Australia Covid updates live: Morrison speaks in Washington; second major outbreak at Sydney’s Liverpool hospital; Melbourne expects fourth day of protests

Workers at a major parcel delivery company are striking across the country, dealing another blow to Australia’s overwhelmed postal system, reports Tiffanie Turnbull from AAP.

Up to 2,000 StarTrack employees walked off the job at midnight in a dispute over pay and conditions after crisis talks and a bid to have the strike action blocked failed on Wednesday.

The Transport Workers Union says this makes up 70% of the total workforce, but StarTrack says barely a third of the workforce voted to strike.

A StarTrack official said the strike would affect deliveries on Thursday “at a time when the delivery of essential items has never been more important”.

The company said it was offering a guaranteed pay rise of 9% over three years, delivered as 3% compounding each year.

This is the best pay offer among our competitors. StarTrack is not proposing any reductions in pay or conditions for its employees.

The company petitioned the Fair Work Commission on Wednesday to block or delay the strike, saying it would jeopardise lives and health by impacting vaccine supply.

But the TWU said it had promised to support any medical deliveries, and the FWC on Wednesday night ruled the strike could proceed.

Meetings between StarTrack and the TWU on Wednesday failed to secure a solution.

The workers want the company to guarantee labour hire workers will receive the same pay and conditions as regular employees and to place caps on the use of lower-paid external workers.

They also want to be offered work before the company contracts it out.

Hmmm, it’s 9am. Where are our Victorian Covid-19 numbers? Hurry up Dan!

My lovely Queensland readers, we will be hearing from your leader at 10am (AEST) today. I’ll bring you the updates here.

Despite initial reports that there were no casualties from the magnitude 5.9 quake that hit Victoria around on Wednesday, State Emergency Service chief officer Tim Wiebusch has told Sunrise this morning that a man in Mount Eliza did suffer minor injuries.

There were many parts ofVictoria that did feel it yesterday, Melbourne quite hard, we had 95 calls in Melbourne, we had 50 in regional Victoria, but fortunately only one report on injury, and some minor damage.

A man that was working on a repair of a [structure] and that, in the shaking, moved and came on top of him.

Nine News has reported that the man was admitted to hospital.

Wiebusch also urged anyone who discovers building damage to contact a licensed builder or technician, with emergency repairs still allowed under Covid-19 restrictions.

Some building damage has emerged in metropolitan Melbourne and areas near Mansfield, with Beechworth hospital losing power and one of the crosses at St Patrick’s Church in Wangaratta falling down, reports AAP.

Among the city structures damaged was the facade of a Brunswick Street building in Fitzroy and the exterior of Betty’s Burgers on Chapel Street in Windsor.

No one was inside the restaurant when the earthquake hit, and managing director Troy McDonagh said he expects the business won’t be able to reopen for months.

Insurer Allianz had received 70 claims as of 3pm Wednesday, mostly for minor cracking but some for “extensive damage”.

Okay, I spent a lot of time on this blog making fun of Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s social media adventures (and terrible graphic design choices) but I have to give it to her. Her TikTok game is surprisingly strong.

Big props to whichever Gen-Z media manager she has hired!

Queenslanders who get vaccinated against Covid-19 in northern Brisbane or Logan will have the chance to win free tickets to the NRL finals this weekend, reports Marty Silk from AAP.

As an incentive to get the jab, the state government is giving away 3,000 double passes for the preliminary finals when Manly takes on South Sydney, and Melbourne plays Penrith.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says people who get vaccinated from Thursday at vaccination centres in Boondall and Pinkenba or in Logan and Mt Warren Park could win tickets to the games.

I want to see as many Queenslanders as possible getting vaccinated …

As an added incentive, the first few thousand at select vaccination hubs on Thursday and Friday will also get free tickets to the NRL finals.

Anyone who gets the jab at the Boondall or new Pinkenba mass vaccination centre will be in the running to win one of 2,000 double-passes to Friday night’s match between the Sea Eagles and the Rabbitohs.

And anyone who gets vaccinated at the Logan Entertainment Centre and Mt Warren Park vaccine hub will be could win one of 1,000 double-passes to Saturday’s preliminary final between the Melbourne Storm and the Panthers.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the government will also operate a pop-up vaccination clinic at Suncorp Stadium for both the finals and the grand final on 3 October.

Providing a great new incentive like free finals tickets is another great way to encourage higher vaccination rates …

So get vaccinated in the coming days at one of our eligible vaccination hubs and give yourself a chance to be part of NRL history.

If you are keen to hear from Kevin Rudd being extremely not happy, he actually wrote about it for Guardian Australia yesterday.

Scott Morrison’s determination to put political spin over national security substance in welcoming a new era of nuclear submarines (now to be brought to you exclusively from the Anglosphere) has undermined one of our most enduring and important global relationships – namely the French Republic.

While the prime minister’s office would have been delighted with the television images from Washington and London to show the “fella from down under” mixing it with the big guys and being hairy chested about China, no one there seems to have given a passing thought to the cost to Australian interests that will come from Morrison’s cavalier treatment of France.

Have a read of the full opinion piece below:

Kevin Rudd has been out and about this morning criticising Scott Morrison’s handling of the submarine deal and subsequent alienation of France.

The former PM has just spoken to ABC radio:

This has got foreign policy debacle written all over it – that’s why I weighed into this debate …

The only explanation for secrecy about the unilateral cancellation of the French contract is that Morrison was seeking a wow factor in relation to Australian domestic politics and possibly a broader wow factor in the international community …

The French now have every possibility of working against our wider strategic interests, not just in Brussels but in a broader sense of allied solidarity in dealing with China’s rise.

That’s where the cost to Australia has yet to be fully calculated.