Australia live news update: BHP vaccine mandate declared unlawful; NSW towns told to evacuate as ‘dangerous’ storm threatens Sydney
Anthony Albanese says Labor's climate policy will cut power bills and create 600,000 jobs; Northern Territory woman dies of Covid; NT shuts border to SA; no changes to booster shot rollout as NSW fears first local transmission of Omicron; Victoria records 1,188 Covid cases and 11 deaths; 337 new cases in NSW; four in ACT. Follow all the day's developments
- Scott Morrison denies misleading Australians on Liberal senator Alex Antic's vaccination status
- NSW Liberals' 50% female federal candidates target met with scepticism
- Australian Community Media awarded more than $10m in Covid grants while scaling back newspapers
- Covid booster shots significantly strengthen immunity, trial finds
- NSW vaccination rate by postcode; Vic vaccine rates
- Vaccine rollout and rates tracker; Cases and data tracker
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Federal health minister Greg Hunt has said all the Omicron cases in Australia have been asymptomatic or very mild".
Hunt was on Sunrise this morning, saying authorities were cautiously optimistic".
Often with diseases ... they become perhaps more transmissible but milder or less severe. If that is the case then that might be a positive direction.
I certainly hope so. He's a great minister. He's got a great mind. I think if you speak to people within the Indigenous community, where he used to work, particularly in children's education, he has a great passion for education.
I've always found Alan to be a very honourable and decent man. He's had an extramarital affair, a consensual one. He's made a mistake. It's cost him his marriage. There's a lot of embarrassment on both sides, I have no doubt.
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