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NSW police also say they asked to interview energy minister, but all questions were answered by his lawyers
New South Wales police says it found no evidence that the document Angus Taylor’s office used to attack City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore ever existed on the council’s website, casting renewed doubt on the minister’s explanation.
Taylor has repeatedly insisted that the false document he used to wrongly attack Moore for her travel-related emissions was downloaded from the council’s own website.
We thank Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck and the Chief Medical Officer Prof. Brendan Murphy for joining the aged care industry in constructive dialogue in the national webinar, as we work together to care for and support vulnerable older Australians.
However, we impressed upon them that it is incorrect to characterise the sector as having kept residents isolated, under lock and key, in their rooms. Nor are they secret places.
Australia’s leading aged care providers have banded together to make a statement in response to what the prime minister and chief health minister had to say last week about opening up centres to visits, or face applying to the commonwealth to close.
Almost 1000 aged care providers have signed up to the statement, saying that some facilities made the decision to stop visitation because it was the only way to protect residents, with the decisions being made with “the support of the majority of residents and their families”.
Pressures on aged care workers will further intensify from the major costs of controls and resources needed to continue protecting aged care residents and to allow the safe access for visitors that has been stipulated - but there has been little additional support from Government to achieve this.
The funding provided that equates to an average of $2 per resident per day is not enough for aged care operators to keep winning the fight to keep coronavirus out of aged care homes.
More than 150 Australians and 20 New Zealanders are on the flight from Buenos Aires after being stranded in South America since the outbreak. Follow live
The question about whether kids and teachers go back to school is looming as a brawl that will escalate in the coming week.
Two Labor-led states in particular, Queensland and Victoria, are on a different page of the textbook to the federal government, which wants schools to be open.
In Victoria, the state opposition has begun to grumble about the extended remote learning arrangements.
The vast majority of students in Vic are learning from home because that is the advice from our health experts.
If we did not follow this advice, more than 1 million children, their parents and school staff congregating at schools could spread Coronavirus in our community.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is today launching a nationwide campaign to make sure people don’t neglect health concerns while we’re all in lockdown.
It’s very concerning that some people have potentially been neglecting their health during this pandemic – the last thing we want is a tsunami of serious health issues and worsening chronic conditions coming after this virus, simply because people have stopped taking care of themselves or consulting their GP.
The reason why we are running our campaign Expert Advice Matters is to encourage people to keep taking care of their health. We also want to remind everyone that general practice remains open and expert medical advice matters most.
WHO clarifies ‘immunity passport’ advice; global deaths pass 200,000; Russia case tally passes 80,000; Sweden’s deputy prime-minster admits problems with strategy. This blog is now closed.
Usually hundreds of thousands of Australians would be up before sunrise tomorrow to join ANZAC day dawn services and to honour those who serve and have served. But coronavirus means this year will be different.
While the day has had its elements of public ritual since 1916, much early Anzac Day commemoration was private rather than public, sometimes conducted at the gravesides of Australian soldiers buried in cemeteries in Britain and Australia. Women were prominent in these efforts, honouring the memories of men they might or might not have known by placing flowers on their tombs.
There are other echoes of the past. Anzac Day in 1919 was also disrupted by a major crisis in public health. In New South Wales, where the rate of infection from Spanish influenza was high and the number of deaths – approaching 1,000 by Anzac Day – was alarming, the government had banned public meetings.
Several key developments emerged from the national cabinet meeting earlier today.
Rules around aged care visits, hopes for a restart of community sport, clarification on jobkeeper payments and a repeat of medical advice for school classrooms all made for a busy day.
Fewer than three out of 15 families in NSW far west have broadband, making digital classrooms unviable
Teachers in far western NSW say they have been hand-delivering lessons to Aboriginal students at home because families don’t have reliable access the internet and many don’t have computers for their children to work on.
To allow children to keep learning, Wilcannia central school teachers have been making lesson packs for their students and delivering them in person every few days, on a 9km round trip in the school minibus.
Unemployment in US up by 4.4 million to a total of over 26 million; world has ‘a long way to go’, warns WHO chief; Iran reports lowest new daily infections for a month
Peru’s reported coronavirus cases have rapidly increased this week, reaching 20,914 on Thursday. The country has the second highest number of cases in South America after Brazil despite introducing tough lockdown measures.
The health ministry says it expects patient numbers to peak within the following week, as hospitals strain to deal with the sharp rise in infections. Reuters reports cases of bodies being kept in hallways, masks being reused, and protests from medical workers concerned about their safety.
Hello, I’ll be taking over the live blog for the next few hours. As always, tips and suggestions are most welcome. You can reach me via Twitter DM @cleaskopeliti or by email at clea.skopeliti.casual@guardian.co.uk. Thanks in advance.
The Opera House, ferry terminals, parks and squares – all the city's most popular spaces have been nearly cleared of people. Central Sydney experienced a dramatic drop in workers and shoppers as the government ordered pubs and restaurants to close, and businesses asked their staff to work from home as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19
It has been floating around again for a while, but this morning Josh Frydenberg put company tax cuts firmly back on the table.
Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott told Sky News’s Laura Jayes they were absolutely needed (but she would say that, wouldn’t she).
We’re trying to solve business investment, which was low before this terrible crisis. It’s business investment that drives productivity which drives higher wages. So that’s the problem, let’s frame that up first. Look I think it is important for us to put it back on the table but along with other tax reform. It’s not the only thing that needs to be done. It’s important that we look at the state taxes, the productivity sapping stamp duty taxes, payroll tax. It is interesting how much payroll tax has been deferred.
The whole question of the right configuration of the state taxes. Whether or not we bring forward those other income tax cuts. So it’s not just company taxes but it is important we have a competitive company tax rate. To the treasurer’s point, we’re not asking, in the Business Council, for us to have the lowest rate, we’re simply asking for a competitive rate, so that we can be a magnet for investment in this country.
In case you haven’t seen this as yet, or cried today, I am giving this another run, because we all need a bit of heartbreakingly lovely in our lives.
After noticing that Ken slept with a photo of his late wife every night, one of the carers at Thistleton Lodge presented him with this incredible gift... pic.twitter.com/Q1v8V8HUFS
A Chinese citizen journalist who was missing for almost two months after posting videos from Wuhan during the coronavirus outbreak has re-appeared, claiming that he was detained by police and forcibly quarantined, Lily Kuo reports from Beijing.
Li Zehua was one of three Chinese journalists who had been reporting in Wuhan during some of the worst weeks of the epidemic. He was last seen on 26 February after posting a video in which he was chased by a white SUV and an hours-long livestream that ended when several agents entered his apartment.
Airlines in Europe have applied for €12.8bn (£11.3bn) in government support since the start of the coronavirus pandemic with no binding environmental conditions attached, according to an analysis of the sector’s bailout pleas, Sandra Laville reports.
By Tuesday this week, airlines including easyJet, Scandinavian Airlines and Tui had secured loans and other financial support amounting to €3.36bn. A further €9.47bn is being sought by other airlines, data tracking by Transport & Environment, Greenpeace and Carbon Watch reveals.
Ruby Princess crew members clapped and cheered from their balconies as the first of their workmates finally began to disembark the troubled cruise ship in New South Wales to fly home.
At least 49 crew members from six countries disembarked from the ship, which has been docked at Port Kembla for more than two weeks following a Covid-19 outbreak. NSW Police has said more crew members will disembark in coming days, but hundreds will remain on board and return with the ship to its port of origin.
The Ruby Princess initially docked in Sydney in March, when the ship's passengers and some crew disembarked.It has since been linked to at least 21 deaths and hundreds of coronavirus cases across Australia
Of the approximately 7,000 calls relating to family violence made to Victoria police in the past month, 14% have related to Covid-19, the state’s deputy police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Tuesday.
When police attended those incidents they were told by the alleged victim or alleged perpetrator that having to stay at home together had exacerbated animosity. Patton said that while there had not been an increase recorded in the number of assaults, police were preparing for such an outcome, and had already experienced an increase in reporting by third parties.
Turnbull says it was a threat to national security and Abbott’s style of government was ‘erratic and flaky’
Malcolm Turnbull has accused Tony Abbott of the “profoundly dangerous” decision to inflame animosity against Muslims while terrorism was the greatest security threat to Australia during his prime ministership.
In a wide-ranging interview on ABC TV’s 7.30, the former Liberal prime minister took aim at his predecessor for running an “erratic” and “flaky” government and his conservative ally turned challenger, Peter Dutton, for destroying his leadership in pursuit of the “absurd proposition” he could lead the Coalition to victory.
Mandatory code being developed by ACCC will create ‘level playing field’ in media landscape, Josh Frydenberg says
Facebook and Google will be forced to share advertising revenue with Australian media companies after the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, instructed the competition watchdog to develop a mandatory code of conduct for the digital giants amid a steep decline in advertising brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
In its response to the landmark digital platforms inquiry in December, the federal government asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to develop a code between media companies and digital platforms including Google and Facebook.
Greg Hunt supports foreign affairs minister Marise Payne’s call for an independent review that must not be run by WHO as fresh privacy concerns raised over government’s contact-tracing app. Follow the latest news live
Hazzard has announced the $5,000 on-the-spot fine for people who spit or cough at healthcare workers has been extended now to include all workers.
Assistant police minister Karen Webb says that overnight, a 25-year-old man from Nowra was arrested for a number of offences including allegedly spitting at police officers.
Just in the last last week, I’ve had four matters raised with me by members across the state from people deliberately coughing or spitting on people ... It is vile and it is disgusting and unacceptable.
New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard is providing an update on new cases in the state.
He says to 8pm last night there were 21 new cases of Covid-19, taking the state’s total number of confirmed cases to 2,957. There are 245 people being treated in hospital, including 21 in intensive care and 17 on ventilators.
“We’re doing much better than we could have expected at this point but I also want to remind the community this is a long game. It’s a team game. Probably at this point we aren’t very far into the game.
She looked at me and said minister probably if we’re lucky we’re 10 minutes into the first quarter. There is no room here for us to forget this is a long game and a game with a lot more to go.
Australia has a road out of its coronavirus lockdown, long and winding though it may be.
Having warned repeatedly that this pandemic response was taking Australia into “uncharted territory”, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has leaned again on a navigational metaphor for our subsequent recovery.
‘We are moving in the right direction,’ friend says after verdict that asylum seeker family was denied procedural fairness
The Tamil asylum seeker family from Biloela say a reprieve from the federal court on Friday has given them their first “real win” in two years in their fight to stay in Australia.
The federal court ruled that the family was denied procedural fairness in the decision on whether to process their visa claim in 2019 and their deportation must remain on hold.