And you can read Paul Karp’s yarn on what was arguably the biggest story of the day, on the PM backing former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to return to politics, at the link below:

Liberal MP Katie Allen was on ABC News earlier, discussing the potential for former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to contest a seat in the upcoming election, and was asked what she made of a federal Icac.

Allen has previously supported a proposal for a federal anti-corruption commission, and was asked if she was disappointed in the lack of urgency around the issue.

She goes on to blame Labor for the lack of progress, echoing the PM on that front:

I would say that there has been a lot of work going into a federal Icac, with a lot of work being done engaging with stakeholders right across the community plus $150m put aside in the budget.

The intention of many pieces of legislation is that they get past, and certainly I am a big supporter of that.

As you know, quite a lot of different legislation is at different stages of success throughout the parliament, but what I would say is that we have passed hundreds of pieces of legislation through parliament this term despite the fact that we have had a pandemic and in August the opposition leader said that they only had two jobs, vaccination and quarantine facilities.

We are looking for support from Labor. We’re not getting that support from Labor.

A series of strikes by New South Wales teachers and public transport workers have begun this week, with bus drivers in Sydney’s inner-west walking off the job today, and drivers in the city’s south-west due to strike tomorrow.

The two groups will stage a coordinated walkout for two hours during the Friday afternoon peak. That same day, train drivers are refusing to drive foreign-made trains that run three-quarters of the services on the network.

Around 60 bus routes were affected today, as around 1200 drivers and members of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and Transport Workers’ Union NSW walked off the job.

The bus drivers are protesting a “two-tiered” pay system and cuts to services as a result of privatisation.

You can read more on the strikes in the story below:

New Zealand has recorded 135 new Covid cases overnight, including 125 in Auckland.

It comes as the country hit the 88% double-dosed vaccinated mark.

So, the independent MP for Warringah, Zali Steggall was just on the ABC with Patricia Karvelas discussing the potential threat former NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, would pose if she was to decide to run.

Berejiklian has been touted as an option to contest the seat former PM Tony Abbott lost in 2019, and the incumbent Steggall seemed unfazed.

Steggall said she believes integrity is important in Warringah, and said it didn’t matter who the Liberal candidate was.

Everyone needs to remember the issues that matter and trust and integrity are important in Warringah. Integrity, women and climate are the key issues and no matter who the candidate is they are stuck with Scott Morrison and Barnaby Joyce as policy positions and those have not moved, and so the electorate has an issue with that.

I think popularity is one thing, but position on issues still really matter, so people have an issue with trust, especially in the federal government, right? The fact that Scott Morrison has not introduced a federal integrity commission really bothers people. People have had enough of the pork barrelling and rorting.

Look, you do not determine who you are up against, but I know how to be ready for race day, I know how to meet the challenge and I am certainly ready for whoever is the candidate. I have no doubt the Liberal party will throw everything they have at winning back Warringah, but the question is it is not an entitlement of owning Warringah.

Warringah has a mind of its own, and Warringah cares deeply about a number of issues.

And with that, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s press conference comes to an end.

Here’s a quick, handy guide to the new rules around Queensland’s border:

• The border reopening date has been brought forward to 13 December.
• Fully vaccinated people from hotspots (like NSW, Victoria and the ACT) can arrive by road or air.
• They must have a negative test from 72 hours before arrival.
• No quarantine will be required for fully vaccinated domestic arrivals.
• All arrivals from hotspots will need to have a test on day five after arriving.
• Domestic arrivals that are not fully vaccinated will need to quarantine for 14 days.
• People are considered fully vaccinated one week after their second dose.
• Fully vaccinated border zone residents will still need a border pass, but will not need a test to cross the border.

Queensland has also recorded three new Covid cases, all in hotel quarantine. Two are interstate arrivals and one is an international arrival.

It comes as Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, Dr John Gerrard, said the state needs to prepare for more cases, despite closing in on the 80% double-dosed vaccination mark.

The vaccine stops people from getting really sick. It doesn’t stop people from getting Covid.

Palaszczuk also specifically address border-zone residents, saying they will not need a test to cross the border, but will still require a border pass.

I know this has been very, very tough on our border communities and thank you for your patience and your understanding. But from Monday, vaccinated border-zone residents will be able to move freely across the border for any reason.

