Australian news live: Ardern says UN failed in Ukraine; NSW mid north coast in flood alert; Tudge urges Labor to keep varsity fee changes | News from Australia

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The Minister for Health and Elderly Care @Mark_Butler_MP is in Adelaide today and will be holding a press conference on COVID-19 vaccines at 12:30pm local time (1:00pm AEST). #Auspol

— Political Alert (@political_alert) July 7, 2022

Queensland records 17 Covid deaths with 697 people in hospital

Queensland has had 5,980 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, with 15 people in intensive care.

Perrottet announces flood cleaning forces

The NSW Premier, Dominik Perrottethas announced the deployment of a flood clearance task force that includes “more than 500 personnel, helicopters and equipment”.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that the task force is made up of staff from:

• NSW State Emergency Service
• NSW Rural Fire Service
• Fire and Rescue NSW
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Advice on public works
• The Australian Defense Force

The Minister for Flood Remediation, Stephen Cookesaid:

The first step in flood remediation is for SES staff to conduct rapid damage assessments of flood-affected homes and businesses so the properties can be classified as safe.

This information is then used to make decisions about further support from the NSW and Commonwealth governments.

Our teams also help clear debris, clean homes and businesses, and keep roads open so people can return safely.

The government will also waive its waste levy in flood-affected areas, but community members are being told to check with their local council which waste disposal service is handling flood debris. The waiver includes the following caveat:

Waste facilities must ensure that flooding generates the waste before they can waive the government waste levy. Municipal waste disposal fees may still apply.

WHO is considering whether monkeypox is a global health emergency

Melissa Davey

The World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on or before July 18 to review whether monkeypox has become a global public health emergency Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said in a news conference overnight.

Such a designation – the highest global alert level – currently only applies to Covid-19 and polio.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Tedros said:

I remain concerned about the scale and global spread of the virus, which now has more than 6,000 cases or 58 countries.

Testing remains a challenge and there is a high likelihood that a significant number of cases will go undetected.

In Australia, 11 cases of monkeypox have now been identified in NSW residents. While nine cases were likely acquired abroad, two may have been acquired in Australia, NSW Health announced Wednesday night.

It prompted the director of health protection to dr Jeremy McAnultyto urge the community to be alert to monkeypox symptoms as local transmission can now occur, particularly in men who have sex with men.

McAnulty urged people to look out for symptoms such as body aches, fever, headaches, and skin rashes or lesions on the genitals or other parts of the body:

So far, in the cases we’ve seen in New South Wales, monkeypox doesn’t show up in the way some people expect, like e.g. B. a widespread rash or lesions all over the body.

It might just be a few pimples in the genital area or buttocks, so people need to be careful about possible symptoms.

Europe remained the epicenter of the outbreak, Tedros said, recording more than 80% of cases worldwide. In Africa, cases have emerged in areas previously unaffected, and record numbers have been recorded in other countries with no prior experience in identifying and treating monkeypox.

In the meantime, NSW lgbtiq+ health organization Acon has developed an excellent fact sheet with information on what to look out for and who to contact if you develop symptoms.

We will have a full report on Jacinda Ardern‘s address to the Lowy Institute later today. You can continue to follow the Q&A session in the live stream embedded at the top of this blog!

Alan Tudge urges Labor to keep uni fee changes

Paul Karp

The shadow education minister, Alan Tudgehas delivered a speech to the Universities Australia conference urging Labor not to reverse the Jobs Ready graduate package or cut the Colombo Plan, which gives Australians scholarships to study in the Indo-Pacific and vice versa.

The Jobs Ready Graduate Pack increased the cost of liberal arts degrees by up to 113% while reducing fees in areas with skills shortages.

Tudge said:

As part of the Job-Ready Graduate Reforms, prices for national core courses for undergraduates have been significantly reduced. For example, undergraduate math and statistics are now 59% cheaper to study; Teaching and nursing are 42% cheaper; Science and environmental science are 18% cheaper; and Agricultural Science is 59% cheaper.

Overall, around 60% of freshmen saw a reduction or no change in their contributions in the first year of implementation.

We know from enrollment data that students have responded to these price signals. Note the rising enrollments in majors such as teaching, nursing, engineering, IT, science and agriculture. It wasn’t a perfect correlation, as students choose courses for many reasons, not just price signals. However, it is having an effect.

Tudge said he was:

Concerned that Labor has spent much of the last three years criticizing our ambitions in these reforms and we know they will be under considerable pressure from the Greens to reverse them now.

Labor has not formulated any policy on this, instead it will hold an Accord summit to discuss the future of the varsity sector.

Tudge said it was “an honor to serve as Education Secretary for the past 18 months and it remains an honor to serve as Shadow Secretary of Education Peter Duttons leadership,” adding that he “explicitly requested” them during the reshuffle following the May election defeat.

Tudge was on leave for six months before the May 21 electionLeave StuartRobert as deputy minister. Tudge stepped aside on December 2nd while an investigation into allegations by his former media adviser is pending, Rachel Millerabout her relationship with him in 2017. Tudge has denied the allegations.

Despite the ad determined that there was insufficient evidence Tudge had breached ministerial standards and was on leave for the sake of his family and his own well-being.

Russia ‘must be held accountable’ – Ardern

veins makes some interesting comments about the war in Ukraine and more broadly – although she doesn’t mention it here – China. She says Russia “must be held accountable” and that New Zealand will “intervene as a third party in Ukraine’s case against Russia.” [in the] International Court of Justice” to ensure this happens.

We must empower the International Criminal Court to fully investigate and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine.

But as we take every possible measure to respond to and hold Russia’s aggression accountable, we must remember that this is essentially Russia’s war.

And while there are those who have shown open and direct support, like Belarus, who must also see consequences for that role, we must not characterize this as anything other than Western war against Russia, or democracy against autocracy. It is not. Nor, of course, should we assume that this is a demonstration of the inevitable trajectory in other areas of geostrategic competition.

As tensions rise in our region, independent diplomacy must become the strongest tool and de-escalation the loudest call. However, we will not succeed if the parties we seek to engage with become increasingly isolated and the region in which we live becomes increasingly divided and polarised. We must not allow the risk of a self-fulfilling prophecy to become an inevitable consequence for our region.

UN fails in response to war in Ukraine – veins

Jacinda Ardern speaks about what she says is her innate optimism and essentially outlines her position on global affairs – “based on the principle of maintaining the rules-based order” using multilateral institutions. But she made a few caveats about it:

Multilateral institutions are imperfect, and they have and will fail us. When they fail, our first port of call must always be to find ways to make them stronger. Likewise, we must be unable to respond to global challenges because we encounter dysfunction or, worse, moral failure.

There hasn’t been a better example of this lately the UN’s failure to respond adequately to the war in Ukraine because of Russia’s position in the Security Council – a morally bankrupt position on their part in the wake of a morally bankrupt and illegal war. In these circumstances, waiting for action from our multilateral institutions was not an option for New Zealand. When the system fails, we look here for partnerships and approaches based on the second principle of our independent foreign policy, our values.

Jacinda Ardern speaks in Sydney

The New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, is now giving a lecture at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. We’re livestreaming it here (above) for you to follow.

Victoria records 12 Covid deaths with 592 people in hospital

In the last 24 hours, 10,265 new cases were recorded in the state, including 30 people in the intensive care unit.