Category Archives: Australia news

PM names new high court justices as Porter say war crimes investigation ‘detailed and extensive’ – politics live

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Melbourne lockdown lifted as Victoria records two Covid cases and two deaths. Senate estimates looks at Australia’s response to Doha airport incident. Follow live

Students at the University of Sydney have occupied a building on campus that houses the vice-chancellor’s office, in a protest against cuts to staff in medical sciences.

Approximately 50 students are in the building right now, chanting and asking for the vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, to meet with them.

USyd students are currently occupying the universities administration building, where senior management, including Michael Spence, have their offices. Students are refusing to leave until the university commit to reversing all staff and course cuts. #Auspol pic.twitter.com/dnEBFPXg7l

Daniel Andrews has released a statement on the Melbourne Cup:

I have today advised the Victoria Racing Club that connections of horses competing at the Melbourne Cup Carnival will not be permitted to attend the course.

The government has determined that next week is not a suitable time for gatherings of that nature.*

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Coronavirus live news: Germany to move to partial Covid lockdown; Turkish death toll passes 10,000

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Angela Merkel agrees new restrictions from Monday; Turkish health minister describes ‘scary’ rise in cases; coronavirus records tumbling across Europe

I’m handing over now to my colleague Jessica Murray, who will cover the Macron address. It’s been a day of worrying numbers all over Europe, and severe new measures in an attempt to bring the pandemic under control. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events.

•The number of new cases recorded across Europe and beyond continued to grow, with new highs in cases or deaths in many countries, including Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Iran, and Russia.

The French public is preparing for Emmanuel Macron’s address at 8pm local time (about 20 minutes from the timestamp on this post), in which he is expected to announce a raft of new measures to combat the spread of coronavirus.

With many doctors calling for a nationwide lockdown, France 24 reports damning comments from Frederic Valletoux, president of the French Hospital Federation:

The government didn’t take into account what the first wave was and didn’t learn all its lessons... this wave will be much more devastating for the hospital system. Hospitals won’t manage if we don’t take drastic measures.

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Qatar expresses ‘regret’ after women from 10 flights taken for medical examinations at Doha airport

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Australia’s foreign minister says 18 women, including 13 Australians, on Qatar Airways flight were subjected to compulsory intimate searches

The government of Qatar has said it “regrets any distress or infringement on the personal freedom of any traveller” caused by a decision to conduct intimate medical examinations of women transiting through Doha international airport, in what it said was an “urgently-decided search” to find the mother of an abandoned baby.

On Wednesday morning the Australian government confirmed that 18 women on a flight from Doha to Sydney were subjected to the compulsory medical examination, including 13 Australian citizens. Passengers from 10 flights leaving Doha on the evening of 2 October were affected.

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Fish that eat microplastics take more risks and die younger, study shows

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Joint study conducted finds that fish fed a diet including plastic were more likely to be eaten themselves

Microplastics can alter the behaviour of fish, with those that ingest the pollutants likely to be bolder, more active and swim in risky areas where they die en masse, according to a new study.

The survival risk posed by microplastics is also exacerbated by degrading coral reefs, as dying corals make particularly younger fish more desperate to find nutrition and shelter, and to venture into waters where they are more likely to be taken by predators themselves.

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The graphs that show Australia’s achievement in stopping second-wave Covid outbreak

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A visual comparison of the country’s epidemic curve compared with other nations

The Australian state of Victoria has achieved a remarkable reduction in Covid-19 case numbers after a lengthy period of restrictions.

To put this achievement in context – Australia has done what very few countries have achieved in effectively suppressing a second-wave outbreak from a high point of more than 700 new cases a day. Victoria has now recorded only two cases in three days and lockdown restrictions are being eased.

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Asic admits it acted at ‘glacial’ pace over rent payments to deputy chairman

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Acting chair Karen Chester confirms at Senate inquiry that some of the advice KPMG gave its chairman related to tax minimisation

The acting chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Karen Chester, has admitted to parliament that the regulator acted with “glacial” speed in dealing with concerns about rent payments to its deputy chairman, Daniel Crennan QC.

Last week the auditor general, Grant Hehir, told the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, that payments of about $70,000 to Crennan and $118,000 to KPMG for tax advice it gave to the Asic chairman, James Shipton, breached public service pay rules.

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Eggs Benedict and tattoos: what Melburnians are looking forward to when lockdown ends

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Some are packing their next few weeks full of activities, while others just want a chance to decompress

After a long dark night, there always comes the dawn, and for many Melburnians that dawn is a good strong coffee.

That’s certainly what retiree James Green missed the most. Visiting his local cafe is on the top of his list of things to do on Wednesday when hospitality venues in Melbourne are finally allowed to reopen.

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Global coronavirus report: Italian police use tear gas to disperse lockdown protests

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WHO tells countries ‘not to give up’ as virus fatigue sets in; street clashes in Barcelona; US daily deaths rise 10% in two weeks

Police in Italy have fired tear gas to disperse angry crowds in the northern cities of Turin and Milan after protests against the latest round of anti-coronavirus restrictions flared into violence.

As the head of the World Health Organization urged countries “not to give up” in their fight to contain the virus, luxury goods shops, including a Gucci fashion shop, were ransacked in the centre of Turin as crowds of youths took to the streets after nightfall, letting off firecrackers and lighting coloured flares.

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Daniel Andrews gives Covid update as Victoria records zero coronavirus cases and Melbourne lockdown lifted – live

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Premier expected to announce more details of city’s reopening after record-breaking Covid-19 lockdown, as federal parliament and Senate estimates return and questions continue over management of Australia Post. Follow latest updates

The rules for household visits will go through share houses, teenagers and who can visit who after a visit.

But they are complicated, so I will wait to go through them and then bring them to you once they are clear.

Back at Treasury estimates, the Labor senator Katy Gallagher is attempting to get either officials or the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, to acknowledge that workers earning less than $80,000 will get less tax relief in 2024-25 than they will get this year because of the one-off extension of the $1,080 offset in the October budget.

Treasury officials say the extension of the offset is a “classic stimulus measure” so it shouldn’t form part of an assessment of the tax scales in future years. They say this year’s budget includes extending the offset (the stimulus measure) and a tax cut through the bringing forward of the stage two tax cuts (a structural change).

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Coronavirus live news: Germany ‘could hit 20,000 new infections within days’; protests flare in Italy

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German minister warns about exponential rise in new cases; protests against Covid restrictions turn violent in Milan and Turin

One of the world’s leading Covid-19 experimental vaccines produces an immune response in older adults as well as the young, its developers say, raising hopes of protection for those most vulnerable to the coronavirus that has caused social and economic chaos around the world.

Neither Oxford University nor its commercial partner AstraZeneca would release the data from the early trials showing the positive effects, which are being submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. But AstraZeneca confirmed the basic findings about the vaccine it calls AZD1222, which were shared at a closed academic meeting.

Related: Oxford Covid vaccine works in all ages, trials suggest

Structural racism led to the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in the UK, a review by Dame Doreen Lawrence has concluded.

The report, commissioned by Labour, contradicts the government’s adviser on ethnicity, Dr Raghib Ali, who last week dismissed claims that inequalities within government, health, employment and the education system help to explain why Covid-19 killed disproportionately more people from minority ethnic communities.

Related: Structural racism led to worse Covid impact on BAME groups – report

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews says ‘now is the time to open up’ after Victoria records no Covid cases

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From midnight tomorrow night Melbourne businesses will be able to start reopening as restrictions ease. Follow all the latest updates

If I could shout you all one, I would.

Unfortunately, I don’t get paid that much.

the culture pic.twitter.com/mfUM4aFIFc

Daniel Andrews is asked if he would have done anything different in hindsight:

I don’t have hindsight. None of us do.

All we have his hard work and an absolute determination do not listen to the loudest voices, not be pushed to ignore the science, not listen to those who would appeal for us to act out of absolute frustration and nothing more than that.

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Coronavirus live news: China confirms 137 local cases as Spain enters state of emergency

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Restrictions eased in Australian state of Victoria; WHO warns against ‘vaccine nationalism’; Israel to begin first vaccine clinical trials next month. Follow the latest updates

South Korea urged citizens to get vaccinated against influenza and reduce the chances of an outbreak that coincides with the battle against the coronavirus, as it kicked off free inoculations for the last eligible group, Reuters reports.

Public anxiety over the safety of flu vaccines has surged after at least 48 people died this month following vaccinations.

Authorities have said they found no direct link between the deaths and the flu shots and have sought to reassure South Koreans about the safety of the vaccines against flu, a disease that kills at least 3,000 each year.

However, last month, about 5 million doses had to be disposed of after not being stored at recommended temperatures.

Singapore has temporarily halted the use of two influenza vaccines as a precaution after these deaths, becoming among the first countries to publicly announce a halt of the vaccines’ usage. Singapore has reported no deaths linked to flu vaccinations.

India’s total coronavirus infections stood at 7.91 million on Monday, having risen by 45,148 cases in the last 24 hours, health ministry data showed.

The world’s second-most populous country also has the second-highest number of infections after the United States, which has around 8.1 million.

However, India recorded its lowest death toll in about four months on Monday with 480 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, taking total fatalities to 119,014.

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‘I was absolutely terrified’: Australian witness recounts Qatar strip-search ordeal

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Kim Mills was one of nine women taken off a Qatar Airways flight in Doha, and the only one not to be strip-searched as authorities hunted the mother of an abandoned newborn baby

An Australian woman has described the “terrifying” experience of being taken off a Qatar Airways flight by authorities who strip-searched passengers as they tried to identify the mother of an infant found in the Doha airport toilets.

