PoliticsNow: Six new clot cases linked to vaccine: TGA
The latest figures take Australia’s total cases of the rare clotting disorder to just 24 out of the millions of jabs delivered.
- Six new clot cases linked to vaccine: TGA
- Hrdlicka walks back ‘people may die' remarks
- Jobless rate falls after JobKeeper
- PM, NSW dig in over vax passport
- ‘No basis for border closures’
Welcome to PoliticsNow, our live coverage of the latest headlines from Canberra as well as the developments in our fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Six new cases of a rare clotting disorder have been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Scott Morrison says domestic passport for inter-state travel is still a possibility, despite NSW and Queensland rejecting the idea.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says there is no basis for state-based borders closures, putting her at odds with PM’s plan for domestic vaccination passports. The news comes as the Morrison government warns against significant minimum wage increases being granted to 2.2 million low-paid workers, sparking a fresh ACTU attack on the Coalition as new figures showed annual wages growth stagnating near a record low.
Kieran Gair 9.45pm:US tourists fight to take on Ruby Princess
American tourists who caught COVID-19 on board the Ruby Princess could be forced out of a class action in Australia over a disputed “jurisdiction clause” contained in their contract with Carnival cruises, which barred foreign passengers from filing “illness” lawsuits against the company outside of the United States.
Shine Lawyers, who are leading the class action, allege Bermuda-based Carnival and its subsidiary Princess Cruise Lines, breached consumer laws, engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct, and was negligent in the way it handled the pandemic. About 900 people have registered their interest in the class action.
David McClure SC, for Carnival, told the Federal Court on Thursday that Justice John Halley should temporarily pause claims filed as part of the class action by American passengers because their contracts contained a clause that “favoured” US and Californian courts for claims of injury, illness or death.
Eli Greenblat9.00pm:Woolies’ boss reveals big worries
Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci has conceded he feels the “most anxious” about the state of consumer confidence in Australia and the potential polarisation of the community into haves and have-nots.
The supermarket boss told the Australian Food and Grocery Council suppliers forum on Thursday that the company was coming under cost pressure from sources such as shipping. But he ranked consumer confidence as the most pressing issue for the retailer.
“The biggest issue we are most anxious about right now is consumer confidence — actually now it is pretty good. But it is hard to believe it will continue,” Mr Banducci said.
Jacquelin Magnay 8.20pm:Coates praises Japanese resilience
International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates has hailed the ability of the Japanese people to overcome adversity as Olympic organisers and Japanese politicians confirm the Tokyo Olympic Games will go ahead.
Mr Coates has brought forward his plans and will travel to Japan to oversee Tokyo Olympic preparations from June 15, while the IOC president Thomas Bach will arrive 11 days before the Games opening ceremony on July 23.
Mr Coates, the Australian Olympic Committee president, is the IOC’s co-ordination chair overseeing the Games.
He has reinforced the strict countermeasures that will be undertaken during the Games to quell a nervous Japanese public.
Mr Bach announced three-quarters of Olympic athletes will be vaccinated before arrival in Japan, but Mr Coates believes the figure may be more than 80 per cent.
AFP7.25pm:US, France tangle over the Middle East
The conflict in the Middle East has stirred up a diplomatic stand-off at the UN between France and the US, the first open tension between the two allies since President Joe Biden took power.
Despite guaranteed opposition from Washington, France has proposed another draft UN Security Council resolution calling for the end of hostilities between Israel and Palestinians, as well as humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.
Ellie Dudley6.45pm:Rogue MP decries vaccine passport idea
Independent MP Craig Kelly says the notion of vaccine passports is “against everything I believe Australia to be”.
Scott Morrison said on Tuesday he was willing to work with the states to establish domestic vaccine passports could allow people to bypass state border restrictions.
Mr Kelly, who was removed from Facebook earlier this year for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, has condemned the Prime Minister’s suggestion.
“This idea that you have this vaccine passport that somehow guarantees you from the infection or spreading the infection is simply not backed up by the science,” he told Sky News. “It is against everything I believe Australia to be...It’s not the principles of the country that I want to see.”
Mr Kelly has called on the federal government to legislate against vaccine passports.
“I think the best thing, let’s put this in legislation, let’s copy what they’ve done in Florida, let’s make it very clear to everyone that domestic vaccine passports in this country are a no,” he said.
Wall Street Journal6.30pm:India hits grim new Covid milestone
India has recorded the world’s highest number of deaths from COVID-19 in a single day, as the country suffers through one of the most ferocious surges of the pandemic. Read more here
Ellie Dudley6.15pm:Labor condemns Hunt’s vaccine comments
Labor MP Andrew Leigh has blasted Health Minister Greg Hunt for telling Australians they can wait to get their vaccine of choice, labelling the country’s roll out a “dawdle” not a “race”.
Mr Hunt told the ABC on Thursday morning that anyone uncertain about the AstraZeneca vaccine could wait to receive Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine.
Mr Leigh said Mr Hunt’s comments “send the wrong message to people in the over 50s group who ought to be encouraged to get a vaccine” and would add further delays to the roll out.
“America is at 60 per cent of adults having had one jab, Australia is at less than 20 per cent,” he told the ABC.
“We are meant to have four million vaccinated by the end of March in the middle of May we are still around three million.”
Mr Leigh also pointed out the “huge economic costs” of slowing the roll out of the vaccines, citing a statistic that state lockdowns last year cost $4 billion per week.
READ MORE:Travel agents threaten to bar Qantas
Robert Craddock6pm:Silence on Indian streets rocks cricket great
Matthew Hayden says Australia must extend aid to India, with the returning Aussie struggling to make sense of the empty streets and the desperate fight for life in the gutted nation. Read more here
Ellie Dudley 5.25pm:What a joke: Turnbull bites back at Barilaro
Malcolm Turnbull has snapped back at NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro for saying he should quit the Liberal Party, after the former prime minister donated to an independent candidate’s by-election campaign.
The Upper Hunter by-election is a must-win for the NSW Coalition, which will otherwise descend further into a minority government if it loses the seat.
Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy donated $6000 to Independent Kirsty O’Connell’s campaign in a move which was met with harsh criticism from members of the state Liberal Party, most strikingly Mr Barilaro.
“If the Liberal Party don’t want to sack him, well be honourable and resign,” Mr Barilaro told reporters this morning.
Mr Turnbull has since taken to Twitter to call Mr Barilaro’s comments a “joke”.
“What a joke!” he wrote. “Barilaro called on me to resign when I was the Liberal Prime Minister of Australia!”
What a joke! Barilaro called on me to resign when I was the Liberal Prime Minister of Australia! https://t.co/nAP10gwAH1
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) May 20, 2021
READ MORE:Politically homeless in the hermit kingdom
Ellie Dudley 5.10pm:NSW hits the one million jab milestone
Over one million jabs of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in NSW.
Some 315,000 of the doses have been delivered through the state-run roll out, while around 685,000 vaccines have been given by the Commonwealth.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard took to Twitter to celebrate the milestone.
“Yayyyy!” he wrote. “One million vaccinations here in NSW. On the journey to COVID-19 freedom.”
Yayyyy! 0ne Million vaccinations here in NSW. On the journey to COVID-19 freedom. ✅. â¦@NSWHealthâ© pic.twitter.com/b7RVA3lm2C
— Brad Hazzard (@BradHazzard) May 20, 2021
Ellie Dudley 4.30pm:Robert ducks airline funding query amid Qantas cuts
Employment Minister Stuart Robert has avoided questions about added funding for the airline industry, following Qantas’ decision today to cut more jobs and commence a two-year wage freeze.
Mr Robert told the ABC the federal government “continues to provide support to sectors” and will make an announcement if more funding will be offered.
When asked whether he thought there was a case for additional funding, he said: “I will let the infrastructure minister speak to that.”
Mr Robert said the government will continue to “act on the best medical advice” in regards to border closures, adding that he expects them to reopen in mid-2022.
“The Prime Minister has made the point we want to progressively open our borders for Australians to travel first to have been vaccinated, then international students and then a wider population as well as skilled migration,” he said.
“We will always act on the best medical advice of the day, and that’s what we continue to do.”
READ MORE:Qantas cuts jobs, freezes wages
Ellie Dudley 4.20pm:Childcare funding will ‘free up women to work’
The federal government is relying on new childcare funding initiatives announced in the budget to encourage women` into work, Employment Minister Stuart Robert says.
The female participation rate in work fell by 0.5 per cent in April, according to the latest data from the ABS.
Mr Robert said the $1.7 billion injection into childcare announced in Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s budget would “free up women to work.”
“We just need to continue to encourage women into the workforce and that is what our child care program and policy announcements were all about,” he told the ABC.
“$1.7 billion to increase the capacity for a second child in childcare, to free up women to work.”
The government expects $1.5 billion will be added to the GDP every year as a result of the changes in childcare, Mr Robert added.
Ellie Dudley 3.55pm:Young people ‘done over’ in Covid ‘recovery’: Bandt
Greens leader Adam Bandt has lambasted Scott Morrison’s “COVID recovery”, claiming young people “are still massively done over.”
Mr Bandt took to Twitter to quote statistics from the latest ABS Labour Force report to prove “the Liberal’s COVID ‘recovery’ is built on insecure work going up and young people dropping out.”
“In the last 12 months part-time employment has increased 55.6% more than full-time employment,” he wrote.
“Since March 2021 (JobKeeper end), 64,200 people have dropped out of the labour force.”
He added that over 1.8 million people can’t find enough hours to work.
“Let me know if you’ve got a different take, but the numbers seem to show young people are still getting massively done over,” he wrote.
âŒ11,000 young people (15-24yo) have dropped out of the labour force since March 2021 and 51,100 have dropped out since pre COVID (Feb 2020).
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) May 20, 2021
âŒYoung people still make up same % of total underemployed as pre COVID (Feb 2020) - 34% -despite only making up 15.6% of labour force.
Ellie Dudley 3.45pm:National vaccinations figure tops 3.3 million
More than 3.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Australia, as the country records its second day of giving over 90,000 jabs.
A total of 3,371,928 doses have been administered; 2,187,101 from the Commonwealth and 1,184,627 through the rollout by the states and territories.
Some 92,874 doses were given across the country on Wednesday.
Victoria has given the most jabs, recording a total of 344,259, shortly followed by NSW at 314,613.
Queensland has delivered 178,372 doses and WA has done 139,289, while SA (87,166), Tasmania (53,816) and the ACT (41,151) are yet to crack the 100,000 mark.
The NT has administered a total of 25,961.
Ellie Dudley 3.25pm:SA chief health officer details vaccine clot cases
South Australia’s health authorities have confirmed two new cases of blood clotting in patients who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine, as announced by the TGA earlier today.
The state’s chief health officer Nicola Spurrier said a 53-year-old man was admitted to hospital on May 18 with abdominal pain after receiving the jab two weeks earlier.
The second case — an 87-year-old woman — was admitted to hospital after getting the vaccine on April 28. She developed symptoms on May 8 but is now in a stable condition.
“With this particular syndrome that has been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, it can occur anywhere from four days to 28 days after having the vaccination,” she told a press conference on Thursday afternoon.”
“It is important for people that have had the AstraZeneca vaccine to monitor themselves for symptoms.”
Symptoms could include severe persistent headaches or severe abdominal pain, she added.
While Professor Spurrier said the case was “rare” she conceded clots should “not be unexpected” when a vaccine is rolled out across a whole community.
READ MORE: Pharmacies to help in vaccine rollout
Geoff Chambers 3.10pm:Jobs recovery leaves Labor with ‘egg on its face’
Josh Frydenberg says Australia’s surging jobs recovery has shredded the credibility of Labor’s economic argument, with new figures revealing 132,000 people have moved off income support since JobKeeper wage subsidies ceased at the end of March.
The Treasurer said the falling unemployment rate, which has dropped to a 13-month low of 5.5 per cent, had left Labor with ‘egg on its face’ with the Australian Bureau of Statistics saying the end of JobKeeper had no “discernible impact on employment between March and April”.
“Underemployment is at its lowest in seven years. Youth unemployment at its lowest levels in 12-years. The strength of Australia’s economic recovery shows our plan is working with 33,800 more full time jobs created last month,” Mr Frydenberg told The Australian.
“This all happened after the end of JobKeeper. Labor will be disappointed with today’s results because they’ve been talking down the Australian economy for the last fifteen months and beyond. They’re all smears, no ideas.
“If Labor had their way, the government would be spending more than $2bn-a-month continuing JobKeeper. The government would have bought into an airline and the government would be using taxpayers money to subsidise childcare for families that earn more than $500,000 a year. The Labor Party will always spend more, and will always tax more.”
Mr Frydenberg, who is in Tasmania as part of a national post-budget blitz, said instead of a “big whinge” Australian people were looking for a commitment from Opposition treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers that Labor will support the legislated stage three tax cuts allowing “hardworking Australian families to keep more of what they earn”.
READ MORE:Unemployment falls to 5.5% post-JobKeeper
Rhiannon Down 2.05pm:Six new clot cases linked to vaccine: TGA
Six new cases of a rare clotting disorder have been linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The TGA confirmed that a case in a 57-year-old Victorian woman, a 53-year-old man from South Australia and an 18-year-old Queensland woman were among the new cases.
The health body said the teenager was vaccinated before ATAGI updated its recommendations that the AstraZeneca vaccine only be given to the overs 50s on April 8.
A clotting case in a 79-year-old Victorian man has now been added to the tally after a review.
Two other new cases, an 87-year-old woman from South Australia and a 71-year-old woman from Victoria, were also likely linked though more clinical information was required before it could be confirmed.
The TGA said the latest figures take Australia’s total cases of the rare clotting disorder to just 24 out of the millions of jabs delivered.
“So far about 2.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered,” the TGA said in its latest vaccine report.
“Overall, 21 of these cases are considered confirmed and three are considered probable.
“Three of the four cases reported as probable in last weeks’ report have since been confirmed as TTS. The other case remains under investigation.”
One of the country’s leading epidemiologists, Sharon Lewin, has urged people not to panic about the new blood clot cases, saying of the very small number of people who developed vaccine-induced thrombosis with thrombocytopenia, almost all were being effectively treated and making a good recovery.
“We are in a very different situation in relation to blood clots than were a couple of months ago,” said Professor Lewin, who is the director of the Doherty Institute.
“There is a very high awareness among patients and among doctors, there is now effective diagnosis and treatment and for that reason we are seeing milder presentations.”
The TGA also noted that eight cases of a rare immune system disorder that causes nerve inflammation called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) had been linked to the vaccine.
READ MORE:Push for PM to act on vaccine ‘negativity’
John Ferguson1.30pm:Pallas delivers lipstick on a pig budget
This is Tim Pallas’s lipstick on a pig budget.
The Victorian economy is clearly recovering but the budget bottom line, battered as it has been by the pandemic, remains terrible.
It is weighed down by still soaring debt, surging public service wages and major project overruns.
The trade-off is that the finances are propped up by galloping taxes, which are a hand brake on growth and employment.
No amount of political lipstick can change these fundamentals.
Pallas is unapologetic about his vision for more jobs and a social dividend through a sharply improved mental health system.
READ John Ferguson’sbudget analysis here
Rachel Baxendale 1.25pm:Business slugged as public sector wage bill soars
The Andrews government will fund a signature $3.8bn mental health package with a payroll tax surcharge on the businesses that provide more than half of Victoria’s private sector jobs.
The centrepiece of Treasurer Tim Pallas’s seventh state budget, handed down on Thursday, comes alongside a forecast deficit of $17.4bn, down from $23.1bn predicted in November, with net debt set to reach $156.3bn over the forward estimates.
Public sector wages are set to increase by 17.8 per cent over the forward estimates, including an extraordinary 9.6 per cent next financial year — with Mr Pallas bluntly conceding “it’s not”, when asked whether such an escalation was sustainable
READ the full story
Adeshola Ore1.15pm: Frydenberg: Job figures show economy’s strength
Josh Frydenberg says the latest job figures, which show unemployment fell to 5.5 per cent in April from 5.7 in the previous month, demonstrate the “strength of Australia’s economic recovery”, despite the JobKeeper wage subsidy ending.
The economy added 33,800 full-time jobs in the month but shed 64,400 roles, the seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
The Treasurer said April was the seventeen consecutive month unemployment had dropped.
“Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in seven years, and we have seen youth unemployment fall to its lowest level in 12 years,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“We have to bear in mind that these job numbers came after the end of JobKeeper, a program that has supported 3.8 million Australians.”
Mr Frydenberg also pointed to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ statement that said the end of the $89bn wage subsidy program in March “did not have a discernible impact on employment between March and April”.
“That again, underlines the strength of Australia’s economic recovery,” he said.
Mr Frydenberg also lashed the Labor Party who he said warned the “sky would fall” when the wage subsidy ended.
“The Labor Party will be very disappointed with today’s job numbers because they have been talking down the economy for the full 15 months of this pandemic, yet the Australian economy strengthened, even after the end of JobKeeper” he said.
READ MORE: Jobless figure falls despite end of JobKeeper
Rhiannon Down1.00pm:Hrdlicka walks back ‘people may die’ remarks
Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka has walked back her comments made on Monday that Australia should forge ahead with reopening borders despite the reality that some people “may die”.
Ms Hrdlicka said, it was critical for our health and economy that borders reopened, well before June 2022 although, as with the seasonal flu some would fall seriously ill as Australia learned to live with COVID.
The CEO clarified her remarks at a jobs announcement as part of the airline’s domestic rollout today, saying she should have chosen her words more carefully.
“I absolutely understand my words, taken in isolation, were hurtful to some people,” she told reporters.
“If I had my time again I would maybe choose my words a bit differently.”
READ MORE:Hrdlicka explains ‘some people may die’ comments
Rhiannon Down12.45pm:HSU NSW in snap strike over pay
NSW’s non-emergency transport officers have voted to undertake a snap strike, as part of an escalating pay dispute with the state government.
The Health Services Union rejected the government’s offer of a 0.3 per cent pay rise this morning, with paramedics also threatening industrial action.
HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes said the strike action, which will last until the first 6am shift on Friday, could have been avoided if an acceptable offer was made.
“Any disruption to health today lands squarely at the feet of the Treasurer,” said Gerard Hayes, HSU NSW Secretary.
“For the last year, patient transport officers have ferried COVID positive patients from the airport to hotel quarantine, exposing themselves to a deadly, unknown pathogen.
“In return, the Treasurer has made a humiliating annual pay offer that wouldn’t even buy a cappuccino each week. This is pathetic.
“The cost of living is rising across NSW with surging property prices and rents and increased inflation. This means the Treasurer’s pay offer is effectively a pay cut. That’s a hell of a way to reward the heroes of the pandemic.”
Robert Gottliebsen 12.20pm:Bitcoin plunge sparks high drama on Wall St
As the clock ticked past midnight (AEST) and in the early hours of May 20, sleep in Australia was at a premium. The bitcoin price had slumped below $US31,000, which was half its level of just over two months ago.
Losses were headed towards $US1000 billion mark. Was this the end of bitcoin or was it too big to fail? Over in New York they would discover just how deeply embedded bitcoin has become in the financial future of Wall Street. Indeed perhaps it is too big to fail.
During 2021 there have been two very large bitcoin buying groups. The first is the youngsters (usually aged in their late teens or 20s) who have been able to buy bitcoin on huge leverage. Borrowings exceed 90 per cent and often get close to 100 per cent. Many young traders believe this is part of a transfer of wealth to the next generation.
While the young traders who bought bitcoin were big losers, it was the lenders to these youngsters who on paper had lost most of the $US900 billion.
READ the full story
Rhiannon Down 11.55am:Hubs to open for NSW Pfizer jabs
Gladys Berejiklian has announced that the Pfizer jab will be available at 25 new sites across NSW, as the rollout opens to the over 40s to register their interest.
“I’m pleased to announce that in addition to the hub at Homebush, where 40 to 49-year-olds are able to access the Pfizer vaccine, Health (NSW) will now be able to take bookings for people at 25 sites around NSW,” the NSW Premier said.
“Seventeen of those will be in rural and regional NSW and Westmead is one of those sites where, if you’ve already registered your interest, and you’re 40 to 49 years of age, you will now be able to get your jab at one of 25 locations across NSW.”
Ms Berejiklian said there had been a huge interest in receiving the Pfizer jab from the public.
“Pleasingly, we’ve also had some interesting information on the take-up rate, so out of more than 120,000 people who in the very first few days told us they were interested in getting the Pfizer jab, we’ve contacted 23,000 of those people,” she said.
“More than half of those people have already made bookings, so finding that in a short number of days, people are not only taking up the opportunity to book but are coming in to get their jabs, some within 24 or 48 hours of being told they could book.”
Ms Berejiklian also indicated that QR codes will be staying in NSW “indefinitely” as the virus continues to rage around the world.
“At a time in the future when we open up our borders and reconnect with the rest of the world people will be coming into our country,” the NSW Premier said.
“So until the deadly consequences aren’t around we will have to get used to some things that will always be around while the devastating consequences of Covid are still around.”
Ms Berejiklian said hand washing, checking into venues and getting tested could be part of everyday life for years to come or until the virus changes.
“There are some things we will accept that we will have to live with until literally Covid virus isn’t in its current form and that could take years and years,” she said.
READ MORE: Glitch books Pfizer jabs for under 50s
Adeshola Ore 11.45am:PM: Disabled vaccinated in other vax programs
Scott Morrison says some disability care residents have been vaccinated in other programs, contributing to the low inoculation rate for the cohort.
At a disability royal commission hearing on Monday, federal health bureaucrats revealed less than 5 per cent of Australians with a disability who live in supported accommodation had been vaccinated against coronavirus, despite being in phase 1a.
Mr Morrison said he had spoken with National Disability Scheme Insurance Minister Linda Reynolds about the vaccination rollout for this group.
“What is clear is that there are many people with disabilities who actually have been vaccinated as part of other programs but haven’t been counted in the numbers of people who have been vaccinated specifically in the in-reach program,” he said.
“We’re working with the disability sector and those providers to ensure that we’re matching all of those records so we can get a much clearer picture of how much progress we’ve made in that sector.”
Opposition National Disability Insurance Scheme spokesman Bill Shorten described the disability rollout as “a national disgrace”.
Patrick Commins11.40am: Jobless figure falls to 5.5pc post JobKeeper
Unemployment fell to 5.5 per cent in April, from a revised higher 5.7 per cent in March, but employment stumbled, dropping by 31,000 in the first month following the end of JobKeeper.
The economy added 33,800 full-time jobs in the month, but shed 64,400 roles, the seasonally adjusted figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed.
ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jervis said the end of the $89bn wage subsidy program in March “did not have a discernible impact on employment between March and April”.
“We have not seen large changes in the indicators that would suggest a clear JobKeeper impact, such as an increase in people working reduced or zero hours for economic reasons or because they were leaving their job. We also haven’t seen large net flows out of employment across many population groups,” Mr Jarvis said.
“Some of the 31,000 fall in employment may relate to the end of JobKeeper, but it could also reflect usual month-to-month variation in the labour market and some larger than usual seasonal changes similar to those we saw earlier in the year.“
READ the full story
Adeshola Ore11.30am: PM: More vaccine messaging for older Aussies
Scott Morrison says the federal government will roll out more COVID-19 vaccine messaging targeted at older Australians in the coming weeks, as pressure mounts on it to develop a nationwide advertising strategy to combat hesitancy and misinformation.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price this week warned large numbers of people aged between 50 and 70 years old were hedging their bets on vaccines and electing to delay vaccination with AstraZeneca in the hope they can receive a Pfizer or Moderna shot later.
The Prime Minister said the government had already invested $40 million over two years for a COVID-19 communication campaign.
“There is more communication going into the elderly population and you’ll see that rolled out in the weeks ahead,” Mr Morrison said.
READ MORE: The way to escape the crisis
Adeshola Ore11.20am:PM digs in over vax passports despite NSW rejection
Scott Morrison says a domestic passport to allow for greater inter-state travel is still a possibility, despite NSW and Queensland rejecting the idea.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said people should be able to move freely around the country irrespective of whether they have been vaccinated, putting her at odds with Scott Morrison’s plan for those who have had the jab to be exempt from COVID-19 restrictions. She said vaccines should only be used as a prerequisite for international travel.
But The Prime Minister said it was a “practical proposal” he wanted to work through with other state premiers and chief ministers.
“That’s something that Australians would support and I think it recognises the reality that states and territories from time to time will be making decisions which will restrict movements of Australians across the country,” he said.
“Now, I know the New South Wales premier would prefer there were no restrictions and she can make decisions in relation to New South Wales, but other premiers, whether it’s here in Victoria, Queensland, WA or other places, I’m sure will continue to exercise judgments that they believe to be in the best interests of their states.”
READ MORE: Berejiklian wants vaccine free travel
Rhiannon Down11.15am: NFF: Act now to prevent bigger plague
National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson has urged governments to act now to prevent a mouse plague from continuing into next Spring.
It comes as experts warn that mouse plagues of this proportion can even last for years, and may spread to Sydney if they’re not stopped.
“We have them in hospitals and in shops, businesses and of course people’s homes, causing a huge human health risk, let alone all the damage that they’re doing to people’s hay and people’s crops,” Ms Simson told Sky News.
“As I understand the mouse breeding cycle we need to act to assist nature with frosts and rains and things to try and kill this absolute pest off.
“We need to get rid of them or they’ll go underground, hide, and build up numbers again in the Spring.”
READ MORE: Fatal chemical to create mouse fortress
Rhiannon Down11.10am:NSW records no new local cases
NSW has recorded no new cases of local transmission and two new cases in hotel quarantine.
The state received 16,178 tests on Wednesday, down from the previous day’s total of 19,281.
NSW Health administered 11,343 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, which included 5349 at the mass vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.
Health authorities continue to urge the public to monitor for symptoms and remain vigilant around mask wearing and hygiene measures.
“Anyone experiencing even the mildest of cold-like symptoms should come forward immediately for testing, then isolate until a negative result is received,” health authorities said.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) May 20, 2021
Two new cases were acquired overseas in the same period, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,378. pic.twitter.com/sesc4Cs3S1
Adeshola Ore10.50am:Beijing tells PM: stop shifting blame
Beijing has warned Australia it won’t be won over by “fine words”, after Scott Morrison said strong trade between the two countries demonstrated a valuable relationship.
In an interview with Nine newspapers, the Prime Minister said there was “great value” in Australia’s relationship with China, despite the recent retaliatory tariffs. After Australia led the call for an independent investigation into COVID-19, Beijing restricted imports of Australian products such as barley, wine and beef.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Mr Morrison’s words demonstrated “feigning ignorance.”
“The root cause of the current serious difficulties in China-Australia relations lies in Australia’s gross interference in China’s internal affairs, impairment of China’s interests and unwarranted restrictions on bilateral exchanges and co-operation in various fields,” he said.
“The responsibility doesn’t rest with China at all.”
He also said Australia should not play innocent and shift the blame.
“China always believes that a healthy and stable China-Australia relationship serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples,” he said.
“What is pressing now is for the Australian side to face squarely the root cause of the setbacks in bilateral relations, view China and China’s development in an objective and rational way, return to the track of China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership, and do more to enhance mutual trust and promote practical co-operation between the two countries.”
READ MORE:UK deploys carriers to Indo-Pacific
Rhiannon Down10.40am:Double doughnut day for Victoria
Victoria has recorded zero cases of COVID-19, with no community or overseas transmission detected.
Some 9497 vaccine doses were administered in the state on Wednesday and 21,488 test results were received.
Yesterday there were no cases reported.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 19, 2021
- 9,497 vaccine doses were administered
- 21,488 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicDatapic.twitter.com/rTYblQWl9E
Rhiannon Down10.35am:Lambie calls for improvement to hotel quarantine
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie has called on the government to improve hotel quarantine to facilitate the return of more returned travellers.
It comes as reports emerged that Sydney man Sunil Khanna, 51, had become the third Australian to die of COVID-19 after the government implemented a two week flight ban on arrivals from the country.
“Unfortunately there have been deaths from COVID and this is another one,” Senator Lambie told Sky News.
“The unfortunate thing is we do not have quarantine set up in this country properly which is really holding us back, from bringing people back not just from India but from all around the world.
“We’ve had this all the way through and we still have not learnt how to get quarantine done properly.
“I think there are only 3 million vaccinated, so that’s another issue we have on the ground down here.”
READ MORE:Why Covid from India is inevitable
Rhiannon Down10.25am: AMA warns over politicising of vaccine
Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy has expressed concern that the Covid vaccine has become politicised.
“To some degree, the issue is that at the moment, people do not perceive risk and it has gone to another level in terms of anxiety,” Dr Moy told the ABC.
“To some degree, it feels politicised and I can tell you that because anything I say now will be trolled on social media. It gets very personal”.
Dr Moy said any ad campaign promoting the jab needed to play up to the need to help the community, as debate about the rise in vaccine hesitancy intensifies.
“The thing is that to some degree, we need to take it away from anything perceived to be government to some degree, getting people that are normal, people can relate to
to tell the positive story about why to vaccinate. But also the reasons why people get vaccinated, which is to protect yourself and also to hopefully do positive things for the community as each person gets vaccinated.”
READ MORE:Glitch books Pfizer jabs for under-50s
Rhiannon Down 10.10am:TGA ‘likely’ to extend Pfizer storage time
Infectious disease expert Sanjaya Senanayake says Australia is likely to follow the EU in updating storage guidelines for the Pfizer vaccine.
The Europeans Medicines Agency this week extended the approved storage period of the unopened thawed vial at normal refrigeration temperatures from five days to one month.
“We can’t say for sure but I suspect the TGA is likely to do the same and what it means is that we will have more access to members of the community to the Pfizer vaccine and
other mRNA vaccines, which is really great,” Dr Senanayake told Channel 7’s Sunrise.
