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24.01.2022 How will South Australia's coronavirus cluster restrictions look after midnight on Saturday? South Australia's coronavirus restrictions will largely go back to how they were earlier this week, starting at 12:01 am on Sunday. It comes after a pizza bar worker lied to contact tracers by only telling them he had ordered from the Woodville business rather than was employed by it, causing authorities to worry the virus strain was more virulent than it was.... From midday today, police said South Australians could exercise in public spaces with members of their families and pets. People had been restricted from leaving their homes, apart from accessing certain services, such as supermarkets and medical care. Schools will reopen on Monday. However, masks will still only be highly recommended, rather than mandatory. These are the restrictions that will come back into place early on Sunday morning:Hospitality venues, including pubs, clubs and restaurants will only be able to accept a maximum of 100 customers. But some venues will not be able to have that many people because there will also be a maximum one person per four square metres. There will be a maximum booking of 10 people in a group. No-one will be able to stand up with an alcoholic drink, indoors or outdoors. Licensed venues will be limited to hosting private functions, capped at 50 people. Cinemas, theatres and other entertainment venues will be limited to one moviegoer per four square metres.

23.01.2022 China warns Australia and Japan over new defence pact, pledges countermeasures China has used a jingoistic state media outlet to slam an historic defence deal between Australia and Japan, saying it is "inevitable" it will take some sort of countermeasures. The defence pact, called the Reciprocal Access Agreement, was agreed to '"in principle" during Prime Minister Scott Morrison's state visit to Japan, but still has not been formally signed. The agreement would pave the way f...or the Australian and Japanese militaries to have access to each other's bases, and would deepen cooperation between the two countries. China's Government has not formally responded to the agreement, but has used a nationalistic unofficial media outlet to say Japan and Australian were setting "a bad example by interpreting their biggest trading partner, China, as a 'security threat' acting at the behest of the US". The editorial in the Global Times was published in both Chinese and English for domestic and foreign audiences and framed the two countries as pawns of the United States. "China is unlikely to remain indifferent to US moves aimed at inciting countries to gang up against China in the long run," it read. "Countries like Japan and Australia have been used as US tools. The strategic risk for a tool to be damaged is certainly higher than that of a user." Some other state media outlets framed the agreement as an historical contradiction, pointing out that Japan is the only country that has ever bombed Australia.

21.01.2022 DPP wins appeal against inadequate sentence handed to paedophile, sparking law reform A convicted child sex offender who attacked a 10-year-old girl in the toilets of an Adelaide playground will serve at least two more years in jail after prosecutors launched a successful appeal. The sentence handed to paedophile Hamzeh Bahrami in the South Australian District Court sparked law reform after the 34-year-old secured a 40 per cent sentencing discount for pleading guilty to attac...king the girl. Laws have since passed South Australian Parliament that cap any sentencing discount at 25 per cent. Bahrami was initially sentenced to four years and nine months jail with a non-parole period of three years, making him eligible for release in April 2022. He secured a 40 per cent discount on sentence for pleading guilty to indecent assault and false imprisonment, before the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed against the penalty on the grounds it was "manifestly inadequate". The Court of Criminal Appeal today agreed, re-sentencing Bahrami to seven years in jail with a five-year non-parole period for his crimes. He said while the early guilty plea qualified Bahrami to a "very significant reduction", that was "counter-balanced" by the strength of the prosecution case, Bahrami's initial refusal to candidly cooperate with police and his refusal to explain his offending. All three Court of Criminal Appeal judges allowed the appeal, but Chief Justice Chris Kourakis would have imposed a slightly higher discount than Justices Chris Bleby and Mark Livesey. The majority sentence prevailed. During sentencing in July, District Court Judge Paul Slattery described the crime as "abhorrent in the extreme", saying it was concerning Bahrami could not explain his actions. The attack took place inside a toilet cubicle at a Blair Athol playground while Bahrami's young daughter and niece peered under the toilet door in April 2019. In a victim impact statement, the victim's mother wrote that the attack on her daughter had left her family unable to "trust anyone". "The perpetrator was known to the community so it's very uncomfortable," she said. "I now feel like I don't want to do anything with the community. "I now feel like I can't trust anyone, and that the children can't trust anyone."

