What we know today, Thursday November 4
Controversial media personality and veteran broadcaster Alan Jones is leaving Sky News Australia, saying he was told his work “didn’t resonate”.
- Alan Jones dumped by Sky News
- Vic records 1247 new cases, nine deaths
- NSW records 308 cases, four deaths
- WA police seek answers after Cleo’s rescue
- ‘Despicable mudslinging’: Chapman lashes KI inquiry amid resignation calls
- Shop trading hours loosened for Christmas, New Year’s Day
- Pfizer approval for Australian kids nears
- NSW cases tipped to rise after restrictions ease
- Prince Andrew could face 2022 US civil trial
Alan Jones dumped by Sky News
Controversial media personality and veteran broadcaster Alan Jones is leaving Sky News Australia, saying he was told his work “didn’t resonate”.
“Sky News have indicated to me that they will not renew my contract, which ends on November 30,” he said in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The conservative stalwart has been with the national pay television channel since 2013 and currently hosts his own program on Mondays to Thursdays in the 8pm timeslot.
The 80-year-old said the bad news was delivered during a meeting with Sky management on Friday.
He was not offered a slot with Sky News, despite his program winning its timeslot.
“An alternative offer was made to me to appear once a week on the news streaming service, Flash,” he said.
“I declined that offer.”
Last year, Jones left Sydney radio station 2GB with a year to go on a lucrative contract, after hosting its top-rated breakfast radio program for 18 years.
The program was noted for being closely monitored by politicians who feared the wrath of the broadcaster because of his influence with his loyal audience.
Earlier this year, Jones’ regular column in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph was dropped.
“All sorts of reasons were proffered, including the fact that, after 35 years of radio success, I was being told that my work ‘didn’t resonate’,” Jones said in a lengthy Facebook post.
“Sky News rightly boasts significant personalities with strong and legitimate opinions.”
Jones defended his performance and ratings saying: “My Facebook page’s average engagement rate per page is vastly superior to that of Sky News Australia’s Facebook page.”
“I merely let the figures speak for themselves, as they did in radio and, as I think you can see from above, they have, in my brief stint on television,” he said.
“I have enjoyed my experience thoroughly.”
Vic records 1247 new cases, nine deaths
Victoria has recorded 1247 new locally-acquired COVID-19 infections and another nine deaths.
The health department confirmed on Thursday the state is managing 17,674 active cases.
There are 660 Victorians in hospital, of whom 114 are in intensive care including 78 on ventilators.
Another 50,180 tests were processed on Wednesday and 16,209 vaccines administered at state-run hubs.
Victorian health authorities have tweaked the state’s vaccination reporting to reflect vaccine uptake in all people aged above 12.
About 81 per cent of people aged above 12 are fully vaccinated.
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NSW records 308 cases, four deaths
There are 308 new local cases of COVID-19 in NSW and four deaths, ending a week of daily infection numbers below 300.
The new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday from 94,661 tests.
The figures mark a jump of 118 infections – a day after Premier Dominic Perrottet warned to expect daily cases and hospitalisations to increase.
There are 302 people in hospital, 64 of them in ICU.
Some 93.7 per cent of people aged 16 and older have had one vaccine dose and 88.7 per cent are fully jabbed.
WA police seek answers after Cleo’s rescue
West Australian police say there is still much more work to be done after the dramatic rescue of four-year-old Cleo Smith.
Cleo was found alive and well early on Wednesday at a property in Carnarvon, just minutes from her family home.
The discovery came more than two weeks after she disappeared from her family’s tent at the remote Blowholes campsite 75km north of Carnarvon.
A 36-year-old Carnarvon man was taken into custody and questioned over the suspected abduction but was yet to be charged on Wednesday night.
Police say he has no connection to Cleo’s family and was not at the house when Cleo was found. The man was not on a list of known sex offenders in Carnarvon, a tourist gateway on WA’s northwest coast known for its banana plantations.
There are no other suspects linked to the case.
Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said the 140-strong taskforce investigating Cleo’s disappearance would continue its work.
“We will be working through this for the next week or two at least,” he told reporters in Carnarvon.
“There’s much more work yet to be done. But I’m just the proudest police commissioner in the world at the moment.”
Cleo was examined in hospital and found to be in good physical health. Police shared a photograph of her smiling and waving from her hospital bed after reuniting with her mother Ellie Smith and Smith’s partner, Jake Gliddon.
Dawson thanked the WA public, volunteers and officers involved in the 18-day search for Cleo, while calling on the Carnarvon community to remain united.
Authorities have been tight-lipped on the exact intelligence that led officers to Cleo’s location.
Police Minister Paul Papalia said the breakthrough had not been sparked by a chance sighting but rather “hard police grind”.
“From the moment this investigation began, the Western Australian police force conducted themselves to the absolute highest level of professionalism,” he said.
‘Despicable mudslinging’: Chapman lashes KI inquiry amid resignation calls
Labor has demanded the resignation of Attorney-General Vickie Chapman after a terse three-hour grilling over a decision to veto a planned $40 million port development – but the Deputy Premier says the “tawdry” inquiry “failed to uncover anything inappropriate” about her conduct.
Chapman faced questions yesterday, insisting she was unaware a property she inherited from her late brother in 2017 would be impacted by the proposed Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers project – which she unilaterally ruled out in August despite departmental advice that it could go ahead, with caveats.
“I think I have made it very clear at all material times, as has been well known to this parliament, that I have inherited and have land on Kangaroo Island,” Chapman told the hearing.
“There’s been a forest [adjacent the property] owned by a party independent of KIPT [which] has been there for 30 or 40 years and it’s still there… the first time I heard about the issue of whether KIPT have or are about to enter into any contract with that property is what you have told me today.”
Chapman has long denied an actual or perceived conflict, and has previously told parliament that she did not own land near, or that would be impacted by, the proposed port.
After the hearing, Labor frontbencher Tom Koutsantonis said in a statement that Chapman “has no choice but to resign, after giving utterly unsatisfactory answers to serious questions about perceived or real conflicts of interest and allegations of misleading parliament”.
“If she won’t resign, Steven Marshall should sack her,” he said.
But in a statement of her own, Chapman insisted the committee had “failed to find evidence to support its wild and inflammatory claims, and, above all else, failed the people of South Australia”.
She accused committee chair Andrea Michaels of “stooping to a new low” by inquiring into land transfers she had made to her family, “implying this was related to my decision [but] knowing the same related to my brother’s suicide in 2017 and the conclusion of legal proceedings concerning his estate”.
“While Labor’s legal costs to the taxpayer will be massive – it is nothing compared to the toll this despicable mudslinging exercise has taken on members of my family,” she said.
“I forgive, but I do not forget.”
-Tom Richardson
Shop trading hours loosened for Christmas, New Year’s Day
Treasurer Rob Lucas has granted a raft of exemptions to suburban retailers permitting them to trade for longer hours in the lead up to Christmas.
The ministerial exemptions granted under the Shop Trading Hours Act 1977 will also allow suburban retailers in South Australia to open on New Year’s Day for the first time.
From November 26 (Black Friday) until Christmas, previously non-exempt shops in the CBD and suburbs will be permitted to open between 9am and 11am on Sundays.
Shops will also be able to open until midnight on Black Friday; Thursday, December 16; Friday, December 17; and Thursday December 23.
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Boxing Day shopping will also be open from 9am to 5pm.
The slew of exemptions are the latest move in a three-year push from the State Government to deregulate shop trading hours, after attempts to pass a bill through parliament and launch a statewide referendum failed.
Lucas said the exemptions would support an expected “surge in spending activity” after South Australia’s borders reopen on November 23.
“After more than 18 months of COVID, where many local businesses have been struggling to stay afloat – and pent-up consumer demand, particular from NSW and Victorian consumers after their long, arduous lockdowns – there’s never been a more critical time to roll out the welcome mat and give our retailers the opportunity to trade,” he said.
“It’s simply not right that suburban retailers should be forced to shut for six out of 10 days over the Christmas/New Year period.”
Business SA in August backed away from its previous position on shop trading hours reform, withdrawing support for the State Government’s push for full deregulation and advocating for a more modest change to opening hours, in line with the Labor Party.
An Opposition spokesperson said extending shopping hours in the lead up to Christmas is “not unusual”, but criticised the State Government for not making Christmas Day a public holiday.
“This means thousands of workers who sacrifice their Christmas Day to go to work will miss out on the penalty rates they deserve,” the spokesperson said.
“Extending shopping hours in the lead up to Christmas is not unusual, but what is unusual is refusing to declare Christmas Day a public holiday.”
Pfizer approval for Australian kids nears
A decision on whether young children in Australia could receive the COVID vaccine could be imminent, after US regulators approved the Pfizer shot for five to 11-year-olds.
The USA Centre for Disease Control backed the Pfizer vaccine for the age group, which could allow for vaccines to be distributed to as many as 28 million children as soon as this week.
Australia is yet to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for five to 11-year-olds, but health authorities previously indicated they would watch the decision from American authorities closely.
Pfizer had supplied initial data to Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration in late October surrounding vaccines for young children.
At the time the data was supplied, the head of the administration Professor John Skerritt said the final approval was close.
“It will take a few weeks, but I would hope that we would get there by the end of November,” Skerritt said at the time.
While Pfizer has been approved in the US for vaccines in children, other manufacturers such as Moderna are conducting their own trials for the age group.
Since states affected by COVID started to reopen, there has been growing concern about the large number of infections among children, particularly in schools, due to them being ineligible to be vaccinated.
Health authorities have urged for as many adults as possible to be vaccinated around children to prevent the further spread of the virus.
Several schools have been forced to briefly shut their gates in multiple jurisdictions after COVID outbreaks among students.
Among them was a school in Canberra’s south, which was closed on Wednesday after a cluster of 17 cases was linked to the campus.
The South Australian Education Department confirmed last week that schools will still shut for at least 24 hours if a COVID-19 case is detected there after the state’s November 23 reopening date.
NSW cases tipped to rise after restrictions ease
NSW has kept COVID-19 new daily case numbers under 300 for a week but the premier warns this won’t be sustained as the state opens up, with extensive new freedoms to kick in next week.
“The reality is case numbers will increase, hospitalisations will increase – we need to learn to live alongside this pandemic,” Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Wednesday.
NSW has so far defied predictions that COVID cases and hospitalisations would soar as restrictions ease, keeping case numbers below 300 for the week to Wednesday.
There were 190 new infections recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.
There were more four deaths reported on Wednesday, bringing the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 582 for the entire pandemic.
Perrottet declined to reveal what the latest modelling says, maintaining the state’s post-lockdown opening up would go ahead, on the back of “world leading” vaccination rates.
Some 93.7 per cent of people aged 16 and older have had one vaccine dose and 88.7 per cent are fully jabbed.
On Tuesday the premier announced most restrictions that were due to ease in December would lift on Monday – while unvaccinated people will have to wait until December 15 – or until the state achieves its 95 per cent double-dose vaccination target.
The double jabbed will be able to have as many visitors as they want while density and capacity limits at hospitality venues will be lifted, with dancing at nightclubs permitted.
Domestic travel, including trips between greater Sydney and regional NSW will be allowed.
Stadiums, racecourses, theme parks, zoos, and entertainment facilities such as cinemas, theatres and amusement centres can also operate at full capacity.
Prince Andrew could face 2022 US civil trial
A US judge says Prince Andrew should be prepared for a civil trial late next year on accusations that he sexually abused a woman when she was under 18 and also being abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said he anticipated a trial on Virginia Giuffre’s civil claims would begin between September and December 2022, provided that a jury could be accommodated safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I will look at the possibility of September, but in any case October through December as being the target here,” Kaplan said in phone conference with Andrew’s and Giuffre’s lawyers.
Giuffre, 38, sued Andrew, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, for unspecified damages in August.
She said Andrew forced her to have sex at the London home of longtime Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell and abused her at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan and on one of Epstein’s private islands in the US Virgin Islands.
Andrew, the Duke of York, has not been charged with crimes.
The conference came five days after Andrew, 61, said he “unequivocally denies Giuffre’s false accusations against him” and urged Kaplan to dismiss the lawsuit.
Andrew said Giuffre had been seeking “another payday” in a more than decade-long effort to profit from her accusations against Epstein and people associated with him.
Before any trial, Giuffre and Andrew would submit to questioning under oath by opposing lawyers by next July 14.
-With AAP and Reuters