“Because there are a lot of people out there who want to get the vaccine, if we can make access easier.”
Australia's vaccine rollout could be given a major boost, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration considering allowing the Pfizer jab to be stored in a regular fridge at GPs and pharmacies for up to a month. pic.twitter.com/WHPPVhuZLp
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 19, 2021
Dr Senanayake also called for the government to step up its messaging around the COVID-19 jab, after a worrying spike in vaccine hesitancy.
“There is that problem and I really think we have to keep communicating the risk, not just the low risk from the vaccines, of side-effects, the high risk of what COVID-19 can do if it gets established into the community,” he said.
“So we just have to do that, perhaps we need at a national level, an (advertising) campaign to flood the airwaves with ads communicating these risks at a local level.
“It will be nice for the news as well, after the weather saying this week we had
400,000 doses given, no major side effects given, one major side effect and that person is doing fine.”
READ MORE:Nurse vaccinates one person in eight hours
Robyn Ironside9.40am: Qantas announces job cuts, wage freeze
Qantas has announced more job cuts in its international division as border closures continue to punch a massive hole in the airline’s revenue.
A market update to the ASX on Thursday said a two-year wage freeze would also be imposed across the airline’s workforce and management, with 2 per cent annual pay rises after that period, instead of 3 per cent pre-COVID.
International cabin crew will be asked to volunteer for redundancy, with several hundred expected to apply.
The move follows the latest delay in the likely reopening of international borders, with Qantas pushing back its planned resumption of overseas flights from late October to mid-December.
Along with international pilots, many cabin crew have been stood down since March 2020 with no clear idea of when they might return to work.
The job cuts are in addition to the 8500 positions already identified as surplus to requirements, including 2500 ground-handling jobs which have been outsourced to third-party providers.
READ the full story
Rhiannon Down9.25am:Barilaro: Turnbull treacherous over by-election donation
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has accused Malcolm Turnbull of “treachery” after he donated $3000 to independent candidate for the Upper Hunter by-election Kirsty O’Connell.
Some 13 candidates are contesting this Saturday’s by-election, including prominent independents and two rising conservative minor parties, which is ordinarily earmarked for the Nationals.
“This is an individual who is not backing Gladys Berejiklian, someone that he is a member of the same party and that is the Premier of this state,” he told 2GB radio.
“And someone who has done a great job of leading this government during the pandemic, fire, floods, bushfires and droughts and he is just showing his treacherous colours once again.”
READ MORE: Nationals tipped to be collectors in Upper Hunter poll
Adeshola Ore 9.15am:Qld to get vaccines through pharmacies
Queenslanders in regional areas will be able to access COVID-19 vaccines through pharmacies in the coming months, as part of a state and federal government scheme to boost access.
There are 56 pharmacies in regional and remote Queensland that will be able to offer vaccinations. While no timeline has been set for when the pharmacies could begin inoculating people, additional vaccine supply in the coming months will be funnelled to regional pharmacies in Queensland.
On Thursday, Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Health Department was working with the Queensland government to ensure a “broad coverage of primary care sites across the State who are delivering the COVID-19 vaccine.”
The plan was first proposed by the Queensland government after a national cabinet decision in April agreed that states and territories could incorporate community pharmacies into their rollouts in regional areas where there were limited options for vaccine administration.
The federal government is liaising with its state counterparts and could grant access to pharmacies in other states and territories to administer coronavirus vaccines.
On Wednesday, Mr Hunt flagged that the Therapeutic Goods Administration was considering a change in Pfizer vaccine storage conditions that would allow the jab to be administered by pharmacies.
The Pfizer jab currently needs to be stored in ultra-freezing temperatures, but a recent change granted more flexibility for storage protocols.
“For the Australian context that would open up general practice and pharmacy options with Pfizer so that’s a very important development,” Mr Hunt said.
“TGA will assess it, but they work very closely with their European and North American counterparts.”
READ MORE: Singapore backlash at India Covid claims
Rhiannon Down 9.00am:Mouse plague ‘could reach Sydney by August’
Experts have warned that the mouse plague devastating regional Australia could reach Sydney by August as reports of increased sightings emerge in the city’s west.
Kevin Joyce Pest Management technician Dieter Mafra said the mice would likely migrate to the city on freight trucks as they seek shelter in the colder months.
“They will travel to Sydney, I would say by August,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“There are already mice and rats here obviously, and with hotter conditions they usually move towards the beaches where there’s water — they need between 2ml and 5ml a day.
“But with the colder winter conditions they will be looking for domestic roofs in houses and could get a free ride on the transport here.”
Mouse sightings have been reported in Erskine Park and Parramatta on the The Mouse Alert map.
READ MORE:NSW secures one of worlds strongest mice killing chemicals
Adeshola Ore8.55am:PM throws support behind domestic vax passports
Scott Morrison says he is willing to work with the states to establish domestic passports to allow for greater inter-state travel, despite NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian criticising the proposal.
In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Ms Berejiklian said people should be able to move freely around the country irrespective of whether they have been vaccinated, putting her at odds with Scott Morrison’s plan for those who have had the jab to be exempt from COVID-19 restrictions. She said vaccines should only be used as a prerequisite for international travel.
The Prime Minister said domestic vaccine passports could allow you to bypass state border restrictions.
“That’s something I’m happy to talk through with the states because ultimately they’re the ones who put those restrictions on, under their public health orders,” he told 3AW radio.
READ MORE: Berejiklian wants no-limit domestic travel
Rhiannon Down8.45am: PM ‘hasn’t spoken to Andrews since March’
Scott Morrison has revealed he hasn’t spoken to Daniel Andrews since he suffered a serious fall in March.
The Prime Minister revealed on 3AW that he hadn’t called the Victorian Premier since he sustained his back injury, but said he had texted him to say he was looking forward to his return to national cabinet.
Mr Andrews fractured a vertebra and broke several ribs when he fell on some stairs on March 9.
He is expected to return to work in mid to late June as his government prepares for the transition back to life with Mr Andrews in the top job, after between three and four months away.
Despite speculation about potential interest in the top job, acting Premier James Merlino is expected to hand back the keys to Spring Street when Mr Andrews returns.
READ MORE: Sad details of third Australian death
Rhiannon Down8.35am: Brother’s plea: let my dad enter Australia
The brother of an Australian man who died of COVID-19 in India has pleaded for the government to allow his elderly father to enter the country.
Sydney man Sanjay Khanna, whose brother Sunil Khanna, 51, died on April 29 in New Delhi after contracting coronavirus, has called on the government to make an exception to the ban on new arrivals on humanitarian grounds.
Mr Khanna’s mother, an Indian national, passed away from COVID-19 just hours after her son, leaving his father alone.
“I understand you kept Australia safe and I’m really happy I’m in a country where our government has kept all its citizens safe and we want to follow all the protocols. That’s why we are safe,” Mr Khanna told Channel 9’s Today.
“My only request to the government is please consider, in my special case, where I’ve lost my brother and mother in the span of 24 hours.
“Please, on a humanitarian basis, please grant (my father) a visa to come here and live with me.”
Mr Khanna said he was now his father’s only surviving family member, asking that he, as an Australian citizen of many decades, be allowed to bring him into the country to care for him.
“I am the last remaining member of his family in Australia and I’ve been an Australian citizen
for the last 30-odd years,” he said.
“I migrated to this country in ‘92. I’ve always been a law-abiding citizen here … Please consider granting the visa to my father before it is too late.”
READ MORE: Third Aussie dies from Covid
Adeshola Ore 8.30am:PM defends vaccine rollout
Scott Morrison has defended Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine awareness campaign, as pressure mounts on the federal government to develop a nationwide advertising strategy to combat hesitancy and misinformation.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price this week warned large numbers of people aged between 50 and 70 years old were hedging their bets on vaccines and electing to delay vaccination with AstraZeneca in the hope they can receive a Pfizer or Moderna shot later.
The Prime Minister said the federal government’s campaign “rolled with the sequence of who is getting vaccinated right.”
“Right now, it’s over 50s and in the residential aged-care we’re well over 85 per cent of that done now,” he told 3AW radio.
“In the second half of the year we’ll be able to move onto the other age groups as the Pfizer vaccine comes through in larger quantities.”
READ MORE: Covid, vaccines and open borders
Rhiannon Down7.55am:Palaszczuk: What has PM got against Qld?
Annastacia Palaszczuk has accused Scott Morrison of favouring Victoria’s proposal for a purpose-built quarantine facility over Queensland’s.
It comes as the Prime Minister said this week that he needed more detail on a proposal to build a quarantine facility near Toowoomba airport before he could make a decision.
The Queensland Premier said she had provided the information to Mr Morrison’s office and that he needed to get a “thorough briefing from his department”.
“All of the information has been forwarded to the departments and I sat down with my department officials yesterday and there have been so many conversations going back and forward,” she told Channel 9’s Today.
“So I really do think the Prime Minister needs to get a thorough briefing from his department.”
Ms Palaszczuk said her government was waiting on word from the government whether international flights would be able to land in Toowoomba for the proposal to proceed.
“But the threshold question still remains, will he allow international flights to fly into Toowoomba?,” she said.
“That is the threshold question. If he says no, there’s no chance that it can happen. If he says yes, let’s move forward and work constructively and make this happen.
“I don’t know what he’s got against Queensland but he seems to be supporting Victoria.”
Ms Palaszczuk said CBD hotels had not been designed to contain a highly infectious virus, and especially designed facilities were necessary.
“I’ve said time and time again I believe regional quarantine should have been set up over the last year because we know that these Covid strains are mutating overseas and it’s about keeping Queenslanders safe,” she said.
“It’s also keeping Australians safe. If you have regional quarantine, there’ll be a lot more freedom of movement along the east coast of Australia.”
READ MORE: Pilots fed up with forced quarantine
Rhiannon Down7.35am: Lambie slams vax ban salons
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has criticised a Queensland hair salon for barring customers who have received a COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting the rise of an alarming trend.
The Khemia HI Vibe Frequency salon announced it will not take bookings from vaccinated customers due to “unknown health effects of the mRNA vaccine for the Health and safety of our Staff and Clients.”
The Australian reported this week that the Jimboomba Massage and Wellness Clinic, about 50km south of Brisbane, had also displayed a sign on its shopfront, telling people it won’t accept people who have received the “experimental vaccines”.
“I’m not quite sure what viral disease she’s got right now, but I’m really not sure how that’s going to go down, to be honest,” Senator Lambie told Channel 9’s Today.
“That’s a brand-new one out there, I think. I’m not sure the hairdressing business will last very long (with) her saying that.”
Senator Lambie also said the suggestion that vaccine passports should be required for travel interstate were extreme.
“I think that’s going a little bit overboard right now,” she said.
“You know, people need to get vaccinated and they need to get vaccinated to travel. Going (to get) a passport, that’s another thing.
“You have the QR code when you have to go into other states. Just put the question in, are you vaccinated, yes or no? That would be the easiest, most reliable way of doing it.”
READ MORE: Anti-vax massage clinic bans vaccinated clients
Rhiannon Down7.15am:There is a time imperative on jabs: Labor
Deputy opposition leader Richard Marles has called for the government to ramp up its vaccination effort, and complete the rollout as soon as possible.
“Well, it needs to be done more quickly. There is a time imperative here,” he told the ABC.
“When I hear the government talk about the fact that there’s no race, it says to me that they don’t see that it needs to be done with any particular speed. I think that’s wrong.
“We risk seeing the rest of the world open up and move past Covid while Australia is left behind.
“We’re at a fraction of the rate of vaccinations that is occurring in North America and Western Europe, and we need to get on with it.”
Mr Marles said the government needed to pull out all stops to combat a rise in vaccine hesitancy.
“I think we do have an issue, and it is really important that the government is doing everything it can to bolster confidence in people getting the vaccine,” he said.
“There’s a sense in which the vaccine is an individual protection, but this is a society-wide program.
“There’s a societal-level benefit to this which requires the bulk of the population to do it.”
