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Karvelas then asked why the reef shouldn’t be listed by Unesco as in danger, “when it clearly is”.

Ley:

Because every reef, in fact every natural world heritage property, is under the same threat, if you like, from climate change as our great barrier reef. So the unreasonableness of the listing is that our reef was singled out. You could line up every single reef in the world, not nearly as well-managed as ours, and not one of them were listed as being in danger or draft listed as being in danger.

Now we won that argument in the international forum at the world heritage committee because it was a perfectly sensible argument. But we also said we have taken a position as a country that we want to take a look at the effect of climate change on world heritage properties. Australia has done some of the leading work on that… so we’re not shying away from that. What we want is a global response to how we manage world heritage properties in the face of climate change that doesn’t single out a single one and doesn’t actually suggest that one country can on its own make a difference.

Federal environment minister Sussan Ley has been on Radio National talking about the $1bn in funding for the Great Barrier Reef announced today.

She would not provide any further detail how the funding would be spent and when, beyond saying it would be spent over nine years. Those details apparently have to wait until after the formal announcement in Northern Queensland today.

In the interview with Patricia Karvelas, Ley also said that it was unreasonable to link damage done to the reef by global heating to carbon emissions in Australia because the emissions causing global heating don’t only come from Australia. Yes, really. Here’s the full exchange.

Karvelas: Wouldn’t a more ambitious 2030 emissions reduction target be a good way to demonstrate your commitment to preserving the reef?

Ley: Well, we’ve made our response to the emissions challenge clear –

Karvelas: Minister, you have, but is it good enough given we know the reef is going to deteriorate further because of climate change. So we need more ambitious targets, don’t we, in the shorter term.

Ley: But implicit in that question is the assumption that it is Australia’s emissions that are the only emissions that are responsible for the state of the reef and that’s clearly not the case. So internationally we are playing our part. Obviously we can’t influence the emissions form the big emitters, and we know who they are, but we know that we can help build a healthy resilient reef in the face of climate change while playing our part.

Karvelas: But we can take responsibility for our own ambitions, minister. Of course the global community is part of this. Every country must take responsibility. but you’re a minister of the crown in this country. For 2030, as the minister for the reef, don’t we need more ambitious target to deal with climate change affecting the reef in the shorter term?

Ley: I think the action we’re taking by protecting the reef with this package is the best possible response to the pressures on the reef, not withstanding the global challenge of climate change and acknowledging that every country must play its part.

Ley then went on to talk about the shift to renewable energy, and said that as she travels to Queensland today, “I want to reassure the farmers, the fishers, the tourism operators that we have got their back. That we’re not setting policy that will act to elevate their costs and raise electricity prices.”

The Theraputic Goods Administration has provisionally approved the use of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine as a booster or third dose in teenagers aged 16 and 17.

In a statement, the TGA said:

Dosing in this age group is the same as the adult population – a booster dose of COMIRNATY may be administered intramuscularly after the completion of a Covid-19 vaccine primary series (2 doses). This primary series can be of any of the Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in in this age group, although data on the use of COMIRNATY as a booster with other Covid-19 vaccines is more limited.

This does not mean teenagers can book in for boosters right away. The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) will provide advice on when that age group will become eligible to receive a booster.

The TGA says it continues to monitor ongoing trials associated with booster doses for younger children.

Birmingham was also asked to comment on the decision of aged care minister Richard Colbeck to attend the Ashes on the same day he declined to front an inquiry about the federal government’s Covid response.

He said:

I have had a discussion with Richard. I have been assured as aged care minister he was receiving all of the daily briefings, that he was engaged in the meetings that he should be for all of those considerations.

Of course, he is also the minister for sport and the Ashes Test being held in his home state of Tasmania was a significant thing for Tasmania, too, but I’ve been reassured that he certainly wasn’t missing a beat in terms of engaging, as he should be in the aged care issues every single day asI know he does.

ABC24 host Michael Rowland: “It wasn’t a good look, was it?”

Birmingham:

Well, Michael, I think it’s possible for many people to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. This was a day/night Test. I know that he has reassured me.

We’re about to run through a slew of federal ministers on morning radio and TV, so bear with us.

Earlier, finance minister Simon Birmingham told ABC24 that the economy is doing fine, actually, despite the Omicron wave.

Birmingham said data released on the first half of the financial year — crucially that’s to 21 December, before the cases really took off — showed that unemployment was down and the economy was resilient.

He said:

Although we know things are tough in terms of labour market and worker shortages right now due to Omicron, we’re confident that the resilience and bounce back we’ve seen before will be repeated again as we come off of the current cases.

Birmingham was asked if the federal government would provide additional support to struggling NSW businesses, and said that was a matter for the NSW government.

The minister for families and social services, Anne Ruston, has told ABC radio that she believes every person with a disability who wants to work should be supported to do so.

Ruston announced $20m in funding for paid internships and industry training to help employers hire more people with disabilities. It comes after the new Australian of the Year, Dylan Alcott, urged non-disabled people to “challenge your unconscious biases, your negative perceptions and lift your expectation of what you think people with disability can do”.

Asked how many people with disabilities should be in work, Ruston said:

I’d like to see a figure that sees anybody who wants to have a job has a job. So I would like to see an absolute sky’s the limit target … but we do need to put measures in place to ask what support do people need in the workplace.

Good morning,

The three biggest Aboriginal organisations in the Northern Territory have written a scathing letter to the Gunner government, saying the coronavirus outbreak is “out of control” in central Australia, due to a “catastrophic failure by government”. They are calling for a lockdown to protect vulnerable communities, saying the current strategies — a “lockout” and living with covid — are not working.

Meanwhile, the New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, has criticised people for failing to get their booster shot, saying about 100,000 doses of the vaccine had been available but not taken up in recent weeks. Most adults in NSW are eligible to receive their third shot, but only 36.2% of them have got one. The deputy secretary of the NSW health department, Susan Pearce, told AAP “a perception in the community that Omicron was milder” was to blame. That perception was created, in some part, by the NSW government saying Omicron was milder.

In Victoria, 35% of those aged 18 and over have got their booster shot. The Victorian government reduced the third dose interval to three months last week. On Monday, premier Daniel Andrews said that 2.2m Victorians were eligible for their third dose but hadn’t had it yet. He wants national cabinet to agree that Australians must have three doses to be considered fully vaccinated.

And in pre-election news, the federal government has announced another $1bn in funding for the Great Barrier Reef just months after successfully lobbying Unesco to delay a decision about listing the World Heritage site as “in danger”. The prime minister Scott Morrison will make the announcement in north Queensland on Friday, a fortnight after Labor pledged $163m to protecting the reef. There is, in case you had not guessed, a fight to be had for the Cairns electorate of Leichhardt. Environmentalists have said the plan for the reef remains wanting, because the Morrison government has not committed to more aggressive emissions reductions targets and global heating remains the biggest threat to the reef.

Let’s crack on. You can get in touch on calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com or via twitter at @callapilla.