The day that was, Wednesday 16 February
That is where we will leave the live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Here’s some of what you might have missed today:
- Simon Holmes à Court, energy investor and Climate 200 director, told the National Press Club that ‘politics is broken.’
- The government and the opposition clashed over aged care again today, with both parties contending the number of deaths at the facilities.
- Senior Dfat official Justin Hayhurst said China ‘seeks to exploit’ social divisions.
- The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, took a swing at whoever seems to be leaking embarrassing details to the media.
- All elective surgery across public and private hospitals can resume by the end of the month in Victoria, the state government said.
- NSW recorded 10,463 new cases and 27 deaths, Victoria recorded 8,149 new cases and 18 deaths, Queensland recorded 6,596 new cases and 12 deaths, WA reported 128 new cases, SA recorded 1,624 new cases and four deaths, NT recorded 1,050 new cases and 3 deaths, the ACT recorded 594 new cases and Tasmania recorded 625 new cases.
- Updated vote counting in the blue-ribbon Liberal party seat of Willoughby has put the seat on shaky ground for the government, with the count still under way.
- The Victorian government has entered exclusive negotiations to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Updated
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie is channelling his inner Jacqui Lambie in the visa cancellation bill debate, shouting that he’s had a “gutful” of both major parties.
Wilkie noted the government already has the power to cancel visas, describing the bill as a “blatant attempt by the government to pander to racism and xenophobia”.
Wilkie said it was “completely and utterly unprincipled” to vote for the bill, attacking Labor as “weaklings in the opposition who will go along for the ride”.
Greens leader, Adam Bandt, also blasted Labor for not voting against the bill in the House.
Liberal Melissa McIntosh obviously didn’t get the memo that Labor is supporting it, and has brought an old speech in about the “Labor-Greens alliance” voting against deporting “foreign criminals”.
Updated
Deputy speaker Leslie Williams just just used her casting vote to defeat a public interest debate put up by the ALP over the government’s changes to Covid workers compensation. PIDs don’t affect legislation but does show how tight numbers are for the gov in the NSW lower house
— Michael McGowan (@mmcgowan) February 16, 2022
Just on the shark attack, a witness has spoken to the ABC, saying they were fishing just off the rocks of Buchan Point, and witnessed a shark drag a swimmer underwater:
When he went down there were so many splashes.
It was terrible, I am shaking, I keep vomiting, it’s very upsetting.
Parliamentary debate has returned to the strengthening character test bill, which Labor has indicated it will not oppose in the lower house.
Labor’s assistant shadow immigration minister, Andrew Giles, said:
This need not be another example of Morrison government seeking to divide Australians. We have shared concerns on domestic violence ... if we can speak as one, this is important. This bill fails to recognise the complex nature of family violence … and may increase reluctance of reporting family violence offences, if their visa can be cancelled as a consequence.
Giles suggested the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, “doesn’t look like he’s serious when it comes to these issues”.
Giles revealed Labor will move amendments in the Senate to deal with the bill’s retrospectivity and soften its impact on New Zealand. He insisted Labor’s position shouldn’t be “misrepresented” – it remains willing to improve the bill.
Liberal MP Julian Simmonds says the bill is needed because “activist judges” are taking into account the fact someone should be deported when sentencing offenders.
He said Labor had told “a bit of a fib” by pretending to support the bill when it plans on amending it in the Senate.
Updated
Shark attack reported in Sydney
New South Wales police are investigating a fatal shark attack that occurred at a beach in Sydney’s east on Wednesday afternoon.
Officers were called to Buchan Point in Malabar about 4.35pm on Wednesday following reports a swimmer had been attacked by a shark.
Marine officers who arrived at the scene later “located human remains in the water”, a police statement said.
Little Bay Beach has been closed as officers continue to search the area. Police are liaising with the Department of Primary Industry to investigate the death of the swimmer with a report to be prepared by the coroner.
Earlier on Wednesday, a tagged bull shark was detected in Bondi.
DPI Fisheries advise: tagged Bull Shark #954 detected by Bondi receiver at 05:29:02 PM (AEDT) on 16-February-2022. Last detected at 11:35:07 PM (AEDT) on 14-February-2022 by Kiama receiver.Tagged and released 28-February-2021(AEDT) at Bradley's Head, Sydney Harbour.
— SharkSmart (@NSWSharkSmart) February 16, 2022
Updated
Labor has called on the Morrison government to explain whether a pilot program for regional conservation planning is an attempt to bypass the parliament and reduce the government’s role in environmental decisions.
It follows this Guardian Australia story today, which revealed the government is considering whether a little-known section of national environmental laws could be used to to allow developments in some parts of the country to proceed without the need for federal approval.
Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the environment minister may create a regional plan, and a section of the Act – known as 37A – allows the minister to declare certain developments are exempt from the need to gain federal approval if covered by a regional plan.
Documents released under freedom of information laws to Guardian Australia reveal a key objective of a pilot regional plan announced in last year’s budget is to establish that actions taken in accordance with a section 37A declaration – such as mining or property development or infrastructure construction – would not require separate federal environmental approval.
The move could give the government an alternative pathway for reducing its role in environmental decision-making while legislation to hand powers to the states and territories remains blocked in the senate.
Labor’s environment spokesperson, Terri Butler, says the environment minister, Sussan Ley, should explain whether the pilot is a genuine program or an attempted shortcut.
The Morrison-Joyce government has had nearly a decade to come up with environmental reform, but rather than coming to the table with a serious response to the Samuel review [of national environmental laws], there are reports the government is resorting to shortcuts.
The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, accused the government of looking for a loophole because its legislation had stalled in the senate.
Everyday Australians will be disgusted to discover that rather than protecting our environment, the Liberal National party is spending public money finding sneaky ways so big corporations can destroy our native bushland and clear more koala habitat without question.
Ley’s spokesperson has said the $2.7m announced in the budget for a pilot regional plan is to “improve environmental protection, address the challenge of cumulative impacts and build greater certainty for all parties”.
Updated
The religious discrimination bill was dropped after five Liberal moderates crossed the floor on LGBTQ+ student protects, but the recriminations have continued.
The Australian Christian Lobby national director, Wendy Francis, told Guardian Australia:
Labor and the moderate Liberals are the reason it didn’t go through, but it should’ve come on much earlier ... it should’ve been a bipartisan discussion the whole time, then it wouldn’t have got to the point of untenable amendments being made.
The ACL is opposed to the amendment that passed because it thinks removing section 38(3) from the Sex Discrimination Act would prevent schools setting codes of conduct about their religious beliefs of gender and sexuality.
But Francis also has criticisms of the Morrison government’s handling:
It was not a top priority. Covid interrupted this term of parliament, but it didn’t stop other bills. If you have a will, there is a way ...
At the beginning I didn’t see it as a political manoeuvre. But by now – it has to be. It’s inevitable that it will be. The biggest problem is that it was out of time. If you introduce and vote on it at the 11th hour with an election weeks or months away – of course it’s political.
Guardian Australia understands Christian Schools Australia has been lobbying for a last-ditch bid to revive the bill in budget week – but the government insists it’s not happening.
CSA’s director of public policy, Mark Spencer, said it was still “theoretically possible” and he is “hoping for a miracle”.
