Health News at Your Fingertips

So David Littleproud, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Services was on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas, and engaged in a bit of back and forth on the Indian travel ban.

Karvelas grilled Littleproud on the legality and morality of the ban, and especially on the implementation of fines and jail time for anyone who defies the ban.

PK: Do you acknowledge that the decision to criminalise people returning from India is a suspension of one of the rights of citizenship, key rights, which is the right to entry?

DL: Let’s put this in perspective, this is part of the Biosecurity Act, one in which has been in place since before this time last year. One in which has been put in place for extreme times where the nation public safety is at risk and that’s when government’s use it. The penalties that apply to that legislation have rarely ever really been used. I don’t think we need to conflate the issues here… in a pragmatic and — practical sense… (CROSSTALK).

PK: Do you accept that it does remove a fundamental right of citizenship?

DL: Part of being a functioning member of society is acknowledging that you are part of a society that has laws. These laws were created by a democratically elected parliament, one in which uses it responsibly to make sure that it keeps its people safe, and when you are in the middle of a global pandemic, the primary responsibility of any government is to keep its people safe.

Obviously there will be people that find themselves on the wrong side of the border when these pandemics start and it is important to understand that we try and get them home as quickly as we possibly can, but we need to protect the Australian population and our country and our island.

The Western Australian Department of Health has reassured the Collie community that a local man’s positive Covid test is most likely a “historic infection.”

The man, who is in his 30s, had returned to Australia from Poland and completed his 14 days of quarantine in Melbourne.

Although he tested negative during his quarantine, he was tested again as part of Vic Health’s follow-up of people post-quarantine and returned a weak positive result.

WA Health believes the test result most likely reflects an historic infection but out of an abundance of caution has retested the man to clarify his infection status.

As a precaution, the man’s three closest contacts have been asked to isolate pending further test results, including antibody tests, which are expected back tomorrow.

We are asking the community not to panic and to be assured that WA Health will advise the community if results indicate this is an infectious case.

Ok, this isn’t technically news, but I did want to share this extremely odd looking photo of the Carters along with Joe and Jill Biden:

It honestly looks like they’re in a dollhouse of sorts? Is it a perspective thing? I’m pretty confused.

A four-year-old boy has been left with a graze to his thigh after being bitten by a dingo on Fraser Island.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said in a statement on Tuesday the boy didn’t require treatment.

“The boy received two small red marks and a slight graze to his thigh, but didn’t require medical treatment.

“The parents chased the dingo into the bush, and it snarled at them and didn’t want to leave the area.”

The boy was with a friend, aged five, at an Orchid Beach home on the island, also known as K’gari, when they were approached by a dingo on Saturday.

The animal sniffed one of the boys, prompting them to run towards the house before the bite occurred.

Rangers are investigating to try to determine which dingo was involved.

Residents and visitors to the island, particularly the Orchid Beach area, have been advised of a dingo pack approaching people for food.

It’s believed the dingo pack has been inadvertently or deliberately fed by residents and visitors, and has lost its natural wariness of humans.

People are reminded not to feed or interact with the wild dogs as this can contribute to their habituation and cause them to become aggressive while seeking food.

The incident follows the mauling of a toddler by a dingo on the island last month that left the two-year-old with wounds all over his body.

The entire lower house crossbench (minus Craig Kelly, plus two senators) has written to the PM, calling on him to undo the India travel ban and bring back Australians stuck there.

Zali Steggall, Greens leader Adam Bandt, Helen Haines, Andrew Wilkie, Rebekha Sharkie, Bob Katter, senator Rex Patrick and senator Stirling Griff have all co-signed the letter.

Steggall says Australians are “dismayed” at the government’s decision, and called for a clearer and more “compassionate” response:

Australians in all regions are dismayed at the ad-hoc nature of the government’s response to Covid-19. We crossbench members are calling for a clear, sensible and compassionate response from the government to the current crisis in India. Leadership is tested in difficult times and it is wrong that the prime minister’s response is to abandon Australians overseas. We stand by each other in a time of need.

Bandt called the ban racist and “possibly illegal”:

The ban is racist, it’s possibly illegal, it’s not based on health advice and it must be rescinded. The Greens will move in the Senate next week to overturn the ban and we believe it will have widespread support amongst senators.

And Haines called on the government to fix its quarantine program:

The government has had well over a year to get this right. What we need are impenetrable, fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities that can manage surge capacity for situations like this and pose zero risk to our Covid-safe community. Treating Australians seeking safe passage home as criminals is not the answer.

India’s official count of coronavirus cases has surpassed 20 million, nearly doubling in the past three months, after 357,229 new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to Tuesday. There were 3,449 new deaths, taking the official death toll to 222,408. The true figures are believed to be far higher.

Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.

The Reserve Bank has announced that it has decided to maintain the country’s interest rates at a historic low of 0.10%.

The NSW government has announced it is looking to create a “medical manufacturing and research industry” in the state.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian, health minister Brad Hazzard and NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant met experts in mRNA technology yesterday to discuss the capacity of NSW to manufacture its own vaccines.

