23:17
It will come as no surprise but the Covidsafe contact-tracing app has been used just 13 times in the past six months during the Delta outbreaks in NSW and Victoria.
The second report on the operation of the app, released this month, reveals between May and November this year, contact tracers downloaded data from the app just 13 times, with only two potential close contacts identified through the app.
The 13 users who uploaded their data showed 331 exchanges between phones using the app, with nine encounters (where the phones were within 1.5m of each other for a period of time). With just two potential close contacts identified.
It shows a massive decline in not only people using the app, but contact tracers relying on it in the peak of the Delta wave in Australia. Since the launch 2020, there have been 792 people with Covid uploading data from the app, with 2,829 potential close contacts identified.
As previously reported, there are less than two dozen close contacts identified who weren’t found through manual contact tracing. The report says by identifying a previously-unknown exposure date at Mounties in Sydney, two people who were at that venue were found to have tested positive for Covid-19.
The report also reveals the measurement was changed to account for Delta in October. Instead of needing people to be in contact for 15 minutes or more, public health officers can now view encounters of between one minute and 15 minutes, meaning fleeting contacts where Delta could have been transmitted could have been captured by the app, provided people were using it.
The government still refuses to say how many users continue to use the app. The department said in the report that the Sydney outbreak in June led to a doubling of registrations nationally, and numbers increased again after the fourth and fifth lockdowns in Melbourne.
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22:59
I’ve been watching the ongoing case against sitting judge Salvatore Vasta, who is being personally sued for his handling of a routine property settlement case in 2018, during which he jailed a man for contempt.
Such proceedings are remarkably rare. Judges like Vasta, who sits on the federal circuit court bench, are generally protected by judicial immunity, shielding them from being sued as a result of errors.
In this case, Vasta has conceded he mistakenly assumed that another judge had previously found the man, known by the pseudonym Mr Stradford, to have breached a court order, making him guilty of contempt. Vasta then sentenced him to 12 months imprisonment, to serve six.
Stradford says he endured a torrid time in prison.
His lawyers are arguing Vasta, as an inferior court judge, exceeded his jurisdiction in jailing Stradford and has therefore lost the protection of judicial immunity.
Jeremy Kirk, SC, acting for Vasta, said in his closing submissions on Tuesday that he accepted Vasta could have found out there had been no hearing on Stradford’s alleged previous contempt prior to jailing him.
Kirk said:
We accept he could have found it out with reasonable inquiries. It was as I said a significant human mistake, but a human mistake nonetheless.
It did have serious consequences, we don’t avoid that conclusion or characterisation either. That being said, many exercises of judicial power can have serious consequences.
But Kirk maintained that Vasta is protected by judicial immunity and should not even be before the court.
The hearing continues before justice Michael Wigney in the federal court.
22:34
Two dogs have been rescued from mine shafts by specialist Victorian firefighters in separate incidents in the same week.
The Country Fire Authority’s Bendigo-based Oscar1 Brigade rescued Bruno the bull-Arab on 5 December after he fell down a mine shaft at Castlemaine Diggins National Park, reports AAP.
Less than six days later, the brigade was called to rescue Terry the kelpie-cross from a mine shaft at Woodend.
“The owner said they were camping and the dog just went for a run, but as it was night and you can’t see these mine shafts at the best of times, he just fell down the hole,” Captain Daniel McMahon said.
“It was a 15-metre shaft but we thought it may have been a false floor, meaning there could have been another 10 or 20 metres below if the floor had collapsed.
“Terry was in surprisingly good nick though with no injuries, so we hooked him up to the ropes and Woodend brigade helped pull him up.”
McMahon said he was pleased both incidents ended with a good result.
“Rescuing a dog in a mineshaft is a serious job, but for us, it also doubles as real-world experience in case we are called to a community member in the same unfortunate situation,” he said.
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22:02
Scott Morrison says Omicron won’t ‘take us back’ to lockdowns
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, says the emergent Omicron variant will not “take us back” to more Covid-19 restrictions, and Australia is now prepared to open up and live with the virus.
Announcing a deal with Moderna and the Victorian government that will see a new manufacturing facility built in Melbourne by as early as 2024, Morrison said the country’s high vaccination rate meant Australia could “continue to move forward”.
“We’re not letting Omicron take us back,” Morrison said.
“We’ve decided as a country to live with this virus and Australians have worked so hard for that.
“Australia can now open up. This Christmas we’re about to have is a gift Australians have given to themselves by the way they’ve worked together with the settings that we’ve put in place.”
Morrison also conceded the Coalition had made mistakes during the pandemic, including in the early phases of the vaccination rollout, but said these had been overcome.
Read more:
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21:06
Australia’s drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has tested a number of imported products labelled as ivermectin and found that they are counterfeit.
The products Iversun-12, Covimectin-12, and Ivilife-12 failed laboratory tests. In a statement the TGA said the findings should “serve as a warning against buying ivermectin products from unverified online sellers”.
“Counterfeit products may contain undeclared and hazardous ingredients that could cause a serious adverse reaction. They may also be contaminated because of a lack of manufacturing and testing standards.”
The TGA is working with the Australian Border Force to target counterfeit and unlawful ivermectin entering Australia. Border force will refer suspected counterfeit products to the TGA for further direction.
The TGA has also warned against self-medicating with unproven Covid-19 drugs like ivermectin.
“It is very dangerous to take large doses of ivermectin and there is insufficient evidence to validate its safe and effective use for Covid-19,” the TGA said.
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20:39
NSW commits to easing rules for unvaccinated
As Covid cases in New South Wales continue to rise, the state government has committed to its plan to lift restrictions for unvaccinated residents from tomorrow.