Spencer said:
We’re hopeful it’s not game over. It would be and incredible shame if we drop it now when we came so close. The notion that Equality Australia described it as a win – I’m not sure it’s a win for anyone.
It’s not a win for people of faith, with no religious discrimination bill passed. And not for kids in faith-based schools after public debate saying they’re liable to be expelled, with all the fear that creates. There’s no way to resolve that without a religious discrimination bill.
Updated
The industrial relations minister, Michaelia Cash, has told a parliamentary hearing this afternoon that a move to regulate the gig economy would have the effect of “wiping it out.”
Cash said the government had allocated funding to the Bureau of Statistics to investigate the extent of the impact various platforms are having on the Australian workforce.
But she also added that moving too quickly to regulate the industry would have a negative impact.
To just go in and regulate something like you [want to] do could possibly have the effect of wiping it out.
What you want to do is step in and regulate a part of the economy that presents, in particular, significant opportunities in relation to flexibility for people … and actually close that part of the economy down.
Updated
SA reports four deaths, 1,624 new cases
South Australia has recorded 1,624 new cases overnight, and sadly reported 4 deaths in that time.
That is a jump of 486 cases compared to yesterday, attributed to an increase in the number of PCR tests conducted.
The deaths include two women and a man in their 80s and a man in his 60s.
There are now 227 people in hospital, including 19 in intensive care.
South Australian COVID-19 update 16/02/22. For more information, go to https://t.co/mYnZsG87wo or contact the South Australia COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/WJs3UT0RYv
— SA Health (@SAHealth) February 16, 2022
Updated
Today marks the first time since 30 December last year that the number of COVID-19 cases in hospital in Victoria has been below 400.
— Benita Kolovos (@benitakolovos) February 16, 2022
An interesting conversation right on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, with Labor Senator Murray Watt asked if he could see the migration amendment (strengthening the character test) bill passing into law:
I suppose that’s up to the Government ... we have said that we will support the legislation in the house so that it can get to the Senate and we can consider amendments that the Government is now making, or talking about making. We have said consistently for years that we’re happy to sit down with the Government and work this out on a bipartisan basis, once they can identify the problem that we need to fix.
The reality is the only reason this is coming out of the woodwork now is because government is desperate to find wedges. They did this last week with the religious discrimination bill before it blew up in their face.
Updated
WA records 128 cases
Western Australia has recorded over 100 new cases for the first time since the pandemic began, reporting 128 new cases overnight.
115 of the cases were locally recorded cases, with 13 being travel-related.
It’s over double the number of cases reported yesterday, with the state now dealing with 444 active Covid cases.
Updated
Good afternoon, and a quick thanks to Tory Shepherd, for another epic shift this morning. Mostafa Rachwani with you today, to take you through the rest of the day’s news.
I am done and dusty. Dusted. Whatever. It’s been another wild ride, and my sane(r) colleague Mostafa Rachwani is here to take you through to its conclusion. Thanks, as always, for being here!
Mike Bowers looking down the barrel at question time:
We’ve had a few different numbers of aged care deaths bandied about in parliament today.
Considering the scrutiny rightly being applied to the Covid situation affecting some of the most vulnerable Australians, it’d be good to get some clarity – here’s what we know.
In Senate estimates earlier, department officials said there had been 691 deaths in aged care in 2022. That’s compared with 282 in the entirety of 2021, and 685 in 2020, showing just how the Omicron wave has ripped through the sector.
But Labor claims the number is actually 743 deaths in 2022.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese and Labor’s shadow minister for aged care services Clare O’Neil both pointed to this figure in Question Time.
But then health and aged care minister Greg Hunt told question time a completely different number - he claimed there were 711 aged care deaths in 2022. Prime minister Scott Morrison also used this number.
Labor claims the 743 number comes from comparing health department statistics from 31 December, 2021 and 15 February, 2022. On 31 December, the statistics showed 915 deaths in aged care - compared to 1658 deaths reported on 15 February. That’s a difference of 743, which is where Labor got their number from.
We’ve contacted the health department for an official number to confirm.
Updated
The New Zealand government has said it would be concerned at any moves to ramp up Australia’s deportations policy.
It comes amid moves by the Morrison government to pass the migration amendment (strengthening the character test) bill.
The proposed bill would lower the bar for the failure of the test so a person convicted of a “designated offence”, such as violence or breaching a court order, is deemed to be of bad character, making visa cancellation more likely, although a discretion not to do so remains.
When contacted for a response, New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister, Nanaia Mahuta, said:
New Zealand has raised the issue of deportations a number of times with Australia. We don’t agree with the policy and would be concerned at any moves to strengthen it. New Zealand accepts that Australia has the right to deport people.
However, we are concerned that Australia continues to send people to New Zealand who have never lived here and have no family or support networks at all.
Updated
Liberal MP James Paterson has posted that speech on his website. In it, Marles mostly talks about China’s economic growth, about China and Australia helping their Pacific neighbours, about some scientific collaboration. Then he talks about building the relationship with China “not just in economic terms, but also through exploring political cooperation and even defence cooperation”.
There you go. And that’s question time done for another day. Meanwhile, the Guardian recently revisited the Manchurian Candidate:
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has had to withdraw a comment. He called Labor’s Richard Marles a “Manchurian candidate”, after referring to a 2019 speech he gave in Beijing where he reportedly said Australia should embrace closer military cooperation with China.
Updated
Another federal MP has tested positive for Covid while in parliament, with the Nationals MP Kevin Hogan announcing he has contracted the virus.
It comes after the Labor MP Anika Wells said she tested positive on Wednesday.
Hogan, the assistant minister to the deputy prime minister, said he returned a rapid test result on Tuesday, and had been isolating.
He said he had “very mild” symptoms so far.
Following Wells’ Covid diagnosis, Labor is also asking all their MPs who were in the party’s caucus meeting on Tuesday to get a PCR test by the end of the day.
Updated
The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, is asking the prime minister, Scott Morrison, if he agrees with Paul Kelly, who wrote in The Australian today that bipartisanship on China was a national asset.
He’s trying to put a stop to the “mistruths” from the government about Labor’s position on China.
Updated
Labor’s Mark Dreyfus is asking why legislation for a federal anti-corruption commission will not be introduced before the election.
Scott Morrison says he has tabled legislation but will not proceed with it because Labor doesn’t support it.
(Critics say the government’s existing proposal is just an “exposure draft”.)
Updated
Labor’s Terri Butler brings up Alan Tudge again and asks the prime minister, Scott Morrison, if “his government is falling down around him with cabinet leaks, and even the sacking of ministers being leaked to undermine the prime minister”.
Morrison says he can’t talk about the Tudge matter but can talk about jobs (not Tudge’s though).
Updated
See post below about reports Alan Tudge’s name has been scratched off his door. Labor is asking about it, but the question is declared out of order.
The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, is denied leave to table a piece written by the Liberal MP Dave Sharma in 2020 called Reach out to Russia to manage the rise of China.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison: “Does the prime minister have confidence in his education minister?”
(There has been a report that Alan Tudge will lose his gig.)
Morrison says:
The matters relating to the minister for education I have been taking extremely seriously and members will be aware of the independent process established with Dr [Vivienne] Thom. The matter is in process and has not concluded and in fairness to all involved in this matter, it would not be appropriate to make further comment at this time.
Updated
Labor’s treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, asks the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to confirm “his Kooyong 200 club raised $1.1m in donations last financial year, but named no individual donors in its AEC return”.
(A point of order is raised by the government about that being before Frydenberg was minister, and there are guffaws of laughter, but I didn’t hear the joke.)
Labor’s Tony Burke says there’s a precedent if the member has previously discussed the relevant issue.
The Speaker, Andrew Wallace, looks lost for a few seconds, then allows the question.
Frydenberg says his initial comments were about the independent MP Zali Steggall’s donations.
Updated
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, is asking about Beetaloo Basin gas developments.
“Why are you continuing to push ahead with this giant climate bomb,” he asks, adding that coal and gas mines proposed by the major parties would “blow any chance” of meeting climate targets.
“Will you back the Greens’ call for a moratorium on new coal and gas mines?”
The resources minister, Keith Pitt, unsurprisingly, will not. He says:
We are not closing coal, oil, and gas projects in this country.
We need to look at what happened in the recent pandemic. This country maintained its reputation as a reliable supplier. It exceeded all expectations. It exceeded expectations by delivering on its contracts, meeting its commitments, providing resources and energy to its trading partners, which has kept the lights on ... not just here, but right around the world.
Bandt says he thought the government might like to talk about climate.
Updated
Hunt goes on to say that the government offered ADF help to the Victorian government, but that offer “was not taken up”.
Updated
Labor’s Brendan O’Connor is bringing up the Australian Defence Force personnel that are meant to be in aged care (see Josh Butler’s post below).
The health minister, Greg Hunt, says there are 133 defence personnel helping in aged care. (There are meant to be 1,700 available). Hunt says:
At this stage there have been 25 aged care facilities being directly supported on the basis of the very terms in which the prime minister set out of those which were facing a significant and present threat to their capacity to carry out operations for that. Nineteen are currently being staffed with six having had their duties completed.
Updated
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, appears to be backing down on plans to mandate a third Covid-19 vaccine dose.
While the government is still considering Atagi’s latest advice, which states a third dose is required for someone to be considered “up to date” with their vaccinations, Andrews said a mandate would be hard to impose once international borders open next week:
The commonwealth is going to open the borders and allow hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, who may not be third-dosed, into our state and every state.
Now, they perhaps may have done differently, there is Atagi advice there. They don’t necessarily seem to be following that, but that’s a matter for them. I can’t change that, but there comes a point where things become kind of impractical and you’ve got so many different systems operating at once that it doesn’t really work.
So the notion of third doses, and saying to someone you can’t go to the pub unless you’ve got three jabs ... but the person sitting there having a steak and chips from another country has only got two, it kind of gets hard to justify.
Last week Andrews said if Atagi changes its definition of fully vaccinated, the Victorian government would also extend its vaccinated economy and that it would apply to international travellers.
The third dose has already been mandated in Victoria for workers in health and aged care, disability, emergency services, corrections, quarantine accommodation, food distribution and education.
Updated
Labor’s Clare O’Neil says Australia’s aged care system is “on the point of collapse”, blasting the aged care services minister, Richard Colbeck, after he said that deaths in the sector should not be “an indicator” of his job performance.
O’Neil, the shadow aged care services minister, accused Colbeck of making “extraordinary” comments about his work in supporting the system. She said the government’s provision of Australian Defence Force support to aged care had been “manifestly inadequate”, after department officials told Senate estimates that just over 100 army staff had been deployed to help fill staff shortages due to Covid.
Last week, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said up to 1,700 ADF staff would be made available.
“This is too little, too late,” O’Neil said:
Aged care has been in its worst crisis ever, since Christmas, and now in mid-February, after the very worst of the staff shortages have passed, we now get the ADF trickling into facilities.
Updated
Labor’s Clare O’Neil says 743 people have died in aged care (that’s the same figure the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, used earlier).
The health minister, Greg Hunt, says it’s 711 (which is what the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said earlier).
O’Neil says “tens of thousands are not getting the care they need ... the aged care system is in crisis:
Aren’t all of these things indicators that the minister for aged care services should be sacked today?
Labor has the aged care services minister, Richard Colbeck, in its sights.
Hunt is repeating the overseas statistics that the government used yesterday to argue that Australia isn’t worse than others. Lives have been saved etc.
Updated
Australian consular officials in China continue to meet with the detained writer Dr Yang Hengjun and journalist Cheng Lei – they met most recently late last month.
At a committee hearing in Canberra, senators asked for an update on the cases of Australians detained in China amid security-related accusations.
Greg Wilcock, an assistant secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said Yang and Cheng were both last visited on 28 January. That was consistent with the pattern of monthly consular visits. While these consular meetings were at the detention centre, they were done via video link.
Wilcock said the notional deadline for a verdict in the case of Yang was 9 April – but the verdict hearing could be held any time between now and that date, or could be extended by another 3 months. He said Australian officials would expect to be given a couple of days’ notice.
The notional deadline for a trial for Cheng is 19 April, although the same caveats about the timing applied, Wilcock said.
On human rights more generally, the Dfat deputy secretary, Justin Hayhurst, said:
We have maintained a steady drumbeat of representations on those serious human rights issues. We continue to do that both in China through our embassies and consulates general and here in Canberra [to the Chinese embassy].
The committee is told that Australia most recently made such representations in Beijing on 7 January.
Updated
Aged care deaths in spotlight as question time starts
It’s cute that the Speaker asks: “Are there any questions?”
There are, dear reader. The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, starts with the aged care deaths:
In Senate estimates today, the minister for aged care services said, and I quote, I don’t accept the deaths in the community or deaths in aged care is an indication of his performance as a minister. Does the prime minister agree with his minister that he is performing well?
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, gives his standard answer, that “while we mourn the loss of those who have passed away in aged care, who have had Covid-19 when they have passed away”, many lives have been saved.
(There are a number of different figures being bandied about on those deaths, I’ll try to clarify.)
Updated
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, and the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, are talking about the Bangka Island massacre in 1945.
Vivian Bullwinkel was the only survivor of the second world war Japanese massacre. The Sydney Morning Herald has republished its initial account – it is truly harrowing.
Updated
Another question time is nearly upon us. Will there be multiple points of order (no acronym, please)? Will there be sneaky dorothy dixers asking for alternative policies? Will the government call Labor “soft”, and will Labor MPs get punted for jeering?
Anything could happen.
Simon Holmes à Court defends Climate 200 donations
Simon Holmes à Court is asked about the Zali Steggall donation and says he “completely reject[s] the accusation” there was a failure of management. He says Climate 200 has excellent internal processes and is “scrupulous” in its compliance.
Katharine Murphy asks about his claim that Climate 200 is about values: “Surely, if you have agreed to find candidates to run in various electorates, knowing that there is possibly a minority government situation at the end of the election, surely Climate 200 has had discussions with these candidates about what those values mean in practice?”
Holmes à Court emphasises the independence of the candidates.
