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Australia Covid live update: Omicron detected in NSW, states tighten border restrictions; ABC announces new RN Breakfast host
Australia politics live update: national cabinet to discuss Omicron response as Covid variant detected in NSW; ABC announces new RN Breakfast host
(32 minutes later)
Follow all the news live
Follow all the news live
As is this from Luke Henriques-Gomes:
In case you haven’t seen this story yet from Peter Hannam, it is worth your time:
The Morrison government has used sweeping new powers to override state and territory government support for an international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
The federal government has deployed recently passed laws to overturn the participation of five states and territories in the global Under 2 Coalition.
In an email dated 23 November, an official with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told his counterpart in the Victorian government that its participation in the coalition was “no longer in operation”.
The email warned the Victorian government that under the new Foreign Relations (States and Territories) Act 2020, sign up to the agreement was now illegitimate.
Bob Katter was apparently thrown out of a Tamworth pub over the weekend for not being able to prove his vaccination status and well, I’ll let you read his statement:
There is no more political a game, than the election date – which rests solely in the prime minister’s hands.
Speculating on when the election might be though, is apparently, a political game, says Scott Morrison, that he won’t be distracted by.
Of course he won’t.
Because it is his decision. He is the only person who knows when it will be:
National cabinet was meant to meet on Friday, but there will be a meeting either today or tomorrow.
Just don’t call it an “emergency meeting”.
Morrison:
Scott Morrison is now speaking to the Nine network (he declined to appear on the ABC) about the possibility of a wider border shut down:
Patricia Karvelas will be the new host of ABC RN Breakfast radio.
Patricia Karvelas will be the new host of ABC RN Breakfast radio.
The federal government has decided on the new site for Australia’s nuclear waste.
The federal government has decided on the new site for Australia’s nuclear waste.
From Keith Pitt’s statement:
From Keith Pitt’s statement:
You’ll be finding out very soon
You’ll be finding out very soon.
Prof Paul Kelly was also on the Nine network, where he was asked about the possibility Omicron could replace Delta as the dominant strain of Covid, and how that could be a good thing, given the early advice is that it seems a more mild version of the virus.
Prof Paul Kelly was also on the Nine network, where he was asked about the possibility Omicron could replace Delta as the dominant strain of Covid, and how that could be a good thing, given the early advice is that it seems a more mild version of the virus.
Kelly:
Kelly:
Over on Sydney radio 2GB NSW police minister David Elliott said he met with with premier Dominic Perrottet and health minister Brad Hazzard on Sunday about what NSW would do:
Professor Paul Kelly is pressed on the border issue, given how important it is to the thousands of Australians hoping to get home for the first time in two years, for Christmas:
Does Prof Paul Kelly believe there will be a wider shutdown of the Australian border in response (at this every early stage):
Chief health officer Prof Paul Kelly is also doing the morning media rounds.
Here he is on the ABC talking what we do and don’t know about Omicron so far (spoiler – not a lot, but what we do know is cause at this stage to take a breath):
Over on ABC News Breakfast, Bill Shorten responded to the current deputy prime minister:
I don’t think anyone is talking a shutdown at the moment – the whole world is in watch-and-wait mode on the new Covid variant, as we don’t know that much about it as yet.
Barnaby Joyce though, has views:
Racehorse trainers, jockeys and breeders will pay part of their income to ensure that racehorses have a long and happy life after they retire from racing under a radical plan designed by the racing industry to improve equine welfare and recover the industry’s crumbling social licence.
The plan would involve setting up a national not-for-profit organisation called Thoroughbred Welfare Australia , which would support training and rehoming programs for the more than 8,000 thoroughbreds that leave the racing and breeding industry each year.
It was devised by a committee of equine, veterinary and agricultural policy experts in the Thoroughbred Aftercare Welfare Working Group, led by former Victorian premier Dennis Napthine. The work was commissioned by the Thoroughbred Breeders Association and funded by the breeders, jockeys and trainers associations, as well as the Victorian Racing Club, Brisbane Turf Club and Sportsbet.
The group was commissioned after reports of ex-racehorses from NSW being killed at an export abattoir in Queensland.
“Modern Liberal” Tim Wilson is in election mode.
The inner-city Victorian MP tweeted a photo of his electorate office Christmas tree, which included former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian as the “angel”, to get attention late last week.
Now we have “puppet media”:
Here is a little more from Scott Morrison on the Omicron Covid variant and whether it will mean the reinstatement of the 14-day quarantine for (vaccinated) international arrivals in Australia:
Welcome to the last sitting week of 2021 – and possibly until the next election.
Who knows.
Scott Morrison attempted another reset at the weekend, using the time off from parliament to make anonymous social media trolling the biggest issue facing the country.
With the government trying to blame Labor for not bringing forward its commonwealth integrity commission legislation and Morrison attacking the NSW anti-corruption commission, Icac, while backing in former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, who he wants to run for the Sydney seat of Warringah, he wants to move away from messy topics.
So after giving the party room the usual “disunity is death” talk last Tuesday, now the prime minister is talking up the rebellion happening within the Coalition’s backbench as a good thing, because apparently, they are not “drones” in the Liberal party. Never mind that six of the seven MPs who crossed the floor did so over public health measures Morrison himself was supportive of until recently. Or that it was Tasmanian Liberal Bridget Archer who received a talking to, while Gerard Rennick was allowed to “negotiate” and offered a talk with constitutional lawyers over his position.
But Morrison may not get his way with attempts to reset the agenda for what seems like the third time this sitting – a new Covid variant has made its way into Australia, just as the reopening was gathering pace.
Morrison was doing the breakfast TV rounds this morning (not the ABC, from what I can see so far) and of course it’s what the hosts wanted to speak about.
Australia has gone from “borders open” to “of course they are not open” very, very quickly. Here’s Morrison on the Seven network:
National cabinet will be meeting either this afternoon or tomorrow to work through the available information.
We will bring you all the information as it comes – on both parliament and any border changes. Mike Bowers is already up and about for you, and Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp are on deck to bring you all the Canberra news. The rest of the Guardian team is also at your disposal for news happening around the nation.
It’s most likely going to be a four-coffee morning. Let’s see how it plays out.
