Category Archives: Josh Frydenberg

Australia news live update: NSW Covid hospitalisations rise to 1,204; record high new cases in Victoria and Qld; Coalition rules out free RATs

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NSW records 20,794 new Covid cases and Victoria 8,577, with seven deaths across both states; Queensland reports 4,249 cases, ACT 514 and Tasmania 466; Scott Morrison says health systems well equipped as Covid hospitalisations across the country rise; Greg Hunt says more RATs on the way as double-dose vaccination rate hits 91.5%; Josh Frydenberg grilled over rapid antigen tests. Follow all the day’s news

Researchers in Antarctica are dealing with an outbreak of coronavirus despite being based in one of the world’s most remote regions.

Since 16 December at least 16 of the 25 polar researchers based at Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Polar Station are now infected with the virus.

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Australia live news update: WA to ease hard border from 5 February; $1bn defence deal signed with South Korea

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Mark McGowan announces reopening plan after WA hits 80% fully vaccinated; PM confirms international borders to reopen Wednesday for some visa holders; defence deal inked as Korean leader visits; Greg Hunt says telehealth to be made permanent; Victoria records 1,290 new Covid cases and two deaths; NSW records 536 new cases and no deaths; NT to ramp up Covid rules for some communities after 17 new cases; Queensland records one new local case, with 13 reported in SA. Follow all the day’s developments

Time to chat about next year’s election, and the battle the treasurer is facing from an independent in his home seat.

Michael Rowland:

You are now facing, as we know, Monique Ryan in the seat of Kooyong. She’s a Royal Children’s hospital doctor. You’ve labelled people like she, an independent, as a front for Labor and the Greens. What evidence do you have for that?

Well, at the last election, I had an independent who said they were gonna vote for Labor. That’s a pretty clear indication. We’ve also seen plenty of cases where they’ve just mirrored the policies of our political opponents.

But what evidence do we have at this time?

This is a rinse-and-repeat, Michael. What we’ve seen, we’ve seen obviously a lot of funding going into these independents around the rest of the country, and it’s a democracy, so people can put their hand up.

Just on Omicron, you might have caught up with the news just in the last hour or so, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, made an address to the nation there. He’s declared a tidal wave of Omicron case is about to hit the UK.

He’s declared it a public health emergency, and has declared that all British adults over the age of 16 can get a booster shot by the end of the year. Taking that into account, are we being a bit too sanguine about Omicron here in Australia?

We saw the medical advice, and that saw a pause for two weeks of the reopening of the border to international students and to skilled workers.

That was a precautionary measure. But we will continue to listen and follow the health advice, and it has served us well to date.

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Australia urged to support Asian Development Bank plan to end fossil fuel financing

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Thirty-five organisations implore Australia, which is ADB’s fifth-largest shareholder, to help the region ‘make a just and equitable low-carbon transition’

The Australian government is being urged to support an end to the financing of fossil fuel projects as the Asian Development Bank prepares to signs off on a new energy policy later this month.

The ADB “will not support coalmining, processing, storage, and transportation, nor any new coal-fired power generation”, according to a draft version of the policy, which also endorses “the early retirement of coal-based power plants”.

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Furious Mark McGowan accuses Morrison government of ‘mission to bring Covid into WA’

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Premier goes on offensive as federal treasurer warns same economic support won’t remain if states and territories continue lockdowns

The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, has accused the Morrison government of being on a “mission” to bring coronavirus into the state as the federal treasurer doubled down on warnings state leaders should not expect financial assistance if they failed to deliver the national reopening plan.

McGowan responded furiously on Wednesday to a suggestion from the federal attorney general, Michaelia Cash, that the legal scope for the premiers to keep their borders closed would decrease once local vaccination rates increased.

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Josh Frydenberg’s office intervened in superannuation consultation paper, FOI documents reveal

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Treasury department emails show discussion was had about linking proxy advisers with compulsory super

Josh Frydenberg’s office intervened in the drafting of a consultation paper to make sure it linked proxy advisers to the issue of compulsory superannuation, a key battleground in the political war over retirement savings, internal Treasury documents show.

The documents, released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws, also reveal the paper was developed in just one week.

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National pandemic exit plan modelling doesn’t examine what happens after restrictions are eased

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Critics say national cabinet roadmap appears ‘risky’ with Doherty Institute only considering best strategy for next six months

National cabinet’s pandemic exit strategy only considered modelling for the “transition” phase over the next six months, with the Doherty Institute yet to consider how relaxed restrictions will affect transmission in the community.

The federal government on Tuesday released the modelling that underpinned the updated four-phase roadmap announced on Friday, with the research highlighting the need for a “strategic shift” to targeting young adults who were most likely to transmit the virus.

