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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Stephanie Convery and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

Covid case surge continues as 67 deaths recorded nationally – as it happened

Australia Scott Morrison New South Wales George Christensen Victoria Queensland Tonga Omicron ACT NT

That’s it for today, folks. You can find all the daily Covid statistics in the summary post pinned at the top of the blog, and in our daily wrap of the Covid news from around the country. That includes all the details about the states that have brought forward the timing of booster shots from four to three months – so far, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT have all made announcements to that effect.

Elsewhere today:

• Dozens of intensive care nurses protested at Sydney’s Westmead hospital on Wednesday morning in the wake of staffing shortages across the healthcare sector.

• 20 Australian defence force personnel have been supplied by the federal government to help with Victorian ambulance crews.

• Prime minister Scott Morrison announced financial incentives to lure international workers to Australia, unveiling a $55m package that will refund the cost of visa application fees for up to 175,000 backpackers and international students.

• Backbench MP George Christensen announced that he will step down from his position on parliament’s joint committee for investment and trade, a move that comes after the government was forced to fend off criticism of the backbencher, who has been calling for parents to opt out of the government’s child vaccination program.

• The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, will hold talks with their British counterparts in Sydney on Friday, in the first 2+2 ministerial meeting hosted by Australia since the start of the pandemic. They are expected to discuss how to manage tensions with China.

• Environment groups are calling on the Western Australian government to ban fracking in the state’s Kimberley region after an application by Perth-based oil and gas company Theia Energy to drill two exploratory wells.

• Mining magnate Clive Palmer will attempt a return to federal politics, announcing he will lead his party’s Senate team in the upcoming election. Palmer’s United Australia Party plans to field Senate candidates in every state and territory.

• Queensland will reopen to vaccinated international travellers from 1am on Saturday. They will be allowed to freely enter the state without needing to quarantine.

Thanks for sticking with us today, and join us again tomorrow morning when we’ll do it all again. Have a lovely evening.

Updated

The pressure on this has been building in the wake of the government’s decision to deport tennis player Novak Djokovic. Christensen and several other Coalition MPs have been vocal critics of the government’s vaccination program and openly campaigned against things like vaccine mandates.

Yesterday, the health minister, Greg Hunt, was asked about Christensen’s anti-vaccination comments on social media (made in a promotion for his podcast). Hunt said:

Wherever people have said things that are anti-vax, we disagree with them, whether that is people in our own movement, I disagree ... Frankly, the anti-vaxxers aren’t just losing the debate, they’ve lost the debate.

Later, Scott Morrison issued a statement:

I strongly disagree with the message sent out by Mr Christensen regarding children’s vaccinations. It is contrary to the official professional medical advice provided to the government and I urge parents to disregard his dangerous messages in relation to vaccines.

Updated

As we reported earlier, the prime minister was today forced to fend off criticism of Christensen, who has been calling for parents to opt out of the government’s child vaccination program.

Morrison said earlier he was in discussion with the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, about the potential for Christensen to lose his position on parliament’s joint committee for investment and trade, which is worth an extra $20,000 to his annual salary.

Christensen’s statement, made on Facebook just now, says:

In breaking news that’s of no interest to anyone but the Canberra Bubble:

When I return to Parliament House on Monday 7 February, I will be advising the Speaker that I intend to stand down as the chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Trade and Investment Growth, a decision of my own making and not a demand or request from any third party.

Until then, I will continue in the role, prosecuting the need for the recommendations of the committee’s report on the Prudential Regulation of Investment in Australia’s Export Industries to be adopted by the Australian Government, especially the recommendation that the government recognise that finance, banking and insurance services are essential services for businesses.

Just to give you some context on this: George Christensen has been coming under fire, including from Scott Morrison and Greg Hunt, in the last 24 hours for his comments urging people, against all sound medical advice, not to vaccinate their children.

Updated

School reopening plans will be on the agenda when the prime minister, Scott Morrison, meets with state and territory leaders for national cabinet tomorrow.

The meeting is due to begin at midday AEDT. It’s a week since the last national cabinet meeting, and comes amid growing case numbers and deaths in Australia.

Morrison is in Canberra for the meeting, which is expected to receive an epidemiology update on the Omicron wave.

The agenda also includes an update on the vaccine rollout and on health system capacity, along with the discussion about plans for schools as term one approaches.

Yesterday the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said doctors and nurses would be diverted from private hospitals to the strained public network to help with the peak of Omicron cases, while the Victorian government issued a “code brown” for health services.

Earlier today, Morrison defended his government’s handling of the pandemic, arguing the Omicron variant had “changed everything”.

Updated

A little diversion to the cricket for a minute: this afternoon, New Zealand’s limited-overs tour of Australia was postponed indefinitely due to uncertainty over when the visitors would be able to return home according to Covid-19 protocols.

The tour, scheduled for 24 January to 9 February, comprised three one-day internationals in Perth, Hobart and Sydney and a solitary Twenty20 match in Canberra. More here:

I honestly can’t say that I’m a fan of cricket, but I am a fan of Geoff Lemon’s prose, and as a consequence even made my way through this sharply written Ashes commentary despite understanding very little of it, but that’s entirely on me.

Updated

Our South Australian readers should also be aware of the fire danger warnings for the state, thanks to tomorrow’s forecast of hot and windy conditions.

Updated

Continue to take care in the water on the east coast: the Bureau of Meteorology is warning that hazardous surf conditions persist along the NSW coastline.

Police are working to retrieve a man’s body after he fell down a mineshaft and died in north-east Victoria, AAP reports.

The man died after falling into a mineshaft near a walking track. Emergency services attended the Gibraltar Spur track in Hawkhurst shortly after 10am on Wednesday.

Victoria police’s search and rescue squad are working to retrieve the body. Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Updated

Rural concession card holders may miss out on rapid antigen tests as small town pharmacists are caught between a government scheme that requires upfront investment in stock and wholesalers stipulating large minimum orders.

Under the government’s scheme announced last week, pharmacies have to pay for the tests first before being reimbursed only for the tests they use. Small pharmacies are also increasingly forced to pay for large numbers of orders stipulated by wholesalers.

More on the issue here:

More on the situation in Tonga, from Kate Lyons: the Tongan government has raised concerns about the tiny islands of Mango and Fonoifua – north-east of the main island of Tongatapu – which both suffered catastrophic damage from the tsunami and volcano eruption on Saturday.

The Tongan government reported on Tuesday night that all houses had been destroyed on Mango Island, and only two houses remained on Fonoifua.

The news came in the first statement released by the government since the disaster on Saturday, which damaged the undersea cable, cutting off communications between Tonga and the rest of the world.

You can read the full story here:

Marise Payne and Peter Dutton to meet British counterparts in Sydney

The federal government says a meeting with senior visiting British ministers in Sydney on Friday “will be conducted in strict adherence to NSW government Covid-19 health guidelines and protocols”.

The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, will hold talks with their British counterparts in the first 2+2 ministerial meeting hosted by Australia since the start of the pandemic.

They will meet with the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, who is tipped as one of the frontrunners to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister amid increasing pressure on his leadership, and the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace.

A statement issued by Payne and Dutton this afternoon says discussions “will focus on strategic challenges and identify areas in which Australia and the United Kingdom can work to support an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific region where the sovereignty of all nations is respected” – a reference to how to manage tensions with a rising China.

Payne said the international environment was becoming “more complex and challenging” and the meeting would “consider ways to strengthen our partnership in order to meet new and emerging threats and seize the many opportunities that this era presents”.

Dutton said he looked forward to talking about “how we can work together in support of a safe and secure Indo-Pacific region”.

The Australian government’s statement says the meeting “will consider ways to strengthen collaboration in defence capability, cybersecurity, critical technology, deterrence and sustainable investment in infrastructure” and “will also provide an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to protecting the core principles of the multilateral system, including the promotion and protection of human rights”.

Updated

ACT cuts interval time for vaccine boosters to three months

I missed this earlier with the Covid numbers rolling in from the south and west, but the ACT has also cut interval times for vaccine boosters and brought the start date for that forward. From the press release:

People aged 18 and over will now be able to receive a booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine three months after receiving their second dose in the ACT.

This change had initially been slated to come into effect from 31 January 2022, but has been brought forward as vaccine supply in the ACT is plentiful and capacity is available at the ACT government’s vaccination clinics.

