal to feel concerned about the risk of TTS – it’s serious even though it’s rare. When people have any vaccine, they should look at the advice on early signs of reactions to report for prompt diagnosis and treatment.
“The big picture is also important. TTS is a risk at a single point in time whereas the benefits of vaccination and the immunity it provides extend into the future, to ourselves, our families and communities.”
Updated
This day’s after question time indulgence is on the retirement of Tony Harriet, a Comcar driver who has spent 50 years in the job, driving MPs around.
That’s quite the record.
Both Michael McCormack and Anthony Albanese pay tribute to him, with Albanese commenting that Comcar drivers are famously among the most discrete people in Canberra.
The only bit of goss Albanese managed to get out of them?
“We had fun with Hawke.”
Updated
Question time ends.
We survived the Michael McCormack reign in the PM chair.
Well done to you all.
Updated
For what is actually happening with Australia’s emissions, here is Adam Morton in December:
And in April:
We’re back to ‘how much does Michael McCormack not know’ and the latest entry is ‘emissions’.
Anthony Albanese to McCormack:
This morning the minister for resources said about a commitment to net zero by 2050, and I quote: “That has not been sought by the Nationals.”
He went on to say it would require agreement and that has not been reached. Is the minister for resources correct?
McCormack (the leader of the Nationals):
Emissions are 20% lower than they were in 2005. We should be prouder.
They’re lower than what the United States, what Canada has produced, I tell you what we’ll do, as Nationals, as Liberals ...
There is about to be a point of order but ...
McCormack:
I concluded my answer.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Michael McCormack:
Does the acting prime minister agree that no adult worker should be paid less than the minimum wage?
McCormack:
Well, Mr Speaker, as I said in my previous answer, we’re operating under the same conditions for wages, for industrial relations, as was established by the then Labor government. And the government’s record, and I appreciate that whilst he didn’t mention this in his question, but it’s talking about worker exploitation and wage underpayment, and we have zero tolerance for any exploitation of workers.
And that includes the underpayment of wages and entitlements by any employer. We have zero tolerance. And the government has taken unprecedented action to protect vulnerable workers. Since 2016 ...
(“It’s jobs, it’s jobs,” Josh Frydenberg interjects, before he is told to stop)
McCormack:
We have committed more funding to the Fair Work Ombudsman, strengthened their investigative powers to compel witnesses to provide evidence, and increased penalties up to 10-fold for worker exploitation.
People who work should be paid a fair and decent wage.
That’s why there was a decision made this week to do just that. We have the highest minimum wage in the world and we should be proud of that. It’s gone up. The government has introduced reforms to protect employees’ superannuation, to address the black economy, to target legal phoenixing activity.
We recognise many employers, most employers, are doing the right thing by their workers. Indeed they are. However, some businesses are still not paying enough attention or are having difficulty navigating sometimes what is a complex system, but we will not stand for any exploitation of workers. Workers who are being used and abused and not being paid the right amount.
Updated
Tony Burke asks Michael McCormack about a woman named Kate, who took a job picking fruit, on ‘piece rates’ (a common way fruit pickers are paid) and was forced to find food in supermarket garbage bins, as she couldn’t afford food, despite working seven days a week.
McCormack starts talking about the minimum wage. Which this woman doesn’t receive (something Burke points out).
McCormack:
I take the member for Watson’s point. But we are operating under the same system of wages and industrial relations that we did when Labor were in government. And indeed, and indeed, there was a wage decision case made this week, this week.
He then gets Paul Fletcher, the IR minister to take the question. Fletcher gives the same answer.
Fletcher:
As he said, we have had – we’ve got an industrial relations framework which reflects what was introduced by the previous government.
And Mr Speaker, I make it very clear our government has zero tolerance for any exploitation of workers. And is committed to ensuring that workers have the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the Australian economy, without the fear of exploitation. We have the highest minimum wage in the world, and we have extensive safeguards in place.
Of course, if the member wants to provide further information about the individual circumstances, we’ll look at. We have clear safeguards in place to support people in the workforce.
Updated
Peter Dutton gets very angry at Labor’s interjections and begins “reflecting” on the opposition.
Anthony Albanese has a point of order and says Labor has never not supported the men and women of the Australian defence force, and the interjections were about Dutton’s gagging of parliamentary debate.
Dutton withdraws but says he didn’t make an unparliamentary remark. He then starts a lecture on values.
Albanese:
“As the proud leader of the party of John Curtin, we stand with the men and women of the Australian defence force.”
There is more yelling across the chamber, but the House moves on.
Updated
“Our values relate to freedom of speech, to democracy,” says Peter Dutton, who has launched defamation action against someone for a tweet.
And the divisions end. Labor loses, so question time continues.
The chamber moves on to Sgt Peter Dutton’s daily defence love-in.
Updated
The first division goes to the government, 71 to 65.
Richard Marles moves a second attempt:
“The prime minister bet the house on AstraZeneca and now the vaccine rollout is in disarray.”
He is gagged. The House divides again.
“You didn’t have a second line anyway,” someone from the government benches yells out.
Updated
The government and health bodies from Atagi to the AMA are urging people who have had their first AstraZeneca dose to get their second, highlighting that most people who develop the rare and severe clotting disorder known as TTS do so after the first dose, not the second one.
But it will be interesting to see if the government has a contingency plan and education campaign to prepare for people who may be reluctant to get their second dose regardless. There are currently no plans to follow Canada and allow “mix and match” doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
While studies suggest that receiving a combination of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines doses is safe and provides high protection against severe disease and death, more data is needed on what mixed dosing does in terms of preventing people from passing on the disease. More data on that should be coming out from Europe in the next month or two.
Those who mix and match do tend to experience more side effects, though not serious ones.
Updated
There we go – Anthony Albanese has moved for a suspension of standing orders to debate this motion:
That the house notes,
One, despite announcing Australia would be at the front of the queue on Covid vaccines, the Morrison government has taken too long to secure the vaccines Australians were always going to need.
Two, despite announcing Australia was not putting all its eggs in one basket on Covid vaccines, the Morrison government failed to secure early access to five or six vaccines.
Three, fewer than 3% of Australians have been fully vaccinated.
Four, despite announcing last August it was looking to establish mRNA manufacturing in Australia, the Morrison government has failed to establish mRNA vaccine manufacturing here. Five, the Morrison government has failed to run an effective public information campaign on vaccines in the face of constantly changing health advice and increased vaccine hesitancy.
Albanese gets in this before he is gagged by Peter Dutton:
There were two jobs this government had to get right this year. The rollout of the vaccine, they can roll out the red carpet for the prime minister but they haven’t been able to roll out [vaccines].
The House divides. Labor has lost a few MPs in that QT, so there is even less of a chance this will succeed than normal (which is practically a zero chance, given the numbers in the House).
Updated
Stuart Robert says there has never been a better time to hire an Australian.
I mean, yes. Because the borders are closed. The international worker pipeline has been shut off.
Updated
Michael McCormack begins to malfunction at the end of this answer. So many “getting on with the jobs” so little time.
Anthony Albanese to McCormack:
Fewer than 3% of Australians are fully vaccinated. The government has failed to meet any of its vaccine targets. It failed to secure enough vaccine deals. There is uncertainty about the health advice and in Sydney, people are driving foreign air crews around who haven’t been vaccinated. The government had two jobs this year, roll out the vaccine effectively and national quarantine. Why has it botched both?
This sounds like a suspension of standing orders is coming on.
McCormack:
... Throughout this global pandemic, the Australian government has acted on the advice of the medical experts. We have acted on advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. We have acted on the advice of professors Paul Kelly and Brendan Murphy.
We have taken on board that advice and acted accordingly. With the last point that the opposition leader made, is he seriously suggesting that we make the jabs compulsory? It is voluntary ... [for some industries, including aged care, the National Cabinet is considering this].
He has asked the question. We want to encourage all Australians to get that jab.
It is so important. It is absolutely critical, and indeed over the last seven days 731,660 people have got the vaccination, over the last eight days, 874,000. And more than 60% of over 70s have been protected with a first dose.
More than 40% of over 50s are protected with a first dose. More than one in four of eligible population aged 16 and over are protected with a first dose.
In aged care, all 2,566 RACFs have received a first dose. 96.9%% of commonwealth RACFs have received a second dose. Disability care, 9,718 of NDIS participants in a residential accommodation have received at least one dose. This is, as Professor Brendan Murphy said, the largest logistical exercise in Australia’s peace time history.
It is the largest logistical exercise in Australia’s peace time history and to the opposition leader’s point about the transport worker, we are happy to look into that but indeed - I am happy to take any more information if the opposition leader has it on this particular case, but the New South Wales state has been the gold standard by which tracking and tracing, contact tracking and tracing, has occurred.
They have made every measure and effort to keep New South Wales safe and indeed that is why they have kept their state safe, just as we have ensured that we have kept this country safe. We are doing this in the most practical, responsible way, listening at all times to the best possible medical advice.
Updated
The Australian Medical Association says the change to the Atagi advice “is based on the latest medical evidence and advice”:
“The Australian community can be reassured that the commonwealth continues to take the advice of medical experts on how best to manage the risk of Covid-19 and target our vaccine rollout,” AMA president, Dr Omar Khorshid said.
“ATAGI has decided the AstraZeneca vaccine should be used for those patients who are 60 years of age and over based on an assessment of the current risks of Covid-19 in the community,” he said.
“With very low rates of community transmission, ATAGI has decided that Pfizer should be the preferred vaccine for anyone under the age of 60. People who have had the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be alarmed by this decision.
