Bubble, bubble toil and trouble

NEW RULES FOR NEW ZEALAND

According to the ABC, Australia’s eastern states have imposed new quarantine restrictions on New Zealand travellers after the number of COVID-19 cases linked to an Auckland high school grew to eight.

While NZ authorities believe the outbreak, which prompted a lockdown on Sunday February 14, is under control, NSW Health has also announced it is contacting travellers who have arrived from the country since Saturday and recommended that, as a precaution, they should get tested and isolate until they get a negative result.

The news comes after private aged care company HealthCare Australia revealed that a doctor who incorrectly gave two elderly Queenslanders a “higher than the recommended dose” of the Pfizer vaccine had not completed the required immunisation training.

Additionally, NSW will further ease restrictions from 12.01am tomorrow, with up to 50 guests to be allowed per household and 30 people on wedding dancefloors — but, curiously, not changes to protest limits of 500 people.

And over in America, NBC reports that documents released by the US Food and Drug Administration suggest Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine is overall safe and highly effective — 86% — against COVID-19’s most severe outcomes.

PS: In other travel news, The Age reports the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has received almost 28,000 complaints over trips that never happened due to the pandemic, with around 30% still seeking refunds.

HIGGINS MAKES FORMAL COMPLAINT

Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has made a formal complaint to the Australian Federal Police over her alleged rape in March 2019, the ABC reports, while Peter Dutton has revealed he was told of the allegations by the AFP days before Higgins went public.

This is because Higgins contacted police six days earlier to signal she was considering reopening the investigation, unwittingly triggering rules the AFP introduced post-media-raids to inform the Home Affairs minister of politically-sensitive investigations.

Below are some other updates from another proud day for the Australian Parliament:

1800 Respect: 1800 737 732; Lifeline: 13 11 14.

A MINE STATE OF AFFAIRS

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the Morrison government has excluded protections for Indigenous sites recommended in a recent federal review in its new environmental reforms.

The news comes as Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group apologises to Wintawari Guruma people for clearing land on a heritage site in Western Australia, The New Daily reports, after an “administrative error” saw the company begin works earlier than scheduled and without a community representative as required by a government instruction.

It is the second incident of its kind this week, after BHP reported damage to a culturally significant site in the Pilbara, despite increased pressure on iron ore giants after Rio Tinto’s destroyed two sacred shelters last year.

FRUITS OF LABOR

Finally, Labor has voted in support of a Greens motion to bring JobSeeker above poverty rates — which, as Crikey has explained previously, can range from between $816-$1100 a fortnight depending on the definition — although Corangamite MP Libby Coker later made clear the party has still not settled on a concrete figure.

This comes after policy experts at The Conversation found the Morrison government’s plan for a $614 fortnightly rate bring Australia’s welfare payment from the worst in the OECD to the second-worst after Greece.