Category Archives: Australia news

Morrison government asleep at the wheel when it comes to China, Labor says

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Richard Marles accuses the Coalition of mishandling a relationship that ‘needs to be managed by the adults in the room’

The Morrison government has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to the relationship with China, while its handling of a submarine project has made Australians less safe, the deputy Labor leader has declared.

In a sharpening of the opposition’s political attack following months of restraint during the coronavirus pandemic, Richard Marles accused the Coalition of mismanaging ties with Australia’s largest trading partner by failing to speak with a single, clear message.

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Victoria’s contact-tracing effort buckles under the weight of Covid-19 cases

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ANU’s Peter Collignon says what’s important now is making sure people who test positive stay at home

Victoria’s rise in Covid-19 case numbers is occurring so rapidly that contact tracing can no longer be relied upon to unearth all potential clusters in the state, according to epidemiologists who argue health detective work “won’t make much difference when you’ve got thousands of active cases potentially out there”.

On Monday the state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said there were “literally thousands on the phone who are chasing up close contacts and who are talking to them about what quarantine requires of them”, after reports that some close contacts of confirmed cases were waiting up to a week for contact from the state instructing them to self-isolate.

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Jacinda Ardern: no trans-Tasman travel bubble for ‘some time to come’ – video

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New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern says while there was no timeframe on plans for a trans-Tasman travel bubble that would include Australia, the rise in Covid-19 cases in Victoria means it won't happen for some time to come. Once hopeful of including other countries in the Pacific region in the travel bubble, Ardern has confirmed New Zealand's borders will remain closed until the risk of coronavirus entering the country through visitors can be minimised. 'We wish Victoria all the very best as they continue to combat what is a devastating situation,' she said, 'but I think the reality for both of us is this is going to slow things down for us'

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria premier Daniel Andrews to announce more stage four restrictions as NSW reports 13 new Covid-19 cases – latest news

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Premier to outline further details of state’s new lockdown, including business shutdowns. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

NSW police have released information on the fines they have issued for social distance breaches:

Police have issued a total of 16 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) for non-compliance with Covid-19 Public Health Orders across the weekend.

The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions – not known for being on the same side of a lot of issues – have released a joint letter calling for a paid pandemic leave scheme:

Dear Attorney,

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Coronavirus live news: world may never find ‘silver bullet’ Covid vaccine, says WHO

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Covid-19 survivors have higher rates of mental ill-health, study says; Belgium sees ICU admissions double; Singapore to use electronic tags to monitor some travellers

Here are the main headlines from our global coronavirus coverage so far on Monday:

About 1.5 million Italians - 2.5% of the population of Italy- may have already contracted coronavirus, nationwide antibody tests indicate, according to the Associated Press.

The figure, announced by health officials on Monday, is six times the number of confirmed cases in Italy’s official virus tally. The results — viewed with the country’s overall death toll of close to 35,000 —align with a 2.3% estimated mortality rate of the virus.

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Coronavirus global report: ‘response fatigue’ fears as Mexico hits 9,000 daily cases

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Many countries that believed they were past the worst are grappling with new outbreaks, says WHO

Mexico has recorded more than 9,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time, as the country overtook the UK with the world’s third-highest number of deaths from the pandemic after the US and Brazil.

The surging numbers were reported as the World Health Organization warned of “response fatigue” and a resurgence of cases in several countries that have lifted lockdowns.

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Does stage 4 ‘shock and awe’ in Melbourne mean we should have gone for elimination of coronavirus after all? | Gay Alcorn

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Declaring a ‘state of disaster’ in Victoria gives police more authority, and hope that Covid cases can be contained within six weeks

Even the vast majority of Victorians who accepted stage 3 restrictions as necessary, if depressing, would have been confronted by what premier Daniel Andrews announced on Sunday. They were the tightest coronavirus restrictions ever imposed in Australia and among the toughest in the world.

Melburnians had just got used to compulsory mask wearing and now are to be confined to their homes from 8pm to 5am except for medical reasons or for essential work, at the risk of a $1,652 fine if they break curfew. Had this ever happened outside war time? There was no such curfew in New Zealand even in their “go early and go hard” response earlier this year.

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Coronavirus live news: Victoria declares state of disaster and nightly curfew for Melbourne

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Hundreds of ‘mystery cases’ have forced decision in Australian state; UK planning to avoid a second national lockdown; South Africa’s cases pass 500,000

Coronavirus infections in the Philippines surged past 100,000 Sunday in a troubling milestone after medical groups declared that the country was waging a losing battle against the virus and asked the president to reimpose a lockdown in the capital.

The Department of Health reported a record-high daily tally of 5,032, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 103,185, including more than 2,000 deaths, the Associated Press news agency reports.

In the UK, where police have broken up several large dance parties since the lockdown began earlier this year, a warning has been issued to people to stay away from an area in south-west England, where they have been forced to break up a rave attended by a “large volume” of partygoers.

Gloucestershire police sent out this tweet this morning:

Police are currently in the Forest of Dean near to Speculation Car Park dispersing a rave. People are advised not to attend the area due to safety and Covid risks. This will likely take some time to resolve this issue. pic.twitter.com/rtYrXSqWb3

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Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne a hammer blow to Covid-weakened Australian economy

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Federal government may need to give financial aid to sustain Australia’s second biggest economy to limit flow-on effects throughout country

The strict new stage 4 lockdown announced by the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, along with the shutdown of certain industries to be unveiled on Monday, represents a hammer blow to the Australian economy.

They immediately invalidate federal Treasury forecasts released less than a fortnight ago and will require the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to tip buckets of money into Victoria if Australia is to avoid prolonging and deepening what is already an economic disaster.

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Global report: curfew in Australia’s second-largest city as Mexico racks up daily record

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Surging ‘mystery cases’ put Melbourne in stage 4 restrictions; media banned from Republican convention; Mexico deaths are world’s third highest

The Australian state of Victoria has declared a state of disaster and placed Melbourne, the country’s second biggest city, under nighttime curfew as it grapples with hundreds of “mystery cases” of coronavirus.

As countries around the world including the US, the UK and Spain reimpose varying degrees of lockdowns, the Victorian premier announced that the state had to impose the highest level of restrictions in order to overcome a stubbornly high number of cases that cannot be traced.

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Close encounter: mother and calf humpback whales stun surfers at Sydney’s Manly beach

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Images show dozens of surfers about 10 metres from whales, which migrate up and down the Australian coast

A humpback whale calf, closely followed by its mother, came within metres of surfers and swimmers at Manly beach, in Sydney’s north, on Sunday afternoon.

It is unusual to see a whale calf so early in the year in Sydney. Eastern Australian humpbacks migrate north from Antarctica, along the coast to tropical waters in north Queensland from April to July.

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Melbourne is shaking with fear of coronavirus – and nothing is like the first wave | Sophie Black

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We know we’re the cautionary tale that the rest of the country is scaring themselves with in order to keep 1.5 metres apart

The morale-boosting markers that were shared across Melbourne during the first lockdown have all but disappeared. Rainbows have peeled off fences, forgotten teddy bears are wedged between Venetian blinds and most of the chalk messages have long washed away.

“This isn’t like the first wave,” our chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said on the Saturday. By the Monday, with the daily presser citing our then record highest number of Covid cases at 532, and cement grey cloud obscuring the sun, Melbourne felt done in. Come Thursday, under a blue sky, with blossoms out and wattle blazing, Victoria clocked 723 – a number that winded the city. And now the fear is back.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports 627 new Covid-19 cases and eight more deaths as restrictions considered

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Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews have discussed next steps as Covid-19 infections continue to rise. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

A person in Orange, in regional NSW, has tested positive to Covid-19.

The person is a close contact with a known cluster in Sydney, Western NSW Local Health District chief executive Scott McLachlan said today.

The case is currently in isolation in the Orange Local Government Area, but has a residential address outside of the health district. The case is linked to a known cluster in Sydney.

The public health unit has contacted all close contacts. They have been provided with public health information which includes to be tested for Covid-19 and remain in isolation for 14 days.

