What we learned: Thursday 16 March
And that wraps our news for this evening. Here is what hit the headlines today:
The Australian Council of Social Service called for an increase to jobseeker and the youth allowance payment, a disability and illness supplement of $110 a fortnight and a 50% boost to commonwealth rent assistance.
The Queensland youth justice minister, Liane Linard, claimed it was not true that a 13-year-old boy was held for at least 45 days in solitary confinement.
The federal court began hearing Bruce Lehrmann’s application to extend the time limit for lodging his defamation claim, which would allow him to sue Network Ten, News Corp and two journalists for reporting the rape allegations made by Brittany Higgins.
Consumer lender Latitude Financial was hit by a “sophisticated and malicious cyber-attack” that has resulted in the theft of more than 100,000 identification documents and 225,000 customer records.
The unemployment rate in Australia fell back to 3.5% from January’s 3.7% despite interest rate rises.
Chinese embassy officials attended an Australian government briefing on the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plans.
And prime minister Anthony Albanese told reporters “the relationship with China is improving and that’s a good thing”, after former Labor prime minister Paul Keating criticised Labor’s Aukus involvement.
Updated
Qantas and Jetstar Covid credits extended
Qantas has made a statement on extending its Covid credits, saying:
Qantas and Jetstar are giving customers an extra 12 months to use their Covid credits, which are a carryover from the unprecedented upheaval to borders and travel during the pandemic.
Credits have been extended three times since 2020 and this final extension to the travel date is designed to make it easier for customers to use their remaining credits for domestic or international travel.
Before today, customers had to book and complete their travel by 31 December 2023. Following this change, they will still have to book by 31 December this year but have until December 2024 to complete their travel …
The travel date extension makes the Qantas and Jetstar Covid credit program more flexible than our main domestic competitor and one of the most flexible among global carriers – some of which have already expired their Covid credits.
Updated
