Politics Now: Linda Reynolds ducks questions over when PM was told about Brittany Higgins
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has ducked questions over if and when she informed the Prime Minister’s Office about the alleged rape of her former staffer Brittany Higgins.
- Reynolds apologises to Brittany Higgins
- TGA provisionally approves AstraZeneca jab
- Andrews to build airport quarantine facility
- Victoria records 2 new local cases
- Melbourne health hotel evacuated
Welcome to Politics Now, our rolling coverage of the latest political headlines from Canberra and around the nation amid the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. Linda Reynolds has made an ‘unreserved apology’ to her former staffer, alleged rape victim, Brittany Higgins in Senate Question Time, as Scott Morrison tells parliament he still has confidence in his Defence Minister.
Victoria will build a purpose-built quarantine centre to prevent large scale outbreaks.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the move on Tuesday, with Avalon and Mebourne airports the primary likely locations.
The TGA has provisionally approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use against coronavirus in Australia.
Jess Malcolm 11pm: End of Vic lockdown confirmed
Victoria’s snap five-day lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Wednesday night, if cases remain stable on Wednesday morning.
Premier Daniel Andrews met with senior government ministers on Tuesday evening to finalise plans to end the lockdown on Thursday, as reported by the Herald Sun.
The state will return to similar restrictions to what were imposed before the “circuit breaker” lockdown, with masks required indoors and some tougher rules on household gatherings to remain.
Crowds will return to the Australian Open, and schools will be allowed back to classrooms.
The Premier was not ready to commit to announce any easing of restrictions on Wednesday morning, calling the next 24 hours “crucial”.
This comes as Victoria recorded two new cases of community transmission, all connected to the Holiday Inn cluster.
READ MORE: It will take a village to fix quarantine carry-on
Jess Malcolm 10.30pm: Melbourne outdoor dining extended
Melbourne City Council has unanimously voted to extend the city’s outdoor dining program until winter in a bid to bolster the hospitality sector, pledging a further $2.2m will be spent on the initiative.
The program was due to end at the end of next month, but a council meeting on Tuesday night approved its extension until June 30.
The council has issued 1500 outdoor dining permits, as well as installing more than 200 parklets in car parking spaces in the inner city.
Several laneways have also been closed to assist restaurants in expanding their trading onto the street.
The extra funding brings the total spending on outdoor dining to $7.7m during the pandemic.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the program had helped revitalise the city.
“The outdoor dining program has helped bring back the buzz by attracting patrons from across Melbourne and the regions,” she said.
“The latest lockdown has already had a major impact on our business community – particularly the hospitality industry – so we’re doing everything we can to provide certainty for businesses once we emerge from lockdown.”
READ MORE: Bin-bag exit as Holiday Inn hotel cleared
Agencies 9.45pm: Dutch court says government must lift curfew
A Dutch court has ordered the government to lift a nationwide coronavirus curfew that sparked the worst riots in the Netherlands for decades.
A judge at The Hague district court backed a case brought by the Virus Truth campaign group, saying the government wrongly used emergency powers.
The 9pm-to-4.30am curfew, which started on January 23, was the first to be imposed in the Netherlands since the Nazi occupation in World War II.
“The curfew must be lifted immediately,” The Hague district court said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The curfew is a far-reaching violation of the right to freedom of movement and privacy.”
The government can challenge the decision but any appeal would not suspend the judge’s order, a spokesman for the court was quoted as telling the ANP news agency.
There was no immediate response from the government — which is sitting in a caretaker capacity ahead of elections on March 17 after resigning over a child benefits scandal.
The Dutch government last week extended the curfew until at least March 2. But the court said the “introduction of the curfew did not invoke the special urgency required” to use the emergency laws that it used to bring in the restrictions without going through the lower and upper houses of parliament.
Curfews were for use in sudden emergencies such as a dyke breach, the judge said.
The judge said the fact that the curfew was discussed ahead of its imposition meant that the government had enough warning to go through the proper process.
“Therefore, the use of this law to impose curfew is not legitimate,” the court said.
READ MORE: Negative antibody test hits jab duration
Stephen Lunn 9pm: Make jabs a must for our workers: aged-care bosses
Aged-care providers are urging the nation’s chief health officers to recommend making vaccinations mandatory for nursing home workers, just days before the rollout begins.
As the Morrison government moves to begin vaccinating more than 500,000 nursing home residents and their carers from Monday, with tens of thousands in the first week alone, vaccination of residential aged-care workers remains voluntary on the advice of the Australian Health Primary Protection Committee. This is despite nursing home workers being required to have the flu vaccine as a condition of their employment.
“We would prefer the (COVID-19) vaccination to be a workplace requirement, with appropriate exemptions for individuals,” Pat Sparrow, chief executive of peak provider group Aged and Community Services Australia, said. “Ultimately, public health decisions should remain with the public health authorities and we understand they will be monitoring the situation.”
Agencies 8.20pm: North Korea ‘tried to hack Pfizer’
North Korean hackers tried to break into the computer systems of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in a search for information on a coronavirus vaccine and treatment technology, South Korea’s spy agency says
The impoverished, nuclear-armed North has been under self-imposed isolation since closing its borders in January last year to try to protect itself from the virus that first emerged in neighbouring China and has gone on to sweep the world, killing more than two million people.
Leader Kim Jong-un has repeatedly insisted that the country has had no coronavirus cases, although outside experts doubt those assertions.
And the closure has added to the pressure on its tottering economy from international sanctions imposed over its banned weapons systems, increasing the urgency for Pyongyang to find a way to deal with the disease.
Seoul’s National Intelligence Service “briefed us that North Korea tried to obtain technology involving the Covid vaccine and treatment by using cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer”, MP Ha Tae-keung said on Tuesday after a hearing behind closed doors.
North Korea is known to operate an army of thousands of well-trained hackers who have attacked firms, institutions and researchers in the South and elsewhere.
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, developed jointly with Germany’s BioNTech, began winning approval from authorities late last year.
It is based on technology that uses the synthetic version of a molecule called “messenger RNA” to hack into human cells and effectively turn them into vaccine-making factories.
Pfizer says it expects to potentially deliver up two billion doses this year.
READ MORE: PM hits back at Ardern criticism
Adeshola Ore 7.25pm: Nats fear green lawfare may use loophole
Nationals senators fear a parliamentary report has proposed a legislative “loophole” exempting activist groups from a government crackdown on litigation funders, making it easier for them to pursue class action cases against major regional projects.
The parliamentary joint committee on corporations and financial services has urged the government to consider carving out not-for-profit litigation funders from its changes aimed at reducing the ability of international investors to exploit class action cases to rake in huge profits.
The carve-out was recommended by the government-dominated committee after concerns were raised about the adverse impact the new regime would have on the Australian Farmers Fighting Fund, a special litigation funder linked to the National Farmers Federation that provides financial backing to protect farmers.
The Nationals and the NFF lobbied for the exemption, but Queensland Nationals senator Susan McDonald told The Australian the exemption would also apply to other charitable funds and not-for-profit groups, including activist charities that would be encouraged to wage class action “lawfare” against important regional projects.
She warned that the exemption could be exploited by the Environmental Defenders Office, a charitable group that raises funds for environmental legal cases and has been pursuing a High Court case against Queensland’s New Acland coalmine.
Natasha Robinson 6.50pm: Second vaccine good news for older Aussies
Australia’s medical regulator insists the AstraZeneca vaccine will prove to be highly effective in the elderly as it declined to follow the example of a host of European countries that have refused to approve the vaccine’s use in those aged over 65.
Hundreds of thousands of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are set to arrive in Australia in early March after the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the vaccine for use in all ages.
The efficacy of the vaccine will be maximised by a dosage schedule of 12 weeks between the first and second jabs, which has been shown in clinical trials to result in an efficacy rate of 82.4 per cent.
AstraZeneca said it had unpublished “encouraging data” on the vaccine’s ability to interrupt the transmission of COVID-19.
Scott Morrison said the regulatory approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine had paved the way for all Australians to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, with 50 million doses being locally manufactured by CSL. The announcement came as the government revealed research conducted by the Federal health department which showed 71 per cent of Australians would have a COVID-19 vaccine by October.
Laurence Norman 6.20pm: WTO appoints its first female leader
The World Trade Organisation has picked its first female leader, offering a fresh start to an organisation seeking to revive its influence over global economic rules.
The WTO’s 164 members late on Monday unanimously backed former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an economist who also rose to the top ranks of the World Bank a decade ago, as director-general.
Ms Okonjo-Iweala emerged as the consensus pick for the job in October when the WTO was due to decide on a new leader. However, her appointment was blocked by the Trump administration, which said she lacked experience on trade issues.
