Good evening and thank you for reading our live coverage of the day’s events, here’s what has been happening:
- The laws that control employment arrangements for political staffers will be reviewed as the federal government takes the first steps to respond to Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ examination of harassment in parliamentary workplaces.
- An elite soldier has told the Federal Court that he witnessed an Australian soldier shoot an Afghan man with a prosthetic leg at close range with a distinctive machine gun that he later saw in the possession of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith.
- The Prime Minister, speaking in Melbourne, said the army was not a “shadow workforce”, even though Defence Minister Peter Dutton says the government will bring defence force personnel into aged care facilities to help if needed as the Omicron outbreak continues to devastate residents and their families.
- Stood-aside cabinet minister Alan Tudge won’t be back on the frontbench when Parliament resumes next week, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying the processes of examining allegations relating to an affair Mr Tudge had with a staffer are not yet resolved.
- Qantas boss Alan Joyce has likened Western Australia’s borders to North Korea and questioned why Australia’s borders remain closed to all international tourists despite the country’s high COVID case load.
- A revised national curriculum will elevate the study of Western and Christian heritage in history, remove references to the Anzac legend as “contested”, cement the importance of phonics in teaching reading and reverse changes to maths that left experts worried the subject was being dumbed down.
- The historical front doors from Old Parliament House were removed on Friday morning and sent off for restoration after they were damaged in a fire amid protests outside the building in late December.
More than 100 ACT and AFP police officers have surrounded the National Library as the “convoy to Canberra” protest enters its fifth day. On Wednesday, the National Capital Authority requested ACT police enforce legislation to prohibit illegal camping and parking on the Patrick White Lawns in front of the library.
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed the government will act to legislate protections for LGBTIQ students alongside its proposed religious freedom laws before the election, after a key Coalition conservative cast doubt on the plans.
- NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says 2417 school students have reported a positive rapid antigen test (RAT) in the past week, according to preliminary data from the school surveillance program.NSW has recorded 10,698 new cases of COVID-19 and 31 deaths. Today’s tally is down from yesterday’s 12,632 cases. There are currently 2494 COVID-19 patients in NSW hospitals, including 160 in ICU.
Some elective surgeries will return in Victoria from Monday, after the Victorian government announced a $1.4 billion investment into the state’s healthcare system. Elective surgery at private hospitals and day procedure centres will be able to resume up to 50 per cent from this Monday, depending on case numbers and COVID-19 hospitalisation numbers in coming days. Ambulance Victoria recorded its busiest three month period ever to December last year, with more than 91,000 serious callouts, a 16.2 per cent increase when compared with the same time in 2020. The state has reported 11,240 official cases of COVID-19 and 36 deaths. Today’s numbers are down on yesterday’s tally of 12,157.
- Queensland has recorded 13 more COVID-related deaths and 6857 additional cases. The Northern Territory recorded 1004 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night (local time). WA is reporting 32 new cases, including 18 new local cases and 14 travel-related cases to 8pm last night (AWST). South Australia has recorded 1363 new cases and three deaths, a man and a woman in their 80s and a woman in her 70s have died. The nation’s capital has recorded 449 new cases of COVID-19 and one additional death since yesterday’s update.
Thanks again for joining us today, and remember the Winter Olympics begins with the Opening Ceremony tonight. We’ll have all the coverage of that action over the weekend, and the blog will return Monday morning.
Have a great weekend!