Australia news live: doctor who gave wrong vaccine dose had not completed training, Greg Hunt says

Linda Reynolds has been taken to hospital and Covid restrictions to be eased in South Australia and NSW. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

Adam Bandt also says he has had it confirmed by Simon Birmingham that the staffer alleged to have raped Brittany Higgins was listed on the attorney-general’s lobbyist register

We got another piece of the information today and that shows is that the individual in question has actually been a lobbyist and the Attorney General lobbyist register which raises questions about how it is that someone who has been sacked from a position in the Government for what the Government says was a security breach but we suspect something more, and that is allowed to start operating as a lobbyist and all the privileges that gives.

We now need to know whether or not as a lobbyist this alleged rapist has been coming back and having meetings with ministers, ministerial staff, departmental officials because not only would they be incredibly inappropriate but it was staff in a situation they may be having to meet with someone that the Government knows has serious questions about them, is now an alleged rapist, coming back into the building and potentially having meetings.

Adam Bandt is also asked about a doctor being able to administer the Pfizer vaccine, without receiving the required training (the government had to correct the record, after originally being advised that the doctor had received the necessary training)

I guess I want to know why and how this situation could happen. It is concerning. I am a supporter of people getting vaccines. I got mine earlier this week as a show of my support.

I was asked by health authorities to do that and I said I would happily do it because I think it is important and I think the vaccination program and the role it needs to occur in a way that people have confidence in and I am very concerned about anything that could undermine confidence in the rollout and that is my main concern.

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Australia’s dingo fence from space: satellite images reveal its effects on landscape

Dingoes eat kangaroos and kangaroos eat grass. So on the side of the fence where dingoes are rare, there is less vegetation

As one of the longest structures in the world, the dingo fence is an Australian landmark. It stretches more than 5,600km across three states, including 150km that traverses the red sand dunes of the Strzelecki Desert.

Since it was established in the early 20th century, the fence has had one job: to keep dingoes out. The effect of this on the environment has been enormous – you can see it from outer space.

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When Daft Punk went to Wee Waa: the strangest album launch of all time

The tiny Australian town was surprised but got into the spirit, selling daft pork sausages and random access rissoles while celebrating a dusty agricultural show it will never forget

In April 2013 word got out that Daft Punk planned to launch their album Random Access Memories from a regional Australian town barely anyone had heard of.

Dubbed the “cotton capital” of Australia, the small town (population 2,000) with the evocative name of Wee Waa in the Narrabri shire of New South Wales was not much known as a dance music hub. The news, which began with murmurs about Sony label reps scoping the area for locations, seemed just bizarre enough to be true. Daft Punk, after all, were never great adherents of the traditional album rollout – and, with the revered French duo announcing their split this week, it’s worth taking ourselves back to their strangest one.

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Perth police hunt man with swastika on forehead who attacked woman using a flamethrower

Authorities say the man yelled racial obscenities during the ‘cowardly and random attack’

West Australian police are hunting a man who had a swastika painted on his head when he allegedly attacked a woman with a makeshift flamethrower.

Police say the 40-year-old woman and her teenage daughter were approached by the man in the southeast Perth suburb of Gosnells on Saturday night.

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Facebook reverses Australia news ban after government makes media code amendments

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announces a compromise has been reached at the 11th hour as the legislation is debated in the Senate

Facebook will restore news to Australian pages in the next few days after the government agreed to change its landmark media bargaining code that would force the social network and Google to pay for displaying news content.

Last week, Facebook blocked all news on its platform in Australia, and inadvertently blocked information and government pages, including health and emergency services.

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No 10 ‘concerned’ about Facebook news shutdown in Australia

Oliver Dowden expected to meet US company, as No 10 says UK will ‘defend free speech and journalism’

The UK government is “obviously concerned” at the repercussions of Facebook’s shutdown of large numbers of news and public information resources in Australia, Downing Street has said, confirming that the culture secretary will meet the US company this week.

Oliver Dowden is “expecting to meet Facebook this week”, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said, adding that the date had yet to be confirmed.

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Call for Reconciliation Australia to pull Woolworths support over Darwin Dan Murphy’s

Indigenous leaders want retailer held accountable over planned alcohol store near three dry communities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and health leaders want Reconciliation Australia to revoke its support for Woolworths over the retail giant’s plans to build one of Australia’s largest alcohol stores in Darwin, near three dry Aboriginal communities.

A letter signed by health, legal, domestic violence and community group leaders draws comparison to Rio Tinto, which was dumped by Reconciliation Australia over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site in the Pilbara, which said Rio’s actions were a “breathtaking breach of a respectful relationship”.

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Australia news live: Covid vaccine rollout begins; more questions over rape allegations

Phase 1a of the vaccine program starts today; questions about the government’s response to Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations dominate parliament. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
• Melbourne doctors under review for promoting discredited Covid treatment
Australia’s first Covid vaccinations rollout out
• Follow the global liveblog

It’s another for the ‘always look at the bright side’ file.

From AAP:

The Morrison government has released the findings of an investigation that the environment minister, Sussan Ley, ordered into her own department over the export of rare and endangered Australian parrots to Germany.

The investigation was prompted by a 2018 investigation by Guardian Australia’s Lisa Cox and Berlin bureau chief Philip Oltermann.

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Third woman says she was sexually assaulted by man accused of raping Brittany Higgins

Attack took place in 2016 when she was a school leaver working as Coalition volunteer, woman says

A third woman has come forward to allege she was sexually assaulted by the same political staffer accused of raping a colleague inside Parliament House.

