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Josh Frydenberg has welcomed news out of Europe this morning that authorities investigating a causal link between the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine and blood clots found the jab to be safe.

The treasurer acknowledged that Australia’s vaccine rollout will be “relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine” because of the planned local production of the jab by CSL in Melbourne.

But Frydenberg, being interviewed on ABC TV, would not give an exact date for when he expects the Therapeutic Goods Administration to complete its testing of the first batches and give the final tick of approval needed for distribution to begin.

The Guardian understands the first locally produced vaccines will be leave the Melbourne factory they were produced in for delivery by early next week.

Asked about yesterday’s updated unemployment rate – which is down to 5.8% – Frydenberg played down concerns about the impact of the jobkeeper cutoff at the end of the month.

He referenced the Reserve Bank’s board minutes – something he did when faced with the question on Thursday – that while the wage subsidy cutoff might be “bumpy” initially for the 1 million Australians still receiving that, that the long-term forecast is for no “sustained increase in unemployment”.

Frydenberg was also pressed on Scott Morrison’s comments from Monday, that women protesting outside parliament would be shot were they doing so in other countries.

He said the prime minister was “championing Australia’s democracy”.

Asked if he would use the same sentence, Frydenberg said:

Well, every day of the week I would say we are fortunate in Australia to have the democratic right to demonstrate and to protest. But the key point the prime minister was also making, in that very statement, was that he understood the frustration of the people who were demonstrating, he welcomed their call for greater action and he’s committed to that.

This is Elias Visontay bringing you this morning’s main stories: some Covid vaccine developments, a growing political feud and misogyny culture in the spotlight across the globe.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is “safe and effective”, Europe’s medicines regulator has said, but it will continue to study possible links between the shot and a rare blood clotting disorder. Australian doctors have complained about vaccine supply issues but, from Monday, an additional 6.14 million Australians will be eligible to receive the jab – here’s how to to find out if you’re one of them, and how to book. Australia’s economic performance is also under scrutiny, as the worst performer on a list of the world’s 50 largest economies for “green recovery” spending to kickstart economic growth after the pandemic.

The ABC has secured the former solicitor general to lead the national broadcaster’s defence in a high-stakes defamation action launched by the federal attorney general, Christian Porter – who began proceedings in the federal court this week to counter “false allegations against him in relation to a person who he met when he was a teenager”.

As a national outcry over the treatment of women both outside and within parliament continues, as Thérèse Rein and Lucy Turnbull say nothing has changed in Canberra in regard to rape and sexual harassment for years. The two prime ministerial spouses made a joint television appearance last night to encourage women to come forward to speak to the Jenkins inquiry into parliamentary culture. Overseas: female reporters have said sexual harassment is “as pervasive as air” in the New York state capitol; and devastating new figures from the UK reveal that one in four women in England and Wales have experienced sexual assault or attempted sexual assault, since the age of 16.

The Labor MP Ed Husic yesterday accused the Coalition of only taking national security threats seriously when it’s “politically convenient” after the Australian spy agency Asio changed the language used to describe the rising threat of rightwing extremism. (The new umbrella categories are “ideologically motivated violent extremism” and “religiously motivated violent extremism”.) Husic said the decision to change the language followed “hectoring” from government senators now “being asked to confront an errant, ugly streak within conservatism”.

If you see something you think I should know about this morning, you can contact me on email at elias.visontay@theguardian.com or get in touch on Twitter @EliasVisontay and securely and anonymously via my Wickr username eliasvisontay.