New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has announced details of a trans-Tasman travel bubble with Australia, meaning Australians will be able to travel to New Zealand without needing to quarantine. Though most Australian states have allowed quarantine-free visits from New Zealanders for months, New Zealand has continued with enforced isolation for arrivals from its neighbour, citing concern about small Covid-19 outbreaks. The move to allow cross-border travel is one of the first such agreements since the pandemic prompted countries to block foreign arrivals to stop the virus spreading
Continue reading...Category Archives: Australia news
Fire on Australia’s Antarctic resupply vessel leaves expeditioners shaken
Australian Antarctic Division says 109 people on board were uninjured, but the incident was ‘potentially traumatic’ for some
An engine room fire that destroyed two vessels on board Australia’s Antarctic resupply ship has left expeditioners shaken as they begin their journey home.
The vessel, the MPV Everest, was in the middle of the Southern Ocean, four days into a two-week journey, when the ship’s portside engine room caught alight around 2pm on Monday.
Continue reading...Trans-Tasman travel bubble between New Zealand and Australia to start on 19 April
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern warns that further Covid-19 outbreaks could mean border closures return
After nearly a year shut off from the world, New Zealand is cracking open its borders, with a trans-Tasman travel bubble allowing two-way quarantine-free travel with Australia.
The NZ prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on Tuesday the bubble would open from 19 April, allowing quarantine-free travel between the two nations. Travellers from New Zealand have been able to enter selected Australian states without quarantining since October but the arrangements did not apply in the other direction.
Continue reading...Global rollout of vaccines is no longer a guarantee of victory over Covid-19 | Susan Michie, Chris Bullen, et al
New variants of concern have changed the game, spreading worldwide and threatening to derail pandemic control efforts
At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruption or significant numbers of deaths.
But since then, new “variants of concern” have emerged and spread worldwide, putting current pandemic control efforts, including vaccination, at risk of being derailed.
Continue reading...Coalition will hold up gender parity in Australia’s parliament for decades, thinktank says
If just one in two new Liberal-National MPs are women, it could take until next century, according to the McKell Institute
It could take more than two decades for Australia’s House of Representatives to reach gender parity, even if women win two in every three seats gained by the Coalition in the next few elections, according to new modelling.
The modelling by the McKell Institute, a progressive thinktank, indicates the growing momentum for quotas to increase the Liberal party’s share of female candidates won’t be a silver bullet for equal representation of women and men in the lower house.
Continue reading...Sanctions only escalate tensions. It’s time to tackle the Uyghurs’ plight differently | David Brophy
The west needs to make a credible case that its opposition to China’s policies is not geopolitical manoeuvring
“Wholly counterproductive”, was how Newcastle academic Joanne Smith Finley described China’s sanctions on her, along with a series of British politicians and lawyers, as punishment for their advocacy for the Uyghurs. That was putting it mildly. But is it the case that western sanctions on China will be, by contrast, productive? Sadly, that seems unlikely.
International outrage at China’s policies of incarceration and social coercion in Xinjiang continues to grow. As someone who has been engaged with the region for two decades, I see that as much needed. But it’s crucial the energy being generated is put to good use. The gloves may be off, but what is the strategy?
Continue reading...Daniel Andrews walking 18 minutes a day as he recovers from serious back injury
Victorian premier says he’s making ‘steady progress’ after a ‘pretty painful’ few weeks
Daniel Andrews says he’s making steady progress in his recovery from a serious back injury and is now walking about 18 minutes a day.
Victoria’s premier suffered broken ribs and a fractured T7 vertebra after slipping on wet stairs at a holiday home on the Mornington Peninsula on 9 March.
Continue reading...‘Incredibly relieved’: Australian couple freed from house arrest in Myanmar
Christa Avery and Matthew O’Kane are on their way home home after being released without charge
An Australian couple have been freed from house arrest in Myanmar and allowed to leave the country without charge, one of the two business consultants said on Sunday.
