Category Archives: Coalition

Australia coronavirus news live: NSW records seven new local cases and masks to be mandatory in some indoor settings

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Two people in Victoria to be fined $19,000 each for breaching health orders, as state records 10 new Covid cases – follow latest updates

Western Australia has recorded three new cases, but all of them are in hotel quarantine.

Acting premier and health minister, Roger Cook, said he was pleased with testing numbers, which increased from 827 yesterday to 2,179, and pointed out the state had now gone 266 days without community transmission.

266 days is an extraordinary fact, but it is a fact we cannot take for granted. It is a testament to the professionalism and hard work of so many people on the frontline, day in, day out, keeping us all safe from Covid-19. They deserve our respect and support for what they do.

An emergency bushfire warning has been issued to part of Red Gully in the shire of Gingin, north of Perth.

The warning is for people north of Marri Heights Road, south of Dandaragan-West Road and east of Cowalla Road.

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‘We are one and free’: Australia’s national anthem to change in attempt to recognise Indigenous history

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison makes the announcement on New Year’s Eve saying the minor change will help foster a ‘spirit of unity’ after a challenging 2020

The Australian government will remove a reference to the country being “young and free” in the national anthem, amid concerns the existing wording overlooks the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that stretches back tens of thousands of years.

The conservative prime minister, Scott Morrison, made the surprise announcement on New Year’s Eve, saying the change would help foster a “spirit of unity” after a year of big challenges.

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NSW authorities fear Sydney CBD workers could spread Covid at Christmas

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Premier warns state is ‘far from out of the woods’ as nine new cases reported and six infections remain a mystery

New South Wales health authorities are worried undetected Covid cases among office workers in Sydney’s CBD could spread the virus at Christmas gatherings, as the number of infections linked to the northern beaches cluster grew to 104.

The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, pleaded on Thursday with residents to “limit your mobility” over Christmas as she reported nine new community cases from a record 60,184 tests and warned NSW was “far from out of the woods”.

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Australia coronavirus live: NSW records nine new Covid cases as ‘Avalon cluster’ grows to 104 cases

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Gladys Berejiklian urges people to ‘limit your mobility’ as new rules kick in for Christmas Eve in Sydney; medical experts says New Year’s Eve fireworks should be cancelled. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

Today’s seven cases linked to the Avalon cluster brings the total number of cases there to 104.

Chant says all people onboard a Qantas flight from Darwin to Sydney on 17 December have been considered close contacts and have been asked to self-isolate.

A Qantas crew member contracted Covid-19 who was onboard the flight subsequently tested positive. Chant says they are investigating another potential case but the current data is preliminary.

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Australia coronavirus live: NSW reports eight more Covid cases as premier modifies Christmas restrictions in Sydney

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Sydney to keep 10-visitor rule but from 24-26 December children under 12 not counted; lockdown continues in half of northern beaches, but small Christmas gatherings allowed. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

The Northern Territory has revoked its categorisation of New South Wales region Illawarra as a coronavirus hotspot.

Health minister Natasha Fyles made the announcement this afternoon following an emergency cabinet meeting, saying the decision was made because there were no cases from the northern beaches there.

This is based on the evidence that they’ve had no cases from the northern beaches coronavirus cluster. I know people are anxiously awaiting other local government areas, but the advice from our chief health officer Hugh Heggie ... is that it is safe to remove that hotspot declaration for the Illawarra Shire local government area. The others will remain in place.

Victoria is reminding people from greater Sydney, the Central Coast or the northern beaches to not attempt to enter Victoria, just in case you might have forgotten.

If you have been in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, or Sydney's Northern Beaches since Dec 11 please do not attempt to enter Victoria. Only people who have exclusively visited or travelled through other parts of NSW can apply for a Border Crossing Permit to enter Vic. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/bad8irfvqn

As soon as it’s safe to open back up to NSW, we will. For now, we’re making sure Victoria can stay safe and stay open.

For more information on the NSW outbreak and a map of locations in each zone, visit: https://t.co/sDimRWNc6F (2/2)#COVID19Vic #COVID19nsw

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Coronavirus Australia live update: NSW records 10 new Covid cases on northern beaches as Qld and Victoria border restrictions outlined

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Christmas travel plans up in the air after Sydney cluster grows to 28 and Qld, WA, Victoria and Tasmania announce new border restrictions and quarantine measures

When asked why he isn’t implementing a hard border with NSW, Mcgown says it’s because the outbreak is not as “spread out” as the Adelaide outbreak, when the state did implement a hard border.

“It’s based upon the number of cases and the spread of the cases. So if the cases are out from their existing location to other parts of Sydney or New South Wales, if the numbers grow as they have, or even more, then there may well be a requirement to go to a harder border arrangement.”

WA health minister Roger Cook has announced one additional case in the state overnight, which takes total cases to 844.

In relation to the clinics, he says all travellers who have arrived in WA from NSW between 11 and 17 December are required to immediately self-quarantine and be tested at a Covid clinic. They will have to remain in quarantine until they receive a negative result.

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Australia news live: federal government takes China to WTO over barley tariffs

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Plus: aircrew driver tests positive for coronavirus in Sydney, and heavy rain and flash flooding forecast for northern NSW. Follow the latest updates

• Aircrew driver tests positive for Covid in NSW
• Follow coronavirus global news live

A severe weather warning has been issued for Wagga and much of the Riverina for flash flooding this afternoon.

Severe thunderstorms have been forecast for the entire region, all the way from Hay in the west, right across to the east coast, and from the Queensland border down to Tumbarumba.

⚡SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING⚡ for HEAVY RAINFALL. Warning current for much of central and eastern NSW and the ACT.
2hr Obs: 92mm @ Lismore.
30min Obs: 26mm @ Glen Alice, 25mm at Mt.Werong & 22mm @ Lake Burley Griffin.
⚠️Warnings: https://t.co/30woSZ6O2x#ifitsfloodedforgetit pic.twitter.com/L8OXMiSlAz

Victoria police commissioner Shane Patton has sought to differentiate between the police approach during the Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne in early June and anti-lockdown protests that were broken up during the second wave, with many more fined.

Patton told a Victorian parliament Covid-19 committee on Wednesday that at the time of the BLM protest, the spread of Covid was not as big as it was later on in the second wave, and there weren’t the severe restrictions at the time that were seen later – in June, groups of up to 20 people could assemble.

We eventually made a decision to reluctantly allow that Black Lives Matter to go ahead, because of the emotion that was in the community, because of the emotion that was being displayed across the world.

And that’s what we did.

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Australia news live: New Zealand agrees to travel bubble; wild weather hits south-east Queensland

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Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand’s cabinet has agreed to a proposal for a trans-Tasman travel bubble; storms forecast to continue in parts of south-east Queensland and northern NSW. Follow the latest updates

If you were hoping to grab some of the Victorian government’s vouchers for travelling into regional Victoria for a holiday, you have missed out on the second round, AAP reports 30,000 vouchers sold in 31 minutes.

An extra 30,000 Regional Travel Voucher Scheme vouchers, worth $200 apiece, were snapped up within 31 minutes of becoming available from midday on Monday via a new-look state government webpage.

AAP reports the extreme weather in northern NSW and southeast Queensland will continue to intensify overnight.

Sites in NSW’s Northern Rivers District had about 400mm of rain in just a few days, the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jane Golding told reporters on Monday.

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ABC chair Ita Buttrose accuses government of ‘political interference’ in draft letter to Paul Fletcher

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Exclusive: Buttrose mounts robust defence of broadcaster’s independence in response to questions about Four Corners’ episode Inside the Canberra Bubble

The ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, has accused the government of a pattern of behaviour which “smacks of political interference” in a robust defence of the public broadcaster’s independence, according to a draft of a letter responding to a barrage of Coalition complaints about the Four Corners program Inside the Canberra Bubble.

