Category Archives: Australia news

Australia news live update: nation to pass 80% vaccination target today, PM says; WA reopening roadmap revealed; Melbourne Cup Covid scare

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Prime minister ‘quite certain’ Australia will reach 80% double-dose target today; Mark McGowan says Western Australia’s border restrictions could be eased by late January; Victoria records 1,343 Covid cases and 10 deaths; NSW records 249 cases, three deaths; Melbourne Cup attendee and Flemington Racecourse contract worker test positive; Northern Territory records second Covid case in two days – follow live updates here

Scott Morrison will meet with state premiers and territory chief ministers this afternoon for the first national cabinet meeting in more than a month.

We’re told the agenda includes an update on international border arrangements and an update on testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine protocols.

We don’t know where and we don’t know when but this is community transmission.

He has caught it from someone in the territory but we don’t know who ... Right now this bloke has no idea how he caught Covid and neither do we.

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Cleo Smith’s alleged abductor Terence Darrell Kelly moved to maximum-security prison

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Kelly, 36, transferred from Carnarvon to Perth in Western Australia after being charged with various offences including one count of taking a child under 16

The man charged with abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith will be transferred from Carnarvon to a maximum-security prison in Perth.

Terence Darrell Kelly, 36, appeared briefly before a magistrate in Carnarvon on Thursday charged with various offences related to the abduction of Cleo, including one count of forcibly taking a child under 16.

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NSW and Victoria to open border for fully vaccinated from midnight

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High vaccination rates and low Covid case numbers mean border can reopen, premiers Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews say

For the first time in months, the border between New South Wales and Victoria will open to fully vaccinated travellers from 11.59pm Thursday, as both state governments push ahead with “normalising living with the virus”.

On Thursday evening, the Victorian acting chief health officer, Ben Cowie, reclassified the status of the Australian Capital Territory and all remaining “orange zone” areas in New South Wales.

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Cleo Smith update: West Australian police charge Terence Kelly, 36, over alleged abduction

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Carnarvon local charged with forcible abduction and other offences after four-year-old girl was allegedly taken from remote WA camping site

West Australian police have charged a 36-year-old man in relation to the alleged abduction of Cleo Smith after the four-year-old was found alive and well 18 days after she disappeared.

Terence Darrell Kelly appeared briefly before a magistrate in Carnarvon on Thursday afternoon.

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Australia news live update: Dutton urges France to ‘put aside hurt feelings’; Labor attacks Morrison over leaked Macron texts

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Peter Dutton says France would’ve reacted the same if told earlier about Aukus; Victoria records 1,247 new Covid cases and nine deaths; NSW records 308 and four deaths; Queensland records three local cases; Labor attacks Morrison over leaked texts – follow today’s news live

And here is the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, joining the condemnation of Scott Morrison, speaking now to ABC News Breakfast.

Well, [the Australian and French relationship] needs some repair done, quite clearly.

It’s quite extraordinary for the leader of a major nation, like France, to say the Australian prime minister lied to them. And it’s quite extraordinary for them, in response, for the Australian prime minister to release a private text message that doesn’t really show much.

Now ultimately, this is the decision [to exit the French submarine deal to pursue nuclear options with the US and UK] that the government took and we [Labor] backed in the national interest, that is to move to the down the path of nuclear-propelled submarines.

That’s a big decision and, for the French, it was always going to be difficult to manage, but the job of the leader of the country is not to behave in this way ... it’s to deal with the inevitable negative response of the change in a mature and responsible way.

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Victorian Labor MP gave staffer more than $33,000 to pay for party memberships, Ibac hears

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Investigators obtain bank records of transfers between Marlene Kairouz and electorate office manager Kirsten Psaila, hearing told

A Labor MP gave a staffer more than $33,000 to pay the party memberships of people within her faction, according to evidence provided to the Victorian anti-corruption commission.

But the MP, Marlene Kairouz, whose evidence is considered critical to the investigation into the alleged misuse of public funds by paying staff to do factional activity – including branch stacking – will not be subject to a public examination by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac).

