ABC新闻:澳大利亚维州酒店检疫计划失败致768人死亡
Final submissions to an inquiry have blamed Victoria's second wave of coronavirus on the state's bungled hotel quarantine program. Counsel assisting said that flaws in the scheme led to 768 deaths and more than 18,000 infections. Victoria yesterday recorded five new cases of coronavirus, but while case numbers are at low again, authorities of all the eastern states have raised concerns about the dramatic drop in testing rates.
Cardinal George Pell is set to return to the Vatican for the first time since 2017. A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Sydney confirmed the 79-year-old cardinal will leave Sydney today. In April, the high court quashed his convictions for sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s. Cardinal Pell is Vatican’s former treasure, his return to Rome comes as the Holy See grapples with a financial scandal.
The federal government is boosting its inventment in facial recognition techonology, is part of a digital business package of this year's budget. $250 million will be spent on an online face verification program. Already, more than 1.5 million Australians are using this digital identity scheme.
And an industrial dispute at Sydney's port Botany has escalated with the federal government accusing the Maritime Union of Australia of holding the country to ransom. The union has been taking industrial action in its bid to secure a 6% wage increase over four years. Ten ships are currently waiting off the coast of Sydney, while others have been diverted to Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.