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Key posts
- Moderate Liberals to push protections for gay students after Queensland case
- Elective surgery ban expected to be wound back in Victoria
- Amphitheatre, 24-hour market and ‘teen areas’ touted to rescue ailing Sydney CBD
- This morning’s headlines at a glance
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Moderate Liberals to push protections for gay students after Queensland case
Federal moderate Liberal MPs will renew their push for fast-tracked protections for LGBTQ school students when Parliament returns next week, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison aims to deliver on his election promise to legislate to protect religious freedom.
Fresh controversy over the federal government’s proposed religious discrimination bill was ignited yesterday after reports that Citipointe Christian College in Brisbane had issued contracts requiring students to agree to specific gender roles and denounce homosexuality.
Angie Bell, the Liberal member for the Queensland seat of Moncrieff, is pushing to protect gay students from discrimination.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Liberal moderates Angie Bell, Katie Allen, Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman said the Brisbane school’s example highlighted the need for Parliament to act to protect LGBTQ students ahead of a potential vote on the bill in the coming sitting fortnight.
Ms Bell said she would return to Parliament next week seeking the repeal of an exemption in the Sex Discrimination Act that allowed contracts such as that proposed by Citipointe Christian College to be enforced, as well as other possible solutions, to protect students.
More on what moderate Liberals are pushing for here.
Elective surgery ban expected to be wound back in Victoria
Victoria’s ban on elective surgery could be lifted as soon as next week, with private hospitals expecting to restart treatments at 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Category 2 and 3 operations have been on hold at all public and private hospitals in Melbourne and major regional cities since early January and a statewide “code brown” was declared later in the month to help manage the surge in Omicron COVID-19 cases.
Elective surgery could restart in Victoria next week.Credit:Kate Geraghty
With the state seeming to have passed the peak of COVID hospitalisations, private hospitals have been lobbying the government to reconsider the ban, a stance shared by the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, which yesterday jointly called on all governments to clear a backlog of operations.
Read the full story here.
Amphitheatre, 24-hour market and ‘teen areas’ touted to rescue ailing Sydney CBD
Building an amphitheatre for outdoor performances, closing some streets to traffic after 6.30pm and opening a 24-hour market have been touted as ways to draw people back into Sydney’s hard-hit central business district.
Skate parks in repurposed car parking areas and outdoor spaces for aspiring musicians would also help create “teen areas” to make the CBD more appealing to younger generations.
Sydney’s CBD has been severely affected by the pandemic.Credit:Wolter Peeters
The report by the Committee for Sydney think tank and consultancy group Arup says underutilised rooftops, laneways and open spaces in the city centre should be mapped and converted into places for live performance, community gardening or recreation.
Read more about the proposals here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It’s Wednesday, February 2. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s what you need to know before we get started.
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he wants to reduce unemployment to as little as 3 per cent. It comes as Labor slams the federal government’s plan to provide two $400 payments to aged care workers and says a long-term solution is required (such as a pay rise for workers and more funding for the sector). Yesterday, the PM said he was perhaps too optimistic about this summer in recent public comments and would have done some things differently if he had his time again (for example, getting the defence force involved in the logistics of the vaccine rollout sooner).
- Victoria’s ban on elective surgery could be lifted as soon as next week, Rachel Eddie reports. Victoria recorded 11,311 cases of COVID-19 yesterday and 34 deaths.
- In NSW, the Committee for Sydney think tank has unveiled plans to revive the city’s CBD. The plan involves more spaces for outdoor entertainment, making streets more pedestrian friendly after business hours and even areas for teenagers. NSW recorded 12,818 cases of COVID-19 yesterday and 30 deaths.
- A Queensland Christian college has provoked a public uproar over a contract that asked students to accept traditional gender roles and denounce LGBTQ people. The case has thrown the federal government’s proposed religious discrimination protection laws into the spotlight and highlighted the tensions between moderate and conservative Liberals. Meanwhile, Queensland recorded 7588 cases of COVID-19 yesterday and 10 deaths.
- And in international news, Russian President Vladimir Putin has broken his silence on the situation in Ukraine. Putin claims western nations have ignored Russia’s security concerns and are deliberately trying to lure his country into war. Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops along the Ukrainian border in recent weeks and there are fears the larger country could invade its smaller neighbour.
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