Health News at Your Fingertips

With that, we’ll wrap up our live coverage of the day’s news. Here’s a summary of the main developments:

• Results from the 2021 census were released on Tuesday. Christianity is in decline, millennials are catching up to boomers, and everyone was at home, were among the key insights from the pandemic census night.
• Meanwhile, India has overtaken China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth for Australian residents, 2021 census data has found.
• You can check out our interactive looking at how Covid changed Australia and your suburb.
• Forty-six people were found dead and 16 others were taken to hospital after being found inside a truck on Monday on a remote back road in south-west San Antonio, Texas officials have said.
• Twelve more Blockade Australia climate protesters have been arrested over the group’s mass disruption campaign in Sydney’s CBD.
• John Barilaro told the New South Wales premier, Dominic Perrottet, in a “social setting” that he intended to apply for a plum $500,000 trade job in New York, some time after the former deputy premier quit parliament last year.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back bright and early tomorrow to do it all over again.

Caitlin Cassidy

India third most common country of birth for Australian residents, census finds

India has overtaken China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth for Australian residents, 2021 census data has found.

On 10 August 2021, 673,352 people living in Australia reported India as their country of birth – an increase of 220,000, or 47.9%, since the previous census in 2016. The most common country of birth was Australia, followed by England.

Overall, more than one million migrants arrived in Australia in the past five years despite Covid-19 travel restrictions.

The census data, released on Tuesday, provides the most up-to-date information on cultural diversity, language and religion, and found Australia continues to be a broadly multicultural nation.

Half of Australians have a parent born overseas, and more than one in four were born internationally.

Read more:

Josh Taylor

Cold weather to continue in southern Australia

The southern parts of Australia will experience frosty winter mornings for the next week, the Bureau of Meterology has said, while in the Northern Territory, the normally dry season will be experiencing larger amounts of rainfall.

Bureau of Meterology senior forecaster Christie Johnson said we will see frosty mornings on and off through southern parts of Australia, with the southeast getting a reprieve with a cold front coming through.

It will move through South Australia tomorrow and then across the rest of south-east Australia tomorrow night and Thursday night.

It will bring more cloud cover so it will mean slightly warmer nights, even if it does bring showers and snow. But Johnson said the temperatures, which have been dipping below subzero, were similar to last year.

A cloudband over the Northern Territory at the moment will extend over Queensland in the coming days, and will bring light rainfall to the areas, but due to it being the dry season there it will be many times the monthly average experienced in the area.

The cloud cover, rain and cold winds will mean maximum temperatures will be 8 to 12 degrees below average.

Benita Kolovos

Victoria’s free flu shot program extended

The Victorian government is extending its free flu shot program over the school holidays.

The new health minister, Mary-Anne Thomas, on Tuesday announced the program would continue to 10 July.

Throughout June all Victorians aged six months and over have been eligible for a free flu shot from more than 2,000 GP clinics and community pharmacies across the state.

Thomas says the extension of the program will provide families with additional time to access the free service when it best suits them:

As many Victorians have experienced first-hand already, this is shaping up to be the most aggressive flu season we’ve seen since the start of the pandemic, with thousands of cases being recorded across the state each week.

We’ve been heartened by the huge turnout from Victorians so far for the flu shot, but we can do even better – that’s why we’re extending this program so more people can access this free service.

Getting vaccinated against both Covid-19 and the flu not only keeps the pressure off our hospitals, but also gives you and your loved ones the best protection possible over the winter period.

A controversial Queensland coalmine’s expansion has been given final environmental approval after a decade-long campaign against it, reports AAP.

Stage three of New Hope Group’s New Acland open-cut coalmine, in north-west Toowoomba, was on Tuesday given the green light by the Department of Environment and Science.

Landholders and environmentalists have protested against the project, and last year unsuccessfully tried to have it blocked in the land court.

The project will lift New Acland’s output from 4.8m tonnes to 7.8m tonnes a year, and extend the mine’s life for 12 years to 2034.

“The EA (environmental approval) only takes effect upon the grant of a mining tenure, which is yet to be provided,” a DES official said.

“It includes a number of strict conditions, including ensuring that air and noise emissions from proposed activities are managed and monitored effectively.

“Should there be any activity prior to all approvals being granted, the independent regulator will monitor compliance with environmental obligations in accordance with the EA.”

The New Acland mine is a thermal coalmine, which provides fuel for power plants in Australia and overseas.

Labor announces mutual obligation changes

Luke Henriques-Gomes

The employment minister, Tony Burke, has announced minor changes to the new mutual obligations system set to begin next month.

Some welfare advocates have been calling for a pause to the new model – which uses a “points” system – but Burke said last week it was too late to make changes to the plan, which was passed by the former government with Labor’s support.

Under the new system, rather than simply applying for 20 jobs a month, jobseekers will be able to accumulate 100 points – and therefore meet their obligations – by completing a range of different activities.

Guardian Australia reported this month that under the “points-based activation system” a jobseeker in full-time study would still not obtain the 100 points required to meet their mutual obligations.

Burke said on Tuesday the government would be “ensuring that someone participating in full-time study or training that improves their long-term job prospects is not putting their qualifications at risk. This includes ensuring that vulnerable individuals will have no job search requirements if they are undertaking approved short full-time courses.”

Under a new list circulated by Burke’s office on Tuesday, full-time-equivalent education still attracted only 20 points (or 80 of the 100 required over a month). But a footnote was added suggesting the “points target and minimum job search requirement can be tailored for participants undertaking education”.

Jobseekers have previously complained that although their requirements were already supposed to be flexible and negotiated with their job agency, this had not occurred in practice.