Chief minister Andrew Barr said booster uptake in the ACT had so far been strong and this change would help increase coverage rates among the Territory’s adult population.

“Just like the initial vaccine rollout, the ACT is leading the way with booster doses with one in three Canberrans aged 18 and over now having received a third vaccination,” chief minister Barr said.

“Receiving your booster is the best defence against Covid-19 infection and serious illness.”

Updated

Kristin O’Connell from the Antipoverty Centre is in our opinion pages today making some powerful points about the way politicians treat poor people. She writes:

All poverty is ultimately income poverty. And its number one cause in this country is abhorrently low welfare payments. We don’t need more food banks, more rebates, more niche supports that are impossible to find out about, let alone access. We need money.

We reported earlier this week that people on jobseeker – which was raised by a mere $25 a week in April – were being told they would have their benefits cut if they didn’t attend face-to-face job agency appointments, despite the surge of Covid cases. You can read that story here.

Scott Morrison, though, in the long preamble of his press conference today, alluded to giving Jobactive providers a greater role in “the urgent needs of the workforce in those particular critical sectors”. Advocates for people on welfare argue this is simply going to put more undue pressure on the poor.

The interval for a booster shot will be reduced to three months in Victoria and New South Wales amid unprecedented strain on hospitals as Omicron cases surge.

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced on Wednesday morning the move would take effect on Wednesday while NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said the change would be implemented from Friday in that state.

Perrottet said he had “seen very clearly” through ICU numbers that vaccination was key to reducing symptoms and fatalities.

Read more:

When Melbourne woman Beth* called her fertility clinic on 10 January to arrange prepaid testing, she was told her procedure had been cancelled, and she would have to wait three months.

Beth has been undergoing IVF for almost two years, and has had six unsuccessful transfers and two miscarriages in that time. It was hoped a biopsy, to be sent to Japan, would help to provide answers as to why she wasn’t getting pregnant.

But on 6 January, Victorian health minister Martin Foley announced a ban on all non-urgent elective surgery – including IVF treatments – in metropolitan Melbourne and major regional cities, in an effort to free up health resources amid the Omicron wave.

Read more about the issue here:

Updated

Western Australia records five new Covid cases

Western Australia has recorded five new Covid-19 cases. They include two cases of local transmission and three from interstate travel. No cases are in hospital.

Updated

Just a little detour to our Pacific neighbours for a moment.

Australia and New Zealand have started to dispatch aid to Tonga in the wake of the volcano disaster on the weekend, amid fears relief workers could bring a “tsunami of Covid” cases to the Pacific Island nation that has so far recorded just one case of the virus.

New Zealand has dispatched two naval vessels with relief supplies onboard. The country’s defence minister Peeni Henare said they were expected to arrive in four days, though could arrive as soon as Friday if the weather holds.

Australia’s HMAS Adelaide left Sydney for Brisbane on Tuesday and was due to depart for Tonga on Wednesday.

No further deaths have been reported since the Tongan government’s announcement of three confirmed deaths – one Tongan woman, one Tongan man, and one British woman – on Tuesday night.

Royce Kurmelovs has our full report here:

Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Wellington is loaded with Tonga disaster relief supplies at Devonport, Auckland.
Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS Wellington is loaded with Tonga disaster relief supplies at Devonport, Auckland. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

We’re still waiting to hear from Western Australian health authorities on the Covid situation over there today, but I understand that health minister Amber-Jade Sanderson will be stepping up to the mic at about 12.30pm local time, which is 3.30pm AEDT.

Updated

Our US colleagues reported this week concerns from airline groups that the rollout of 5G in the country could interfere with plane radio equipment due to the equipment operating in the same radio frequency spectrum as 5G.

In case you were wondering if that is an issue here, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) – which regulates spectrum licensing in Australia – says it will not be a cause for concern.

Currently 4G and 5G mobile networks operate between the 3400MHz and 3700MHz spectrum band. Acma in 2020 started planning for what to do with the 3700-4200MHz band, and as part of that process has decided that wireless broadband will only go up to 4000MHz.

Aircraft radio altimeters operate above 4200MHz, meaning there will be a buffer and it shouldn’t be an issue. Acma said there were no recorded incidents of wireless broadband interfering with radio altimeters in Australia.

A spokesperson said:

The ACMA works closely with the aviation and telecommunications sectors to ensure that wireless broadband services, including 5G, and aircraft radio altimeters can successfully co-exist in nearby frequency bands. We expect to publicly consult from March 2022 on how new wireless services in the 3400-4000 MHz range will be introduced, which will include approaches for managing this issue. We have also engaged with other regulators around the world on technical studies and approaches, including following developments in the US and Europe.

A 5G telecommunications antenna in Mullumbimby in NSW.
A 5G telecommunications antenna in Mullumbimby in NSW. Photograph: David Maurice Smith/Oculi

Updated

Environment groups call for WA to ban fracking in Kimberley

Environment groups are calling on the Western Australian government to ban fracking in the state’s Kimberley region after an application by Perth-based oil and gas company Theia Energy to drill two exploratory wells.

The proposal, published by the state’s environmental regulator on Tuesday, is the second application for fracking in the Kimberley, with a proposal from Texan-based Black Mountain Energy also under assessment. The Environmental Protection Authority has given the general public seven days to comment on Theia Energy’s proposal.

WA lifted its ban on fracking in 2018.

Theia Energy’s application is to drill one vertical and one horizontal well in the Canning Basin, 155km south-east of Broome. The amount of groundwater that would be extracted during the process would be up to 17.8m litres, according to the company’s application.

The Lock the Gate Alliance, Environs Kimberley and the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) have called on the McGowan government to reject the project.

The conservation council’s executive director Maggie Wood said:

As the state’s peak environmental body, CCWA has been consistent in our view that fracking is completely unacceptable in WA - but particularly so in the pristine landscape of the Kimberley.

Lock the Gate warned that companies typically began with a handful of exploratory wells but if the development moved to production those wells multiplied across the landscape.

The alliance’s WA spokesperson Claire McKinnon:

The amount of water that would be required for a fully fledged fracking industry in the Kimberley is truly terrifying.

Martin Pritchard of Environs Kimberley said opening the Canning Basin to the oil and gas industry represented a potential “carbon bomb”.

We don’t think the premier and his cabinet have been briefed on the potential scenario of oil and gas fracking in the Kimberley and the billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane that would be released if the region was opened up to gas fracking fields.

Updated

Here is some further context on what’s happening in the Northern Territory.

Indigenous organisations are calling for federal government and defence help to battle Covid outbreaks in remote communities, saying the Northern Territory’s pandemic response had failed, AAP reports.

Aboriginal Peak Organisations NT warns there is a growing emergency in the territory with outbreaks in multiple remote and vulnerable communities where vaccination rates are low.

Spokesperson John Paterson says there are not enough health workers on the ground, and local health centre staff are exhausted and at breaking point. Rapid antigen tests are also in short supply, and staff and community members are not being tested.

Paterson said on Wednesday:

The result is that infected individuals are not being identified and are spreading the virus undetected.

NT virus response teams are also struggling to transport and isolate infected people and they are “being left to isolate in overcrowded and inadequate accommodation”.

We need to see infected people rapidly moved into adequate, supported isolation accommodation.

The groups called on the territory and federal governments to urgently provide more health workers and free RATs.

Paterson said the labour shortage had slowed the remote vaccination rollout in communities with Aboriginal-controlled health organisations.

“A surge workforce is urgently needed to deal with the current crisis,” he said. Paterson also raised concerns over “a looming food security crisis” due to supply chain issues.

This is the time, when the essential elements of the Covid response are faltering, to enlist the direct support of the commonwealth and defence force to assist in critical areas of the response.

It comes a day after the NT government reported new outbreaks in remote Indigenous communities from Arnhem Land to central Australia, including cases in Utopia, 240km north of Alice Springs, Areyonga and Papunya, Bulla, Galiwin’ku, Yuendumu, and Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Dozens of new cases have also been detected in an Alice Springs renal hostel, an aged care facility, at the local prison and in town camps.

Updated

Still in the Northern Territory, we’ve just heard that the Royal Darwin Hospital has activated the private hospitals agreement with Darwin Private Hospital to increase bed capacity.