He says:
Multiple independents came to us and said even that one string is too many, it must be no strings attached. Our relationship with the candidates – we make a donation if they ask us, if they are looking for advice on who they can talk to we will pass that on, but we don’t have any agreement at all with the candidates, they are strictly independent and that is of critical importance to them ... because otherwise, it wouldn’t be independence.
Updated
The South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick has tried, unsuccessfully, to get Dfat officials to say whether they have any material to support Peter Dutton’s assertion the Chinese Communist party has decided to back Anthony Albanese.
During the Senate estimates committee hearing, Patrick notes that Dutton said his assertions were based, in part, on “open source” (ie public) material.
The foreign minister, Marise Payne, says the defence minister seeks advice from the defence department, not Dfat. Payne points to Monday’s piece published in China’s Global Times by the former Australian diplomat Bruce Haigh (a longstanding critic of Australia’s China policy and its closeness to the US).
The Liberal senator Eric Abetz reads a portion of the op-ed into the Senate record, including that Albanese “will not be a charismatic leader” but “in comparison to Morrison, he positively shines, such is the abysmal state of Australian politics”. Abetz adds in the committee hearing that the Global Times is the “mouthpiece of a brutal dictatorship”.
Asked who has editorial control of the Global Times, Payne replies:
Not the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, senator.
Updated
Holmes à Court is asked a pretty interesting question to begin with, on whether or not the loose structure of the Climate 200 group was a way to avoid some of the obligations that come with establishing an actual political party.
Here’s what he had to say:
Firstly let me say there are no differences in disclosure obligations on Climate 200 as there are for the major parties. I don’t see any advantage in us registering.
But, basically, in no way are we a party. As I said before, we don’t start campaigns, we don’t select candidates, we wait for these campaigns to come up through the grassroots and demonstrate strong community support, demonstrate capable campaign teams and demonstrate the ability to fundraise within the community.
We don’t have a policy platform, we have values and we will only fund those who also have those values. We don’t specify in any degree of specificity how those are to be achieved, just we have the confidence that member will enter parliament and deliver on the things they have told their communities they would deliver on.
... We no longer need parties to run viable campaigns – as Cathie McGowan has shown and Zali Steggall has shown and many others ... but you do need providers and compliance is a very tough thing in Australia, with laws regularly changing, and it makes complete sense that campaigns will go to service providers to help them with their compliance, and frankly there aren’t that many of them.
Just as people might use the same accountant, you wouldn’t be surprised that most of these campaigns are swapping notes on where do you buy your T-shirts, your corflute signs.
I, we would be pretending to be something we are not to register as a party. We don’t have any candidates. We don’t have any candidates, so what kind of party can operate without a single candidate?
Updated
So Simon Holmes à Court has been making his case for independents at this coming federal election, and bemoaning the state of major parties and their donors:
This election, voters in over 20 electorates are being offered a new political choice. A viable option for breaking the political deadlock on vital issues. These communities have the opportunity of a community-backed independent candidate. These candidates are genuine community leaders, not career politicians ...
The incumbent independents act as a backbone for our parliament. They introduce legislation that is too hot to handle for either conflicted majors, and they provide a check on government overreach. So often they are the conscience of parliament.
Many people are having a hard time getting their heads around this community independence movement. They cannot see it through anything other than a party lens. The movement is nothing like a party. There is no hierarchy, no leader, no head office, no coordinated policy platforms. Some have come up through the voices of groups in more than 70 electorates.
Cathy McGowan said recently that nobody really knows the true depth and breadth of the movement. It is growing quickly, bubbling both above and below the surface. Viable campaigns are popping up in many of these communities and it is estimated there are currently 10,000 actively engaged volunteers.
Updated
National Covid-19 update
Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 57 deaths from Covid 19:
ACT
- Deaths: 0
- Cases: 594
- In hospital: 48 (with three people in ICU)
NSW
- Deaths: 27
- Cases: 10,463
- In hospital: 1,478 (with 92 people in ICU)
Queensland
- Deaths: 12
- Cases: 6,596
- In hospital: 432 (with 34 people in ICU)
Victoria
- Deaths: 18
- Cases: 8,149
- In hospital: 397 (with 68 people in ICU)
Updated
ACT records 594 new Covid cases
The Australian Capital Territory has reported 594 new cases, with 48 people still in hospital.
ACT COVID-19 update (16 February 2022)
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) February 16, 2022
💉 COVID-19 vaccinations
▪️ Aged 5-11 years (1 dose): 76.6%
▪️ Aged 12+ (2 doses) 98.6%
▪️ Aged 16+ (3 doses): 62.2%
▪️ New cases today: 594 (329 PCR and 265 RAT)
▪️ Active cases: 2,475 (1,213 PCR and 1,262 RAT) pic.twitter.com/1jK50qcQeV
Updated
BREAKING: Hotel quarantine in Queensland is over. The one remaining guest in Brisbane will be discharged today. Future quarantine will be carried out at the purpose-built facility at Wellcamp. #covid19
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) February 16, 2022
'Politics is broken,' Climate 200 director Simon Holmes à Court tells National Press Club
Simon Holmes à Court is addressing the National Press Club. The energy investor and Climate 200 director says “politics is broken”.
Climate 200 is supporting candidates in the upcoming election. Holmes à Court says Australians are frustrated about climate inaction, corruption in politics, and the treatment and safety of women.
Updated
The Labor MP Anika Wells says she tested positive for Covid this morning while in Canberra for parliament.
The member for Lilley has been in parliament this week, giving speeches and participating in the chamber.
Parliament House is currently under strict Covid protocols, including requiring face masks inside, temperature checks at the entry, and restrictions on retail services.
On Tuesday, the parliament’s presiding officers said there were three cases of Covid inside Parliament House, and that potential exposure contacts were being tested.
Updated
An application by Glencore to expand its MacArthur River mine by building an enormous rock dump on the edge of the Barramundi Dreaming sacred site has been rejected by the Northern Territory government.
Under the application to double one of the company’s largest zinc and lead mines, the proposal would build a 140-metre-high “mountain” of toxic and flammable waste rock within 35 metres of the sacred site.
Glencore’s expansion plans also threaten a significant archaeological site, an ancient stone quarry where local Indigenous people manufactured materials into spear tips on a large scale, though this was not covered by the decision.
The company originally claimed it had consulted with traditional owners, but the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) found the agreement was invalid as it had only been signed by six people and none of the site’s 180 custodians.
The AAPA CEO, Dr Benedict Scambary, said in a statement the decision showed “lipservice to consultation is not good enough”. He said:
Protecting sacred sites is not a box to be ticked, or an obstacle to be sidestepped. Aboriginal custodians must give free, prior and informed consent to development.
More to come …
Updated
“It just shows how completely alone Australia is in the world, in terms of how absolutely horrific indefinite detention is, that there’s no end date.”:
Dfat official says China 'seeks to exploit' social divisions
Senior Dfat official Justin Hayhurst, when asked about whether Beijing is seeking to sow division, says:
I think, senator, it’s fair to say that the Chinese system seeks to exploit social and other divisions in countries to pursue its interests – that’s very apparent.
Hayhurst underlines that social cohesion “is very important”:
I think the government and ministers including the minister for foreign affairs have been at great pains to emphasise that in relation to members of the Australian community who are of Chinese descent.
