Airport chaos as Christmas flights cancelled over Covid surge – as it happened

Labor MP Jim Chalmers was up and about on breakfast television earlier today, expressing shock at NSW premier Dominic Perrottet's slow limp to reintroducing mask mandates.

He said mask mandates were just common sense" right now:

It's a bit strange frankly that they held out for so long and in that period we probably lost a bit of ground when it came to tracing and tracking outbreaks of the virus, particularly the new strain.

It's an interesting thought but it's not a thought which I think should turn into practice. We have a universal health system ... we care for people who need that care. We should encourage people to get vaccinated, it's the best thing we can do to protect our health, but I don't think our health system should discriminate.