Western Australia has now gone more than 150 days without community transmission of COVID-19. 9News
"We want to make sure they're protected," he said.Mr McGowan defended Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and other state leaders, including Daniel Andrews, as tensions between the states boil over regarding border restrictions.
"I say to Mr Dutton and Mr Frydenberg to pull back in your criticism of the states, we have accepted the international borders and not raised issues when people have isolated overseas."Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan speaks to the media during a press conference in Perth, "The prime minister feels very deeply about this, as we all do. We don't want to see people suffering and the premier is making these decisions not in a consistent way," Mr Dutton said.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Communist China 'putting Australia in a new category' amid deteriorating relations | Sky News AustraliaThe Communist Party of China may have decided to 'take Australia out of one category of countries that it deals with' as the bilateral relationship between the two nations continues to deteriorate says Melbourne University Professor Michael Wesley. \n\nAustralia no longer has any correspondents in China following the rushed removal of two Australian journalists over fears for their safety.\n\nProfessor Wesley said if the strategic partnership isn't dead between the two nations, 'it's certainly on life support'. \n\n'It's hard to tell at this stage whether this is another step in a slow tightening of the pressure on Australia by Beijing,' Professor Wesley said. \n\n'Or whether China has simply decided to take Australia out of one category of countries that it deals with, which up until five or six years ago was seen to be a relatively friendly country to China, and simply put it in another category. \n\n'That is a country that China will deal with on a pragmatic basis but with no pretense of any closeness and no favours done on either side.' \n\n'It's certainly starting to look like the latter of those to me,' he said. \n\n'It is very hard to see how the bilateral relationship is going to return to a level of, let's say pre-2012 where there were close and cordial relations between the Australian and Chinese governments'. \n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
Australia doesn't know 'China's new rules nor what it'll do next' | Sky News AustraliaThe Australian’s Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly says the fact Australia doesn’t know what China will do next is debilitating and alarming. \n\nThe decision to rush out the last two Australian accredited journalists in China in recent days has raised serious questions about the way Australia manages relationship with its most significant trade partner, but also, 'its most significant regional security threat,' said Sky News host Peta Credlin.\n\n“I think we’re in a downward spiral in terms of the bilateral relationship (with China),” Mr Kelly said.\n\n“The really alarming aspect of all of this is that we don’t know what the new rules are.”\n\nMr Kelly said the fundamental question was: “how safe are Australians in China?”\n\n“If you look at the size of the business relationship, if you look at the scope of the people to people relationship, this is a really, really disturbing event,” he said. \n\n“The alarming thing about it is that people don’t know what China might do next.\n\n“That’s really debilitating.”\n\nImage: AP
Read more »
Decision to close WA border was made 'without weighing up sufficient arguments' | Sky News AustraliaSky News contributor Graham Richardson says the decision to close borders is a complex one which requires many arguments be weighed up first, and the trouble with Western Australia’s decision is 'there hasn’t been near enough weighing up'.\n\nSky News host Alan Jones asks whether the Western Australian authorities “are ... liars, hypocrites or just stupid” as their decision to keep the state’s borders closed blatantly contradicts their statements in March which warned closing them would be bad for trade, and further, unconstitutional. \n\nWestern Australian Premier Mark McGowan still has the WA border firmly shut to anyone, yet in the West Australian Parliament on March 18, he said, 'If we close the borders to the East what will happen to our markets of products and supply chains for important goods.'\n\nWestern Australian Health Minister Roger Cook said, 'well there is this little thing called the Constitution… we cannot turn around and say, one Australian cannot meet and visit another Australian.'\n\n“I think what they are, are people who want to ignore one part of the argument totally,” Mr Richardson told Sky News host Alan Jones. \n\n“These are complex decisions, just because you have the power to do something, doesn’t mean you do it.\n\n“You have to weigh up all of the arguments in a complex situation before you move.\n\n“The trouble is, I don’t think here’s been near enough weighing up here.”\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
New South Wales to carry national financial burden as state borders remain closed | Sky News AustraliaPressure is mounting on the New South Wales government to boost infrastructure spending to help lift the country out of recession and lingering effects fiscal losses will have on the economy.\n\nStates and territories face a $33 billion GST deficit as New South Wales alone is set to take a $10 billion shortfall across the next four years.\n\nNSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said border closures were a contributing factor to the reduction in GST revenue, urging states to open up.\n\nThe federal government faced a record deficit of at least $200 billion in the October budget.\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
Read more »
‘New online safety act’ to curb graphic content on social media platforms | Sky News AustraliaCommunications Minister Paul Fletcher has spruiked the Morrison government’s ‘basic online safety expectations’ legislation after a graphic suicide clip was viewed and resent multiple times on Facebook and TikTok before being removed.\n\nCriticism was directed particularly at TikTok after the popular social media app failed to quickly detect and remove the inappropriate content from the platform, which used videos of animals to lure children into watching the clip.\n\nThe Communications Minister said the “video clearly violates the terms of use of Facebook, of TikTok and of any other social media platform”.\n\n“Let’s be clear, our government expects that social media platforms, be it TikTok, be it Facebook, be it Twitter … have systems in place in relation to the safety of material which their users are exposed to”.\n\nMr Fletcher went on to flag a “new online safety act which takes our existing extensive protections and expands them”.\n\n“That will formally set out the what we’re calling the basic online safety expectations,” he said. \n\nImage: Getty
Read more »
Oscars new diversity standards are 'deeply dehumanising' | Sky News AustraliaQuotas and identity politics are deeply dehumanising because they deprive people of being rewarded on the basis of their own merit and treats them according to an immutable characteristic, according to the Institute of Public Affairs’ Daniel Wild.\n\nHis comments come after recent announcement from Hollywood that no film can win the Oscar award for the Best Picture unless it casts, or hires behind the camera, a certain number of people from underrepresented minorities. \n\n“Quotas and identity politics are deeply, deeply dehumanising because they deprive people of being rewarded on the basis of their hard work and merit and the kind of contribution they can make,' Mr Wild told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.\n\n“It treats people purely on the basis of their race, or their ethnicity, or their religion, or some other immutable characteristics such as their gender.”\n\nImage: Getty
Read more »