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Craig Kelly claims Facebook in ‘contempt of Parliament’ over Facebook ban
By Nick Bonyhady
Former Liberal MP Craig Kelly has accused Facebook of being in contempt of Parliament by banning his official page from the dominant social network last month for sharing COVID-19 misinformation.
Despite being a backbencher from southern Sydney, Mr Kelly had accumulated one of the largest followings of any MP on the site, with more than 100,000 followers and more than 1 million interactions with other users every month.
Craig Kelly with fake trillion dollar notes to “commemorate Australia’s Net Government Debt” on budget day at Parliament House in Canberra.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
“The simple fact is that I’ve been black banned from Facebook … I’m unable to communicate through their messenger service, which means constituents have actually sent messages to me that I don’t know even exists today, and I’m unable to respond to,” Mr Kelly said.
He left the Liberal party in late April without warning after the PM set out “clear standards” for the MP on the coronavirus.
Contempt includes “improper interference with the free performance by a member [of parliament] of his or her duties.”
Speaker Tony Smith said he would consider Mr Kelly’s complaint. Penalties for contempt can range from requiring an apology to a fine or 6 months prison, though that is vanishingly rare.
Interestingly, a fair few other MPs who have their own problems with Facebook were in the room to hear his complaint, including George Christensen, who has been vocal about conservatives being censored, and Anne Webster, who was awarded damages over defamatory media posts.
A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.
Crown agrees to ban cash from Sydney casino
In breaking business news from reporter Patrick Hatch, Crown Resorts has agreed to ban cash from its new Sydney casino – which has yet to open for gaming purposes – as part of efforts to stop criminals laundering drug money and other ill-gotten gains on its gaming tables.
Crown’s Barangaroo development, but not its gaming facilities, opened late last year. Credit:Peter Braig
The James Packer-backed group had the licence for the casino at its new $2.2 billion Barangaroo tower suspended in December after the damming Bergin inquiry raised concerns about money laundering at its Melbourne and Perth casinos.
On Thursday morning, the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority said that Crown had agreed on several matters relating to the operation of the Barangaroo casino in its effort to get its licence back.
Budget measures for women about ‘political management’: Opposition Leader
By Nick Bonyhady
Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has delivered a speech on what the budget means for women, separating it from his traditional budget reply at 7.30pm this evening.
He accuses the government – which committed $3.4 billion in the budget to help get mothers back into the workforce, support women experiencing domestic violence and address sexual harassment at work – of responding to a political crisis rather than genuinely caring.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in Question Time on Wednesday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
“It’s an afterthought, it’s about political management, it’s about how they could through and deal with a political crisis which was of their own making,” Mr Albanese said.
He also suggested that there was no need for an internal inquiry into which staff members in Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office were aware of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations, because he could simply ask them.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Resolve Political Monitor found last month 55 per cent of voters thought the PM had not responded well to a series of scandals, including the alleged rape of a Coalition staffer in a ministerial office by a fellow staffer.
However, the same survey found the treatment of women was not shaping voters’ political perceptions as much as other policy questions.
Moderna vaccine could be manufactured in Australia
By Nick Bonyhady
Health Minister Greg Hunt said earlier this morning the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will underpin Australia’s “booster and variant” strategy, as the company revealed Australia had struck a deal to buy 25 million doses.
Of the 25 million doses, 10 million are regular doses and 15 million are for Moderna’s candidates for booster shots to deal with mutated versions of the virus.
Mr Hunt said the Moderna vaccine, which uses advanced mRNA technology, could be made in Australia.
He confirmed the company was in talks with the Australian government about setting up domestic manufacturing through a process being run by science and industry minister Christian Porter.
“We are already in active discussions with Moderna as a possible candidate under this approach to market,” Mr Hunt said.
“Our hope is that we will have at least one, if not more than one, manufacturing operation in Australia. I won’t make a guarantee on that, but I am confident that over the future period, we will have mRNA production in Australia.”
Australia’s CSL makes the AstraZeneca vaccine locally but that does not use the mRNA technology used by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, among others.
It is not clear how costly it will be to set up local manufacturing because the government has deemed its commitment commercially sensitive.
We’ll have more coverage on this throughout the day from federal health reporter Rachel Clun, who was asking Mr Hunt questions during the press conference.
Victoria set to meet with federal government over quarantine hub
By Roy Ward
The Victorian Government will continue talks with the federal government on building a quarantine hub in Melbourne’s north, after a man in his 30s tested positive for the virus after flying back to the state from hotel quarantine in Adelaide.
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said he was thankful for positive comments on the proposal by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, with more meetings on the matter set for this week.
“We need that alternative quarantine hub,” Mr Merlino said.“I’m thankful for the positive comments from the Prime Minister over the last week or so but I’m disappointed that there was not money on the table in the budget that was delivered this week.
“I hope that they put some money aside, we are engaging constructively with them. But we need it, and we need it now, in fact we needed it 12 months ago but we see these outbreaks in hotels, right across our country.
“We need an alternative quarantine hub, and we needed as soon as possible.”
Mr Merlino said meetings were set for later in the week.
“We are working cooperatively with the federal government, and there’s some further meetings later this week,” Mr Merlino said.
“But we need a decision. We need a decision and we need the support of the federal government will need support in terms of going on to the site, and doing all the planning and design work that’s required.
“The sooner we can do that, the quicker we can get this built and with federal sites there’s also planning controls that can be expedited so we can get this done as quickly as possible. This latest outbreak, the outbreak we’ve seen over weeks and months, shows us that we need an alternative to hotel quarantine.”
Watch live: Federal Opposition responds to women’s budget statement
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese and the shadow minister for women, Tanya Plibersek, are expected to deliver a speech on the Morrison government’s Women’s Budget Statement. You can watch it live here.
Victoria monitoring 115 contacts of COVID-19 case
By Roy Ward
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino says no new COVID-19 cases have emerged, so far, from the primary contacts of the man who contracted the virus while in hotel quarantine in Adelaide.
Mr Merlino said more tests were still to come in but 67 of the 115 primary contacts had come back with negative test results.
“It’s positive so far,” Mr Merlino said. “We’ve got confirmed that genomic connection to the South Australian hotel quarantine ... so that’s a good thing because we’re not chasing an unknown source, which is always one of the biggest risks and one of the biggest concerns when we are doing that contact tracing.
“We’ll have the remainder of those tests over the next 24-36 hours; all of those 115 primary cost contacts are isolating, they’re being supported, but they’re doing a great job and doing everything that we asked.
“I want to thank the broader community for going out and getting tested, and in terms of the latest testing numbers 22,000 tests have returned a negative. There was a further 8600 that returned negative as at midnight last night. The broad message today is so far, so good.”
Moderna vaccine will underpin ‘booster and variant strategy’: Health Minister
By Nick Bonyhady and Michaela Whitbourn
Health Minister Greg Hunt is outlining why Australia has agreed to buy 25 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine when the country already has tens of millions of doses from other providers.
“They serve two purposes,” Mr Hunt says. “Firstly, as a reserve supply for this year if other elements of the supply chain were to run into any challenges. Secondly, they are our foundation of a booster and variant strategy.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt in Question Time on Wednesday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Of the 25 million doses, 10 million are regular doses and 15 million are for Moderna’s candidates for booster shots to deal with mutated versions of the virus.
Here’s Bevan Shields, our Europe correspondent, on the deal that the company announced overnight.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are known as mRNA vaccines and differ from the AstraZeneca vaccine, which health advice has now recommended not be used in people aged under 50 in most cases. Science reporter Liam Mannix explains how mRNA vaccines work here.
Mr Hunt said “our medical advice remains that we want to encourage as many people as possible to be vaccinated early as possible”.
“We have the dual-track strategy now where the Pfizer we have available is for those that are under-50, other than in the circumstances set out by National Cabinet.
“The AstraZeneca is for those over 50 and the full over-50 program begins on Monday, but it already has had an initial start and in particular we want the over-70s to be vaccinated as early as possible,” he said
But he added that if “our Pfizer vaccine follows through with the contracted amounts of 40 million, then we will have enough for all Australians to have access to mRNA irrespective of the age”.
Federal Health Department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said the Moderna development “doesn’t change our current strategy, which is to continue to roll out the Pfizer and the AstraZeneca”.
“Moderna are probably the most advanced in developing booster vaccines,” he said.
Professor Murphy said trial data was not out yet but “we think there is no reason why you can’t mix and match vaccines”.
“The trial data is not out yet. There are some trials being done in the UK, looking at AstraZeneca first dose and Pfizer or Moderna second dose. There is no good scientific reason why you can’t boost with one and then have another vaccine later. In fact, there may be some benefit in doing that.
“This investment is assuming that will be possible and we have no reason to think it won’t be.”
Extinction Rebellion activists charged over post-budget protest
By Nick Bonyhady
Nine people have been arrested and charged over the protests by environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion yesterday outside Parliament House in Canberra.
The protestors tried to blockade many of the access roads leading up to Parliament House to highlight their concerns about the Morrison government’s response to climate change and to call for an emergency to be declared over the issue.
Extinction Rebellion blockade on one of the roads leading up to Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
A statement from ACT Policing said the protests were peaceful but that the demonstrators refused to “comply with requests to cease their activity”.
Seven of the nine people arrested had been on the roof of light trucks that the group used to block roads. All nine were charged with causing an unreasonable obstruction.
One person who was arrested, Violet Maree CoCo, said in a statement issued by Extinction Rebellion that “When our government fails to protect us, and will not listen to the scientists, we have no alternative but to use mass civil disobedience.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he wants to create a net zero economy “as quickly as possible and preferably by 2050”.
Nick O’Malley and Michael Foley annotated the Prime Minister’s recent speech to an international climate summit. It’s a good read if you want a quick introduction to exactly where Australia is at on the issue.
COVID-19 pandemic is a global ‘Chernobyl moment’: former NZ Prime Minister
By Nick Bonyhady
Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke, who has just delivered an international review of the world’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, has warned governments to take the pandemic as a “Chernobyl moment” and urgently overhaul how transmissible disease risks are managed.
Ms Clarke said if governments failed to act as decisively as they had on nuclear energy safety after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in the USSR, new pandemics could emerge and spread as soon as the coming months.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark led the independent investigation into the coronavirus.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Asked on ABC’s RN Breakfast whether the world could have prevented the spread of the coronavirus, Ms Clarke said: “That’s our view, we see a whole series of failures, gaps, delays from the very beginning, and that all becomes cumulative to take us to where we are today.
“We have to remember that in the 21st century when we’re highly globally connected the virus can be on the next plane. It’s not like the Middle Ages where travelled on a donkey or by foot.”
Political editor Peter Hartcher has more on the report here.
Ms Clarke said China was too slow to lock down Wuhan, where the virus first appeared. That happened on 23 January 2020.
“In the meantime so many people had travelled for the Lunar New Year, and of course the first case turned up in Thailand on the 13th of January, so there were just delays all the way along. We do by the way, emphasise that the month of February was a major lost opportunity to stop the disease in its tracks.”
Ms Clarke, who was co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, recommended the World Health Organisation be given much greater powers to send experts to the sites of diseases and publish information without the permission of the local government.
“Will I think in a sense we see WHO as a bit of a victim in all, this underpowered, under resourced, pressure from all sides. We think it needs strengthening, it needs more authority.”
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2021-05-13 00:59:23Z
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