You will need a border pass, and the border pass will run for 14 days. But you will not need a test. There is currently a hot spot declared that will be out of the border bubble, and we will address that if there are any changes.

But we know that it has been extremely difficult for our border communities, and we’re hoping to provide some greater flexibility and freedom of movement for those communities.

Palaszczuk has warned that travellers should expect borders to be “very busy” in light of the coming holidays and the border reopening earlier than planned:

We do expect it to be very busy. And we do want to make sure that we are processing, as well - there’s a lot of people who’ve been caravanning and who are, you know, right at the end of the border there - they’ve been there for some time.

We really want to get them through smoothly as well.

The retail industry is concerned at a rise in violent or aggressive behaviour from customers towards staff.

The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association’s secretary Gerard Dwyer was on RN Breakfast earlier today, saying staff have been followed home or harassed by angry customers, and was worried the situation may get worse as we head into Christmas.

The levels of customer abuse are unsatisfactory to begin with, but then when you put the pressures of the pandemic over the top, in every jurisdiction with which we surveyed, we saw an increase in customer abuse.

We just need to do better. We are trying to ensure that the community understands that retail workers are there to do their job.

Dwyer said enforcement of Covid protocols was leading to the increase in abuse faced by staff, and added it was unfair the responsibility fell to retail workers.

It is actually not the retail workers job to enforce those public health guidelines. Those requirements are in place and have been put in place by government and health authorities. They are not there to be enforced by shop assistants.

It’s all about respect. These retail workers could be your neighbour’s son or daughter, it could be your friend’s mother or father.

Sticking with South Australia for now, premier Steven Marshall told reporters earlier he was hoping the state will enjoy a “pretty normal Christmas” amid the concerns around the Omicron variant.

The first thing is the transmissibility, and we are getting information to show this is highly transmissible.

The second is what the effectiveness of the existing vaccines are, and we do not have information and we’re still days away from getting that information.

Lets go back to Bowen, who is asked what he thinks of the PM’s backing of former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian, in spite of Icac not yet releasing their findings into her conduct.

Bowen did not hold back:

Firstly the prime minister’s attack on the Icac on the floor of the parliament, I have seen few more disgusting displays on the floor of the parliament than that.

The Icac is not a smorgasbord in which you can pick off the findings you like and reject the findings you don’t like. The Icac is actually a truly independent body which should be respected, not undermined by the most senior politician in the country.

Respected by politicians not undermined when they don’t happen to like the fact that one of their own has been brought into question. I welcome the fact that former members of the Labor party who have been corrupted been dealt with by the Icac. If you are corrupt, you betrayed the Australian people and betray your party. You deserve to be dealt with and jailed if appropriate and we welcome Icac looking at people in the Labor party.

We don’t criticise the Icac for doing so, we defend their work and protect them, it is absolutely outrageous that the prime minister of the day has undermined the Icac and not just undermined their work on Gladys Berejiklian but undermined every single inquiry and investigation and finding that the Icac has brought down.

That is what the prime minister has effectively done. Undermined the Icac as a whole and all the state and territory based on similar bodies, frankly, because they are all independently statutory based.

He defended Gladys Berejiklian by saying there had been no findings against her. There have been no findings at all, they haven’t released them yet. If he claims to know what the Icac will find I’m sure that the Icac will be interested to hear what he knows.

Otherwise, he is lying.

We’re having a discussion about whether or not Labor’s policy will lead to coal power plant closures, with a journalist also asking how the policy won’t lead to closures if they’re hoping to convert the current reliance on coal for power, into a dependence on renewable energy.

Bowen:

As a result of any policy decisions, there is no earlier coal-fired power stations.

As I said a moment ago, coal-fired power stations are set to shut and Liddell and others to follow. The market will determine that. The market is determining that. Is there any policy lever that a Labor government will pull that will bring any of those coal-fired power station closures forward?

No.

If you’re asking me to rule out if any coal-fired power station will close? No, I can’t do that because some are already scheduled to close.

Those coal-fired power stations also close regardless of who is in office because that’s been determined by the market. We should be straightforward about that. I am straightforward about that. I visited the power station. I’ve spoken to the workers there. I mean, we have to, as I said to them, I have to win the argument with you because you’re the ones who have your jobs being determined by this conversation.

We have to be honest about that. But in answer to your question, how all of this can work. Let me give you two answers, two complementary. One is technical though obviously the government is introducing capacity mechanism. We’ve outlined some principles that would govern our support for it being consistent with net zero and actual payment for dispatch.

Let’s go back to Bowen, who is asked if Labor’s target is flexible, especially if Labor enter a minority government and need to negotiate with the Greens or crossbenchers.

So, is the number negotiable? Bowen kept it short:

No.

On a side note, we are expecting a “major announcement” out of Queensland in two hours:

Bowen shoots back at the prime minister Scott Morrison, who called Labor’s 43% emissions reduction target unsafe:

The parliament heard from the prime minister a few months ago that if you committed to net zero, you’re automatically committed to a 43% medium term target. That was before he committed himself to net zero. Now he says that he can be committed to net zero without a 43% target. dishonesty catching up with him yet again.

He says that 43% isn’t safe. Now, if Labor’s 43% isn’t safe, what does the prime minister think of New South Wales’s 50% by 2030 target? Or South Australia’s 50% target? Or Tasmania’s 100% target? Are these targets by conservative state administrations unsafe?

The reason that Scott Morrison’s attack makes no sense is because he only ever cares about the politics of the moment. About the grab ... that works for him in that interview. He doesn’t care if it’s consistent with what he said before or what he’ll need to say in the future. He’s always about the directly immediate political opportunity.

Bowen has continued, now spruiking the jobs his party’s climate plan will generate:

The world’s climate emergency is Australia’s jobs opportunity and the modelling confirms it – $52 billion of private investment unlocked because of our policy; 64,000 direct jobs and over 600,000 total jobs created by 2030. Power bills cut for households and businesses across the national energy market.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, because our independent modelling is very consistent with so much analysis by others.

Bowen has dived into his party’s climate policy now, comparing Labor’s target to the one set by Canada:

That net zero by 2050 is necessary but not sufficient on its own and we need a strong pathway to get there. And that’s why powering Australia delivers the 43% reduction to 2030. We can’t leave ... that timing of net zero to a set of assumptions and a hope about technology emerging in the 2040s.

Partly because aggregate emissions in the next decade will determine whether the world stays below 1.5C and 2C of warming and partly because of the benefits to Australia’s economy of greater ambition to the 2020s. The risk of missing out on the opportunity if we leave it too late.

In many ways, the economy of our country is most analogous [to] Canada’s – of our mutual reliance on resources. And I don’t think that it is an accident that our targets are similar.

No two countries’ policy mixes will be the same, but powering Australia’s target does return Australia to the sensible approach of similar economies.

Shadow minister for climate change, Chris Bowen, has begun his address at the National Press Club.

So, the Western Australian attempt at nabbing the second Ashes test has been rebuffed.

Earlier today, the WA government suggested Perth could host the second test, due to be held at Adelaide Oval on 18 December. Their argument was that due to Covid border closures they should be considered a host for the second test.

It also comes as Perth is likely to lose the fifth test, due to begin on 14 January, because of the state’s border rules.

WA sports minister Tony Buti said he contacted Cricket Australia about the change:

We’re now waiting for them to make a decision on that, but also they haven’t made a firm decision on that fifth test in any case, but if the fifth test is not going to be held in Perth it could easily just transfer the second test to Perth.

Adelaide could end up having the fifth test as we know Adelaide has it’s own issues with COVID at the moment.

But soon after, the South Australian Cricket Association confirmed they’re keeping the match:

SACA continues to work closely with Cricket Australia and is committed to delivering the iconic Adelaide Day-Night Test Match, celebrating the SACA’s 150th year.

Tough times for WA cricket fans.

Good afternoon, Mostafa Rachwani with you this afternoon, and a quick thanks to Matilda Boseley for another fantastic shift this morning.

With that, I shall hand you over to the always fantastic Mostafa Rachwani, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon’s news.

Approval of Covid-19 vaccines for five- to 11-year-olds is imminent, with a January rollout likely, reports AAP.