In the program broadcast last month, the journalists Louise Milligan and Lucy Carter investigated complaints about attorney general Christian Porter, including an alleged history of sexist and inappropriate behaviour towards women, and an affair the acting immigration minister, Alan Tudge, had with a female adviser in 2017.

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Sydney boy with autism loses speech while stranded in India due to Covid

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Australian mum desperate for flight home after autistic son stops talking without vital therapy

A four-year-old Sydney boy with autism stranded in India and separated from his father since March has missed specialist treatment for so long he has become non-verbal.

Concerns for the health of Yuvraj Krishna and other Australians stranded overseas have been raised by Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, who is urging the Morrison government to intervene and help reunite the family.

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Revealed: 1,500 people in limbo under Australia’s ‘bizarre and cruel’ refugee deterrence policy

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Australia declared in 2013 that asylum seekers who arrive by boat would never settle here. Hundreds of people’s lives are still on hold to prove that point

For more than seven years, Australia’s policy has been clear: if you seek asylum by boat you will never be settled here. You will be sent offshore and have your asylum claims heard there.

Between the declaration of that policy by prime minister Kevin Rudd on 19 July 2013 and the last transfer offshore in December 2014, Australia sent 3,127 people seeking protection as refugees to Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

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Projections suggest Australia could meet 2030 emissions target without using Kyoto credits

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Prime minister Scott Morrison wanted to announce the policy shift at a weekend summit but he’s not yet secured a speaking spot

The Morrison government will release updated national greenhouse gas emissions projections that claim Australia is nearly on track to meet the target for 2030 it set under the Paris agreement.

An annual emissions projection report to be released on Thursday shows the government now estimates emissions in 2030 will fall just short – by 56m tonnes – of meeting its target of a 26-28% cut compared to 2005 levels if Australia doesn’t deploy Kyoto credits to hit the target.

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Australian politics live: Coalition to put forward IR changes; cruise ship ban extended

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Fair Work Commission to be given power to approve agreements that don’t guarantee workers are better off overall. Follow all the latest updates

Earlier, the Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary, Sally McManus, set out the union movement’s objection to the “extreme” industrial relations bill.
Those are:

On the other side of that debate:

Take the sand out of your ears – and let's hope we can soften your hearts. Because all this legislation does is push people further and further in the ground. Please Senators, vote no to this horrendous legislation. My full speech: https://t.co/MTYbj02hyw

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Australia politics live: international border to stay closed until at least March

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Government extends country’s biosecurity emergency declaration; Josh Frydenberg unveils laws requiring Google and Facebook to pay for news. All the latest updates

In the UK, Margaret Keenan, a 90-year old grandmother from Coventry, has become the first person to receive the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.

Australia has currently secured enough doses of the vaccine for 5 million people.

Congratulations to Margaret Keenan on her pub quiz question immortality.

Related: Coventry woman, 90, first patient to receive Covid vaccine in NHS campaign

Independent senator Rex Patrick has tabled a bill today to ban the importing of goods made by the forced labour of Uighurs in China.

The bill would stop Australia importing any goods made in the Xinjing province of China, or goods from other parts of China produced “using forced labour” as defined by Australian criminal law.

The Chinese Communist regime’s persecution of the Uyghur people is undeniable. More than 1 million people have been rounded up and put in internment camps across Xinjiang and subjected to gross human rights abuses.

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PM apologises for erroneously stating Kevin Rudd had left and re-entered Australia during Covid

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Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the lower house correcting the record and apologising to the former Labor leader

Scott Morrison has written to the clerk of the House of Representatives correcting the record and apologising to Kevin Rudd after declaring erroneously in question time that the former Labor prime minister had been allowed to leave and re-enter Australia during the pandemic.

The controversy began when Labor on Monday asked Morrison why Tony Abbott and Alexander Downer had been able to leave and re-enter the country multiple times this year “when there are thousands of vulnerable stranded Australians who haven’t been able to get home once?”

