The first repatriation flight from New Delhi has landed in Darwin following the end of the federal government s controversial ban on travel from India.
Seventy people were prevented from boarding the flight, either because they tested positive for Covid-19 or were close contacts. (file pic)
Photo: AFP
The Qantas jet touched down at the RAAF base shortly before 9am, local time.
It was scheduled to carry up to 150 passengers but in the end only carried 80 people back to Australia.
A total of 70 people were barred from boarding; 46 of those tested positive to Covid-19, while 24 others were identified as close contacts.
âPeople are dying in ambulancesâ: Health ministers say nation gripped by health crisis, call for NDIS fix
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State health ministers say their systems are being overrun due to unforeseen ill health arising from the pandemic, as the Australian Medical Association warns patients are dying in clogged emergency departments and ambulances are spending hours ramped outside hospitals.
The ministers, united across the political divide, say Canberra must step in as a matter of urgency to increase funding to public hospitals and fix the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and aged care systems, where assessment delays are locking up hundreds of hospital beds.
A $10 billion social and affordable housing fund forms the centre of Labor’s response to the latest federal budget.
Social services advocates have praised the proposed measure as a “solid start” to assist vulnerable Australians, including women and children escaping domestic violence.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the party would prioritise green jobs with a multi-million dollar package for apprentices working in renewable energy and associated fields.
A $10 billion future fund guaranteeing social housing to vulnerable Australians forms the centrepiece of Labor’s federal budget response, which social services advocates say is a welcome but incomplete alternative to the Morrison government’s economic plan.
Unfair to suggest Albanese plagiarised from Reagan14/05/2021|3min
Shadow Aged Care Minister Clare O’Neil has dismissed suggestions Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese plagiarised his speech from former President Ronald Reagan.
In his budget reply speech Mr Albanese repeated several questions asking Australians if they are “better off” under the current government – similar to questions posed by President Reagan in 1980.
“I think that’s pretty unfair actually, I thought he gave a really good speech last night laying out the pillars of a truly visionary approach to post-COVID Australia,” Ms O’Neil told Sky News.
Fellow panellist Liberal Senator Jane Hume interrupted and said President Reagan was “much more inspirational”.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s budget reply speech last night highlighted Australia’s huge unnmet need for social and affordable housing. It’s once again shaping up as a major election issue. Labor is proposing a A$10 billion program to build 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years.
The immediate backdrop for the pledge is a post-COVID house price boom, and a continuing dearth of Commonwealth investment in new non-market housing. That is, rentals affordable to low-income Australians and provided by government agencies or non-profit community housing organisations.
Amid the many new spending plans revealed in Tuesday’s budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg maintained the government’s resistance to an ever-wider coalition of voices calling for social housing stimulus.