Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the federal government will fund half of the 2032 Olympics should Brisbane be confirmed to host the event. Mr. Morrison says backing Brisbane’s Olympics bid will mean more jobs, better infrastructure and more tourism dollars for the city. Brisbane is currently the International Olympic Committee’s preferred candidate to host the twenty thirty two games.

Mununjali poet Ellen van Neerven has picked up three awards at the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, including Book of the Year, for their book Throat. Throat deals with Australia’s colonial past as judges said the book marks “a key moment in the ongoing reckoning with colonial legacies and power structures.” Van Neerven says they are conscious of the way their writing can benefit their community and that the award is a boost for them to continue their work.

The Chinese Government has warned Australia not to send the wrong signals after Defence Minister Peter Dutton said conflict with China over Taiwan should not be discounted. The comments come after the Australian Financial Review reported earlier this month that the Morrison government was ramping up internal preparations for military intervention in the Taiwan Strait. China says any improvements to currently fraught Sino-Australian relations would require Australia’s acceptance of a One China policy as a prerequisite.

A ban on all flights from India to Australia is being considered by the Australian Government in response to the worsening COVID-19 outbreaks. The National Security Committee of Cabinet is set to discuss the matter on Tuesday. In the past week, India has reached the highest level of infections of any country in a seven day period with two point two million cases added. As part of an immediate support package, Australia is likely to send supplies to the country such as oxygen, personal protective equipment and ventilators. However due to supply issues vaccines will not be sent.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has labelled US President Joe Biden’s recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide “groundless” and says it has opened a “deep wound” in the two countries’ bilateral relations. Biden broke with decades of US policy on the issue this weekend when he recognised the killing of approximately one million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire as a genocide. Turkey is a key NATO strategic ally, with the United States military using the country’s Incirlik Air Base as a base for many of its Middle East operations.

UnitingCare says it does not know when technology systems in its Queensland hospitals and aged care facilities will be operational again after the organisation became the victim of a cyber attack on Sunday. While manual back-ups are in place for some services and others are being rescheduled, UnitingCare says its systems remain inaccessible, including in the Wesley and St Andrew’s hospitals in Brisbane. nThe Australian Cyber Security Centre is working to fix the issue having warned last year of a specific ransomware called Maze that could be used to target healthcare organisations.

Passengers on a delayed flight from Perth to Brisbane have been forced into hotel quarantine after Western Australia announced a three day lockdown of the Perth and Peel regions. The flight was supposed to leave at 1:30 PM but was delayed until 6:30 PM and passengers didn’t know they had to quarantine until they landed but not all passengers were required to quarantine one said they were all mingling on the flight. Queensland Health officials boarded the plane upon landing to inform the passengers and after revising restrictions some quarantined guests may be released early.

State Education Minister Grace Grace says school banking programs such as Commonwealth Bank’s Dollarmites will be removed from Queensland schools. Australia’s corporate watchdog ASIC found the programs were of little educational benefit and exposed young children to sophisticated marketing strategies. While the program will be removed from schools, Minister Grace says the thirty eight thousand students with Dollarmites accounts will still be able to keep them open in a private capacity.

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian says states should not be able to restrict who enters their hotel quarantine after 9 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in New South Wales yesterday night. Ms. Berejiklian says no matter why people are returning to Australia, the quarantine system should be kept as strong as possible and it should not be up to the states to limit travelers returning. Case numbers from overseas are rising in Australia’s hotel quarantine due to the South Asia grapple and in the past seven days over 40 cases have been detected.