Matthew Denholm 6.05pm: Mother and child escape isolation
Tasmanian authorities are defending the state’s hotel quarantine system after a woman and her child allegedly escaped mandatory isolation, sparking frantic contact tracing.
Tasmania Police say the woman and her young child, who had travelled from Victoria, spent an hour and 20 minutes out of their mandatory hotel quarantine in Hobart on Monday night.
“The breach occurred at 6.20pm last night (Monday) from the Ibis Hotel in Hobart and they were returned to quarantine by police at 7.40pm,” said assistant commissioner Jonathan Higgins.
“They travelled in a taxi during the time that they were out of quarantine. Public Health contact tracers are working to establish any other movements and contacts.
“As an additional public health precaution, the woman will be subject to testing and more frequent COVID-19 screening for symptoms to ensure the earliest possible identification of any disease. Appropriate contact tracing and quarantining of any further contacts will be immediately implemented if required.”
Mr Higgins said the woman would be fined $774 for breaching hotel quarantine.
Tasmania effectively closed its border for entry of non-Tasmanians from Victoria from February 13, due to Melbourne’s coronavirus cluster.
Those already in the state who had been in certain “high-risk premises” linked to Melbourne’s cluster were required to enter quarantine.
The assistant commissioner defended the state’s hotel quarantine system, which is run by private firms assisted by police.
“In Tasmania, domestic hotel quarantine is provided by private security firms, which has provided and continues to provide a high standard of security since the start of the pandemic,” he said.
“Tasmania Police continues to provide support to private security, including call-when-needed and regular checks at hotels.
“Police (were) called as soon as the incident occurred last night and it was resolved quickly. The model for domestic security has served us well in keeping the community safe. We have had very few issues with non-compliance.”
Police on Tuesday night would not say where the woman had been in the city or what her motivation had been.
READ MORE: Lockdown brain: How to talk down negative thoughts
Olivia Caisley 5.45pm: Reynolds pressed on when PM was told about Higgins
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has ducked questions over if and when she informed the Prime Minister’s Office about the alleged rape of her former staffer Brittany Higgins.
Grilled in Question Time in the Upper House on Tuesday, Senator Reynolds was repeatedly pressed about her handling of the incident, but provided scant detail about whether the situation was escalated and if Scott Morrison was informed.
Specifically asked if and when the Prime Minister was told about the alleged rape in her office in March 2019, Senator Reynolds said: “I cannot speak for the Prime Minister and I understand he has been addressing that.
“All I can answer, and all I can be responsible for, is my own conduct and my responsibilities and how I enacted them,” she said. “I will do that. Not in this chamber. I will do it as appropriate with the AFP. I have provided that information as much as I think is appropriate.”
She also said she would need to “double check” that she had not provided a personal reference for the alleged rapist, whose employment was “terminated” shortly after the incident.
“I certainly cannot recollect sending or doing a reference for him...but I will check that,” Senator Reynolds said. “He was terminated for a security breach.”
READ MORE: Left to resign after being raped in parliament
Jeff Horwitz, Robert McMillan 5.25pm: Parler back online
Parler, the social network popular with conservatives, has come back online after going dark when some tech companies withdrew their services in the wake of the deadly attack on the US. Capitol.
Amazon.com Inc. removed Parler from its cloud-computing service a little over a month ago, effectively knocking the network offline. Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google removed it from their respective app stores. The tech companies said Parler had violated terms-of-service agreements, citing some of the content posted on the app.
On Monday, Parler said it was relaunching its service, which it said had grown to over 20 million users. “We’re thrilled to welcome everyone back, ” Mark Meckler, Parler’s interim chief executive, said in a statement. “Parler is being run by an experienced team and is here to stay,” he said.
The social-media company said its new platform was “built on robust, sustainable, independent technology.” It said it was focused on restoring service to existing users during the first week and that new sign-ups would come after.
Parler’s Internet servers are now hosted by SkySilk Inc., which operates out of a Los Angeles-area data center, according to Doug Madory, director of Internet analysis with the network-monitoring firm Kentik Inc.
Agencies 4.50pm: Vaccine scandal claims Peru’s foreign minister
Peru on Monday appointed its sixth foreign minister in less than a year following a fresh resignation over a growing coronavirus vaccinations scandal.
Veteran diplomat Allan Wagner, 79, was sworn in less than 24 hours after Elizabeth Astete became the second top official to step down over the scandal.
Peru has been gripped in recent days by the news that government officials received the COVID-19 vaccination weeks or even months before the South American country launched its immunization program.
Health minister Pilar Mazzetti stepped down last week following a newspaper report that former president Martin Vizcarra had received a shot of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine in October.
Peru only began its immunisation drive, starting with healthcare workers, in early February after receiving 300,000 doses of vaccine.
But there is still no official start date for the immunisation of the general population.
President Francisco Sagasti made a televised announcement on Tuesday to reveal that almost 500 people had been “irregularly” vaccinated, including the two former ministers and other government officials.
Mr Sagasti said “487 people, including many public officials, took advantage of their position to be immunised with the Sinopharm vaccines that came in addition to those used in clinical trials”.
“I deeply regret that the list provided by the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia”, which is in charge of the trial for the Chinese vaccine, “includes people who have been part of our government, including the former ministers Elizabeth Astete and Pilar Mazzetti”.
“They will understand that we are indignant and feel a deep sense of pain,” he added.
Peruvian media reported that Attorney-General Zoraida Avalos had opened a “preliminary investigation” against Mr Vizcarra and others responsible for the early vaccination of senior officials.
The scandal comes with Peru suffering from Latin America’s second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, and in the midst of an election campaign for April polls.
The country of 33 million has recorded more than 1.2 million cases and more than 43,700 deaths from COVID-19.
While leaders and government ministers in some other countries made a public display of getting vaccinated to encourage nervous citizens about safety concerns, the secrecy surrounding Peru’s top officials getting the shots early has sparked criticism among ordinary folk.
“It is a more ethical issue. You and your family cannot get vaccinated when there are people on the front line, doctors, who have died,” worker Anais Rojas said.
READ MORE: ‘You don’t get it’: Fury over pedo letter
Agencies 4.15pm: Ardern slams Australia over dual national with ISIS links
Jacinda Ardern has accused Australia of shirking its responsibility for a dual national arrested in Turkey over reported links with the Islamic State extremist group.
In an unusually blunt message to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Ms Ardern said Canberra was “wrong” to expect New Zealand to accept the woman, who she said had strong ties to Australia.
“Any fair-minded person would consider this person an Australian and that is my view too,” the New Zealand Prime Minister said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We believe Australia has abdicated its responsibilities.”
The 26-year-old woman was reportedly arrested with her two children this week by Turkish authorities near the Syrian border and identified as a member of ISIS.
Ms Ardern said the woman had been a dual Australian-New Zealand citizen until authorities in Canberra cancelled her passport, making her Wellington’s responsibility.
“It is wrong that New Zealand should shoulder the responsibility for a situation involving a woman who has not lived in New Zealand since she was six,” she said.
“(The woman) has resided in Australia since that time, has her family in Australia and left for Syria from Australia on her Australian passport.”
Mr Morrison defended his government’s decision as in “Australia’s national security interests”.
“We do not want to see terrorists who fought with terrorism organisations enjoying privileges of citizenship, which I think they forfeit the second they engage as an enemy of our country,” he said in Canberra.
But Mr Morrison added he would speak with Ms Ardern further.
“There is still a lot more unknown about this case and where it sits and where it may go to next,” he said.
Ms Ardern also urged Australia to consider the welfare of the woman’s children. “These children were born in a conflict zone through no fault of their own,” she said.
“Coming to New Zealand, where they have no immediate family, would not be in their best interests. We know that young children thrive best when surrounded by people who love them.”
Ms Ardern said New Zealand was also engaging with Turkish authorities over the issue.
New Zealand has previously criticised Australia for deporting people across the Tasman Sea who have tenuous ties to the country.
Since 2014, about 3000 New Zealanders in Australia have had their visas cancelled “on character grounds” — which does not always require a criminal conviction.
Ardern has pointed out many of those being deported have lived most of their lives in Australia and described the issue as “corrosive” to the relationship between the neighbouring nations.
READ MORE: Family, Circuit Courts to merge
Chris Griffith 3.55pm: Google, Facebook face new tax nightmare
A US state is the first to tax the sale of online ads, creating another headache for Google and Facebook. Read more here
Damian Whitworth 3.45pm: How to deal with Covid lockdown brain
Doing your own head in in lockdown? Learning to quell the chatter in our heads can help us cope better with challenges like pandemics. Read more here
Joseph Lam 3.30pm: Returning travellers use secret code to jump queue
Vulnerable Australians wanting to return from the UK will be waiting a little longer after a government bungle revealed a secret code that allowed other travellers to jump the queue on a government-facilitated flight before it had been announced. Read more here
Adeshola Ore 3.08pm: Labor ‘about no’ over IR bill: PM
Scott Morrison has lashed Labor for not supporting the government’s industrial relations bill, accusing the opposition of blocking unity on the reforms.