Kim Mills was one of nine women taken off a Qatar Airways flight bound for Sydney on 2 October and led through the bowels of the Hamad International airport to what appeared to be a dark carpark or turning circle, where three ambulances were waiting to perform medical examinations to determine if any of the women had recently given birth.

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Australia is part of a Black region, it should recognise Kanaky ambition in New Caledonia | Hamish McDonald

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Australia’s un-nuanced support for French dominion is unhelpful in a region where decolonisation is unfinished business

Kicking the can down the road is a time-honoured solution to deadlocks over statehood and identity: hoping time, consultation and money can end up in agreement.

But in New Caledonia, the French territory of 290,000 people in the Melanesian island chain to Australia’s north-east, the road is running out after more than two decades of can-kicking.

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John Kerr’s letters to the Queen’s private secretary: ‘A raw display of devastation’

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Newly released letters written by the former governor general show he regarded his forced resignation under the Fraser government as the ultimate betrayal

In the cryptic taxonomy of archives, the relationship between Sir John Kerr and the Queen stretches beyond the palace letters and into obscure files scattered throughout the National Archives of Australia and elsewhere. The most surprising of these is a new set of letters between Kerr and Sir Martin Charteris in the National Archives of Australia.

From all these archives – in personal letters, Kerr’s rambling handwritten notes, and his unguarded personal reflections – a common theme emerges: the involvement of the palace in every step Kerr took, and every decision he made, regarding the dismissal of Gough Whitlam and its gathering aftermath, including even his own resignation. It is impossible to separate Kerr’s decisions from his intractable view of his “duty” to the monarch and the monarchy, presented to him so clearly in the months before the dismissal by Queen’s private secretary, the unctuous Charteris.

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Australia demands answers after women taken from Qatar Airways flight and strip-searched

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Thirteen Australians reportedly among women taken off flight at Doha and subjected to medical examination after newborn found abandoned in airport

The Australian government has registered “serious concerns” with Qatari authorities after women on a flight from Doha to Sydney were ordered to disembark the plane and subjected to a strip search and a medical examination.

Flight QR908 to Sydney was due to leave Hamad International airport at Doha at 8.30 on Friday 2 October, but was delayed for four hours, apparently after a newborn infant was found dead in the airport.

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Coronavirus live news: UK targets vaccine for NHS staff ‘by Christmas’; Melbourne delays easing of restrictions

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France, Italy, Austria and Greece report record increases in Covid-19 cases; Melbourne cluster grows. Follow the latest updates live

More than 100 inmates have tested positive for covid-19 at Indonesia’s Kerobokan prison, on the island of Bali.

The Jakarta Post reports today on a growing cluster inside the notorious prison, detected after complaints of symptoms by some inmates prompted mass testing earlier this week.

Here is our full report on the latest from Victoria, Australia, where the country’s largest outbreak and which sparked one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, is being brought under control. From Calla Wahlquist:

Daniel Andrews has delayed an announcement about easing coronavirus restrictions in Melbourne pending the outcome of tests connected to an outbreak in the northern suburbs, prompting criticism from the business community, the state opposition, the federal government and his own former health minister.

In a heated press conference, the Victorian premier said he had “hoped” to be able to announce significant steps about opening up the retail and hospitality industries from the middle of the week.

Related: Daniel Andrews under fire over delayed easing of restrictions after seven new cases reported

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Coronavirus live: global Covid cases reach new record for third day in a row, WHO reports

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Latest updates: Spain declares new national state of emergency; Dr Anthony Fauci tempers expectation of vaccine breakthrough in 2020

The US saw its highest ever number of new coronavirus cases in the past two days, keeping the pandemic a top election issue as Vice president Mike Pence travels the country to campaign despite close aides testing positive.

The US reported 79,852 new infections on Saturday, close to the previous day’s record of 84,244 new cases, as we reported earlier.

The Czech government will almost certainly have to tighten its anti-coronavirus measures again as current curbs have not halted a surge in infections, prime minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday.

Cases are up across Europe, but the Czech Republic has recorded the sharpest rises in infections on the continent in recent weeks, Reuters reports.

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Regional Victoria ‘step 3’ coronavirus roadmap restrictions and lockdown rules explained

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Regional Victoria has now moved to ‘step three’ of the roadmap out of lockdown. Here’s what you need to know

Regional Victoria has consistently outperformed its metropolitan counterpart in suppressing the Covid-19 virus and as such is subject to significantly fewer restrictions.

Currently, it is in the third step of the state’s roadmap out of lockdown allowing for a significant reopening of the retail and hospitality industries.

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Australian production of non-protein Covid-19 vaccine may take an extra year, minister says

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Industry minister says, depending on type of vaccine approved, ‘significant work’ may be required before production

It could take up to a year for Australian biotech company CSL to develop the capability to make a Covid-19 vaccine if a non-protein-based version proves safe and effective, the country’s industry minister has said.

Karen Andrews said CSL would be able to immediately start making a protein-based vaccine, but “significant work” would be required if it was another type based on mRNA, or messenger ribonucleic acid.

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