Australia news LIVE Scott Morrison optimistic over Afghanistan rescue plans NSW records 452 new local COVID-19 cases Victoria ACT cases jump
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That’s it for tonight. Thanks for reading â€" here’s a recap:
We’ll be back again tomorrow morning. Enjoy the evening.
Latest postsMeal delivery service Lite n’ Easy has cancelled all deliveries in NSW and the ACT on Wednesday and Thursday after “a potential COVID incident†at its Sydney facility.
“For those customers affected, we are currently processing a refund for any payments already made. We sincerely apologise and want to assure you we are working as hard as possible to return to full operations,†a statement on the company’s website says.
Customers in the rest of the country are unaffected.
NSW MPs and health professionals are urging Premier Gladys Berejiklian to reverse the temporary closure of breast screening services across the state.
BreastScreen NSW on Monday announced it would temporarily suspend all routine breast screening by Thursday to allow its staff to be redeployed to help manage COVID-19.
NSW Police Minister David Elliott, whose wife Nicole was successfully treated for breast cancer in 2012, said he could not understand why the decision had been made.
NSW Police Minister David Elliott said early diagnosis is vital.Credit:James Brickwood
“I can’t see how breast screening is any different to going to a GP,†he said. “I will be raising this with the Premier.
“Having lived through the trauma of it, I know how important the timing is to get an early diagnosis.â€
Professor John Boyages, a radiation oncologist at Icon Cancer Centre and a former director of BreastScreen NSW, said women were presenting with larger more advanced cancers in the past 18 months since the start of the pandemic. He described the temporary closure of services as an “overreactionâ€.
Read more here.
In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, American psychologist Barry Schwartz suggested that it’s possible to have too much of a good thing â€" including choice.
Around Australia we are testing that theory, with much of our freedom of choice taken away. The freedom to choose where we go, where we eat, where we socialise and even who we socialise with has been removed as our worlds shrink further under more onerous lockdown restrictions.
But when the world eventually return to normal, will the return of choice make us happier? Or will the buffet of choice between restaurants, places to visit and things to do leave us with analysis paralysis and decision fatigue?
Today on Please Explain, senior economics writer Jessica Irvine joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss whether there can be too much choice.
NSW Health has added new exposures sites in the state’s west where confirmed COVID cases visited.
You’ll notice there are no venues in Sydney. That’s because this morning NSW Health Deputy Secretary Jeremy McAnulty confirmed health authorities have changed their approach and are no longer listing venue exposure sites in Sydney because they’re focusing on homes and workplaces where the virus is transmitting.
While even minimal risk venues for outside metropolitan Sydney are being listed, Dr McAnulty said fewer sites were being listed for within the city, particularly where there had been no evidence of transmission at similar venues.
Anyone who attended the following venues is a close contact (tier 1) and must get tested and isolate for 14 days since they were there:
The full list, including casual contact (tier 2) venues, is here.
Late-night public transport services in Melbourne will cease on Fridays and Saturdays due to the city-wide 9pm curfew.
The Victorian government said the settings are identical to last year when a curfew was imposed during stage four restrictions. Trains, trams and buses will not run between 1am and 5am on Saturdays and between 1am and 6am on Sundays for two weeks from Friday.
“A normal timetable will continue to run at all other times to ensure essential workers and those who must travel for a permitted reason can get where they need to go,†a spokeswoman said.
The Opposition’s public transport spokesman David Davis decried the latest move.
“How are shift workers and essential workers to get home late at night? Ride their bikes? Seriously,†Mr Davis said.
Meanwhile, the extended lockdown is causing havoc for Victoria’s tourism sector which new data shows is losing $1.34 billion a month.
Before COVID-19, the Twelve Apostles region was in danger of being overrun by tourists.Credit:Justin McManus
The latest figures released by the Tourism and Transport Forum showed the economic pain was spread across the state with many businesses heavily reliant on visitors from Melbourne.
Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani said regional tourism operators relied on Melbourne for up to 80 per cent of their revenue.
“Even though regional Victoria is no longer in lockdown, this two-week extension for metro Melbourne effectively locks down the state’s tourism industry for yet another fortnight,†Ms Mariani said.
The figures showed the pandemic has also been disastrous for employment in the sector with up to 156,000 tourism jobs lost in Victoria by July this year.
“The sector is at breaking point with an increasing number of businesses facing the real prospect of closure or slashing tens of thousands of more jobs across the state.â€
Adventure Tourism Victoria president Alex Hill said the state’s tourism is “dead†with consumer confidence lower than at any time during the pandemic.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the worsening COVID-19 situation in Sydney showed the urgency of the snap lockdown.
“We are better to start high [with restrictions] and be cautious and move out as soon as we have the comfort to do so than to start too low and be in that phase for much, much longer,†she said.
“We only need to look at Australia to see the alternative.
“We have seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act in other countries, not least our neighbours.â€
Ms Ardern said the two-day pause on vaccinations was to ensure they could continue in a safe environment.
“We have currently 40 per cent of the eligible population vaccinated with at least one dose,†she said. “We want that to continue safely and when we can, we will.â€
New Zealand will enter a three-day lockdown after a 58-year-old man from Auckland tested positive for COVID-19 today.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Auckland will be in lockdown for seven days and vaccinations will be suspended for 48 hours.
“I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for this eventuality and that we will now be putting in place that plan to contain and stamp out COVID-19 once again,†she said.
NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says her country is going hard and going early. Credit:Getty
“Going hard and early has worked for us before.
“Delta has been called a game-changer, and it is. It means we need to go hard and early to stop the spread.
“We have seen what happens elsewhere if we do not get on top of it.â€
New Zealand Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there was no obvious link between the case and New Zealand’s borders.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern provided a COVID-19 update.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she will write to her NSW counterpart asking to temporarily move the Queensland-NSW border south to the Tweed River.
She has also refused to rule out lockdowns even once Australia hits 70 or 80 per cent vaccination rates.
Meanwhile, wastewater tests have picked up traces of COVID-19 in Brisbane’s west, as the region keeps a watchful eye out for any resurgence of the virus.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wants to keep lockdowns in her arsenal, even once vaccination targets are hit. Credit:Matt Dennien
Queensland Health reported on Tuesday that positive detections were recorded at the wastewater treatment plants at Oxley Creek and Wacol which service more than 70 suburbs in Brisbane and Ipswich.
It comes as the state remains on watchful alert for any further cases of the virus, with NSW experiencing a growing outbreak and a recent Brisbane-based cluster only just being brought under control in the last week.
Read more here.
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