Australia live news updates: Victoria protests escalate as child under 10 among new Covid deaths

New South Wales reports 182 new Covid cases and ACT 14; anti-fascist activists vow to counter-rally against another ‘freedom rallies’ they claim have been infiltrated by far-right groups

• William Tyrrell: how new evidence revived the case and triggered a fresh search effort
• Katharine Murphy: ‘As Melbourne faces ugly civil unrest, Scott Morrison looks like a political leader casting around for a hammer blow’
• Queenslanders cancel flights after overseas-born children and spouses forced into hotel quarantine

Asked about whether we can expect to see the introduction of a legislation for a federal anti-corruption commission in parliament in the next couple of weeks, Tim Wilson says it’s important that they “get the legislation right”:

Because what we’ve had too often is proposals which are designed to establish, kind of, kangaroo courts, and actually would do more to breed distrust in the political conversation. We’ve seen that particularly in the consequence of what’s happening in Icac in New South Wales.

We want a process that’s based around integrity, that’s been consulted with the Australian community, and is actually going to do the job we need it to do, which is actually to breed trust and strength in the political system, not simply to create show trials, as I’ve seen it many times.

I think this is pretty simple. You’ve got a group of people marching down the street with a life-sized execution device. You’ve got people threatening to kill the premier of Victoria. If you’re any sort of leader, you just condemn that, full stop. You don’t go on and then say, ‘But I understand why people are frustrated.’

I think it is legitimate to point out that Scott Morrison has pulled the sheet out of the Trump handbook here. Lie, deny, blame other people, never take responsibility for anything, try and divide the community, pander to the extreme right – this is Trump without the toupee. And, seriously, I think the Australian people deserve better than that.

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