Australia news updates live: urgent action required to ramp up Indigenous vaccination rates; wet weather warnings

New South Wales treasurer and minister for energy and environment Matt Kean was on the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing earlier, and had some choice words about the commonwealth’s EV plan.

Asked about the federal government’s EV “plan”, and if it was a “chance missed”, Kean tried to keep it economical:

Put it this way. We are spending $600m to ensure that New South Wales consumers can enjoy all the benefits that this new technology has to offer.

Compare that to the commonwealth who are spending $250m across the entire country. So the proof is in the pudding.

Asked what he thought of the PM facing questions about his own rhetoric about EVs in the leadup to the 2019 election, Kean tried to dodge the question without dodging the question:

Look, what I do know as someone that drives an EV is it won’t ruin their weekend, they will make it even better. That will revolutionise not just the weekend but every single day of the week.

That is a matter for the prime minister, but what I say as someone that drives an EV is that they are a great product, they are good for the environment and cheaper to run and we want to see those advantages rolled out so everyone who wants one can afford one.

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) is recommending mandating vaccines for all disability support workers, adding that all first doses should be administered by the end of November.

In a statement that also details their recommended national definition of a disability support worker, the AHPPC recommended the vaccine be mandate for all workers delivering at-home services as well.

AHPPC notes mandating of vaccination for disability support workers providing services and supports to people with disability provides an important protection for people with disability during this emergency.

The committee also recommended that exemptions be “limited” and “consistent with the national framework endorsed by AHPPC for residential aged care workers.”

The group, which is made up of the country’s chief medical officers, said vaccinations should become a condition of entry into the homes of NDIS recipients.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) are warning that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities are facing elevated risk as the country opens up.

The RACGP said that vaccine rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities continue to “lag behind non-Indigenous populations”.

They said only 54.5% of eligible adults among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are fully vaccinated, and 66.2% have received one dose, compared to the double-vaccinated rate of all Australians, which sits at 80.6%.

RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health chair, Prof Peter O’Mara said it was essential that governments ramp up outreach and vaccination programs:

The fact that there remains a serious gap in vaccine coverage between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people in our country is a national shame.

We urgently need to ramp up vaccine access and education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly for younger community members and certain jurisdictions, including Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, which we know are really lagging behind.

We have already seen devastating outbreaks in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly in the eastern states, despite the considerable work that went into ensuring these communities were isolated from the virus.

So, earlier today, the Australian government has ranked dead last by the Climate Change Performance Index for its response to the climate crisis.

The assessment looked at the climate response of 60 countries, and the current government’s lack of policies, high per capita greenhouse gas emissions, weak targets, low levels of renewables and high levels of energy use.

Australia slipped four places on the index from last year, and was the only country allocated a score of zero in the climate policy category.

You can read more on the assessment in the story from Graham Readfearn, linked below:

WA police have confirmed the arrest of two men after they allegedly drove through a border checkpoint.

In a statement, police say a 17-year-old male driver and his 24-year-old male passenger were attempting to return to WA by road from NSW, via Victoria and South Australia, but his G2G pass had been rejected multiple times for “failing to meet the threshold to be granted entry from an ‘Extreme Risk’ location”.

A subsequent G2G Pass application was accepted on 7 November, suggesting he had been in South Australia for the previous fortnight.

They attempted to cross the border on Monday and were turned around. Police say the car returned later that day, and attempted to drive through the checkpoint.

About 6:25pm the same vehicle re-attended the checkpoint and it will be alleged the vehicle was driven through the checkpoint at high speed, failing to stop for police.

The vehicle was later located about 20km east of Norseman. The two occupants were arrested without incident and have been tested for COVID-19.

Both men have been charged with three counts of Fail to Comply with a Direction.

The Australian Aged Care Collaboration (AACC) is urging the Victorian government to rethink its decision to allow unvaccinated visitors to residential aged care homes.

The state government eased the restrictions on visitors on 29 October, allowing each aged care resident up to five visitors per day, as well as allowing unvaccinated visitors, as long as they avoided common areas and visited outdoors or in the resident’s room.

But the AACC, along with Leading Age Services Australia (LASA) and Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) have raised concerns at the decisions.

The AACC said in a statement they had written to chief health officer Brett Sutton, seeking a meeting on the matter.

