Australia news live: NSW follows WA and ACT to reduce Covid reinfection window; Albanese to open energy forum

Paul Karp

Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, has warned of the use of “force or coercion” in the South China Sea and “intensification of major power competition”, references to China’s rising power in the Indo-Pacific.

Marles made the comments in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies on his visit to the US, committing Australia to closer cooperation with the US, higher defence spending and to address climate change in part as a national security issue.

Marles said:

All of us here today understand the challenges we face: a military build-up occurring at a rate unseen since World War II; the development and deployment of new weapons that challenge our military capability edge; expanding cyber and grey zone capabilities which blur the line between peace and conflict; and the intensification of major power competition in ways that both concentrate and transcend geographic confines.

These trends compel an even greater Australian focus on the Indo-Pacific. For the first time in decades we are thinking hard about the security of our strategic geography, the viability of our trade and supply routes, and above all the preservation of an inclusive regional order founded on rules agreed by all, not the coercive capabilities of a few. In particular we worry about use of force or coercion to advance territorial claims, as is occurring in the South China Sea, and its implications for the any number of places in the Indo-Pacific where borders or sovereignty is disputed.

On Australia’s relationship with the Pacific, where Australia is racing to persuade nations not to follow Solomon Islands’ lead in signing a security pact with China, Marles said:

The Pacific is where Australia must invest in effective regionalism by reinforcing the Pacific Islands Forum and other regional institutions that are so key to regional resilience and agency. We must do this not only because of our unique connections to the Pacific but because Pacific security so directly impacts on our own security.

Given this reality, the Pacific is the part of the world where the United States rightly looks to Australia to lead. And we will.

We will not take our status for granted. Pacific Island Countries have choices about their partners. And we will work to earn their trust. The Pacific has been clear in saying that geopolitical competition is of lesser concern to them than the threat of rising sea levels, economic insecurity, and transnational crime. Australia respects and understands this position. And we are listening. And while we will not ask our partners to pick a side, I am confident that an Australia which collaborates and invests in shared priorities with the Pacific is an Australia which will be the natural partner of choice for the Pacific.

NSW Health today announced that – effective immediately – the Covid reinfection period is now four weeks, down from 12.

It follows similar moves by the WA and ACT governments yesterday, in line with advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

Anyone in the state experiencing Covid symptoms from 28 days after their isolation ends is now required to test for the virus.

In a statement, CHO Kerry Chant said the new advice was due to the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants “circulating widely in NSW”:

They are more able to evade immunity gained from previous infection and vaccination reinfection is more likely and possible just weeks after a prior infection.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese is due to make the opening speech at the Sydney Energy Forum today. He will tell the forum Australia has rejoined the ranks of “trusted global partners” on climate action.

He’ll be making the speech before travelling to the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, where leaders are set to meet later in the week.

Covid-19 hospitalisations are surging in Australia from the winter Omicron wave, with pressures on hospitals leading to some elective surgeries being cancelled and paramedics overwhelmed.

In NSW the Covid reinfection period has been reduced to four weeks down from 12 weeks previously, from today.

The first monkeypox case has been detected in Queensland. The state’s authorities say the public health risk is “very low” but it comes after community transmission was found in NSW last week.

I’m Natasha May and if there’s something you think should be on the blog, you can get in touch by pinging me on Twitter @natasha__may or emailing [email protected].

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