Category Archives: New South Wales politics

Australia coronavirus news live: Morrison says vaccinations to begin in mid-to-late February as Queensland quarantine worker tests positive

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High priority groups will begin receiving the vaccine earlier than anticipated; NSW south coast holiday locations on high alert; cricket crowd flocks to Sydney Test. Follow all the latest news and updates

Murphy says that over the second quarter of 2021, Australia will have vaccinated “a significant portion” of the population. That’s still mainly focusing on those first two priority groups.

He says:

The very last group that we might consider [vaccinating] is children. We know that children are at very low risk of getting Covid and transmitting Covid and the vaccine has not yet been thoroughly tested against children.

There will be vaccine hubs set up around Australia which only deliver one type of vaccine. That is to prevent confusion about which type of vaccine a person has been given, Murphy says, to ensure that people get two doses of the same vaccine.

A dose each of different vaccines will not cover you.

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Australia coronavirus live news: thousands told to self-isolate after Covid-19 exposure

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Cricket Australia to refund all tickets to Test and require re-purchase, as John Barilaro says Sydney testing numbers are ‘far too low’. Follow the latest updates

Here’s some bits and pieces from the Cricket Australia press conference:

It is fairly predictable, but the Victorian opposition is calling for premier Dan Andrews to come back from leave because of the new Covid-19 cases in the state. Haven’t seen similar yet re NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, who is also taking a break this week.

Opposition’s @DavidDavisMLC calling for Premier @DanielAndrewsMP to return from leave.
Pressed on whether all are entitled to a break, Mr Davis said yes, but “demonstrated failures” (cites testing delays, border chaos) should prompt him to come home. @10NewsFirstMelb #springst pic.twitter.com/JGMPfu43ZE

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Australia coronavirus news live: Tighter restrictions in force for NYE as Sydney’s Croydon cluster causes concern and Victoria announces new cases

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People urged to stay home as investigation continues into source of Croydon cluster in Sydney and cases in Melbourne. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

Let’s return to those comments from NSW police regarding Tony Abbott’s exercise in the northern zone of the northern beaches.

Abbott’s most recent declaration to parliament (before his defeat in 2019) showed he lived in Forestville, which is classed as being in the southern zone of the northern beaches.

The New South Wales Labor leader, Jodi McKay, has called on Gladys Berejiklian to stop crowds from attending the cricket Test at the SCG, and urged her to make masks mandatory in certain settings:

Why are we now progressing with a crowd at the cricket? ... It just doesn’t make sense to me.

I’m urging the premier to make sure the cricket goes ahead ... but there is a general feeling there should not be people at the cricket.

I think it’s important that if masks can reduce the risk of transmission, that we’re doing everything we can.

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Australia news live: NSW records 18 new Covid cases as premier announces New Year’s Eve restrictions for Sydney

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Gladys Berejiklian says households will be limited to five visitors as new cases spread to Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Sydney’s inner west. All the latest news and updates, live

The NSW opposition leader has weighed in on the debate around the Sydney Test.

You can go to the cricket but not congregate to view the fireworks. Both are outdoor events, yet different rules apply.

The cricket should be in NSW but with no spectators. Let’s watch both the fireworks and cricket on TV.

NSW Health has released a lit of new venues that have been visited by confirmed cases of Covid-19. This includes a Santa Claus Photo Booth at Westfield Burwood Shopping Centre.

Their statement is below.

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NSW premier calls on shoppers to avoid Sydney’s Boxing Day sales as Covid cluster grows to 108

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Warning comes as all passengers on board a regional flight told to isolate, and alerts issued across Sydney for a gym, cafes, shopping centre, food court and Santa photos

  • NSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locations
  • Border restrictions: rules for NSW travellers
  • Second person from superyacht moored in Cairns tests positive

    • Sydney shoppers have been urged not to enter the central business district for the traditional Boxing Day sales after the state recorded seven new locally acquired coronavirus cases and the northern beaches cluster grew to 108.