On Tuesday, Labor signalled it would not support the Morrison government’s industrial relations bill, despite its dumping of the controversial changes to the Fair Work Act’s better-off-overall test.
“We’ve got more dialogue and engagement from the union movement than we got from the opposition here,” Mr Morrison told parliament.
“It was supposed to be about working together. It’s just been about no.”
“The opposition is just engaged in overreach, negative politics.”
The decision to drop the change exemptions for the better-off-overall test followed widespread opposition from Senate crossbenchers, the Labor Party and the union movement to the proposal.
On Monday, One Nation demanded the Coalition immediately dump the better-off-overall-test changes ahead of further negotiations over the government’s industrial relations bill.
READ MORE: Coalition abandons industrial relations changes
PATRICK COMMINS 3.03pm: Spending slumps 41pc in first days of lockdown
Spending slumped by 41 per cent over the first two days of Melbourne’s harsh “circuit breaker” lockdown, bank data has revealed, as new payrolls figures showed rolling restrictions had left Victoria well behind the national jobs recovery in late January.
The first two days of Melbourne’s latest lockdown triggered a 76 per cent collapse in money spent on shopping, and a 65 per cent drop in dining and takeaway expenditure, ANZ card transaction data showed.
The consumption crunch echoed the impact of recent short and sharp lockdowns in Perth and Adelaide, both of which were followed by a swift rebound in spending that left spending back at previous levels, ANZ economist Adelaide Timbrell said.
“We expect that the recovery in spending will be very rapid if the circuit breaker lockdown ends as planned,” Ms Timbrell said.
OLIVIA CAISLEY 2.43pm: Reynolds ‘unreservedly apologises’ to former staffer
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has “unreservedly apologised” to her former staffer, Brittany Higgins, after she was allegedly raped by a colleague at parliament house in March 2019.
Senator Reynolds told Question Time on Tuesday she “deeply deeply” regretted speaking with Ms Higgins in the place of the alleged attack and she was not aware of the full extent of the allegations at the time she called the meeting.
She said at all times her aim was to “empower Brittany”, however after listening to Ms Higgins detail her trauma it was clear that not enough had been done to help her.
“I unreservedly apologize to Brittany Higgins and last night we heard from Brittany herself in her own words, her trauma, her distress, was very, very clear... the fact that she felt unsupported in her time working here was also very, very clear for us all to see and for that, I apologise.”
Senator Reynolds said those in Parliament House had failed to acknowledge the trauma that can follow an incident.
“At the time, I truly believed that I, my chief of staff were doing everything we could to support that young woman who I had responsibility for at all times.”
She confirmed the alleged perpetrator of the rape had been “terminated” from her office very shortly after the incident.
Asked by Labor Senator Katy Gallagher about whether she had helped the alleged rapist find alternative work following his termination, Senator Reynolds said she was “bemused” by the question.
She took the question on notice and said she would take advice on how much she could say about the former employee leaving parliament house.
Mr Morrison on Tuesday appointed Western Australia Liberal MP Celia Hammond to investigate how to improve the Coalition’s standards and practices around workplace bullying and assault.
Senator Reynolds said she welcomed the announcement and hoped it would lead to an improvement of support mechanisms offered to staff and the processes around serious complaints.
READ MORE: Family, Circuit Courts to merge
Adeshola Ore 2.34pm: Morrison: Reynolds still has my confidence
Scott Morrison says he still has confidence in Defence Minister Linda Reynolds in the wake of the allegations by a former Liberal Party staffer that she was raped in the Senator’s office.
Brittany Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped on March 23, 2019, by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking.
During question time on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said Senator Reynolds had sought to support Ms Higgins and protect her privacy.
“This is a shattering incident, as I’ve said. It is very serious and we are taking it very, very seriously,” he said.
Asked by Mr Albanese if it was appropriate that Senator Reynolds did not inform the Prime Minister’s office about the alleged incident, Mr Morrison said “it shouldn’t happen again.”
On Monday, Senator Reynolds said she was not aware that the alleged rape had occurred in her office when she interviewed Ms Higgins in that location. She said if she had known she would have conducted the meeting elsewhere.
Ms Higgins told news.com.au Senator Reynolds encouraged her to go to the police.
READ MORE: Brittany Higgins makes a statement
Adeshola Ore 2.22pm: Plibersek quizzes PM about when he knew of rape allegations
Labor frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has pressed Scott Morrison in parliament on when he became aware about the alleged rape of a former female Liberal Party staffer in parliament house.
Brittany Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped on March 23, 2019, by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking.
In an interview with Channel 10 on Monday evening, she said she was contacted by the Prime Minister’s principal private secretary last year before the airing of a controversial ABC Four Corners episode about two Cabinet minister’s alleged intimate relationships with female staffers.
But Mr Morrison said he only became aware of the alleged assault at 8.30am on Monday morning.
He said his office became aware of the assault on Friday, February 12.
Ms Plibersek, who is also the opposition’s spokeswoman for women, accused Mr Morrison of contradicting the recollection of Ms Higgins by saying he only became aware of the alleged assault on Monday.
Mr Morrison told parliament he could only inform the chamber what he had been advised of.
Paul Garvey 2.16pm: ‘Silly NSW doesn’t deserve greater share of vaccines’
WA premier Mark McGowan has dismissed NSW’s calls for a greater share of the COVID-19 vaccines as a “silly” idea.
NSW has argued that its higher intake of returning Australians from overseas means it should get a larger proportion of the vaccines, ahead of other states with smaller or no intake of those travellers.
While WA has taken on a similar number of returning Australians to NSW on a per capita basis, Mr McGowan on Tuesday said he did not agree with the proposal.
“I note the NSW government is saying they should get more than their population share. That’s just playing politics and being silly,” he said.
“We should act as Australians here, roll it out according to population and do the right thing by each state and territory.”
Mr McGowan also responded to the news that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was weighing up ‘purpose-built’ quarantine facilities for returning travellers, looking at the Avalon and Melbourne airports as potential locations.
The WA leader said existing facilities under the control of the commonwealth, such as the Garden Island naval base and the immigration detention centres at Northam and Christmas Island, were the logical alternatives to the hotel quarantine systems currently run by each of the states.
“The hotel quarantine system was established in a rush in March and April last year. We had to do it overnight. Obviously since then, a year later, there’s a capacity for the Commonwealth, if it wanted to, to use existing facilities that are already built with security in place,” Mr McGowan said.
“We will keep making that request but at this point in time it’s fallen on deaf ears.”
READ MORE: RBA ‘closely’ watching house prices
Lachlan Moffet Gray 2.04pm: Sizzler operator to return $1.8m in JobKeeper pay
KFC operator Collins Food has announced it will return $1.8m in JobKeeper support it received for its now defunct Sizzler chain of restaurants.
“We claimed JobKeeper payments for our Sizzler business in the spirit of the program’s intent, which was to help support the job security of our 600 dedicated Sizzler employees during a time where sales were down well over 50 per cent, said CEO Drew O’Malley.
“Once we had made the difficult decision to close the nine remaining Sizzler stores in Australia based on a projection of extended sales declines, we decided that we would not continue to draw the JobKeeper allowance from the government, but would top up the payments to staff to the equivalent amount.
“Our additional decision, announced today, to return the initial $1.8 million in JobKeeper payments as outlined in our half-yearly results, is an extension of this approach, and in line with one of our corporate values of “Positive Impact”.
The company did not receive any other form of JobKeeper subsidy in the last financial year.
READ MORE: ASX hits 12-month high
OLIVIA CAISLEY 1.36pm: What Morrison told party room about alleged rape
Scott Morrison has vowed to change the culture in parliament house in the wake of the alleged rape of a 24-year-old staffer in 2019, declaring “we must do better” to protect young women.
The Prime Minister told the Coalition party room on Tuesday “we cannot have an environment where anyone feels unsafe in their workplace” or where a young woman is left in a vulnerable situation.
He is understood to have said that workplaces across the nation were looking to politicians to lead by example.
“Workplaces around the country are also taking cues from us so we have a special responsibility in this building,” he said.
It comes as Brittany Higgins, a former staffer of Defence Minister Linda Reynolds, revealed she had been allegedly attacked by a colleague just weeks before the 2019 federal election was called.
Mr Morrison said bad behaviour was unacceptable and encouraged MPs and senators to maintain appropriate professional distance from their staff.
Mr Morrison on Tuesday appointed Western Australia Liberal MP Celia Hammond to investigate how to improve the Coalition’s standards and practices around workplace bullying and assault.
