What we learned today, Thursday 27 August
That is where we will leave the live blog for this evening. If you want to follow the latest global coronavirus news you can follow our other live blog here.
Here’s what we learned today:
- Victoria recorded 23 deaths from Covid-19 and 113 new cases.
- New South Wales reported nine new coronavirus cases.
- All correctional facilities in Queensland entered lockdown as the state recorded two further cases of Covid-19.
- Scott Morrison unveiled new plans to allow the government to prevent state and territory governments and universities from entering into “detrimental” deals with foreign powers.
- The Australian-national terrorist who murdered 51 people in New Zealand last year, Brenton Tarrant, has been sentenced to life without parole.
- The federal government has blocked an attempt by Labor to chide the Liberal party backbencher Craig Kelly for repeatedly pushing for the use of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.
Updated
#breaking Sports rorts: 70% of grants from separate fund went to Coalition seats, Greens say #auspol #sportsrorts https://t.co/iej3ex14JO
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 27, 2020
Daniel Andrews has pointedly urged Scott Morrison to explain alternative export markets for Victorian goods after the prime minister unveiled new powers that may be used to tear up the state’s belt and road agreement with China.
My colleagues Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp have covered his response here:
The opposition communications spokeswoman, Michelle Rowland, has criticised the communications minister, Paul Fletcher, for voting against a Labor motion countering the Liberal MP Craig Kelly’s comments on hydroxychloroquine.
For weeks, Kelly has used social media and the federal parliament to advocate for the use of hydroxychloroquine in combating the virus, despite warnings from health officials and organisations across the globe that the drug is ineffective and potentially harmful when used to treat Covid-19 patients.
In a parliament speech on Tuesday, Kelly said “media bias”, “groupthink” and the “complete abandonment of reason” were driving a “war” on the drug, claiming “the big hand of government” was “interfer[ing] in a doctor-patient relationship”.
Rowland said “how serious is minister Fletcher when it comes to combating misinformation?”:
Minister Fletcher currently has his portfolio agency the ACMA working with digital platforms to develop a code on misinformation and news quality, yet today he voted against a motion affirming science and the independence of the TGA, as well as the responsibility of public officeholders to counter misinformation and conspiracy theories.
It is clear the Morrison government isn’t serious about countering misinformation during Covid-19, or combating what the UN secretary general and the WHO director general refer to as an “infodemic” that has included everything from dangerous health remedies to the nonsense that Covid-19 is somehow caused by 5G technology.
Not only does the Morrison government shut down parliamentary debate, they haven’t even bothered empowering the ACMA with a clear statutory role for dealing with misinformation and the voluntary misinformation code is still months away.
Updated
Statement on the Government’s plan to ensure states’ & territories’ arrangements with foreign governments are consistent with Australia’s foreign policy.@dfat pic.twitter.com/SyKBI5hf5V
— Marise Payne (@MarisePayne) August 27, 2020
Queensland Health has released a list of venues connected to the Brisbane youth detention cluster.
Anyone who has been to these locations at the times specified should monitor their health and if they develop any Covid-19 symptoms, even mild, get tested.
New locations include:
- Puma Fuel in Wacol on 16 August between approximately 4.00pm and 4.10pm
- Petbarn in Browns Plains on 22 August between 10.30am and 10.45am
- Bunnings in Browns Plains on 22 August between 10.45am and 11.15am
- The Good Guys in Browns Plains on 22 August between 11.15am and 11.35am
- Coles at Forest Lake Shopping Centre in Forest Lake on 23 August between 5.00pm and 5.15pm
- The Good Guys in Oxley on 24 August between 9.00am and 9.45am
- Woolworths at The Station in Oxley on 24 August between 10.00am and 10.30am
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The Victorian Aged Care Response Centre has just released a short report following its first month of operation.
More than 60 staff from 21 federal and state government and private sector agencies came together to care for aged care residents and to support the aged care workforce in Victoria, which has been significantly impacted by the virus.
The executive officer, Joe Buffone, said: “While we recognise that the pandemic is not over, we have experienced a reduction in facilities that require acute intervention.”
The report says:
- In the first weeks of the response centre’s operations, 13 aged care facilities were deemed “high risk” in Victoria.
- That has now stabilised to three facilities.
- The response centre has responded to and stabilised eight “acute” aged care facility outbreaks, which could no longer guarantee continuity of care for their residents.
- The response centre is currently actively monitoring and supporting 116 aged care facilities in Victoria that have Covid positive outbreaks.
An “early warning system” has been developed to identify facilities that have suspected cases to enable early support to prepare for a potential outbreak, the report says. CEOs of all major metropolitan and regional hospitals, and aged care provider peak bodies, have been contacted and briefed to ensure they have the support they need.
Meanwhile, the report says the Commission for Aged Care Quality and Safety has worked directly with the response centre and has completed 100 spot-checks on facilities around Victoria, and Western Health has assisted with prevention measures at 33 facilities.
More than 20,000 shifts have been filled by a commonwealth-funded surge workforce to assist aged care facility managers, the report says.
Updated
Barnaby Joyce defends aged care minister keeping his job
Barnaby Joyce has defended the aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, keeping his ministerial job after pressure from the opposition he should be stripped of the portfolio over his performance during the pandemic.
Previously, Colbeck has been unable to state how many deaths have occurred in aged care since the outbreak of Covid-19.
Joyce told Patricia Karvelas:
I think it’s kind of ridiculous to go to a person in parliament and say because they didn’t get a number right therefore they’ve absconded from all responsibilities and all care about aged care. It’s absurd.”
On the government’s handling of aged care during the pandemic:
It is not normal times. It is not something that can be predicted like you predict spring coming. It just didn’t work like that. And obviously everybody had to learn as they went along. If we had our chance again, if we knew what we knew now, all of us would do a better job. You show me any political party of any colour that had the script written for a pandemic.
Joyce also rejected the idea of restructuring Australia’s aged care system away from for-profit providers, after research conducted for the aged care royal commission showed smaller and state-run facilities had significantly better care outcomes than for-profit homes.
How are you going to provide for these services in the future with this mountain of debt? Who is going to pay the debt back? We’re just going to keep borrowing money over and over again? Of course you’ll need the private sector involved. Because in the future we won’t have the money to just spend on anything we wish as much as we wish to.
Updated
There are a few more hours left in this day and Elias Visontay will take you through them.
I’m off tomorrow, after working the weekend, but the wonderful Calla Wahlquist will be stepping in as your day blogger, so you are more than covered.
I’ll be back early on Monday morning when the parliament resumes sitting. Thank you again, so, so much, for joining us this week. I’m so glad we can almost cross another week of this lockdown off for Melbourne – I do think about how it would feel to be reading this stuff while you’re under such heavy restrictions and I’m sorry for some of the faffing you’re subject to. Whatever you do this weekend, be kind to yourself and those around you. Take care of you. Ax
Updated
Patricia Karvelas asked Tony Burke what he thought about the government’s proposed foreign agreement veto.
Burke:
The relationship with other countries, the first principle is the relationship with other countries is principally the job of the Australian government.
PK: It is a federal issue? Should they be able to override [the states] based on that principle?
Burke:
You want high level, I’m giving you high level. The relationship with other countries is principally the responsibility of the federal government.
How they deal with states is where there should be direct discussions with the states. Even the prime minister won’t answer the question that you’ve just put. And he has seen something closer to the legislation than what I’ve seen.
Even the prime minister was asked exactly what you’ve just put to me. And he wasn’t going further than I’ve gone. Given having not seen the legislation and he’s the one developing it, I reckon I have probably given a reasonable answer.
Updated
The Senate delegated legislation scrutiny committee has delivered its latest report – giving a serve to the government for the way it’s handled some Covid-19 crisis measures.
The committee, chaired by the Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, took aim at the social services minister, Anne Ruston, for extending the cashless debit card trials to 31 December by ministerial determination rather than legislation.
It said:
From a scrutiny perspective, the committee strongly considers that it is necessary and appropriate for the parliament to be provided with an opportunity to consider and scrutinise the extension of the end dates for these measures at the earliest available opportunity, rather than leaving this significant matter to be determined in delegated legislation for an extended period of time.
The committee called for a bill formally extending the program to be brought on for vote next week, or it will move to disallow the determination.
Then the committee got in a scrap with the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, about tougher foreign takeover rules – and the fact they don’t have a “specified end date”, which would be appropriate “from a scrutiny perspective”. But Frydenberg refused to nominate a date – twice.
It said:
Accordingly, the committee recommends that the Senate disallow the instrument and has therefore resolved to give a notice of motion to disallow the instrument on 1 September 2020 for consideration and debate in the Senate 15 sitting days after that date.
