Summary of today's events
And with that, we’ll be closing the blog for today. Thanks to you for reading, and to Amy Remeikis for running it earlier.
What happened today:
- Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced a new $4,957 on-the-spot fine, its largest fine, for those breaching isolation rules, as well as a permit system for essential workers.
- He also said police had been given “extraordinary powers” and that an additional 500 Australian Defence Force personnel would be sent to Melbourne.
- And people in self-isolation have been banned from leaving their home to exercise, after 800 people out of 3,000 could not be found at home during spot-checks.
- The federal aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, refused to publicly release a list of aged care homes in Victoria battling outbreaks due to “reputational issues” for the facilities.
- Victoria recorded 439 new cases and 11 deaths. NSW recorded 12 new cases and South Australia recorded one.
- Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced she would remove all hotel quarantine exemptions for diplomats, effective from Wednesday, after a man with Covid-19 who did not quarantine was revealed to be a private contractor, not a consular staff member.
- The previous chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, revealed that Victoria had stopped using the Covidsafe app for a period because it hadn’t found value in it during the first wave.
- But deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth confirmed that Victoria was now using the app again.
- Flights to Uluru were suspended following a successful blockade from the Mutitjulu Aboriginal community, which is worried about the Covid-19 risks of travellers from hotspots.
- The Reserve Bank kept interest rates the same – at a record low.
Thanks for following along. Stay safe, and we’ll be back tomorrow morning.
Updated
Queensland to remove hotel quarantine exemptions
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced she will remove all hotel quarantine exemptions that exist for diplomats, effective from Wednesday.
Earlier, Palaszczuk had said she would wait to raise the issue at national cabinet on Friday, but she has just told reporters she could not wait.
The decision comes after a man in his 20s with Covid-19 was allowed to enter Queensland, and go to the Sunshine Coast, using diplomatic paperwork that meant he could avoid two weeks’ isolation.
It has been revealed that the man was not a consular staff member, as initially reported, but is a private security contractor.
AAP reported Palaszczuk as saying:
We are now in a situation where we need these loopholes closed. It is not too much to be asking people who are returning from overseas to do the mandatory quarantining.
The ban would come in to effect from Wednesday, it reported.
The man flew from Kabul to Sydney, then onto the Sunshine Coast on Friday, with an exemption provided by the NSW authorities and a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade letter.
He was diagnosed with Covid-19 on Sunday and is now in self-isolation with his wife in Toowoomba.
Queensland police have been asked to investigate the source of the man’s documentation.
Palaszczuk said:
If there is any suggestion that it is not an authentic letter, then that needs to be investigated by police.
Updated
Up to 170 workers from the Pacific will come into the Northern Territory, as the government resumes seasonal worker programs.
The government will trial a resumption the Pacific Labour Scheme and Seasonal Worker Programme, according to an announcement from foreign minister Marise Payne and minister for the Pacific, Alex Hawke. The entry of new workers was paused earlier this year due to the pandemic.
Workers in Vanuatu will be the first to participate in the trial, the ministers said.
Both Australian mango farmers and our Pacific neighbours will benefit from a trial resumption.
The ministers said all workers would be quarantined for 14 days and “labour market testing will be applied to ensure Australian jobseekers are given priority”.
In recent years, nearly half of the Northern Territory mango seasonal workforce has been made up of Pacific and Timorese workers, many of whom return each season to support Northern Territory mango growers. Their experience is highly valued.
Hawke said these would be the first Pacific workers to enter Australia since 20 March 2020.
Updated
23 more cases in regional Victoria today:
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) August 4, 2020
GREATER GEELONG 14
LATROBE 3
MACEDON RANGES 2
plus one each in SOUTH GIPPSLAND, SURF COAST, PYRENEES, MOIRA. pic.twitter.com/KIFoywwBBW
More than 730 health workers in Victoria have active infections of Covid-19.
Nurses have written to Daniel Andrews stating “the situation [in terms of PPE] is still inadequate months after the outbreak started”.
Melissa Davey has more details:
Updated
Liberal senator says she has experienced issues with Victorian contact tracing
The Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Henderson says she has personally experienced issues with the state’s contact tracing efforts.
Today marks her 10th day of self-isolation at home because she had been in contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case.
In an interview with Sky News this afternoon, Henderson said she had received a message the other day that contained the wrong date. She also said she had received two phone calls within the space of half an hour from contract tracers, indicating that there was a problem with the system that the first call may not have been logged.
Henderson said, however, she had recently had a knock on the door from the state health department and Australian defence force, which was “very impressive to see”. “It’s absolutely imperative that Victorians do the right thing.”
Day 9 of self-isolation. As a close contact, very pleased to be door knocked by Shannon from @VicGovDHHS & Ben & Jordan from @DeptDefence, checking I am home and all is ok. Anyone required to self-isolate who does the wrong thing can expect very serious consequences. pic.twitter.com/CW6C2QCEGm
— Senator Sarah Henderson (@SenSHenderson) August 3, 2020
Henderson said she had raised the issue of people in self-isolation being allowed out to exercise with her contact tracing team last week. Henderson said it was a case of confusing messaging.
That issue was addressed earlier today when the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said people who were ordered to self-isolate would no longer be allowed to leave their properties to exercise.
Andrews told reporters that the defence force and health department had door-knocked 3,000 homes where people should be isolating, but in more than 800 of those homes the person who should have been isolating could not be found.
“That is completely unacceptable,” Andrews said.
Updated
Paul Keating says young people worse off than previous generations
Earlier today, former prime minister Paul Keating had some choice words on the government’s decision to allow people to access their superannuation during the pandemic.
He made the point that young people were already in a worse situation than previous generations because they had not had the benefit of a pay rise since 2013, were saddled with Hecs debts and had to pay GST and rent.
Keating said:
They lose all the compounding – the $20,000 would have multiplied itself by five and a half or six times over their lifetime, so it’s been a very poor choice to them.
Now their pool of savings has been lost to them when in fact it should have been public support from the get-go.
Updated
And here is our news wrap of the new powers given to Victorian police.
Updated
Morrison to speak with PNG PM over Covid response
Scott Morrison says he and his counterpart in Papua New Guinea will hold talks tomorrow to discuss the impacts of Covid-19 on the region.
The talks come amid growing concerns about the potential for the Covid-19 outbreak to overwhelm PNG’s health system. The Australian government announced last week that it was sending an Ausmat medical team to PNG to help with the response. As of last week, PNG had reported 63 cases, with 52 of those – more than 80% – had been in the previous two weeks.
In a statement issued a short time ago, Morrison said he would hold a virtual summit tomorrow with the prime minister of PNG, James Marape.
Morrison said the countries supported each other “as a family”, citing PNG’s provision of help with Australia’s bushfire recovery and Australia’s ongoing support to help PNG “overcome the shared challenge of the Covid-19 global pandemic”.
Discussions during the virtual summit will focus on the impacts of Covid-19 on our region and strategies for economic recovery. We will also discuss opportunities to strengthen bilateral cooperation across the breadth of economic and security issues.
Morrison added that he looked forward to the virtual summit and “building on Australia and Papua New Guinea’s shared interests in a secure, stable, peaceful, prosperous and democratic region”.
In recent months, amid health-related travel restrictions, Morrison has held virtual summits with the leaders of India and Japan.
Updated
VICTORIA: Here’s the Coronavirus case breakdown by Local Government Area. @10NewsFirst #COVIDVIC19 #CovidVic pic.twitter.com/8ygG960Nbw
— Candice Wyatt (@CandiceWyatt10) August 4, 2020
The CSIRO have made progress on wastewater testing technology that could discover localised outbreaks on ships and aged care homes, by testing sewage.
The agency’s chief operating officer Judi Zielke told a Senate inquiry today that the CSIRO has been testing different methods of analysing sewage.
AAP report:
Such analysis can detect the presence of Covid-19 carriers in the community regardless of whether they show symptoms.
The new research builds on the world’s first peer-reviewed proof-of-concept trial run in Brisbane by CSIRO and the University of Queensland which tested untreated sewage and found fragments of the virus that causes Covid-19.
CSIRO chief operating officer Judi Zielke told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday the method had progressed to the level that it could be used on wastewater from an aircraft or a ship.
Other possible applications could be an aged care facility or a remote Indigenous community where outbreaks would have an “extremely bad” health impact.
Asked whether the technology could track individuals – such as the three women identified recently by authorities as having travelled from Melbourne to Brisbane – she said it was more focused on assessing a percentage of Covid-19 cases in a particular area.
“At the moment it is yet to be proven exactly what our numbers are, but we are of the view that it is as low as less than 10 that we can actually detect at the moment.”
Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
Updated
With less than 48 hours until childcare attendance rates are set to plummet in Melbourne, providers say they need urgent clarity and support from the state and federal governments.
From Thursday, only parents from “defined industries” will be allowed to send their children to childcare – but there has been no word on which families will qualify.
Matilda Boseley has the story:
Flights to Uluru suspended after blockade of tourists
Flights to Uluru in the Northern Territory have been suspended following a successful blockage from the Mutitjulu Aboriginal community, who are worried about the Covid-19 risks of travellers from hotspots.
The blockade followed the arrival of a Jetstar flight from Brisbane on Saturday with 42 passengers onboard.
It forced Parks Australia to close the gates and triggered a meeting of the Yulara resort managers, Voyages, with Parks Australia, the Mutitjulu community and traditional owners in an effort to resolve the standoff.
Lorena Allam has the full story:
Updated
Here’s more from Leigh Sales on her home office set-up as she isolates while awaiting test results.
A bit of back story about how @leighsales is able to broadcast from home isolation. #abc730 pic.twitter.com/novX3kbgMN
— abc730 (@abc730) August 4, 2020
Updated
Labor’s shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, has written to NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian in regards to the Ruby Princess inquiry:
Kristina Keneally has written to NSW Premier asking her to:
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 4, 2020
(1) Extend the Ruby Princess inquiry; and
(2) Personally appeal to PM to allow federal public servants to appear.
This after Morrison (appeared to) guarantee full cooperation in April.#auspol #RubyPrincess pic.twitter.com/wrRnU0cCPG
In April, Scott Morrison claimed the commonwealth “always cooperates with royal commissions”.
But in correspondence with the Ruby Princess inquiry, the Australian government solicitor has asked commissioner Bret Walker to withdraw a summons for a federal agriculture department official to appear at the inquiry.
According to the federal government submission, this stance was consistent with the commonwealth’s “longstanding position in relation to compulsory notices issued by state commissions of inquiry purporting to bind commonwealth officers”.
Walker declined to withdraw the summons but told federal lawyers he did not intend to issue a warrant to require the appearance, while “noting that she remained potentially subject to prosecution (although that matter was out of the special commission’s hands)”.
Now Keneally has asked Berejiklian to get involved – by extending the inquiry that is due to report by 14 August, and to personally ask Morrison to allow federal public servants to appear. Guardian Australia has contacted Berejiklian to see if she will take up the call.
Keneally wrote:
[Freedom of information] documents show that senior officials in the Morrison government have known since 20 March, one day after the Ruby Princess passengers disembarked, that one of the Australian Border Force officials onboard the Ruby Princess incorrectly read the tests results for sick passengers, mistaking negative flu test results for negative Covid-19 test results, before allowing those ill passengers to disembark. Some of those passengers would go on to test positive to Covid-19.
Given this new information has just come to hand, I believe it would be a mistake to force commissioner Walker to provide his report to you on 14 August without hearing directly from commonwealth officials.
As I have said, when it comes to our borders, the buck stops with the commonwealth. Given these startling revelations, I believe the people of New South Wales have a right to understand what role commonwealth officials played in allowing the Ruby Princess to dock and passengers to disembark.
I am deeply concerned that the Morrison government has failed to reveal these facts until now. Refusing to appear before the inquiry, and burying these revelations in a written submission that runs over a thousand pages, quietly slipped to the inquiry at the last minute and held from the public for weeks, is far from the “full cooperation” the prime minister “guaranteed”.
Updated
The Police Association of Victoria has just tweeted a photo of the officer who was assaulted and given a concussion last night by a person who refused to wear a mask.
The union said the 26-year old constable “returned to the station concussed and missing a clump of hair because she asked someone to wear a mask”.
This 26-year-old Constable returned to the station concussed and missing a clump of hair.
— TPAV (@PoliceAssocVIC) August 4, 2020
Because she asked someone to wear a mask.
She and many others are sacrificing their safety for our safety.#protectourprotectors #springst #tpav #covid19 #covid19aus #COVID19Vic cases pic.twitter.com/Bdjve1YJWR
Updated
Victoria using Covidsafe app again, deputy CMO says
Back to that press conference, Nick Coatsworth says Victoria has started using the Covidsafe app again, after the former chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, revealed this morning that the state had stopped using it.
Coatsworth is asked whether it was a mistake to stop using it at “the start of the second wave”. He says that Covidsafe was “actually being used at the start of the second wave”.
Brett Sutton was very clear about that in a number of his press conferences. It is the case that in the intervening period the Covidsafe app stopped being used.
We have discussed this with the Victorian public health unit ... It is our understanding that it has now been reintegrated into their workflow.
Coatsworth defends the app, saying in NSW it is “clearly having an important effect” and helped identify a previously unknown exposure event.
The importance of the Covidsafe app is that it provides an extra layer of protection. It needs to be integrated into the work flow of a public healthcare unit.
Updated
Leigh Sales self-isolates after Covid-19 test
The ABC’s Leigh Sales will present tonight’s 7.30 from home, as she self-isolates after being tested for Covid-19 in Sydney.
She said:
I woke up this morning unfortunately with a bit of a sore throat and a tiny bit of a runny nose.
Sales says her parts of program tonight will be filmed from her home.
We’ve had gear set up there that I have learnt to use.
I feel fine, so I will work from home until I get my test results back ... If you wake up with a cold, do the right thing and go and get tested.
.@leighsales is currently in isolation after getting a COVID-19 test today, so tonight she will be presenting 7.30 from her home. #abc730 pic.twitter.com/s7EvrOfntS
— abc730 (@abc730) August 4, 2020
Updated
Coatsworth says he wants to talk through the response to the aged care outbreaks in Victoria.
He says the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, announced last week, is bringing together Australia’s “best health service managers [and] best emergency planner”.
That includes members of the Australian medical assistance team, who he describes as “some of Australia’s best clinical leaders”.
Coatsworth says the VCARC is a “true partnership” between the Victorian state government and the federal government.
Updated
Hi all, Naaman Zhou here. Thanks as always to Amy for her work on the blog.
The deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth is speaking now.
He announces the national wrap of all the state statistics that came out today.
There were 452 new cases nationally and 11 deaths over the past 24 hours. We are now at 232 deaths nationally.
There are 44 people in intensive care. And we had 12 new cases in NSW, 439 in Victoria and one new case in SA.
Updated
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth will hold a national Covid update at 3.30pm. Naaman Zhou will take you through that.
Thanks to everyone who followed along with me today. You can reach me here and here. In the meantime, if you still have questions, I am still making my way through some of them but I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Thank you again – and please, take care of you.
Updated
Also learnt that communications were made more difficult due to language barriers when finding new workforce (to replace those sent home) who spoke Greek, with many residents not having English as first language. @SBSNews https://t.co/uN7wgxAyqF
— Jamie Travers (@JamieTravers) August 4, 2020
The whole interview is a must-watch, but in terms of Covid, this bit is all of the bug-eyed emojis:
.@jonathanvswan: “Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.”@realdonaldtrump: “You can’t do that.”
— Axios (@axios) August 4, 2020
Swan: “Why can’t I do that?” pic.twitter.com/MStySfkV39
Updated
AAP has a Western Australia update:
Defence personnel have taken up their posts in Western Australia’s coronavirus quarantine hotels as the state again recorded no new cases.
Six cases remain active in WA, where the interstate borders remain closed and there has been no confirmed community transmission since 12 April.
About 50 Australian Defence Force reservists have been provided to help manage security at the hotels where returned overseas travellers are in quarantine.
About 240 security guards are stationed across the five hotels, supported by medical staff from the Department of Health.
Premier Mark McGowan says the evidence suggests WA’s hotel quarantine system is working well.
We have a very comprehensive arrangement in our hotels to make sure that we don’t have any glitches or problems emerge from hotel quarantine.
But the ADF will help. They’ve done their initial training and they’re onsite now.
The McGowan government has resisted removing restrictions that were due to end last month, allowing 60,000 capacity crowds at Optus stadium and the removal of the 2sq-metre rule at pubs and other venues.
A decision is due later this week on whether to proceed with phase five from 15 August, with a further delay likely.
Updated
So if you want to go for a walk, you can (assuming you are Covid/close-contact free), but it must be between 5am and 8pm and can’t be outside a 5km radius from your home.
There are 1,750 police out there focused on this stuff. Wear a mask. As general advice - carry your licence or something with your name and address on it. A $5,000 fine would be ruinous for many (including myself – and I know I am among the lucky ones, job and salary-wise).
Updated
For those asking, here are the reasons you are allowed to leave your home in Melbourne (between 5am and 8pm). Outside of those hours, you are only allowed to leave your house for one of the following four reasons:
- To purchase food and necessary supplies. This must be done within a 5km radius from where you live. Only one person per household can leave for essential goods, and only once a day. For some people the nearest goods and services will be more than 5km away. In this situation you may travel beyond 5km to the nearest provider. If you are unable to leave home because it would mean leaving a young child or at-risk person at home unattended, then they may accompany you.
- Exercise once a day for up to one hour within a 5km radius of your home. Gathering sizes will be limited to two. If you are unable to leave home because it would mean leaving a young child or at-risk person at home unattended, then they may accompany you.