He encouraged MPs to “openly engage” in the process.
Mr Morrison also said he was sure Senator Reynolds did her best to support Ms Higgins at the time but that was not how her former staffer felt two years later.
“As these events demonstrate we are still a long way from where we need to be and the only people that can change that is us, and workplaces around the country are also taking cues from us so we have a special responsibility in this building.”
One MP praised the “genuine emotion” Mr Morrison demonstrated at a press conference this morning where he said his wife, Jenny, had encouraged him to look at the issue through the lens of a father.
Another is understood to have said the party had not dealt with cultural workplace issues.
Mr Morrison used his opening remarks to call for “humility” from the government.
“One of the things that marks our government or is always an aspiration is humility,” he said. “It’s one of the most important things that any government can have constantly striving to have a sense of perspective on what is occurring at any one time. And that perspective has come across.”
READ MORE: BHP’s nagging $10bn headache
Adeshola Ore 1.19pm: All Aussies should have first dose by October
Health Minister Greg Hunt says every Australian who wants to be vaccinated will have received their first dose of the AstraZeneca jab by October.
The TGA has recommended a twelve-week interval between the two doses of the AstraZeneca jab.
Mr Hunt has previously said that the government aimed to vaccinate the entire population by October.
“In terms of timing and what it means it that more Australians will have more vaccines earlier,” he said.
“Every Australian who seeks to have the vaccine will be in a position to have had at least the first dose,” he said.
READ MORE: Australia joins coalition denouncing China’s arbitrary detention of foreign citizens
Adeshola Ore 1.05pm: No upper age limit for AstraZeneca vaccine
Head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration John Skerritt says the body’s approval of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine does not have an upper age limit.
Professor Skerritt said he recommended that older Australians get the vaccine, despite the TGA saying the decision to vaccinate those aged over 65 with the AstraZeneca jab should be assessed on a “case-by-case basis.”
Professor Skerritt said the data on older groups was “limited” but there was no data to suggest the vaccine would not be effective on older people.
He said that the UK’s rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine revealed “very good results” in older people.
“We have no reason and we felt there was no reason to limit its use to particular age groups,” he said.
READ MORE: Super makes promising start to year
Joseph Lam 12.58pm: Glitch reveals secret code for queue jumping returnees
Vulnerable Australians wanting to return from the UK will be waiting a little longer after a government bungle revealed a secret code that allowed other travellers to jump the queue on a government-facilitated flight before it had been announced.
Almost half a million Australians have returned home since the government recommended repatriating in the early months of the pandemic. But thousands still remain abroad, having to fork out thousands of dollars for overpriced flights, expensive hotel quarantine programs and limited seats as they struggle to get home.
On February 4, an Australian who had been assisted by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade discovered a department booking portal for a government-facilitated flight on February 22 which had not been announced. After successfully booking the flight, they shared a post in a Facebook group for Australians looking to return home which subsequently allowed what is believed to be dozens of people to book the flight.
READ MORE: PM has abandoned citizens stuck overseas
Adeshola Ore 12.52pm: Australia now has two safe COVID-19 jabs available: PM
Scott Morrison says the regulatory approval of AstraZeneca vaccine has paved the way for all Australians to be vaccinated against COVID.
Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration provisionally approved AstraZeneca against coronavirus, making the jab the second COVID vaccine to be approved in Australia.
Mr Morrison said the approval would make a “huge difference” to the lives of all Australians and for the future of the country.
“It will be provided free to Australians and it means that Australia now has two safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines available,” he said.
The TGA said the vaccine, which requires two doses, has been given regulatory approval for those aged 18 years and over. The regulator said the decision to vaccinate those aged over 65 with the AstraZeneca jab should be assessed on a “case-by-case basis.”
The AstraZeneca vaccine will begin arriving in Australia in early March, with more than three million doses coming from Europe. The rest of the 50 million doses of AstraZeneca are being made locally by CSL in Melbourne and, subject to TGA approval, will be rolled out at the rate of one million doses a week.
The Pfizer vaccine was approved by the TGA last month and rollout for the jab will begin on Monday, with frontline quarantine and healthcare workers first in line.
READ MORE: AstraZeneca vaccine gains Australian approval
Geoff Chambers 12.35pm: Newcastle port regulation push scotched
A push by the NSW mining industry to have the Port of Newcastle regulated under the National Access Regime – which covers ports, airports, roads and rail infrastructure – has been rejected by Josh Frydenberg, allowing the world’s largest coal export port to continue setting its own prices without oversight by the ACCC.
Acting on advice from the National Competition Council, the Treasurer on Tuesday announced the Port would not be subject to requirements under the regime despite concerns raised by Hunter Valley coal miners over the port’s “monopoly” power.
READ the full story here
Joseph Lam 12.29pm: Infected guests wore garbage bags for privacy
COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria Commissioner Emma Cassar says residents who were moved from the Holiday Inn on Tuesday chose to wear plastic bags to protect their identity.
“I would make it very clear that we have really nervous residents who don’t want their privacy displayed on the news,” she said.
“This is why they are taking those steps and our PPE requirements for guests leaving is a surgical mask and hand sanitiser. It is really distressing for them.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews added to Ms Cassar’s comments.
“What they are doing is they do not want to be identified. Nor should they feel compelled to be identified,” he said.
“It is no public value to be taking photos of people. We would let people do that in hospital.”
“It isn’t about our decision. It is their decision. They are entitled to it.”
Ms Cassar noted the process had been a slow, stressful experience for residents.
“These will be really slow operations and every time we move one person, there is terminal cleaning, and then another person.
READ MORE: Garbage bag farce as quarantine hotel guests evacuated
ROSIE LEWIS 12.22pm: PM’s rape investigation ‘completely inadequate’
Labor senator Sue Lines has lashed Scott Morrison for implementing a “completely inadequate” investigation into federal parliament’s workplace culture after his government was embroiled in controversy over its handling of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape.
Senator Lines, who is the Senate’s deputy president, said putting a politician in charge of a review “already spells out the answers”.
The Prime Minister has appointed Western Australia Liberal MP Celia Hammond to investigate how to improve the Coalition’s standards and practices around workplace bullying and assault.
“This is really a failure by the Prime Minister,” Senator Lines, who raised her concerns in Tuesday’s caucus meeting, told The Australian.
“This is an issue which is bigger than the Liberal Party. It’s across the parliament and it’s time we had a proper look at what’s going on and looking at what other parliaments have done, like Jacinda Ardern. Making it an internal nothing to see here private investigation is completely inadequate.
“Quite frankly I am over him prefacing everything as being a ‘father of girls’. That just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid. The culture in this place needs to be changed and he should stand up as the Prime Minister of this country and do something proper, not an internal, private, no-scrutiny investigation which quite frankly should have happened two years ago when the incident (alleged rape) occurred.”
Senator Lines suggested representatives from all political parties and even media outlets that work at Parliament House should get together to discuss how to scrutinise and improve the building’s workplace culture.
READ MORE: PM orders inquiry amid rape allegations
Kylar Loussikian 12.15pm: TGA grants AstraZeneca jab provisional approval
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has granted provisional approval to AstraZeneca for its coronavirus vaccine, making it the second COVID-19 vaccine to receive regulatory approval in Australia.
The TGA, in a statement, said it would approve AstraZeneca’s vaccine for all age groups above 18.
The regulator said elderly patients over 65 had demonstrated a strong immune response to the vaccine in clinical trials, but there were not enough participants to “conclusively determine the efficacy in this subgroup”.
“Reassuringly, there were no safety concerns in this age group in the clinical studies, nor in the large numbers of elderly people who have been vaccinated to date in overseas rollouts,” the TGA statement reads.
“The decision to immunise an elderly patient should be decided on a case-by-case basis with consideration of age, co-morbidities and their environment taking into account the benefits of vaccination and potential risks.”
Medicines regulators overseas have been split about approving the AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 65 years of age.
While it has been approved for use in Britain, authorities in France, Germany, Sweden and Austria have said the vaccine should be prioritised for those under the age of 65.
The Australian regulator said the decision to vaccinate those aged over 65 with the AstraZeneca jab should be assessed on a “case-by-case basis.”
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation said the recommended interval between the two doses of the vaccine is 12 weeks.
But if this was not possible due to travel or health reasons a minimum interval of four weeks between doses could be followed. — With Adeshola Ore
READ MORE: Two million doses and all Aussie made
Joseph Lam 12.08pm: Victoria’s new cases linked to Coburg dinner
The two new cases of COVID-19 recorded in Victoria overnight are linked to the Holiday Inn and a dining event at 426 Sydney Road, Coburg.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the two new cases have been doing the right thing and remain at home in isolation.
