As it happened: Nation’s international borders to reopen to all double-vaccinated visa holders; Peter Dutton denies sending ‘absolute psycho’ text about Scott Morrison

Good evening, and thank you for reading our live coverage of the day’s events, this is what’s been happening:

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced Australia’s international border will reopen to all fully vaccinated tourists who have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine on February 21. The borders have been opening progressively since mid-December, with international students and family members of citizens and permanent residents the first allowed to return. The tourism sector has gone almost two years without any international arrivals. The sharemarket responded immediately, with travel stocks soaring. Qantas’ share price had jumped 5.4 per cent within an hour, the highest the company has traded since mid-November, and Flight Centre was 8 per cent higher.

Double-vaccinated international tourists will be allowed back into the country.

• Attorney-General Michaelia Cash shelved a promise made three years ago to create a federal anti-corruption commission. Senator Cash told The Australian Financial Review that other bills, such as the proposed Religious Discrimination Act, would take priority and the integrity commission would not be decided by Parliament before the election because Labor would not agree to the government model. Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said Senator Cash’s announcement was a broken election promise and he accused the government of living in “fear of accountability”.
• The federal government’s contentious Religious Discrimination Bill is set to be debated in parliament tomorrow.

Barnaby Joyce said he was sorry for the text he had sent calling the PM a liar, and his relationship with Morrison has since changed.Credit: AAP

• Nationals Party leader Barnaby Joyce had to explain himself in a party room meeting today for what was behind leaked text messages that showed him calling the Prime Minister a liar and hypocrite. Former leader Michael McCormack would not detail what was said in the meeting, only that Mr Joyce’s explanation was similar to what he had given to the media, and it was not up to him to judge whether the explanation was plausible. Mr McCormack told ABC Melbourne radio this afternoon that Mr Joyce will “get on and work together” with Mr Morrison and the average person was “sick and tired” of politicians talking about themselves. “When people are getting kids ready to go to school and open doors of their own businesses you know, text messages between pollies is not something that is top of mind,” Mr McCormack said.

A masked-up music lesson at Canterbury Primary in Melbourne.Credit: Wayne Taylor

• Western Australia has doubled its cap on international arrivals to 530 per week, with Premier Mark McGowan warning the state to be prepared for an increase in COVID-19 cases. Mr McGowan also announced the period of isolation will drop to seven days, and changes to the definition of a close contact in line with other states such as New South Wales and Victoria. WA recorded 26 new cases today, up from 12 a week ago.
• The number of COVID-19 cases in Victorian schools have risen to 5,300 in total after another 607 students and 230 staff reported they were positive at the weekend. Education Minister James Merlino the running tally of positive students was at 0.6 per cent of the total student population and the number of positive education workers equated to less than 1 per cent of the workforce.
• NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says his state government is yet to decide whether to lift or extend restrictions beyond February 27. The comments come after Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today announced that her state will do away with QR code check-ins. Though Mr Perrottet said today the state was “on track” to make an announcement about restrictions, which could include mask-wearing or QR code check-ins, the government was yet to make its decision.

QLD Annastacia Palaszczuk says the state will scrap QR code check-ins.Credit: Dan Peled - Getty

• Northern Territory Health Minister confirmed in a Facebook post this morning that her and her son tested positive to coronavirus over the weekend. It comes as the NT recorded 831 new cases, with 156 people in hospital. Acting Health Minister Nicole Manison encouraged more people to get boosted, with 38 per cent of adults receiving their third dose.
• More than half - or 54.7 per cent - of people aged 16 and over in the ACT have now received their booster shot. In South Australia, the state’s Department of Health and Wellbeing said 97 per cent of samples genomically tested are showing up as the Omicron variant as the state recorded 1,147 new cases and five deaths.
• The number of deaths of people with COVID-19 recorded across Australia today was 52.

The first four teams of military personnel will be deployed to aged care facilities in “extreme situations” due to the Omicron outbreak, weeks after the sector first asked for Defence help.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australian Defence Force personnel would be made available in a targeted effort to support existing workforces as they dealt with outbreaks and staffing shortages.

