• Vic records 1343 cases, 10 deaths
• MySA Gov accounts accessed by hackers
• Alleged Cleo abductor fronts court
• Conflict of interest? ‘If in doubt, get out’
• Police union rejects mandatory jabs
• SA’s domestic violence border exemption used nearly 200 times
• Aussies thrash Bangladesh at T20 World Cup

Vic records 1343 cases, 10 deaths

Another 1343 COVID-19 infections and 10 deaths have been recorded in Victoria, as the state throws open its border to NSW for the first time in six months.

The health department confirmed on Friday the state is now managing 18,952 active cases.

There are 634 Victorians in hospital, of whom 109 are in intensive care including 73 on a ventilator. The seven-day average is at 681.

Another 66,155 tests were processed on Thursday and 14,255 vaccines administered at state-run hubs.

About 82 per cent of people aged over 12 are fully vaccinated.

The latest figures come as NSW and Victoria have completely reopened their borders to each other for the first time in months.

Travel between the two states had already been unrestricted for the fully vaccinated from Monday.

But from 11.59pm on Thursday, all remaining NSW and ACT orange zones were downgraded to green under Victoria’s travel permit system.

MySA Gov accounts accessed by hackers

More than 2000 MySA Gov accounts with registration and licensing information have been accessed by hackers, with affected users now being urged to change their driver’s license number.

The Department of Infrastructure and Transport said they were made aware of the breach on Tuesday and attribute it to a successful hack of an unrelated website.

“The accounts could be accessed because account holders had used the same or a similar password for their mySA GOV account as they had used for their account with the unrelated website,” the Department said.

“The hackers then used the passwords they had obtained from the unrelated website to access a number of mySA GOV accounts.”

The State Government’s digital license platform, which is used for a range of road user transactions, is also used for COVID check-ins, but authorities say none of this data has been breached.

The Department said a total of 2601 accounts were accessed, including 2008 which contained registration and licensing information.

There is no evidence of unauthorised transactions resulting from the hack, according to the Department, which has blocked the current passwords of the affected accounts.

“The Department is encouraging all affected customers to change their driver’s licence number by attending a Service SA Centre,” a Department spokesperson said.

“Affected customers have received more information about how to do this, with many already receiving new licence details [Thursday] afternoon.

“This is [a] timely reminder to all mySA GOV account holders and South Australians more generally to always set complex passwords and do not use the same password for more than one account.”

Shadow treasury spokesperson Stephen Mullighan has called on the State Government to provide further details about how the hack occurred.

“The government’s registration and licensing system includes hundreds of thousands of names, addresses and photographs and in many cases credit card information, “Mullighan told ABC Radio Adelaide.

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“This is highly sensitive data and South Australians deserve to know that this data has the highest level of protection.”

Alleged Cleo abductor fronts court

The man accused of abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family’s West Australian campsite has appeared before court.

Terence Kelly, 36, fronted the Carnarvon Magistrate’s Court on Thursday afternoon charged with various offences including forcibly taking a child under 16.

The matter will return to court next month.

Kelly, who is alleged to have acted alone, has no connection to Cleo’s family and was not on a list of known sex offenders in Carnarvon.

Cleo was found alive and well early on Wednesday, 18 days after she went missing from her family’s tent at the remote Blowholes campsite.

She was rescued from a property just minutes from her family home in Carnarvon, a coastal town almost 1000km north of Perth.

Police forced entry to the home and found Cleo alone in a room, physically unharmed and playing with toys.

Kelly, who is yet to enter a plea to his charges, was arrested on a nearby street around the same time.

Cleo was pictured smiling in the arms of her mother Ellie Smith on Thursday as they travelled to the local police station.

It’s understood Cleo was set to speak to specialist child interviewers for the first time.

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Homicide detective Cameron Blaine, who was among Cleo’s rescuers, said she appeared to be holding up well.

“I can only see her from the outside. But from that point of view, I’m amazed that she seems to be so well-adjusted and happy,” he said.

“It was really heartwarming to see that she’s still bubbly and she’s laughing.

“She’s falling asleep in her mother’s arms. There was one occasion where she asked if she could lay next to mum and have Ellie look at her while she fell asleep.

“It’s really good to see that she’s adjusted, she’s getting some sleep, she’s playing in the backyard exactly how you would expect.”

Police are yet to confirm whether Cleo was kept at other locations while she was apart from her family and have been tight-lipped on the exact intelligence that led officers to her location.

They had been seeking the driver of a car that was seen leaving the Blowholes campsite around the time she was allegedly taken.

Conflict of interest? ‘If in doubt, get out’

The former chair of the state’s planning commission has told a parliamentary inquiry that she advised Attorney-General Vickie Chapman that a $40 million Kangaroo Island port proposal “should be approved”, declaring she employed her own benchmark for assessing conflicts of interest: ‘If in doubt, get out’.

The Labor-led committee is inquiring into whether Chapman had any conflicts of interest, misled parliament or breached the ministerial code in relation to her decision to veto the Kangaroo Island Plantation Timbers proposal to build the port on the island, where she lived as a child and still owns property.

Helen Dyer, the managing director of consultancy Holmes Dyer and former chair of the State Planning Commission, told the inquiry the commission “did recommend that the [KIPT] application should be approved”.

“I think that letter [to the minister] also expressed that the commission was very finely balanced in making that decision – it was quite a subjective decision,” she said.

“There was a lot of information, and we weighed it all up and we had a number of meetings to discuss the issues, and we came down on the side that it was okay to approve it.”

Dyer recalled a subsequent meeting with Chapman at which “the minister asked if I could just give her a little bit more explanation around the commission’s assessment report and how we came to our decision”.

“So I spoke to her about the contents of the letter that I had written to her… and just explained that it was a very considered decision,” she said.

“It was a very hard decision to arrive at one way or the other, that we’d probably flip-flopped in a sense in terms of where you weighted the particular issues, and I think it’s probably fair to say that the commission was persuaded by the fact that timber was on the island and it needed to be taken off the island to be capitalised.”

She said the proposal was “able to be supported by all of the agencies” although the commission was “somewhat concerned… about the stringency of the monitoring or reporting that would have been required, and potentially the impacts if something did go wrong”.

“But on balance we found that we could support it,” she said.

Dyer said Chapman had never indicated opposition to the port proposal, but “I think at the meeting that we had she was indicating concern regarding the difficulty of the decision”.

“I think from memory that she may have mentioned some concern around the [KI-based] Yumbah abalone operation, and that was a concern obviously to the commission as well,” she said.

Dyer said she was aware “generally” that Chapman “had come from the island [but] I didn’t know she had property on the island”.

Labor MP Tom Koutsantonis referred to a report that Dyer had recused herself from around 40 planning commission matters during her tenure citing conflicts of interest.

“I probably base it around the tests that are provided in the Local Government Act because that’s where my background is, so I would look to pecuniary interests for myself or direct linear family members,” Dyer said.

I had regard to perception [but] that was a much harder one, I think, to work out the test.”

Koutsantonis asked: “So a private business interest would be a development that might impact your land?”

“Yes, I guess it would depend on the degree of impact,” Dyer responded.

“I abided the rule ‘if in doubt, get out’ so that was how I approached it.”

-Tom Richardson

Police union rejects mandatory jabs

South Australia’s police union has rejected a mandatory vaccination directive from SAPOL and lamented “division” between its members on the issue, with the association calling for unvaccinated police officers to be assigned to other duties rather than stood down.

Delegates of the Police Association of South Australia met on Thursday to discuss a directive handed down by SA Police last week requiring all staff to have at least one COVID-19 jab by November 15.

Police commissioner Grant Stevens on Wednesday said around 90 per cent of SAPOL staff have indicated they’re vaccinated.

The Police Association also acknowledged after their meeting on Thursday that 90 per cent of members have indicated they have been or intend to be vaccinated.

But the union also said delegates “support each member’s individual right to undertake vaccination by choice rather than coercion”.

“Delegates believe that members should be free to make personal health decisions under the principle of informed consent, without the fear of losing their job or suffering some other undeserved punishment,” the union said in a statement after the meeting.

“Delegates understand the concern that standing down unvaccinated will exacerbate the existing staffing issues within the workplace.

“Delegates do not support the division that now exists between members over this issue.”

The union resolved after the meeting to seek legal opinion about “the position of members not willing to be vaccinated” and asked that the police commissioner “immediately enters into negotiation with the association in respect of the industrial implications for those affected by his direction”.

Stevens earlier in the week indicated SAPOL would have to “work out a process” for dealing with unvaccinated officers in future.

“We have had some staff making inquiries in relation to what their options are,” Stevens told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“So at this stage it’s too early to tell exactly how many police officers or other staff will elect not to be vaccinated.

“We’ll have to work out how we manage those people going forward.”

SA’s domestic violence border exemption used nearly 200 times

A total of 197 people fleeing domestic violence have been granted exemptions to cross South Australia’s hard border since July last year, according to figures released by SA Police.

Amendments made to the state’s emergency management act last year added individuals escaping domestic violence – and anyone helping them flee – to the small list of people eligible for exemptions to enter South Australia from states closed off due to COVID-19.

The new statistics, obtained by Member for Waite Sam Duluk via freedom of information, run from when the amendment was passed on July 1, 2020, to October 18, 2021.

It roughly corresponds to one person needing to access the exemption every two and a half days.

“Victims of domestic violence need an immediate exemption, especially those living interstate who only have support or family networks here in South Australia or those living in cross border communities,” Duluk said.

“Whilst I hoped that no one would need to use this exemption, it is heartening to hear almost 200 people have found safety in our state.

“I would encourage anyone experiencing domestic violence to speak up, seek help and if needed, please use this exemption to find refuge.”

South Australia’s borders have been closed to New South Wales since June 23 and most of Victoria since July 15.

They are scheduled to reopen to fully vaccinated arrivals on November 23.

Aussies thrash Bangladesh at T20 World Cup

Australia’s Twenty20 World Cup destiny is back in their own hands after a record-breaking eight-wicket hammering of a shell-shocked Bangladesh.

After being humbled in a last-start thrashing by England – Australia’s largest-ever defeat in balls remaining – they responded in devastating fashion on Thursday, bowling Bangladesh out for 73.

Legspinner Adam Zampa was the star with his first T20I five-wicket haul as Australia cantered to their third victory of the tournament, passing Bangladesh’s score with an extraordinary 82 balls to spare.

Such was the size of the victory – their largest-ever with balls remaining – Australia will now almost certainly progress to the semi-finals if they defeat the West Indies on Saturday.

The mammoth win powered Australia past South Africa on net run-rate into second place in their group.

Zampa’s career-best 5-19 helped Australia skittle Bangladesh in just 15 overs after captain Aaron Finch elected to bowl first.

The 73-run effort was Bangladesh’s second-lowest total at a T20 World Cup, just ahead of their 70 against New Zealand in 2016.

Finch (40) and fellow opener David Warner (18) batted with freedom as they eyed the low target in quick time.

The pair were the only Australian batters to lose their wicket as Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell were in the middle when the win was secured.

Marsh (16 not out) brought up the victory with a powerful pull shot that went for six.

“We wanted to come out really aggressive and that was in our minds a little bit,” Zampa said.

“Once we bowled them out for 73, we did have a conversation in the change rooms before the batting innings about getting the runs before the eighth over.

“I wouldn’t say we were nervous about it, we felt really confident going into the game.”

Zampa could have easily had six wickets after wicketkeeper Matthew Wade put down an edge off Taskin Ahmed to deny him a hat-trick.

He finished with the second-best figures by an Austalian in T20Is, only behind Ashton Agar’s six wickets earlier this year.

-With AAP and Reuters