“The risks of serious complications, including clotting, from the AstraZeneca vaccine are very low and Australia is now very good at detecting clots in patients who’ve had the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“More importantly, we have developed very effective protocols and treatments that mean most people fully recover from these complications.”
Khorshid said around 3.8m doses have been administered around the country and the overwhelming majority of people report no, or only very mild, side effects.
“People who have had a first dose of AstraZeneca must still have their second dose as recommended. The overseas evidence clearly shows that two doses of AstraZeneca are needed to protect people against Covid-19 variants of concern including the Delta strain,” he said.
Updated
Chris Bowen gets booted under 94A just as Josh Frydenberg winds up for a massive yelling dixer session. Lucky.
Updated
In “how much does Michael McCormack not know”, Anthony Albanese wants to know why frontline workers, like the NSW driver who was transporting flight crews to quarantine and has since been diagnosed with the Delta variant of Covid, have not been vaccinated.
McCormack:
I thank the opposition leader for his question. That is why we are urging and encouraging all Australians and foreign crew who come into this nation to make sure they have got their jabs, their vaccinations.
That is the whole point of it, the bottom line, particularly for people working in these frontline industries, whether it is in the medical profession, the transport profession, indeed we want them to get vaccinated. It is so important to get that vaccination, when available, to keep themselves, their families, keep their communities and workplaces safe.
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Acting PM accuses Greens leader of 'treasonous' behaviour
Michael McCormack, fresh from wishing mice plagues on inner-city apartments, and attacks on people who drink coffee in the city, is now turning directly to the Greens (who he earlier this week accused of wanting to destroy the nation’s social fabric – obviously he confused capitalism with the Greens. Easy to do).
He thinks he has done a very good job in this answer. Let’s let history judge that, shall we?
Adam Bandt to McCormack:
You have Australia on track to warm by over 4 degrees ... This is a death sentence for millions of Australians, including our farmers. Why are you doing everything in your power to make droughts and bushfires and extreme weather worse, ripping apart our country’s social fabric? When will you listen to the Greens, the G7 and the International Energy Agency and start phasing out coal and gas and when will you apologise to farmers for choosing coal over crops and putting the lives and livelihoods of so many farmers at risk?
McCormack:
You talk of global warming. Hell will freeze over when I start listening to the Greens, I tell you what.
I am asked about climate, I am asked about the social fabric of Australia. I am asked about farmers.
My Nationals colleagues, the Liberals and I, will always stand up for jobs.
We will always stand up for doing what is right for the nation.
We will always stand up for farmers. I am the son of a generational farming family and how dare you, member for Melbourne, come into this place and dare question my support for farmers.
I will always stick up for those primary producers who put food, fibre, onto the tables and into the wardrobes of people such as the member for Melbourne.
We will always do what is right for Australian households and factories and farms but we will do it in a practical and ...
(Graham Perrett is kicked out under 94A)
McCormack:
... As Coalition members, we want to make sure there is a manufacturing base in Australia and not just a base but something that we can grow and expand on.
That is what we’re doing through the budget, we are doing it with our sensible policies.
The member for Melbourne should begin to talk things up in Australia, not run us down, tell other countries and write to their ambassadors that they should deny Australian trade because that is what he has done. That is treasonous. A traitor to Australia.
Tony Smith makes him withdraw:
McCormack:
I withdraw that but he should not write to Australia’s ambassadors to Australia and urge them to tell their countries not to trade with Australia. That is a disgrace.
Our emissions are already at record lows. He should be spruiking that to the world stage.
We had the highest take-up rate of rooftop solar per capita. I am pleased to say, being a regional member, regional Australia is playing the leading role in making sure we have lower emissions.
We will always protect those resources industry workers. We will, I know the member for Hunter will. I am not sure too many others on that - maybe the member for Paterson will indeed too. We all do on this side, support the brave resources workers, the people who get on high-vis, the people who put on a hard hat with a torch on the front and dig up the resources that make for a better Australia, a more prosperous Australia.
Ambition is important but action and outcomes are what matter and our track record is something of which all Australians should be proud when it comes to climate action, when it comes to lowering emissions and when it comes to doing what is right for this nation.
Updated
Mark Butler to Greg Hunt:
I refer to reports that Pfizer approached the government 12 months ago offering Australia the opportunity to be among the first nations in the world to have access to the Pfizer vaccine. Is that right? Why did the government fail to secure that early agreement for Pfizer vaccines when it had the chance?
Hunt:
The government commenced negotiations with Pfizer at the first time that they were willing to do that.
After the end of June, when Pfizer lifted the ban on being able to have negotiations, we had informal discussions because we had sought to commence them at the earliest possible date. Their advice to us was they were not able, on the basis of the international rules, to commence negotiations.
When that was lifted we began those discussions in July, we followed the advice of Atagi and we followed, in particular, the advice of the scientific and technical advisory group.
We secured the earliest possible availability of doses as on all advice that I have.
The advice of the scientific and technical advisory group was to secure an initial 10 million.
There was no earlier available volume to best of my advice and knowledge. That remains absolutely clear and that has been the position throughout.
One of the things that we have done is follow that advice and secure 195 million doses of vaccine across five different platforms.
We have 53.8 million AstraZeneca doses, which has provided the backbone of what has occurred in Australia with over 500 million AstraZeneca doses delivered worldwide.
It has been the backbone of the UK program to which the opposition refers from time to time.
In addition to that, we have 50 million Novavax, we have 40 million Pfizer, all of which are on the latest advice that I have, due to be delivered during the course of this year. We have 10 million Moderna due to be delivered this year and 15 million next year.
We have access to 25.5 million Covax. One of the things that is very important is that we recognise that the decision taken today is a cautious one.
It compares with the position, where in the UK 40 and above can access AstraZeneca. In South Korea, 30 and above, in Germany it is 18 and above.
They have made it based on Australian circumstances and we have followed that medical advice, as we have done scrupulously with the work of the scientific and technical advisory group, led by Professor Murphy, as to which vaccine should be purchased and on what basis and every vaccine that we have purchased we have secured at the earliest possible time.
Updated
“Alternative approaches” now seem to include “whinging and whining”, at least according to Josh Frydenberg.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg is yelling his latest dixer answer, and his vocal cords seem to be crying out for help.
I’m going to take the opportunity to make a cup of tea in sympathy.
Mark Butler to Greg Hunt:
What is the government’s advice to Australians in their 50s who have had their first dose of AstraZeneca and are yet to receive their second? How many Australians are in that situation?
Hunt:
There are approximately 815,000 Australians who have had a first dose of AstraZeneca and waiting for a second. Some in this room, in this chamber, will be in that circumstances.
The advice provided by Atagi and the chief medical officer has been clear that they should proceed with the second doses, as was the case when the previous advice was given.
At all times what we have done, and this has been one of the hallmarks of Australia’s response, has been to follow that medical advice.
The closing of the border with China, the difficult decisions in relation to the closing of the national border more generally but also in particular with the selection of vaccines which were based on the advice of the scientific and technical advisory group led by Professor Brendan Murphy, we have followed all their recommendations in terms of the source of vaccine, the quantity of vaccine and also, in terms of the application of those vaccines.
The advice given just before Question Time, both in writing by Atagi and verbally by the chief medical officer of Australia, is if you have had a first dose, no matter what your age, of AstraZeneca, please proceed with the second dose unless there has been a significant adverse [reaction], the same advice that was given in relation to others at the time that the 50 and above age group was put into place.
The reason why, as was explained by the chief medical officer, is the global evidence is that there is a very, very low case level right around the world with regards to any adverse reactions to a second dose of AstraZeneca. I think that hopefully addresses the question, 815,000.
Updated
The first dixer is on the Victorian storm damage and those without power – up to 3,000 people could be without power until 10 July, which is a very long three weeks away during a very chilly winter.
The parliament is united in thinking of Victoria.
Updated
Question time begins
It’s the last day of “how much does Michael McCormack not know” but given the vaccine news, QT has more of a serious tone than the rest of the week (and one would imagine PMO have done all they can to make sure McCormack has as many answers as possible when it comes to the vaccine.
Anthony Albanese to McCormack:
Does the acting prime minister acknowledge failure to secure deals for the early supply of a diversity of vaccines has led to a heavy reliance on AstraZeneca, which has been subject to changing health advice, contributed to vaccine hesitancy, slowed Australia’s vaccine rollout and put our economic recovery at risk?
McCormack:
I thank the opposition leader for his question. We have, at all points during this global pandemic, made sure that we followed the best possible medical advice and did what a responsible government would do as far as the vaccination rollout is concerned, as far as making sure that we had the necessary funding to get the necessary doses out to communities – certainly, whether they were metropolitan communities, rural and remote communities.
Last week the Victorian government confirmed that it had the necessary supply of the Pfizer vaccines, including both first and second doses, in that state’s vaccine storage facilities.
In response to increased rates of vaccination in Victoria, the Australian government has provided an additional Pfizer doses - 1.5 million – and increased the supply of AstraZeneca to Victoria from 26,100 to 41,100 per week for a total of six weeks for state hubs, a further 80,000 additional AstraZeneca doses for state clinics and a doubling of AstraZeneca for all Victorian general practices.
What it means is Pfizer’s supply to Victoria is about each week 104,000 and 133,000 for the rest of June.
Each week 104,000, 133,000 for the rest of June which includes a baseline delivery of 71,000 doses a week, plus 150,000 extra doses we are giving Victoria to get through this outbreak. Then in July, Victoria’s baseline Pfizer doses increase to around 83,000 a week and Victorian GPs will receive 200,000 doses through the month.