The foreign minister, Marise Payne, says she won’t go into discussions with colleagues, when asked what advice she is giving them about the importance of supporting bipartisanship on foreign policy and national security.
The Liberal senator Eric Abetz chimes in to remind the hearing he was active in opposing the government’s extradition treaty with China a few years back. He suggests that sometimes backbenchers need to speak up.
Payne underlines the importance of discussion and debate, saying those are things that “cannot be cancelled by some of the assertions that have been made in this discussion, in my view”.
Labor’s Kristina Keneally notes that Labor also opposed that extradition treaty, and asks Payne to confirm she was a member of the cabinet that approved the China extradition treaty. The minister replies:
I believe that was the case, senator.
Keneally ends this bracket of questions with some praise for Payne:
What I take from your answers today … is that you do retain a commitment to bipartisanship on national security and foreign policy matters, something I do welcome, and it seems to me you take that seriously … I am heartened by the answers you have given today.
Updated
The foreign minister, Marise Payne, is asked whether she has sought to reassure any of Australia’s allies of the level of bipartisanship in Australia’s national security and foreign policy.
Payne says she has had “a significant range of discussions” with counterparts in the past week, and there will be more conversations in the coming days. She says that in conversations with Quad partners (the US, India and Japan) and in recent talks with her Lithuanian and Timor-Leste counterparts:
I always assure them of Australia’s strength and resilience and of the basic positions and values that we hold.
Kristina Keneally: “Did you assure them of the level of bipartisanship that exists in Australia, such as as exemplified by the consistency of policy positions between the government and the opposition on matters like China or indeed the good work that is done by the intelligence and security committee?”
Payne: “I was pleased that the leader of the opposition [Anthony Albanese] and the shadow minister for foreign affairs [Penny Wong] … had the opportunity to meet themselves with a number of our visitors in that context in those events last week and I’m sure that that message was strongly delivered.”
Keneally: “It is clear that some of your colleagues are pushing such a narrative [about a lack of bipartisan unity]. How is that consistent with need to assure allies that on such long-term objectives there is bipartisanship on these issues?”
Payne: “So, senator, there is a point upon which we agree and that is the importance of consistency. And one of the issues which has been raised in recent political debate is that question of consistency and that is an observation which I think the government is entitled to make.”
Keneally asks whether national security should be outside the “rough and tumble” of politics. Isn’t that in the national interest?
Payne replies:
Yes, senator, and I could point you to a range of examples … where that consistency has not been delivered. I would hope to see that it is the case, particularly as you say, in a very difficult strategic environment, that Australia is able to continue to take the very strong approach that we have taken, for example, and I absolutely acknowledge this is an approach on Ukraine and Russia where the entire parliament, frankly, to the best of my knowledge, is united on respecting, acknowledging and emphasising the importance of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Ukraine [sic].
That has not been an issue that has been raised with me as causing any of the issues that you have pointed to.
Updated
Call for government to adopt Uluru Statement from the Heart recommendations
Labor MP Warren Snowdon has used his valedictory speech to call for the federal government to adopt the recommendations of the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
The long-serving member for Lingiari, in the Northern Territory, said there “is no excuse now, in 2022, for any government to walk away from a need for constitutional recognition and voice to parliament, truth telling and a process of treaty”, according to AAP.
Snowdon said:
To advocate for First Australians was my most significant responsibility.
[But] so many remain marginalised and in poverty … with scandalous levels of preventable disease, in my view largely driven by the institutionalised racism that has been so much a part of government since Federation.
Updated
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, is being grilled at Senate estimates over the government’s increasingly heightened rhetoric about Labor and China.
Readers may recall that yesterday Payne declined to repeat Scott Morrison’s assertion that an Albanese Labor government would “appease” China.
Labor’s Kristina Keneally cites a number of comments, including Paul Kelly’s piece in today’s Australian newspaper that says bipartisanship from Labor has been “pivotal to Australia’s success in its pushback against China” and that this bipartisanship is “a national asset”.
Asks if she agrees with Kelly that bipartisanship from Labor is a national asset, Payne says:
I’ve seen broadly Mr Kelly’s piece this morning and there’s much of it with which I would agree and broadly speaking that is a reasonable observation to make, senator, but there are a number of examples, a number of instances where this has not always been the case.
Whilst I would seek to prosecute the case for Australia’s national interests in an open and transparent and consistent way … I have found in my time in this role that that has not always been the case from across the parliament.
Payne says engagement by politicians “in the rough and tumble of the political discourse comes with a record usually”. Payne tells Keneally bipartisanship on foreign policy is “overwhelmingly preferable” but argues Payne had “been on the receiving end frankly from time to time as a member of this government of statements which I don’t agree reflect bipartisanship by your side of politics” - and that was not helpful, either.
Payne agrees that perceptions on bipartisanship are important to our Australia’s international allies, “but I don’t think they necessarily give a leave pass to people’s records, and if people’s records don’t withstand scrutiny on this issue then that is essentially a fact”.
Updated
Economics is under scrutiny in Senate estimates on Wednesday, with Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy facing questions this morning.
He’s very coy, as you might imagine, on interest rates and whether the government’s policy settings increase the risk that the Reserve Bank will soon lift its cash rate from the record low. (Senator Simon Birmingham’s riposte is that not all of Labor’s policies have been costed, such as for TAFE training.)
Anyway, Stevens stated the obvious:
They are at unusually low levels and I expect over time they will normalise.
Investors, meanwhile, continue to predict the RBA will move this half year, with futures markets tipping the first rise to come in June.
There were some half-explored answers about rising inequality during the pandemic period, particularly as the tsunami of government spending and RBA “accommodative” monetary policy stoked asset prices. (As happened almost everywhere.)
There were prods by Labor about why, if productivity is so important, the government hasn’t responded to the last big Productivity Commission Report on this subject, and yet another five-year review is soon to begin. “Shifting the dial”, as the report was entitled, turned out to be optimistic.
Labor also asked about when or if Treasury would release the “unpublished” statistics on improving outcomes for women during the pandemic that the government got a bit of publicity from earlier in this week. No answer, so we’ll have to assume benefit of the doubt.
Senator Rex Patrick from SA, meanwhile, sought to tease out whether Treasury had been asked to explore the effects of a cut on the fuel excise.
“Not that I’m aware of,” Kennedy responded.
Kennedy did, though, note the “potential shock” that might come from higher energy prices if Russia did step up its aggression towards Ukraine. He added, however, that so far - petrol prices excluded - Australia has not had the same inflationary pressure from higher energy costs as other nations, such as the US.
More on petrol prices, including the prospect of $2 per litre costs, can be found here:
Thirteen people are in hospital with Covid in Tasmania, two of them in intensive care, while another 625 cases have been reported.
Updated
a week and a half after the federal government said it was sending in up to 1700 Army personnel in to help the "crisis" in aged care, Senate estimates is told 106 staff have been deployed so far
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 16, 2022
Government ‘open to’ waiving Djokovic ban
Alex Hawke says the Australian government is "open to" consider waiving the 3-year ban on Novak Djokovic entering Australia#auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) February 16, 2022
Updated
The immigration minister, Alex Hawke, is talking about that character test legislation. He says the government will reintroduce the bill as a “test” for Labor and that the government will not amend it (see below, it’s as clear as mud what will happen in the Senate).
Hawke says:
The government is not proposing to amend our own bill. It is Labor [that] has opposed the bill, it is Labor that are seeking amendments.
He says the government will not negotiate because the bill is about community safety, and the safety of women and children and he wants more discretionary power to block or boot criminals.
Updated
Almost 700 people have died of Covid in aged care this year, AAP reports, which is more than died in all of last year.
The aged care services minister, Richard Colbeck, says deaths in aged care from the virus are not a performance indicator. He says he has not offered to resign.
He told Senate estimates:
We are in the middle of a global pandemic, and the completely tragic result of that is people will catch the virus across all parts of the community, and tragically, some will die..
The performance in managing Covid-19 has improved.
Updated
Queensland reports 12 Covid-related deaths
Twelve people have died in Queensland, where another 6,596 Covid cases have been recorded. A total of 432 people are in hospital, and another 34 in intensive care.
AAP reports that thousands of Queensland children are testing positive since schools returned, but that child hospitalisations are not rising.
Updated
Shadow home affairs minister Kristina Keneally has just finished talking on Sky News about Labor’s position on the character test legislation.
I would say “clarifying” Labor’s position, but I’m not sure that’s true. Keneally confirms Labor will wave the legislation through in the House of Representatives, but it’s still not clear what will happen in the Senate.
She says the opposition is talking to the government about amendments:
We are in negotiations with the government no matter what they say because [immigration] minister Hawke actually wrote to me ... inviting that negotiation.
Host Laura Jayes interrupts to say that she is being told there will be no amendments, and that the Senate will vote on the bill as it is.
Keneally says:
Let’s call a spade a shovel ... this is a desperate government desperate to distract from its own incompetence. They need to decide do they want to have a fight or do they want to have a fix.
This is sure to develop further today, stay tuned.
Updated
Morning all. As I flagged in a news story yesterday, Labor looked like it was limbering up to let the character test bill go through in the House of Representatives.
That’s where the opposition has landed. The bill won’t be opposed in the House.
The Senate position is not yet definitive. I gather the plan is to continue to work on amendments to deal with concerns about retrospectivity, and with the disproportionate impact of the change on New Zealand.
It is unclear at this point whether Labor will enable passage in the Senate in the event the government refuses to negotiate. If you’ve been following the news this week, you’ll know the government has been limbering up for a national security wedge, using the character test as a case study for why Labor is weak on these issues.
The government tried another wedge last week on its religious discrimination bill. Labor was saved when five Liberals crossed the floor.
Nicolle Flint has given her valedictory speech in parliament, and has called on the leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese, to take action against “men on the left” who have subjected her to sexist and misogynistic behaviour.
Flint says that she had never been “reduced” to a woman before coming to federal parliament, but says that since the 2019 election she had been forced to “put up with ... repetitive, sickening, sexist and misogynistic abuse, and dangerous behaviour that started in the lead-up to the 2019 election and has not stopped since”.
“This is a hard place to be a woman,” Flint said.
She said there had been a “series of events” that had happened while she was in parliament which “you could not dream up”, and said she had written to Albanese to take action, but did not specify the details of her complaint. She said:
The left of politics as a whole need to act and that action needs to start right here with the leader of the opposition.
She referenced abuse that she had received after giving an emotional speech in parliament last year, calling for Albanese to show leadership. She said:
Men on the left, some of whom are public figures of influence, have done the following – they have stalked me, suggested I should be strangled, criticised the clothes I wear and the way I look, call me a whiny little bitch repeatedly, repeatedly called me weak, a slut ... and much, much worse over email, online on YouTube on Facebook and Twitter.
They’ve commented that I should be raped, grudge-fucked, that I’m doing sexual favours for all male colleagues, that I should be killed, that I should kill myself, and many many more things that I will not repeat.
Flint said Labor had the “power” to stop the behaviour, saying this would be a mark of leadership. She also has taken a swipe at big tech, describing the online world as a “festering toxic sewer” that needed to be reined in:
Clean up the online sewer right now and force big tech to finally behave in the same way that we demand of every corporate citizen ... in Australia.
Flint suggested the root cause of the problem was the breakdown in western civilisation, saying that institutions such as the church had been replaced with “causes with no moral compass”.
“The outcome is disrespect, abuse and hatred,” she said.
Flint also called for changes to the Sex Discrimination Act, saying there needed to be “all encompassing protection from sexism and mysogyny” for women.
Updated
Questions over Morrison-Macron text message leak
We’re on to the leaking of the Scott Morrison–Emmanuel Macron text message at Dfat estimates.
Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne’s recollection is she first became aware of the leaking of the text through the media:
I don’t recall where I was at the time. I think I was travelling or in quarantine.
Labor senator Kimberley Kitching asks the Dfat secretary, Kathryn Campbell, when she too became aware of the leaked text message.
Campbell: “Via the media, senator … when the media reported it.”
Kitching: “No one phoned you the night before?”
Campbell: “No, senator.”
Asked if anyone in the prime minister’s office discussed the leaking of the text message with her, Campbell said: “No, senator.”
There is discussion of the prime minister’s office’s decision to block Guardian Australia’s freedom of information application for the other text messages between the pair in the fateful Aukus week. Payne says the category of harming international relations “is a category of standard use, if you like, across multiple FOIs”.
Campbell is asked whether she agrees with French officials that the leaking of a personal communication in this manner is a crude and unconventional tactic in international relations.
Liberal chair Eric Abetz chimes in to point the finger at Macron for name-calling: “Calling someone a liar is a pretty crude and unconventional tactic.”
Asked whether the leaking of the text has weakened relations with France, Campbell says officials are working very closely with France to ensure the bilateral relationship remains strong.
Updated
Victoria bids for 2026 Commonwealth Games
The Victorian government has entered exclusive negotiations to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, on Wednesday announced the state government would spend the next couple months working with the Commonwealth Games Federation to assess the viability of hosting the event. He said:
We are the sporting capital of our nation. We have all that is needed to make an event like this fantastic success for us and for everybody, right across the commonwealth.
While the 2006 games were held in Melbourne, Andrews wants the 2026 event to be held across regional Victoria:
It’s not just about rerunning what was done back in 2006, our vision is for this to be predominantly a regional Victorian space. It’s about taking this amazing competition across many different sports into regional cities and towns.
Updated
Victorian government negotiating to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Competition would be held across the state, not just Melbourne. Statement from Premier Daniel Andrews: pic.twitter.com/aGAHVl352y
— Benita Kolovos (@benitakolovos) February 15, 2022
Updated
At Dfat estimates, there’s a brief diversion into an op-ed written in 2020 by Liberal backbencher Dave Sharma headlined “Reach out to Russia to manage the rise of China”.
This is being cited by Labor, given the government has been talking tough on China and Russia. Sharma argued that to manage the rise of China it was time to “reshuffle the deck” and bring Russia “in from the cold”. Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, wrote in the SMH piece:
Russia has undoubtedly been a force for global disorder in recent years. But in the long term it is an ambitious and revanchist China, not a nostalgic Russia, which poses the larger threat to the global order.
