Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Jacinda Ardern says her country will not open up until Australia records a month without community transmission of Covid-19
New Zealand will not reciprocate quarantine-free trips across the Tasman as the Australian Capital Territory joins Australia’s travel bubble with the country.
On Friday, Australia’s deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, announced New South Wales and the Northern Territory would allow Kiwis to bypass the compulsory fortnight of quarantine on arrival from 16 October.
The government will announce tax and deregulation measures on Friday, as declining Covid-19 cases offer hope for economic revival. Follow all today’s news
Labor’s Julie Collins has responded to the aged care royal commission’s Covid response report:
I am sure the public will have very little confidence that this government, or the minister, is up to implementing these recommendations by 1 December because what we have seen is that when it came to the royal commission’s interim report, very unusual of a royal commission to actually issue an interim report, the very first recommendation – the first one was to fix the home care wait list.
Here we are 12 months later, [and there are] still [more than] 100,000 older Australians waiting for home care.
Linda Burney was on ABC Queensland radio talking about the people the jobseeker changes were going to affect the most.
It’s your mum, your grandmother, or their friends.
The reduction in the jobseeker allowance is going to disproportionately affect older women, particularly women who are over 60.
And it’s very hard for those women to find a job because you face age discrimination. All those – all those issues, of course, that we are familiar with older people trying to get a job.
NSW records no new locally acquired cases for fifth day as pressure mounts over border closures and budget speculation intensifies. Follow all today’s updates
In aviation news, the regional airline Rex has announced it will start flights between capital cities in 2021, as a competitor to Qantas and Virgin.
Rex has signed letters of intent to lease six Boeing 737 planes, which will fly between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, AAP reports.
Hi all, it is Naaman Zhou here. Thanks as always to Amy Remeikis for her blog captaining today.
Pokies profits dropped sharply during the first wave of the pandemic, but are still in the billions, according to new figures released today and reported by AAP.
We have learned a lot from the judicial inquiry into hotel quarantine in Victoria, and the lessons should not be obscured by the fact that the failures were systemic and cultural, rather than the result of people acting corruptly or in bad faith.
Ministers, public servants and statutory officers have all minimised their own responsibility and some have had failures of memory we might see as convenient. But pinning guilt on individuals is of limited use.
A man who had been deported to New Zealand, and who was in isolation at a government-run quarantine hotel, is under investigation by the police after he tied bed sheets together to escape the facility from a fourth floor window.
All travellers returning to the country – only New Zealanders and their families, plus others with special exemptions are allowed to pass through its borders – must spend two weeks in mandatory isolation, during which they are tested twice for Covid-19.
I am going to leave you in the very capable hands of Naaman Zhou for the rest of the afternoon shift.
There have been quite a few messages today – I am slowly working my way through them – but if you have anything else to say, or I missed you, you can contact me here and here.
Disadvantaged areas already ravaged by the virus will be devastated when government subsidies are cut
If the slogan of 2020 is “We’re all in this together”, perhaps it should come with an asterisk: *except for those with less, who are hurting more.
Covid-19 hasn’t torn through Australia as it has the United States, Brazil, India and much of Europe, but the economic impact has exposed gaping inequities in almost every facet of our lives.
Victorian premier is the last witness who can shed light on the decision to use private security guards, as border restrictions ease around Australia. Follow live
Peter Dutton then followed up that comment, with this one:
Honestly when we had people who couldn’t go to their dad’s funeral and the same time the Premier was approving people from Hollywood to come in and lay by the pool for two weeks, why wouldn’t we call it out?
It was just unfair and it was unjust. It has now changed.
Peter Dutton was on the Nine Network this morning, talking the Queensland border closures:
I just think we want to work very closely together and we’ve been able to do that, and as the Deputy Commissioner pointed out, the ADF and Queensland Police have had a very longstanding relationship and a necessary one and the ADF personnel are going to provide support at the additional hotels that will be stood up to bring more Australians back from overseas. So that will be a very worthy task for them to be involved in. And already they’ve been involved in providing support to the Queensland Police at hotels where people are quarantining. So I think it was obvious yesterday that Dr Steven Miles, who really just picks a fight every day on this issue, I think back-tracked pretty quickly when he realised what he said was actually factually incorrect. And I think the Premier’s pulled him back into line.
Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos has told the hotel inquiry she had no role in the hiring of private security, while NSW Covid restrictions eased at schools and weddings. Follow live
Aboriginal legal services say they don’t have enough funding to meet the new commitments
The coroner’s court of Victoria has changed the way it investigates Indigenous deaths in custody to reflect recommendations made in a royal commission almost 30 years ago, but Aboriginal legal services say they don’t have enough funding to meet the court’s new commitments.
The Victorian state coroner, judge John Cain, issued a practice direction on Tuesday outlining new standards for investigating Indigenous deaths in custody. It includes a requirement that the coroner attend the scene of death where practicable, instead of relying on the report of the police officer conducting the investigation.
Police have arrested 16 anti-lockdown protesters and fined 21 others during “chaotic” scenes in Melbourne’s south-east in which demonstrators were chased by police on horseback.
About 50 to 100 demonstrators began protesting at the State Library but moved to Elsternwick Park where they were pursued by police.
State’s chief health officer says it was ‘inappropriate’ to single out migrant community in Casey
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has apologised for comments he made singling out Melbourne’s Afghan community in relation to a Covid-19 outbreak in Casey.
Sutton made the apology as the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced 21 new coronavirus cases and seven more deaths in the state on Saturday. It was the lowest number of new Covid-19 cases in the state since 24 June.
Victoria police have fined 76 people over the past 24 hours, including eight for not wearing a face mask.
Examples include three men “located in a carpark with no legitimate reasons for being there” and one man and one woman who drove from Tarneit to St Kilda East “to buy fried chicken”.
Queensland will re-open its border to people from the ACT from 25 September, the health minister Steven Miles has just announced.
The Australian National University has announced a restructure that will involve the loss of 465 positions.
Some 230 staff have already accepted voluntary separations, with a further 20 to come, but the ANU announced on Wednesday that there will need to be a further reduction of 215 positions.
All these cuts to Australia’s universities are going to have ongoing impacts for years
BREAKING: ANU has announced 230 staff have taken voluntary redundancies, another 20 are expected to follow in the coming weeks. ANU says Another 215 positions need to go as well. That is almost 500 jobs that will be lost at ANU due to #COVID19#auspol@conorduffynews@abccanberra
That’s it for our live coverage of coronavirus news and other developments in Australia. Thanks to Amy Remeikis for the earlier coverage. She’ll be back in the morning.
You can follow our global coverage here and there is a lot to follow. Outside Australia, the second wave is well and truly surging.
Australia’s cricket coach Justin Langer says he could “see the blood draining out of their faces” when his players were told about the quarantine periods in store for them in the coming months.
AAP reports the team was given the rundown ahead of tonight’s ODI series decider against England in Manchester.
The Australian government has begun releasing a weekly snapshot of Covid-19 deaths and infections in aged care homes, despite earlier attempting to keep secret the identity of providers with fewer than five cases.
The health department secretary, Brendan Murphy, had previously asked the Senate’s Covid-19 committee not to publish a full list of providers with outbreaks, claiming publication of the data could distract from care and discourage staff from attending work.
About 100 people attended the protests, with 51 fines issued for breaching stay-at-home orders
Victoria police have arrested 14 people at illegal anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne, with 51 fines issued for breaching stay-at-home orders.
About 100 people attended the protests at various locations in the city, with a large police presence outnumbering those taking part in the so-called “freedom walk” at the popular running track the Tan and Fitzroy Gardens.
We will get additional details, like test numbers, very soon
#COVID19VicData for 11 September, 2020. Yesterday there were 43 new cases reported. Sadly, 9 lives were lost and our thoughts are with those affected. More information will be available later today. pic.twitter.com/Y5dxX1ixEK
It is just one week short of a year since this photo was taken – which was the last time Gladys Berejiklian’s colleagues tested her leadership over legislation. When the Ched debate happened, Tanya Davies, Matthew Mason-Cox and Lou Amato had announced they were calling a spill motion over the state’s abortion laws.
Berejiklian stared them down as well. There was no spill motion. But what there was, was a debate over whether she was carrying Saladas (as reported in the Tele) or Cheds for breakfast.