I am pleased to say that DHL is continuing its delivery of those vaccinations to many parts of regional and remote Australia, already travelled 24 million kilometres. We have got the Royal Flying Doctors Service providing vaccinations via its planes to 80 communities, servicing 30,000 Australians in those remote areas. We will continue to provide the vaccinations, we will continue to provide the necessary funding, whatever it takes.
Updated
Ok –
So the general in charge of the vaccine roll out, General JJ Frewen, has been deployed to make sure everyone feels secure about the vaccine rollout.
They’re calling it Operation Covid Shield.
The Atagi advice is now confirmed and official – if you are over 60, it is recommended you have the AstraZeneca vaccine. If you are under 60, it is recommended you have a mRNA vaccine, which at the moment is Pfizer, but will also include Moderna.
If you have had your first dose of AstraZeneca and are under 60, it is recommended you have your second dose. The rare clotting syndrome becomes even rarer with second doses.
This will put more pressure on Australia’s vaccine rollout. We are not expecting the bulk of the Pfizer vaccines until the end of the year.
Updated
There is about eight minutes until question time, but I’ll bring you a recap of what just happened in just a moment.
Updated
Witness K pleads 'guilty'
Reporters have just been allowed into the sentencing proceedings of former Australian Secret Intelligence Service officer Witness K, who is facing possible jail time for helping to expose a bugging operation targeting Timor-Leste during negotiations over the resource-rich Timor Sea. We’ve just heard the former spy’s voice for the first time, when he formally pleaded guilty.
Witness K is present in a small courtroom in the ACT magistrates court, which is packed with observers and lawyers. He is hidden behind a wall of dark screens.
Great care has been taken to protect his identity.
Magistrate Glenn Theakston arraigned Witness K on a charge of conspiring with his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, to communicate protected Asis intelligence information to the government of Timor-Leste.
Asked how he plead, Witness K said from behind the screens:
“Guilty, your honour.”
Witness K is now being represented by high-profile barrister Robert Richter QC for sentencing.
The prosecution has filed an unclassified statement of facts, outlining its case. A classified version is locked in a safe. From here, we are expecting to hear submissions from both prosecution and defence on what Witness K should be sentenced to.
Only some of those submissions will be open to the public.
Updated
Greg Hunt finishes the press conference with this:
... We do have to be resilient, Australians have been magnificent. And I want to thank them. Yes, it does mean that for those in the 50 to 59 group, they have to be more patient, as they have been, but they have to be patient over the coming weeks. But equally as has been raised, many who had wanted access to Pfizer will now have access to Pfizer. So there are always challenges, but ... as [General] JJ set out, there’s a clear plan.
We’ll get through this, we’ll get this done and will continue to keep Australians safe and take care of everybody.
Updated
Ali Telford, the vaccine communications manager for AstraZeneca in Australia and New Zealand, said; “We respect the decision taken by the Australian government based on advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi).”
“This updated recommendation from Atagi has been made in the context of low community transmission rates in Australia,” she said.
“AstraZeneca remains committed to supporting the rollout of the vaccination strategy in Australia and is confident that our vaccine has an important role in protecting Australians from the virus.”
Telford said the vaccine had helped to save tens of thousands of lives.
“... extensive data from clinical trials and real-world evidence from millions of people shows that our vaccine is highly effective against Covid-19,” she said.
“Regulatory authorities around the world have stated that the benefit of using our vaccine significantly outweigh the risks across all adult age groups. Patient safety is AstraZeneca’s highest priority, and we continue to work closely with the TGA and other regulators around the world.”
Updated
Greg Hunt says this is the first time that the federal government has received advice AstraZeneca should be recommended for over 60s:
We received the advice at about 12:50PM today, we called this press conference immediately and provided a response. In terms of the messaging, the medical messaging has been, right throughout, if you are in an eligible group, please do not wait ... couldn’t be simpler or clearer.
Updated
Greg Hunt on when Pfizer is coming:
I have spoken with the country head of Pfizer again today and reaffirmed that in fact, as the general and myself have set out, we will have access to 2.8 million doses during the course of July, which is in excess of what we had previously indicated. So that is positive.
We were previously expecting 600,000, it has been increased to 2.8m. We have also requested that anything which can be brought forward, should be brought forward. It is a difficult, challenging global situation.
We have 40 million doses that are secured, which we believe are reliable, and which will be delivered, as well as we have high faith in the timing reliability of Moderna during the course of this year, so that is an extra 50 million all up that we can rely on, minus those that have already arrived.
Updated
Atagi AstraZeneca advice released
Here’s the official advice:
(You can find the whole statement here)
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommends the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine (Comirnaty) as the preferred vaccine for those aged 16 to under 60 years. This updates the previous preferential recommendation for Comirnaty over COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca in those aged 16 to under 50 years. The recommendation is revised due to a higher risk and observed severity of thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) related to the use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine observed in Australia in the 50-59 year old age group than reported internationally and initially estimated in Australia.
For those aged 60 years and above, the individual benefits of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine are greater than in younger people. The risks of severe outcomes with COVID-19 increase with age and are particularly high in older unvaccinated individuals. The benefit of vaccination in preventing COVID-19 with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca outweighs the risk of TTS in this age group and underpins its ongoing use in this age group.
People of any age without contraindications who have had their first dose of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca without any serious adverse events should receive a second dose of the same vaccine. This is supported by data indicating a substantially lower rate of TTS following a second COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca dose in the United Kingdom (UK).
Greg Hunt on vaccine hesitancy:
Let me just get the latest figures, the latest figures that we have seen is at least 70% of Australians are intending to have a vaccine, I did say there was another group that we want to really work hard to convert.
We want to get every possible Australian to be vaccinated. But the latest figures of the tracking research that we have done have shown that 70% have a positive clear intention, that has actually increased, and what we are seeing, of course, is that Australians are coming out in very large numbers.
The most important thing for us to do is, if we do have the medical advice, to follow it.
That is the difference between what has occurred in Australia and so many other countries. We have acted swiftly ... today we put in place the contingency where we [changed] the age for AstraZeneca ... and there was a point when we were going to be doing that in any event, we’re doing it now, perhaps a few weeks earlier than we otherwise might have.
Updated
Greg Hunt is downplaying the delays to the vaccine program this new advice may cause:
It’s a challenge, every day. Every day during Covid the world has challenges. Australia’s challenges, thankfully and mercifully, have been different to the rest of the world – just the point that I made at the outset is over 2 million lives lost worldwide officially, and on the World Health Organisation’s biggest [estimate] potentially 5 million, when you take into account [those] that haven’t been recorded. And zero lives lost to anybody who’s caught Covid in Australia this year.
So that’s, that’s the grand perspective on all of this. So in terms of the rollout, what it means is it lifts from the age of 50 to the age of 60 those who get AstraZeneca, and it moves from the age of 49 to 59 those that get Pfizer. So we’re adapting immediately...
Updated
General John James Frewen is also at this press conference; he says he has been tasked with taking over the vaccine rollout, which is now called “Operation Covid Shield”.
Updated
The main messages here are:
If you are under 60 and haven’t had your vaccine, you may need to have patience, as mass supplies aren’t coming in until the third quarter.
If you have had your first dose of AstraZeneca, you should have your second dose. There is even less chance of developing a blood clot with the second dose, and there have been no cases in Australia. In the UK, where AstraZeneca has been one of the main vaccines, the instances of clots associated with second doses is even lower than the first dose.
If you are over 60, you should book in for your AstraZeneca vaccine as soon as you can.
Updated
Professor Paul Kelly says Australia is picking up more cases of the rare blood clotting syndrome, because “we are looking for it”.
Chief health officer says those who had first AstraZeneca dose without problem should have second dose
Chief health officer, professor Paul Kelly explains why the change was made:
They’ve balanced the risk and benefit of the vaccine in the context where we are right now in Australia, in relation to the Covid 19 pandemic, and also with an eye to what might happen over the coming months and I think that’s a really important message – AstraZeneca remains a very effective vaccine.
The benefit of AstraZeneca in the over 60s remains much higher than the risk of this particularly rare but sometimes serious syndrome.
And so people over 60 should still be rolling up to their GP or wherever they are getting their AstraZeneca vaccine, and get that first dose.
The second important component of the advice is that anyone who has had a first dose of AstraZeneca without problem should feel very confident to have their second dose, and they should keep that booking.
Go and talk to your GP about it if you’re concerned but on the basis of information we have in Australia we have not had a single case of this particular syndrome in a second dose, but we have not had many second doses in Australia, but in the UK they’ve had almost 16 million second doses of AstraZeneca, and the rate of this particular rare but sometimes serious condition is much, much lower, around 1.5 per million, which is way lower than the first dose, across all age groups.
Updated
Greg Hunt says the program is on track to offer all Australians who want a vaccine will be offered one, by the end of the year.
Hunt:
It is a change, and we recognise that that does bring some challenges. They [50-59] will now have access to Pfizer.
... We will have significant volumes of Pfizer coming in over the course of the coming weeks and months, but we do ask for people’s patience on that front. I’d note that the total vaccines are now well over 6.2 million.
Updated
There is a strong recommendation for the second doses of AstraZeneca to go ahead for those who have already had their first dose.
But everyone else is recommended to have a mRNA vacine (Pfizer or Moderna) if they are under 60.
That puts massive pressure on the supplies, which are not coming in until the end of the year.
Greg Hunt confirms AstraZeneca now recommended for over-60s
Greg Hunt is holding his media conference now:
He has confirmed the health advice has changed – AstraZeneca is now recommended for over 60s (not 50s, as it was previously).
Updated
When I say Andrew Bragg is feeling pretty chuffed I mean he is feeling pretty chuffed:
Good eggs have prevailed 👇 pic.twitter.com/EmsyzhXp34
— Senator Andrew Bragg (@ajamesbragg) June 17, 2021
Andrew Bragg is very pleased the government’s super reforms passed the Senate. Here is part of his statement:
The passage of our super reform bill is an overdue structural reform.
Super was scandalously established without a proper framework. There is no systemic objective, no target and no measurement. It is any wonder the system doesn’t work.
As it stands, super will never deliver a positive budget contribution, it won’t get many people off the pension and will simply grow as a cash cow for unions and financiers.
With these changes, there is a chance the system might start working for people - rather than for vested interests.
It has taken 30 years to ensure that performance is assessed, fees are minimised and trustees are obliged to do the right thing.
That’s what these reforms will do.
Ultimately, the reforms can be judged by whether the $30 billion fee take is reduced and the returns to members are boosted.
Updated
Greg Hunt will hold his press conference in the Blue Room in about 15 minutes.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg is in the Blue Room feeling quite chuffed with the unemployment data:
What was particularly pleasing about those numbers was the strong private sector led recovery. With dwelling investment up, machinery and equipment up, farm GDP and output up.
Indeed, after that March quarter national account number, we saw Australia, ahead of any advanced economy in the world, see its economy bigger than it was going into the pandemic. Australians know we are still in the middle of a once in a century pandemic.
There is a long way to go. But the Australian economy is recovering strongly, indeed, the Reserve Bank governor said today it is a V shaped recovery.
What these numbers should do is give Australians confidence that there is light at the end of the tunnel. These numbers should give Australians confidence that the Morrison government’s economic plan is working.
Updated
The Greens senator, Larissa Waters, has moved to refer the bill to set up a commission of inquiry into Christian Porter’s fitness to be a minister to a Senate committee inquiry.
On Wednesday, the government and One Nation voted in the Senate to prevent the bill getting a first reading.
Waters’ attempt to set up an inquiry into the bill was lost 31 votes to 29, with One Nation again teaming up with the Coalition.
Updated
The TGA has sent out its weekly safety report:
The TGA and other medicines regulators around the world continue to closely monitor and investigate thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). This is a rare event involving serious blood clots with a low blood platelet count. TTS is triggered by the immune system’s response to the AstraZeneca vaccine and is different from other clotting conditions.
As previously reported, the TGA determines whether a report is likely to represent TTS by assessing cases against a consistent set of criteria, based on the case definitions established by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Since last week’s report, a further 12 reports of blood clots and low blood platelets have been assessed as confirmed or probable TTS likely to be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine (Table 1).
Table 1: Newly confirmed and probable TTS cases for the week of 11-17 June 2021
New confirmed TTS
Three new cases:
- 55 and 65-year-old women from Victoria
- 53-year-old woman from NSW
New probable TTS
Nine new cases:
- 54-year-old man from Northern Territory
- 65-year-old woman from Tasmania
- 50 and 56-year-old men and a 69-year-old woman from Victoria
- 58-year-old woman from South Australia
- 59 and 80-year-old men from Queensland
- 67-year-old woman from NSW
This takes the total Australian reports assessed as TTS following the AstraZeneca vaccine to 37 confirmed cases and 23 probable cases.
Most cases have occurred in people aged over 50 years because the AstraZeneca vaccine has been used almost exclusively in this age group since the recommendation from ATAGI on 8 April 2021 that the Comirnaty vaccine is preferred in people under 50.
The TGA’s adjudication committee, which met to review these cases on 16 June 2021, confirmed that seven of the 12 new cases this week were in individuals aged 50–59 years old.
Super bills pass Senate
The Senate has passed a trio of government superannuation bills, including the Your Future Your Super – which will block most underperforming funds from recruiting new members and “staple” workers to one fund to prevent creation of duplicate accounts.
The bill passed 34 votes to 30, after One Nation and Jacqui Lambie voted with the Coalition.
The Coalition accepted two One Nation amendments to allow Australians who took lump sums of up to $10,000 out during Covid-19 to repay the money into their super account by 2030 without penalty; and to ensure that people paying more than $25,000 into their superannuation will not be taxed an extra 3% when they do so.
The Senate passed a Coalition amendment to delay introduction of benchmarking and stapling until November.
The Coalition successfully opposed a bid by independent senator Rex Patrick to extend benchmarking of funds to for-profit retail funds, despite support from the Australian Industry Group and Australian Council of Trade Unions for the move.
Updated
I am getting quite a few reports of this happening.
Much confusion about this ATAGI advice on the AZ vaccine. I was booked in for AZ jab this arvo and just phoned by GP advising me appointment now cancelled. After some discussion I can apparently proceed with AZ if I insist (they have no Pfizer for my cohort until October). Gawd
— Paul Syvret (@PSyvret) June 17, 2021
Pauline Hanson forgets when her birthday is, then blames Labor
Pauline Hanson is having a very normal one in the Senate, and forgot when her birthday was.
Look, it is very chaotic Gemini energy, but it is very Gemini.
BREAKING: Pauline Hanson doesn’t know when her own birthday is
— Julian Hill MP (@JulianHillMP) June 17, 2021
🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 🎂 pic.twitter.com/MauCsCmgMb
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There are going to be so many yelling dixer answers about this.
I can’t even read Josh Frydenberg’s tweets without hearing him yell.
#BREAKING: The unemployment rate decreased for the 7th month in a row to 5.1% in May.
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) June 17, 2021
It means there are now more people in work than ever before.
This result is another sign the Morrison Government’s economic recovery plan is working. pic.twitter.com/atWu1JFQwr
Oh, and this also happened in the last hour.
Thursdays, man. As the Dude would say, strikes and gutters, ups and downs.
It being another parliamentary sitting day, Labor has again moved a motion calling for Bowman LNP MP Andrew Laming to be stripped of his committee position, and once again, seen it fail.
The government’s first superannuation bill has passed the Senate by 35 votes to 29. That one enables people aged 65 and 66 to make up to three years of non-concessional superannuation contributions under the bring forward rule.
We’re now on to the second reading stage of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Self Managed Superannuation Funds) bill which increases the maximum number of allowable members from four to six in self-managed superannuation funds and small Apra funds.
Then the third and final bill is Your Future Your Super, which proposes that workers be “stapled” to the first superannuation fund they join to prevent account duplication.
It passed the lower house earlier in June, after the Coalition removed a controversial power for the minister to be able to ban certain types of investments.
There are many amendments to be debated on that one, including some from Rex Patrick that people shouldn’t be stapled to a fund that is inappropriate for their industry because they work in a dangerous occupation (and need the right form of insurance); and ensuring that underperforming retail funds are not excluded from benchmarking performance measures.
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said:
While we would like to see amendments go further and ensure that a worker’s retirement savings follows them throughout their working life, these amendments represent a huge improvement to the bill.
This bill has been written to benefit the for-profit funds and their backers in the big banks – this government should be focussing on protecting the retirement incomes of Australian workers, not funnelling more of this money into profit.”
Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox said:
The bill has been criticised rightly as taking super in a wrong direction, to the detriment of the retirement incomes of millions of super fund members. The constructive amendments proposed by Senator Patrick would remove several of the misdirections in the government’s bill. These amendments are needed to genuinely lift the performance of all super funds; to vastly improve the accuracy of the way fund performance is measured; and to ensure super funds are not caught up in a red tape nightmare.
The amendments proposed by Senator Patrick would go a long way towards fixing the glaring holes in the government’s stapling proposal.
Updated
So far in NSW, the four positive cases are:
The original case – a man who drives flight crew from the airport to their quarantine hotel, who has tested positive for the Delta variant.
The man’s wife (his household contact).
A 70-year-old woman who attended one of the cafes on the exposure sites list.
A man in his 40s who has a low viral load and is potentially a false positive.
Updated
Again, the Atagi advice is a recommendation. If you want the AstraZeneca vaccine, talk to your doctor about whether it would be right for you.
Gladys Berejiklian is asked about the forthcoming change in Atagi advice to move the recommendation for the AstraZeneca vaccine to 60 and older and says:
I am 50 years old and I have had the AstraZeneca.
Obviously, what is really important is for us to follow the health advice and when I got my vaccine the health advice was, and still is, that anyone over 50 should go to the GP and get the AstraZeneca.
That is the best health advice we have had. I made a conscious decision, as did Doctor Chant and our health minister, to get the AstraZeneca.
Updated
Unemployment falls to 5.1%
The ABS has announced the latest employment figures (this is for May):
Bjorn Jarvis, head of labour statistics at the ABS, said May was the seventh consecutive monthly fall in the unemployment rate:
‘The unemployment rate fell to 5.1%, which was below March 2020 (5.3%) and back to the level in February 2020 (5.1 %). The declining unemployment rate continues to align with the strong increases in job vacancies,’ Mr Jarvis said.
‘The number of unemployed people fell by 53,000 in May, down to 701,000. The number of unemployed people has fallen by around 303,000 since the peak of 1 million unemployed people in July 2020.
‘The youth unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points but remained low, at 10.7%. The last time we saw a youth unemployment rate as low as in April and May 2021 was in January 2009.’
Updated
Recapping the last hour
There has been quite a bit in the last hour, so let’s go through the main points
The Australian expert health advice committee, Atagi, has given new advice to the federal government, changing the recommended age for the AstraZeneca vaccine to 60 and over.
It was previously 50 and over.
That will put massive pressure on the mRNA vaccine rollout (Pfizer and Moderna), with Australia’s orders not scheduled to be filled until the third quarter of the year, at the earliest.
Victoria has declared a state of “energy emergency” for parts of the state after massive storms destroyed energy infrastructure, requesting financial assistance from the federal government.
NSW has recorded four locally acquired Covid cases after a flight crew driver tested positive yesterday.
The RBA governor says businesses are still not in the mood to raise wages.
Updated
What about the flight crew the man transported from the FedEx flight?
Dr Kerry Chant:
To be clear, we test all flight crew when they arrive and they get a proper nasopharyngeal swab.
They come in and get taken to a flight crew hotel, if they’re not resident and are not permitted to isolate at home. They then are transported back to the flight, to the airport, for their flight.
They have a requirement to sleep a certain time and rest and then they usually depart so the turnaround time for most international flight crew is very quick.
It’s usually, you know, it can be 24 or 48 hours, whatever meets the aviation offline requirements and then they usually depart. What we do know is that obviously we need to treat them as infectious all the time.
I’ve repeatedly said to you, this is why a single point of time testing never tells you someone is infectious.
You have to treat everyone who comes from overseas as potentially infectious.
So the hypothesis is that the flight crew would have been long departed.
We’re obviously going back over the trip. The focus yesterday was very much on locking down and identifying the close contact venues and our priority is to stop infection.
Concurrently, we’ve then been working with the company to find out the specific details of all the trips the person has undertaken in the 14 days prior to onset of symptoms.
And then we’ll obviously make inquiries of those ... of that company to see if they have any flight crew.
Not all people get sequenced in the US, given the numbers. And as I said, the match sort of fits geographically that that might be the strain, and as I’ve indicated, just because you have the one strain, it doesn’t mean that that person transmitted it. It means that that’s the strain that we found in this case. We’ll look at who he transported and follow up internationally to see if any of them have subsequently become positive on the way in to date.
Updated
NSW’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, says the first time the driver received saliva testing was June 15.
It also needs to be stressed that NSW police have not completed their investigations and there is absolutely no confirmation that any individual has breached health orders.
So from what the NSW premier is saying there, it seems to be that it is up to NSW frontline workers to organise their own vaccinations (if they are outside of the direct quarantine system).
Which was the issue with the federal government’s rollout of the vaccination program for aged care workers.
Updated
How many NSW frontline workers have not been vaccinated?
Gladys Berejiklian:
In our direct quarantine system, people who are employed directly by police or New South Wales Health have all been vaccinated, but we also have to appreciate there are new people coming in every day to the system.
We have literally tens of thousands of people involved in our hotel quarantine system.
We’ve vaccinated all the permanent employees and those in the system a while but every day there are new people, subcontractors of subcontractors coming into the system.
We need to make sure they’re covered. Let me be clear - the health orders make clear what the obligations are.
If there’s a breach in compliance, we’ll deal with that. Can I also make this important point? Our system relies on 100% of people in and around the system doing the right thing 100% of the time.
Now, I’d love to be able to say as Premier that that’s happening every sect of the day.
Most people try their hardest and are under difficult circumstances. I don’t know if anyone in this room would put up our happened and say they’d deal with someone who has Covid.
Updated
As a frontline worker, why was the driver not vaccinated?
Gladys Berejiklian:
This is the issue. We are waiting on the police to complete their investigations.
All workers and drivers within the quarantine system have strict obligations which are covered in our health orders.
If there’s been any breach of that compliance, the police will advise us of that.
We also have to appreciate that no system is perfect and at many times during the pandemic, we’ve refined, updated, looked at issues we hadn’t even considered before; that’s what you need to do.
As the virus involves and the pandemic evolves, so do we need to evolve.
We’ll await the police investigations as to the degree of compliance because every worker within our system is clear and should be clear on their obligations.
They have certain obligations and police will provide that information ...
So is Berejiklian saying it was the driver’s responsibility to get vaccinated?
Well, the health orders make that very clear. In terms of the daily testing, in terms of what we require from people within the system in relation to vaccinations. If there has been any breach, that would be recorded.
Updated
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is also speaking at this press conference:
The virus right now is more dangerous than it has ever been across the world.
We have airports, we have people coming in from across the world, and therefore we can assume the danger will come to us at some point. There is no room for complacency.
Being slack about what the health authorities ask you to do is just inexcusable.
We have to make sure that we all follow the rules.
Now, the police are obviously investigating the particular circumstances surrounding the limousine driver and I won’t be commenting specifically on that limousine driver or those investigations, but what I will remind all drivers who pick people up from the airport more broadly is that you have obligations and your obligations are legal and they are to get saliva-tested every day and to make sure you wear appropriate PPE.
If you don’t do that, you’re breaching the orders and the police will investigate you and of course there are possible consequences of that, but the worst consequences are, of course, that the virus can enter via what might otherwise be a complete non-compliance and just plain slackness about complying with what the health authorities have asked you to do.
We all need to take this seriously.
Can I strongly suggest to the folks in the eastern suburbs: definitely, if you’re getting on a bus at the moment, wear your mask.
It’s sensible, it’s safe for you but it also stops, hopefully, any transmission to anybody else that might be in the bus.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian:
Last night, pathology confirmed that this gentleman has the Delta strain of the virus.
And that this strain does not match anything that’s been uploaded in Australia at this time, but it does match perfectly a sequence that’s been uploaded from the US. And so that fits with that plausible hypothesis – whilst we do test flight crew on the way in, there’s always a chance, as I indicated to you. That’s why one test at one point in time does not confirm your infectiousness and you may develop infection at any point before you depart Australia.
That’s our working hypothesis. Whilst infectious the couple attended a number of venues in Vaucluse, Bondi Junction, Zetland, Redfern and North Sydney, including the 200 bus from Bondi Junction to North Sydney and return on June 15.
We’ve tested four family close contacts who are from a different household, who spent time in the infectious period with that couple, and two workplace close contacts have also tested negative, but they’ll be in quarantine for the full 14 days as they’re close contacts.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed that the original case in Bondi has tested positive for the Delta variant of covid – the one which is considered more contagious.
NSW records four locally acquired cases
Two are in these numbers, and another two came through after 8pm
NSW recorded two locally acquired cases of #COVID19 recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 17, 2021
One new overseas-acquired case was also recorded in the same period, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,440. pic.twitter.com/vARRRztgK7
NSW Health has now also been notified overnight of an additional two locally acquired cases of COVID-19. These cases will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 17, 2021
Just to recap, because that was a busy 30 minutes.
Atagi has sent new advice to the federal government, recommending the recommended age for the AstraZeneca vaccine be shifted from 50 and over, to 60 and over. That would put Australia’s advice in line with a lot of European nations who went 60 and over the moment the rare blood clotting side effect was discovered (and it is rare).
It hasn’t been officially confirmed as yet, and won’t be until the government is ready to announce it. But the states have been informed, because it impacts their vaccine roll outs.
There are calls for an emergency national cabinet meeting to discuss what the change in advice will mean for the rollout, given that Australia’s Pfizer supplies are already under strain, and we won’t be getting the bulk of what we have ordered until the third quarter, at the earliest. That means further delays to Australia’s vaccination program, and it also means the end of the year will become even more of a bottleneck.
We’re not getting the bulk of the Pfizer supplies (and now Moderna) until the end of the year, because the Morrison government decided to base Australia’s vaccine program largely around the AstraZeneca vaccine. That’s the one we’re able to produce onshore, and that was the one which was supposed to vaccinate most of the population. So deals with other companies were struck quite late. When the (rare) side effects became known, it changed the advice, and added to vaccine hesitancy, and here we are, with just under 4% of the population vaccinated.
Greg Hunt is expected to speak a little later on this – as you can imagine though, there are A LOT of questions.
Updated
Pauline Hanson has moved her first two superannuation amendments:
- To allow Australians who took lump sums of up to $10K out during Covid-19 to repay the money into their super account by 2030 without penalty; and
- To ensure that people paying more than $25,000 into their superannuation will not be taxed an extra 3% when they do so.
Hanson said that people contributing more than $25,000 had already paid tax on their income so shouldn’t be “penalised another 3%”.
The superannuation minister, Jane Hume, said the government would support these. They then passed by 35 votes to 29.
The bill was then reported out of committee, without Hanson moving the changes to the concessional cap, which Labor argues would enrich high income earners over 67 and the Coalition has said they do not support.
The bill is now being read for a third time and is set to pass – Jacqui Lambie, Hanson and Malcolm Roberts are sitting with the government notwithstanding One Nation’s failure to lift the concessional cap.
Updated
James Merlino continued – Victoria has officially asked the federal government for financial assistance:
This is an unprecedented emergency. Our current disaster recovery funding arrangements with the Commonwealth don’t right now cover the situation we’re in.
So the one-off hardship payments, we’ve already got the re-establishment grants but in terms of households without power for weeks and weeks and weeks, the current disaster recovery arrangements between state and federal governments do not cover, so we need to move swiftly to make an additional announcement and that’s what I’m doing here today.
So we’re announcing a prolonged power outage payment a ... prolonged outage payment payment of $1,680.
That’s reflective of the one-off hardship payments so that’s around $580 per adult and then payments for children and so it’s up to $1,680.
This will be eligible to all households that are without power from 17 June.
I had a discussion with the acting prime minister this morning, a very positive discussion with the acting prime minister and I formal request for co-payment. This will be under category D of our disaster recovery arrangements with the federal government, so this will be a new payment.
We’re asking the federal government to go 50/50 on this. The acting prime minister was very positive and, as I said, a formal request has been put through.
A couple of other things I want to mention in addition to this payment.
So this will go towards whether it’s basic supplies or whether it’s to help support people find alternative accommodation off the hill as power is restored over coming weeks.
In addition to that, I’m also announcing the bushfire recovery Victoria will take the lead in terms of supporting and coordinating the clean-up and the recovery.
I had a long discussion with the CEO of Yarra Ranges Council. This cleanup and elsewhere around the state is beyond the reach of any local government.
Updated
Victoria declares 'energy emergency' after storms
James Merlino isn’t at the covid presser, because he is in the Dandenong Ranges where residents have been without power for almost a week, and are facing up to another three weeks without power, after storms destroyed the energy infrastructure.
Merlino:
We confirmed that a state energy emergency has been declared, so that’s gone through governor in council. There have been significant cracks identified in the mine as a result of the flooding there is a risk to the mine being flooded and the impact of that would be significant. So we’ve been having detailed briefings through the security and emergency management committee of Cabinet. We need to take swift action and the best way to take swift action is declaring this energy emergency. This means that remediation works in terms of dealing with the risks of flooding can happen as soon as possible.
We’ve just had more than 10 minutes of debate about whether yesterday was Pauline Hanson’s 67th birthday. According to her parliamentary bio, it was in May.
After Murray Watt accused her of trying to get a tax break on her birthday, Hanson finally stands up and corrects him. She and Malcolm Roberts have already rejected the suggestion she is trying to personally enrich herself.
Watt lets rip again:
This is one of the biggest attempted rorts and swindles of the public purse that Australia has ever seen. Yesterday was Pauline’s payday, coming to Canberra to give herself a nice sweet fat pay rise, that battlers in Queensland are going to be paying more tax to fund. Not only is she trying to enrich herself – doing it at the expense of battlers she claims to represent ... It’s a shameful day, even for Senator Hanson ... The government is complicit, we know there is a dodgy deal to get this deal done.”
It’s still unclear what this deal is – as superannuation minister Jane Hume said shortly before 10am that the government is not supporting the amendment to lift the concessional cap.
Updated
Atagi reportedly changing advice on AstraZeneca age cut-off
And there we go.
Official confirmation should be coming through very soon.
Atagi gave the advice to the federal government late yesterday.
Again, that puts Scott Morrison’s comments to Sky news about “shocks along the way” with the vaccine program in very clear context.
#BREAKING: The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation has recommended to the Federal Government that the AstraZeneca vaccine now only be given to those aged 60 and above. #9Today pic.twitter.com/Uw40TPppu7
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) June 17, 2021
Updated
Sarah Martin is going to bring you more on Phil Lowe’s speech in just a moment, but for those who just can not wait to hear what the RBA governor had to say, here is a taster of his Toowoomba speech “from recovery to expansion”.
He’s speaking at the Australian Farm Institute Conference and spent some time talking about the need for wages to pick up.
The timing of this is interesting, given yesterday’s decision by the Fair Work Commission to increase the national minimum wage by 2.5%.
That decision meant Australia’s lowest-paid full-time workers will get an extra $18.80 a week.
Lowe says there are clear signs of tightening in the labour market but wages growth and inflation are still subdued.
It is noteworthy that even in those pockets where firms are finding it hardest to hire workers, wage increases are mostly modest,” he said.
He has suggested that employers can still remember what it was like during the mining boom of the early 2000s, when the value of Australia’s dollar lifted well above the US dollar, making it very expensive to do business in Australia for a while.
He says firms still have a “laser-like” focus on cost cutting, a mindset that “became entrenched during the resources boom”.
“This mindset can be helpful in making businesses more efficient, but it also has the effect of making wages and prices less responsive to economic conditions,” he said.
That builds on what he had to say earlier this month at the RBA board meeting.
The minutes of that meeting said he had this to say:
Firms facing labour shortages [are] citing a preference for non-wage measures to attract and retain staff, such as one-off bonuses and more flexible working arrangements.
Some firms [are] also opting to ration output because of labour shortages, rather than pay higher wages to attract new workers.”
Updated
Speculation grows that Atagi may raise Pfizer vaccine age to Australians under 60
Speculation is growing that the expert health committee, Atagi, is about to raise the recommended age for Pfizer to anyone under 60. It is currently anyone under 50. That decision put Australia at odds with Europe, which had mostly set its recommendations for AstraZeneca for over 60s. The Morrison government had put the majority of its vaccine eggs in the AstraZeneca basket, so the recommendations set back the nation’s vaccine program, and have done a lot of damage in terms of vaccine hesitancy. Now there is the possibility Atagi will raise Australia’s recommendation for the Pfizer vaccine to 60 and over. That brings Australia in line with other jurisdictions, but it also means there will be a lot more people waiting for Pfizer, and Moderna, at the end of the year.
That can only delay the program even further.
Which puts Scott Morrison’s comments in his Sky interview into even clearer context. Asked if we were on track to be vaccinated (at least one shot) by the end of the year, Morrison said:
I would certainly hope so. But there are shocks that come along the way. As, we’re only seeing again now. And, you know, you have to deal with those and you have to respond to them.
... we want to continue to encourage people to come forward and get those vaccinations. But then you’ve got the additional supplies which have been coming through for Pfizer and you’ve got Moderna to come in later.
And the sprint later in the year will be very important.
But you’ve just got to roll with the challenges that come your way and get the job done.
So now it looks like that sprint is about to get quite a bit more crowded.
Updated
No matter where you go in the world, committee rooms all look the same.
@ScottMorrisonMP met OECD Secretary-General @MathiasCormann yesterday and addressed the Council on Australia’s priorities for the institution on our 50th anniversary as an OECD member pic.twitter.com/N3XT9XWsQD
— PM&C (@pmc_gov_au) June 17, 2021
Updated
Victoria has announced it will hold its press conference at 11am.
As Calla Wahlquist points out, the only listed ‘who’ is Jeroen Weimar, man of many hats, but chief among them, the Victorian Covid-19 commander.
Updated
As we reported last night, One Nation has given the government the numbers to conclude debate on the super bills, fuelling belief they’ve struck a deal.
Labor thinks that the deal is to pass an amendment lifting the concessional cap for people aged over 67, for $5K every year:
BREAKING: Pauline Hanson has moved an amendment to the Govt’s super legislation which will give her a $30,000 pay rise. It only applies to high income earners who are 67. Pauline Hanson is 67. pic.twitter.com/izuwHBgOcB
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) June 16, 2021
Senator Murray Watt said in the Senate that this amounts to “senator [Pauline] Hanson moving to give herself a nice little pay rise” because she is 67. He asked superannuation minister, Jane Hume, when One Nation first discussed this with the government.
Hume replied: “I’m sorry I can’t answer – what I can say is the government is not supporting it so the question is irrelevant.”
This was a shock to Labor.
But then there was another twist: Hanson wasn’t present in the chamber to move the amendment. Then the government voted against its own bill proceeding through the committee stage, a procedural move that would help One Nation salvage the amendment.
Senator Malcolm Roberts said it was “vile and wrong” to say Hanson was attempting to enrich herself by moving the amendment.
Hanson said the amendment was to benefit “all Australians” above the retirement age of 67 and she has paid plenty of tax.
“You don’t know me ... I’m fed up with the lies and misrepresentation,” she said.
Hanson explained she was late to the chamber and that she is moving to enact a one-off increase in the concessional cap of $5K, not $5K every year.
Updated
Witness K sentencing was due to begin today but court is closed
I’m down at the ACT magistrates court for the latest in the prosecution of Witness K.
Barring any further dispute on the facts of the case, we were expecting the sentencing proceedings against the former intelligence officer to begin today.
Instead, reporters have arrived to find a closed court. The glass doors leading into the courtroom have been blacked out, which is rather unusual in this building.
I can’t tell you what’s happening inside. I also can’t say whether we will see either a sentencing hearing or a disputed facts hearing later today, or whether the protracted case will be delayed yet again.
We’ll keep you posted on developments, if and when we learn them.
Witness K is facing possible jail time after helping to expose Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste during 2004 negotiations to carve up oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea. Timor-Leste was not only an ally, but was one of the poorest countries in the world.
The bugging operation helped Australia achieve an unfair advantage in the commercial negotiations.
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'This is a win for decency,' Sarah Hanson-Young says after high court dismisses Leyonhjelm’s appeal
Sarah Hanson-Young has responded to the news the high court has dismissed David Leyonhjelm’s application to appeal his defamation loss.
It has been three years since the former senator defamed me for what the court has described as “crass, offensive and obviously sexist” attack on my character and integrity.
At the time all I wanted was an apology but instead he continued to attack me. I was unable to force him to apologise but I was able to secure a judgment in my favour. I am pleased this decision draws these three years to a close and that the thousands of dollars of damages that Mr Leyonhjelm must pay will go on to benefit the important work of two charities, the Working Women’s Centre South Australia and Plan International. The work of these organisations is more important than ever. I would like to thank everyone who supported me and in particular those who donated to the crowdfunding and made this action financially possible.
This process has been difficult, and I am relieved it is over. The financial risk to me was real but it was important for me to bring these proceedings on behalf of all women who deserve to be safe and respected in our workplaces, in our schools and in our communities. This case has shown that speaking up and calling out abuse and harassment is important for holding perpetrators to account. It is hard and difficult to do, but by supporting the women who dare to speak up, we are supporting the rights of women and girls to be respected, everywhere.