It follows the federal government’s announcement yesterday that it would enact that agreement, which allows for doctors and nurses to be diverted from the private system into the public in times of strain on the healthcare system.

Updated

Northern Territory records 418 new Covid cases

The Northern Territory has recorded 418 new Covid cases.

There are 48 people in hospital but none of them are in intensive care, with seven cases classified as acute and on ventilators.

Updated

There’s some nasty weather brewing inland in southern Queensland.

Further to prime minister Scott Morrison’s comments earlier today, denying that he said there were no refugees in Melbourne’s Park hotel (there are indeed refugees in Melbourne’s Park hotel), here is a wrap from Daniel Hurst, Sarah Martin and Ben Doherty on who said what and when, and the facts of the matter.

So just to recap the latest on booster shots, if you live in NSW, Victoria or South Australia and you had a second dose of a Covid vaccine three months ago, you are now or will very shortly be eligible to get your booster.

Updated

Clive Palmer announces he will run for Senate in federal election

Mining billionaire Clive Palmer will attempt a return to federal politics, announcing he will lead his party’s Senate team in the upcoming election, AAP reports.

Palmer’s United Australia Party plans to field Senate candidates in every state and territory, with the one-time lower house MP last tasting victory in 2013 when he won the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax.

In statements made in Brisbane on Wednesday, Palmer announced he would run for the Senate, pointing to the level of national debt:

The reason I’ve come back into politics and taken a key role at this important time is because of the state of the nation.

I’d like to be on my boat but I’m not, I’m in this situation.

The anti vaccine-mandate advocate says his party has attracted more than 80,000 members, and will be backed by a campaign with significant resources.

“I don’t budget, we just respond to the political circumstance,” he said.

Clive Palmer speaks at a United Australia Party press conference today.
Clive Palmer speaks at a United Australia Party press conference today. Photograph: Jono Sealre/AAP

The UAP has just one seat in the federal parliament – the electorate of Hughes held by Craig Kelly, who was elected as a Liberal candidate until he resigned to sit as an independent before joining the UAP.

But Palmer continues to spruik the party’s chances in the election to be held sometime before the end of May, and says candidates will also be fielded in every lower house seat.

“We can win seats in Western Sydney, Western Melbourne. There are seats in Queensland that we can win,” he said.

The party’s Senate team also includes former Deloitte Australia CEO Domenic Martino in NSW and property executive Ralph Babet in Victoria.

The announcement follows controversy sparked by Kelly, who caught the attention of the Therapeutic Goods Administration after spamming people with unsolicited text messages last year.

Updated

A lot hinges on how much all this Omicron disruption is affecting confidence in the economy (quite apart from those in hospital, or worse, of course).

Today we got another snapshot, this time from the Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s consumer sentiment report, which, on the face of it, is a bit more upbeat than yesterday’s ANZ-Roy Morgan take that had sentiment lower than any January since 1992.

Anyway, today’s reading showed the index of consumer sentiment fell by 2.0% to 102.2 in January from 104.3 in December.

“This is a surprisingly solid result given the rapid spread of the Omicron Covid variant over the last month,” it said.

“The 2% decline compares to the 5.2% drop seen in the first month of the delta outbreak in NSW, a 6.1% drop heading into Victoria’s ‘second wave’ outbreak in 2020 and the epic 17.7% collapse when the pandemic first hit in early 2020.”

Still, “responses over the course of the survey week – from January 10 to January 14 – did show a deterioration suggesting some increased anxiety as the week progressed”, the report added.

And that’s the rub. Most economists are still assuming the hit to the economy is going to be short-lived.

Supporting consumer resilience, they argue, are ongoing record-low interest rates, a low jobless rate, the massive (25%) surge in house values over the past year and $250bn in savings squirrelled away.

Watch this space, as they say in the cliched classics.

Shoppers in Sydney last week. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s consumer sentiment report found the sentiment index had fallen by 2% in January from December.
Shoppers in Sydney last week. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute’s consumer sentiment report found the sentiment index had fallen by 2% in January from December. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

SA reduces booster shot wait time to three months

The SA premier Steven Marshall has announced that the wait time for boosters in the state has been reduced to three months after second dose:

Those people who had their second dose three months ago are now eligible for their booster. This will create increased demand of around 225,000 shots in South Australia. We have plenty of supply. You can get an appointment today, right across the state you can get an appointment for your booster.

Updated

SA records six Covid deaths and 3,482 new cases

South Australia has recorded 3,482 new Covid-19 cases and six deaths.

There are 294 people in hospital and 23 in ICU, with four people on ventilators.

Updated

There are 60 people in hospital in the ACT, including five in intensive care and two on ventilators.

It’s worth noting that the territory’s figures today also include rapid antigen tests.

Updated

ACT records 1,467 new Covid cases

The ACT has recorded 1,467 new coronavirus cases. Thankfully, the territory has not recorded any Covid deaths today.

Updated

A worker at a warehouse supplying Australian supermarkets says managers were not prepared for the Omicron onslaught, resulting in long shifts and stress among workers covering for absent colleagues due to the pandemic.

The employee in the supply chain serving Coles, who asked not to be identified due to fear of reprisal, said about a quarter of staff were off work due to Omicron.

He said most of those had Covid-19, rather than being forced to isolate due to being a close contact of a positive case.

“A lot of pressure is put on us to try and pick up the slack,” he said, which involved “longer hours and weekends” as well as morning shifts that start earlier.

“For instance, we usually start at 6am but a lot of the times … a lot of the staff start at 2am.”

Read the full story:

Hello everyone. I hope you have a delicious lunch in front of you to fuel you through this afternoon of news. Thank you Matilda Boseley as always for powering us through the morning.

Okay, with that, I shall hand you over to the fantastic Stephanie Convery who will take you through the afternoon’s news.

Victoria’s bid for the 2026 Commonwealth games appears to be bipartisan, with the Liberals hopeful it will get those darn kiddos off their darn phones.

Updated

National Covid summary

Australia has marked another deadly day of the pandemic, with 67 Covid-19 deaths recorded on Wednesday. Here is a summary of the daily numbers:

NSW
Deaths – 32
Cases – 32,297
Hospitalisations – 2,863 (217 in ICU, 66 ventilated)

Victoria
Deaths – 18
Cases – 20,769
Hospitalisations – 1,173 (125 in ICU, 42 ventilated)

Queensland
Deaths – 11
Cases – 19,932
Hospitalisations – 835 (52 in ICU, 18 ventilated)

South Australia
Deaths – six
Cases – 3,482
Hospitalisations – 294 (23 in ICU, four ventilated)

Tasmania
Deaths – 0
Cases – 1,185
Hospitalisations – 29 (two in ICU)

ACT
Deaths – 0
Cases – 1,467
Hospitalisations – 60 (five in ICU, two ventilated)

Northern Territory
Deaths – 0
Cases –418
Hospitalisations – 48 (none in ICU, seven ventilated)

Western Australia
Deaths – 0
Cases – five
Hospitalisations – 0

Updated

Readers from the Dandenongs and surrounding regions in Victoria, please be careful. There are powerful and potentially damaging winds headed your way.

These will be coming from the east, which is unusual and therefore make trees more vulnerable to falling.

Stay safe.

Updated

But Palaszczuk says she is still worried about how the Gold Cost will handle the influx of international travellers, given the area’s (comparatively) low vaccination rate.

Can I just say something with this? Of course people will come into all different parts of Queensland but I want to make this observation. Over the past week I’ve had a look at our regions and our vaccination rates. People are going to be coming into Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns.

Brisbane is around 93% to 95% vaccinated. That’s fantastic. Cairns is at 94.1% first dose - I should add some parts of Brisbane are over 95%, such as Brisbane East. The Gold Coast, however, and I know I keep talking about the Gold Coast but I am concerned. The Gold Coast is still sitting at 90.5%.

Now, to put that in perspective, we were very concerned at the start of this vaccination campaign about Mackay and Central Queensland. Mackay is now more than 95% first dose. Central Queensland – well done Central Queensland – 91.1%. Wide Bay regions, more than 95%. Townsville is 91.7%. Southwest Queensland is 93% first dose and Darling Downs region is 95%.

