Summary
That’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Thanks to Amy Remeikis for piloting it for the majority of today.
To recap:
- Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced new restrictions in Melbourne affecting retail, abattoirs and construction that will result in 250,000 people being stood down from their jobs.
- Effective from Thursday, general retail will be closed (not including supermarkets, pharmacies, groceries, banks and more) and warehouses, abattoirs and construction sites will have to operate at reduced capacity.
- Businesses will be given grants from $5,000 up to $10,000 if they are forced to close.
- He said further restrictions and clarification would be released in coming days.
- Scott Morrison announced a “pandemic leave disaster payment” for people in Victoria who are required to self-isolate for 14 days but do not have any paid leave. The payment is $1,500 for the 14 days.
- Unions said the payment was a “half-measure” and called for full sick leave.
- South Australia tightened restrictions, reducing the number of people allowed into a home from 50 to 10.
- In NSW, a family of four, including an infant, from Wagga Wagga tested positive as NSW Labor called for masks to be mandatory in certain parts of the state.
- Andrews also flagged future announcements about a “permit system” in Victoria to enforce curfews and also travel exemptions.
- NSW Health confirmed that the Covidsafe app discovered its first contacts not previously identified through manual contact tracing.
- Acting chief medical officer Paul Kelly responded to the comments of Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who claimed Andrews could be put in jail for 25 years for banning the drug hydroxychloroquine. Paul Kelly says that “it doesn’t work” as a treatment for Covid-19.
- Jacinda Ardern said there will be no trans-Tasman travel bubble until 2021.
- Workers at a Woolworths distribution centre in Melbourne walked off the job after a coworker tested positive to Covid-19.
Thanks for reading. Stay safe, and we’ll be back tomorrow morning.
Updated
Victorian lockdown prevented up to 37,000 infections, study says
Victoria’s lockdowns prevented between 9,000 and 37,000 infections in the month of July, according to new research published today by the Medical Journal of Australia.
The lockdown reduced the reproduction ratio from 1.75 to 1.16, according to the study from the Burnet Institute, Monash University and the Peter Doherty Institute.
The full paper, published in the MJA is available here.
The researchers also wrote that despite this reduction, “there remains significant ongoing growth, with an estimated further 14% reduction in transmission required to control the epidemic”.
Updated
Some politics news from Queensland:
Cynthia Hardy is the new president of the LNP, beating out Gary Spence
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) August 3, 2020
And here is our news wrap on the day’s changes to stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne.
Updated
Labor have now also criticised the pandemic disaster payment announced today.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese says it’s “a good step”, but more needs to be done.
When Labor called for paid pandemic leave, there were 200 coronavirus cases.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) August 3, 2020
Five months and 18,000 cases later, the Federal Government will pay some Victorian workers who can’t take sick leave.
A good step, but we need to get ahead of the virus. We can’t keep playing catch up.
As you come to grips with stage 4 restrictions in Melbourne, read this feature from my colleague Matilda Boseley:
Updated
The Australian Association of Psychologists has called for “the urgent extension of mental health support to all Australians”, not just those in locked-down areas.
Tegan Carrison, the executive director of the peak body welcomed increased mental health support in Victoria, and said it should be extended.
We want to make sure members of the public see a psychologist, particularly those in Victoria facing fresh lockdowns or those needing to self-isolate or quarantine.
We have already seen a growing trend in suicide rates, anxiety, indicators of PTSD and depression, and the introduction of stage 4 restrictions in parts of Victoria this week only serves to remind us that the pandemic is far from over in Australia.
We fully support the additional sessions to make sure those affected by the crisis in Victoria ... we strongly recommend the additional 10 sessions in the mental health plan be extended to all Australians immediately.
Updated
Pandemic disaster payment a 'half-measure', unions say
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has called today’s announcement of a $1,500 “pandemic leave disaster payment” a “half-measure”
The payment is only for Victorians, and covers 14 days for someone who has to self-isolate and has no paid leave left. People can access it multiple times.
This falls short of union demands, and Greens leader Adam Bandt said it wasn’t “sick leave” and was a “watered down” disaster payment.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the $1,500 for 14 days was half the average wage.
This payment will mean that nearly all full-time workers who are forced to rely on it will take a pay cut while they isolate. This will mean that a financial penalty still remains. This just weakens our Covid-19 defences.
The Morrison government cannot stop at this half-measure. We need federally funded paid pandemic leave for all workers who need to get tested and isolate. That’s how we ensure that this pandemic ends as quickly as possible, with as few people infected as possible.
Bandt said it “isn’t a true leave entitlement” and the government created “a simple, across-the-board pandemic leave entitlement”.
Details appear scant, so some of these issues may be resolved when we know more, but it looks like Morrison’s pandemic payment, which won’t be sick leave, may not do the public health job it needs to.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) August 3, 2020
Also, because this isn’t a true leave entitlement applying across the country, workers without sick leave outside of Victoria will still face the financial pressure of coming in to work while sick or awaiting test results.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) August 3, 2020
Updated
Earlier, Daniel Andrews said greyhound racing was being allowed in Victoria because it was a “low-risk activity” and there would be “significant animal welfare challenges” if it was shut down.
He said:
It continues because, obviously, it’s a very low-risk activity. What’s more, there are changes, though. There’ll be no owners, there’ll be no media, there’ll be only the broadcasters and the direct participants involved in that activity.
There are some significant animal welfare issues if you were to try to turn that industry off and take those animals out of training – there are some very significant animal welfare challenges there. So it’s a compromise.
I’m sure many in that industry will not be pleased that it’s been scaled back further. But we think we’ve struck the right balance there.
Updated
The chief executive of Early Childhood Australia, Samantha Page, says she expects an announcement about childcare from the government in a few days.
She told the ABC:
We were certainly hoping for an announcement. I understand there is a plan to have an announcement later in the week, but the sooner the better, really.
I think early childhood educators and teachers have been working all the way through this pandemic. They have been on the frontline. They need certainty about their working conditions and employment over the next six weeks.
Updated
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has said the decision to allow racing to continue during Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdown is “absurd”.
It beggars belief that greyhound and horse racing are continuing during Stage 4 lockdown in Victoria. This is totally absurd and galling.
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) August 3, 2020
It’s still cruelty if no one’s watching.
This lays bare the powerful influence of the gambling-fuelled greyhound and horse racing industries. These industries are fundamentally incompatible with animal welfare.
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) August 3, 2020
Updated
Covidsafe app discovers first contact not already identified
The Covidsafe app has finally discovered close contacts not previously identified through manual contact tracing.
A NSW Health spokeswoman told the Guardian that data had been downloaded from the app 33 times, with 14 close contacts not identified through manual tracing found.
None of those close contacts have since tested positive for coronavirus, but for one of the cases, “a previously unrecognised exposure date from a known venue, Mounties, was identified”, she said.
This resulted in the identification of an additional 544 contacts. Two people in this group presented for testing and were subsequently confirmed to have Covid-19.
In Victoria, now in stage 4 lockdown, chief health officer Brett Sutton said the settings in the state, where bars and clubs weren’t open and people were staying home, meant it was “not a time where the app comes into its best use.”
It is now three months since Covidsafe launched.
In less than a month since Ireland launched its version of the app, using the Google-Apple framework that improves issues with bluetooth handshakes between mobile devices running the app, the app has alerted 137 people, according to the Ireland Times, and 129 of those then got in contact with health officials for testing.
That is off a lower base of 1.4 million users, versus over 6.5 million in Australia.
Updated
Morrison finishes by saying he thinks the measures taken by the Victorian government are “tough calls” but “necessary”.
I am absolutely sure that [Andrews] hasn’t taken any of them lightly...They’re tough calls and he knows he has to make them. He sought to consult. He sought advice, including from the Commonwealth. And we’ve offered our views and I think the challenges in Victoria are going to be hard to cop. But they’re going to be necessary.
I’m backing Melbourne. I’m backing Victoria and I know they will get through this.
Updated
Morrison and Kelly are asked about the comments of Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who posted on Facebook that premier Daniel Andrews could be put in jail for 25 years for banning the drug hydroxychloroquine.
Morrison says:
I’m not going to get onto what people talk about on Facebook on a day like this.
Kelly says that “it doesn’t work” as a treatment for Covid-19.
Hydroxychloroquine has been used for many, many years for various things, including for malaria prevention. I took it myself for many years when I worked in Africa, and it’s very safe for that particular way of using that drug, and other things currently involved in terms of arthritis and other matters.
But in terms of its use for this particular disease, the jury’s pretty much out – it doesn’t work.
Hydroxychloroquine has been championed by Donald Trump, but the most reputable global studies have found it is ineffective as a treatment, and can have severe and even deadly side effects if used inappropriately.
Updated
Morrison is asked whether he will delay the decision to reduce the rate of jobkeeper, given the situation in Victoria.
The rate will drop from 27 September.
Morrison says:
We’re talking about something two months from now ... We’re talking about something many weeks from now, and we’ll be making further assessments of that.
But the jobkeeper program is a national program. It applies in Cairns. It applies in Bunbury. It applies in Brunswick. So it will continue to run as a national program, and any specific issues that are relevant to Victoria, we will seek to meet together with the Victorian government.
Updated
Morrison says he is taking advice from medical officers but is adamant “parliament will come back”.
We believe we can put arrangements in place.
It will meet. I always said it would meet. And I meant that when I said it. We’ll be putting in place arrangements that would comply with the advice that we received both from the chief health officer here in the ACT, and we’ve also sought further advice from the CMO.
Kelly says parliament is a risk, but “that risk can be mitigated”.
Updated
Stage 4 in Melbourne "proportionate", CMO says
The acting chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, says the measures just announced today in Melbourne are “proportionate” and “will be effective” in helping the state beat the virus.
Stage 3 lockdowns have been effective to a point but, if we were to continue in the way we’re continuing in Melbourne at the moment, those large numbers we’re seeing at the moment would continue...
This would prolong those stage 3 lockdowns, it would prolong the issues of large numbers of cases and what we’re seeing there in terms of unacceptable illness and even deaths, as well as the seeding into other jurisdictions and the rural areas of Victoria...
And so what was announced today was very proportionate and based on the general principle that the virus does not move by itself. It moves with people. So if you decrease the movement around a city like Melbourne, you will get on top of this virus spread.
Updated
The pandemic leave payment only currently applies to Victorians, Morrison says.
This is a disaster payment. If another state were to be in a position – and God forbid they were – that there was a disaster of the scale that we’re seeing in Victoria, then a disaster payment of this nature would be entered into.
Updated
People can access the payment multiple times if they directed by health authorities to isolate multiple times, Morrison says.
The cost will be split between the commonwealth and Victoria. The Victorian state government will pay for short-term visa holders and the commonwealth will pay for Australian citizens and residents.
Morrison ends with a message to Victorians:
The idea that, in this country, we’d be living at a time where there would be a night curfew on an entire city of the size of Melbourne was unthinkable.
But I’ll tell you what: we will deal with it.
Updated
Government announces $1,500 pandemic leave disaster payment for Victorians isolating
Scott Morrison has just announced a “pandemic leave disaster payment” for people who have to isolate for 14 days, and who have no sick leave.
He says it will be called the “pandemic leave disaster payment”. Eligible people will receive $1,500 for the 14 days.
