Kmart's $500m promise to customers
Kmart has committed to a new $500m fulfilment centre in Sydney's west as it aims to double revenue to $20 billion over the next decade.
The retail giant has announced plans to build the new 100,000 sqm Omnichannel Fulfilment Centre to be built at ESR's Intermodal Precinct at Moorebank.
The facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2027 and Kmart Group said it will create more than 1300 jobs during the construction phase of the project and when it is fully operational.
The facility will also service Kmart's sister retail outlet Target and is aimed at modernising logistics and enhancing supply line growth.
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'This commitment is an exciting milestone and represents a significant investment in our future supply chain,' Kmart and Target CEO John Gualtieri.
'By modernising our fulfilment capabilities, we're increasing speed, efficiency and flexibility across our network.
'Ultimately, this is about delivering even more value to our customers, which is central to who we are.'
Kmart have been experimenting with store layouts in a limited number of stores in Queensland in a big to increase sales and reach that $20bn target in the next 10 years, which would almost double current revenue.
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Growth in online sales is another crucial target.
'With nearly 450 stores across Australia and New Zealand, our store network for Kmart and Target remains a core part of our customer offering,' Mr Gualtieri said.
'This new facility is key to delivering a seamless omnichannel experience, ensuring customers receive the products they need, when and how they want them.
'Whether shopping online or in-store, our goal is to provide great quality products at the lowest prices, and this facility will help us do that more efficiently than ever.'
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The Moorebank Intermodal Precinct is expected to deliver around $11bn in economic benefits in the three decades following completion, including $3.5bn to southwest Sydney's economy.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Defence minister concedes Australia's military spending may need to rise after meeting US counterpart Pete Hegseth
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has urged Australia to increase military spending, a day after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blasted a leading security think tank which warned this country was poorly prepared for the growing risk of regional conflict. Ahead of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Defence Minister Richard Marles has told his US counterpart that the Albanese government is willing to have a 'conversation' about lifting expenditure. Australia is on track to reach defence spending levels of 2.33 per cent of GDP by 2033-34, up from its current level of 2.02 per cent, but for months the Trump Administration has pressured the government to get to at least three per cent of GDP. 'I wouldn't put a number on it, the need to increase defence spending is something that he definitely raised,' Mr Marles told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing program following his meeting with the Pentagon boss. 'You have seen the Americans in the way in which they have engaged with all of their friends and allies asking them to do more and we can completely understand why America would do that.' 'What I made clear is that this is a conversation that we are very willing to have, and it is one that we are having, having already made very significant steps in the past.' 'But we want to make sure that we are contributing to the strategic moment that we face, that we all face, and what Pete Hegseth said is entirely consistent with in the way that the Americans have been speaking to all their friends'. 'We understand it and we are very much up for that conversation. On Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lashed out after a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) warned Australia could be left with a "brittle and hollowed defence force" if military funding was not increased. "Well, that's what they do, isn't it, ASPI? I mean, seriously, they need to … have a look at themselves and the way they conduct themselves in debates," Mr Albanese told the ABC following the report's release. "We've had a defence strategic review. We've got considerable additional investment going into defence — $10 billion," the Prime Minister said while insisting his government was acting. Mr Marles is due to meet with counterparts from a range of other countries on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, which brings together leaders, army chiefs, defence ministers and analysts from across the globe. On Saturday the Defence Minister will use a speech at the event to warn 'we also have to counter the grim, potentially imminent, possibility of another wave of global nuclear proliferation as states seek security in a new age of imperial ambition.' China has been rapidly building up its own nuclear arsenal, while Russia has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons since its invasion of Ukraine. The Defence Minister is expected to call that behaviour a 'profound abrogation of (Russia's) responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council,' warning that the behaviour of states like Russia, Iran and North Korea could drive nuclear proliferation around the world. 'Not only does this work against states disarming their own nuclear arsenals, as Ukraine responsibly did in 1994, the war is prompting some frontier states most exposed to Russian aggression to consider their options,' he will say. 'And this has dire consequences for our region too. Russia has agreed a strategic partnership with North Korea to access the munitions and troops Moscow needs to continue its war.' 'The probability that Russia is transferring nuclear weapons technology in payment for Pyongyang's support places intolerable pressure on South Korea.' The Defence Minister will also once again criticise China for undertaking the 'largest conventional military build-up since WWII', saying it's doing so 'without providing any strategic transparency or reassurance.' 'This remains a defining feature of the strategic complexity that the Indo-Pacific and the world faces today,' he's expected to say. Mr Marles's speech comes in the wake of a series of meetings this week between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and a host of Pacific counterparts in the southern city of Xiamen. Officials from Australia, the US, New Zealand and Japan have all monitored the gathering closely, while China has hailed it as a major milestone in its ties with the Pacific. Beijing didn't unveil any major initiatives at the meeting. And while Pacific nations backed Beijing's claim over Taiwan, they didn't issue a direct endorsement of China's commitment to 'reunify' the self-ruled island with the mainland. But one Pacific government source told the ABC that China's criticisms of the Trump Administration's sweeping 'Liberation Day' tariffs, as well as its move to slash aid and dump the Paris Agreement on climate change, resonated with the Pacific countries at the meeting. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Matt told the Financial Times that 'the Trump administration's economic policies have created some uncertainty' in the Pacific. But Mr Marles declined to say if he raised Australia's concerns about US aid cuts with Pete Hegseth, simply saying the Trump Administration 'understood' the importance of the Pacific region.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Tariffs a sideshow to greater US problem: economist
Samantha Donovan: Well up until the last couple of weeks, the financial markets have swung wildly after Donald Trump's every utterance on tariffs. Recent reaction to the President's trade policy shifts has been more muted though. Australian Justin Wolfers is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He told our business correspondent David Taylor, tariffs are now a sideshow to a much greater concern for the international community. Justin Wolfers: The Constitution gives the power over tariffs to Congress, not the White House. Now over the years, Congress has given some of that power, handed it off to the White House, but only in a very limited and constrained way. So a simple reading of the rules would say the President can't do this. So in order to have across the board tariffs or what he calls reciprocal tariffs on every country in the world, he's had to call it a national emergency and invoke the Emergency Powers Act, which is interesting, first of all, because that act says nothing about tariffs. And secondly, there's no emergency. The so-called emergencies, the US has trade deficits with many countries. Bilateral trade deficits are not themselves a problem. So it's been in the works that this was going to get knocked down and it finally hit court last night. The court said this is quite clearly unconstitutional. It was a three judge panel, an Obama judge, a Reagan judge, and a Trump judge. So it seems like a pretty clear decision. So that all seemed pretty clear until the US federal government, the Trump administration, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals unsurprisingly agreed to hear the case. And while it's waiting to get its work done, so while they're reading the documents and so on, it decided to stay, that is to say reinstate the Trump tariffs. All of this is going to be on a pretty expedited schedule. So within a couple of weeks, they're going to come back with their decision. If, as I expect, they find this to be unconstitutional, then the tariffs will be back off again. Then we'll be off to the Supreme Court. We'll see the same drama play out one more time. And then what happens after that is what's really interesting. Because this is saying you can't have across the board tariffs, but recall Congress delegates certain tariff powers to the White House. And it turns out there's a lot of other statutory authorities that they could use. They're a little narrower. And so for instance, that's why the tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars are going to persist because they did not come through this overreach. And it would be easy to get further tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals and so on. So my guess is the White House lawyers are just going to find other ways of creating international trade havoc. David Taylor: That kind of goes to my next question though, Justin Wolfers, based on your understanding of recent history and Donald Trump, what is, and I know this is a very complicated and difficult question to answer, but where is Donald, where would you think that Donald Trump's mind is at? What do you think his next move is likely to be? Justin Wolfers: His lawyers will be telling him as of this afternoon, Mr. President, the statutory authority we were using will come under question. But if you want to push ahead with tariffs, I've got lots of other ways that you can do it. My guess based on past history is