– With AAP.
1. An 8-year-old boy has been diagnosed with coronavirus in Queensland.
An eight-year-old boy has become the third person confirmed to have coronavirus in Queensland.
Queensland Health chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young on Tuesday night said the child was a member of the tour group travelling with a 44-year-old man and 42-year-old woman diagnosed with the virus in Queensland last week.
All three are from Hubei province which is at the epicentre of the coronavirus in China.
The child is in a stable condition in isolation at Gold Coast University Hospital with the man and woman.
Of the 13 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia so far, three have now been diagnosed in Queensland.
The state’s Health Minister Steven Miles is rushing new laws through parliament to extend his existing health emergency order from one week to three months.
The move will give health officers more time to require the quarantine or isolation of suspected coronavirus cases and force people to undergo medical checks and tests.
The bill was introduced into state parliament on Tuesday, the first sitting day of 2020.
Mr Miles wants it to pass the house by Thursday. It would remain in place for 12 months and apply solely to the novel coronavirus.
More than 400 people have been assessed for coronavirus since screening started at Brisbane International Airport on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sunshine Coast doctor Daniel Holmes is leading the team providing treatment to hundreds of Australians evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, who are now in quarantine on Christmas Island for 14 days.
2. Spider-Man suit used as bait in the William Tyrrell case.
Police investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell placed a Spider-Man suit and a secret camera on a bush track where a person of interest was known to walk, a Sydney court has been told.
The surveillance strategy was revealed on Tuesday in the Downing Centre Local Court at the hearing of charges against former NSW senior detective Gary Jubelin.
Magistrate Ross Hudson earlier rejected an application by the NSW Police Commissioner to suppress details of the investigation’s covert strategies, surveillance strategies and wider strategies.
Jubelin, 57, has pleaded not guilty to illegally recording four conversations with the person of interest, Paul Savage, in 2017 and 2018 as he investigated William’s disappearance from a home in Kendall in September 2014.
Crown prosecutor Philip Hogan said Mr Savage, who lived in the same street of the mid-north coast town, was at home when the three-year-old vanished wearing a Spider-Man suit.
On July 26, 2017, police placed a camera and a Spider-Man suit, similar to the one William had been wearing, on the bush track where Mr Savage was known to walk daily.
They photographed him in the area but were unsure if he saw the suit that day. He reported it to police the next day.
“The significance of that is it was one of the subjects Mr Jubelin spoke to him about,” Mr Hogan said.
At times, a surveillance warrant and telephone intercept warrants were issued for Mr Savage, but the prosecutor alleged Jubelin made four secret recordings which were not covered by them.
He alleged Jubelin instructed another officer to record the first call, which Jubelin made from police headquarters using the speaker on the phone.
He allegedly told the officer not to save the recording, but the officer placed it on the computer system.
Two other calls were secretly made on Jubelin’s mobile phone at Mr Savage’s house, but he later asked the officer to make transcripts of them saying they were under the warrants, Mr Hogan said.
Jubelin had admitted making the calls but “asserts the recordings were made to protect his lawful interests”, including for operational reasons.
He said Mr Savage previously complained about aspects of his August 2017 interview, saying the air-conditioning was too cold and he wasn’t given access to water.
“Mr Jubelin cannot have a personal interest in a matter that arises out of a police investigation,” Mr Hogan said.
None of the conversations with Mr Savage were urgent and could have been delayed to organise the appropriate warrants, he said.
Detective Sergeant Laura Beacroft, who was part of the investigation into William’s disappearance, said further inquiries took place into Mr Savage after he became a person of interest in March 2017.
This included “numerous strategies devised to evoke some sort of reaction” from Mr Savage.
Tracking and listening devices, cameras and surveillance operatives using hand-held devices were used.
“One of the issues was Mr Savage had a habit of listening to his radio very loudly” while static also was a problem in making audio recordings, she said.
Jubelin had come up with the idea of placing the Spider-Man suit in the bush, she said.
The hearing continues.
3. Air New Zealand will bring Aussies from Wuhan, China.
Dozens of Australians will be on the Air New Zealand flight chartered by the Kiwi government to bring its citizens home from Wuhan, but it’s unclear just how they will be quarantined on arrival.
On Tuesday night, New Zealand hopes to follow Australia and a string of other countries in repatriating Kiwis stuck in the Chinese city during the coronavirus outbreak.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the plane was waiting at Hong Kong airport, where health professionals and government officials readied it for the long haul trip to Auckland.
Around 100 New Zealanders will be joined by around 50 Australians – and perhaps more – seeking for a route from the Hubei province, as well as some from Pacific Islands.
Final numbers won’t be locked in until the plane’s manifest is confirmed just prior to the flight.
NZ prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who has temporarily banned all commercial flights from China during the crisis, said she had been working with China and Australia on the mission.
“They have to go through a clearance process at the border in China to make sure that anyone displaying symptoms doesn’t board the flight,” she said.
Once on home soil, the Kiwis will be taken to Whangaparaoa, a navy training facility on a stunning piece of coastline just 30 minutes north of Auckland.
While it was mooted the Australians would undergo their quarantine there, Ardern said on Tuesday, “They won’t be joining us”.
“My understanding is that Australia will be then taking the public health responsibility for those that will eventually be in Australia,” she said.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is yet to outline their quarantine plans.
