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Australia news live: Victorian man tests positive to Covid after completing hotel quarantine; coronavirus vaccine rollout reset Australia news live: Victorian man tests positive to Covid after completing hotel quarantine; coronavirus vaccine rollout reset
(32 minutes later)
Fifteen Sydney waterfront workers waiting on coronavirus test results after boarding ship carrying infected sailorsFifteen Sydney waterfront workers waiting on coronavirus test results after boarding ship carrying infected sailors
As that news about the Indonesian submarine was breaking Australian opposition leader Anthony Albanese has been speaking from the regional Victorian city of Bendigo.
He is chatting about Morrison’s appearance at Biden’s climate summit, and, like, I get the point he is trying to make, but gosh Albanese likes to use the successes of developing nations to dunk on the government, and every time it just gives off very colonial energy. Also sip!
Earlier Indonesian navy chief of staff Yudo Margono said rescuers had found an unidentified object with high magnetism at a depth of 50-100 metres and that officials hoped it was the submarine.
He said they were waiting for a navy ship with underwater detection facilities to arrive before they could investigate further.
Australia has sent HMAS Ballarat and HMAS Sirius to help in the search for the Indonesian submarine missing with 53 crew on board.
The submarine was last heard from in waters north of Bali while on a training exercise. The Indonesian military fears an electrical fault may have caused it to sink to more than 600 metres below sea level, which experts say could be extremely dangerous.
Indonesia requested help from Australia in the search which foreign affairs minister Marise Payne confirmed would be answered.
The defence department has just published details:
Rear Admiral Mark Hammond said the ADF would stand with our neighbour during this crisis.
If you want to quickly catch up with the key details of this situation you can have a look at our Tiktok explainer:
Or this article below:
The European Union will reportedly not stand in the way of 1m AstraZeneca doses being diverted from Australia to Papua New Guinea.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported late Thursday that trade minister Dan Tehan had secured a “very clear assurance” from the EU that it would not block 1m doses going to PNG, which is battling a major outbreak. The government has been asking the EU to release the doses to PNG since March.
Tehan says the new assurances from Valdis Dombrovskis, the European trade commissioner, leave the fate of the 1m doses now firmly in AstraZeneca’s hands.
The World Health Organization warned this week that PNG was reaching a critical stage due to continued widespread community transmission, a weak health system, rising hesitancy and limited Covid testing. Australia has committed to supplying the region with 10,000 locally manufactured AstraZeneca doses every week, beginning this week.
But key figures have urged Australia to give active consideration to lifting that contribution. Jane Halton, the former health department secretary, former WHO board member and chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said Australia should be considering whether it can give more to PNG.
Halton told the Guardian:
New Zealand is cautiously reopening the pathway home for travellers coming from India after introducing a ban earlier this month.
The rule changes allow a dramatically reduced flow of arrivals from a new category of “very high-risk” countries. India, Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan are in that category.
Arrivals from those countries are restricted to New Zealand citizens and their parents, children and partners as opposed to other countries where New Zealand has taken arrivals who are permanent residents or on “essential worker” visas.
Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said that “from India alone, this is expected to reduce the number of potential positive cases coming to New Zealand by an estimated 75%”. Hipkins said it would be possible to apply for exceptions on humanitarian grounds.
New Zealand temporarily closed the border to all arrivals from India, including citizens, after surging case numbers in the country. The outbreak in India is still out of control, with 1.6m cases reported in a week, and health systems collapsing.
The New Zealand government is also introducing a “cohorting” system to hold groups of arrivals together and keep managed isolation and quarantine facilities empty for cleaning between cohorts, rather than accepting rolling groups of arrivals.
Countries have been designated very high risk if there have been more than 50 Covid-positive cases per 1,000 arrivals to New Zealand in 2021.
Everyone sip!
This is a baffling choice of graphic design and I’m totally obsessed with it.
Victorian health minister Martin Foley says phase 1A of the vaccine rollout is almost complete in the state.
Martin Foley has described the actions of the man in the time between getting off the plane from Perth to testing positive:Martin Foley has described the actions of the man in the time between getting off the plane from Perth to testing positive:
Foley said his partner picked him up from the airport.Foley said his partner picked him up from the airport.
