Health News at Your Fingertips

And the Australian Capital Territory has reported 911 new cases overnight.

Daniel Andrews: Victorian schools to remain open despite staff shortages

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has maintained that schools will remain open for the time being, amid calls for a return to remote learning.

The Independent Education Union had earlier called on Victorian schools to close due to staff shortages caused by influenza and Covid-19. It also comes amid a spike in Covid deaths and cases.

But Andrews maintained that the colder weather and increased risk of getting sick would not change the government’s position:

School was open on day one of term one, it has remained open all throughout the year and we’re going to keep it open, and we’re going to keep it as close to normal as we possibly can.

The Victorian education minister, James Merlino, was also at the press conference, and acknowledged the challenges facing schools during the winter months.

We said at the beginning of the year when we committed to getting students back … that schools will look a bit differently this year, and there will be challenges, and there have been.

We’ve got Covid, and we’ve got a nasty flu season, so people are getting crook. But we’ve got principals and assistant principals teaching, we’ve got a pool of retired teachers and principals coming back to school to teach … so it’s all hands on deck.

It’s about making sure that our kids stay at school, our schools remain open, and it’s best for our students that they get that peer-to-peer experience.

Frank Bainimarama, the prime minister of Fiji, has laid out his schedule for the next couple of days:

Scott Morrison: Labor majority ‘better’ than minority government involving teal independents

I want to return to Scott Morrison’s appearance on the radio earlier today, where he said he was “pleased” to hear Labor could form a majority government.

In the context of him calling the teal independent campaigns “vicious and brutal”, it is interesting that he said he preferred a Labor majority government to a minority rule that could have involved the teals.

Here’s how he put it:

The Labor party will just form majority and I think that will be better.

But in terms as what happened in those Liberal seats in the eastern suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne … I am obviously devastated that Josh wasn’t there and I hope he will be in the future.

The incoming energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the sharp increase in the standard market price set by the Australian Energy Regulator was the result of “nine years of delay and denial” by the Coalition government that would now be left with households and businesses to pay.

Bowen said “the Liberal legacy is higher power prices” for the residents of Queensland, NSW and South Australia covered by the so-called default market offer.

He added that “nine years of policy chaos means we don’t have enough renewables in the system”, nor enough transmission to link them up “the cheapest form of energy” to the grid.

Bowen also took aim at his predecessor Angus Taylor for acting to delay the release of the higher default market offer. As reported by Guardian Australia earlier this week, Taylor ordered the regulator to delay the new offer from 1 May until today, after the election.

“Angus Taylor knew this report was coming out,” Bowen said. “They sat on this report. They approved its delay until after the election … they put power prices up and were dishonest about it.”

A spokesperson for Taylor earlier this week denied the delay was for political reasons. During the campaign, Coalition ministers and Scott Morrison claimed power prices had fallen by as much as 10%, a figure also included in the March budget.

By the end of March, though, wholesale power prices had more than doubled compared with a year earlier and have continued their sharp rise since, leaving the incoming Albanese government an early challenge to resolve.

Daniel Hurst

Angus Taylor says he will not contest Liberal leadership position

The former energy minister, Angus Taylor, who has previously been labelled a future Liberal leadership aspirant, confirmed he would not enter the race, and would back Peter Dutton for the role.

Speaking on Sky News, Taylor said the debate about whether the Liberal party should move to the right or to the left in the wake of the election loss was the wrong focus.

He said the party needed to focus on its “core values”.

”I’ve been supporting Peter Dutton to lead the party. I think he’s the right person to lead us,” Taylor said.

Taylor said Dutton would lead the party at a time when it needed to hold the Labor party to account and when the economic agenda would be “enormously important”.

When asked whether he wanted to be shadow treasurer, Taylor did not deny his interest in the key frontbench role but said it would be a decision for the leader.

Peter Dutton confirms he will run for Liberal party leadership

Paul Karp

The former defence minister Peter Dutton has confirmed on 2GB Radio that he will put his hand up for the Liberal leadership (which will be unopposed).

Dutton reintroduced himself to the Australian public, arguing that his image had been harmed by Twitter and leftwing news sites, and the perception he is tough because of the portfolios he has held.

You’ve got to be tough to be the defence minister of this country.

Of course, many of Dutton’s low points like boycotting the apology to the Stolen Generation and arguing that Lebanese-Muslim migration in the 1970s had harmed Australia were not strictly requirements of the job.

Dutton also appeared to draw a contrast with his predecessor, Scott Morrison, by observing that he doesn’t attend church regularly, and is a lapsed Catholic who hasn’t sought to make religion a part of his public persona.

Dutton said he expects the Albanese government to be a “bad government” because it doesn’t have the depth of frontbench, who he said was full of Rudd-Gillard era “throwbacks”.

Power prices will be higher under Labor, unemployment will be higher.

