Human rights commission concedes it spent too much on staff
Paul Karp
The Australian Human Rights Commission is up in Senate estimates and president Rosalind Croucher is being grilled about its financial management.
In March Guardian Australia revealed that from June 2021 the commission has slashed or is slashing one in three staff due to cashflow problems.
Croucher said:
We identified some issues in our financial management … [An] internal management issue: we overspent the budget we were given by the government on employee expenses. The financial management system was not fit for purpose. Our cash forecasting was inadequate.
Croucher says the AHRC is now financially back on track, thanks to work with the finance department and the attorney general’s department, including a $16m equity injection.
Croucher says she was “very concerned” and actions have been taken to “ensure it doesn’t happen again”.
I accept that the buck does indeed stop with me.
Liberal Sarah Henderson said it was “absolutely shocking” the issue hadn’t been identified before June.
Croucher accepted it “should’ve been picked up and addressed earlier” – but argues it is not just an internal budgeting issue, it’s also a problem with the level of base government funding. Croucher said base government funding was $16.5m, while the rest was project-based.
Queensland records eight Covid deaths and 9,946 new infections
The Queensland numbers have also just been published. The state recorded 9,946 new Covid-19 infections and well as, tragically, eight deaths.
There are now 479 Covid-positive people in Queensland hospitals, including 15 in ICU.
Two bodies recovered from Blue Mountains
Mostafa Rachwani
Two bodies have been recovered from the Blue Mountains after a family of five were caught in a freak landslide there on Monday.
Police say the bodies of a nine-year-old boy and his 49-year-old father were recovered near Wentworth Pass at around 9.30am.
It comes after a 50-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy were winched out and taken to hospital yesterday afternoon. Police say they will undergo surgery today and remain in critical condition.
A fifth member of the family, a 15-year-old girl, was treated for shock but not injured and was able to walk away from the scene.
Police confirmed the family was from the UK, and were holidaying in Australia. An investigation is ongoing with a report to be filed for the coroner on the deaths of the man and boy.
ACT records one Covid death and 918 new infections
The Australian Capital Territory’s daily Covid numbers are in and it has again recorded the death of someone diagnosed with Covid-19.
918 new infections were recorded in the latest reporting period, with 41 Covid-positive people in hospital including five in the ICU and two requiring ventilation.
ACT COVID-19 Update – 5 April 2022
💉 COVID-19 vaccinations
◾ Aged 5-11 years (1 dose): 80.4%
◾ Aged 5-11 years (2 doses): 56.8%
◾ Aged 5+ years (2 doses): 98.7%
◾ Aged 16+ years (3 doses): 73.6% pic.twitter.com/LNH1OGm7gZ— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) April 5, 2022
Elias Visontay
Hundreds of thousands of fish have died after recent flooding in northern New South Wales caused “severe deoxygenation” of rivers, with researchers alarmed at discovering carcasses of species that traditionally tolerate lower oxygen levels.
Scientists are still researching the full of extent of the destruction to marine life along the Richmond river, where multiple fish kill events occurred following flooding in late February and early March. The flooding led to a total lack of oxygen in a 60km stretch of the waterway, between Coraki and Ballina on the northern NSW coast.
While data on the effects of the latest flood events at the end of March is not yet clear, Southern Cross University researchers who had been undertaking long-term monitoring of the Richmond river in a project with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment believe the final fish death toll will be in the hundreds of thousands.
You can read the full report below:
NSW premier Dominic Perrottet is discussing the need to get schools in flood-affected areas back open.
We know that our children have gone through a very difficult time when we have come through the pandemic, many days, many terms, of face-to-face learning our children have missed out on. Now in these flood-affected communities once again we’ve had many young children not be able to go to school.
So [with] the education minister, Sarah Mitchell, important work has happened to ensure we’ve been able to relocate those schools in those areas that have been flood-affected to get kids back to the classroom as quickly as possible.
The NSW premier is speaking now. Let’s have a listen in.
Daniel Hurst
We have a bit more detail on Peter Dutton’s missile-related announcements this morning.
In the second of two press releases issued today, the defence minister said the government had approved the accelerated acquisition of improved weapon capabilities for the Australian defence force at a total cost of $3.5bn.
The accelerated acquisitions include the joint air-to-surface standoff missile extended range (JASSM-ER) for the Royal Australian Air Force three years earlier than planned. This is now expected by 2024.
Dutton said:
The JASSM-ER will enable the FA-18F Super Hornet, and in future the F-35A Lightning II, to engage targets at a range of 900km.
The government is also acquiring the Norwegian Kongsberg naval strike missile (NSM) for the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet. This will replace the Harpoon anti-ship missile in the Anzac Class frigates and Hobart Class destroyers.
The frigates and destroyers will have this new capability installed from 2024 onwards. The government argues this will provide “a significant enhancement to Australia’s maritime strike capability – more than doubling the current maritime strike range of our frigates and destroyers”.
