Live breaking news: Brisbane Covid lockdown blasted as 'sheer lunacy'; Suez Canal container ship freed; Vile sex question to female MP - NEWS.com.au

The lockdown kicked in at 5pm yesterday for Greater Brisbane, just hours after Queensland officials announced four new COVID-19 cases had been confirmed.

On Monday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk noted the state’s last snap lockdown worked but said the length of restrictions would come down to “how our contact tracers go over the next 24 hours”.

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Brisbane’s snap-three day lockdown has been branded “sheer lunacy” from furious critics, with the premier saying the next 24 hours could determine if restrictions are extended.

The lockdown kicked in at 5pm yesterday for Greater Brisbane, just hours after Queensland officials announced four new COVID-19 cases had been confirmed.

However, not everyone is impressed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s quick response, with Flight Centre co-founder Graham Turner claiming the lockdown could cost the economy up to $2 billion.

“Locking Brisbane down will have a short-range three-day effect, it will cost $1bn-$2bn, but the impact will last longer, and just as domestic travel was coming back,” Mr Turner told The Courier Mail.

“There is one word that can describe it, it is sheer lunacy.”

Picture: Josh Woning

On Monday, Ms Palaszczuk noted the state’s last three-day lockdown worked but said there was one main factor that would determine whether restrictions have to be extended.

"So look, fingers crossed. It's going to really depend on how our contact tracers go over the next 24 hours,” she said.

There are also fears for the popular NSW beachside destination of Byron Bay after it was confirmed two of the Queensland cases visited the area while infectious

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged people across the state to cancel their trip if they were planning to visit Queensland over the Easter long weekend.

"If you were going to Queensland for a holiday unfortunately we will ask you to reconsider, especially you shouldn't go to Greater Brisbane," she told reporters on Monday.

Kate Ellis was in her late 20s and had only been a Member of Parliament for a short time when she found herself at the centre of sexual slurs and destructive gossip.

The former Rudd-Gillard government minister said she never spoke to other women about the sexism she was facing, but gendered stereotyping and gibes were a constant throughout her political career.

In a bombshell interview with Australian Story on ABC, the now 43-year-old has lifted the lid on the alleged “toxic” workplace culture in Parliament House — something she didn’t recognise until she left politics in 2019.

Picture: Sia Duff

“I’d only been an MP for a couple of weeks and we were out for drinks and this Liberal staffer quite aggressively just said, ‘Kate, the only thing anyone wants to know about you is just how many blokes you f***ed in order to get into parliament’,” Ms Ellis claimed.

“Just the fact that he came up and said that to my face when I was an elected MP and he was a staff member, that he still had the confidence to do that.”

– Shireen Khalil

The huge container ship that was blocking the Suez Canal is on the move with the waterway reopened to traffic almost a week after the megaship got stuck.

The Suez Canal Authority announced the news as local TV images showed the Ever Given moving slowly along with canal as horns blared in celebration.

FREE. Video of Ever Given vessel fully floating freely in #Suez moments ago.
Navigation has RESUMED in Suez Canal, Egypt’s authorities say, after 6 days of blockage. Over 300 🚢 waiting to cross: pic.twitter.com/XvadPmb7d5
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) March 29, 2021

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“Admiral Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, has announced the resumption of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal,” the SCA said in a statement.

The ship is no longer grounded and is now heading north from the southern end of the canal towards Great Bitter Lake, according to Leth Agencies, allowing more than 400 waiting vessels to follow.

– Emma Reynolds