The woman says she was assaulted while working as a Coalition volunteer during the 2016 election campaign, after a night out drinking with the then-political staffer. She was barely out of school at the time.

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Melbourne doctors under review for promoting discredited Covid treatment

The drug regulator says a group of doctors is being investigated for promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus, against all scientific evidence

Trust the experts, we are told. Believe the science. But what happens when it is a group of eminent doctors who are behind the misinformation – and they back their claims with a superficially convincing bevy of peer-reviewed academic journal articles?

These are the questions raised by the existence of the Covid Medical Network – a company run by three Melbourne doctors that has been promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19 in defiance of the public health authorities, the World Health Organization and most expert medical opinion.

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Staff rebuked over failure to advise him of Brittany Higgins allegations, Scott Morrison says

After comments about a ‘culture of disrespect’, prime minister responded it was not ‘confined to the parliament’

Scott Morrison has indicated that he has reprimanded his staff for not bringing a former government staffer’s rape allegations to his attention as soon as a reporter submitted questions earlier this month.

The prime minister has also taken umbrage at a major business group’s comments about a pervasive “culture of disrespect” in politics, with Morrison responding that “if any workplace thinks that this is just confined to the parliament, they’re kidding themselves”.

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Covid-19 vaccinations begin in Australia with Scott Morrison among first group

Initial group, which includes aged care residents and staff as well as chief medical officer, receive Pfizer vaccine on Sunday

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has received the Pfizer vaccine, as he joined a small first group to be vaccinated against Covid-19 on Sunday – a step the government says is intended to build public confidence in the safety of the vaccines.

Morrison – the 12th member of the group to receive the vaccine at a televised event in Sydney – described it as a “curtain raiser” for the formal start of the vaccine rollout on Monday.

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Australia should resist the march of autocracy, but there will be consequences | Jonathan Pearlman

The old world order is ending. The challenge for Australia is that the driving force behind the change is China, a country so crucial to our future in Asia

In June 1987, a group of world leaders met in Venice to plan global economic policy for the 21st century. The leaders represented seven of the eight wealthiest countries in the world; the Soviet Union was excluded.

Addressing the summit, US president Ronald Reagan described the Soviet Union as an example of “how not to run a country”. But he was less hostile towards China, which was then the world’s ninth-largest economy, just ahead of Spain.

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Australia v Facebook: PM claims tech giant ‘back at the table’ after executive’s apology

Executive Simon Milner apologised after Facebook banned access to health accounts before coronavirus vaccine rollout

Australia’s prime minister says Facebook is back at the negotiating table after the tech giant this week blocked news on its site in the country.

However, despite Scott Morrison saying Facebook has “tentatively friended us again”, the company has publicly indicated no change in its opposition to the proposed law requiring social media platforms to pay for links to news content.

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Australia’s travel bubble with New Zealand to resume as Victoria records no new Covid cases

Quarantine-free travel for New Zealanders entering Australia will restart from Sunday

Australia’s coronavirus travel bubble with New Zealand will recommence on Sunday, the Department of Health has announced.

In a statement issued on Saturday afternoon, the department said “green zone” flights from New Zealand could resume at 12.01am on Sunday, subject to some conditions.

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‘Marginalising our own brothers and sisters’: the disrespect Micronesia has been shown is a tragedy for the Pacific | Surangel Whipps Jr, President of Palau

Micronesia had no choice to but to abandon the Pacific Islands Forum after being ‘thoroughly and publicly disregarded’, the President of Palau writes

What becomes of an organisation when it disregards one-third of its membership? What happens when “we” stops being inclusive?

As the eldest of four, I have always felt responsible for the safety, security, and well-being of my siblings. In my family, “I” has always been synonymous with “we”, the collective, being one inclusive family and ensuring no one is left out. This is what I understand to be the Palauan way; this is what I understand to be the Pacific Way.

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Australian politicians ‘frightened’ of ‘Murdoch media beast’, says Kevin Rudd – video

The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has declared that Australian politicians are frightened of Rupert Murdoch. Speaking under parliamentary privilege at Parliament House in Canberra, Rudd said the ‘Murdoch mob’ was seeking ‘compliant politicians’.

He told an inquiry into media diversity that politicians were fearful of facing a ‘systematic campaign’

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How fires have spread to previously untouched parts of the world

Fires have always been a part of our natural world. But they’re moving to new ecosystems previously untouched by fire – and this is concerning scientists

Wildfires are spreading to fuel-abundant regions of the world that used to be less prone to burning, according to a new analysis of 20 years of data by the Guardian.

While the overall area of annual burn in the world has remained relatively static in this period, the research indicates a shifting regional fire pattern that is affecting more forests and fewer grasslands.

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Sydney hotel quarantine – a photo diary

The photographer Jillian Edelstein flew to Australia in December to visit her mother, who had been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in October. On arrival in Sydney she was bussed to a police hotel. A quarantine exemption was refused so she had to endure a 14-day wait before being able to see her mum. These images form her very personal diary of that experience, some of which she shared on Instagram, edited for publication

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Misinformation runs rampant as Facebook says it may take a week before it unblocks some pages

News remains blocked as satirical websites are reinstated and Qanon and anti-vaxxers continue to be unaffected

Facebook may wait up to a week before unblocking some of the pages of hundreds of non-media organisations hit by its news ban, while anti-vaccination content and misinformation continues to run rampant on the social media platform.

News was blocked on Facebook in Australia on Thursday morning in response to the federal government’s news media code, which would require Facebook to negotiate with news publishers for the payment for content.

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