Health News at Your Fingertips

The disgraced Hey Dad! actor and convicted child sexual offender Robert Hughes has been released from Sydney’s Long Bay jail and is expected to be deported immediately to the UK.

Eastern states continue to face tight energy market and forecast supply gaps

There’s still a flurry of notices from the Australian energy market operator this afternoon, as the electrons flow around the national electricity market. (Note SA is still paying users to take its power.)

The market, though, remains tight, with a total of five “lack of reserve – level 3” notices issued for NSW for later today and into Wednesday. Each has a possible shortfall of supply.

Tasmania, meanwhile, has joined its mainland counterparts in facing a supply gap within the next day or so.

It’s the only one of the five states without a price cap imposed by Aemo (though at the $15,100/megawatt-hour maximum rate it was charging for its power earlier today, it might not be long before it joins the others with a forced $300/Mwh limit).

Another long evening ahead for regulators (and bloggers).

Far-right extremism less closely monitored amid focus on Islamist extremism, Victorian inquiry hears

From Callum Godde in Melbourne for AAP:

A “myopic” focus on Islamist extremism in Australia since 2001’s September 11 attacks in the United States has come at the expense of monitoring the far-right movement, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has been told.

Liberty Victoria president, Michael Stanton, has acknowledged the recent emergence of far-right extremism in the state, citing neo-Nazis gathering in the Grampians and gallows erected outside state parliament as pandemic legislation was debated last year.

He told an inquiry on Tuesday that far-right extremism is real, but argued Victorian politicians need to be careful not to blindly expand executive powers, surveillance and censorship to combat its influence.

“We need to make sure that in responding to those confronting scenes in the Grampians – whether it be Nazi salutes or display of the swastika – or the erection of gallows outside parliament, that we do not have a legislative response that throws the baby out with the bathwater,” Stanton said.

“Sometimes that involves tolerating speech that we find offensive or humiliating.”

The barrister said Australian law enforcement agencies’ focus has been drawn away from neo-Nazis and other far-right movements over the past 20 years by Islamist extremism.

Both must be addressed, Stanton said, but Victoria’s parliament should not cast the net too wide with any reforms.

“The focus should be on those people who are directly likely to be engaged in committing violent acts,” he said.

“To cast their net more broadly risks increasing stigmatisation – the kind of stigmatisation faced by the Muslim community, or parts of the Muslim community, in Australia for almost two decades – and risks being counterproductive.”

As well as investigating the rise of far-right extremism in Victoria, the inquiry is studying how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected its apparent growth.

Col Blanch to be appointed WA police commissioner

Current deputy police commissioner in the Western Australian police force, Col Blanch, will become the force’s new commissioner next month.

Blanch, who has overseen key portfolios including gang crime, homicide, organised crime, and state intelligence, has been appointed for a five-year term.

Blanch became, briefly, a household name last year as the public face of the WA police force’s search for missing girl Cleo Smith, who was found, safe and well, 18 days after she vanished from a remote camping site.

“We have all had tears in our eyes this morning,” he said of the early morning rescue of the girl.

Blanch is also a former executive director of intelligence for the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and chair of the WA State Emergency Coordination Group.

WA premier, Mark McGowan, said Blanch was an outstanding candidate.

“Col Blanch has proven himself a leader of integrity who cares deeply about safety of the community and those serving under his command,” McGowan said.

“Mr Blanch has been directly involved in shepherding the state through the pandemic and he is well-placed to lead the Western Australian Police Force as it confronts challenges of the post-pandemic world.”

And now Victoria …

Christopher Knaus

Experts urge ‘careful consideration’ in designing Australian centre for disease control after Labor’s election promise

Before its election win, Labor had promised to set up an Australian Centre for Disease Control to help prepare for, and cope with, future pandemics and outbreaks.

Experts are now urging the government to carefully consider the body’s design prior to its establishment, warning there is a risk that the establishment of an Australian CDC may be “seen as a ‘quick win’” by the new government.

