New Australian state leader sticks to lockdown timetable

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The new government leader of Australia’s most populous state says he will stick with a timetable of starting to reopen New South Wales next week. Dominic Perrottet was treasurer in Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s government when she announced last week she was resigning because she was under investigation by a corruption watchdog. Perrottet won a ballot of lawmakers in the conservative Liberal Party 39-5 on Tuesday to become the next premier. The leadership change comes at a critical time of the pandemic as New South Wales attempts to emerge from a lockdown that began in June. Perrottet says he plans to reopen the economy to fully vaccinated people from Monday.