Australia news live updates: Scott Morrison ally says secret ministries ‘unwise’ as Anthony Albanese blasts ‘self-serving’ former PM | Australia news

Paul Karp

Australia’s Covid vaccine rollout only ‘partly effective’, report finds

The Australian National Audit Office has released a report into Australia’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout, finding it was only “partly effective” and failed to meet targets for vulnerable populations.

It said:

While 90% of the eligible Australian population was vaccinated by the end of 2021, the planning and implementation of the vaccine rollout to priority groups was not as effective.

And:

Initial planning was not timely, with detailed planning with states and territories not completed before the rollout commenced, and Health underestimated the complexity of administering in-reach services to the aged care and disability sectors. Further, it did not incorporate the government’s targets for the rollout into its planning until a later stage.

And:

While vaccines were delivered with minimal wastage, Health’s administration of vaccines to priority populations and the general population has not met targets. The vaccine rollout to residential aged care and residential disability were both slower than planned, and the vaccination rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has remained lower than for the Australian population.

The ANAO recommended the department undertake a comprehensive review of the vaccine rollout. In its response, the health department “notes that such a review would logically form part of an expected broader review into the Covid-19 pandemic with the timing still to be agreed by government”.

‘Unwise’: Stuart Robert criticises Morrison secret ministries

Paul Karp

The shadow assistant treasurer, Stuart Robert, who is one of Scott Morrison’s closest allies in the Liberal party, has criticised his handling of the secret ministries.

Robert told Sky News it was “unwise” for Morrison to be appointed to administer departments without informing his ministerial colleagues.

He said:

No one needs to step down from anything. We seek to be transparent. Scott Morrison has apologised for the lack of judgment, not bringing it to full cabinet, not seeking the counsel of his colleagues – that’s why cabinet government is so good.

Robert said he would’ve advised Morrison to “take it to full cabinet”:

I think cabinet would’ve said: ‘There’s no need for this – we understand the challenges we’ve got. If it does get really out of control, the governor general can swear ministers in very fast.’

Let’s take everyone along and keep everyone informed.

Christopher Knaus

Russian embassy must vacate Canberra site in three weeks after lease on new site terminated

The planning authority in Canberra’s parliamentary triangle has terminated the Russian government’s lease for a planned new embassy and ordered it to get off the site within three weeks.

The National Capital Authority has grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress on the construction of Russia’s new embassy, which occupies prime real estate in Yarralumla, a wealthy lakeside suburb in Canberra. Russia bought the lease way back in 2008 and had plans approved for its new embassy in 2011.

The NCA, a federal authority that oversees planning and development in some parts of the capital, says the Russian government said the work would be finished within three years. The building still isn’t completed.

The NCA says the unfinished works are now an eyesore in Canberra’s diplomatic precinct. NCA chief executive, Sally Barnes, said:

Ongoing unfinished works detract from the overall aesthetic, importance and dignity of the area reserved for diplomatic missions and foreign representation in the national capital.

Barnes said land for diplomatic missions was limited. She said the NCA had a policy of “use it or lose it”.

The NCA has ordered president Vladimir Putin’s government to get off the site within 20 days.

The Russian embassy is expected to continue to operate from its current location in Canberra.

Natasha May

Thanks to everyone who followed along what was a big day of press conferences. I am off but leaving you in the very excellent hands of Mostafa Rachwani!

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 67 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

NSW

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

There were 1,458 new cases in the last reporting period, and seven people are in intensive care.

Paul Karp

Raising foreign worker pay floor would ‘kill immigration overnight’: business chamber

The head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Andrew McKellar, has spoken to the National Press Club about the upcoming jobs and skills summit.

Unions have given conditional support on increasing migration to 200,000, but warned employers must first lift pay before seeking foreign workers. They want the salary floor for temporary skilled migrants lifted to average full time weekly (about $91K), and indexed to the wage price index.

McKellar said wages should be “a question for the marketplace” and “many businesses” are lifting wages to attract workers. McKellar said the wage price index only measures the “standard remuneration employees are getting” and did not show that employees are getting pay rises through “changes between jobs”.

He said:

The idea here we need some sort of artificial mechanism or checkpoint before we start responding to the crisis that we have is not the right notion … The threshold, the income threshold, before a business can access the immigration [system] – [unions] want to increase that from the current level of $53,000 a year to $90,000 a year. This would kill many areas of the immigration program overnight.

McKellar said some increase could be contemplated, up to $59K or 60K which would be “more realistic”.

Mostafa Rachwani

Fire at bread factory could lead to shortages in NSW

A fire at a bread factory in western Sydney could cause a bread shortage in NSW over the coming days.

Goodman Fielder, the company that owns Helga’s and WonderWhite, confirmed that customers may face a “shortage of products” over the next week, but added that they are working to ensure disruptions will be minimal.

In a statement, they said the fire, which broke out last week, did not harm anyone but did damage their bakery production line. They are working with authorities to determine the cause of the blaze.

We are doing everything we can to minimise disruption to our customers and consumers.

We are scaling up our baking capacity at our other plants around the country and utilising line haul into NSW. We are also working with third party bakeries for additional support.

There will be some shortage of our products on shelf over the next few days, however by the end of next week we expect the supply disruption will be minimal, albeit with a reduced range.

A spokesperson for Coles confirmed there would be a shortage of “several bread products” in the coming days, and asked customers to be “flexible”:

Due to a fire at a supplier’s factory in New South Wales, we have been experiencing shortages in several bread products at some of our stores.

We are working with suppliers to minimise the impacts, and while we expect shortages to ease over the coming week, we ask customers to be flexible if their regular brand of bread isn’t available in the meantime.