Pressure 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.
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States 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. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said border closures were a contributing factor to the reduction in GST revenue, urging states to open up. The federal government faced a record deficit of at least $200 billion in the October budget.
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Andrews downplays sending health officials to observe New South Wales contact tracing | Sky News AustraliaPremier Daniel Andrews has downplayed a decision to send Victorian health officials to New South Wales to examine the state's contact tracing system, labelling it nothing more than a 'triple-check'.\n\n'It's not like they haven't been talking; they're been in constant contact,' Mr Andrews said.\n\n'You all learn from each other and there are plenty of insights we've provided to New South Wales.'\n\nOpposition Leader Michael O'Brien argued the move was 'too little, too late'.\n\nVictoria has begun revamping its tracing process, taking it online, with the program largely being conducted on pen and paper, and in some cases, fax machines.\n\nPrime Minister Scott Morrison declared the New South Wales health system was 'the gold standard' while Health Minister Greg Hunt claimed Victoria could have largely avoided its second wave if it had a better contact tracing system.\n\nChief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton conceded the system buckled under pressure.\n\nImage: News Corp Australia\n\n\n
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New South Wales to manufacture ventilators | Sky News AustraliaPremier Gladys Berejiklian says New South Wales will manufacture ventilators, which can be distributed domestically and overseas.\n\n'Can I say how incredibly proud I am that after March, when Minister Ayres and myself, issued a call to arms to NSW businesses to support us during the pandemic we've had two different groups of smart people, one university-based in Sydney another company based in Hunter work together to provide the prototypes of these two great ventilators,' Ms Berejiklian said.\n\nThe ventilators will be produced in a few months and should have regulatory approval shortly according to Ms Berejiklian.\n\n'They are going through the approval process and are nearly there for manufacturing. It is a really exciting time in NSW.'\n\nHealth Minister Brad Hazzard said the crucial instruments can be the difference between life and death.\n\n“In some of the worst-hit nations, health staff was forced to choose who got access to a ventilator, so we need a reliable local supply chain to safeguard NSW patients,” Mr Hazzard said.\n\nThe state recorded nine new cases of COVID-19 overnight.\n
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NZ PM Jacinda Ardern pledges new public holiday ahead of 2020 election | Sky News AustraliaNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has pledged to make Maori New Year (Matariki) the first new public holiday in the nation’s public calendar in almost 50 years if Labor wins the upcoming 2020 election.\n\n“This is about acknowledging who we are as a nation,” she said. \n\nCoalition partner New Zealand First rejected the idea with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, arguing it would place undue strain on employers - a view shared by the opposition National party.\n\nHowever, tourism operators are pleased by the prospect, with Redwoods Treewalk Co-founder Bruce Thomasen saying he would see a “300 per cent lift in turnover over the Saturday, Sunday and the Monday”.\n\nThe public holiday would not be introduced until 2022 to give businesses enough time to plan.\n\nImage: Getty
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Berejiklian confirms nine new coronavirus cases, funding for hospital | Sky News AustraliaNew South Wales has recorded nine new COVID-19 cases, as Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces an additional $320 million in funding for a new hospital.\n\n'We're extremely pleased to announce that, as part of the government's acceleration fund of $3 billion, we're providing an additional allocation of $320 million to build the Shellharbour Hospital,' Ms Berejiklian said.\n\nTreasurer Dominic Perrottet said a total of $700 million will be spent on the project from both the State and Federal governments.\n\n
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‘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
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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
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