Health News at Your Fingertips

An important detail between those two Covid updates is the apparent spike in deaths across New South Wales and Victoria, with both recording jumps compared to the week before.

NSW recorded a jump of over 40 deaths while Victoria recorded a jump of over 30 deaths, but both can be attributed to delays in reporting over the Christmas and new year holidays, with numbers returning to pre-holiday levels.

Victoria has recorded 12,349 new cases in the past week and 108 deaths, another slight drop in cases but jump in deaths:

NSW Health has released Covid numbers today, with 19,793 cases recorded in the past week, a drop on the 27,665 recorded the week before. There has been a jump in deaths though, as the health department noted might happen due to delays in reporting over the holidays.

Paul Karp

Chalmers says Covid had ‘extraordinary impact’ on population growth expectations

Chalmers also addressed the findings of the population report, which is set to be released today.

Asked about Australia’s ageing population, Chalmers said:

It is a huge challenge … The way that our population changes and evolves and grows over time is really crucial to our society but also to our economy as well. And Covid has had an extraordinary impact on our expectations for population growth: whether it’s fertility, whether it’s migration, whether it’s the slowest population growth a couple of years ago, in the depths of Covid, that we’ve had for more than a century. All of these things are really crucial determinants when it comes to thinking about and planning for our future. And so we need to make sure as a government and as a society that we’ve got the services and the infrastructure to keep up with population growth … One of the most important things that we can do and that we are doing is to build the kind of workforce that can support a population which is getting bigger but also getting a bit older as well, and some of those trends have been exacerbated by Covid.

Chalmers pointed to the migration review being conducted by the home affairs department, Labor’s childcare subsidies, and addressing skills shortages as ways to expand the workforce and increase skills to support an ageing population.

Paul Karp

Jim Chalmers briefly comments on Raad’s arrest

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has commented on the arrest of Mariam Raad for allegedly entering a declared area in Syria.

Chalmers told ABC News Breakfast:

This is obviously part of an ongoing effort from our counterterrorism authorities. You’re right, that it does apply to conduct which [allegedly] occurred in 2014. Our understanding is that there has been no threat to the community since she returned and there’s obviously a process to go through now which involves the AFP and others. And so I don’t have much to add beyond that .

Our assurance for the Australian people … is that we will always do what is in the interest of community safety. And making these decisions for the right reasons and well-founded decisions. And so people can expect us to continue to monitor and take all of the necessary steps.

Labor has come under criticism from the Coalition for allowing women and children to return from Syrian camps.

Miriam Raad due to face court

AAP is reporting that the New South Wales woman who was repatriated to Australia from a Syrian refugee camp is due to face court after being charged with entering and remaining in parts of Syria that were under the control of Islamic State.

Mariam Raad, 31, was arrested on Thursday in Young, in the state’s south-west, where she had been living since being returned in October.

Australian federal police and NSW police investigators from the NSW joint counter-terrorism team executed warrants at her home and a home in Parklea, in Sydney’s north-west, where a relative lives.

She was charged with entering, or remaining in, “declared areas” – in this case Syria, which was under the control of the terrorist group IS – in breach of federal law.

She faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

Raad is due to appear via an audio-visual link in Wagga Wagga local court on Friday.

It will be alleged in court that she travelled to Syria in early 2014 to join her husband – Muhammad Zahar – who left Australia in 2013 and joined IS.

It will be further alleged Raad was aware of her husband’s activities with IS and willingly travelled to the conflict region.

The husband, a former Sydney maths teacher who rose through the ranks of IS, is believed to have died in Syria in 2018.

The woman was until last year living in the Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp in northern Syria, which has been under Kurdish control since the defeat of IS.

The investigation into the woman began when she was in Syria and continued after she returned.

You can read more on the story at the link below:

China reportedly considering allowing Australian coal imports to resume

AAP is reporting that Australia-China relations appear on the mend amid reports Beijing will allow coal imports to resume for the first time since 2020.

It’s the latest positive step between the two nations after the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, met with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in November and the Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, met with her counterpart in Beijing last month.

Australian coal exporters are becoming more confident it’s more than just a rumour, despite similar reports last year that China was considering resuming purchases of Australian coal coming to nothing.

The sector is encouraging China to move decisively and not risk missing out on its next round of purchase contracts.

Australia China Business Council president David Olsson said it would pave the way for more business dealings in the future.

Now that high-level government-to-government meetings between Australia and China have recommenced, we have a better environment in which to address trade restrictions that are in place between the two countries.

The resumption of high-level meetings sends a strong, positive signal to the Chinese system and business community about Australia’s role as a business partner for China.

Australia-China Relations Institute research principal Roc Shi said while the economic impact of the resumption of the coal trade might not be huge, it would be a step forward.

The change is more important politically than economically … This action signals China has made the first step towards mending the relationship.

Technically, it is not difficult for the Chinese government as the ban has never been officially announced … however, the implication is significant as it indicates China’s willingness to improve the bilateral relationship.

Good morning, Mostafa Rachwani with you for the first Friday of the year, which will also bring us the first batch of Covid figures for the year.

Eyes will be on the spread of the XBB.1.5 variant which has been found in Australia, with authorities on the lookout for how far it can reach. While there is no evidence the new variant is more severe than previous iterations, the World Health Organisation said it was concerned about XBB.1.5 given how easily it can be shared.

Elsewhere, after drip-feeding morsels of details, we will finally get a look at the 2022 population report in full today, with all the details adding up to paint an interesting picture of the future of Australia. We already know we are an ageing population, that Melbourne is on track to overtake Sydney, and that growth has slowed due to the pandemic – a fuller picture should become clear today.

On the Gold Coast, a young Sydney boy remains in a coma following the fatal helicopter collision earlier this week. Nicholas Tadros, 10, was in the helicopter taking off, and is still in a critical condition.

And road rules are being relaxed in north-western Western Australia so the emergency supplies can get in, as the region faces its worst ever flooding. Emergency evacuations continued in the Kimberley yesterday, as the Fitzroy River’s flood peak bore down on tiny Noonkanbah.

The emergency services minister, Stephen Dawson, told reporters that it was the worst flooding the state had ever seen, as helicopters spent the day saving people from their rooftops:

People in the Kimberley are experiencing a one-in-100-year flood event, the worst flooding WA has ever seen.

This situation is still changing and it’s proving to be extremely challenging.

We’ll bring you more on that, and everything else happening in the country, stay tuned.