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 and Queensland register deaths as Western Australia flags border closure and federal government acts on childcare and industrial relations concerns. Follow live updates
The PM stresses that the “health advice we have is that there is no health reasons why children can’t go to school”.
Asked if taxes will increase to pay for its massive stimulus funding, Morrison does not address this directly.
Obviously there will be a heightened debt burden as a result of decisions we have had to take. They have been necessary decisions. Otherwise the calamity for Australian households economic will be disastrous. We have taken that decisions of government to step up and to make this commitment to provide people with an economic lifeline over the many months ahead. But you are right, we will have to then work hard on the other side to restore the economy. Now, that’s why we are being so careful not to have things that tie the economy and the budget down off into the future. We do need to snap back to the normal arrangements on the other side of this.
Morrison says schools have been planning for a “balance – a combination of distance learning” and, for those who can’t “provide a learning environment at home, for the children to be able to return to school”.
School will return after the holidays. They just won’t be holidays that most school students have known for a long time. And when they go back, it’s the learning that matters, and we hope to have an arrangement that can return as much to normal as possible.
But we have to accept that there will be, for some protracted period of time, this combination of distance learning, and for those who can’t do that at home, no child should be turned away.
We bring together all the Covid-19 confirmed cases, data and stats from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, SA, WA, Tasmania, ACT and NT to get a broad picture of the Australian outbreak and track the impact of government response
Due to the difference in reporting times between states, territories and the federal government, it can be difficult to get a current picture of how many confirmed cases of coronavirus there are in Australia.
Here, we’ve brought together all the figures in one place, along with comparisons with other countries.
Maritime union said the requirement for ships to ‘self-declare’ illness was ‘woefully inadequate’ 50 days before Ruby Princess allowed to offload sick passengers in Sydney
The New South Wales Port Authority ignored warnings in January of the need for tighter biosecurity checks, the Maritime Union of Australia says.
In an email seen by Guardian Australia, MUA secretary Paul Garrett warned the NSW Port Authority chief executive, Philip Holliday, that ship captains could not be relied upon to self-disclose illnesses on board.
Fair Work Commission finds oil refinery technician was not comparing his bosses to Hitler when he posted Downfall meme
An oil refinery worker who was sacked for creating a Downfall parody of his bosses has had his job reinstated, after the Fair Work Commission ruled the “memetic context” of the video meant it was unreasonable to find he was comparing them to Nazis.
Churches win funding through program that allocates grants only to organisations formally invited by local federal MP
A cluster of evangelical churches with strong links to West Australian Liberals have won almost $40,000 in grants in the past four months through a federal scheme.
WA Indigenous affairs minister Ben Wyatt said decision was ‘regrettable’ and Greens senator Rachel Siewert called it ‘hurtful’
The Western Australian branch of the RSL has withdrawn its ban on the performance of Welcome to Country ceremonies and the flying of the Aboriginal flag at all of its Anzac and Remembrance Day services.
In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, RSLWA had said that while it supported the right to fly the Indigenous flag and make a Welcome to Country dedication at official ceremonies, “What RSL is not supportive of is the use of Welcome to Country as part of the actual service itself in terms of the Dawn Service of ANZAC Day and the 11am Service at Remembrance Day”.
Senator says after visiting remote Indigenous communities that many there feel they have not been properly consulted over new card
Independent senator Jacquie Lambie says “the government has a problem” with the rollout of its controversial cashless debit card, after her fact-finding visit to the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Lambie visited several remote Aboriginal communities to “get a view from the ground on how the card is functioning, before voting on the government’s proposed changes for its future”, she said. Most of the people she spoke to “didn’t know any change was being proposed at all”.
Fires take an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects killed
Australia’s continuing bushfire crisis has taken an enormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and other species killed.
The ecologist Chris Dickman has estimated more than a billion animals have died around the country – a figure that excludes fish, frogs, bats and insects.
This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning
We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.
As of 9pm, this is what we know.
There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.
There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.
Bushfires have burned 4m hectares and left nine people dead, and fire authorities say they ‘haven’t seen a season like it’
More than four million hectares of Australia have burned and nine people have died since September in an “unprecedented” start to the summer fire season.
Guardian Australia spoke to fire authorities in every state about what they expect to happen next.
BoM data says Tuesday’s 40.9C was the hottest average maximum across the whole country ever recorded, as extreme heat moves across South Australia to Melbourne, Victoria and Sydney, NSW, and bushfires continued. This blog is now closed
It is still unpleasantly warm here in Melbourne, and across much of southern Australia east of the Nullarbor. Fire activity is predicted to increase tomorrow and on Friday.
Here is a roundup of where things stand:
As of Wednesday afternoon there were about 70 bushfires burning across Queensland.
Up to 20 properties lost in Blue Mountains as megafire burns outside Sydney, while fires also threaten communities in Western Australia and Queensland
About 2,000 firefighters are currently fighting more 108 active bushfires in NSW.
The RFS have issued a new emergency warning for areas near Muswellbrook.
EMERGENCY WARNING - Kerry Ridge fire (Muswellbrook, Singleton and Mid-Western LGA) Fire activity increasing. If you are in the area of Olinda, Nullo Mountain and Bogee, watch out for embers that may start fires ahead of the main fire front. #nswrfs#nswfires#alertpic.twitter.com/6UEV0imNRS
NSW firefighters upgrade Gospers Mountain blaze to emergency as police launch investigation into fires in regional Victoria
An out-of-control bushfire has burnt through more than 11,000 hectares of land north of Perth with residents urged to leave while they still can.
It comes as New South Wales firefighters upgraded the Gospers Mountain blaze to an emergency on Saturday afternoon, and police launched an investigation into a spate of fires in regional Victoria.
Gospers Mountain, Paddock Run and Little L Complex, Three Mile and Thompson Creek fires overlap, and there are now sevenemergency warnings in NSW as fire conditions worsen along Australia’s New South Wales and Queensland coasts. This blog is now closed
Sydney’s pedestrian bottlenecks, Brisbane’s barren streetscapes and Perth’s freeway fiascos: cities across the country are making classic mistakes
In every city there are places where the road should be just a bit wider, where the bus stop would be better a few metres down or, perhaps, a multi-lane highway simply should not exist.
Bad urban design is a barrier to what should be the smooth flow of life in cities. It ruins commutes and can make daily life unnecessarily difficult for the disabled or elderly.
Catastrophic fire conditions in New South Wales ease, but dozens of Australian bushfires remain burning. In Queensland, 60 fires are burning, with strong winds and temperatures in mid-30s forecast to make for hazardous conditions on Australia’s east coast
Residents of Pechey (near Hampton) have been told to leave now, and head towards the New England highway.
“There is a bushfire in Pechey and Hampton and conditions are getting worse,” QFES says. “A fast moving fire is travelling from Grapetree Road towards Deeth Road, Sewell Road, Parker Road, Bush Road and Misty Mountain Road. It is currently impacting Parker Road and Sewell Road. The fire could have on the significant impact on the community.”
Images of Walkers Point, which is also at “leave now”.
Residents at Walkers Point, south of Bundaberg, are being told to evacuate to Woodgate with firefighters battling a large bushfire @abcnewspic.twitter.com/pffLy1elsV
University also demands names of journalists who spoke to Gerd Schröder-Turk, after comments on Four Corners
Murdoch University is suing an academic whistleblower and demanding the names of journalists he spoke to and the dates of their interactions, court records show.
One of Australia’s leading integrity experts, AJ Brown, says the university’s actions highlight the “huge imbalance” in power between whistleblowers and large employers and shows protections for those who speak out “remain something of a mess”.