Health News at Your Fingertips

As promised, here is our live blog on today’s Icac hearing, which is scheduled to hear from former premier Gladys Berejiklian later this morning:

Unvaccinated people are increasingly unlikely to be able to fly into Australia, as NSW and Victoria reopen their international borders.

Most international airlines who fly into Australia are likely to accept only vaccinated passengers, with larger carriers now considering whether it is logistically and commercially viable to sell tickets to unvaccinated travellers. Some carriers have had their allocation of unvaccinated passengers capped at zero.

International flights will resume on Mondey in NSW and Victoria, as the states scale back hotel quarantine capacities for unvaccinated passengers.

Airlines have announced tens of thousands of extra seats on new services into Australia since the states announced an end to quarantine, but many carriers are yet to decide how or if they will comply with the new rules for unvaccinated passengers.

You can read more on the report from Elias Visontay here:

Vaccination hubs are having to close in Victoria due to storm damage, with power still out for thousands of homes.

Tweets with photos and videos of the damage continue to stream in, with roads across the state still affected by the damage:

AAP is reporting the NSW government will begin trialling Covid-19 rapid test kits at schools in Albury, near the Victorian border, next week.

The NSW government plans to introduce coronavirus rapid test kits in all state schools, if a trial is successful.

Education minister Sarah Mitchell said she hoped the tests would reduce Covid-related disruptions:

I want to see disruption to our students’ education from Covid reduce, while still keeping schools safe places to learn.

This requires us to deploy every tool available to balance the risk.

The kits will be handed out by schools for use at home by staff and students who have to do a test twice a week as part of community surveillance.

They will also be used for close contact testing to identify positive cases on school sites.

Mitchell said:

This is about living with a virus and getting back to normal life while ensuring the community is confident in their safety on school sites.

Our best line of defence against this pandemic remains vaccinations, and until all students are eligible for one we must continue using measures like [rapid test] kits to keep schools safe.

However, anyone who gets a positive result will have to get a standard test straight to confirm the result.

A wild storm lashed Victoria overnight, leaving thousands without power and damaged trees scattered across streets.

A severe weather warning for damaging winds is still in place for half of the state, with reports of wind gusts exceeding 100km per hour in some areas.

The SES tweeted saying it received 609 calls for assistance in the past 24 hours to 6am, with work being done to clear the debris this morning.

Pictures are being shared on Twitter of the damage from last night, including trees strewn across roads and buildings damaged.

In case you missed it (which is understandable considering the news emerged at 11pm), but last night prime minister Scott Morrison spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron on the phone for the first time since dumping the submarine plans, with Macron telling him he “broke the relationship of trust.”

Macron also encouraged Scott Morrison to adopt a more ambitious climate policy, including a commitment “to cease production and consumption of coal at the national level and abroad”, according to a French government readout of the conversation.

The French government’s statement on Thursday’s phone call said Macron “recalled that Australia’s unilateral decision to scale back the French-Australian strategic partnership by putting an end to the ocean-class submarine programme in favour of another as-yet unspecified project broke the relationship of trust between our two countries”.

You can read more on the conversation in a report from Daniel Hurst here:

In yesterday’s explosive Icac hearing, former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire was played an intercepted phone call between himself and former premier Gladys Berejiklian in which she said she would “throw money” at his former seat.

The commission heard evidence that Berejiklian fed the MP information about projects he had lobbied for in his electorate, and continued speaking to Maguire following his resignation after an appearance at a separate Icac inquiry in 2018.

The hearing also heard the Maguire and Berejiklian were in love with each other and had discussed getting married and having a child.

You can read Michael McGowan’s report at the link below, and keep an eye out for the live blog later today:

Good morning and welcome to another live news blog. Mostafa Rachwani with you today, and I’ll be taking you through the news for the first half of the day.

We begin in Melbourne, where Covid restrictions will be eased again this evening, with masks no longer mandatory outside, non-essential retail and gyms reopening and Greater Melbourne open to travel to the regions once again.

But concerns remain on transmission, after the state recorded 1,923 new cases yesterday and 25 deaths, a record for daily deaths this year. All eyes will be on case numbers today, specifically on spread in regional areas.

The ACT has also eased restrictions from today, with almost all businesses reopening for the first time in months, and with masks also no longer necessary outdoors. Households can have more visitors with restrictions on venues also lifted.

In NSW, all eyes will be on former premier Gladys Berejiklian, who is due to appear before the Independent Commission Against Corruption. We’ll have a live blog going separately from 10am, and I’ll be sure to link to it when it goes up.

Last night, the prime minister also spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron, just before he leaves for Europe, with reports on the conversation differing depending on who you spoke to. The French president apparently told our prime minister he “broke the relationship of trust” when he announced he was scrapping a multibillion-dollar submarine contract.

Of course, we will also bring you the ongoing debate around climate change in our government, with emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor yesterday declaring he would promote Australia as a good place to invest in fossil fuel projects at the climate change summit in Glasgow. Should go down sweetly.