Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Gladys Berejiklian has said New South Wales plans to break vaccination records this month in an effort to control Covid-19, as the state recorded 239 new cases – the equal-highest daily figure in the current Delta outbreak.
The NSW premier on Sunday said higher vaccination rates were the “only way to live with Delta or any other horrific strain that comes along” and urged people in NSW to make August their month to come out and get vaccinated.
And here’s the video of Scott Morrison comparing the vaccine take-up to a gold medal run at the Olympics earlier today:
Reviews of rapid Covid-19 tests in Australia have found markedly different results in their effectiveness, but experts say the New South Wales government’s decision to employ them in schools and essential workplaces will help to control the virus.
Michael McGowan has this story after NSW announced that rapid tests would be used during Sydney’s continuing lockdown.
Inevitable Berejiklian is now being grill over Victoria’s sucsess which many are viewing as proof that NSW’s lockdown was too little, too late.
Victoria is now coming out of lockdown. Have they now shown us up? Should we have gone down harder and faster? They’ve done two weeks, we’re here in week five, and with no sign of things slowing down.
Oh look, I think it’s important to note that every state has had its own course during the pandemic.
Victoria is emerging out of its fifth lockdown, and I appreciate appreciate people want to make comparisons, but it’s also important to note that every state has had its own course. Every state has its own history of how they’re built with the pandemic.
Melbourne: schools, restaurants and bars open. Sydney: 172 cases. Highest case number since the borders were shut and edging towards the 200 record.
I am so pleased to hear that all 10 recommendations of the Foster Review will be implemented.
These reforms, most notably the independent complaints mechanism, will ensure Parliament House is a safer workplace for all future employees. https://t.co/wNNkVy4y9D
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says 53 of the new cases were infectious in the community; northern NSW on alert after Covid fragments found in Byron Bay sewage; national cabinet to meet to discuss vaccine rollout. Follow live
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant is back after a few days, and she is speaking to the tighter restrictions she has recommended.
Chant said:
I have advised the government today that this is a national emergency and requires additional measures to reduce the case numbers. What we are seeing is that the actions we have taken to date have averted many cases.
But what we are not seeing is the turnaround that we would have liked to see at this stage. And I’m concerned that we need to put in place urgent additional measures, what I’m recommending strongly is that our vaccination efforts are refocused on those affected LGAs. Every day, people from those LGAs have to go out to work to keep our city going.
We also know that, as I indicated that the group of workers that keep the society going is this group of workers in the 20 to 49 year old age group in south-western Sydney. Under 40s would not have been routinely eligible for vaccination, in terms of Pfizer. And what I’ve recommended to government is we urgently do mass vaccination of those workers to stem the transmission risk. We know the vaccines do that because they reduce the risk. If you’re vaccinated, even one dose, it reduces your risk of onward transmission.
Gladys Berejiklian has announced a new Covid death in her state, a 89-year-old male.
Details of the death are brief as the death is recent (it happened after 8pm last night) and authorities want to make sure family members have been notified.
I also want to say that tragically, as we see more cases, develop, we will also see more hospitalisations and more people in intensive care and regrettably, we did have an additional death overnight, which I’ve only just learned about.
I just want to foreshadow that unfortunately, we’re going to see more of this as the case numbers increase.
I was among those who first reported on Eddie Obeid’s dealings in the NSW Upper Hunter. Monday’s supreme court verdict is vindication for many who investigated him
“If it is corruption, then it is corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps,” counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption, Geoffrey Watson SC, declared theatrically at the opening of the inquiry into the grant of a coal licence at Mount Penny in 2012.
A decade later, the NSW supreme court has found the grant of the controversial coal exploration licence in the Bylong Valley was the result of a criminal conspiracy that resulted in the Obeid family making at least $30m.
We are waiting on an update from South Australia now, but in the meantime, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has released an ad campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated. It features artists such as Tim Minchin, Rhonda Burchmore and performers from the Australian Ballet.
NSW Health has confirmed that the woman found dead in Green Valley was a confirmed Covid-19 case.
It said in a statement:
NSW Health today sadly reports the death of a woman in her 50s who was a confirmed Covid-19 case. She was a resident of south-western Sydney and a close contact of a Covid case.
This is the 61st death in NSW related to Covid-19 and the fifth of the current outbreak.
Plans to allow only emergency and health staff to leave three south-western Sydney areas at the centre of the city’s Covid-19 outbreak for work were shelved on Sunday, despite another day of more than 100 new cases.
Residents of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool local government areas barred from leaving for work as NSW tries to control spread of Delta variant. Follow the latest developments live
The NSW branches of the Transport Workers’ Union and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation are welcoming an exemption for their workers in the three local government areas where only health and emergency workers are allowed to leave.
The groups say updated advice now includes a list of “authorised workers” permitted to go to work, “which includes freight, logistics, courier and delivery workers, bus drivers, waste workers and airport workers”.
The exemption will come as a relief to the more than 20,000 transport workers in south-west Sydney who yesterday believed they would not be able to go to work. We commend the NSW government for responding quickly to our calls for an exemption, however the advice to workers and operators is still far too sluggish.
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is asked about far-right media figure Katie Hopkins flying into Australia and going into hotel quarantine (maybe to appear on the local reality TV show Big Brother, as is the speculation).
I’m the one who wanted to send home Johnny Depp’s dog, so I have no problem sending home someone who wants to flout our laws. If you want to do that, pack your bongo and get out of country!