Australia has no mRNA manufacturing capacity, and both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology.

Berejiklian said the private sector, universities and the NSW government can work together to produce “world-leading technology, new-generation therapies and life-changing research.”

NSW is well placed to provide the advanced manufacturing workforce training, the scientific expertise and the physical location of a future RNA-based manufacturing hub.

The state has an established advanced manufacturing capability and is well placed to be the home of mRNA manufacturing in Australia.

Dr Omar Khorshid, president of the Australian Medical Association, is giving a press conference now, repeating his call for the government to immediately withdraw its threat to jail or fine anyone returning to Australia from India.

Khorshid slammed the government’s measures, saying it was an overreaction and a “slap in the face” for Australians seeking to return home.

I actually think this move is not necessarily heartless or callous but an overreach, an overreaction by the government, and possibly an overreaction due to the media pressure around the loopholes with returning cricketers from India.

Our point is it is unnecessary, a slap in the face for Australians after they were asking for help. Instead they feel as though been pushed away.

Khorshid also said the government should start looking at what a post-hotel-quarantine future looks for Australia:

We believe that there is a clear way forward here. We need to fix the issues of the government have now confirmed are occurring on hotel quarantine to make hotel quarantine as safe as possible to make it fit for purpose so that we can bring Australians home from all over the world without the risk of the virus getting into the community.

In the longer term, there is also the need to replace hotel quarantine with purpose-built facilities and I’ve had a conversation with the minister for health expressing the view today. And I will continue the fight for that.

The Victorian government has announced that Rowena Orr QC will be the state’s new solicitor general.

Orr will take up the role of the state’s most senior legal adviser and advocate after a 20-year career as a barrister, which included several milestones such acting as senior counsel assisting the commissioner in the banking royal commission in 2018-19.

Orr is the third woman in history to be appointed Victorian solicitor general and replaces Kristen Walker QC, who was recently appointed a judge of the court of appeal.

Attorney general Jaclyn Symes welcomed the appointment, calling Orr’s career a “testament to her tireless work ethic”:

Rowena Orr’s impressive career is testament to her tireless work ethic, relentless drive and dedication to justice – attributes that will serve her well as Victoria’s next solicitor general.

We’re privileged to have the benefit of Ms Orr’s breadth of experience and legal ability to advise and guide the government on important matters.

More now, on the NSW police officer charged with allegedly assaulting a teenager in Surry Hills last year.

The officer was a constable who has worked for NSW police for three years, and was placed on restricted duties in June after police professional standards launched an investigation.

The officer is due to appear before Downing Centre local court on Thursday 24 June.

You can read more on the story here:

In some interesting but seemingly inevitable news, it appears there’s been an IP application for Fox News International for the Australian market.

There have been rumours for a while that Sky News Australia would be rebranding to keep in line with Rupert Murdoch’s American cable news giant, and it appears that change is on the way.

Gabriela D’Souza, a senior economist at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, has just given an interesting speech at the National Press Club that I thought was worth highlighting.

Her core argument was that increasing migration rates were necessary to Australia’s post-pandemic recovery, which flies in the face of the more conservative outlook that migrants will vaccum up jobs and impede growth.

Some have argued that migrants take away the jobs of local workers, and that particularly following recovery from a recession, that migration must be scaled back. But a study across different countries has shown this to be untrue. In research I conducted in 2019, I found that recent migrants had not harmed the outcomes of local workers. To the contrary, an influx of migrants was associated with an increase in the workforce participation of local workers.

To be able to increase migration intake, D’Souza argued the government needs to rethink the quarantine program.

Purpose-built quarantine seems like our best bet for keeping Australia at Covid-normal, however we are going to have to accept that there is some risk in welcoming back returning Australians and migrants.

This is the new normal.

She said the government should look at alternate quarantine measures, such as allowing returning travellers to quarantine at home. Ultimately, she said, the closed border policy the government has adopted was only harming Australia.

To continue our closed border policy is a threat to our commitment to globalism, especially as other countries begin to vaccinate the populations and open up their borders and welcome migrant.

No other advanced western country has put in place such measures. For many of us, our lives are not completely in Australia. Our loved ones live elsewhere, and we going to see them again.

NSW police has released a statement saying the officer involved in the arrest of an Indigenous teenager in Surry Hills in June last year, has been charged with assault:

A police officer has been charged after an alleged assault at Surry Hills last year.

Officers from professional standards command have been investigating an alleged assault during the arrest of a teenager at Ward Park on Monday 1 June 2020.

Following inquiries, a male constable who is now attached to a command in southern region was issued with a court attendance notice today for the offences of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault.

The officer is due to appear before Downing Centre local court on Thursday 24 June.

His employment status is under review.

Good afternoon everyone, and before I begin, a quick thanks to Matilda for expertly guiding us through the morning’s news once again. I’ll be here for the afternoon’s news, so let’s get stuck in.