PoliticsNow: Vaccine rollout picks up pace as 2 million mark reached, Scott Morrison reveal
While the first million Covid doses took 47 days to distribute in Australia, the second million were done in 19, it’s been revealed.
- Vaccine rollout capacity doubles
- PM unveils $747m defence package
- Morrison refuses to back Wellcamp
- Novavax here by September: Murphy
Welcome to The Australian’s rolling political coverage amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout has picked up pace, as more than one million doses were distributed in the past 19 days. The first million were done in 40 days.
Scott Morrison unveils $747m spending in Darwin, which he says will also boost the Northern Territory economy.
Mark McGowan says three Perth hotels at high risk of facilitating the spread of the virus between rooms will no longer be used for quarantine.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke says Australians will still be allowed to travel overseas for weddings, amid increased scrutiny on travel exemptions.
Along with Australia, the UN, Britain, Germany, the US, Russia and China, which have all responded to the emergency in India by promising oxygen and medicines.
Joseph Lam11.10pm: Pfizer vaccine effective against Indian variant
The Pfizer Biotech vaccine is effective against the Indian variant of COVID-19, according to BioNTech’s co-founder, who says his company has already tested for mutations.
Ugur Sahin claimed he was confident the Indian variant, which the World Health Organisation said is driving the country’s cases spike and has already reportedly reached 17 countries, could be treated by the company’s jointly developed vaccine.
“We are still testing the Indian variant, but the Indian variant has mutations that we have already tested for and which our vaccine works against, so I am confident,” Mr Sahin said on Wednesday.
READ MORE:Envoys demand urgent aid for stranded Aussies in India
Joseph Lam10.20pm:Daily testing for Olympians
Athletes will undergo daily testing at the Tokyo Olympics in July, organisers say.
Athletes will also be subject to two COVID-19 tests before departing for Japan, organisers said on Wednesday.
Overseas officials who come into regular contact with athletes will be held to similar daily testing rules, according to reports in the Japan Times.
It is not yet clear whether domestic attendees will be allowed to attend the games.
Read more: Aussie athletes to be left stranded in Tokyo if they fail test
READ MORE:Aussie athletes to be left stranded in Tokyo if they fail test
Tom Dusevic 9.50pm:Pragmatism rules in a fiscal season of recalibration
This is the season for recalibration, whether it be budgets or vaccines.
Josh Frydenberg is redrawing his fiscal rules for several reasons. First, the Treasurer said he would announce a new fiscal strategy ahead of the budget.
This was “not a time for austerity measures” he said two weeks ago.
Second, the recovery is so robust, especially in the labour market, it has taken most experts and government advisers by surprise. Previous guidance around budget repair — that Frydenberg would tighten up his fiscal game when the unemployment rate was “comfortably below 6 per cent” — has been rendered redundant by the tumble in the headline jobless figure, now 5.6 per cent.
Third, it’s the politics stupid. A year out, at most, from the next federal poll and the government wants an economy that’s raging, not one that’s in debt-recovery therapy. Plus, there’s no visible populist people’s front against deficits mobilising outside Parliament House.
Joe Kelly 9.15pm:Loophole closed but ‘dumb proposals remain’: ALP
Labor is demanding further changes to key superannuation reforms aimed at ensuring the $3 trillion sector works more efficiently for members after the government overhauled its new performance benchmarking regime.
The government’s Your Future, Your Super legislation seeks to ensure that super accounts are “stapled” to individuals as they change jobs, preventing the automatic creation of new accounts, while also cracking down on the underperformance of key super products.
On Wednesday, the government announced amendments to strengthen its performance test, allowing it to include administration fees for the first time. It also made changes to ensure funds were not deterred, under the test, from investing in unlisted property and infrastructure assets.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Superannuation Minister Jane Hume released new regulations for consultation which included a “strengthened methodology” for the annual performance test. They also included a prescribed definition for a “stapled fund”, including new “tie-breaker” rules to determine which fund will become an employee’s stapled fund in instances where the worker already has multiple existing funds.
AFP8.35pm: Probe into renovation of Boris’s flat
Britain’s Electoral Commission has announced a formal investigation into how Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid for a lavish makeover of his Downing Street flat, seriously escalating a simmering scandal.
“We are now satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that an offence or offences may have occurred. We will therefore continue this work as a formal investigation to establish whether this is the case,” the watchdog said on Wednesday.
READ MORE:European MPs back UK trade deal
James Kirby8.05pm:Shock and ore – is this our last China windfall?
Iron ore — Australia’s single most important export — has suddenly vaulted every record to reach an all-time high just under $US200 a tonne, but it just might be the last time we get quite so lucky on a commodity windfall.
It’s not that the price of iron ore will drop later in the cycle — of course it will — rather, we are looking at something much more significant, the inevitable end of our splendid isolation as the lords of the seaborne iron ore trade into China.
We export the majority of our iron ore, and 85 per cent of those exports go to China.
Matthew Denholm7.25pm:Taxpayers foot bill for perk paid poll blitz
Federal taxpayers are paying for political advertising targeting voters at the Tasmanian election, with a federal minister among those using parliamentary perks for the purpose.
The Australian has confirmed federal entitlements are being used by senators from both sides of politics to fund newspaper advertisements targeting voters for Saturday’s state election.
Among the most blatant are newspaper ads placed by federal Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck, who confirmed using federal funds for ads warning voters not to repeat the 2010-14 state Labor-Green alliance.
Labor whip senator Anne Urquhart also has federal taxpayer-funded allowances to pay for a newspaper ad urging voters to “call by & say hello & meet our state Labor Braddon team”.
The use of federal taxpayer funds to pay for blatant state election campaigning has outraged some taxpayers, but federal MPs insist it is within the rules for allowance expenditure.
“The expenditure for the advertising is in line with Department of Finance rules and was pre-approved prior to production and distribution,” Senator Colbeck said. “Senators are entitled to communicate with their constituents about matters relevant to them, including where an issue may affect more than one level of government.”
AFP7.10pm:European Parliament ends Brexit saga with vote
The European Parliament has overwhelmingly ratified the EU’s post-Brexit trade deal with Britain, but promised to keep a close eye on London with cross-channel tensions still high.
The vote on Wednesday approved the bare bones trade deal with the bloc’s third-biggest trading partner that was sealed on Christmas Eve after nine months of tough negotiations.
The agreement provides the framework for London’s new relationship with the 27-member union, five years after British voters shocked the world by voting to end its 47-year membership.
In the final tally, 660 MEPs voted in favour of the trade deal, five against with 32 abstentions, results released on Wednesday showed.
“The European Parliament voted on the most far reaching agreement the EU has ever reached with a third country,” the president of the assembly, David Sassoli, said.