Federal health minister Greg Hunt said the Therapeutic Goods Administration and Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation should make a call on Pfizer pediatric doses before year’s end.

It is understood the first shipment is due to arrive in Australia before Christmas.

The process is “heading in a positive direction”, Hunt said.

[The TGA] will provide that advice, ATAGI will then provide their response and we’re hopeful that if we’ve got two green lights we would commence the children’s pediatric doses in the first part of January.

While January 10 is a possible starting date for the rollout, it could commence a week either side.

Hunt said Moderna booster doses for the general population are also on the cards, with confirmation by Christmas or sooner.

I’m due to get my booster in the next 10 days, so that might be a very good option to show that message.

The TGA is also making progress on the protein-based Novavax vaccine and could issue a pre-Christmas approval for doses to become available in the new year.

On Sunday, Australian broadcaster and ardent gardener Peter Cundall died aged 94.

Best known for his 18 years as host of the ABC program Gardening Australia from 1990 until 2008, Cundall’s passion for plants stretched back to his childhood vegetable patch in Manchester.

We want to hear your memories and favourite moments from his near five decade career. Did his suggestions help resurrect your rose bush? Did he teach you the value of mulch? Or was it his work as an activist that most resonated?

Share your fondest memories and favourite gardening tips from Cundall in the comments section of the below article:

In early November, fruit pickers on Australian farms were granted a minimum wage, in a historic decision handed down by the fair work commission. However, unfair pay is just one example of the shocking conditions plaguing this sector, where it’s alleged that workers – many from the Pacific Islands – are routinely exploited.

Full Story podcast executive producer Laura Murphy-Oates speaks to reporter Cait Kelly about the dark side of Australian farm work.

You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts or by clicking on the link below:

Reporter:

Your pitch yesterday was about renewal, not revolution. But if you’re saying most things aren’t going to change after the election, why should people vote for a change in government?

Albanese:

We’re going to change. But what we’re going to do is have safe change and I’ll make no apologies for that. Australia’s a great country. The question is: can we be better? I say, yes, we can.

This is a great campus. I don’t want to bulldoze it, I want to improve it. I want to give it more funding, I want to give its students more support, I want to give its teachers more support. I want to link in the TAFE with the university here on this great campus. I want to make sure that we build on what we currently have and build back stronger. That’s the key, that’s the key - Australia is a great country, I think we can be even better in the future.

And what the next election is about is Labor that has the capacity to have a vision for a better future and then set about creating one with practical, affordable, realistic plans. That’s what Australians want going forward. It’s what I want to deliver as prime minister.

Okay, it’s time to chat about the Gladys Berejiklian situation ... and Albanese isn’t going as hard against the possibility of her running for the seat of Warringah, in Sydney’s northern beaches, as one might expect.

I note this ongoing obsession by the media with a [former] premier who is still subject to proceedings under the Independent Commission Against Corruption. I think people should allow those processes to take their course. They are processes in which we have seen some public hearings. I’m not going to comment on the outcomes of those, but they’re there for all to see.

But I make this point: the former premier before the former premier was also talked about a candidate for Warringah for some period of time, Mike Baird, and the speculation has changed there. I await the speculation about Nick Greiner running for Warringah because he could come back from the New York consul general position. Like it’s getting a bit absurd, isn’t it!

The fact is that [the] people of Warringah rejected Tony Abbott at the last election. I have got my differences with Tony, but he lived in that electorate, he is someone who was passionate about that electorate, and they rejected him because of the policies. And doesn’t matter who the candidate is for Warringah. The policies of climate denialism, the lack of funding for universities, the lack of support for TAFE, the failure on health, the failure on so many policy areas, the failure to have an anti-corruption commission at a national level will not be assisted, no matter who the candidate is.

Earlier this morning Scott Morrison accused Labor of having a Trojan horse with its 43% emission reduction by 2030 target, claiming the party would bump that up closer to 75% if it got into office.

Albanese hit back against this when asked by a reporter if the 43% target was simply a “minimum”.

No, that’s our target. This government have had more than 20 policies in the almost decade that they have been in office and they haven’t landed one.

We have one policy that we have announced last Friday. It’s fully costed.

The modelling is all there. It is one policy that we would implement in government and what the modelling shows is that we would reach 43% by 2030 under the policies that we have announced which are comprehensive, which are clear.

Albanese:

And our university sector has been so hard-hit during the pandemic. This government abandoned them for reasons beyond my comprehension, they excluded universities from getting JobKeeper.

They basically said, ‘you’re on your own’, at a time when what we should be doing is valuing our university sector. Here at the campus where I visited on multiple occasions now, we see the best of Australia, people who are committed including the management of the university here to making sure that people can get that access to skill up so that they can improve their lot in life.

Labor’s commitment is clear - it’s time that we actually plan going forward so that out of the pandemic we grow back stronger. The treasurer began his budget speech last week by speaking - last year by saying, “oh, we just want to go back to what was there before”.

Well, I think that Australians can aspire to better. We should be ambitious for our country. I want to lead a government that’s as optimistic, as positive, as determined, as hopeful as the Australian people are themselves.

Side note: Albanese! Why are your sentences so long?

Okay, back to the press conference.

Albanese is speaking about Labor’s election pledge to create extra university and Tafe places, to help rebuild the hard-hit tertiary education sector.

One of the big distinctions between Labor and the government is that we understand that investment in education is not just an investment in an individual, it’s an investment in Australia’s future, in our whole society. Our whole society benefits when people get access to proper education, whether it be for a trade, whether it be through a university qualification, whether it be by ensuring that early learning is properly funded as well through our cheaper child care package.

One of the things that Labor is about is making sure that we take the opportunity that is there, from being co-located in the fastest growing region of the world in human history. We can either take that opportunity to be the smart country, to give people the skills, to give people the knowledge to grow high value, high wage, good jobs, or we can try and compete by driving down wages, by seeing more insecure work, by not giving people the opportunity to be the best that they can. Our announcement yesterday was about that.

Federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking now from Newcastle, and I’m sure will have a thing or two to say about this whole “Berejiklian for Warringah” situation. I’ll being you all the updates here.

Looks like we will be hearing from the Greens leader Adam Bandt at 1.30pm, and by the sounds of it, he will have some choice words to say about both Labor and the Coalition’s climate plans.

The finance minister Simon Birmingham has ruled out raising taxes to improve the budget bottom line, saying it would be counterproductive to growing the economy, reports AAP’s Colin Brinsden.

Birmingham and treasurer Josh Frydenberg will hand down the mid-year budget review on 16 December.

Frydenberg has already indicated he will be upgrading growth forecasts for next year, as the economy rebounds strongly from the contraction seen in the September quarter due to Covid-19 related lockdowns.

“Our low tax approach is not only fuelling Australia’s successful economic recovery, but it is also leading to improvements to our budget position,” Birmingham told an Australian Financial Review conference on Monday.

“With more Australians in work and less on welfare we can make significant indents in that budget position quite quickly.”

The government’s financial statement for October released on Monday shows the underlying budget deficit for the 2021/22 financial year running at $43.9bn, $7.8bn smaller than expected after four months.

Receipts were $20.2bn higher than expected at that stage of the year and were only partly offset by payments being $12.4bn above forecast.

The deficit for the full financial year was forecast at $106.6bn in the May budget.

Birmingham said this was part of a trend that saw the final budget outcome for the 2020/21 financial year - released in September - being $80bn smaller than forecast in October 2020. It was also a $27bn improvement on expectations in the May budget.

He said the Morrison government was backing lower taxes as an essential way to drive confidence and investment.

We certainly won’t be looking at ways to increase taxes on businesses or households in the future, as we see that as being very much a counterproductive thing that will only dampen confidence and hurt growth.

Wait, Morrison, so if the public investigation into whether one of the most powerful politicians in Australia was complicit in the misuse of public funds is “shaming”, what isn’t?

Morrison’s tactic leading into the election seems to really be driving home the (allegedly) close-knit relationship between Labor and the Greens.

At this election next year it is a choice. It is a choice between the Liberals and Nationals, and Labor and the Greens. At the end of the day, someone is going to be chairing cabinet and that will be me or Anthony Albanese.

Someone will be chairing the national security committee of cabinet and making decisions about keeping Australians safe in our region against some of the greatest threats we have seen since before the second world war. Either me or Anthony Albanese is going to be chairing the expenditure review committee.