    The Australian Retailers Association labelled the NSW premier’s plea for consumers to stay at home on “the biggest day on the retail calendar” as “incredibly disappointing”.

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    Australia live news: NSW records seven local Covid cases after 70,000 tests as Christmas Day celebrations continue

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    Gladys Berejiklian discourages Sydneysiders from Boxing Day shopping; experts fear Christmas could turn into a superspreading event as ‘Avalon cluster’ rises to 108 and spreads. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

  • NSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locations
  • NSW premier calls on shoppers to avoid Sydney’s Boxing Day sales
  • Border restrictions: rules for NSW travellers

    • It has been a whole year since the skies parted and the almighty delivered this gift - Barnaby Joyce’s memorable Christmas message for the ages.

    In the video, the Nationals MP and former deputy prime minister declared “I just don’t want the government anymore in my life”.

    Merry Christmas pic.twitter.com/QGYPv51pTN

    One of the Australian government-facilitated repatriation flights to bring home Australians from India has been cancelled, as about 39,000 Australians remain stranded overseas for Christmas.

    The flight from New Delhi to Brisbane was scheduled to depart on Sunday 27 December, operated by Qantas.

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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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    Australia coronavirus live: NSW records eight new Covid cases as Gladys Berejiklian gives update

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    Victoria reports one Covid case as the number of new cases in NSW falls for a second day. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
    • NSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locations
    • Border restrictions: the new state and territory rules for NSW travellers
    • Australia’s Covid restrictions and lockdown rules – state by state
    • Follow the global liveblog

    Police have charged four men with unlawfully lighting fires on K’gari/Fraser Island that started the blazes which scorched more than half of the World heritage-listed tourism drawcard.

    Queensland Police and and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service carried out a joint investigation and detectives yesterday charged the four men in their 20s who are all from the Warwick area, 130 kilometres southeast of Brisbane.

    Related: Fighting for Fraser Island: how tourism and climate change put an ancient environment at risk

    Berejiklian says she is frustrated with other premiers who are closing borders to the whole of NSW.

    “There are parts of New South Wales completely unaffected by this current outbreak and yet everybody in New South Wales is suffering because other state leaders made decisions,” she says.

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    Greater Sydney lockdown fears as Gladys Berejiklian warns coronavirus cases to worsen

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    NSW premier says Sydney ‘on notice’ as travellers into Queensland to require border pass declaration and WA reimposes hard border

    The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has warned residents of greater Sydney to prepare for an increase in restrictions if the outbreak of Covid-19 expands beyond the northern beaches.

    Meanwhile travellers coming from NSW to Queensland will require a border pass declaration from 1am on Sunday and Western Australia announced it was reinstating its hard border with NSW.

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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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    NSW records new local Covid case, raising questions over airline crew quarantine

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    The 45-year-old man who tested positive was a van driver transporting international flight crew to and from the airport
    • Follow Wednesday’s Australia liveblog

    New South Wales has recorded a new locally acquired case of Covid after a van driver transporting international airline crew to and from Sydney airport contracted the virus.

    The state’s health minister, Brad Hazzard, said the case was discovered Wednesday morning.

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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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    Dfat reveals 36,875 Australians are stranded overseas, including 8,070 vulnerable people – live news

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    Scott Morrison says Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s release from Iranian prison a ‘miracle’; Labor and Greens accuse Berejiklian over council grants; an Adelaide high school is closed after Covid case – follow updates

    I’ll be passing over the blog to my colleague Michael McGowan, who will take you through the next part of the afternoon.

    I’ve been Elias Visontay. Have a great afternoon.

    The high court has granted special leave to appeal in a landmark case on casual employment.

    In the Workpac v Rosatto decision the federal court found employees described as casuals could be owed further entitlements if they performed regular, permanent work.