A man in his 70s from Sydney’s east has died of coronavirus; Queensland keeps border open for now; support package for NSW to include increased payments for people who have lost work. Follow the latest updates live
It’s a little late today, but pleased to keep up Matilda Boseley’s tradition of highlighting the bizarre graphic design choices of the Queensland premier’s social media team.
Today’s special announces 100 new Tafe scholarships. Someone has spent time etching the bloke’s arm in front of the graphic, for some reason.
100 TAFE scholarships valued at up to $5,000 are up for grabs.
The skills TAFE offers can change lives and set people up for stable and rewarding careers. pic.twitter.com/9TOHAsIbuz
Looks like we’re learning about that Covid relief package at 3.30pm.
Just enough time to take a breath, grab a coffee, watch a couple of episodes of he Office and settle in for the announcement.
The greater Sydney lockdown has been extended for a week after New South Wales recorded another 27 local Covid cases and health officials expressed concern about the growing spread of the virus in some south-western suburbs.
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the decision to extend the lockdown was a difficult but necessary one.
Two residents of SummitCare home at Baulkham Hills taken to hospital as a precaution and facility is in lockdown; Queensland records one new local case. Follow live
Police have recovered the bodies of three fishermen and their upturned boat near Wollongong south of Sydney.
Relatives raised the alarm about 6am on Sunday after the trio set off from the Bellambi boat ramp in Wollongong about 2pm the previous day.
Tasmanian’s opposition leader, David O’Byrne, has announced he’s quitting as Labor leader, with the ALP investigating allegations he sexually harassed a woman more than a decade ago.
O’Byrne announced he was resigning on Sunday and said while he would remain in parliament as the member for Franklin, he would not seek or accept a position in the shadow cabinet.
New South Wales recorded 24 new cases of Covid, including an aged care worker believed to be unvaccinated and a second healthcare worker, as the state’s coronavirus outbreak rose to 195.
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, expressed concern that “around half” of the new cases on Thursday were out in the community while infectious and urged anyone with symptoms to get tested and isolate.
Gladys Berejiklian says half of new cases were active in the community while infectious; Simon Birmingham admits Australia is ‘back of the queue’ for Pfizer vaccines; Atagi co-chair says AstraZeneca should only be used by under-40s in ‘pressing’ circumstances; Follow latest updates
Ahead of the daily health press conference in Victoria, premier Daniel Andrews has said he is “determined” to avoid another lockdown in the state, and part of that will be arguing in national cabinet on Friday for a reduction in the number of people able to return through hotel quarantine.
He repeated that it was better to lock out a small number of people than lock down whole cities or states, particularly while Victoria will not have a dedicated quarantine facility up and running in Mickleham until January.
Talk to your doctor, talk to your pharmacist. They’re the people to talk to, because whether it’s Atagi or others, there can be very broad statements made. Safety is always a concern – they are risk averse, they need to be. But everyone’s individual circumstances are different, and many people come to this question of ‘should I, shouldn’t I’ when, what vaccine with pre-existing conditions, with all sorts of other issues. So the best thing to do is not to be getting your epidemiological or your vaccination advice from politicians.
Talk to your GP, that’s what I would ask Victorians to do.
NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller is up now:
In the last 24 hours, 65 personnel infringement notices were issued. One of those of concern was a hairdresser in Auburn in the shopping area of Auburn.
In the last 24 hours, 65 personnel infringement notices were issued. One of those of concern was a hairdresser in Auburn in the shopping area of Auburn.
What police will be doing is matching our taskings to those areas and places of concern on the health website, but in particular today I want to send a very clear message that we will double our efforts in terms of visibility and compliance in south-western Sydney, in particular, around that Auburn, Bankstown area, in those shopping areas, the central business areas, and also back to the eastern suburbs as well. The message is quite clear – police continue to be visible in the community, on public transport. We are stopping and proposing many people and, again, it is just disappointing that infringements continue to be issued.
An $11m grant announced to pay for leave for aged care staff to be vaccinated; Darwin in lockdown after four cases; restrictions for WA and SA; Queensland makes masks mandatory in hotspots. Follow live
Here’s a brief summary of the key things Scott Morrison announced:
Another decision out of national cabinet is an agreement to make it mandatory for all quarantine workers, including those working in transport, to be vaccinated. However, this will be the responsibility of the states and territories, not the commonwealth.
This announcement follows the case of a Sydney limousine driver transporting international air crews contracting Covid-19 while being unvaccinated, NSW police admitting this breached no public health orders.
Sydney’s Bondi cluster grows to 110, Virgin Australia flight attendant tests positive, Darwin locks down, WA imposes restrictions and Queensland reports outbreak of Alpha variant
New South Wales reported 30 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday as a string of new outbreaks across Australia forced states and territories to introduce sweeping new restrictions, and prompted urgent calls for vaccine eligibility to be widened.
On the first full day of lockdown for the entire greater Sydney region since May 2020, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian warned the city to prepare for a further increase in cases over the coming days as the Bondi cluster which sparked the new outbreak grew to 110.
NSW urgently investigating four mystery cases overnight as premier Gladys Berejiklian announces Sydney restrictions. Follow all the latest updates, live
There is one more of those before the winter break.
‘I’m sure there are blokes that dislike me’ - Barnaby Joyce’s response to the concerns of Nationals women.
The serious concerns these women have about Joyce’s return to a leadership position are worthy of a serious response - not one that deliberately minimises them.
New Zealand has paused quarantine-free travel with New South Wales after the state recorded 10 new locally acquired cases of coronavirus.
NSW Health subsequently said a confirmed case had flown from Sydney to Wellington on the night of Friday 18 June and from Wellington to Sydney on Monday morning.