There are currently 12 people with Covid-19 in hospital in NSW and eight in intensive care, with four of those people on ventilators. About 90 people are being treated for Covid-19 in non-acute, out-of-hospital care.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert granted meeting with Australian ambassador to Iran

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Exclusive: British-Australian academic will meet diplomat for first time since sudden move to a new notorious prison

The imprisoned British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert is set to be granted a meeting with Australia’s ambassador to Iran as soon as Sunday.

Following reports in the Guardian that Dr Moore-Gilbert was seriously unwell in Qarchak prison and had been removed from quarantine because she was attempting to write to the ambassador for help, the state-run Mizan news agency reported she was in “perfect health”.

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Parts of northern England face new restrictions – as it happened

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Spain reports 1,229 new infections; France rules out full lockdown despite rise in cases; Japan sees record high for new cases for second day in a row. This blog is now closed. Stay up to date on our new blog below

We closing this blog now, but you can stay up to date on all of the latest global coronavirus news on our new blog below.

Related: Coronavirus live news: England tightens restrictions, WHO says 'young people' behind some spikes

And finally... just minutes before the new restrictions come into force, the Department of Health has finally posted some more details of the rules on its website.

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Coronavirus live news: France rules out ‘catastrophic’ second national lockdown despite rise in infections

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French prime minister says full lockdown must be avoided; number of global cases passes 17m; Japan to lift ban on re-entry of some foreign residents starting next week

Governments have the right to restrict protests on public health grounds, within reason, the UN Human Rights Committee said, as demonstrations clash with coronavirus outbreaks around the world.

The committee stepped in to formulate its legal interpretation having seen a gap in the international norms being tested before the pandemic started, since when the matter has become more pressing.

The protection of ‘public health’ ground may exceptionally permit restrictions to be imposed, for example where there is an outbreak of an infectious disease and gatherings are dangerous.

It’s understandable and acceptable that for health reasons there may be limits on your rights.

The Philippine government’s Covid-19 task force confirmed 3,954 new infections on Thursday, the country’s largest single-day increase in new cases.

The information on the surge in infections, which was a sharp increase from the record 2,539 cases confirmed on 8 July, was mentioned in a regular circular issued by the inter-agency task force.

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Ruby Princess passengers let off ship after border force officer confused flu and coronavirus test results

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Labor again calls on the Morrison government to apologise ‘for failing to stop the one boat that mattered’

An Australian Border Force officer who inspected the Ruby Princess mistakenly believed passengers with flu-like symptoms had tested negative to Covid-19 when they had in fact tested negative to the flu.

That revelation, first reported by the ABC, is contained in documents to the New South Wales inquiry into the disastrous mid-March decision to allow 2,700 passengers to disembark the ship responsible for hundreds of Covid-19 cases and at least 22 deaths.

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New closing the gap agreement commits governments to work in partnership with Aboriginal groups

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Four priority reforms and 16 socio-economic targets to focus on housing, early childhood and justice

The new national agreement on closing the gap has been released. The culmination of months of negotiation between Aboriginal peak organisations and governments, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, says it is “built on mutual trust, shared responsibility, dignity and respect”.

Four priority reforms and 16 socio-economic targets commit federal, state and territory governments to work in partnership with Aboriginal organisations to design and deliver on priority areas such as housing, early childhood and justice reform.

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Coronavirus live news: US deaths near 150,000 as Italy extends state of emergency

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Trump blames US case surge on protestors; WHO warns pandemic is “one big wave”, not seasonal; Air travel not expected to recover until 2024. Follow the latest updates

Florida reported another record one-day rise in coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, and cases in Texas passed the 400,000 mark, fueling fear that the United States is still not taking control of the outbreak and adding pressure on Congress to pass another massive economic aid package.

Public health experts are becoming concerned about the levels of infection in states such as Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and Kentucky, while the surge in Florida along with Texas, Arizona and California this month has strained many hospitals.

Related: Covid-19: Florida reports record one-day deaths as concerns grow for other states

US officials say Russian intelligence services are using a trio of English-language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, seeking to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain ahead of the presidential election in November.

Two Russians who have held senior roles in Moscow’s military intelligence service known as the GRU have been identified as responsible for a disinformation effort reaching American and western audiences, US government officials said on Tuesday. They spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Related: Russia used English-language sites to spread Covid-19 disinformation, US officials say

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