The government says it will also accelerate the acquisition of maritime mines “to secure Australia’s ports and maritime approaches”.
Dutton said:
With Australia’s strategic environment becoming more complex and challenging, our ADF must be able to hold potential adversary forces and infrastructure at risk from a greater distance. These world-class strike weapon systems will equip our forces to better protect Australia’s maritime approaches and, when necessary, contribute to coalition operations in our region.
The announcements come amid ongoing efforts by the government to focus on national security ahead of the election. As reported here earlier, Dutton also named two large US weapons makers – Raytheon and Lockheed Martin – as “strategic partners” in Australia’s own push to manufacture and maintain guided weapons.
Nine news is reporting the body of a man swept away in flood waters in Thomson in Victoria.
More details to come.
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, says the state will scrap isolation requirements for close contacts of coronavirus cases when it is safe to do so.
The Australian health protection principal committee (AHPPC) told national cabinet last week that isolation and testing rules could be eased after the current wave of infections peaks.
Scott Morrison said on Monday he was “looking forward” to the rules being scrapped and that it was a matter for the states.
The prime minister said:
We don’t make those decisions at the commonwealth level. It is premiers who decide to shut cities down or open them up, not the commonwealth government.
Andrews, however, noted national cabinet was chaired by Morrison:
He’s asked a question [to AHPPC] on behalf of all of us … he doesn’t like the answer and that was apparently my fault. I don’t think so.
If there’s a quarrel between the prime minister and the chief medical officer, well I respectfully suggest that he sort that out. I’m in the business of following the advice of experts.
Andrews said he expected the latest Omicron BA.2 subvariant wave to peaked in the “next few weeks”.
The Liberals have attacked Labor’s aged care policy after the shadow attorney general suggested a possible pause on its one-year deadline to have a registered nurse in every aged care facility at all times, AAP reports.
Mark Dreyfus admitted there may not be enough trained nurses to implement the plan and more would need to be trained.
“We’re talking about setting the standard and if it is in fact true that there are not enough nurses in Australia to provide that level of care, we should train more,” he told the ABC.
It might be that it turns out we’ve got to pause [the deadline]. But let’s accept the royal commission’s recommendation, let’s say we need to have 24-hour nursing care in nursing homes, let’s put the nurses back into nursing homes.
Aged care services minister Richard Colbeck has seized on the comments, saying Labor’s policy had failed at its first test.
Mark Dreyfus has admitted Labor would have to pause its promise of an earlier rollout of 24/7 nurses in aged care … [and] conceded Labor couldn’t do it if there are insufficient nurse numbers…
It has ignored the advice of the aged care royal commission and claimed they would introduce 24/7 nurses a year ahead of schedule.
Colbeck said the government supported having a nurse in aged care facilities at all times, but rolling out the royal commission’s recommendations sooner than slated “risks the closure of aged care facilities with a serious risk to residents”.
Premier Daniel Andrews was bemused at comments from the PM that he is responsible for scraping iso rules for close contacts.
“He’s asked a question (to the AHPPC) on behalf of all of us … he doesn’t like the answer and that was apparently my fault. I don’t think so.”
— Callum Godde (@calgodde) April 4, 2022
Optus reports major outage
Josh Taylor
Optus customers have reported being unable to make outgoing voice calls on mobile on Tuesday.
@Optus fix your service. Cannot make phone calls. People do not have home phones these days and need to use their mobiles to call. Seriously
— 👻 (@bonesooo) April 4, 2022
The company’s website states the mobile network is suffering a major outage affecting voice calls. No further information has been provided at this stage.
Australia imposes new sanctions on Russia
Ben Butler
Australia has imposed new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, banning the export of luxury goods including racehorses, wine and abalone.
The ban, which commences on Thursday, also covers crustaceans and molluscs (including lobster), truffles, tobacco products, perfume and makeup items, leather goods including handbags, furs, rugs and carpets, luxury clothing worth more than $500 an item, pearls, jewellery, collectible coins and banknotes, watches and clocks and sporting goods such as skiing and golfing equipment worth than $500 an item.
Video game consoles and coin-operated casino game machines worth more than $500 a unit are also on the banned list.
Benita Kolovos
Victorian police would be required to notify the state’s Department of Health of toxic batches of drugs under an amendment to the state’s public health laws proposed by the Greens.
The Greens’ changes to the public health and wellbeing amendment bill, which is set to be debated in the upper house this week, would see certain drugs, poisons and controlled substances declared as notifiable based on their potential serious risk to public health.
This would mean police officers would be required to notify the department within a specified timeframe if they encounter the substances during the performance of their duties.
The definition of “serious risk to public health” means that alcohol or illegal drugs such as heroin would not be listed as notifiable in normal circumstances despite their impact on public health.
You can read the full report below:
