Australia Covid protests: threats against ‘traitorous’ politicians as thousands rally in capital cities

Melbourne ‘freedom’ rally draws largest crowds as counter-protesters avoid confrontation

Thousands of people have marched in “freedom” rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, with the largest crowds in the Victorian capital as protests against the state government’s pandemic legislation ramped up again.

Protesters marched from Victoria’s state parliament, down Bourke Street and up to Flagstaff Gardens, carrying Australian flags and placards bearing anti-vaccination, anti-lockdown and anti-government slogans, while chanting “kill the bill”, “sack Dan Andrews” and “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi”.

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Victoria protests escalate as child under 10 among new deaths – as it happened

NSW reports 182 cases and ACT 14; anti-fascist activists vow to counter ‘freedom rallies’ they claim have been infiltrated by far-right groups. This blog is now closed

Asked about whether we can expect to see the introduction of a legislation for a federal anti-corruption commission in parliament in the next couple of weeks, Tim Wilson says it’s important that they “get the legislation right”:

Because what we’ve had too often is proposals which are designed to establish, kind of, kangaroo courts, and actually would do more to breed distrust in the political conversation. We’ve seen that particularly in the consequence of what’s happening in Icac in New South Wales.

We want a process that’s based around integrity, that’s been consulted with the Australian community, and is actually going to do the job we need it to do, which is actually to breed trust and strength in the political system, not simply to create show trials, as I’ve seen it many times.

I think this is pretty simple. You’ve got a group of people marching down the street with a life-sized execution device. You’ve got people threatening to kill the premier of Victoria. If you’re any sort of leader, you just condemn that, full stop. You don’t go on and then say, ‘But I understand why people are frustrated.’

I think it is legitimate to point out that Scott Morrison has pulled the sheet out of the Trump handbook here. Lie, deny, blame other people, never take responsibility for anything, try and divide the community, pander to the extreme right – this is Trump without the toupee. And, seriously, I think the Australian people deserve better than that.

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Australian Open rules Novak Djokovic and all other players must be vaccinated against Covid to play

  • Tournament chief says all players must be vaccinated to compete
  • Craig Tiley says 80% of players are now vaccinated

World No 1 Novak Djokovic and all other players will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to compete in the Australia Open next January, tournament chief Craig Tiley said on Saturday.

Djokovic has declined to disclose whether he is vaccinated and said that he would wait until Tennis Australia revealed the health protocols before he made a decision about playing at Melbourne Park.

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Political leaders condemn alleged attack on MP’s daughter – as it happened

PM comments after Animal Justice MP Andy Meddick says daughter attacked; Indian PM repeals controversial agricultural laws; rapid antigen Covid testing for NSW primary schools; Victoria records 1,273 new cases and eight deaths; NSW records 216 new cases and three deaths; rain set to hamper search for remains of William Tyrrell. This blog is now closed

OK, jumping back to South Australia where opposition leader Peter Malinauskas has condemned the premier’s decision not to dismiss his deputy premier and attorney general Vicky Chapman after the parliament passed a vote of no confidence against her.

Malinauskas told ABC News Breakfast that this was “a truly extraordinary state of affairs, if not a constitutional crisis”.

It’s an incredibly unfortunate state of affairs in South Australia where premier Steven Marshall has decided to almost literally tear up the rulebook of convention that’s been established over hundreds of years of the Westminster system of government and ignore the parliament’s will [for him to] ask Vickie Chapman to resign her position at deputy premier.

There’s been a motion of no confidence passed in the deputy premier. This is unprecedented. Everybody seems to be putting their fingers in their ears and pretending nothing has happened, particularly the premier himself.

What I accept and what I’ve always defended and been a very strong supporter of is people’s right to protest. But if it’s not peaceful, it’s not protest and it’s something very different.

We have seen extremists, rabid anti-vaxxer and others making all sorts of threats, threats against me, my wife and my kids. That is not my focus, this is about every family’s safety and that’s why we have to work together and that’s what Victorians have done.

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Tim Paine resigns as Australia’s Test cricket captain over ‘private’ text messages sent to colleague

  • Shock resignation comes just weeks out from first Test
  • Paine says he is sorry for damage done to sport’s reputation

Australia’s Test cricket captain Tim Paine has stepped down from his role on the eve of the Ashes series after a historic investigation into text messages sent to a colleague surfaced.

Paine made the decision to resign – just weeks out from the start of the series against England – after it became clear to him that details of the incident in 2017, which predated his appointment as Test captain, were about to be made public.

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Anti-vaxxers using bribery and fake certificates to avoid vaccination, Australian government warned

Pharmacists and aged care providers tell MPs of tactics being employed to escape public health laws including ‘no jab, no job’

The pharmacy and aged care sectors have called for new penalties for vaccination status fraud including bribery, use of fake certificates or stand-in vaccine recipients getting the Covid-19 jab on behalf of an unvaccinated person.

The Pharmacy Guild and Aged and Community Services Australia have warned that anti-vaxxers are using these tactics to escape public health laws including “no jab, no job” provisions in the aged care sector.

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‘Naughty guy’: top Chinese diplomat accuses Australia of ‘sabre wielding’ with nuclear submarine deal

Exclusive: Acting ambassador to Australia, Wang Xining, says politicians including Peter Dutton and Tony Abbott are not serving Australia’s interests

A top Chinese diplomat has likened Australia to “a naughty guy” over the Aukus nuclear submarine deal, saying it jeopardises Australia’s peace-loving reputation and the Australian people “should be more worried”.