On Tuesday, as NSW recorded 804 new cases, the government insisted it had considered all the options but was committed to easing restrictions on Wednesday in order to return the state “back to a full life of normality”, AAP reports.
From Wednesday, unvaccinated people will be allowed back in pubs, cafes, gyms and shops and mask mandates will be eased.
The NSW health minister Brad Hazzard made the comments as health authorities are battling to contain an outbreak of the Omicron variant, with a total of 85 cases now confirmed in the state.
“We’re not about to start backflipping on issues we promised,” Hazzard said.
Hazzard also warned “once the unvaccinated are mixing with the vaccinated, the numbers will increase even further”.
“That’s worrying because that puts pressure on our doctors and nurses and our frontline health system,” he said.
He was scathing about people who refused to get vaccinated, saying they were “very vulnerable to what is a rapidly increasing number of Covid cases”.
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20:35
A decade of reforms to save the Murray-Darling basin could be undermined by New South Wales’ plans to license too much flood water harvesting, with insiders warning that NSW’s processes will result in irrigators being licensed to take billions of litres of flows without proper environmental assessment.
Two members of the four-person Healthy Floodplains Review committee, which hears appeals from irrigators about their proposed flood plain water entitlements, say the system is “sloppy”, “flawed” and should be reviewed immediately.
They say over the last 12 months the committee has been swamped with more than 400 appeals, involving 1,300 separate flood plain harvesting structures; the committee is overwhelmed and applications are often accompanied by poor evidence.
Irrigators, they say, are now “consultant shopping” to achieve outcomes many times larger than the initial assessment by the Natural Resources Access Regulator, which conducted an on-the-ground survey of dams and other structures used in flood plain harvesting.
Read more:
20:32
Retail giant Woolworths has endured one of its most challenging trading periods following the emergence of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19, AAP reports.
The supermarket operator said its stock flows and operating rhythm were rocked by the scare in the first six months of fiscal 2022.
Chief executive Brad Banducci said today in a market update:
The first half of F22 has been one of the most challenging halves we have experienced in recent memory due to the far-reaching impact of the Covid Delta strain.
He said the costs of trading in a Covid environment would affect first-half earnings.
Woolworths, which will release its first-half results in late February, expects to see a direct cost hit of $150 million in its Australian Food division in addition to direct costs of between $60 million to $70 million.
Australian Food earnings before interest and tax are forecast to be between $1.19 billion and $1.22 billion, compared with about $1.33 billion in the same period in fiscal 2021.
Banducci said during a call with analysts also saw challenges in Christmas trade, namely sourcing goods due to the supply chain difficulties of the pandemic.
It’s not going to be an easy ride into Christmas.
We’ll have a white knuckle ride – not in demand, but in having the stock there for them to buy.
Consumer electronics and some toys were proving difficult to source for Big W stores.
The retail giant will also book a bonus payment for staff of between $35m and $40m as a way of saying thank you for their efforts during the pandemic.
Shares in Woolworths Group on the ASX were down 8.5% to $37.08 at 11.44 AEDT.
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20:17
Jam Land, the company part-owned by the energy minister Angus Taylor and his brother Richard, illegally poisoned critically endangered grasslands and should restore native habitat, a ministerial review of the original investigation has concluded.
The decision, published late Friday, follows an 18-month review of the original determination which ordered Jam Land to restore 103 hectares of grasslands on a property in the New South Wales Monaro region.
It comes more than five years after the company poisoned the grasslands, known as the natural temperate grassland of the south-eastern highlands, on a property in Corrowong.
You can read the full report below:
20:12
New Zealanders stuck overseas and Kiwi business groups have reacted with despair to Jacinda Ardern’s border rethink, AAP reports.
The change-up was the biggest talking point in New Zealand’s Parliament House on Tuesday, where politicians have returned for the last sitting week of the year.
On Monday, Ardern announced the planned reopening to Australia-based New Zealanders, set for 17 January, would be subject to a last-minute review in early January.
We haven’t changed any decisions at this stage around reconnection … but I think people understand we need to review the latest details and evidence around Omicron.
The review is in contrast to previous statements from Ardern’s ministers they were “very committed” to the date, and Kiwis should make travel plans for then, knowing they could bypass hotel quarantine for self-isolation.
Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins insisted on Tuesday:
It’s looking very likely that we’ll proceed.
But we can’t discount the possibility that Omicron could prove to be a spanner in the works.
The border rethink comes amid surging vaccine rates in New Zealand. As of Tuesday, 89% of Kiwis aged 12 or over are fully vaccinated, and 94% have had one dose.
New Zealand’s reticence to reopen contrasts with shifts from hold-out Australian states.
After hitting vaccine targets, Queensland has opened up without self-isolation requirements for fully vaccinated travellers, Tasmania is following suit on Wednesday, and Western Australia will do so from February 5.
Business NZ chief executive Kirk Hope said the NZ government was “overly cautious”.
They’re using an approach that has suited them well. But it’s increasingly frustrating for business, who are going to be at a competitive disadvantage to Australia.
The (border rethink) signal has created quite a lot of uncertainty for business, which had been looking forward to the door opening on the border even just a bit.
The border review – slated for 7 or 8 January – has drawn scorn from opposition parties.
Opposition leader Christopher Luxon – the big winner from polling released on Tuesday that indicated 20% of New Zealanders rated him their preferred prime minister – said the time had come to reopen.
The rest of the world is moving on.
They are finding a way to move forward … it is about risk management. We have to find a way through to manage risk intelligently.
Separated families are also aghast, given many had put off applying for quarantine places in recent weeks believing the border would be open to them from 17 January.
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