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PM throws support behind Melbourne pub told to stop giving away free vaccine beers
By Broede Carmody
Rewinding a bit, and the Prime Minister has backed a Port Melbourne pub that was told to stop offering free beers to customers who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Australia’s health watchdog, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, contacted the Prince Alfred hotel earlier this week asking them to stop handing out free pints. The drug regulator’s website says businesses cannot offer alcohol, tobacco or medicines as incentives to get vaccinated against coronavirus.
Publican Tom Streater from the Prince Alfred hotel in Port Melbourne was reprimanded by the Therapeutic Goods Administration this week for handing out free beers to vaccinated customers.Credit:Scott McNaughton
But speaking on Seven’s Sunrise earlier this morning, Scott Morrison said the crackdown was “a bit heavy-handed”.
He added that he and Health Minister Greg Hunt will speak to the TGA and ask them to back down in this particular instance.
“The rules are that for important reasons so drug companies can’t offer judgements against people who buy their biscuits and drugs,” Mr Morrison said.
“It is a sensible rule, but in these circumstances, the national interest is to get vaccinated. So the Prince Alfred down in Melbourne, good on you for getting behind it. We’ll get it sorted, common sense will prevail.
“Cheers to the PA.”
Victoria records no new cases of COVID-19 in the community
By Broede Carmody
Victoria’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.
The state has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 in the community for the ninth day in a row. There was just one case detected in hotel quarantine.
There were 25,590 coronavirus tests conducted in Victoria yesterday. There are 21 active cases of COVID-19 in the entire state.
Australia has an obligation to help Afghans who assisted our troops: Howard
By Cassandra Morgan
Former prime minister John Howard, who committed Australian troops to Afghanistan, has voiced his support for a push to give special visas to interpreters who helped our armed forces.
As we’ve mentioned previously, there are fears Afghan people who assisted Australian troops are in danger of retribution following the withdrawal of allied forces.
Former prime minister John Howard. Credit:Kate Geraghty
“If a group of people gave help to Australians such that their lives and that of those immediately around them are in danger, we have a moral obligation to help them,” Mr Howard told SBS.
“That is a moral obligation we have and it was a moral obligation that we shamefully discarded many years ago when we pulled out of Vietnam. I do not want to see a repetition of that failure in Afghanistan.”
The former prime minister was questioned about whether he thought that obligation extended to interpreters and other staff who worked directly with Australian troops in Afghanistan, but were not allowed to apply for visas because they were subcontracted.
Howard said it was “all a question of the circumstances”, and he didn’t think it was something that “should turn on some narrow legalism”.
Morrison backs Sydney’s suppression strategy
By Broede Carmody
The Prime Minister has also crossed to the Today show where co-host Karl Stefanovic raised something we mentioned earlier: that some senior NSW state MPs are cautiously canvassing whether there is support to end Sydney’s COVID-19 supression strategy (i.e. come out of lockdown).
“Do you support without any compromise this morning this lockdown and returning local transmissions to zero [in NSW?]” Stefanovic asked the PM.
Scott Morrison speaking on the Today show earlier this morning. Credit:Nine
Here’s Morrison’s reply:
“If that’s what’s needed in this suppression phase and if that’s what state government does, then, of course. I mean, we are still in the suppression phase. We were always going to still be in the suppression phase now.
“[I would say to those NSW MPs] to come into line with the Premier. That is the public health advice I’m receiving. I’m quite certain that’s the public health advice that she [Gladys Berejiklian] is receiving. And the discussions I’ve had with NSW cabinet ministers, that [possible backflip] hasn’t been relayed to me.”
PM says NSW Premier has done an ‘extraordinary job’
By Broede Carmody
Staying with Sunrise, and Scott Morrison has thrown his support behind NSW Premier and fellow Liberal Gladys Berejiklian.
Ms Berejiklian has come under fire from those angry with Sydney’s extended lockdown as well as those who say she should have issued stay-at-home orders sooner.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has thrown his support behind NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Credit:James Brickwood
But the PM says the Premier merely acts on the health advice she is given.
“I think it is a good thing that, wherever possible, we don’t put unreasonable burdens on people whenever we can,” Mr Morrison said.
