Summary of the day
That’s where we are going to leave the live blog for this evening. If you need to catch up on the biggest news of the day you can read the summary here.
Or in a shorter way:
- Australia reported its 99th confirmed death of a coronavirus patient
- NSW students will return to classrooms full-time from 25 May
- Australia has the backing of 122 nations for a global investigation into the Covid-19 outbreak
- Twelve McDonald’s outlets in Melbourne’s north and west have been shut due to a delivery driver testing positive for coronavirus
- New strict transport rules in NSW will mean a maximum of 12 people on a bus at one time, 32 in a train carriage, and 45 on a ferry
- Labor leader Anthony Albanese has backed reducing jobseeker below its current level but higher than the former newstart payment.
Our international live blog will take you through the night for all the latest global coronavirus news.
Updated
The Victorian department of health has confirmed the previous statement from the Villa Maria nursing home on a second test that the resident who initially had inconclusive test results for coronavirus has now tested negative.
Clarification from @VicGovDHHS re Villa Maria nursing home at Bundoora: confirms the home’s statement that the initial test was inconclusive. pic.twitter.com/MkjjMBHDRh
— Laurel Irving (@laurelirving7) May 18, 2020
Students will return to school full-time in NSW from May 25
Students in New South Wales will be in classrooms full-time from Monday 25 May.
I’ve confirmed reporting by Nine and the ABC this evening.
Most students in the state are currently at one day in classrooms per week.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian is set to announce the change tomorrow.
Updated
The ABC is reporting that students in NSW will return to classrooms full-time from Monday.
They say premier Gladys Berejiklian will announce the change tomorrow.
Updated
On the NSW-Queensland border closure until September, Kelly says the national cabinet has never provided advice on domestic borders, just the national border.
“I’ve never believed it has been necessary to shut them down.”
He says it is a decision for the state government.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said the border between the two states will likely remain closed until September.
He says national cabinet has discussed how reopening borders would fit into the three-step plan, and notes that yesterday there were more cases in Queensland than NSW.
But he repeats it is ultimately a decision for the Queensland government.
Updated
Deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly is on ABC’s RN Drive.
He’s asked about the decision to scale back the number of briefings to three times a week.
He says they’re still available to answer questions, but there’s just less going on.
At some of the last few briefings, he says just one journalist has turned up.
Aboriginal health organisations say the Queensland government is holding back a $3.3m national rollout of rapid Covid-19 testing in remote Aboriginal communities, putting concerns for health worker safety ahead of conducting what they say is a “gold standard” test endorsed by the World Health Organization and already being used in other states and territories.
Updated
Some Victorian Yr 12s have been picking up extra shifts at McDonald's because both of their parents have lost their jobs due to #COVID19 and they've become the sole household income, Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals President Sue Bell has told #PEAC. #springst
— Marnie Banger (@marniebanger) May 18, 2020
I’m Josh Taylor, I’ll be taking you through the live blog for the rest of the evening. Thanks to my colleague Calla Wahlquist for her efforts this afternoon.
Melbourne aged care home says test was 'inconclusive'
Villa Maria Catholic Homes has released a statement saying that a resident of their Bundoora home did not return a positive test result to Covid-19. The test was inconclusive, but all inconclusive tests are being treated as positive by the Victorian health department.
VMCH said a subsequent test was negative, but the home’s still locked down.
Here’s the full statement:
Over the weekend a resident at VMCH Bundoora Aged Care Residence was admitted to hospital with a temperature of 39 degrees Celsius.
As this is a symptom of COVID-19, the resident was tested, with the initial test results being inconclusive (neither negative nor positive).
The Department of Health is currently treating all inconclusive results as positive. As a result, the entire residence is now in lockdown until the Public Health Unit advises us this can end.
The resident has subsequently returned home, as they are no longer displaying any symptoms.
Further testing has produced a negative result, however the Department of Health are taking precautionary measures and have requested two more negative test results, to be undertaken 48 hours apart.
Family members have been informed and all residents and staff are being closely monitored.
All residents who have had close contact with the person are now in isolation within our residence.
Staff who have had close contact with the person are in self-isolation at home. All other staff are being tested for COVID-19. Should any signs of ill health appear, we will seek medical attention immediately.
On that note I will hand over to my colleague Josh Taylor who will take you through the evening.
Imagine the sadness of swinging by to pick up a sausage and egg McMuffin, and seeing this sign.
About 1,000 people work across the 12 McDonald’s stores that were closed for deep cleaning. Of those, several hundred have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days because they were on shift when the delivery driver attended the restaurant, or worked shifts after the driver’s visit.
Updated
South Australia has also recorded no new cases of Covid-19. Again.
The last person with the last active case of Covid-19 in SA was declared recovered on Friday. The state hasn’t recorded a new case since 7 May, and before that it had 14 days with no new cases.
Is it any wonder states like SA and WA don’t want to play with states like Victoria and NSW?
Western Australia recorded no new cases of Covid-19 overnight and currently has just three active cases.
Let’s go back to that Victorian update now. Victoria has recorded eight new Covid-19 cases overnight. There was a bit of double-counting so the total has only increased by six, to 1,567 of which 161 are confirmed to be cases of community transmission.
One of the new cases was the residents of the Villa Maria aged care facility in Bundoora, mentioned earlier.
Another one was the delivery driver whose positive test led to the closure of 12 McDonald’s restaurants throughout Melbourne today. The driver was a contact of a case from the McDonald’s Fawkner cluster, which now stands at 12 cases.
Another case was a close contact of a person in the Sunshine Hospital outbreak, bringing the number of cases in that outbreak to three. Three more cases were returned travellers in mandatory quarantine, and two are under investigation.
There were no new cases linked to the Cedar Meats outbreak, which stands at 99.
Updated
The most telling line out of Kelly’s press conference came right at the end — instead of daily briefings, the office of the national chief medical officer will now only be doing a press briefing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
They have been doing daily briefings since early March.
