12.50am EST
00:50
The expansion of McDonald’s over the next two years will see a big push into regional Australia, which experts say bodes well for local economies but not their population’s health.
Of 100 new McDonald’s Australia restaurants set to open in the next two years, about a third will be opening in regional and remote areas.
Cameron Newlands, a senior director of the restaurant group, said growth in population as well as investment from government and business in regional areas was driving where they would open.
“Anywhere north of 5,000 [people] is something we’d consider,” Newlands said. “But other characteristics like traffic flow, tourism and growth potential are just as important.”
But the move could be controversial in towns that have battled to keep the fast-food giant out of their backyards. Tecoma, on the edge of Melbourne, fought unsuccessfully to stop a McDonald’s development and Tamworth council faced controversy when it approved its fourth Mcdonald’s outlet in a town that suffers high rates of obesity.
Megan Belot, the president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia, said the expansion was not a positive outcome for rural patients who already have an increased risk of obesity.
“It’s nice to think that there’s going to be more jobs and opportunities for our younger people to work in a place like McDonald’s, but realistically we don’t need fast food in our smaller rural communities,” Belot said.
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12.23am EST
00:23
An aerial photo of the anti-vaccine mandate protesters in Canberra.
Police have ordered them to leave the Canberra showgrounds by today. This image was taken at about 12.30pm today.
Updated
at 12.33am EST
12.19am EST
00:19
David Littleproud tests positive for Covid-19
Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud says he has tested positive for Covid, on the eve of federal parliament returning on Monday.
David Littleproud MP
(@D_LittleproudMP)This morning I woke up feeling unwell and immediately had a PCR test which has come back positive for COVID.
I have had vaccinations and a booster and will now comply with ACT health orders.
Littleproud tweeted that he got a PCR test after he “woke up feeling unwell”, which returned a positive result.
“I have had vaccinations and a booster and will now comply with ACT health orders,” he said on Sunday afternoon.
Updated
at 12.51am EST
12.07am EST
00:07
The New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, has labelled his government’s byelection results “disappointing across the board” after earlier vowing to win back voters who handed Labor the seat of Bega in Saturday’s byelection.
As early counts showed the government had suffered double-digit swings in two of four Super Saturday byelections, the government has resigned itself to losing Bega for the first time since the seat was created in 1988.
By midday on Sunday, with 25% of the vote counted, Labor’s candidate Michael Holland had picked up a 14% swing which will see the opposition win the seat barring an overwhelming shift back to the Liberal government when postal votes are counted.
At a press conference on Sunday, Perrottet did not seek to sugarcoat the loss, calling it “particularly disappointing” while adding that byelections were traditionally difficult for incumbent governments.
He said:
There is certainly messages for us to look at in terms of what we are doing on the ground.
In addition to that, I think ultimately when you are in a pandemic you are going to make decisions from that time to time will be unpopular. Our job as a government is to take our state through and we are doing that.
Every seat is different. But obviously Bega was particularly disappointing yesterday.”
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11.20pm EST
23:20
South Australia records two new Covid deaths and 1,165 cases
Updated
at 11.22pm EST
