Health News at Your Fingertips

That is where we will leave the live blog for Saturday. Here’s what made the news today:

We will be back again tomorrow for day 28 of the federal election. Until then, stay safe.

Here is NSW Labor’s response to the grants review report via AAP:

Labor pounced on what it deemed is the government’s “culture of pork-barrelling” saying the review “confirms the grants process in NSW is broken”.

“This is … an opportunity for Dominic Perrottet to end the historic culture of pork-barrelling in the Liberal-National government,” leader Chris Minns said on Saturday.

“His failure to act in light of this report would be a betrayal of the taxpayers who trust the government to fairly distribute government funds.”

Labor has called for an overhaul of the grants process, proposing a bill that would impose new reporting requirements on ministers and agencies as well as confer new powers on the auditor-general to follow the money.

You can read our full story below.

Asked whether the government would make amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act to protect gay teachers and students from discrimination at the same time as the proposed religious discrimination bill, Morrison says the religious discrimination bill will go first, regardless of calls from Liberals such as Senator Andrew Bragg for the two to go together.

He says:

We will deal with the RDA first.

When asked on a timeline on when it would happen, Morrison said it would depend on what happens at the election.

Morrison is quite keen to show being across the detail of the government’s NDIS policy.

He says it needs to be fully funded, with improved participant experience through better participant advocacy, and earlier intervention.

He says there is also a need to “protect the taxpayer” from “getting ripped off” because he says “not everyone has the best of intentions”.

Finally, he says it is about building up the workforce in the sector.

Asked whether he would like to see New Zealand take more action to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific and on Solomon Islands, Morrison says Australia and New Zealand are different:

Very different countries, and we had very different types of abilities. And I’ve worked very closely with the prime minister level on these issues, including on issues that have been very front of mind lately. And we share the same concerns and I must say we share the same passion for the Pacific region. And we both have spent a lot of time in the region. And so I would say that we’ve been good partners on this. And when we engage in our Pacific step-up, they are engaged in a very similar program in New Zealand and we work closely to ensure that they harmonise together and particularly when they’re putting new missions in now we have new missions in every single one of foreign countries. So Australia has been in a position to do quite a lot when it comes to air defence and other activities. But I must say I think Zealand has been very positive in working with them, particularly in the diplomatic and overseas development assistance area.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is holding a press conference in Perth announcing the $20m tourism funding package we reported earlier.

The package is designed to support wineries, breweries and distilleries so they can update their infrastructure and lure more people through their doors.

It includes $15m for wineries, distilleries and breweries, with $100,000 grants to build or upgrade on-site facilities such as restaurants and tour areas.

A further $5m would go to tourism and local governments to help bring more visitors to the sites.

Following the announcement Morrison argues against people voting for independent candidates, saying it will be difficult for a government to have to negotiate for every single whim of the independents.

He claims the agenda of the independents would “destroy the economy”.

He is then asked about why there are so many soft voters at the moment. Morrison then repeats it is not a reality show contest, and people can go and vote on The Voice.

He claims Labor leader Anthony Albanese has not been announcing policy in the week since Sunday (which given he announced five policies at the Labor party launch last weekend seems to be a bit misleading).

Mr Albanese came out and seems to have done less when it comes to policy, since he’s been out of isolation, than when he was in isolation, and then not one policy and out since last Sunday, and the policies he has announced, he can’t even explain. And what that says is, you don’t know this guy.

And with that, I am going to hand you over to my colleague Josh Taylor, who will take you through the afternoon.

Thank you – as always – for spending the day with me!

From AAP:

More than 300 frontline workers in Victoria have been honoured for their heroic efforts during the Black Summer bushfires.

Volunteer firefighters and CFA staff were presented with National Emergency Medals (NEM) in East Gippsland on Friday and Saturday, three years after the deadly fires.

Governor-General David Hurley presented the awards during a ceremony hosted by the Country Fire Authority.

“The National Emergency Medal acknowledges the efforts that have been made during some of our country’s most challenging periods,” Mr Hurley said.

“The NEM is a means of saying thank you to recipients, and that Australia recognises the service they have given.”

More than 5500 medals will be awarded in the coming months to those who served during the crisis.

The Black Summer bushfires occurred in various parts of Australia and resulted in nearly 450 deaths from smoke inhalation. An estimated three billion animals were killed or displaced.

CFA Chief Officer Jason Heffernan said recovery efforts were ongoing.

We’ve got more here from AAP about the opposition leader’s visit to Launceston:

Anthony Albanese has attacked the prime minister’s “stick with the devil you know” plea to Australians, pledging to create a lasting legacy if he wins office on May 21.

Addressing a Labor rally in Launceston an energised Mr Albanese sought to pick apart the Liberals’ postulation that the re-election of the incumbent government would result in greater economic stability.

“This government have been in office for almost a decade and they’re saying just give us three more years and we’ll get around to it,” he told a room of 300 supporters.

“People know all about Scott Morrison. They’ve worked him out.

“The truth is, only the Rolling Stones ever got away with asking us to have sympathy for the devil and he is certainly no Jagger or Richards.”

Mr Albanese also said he wanted to inspire Australians during his time in office.

Mr Morrison has previously stated he doesn’t think about leaving a legacy, but rather focused on the tasks ahead.

We’ve got more here from Josh Taylor on the review of the New South Wales government’s grants spending:

Here is a breakdown of the daily numbers by state and territory:

NSW

Deaths – 19
Cases – 11,671
Hospitalisations – 1,481 (54 in ICU)

Victoria

Deaths – 9
Cases – 9,365
Hospitalisations – 494 (35 in ICU)

Queensland

Deaths – 5
Cases – 6,662
Hospitalisations – 41,097 (12 in ICU)

ACT

Deaths – 0
Cases – 975
Hospitalisations – 63 (4 in ICU)

SA

Deaths – 2
Cases – 3,304
Hospitalisations – 214 (13 in ICU)

WA

Deaths – 6
Cases – 9,243
Hospitalisations – 275 (11 in ICU)

Tasmania

Deaths – 2
Cases – 903
Hospitalisations – 48 (1 in ICU)

NT

Deaths – 1
Cases – 298
Hospitalisations – 36 (3 in ICU)

Reported Covid infection rates in Australia are already among the highest in the world.

As of data from 2 May, Australia’s average daily infection rate is 1,515 cases per million people – the second-highest in the world for countries with a population greater than 1 million, after New Zealand (1,566 cases per million).

Why are reported infection rates in Australia so high compared with other countries – and despite sustained transmission of the virus, why do many now feel apathetic about Covid? Donna Lu has the answers:

The ACT has recorded 975 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours.

There are currently 69 cases in hospital, and of those four are in ICU.