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Australian politics live: NSW and Victoria to ease Covid restrictions; final sitting week of parliament

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NSW to lift tranche of restrictions while in Victoria it will no longer be compulsory to wear face masks in offices or cafes; federal parliament returns for the final sitting week of 2020 – latest updates

Victoria will begin accepting international flights again from today – a flight from Sri Lanka is about to touch down in Melbourne. All up, there will be about 125 travellers arriving as part of the hotel quarantine program in Victoria today.

There is no longer any private security guards as part of the Victoria program – and any worker has to work exclusively for the Victorian government.

The latest foreign interference laws are also due to pass parliament this week – these ones are the ones looking at agreements with foreign governments that private organisations and state governments have made.

States, Territories and local governments will have three months to handover agreements with foreign governments which @dfat "will carefully and methodically consider against Australia's foreign policy settings" #auspol @Birmo @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/pwT5PtCEta

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Australia news live: China row simmers; NSW awaits Covid case numbers

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MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the release of details included in the war crimes report for allowing China to ‘malign our troops’; PM faces questions over Murdoch Christmas party flight; NSW awaits update on new Covid cluster. Follow all today’s news

Good morning, Matilda Boseley here. It’s nearly the end of the week and what better way to reach the finish line than to stick around on the Guardian live blog and get all your much-needed news updates, Covid-19 or otherwise.

First up, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the Brereton Report which he says was filled with “unproven rumours” of Australian soldiers murdering Afghan children, saying the report has given China an opening to malign Australian troops.

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Australian politics live: economy grows 3.3% in September quarter, national accounts reveal

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OECD warns Australia over China exports; agriculture and trade ministers to meet wine producers – follow the latest updates

Philip Lowe is accompanied at today’s hearing by Guy Debelle, a deputy RBA governor. Debelle has just shown Lowe the growth number in the national accounts.

The governor is pleased. It’s very good, he says. (Lowe was hoping for more than 2% in today’s numbers. The growth number is 3.3%).

Jim Chalmers has responded:

Today’s headline number is cold comfort for millions of Australians looking for work, or more work. For many people what looks like a recovery on paper will still feel like a recession. #auspol

What really matters is not one quarterly GDP number on a page but how Australians are actually faring and whether they can provide for their loved ones. #auspol

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Australian politics live: Chinese embassy accuses Canberra of overreacting to tweet on Afghan killings

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Embassy official dismisses ‘rage and roar’ over tweet; new WA border rules not requiring quarantine to start on 8 December; Paul Fletcher complains to ABC chair about Four Corners program. Follow latest updates

And that’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Thanks as always for reading, we’ll be back tomorrow, with Amy Remeikis at the helm in the morning.

Here’s what happened today:

And in further weather news, severe thunderstorms are set to hit Sydney in a few minutes. The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of damaging winds and large hailstones.

⚡Detailed Severe Thunderstorm Warning⚡
for DAMAGING WINDS and LARGE HAILSTONES. Forecast to affect Hornsby, Parramatta and Richmond by 7:05 pm and Sydney City, Sydney Olympic Park, Mona Vale and waters off Bondi Beach by 7:35 pm.
⚠️Warnings: https://t.co/qF3XejM6Tv pic.twitter.com/qnSGNfqZND

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Australian politics live: Scott Morrison says Chinese government should be ashamed of ‘repugnant’ tweet on ADF soldiers

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Prime minister calls on China to apologise and seeks removal of tweet; Victoria revamps hotel quarantine program under single agency with private security banned. Follow all the latest

Twitter hasn’t taken the Tweet down, as demanded by Scott Morrison, but it has censored it.

The image defaults to hidden with the message:

Shocked by murder of Afghan civilians & prisoners by Australian soldiers. We strongly condemn such acts, &call for holding them accountable. pic.twitter.com/GYOaucoL5D

And yet, no one is responsible. Governance in Australia is so, so broken

I don’t support wording of Labor’s motion but someone needs to resign over the #robotdebt fiasco. How is it that only female Ministers like Ley and McKenzie resign? Where is the Westminster Ministerial responsibly? #qt #auspol pic.twitter.com/lfAClWfphp

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