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Cleo Smith found: first pictures of smiling girl as Australian police detail moment of rescue

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The Western Australia police officer who rescued Cleo said when she was reunited with her mother there were ‘big hugs, kisses and lots of tears’

A photograph of a smiling and waving Cleo Smith eating an icy pole in her hospital bed has been released by Western Australia police after the four-year-old was rescued from a Carnarvon house more than two weeks after she vanished from a remote campsite.

WA police on Wednesday afternoon said a 36-year-old man taken into custody following Cleo’s discovery was yet to be charged but they expected that to occur “probably” later in the day.

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The Macron spat over Aukus submarines has taught world leaders a lot about Scott Morrison | Katharine Murphy

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The Australian PM is a relatively new player on the global stage, but the leak of the French president’s text message spoke volumes

As Scott Morrison flew towards Australia’s military base for operations in the Middle East on Wednesday, Jean-Pierre Thébault was using an appearance at the National Press Club in Canberra to continue France’s rolling excoriation of Australia’s conduct while dumping a multibillion-dollar submarine contract.

By the time Morrison touched down in the desert, the French ambassador had landed a potent extrapolation. If Scott Morrison’s operation was prepared to leak private text messages from world leaders to settle diplomatic scores, who could trust Australia?

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British woman wins legal battle against Australia’s ‘backpacker tax’

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Australia’s high court finds the higher rate of tax for working holiday makers is discriminatory and breaches treaty with UK

A British backpacker who worked as a waiter in Sydney has won a long-running legal dispute against Australia’s “backpacker tax” in its highest court.

On Wednesday the high court ruled in favour of Catherine Addy, finding the tax which slugged working holiday-makers thousands of dollars more than Australians discriminated against her on the basis of her nationality and infringed a treaty Australia signed with the UK.

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French officials vent fury over Australian leak of Macron text message

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Confidence shattered by ‘crude’ leak of president’s message to prime minister Scott Morrison, says adviser

Elysée officials have expressed fury at the decision of Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, to leak a private text message from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, as the diplomatic rift between the two countries deepened.

“Confidence has been completely shattered,” a close adviser to Macron told French media on Tuesday. “Disclosing a text message exchange between heads of state or government is a pretty crude and unconventional tactic.”

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Cleo Smith search: WA police examining ‘every inch’ of campsite for ‘disturbances in sand’

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Officers also sifting through garbage collected from roadside bins near where four-year-old went missing

West Australian police are using drones and aircraft to create a detailed map of the Blowholes campsite as they look for “disturbances in the sand” during the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of four-year-old Cleo Smith.

Police recruits are also sifting through a mountain of rubbish collected from roadside bins stretching more than 600km along Western Australia’s north-west coast in the hope of finding any clue that could lead to Cleo.

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Australians fired for refusing Covid vaccine search social media for ‘welcoming’ employers

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People turn to Telegram and Facebook to find jobs as mandates bite

Unvaccinated Australians who have lost their jobs for refusing to comply with Covid vaccine mandates are using social media to find and share employment opportunities at workplaces where the new rules are not being enforced.

Telegram and Facebook have had an influx of people searching for paid jobs after states and territories implemented mandates covering a range of industries from health and aged care workers, teachers and police to construction and hospitality workers.

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Coronavirus live news: global Covid death toll hits 5m; Greece reports highest infections total

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US, Brazil, India, Mexico and UK account for over half of deaths in Johns Hopkins University tally

Singapore could see as many 2,000 Covid-19 deaths annually over time, mainly among the elderly, but it was focused on avoiding excess mortality, a minister said this morning, as the country battles its biggest surge in infections.

Reuters report that at 0.2%, Singapore’s Covid-19 case fatality rate is similar to the rate of deaths from pneumonia before the pandemic struck.

If we lose staff over the winter period our ability to provide care is compromised. We’ve got a very, very difficult winter coming up and we know the NHS is going to be at full stretch, so it makes sense to set that deadline once that period has passed. If we lose very large numbers of unvaccinated staff, particularly over the winter period, then that also constitutes a risk to patient safety and quality of care.

