Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Calla Wahlquist, Mostafa Rachwani and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Restrictions tightened after hotel quarantine worker tests positive in Melbourne

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews held a late-night press conference after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive to Covid-19. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

What we learned from Daniel Andrews' press conference

We will leave our live coverage here for the night.

To recap:

  • A man working in the Australian Open hotel quarantine program has tested positive to Covid-19.
  • Genomic testing has not yet been completed but authorities are assuming “out of an abundance of caution” that he may have the UK variant of the virus.
  • The man last worked at the Grand Hyatt on 29 January and had a PCR test at the end of his shift, which was negative. He got a test yesterday after developing some symptoms.
  • The man and his housemates are now in managed isolation at a medi-hotel.
  • The man visited at least eight locations between 30 January and 1 February while he may have been infectious.
  • The Victorian government has reintroduced restrictions similar to those in place early in January. They limit private gatherings in homes to 15 people, mandate the use of masks indoors, and halt more public and private-sector workers returning to the office.

Updated

Full list of Melbourne exposure sites

Here is the full list of exposure sites just released by the Victorian department of health. Some of the times are slightly different to the list we posted earlier – please refer to this list.

They are:

  • Club Noble in Noble Park, 2.36pm to 3.30pm, 30 January
  • Aces Sporting Club (Driving Range) in Keysborough, 10pm to 11.15pm, 30 January
  • Northpoint Café in Brighton, 8.10am to 9.30am, 31 January
  • Kmart Keysborough, Parkmore Keysborough shopping centre, 4pm to 5pm, 31 January
  • Kmart Brandon Park, Brandon Park shopping centre, 4.35pm to 5.10pm, 31 January
  • Coles Springvale, 5pm to 6pm, 31 January
  • Bunnings Springvale, 11.28am to 12.15pm, 1 February
  • Melbourne Golf Academy in Heatherton, 5.19pm to 6.36pm, 1 February

Updated

Daniel Andrews said he sent a message to the prime minister and to state and territory leaders earlier this evening.

Updated

Brett Sutton says Victoria will eliminate the virus again

Sutton was asked if he was disappointed to lose Victoria’s 28-day elimination status. He said Victoria would eliminate the virus again.

We’ll do it again. We will do it again. If we have to do it 10 times over, we can do it. We’ve got the tools. Really importantly, we’ve learned the tough lessons and we’ve provided those tough lessons to the rest of Australia. We’ve learned from our counterparts.

Every time there’s a challenge that one of our interstate counterparts faces, we learn from it. And vice versa. And I think Australia’s in a good position. No one wants to have gone through the tragic circumstances that Victoria has, but you cannot have that occur and not embed those lessons to make sure that you’re in the very best position going forward.

Asked if he was expecting further cases to emerge, Sutton said that testing of the man “indicates that he probably had a high viral load”.

That’s what the test results show. For his very close contacts, I think there is a risk that they’ll potentially become cases. But that’s why we’re contacting them now. That’s why they’re isolating from this moment forward and why their contacts will isolate as well so that, if a case occurs, there won’t be further transmission to others.

Those close contacts, particularly the man’s housemates, were isolating in medi-hotels.

Updated

Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, thinks it is unlikely any of the Australian Open players will be affected, even those being retested.

I do. I think we’ve identified this individual and the exposure sites of concern. Those other residents within the Grand Hyatt – they’re casual contacts, they were in their rooms, those individuals who’ve been identified as positive were moved out to a medi-hotel.

They were in the early part of the quarantine period there, really from the 15th of January to the 22nd. So, no one who was a positive case was in the hotel after that date. So a lot of those tennis players and their entourage will really be coming up to 14 days if not longer before the Australian Open. So getting them tested now is a precautionary but useful measure, and then we’ll have that 14-day period actually before the Open starts.

Updated

Victoria's streak of no community transmission is at an end

This new case would count as a case of community transmission, Andrews said.

So, we’re back to day zero.

Updated

Andrews was asked if the fact that he had not announced a lockdown tonight was a sign that he was confident it was not necessary, or because it was too early to make that call.

Andrews said it was “both, to be honest”.

It is early, and we’ve gotten to this very early. People will work throughout the night and they’ll work until we are confident that we’ve tracked, traced and tested everybody who’s in the frame here, everybody who could be infected by this person.

Informed by all the other data that we have – wastewater testing and all of those things – but it is, I think, these are appropriate steps to take tonight. If the chief health officer recommended different things, I’d be announcing different things. Advice has got us to this point. Experts have helped get us to this point. They’ll help keep us here.

This is one case. I don’t want to speculate about what the days and weeks to come hold for us. What I can say – and it’s not speculation, it’s just a fact – if everyone who’s got symptoms comes forward and gets tested tomorrow, we will manage this. We will get on top of this. But if people who are sick and don’t go and get tested and go about their business, that will be a problem for all of us.

I’m not being critical of that. I’m just saying – think about what that means. To go about your business when you’re sick and you’ve got compatible symptoms and not go and get tested, that puts everything at risk. For you, for your family, for people you know and love, and people you’ll never meet. It’s on all of us. If you’ve got symptoms, get tested, and get tested first thing tomorrow.

Updated

Andrews said there were six cases of the UK variant of the virus in the Grand Hyatt hotel.

And at early stages, this guy’s had no contact with any of them. So that’s, you know, that’s the nature of this thing. So we just have to wait and do more of that detective work.

Updated

Andrews 'assuming the worst' on whether the case is the UK strain

Andrews said we do not yet know if the man had the UK variant of the virus, because genomic testing had not yet been completed. That would be completed in a few days.

But he said it was safest to assume that’s the case.

I think we all have to assume that the international strain is, in effect, the UK strain. This thing is spreading so quickly – we’ve got UK, Japan, South Africa – all of which have a higher infectivity level than what we were dealing with during 2020.

So, through an abundance of caution, we’re assuming the worst. I think that’s always a smart thing to do. These are inconvenient things for people. But they’re far better than not being as risk-averse now and having to go much further in a week or two.

Updated

Andrews said he did not yet have the information on when the man first developed symptoms.

But he said that because he returned a negative PCR test on the 29th – that’s the nasal swab test, more accurate than the saliva test – the working assumption is that he was not a risk prior to the 29th.

Andrews said he was made aware of the positive test at 6.30pm.

Andrews was asked if this positive case would affect the start of the Australian Open on Monday.

He said there were about 500 to 600 players and officials and others who were casual contacts of the positive case, who would be required to isolate again until they get a negative test.

And that work will be done tomorrow. So it may have an impact on tomorrow’s play in the lead-up event. But at this stage, there’s no impact to the tournament proper.

I must say, that’s important to us, but the issues we’re most focused on is much broader, and that’s about public health and public safety. That’s why we’ve really pounced on this very quickly.

Updated

Andrews said there had not at this stage been any indication of a breach of hotel quarantine procedure.

I want to make it very clear, he has provided very detailed information and we’re very grateful to him not only for his work, but also for the way in which, as a positive case, he has provided all that detail.

Andrews said there was CCTV in all the hotel quarantine hotels, which contact tracers would work through “to make sure my answer remains accurate that there’s no protocol problem”.

This is a wildly infectious virus. It is very, very challenging. That’s why I’ve said to you on many, many occasions it’s not a matter of if, but when. We’re not pursuing zero every day forever. We always knew there could be cases. In fact, over Christmas we had cases. We all worked together to deal with those outbreaks and I’m confident Victorians will rise to this challenge now.

Updated

Andrews said that because of the new case, the government would delay handing down the final report of the mental health royal commission, which was scheduled for tomorrow.

That issue is such an important issue that I don’t want, for a moment, any of us to be occupied with other important matters. It is deserving of our absolute full attention, our undivided attention. And that’s why it will not be tabled tomorrow. We will not make that available tomorrow. We will, instead, defer that and, when it’s safe to do so – hopefully in just a few days’ time, maybe next week – we will have that out to the public and we’ll be able to speak to our response to that, hear from the royal commissioners themselves.

That is far too important an issue to not have our complete and undivided attention.

Updated

Andrews also announced eight exposure sites, which the Noble Park man visited in the three days between his last shift and his positive test.

Anyone who was at any of these eight sites at the below times have been told to get a Covid-19 test tomorrow.

They are:

  • The Club Noble in Noble Park from 2.30pm to 3.30pm on 30 January
  • Aces Sporting Club, a golf driving range, in Keysborough between 10pm and 11.15pm on 30 January.
  • North Point Cafe in Brighton from 8.30am to 9.30am on 31 January
  • Kmart Brandon Park from 4.30pm to 5.10pm on 31 January
  • Coles Springvale from 5pm to 6pm on 31 January
  • Bunnings Springvale between 11.30pm and 12.15pm on 1 February
  • Melbourne Golf Academy, another driving range, in Heatherton from 5.19pm to 6.30pm on 1 February

I am aware that’s only seven places – the full list is on the department of health’s website, I’ll find out the missing one soon.

Andrews also said the man is a CFA volunteer and had been to CFA functions. Health authorities were working with fire authorities to identify and notify all firefighters he may have come into contact with.

Updated

Restrictions reintroduced to Victoria

Andrews said that contact tracing was under way but that restrictions would be reintroduced, back to the rules that were in place during the Black Rock cluster.

Those rules will be in place from midnight tonight.

We have to assume that this person has, in fact, infected others.

And it’s through that abundance of caution that I’m announcing, from 11.59pm tonight, cabinet has endorsed the advice of the chief health officer to reinstate the Black Rock or New Year’s Eve settings.

Those restrictions are a reduction in private gatherings to 15 people and mandatory wearing of masks indoors.

There will also be a pause on the scheduled shift of 75% of public and private-sector workers returning to the office from Monday. Instead, the public sector will remain at 25% occupancy and the private sector at 50% occupancy.

There’s a whole lot of rapid testing being done tonight. We’ll get those results in the morning. There’s other testing that will be done throughout tomorrow. And we’ll get those results and we’ll update you accordingly.

Updated

Andrews: 'There is no need to panic'

Andrews said there was “no need to panic”, but said the man had been to a number of places in the community between his last quarantine shift on 29 January and his positive test today.

If you have any symptoms – any symptoms whatsoever – the only thing for you to do, first thing tomorrow morning, is to go and get tested. This is one case. There’s no need for people to panic. There’s no need for people to be alarmed.

We Victorians know what to do, and we have proven, as a state, very successful at managing these sorts of outbreaks, these sorts of issues.

Updated

Andrews said the hotel quarantine worker who tested positive was a 26-year-old man from Noble Park working in the Australian Open hotel quarantine system.

He last worked at Grand Hyatt on 29 January. He received a PCR test at the end of that shift and tested negative.

He subsequently developed symptoms, went and got tested, and tested positive.

His flatmates are now in managed isolation.

Updated

Daniel Andrews has begun speaking now

Daniel Andrews has just stood up.

A reminder before we get any further – workers in the Victorian hotel quarantine system are given a PCR test daily.

Daniel Andrews, speaking last month in part of his push to get daily testing for quarantine workers adopted by national cabinet, said that meant that the virus would have at most a 24-hour jump on contact tracers.

So, hopefully, this will just be confirmation that the system is working.

Having said that: it’s a 10.30pm press conference. They are not called lightly.

Daniel Andrews to give 10.30pm press conference on hotel quarantine case

Good evening and welcome to the resumption of our live coverage of the coronavirus crisis in Australia.

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and health minister, Martin Foley, are due to hold a press conference at 10.30pm.

The late hour and late announcement – the alert was issued at 10pm – has caused a bit of anxiety in the Victorian community. All we know at this stage is that Andrews will be talking about a hotel quarantine worker who tested positive to the virus.

The positive test was picked up as part of the daily testing regime which has been in place in Victoria since last year. It was announced by the Department of Health at 9pm.

You can read more details on that here:

Updated

What we learned today, Wednesday 3 February

And we will leave it there for tonight. Here’s a quick summary of everything that went down today:

  • Liberal MP Craig Kelly was the focus of much of the day, after a confrontation with Labor’s Tanya Plibersek, before being hauled into the PM’s office for a dressing down, and then releasing a statement declaring he ‘agrees to support’ the Covid vaccine roll out.
  • Western Australia, and in turn Australia, recorded zero new cases again today, with over 12,000 tests recorded overnight.
  • A bushfire continued to burn outside Perth today, with authorities saying it is now “static” but urging residents in Shady Hill and Bullsbrook to evacuate.
  • Education minister Alan Tudge said he was “surprised” to hear that more than 17,000 people lost their jobs at universities in 2020.

Finally, in light of changing border rules with Western Australia, if you intend to travel interstate this week, please take a quick look at the list of WA hotspots and state-by-state restrictions.

A very interesting story that’s emerged today is of Microsoft having expressed support for the government’s proposed media code.

The company also said they would be making changes to its search engine, Bing, in the event Google does follow through and pulls out of Australia.

The company’s president, Brad Smith, released a statement earlier this week confirming he and company chief executive, Satya Nadella, had spoken to the PM to express their support for the code.

The code reasonably attempts to address the bargaining power imbalance between digital platforms and Australian news businesses

It also recognises the important role search plays, not only to consumers but to the thousands of Australian small businesses that rely on search and advertising technology to fund and support their organisations.

This is a really interesting development in this space, especially in light of Google’s threat to leave the country. Perhaps this will embolden the government to call out Google’s bluff (if it is a bluff).

You can read more on the story from my colleague Josh Taylor here:

Fragments of Covid-19 have been detected in the Mackay North and Cairns sewage catchments.

Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said she was concerned that the virus is still being detected in the state’s sewage.

This is especially important now more than ever, as we know the new variants emerging overseas are more contagious than previous variants we have seen in Queensland.

If there is a case we are not yet aware of, it is critical we detect it through our testing mechanisms as quickly as possible to contain any potential spread.

It is, of course, also possible that this detection relates to previous Covid-19 cases who can shed viral fragments for a couple of months after they are no longer infectious.

Mackay North receives sewage from the suburbs of Beaconsfield, Richmond, Shoal Point, Bucasia, Blacks Beach, Rural View, Eimeo and Dolphin Heads, while Cairns Marlin Coast receives sewage from the suburbs of Barron, Kamerunga, Macalister Range, Yorkeys Knob, Caravonica, Trinity Beach, Smithfield, Palm Cove, Trinity Park, Clifton Beach and Kewarra Beach.

Updated

Labor MP Anne Aly was on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing today, and said she thought the PM’s rebuking of Craig Kelly was too little too late.

Aly specifically focused on the damage already done by Kelly on his Facebook page.

It is too late.

Thus far, it seems to me that Craig Kelly’s views have been treated as if he’s giving an opinion on whether pineapple belongs on pizza. You can’t spend millions of dollars on advertising campaigns and talk about a successful way out of this pandemic with vaccinations when you continue to allow and dismiss very vocal and very popular – in terms of having Facebook followers – a member of your party spreading what are, essentially, crazy conspiracy theories about this.

So it is too little, too late. The prime minister should have acted sooner and earlier to silence Craig Kelly and bring him in line with the medical advice.

But will Labor bury the issue now (please yes)?

I would hope so. I think we wait and see.

Updated

Seasonal workers will now be able to undertake their fortnight of quarantine on farms in the Northern Territory.

Northern Territory health minister Natasha Fyles announced today that health authorities had approved the move, which could potentially help ailing growers struggling with labour shortages.

The seasonal workers arriving from overseas will not be able to work during quarantine, and growers will have to abide by strict Covid management plans.

Fyles told the NT Country Hour that the authorities will be looking to approve on-farm quarantine on a case-by-case basis.

We can see workers come in under the federal government’s Pacific Labour Scheme and Seasonal Worker Program, and they can undertake that mandatory 14 days quarantine on a farm and not in a facility.

It’s quite a strict process, but it does provide an opportunity for what we know is a vital workforce for some businesses

Updated

And now for a small aside, Mathias Cormman’s replacement MP, Ben Small, made his debut in parliament today, and our expert shooter Mike Bowers was on the scene.

Senator Ben Small from Western Australia (replacing Mathias Cormann) prepares to make his first speech in the Senate chamber of Parliament House.
Senator Ben Small from Western Australia (replacing Mathias Cormann) prepares to make his first speech in the Senate chamber of Parliament House Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Senator Ben Small makes his first speech in the Senate
Senator Ben Small makes his first speech in the Senate. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Senator Ben Small from Western Australia (replacing Mathias Cormann) makes his first speech in the senate chamber of Parliament House, Canberra this afternoon. Wednesday 3rd February 2021. Photograph by Mike Bowers. Guardian Australia.

Updated

Good afternoon everyone, and a quick thanks to Amy for expertly guiding us through a hectic day of news.

I’ll be taking you through the evening’s news, with a focus on the fires in Western Australia. Let’s get stuck in.

And after that day which ran for 25 years, I am going to hand you over to Mostafa Rachwani for the evening.

He’ll keep you updated on anything else which happens, including updates on the WA bushfire. We are thinking of you WA and keeping it all crossed.

We’ll be back with politics live early tomorrow morning, where hopefully we won’t be talking all things Craig Kelly again. No one needs three days of that in a row.

Thank you to everyone for reading today. We truly appreciate it. I’ll be back tomorrow – but until then, take care of you.

Updated

The Australian Financial Review is reporting Telstra has restarted its job cuts, laying off 1400 people.

Telstra paused its redundancies at the height of the pandemic. That pause is now over.

Updated

OK.

Here is the rest of Anthony Albanese’s statement on indulgence on Craig Kelly.

... In particular his comments with regard to health, the use of hydroxychloroquine (a debunked and unproven Covid treatment option), the use of other drugs which have not been in accordance with the advice from the TGA or advice from the chief medical officer.

Now that has been of great concern. It is something that we have raised on this side of the house, particularly the former shadow minister for health and the current shadow minister for health, and myself as leader, for many months.

The challenge of the pandemic requires us to absolutely have faith and confidence in our institutions and we on this side, and as the prime minsiter has said himself, and I know the minister for health has said a number of times as well, we have faith and we should be very proud of the role that the TGA plays in this country.

It is absolutely vital as we respond to this crisis that all of us, who have the privlidge of being in leadership positions show leadership in the information in which we put forward to the community.

We have said throughout this crisis we are all in this together. It needs to be more than a slogan. It needs to be a method of action as well.

And that requires responsible leadership from every parliamentarian.

We hope that today sees an end to the information or disinformation from the member for Hughes. I haven’t had the opportunity of seeing the statement that was just tabled by the prime minister.

I hope as well that the member for Hughes brings into question and distances himself from statements about the attacks on the US Capitol. As a member of parliament, I think it is extraordinary, that a member of parliament, any member of parliament, would justify that action by right week insurrectionists.

He got in trouble for that last bit, but you can see where Labor’s attack lines on the Craig Kelly issue are going.

Updated

The man who took Mathias Cormann’s Senate spot, Ben Small, will be delivering his first speech in the Senate in just a short while.

Updated

This is also happening

Given Michael McCormack had nothing to say about Craig Kelly’s comments when he was asked as acting prime minister, it is extremely doubtful he has actually said anything to someone in his own party, which he allegedly leads.

Or that anyone would listen.

Patricia Karvelas to David Littleproud:

OK. So now in the Nationals we’ve got George Christensen doing the same kind of stuff [as Craig Kelly] Will he be hauled in to a meeting with your leader? Do you think that should happen?

DL:

That’s a question for Michael, but...

PK: Do you think Michael McCormack, being the Nationals – I shouldn’t call him by his first name, how impolite, but do you think Michael McCormack should do that just as the prime minister did with Craig Kelly?

DL:

Well, I think we all have the responsibility as parliamentarians. Although we have free speech and we have been granted a free speech, to use that wisely.

Whether Nationals, Labor or Liberal, we should follow the advice of the institutions put in place and are trusted by government and by this parliament, and that’s the appropriate thing to do.

I would also say to every Australian, please make sure that you adhere the official advice and seek advice from your own medical doctor.

PK: Just to be clear, you do think Michael McCormack should be sharing that with your colleague, George Christiansen.

DL:

I think we should be having that conversation with every parliamentarian.

PK: You don’t have to have it with all of them, though, because they’re not spreading...

DL:

Anyone who makes those comments, I respect their rites to do it, but you’ve got to understand the privileged position.

PK: So will you commit then to having a conversation with George Christensen. Perhaps you already have. Maybe you can tell me something?

DL:

Well, it is not my place. I will leave that to the leader. I don’t want to overstep the mark. I’m sure Michael would be fully cognisant of what he said. I’m not fully cognisant of his comments, I’m going only on what you have reported to me and I would have to look at it in its entirety, but obviously many parliamentarians who want to protect free speech, and we all do, and that comes with responsibility.

Updated

For Canberra readers: the grotesque curiosity that is the Skywhales have had their launch postponed

By a day.

Skywhales: Every heart sings – the first ever flight of Skywhalepapa and Skywhale together – has been postponed until Sunday 7 February due to forecast unsuitable weather conditions.

The world premiere of artist Patricia Piccinini’s new hot air balloon sculpture, Skywhalepapa, had been due to take place on Saturday 6 February but the flights have now been rescheduled to Sunday 7 February. All other event details remain the same.

All tickets for Saturday’s event are valid on Sunday. Ticketholders do not need to register to attend on Sunday if they already have a ticket. No further tickets for Sunday will be released.

Updated

Here is a bit more from how Mike Bowers saw QT:

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the minister for energy and emissions reduction, Angus Taylor, during question time.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the minister for energy and emissions reduction, Angus Taylor, during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Barnaby Joyce before question time
Barnaby Joyce before question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese enters the chamber
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese enters the chamber. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
The leader of the house, Christian Porter, refers to House of Representatives practice during question time
The leader of the house, Christian Porter, refers to House of Representatives practice during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

David Littleproud is speaking to the ABC about his call to telecommunication services to provide better emergency services.

He then says:

We also have the fail-safe of the ABC and we do acknowledge the significant contribution the ABC makes of that and I would encourage everyone in those disaster zones to stay tuned to the ABC. This is a critical tool to our emergency services personnel.

A reminder the Coalition has cut funding and the amount funding was meant to grow by to the ABC, since coming to government in 2013.

The 2018 Budget papers clearly state that the government’s savings measures reduce funding to the ABC by $14.623 million in 2019-20, $27.842 million in 2020-21, and $41.284 million in 2021-22. This reduction totals $83.75 million on our operational base.

It is true that over the three years the ABC budget does still increase but by a reduced amount, due to indexation on the fixed cost of transmission and distribution services. Previously, it was rising by a further $83.75 million over the same three years for indexation on our operational base. This is the funding that has been cut and considered a saving by the government.

Updated

Lisa Neville is holding her press conference on the transmission of Covid between two guest rooms at a Melbourne quarantine hotel.

Updated

Here was Craig Kelly when the prime minster finished his speech on indulgence, in which he said he had told Kelly to pull his head in:

Craig Kelly listens to the PM’s statement after question time
Craig Kelly listens to the PM’s statement after question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

And here was Craig Kelly leaving the chamber following Anthony Albanese’s statement on indulgence on the same topic:

The member for Hughes Craig Kelly after question
Craig Kelly after question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

He looks totally chastened.

Updated

Education minister Alan Tudge surprised at number of university job losses

The federal education minister, Alan Tudge, has told Sky News he is “surprised” to hear that more than 17,000 people lost their jobs at universities in 2020.

Universities Australia released the data today – and warned more jobs could be lost after a horror year for universities. Public universities and their staff were not able to access jobkeeper during 2020 or 2021, and the National Tertiary Education Union said this had contributed to job losses.

On Sky News earlier today, Tudge said he thought it was closer to 5,000 jobs lost, according to AAP.

The losses were “still very significant”, he said.

Earlier reports throughout 2020 had made clear that job losses were already above 10,000 – such as this report from October. Dan Tehan was the education minister at the time.

Tudge also told Sky that the university sector was yet to ask him for more funding.

“We are concerned if there are job losses but we also have to understand they’ve had operating surpluses for many years before this,” he said.

Labor’s education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, told reporters that universities should not have been excluded from jobkeeper.

“It’s our universities that we’ve turned to during the Covid pandemic to ask them to look at vaccines, look at treatments, to look at the way the disease spreads in our community,” she said.

The Greens education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, said Tudge should act.

“Every single one of these estimated 17,000 job losses was preventable,” she said. “Universities immediately need a big funding boost ... Alan Tudge needs to intervene to prevent any further damage.”

Updated

Anthony Albanese on Craig Kelly (on indulgence):

I welcome the belated statements of the prime minister in distancing himself from the comments of the member for Hughes.

The comments from the member for Hughes have been dangerous, have brought ...

At this point, Kelly interjects with something. Albanese continues:

We have a limited time for indulgence, I say to the member for Hughes.

In particular his comments with regard to health, the use of hydroxychloroquine (a debunked and unproven Covid treatment option), the use of other drugs which have not been in accordance with the advice from the TGA or advice from the chief medical officer.

My tape ran out, so I am just grabbing the last part of that for you.

Updated

There is quite a lot of editing action happening on Craig Kelly’s wiki page.

People are very, very quick.

(I am glad I don’t have one, because it seems exhausting keeping up with people’s messiness in real time.)

Updated

Also important:

Updated

And here is what we’ll be hearing about at the Victorian press conference:

Updated

This is interesting:

Updated

Anthony Albanese has also made a statement on indulgence about Craig Kelly, which I am just transcribing, but it includes reference to Mark Dreyfus’s question, which was ruled out of order.

Dreyfus tried to ask:

How can the prime minister maintain the member for Hughes is doing a good job when, as chair of this parliament’s committee on law enforcement, he backed domestic terrorists who attacked the US Capitol, killed and injured police officers and menaced members of Congress?

How can a law enforcement committee chair who defended that conduct ... [which resulted in the death of a police officer – keep the prime minister’s support, and stay in his job?]

Updated

The Craig Kelly fracas has continued in the Senate.

Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, asks about comments that Matt Canavan tweeted midway through Senate question time (A reminder: “I think we need more Craig Kelly’s willing to say unpopular things because it is only by challenging ideas that we get better ideas.”)

Simon Birmingham, the leader of the government in the Senate, replies with an observation about the limits of debating medical matters:

“It’s always important to have people who will test or challenge views and opinions. However, it is equally important, in relation to dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, that government and those speaking to the public advocate for the facts of the matter and follow the factual advice that is presented.”

The nation has been served well during the pandemic by the government’s decision to follow expert health advice, Birmingham tells Wong.

Nevertheless, she persists. Wong asks why the PM refused to publicly repudiate his own MPs, and whether he may believe there was a political benefit to be gained from “their spreading of misinformation”.

Birmingham says Morrison has made it clear that he does not support “any views that undermine the vaccination strategy”.

Updated

Dr Paul Armstrong, the Western Australian government’s infectious disease expert, says WA has now changed its policy and requires security guards to wear face masks while at work. Previously, the advice was security guards did not have to wear masks if they could remain 1.5 metres back from the doors to rooms housing quarantining travellers.

He says it isn’t likely the virus was transmitted through the air conditioning, saying “the learning so far is that it is not something that is transmitted, it is not a pathogen that can be transmitted by the air conditioning”.

“It may have been that a surface was contaminated by that person somehow and he touched that surface and put his fingers in his eyes or his mouth. That’s another possibility. We haven’t worked out exactly how that transmission event has occurred.”

Armstrong acknowledges that a transmission event is “always a possibility” but the health advice saying that security guards did not have to wear a mask was based on “sound risk assessment”.

“Wearing a mask for 12 hours straight sitting in a chair is an uncomfortable situation. It is very sweaty, it is hot, and the more you have it on, the more irritated you get and the more chance you have of touching your mask. So there are downsides to wearing masks and that’s one of them.”

Challenged on this position by reporters, Armstrong points out that “lots of journalists [here] are playing with masks all the time, there is not a panacea, there are downsides”.

Updated

Western Australia’s health minister, Roger Cook, says the hotel security guard who contracted Covid-19 did not visit a room housing a returning UK traveller who was positive to the UK variant of the virus. That contradicts what Cook said yesterday, but he says more information has come to light. It means authorities are now looking at the possibility of an aerosol or surface transmission.

Cook says the security guard, dubbed case 903, was “deployed to a static location consistent with the role of the security guard”. Or, in plain language, he was sitting in a chair near the stairwell on the same floor as the room of the positive UK traveller, about two doors down from their room.

“He wasn’t required to wear a mask while he remained in place and that is consistent with the public health advice,” Cook says. “And basically carried out his duty from that point. His role was to monitor the floor to ensure no one left their room and, as I said, was sitting in a chair near the left well a safe distance from the room in question.”

The room housing the positive UK traveller was “visited around seven times that day”, Cook says.

“Yesterday we reported that the security guard in question delivered some medication to that room. I can now reveal he was not the personnel who did that … Each of the people who visit the rooms carry full PPE and are protected in relation to any exposure that they might have to the person indoors. We have established that all on that date wore the appropriate PPE. The security guard did not approach the door during the day, however obviously you can understand with seven different visits during that day to the person in question, it would appear that there was some spread of the disease.”

Updated

Here is the Scott Morrison statement on indulgence on Craig Kelly:

A key principle of our government’s successful response to the pandemic, and those of the state and territory governments with whom I work, a principle that I have applied when chairing both the national cabinet and the security council of cabinet, has been respect for the expert advice, the expert medical advice that has guided our response and the institutions, those who have the responsibility under our system for providing that advice.

Mr Speaker, it is true that the views expressed by the member for Hughes do not align with my views, or the views and the advice that has been provided to me by the chief medical officer.

Earlier today, the member for Hughes and I discussed these matters, I made it very clear what was the view of me as prime minister, and of course the views of the government.

Vaccination is critical, it is our primary responsibility this year as we continue to respond to the pandemic, and I welcome the statement, which I table, that was issued by the member for Hughes following our meeting.

Our job is to get on with the job of the vaccine. The TGA, the authoritative body, not just in this country, but respected around the world. So I can say to Australians, indeed, for the same reasons that I and members around this place will take our own children, our own parents to get the all-important vaccine. And that our TGA, the medical advice that guides my government’s policy on the pandemic, is the best in the world.

Updated

Scott Morrison tables the statement Craig Kelly’s office issued following the meeting between Morrison and Kelly (after he had a run-in with Tanya Plibersek in the corridor today – he was (at least publicly) silent before that.

“It is true that views expressed by the member for Hughes do not align with my views, or the advice which has been provided by the chief health officer,” Morrison says.

He says the government needs to get on with the job of delivering the vaccine.

Scott Morrison speaks in parliament
Scott Morrison speaks in parliament. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Question time ends.

But Scott Morrison asks to make a statement on indulgence – from his lead-in, it looks like it is Craig Kelly adjacent.

Updated

Mark Dreyfus tries to get in another question about Craig Kelly, which Tony Smith rules out of order before he even finishes his sentence.

Updated

The Western Australian fire commissioner, Darren Klemm, says fire activity at the Wooroloo bushfire, which has destroyed 71 homes in the past two days, has been “static” in the past 12 hours, with milder conditions overnight.

That means some of the potential impact on homes in the northern part of Brigadoon has been averted, he says. Containment lines on the southern and parts of the northern flank have been built up.

Klemm says:

Of immediate concern today is the suburb of Shady Hills estate, which is in the north-west portion of the fire. That north-west corner of the fire is extremely difficult to control, in incredibly steep terrain. We’re unable to get earthmoving equipment in there. We’ve been using both large air tankers and fixed-wing water bombers to lay retardant lines in that area.

Just before we come to this press conference, a telephone warning system has been released for Shady Hill estate and the people of Bullsbrook. People in those areas, now is the time to enact your bushfire plan. If you are not prepared, you should leave now.

I want to reiterate that. It is absolutely critical that people enact their bushfire plan now and if your decision is to leave, leave now. We’re only going to see the wind strengthen over the course of the day, which will make that fire in difficult, steep terrain incredibly different to stop running up the hill towards Shady Hills estate.

Klemm says veterinary teams have been established by the City of Swan and the Shire of Mundaring to help treat animals affected by fire.

Klemm adds that he expects the final number of homes destroyed will be higher than 71. There is another area on the western edge that assessment teams have been able to get into, which they are checking today.

“Our hearts go out to those that have lost homes. This morning, the process of communicating the loss of those homes to the homeowners has commenced,” he says.

Updated

Mark McGowan says reports that Western Australia is low on stocks of personal protective equipment are incorrect.

He says:

Misinformation and fear-mongering being peddled by some people needs to stop. To be clear, we have more than enough PPE. I’m advised it is being distributed to our health services so they have more than enough.

McGowan says the state’s Covid-19 hotline has received more than 27,000 calls since Sunday, and he urges people to be patient.

He also thanks those working on the hotline, and other frontline workers.

That goes to everyone across the state – essential workers, our police, firefighters, our nurses, those people working on the front line including those working in shopping centres, our essential retail workers, our truckies, cleaners and security staff, thank you. You are doing an incredible job in this extremely difficult time.

Can I again give my sincere thanks to the people of Western Australia for their response to our latest Covid-19 challenge. You are showing the world what can be done when people come together and do everything they can to keep their community safe. I’m so proud of each and every one of you.

But it’s not over yet. We have not yet defeated the virus. The fire is still burning, and we have volatile weather conditions still ahead of us today. We need to keep it up. We need to stay the course. We cannot get complacent.

He says the Lord Mayor’s Distress Relief fund has been established for donations, and the government has kicked it off with a $2m donation.

The website for the lord mayor’s fund is currently crashing under traffic, but people have been urged not to deliver goods or food to evacuees, but instead to donate cash to the fund.

Updated

Craig Kelly answers the first half of the question, but doesn’t take the second part:

To the member for Macnamara, I welcome your interest in the law enforcement committee’s work. The committee yes is conducting an inquiry. We have received very many informed submissions.

As yet, we are yet to set a date for reporting. I look forward to sitting down with the deputy chair of the committee, the member for Cowan, and we’ll work that out. And we’ll inform you due with. Thank you.

Craig Kelly speaks during question time in parliament
Craig Kelly speaks during question time in parliament. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Jim Chalmers just got booted out of the House for interjecting while the Speaker spoke.

Hope he didn’t have any questions lined up.

Updated

Tony Burke wins that battle – the Speaker rules the question in order, although he finds the second part of the question “arguable”.

Updated

Josh Burns to Craig Kelly: (yes, you read that right)

My question is to the member for Hughes in his capacity as the chair of the joint committee for law enforcement. When will the committee’s report be tabled and has the member for Hughes recused him from his inquiry, given his trivialising of the attack on the US Capitol by domestic terrorists?

Cue the battle of procedure between Tony Burke and Christian Porter.

Updated

Mark Butler is told this question is out of order:

I refer to the prime minister’s previous answer in relation to the inappropriate purchase of watches by Christine Holgate.

“I was appalled, it’s disgraceful, it’s not on.”

If the prime minister is willing to condemn the inappropriate purchase of watches why won’t he stand in this place and condemn the dangerous disinformation about Covid spread by the member for Hughes?

Tony Smith:

As I said yesterday, it is very clear under the practice that questions can only ask the prime minister or ministers about their direct ministerial responsibilities. And whilst the member for Hindmarsh has referred to a previous answer, as I’ve said before, that would enable a question to go to the prime minister’s statements in that answer, not simply ask another question and another question which is out of order.

I did undertake to the House to have a look at all of the precedents yesterday that are state in practice, I can assure you I did, there’s a number of them that are there and I can read through the Hansards from 1964 right through until the early 2000s and through more recent years and all speakers have upheld the principle I did yesterday.

So, the question is not in order.

Updated

As Paul Karp has pointed out, the “adversarial forces” here include Boris Johnson and members of the Nationals.

Updated

Greg Hunt takes a dixer on the vaccinations, which really should be directed to members of his own backbench:

Again, positive news for Australia in the fight against Covid-19, zero cases Australia-wide today.

Zero lives lost Australia-wide today. Zero Australians on ventilators on in ICU today.

At the same time, the world has lost another 15,000 people since we spoke yesterday. So, the global pandemic continues to rage.

What that means is that as a nation, despite our strongest efforts as home, we won’t be truly safe until there’s vaccination abroad and vaccination at home.

That’s why the news we have now achieved record vaccination rates for our five-year-olds is incredibly important.

We have gone from 94.9%, which was itself a record, in the September quarter, to 95.1%, for five-year-old vaccination rates across Australia, in the December quarter.

The first time Australia has ever passed the 95% mark for vaccination on record. In addition to that, as the Institute explained to me, the extraordinary Pat Anderson, Indigenous Australia has an even higher rate of vaccination.

We sometimes talk about closing the gap, this time we need the rest of Australia to close the gap to reach the extraordinary 97.25% vaccination rate for 5-year-old Indigenous children.

This is not only protecting those children, but it says that Australians are great vaccinators. That they believe in vaccination, they practise vaccination, that it’s important that Australians continue to follow the TGA, and that is why we are focused on the rollout and that’s why one of the things we’re doing is making sure we follow fully the advice of the TGA.

Not skipping any steps. There are those who wanted to skip steps, to bypass tests, to pass the things that the TGA has proposed and to bring forward...approvals..too early.

That’s not the right place to be.

What we have done is follow the advice of the TGA, what Australians want to do is make sure their medicines are safe, they’re assessed, and therefore they are effective and if they know that, there’s confidence and if they know, there’s a higher take-up, if they know that, we’ll protect the nation.

Updated

Ed Husic to Scott Morrison:

Almost 90,000 jobs in manufacturing have been lost under this eight-year government. prime minister, why has the government failed to protect jobs in manufacturing in Australia?

Morrison:

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As the minister for industrial, science, and technology, who has championed the modern manufacturing strategy that was outlined in the last budget, Mr Speaker, some 1.5 billion of investments in the future of advanced manufacturing in this country, Mr Speaker, she will tell you that that is how you’re going to create manufacturing jobs going forward in this country.

But one of the things that will be absolutely conditional on, Mr Speaker, is the platform that is established by lower taxes, more competitive arrangements for businesses, Mr Speaker, to ensure that their energy prices, Mr Speaker, are lower, their access to gas feed stock, as it levels, which enables them to achieve the sort of things that were able to be achieved in the United States, with the way that gas became available in the United States, and that’s why our manufacturing policy is based on the platform of those broader based reforms but on top of that, Mr Speaker, it’s investing in the things that puts people into those jobs and as the Treasurer reminds, the national skills platform that we are establishing with the states and territories, the new skills agreement giving the forward look on the skills those Australians will need and the businesses who employ them will need, backed up by a $1 billion training fund, Mr Speaker, the Job trainer fund, together with the states and territories, backed in by the many 30,000 odd places going into educational institutions this year, all of that is equipping our workforce to be the workforce that manufacturing needs to be successful in the future.

But Mr Speaker, I saw this when I was up at the global manufacturing group up there in Gladstone, sorry, Maryborough, on that wholly owned Australian metal manufacturer, they employ 100 people across the Maryborough and Gladstone operations, and they utilised the instant asset write-off and a grant around the sovereign industry capability program.

There’s Rheinmetall at Maryborough, expected to employ extra people by 2022, the government has supported that facility through the $28.5 million in grants through the regional growth fund.

There’s Delta hydraulics, a family owned business, founded in 1975 by John White, that specialises in the development, manufacture, and export of hydraulic cylinders and benefited from JobKeeper.

There’s CSL at Broadmeadows, there’s Rheinmetall up in Brisbane as well, Mr Speaker, whether it’s in defence industries, in minerals processing, and waste management, Mr Speaker, that is the plan we’re rolling out in this country, Mr Speaker. All of that is occurring because of the vision and leadership of this government that is going to create a future for advanced manufacturing that will not be supported by the higher taxes on electricity and energy.

Updated

OK, back to question time.

WA has recorded no new Covid-19 cases for the third day in a row.

So, there still has not been any further cases after that hotel quarantine security guard tested positive on Saturday.

McGowan said there were 12,326 tests conducted yesterday – a good number, but not high enough, he said.

McGowan said:

“I want the WA community to understand that if we do continue on a zero streak through to Friday, the full lockdown will end.

“However, like we have seen in other states, some form of restrictions will be necessary for the following week or so. Based on health advice, we know this virus can linger, so even though we could potentially have no community transmission come Friday, it does not mean we are 100% in the clear. I want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. But we need to see at least 14 days of no community transmission before we can return to our unique life here in Perth, Peel, and south-western WA that we were all enjoying throughout January.”

McGowan said contact tracers have now identified a total of 189 close contacts of the security guard and 234 casual contacts. Of those, 116 have returned negative test results and the rest are awaiting results.

The man’s flatmates have also been tested again, after returning negative test results on Sunday. The results of those tests are pending.

WA records no new covid cases

That’s another zero day for WA and Australia in terms of locally acquired cases, from what I can see.

It’s looking good for WA not having its lockdown extended beyond the slated five days.

Updated

Also outside parliament for the moment:

(via AAP)

A woman has been found with multiple stab wounds in the boot of a car in the NSW Southern Highlands, prompting the arrests of two people.

The 24-year-old was seen waving her hand through the rear tail light section of a Holden sedan as it drove through Pheasants Nest on Wednesday morning.

Police duly pulled over the vehicle on the Hume Highway at Berrima and found the woman inside the boot, suffering from multiple stab wounds. She has been taken to hospital with injuries that are not life threatening.

Two other women aged 24 and 18 have been arrested and taken to Southern Highlands Police Station but are yet to be charged.

Police will hold a press conference on this very soon

Updated

Turning to WA for the moment

Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has begun speaking at at Mundaring arena, which is a staging ground for the Wooroloo bushfire.

He said WA is facing an “unprecedented” situation.

“We’re facing disasters on two fronts - the devastating bushfires and the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a situation the likes of which we have never seen before. A full lockdown and raging bushfires. It is frightening in and it will test us all.”

McGowan said the fire had “devastated our community” and added “Like many people, I know someone who has lost their home. It’s devastating”.

“To all those people in the evacuation centres – we’re all thinking of you. I’ll be visiting later today to offer my support.”

McGowan said the large air tanker from NSW had arrived last night and was now operational.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg is taking a dixer on the economy, and mentions the tax cuts.

The tax cuts are interesting, because the second stage of tax cuts are for people earning $45,000 to $200,000, the government arguing that people need to keep more of the money they earn in their pocket. (That’s the line.)

It’s interesting because Labor’s childcare policy, which would eventually allow for universal child care is also for people earning up to $200,000. And the government’s argument against that is that Labor wants to give “welfare” to people earning up to $200,000 and the subsidies are enough.

It’s the same people who on one hand, deserve a tax cut, but on the other, need no help with childcare, which is shown to boost productivity and get more people – mainly women – back into work.

And yet, we’ll hear it over and over and over again.

Updated

And the key part of what Labor is trying to get to here:

As always on all IR matters, here is Paul Karp to explain the context of what is going on with Labor’s questions at the moment –

Updated

Tony Burke to Scott Morrison:

Under the prime minister’s industrial relations changes, a part-time car parking attendant working only three days a week, including Saturdays and Sundays, could lose more than $13,000 a year from their take home pay. Why is the prime minister punishing workers who are struggling to find and keep secure jobs during a pandemic?

Christian Porter takes this one too:

The premise of the question again is wrong. That figure is totally untrue. There’s no evidence whatsoever and if the member has such evidence, he can explain it to the House.

Updated

It’s Michael McCormack’s dixer time.

Excuse me while I visit the games cupboard to try and find the Monotony game board.

Or just stare at the wall. Same same.

Labor tries to table the document again. Christian Porter denies leave.

Emma McBride to Scott Morrison:

Under the prime minister’s industrial relations changes, a part-time disability care employee working a Friday to Sunday shift could lose more than $14,000 a year from their take home pay. Workers in the care economy supported Australians through the pandemic, why is the prime minister allowing cuts to their take-home pay?

Christian Porter takes this one:

The premise of the question is completely false. There’s no evidence whatsoever of any such contention. In fact, and in fact, yesterday the member for Watson and the member for Corio referred to a document, in the member for Corio’s words yesterday, the government’s IR changes were cited for workers losing penalty rates, and then the member for Watson said the government’s IR reforms would decrease wages for store managers, and the document they seem to be referring to, and the proposed basis for your ... no wonder, you are probably glad I didn’t let you table it, what that document appears to be, a joint proposal before the Fair Work Commission regarding retail award arrangements.

And in a statement yesterday from the Australian retailers association, they said this, quote, “The proposal is in”...

Porter is interrupted on a point of order for straying off the topic.

For the record, Labor tried to table the document yesterday, and said it was from retailers asking for penalty cuts.

Updated

A reminder that in 2019, then finance minister Mathias Cormann was asked about low wage growth (it was a problem even then).

The whole point – it is important to ensure that wages can adjust in the context of economic conditions – is to avoid massive spikes in unemployment, which are incredibly disruptive,” he said.

This is a deliberate feature of our economic architecture.”

Updated

Question time begins

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

Wages growth is the lowest in decades, after eight long years of this government. Why is the Prime Minister making it worse in allowing cuts to wages through the legislation that’s before this parliament?

Morrison:

What the leader of the opposition has just said is just not true. And Mr Speaker, I have noticed this now over a period of time ...

Mr Speaker, what our government’s economic recovery plan is about putting Australians back into work, and to ensure that businesses can do just that. All of our plans are designed to get Australians back into work.

That includes modest changes to industrial relations, Mr Speaker, changes these who would have liked much greater changes, the government has not gone down that path. Mr Speaker, those opposite are overreaching here, Mr Speaker. We’re just trying to get people back into the jobs.

Updated

Anthony Albanese also spoke on indulgence:

Today our thoughts are with the courageous selfless firefighters who are once again putting themselves in harm’s way for the sake of their communities, their families, and for their fellow Australians.

I certainly on behalf of Labor stand to offer whatever support the Commonwealth can provide and to make whatever representations from the people of Western Australia to make sure that we regard this as a national issue, a crisis in one area of this country is a crisis for our country.

It is good that the Premier informed me the tanker has arrived from New South Wales, for example.

And is on the ground being able to provide support and that’s a good thing. It would appear from the assessment, though, that what we’re really waiting on is rain. A bit similarly to what has occurred in - when we’ve seen fires in other parts of the country in our past. But our hearts go out to anyone who has lost hair home, we stand with you. And we offer whatever support we can give.

Matt Canavan has entered the Craig Kelly chat:

Scott Morrison:

To everyone in those affected areas we simply say, as you know, to please listen to and heed the advice of the official warnings and authorities and, of course, as always, please look out for each other. I know this has been a hugely trying few days in Western Australia, not just with these terrible fires but of course the lockdown as well.

Everyone living inthe Perth metropolitan area, and in the Peel and south-west regions have demonstrated great forbearance and are playing their part to prevent the spread of Covid. Every Australian is standing with Western Australians and as always we’ll get through this together.

Updated

Anthony Albanese’s Twitter account has commented on the Craig Kelly situation.

Updated

Scott Morrison is now making a speech on indulgence on the WA bushfires.

Calla Wahlquist will have an update on that for you very soon.

The Doug Anthony condolence motion has been moved to the federation chamber, after speeches from Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese and Michael McCormack.

Attack is the best form of defence? It’s upside-down world in the Senate today, where government minister Richard Colbeck has accused Labor of “recklessly” undermining Australia’s vaccine strategy by elevating the views of Coalition MP Craig Kelly.

Facing questions from Labor at the opening of Senate question time, Colbeck agreed that public confidence in the vaccine strategy was vital:

That’s why the prime minister has called Mr Kelly in this morning to have the conversation that he has [had], and I think that’s appropriate. I don’t support anybody who’s providing information that undermines the national vaccine strategy we have. And I have to say Mr Kelly’s getting more airtime by the publicity given to him by the Labor party than he is by his own means. It’s the Labor party who’s elevating this issue beyond where I believe it should be.

Simon Birmingham also confirmed to the chamber that Morrison met with Kelly this morning. The leader of the government in the Senate described the conversation as follows: “The prime minister made clear that the prime minister and the government do not support any views that undermine the vaccine strategy, whether made by Mr Kelly or anyone else.”

Updated

Ahead of question time, this has happened:

Updated

The agriculture minister has pushed back at pressure from Europe and the United States to strengthen the Morrison government’s climate policies – while saying the public should not get into “self-loathing” about Australia’s performance.

David Littleproud, who is also deputy leader of the Nationals, declined to say whether he would support or oppose Scott Morrison making a concrete commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, saying the government would not do so “until you’ve got the facts”.

“We’ve got a commitment to finding them [the facts],” Littleproud said at a doorstop interview today, while contending that Australians were “sick of platitudes and politicians talking about big aspirations but no way of getting there”.

Littleproud contended that the US under new president Joe Biden was similarly committed to a technology-based approach to emissions reduction – but the agriculture minister seemed to come close to suggesting America was not in a position to lecture Australia, given the country, under Donald Trump, had pulled out of the Paris agreement:

“Some nations around the world got out of it and are now re-signing it,” Littleproud said.

“We never turned our back on the Paris agreement, and we are saying that we will reach that and in fact beat it. The US is catching up to us on that. In terms of the future, we’ve signed up under the Paris agreement to reach zero emissions some time in the second half of the century. If we can accelerate that and we can make sure that the economy isn’t hurt and we can transition, obviously we’ll look at that in a pragmatic way, but you’ve got to be honest with the Australian people.”

Littleproud was asked by a reporter whether he was concerned about the possibility of carbon border adjustment charges affecting Australian agricultural exporters, given it was an idea both the European Union and the US were considering.

Littleproud said he had spoken with the EU’s agriculture commissioner last night and “made clear … it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a one size fits all approach to the environment”.

“So it’s important that the EU and those nations understand the very unique nature of our continent compared to others. We are doing the heavy lifting … I think as Australians we get into this self-loathing a lot and we’ve got to actually look at what we’ve achieved.”

Updated

It’s 2pm, so question time should be starting soon – I think we might have a condolence motion first.

Former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Doug Anthony died in December last year and is yet to be honoured by the House.

Yup, there we are – Doug Anthony condolence motion is now being read.

Updated

We have crossed over to the chamber ready to bring you the question time shenanigans, so let’s play who is that MP for 90-second statements.

Oh. It’s an easy one – Anthony Albanese speaking on the example of Captain Sir Tom Moore.

Updated

You can always tell when it’s an election year, because National MPs suddenly start talking about “the government” like it is a separate entity to them. If a National MP begins distancing themselves from “the government” while in government, well, you know the campaign is whirring up.

Just in case you needed a reminder, the Nationals are the junior partner in the Coalition. Which is in government.

Here is Bridget McKenzie speaking to the ABC about Phil Lowe’s comments on the unemployment payment needing to be permanently increased:

The government has decisions to make around what to do with the jobseeker. The multiple payments that those who are receiving that particular payment received from government, rent assistance and the like a raft of support structures rather than the base rate itself. I am hopeful the government will take into consideration all of those factors when looking at ongoing support but the reality is we were very clear at the start of the pandemic that we would be swift with our response, that it would be targeted and that is exactly what it has been and that is borne out in the positive results that the Reserve Bank governor has borne out in his speech.

We make the commitment that we would adjust our response as required throughout the pandemic.

We have seen that. When you have 15 per cent of Australia’s GDP has been focused on supporting Australians and Australian businesses through the pandemic, that vast majority is by the federal government itself. You then have the cheek of some state premiers coming out and saying “Come on, cough up more” when really we are all in this together.

It is as a result of many state premiers border closures that their own businesses are struggling. They also need to support it. I am not pointing the finger. You can’t always expect one level of government to pick up the tab all the time.

I am sure the government will take that into account as they consider this going forward ... That is a decision for government. Ministers avenue all information available to them at the time they make that decision. I am sure they will take that into careful consideration going forward.

Updated

Question time is in about 15 minutes time – let’s see if the Speaker allows a Craig Kelly question today.

Updated

Bridget McKenzie says she gets her information from her doctor, not Dr Facebook.

Cool, but the Australian government is pumping out a lot of information on Facebook, where Craig Kelly has seen enormous reach for his misleading, unproven and false claims on Covid treatment, so ...

Updated

Bridget McKenzie is on the ABC pretending all is fine with Craig Kelly and within the Coalition joint party room:

We all need to focus on making sure we get the vaccine rolled out, that we get as many Australians taking up that opportunity and ensuring that we get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible to continue the great recovery that we as a nation have been experiencing, when you compare us globally.

We live in a democracy and people are entitled to their views.

Obviously Mr Kelly has released a statement, as you said. He is supporting the government’s vaccine rollout and I, like most members of parliament, similarly support medical advice and people actually following medical advice, not just when it comes to COVID but obviously with your health and that of your families.

I think Australians are smart people. They take their medical advice from medical people. Science is contested. I support the fact that our scientists and our researchers who are amongst the best in the world, they now have a lot of government funding behind them to be examining this particular issue.

How do we best protect ourselves, our family and society from Covid and from the symptoms are encouraged to explore new ideas and to actually look at a whole raft of solutions, not just the vaccines we have got available to us right now to make sure that we are looking at every possible opportunity to keep Australians safe.

Updated

For more on the RBA governor’s speech, you can read Paul’s story, here:

On the inflation target, Phil Lowe says:

Then we get Phil Lowe on the unemployment benefit rate:

It needs to rise. Permanently.

The RBA governor said that when the jobkeeper wage subsidy ends in March, he expects some “job shedding” to occur.

That’s a very wonkish way of saying people will lose their jobs.

Updated

Former Green leader Bob Brown’s eponymous environment group has lost a legal challenge to native forest logging in Tasmania that claimed the industry’s logging was at odds with federal conservation laws.

The case by the Bob Brown Foundation, lodged in the federal court in August and billed by the group as “the great forest case”, argued an effective exemption from environment laws granted to logging meant a regional forestry agreement between the federal and Tasmanian governments was not legally valid.

Lawyers for the foundation had said the agreement lacked an enforceable requirement that the state must protect threatened species, particularly the critically endangered swift parrot.

In a judgment on Wednesday, the court said the forestry agreement was legally binding.

See a full story at the Guardian shortly.

What can the RBA do to ensure wage growth happens?

Directly, not a lot. But it needs wage growth to happen, and for employment to grow, so the economy can grow and inflation can get to somewhere between 2%-3%. That’s not predicted to happen until at least 2024 now – a year later than originally predicted by the RBA last year.

But can the RBA direct the government to do something about wage growth?

Also, no.

Phil Lowe:

I’m not going to provide the government with advice on that vexed issue.

I think our main contribution here is to keep the monetary support going so long as reasonably possible.

My hope is the labour market will tighten, people will get jobs, as it tightens, wage increases will rise.

I have some confidence that process will work, but I’m also realistic to know it’s going to take a long time.

Before the pandemic, we were seeing tightness in some pockets of the labour market and wages in those pockets were starting to move.

It gives me confidence that laws of supply and demand in the labour market still work.

Our strategy is to make sure there’s strong demand for labour, the economy is growing strongly, and eventually firms start paying higher wages because they want the workers.

Obviously, the government’s programs are helping in some of those areas.

But for our part, we’re going to keep the monetary support going until people have jobs and firms have to pay higher wages in to get the works they need. I’m confident that will eventually work. But we have to be patient.

Updated

The RBA governor, Dr Phil Lowe, is addressing the press club.

Paul Karp is there and will bring you all the news, but the theme of his speech is we are watching and waiting, but will continue the government bond buying program (quantitative easing) to keep money in the economy.

Lowe:

In terms of the most important consideration, the outlooks for inflation and jobs, as I’ve mentioned a few times already, we remain very short of our goals and we’re likely to be short of our goals for some years to come.

Given these considerations and the fact the cash rate is at its effective lower bound, the board decided to purchase another $100 billion of government bonds at the completion of the current program.

These additional purchases will be will be at the rate of $5 billion a week, unchanged from the current program, and other parameters of the current program will remain unchanged as well. These bond purchases will ensure a continuation of the RBA’s monetary support for the Australian economy in its recovery phase.

Updated

David Littleproud opened the morning with a salvo at Australia’s telecommunication companies (and then saw it get lost in the Craig Kelly mess).

As AAP reports:

Telstra and other telcos have come under heavy fire from the federal government for failing to release crucial data to emergency services.

Emergency services are seeking information about telecommunications utilities to help save lives during natural disasters including bushfires, cyclones or floods.

Fire and rescue workers will use the information to make strategic decisions to keep communications alive during a disaster.

Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud singled out Telstra’s chief executive after the company failed to honour an agreement made in October 2019.

“I am disgusted that Andy Penn has not made good on Telstra’s commitments even after a personal conversation with him that he would not put Telstra’s commercial interests ahead of the safety of Australians.”

Mr Littleproud declared the time for talk was over as he ramped up the pressure for Telstra, Optus, NBN and Vodafone to sit down with emergency services.

“This is about people, not profits,” he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

“This is about making sure that our emergency personnel have the resources and require to protect us and themselves.”

He promised the government and emergency bodies would not share commercially sensitive information.

“Telstra, along with Optus, NBN and Vodafone owe it to our emergency services workers as well as to the broader community whose lives they are endangering to provide this critical data,” Mr Littleproud said.

Updated

You may have heard there is an attempt to build support for an independent candidate to win Craig Kelly’s seat of Hughes.

Kelly’s preselection is in doubt, but he has been saved by Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison in the past, so nothing is certain.

Anne Davies reports it is not just Hughes, with plans for an independents’ conference later this month, to build support for independent candidates across the nation:

A loose confederation of current and former independent politicians will hold a national conference later this month to discuss strategies to win seats at the next federal election.

The conference, “Getting Elected”, will bring together high-profile independents including Warringah’s Zali Steggall, Indi’s Helen Haines, the former member for Wentworth, Kerryn Phelps, Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie as well as numerous community groups and would-be candidates.

With the latest Newspoll published on Monday showing that the major parties were neck and neck, and the Morrison government enjoying just a two-seat majority, convener Cathy McGowan, the former independent MP for Indi, said it was important that independents get organised now.

Updated

Labor’s Linda Burney will introduce amendments to the national redress legislation scheme, to try and speed up the compensation payments:

Labor’s amendments will seek to address the following issues:

  • survivors waiting too long for redress or missing out altogether, including through the introduction of an early payments scheme;
  • reduced payments;
  • the highly criticised and arbitrary assessment matrix; and
  • limits on psychological support for survivors.

These amendments have been structured so as to provide the government with the flexibility to negotiate with the states and territories, as well as to the legislated two year review of the scheme.

Updated

Yesterday, most of the crossbench (not Bob Katter, who wasn’t in the chamber) voted with Labor to suspend standing orders to debate a motion censuring Craig Kelly.

The government shut down the debate.

But it doesn’t look like the crossbench is happy - here is Helen Haines:

Updated

David Littleproud was asked whether he truly believes Craig Kelly now supports the Covid vaccine roll out:

I take Craig on face value. If he is saying that I take him on face value.*

If some of his comments have been clumsy, obviously Craig needs to rectify that himself.

The government as position is very clear ... The government’s position has been predicated on science, the best medical advice we have got and that will continue to be the [foundation] on any further advice with which we provide the Australian public.

That is the government’s position. If anyone within the government ranks makes comments to the contrary, they are on their own.

* A reminder that in the not so distant past, David Littleproud said he didn’t know whether climate change was man-made, as he wasn’t a scientist. But he’ll take his colleague at face value.

Updated

After years of decline, car sales in Australia have picked up due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Via AAP:

Australia’s new vehicles sales jumped by more than 10 per cent in January as the industry continued to recover from 2020’s coronavirus slump.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries says 79,666 new cars and trucks were sold last month, a rise of 11.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.

The result built on the 13.5 per cent increase in demand in December and the 12.4 per cent improvement in November.

It also entrenched the turnaround for the sector after sales fell 48.5 per cent in April and 35 per cent in May, as Australia endured the first wave of coronavirus cases.

Last month’s improvement came on the back of Australia’s increasing desire for sports utility and light commercial vehicles.

While passenger car sales actually fell by 9.3 per cent, demand for SUVs rose by 17.4 per cent and the light commercial market jumped by 24.6 per cent.

Toyota was the top-selling company in January with 16,819 vehicles, ahead of Mazda on 8508 and Hyundai on 5951.

Toyota also had the top-selling car, retailing 3913 vehicles across its HiLux range ahead of the Ford Ranger on 3120 and the Toyota Rav4 on 3066.

For the first time in more than 70 years, there were no recorded sales of Holden cars in Australia, following the closure of the brand by parent company General Motors.

Updated

Mark McGowan will be speaking to media at 11.30am WA time, which means it will be either 1.30/2.30pm eastern time

I just made a quick visit to Craig Kelly’s social media, after his office released that statement.

The posts are all still up.

Labor’s social media game, particularly the memes, tend to be fairly cringe as a general rule – but perhaps it wasn’t just the shadow frontbench which was reshuffled.

Updated

Marise Payne has issued a statement on the imprisonment of Russian opposition activist and Putin regime critic Alexei Navalny.

Australia is deeply concerned by Russian authorities’ arrest and subsequent sentencing of Alexei Navalny to two years and eight months’ imprisonment. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) concluded that Mr Navalny’s 2014 conviction, which was used as grounds for his current detention, was “unlawful” and “politically motivated”. We call for Mr Navalny’s immediate and unconditional release.

Australia is also concerned by the approach of Russian authorities against peaceful protesters and journalists detained in recent weeks. We call for their release without delay. Australia supports all peoples’ right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

We reaffirm a call for Russia to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into Alexei Navalny’s poisoning using the banned Novichok nerve agent last August.

Updated

David Littleproud is speaking on the emergency assistance being provided to WA, as firefighters battle to contain an out of control bushfire in the Perth Hills, which has destroyed at least 71 homes so far.

Thankfully, there has been no reports of loss of life, although animals have been killed in the blaze.

Littleproud:

The federal government already has worked with the West Australian government and yesterday we sent an Australian Defence asset with retardant to support them.

Can I congratulate not just the West Australian fire commissioner but the fire commissioners around the country who pre-emptively had a large aerial tanker positioned in Western Australia before these fires started, even before the season started.

New South Wales in our coordinated method of aerial assets in this country have sent a further asset. Any further assets or support that is required from Western Australia will be provided.

Updated

Craig Kelly 'agrees to support' Covid vaccine roll out

Craig Kelly has released a statement, following his talk with Scott Morrison, after he continually pushed his unproven, false and misleading Covid treatment views, as well as expressed hesitancy over the Covid vaccination.

The prime minister reinforced the importance of public confidence in the government’s vaccine strategy.

I agreed to support the government’s vaccine rollout which has been endorsed by the medical experts.

I have always sought to support the success of our nation’s public health response during the pandemic.

I believe the spread of misinformation can damage the success of our public health response during the pandemic.

Updated

The NDIS was designed to allow people with disabilities autonomy when choosing and paying for their treatment. The federal government is now planning to step in on moral grounds to stop NDIS clients from accessing legitimate and legal treatments they wish to have included as part of their care plan.

Stuart Robert:

I’ve asked all the ministers to let me know when they have ever paid for prostitutes before when they are running state and territory schemes and of course, none of them responded to me. They’ve all written to me to say we need to consult far more and we can’t reach a decision, and the ACT has said no, we must fund prostitutes. So I can’t get unanimity the states and territories won’t stump up. So the commonwealth will now make a principled decision because we don’t believe that taxpayer’s funds should be used for prostitution services.

And by the way, an estimate I have on the cost if this goes forward starts at half a billion per annum.

Updated

While the Craig Kelly circus rolled on this morning, Stuart Robert was on Sydney radio 2GB dog-whistling about sex work therapy being permissible on the NDIS.

The federal court has ruled that specialised sex work services are permissible under the NDIS. That was after a woman living with multiple sclerosis fought to have specialised sex work paid for under her NDIS plan, as it is the only way she can achieve sexual release.

There are specialised sex workers who work with people with disabilities to help them achieve what most of us take for granted – sexual release. In most cases disability doesn’t change hormones or desire, but it is a lot more difficult to achieve release.

Robert has turned that into commonwealth money being used for “prostitutes”.

Roberts:

You’re spot on, Ray, we all want to take care of Australians with disability and the NDIS is a fabulous national endeavour, but the legislation is silent when it defines reasonable and necessary so the federal court has said, therefore, most things are permissible including paying for prostitutes. Now the commonwealth has never paid for prostitutes, it has never used taxpayers money and nor have the states and territories.

So I’ve asked the states and territories to join with me because the law requires unanimity across the commonwealth in the states and territories, for us to say that prostitutes will not be paid for by taxpayers money. Participants are welcome to avail themselves of anything that is lawful and they can pay for themselves. But of course, Andrew Barr has written to me personally, the ACT chief minister, and said no, no, prostitutes should be included and the other states and territories have all been silent.

