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
Continue reading...Category Archives: New South Wales
Australia coronavirus update live: Two more deaths reported in NSW as national death toll reaches 74 – latest news
New South Wales chief medical officer says 231 people are now being treated for Covid-19, with 20 in intensive care. Follow live
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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
Continue reading...Ruby Princess crew finally disembark in Australia after Covid-19 quarantine – video
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
Continue reading...Australia coronavirus live: health minister backs calls for global investigation into Covid-19 spread – latest updates
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
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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.
Continue reading...Australia’s landlords and tenants: what support is available in the coronavirus crisis?
With a six-month eviction moratorium agreed nationally, we look at what else is on offer from states and territories
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Although the national cabinet has agreed to a six-month moratorium on evictions, it has abandoned attempts to achieve a nationally consistent approach to financial support for residential landlords and tenants through the Covid-19 crisis.
Since Scott Morrison announced residential tenancies would be a matter for the states and territories on 7 April, many have offered land tax cuts in a bid to incentivise rent reductions.
Continue reading...Are schools open or closed for term 2 amid coronavirus in Australia? State-by-state guide
Many parents have been left confused about whether students can or should return to school after the Easter holidays
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The position of the federal and state governments on whether to send children to school in term two while coronavirus social distancing rules are in force have many parents confused.
Throughout March the Morrison government opposed school closures on the basis of medical advice, but the issue was forced by Victoria bringing forward its school holidays, and other states and territories introducing pupil-free days to prepare for online learning.
Continue reading...Australia coronavirus update live: Victoria extends state of emergency as travellers fly in from cruise nightmare – latest news
Premier Daniel Andrews says state of emergency will be extended for a further four weeks as Australians trapped on Antarctic cruise ship arrive in Melbourne. Follow updates live
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McGowan says he took his kids camping ... in his backyard ... over Easter because obviously other locations were unavailable.
And that’s the end of the press conference.
“We’ve successfully flattened the curve, but now we’ve got to figure out how to keep it there but also find out a long-term solution to the problem we face,” McGowan says.
He says he is working on getting commercial tenancy legislation in parliament this week. He’s not sure whether residential tenancy legislation will be ready this week but it will be brought in when it is.
The former will be brought into WA parliament for debate on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Covid-19 should not be allowed to run free, but Australians are looking for a positive timetable | Malcolm Farr
The government’s coronavirus response is working, however there is a growing view the cure has been worse than the disease
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Worrying and at times nasty themes are seeping out of the national insecurity produced by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not just the strange grocery hoarding, the ignorance of street-level racist rants, or the emergence of coughing as an assault weapon.
Continue reading...Australia coronavirus live: NSW arts minister Don Harwin resigns after breaching health order – latest updates
Paul Kelly says league is ‘not a law unto themselves’ and would need permission to resume play next month as it intends. Follow the latest updates
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We will close the blog for this evening. Thank you for your company and contributions.
A summary follows of Australia’s Covid-19 situation, the evening of Good Friday 2020.
“I would really urge caution there. Most of the cases we’ve seen so far have and still remain related to overseas travel and so our local epidemic is very early. There’s only a couple of thousand of those 6,000 cases are actual local transmission.
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has accepted the resignation of her arts minister, Don Harwin, after he was fined $1,000 for staying at his Central Coast holiday home, breaching a Covid-19 public health order.
While Harwin maintained he had sought, and followed, official advice on whether he was allowed to relocate to his holiday home, he accepted the controversy surrounding his move – as the government was urging people to stay home over Easter – was a “distraction”.
During this health crisis my government has asked the community to make greater sacrifices than all of us have ever had to make before.
These sacrifices are saving lives, and I am proud of the people of NSW for continuing to uphold the law in the interest of public health.
Continue reading...Australia coronavirus live update: education minister orders independent schools to reopen – latest news
Dan Tehan wants all schools to provide in-person teaching to children whose parents want it. Follow live
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The NRL season will recommence in late May, but it’s still unclear in what form it will happen.
#BREAKING: The NRL has announced a competition restart date of May 28. #9News pic.twitter.com/e5uwbe0fAj
Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson is calling for road blocks on the Great Ocean Road to force people to stay home this long weekend. @Kieran_Gilbert
Continue reading...Flattening Australia’s coronavirus curve: is community transmission increasing?