The AACC has written to the Victoria Chief Health Officer, Professor Brett Sutton seeking a meeting as a matter of urgency. The AACC is a group of six aged care peak bodies representing more than 1000 aged care providers delivering care to nearly a million older Australians.

None of us want to experience the high rate of disease in facilities again given the traumatic experience in Victoria last year.

There are still high rates of community transmission in Victoria and even though the workforce and a high proportion of residents are vaccinated the presence of unvaccinated visitors poses too much of a risk particularly to vulnerable older residents.

Vaccination is one of the most important defences available to protect our older Australians. We therefore, urge the Victorian Government to reconsider this position.

NSW, the ACT and South Australia only allow fully vaccinated people to visit at aged care facilities.

Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you this afternoon, taking the blog into the evening. Before we dive in, a quick thanks to Josh Taylor and Matilda Boseley for their work this morning.

And with that, I will hand you over to my excellent colleague, Mostafa Rachwani, who will take you through the next little while.

Canberra hospitals are now free of active Covid-19 patients for the first time since the beginning of the Delta outbreak in the ACT, AAP reports.

It comes as the national capital recorded nine new cases in the latest reporting period.

ACT health authorities reported there were no Covid-19 patients in the territory’s hospitals, the first time the milestone has occurred since Canberra went into lockdown in mid-August.

Vaccination levels have risen to 95.6% of over-12s being fully vaccinated.

The territory’s high vaccination rates have led to the easing of restrictions being brought forward by two weeks.

From Friday, visitor limits to households will be scrapped, density caps will be lowered in hospitality and retail, stadiums and entertainment venues will be able to open at 100% capacity, and nightclubs will be allowed to open their doors.

There are now 150 active cases in the Canberra community.

Testing levels remained relatively high, with 1,910 tests conducted on Tuesday.

Keating then stated the US misunderstands its role in our region:

The US is still pretending to be the security guarantee of Asia, not just the Atlantic, despite the fact that China is already 1.25 times larger and will soon be two times larger. What it should be is this, the United States should be the guarantor and the leader of the west, it should be the balancer and consolidator.

I’d bring you more, but the ABC just cut away from the Keating interview to analyse the Keating interview. My colleague, Daniel Hurst, who was there, should have more soon.

When asked whether Australia should be concerned that Chinese president Xi Jinping is effectively president for life, Keating says he would like to see Chinese leaders have 10-year term limits, but stresses that western nations do not understand the mindset in China:

China is broadly a Confucian society that believes in harmony, in authority and it is with this background that it accepts, I think broadly, the role of the Chinese Communist party. I mean, the idea that we have, if you don’t vote local ballot box, that is, if you are not a Jeffersonian liberal, then you are a savage, it belies the fact that China has a 4,000-year history which has these characteristics about it.

He says Xi has been at war against corruption, but says that does not excuse the use of facial recognition technology or attempts to control the internet and the content on the internet.

But nevertheless, there is a background in Chinese society which is about harmony, which has a Confucian basis to it, we don’t understand in the west and we have never had in the west. Does all that add up to mean, this guy is better with another term? I don’t think it does.

Keating was asked about the destruction of sacred sites, with regard to the Native Title Act, but he didn’t want to go into too much detail except to say he was proud of the legislation.

I’m proud of the Native Title Act and every political skill and heft I had took every effort to get that through. Indigenous Australians now have, correct me if I’m wrong, but about 67% title to the landscape of Australia. And through that title, they enjoy autonomy and overtime wealth. 200 years after we stole the titles from them. There is no doubt, I mean, I’ve made speeches in the past about reversing the onus on native title, native title groups not having to prove that they have unbroken association with the land, is a more literal translation of this by the high court since is said, by and large, we did make a lot of progress with the Native Title Act but I don’t think this is the time for me to discuss it, thank you.

In response to a question from my colleague, Daniel Hurst, on how Australia can have a sensible relationship with China while also speaking up on human rights issues in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, Keating says Australia should always reserve its right to speak out on human rights issues, but it can’t be the only conversation:

You can speak powerfully about the rights of citizens of these countries, but it can’t be the whole conversation. That doesn’t displace the wider country to country nation to nation conversation about the states.

In other words, you can’t let human rights discussions completely supplant the relationship between the countries.