- For care and healthcare, including accompanying someone for essential medical care if you are a carer, guardian or necessary support person – the 5km limit does not apply to care or caregiving.
- Work. Study at TAFE and university must be done remotely. The 5km limit does not apply to (essential) work.
If you are required to self-isolate as a confirmed Covid case, or a close contact, you can not leave your home for any reason, outside of a medical emergency.
Updated
Social services minister Anne Ruston has held a press conference to reiterate the eligibility for paid pandemic leave, if you are in Victoria.
She said:
The payment is a $1,500 payment to those people for the 14 days or fortnight that they will be required not to attend work.
The eligibility for this will require those people must be over the age of 17, they must live in Victoria and work in Victoria.
They need to have been likely to have worked during the period of the 14-day quarantine.
They must have exhausted all of their sick-leave entitlements and any other entitlements, including pandemic and leave entitlements, that may be made available through their employer.
They must not be on jobkeeper or any other payment from the Australian government.
However, people do need to be eligible for Australian government payments to be able to get access to this particular leave payment. For people who think that they’re eligible, we would suggest that you test your eligibility by contacting 1800 22 66, which is the emergency disaster hotline at Services Australia.
There will be people manning these phones from 8am tomorrow morning and when you ring up you will need to provide some information.
For those people who have not interacted with Centrelink before, you will need to provide a 100-point check.
It is the same sort of thing when you go to a bank and you want to set up a bank account – your driver’s license, passport etc, but if you want more information about what you need to provide you can go on to the www.servicesaustralia.gov.au website and all information will be available.
For those of you who have a CRN, you do not need to provide this, all you need to do is to provide the information to identify yourself by providing that number.
You will also be required to provide information that indicates who and when you were required to isolate. You will also be required to advise or declare that you do not have any leave entitlements or other payments that you may be able to be relying on at the time.
But as I said, for further information contact the Australian government website – the number once again is 1800 22 66.
Updated
almost three quarters of the Victorians in intensive care with COVID-19 are under the age of 70.
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) August 4, 2020
40% are under 60.
If you can’t make it through that RBA statement, here is the key paragraph:
The Australian economy is going through a very difficult period and is experiencing the biggest contraction since the 1930s.
As difficult as this is, the downturn is not as severe as earlier expected and a recovery is now underway in most of Australia.
This recovery is, however, likely to be both uneven and bumpy, with the coronavirus outbreak in Victoria having a major effect on the Victorian economy.
Given the uncertainties about the overall outlook, the board considered a range of scenarios at its meeting. In the baseline scenario, output falls by 6% over 2020 and then grows by 5% over the following year.
In this scenario, the unemployment rate rises to around 10% later in 2020 due to further job losses in Victoria and more people elsewhere in Australia looking for jobs. Over the following couple of years, the unemployment rate is expected to decline gradually to around 7%.
Updated
RBA keeps interest rates at record low
No surprises here. You can repeat this into the future, methinks.
At its meeting today, the Board decided to maintain the current policy settings, including the targets for the cash rate and the yield on 3-year Australian Government bonds of 25 basis points - https://t.co/YnEMgjQzYX
— RBA (@RBAInfo) August 4, 2020
Updated
Further to Luke’s post –
The ministers explanation.. @10NewsFirstMelb #springst https://t.co/c6pcKvgUHk
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) August 4, 2020
Updated
Over in the Victorian parliament’s upper house, the opposition accused the state government of treating the public with contempt after the health minister, Jenny Mikakos, declined to answer any queries from the Liberals or crossbench during question time.
Today’s sitting was already controversial because the chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said the parliament should consider postponing sittings of both chambers.
The lower house did not sit, but the opposition and crossbench joined forces to ensure the upper house would sit for question time and debate.
The Liberal leader in the upper house, David Davis, accused Mikakos of “not behaving in a way that is becoming of a minister”, while health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier described the situation as a “pantomime”.
Among the queries from the opposition was a request for the government to provide the modelling relied on to impose Melbourne’s stage four lockdown.
Davis later said in a statement:
These ministers have not faced questions in the parliament for seven weeks. The upper house is sitting today and a minister’s duty is to answer questions in parliament.
Updated
SA Health has put out a Covid alert for people who visited:
- Fernwood Fitness at Salisbury Downs on 1 August between 6pm and 8.30pm.
- Agha Juice House at Blair Athol on 31 July between 5pm and 7.30pm.
- Najafi Carpet Gallery at Kilburn on 29 July between 5pm and 8pm.
If you were there at those times, you are required to self-isolate for 14 days and also get a Covid test, even if you don’t have symptoms.
Updated
So, essentially, Dan Tehan’s childcare announcement for Victoria is that he will be making a childcare announcement, later.
Dan Tehan announces there will be more to say tomorrow about how federal government will support childcare operators in Victoria during stage 4 lockdown. #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 4, 2020
Updated
Ahhh, there we go.
You called for the borders to be opened 64 times.
— Steven Miles (@StevenJMiles) August 4, 2020
In that time there have been more than 10,000 new cases in Victoria and more than 600 in NSW. #qldpol #COVID19au https://t.co/bC0D1Tn3CK
(The Queensland election will be held in October.)
Updated
Things are going very well in the Victorian legislative council sitting (which is being held against the government’s will).
QT: @georgiecrozier asks @JennyMikakos what date she was first advised of issues in hotel quarantine?
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 4, 2020
Mikakos starts by noting that she’s doesn’t want to be defying Sutton’s advice. She’s not answering the question.
This is the definition of not answering a question.
Updated
Brad Hazzard on Victorian travellers trying to enter New South Wales (not SA as originally written - sorry)
The short message to Victorians is you shouldn’t be coming to New South Wales, unless you have a particular permit entitlement.
If you do come to NSW, you will be assessed by our health staff at the front line, at the airport, and we have meeting each flight around about 9 to 12 health staff there, assistants and nursing, administrative staff working with the police who are backing them on this task.
Some people will be able to enter but it can be quite an onerous process because our health staff are doing a fantastic job
I know there has been commentary today about ‘why don’t we have quarantine in the same way we have for international travellers?’. That was set up for a reason and that is we need all international travellers to be able to be managed here and we have done that successfully over some months.
What we’re finding with most of our visitors into our state, returning travellers, if they’re asked to self-isolate, they do. We have had good compliance.
Updated
Federal education minister Dan Tehan will make an announcement at 1.45pm on childcare for Victoria.
Updated
Scott Morrison’s government “goes big on rhetoric but is a complete failure on delivery”, Labor’s defence spokesman, Richard Marles, has told the National Press Club in Canberra.
Marles cited problems with the future submarine program as he sought to make a much broader critique of the Liberals, saying they were “not fit to govern for the future” at a time when the Covid-19 crisis had placed Australia at a crossroads.
It marks a much tougher tone by the federal opposition after a more restrained approach during the earlier stages of the pandemic.
Marles said:
Recently there had been much muscular language used by Morrison government MPs about Australia’s relationship with China. It has not helped our relationship with China and it has done nothing to improve Australia’s strategic circumstances. Yet when it comes to the management of a program [submarines] which, done properly, would materially change Australia’s ability to engage with the world, in a way which would be empowering, and would build our sovereignty, and give us more choices about our strategic circumstances, all we have from this government is one giant fiasco.
So let me be completely clear: because of Scott Morrison’s prime ministership, Australians are less safe. Our national security has been profoundly compromised.
Updated
Masks are still not mandatory, but they are very highly recommended, Dr Chant says.
At this moment, it is critical that you maintain your social distancing, that 1.5m distance, and also that you wear a mask if you’re going into situations where you’re not going to be able to maintain that 1.5m.
We’re particularly focusing on the risks associated with indoor environments, enclosed environments.
If you know that your bus is going to be crowded, if you know you’re going into a shopping site that is very crowded, we ask you to wear a mask in those settings.
I should also like to say that business has a role to play as well and we’re pleased to see that business is really stepping up, ensuring those hand hygiene products are available too. At the entrance to stores, make sure that they display how many people can safely go into stores.
This is all about preventing Covid transmission and we all have a role to play, so thank you very much.
Updated
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant says NSW is at a “critical” point:
The objectives currently are twofold. One is to bring an end to the current chains of transmission that our detectives are tracking down.
That is by making sure that we detect those cases early and make sure that the contacts are isolated. That will allow us to break those chains of transmission.
We are also aiming to make sure we can recognise any cases in the community that are occurring.
As-yet-unrecognised chains of transmission can be broken. For that, I need the assistance of the community. I need you to come forward, if you have any symptoms, however mild, that scratchy, itchy throat, that mild cough – please stay home, get tested and stay home until you’ve got those results.
Chant is also asking for people to check the NSW Health website to find out what venues have been identified as possible transmission risk scenes.
Updated
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is giving a little more detail on NSW’s cases (there were 12 new cases in the last 24 hours – all linked back to known transmission sources).
That takes us to 103 cases associated with the Thai Rock Wetherill Park cluster – people who have families and friends of people who have been there or known people who have been there; 58 cases associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster and 40 associated with the funeral events in Bankstown; 28 cases associated with the Potts Point cluster.
I will emphasise this: we really rely on the community doing the best for the rest of the community and for themselves. The premier has made the point that using masks in various situations is beneficial.
Updated
The latest Daniel Andrews statement can be found here:
Statement from the premier: pic.twitter.com/yNQBQdHIBk
— Benita Kolovos 🐯 (@benitakolovos) August 4, 2020
Updated
So it’s not just social payments that can suddenly be changed:
(Via AAP)
The number of prisoners in NSW jails has dropped by almost 11% during the Covid-19 pandemic as the number of people on remand plummets.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (Bocsar) data issued on Tuesday shows the number of people in the state’s jails dropped by 1,508 to 12,649 between 15 March and 10 May.
That constituted a 10.7% drop in the overall NSW adult prison population.
Bocsar chief executive Jackie Fitzgerald said the drop could be attributed to a reduction in the number of people on remand waiting for their court cases.
This was driven by fewer charges being laid by police amid the pandemic, a higher chance of accused people receiving bail and an increase in people being released from remand.
NSW courts also reduced hearings, reducing the number of sentences issued.
Fitzgerald said in a statement:
The community lockdown saw falls in many crime categories, which led to fewer charges.
In addition, operational changes within the justice system have had an impact, including the postponement of court cases, changes in bail decisions and the release of people on remand.
The NSW youth detention population also fell by 27%, or 73 detainees, from February to June 2020.
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There have been no new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours in the ACT.
Labor’s deputy leader and defence spokesman, Richard Marles, has begun his address to the National Press Club in Canberra.
The Victorian MP travelled to the ACT by car and was wearing a mask until he began his speech. Your correspondent did not see any sign that he ate the press club meal placed before him.
It’s understood Marles secured a permit from ACT health authorities.
Marles began his speech by saying:
Yes I am a Victorian and yes I am in Canberra. My home state is experiencing a disaster right now and, believe it or not, I cannot wait to go back. But democratic government is at the heart of our ability to fight the coronavirus.
Marles said he had “followed every health protocol and more in order to be here today to hold the Morrison government to account” over the future submarine program.
Anthony Albanese is in the audience. He said at a media conference this morning that Marles had put in place mechanisms to allow him to speak at the National Press Club today.
He was driven to the border of NSW and then picked up by someone else at the border of NSW and driven here to Canberra yesterday.
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Australian Association of Social Workers president Christine Craik is again calling for stimulus though social housing (something Labor and the Greens have been calling for as well).
Craik said:
During this pandemic, the Victorian government has housed many who were homeless as part of a public health response until April next year. We welcome this move, and would argue that this initiative needs to happen on a more permanent basis, not just during a pandemic, and needs to be implemented across the country.
We are supporting the Everybody’s Home campaign this week. Building social housing and repairing empty or substandard public housing needs to be prioritised in all neighbourhoods across Australia. This kind of initiative will result in local jobs, economic stimulus and work towards social cohesion across the country.
This pandemic has wreaked havoc with our most vulnerable communities and if there is to be one positive thing to come out of this, let that legacy be that this was the time we took a different path around social housing and committed ourselves to eradicating homelessness forever.
For anyone, becoming homeless can feel like a personal failure, and many of our cultural myths and negative stereotypes around homelessness and poverty feed into this. You can tell a lot about the health of a community by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. We need to challenge these myths and those negative stereotypes about homelessness and mobilise politically to end homelessness for good. We urge everyone to use this week to engage with the Everybody’s Home campaign.
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There will be a national Covid update today – deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth will take that at 3.30pm.
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For those who have asked about the police officer who was allegedly assaulted by an anti-masker in Melbourne overnight, we understand she is recovering at home, after being taken to Frankston hospital.
She is believed to be concussed.
Here’s hoping her recovery, on all levels, is swift.
The Australian government confirms it will run a trial which will bring up to 170 workers from Vanuatu to help with the mango picking season in the Northern Territory. Trial will run under the Seasonal Worker Programme. More workers could potentially follow "subject to a review"
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) August 4, 2020
The ABS has the retail spending figures from June:
(Via AAP)
Retail sales in Australia fell by 3.4% in the June quarter amid coronavirus lockdowns, which is the biggest drop since the GST was introduced in 2000.
Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services were the hardest hit (-29.1%), according to seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The bureau revised its estimate of retail sales in June from a gain of 2.4% to 2.7%.
June was the first full month of trade after the first lockdowns were introduced to slow the spread of coronavirus.
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Yup.
Listening to the Vic presser you would think people deliberately doing the wrong thing and arguing with/ assaulting police [which is appalling] are driving the ongoing spread and that's just not the case. So much more complex.
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) August 4, 2020
And also, increased penalties is never the answer.
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Bit of a turnaround from the “OPEN THE BORDER” calls here from the Queensland opposition leader.
A third person has now allegedly entered the state with coronavirus through @QLDLabor's border controls. We need to keep Queenslanders safe to protect lives and livelihoods. The @LNPQLD is calling for mandatory maximum penalties for those who break the rules. #qldpol
— Deb Frecklington MP (@DebFrecklington) August 4, 2020
Updated
South Australia reports two new Covid-19 cases
Two people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the past 24 hours in South Australia – both are women in their 20s and linked to known clusters.
SA clamped down on gatherings yesterday.
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Are people getting enough information? Will they be made aware of the exercise changes? (Not everyone watches or reads the news, speaks English as a first language, or has access to the internet.)
Daniel Andrews:
No one will be in any doubt about what the obligations are on them and that is to stay at home and to be at home except for, you know, if you need urgent emergency medical care, that’s a different case.
We’re not wanting to be anything other than proportionate to the challenge we face and police cannot enforce stay-at-home if we have the exercise provision. I regret that. I’m not pleased to have to make that change but we are now moving to the phase of door-knocking everybody and it will be random and repeat door-knocking. I’m not a betting person but the odds on being able to behave that way and not finishing up with a hefty fine are not good.
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Do you have to pay for childcare if you can’t use it?
Daniel Andrews:
I know that’s a very important question. It’s not settled yet. I’ll leave it to the prime minister to make those announcements. That’s, importantly, a matter for him. But all of our officials are talking. I’ve had a bunch of texts back and forth this morning, following my morning briefings, following his. There’s a list-of-things we’re working through and we’ll have a telephone discussion tonight to touch base on where things are at and as soon as we can make announcements in any of those areas, we will.
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Do both parents need to be essential workers to be able to send their child to childcare?
Daniel Andrews doesn’t know yet:
This is exactly the point we’re trying to clarify.
We have to would, through – it’s not so much about whether it’s a yes or a no.
I know that might seem simple ... it’s about trying to work out what will be the impact be.
How many kids will be going to childcare? How many childcare workers will need to move around the community? How much movement will that add?
How much will that undermine our general push to have as little movement as possible?
I know it’s challenging. It really is. I know. That’s why we’ll do our part, we’ll get the clarity as quickly as we possibly can. We’ll inform people and we’ll try and make it as simple and as easy to understand as we possibly can.
I would also respectfully ask employers to be fully aware that these childcare arrangements, which sometimes can be central to a person working from home, the working-from-home arrangements may need to change.
There may need to be greater flexibility in the relationship between a person who is working from home and their boss. And I’m confident that Victorian businesses, employers, will step up and give people that added flexibility if, for instance, the absence of childcare makes the kind of working from home that’s been a feature of the last few months really, really tough.
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What about those who claim to have a medical reason to not wear a mask (as many of the “sovereign” objectors have been doing), and should there be medical proof of that?
Daniel Andrews:
If we need to tie that up, of course we will. I’ll just take a deep breath. Is there anything worse than someone pretending to be unwell in order to get out of wearing a mask? Like, seriously. You need to wear the mask.
You will be pulled up. If I’ve got to change the rules again – I’m sorry, we haven’t changed mask rules – if I’ve got to go further, then of course we will.
We’re not going to have police being lied to. We’re not going to have people just flouting these rules.
Wearing a mask is about keeping you, your loved ones and every Victorian safe. It is not too much to ask the nurse in the intensive care ward will be wearing a mask and it’s not too much to ask that you wear a mask in order to avoid that nurse having to treat more patients than they otherwise would. That notion of lying about your health status to avoid wearing a mask and in fact putting other people’s health at risk, that’s shameful. Shameful.
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Q: It was said last week that we couldn’t effectively lock people up. They had to go out for fresh air. What’s changed?
Daniel Andrews:
We’ve got community transmission, mystery cases, stage 4, and we’ve got to get this done. That’s what’s changed. I apologise to those who are doing the right thing. This will impact on them. But ultimately we’ve got to get this done and that’s exactly the decisions we’ve made, the approach we’re taking and I won’t have a situation where the enforcement work that Victoria police are doing off the back of enormous amounts of work that ADF and officials are doing on the doorstep, I won’t have that undermined by people having a kind of loophole, if you like, that they might seek to exploit.
Updated
Every one of the 800 people who were door-knocked and found not to be at home during their self-isolation have been referred to Victorian police for investigation.
Updated
Victorian police officer allegedly assaulted by non-mask wearer
Shane Patton then details the arrest of one of the non-mask wearers:
To highlight the type of challenges that we’re experiencing – last night a 26-year-old policewoman was on patrol with another partner down in a Frankston area near the Bayside shopping centre.
During that time, they approached a 38-year-old woman, who wasn’t wearing a mask.
After a confrontation and being assaulted by that woman, those police officers went to ground and there was a scuffle.
And during that scuffle, this 38-year-old woman smashed the head of the policewoman several times into a concrete area on the ground.
That behaviour is just totally unacceptable. That’s someone who thinks they’re above the law. They’re not wearing a mask.
They’re approached and asked the reason why not and then to react like that is just completely over the top. It’s this type of irresponsible behaviour that we’re going to address.
That woman was taken back to the police station, charged with significant offences and bailed due to no criminal history.
It shows how things can escalate from non-adherence. The message is clear from me and it’s simple. We want you to stay at home. We want you to stay at home.
Updated
Of the 161 fines issued in the last 24 hours, 60 were for not wearing masks.
Police commissioner Shane Patton:
In the last week, we’ve seen a trend, an emergence if you like, of groups of people – small groups, but nonetheless concerning groups – who classify themselves as sovereign citizens, whatever that might mean, people who don’t think the law applies to them.
We’ve seen them at checkpoints baiting police, not providing a name and address.
On at least four occasions in the last week, we’ve had to smash the windows of cars and pull people out to provide details because they weren’t adhering to the chief health officer guidelines, they weren’t providing their name and address.
We don’t want to be doing that, but people have to absolutely understand there are consequences for your actions and if you’re not doing the right thing, we will not hesitate to issue infringements, to arrest you, to detain you where it’s appropriate.
Updated
There is now about 1,750 police in Victoria, on maintaining restrictions rules duty.
Updated
161 fines were issued on the second day of the hard lockdown.
Updated
Victoria is putting more police on the self-isolation beat. And they will ultimately be able to detain people for breaching the isolation rules.
Police minister Lisa Neville:
So somebody who decided they were bored and they were going to go out for a drive, somebody who decided that they needed to buy a car after 8pm last night, drive across the city of Melbourne and we’ve also seen people who have picked up people from other households, again breaching the direction and then also briefing the curfew.
All of those people were infringed last night. So be in no doubt Victoria police are using their powers to do that. They will have extra police out there.
They have those extra powers. In relation to the guys who aren’t self-isolating, who aren’t following the directive, people who are positive, people at the highest risk of spreading this disease, this virus, across our community, not only have we got the spectrum of fines that gives Victoria police some additional options in terms of making clear to people that this is being taken exceptionally seriously, Victoria Police also will be able to ultimately detain people if people continue to breach that.
That is not what we want to do. We don’t want to do that but Victoria police under the new powers will have that ability to not just fine but ultimately for those who continue to blatantly and deliberately breach those self-isolation rules, they can do that. Similarly for those who continue to go to work. So this is serious for all of us. That’s why we have provided extraordinary powers to Victoria police.
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Daniel Andrews also announces the work permit system for essential workers from tomorrow:
It’s a piece of paper. Your employer fills it out. They sign it. You sign it. You carry it with you and then you’re able to demonstrate so there’s not a sense of anxiety or a sense of having to tell your story 17 times.
If you’re pulled up by police, you can simply provide that piece of paper and then you would be waved on to go about your business.
What we’re going to try and do – and, again, we do have some time here – what we’re going to try and do is not have a whole lot of key workers, who are well understood to be key workers – so nurses, for instance will be able to use their hospital ID.
Victoria police members will be able to use their ID. But for the private sector where there’s not that uniform identification that connects the person to their place of work, then and information from the boss that you are working now and this is an active thing, then that paperwork will need to be filled out.
I don’t think it’s too onerous. It’s a pretty simple process. That paperwork will be up on the website later today.
Updated
$4,957 on-the-spot fine for breaching Victorian isolation rules
And penalties have increased. Victoria has put its largest on-the-spot fine on the books:
Daniel Andrews:
As everyone has become very well aware, there is a $1,652 on-the-spot fine if you breach the directions of the chief health officer. There is also a $200 penalty for not wearing a mask when you are out of your home. Not too many of those fines have had to be issued and in the general scheme of things, even the $1,652 fine – that’s only used where it’s deemed appropriate and, again, the vast majority of people are doing the right thing.
But there are a number of [people] who are not. That’s why I can announce today a new on-the-spot spine, in fact the largest on the-spot fine on the statute books in Victoria – $4,957, but ultimately a $5,000 on-the-spot spine and that will be particularly for those who breach their isolation orders.
If you are supposed to be at home and you are not, then you face the prospect of a fine of up to $5,000. If there were repeat breaches, if there were particularly selfish behaviour like, for instance, going to work when you had the virus, then there is the alternative pathway and that is, of course, taking you to the magistrates court, where the maximum penalty that can be applied to you is $20,000.
Updated
Which means the door-knocking of people who are in isolation will increase:
That means every single positive case will be door-knocked multiple times, random and repeated door-knocks.
You’ll understand why I’m not going to give people the program of door-knocking but there will be multiple door-knocks and they will be random in nature, as well as all close contact will also be visited on the same basis of those door-knocks.
You are expected to be found at home. And now that the exercise provision is gone – and again, that is not a decision made lightly, but it is incredibly important that police are able to establish – first, the ADF and authorised officers and then subsequently police for anyone who isn’t – it’s incredibly important. Stay at home means stay at home for all of us, but it certainly means stay at home for those who have the virus or those who have been directed to isolate.
Updated
Victoria has accepted the offer of an additional 500 ADF personnel
No outside exercise for Victorian self-isolators
Daniel Andrews:
I can confirm that the ADF, together with important authorised officers from the Department of Health and Human Services, have conducted more than 3,000 door-knocks of people who should be isolating at home.
More than 800 of those homes, the person who should have been isolating could not be found.
That is completely unacceptable. There will be a multitude of reasons for why the person was not there.
But I’m making some announcements today around some changes so that we can put that beyond any doubt and make the enforcement task – which is a Victoria police function – but the task of ADF and authorised officers from the Department of Human Services can be made even more simple and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
So from now, there will be no exercise if you’re supposed to be isolating at home. You will need to stay in your home or on your property. Fresh air at the front door. Fresh air in your front yard or backyard or opening a window. That’s what you’re going to have to do.
It’s difficult to enforce this if people have a lawful excuse and if some people are going to use that to try and justify other decisions – they were at no point getting exercise. They were doing something else. I apologise to those who were doing the right thing but we have simply no choice but to move to that setting.
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Victoria records a further 11 deaths and 439 new Covid-19 cases
Daniel Andrews confirms the 439 new cases of Covid-19 and says 11 people who had been diagnosed with virus died in the last 24 hours.
If I can go through some detail, as much as I can. One man in his 70s. One man and three women in their 80s.
Two men and three women in their 90s. And one woman who was in her hundreds.
All of those tragedies, all of those fatalities are are connected to aged care settings.
More broadly, on that front, there are 1,186 active cases in aged care. That remains a very challenging setting for us and one that we’re working incredibly closely with the commonwealth government, with the private sector, public hospitals, private hospitals, literally hundreds and-ups of shifts that have been picked up by nurses out of our hospital system, a large team of people working together to provide the best care to those residents and get them what they need when they need it.
Updated
Richard Colebeck says the families know if there are infections in the facilities where relatives are resident. The minister doesn't want a "hit list". Rachel Siewart isn't happy. Brendan Murphy says facilities with outbreaks are not taking new residents.
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) August 4, 2020
NSW reports 12 new Covid-19 cases
NSW Health has released this update:
There were 12,876 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 18,823 in the previous 24 hours.
Of the 12 new cases reported to 8pm last night:
- one is a traveller in hotel quarantine
- three were household cases acquired in Victoria
-
eight were locally acquired linked to known cases including:
- one case linked to the Thai Rock restaurant Wetherill Park
- two cases attended the Apollo restaurant in Potts Point
- two cases attended Mounties, Mount Pritchard and three are linked to people who attended Mounties, Mount Pritchard.
For the full list of dates for venues and locations associated with confirmed cases, please visit https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates.
Updated
Ugh
Officials say the facility did not report the outbreak to the Commonwealth. "It wasn't on our radar," Brendan Murphy tells the Covid committee #COVID19Vic #auspol https://t.co/zau28g808b
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) August 4, 2020
Victoria's stage 3 lockdown in July averted up to 37,000 coronavirus cases and saved 1,258 lives, research finds
Oh look – research and not feelpinions found that lockdowns save lives.
Fancy. That.
(Via AAP)
Victoria’s stage three restrictions drove down community transmission of coronavirus and potentially saved the lives of hundreds of people, according to new research.
Research from the Burnet Institute, published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Tuesday, found the state’s response to the second wave of Covid-19 averted 9,000 to 37,000 cases between July 2 and 30.
Based on the World Health Organisation’s mortality rate of 3.4%, the restrictions potentially saved 1,258 lives.
Among stage three restrictions was the lockdown of 12 hotspot postcodes, the complete quarantine of several public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne and the closure of state borders in early July.
A six-week lockdown was announced for residents of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire from July 9, then the compulsory use of masks in public settings was introduced.
Researchers said the reproduction rate of the virus before lockdown was 1.75.
Last week, premier Daniel Andrews said that number was hovering about 1.
To achieve a genuine “flattening of the curve”, the researchers said, a further 14% reduction in transmission was needed.
Importantly, however, there remains small but significant ongoing growth with further work needed to bring the Victorian epidemic under control.
A broader and sustainable effort involving community and government together is needed to optimise the uptake of all of the non-pharmaceutical interventions available to us.
The state began a six-week stage four lockdown on Sunday, which is expected to run until at least September 13.
Under the new restrictions, residents of metropolitan Melbourne must follow an 8pm-5am curfew and can’t travel more than 5km from home for shopping or exercise.
Regional Victoria is moving to stage three restrictions, with restaurants, cafes, bars and gyms to shut from midnight on Wednesday.
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Victoria’s Covid-19 case numbers for the day are starting to filter through – 439 cases expected today.
Updated
These are not just numbers – they are people.
Health officials have told today's Covid hearing, in Victorian aged care (as of 9:30am yesterday): 97 facilities affected, 657 residents and 594 staff infected; 25 home care services – 17 care recipients infected and 24 staff. 108 fatalities #auspol #COVID19Vic @AmyRemeikis
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) August 4, 2020
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On the issue of the Western Australia border, Anthony Albanese says:
On the WA border issues, I was, and am, with Mark McGowan.
I was not with Clive Palmer or Scott Morrison, who ran a political campaign against Mark McGowan’s government just like they ran a political campaign against Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government.
Apparently it’s OK for Liberal states to have closed borders – in Tasmania and South Australia – but Queensland, with an election looming, was singled out and, of course, WA was singled out.
One of the questions to be asked of the prime minister in terms of accountability, is why is it that the attorney general – who is WA-based, as well as the prime minister, said they are no alternative but to support Clive Palmer’s high court challenge last week, but this week have reversed that position?
How is it possible that both those things are OK? Either last week the government was simply wrong when it said that it had no choice, or they’ve got some other advice saying that it’s OK for them to pull out of their support.
I think that I have been supportive of all state governments when they have made recommendations or decisions, whether it be Gladys Berejiklian in the New South Wales-Victorian border issue, or whether they be other state governments.
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One of the reasons parliament was cancelled this sitting was to protect the ACT community.
Anthony Albanese says they can be kept safe:
We’ve been flexible in the past, in the previous meetings, which were conducted safely.
There’s no indication that there was any spread, of course, or transmission resulting from those parliamentary sittings that were held earlier this year.
We do need to take the appropriate medical advice, which is why both the chief medical officer and the ACT medical officer are involved in the committee with the respective managers of the parliament, including the speaker and the president of the Senate.
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Labor calls for parliament to resume early
Anthony Albanese has ramped up his calls for parliament to meet earlier than the 24th of August.
It was meant to meet this week, but was cancelled because of the Victorian Covid-19 situation.
Labor says MPs need to be back in Canberra doing what is such a large part of their job:
The fact is that we need parliament to meet.
But we do need to meet, because there’s a range of questions that need answers.
First of all, of course, aged care. And the federal government’s responsibility for it. Now, the minister, as well as the acting chief medical officer, will be appearing before the Senate Covid committee today.
But we would like for there to be further scrutiny about the range of issues, including why weren’t the lessons learned from Newmarch – which occurred months ago in New South Wales.
Why is it that there hasn’t been adequate training across aged care facilities about the use of PPE – personal protective equipment?
Why is it that there hasn’t been a national audit of all nursing homes, aged care facilities, about access to personal protective equipment.
The issue of paid pandemic leave. Why is it that now we’re responding to paid pandemic leave after there’s been community transmission?
Whereas the point of paid pandemic leave, and why we’ve been calling for it for some time, was to prevent community transmission.
The issue of the Covid app – where is it that it isn’t really playing any role in being able to trace those communities transmission issues?
The Ruby Princess issues and the commonwealth’s role in that – importantly, going forward, what’s the government’s plan for job creation?
How do we deal with the fact that the government has said there’ll be 240,000 additional unemployed people between now and Christmas.
What’s the government’s plan going forward to deal with those issues?
Updated
Victorian abattoir, Cedar Meats, has resumed operations today after the results of Covid-19 tests of all staff “showed there is no transmission” at the plant.
The meat works was shut down on Friday after a worker tested positive, fuelling fears of a possible second outbreak. In May the factory was the centre of the largest cluster in Victoria with 111 cases, although this record has since been overtaken by several second-wave outbreaks.
All staff were asked to self-isolate over the weekend.
“All staff at Cedar Meats were tested from Covid-19 between 31 July and 2 August 2020. The results show there is no transmission of Covid at Cedar Meats,” a spokeswoman for the abattoir said in a statement.
She said the plant was cleared by the Victorian Department of Health to resume production.
It was originally unclear if the worker was infectious during their last shift on 22 July, but it’s understood they were originally absent due to non-flu-like illness and were only tested for Covid-19 late last week.
“Cedar Meats’ management welcome the announcement by the government today relating to extra safety measures for abattoirs – specifically the medical-level PPE, staggering shifts and breaks, temperature checks on entry etc,” the spokeswoman said.
“Cedar Meats already has these measures in place and believes these latest test results show that these measures work.”
Updated
The Victorian lockdowns continue to make waves. Here is AAP on what Wesfarmers had to say:
Victoria’s economy-crippling stage four coronavirus restrictions should be reviewed within weeks to see if large retailers can open up, Wesfarmers says.
Weeks of stay-home restrictions and compulsory mask-wearing directives have failed to stem the spread of the deadly virus in the state, forcing the government to introduce a harsher lockdown this week.
Among the restrictions, retail outside of supermarkets, grocery stores and bottle shops will have to close to online shopping only.
“There’s an opportunity in a very measured, risk-based way, that we review this over the coming weeks as the New Zealand government did as they worked through their lockdown,” Wesfarmers managing director Rob Scott told Radio National on Tuesday.
He said the company’s large-format stores such as Bunnings and Officeworks were better placed to have customers in store because they could spread out.
“I’m hopeful that in the coming weeks as we start to see the demand coming from households and families for additional products and as we as we try and reduce the devastating toll this is going to place on household budgets that we can find a way to keep product flowing in a safe way,” Scott said.
Wesfarmers has about 25,000 retail workers in Victoria and some will be diverted to work in click-and-collect but others face being stood down.
Scott said Wesfarmers had two weeks pay in place for such workers but after that the workers would need to look at government subsidies.
Updated
Amid all the business carnage, fancy stationery chain kikki.k has emerged from external administration after striking a deal with US company EC Design.
EC Design runs the Erin Condren business, which sells equally nice planners and notebooks.
kikki.k says the deal will preserve almost 250 jobs and keep open 25 stores in Australia (there are also three overseas outlets – one in Singapore and two in Hong Kong).
Updated
The Victorian premier will be joined by police minister Lisa Neville and the police commissioner, Shane Patton so you can expect to hear more on the heavier fines and penalties for breaking the lockdown rules Daniel Andrews was talking about yesterday.
Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference at 11am.
Anthony Albanese will be holding a press conference later today.
I think this issue, most recently addressed by Tony Burke, will be top of mind:
This federal [paid pandemic leave] has come too late to prevent loss of life and an economy-smashing lockdown.
If Mr Morrison had listened five months ago this second wave may have been far less severe.
Paid pandemic leave is meant to prevent an outbreak.
We need a national scheme now to prevent a repeat of the Victorian outbreak in other states.
A Victorian disaster payment will not stop a worker in New South Wales or Queensland turning up to work sick.
With 80% of new coronavirus infections in Victoria linked to workplaces it is obvious we need financial incentives to keep people at home when they’re sick or have been exposed to the virus.
Updated
Included in those 10 notices to appear for giving a false border declaration was three men who travelled from Victoria to New South Wales and then from NSW to Queensland, via Coolangatta.
They allegedly denied they have been in a hotspot, when they had been through Melbourne. One of the men was tested for Covid-19 yesterday, and disclosed he had been in contact with people from Melbourne and investigations revealed how.
The deputy police commissioner (I missed his name – there are four of them in Queensland):
Upon our investigation, we discovered that the three of them – who all live in the Logan area – had been into Melbourne.
