Australia Covid live news update: NSW cases jump to 1,360; Scott Morrison a casual contact; potential Melbourne superspreader event

Australia’s air force chief ticked off on a $16bn Joint Strike Fighter program clearing a major milestone despite acknowledging “deficiencies” with the aircraft and support systems.

The defence department has also revealed that a much-trumpeted upgrade to the Jindalee Operational Radar Network is running “several years” behind schedule, a year after the Morrison government announced plans to expand surveillance of Australia’s eastern approaches.

The disclosures follow moves by the defence minister, Peter Dutton, to dump the trouble-plagued MH90 Taipan helicopters early and replace them with Black Hawks from the US in coming years.

A detailed new report on Australian’s defence acquisitions outlines problems with other major projects, including the Joint Strike Fighter program.

You can read the full report below:

Labor senator Pat Dodson has blasted the Western Australian government for failing its one opportunity to protect Aboriginal heritage and stop the “tyranny of cultural genocide” after the state’s controversial new heritage bill was passed into law.

The new law, introduced after Rio Tinto destroyed a 46,000-year-old cultural site at Juukan Gorge, has drawn anger from Aboriginal traditional owners, shareholder groups and even federal MPs. After months of asking, the bill was finally released to the public on 16 November.

Critics had called on the WA government to halt its passage and conduct further consultation with traditional owners.

“It’s a discredit to the legislators and particularly those who advise the legislators,” Dodson said. “If you look back at the history of Western Australia, it hasn’t been so advanced in this space for a very long time and this was the one opportunity it had to be a bit advanced, and it has failed.”

You can read the full report below:

Scott Morrison has spoken to 4BC Radio ahead of his trip to Queensland, confirming that he is still coming to the state despite being a casual contact of someone with Covid-19.

Morrison said that both the chief medical officer and Queensland authorities have confirmed it is safe to travel, citing his two negative PCR tests since the Friday night event he attended.

Morrison said:

That’s what living with the virus is. The virus is there, Omicron is in Australia. We’re going to live with this virus not let it drag us back where we’ve been.

We’ve got one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. We’re about to tip over 90% double dose around the country. Yesterday we had another bumper day in terms of our booster program … We’ve got to keep moving forward, we can’t slip back.

It’s great Queensland has opened up, but we need better and faster methods to get back in the community.

Morrison then hedged on a number of Covid measures:

• On the Covid contacts having to quarantine for 14 days in Queensland, Morrison said he hoped allowing people to be out by Christmas would be a high priority and there is “nothing magical about 14 days”. He argued governments have to be more “innovative” with solutions like allowing people out earlier if they test every day.
• On cruises, Morrison said it was “terribly frustrating” P&O had pushed back the start date for cruises, and the federal government is “keen to move”. But “we’re still being patient about it” while state authorities give necessary approvals.

Morrison also spruiked two other announcements:

• A youth advisory committee on online safety;
• Easier access to the pension loan scheme through a more attractive interest rate for people of pension age to draw down on equity in their homes.

Australian schoolchildren’s basic literacy and numeracy skills were relatively unscathed during first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, but gaps are widening between city students and those in regional and remote areas, the latest Naplan study has found.

Analysis of long-term data for the annual National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (Naplan) National Report 2021 – found significant and growing gaps between some demographics, including along gender lines, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and those in metro and regional areas.

The full 360-page report, released on Wednesday, follows high-level data in August which indicated that students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in 2021 continued to perform on par with students in 2019, despite lockdowns and periods of remote learning through 2020.

The Naplan tests were not conducted in 2020 due to nationwide lockdowns.

You can read the full report below: