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Frustration is building in the Cook Islands as it waits for a travel bubble with New Zealand. The bubble is expected to be high on the agenda for Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown, who arrives in New Zealand today – the first…

The European Union has moved towards further tightening export controls for coronavirus vaccines, weeks after Italy blocked the export of a quarter of a million AstraZeneca doses to Australia.

In a move seemingly targeted more at the UK than Australia, the EU is seeking to make sure there are more COVID-19 shots to boost the bloc's flagging vaccine campaign as new infections surge.

On Wednesday (early Thursday AEDT), its executive body said it had a plan to guarantee more vaccines produced in the bloc were available for its own citizens even if it came at the cost of helping other nations.

READ MORE: Phase 1B rollout underway as 'workhorse' AstraZeneca vaccine approved to be locally produced

The move is expected to be a blow to Britain, whose speedy vaccination rollout has been eyed with envy by many EU nations, especially since it came as the UK formally completed its Brexit divorce from the bloc.

The plan doesn't go before EU leaders until Thursday and reportedly stops short of a complete export ban, but it's hard to estimate the impact it could have on Australia.

Though reliant on imports for almost four million AstraZeneca doses, many of which were expected to arrive early this year to kickstart the rollout, Melbourne company CSL will make 50 million doses locally.

The first 832,200 doses made in Australia were approved on Thursday, the first stage of what Health Department secretary Professor Brendan Murphy described as the "single best thing we've done in this vaccine rollout".

He told a Senate estimates committee hearing on Wednesday that local production was essential for planning certainty, admitting early predictions of vaccinating 4 million people by the end of March were "patently unachievable" with the arrival of just 700,000 of an expected 3.8 million AstraZeneca doses.

He said there had been a "huge effort" to work with Europe to secure the doses and the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker had tried to get shipments to Australia several times without success.

"AstraZeneca continue to try. We continue to try — the government tries, is trying through various diplomatic channels but we have no expectation that we will get that additional international AstraZeneca anytime soon," he said.

"It may come at some stage later in the year. But at the moment, now that we've got the local production, it's less important to us."

The EU Commission said it would proceed on a case-by-case basis but attention centred on the UK and AstraZeneca, which has two vaccine factories in EU territory.

"I mention specifically the UK," EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said. Since the end of January, "some 10 million doses have been exported from the EU to the UK and zero doses have been exported from UK to the EU," he said. 

"So it's clear that we also need to look at those aspects of reciprocity and proportionality."

Australia also has agreements with Pfizer-BioNTech for 20 million doses and American company Novavax for 51 million doses, with extra jabs expected to help regional partners.

Professor Murphy said the EU hadn't blocked Pfizer shipments to Australia because the company had been able to meet its commitments to the bloc.

"The EU have taken the view that they've got a raging pandemic and AstraZeneca need to meet the European commitments before they will allow exports," he said.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had approved the export of 41 million vaccine doses to 33 countries in the last six weeks and believes that it stands at the forefront of international vaccine-sharing efforts.

In Europe, the pandemic worsens again

World Health Organisation officials say new infections are rising across Europe after previously declining for six weeks.

"We have secured more than enough doses for the entire population. But we have to ensure timely and sufficient vaccine deliveries to EU citizens," von der Leyen said. 

"Every day counts."

The EU has been feuding with AstraZeneca for months in a dispute over exactly how many vaccine doses would be delivered by certain dates. 

Several vaccine producers, including Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca, were hit by production delays over the winter, just as worldwide demands for coronavirus vaccines soared.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sought to ease the tensions over vaccines, speaking by phone in the past few days to European leaders including von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron.

"We're all fighting the same pandemic across the whole of the European continent," Johnson told a news conference on Tuesday evening. 

"Vaccines are an international operation," he said, adding that the U.K. would "continue to work with European partners to deliver the vaccine rollout.

"We in this country don't believe in blockades of any kind of vaccines or vaccine materials."

Still, the EU has been insisting that two AstraZeneca plants in Britain should also be considered part of the EU vaccine deliveries.

Just days before flooding in Sydney's north-west claimed the life of a 25-year-old contractor, another man had a narrow escape in a similar situation.

Exclusive footage obtained by 9News shows the Monday morning rescue in which a man was trapped for almost an hour on the same Glenorie road where another man, a Pakistani national, was unable to free himself from his car on Wednesday.

Both incidents have raised questions about the placement of floodgates on Cattai Ridge Road, which is sparsely populated near Hidden Valley Lane where the vehicles went off the road.

READ MORE: Man on phone to emergency services for half an hour before floodwaters consumed car

A local resident who gave his name only as Adam said the water was almost to the window of the stranded ute before a neighbour rescued the driver on Monday.

