Australia 'sleepwalker' into the next Covid wave, says Monique Ryan
Independent member for Kooyong Monique Ryan said Australia was "a sleepwalker" into the latest wave of Covid in the absence of a national strategy to deal with the pandemic. What we learned: Thursday November 1st
Can you believe it? We've reached the end of another sitting week in one piece. Here are the main developments of the day.
The labor industrial relations bill has been passed by the House of Representatives, after government concessions further reduced the expansion of multi-employer negotiations.
The Joint Electoral Committee has voted "unanimously" for the national anti-corruption commission bill, while independent lawmaker Helen Haines and the Greens signaled they would move for an amendment in the Senate.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has announced a review of the program to resettle former Afghan employees who assisted Australia in Afghanistan. The Australian Health Practitioners Regulatory Agency (Ahpra) said it received more than 1,300 complaints about doctors and medical professionals for Covid-related misconduct such as spreading conspiracy theories or violating public health orders. Following the investigation, 28 have been subjected to "immediate action".
A small number, around 2,800, of Virgin Australia's Velocity frequent flyer customers have been caught in the Medibank data breach, the airline has announced. Meanwhile, the ACCC said the number of frauds reported to regulators in the current financial year was up 92%, with nearly $500 million in losses reported in the four months since July 1.
And as the country grapples with rising Covid cases, Queensland has changed its traffic light system to "yellow", recommending returning masks to some settings. Independent MP Monique Ryan said Australia was "sleepwalking" into waves.
The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, said the hacker's decision to release Medibank information regarding abortion was "sickening and appalling".
On Thursday morning, on a dark web blog linked to the REvil Russian ransomware group, attackers posted files labeled "abortion" alongside claims that they had requested $10 million from Medibank to prevent data leaks.