Scott Morrison - Page 3

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia has announced it will spend 500 million Australian dollars ($351 million) to secure COVID-19 vaccines for the Pacific and South-east Asia “as part of a shared recovery for our region from the pandemic.”

Australian golf legend Greg Norman said Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump has a “good chance” of winning the election as millions of “quiet Americans” will happily back him and again prove the pollsters wrong.

Bruce Springsteen will pack up and flee to Australia should Donald Trump win re-election in November, he warned Thursday during a virtual interview with Down Under media outlets.

Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said on Thursday that her nation is under sustained cyberattack from what senior officials described as “a sophisticated state-based actor.”

Australia’s prime minister is seeking federal powers to veto state governments’ deals with foreign entities. The move is widely viewed as targeting China’s influence on the country.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison quickly reversed course Wednesday after announcing he would make a potential free coronavirus vaccine “mandatory,” saying instead it would be “encouraged.”

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday his government held a less dramatic view of U.S.-China strategic tensions than a predecessor who warned of a potential “hot war” before U.S. presidential elections in November.

Australia’s offer Thursday of permanent residency for thousands of Hong Kong residents seeking to escape Chinese Communist oppression drew a furious reply from Beijing.

Australia warned intending China travelers on Tuesday to think again, cautioning they may face “arbitrary detention” by the Communist regime if they proceed.

Australia announced a major military investment program Wednesday, beefing up its long-range missile strike capabilities and airbase expanions amid escalating regional tensions with China, reinforcing Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s commitment to an “open, sovereign Indo-Pacific, free from coercion and hegemony.”

Australians are turning away from a sagging jobs market and looking to the country’s military forces for a stable career alternative as the global coronavirus epidemic shows no sign of easing.

Australia was hit by “a sophisticated state-based cyber actor” Friday morning in an escalating cyber campaign threatening all levels of national government, businesses, essential services and critical infrastructure, the prime minister said.

A Chinese court sentenced an Australian citizen to death for alleged drug trafficking, the Guardian reported on Monday.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday outlined the dynamics behind his warm relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, saying he is a straight talker and a good friend who is open about his Christian faith.

A cartoon in a Chinese Communist Party-controlled newspaper has laughed at Australia’s long alliance to the U.S. through war and peace, deriding it as something to be ridiculed.

President Donald Trump signaled support on Monday for Australia’s push for a probe into the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Australia’s demand for an investigation into the World Health Organization’s bungled response to the deadly Chinese coronavirus pandemic now has the backing of 62 nations, all willing to support a draft resolution addressing the issue Tuesday at a meeting of the World Health Assembly.

The traditionally left-wing Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) has put partisan politics to one side and joined calls for China’s efforts at global supremecy to be defeated. It wants a “trade NATO” bloc powerful enough to take on “China’s preferred approach of bilateral bullying” as a preferred means of keeping free trade a reality.

As the coronavirus lockdown eases across Australia, one brewer decided Wednesday the best way to get things moving again in the outback was to send free beer for pubs to disperse amongst their parched patrons. Lots of it.

China slapped an import ban on four Australian abattoirs Tuesday in an escalation of Beijing’s warning of a consumer boycott in retaliation for Canberra’s push for an independent coronavirus probe. The ban comes just days after China flagged plans to slap an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley, bringing the trade to its knees.

A bipartisan U.S. Congress group has slammed China for threatening punitive economic sanctions against long-term ally Australia. The support follows Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s very public drive for an independent investigation into the origins of the global Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

As Australia gradually emerges from its successful coronavirus lockdown, government priorities have been set. One of those began Friday with the urgent dispatch of beer kegs to remote outback pubs.

Australian lawmakers of all political stripes have joined a call to slash migrant numbers after the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, saying the country’s historic reliance on immigration to boost growth has hurt workers while driving soaring house prices and crowded cities.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday applauded what she saw as the universal success of female leaders in tackling the Chinese coronavirus, praising their “ability to listen” and “having less ego” than their male counterparts as reasons for their achievements.

Australia added its voice Friday in support of Taiwan’s bid to rejoin the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in a move likely to further inflame tensions between Canberra and Beijing.

Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt was blindsided at a press conference with mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest on Wednesday when Forrest unexpectedly brought a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official, Consul-General for Victoria Zhou Long, onto the stage. Zhou proceeded to attack the Australian government for criticizing the CCP’s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. 

Australia’s refusal to retreat from its call for a global inquiry into the causes of the coronavirus pandemic continued to draw a furious response from Beijing on Wednesday, with Chinese media claiming Australia is forever making trouble, “a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes.”

The World Health Organisation (W.H.O.) chief lamented Monday “the world should have listened” when first alerted by the U.N. subsidiary agency to the dangers posed by the deadly Chinese coronavirus.

China has rejected calls for an independent international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, according to a recent BBC report.

Beijing wants citizens to “dress neatly,” stop spitting and refrain from defecating in public places as it strives to eliminate “uncivilized” behavior amid the deadly Chinese coronavirus outbreak.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responded with fury on Tuesday to the Australian government’s call for an investigation into the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus, with the Chinese embassy denouncing Australian lawmakers as puppets of the United States.

China’s notorious “wet markets,” the open-air wildlife slaughterhouses that were supposedly the mechanism for the Wuhan coronavirus jumping from animals to humans, are back in business with the approval of the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO seal of approval stunned government officials and health experts around the globe.

Australia confronted the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday over claims it supports so-called wet markets reopening in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the source of the global coronavirus outbreak.

Members of Australia’s governing coalition have given tacit backing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to defund the World Health Organization (WHO), saying their country’s own situation would be a lot worse if they had not ignored the “politicised” UN agency’s advice to allow travel from China in the pandemic’s early stages.

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday urged both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. to move against Asia’s live animal wet markets, arguing they pose “great risks” to global health and wellbeing.

Australians face the grim prospect of running out of beer in a matter of weeks unless the amber fluid is classified as “essential” to life and breweries are exempted from a range of closures Down Under due to the Chinese coronavirus epidemic.