All right, time for us to sign off now. You can find all the daily Covid statistics in the summary post pinned at the top of the blog.
Today’s other notables:
• The TGA has granted provisional approval to the protein-based Covid-19 vaccine, Novovax, and also granted provisional approval to the first two oral Covid-19 treatments in Australia, Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir) and Lagevrio (molnupiravir).
• We learned that prime minister Scott Morrison planned to ask the states to allow under-18s to drive forklifts at today’s national cabinet meeting as part of measures to ease the staff shortages crippling supply chains, and then reversed on the plan after it was roundly criticised – and lampooned – with one union official calling the idea a “brain fart”.
• The full federal court published its reasons for dismissing tennis player Novak Djokovic’s challenge seeking to restore his visa, concluding it was open to minister Alex Hawke to find that Djokovic was anti-vaccination.
• Morrison has insisted that claims the federal government is requisitioning rapid antigen tests are “categorically untrue” and allegations made regarding this will be referred to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
• Victoria will allow IVF treatments to resume despite a pause on elective procedures in the state after significant public outcry.
• The foreign minister, Marise Payne, met with her British counterpart, Liz Truss, in Sydney today, announcing the two governments have vowed to coordinate sanctions over state-backed hacking attacks, saying they want to “raise the costs” for countries that conduct hostile activity in cyberspace.
• An Australian air force aircraft has just arrived in Tonga carrying supplies in the assistance effort to help the Pacific nation after the devastating volcano explosion on the weekend.
• Australia’s unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest in more than 13 years, sinking to 4.2% in December from 4.6% in November.
Please do join us again tomorrow morning for what promises to be a fabulous Friday full of news. I hope you have a lovely evening.
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First Nations groups have today slammed Australia for missing the deadline to introduce new safeguards against torture and abuse in jails.
Four years ago, the Australian government ratified a treaty – the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture – to bring all its detention sites, including juvenile justice centres such as Don Dale and onshore immigration detention centres, under independent scrutiny to stop abuses.
The independent watchdog, known as a national preventive mechanism, would have standing powers to conduct regular and random inspections of prisons, immigration detention centres, juvenile detention centres and held psychiatric facilities. The deadline for setting up those independent monitoring mechanisms was today.
In August it was already becoming apparent that Australia would miss this deadline. Only three states have fulfilled or are in the process of fulfilling their obligations under OPCAT.
First Nations groups have responded today, with co-chair of justice coalition Change the Record, Cheryl Axleby, calling the lack of action “a national disgrace”.
For three decades First Nations peoples have been dying in police and prison cells and we have been calling for governments to take the deaths, mistreatment and abuse of our people in custody seriously. The Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, and the Closing the Gap agreements, were an opportunity for governments to implement independent oversight and accountability of police and prisons to prevent more tragedies. Instead, they have done nothing.
A prison sentence should never be a death sentence – yet since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody over 500 of our people have died behind bars. The Commonwealth, state and territory governments have had four years to meet this deadline.
It is a national disgrace that we are still waiting for action to end the discriminatory laws, policies and practices that see our people die behind bars.
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There have been a few more reasons than usual to take care in the water this summer – tsunami warnings anyone? But I reckon I might avoid any more ocean dips entirely after reading this one. I appreciate that bluebottles are fascinating but NO THANKS.
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