Australia news LIVE Victoria records 1534 new local COVID-19 cases 13 deaths NSW records 304 new cases three deaths TGA approves Pfizer vaccine booster shots

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Safe Work Australia chief executive Michelle Baxter has acknowledged her decision to probe COVID safety protocols in Parliament, which led her agency to be granted a special exemption to appear via video link despite being based in Canberra, was a contentious move.

“I’m sorry,” Ms Baxter said in her opening remarks to the Senate Education and Employment Committee.

But she also defended her decision, saying she and her team took their work health and safety responsibilities very seriously and were only seeking to understand more about COVID-19 safety protocols in Parliament when they put in questions on the subject.

Senator Canavan wondered why Safe Work bureaucrats couldn’t turn up in person.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“Let me be very clear that I never suggested that Safe Work Australia would not be appearing today at Senate Estimates. As is always the case, my staff and I take our obligations to appear before Senate Estimates very seriously. We would always co-operate with the Committee and any of its requests.”

Safe Work Australia is responsible for coordinating national policy on health and safety, prompting Labor senators to question why it had appeared more concerned about COVID rules in parliament than the rest of the public service, while committee chair Matt Canavan emphasised that Parliament had safety measures in place and expected in public servants to appear in person for democratic scrutiny.

The downsides of appearing remotely were made obvious in Safe Work’s appearance, when connection delays led Senators to talk over Safe Work and vice versa.

Ms Baxter said each agency or group was responsible for making its own assessments of health and safety, taking into account any unique factors such as health vulnerability, and claimed that she had “never made any assessment, communicated concerns or reached a view that the hearings today are ‘unsafe’.”

The president of the Victorian Bar has slammed the Andrews government’s new pandemic legislation as “appalling” and revealed the government “grossly misrepresented” its consultation with the barristers’ peak body.

Christopher Blanden, QC, said the new laws, designed to replace sweeping state of emergency powers, would give the Premier unprecedented power with little to no checks and balances.

“Stasi police would have been more than happy with the range of powers if they were given it,” Mr Blanden said. “It’s extraordinary.”

Victoria’s proposed powerful new pandemic legislation is copping heavy criticism. Credit:Joe Armao

On Tuesday, the Victorian government tabled the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 in Parliament which was criticised as "draconian".

It said 30 external stakeholders were consulted in June and July. However, Mr Blanden has characterised the consultation process as a “gross misrepresentation” of what transpired earlier this year.

“The total extent of our 'consultation' â€" in inverted commas â€" consisted of participating in a 45-minute Microsoft Teams meeting back in June and the only issue raised was whether the chief health officer should retain the power to declare a pandemic,” he said.

“When you look at this bill, there are elements of it that [are] fundamental to the lives of Victorians ... and some of them are appalling.

“This is a bill that fundamentally interferes with the rights of citizens in some very basic ways. It abrogates the privilege against self-incrimination and you’ve got detention at the whim of the minister. It’s just appalling stuff.”

Read more here.

Australia’s medical regulator has written to YouTube and Facebook over United Australia Party ads, saying the videos paint a “seriously misleading” picture of vaccine safety and asking the platforms to remove them.

Therapeutic Goods Administration boss Professor John Skerritt wrote to the companies on Tuesday, sharing the regulator’s concern about the content of videos shared on both platforms.

TGA boss Professor John Skerritt isn’t a fan of the videos and wants them banned.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“As you may be aware, the TGA has expressed concern about material promoted on social media, including YouTube by the United Australia Party which we believe provides a seriously misleading picture of the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and could discourage individuals and their families from becoming vaccinated,” Professor Skerritt wrote to YouTube. His letter to Facebook was almost identical.

“Extracts of information have been selectively taken from the Database of Adverse Event Notifications (which is hosted on the TGA website) and have been presented in such a way on social media that many could conclude that the vaccines have been responsible for several hundred deaths in Australia.”

The United Australia Party has been conducting a widespread anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination campaign, represented in federal parliament by former Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly, has also used text messages, letter-boxing and advertisements in print newspapers (including in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age).

By the end of August the Australian Media and Communications Authority said it had received more than 300 complaints about the messages. But because the communications come from a political party, they do not fall foul of the Spam Act of 2003, and they also don’t constitute advertising under the Therapeutic Goods Act of 1989.

The TGA took legal action claiming the campaign broke copyright law, but Mr Kelly hit back saying he would take his own legal action against the regulator.

Professor Skerritt said he would not comment on the issue at senate estimates today because of the legal action, but agreed to table the letters sent to Facebook and YouTube.

In the correspondence, Professor Skerritt stressed the good relationship between the regulator and the platforms in removing unrelated advertising that was in apparent breach of the TGA code over the course of the pandemic.

“While for the reasons described above the communications from the UAP do not fit into the category of advertising, I would ask you to consider removing such communications as they undermine Australia's vaccination campaign and are not in the public interest,” he said.

NSW Health has asked patrons of a Sydney gym to come forward for testing after 15 COVID-19 cases were linked to the facility.

Anyone who attended City Gym at Darlinghurst at certain times on October 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 or 25 is considered a casual contact of a case and must immediately get tested and self-isolate.

City Gym visitors on several days recently are considered casual contacts.Credit:Nick Moir

“Our Public Health Unit has contacted people who attended the gym at times when other cases were present,” NSW Health said in a message on social media.

“Other gym users on those days should monitor for symptoms and get tested if symptoms arise.”

The message added that NSW Health had visited the site and “provided advice on additional measures to reduce the risk of transmission should there be exposures in the future”.

In the past week in its daily updates, NSW Health has noted transmission has occurred since the state reopened in settings including bars and gyms.

Only people who have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are allowed to enter gyms in NSW. Last week, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant reminded fully vaccinated people to be alert to symptoms as they can still catch the virus.

Victorian health authorities have issued a thunderstorm asthma warning for parts of the state tomorrow, with the south-west, Mallee, and Wimmera districts among high-risk areas.

The Department of Health said the combination of forecast high grass pollen levels along with thunderstorms and strong winds meant there was a high chance many people could develop asthma symptoms over a short period of time.

A cool change in Melbourne tomorrow brings a chance of thunderstorms and a moderate risk of thunderstorm asthma.Credit:Justin McManus

There is also a moderate thunderstorm asthma risk for Melbourne, Bendigo and Shepparton.

On November 21, 2016, ten people died in Victoria as a result of a thunderstorm asthma event, after grass pollen burst into smaller particles during a thunderstorm, triggering severe asthma in thousands of people across Melbourne.

It was the most deadly outbreak of thunderstorm asthma recorded in the world.

With Victoria’s hospitals and ambulances under significant strain because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Health emphasised it was important for people to stay well during the thunderstorm asthma season.

The Health Department advised Victorians to monitor the forecast on the VicEmergency app, avoid being outdoors in storms and during the winds that come before them, and for asthmatics to take their preventative medication as directed, even when free of symptoms.

Victorians are advised to see their doctor or call a nurse on 1300 60 60 24 if they require medical advice. If someone is not breathing, their asthma suddenly becomes worse or is not improving, or if they are having an asthma attack without a reliever on-hand, they should immediately call Triple Zero.

New polling has found the Nationals have lost 40 per cent of voter support.

Cartoonist Matt Golding’s take. Credit:Matt Golding

The drop from 5 per cent to 3 per cent means weakened support for the government, cutting the Coalition’s primary support from 39 to 37 per cent.

The Liberals increased their primary vote from 34 to 35 per cent, but this was not enough to make up for the hit to the junior partner.

The polling, conducted exclusively by Resolve Strategic for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, was conducted earlier this month while debate raged about climate policy as well as scrutiny on the vaccine rollout and a political storm over hidden donations to former attorney-general Christian Porter.

Today on Please Explain, chief political correspondent David Crowe joins Nathanael Cooper to go deeper into the numbers and what they mean.

A look at the bigger picture now, and Western Australia stands alone as the only COVID-free state in Australia without a transition plan after South Australia yesterday revealed the steps it would take towards living with the virus.

SA Premier Steven Marshall announced he would ease domestic border restrictions for fully vaccinated people from November 23, when the state reaches its 80 per cent double-dose vaccination target.

Tasmania last week released its road map, with domestic travel resuming for double-vaccinated people from December 15, when the state hits 90 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Northern Territory will allow vaccinated travellers from low- to medium-level COVID-19 locations from early November at 80 per cent double-dose coverage. And Queensland will allow interstate visitors from December 17, once it reaches the same target.

WA Premier Mark McGowan has so far withheld plans for WA’s reopening, but has confirmed the state would not open to jurisdictions with COVID-19 until next year.

Asked yesterday if the rest of the country reopening to jurisdictions with COVID-19 would lead to WA’s border closing again, Mr McGowan hinted it would be likely.

A significant COVID-19 outbreak at the NSW and Victoria border has left another 80 people infected as authorities scramble to boost local testing capacity.

Albury recorded 34 new local cases today. Wodonga recorded 46 cases and there were another six in nearby Wangaratta.

Wodonga's case rate is about one per 1000 people. If that was replicated across the whole state, Victoria would be recording more than 6000 cases a day.

Testing capacity in Albury-Wodonga is strained.Credit:Getty

Victorian COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said the new cases were among a total tallying “literally hundreds”.

The Albury-Wodonga community COVID-19 consult clinic was caring for more than 440 infected people across the border region, and seven patients were in hospital.

The size of the outbreak has put a strain on Albury-Wodonga’s few COVID-19 testing facilities.

Government websites list three testing sites in Wodonga each closing at 2pm, and one drive-through facility in Wangaratta. In Albury, there is one drive-through clinic listed in the city, and a few in surrounding areas.

Mr Weimar said Victorian authorities deployed additional testing resources and teams to Albury-Wodonga last week, and they were still there.

“We’ve seen this before time and time again with regional outbreaks. There is usually a busy three-day cycle as people respond to the call to action to get tested,” he said.

Authorities identified several new tier-1 COVID-19 exposure sites in regional Victoria today: Woodend Health and Fitness, the Paysanne Cafe, and The Macedon Lounge - all in the Macedon Ranges - and Glengarry Hotel and Pub in the state’s Gippsland region.

Vaccination rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to lag about 25 percentage points behind the general population, a Senate estimates committee heard a little earlier this afternoon.

Across the country 87.4 per cent of the eligible population has had one dose, and 74.8 per cent are fully vaccinated. What that all means is less than 50 per cent of eligible Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people have had two doses.

Labor senator Nita Green asked Department of Health officials what was being done to improve the rollout in Indigenous communities, particularly in light of the fact states and territories were set to start opening borders from next week.

The Department of Health’s Lucas De Toca said they were “frantically trying to improve those rates”.

“The redoubling our efforts and trying every possible avenue to try to uplift Aboriginal [and] Torres Strait Islander vaccination rates has continued to increase day-by-day, week-by-week … we can say that it's changed significantly since those announcements have been made,” he told the hearing.

Operation COVID Shield head Lieutenant-General John Frewen said the taskforce was looking at “every possible option and pathway” to speed up vaccinations, including offering door-to-door vaccination.

As one Scott Morrison (the Prime Minister) departs Australia for the Glasgow climate summit, another Scott Morrison (the basketball coach) is arriving into the country.

The new Perth Wildcats coach has finally been given approval to travel from Canada to Australia with his family and begin taking the reins of his team in person.

After being hired in August to replace five-time championship coach Trevor Gleeson, who joined the Toronto Raptors in the NBA as an assistant coach, Morrison has only been able to communicate with his team via Zoom.

New Perth Wildcats coach Scott Morrison. Credit:canadascourt.com

The former Boston Celtics assistant’s arrival in Australia has been delayed while he completed paperwork to demonstrate that he and his family met the requirements to enter the country.

Five days ago, Morrison sent out a frustrated Twitter post with the hashtag “Let Us In Please” and tagged his namesake, the Australian Prime Minister.

Earlier today, he tweeted a short video of his young son on an aeroplane.

Morrison and his family are expected to arrive in Perth on Friday evening where they will then be required to complete 14 days of hotel quarantine.

Following that, Morrison plans to travel to Tasmania for the Wildcats’ pre-season games in the NBL Blitz.

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