Good morning all, I’m Matilda Boseley and why don’t we kick off the cold Tuesday morning. (It’s cold in Melbourne, I’m just assuming it’s cold everywhere else too.)
This morning it looks like the single-dose Janssen Covid vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson won’t be part of Australia’s rollout, with the government confirming they will not be purchasing doses to help supplement the shortfall of vaccines created by AstraZeneca no longer being recommended for under 50s.
This is due to the similarity between the two vaccines, the office of health minister Greg told Guardian Australia.
The Janssen vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine, the same type of vaccine as the AstraZeneca vaccine …
The government does not intend to purchase any further adenovirus vaccines at this time.
There has also been another update in the never-ending Andrew Laming saga, after the disgraced Liberal MP backflipped on his decision to quit parliament, only to be immediately blocked the state party executive.
The 54 federal MP is under investigation by the electoral commission over more than 30 Facebook pages operated without political authorisation disclosures. He has also been accused of – and has admitted to – harassing two female constituents and was ordered to go on leave and undergo empathy training at the request of prime minister Scott Morrison.
After the first of these scandals broke, Laming promised he would not contest the next election, and his act of contrition was used by senior federal politicians to justify not removing him from the Liberal party – a move that would plunge the government into a minority.
But on Monday night Laming faced the Queensland Liberal party’s application review committee after declining to withdraw his nomination for preselection for his safe seat of Bowman, which he has held for 17 years.
The applicant review committee (ARC) decided not to endorse him for preselection and the state executive accepted that recommendation. A statement from the LNP said the state executive had “accepted the ARC’s recommendation that Dr Laming not proceed as a candidate”.
But I don’t know, I reckon like two more weeks of empathy training will fix it, don’t you?
OK, that should get us started for today. Why don’t we jump into the news!
If there is something you think I’ve missed or that should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or email me at matilda.boseley@theguardian.com.