Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Members of security and intelligence committee snub invite in protest at invasive treatment of women before flight to Sydney
Australian politicians from the major parties have pulled out of a formal dinner at the Qatari ambassador’s residence in protest at the invasive treatment of women at Doha airport.
Members of parliament’s security and intelligence committee have taken the stand as political pressure grows for the government to strengthen its response to the compulsory medical examination travellers endured before travelling from Doha to Sydney on 2 October.
Melbourne lockdown lifted as Victoria records two Covid cases and two deaths. Senate estimates looks at Australia’s response to Doha airport incident. Follow live
Students at the University of Sydney have occupied a building on campus that houses the vice-chancellor’s office, in a protest against cuts to staff in medical sciences.
Approximately 50 students are in the building right now, chanting and asking for the vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, to meet with them.
USyd students are currently occupying the universities administration building, where senior management, including Michael Spence, have their offices. Students are refusing to leave until the university commit to reversing all staff and course cuts. #Auspolpic.twitter.com/dnEBFPXg7l
Daniel Andrews has released a statement on the Melbourne Cup:
I have today advised the Victoria Racing Club that connections of horses competing at the Melbourne Cup Carnival will not be permitted to attend the course.
The government has determined that next week is not a suitable time for gatherings of that nature.*
Acting chair Karen Chester confirms at Senate inquiry that some of the advice KPMG gave its chairman related to tax minimisation
The acting chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Karen Chester, has admitted to parliament that the regulator acted with “glacial” speed in dealing with concerns about rent payments to its deputy chairman, Daniel Crennan QC.
Last week the auditor general, Grant Hehir, told the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, that payments of about $70,000 to Crennan and $118,000 to KPMG for tax advice it gave to the Asic chairman, James Shipton, breached public service pay rules.
Premier expected to announce more details of city’s reopening after record-breaking Covid-19 lockdown, as federal parliament and Senate estimates return and questions continue over management of Australia Post. Follow latest updates
The rules for household visits will go through share houses, teenagers and who can visit who after a visit.
But they are complicated, so I will wait to go through them and then bring them to you once they are clear.
Back at Treasury estimates, the Labor senator Katy Gallagher is attempting to get either officials or the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, to acknowledge that workers earning less than $80,000 will get less tax relief in 2024-25 than they will get this year because of the one-off extension of the $1,080 offset in the October budget.
Treasury officials say the extension of the offset is a “classic stimulus measure” so it shouldn’t form part of an assessment of the tax scales in future years. They say this year’s budget includes extending the offset (the stimulus measure) and a tax cut through the bringing forward of the stage two tax cuts (a structural change).
Daniel Andrews is asked if he would have done anything different in hindsight:
I don’t have hindsight. None of us do.
All we have his hard work and an absolute determination do not listen to the loudest voices, not be pushed to ignore the science, not listen to those who would appeal for us to act out of absolute frustration and nothing more than that.
Newly released letters written by the former governor general show he regarded his forced resignation under the Fraser government as the ultimate betrayal
In the cryptic taxonomy of archives, the relationship between Sir John Kerr and the Queen stretches beyond the palace letters and into obscure files scattered throughout the National Archives of Australia and elsewhere. The most surprising of these is a new set of letters between Kerr and Sir Martin Charteris in the National Archives of Australia.
From all these archives – in personal letters, Kerr’s rambling handwritten notes, and his unguarded personal reflections – a common theme emerges: the involvement of the palace in every step Kerr took, and every decision he made, regarding the dismissal of Gough Whitlam and its gathering aftermath, including even his own resignation. It is impossible to separate Kerr’s decisions from his intractable view of his “duty” to the monarch and the monarchy, presented to him so clearly in the months before the dismissal by Queen’s private secretary, the unctuous Charteris.
It could take up to a year for Australian biotech company CSL to develop the capability to make a Covid-19 vaccine if a non-protein-based version proves safe and effective, the country’s industry minister has said.
Karen Andrews said CSL would be able to immediately start making a protein-based vaccine, but “significant work” would be required if it was another type based on mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid.
A federal government investigation into the scandal may cost more than the lavish gifts purchased in November 2018
Four Cartier watches given to Australia Post senior managers were worth nearly $20,000 in total, $8,000 more than the organisation’s chief executive told a parliamentary hearing this week.
Christine Holgate told Senate estimates on Thursday the watches, purchased in 2018 as a reward for the executives, were worth about $3,000 each.
Today’s meeting between federal, state and territory leaders will focus on removing social and border restrictions to jumpstart the economy. Follow live
In just the year to June, Australia Post paid $1.95 million in bonuses to 35 of its executives earning over $520,000 a year. That’s 648 Cartier watches - or 162 times the total Cartier watch spend. (Or about 27,850 Casio watches...) https://t.co/S8mmcqJmhh
We will probably be in a bit of a news lull while national cabinet is meeting and the US presidential election debate is on in about 25 minutes.
Officials are unable to say how much was spent on taxpayer-funded campaigns based on surveys by a longtime researcher for the Liberals
Officials from the Department of Finance have acknowledged that taxpayer-funded research undertaken by Jim Reed, a long-term researcher for the Liberal party pollster Crosby Textor, fed into two publicly funded advertising campaigns relating to economic measures launched in response to the pandemic.
