Barnaby Joyce to return as deputy prime minister.
Barnaby Joyce will return as the deputy prime minister after defeating Michael McCormack in a Nationals leadership spill.
Mr Joyce secured a majority in the 21-member party room at a meeting in Canberra on Monday after long-time supporter Matt Canavan moved a spill motion.
The change in Nationals leadership could have major implications for the Morrison government with the junior coalition partner set for a ministerial reshuffle.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has retained his role as Nationals deputy leader.
Mr Joyce failed to topple Mr McCormack at his last attempt in February 2020, but many believed that wouldn't be his last crack at the job.
Joyce resigned as leader three years ago after it was revealed he was having an affair with his former staffer Vikki Campion. There was also an investigation into a sexual harassment complaint. He was not found by the investigation to have committed any offence due to insufficient evidence.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the outcome is likely to harden the party’s position against further action on climate change.
New local virus cases in NSW, Queensland.
NSW has recorded three new locally acquired COVID-19 cases as some Sydneysiders were ordered to don masks indoors amid the city's growing outbreak.
Two new local cases were reported in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, one of which had been revealed by health authorities on Saturday. The other case is a close contact of the previously recorded case.
Another two additional cases in the southern Sydney shire of Sutherland were recorded after the 8pm deadline. They are both close contacts of previously reported cases.
It takes Sydney's eastern suburbs outbreak to nine cases, with the growing cluster prompting new mask-wearing rules.
Anyone shopping, working in hospitality or indoors must wear a mask unless eating or drinking if they live in the local government areas of Randwick, Bayside, Botany Bay, Inner West, City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government would also extend compulsory mask-wearing on public transport in Greater Sydney until Thursday and expand the order to Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas.
Late on Sunday, NSW Health released a list of 27 new exposure sites including a North Face outlet in Drummoyne. More causal sites are in Drummoyne along with others at Castle Hill, Merrylands, central Sydney and Hurstville.
Read more: Everything we know about the spread of the COVID delta variant in Sydney.
Meanwhile, a flight attendant who tested positive for coronavirus in Brisbane after undergoing the full 14 days of hotel quarantine doesn't have the Delta strain.
An outbreak of the Delta strain - the dominant variant in India and the UK - led to the recent lockdown in Victoria.
Victoria reported no new local cases on Sunday.
Vaccine rollout "shambles" to be discussed by Cabinet today.
There will be one item on the agenda when Scott Morrison chairs an emergency national cabinet meeting on Monday - the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
The prime minister will chair the meeting via video link from The Lodge, where he is in isolation following his European trip last week.
The meeting was called last week after Australia's health experts decided the AstraZenaca vaccine should now be given only to people over 60, rather than over 50s as was their previous advice.
It followed fresh concerns over extremely rare clotting events following the vaccination, which has caused two deaths among the 3.8 million doses that have been delivered.
It will put extra pressure on rolling out the Pfizer vaccine.
Chief Nursing Officer Alison McMillan told reporters in Canberra on Sunday a vaccine update would be delivered after the meeting.
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said the Commonwealth's vaccine rollout was an "absolute shambles".
"We do not have the supply of second doses from the Commonwealth to match the demand for first doses," he told reporters in Melbourne.
Western Australia Health Minister Roger Cook is equally frustrated by supply limitations.
"But we're working with what we've got and WA has been very successful. We have vaccinated a higher proportion of our population than any mainland state," he told reporters in Perth.
Man charged with taking girl from Qld home.
A man has been charged after allegedly taking a one-year-old girl from a home south of Brisbane.
The 31-year-old, who police say is known to the child, allegedly entered the Beenleigh property about 9.30pm on Saturday and assaulted a woman before fleeing with the child.
Police issued an amber alert and the girl was found safe and well in the Logan suburb about 10am on Sunday.
The Beenleigh man faces a number of charges including child stealing, assault occasioning bodily harm and domestic violence offences.
He will appear in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Monday.
Juanita Nielsen case: $1m reward offered.
A $1 million reward will be offered for information about the disappearance and suspected murder of heiress Juanita Nielsen in Sydney 46 years ago.
The 38-year-old newspaper owner and journalist, who was an activist heavily involved in the controversial green bans in the 1970s, was last seen at the Carousel Cabaret on Rosyln Street at Kings Cross, on the morning of July 4, 1975.
Despite the case generating extraordinary publicity, her remains have never been found.
She was the publisher of NOW, an alternative newspaper in Sydney, and it was widely speculated she was kidnapped and murdered because of her anti-development and anti-corruption campaigns.
The $1 million NSW government reward will be confirmed on Monday as part of a new appeal for any information that may help police bring her killers to justice.
Family united as Tharnicaa leaves hospital.
Four-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan, whose Tamil asylum-seeker family is anxious to be allowed to return to their adopted hometown of Biloela in Queensland, has been released from hospital.
The young girl has been discharged from Perth Children's Hospital almost two weeks after being medically evacuated from Christmas Island with a blood infection caused by untreated pneumonia.
However, health officials say she will require eight weeks of ongoing specialist care.
In the meantime, the Murugappan family will be held in a community detention residence in Perth.
Father Nades, mother Priya and Australian-born Tharnicaa and her sister, Kopika, have been locked up for more than three years while their fight against deportation has gone through the courts.
During this time, a national campaign for their release has grown ever louder.
Advocates for the family say Immigration Minister Alex Hawke's decision to transfer them to Perth from Christmas Island, where they had been for about two years, makes no improvement to their situation, as they remain in community detention.
Protests were staged across Australia on Saturday calling for them to be allowed to return to Biloela.
It is understood the family is not able to stay elsewhere other than the Perth residence. Nor can visitors spend the night, and neither parent is permitted to work.
Around the world.
- Britain's airlines and holiday companies are planning a "day of action" to ramp up pressure on the government to ease travel restrictions, with just weeks to go before the start of the peak summer season.
- A driver who slammed into spectators at the start of a Pride parade in South Florida, killing one person and seriously injuring another, may have done so accidentally according to early investigations.
There was initially speculation that it was a hate crime directed at the gay community.
- With AAP
Feature image: Tracey Nearmy/Getty/Mark Kolbe/Getty.
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