So I simply say to the states and territories, on principle, the commonwealth objects to this, because I can’t get agreement I’m forced to legislate, and if the states and territories wish to fund prostitutes, they can pay for it themselves.

Updated

Yes, Craig Kelly has spoken to the prime minister this morning.

Scott Morrison made clear he doesn’t support the Liberal MP’s views and actions and asked him to refrain from pushing views contrary to medical advice, because they are negatively impacting the government’s vaccine strategy.

Kelly was told to focus on the constituents of Hughes.

The MP agreed to restrain his social media and support the government’s vaccine strategy.

We’ve contacted Kelly for his response, but so far he has been silent.

Updated

NSW records no new local Covid cases

NSW has also recorded no new locally acquired cases in the past 24 hours, which makes 17 days with no local cases.

Two people in hotel quarantine have tested positive.

There were 11,816 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous day’s total of 6,686.

In a statement today NSW Health said:

NSW Health continues to urge people across the state, particularly in the Liverpool area, to come forward for testing with even the mildest of symptoms that could signal Covid-19, such as a runny nose or scratchy throat. After testing, you must remain in isolation until a negative result is received.

The state’s ongoing sewage surveillance program has detected the virus that causes Covid-19 at the Ireland Park sewage network site, which serves about 88,000 people in the Liverpool catchment in south western Sydney.

This catchment takes in the suburbs of Cecil Park, Cecil Hills, Bonnyrigg Heights, Green Valley, Len Waters Estate, Hinchinbrook, Hoxton Park, West Hoxton, Carnes Hill, Horningsea Park, Edmondson Park, Bardia, Denham Court, Leppington, Gledswood Hills, Glenfield, Casula, Prestons, Varroville and Austral.

While a small number of recovered cases live in this area, NSW Health is concerned that there may be undiagnosed active cases in the area. Everyone in these suburbs is asked to be particularly vigilant for symptoms and to isolate and get tested immediately if they appear.

High testing rates play an important role in helping to contain the spread of the disease, as it gives us the best chance of finding new cases and preventing new chains of transmission from becoming established.

Updated

I’ve just been down at the ACT magistrates court, where Witness K has appeared for a short, procedural matter.

More than 100 people turned out to rally in support of the former intelligence officer, and his lawyer Bernard Collaery, who face prosecution for their role in helping to expose Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste during 2004 negotiations to split resources in the Timor Sea.

The rally heard from Luke Gosling, a Labor MP and former army officer who was in Timor at the time of the bugging operation. Gosling condemned the secrecy surrounding the cases, which has been imposed by provisions of the National Security Information Act (NSI Act).

Gosling said Australia was not the sort of nation that prosecuted whistleblowers, and accused the attorney-general, Christian Porter, of trying to “hide dirty laundry”.

“That is a concern to me, and it is a concern to Australia,” Gosling said.

Gosling called on the attorney-general to provide a full explanation of the government’s rationale for the prosecutions. Australian National University emeritus professor John Minns, professor Kim Rubenstein and Green Institute director Tim Hollo also spoke in defence of the pair and to condemn the case against them.

Witness K’s matter was heard only briefly in the ACT magistrates court.

The court heard arguments about how the NSI Act should be used to restrict disclosure of information in the upcoming sentencing proceedings and in certain documents. That argument will resume on 29 March.

The rallies have been a frequent sight during the protracted cases against Witness K and Collaery.

Updated

Tim Watts was just speaking on the TGA bill – using his speech as an opportunity, as most Labor MPs have, to censure Craig Kelly for his Covid views, where he mentioned that despite being supposedly counselled by the prime minister yesterday afternoon, he subsequently spoke to multiple media outlets, including the Guardian and Sky News to repeat his claims.

He then said Kelly had “accosted” Tanya Plibersek in the hall.

Normal stuff, and well, it’s on video.

But then the Queensland LNP MP Luke Howarth entered the chamber in what looked like a bit of a huff (he had been his office I think), demanding Watts withdraw the “accosted” comment - claiming he had “reflected terribly” on Kelly.

Howarth’s main reasoning appeared to be the dictionary definition of ‘accosted’.

(For the record “it’s approach and address someone boldly or aggressively”.)

Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly have an impassioned discussion in the press gallery
Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly have an impassioned discussion in the press gallery Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Everyone seemed a little confused by that.*

Howarth still had a head of steam about it all and off-microphone kept speaking on it, saying something like it was a “bloody disgrace”.

Howarth was then kicked out of the chamber under 94A.

*An earlier version of this post said Watts withdrew. He didn’t – I misheard who spoke on the video.

Updated

Scott Morrison reportedly confronts Craig Kelly

It only took a confrontation with an opposition MP in the hallway which was broadcast around the nation, for the prime minister to tell his backbencher, who has been doing this for most of the year to stop it.

Perhaps the prime minister was too focussed keeping his eyes ‘on the boar’ rather than on the hazards around it.

Updated

Greg Hunt and Ken Wyatt have announced the vaccine rollout plan for rural, remote and regional communities:

The rollout of Covid-19 vaccines into regional, rural and remote communities is an vital part of the Australian Government’s vaccine strategy to protect country people and managing the fight against the virus in the regions.

The Australian Government is working with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services, General Practices, state and territory governments, Primary Health Networks, General Practitioner-led Respiratory Clinics and community pharmacies, to ensure that Australian’s living in regional, rural and remote locations have access to a vaccination if they choose to.

To further strengthen our rollout delivery across Australia, both GP’s and pharmacies have been invited to join the nation-wide effort to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. This will integrate more than 2,000 vaccine sites across Australia.

GP’s will join the rollout from phase 1B, with pharmacies to begin vaccine distribution from phase 2A.

Updated

Firefighters are bracing for 70km/h winds in parts of the fire zone today.

Updated

“Conservative voices are being silenced”

(If you don’t get that reference, see below)

Updated

Earlier, Tanya Plibersek spoke to 2GB Radio’s Ray Hadley, continuing to court the conservative outlet (she is now making regular appearances) by commenting:

Ray, you’d be surprised how often I agree with you – more often than you’d imagine.

Plibersek spoke about her run-in with Craig Kelly, which she said was a “total coincidence” because she was speaking about 17,000 jobs lost in the university sector when she was asked about the Liberal MP.

When she replied the prime minister should pull him into line - reporters pointed out Kelly was right behind her. Deidre Chambers!

Plibersek said:

I don’t expect Craig Kelly to agree with me, but I do expect him not to say things that contradict the chief medical officer, the prime minister and the health minister – all of our medical advice. The government is rolling out a $24m campaign to encourage people to take the vaccine when it’s available, but you have Craig Kelly giving the opposite message. The NSW government says to wear a mask, but he says it’s child abuse.”

Plibersek says the vaccine will help protect people like her mother, “almost 90”, who lives in Kelly’s electorate and businesses like coffee shops that want to get “back to normal as soon as possible”.

Updated

Michael Sukkar has an update on the home loan deposit scheme – the policy where the government essentially acts as the deposit guarantor. It has been extended until 30 June.

In just three months, over 4,200 first home buyers have accessed the extended Scheme to build or buy a new home which runs until 30 June 2021.

Since the commencement of the Scheme a year ago, there has been an extraordinary take up of guarantees by first home buyers with more than 15,000 first home buyers already settled and moved into their home since 1 January 2020.

... To further support first home buyers, the Morrison Government will reissue unused guarantees from the 2019/20 financial year from buyers who have since been unable to complete their purchase of their first home.

This represents a great opportunity for around 1,800 buyers to now enter the property market sooner. First home buyers will be able to apply for these guarantees from the Scheme’s lending panel lenders in the coming days.

Updated

Labor attempts to (again) censure Craig Kelly

In the lower house, the government has introduced its therapeutic goods amendment bill – which is technical and relates to tracing medical devices and improving flexibility for pharmacists to fill prescriptions.

Labor has used the chance to relitigate Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s controversial views on alternative treatments to Covid-19.

Mark Butler, the new shadow health minister, has moved a second reading amendments that:

“Whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House condemns the ongoing campaign by some government members against the independent and expert Therapeutic Goods Administration, and urges the prime minister to finally censure those members”

Kelly has been critical of the TGA for not reconsidering the evidence about whether hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin could be used to treat Covid-19, treatments that have been rejected by the chief medical officer Paul Kelly.

Updated

The TGA changed the classification for (some) cannabis oils (CBD oil) as of February 1, meaning it should, in reality, be able to be sold over the counter at pharmacies. The problem is, there is no cannabis oil able to be legally sold in Australia. That is not expected to change for at least six months.

Dan Tehan has just introduced the narcotic drugs amendment (medicinal cannabis) bill 2021, as Australia inches closer to a medical cannabis industry:

These amendments are part of the second stage of the implementation of recommendations of the Final Report of the McMillan Review by Professor John McMillan AO into the regulation of medicinal cannabis, including in particular to:

  1. streamline and consolidate the licensing structure in the ND Act into a single licence replacing the current three-licence structure, to reduce regulatory burden for industry participants undertaking activities across the spectrum of regulated activities – cultivation, production, manufacture and research;
  2. create a perpetual licence and periodic permit structure for the majority of activities for which a medicinal cannabis licence is required, to support the long term nature of business investment decisions, whilst maintaining appropriate regulatory oversight; and
  3. reaffirm the Australian Government’s commitment to patient availability of safe, legal and sustainable supply of cannabis derived medicines.

Updated

Tanya Plibersek’s mum lives in Craig Kelly’s electorate.

Tanya Plibersek is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB, about her confrontation with Craig Kelly over his covid claims.

Plibersek says the government needs to be as one on its advice, given the sacrifices people have made during the pandemic.

I had to check this twice, but Ray Hadley agreed with her and said Kelly is wrong and he wishes “he would drop off”.

Updated

Parliament is about to start: both chambers will sit from 9.30am.

Updated

Craig Kelly just said this himself – that the phone call the prime minister made to him ahead of question time yesterday, was to check he wasn’t an anti-vaxxer. Scott Morrison was attempting to prepare for any questions on Kelly during QT. Labor’s Mark Butler attempted to ask him one, quoting the prime minister on Kelly not being his doctor, but doing “a great job” in Hughes, but was shut down by the Speaker.

Kelly told Katharine Murphy (after question time) he was hesitant to receive the Covid vaccine, but said he promoted the flu vaccine, so doesn’t consider himself to be an anti-vaxxer.

Yup.

Updated

Craig Kelly, who has appeared in almost every Australian media outlet you can think of (including this one), has extensive social media reach, as well as the floor of parliament (which he has used to spread his false, misleading, debunked and unproven Covid views) is now claiming he is the victim of “cancel culture”.

Kelly appears to have as much understanding of “cancelling” as he does science.

