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Live breaking news: Flights between India and Australia suspended until May 15
Flights to and from India into Australia have now been suspended, amid increasing concerns over the nation’s escalating COVID-19 situation.
Flights to and from India into Australia have now been suspended, Scott Morrison has announced, amid increasing concerns over the nation’s escalating COVID-19 situation.
“We recognise that this has been a very significant outbreak in India,” the Prime Minister told reporters, off the back of a national security committee meeting this morning.
"Today we agreed, in addition to the measures that I announced after the last National Cabinet meeting, to pause direct passenger flights between India and Australia until the 15th of May."
Following the PM’s decision last week to reduce arrivals from India by 30 percent – with passengers travelling from there required to undergo a virus test 72 hours before leaving their last port of call - calls have mounted for him to close our border to the nation altogether.
On Sunday, India recorded 352,991 cases – the worst single-day increase in any country since the pandemic began – as mass cremation sites were established in response to a mounting death toll. Another 323,000 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours, and 2,771 deaths.
You can read more on this and follow our live news updates in the blog below.
Updates
Signing off
How Aussies could get $1k tax bonus
Filing a tax return can be a painful chore at the end of the financial year, but there’s always the chance of getting a slab of money back.
But what if you could throw out the tedious paperwork and still receive at least $400 to $1000, without the hassle of saving receipts?
That’s the proposal of a new Aussie think tank called Blueprint Institute, which has called for complex tax returns to be scrapped for around 80 per cent of taxpayers.
Picture: iStock
It suggested that the Australian Taxation Office offer standard work-related expenses worth $3000 to be claimed automatically, allowing people to submit a form that was already pre-filled. For the 20 per cent with high work-related expenses, they could have the option to fill out a full tax return.
Three quarters of Australians claim tax deductions, totalling $37 billion a year, with 70 per cent of people using an accountant to file their return.
Smoky air in Sydney again tomorrow
The Bureau of Meteorology have forecast smoky conditions for the Illawarra and metropolitan Sydney again tomorrow.
The poor air quality is the result of planned hazard reduction burns, with NSW Health urging residents in a statement this morning to take precautious.
"Smoke particles irritate the eyes and airways. For most people, this causes temporary symptoms like cough and sore throat," NSW Health's Executive Director of Health Protection, Dr Richard Broome, said.
From the satellite you get an idea of the difference between current cloud & smoke. Generally, cloud showing as the thick heavy white areas, while the smoke is the lighter "wispy" plumes. On current forecasts many areas will see similar conditions to today https://t.co/69YtnzZ2FZ pic.twitter.com/SAN7MIA8qq
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) April 27, 2021
"Smoke from hazard reduction burns can be patchy and conditions often change rapidly. Over the coming days, the smoke is expected to be worse in the mornings, so people are advised to limit outdoor activity until it clears in the afternoon.
"It's also a good idea to keep an eye on the NSW air quality website for real-time information about air pollution levels and for advice on what action you should take."
Dumb way alleged 'drug dealer' caught
An alleged drug dealer became unstuck during a police roadside stop when a woman interrupted and asked if she could buy cocaine from the driver.
Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command posted about the incident on Facebook.
Officers said plain-clothed detectives intercepted the 26-year-old man’s car along Gould Street, a one-way road in Bondi, after he was allegedly spotted using his mobile phone and driving the wrong way just before midnight on April 20.
“While speaking to the nervous driver who kept fidgeting with his phone, a woman also approached the vehicle and interrupted detectives’ conversation,” police said.
Police claim she told them she needed to speak to the driver because she wanted to buy cocaine.
– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire
Big change to state’s Perth restrictions
Victoria may begin accepting travellers from the Perth and Peel regions from midnight, just days after the state slammed its border shut to parts of Western Australia.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed health authorities would contemplate whether to change the travel rules today despite four new cases reported in WA’s hotel quarantine scheme overnight.
Mr Foley told reporters he expected the Perth and Peel regions would change from red to orange zones on Tuesday night.
It would mean travellers would be able to enter the state but have to isolate until returning a negative test.
– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire
Seven to pay MKR star $425 weekly compo
Channel 7 has been ordered to pay a former contestant on My Kitchen Rules more than $22,000 a year in ongoing compensation after she was left unable to work due to “psychological injury” she suffered from her time on the show.
Piper O’Neill, who appeared on the 2019 season of the reality cooking competition with her best friend and fellow beauty queen Veronica Cristovao, lodged a workers compensation claim against the broadcaster in August last year seeking payment of close $1000 in weekly benefits, starting from December 24, 2018.
Ms O’Neill, 38, was memorably revealed to be having a secret relationship with rival contestant Victor Aeberli in a much-hyped “sex scandal” storyline.
Picture: Supplied
NRL star's phone calls after alleged rape
NRL star Jack de Belin told his cousin in a phone call intercepted by police he felt “sick” at learning a young woman had accused him of rape and the situation was “pretty f***ed”, a court has heard.
The St George Illawarra Dragons forward and his co-accused Callan Sinclair are standing trial at Downing Centre District Court accused of sexually assaulting the woman, then 19, after the trio met at Wollongong’s popular Mr Crown bar during a Christmas pub crawl in 2018.
Picture: Joel Carrett/NCA NewsWire
Their trial has heard allegations from the woman that she felt “dead inside” and was crying as the men swapped positions forcing vaginal, oral and anal sex on her at a North Wollongong unit.
Mr de Belin, 30, and Mr Sinclair, 23, have both pleaded not guilty to five counts of aggravated sexual assault and maintain the encounter with the woman in the early hours of December 9, 2018 was consensual.
Today, the jury was played a series of phone calls made by Mr de Belin and Mr Sinclair in the days after the incident, in which they express their disbelief at learning the woman had gone to police and say they will “tell the truth”.
– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire
PM announces India wedding ban
Australia will bar citizens from flying to India for weddings and funerals in the wake of a “tsunami” of COVID-19 cases and fury over outbreaks in hotel quarantine facilities at home.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the tough new rules on outbound travel today as he confirmed a snap ban on incoming flights until May 15.
The decision reflects demands from the states for much tougher rules for outbound travel to COVID-19 hot spots. Travel will be restricted to essential travel only including national interest, medical exemption and COVID purposes.
Government sources confirmed the new rules will ban travel to India for weddings and funerals.
It follows revelations that a man who went to India for his own wedding before returning to Australia and sparking a COVID-19 outbreak in Western Australia was able to prove “profound” reasons for travel, according to Health Minister Greg Hunt.
– Samantha Maiden
Why can't arrivals from India just go to Howard Springs?
Mr Morrison is asked why arrivals from India can't just be sent to the Northern Territory's Howard Springs quarantine facility, which hasn't had any incursions and he describes as a "very successful facility".
"95 percent of the cases currently that arrived into that facility have originated in India. And so, working closely with the Northern Territory government, as well as our medical advisors up around that facility, their advice is we need to slow that pace significantly over the next few weeks to ensure that we can maintain the health of people in that facility," he said.
"This will give some breath space to the NSW arrangements and allow people from other countries to come back – you will see just as many coming through the NSW system.
"There will be less in Western Australia because they asked to halve their capacity, but there's increases on the way. So we'll see more Australians coming back."
The "pause" on arrivals from India is for "very sensible health reasons", reflecting Australia's performance during the pandemic thus far.
"We can speak to a performance that few countries can. We have always listened to the medical advice," he said.
"I think that's put Australia, I think, in a very strong position of so many nations when it comes to our handling of the pandemic. In Australia, we are living like few countries in the world can and do at the moment. I'm very determined that it remains that way."
PM refuses to 'squabble' over WA lockdown call
The PM has deflected a question over whether West Australian Premier Mark McGowan was "right" to call a three-day snap lockdown for Perth and Peel last Friday.
"You will not find me squabbling about this, you will find me supporting the states and territories," Mr Morrison told reporters.
He also refused to accept criticism of our hotel quarantine system, after days of Mr McGowan telling reporters we should have more Commonwealth quarantine facilities instead of states using hotels.
The PM spoke of the 99.9 percent "success rate" of our quarantine systems, listing only two occasions where an infection spread seriously into the community, one of which was in Sydney's northern beaches over Christmas.
"I don't think there's a country in the world who would not want a quarantine system that has been working as effectively as that," he said.
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Albo’s bold move on housing crisis
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