“They will principally be made to those on short-term visas – those who are not permanent residents or citizens of Australia who otherwise wouldn’t have accessed commonwealth payments.
“Earlier this year, when we were confronting the bushfires, we made a number of additional disaster payments – particularly for children and families affected by bushfires. What we’re dealing with here is a disaster.
“This pandemic is a disaster. And we need a disaster payment.”
Updated
“Today, I’m here to do nothing more than encourage people,” Scott Morrison says.
You’ve heard what the announcements are from the Victorian premier. You’ve heard what the additional restrictions are that the Victorian government has decided to put in place.
Morrison says the federal government has a job to do to provide more clarity on issues like childcare, and other elements of Melbourne’s stage 4, and is working on that “right now”.
But right now, here, today, it is a matter of just helping each other absorb what is another devastating blow.
Updated
Hi all, it’s Naaman Zhou here, thanks to Amy Remeikis for her work earlier.
Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking now. He says the situation in Victoria is heartbreaking and he offers Victorians “an elbow of support” in lieu of a hug.
“If you have friends in Victoria call them, cheer them up,” he says.
Updated
Naaman Zhou is going to take you through that one.
Thank you so much for joining me on my first day back from leave. You are all absolute troopers. Stay safe, think of Victoria, and take care of you. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.
Now it is time for Scott Morrison to step up to the podium.
His will be held in the prime minister’s courtyard.
And that is where Daniel Andrews ends his press conference.
Will Victoria’s upper house sit this week?
Daniel Andrews:
I wouldn’t seek to interpret the many riddles of that place.
That’s a matter for them. But the chief health officer’s advice is very clear.
We don’t want to do anything to contribute to the spread of this, any of us.
And particularly given – when it comes to regional MPs, for instance, coming to Melbourne – there’s not that kind of freedom of movement that was a feature earlier. But that’s entirely a matter for the Legislative Council.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
It is for a six-week period. It’s not six months.
So I’d ask people just to work with us on that. And I know that all of our retail workers, all those supermarket workers, people working in distribution centres, core stores – all of them are doing an amazing job to keep as much stock on the shelves as they possibly can.
We don’t make their job any easier when we buy six months of supplies when we don’t need them.
The reason stage five is mentioned is because there is no stage five.
It doesn’t work. Otherwise, we will have to develop a set of rules that will even further limit people’s movement.
I don’t want to get to a situation where we’ve got to take those steps. That’s not about – you know, you can be polite and not talk about those matters, but that’s not the way that I operate. I’m being frank. I’m being direct.
I’m making it clear to people. We all have to follow these rules. We all have to accept that this is the reality we’re now confronted by. We have to make this work.
Because we’re, at best, uncertain what the next steps would be. We’ve got to focus on this. We can all make contributions large and small but, be in now doubt: all of us must make this contribution.
Updated
Can you travel to regional Victoria for work?
Daniel Andrews:
If you are working in a permitted industry, then yes. And the reason for that – if I was to – this is something we did give quite a bit of thought to. If I was to say no you can’t, what I’ll finish up with is nurses, for instance, who travel a bit north to go and work at a hospital – you’d also finish up with vice versa – people that wouldn’t be coming to Melbourne.
We’ve already seen, for instance, because the border with New South Wales is closed a, number of hospitals in the north-east of Victoria where staff are living, live on the border, so just into New South Wales – we don’t want to see the same sort of impacts happening on that border between regional Victoria and metro Melbourne.
However, regardless of the setting, regardless of the job you do, no one can go to work if you’ve got even the mildest of symptoms.
And I would appeal to anyone in Melbourne who is in one of these industries that’s remained open or is scaled back who needs to go to work – and they’re doing very important work – but the last thing you want to be doing is taking this virus to work with you into regional Victoria.
So, any symptoms whatsoever the only thing to do is to get tested, and then to wait until you get the results of those tests.
Updated
There is a breakdown for aged care cases in Victoria:
Active cases: 1089
Number of facilities (with active cases): 79
Total cases linked to aged care facilities with active cases: 1,301
- Resident cases (cumulative): 642
- Staff cases (cumulative): 544
- Contact cases (cumulative): 115
Total deaths linked to aged care: 77
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest cumulative case numbers are as follows:
1,139 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner
- Resident cases: 84
- Staff cases: 43
- Contact cases: 12
- Resident cases: 78
- Staff cases: 46
- Contact cases: 6
- Resident cases: 50
- Staff cases: 56
- Contact cases: 0
- Resident cases: 45
- Staff cases: 41
- Contact cases: 15
- Resident cases: 25
- Staff cases: 47
- Contact cases: 16
- Resident cases: 33
- Staff cases: 23
- Contact cases: 9
- Resident cases: 20
- Staff cases: 25
- Contact cases: 18
- Resident cases: 42
- Staff cases: 15
- Contact cases: 4
- Resident cases: 22
- Staff cases: 28
- Contact cases: 8
- Resident cases: 28
- Staff cases: 27
- Contact cases: 0
Updated
Victorian 'permit' system coming for workers
Daniel Andrews:
Let me make the point – we’ll have some more announcements to make this week about a permit system where people will have a piece of paper that says “This is where I work, this is what I do” so that, for the purposes of enforcement, curfew, all of those things, we don’t want to be putting people into that really challenging situation where they have to explain themselves when they don’t really need to.
That’s going to be a simple, commonsense process, and we’ll have more to say about that soon.
As it is now, the curfew obviously does apply – 8pm to 5am every day. In giving care, getting care or going to and from work, or being at work – they’re the only reasons to be out. Police will be stopping you.
They will be asking those questions. They’ll do it respectfully. And they’ll be very fair in these early days in that they’ll probably err on the side of – you know, it is early. But the time will come when that gets turned off. And anyone who stops and doesn’t have a lawful reason will get fined. In terms of permits and that broader issue, I’ll have more to say about that soon.
Updated
Asked about Victoria’s contribution to the payments the federal government is considering, Daniel Andrews says:
I’ve had some discussions today with the commonwealth government that are about a shared approach in relation to insecure work. It won’t necessarily be dollar for dollar.
But there are some cohorts of people – some groups of people – that are not covered under various federal government arrangements.
We have covered them, and we will continue to. So I would hope that no one, no one should read into that that we are anything other than unified and working together. We absolutely are. I’ve had – I’m not quite sure how many conversations I’ve had with the prime minister over the last three or four days – lots.
They’ve all been productive and had great outcomes, and I’m very grateful for his support and the practical way he’s approached this. We’ve all got to get the job done. That’s my approach, always has been, and I’m happy to be joined in that by the PM.
Updated
Should Victoria gone earlier?
Brett Sutton:
I think, in retrospect, it’s always difficult to know, you know, when you hit the button on an intervention like this – especially with such significant impacts.
But with the wisdom of hindsight, it would be great to know that the trajectory that we were on was always going to go the way that it was going to go.
You know, I wish that we’d never got to a point where we needed to intervene in this way.
And so a lot of the decision-making was around trying to see the effective interventions. But you never know exactly how those interventions will work when you bring them into play.
So it’s a really tricky space to make decisions in, and you’re trying to avoid the harms of exactly what we’re doing now – but balancing that with the need to drive transition down
Updated
Is there another lever to pull after this?
Brett Sutton:
There aren’t really many other settings that you can go to. But we’ve seen it work across the world. We know it’s more challenging in the second wave. But we’ve seen it work, and it will work.
Updated
Prime minister will hold a press conference at 4.45
Scott Morrison has announced a press conference for 4.45pm.
Updated
Asked about the outside restriction effects on parents, Sutton says:
Parents can go out with their family, obviously, for the purposes of exercise if there’s no other option of having those kids at home.
But there’s no escaping the impact on people’s mental health and, you know, the psychological challenge of what a lockdown means.
That’s why there’ll be further announcements, as the premier’s intimated, in relation to that support. But these are inescapable realities.
We have to limit our action with other people in order to stop transmission. And that has an effect on what amounts to human needs.
We all struggle not to see our extended family members, not to see some other friends and supports that would normally be available to us.
That’s an inescapable and really difficult issue. But we’re trying to strike a balance here to minimise transmission but to, you know, allow people to have the interactions that are necessary to support them.
Updated
Prof Brett Sutton says he hopes to see a change in the next two weeks:
I think over the next 10 to14 days we should see the effects of these restrictions show in the numbers.
As I say, there might be some effects on the mask-wearing that has already been in place for some time that we’ll see in the coming week. But the real driving down of transmission from these restrictions happened a week to two weeks after they were implemented. So, curfew, night’s restrictions, then Friday night’s are all showing up seven to 14 days afterwards.
Updated
On the restrictions on things like meatworks which will continue to operate, but under conditions, despite evidence of virus spread among some of those industries, Daniel Andrews says:
If you look at meatworks, I don’t think that anyone would ever have thought that someone who’s working in a meatworks on a line would essentially be wearing head-to-toe the same gear that our hospital staff wear when they are treating Covid-positive patients.
That’s the sort of level of PPE that we have to get to. We are reducing their overall production by a third – that is very, very significant.
If we don’t see compliance – if we don’t see people in that industry doing the right thing – well, I have no choice but to go further.
But in the discussions we’ve had – and there have been many – we think that we have a strong partnership with this industry and they will step up and do even more. But they’ll do less work, but they’ll do even more in terms of making a contribution to their workplaces being as safe as possible.
The alternative, of course, is to have mass food shortages. And I think we have to try and avoid that wherever we can.
I’d just go back to the central point. You may not be able to buy every single item that you want in the quantities you normally would, but people will have everything they need.
People will have everything they need, and there’ll be more to go around if people buy what they need when they need it rather than going and buying four trolleys’ worth of groceries and enough chicken or beef to last you until Christmas.
That’s not necessary. That is simply not necessary. And that’s why I think you’ll find that a number of our supermarkets will add to some of the restrictions they’ve already put in place, and I fully support them doing that.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
We’ve all got to make a contribution to less movement rather than more. Less spread of this virus rather than more.
And that’s why we’re putting some of these industries on a pilot-light setting, if you like.
They’ll sit there and be able to reboot in six weeks’ time. Other industries are being scaled down not quite so much because they’re part of an essential food supply chain.
Other industries are closed altogether, and that is very, very challenging. But it is exactly what we need to do in order to drive these numbers down.
We can’t – any of us – pretend that, if we didn’t make the tough calls, if we said, “Look, this is too difficult, we’re going to leave all these industries open, we’re going to have hundreds of thousands of our people at work” as opposed to what we’ve announced here, that will drive these numbers down.
They simply won’t. They will hover at 500 a day. The deaths will continue to go up. The number of hospitalisations will continue to go up. And at some point, no system can cope with 500 cases a day. And it then becomes akin to having thousands of cases a day over a much shorter period.
We cannot do a six-month strategy on this in the hope that it might work with tiny, gradual decreases each couple of days. We have to do something that is very painful, but will drive these numbers down and drive them down as quickly as possible.
Updated
Parents who are not at work won’t be able to send their children to school or care, other than in special circumstances:
In broad terms only those who are still working will be able to send their kids to school.
This is in metropolitan Melbourne. They can send their kids to school or have them learn remotely with a teacher or staff member supervising them.