Burke said the minimum number of job applications a person would have to complete each month would be reduced to four, rather than five as originally announced.

Those who have “demerit points” – payment suspensions for breaching the rules that can lead to more significant penalties if accumulated – will also have their record wiped clean when the new system starts, as Burke had flagged in a radio interview last week.

“It is important to note that people who continue to do exactly what they did under the old system – apply for 20 jobs a month – will still meet their points requirements and therefore satisfy their mutual obligation,” Burke said.

Some activities have also had their points allocation boosted in the new list of activities.

The changes are unlikely to satisfy advocates, who have raised concerns about the increase in automation and are more broadly critical of mutual obligations requirements. This will be used to enact welfare payment suspensions when people do not reach their 100 points. An Acoss report today found significant dissatisfaction with the former Jobactive system and warned the new model was set to contain many of the same problems.

Nick Evershed

Use our census data interactive

The first lot of data from the 2021 census is out. Use our interactive to find out how your area was affected by coronavirus demographic changes and more.

The 2021 census was conducted on 10 August, when much of the country was deep in Covid-19 lockdown. The first tranche of data provides a snapshot of mid-pandemic Australia.

The country is changing. Millennials are becoming the nation’s largest generation, overtaking the baby boomers, and the population in regional areas is growing.

Explore our interactive here:

Anthony Albanese is speaking from Madrid, where he is condemning Russia’s attack on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in Ukraine which killed 16 people.

The audio from that press conference was fairly patchy, but the prime minister is about to enter a meeting of Nato nations.

We should hear more shortly.

Weekly Covid fatalities rising steadily since March

Josh Nicholas

Covid deaths have been rising in the past couple of months.

Deaths were as low as 144 per week at the beginning of March but are now hovering around 300 per week.

There have already been 96 reported deaths in the first two days of this week.

Josh Taylor

Good Guys pauses trial of facial recognition technology

The Good Guys has paused its trial of facial recognition technology following a Choice complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about its use.

The retailer was one of three identified to be using the technology as part of an investigation by the consumer group earlier this month. The company said it was used in two stores only as part of a trial for store safety and theft prevention.

A spokesperson for Good Guys said on Tuesday the company would wait for “clarification” from the OAIC about the technology:

The Good Guys today confirmed it will pause the trial of the upgraded security system with the optional facial recognition technology being conducted in two of its Melbourne stores.

The Good Guys take the confidentiality of personal information extremely seriously and remains confident that the trial complied with all applicable laws. The technology was solely used to review incidents of theft, and for the purposes of customer and team member safety and wellbeing.

The decision was made to pause the trial at this time pending any clarification from the OAIC regarding the use of this technology.

Josh Nicholas

Rents increasing, census reveals

The census shows rents have shot up in many areas around the country. The median weekly rent increased $90 in Hobart between the 2016 and 2021 census, to $350.

Median weekly rents increased $70 in The ACT, to $450. That is just $20 behind Sydney, which increased just $30 over the same period.

Here are the latest coronavirus case numbers from around Australia on Tuesday, as the country records at least 75 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 1,159
• In hospital: 121 (with no one in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 40
• Cases: 8,623
• In hospital: 1,540 (with 49 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

• Deaths: 1
• Cases: 302
• In hospital: 17 (with 1 person in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 19
• Cases: 5,268
• In hospital: 593 (with 14 people in ICU)

South Australia

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 2,626
• In hospital: 246 (with 8 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 1,228
• In hospital: 45 (with 4 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 11
• Cases: 7,758
• In hospital: 468 (with 35 people in ICU)

Western Australia

• Deaths: 4
• Cases: 4,810
• In hospital: 246 (with 11 people in ICU)

A woman has died while snorkelling in the Whitsundays, the Courier Mail reports.

The woman, aged in her 50s, reportedly developed chest pain and breathing difficulties on Tuesday.

When she came up for air and indicated her issues, the woman was brought back on board the commercial boat she had been out on and was taken back to shore, at about midday.

First responders reportedly met the woman at the Coral Sea Marina about half an hour later, however the woman could not be revived.

Josh Nicholas

More Census data, showing the top ancestries of respondents:

Christopher Knaus

Pastoralist company seeking injunction against fracking in Beetaloo Basin

Some news out of the Beetaloo Basin in the Northern Territory, where a group of fracking companies are currently conducting exploratory drilling, which was incentivised by tens of millions of dollars in subsidies announced by the last government.

One of Australia’s biggest pastoralists, Rallen Australia, has just announced it is seeking an injunction against fracking company Tamboran and its subsidiary Sweetpea Petroleum.

Rallen and Sweetpea have been engaged in a bitter dispute over the latter’s plans to conduct exploratory drilling on the Tanumbirini cattle station, which Rallen holds the lease for. A tribunal has previously ordered that Rallen allow Sweetpea access to the land to conduct exploratory drilling.

The current dispute involves Sweetpea’s attempts to build an access road across Newcastle Creek, home to a number of sacred sites protected by Northern Territory law.

The injunction will seek an immediate cessation of the roadworks. Its argument is supported by one Indigenous group, the Nurrdalinji Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, which says it has repeatedly asked Sweetpea to halt the roadworks. Sweetpea holds the proper authorisation it needs from the NT authority that protects sacred sites.

It submitted detailed plans about its work around Newcastle Creek and says it has left a buffer around sacred sites. Sweetpea says it has consulted widely with recognised Indigenous groups through the Northern Land Council and has consent for the work.

The case will come before the NT supreme court at 2.30pm Australian eastern time.

Josh Nicholas

Population density unchanged

Much has been said about a shift away from apartments and dense living during Covid but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Almost exactly the same share of the population live in apartments and detached houses as in 2016.