What if a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed and some people refuse to get it?
Kelly says he is “not in favour of compulsory vaccination” in cases of conscientious objection, but that he was sure there would be a “very strong uptake” of a Covid-19 vaccine if one becomes available.
Given how much we’ve seen and the devastation that this virus has caused around the world, that people will be queuing up for vaccination rather than the opposite.
Isn’t there a risk that could create a pocket of anti-vaxxers in which the virus could spread?
Kelly:
There’s always a pocket of people that are against vaccinations. What I’ve found, though, in these sort of circumstances, where there has been death and severe illness, people are much more attuned to getting the vaccine than previously. We’ve noticed, for example, almost double the number of flu vaccines have been delivered and injected already in this year compared with last year. And I think that’s part of this sort of general sense that vaccination is a good thing.
He was also asked about the risk to Australia of not being able to access a Covid-19 vaccine, if a successful vaccine is developed elsewhere first. One of the nine vaccine candidates is being developed in Australia.
Kelly says Australia needs to guard against vaccine nationalism, because the virus does not know borders.
We may not win the race, but we’re part of the race, and we will be looking to develop a vaccine herein Australia. If it isn’t the first vaccine that’s available, we’ll be looking to join that effort to vaccinate people — it’s really important that we do that in a way that is global, because infections don’t know borders.
Updated
Let’s go back to the deputy national chief medical officer, Paul Kelly. He was asked about the motion of inquiry which will go before the World Health Assembly tonight. (You can read an explainer on that here.)
The motion of inquiry does not explicitly mention China. Kelly said that does not weaken the process.
I think the most important thing — rather than apportioning blame to one particular country or another country — is that we get to the bottom of what’s happened. And part of that is about the origin, where this virus came from – as we understand it, to be a zoonotic disease, spread from an animal or animals into humans – I think that’s an important component of it.
But there is much that’s happened with this pandemic since the beginning and I think, looking at the entire way that it has spread so rapidly around the world and what’s happened in different countries in the ways that different countries have approached that problem will be part of that investigation. And I hope that that resolution will be successful.
Updated
Covid-19 detected in Melbourne aged care home
One of the six new cases of Covid-19 reported overnight in Victoria is a resident at a Melbourne aged care home, Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton has said.
Sutton said there has been a single case detected at the Villa Maria Aged Care facility in Bundoora, in Melbourne’s north.
The resident is being well cared for and has been isolated in their room since developing mild symptoms. Staff have been using full PPE to care for the resident since they developed symptoms.
Comprehensive contact tracing is under way and testing of all staff and residents will take place over the coming days. Residents and families are all being informed, and the department is working closely with the facility to ensure appropriate public health actions have been taken, including isolation, quarantine and cleaning.
Updated
Kelly is asked to weigh in on the decision of some states – every state except Victoria, New South Wales, and the ACT, basically – to keep their domestic borders closed despite a flattening of the curve and easing of other restrictions.
Kelly notes that the national cabinet, and national health advisors, never recommended internal state borders be closed.
That’s been a decision by various states, and it will be their decision as to whether to open them. But if you look at when those decisions were made – some weeks ago – we had a rapidly increasing number of cases each day right around Australia, but particularly in the south-eastern corner of the nation.
When you look at what’s happening now with just very few cases, only just over 100 cases in the last week, and only 11 in the last 24 hours — I think that things have changed a lot. But that’ll be a decision for those states that have closed borders.
Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, the NT and Queensland introduced border restrictions in late March, at the peak of Australia’s daily incidence rate and after all had imported a bunch of cases from the Ruby Princess’s bungled arrival in Sydney.
Updated
The deputy chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, is addressing the media in Canberra now.
Here are the latest numbers:
- There are 7,060 reported cases of Covid-19 in Australia
- Ninety-nine people have died
- Fewer than 700 of those recorded cases are still active — most people have recovered
- Forty-five people remain in hospital, 12 in intensive care and seven on ventilators.
- More than 1m Covid-19 tests have been conducted, and fewer than 1% of those tests are positive
Kelly says the virus curve in Australia “certainly is very flat at the moment and remaining so, but we’re watching very carefully because of the changes in restrictions that have occurred in the last week or so around Australia”.
He says he expects to see “small outbreaks going forward” as restrictions are released.
Updated
Network Ten’s online news site, 10 Daily, will close at the end of the week, leaving 20 editorial staff out of work. It comes four days after BuzzFeed jettisoned its Australian news team, making five editorial staff redundant. More than 150 Australian newsrooms have closed since January last year.
Like most online news outlets, 10 Daily had been smashing its performance targets since the coronavirus pandemic began. The pandemic has also hit ad revenue, but ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand’s chief content officer, Beverly McGarvey, said told staff the closure was not solely due to that.
The recent impact of Covid-19 on the media industry has reinforced the need to continue to align our business with our evolving customer needs and global business model, but I want to stress that the changes are part of our broader strategy, not a reaction to recent events.
Read Matilda Boseley’s full story here:
Thanks to Amy Remeikis for holding our hand through the day so far.
While we wait for deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly, let’s look to Western Australia, where the government has established a formal conciliation service to help tenants negotiate with their landlords about coronavirus-related tenancy disputes.
You’ll recall that the national cabinet resolved on 29 March that there should be a 6-month moratorium on evictions due to non-payment of rent, but the actual enforcement of that resolution has been left up to the states.
Consumer Protection WA today announced the establishment of the Residential Tenancies Mandatory Conciliation Service, which aims to help “all sides to reach a fair and achievable solution through informal discussion”.
The mandatory conciliation service is tied to legislation that enforces the six-month moratorium on evictions and rent increases.
Here’s general manager, Trish Blake.
It’s a relaxed environment and gives people the power to choose the outcome in a non-adversarial setting.
