Australia Covid live news update: NSW reports 1,220 cases and eight deaths; Victoria premier attacks ‘secret’ vaccine allocations to Sydney | Australia news

A senior foreign affairs official has signalled that Australia will remain firm amid ongoing tensions with China, as he warned against “lurching from one policy position to the other”.

Justin Hayhurst, who as a deputy secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a key source of advice to the government on the Indo-Pacific region, said Australia would be “steady” and “ready” for dialogue with China.

In a panel discussion today, Hayhurst said Australia’s trade with China in some sectors had been “severely interrupted” by measures that appeared to be politically driven, and it was “not an easy situation” to resolve. He told the ANU Crawford Leadership Forum:

“And slowly we have to work through these challenges and I think the government of Australia, as you’ve seen, isn’t going to lurch from one policy position to the other. We want to be steady, we want to be ready for conversations [with] no preconditions, and our companies are very competitive, very reliable and are willing to supply markets wherever they can find them.”

Hayhurst said the push for dialogue “will take some time – and when China’s ready, Australia will be ready”.

Michèle Flournoy, a senior Obama administration official who was a leading contender to be defence secretary under Joe Biden, said allies needed to “back each other up”, but she acknowledged some American exporters may have gained from Australia’s woes:

“I’m not sure that the White House can control Napa Valley exports of wines to China.”

Morrison was also asked about how he expected so-called vaccine passports to work under the national plan signed off by states and territories.

He said the plan made clear that domestic restrictions should be lifted for vaccinated people once rates reached more than 80%, and the use of QR codes and home quarantine would facilitate this.

“We’re not talking about willy nilly movement of people unvaccinated around the country,” Morrison said.

“We’re not talking about plane loads of Covid going from one state to the next that’s a nonsense, that’s not what is under contemplation, and I don’t think any premier thinks that’s the case.”

He said that while every state came from a different place, all states would end up allowing similar freedoms to allow vaccinated people to move around.

“Home quarantine needs to work, and the QR code readers that the states have, they need to work to be able to show whether someone has been vaccinated or not,” he said.

Morrison said he expected this to be the norm not only for travel, but for access to pubs and restaurants and special events.

First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria co-chair and Bangerang/Wiradjuri woman Geraldine Atkinson is speaking at the virtual handover of the Tyerri Yoo-rrook report to the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission.

She thanks her 31 Assembly members and the Aboriginal community for months of consultation through Covid lockdowns, and says what results from the commission must lead to meaningful change:

The Yoo-rrook enquiry should strengthen First Peoples’ rights to strength and justice by holding the state responsible for ongoing harm. This is an essential foundation on the path to self determination for Treaties in Victoria. For too long, the trauma of past policies have been covered up and denied. We heard the community should be able to tell their history and have it told in their own terms.

The process should allow for a full story in our own words … to examine the range of injustices our diverse community have endured and survived … the truth of our resilience, resistance, interconnection and courage that is our culture and collective story. My mother told me the stories about what happened to her at Cummeragunja mission, her life growing up, and the cruelty they experienced, but she also told us about the strength and resilience of her community for their rights to country.

That’s what motivates me in teaching my own grandchildren. Grounded in self determination, this process should look different to previous royal commissions we’ve seen in this country. What results must lead to meaningful change.

The ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, has been asked about the exemption granted to Morrison to come to Canberra after he went to Sydney over the father’s day weekend.

Barr told reporters in Canberra that he can “understand community frustration about what they perceive the prime minister has done” but noted people are free to leave the ACT.

Barr explained the reasons supplied by Morrison for an “essential work” exemption to come to Canberra were a national security meeting of cabinet and the women’s summit – and that ACT Health essentially had to “take it on trust from the commonwealth” that these were necessary.

Barr said the prime minister’s role is “unique” and the ACT needs a functioning system of exemptions for MPs it to be the seat of the federal government, but directed further questions to Morrison.

“I’m not the prime minister’s keeper,” Barr said, before eventually venturing a personal opinion that it was “not a good look”.

The ACT chief health officer, Kerryn Coleman, refused to comment on Morrison’s specific case, but she said as a public health official it was not up to her to “judge the essentiality” of work, and ACT Health relies on advice from industry when granting exemptions.

Coleman said there was no evidence the trip and the restrictions that mean Morrison can only attend his workplace and residence (the Lodge) were unsafe.

The prime minister was also asked about a report on 730 about the allocation of Pfizer doses that showed NSW had received greater than its per capita share.

Morrison claimed that the additional doses that had gone to NSW were largely from the extra doses that the commonwealth had secured from Poland, and claimed he had personally refused a request from the NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to divert extra doses to the state.

Daniel Andrews was particularly unhappy with the suggestion NSW had received more Pfizer vaccinations, and called on the federal government to remedy the imbalance.

“The argument was being put forward that New South Wales should take doses from other states, well, I’ll tell you who said no to that, it was me. It wasn’t the states and territories,” Morrison said.

“I wasn’t going to have doses moved from other states to New South Wales, I went out and got more doses from Poland and that’s where the additional doses came from.”

Yorta Yorta and Dja Dja Wurrung man Trent Nelson is kicking off virtual proceedings as the First Nations’ Assembly of Victoria passes its inaugural Tyerri Yoo-rrook report to the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission.

With the statutory powers of a royal commission, the Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will investigate the injustices experienced by First Peoples since colonisation and run parallel to Victoria’s treaty process.

Nelson:

This is a new step towards our future, to right the wrongs of the past. For us as traditional owners as well as the wider community, we have to come together, we have to sit down, we have to yarn, we have to talk about the good times and the traumatic times because that’s the only way we’re going to move forward, for future generations. For us, in what we do, it’s about walking in the footsteps of our ancestors. Our ancestors spirit. That’s what brings us together, that’s what brings me here today. For us as a people, we have to start coming together. It’s the only way future generations are going to grow and build and understand who they are and where they come from, and be proud, and speak their language.

Morrison is also asked about the likely strain on the NSW hospital system, saying that it is a necessary phase to go through to enable living with Covid.

This comes after the NSW government released modelling yesterday that showed Sydney’s intensive care units were expected to become overwhelmed by November.

The PM said that “of course” the health system would come under more pressure, but the state government was prepared for the demand.

“Of course it will, as it has all around the world, but this is part of our passage through to living with this virus, and that’s the challenge all states and territories will have, if we want to move forward and live with the virus,” Morrison said.

“This is one of the things we’re going to have to pass through.”

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking to Sky News.

First up, he is asked about his trip to Sydney where he spent Father’s Day.

Morrison denies he has been given special treatment, saying there was an exemption in place for federal MPs who were deemed essential workers.

”I live in Sydney, I often have to be here for work, there was no requirement to get an exemption to go to Sydney,” he said.

He said that the ACT had provided an exemption for him to be in Canberra, as was provided to all members of parliament.

“The suggestion that this somehow was an unusual arrangement for members of parliament and ministers just would not be true.”

He said his family had not been given any special treatment and remained in lockdown in Sydney, and rejected suggestions that he had tried to cover up the trip to Sydney in a social media post which included a photograph of him with his family from several months ago.

“You know, in politics, people like to take a lot of swings at you, and you get pretty used to that, but sometimes those jabs can be low blows.”

The prime minister also said criticism from Bill Shorten was “a cheap shot”, saying the former opposition leader was aware.

“Bill knows full well what these rules are, in fact, he took advantage of them,” Morrison said.