Christa Avery and her husband, Matthew O’Kane, were refused permission to leave Myanmar last month when they were about to board a flight home.
Continue reading...Four people critically injured in Hawkesbury River boat explosion
At least eight people were on the vessel north of Sydney when it caught fire on Sunday afternoon
A boat has exploded on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, leaving four people fighting for life with critical burns.
Eight people suffered burns and smoke inhalation in the explosion at Brooklyn near Danger Island on Sunday afternoon.
Continue reading...Bubble or boom? Why ultra-low interest rates mean house prices may never bust
New Zealand may have moved to curb rising prices but could cheap money have permanently rewritten the rules?
It’s hard to disagree with the New Zealand government’s recent assessment that the country’s runaway housing market has moved from mere boom to a bubble that endangers the whole economy. Prices rose a staggering 23% over the past year, putting home ownership way beyond most people not already on the fabled ladder – younger, first-time buyers especially. If it walks like a bubble and talks like a bubble, then it must be a bubble, right?
The only problem is that bubbles might not be what they used to be. House prices are being steadily inflated in many other developed economies such as the US and UK. In Australia, prices rose 2.8% in March, the fastest monthly growth for 33 years. But governments are in no hurry to copy Jacinda Ardern’s canary in the coalmine moment, as the renowned Société Générale economist and market sceptic Albert Edwards has dubbed it, and instruct central banks to make dampening prices part of monetary policy.
Continue reading...‘Right in crocodile country’: two people spend night on roof of car in NT floodwaters
The Darwin residents were trapped after their vehicle broke down while attempting to cross a flooded river
Two Darwin residents were forced to spend nine hours on the roof of their car surrounded by crocodile infested waters after their vehicle became stranded in floodwaters.
Rescuers spent all of Saturday night attempting to rescue the pair after their Landcruiser became trapped when it tried to cross the Dingo Station river crossing west of the Northern Territory’s capital.
Continue reading...Australian Covid vaccine rollout to continue after blood clot case in Melbourne
The acting chief medical officer says it is ‘likely’ the 44-year-old Victorian man’s condition is related to the vaccine
Australia’s acting chief medical officer says there will be no changes to the national vaccination program for Covid-19 while health authorities continue to investigate whether blood clots developed by a 44-year-old Victorian man are linked to the AstraZeneca jab.
Prof Michael Kidd said the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) had not recommended any change to the rollout of the vaccine following an urgent meeting of health authorities on Saturday.
Continue reading...‘We want to deliver’: Covid vaccine delays hit vulnerable Melbourne tower residents
Community health groups have nurses, GPs and locals ‘ready to go’, but a lack of deliveries has forced them to cancel vaccination clinics
- Australian government meets just half of aged care target
- Australian vaccine tracker: how is the rollout progressing?
For the past four months, in the towering Richmond housing estate of Melbourne, community health workers have been hard at work, preparing locals for the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine.
It’s a difficult but vital task. Many of the roughly 2,000 residents are vulnerable or elderly, use shared services and are densely packed into the estate’s five towers, creating a high-risk Covid-19 environment.
Continue reading...April Fool’s Day 2021: police sausage dogs, ‘self-jiggling’ tea bags and Gina Rinehart’s new book
Guardian Australia picks the best and worst of the day’s pranks and puns
Last year was bleak. So this April Fool’s Day everyone from government agencies to brands and even Gina Rinehart jumped at the chance to generate some laughs in 2021.
Many organisations created their own promotional videos or press releases to test the credulity of the Australian public. Guardian Australia sorted through them all to bring you the best – and worst – of this year’s jokes.
Continue reading...Facebook now lets users and pages turn off comments on their posts
The new feature to limit comments comes after an Australian court ruling that found news outlets are liable for comments on their pages
Facebook will allow every user including celebrities, politicians, brands and news outlets to determine who can and can’t comment on their posts.