Updated
The push is well and truly on in Victoria for Daniel Andrews to release the stage three plan for Melbourne:
...and our combined efforts to support businesses and their workers are urgently needed. The economic impact of recent months has been severe, as today’s data reveals. (2/4)
— Sally Capp - Lord Mayor of Melbourne (@LordMayorMelb) August 27, 2020
The data backs up what I have been hearing on a daily basis directly from businesses and the community for many weeks. I look forward to working with the Premier on a practical, joint plan to create optimism for our city. (4/4)
— Sally Capp - Lord Mayor of Melbourne (@LordMayorMelb) August 27, 2020
Updated
NSW Health has released its official data for the day as well:
Further investigations have revealed Covid-19 cases have attended a number of locations in the CBD, Hornsby, Willoughby and the Central Coast.
A case attended one of the gaming areas of City Tattersalls on 24 August. Others who were in the gaming areas on this day must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if even the mildest symptoms develop. NSW Health is working with City Tattersalls to identify and contact people considered close contacts.
NSW Health is contacting people who were at Fitness First Bond Street in Sydney city between noon and 4.30pm on Thursday 20 August and Friday 21 August to determine their level of contact. Anyone who has been at the gym on either day must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if even the mildest of symptoms develop.
People who attended the following locations are casual contacts and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if symptoms develop and stay in isolation until they have received a negative result:
- PRP Diagnostic Imaging, 16-20 Edgeworth David Avenue, Hornsby – 24 August, 10am to 11.15am
- Harris Farm, High Street, Willoughby – 22 August 4pm to 5pm
A new case, which will be reflected in tomorrow’s numbers, worked at David Jones Elizabeth Street food court while infectious. He did not have contact with the public. Close contacts have been identified and are being contacted.
Another new case, which will be reflected in tomorrow’s numbers, travelled on the following trains. People who travelled on these trains at the following dates and times are casual contacts and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if symptoms develop, and must stay in isolation until they have received a negative result:
Monday 24 August:
- Sydney-bound train, departing Woy Woy station at 6.31am, arriving Wynyard station at 7.50am
- Northbound train, departing Town Hall station at 5.31pm, arriving Woy Woy station at 6.54pm.
Tuesday 25 August:
- Sydney-bound train, departing Woy Woy station at 6.31am, arriving Gordon station at 7.21am
- Northbound train, departing Hornsby station at 7.53am, arriving Woy Woy station at 8.28am
Transport for NSW has dedicated cleaning crews across the network, including deep cleans and real time cleaning across all services.
Updated
Hotel quarantine inquiry hears about security guard's note under door
A security guard was removed from Melbourne’s botched hotel quarantine program after sliding a note under a guest’s door that said “Hey hun, add me on snapchat,” according to emails handed to an inquiry.
The guard at the Crowne Plaza had previously accompanied the woman for a fresh air break with other guests and guards, the 14 April email detailing the complaint said.
“The note said something like ‘Hey hun, add me on snapchat’ – she looked up his name and looked up on Facebook and it’s a security guard and wants to complain,” the email said.
An email chain between officials from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions shows the public servant Paul Xerri contacted Wilson Security to have the guard “removed”.
Noting the department would write to Wilson to “formalise a written concern”, one public servant notes it was the “second such incident this week” and “unacceptable”.
Updated
Tony Burke is asked whether or not the ‘gloves are off’ when it comes to the bipartisanship both sides of politics have shown for most of the year, as the pandemic took hold.
He tells Patricia Karvelas:
This is a time when people want the government to succeed in saving people’s lives and in combating the virus and in making sure that people are able to stay in jobs.
We want the government to succeed and the tone of the parliament is still very much in that frame.
The problem we’ve had with aged care is the prime minister started the week by saying, ‘When there’s a pandemic it’s Victoria’s responsibility’.
He started in complete denial of his own document and I’ve got to say in terms of getting him to take this seriously, I’m not sure how we did.
You get to the end of question time today and the two final answers that he gave to questions from the opposition, on the second last one he was trying to get his backbench to laugh.
On the final question, he was trying to act like he was the victim. And the whole issue was how mean to him personally had the leader of the opposition been and could that please stop?
So, yes, we’re still making the case, but I’ve got to say in terms of part of the job being to try to get through to the prime minister that he needs to take responsibility here, at the end of the week I don’t think we’ve got there, if the prime minister still sees it as an area where making the backbench laugh as part of the job and then treating himself as the victim is the conclusion to question time.
Updated
How Mike Bowers saw question time:
Updated
A nice bit of news in between all the doom and gloom and straight up stoopid:
I’m going to miss these 2 excellent parliamentarians, along with @ThwaitesKate & @MsMarielleSmith, when they go on mat leave.They bring smarts, style & heart to our Parliament. Bonus, they will also be bringing babies when they return (please). #auspol @AliciaPayneMP @AnikaWells https://t.co/oxFEWpgsLy
— Peta Murphy MP (@petajan) August 27, 2020
Updated
The chief nursing and midwifery officer, Alison McMillan, is asked about Craig Kelly’s comments:
I don’t think it’s my position to speak about what MPs might be saying. I think that all along we have been really clear, that all of the experts rely on the current evidence across the world and international evidence, the recommendations made by our expert guidance group are based on that evidence. I think I will stick to the evidence and [what the experts] say, not comment on the commentary of others.
Updated
Over in the House, it looks like Labor is addressing the Victorian Liberal branch stacking stories for the first time *inside* the parliament.
There have been comments outside it in press conferences, and lines here and there in parliament speeches, but Stephen Jones is dedicating an entire speech to it.
It’s part of a matter of public interest debate on the need for a national integrity commission.
He calls for Michael Sukkar to be sacked.
Christian Porter accuses Jones of abusing parliamentary privilege. “I have never seen an abuse of parliamentary privileged like this in my 10 years of federal parliament,” he says, adding if he had “an inch of courage” Jones would repeat his claims outside the parliamentary chamber (where he is just as vulnerable to defamation laws as the rest of us).
Updated
I have had a few messages from people asking where Scott Morrison said “when it rains, everyone gets wet”, the quote which Anthony Albanese used in his press club address.
It came from Morrison’s 29 July press conference, as part of his opening remarks:
The challenges of dealing with aged care are not unique to Australia. Indeed, in every country in the world where there is sustained community transmission, it is inevitable that this will find its way into aged care facilities.
When it rains, everyone gets wet.
And that is what we’re seeing with broad-based community transmission in Victoria.
Updated
Victoria Health has released its official data:
In Victoria at the current time:
- 4,151 cases may indicate community transmission
- 3,308 cases are currently active in Victoria
- 532 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including 29 in intensive care
- 14,837 people have recovered from the virus
- A total of 2,158,149 test results have been received, which is an increase of 25,470 since yesterday.
Of the 3,308 current active cases in Victoria:
- 2,958 are in metropolitan Melbourne under stage 4 restrictions
- 198 are in regional local government areas under stage 3 restrictions
- 140 are either unknown or subject to further investigation
- 12 are interstate residents
- Greater Geelong has 71 active cases, Bendigo has 16 active cases and Ballarat has six active cases
Of the total cases:
- 17,117 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 1,124 are from regional Victoria
- Total cases include 8,959 men and 9,714 women
- Total number of healthcare workers: 2,838; active cases: 391
- There are 1,412 active cases relating to aged care facilities
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest cumulative case numbers are as follows:
- 211 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens aged care in Epping
- 197 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner
- 169 cases have been linked to Baptcare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee
- 160 cases have been linked to Estia aged care facility in Ardeer
- 140 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth
- 120 cases have been linked to Cumberland Manor aged care facility in Sunshine North
- 118 cases have been linked to Twin Parks aged care in Reservoir
- 113 cases have been linked to Outlook Gardens aged care facility in Dandenong North
- 112 cases have been linked to Japara Goonawarra aged care facility in Sunbury
- 110 cases have been linked to Estia aged care facility in Heidelberg
In Victoria there are currently 48 active cases in residential disability accommodation:
- Total resident cases: 14; total staff cases: 34
- Active cases in NDIS homes: 38 (14 residents)
- Active cases in ‘transfer’ homes (state regulated/funded): 10 (0 residents)
- Active cases in state government delivered and funded homes: 0
Key outbreaks with new cases include:
- 63 cases have been linked to Peninsula Health
- 39 cases have been linked to the Vawdrey Australia facility in Dandenong South
Updated
Annnnd question time ends.
Updated
Julie Collins to Scott Morrison:
Why [had] fewer than one in five aged care workers completed the government’s online training module by June?
Greg Hunt gets the tap again.
The advice that I have is that as of 7am on the 24 August 2020, 1.5 million individuals have completed online infection control training procedures, including 1.2 million modules in aged care ...
There are 11 different modules ... Laundry, cleaning, suspected identification of Covid, supporting older Australians.
... That is part of what we set up with our surge workforce preparation announced on the 11 March.
It’s part of what we built on the 13 March with a national public hospital agreement where we agreed to provide 50% of the funding incurred by state hospitals in relation to their Covid-19 preparation. And it’s related to what we also did with our work on the 31 March where we announced in particular the private hospitals agreement, an agreement that has seen 452 patients, on the advice that I have, transferred to those private hospitals. And in addition to that supported by the national testing contract, which allows for every resident and every staff member to be tested.
As well as I mentioned, 69 million masks as well as gloves and gowns and goggles also distributed across the country, and in aged care 14 million.
All of these things in context occur in a world where we have a pandemic where 24 million people were infected as of today. By the time we come back on Monday, it’s likely that will have increased to 25 million people.
It’s likely, as a consequence, 24-25,000 lives will be lost. Around the world, we have a global pandemic. In Australia, what we have managed to do in seven out of eight states and territories is to keep that pandemic at bay. In Victoria, where there was a mass community outbreak, which has seen 95% of the case growth, we managed to fight so much of that. We’re going to continue that each day.
Updated
So someone in the prime minister’s office counted how many questions the government has been asked on this.
That’s not just a figure you keep in your mind.
This is a day after Scott Morrison asked Anthony Albanese not to “partisanise” aged care.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Why does the prime minister down play the human tragedy in aged care by boasting that 97% of aged care facilities do not have a Covid case among residents when more than 70 aged care residents have died in the past week, and more than 360 residents have died since this pandemic began?
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, I don’t accept the assertion that the leader of the opposition has made. On every occasion, when I have spoken on these matters, whether it’s the very specific cases and the individual deaths of Australians that have been impacted or particularly those four facilities in Victoria, when members opposite have asked me about those matters, I have addressed each of those issues.
On 75 occasions, 75 questions, we’ve been responding, specifically, to the issues that have been presented.
What I have also done, when being questioned about the preparedness and when questioned about the plan, I think it’s important that Australians also know that the actions that have been taken by the government, working with other governments, has also been able to prevent what has occurred in some places has not occurred in many, many other places in Australia.
What we’ve been able to do is reassure Australians, particularly those who have families in residential aged care, those in residential aged care themselves, that while the community outbreak that we’ve seen in Victoria has got into the aged care system and we’ve sought to respond to that, Mr Speaker, and we’ve been able to contain as much possible, as much we’ve been able, that impact, Mr Speaker, the impact in Australia when you look at how Covid is presented in our aged care system, there’s been 8% of facilities who had resident infections, but when you look overseas, similar countries, 56% of facilities have had resident and staff infections in the United Kingdom.
So Australia’s actions have made a difference, I would say, Mr Speaker. I think it’s important to give people hope about these things.
But on every occasion, we have shown absolute respect, Mr Speaker, and absolute understanding and sympathy to the impacts on those families.
For the leader of the opposition to suggest otherwise, I think, I would hope very unlike him. I hope it is very unlike him.
Because it’s I think a very unreasonable thing to have presented in this place. I hope he wouldn’t stoop to that level again.
Updated
Cool beans
Emergency Management Minister @D_LittleproudMP says he and the PM have been briefed by leading agencies that there’s “a 70% chance of a severe La Niña event forming” - that means - “more severe cyclones, more frequent cyclones, and will also mean greater flooding” #7News #auspol pic.twitter.com/sJaI9FVKYo
— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) August 27, 2020
That answer includes the first strong support of Michael Sukkar from Scott Morrison since the Age and 60 Minutes story on the Victorian Liberal branch stacking broke on Sunday night.
Before that, he has either not commented (through his office) while yesterday, when asked at his first press conference of the week, he said Australians would not want him to be distracted by those issues.
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Today in the Senate, the minister for aged care, Senator Colbeck, turned his back and fled the chamber in order to avoid debate on his performance. Not a single member of the government defended the minister. Can it really be the case there’s no one on the government backbench who could do a better job than Senator Colbeck?
Morrison:
I’m very concerned of one thing, there’s no one who sits over there who could [be a better aged care minister], than any of the people who sit on this side. Not just on that issue, Mr Speaker.
Not on the issue of aged care, but certainly when it comes to our fine treasurer, Mr Speaker. You won’t find a treasurer on that side, you won’t find another deputy prime minister as good as this one, who is pretending to do it on that side, or the minister for home affairs, or attorney general, Mr Speaker.
Or a minister for energy, Mr Speaker. I know the member for Hunter would like to join our policy on energy. I know, Mr Speaker, when we’re asked about things like gas, you get our responses, I know the member for Hunter would like to join us in adding to the answer.
You won’t find a minister for health ...
Tony Burke interrupts with a point of order:
Given the gravity of the issue we’re dealing with today ... there is a question over a minister for aged care, you think the prime minister could spend more than three seconds talking about the minister for aged care.
Tony Smith:
Just ruling on the point of order ... I just say to the manager of opposition business, if the question wasn’t littered with political comment and the sort of language it had in it, he would have a much stronger case. I made the point before, I make it very clear when questions have such a strong element of debate, political comment and the language used about the minister for aged care in the Senate chamber, my attitude, so there’s no confusion, it opens it up for whoever is answering. The prime minister has the call.
Scott Morrison:
Outstanding ministers here. The minister for agriculture, and the minister for emergency management, you won’t find one like that, Mr Speaker.
And of course the minister for Indigenous Australians, who I know in his great humility, in his great humility, who worked closely with the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians, but you won’t find a finer minister for Indigenous Australians.
The minister for communications, Mr Speaker.
The minister for education, for industry, for environment, for national disabilities, and of course, the assistant treasurer, Mr Speaker [Michael Sukkar], whose pioneering work on the homebuilder scheme, the home lender scheme, is getting Australians into their first home.
Those opposite mock, Mr Speaker.
But what my government is doing is keeping Australians safe, it’s keeping Australians strong, and it’s keeping Australians together. These mob on that side, Mr Speaker, can’t keep themselves together.
Updated
Julie Collins to Scott Morrison:
Why did the prime minister wait until 3 August to announce a paid pandemic leave payment in Victoria, after more than 100 aged care residents had died? Does he agree with the South Australian Liberal treasurer it makes no sense for the prime minister to fund a scheme in Tasmania, with one active case, but not South Australia, with three, and why won’t the prime minister make sure that paid pandemic leave is available for all Australians?
Morrison:
I have written to all premiers and chief ministers, they have all been offered the same set of arrangements that are provided to Victoria.
The Tasmanian government has taken up that offer. I have written back to the premiers of New South Wales and Queensland today, and Western Australia, Mr Speaker, they have sought further information on these arrangements and we are providing that information.
I’m yet to – I have not yet seen a request from South Australia. Should they make that request, Mr Speaker, then we’ll respond to that request as well.
We have enabled this disaster payment to be made available for those who need to isolate in relation to the pandemic and that was done following a very good agreement that I was able to reach with the Victorian premier, and I’m pleased we can extend that to the other states and territories.
Updated
Anika Wells to Scott Morrison:
On 12 August, the royal commission heard some aged care workers in Victoria still [didn’t] get masks, gloves, or gowns. Why?
Greg Hunt gets this one:
I have largely answered this. I may add to that. In relation to ... [there are interjections]
... As I said, more generally across the country, 14 million masks have been provided to aged care facilities. In relation to gowns, 3 million gowns have been provided, 7.66 million pairs of gloves. In relation, and specifically to P2 respirators, 1.3 million, and over yesterday, more than, we had really 50,000 masks provided within Victoria.
So there’s an ongoing and continuous supply made available, I am aware, I am aware that in some facilities they may have had distribution challenges. What we do, whether it’s through Ausmat, the work of the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre ...
Tony Smith:
It may assist the House if the leader of the opposition and the minister for home affairs cease their very loud conversation.
... Yeah, it was cordial. But it’s still disruptive. OK.
Either Dutton or Albanese (I can’t hear which one)
We’re united.
Smith:
Are you? OK. There’s a great anteroom out there. Do you want to go? The minister has the call.
Hunt:
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. And in addition to that, what we do is, through Ausmat, the ADF, through the work of the aged care quality and safety commissioner and the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, engage with every facility that has need, and we work with the national medical stockpile to ensure those distributions are made. The other area, there’s been 3 million 167,245 goggles or face shields distributed to aged care in Victoria.
Updated
(Sidenote. That was Alicia Payne’s last question in QT ahead of having her baby - she is on maternity leave from early next week.)
Updated
Alicia Payne to Scott Morrison:
The royal commission heard evidence that aged care workers could only use two masks or one glove per shift. How can residents and staff be protected from the deadly Covid virus when staff can only use one glove per shift?
Greg Hunt gets this one as well. I think Scott Morrison has only taken one of these questions this question time - he is sending them all to Hunt, which appears to be the new strategy after yesterday.
Hunt:
I want to address this question and correct some of the claims made. In relation to infection control and in relation to PPE, what we have seen across the country is at a time when there was a global shortage of supply and a global spike in demand, Australia has been one of the countries that has been able to not only maintain but to dramatically expand our flow. We’ve had over 400 million masks enter the national medical stock pile.
We’ve been able to secure masks until the end of the year, to secure gloves and gowns. More than 69 million masks have been dispatched from the national medical stockpile. That includes 14 million to aged care facilities around the country.
What that also includes, in particular, 10 million masks dispatched for Victorian aged care workers. It includes gloves and gowns and other items, such as hand sanitiser, all of these elements have been fundamental, fundamental to ensuring continuity of care.
The national medical stockpile, if it receives a request, will process it as a matter of urgency in relation to a facility.
On multiple occasions, we issued new rounds of support and only yesterday I noticed there were some tens of thousands of masks made available to Victorian providers.
The correct answer is that gloves, gowns, masks, hand sanitiser, have all been made available through the national medical stockpile. Historically it was only responsible amongst those things for the masks.
We made sure on our watch, in our time, gowns and gloves and sanitiser was added to the stockpile. It was over and above what was agreed with the states, as opposed to the responsibility of the commonwealth, on our watch, on our responsibility, under the guidance of the prime minister, we took those decisions to act.
All of those elements have been provided. But as of coming here today, shortly before joining you, the national incident centre has advised me of 69 million masks, of which 14 million were provided to aged care, and over 10 million to Victoria.
Updated
Peter Dutton takes a dixer on cyber-security, and answers it without a single political attack.
Just substance.
It’s a refreshing and welcome change (the expansion of ASD’s and the surveillance powers in general is another issue - I’m only talking about the attitude).
Dutton:
We want to make sure that a cyber-attack on our banking sector didn’t result in banks unable to settle transactions at the end of the day, or people not being able to go into a local cafe or restaurant or small business to pay by way of tap and go, it would be crippling. We’ve seen cyber-attacks here at a record level in recent months.
And during the period of this pandemic, we know that many crime groups are targeting young children online.
We know that paedophile groups are targeting and trying to groom young children online, it is what makes it necessary we defeat that scourge through the cyber-security strategy.
I want to say thank you to the prime minister and the heads of our agencies, working day and night on this strategy to make sure we can keep Australians safe, and we’ll continue to work with industry, with every sector, to make sure that environment online is as safe as it can be.
Anthony Albanese associates Labor with the remarks:
It’s quite frankly just abhorrent and hard to understand this scourge. This evil. And we need to do whatever we can to wipe it out.
Updated
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison:
It’s well known that many aged care workers are employed on a casual basis and work across multiple facilities. Given aged care workers moving between different facilities is a key driver of infection, why did the prime minister wait until 19 July, when the virus was widespread, to announce the Victorian aged care workers could work at a single facility, that initiative?
Greg Hunt gets this one as well:
In responding to the Victorian outbreak, an issue which we know has seen over 17,000 cases, in that state, and those have had an impact indeed, in relation to all elements of society, whether it’s hospitals, whether it’s aged care, we’ve been particularly focused on aged care.
This has been a daily focus and what we have done is follow the medical advice in relation to actions taken.
That’s been the abiding principle of what we’ve done as a government, follow the medical advice, worked with the AHPPC or the medical expert panel under the leadership of Professor Brendan Murphy and now under the leadership of Professor Paul Kelly.
Those reasons together are why as a country where there’s no aged care facility outbreaks around the rest of the country, in 7 out of 8 states and territories, but there are in Victoria.
They have followed community transmission and there was reference earlier to a paper that the Victorian government provided on infection control, and what that showed is that overwhelmingly it was the case of community transmission which led to the passage through staff who were asymptomatic into aged care facilities.
As a part of that, we took the decisions that we made based on the medical advice provided by the medical experts.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg uses the end of his dixer answer to again attack Daniel Andrews:
You get the virus under control, restrictions start to ease, and customers and jobs come back, Mr Speaker. And nowhere is this message more important than in my home state of Victoria.
The message of hope is needed.
That’s why Victorians were so aghast when the Victorian government said there was a prospect of the state of emergency continuing for another 12 months, Mr Speaker.
Victorians need to hear more about the road out than along the road in, Mr Speaker.
That’s why the Morrison government stands with Victorians and indeed 25 million Australians to support Australians get to the other side of Covid-19.
Updated
Over in the Senate, Pauline Hanson, who is attending parliament virtually this sitting, forgot to unmute her microphone to ask her question.
It took her a bit, but she got there.
Julie Collins to Scott Morrison:
Under the prime minister’s own emergency response document for Covid-19, his government is responsible for aged care infection control guidelines. Victoria’s chief medical officer has revealed that poor infection practice is the main driver.
Today, more than 360 families are grieving as a result. Does the prime minister accept his failure to act has led to the deaths of vulnerable aged care residents?
Greg Hunt gets this one:
Thank you very much, and I think it’s important to address the documents in question. There’s two principle documents that refer to the national and state responsibilities with regards to the national pandemic health plan and with regards to the national Covid-19 aged care plan.
In relation to the pandemic health plan, which was released on 18th February, and activated by the prime minister on 27 February, I turn to section 4.1.4, implementation of public health measures.
Very specifically, the Australian government will be responsible for residential aged care facilities, working with other healthcare providers to set standards to promote the safety and securities of people in aged care.
State and territory governments – and this was a document worked on and agreed by the states, state and territory and passed through AHPPC, or the medical expert panel – state and territory governments are responsible for the operational aspects of public health responses, and healthcare safety and quality standards.
They will establish stems to promote the safety and security of people in aged care and other institutional settings and support outbreak investigation management in residential aged care facilities.
I’m simply setting out that a large part of that element was missed on 13 March, when the national aged care plan was released, that included, again, a joint document of commonwealth and state, the state and territory departments of health, public health section in the department will act in an advisory role to assistance residential aged care facilities to detect, categorise and manage outbreaks.
This includes providing advice on testing samples, informing relevant stakeholders of outbreaks, informing clinical care providers in the local health district. I say this to draw the opposition to the fact there’s shared responsibilities.
We carry out the regulatory functions of aged care. What we did was establish four critical elements to protect in regards to aged care. Firstly, on 11 March, $101 million for surge workforce.
On 13 March, a national agreement with public hospitals to provide surge workforce.
Thirdly, on - at the end of March, we established on 31 March the private hospitals agreement and 450 patients have been transferred to those private hospitals agreements. And then finally, we have established a national testing contract for every facility, for every resident, and every staff member wherever there’s a positive case. Each life lost is a source of immense regret and agony for not only those involved, but we have done those things to fight and protect Australians and that’s why the loss of life in Australian aged care facilities is one of the lowest in the world.
Updated
Michael McCormack:
An Aboriginal woman in my electorate, auntie Gail Clark, used to remark at welcomes to country, she used to say, you may need a preacher now and again, you may need a doctor, you may need a lawyer, but you need a farmer, every day, three times a day, every day.
And her message was so good, was so important, and I want to thank our farmers right across regional Australia for keeping our supermarket shelves stocked. I want to thank our truckies for getting the freight stock around the nation. I want to thank our doctors, our frontline medical personnel for the job they have done through Covid-19. They’re true heroes, all the people in regional Australia who have been unfairly impacted by the restrictions that have been placed on them, and that is so unfortunate but they have done what they needed.
I think I just had another stroke.
Updated
Michael McCormack is talking and I just do not have the capacity to deal with this today.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Today the aged care royal commissioners released a statement that 96% of private for-profit aged care facilities are failing to deliver the highest quality of care. Why is this seven-year old government failing to ensure that frail and vulnerable older Australians get the care they deserve?
Morrison:
The minister for health will add further to my answer. Whether it’s private operators, to which the member has referred, whether it’s non-profit operators like at St Basil’s, or public operators like at Oakden that sparked the royal commission, wherever the care needs to be provided, the system needs to support that care in the funding and support that is delivered by the federal government and the regulation that sits over that, which is our responsibility and that’s why we’ll continue to increase our funding and support and to learn the lessons that need to be learned and apply them, particularly those that will come to the royal commission.
Greg Hunt:
And adding to the prime minister’s answer, there’s four principle things which this government has done to assist, first, of course, is in relation to funding.
We have increased funding from just over $13 billion to tracking towards $25.44 billion over the course of the forward estimate, that’s allowed for additional home care places, additional support for residential care places, additional investment in aged care overall.
Secondly, of course, this prime minister became the first prime minister in Australian history, to the best of my knowledge, to have called a royal commission. Standing next to, on the day that he announced that royal commission, he warned of the challenges, he warned of the confronting elements.
He was the first person to have taken those steps precisely because he wished to shine a light from the challenges that flowed from the Oakden royal commission into public aged care in South Australia.
But which had lessons for all elements of aged care, public, not-for-profit, and private. In addition, we created the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission
... All of those things have come together, the funding, the royal commission, the aged care quality and safety commissioner and the national aged care mandatory program in the fight to protect, preserve standards and qualities.
(Again, the aged care royal commission came after reports on what was still going on, and ahead of Four Corners series on it).
Updated
Question time begins
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Today the aged care royal commissioners released a statement, that nine out of 10 aged care facilities in Australia are failing to achieve the highest quality of care. Why are nine out of every 10 aged care facilities failing to deliver appropriate care that older Australians deserve?
Morrison:
The challenges we face in aged care are understood, they’re known, and that’s why the government continues to act to support our aged care sector.
That’s why we continue to provide every year more than $1 billion in extra funding every year to attend to all of the issues that are necessary, that is why, Mr Speaker, understanding the system and its great needs and those needs are increasing, that is why I initiated the royal commission that the member opposite refers to.
And that is why when they do their work, and they provide us with their recommendations, we’ll be in a position to respond further in addition to the more than $3 billion already provided in additional support, right across the board, Mr Speaker, across all these facilities whether it’s the increase in home places, whether it’s dealing with chemical restraints, dealing with the standards necessary to be upheld, it’s a difficult sector in which to achieve the outcomes we all desire, we will double our efforts to make sure we treat older Australians with dignity and respect.
Before question time, there are statements from Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese on the sentencing of the Australian national far right terrorist in New Zealand.
Scott Morrison:
Justice today was delivered in New Zealand to the terrorist and murderer for his cowardly and horrific crimes and attacks on a Christchurch mosque.
The world must never see from, of him, or hear from him ever again. All Australians were and remain horrified and devastated by his despicable terrorist act.
New Zealand is family to us in Australia. Today, we send our love across the ditch. And I had to opportunity to pass on those wishes directly to the New Zealand Prime Minister earlier today.
But out of the horror of this event, I simply want to refer to what emerged as an incredible grace and beauty in the form of Farid Ahmed, I met with Jenny, at the memorial service in Christchurch at the time, and again when he came to visit me in Sydney in March this year.
He lost his wife that day, and his message to response was not one of hate, but one of hope and of love. He is truly one of the most inspirational people I have ever met.
Incredibly humbling just to be in his presence.
I pay tribute to the Muslim community of New Zealand and also of Australia. Who have supported each other in these very difficult times and today will be a time when it all comes back. And it hurts again. In a way just that bit more. Then it ordinarily does. It reflects the goodness of their faith.
You have been a light answering the terrible darkness. God bless you, New Zealand, our whanau this day.
May it be a day of healing for everyone affected by this terrible tragedy.
Anthony Albanese:
Today in New Zealand we have seen justice. A civilised response to an act that was anything but.
It was an act of terrorist violence, coldly and cynically calculated to push people apart. To sow division and tear a society apart.
Innocent people, defenceless, in their most sacred place, in peaceful prayer, in solemn respect of their faith.
Prayer is a time that should be sacrosanct. Instead, we got the ultimate atrocity. In the end, it only succeeded in bringing the people of New Zealand closer together. We will not say the killer’s name, we won’t speak of him other than to acknowledge that he was one of ours. An Australian.
Who cast such a terrible shade over our dear neighbour. We can only hope that from today, New Zealand can begin the long process of healing.
We can only hope that after an act of such premeditated merciless cruelty, today’s sentence can at least bring some small measure to those left behind. We remember every life that was lost in Christchurch on that most awful of days. For those still grieving them, wishing their loved one could one day come home again. Maybe even, maybe even today’s decision may just make it a little bit easier. It won’t change things.
But may their sadness be softened by the knowledge their loss brought a nation together. To New Zealand, we stand with you. To the Muslim community, we grieve with you. Hate will not divide us.
This is not going to go away
Craig Kelly is at it again - peddling dangerous theories without any evidence. This time he’s doing it in the Parliament and the Libs refuse to call him out. pic.twitter.com/nFlYEi9XvO
— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) August 27, 2020
Updated
The universities lobby group Universities Australia’s response to the proposed legislation is one of the last ones we have been waiting for - but this still has some time to play out.
Everyone needs to see the bill.
Updated
Universities Australia has weighed in on Scott Morrison’s announcement on a process that could lead to deals between universities and foreign governments being torn up if deemed to be against Australia’s foreign affairs interests.
The group’s chief executive, Catriona Jackson, said universities were “in early discussions” with both the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Education “on the implications for universities” of the imminent bill.
She said it would be “very important to discuss the exact definitions and scale of what the new laws are intended to capture”.
“It is critically important to strike the right balance between national security and the research collaboration which is driving so many advances in knowledge – including the search for a Covid-19 vaccine.”
Updated
Mark Dreyfus has used the 90-second statement time before QT to question the sudden interest in a foreign investment veto:
Managing our relationships with other countries has always been the federal government’s job and of course the federal government should always be determining what is in our national interest.
But in some sort of Trumpian act, the prime minister now wants the entire nation to be overcome with amnesia about his own record.
He wants us to forget that it was his government that ticked off the sale of the Port of Darwin – a strategic asset – to a Chinese company.
He wants us to forget that when Victoria signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China in 2018 his trade minister, Senator Birmingham, declared “that’s something we welcome.”
And most of all he wants us to forget that in September 2017 his government signed its own BRI Memorandum of Understanding with China.
And what is in this BRI deal? We don’t know.
The prime minister refuses to tell us. And why? Because, as [Nine] newspapers reported in 2018 “China has not agreed to do so”.
Unlike the Morrison government, federal Labor has made it clear that we would not sign up to the BRI.
It’s time that the Morrison government started properly managing our international relations instead of chasing headlines.
Updated
It is no secret that New Zealand is not happy with the Australian policy of deporting people who were born in NZ, but have lived most of their lives in Australia, following the completion of prison sentences.
It comes up frequently in the bilateral talks. And it will come up again. But that is the context of the Winston Peters statement.
Updated
New Zealand’s deputy prime minister wants the Australian government to take the Australian national convicted of the Christchurch far-right terrorist attack back, to complete his life without parole sentence.
And he singles out Peter Dutton by name in the statement:
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today welcomed the life without parole sentence of the Australian terrorist.
‘We applaud the sentencing of the maximum possible term, and hope this helps with the healing of those affected,’ said Mr Peters.
‘The judgement is the only one that matched the depravity of the terrorist’s crimes against the Islamic community, and its devastating effect on all people living in this country.
‘New Zealand First also believes this terrorist should be returned to the country that raised him.
‘Now is the time for Australia’s minister of Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, to receive and carry out the terrorist’s sentence in Australia,” Mr Peters said.
‘The Islamic community and all of New Zealand has already suffered enough without having to pay astronomical prison costs to keep him safe in our prison system.’
Updated
The press club address ends and it is almost time for question time.
I apologise for the typos which pop up and I send all my thanks to the Guardian brainstrust who work behind the scenes cleaning up some of the transcription and finger slips.
I type thousands of words a day, while watching four screens, to try and get information across as quickly as possible, and sometimes that means my eyes dance over something that it should stop at.
Apologies.
Updated
Anthony Albanese was also asked about how Labor would go about winning back regional seats and more conservative areas of traditional heartland.
We had a test recently in a regional seat. Whether you go north, south, east or west from here, Kristy McBain is the local member.
From Yass to Batlow, across to the coast, down to Cooma, Kristy’s the local member, a real test, not a fantasy, a real test whereby for those of you who live in Canberra you will know that the Liberal party outspent us massively during that byelection campaign because you couldn’t turn on a TV without getting book-ended ads during every ad break. So we’ve had a test.
The fact is that there’s nothing new about Labor as a party of government which seeks to represent all Australians but seeks to get the support of a majority of Australians.
And that means that we have to appeal very broadly. It means - I see my own seat as a bit of a microcosm of that, a seat that, yes, has some wealthier people with gentrification but also has the highest number of boarding houses of any electorate in Australia, that also has a significant multicultural population, whether it’s the Portuguese in Petersham, the Chinese in Ashfield, the Greeks in Marrickville, the Lebanese in the southern part of the electorate, the Italians in Leichhardt.
I’ve been forced each and every day that I’ve been in parliament, and I wouldn’t have got here were I not able to appeal to people of different backgrounds, different faiths, and to give respect to those views.
I’m working very strongly with multicultural communities. I’ll continue to do so.
And what we’ve seen this week from the Liberal party is Michael Sukkar, the assistant treasurer, involved with people in Victoria who used a derogatory term to people of background from - not Mr Sukkar but the group involved - of people from subcontinent backgrounds using people in a ways that entirely inappropriate.
Michael Sukkar’s still sitting in the parliament as the assistant treasurer in spite of the fact that each day Nine newspapers have had new revelations. Compare that with the action that I took when I saw inappropriate behaviour in my party.
Updated
The Labor leader is asked if he is ready for the election to be held next year, and what ground he thinks he could win on, given the wide range of government policies in response to the pandemic.
He invokes Ronald Reagan in his answer, in what was his successful campaign against Jimmy Carter:
I expect the election will be some time between August 2021 and May 2022, and I’ll be ready each and every one of those days.
As will my entire team.
One of the things that we’ve done during this period is develop a draft platform for the party, a whole range of policies, that we’ve used the time that we have through a range of shadow cabinet subcommittees that we have to be able to go forward whenever the button is pressed.
We will have a smaller agenda than Labor took to the last election.
That doesn’t mean it’s a less ambitious agenda.
It just means that when you’ve got 284 things to talk about, that’s a very long doorknock if you want to go through the list.
And what I want is, as Labor leader, to have a series of commitments that are clearly understood, that are able to be articulated in a clear way.
And I believe we’re well-positioned.
I think that by the time we get to the next election ... the government will be shooting for more than a decade in office, longer than the Howard government, is what they’ll be asking for.
So say what you like about John Howard, I was critical of a range of measures that he had, but you knew what he stood for.
You speak about Scott Morrison, you know, shifting to the centre, I don’t think it’s a matter of that. I think it’s just a matter of Scott Morrison being shifty.
And the fact is that at the time of the next election people will be asking themselves, ‘Am I better off than I was in 2013?’
What are the economic, social or environmental reforms that the Coalition government of eight or nine years standing, shooting for more than a decade, will be remembered for?”
I know what our legacy is from our short time in office. In terms of the Rudd and Gillard governments – it’s Labor governments that change things.
It’s Labor governments that do the big reforms.
It’s Labor governments that will be required, the values that will be required, to take us into the economic recovery.
And I believe we will be successful at the next election.
But that will be a matter for the Australian people, but we will have a strong, coherent narrative about growing the economy, about supporting jobs as the core principle but also about good social policy including looking after vulnerable Australians, not leaving people behind, as well as acting on environmental challenges such as climate change.
Updated
Does Anthony Albanese support stronger national control on state border closures?
Albanese:
I make two points, and you quite rightly identified that I haven’t singled out premiers. I’ve been consistent and said that two issues apply here. One is that the state leaders, in the absence of national leadership, need to listen to their respective state medical advisors, the chief medical officer, they have different titles in different states. I certainly think, when you look at Western Australia, for example, I’ve been very critical of the federal government joining in with Clive Palmer on an appeal.
I was with Mark McGowan, I was against Clive Palmer and Scott Morrison on that issue. Queensland were singled out by the government as well.
Annastacia Palaszczuk – I think people look back at when that criticism was made and probably think that it [the border closure] served Queensland well.
My concern is, of course, the national cabinet – so that’s the first point.
And the same [time] Tasmania and South Australia have, of course, had closed borders but the federal government has ignored them.
I think that in terms of the national cabinet, what is very obvious now is that it isn’t a national cabinet.
From the Sunday when Gladys Berejiklian and Daniel Andrews essentially stood Scott Morrison up on school closures, what happens now at so-called national cabinet is state premiers all tell each other what they’re doing and Scott Morrison goes out and announces it and pretends it is national decision, then spends the time in between the national cabinet meetings criticising the decision that he’s been a part of.
That’s not a cabinet. And I do think that it’s up to Scott Morrison to explain why it is that there isn’t a national approach to these issues, including borders.
It’s up to him to explain. He made the decision to have a so-called national cabinet that excluded the federal opposition, and I haven’t complained about that, that’s a decision for him.
But he has a responsibility for it. It’s up to him to explain the contradiction that’s there between pretending there’s a cabinet when there’s clearly nothing like cabinet-based decision making.
Updated
Does Labor support the foreign veto legislation?
Anthony Albanese:
We’ll examine the legislation, but the idea that the national interests should be looked after by the federal government when it comes to foreign policy is something that we’re very supportive of, [which] I would regard as completely unremarkable.
What I do find remarkable for the government to answer is why Simon Birmingham indeed welcomed the Victorian decision over BRI and why it is that the federal government sat by and allowed the Port of Darwin to be sold off to a company that is connected with a non-Australian government and at the time – not in retrospect – at the time, as the infrastructure spokesperson, I was very critical of that decision.
Updated
Should Australia’s aged care sector be restructured so it is not-for-profit?
Anthony Albanese:
What we will do is wait for the final report of the royal commission but what’s very clear is that once you moved from essentially a public system into the privatisation of a whole section of the sector, that needed to be accompanied by very strong regulation.
By strong inspection processes, by making sure that there was transparency, the sort of transparency that I have spoken about today that the royal commissioners have spoken about.
So we will come up with a more comprehensive long-term plan for aged care after the royal commission finalises its report at the beginning of next year.
But what is very clear is that the problems that have arisen, if you look at where they are, they are ... almost exclusively in the for-profit system at the moment, and that should tell the story about a failure to properly regulate the system, which is the commonwealth’s responsibility.
(It was the Howard government which privatised aged care).
Updated
Anthony Albanese is asked whether or not both parties need to take responsibility for what has happened in aged care, given that none of these issues are new:
The truth is that we need to do better. That’s the truth. The entire political system.
But it’s also the truth that the interim report came down on 31 October last year. I responded with my fourth vision statement, which was on respecting and valuing older Australians, given in Brisbane before the pandemic, before this issue.
I was talking about workforce issues, I was talking about what we needed to do to address this issue. The government says that it responded to the interim report, tick done. Quite clearly if this is post-response to the interim report, it’s simply not good enough.
Updated
Anthony Albanese finishes his speech along these lines:
At every step of the way they have been dragged to these actions because these values go against their deepest instincts of a nation divided into winners and losers.
Likewise, only Labor values will carry us to recovery.
This unnerves the Liberals. Finding themselves in alien territory, they have panicked and run for the comfort of the familiar.
You saw it with Treasurer Frydenberg recently when he announced his inspiration for the recovery was ... Margaret Thatcher.
Margaret Thatcher — the prime minister who declared there was no such thing as society.
The prime minister who let the more vulnerable regions of her country slide into ruin.
Treasurer Frydenberg was admonished by Scott Morrison — not because he had said something wrong, but because he’d said the quiet bit out loud.
Updated
Scott Morrison has responded to the sentencing of the Australian national far-right terrorist on his Facebook page:
Justice today was delivered to the terrorist and murderer for his cowardly and horrific crimes in Christchurch. It is right that we will never see or hear from him ever again.
All Australians were horrified and devastated by his despicable act.
New Zealand is family to us. Today, we send our love across ‘the ditch’ and I had the opportunity to pass on those wishes earlier today to New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern.
Out of the horror of this event there also emerged the incredible grace and beauty of Farid Ahmed, who I met with Jenny at the memorial service in Christchurch and again in Sydney when he came to visit me in March this year.
Farid lost his wife that day and his message is one of hope and love. Inspirational.
I pay tribute to the Muslim community of New Zealand and in Australia who have supported each other and reflected the goodness of faith. You have been a light answering the darkness.
God Bless our New Zealand whanau this day – and may it be another day of healing for everyone affected by this terrible atrocity.
Updated
Anthony Albanese:
Scott Morrison has had to be dragged to nearly every important decision during this pandemic.
In the words of a columnist for the Australian, Niki Savva:
‘At almost every critical point on almost every contentious issue, he has been forced to shift position. He stopped travel from China but waited too long to block travel from the US. He opposed lockdowns, he opposed school closures, he opposed state border restrictions, he opposed wage subsidies, he opposed pandemic leave and he suspended parliament.’
This records the lack of judgment and a complacency.
Complacency first, demonstrated so tragically during the bushfires.
I can’t help but wonder how much better shape Australia would be in if the government hadn’t put so much energy into resisting what was obvious and essential.
Labor has made suggestions during this crisis, and we have been constructive. We want to help Australia’s recovery, not hinder it.
We want solutions, not arguments.
But when it’s the government that is acting as a drag on our recovery, then we have a responsibility to speak up.
The actions taken by the government to assist people and business during the pandemic, including wage subsidies, have been based on Labor values – the power of government to make a positive difference; the belief that no one should be left behind during the pandemic, and no one held back during the recovery.
The value written in every Australian heart: the fair go.
Updated
We are getting to the pointy end of this speech.
Anthony Albanese:
When Harry Truman was president of the US, he had a sign on his desk in the Oval Office that said ‘The buck stops here.’
It was an expression of the very core of leadership: the acceptance of the responsibility that comes with it.
Not Scott Morrison.
The buck doesn’t stop with him. And, as the Ruby Princess debacle showed, neither do the boats — no matter what that little trinket in his office says.
It is just one more monument to the emptiness of his promises.
As hollow as his promise to drought victims.
As hollow as his promise to bushfire victims.
And ultimately, as hollow as his campaign launch promise to all Australians.
The prime minister can try to sidestep the truth all he wants. He can dismiss valid questions from journalists as “gossip” or “inside the Canberra bubble”.
He can pretend that his government’s pattern of inaction and its very real consequences is nothing more than the trivial obsession of political insiders. He can try to reframe reality.
But it changes nothing.
Updated
Anthony Albanese:
In this atmosphere of uncertainty, the government has found a receptive audience with its invitation to Australians to raid their own superannuation.
Boil it down to its essence and what the government has done is ask workers to fund their own stimulus with this early release scheme.
And who has been most receptive to this idea?
Young workers. Women. Those who are already at a disadvantage, and who cannot afford the hit to their savings.
So far, $33 billion has been withdrawn — comparable to and on the same scale as what the government has paid out on jobkeeper.
More than 600,000 superannuation accounts have been reduced to zero.
This is as sneaky as it is wicked.
The government has shifted the cost of the pandemic from themselves to individuals — making workers and families pay for the pandemic by depleting their retirement incomes.
And they are withdrawing their super at the bottom of the market.
What’s happening right now is casting a shadow so long it will darken future generations.
It will increasingly fall to them to prop up budget spending ever more on aged care and pensions.
This means either that future workers will face higher taxation or that future government services — including the age pension — will come under pressure.
Universal superannuation was built to avoid this problem.
Updated
Anthony Albanese:
Whatever questions are raised by the current circumstances, Richard Colbeck cannot be the answer to any of them.
There are few greater indictments on this government than Minister Colbeck’s performance last week before the Senate select committee on Covid-19, led by Katy Gallagher.
As he fumbled about with pieces of paper, it became clear that even the absolute basics of his job were beyond him.
We saw the heights of his ineptitude.
The fact is our aged care sector has one of the highest Covid death rates in the world.
Scott Morrison’s response?: ‘When it rains, everyone gets wet.’
Yes, he really said that. He knew the rain was coming. He never thought to give anyone an umbrella.
In the absence of a government plan, here are eight points the government could consider:
1:Minimum staffing levels in residential aged care;
2:Reduce the homecare package waiting list so more people can stay in their homes for longer;
3:Ensure transparency and accountability of funding to support high quality care;
4:Independent measurement and public reporting, as recommended by the royal commission this week;
5:Ensure every residential aged care facility has adequate personal protective equipment;
6:Better training for staff, including on infection control;
7:A better surge workforce strategy; and
8:Provide additional resources so the aged care royal commission can inquire specifically into Covid-19 across the sector while not impacting or delaying the handing down of the final report.
Updated
Anthony Albanese:
None of what is going wrong just crept up on us. This government was warned by experts that our already troubled aged care system was vulnerable to the pandemic.
Just as they were warned in the past by experts that a terrible fire season was coming.
Just as they have been warned by experts that the climate is changing, and inaction will cost us more in the long run.
Just as they have been warned by experts that wages are flatlining and working people are being left behind.
Just as they are now being warned by experts that the raids they are encouraging on superannuation will leave people much worse off later in life.
Their response to each warning has been the same: neglect. And the smirk of someone who is convinced he knows better, and then sits on his hands.
If actions speak louder than words, Scott Morrison is truly the quietest Australian of all.
We have heard that last line a couple of times now - you can see how Labor is attempting to shape its attacks against the government, now that the immediate crisis of the pandemic is (thankfully) passing (for now).
Updated
Anthony Albanese:
At his campaign launch last year, Scott Morrison vowed to “keep the promise of Australia to all Australians”.
All Australians.
But then, this is also the same Scott Morrison who has repeatedly asked the question, “Whose side are you on?”
Which is the real Scott Morrison? This year has answered the question.
He is a man who has climbed to the highest office of the land without even accidentally gaining any of the necessary compassion along the way.
A Prime Minister who doesn’t hold a hose.
It’s a handy metaphor he’s given us. The hose can stand for anything he is shirking responsibility for, anything he’s trying to keep his fingerprints off.
Indeed, the last time Scott Morrison held anything with conviction was a lump of coal he carried into the Parliament.
Time and again, this Government has been warned about the threat the coronavirus posed to aged care. Time and again those warnings have been neglected.
Updated
Anthony Albanese at the National Press Club
Anthony Albanese has begun his press club address.
He is wearing Rabbitoh colours on his tie, because everything is politics.
Updated
Here is that suspension of standing orders which was shut down:
The Morrison Gov's addiction to shutting down discussion hit a new low. I moved a motion backing the TGA which strongly discourages the use of hydroxychloroquine. @GregHuntMP and the Gov voted to shut down debate but lets Craig Kelly make ludicrous claims dismissed by the experts pic.twitter.com/o6uPeufFIr
— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) August 27, 2020
The Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is still answering questions, and he is being pressed about the prime minister pursuing new powers to stop state and territory governments entering agreements with foreign governments. This obviously calls the Victorian government’s Belt and Road agreement with China into question.
Asked if this was threatening the state’s sovereignty, Andrews says;
Exports will always be important no matter what country they’re being sent to. And no matter what product it is ... I will always advocate on behalf of Victorian business and will always advocate on behalf of Victorian jobs. That’s a really important part of our part of our job. But the most important job at the moment, again, in my judgement, is to be focused exclusively on this second wave, getting past it. And making sure that we can then open up and that we can repair the damage that this pandemic has done in so many different, different ways.
Foreign affairs is a matter for the commonwealth government, but growing jobs and sending Victorian products overseas and helping businesses to be more profitable and employ more people ... that’s a pretty big part of my job too.
He just added:
The prime minister’s got time to be doing those things, then that’s, that’s fine for him. I don’t, I am exclusively focused on fighting this virus, and then making sure that we have got the strongest economy that we can possibly have on the other side of this concern about the impact on trade.
Updated
Labor has responded to the life without parole sentence of the rightwing Australian-born terrorist in New Zealand:
Labor hopes the sentencing of an Australian-born terrorist and rightwing extremist in New Zealand will serve justice to the victims of the Christchurch shootings and a sense of closure for their family members.
The individual was sentenced in New Zealand’s high court for the murder of 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques and 40 attempted murders on 15 March 2019, along with one charge of terrorism.
The Australian-born terrorist and rightwing extremist has been sentenced to the maximum penalty of a life sentence without parole – a first for New Zealand.
The individual who committed these heinous attacks is not simply a “gunman” – he is a violent rightwing extremist, a terrorist and a white supremacist who committed a horrendous act, driven by hate and fear.
This individual’s vile ideology and its sources should be named and condemned. Addressing this serious threat begins with acknowledging and correctly naming it.
Regrettably, we still have not had a serious conversation about how this individual was radicalised or how much of this occurred in Australia. But it is clear that at least some of these ugly ideas would have been shaped by conversations and ideas prevalent here.
This individual’s actions also highlight the growing transnational and online nature of the problem – with at least two further attacks inspired by the violence perpetrated in Christchurch.
The parliament, media and wider community must take the threat of rightwing extremism seriously.
As the Asio director general has warned, we cannot ignore the fact that rightwing extremism is a growing and a real terrorist threat in our nation and the world.
We cannot allow vacuums to develop that can legitimise views or legitimise people who want to sow discord and racism in our diverse, multicultural and multi-faith community.
Australians stand in solidarity with our New Zealand sisters and brothers – we will always unite with them against racism, hatred, fear and division.
Updated
The ABS has released its latest business impacts survey.
I’ll let its head of industry statistics, John Shepherd, explain:
More than a third (35%) of Australian businesses expect to find it difficult or very difficult to meet financial commitments over the next three months, according to the latest results from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
The Business Impacts of Covid-19 Survey found that small businesses were almost twice as likely to report that they expected to find it difficult or very difficult compared to large businesses (35% compared to 18%).
ABS Head of Industry Statistics, John Shepherd, said: “41 per cent of businesses reported that revenue had fallen over the last month and 22 per cent had an increase in operating expenses.
“In addition, 28 per cent of businesses expected a decrease in revenue over the next month.”
The survey also includes insights about how business expenditure on capital has changed over the last three months.
Shepherd said: “Almost a quarter of businesses (23 per cent) reported they had decreased or cancelled their actual or planned capital expenditure compared to three months earlier.
“Businesses reported that their decisions related to expenditure on capital were significantly influenced by uncertainty about the future state of the economy (59 per cent), and future expected customer demand for their products or services (40 per cent).”
Updated
Federal Labor looks like it is on board, in general terms, with the foreign investment veto powers the Morrison government wants.
Scott Morrison said he spoke to the premiers last night about the plan. But it looks like there might be a flashpoint with Victoria – where the belt and road initiative signing has created the most angst.
Premier @DanielAndrewsMP asks if @ScottMorrisonMP has a list of alternative markets to export to after threatening some deals with China. @abcmelbourne
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 27, 2020
Updated
New Zealand mosque gunman sentenced to life without parole
The Australian-national terrorist who murdered 51 people in New Zealand last year has been sentenced to life without parole.
It is the first time a whole life term sentence has been handed down in New Zealand.
Updated
The University of Queensland needs some help with the next stage of its human trials for its Covid vaccine.
Via AAP:
Volunteers aged 56 and over are being urged to help with the next phase of human trials for the University of Queensland’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The tests will gauge if the vaccine is safe for older people, virologist and project co-leader Professor Paul Young says.
“As most people are now aware, COVID-19 appears to have a higher degree of disease severity in older individuals,” he said.
“By conducting this expanded safety study, we’ll be able to gather key data to support the large-scale efficacy trials.”
UQ is recruiting 48 volunteers between 56-65 years of age and another 48 volunteers aged 66 years and over.
The team is aiming to start the new trials within three weeks.
Infectious disease expert Associate Professor Paul Griffin said participants generally need to be in good health, and any existing medical conditions need to be stable.
The university started phase one of the human trials in July with 120 18 to 55-year-olds.
Early results have been positive, with the vaccine proving to be generally well-tolerated in healthy volunteers.
The call to extend the trials follows successful pre-clinical trials on hamsters
In the animal trial the potential vaccine provided protection against virus replication and reduced lung inflammation following exposure to the virus.
UQ and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations entered into a partnership in June with Australian biotech company CSL to take the rapid response ‘molecular clamp’ enabled vaccine through clinical development and manufacture, if it proves successful.
