Paul Karp
Mark Butler defends Covid testing of travellers from China
The health minister, Mark Butler, is out defending the Australian government’s decision to impose pre-flight Covid tests on travellers from China.
Butler told Channel Seven’s Sunrise:
Well, really, the key driver of this decision is what the World Health Organization has described as an absence of comprehensive information about, what is a very fast moving situation in China.
The decision that I announced yesterday, which takes effect on Thursday, also reflects decisions that have been taken across the world by countries in north America in Europe and across Asia. In Asia, for example, by Japan, by India, South Korea, Malaysia and others. So this we think is a balanced decision, a modest decision, but it will start to ensure that we have better information about what is happening in China right now.
Butler rejected the suggestion Australia thinks China is lying about its Covid wave, but cited a “a lack of genomic sequencing of cases … that are obviously happening in China and what is a very significant Covid wave”, warning this could make it harder to identify new variants.
Butler said Australia “warmly welcomes” reopening of travel from China, which started three weeks ago.
He said:
I know that hundreds of thousands of Australians of Chinese descent in particular are really looking forward to the opportunity, to be able to reunite with family, and with friends, whom they’ve not seen other than on a screen for months, if not years.
And I know also the tourism industry, the education sector [universities] are really looking forward to that resumption of travel. It’s really been the one significant country in the world that we haven’t been able to see travel resume. So this is a very positive development, but we just need to ensure that we’ve got the information that we need to protect the health of Australians.
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Butler: China traveller Covid tests are ‘a modest measure’
Butler was also asked about some of the criticisms made of the measure, including from the Business Council of Australia which said the government was “retreating” from a general policy of living with Covid.
Butler disagreed:
This is a modest measure taken in line with pretty much every country to which we would usually compare ourselves. We are committed to making sure that we can continue to travel overseas, continue the personal and economic benefits that come from having open borders.
We just want to make sure we do that in a way that has the maximum information in a timely way that we need to protect Australians. The chief health officers have said across the board, a very broad consensus, we’re very well positioned here in Australia in the fight against Covid. We’ve got very high vaccination rates, particularly among the more vulnerable cohorts in the population.
… That’s certainly the broad consensus view of chief health officers, to continue, for example … that idea of living with Covid, resuming international travel, particularly with China, which was really the only significant country in the world with which we hadn’t resumed travel until very recently.
So, we just want to make sure we’ve got the information right, we want to make sure that we’re getting good surveillance of, for example, waste water from the planes that are coming into Australia, and then we can enjoy the benefits that we’ll see at a personal and economic level from the resumption of travel between China and Australia.
Butler: lack of shared genomic sequencing data ‘key factor’ in heightened Covid travel restrictions
The health minister, Mark Butler, has been doing the rounds this morning, most recently appearing on ABC News, where he was asked about the government’s new restrictions on travellers arriving from China.
Butler said he was not aware of any reactions from China, and that a “key factor” in the decision was the lack of genomic sequencing being shared on the latest outbreak there:
… A key factor in my decision over the last couple of days was the view that the World Health Organization put, I think, on Saturday, that said that there was an absence of comprehensive information about the situation in China.
I think people are particularly concerned about the lack of genomic sequencing being shared with the rest of the world, and that is the way in which we identify at a very early stage the possibility of new variants of Covid emerging. This is something that’s pretty much shared in real time by other countries but isn’t being shared right now by China.
We’d like to see that information shared. That’s the point that the World Health Organization, as the key global body monitoring particularly this pandemic, made over the course of the weekend, and it’s the reason why … countries from the US, through to many European countries … in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, India, have all taken the decision that I announced yesterday.
Acoss head calls on government to rethink stage-3 tax cuts
The head of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie, was on ABC News this morning where she called on the Albanese government to rethink the stage-3 tax cuts as well as to increase the base rates of jobkeeper and the youth allowance:
We’ve got big choices to make as a country, and the treasurer himself is saying we need to have a healthy debate about the overall revenue base that Australia needs to invest in these critical, essential services, like aged care, like child care[,] affordable and social housing and income supports.
The country has to decide: “Are we going to deliver eye-watering tax cuts?” As you know, those stage-3 tax cuts are still in the books and will come in next year and will cost the budget bottom line about $19bn per annum.
And we’re saying, “Well, we can’t even rethink that policy, but instead what we’ll do is fix these base rates of income support so that we know over 3 million people are now still facing poverty reality”. They’re not being able to feed themselves.
We’ve got a report out in the last couple of days saying that we’ve now got about 2 million households that are skipping meals, going without food and a 60% increase in demand for food relief.
… we have 6% increased indexation for [the] youth allowance, and that’s affecting about 290 million of our young people, and they are facing national increases in rent [which has gone up by 18%] … energy bills up by 20%, and food up by 9%.
And so this is the reality of people on the lowest incomes [and] their budget position, so we do think that we have to have a responsible approach to the federal budget. We are urging the government to make the right choice going into this May budget and to lift the base rates of jobkeeper and [the] youth allowance so people can at least afford to feed themselves and keep themselves housed.
