As it happened: NSW records four new local COVID-19 cases as Delta variant confirmed; AstraZeneca age recommendation lifted to 60

Macquarie generated over $565 million by selling shares in the float and also pocketed $24 million in fees.

In the speech, Ms O’Neill said ASIC had failed to act on warnings made about the company by law firm Aperion Law. The warnings were sent to senior figures at ASIC including Acting Chair, Karen Chester and Deputy Commissioner Cathy Armour, she said. They included concerns about Nuix’s ability to meet its prospectus forecasts.

“Why then, did ASIC fail to appropriately act on these valid and prescient complaints?” Ms O’Neill said. “This has been a complete failure from ASIC and can never be repeated.”

Meanwhile, Australian companies would be banned from importing products made in any way by forced labour, such as exploited Uighur workers, under new laws that have won the backing of MPs across the political spectrum in a parliamentary inquiry.

Industrial relations reporter Nick Bonyhady says the recommendations will place significant pressure on the federal government to act on the growing scourge of forced labour overseas.

A Victorian government deal to buy trains that include parts linked to forced Uighur labour is among those that would have faced scrutiny under the new scheme suggested by the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee.

It would let the Australian Border Force create legal presumptions that certain goods, products or regions used forced labour. Companies here would be banned from importing listed products unless they could show the ABF was wrong in a particular case.

Nathan Pinskier, who runs multiple GP practices across Melbourne, said doctors were bracing for pushback from people over the age of 60, who may no longer want the AstraZeneca vaccine. “It is quite clear that for anyone over the age of 60, the risk of receiving AstraZeneca is much lower than if you’re in a younger age group and it remains a safe vaccine. But conveying that to people is going to be very challenging,” he said.

He feared doctors would be left with huge oversupply of AstraZeneca and not enough Pfizer. “The question is will we have enough Pfizer in the coming months or are we going to end up with this massive supply of AZ and nobody to give it to?”

In Sydney, where new locally-acquired cases have cropped up in the eastern suburbs, the Bondi Junction respiratory clinic expected to be “totally overwhelmed with demand for the first doses”.

“That has not happened,” business manager Vladimir Stamenkovic said. Instead, around 20 per cent of the clinic’s AstraZeneca appointments on Thursday were cancelled, including 10 of the first 40 people booked in.

Mr Stamenkovic said he expected first dose cancellations in those aged 50 to 59 due to the changes, but “surprisingly” among those scrapping their appointments were people due for their second dose.

“It doesn’t make sense to me,” he said. “There’s no indication or advice which says if you had your first AstraZeneca, you’re precluded from getting your second shot.“

In fact, people in their 50s who have received their first AstraZeneca dose have been urged to get their second - which carries less risk - as they would have before the new advice.

And West Australians aged 50-59 booked in for their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine will now receive the Pfizer jab in the wake of updated advice from federal health authorities. The changes will put more pressure on already constrained supplies of Pfizer but Premier Mark McGowan said the 38,000 first dose appointments booked by people aged 30 to 39 would be honoured.

Mr Hazzard said it was still not known if it was the driver who tested positive this week had only recently started working in the role.

Drivers are required to complete a saliva COVID-19 test on every shift, but this was the first test the man had returned on NSW Health’s records.

“But the message I guess more broadly is, if you’re involved in this system and you’re in the private sector, for heaven’s sakes, comply with the law.”

“Major retailers and supermarket chains increased their profits during the worst of the pandemic in 2020 and that trend is continuing as the recovery gathers pace with many revealing record results this year,” Mr Dwyer said.

135,000 staff working at Woolworths and Big W will get the 2.5 per cent bump to their pay next month. Its pay rates are already a little above the minimum, as are those of its competitors.

“Our frontline team members have done an extraordinary job for our customers and the community throughout the pandemic,” Woolworths supermarkets director Natalie Davis said.

The company’s decision follows a stoush last year when it tried to delay its workers’ pay rise in line with the pay umpire’s decision but relented in the face of legal action from the union.

Other companies that have different agreements with their staff, including Coles and Bunnings, have not committed to an early pay rise.

You can listen to our latest Please Explain podcast discussing the new minimum wage increase here.