READ MORE:Berejiklian wants no-limit domestic travel
Rhiannon Down7.04am:Expert’s plan to combat vaccine hesitancy
Kirby Institute adjunct professor Bill Bowtell says the government needs to ramp up its public messaging about the COVID-19 vaccine, amid a worrying rise in vaccine hesitancy.
Professor Bowtell accused the government of not being “particularly bothered” to push the public to get vaccinated and that it needed to create a “sense of urgency”.
“If you’d contracted builders to build a house who said that it will be ready in March and then in September and then maybe sometime in 2022, I think that you’d be a bit concerned,” he told the ABC.
“I think that we want all Australians to be vaccinated with the best possible vaccine, this year and as soon as possible.
“That will give us the greatest strength and resilience to counter what we’ve seen in Taiwan and elsewhere, these new strains, very concerning, much more dangerous than the strains that we had last year.
“We want to keep them out and the best way to do that is for everyone to be vaccinated and have better quarantine facilities.”
Professor Bowtell said a national campaign, like what has been run in Taiwan, that targets fears of new variants spreading should be implemented.
“If people don’t believe they’re going to be vulnerable to the spread of new variants of the virus and (we) don’t have a good quarantine system … As the AMA president said, we become sitting ducks for it.
“Now today, 87 per cent of Australians remain unvaccinated, and 30 per cent or more of Australians are either waiting or saying that we’re concerned about what we hear about the vaccines that are being offered at the moment. These are really concerning numbers.”
Professor Bowtell, who was involved in the famous AIDS grim reaper ad in the 1980s, said a similar strategy could be deployed today.
“We should learn from what happened then,” he said.
“We had to convince people to adopt very serious behaviour change about sexual behaviours, about injecting drug use and so on against a virus and we didn’t have a vaccine for then.
“I wish we had, but we had to promote behavioural change, and it was a very tough sell.”
READ MORE:‘Worried’ 40pc baulk at getting Covid jab
Rhiannon Down6.30am:India records highest tally for daily deaths
India has recorded the world’s highest daily death toll in the course of the pandemic, even as case numbers begin to dip.
The country reported 4529 deaths on Wednesday, topping the previous mark of 4475 deaths set by the US on January 12.
It marks the ninth time this month that India has recorded more than 4000 deaths in a single day.
The tragic milestone comes as case numbers appear to recede with 267,334 cases recorded on Wednesday — down from more than 400,000 earlier this month. India has recorded more than 25 million total cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
“The daily infections count peaked 12 days back. The cases have been falling since then,” T. Jacob John, a retired professor at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, said.
“It is likely that the death count will start dropping since the death curve normally has a two-week lag.”
Yesterday, it was revealed that Sydney man Sunil Khanna, 51, died on April 29 in New Delhi after reporting to his family that he was suffering from the coronavirus. He is the third Australian coronavirus victim to die in India.
Govid Kant, a 47-year-old father of two, died in an Indian hospital on the weekend after he returned to his home country following his mother’s death. A 59-year-old permanent resident of Australia also died earlier this month, DFAT confirmed.
READ MORE:Sad details of third Australian death in India
Rosie Lewis5.10am:‘No basis for states’ borders closures’: Berejiklian
Gladys Berejiklian says Australians should be able to move freely around the country irrespective of whether they have been vaccinated, putting her at odds with Scott Morrison’s plan for those who have had the jab to be exempt from COVID-19 restrictions.
The NSW Premier, who has consistently resisted border closures and sweeping lockdowns during the pandemic, said vaccinations should only be used to reopen the international border.
“There should be no internal borders. There should be free movement within Australia, vaccine or no vaccine,” Ms Berejiklian told The Australian.
“The vaccine is our way of dealing with international borders. There is no basis for states closing borders to other states.”
The warning sets up a new national cabinet stoush, after the Prime Minister suggested domestic vaccination passports could be developed to help entrench free movement in Australia.
Read the full story, by Rosie Lewis and Yoni Bashan, here.
Ewin Hannan5am:PM wary of wage increases for low-paid workers
The Morrison government has warned against significant minimum wage increases being granted to 2.2 million low-paid workers, sparking a fresh ACTU attack on the Coalition as new figures showed annual wages growth stagnating near a record low.
The fastest-paced labour market recovery in Australian history — 945,000 jobs have been added since the depths of the pandemic last May — helped boost business conditions but failed to ignite wages growth, which inched higher to 1.5 per cent over the year to March.
The continuing gloomy news for workers came as the government told the Fair Work Commission expert panel that, although the economic recovery was “well underway and the outlook was positive, the COVID-19 virus continues to present an ongoing threat to the global and domestic economy”.
Alison Durbin, first assistant secretary of the employment conditions division in the Attorney-General’s Department told the commission on Wednesday: “Given the economic uncertainty, the government maintains that the expert panel should adopt a cautious approach.”
Read the full story, by Ewin Hannan and Patrick Commins, here.
Geoff Chambers4.45am:Mandarins shake-up an opportunity for PM to reset
Scott Morrison is preparing a shake-up of senior Australian Public Service ranks following the appointment of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Frances Adamson as South Australian governor, with key department chiefs expected to be named within six weeks.
Ms Adamson’s five-year tenure as DFAT secretary will end on June 25, setting the scene for major changes across strategic public service roles.
Her departure presents the Morrison government with an opportunity to reset its foreign and security strategy amid rising tensions with China and increasing geo-strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region, which have placed strain on diplomats, consular staff and policy officers.
The Australian understands the Prime Minister is yet to land on his final pick to replace Ms Adamson, despite speculation among Canberra bureaucrats that veteran diplomat Paul Grigson, who has worked closely with Mr Morrison on the government’s Vaccine Strategy Integration, is a leading contender.
Read the full story, by Geoff Chambers and Ben Packham, here.
Albanese likened to Latham amid split with US on Israel
John Howard has drawn parallels between Anthony Albanese and Mark Latham over Labor’s handling of national security, warning that the government ‘doesn’t really have a grasp on the nuances of foreign policy’.
Human rights body raises free speech concerns in Labor’s bill
The human rights commission has warned Labor’s laws to combat online misinformation do not ‘strike the appropriate balance’ between protecting free speech and moderating content.