“I think that the Premier in NSW has done a extraordinary job and I think Sydneysiders and the people of NSW have appreciated that. I also support her strongly now in the measures that she is taking now.
“I’m not gonna get into the tit-for-tat arguments happening between states. I don’t think it is constructive.”
Australia’s vaccine troubles need to be put into perspective: PM
By Broede Carmody
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is speaking on Seven’s Sunrise right now.
He is speaking about the deal the federal government has struck with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to triple Australia’s supplies to 1 million doses a week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaking on Sunrise this morning. Credit:Seven
Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr just asked why Australia hadn’t received more doses of Pfizer until now.
“There is just a shortage of the doses around the world,” Mr Morrison said.
“We are in a global pandemic, it’s as simple as that. Sadly, the program has had its challenges but ... when it comes to fatalities, deaths from COVID, that is the statistic, obviously, where Australia leads the world. Just the other day, they had more cases in the UK in one day in Australia has had in the past 18 months. I think you’ve got to look at these things in balance.”
Western Sydney crackdown necessary, not discriminatory: NSW deputy commissioner
By Broede Carmody
The deputy commissioner of NSW Police, Mal Lanyon, was speaking on the Today show just moments ago.
He was asked whether the police crackdown in western Sydney was necessary given an operation of the same size and scope was not conducted in the wealthier eastern suburbs when the virus was limited to that area. Here’s his response:
NSW Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon.Credit:Brook Mitchell
“Yes, it is [necessary]. We’re at a certain stage now that we need to ensure that the spread of coronavirus does not go further than it has. Clearly health have given advice indicating that the south-western suburbs of Sydney are areas of significant concern at the moment.
“We’ve had a very visible presence right across Sydney since the health orders came into place and the lockdown of Sydney took place approximately two weeks ago.
“We have taken a very balanced, very fair and very measured approach to the way that we’ve enforced these health orders and that will continue through this operation.
“This is not about discrimination. This is not about racism. This is about enforcing the health order and we will do that fairly and we will do that in a balanced way.”
Retail outlets among Sydney’s newest exposure sites despite lockdown
By Broede Carmody
A number of retail outlets are among Sydney’s newest exposure sites despite the city being in lockdown.
A Kathmandu store, Beds R Us outlet and Kmart in the city’s western suburbs have all been listed as areas of concern overnight.
Anyone who visited the following venues at the listed times is considered a close contact and must immediately get tested, isolate for 14 days regardless of the result and touch base with state health authorities unless already contacted:
- Kathmandu Burwood on Sunday, July 4 between 12.35pm and 1pm;
- Beds R Us Wetherill Park on Monday, July 5 between 2.30pm and 3.15pm; and
- Kmart Merrylands on Monday, July 5 between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.
Flight Centre boss backs Queensland Premier’s Tokyo trip
By Matt Dennien
Flight Centre boss and outspoken travel ban critic, Graham Turner, has backed the Queensland Premier’s upcoming Tokyo trip despite her recent moves to further cap international arrivals and a growing online petition.
The decision to halve the number of plane seats available into the country, made by national cabinet, was a separate matter and a non-appearance from Annastacia Palaszczuk could be detrimental to Queensland should it not secure the 2032 Olympics, Mr Turner said.
Flight Centre co-founder and chief executive Graham Turner.Credit:Attila Csaszar
More than 80,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Ms Palaszczuk to be denied an exemption to leave the country.
Senior NSW ministers consider letting Delta circulate in community
By Alexandra Smith, Lucy Carroll and Mary Ward
In case you missed it, the NSW government is facing its most difficult decision of the pandemic with senior ministers cautiously canvassing abandoning a zero local transmission strategy and accepting the Delta strain of COVID-19 will circulate in the community.
Three senior ministers, who would not speak publicly due to cabinet confidentiality, have acknowledged the state has reached a “fork in the road” where it must choose between a lockdown to eliminate COVID or living with the virus.
A man is tested in Fairfield in Sydney’s west on Thursday after he was informed he was a close contact of a COVID-19 case. Credit: Kate Geraghty
The discussions will intensify in the coming days as NSW battles to contain the growing outbreak in south-west Sydney, which has much lower rates of vaccination in its elderly population than the rest of the state.
Read the full story here.
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2021-07-08 22:38:18Z
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