“They’re not unexpected positives, although I will make it clear they did test negative some days ago, so they’ve been isolating and, as a result, there’s no further exposure sites,” he said.
“There’s no further risk, if you like, beyond them as close contact.
“We are retesting all the attendees of that private dining event and we will update you in terms of results of those tests as they come to hand.”
Mr Andrews said the new cases had previously tested positive.
“As I said, the two new cases today did return negative tests several days ago, so it’s just, again, proof positive that you do need to take that time.”
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Adeshola Ore 12.04pm: Labor unlikely to back amended IR bill
Labor has indicated it will not support the Morrison government’s industrial relations bill, despite its dumping of the controversial changes to the Fair Work Act’s better-off-overall test.
The decision endorsed by Coalition MPs on Tuesday followed widespread opposition from Senate crossbenchers, the Labor Party and the union movement about the proposal.
A Labor Party spokesperson said an MP told a caucus meeting on Tuesday morning that regardless of the government’s position on the better-off-overall-test “we know what they want to do and this issue will not go away.”
The proposal gave employers affected by COVID-19 more power to bypass the the Fair Work Act’s “better off overall” test.
READ MORE: Coalition abandons industrial relations changes
Joseph Lam 11.57am: ‘Lockdown a way to prevent Melbourne escapees’
Daniel Andrews says his statewide lockdown was a logical way to stop Melbournians travelling to regional areas to escape lockdown.
The Victorian Premier today said it’s not an opinion but something Victoria has seen time again — that people will leave when notified of an oncoming lockdown.
“The most important thing to acknowledge is that if you give people any notice whatsoever and you have different rulings in different parts of the state, it just stands to reason — and this is not an opinion,” he said.
“Logic and indeed past practice tells you that very significant numbers of people from metropolitan Melbourne will travel to regional Victoria.”
“You can’t set up a ring of steel in five minutes.”
Mr Andrews said his statement was not a criticism but a reality.
“We saw this happen on a number of occasions in 2020. I’m not having a go at people for doing this, but people will go to second residences,” he said.
“They will go to family and friends in regional Victoria and potentially take the virus with them.
“That would be a situation - and I went to this a bit a couple of days ago - you know, so Melbourne settles, we’re able to lift the rules and then a week later or maybe even further than that we start to see waste water testing results Show showing voyeur in regional Victoria.”
“We just don’t want that.”
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Adeshola Ore 11.53am: Labor to back amended news media code
The Labor Party will support the Morrison government’s amended mandatory news media bargaining code.
The federal government made “technical” changes to its legislation prior to introduction to parliament today. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the amendments would provide comfort to players that the code was “workable.”
On Tuesday, a Labor spokesperson confirmed the party would vote to support the amended legislation which is expected to go to the Senate for debate late this week, or early next week.
The code is designed to ensure media companies are compensated for the use of their content on search engines and social media platforms.
On Monday, Seven West Media announced it had struck a deal with Google to provide news content to the tech titan’s News Showcase product, subject to reaching a binding agreement within the next 30 days.
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John Ferguson 11.40am: Andrews weighs ‘purpose-built’ quarantine
Victoria will build a purpose-built quarantine centre to prevent large scale outbreaks.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the move on Tuesday, with Avalon and Mebourne airports the primary likely locations.
A Victorian delegation will attend the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory.
“We are going to get on and build a facility,” Mr Andrews said.
He also said that the lockdown was likely to be lifted tomorrow night.
However, the final decision would be made tomorrow.
The new facility ‘in part would be based on the Howard Springs model” said Mr Andrews, referring to the Nortern Territory facility.
Mr Andrews has led the debate in national cabinet about the need for quarantine outside the current city hotel arrangements.
He said cabin-style accommodation was favoured by the government with the opportunity for returnees to have more flexible living arrangements.
Queensland is investigating a facility at Toowoomba.
“There would be free air where the would be not no risk but little risk. Work is well and truly underway.”
Mr Andrew refused to speculate on the lifting of lockdown measures other than saying Victoria was “well placed”.
“We’ll wait as long as we can in order to have as much data as possible to make that judgement,” Mr Andrews said
“But we are well placed.” —With Joseph Lam
READ MORE: Tycoons offer to run quarantine camps
EWIN HANNAN 11.30am: Morrison dumps Industrial Relations bill changes
The Morrison government has dumped its controversial changes to the Fair Work Act’s better off overall test.
The decision endorsed by Coalition MPs on Tuesday follows widespread opposition from Senate crossbenchers,, the Labor Party and the union movement. to the proposal.
One Nation demanded on Monday the Coalition immediately dump the BOOT changes ahead of further negotiations over the government’s industrial relations bill.
READ the full story here
Rachel Baxendale 11.23am: Crossbencher: Lockdown means I won’t back powers
Key Victorian upper house crossbencher Fiona Patten says her opposition to the Andrews government’s plans to extend Victoria’s state of emergency for an additional nine months from March has been strengthened by the latest lockdown.
Ms Patten has not ruled out a three month extension, but says her strong preference is for pandemic-specific legislation, rather than ongoing broad-brush state of emergency powers.
The bill is expected to pass the Victorian Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, and be debated in the Legislative Council when parliament resumes in a fortnight.
“My mind hasn’t been changed, and if anything it’s actually been strengthened by this instant lockdown,” Ms Patten said.
“We know that we are not going to be out of this in nine months’ time, so to be asking for another extension for nine months is not going to solve the problem.
“We need COVID-specific legislation to see us through to the end of this year and probably to the end of next.
“We as a community cannot live in a state of emergency for another nine months.”
Ms Patten said she had asked the government to work on coronavirus-specific legislation as a condition for supporting a six month state of emergency extension last year.
“My vote last year, which was for a reduced state of emergency - they asked for 12, we gave them six - and it was contingent on them developing COVID-specific legislation,” Ms Patten said.
“We knew that we would be coming back. They knew we would be coming back, and yet, it appears they have not done that work. Now, maybe they’re close, so maybe they need another three months, but they’re not getting another nine months for a state of emergency, only to come back in December and say we need another state of emergency.”
Is contact tracing, quarantine working?
Ms Patten said the state’s latest lockdown shows Victoria’s contact tracing and hotel quarantine systems aren’t working, or the Andrews government doesn’t have faith that they are.
“I’m not a doctor, so I am happy to accept that the medical advice was for this short and sharp lockdown,” Ms Patten said.
“I have to say though, I chaired the contact tracing inquiry, and what we heard is that Victoria had kind of jumped over the other states in our contact tracing capacity, in our ability to to contain infections, to connect people very quickly, and either that’s not working, or we don’t have faith in our own systems.”
Ms Patten said she had no doubt the lockdown would have a positive effect in slowing the spread of coronavirus.
“But we have a very good system here, and we should be using it, and we should be able to continue to stay open and effectively contain those close contacts, be it that first ring or the second ring, which we’ve seen we’ve been able to do,” she said.
“We’ve seen we’ve been able to control this, and I just hope that we have some confidence in our own systems, and that our health teams have confidence in our systems.”
Paige Taylor 11.18am: Tamil family plight unresolved after latest court bid
The Federal government has lost its latest court bid to deport a Tamil asylum seeker couple and their Australian-born children. The decision means the epic battle with the family, accepted by the Queensland community of Biloela during their bid to stay in Australia, remains unresolved. They remain detained on Christmas Island where they have been living under guard in a family camp since August 2019 after a last-minute court decision grounded a government plane that was in the process of deporting them to Sri Lanka.
Tamil Nadesalingam Murugappan, who reached Christmas Island by boat in 2012, his wife Kokilapathmapriy Nadarasa, who arrived at Cocos Islands by boat in 2013, have repeatedly been rejected by the Australian government and courts.
They met and married in Australia while their various appeals were being assessed. Their daughters Tharnicaa, three, and Kopika, five, were born while the couple was living in the community on the Australian mainland but they have now lived most of their lives in detention at Villawood in Sydney and at Christmas Island.
The family’s bid to stay in Australia rests on whether or not youngest daughter Tharnicaa is entitled to Australia’s protection.
READ the full story here
Joseph Lam 11.14am: NSW marks 30 days without local transmission
NSW has recorded one new case of COVID-19 among an overseas returned traveller, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 4950.
However, a small milestone has been achieved with Tuesday marking 30 days since a locally acquired case was recorded.
Testing numbers were down about 20 per cent today with 12,336 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared to 15,695 the previous day.
Those who arrived from Victoria since midnight on Friday have been permitted to leave their homes with a reasonable excuse, including exercise, essential work, shopping for essential items, medical and other care and caregiving requirements. The order is due to end at 11.59pm tomorrow.
