The government is urging people to download the #COVIDSafe app. This week parliament is debating new laws to safeguard the app and any personal information it collects. But there are still some concerns over how effective it will be. #abc730@FarrellPF#Covid19Aus
“The app’s really there for one purpose and that purpose is to assist the disease detectives to find the evidence and put together what might be a cluster of cases.” Deputy CMO Paul Kelly. #abc730#Covid19Aus#COVIDSafe
Health officials have acknowledged the #COVIDSafe app doesn’t work well on iPhones. “There are some issues if you have other apps open and so forth and Apple themselves are working through that.” Deputy CMO Paul Kelly. #abc730#Covid19Aus
“We're going to see a lot of attacks because this is going to be software that's running on every single phone, every single person's phone. And if that's not a honeypot for anyone, I don't know what is.” Ashkan Soltani, technology researcher. #abc730#COVIDSafe
“The bill creates a fairly open-ended storage of that data, in that it will be kept until essentially the end of the pandemic, the end of the usefulness. But it's by no means clear that that retention is necessary for contact tracing.” Katherine Kemp, @UNSW#abc730#COVIDSafe
“It's a promise we've made to the Australian people about the privacy & security elements of the app. It's for contacting tracing by disease detectives in state & territory health departments and they are the only people that can use it.” Deputy CMO Paul Kelly. #abc730#COVIDSafe
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More than three decades after terrorists brought down an American airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland, families who lost loved ones are finally hoping to see justice. #abc730
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“It was very rewarding for me personally to be able to bring those additional charges. For me, it was finishing a job that I had started.” – Bill Barr, former US Attorney-General #abc730
Tech billionaire @billgates is one of the best-known figures on the planet, responsible for decades of philanthropy targeting poverty, disease, infant mortality and more recently COVID-19. He spoke to @FergusonNews. #abc730
"I think Australia will be able to export green hydrogen and other clean products. It is certainly a country where the opportunity in a green economy is greater than it has been in the past." – @billgates#abc730
"The cost to be ready for the next pandemic is a rounding error compared to what it takes to re-tool the modern economy to solve climate change." – @billgates#abc730
The days of being swamped with politicians talking about COVID already seem like a long time ago. But the virus continues to run rampant, making a lot of Australians sick and killing many, even if we don't seem to be talking about it publicly as much. #abc730
"The current approach to COVID in Australia is to let it run in a so-called healthy population — that means unfettered transmission largely in the wider population while trying to protect those who are deemed vulnerable ... It is clearly not working." – @CrabbBrendan#abc730
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“If AUKUS really works the way it should, there should be contribution into this program from the UK and Australia. And I think that shows that, you know, that’s a force multiplier that can really help take on the larger demand.” – Rep. Joe Courtney, Democrat #abc730
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A referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament will be one of the biggest issues confronting the country next year. @latingle spoke to @mdavisqlder about what the Voice can be, and why she remains optimistic about its future. #abc730
"I think one of the reasons the Voice became the primary focus of Indigenous constitutional recognition is that we actually don't have much input at all into laws and policies that are made about our lives and our communities." – @mdavisqlder#abc730
"There's a lot of noise and it happens in a lot of policy areas in Australia. There's a lot of noise and a lot of advisory committees. There's a lot of talk. There's a lot of reports but there's no coordination. There's no coherency." – @mdavisqlder#abc730
Tasmanians have long wanted their own AFL team, and they’re closer than ever to getting one. But the AFL has made it clear a local team is contingent on the island state building a brand new stadium. #abc730
“Just about everyone I speak to shares my view that it would be unconscionable to spend that sort of money at a time that the state has so many other challenges.” – Andrew Wilkie, Independent MHR #abc730
“This is a huge opportunity for all Tasmanians and can I say, that these are the investments, this is the type of vision, this is the type of commitment that we all need to embrace.” – Jeremy Rockliff, Premier #abc730