he'll say that's terrific. Let's keep going. David Taylor: Given that, and given how much you know that financial markets can't stand uncertainty, the market reaction, the financial markets reaction over the past 24 hours, I would describe as being quite muted compared to... Justin Wolfers: I agree. David Taylor: Yeah, why? Why? Justin Wolfers: Yeah, I've given this a lot of thought. So the S&P 500 rose one and a half percent when this was announced. That's quite muted given that the day that Trump... So, and this announced all of these tariffs are illegal and they're off. Compare that to seven days after Liberation Day when Trump announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs that led US stocks to rise by about 9%, like six times more for a pause as opposed to it's unconstitutional and you can't do it. So a few thoughts here. One is perhaps this is markets betting that this is going to be overturned at a later point. Another possibility is markets, even if markets don't think it's going to be overturned, and I don't think it's going to be overturned, I think the use of the Emergency Powers Act will be ruled unconstitutional. But even so, Trump has other ways of imposing tariffs. So I suspect that this is markets understanding someone's getting in the way of Trump creating tariffs the way he wants to, but he's probably just going to come back and do it a different way. If you're really interested in this, I'm going to give you one more interpretation. So the markets were incredibly volatile in early April when he announced Liberation Day tariffs, they tanked. When he paused, they soared. They acted like this was a huge thing. Now there's two interpretations of that. One, markets believe that tariffs are so fundamentally important to the profitability of American businesses they have no choice but to rise and fall dramatically every time something happens. If that were true, then you would have thought that the Supreme Court making it unconstitutional should have caused markets to absolutely soar today, and they merely rose a little. So the other possibility is that the original policy announcement was so incoherent, so poorly thought through, so dramatic, so unconstitutional on its face, so absurd, so much overreach in both the economic, political, and legal domains that it signalled an administration that's out of control, and that could do a lot of damage. And so maybe that's what markets were learning in early April. They reacted a little bit to tariffs and a huge amount to learning that this is an economically unhelpful administration. And if that's the case, then all that we learned today, when the courts say Trump wasn't allowed to do tariffs in a particular way, you're only going to see a small reaction because it's still true that the White House is full of lunatics, and that still weighs on people's minds. Samantha Donovan: Professor Justin Wolfers from the University of Michigan. He was speaking with our business correspondent, David Taylor.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Trump's tariffs given reprieve
Samantha Donovan: Hello, welcome to PM. I'm Samantha Donovan coming to you from the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation in Melbourne. Tonight, Donald Trump's tariffs remain in place after another court ruling. But the uncertainty about his trade agenda continues. Also, health experts warning a new strain of COVID is spreading across the country. And Inala Springs calls for an independent investigation into the death of a disabled Indigenous man in police custody. Thalia Anthony: There are concerns in the community about police investigating police. And I think the only way to change this record is to do something different. Samantha Donovan: Donald Trump's tariff regime has been given a reprieve after a US federal court ruled the import taxes will remain in place while it considers an appeal by the White House. A US trade court had blocked the tariffs by deciding the President had exceeded his authority in imposing them. Mr Trump has continued to rail against that decision, declaring it was a threat to the country and would quote, completely destroy presidential power. Luke Radford reports. Luke Radford: A lot can happen in a day, including yet another twist in the battle over Donald Trump's tariffs. A Manhattan court struck them down yesterday, arguing the power to levy tariffs in this case belongs to Congress, not the President. But after the Trump administration launched an appeal, the federal court has temporarily reinstated them. Something White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was quick to celebrate. Karoline Leavitt: The courts should have no role here. There is a troubling and dangerous trend of unelected judges inserting themselves into the presidential decision-making process. America cannot function if President Trump, or any other president for that matter, has their sensitive diplomatic or trade negotiations railroaded by activist judges. Luke Radford: It's important to note that the administration hasn't actually won its appeal. The courts just decided the tariffs can stay while that's being figured out. And despite what the White House says, experts say the court does have a role here. Nick Ackerman is a former assistant US attorney and was a member of the Watergate prosecution team. Nick Ackerman: I think ultimately, if you read the opinion, it's pretty well written, it's well reasoned. I think it's going to be affirmed by the Federal Circuit Court and most likely to be confirmed by the Supreme Court. I mean, I've been saying for a long time that this act just doesn't give him the power to impose the kinds of tariffs that he was imposing and doing it the way he did. Luke Radford: In the meantime, the US is continuing its negotiations with other countries. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent told Fox News while discussions with China have stalled, yesterday's decision has had no notable impact. Scott Bessent: They are coming to us in good faith and trying to complete the deals before the 90-day pause ends. So we've seen no change in their attitude in the past 48 hours. As a matter of fact, I have a very large Japanese delegation coming to my office first thing tomorrow morning. Luke Radford: It's a small victory in what has been a tough week for the president. On Wednesday local time, he reacted angrily after he was asked about a new acronym coined on Wall Street. TACO. Short for Trump Always Chickens Out. Donald Trump: And in many ways, I think we really helped China tremendously because, you know, they were having great difficulty because we were basically going cold turkey with China. We were doing no business because of the tariff, because it was so high. But don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. Luke Radford: While this case is going to appeal, it's unlikely to be the end of the legal challenges. Another case lodged by 13 US states is still underway. Dan Rayfield is attorney general of Oregon. Dan Rayfield: When you have a president who thinks that you're above the law and above following the laws and is trying to corral power in this way, that is one of the most undemocratic things you can do. The Constitution of the United States gives the power to set tariffs solely to our Congress. Congress then delegates some of that power to the president. So it's not even his role. If we are going to have a healthy democracy long term, you have to have a president that is willing to follow your constitution. He takes an oath. You got to follow it. You got to take it seriously. Luke Radford: The White House says it has other ways of levying tariffs, even if this case goes against them. Samantha Donovan: Luke Radford reporting. Well up until the last couple of weeks, the financial markets have swung wildly after Donald Trump's every utterance on tariffs. Recent reaction to the President's trade policy shifts has been more muted though. Australian Justin Wolfers is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He told our business correspondent David Taylor, tariffs are now a sideshow to a much greater concern for the international community. Justin Wolfers: The Constitution gives the power over tariffs to Congress, not the White House. Now over the years, Congress has given some of that power, handed it off to the White House, but only in a very limited and constrained way. So a simple reading of the rules would say the President can't do this. So in order to have across the board tariffs or what he calls reciprocal tariffs on every country in the world, he's had to call it a national emergency and invoke the Emergency Powers Act, which is interesting, first of all, because that act says nothing about tariffs. And secondly, there's no emergency. The so-called emergencies, the US has trade deficits with many countries. Bilateral trade deficits are not themselves a problem. So it's been in the works that this was going to get knocked down and it finally hit court last night. The court said this is quite clearly unconstitutional. It was a three judge panel, an Obama judge, a Reagan judge, and a Trump judge. So it seems like a pretty clear decision. So that all seemed pretty clear until the US federal government, the Trump administration, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals unsurprisingly agreed to hear the case. And while it's waiting to get its work done, so while they're reading the documents and so on, it decided to stay, that is to say reinstate the Trump tariffs. All of this is going to be on a pretty expedited schedule. So within a couple of weeks, they're going to come back with their decision. If, as I expect, they find this to be unconstitutional, then the tariffs will be back off again. Then we'll be off to the Supreme Court. We'll see the same drama play out one more time. And then what happens after that is what's really interesting. Because this is saying you can't have across the board tariffs, but recall Congress delegates certain tariff powers to the White House. And it turns out there's a lot of other statutory authorities that they could use. They're a little narrower. And so for instance, that's why the tariffs on steel and aluminium and cars are going to persist because they did not come through this overreach. And it would be easy to get further tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals and so on. So my guess is the White House lawyers are just going to find other ways of creating international trade havoc. David Taylor: That kind of goes to my next question though, Justin Wolfers, based on your understanding of recent history and Donald Trump, what is, and I know this is a very complicated and difficult question to answer, but where is Donald, where would you think that Donald Trump's mind is at? What do you think his next move is likely to be? Justin Wolfers: His lawyers will be telling him as of this afternoon, Mr. President, the statutory authority we were using will come under question. But if you want to push ahead with tariffs, I've got lots of other ways that you can do it. My guess based on past history is he'll say that's terrific. Let's keep going. David Taylor: Given that, and given how much you know that financial markets can't stand uncertainty, the market reaction, the financial markets reaction over the past 24 hours, I would describe as being quite muted compared to... Justin Wolfers: I agree. David Taylor: Yeah, why? Why? Justin Wolfers: Yeah, I've given this a lot of thought. So the S&P 500 rose one and a half percent when this was announced. That's quite muted given that the day that Trump... So, and this announced all of these tariffs are illegal and they're off. Compare that to seven days after Liberation Day when Trump announced a 90-day pause on the tariffs that led US stocks to rise by about 9%, like six times more for a pause as opposed to it's unconstitutional and you can't do it. So a few thoughts here. One is perhaps this is markets betting that this is going to be overturned at a later point. Another possibility is markets, even if markets don't think it's going to be overturned, and I don't think it's going to be overturned, I think the use of the Emergency Powers Act will be ruled unconstitutional. But even so, Trump has other ways of imposing tariffs. So I suspect that this is markets understanding someone's getting in the way of Trump creating tariffs the way he wants to, but he's probably just going to come back and do it a different way. If you're really interested in this, I'm going to give you one more interpretation. So the markets were incredibly volatile in early April when he announced Liberation Day tariffs, they tanked. When he paused, they soared. They acted like this was a huge thing. Now there's two interpretations of that. One, markets believe that tariffs are so fundamentally important to the profitability of American businesses they have no choice but to rise and fall dramatically every time something happens. If that were true, then you would have thought that the Supreme Court making it unconstitutional should have caused markets to absolutely soar today, and they merely rose a little. So the other possibility is that the original policy announcement was so incoherent, so poorly thought through, so dramatic, so unconstitutional on its face, so absurd, so much overreach in both the economic, political, and legal domains that it signalled an administration that's out of control, and that could do a lot of damage. And so maybe that's what markets were learning in early April. They reacted a little bit to tariffs and a huge amount to learning that this is an economically unhelpful administration. And if that's the case, then all that we learned today, when the courts say Trump wasn't allowed to do tariffs in a particular way, you're only going to see a small reaction because it's still true that the White House is full of lunatics, and that still weighs on people's minds. Samantha Donovan: Professor Justin Wolfers from the University of Michigan. He was speaking with our business correspondent, David Taylor. Well back to Australia now and in the Northern Territory, police have ruled out an independent investigation of the death of an Indigenous man in their custody this week. 24-year-old Kumunjai White was disabled and in state care. He died after being arrested in an Alice Springs supermarket for suspected theft. His family held a vigil there today and they're adamant his death must be investigated by someone other than the NT police. Myles Houlbrook-Walk reports. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: In the same aisles of the supermarket where Kumunjai White died, his family today have held a vigil mourning the loss of the 24-year-old Waltbury man. Ned Hargraves: No more. No more! We are saying enough is enough! Hear our words. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: His grandfather, Ned Hargrave, spoke of sorrow for his family and the remote Aboriginal community of Yundamoo in Central Australia where Kumunjai White was from before moving to supported accommodation for his disabilities in Alice Springs. Earlier this week, several senior Waltbury leaders had called for an independent investigation. Ned Hargraves: We want justice for my jaja, my grandson. I'm sure there is another way, another better way of dealing with things, dealing with people. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Robin Japanagka Granites called for those in the supermarket when Kumunjai White died to come forward to assist the investigation. Robin Japanagka Granites: When we get everyone together, we need everyone to tell us what had happened. The truth will tell us and get us all back to normal. And in a normal way, we will talk to each other and tell us what can we do about it. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: There's been limited detail so far about the nature of the arrest. Northern Territory Police have said the young Waltbury man was placing items down the front of his clothes at the Cole's supermarket in Alice Springs when he was confronted by security guards. Two police officers in plain clothes were in the supermarket at the time and restrained the man. One person who says they were an eyewitness and asked to remain anonymous told the ABC they heard a lot of shouting and a lot of commotion. Opinion: What it was, I can't be sure, but yeah, it looked pretty violent. And then, yeah, they slammed into the ground. There's just like lots of shouting. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: As for calls for an independent investigation, they were today rejected by Police Commissioner Martin Dole, who in a statement confirmed he'd spoken to both officers. He extended sincere condolences to the family, friends and community of the man who died. He contacted both officers directly involved in the incident on Tuesday evening and understood the high level of public interest in the matter. However, said he would respectfully reject calls for the investigation to be handed to an external body. The statement went on to say. Martin Dole: This incident is being investigated by the major crime division which operates under strict protocols and with full transparency. The investigation will also be independently reviewed by the NT coroner who has broad powers to examine all aspects of the incident and make findings without interference. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Thalia Anthony is a professor of law at the University of Technology, Sydney. Thalia Anthony: There are concerns in the community about police investigating police. We know for Aboriginal people that has not given them a sense of justice or accountability. And I think the only way to change this record is to do something different. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: She says the nature of the man's arrest, given his disability, needs to be closely examined. Thalia Anthony: Given that he was already under state care, I think it's going to be asked by the coroner, why did he get to this situation where he was in a supermarket allegedly hiding food? And then that triggered not only the security officer to get involved, but also the police to get involved. Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Thalia Anthony pointed to the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody and its findings regarding the importance of independent oversight of police. Thalia Anthony: The 1991 Royal Commission to Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was concerned with reinvestigating 99 Aboriginal deaths in custody because of the flawed nature of police investigating police. And so one of their most strident recommendations was that within 48 hours, an officer attached to the coroner should investigate the root cause of a death in custody. And the imminence of this investigation was essential. Samantha Donovan: Law Professor Thalia Anthony from the University of Technology, Sydney. Myles Houlbrook-Walk, the reporter. This is PM. I'm Samantha Donovan. You can hear all our programs live or later on the ABC Listen app. Ahead, Australians urge to get booster jabs as a new COVID variant sweeps the country. Dr Lara Herrero: It is now really being seen all over the world at various degrees. And there is a bit of a prediction that this might start taking over other strains. So this is why the WHO is saying, oh, we just need to keep an eye on this one. Samantha Donovan: Up to eight people have been detained by Border Protection Authorities after reaching a remote part of the Northern Territory coast by boat. They were found walking near the town of Maningrida, east of Darwin. The ABC understands they're Chinese nationals. Their arrival has set off another stoush between the government and opposition over border security. Andrew Green is the ABC's Defence Correspondent. Andrew, what can you tell us about these people who've arrived in Australia? Andrew Greene: These details have started emerging in perhaps the past 24 hours or so, but what we have established is that earlier this week on Tuesday, authorities in a remote part of the Northern Territory in Arnhem Land, around 500 kilometres east of Darwin, were alerted to the presence of a group of men believed to be from China who had made their way onto the Australian mainland in a very remote part of the northern coast of Australia. But they were detected and then apprehended by authorities. And then a day later, another two men, also believed to have come to Australia from China originally, were spotted by some local rangers and they too, we understand, are now in the custody of the Australian Border Force, but their precise location is not known. Samantha Donovan: Have the authorities had much to say about their arrival, Andrew? Andrew Greene: Following their usual course of action, they've said very little. In fact, in a statement, the Australian Border Force tells the ABC that it does not either confirm or deny operations or comment on them. But what we have established is that authorities are yet to locate a boat that may have taken these people to Australia. Now that points to a few things. It suggests that perhaps they were dropped off close to the mainland by perhaps even an Indonesian fishing vessel or by another party that's brought them to Australia. Apart from that though, very little known. We know that it's up to eight individuals who are, we believe most of them are from China, but that is of course not confirmed by the authorities. Samantha Donovan: And what's been the reaction from politicians? Andrew Greene: Well, the newly appointed Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Andrew Hastie, has said that this is another example of the underinvestment by the Albanese government in border protection. The fact that a boat carrying unauthorised arrivals had made it to the Australian mainland. And in response to that, the Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, took aim at his new opposition counterpart. And he said that two days into the job, Andrew Hastie had already helped the cause of people smugglers by making those comments. So while not officially commenting on whether the arrivals had happened at all, Tony Burke did take a swing at his opponent. Samantha Donovan: Andrew Greene is the ABC's Defence Correspondent. A new strain of COVID-19 is surging in Australia and accounting for a large portion of cases across the country. Called NB 1.8.1, the variant is now the dominant strain in China and Hong Kong. Medical experts say it's a timely reminder for people here to get their booster vaccines. Kimberly Price has more. Kimberley Price: While many Australians will have thought COVID-19 was a thing of the past, a new variant of the virus has been detected across Australia and abroad. Dr Lara Herrero is a virologist at Griffith University. Dr Lara Herrero: So our new variant is NB 1.8.1, that's a mouthful and aren't all these variants named ridiculously I have to say. Kimberley Price: The World Health Organisation has declared the strain a variant under monitoring after it was first detected in January. Dr Herrero says NB 1.8.1 is now the dominant variant in China and Hong Kong. Dr Lara Herrero: It is now really being seen all over the world at various degrees and there is a bit of a prediction that this might start taking over other strains but this is early days for that so we'll just have to wait and see how that goes. But the new variant has come from a long range of lines and it's a descendant of JN1 which is what our current vaccines are actually made of. Kimberley Price: And it's made an impact here in Australia. Currently, the new variant makes up more than 40% of total COVID cases tested in Victoria. It's about 25% in Western Australia and New South Wales, about 20% in Queensland and less than 10% in South Australia. More than five years on from the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Herrero says there are still regular infections. Dr Lara Herrero: We've got particular mutations that are in the spike protein that seems to be making it easier for this virus to attach to our cells and it seems to be making this virus evade our antibodies a little bit better. So this is why the WHO are saying we just need to keep an eye on this one. Kimberley Price: The mutation of COVID-19 is not a new phenomenon. Professor Paul Griffin is the Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services in Brisbane. Prof Paul Griffin: This is what COVID has done many times and will keep doing. It's changed again and this new sub-variant has some properties that are a little bit concerning. We've seen cases go up potentially as a result. So it's really a timely reminder that we can't just forget about COVID. It's not over and we need to keep doing the good things we did for a little while to protect each other so we get this under control again. Kimberley Price: Early reports show NB1.8.1 has a high infection rate, but existing vaccines are effective against it and it can be detected through home and lab test kits. Prof Paul Griffin: This new sub-variant, whilst different in terms of protection from immunity, still is able to be detected by our current testing. So you can get a rapid antigen test at home that will find COVID as well as flu and RSV. Keep in mind though that at home tests aren't quite as good as a lab-based test. So if you have symptoms and your RAT is negative, still consider getting a laboratory-based test. Kimberley Price: However, in the past six months, less than 7% of adults have received a COVID vaccine according to federal data. Prof Paul Griffin: There was a new COVID booster that came out late last year and that looks to still provide excellent protection against this new sub-variant. So it's still going to keep working really well. The single biggest thing that determines what sort of symptoms you get or how sick you are is whether you're vaccinated or not. Kimberley Price: Health Minister Mark Butler is encouraging everyone to roll up their sleeves and get a booster shot. Mark Butler: I do encourage, particularly as we head into winter, for people to think about the last time they got a COVID vaccine. If it's more than six months since you had your last booster, if you're 65 to 74, if it's more than 12 months, and for everyone else, have a serious think. I've just got my booster over the last couple of weeks and I think that puts me in a good position. Kimberley Price: For Melbourne woman Maddy Ruskin, a new variant of COVID-19 is worrying. Maddy Ruskin: COVID can affect people regardless if they have pre-existing issues or not. So it makes me worried about the future of people's health because I wouldn't want anyone to end up like what I've been through. Kimberley Price: Maddy Ruskin has been chronically ill since she was 15 years old, but contracting COVID-19 in 2022 changed everything for her. Maddy Ruskin: I was experiencing symptoms that I'd never had before, developed allergies that I'd never had before, and my quality of life has really plummeted. It's been a really hard adjustment. I was used to being sick, but this is pretty severe. Kimberley Price: Now living with long COVID, Maddy Ruskin hopes more people think about their health by wearing a mask and getting booster vaccines. Maddy Ruskin: Don't risk your life. Don't risk the life that you enjoy living because just one infection, I only had one infection and just one infection can completely change your life. Kimberley Price: COVID-19 vaccines are free for all people in Australia, including those without a Medicare card. Samantha Donovan: Kimberly Price. And that's PM for this week. Thanks to producers David Sparkes and Gavin Coote. Technical production by Joram Toth, Nick Dracoulis and David Sergent. I'm Samantha Donovan. I hope you have a happy and safe weekend. Good night.
