What we learned today, Saturday 26 March
With that, we will wrap the blog for the evening. Enjoy your weekend, we’ll be back tomorrow morning with all the latest.
Here were today’s major developments:
- The veterans’ affairs minister, Andrew Gee, announced he was on the cusp of offering his resignation from government today due to being refused adequate funding for his department. Gee called a press conference in Orange this morning to reveal he was moments from quitting the frontbench before the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, accepted he would find money for veterans’ compensation payments in the budget.
- The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said Gee had only recently taken the portfolio and didn’t yet fully understand funding processes. It came as the PM said meeting the new Chinese ambassador would be a “demonstration of weakness” following reports he refused a meeting to resolve the “blockage” in communication.
- A 65-year-old man has died following an accident at a Queensland coalmine, the result of a lifting injury overnight.
- In Covid news, a teenager was among two historical Covid deaths reported in Western Australia today. The state recorded 7,535 new cases. There have been 30 deaths across the nation today.
- Victoria recorded nine Covid deaths and 8,349 new cases, New South Wales recorded four Covid deaths and 19,843 new cases, South Australia recorded 3,897 new cases and seven deaths and Queensland reported eight deaths and 9,404 new cases. The Northern Territory recorded 306 new cases, the ACT recorded 947 new cases and Tasmania recorded 9,695 Covid cases.
- And a climate protester was arrested today after hanging from Botany Road bridge. It is the fifth day climate activists have gathered at a Sydney shipping terminal used to transport coal.
Updated
Asylum seeker found dead at Villawood detention centre
An Iranian asylum seeker has been found dead in his room at Sydney’s Villawood detention centre.
The man, aged in his late 30s, had been detained in Villawood for two years.
Federal police were on the scene inside the detention centre, where the man was discovered around 1pm today by Serco guards. The cause of his death was not yet known.
The Refugee Action Coalition said it had been told the man had not left his room for the past two weeks and his death allegedly came after a series of detainee incidents inside the centre.
Updated