READ MORE: $1bn bid to go it alone with vaccine hub
Adeshola Ore 11am: ‘Beggars belief PM only knew of rape 24 hours ago’
Greens Senator Larissa Waters says it’s “beggars belief” Scott Morrison was only made aware of the alleged assault of a female Liberal staffer yesterday. Brittany Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped on March 23, 2019, by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking.
On Tuesday, Mr Morrison said he became aware of the alleged incident in the “past 24 hours.”
“It’s beggars belief that PM didn’t know about Brittany’s rape till 24hours ago, given 2 senior PMO staff (incl his private Sec “the fixer”) regularly spoke to her: she says implicitly to keep her quiet,” Senator Waters said on Twitter.
“Take responsibility, show leadership, be transparent, fix the culture, PM.”
On Tuesday morning, Mr Morrison said he was disappointed that he was not made aware of the alleged incident by some of his staff members.
“I’m not happy about the fact that it was not brought to my attention, and I can assure you people know that,” he said.
READ MORE: Higgins left to resign
Rachel Baxendale 10.54am: Andrews to deliver Covid update at 11.15am
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is due to address the media at 11.15am, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar, and COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria Commissioner Emma Cassar.
The press conference comes after Mr Andrews on Monday refused to say whether Victorians will be released on Wednesday evening from what was announced as a five day lockdown on Friday, and as 31 residents are evacuated from the state’s hot quarantine hotel, the Flinders Lane Holiday Inn, following water damage across four of eight floors over the weekend.
The coronavirus cluster linked to the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn now comprises 19 cases, after two close contacts of previously diagnosed cases tested positive in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
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Joseph Lam 10.49am: Palaszczuk nominates priorities for first vaccinations
Queensland recorded no new cases of COVID-19 overnight as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk looks to update her state on a vaccine rollout in coming days.
The Premier on Tuesday said her state is currently working with the federal government to facilitate the program, but ultimately it is in their hands.
“The Chief Health Officer, myself and the health minister are meeting this afternoon to once again look at the plan,” she said.
“The federal government is in charge of the supply and we are working with them in terms of the rollout.
“My understanding is they’re starting off very small.”
Ms Palaszczuk said frontline health workers would be first in line for the vaccine as they remain the most at risk dealing with international arrivals.
“The priority is quarantine workers — I think everyone can understand that is the high risk area at the moment,” she said.
“We are a high-risk state in relation to hotel quarantine until the vaccine is rolled out.”
Ms Palaszczuk also said Queensland had put together a draft proposal for regional quarantine camps.
“There is an appetite for people to construct these regional camps,” she said. “They would be close to airports.”
READ MORE: Garbage bag ‘protection’ as quarantine hotel evacuated
Adeshola Ore 10.34am: PM welcomes probe into cleaning of alleged rape scene
Scott Morrison said he welcomed an investigation into the decision to send cleaners to the office of Linda Reynoldsafter a half-naked Liberal staffer was found disoriented on the couch.
“I’m happy for those investigations to take place and they should be done transparently and with full orporation. I think that shouldn’t lead to any assumptions about any acts that were undertaken,” he said.
“Cleaners go through offices every morning... At that point, at that precise point in time.... there was not full knowledge of what had actually occurred so to suggest that something had been done to interfere with the environment, I don’t think that’s established.”
Rachel Baxendale 10.28am: Release lockdown health advice, Andrews told
Victorian opposition upper house leader David Davis has called on the Andrews government to release the public health advice justifying the state’s five-day lockdown, which Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday refused rule out extending beyond Wednesday night.
“The government should be releasing all of the public health advice, all of the briefings on which they rely, and that would actually ensure that people could actually properly interrogate and understand the decisions that have been made,” Mr Davis said.
“On what information have these decisions been made? The government ought to provide that. It ought to be in the public domain. That would actually build trust and accountability and confidence, if the decisions are-well founded. If they’re not well founded the community needs to know that too.”
Mr Davis also indicated the Liberal Party has concerns regarding state of emergency legislation which is expected to pass the lower house tomorrow before being debated in the upper house when parliament next sits in a fortnight.
“The Liberal Party is quite clear that there’s real issues with this legislation,” Mr Davis said.
“It is a grab for power by Daniel Andrews. We will seek to amend it so that there’s proper controls and proper transparency and accountability. This should be a month-to-month extension not a not a carte blanche, not a credit card for Daniel Andrews to do whatever he likes.”
READ MORE: Lockdown smackdown puts property on canvas
Joseph Lam 10.23am: Violence victims exempt from Victorian restrictions
Victoria is urging victims of family violence to remember that exemptions will always be made for those suffering from violence in the home.
The Department of Families, Fairness & Housing is trying to push the message on social media to remind victims that services are available during Victoria’s five day lockdown.
“No matter where in Victoria you live, metro or regional, it is OK to leave your home to escape #familyviolence during the five-day circuit breaker actions,” read a tweet from the department.
For more information, visit vic.gov.au
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Nicholas Bariyo 10.22am: Ebola returns to W Africa as region battles Covid
Health officials in Guinea are rushing to contain the first outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in the region since 2016, days after authorities detected new cases of the hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo, testing a continent that is already battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Guinea was one of the three most-affected countries during the 2014-2016 epidemic. The current outbreak began in late January, but was only identified as the Ebola virus on Sunday, health officials said, suggesting it may have spread substantially in the intervening weeks.
The outbreak four years ago left more than 11,000 dead across West Africa. The new outbreak comes as the continent grapples with a steady rise of coronavirus infection rates, driven at least in part by a more transmissible variant first detected in South Africa. — The Wall Street Journal
READ the full story here
Adeshola Ore 10.13am: Marles lends support for quarantine camps
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles says the proposal by trucking magnate Lindsay Fox to run large-scale quarantine camps at Avalon airport in Victoria, to help resolve the row over hotel quarantine, is “worthy of consideration”.
The Australian has reported Avalon Airport owned by Mr Fox’s Linfox, is negotiating with the commonwealth and the Victorian government to accommodate up to 1000 international arrivals in a low-risk rural setting near Geelong — a plan that could slash the risk of further quarantine breakouts in Melbourne.
Mr Marles, whose electorate includes Avalon Airport, said he hoped the plan was given “due consideration” by the Morrison government.
“I know Avalon well, there’s a lot of land there. There would be an ability to isolate people, literally people coming directly off a plane and going into a facility” he told the ABC.
“We’ve got a lot of Australians overseas who are seeking to come home, tens of thousands, that has to be managed.”
In a separate proposal, Queensland businessman John Wagner said on Monday he was aggressively backing a quarantine facility next to Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport, which would charge the same fees as existing city-based hotels and potentially take up to 1000 returnees.
READ MORE: Foreigners make up almost a third of arrivals
Rachel Baxendale 10.01am: Andrews ‘deserves a different award’
Victoria’s opposition has expressed incredulity after Daniel Andrews was the only state premier among several politicians nominated for the 2020 McKinnon Prize for political leadership, for his role during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coalition leader in the upper house David Davis said he would give Mr Andrews a “different award”.
“Eight hundred and one Victorians died because of his failures and his inaction and his blunders,” Mr Davis said on his way in to Tuesday’s sitting of the Victorian Legislative Council.
“That is the award he should carry. That is the award he should have pinned to his chest.”
Opposition frontbencher Tim Smith tweeted of the nomination: “You couldn’t make this up.”
“The failures of the Andrews govt caused the 2nd wave resulting in 801 deaths, 250,000 jobs lost, 4 month lockdown & a mental health crisis,” Mr Smith tweeted.
READ MORE: Jab plans in place as vaccines arrive
Remy Varga 9.56am: Guests wear garbage bags over heads for evacuation
The first hotel quarantine bus from the Holiday Inn on Flinders Lane has been evacuated.
Wearing a garbage bag over their head, a guest was escorted onto the SkyBus at about 9.45am on Tuesday.
Health authorities appear to be transporting the guests one by one, with the SkyBus leaving after the guest boarded. A man holding a baby has become the second guest to evacuate the Holiday Inn.
Victoria Police are assisting the evacuation effort.
READ MORE: Risk aversion comes with a heavy cost to the state
Joseph Lam 9.48am: Evidence of alleged rape possibly destroyed by cleaners
Evidence of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape in Linda Reynold’s former office may have been destroyed after the Department of Services steam cleaned the room.
On March 23, 2019, Ms Higgins was said to be found half-naked and disoriented on the couch of the office. She alleges she was raped in Ms Reynold’s former office by a senior Liberal staffer after a night out drinking.
Later that afternoon, the Department of Parliamentary Services sent cleaners to the office.
DPS said Australian Federal Police found the decision to send cleaners was not “criminal” nor an attempt to “interfere with a suspected crime scene” as at the time it was not known a potential sexual assault had occurred.
However, police investigated the matter after concerns were raised about the decision to send in the cleaners on the same day Ms Higgins was found, news.com.au has confirmed.
DPS said it had cleaned the office at the request of the Department of Finance.
Adeshola Ore 9.39am: Parliament workplace systems ‘not really working’
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says workplace protocols to protect staff should be improved in the wake of a former Liberal Party staffer who was allegedly raped in Parliament House in Canberra.
Brittany Higgins is preparing to ask the Australian Federal Police to investigate the incident. Ms Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped on March 23, 2019, by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking.
“We have done a lot of things in the last few years, like establish a code of conduct in the Liberal Party, new employee assistance program, but there’s always more we can do,” Senator Canavan told Sky News.
“I’ve particularly been mindful about the feedback about those systems not really working for people so we need to fix them if that’s the case.”
Senator Canavan commended the courage of Ms Higgins in speaking publicly about the alleged assault.
“I hope and pray she has the strength,’’ he said. “The next few months will be tough. These are always tough circumstances and no one should have to go through circumstances like this.
“I think the main thing now is that the government provides all the support that we can which I’m sure we will.”
Scott Morrison has this morning announced he will appoint Western Australian Liberal MP and a former university vice chancellor Celia Hammond to improve processes to protect the safety of young women working at Parliament House.
READ MORE: Labor keeps silent on sex assault allegation
Lachlan Moffet Gray 9.33am: It’s official: Crown unsuitable to operate Casino
The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority has formally served Crown Resorts with a letter confirming the company’s unsuitability to operate its Barangaroo Casino under its restricted gaming license.
Although ILGA confirmed Crown’s unsuitability last Tuesday when the Bergin report into the company was tabled in parliament, the stipulations of the restricted gaming licence mean the two parties must now enter into a formal process of negotiation.
ILGA chair Philip Crawford has previously indicated he believes Crown chair Helen Coonan can make the necessary changes to restore the company’s suitability before the year ends.
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Adeshola Ore 9.25am: ‘The truth needs to be exposed’
Opposition communication spokeswoman Michelle Rowland says all MPs have a responsibility to change the workplace culture in federal parliament in the wake of a former Liberal Party staffer alleging she was raped in Parliament House in Canberra.
Scott Morrison has announced that he has appointed Liberal MP and former university vice chancellor Celia Hammond to improve protocols to protect women working in federal parliament.
“Ultimately the truth needs to be exposed and we need to ensure a safe environment for everyone who works here,” Ms Rowland said.
“We don’t want this to be a place where people are repelled from pursuing careers.”
READ MORE: Hybrid office a ‘dangerous’ model for companies
Joseph Lam 9.18am: WHO approves AstraZeneca jab for emergency use
The World Health Organisation has approved two AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use.
The vaccines, produced by AstraZeneca-SKBio in Korea and the Serum Institute of India, received the green light on Tuesday in Sweden to be rolled out globally through its WHO’s COVAX program.
“Countries with no access to vaccines to date will finally be able to start vaccinating their health workers and populations at risk, contributing to the COVAX Facility’s goal of equitable vaccine distribution,” said WHO Assistant-Director General for Access to Medicines and Health Products Dr Mariângela Simão.
WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization has approved the vaccine for use for all age groups 18 years and above. The approval process is said to have taken just under four weeks.
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Adeshola Ore 8.53am: We have to do more for alleged rape victim: PM
Scott Morrison says the alleged rape of a former Liberal Party staffer in Parliament House in Canberra “shatters’’ him.
Brittany Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped on March 23, 2019, by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking. The Australian has reported that Ms Higgins is preparing to ask the Australian Federal Police to investigate the incident, plunging the Morrison government into damage control over claims that it had failed adequately to support her.
“It shatters me that still, in this day and age, that a young woman can find herself in the vulnerable situation that she was in,’’ the Prime Minister said today.
Mr Morison said he spoke to his wife Jenny last night about the alleged incident and she told him “you have to think like a father.”
“There should not be an environment where a young woman can find herself in this situation,” he said.
“We have to do more, whether it’s in this workplace or any other workplace in the country.”
Mr Morrison said he had asked Western Australian MP Celia Hammond, a former Vice Chancellor, to work with MPs to improve protocols in parliament.
“We all have a role to play in that. I do, members of this place do,” he said.
Mr Morrison has also appointed Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet official Stephanie Foster to review Parliament House’s process for workplace matters.
Mr Morrison said he “happily” apologised to Ms Higgins after she alleged she was invited to discuss the alleged rape in the same room she says it took place.
“I want to make sure any young woman working in this place is as safe as possible,” he said.
Mr Morrison said it is appropriate that the allegations should be investigated by police.
He said he was first alerted to the allegation by Ms Higgins “twenty four hours ago.”
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Rachel Baxendale 8.39am: Victoria records two new local virus cases
Victoria has recorded two new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases linked to the Holiday Inn cluster to 19.
There were also two new cases recorded in overseas returned travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of active cases in the state to 25.
The latest figures come after 23,950 tests were processed on Monday.
Victoria’s health department has confirmed both new local cases are in household contacts of previously known Holiday Inn cluster cases.
Joseph Lam 8.35am: Stegall joins Andrews in leadership prize shortlist
In the McKinnon Prize for emerging leaders is one former Winter Olympic medallist known for standing her ground.
MP Zali Steggall, who swooped Warringah from former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in 2019, is in the top six for the category.
Ms Stegall told The Daily Telegraph that her entry to politics had allowed her to hold the government to account.
“Entering politics as an independent MP was one of the best decisions I have made as I can hold the government to account and have introduced a Climate Change Bill to legislate net zero emissions by 2050,” she said.
“I know within the Coalition many Liberals believe in climate change but they are held to ransom by people within the party who don’t.
“As a result the government and the Prime Minister tiptoes around this (issue).”
The awards are a partnership between Susan McKinnon Foundation and the University of Melbourne.
The emerging leader award is open to those with less than five years in office.
READ MORE: Daniel Andrews nominated for leadership prize
Adeshola Ore 8.27am: ‘Alleged rape an indictment on Parliament House culture’
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles says the alleged rape of a former Liberal Party staffer which she said took place in the office of a Coalition minister is an “indictment” on the workplace culture at Parliament House.
Brittany Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped in March 2019 by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking with colleagues.
“This is a building that should be upholding the highest standards of employment and I think we need to acknowledge that as much as all of us love working here, there is an issue here,” he told the ABC.
“It’s really important, on this day, that people who are leaders in our political system state the need for us to change.”
“This is something that simply has to change.”
Mr Marles says Labor’s national code of conduct for harassment in the workplace will be released imminently.
The party is in the final stages of updating its code of conduct and harassment policies after a controversial Four Corners episode aired last year about politicians alleged intimate relations with female staffers.
The program revealed that Cities Minister Alan Tudge had an affair with a female staffer and alleged that Attorney-General Christian Porter had intimate relations with a female staffer. Mr Porter denied ever breaching the ministerial standards.
“We had a sexual harassment policy. To be rank, after reporting that occurred last year on Four Corners, we’ve sought to update that to ensure its best practice and my understanding is that will come out imminently,” Mr Marles told the ABC.
The Liberal Party released a national code of conduct for managing harassment and assault complaints at the beginning of 2020.
READ MORE: Left to resign after being raped in parliament
Joseph Lam 8.20am: WA opens border to Sydneysiders
Sydneysiders can now venture in Western Australia quarantine free after the WA Health lowered the city’s COVID-19 risk rating.
The new rules came into place at midnight on Monday with the WA deeming all states and jurisdictions “very low risk” aside from Victoria which is a “medium risk”.
“Following the latest public health advice and as part of the controlled interstate border, travel from New South Wales is now permitted without quarantine requirements, but still subject to strict conditions,” a statement from WA Health says.
“Travellers from Victoria will not be permitted to enter WA without an exemption until at least 12.01am, Thursday 18 February 2021.”
Overseas returned travellers are still subject to the 14-day quarantine and require mandatory COVID-19 testing within 48 hours of arriving and on day 12 of quarantine.
READ MORE: Mark McGowan loses shine amid talk of lockdown overreaction
Adeshola Ore 8.11am: More GPs, pharmacists to deliver Covid jabs
Deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd says Australia will ramp up to about 2000 GPs and pharmacists across the country administering COVID vaccines, after the first doses of Pfizer vaccines arrived in the country on Monday.
The internationally-made AstraZeneca doses are expected to touch down in Australia in early March and subject to Therapeutic Goods Administration, CSL will aim to deliver one million doses a week.
“We’ve had over 500 general practices which have signed up to be part of the rollout of the vaccine,” Professor Kidd told the ABC.
“We do expect very quickly to scale up to about 1000 sites across the country and then 2000 sites across the country where people will be coming in to get their vaccines.”