“This can form the foundation on which we build a new forward-looking EU-UK relationship,” he said, warning that MEPs would monitor the implementation of the deal and “not accept any backsliding from the UK government”.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the “final step in a long journey” that brought “stability to our new relationship with the EU as vital trading partners, close allies and sovereign equals.” “Now is the time to look forward to the future and to building a more Global Britain,” he added.
READ MORE:Army officers face punishment for ‘coup’ threat
Joseph Lam 6.44pm:Covid-safe Vivid set to light up Sydney
Sydney’s biggest tourism event is set to return in 100 days, lighting up the CBD, The Rocks and Circular Quay.
Vivid is set to shine from August 6, this year taking place in a Covid-safe way with check-in codes, marshalls and more, said Tourism minister Stuart Ayres.
“No part of Vivid will take place unless NSW Health has approved the health safety plan,” Mr Ayres said.
Tick...tock...tick...tock...the countdown is underway.
— Stuart Ayres (@stuartayresmp) April 28, 2021
100 Days until we light up @VividSydney for 2021.https://t.co/41auRd9fTs@destinationnswpic.twitter.com/V75peOEYmD
The annual event is set to feature some ambitious displays including a 230-sphere colourful display across Sydney’s Cockle Bay.
Destination NSW is campaigning to bring in visitors from all Australian states as well as New Zealand, with a million dollar advertising campaign across TV, YouTube, Social Media and more.
Mr Ayres said there was no better way for Sydney to emerge from its “covid slumber”.
READ MORE: Sydney’s illuminating experience
Lilly Vitorovich6.20pm:Westpac lifts fixed rates as property prices soar
Westpac has raised its four and five-year fixed rates as property prices soar, which could spell the end of ultra-low financing.
The banking giant’s 1.89 per cent four-year fixed rate was the lowest in the market prior to Wednesday’s hike, leaving National Australia Bank as the only bank of the big four to still have a four-year fixed rate offer below 2 per cent.
The new rate on Westpac’s four-year fixed loan will be 2.19 per cent, up 30 basis points.
Gerard Cockburn5.33pm:Idea to kickstart struggling CBDs
Free or subsidised parking could be the way to reinvigorate major central business districts that are still reeling from the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
A new behavioural economics survey from National Australia Bank has revealed people are still reluctant to return to work in CBD locations but would be swayed if parking costs were lower.
The nation’s largest business bank found six in 10 Australians had either stopped or limited their visits to CBD locations after mandated work-from-home orders sparked a mass exodus of office workers from inner-city areas.
Staff Reporters4.40pm:How the latest vaccination figures look
Matthew Denholm4.30pm:Port Arthur victims honoured 25 years on
Scott Morrison has paid tribute to the victims of the Port Arthur massacre, ‘that terrible Sunday’ 25 years ago on Wednesday. Read more here
Anton Nilsson4.15pm:Covid-positive diplomat drove to Canberra
A diplomat returning from overseas drove from Sydney to Canberra to quarantine at home before testing positive to coronavirus. Read more here
Joseph Lam4pm:Vaccine capacity doubles within 19 days
Australia has doubled its vaccine administering capacity, delivering more than one million doses over the past 19 days.
As of Tuesday, 2,029,540 Australians have been vaccinated since the rollout began almost 70 days ago.
The first million doses took 47 days while the second million was reached within 19 days, Commodore Eric Young said.
“We are building capacity, we are getting a little better every day,” Commodore Young said.
“While this is wonderful achievement, we still have what to do to ensure that the vaccines we have available across the country are required to protect our most vulnerable Australians.
“I want to focus on supply, distribution and administration of the vaccine.”
Commodore Young added there are now more than 5000 venues capable of administering the vaccine across the country.
Adeshola Ore3.45pm:2 million vaccination figure ‘a great landmark’
Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Alison McMillan says it’s a “great landmark” that over two million COVID vaccine doses have now been administered across Australia.
“That is thanks in no small part to the amazing and fabulous effort made by all health professionals out there who were delivering these vaccines to our most vulnerable,” she said.
Australia recorded no new community transmitted cases of COVID in the past twenty-four hours.
Ms McMillan also urged Australians to get a flu vaccine as winter approaches. She said Australians should wait at least two weeks between having a COVID-19 vaccine and the flu shot.
“Now is the time to make a booking and get that vaccine because, again, we know the flu vaccine is very effective at preventing severe disease and death,” Ms McMillan said.
Staff Reporters3.30pm:Port of Darwin lease under the microscope
Scott Morrison has addressed the Port of Darwin, which entered a 99-year lease under a Chinese owner in 2015.
Mr Morrison said he would consider cancelling the deal if Defence or security agencies deemed that it was a risk to national security.
The Prime Minister said that had not been the case so far.
“If there is advice from the defence department or our security agencies that change their view about the national security implications of any piece of critical infrastructure, we have legislation now which is dealing with critical infrastructure,” Mr Morrison said.
“You could expect me as Prime Minister to take that advice very seriously and act accordingly.”
Tim Dodd3.15pm:Australia’s education exports ‘could halve’
Continuing border closures will halve the value of Australia’s $40bn education export business, a new study has revealed. Read more here
Adeshola Ore 2.55pm:2m Australians have received a Covid shot
Scott Morrison says more than two million COVID vaccine doses have now been administered across Australia.
The Prime Minister said more than half of the vaccines had been administered by the nation’s GP network.
From May, Australians aged between 50-69 will be eligible to receive an AstraZeneca vaccine as part of a plan to expedite the inoculation of the group.
READ MORE: Gottliebsen — Escape route from submarine debacle
Adeshola Ore 2.45pm: Defence package to protect national interests
Scott Morrison says the federal government’s new defence package will protect Australia’s national interests and boost employment opportunities in the Northern Territory.
The Prime Minister unveiled a $747m defence package in Darwin after Home Affairs Department secretary Michael Pezzullo warned the “drums of war are beating” and that Australia must be prepared “to send off, yet again, our warriors to fight”. The upgrades of four training bases include an overhaul of weapons firing ranges, lengthening the Northern Territory’s Bradshaw Field Training Area airstrip to support heavier aircraft and new training facilities for Australian Defence Force personnel and US marines.
Mr Morrison said the investments would keep Australians safe and protect the country’s national interests in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Australia has agency in our region, positive agency, we work right across government in all
the areas that we have that opportunity, diplomatic and other channels to work with partners in the region to ensure that our region is safe,” he said.
He said 98 per cent of contracts in the program would go to Australian companies and predominantly Northern Territory-based organisations.
READ MORE: Beijing says Australia ‘sick, needs to take medicine’
Adeshola Ore2.11pm: Craig Kelly’s Instagram page shut down
Outspoken MP Craig Kelly’s Instagram page has been shut down, days after his Facebook page was deleted due to his promotion of “misinformation” regarding COVID and vaccines.
A second back-up Facebook set up by the Hughes MP has also been deleted.
Mr Kelly, who blasted Facebook for shutting down his page, plans to introduce a private members bill to parliament that would crack down on social media platform’s ability to remove politician candidate’s profiles.
Mr Kelly quit the Liberal Party in March, saying he wanted to operate as an independent MP and speak according to his “conscience and belief”
Facebook had previously panned Mr Kelly from temporarily posting to the platform.
READ MORE:Jack the Insider — Left’s religious war on PM exposes glaring hypocrisy
Paul Garvey 2.00pm: WA to halt use of one-third of its quarantine hotels
Western Australia will stop using three of its nine COVID quarantine hotels in the next few weeks in response to ventilation issues that have sparked two outbreaks in recent months.
WA premier Mark McGowan on Wednesday said the state would stop using the Four Points and Mercure Hotels — which were the origin of the state’s January and April infections respectively – by next month and start using the Novotel Langley only to quarantine seasonal workers from Tonga and Vanuatu, where no cases of COVID have been recorded.
The three hotels were identified in February as being at high risk of facilitating the spread of the virus between rooms given the nature of their ventilation systems.
Returned travellers had continued to be quarantined in the hotels over the subsequent months, with the government taking precautions such as additional PPE and the installation of portable air filters, but they will now stop being used in the wake of the latest incident.
WA has temporarily halved its intake of returned overseas travellers to 512 per week in the wake of the latest outbreak, but Mr McGowan has said the reduced intake will become permanent if the Commonwealth does not start taking additional responsibility for quarantine.
“Whilst they are very secure, obviously they’re not perfect and the ventilation systems there we can’t make perfect,” he said.
“We will move out of those, and that will result in a reduction in the number of people we can take into Western Australia, we will work out what that is and how many we can take.”
The news came as WA recorded another day without any cases of community spread.
Four new cases have been recorded in WA’s hotel quarantine.
Mr McGowan said WA had been taking more returned overseas travellers than any other state on a per capita basis.
“The Prime Minister was right yesterday when he said our hotel quarantine system has been 99.9 per cent secure,” Mr McGowan said.
“The problem with that 99.9 per cent is that the consequences can be dire. That’s why we are going to do everything we can to ensure we are as secure as possible in Western Australia.”
READ MORE: Premier stands by lockdown call
Chris Kenny1.47pm: McGowan’s Covid paranoia infects Canberra
A country that should be proud of how it has handled the pandemic is now descending into a kind of xenophobia that we thought was left behind more than a century ago. The paranoia and buck-passing of Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has now infected Canberra’s response.
Why have we turned our backs on Australians in India? We banned flights early in the pandemic from China, Iran and Italy because we did not have our hotel quarantine system in place – that was fair enough.
We did, however, immediately put on charter flights, even from Wuhan itself, to repatriate Australians via quarantine on Christmas Island. Despite calls of racism, I argued this was reasonable and fair at the time and the people who benefited from it later expressed their gratitude.
But why the stiff-arm applied to Australians in India now?
READChris Kenny’s full commentary here
Paige Taylor1.21pm: Stolen Generation victims launch class action
The commonwealth government faces a class action from Indigenous people in the Northern Territory who are demanding compensation for the forcible removal from their families as children between 1910 and the 1970s.
The group filed the class action in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Shine Lawyers special counsel Tristan Gaven represents the men and woman who have already joined and estimates up to 6000 men and women in the NT are eligible.
“The commonwealth was responsible for tearing apart Indigenous families in the Territory and it‘s up to the commonwealth to make amends,” Mr Gaven said.
“Nearly every state and territory has acted on recommendations to compensate Indigenous Australians who were victims of the Stolen Generation, but nothing has been offered to those affected in the Northern Territory, that‘s why we’ve filed this class action.”
The class action is funded by Litigation Lending Services.
Aboriginal leader and Litigation Lending Services director Warren Mundine said he was proud to see Indigenous people fighting for a meaningful apology and resolution.
READ the full story here
Robyn Ironside 1.06pm: Travel hot spots: Cairns is the new Bali
The tropical north Queensland city of Cairns has knocked off Bali as Australians’ top holiday destination in 2021, as travellers adjust to life in the COVID crisis.
Research by online travel marketplace Skyscanner also found holidays have become shorter and cheaper in the pandemic, with the average airfare costing 35 per cent less than in pre-COVID times.
In addition, the average trip duration is 16 days, down from 21 days in 2019, due to the shorter distances travelled.
After Cairns, Darwin ranks most highly for group travel in the period from June to October this year, followed by the Gold Coast, the Whitsundays and Townsville.
Cairns also tops the list of holiday spots for families and couples in autumn and winter 2021, replacing less accessible destinations such as Phuket, Rome and Milan.
Rhiannon Down 12.58pm:‘Privatisation by stealth’: Shorten attacks NDIS
Bill Shorten has accused the federal government of seeking to destroy the Labor-designed National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The former opposition leader, who helped create the NDIS as a junior disability minister a decade ago, said the government was attempting “privatisation by stealth” by introducing compulsory assessments which advocates fear will limit access.
“In the push for compulsory assessments, there are no grassroots. It is all astroturf,” Mr Shorten told the National Press Club.
“There is not a single organic particle or participant call for compulsory testing. Australians with disabilities have said to all of the political class, they have said, “No, no, no” to compulsory assessments.”
Mr Shorten described the scheme as a landmark social reform comparable to Medicare.
READ MORE: Editorial — NDIS needs to be sustainable
Adeshola Ore12.18pm:Australians allowed to travel overseas for weddings
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke says Australians will still be allowed to travel overseas for weddings, amid increased scrutiny on travel exemptions.
Perth’s three-day snap lockdown was sparked by a person who went to India for a wedding. Australia has now suspended all incoming flights from India until May 15 in response to the country’s COVID emergency.
“In terms of exemptions, we need to be able to move people for urgent reasons,” he told Sky News.
Asked if a wedding would be classed in this category, Mr Hawke said “it can be.”
“There can be situations, but maybe not to India,” he said.
Information for Australian citizens and permanent residents on the Home Affairs website states:
“If you are an Australian citizen or a permanent resident you cannot leave Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions unless you have an exemption. You can apply online but you must meet at least one of the following:
- your travel is as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the provision of aid
- your travel is for your business/employer
- you are travelling to receive urgent medical treatment that is not available in Australia
- you are travelling outside Australia for a compelling reason for three months or longer
- you are travelling on compassionate or humanitarian grounds
- your travel is in the national interest.