Foley has commended the man for his actions leading up testing positive:Foley has commended the man for his actions leading up testing positive:
Foley:Foley:
Okay here is Victorian health minister Martin Foley with some more details about this Victorian case: Here’s Victorian health minister Martin Foley with some more details about this Victorian case:
On the upside, there are no local Covid-19 cases in NSW today, especially after ITS second hotel quarantine transmission case yesterday.On the upside, there are no local Covid-19 cases in NSW today, especially after ITS second hotel quarantine transmission case yesterday.
But also, JEEEEEZZZZ 18 overseas acquired cases is very intense.But also, JEEEEEZZZZ 18 overseas acquired cases is very intense.
Victorian health minister Martin Foley says all passengers on Qantas flight QF778 from Perth to Melbourne are considered close contacts and will need to isolate for 14 days.
The man’s family is also being tested.
Brilliant observation from my colleague Nino Bucci: could you imagine if WA premier Mark McGowan shut the border on Victoria after personally delivering it a Covid-19 case.
Victorian health minister Martin Foley says this officially ends the state’s long run of no community transmission, despite the man not contracting Covid in the state.
Foley has been asked about this at the press conference:
OK, just a bit more on this case of community transmission in Victoria.
The man is from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. He arrived home after spending time in hotel quarantine in the Mercure Hotel Perth, where the virus has managed to jump between rooms infecting at least two other returned travellers.
He arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday but after the breach was discovered the Victorian government asked all recently released guests at the WA hotel currently in the state to retest themselves and isolate.
The man tested positive. He has asked to be moved to Victorian hotel quarantine.
Three children have been rescued and four people arrested after Australian police uncovered online sex abuse of children in the Philippines, reports Tiffanie Turnbull from AAP.
Two Australian men have been charged with child sex abuse offences, leading to the rescue of three children as young as six in the Philippines.
The children, aged between six and 17, were saved after the Australian federal police referred intelligence on to their counterparts in the Philippines.
Two women, both aged 27, were arrested in Manila in March.
In Australia, a 40-year-old NSW man who was allegedly communicating with the women to pay for abuse material was arrested by police in November.
Another man, 66, was charged with multiple child sex offences in Queensland in August.
AFP child protection operations Det Supt Paula Hudson said:
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has responded to Scott Morrison’s (rather pro-coal industry) address to the Biden climate summit overnight.
He spoke in his positions as president of the Asia Society in New York, criticising China and Australia’s reluctance to commit to more ambitious emissions targets:
A Victorian man is infected with Covid-19 in Perth hotel quarantine
The Victorian government has established a fund to cover funeral expenses for members of the stolen generations, reports Benita Kolovos from AAP.
Aboriginal affairs minister Gabrielle Williams announced the $300,000 interim program on Friday. It will operate until a $10m reparations scheme begins later this year.
The program, which will be backdated for any death after 1 January, will provide families with up to $10,000 to cover the costs of a funeral, headstone or plaque and/or the repatriation of their loved one.
Victoria will be the final state to introduce a redress scheme for the stolen generations later this year.
It is estimated almost 10% of Victoria’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population aged 50 and over are members of the stolen generations, taken from their parents between 1910 and 1970 as part of a government-run assimilation regime.
The state had the third-highest rate of removal in the country, with more than one-third of Victoria’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population descendants of the stolen generations.
Ian Hamm, the chair of the stolen generations reparations steering committee, said the funeral costs program would give stolen generations “a dignity in death they may not have always had in life”.
Just a reminder if these topics are difficult for you, you can call: Lifeline 13 11 14 or Beyondblue 1300 22 4636
China has threatened to take further action against Australia after the Morrison government cancelled Victoria’s two Belt and Road agreements in a sign the diplomatic dispute between the two countries may worsen.
China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it had lodged a “solemn” protest with Australia and reserved the right to take further action, just hours after the Chinese embassy in Canberra warned Australia would “only end up hurting itself”.
The message was amplified by Chinese state media, with the nationalistic tabloid the Global Times stating Australia had fired a “major shot” in what could be another trade war.
But the Australian government insisted on Thursday it was simply defending its national interests by blocking the two agreements between the Victorian state government and China’s reform commission.
You can read the full report from Helen Davidson and Daniel Hurst here: