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Covid boosters recommended by Atagi for at-risk children between 12 and 15
The minister for health and aged care, Mark Butler, has announced Covid booster doses will be recommended for at-risk children between 12 and 15 years old.
People most at risk of severe disease are encouraged to receive a dose of the Pfizer vaccine from 14 June following Atagi advice.
To be eligible for a booster dose, the children must have completed a primary course three or more months ago, and meet one or more of these criteria:
- Be severely immunocompromised.
- Have a disability with significant or complex health needs.
- Have complex and/or multiple health conditions that increase the risk of severe Covid.
Atagi is not recommending a booster dose for all children between 12 and 15 years old at this stage, as evidence shows otherwise healthy adolescents who have received two doses remain “well protected” against severe disease.
Butler said:
I welcome Atagi’s advice to make boosters available to around 120,000 vulnerable young Australians who have significant health conditions.
I encourage all those eligible for these boosters to book in.
Atagi recommended all Australians receive an influenza vaccine as soon as possible, because after a few flu seasons with low transmission rates, there is a chance this season could be a difficult one.
Protect yourself and your family this winter by getting boosted and vaccinated for Covid and influenza.
‘What a joke’: Energy minister says about Coalition push for nuclear
When asked about the Coalition pushing Labor to explore nuclear as a fuel option, energy minister Chris Bowen says “bring it on! It’s just a complete joke”.
He said:
Seriously? A couple of points. Nine years in office and then coming up with bright ideas on the other side of the election is point one. No credibility. Point two – nuclear is the most expensive form of energy.
We have a cost of living crisis. Energy prices going through the roof. And what’s the big bright idea? They say “let’s have the most expensive form of energy we can possibly think of? Let’s come up with the most expensive form of energy and put that in there because that will make the power prices cheaper?”
They want that debate? Bring it on! It’s just a complete joke.
Question: Would you consider cash payments for those in dire straits due to [energy prices]?
Bowen: The treasurer said that we went to the election with a considerable cost of living package which will be in the October budget. We will sensibly look at anything else that we can do. But we’ll concentrating on that cost relief, cost of living relief, that we went to the election with.
Government to renew gas security mechanism
Now we are hearing from the resources minister, Madeleine King.
King says the Australian domestic gas security mechanism is due to expire on 1 January next year, and the cabinet resolved today to make sure that tool remains so that the government can ensure future supplies of gas in Australia, so the mechanism will be renewed through regulation.
The government will also conduct an urgent review of the domestic gas security mechanism. She said:
As Minister Bowen has pointed out, it is a long and complicated and convoluted, ineffective mechanism, that takes a very long time to produce results. We are determined to change that and we’re determined to make sure that this mechanism, as well as the other tools available to us, are all on the table so that we can ensure that gas supplies are appropriate, adequate and affordable for Australians right across the country.
She said cabinet also agreed to renegotiate the heads of government agreement between the gas companies and the prime minister, with a “distinctive edge” to respond to the gas crisis.
We need to have this heads of agreement renewed so that we can again, along with the Domestic Gas Security, ensure that there are gas supplies that are affordable and adequate for the southern Australian states.
Energy minister Chris Bowen speaks at Sydney press conference
Bowen says he is pleased with the progress made at last night’s state and territory energy ministers’ meeting.
He says the most important thing to emerge from the meeting is giving AEMO the power to store and buy gas.
He says:
Most importantly from my point of view, working now to give AEMO the power to buy and store gas so that it is kept for a crisis situation and can be released at AEMO’s discretion is something that would have been useful in recent times, and something that will be useful in coming times.
Secondly, the state and territory ministers agreeing with me to progress the capacity mechanism process. The previous government had said that they would work towards it coming into place in 2025.
We need to do better than that. But we also need to make sure that we get it right, and that includes ensuring that it supports new technologies, renewable energy and storage. And that is the instructions that ministers gave last night. As I’ve said, I am encouraging the Energy Security Board to expedite their work and get it out for further consultation as soon as possible. There will be a lot of detailed work for people to see. There’s been a lot of work done by the Energy Security Board. I look forward to seeing their work being made public in the coming days.
Union on ABC ‘knifing’ library services jobs
The Community and Public Sector Union has slammed the ABC’s plans to abolish 58 positions and make journalists research and archive their own stories.
The CPSU said the ABC cannot continue to sack its world class specialist staff and expect to remain the nation’s most trusted storyteller.
CPSU ABC section secretary Sinddy Ealy:
This proposal will see over 1,200 hours a week of archival work fall by the wayside, potentially jeopardising national archival footage, music and work. The ABC has developed this proposal before it has even consulted with program makers about what they need from the ABC Archives in order to do their work.
This proposal is an unfortunate example of ambitious and future-focused management being out of touch with the day to day running of the organisation, frontline workers are best place to know that automated workflows are not up and running to the level needed to be to avoid catastrophic loss of archival materials and the hasty decision to sack specialist staff will absolutely risk breaking new stories making it to air. This proposal is tech driven not content driven which is highly problematic when it does not have a realistic take on where the organisation is at presently.
The last time the ABC took a knife to its library services in 2019, it promised there would no more loss of specialist work, yet here we are. ABC staff are at the frontline of digitisation and the early uptake of technology, they always have been but not at the expense of dumbing down content or quality like this change could see.
ACCC report on NBN download speeds
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has said 14% of fibre-to-the-node NBN connections struggle to get speeds over 75% of what they’re paying for.