Dutton confirmed that Tanya Plibersek had apologised for likening him to Voldemort:

Yes she has to her credit. It’s water off a duck’s back. You read this sort of stuff online, it’s the sewer of Twitter. I don’t think you need to be nasty and mean.

Dutton said that he was “not bald by choice” and was “diagnosed with a skin condition”.

On China, Dutton wished the new government “every success in dealing with the most important issue to face our country this decade”.

On the deputy leadership, Dutton said it will be for the party room to decide and praised the contenders as “great candidates”, particularly Karen Andrews who has withdrawn. The other contenders are Sussan Ley and Jane Hume.

There are a number who could serve very ably as deputy, we’re just working on that at the moment.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria secures return of rare artworks by Wurundjeri artist William Barak

The Victorian government has contributed $500,000 to secure the purchase of rare artworks by Wurundjeri artist William Barak and bring them back to the state.

The Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Corporation had raised $117,627 via a crowdfunding page to buy the artworks, which were being auctioned off by auction house Sotheby’s in New York on Thursday morning.

The government contributed $500,000 after a meeting with the corporation late on Wednesday night.

The two artworks – a painting and a parrying shield – date back to 1897. Corroboree (Women in possum skin cloaks) depicts three rows of women wearing possum skin cloaks in a ceremony. The carved hardwood parrying shield is long and pointed with a geometric design and a unique motif at its centre.

The painting sold for more than $530,000 and the parrying shield sold for more than $74,000.

While Barak’s artworks are held in prestigious public and private collections around the world, this is one of a rare few to return to Wurundjeri ownership.

The premier, Daniel Andrews, told reporters on Thursday:

They’re now owned by the Victorian community and that’s a fantastic outcome. We didn’t want them going into a private collection on the other side of the world.

This is a really important part of our history. It’s a really important part of healing and our journey forward. So we are absolutely delighted, thrilled to be able to have made that contribution and to be able to secure overnight at auction in New York those really important artworks.

Where they go, whether it’s the NGV [National Gallery of Victoria] or [Melbourne] Museum, that will be worked out. I’m sure the Koori Heritage Trust will put bid in for it.

There’ll be lots of different groups that want a piece of that, they’re very, very significant and we’re delighted to have been able to secure them for every single Victorian forever.

Newly successful teal independent in North Sydney, Kylea Tink, has hit back at former prime minister Scott Morrison, who earlier this morning described the teal campaigns as “vicious and brutal”.

Speaking to Sky News, Tink said her campaign was the “antithesis” of Morrison’s description:

I don’t think our campaign was brutal at all. It was the antithesis of that.

Should the Labor Party, as they take government, choose to adopt a similar style of governing to what the Liberal Party did, then I have no doubt we’ll see people – like myself – in communities like the North Sydney community, rise up and run against Labor candidates.

Adeshola Ore

Victoria’s opposition criticises Mark McGowan after WA premier’s comments on other states’ budgets

Victoria’s opposition has hit out at Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, after he launched an attack on the Andrews government over the carve-up of GST funding.

Victoria’s treasurer, Tim Pallas, has repeatedly said Victoria does not receive a fair share of the GST based on its population under the current system. But on Wednesday, McGowan hit back and said other states needed to better manage their budgets. He also singled out Victoria for its $2.6bn investment in the Commonwealth Games, saying the state should make “different” decisions.

In a rare moment of bipartisanship, opposition treasury spokesman, David Davis, said it was “very clear” Victoria had a “poor deal” in GST funding.

The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, said McGowan had a “nasty streak” and said the Commonwealth Games were “not a waste of money”.

There’s no need to attack Victoria like that. We’re trying to get our region’s back on their feet and have bipartisan support for the Commonwealth Games.

Adeshola Ore

Victorian opposition calls for ‘circuit breaker’ summit to address strained healthcare system

Victoria’s opposition has called for an urgent health summit in a bid to fix the state’s overburdened system.

It comes after a budget estimates hearing last week heard that 21 Victorians had died waiting for an ambulance over the past six months. The opposition leader, Matthew Guy, said a summit – made up of healthcare professionals – would act as a “circuit breaker” for the sector.

Guy said the meeting would help draw on the experience of health professionals like paramedics and doctors who understand the system:

We need to have a way that brings people, particularly from all walks of the health service, in the room … to find out what are those ways to fix the system now so Victorians know when they call an ambulance it will come.

Ben Smee

Annastacia Palaszcsuk announces $175 ‘cost of living rebate’ for state’s households

The Queensland government has announced a $175 “cost of living rebate” to all households, to be paid as a deduction on power bills.

The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, made the announcement on the same morning the Australian Energy Regulator revealed it would lift its standard electricity price, meaning households in Queensland and NSW would face double-digit increases in their bills.

Palaszczuk said the rebate was only possible because the state maintains ownership of the majority of its power generators.