Australia news LIVE: Queensland to reopen borders to fully vaccinated travellers from December 13; Perth stripped of fifth Ashes test; NSW’s Omicron cases grow

• Federal independent MP Zali Steggall says it is “extraordinary and wrong” for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to undermine the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, which has yet to deliver findings in its inquiry into former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. As reported earlier today, there is growing speculation that Ms Berejiklian will throw her hat into the ring to contest Ms Steggall’s seat of Warringah, formerly held by ex-prime minister Tony Abbott. Mr Morrison said today that he thought Ms Berejiklian would be a “great” candidate.

• Mr Morrison has been highly critical of the ICAC inquiry into Ms Berejiklian, which is investigating multimillion-dollar grants or promises made by the state government to organisations in Wagga Wagga while Ms Berejiklian was in a secret relationship with the then-Liberal MP for the electorate, Daryl Maguire. Mr Morrison said that if Ms Berejiklian “wished to join our team, she would be very welcome”. Ms Steggall told ABC News 24 today that it was “extraordinary and wrong of Scott Morrison and senior government ministers to be really undermining and calling into question the work of very important bodies like the New South Wales ICAC”.

• NSW health authorities have confirmed there are now 25 cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the state, up from 15, after genomic sequencing for several locally acquired cases was finalised over the weekend. Mary Ward reports that 14 of the cases are linked to a south-west Sydney cluster of cases across Regents Park Christian School and St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School at Regents Park, and the Sydney Indoor Climbing Gym at Villawood.

• The state’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said it was “expected that our numbers linked to this cluster will rise as further results are confirmed”. She added that health authorities were continuing to investigate the source of the outbreak and thanked the school communities for turning out for testing in large numbers and following the health advice.

This is Michaela Whitbourn signing off on the blog for today. My colleague Broede Carmody will be back with you early tomorrow morning.

Mr Morrison has been critical of the ICAC inquiry into Ms Berejiklian, which is investigating multimillion-dollar grants or promises made by the state government to organisations in Wagga Wagga while Ms Berejiklian was in a secret relationship with the then-Liberal MP for the electorate, Daryl Maguire.

Mr Morrison said that if Ms Berejiklian “wished to join our team, she would be very welcome”.

“Gladys was put in a position of actually having to stand down and there was no findings of anything. I don’t call that justice,” he said of the ICAC.

He dismissed suggestions it would be a “bad look” for Ms Berejiklian to run for a federal electorate before the ICAC released its findings. You can read more about the timeline for releasing findings here. The short version is they won’t be coming out this year or even early next year.

Ms Berejiklian has denied all wrongdoing and insisted history will show she acted in the best interests of the people of NSW.

Ms Steggall told ABC News 24 today that it was “extraordinary and wrong of Scott Morrison and senior government ministers to be really undermining and calling into question the work of very important bodies like the New South Wales ICAC”.

This is really important work that is being done on behalf of the public to hold government to account, to pull back the curtain and make sure there is no corruption that public funds are used for public good and ensuring integrity in government.

And they are calling into question the importance of that work, and even calling into question the motivation of doing that work which I think borders on defamatory.

The words the Prime Minister used in Question Time [in which he likened the ICAC to a kangaroo court] I thought were outrageous because we should be seeing leadership to raise trust and call for more accountability, not undermine accountability, and I think communities really hate that and have had enough of that. That is why you are seeing so many independent candidates come up on platforms of integrity, of treatment of women, of climate, because the Government is just falling so far behind on those issues.

“We will be bringing forward the opening date of our borders from December 17 to 1am Monday the 13th.

“Queensland borders will reopen, especially to those hot spots of NSW and Victoria and ACT. So, fully vaccinated travellers from interstate hot spots can arrive by road or air. We do expect it to be very busy.

“You must have a negative COVID test in the previous 72 hours. So, please, you’ve got this date now so you can go and start organising that test. No quarantine is required if you are fully vaccinated. If you are not fully vaccinated, you must arrive by air only and hotel quarantine for 14 days.

“There are two important changes I just want to mention. First is that you will no longer have to wait the two weeks after your second dose to be considered fully vaccinated. The national guidelines say one week is enough. So, we will adopt the national guidelines.

“And secondly, all arrivals from domestic hot spots must get another COVID test on day 5 when they get here. And there’ll be penalties applying if you don’t do that.”

There were no new community cases of COVID-19 recorded in the state on Monday, with three cases in hotel quarantine, two from interstate, and one from overseas.