Category Archives: Australia news

Global heating linked to early birth and damage to babies’ health, scientists find

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Exclusive: Studies show high temperatures and air pollution during pregnancy can cause lifelong health effects

The climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.

Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of obesity in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital admissions of young children.

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Novak Djokovic visa: Australian minister Alex Hawke says risk of ‘civil unrest’ behind cancellation

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Hawke says tennis champion is ‘perceived by some as a talisman of a community of anti-vaccine sentiment’

Tennis champion Novak Djokovic, who has been described as a risk to “civil unrest” and a “talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment”, may never get the chance to defend his Australian Open title, facing a three-year ban from the country ahead of a last-ditch court challenge to stay.

Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, personally cancelled the unvaccinated world No 1’s visa, arguing his presence in Australia could incite “civil unrest” and encourage others to eschew vaccination against Covid-19.

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Australia’s first-dose vaccination reaches 95%; Djokovic back in hotel detention – as it happened

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Health minister Greg Hunt calls vaccine levels a sign of hope; tennis star returns to detention in Melbourne’s Park Hotel. This blog is now closed

Hillsong church says the singing and dancing at their youth summer camp bears no resemblance to a music festival. This is Sian Cain’s piece from yesterday – somehow I’d missed seeing the video footage.

Oh yeah, totally doesn’t look anything like a music festival:

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Djokovic’s fans at home vent fury – but Serbian politicians tone rhetoric down

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Fans say Australia’s visa denial a witch-hunt, while Belgrade starts to distance itself from player’s anti-vaccine stance

Novak Djokovic’s supporters in Serbia have reacted furiously to Australia’s decision to cancel the world tennis No 1’s visa for a second time, but the government has yet to respond officially and previously vociferous politicians have stayed quiet.

The unvaccinated tennis star on Friday asked a court to block his deportation before the Australian Open after Australia’s immigration minister revoked his visa, citing strict Covid-19 entry regulations and stating it was in the public interest.

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Novak Djokovic Q&A: a wild day, what happens next and the legal view

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After another extraordinary day in the Novak Djokovic saga ahead of the Australian Open, what now for the world No 1?

Another extraordinary day in the Novak Djokovic saga began at 5.52pm local time when Australia’s minister for immigration, Alex Hawke, exerted his personal powers to cancel the men’s world No 1’s visa for the second time. In a statement Hawke said he had done so “on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so”.

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Novak Djokovic: Australia cancels tennis player’s visa before Australian Open

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Immigration minister Alex Hawke revokes Serbian player’s visa

Novak Djokovic’s Australian visa has again been cancelled just days before the start of the Australian Open.

On Friday, the Australian immigration minister, Alex Hawke, exercised a personal power to cancel Djokovic’s visa, likely to result in the world No 1’s deportation and putting him out of contention for the grand slam tournament barring an against-the-odds court victory.

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NSW and Victoria urged to better help diverse communities understand RAT rules

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A lack of effort in spreading messages about rapid antigen tests to diverse communities may lead to underreporting of Covid cases, advocates say

Community organisations in NSW and Victoria are calling on their state governments to expand outreach to culturally and linguistically diverse communities, amid concerns of underreporting of rapid antigen tests results.

Service NSW, which launched its online system to register positive rapid antigen tests on Wednesday, offers translation options, while the Victorian portal tells users to call the Covid hotline for a translator.

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Australian man pleads guilty to murdering American in 1988 gay hate crime

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Scott White yelled in court during a pre-trial hearing on Monday that he was guilty, having previously denied the crime

An Australian man has pleaded guilty to murdering a US mathematician who fell from a Sydney cliff in 1988 in a homophobic hate crime that was dismissed by police at the time as suicide.

Scott White was charged in 2020 with murdering 27-year-old Los Angeles-born Scott Johnson, whose naked body was found at the base of North Head cliff on 8 December 1988.

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Novak Djokovic back on court as investigations continue

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  • World No 1 allows training to be observed
  • Australian government looking at multiple issues

Novak Djokovic’s preparations for the Australian Open continued on Wednesday as the question of his presence in the country remained unresolved. Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, continues to deliberate over whether or not he should revoke Djokovic’s visa.

On Wednesday afternoon, Djokovic returned for his third practice at Melbourne Park since he was released from immigration detention. With a small contingent of media present, Djokovic trained with the Australian youngster Tristan Schoolkate and he continued to ease himself back into practice, working through a series of drills.

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Revisited: Could bringing back its love song save one of Australia’s rarest songbirds?

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It wouldn’t be Guardian Australia ‘best of’ series without a bird episode! The regent honeyeater is an endangered native Australian songbird, with only a few hundred left in the wild. A few years ago scientists noticed something odd – they were mimicking other birds, and unable to sing their own song. Environment reporter Graham Readfearn and Dr Joy Tripovich explain how this species lost its song, and whether teaching it how to sing again could help save it from extinction

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Australia news live update: NSW and Victoria each record 21 Covid deaths; cases in hospital top 3,700; $1,000 fines in NSW for not reporting positive RATs

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NSW records 34,759 Covid cases and 2,242 hospitalisations on state’s deadliest day; Victoria reports 40,127 cases with 946 in hospital as more than 6,600 health workers furloughed, Queensland 22,069 cases and 525 in hospital, Tasmania 1,583 cases and 22 in hospital; $1,000 fines for not reporting positive rapid antigen tests in NSW. Follow all the day’s news

In New South Wales, four people have been rescued after a ute was swept into a flooded creek in the Hunter Valley last night.

Emergency services were called to Wells Gully Road at McCulleys Gap late last night, after the ute was swept off the spillway into Sandy Creek. A 49-year-old man, a 16-year-old boy, and two girls aged 14 were forced to climb on to the roof of the car after it began to sink in strongly flowing flood waters.

He has his own philosophy if he thinks like that ... he’s the most healthiest guy, he takes care of his life ... he’s playing tennis and he wants to stay. And I know that he’s doing everything to stay healthy to take care of his body, so ... if he’s not, he doesn’t want to, that’s his choice.

So, what’s the problem? You know, the vaccination – the vaccination, it’s not that I’m against it of course I’m not ... it’s not the point. If he’s healthy, his PCR is negative, why he cannot play?

I cannot say the ... all issues I don’t know exactly I’m reading in the newspapers. I didn’t talk to Novak about that. So I really cannot say anything. What I can say, that Judge Kelly [has] decided that Novak is free. So for me, this is closed book.

He didn’t know. Probably he didn’t know it, because when he realised [about] isolation, then he go to isolate ... because he didn’t know anything about that, He ... I really cannot say but it’s maybe the best is to ask him.

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Andy Murray says Djokovic has questions to answer as players dive into visa row

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  • Marton Fucsovics: ‘I don’t think Novak has the right to be here’
  • Djokovic may have put incorrect information on travel form

Andy Murray has welcomed Novak Djokovic’s release from immigration detention but he anticipates the men’s world No 1 will have a number of questions to answer in the coming days if he remains in Australia.

Djokovic spent his first full day of freedom focusing on tennis matters as he took to Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena behind closed doors for much-needed practice after the best part of five days spent in a hotel room fighting the cancellation of his visa.

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How Australia’s handling of Djokovic exposed its flawed immigration system to the world

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Money, media attention and fame will protect the tennis player from the same fate as those confined to years in detention by arbitrary and arcane law

Novak Djokovic has claimed victory in one court, and is back on one more familiar.

But as he prepares for the Australian Open at Melbourne Park, he does so with a Damoclean sword hanging above his head.

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Australian Border Force investigating whether Novak Djokovic made false travel claim

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Djokovic declared he had not travelled for 14 days before entering Australia, a claim apparently contradicted by social media posts. His visa was cancelled, then reinstated on Monday

The Australian Border Force is investigating whether Novak Djokovic incorrectly declared he had not travelled and would not do so for two weeks before his flight to Australia, in the latest twist in the tennis star’s visa cancellation saga.

Questions have been raised about the declaration completed by an agent for Djokovic, with social media posts seemingly showing he was in Belgrade on Christmas Day before flying to Australia from Spain on 4 January.

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GPs warn over children’s vaccine rollout ‘failings’; 3,500 cases in hospital nationwide – as it happened

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‘Serious failings’ in children’s vaccine rollout, GPs warn; 2,186 Covid cases in NSW hospitals, 816 in Victoria, 502 in Qld and 211 in SA; NSW reports 25,870 new Covid cases and 11 deaths, Victoria 37,944 cases and 13 deaths, Qld 20,566 cases after testing glitch fixed, SA 2,921 cases, ACT 1,508 cases and one death, Tasmania 1,379 cases, NT 594. This blog is now closed

The Health Services Union has warned the aged care sector is experiencing an “unprecedented crisis” with “chronic understaffing, excessive workloads and extended shifts” hitting the sector amid the Omicron wave of Covid-19.

According to a survey of more than 1,000 HSU members:

The Morrison government comprehensively failed to plan before allowing Omicron to rip through the community and modestly paid workers, and residents in aged care facilities who built this country, are paying the price. Only just over a third of members surveyed have received their booster shot, despite working overtime in high risk settings.

There are active outbreaks in almost 500 aged care facilities across the country. Yet workers can’t access RATs, they can’t access PPE. They are on the front line with very little protection. Not only are staff at risk but vulnerable residents are at a heightened risk of severe disease or death.

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Tropical Cyclone Tiffany makes landfall in far north Queensland

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People between Cape Tribulation and Coen, including Cooktown, have been told to prepare to shelter in a safe place

People in far north Queensland have been urged to hunker down after Tropical Cyclone Tiffany made landfall on Monday afternoon.

The Bureau of Meteorology warned people in the area to prepare to shelter as the storm passes across the state.

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Novak Djokovic appeals in court against cancellation of Australian visa – live updates

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Lawyers for the Australian government have rejected tennis star’s claim he was given assurances a medical exemption would allow him to enter the country for the Australian Open as case heard in court

I have a live stream up and running now. Updates coming soon.

A spokesperson for the court says the hearing is going ahead, but the live stream is still down:

I am now advised the hearing has started. The court is working to rectify the situation. Apologies.

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More than 99,000 new cases nationwide on NSW’s deadliest day of pandemic

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NSW records 30,062 new Covid cases and 16 deaths; Victoria reports 44,155 cases and four deaths; Queensland records 18,000 cases, South Australia 4,506 cases and one death, Tasmania 1,406 cases, ACT 1,039, NT 481 and WA one. This blog is now closed

The health minister, Greg Hunt, has been asked about Novak Djokovic’s court case.

Hunt declined to comment, citing the fact the matter is before the court but did reveal that two other people connected with the Australian Open tournament have left Australia after their visas were cancelled.

In relation to Novak Djokovic, as this is now a matter before the courts, I will respectfully leave any commentary until after it has been heard by the court and my understanding is that there is a hearing tomorrow.

My other advice from border force is that their assessment of any visas relating to the Australian Open has now been completed and two other individuals have now voluntarily left the country – as is the case with an individual who has their visa cancelled is entitled to leave the country at any time, even while they are going through a court proceeding but that is a matter for them. Beyond that, the advice is that there is an ongoing court case so we respectfully are not making any additional comment.

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Australia records more than 100,000 cases nationally – as it happened

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Country records over 116,000 cases as Victoria surpasses NSW with 51,356 cases including rapid test results; Nick Kyrgios says Djokovic treatment ‘not really humane’; Queensland grapples with flood emergency. This blog is now closed

Labor MP Andrew Giles has announced he has tested positive for Covid-19.

We have collected stories from readers on what it is like trying to get tested this week.

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Covid live: Germany toughens restrictions for bars and restaurants; Austrian chancellor tests positive

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Germany also cuts isolation period for boosted people after a Covid contact; Karl Nehammer tests positive after contact with member of security team

Argentina reported a record number of Covid-19 cases on Thursday for a third day in a row at nearly 110,000, Reuters reports, as the highly infectious Omicron variant drives a third pandemic wave in the South American nation.

The record tally of 109,608 in the middle of the southern hemisphere summer holiday season with tourist centres full of travellers, has not translated into a similar exponential rise in Covid-related deaths, which totalled 40, the government said.

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