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‘You’re not going to should go to a BP to pay $50 for one RAT’
Anika Wells is requested to defend the federal government’s choice to finish the free RAT exams for concession card holders.
She has responded with related justifications the treasurer Jim Chalmers acknowledged yesterday.
She stated there was now a “completely different set of circumstances” to when Labor was criticising the earlier authorities’s delay in offering free RATs originally of the yr and that Labor can’t prolong the entry within the broader context of a “mess of a finances”.
She admitted “I used to be furious in regards to the RATs in January” however says in the intervening time free testing remains to be accessible by means of PCR testing, with out the identical waits skilled through the Omicron outbreak.
She highlighted that RATs are additionally extra available for decrease costs:
Free exams are nonetheless accessible with out the identical calls for in January as an eight-hour queue to do it.
You’re not going to should go to a BP to pay $50 for one RAT.
Key occasions:
The Maroons have gained the State of Origin decider final evening in an epic comeback. You may learn Angus Fontaine’s report when you missed it or simply need to relive what some are calling one of many biggest deciders.
Nevertheless, as NSW lick their wounds, Coach Brad Fittler has spoken out saying he thinks Matt Burton’s sin-binning was a “tad ridiculous.”
Fiji urges higher ambition on Australia’s local weather targets
Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji, the nation internet hosting the Pacific Islands Forum, is urging our PM Anthony Albanese to be extra bold with Australia’s local weather targets in step with limiting warming to 1.5C.
Australia’s midterm goal is at the moment a 43% emissions discount by 2030 however consultants say that target would need to be raised between 50% and 74% to limit global heating to 2C and 1.5C respectively.
Victoria data 20 Covid deaths and 771 individuals in hospital
There have been 11,283 new instances in Victoria’s final reporting interval, and 34 individuals are in intensive care.
Paul Karp
Morrison places blame for unpopularity on nationwide cupboard
Scott Morrison will argue his authorities’s recognition took an unavoidable “hit for the mission” within the creation of the nationwide cupboard and attempting to handle the federation through the Covid disaster.
It’s a little bit of revisionist historical past that ignores that Morrison’s popularity tanked first mainly due to his handling of the 2019-20 bushfires, then recovered during the initial response to Covid whereas borders had been shut, nationwide cupboard shaped and lockdowns imposed. There was additionally $90bn in wage subsidies, which had been wildly widespread. Mid-2020 his approval started an extended slide but it surely took almost a year and a half to reach the bushfire lows as voters marked him down for the sluggish vaccine rollout.
However in Morrison’s telling:
Frustration with the nationwide cupboard was truly frustration with the character of our structure and federation. However in a disaster, this was no time to have interaction in a political debate about our federation, nor because the nationwide chief to select fights with provincial leaders. Management usually requires you to take the hit for the mission you’re engaged in. This was definitely the case when it got here to managing our federation through the pandemic. A disaster demanded that you just curb your pure defensive home political instincts to give attention to the larger job and larger image. It couldn’t be politics as traditional.
That stated, for all its critics, the nationwide cupboard proved its value within the outcomes we had been capable of obtain collectively. And I’m but to listen to of a greater different … However we didn’t at all times agree, particularly when it got here to points the place the medical recommendation was not constant equivalent to state borders, college closures or vaccine mandates. Because the pandemic advanced, it grew to become tougher to maintain uniformity within the varied restrictions employed by every state because the expertise of the virus was not uniform. Once we disagreed, this induced nice frustration among the many public. Whereas such disagreement was inevitable, many Australians discovered it obscure why the prime minister couldn’t simply make the choices.
Had been Australians annoyed by the nationwide cupboard? The most important disagreement was over inner border restrictions, which had been wildly widespread and helped governments in Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania be re-elected. In South Australia, the federal government solely fell after it reopened borders and Omicron unfold by means of the neighborhood.
Morrison is at it once more, taking credit score for lives saved by joint choices of the nationwide cupboard, then sheeting blame for his unpopularity again to … nationwide cupboard, many of the members of that are nonetheless sitting across the huge desk.
Scott Morrison blames Covid and federalism for downfall
Paul Karp
The Australian newspaper has reproduced slabs of a speech former prime minister Scott Morrison will give on the Asian Management Convention in Seoul, blaming Covid for his downfall.
