Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Victoria will enter a snap five-day coronavirus lockdown from Saturday in an attempt to halt the spread of a UK variant outbreak in response to its hyper-infectivity. Premier Dan Andrews made the announcement that will see the entire state return to stage 4 restrictions where Victorians are only able to leave their homes for four permitted reasons: shopping for essential items, essential work, exercise for two hours a day, or caregiving for compassionate reasons. Masks will be compulsory in all settings outside the home, all private gatherings are barred and a 5km ban on movement has been reintroduced
Victoria will enter a “circuit-breaker” five-day lockdown from Saturday in an attempt to “prevent a third wave”, Daniel Andrews has announced.
The premier said on Friday afternoon the government would impose a snap lockdown from midnight because the “hyper-infectivity” and speed of a UK variant outbreak had created a “very real challenge”.
Things aren’t looking amazing for Melburnians hoping to see their Queensland lovers for Valentine’s Day. But until we hear the Queensland health minister’s announcement at 12.15pm Brisbane time, I guess there is still hope!
Queensland acting health minister @StevenJMiles will be speaking about the unfolding virus situation in Melbourne at 12:15pm (Brisbane time).
People who have visited virus exposure sites in Melbourne are already barred from entering after 1am on Saturday.#qldpol#auspol
All of Melbourne Airport Terminal 4 is now considered a hotspot, not just Brunetti Cafe anymore.
Anyone who visited this location on Tuesday 9 February between 4.45am and 2.00pm must isolate, test and remain isolated for 14 days.
Following further investigation by our public health team Terminal 4, Melbourne Airport has been added to our list of Tier 1 exposure sites.
Anyone who visited this location on Tuesday 9th February between 04:45am – 2:00pm must isolate, test and remain isolated for 14 days.
Federal minister says regional Australia is ‘not just about farmers’ and party must represent diverse views
Victorian Nationals MP, Darren Chester, has warned his party to listen to its diverse heartland and be “part of the solution” when it comes to practical environmentalism and emissions reductions rather than “sideline ourselves from big debates”.
The federal veterans’ affairs minister used an interview on Sky News on Thursday to push back at National party colleagues who declared they would cross the floor if the prime minister, Scott Morrison, tried to legislate a mid-century net zero commitment.
Jessica Elgot and John Crace look at why the latest coronavirus travel restrictions might not work the way the government expects. Plus, Helen Davidson and Jon Henley on how the world sees the UK’s Covid response
In response to the myriad of new Covid-19 variants entering the UK, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced in the Commons on Tuesday that travellers arriving from coronavirus hotspots who refuse to adhere to the new restrictions could face £10,000 fines and jail sentences of up to 10 years. The move might seem extreme, but given how long we have known about variants cropping up since the new year, many are asking, is it too little too late?
Federal and state governments are being urged to respond to the effects of the climate crisis and to Indigenous rights to water
States and the federal government should forge a new compact on water policy that explicitly recognises climate change, and which sets “triggers” for rapid policy responses, the Productivity Commission has said.
Releasing its draft report on national water reform, the commission has called for a substantial overhaul of the 17-year-old National Water Initiative, a bedrock document that commits the states and federal government to working together on water policy as well as outlining a work program for the future.
The generation gap is growing into a chasm because of the refusal to listen to young people about their experiences
Name: Melis Layik
Age: 21
Writing about your life experiences on the internet is always bound to elicit some distasteful responses. The comments sections on social media posts can teem with bigotry and chaos. Despite knowing all this, I was taken aback by the scorn and contempt levelled at me in some of the responses to my diaries in this series.
NSW and Victoria report no new local Covid cases as hotel quarantine worker in Melbourne diagnosed with UK variant. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
On the vaccine distribution in Australia, Paul Kelly says it is still on track for the first injections to be happening before the end of February, but will not put an exact timeline on it.
The aim will be to get 20 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine before the end of this year, in weekly deliveries. Kelly said the AstraZeneca and Novovax vaccines will also be used if and when they are approved by the TGA:
We don’t want a lot of vaccines sitting out in warehouses, so we will be looking to roll out particularly for those priority populations that people will know about now, as soon as we can. But then will be going back to the same population, those people, to give them a second dose. That is really important.
We will await the TGA advice in relation to AstraZeneca but some of the information that has been coming up in the last few weeks is that it may actually be a longer interval for that second dose.”
Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, is also moving to reassure people about the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.
He said it was still in the process of being approved by the Therapeutics Goods Administration, and talked down claims it was less effective in treating the South African variant of the virus.
I just want to make a very clear statement about people taking small amounts of information quickly, without looking at it carefully. And making conclusions. At the moment, I can absolutely say, and this may change in future, and we will be nimble in the way we look at that information, and putting that into our planning, but at the moment, there’s no evidence anywhere in the world AstraZeneca effectiveness against severe infection is affected by any of these variants of concern.
