Australia politics live news update: NSW reports 818 Covid cases, three deaths; Victoria faces longer lockdown as 71 cases recorded

No word on whether Victoria's lockdown will be lifted next week as state reports 71 cases; prime minister says this cannot go on forever' as he discusses path out of pandemic; NSW reports 818 new cases and three deaths; parliament returns in locked-down ACT. Follow updates live

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9.57am BST

With that, we will close the blog for the day.

Here's a quick run through of the day's biggest events:

9.54am BST

Two young children have been abducted in Melbourne after a violent home invasion during which their mother was bound, gagged and assaulted, reports AAP.

Police are searching for a three-year-old boy and five-year-old girl taken from their Blackburn North home while wearing pyjamas by a man who fled in the family's Mercedes Benz.

I implore you, please, to let these children go so that they can be returned to their parents, where they should be.

We're very concerned. We have not given up hope by any stretch of the imagination. I'm confident we will locate these children and return them to their parents.