That is different. That will mean less kids are at school. The reason for that – and we will have more detail about this and give parents as much notice as we can, and of course the school arrangements don’t come into effect for another couple of days. What we need to do is, across the board, have less people going to work. Less people moving around the community.
What I can’t have is to have more teachers, more staff, more students and parents moving around the community than is absolutely necessary. I know that will be incredibly challenging for a number of people who perhaps are working from home. But there’s simply no choice.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says the government’s response has been tailored to what it thinks is best for Victoria:
This is a uniquely Australian and Victorian approach. If you look at what New Zealand did, they went a fair bit further than this.
Look, I’m not here to run a commentary on what other countries or other states have done.
We’ve designed something that we think will work here in Victoria, given the circumstances that we face, and we’ve also had some really, really meaningful discussions with the commonwealth government as well to make sure that there was nothing that we didn’t have line of sight of that we needed to.
And obviously, when you’re talking about supply chains that don’t just run within Victoria – they’re into our region – so, into south-east Asia, for instance and, indeed, supply chains that run all the way across the country – that detailed engagement with the commonwealth was really important. And I’m deeply grateful to many, many, many officials for whom the last few days have been very long days.
Updated
On the payments, and whether sole traders will be eligible, Daniel Andrews says:
The same eligibility criteria applies as had applied under our first $10,000 grants.
We have, I would just point out, and we’ll have more to say about this in coming days – there are a number of different groups that are disproportionately negatively impacted.
And we have had some very targeted assistance for those, whether it be arts and entertainment, where I know there are a number of those sole traders that you refer to, hospitality – there’s been different packages within that CBD industry for instance.
Then there were packages for tourism operators. I don’t rule out having further targeted packages of cashflow support and other support beyond that.
Updated
Can you move house?
Yes, and no. If you have plans in motion, yes. But outside that, probably no.
Daniel Andrews:
We’re going to do some further work on this, because this is a question that’s been raised.
We’ve got an approach to a number of transactions that are already in train. So for goods that are going to be delivered, things that are planned to happen. I don’t want to see people not able to settle on their home.
I don’t want to see people who are supposed to move from one place to another because the lease has run out unable to do so. We’ve got to get some specific advice on that. We’ve already given it a fair bit of thought.
I think the answer will be yes – if you’ve got a contract, an arrangement in place, then we will allow you to fulfil that.
But, again, it needs to be – and this gets back to the personal choices that each of us make – there will be instances where we’ll make a ruling.
There’ll be other instances where there’ll be a bit of discretion and people will have to make their own judgments.
I’d ask people to make the judgment that best supports not spreading this virus, not the judgment that might be convenient but, deep down, you know is actually running a risk. If we all want to be past this, we’ve all got to make – sadly – a very significant contribution to this effort.
Updated
Home services (outside the essentials) will also stop, under the new restrictions:
There’ll be no cleaners going to your house. There’ll be no-one mowing your lawns.
There’ll be no-one providing anything other other than emergency support.
If you need a plumber because a pipe has burst, then yes, you can have a plumber come and do that work.
But it’s not the time to be painting your house or having unnecessary, non-urgent work happen.
Meals on Wheels, home and community care, other important services that are very much about the person’s welfare and wellbeing - they will be able to continue.
But, of course, the PPE protocols that are in place now obviously will endure there.
Horse racing will continue with no crowds
Racing will continue says Dan Andrews:
It continues because, obviously, it’s a very low-risk activity. What’s more, there are changes though.
There’ll be no owners, there’ll be no media. There’ll be only the broadcasters and the direct participants involved in that activity.
There are some significant animal welfare issues if you were to try to turn that industry off and take those animals out of training – there are some very significant animal welfare challenges there. So it’s a compromise.
I’m sure many in that industry will not be pleased that it’s been scaled back further. But we think we’ve struck the right balance there.
Updated
Public transport services in Victoria will be cut as well, in line with the restricted number of workplaces and businesses open.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
These are heartbreaking decisions but there is simply no choice. The advice from the medical experts is that this is the only way to get these numbers under control, to drive them down low enough so that we can open up again.
The alternative is a six-month strategy, not a six-week strategy, and then even at that point, significant doubt that that would work.
We cannot continue to have 400-500 cases a day and so many people in hospital, so many people dying.
We have got to drive these numbers down, and if we continue to have the sort of movement that across the community, across the economy, as is part of stage three, if we don’t move to further restrictions I have announced today, then we won’t drive those numbers down.
That strategy has avoided our hospitals being completely overrun in many, many thousands of cases each day. That stability is not enough.
We need to drive these numbers down and as Prof Sutton has just indicated, instead of every positive person infecting another person, only every second or third or fourth person who gets the virus passing it on to someone else.
That is what these restrictions are all about. It is heartbreaking, it is very challenging, but these are the tough calls that have to be made otherwise we are not in the way six-week set of restrictions, we are in for a six-month strategy that I don’t think will work.
Updated
On the impact to the economy, Daniel Andrews says:
This will have a very significant impact. But until we fix the health problem, until we get these case numbers down to a much, much lower level, we simply cannot open the economy up again, so there is significant damage that needs to be done here, but there is no choice but to do that damage, to fix the health problem and then be able to move to rebuilding the economy. We know ... that damage is not just in dollars and cents.
That damage will present in lots of different ways, and that is why throughout this week I have more to say around support for those who are living with family violence.
Those who have significant mental health issues, and those who are experiencing anxiety and depression and many of the attendant challenges of this really difficult set of circumstances. We will have more to say about those measures throughout the course of this week.
Updated
On jobkeeper and jobseeker (current levels) Daniel Andrews says:
I have had a conversation as I said, a number of conversations with the prime minister on jobkeeper and jobseeker and some other arrangements particularly for those in insecure work. I look forward to the prime minister making some further announcements particular in relation to that last category of worker, but jobkeeper and jobseeker are at the higher level, the higher rate, until well into September, well past the six-week window, and I will continue my discussions around cash flow support, business support, other things we can do in partnership.
The prime minister has sought from the commitment that we will be a joint effort, and I have given him the commitment and I make that commitment to every single Victorian that we will will work together in partnership with the commonwealth to look after those who need to be looked after, to support those who need support, and then to getting, to get right into that rebuilding work that will be necessary once we get to the other side of this.
Updated
Daniel Andrews estimates a further 250,000 people will be affected by the changes:
We estimate we have about 500,000 people working from home. We know there are about 250,000 people stood down in one form or another and this will add a further 250,000 in rough numbers.
So that is a million people taken out of the daily commute.
Updated
Stage 3 flattened the curve, says chief health officer
Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, steps up:
We should reflect on the fact that stage three restrictions did make a difference.
They genuinely flattened the curve, but they flattened the curve to a point where we got to a plateau.
A plateau of 400-500 cases every day. That would have continued indefinitely because if you are really only driving transmission down to a level where one person infects one individual then you have 400-500 cases every day ongoing.
It may even have been just above one or just below one. But either way, that means you have hundreds of cases going into next month and the month after and the month after.
These restrictions are very substantial, and I expect, absolutely expect, that we will see transmission driven down and cases to decrease over time. We won’t see it in the numbers instantaneously.
We will see the effect of universal mask wearing in the numbers in the week ahead. And ongoing. We will see the effect of these restrictions in the following week.
But they will be ongoing and they will continue right through the six-week period where we will see a reduction in numbers week on week.
As long as people are following the directions that have been laid out. Obviously there are some constraints that have been set in stone in a way.
They will make a huge difference because there are literally limited opportunities to transmit the virus in the workplace, in other indoor settings as people go about their essential business, and even in the additional limitations in who will visit your household.
Updated
And heavier fines and penalties are coming:
There will be questions, there will be anomalies, there will be things that we need to tidy up and deal with over the coming days.
That is the nature of such significant choices, really difficult choices, and in many respects, something that is completely unique.
That is why we have that lead-in time and that is why there are literally dozens and dozens of people speaking to people across literally every industry in the state to make sure that we are fully aware of the consequences of the decisions we make.
There is no alternative but to follow the rules. There is no alternative but to get tested if you have even the mildest of symptoms.
There is no alternative but to stay at home if you are waiting for a test result or if you have the virus and have been told to stay at home. That is absolutely critical.
Every Victorian is making enormous sacrifices. I am so proud and grateful of all those Victorians who are doing the right thing.
To those who are not, you have to make better choices and I will have more to say tomorrow about significant boosts in penalties, significant boosts in enforcement, and again, I am very grateful to the prime minister for the partnership that he and I have, because tomorrow’s announcements around some of those issues will involve further ADF, further important support for us to get this job done.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says he has been speaking to the prime minister and his department about further support.
Updated
Businesses can expect more grants:
I can announce today that all those businesses that are forced to close – restaurants, cafes, beauty, gyms – all of those in regional Victoria as part of stage three will be eligible for a $5,000 grant from our government and we will do our best, our very best, to get those paid as quickly as we can.
Same criteria as applied last time. We had the best part of $850m, $900m worth of those payments made out at another point. In terms of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell shire, you will be aware that we are currently in the process of paying out literally thousands of $5,000 grants.
I can announce today we will add a further $5,000 to those grants, acknowledging that they will have been under these restrictions now for a period significantly longer than the first six weeks as foreshadowed.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
Now everything I’ve announced relates to metropolitan Melbourne with the exception of abattoirs.
Those rules, two-thirds production, PPE, much like a health setting, as well as temperature checking and stopping workers working at multiple sites.
All that will apply at each of those important facilities right across the state. We can’t have a situation where such a high-risk environment is operating under two different sets of rules into different parts of the state. That will only contribute to further outbreaks and would only mean we were moving the problem from where it currently is into communities where it has not been.
Updated
Construction will also be wound back under the new restrictions:
In terms of other sectors that will scale back but not fully close, construction, which in many respects this is the lifeblood of the Victorian economy ...
We will continue project by project to look at ways we can further reduce the number of staff while doing so safely and for instance allowing us to reopen train lines that are currently closed because we are removing level crossings.
That is a logical way to go. Very large commercial building, whether it be building apartments in the city or building factories or warehouses or some of those sorts of non-residential building project, if it’s above three storeys, then those builders will need to reduce their workforce down to the practical minimum; they can have no more than 25% of their workforce working.
In terms of the third category of building which is domestic homes, that sector can obviously stay open, as the other two can, but it will be unlawful to have any more than five people on site at any one time.
That means essentially for some of these industries, we are moving them to a pilot light phase, not being turned off completely but they are dramatically reducing the number of people they have working for them and their output over the next six weeks.
That is a very difficult decision to make, very challenging decision to make, and I know there will be substantial pain that comes from that but unless we have literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people at home, and not going to work, so hundreds of thousands of less movements around the community each and every day, we will not pull this virus up, we will not see the number reduce.
Throughout all of this we’ve tried to be as logical as possible, to understand intricate and detailed supply chains and be aware of all the consequences of each decision we make.
Updated
Andrews: "I can't guarantee that everybody will get every product they want in the quantities they want but everything you need will be there and there is no need
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) August 3, 2020
to be doing anything else other than buying things that you need when you need them".
Meatworks in Victoria go to two-thirds capacity
Production will also be cut back:
In terms of the third category of businesses that will have to scale back the way in which they work, they will remain open but they will look very different and they will be operating at a significantly reduced capacity to what a normal August and September would look like.