I have got plenty of experience chairing those and through some of the most difficult decisions this country has ever made and these are the choices. Elections are about choices between two alternatives and that is the choice that Australians have to make and here locally, who you choose locally.

Here is the environment minister Susan Ley discussing the need to create an industry for recycled goods within Australia.

We know that when we came into a government and we saw those stockpiles of waste on the docks, the famous mountain of glass in Melbourne, prime minister you said it is our waste, our responsibility and then we did something about it. We took practical action.

On 1 December [came] the third of our waste bans, for export of whole tyres. Before that, glass. Mixed plastics. Already we are starting to see this recycling revolution that is taking place over the last few years. It is pretty exciting.

It isn’t just about finding another destination for what was previously land fill. It is not even about burning waste and turning it into energy. It is about new recycling, remanufacturing processes, new kit that has come from overseas, innovative procurement we haven’t seen before, the jobs, manufacturing, the industry. That is true microeconomic reform.

I would love to give you an update on what the prime minister is doing this morning but honestly, I can’t figure it out. There seems to be lots of sunglasses being tried?

I assume there must be a press conference coming up. Stay tuned to unravel this mystery with me.

Just further to Anthony Carbines’ new position in the Victorian Andrews government cabinet.

A New South Wales government program aimed at convincing professionals to become maths teachers attracted only six people last year, five of whom dropped out before their scholarships were complete.

As the state’s public school teachers prepare for their first strike in almost a decade on Tuesday, new figures have cast doubt on the success of the government’s attempts to address teacher shortages in NSW without significantly increasing pay.

In 2019, the state government announced the Teach.Maths NOW scholarship to lure current undergraduates and industry professionals with a background in pure or applied mathematics to become teachers.

But the program has struggled to attract and retain applicants. Despite funding for 160 placements, the program was only offered to 53 people in its first two years. Now, new figures obtained by the Guardian show the program has also failed to keep many of the industry professionals who did apply.

You can read the full report below:

Victorian Labor MP Anthony Carbines will replace Luke Donnellan in premier Daniel Andrews’ cabinet after Donellan, the Age has reported.

Donellan quit cabinet in October after the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission inquiry into branch-stacking heard that he had paid for other people’s party memberships.

Carbines will take on Donellan’s former portfolios of ageing, disabilities, carers and child protection.

I mentioned before that environment minister Sussan Ley has also thrown her support behind the former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s potential candidacy for the federal seat of Warringah; despite the ongoing Icac investigations.

Here she is on ABC a short time ago:

That process will take its course and I don’t want to comment on that process, but what I will say is that just from the people that I represent, they were horrified that this sort of public shaming seemed to be happening on their television screens everyday. So a lot of people reached out to me directly to actually say, “Why is this happening to our premier who’s done so much for us? We’re really quite angry on her behalf.” So I think the feeling is with her, I think she’ll be an outstanding representative and, you know, there’ll be some steps for her to take and processes to go through. But, of course, we’d love to see her in federal parliament.

Host Michael Rowland:

Some people will see that as public shaming, others will see the presentation of cold-hard evidence. We heard the phone taps where she fixed hospital funding for her then boyfriend Daryl Maguire in his seat where she learned about clearly dodgy behaviour but didn’t alert the corruption commission. Do you think it really was just public shaming?

Ley:

What I trust is the voters’ reaction. I was quite surprised with the number of people who came to me and said they really didn’t like this and that’s how they described the process. And, you know, it was pretty awful and it didn’t need to play out in such a way on our TV screens. I don’t think so. But more importantly, I will let that process take its course. I am simply – look, I know Gladys, she’s been an outstanding woman in public life. She has devoted so much of her life to public service, and people understand that and they appreciate that. And they know that she has a contribution to make.

Here’s a little blog treat for you:

A New South Wales government plan to control feral horses in Kosciuszko national park will allow horses to remain in the only known habitat of one of Australia’s most imperilled freshwater fishes and risks pushing the species closer to extinction.

Conservationists say allowing horses to continue to roam around some sections of the park will put vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems at risk.

They include the stocky galaxias, a fish that was listed as critically endangered last year after the 2019-20 bushfires and was named as one of 100 priority animals in the Morrison government’s new threatened species strategy.