They have now been taken into quarantine and are currently in hotel guarded quarantine here in Brisbane. They have been tested and we await results for that.
All three have been issued with notices to appear with false declarations in relation to that matter. We’ve also seen another on-the-spot issued in southern region, for a person doing a false declaration.
It’s really, really disappointing that, given where Victoria is at the moment – and we all know what’s happening there – that people in our community are still telling lies and deliberately trying to mislead the system so they can get back into our state.
Updated
More than 1.3m border passes have been issued in Queensland. Not all of those will have been used (you have to apply online, each week) but still.
70 people have been refused entry into Queensland and 23 placed into quarantine.
In the last week, 10 people have been charged with giving false declarations at the border.
The Queensland chief medical officer, Dr Jeanette Young, also gave an update:
We’ve still got another six days to go before we can feel that we’ve safely got through that latest cluster of cases. And we also have some more individuals who’ve just made it across the border who we’re testing and getting those results on so we all have to remain alert.
That’s for the next six days, but then ongoing after that. It is really, really important that every Queenslander continue, if they become sick, to stay at home and immediately get tested, to maintain that very, very important social distancing and wash their hands regularly and also to not go to places where we know there are a lot of cases.
So today, that means not going to New South Wales, particularly to Sydney, not going to anywhere in Victoria, and not travelling overseas, unless there is absolutely no other option.
And people who do go to those places – I know it is a big impact, but you will asked to go into hotel quarantine when you return with very, very few exemptions.
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The Queensland premier then moves on to the security contractor who didn’t have to quarantine after returning from overseas (and then tested positive for Covid)
Can I just mention the issue that has been raised about the man who was working overseas, who came in and flew from Sydney up to Maroochydore?
Can I say this? There is a loophole here, and it needs to be closed. I will be raising this at national cabinet.
There have been some reports going around. The documents have been forwarded to the police commissioner to investigate. Our understanding is that a letter was provided on DFAT letterhead and an exemption was also granted.
This will be fully investigated, but there is still a loophole that needs to exist, and I will absolutely raise this at national cabinet on Friday because we are in a serious situation here.
I think anyone can see what’s happening in Victoria, and the outbreaks that are happening in New South Wales. We don’t want to see that happening in Queensland. That’s why we’re on our guard and we want to do everything we can to stop that happening here.
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Annastacia Palaszczuk:
The deputy [police] commissioner will talk about three men who were intercepted crossing the border illegally from Victoria.
They arrived in Queensland on August 2, and they came up from Victoria, so they passed through the Victoria-New South Wales border.
They came into Queensland and they are currently in quarantine and they’re in the process of getting tested.
So we don’t want people to do this. It’s not right. People are obviously lying on their declaration forms, and it is undermining all of the great work that Queenslanders have done.
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Queensland reports no new cases of Covid-19
Queensland has reported no new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
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More than $30bn has been taken out of Australian super funds, following the early release scheme for people financially impacted by Covid (and we have since learnt, the ATO didn’t check whether or not people had been impacted before releasing the funds).
This is going to have far reaching consequences as a generation of workers, already experiencing record low wage growth, retires with even less. Women and vulnerable workers, will be hit particularly hard.
So it is probably good timing to hear from Paul Keating, one of the architect’s of Australia’s mandatory super scheme. He’ll be chatting with Greg Combet at an Industry Super Australia event later today.
You may not be able to get everything you want, when you want it, but I promise you, Australia is not going to run out of food.
Meat section at @Woolworths Abbotsford looking lean this morning. Woolworths says it’s confident it can “maintain a good supply of fresh food. We'll monitor it closely as the restrictions come in." Read more: https://t.co/whBX7xSN5w @clint_jasper @jesskatedavis #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/LLbVN57PrO
— Marty McCarthy (@martymccarthy1) August 3, 2020
The rate of Covid-19 transmission in New South Wales educational settings was extremely limited during the first wave of Covid-19, research findings just published today in the Lancet Journal of Child and Adolescent Health have shown.
Researchers from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) and the University of Sydney released their preliminary findings from their research which included data from January to April 2020.
The Lancet publication today contains detailed analysis on Covid-19 spread in 25 educational settings (15 schools and 10 childcare settings) in Term 1. Additional data from term 2 and 3 are also available.
Lead author Professor Kristine Macartney said the study showed transmission rates in NSW schools and early childhood education and care services were minimal, particularly between children and from children to adults.
“This is the first comprehensive population-based assessment of coronavirus transmission in educational settings worldwide,” Macartney said. “Covid-19 transmission in schools appears to be considerably less than that seen for other respiratory viruses, such as influenza.
“This supports the previous findings that Covid-19 transmission in educational settings can be kept low and manageable in the context of an effective pandemic response that includes contact tracing and quarantine, and temporary school closures for cleaning if someone is found to be infected. It is also consistent with other data that show lower rates, and generally milder disease, in children than in adults.
“However, it is important to view these findings in the context of the NSW outbreak. Higher rates of transmission may occur in areas with higher levels of virus transmission in the community or with less rigorous public health and community response.”
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Thinking of everyone who is in this situation
"We're just pleading with people to say - yes, it's tough. But you know, these are real people that are dying out there ... so let's do our bit."
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) August 3, 2020
Mick Alldis' parents Pat and Cliff are in their 90s and have tested positive for coronavirus.
He has a simple message for everyone. pic.twitter.com/Wu1XvGxNOD
Victorian senator Jane Hume appeared on ABC News Breakfast this morning to talk paid pandemic leave.
Asked about union criticisms the $1,500 a fortnight was not enough, Hume said:
Well, there’s already jobseeker, there’s already jobkeeper, there’s $289bn worth of economic support that’s gone to people around Australia.
Already just on jobkeeper alone, around $3bn is being spent each month on Victorians, around $100m a day.
This is an additional support measure. Many companies already have paid pandemic leave. The state government has already provided support to many members of the community as well. And we also know that a lot of people have the ability to use their own leave too. This is really a last – you know, a last bastion.
Why does a state of disaster have to be declared before the federal government will provide the payment? Shouldn’t it be made available before things get as bad as what we have seen in Victoria?
Hume:
The most important thing right now is to deal with the situation in Victoria, where the community transmission is out of control. And that’s why this paid pandemic leave is, in fact, a disaster payment, specifically a disaster payment. It has been directed towards Victorians. I think we should tackle the issue in Victoria before we expand it any further.
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The Senate committee looking at the Covid-19 response will meet from 10am today. Aged care minister Richard Colbeck and his department will be on from the start of proceedings.
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The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is asking welfare recipients to take action against the reinstatement of the government’s mutual obligations, and not participate with job agencies.
At the moment, mutual obligation requirements mean jobseekers need to make contact with a job provider, but there is no financial penalty as yet for failing to meet that obligation.
A big part of that is because there are not a lot of jobs out there at the moment. And the AUWU says that makes the whole excercise demeaning and pointless:
We’re calling a strike and directing people on JobSeeker and related payments to firmly refuse to engage with job agencies while no penalties are in place.
We won’t accept Senator Cash spreading misleading information.
We won’t accept (un)employment providers lying to JobSeekers.
We won’t accept those in power playing with the lives and wellbeing of 1.6 million people – and in the middle of a global pandemic and economic crisis. It’s unsafe.
We will hit lying job agencies hard and do everything in our power to deprive these publicly funded billionaire poverty profiteers of revenue.
We repeatedly asked the employment minister to engage with us in good faith and she’s refused. We waited for responses to our questions and they went unanswered for weeks.
We demand the government confirm a full mutual obligations suspension until at least 31 December.
Unwaged, underemployed and insecure workers must not be forced to engage with job agencies – they fail to find us work at the best of times, let alone when the treasurer is forecasting unemployment rising to 9.25 per cent by Christmas.
Queensland Health authorities are also nervously watching what happens this week – it is the second week of the virus incubation period since two women allegedly lied on their border entry cards about Melbourne travel, and returned to Queensland without quarantining, later testing positive for Covid-19.
Queensland chief health officer Jeanette Young has warned people to expect more infections related to the women’s movements.
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Queensland is first off the state Covid-19 press conference plate today.
That will be at 9am.
Yesterday, Annastacia Palaszczuk called for a “loophole” allowing diplomats and staff to travel without mandatory hotel quarantine to be closed. She’ll be bringing that up in national cabinet.
That was after a man who claimed diplomatic status was allowed to return to Queensland on a flight from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, despite arriving from overseas. He subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 while in his self-isolation with his wife. Contact tracing of those on the Jetstar flight with him is under way.
The man was a security contractor, but still eligible for an exemption. As AAP reports:
Queensland Health said the man was given an exemption to enter the state under arrangements agreed nationally in June by Australia’s national cabinet of federal, state and territory leaders.
It’s now been revealed he was not a consular staff member and was in fact a security contractor who had recently returned from Kabul, Afghanistan.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade wrote to confirm the man was ‘travelling on essential Australian government business’,” Queensland Health said in a statement released late on Monday.
“He confirmed he held a diplomatic passport and provided his passport number.”
But, the department said, this turned out to be not quite correct.
“We are concerned with the number of overall exemptions and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is reviewing criteria and will provide advice to national cabinet,” it said.
Expect a bit more on this today.
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And now it is snowing in Colac
Snowing in Colac #2020 pic.twitter.com/8U14S2q9HQ
— Lachie Sutherland (@LachSuth) August 3, 2020
Meanwhile, the drought rolls on.
There are so many communities dealing with the lasting impacts of drought, along with the pandemic - and in many regional NSW and Victorian towns, people are still coping with the lasting effects of the bushfires. And there are still people living in tents and shipping containers, making hour round trips, just to have a shower in some of those communities.
Don’t forget them.
July rainfall across Australia dips to 43% below average, BoM reports, by @adamlmorton https://t.co/IJJpNoWqFu
— Gabrielle Jackson (@gabriellecj) August 3, 2020
For some context about what this six-week shutdown will mean, now the business and workplace restrictions have been added, you can take a look at this story from Ben Butler.
Victoria accounts for about a quarter of Australia’s economy, so this is going to have far-reaching impacts beyond those hard border closures.
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There is a lot of blah news around and the daily drudge of the new reality can make everything seem a bit dull around the edges.
But there is hope. There might not ever be a silver bullet for this thing, but there is hope.
If it helps, you can check in to see how the world’s scientists are going when it comes to a vaccine, here.
There are thousands of families terrified for their loved ones who are in aged care homes in Victoria at the moment. And given the restrictions, there are not a lot of chances for reassurance. Or answers. Or even in some cases, basic information.
Aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, (who as Elias points out, will appear in front of the Covid Senate committee today about the aged care response) has appointed the commissioner for senior Victorians, Gerard Mansour, as an advisor to the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre.
The timing of that announcement – right before the senate committee meets – should be noted.
The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre (VACRC) has been set up at the state control centre “to ensure families were kept informed about the welfare and care needs of their loved ones”.
Mr Mansour will provide advice and consultation for engaging with families of residents in severely Covid-19 impacted aged care facilities, and help connect them to available supports including Elder Rights Advocacy and the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement.
He will also assist with communication and provide timely and ongoing feedback to Elder Rights Advocacy and VACRC, as well as help to promote further prevention measures with staff working in aged care facilities that have not had outbreaks.
Mr Mansour will also engage with the chair of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, Vivienne Nguyen, to ensure appropriate supports are provided to families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
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The building is pretty empty at the moment, but there is plenty of work to be done.
Scott Morrison is here, in Canberra, too – he held a very late afternoon press conference in the prime minister’s courtyard to announce the paid pandemic leave. (Something the Greens had put in a bill for months ago.)
But there are no bills being passed, and outside of press conferences, not a lot of questions being asked (answers are always a bit of a crapshoot).
On way to Canberra on what should be the resumption of Parliament- Australians are doing essential work during the pandemic- so should their elected representatives pic.twitter.com/LSkQcrH8mo
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) August 3, 2020
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Labor’s defence spokesman, Richard Marles, will use an address to the National Press Club today to accuse the government of mismanaging the future submarine program “to the enormous detriment of Australia’s national security”.
According to speech extracts distributed in advance, Marles will say there’s been “no shortage of hoopla” from the government about the plans for 12 new submarines to replace the Collins class submarines to be built in partnership with the French shipbuilder the Naval Group (formerly DCNS).
But he will say it’s expected to be 2040 before the fourth one is operational – the moment when Australia’s submarine capability is predominantly performed by the future submarines – a wait that “seems like an eternity” given the fast-moving strategic trends in the Indo-Pacific, which are being accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
And Marles is expected to argue that there are already submarines operating in the Indo-Pacific right now that “are much faster and have a much longer range than our future submarine will have in 2035”. The various developments mean an extension to the life of the Collins class submarines will be needed.
While Marles is set to criticise the government for the management of the acquisition – estimated to cost in the order of $80bn – he will say Labor “totally supports pursuing the future submarine program” because of the need for Australia to have “a powerful deterrent”. This is what he is expected to say in his 12.30pm on the strategic context:
Before the coronavirus struck Australia was facing its most complicated strategic circumstances since the second world war.
But Covid has been an accelerant on difficult trends which were already in play. Covid has given rise to greater instability within our region and the world. Covid has created questions to which there are no answers.
And this has raised our strategic challenge to an entirely different level. And so the need for future submarines which will help meet this challenge has quite simply never been greater.
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The opposition plans to pursue the government over its handling of coronavirus outbreaks at aged care facilities at the Senate select committee on Covid-19 today.
With the aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, set to appear at today’s hearing, the opposition spokeswoman for aged care, Julie Collins, is calling on the government to “immediately release” a report into the outbreak at Dorothy Henderson Lodge, as well as the review into the deadly Newmarch House outbreak due to be finished this week.
Health authorities have indicated the reports about the two Sydney outbreaks will be submitted to the royal commission on aged care before they are made public, and Labor believes the findings could help the effort to contain current and future outbreaks in Victoria.
The calls come as a significant proportion of the soaring number of deaths in Victoria are linked to aged care, with outbreaks at the St Basil’s and Epping Gardens aged care homes among several plaguing facilities across the state.
Collins said:
Why aren’t these reports being made public immediately when Victorian nursing homes are facing such tragic outbreaks? What is the Morrison government hiding?
When the Department of Health initiated these reviews it was very clear that any learnings would be handed to providers, public health units and regulators to inform responses to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
It is vitally important that providers across Victoria facing outbreaks have the benefit of these reviews so lessons can be learnt and applied to current outbreaks.
To date it sadly seems the Morrison government has learnt little from the tragic outbreaks of Covid-19 in New South Wales nursing homes ... The Morrison government must act now for our most vulnerable older Australians.
Private aged care facilities in Victoria are a federal government responsibility, with Victoria’s Labor premier, Daniel Andrews, last week phrasing his state’s aged care response as assisting the commonwealth in the outbreak in its facilities.
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Lifeblood Victoria wants to remind people that blood and plasma donations are considered essential and are exempted from restrictions in greater Melbourne.
Giving blood
- is excluded from the 5km radius travel restriction (but donors should book at their closest centre)
- is excluded from the 8pm curfew for a donor to return home after their appointment if their donation is at this time
- falls under the DHHS “reasons to leave home” clause seven: care or other compassionate reasons
The Department of Health and Human Services Victoria has confirmed blood and plasma donation is an appropriate reason for travel.
Lifeblood needs to collect 29,000 donations a week across Australia so patients will continue to receive the blood they need in times of trauma, major surgery, cancer treatment, pregnancy and a host of other situations.
I received a timely reminder recently that blood donations remain crucial, even in the middle of a pandemic. That emergency turned out as well as it could – four blood transfusions later. It’s true what they say – you’ll never know who your donation will help – and when it might be someone you love who needs it.
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AAP has a bit more on those school closures we mentioned:
Bonnyrigg High School and Greenway Park Public School in New South Wales are both closed on Tuesday for deep cleaning and contact tracing and students have been advised to self-isolate.
“All students will undertake at home learning tomorrow,” Bonnyrigg High School said on its website on Monday night. Bonnyrigg High is closed on Tuesday to complete contact tracing and have the school cleaned, the post says.
“All staff and students are asked to self-isolate while contact tracing occurs,” it says.
Greenway Park Public School said students will learn from home on Tuesday after two students tested positive to Covid-19.
Further advice will be provided on Tuesday on when the school can reopen.
The NSW Education Department was told by NSW Health that one student from Bonnyrigg High and two from Greenway Park Public had tested positive for Covid-19.
NSW Health has requested anyone linked to the schools who has been unwell or has flu-like symptoms to get tested.
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Good morning
A lot happened quite late yesterday – Victoria learnt that 250,000 more workers would be impacted by the new workplace and business changes, adding to the 250,000 who have already been hit by changes wrought by the pandemic.
The federal government finally announced a paid pandemic leave program, which will provide $1,500 a fortnight to workers without sick leave who have to take time off to isolate.
But it’s just day two of Melbourne’s hard shutdown. And you can feel the tension as Victorians wonder what is coming next.
Childcare workers will be particularly impacted – not well paid to begin with, the workers learnt just a few days ago that their centres will close to all but essential workers – who will soon receive a permit allowing them out of the house. But because of the federal government decision to exclude preschools from jobkeeper (there was a separate program which has since ended) they are ineligible . That’s about 20,000 workers in Melbourne.
We are expecting more information on the workplace changes, including the permit system, a bit later today.
Meanwhile, in NSW, two schools – Bonnyrigg high school in Sydney’s west and Greenway Park public school in the south-west – have been closed and staff and students are self-isolating after students tested positive. Contact tracing is under way.
We’ll bring you all the news as it happens today, as well as whatever else we can find out. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.
Ready?
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