If you are involved in a dispute being conciliated by the service, you must take part in the process. This means you have to at least talk to the conciliator and be involved in a discussion with your landlord or tenant. The conciliator will be flexible to ensure you have every reasonable opportunity to participate and have your issues heard.
Updated
Deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly will be delivering today’s national update.
Calla Wahlquist will take you through that. I’ll be back tomorrow with more Covid and political news. We should have a better idea of what is happening with the barley tariffs by then, as well as the EU resolution. Thank you again for joining us. And please, take care of you.
Footy is (almost) back.
Training for the greatest game began today
It was different, but the players were back on deck.
— Collingwood FC (@CollingwoodFC) May 18, 2020
📷 gallery 👇
#GoPies
The Korea Times has an article on the contagiousness (or otherwise) of people who have been re-infected with Covid-19, based on South Korea’s information:
Patients who tested positive for the new coronavirus after recovering from their first bout of the disease do not infect other people, health authorities said Monday.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said it will not apply 14-day self-quarantine rules to such patients after concluding that the virus detected from relapse cases does not make other people sick.
‘There have been no secondary infections from people who were in close contact with such patients,’ Yoon Tae-ho, a senior health ministry official, told reporters. ‘Also, the results from culture tests back up the conclusion.’
So far, officials have confirmed 447 relapse cases, about 4.5% of all infection cases.
Updated
While we are discussing the proposed Covid-19 inquiry, this report from The Daily Beast is quite interesting.
Updated
Let’s remember that Australia is a middle power. It doesn’t have the diplomatic grunt to pull this sort of thing off in the world stage. It can help, and nudge, but at the end of the day, it’s a country with 25m people.
Updated
Asked to what extent the EU did the legwork on the resolution, as opposed to Australia, Marise Payne acknowledges the work the bloc did in getting the motion off the ground.
This is the EU’s motion. Not Australia’s. It’s an important distinction, despite some of the rah-rah headlines.
Payne:
We have been very clear about the opportunity to support the EU resolution going to the WHA, it is a very detailed piece of work and our support has been, all focused on making sure we achieve the most productive outcome, which is the comprehensive, impartial independent review.
To have been able to work with the EU and many others in support of this resolution has been a important series of steps to bring us today.
I don’t want to preempt speculate about the outcome, those discussions will be under way later this evening, Australian time. Importantly, the encouragement and input of so many parties, is, I think a real signal of the importance of the call for an independent international review and the outcome we have all wanted to see.
I think it’s a win for the international community, and Australia as a strong and active part of the international community, we would see it that way.
Updated
Is Australia now in a trade war with China?
Marise Payne still says no.
I think the trade minister has been clear about that, yesterday and again today.
We deal with issues on their merits as they arise, and that is what we have been doing in relation to barley and other issues, in particular, and that is what we have consistently done.
One thing Australia is very sure of in terms of the steps we are taking is the importance of being consistent, of being clear, and of ensuring that we are working through each issue as it comes to us.
Updated
On her “poacher and gamekeeper comments” from just a month ago, Marise Payne says the EU motion includes the words “impartial and independent”.
I think in what is a comprehensive resolution, you will see the review is specifically referred to as impartial, independent and comprehensive.
They are three factors which we particularly have sought.
The prime minister and I have also discussed a number of mechanisms within the WHO, including their independent oversight advisory body, which has the capacity to do some of this work, but that is to be determined after the resolution is dealt with by the World Health Assembly, and, of course, we’ve also been very clear in relation to the time of an inquiry of this nature that there are countries around the world, including some of those who have been prepared to cosponsor or sign up to this resolution who are still dealing with some of the most difficult aspects of the response.
They are at the peak level of the crisis, and some are yet to experience that level. So we are very aware of that in terms of the timing as well.
Updated
Marise Payne says Australia "very encouraged" by EU motion support
The Australian foreign minister, who very, very, very rarely holds press conferences, particularly solo, has stepped out in Penrith to speak about the EU World Health Assembly motion.
We are very encouraged by the growing levels of support for this comprehensive world health assembly motion that will be discussed later this week.
This is a process that is under way and continuing, so I am very careful to be observant of that, but the number of countries that have indicated their support, in fact are cosponsoring the resolution, drafted by the European Union, is very encouraging and we hope to a positive outcome later this week.
Updated
Mark McGowan says Gladys Berejiklian is “persistent” but WA will not be opening its borders “until we deem it is the right time for the health of Western Australians”.
The WA says keeping the borders with the east means more restrictions can be relaxed within WA.
Updated
The City of Melbourne will give international students $200 vouchers to shop for food at Queen Victoria Markets as part of a $200,000 program to support the students, who are not eligible for any government welfare, and support the struggling markets.
As Luke Henriques-Gomes reported, international students have been relying on food banks and restaurants giving away free food to survive. The markets are open but have seen a drop in trade.
Students can apply online for the vouchers and collect them from Melbourne town hall from Tuesday, 26 May.
The program was announced ahead of the city’s 2020-2021 budget. Councillor Philip Le Liu said Melbourne’s international student community needed support.
Thousands of international students live in our municipality – many of whom have lost their jobs and have little access to government support. Our food voucher program is a simple but effective way we can help make this time less stressful.
We must protect our education institutions and create a platform for recovery so that international students feel welcomed and supported in Melbourne.”
Higher education, particularly courses geared to international students, is a big industry in Melbourne.
Almost two thirds of jobs in the City of Melbourne itself are linked to the “knowledge sector”, the council said.
Updated
It looks like China may back the EU World Health Assembly motion, if the hawkish Global Times (state media) editorial is anything to go by - but only if certain conditions are met.
Will China oppose scientific research into the virus’ origin? No, because it is a necessary move to fight COVID-19 in a scientific way and conducive to prevention measures and development of vaccines and medicines. Washington’s smear that a Wuhan lab was the virus origin has been universally opposed by scientists, but the US is still irrationally calling for an investigation. It is obviously an unfair and unscientific appeal that China will never accept.
Some people in Europe and Australia echoed the US proposal for an independent investigation, against which China is certainly vigilant. Do some people in Canberra and other places follow Washington politically and conceal their political intention toward China?
A politicized appeal won’t be supported at the assembly. Five Eyes doesn’t represent the entire world and the US cannot control other countries at will. The US has messed up its COVID-19 fight but intends to shift the responsibility onto China. Such a plan is bound to backfire.
We hereby call on all countries of the world, including Western countries, not to be held hostage by Washington’s plot, to uphold the World Health Organization (WHO)‘s mission of serving the world’s public health needs and jointly opposing any politicization of the organization.
A scientific investigation should be carried out. But first of all, it should be led by WHO rather than any country or regional organization. Second, the investigation needs to be scientific and fair. Not only China-related factors, but also those related to the US and other countries need to be included. Earlier confirmed cases than the previously known first infected case have continuously been found in the US. Among those diagnosed as having flu last winter, how many were coronavirus infections? All these clues shouldn’t be missed.
Investigating the origin of the virus is only one part of the coronavirus fight. The ultimate goal is to control the pandemic and resume production globally. China is one of the countries that have done well in both. How could China be passive and isolated in WHA? It is the US that should feel it failed the international community.
The proposal that will eventually be adopted by the assembly will not be one that only meets US requests. No matter where the virus originated, the challenge is for all people around the world. The international community should be vigilant and reject the US attempt to politicize the investigation and create new disputes.
Only a small number of WHO members will cheer for the island of Taiwan, putting on nothing but a farce.
Updated
Asked if she believes Australia’s internal borders should re-open (something Gladys Berejiklian really wants, particularly with Queensland), Jane Halton says:
I can’t speak for the commission, because obviously that’s not my job. My job is to provide advice to business and to government.
And this is obviously a difficult issue at the moment.
And people are taking a fairly conservative approach to issues around borders. One of the things that I think we do need to understand is that our economy doesn’t work in hermetically sealed spheres.
And within the bounds of what is sensible, from a medical and other perspective, enabling businesses to move products around, enabling workers - to the extent that they can safely - to return to work, including if that means travelling across borders, I think is a sensible thing to do.
Now, I understand people are very nervous about the speed at which we open up.
And I do think that we all have to remind ourselves, and I think we’ve all seen behaviour like this over the last few days. I think a lot of people go – ‘it’s all good now’ – and we’ve seen an absence of social distancing out in public.
And I would remind people - it’s not all good now.
And you’ve still got a grandma, or you’ve got a friend who is immune-compromised, who, if you manage to pick up that virus and give it to somebody else, that could have a really bad outcome.
So I’m personally not convinced that our internal borders are the right way to manage our risks. I understand why people are nervous, but I would encourage people to think about how we maintain control, perhaps while enabling business to operate.
Updated
The Virgin Australia bidding process is ticking along, as AAP reports, although the Queensland Investment Corporation bid appears to have lost its (unofficial) preferred partner - Canadian investment group Brookfield, which is not on this list.
Four private equity firms are the leading candidates to buy Virgin Australia, the biggest regional casualty of the coronavirus crisis in the global aviation industry.
Melbourne-based BGH Capital and American private equity firms Bain Capital, Indigo Partners and Cyrus Capital Partners made the shortlist from bids submitted last week, a source told Reuters.
The administrators Deloitte have not named the parties but said on Monday they had shortlisted “a small number of well-funded parties with strong aviation credentials” who were invited to the next stage of the sale process.
Phoenix-based Indigo Partners owns US airline Frontier Airlines and Chilean carrier JetSmart, while New York and London-based Cyrus Capital Partners was recently involved in collapsed British regional airline Flybe.
BGH, a private equity firm founded in 2017, also on Monday entered into exclusive talks to acquire theme park and cinema owner Village Roadshow.
Tentative offers were due on Friday and Deloitte Restructuring Services partner Vaughan Strawbridge said they had received more interest than anticipated.
Updated
Chris Bowen says Labor has wanted to see “more Marise Payne in the debate and less George Christensen” when it comes to Australia’s response to China.
But he says the “progress” is welcome.
If you want to know how the barley tariff situation is going, this speaks volumes:
In one hour of questions, China’s Commerce Minister Zhong Shan’s assistant refused to call on Australian media to ask about the barley/beef issue (even though we had to pre register 3 days in advance & advise of our question). Nor would he take questions from others on it pic.twitter.com/g20EmaTS1V
— Bill Birtles (@billbirtles) May 18, 2020
Updated
The ACT remains (known) active Covid case free
ACT COVID-19 update 18 May:
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) May 18, 2020
No active cases
Totals: 107 cases, 104 recovered, 3 deaths, 14183 negative tests (232 in past 24hrs)
CHO knows everyone wants to enjoy relaxed restrictions but reminds us "this is not over". Maintain distancing/hygiene.#canberra #covid19aus
Paul Karp is covering Jane Halton, the chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, speech at the press club:
Halton says she is worried "it's all good now" view is causing less social distancing. But says "not convinced" maintaining interstate border controls is the right way to manage risk of complacency. #auspol #npc @AmyRemeikis
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 18, 2020
It was worth a shot, but as AAP reports, a federal court judge has dismissed a bid to have Qantas workers paid sick leave during the pandemic:
Some 20,000 Qantas workers stood down in mid-March have been able to legally access some entitlements including annual leave but have been prevented from accessing sick, carers and compassionate leave.
The company’s position on Monday was backed by Justice Geoffrey Flick.
He agreed with Qantas that the stand-down power served two important purposes; offering businesses financial relief and protecting workers from termination.
Allowing staff to access sick leave while lawfully stood down because there was no work would “go against the very object and purpose of conferring those entitlements - namely an entitlement to be relieved from the work which the employee was otherwise required to perform”, Flick said.
Transport Workers Union national secretary Michael Kaine said the ruling was “bitterly disappointing”.
“This is about justice and the fact that workers who are battling serious illnesses should be allowed to draw down the significant sick leave they have accrued through years of hard work at Qantas.”
Qantas said in a statement: “The court has confirmed that employees who are stood down are not eligible to receive paid sick leave because there is no work to be absent from.”
Jane Halton, the chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, is speaking at the National Press Club.
Halton says that although most vaccine candidates (94%) fail, and most of those at the first or second stage, nevertheless there is a “reasonable chance” of developing one for Covid-19 because there are 130 groups around the world working on the problem.
Halton warns that if a vaccine is developed, here will be a “significant” call within the country and company that develops and produces it for “domestic priority” - to vaccinate locals first.
But she says if countries engage in “vaccine nationalism” then “everyone will continue to suffer”.
The best way to restart global exports and tourism is to ensure widespread access worldwide.
Instead, CEPI is working on protocols to prioritise first responders (such as doctors, nurses, paramedics) and vulnerable populations.
I fear it will not be quite as ordered and together as we have been.
Updated
Marise Payne will be holding a (rare) press conference at 2.30pm to discuss the EU motion for the World Health Organization investigation into the original Covid-19 response.
If you want to know how far this has come, this was Payne on 19 April on Insiders, saying Australia did not want the WHO to conduct the investigation:
David Speers:
Could it be the World Health Organization, or do you agree they’re too beholden to China?
Marise Payne:
Well, I don’t think that it is so much about whether they are or are not beholden to China. And we share some of the concerns that the United States have identified in relation to the World Health Organization. That is certainly correct. I think it is about an independent mechanism, and I’m not sure that you can have the health organisation, which has been responsible for disseminating much of the international communications material, and doing much of the early engagement and investigative work, also as the review mechanism. That strikes me as somewhat poacher and gamekeeper.
David Speers:
So it can’t be the World Health Organization, in other words, to do this review?
Marise Payne:
Well, no, as I’ve said, that strikes me as a bit poacher and gamekeeper.
The EU motion, now co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, specifically mentions the WHO conducting the investigation.
Updated
Scott Morrison has just confirmed he will give an address at the national press club next Tuesday.
The ABS also reported more people were slipping on the social distance requirements, compared with March.
Fewer people were taking the following precautions in late April to early May:
- Keeping distance from people (94% compared with 98% in March).
- Purchasing additional household supplies (21% compared with 47% in March).
- Purchasing additional medical supplies (8% compared with 29% in March).
The proportion of Australians who said they were wearing a face mask remained about the same – 17% in March and 15% in late-April to early-May.
Almost half the nation, 46%, is working from home, while 89% of workers who aren’t working from home report it is because they can’t due to the nature of their job.
Updated
The ABS reports loneliness as the biggest personal stressor during Covid
The ABS has tallied up what has been stressing us out in the last month – and unsurprisingly, loneliness tops the list.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics, Michelle Marquardt, said women were more impacted then men, with 28% of women reporting feeling lonely, compared with 16% of men:
Around one in five people (19%) also reported that they were experiencing difficulties maintaining a healthy lifestyle, which was more of a problem for those aged 18 to 64 years (22%) than those aged 65 years and over (9%).
The survey also highlighted changes to people’s lifestyles during the period early-April to early-May, including:
- 22 % who said they are eating more snack foods such as chips, lollies and biscuits.
- 14% who said they are consuming more alcohol, and 10 per cent who said they are consuming less.
- 58% who reported spending more time in front of their television, computer, phone or other device.
- 29% who reported less frequent consumption of takeaway or delivered meals, while 38% spent more time cooking or baking.
If you would like to talk to someone about your mental health, you can contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Updated
For the record, the prime minister has been very firm on removing the jobseeker Covid supplement.
That is due to expire (along with the jobkeeper wage subsidy) in late September.
Here was Scott Morrison late last week, on why he doesn’t want the rate to stay:
It is also important that when you have what are effectively unemployment benefits through jobseeker at the levels that they are, that when you do that, that can provide in normal circumstances a disincentive with payments at that level for people to go and seek work.
And that’s why these arrangements with the Covid supplement are temporary arrangements.
The reason the Covid supplement was put in place was because we knew that those who would otherwise be on jobseeker who might in better times be able to go and find employment, that during this period that would be very difficult. So we understood that.
But as the economy reopens and as opportunities open up again, then, of course we would want to see people taking up those opportunities when they present. And so we will do that, I think, in a fair way and recognising that still, still there are few opportunities that are out there at present.
Updated
Labor leader argues against jobseeker staying at $1,100 a fortnight rate
Anthony Albanese says he doesn’t believe that the jobseeker allowance should be kept at its current level – $1,100 a fortnight.
That is still well under minimum wage.
But Albanese says Labor won’t be advocating for the whole Covid supplement ($550 a fortnight) to remain in place – but at the same time, he doesn’t want it to return to the old $40 a day Newstart rate.
What I said is, $40 a day isn’t enough for people to live on. The government acknowledged that, when they increased jobseeker, that was basically the words that they used ‘well we need to give people [enough] to live on. This doesn’t change after the event.
Now I don’t think it should be kept at the level where it is, where jobseeker is higher than the aged pension. That’s not a reasonable proposition.
But it is the case I think that jobseekers shouldn’t go back down to $40 a day.
And on jobkeeper, all I’m saying there is we’ll need some sort of a transition – the idea that you have more than six million people being subsidised with $1,500 a fortnight on 18 May and on 19 May it just ends for all six million people that will produce a shock to the economy, and there needs to be a much more sensible, pragmatic transition out of the process.
