As it happened: Thousands of NSW nurses strike over pay and staffing ratios; COVID-19 cases continue to grow across the nation

Thanks for following our live news coverage for today. This is Rachel Eddie, signing off for the night. My lovely colleague Broede Carmody will be back with you bright and early tomorrow.

Here’s a run-through of today’s headlines:

• A decision on stood-aside cabinet minister Alan Tudge has been delayed until federal officials review an investigation into his affair with a former press secretary, amid new rumours he will be dumped from the ministry before the election.
• Novak Djokovic, in an interview with the BBC after he was deported from Australia last month, has revealed he is willing to sacrifice more trophies to avoid being vaccinated against COVID-19.

Novak Djokovic practices at the Rod Laver Arena on January 11, ahead of the Australian Open, before he was deported from the country.Credit: Eddie Jim

• Staying internationally for a moment, US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have agreed there is still a “crucial window” to avoid war.
• Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese addressed their party rooms in Canberra today to rally them ahead of the upcoming federal election campaign. Mr Morrison spent much of the day painting Labor as being soft on national security and borders, following what Mr Albanese told his MPs was a week of “Labor at its best”.
• Independent Warringah MP Zali Steggall continued to weather a political storm after apologising for what she described as a “rookie” accounting error made by her team after receiving a $100,000 donation from a prominent coal investor.

Alan Tudge’s future as a minister won’t be decided for weeks.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

• A Western Australian man was fined for posting a threatening and menacing comment on the Facebook page of a federal MP in 2020.
• Thousands of nurses from dozens of hospitals and health services rallied in Sydney, calling for better pay and nurse-to-patient ratios.
• Also in NSW, the state has recorded 8201 new COVID-19 infections and 16 deaths.
• Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass confirmed she was considering a parliamentary directive to re-investigate the so-called “red shirts” rort in which Labor misused almost $400,000 in public funds.
• Victoria’s COVID-19 hospitalisations dropped to their lowest point since last year, at 441 people, as the state recorded 8162 new infections and 20 deaths.
• Queensland has recorded 5286 new COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths, as part of an overall downward trend, with the state’s chief health officer foreshadowing public health measures could soon ease.
• Tasmania reported 513 new infections and no additional COVID-19 deaths, while South Australia has reported 1138 cases, and another 455 were in the ACT. Sixty-two cases were also confirmed in Western Australia and the Northern Territory recorded 1086.

Novak Djokovic has said he is willing to sacrifice more trophies, even at Wimbledon and the French Open, if tournament organisers insist he be vaccinated against COVID-19 to compete.

Speaking to the BBC after he was deported from Australia last month, Djokovic said had already accepted that his decision to not be vaccinated meant he might have to forgo competing at Melbourne Park.

Novak Djokovic looks at his documents after landing in Belgrade in January.Credit: AP

When asked if he was willing to forgo taking part in Wimbledon and the French Open, he said: “Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay,” he said.

“I was never against vaccination,” he said, adding that he did not want the jab because of his careful management of everything that goes into his body as an elite athlete.

Read the full article from Latika Bourke here.

Northern Territory’s COVID-19 numbers for the day have finally been released by Chief Minister Michael Gunner this evening.

There were 1086 new infections in the NT, with a total of 156 people in hospital. Twenty-two people require oxygen and one patient is in the intensive care unit.

There are now 7233 active cases in the territory.

Australia recorded a total 24,903 infections today, nationally, and 50 deaths.

A man has been fined for posting a threatening and menacing comment on the Facebook page of a federal MP, following an investigation by the Australian Federal Police.

In his 2020 comment, the 47-year-old man from Western Australia likened the politician to a terrorist supporter and “predicted they would be murdered”.

The man, from Marangaroo, pleaded guilty yesterday in the Perth Magistrates Court to using a carriage service to menace and was fined $5000.

While Prime Minister Scott Morrison was attacking Labor as China’s best electoral prospect this afternoon, the Foreign Affairs Minister was making assurances that Australia was a solid partner to its allies no matter who was in government.

Speaking to Sky News, Marise Payne said the nation’s Quad allies had a “solid partner” in Australia, “and I’ve been extremely clear about that”.

The Quad — composed of Australia, United States, India and Japan, having been re-established in 2017 — has become a key body to address the security challenges in the face of a rising and more aggressive China.

“I have been working with counterparts in the Quad and multiple other groupings, both formal and informal, over the last three years, in fact, six years,” Senator Payne said.

Her conciliatory comments came while her colleagues, including Mr Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton, were ramping up their attacks on Labor. During Question Time, Labor was painted as being soft on national security, borders and law-and-order.

Earlier today, Mr Morrison told 2GB radio that China was having a “one way bet” on the Opposition.

Across two separate Senate hearings today that at times became heated, Infrastructure Department officials confirmed that of 47 commuter car parks promised at the 2019 election, just six have been built.

Another six are under construction, my colleagues Shane Wright and Katina Curtis report.

Ringwood railway station car park in suburban Melbourne is one of the projects promised funding in 2019.Credit: Paul Jeffers

Last year, the fund was the focus of a scathing Auditor-General’s report, which found 77 per cent of projects were promised to Coalition seats.

The overall cost of the car park fund is now on track to reach at least $711 million, but even that is in doubt.

Read the full story here.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Labor leader Anthony Albanese have addressed their party rooms in Canberra today to rally them ahead of the upcoming federal election campaign.

As chief political correspondent David Crowe reports, Mr Morrison admitted he needs more “focus” but called for more discipline if he is to lead the government to victory.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese have told their MPs to get ready for the coming campaign.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“You haven’t seen me as focused as I can be, yet, and you will see it,” Mr Morrison told Liberal and Nationals colleagues today in one of their last meetings in Canberra before the campaign.

Mr Albanese took aim at Mr Morrison in a caucus meeting by telling colleagues they had demonstrated “Labor at its best” last week by holding firm against Mr Morrison’s original bill on religious freedom.

The election needs to be held by late May.

Read the full article here.

Back in Senate estimates today, Australia Post has defended rewarding highly paid staff with bonuses averaging $168,000 last financial year.

Federal politics reporter Lisa Visentin writes that one senior post staff member would receive a $500,000 “retention bonus”, to be paid over three years, on top of his salary and annual performance bonus.

Australia Post Lucio Di Bartolomeo appears via videoconference during a Senate estimates hearing.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

A total of 31 employees who earned a base salary of between $300,000 and $400,000 took home incentives that averaged $168,000, a 22 per cent increase on bonuses paid the year prior.

Australia Post chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo disputed the characterisation of the payments as bonuses, saying they were part of contractual remuneration arrangements.

Read the full story here.

Independent MP Zali Steggall has copped a bit of jeering during Question Time after raising the plight of a local business owner in her Warringah electorate who wrote to her about their struggles during COVID-19.

Ms Steggall is weathering a storm after she had to correct her team’s “rookie” accounting over a $100,000 donation from prominent coal investor John Kinghorn, first revealed in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this week.

Crossbench MP Zali Steggall ahead of Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

After criticism from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Victorian MP Tim Wilson, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said “independent” was the “last thing” Ms Steggall was.

He was responding to a question from Ms Steggall, who asked the Treasurer whether more funding could be on the way for struggling businesses after she received the letter from a constituent.

“I hope that letter she received had a $100,000 cheque, and it was properly disclosed,” Mr Frydenberg said on the floor of Parliament.

The government has not changed a single thing about its proposed federal integrity commission despite spending a year consulting on the legislation.

Late last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison tabled what he said was the bill to set up an anti-corruption watchdog — although the government is yet to formally introduce it for debate.

Ministers have pointed to that over the past couple of months and complained that Labor won’t support the government’s preferred model for the integrity commission.

The government’s plan has been slammed by legal experts and integrity campaigners as lacking teeth or sufficient powers.

But officials from the Attorney-General’s Department have just confirmed to a Senate estimates hearing that what the Prime Minister tabled was the exposure draft released for consultation in November 2020.

“The model that was released for consultation is the current model,” deputy secretary Sarah Chidgey said.

Attorney-General Michaelia Cash told the committee the government “considered the feedback” on its draft and decided that its model was the most appropriate.

Senator Cash again confirmed the government would not introduce its legislation before the next federal election, which is due to be held by late May. The government promised at the 2019 election to establish an integrity commission.

“The government’s not progressing with it at this stage,” she told the hearing.