Australia news live: two helicopters crash on Gold Coast; China's … – msnNOW

And that’s a wrap for this first Monday of 2023. Here’s what we learned:

• Four people have died and three are in a critical condition in hospital after two helicopters collided on the Gold Coast this afternoon. Thirteen people were caught up in the incident.

• Reaction from education, business and tourism groups has been mixed to the federal government’s announcement that all arrivals into Australia from China will need to present a negative Covid test before departure.

• The group of eight universities is supporting the measure, airlines have been expressing concern, and the Business Council of Australia saying the government was “retreating” from its policy of living with Covid.

• The health minister, Mark Butler, cited “an absence of comprehensive information about the situation in China” and lack of genomic sequencing as a factor in the decision.

• An off-duty police officer who drowned at a beach on the New South Wales south coast on New Year’s Day had swum out to rescue his son from a “substantial” rip.

• Victorian authorities issued emergency warnings for a “very dangerous thunderstorm” in central Victoria that they say could cause flash flooding, while large hail is seen in the state and further south in Tasmania, where dangerous thunderstorms are also occurring.

Thanks for sticking with us. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Large hail and severe storms hit Tasmania’s south-east

Hail up to 5cm in diameter has been seen just north of Hobart as severe storms that developed this afternoon continue to pummel parts of south-eastern Tasmania.

The Bureau of Meteorology confirmed today that the storms produced large hail, short bursts of heavy rainfall and damaging wind gusts, and will continue for another couple of hours before moving up the north coast and clearing.

At this stage, the storms are unlikely to head south to Hobart.

Hail between 2cm-5cm, which is “close to the threshold for giant hail” according to a Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson, had been seen by members of the public in the area.

“Hail of this size is very dangerous,” the spokesperson said. “Storms of this intensity are rare [in Tasmania].”

SES assistant director Leon Smith said despite the fact that the SES had not yet received any calls for assistance during these storms, “People should not be complacent. If you don’t need to drive in these conditions, don’t.”

He urged anyone who was on the road during the storms to find a safe place to wait them out.

One man has died and another man is in hospital after they were pulled from a surf beach south of Byron Bay, New South Wales this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to New Brighton Beach, south of Byron Bay, at about 1pm today after reports that a 28-year-old man had collapsed after returning to shore, and another 27-year-old man was unresponsive after being pulled from the water by surf life savers and an off-duty nurse.

The nurse and life savers performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but the 27-year-old could not be revived, NSW police said.

The 28-year-old man has been taken to Tweed hospital and is in a stable condition.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

Four people have died and three are in a critical condition in hospital after two helicopters collided on the Gold Coast this afternoon.

At a media conference just now, Queensland police confirmed that there were 13 people identified on the helicopters: four people died, three are in a critical condition and six people have minor injuries, mainly from glass shrapnel.

One helicopter lost its windscreen in the incident; the other crashed upside down.

A Queensland police spokesperson said many members of the public rushed to help when they saw the incident happen, and thanked everyone who attempted to assist.

© Provided by The Guardian Rescue personnel inspect one of the crashed helicopter at the scene near Seaworld. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP © Provided by The Guardian The scene of the fatal helicopter crash on the Gold Coast. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Animal advocates call for ban on racing after horse dies at Perth Cup

The death of a racehorse at the Perth Cup has renewed calls from some animal welfare advocates to end horse racing in Australia.

West Australian mare Chili Is Hot was euthanised on the track at Ascot racecourse after a collision with another horse roughly 200 metres into the race on Sunday in front of about 10,000 spectators.

The other horse involved, Dom To Shoot, suffered abrasions and was left slightly lame after the incident. Initial reports suggest Chili is Hot clipped the heels of the horse in front of her in the crowded pack and went down, with Dom To Shoot unable to stop in time and running over the top of her.

Jockey Peter Knuckey, who was riding Chili is Hot, and Jordan Turner, aboard Dom To Shoot, were cleared of serious injury.

The incident led to the Perth Cup being called off for the first time in its 136-year history. The race will be rerun on 14 January.

Read the full story here:

Related: Animal welfare advocates call for racing ban after horse dies at Perth Cup

Labor under renewed pressure to axe stage-three tax cuts

Warnings from the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, that Australia’s economy is slowing and that the population is ageing have prompted calls to scrap the stage-three tax cuts.

Chalmers said the latest Australian population data showed an ageing population continues to present a demographic challenge for Australia and the budget, with the government having to keep one eye on current challenges, while the other focuses on longer term needs in health, pensions and support services.

Work is under way for the May budget, which will be the first to tackle the $254bn Morrison government stage-three tax cuts. Labor voted in support of tax cuts while in opposition and went to the election promising no changes to stage three, which were already legislated and due to come into effect mid-next year.

Chalmers said Labor’s position on the cuts hasn’t changed, which the acting Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said was absurd:

The Greens will use our balance of power position in the parliament to continue to fight against Labor’s unfair and irresponsible stage-three tax cuts. We demand strong social services, not decades of entrenched economic inequality.

If the government is worried about how we’ll pay for essential services like Medicare and NDIS in the future, it beggars belief that they’re pushing ahead with the stage-three tax cuts.

Read the full story here:

Related: Labor under renewed pressure to axe stage-three tax cuts as Australia’s budget woes mount

Some chunky hail in Maldon, Victoria, this afternoon:

Emergency weather warning issued in central Victoria

Victorian authorities have issued an emergency warning for a “very dangerous thunderstorm” in central Victoria that they say could cause flash flooding.

VicEmergency issued the alert for Maryborough, Castlemaine and surrounds at 4.50pm.

The alert said the thunderstorm was “very dangerous” and could produce “giant hailstones, intense rainfall that may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash-flooding and damaging winds”.

Weather warnings issued across Tasmania

More severe thunderstorm activity: this time in Tasmania, with parts of the east coast, Midlands and south east districts looking at “giant hailstones, damaging winds and heavy rainfall”, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Chalmers: testing for China travellers ‘strikes the right balance’

Chalmers has addressed criticisms from business leaders who have been demanding more details from the government on its new measures:

Business leaders want us to strike the best balance between managing the health aspects of Covid-19 and making sure that we can keep the wheels of the economy turning.

Clearly, when the Chinese market and Chinese suppliers are such a substantial part of our own economy, people – not just business leaders, but economists and others – have their concerns about the impact of this Covid wave in China on our economy. I share those concerns. It’s one of the key things that we will be watching because it will be a key determinant of our prospects in our own economy in 2023.

There are typically a range of views. When the circumstances change, when management of the pandemic evolves, as the pandemic itself evolves, there are typically a range of views about that.

We listen respectfully to the views that people put forward. But the decision that we’ve taken as a government to rely again on some testing, when it comes to international arrivals, I think, is a sensible one. It strikes the right balance and it’s consistent with what a lot of other countries are doing around the world.

Queensland ambulance says 13 people being assessed at scene of helicopter crash

There were a lot of people in boats on the water around the sandbank where the helicopters came down on the Gold Coast, so there’s video circulating (I’m not going to post it here) showing what looks like wreckage on the sandbar, with another two helicopters upright nearby. At least one of those upright helicopters looks like an emergency responder vehicle.

Queensland Ambulance Service says 13 people are being assessed at the scene.

Authorities will investigate a “terrifying” crowd crush that occurred in a pedestrian tunnel in the centre of Melbourne on New Year’s Eve, with revellers saying they felt “totally wedged” and “couldn’t move in any direction”.

A City of Melbourne spokesperson said the council was aware of the safety concerns raised about the incident at the Elizabeth Street pedestrian underpass shortly before the midnight fireworks on Saturday.

It is understood the Elizabeth Street underpass will be investigated by the council, which is exploring a number of contributing factors.

About 475,000 people were in the Melbourne CBD for New Year’s Eve celebrations on Saturday evening. The council spokesperson said they were “pleased the vast majority of revellers celebrated safely”.

Related: Investigation to begin into ‘terrifying’ New Year’s Eve crowd crush in Melbourne

Police say injuries reported after two helicopters ‘came into contact’ mid-air near Gold Coast

One of the helicopters involved in the Gold Coast crash managed to land successfully but the other has injured parties on board, Queensland Police have confirmed.

In a statement just released, QPol said:

Early investigations indicate that the crash occurred around 2pm when two helicopters came into contact with each other.

One manage to successfully land.

There are injuries in the other helicopter with emergency services working at the scene.

We’re expecting the police to address the media sometime soon, but no details of when that will be just yet.

Queensland Police are now asking motorists and pedestrians to avoid the Main Beach area, with Seaworld Drive now closed off due to the helicopter crash.

Tourism CEO says Covid testing requirements for China arrivals are ‘a bit of a blow’

The chief executive of Australia’s Tourism and Transport Forum has called the government’s new Covid-19 test requirement for arrivals from China “a bit of a blow”.

Margy Osmond said on Tuesday that China was “an incredibly significant market for Australia”, but acknowledged that “we also have to be conscious of appropriately protecting our domestic market”:

Over the next year, we should see the numbers of international visitors to Australia improve significantly. However, a fair proportion of the projections was built around a significant number of Chinese travellers returning to Australia in the first half of 2023.

The industry will always support the government regarding decisions around health advice. However, we are really hoping things will resolve themselves in the positive so we can welcome back Chinese travellers during the course of this year.

Two helicopters have crashed on the Gold Coast, the Queensland Ambulance Service has now confirmed. The service said the incident happened just before 3pm AEDT, and that “multiple QAS resources and other emergency services are on the scene”.

The Courier Mail is reporting the collision happened near the Sea World theme park, with a Queensland Police Service spokesperson referring to it as an “aviation incident”.

Witnesses told the newspaper they saw two helicopters crash into each other, and that volunteer Marine Rescue Southport duty skipper Matt Fitzpatrick said at that point they did “not know the state of those who were aboard”.

Unconfirmed reports say Gold Coast crash was mid-air helicopter collision

The helicopter crash is being widely reported as involving two helicopters colliding in midair, over the water.

We haven’t had confirmation from authorities yet regarding the exact nature of the incident or how many people were caught up in it, but police and paramedics have rushed to the scene and I expect more details will be available very soon.

Thunderstorm and hail warning issued over western and central Victoria

The severe thunderstorms that the Bureau of Meteorology promised regional Victoria earlier today are materialising.

If you’re in western or central Victoria, be aware that the storms could produce heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding, damaging winds, and large hailstones over the next few hours.

There are reports coming out of the Gold Coast that there has been a serious helicopter crash in the Broadwater, near the theme parks.

Nine News is reporting comments from a Queensland Police spokesperson who said several crews had been called to an “aviation incident” near Sea World just after 2pm this afternoon.

We’ll bring you more information on this as it comes to hand.

Pair survive light plane crash

Two people have walked away from a light plane crash in flood waters in south-west New South Wales with only minor injuries.

Fire and Rescue NSW released some details of the rescue this afternoon, which after the Jabiru ultralight aircraft lost power just before midday, forcing the pilot to try to land in a flooded paddock near the Wentworth aerodrome.

The plane clipped trees on the way down and crashed. Both the pilot and the passenger have been taken to Mildura Base hospital for further treatment.

The federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has stepped up for a press conference in Brisbane (sporting a new haircut) to address the government’s new restrictions on travellers from China.

Chalmers begins by saying he believed the outbreak in China will continue to affect supply chains in the near future:

The Covid wave in China is already having a substantial impact on supply chains. We expect that to get more difficult before it eases. When you’ve got a Covid wave like we’re seeing in China, when they’ve had until quite recently a zero-Covid approach to managing the pandemic, then that has obvious consequences for the Chinese workforce and for supply chains right around the world.

And so that is something that we’re very conscious of. We’re monitoring very closely. The impact of Covid on China and on supply chains is one of the key risks to our economy in 2023.

Police confirm off-duty officer who drowned off NSW coast was attempting to rescue his own son

Speaking to media this afternoon, acting inspector Paul Hoyer said the man who drowned yesterday at a beach south of Narooma on the NSW coast, who has not been named, had “entered the water to rescue his 14-year-old son who had been swept out to sea on a rip.”

Hoyer said:

I can confirm that the male is a 45-year-old police officer. He’s attached to the north-west metropolitan region and he was off duty at the time, holidaying.

… This is a tragedy that will cut through to his family, friends, and workmates. It’s devastating at this time of year.

The beach at which the family were swimming was unpatrolled, Hoyer said, and the rip which caught the 14-year-old and his father was “rather substantial”.

Related: Off-duty NSW police officer drowns after rescuing teenager caught in riptide

Not all business groups are concerned about the reimposition of preflight testing for China.

Andrew McKellar, chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said:

Given the evolving situation in China, the government’s decision to require a negative test on departure is appropriate and accepted by business.

It’s important that government clarify the type of testing required and whether passengers transiting through airports, particularly Hong Kong, will similarly be required to test. Clearly communicating these conditions will ensure arrivals can travel to Australia as easily as possible.

With the Chinese border only just reopening it will take some time before we see international arrivals from China return to their pre-pandemic levels. As such, we don’t expect testing requirements will have any great impact on our local tourism operators.

The Australian newspaper has spoken to Howard-era Liberal Indigenous affairs minister, Mal Brough, about the voice to parliament.

Brough reportedly said the voice was based on the “delusion” that a small group of Indigenous representatives could provide policy advice on behalf of Aboriginal Australians from communities as different as “any two nations as far flung on the Earth as you can get, from Africa to India and China to England”.

Brough – who oversaw the controversial 2007 Northern Territory intervention which required the suspension of anti-discrimination law to send the military in to police Indigenous communities – said the voice would fail to address social issues including violence, abuse, neglect, poor health and education.

He said failing to give more detail on the voice ahead of the referendum was like asking Australians to “sign a blank cheque”.

But another former Liberal Indigenous Australians minister, Ken Wyatt, has rejected Brough’s arguments as “garbage” and argued that the NT intervention had “destroyed local decision making”.

“With all referenda, the question that has been put to the Australian people and the (preceding) legislation that was enacted … each time the government has remained fairly faithful to the intent of the question put to Australians,” Wyatt reportedly said.

The health minister, Mark Butler, has been doing the rounds this morning, most recently appearing on ABC News, where he was asked about the government’s new restrictions on travellers arriving from China.

Butler said he was not aware of any reactions from China, and that a “key factor” in the decision was the lack of genomic sequencing being shared on the latest outbreak there:

… A key factor in my decision over the last couple of days was the view that the World Health Organization put, I think, on Saturday, that said that there was an absence of comprehensive information about the situation in China.

I think people are particularly concerned about the lack of genomic sequencing being shared with the rest of the world, and that is the way in which we identify at a very early stage the possibility of new variants of Covid emerging. This is something that’s pretty much shared in real time by other countries but isn’t being shared right now by China.

We’d like to see that information shared. That’s the point that the World Health Organization, as the key global body monitoring particularly this pandemic, made over the course of the weekend, and it’s the reason why … countries from the US, through to many European countries … in Asia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, India, have all taken the decision that I announced yesterday.

Daily Telegraph reports NSW police officer drowns saving child at beach

A NSW Police officer has died attempting to save a child struggling in the water, the Daily Telegraph is reporting.

Emergency services were called to a beach in a national park at Narooma on New Year’s Day, after a man, believed to be an off duty officer, was pulled from the water. The man was there with his family when he spotted a child struggling in a rip at the unpatrolled beach.

Investigations are expected to continue today, with a report to be prepared for the coroner.

