Category Archives: Queensland

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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NSW and Queensland weather expected to worsen: ‘Similar to a category one cyclone’

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Potentially serious flooding and dangerous surf forecast for Queensland and northern NSW as heavy rain and damaging winds pound coast

Wild storms battering the Queensland and New South Wales coastline are expected to worsen later on Monday, and authorities have warned the heavy rain and strong winds could be “similar to a category one cyclone”.

Emergency services in both states have received thousands of calls for help since Saturday, as the conditions cause flash flooding and dangerous waves that have washed away large sections of beachfront.

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Wild weather continues as flooding expected in Queensland’s south-east and northern NSW

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Authorities urge people to brace for more heavy rain, gales and dangerous surf as some areas record more than 300mm of rain since Saturday

Heavy rain across south-east Queensland and the north of New South Wales has prompted flood warnings as authorities urge motorists not to drive into floodwaters.

Some areas, in the Gold Coast hinterland and northern NSW border, have recorded more than 300mm of rain since Saturday.

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Atar bungle: Queensland university body accidentally tells 24,000 students they are ‘ineligible’

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Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre says incorrect email sent while testing notification process

The Queensland university admissions body has apologised after it accidentally emailed tens of thousands of year 12 students telling them they were “ineligible” for a university admissions score.

Due to an IT bungle, 24,000 students in the state received an email at midnight on Friday from the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre, a week before official results were due to be released.

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Fraser Island residents told to prepare to leave as bushfire burns near Happy Valley

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Fires sparked by illegal campfire on 14 October have destroyed 82,500 hectares of national park on world heritage listed island

A bushfire burning on Fraser Island could impact Happy Valley village and residents have been told to prepare to leave.

An update from Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said the fire was burning 3.5km north-west of Happy Valley on Sunday and conditions could get worse.

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Two men drown and child in hospital in Queensland beach tragedy

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Men in their mid-30s drown and boy, 9, in hospital, after incident on Australia’s Sunshine Coast

Two men have drowned and a boy has been taken to hospital after getting into trouble in the surf on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

The men in their mid-30s were pulled from the water at Teewah Beach in Noosa North Shore about 2.30pm on Saturday but could not be revived.

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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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‘Catastrophic’ bushfire burns half of Queensland’s Fraser Island and threatens ecological disaster

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The fire on the world’s largest sand island, also known as K’gari, has been burning for six weeks and is encroaching on areas with 1,000-year-old trees

A bushfire has burned across half the World Heritage-listed K’gari/Fraser Island – the world’s biggest sand island, off Australia’s Queensland coast – with potentially catastrophic consequences for its habitats and wildlife.

The blaze, which has been alight for more than six weeks, is threatening major tourism and rainforest areas after burning much of the island’s north.

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Head of Queensland LNP Women warns of party’s ‘culture of anger and mistrust’

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Exclusive: In email to fellow officials after election loss, Jenny Goodwin warns disciplinary process leads to ‘accusation of bullying’

The president of the Queensland Liberal National party women’s branch has emailed fellow officials to warn of a “culture of anger and mistrust”, amid an increasingly fraught fallout from the party’s state election loss.

The LNP’s governing state executive met last week to begin the process of a broad strategic review, including attempting to define “what the party stands for”.

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Queensland braces for record-breaking heatwave as Sydney enjoys short-lived reprieve

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Towns west of Brisbane to swelter over next three days as western NSW continues to suffer and Sydney’s temperatures forecast to rise again on Tuesday

Queenslanders are in for a record-breaking hot day on Monday as Sydneysiders get a short-lived reprieve from the heat.

Dean Narramore, a senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology, says much of southern Queensland will be experiencing an “extreme” heatwave over next three days.

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Three-year-old child found dead in car at Queensland hospital – reports

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A woman reportedly arrived at the hospital with the deceased child in the car

A three-year-old child has reportedly been found dead in a car outside a north Queensland hospital with a police investigation under way.

Police were called to the Townsville University hospital about 3.30pm on Friday, a spokesman told Guardian Australia.

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Queensland opens border to Victoria as NSW eases Covid restrictions – live news

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NSW to ease coronavirus restrictions, including the number allowed to visit a home; Queensland prepares for influx of visitors ahead of December 1 border reopening. Follow updates

Scott Morrison has defended providing Mathias Cormann a government-funded Royal Air Force jet so he can travel around the world as he campaigns to be secretary general of the OECD.

The prime minister said there was an “extremely high” risk Cormann, who recently resigned as finance minister, would catch Covid if he were forced to travel on commercial flights.

