Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Coalition to introduce laws to prevent Australian governments and universities making ‘detrimental’ deals with foreign powers
The Morrison government will pursue new powers to stop state, territory and local governments and universities entering agreements with foreign governments that it considers detrimental to Australia’s foreign policy objectives.
The government will introduce legislation next week empowering the foreign affairs minister to review and cancel agreements – such as Victoria’s decision to sign up to China’s belt and road initiative – if the commonwealth judges the arrangement adversely affects Australia’s foreign relations.
Emily Thornberry labels ex-Australian PM a ‘Trump-worshipping misogynist’ amid reports of role
The shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, has condemned reports that Boris Johnson is preparing to appoint the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott to a senior trade role, calling Abbott a “Trump-worshipping misogynist”.
The Department of Trade declined to comment publicly on Wednesday but insisted no decision had yet been made, after the Sun reported that Abbott would be given a leading role on the board of trade.
Scott Morrison made plenty of time to set a test for Anthony Albanese’s leadership in June, when the Victorian Labor branch stacking allegations were revealed - there were interviews and question time attacks and comments about being focussed on jobs while the Labor party was in rack and ruin.
But now that he is facing questions over the Liberals behaviour in Victoria, which implicates one of his own frontbenchers - Michael Sukkar, Morrison is very busy being focussed solely on the pandemic.
These matters have been referred by the Department of Finance and that’s the appropriate response and that’s where... No, I’ve been dealing with the COVID crisis. I’ve been dealing with getting people back into jobs. The matter has been referred to the Department of Finance. I don’t think that Australians would want me distracked by those issues at all.
This is quite the declaration of war within the Queensland Labor party - the CFMEU has announced it is immediately quitting the left faction.
That will have some serious implications for the power balance in the party:
The CFMEU will be withdrawing from the left faction of the Queensland ALP, effective immediately.
Both the Mining and the Construction & General divisions of the CFMEU have decided the union can be a more effective advocate for workers as a voice totally independent of a faction that has lost touch with its core values.
The textbook, which has now been recalled, includes passages that critics believe endorse China’s authoritarian rule and are ‘straight out of the party playbook’
A textbook used in some Victorian schools includes portions that repeat Chinese Communist party propaganda and features a controversial map in which China claims most of the South China Sea in contradiction of Australian government policy.
The Guardian can reveal concerns about the material have prompted the publisher, Cengage Learning Asia, to recall unsold copies of the textbook, which the Melbourne-based authors said they had written to suit the course design of the Victorian senior school subject Chinese language, culture and society.
Carnival’s Princess Cruises has said it will cancel early 2021 cruises on two ships, citing travel, border and port restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cruise lines, hammered by a crisis that has seen some ships turn into infection hotspots, had earlier said they were expecting solid 2021 bookings, mainly as repeat cruisers were eager to book their trips.
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has called the Department of Education change on face coverings a “half baked U-turn”.
Parents and schools needed clarity and leadership, but instead the government have just passed the buck back to them.
Face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas in schools.
It was inevitable that the policy on face coverings would change following guidance from the World Health Organization, and we recognise that the government in Westminster has responded to our call for a quick direction on this matter with the reopening of schools imminent.
The new policy is discretionary, other than in places where coronavirus restrictions apply, and secondary school and college leaders will welcome the flexibility this affords them to decide what best suits their circumstances.
Report finds climate change ‘clearly played a role’ in conditions that led up to Australia’s 2019-2020 fires, which were so extreme, traditional firefighting methods often failed
Last summer’s bushfire disaster was so unusual that traditional firefighting methods, such as hazard reduction burning, failed in some instances, an inquiry into the crisis heard.
The final report of the New South Wales bushfire inquiry, published on Tuesday, said the 2019-20 bushfire season brought fires in forested regions on a scale not seen in recorded history in Australia.
As Covid-19 tore through aged care homes during Victoria’s second wave, state and federal governments attempted to shift blame for the rising death toll. Political editor Katharine Murphy examines what has happened and who has ultimate responsibility
Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates
The number of new, confirmed cases of Covid-19 in France has risen by 1,955 compared to the previous day, although the increase in new cases was less than in previous days.
The French health ministry said the number of deaths from Covid-19 had risen by 15 from the previous day to stand at 30,528 casualties, while the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases stands at 244,854.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the blog for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share:
The Chinese government has been administering a vaccine candidate to selected groups of key workers since July, a senior health official told state media yesterday.