Related: Off-duty NSW police officer drowns after rescuing teenager caught in riptide

Sweet, sweet relief for Melbournians who suffered through a very oppressive night last night (we are not used to sleeping in the heat, OK!): the cool change is here.

And with that, I will be leaving the blog with the always great Stephanie Convery. Thanks for reading.

Good afternoon folks. Thanks for joining us, and thanks to Mostafa Rachwani for helming the blog this morning. I’ll be with you for the rest of the afternoon.

Labor position on stage-3 tax cuts has not changed

Chalmers was also presumably (we couldn’t hear the questions unfortunately) asked about the stage-3 tax cuts, and said the government’s position “hadn’t changed.”

Our position on the tax cuts hasn’t changed. We are working … to begin to put together the May 2023 budget. That will be an opportunity for us, again, to make the economy more resilient and the budget more responsible.

There will be cost-of-living relief in the budget, of course, because we’re working with the states and territories on some assistance for energy bills in particular. And that will be something that will factor into the budget in May.

We will always do what we can to support people dealing with high inflation, provide responsible cost-of-living relief, as we did in October, as we will in May, if we can afford it.

Group of Eight universities announce support for Covid restrictions on travellers from China

Australia’s Group of Eight universities, representing some of the biggest unis in the country, have announced they are supporting the government’s decision to introduce some restrictions on arriving travellers from China.

The group, which represent the Universities of Western Australia, Melbourne, Adelaide, Queensland and Sydney, as well as Monash, ANU and UNSW, said in a statement it was a reasonable decision by the government.

The Go8’s chief executive, Vicki Thomson, said that while the decision may impact the students returning or arriving in Australia, it would still support it:

From the outset of the pandemic, Go8 members have always supported decisions based on expert health advice and will continue to do so.

While the government’s decision that people travelling from China must test negative on departure may impact students returning to study at Go8 universities, it has been taken in the best interests of our students and the broader Australian community.

More than 105,000 Chinese nationals are currently enrolled at Go8 universities, representing 76% of higher education enrolments from Chinese students.

These students stuck by Go8 universities throughout the pandemic which is a testament to the high quality education being offered at our research-intensive universities. We look forward to welcoming them back in 2023.

Increase in Victorians who died on the road in 2022

Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission is urging drivers to slow down amid an uptick in the number of people killed on the road in 2022.

240 people lost their lives on Victorian roads last year, an increase on the 233 that died in 2021. The TAC also noted an increase in deaths on regional roads, with 134 people dying in country areas compared with 119 in 2021 – while metropolitan road deaths dropped from 114 in 2021 to 106 in 2022.

TAC’s acting chief executive officer, Liz Cairns, said that while the number of deaths were tragic, they were also avoidable:

Sadly, more than 240 families are starting this year missing a loved one who lost their life on our roads in 2022 – it’s tragic, it’s avoidable and we need all Victorians to make safe choices and play a role in turning it around.

Storms to hit south-east Australia

Watt: passengers from China who test positive pre-flight asked ‘not to get on the plane’

The agriculture and emergency management minister, Murray Watt, has commented on the reimposition of preflight testing for passengers coming from mainland China, Macau and Hong Kong.

Watt told 4BC Radio:

“All we’re asking – we think it’s a pretty modest measure to ask people to test within 48 hours of getting on a plane. If they test [positive] then of course we’re asking them not to get on the plane, and we’re asking airlines to play a role in preventing that from happening. But for people who were to contract Covid on the plane, we’d be asking them to stay at home, isolate, test, and be considerate of other people.”

Watt said the Australian government is “not looking at anything like … hotel quarantine or mandatory isolation days”.

Uncertainty on if Covid test requirements apply to passengers flying through Hong Kong

Airlines have expressed some concern on the government’s new restrictions on travellers arriving from China, with some saying they want to know if passengers flying through Hong Kong will be exempt.

James Goodwin from the Australian Airports Association told the Nine newspapers that more details were required before the new measures are enacted from 5 January:

There needs to be urgent clarification on transiting passengers given Hong Kong has been included in the announcement.

Many people could pass through Hong Kong on the way to Australia and our view is those requiring testing should be based on country of point of origin as long as the passenger doesn’t leave the airport.

The Australian government authorities need to ensure passengers and airlines are aware of the rules and protocols because we don’t want to see problems with arriving travellers at Australian airports.

As always, Amy Remeikis never misses, and her assessment of the challenges facing the Albanese government in 2023 is well worth reading:

Related: The Albanese government has had a solid start. Now comes the hard part

State opposition calls out NSW Liberal party over speed camera signs ‘debacle’

NSW Labor is calling for the state government to reveal the cost of its speed camera policy backflip after it was revealed that nearly three quarters of mobile speed cameras are out of action.

From 1 January, all mobile speed camera vehicles require a warning sign, a backflip after public outcry over a spike in speeding fines. But that measure has meant that only 38 mobile speed camera cars are operating in NSW, with the remainder due to be retrofitted by April.

The shadow minister for roads, John Graham, called it an “administrative debacle”:

You couldn’t make this up. Transport officials warned publicly that the old warning signs were too big for the new cars. They also warned of this impending deadline. Nearly three quarters of these cars are being pulled off the road at the most dangerous time of the year for road safety. This is worse than the worst case scenario outlined by transport officials.

Butler: China traveller Covid tests are ‘a modest measure’

Butler was also asked about some of the criticisms made of the measure, including from the Business Council of Australia which said the government was “retreating” from a general policy of living with Covid.

Butler disagreed:

This is a modest measure taken in line with pretty much every country to which we would usually compare ourselves. We are committed to making sure that we can continue to travel overseas, continue the personal and economic benefits that come from having open borders.

We just want to make sure we do that in a way that has the maximum information in a timely way that we need to protect Australians. The chief health officers have said across the board, a very broad consensus, we’re very well positioned here in Australia in the fight against Covid. We’ve got very high vaccination rates, particularly among the more vulnerable cohorts in the population.

… That’s certainly the broad consensus view of chief health officers, to continue, for example … that idea of living with Covid, resuming international travel, particularly with China, which was really the only significant country in the world with which we hadn’t resumed travel until very recently.

So, we just want to make sure we’ve got the information right, we want to make sure that we’re getting good surveillance of, for example, waste water from the planes that are coming into Australia, and then we can enjoy the benefits that we’ll see at a personal and economic level from the resumption of travel between China and Australia.

Acoss head calls on government to rethink stage-3 tax cuts

The head of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie, was on ABC News this morning where she called on the Albanese government to rethink the stage-3 tax cuts as well as to increase the base rates of jobkeeper and the youth allowance:

We’ve got big choices to make as a country, and the treasurer himself is saying we need to have a healthy debate about the overall revenue base that Australia needs to invest in these critical, essential services, like aged care, like child care[,] affordable and social housing and income supports.

The country has to decide: “Are we going to deliver eye-watering tax cuts?” As you know, those stage-3 tax cuts are still in the books and will come in next year and will cost the budget bottom line about $19bn per annum.

And we’re saying, “Well, we can’t even rethink that policy, but instead what we’ll do is fix these base rates of income support so that we know over 3 million people are now still facing poverty reality”. They’re not being able to feed themselves.

We’ve got a report out in the last couple of days saying that we’ve now got about 2 million households that are skipping meals, going without food and a 60% increase in demand for food relief.

… we have 6% increased indexation for [the] youth allowance, and that’s affecting about 290 million of our young people, and they are facing national increases in rent [which has gone up by 18%] … energy bills up by 20%, and food up by 9%.

And so this is the reality of people on the lowest incomes [and] their budget position, so we do think that we have to have a responsible approach to the federal budget. We are urging the government to make the right choice going into this May budget and to lift the base rates of jobkeeper and [the] youth allowance so people can at least afford to feed themselves and keep themselves housed.

Victorian man missing after swimming in Lake Eildon

A man has gone missing while swimming at a lake in Victoria’s alpine region, northeast of Melbourne, AAP reports.

The 34-year-old was swimming with friends in Lake Eildon, near Jerusalem Creek Track, on New Year’s Day when he appeared to run into difficulty and disappeared underwater about 4.30pm. Friends raised the alarm after he did not resurface.

Local police and other emergency services scoured the lake and foreshore into the evening before suspending their search overnight. The search resumed on Monday morning, with police divers called in.

There have been at least 22 fatal drownings across the country since the start of summer, prompting a warning from lifeguards for Australians to stay safe.

Sixteen people drowned over the last New Year’s long weekend.

Criticism over Covid restrictions on travellers inbound from China

The Albanese government’s decision to introduce restrictions on travellers arriving from China has been met with some criticism online, with many asking why the measures aren’t more widely implemented.

Yesterday, the health minister, Mark Butler, announced that all arrivals from China will need to present a negative Covid test before departure, adding that it was being implemented out of “an abundance of caution” due to a lack of detailed information surrounding the outbreak in China.

Last night, professor Julie Leask tweeted that it was “disappointing” the government was going to “repeat on old mistakes”

Dr Fiona Russel echoed Leask’s sentiments, saying that the new subvariant that emerged from the United States did not warrant a similar response:

The Opposition health spokeswoman, Anne Ruston, told the ABC the opposition “strongly supported” the measures, but added that the government has not released any of the health advice they received on the matter:

The opposition strongly supports any measures that protects the lives and livelihoods of Australians.

However, the Labor government still has not released any health advice that they have received on this matter.

The opposition will seek a briefing from the chief medical officer on this decision but the Labor government must be transparent with the public, and release the health modelling and advice.

Mark Butler defends Covid testing of travellers from China

The health minister, Mark Butler, is out defending the Australian government’s decision to impose pre-flight Covid tests on travellers from China.

Butler told Channel Seven’s Sunrise:

Well, really, the key driver of this decision is what the World Health Organization has described as an absence of comprehensive information about, what is a very fast moving situation in China.

The decision that I announced yesterday, which takes effect on Thursday, also reflects decisions that have been taken across the world by countries in north America in Europe and across Asia. In Asia, for example, by Japan, by India, South Korea, Malaysia and others. So this we think is a balanced decision, a modest decision, but it will start to ensure that we have better information about what is happening in China right now.

Butler rejected the suggestion Australia thinks China is lying about its Covid wave, but cited a “a lack of genomic sequencing of cases … that are obviously happening in China and what is a very significant Covid wave”, warning this could make it harder to identify new variants.

Butler said Australia “warmly welcomes” reopening of travel from China, which started three weeks ago.

He said:

I know that hundreds of thousands of Australians of Chinese descent in particular are really looking forward to the opportunity, to be able to reunite with family, and with friends, whom they’ve not seen other than on a screen for months, if not years.

And I know also the tourism industry, the education sector [universities] are really looking forward to that resumption of travel. It’s really been the one significant country in the world that we haven’t been able to see travel resume. So this is a very positive development, but we just need to ensure that we’ve got the information that we need to protect the health of Australians.

Good morning, welcome to the second live blog of the year, and the first Monday of 2023. Mostafa Rachwani with you this morning, to take you through the news.

We begin in New South Wales, where flooding is expected at Menindee, where flood waters are expected to peak at levels above the 1976 record today.

Multiple flood emergency warnings have been issued to towns along the Murray River, with flood waters expected to hit the town of Blanchetown in South Australia, later this week.

Elsewhere, a Qantas flight was forced to turn around over New Years after a power outage at the destination. QF19 departed Sydney for Manila on Sunday, but was forced to turn around only three hours in after a power outage at the airport affected more that 360 flights.

At least 56,000 passengers were caught up in the situation, as many flights were turned around mid air, or left on the tarmac for hours. Air traffic management was partially restored on Sunday afternoon.

There is still much to get into, so let’s dive in.