If you look at the scheme of things. In terms of where people will be travelling, can I please give an added push for Gold Coast. Come and get vaccinated.

Updated

Queensland to open to international travellers on Saturday

Annastacia Palaszczuk says that from 1am on Saturday vaccinated international travellers will be allowed to freely enter Queensland without needing to quarantine.

We made a decision yesterday as part of our Covid task force meeting and we have decided to set a firm date for vaccinated people, international travellers coming into Queensland and we have set that date at 1am this Saturday.

If you have family or loved ones - I know a lot of people have sons and daughters overseas or parents or brothers and sisters overseas. This gives to the airlines and incoming travellers that from 1am on Saturday, you can come into Queensland and you will no longer have to do, if you are vaccinated, quarantine. You are free to come in.

We’re asking you to do a RAT test within 24 hours. This is consistent with other states. If national cabinet decides to change that down the track, so be it, but we do believe that now is the right time with our vaccination rates so high, 88.82%.

Brisbane’s international airport will become busier from Saturday.
Brisbane’s international airport will become busier from Saturday. Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

Updated

The Queensland premier has confirmed that she will be pushing for local manufacturing of rapid antigen tests at national cabinet tomorrow:

If you think about it, we have capacity in this country to manufacture these RAT tests. So I think, you know, we need to ask these companies to put forward approvals and get them done quickly. Rather than searching the world to get them, we could be producing them here locally. It’s something I’d like to raise at national cabinet tomorrow.

Updated

Academic experts criticise ministerial veto of research grants

In an open letter, 138 academic experts have expressed concerns about a decision made by the acting minister for education, Stuart Robert, to reject six research grants that were recommended for funding by the Australian Research Council.

Robert’s veto of the proposed grants, announced on Christmas Eve, has been widely condemned by the research community.

The letter, addressed to Robert and the ARC’s outgoing chief executive, Sue Thomas, said:

Such interventions compromise the integrity of the research funding system, weaken public trust in the ARC, and threaten to damage Australia’s international reputation.

The letter’s signatories are all members of the ARC’s 2021 college of experts, appointed specifically to assess research grants and select which ones should be funded. They include experts of international standing drawn from the Australian research community, many with extensive industry experience.

The letter continued:

Each grant eventually recommended to the Minister for funding is first assessed by multiple international experts and multiple College members, and then individually discussed and voted on by College members … The Ministerial decision to override the ARC’s recommendations for funding undermines this process.

We ask that this and future Australian Governments legislate amendments to the Australian Research Council Act 2001 that will ensure the independence of the ARC and prevent political interference in research grants.

Updated

Queensland records 11 Covid deaths and 19,932 new cases

We are jumping right over to Queensland where the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is speaking now.

She has confirmed the state has sadly recorded another 11 deaths of people diagnosed with Covid-19 and 19,932 new cases.

It is my very sad duty today as premier of Queensland to report that tragically there have been 11 people that have lost their life.

Any death is, of course, a tragedy. And every day I’m reminded that this is someone’s grandmother or grandfather or brother or sister or aunt or uncle and I think we all need to keep that in mind that.

Any loss is a tragedy and I express my condolences on behalf of the state to the families of the loved ones who have lost their lives under such tragic circumstances.

Updated

ADF members to help Victorian ambulance crews, Andrews says

The Victorian premier has confirmed that 20 Australian defence force personnel have been supplied by the federal government to help with Victorian ambulance crews and hopes that this number will grow in the coming weeks.

Daniel Andrews:

I’ve been on the phone with the prime minister in the last few days and I’m grateful for the fact that there will be a number of commonwealth public servants continuing to support us at triple zero, helping with call-taking. We know that system is under significant pressure. They’re not ADF as such but it’s not a matter of the uniform you wear. It’s the role you play. They’re doing a great job. We’ve got some in there now, and that will be basically doubled and it won’t end any time soon. It was scheduled to end at the end of this month. I think that will be ongoing. We’re very grateful for that.

In terms of ADF strictly, there will be in the order of 20 I think. And hopefully we can build to that over time. Just like we successfully did in ‘20 and ‘21 - certainly in 2020 - where we had an ambulance paramedic and trained ADF member working together as a blended crew so the paramedic can provide the care and the ADF person, who is trained to assist where appropriate but principally to do the driving, meaning there are many shifts that will get filled that wouldn’t otherwise get filled and it means many, many patients will get the care they need as fast as possible.

So I’ve been speaking with the prime minister quite a bit in recent times, grateful ... for the answer, which I think came through yesterday or late the day before, and thank you very much to him and to his team. And we certainly don’t rule out asking for more help when we need it.

Ambulances at Melbourne’s St Vincent Hospital. Demand for ambulance services in Victoria has risen amid the Omicron wave.
Ambulances at Melbourne’s St Vincent Hospital. Demand for ambulance services in Victoria has risen amid the Omicron wave. Photograph: Diego Fedele/Getty Images

Updated

Andrews has suggested that the number of industries that will have third dose vaccine mandates imposed will likely grow, stating that he does not want Victorians to view the booster shot as optional. He also alluded that the new definition of “fully vaccinated” may be changed to three doses by national cabinet in the weeks to come.

The health minister last Monday made a number of announcements for a number of different classes of worker.

There’s every chance that we add to that list, for the best of reasons. We mandated a number of people, many people across many different sectors, a first and second dose and I think you’ll see very soon, out of national processes, you’ll see the terminology and the recognition of the third dose be crystal clear.

This is not an option, not an add-on, not ‘a good thing to have’. I think we’re close to a change in policy that will simply reflect the fact that in order to be fully protected, you need three doses.

Updated

Victorian officials have urged double vaccinated people recently infected with Covid-19 to get their booster vaccine as soon as they are eligible and feeling well enough. (Which includes me actually, I should make my booking).

If you’ve had Covid your immunity will wane quite quickly. We know the immunity post-vaccination is much longer and higher than the disease itself. So yes, my advice would be that as soon as you’re well enough after your Covid illness, go and get a booster vaccine.

Updated

Victoria has announced a four-day “booster blitz” to help many newly eligible residents get their third dose.

A woman, whose name I did not catch but seems important, has given the details of that blitz. Over the four days of the blitz, there are literally tens of thousands of appointments that are currently available waiting for you to book in.

For those who want to walk up, here’s where you can go:

The Royal Exhibition Buildings ... between 8am-8pm, for the duration of the blitz.

La Trobe University Bundoora, 8am-8pm, over the four days of the blitz.

Sandown racecourse, 9am-6.30pm, Saturday and Sunday.

Dandenong Plaza, 9am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday.

Frankston Bayside centre, 9.30am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday.

Sunshine hospital, 8am-8pm, over the four days of the blitz.

Bendigo Vax hub, 9am-8pm, over the course of the blitz.

And the Ballarat Mercure [hotel], 8.30am to 3pm on Sunday.

Updated

More than 40,000 rapid antigen tests stolen in NSW

About 42,000 rapid, at-home Covid-19 tests worth more than $500,000 have been stolen from a depot in Sydney amid a nationwide shortage, reports AAP’s Tiffanie Turnbull.

NSW police were called after man walked into the freight depot in Mascot on Tuesday afternoon and “took possession” of the tests.

“The incident was reported to police and inquiries are continuing,” a police spokesperson said.

NSW premier Dominic Perrottet warned the culprit to expect a visit from police soon.

At a time when everyone across our state has made incredible efforts in keeping people safe, in making sacrifices, what a disgraceful act...

The police will catch you.

Australia continues to grapple with a shortage of rapid antigen tests and price gouging which the consumer watchdog has called “beyond outrageous”.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Rod Sims says the agency has received reports of RATs costing up to $500 for two tests through online marketplaces, and more than $70 per test through convenience stores, service stations and independent supermarkets.

Despite wholesale RAT costs being up to $11.45 a test, the agency said prices for the kits are often retailing between $20-$30 and are priced much higher through smaller outlets.

Updated

Victoria reduces booster wait time to three months

Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that, from this moment onwards, Victorians will be eligible for a booster three months after their second dose.

I’m pleased to announce that, effectively immediately, the dose interval will be reduced to three months across our state for your third dose. So if you’ve had your second dose within the last three months, then you will now be eligible.

That’s is if three months have passed since your second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, you will be eligible for a third dose. That interval has been reduced down to three months effective immediately.

That’s on the advice of our public health team, consistent with ATAGI’s broader statement. It’s safe. It’s effective. The total number of people eligible increases substantially, by two million Victorians, and it will help us get more people third-dose boosted quicker than would otherwise be the case.

Updated

OK, we are jumping straight away over to Victoria, where the premier, Daniel Andrews, is speaking now as the state’s hospital system prepares to enter a statewide “code brown”.

It seems Andrews will be announcing an increase to vaccination capacity later in the presser but for not he is running through the daily Covid numbers.

He has confirmed that 14 out of the 18 deaths recorded in the state today were from the last two days.

There are 1,173 people that are in hospital. That’s an increase from 1,152 yesterday – 125 people are in intensive care and that was 127 yesterday so it’s down by two. Forty two are on a ventilator, again that’s down by one.

And sadly, I have to report that 18 Victorians have died with Covid-19 – 14 of those people in the last two days and, of course, we send our thoughts, prayers and sincere condolences to all of their families. This will be an incredibly difficult time for them.

In terms of case numbers, 10,043 people reported a positive rapid antigen test. A further 10,726 positive PCR results from 489,838 tests processed.

Updated

PM to talk to Barnaby Joyce about George Christensen

Reporter:

One last one on George Christensen. He holds a relatively lucrative position as a backbencher on the joint committee for investment and trade. Does he still deserve to hold such a position, given that he’s spouting dangerous views that are contrary to government advice? Should he step aside for another more deserving member of your team?

Morrison:

That’s a matter I’m discussing with the deputy prime minister.

Nationals MP George Christensen has suggested children should not get vaccinated against Covid.
Nationals MP George Christensen has suggested children should not get vaccinated against Covid. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

'That is not what I said': Morrison denies saying Melbourne detainees are not refugees

Morrison has claimed that he never said that all those people detained in the makeshift immigration facility at the Park Hotel in Melbourne were not refugees.

The suggestion that I said they were all found not to be refugees, that’s not true. That is not what I said. It was a question in a radio interview, I answered to the best of my knowledge at that time. In a quite number of cases that was indeed the case.

There were people in detention who are not owed protection under the refugee convention and our rules. Others, I can tell you, the ones who are there are those who are there arrived in Australia illegally on the boat.

Let’s zoom back in time and see exactly what he said:

When speaking to 2GB radio earlier in the week, the prime minister was asked by presenter Ben Fordham how it was “acceptable” that refugees in the same hotel as Djokovic had been detained for almost nine years with taxpayers spending millions of dollars “to keep them in limbo.”

In response, Morrison suggested the detainees were not refugees.

Well, the specific cases, Ben, I mean, it’s not clear that to my information that someone in that case is actually a refugee.

They may have sought asylum and been found not to be a refugee and have chosen not to return, and … that happens in this country, people aren’t found to be refugees and they won’t return.

Updated

Reporter:

Just to confirm, have you received a formal request ... from the Tongan government for assistance, for humanitarian assistance?

And considering the serious nature and just the devastation that this volcano has occurred, will Australia consider increasing its long-term aid to the nation?

Morrison:

Well, we have always been prepared to provide support to our Pacific family whenever they have needed it, and that’s exactly what we’re doing in Tonga. It’s exactly what we’re doing in Papua New Guinea, it’s exactly what we’re doing right now in the Solomon Islands. It’s exactly what we did in Samoa when they had their outbreaks there previously.

I mean, any time a Pacific nation has called on us for support, we have always said “yes”, and so, you know, I’ll be talking to the prime minister, I hope, later today, communications allowing, and we run through whatever else they might need.

Our defence forces have stood up their operation and are deploying as necessary and as directed. So we feel deeply for our family in Tonga.

An Australian air force plane departs from the RAAF base in Richmond, NSW on Tuesday to assist the Tonga government with assessing damage and delivering supplies.
An Australian air force plane departs from the RAAF base in Richmond, NSW on Tuesday to assist the Tonga government with assessing damage and delivering supplies. Photograph: CPL Kylie Gibson/AP

Updated

Morrison has been asked about the current situation in Tonga after the devastating undersea volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami.

I met by phone with the prime minister of New Zealand the other day, and we’re working together with flights that are going there and we’re providing aide support.

It is a very difficult environment to be operating in, the ash clouds and things of that nature. Minister [Zed] Seselja has been directly engaging on that issue with their counterparts.

I’ll probably speak to the [Tongan] prime minister later today because communications have been a challenge over the last little while.

It’s a very small island community in Tonga and there are a lot of Australians of Tongan descent and who have family and friends and many Australians have visited there. So they would be expecting us to do everything we can to stand with our Pacific family in Tonga and they’re a faithful community and they’re a beautiful community and I’m sure they’ll be supporting each other but they need us now and they’re getting our help.

Updated

Reporter:

That is within your power to kick [Christensen] out of the party room, why don’t you do that given that he holds “dangerous views”, in your words?

Morrison:

The more important thing to do is to say his views are not the government’s views. They have in no way, whatsoever, influenced government policy at all, and the greater attention given to his views – which is not the government* – then, I can only encourage those to simply ignore him.

*For those that missed it, the prime minister is once again suggesting that it is the media’s fault that one of his government’s MP’s anti-vaccination views have been getting attention.

Updated

'Don't pay attention to him': Morrison on George Christensen's 'dangerous' vaccine views

Oh, we are back to talking about George Christensen.

Reporter:

You know that George Christensen isn’t like any other person talking about anti-vaccination sentiment. He is a government member. Is George Christensen taking you for a ride?

Morrison:

He is not a candidate for the government at the next election. And George has been putting out these views for some time. I’m not seeking to amplify them, in fact, [I don’t think people should] be paying attention to him on this issue at all.

And anyone who is also pushing those views. I don’t think, those who said people shouldn’t take the AstraZeneca vaccine, I don’t think people should listen to those views either*. People on the same side of politics as well.

As a free country, people are allowed to say what they think, but we don’t have to listen to them. We don’t have to amplify their views**. And are certainly not seeking to do that. I think they’re unwise views. I think they’re dangerous views. I don’t think people should be listening to them.

You want the best information, my advice to them is to get the best information from the official sources. Don’t go after things that are people rabbiting on Facebook and social media and all the rest of it, you’re not going tofind it there, you aren’t going to find things can help you there.

Go to the credible source of information on vaccines and George Christensen is not one of them.

*This is a dig at the Queensland government by the way.

**Oh sorry! I forgot that it’s the media fault for reporting on what an MP says publicly!

Updated

Morrison on RATs:

The UK [is the only country] with a universal policy [and] they aren’t able to deliver ... People who want them, can’t get them there either.

The test is not a cure, the vaccine is what protects and that’s why we have channelled our effort into those vaccines and that’s why one of the other areas we working in the workforce is targeting pop-up boosted programs in a social work forces.

I understand that those rapid antigen test shortages have been a great frustration but a lot of these comments are made with hindsight, not foresight.

In Australia, we can still say that we have the lowest death rate, strongest economy and highest vaccination rate in the world.

A chemist in Melbourne’s north sold out of rapid antigen tests, like many other chemists.
A chemist in Melbourne’s north sold out of rapid antigen tests, like many other chemists. Photograph: Ellen Smith/The Guardian

Updated

Morrison has been asked about George Christensen’s comments yesterday encouraging parents not to vaccinate their children.

On George Christensen, I don’t think you could have been any clearer yesterday, don’t listen to him. He is not a doctor, he can’t tell you what to do with vaccines. I listen to Prof Paul Kelly.

Their advice is that children should be vaccinated. And so, we strongly encourage people not to follow [Christensen’s] advice.

Australia is a free country, you can’t go around locking people up for what they say as Australians. I’m sure the media would be suggesting we are doing that. He is allowed to speak his mind but Australians should be listening to it.

Morrison! No one is saying that he should be locked up! You are acting like the only two options are “be a federal MP of Australia and receive mild at best criticism from the government” and “prison”. There has to be a middle ground, surely.

Updated

Scott Morrison has been asked if the government is considering following the US’s lead and reducing the isolation period for fully vaccinated Covid cases from seven to five days.

All of these things are always under active consideration and that has been for some time. The most recent information that we have is that post-five days you still got 30% that are remaining infectious.

