Key events
Medical expert warns current Covid policy unsustainable
Coronavirus infections and deaths continue to tick upwards as the head of a medical institute warns Australia is losing its battle with the virus, AAP reports.
Burnet Institute director Professor Brendan Crabb told Seven’s Sunrise on Saturday that current strategies to combat the virus are not working.
“What the numbers say is that we’re simply not winning,” he said.
“The latest wave we just had … which was the third wave of this year, was the worst wave we’ve had this year, more hospitalisations and more deaths.”
At that rate, the country is on track to record its 10 millionth case within a week.
Prof Crabb said there was an “attitude problem”.
“We haven’t quite grasped the fact that having lots of virus in our community is bad,” he said.
“We have to change to reduce transmission, to be intolerant of the amount of virus in our community.”
Prof Crabb said the research from the US on how repeated infections increase the risk of acute and chronic is worrying and surprising, and shows the need to reduce infection rates.
“There is no wall of immunity built by infection against the impacts of infection,” he said.
While “herd immunity” is real, Prof Crabb said the way to reach it was through vaccination, not infection.
Labor claims byelection victory in NT seat of Fannie Bay
Labor has fought off a swing to claim victory in the Northern Territory seat of Fannie Bay in the byelection to replace former chief minister Michael Gunner, AAP reports.
Brent Potter was ahead on Saturday night with 52% two-candidate preferred over the Country Liberal party’s Ben Hosking, according to the Northern Territory Electoral Commission, with 63% of the vote counted.
Chief minister Natasha Fyles hailed Potter’s victory, saying the constituents of Fannie Bay “want a government that backs them and only a Territory Labor government can do that”.
It is with great pride that we welcome Brent Potter into the Territory Labor caucus.
Hosking led the primary vote with 42%, with Potter on 33% and the Greens with 19%.
The three independents – George Mamouzellos, Raj Samson Rajwin, and Leah Potter – each garnered between one and three per cent.
The past three Fannie Bay MPs have served as the NT’s chief minister.
Good morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
The Albanese government is facing growing pressure to abandon plans to pass Stage 3 tax cuts. The cuts are expected to cost $243bn by 2032-33, but unions, economists, the Greens and analysts are saying the money could be better spent providing critical services.
Fallout from the revelations that former prime minister Scott Morrison secretly took over five additional ministerial portfolios continues with calls for the governor general to explain why his signing of critical documents was left off the official diary. David Hurley signed off on the documents swearing Morrison in to the health, finance, treasury, home affairs and industry, science, energy and resources.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs, taking the blog through the day. With so much going on out there, it’s easy to miss stuff, so if you spot something happening in Australia and think it should be on the blog, you can find me on Twitter at @RoyceRk2 where my DMs are open.
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