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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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    Gladys Berejiklian says she can’t recall if she was at dinner where Labor claims illegal donations were made

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    Labor claims dinner at Club Taree raised $18,000 from four donors and gave them access to premier

    Gladys Berejiklian has said she cannot remember whether she attended an “intimate fundraising dinner” at Club Taree in May 2018, where Labor claims illegal property donations were made.

    Labor used question time in New South Wales parliament on Wednesday to ask about the event and donations made to the campaign of the mid-north coast MP Stephen Bromhead, the member for Myall Lakes, in 2018.

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    Parliament resumes as Victoria reports one new Covid case and NSW five – politics live

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    Budget estimates continue with Australia’s coronavirus response on the agenda. Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry will reconvene for an extraordinary session while in NSW testing rates drop below 7,000. Follow all the latest updates

    Keith Pitt, bless him, attempts a dixer on the Queensland resources industry which LNP candidates in central and north Queensland can cut up and put on their facebook page for three people to look at, but the dixer isn’t the right question, so he can’t use his zinger, or get his time back.

    Neither can we.

    Steve Burt, he is a typical driller, he is big, he’s bearded, he is rough as hessian underwear to be honest

    Catherine King to Michael McCormack:

    The Australian audit office told Senate estimates last night that it provided AFP on 10 July potential evidence about potential defrauding of the Commonwealth.

    Thank you, Mr Speaker. Whilst I appreciate this is the subject of many inquiries being made by Senate estimates, as you would expect, this is an inquiry, the Australian Federal Police are looking into it and the ANAO has referred this matter to the AFP, as has the Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure.

    And, of course, an independent investigation is also going into the matter, being conducted by the Commonwealth Ombudsman Dr Thomas, the former Inspector-general of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Dr Vivienne Thom.

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    ALP pursues government over land deal as Coalition defends childcare scheme – as it happened

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    Melburnians can now travel up to 25km and spend more time out of the house; and federal parliament resumes with Senate estimates. This blog is now closed

    To recap:

    In the off chance you aren’t completely fed up with Covid-19 data, the federal health department has been publishing a weekly snapshot of how each state is going.

    This is an interesting tool for assessing the success of contact tracing in various states, especially as the case load in Victoria continues to drop.

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    Former MP didn’t know why he spoke in ‘code’ during conversation with premier – as it happened

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    The former Wagga Wagga MP and the NSW premier have previously said it was 2015. This blog is now closed

    And that is where I will leave you.

    The Independent Commission Against Corruption’s investigation into whether Daryl Maguire improperly used his position as a politician for his own benefit concluded with admissions from the former Wagga Wagga MP on Friday.

    To be clear, though, the transcript shows that later in the day Maguire seemed to walk that back a little, saying 2014 was “clearer in my mind”.

    Robertson:

    From your perspective the relationship was a close personal relationship on those two dates that you there identify. Do you agree?

    I see that. But 14 was clearer in my mind – 14/15.

    So is it right that at least from your perspective, you were in a close personal relationship with Ms Berejiklian in calendar year 2014, is that right?

    I originally said 15 and I lean towards 15 still, or late 14. That was, that’s my recollection, somewhere there.

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    Icac NSW inquiry: Daryl Maguire gives evidence as Gladys Berejiklian refuses to resign – live

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    Former Wagga MP questioned over corruption allegations including that he misused public office to broker property deals in western Sydney that would financially benefit him. Watch and follow the live stream

    • Berejiklian faces questions about meeting with convicted criminals
    • Maguire asked business associate to delete messages and emails
    • Anne Davies: the Liberals have failed to learn from Labor’s mistakes
    • Richard Ackland: NSW would be a more unsavoury place without Icac

    We’re back and Robertson dives straight into grilling Maguire over an invoice sent to the Chinese delegation on a G8Way International letterhead which included a “fee for introduction”.

    Robertson asks if the fee was raised with Maguire, who says he doesn’t remember.

    I don’t recall seeing it ... I would have thought so.

    We’re now taking a 15 minute recess adjournment.

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