And so that is a calibrated decision you got to make. What I’m pleased about the measures that we have – we have announced and are already taking are having impact. I mean, the difference between standing before you today and a week ago has been quite significant.

I mean, a lot of that is yet to be seen, I understand, on the shelves, but where the challenges were, I mentioned particularly the poultry sector and others, the trucking industry and others, some of those peak pressures we’re seeing, we’re seeing some relief, it’s not where we want it to be, but the trajectory is right.

We’re going to take medical advice on that and I know the chief medical officer has many sleepless nights over this one because we ask him about it regularly, and he is constantly talking to his colleagues overseas, places like Israel, UK and many other places, to understand what the experience there is and so if he’s in a position to tell me that we can make a change like that, then, of course, that would be something that we would proceed with, but at the moment, that is not the advice and until we have such advice.

Updated

The treasurer now making the point that the US and UK’s fatality rate is significantly higher than ours.

Frydenberg:

Australia’s performance through this pandemic, as the prime minister has said, has not been perfect, but nobody’s response has been perfect. But we are in a very, very strong position relative to the rest of the world given that we have faced a once-in-a-century pandemic and the biggest economic shock since the Great Depression.

The fatality rate in the United States per head of population has been 24 times that of Australia. The fatality rate in the United Kingdom from Covid has been 21 times that of Australia, and Australia’s outpour in both of GDP and employment outcomes has been better than any other advanced economy across the rest of the world.

Updated

Frydenberg:

Today we’re opening up an opportunity for 175,000 more students and working holiday-makers to come to Australia. We’re putting out the welcome mat to 175,000 students and working holiday-makers to come to Australia and to take up this opportunity by ensuring that they get rebated that visa application charge.

The prime minister is working through the national cabinet on a schools plan to ensure that our schools open at the start of term 1 and stay open and that’s going to be critical for the workforce as well.

Updated

Frydenberg:

Now, the prime minister referenced the challenges that we face with respect to supply chains. In recent days, I was with Coles workers at a distribution centre in Laverton – 600 workers, many who have been absent.

But they were working hard to ensure that the food made its way to the supermarkets and then to people’s kitchens. And they said the changes that the prime minister led through national cabinet have made a real difference to their ability for their operations to keep going. Yesterday the assistant treasurer and I were at Cameron Trucking business, a family owned business that is nearly 50-year strong which has nearly 1,000 workers.

Again, they said those changes we made through the isolation requirements through national cabinet had made a real difference on the ground to allow that trucking business to keep going. So it’s changes around isolation that have made a real difference. It’s changes to the visa requirements and the working requirements of people on visas that is going to make a real difference.

Updated

OK, the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, is up and we are being treated to some more preamble.

It was 678 days ago that the prime minister and I stood in this courtyard and announced a $17.6bn stimulus package for Australian households and businesses at the start of the pandemic. Little did we know then what we know now. Two years of hardship. Australians subject to curfews and lockdowns. And family and friends separated for extended periods of time.

But what we do know is that over the last two years, Australians have pulled together. And that the Morrison government has pulled out all stops to help Australians get through this pandemic. There are enormous challenges right now. Our hospital system is under great pressure and our thoughts are with those selfless and professional healthcare workers who do amazing job on the front-line and those Australians who are in hospital right now with Covid. And, dare I say it, those who are in ICU or on ventilators as well.

Updated

Visa application fees for students and working holidaymakers to be refunded

OK, the big announcement from the press conference is a tweak to the visa application system that removes a number of application fees, along with $3m in funding for an ad campaign to encourage backpackers to come work in Australia.

Morrison:

When it comes to working holiday-makers, we haven’t changed any of the rules around the regional requirements, that’s very important because we still need people working in those regional areas. We don’t want them coming off the farm and coming in to the city. We need them out there and we need them in the city as well.

That’s why today we’re making a further announcement on visas to support the workforce challenge. What we’ll be doing is we will be rebating the visa application fees from all those who arrive today and going forward for students over the next eight weeks and that is a fee of some $630.

And there are around 150,000 students who have visas who we are encouraging to come back to be there for the start of their university or college year and that is a thank you to them for coming back and continuing to choose Australia. But we also want them to come here and be able to be filling some of these critical workforce shortages, particularly those who are working and being trained in healthcare, aged care, those types of sectors, that will be incredibly helpful. That will be for the next eight weeks.

So visa application fees rebated when you arrive in Australia and that will be done through the Department of Home Affairs and that will be eight weeks from today.

The second one is for backpackers and we’ll be rebating their visa application fee and there are some 23,500 backpackers who have visas to come to Australia right now.

My message to them is – come on down. Come on down now because you wanted to come to Australia, you got your visa, we want you to come to Australia and enjoy a holiday here in Australia, move all the way around the country, and the same time join our workforce and help us in our agricultural sector, in our hospitality sector, and so many of the other parts of the economy that rely on that labour – that workforce right now.

And we’ll be supporting that with a $3m that will be giving to Tourism Australia to support a marketing program to target backpackers and students to get them out.

Updated

OK, we have something of substance finally. Morrison is keen for states to remove any requirements for workers to test negative on a RAT each day before working on site.

One of the big ones is the occupational health and safety. Now the clear medical advice to me from the chief medical officer that except in quite specific circumstances, like aged care or health workforces and things of that nature, there is no requirement for workers to be tested on a daily basis with rapid antigen tests. That is not the medical advice.

Those resources should be targeted towards the priority sectors like health and aged care and other critical sectors that are identified, things like meat processing, for example, where there is much higher rate of infection that occurs in those workplaces, and that is where those resources should be directed.

It is not the medical advice for rapid antigen testing to be a requirement for a safe workplace broadly across the Australian economy. And seeking to impose that would not only frustrate the supplies, but it would impose further burdens on our employers at a time when we’re seeking to ensure that our economy can push through.

We have relaxed the 20-hour rule and I should say all of that can be clarified by states and territories now. They can change that right now by regulation and make it very clear that daily testing of workers in workplaces is not a requirement of meeting the OH&S regulations. That would provide immediate relief, I think, in those workplaces in enabling getting more people back at work. But that’s a matter for the states and territories.

We have been trying to land that now for a couple of weeks, and are not making the progress I would like to see happen. So those states who want to get their workers back, that is one thing they can do today to ensure they can alleviate those workforce shortages.

Updated

OK, we are still going through what I would like to describe as “a rough draft of an election stump speech”.

Still unclear why we are here at this press conference.

Morrison:

Unemployment – where it is today at 4.6% – obviously means we got a tight labour market but we are working and yesterday there was an important meeting between Anne Ruston and employers about how we can even better connect Jobactive with the urgent needs of the workforce in those particular critical sectors and tying the Jobactive providers even more into the priorities that are coming back through the response from those industries.

We have been working to reduce the regulatory requirements in the trucking sector and others, you know, the changes we made to the testing arrangements for truck drivers. There are other changes that need to be made and they’re at state level and I’m continuing to pursue those with the states.

There are changes we need to make around the age of forklift drivers to get quite specific. There are changes we need to make that – Kiwis who are living in Australia, resident in Australia, who have truck licences can drive trucks.

I highlight these to you to demonstrate the level of detail that the government is working through to ensure that we can try and alleviate all of the challenges that we’re facing right across the workforce.

Updated

OK, there is a lot of “which I will get back to in a moment” and not a lot of ... actually saying anything.

Morrison:

Workforce has been a particular challenge and the treasurer will speak more to this, but workforce was a challenge before the pandemic and the government was already taking actions in that area as we had been over some years, particularly in the area of skills and training which I’ll reflect on in just a moment.

But particularly to deal with the challenges of disruption in the workplace, same challenge we have seen with the health workforce, aged workforce in countries all around the world, they have these problems in Ottawa like they had them in New South Wales.

They have these problems over in the UK just like we have them here or in France or in Spain or in Germany or in any of these places.

They have the same problems that we’re dealing with here with disruption to workforces. Close contact rules were changed for essential workforces and that definition of “essential workforce” was expanded.

Updated

Morrison is now telling us everything the federal government has done for us. Again, ominous.

With Omicron, it isn’t a policy of just letting it go. That is a complete falsehood. In Australia, we have isolation and we have testing where necessary. We have masks and distancing rules, we have density arrangements tailored to the circumstances in each state and territory. We have strong border controls which we stand up for and we protect and we have vaccination programs which particularly for five to 11 years’ olds is one of the fastest five to 11 years’ olds vaccination take-up rates we have seen anywhere in the world.

Over the course of this summer, this frustrating summer for Australians, we have got $9.8bn that we announced in MYEFO to support the health effort which brings our total investment in the health response in the pandemic to $34.8bn. $308.6m on primary health, telehealth, mental health supports. $180m alone just in supporting our GPs to deal and support patients who have Covid.

Our 50/50 national partnership agreement with the states and territories which is funding hospitals, which is funding testing, remember, there are free tests available to everyone who needs one because they have symptomatic and close contact. There are free tests available to those who are working in healthcare and in aged care and other important settings such as that. There are free tests available to over 6.5m concession card holders which starts on Monday and these tests are being also provided to vulnerable communities, in Indigenous communities, where needed.

Updated

I have a bad feeling that all this preamble about how tough everyone else is doing is building to something.

Morrison:

Yes, other countries have problems with the impacts on aged care systems and healthcare systems, but in Australia, there are 40,000 more lives that have been saved. There are 40,000 and more people alive today than had we had the same experience of the average of other developed nations around the world.

And that is a great credit to Australians and it’s a great credit to the way that we have been able to push through from the start. It hasn’t been without challenge, it hasn’t been without loss, it hasn’t been without frustration and difficulty and the natural anger that I know flows from that. But that’s where we are – doing better than almost every other country in the world when it comes to even the large number of more than 350 deaths in the course of the past week. Our death rate that relates to Omicron is one of the lowest in the world.

Updated

Morrison:

We understand the frustration and we share them and live them. We understand the great concerns particularly in the early stage of Omicron several weeks ago when we knew it was contagious, but we didn’t quite know then just how severe it could be.

Good news – yes, it is much more contagious, we do know that, but the good news is that it’s far less severe, some 75% less severe, which has given us more options once we could have greater certainty about its severity impact.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking now and has started the press conference by reminding us that Australia isn’t the only country struggling with Omicron at the moment.

It’s true all around the world, go to Canada, go to the United States, go to Europe, go to the UK – you’re seeing the same things.

It’s been incredibly frustrating. You have seen queues, you have seen rising cases, you have seen pressures on hospital systems, you have seen disruption of supply chains, you have seen shortages of tests, you have seen all of these in all of these countries all around the world.

That is what Omicron has brought. But that is of no comfort to Australians who had a frustrating and difficult and highly concerning summer and that is something that we must continue to work together to push through. This has been one of the biggest challenges through this pandemic, certainly not the first.

We have been through many challenges over the course of this pandemic and I have stood here on countless occasions as we have outlined measure after measure after measure.

Updated

Output from BHP’s coalmines in Queensland and NSW has been hit by Covid-19, the mining company says.

There’s also uncertainty over the impact of Covid on its copper mines, BHP said in a quarterly update out this morning.

It comes after BHP’s biggest rival, Rio Tinto, also warned of risks from Covid yesterday.
BHP said output from Queensland operations that mine coking coal, which is used to make steel, fell 8% in the three months to the end of the year due to torrential rain and “Covid-19 related labour constraints”.

Over the same period output from its energy coal division, which mines thermal coal used to run power stations and includes the Mount Arthur operation in NSW, rose 5% “despite Covid-19 related impacts”.

BHP has been trying to flog off its energy coalmines. It has already successfully unloaded its third of the Cerrejon mine in Colombia but has so far yet to find a buyer for the ageing Mount Arthur operation, which the company has on its books at a negative value.

Updated

More than 19,000 cannabis plants – worth almost $67m – have been seized from a rural property in western NSW, in what police believe is Australia’s biggest weed bust, reports AAP.

Drug and firearms squad detectives, beat officers and police dogs descended on a property at the Newell Highway in Dandry, near Coonabarabran, on Tuesday morning.

What they found was one of the biggest illegal cannabis farms they had ever seen.

Drug and firearms squad commander John Watson said:

In terms of scale, this is one of the largest and most commercial cannabis enterprises we’ve seen – with significant infrastructure, including two large dams, commercial generators, earth moving equipment, across multiple sites, all of which require attention from workers seven days a week.

About 90,000 square metres of land has been illegally cleared at this property to make way for more than 20 greenhouses containing cannabis plants.

The operation is continuing, but police have so far seized 19,082 cannabis plants, with an estimated potential street value of nearly $66.8m.

Detective Superintendent Watson says police believe the seizure to be a national record.

Six people, five men and one woman, were arrested and charged with cultivating a large commercial quantity of cannabis and participating in a criminal group.

All six, aged between 23 and 42, were refused bail to appear at Coonamble local court on Wednesday.

Investigators are working with the Department of Home Affairs regarding the visa status of the group.

Updated

Looks like we will be hearing from the prime minister at 9.45am this morning as well. Stay tuned for that, I’ll bring you all the updates here on the blog.

Updated

Victoria record 18 Covid deaths and 20,769 new cases

Victoria’s numbers have now also come through. Sadly the state has recorded 18 deaths in the latest reporting period, along with 20,769 new cases.

British foreign secretary Liz Truss – one of the leading contenders to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister amid a row over Downing Street parties during the pandemic – is heading to Australia.

Truss and the British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, are flying to Australia for a meeting with the Australian foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, to be held on Friday.

Truss and Wallace are also due to meet the prime minister, Scott Morrison, at Kirribilli House in Sydney on Thursday, the Australian newspaper reports.

The meeting comes four months after the announcement of the Aukus pact between Australia, the UK and the US, so the plans for Australia to acquire eight nuclear-propelled submarines are expected to be a key item on the agenda. (The submarine plans are currently subject to an 18-month study period.)

Payne has issued the following statement confirming the talks, known as the Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations (Aukmin):

This meeting is the first 2+2 Ministerial Meeting hosted in Australia since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Aukmin is a demonstration of the strong partnership between Australia and the United Kingdom, underpinned by a shared commitment to deliver on practical actions that reinforce the sovereignty, resilience and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. The international environment is becoming more complex and challenging, and Aukmin 2022 will consider ways in which we can work together even more closely.

Updated

Oh, and also apparently Melbourne wants to host the 2026 Commonwealth games.

This has mostly been backed up by anonymous sources so far but a government spokesperson released a short statement this morning alluding to the possibility.

Victoria is Australia’s premier events state and we’re always working hard to attract new major events.

Just on NSW, the state now has 2,863 people hospitalised with Covid-19, and 217 in ICU.

NSW records 32 Covid deaths and 32,297 new cases

The NSW numbers are out and sadly the state has recorded 32 Covid-19 related deaths, a slight decrease from yesterday’s grim record of 36.

The state has once again recorded more than 30,000 new cases with 32,297 infections reported.

Updated

Just a reminder, we should be getting the Victoria and NSW Covid-19 numbers in about 10 minutes. Yesterday was Australia’s deadliest ever day in the pandemic, with NSW recording 36 deaths and Victoria 22.

Stand by.

Updated

The vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Chris Moy, has told ABC News Breakfast that MPs with anti-vax views such as George Christensen “really do need to shut up”.

It is frustrating that this sort of nutty stuff which is essentially converted into some sort of cause to raise popularity really has a foothold, and it’s driven by a particular type of advocate, which unfortunately we are seeing some ... of them within the government.

They really do need to shut up because they are not helping what we need to do and it is causing increasing anxiety.

What they are saying is rubbish. The evidence in terms of childhood vaccination, so much good data from the US. Millions and millions of kids have been vaccinated and we’ve shown how effective it is.

Updated

Paul Kelly is making the rounds this morning and he is now chatting with ABC News Breakfast about Victoria’s move to declare a statewide “code brown” across its major hospitals.

There is no secret there that there is pressure on our hospital system. It is what we planned for, our surge capacity and so forth, that we did towards the end of last year, and much earlier than that.

The private hospital guarantee has been in place exactly for this sort of event since 2020. So that provides another 57,000 nurses, many bed places to support our aged care facilities as well as public hospitals, so that’s something that the commonwealth has put in place.

