PM

This evening there's an anxious wait in Adelaide....where there's mass testing to determine just how far a coronavirus cluster has spread, with the chief health officer saying 4000 people are considered close contacts of the positive cases and have been advised to self-isolate.

Also:

* It's the country's most populous state and today .. the plan to rescue New South Wales from the COVID-19 recession .. and perhaps help drive the national recovery .. has been unveiled.

* Will the big spend on social housing detailed in the NSW budget help drive recovery?

* The Prime Minister makes his first foreign trip during the pandemic - to Japan - it'll mean two weeks of self-isolation on return - so why the urgency? We hear from Emeritus Professor Rikki Kersten, Japan expert at Murdoch University.

* Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has dismissed a mysterious online dossier containing allegations of bullying in his office as a "fake".

* Federal government plans to entrench and extend the cashless welfare card have been endorsed by a Coalition dominated Senate committee, despite a swathe of submissions and evidence against it.

* And...can the COVID crisis actually help us get better at preparing for climate-related disasters? We speak to one of the authors of the Red Cross's World Disasters Report Maarten van Aalst, who’s also a coordinating lead author on the IPCC.

The nation has quickly lurched from pretty COVID comfortable, to being on high alert today, as South Australia's premier slaps on new restrictions from midnight, over the coronavirus outbreak in Adelaide's northern suburbs.

* The Adelaide cluster threatens plans to re-open the country by Christmas, and states and territories have been quick .. and varied .. in their response.

* SA health officials say it’s likely the outbreak originated from a quarantine hotel .. and infectious diseases experts say that was just a matter of time.

* The Federal government avoids a court case over its botched Robodebt program - at a cost of one-point-two billion dollars, which includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in wrongly collected debt.

* A new ASIC report finds an alarming rise in the number young people being snared in buy-now-pay-later schemes they can't afford.

* And.. an Indonesian rock star faces a potential prison sentence over controversial COVID comments - highlighting the country's tough cyber defamation laws.

Home by Christmas...that's the hope for many of us this Friday....after the nations leaders agree to reopen internal borders in time for quarantine-free Christmas travel. WA is the only state not to sign up to that deadline, but tonight will significantly ease restrictions at its border. We travel along the Nullabor to hear from communities about their excitement and fear about the border opening up. Also:

* The Federal Government says it will create a new law enabling it to declare a national state of emergency.  It's one of the recommendations made by the Natural Disaster Royal Commission.

* National cabinet has today announced its national vaccine strategy to roll out a mass program as soon as possible.

* Less than a week before Scott Morrison is due to visit PNG the future of the country’s PM’s hangs in the balance after a mass walkout on his coalition government.

* Aboriginal leaders have blasted inaction on reducing indigenous incarceration rates, at the National Aboriginal press Club's first televised speakers event in Darwin.   

* International students who study in Australia have slammed today's announcement that ex-patriate Australians returning home will get priority over students stuck overseas.

* It's an age old problem - but is the government's Jobmaker program increasing discrimination against older workers?

The Prime Minister is preparing the nation for some "brutal truths" when the special report into allegations of war crimes by Australians in Afghanistan is released. Scott Morrison says the contents of the investigation into special forces activities is disturbing, and it's possible it will lead to criminal prosecutions.

Also on the program:

* Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has been forced to defend herself and her department today against allegations of workplace bullying, detailed in a complaint by a former staffer Rachelle Miller.

* Getting on top of coronavirus has meant increased freedoms for Melbournians, but Australia's peak medical group is sounding the alarm about complacency not just in Victoria...but across the country.

* We head to the suburbs in north-western Sydney where coronavirus has been detected in sewage.

* We speak to Barbara Comstock a lawyer and a former US Republican congresswoman who has joined 31 other members of her party in writing an open letter to the President Donald Trump asking him to accept the results of the election.

* Papa New Guinea beats Australia to setting up a national Independent Commission Against Corruption.

With the RBA banking on low interest rates to turbo-charge the housing market and drive economic growth, there are concerns many could miss out on home ownership and potentially be pushed into poverty.

A JobSeeker recipient tells PM she will have to cut her electricity use even more after the unemployment payment is reduced, internal divisions within the ALP are spilling over as Hunter Valley MP Joel Fitzgibbon quits the frontbench in protest against Labor's climate plans, and Donald Trump fires his Defence Secretary by Twitter, several months after Mark Esper refused to cede to the President's demand to deploy troops to tamp down protests on American streets.

Donald Trump is digging in his heels over his legal challenges to the US election result; Joe Biden's first order of business is addressing the out-of-control COVID crisis; And former Foreign Minister Stephen Smith discusses how Biden's re-election resets US international relations, saying the President-elect should reconsider ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

PM covers a broad spectrum of issues relevant to all sections of Australia's diverse community.

A race still too close to call, but the tables have turned in the race for the White House with Joe Biden inching towards the magic 270 electoral college votes.

* We have the latest on the prayers and protests as the count continues.

* The Washington Post's Supreme Court correspondent Robert Barnes gives us his take on the President's threat of legal action.

* Trump advisor Mica Mosbacher is not giving up on a Republican win yet, pinning her hopes on the courts.

* The markets it seems have picked a winner - the latest from our business reporter.

* Two years after Australia introduced foreign interference laws, the first arrest has been made, of a Melbourne man with alleged links to Chinese intelligence.

* The Federal government announces two more deals for potential COVID vaccines, what's the strategy here?

* Angst among traditional owners in the NT as illegal safari hunters trespass on sacred sites.

A special edition of PM for your tonight as voting continues in a very tense United States presidential election. Democratic contender Joe Biden leads in the electoral college count, but Donald Trump has nonetheless falsely claimed to have won .. fuelling claims for which he gives no evidence that his vote is being stolen and threatening to go to the Supreme Court.