Category Archives: South Australia

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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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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‘Remarkable’: South Australian surfer with serious shark bite injuries swims to shore and walks 300m

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Man, 29, says shark bite at Kangaroo Island’s D’Estrees Bay was ‘like being hit by a truck’

Paramedics have hailed the “remarkable” survival story of a South Australian surfer who swam back to shore alone and walked 300 metres for help after suffering “extraordinary” injuries from a shark bite at a remote beach.

Paramedic Michael Rushby said the man had “serious” lacerations on his back, backside and leg “consistent with quite a large shark bite”, but managed to haul himself to safety.

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Family in South Australia find live koala in their Christmas tree

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When the McCormicks came home on Wednesday, the Christmas tree in their Adelaide house had acquired a new ornament

The McCormicks went for a silver, pink and blue theme on their Christmas tree. The old plastic leaves were worn but looked beautiful with baubles on each branch and twinkling lights.

But this year the family tree included one very unexpected ornament: a wild – and somewhat confused – juvenile koala.

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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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South Australians urged to get Covid tests after man with virus goes ‘out and about’ in Adelaide

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Flinders University campus and three other locations considered ‘high risk’ after Covid-19-positive man breaks home quarantine
• Follow the global coronavirus live blog

South Australian health authorities are urging anyone who visited a Flinders University campus and three other “high-risk” locations to get tested for coronavirus immediately after a Covid-19-positive man broke his required home quarantine and wandered “out and about” in Adelaide.

While there were no new coronavirus cases to announce on Sunday, SA’s chief health officer, Prof Nicola Spurrier, revealed the “concerning turn of events” at a press conference.

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South Australia and NSW record new Covid-19 cases as Victoria passes elimination benchmark

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Two new South Australian coronavirus cases, both in quarantine, bring Parafield cluster to 33 people

A casual contact of a Covid-19 case is among two people newly diagnosed with coronavirus in South Australia, while New South Wales has announced eight new cases, all in hotel quarantine.

Meanwhile, the ACT has recorded one new case in a returned traveller and Victoria has surpassed the benchmark for eliminating coronavirus, recording a 29th straight day without a single new infection.

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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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Victoria posts record $23.3bn deficit; Queensland to open border on 1 December – follow live

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Victoria records zero active cases for the first time since outbreak as SA plans to drop restrictions on 1 December – follow latest updates

Further to Andrew Hastie’s comments on the Brereton report, which we reported earlier, the WA Liberal MP has been on the ABC expanding on his call for greater parliamentary oversight of the military.

He tells Andrew Probyn:

Defence is a huge organisation. In order for parliament to exercise proper civilian oversight of the military you have to have a baseline understanding of the capabilities, the methods, and the operations of the ADF. If we can’t talk about those things in public, we can’t talk about them at all.

So we need to talk about them in a classified space and right now there is no such mechanism in the parliament to increase parliamentarians’ understanding of defence and therefore enable parliament to hold it to account.

Scott Morrison and the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, swapped notes on Covid-19 situations in their two countries during a phone call this afternoon.

A readout issued by Morrison’s office says the pair also discussed progress on vaccine trials and they “were encouraged by the more positive trajectory of their economies in the third quarter”.

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Coronavirus live: UK lab-confirmed cases pass 1.5m; Gaza’s clinics could soon be overwhelmed

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Infections up in UK by more than 18,000 on Sunday; warning over Gaza Strip infections; G20 leaders agree to fund fair distribution of vaccines

Experts have urged Americans against travelling for family gatherings at Thanksgiving this week even though millions were set to defy the advice, as the US crossed the threshold of more than 12m cases of coronavirus.

Ominous warnings came as Donald Trump appeared to admit that coronavirus is “running wild” across the US, in contrast with his statements throughout the election campaign that the virus would simply “go away” or “disappear” and, more recently, that the country was “rounding the turn” on the pandemic.

Related: Millions of Americans set to ignore warnings against Thanksgiving travel

The Palestinian health ministry has recommended strict limits on Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Celebrations in the biblical town revered by Christians as Jesus’ birthplace are usually attended by thousands of people from around the world, but this year the ministry has recommended the upcoming tree lighting ceremony in Manger Square be limited to 50 people, throughout the festive season.

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South Australia makes young pizza worker scapegoat for Covid-19 failures

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While the premier blames the ‘selfish actions of an individual’, others say it shows up ‘systemic issues with the way we work’

When Steven Marshall fronted a press conference on Friday to give an update on day two of the state’s hard lockdown, his tone was grim. Someone had lied to a contact tracer, he said, which meant the state’s strict lockdown had been unnecessary.

“To say I am fuming about the actions of this individual is an absolute understatement,” the South Australian premier said. “The selfish actions of this individual have put our whole state in a very difficult situation. His actions have affected businesses, individuals, family groups and is completely and utterly unacceptable.”

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Steven Marshall eases South Australia Covid lockdown, saying one person lied to contact tracers – live news

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South Australia reports three new cases in quarantine and lifts many lockdown restrictions. No new locally acquired coronavirus cases in NSW or Victoria. Follow live

If you’re still confused about what happened in South Australia, Josh Taylor has stepped it out in this report. He writes:

The state’s premier, Steven Marshall, made the admission after contact tracers further investigated a male with Covid-19 who claimed to have only picked up a pizza from the Woodville Pizza Bar.

A security guard who tested positive from the Peppers medi-hotel for returned travellers had a second job at the restaurant, and because the person claimed to have just been a customer, health authorities feared a wide range of people may have been exposed to Covid-19 through casual transmission at the pizza bar.

Related: South Australia to end Covid lockdown early as premier 'fuming' over pizza lie

To Tasmania now, where a Hobart man in possession of enough fake luxury watches to keep Australia Post in bonuses for decades has been arrested by the Australian federal police.

More from AAP:

More than a thousand fake luxury watches and pieces of jewellery, a deceptive passport and 4000 steroid tablets have been seized by police from a man’s house in Hobart.

The 49-year-old is facing a string of criminal charges, including making false travel statements, after the Australian Federal Police raid this week.

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South Australia to end Covid lockdown early as premier ‘fuming’ over pizza lie

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Steven Marshall says state would not have gone into six-day lockdown if it had been known man had worked at Woodville Pizza Bar

South Australia’s six-day lockdown will end three days early at midnight on Saturday after it was revealed a male who tested positive for Covid-19 had lied to contact tracers over working in a pizza bar where another case had worked.

The state’s premier, Steven Marshall, made the admission after contact tracers further investigated a male with Covid-19 who claimed to have only picked up a pizza from the Woodville Pizza Bar.

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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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South Australia announces six-day Covid lockdown as ‘circuit breaker’ to avoid second wave

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Schools, cafes and pubs to be closed and people asked to stay at home from midnight Wednesday as state’s confirmed cases reach 22

The South Australian government has announced an immediate six-day lockdown followed by a further week of tough restrictions as the state scrambles to avoid a second wave of coronavirus infections.

The lockdown will take effect from midnight on Wednesday after the Parafield cluster, which started from a hotel quarantine breach, grew by two overnight to reach 22 confirmed cases.

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South Australia Covid cluster grows to 20; NSW residents to get $100 dining vouchers – live news

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SA will reintroduce coronavirus restrictions after the number of confirmed and probable cases rises to 20; NSW announces that residents will receive four $25 vouchers to spend on eating out and entertainment. Follow the latest updates

Returned travellers quarantining in an Adelaide hotel linked to a coronavirus cluster are being told they may have to re-quarantine in a new hotel, regardless of how many days they have already served.

It means some returned travellers may be forced to quarantine for up to 28 days.

Travellers quarantining in an Adelaide hotel linked to a Covid-19 cluster are being told they may have to re-quarantine in a new hotel. Those due to finish today may be forced to quarantine for 28 days. These documents were given to guests @GuardianAus https://t.co/guSOkfaEWn pic.twitter.com/GrBY9211J6

It’s stressful, because they literally shove a letter under the door, but there was no knock or assistance to explain it to us ... People are due to leave this morning. Imagine being told you had to do it all again, imagine if you missed your flight.

Our room door has been closed since we moved in, nothing has been breached here. Moving us through and putting us on a bus, surely that brings more risk of spreading the virus?

The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands (located in the remote north west of South Australia) will close their borders to for three weeks as the Covid-19 threat rises in South Australia.

The APY Board of Management closed the borders at midnight and says it will manage its borders via the legislated system of permits.

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Victoria’s hotel quarantine program revealed to cost $195m – as it happened

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Four new coronavirus cases recorded in NSW southern highlands as Victoria quarantine inquiry delivers interim report. This blog is now closed

That’s it for tonight, thanks for reading. To recap today’s developments:

The chief of the defence force, Angus Campbell, has released a statement about the inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Campbell said he received the Afghanistan inquiry report today, which examined the conduct of elite Australian forces in more than 55 incidents of alleged unlawful killings between 2005 and 2016.

Today I have received the Afghanistan Inquiry report from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF).

The independent inquiry was commissioned by Defence in 2016 after rumours and allegations emerged relating to possible breaches of the Law of Armed Conflict by members of the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan over the period 2005 to 2016.

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Coronavirus Australia live updates: 800 people forced to self-isolate after outbreak at Melbourne college

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Today’s meeting between federal, state and territory leaders will focus on removing social and border restrictions to jumpstart the economy. Follow live

On the bonuses that aren’t blingy watches.

In just the year to June, Australia Post paid $1.95 million in bonuses to 35 of its executives earning over $520,000 a year. That’s 648 Cartier watches - or 162 times the total Cartier watch spend. (Or about 27,850 Casio watches...) https://t.co/S8mmcqJmhh

We will probably be in a bit of a news lull while national cabinet is meeting and the US presidential election debate is on in about 25 minutes.

You can follow the debate in our other live blog here.

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Flooding and crop devastation predicted as ‘severe weather’ set to pummel eastern Australia

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Storms over coming week forecast to peak on Saturday with ‘very heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hail’

Dangerous thunderstorms are set to cause large hail and flash flooding, destroy crops and drive deadly spiders into homes across large swathes of eastern Australia over the next week.

Triggered by a low pressure system forming over the southern centre of the country and a trough across eastern Australia, the hazardous weather will escalate when the two systems combine on Friday, with the added tropical moisture present as a result of La Niña contributing to the severity of the storms.

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