READ MORE: Albrechtsen — Stop playing politics and bring families home
Rhiannon Hoyle 11.55am: Iron ore hits record price amid China steel boom
The iron ore price rose has risen to an all-time high on the back of booming steel markets.
The price paid for iron ore hit $US193.85 a tonne on Tuesday, according to a daily price published by S&P Global Platts. That surpassed a record of $US193 a tonne reached in February, 2011.
The price has surged by 18 per cent in April, extending a rally that began at less than $US100 a ton in the middle of 2020, as Chinese steelmakers churn out high volumes of steel despite Beijing’s efforts to curb capacity to lower pollution.
China produced 94.0 million tonnes of crude steel in March, according to latest data from the World Steel Association. That was up from 80.3 million tonnes in March 2019, and 79.0 million in the same month last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic weighed on output.
Chinese steel production was up 16 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021.
China is by far the world’s top producer of steel, accounting for more than half of all output.
Steelmakers there have been encouraged to raise output by strong steel prices, which are also approaching a record high.
Steel stockpiles in China are falling, suggesting demand for the material domestically and for export is high. That is making mills more willing to buy iron ore at record prices. — Dow Jones Newswires
PATRICK COMMINS 11.39am: Petrol up, furniture down as inflation falls to 0.6pc
Inflation fell to 0.6 per cent over the first three months of the year, taking the annual rise in the consumer price index to 1.1 per cent from 0.9 per cent in the previous quarter.
The quarterly reading was below the 0.9 per cent anticipated by private sector economists.
The most significant price rise over the 12 months to March was petrol (up 8.7 per cent), while the largest price fall was for furniture, which fell by 3 per cent.
The less volatile “trimmed mean” inflation – preferred by the Reserve Bank of Australia as a measure of underlying inflationary pressures – fell to 0.3 per cent in the quarter, from 0.4 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Annual core inflation hit 1.1 per cent, from 1.2 per cent over the year to December.
RBA governor Philip Lowe has said he will not raise rates until annual core inflation returns sustainably within the 2-3 per cent target range – a goal the central bank does not expect to achieve until 2024 at the earliest.
The pandemic has driven wild swings in the consumer price basket. Free childcare and rent relief during the June quarter of 2020 resulted in a 1.9 per cent plunge in the headline CPI figure, followed by outsized quarterly gains of 1.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent over the second half of the year.
With global investors betting that inflation will return sooner than monetary policymakers anticipate, borrowing costs have begun to creep back up after a long period of grinding lower.
READ MORE: Inflation is fighting back from the dead
Rhiannon Down 11.33am: Berejiklian vows to vaccinate 6m in NSW
Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to vaccinate six million people in NSW, as the government announces plans to open a mass vaccination site at Homebush.
“We work our way through the list and are looking forward to welcoming people through the mass vaccination hub from 10 May,” Ms Berejiklian said.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 28, 2021
Nine new cases were acquired overseas to 8pm last night, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,260. pic.twitter.com/xW6G3v3xlt
“As you are aware, from 17 May, the GP network will be providing AstraZeneca vaccinations to all people over the age of 50.
“Can I stress to the people of our state that the GP network is where you should go to get your vaccine if you are over the age of 50.”
It comes as NSW recorded another day of zero locally acquired cases, with nine cases acquired overseas.
The total number of vaccines administered in NSW has reached 591,535.
Adeshola Ore11.17am:Defence boost ‘should be first, not final step’
ANU security expert John Blaxland says the Morrison government’s boost of defence facilities must be the “first stop and not the final step across the north”
The Australian reported that the Prime Minister will today announce a $747m defence package in the Northern Territory on Wednesday after Home Affairs Department secretary Michael Pezzullo warned the “drums of war are beating” and that Australia must be prepared “to send off, yet again, our warriors to fight”.
Professor Blaxland said the spending as part of the defence strategic update was a “significant boost”.
“What we’re also seeing in light of the news over the last few days is that in fact it’s really not enough,” he told Sky News.
““What we did back in the 1980s and 90s was we invested in defence infrastructure across the north of Australian … right across from northern WA to northern Queensland. A lot of that infrastructure is now aging and not really robust enough for what the future might hold.”
“The facilities there need to be made more robust, more able to take a greater flow of trainees, soldiers and airmen.’
READ MORE: America’s naval strategy is all at sea
JARED LYNCH 10.53am:Rubber gloves deliver a bumper profit
Rubber glove maker Ansell is expecting full year earnings to soar up to 18 per cent more than previously forecast as COVID-19 continues to propel demand for personal protective equipment.
Despite higher input costs from price gouging across the protective clothing supply chain and the global coronavirus vaccination program gathering pace, Ansell is expecting to deliver a bumper profit.
The forecast underlines how COVID-19 has changed behaviours across the globe, as people pay more attention to personal hygiene and cloak themselves in personal protective equipment (PPE), with demand expected to remain elevated even when COVID-19 subsides.
Ansell is now expecting to deliver full year earnings per share of 192-202 US cents, compared with its previous forecast of 160-170 US cents.
READ MORE: China spy plane tests Taiwan’s air defences
Adeshola Ore 10.46am: ‘Rising numbers in line to come home from India’
Australia’s High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell says he expects to see the number of Australians wanting to return home from the COVID-ravaged country to rise.
Australia has paused incoming flights from India until May 15 in response to the country’s COVID emergency. More than 9000 Australian citizens and residents remain stranded in India including 650 who are said to be “vulnerable.”
The former NSW Premier said the number of Australian citizens and residents in India wanting to return home had increased over the past week due to rising “anxiety” about the COVID emergency.
“We will continue as we have for the past year, at all four posts in India, to communicate with those Australians stranded in India, particularly paying attention to the more than 600 who are listed as vulnerable and due for repatriation back to Australia when flights resume,” he told Sky News.
Mr O’Farrell said the new requirement for Australians returning from India, when flights resume, to have both a negative PCR test and a negative rapid antigen test was a “good thing” to protect the country’s quarantine system.
READ MORE: ‘Never in my dreams did I imagine anything like this’
Rhiannon Down 10.28am: Victoria records zero local virus cases
Victoria has recorded zero new cases of COVID-19 and two cases in hotel quarantine.
It comes as 17,015 Victorians lined up to get tested, with 3839 vaccines being administered in the past 24 hours.
Reported yesterday: no new local cases and 2 new cases acquired overseas (currently in HQ).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 27, 2021
- 3,839 vaccine doses were administered
- 17,015 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/2vKbgKHFvv
#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/sM4zoUbrye
The figures come as thousands of households across Melbourne’s eastern and outer northern suburbs are being urged to monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 after traces of the virus were detected in nearby sewer catchments.
Victoria’s health department said it was “most likely” the detections were due to a person shedding the virus after the infectious period, given the current prolonged period of no community transmission in Victoria.
But it could also be due to a person living in or travelling through the area in the early active infectious phase, health officials warned. — With NCA Newswire
READ MORE: Porsche driver Richard Pusey sentenced
Adeshola Ore 10.22am:Military base upgrades ‘a photo opportunity’
Anthony Albanese has accused the Morrison government of using its new defence package to upgrade military bases in northern Australia as a “photo opportunity” for a project confirmed two years ago.
The Australian has reported that the Prime Minister will today announce a $747m defence package in the Northern Territory on Wednesday after Home Affairs Department secretary Michael Pezzullo warned the “drums of war are beating” and that Australia must be prepared “to send off, yet again, our warriors to fight”.
The Opposition Leader said the announcement had already been “on the table” prior to 2020.
“Once again, we see a re-announcement but with an inflated price to hide the fact that this government doesn’t deliver,” he said.
“Our defence services deserve support more than they deserve a Prime Minister who seems intent on using them for photo opportunities at each and every occasion.”
READ MORE: Shopping returning to normal, Coles says
Adeshola Ore10.07am: Albanese questions Olympians’ vaccine priority
Anthony Albanese says the government must prioritise inoculating vulnerable Australians after it announced Olympic athletes may jump the queue in the nation’s original vaccine rollout.
Australian competitors in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be given access to coronavirus vaccines before they depart for the games in late July.
The Opposition Leader questioned why athletes would receive their vaccination ahead of people in disability and aged-care facilities.
“We support our Olympians being able to go to the Olympics to represent Australia. But we argue — why is it that older Australians in nursing homes, for example, who were category 1A, are yet to receive their vaccine?,” he said.
“Across the board, the government’s performance with regard to the rollout of the vaccine has been all about announcement, not about delivery. And we need to make sure that those vulnerable people are looked after.”
READ MORE: Olympians get early access to Covid vaccines
Rhiannon Down 10.01am:‘We need to be alert, not alarmed’ about China
Karen Andrews has hit back at suggestions that the “drums of war” were beating, as tensions between Australia and China simmer.
The Home Affairs Minister responded to comments made by Home Affairs Department Secretary Mike Pezzulloon the weekend about the relations between the two countries.
“We need to be alert,” she told Sky News.
“But we should not be alarmed, we need to prepare, we need to be conscious of the threats in our region.
“And we need to make sure that we are taking appropriate action.”
Ms Andrews said the government’s commitment to defence spending was sufficient, in light of the additional commitments being made today.
“We have a defence spend that is predicted to be about $270 billion over the next 10 years,” she said.
“The Prime Minister will be announcing additional support in Darwin today to upgrade some of our facilities there.
“These are important steps in making sure that we keep Australians safe and secure. And we do need to be prepared, but it is alert, not alarmed.”
READ MORE: Australia is sick, says China
Adeshola Ore 9.55am: Stranded Aussies should have been repatriated earlier: Albanese
Anthony Albanese says Australians stranded abroad should have been repatriated home earlier after the federal government announced a suspension of incoming flights from India.
More than 9000 Australian citizens and residents remain stranded in India until at least May 15 after the federal government announced new measures in response to the country’s COVID emergency. Of those registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as seeking to return home 650 are said to be “vulnerable.”
The Opposition Leader said the Morrison government had failed to deliver on its promise to bring back all stranded Australians by last Christmas.
“The real question is why weren’t these Australians brought home when Scott Morrison said he would?,” Mr Albanese said.
“I called some ten months ago, for example, for the use of the VIP fleet, that would have been appropriate to bring people home from India who wanted to get home. But that wasn’t done by the federal government.”
Mr Albanese said he felt “greatly” for Australian citizens stranded in India and for their families abroad, noting they would be distressed.
“The federal government’s response in terms of its obligation to Australian citizens has not been good enough,” he said.
READ MORE: Aussie family’s last-gasp sanctuary
Greg Sheridan9.47am: India’s troubles spell bad news for Australia
Scott Morrison was right to take hard actions to keep the double mutant strain of COVID-19 ravaging India out of Australia.
He was also right to take a tone of maximum Australian solidarity with the giant of the subcontinent, saying: “India is a great friend of Australia.”
Australians should understand this: India’s troubles are Australia’s troubles.
India’s present distress, which is acute and tragic, is a significant strategic blow to Australia.
Remember that historic Quad summit of seemingly five minutes ago? The great deliverable was that the US and Japan would invest in COVID vaccine manufacture in India and Australia would make sure these vaccines were delivered through “the last mile” to communities in need in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
Not to put too fine a point on it, the Quad was going to counter Chinese soft power and money influence by doing good works regionally. Central to these good works was the state capacity of India. Right now, that state capacity is being torn down.
READ Greg Sheridan’s full commentary here
Adeshola Ore9.16am: ‘Fences and padlocks’ blocking access to NDIS
Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten has accused the Morrison government of blocking people from accessing the NDIS scheme.
Mr Shorten will deliver a speech at the National Press Club today, arguing that the federal government’s plan to introduce mandatory independent assessments to determine an applicant’s eligibility for an NDIS package and its value should be immediately scrapped.
Mr Shorten, who is the opposition’s NDIS spokesman, said the government had constructed “fences and padlocks” that people with a disability needed to bypass to access the scheme. He told ABC radio that requiring people with a disability to undertake independent assessments would put all the “power into an interview with a stranger.”
“That’s got a lot of people anxious and a lot of people think why do we have to re-prove our disability yet again?’,” he told ABC Radio.
“It is profoundly insulting to stay to 430,000 people who have already qualified that somehow there’s a question mark. If you’re blind, you’re blind, you haven’t been cured.”
READ MORE: ‘Coalition vandalism puts NDIS at risk’
Ben Wilmot9.08am:Well-performing Mirvac to return JobKeeper payments
Property developer Mirvac is riding the surging residential property market and has lifted its earnings guidance as residential sales and settlements lift.
Mirvac chief executive Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz said that during the quarter, the business had performed well and had strong momentum leading into the final quarter with rent collection rates improving, and residential settlements and sales ahead of expectations.
“The residential business, with 1791 settlements in the financial year to date, positions Mirvac to comfortably exceed guidance of over 2200 lot settlements in fiscal 2021,” she said.
The group has upgraded its fiscal 2021 forecast earnings per security guidance to at least 13.7c per security from 13.1-13.5c per security.
The upgraded guidance accounts for the return of JobKeeper payments and the expected delay of the sale of 50 per cent of the Locomotive Workshops, South Eveleigh, Sydney, which will now occur early next financial year, with the sell down of this asset in advanced negotiation.
FOLLOWlive ASX updates at Trading Day
Adeshola Ore8.58am:PM commemorates ‘scars of terrible day’ at Port Arthur
Scott Morrison has commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre.
Today marks a quarter of a century since Martin Bryant’s shooting spree at a popular tourist site in Tasmania left 35 people dead and 18 wounded, becoming the catalyst for Australia’s gun law reforms.
“Today we remember and send our love to all those who still bear the scars of that terrible day,” the Prime Minister said.
“We remember the incredible bravery and selflessness as well — the family members who sought to shield and protect others.”
Mr Morrison also thanked former prime John Howard, former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer and then opposition leader Kim Beazley for implementing “some of the strongest gun laws in the world today, that have served to keep Australians safe.”
Anthony Albanese has also paid tribute to the victims of the massacre, saying Australia today remembers their names.
Today we remember their names.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 28, 2021
25 years ago today, Australia’s worst mass shooting took the lives of 35 people.
The youngest victims, Alannah and Madeline, were just three and six years old.
Their legacy lives on through the @alannahmadeline Foundation. pic.twitter.com/21aRdUCMP4
“The youngest victims, Alannah and Madeline, were just three and six years old,” he said on Twitter.
READ MORE: Port Arthur’s legacy of lives saved, 25 years on
Adam Creighton8.47am:Vaccinated Americans free to go outside maskless
Americans vaccinated against Covid19 have been given the green light to go outside without a mask for the first time since July last year, as the Biden administration dangles “more normal living” as a reward for vaccination.
The US Centre for Disease Control on Tuesday issued colour-coded advice that specified three risk levels for the vaccinated and unvaccinated in 15 different situations, which continued to rule out dining indoors without a mask, under any circumstances.
“Beginning today, gathering with a group of friends in a park, going for a picnic — as long as you are vaccinated and outdoors — you can do it without a mask,” said President Joe Biden speaking at a press conference
“[Vaccines] are also about helping to get us get back to closer to normal in our living — more normal living — getting together with friends, going to the park for a picnic without needing to mask up. We’re back to that place now as long as you get vaccinated,” the president said.
Around half of US states have already dispensed with mask mandates, including Florida and Texas, the second and third largest US states, against health advice, yet without an obvious surge in Covid19 cases.
“There’s increasing data that suggests that most of transmission is happening indoors rather than outdoors -- less than 10 per cent of documented transmission in many studies have occurred outdoors,” said Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC on Tuesday.
The chance of infection inside was around 19 times higher inside than outside, according to a review of peer-reviewed studies of effectiveness published in February.
“The science indicates that this is the most certain way to make sure it doesn’t spread,” the president said, when asked why masks were required outside if the risk was so low.
New York and Washington DC have required masks to be worn outside since July last year.
The president, who was nevertheless wearing a mask while walking to deliver his press conference, said vaccination was Americans’ “patriotic duty”, amid concerns demand for vaccination in the US has been slowing.
“For those who haven’t gotten their vaccination yet, especially if you’re younger or thinking you don’t need it, this is another great reason to go get vaccinated now — now,” Mr Biden said.
More than 37 per cent of US adults over 18 have been fully vaccinated against Covid19, including 68 per cent of those aged over 65.
“You’re vaccinated, guess what? You get to return to a more normal lifestyle. If you’re not vaccinated, you’re still in danger as well. So get vaccinated,’” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said on Tuesday.
Until the middle of last year, health experts in the US, Australia and the UK and the World Health Organisation had advised against mandatory wearing of masks to slow the spread of infectious diseases.
In European nations and US states that have introduced mask mandates, Covid19 cases have surged.
READ MORE: JobKeeper aid ‘helped prevent 500 suicides’
Will Glasgow 8.40am: Australia is sick, needs to take medicine: China
China’s foreign ministry has said Australia is “sick” and suggested Canberra needs to “take medicine” to fix the dysfunctional bilateral relationship.
Speaking in Beijing on Tuesday evening, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Australia was entirely responsible for the deterioration of the relationship.
Mr Wang cited as proof Canberra’s ban on Chinese telco Huawei from its 5G network, rejections of Chinese investment on national security grounds and the federal government’s recent tearing up of Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement.
“Australia is sick, however it is asking others to take medicine, which will not solve the problem at all,” he said.
The comments come after a week in which the Morrison government demonstrated it is no hurry to repair the strained relationship with Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Last week, Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced the federal government was annulling Victoria’s co-operation agreement with China’s Belt and Road infrastructure-led foreign policy, saying it was not in the national interest.
Over the weekend, Defence minister Peter Dutton warned a war could not be ruled out between China and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a wayward province.
And in an extraordinary ANZAC Day message to staff, Home Affairs secretary Michael Pezzullo said the “drums of war” were beating and Australia must be prepared “to send off, yet again, our warriors to fight”.
READ MORE:‘Let the war games begin’ — ADF upgrades bases
Rhiannon Down8.36am: Indian variant detected in every corner of the world
The Indian variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Australia, New Zealand and 17 other countries, according to Gisaid, a global database for researchers tracking new strains.
The little understood new variant, known as the B.1.617, emerged from India after the country was plunged into crisis by rising case numbers.
It has since been identified in every corner of the world, including the US, UK, Bahrain and Guadeloupe.
India recorded 323,023 new cases and 2771 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University, with the numbers expected to be higher.
Australia announced a temporary pause on arrivals from India on Tuesday, over mounting concern of the virus breaching hotel quarantine.
READ MORE: Editorial — India’s humanitarian disaster
Staff writers 8.29am: Canadian woman, 54, dies after AstraZeneca shot
A Canadian woman in her 50s has died after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and developing a blood clot in her brain.
The 54-year-old Quebec woman appeared to be in good health, the Toronto Sun reported. It is the fourth blood clot cases the province has detected in people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Two of those cases, including the death, have been confirmed as complications, while the two others are under investigation.
READ MORE: Youth retailer thrives in Covid
Adeshola Ore8.08am:Olympians to quarantine for 14 days after Tokyo Games
Sports Minister Richard Colbeck says Australian athletes returning home from the Olympics will undergo 14-day quarantine in hotel facilities, similar to Australian Open athletes, when they return from Japan.
The federal government has confirmed Australian competitors in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be given access to coronavirus vaccines before they depart, meaning some may jump the original national rollout queue. The Australian Olympic Committee had called for a “bespoke” quarantine regime for returning athletes instead of 14-days in hotel quarantine.
