Tuesday, 28 September 2021

Australia Covid news live update: Queensland braces for local cases as Melbourne awakens to eased restrictions

Queensland scrambles to contain mystery clusters ahead of the NRL grand final; two men charged with entering WA illegally for AFL grand final; Melbourne’s travel bubble increases to 15km and some outdoor group exercise allowed. Follow all the day’s news live.

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The Lowy report also says Australia accounted for 42% of all aid to the Pacific region between 2009 and 2019, but in more recent years, the amount of money being spent on health has been cut in favour of infrastructure projects.

As part of its pandemic response, Australia established a temporary AU$305m Covid package within the Pacific Step-Up program, which aimed to “to help address the economic and social costs of the pandemic in the Pacific and Timor-Leste, helping to underpin our region’s stability and economic recovery”.

Australia’s Pacific neighbours risk a “lost decade” following the Covid pandemic, with the region facing its greatest economic contraction in four decades, according to a new report into foreign aid.

The latest Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map, which sets out aid spending and donations to the Pacific Islands regions shows US$2.44bn in foreign aid reached the Pacific in 2019, which is about 8% of the region’s GDP.

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from World news | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3maJj4S

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