That’s funded by the government because we’re taking this bid very seriously and the reason we need him to do that in the Air Force jet is because Covid is running rampant in Europe, and this is a very important position, and the OECD is going to play a really important role in the global economic recovery.

There really wasn’t the practical option to use commercial flights in the time we had available, because of Covid. If Mathias was flying around on commercial planes, he would have got Covid. The risk of that was extremely high.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed Victorians will be able to enter her state without quarantining from 1 December, after Victoria announced no new cases on Tuesday.

It comes a day after the same reopening was granted to residents of Greater Sydney, as both Greater Sydney and Victoria achieved 28 days of no community transmission without an unknown transmission source.

I just heard and that’s wonderful news and can I congratulate Daniel Andrews, their chief health officer and all of Victorians because this is just such fantastic news. So it means on 1 December, Victorians can also come to Queensland and, of course, Queenslanders can go to Victoria as well. So very, very good news.

We’re absolutely prepared for the influx of people for the Queensland holidays. In fact, just yesterday, we saw a 250% increase in some of our tourism operators across Queensland. So that is absolutely wonderful news.”

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Coronavirus detected in Victorian sewage as state records 22 days with no new cases

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NSW records 10 cases in hotel quarantine, while Queensland announces two and Western Australia one

Victoria has only one active Covid-19 case but authorities are concerned about traces of the virus unexpectedly found at a Melbourne wastewater facility.

Victoria has gone 22 days with no new coronavirus cases while on Saturday New South Wales recorded 10 new cases in hotel quarantine. Queensland announced two new coronavirus cases and Western Australia one – all of which were in hotel quarantine.

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South Australia enters ‘circuit-breaker’ Covid-19 lockdown – live news

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Strict six-day lockdown begins today to allow for a ‘contract-tracing blitz’ to contain a coronavirus cluster that has so far infected 22 people. Follow live

A Queensland man will face court after allegedly killing a man with one punch outside a pub north of Brisbane.

Police say the 29-year-old and a 49-year-old got into a fight outside a pub on Aerodrome Rd, Caboolture, about 10pm on Wednesday.

Here are some photos from South Australia as the state prepped for lockdown yesterday afternoon.

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South Australia to shut down to contain Covid cluster as new national hotel quarantine worker testing rules announced – live news

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SA introduces ‘wide-ranging restrictions’ from midnight on Wednesday; $200 vouchers for Victorians to spend in regional areas. Follow the latest news

Insurance companies have lost a crucial test case on whether they have to pay businesses who shut their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic under business interruption policies.

The NSW Court of Appeal says they do, and has thrown out arguments from insurers that coronavirus is excluded from policies.

Meanwhile, a huge chunk of Darwin and surrounds is experiencing a blackout, with the temperature expected to climb to 35C.

Wide spread power outages affecting Darwin and surrounding areas. #DarwinNT Crew responding.

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Townsville man charged with pursuing teenagers in stolen car until they crashed

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Police say armed man tried to box in the car and chase the teenagers in a pursuit that could have ‘easily ended in tragedy’

A man armed with a tyre iron pursued a stolen car driven by young teenagers until they crashed into a power pole in Townsville, police say.

On Saturday night about 10pm, police say a 48-year-old man was driving along McLean Street in the suburb of Gulliver, when he saw a Hyundai Santa Fe that had been stolen from the neighbouring suburb of Aitkenvale.

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Western Australia opens hard border as Victoria records 15th day of zero coronavirus cases

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NSW, South Australia and Queensland all report Covid-19 cases of people in quarantine

Hundreds of people had started arriving in Perth and more were crossing into Western Australia by road after the scrapping of the state’s Covid-19 hard border closure on Saturday.

The move came as Victoria recorded its 15th day straight with no coronavirus cases or deaths.

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National cabinet endorses national vaccination policy – as it happened

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PM and premiers meet as Covid-19 cases plummet. This blog is now closed

The day is winding down so we are going to wrap up the blog. Here are the main events:

The rise of rightwing extremism has coincided with the emergence of social media “echo chambers” and easily formed online communities of interest, the head of home affairs has said.

Michael Pezzullo, the secretary of the department, appeared before a parliamentary hearing into social cohesion and nationhood this afternoon.

He was asked about recent testimony from the head of Asio that rightwing extremism now made up 30% to 40% of its priority counter-terrorism investigations. Labor committee chair Kim Carr wanted to know whether Pezzullo thought the trend coincided with the rise or rightwing populist groups in the US and Europe.

Domestically it would seem to me that the groups that are of most concern are those that would either promote or seek others to adhere to a philosophy or an ideology of extra-constitutional action, and worse of course extremist action, and worst of all violent action rather than moderating legitimately held differences of political, ideological, economic views through our democratic process.

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