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Barnaby Joyce will start thrashing out a new coalition agreement with Scott Morrison after officially completing a stunning comeback.

The high-profile Nationals leader was on Tuesday sworn in by Governor-General David Hurley during a ceremony at Government House in Canberra.

Mr Joyce has taken the infrastructure, transport and regional development portfolios held by Michael McCormack, who he toppled in a Nationals leadership vote.

Now the deputy prime minister will turn his attention to outlining policy and power demands in a new agreement with the Liberals.

Mr Joyce is expected to solidify the Nationals' opposition to agreeing to a 2050 net zero carbon emissions target.

At the ceremony, Mr Joyce was flanked by partner and former staffer Vikki Campion, who rose to national prominence when the couple's affair was splashed across newspapers in early 2018.

Their two children Sebastian and Thomas also attended.

Mr Joyce's affair with Ms Campion triggered a firestorm of scandals including another woman making sexual harassment allegations against him, which he fiercely denies.

Key supporters Bridget McKenzie, David Gillespie and Llew O'Brien attended the formalities, along with deputy leader David Littleproud.

Mr Morrison appeared via video link as the prime minister is in quarantine at The Lodge after an overseas trip.

"Congratulations, Barnaby. I look forward to working to with you," he said.

"Thank you very much, prime minister. The same," Mr Joyce responded.

The room erupted in laughter when the governor-general told Mr Morrison it was time for a photo of the three men.

Mr Joyce beamed and cameras clacked as he and Mr Hurley stood either side of the grinning virtual prime minister.

Queensland senator Matt Canavan said Mr Joyce would be a loud and leading voice for rural Australians.

"There are a whole lot of Australians out there who feel ignored, who feel their views are derided sometimes, and Barnaby is their voice," Senator Canavan said.

"He fights for the issues that matter to those people; the defence of their job, the industries, the communities."

Some female Nationals have raised concerns his return could damage the party's electoral fortunes with women.

WA Nationals leader Mia Davies, who was a vocal critic of Mr Joyce, said there were significant questions about his behaviour leading up to his 2018 resignation.

"I'm very disappointed to see that there has been a leadership change," the state opposition leader said.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese described the Nationals' spill as an act of self-indulgence.

"Barnaby Joyce is a failed former deputy prime minister. He failed last time he had the job," he said.

"We know how this movie ends because we've seen it."

© AAP 2021

Kiwi pop songstress Lorde has announced her long-awaited third album and will perform her first live shows in more than three years in 2022.

Lorde will return to performing next February in Christchurch, before shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in March.

The acclaimed 24-year-old will then head to the US, Canada, the UK and Europe in a monster 43-date worldwide tour.

"This is gonna be such a sick tour," she announced to fans in an email.

"This is, thrillingly, something of an intimate tour. Theatres and green fields rather than arenas."

The pop star announced her tour and album on the day of the northern hemisphere's summer solstice, in keeping with the theme of her comeback single Solar Power, released a fortnight ago.

The 12-song record, also titled Solar Power, will be released on August 20.

The Aucklander won a Grammy for her first record, Pure Heroine, released in 2013 at age 16.

She's since grown to become the region's biggest artist, releasing sophomore record Melodrama in 2017 to critical acclaim and amassing 7.6 million fans on Instagram.

In her new announcement, Lorde, real name Ella Yelich-O'Connor, said she would be staying off social media.

"I'm not gonna be returning to social media this cycle, outside of the occasional temporary post," she said.

"Being off social media makes me feel incredible ... and I'd love to maintain feeling that good."

The new music has been a long time coming: in 2019, Lorde wrote a note to her millions of fans saying the heartbreaking death of her dog, Pearl, who "brought an immeasurable amount of joy and purpose into my world", would delay her third album.

Last year, she asked Kiwis to vote in the 2020 election, won by Jacinda Ardern's Labour party.

Between work on her music, Lorde has also produced a photo book called "Going South" about a trip to Antarctica.

© AAP 2021

The coordinator of Australia's COVID-19 vaccine rollout says supplies are being "carefully managed" ahead of a major ramping up of doses from August.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is quarantining at The Lodge in Canberra following an overseas trip, met via teleconference with state and territory leaders on Monday to discuss the rollout.

Premiers have been critical of a shortage of supplies.

Lieutenant General John Frewen, who is in charge of logistics for the vaccine rollout and briefed the national cabinet, told reporters the premiers had now been given a detailed breakdown of what supplies they can expect, including dose number forecasts.

"We are still in a resource-constrained environment we need to carefully manage," he said.

"But on current forecasts, we are looking forward to ramp up availability of Pfizer through August into September and into October."

The premiers were told they would get supplies based on their population proportion, which NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian described as a "relief" to hear.

"What we highlighted today was the need for the federal government to increase the capacity of the GP network," she said.

Authorities revealed NSW's request for an additional 50,000 Pfizer doses had been approved before national cabinet.

General Frewen said it remained the plan to offer vaccines to all Australians by the end of the year.

Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy said he was concerned about the rate of patients cancelling their vaccinations, after new advice about the AstraZeneca vaccine led to the cut-off age for people to receive it was lowered from 60 to 50.

The co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Dr Christopher Blyth, told an inquiry hearing on Monday the benefits for people aged over 70 of getting their AstraZeneca shot far outweighed the risks.

He said the risk of over-70s dying from COVID-19 was between four and 10 per cent, while there had been two confirmed deaths from blood clots out of more than four million doses delivered.

The risk of developing a blood clot after having AstraZeneca was below two out of 100,000 in older people, 3.1 out of 100,000 for under-50s and 2.7 out of 100,000 for 50-59 year olds.

"We believe in older individuals it is clearly in favour of receiving an AstraZeneca vaccine," he said.

However, he noted his group - which provided the key advice on changing the age range for AstraZeneca - was continuing to evaluate the risks.

Therapeutic Goods Administration chief Professor John Skerritt told the hearing there were a "dozen potential conditions" on his agency's radar, ranging from blood clots to inflammation of the heart.

But no regulators around the world had directly attributed any of these other conditions to the vaccines, he said.

"It's our job as regulators is to lose a lot of sleep (and) ... as soon as there is firm evidence, provide advice."

The Senate committee looking at the rollout was told despite there being an initial meeting between health department officials and Pfizer in July last year, no formal offer was put on the table until later in the year.

"There were no numbers or details put on the table at that meeting on July 10," the vaccine task force's Lisa Schofield said.

There have now been 6.59 million vaccine doses delivered in Australia including 1.21 million in the past week.

A new advertising campaign encouraging the take up of vaccines will be launched once the team behind the supply chain is comfortable supply can meet the extra demand.

© AAP 2021