17.01.2022 Women found unconscious cautioned for lockdown breach after eating cannabis cookies Six women taken to hospital after allegedly eating cannabis cookies have been cautioned by police for breaching South Australia's coronavirus restrictions. Emergency services arrived at a Millicent address, in the state's south-east, about 9:30pm on Saturday to find five of the women unconscious and another of them ill. The women, aged in their late teens to mid-20s, were taken to the Millicen...t and District Hospital for treatment. Police said all of them had consumed cannabis cookies, and had breached the Emergency Management Act by gathering in a home before restrictions eased at midnight. Cannabis and drug equipment was allegedly found at the home of a 24-year-old Millicent man, who was reported for supplying a controlled drug. "When five people lose consciousness because of something they've consumed it is alarming," Limestone Coast superintendent Phil Hoff said. "Our priority was to establish if these cookies had been further distributed to ensure no-one else was at risk thankfully it appears not." Police said the matter was still being investigated, and items seized would be subjected to scientific analysis. "The response was quite effective. Obviously these people are receiving medical attention and we're continuing to investigate," Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said. "Particularly when you're talking about something that's been prepared by another person, you have no ability to appreciate exactly what you're putting in your body." The incident occurred the same night as a 22-year-old man allegedly spat in the face of a police officer in the state's mid-north. Police said the driver was pulled over after he was spotted hooning around Clare about 11:00pm. He allegedly became agitated when police approached him, and was arrested for failing to stop, hindering police and resisting arrest. Police said he spat in an officer's face while being put into a police van, and was then charged with aggravated assault of an emergency services worker. He will appear in court on December 7.

16.01.2022 Lead levels in Port Pirie toddlers highest since testing began, says SA Health data SA Health data shows lead levels in Port Pirie two-year-olds are the highest recorded since the South Australian regional city's current testing regime began in 2011. Of 68 two-year-olds tested during the nine months to September 2020, blood lead levels averaged 6.6 micrograms/decilitre, up from 6.5 mcg/dL in 2019.... SA Health considers two-year-olds to be the most accurate age group to measure lead exposure in the general population, and World Health Organisation guidelines state there is no safe level of lead exposure in people. The proportion of tested children with blood lead levels above 5 mcg/dL, at which national guidelines require further investigation, also increased in the first nine months of 2020 to nearly 60 per cent, up around 2 per cent on past year. Some indicators have improved, including a reduction in the number of tested children with lead levels equal to or above 20 mcg/dL. The proportion of tested children who recorded blood lead levels below 10 mcg/dL also increased by about 1 per cent to around 78 per cent. Director of Scientific Services David Simon described the lead levels as "plateauing", because of an "upward trend in average lead-in-air levels reported by the EPA in 2020 compared to 2019". "The improvements or deteriorations in all other reported measures were slight indicating that blood lead trends have generally stalled over the past 12 months," Dr Simon said. Dr Simon said "extended periods of time when smelter operations were shut down" in 2019 partly explained the results. He also noted there had been "an increase in short-term spikes in airborne lead over the winter months compared to last year". "Changes in lead-in-air do not have an immediate impact on population blood-lead levels and there are a number of different factors that contribute to changes in a child's blood-lead levels," he said.

14.01.2022 South Australia ordered into six-day lockdown amid COVID-19 outbreak South Australia will be ordered into a major lockdown for six days in what the State Government is describing as a "circuit breaker".From midnight tonight, for the next six days, all schools, pubs, cafes, takeaway food outlets, and the construction industry will close. Exercise will be banned outside the house. People will be restricted from going outside their homes. Only one person per household will be ab...le to leave the home each day, but only for specific purposes. People are being encouraged to wear masks whenever they are outside their homes. Universities and all outdoor sport will be shut down, while elective surgery will cease. Weddings and funerals will also be banned. Urgent operations and cancer treatment will be allowed to go ahead. Critical infrastructure such as water, electricity and telecommunications will remain open, as will supermarkets. Medical services, including mental health support, will be open, as will public transport. SA Premier Steven Marshall called the measures a necessary "circuit breaker" to allow for a contact tracing blitz on cases linked to the Parafield cluster. "We continue to face our biggest test to date," he said.

12.01.2022 Juice industry in damage control after health star rating changed to rank lower than diet cola Fruit growers and processors say they are crushed by a decision to cut the health star rating (HSR) for 100-per-cent no-added-sugar juices from five stars to as low as two stars. The decision came down to a vote at the Australian and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation, a group made up of state and territory ministers as part of its ongoing response to the five-year HSR... review. Food is rated from half-a-star to five stars depending on how its healthy and risk nutrients compare but the system has come in for criticism. The Federal Government's aim in developing the ratings is to give shoppers an easy way to identify better choices of packaged and processed foods, something Agriculture Minister David Littleproud asserts is undermined by this decision. "What I don't accept is the insanity of this decision, which really has no basis on nutritional value it really just is mind-numbingly dumb," he said. The forum's July communique revealed Mr Littleproud's initial push to see 100-per-cent fresh fruit and vegetable juice with no added sugar receive an automatic HSR score of five stars not supported and the review recommendations were maintained. The Minister's last chance to improve the rating was Friday's meeting, when he put forward a proposal aiming for an automatic four HSR, a rating he said was supported by the Commonwealth and the farm industry. "This was it, this was my second crack at it. I had a go in July and got rolled and then rolled again," Mr Littleproud said. "It would appear that our bureaucrats are working off some other scientific sheet that what reality is." "Being told that diet soda is better for them than a juice product, we think, is confusing. "Ministers across the country were given the opportunity to review the information that we provided them on the health benefits of natural juices, and unfortunately states like Queensland let us down."

10.01.2022 South Australian shearing industry thrown into confusion on first day of lockdown Wool producers, shearing contractors and shed staff in South Australia were contacted by police and told to stop shearing yesterday, throwing the industry into confusion. The industry understood its work was considered essential and permitted under the state's COVID-19 lockdown. Avenue Range woolgrower Mark, who did not want his surname published, said his shearers decided not to come to work th...is morning because they had heard a shearing shed was shut down yesterday. "They don't want to get a fine on the way to work or when at work," he said. Mark said while he and other farmers considered shearing to fall under the care-of-animals directive permitted during the lockdown, he wanted clarification from police for his farm and others. "It's an animal welfare issue," he said. "We don't want our animals getting fly-struck or full of grass seeds."Woolgrower and Member for MacKillop Nick McBride said the shearing industry had been plagued with challenges this year. "The industry is probably at least a month behind and possibly even a month-and-a-half," he said.

10.01.2022 Prosecutors urge against maximum sentencing discount for murderer Pawel Klosowski A South Australian man who pleaded guilty to the shooting murder of his son and his son's girlfriend in the state's south-east should not get the full 40 per cent sentencing discount, prosecutors have told the Supreme Court. Pawel Klosowski, 46, was today arraigned on two counts of murder in front of more than 20 of the victims' family and friends.... He has already pleaded guilty to the murders. The bodies of his son, Lukasz Klosowski, and his son's girlfriend, Chelsea Ireland both aged 19 were discovered at a property at Mount McIntyre, near Millicent, on August 22. Prosecutor Kos Lesses told Justice Anne Bampton that Klosowski was entitled to a 40 per cent discount on sentence given his early guilty plea, but prosecutors would seek it be lowered. Laws have since changed to ensure maximum discounts on early guilty pleas are capped at 25 per cent, following community outrage at the sentence handed to paedophile Hamzeh Bahrami earlier this year. Despite indecently assaulting a 10-year-old girl in a public toilet at a Blair Athol playground in April 2019, Bahrami secured a 40 per cent discount which made him eligible for parole in April 2022. But last Friday, the Court of Criminal Appeal found Bahrami should not have been given the full discount, saying a 30 per cent discount was more appropriate. Two years were added to his sentence. Mr Lesses said that "hot-off-the-press" Court of Criminal Appeal judgement would "loom large" in the Klosowski case. Mr Lesses also told the court that Klosowski only had a limited criminal history, with convictions for disqualified driving and speeding in 1996. But he said more work needed to be done to finish the prosecution's brief of evidence. "The police are still collating and editing parts of the prosecution brief. The bulk of the prosecution brief will be provided to defence soon, before Christmas," he said.

09.01.2022 Man found guilty of raping woman as she slept in Adelaide Aquatic Centre spa A District Court judge has found a man guilty of raping a sleeping woman in a spa at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, saying his "proximity to her was inappropriate". Judge Liesl Chapman today found 62-year-old Hayas Kardo guilty of rape and indecent assault after he attacked a sleeping woman, aged in her late 20s, in the northern spa at the North Adelaide aquatic centre in September 2018.... He pleaded not guilty to both offences before facing a trial by judge alone. In her judgement published today, Judge Chapman said the victim who described the incident as a "grope" was a "calm, thoughtful and matter-of-fact witness". "I have carefully watched the CCTV footage of the spa. I find that the accused gradually and surreptitiously made his way closer to the complainant during the period of the footage," she found. "Over a period of 10 minutes up to that point, he had encroached upon her space and then maintained that position despite the opportunity to move away. "By 4:56pm, he had moved so close to the complainant that there was very little distance between them. She said a minute later, Kardo had moved "so close to the complainant that it would be difficult for him not to be touching her under the water". "By that stage, his proximity to her was inappropriate," Judge Chapman found. During the trial, prosecutor Carmen Matteo told Judge Chapman that CCTV footage showed Kardo appearing "to edge ever so slightly closer to [the victim]". "Your Honour may see, and what the prosecution contends, is the dark fabric of her swimming shorts billowing up in an area out in front of the accused and to his left," she said.

08.01.2022 South Australia records two new coronavirus cases linked to Parafield cluster Two new cases of COVID-19, both linked to the Parafield cluster, have been recorded in South Australia. SA's Chief Public Health Officer, Nicola Spurrier, said both people were already in quarantine. One of the cases is a young child who is a member of the original family affected by the outbreak.... The second case is a man in his 30s a student of the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI) at Flinders University who is a casual contact of a previous case. He and his family members are being interviewed to establish if there were "any other locations of interest" to let the public about. In a statement today, IELI director Ben Rowley said the school had encouraged all pupils to isolate after an earlier student tested positive on November 17. He said the school was working closely with SA Health to aid contact tracing efforts. "We have reached out to SA Health to offer our assistance in contacting anyone from the IELI community to help speed up contact tracing efforts," he said. Mr Rowley said when the first IELI student tested positive on November 17, they "very quickly made the decision to close the school immediately, notified all stakeholders and requested that all staff and students stay home, isolate and get tested". "The school has remained closed since the 17th of November with classes continuing online," he said. The total number of cases linked to the Parafield cluster now stands at 33. Around 5,800 close contacts or "contacts of contacts" linked to the cluster remain in quarantine. Today's cases follow Premier Steven Marshall's announcement yesterday that Professor Spurrier said she was a "little bit disappointed" to see only 3,840 COVID-19 tests were carried out on Friday. The number is a significant drop from record-high daily testing rates in the previous week, with about 19,000 tests carried out seven days earlier, on November 21. Professor Spurrier said heatwave conditions across much of the state yesterday could have contributed to the lower numbers, but urged South Australians to keep getting tested.

04.01.2022 Chloe Saxby remembered as 'beautiful rainbow warrior' at funeral in Wollongong Chloe Saxby has been remembered as a "beautiful rainbow warrior" at a memorial attended by hundreds of people in Wollongong. The 12-year-old lost her battle with the rare vanishing white matter (VWM) disease last week, eight years after her diagnosis.... Four hundred people dressed in rainbow-coloured clothing attended the memorial service this morning after the family was granted an exemption from COVID-19 restrictions by the NSW Government. Hundreds more live-streamed the service from other Illawarra venues and online. Chloe's mother, Nyree Saxby, described her daughter as someone who lit up the darkest of days. "Our darling Chloe, you had a smile that lit up the darkest of days and a gorgeous belly laugh that made your beautiful eyes sparkle. "Even though we were fully aware this day was always a possibility, we're still in complete shock. "I hope you are dancing free wherever you are somewhere over the rainbow." Friend Karisha Pinkster said Chloe was the strongest person she had ever met. "You changed my life for the better," Karisha said. "Fry freely beautiful girl, I love you, and I'm going to miss you so much." The Woonona girl was one of only seven known cases of the rare degenerative brain illness in Australia and her family has spent the past eight years raising money for medical research to help find a cure. VWM disease is a terminal brain disease that mostly affects children, and causes seizures and the loss of motor skills. The Saxby family raised millions of dollars, which allowed Australia's first dedicated medical research into the disease to be conducted out of Wollongong. They have vowed to continue trying to find a cure.

03.01.2022 Australian wine producers facing bleak future with China's tariffs Wineries in some of Australia's premier wine regions are looking down the barrel of a difficult future with China's wine tariffs likely to put smaller wineries out of business and force larger growers into new markets. It follows news over the weekend that China imposed crippling import taxes, ranging from 107 to more than 200 per cent, on all Australian wine.... Australia's largest wine company, Treasury Wine Estates, said its imports into China had been slugged with a massive 169.3 per cent tariff, and it will implement emergency measures to minimise the damage. Mitchell Taylor, the managing director of Taylor's Wines, an award-winning vineyard in South Australia's Clare Valley, said the industry was ready for a shock but the sheer size of the tariff was unprecedented. "As an industry we knew something was coming, but to have it come so quickly and so harshly it was really a big surprise and quite an outrageous decision," Mr Mitchell said. "Our wines which normally sell for $25 a bottle will immediately go up by threefold. "Meanwhile our competitors winemakers in France, Chile, and New Zealand don't have to pay this tax. "The sector is going through a lot of stress. There will be a lot of small wineries that will just find it financially unsustainable with that kind of pressure." Australia's wine export industry to China is worth $1.2 billion annually.