Three experts from the Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney, Prof Ben Marais, Prof Tania Sorrell and Prof Lyn Gilbert, say the Covid pandemic showed such a body was sorely needed to coordinate the national response, collate critical data, and conduct rapid research.

In a statement published Tuesday, they said:

Careful consideration and consultation are needed to establish this organisation as one that society can look to as a leader in preventing, preparing for and responding to disease outbreaks.

It needs to be an entity that can bring together the collective expertise of researchers, epidemiologists, public health microbiologists and practitioners, communications, infection prevention and control experts, and policy makers.

The three experts said questions remained about whether an Australian CDC should examine both infectious and non-communicable diseases, how it would be structured to avoid bias or perceptions of bias, and how it could create a national disease surveillance network across various jurisdictions.

Here are the latest coronavirus case numbers from around Australia on Tuesday, as the country records at least 31 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 633
• In hospital: 93 (with 3 people in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 3
• Cases: 5,157
• In hospital: 1,341 (with 39 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 169
• In hospital: 22 (with 2 people in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 6
• Cases: 4,190
• In hospital: 373 (with 8 people in ICU)

South Australia

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 2,429
• In hospital: 226 (with 8 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 1
• Cases: 658
• In hospital: 45 (with 2 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 15
• Cases: 6,071
• In hospital: 473 (with 28 people in ICU)

Western Australia

• Deaths: 6
• Cases: 6,315
• In hospital: 278 (with 12 people in ICU)

David Pocock thanks ‘a community I love’ after being elected to Senate for ACT

Climate change activist, independent candidate and former Wallabies captain David Pocock has been elected to the Senate as one of two upper house seats for the Australian Capital Territory.

He is the first independent candidate to win election as a territory senator. (The other ACT senator is the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, who was returned.)

Pocock received 21.18% of the primary vote. With preferences he achieved quota at the distribution of preferences on Tuesday.

Pocock thanked the ACT community for its support.

“Today, the extraordinary movement of people we brought together across the ACT made history,” Pocock said.

“For the first time, we have an independent voice representing our community in the federal parliament.

“Thank you to everyone who put their trust in me to represent you. It is an incredible honour to be able to serve a community I love.”

Pocock congratulated Gallagher on her re-election, and acknowledged the work of outgoing Liberal senator Zed Seselja, who had held the second ACT senate seat for nine years but lost out to Pocock in the final counting in this election.

Pocock said his campaign “aimed to make politics about people”.

“We built a policy platform off the back of thousands of conversations about the things that matter.

“We kept it positive. We talked about the issues and the ideas for the future we want and It clearly resonated.”

The AEC will officially declare the result tomorrow in Canberra.

I told you he was inexhaustible … (unlike east coast power supplies, it seems):

Afternoon fellow travellers. Thanks to the indefatigable Mostafa for his stellar first innings.

Speaking of inexhaustible: the latest dispatch (see what I did there …) from our energetic energy correspondent Peter Hannam:

… So we have an updated view from the Australian energy market operator of the forecast electricity supply gap for Queensland.

It’s 1,789 megawatts (which looks revolutionary) at 6.30pm AEST this evening, and larger than the biggest projected shortfall yesterday at 1,454Mw. No wonder Aemo is looking for a response from generators.

At this size, you’d expect the Queensland government to again ask consumers to turn off unnecessary appliances, and big power users will probably be asked to do so too (and for some, they will be paid to do so).

There are other “lack of reserve” notices for other states including NSW at level 1 or 2, which are not as serious.

Some reputable commentators smell a rat, though, as there is ample capacity in the market even taking into account the increasingly unreliable coal-fired power plants in the national electricity market.

The Australian Energy Regulator, which is supposed to keep an eye on price gouging, says it is “monitoring the market closely”, as is the competition watchdog, the ACCC.

Whether anyone will get pinged for anti-competitive behaviour remains to be seen.

And with that, I will leave the blog in the trusty hands of Ben Doherty. Thanks for reading.