Paul Karp
Former Indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough on the Voice to Parliament
The Australian newspaper has spoken to Howard-era Liberal Indigenous affairs minister, Mal Brough, about the Voice to parliament.
Brough reportedly said the voice was based on the “delusion” that a small group of Indigenous representatives could provide policy advice on behalf of Aboriginal Australians from communities as different as “any two nations as far flung on the Earth as you can get, from Africa to India and China to England”.
Brough – who oversaw the controversial 2007 Northern Territory intervention which required the suspension of anti-discrimination law to send the military in to police Indigenous communities – said the voice would fail to address social issues including violence, abuse, neglect, poor health and education.
He said failing to give more detail on the voice ahead of the referendum was like asking Australians to “sign a blank cheque”.
But another former Liberal Indigenous Australians minister, Ken Wyatt, has rejected Brough’s arguments as “garbage” and argued that the NT intervention had “destroyed local decision making”.
“With all referenda, the question that has been put to the Australian people and the (preceding) legislation that was enacted … each time the government has remained fairly faithful to the intent of the question put to Australians,” Wyatt reportedly said.
Victorian man missing after swimming in Lake Eildon
A man has gone missing while swimming at a lake in Victoria’s alpine region, northeast of Melbourne, AAP reports.
The 34-year-old was swimming with friends in Lake Eildon, near Jerusalem Creek Track, on New Year’s Day when he appeared to run into difficulty and disappeared underwater about 4.30pm. Friends raised the alarm after he did not resurface.
Local police and other emergency services scoured the lake and foreshore into the evening before suspending their search overnight. The search resumed on Monday morning, with police divers called in.
There have been at least 22 fatal drownings across the country since the start of summer, prompting a warning from lifeguards for Australians to stay safe.
Sixteen people drowned over the last New Year’s long weekend.
Paul Karp
Mark Butler defends Covid testing of travellers from China
The health minister, Mark Butler, is out defending the Australian government’s decision to impose pre-flight Covid tests on travellers from China.
Butler told Channel Seven’s Sunrise:
Well, really, the key driver of this decision is what the World Health Organization has described as an absence of comprehensive information about, what is a very fast moving situation in China.
The decision that I announced yesterday, which takes effect on Thursday, also reflects decisions that have been taken across the world by countries in north America in Europe and across Asia. In Asia, for example, by Japan, by India, South Korea, Malaysia and others. So this we think is a balanced decision, a modest decision, but it will start to ensure that we have better information about what is happening in China right now.
Butler rejected the suggestion Australia thinks China is lying about its Covid wave, but cited a “a lack of genomic sequencing of cases … that are obviously happening in China and what is a very significant Covid wave”, warning this could make it harder to identify new variants.
Butler said Australia “warmly welcomes” reopening of travel from China, which started three weeks ago.
He said:
I know that hundreds of thousands of Australians of Chinese descent in particular are really looking forward to the opportunity, to be able to reunite with family, and with friends, whom they’ve not seen other than on a screen for months, if not years.
And I know also the tourism industry, the education sector [universities] are really looking forward to that resumption of travel. It’s really been the one significant country in the world that we haven’t been able to see travel resume. So this is a very positive development, but we just need to ensure that we’ve got the information that we need to protect the health of Australians.
Criticism over Covid restrictions on travellers inbound from China
The Albanese government’s decision to introduce restrictions on travellers arriving from China has been met with some criticism online, with many asking why the measures aren’t more widely implemented.
Yesterday, the health minister, Mark Butler, announced that all arrivals from China will need to present a negative Covid test before departure, adding that it was being implemented out of “an abundance of caution” due to a lack of detailed information surrounding the outbreak in China.
Last night, professor Julie Leask tweeted that it was “disappointing” the government was going to “repeat on old mistakes”
Dr Fiona Russel echoed Leask’s sentiments, saying that the new subvariant that emerged from the United States did not warrant a similar response:
The Opposition health spokeswoman, Anne Ruston, told the ABC the opposition “strongly supported” the measures, but added that the government has not released any of the health advice they received on the matter:
The opposition strongly supports any measures that protects the lives and livelihoods of Australians.
However, the Labor government still has not released any health advice that they have received on this matter.
The opposition will seek a briefing from the chief medical officer on this decision but the Labor government must be transparent with the public, and release the health modelling and advice.
Good morning
Good morning, welcome to the second live blog of the year, and the first Monday of 2023. Mostafa Rachwani with you this morning, to take you through the news.
We begin in New South Wales, where flooding is expected at Menindee, where flood waters are expected to peak at levels above the 1976 record today.
Multiple flood emergency warnings have been issued to towns along the Murray River, with flood waters expected to hit the town of Blanchetown in South Australia, later this week.
Elsewhere, a Qantas flight was forced to turn around over New Years after a power outage at the destination. QF19 departed Sydney for Manila on Sunday, but was forced to turn around only three hours in after a power outage at the airport affected more that 360 flights.
At least 56,000 passengers were caught up in the situation, as many flights were turned around mid air, or left on the tarmac for hours. Air traffic management was partially restored on Sunday afternoon.
There is still much to get into, so let’s dive in.