Health News at Your Fingertips

Thousands of healthcare workers are expected to walk off their jobs in NSW on Thursday over a pay dispute.

The Health Services Union has told AAP the planned industrial action will include stopping work for four hours at major metro hospitals and two hours at regional hospitals.

Workers will include ambulance, cleaning, allied health, admin, security, catering and wards.

Under a state wages cap, public sector pay increases can’t go over 2.5%, but the union says it’s not enough with inflation currently at 3.5%.

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes says:

We don’t need another politician thanking us for being heroes of the pandemic, we need a pay rise.

Health and hospital workers are being smashed by higher prices and stagnant wages.

NSW and the nation desperately need higher wages and this needs to start in the NSW health system.

Labor’s Queensland federal campaign rally is under way in Brisbane and the shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers has launched an attack on the character of Scott Morrison.

Morrison is a “fake and a phony” whose “idea of transparency in government is a glass jaw”, Chalmers has just said.

Real leadership is taking responsibility, not just taking the credit. Not just pointing the finger of blame when things get difficult. But most of all it’s bringing people together.

We were expecting to hear from Scott Morrison this morning during his visit to Devils Gate Hydroelectric Power Station in Tasmania.

There’s no media conference yet from that visit, but if and when it does happen we’ll let you know.

There have been no deaths reported from Covid over the last 24 hours in Queensland. There are 418 people in hospital and 16 people in intensive care in the state.

The start of the Women’s Cricket World Cup Final between England and Australia is less than 15 minutes away. England won the toss and will bowl.

Follow our live coverage of the final from Hagley Oval in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The Bureau of Meteorology has just issued a severe weather warning for the east of Victoria for damaging winds and heavy rain for today.

That comes as the bureau and the Victoria State Emergency Service issue a series of flood warnings.

Parts of the Buchan and Snowy Rivers will hit major flood levels by this evening, the bureau is saying.

The SES has this morning issued “watch and act” warnings for people near the Genoa River, Snowy River downstream of McKillops Bridge and the Bemm River.

People living close to the Cann River and Genoa River have been told to move to higher ground.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has just finished an interview on the ABC’s Insiders program now, and has flatly denied ever hearing about Scott Morrison allegedly racially vilifying an opponent in his 2007 pre-selection race in the seat of Cook.

He’s categorically denied it and Jamal Rifi, who is one of Australia’s leaders of the Australian Muslim Lebanese community, has said about Scott Morrison that he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. That’s what he has said.

Rifi made those statements in 2019.

On the budget, Frydenberg repeated the government’s cut to the fuel tax will be temporary and will end in six months’ time under legislation.

He said he wouldn’t be arguing to extend the cut, and that Treasury was forecasting that the price of oil would be down from the current $120 a barrel to $100 by September.

Victorian health authorities say two more people have died from Covid in the last 24 hours. There are 307 people in hospital, including 18 people in ICU with three people on ventilators.

On the ABC’s Insiders program, the conversation is about Morrison’s 2007 preselection bid and allegations he had raised his opponent Michael Towke’s Lebanese heritage as a reason to dismiss his campaign.

Morrison yesterday denied making any statements like that and told journalists they should ask the people making the accusations.

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age chief political correspondent David Crowe has just told the ABC he has spoken to Towke.

He says there was a campaign of racial vilification against him and that Scott Morrison was directly involved. Those are his words.

There have been 11 more deaths from Covid in NSW, where 50 people are currently in intensive care among the 1,355 people in hospital battling the virus.

Journalist Hugh Riminton has looked at last week’s budget and how it sets up Scott Morrison for the upcoming election.

He writes this morning how the budget was designed to tell Australians their jobs were secure, they were getting some cash and here’s some cheaper petrol to go with it.

The pressure is all now on Morrison. And sometimes it shows. He’s a sitting duck to questions about bullying or ruthlessness, but he can’t afford to counter-punch without looking snappy. Often, he just looks tired.

Morning all. Graham Readfearn here.

It’s Sunday and harmony has returned to the eastern states with Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania returning to join Queensland in the same time zone. Did you remember to adjust your clocks?

That’s about it though, harmony-wise. On our live coverage today we’ll follow the heavy weather that’s forecast to continue on the south coast of NSW and the flood warnings for the eastern parts of Victoria.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is facing intense scrutiny over allegations he made “racial comments” in 2007 about a rival candidate for preselection in the seat of Cook. Morrison has denied making the comments.

The candidate who initially won the preselection battle, Michael Towke, has today told the Nine newspapers he stood by a 2016 statutory declaration outlining “many unedifying tactics used to unseat me from my preselection victory”.

Morrison is in Tasmania this morning for a 10am press conference at the Devil’s Gate Hydroelectric Power Station where he is expected to make an energy announcement.

We’ll keep up to date with the latest Covid numbers too. A quick summary from yesterday:

Let’s proceed harmoniously.