Australia Covid live news update: Scott Morrison speaks after national cabinet; NSW calls outbreak ‘national emergency’ with 136 new cases

Oh look, plenty of people have judged the decisions we’ve made here. And so I know what that feels like, and I’m going to avoid doing that. We don’t have the intelligence and the knowledge of what’s going on, on the ground, like that state does. And that’s why it’s important that each state makes those decisions.

But what you’ve seen from our government is an approach to move faster with shorter lockdowns, and I think that’s proven particularly effective with these faster-moving strains. Because with a short lockdown, you can have some confidence that you’ve found all your cases and put them into quarantine as well as all of their contacts. That’s the approach that we’ve taken. And look, I don’t want to throw any rocks at New South Wales, for the benefit of the whole country we need them to get on top of this outbreak.