Marise Payne says she isn’t specifically aware of it, but notes “the creative juices flow strong and fast amongst members of the government in terms of the publication of opinion pieces”. She says she doesn’t have them all to hand and government backbenchers don’t need ministerial approval to submit them. Payne says the current situation regarding Ukraine is an “extremely serious matter”.
The Dfat secretary, Kathryn Campbell, has asked to see a copy of the op-ed, but points out it was written in 2020. She suggests a lot has changed in that time.
Outgoing Boothy MP Nicolle Flint is giving her valedictory speech. Boothby will be one of the most contested battlegrounds at the election. Flint has fired up about her treatment during the last election campaign – we’ll bring you more of that shortly.
Updated
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, has denied any “passivity” about Australia’s offer of cybersecurity assistance to Ukraine.
Australia’s ambassador for cyber affairs and critical technology, Tobias Feakin, is pressed on evidence from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that no additional assistance has been provided since the onset of the crisis. Feakin says talks are well advanced and progressing:
It is correct, yes, because at the moment we are in that live discussion with the government about cyber security assistance.
Payne says she discussed the matter with the Ukrainian foreign minister on 19 January:
Over the past year Defence has also been providing capacity building training to officials … This has been an ongoing engagement. Our offer [is] as to whether we could add to that activity with the Ukraine. We have had engagements … to discuss further cyber assistance but ultimately identifying what would be useful and valuable to the Ukrainian government.
This is a very challenging time for the Ukrainian government across multiple fronts. That’s why the United States in particular has taken a coordinating role, so it is in no way shape or form an issue of passivity or anything else, it is a case of working with a partner to determine what might be helpful at a critical time.
There are questions about Ukraine being hit with new cyber-attacks. Payne says the Ukrainian defence ministry has confirmed experience of a cyber-attack overnight.
Kristina Keneally notes Scott Morrison has not yet had a call with his Ukrainian counterpart and suggests “some level of passivity”.
“I completely disagree,” Payne replies.
Updated
The Dfat estimates session begins with an update on the situation in Ukraine.
Labor senator Kristina Keneally asks about the partial withdrawal of Russian troops. The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, is cautious:
I think it is very important that verification is obtained of those reports.
Payne notes the US secretary of state has called for verifiable, credible, meaningful de-escalation.
Katrina Cooper, a Dfat official, says Australia has received initial information from its embassy in Moscow. Cooper says there are grounds for only “cautious” optimism:
It is an encouraging sign that we are hearing those reports.
But Cooper cautions that the latest assessment is that the number of Russian troops in the region is 150,000. She notes that is a large number and provides the capability “for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine”. Cooper says a diplomatic offramp is still possible.
Officials reinforce Australia’s support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Officials say the number of Australian citizens, permanent residents and family members registered as being in Ukraine is 186. They say the Australians are spread across the country.
The operations of Australia’s embassy in Kyiv – which is co-located with Canada’s embassy – have moved to Lviv. The remaining three officers – Australia’s ambassador, deputy ambassador and one other officer – are again working alongside their Canadian counterparts.
A cyber security official, Tobias Feakin, says officials are progressing discussions with Ukraine on cyber security assistance:
At the moment it’s a live in confidence discussion.
Updated
From Peter “Number Cruncher” Hannam:
NSW #covid deaths jump 9 to 27. More positively, hospitalisations are down 6.6% and ICU patients are 4.2% lower. https://t.co/LduCWo04C0
— Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) February 15, 2022
Wrap your gums around this delightful piece from Donna Lu:
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is up at estimates today.
Foreign affairs minister Marise Payne says the foreign affairs questions are being asked today, instead of tomorrow as originally scheduled, so that she can leave Australia tonight, bound for a Munich security conference.
She says she also has a broader series of international visits (including a French/EU Indo-Pacific forum in Paris).
Updated
Deputy PM criticises media leaks
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has taken another swing at the Liberal MP (or MPs?) who seem to be leaking embarrassing details to the media, in the wake of reports that Alan Tudge’s days as education minister may be limited.
Channel 10 reported on Tuesday that Tudge could be on his way out.
It was also reported that Tudge’s name had been scratched off a nameplate at his office door, but prime minister Scott Morrison’s office said the matter was still in progress and no decision had been made.
Senate estimates heard on Monday that a report on allegations made against Tudge by former staffer Rachelle Miller had been provided to Morrison weeks ago, but that people participating in the report were still being given the opportunity to review its contents.
The latest leak from the ministry follows several other damaging leaks to Channel 10, including texts reportedly between former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and a Liberal minister which were strongly critical of Morrison, and a cabinet leak last week which claimed Morrison had been “rolled” by colleagues over a strategy to allow debate on a federal integrity commission in hopes of gathering more support for his religious discrimination bill.
Joyce, speaking on Sky News, criticised whoever was sharing such explosive information with media. He said:
If you’re deliberately handing over information that’s supposed to remain private ... then you’re deliberately trying to make that task in the next election more difficult.
Joyce had his own embarrassing moment recently when a text he sent to former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins, which was also very critical of Morrison, was published in the media.
Morrison has asked his party for more unity in recent weeks. On Tuesday he told his members that they had jobs to do:
I’m going to do mine, I need you to do yours.
Updated
NSW records 27 Covid-related deaths
In NSW, 27 people have died. A total of 10,463 new Covid cases have been detected and there were 1,478 hospitalisations, with 92 people in intensive care.
NSW COVID-19 update – Wednesday 16 February 2022
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) February 15, 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
- 95.6% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 94.2% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/JUttWAbnRy
Updated
Victoria reports 18 Covid-related deaths
Another 18 people have died in Victoria, where 8,149 new Covid cases have been detected. A total of 397 people have been hospitalised, 68 are in intensive care, and 13 are on ventilators.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 15, 2022
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/4nRYt6jpwC…#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/fJEUV2s9ya
Updated
All Victorian elective surgery to return by end of month
All elective surgery across public and private hospitals can resume by the end of the month in Victoria, the state government has said, adding that the impact of the Omicron wave continues to subside and stabilise.
From Monday 21 February, public hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne will be able to perform category 2 surgery.
The minister will also consider further changes to allow all surgery to resume from 28 February. Each hospital will individually assess their own capacity based on staff availability and Covid-19 demands, with 44 hospitals still operating as Covid- streaming hospitals.
Private hospitals will also be able to increase their elective surgery activity as long as they can continue to provide support for public hospitals to respond to Covid-19 demands.
From 21 February, private hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne can undertake up to 75% of any elective surgery activity, increasing from 50%. The government will then consider increasing this on 28 February to up to 100%.
In regional Victoria, the cap for private hospitals will increase from the current 75% to up to 100% on 21 February – while regional public hospitals continue to deliver any elective surgery based on their individual capacity.
The rolling seven-day average of Covid-19 hospitalisations is 457 patients, decreasing from a peak of more than 1,200 patients in mid-January 2022. The number of staff unavailable due to Covid has dropped by around two-thirds, currently at around 1,400 people.
Updated
Sydney’s public transport services will return to normal at the end of the month when Covid restrictions ease, state transport minister David Elliot says:
From Monday 28 February, the Monday to Friday weekday timetable on the Sydney Trains network will be reinstated.
