Health News at Your Fingertips

That’s all from us today, folks. You may have noticed Natasha May did all the hard yards and I just swanned in and gave you a couple of animal stories. She’s a rock star and will be back next week, but you can tune in tomorrow for more live blog action. Here are today’s highlights:

Have a delightful Saturday evening!

Rare orcas spotted for first time in Victorian waters

A rare type of orca has been spotted for the first time in Victorian waters, according to the ABC.

About 15 Type C orcas cavorted around a whale-watching boat off the Gippsland coast. Apparently they usually hang out closer to Antarctica, are smaller than other types, and they “have a very distinctive and dramatically slanted eye patch”.

And these killer whales eat fish, not mammals.

Climate change is the “single greatest threat” to the wellbeing and security of the Pacific Islands, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has told a G20 meeting in Indonesia.

AAP reports that Chalmers made a special mention of Australia’s Pacific neighbours in an address to global finance ministers.

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors have gathered at a summit in Bali, where Chalmers described ambitious action on climate as a generational imperative.

An upgraded electricity grid supporting more renewable energy and “predictable” framework for industry to decarbonise will help Australia meet its 2030 emissions reduction target of 43% below 2005 levels, Chalmers said:

We’re also working with our Pacific partners, recognising that climate change is the single greatest threat to their wellbeing and their security.

We want to be part of a more vibrant, sustainable finance agenda in our region which reflects the different needs and opportunities for individual countries and for the region at large.

The comments follow a Pacific Islands Forum summit in which leaders declared a climate emergency.

While the newly elected Australian government’s stronger position on climate was welcomed, some leaders in the region have publicly pushed for greater action.

“Australia’s new climate pledge is a step-up that Fiji has long sought – but out of the duty I owe every young person in the Pacific, I have urged @AlboMP to go further for our family’s shared future by aligning Australia’s commitment to the 1.5-degree target,” Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, tweeted on Wednesday.

Chalmers also used the speech to acknowledge the former Liberal finance minister Mathias Cormann, who is now the secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He said:

A key priority for the new Australian government is introducing clear and globally-aligned climate reporting requirements for large businesses and financial institutions.

I look forward to joining with a big group of countries represented here who are developing stronger requirements for disclosure of climate risks and opportunities.

GPs, like the Australian Medical Association, are calling for more telehealth consultations to be made available:

Here are the latest coronavirus numbers from around Australia today, as the country records at least 77 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

Deaths: 0
Cases: 1,104
In hospital: 156 (with 4 people in ICU)

NSW

Deaths: 38
Cases: 11,082
In hospital: 2,024 (with 66 people in ICU)

Northern Territory

Deaths: 1
Cases: 424
In hospital: 61 (with 2 person in ICU)

Queensland

Deaths: 22
Cases: 5,795
In hospital: 921 (with 14 people in ICU)

South Australia

Deaths: 3
Cases: 3,863
In hospital: 287 (with 9 people in ICU)

Tasmania

Deaths: 2
Cases: 1,662
In hospital: 138 (with 5 people in ICU)

Victoria

Deaths: 8
Cases: 9,982
In hospital: 802 (with 34 people in ICU)

Western Australia

Deaths: 3
Cases: 6,473
In hospital: 351 (with 17 people in ICU)

The chimpanzees at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia have come down with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The park reports they were tested after getting coughs and runny noses, and the troop is now being monitored closely.

The zookeepers were already wearing PPE when working with the chimps, because they (both the chimps and the humans) are susceptible to Covid.

Cheers, Natasha May! Especially for the feel-good story. I’m still coming down after this one from earlier in the week:

Thanks to everyone following along today, I am handing you back to the wonderful Tory Shepherd who will be with you into the evening!

With rising cases, Guardian Australia has updated its Covid-19 data tracker.

You can check out the latest figures on daily new Covid-19 cases, as well as stats, charts and live state by state data, as well as numbers on the vaccine rollout and fourth dose booster vaccination rates here:

There were 1,662 new cases in the last reporting period, and five people are in intensive care.

Small Fry Rock, a children’s concert with a difference

If you’re looking for a feel-good read to brighten up this wintry Saturday afternoon, Katie Cunningham has this story about Small Fry Rock, a children’s concert with a difference.

It also features the most adorable images from Guardian Australia’s picture editor, Carly Earl.

There were 1,104 new cases in the last reporting period, and four people are in intensive care.

The Pacific Islands Forum has met for the first time in three years since the Covid pandemic. Guardian Australia’s Pacific editor, Kate Lyons, was in Suva covering the event and brings you this report looking back on the week’s forum.

She writes that while leaders presented a picture of harmony, more vexing topics like Australia’s fossil fuel ambitions and China were kicked down the road.

The acting opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has continued the Coalition’s criticisms of the government’s handling of pandemic support on the ABC.

Ley says:

Far too slow and Anthony Albanese today has refused to acknowledge his error. Now we were calling last Sunday for these payments to be reconsidered and it’s now almost a week later … a flip dragged kicking and screaming to an emergency rushed payment of national cabinet. Of course we welcome the reinstatement of the payments, but this is two weeks after they stopped.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said that timetable was set in place by the Morrison government and he was simply adhering to what was inherited, but Ley denies the Coalition has any responsibility for the timing of the way the payments have been provided.

That’s just another ridiculous excuse from the prime minister. He had the health data. His health minister stood up days ago and said millions of people were going to get Covid. He had the briefings and the information. We’re not sitting at the National Security Committee table. We’re not getting those briefings. He knew, as those payments were concluding, exactly what the health situation was turning into with new waves of Covid.

Ley highlights her concern for “the largely female casualised workforce … helping our cities, our towns, our health system, our aged care run, helping our restaurants, our retail”.

And knowing that they’re on some the lowest wages and, like many of us, they can’t choose to work from home, so putting them in this impossible position is unacceptable and Anthony Albanese needs to apologise to every casual worker who suffered stress as a result of this flip-flopping.

AMA says investment in pandemic management is a good investment

The government announced pandemic leave payments would be reinstated until the end of September. Khorshid says “we need these supports to be in place as long as they’re necessary to support Australians doing the right thing”.

Whether it will still be necessary at the end of September is a bridge we’ll have to cross at the time.

The payments should never have been removed and I think this government is learning new lessons as it gets its feet under the desk – how important it is to stay in touch with the community, with the experts and others in the community that are giving them advice, and not just to listen to bean-counters and bureaucrats that see any expenditure on health as a waste.

What he know, as doctors on the ground and as workers in a healthcare system, is that investment in healthcare and investment in pandemic management is a positive investment for Australia’s health and it will be good investment in time. And that’s one of the key lessons of the pandemic that we must not forget.