Updated

Russian opposition activist and Putin critic Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to at least three and a half years in jail after he was arrested last month (after returning to Russia, following treatment for his near fatal poisoning in Germany) for alleged parole violations.

(There is no official word from the government as yet on Australia’s position, but given the international community is expressing concern, and considering sanctions, one imagines that is where we will end up)

Updated

Victoria reports no new locally acquired Covid cases

In the midst of all that, Victoria has reported another day of no locally acquired Covid cases.

Updated

Meanwhile more than 17,000 jobs were lost at Australian universities in the last year – with more job losses to come, as international students remain locked out of Australia.

Universities were not included in the jobkeeper wage subsidy program.

Updated

Following his confrontation with Tanya Plibersek, who challenged him on his (misleading, debunked, and/or unproven) Covid treatment claims, Craig Kelly has fronted the cameras AGAIN, to try and explain himself.

In a brief rundown (because the actual views do not deserve more airtime, given they go against expert health advice and Kelly is a former furniture salesman and not a doctor or scientist) Kelly:

  • Defended appearing on Pete Evans’s podcast, although claims he doesn’t agree with everything Evans promotes. (Evans, a chef by trade, has been kicked off social media platforms for his repeated conspiratorial, misleading, debunked, false and unproven Covid treatment and vaccine claims – plus the neo-Nazi cartoon);
  • Once again questioned the official advice provided by Australia’s expert health committee, which is widely accepted by the science and health community, has been adopted by the federal government and is forming the basis of Australia’s (so far very successful) Covid strategy;
  • Claims there are at least a dozen of his colleagues who have privately told him they support him making his claims.

Updated

I’ve had a few questions about how the confrontation happened – and the simple answer is, they were both in the hallway.

MPs travel through the press gallery for interviews in studios and occasionally bump into each other. If there is a contentious issue floating around, one will usually say something to the other to see if they will bite.

In this case, Tanya Plibersek challenged Craig Kelly, and Kelly being Kelly, had to explain why he was right.

Kelly isn’t new to this – it was climate before it was Covid. He’s always been a disruptor and for the most part, his leaders have let him go and just tried to ignore it. But given the challenges the nation faces, given the pandemic, and the government’s challenges in rolling out the vaccine, letting Kelly go unchallenged has crossed into dangerous territory.

Updated

Mike Bowers was in the corridor when Craig Kelly and Tanya Plibersek had their run in over Kelly’s (unproven, misleading) Covid treatment views (which promote treatments not recommended by health experts, and contradict the government’s health message).

These images are going around the country right now. And this is after Scott Morrison had supposedly spoken to Kelly. Guess the message didn’t get through.

Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly have an impassioned discussion in the press gallery of Parliament House in Canberra this morning.
Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly have an impassioned discussion in the press gallery of Parliament House in Canberra this morning. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly
Trying to make sense of it. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly
And then … Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly
TFW. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Tanya Plibersek and Craig Kelly
Most of the nation rn. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Craig Kelly and Tanya Plibersek have corridor run-in

Labor’s Tayna Plibersek has had a run-in with Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly in the media gallery corridor over his Covid treatment views.

Kelly says he doesn’t know if the prime minister agrees with him.

“I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him,” he says.

For the record, here is the bit in the Sydney Morning Herald story from yesterday Kelly is referring to.

Professor Clancy told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age he had not met Mr Kelly and did not agree with everything he said but thought he was “absolutely right” on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

“Early treatment is highly effective. Vaccines are critically important. They should not be seen as mutually exclusive. You need them both,” he said.

Professor Clancy said the evidence showed hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin were safe and should be used.

“But they mustn’t be used instead of a vaccine. They need to be used together,” he said.

Updated

The areas of Shady Hills and surrounds are the places of worry today.

If you live in those areas of Western Australia you need to have your fire plan in place.

Updated

Perth is in lockdown, but the message has been to leave if you are in the fire zone.

Darren Klemm:

We’re into day three of this fire today and it is – it is going to continue to be a challenging fire for us for at least the next three or four or five days.

We got a little bit of better weather on the weekend, possibility of some rain on Sunday, but people really need to concentrate on making sure their bushfire plan suits them and make sure they’re keeping abreast of those warnings.

Can I make the point about people who may be quarantining – the most important thing is the preservation of life, and so if you’re quarantining and you’re required to evacuate, you should just evacuate.

And I suggest those people that are quarantining, now is the time to give some thought to what’s an alternative place that they can go.

That might be a family or a friend that they can go there and continue their quarantining there, notify police, but we – what we don’t want is indecision from people about whether they should evacuate or not when we require them to evacuate.

So that evacuation overrides any quarantining requirements that people may have.

Updated

At least 71 homes lost in WA bushfire

Western Australian fire commissioner Darren Klemm is giving an update on the out of control bushfire raging through the Perth hills.

He says the numbers of home destroyed by the fire is now at 71. That number was at 59 overnight.

Thankfully, there are no reports of loss of life.

Updated

Vale Captain Sir Tom Moore.

Updated

We are just waiting on an update from Western Australia’s fire authorities on the Perth hills bushfire. We should have that soon.

Updated

Chris Bowen was a guest on the ABC’s 7.30 overnight, where host Leigh Sales asked him about climate. Labor is yet to announce its climate policy, although it is holding its national conference (virtually) in March. Bowen took over the portfolio in a reshuffle, which moved Mark Butler to health and aging. That came after internal disputes with Joel Fitzgibbon.

But the change in shadow ministers has not changed the message.

Bowen:

My message to coal workers and to coalmining communities around Australia is that coalmining is good and noble work and our economy has in many senses been built on it. It has been dangerous and dirty work for many years. But the world is changing and we do need to be honest about that and regardless of what our domestic climate change policies are, while we will continue to export coal for many years, coalmining and coalmining communities will come under pressure.

Now your choice is, do you have a government which shrugs his shoulders and says, let the market rip or do you have a government which says we will invest in communities, will invest in individuals, and help you through that change. Certainly the Labor party is the party which believes in investing in communities and investing in people.

Labor says the answer is to reassure people about the jobs which will be coming with the transition.

Bowen:

I see many thousands of jobs being created by good climate change policy. Both directly in terms of renewable energy, and also in reinvigorating traditional manufacturing industries with energy certainty and energy policy certainty. Manufacturing, and traditional industries have been under huge pressure, I know this, Leigh, I represent the largest industrial estate in the southern hemisphere, in Smithfield-Wetherill Park. I live on the edge, I see this every day and good energy policy is good employment policy. We could create thousands of jobs right across the country by getting emissions down, having a pro-investment pro-jobs climate change policy.

Updated

The government has spent a good chunk of this week deflecting calls to have companies pay back jobkeeper wage subsidies they used to pay bonuses and dividends rather than keeping workers in jobs.

On Monday, Scott Morrison called it the “politics of envy”.

Well, according to this report from Ben Butler, the auditor-general would like to take a look a the scheme after a request from Labor’s Andrew Leigh in December:

The auditor-general is to investigate the operation of the Morrison government’s $100bn jobkeeper subsidy scheme after concerns money that was supposed to be used to keep workers employed during the Covid-19 crisis has been diverted to pay dividends or executive bonuses.

An audit of the scheme will examine issues including whether the Australian Taxation Office has put in place “effective measures to protect the integrity of jobkeeper payments”, the Australian National Audit Office said.

The move follows a request in December from the opposition frontbencher Andrew Leigh, who said it was vital that the scheme, which was the single biggest in Australian history, received proper scrutiny.

Updated

Good morning

Welcome to day two of parliament – honestly, it’s like we never left.

We start the day with how we ended it – talking about Craig Kelly. The vocal government backbencher spoke to practically every media outlet yesterday afternoon, defending his social media posts on Covid treatments, which are not recommended by the Australian government health authorities, or have not been tested, or are considered dangerous.

Late yesterday, Kelly later made his views on the Covid vaccine clear. He spoke to Katharine Murphy, after he was supposedly counselled by the prime minister to zip it.

Scott Morrison has not publicly censured Kelly, although the Seven network interviewed Kelly as the prime minister was trying to call him before question time. Whatever was said, Kelly was happy to talk to media throughout the day, and shows no signs of slowing down.

Labor has increased the pressure on the prime minister to act, pointing out Kelly’s social media reach, and his continual contradiction of government advice. Kelly was a guest on Pete Evans’s podcast, a chef, whose own conspiratorial views have seen him kicked off social media platforms, show earlier this week, which has ramped up the criticism.

So that circus will roll on today. Kelly’s preselection is under threat in his NSW seat of Hughes (again) and only remained the candidate in the last few elections because of direct intervention by the Liberal leaders. Morrison saved his preselection last time, but seems less inclined to do so this time round. We’ll see.

Murph has covered off what has been happening here

In other vaccine news, the prime minister will talk with Pacific leaders today (virtually) where a vaccine roll out for Pacific nations will be the main topic.

Australia has committed $200m to help with the roll out, with today’s forum talking timing and logistics.

And outside of parliament, RBA governor Dr Philip Lowe will address the National Press Club, outlining the central bank’s plans for the year – the bank has a focus on employment, over inflation, with a keen eye on wage growth. Which is a bit of a turn around, so it will be interesting to hear him explain more about what the bank wants. Wage growth in Australia, even before the pandemic, was almost non-existent and it turns out that people not having money means the economy suffers. Who would have thought it?

We’ll cover all that and more – we are still watching WA as large parts remain locked down, while a bushfire continues to threaten communities near the Perth hills – as the day rolls on. Thank you for joining us. If you have questions, send them through and I’ll do my best to answer them. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day, with Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst in Canberra, and the rest of the Guardian brains trust scattered across the country keeping you updated.

Ready?

Let’s get into it.

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Utah woman waits in line for a ride at Disney. Then something disturbing happens. Now she’s speaking out
Disney Resorts like Disneyland and Disney World are supposed to be the most magical place on Earth, and they are for thousands of families. But, it can also be a place that exists like many others for women across the United States—a place where their boundaries get pushed and a…
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
Paul McCartney ‘to play for Apple staff at 50th anniversary concert’ – decades after dispute with company
Musician, 83, was once involved in a decades-long legal dispute with the tech giant
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
5 Photos of Angelina Jolie as New Face Shocks Fans During Tom Ford Event in Shanghai - But Is It Really Her?
Angelina Jolie's appearance at Shanghai Fashion Week has sparked online speculation, with fans questioning if it was really her. Explore the reactions and theories.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Jamie Lee Curtis planned to be a cop
Jamie Lee Curtis is amazed she's been acting for nearly 50 years because she always thought she'd be a cop.
BANG Premier
BANG Premier
Sali Hughes on beauty: new foundation launches come with a lot of hype. Do they deserve it?
Armani revamps a favourite, Clarins adds a tint to its serum and a new base from Carisa Janes will suit anyone who hates powders
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Justice Alito: "Just out of curiosity, do you think we should ask Claude to decide this case?"
I suspect many lawyers use AI, but now they will be even more hesitant to admit it.
Reason
Reason
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play