Here is what it is advisable know this morning.
COVID-19 fraud arrest
A northern NSW man has been charged with making an attempt to defraud a state authorities COVID-19 monetary help scheme, after he allegedly made 51 purposes totalling $530,000.
Police at Nowra seized a Mercedes Benz utility together with jewelry, drones and laptop gear, and arrested a 21-year-old man from Warialda Rail.
He has been charged with 51 offences, together with acquiring monetary benefit by deception.
Strike Pressure Sainsbery was arrange in November to research fraudulent purposes made in opposition to the micro-business grant scheme.
State Crime Commander, Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith, mentioned he anticipated yesterday’s arrest to be the primary of many.
“We … have using specialised expertise to assist establish anomalies by the mass evaluation and cross-referencing of metadata, which then undergoes additional evaluation and investigation by detectives,” he mentioned.
The 21-year-old is because of face courtroom subsequent month.
NSW Well being urgently contacting 600 partygoers
NSW Well being is urgently making an attempt to contact 600 individuals who went to a Taylor Swift-themed celebration on the Metro Theatre in Sydney on Friday night time.
To this point, 97 individuals who attended the occasion have examined optimistic for COVID-19 and most certainly are contaminated with the Omicron variant.
Authorities concern it may flip into an excellent spreader occasion.
Partygoers, together with their households, are being urged to instantly get examined and isolate for seven days.
A “pink alert” has been issued for hospitals as a result of rising variety of circumstances and considerations over Omicron.
All however important and compassionate guests have now been cancelled.
Yesterday, the state reported a document variety of 1,742 regionally acquired COVID-19 circumstances, and no deaths.
There are at present 192 individuals in hospital, together with 26 in intensive care.
Thus far, 122 circumstances of the Omicron variant have been confirmed.
Obeid bail choice anticipated in the present day
Jailed former New South Wales Labor minister Eddie Obeid will in the present day discover out if he can spend Christmas at residence, whereas he tries to have a conspiracy conviction quashed.
Obeid is in jail for at the least three years and 10 months, his son Moses for at the least three years, and former minister Ian Macdonald for at the least 5 years and three months.
They have been convicted of conspiring over a coal licence that gave the Obeid household a $30 million windfall when Macdonald was assets minister.
The lads have utilized for bail forward of their attraction, which is prone to be heard in September 2022.
Justice Helen Wilson is in the present day anticipated handy down her choice.
Voters again Internal West Council demerger
A lot of the residents from an interior Sydney “tremendous” council need to stroll again the merger that shaped it 5 years in the past.
A polling query was connected to the ballots residents forged within the Internal West Council election on December 4.
It requested in the event that they supported “the Internal West native authorities space being de-amalgamated, in order to revive the previous native authorities areas of Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville”.
A majority of residents have to date voted to de-amalgamate, at 63 per cent. Roughly 81 per cent of all votes have been counted. The ballot nonetheless, shouldn’t be binding.
A demerger would require the newly elected council to submit a proposal after which the Minister for Native Authorities would wish to make a willpower.
An earlier council report discovered the de-amalgamation would price $26 million and that each one three councils must elevate charges by as a lot as 22 per cent to offset an annual funding shortfall of $22 million.