In terms of the code brown in Victoria. Code brown – it sounds scary, but actually something that is in place for all hospitals. All hospitals around the world have something similar, but here in Australia a code brown just means there is an external threat that may lead to a surge in hospital admissions, and we know what that external threat is. It’s something that we have been talking about for a long time.

Updated

By the way, it looks like we are going to be hearing from the NSW premier at 10am today, Sydney time.

Tonga is facing an “unprecedented disaster” from a massive volcanic eruption that covered the nation in ash and 15-metre tsunami waves that destroyed almost all the homes on two small islands, the government has said.

Hampered by a communications breakdown caused by the severing of a major undersea cable, authorities had not released an official update since the blast on Saturday, when the Pacific island nation was shaken by what may have been the largest volcanic event in three decades.

Since then, information on the scale of the devastation had mostly come from reconnaissance aircraft.

On Tuesday, the office of Tonga’s prime minister released a statement saying it had confirmed the deaths of three people, although the toll could rise. The government has still not managed to make contact with several inhabited islands.

You can read the full report below:

An FYI for any ACT readers of the blog this morning.

Victorian hospitals move to emergency measures

As Victoria braces for Covid hospital admissions to skyrocket, a “code brown” emergency has been declared in all metropolitan hospitals and six in the regions, reports AAP.

The unprecedented move will take effect from midday on Wednesday.

The order means each hospital will be able to postpone or defer less urgent care, while some staff may be reassigned or recalled from leave.

Staff will only have leave cancelled if “absolutely necessary”.

The federal government has also activated its private hospitals agreement, allowing staff to be redirected to the public system.

The acting health minister, James Merlino, announced on Tuesday that the measure would last for four to six weeks, with hospitalisations from the Omicron wave expected to peak in February.

He said the state’s hospital system was under “extreme pressure” from staff shortages, with more than 4,000 healthcare workers isolating after either testing positive for Covid-19 or as close contacts.

The code brown applies to all metropolitan Melbourne public hospitals, as well as major hospitals in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Albury Wodonga and Traralgon.

A code brown of this scale has never previously been declared across the Victorian health system.

They are usually reserved for short-term emergencies, such as the Black Saturday bushfires and deadly 2016 thunderstorm asthma event.

Australasian College for Emergency Medicine spokeswoman Dr Mya Cubitt said she understood that Victorians may fear they will not be able to access emergency medical care.

But she stressed that people experiencing medical emergencies will be prioritised, and will receive acute care, but that care may be in a different location to what was expected.

Updated

The situation in hospitals is increasingly dire but it is not that common to see people at the health frontline speaking out because of gag orders on doctors, nurses and so on.

Unions, though, offer some cover for people speaking out, as we will see at a protest planned later today at one of the biggest hospitals in Sydney – and a key Covid treatment centre that is struggling to cope with the wave of patients.

Today’s action involves ICU nurses who are desperate for more staff “to immediately address the dangerous staffing levels faced on every shift”.

Nurse to patient ratios are blowing out to as many as 1 to 8, one nurse said on ABC Radio this morning, (compared with less than 1 to 3 in more normal conditions).

The union said this morning in a statement:

Well before the current Omicron outbreak began, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) Westmead Hospital Branch repeatedly raised their concerns with management citing the serious staffing issues that have plagued the hospital for years without adequate resolution.

“Nurses and midwives are tired, angry and frustrated and feel that the NSW government isn’t supporting them at all,” said the NSWNMA acting general secretary, Shaye Candish.

Our members are working in unsustainable conditions due to the excessive overtime, unreasonable workloads and are regularly working understaffed.

The 10am protest apparently involves nurses on their own time, and they invite the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, to come visit their hospital for one of his daily media conferences.

Similar invitations have been lately been made by others, including Greens MP Cate Faehrmann:

Updated

Kelly has been asked what his message to Nationals MP George Christensen is after the controversial MP took to social media yesterday, discouraging parents from vaccinating their children.

Kelly:

I don’t have a message for MPs. I have a message for the people of Australia and the parents of Australia.

You should have the highest [confidence] in our system to provide safe, effective and high-quality vaccines for your children.

That is what you’ve come to expect for all of the vaccine programs over many, many years, and the Covid vaccines are in that same league.

They’ve gone through all of the checks and balances that have been used in literally millions and millions of children of that same age group in the US and in Europe and many other parts of the world, with no ill effects.

We know that they’re very effective. We know they are high quality. And please make sure you go ahead and get that vaccine booking as soon as you can.

Updated

Given many aged care residents are still waiting to receive their booster shot as case numbers peak across a number of Australian states, chief medical officer Prof Paul Kelly has been asked on the radio if Australia has “dropped the ball” with this third wave of vaccinations.

We have rolled out to a large proportion of the aged care facilities, and the vaccine program that’s led by General Frewin is committed and the government is committed to making sure that every aged care facility in the country is visited for boosters by the end of this month.

Updated

Kelly:

Many of the people who are reported as having passed away yesterday had been vaccinated but very few had a booster shot. So I think the messages there about what to do are very clear.

If you’re due for a booster shot, go out and get that as quickly as possible. There are plenty of doses available right around Australia so for those that are not vaccinated and I would absolutely definitely include children aged five to 11 years of age just have started to have that opportunity.

Updated

Kelly says Omicron deaths are affecting the same demographics as we have seen with previous variants.

It’s very similar to what we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, both here and internationally. Older people, people with chronic disease and particularly people who are older, with chronic disease and unvaccinated or have not received their booster doses, are the ones that are at the highest risk.

Updated

CMO says daily Covid death toll will continue to rise for several weeks

Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, says he expects Covid deaths to continue to rise over the “next couple of weeks”.

He is speaking with ABC radio now:

Well, firstly, my condolences to all of the families that lost loved ones yesterday and throughout this pandemic.

It is reality though, we’ve known from the beginning of the pandemic, from experience here in Australia and internationally that there is a death toll from the Covid-19; all of the variants. And one of the things we know about Omicron it is less deadly, but, when you have a lot of cases, you will get that small number that are affected in that way.

We do expect that the deaths, as well as intensive care and hospitalisations, will continue to rise over the next couple of weeks even as we have peaked or are about to peak in terms of caseload particularly in the eastern states of Australia. But we know from international experience, particularly with Omicron, that it rises quickly, plateaus and then falls quickly and I fully expected that whole big experience here in Australia as well.

Updated

Christine Walker has seen the politicians on her television continually repeating the same message.

“They’re … saying, ‘Go and get vaccinated. Get your children vaccinated’,” says Walker. “They’re telling us all to go and do it … What are they doing to make it easier for the most vulnerable?”

Walker, 56, is at a loss. Her 21-year-old son, who Guardian Australia has chosen not to name for privacy reasons, has a rare genetic mutation that causes epilepsy, an intellectual disability, autism and a global developmental delay.

You can read the full report below:

Updated

Good morning everyone, its hump day and the news just keeps coming. But never fear, it’s Matilda Boseley here on the blog with you, and we will be breaking down all the events of the day together.

First up, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has been forced to publicly reprimand Nationals MP George Christensen after he took to social media and urged parents not to vaccinate their children.

The government has previously been reticent to criticise the Dawson MP, who is retiring at the next election, fearing that he could leave early, triggering a contentious byelection. But, ever since the extremely public deportation of Novak Djokovic due to the tennis star’s unvaccinated status, the Coalition has been under renewed pressure to crack down on anti-vaccination voices within their own ranks.

Christensen was promoting his new podcast episode across social media when he made the comments about childhood vaccination, triggering the prime minister to release the following statement.

I strongly disagree with the message sent out by Mr Christensen regarding children’s vaccinations.

It is contrary to the official professional medical advice provided to the government, and I urge parents to disregard his dangerous messages in relation to vaccines.

Moving to the Pacific and we are slowly learning more about the devastating effects of an undersea volcano eruption on the island nation of Tonga, where the local government confirmed three deaths.

In his first international statement since the “unprecedented disaster”, prime minister Siaosi Sovaleni’s office confirmed that every home on Mango Island had been destroyed, with only two left standing on nearby Fonoifua Island. Around 100 people live across both islands.

There has also been “extensive damage” done on Nomuka where about 200 people live.

A 65-year-old woman from Mango Island and a 49-year-old man from Nomuka island have now been confirmed dead, along with British national Anglea Glover.

With that, why don’t we jump into rest of the day’s news.

Updated

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