- Victorians go to the polls tomorrow in the state election, with the opposition Liberal-National Coalition needing to win 18 seats if it is to take government from the Labor Party, led by Premier Daniel Andrews.
- The latest Resolve poll for The Age newspaper shows the Coalition closing the gap. While Labor retains a 53-47 lead on a two-party preferred basis, the result represents a six-point gain for the Coalition since late October.
- In another sign of thawing relations between Canberra and Beijing, Defence Minister Richard Marles has met his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, and stressed the importance of maintaining lines of communication between their militaries.
- The meeting came as former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned the Indo-Pacific could be on the cusp of armed conflict within five years if the West and China fail to manage growing strategic tensions.
- Health experts have warned that employees with flexible work arrangements should stay at home as new Covid-19 cases jumped 38 per cent in Australia’s three largest states.
- According to caseload data released last week, at least 79,700 people contracted Covid-19 over the preceding seven days, more than double the 33,600 weekly infections recorded in the final week of October.
For more on these and other developments, see today’s edition of CMAX Advisory’s Australian Weekly Report.