The social media giant announced on Wednesday that when people post on Facebook, they will be able to control who comments on the post, ranging from everyone who can see the post, to only those who have been tagged by the profile or page in the post. It is similar to a change recently introduced by Twitter to limit who can reply to tweets.
Continue reading...John Barilaro attacks Turnbull over ‘war on Coalition’ and says NSW ‘firmly committed’ to coal
NSW deputy premier says ‘there will be no moratorium on coal in the Upper Hunter or anywhere else in the state’
The New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, has rejected Malcolm Turnbull’s call for a moratorium on new coalmines in the state and demanded the former prime minister “set aside his war on the Coalition”.
Turnbull said on Wednesday he believed coalmine proposals and approvals in the state’s upper Hunter Valley were “out of control”.
Continue reading...ALP national conference 2021: Anthony Albanese to announce $15bn Covid recovery fund – live
Australian Labor party gathers online to endorse slimmed-down election platform and debate industrial relations, trade and foreign affairs. Follow all the latest updates, live
Delegate Nizza Siano has put forward this one:
Labor’s policy should be framed to provide a positive and compassionate approach by a Labor Government to the treatment of refugees, rather than a reaction to the punitive and cruel approach of the Coalition Government. Refugees and those seeking asylum in Australia are to be welcomed under a Labor Government as assets who enhance this nation and our economy and provide positive contribution to our strong multicultural society.
In this chapter, Michael Danby will move this motion:
Labor calls on China to abide by its own constitution and laws which expressly allows for the cultural autonomy of the Tibetan people within the People’s Republic.
Tibetans must be allowed, as they are under Chinese law, to freely practice their religion, to learn and speak their language and to have official documents in the language of the vast majority of people living in the Tibetan autonomous zone.
Continue reading...‘A lot of noise, a lot of joy’: Sydney sea shanty club singers raise the roof in raucous reunion
Redfern bar shakes like the hull of a ship as devoted community comes back together after year apart
Over the past year, various members of the Redfern Shanty Club found different ways to cope. Robert Boddington, with his thespian’s voice and easy stage patter, gathered a few friends and tried to sing in public places, “just turning up in the dead of night and quietly singing away”. Robin Howard says he got “the shakes”. Emma Norton, a train driver with a soaring Celtic voice, says: “I sang to myself a lot, I guess.”
On Monday night, as restrictions in Sydney were almost completely lifted – with relaxed caps on capacity in bars, and no limits on singing – this devoted and joyous community finally returned to their favourite weekly ritual.
Continue reading...Besieged MP Andrew Laming says his behaviour has been ‘reinvented into harassment’
Queensland Liberal defends ‘completely dignified’ photo of woman bending over but apologises for ‘feelings I’ve caused’
Under-seige Morrison government MP Andrew Laming says his online behaviour has been “re-invented into harassment” and that the “facts are on my side”, claiming he only ever asked “hard questions” but apologised “for how it’s made people feel”.
The Queensland MP, who asked for privacy as he takes a month’s paid leave as he undertakes “clinical counselling”, and courses in “empathy and appropriate communication”, has explained his side of the story in a 16-minute interview with his local radio station. Laming has said he will not stand at the next election, but said he had no plans to leave the parliament until his term was completed.
Continue reading...Queensland Covid: states slam borders shut as Brisbane enters snap three-day lockdown
Two women who travelled to Byron Bay in NSW while infectious are among the four new local cases of the UK variant of coronavirus
- Follow the Australia liveblog
- Brisbane’s lockdown: everything you need to know
- Queensland Covid hotspots; NSW Covid hotspots
A number of states have slammed their borders shut to Queenslanders as greater Brisbane enters a snap three-day snap lockdown after authorities discovered four new locally-acquired coronavirus cases.
Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, on Monday described the growing cluster of seven cases as “significant community transmission” of the UK variant. She warned people in greater Brisbane to stay home over the coming days.
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