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NSW Covid update: Sydney lockdown extended one week as state records 27 new cases

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Focus shifts from eastern suburbs to Sydney’s south-west with Gladys Berejiklian not ruling out stricter measures for three local government areas

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.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: regional Victoria Covid restrictions to ease and Melbourne out of lockdown Friday after one new case

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Travel to regional Victoria likely to be barred when lockdown ends Thursday midnight and federal wages support package to be cut off. Follow updates live

Khorshid is asked about the Victorian government’s response to the pandemic, and in particular the current lockdown.

He says:

The AMA has been supportive of the actions of the Victorian government. I think the public expects to be kept safe and this is what is necessary to be kept safe when we’re in an evolving situation. As information comes in, things become clearer, decisions become easier to make. I think the best thing for us all to do is support the advice that’s been given by the chief health officers around the country.

My colleague Paul Karp asked Omar Khorshid about the AMA’s concerns about the recent proposed changes to Medicare rebates.

He asked if the AMA’s concerns have been addressed and what he made of Labor’s warnings of a government assault on Medicare. Are we likely to see another “Mediscare campaign”?

I certainly hope we’re not going see a Mediscare campaign. The sad reality of Medicare is successive governments over the entire life of Medicare have failed to index it properly, and have therefore effectively cut Medicare for 30 years. This review that the AMA has supported was designed to modernise the MBS, and it has taken five years to do, we have a few quibbles and issues with how it was done, but at the end of the day the AMA is supportive of the review process and of most of the outcomes.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: regional Victoria restrictions easing but Melbourne lockdown remains; more NSW hotspots

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Talks continue between the state and the federal government on financial assistance as Melbourne faces second week in lockdown. Follow the latest news

Victoria’s press conference ends – we are just waiting for Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg now

Professor Allen Cheng is asked whether Victoria is just unlucky,or whether there are other factors that mean outbreaks spread further than in other states and says:

I think it is really difficult to know. We thankfully don’t have a huge sample size to say what might be different or not. I think there’s always an element of luck in this.

As I said before, if you have a person in the community with infection, it depends very much on who they are. And we certainly that it is 80% of people with COVID don’t transmit to anyone. 20% of them transmit at least to someone at a very small number transmit to a lot of people. So there is an element of luck to it.

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Budget 2021 reaction: Josh Frydenberg delivers National Press Club address – Australia politics live updates

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Coalition budget delivers $30bn in tax breaks and money for fossil fuel projects but no measures to help struggling universities or clean energy projects. Follow all the latest news and reaction to the 2021 federal budget as it happens

So not a lot new there. Which means question time is going to be a copy and paste affair.

The other question of note?

Why is the border closed for so long?

The key factor, the central factor, the only factor for us what keeps Australians safe. And it’s not simply the rollout of the vaccine, that is a factor for the Chief Medical Officer in making decisions around borders.

They also need to take into account, what is happening with the virus globally, its transmissibility, new variants of the virus, and what it would mean for Australians health and safety.

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Budget news and reaction – as it happened

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Ailing sectors targeted, as treasurer releases Australia’s 2021 budget. Follow all the latest. This blog is now closed

There is a lot more to get through with the budget - but you should sleep! - so we will wrap up the blog now and return tomorrow morning when we have all had a chance to let our subconscious mull it over.

There’s a lot more to say - the environment spending, Indigenous spending and university spending leaves a bit to be desired.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Matt Rose has also responded:

Environment and climate spending represents less than 1% (0.8%) of the federal budget.

To put it another way, out of every $100 in this budget, 80 cents went to climate, water and the environment.

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Australia live news: Australia live news: Covid breach at Brisbane airport after traveller tests positive; Brittany Higgins and PM to meet

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Former Liberal staffer will speak to Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese in Sydney, and Brisbane and Melbourne on Covid alert. Follow latest updates

Here's Justice Katzmann on the jingle being a benefit to Palmer pic.twitter.com/6fjHIDyBFX

Clive Palmer has been ordered to pay Universal Music $1.5m in damages over the “unauthorised” use of a version of the hit 1980s song We’re Not Gonna Take It by glam metal band Twisted Sister in a political ad during the 2019 election campaign.

Palmer used a cover version of the song during his multimillion-dollar advertising blitz during last year’s federal election campaign. The Palmer version of the song changed the lyrics to:

Australia ain’t gonna cop it, no Australia’s not gonna cop it, Aussies not gonna cop it any more.

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Australia news live: TGA says ‘no likely’ link betweens deaths and vaccine; Melbourne announces new Covid quarantine facility

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Victoria says 500-bed $15m facility to be built in Mickleham; Australia’s medicine regulator expected to determine whether death of two men in NSW linked to coronavirus jab. Follow the day’s news live

Thousands of corellas have been filmed flocking to the suburban streets of Nowra on the NSW south coast and it is terrifying.

China’s top envoy to Australia has blasted as “ridiculous” the claim that Beijing’s economic coercion has been the cause of tensions between the two countries.

China’s ambassador, Cheng Jingye, has also cautioned Australia against “teaming up in [a] small group against China” - in apparent reference to initiatives like the Quad with the US, Japan and India. Cheng said Australia should not play the “victim game”.

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Scott Morrison calls on European Union to supply outstanding AstraZeneca Covid vaccine doses

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Australia has accused the EU of ‘semantics’ after European Commission said just one shipment of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses has been formally blocked, but Coalition says AZ has not been able to secure an export licence from Europe

Scott Morrison denies his government has presented the public with overly rosy assessments about the state of its Covid-19 vaccine rollout, as he steps up calls for the European Union to allow 3.1m outstanding AstraZeneca doses to be shipped to Australia.

While declaring that vaccine supply issues were a matter of “straightforward maths”, the prime minister also attempted to calm a growing diplomatic dispute between Australia and the EU, insisting he had not made any criticism of Brussels over its handling of the matter.

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Facebook reverses Australia news ban after government makes media code amendments

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Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announces a compromise has been reached at the 11th hour as the legislation is debated in the Senate

Facebook will restore news to Australian pages in the next few days after the government agreed to change its landmark media bargaining code that would force the social network and Google to pay for displaying news content.

Last week, Facebook blocked all news on its platform in Australia, and inadvertently blocked information and government pages, including health and emergency services.

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Google and Facebook: the landmark Australian law that will make them pay for news content

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Despite protestations from both companies, the Australian parliament is set to pass legislation it says is needed to boost public interest journalism

The Australian parliament is poised to pass a landmark media law that would make Google and Facebook pay news publishers for displaying their content.

The Australian law is separate to a deal Facebook made to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, but has a similar motivation.

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‘Inevitable’ Google and Facebook will pay for Australian news, treasurer says

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Josh Frydenberg says tech companies’ threats to pull services out of Australia did them a ‘big disservice’

Josh Frydenberg has warned the internet giants it is “inevitable” they will pay for news content and their threats to shut down core functions in Australia do them a “big disservice”.

At a doorstop on Sunday, the treasurer said the Morrison’s government intended to become a “world leader” in regulating social media and search companies, who he accused of shifting the goalposts in their opposition to the proposed bargaining code of conduct.

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Australia news live: China row simmers; NSW awaits Covid case numbers

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MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the release of details included in the war crimes report for allowing China to ‘malign our troops’; PM faces questions over Murdoch Christmas party flight; NSW awaits update on new Covid cluster. Follow all today’s news

Good morning, Matilda Boseley here. It’s nearly the end of the week and what better way to reach the finish line than to stick around on the Guardian live blog and get all your much-needed news updates, Covid-19 or otherwise.

First up, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has criticised the Brereton Report which he says was filled with “unproven rumours” of Australian soldiers murdering Afghan children, saying the report has given China an opening to malign Australian troops.

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PM names new high court justices as Porter say war crimes investigation ‘detailed and extensive’ – politics live

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Melbourne lockdown lifted as Victoria records two Covid cases and two deaths. Senate estimates looks at Australia’s response to Doha airport incident. Follow live

Students at the University of Sydney have occupied a building on campus that houses the vice-chancellor’s office, in a protest against cuts to staff in medical sciences.

Approximately 50 students are in the building right now, chanting and asking for the vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, to meet with them.

USyd students are currently occupying the universities administration building, where senior management, including Michael Spence, have their offices. Students are refusing to leave until the university commit to reversing all staff and course cuts. #Auspol pic.twitter.com/dnEBFPXg7l

Daniel Andrews has released a statement on the Melbourne Cup:

I have today advised the Victoria Racing Club that connections of horses competing at the Melbourne Cup Carnival will not be permitted to attend the course.

The government has determined that next week is not a suitable time for gatherings of that nature.*

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Australian politics live: five Melbourne suburbs on Covid alert as Victoria and NSW premiers still under pressure

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A school student in Melbourne’s north tested positive to coronavirus, putting the suburbs of Dallas, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Preston and West Heidelberg on high alert. Follow live

Australia Post is up in the communications estimates committee hearing - that starts at 9

NSW has reported just one locally acquired case - another six are in hotel quarantine.

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