Local transmissions have overtaken infections acquired overseas, but Australia is making ‘real progress’ on reducing rate
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- Australia’s coronavirus lockdown rules explained
An analysis of the latest government data on coronavirus shows locally acquired infections have outnumbered infections acquired overseas for the past four days.
The analysis also shows the growth in locally acquired cases is slowing in New South Wales and Victoria, the two states for which detailed data is available.
Continue reading...Australia’s coronavirus victims: Covid-19 related deaths across the country
As the number of cases rises, so does the number of those who have died. Here is a state-by-state list of virus-related fatalities
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The Australian death toll from Covid-19 related illnesses stands at 34, as of 4 April. This story will be updated as further deaths are confirmed and Australia’s coronavirus victims are identified.
Continue reading...Fears for wildlife recovery after bushfires as coronavirus crisis stymies scientists’ fieldwork
Monitoring work suspended due to restrictions on travel and physical contact, in a blow for research into threatened species
Scientists are being forced to shut down or scale back fieldwork to assess the impact of last summer’s devastating bushfires on threatened species amid the coronavirus crisis, prompting concerns it could affect wildlife recovery.
Several universities have shut down fieldwork to comply with restrictions on travel and physical contact and government agencies working on the recovery have had to scale back some of their operations.
Continue reading...NSW health minister defends experts who handled Ruby Princess coronavirus outbreak
Reports emerge of fresh cruise ship transfers as state opposition calls for Brad Hazzard’s resignation over Ruby Princess
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The New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, has defended the role of health experts who allowed 2,700 passengers to disembark the Ruby Princess cruise ship and make their own way home, following reports that authorities knew about the widespread respiratory sickness on board.
NSW Health has confirmed it had been aware of 104 people with “acute respiratory infections” on the Ruby Princess. Leaked emails show the ship’s doctor told authorities on 18 March that people who had presented at the onboard medical clinic with flu-like symptoms had tested negative for influenza.
Continue reading...Coronavirus Australia live news: chief medical officer says global cases could be 5 to 10 million – latest update
Brendan Murphy says he is totally confident of infection rates in Australia because of our high rate of testing. Follow live updates
• Free childcare: what do the Australian government’s coronavirus changes mean for my family?
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We might leave it there for the night. Thanks so much for reading today.
Hopefully you’re enjoying your Friday night, despite these strange times.
The @YourAFAP union says all 220 @TigerairAU pilots have been made redundant effective today.
Continue reading...Australia coronavirus live update: Scott Morrison announces free childcare as death toll rises to 24 – latest news
Victoria and Queensland register deaths as Western Australia flags border closure and federal government acts on childcare and industrial relations concerns. Follow live updates
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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.
Continue reading...Coronavirus in Australia: how many cases are there? Map, latest numbers and statistics
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.
Continue reading...Australia records 3,400 cases of Covid-19 with median age of 48 – as it happened
New South Wales on the brink of new restrictions with only essential services to remain open as department store Myer stands down 10,000 staff and closes all its stores from Sunday. This blog is now closed
With that, we’ll be leaving the blog for tonight. We’ll be back tomorrow to pick it all up again.
Today:
Voting has just closed in Queensland for 77 local councils, and two byelections for state parliament.
But the results may not be known for some time, given over 570,000 people applied for postal votes due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, overall turnout is expected to be very low, which could speed the physical vote counting process.
Continue reading...NSW Port Authority warned in January of ‘gaping hole’ in coronavirus biosecurity checks
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
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- The choice for 300 Australians: stay on cruise ship with Covid-19 positive passenger or disembark in Italy
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.
Continue reading...Finger-pointing over the Ruby Princess debacle won’t help solve coronavirus crisis
It will take a full inquiry to determine what really happened, but clearly Australia’s protocols for assessing disease risk were inadequate
There is nothing more unedifying than different levels of government finger-pointing during a crisis.
In the aftermath of the bushfires, there was sniping via the media as the prime minister’s office blamed the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, for refusing offers of defence help.
Continue reading...