In line with the speech “given” to the newspaper, Morrison will say:
Australia’s outcomes do inform a proud story. One of many lowest fatality charges, highest vaccination charges and strongest financial performances of any developed nation on the earth.
Australia has the third lowest mortality price within the OECD at 401 deaths per million inhabitants. This may be in contrast with Canada at 1,106 per million, the UK at 2,688 per million and the US at 3,031 per million. In the course of the pandemic, we estimate that when in comparison with the common fatality charges of OECD international locations, Australia’s response saved an estimated 40,000 lives.
The 40,000 lives statistic is one of Morrison’s favourites as a result of it measures Australia’s success in 2020-21 whereas borders had been closed and states imposed lockdowns to suppress or eradicate Covid. It’s a disgrace that after simply 2,239 Covid deaths in 2020-21 we’ve had greater than 8,200 this yr alone, which quite takes the gloss off a statistic that’s now greater than six months previous.
Warnings this wave of Covid-19 could possibly be worse than January
Dr Bruce Willet, the vice-president of the Royal Australian School of GPs, advised the ABC this morning that the winter outbreak could possibly be extra extreme than January’s wave:
We’re seeing these new variants of the Omicron virus being way more infectious and spreading actually fairly quickly. And so this so-called third wave seems that it’s gonna be, , near or maybe even exceed the preliminary first wave that we had in January. It’s trying like will probably be an extended, extra sustained unfold of the Omicron virus by means of the neighborhood.
NSW data 36 Covid deaths, with 2,001 individuals in hospital
There have been 14,235 new instances within the final NSW reporting interval, and 56 individuals are in intensive care.
Foot and mouth defined
In the event you’re listening to about “foot-and-mouth illness” and questioning what all of the fuss is about, Guardian Australia’s rural and regional editor Gabrielle Chan explains it for you on in the present day’s podcast.
As rural reporter working with Gabrielle till not too long ago, I can attest that if anybody can clarify esoteric farm issues to the layperson, it’s her.
Home violence plan launched
The Albanese authorities has in the present day launched a long-awaited report on home and household violence, which can underpin the nationwide 10-year plan to deal with the difficulty.
The ABC is reporting that the Morrison authorities sat on the report for months.
Amanda Rishworth, the social companies minister, advised the ABC in the present day she needs to deal with the difficulty with urgency:
We need to guarantee that we make progress on the following nationwide plan that can final for 10 years, and get one thing in place. I need to get it proper, however with a way of urgency, get one thing in place in order that states and territories and the commonwealth are all working in the identical path.
Murray Watt in Jakarta to assist fight foot-and-mouth outbreak
The agriculture minister, Murray Watt, is in Jakarta in the present day as a part of an Australian delegation to Indonesia to assist the nation fight their foot-and-mouth illness outbreak.
Watt will meet Indonesian ministers as a part of the federal government’s two-pronged method of taking motion at residence and overseas to guard Australian cattle.
The illness has unfold to most of Indonesia’s 34 provinces, together with Bali, which raises the chance for Australia’s agriculture business.
Robust wind warnings for Queensland waters
There’s a gale warning for waters off the Gold Coast in addition to robust wind warnings within the north of the state, within the Gulf of Carpentaria, the Torres Strait and coastal waters extending from the Peninsula Coast into Sunshine Coast waters.
The robust wind warning is the bottom of the four different categories of wind warnings the Bureau of Meteorology can issuem with a gale warning the following step up behind storm pressure and hurricane warnings.
Ukrainian humanitarian visa prolonged
Ukrainians refugees from Russia’s invasion have an additional two weeks to use for humanitarian visas in Australia.
The deadline for the momentary humanitarian concern visas was initially set to run out on 30 June 30 however was prolonged.
Andrew Giles, the immigration minister, stated the deadline has been prolonged even additional to 31 July as a result of the earlier expiry date had not been communicated to the Ukrainian Australian neighborhood.
There had been concern in the neighborhood that those that hadn’t obtained the visas must keep within the nation on vacationer visas, which might imply they wouldn’t have entry to companies equivalent to Medicare or have the appropriate to work.
The visas had been supplied in March by the previous Coalition authorities after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Greater than 8,000 individuals have been granted visas since then.
– with AAP
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