Australia news live: PM condemns Virgin boss’s ‘insensitive’ comments that border should open even if it results in deaths
Virgin Australia #VirginAustralia
8.05pm EDT 20:05
Australia’s big supermarkets and major companies sign pact to tackle plastic waste 
Australia’s biggest supermarkets and some of the world’s biggest food and consumer brands are launching a voluntary pact across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands with a goal that plastic “never becomes waste or pollution”.
The new ANZPAC Plastics Pact, to be launched at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney today, includes 59 members across the plastics supply chain – from manufacturers to retailers and recyclers.
Members will report progress on four 2025 targets. These are:
The ANZPAC effort joins a global network of similar pacts coordinated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Among the ANZPAC members are supermarket chains Coles, Aldi and Woolworths, alongside plastics producers, recyclers, environmental groups and CSIRO.
Manufacturers Nestle, Unilever, Pepsico, Coca-Cola and Arnott Biscuits are also among the members.
Today’s episode of the Guardian’s Full Story podcast looks at what we know, and don’t know, about the health impacts of microplastics.
Updated at 8.44pm EDT
8.00pm EDT 20:00
Just sharing this because I’ve been hysterically laughing at it for the last five minutes. I don’t know why I find this so funny, but please enjoy!
7.51pm EDT 19:51
Sydney man jailed for massive cocaine import
A 43-year-old man will spend nearly a decade in jail for his role in a failed plan to import more than 500kg of cocaine into Australia via the Solomon Islands, reports AAP.
Two Sydney men were arrested in September 2018 following a joint investigation involving the Australian federal police, Solomon Islands police, US Drug Enforcement and the Australian Border Force.
Their arrests came as police searched the Belgian-registered, double-masted yacht Vieux Malin, which was moored outside the Honiara marina in the Solomon Islands.
The AFP says police found 501kg of cocaine concealed on the vessel, with an estimated street value of between $125m and $250m.
The cocaine had been loaded on to the vessel in South America and was destined for Australia. As the yacht was being searched, police in Australia arrested two men during raids on homes in the Sydney suburbs of Wahroonga, Bonnyrigg Heights, Dolls Point and Caringbah.
In December 2019, a 41-year-old Bonnyrigg Heights man charged with knowingly dealing in money or other property which is an instrument of crime was sentenced in Downing Centre district court to two years’ imprisonment to be served by the way of an intensive correction order and 500 hours of community service.
On 2 May this year a 43-year-old Wahroonga man, who was a key player in the scheme, was sentenced in Downing Centre court.
He was sentenced to 14 years and five months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years for his involvement in the conspiracy to import the cocaine into Australia.
He was also sentenced to five years’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years for his involvement in knowingly dealing in money or other property which is an instrument of crime, valued at greater than $50,000.
The man will be eligible for parole in November 2027.
Updated at 7.57pm EDT
7.51pm EDT 19:51
‘No death is acceptable,’ Berejiklian says in reaction to Virgin Australia border-opening pressure
Looks like the comments from Virgin Australia’s Jayne Hrdlicka, saying borders should reopen sooner than the middle of next year even though “some people may die”, are haunting everyone today.
After saying she would support opening borders if health advice backs it up, Berejiklian was asked how many death she thinks would be acceptable. I swear you could see a brief second of panic that flashed across her eyes, but she recovered quickly:
Please, no death is acceptable. Please don’t put words in my mouth. I’ve never said that and I never would.
We’ve worked hard in New South Wales to protect life, to keep community safety and that’s what we will do. There’s no doubt that the vaccine program is key to our freedom. Having a successful vaccine program is key to making sure that we can make decisions moving forward about our future but we can’t even think about those decisions unless the vast majority of our population are vaccinated.
Any conversations we have now are premature.
Updated at 7.58pm EDT
7.40pm EDT 19:40
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has spoken this morning, and the word on everyone’s lips is “borders”.
I think we need to be very sympathetic and mindful to the fact that community safety always comes first but in New South Wales we’ve demonstrate that you can keep the community safe but also push ahead with economic openness and it’s that right balance that has kept New South Wales where it is and we intend to keep that right balance. Community safety always has to come first, but we also believe that you can make some decisions about easing restrictions or opening up to the rest of the world, with facts and science backing you.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Updated at 7.43pm EDT
7.29pm EDT 19:29
Perth hospital staff missed opportunities to help girl who died of infection, investigation finds
Staff at Perth Children’s hospital missed a “cascade” of opportunities to escalate the care of seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath as she succumbed to a fatal infection.
The confronting finding is contained in a report by Western Australia’s Child and Adolescent Health Service, released in full on Monday.
The report finds that Aishwarya’s parents, who have accused staff of lacking compassion, raised concerns about her deteriorating condition on five separate occasions after taking her to the emergency department on Easter Saturday.
Within 20 minutes of arriving, Aishwarya’s hands were cold, her eyes were discoloured and her respiratory rate and heart rate were significantly elevated.
You can read the full report below:
Updated at 7.37pm EDT
7.11pm EDT 19:11
Continued from last post.
Khalil will argue that multicultural policy must include “substantive policies that ensure every Australian no matter who they are, whatever their ethnicity, faith or cultural background has the same social, economic and political opportunities as anyone else”.
Labor’s taskforce proposes taking the existing model of enterprise incentive schemes – which provide free accredited training, business plan development, business mentoring and a small business allowance – and tailoring it to CALD communities.
Khalil told Guardian Australia that migrants are twice as likely to start a business as those born in Australia and one-third of small businesses are owned by migrants.
He credited migrants’ “tenacity and resilience” for their success in small business, but argued they were also “channelled into that” by the lack of opportunities in professions such as law, academia and in corporate Australia.
Khalil told Guardian Australia that despite a reduction in “casual racism” in Australian society since the 1980s and 1990s, culturally and linguistically diverse communities are still structurally disadvantaged.
He cited the fact that just 15 of parliament’s 227 MPs and senators are of non-European or non-Anglo-Saxon backgrounds, including five Indigenous Australians; as are just 5% of the board directors of ASX 300 companies.
The taskforce also found an uptick in racist incidents since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, showing that “casual racism never really went away”, Khalil said.
He cited concerns about the “distortion of efforts” by Chinese Australians to secure personal protective equipment to keep the community safe, arguing this was presented in the media as profiteering.
Updated at 7.13pm EDT
7.07pm EDT 19:07
Labor pitches small business boost for migrants
Labor will propose a specialist small business program for culturally and linguistically diverse communities including training and business plan development.
The new migrant enterprise incentive scheme is the main recommendation from Labor’s multicultural engagement taskforce, a series of consultations the opposition launched in December 2019 after suffering a swing against it among multicultural communities at the last election.
The report will be launched in Melbourne today by shadow multicultural affairs minister, Andrew Giles, and the taskforce’s chair and secretary, Peter Khalil and Anne Stanley.
Ahead of the launch, Khalil told Guardian Australia that Labor hopes to appeal to CALD communities by focusing on equality of opportunity through its traditional strengths in service delivery including education, healthcare and aged care and hip-pocket concerns like housing.
Despite the greater social conservatism of newly arrived migrants including communities of faith, Khalil said Labor can “continue to appeal to them … by focusing on things that make an actual difference to their lives … bread and butter concerns”.
In his speech, Khalil will take aim at politicians who “focus on the feel-good, the easy photo op elements” of multiculturalism such as “the food, the festivals, the dances, the brightly coloured costumes”, including prime minister Scott Morrison “with his chicken korma cook ups”.
But multiculturalism is so much more than that … what some of my Canberra colleagues often forget, or maybe don’t quite understand, is that our multiculturalism runs so much deeper into the critical question of our national identity – who we are as a people.
Continued in next post.
Updated at 7.16pm EDT
7.03pm EDT 19:03
Queensland reports no new local Covid cases
Covid-19 free Queensland my darlings!
Updated at 7.05pm EDT