Zheng Zhongei, head of the national health commission’s science and technology centre, told CCTV the government had authorised “emergency use” and it was in line with the law, the South China Morning Post has reported.
Commuters will have to move before boats can travel under Camellia Railway Bridge and Gasworks Bridge on Parramatta River
The New South Wales government has confirmed that 10 newly purchased ferries will not be able to safely pass under bridges along the Parramatta River if commuters are sitting on the top decks.
Purchased from Indonesia, thenew River Class ferries are set to join the NSW transport fleet later in the year, operating along the Parramatta River and on inner harbour routes.
Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir and Adelaide’s STCSA are among the main stages pushing ahead. No one expects a profit – and many will take a loss
Sydney Theatre Company has announced it is ready to open the doors of the Roslyn Packer theatre and present its first show since March.
Wonnangatta, a new drama written by the award-winning Melbourne playwright Angus Cerini and featuring the actors Hugo Weaving and Wayne Blair, will play from 21 September to 31 October in a socially distanced production for audiences numbering no more than 147 (the Roslyn Packer can usually seat 880 patrons).
Travellers from the UK to France are required to self-certify that they are not suffering coronavirus symptoms or have been in contact with a confirmed case within 14 days preceding travel.
Russia aims to ramp up production of its potential Covid-19 vaccine to between 1.5 million and 2 million doses a month by the end of the year, Reuters reports.
Industry minister Denis Manturov said on Sunday that the nation hopes to eventually produce 6m doses a month, according to the RIA news agency.
Victoria’s chief health officer has said the state’s residents could be wearing masks until there is “no community transmission whatsoever” as the state records a second day below 200 cases.
Victoria recorded 182 cases in the past 24 hours, three more than the previous day’s numbers. The state’s death toll now sits just under 400, with the premier, Daniel Andrews, confirming the deaths of 13 more Covid-19 positive Victorians.
A letter from an ancestor who worked as a nurse in Sydney during the Spanish flu reaffirms what we know about societal responsibility and protecting others
Does history repeat? Ask an ancestor.
I was in hotel quarantine when I discovered a letter written in 1919 by my great-aunt Jean about her work as a voluntary aide during Australia’s Spanish flu outbreak.
Scott Morrison has declared he still has confidence in his aged care minister after Richard Colbeck came under pressure at a Senate inquiry and was unable to recall how many people had died in aged care during the pandemic.
Colbeck apologised on Friday for the times when the Morrison government “didn’t get everything right” in dealing with aged care outbreaks – but insisted it had been prepared for what it sincerely believed to be the worst-case scenarios.
Andrews thanked all Victorians for the role they played in getting the daily coronavirus numbers down below 100.
I’d simply say that, whilst tomorrow’s numbers will be for tomorrow, we are all pleased to see a ‘1’ in front of these additional case numbers, and to a certain extent it is perhaps at that level a little quicker than I thought it might be.
Of course, this Sunday marks the three weeks since the curfew was imposed. Next Wednesday marks three weeks since the most significant workplace restrictions came into effect. To be at this point shows that the strategy is working....
I want to thank each and after Victorian who is making a big contribution to this strategy working. I want to thank them and their families. I want to thank people from all backgrounds, from all parts of the state. No matter your perspective, this is a challenge that none of us are immune from. We’re all in this together. We say that a lot, but it’s true. It’s absolutely true. And because I think more and more Victorians are making the best choices and looking out foreach other, and therefore everybody, we are seeing these numbers come down.
We’ll see what tomorrow holds. But there’s no room for complacency, there’s no way we can assume that this is over. It is an ultra-marathon, and we’re not halfway yet.
The Victorian and federal governments have set up a $15m joint disability response centre, which Andrews said is “essentially mirroring the arrangements we have in aged care”.
There are currently 62 active Covid-19 cases in disability care sectors, across 60 different sites.
We’re grateful to them. That’s not easy. But with that payment, that’ll mean that we can support them to, in turn, keep their clients safe. We all know that, in that sector, that’s what they’re motivated to do – to provide the best care and support to their clients.
Again, I thank the prime minister and the federal government for their partnership. This is yet another example of us working together to deal with a common challenge. And it’s really important that, given the vulnerability of many people across these settings, it’s very, very important that we have a singular focus, and all the senior people around the table at the same time, and that funding to be able to limit the amount of workers who are going to multiple sites.
The coronavirus pandemic has reignited debate in Germany about cutting the working week to four days to help preserve jobs during and after the economic shock.
But the idea remains highly controversial.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be running the global coronavirus blog for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with any story suggestions or personal experiences you’d like to share.