What happened Monday 7 February, 2022
With that, we’ll finish up with our live news coverage for the day.
There was a fair bit of news about, ahead of the first federal parliamentary sitting of the year beginning on Tuesday.
Here are the day’s major developments:
- Australia’s borders will reopen to all visa holders from 21 February on the provision that they are double vaccinated.
- Up to 1700 defence force personnel will be deployed to aged care facilities to help with Covid related staff shortages, amid an Omicron crisis in the sector.
- Scott Morrison says there is still a chance to legislate a commonwealth integrity commission before the election, after the attorney general, Michaelia Cash, suggested the government would run out of time to do so.
- At least five homes have been lost in Western Australia and 60,000 hectares razed in one of the most challenging bushfire periods in recent memory, as the state’s fire and emergency services commissioner links the blaze to the climate crisis.
- Facebook has lost a major battle with the Australian regulator over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after a court dismissed the social media giant’s claim that it neither conducts business nor collects personal information in the country.
- Covid rules in Western Australia have changed as the state moves to high case load settings, while Queensland has scrapped QR code check ins,
Have a great evening, we’ll be back to do it all again tomorrow.
Updated
Australia’s airports have welcomed the reopening of the country’s borders to tourists, with the peak body claiming airports will be ready for the 21 February reopening date.
James Goodwin, chief executive of the Australian Airports Association, said international travel levels are currently at just 15% of pre-Covid levels with only fully-vaccinated citizens and permanent residents able to leave and enter freely.
Goodwin said the reopening to fully-vaccinated tourists will not only help the international aviation and tourism sectors recover, but will boost the viability of domestic air routes because 30% of domestic flight passengers are international tourists.
He said:
International tourists don’t just visit one Australian city. They fly from state to state to see all of what our nation has to offer so it is vital all domestic borders reopen and stay open.
Airports will be critical to ensuring the logistics associated with resuming international travel will be successfully managed and look forward to working with the government agencies involved.
Updated
Some more on the new settings in Western Australia:
WA new quarantine rules #covidwa pic.twitter.com/jSQw00WsOC
— Natalie Forrest (@nat_forrest) February 7, 2022
WA Premier has poured cold water on international tourists coming to WA - unless they fit in the state’s int. flight cap #covidwa #auspol
— Natalie Forrest (@nat_forrest) February 7, 2022