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The Labor leader says he thinks Australia has learnt that on-shore manufacturing needs to be supported, after the initial panic over the lack of personal protective equipment.
He also thinks that we might see less travel for meetings, now that everyone is used to teleconferencing.
The problem is you can’t always just snap back, there needs to be a transition and what I’m saying is, we can transition into how can we improve things, how can we make our economy stronger, more resilient.
How can we support more permanency in jobs, one of the issues that has been apparent during this crisis as well is those people who are in casual jobs, they have done it tougher and were the first place people to be laid off.
They’re the people [for who this will be much harder] and I think we need to recognise that as well.
And I think we can do that and emerge stronger.
It has been an opportunity where people have had a chance to think about things and the world has slowed down a little bit, for all of us.
And I’ve certainly been thinking about what sort of society, we want to have, how we can shape that, and how we can improve it.
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Anthony Albanese is speaking to John Laws on Sydney radio 2SM, and so far the interview has focussed on whether Albanese is pronounced Albanese or Albanese.
I’ll let your mind fill in the blanks.
And by the way – he says it’s Albanese.
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Speaking to the Seven Network this morning, Simon Birmingham said he hoped China would come on board the inquiry at the World Health Assembly:
I hope that China will participate. I hope China will come on board at the World Health Assembly, joining many, many other nations in supporting the obvious need for an inquiry into Covid-19, its origins, its handling right across the world. Because we’ve had a circumstance where hundreds of thousands of people have died, millions people have lost their jobs, billions of people had their lives disrupted, and the least the world can expect is an enquiry that allows us to learn the lessons so that we can try to avoid a repeat of this in the future.
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A key change in the motion can be found here, as Daniel Hurst has pointed out to me.
The 15 April draft included this request the WHO director general:
OP5.18
Plan for an evaluation, to be conducted in consultation with Member States at the earliest appropriate moment, on lessons learnt from the international health response to Covid-19, addressing the long-term consequences on health, , in order to assess, in line with the statement made by G20 leaders, gaps in pandemic preparedness with a view to establishing a global initiative on pandemic preparedness and response capitalising on existing structures and programmes to align priorities in global preparedness
Which has been changed to this:
OP9.10 Initiate, at the earliest appropriate moment, and in consultation with Member States,
1. A stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation, including using existing mechanisms,
2. As appropriate, to review experience gained and lessons learned from the WHO-coordinated international health response to Covid-19, including,
(i) the effectiveness of the mechanisms at WHO’s disposal;
(ii) the functioning of the IHR and the status of implementation of the relevant recommendations of the previous IHR Review Committees;
(iii) WHO’s contribution to United Nations-wide efforts;
and (iv) the actions of WHO and their timelines pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic, and make recommendations to improve global pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacity, including through strengthening, as appropriate, WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.
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Expect this resolution to be changed before the final vote – that sound you hear is hundreds of diplomatic cables flying back and forth as we speak, but here is the EU motion which will go to the World Health Assembly
Australia is a co-sponsor, along with 61 other countries, but it is important to note that this is different to what Australia first suggested.
The EU motion does not mention China, or even Wuhan. Russia is on board, but the United States, at this stage, is not.
In an unforeseen consequence of the Covid lockdown, New Zealand has seen its fastest growth rate in modern history, growing from four million to five million in 17 years.
Why?
Everyone came home.
As AAP reports:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has regularly thanked her “team of five million” for helping New Zealand weather the Covid-19 wave, and as of today she has confirmation of that headcount.
On Monday, Stats NZ released its quarterly estimate resident population figures which showed New Zealand notching the major milestone.
As of 31 March, the South Pacific nation has 5,002,100 residents.
In all likelihood, New Zealand has reached the figure because of the pandemic.
“Covid-19 has caused some unusual and unprecedented travel patterns,” Stats NZ senior demographer Kim Dunstan said.
“We’ve had people that have been in New Zealand prolong their stay which has given some boost to migration.
“We’ve also had more New Zealand citizens returning from living overseas in recent months.
“And we’ve also had fewer citizens departing New Zealand to live overseas.
“The combined impact has seen an upswing in migration which has helped New Zealand reach that five million milestone.”
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Presented without comment.
Government Services Minister @stuartrobertmp gets a Covid-19 test #7NEWS #auspol pic.twitter.com/DnTA9sqrNe
— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) May 18, 2020
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There has been a lot of interest in this, from those who like to watch politics north of the border.
Jackie Trad, who stepped down from the ministry and the deputy premiership earlier this month, after she was referred to the state’s corruption watchdog over her alleged role in appointing a school principal, will be running in the next election, for South Brisbane.
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It is probably a good time to point out that the EU motion, which is the one we have been talking about today, is different to what Australia was originally calling for.
The World Health Assembly is expected to endorse the motion.
So much for all those naysayers - and there were plenty in Australia - who claimed Australia was isolated on this issue or lacked diplomatic support.
— Dave Sharma (@DaveSharma) May 18, 2020
Strangely, the same people usually call for more “creative middle power diplomacy” and more multilateralism, but opposed this! 🧐 https://t.co/3kfTHWqwou
Not Covid related, but still very, very, very important – Luke Henriques-Gomes has an update on the robodebt situation.
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Paul Karp has spoken to ANU on where the business world is at, as restrictions begin to be lifted:
Four-in-five self-employed Australians have reported their profits have taken a hit as a result of the Covid-19 contraction, with almost one third worried their businesses will not be viable in two months without improved conditions.
The ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods study, released on Monday, provides fresh impetus for those arguing to reopen the Australian economy and will play into political debate about whether to extend the jobkeeper wage subsidy scheme beyond September.
Based on a survey of a representative sample of 3,155 Australians in mid-April, the report found self-employed workers have suffered a higher reduction in hours worked and income than employees.
