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More than 100 prominent Australians, including Tamie Fraser, the widow of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser, have signed an open letter calling on Australia to take greater action to assist the people of Afghanistan, following the fall of that country to the Taliban.
Included on the list are actors, sportspeople, musicians and advocates, including Fraser, Nova Peris OAM, Craig Foster, Peter Greste, Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame.
The letter calls on the Australian government to:
- Commit to an additional humanitarian migration intake of at least 20,000, prioritising the most vulnerable persecuted people of Afghanistan.
- Grant permanent protection to more than 5,100 refugees from Afghanistan, predominantly from the historically persecuted Hazara ethnic groups, who are currently on temporary protection visas in Australia.
- Prioritise family reunification visas for Afghanistan-Australians.
- Lift the ban on resettlement of refugees to Australia through the UNHCR in Indonesia.
The letter states:
After almost two decades of intervention and promises to the people of Afghanistan, promises of protection for persecuted groups, women, democratic freedoms and rule of law, prime minister Scott Morrison has a moral obligation to act in response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Australia has a moral duty toward the people of Afghanistan and should not abandon them, particularly in light of alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers as documented in the Brereton report in November 2020.
Fraser said it was imperative the government worked towards helping people in Afghanistan:
Many women, men, and children in Afghanistan at the moment are desperate for food and shelter and are at risk. It is little enough to demand the government accept and welcome them as refugees to this wonderful country where they can join people from Afghanistan who have been here for a hundred years.
It comes as around 180,000 people signed a petition in support of the group’s call.
Australia was part of the US-led military coalition in Afghanistan for 20 years before a hurried and violence-plagued withdrawal last month. Since then, the Taliban have installed a new hardline government and begun to reintroduce the repressions that blighted its last rule, between 1996 and 2001. Girls have been banned from schools, and women from work, and the Taliban have reinstated violent corporal and capital punishments. At the weekend, Taliban authorities in the western Afghan city of Herat killed four alleged kidnappers and hung their bodies up in public to deter others.
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The Senate’s finance and public administration committee is holding a hearing this morning into the federal government’s proposed legislation to keep national cabinet deliberations secret.
The hearing kicked off with senators upset that the secretary of the prime minister’s department, Phil Gaetjens, is not attending as expected, with the program changing late last week.
Labor senator Tim Ayres and independent senator Rex Patrick (who initially challenged the secrecy ruling) have called for an explanation for Gaetjens’s absence, saying it is important the committee hears from someone who knows about the national cabinet structure.
“He is the principal architect of this,” Ayres said.
“He led the department and the government to this humiliating defeat in the tribunal.
“So it’s either cowardice, or hubris. I want to know what arrangements we’re going to make to make sure that this secretary gives the evidence that he’s required.
“I want to know whether this committee is going to stand up for its role scrutinising pieces of legislation like this. That’s what the parliaments charged us with doing, we either do it properly or we squib it.”
The government introduced a bill into parliament on the last day of the sitting fortnight, which would effectively overrule a finding in the administrative appeals tribunal that national cabinet was not a subcommittee of the federal cabinet.
The national cabinet is effectively the rebranded version of the Council of Australian Governments, and is attended by the prime minister, premiers and chief ministers.
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Expert push to reduce Pfizer jab intervals
A leading epidemiologist has called on NSW and Victoria to redouble vaccination efforts in under 40s, and to reduce the dose intervals for Pfizer jabs.
Professor Mary Louise McLaws was on ABC News this morning, and said she thought those Covid-hit states should reduce the gap between Pfizer jabs from six to four weeks.
There’s only one small study that had nearly 300 healthcare workers who hadn’t ever had infection and they looked at extending that dose.
Mostly, it worked well during the Alpha (variant) period in England, but not Delta.
I’d suggest that they go back to that 28-day period between first and second dose to try to get young people under the age of 40 vaccinated as soon as possible with two doses.
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The Nationals senator Matt Canavan has doubled down in his opposition to net zero emissions, saying it’s “about as silly as zero Covid”.
Speaking to 2GB this morning, Canavan said he couldn’t speak for his whole party, but said net zero was a “utopian target”:
Before we blindly pursue something like this, surely someone would show us the bill.
The National party in the past at least has been against net zero emissions.
What [Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce] has said is that he wants to make sure the party room has an opportunity to discuss these matters.
In our party room we provide people the liberty to take their own positions.
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00:08
Northern Territory charging ahead with reopening plans
The Northern Territory government is charging ahead with its reopening plan, despite concerns some of its remote communities still have low vaccination rates.
The NT’s chief minister Michael Gunner says the low vaccination rates “won’t stop the Territory’s progress” towards easing restrictions, and moving away from snap lockdowns and supervised quarantine.
Health authorities are working towards the 80% vaccination rate, but the latest data shows the Territory’s remote communities won’t reach that rate until late January.
The data also shows that there are still 19 communities with less that a quarter of their population vaccinated.
But in a statement, Gunner says the NT “cannot wait forever” to reopen, and that the government was considering restricting movements in some communities instead of delaying reopening plans (or working to get those communities vaccinated I guess).
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Police in Perth have arrested a man following a “firearm incident” in the CBD.
A spokeswoman for WA police said they were called to the incident in Lord Street, Perth, at 5.20am local time this morning.
Cordons were set up around the area and the public was advised to stay away. About 90 minutes later, police said, they arrested a man who was in a car on the Graham Farmer Freeway.
There are traffic delays around the Graham Farmer tunnel but police said there is no further risk to public safety.
23:52
Victoria records 705 new Covid cases and one death
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23:35
We’re expecting the NSW government to unveil what life will look like at 80% double vaccinated today, and deputy premier John Barilaro said the plan will include details of what freedoms unvaccinated people can expect as well.
Barilaro was on 2GB this morning, and was asked about the rumours that the government was intending to set a “freedom day” for unvaccinated people:
I can promise you this, that under the 70% road map, unvaccinated people will have very little changes to their freedoms to what they have today.
It doesn’t mean we’re going to open up soon after that to unvaccinated people.
If you want the freedoms we are talking about right across the board you’re going to have to be vaccinated.
As he said that there will be a “stark difference” between the freedoms for vaccinated and unvaccinated people, he also confirmed the plan would be unveiled today at 11am.
So stick around and we’ll go through it together.
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Vaccine passports to be trialled in regional Victoria from 11 October
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Picking on the thread about borders reopening (what I’m sure will be a recurring theme this week, especially as NSW steams ahead towards 70% double vaccinated), yesterday Queensland’s deputy premier criticised Scott Morrison for giving people false hope for reopening.
PM Scott Morrison had earlier appeared on Weekend Sunrise, saying state premiers should honour the national reopening plan at 70% and 80% double vaccination rates:
There comes a time when you’ve got to honour the arrangement you’ve made with the Australian people, and that is when you get to 80% vaccination, it’s very clear that you can start opening up.
But Queensland’s Steven Miles was not having it, telling media yesterday that the PM should worry more about the “health and wellbeing” of people in NSW and Victoria than on Queensland’s border:
It’s not that simple and it’s misleading people to tell them that it should be that simple.
This bloke should focus on his job. You know, diplomacy is his job, international trade is his job, vaccination should be his job but we’re doing it.
Quarantine should have been his job, but we’re doing it. Keeping Covid out of NSW was his job and he failed at it.
I don’t think Queensland does want to just give in this close to the end of the pandemic. I don’t think Queenslanders will want to let Covid in for Christmas if we don’t have it but NSW still does.
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