This is a great sign, it shows customers have confidence to jump on public transport as more people get back to major centres like Sydney’s CBD and Parramatta.
Updated
A New South Wales government proposal for a renewable energy zone in the heart of the state’s largest coalmining region received more than $100b worth of investment proposals.
The state’s energy minister, Matt Kean, said the government’s latest renewable energy zone in the Hunter and Central Coast had received 80 expressions of interest for solar, pumped hydro, wind and large-scale battery projects.
The renewable energy zone is one of five created by the government under legislation passed with multiparty support in 2020 to build 12 gigawatts of clean energy – roughly equivalent to the country’s entire existing large-scale renewable capacity – and 2GW of energy storage in the state over the next decade.
At the time the bill set off tension with the federal energy minister, Angus Taylor, who said the legislation could prompt the closure of coal-fired power stations.
Announcing the funding proposals, Kean said the projects would have the potential to deliver more than 100,000 gigawatt hours of renewable energy a year – equivalent to the annual output of up to 10 coal-fired power stations.
He said:
These results show that energy investors see the Hunter and Central Coast as some of the best investment destinations anywhere in the country, which will translate into jobs and prosperity for the region.
Renewable energy zones are vital to ensuring the future reliability and affordability of electricity in NSW as traditional coal-fired power stations close down over the coming decades.
Updated
Filipa Payne advocates for New Zealanders in Australia who have their visas cancelled because they have broken the law.
She tells ABC radio that thousands of Kiwis are deported or are sitting in immigration detention, and that many of them are guilty of low-level crimes such as drink driving.
Many have also grown up in Australia, she says, so it’s Australia’s “moral responsibility” to deal with them instead of sending them across the ditch.
Something to remember when the federal government says Labor is stopping it deporting abusers of women and children.
Updated
Public school funding has effectively been cut, while private school funding has increased. Is Gonksi goneski? Adeshola Ore has the numbers:
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan will make an announcement about when the state’s hard border will lift by the end of the month, AAP reports.
It’s not really a timeline, but it’s something.
Updated
A “legal workaround” to skip federal environment approvals has been revealed in freedom of information documents. This is a great story on complicated issue from Lisa Cox:
Updated
Worth a read if you missed it yesterday, in the context of the character test legislation – Australia tried to deport an otherwise “model” New Zealand citizen who had lived here for 40 years. It would have broken up his family, Christopher Knaus reports:
Updated
Willoughby on shaky ground for Liberal party
Updated vote counting in the blue-ribbon Liberal party seat of Willoughby has put the seat on shaky ground for the government, with the party’s candidate, Tim James, ahead by fewer than 600 votes.
Preference flows in the seat of former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday have put the seat within reach of unheralded independent candidate Larissa Penn, with about 32% of the vote counted.
Going into Saturday’s byelection the Liberal party held Willoughby on an ultra-safe margin of 21%, a buffer built up by the ultra-popular Berejiklian since her election in 2003.
After her resignation the party had been bracing for a backlash in the seat, and had already suffered a swing of about 18% based on polling day results.
But with the increase in postal ballots, byelection vote counting is still under way, and an update on preference flows on Tuesday further eroded the Liberal party’s buffer. About 42% of preferences were going to Penn compared with about 10% for James.
It means that the swing against the government in the seat is now at 19.2%, with Penn, who only had four weeks to prepare her campaign, within 600 votes of victory.
While there is still a significant number of votes still to be counted, the fact Willoughby is even being discussed as a precarious seat for the government will be a concern for premier Dominic Perrottet.
The government lost the previously safe seat of Bega at the byelections, after suffering a 12% swing. Already in minority, losing another seat would put the state government on dangerous ground, relying on the support of a handful of crossbenchers and minor parties to maintain confidence and supply.
Updated
Helen Haines, the member for Indi, is also calling for more transparency in political donations. She’d like to see any donations over $1,000 declared.
The ABC’s Patricia Karvelas asks her about the Zali Steggall situation. Haines says the system needs reform and has “too many holes”. Improving the laws would do that, she says.
Updated
Independent MP Helen Haines – who proposed her own national integrity legislation – is talking about the government’s admission it won’t introduce its own legislation before the election.
She says it’s emblematic of a fear of transparency:
We have a Coalition government who are dead scared of having an integrity commission and they’re doing everything they can to make sure we don’t have one.
The bill has never been introduced ... what they’ve put out is an exposure draft. People have come to this in good faith trying to improve what was a very flimsy proposition. The government didn’t engage.
Updated
Richard Marles also talks about reports that China’s Global Times newspaper has endorsed Labor leader Anthony Albanese. The Australian reports that the government’s “propaganda outlet” is promoting Albanese as “safe”, while Scott Morrison is a “clown”.
Labor can’t control what the state-affiliated paper does, Marles says.
On the character test, Marles says it’s not clear what the problem is that the government is trying to solve, and that Labor is happy to sit down with the Coalition to discuss it.
Updated
National security has been a big theme this week, as prime minister Scott Morrison tries to find chinks of daylight between the government’s position and that of the opposition.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles is on ABC radio talking about Morrison’s claims his party is “soft”, particularly on China. (Remember, Morrison is attacking Labor for not attacking China for not attacking Russia.)
Marles says that’s a “desperate” claim and that the prime minister is “clearly trying to create a political issue in the context of the upcoming election”.
And he’s happy to call out China, saying “the world stands together” in supporting Ukraine:
China should speak out in opposition to what Russia is doing. It should join the rest of the world in adding its voice to supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
He says there’s no difference between Labor’s position and the government’s.
Updated
Good morning
This parliamentary week is either half finished or only halfway through, depending on your perspective.
The federal government will have another crack at its character test legislation today. It wants more leeway to boot convicted criminals from the country and is trying to make the extraordinary argument that if it doesn’t get its way, that means Labor is taking the side of men who abuse women and children.
(Labor says the immigration minister already has “God-like” powers and this is just a power grab.)
Attorney general Michaelia Cash has conceded that no federal integrity commission legislation will be put up before the election but that’s unlikely to make the issue go away.
And the government smells blood in the water over independent Warringah MP Zali Steggall’s “rookie error” in not properly declaring a $100,000 donation, so expect to hear more there.
Some big international news from the UK – Prince Andrew has settled the sexual assault claim filed by Virginia Giuffre. He will make a “substantial donation” to her charity (but doesn’t admit guilt).
And still overseas, but sparked by Australian happenings – tennis superstar Novak Djokovic has told the BBC he’s not anti-vaccination but he’s also not vaccinated, and won’t get vaccinated even if it means he misses grand slam tournaments. But definitely not anti-vaccination.
Senate estimates continues – you never know what will come up but you know something wild will.
The Russia/Ukraine situation is still unstable, and there’s speculation Russia is planning a “false flag” attack (it will attack its own people or property inside Ukraine, pretend it was Ukraine, then use that as a pretext for an attack). Prime minister Scott Morrison tried very hard yesterday to link the situation to cost of living issues here in Australia, and was attacking China for not condemning Russia, and Labor for not attacking China. Some fancy footwork there.
Katharine Murphy will cut through the bluster for you, along with the crack Canberra team of Paul Karp, Sarah Martin, Josh Butler, Daniel Hurst and Mike Bowers.
Here we go ...
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