Coronavirus Australia live update: Queensland reports positive Covid case in person who travelled from Melbourne to Sunshine Coast
Melbourne #Melbourne
4.00am EDT 04:00
In response the latest confirmed case in Queensland, Western Australia’s department of health says:
Anyone who has recently arrived into WA from Queensland and has been to one of the listed Queensland exposure sites since 1 June 2021 during the relevant times is required to get tested and self-quarantine for 14 days and present for 48-hour and 11-day testing.
If you’ve recently returned to WA from Queensland you should continue to monitor the Queensland Health site.
And anyone who has been to an exposure site in NSW and has since entered WA is required to get tested and self-quarantine for 14 days.
Updated at 4.06am EDT
3.50am EDT 03:50
AAP has this market wrap at the close of play.
Shares reached record heights for the sixth consecutive trading day on the Australian market before investors saw signs of rampant inflation in China.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index hit an all-time high of 7334.90 points in the first hour of trading.
Yet buying turned to selling after China revealed factory gate prices increased at the fastest pace since September 2008.
The producer price index rose 9% from a year earlier in May.
CommSec market analyst James Tao said investors had a negative response to the data.
He said higher inflation could lead central banks to lift interest rates or ease monetary policy, which have been helpful for shares.
“The ASX rally we’ve seen in the past 12 months is much to do with there being a lot of easy money,” Tao said.
China’s consumer price index rose 1.3%, which was less than expected.
US futures were little changed in the wake of the China data.
The lack of demand for Australian shares caused the ASX200 to close lower by 22.4 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 7270.2.
The All Ordinaries closed down by 20.3 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 7522.
US inflation data, due on Thursday night, will also test investor nerves.
The Australian dollar was buying 77.50 US cents at 1728 AEST, higher from 77.46 US cents at Tuesday’s close.
3.45am EDT 03:45
My colleague Paul Karp reports:
Andrew Laming has threatened to sue a publication owned by The Chaser, a media figure and a social media user for characterising an incident in which he took a photo of a woman bending over as “upskirting”.
3.34am EDT 03:34
Senior Australian and Japanese ministers have called for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, while voicing their “strong opposition to coercive and destabilising behaviour in the region” in a message aimed at China.
The joint statement follows a virtual meeting between Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, and their Japanese counterparts Toshimitsu Motegi and Nobuo Kishi this afternoon.
The group said the relationship between Australia and Japan was growing stronger, and they renewed their “determination to deepen cooperation to promote a free, open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific where disputes are resolved peacefully, without the threat or use of force or coercion, and where the sovereignty and rights of all states under international law are upheld.”
The statement appears to take aim at China for behaviour that “undermines the rules-based international order” and voices “serious” or “grave” concerns about a range of issues, including the situation in the East and South China seas, Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
After Dutton’s recent comments that the risk of conflict of Taiwan could not be “discounted”, the joint statement said:
We underscore the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.
In a particularly strongly worded section on the South China Sea, the Australian and Japanese ministers expressed “our objections to China’s maritime claims and activities that are inconsistent with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”.
We share serious concerns about the recent negative developments and serious incidents in the South China Sea, including continuing militarisation of disputed features, dangerous use of coast guard vessels and ‘maritime militia’, and efforts to disrupt other countries’ resource exploitation activities. In this context, we reiterate our concerns over China’s Coast Guard Law in the context of the South China Sea.
Updated at 3.42am EDT
3.32am EDT 03:32
On that fire at Bondi Beach Public School, a NSW Fire and Rescue spokesman says crews were called to the scene at Warners Avenue, Bondi, about 5pm. He says the top of the two-level school building is “well alight”.
There are no reports of injuries, though firefighters are still searching the scene as they work to get the fire under control. Residents are encouraged to avoid the area due to a “fair bit of smoke” and because there is currently a heavy emergency service presence.
Updated at 3.43am EDT
3.24am EDT 03:24
Some concerning footage coming out of Bondi just now.
Updated at 3.31am EDT
3.13am EDT 03:13
Fair to say the Twitter meme factory has already gone into overdrive with that photo of the NSW premier.