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Borrowers rush to lock in low interest rates amid expectations of RBA rise

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Rising house prices and a resurgent economy could nudge the Reserve Bank to raise rates for first time in 11 years

Borrowers are rushing to lock in low interest rates amid gathering expectations Australia’s central bank will declare an end to its record low cash rate earlier than its current prediction of 2024.

Economists say the Reserve Bank of Australia has little choice but to revise its rate rise timing given mounting evidence the economy is recovering quickly from the lengthy Covid-triggered lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

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‘Not going to cop sledging’: Scott Morrison hits back at Macron in row over submarine deal

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Prime minister gives details of contract talks after French president accuses him of lying about plans to cancel $90bn deal

Scott Morrison has hit back against an extraordinary accusation from the French president that Australia’s prime minister lied to him over an abandoned $90bn submarine contract, declaring he will not “cop sledging” about Australia’s integrity.

Speaking to reporters in Glasgow where he is attending the UN climate conference Cop26, Morrison said Emmanuel Macron was well aware that Australia was contemplating pulling out of the troubled Naval Group diesel submarine contract.

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Australia news live update: Barnaby Joyce sure Australia and France can ‘get over’ submarine rift; Mark McGowan stands firm on WA hard border policy

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Barnaby Joyce says WA premier ‘lost his marbles’ when asked about opening the border; Victoria records 1,471 new Covid-19 cases overnight; NSW records 135; vaccine mandate for ACT disability workers; first flights land as NSW allows fully vaccinated people to enter without quarantining. Follow all the day’s news

Frydenberg:

[France’s] disappointment is obvious, and it’s understandable too. I mean, this was a large defence contract that they were hoping to see through to completion, but it’s not going to happen that way – because of the Aukus arrangement.

With respect to the next steps, well, the prime minister and the president will, you know, no doubt talk about those in subsequent conversations. But we’re thinking about how to build that partnership back, the areas of activity where we can continue to cooperate.

Do you believe Emmanuel Macron is lying? Somebody is not telling the truth here.

Well, the prime minister has made it very clear that he refutes those claims that have been made.

He’s also said, in other statements, that the French knew that we were considering various options and that that contract wouldn’t necessarily meet our strategic and national interests.

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‘I’ve got to get to my daughter, I’ve got to hold her’: families reunite at Sydney airport after international border reopens

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Fully vaccinated Australians are allowed to fly in and walk straight into arms of loved ones for first time in 583 days

Sydney airport has become the scene of tearful family reunions, with fully vaccinated Australians able to fly home and walk straight out of the airport for the first time in 583 days.

Many of the passengers who were onboard the first flights from Singapore and Los Angeles walked into the arrivals terminal shortly after 6am on Monday morning to be greeted by emotional family members and loved ones.

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‘I don’t think, I know’: Macron accuses Scott Morrison of lying about submarine contract – video

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Emmanuel Macron has accused the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, of lying to him over an abandoned $90bn submarine contract, in a significant escalation of tensions between Paris and Canberra. 'I just say when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line and consistent with this value,' the French president said. When asked whether he thought Morrison had lied to him by not revealing Australia’s dialogue with the UK and US over the acquisition of nuclear submarines, Macron was direct in his response. 'I don’t think, I know'.  

Video courtesy of Pablo Viñales

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Macron accuses Australian PM of lying over submarine deal

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French president criticises Scott Morrison and expresses scepticism that Aukus pact will deliver on schedule

Emmanuel Macron has accused the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, of lying to him over an abandoned $90bn submarine contract, in a significant escalation of tensions between Paris and Canberra.

The French president levelled the accusation in impromptu comments to Australian journalists on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome. He said he had a lot of “respect and friendship” for Australia and Australians, but that respect between nations needed to be reciprocated.

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‘There could be snakes’: planes mothballed by Covid prepare to fly again

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In deserts in Australia and the US, engineers are dusting off aircraft, testing engines and ridding them of rattlesnakes and insects

In the red dust of the Australian desert, more than a hundred shiny planes are lined up nose to tail, an aviation long-term parking lot.

Hundreds more form geometric patterns in California’s Mojave Desert, where engineers whack the wheel hubs of Qantas A380s to scare off rattlesnakes.

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