The full federal court’s unanimous decision on parliamentary privilege, which Mr Leyonhjelm sought to overturn, also sends a strong message to parliamentarians that they are not above the law.
Women across the country have had enough, just like I had when I took this action. We can stand up to badly behaved men and we can win. This win is for all of us. This is a win for decency, common sense and respect.
Updated
The Senate is having a totally normal one
Pauline Hanson was not in the Senate chamber to move amendments to deliver her a $30,000 pay rise. The Senate moved on. The Govt is now voting to give her another chance to move her amendments. There is no limit to the dodgy deals the LNP and Hanson will do.
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) June 17, 2021
(Hanson wants to lift the concession threshold for super contributions to $30,000 for high income earners who are over the age of 67. Pauline Hanson is a high income earner, who is 67-years-old)
Queensland brings back travel declarations in response to NSW and Victoria Covid cases
Queensland has NOT shut its borders ... but it is bringing back the travel declaration ahead of the school holidays.
Annastacia Palaszczuk says it is necessary because of the cases in Victoria and the new cases in NSW.
BREAKING: Anyone travelling to Queensland from 1am on Saturday, 19 June must complete a Queensland Travel Declaration before entering the state. #covid19 pic.twitter.com/mbWzDtszQW
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) June 16, 2021
Updated
Scott Morrison also described Australia’s vaccination program, which is so far behind on targets set by the government that the government scrapped the targets, as “accelerated”.
Here is what else he had to say on whether or not we will be vaccinated by the end of the year, if we want to be:
I would certainly hope so. But there are shocks that come along the way. As we’re only seeing again now. And, you know, you have to deal with those and you have to respond to them.
There’s also the broader challenge of the vaccination program, not just in Australia, but in our own Pacific region. I think an important point that was made at Carbis Bay, was that for each of our own nations to be more protected, than more of the world needs to be vaccinated.
And that’s certainly true in our region when we’re thinking about south-east Asia, Indonesia of course, but also Papua New Guinea and the islands in the Pacific. So that is an even bigger challenge than just our own country.
But we are, I think, making great progress there. And there’s a lot more to be done. And we want to continue to encourage people to come forward and get those vaccinations.
But then you’ve got the additional supplies which have been coming through for Pfizer and you’ve got Moderna to come in later.
And the sprint later in the year will be very important. But you’ve just got to roll with the challenges that come your way and get the job done.
Updated
Here was Scott Morrison on Sky News speaking about when Australia will open its international border.
Not anytime soon, is the short answer.
Morrison:
It isn’t one decision. It isn’t closed one day, open the next. I mean, the challenge, the next challenge we have, in addition to getting Australians home, is our workforce needs. You know, that’s incredibly important. And today we were talking about those around agriculture visas and we know the challenges that our agriculture sector, but not just our agricultural sector, our defence industry sector, our infrastructure sector. This is one of the challenges of having closed borders is it puts real constraints on the size of your workforce. Australia is a migration nation. It’s an immigration nation. And so that has been cut off for us largely this last 18 months. And so we’ve got to find practical ways to solve those problems over the next 12 months. And that’s what other countries are trying to do. So whether it’s that, or whether it’s the student pilots we’re doing, it’s the gradual process of opening things up safely, but also in a way that is targeted on the things that will give us the biggest benefit for our economy in doing so.
Q: So green zones for some countries, safer countries, for example?
Morrison:
That is a common discussion amongst the leaders and even discussions I’ve had these last few days, even with countries that are have much more open borders because the virus is riddled through their countries, they will still be making those choices of green countries and red countries and amber countries across Europe. I mean, we will see over the course of this summer in Europe, where a lot of people will be moving around under those new arrangements and we’ll be able to see what the impact of that is. Now, while hospitalisations in the UK were rising in this last week or so, I think the prime minister noted that, and that is an issue of great concern for them. If the virus is there, but the hospitalisations and the serious illness doesn’t occur and we see that on a sustained basis, well, that says that there is a potentially different pathway there. But the jury is not in on that yet. There’s new variants like Delta and so on that can change all of that.
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Mark Dreyfus has tabled the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security report into listing the neo-Nazi group Sonnenkrieg Division as a terrorist organisation under the criminal code in the House – making it the first far-right extremist group to be listed as a terrorist group in Australia.
But he says it shouldn’t have taken the government this long to do it.
And then he circles back to the prime minister’s relationship with QAnon supporter Tim Stewart and the questions he says Scott Morrison still has to answer.
Dreyfus:
We, as a community, must take the rise in rightwing extremism seriously. We, as a parliament, must take the rise in rightwing extremism seriously and it is incumbent on the government – and especially the government – to take the rise in rightwing extremism seriously.
Lives depend on it, as the Christchurch massacre – which was perpetrated by an Australian – so tragically demonstrated and yet the Morrison government has not been taking rightwing extremism seriously. Not by a long shot.
In February of this year we had the immigration minister contradicting Asio and, without evidence, asserting that there had been no rise in rightwing extremism at all.
In January of this year, following the extreme rightwing attack on the US Capital, the prime minister refused to condemn – or offer even the slightest criticism – of the outgoing US president Donald Trump for Mr Trump’s role in inciting the attack.
And worse – the prime minister of Australia refused to even comment on, let alone criticise, social media posts by members of his own party that peddled dangerous rightwing conspiracy theories about the attack on the US Capitol.
This is the same prime minister who is now refusing to answer questions about his relationship with a prominent Australian proponent of the dangerous far-right conspiracy theory QANon, Tim Stewart.
Let me be clear: this is not about who the prime minister is friends with – as my colleague, the member for McMahon, said in the House the other day, the prime minister is not accountable for the political views of his friends.
But when the prime minister allegedly gives a prominent proponent of far-right conspiracy theories – which the American FBI has labelled a domestic terrorism threat – access to Kirribilli House, that is a problem and there are legitimate questions to be asked and the prime minister must answer them.
Not least of all because, as we heard on Four Corners this week, Mr Stewart’s family has twice contacted the national security hotline to express concern about his behaviour.
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Over in the high court, David Leyonhjelm has lost his final chance to appeal his defamation loss to Sarah Hanson-Young.
#breaking the high court has dismissed David Leyonhjelm's application for special leave to appeal his defamation loss to Sarah Hanson Young. Leyonhjelm to pay SHY's costs. #auspol #auslaw
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 16, 2021
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Mark Dreyfus is about to table (in the House) the intelligence and security committee’s report into whether or not the the Sonnenkrieg Division should be classified as a terrorist organisation in Australia.
James Paterson (committee chair) tabled the report in the Senate last night and said:
In its deliberations, the committee determined that: the Sonnenkrieg Division seeks to encourage lone-actor terrorist attacks against its political, racial, and ethnic enemies. SKD members acting on behalf of the organisation, have encouraged, promoted, and glorified terrorist acts through online propaganda. SKD adheres to an ideology that is violently opposed to multiethnic western societies and there is a possibility that a lone-actor attack directed or inspired by SKD could result in harm to Australians.
Whilst Australians are not directly involved in SKD its encouragement, promotion and glorification of lone-actor attacks could inspire some Australian extremists, and the availability of SKD propaganda online has the potential to contribute to the radicalisation of others.
The committee encourages the government to continue investigating other like-minded organisations with a mind to listing them as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code, if they meet the criteria.
The committee will continue its own investigations in this regard through its concurrent inquiry into extremist movements and radicalism in Australia.
In examining the evidence that has been provided, the committee is satisfied with the listing processes and considers that they have been followed appropriately for this organisation.
The committee therefore supports the listing of the organisation under division 102 of the Criminal Code in order to protect Australians and Australia’s interests, and finds no reason to disallow the regulations.
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The RBA Governor, Phil Lowe will deliver a speech a little later this morning.
Other than the RBA minutes, the Governor’s speeches are some of the only insights into how the central bank is seeing the economy – and what it thinks needs to happen.
Given that it has said low interest rates will be here with us for some time though, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of wriggle room in what it can do to address the housing affordability crisis.
Oh, and as Graham Readfearn reports, Australia’s great future in coal includes using Australian coal to make plastic.
The owners of the controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland want to build a US$4bn plant in India that would use Australian coal to make plastic.
Adani Enterprises, which owns the Carmichael coalmine, said in submissions to Indian authorities the plant will use 3.1m tonnes of coal a year at the plant to make PVC.
Critics said the “toxic” project was an attempt to find a second life for thermal coal at a time when the world was moving away from fossil fuels.
The company is seeking environmental clearances to build the massive “coal-to-PVC” plant that will take up almost 3 sq km in Mundra, Gujarat.
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As Murph has reported, Madeleine King, Labor’s resources spokesperson, may be gearing up to tell the gas and oil industry Labor is all for gas today, including opening up new reserves, but as always, there is a pretty big dash of nim(e)by going on.
Open up new reserves, yes, but not in my electorate’s backyard.
Take this speech by Libby Coker a little earlier this week about a plan for exploratory drilling at the Twelve Apostles site.
The Twelve Apostles is no place for exploratory drilling.
— Libby Coker MP (@LibbyCokerMP) June 16, 2021
My community won't stand for this. #auspol pic.twitter.com/NBwlptJZgZ
It being Thursday, and the last day of Michael McCormack’s reign in the PM’s chair, Labor’s Tim Watts has woken up and chosen trolling.
He’s come up with a list of cafes neat McCormack’s electoral office. This was after the acting prime minister, in defending Australia’s coal future, said on Monday:
It pays for a lot of barista machines that produces the coffee that inner-city people sit and talk about the death of coal.
That was just the latest in a long line of attacks McCormack has directed towards “the inner city” and in particular, coffee drinkers in the inner city. There is no proof he is aware that you can get quite lovely coffee in regional and rural Australia (one of the best coffees I have ever had was in Winton in western Queensland).
I'm an inner-city MP, but I grew up in country Qld. I've always found that Aussies have more in common than sets them apart.
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) June 16, 2021
So given it's Michael McCormack's last sitting day as Acting PM, I want to recognise the 5 coffee shops within 500m of Macca's electorate office. pic.twitter.com/AaaeUPN9oT
Here's the menu from the cafe across the road from his EO.
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) June 16, 2021
They serve the same coffees in Wagga as I get from my local in Footscray.
Australia is facing some massive challenges at the moment. The best way to confront them is together. We don't need politicians dividing us. pic.twitter.com/bTRAYMJm0L
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Victoria records no new local Covid cases
With more restrictions easing at midnight, this is excellent news.
Reported yesterday: 0 new local cases and 1 new case acquired overseas (currently in HQ).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) June 16, 2021
- 15,610 vaccine doses were administered
- 25,635 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/0xmnS4N9DN#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/68Mub9N46c
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Just a reminder that there are still Victorians – about 7,000 or so – who have been living without power for about a week now after the massive storms which swept through the Dandenong and Yarra Ranges (and up to half of them could be without power for another three weeks)
Earlier this week, the acting prime minister said people might be wondering, given the run of natural disasters and then the pandemic that Australia has seen, how much more they can expect to bear.
Lucky we have that amazingly bright fossil fuel future ahead of us to keep us warm though, right?
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Labor’s shadow agricultural minister, Julie Collins, is not letting Michael McCormack’s answer on the mouse plague (here is a reminder from Paul Karp on what he said) go:
Yesterday I asked questions of the acting prime minister about the mouse plague that is currently devastating four states of Australia. This mouse plague is across four states, particularly bad in New South Wales. The acting prime minister’s own state of origin and what we got yesterday from him was one of the most bizarre responses I have ever heard to a question in question time. He started attacking people in the inner city and saying that the mice should be in their homes, instead of actually talking about what the government is doing to try and address this mouse plague.
The government says they’re on farmers side, but they’re not on the farmers’ side at all. They go into the parliament, they give weird answers and make jokes about a very serious mouse plague that is affecting four states of Australia. The government should be better than this. The government needs to be on the farmers’ side and the government needs to have a national plan to deal with the mouse plague that is currently devastating four Australian states.
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As Anthony Macali (@migga – you may have begun following him during the pandemic) points out, 3.8% of the Australian adult population have been fully vaccinated.
Still, not fantastic.
Victoria is about to see its extra supply of Pfizer cut back down by the federal government, with the majority of Australia’s Pfizer supply (the vaccine recommended for under 50s) not arriving until the third and fourth quarters.
So don’t expect to see a huge ramp-up in any of those numbers just yet.
This is a race – a race away from lockdowns, and back to normal life.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) June 16, 2021
So why are we still so far behind where we were promised? pic.twitter.com/NcUxyb5KYL
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Sky News has struck a new regional broadcasting deal.
My dad will be thrilled.
As Amanda Meade reports:
Sky News Australia will launch a new free-to-air channel, Sky News Regional, in August after securing deals with two regional broadcasters which can potentially reach more than 7 million viewers.
The channel’s news and evening programs fronted by Andrew Bolt, Peta Credlin and other presenters will be aired to regional audiences on the dedicated 24-hour feed after Sky struck multi-year agreements with networks Win and Southern Cross Austereo (SCA).
It comes as the federal government refuses to say whether Win will be penalised for shedding up to 20 staff and axing local TV news bulletins months after receiving $4.5m in journalism grants.
Anthony Albanese spoke to Melbourne radio Triple M yesterday afternoon and didn’t take the bait to criticise Scott Morrison for photos of him at an English pub:
Host: OK, let’s get to the G7, if you don’t mind. There seems to be some reasonable stuff going on in the background, hijacked by the tone deaf appearance of our PM at a country pub with his family when no one else is allowed, even for compassionate reasons, to leave the country. Is that the right look for the leader to be sending to all Australians right now?
Albanese:
I’ll leave those things. I’ll just raise the bat and watch the ball hit the keepers’ gloves on that one, I think. It’s up to him to make those decisions.
Host: Well, it looks like he’s holidaying overseas, Albo. So, in a pandemic he goes and has a beer in a pub for us all to have a look at and during bushfires he goes to Hawaii in a Hawaiian shirt. Is this appropriate from a prime minister when the country’s on the ropes, twitching on the canvas? I’m in Melbourne and I can say that picture is kind of offensive to me.
Albanese:
You’ll make your own judgment and Australians will.
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There is a rally planned out the front of Parliament House this morning in support of Witness K and Bernard Collaery.
Rex Patrick says he’ll be joined out the front of the building by:
- Andrew Wilkie MP
- Senator Peter Whish-Wilson
- Andrew Leigh MP
- Sister Susan Connelly
- Bernard Collaery
- David McBride
- Kathryn Kelly from Alliance Against Political Prosecutions
For an update, check out Chris Knaus’s latest:
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NSW Health has updated its exposure sites, here.
We’re expecting to hear from NSW authorities by late morning.
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Speaking of Australia’s glorious fossil fuel future (yes, I am being sarcastic), Labor loves gas.
As Murph reports:
Labor’s resources spokesperson, Madeleine King, is launching a full-throated defence of Australia’s gas industry, including supporting opening up new reserves “subject to independent scientific assessments and effective environmental regulation”.
King will use a speech to the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in Perth to champion gas jobs, gas exports, gas as “a critical feedstock for Australia’s manufacturing industry, as well as in electricity generation” and the opening up of new reserves, like the Beetaloo basin.
“It is important that people are aware that the Beetaloo is a world-class, low-carbon gas basin – containing about 3% carbon dioxide,” King will tell the conference on Thursday.
She will tell oil and gas executives the federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, will convene a shadow ministry meeting in Port Hedland later this month, with the trip “an opportunity for many of my east coast colleagues to see this incredible region for themselves and to listen to the concerns of the resources industry workers who contribute so much to our national wealth”.
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Keith Pitt, the resources minister, was just interviewed by ABC radio RN, where he spoke about Australia’s glorious coal future.
"The point I'm making is that the resources sector has a fabulous story to tell," says Resources Minister, @keithjpitt.
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) June 16, 2021
"The reality is coal is around for a long time. We expect that there'll be increased demand - Australia will look to fill that demand."
He also said one of the quiet things out loud, as Murph as been reporting for months – that the Nationals would need to come on board for net zero by 2050. He says they haven’t been asked as yet.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has a new report by sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins out today (Jenkins has just handed down a report on the parliamentary complaint process and is working on one about parliamentary culture).
This report focuses on Australia’s corporate culture and boardrooms:
Equality Across the Board provides insights into how Australian companies currently collect and use data relating to sexual harassment, and how that information is reported internally and externally.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said it provided a detailed overview of how Australian companies were currently responding to workplace sexual harassment.
“Workplace sexual harassment causes immense social and economic harm, with the annual cost to the Australian economy estimated to be $3.8 billion in 2018,” Commissioner Jenkins said.
“I welcome ACSI’s initiative in commissioning this survey and report, and their recognition of the critical role that ASX200 boards and executive management have in preventing and responding to workplace sexual harassment.
“The report’s recommendations offer a blueprint for Australia’s largest corporations to reduce the prevalence of sexual harassment in their workplaces and build safer, more equal workplaces for all.”
You’ll find the whole report here.
Updated
Good morning
Welcome to Thursday. It’s always the worst day of the week and this Thursday has the potential to be worse than usual. After all, Michael McCormack is still acting prime minister.
Labor has been playing “how much does Michael McCormack not know?” all week, which has taken us all places. Including learning that the acting prime minister would like to rehome the mice plague to inner-city apartments where they can nibble the feet of Peta supporters and scratch their children. I’m not sure how the inner city hurt the acting prime minister but he sure carries a grudge.
Meanwhile, NSW Health listed more exposure sites overnight after a household contact of a man who tested positive for Covid also tested positive. You can add North Ryde, Redfern, Vaucluse and Zetland between Friday 11 June and Tuesday 1 June to the list.
The original patient works as a driver for international flight crews. Authorities are still tracing back how he became infected. We’ll bring you those updates as soon as we have them.
Melbourne will further ease its restrictions from 11.59pm but authorities there have warned there is a chance that cases are still circulating in the community.
And the federal government surprised Labor last night by bringing on its superannuation bills and it looks likely to get them through today, with both One Nation and Centre Alliance appearing to be on board. Murray Watt was particularly incensed by an amendment Pauline Hanson included, which he says would give her a financial boost.
BREAKING: Pauline Hanson has moved an amendment to the Govt’s super legislation which will give her a $30,000 pay rise. It only applies to high income earners who are 67. Pauline Hanson is 67. pic.twitter.com/izuwHBgOcB
— Senator Murray Watt (@MurrayWatt) June 16, 2021
Hanson’s Senate term is up for renewal at the next election. There’s speculation about whether she’d sit for the full six years if she won.
We’ll bring you all the day’s events as they happen. We don’t have Mike Bowers as he’s still on assignment but thankfully we will get him back next week. You do have Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin and Paul Karp in Canberra (and Amy Remeikis on the blog), and the entire Guardian team at your disposal. I surprised myself yesterday by making it a five-coffee day. Today, we might need it to be even stronger.
Let’s get into it.
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