Defence force troops were deployed in aged care in Melbourne in 2020 in response to the COVID emergency.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“It’s a significant issue. It’s a difficult issue. It’s an issue that’s been caused by the fact that we have large numbers of people who are contracting COVID,” he told reporters on Monday.

But Mr Morrison said the ADF could not fill all the gaps. The sector estimates as many as 140,000 shifts are going unfilled each week.

“You want qualified people providing care,” he said.

Teams of 50, which will include a registered nurse, medical technicians and personnel to help with general duties and administration, will be deployed in Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia from February 9.

Labor’s aged care services spokeswoman, Clare O’Neill, said the sector had been in crisis before the pandemic, and the added burden of coronavirus had created a dangerous situation for older Australians.

“The decision today makes it absolutely clear: there is an emergency in aged care,” she said.

“This emergency is an entirely foreseeable consequence of a government that has learned nothing in its now-third year managing the pandemic.”

Last week, a report from peak body the Australian Aged Care Collaboration found up to 140,000 shifts were not being filled each week

Aged care providers and unions have been calling for ADF support for weeks as the Omicron wave spread, infecting thousands of residents and workers. There have been more than 530 coronavirus deaths in the sector this year.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet wants cruises to resume by the end of the month as he welcomes the reopening of the country’s borders to tourists.

He said it makes “very little sense” people can travel overseas to go on cruises but cannot do the same at home.

With international tourists to be allowed back in the country in two weeks, the NSW Premier wants cruises to restart too.Credit: Shutterstock

“I would think we’d be heading there (resuming cruises) at the end of the month,” he said on 2GB radio on Monday afternoon.

“We’ve got to move through, we’ve got to face down the virus.

“As soon as we can the better and that’s going to be in the interest of everybody across our state and our country.“

The ban on cruises is due to be reviewed by federal Health Minister Greg Hunt on February 17.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this afternoon that Australia’s international border will reopen to all visa holders who have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine on February 21.

“It’s a very welcome announcement,” Mr Perrottet said.

“We can’t live here in a hermit kingdom.”

Patrick Terminals and the wharfies’ union have agreed to scrap the latter’s veto powers over new hires at a major container port in a deal the stevedoring giant hopes will put an end to industrial action at the docks.

An 11th-hour agreement was struck between Patrick and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) ahead of a Monday hearing before the fair work umpire to terminate their previous pay deal, which required the company to get workers’ support for new hires at its Port Botany container terminal in Sydney.

The wharfies’ union and Patrick Terminals have reached a new pay deal.Credit: Dean Sewell

The new arrangement, which includes a 4 per cent pay rise in the first year and 2.5 per cent in the subsequent three years for about 1,000 workers at Patrick’s ports in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Western Australia, is yet to be voted on by members or ratified by the Fair Work Commission.

But MUA assistant national secretary Jamie Newlyn said negotiations had taken place “at the highest level”, with involvement from national secretary Paddy Crumlin and Patrick chief executive Michael Jovicic.

“This comes in the wake of a long and protracted bargaining period throughout which the union has sought a fair, reasonable and mutually agreeable outcome for both Patrick Terminals’ management and their loyal employees,” Mr Newlyn said, describing Patrick’s bid to terminate the enterprise deal as “employer militancy”.

Read more about this story here.

Another 607 students and 230 school staff in Victoria reported they were COVID-positive at the weekend, bringing the number of cases linked to schools to 5300.

The new cases come after 964 students and 150 teachers tested positive on Friday.

A masked-up music lesson at Canterbury Primary in Melbourne.Credit: Wayne Taylor

Victorian Education Minister James Merlino earlier today confirmed the running tally of students who had tested positive was at 4500, or 0.6 per cent of the total student population.

About 800 education workers have also tested positive since the start of the 2022 school year, the equivalent to less than 1 per cent of the workforce.

Health authorities had predicted an increase in COVID-19 infections as students returned to the classrooms this month and have pointed at the rising number of cases in schools as a sign the state’s surveillance testing program works.

Mr Merlino said no schools had been forced to return to remove learning because of a coronavirus outbreak.

“Yes, we’re getting many hundreds of students, hundreds of teachers, but put it in perspective,” Mr Merlino said this morning.