But officials told the estimates committee they were unable to quantify or disclose the budgets for the two taxpayer-funded advertising spends.
A school student in Melbourne’s north tested positive to coronavirus, putting the suburbs of Dallas, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Preston and West Heidelberg on high alert. Follow live
Australia Post is up in the communications estimates committee hearing - that starts at 9
NSW has reported just one locally acquired case - another six are in hotel quarantine.
Scott Morrison says focus must be on public health crisis, despite passing more than 90 other bills this year
Scott Morrison claims the sustained pressure of managing the coronavirus pandemic has prevented the government from landing its longstanding commitment to establish a national anti-corruption body.
With controversy over the Leppington triangle land purchase continuing to reverberate, and questions being raised over contact between the deputy prime minister Michael McCormack and the disgraced New South Wales MP Daryl Maguire, Labor on Wednesday confronted the government over its persistent failure to establish a federal anti-corruption body.
Hundreds of residents are set to protest amid claims wealthier landholders have received favourable planning decisions
A group of families left in “indefinite limbo” by planning decisions that favoured wealthy landowners near the Western Sydney airport have called for an end to secretive backroom dealing as they prepare to stage public protests against their treatment by government.
Two separate scandals have now raised serious questions about the way land near the massive airport development is being handled, and the degree to which landholders are lobbying state and federal governments for favourable treatment.
Budget estimates continue with Australia’s coronavirus response on the agenda. Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry will reconvene for an extraordinary session while in NSW testing rates drop below 7,000. Follow all the latest updates
Keith Pitt, bless him, attempts a dixer on the Queensland resources industry which LNP candidates in central and north Queensland can cut up and put on their facebook page for three people to look at, but the dixer isn’t the right question, so he can’t use his zinger, or get his time back.
Neither can we.
Steve Burt, he is a typical driller, he is big, he’s bearded, he is rough as hessian underwear to be honest
Catherine King to Michael McCormack:
The Australian audit office told Senate estimates last night that it provided AFP on 10 July potential evidence about potential defrauding of the Commonwealth.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Whilst I appreciate this is the subject of many inquiries being made by Senate estimates, as you would expect, this is an inquiry, the Australian Federal Police are looking into it and the ANAO has referred this matter to the AFP, as has the Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure.
And, of course, an independent investigation is also going into the matter, being conducted by the Commonwealth Ombudsman Dr Thomas, the former Inspector-general of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Dr Vivienne Thom.
Melburnians can now travel up to 25km and spend more time out of the house; and federal parliament resumes with Senate estimates. This blog is now closed
In the off chance you aren’t completely fed up with Covid-19 data, the federal health department has been publishing a weekly snapshot of how each state is going.
This is an interesting tool for assessing the success of contact tracing in various states, especially as the case load in Victoria continues to drop.
Home affairs department says 13,171 humanitarian places were given, well below target of 18,750, as applications drop across most visa categories
The home affairs department has reported a significant reduction in the number of visas being granted – including refugee visas, which have been reduced by almost a third – in large part due to the pandemic.
Despite the drop in visa numbers, the department still raised $2.2bn in revenue through applications.
Melbourne’s 5km travel radius will expand to 25km from midnight under eased restrictions announced by the state’s premier Daniel Andrews.
From 11.59pm on Sunday, residents of the city who have been under lockdown for more than 100 days will be able to travel up to 25km for either exercise or shopping.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation into whether Daryl Maguire improperly used his position as a politician for his own benefit concluded with admissions from the former Wagga Wagga MP on Friday.
To be clear, though, the transcript shows that later in the day Maguire seemed to walk that back a little, saying 2014 was “clearer in my mind”.
Robertson:
From your perspective the relationship was a close personal relationship on those two dates that you there identify. Do you agree?
I see that. But 14 was clearer in my mind – 14/15.
So is it right that at least from your perspective, you were in a close personal relationship with Ms Berejiklian in calendar year 2014, is that right?
I originally said 15 and I lean towards 15 still, or late 14. That was, that’s my recollection, somewhere there.
Scott Morrison, who is temporarily stuck in Queensland, expects overseas arrival numbers to rise within weeks
A national cabinet meeting due to discuss a plan to bring back thousands of additional Australians stranded overseas has been postponed, after the prime minister himself became stranded in Queensland with “technical problems” grounding his RAAF plane.
Scott Morrison, speaking in Cairns on Thursday, confirmed that more citizens stuck overseas due to Covid flight caps would soon be able to return home with increased repatriation flights and use of the Howard Springs quarantine facility near Darwin.
Victoria’s premier weathers upset after his top public servant resigned and NSW premier holds on after Icac revelations. In Queensland, opposition leader Deb Frecklington faces questions over event with Peter Dutton. Follow live
The Queensland Liberal National Party has categorically denied claims it referred its own party leader, Deb Frecklington to the electoral commission over concerns about her fundraising events.
The ABC reported this morning that the party referred Frecklington to the Electoral Commission of Queensland over a series of events, one where Peter Dutton was a guest, involving property developers.
NSW Health have set up a pop-up testing clinic, and alerted to more venues, after two GPs in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba tested positive for Covid-19.
Both doctors worked at the A2Z Medical Clinic, and are linked to a patient who was previously diagnosed with Covid-19, who attended Lakemba Radiology.