Key events:
Graham Readfearn
Gas giant Chevron falls further behind on carbon capture targets for Gorgon gasfield
Gas giant Chevron has fallen even further behind on targets to capture and store CO2 at its mega gas project in Western Australian, but has refused to say by how much.
The company also confirmed on Friday it had bought and surrendered 5.23m tonnes of CO2 offsets to make up for the failure to meet its 2021 target at its CCS project at the offshore Gorgon gasfield in Western Australia.
Queensland records 22 Covid deaths and 921 people in hospital
There were 5,795 new cases in the last reporting period, and 14 people are in intensive care.
Prime minister to speak at 11.45am today
Stay tuned for the the prime minister Anthony Albanese’s press conference following the emergency national cabinet meeting will be coming up just before midday today.
I’ll bring you the announcements from that presser with Albanese expected to announce that pandemic leave payments for casuals will be reinstated.
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is in Sydney today and will hold a press conference following National Cabinet, 11:45AM #auspol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) July 16, 2022
Widespread frost in NSW this morning
The BoM confirming what many of us in NSW and Canberra felt this morning, it’s another cold one but dry conditions in store for the rest of the day.
Alcohol bans in Northern Territory lift at midnight tonight
The federal Stronger Futures law, which bans alcohol in remote Northern Territory communities, lifts at midnight tonight.
The rules affecting Aboriginal communities have been in place for fifteen years.
Chansey Paech, the Northern Territory’s attorney general, told the ABC that the end of blanket alcohol bans marks the end of a racist intervention-era law.
We have been working across the board, across the Northern Territory with remote Territorians around making sure that they have the information at hand to make a decision of whether they will opt in to remain dry or whether, when those restrictions fall away, they will be able to have alcohol brought into those communities.
Damaging winds expected in Victoria
A severe weather warning has been issued for Victoria with winds up to 100km/hour predicted over alpine regions from this afternoon.
Stay safe Victoria, and possibly cancel any tennis court bookings you had if you’re in the winds path.
Almond-geddon avoided thanks to new rules allowing bee movement in NSW and Victoria
The varroa mite has not only been a threat to bees in NSW but also the agricultural industries who rely on the mass movement beehives to pollinate their crops.
The timing of the outbreak has been particularly bad for the almond industry who require bees to pollinate the national crop in August every year in what is the largest movement of livestock in the country.
The NSW government has this morning announced a new plan to allow the movement of beehives for pollination and honey production.
Commercial beekeepers will be able to apply for movement permits on Wednesday next week, as long as they are outside of zones impacted by the varroa mite.
This news comes after Victorian authorities announced yesterday that they are also introducing a permit system opening Victoria up to interstate beekeepers.
Agriculture Victoria will issue permits to Victorian, Queensland and South Australian beekeepers allowing them to enter the Sunraysia region, requiring them to inspect their hives before arriving at Victorian almond orchards.
The Victorian authorities yesterday said that bees, hives, equipment and bee products from New South Wales were still prohibited from entering Victoria.
You can read more about the varroa mite’s threat to the almond blossom event here:
Victoria records eight Covid deaths and 802 people in hospital
There were 9,982 new cases in the last reporting period, and 34 people are in intensive care.
Reinstating pandemic payments is the ‘right decision’, Steggall says
Independent MP Zali Steggall appeared on Channel Nine’s Today Show supporting the move to see casual workers paid while infected with Covid-19, which is expected to be reinstated when the national cabinet meets today.
Steggall highlighted that the decision will help businesses struggling with staff shortages.
I know it was scheduled to finish but I think in the context of rising numbers, and we are in the peak of winter, I think it would be the right decision to reverse that and maintain those payments.
We have to be aware that our businesses are really struggling with staff shortages so they just can’t afford to have people coming in sick and making the rest of their workforce more sick.
But also obviously cost of living is really impacting families so casual workers need to be able to isolate and still put food on the table.
NSW records 38 Covid deaths and 2,024 people in hospital
There were 11,082 new cases in the last reporting period, and 66 people are in intensive care.
COVID-19 update – Saturday 16 July 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
– 96.7% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
– 95.2% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/FOChlvrVtG— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 15, 2022
First home buyers blowing their budgets
While owning a home remains beyond reach for millions of Australians, those who manage to crack the market may increasingly be getting in over their heads, AAP reports.
More than a third (37%) end up exceeding their budget, according to Finder’s latest First Home Buyer Report.
The comparison site’s survey of more than a thousand first-time buyers – 372 of whom had already completed their purchase – found 8% paid more than $100,000 over budget and another 8% went at least $50,000 over.
Only 20% of those who took part in the research managed to buy for less than what they believed they could afford.
Part of the reason for the blowouts was to do with underquoted property prices, Finder money expert Sarah Megginson says.
Underquoting is where a property is listed at a price lower than what it’s worth to bait buyers.
It’s illegal but it does happen, particularly in the case of auctions, where underquoted prices can attract more buyers and lead to a bidding war.
‘We need a response right now’: expert on tackling latest Covid wave
Paul Griffin, an infectious diseases physician at the University of Queensland, was on the ABC earlier this morning.
He says bringing the national cabinet meeting forward two days is a reflection of how urgent the situation with this third wave of Covid-19 is, and discusses what he would like to see come out of the meeting.
I think bringing forward that meeting is a really welcome change and should certainly signify the significance of this wave.
We do need a response right now. We need to make sure we get the vaccine in people’s arms and also do other things to curtail the spread, like facilitating mask-wearing and those sorts of things. Hopefully we will get a good response from that today.
I think we need to do as much as we can to facilitate the right response with pandemic payments. We don’t want finances to be a barrier to people doing the right thing to protect themselves and those people around them.
Facilitating things like telehealth with GPs – there has been challenges around funding there – and doing more to bring back mask-wearing and subsidising rapid antigen test and that mask wearing is easy to do
that.
PM to restore Covid leave payment as emergency national cabinet called
Here’s the message that came out from the prime minister Anthony Albanese yesterday that Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly would provide an emergency briefing to national cabinet this morning.
The snap meeting was originally called for Monday.
Albanese says proposals discussed will aim to “ensure the vulnerable are protected”.
Received afternoon briefing from Chief Medical Officer, Professor Paul Kelly on BA4/5 COVID wave. He will report to National Cabinet tomorrow morning and we will discuss proposals to ensure the vulnerable are protected over coming weeks.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 15, 2022
If you want to read more about what to expect from the meeting Guardian’s political editor, Katherine Murphy, and Josh Butler have this report:
Good morning!
But of course the Covid-19 news is not so good this Saturday morning. Australia’s Covid hospitalisations are reaching record levels in several states as a new wave of infections sweeps the country.
Hospitals are struggling under the load and experts say most states and territories are likely still several weeks away from their peak hospitalisation rates of this wave.
The national cabinet will hold an emergency meeting this morning after the prime minister Anthony Albanese brought it forward two days following a briefing from Paul Kelly, the chief medical officer, yesterday.
Albanese will propose that Canberra and the states extend the pandemic leave payments after he faced mounting pressures, including from the backbenchers and state leaders within his own party, earlier this week.
Payments for casual workers who have to isolate due to Covid but do not have sick leave ended this month, but are expected to be reinstated.
I’m Natasha May and if there’s something you think should be on the blog you can ping me on Twitter @natasha__may or email natasha.may@theguardian.com.
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