“We’ve got more than a million students in Victorian schools and more than 110,000 staff.

With Sumeyya Ilanbey

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan says the state is about to embark on its most challenging phase of the pandemic, with case numbers expected to rise as the number of international arrivals double, and the definition of a close contact changes.

The state recorded 26 new cases today, doubling the number of cases in a week, with Mr McGowan saying Omicron is spreading in WA.

WA Premier Mark McGowan arrives at the press conference today.Credit: Peter de Kruijff

Mr McGowan told a press conference a short time ago the cap on international arrivals will increase from 265 to 530 per week.

International travellers will be permitted to self-quarantine at suitable premises, Mr McGowan said, and be required to take a PCR or a rapid test on day one and return a negative test on day seven.

The Premier also announced a new definition for a close contact, bringing the state into line with other parts of Australia such as New South Wales and Victoria.

From tomorrow, a close contact in WA is a household member or an intimate partner of a person with COVID-19, or someone who has had a “close personal interaction with a case”. This includes 15 minutes of face-to-face contact with a positive case where a mask was not worn by either, or two hours in a small room with a case where masks were removed.

There will no longer be rules for casual contacts, but Mr McGowan urged those who have visited an exposure site to monitor for symptoms.

The period of isolation has been reduced to seven days.

Mr McGowan said the state’s PCR testing capacity is 35,000 tests a day, and rapid tests will be delivered to public testing facilities.

People who test positive on a rapid test must register their result with WA Health.

“There will be more and more cases in the community and isolating at home whilst they wait for symptoms to pass,” Mr McGowan said.

“Opening ourselves up to more risk does mean the virus will spread faster. Given our low case numbers for so long, it may shock some people.

“West Australians should take high caseloads seriously. (It is) not a cause for panic. Not at all. We’re prepared for this. Keep up your activities, keep going to work, support your local business. Be sensible and be safe.

“If we do the right thing by each other, we can save lives. We can minimise disruption. (I’m) determined not to make the mistakes that other states and countries have made. I’m resolute that we will stay the course.”

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan addressed the media on the state’s coronavirus situation.

You can watch a replay of the press conference below:

The ASX’s downtrodden travel stocks are soaring this afternoon on the back of news Australia will reopen its doors to foreign tourists from February 21, almost two years after the international border slammed shut.

Passengers walk through the international arrivals terminal in Sydney airport in December.Credit: Bloomberg

At 3.19pm, Qantas’ share price had jumped 5.4 per cent higher to $5.47. That’s the highest they have traded since mid-November, before the Omicron variant crashed its long-anticipated COVID-19 recovery.

Flight Centre was 8 per cent higher at $18.99, also a high since November, while Webjet was up 5.4 per cent at $5.47.

Australia’s domestic airlines have been downgrading scheduled capacity since December as Omicron caused a “shadow lockdown” and prompted travellers to cancel plans, and after Western Australia’s decided to keep its border closed to the rest of the country indefinitely.

As we reported earlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison today announced that Australia’s international border will reopen to all visa holders who have received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine on February 21.

The borders have progressively been opening since mid-December, with international students and family members of citizens and permanent residents the first allowed to return.

More than half of people aged 16 and over in the Australian Capital Territory have now received a third dose of a vaccine.

ACT Health figures show 54.7 per cent residents have received a booster shot, as the territory recorded 299 cases and one death of a man in his 90s today.

Fifty-seven people are in hospital, and of these, two are in intensive care with one person on a ventilator.

New cases are slightly down from yesterday’s 323, while hospitalisations were at 60.

A week ago, new cases were at 522, while 64 people were in hospital.

South Australia has recorded 1,147 new cases and five deaths, while 224 people are in hospital with coronavirus today.

While the number of new cases decreased by 87 from yesterday, there were 26 more people in hospital.

Of the 224 people in hospital today, 13 are in intensive care and five are on ventilators.

Booster doses have risen slightly, with 44.5 per cent of South Australians aged 16 and over receiving their third dose of a vaccine.

The state’s Department of Health and Wellbeing said 97 per cent of samples genomically tested are showing up as the Omicron variant.