Albanese suggests bosses go easy on Socceroos fans today

Earlier, prime minister Anthony Albanese was asked what is arguably the most important question of the day: will he give the nation a day off to celebrate the Socceroos?

Unfortunately, the PM could only offer some encouragement for bosses to go easy on employees today (booooooo):

If someone’s having a little kip in the corner, it’s understandable, because if they’ve been up since 4 o’clock watching … and then celebrating afterwards, it’s understandable that coffee can only go so far.

The AEC is due to officially declare results in numerous House of Representatives seats today, but the result in the NSW seat of Gilmore has been delayed after Liberal candidate Andrew Constance called for a recount.

The former NSW state minister ended up just 373 votes behind Labor MP Fiona Phillips, according to the AEC’s official numbers, and the seat was to be declared officially at 2pm today.

But the AEC says that has been delayed after a formal request for a recount, which the electoral body says it will give “thorough consideration”.

Constance told Guardian Australia that his vote scrutineers had “raised concerns in relation to certain aspects of the process, particularly the scrutiny of informal votes”. Constance said he believed the close result meant there were “strong grounds for a recount”.

The AEC said its staff need time to assess the request, stressing that the delay of the declaration was not any indication of what decision it would make.

A spokesman noted the AEC’s validation processes for counting votes, including that ballots are counted more than once in a process called “fresh scrutiny”.

Paul Karp

Albanese says ‘all things are on the table’ for energy policy review

Earlier, Anthony Albanese was asked about the fact the energy minister, Chris Bowen, did not rule out price controls on gas in a morning interview.

Albanese said:

He didn’t speak about that at all, I’ve read the transcript, he was asked about that. It’s a different thing. With what Mr Bowen said in the interview … is that all things are on the table. We’ve said we will have a review of the so-called trigger, which is in place.

The so-called trigger isn’t really a trigger at all because you pull the trigger and nothing happens until January 1. So what we will do and are doing as a matter of urgency is a review and all things are on the table.

Albanese also sounded off about the failures of the Morrison government on energy.

He said:

It’s not acceptable that we have had a government previously, which was in office for three terms, announced 22 different energy policies and didn’t land one – that is not acceptable.

You’ve had a decade of neglect … you’ve had a decade where we have an energy grid that isn’t fit for purpose for the 21st century. You’ve had too many arguments taking place rather than the investment certainty which comes from having an energy policy … And what we find is the consequences of the former government’s failure to put in place an energy policy is being felt right now, with problems in the market.

The Australian Electoral Commission has announced the count for senators in the Northern Territory has concluded, with Labor’s Malarndirri McCarthy and the Country Liberals’ Jacinta Nampijinpa Price successfully voted into the Senate.

Albanese says China must remove trade sanctions to improve relationship

Paul Karp

Anthony Albanese has been asked about China’s sanctions, after defence minister Richard Marles met his Chinese counterpart, ending several years of Australia being frozen out by Chinese ministers.

Albanese said:

Well it’s China that has imposed sanctions on Australia, they need to remove those sanctions in order to improve relations between Australia and China.

It’s a good thing that Richard Marles [was able to meet] with his counterpart on the sides of the conference in Singapore. We do need to engage with each other and that’s a positive step. But it’s China that has imposed sanctions, it’s China that has changed and it’s China that needs to remove those sanctions.

China needs to remove the sanctions they have put in place, there is no reason for them to be there. We are a trading nation, we have fulfilled all of our obligations as part of contracts and arrangements put in place, and we make good products as well. And those sanctions hurt Australia but they also hurt China, because of the quality of our products.

Albanese said dialogue had been “missing” in the last few years, but there need to be “concrete steps” from China. My colleague Daniel Hurst has reported similar demands from foreign minister, Penny Wong, to end trade sanctions.

Albanese also confirmed he has written back to China after premier, Li Keqiang, sent him a “congratulatory message”, but would not comment beyond saying he “responded appropriately”.

“There have been prime ministers who reveal text messages and correspondence – I’m not one of them,” he said.