If I can give you a couple of examples. Firstly, meatworks. We know that meatworks are a really significant challenge for us. Whether it be lamb, poultry or beef, they will move to two-thirds production, so they will reduce their production by one-third.
And those workplaces will look very different. There will be some of the most stringent safety protocols that have ever been put in place in any industrial setting.
Those workers will be essentially dressed as if they were a health worker. Gloves and gowns, masks and shields, they will be working in one workplace only, they will be temperature checked, they will be tested.
Updated
Some retail stores will remain open for click and collect, but you won’t be able to go in:
From 11.59pm this Wednesday, retail will close, some manufacturing will close, some admin will close.
These businesses, unless they have specific requirements to safely shut down on a slightly longer timeline, they will have to close by 11.59 on Wednesday night.
To give you the retail example, for instance, Bunnings, you will no longer be able to go into a Bunnings store but you will be able to collect goods without making contact with anybody.
Some of those drive-through arrangements, similar arrangements for courier, so the home delivery model will be able to continue in a number of different retail sites but retail will look very different than its looked and it’s critically important to have many, many people at home rather than at work and moving to and from work each and every day.
Updated
Essential stores to remain open – including supermarkets and grocery stores:
You can read everything to be about metro Melbourne but I will point to a couple of examples where it needs to be statewide but the group of businesses that will not close, will not change, not be modified, supermarkets, grocery stores, bottle shops, pharmacies, petrol stations, banks, news agencies, post offices, plus of course everybody involved in our frontline response, our comprehensive response to this pandemic.
That means people do not need to be going and buying six weeks’ worth of groceries. I understand that there is a sense of concern in the community and hopefully after the clarity of the message today, you do not need to do that because supermarkets as well as grocery stores, the local fruit and veg, the local butcher, the baker, all of those shops, will remain open.
While you will only be able to go to those that are closest to you and you will only be able to be one person out of the house doing that for an hour, they will still be open and they will have to the best of everyone’s ability, they will have the fullest range they possibly can have. There is no need for people to be going and literally buying months’ worth of groceries. Those settings will not close.
Updated
We are going through this list now
BREAKING: retail, manufacturing, some admin all to close. Retail can continue click and collect. Construction to continue in “light mode”. #springst #auspol @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/Wr0pmmX27o
— Shannon Deery (@s_deery) August 3, 2020
Daniel Andrews moves on to the business and workplace restrictions:
Whenever you draw a line or whenever you write a list, there will never be complete certainty and clarity about every single item on the list or there will always be anomalies of people on any side of line that you draw.
You’ve got a detailed document that is a longform list of decisions that have been made. This list has been the product of a lot of hard work from a lot of people together with an important process, and engagement with the commonwealth government, and to this point, but by no means complete, engagement with given industries and sectors.
What I want to do is speak about this and why we’re doing it and take you through the three different categories of workplaces. Yesterday, as I said, was about how we live our lives. The curfew, today is about workplaces.
As heartbreaking as it is to close down places of employment, while I never thought that I would be telling people not to go to work, that is what we have to do in order to stop the spread of this wildly infectious virus, this deadly virus.
Updated
Daniel Andrews press conference
The Victorian premier starts by going through the latest figures Victorian Health has just released.
Can I send my best wishes and my sympathies and condolences to each of the families who have lost a loved one since our last review. This will be an incredibly difficult time for them and every Victorian is with them.
Updated
"Tasmania’s state borders, which were to reopen to selected states this week, will remain closed in light of the ongoing coronavirus on the mainland.
— Elysse Morgan (@ElysseMorgan) August 3, 2020
"Premier Peter Gutwein said the state will be closed to all until at least August 31." @abcnews
With Victoria headed to even stricter restrictions, Anthony Albanese has called for a three-point plan to be released by the government, laying out the national response:
The first is paid pandemic leave. It is very clear that the issue of people going to work because they don’t feel like they have an alternative in terms of putting food on the tables of their families is one that must be addressed.
No one should be put in a situation of looking after their family or looking after their health. That is why paid pandemic leave is necessary.
And it should be announced immediately as a priority of the national government.
We’ve been calling for this for weeks now, and it is time that the government acted.
Second, we need to revisit changes to jobkeeper. It’s very clear that a range of businesses who did OK in June won’t be doing okay in the September quarter.
It’s also very clear that a reduction in support will lead to real hardship as well. This is a case particularly for Victoria, but also for other sections of the community.
A number of people were left behind when jobkeeper was announced. We want to make sure that more people are not left behind as a result of the changes that have been announced by the government, and they should revisit that announcement.
And the third issue is that they should accept responsibility for aged care. It is very clear that it is a national responsibility. And the government needs to announce a national plan for aged care and dealing with these issues. And that needs to be as a matter of urgency as well.
Updated
So 429 new cases confirmed in the past 24 hours in Victoria – that’s from 25,000 tests.
13 people confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 have died in the past 24 hours.
Victoria’s death toll stands at 136.
Updated
Victoria records another 13 deaths
Victoria Health has put out its update ahead of the Daniel Andrews press conference:
Victoria has recorded 429 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 11,937.
The overall total has increased by 380, due to 49 cases being reclassified – largely due to duplication.
Within Victoria, 36 of the new cases are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and 393 are under investigation.
There have been 13 new deaths reported since yesterday. They include a man in his 60s, two males and a female in their 70s, two males in their 80s and five females and two males in their 90s.
Eight of the 13 new deaths are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities. To date, 136 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
In Victoria at the current time:
- 2031 cases may indicate community transmission
- 6489 cases are active
- 416 cases are in hospital, including 35 in intensive care
- 5,111 people have recovered
- More than 1,676,953 tests have been processed – an increase of 25,000 since yesterday.
Updated
And a reminder that while we are expecting changes to opening hours for supermarkets will remain open. There is no need to rush out and buy more than your usual grocery shop.
Updated
If you look to New Zealand, when it came to their stage four restrictions, this is how they responded:
Businesses closed except for essential services, such as supermarkets, pharmacies, clinics, petrol stations and lifeline utilities.
The coming presser will decide what an essential service is, but it is looking like the toughest restrictions we have seen yet.
I’ll be taking you through the Daniel Andrews presser coming up.
It is going to be some more tough news, I am afraid. It looks like all businesses, other than the essential, are to be closed - that’s almost everything other than food, power and telecommunications. We are waiting for the official word, which is coming within the next 30 minutes, but we’ve been told to look at what New Zealand did during its stage four lockdown.
Updated
The Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation is so worried about the potential spread of coronavirus through interstate visitors that members of the group have started to blockade an entrance to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park today.
It comes after the corporation threatened to use “all its influence” to shut the park if people disembarked a plane from Brisbane and were transported into the tourist township of Yulara.
The flight has landed and people have already left to Yulara.
Updated
Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference at 3.15pm.
Updated
An important point:
Even during stage 4, even during the curfew hours of 8pm-5am you can leave your house to escape family violence.
— JillHennessyMP (@JillHennessyMP) August 3, 2020
You will not be fined.
If you’re in immediate danger call 000.
Supports are always available for you here: https://t.co/WF2KVzWY5o#springst #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/qy2523C8J0
Updated
Anthony Albanese has called for the national cabinet to meet earlier than the scheduled Friday meeting:
Daniel Andrews has accepted responsibility for what he is responsible for.
He stands up and has media conferences each and every single day.
But I make this point – the national parliament should be meeting tomorrow.
And the fact that it isn’t is I think a source of regret. We are of the view when parliament is due to sit on 24 August, it must sit.
There is a committee that’s been established, including the Speaker, and the president of the Senate, along with the managers of business for both the government and the opposition, in the House of Representatives, and the Senate, it’s working through the issues.
Any restrictions based upon medical advice should be implemented.
But it shouldn’t be beyond the capacity of our national parliament when it’s due to meet in three weeks time because I think that the Australian people who are going to work, providing essential work in particular, would expect that our politicians aren’t above that.
And that we’re able to participate in parliamentary processes which need to debate these and other issues.
We raise this today, the three-point plan, because it’s not possible to raise it in question time tomorrow which we would in the ordinary events timetable.
So I do think that it is important that the national parliament requires accountability to be held. But this is a global pandemic, as Chris just said. This is a national issue that requires a national response, requires the coordination of the national government with state and territory governments, under the government system that we have.
Updated
JUST IN: @woolworths will temporarily convert three of its Melbourne supermarkets into online delivery hubs to solely fulfill online delivery orders. The Dandenong Plaza, Watergardens South, and Mountain Gate stores will close to in-store customers from tomorrow night. pic.twitter.com/0MLVEuzTcc
— 10 News First Melbourne (@10NewsFirstMelb) August 3, 2020
You may have heard of, or seen a document floating around, purporting to be the stage 4 business restrictions Dan Andrews is going to announce later this afternoon.
No one has been able to verify it – as soon as we have concrete information, we will let you know.
Updated
NSW police have released information on the fines they have issued for social distance breaches:
Police have issued a total of 16 penalty infringement notices for non-compliance with Covid public health orders across the weekend.
In addition to the nine people fined following indoor gatherings at East Jindabyne and Maroubra that exceeded the 20-person limit, as reported yesterday (Sunday 2 August 2020), police issued another seven following eight incidents of failing to comply with noticed direction in relation to section 7/8/9-Covid-19.
From 5.30am on Friday (31 July 2020), officers from Sydney city police area command were patrolling Hyde Park south and monitoring a group who had gathered for an unauthorised public assembly.
When the group exceeded 20 people about 11am, a move-on direction was issued to the spokesman before formal directions under the Public Health Act were issued to each participant.
After the spokesman refused to comply with directions and attempted to incite the rest of the group, he was arrested. He then refused to provide his details and was subsequently taken to Day Street police station. The 47-year-old man was identified and issued with a $1,000 infringement notice.
At a second, unrelated, unauthorised public assembly at a university at Camperdown, officers from inner west police area command were monitoring a group from about 11.30am on Friday.
After numbers in the group increased to about 40, police issued a formal direction under the Public Health Act. Two men, aged 34 and 38, failed to comply with the move-on direction and were each issued a $1,000 infringement notice.
Just after midday on Friday, officers from Liverpool city police area command attended a hotel on Scott Street, Liverpool, to speak to a 44-year-old woman after it was determined she provided false compassionate reasons on her entry permit to travel into NSW from Victoria.
Police informed the woman her application had been rejected, her permit was invalid and directed her to return to Victoria. She was also issued a $1,000 fine.
As part of proactive compliance operations, officers from the Mid North Coast police district attended a licensed premises on East Street, Crescent Head, about 7.30pm on Friday.
Police spoke to the male licensee about the Covidsafe plan and issues raised during a previous inspection. While conducting the walk-through, the officers noted that the premises was full, but only nine names were recorded on the register.
Further, tables and chairs had not been removed to ensure physical distancing and it was not being observed.
The 50-year-old man was subsequently issued a $1,000 infringement notice.
About 2.45am on Saturday (1 August 2020), officers from Tweed/Byron police district were called to a house party on Melaleuca Drive, Mullumbimby Creek.
Police saw a large number of people inside and outside the house, none of whom were appropriately physically distanced.
The 53-year-old male resident told police he was aware there were too many attendees but wasn’t worried because he believes coronavirus is just a flu. The group was dispersed, and he was subsequently issued a $1,000 fine.
Officers from traffic and highway patrol command were patrolling the Springdale area on Saturday when they stopped a vehicle on Burley Griffin Way just before 11am.
Checks revealed the 24-year-old female driver was disqualified from driving and was in breach of her self-isolation requirements as she had returned from Victoria on 20 July.
Police issued the woman with a $1,000 fine and a court attendance notice for driving while disqualified before directing her to return home to complete the self-isolation period.
Updated
BCA and ACTU team up to call for paid pandemic leave
The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions – not known for being on the same side of a lot of issues – have released a joint letter calling for a paid pandemic leave scheme:
Dear Attorney,
Re: Federal paid pandemic leave scheme
We write to urge your government to move quickly to introduce a paid pandemic leave scheme that supports all workers to comply with the applicable state and territory public health directives around Covid-19 testing and isolation.
Paid pandemic leave is now an essential public health measure that will combat the recent spike in workplace transmission in Victoria. Regrettably, recent events in Victoria have demonstrated that there are insufficient measures in place to enable workers who should not be attending their workplaces to stay home.
Business and unions are committed to ensuring that work is healthy and safe for all workers, customers and visitors. The recent outbreaks in Victoria have highlighted that there are still a number of workers who are attending work while infectious or at risk, which is accelerating the rate of community transmission. This is both harmful to the health of the community and disruptive to businesses that are now closing in increasing numbers following workplace transmission.
For many workers who have no or inadequate sick leave, the cost of isolation can be particularly burdensome. Furthermore, while many businesses have implemented policies to provide for paid pandemic leave, not all are able to do so given the cost, especially in the current circumstances where workers are often required to isolate and get tested on multiple occasions.
We acknowledge the efforts of the Victorian government to introduce its own scheme. This scheme is available to all workers who are required to isolate and do not have access to leave. Unfortunately the mechanisms available to state governments to effectively implement and administer such a scheme are inadequate and consequently we have seen minimal take-up over recent weeks.
It is for these public health reasons that business and unions believe the federal government, together with relevant states, must urgently provide for and fund a national paid pandemic leave scheme. This scheme should include the following principles in its design:
- Amend the Fair Work Act to incorporate a leave entitlement consistent with the decision of the Fair Work Commission in relation to the aged care awards
- Provide for reimbursement to business to facilitate the leave entitlement. Mechanisms such as those used for jobkeeper or the paid parental leave payment appear appropriate
- Funded by the federal government and where necessary the relevant state governments.
Unions and business have shown an extraordinary level of cooperation and we welcome the opportunity to jointly discuss this scheme with you and work together to supress this wave of infections.
Yours,
Jennifer Westacott
Sally McManus
Updated
SA has had nine new cases in 10 days
South Australia has now recorded nine new cases in the past 10 days. There are just under 100 close contacts being traced.
Updated
SA’s chief public health officer, Prof Nicola Spurrier, has some more detail on those two new cases:
The first is a male in his 50s.
He is known to be a close contact of one of our previous cases. It was the woman in her 20s who was announced yesterday.
And so we are now testing close contacts of all cases as soon as they’re identified.
And that means that we’re picking up some of those positives in those close contacts even more quickly.
Now this man had been advised by CDCB to quarantine which is great. And he had his test done on Saturday and we got the result back late yesterday.
This person does have some respiratory systems and is generally pretty well but to be absolutely on the safe side he’s been isolated in a medi-hotel.
That particular person has one close contact who will be tested and then isolated, well, obviously isolated, but is also being tested.
Updated
Steven Marshall says community transmission remains the biggest concern:
We expect a very high level of compliance with these new restrictions.
As of midnight tomorrow we will be reducing the number of people who can be at home gatherings from 50 down to 10.
In addition to that, as of midnight tomorrow, we will be moving to restrict the consumption in licensed premises from the current regime to only have seated consumption.
Whether that be with food or without food, seated consumption is the only model available going forward.
I also need to make it very clear that we, because we are on high alert here in Australia and high alert here in South Australia, are looking very closely at the moment at the density arrangements for our licensed venues.
We don’t have anything to announce today but we are going to be looking at this very carefully.
We’re also going to be looking very carefully at the numbers who attend our football matches in South Australia and finally fitness studios.
That is very important that we act swiftly, we listen to the expert advice and that we stay in front of the game here in South Australia.
Every single thing that we do is done to keep the people of South Australia safe during this coronavirus pandemic.
Updated
Restrictions tightening in South Australia
SA premier Steven Marshall is announcing new restrictions for his state after two new positive Covid cases.
BREAKING Premier @marshall_steven announces new restrictions. Drinking only while seated in pubs; home gatherings from 50 to 10 people. Investigsting reducing pub nos, football crowds
— Andrew Hough (@andrew_hough) August 3, 2020
#coronavirus #COVID19 #Adelaide
Updated
Accountants say Victorian workers hit by a second wave of industry restrictions, to be announced today, risk missing out on jobkeeper payments if their employers saw some respite after the first lockdown was lifted.
Craig Whatman, a tax partner at Pitcher Partners, says the problem comes from the new conditions imposed on the jobkeeper payment a fortnight ago when the scheme was extended – at a reduced rate – beyond its original cut-off date of 27 September.
To qualify for ongoing payments, employers will have need to have suffered reduced turnover in both the three months to the end of June and the three months to the end of September.
“Many Victorian businesses could find themselves in a situation where their sales picked up for part of the June quarter, but will be substantially lower for the September quarter due to the enhanced lockdown restrictions in place for the next six weeks,” Whatman said.
“That could then result in them becoming ineligible to continue receiving jobkeeper payments beyond 27 September because they don’t satisfy the decline in turnover test for the June quarter but do satisfy it for the September quarter.”
He said the rules should be changed so the money can keep flowing.
“Victorian businesses should be able to continue receiving jobkeeper payments where their turnover has declined on average 30% or more (or 50% for larger employers) over the course of the six months between 1 July and 30 September.”
It will be interesting to see what comes out of the federal government, which has been briefing out about how Victoria – some 25% of the economy – should have to bear some of the cost of any new measures because it represents a “moral hazard” to the rest of the country.
Updated
Stay safe and warm, Victoria.
Hopefully there will be some power price relief in whatever is coming as well – given the heating bills some people will be receiving (for those lucky enough to have heating).
#VicWeather doing its bit to make #StayHomeSaveLives a bit more palatable, with a cold outbreak on the way. Showers developing tomorrow, hail & thunder on Tuesday. Snow down to 400m mid-week, with flurries possible in #Ballarat & the #Dandenongs. Details: https://t.co/tpADV4E8LL pic.twitter.com/NmqWQvUeRD
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) August 2, 2020
Updated
There are now more than 18m Covid cases around the world
Globally, Covid-19 cases have passed 18 million.
As Helen Sullivan reports:
The number of coronavirus infections worldwide has passed 18m, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker which lists 18,017,556 global cases.
The number of deaths is approaching 700,000, with 688,351 confirmed.
Due to time lags, differing testing rates and definitions, as well as suspected underreporting, the true case and death figures are likely to be higher.
Updated
We still don’t know when Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference. As a general rule, the later the press conference, the more serious the news/change is coming.
Given the Covid figures for the past 24 hours have come out ahead of time (as is usual at the moment) with 429 people diagnosed with the virus in the past 24 hours, it’s the change which is the sticking point.
This time it is about workplaces and businesses – who can stay open, how they can stay open and how they are allowed to operate.
Supermarkets and petrol stations will be considered essential – that much we know – but they will have the same curfew hours applied to them. The rest is all up in the air at the moment.
Updated
I’ve been told the Victorian Legislative Council (upper house) still has sittings scheduled.
But there won’t be a lot happening in terms of new legislation given the lower house is not sitting.
Updated
AAP has an update on the staff walk-out at the Laverton Woolworths distribution centre:
More than 240 staff at a Woolworths warehouse in Victoria have walked off the job after a worker tested positive to coronavirus.
The workers at the Laverton distribution centre took legal cease work action on Monday after a reported positive virus case on Friday night, the United Workers Union said in a statement.
It is unclear when the workers will return to work at the centre, which provides alcohol to Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores.
Woolworths said the company did contact tracing and cleaned the warehouse in line with Department of Health and Human Services recommendations after the worker tested positive on Friday.
They had last worked at the warehouse on 28 July 28.
“We’ve consulted the DHHS and will continue to follow its expert health advice. The DHHS hasn’t instructed us the site needs to close or directed team members to isolate,” the company said.
“We don’t anticipate any material issues in our liquor supply to stores at this stage.”
Updated
Victorian parliament sitting cancelled
Given the federal parliament was cancelled, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Victorian parliament will not sit this week due to the Covid clampdown @abcmelbourne @abcnews #springst
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 3, 2020
Updated
And some more good news, this time from western Sydney:
Ashfield Baptist Homes (ABH) can confirm that 100% of residents and staff have tested negative to coronavirus. This follows a staff member previously testing positive to coronavirus on 22 July.
All residents were tested twice and staff were tested two or three times depending on initial contact with the affected staff member or symptomatic development.
All families were contacted with individual results by phone and residents were personally informed. Families and staff have been kept informed of all results via a communications app.
ABH moved quickly to implement additional safety measures after being notified by the virus tracing team that a staff member had possible contact with a Covid positive patient while dining at Thai Rock restaurant at Wetherill Park on 11 July. The staff member subsequently returned a positive result.
ABH is wholly focused on the wellbeing of its staff and residents. These results are a testament to our continuing infection control measures and precautions.
We would like to acknowledge the outstanding and rapid response from SLHD’s public health unit, nursing flying squad, aged care outreach team and clinicians from infection control and infectious diseases in supporting us and keeping the community safe.
The facility closure continues to be in place alongside additional safety measures. Visiting restrictions will be reviewed this week.
Updated
The ACT has recorded no new cases in the past 24 hours.
Updated
Melbourne man fined $1,652 for being out playing Pokémon Go
Calla Wahlquist has some more on those fines:
Pokémon Go will be the death of Melburnians. Yesterday police fined another person $1,652 for breaching the health directions by being out playing Pokémon Go.
It’s not one of the four approved reasons to leave your home, although if you do a really good job of combining it with your mandated one hour of exercise within 5km of your home it’s probably arguable.
Police issued 172 fines yesterday, including to a man from Keilor who was stopped by police on the Surf Coast, and admitted he had travelled down from the city on Friday to stay at his holiday home.
Another fine was issued to a woman at Southern Cross station who was allegedly trying to catch a train to Bendigo, and two men were fined at a fast-food outlet in Hobsons Bay after they admitted to police they had stayed with a friend in Altona overnight.
Another group of people were fined for celebrating a birthday together at an Airbnb in Point Cook, in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Twenty seven people were also fined $200 for failing to wear a mask or face covering.
Updated
You should never yuck another person’s yum and we all have our thing. But maybe don’t do this in the middle of a pandemic:
A man playing Pokemon Go is among the 172 fines issued in Victoria for coronavirus restriction breaches. Police say officers found the Sunshine man out and about in Melbourne.
Among those fined include 27 people failing to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four approved reasons.
There were also 22 infringements issued at vehicle checkpoints.
Police did 4,366 spot checks on people at homes, businesses and public places across the state on Sunday.
Among other breaches were a Keilor man on the Surf Coast who admitted he travelled there on Friday to stay at his holiday home, a woman at Southern Cross station attempting to travel to Bendigo, two men at a fast-food outlet in Hobsons Bay admitted staying at a friend’s house in Altona overnight and a group of people at a Point Cook birthday party.
(Via AAP)
Updated
The Parenthood (a group of parents who have banded together to lobby for better outcomes for vulnerable families) have joined the chorus of people calling for childcare workers and centres to receive more help, given the Victorian situation:
Without urgent intervention the decision to close services in Melbourne will be devastating to an essential service, a cohort of workers who have continued to place themselves at riskthroughout this pandemic, as well as for families,” The Parenthood’s Executive Director Georgie Dent said.
The situation in Victoria confirms how ill-conceived and premature the Federal government’s decision to snap back to full fees and take JobKeeper off this sector was.”
On Sunday Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that childcare centres in Melbourne would be closed to everyone except children of essential workers and vulnerable children.
This unprecedented decision places the viability of an essential service, already threatened by Covid-19, at further risk.
Early educators are among the lowest paid workers in Australia and ensuring they have access to Jobkeeper during the stage 4 lockdown, at the very least, is critical.
Victorian industries brace for shutdown
Victorian industries are bracing for shutdowns, partial or complete, to be announced as early as this afternoon by the premier, Daniel Andrews.
Industry expectations are focused on meatworks, which have been a major coronavirus transmission channel, with hundreds of positive cases linked to just two sites, Cedar Meats and smallgoods manufacturer Bertocchi.
Also expected to be shut or restricted are hairdressers, which were not shut down last time around.
Operating hours of bank branches are also likely to be restricted, with some to be shut, and Melbourne’s CBD office towers are set to be emptied of the last few hangers-on still shuttling into them every day.
Non-food retailers are also facing further restrictions, while most day care in Melbourne will shut from Thursday – a move the United Workers Union says will leave tens of thousands of workers without any income for the next six weeks.
Shutting meatworks would have a major knock-on effect on the farmers who supply them, who will be stuck with looking after livestock that was destined for the abattoir.
Some animals might be sent north to NSW, but it has its own supply. If NSW meatworks have the capacity, farmers will nonetheless be looking at a crash in the price of livestock.
The problem will be most acute in chicken, the most popular and cheapest meat in Australia, because of the short lifespan of meat chickens, which is at most about two months.
What farmers will do with this glut of chooks is a very good question.
Meanwhile, all this extra transport will increase the cost of production, so it’s not clear what effect it would have on the price and availability of meat in Victoria.
In other knock-on effects, the new shutdowns are likely to further devastate Australia’s already shattered aviation industry, which had been hoping for an early exit from coronavirus restrictions.
Melbourne to Sydney was formerly one of the busiest air routes in the world, but any chance of it ramping up again is off the cards for at least six weeks.
More broadly, transport will get a sugar hit from the panic buying that has once again cleared supermarket shelves, but the end of elective surgery and restrictions on non-food retail are likely to cut demand and therefore jobs.
Updated
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), Consumer Health Forum of Australia (CHF), and Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (Fecca) are very worried culturally and linguistically diverse (Cald) patients are getting lost in the pandemic, and not going to their GPs like normal.
An RACGP spokeswoman, Dr Kate Walker, said she was worried Cald patients may be “avoiding important medical appointments due to fear of Covid-19. There are higher rates of chronic disease and other comorbidities among some Cald communities.”
CALD communities already face barriers to healthcare, so it’s critical that we get the message to these patients about the importance of maintaining care during the pandemic – as well as public health messages for Covid-19.
I want to reassure all patients that it remains safe to visit your GP. Practices have strict infection prevention measures in place. You can also access a GP remotely with telehealth consultations and free interpreter services. So if you need an appointment, please don’t delay.
Asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants face greater barriers to care and may be more mistrustful of government and reluctant to get tested. We are concerned there is a lack of messaging about testing options for those without a Medicare card.”
The RACGP, CHF and Fecca say the barriers to care for Cald patients need to be addressed and are calling for:
- Consultation with Cald communities – health authorities must involve communities and peak bodies in developing strategies to address the health needs of Cald Australians during the pandemic
- Cald community education campaigns on accessing GP care including support for using telehealth and the Australian fovernment’s free translation and interpreting service
- Cald peak bodies and community groups must be involved in developing and disseminating Covid-19 information and directives. More targeted information is needed about testing, self-isolation, contact tracing and healthcare for those who have tested positive
- Care and support of Covid-19 positive patients should involve Cald communities remotely if possible
- Improved video consultation access – there is no video consultation platform available that enables the use of interpreters. We encourage video platforms to enable easy integration of telephone interpreters, simplify the interface and provide information on alternative telephone options.
Updated
Ceda has released its post-pandemic “playbook” for the federation.
It’s essentially calling on the jurisdictions to talk to each other more.
Updated
Baby included in four Wagga Wagga cases
Wagga Wagga health authorities have released information on four people, including a baby, who were diagnosed with Covid-19 after they visited Melbourne.
I believe they are on top of the 13 people the premier announced today.
All four – a 52-year-old woman, her son and his wife (both in their 20s) and their baby – have been self-isolating since they returned from Melbourne.
Authorities don’t believe there is anyone else they need to contact given the family stayed indoors.
Updated
And just squaring the circle with the “George” issue this morning, Barnaby Joyce’s office has confirmed to Joel Fitzgibbon’s office (which issued the Sunrise transcript from this morning) that Joyce meant to say George Soros.
Here is the corrected exchange:
Barnaby Joyce: But ... but both those [low interest rates] will change, Kochie, you know that. You’ve been around longer than me. Yeah, of course interest rates will go up – of course interest rates will go up.
David Koch: No they won’t. We’ve got a triple-A credit rating. They are not going up for years.
Joyce: Well, did anyone who planned that this will be the lowest interest rates five years ago in the history of mankind? Did anybody plan about this 10 years ago? You can’t. I remember when Telecom bonds were at 17%, you know it too. And you have to look at your short-term money rates. You have to look at whether George Soros knows what he’s doing it. He’s planning on interest rates going up.
Koch: Hang on, that’s a totally different environment. Anyhow, we can talk about interest rates a bit later.
Updated
Do you live in Melbourne or regional Victoria and have a story to tell about the lockdown?
Whether this is affecting your business, your health, your relationships or you just want to vent about how you’re feeling right now, our news podcast Full Story wants to hear from you. You can call (02) 8076 8550 and leave us a voicemail telling your story.
Feel free to leave your name and number if you’re OK with us calling you back.
You can also email us at australia.fullstory@theguardian.com
Updated
It’s not the first case at a distribution centre – but that might be the point.
Hundreds of workers at a giant Woolworths Distribution Centre in Melbourne’s west have walked off the job this morning after a positive COVID-19 case. Union says company haven’t done enough. Story up shortly @theage
— Ben Schneiders (@benschneiders) August 3, 2020
Updated
Some good news: Two Victorian healthcare workers who were last week in ICU fighting coronavirus are now in stable conditions. One was a doctor aged in her 30s and the other a radiographer. Northern health have confirmed both patients are today stable. @theheraldsun
— Brianna Travers (@briannatravers) August 2, 2020
The Barnaby Joyce comments about hoping a “George” “knows what he is doing, he is planning on interest rates going up” are at 1.03 here.
Updated
On the NSW restrictions (mostly related to the border) Gladys Berejiklian says the reaction across the state has been “interesting”:
When you go down to the border communities, people are angry with me because I’m being too tight.
They would like to see the restrictions ease. But we are having to be tough on the borders because of the situation that faces us.
No doubt that stage four in Melbourne and other parts of Victoria will assist us in that process.
When Victorians themselves can be mobile, it obviously helps our job in reducing people getting across the border. But no matter how tough you are, borders aren’t impenetrable, we have to remember that.
Unfortunately people always try to do the wrong thing, and that has been an issue across the nation.
We have to be aware of that. If you ask the border communities, they will tell you I’m being too tough, not being relaxed enough. I don’t think so. I think our response is adequate, but if we need to do more, we will.
We will know in the next few days what that flow is like as a consequence of the shutdown in Melbourne. Which obviously will have a positive impact on the way we can manage the virus in NSW.
Updated
On masks on public transport, the NSW premier says:
You need to judge yourself, and you should do what I do. I always have a mask in my pocket. If I feel uncomfortable, I can wear it if I feel my social distancing is being compromised. I recommend everyone have one in their pocket or their bag, and if they feel they are in a situation where they need to wear one, they should.
A lot of our public [transport] service is under-utilised. Some are over-utilised, obviously, and we should take the health advice which is commensurate with the situation we are faced within NSW.
Updated
Masks are not mandatory in NSW (as yet) but they are very strongly encouraged.
Gladys Berejiklian:
I went shopping last night and I had my mask on, and so did a lot of people. In the coming days and weeks we will see that trend continue.
We will see people take up the opportunity. We also appreciate that we are providing very significant advice.
I trust the vast majority of people in our state to do the right thing. They know when they might be exposed to social distancing, and they also appreciate where there might be active cases in the community which would make them more likely to be having to wear a mask.
We can’t be complacent because even with one or two cases of community transmission – we saw what happened at the Crossroads hotel.
One infectious person turned into 600 people having to be contacted, and their contacts and the contacts of those contacts. It only takes one to get out of hand to make enormous ripples throughout the community. We cannot be complacent whatsoever.
We are holding the line, but the next few weeks are precarious. We are about halfway through what we always knew would be a very difficult period. As soon we were aware of the situation and the extent of it in Victoria, we assumed it would take four to six weeks before NSW knew what our journey would look like during the next phase of the pandemic.
I say to everybody in NSW: let’s do the hard yards now so we have a better chance moving forward and not have to go into the situation Victorians find themselves in.
On behalf of everybody in our state, I know I speak for everybody when I say how much we empathise and feel for all of our Victorian friends and fellow Australians.
They are going through a difficult time, and our thoughts and prayers are with all of them.
Updated
ACT looking at masks too
The ACT is also looking at masks. If you haven’t picked some up yet, now might be the time to start looking at that.
Updated
Prof Michael Kidd said the situation in NSW, while still showing community transmission, was different:
In NSW we have a different situation. We do have community transmission, but it’s at a much lower level.
Over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen between 10 and 20 people, thanks to the response of the people of NSW and the extraordinary public health response with the testing of the contact tracing.
We are not seeing a dramatic rise, but we need to keep a close eye on those figures.
The wearing of masks in areas of community transmission is recommended, particularly if people are going into a situation where they may not be able to maintain physical distancing – for example at the supermarket or on public transport.
And also it’s really important that people who themselves are vulnerable if they were to get Covid-19 would be well advised to get a mask when they are outside the home, again in those areas of transmission in NSW.
Updated
Deputy chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, spoke about the Victorian restrictions:
Clearly what we have seen over the last few weeks was a continuing upward trend, despite the stage three restrictions, despite the requirements that people are wearing masks whenever they are outside of their homes.
These additional measures, which obviously are aimed at dramatically reducing the possibility of people coming into contact with other people, reduce the movement around the city and also around the rest of the state, is what’s needed if we are to bring this outbreak under control.
What we didn’t see was the numbers rising exponentially, which is what has happened in many other countries.
So yes, we did have an upward trend, but not as sharply upward as may have occurred otherwise.
We do know that masks are an effective way of preventing transmission from person to person when you have significant community transmission taking place, so the masks are one of the important measures.
But all the other measures which people are doing, adhering to these new restrictions, making sure that they are maintaining that physical distancing with other people, staying in their homes if they are unwell, and of course most importantly, if you are diagnosed with Covid-19, you must stay at home in isolation.
Updated
So four of the 13 new cases in NSW acquired the virus from either overseas or Victoria (and are in quarantine) which means the rest of the infections were locally acquired.
Updated
NSW records 13 new cases in past 24 hours
Gladys Berejiklian just reported NSW recorded 13 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
Three of those were from overseas travellers, one was someone returning from Victoria – so four of those cases are either overseas or a returning traveller from Victoria.
Updated
The governments of New Zealand and Australia have been talking for months now about the eventual possibility of a trans-Tasman travel “bubble”, in which travellers would be able to move between the countries without spending the requisite time in quarantine at each end.
But the events in Victoria are a significant impediment to that happening any time soon, Jacinda Ardern told Radio New Zealand on Monday.
“This is a major setback for trans-Tasman travel because we have always said we have to be very, very assured that any quarantine free travel we have with any country needs to ensure that it doesn’t come at a risk or a cost to us,” she said.
“And so obviously this is going to be some time away now.”
When asked by RNZ whether she had ruled out such a travel bubble this year, Ardern said she hadn’t “put a timeframe on it”.
There is no known community transmission of Covid-19 in NZ; all diagnosed cases are contained in quarantine hotels among returning travellers.
Updated
Which led to this exchange over paid pandemic leave (which is already in place in some areas).
Barnaby Joyce: Well, I suppose if you had unlimited funds, you can do all sorts of things, Kochie.
But we’re borrowing this money. It’s not ours; we’re borrowing it from overseas. And if you want to keep borrowing money, well, you have to expect at some stage you’re going to pay it back and people are going to start looking at how are we going to pay it back? They’re going to ask the question: has Australia ever paid down any of this debt, ever in the last, you know, decade or so? And if we borrow further money, put it on top of what we’ve got, then the economic ramifications will only be exacerbated. So we’ve got to be cautious about how much further money we borrow.
There’s no point saying oh we will get a trillion dollars and then something magical will happen or stop. If you got to a trillion dollars, the trajectory means it’s going to go higher than a trillion dollars and who has the plan? Who has said this is how we’ll pay it off? So pandemic payments would be great, but if you limit it.
David Koch: OK to be fair, our debt isn’t as high as most countries overseas and we’re only paying 0.8% interest on it. So the money is really cheap.
Joyce: But ... but both those will change, Kochie, you know that, you’ve been around longer than me. Yeah, of course interest rates will go up – of course interest rates will go up.
Koch: No they won’t. We’ve got a triple-A credit rating. They are not going up for years.
Joyce: Well did anyone who planned that this will be the lowest interest rates five years ago in history in the history of mankind? Did anybody plan about this 10 years ago? You can’t. I remember when Telecom bonds were at 17% ... And you have to look at your short-term money rates. You have to look at whether George .... knows what he’s doing. He’s planning on interest rates going up.
(The transcript says George Souris, who is a former Nationals MP, but we are checking which George Joyce meant)
Koch: Hang on, that’s a totally different environment. Anyhow, we can talk about interest rates a bit later.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce was on the Seven network this morning, inspiring confidence, as usual:
I think people have got to realise that we’ve planned for stage three lockdown not stage four.
This is a total shutdown of the economy, and it’s going to be dramatic. I wish that they could do it without shutting down businesses.
I just don’t know how we’re going to pay for all this. It’s, it’s out of control. And I think Mr Andrews has to ask himself a few questions, ask whether he’s up to the job, and we also have to understand now that the costs, which were exceptional, have just got worse.
And personally, I’d be trying to keep businesses open. I just don’t think we can afford this any more.
Updated
The joint migration committee is holding a hearing on working holiday visa holders.
Michael Willard, a first assistant secretary of the home affairs department, told the inquiry the number of working holidaymakers in Australia has fallen from 135,000 on 30 June 2019 to 80,000 on 30 June 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In April the Australian government eased work conditions on working holidaymakers, including waiving the limit of working for six months with the one employer. It also introduced a temporary activity visa (subclass 408) for working in essential industries.
Willard revealed that 1,957 holidaymakers in Australia have applied for Covid pandemic visas, which allow them to stay in Australia to work in essential industries including aged care and agriculture.
A further 181 have claimed bushfire recovery work to qualify for a second visa.
Updated
Chris Bowen was meant to hold a press conference at 11.30 but that has been cancelled – because Anthony Albanese has jumped on board.
The Labor leader will hold a press conference, with Bowen, at 1.30pm.
Updated
While Melbourne’s hotels have dominated the news cycle for all the wrong reasons, those that aren’t operating as quarantine centres for returned international travellers are struggling.
With tourism banned and regional Victorians no longer coming into the city for work many CBD hotels have started relying on a very different clientele: those seeking a quiet escape from their homes.
“Lately we have had more day-stays for workers. People come for business and just turn the room into their home office,” said Fernanda Arantes who works at a Melbourne hotel.
“They just spend the day there so they have more privacy. Maybe they have little kids at home, maybe they need more quiet.
“There is no one staying for holidays or anything like that at the moment.”
Arantes says she isn’t sure if her hotel will still be able to operate after today’s announcements on how the lockdowns will affect businesses.
“We are apprehensive, but we believe we are going to have all the support we need through this difficult time,” she said.
“Personally [stage four] doesn’t affect me as much because I’ve been doing all that stuff already. It’s more the business part that worries me.”
Updated
Melbourne’s CBD workers are waiting with bated breath for today’s announcement on the future of Victorian business during stage four lockdowns.
Among those still making the daily commute into the city are a large contingent of lawyers and paralegals.
Brittany Allen, who works at a criminal law firm, doesn’t know if today will be her last day of work for weeks.
“I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I guess it’s hard without the announcement on jobs. It’s hard to tell what’s happening,” she said.
Allen and the rest of her team are waiting to hear if the courts will operate during the next six weeks.
“I think yesterday’s news just left more questions left unanswered ... It all just depends on the courts really.”
Allen said she was happy to abide by the new lockdown rules, but wish she had had more time to prepare.
“It was a bit sudden finding out that [the curfew] was going to kick in that night at eight o’clock. I think maybe people should have had a bit more time to get ready for that mentally. Last night I was feeling very overwhelmed.
“But I’m okay, I’m feeling OK. We all just have to do the right thing.”
Updated
Unconfirmed reports of 429 new cases in Victoria in past 24 hours
There are reports of 429 new cases of Covid-19 being diagnosed in Victoria in the past 24 hours.
Testing has been down over weekends.
#BREAKING: The ABC understands Victoria has recorded 429 new cases of coronavirus overnight.
— ABC Melbourne (@abcmelbourne) August 2, 2020
New restrictions, including a night-time curfew, are in force across Melbourne under stage 4 restrictions.
Premier Daniel Andrews will announce changes to businesses this afternoon.
Updated
With all the awful news about, it can be hard to find some slivers of light.
But here is one, as reported by Matilda Boseley.
Updated
We won’t be hearing from Daniel Andrews until early afternoon (at the earliest).
Updated
You can follow the international coronavirus news with Helen Sullivan, here.
Updated
New Zealand puts off hopes for trans-Tasman bubble until 2021
Jacinda Ardern has sent her well-wishes for Victoria from across the ditch – but has also conceded there will be no trans-Tasman travel bubble in the foreseeable future.
Via AAP:
Jacinda Ardern has given her support to Victorians beginning a tough New Zealand-style lockdown while suggesting it has put off hopes for a trans-Tasman bubble until 2021.
The NZ prime minister said it would be several months until the return of regular travel between Australia and New Zealand following the spread of Covid-19 to Victoria.
“Part of our criteria is anywhere we have quarantine-free travel, they have to be free of community transmission for a period of time, 28 days,” she told network Three.
“That is going to take a long time for Australia ... . Their numbers at the moment are very high.”
On Sunday, Victoria’s premier, Dan Andrews, declared a state of disaster and engaged stage four restrictions – similar to NZ’s level four lockdown which began in March, with only minor differences.
In NZ, there were more restrictions on business, with many occupations deemed inessential and not allowed to operate.
That included a complete ban on retail – except for supermarkets and pharmacies – and restaurants, unlike Victoria, which allows takeaway and delivery.
In Victoria, a nine-hour curfew from 8pm each day has been implemented and masks are compulsory, which has never been the case in NZ.
There is also no Kiwi-style “bonk ban”, meaning partners who live apart are allowed to see each other.
Another chief difference is the timing of the lockdown.
New Zealand’s lockdown was largely preventive. Ardern announced the tough measures in March on the same day health authorities reported just 36 new cases, saying “the trajectory is clear”.
New Zealand’s daily case numbers peaked at 89.
In contrast, Victoria’s measures are being implemented as a last-chance solution after a full fortnight of daily case numbers in the hundreds, and a doubling of the state’s death toll.
Ardern told 1News it was heartbreaking.
“It’s incredibly difficult to watch to see our cousins over the ditch going through this,” she said. “It’s also a message to us to continue to maintain our vigilance.”
Updated
The Queensland health minister, Steven Miles, says the next week will be “critical”.
We know it’s now eight days since those first two cases who went to Melbourne and return have been out in the community, but then we’ve had those subsequent three cases. We can still expect to see some ongoing cases, so please, everyone needs to be very careful.
If they develop any symptoms at all, they should come forward and get tested and isolate themselves until they get the result of that test, to maintain social distance as much as they possibly can, and everyone, please, reconsider whether you need to travel to Victoria or that hot spot in New South Wales, metropolitan Sydney, or overseas.
Those are all very high-risk environments that you could contract the infection and bring it back into Queensland.
Updated
So there are still just 12 active cases of Covid-19 in Queensland at the moment.
Queensland calls for any overseas travel mandatory quarantine excemptions to end
Annastacia Palaszczuk also has some thoughts about the national cabinet agenda (she is talking about people like diplomats who don’t have to quarantine in hotels upon arrival).
I’m going to raise this at national cabinet. I think now is the time for overseas travellers to definitely go into mandatory hotel quarantine.
There have been some exemptions.
I don’t think the time is right now for those exemptions.
However, that is going to be a matter for the chief health officers around the country to look at, and I want to put that on the agenda for national cabinet to look at as well.
I don’t think we need any elements of risk at the moment when we are dealing with this global pandemic, and if we can close off any of those loopholes, it will keep everyone safe.
My job is to keep Queenslanders safe. We’ve been doing a great job. We want to keep that going.
Updated
The Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she has heard from the NRL after concerns social distancing restrictions were broken at the Sunshine Coast stadium at a weekend game and has been assured action to stop it happening again will be taken:
We’ve been contacted by the NRL this morning, and the Storm themselves are saying they want to reduce the number of people to that stadium by 1,000.
We want people to adhere to social distancing. That is incredibly important.
[Chief health officer] Dr Young will also address the fact that people are outside, and that’s less risk than being inside, but of course we don’t want to see large crowds gathering who are not social distancing.
The majority were seated, not moving around, but having said that I want to commend the NRL for taking that very swift action and letting my office know that they will be reducing the numbers by 1,000.
Of course we want to see the competition continue. It’s going from strength to strength, and I just want to thank everyone for doing the right thing.
Updated
And in good news, all 105 residents at the Bolton Clarke Fairview aged care home in Brisbane’s south-west have now been tested for Covid-19 (there was one resident who had not been tested yesterday) and all have returned negative results.
Updated
Queensland reports no new Covid-19 cases
There are no new cases in Queensland reported in the past 24 hours.
Updated
There are more ADF staff on standby to help with what is happening in Victoria
Our sailors deployed on #OpCOVID19Assist are a long way from shore. There are now more than 3000 of #YourADF personnel deployed around Australia.
— General Angus Campbell (@CDF_Aust) August 2, 2020
Defence is assisting police at border control checkpoints to keep our communities safe. pic.twitter.com/onNXLhQlzb
Victorian backbencher Tim Smith went on Sydney radio to demand the Victorian premier step down. As you were.
"They have so monumentally failed the people of Victoria.”https://t.co/Tr2SpU4xy8
— 2GB 873 (@2GB873) August 2, 2020
Updated
The prime minister has popped on a face mask – and presumably, only Craig Kelly and his ilk suffered.
For those wanting more information, outside of a Facebook page, you can find one here. I get that for some people they can be uncomfortable – and for others a reminder of trauma. But when it comes to stopping that spray, there is nothing better. Find which one works for you.
Face masks are now either required or recommended in some parts of the country because of the high rates of community transmission of coronavirus. It’s important to understand which mask you should be wearing. Learn more: https://t.co/CoYzeg6ybF pic.twitter.com/wzMDagupRz
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) August 2, 2020
Updated
Today’s announcement from Daniel Andrews is expected to have more information for workers.
8.29 am at Flinders Street Station. This time last year you wouldn’t have been able to see the steps through the swarms of city workers. pic.twitter.com/wrQBPPhTNj
— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) August 2, 2020
Melbourne’s new rush hour @GuardianAus @AmyRemeikis pic.twitter.com/WEZREjfIM2
— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) August 2, 2020
Updated
Still no word on when we will hear from Daniel Andrews (and there has been no “I’m hearing XXX numbers of cases in Victoria today” from journalists as yet either) but we will hear from Gladys Berejiklian at 10.30am.
Fifteen minutes later, it will be Mark McGowan’s turn.
Updated
Queensland is getting a wriggle on: Annastacia Palaszczuk and Steven Miles have brought forward their press conference by an hour – it will now be at 9am.
Updated
The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, was on Sky News yesterday, lamenting the stage-three lockdown for regional Victoria, saying residents “feel like the kid who’s been kept back in class because of the actions of another kid”.
It is so tough on some of those areas. They’ve been through drought, they’ve been through bushfires, and now this.
They’re paying the penalty for what’s happening in Melbourne.
Day 1 of mask wearing for regional #victoria Just asked a tradie his thoughts on wearing one... "People need to suck it up and just bang one on.” Ok, let’s do this! @BreakfastNews #COVID19Vic #Covid_19
— Ashlee Aldridge (@Ashlee_Aldridge) August 2, 2020
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Anyone needing any information on the Melbourne rules, can find it here:
Queensland is the first state to announce a press conference today.
That will be at 10am.
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OK, having a look at the treasurer’s interviews from this morning it is clear that:
Some form of pandemic leave is in play (some states have already provided paid leave) with discussions under way between business groups, unions and the attorney general. The states will have to chip in though.
Jobkeeper eligibility for Victorian businesses will most likely be tweaked, given the harsher lockdowns.
The $3.3bn September quarter contraction expected from the Victorian lockdowns will be worse.
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Queensland is halfway through the virus incubation period after two people, who had allegedly lied on their border entry forms, tested positive to Covid-19 after returning to Brisbane.
Health authorities will be watching Brisbane’s south very closely this week.
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Supermarkets remain open and you can still shop, even under the harshest of Victoria’s lockdown rules.
AAP has an update on the hours of supermarkets in those areas:
Supermarkets in Melbourne will be open in line with the city’s new 8pm curfew and product limits will remain.
At Coles, the last customer will be allowed in at 7.30pm every night and all stores will close at 7.45pm, unless a store’s existing trading hours already specify an earlier closing time.
The hours will apply to all Coles supermarkets, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars, First Choice and First Choice Liquor Market stores.
Coles Express will remain open at its usual hours.
Product limits are also in place after panic buying returned during speculation of the tighter lockdown.
At Coles, further product limits have been introduced on meat products – only two packets of mince meat, chicken breasts and chicken thighs can be purchased per customer.
At Woolworths, limits are in place for a range of products including staples such as toilet paper, paper towel, bleach, pasta, flour, canned vegetables and eggs.
Under Melbourne’s stage four lockdown, people cannot leave their homes between 8pm and 5am unless it is for work, medical care and care-giving.
Shopping will be limited to one person per household per day, within a 5km limit, unless the closest store is beyond that distance.
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Parliament was meant to sit this week, but was cancelled, because of what has been happening in Victoria.
As Adam Bandt points out though, parliament doesn’t need to sit for pandemic pay to be put in place:
The Morrison government can use the extensive coronavirus crisis powers already granted to it by parliament to immediately grant paid Covid-19 sick leave to workers across Australia, according to advice obtained by the Australian Greens, without parliament having to sit. The treasurer could grant the leave by issuing regulations, similarly to the way the jobkeeper scheme was established. The advice was provided by the Parliamentary Library.
Given the high number of workplace-related transmissions in Victoria and the risk of further outbreaks in other states, the Greens are calling on the Morrison government to either pass a Greens’ bill currently before the Senate granting 14 days paid Covid-19 leave, or use existing powers to immediately issue regulations granting paid Covid-19 leave.
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When we say the treasurer has been on the morning interview rounds, we mean he stacked his morning pretty much back to back.
Busy morning for the Treasurer pic.twitter.com/05ebTqw2QI
— Matt Bevan 🎙 (@MatthewBevan) August 2, 2020
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Speaking to Fran Kelly on ABC radio RN this morning, Josh Frydenberg said people are “in a state of shock” in Victoria and the emotional impact should not be underestimated.
He said people are feeling angry and frustrated but “we have to put that aside”.
“We are in a warlike situation,” he says.
We don’t know what the plans are around pandemic leave as yet, other than, as the Fin reports, Victoria will have to chip in.
But Josh Frydenberg did hint towards eligibility changes being made to jobkeeper for Victorian businesses, as part of his morning interview rounds. As he told ABC News Breakfast:
There may have been Victorian businesses that were not eligible for jobkeeper in the June period, because for example, they had strong retail sales in May or June.
But they are obviously in the September period seeing a lot of hardship. So in that case, we are looking at flexibility around the eligibility for jobkeeper, for businesses beyond the end of September.
Speaking to Sky News this morning, the treasurer said:
We do recognise there’ll be an ongoing need in Victoria, and that’s why we’re having those conversations.
“We want them [the Victorian government] to share the load, it’s got to be matched support.”
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Impact on national economy 'very significant', says Frydenberg
Before the stage four restrictions were put in place in greater Melbourne, Josh Frydenberg said the national economy would take about a $3.3bn hit in the September quarter, because of the the virus’s re-emergence in Victoria.
Now, as he has told Sky News and ABC radio’s RN, he says it is going to be worse.
“That wasn’t based on stage four restrictions, nor was it based on restrictions being across the whole state, so clearly that number will be higher,” he told Sky, adding he expected it to be a “very significant” hit, given Victoria makes up a quarter of the national economy.
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As a reminder:
Greater Melbourne is under stage four restrictions, with a nightly curfew from 8pm to 5am (which I think might be the strictest restrictions placed on residents since the second world war).
Schools will move to remote learning from Wednesday. Childcare centres will close (exemptions will be made for essential workers and vulnerable students – and we’ll find out a little later who is considered an “essential” worker).
You can only travel for work and for care.
You can’t travel more than 5km outside your home for exercise. You can only exercise for one hour a day outside your home.
Just one person from your household is allowed to go shopping. You can’t travel more than 5km from your home for shopping.
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An inmate at a NSW prison has tested positive for Covid-19.
NSW Corrections have issued this statement:
Corrective Services NSW has taken all appropriate health and safety measures after an inmate, who came into custody on 26 July, subsequently tested positive for Covid-19 at Parklea Correctional Centre.
The inmate had recently been in Victoria and was arrested for driving offences and bail refused. As with all fresh custodies, he was isolated from the time of his arrest by NSW police force and subsequently by CSNSW before his transfer to Parklea.
At Parklea the inmate underwent mandatory Covid-19 testing and has been housed in isolation in Area 6B in accordance with standard protocols for Covid-19 infection control.
Preliminary contact tracing with staff and inmates has confirmed the inmate has not had any close contacts in custody, on being transported, or at Parklea CC since his arrival, in accordance with the isolation protocols.
CSNSW has established isolation hubs to safely manage Covid-19 positive inmates separate to other inmates.
This is the first and only confirmed case of Covid-19 among correctional staff or inmates at any NSW correctional facility.
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The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is expected to give more information today on expected tougher restrictions for workplaces and businesses.
That is where a lot of the virus has been transmitted in recent weeks – at work. So with metropolitan Melbourne in stage four lockdown (regional Victoria is still in stage three) and under curfew, work is the next step.
If the announcement follows recent trends, you can expect a press conference around 11am – but we will let you know as soon as we have a confirmed time.
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Good morning
It’s the first morning after Victoria’s first night under a lockdown curfew, which makes it a little hard to feel refreshed.
Even if you’ve been lucky enough to be on leave for the past few weeks. A massive thank you to Calla and everyone for the incredible job they have done. I hope I can carry it on.
In the time since the blog was with you last, NSW health authorities have sent out a warning to people in Newcastle after a Sydney person, who has since been diagnosed with Covid-19m visited the region on 29 and 30 July. They went to the Hotel Jesmond between 7.30pm and 9.30pm on the 29th and the Wallsend Diggers between the same times, the next night.
Scott Morrison hasn’t addressed the Victorian lockdown enforcement through a press conference, but has put up a post on a couple (not all) of his social media networks.
Here’s a statement from Scott Morrison on the Victorian lockdowns - posted to his Instagram and Facebook, but not Twitter pic.twitter.com/9PoCdA3AAk
— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) August 2, 2020
He’s also donned a mask
We’ll keep you updated on all of the news as it happens throughout the day, including what is next for Victoria. A reminder that it took New Zealand about a month to get out of its stage four lockdown – and that was when cases were under 100 a day – not the 600-700 cases a day we have seen diagnosed in Victoria.
This is, unfortunately, going to be the new normal for quite sometime.
Thank you for joining us. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day. I hope you have some sunshine and a nice cup of morning juice, where ever you are.
Ready?
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