Australians which took their own government’s chartered Qantas plane out of Wuhan are now on Christmas Island, where they will spend a fortnight in quarantine.
It remains to be seen whether the Auckland-bound Australians will take a marathon series of flights to join them on the tiny island – which is much closer to China than New Zealand.
Ardern is holding firm to a proposal to retain the $500 ($A483) charge to board the plane.
“It has been a significant exercise to get (everyone) home and these would be people paying for a return flight anyway,” she said.
“It’s a small way to contribute to cost recovery … it’s definitely not covering the full cost.”
NZ opposition leader Simon Bridges called for the fee to be scrapped after Australian prime minister Scott Morrison moved to waive a proposed $1000 levy to board their chartered Qantas flight home on Monday.
4. Barnaby Joyce has warned colleagues against allowing bushfires to be used for advancing “hobby horse” issues like… climate change.
Nationals backbencher Barnaby Joyce has warned colleagues against allowing bushfires to be used for advancing “hobby horse” issues, in a thinly veiled reference to climate change.
At a joint coalition partyroom meeting on Tuesday, Mr Joyce said his NSW electorate had been dealing with drought and bushfires.
He said some people were trying to push their “hobby horse” issues out of the tragedies.
“We need always to remember those who get hurt from any suggestions and policies when people are pursuing reactionary approaches,” he said.
His comments came just hours after failing to win back the deputy prime minister position in a failed leadership challenge against Michael McCormack.
The comments were part of a broader discussion about climate change, with some MPs praising Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s increased focus on new technology to cut emissions.
Several people told colleagues to be mindful of what climate policy could mean for jobs.
Others referred to an “ultimate ambition of carbon neutrality” and ensuring Australia is a global leader in renewable energy, hydrogen and working through the recommendations of an inquiry into nuclear power.
Mr Joyce said the leadership vote was part of the Westminster system and the party could now “move on” from the issue.
Former resources minister Matt Canavan, who quit cabinet to back Mr Joyce, said he wouldn’t be seeking a return to the ministry.
He said the coalition had become the parties of workers in coal mines, shipyards and factories.
“We represent those people by fighting for their jobs and defending their jobs,” Senator Canavan said.
After the Nationals’ leadership turmoil, the prime minister demanded colleagues work together to deliver for Australia.
“We come to this joint coalition party room to do things together,” Mr Morrison said.
Mr McCormack urged MPs and senators to remember that regional Australia was not broken despite many people hurting after a tough summer.
“It is full of strong people who can bounce back,” he said.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg indicated the government’s focus would be on continuing stable economic management to see Australia through tough times.
The meeting came as hundreds of protesters gathered outside Parliament House to call for greater action on climate change.
5. Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the bushfires have left a “huge scar” on NSW.
Firefighters who lost colleagues, families who lost a loved one and an MP who fought to save his own home have joined the rest of the NSW parliament to mark the bushfires which have left a “huge scar” on the state.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian used the first parliamentary sitting day of the year on Tuesday to move a condolence motion for those affected by the fires and to pay tribute to the 25 people who lost their lives in NSW.
More than 2400 homes have been destroyed and five million hectares burnt.
“The scale of these bushfires is unprecedented and NSW is experiencing the most devastating natural disaster in living memory,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“The bushfire season has left a huge scar on NSW.”
Among those in the public gallery were members of the Horsley Park Rural Fire Service brigade, who lost volunteers Andrew O’Dwyer and Geoffrey Keaton when their fire truck rolled southwest of Sydney in December.
Prospect MP Hugh McDermott told parliament he had spoken to the men an hour before they died and was “stunned, shattered” by the news.
The loved ones of 72-year-old Colin Burns – an off-duty RFS volunteer who died at his Belowra property on New Year’s Eve – were also in the gallery.
Ms Berejiklian extended condolences to the wider RFS community “which has borne this heavy loss”, and to the three United States airmen killed when their firefighting plane crashed in January near Cooma.
“We’re inspired daily by the efforts of our firefighters and first responders who run towards the fires while steering their communities to safety,” she said.
The names of the 25 people who have died in bushfires since October were also read out by the Liberal leader.
Ms Berejiklian praised the leadership of RFS commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, saying “words cannot describe the gratitude that all of NSW feels towards him”.
The premier also paid tribute to NSW Fire and Rescue, NSW Police and other emergency personnel.
Bega MP Andrew Constance urged his colleagues to leave politics aside and focus on helping people and communities rebuild.
Mr Constance stepped aside from his role as state transport and roads minister in January to aid his southern NSW electorate’s recovery.
He described how the New Year’s Eve blaze which impacted his hometown of Malua Bay changed him forever, and pleaded with anyone affected by bushfires to seek support.
NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said the state has experienced one of the longest and most devastating bushfire seasons in history.
“The state is in mourning. The state is in grief … for the heroes we never knew and who were there when we needed them most,” he told parliament.
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay said “nothing can be the same” after the fires.
“This was the summer that broke our hearts, the summer when the rains didn’t come, the summer that forced us to rethink our relationship with this parched land, this changing climate,” Ms McKay told parliament.
The opposition leader said the 25 people who had perished “had their hopes and dreams cut short in the most horrific way”.
Parliamentary business will be suspended during the first week of the NSW sitting year to allow each MP the chance to express sympathy for bushfire victims.
Feature image: Getty.