And that is the fact. What we have at the moment is a small group of people in a study not yet peer-reviewed or published in South Africa where there was an effect on the mild or moderate disease in relation to that variant of concern in that country. But there were no severe infections in any of the people that received the vaccine in regards to any of those types of the virus.”
Foreign minister Marise Payne says Australia stands up for its citizens but that does not mean it’s interfering with China’s legal system
The Australian government has rejected China’s claims of meddling after Canberra called for the detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei to be treated humanely, while the head of the security committee has labelled the accusation as “absurd”.
Chinese authorities have confirmed that Cheng – an anchor for the Chinese state-owned English-language news channel China Global Television Network – has been formally arrested “on suspicion of illegally providing state secrets to foreign forces” after nearly six months of detention.
Melbourne quarantine hotel worker tests positive to virus; NSW issues alert over returned traveller case. This blog is now closed.
That’s where we will leave the live blog for Monday. Here’s what you might have missed today:
AAP has the latest on Covid restrictions in Western Australia:
Face masks are mandatory for teachers and secondary students, a precaution that’s part of transition arrangements for Perth and Peel, after the five-day lockdown sparked by a hotel quarantine security guard’s infection.
Australian billionaire previously called out for not criticising abuse despite Minderoo Foundation campaigning against slavery
Andrew Forrest’s philanthropic arm has publicly condemned the “forced labour and human rights abuses against the Uighur population”, as Human Rights Watch made a rare call for Australia to adopt targeted measures against China to halt imports linked to forced labour.
Forrest has previously been criticised for his refusal to condemn Beijing’s treatment of the Uighur minority despite funding a highly public campaign against modern-day slavery and forced labour.
Calls renewed for humane treatment of news anchor after arrest ‘on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas’
Chinese authorities have formally arrested the detained Australian citizen Cheng Lei “on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas”, prompting fresh calls for the journalist to be treated humanely.
Cheng, an anchor for the Chinese state-owned English-language news channel China Global Television Network, has been detained in China since mid-August, but the decision to proceed to the next stage of criminal proceedings marks a blow to her hopes of release.
I sleep in the front seat with Finley, my terrier. If the jobseeker rise was permanent I think I could afford to move into a home
As told to Luke Henriques-Gomes: My name is Joey King and I am 52 years old. For nearly two years I have mostly been living in my car and on what [used to be] called Newstart, now the jobseeker payment.
When the coronavirus supplement started last April – adding an extra $550 a fortnight to my payment – it made a big difference.
Kate Bingham says ‘the UK had a very strategic approach … to secure vaccines quickly. The European approach … was more about making sure you got the best value for money’
Venetians have celebrated a very different carnival this year, without the usual crowds of tourists, Reuters reported.
“It’s totally surreal,” said 47-year-old carnival-goer Chiara Ragazzon, an office worker. “What hits me most is the silence. You’ve always been able to hear music during the carnival, people having fun. But Venice in the fog - it’s still a magical place.”
Ragazzon and her husband had ventured into Venice from their home around 50 kilometres (30 miles) away.
More than 12 million people in the UK have now received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to government data up to and including 6 February.
Deputy PM says he’s focusing on now, not 2050, as Coalition’s climate skirmishes go on
The Coalition is facing an increasingly testy party room as it struggles to land on a climate policy, with the Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, declaring he is “not worried about what might happen in 30 years’ time”.
The deputy prime minister said excluding agriculture from Australia’s attempts to reach net zero emissions by 2050 may be one option.
When I tried to return from Jersey to Australia, I had no idea the journey would lead me through 16 cities in nine countries, and take nearly five months
On the morning of 1 July last year, while sitting in my apartment in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, I got the phone call I had dreaded since I moved to Australia.
Police say a Holden Statesman ‘aggressively’ following a stolen Hyundai i35 hit a motorcycle head-on, leaving the rider dead
The death of a motorcyclist in Townsville has prompted police warnings about the dangers of continued vigilante action in the city.
Police said a grey Holden Statesman was “aggressively” following a stolen silver Hyundai i35 at speed late on Friday night in Thuringowa Central, in the city’s south-west.
The state is on the cusp of granting $2bn or more in licences, but has no way of measuring how much water will be returned to parched river systems
In the next week or two, the NSW government will reveal how many floodplain harvesting licences it intends to grant in the Gwydir valley, home to some of the biggest cotton producers in the country.
It’s the next chapter in a process that will grant between $2bn and $4bn in water entitlements to farmers as part of a plan to control and regularise a practice that captures billions of litres of water for irrigation during high-rainfall events.
Kayley Ketley and Latia Henderson allegedly detained the 24-year-old victim in Sydney before driving south on the Hume Highway
An alleged kidnapping victim who was rescued after waving through a hole in her own car’s boot had been detained for 13 hours, a NSW court has been told.
The 24-year-old woman was found with multiple stab wounds in the boot of her Holden sedan after it was pulled over on the Hume Highway at Berrima, south of Sydney, on Wednesday.