The longitudinal survey found 5.1% of self-employed workers said that the coronavirus had eliminated their profits completely, 21.6% said it had been reduced to its lowest point ever and 21.9% said it has reduced their profits ‘substantially’.
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You’ll find more on where the independent inquiry Australia has been calling for on the Covid response, here
Joel Fitzgibbon spoke to Sydney radio 2SM this morning.
As the shadow agriculture minister, he had a bit to say about the current trade barney with China:
China is more than one-third of our exports and you’re going to be pretty hard-pressed to find new export markets that fill that void.
So we have to get this relationship right and it’s incumbent upon the government to do so. No one’s arguing that there shouldn’t be a Covid inquiry and by the way this relationship has been deteriorating for the last three years, not just since Covid emerged … [inaudible] rebuild the relationship and ensure we normalise our trading relationship.
China will be an important market for us for decades to come, it will become increasingly a high-value market as the middle-classes continue to emerge and to capitalise on that and to draw benefit from that we do not in any way have to forgo our sovereignty or our national interest.
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Queensland reports two new cases of Covid-19
Queensland’s health minister and deputy premier, Steven Miles, says there have been two new cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in Queensland overnight. There are now 13 (known) cases of coronavirus in Queensland. Four people are in hospital and one person is in the ICU.
Miles is in Rockhampton, after an aged care nurse tested positive for Covid-19. There has been an investigation launched as the nurse was displaying symptoms when they went to work and returned to work after being tested for Covid, before the positive diagnosis came back.
It’s a government-run facility.
The centre has been put into lockdown and all residents and staff have been tested as part of a rapid response, but all residents have been moved out of the facility while tests and monitoring continues.
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Still, China is due to make a decision on whether or not it imposes a tariff (up to 80%) on Australian barley exports in the next 24 hours.
David Littleproud says if it moves forward with the threat, Australia will be off to the World Trade Organisation lickety-split:
[Trade] minister [Simon] Birmingham has been quite clear on this that we reserve our rights and he has a strong record that when we believe that our case hasn’t been understood properly, that we take it to the independent umpire. We’ve done that with trading partners like Canada with wine, and India with sugar. So we will look at the judgement by China tomorrow.
This has been something that’s been in transition for 18 months; it’s come to this junction. We’ll work calmly and methodically through it. The Department of Agriculture personnel in China, in Beijing are telling me that it’s been very constructive with Chinese officials on the ground. It’s very calm, very methodical working through the questions they have and giving them the answers they’re looking for. Now, whether that gets lost in the translation, we’ll find out tomorrow. But we’ll be very strong that we’ll stand up to any trading partner where we believe they haven’t understood our argument and we’ll take it an umpire for them to determine.
The call to investigate the initial response to Covid, as well as how the world reacted, does not mention China or Wuhan. Sixty-two nations lined up behind Australia to call for an independent investigation. David Littleproud told the ABC it wasn’t about pointing fingers:
This was always about investigation rather than conflict. And quite calmly and methodically, we’ve asked why and how this has happened. How can we do better? What can we learn from this?
That’s the responsible thing to do when 300,000 souls have lost their lives around the world.
We’ve done that asking other nations to work with us, and I think we’ll get better answers and even the Department of Agriculture, has put out there and I led this to the G20, looking at wildlife wet markets.
Six pandemics since 1980 have originated from wildlife wet markets.
It is important to understand whether they can be mitigated and if they can’t, how do we transition these countries away from the wildlife element of a wet market.
That’s the responsible thing to do, that’s a good global citizen and that’s what Australia has led.
Dave Sharma says just because the Chinese trade minister isn’t picking up the phone to Simon Birmingham doesn’t mean there aren’t discussions happening.
The former ambassador says the embassies would still be talking to each other and there would be communications going back and forth. Which is an important point.
The Greens are launching their economic recovery plan today.
Today, I'm proud to launch the Greens economic recovery plan https://t.co/InyQlekq7b – to restart the economy and build a fairer, more sustainable future, creating 870,000 jobs and guaranteeing a job, secure income and free education for young people. pic.twitter.com/dh6VK4E9nS
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) May 17, 2020
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AAP has an update on the stock market situation:
Shares are tipped to be slightly higher in early trade on the Australian market as part of what one expert said is the ASX’s skittish recovery from coronavirus lows.
The SPI 200 futures contract was higher by 32 points or 0.59%, to 5,436 at 8.00 AEST on Monday, indicating a small gain in early trade.
This follows a thin positive lead from Wall Street where the three major US indexes closed higher on Friday despite weaker than expected US economic data, amid optimism that easing coronavirus restrictions would boost activity this month.
CommSec chief economist Craig James says Australian equities have likely bottomed out and are undergoing a skittish recovery – as long as the nation continues to keep coronavirus cases low.
He noted the ASX200 had risen over six of the past seven weeks
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Australia's death toll rises to 99
NSW chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, has reported a man in his 60s, who had been diagnosed with Covid-19, had died. Dr Chant said the man had underlying health conditions.
The man is the 48th to die in NSW and the 99th death across Australia.
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Chief executive of Anglicare, Grant Millard says the situation at Newmarch House is now “very solid”, and isn’t concerned with a royal commission investigating the outbreak at the house.
In the five weeks since the first case of Covid-19 at the home was diagnosed, 18 residents have died and 71 people have been infected.
“We haven’t had any infection since 28 April. I think things are very much under control now. It was a vastly different situation two weeks ago. It was extremely challenging, everyone was stretched,” he told ABC radio this morning.
Millard was asked if all Covid-19 positive patients should have been transported to hospital at the beginning of the outbreak:
It needs to be assessed on an individual basis. It really depends on the person’s state of health ... These people are actually in their own homes, that’s where they’re comfortable. It’s not as clear cut as saying, ‘get someone at the hospital’.
But I think, given the challenges with staffing, and, at the same time we heard that there was no elective surgeries and hospital, and there was staff around, it does beg the question about whether they should have just gone off the hospital?