"My neighbour was up moving stuff to higher ground in his bobcat and a car had gone off — a ute had gone off in the same corner," he told 9News.

"It was only that he was up in his bobcat saw the car there and the man had been trapped for an hour so he got in there and ripped it out."

Wednesday's incident ended in tragedy, with the driver speaking with emergency services and struggling to get out of his hired Toyota for 35 minutes before the call cut out. 

The car, with signs of someone "fighting for their life to get out" but unbroken windows, was found with the man's body inside about six hours later, leaving police investigating whether an electrical failure trapped him.

READ MORE: Floodwaters meet the ocean on the NSW South Coast

"We can only speculate again that given what I have seen and the damage to the vehicle that it could very well be that the electrics totally failed, and he was simply unable to escape from the car which is an absolute tragedy," Detective Inspector Chris Laird said.

"Also, the fact that he was on the phone for so long is even more tragic and is going to form part of our inquiries as to what actually went on in the car and why this tragic accident occurred.

"What more can I say than a man who is possibly about to pass away, he is on the phone and the water is rising."

They're also looking into whether the road closures were made visible enough. Police said the man was on his first day on the job as a contractor and unfamiliar with the area and that a padlocked gate meant to block off the road was underwater.

READ MORE: Piles of fish wash up on Sydney street

READ MORE: Elderly woman carried from her flooded home in Taree saves prized possession

"To have two things like that happen within three days, maybe we should move the flood gates up a bit higher," Adam said. 

"The flood gates are probably at least 20 to 30 metres down the road now."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also confirmed the death in Parliament.

"This is a terribly sad day for that family," Mr Morrison said.

"We have seen so much over the course of the past year and more as this country has battled so many things – floods, fires, viruses, drought and now these floods again.

"And now this family will get this news and they will grieve."

Another man, 38-year-old David Hornman, was found dead on Wednesday afternoon after his ute was submerged in a flooded Gold Coast hinterland creek.

A boat out of control off the Perth coast, circling around and around at high speed with no one on board has sparked a bizarre hunt for a missing person.

The skipper-less boat was spotted through binoculars about 10km off Yanchep just before 2pm today.

Police tried to help, almost capsizing as the boat came dangerously close to their vessel.

Finally the tinny came to a stop, on board was a small dog, which was pulled to safety.

But there was no sign of anyone else, just some fishing rods on the back of the boat.

As it was towed back to shore, the search began for at least one person who was believed to have been on board.

The vessel was left badly damaged, with the front windscreen broken and a seat ripped off.

The police helicopter, AMSA rescue helicopter, and rescue boats have all been involved in scouring the ocean tonight.

Other vessels out on the water have been radioed to be on the lookout for anyone in the water.

9News reporter Jerrie Demasi said police had tracked the registration of the boat to contact loved ones of the missing skipper as they anxiously await any news.

Nationals MP Michael Johnsen has identified himself as the NSW politician accused of sexually assaulting a sex worker, saying he is "an innocent party" after details were revealed today in Parliament.

Mr Johnsen released a statement tonight saying "I am devastated by these allegations".

"I have voluntarily spoken with NSW Police and I have and will continue to fully cooperate with their enquiries," he said.

"I am confident any investigation will conclude that I am an innocent party."

NSW Police earlier confirmed they are investigating allegations revealed in Parliament that a male MP in the Berejiklian government sexually assaulted a sex worker in September 2019.

Police said the matter was reported to them and referred to the sex crimes squad in late September 2020 and "has been under investigation since".

The allegations were first made public by Labor MP Trish Doyle, who told the NSW parliament today that the sex worker had contacted her 18 months ago.

The Blue Mountains MP said the woman was contacted by the male via the adult classified website Locanto, where the pair organised a transaction of $200 for "oral sex only".

"She tells me she made herself clear that she was not willing to have penetrative sex with him, however towards the end the man moved around behind her and assaulted her in a way she had not consented to," Ms Doyle said in parliament today.

"In her emails to me she said that once the assault began she just wanted it to finish.

"It was an assault, and it was against her explicit instructions, she did not consent, it was rape."

Ms Doyle did not name the male MP whom the allegations are made against.

Mr Johnsen said he would be taking leave immediately.

"Without admission, I have chosen to step aside from my Parliamentary Secretary role, and will not sit in the Nationals Party Room nor the Joint Party Room," he said.

"I will be taking leave effective immediately for a short duration.

"As the matter is with the NSW Police I will make no further public comment."

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A man who died this week fleeing police in Horowhenua was jailed 18 years ago for fatally stabbing a teenager in the heart. Steven Hoani Bunyan, 43, of Ōtaki, was pulled over by police near Manakau on Tuesday afternoon.Bunyan…