The data is contained in the latest measuring broadband report from the ACCC, which is released every three months looking at how the national broadband network is performing.
The 14% is up 1% on the previous report, the ACCC said.
“The ACCC has consistently called for NBN Co and retailers to improve these physical connections so that consumers on fibre to the node technology achieve speeds closer to their plan speed,” ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said.
The report found that download speeds in urban areas had improved, from 85.7% of the promised speed in 2018 to 98.2% in February this year. Regional areas have improved from 83.7% to 95.2%
The report found people in urban areas on fixed NBN connections still have better speeds than those on fixed connections in regional areas.
“Regional fixed-line services have improved over the last four years, but still have some way to go to be on par with urban connections,” Brakey said.
Overall, the average download and upload speeds dropped between December last year and February this year.
“Speeds are generally holding up well, however most retailers experienced a small drop in speed in February during the busy evening hours,” Brakey said.
NBN Co is already in the process of offering full fibre-to-the-home upgrades to up to 2m homes, and the new Labor government’s policy will see that upgrade offered to a further 1.5m.
South Australia records zero Covid-19 deaths
South Australia has reported zero Covid-19 deaths today, with 2,801 new cases, 234 in hospital and five of those in intensive care.
With that, I will pass you on to the sterling Josh Taylor who will be with you for the rest of the day.
WA records five deaths, 7,871 new Covid cases
Western Australia’s premier Mark McGowan has released today’s Covid update.
There have been 7,871 new cases reported and five further deaths to 8pm last night.
The state’s deaths may date back to previous days and weeks but were reported to WA Health yesterday.
There are 293 people being treated in hospital with the virus including 16 people in ICU.
Marles to meet defence counterparts from Japan and US
Deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles will attend a three-way meeting with Japanese minister of defence Kishi Nobuo and US secretary of defense Lloyd Austin while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this month.
The high level security conference, to take place from 10 June to 12 June, will be his first overseas engagement as defence minister.
Senior defence officials from more than 30 nations will be in attendance for speeches and talks on key strategic issues.
Marles:
I am honoured to represent Australia at such an important forum to discuss security challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region in complex and challenging times.
The Indo-Pacific is in the midst of the most consequential strategic alignment of our time. I welcome the role this Dialogue plays in shaping robust conversation on strategic challenges and regional security dynamics.
Australia remains committed to working with our partners across the region to promote our shared interests of a peaceful, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific.
I look forward to sharing Australia’s strategic outlook at the Dialogue, and outlining our regional priorities.
The three-way meeting with Japan and the US will be the 10th trilateral defence ministers meeting to take place.
Paul Karp
ABC chief questioned over archivist jobs
The ABC managing director, David Anderson, has been door-stopped at Parliament House in Canberra about the proposal to slash 58 archivist and librarian jobs at the public broadcaster.
Anderson told reporters:
The archives initiative is something the ABC has had in train for a while, we’ve been digitising the archives, making it more accessible for our content makers. That’s all I have to say about it. We’re in consultation, so when we launch these initiatives … we consult with staff and their representatives, and that will take place over the next six weeks.
Asked if it will compromise the ability to tell Australian stories if only flagship programs have access to library staff, Anderson replied:
No, we don’t believe that it will compromise our ability to tell local stories. We do value our archives. We work closely with the National Archives Australia. We don’t believe it will. It’s a change we’re putting in place, a transformation for the future – certainly, to allow our content makers to access more easily the archive that we have.
Anderson said the ABC is “always there for all Australians, telling stories is what we do”.
It’s an initiative we’ve thought through carefully, we will take feedback from people and answer people’s concerns that they might have in this period of time.
Anderson said the ABC will meet its legislative obligations in the Archives Act and its charter.
Two charged after remains found on Glass House Mountains
In Queensland, detectives have charged two people following the discovery of human remains at the Glass House Mountains on Tuesday.
Forensic testing is under way to determine the identity of the remains, however police say they are believed to be those of Donna Howe, a 57-year-old Caboolture woman, who was last seen in late April.
Yesterday police executed a search warrant.
Two men from Caboolture have both been charged with one count each of murder and misconduct with a corpse.
They will appear at Caboolture magistrates court today.
Remember the election?
Declarations are continuing until next week, while the latest date of the return of writs is 28 June.
The AEC has warned for some contests “the entire allowable period” may be needed to complete the count and formally declare the result.
‘It must have been absolutely freezing’: NSW police give update on boy found after being missing overnight
NSW superintendent Darrin Batchelor has provided an update on the 11-year-old boy discovered this morning after going missing yesterday afternoon.
Christopher was found close to home by a member of the public driving along a road near his house around 9.15am.
Batchelor says the woman saw a person matching his description walking along the road, asked him who he was and he said his name was Chris. She gave him some water and a muesli bar and he was “happy to be in some warmth”.
It’s fantastic … we haven’t filled in all the pieces of the puzzle yet but it looks like Christopher went on a little bit of an adventure yesterday afternoon and overnight he put his head down somewhere, we think in some bushland and this morning he was located heading back towards home so it’s a fantastic outcome.
He’s been transported to … hospital for a thorough examination and there’s no visible injuries … so it looks like at this stage possible mild hypothermia but … it must’ve been absolutely freezing for him out there.
Batchelor said the family was “extremely relieved” and had been distraught with worry overnight.
Police asked him a few questions but he was quiet this morning and it hasn’t been confirmed why he left.
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