China’s acting ambassador to Australia, Wang Xining, said Australia would be branded as a “sabre wielder” rather than a “peace defender” as a result of the plan to acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, which would also affect the nuclear non-proliferation system.

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Revealed: the places humanity must not destroy to avoid climate chaos

Tiny proportion of world’s land surface hosts carbon-rich forests and peatlands that would not recover before 2050 if lost

Detailed new mapping has pinpointed the carbon-rich forests and peatlands that humanity cannot afford to destroy if climate catastrophe is to be avoided.

The vast forests and peatlands of Russia, Canada and the US are vital, researchers found, as are tropical forests in the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia. Peat bogs in the UK and mangrove swamps and eucalyptus forests in Australia are also on the list.

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Michaelia Cash says no child should be suspended or expelled under religious discrimination laws

Exclusive: Attorney general asks law reform commission to help ensure children are not discriminated against in faith-based schools

The attorney general, Michaelia Cash, has requested “detailed drafting” from the Australian Law Reform Commission to ensure children are not discriminated against in faith-based schools, as the government pushes ahead with its revised religious discrimination laws.

But as the crossbench reveals they will either oppose the revamped bill or seek to reinstate the ability for doctors to refuse patients on religious grounds, the government looks likely to need Labor’s support to pass the legislation before the election.

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Michael McCormack contradicts Barnaby Joyce on Nationals signing Cop26 pact

Ex-Nationals leader McCormack says any government agreement covers party, days after Joyce said ‘I did not sign it’

Former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack has contradicted Barnaby Joyce’s claim the Nationals did not sign off on the final communique of the Glasgow climate summit.

McCormack, the former Nationals leader, said any agreement the Australian government signs also covers the National party, and left open the option of the Morrison government proposing a higher emissions reduction target for 2035.

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‘Enormous alarm’: debate and protest continue over controversial Victorian pandemic powers bill

Bill set to pass parliament later this week but Labor’s Harriet Shing says heated protests have led MPs and staff to ‘second guess their security’

Opponents of the Victorian government’s controversial pandemic powers legislation have called for the bill to be delayed in the upper house, warning ongoing protests outside parliament will grow.

Debate in the Legislative Council ran into Tuesday night and was expected to continue late into the week with opponents vowing to scrutinise the bill line by line.

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Australia news live blog: Barnaby Joyce dismisses Cop26 ‘talkfest’; snap lockdown for Katherine in NT; Qld eases Covid border rules

Barnaby Joyce says Coalition has done a ‘great job’ on climate policy; Changes to South Australia quarantine and border restrictions; fully vaccinated travellers can apply for Qld border passes from 5pm; Victoria records 860 new local Covid cases and five deaths; NSW records 165 cases and one death. Follow live updates

Cop26 failed in a bid to phase out coal, news that had its president Alok Sharma close to tears. But not everyone’s disappointed – nationals senator Matt Canavan has declared it a great win for Australia’s mining industry.

He told the Nine Network:

Given the fact that the agreement did not say that coal needs to be phased down or taken out, it is a big green light for us to build more coalmines.

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Australian women to sue Qatar over invasive strip-search ordeal

Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights, including 13 Australians, were subjected to compulsory intimate searches in October 2020

A group of women subjected to invasive gynaecological searches at Doha airport will sue Qatari authorities, seeking redress for an ordeal that sparked global condemnation, their lawyer said on Monday.

Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights from Doha, including 13 Australians, were subjected to the examinations late last year as authorities searched for the mother of a newborn found abandoned in an airport bathroom.

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Josh Cavallo: the world’s only openly gay top-tier men’s footballer

Adelaide United’s Josh Cavallo says the response to his recent coming out as gay has been overwhelming

When Adelaide United’s Josh Cavallo sat down to film his announcement to the world that he was coming out as gay, he didn’t know what to expect. He’d told his teammates and coaches and had a positive and supportive reaction, but the result of posting the video on social media was far less predictable. There are no other out male gay footballers playing in any of the world’s top leagues.

Cavallo tells Michael Safi that the response has been overwhelming as messages of support have poured in from around the world and from fellow players such as Gerard Piqué, Marcus Rashford and Antoine Griezmann.

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‘It sucks’: how parts of NSW’s northern rivers reluctantly got vaccinated

The drive to get the population vaccinated is gathering momentum despite the issue dividing families and straining friendships

It’s fair to say the people in the northern rivers of New South Wales generally do not like being told what to do by the government.

In a region with a free-thinking, anti-authoritarian reputation, and a long history of anti-vaccination sentiment, the requirement to get the Covid jab for work or leisure purposes was never going to find a warm welcome.

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St Basil’s Covid tragedy: ‘We are still finding out things that we weren’t aware of and it makes us angry’

Spiros Vasilakis’s mother, Maria, died in the Melbourne aged care home outbreak. He is among 64 witnesses to give evidence at a coronial inquest starting Monday

“One thing I will never forget is the line of ambulances coming in and coming out,” Spiros Vasilakis says as he recalls standing outside St Basil’s Home for the Aged in July last year, where his mother contracted Covid-19.

“My mum had died at that point,” he recalls. “And to stand outside a place that was not giving family any answers, seeing residents taken away one after another in ambulances, about to die or already dead … I just remember feeling overwhelmed by sadness.”

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Australia live news update: Victoria records four Covid deaths; anti-pandemic law protesters seen carrying prop gallows; Cop26 in extra time

Thousands march in Melbourne CBD as Victoria reports 1,221 new Covid-19 cases, NSW 250 and the ACT 11. Follow live

The Victorian numbers have also been published. The state recorded 1,221 new Covid-19 cases.

Sadly four people infected with the virus have died.

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