I understand the public health outbreak at the time there were real concerns about what might have another Ruby Princess and I get that, but you just need to make this decision a case by case basis.
Millard admitted there had been a break down in communication with families:
I readily acknowledge that communication was a problem. We were scrambling to staff just to provide basic care, and we just didn’t do a good enough job with communicating with families.
Millard said he wasn’t concerned about inquires by the royal commission into aged care and said he wasn’t aware of any claims of compensation from families of those residents who died after contracting Covid-19.
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Transport apps in NSW will now tell you whether or not there is seat capacity on public transport at peak times as the state moves to keep public transport open, but maintaining social distancing.
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NSW reports one new case of Covid-19
Gladys Berejiklian says there has been just one new case of Covid-19 diagnosed in New South Wales in the last 24 hours. They know where it came from – overseas. The person remains in quarantine.
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Victoria announces $2.7bn construction stimulus package
Daniel Andrews has announced a $2.7bn construction stimulus package for the state, in a bid to get the economy moving after the Covid restrictions:
This is a package that is designed to make sure that tradies and all of us, because as those wages are earnt and the contracts are won, the money is invested and spent. They move around the Victorian economy, and that money flowing throughout the Victorian economy benefits all of us.
Hundreds and hundreds of projects delivering thousands and thousands of jobs.
That’s exactly what we need right at this time, and I want to be clear with you that these projects, many of which are new, some of which were in the planning, but have been brought forward.
Because we’ve got to get the projects away quickly. These projects, some of them, the public housing maintenance for instance, will begin next week.
The rest of them will be under way over the next three to six months. And we’ll be pushing as hard as we possibly can to get those projects done closer to the three months than the six months.
It’s very, very important that we underpin demand. That we give to tradies and so many others across the economy, that sense of absolute certainty and confidence that this work is here and it’s here right now.
There’s never been a better time for us to invest. Never been a more important time for us to invest in these jobs.
This, of course, comes after our very significant business survival package, which included the best part of $2bn in grants to businesses hardest hit by the shutdowns.
Payroll tax refunds to businesses right across the state, and of course, the Working for Victoria fund, which is all about trying to make sure that those who have lost their job can work for all of us doing deep cleaning, doing all sorts of other functions.
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Students are preparing to return to on-site learning in South Australia (which reported it was officially known Covid case free) and the ACT (which has also reported it was known Covid case free) today.
Queensland students will all be back on-site from next Monday. New South Wales has also moved to a return and Victoria has laid out its plan.
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Federal Queensland Liberal MP Andrew Laming continues to cover himself in glory, photoshopping the Queensland premier, whose Polish grandfather was interned by the Nazis, and whose grandmother suffered abuse at their hands, as a Nazi in a social media post, protesting the Queensland restrictions.
Annastacia Palaszczuk says she is not going to get into it with him:
I’m not going to comment. I’m focused on dealing with a pandemic. If people have too much time on their hands and want to get involved in that sort of behaviour, I think that it speaks more about themselves than anyone else.
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Victoria reports six new cases of Covid-19
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says there have been six more cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in his state in the last 24 hours.
“We still have to acknowledge this is with us still, this is not over,” he says.
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Queensland borders may not open until September
There had been hopes that Queensland would reopen its borders in June, but in case you missed it, Annastacia Palaszczuk just poured cold water over that.
Speaking to ABC News Breakfast, the Queensland premier says the decision will be reviewed at the end of this month, but borders may remain closed for another three to four months.
Q: You’ve said that you’d review the border decision at the end of every month. Is it possible at the end of May, which is only a couple of weeks away, there may be a change?
A: Look, I have to get the advice of the chief health officer. I would say that things would look more positive towards September. Having said that, I don’t want to rule anything out. I will give you that advice at the end of May as quickly as possible.
Q: So that’s several months, we’re talking about September, that’s three or four months away before the border could reopen?
A: Well, it’s about the community transmission based on the expert advice. It’s not my decision. It’s based on the expert health advice.
Q: Now, what about the prospect of a domestic travel bubble? Queenslanders being allowed to go to the NT? WA and South Australia? Would you be open to that?
A: I could see that happening before New South Wales and Victoria. But that’s a matter for the premiers there as well. They’ll probably say the same thing.
We’ve got a little bit of community transmission. Not much, but they may say - no, we don’t want Queensland at the moment.
But look, at the end of the day, I really hope that we see an Australia where people can travel freely once again through all of our borders because that’s the way that we work best together.
But we’re just in this unusual circumstance at the moment that no one wants to be in. So we have to take the health advice. But it’s great to see some of the restrictions easing and people travelling around.
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Good morning
Simon Birmingham may not be able to get a call back from his Chinese counterpart over trade tensions, but Australia’s call for an independent investigation into the Covid reaction has gained traction overnight, with 62 countries, including Russia, signing on to have the immediate response evaluated.
Queensland is set to review its border closures at the end of May, but Annastacia Palaszczuk says that September is looking more likely, given community transmission rates in Victoria and New South Wales.
I have to get the advice of the chief health officer. I would say that things would look more positive towards September. Having said that, I don’t want to rule anything out,” she told the ABC.
Speaking of that, McDonald’s has closed 12 outlets across Victoria and staff have been told to be tested after a delivery driver tested positive for coronavirus. All 12 outlets will be shut and deep cleaned after being visited by the driver, who was asymptomatic and unaware he had Covid-19 at the time.
With the health response having beefed up, restrictions are relaxing across the nation, leaving politicians time to concentrate, once again, on politics.
But there is a rough road ahead. The economy is, to put it mildly, not great. Federally, attention is being turned to the free childcare offer, jobkeeper and jobseeker, and how much longer to keep them going. There are reviews coming up for all three, and we’ll bring you all the information as we get it.
You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day today, as well as the entire Guardian brains trust.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
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