The day that was, Thursday 17 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:
- Two Liberal MPs, Bridget Archer and John Alexander spoke on indulgence in support of a commonwealth integrity commission.
- Former Asio boss Dennis Richardson warned of “artificial division” on China.
- NSW reported 9,995 new cases and 14 deaths; Victoria recorded 8,501 new cases and nine deaths, Queensland recorded 5,665 new cases and 38 deaths; WA reported 177 new cases; SA reported 1,440 new cases and three deaths; the NT reported 1,045 new cases; the ACT reported 537 new cases and 1 death; and Tasmania reported 680 new cases.
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NSW will ease Covid restrictions, scrap density limits and encourage people to return to offices.
- Elective surgeries in metropolitan public hospitals in NSW will also return from 21 February.
- Density limits have been scrapped and QR code check-in requirements will be eased in Victoria from tomorrow.
- The Moderna vaccine has been approved for children aged six and over. The Therapeutic Goods Administration announced it will join Pfizer as a vaccine recommended for children.
- The jobless rate was unchanged in January, remaining at its 13-year-low of 4.2%, the ABS announced.
- Prime minister Scott Morrison spoke with his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, this morning, reaffirming “the unique relationship between Australia and the United Kingdom”.
- Australia’s largest coal-fired power plant, Eraring power station in New South Wales, will close in 2025 – seven years earlier than scheduled, Origin Energy announced.
- A major ocean swim on Sydney’s eastern coastline has been cancelled following Wednesday’s fatal shark attack at Little Bay beach.
Updated
In a continued escalation of the China debate, Liberal senator James Paterson has directly criticised former ASIO boss Dennis Richardson.
Paterson told Sky News that although Richardson had a “very long and very distinguished career in the public,” there were issues the Liberal party still disagreed with him on:
Probably the best example of that is [Chinese telco] Huawei.
It’s been publicly reported that in 2011, when he was secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he went on leave from DFAT to negotiate on behalf of the Canberra Raiders a lucrative sponsorship agreement from Huawei for the Canberra Raiders.
And in 2018, when the Cabinet was considering whether Huawei should be allowed to be involved in the 5G rollout, he publicly advocated that they should be involved in the 5G rollout.
Now we had very good advice from our intelligence agencies that the national security risks of Huawei being involved in the 5G rollout could not be mitigated, and it is one of the best decisions our government has made, and I stand by it even if Dennis Richardson disagrees.
Updated