READ MORE: Air of confusion lingering over nebulisers
Jack Paynter 7.57am: Urgent virus alert for shopping centre
A fruit shop and a bakery are the latest additions to Victoria’s growing list of public coronavirus exposure sites.
Sacca’s Fruit World and BonBon Bakery, both in Broadmeadows Central shopping centre, were added to the list of tier one exposure sites on Monday night.
A confirmed cases of COVID-19 visited the bakery from 12.30pm to 12.45pm on February 9 and the fruit shop from 12.30pm to 1pm.
The state’s health department said anyone who visited the stores during the same period is required to immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days.
The health department also added the west side of Broadmeadows Central shopping centre, the fresh fruit and meat section, as a tier three exposure site after the visit from the positive case.
Anyone who has visited a tier three exposure site should monitor for symptoms and get tested and isolate if they develop.
The health department also clarified the advice for Melbourne’s iconic Queen Victoria Market.
The confirmed case shopped at sheds A and B – also known as section two, fruit and vegetables – and used the female toilets next to shed A on February 11 between 8.25am and 10.10am.
Anyone who visited this section of the market during the same period is required to immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days.
For the full list of coronavirus public exposure sites visit the health department website.
The health department said the locations on the public exposure lists were not a current risk to the public and could be visited in line with coronavirus restrictions. — NCA Newswire
READ MORE: Mall owner GPT’s profit mauled by Covid
Rachel Baxendale 7.31am: Melbourne hotel for infected returnees evacuated
Victoria’s hot hotel — home to recent international arrivals who have tested positive for coronavirus — is set to be evacuated on Tuesday morning, after fire sprinklers caused water damage to four of eight floors on Saturday.
COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria has confirmed it is moving staff and 31 residents from the Holiday Inn hotel on Flinders Lane in Melbourne’s CBD to the Pullman Albert Park, which was previously used to quarantine Australian Open tennis players and their entourage.
The evacuation of the city Holiday Inn follows a coronavirus cluster — now at 17 cases — at Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn, which has seen the Andrews government impose a five day statewide lockdown.
“Residents at the Holiday Inn Melbourne on Flinders are being transferred to an alternate health hotel today (Tuesday), while repairs for water damage are completed,’’ a COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria spokesperson said in a statement.
“After a review of the available options, the Pullman Albert Park Hotel was assessed by ventilation experts and determined as the most suitable hotel within CQV’s current hotel stock to accommodate symptomatic and positive residents.
“Strict infection prevention and control (IPC) measures will be followed during the transfer to ensure the health and safety of residents, staff and the community.’’
READ MORE: City exodus lifts Bendigo growth
Joseph Lam 7.10am: Western Australian cities given green light status
Western Australian is now a full green zone in the eyes of Victoria, after three cities were deemed no longer a COVID-19 threat.
Perth, Peel and southwest WA, the last three regions in Australia to have Victoria’s red zone applied, have been granted green-light status under the state’s traffic-light quarantine system.
As of 9pm on Monday, residents from those areas are permitted to apply to travel to Victoria providing they have no COVID-19 symptoms and have had no close contact with a recent case.
READ MORE: Victoria’s coronavirus red-light rule traps thousands
Joseph Lam 7am: Andrews nominated for prestigious leadership award
Daniel Andrews has been nominated for a prestigious award for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite being at the centre of Victoria’s hotel quarantine debacle.
The Victorian Premier was the only state premier among several politicians — including PM Scott Morrison — nominated for the 2020 McKinnon Prize.
The prize, awarded to two politicians annually, is said to be a “non-partisan and independent award” given to those “who have successfully tackled vital issues of public policy, overcome adversity and achieved real change for the public good”.
Judges said the Prime Minister’s nomination was for swift policies implemented throughout the pandemic which were “significant departures” from his “well-developed brand of fiscal conservatism”.
Meanwhile, Mr Andrews’ nomination cited “firm, decisive and courageous leadership”. “Throughout the crisis, he based key decisions on expert health advice — a brave approach which led to some less popular decisions,” read a statement from the nomination.
Read the full story here.
Glenda Korporaal 6.45am: Victoria ‘falling further behind in virus recovery’
Melbourne-based business leaders have warned that Victoria is falling further behind in terms of the recovery, with the stop-start lockdowns set to undermine any confidence that was starting to come back following last year’s extended closures.
Business leaders hit out at the uncertainty generated by repeated lockdown orders with uncertain duration.
In a sign that business confidence in the state is waning while other parts of Australia have the virus under control and are seeing economic activity increase, leaders questioned the approach to management of the pandemic taken by the Andrews government.
“Why are we getting this so wrong?” Melbourne businessman David Smorgon said in an interview with The Australian. “Why is Victoria, on almost every criteria you could come up with, doing it worse than NSW?
“The question needs to be asked why is NSW able to cope and deal with this situation in a much better way than Victoria is on every single criteria, whether it be the number of cases, to the number of deaths, to the number of people in quarantine?”
Read the full story, by Glenda Korporaal and Ben Wilmot, here.
Ben Packham 5.30am: Pressure on China to deliver facts on COVID-19
Australia has joined the US and Britain in demanding China provide the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 investigation team with “full access” to all the information it needs to establish pandemic’s origin.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne told the Senate that Australia would continue to advocate for a “thorough and credible” report, after Chinese authorities refused to provide WHO investigators with all the data they requested during their visit to Wuhan last week.
“Australia joins our key partners, including UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, in reiterating the need for full access to all information relevant to determining how this pandemic emerged,” she said.
Senator Payne first called for an independent review into the origins of the coronavirus in April last year, infuriating Beijing. Australia continued to lobby for the review in the face of growing Chinese anger, backing a European motion at the World Health Assembly that was carried unanimously.
Senator Payne said on Monday that the May WHA resolution “delivered a very clear mandate — to identify the source of the COVID-19 virus and how it was transmitted to humans”.
“While there was a lengthy press conference at the conclusion of the mission last week, we are yet to see a formal report with findings, analysis and recommendations for future work,” she said.
Australian infectious diseases expert Dominic Dwyer, who travelled to China as part of the WHO team, said on Saturday that Beijing had refused access to all requested data. He said that gaining access to the raw data was crucial since only half of 174 early cases had exposure to Wuhan’s Huanan wet market.
Read the full story here.
Olivia Caisley 5.20am: Jab plans in place as Pfizer vaccine lands
Nursing homes are putting in place urgent plans to begin administering COVID-19 immunisation injections from next week after the first doses of the Pfizer vaccines arrived in the country.
The aged-care sector has begun the process of gaining consent from their elderly residents to begin vaccinations, with training still under way for a specialised workforce who will work directly in nursing homes.
The first 142,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine landed in Sydney just after midday on Monday and will now be quality tested by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Priority will be given to aged-care facilities, with 250 homes receiving 30,000 doses, and hotel quarantine, with 50,000 units allocated for those workers.
A further 60,000 doses are set aside for second injections and as a precautionary measure in case there is a break in the supply chain from the European Union.
Read the full story, by Olivia Caisley and Natasha Robinson, here.
John Ferguson 5am: Billionaires offer to run COVID-19 quarantine camps
Billionaire businessmen Lindsay Fox and John Wagner want to house up to 2000 international returnees at separate camps outside state capitals in Victoria and Queensland to help resolve the row over hotel quarantine arrangements.
Avalon Airport, owned by Mr Fox’s Linfox, is negotiating with the commonwealth and the Victorian government to accommodate up to 1000 international arrivals in a low-risk rural setting near Geelong — a plan that could slash the risk of further quarantine breakouts in Melbourne.
In a separate proposal, Queensland businessman Mr Wagner said on Monday he was aggressively backing a quarantine facility next to Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport, which would charge the same fees as existing city-based hotels and potentially take up to 1000 returnees.
The two proposals come as Victoria nears the end of its five-day lockdown, although Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday refused to commit to ending restrictions on Wednesday.
Read the full story, by John Ferguson and Charlie Peel, here.
Rosie Lewis 4.45am: Liberal staffer left to resign after alleged rape
A former Liberal Party staffer who was allegedly raped in Parliament House in Canberra is preparing to ask the Australian Federal Police to investigate the incident, plunging the Morrison government into damage control over claims that it had failed adequately to support her.
Brittany Higgins, who worked for several Coalition ministers including Steven Ciobo, Linda Reynolds and Michaelia Cash, alleged she was raped on March 23, 2019, by a former colleague in Senator Reynolds’ office after a night out drinking.
Ms Higgins, who was 24 at the time and intoxicated, alleged she woke up while being raped and told her perpetrator, who was forced out of his job days after the alleged assault, to stop.
She was discovered the next day half-dressed by a female security guard.
Read the full story, by Rosie Lewis and Geoff Chambers, here.
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