But Senator Colbeck told the ABC he anticipated the athletes would undergo 14-days of hotel quarantine, but in facilities not allocated for returning stranded Australians.
“My anticipation would be that it would look like something that happened with the Australian Open, where you had a hotel quarantine system that was specific to the Australian Open, when that occurred in January this year,” he said.
“It still had all those stringent measures that supported the protection of the Australian community but it provided for something that didn’t impact on the overall cap that we had for people returning.”
Senator Colbeck also said there was “always anticipated overlap in the rollout.” He told the ABC by the time the athletes head to Tokyo in late July all of Australia’s aged-care residents in phase 1a will have been vaccinated.
“The national cabinet has decided to put the athletes and officials into 1b. Of course, residents in aged care are in stage 1a and that stage will continue,” he said.
Senator Colbeck said support staff over 50 would receive the AstraZeneca jab and athletes aged under 50 would be inoculated with the Pfizer shot.
.
READ MORE:No jab, no Games - Olympic anguish for Aussies
Amanda Hodge 7.45am:World answers call to save India
India has ordered its armed forces to help tackle a tidal wave of coronavirus infections that is killing at least 117 Indians every hour, a crisis the World Health Organisation has described as “beyond heartbreaking”.
The UN health agency was the latest on Tuesday to pledge staff and supplies to the stricken country, along with Australia, Britain, Germany, the US, Russia and China, which have all responded to the emergency in India by promising oxygen and medicines.
After several days of silence from the US, the Biden administration has made a flurry of announcements. It will now send raw materials for the production of vaccines, oxygen supplies, Remdesevir, and a strike team from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials also announced on Tuesday AEST plans to share up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine — which has not been authorised for use in the US — as the country faces mounting criticism that it is hoarding vaccine stockpiles.
The first 10 million doses would be made available once Food and Drug Administration approvals were completed, with the remaining 50 million to be distributed to needy countries by July.
White House security council officials confirmed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also raised India’s request for a waiver on intellectual property and patent rights to produce other US-developed COVID vaccines during a phone call on Monday with President Joe Biden, but declined to give further details.
More than 53 per cent of adults in the US have now received at least their first dose of a vaccine, while just 1.6 per cent of Indians have been fully vaccinated.
India has run short on raw materials to produce vaccines, partly due to a US ban on the export of such ingredients, which the Biden administration partially lifted on Monday.
But even among those in India who have been lucky enough to get a vaccination, it has not proven a golden bullet, with many still falling ill.
Hospitals across India — particularly in Delhi — have been overwhelmed, and crematoriums are running out of space as the country recorded a million new cases in just three days.
Dennis Shanahan 7.36am:Calls for probe into Wran-era corruption
Support for an inquiry into new claims of corruption during the era of NSW premier Neville Wran is growing as Clarrie Briese, former NSW chief stipendiary magistrate, has joined the late premier’s former staff in calling for an independent probe.
Mr Briese, a vital witness at judicial corruption inquiries in the 1980s who was attacked by Wran, has declared “wholehearted” support for an inquiry into the circumstances of the unsolved Luna Park ghost train fire in 1979 that killed six children.
The call from five of Wran’s former senior staff for an inquiry to clear the former premier’s name followed an ABC program that examined allegations late crime boss Abe Saffron had ordered the fire to get a lease for the site and was protected because of a relationship with Wran.
Former ABC chairman David Hill has slammed the broadcaster for implicating Wran in the cover-up of the investigation of the Luna Park ghost train fire and for alleging a social relationship with gangster Saffron.
Mr Hill, who ran the ministerial advisory unit in the Wran government and the State Rail Authority, said the documentary, Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire, should never have been broadcast with those slanderous assertions. “Making these sorts of extremely damaging allegations I just find are unacceptable. I never saw anything that Wran ever did that would even suggest any merit or credibility for these claims,” he said.
Mr Hill and four other senior Wran staff, in a letter to The Australian on Monday, called for an inquiry into the aftermath of the 1979 Luna Park fire in the interests of the families of the victims and to give Wran the chance, posthumously, to clear his name “after a false allegation made by an ABC TV program”.
Mr Briese, in a letter to The Australian on Wednesday, says the ABC program highlighted that evidence before the coronial inquiry into the Luna Park fire was “false or inadequate in significant respects”.
“It had the effect of hiding the truth,” he says. “The truth or otherwise of these allegations needs to be investigated by a body with sufficient powers to do that comprehensively.”
READ MORE: Sloppy journalism — Wran burnt at ABC’s stake
Rhiannon Down7.15am: SA eases border restrictions with WA
SA has eased its borders with WA after the state emerged from a three day lockdown over the weekend, recording another day of zero cases on Tuesday.
Health authorities downgraded the requirements for arrivals who entered the state from the Perth or Peel region from Saturday April 17 to level three, though arrivals will still be required to get tested.
Arrivals from the virus lockdown zone must get a COVID-19 test with 24 hours of arrival, days five and 13, and isolate until they receive a negative result. They must also avoid high risk settings and any event with a COVID management plan and more than 1000 attendees.
NT health authorities have also downgraded their advice, with travellers from the affected regions who visited the exposure sites since April 17 now required to isolate at home for 14 days.
They will also be required to undergo testing on days one, seven and 12.
Victoria has also eased requirements for travellers from Perth, reclassifying the region as an “orange zone” under the state’s system.
“People entering Victoria with an orange zone permit must isolate, get a coronavirus test within 72 hours, and stay isolated until they receive a negative result,” the Victorian Department of Health said.
Travellers who entered when the region was a “red zone” will be released early from quarantine upon receiving a negative result.
READ MORE: Hunt pans too-frequent scrutiny of health experts
Rhiannon Down 6.50am:ABC journo blasted for jumping vax queue
ABC journalist Jane Norman has been blasted on social media for jumping the vaccine queue and receiving the Pfizer jab despite not being eligible.
The Press Gallery reporter announced that she had received the jab to her followers on Monday, with some expressing frustration that many more vulnerable Australians were yet to receive the jab.
“I’m not in 1A or 1B so I’m very grateful and can confirm the booking (and COVID-19) vaccination process went smoothly,” she wrote on Twitter.
I got my first #Pfizer vaccine today because TWENTY-FIVE people failed to show up for their appointments in Canberra 😬
— Jane Norman (@janeenorman) April 26, 2021
I’m not in 1A or 1B so I’m very grateful and can confirm the booking + #COVID19 vaccination process went smoothly!
Ms Norman said she was able to receive the jab because 25 people had failed to show up to their appointment.
“Word got around yesterday that there were Pfizer supplies available and not enough people booking,” she said.
“So I called the vaccine hotline, told them I was not currently eligible and they booked me in last night.”
And you didn't think that there are 1000's in greater need of this than you??? And you used up a #pfizer. How unbelievably selfish
— Lotus (@lotus2955) April 26, 2021
There are far more vulnerable people other than you. Shame on you!
— 💧Carmel Hards (@albsie) April 26, 2021
But fellow Twitterati were unimpressed, asking why she jumped the queue ahead of frontline workers. One Twitter user replied: “Have you no shame? Like Morrison, you are not exactly frontline, are you?”
What about all the frontline health workers who should be ahead of you? What about all the people with disabilities who are waiting? Shouldn’t they have been contacted ahead of you?
— Gina V Dow (@ArtsandCulture) April 26, 2021
Another wrote: “There are thousands of vulnerable young Australians with disabilities, who are vulnerable to COVID-19 complications,” one user wrote.
“The precious few Pfizer vaccines given to healthy young people (U50) may cost lives down the track.”
READ MORE:Newspoll: Morrison ‘caring, likeable’
Ben Packham6.35am: Aussies stranded as PM shuts border to India flights
Scott Morrison has shut the border to flights from India for nearly three weeks, putting a halt on the return of Australians trapped in the country as it faces an unprecedented COVID-19 crisis.
About 500 Australians scheduled to return from India will be bumped from two now-cancelled commercial flights to Sydney and two government-facilitated repatriation flights to Darwin that were due to depart before May 15.
The Prime Minister announced the move after a meeting of cabinet’s national security committee on Tuesday to allow the quarantine system “to rebalance”, and implement new testing requirements for those departing India for Australia. He ruled out special treatment for Australian cricketers, including Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and David Warner, currently in India for IPL matches.
There were reports Warner was among those who wanted to leave, but he was all smiles in a picture posted to social media of him and Kiwi star Kane Williamson in full PPE on a domestic flight.
Warner and Williamson, who play for Sunrisers Hyderabad, were flying from their team’s base to New Delhi for a match on Thursday.
Mr Morrison also pledged an initial COVID support package to help India deal with the “rapidly escalating” situation, including 500 non-invasive ventilators, one million surgical masks, and 500,000 P2 and N95 masks.
READ the full story
Cameron Stewart 6.30am: My family’s run-in with paranoid overkill
Has Australia lost the plot on COVID-19?
When I was living in the United States last year, watching America’s disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic, I took some pride in how Australia had taken a tougher approach to largely eradicate the virus.
That was then. The pandemic has now been largely tamed here and yet there has been no sensible adjustment to this victory. The approach of some of our premiers remains one of paranoia and bureaucratic overkill, as if we were India.
Last week, my wife had the misfortune of being on QF778 from Perth to Melbourne, sharing that plane with a man who later tested positive for COVID-19.
Her treatment by Victorian authorities since then has been a dark comedy of errors which betrays the brutal and clumsy COVID-handling regime that is being quietly imposed on ordinary Australians who pose very little threat of spreading the virus.
Once news broke last Friday that a man had tested positive on that same flight from Perth with 257 passengers, my wife immediately went to get a drive-through COVID test and then self-isolated in a spare bedroom with an ensuite in our Melbourne home until we heard more.
READ the full story
Adam Creighton 6.15am:When it comes to Covid, don’t mention the O word
Listening to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen wax lyrical about the EU’s “fit for 55” policy at Joe Biden’s climate summit last week, I couldn’t help but think this would have been an equally effective slogan to motivate a more rational response to COVID-19.
Von der Leyen was talking about the EU’s pledge to get Europe “climate fit”: cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030. But a different “fit for 55” campaign aimed at eating better and losing weight would have been a more cost-effective strategy for dealing with COVID-19 than 13 months of lockdowns, border closures, mask orders and World War II-style increases in debt.
Almost 80 per cent of hospitalised COVID-19 patients in the US have been overweight or obese, according a US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released last
“The risks of hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, invasive mechanical ventilation and death are higher with increasing BMI,” the CDC says, referring to body mass index, which is weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Obesity, defined as having a BMI above 30, triples the odds of hospitalisation.
READ Adam Creighton’s full story
Charlie Peel 6.00am: Morrison refuses to back Wellcamp facility
Scott Morrison has refused to back the Palaszczuk government’s proposed Wellcamp quarantine facility, saying hotel quarantine and contact tracing had “served Australia very well” throughout the pandemic.
The Queensland and federal governments have been at an impasse for three months since the idea of purpose built quarantine camp near the privately-owned Wellcamp airport near Toowoomba was first mooted.
Both sides have blamed each other over the deadlock, with the Prime Minister saying it had not received enough detail about the proposal and Annastacia Palaszczuk saying enough detail had been provided for Mr Morrison to show in-principle support.
Asked if he would be looking further at the Wellcamp, or rejecting it, Mr Morrison said existing hotel quarantine measures, coupled with contact tracing in the event of a breach, was sufficient.
READ the full story
Ellie Dudley5.35am:Novavax vaccine available by September: Murphy
The federal government expects the Novavax vaccine to be available in Australia by September, Health Secretary Brendan Murphy says.
The Novavax vaccine is yet to be approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, but Dr Murphy said it would arrive in Australia by the third quarter of the year.
“We might see some by Quarter 3, which would be my recollection, it’s September, but it could even be August. All (Novavax are) saying is that they’re confident of giving us some,” he said.
Will Glasgow 5.15am:Chinese general mocks ‘white supremacist’ Australia
A Chinese general has mocked Australia’s ability to stop the People’s Liberation Army taking over Taiwan, declaring Canberra’s military contingencies are motivated by “white supremacy”.
In an interview with China’s official military media, Major-General Jin Yinan dismissed reports that Canberra had escalated its planning for military action in the Taiwan Strait.
“We don‘t need to take it seriously,” said General Jin, who is also professor at the PLA National Defence University, the top military university in China.
“(Australia) is not that strong, it’s not that powerful… If it insists on intervening, it will only cause greater damage to Australia itself,” he said.
The Morrison government has recently talked with unprecedented directness about a long-feared military conflict in the Taiwan Straits.
Over the weekend, Defence minister Peter Dutton warned a war could not be ruled out between China and Taiwan, which Beijing considers a wayward province.
READ the full story
Additional reporting: Paul Garvey
More Coverage
Add your comment to this story
Anti-Semitic vandalism accused out on bail
A man alleged to have committed an arson and vandalism attack in which anti-Semitic slurs were graffitied on vehicles and restaurants in Sydney had less to say when released on bail.
Qantas, Virgin cancel flights into Brisbane till Sunday
Cyclone Alfred flight cancellations will top 500 after Qantas and Virgin announced a halt to domestic services in Brisbane until Sunday.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout