Australia politics live news: government faces net zero ‘plan’ fallout; Covid vaccine booster shots approved; overseas travel for fully vaccinated

At this point I’m not sure if there’s anywhere in Queensland you can’t get vaccinated.

The Sydney police officer Mark Follington was today jailed for two-and-a-half years for assaulting a woman during a violent arrest and then lying about what occurred, AAP reports.

The 61-year-old senior constable – who maintains his innocence – had said he arrested Anya Bradford in May 2019 after becoming suspicious her “attitude” in a Liverpool pub’s gaming room was akin to people subject to arrest warrants.

“She was keeping her eyes down … that starts to send a signal to me that this person is trying to hide from me,” he testified in court.

After he asked for ID and was told to “fuck off” he physically prevented her departure and shoved her into an ATM.

Follington then wrote a summary of the events to support three charges of Bradford assaulting police. However, the CCTV told another story.

The magistrate Michael Crompton in May found the officer’s narrative was intentionally false and constituted criminal offences of doing an act intending to pervert the course of justice and tampering with evidence with intent to mislead a judicial tribunal.

Those two offences were deemed the most serious of Follington’s five crimes, making up the bulk of his 30-month maximum sentence imposed in the Downing Centre local court on Wednesday.

Follington, who was also convicted of two counts of assault and unlawful modification of police data, will be eligible for parole in 18 months’ time.

He was unsuccessful in having the sentence stayed pending conviction appeals to the district court.

Victoria’s parliament is currently debating new laws on pandemic powers which would allow the health minister to issue pandemic orders after a pandemic was declared by the premier.

The law states:

The minister will also be able to issue a pandemic order to a specific classification of person or group depending on their location, participation at an event or activity, or a particular characteristic such as age, vaccination status, residence, occupation or living arrangements.

Australia’s workplace health and safety authority is worried about the risk of Covid-19 transmission in federal parliament, AAP reports.

The Labor senator Louise Pratt told a Senate estimates hearing Safe Work Australia “didn’t consider that they’ve been reassured enough that parliament was a safe Covid workplace” to attend the hearing in person.

They were granted permission to appear virtually before the hearing on Wednesday, though this was not the committee’s preference.

It followed a meeting last week with the attorney general’s department and other agencies.

Pratt:

Safe Work Australia is the agency responsible for setting the protocols in relation to safe workplaces.

I’m somewhat confused that they have a different assessment to other agencies when other agencies are supposed to role model and learn from them.

The industrial relations deputy secretary, Martin Hehir, appearing in person, said Safe Work had concerns about the level of consultation:

(This is) the first estimates where we’ve been required to return where there’s community transmission, which is the main concern raised by Safe Work Australia here in Canberra.

My understanding is that Safe Work Australia would like to be consulted as to the detail of the safe work arrangements.

The Safe Work Australia chief executive, Michelle Baxter, thought it was reasonable for staff to appear remotely given the pandemic.

Baxter asked whether witnesses appearing in person would be seated one and a half metres apart, but said she didn’t get an answer:

I have never made any assessment, communicated concerns or reached a view that the hearings today are unsafe.

Rather, I as an officer of the commonwealth under the Work Health and Safety Act sought additional information to assess whether all reasonably practicable measures had been taken to manage the risks of Covid-19.

Yesterday Paul Karp reported on proposed voter identification laws which would require eligible Australian voters to present identification before casting a ballot.

Today, opponents warn eligible voters in vulnerable groups may be discouraged or excluded from voting.

Read the full story here:

The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, says subject to final Atagi advice, a general population booster program will begin no later than 8 November for original priority groups, including people in aged care and disability care settings.

Many thanks to Amy Remeikis. I’ll be with you for the rest of this fine evening.

Parliament is starting to wind down and I have to run to a project we hope to show you fairly soon (it’s been a few years in the making), so I am going to dash off and leave you in the very capable hands of Caitlin Cassidy.

I’ll be back early tomorrow morning – take care of you.