You can read the full story below:

TGA head John Skerritt told ABC News Breakfast that it’s important for children to get vaccinated, now that those aged five to 11 are eligible, partially because it will help protect parents and grandparents from Covid-19:

There are lot of reasons even though they don’t get as sick as adults, they have a pretty strong role in spreading it back to family members and of course that can include parents and also, of greater concern, the grandparents. The older you are, the impacts of getting seriously ill or worse with Covid is greater.

The other reason is just so kids can do what kids are meant to do – go to school, play with their friends, do sport, do exercise, do social things.

We are worried about the mental health impacts on all the lockdowns that children have had over the last couple of years.

And finally – there’s about one in 3,000 children who, even though they mightn’t get all that ill with Covid, have this long-term multi-system inflammatory syndrome where even when they recover from Covid, they can be quite ill for some months with fever, rash, intestinal, heart, neurological issues, even though it’s one in 3,000 of those kids it’s a very serious condition. Lots of reasons to vaccinate young children.

Anthony Albanese is well and truly out on the campaign trail this week – and it seems the polls are behind him.

The latest Newspoll, conducted for the Australian, shows 47% of voters believe Labor will form the next government after an election expected in March or May.

Just 37% expect the Coalition to be returned for a fourth term, reports AAP.

Labor leads the two-party-preferred race over the Coalition, 53 to 47%, on a primary vote of 38%.

And to celebrate the opposition leader’s deputy Richard Marles has been on ABC radio this morning talking up the big man:

I think when it comes to character, there is a chasm, a massive chasm between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese, there’s no doubt about that ... I think Australians coming out of the pandemic are looking for a government that will have a plan to create a better future, right now I think what they see with the Morrison government is a government that is consistently behind the play.

Ian Haywood’s partner is blunt when asked to sum up the couple’s latest battle with the National Disability Insurance Agency.

“They don’t think it is ‘reasonable and necessary’ for Ian to have nursing funding,” Bianca* told Guardian Australia, referring to the key legal test for NDIS funding.

“We think it is reasonable for him to stay home and it is necessary in order for him to live. It’s cheaper for them if he dies.”

Haywood, 43, lives with the terminal illness motor neurone disease and is the latest NDIS participant to speak out about what the federal Labor party and disability advocates claim are “stealth cuts” being seen around the country.

Communicating with Guardian Australia via email as he is non-verbal, Haywood said the NDIS had been funding 24-hour nursing care that allowed him to live at his home on the Mornington Peninsula rather than remaining in hospital.

You can read the full report below:

Michael Rowland:

Do you agree with the prime minister that, in his words, she was done over by the commission against corruption?

Simon Birmingham:

I think that it is pretty sad when Icacs go out and destroy reputations, do so in pretty murky ways, looking into relationships and other things. There’s ...

Rowland:

It was more of the relationship that we were talking about. It was more than her relationship that was brought up, excuse me, minister, at the hearings?

Birmingham:

Michael, the nature of the way in which the New South Wales Icac works, it’s one of the reasons why we’ve presented a very detailed model for a commonwealth integrity commission that absolutely has the power to tackle criminal corruption and to address serious issues.

But doesn’t go and destroy reputations first and then look at the details later.

Rowland:

We’ll see that next year?

Birmingham:

Well, we’ve got the legislation. It’s there. We’ve done the work on it. There’s several hundred pages of it.

As you might have heard, children aged five to 11 now have TGA approval to be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.

Finance minister Simon Birmingham has been out and about this morning discussing the development. Here is is speaking with ABC news breakfast:

We will encourage every Australian to go out and get a vaccine when they’re eligible, and particularly for parents to do that with five- to 11-year-olds.

A conversation that I had over the weekend with my kids and a conversation that we’ve been having for a little while. Everybody should have that chat with their children and make sure that they’re ready for it.

But with 88% of the double dosing in Australia and a strong turnout in the 70s of the 12- to 15-year-olds, we’re now at a point where we’re one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world.

We’ve got one of the first nationwide booster programs in the world and it will be really great to be able to bring the rest of those school-aged kids on board and have them all vaccinated, pretty much for the very start of term one or close to it.