The Queensland government has provided $10 million in funding for the project, the federal government has contributed $5 million and more than $10 million has been provided by philanthropic and other donors.
Goodness.
It has been A DAY and we still have hours to go. It’s not even time for first lunch yet.
Anthony Albanese is coming up - he is addressing the national press club on the government’s aged care response.
You know what he is going to say there, but we’ll cover off the main points.
Then it’s into the last question time for the week.
Penny Wong has said Labor will scrutinise the foreign relations legislation but supports the idea.
“We support the power ... but safeguarding our sovereignty means more than passing laws.”
She has also called on Morrison to release the 2017 MoU with China on BRI projects in third countries.
Updated
Suicides in the Victorian Aboriginal community during the Covid-19 pandemic have been “humungous”, with four in the last week, according to the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (Vaccho).
Jill Gallagher, Vaccho CEO, told the Victorian parliament’s Covid-19 committee on Thursday that there had been 68 cases of Covid-19 among the Aboriginal community in Victoria, but no deaths.
She said mental health had been one of the big issues facing the community, with a “humungous increase” in suicides.
“I’m not prepared to say what those numbers are [but a] humongous increase in suicides,” she said.
“Last week alone we had four suicides within the Victorian Aboriginal community.”
When asked about the Victorian coronial report today that states no increase in suicides this year compared with last year for the entire state, she said that was not the experience for the Aboriginal community.
The report itself does not break down the demographics beyond age and gender.
The committee also heard family violence is brought up in every welfare check on clients at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. CEO Narita Waight said the lockdown was creating wider family violence issues.
“People are concerned about what’s going on in terms of intimate partner relationships, exposing concerns around that, but also when you’ve got multiple generations living in a home in a confined environment, that is also creating wider family violence repercussions.”
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Updated
A top official who helped oversee the hotel quarantine program wanted the police to take a greater role in the scheme but was rebuffed, an inquiry has been told.
Claire Febey, an executive director at the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, told a judicial inquiry on Thursday when the scheme was created in late March she had “escalated” her concerns for the police to have an ongoing presence at each hotel.
“I continued to press the issue, but gained no traction,” she said in a witness statement.
The inquiry was told Victoria police had wanted private security guards to be the “first line of security”.
“The views expressed by Victoria Police in the First [State Control Centre] Meeting confirmed that private security would be required and shaped DJPR’s assumptions regarding the level of support that would be needed,” Febey said in her statement.
Febey said she understood that she would be responsible for contracting security companies for the program, but could not say who made the initial decision that private guards would be required.
The inquiry is continuing this morning.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says he will let the multi-parliament working group to work out whether or not there can be virtual voting at next week’s state parliament sitting.
On whether or not he would accept a six-month extension to the Victorian state of emergency declaration, he says:
I’m motivated to work as closely as we can in a roomful and collaborative way as possible - not just on these measures, the but this is the approach we take with the crossbench on everything.
No matter the subject matter.
It will be the approach we continue to take on many and varied issues they will raise with us, we will raise with them. It’s been a very positive process. It’s not quite - not concluded yet. We are having very productive discussions.
Again, as I said earlier on, not for the imposition of rules to keep the place closed, but making sure there’s certainty so we can put in place a plan and a set of rules that allow us to open up. That’s what we’re focused on.
Where that lands in an ultimate sense, we will have to wait and see. But I’m confident through the discussions and, again, I will say thank you to the crossbenchers for the way - the positive way - in which they are engaging with us
NSW records nine new cases of Covid-19
NSW has reported nine new cases of Covid have been diagnosed in the last 24 hours.
From NSW Health:
There were 30,173 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 25,874 in the previous 24 hours.
All of today’s new cases were locally acquired and linked to known cases, including:
- five linked to the Sydney CBD cluster
- four close contacts of previous cases
Three of the new cases attended City Tattersalls Club gym, bringing to eight the total number of cases linked to the Sydney CBD cluster. Anyone who attended City Tattersalls gym between 8am to 2pm on 19, 21 or 23 August is a close contact and must get tested for Covid-19 and isolate at home for 14 days. Other members of City Tattersalls should get tested if they have even the mildest symptoms.
Cases have attended the following locations while infectious.
NSW Health is contacting all known attendees of the Hunters Hill Bowling Club indoor dining room on 23 August from 12pm to 2pm to advise they are close contacts of a case and must immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, and remain isolated for the entire period, even if the test result is negative. People who attended other areas of the club are considered close contacts and must monitor for symptoms and get tested if they develop.
People who attended the following locations are considered casual contacts and must monitor for symptoms and if they develop, get tested right away and isolate:
- 4Pines Manly Brew Bar, The Esplanade – 23 August from 3.30pm to 5pm
- Magpies Waitara restaurant – 24 August from 11.30am to 1:15pm
- Fitness First Balgowlah – 23 August from 9am to 12pm (NSW Health is calling to advise any close contacts who must immediately self-isolate for 14 days)
- Destro’s Pharmacy, 197-201 Victoria Road Drummoyne – 22 August from 11.20am to 11.40am
- Fitness First Bond St – 20 and 21 August in the afternoon (NSW Health is calling to advise any close contacts who must immediately self-isolate for 14 days)
There are currently 74 Covid-19 cases being treated by NSW Health. There are six Covid-19 patients in intensive care and four are ventilated. 85 per cent of cases being treated by NSW Health are in non-acute, out-of-hospital care.
Updated
Amid the current tensions in the relationship with China, Australia is one of 10 nations participating in the US-led Rimpac military exercises in Hawaii.
US Navy vice-admiral, commander of the Third Fleet Scott D. Conn, has been briefing reporters on the exercises. He argued they demonstrated how allies and partners were able to come together and respond to any crises – and the US commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.
They also demonstrated “to ourselves and the world that we can come together and [carry out] the mission in spite of all the challenges we face in the Covid environment”.
Conn said Australia played a large role in the Rimpac exercises. He said his lead planner for Rimpac was from Australia.
Australia and the US agreed at the recent Ausmin talks to deepen defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region - but Australia apparently resisted pressure for it to join freedom of navigation exercises within 12 nautical miles of disputed features.
When asked by Guardian Australia about what this additional cooperation between Australia and the US would look like, Conn simply said that both sides “look for all opportunities to continue to strengthen our very strong relationship”.
Updated
Prof Allen Cheng says the last R number he heard for Victoria was 0.87.
But obviously that is a retrospective number that is estimated. So that’s going from about two weeks ago and that’s the sort of the latest you can do that. I would expect it to be a bit lower than that at the moment. It’s certainly encouraging and below one, which is where we want it to be.
Daniel Andrews then speaks on the proposal to extend Victoria’s state of emergency declaration beyond September:
Just finally, I would just again make the point, as I did yesterday, [we’re] very grateful to members of the crossbench, we’re having very, very productive discussions with them, and I’m very confident that we’ll get to an outcome that both protects public health and gives us the rules that we need to plan to open.
Not rules to stay closed. But indeed, rules that will assist us in putting together a longterm plan to repair the damage, to get people back to work, to get businesses up and running again, and to – as I said many times – to find that Covid normal.
[We’re] very, very grateful to those crossbench members. We’ve been, as we always do, engaging with them in good faith, and those discussions are progressing very well. And we’ll have obviously more to say about that as we get into the sitting week next week.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
We’ve got to defeat this second wave before we begin opening up, or we’ll be in the early stages of a third wave, and while there may be some significant respite for people for a short period of time, we’ll be in even worse circumstances very, very quickly.
That’s what our experts tell us. That’s why we can’t open up right now. But every Victorian should be clear about the government’s intentions, all the team is working as hard as we can. We want to get past this is a quickly as we can.
The rules won’t be in place for longer than they need to be.
We’ll have many announcements to make about repairing the damage this global pandemic has done.
There will be a singular focus on jobs, on making sure we look after those who lost work, we look after those who are really facing very difficult circumstances in terms of their business, and their prospects for the future.
There is, in every sense, cause for people to be positive about the fact that this strategy is working.
And we will get past this. We’ll defeat this thing, we’ll get past this second wave, and then we’ll all be able to open up, we’ll be able to begin that long and challenging process.
But one I think we’re equal to, of repairing the damage this pandemic has done to all of us, across the board. In businesses large and small, communities large and small, families, individuals, we will get that strength back.
We’ll resume that position of national leadership where Victorians are always at their best. When we’re out in front and leading.
Updated
And then we get some talk of hope.
Daniel Andrews:
Just finally, Victorians are doing an amazing job.
They’re doing an absolutely amazing job in very challenging and difficult circumstances.
I think that every Victorian can be positive about the fact these numbers are coming down.
There will come a time, hopefully soon, we’ll see those numbers in double digits and we can have with greater confidence a really clear discussion about what the back end of September looks like, what October, November, December looks like, pushing into 2021.
That will take two different forms – both a clear plan, very detailed, indeed, a massive plan to repair the damage this pandemic has done, make sure that jobs and skills and strength across our economy and communities are at the forefront of every single thing we do, and as best we can. It always has to be heavily caveated, I suppose, in terms of daily numbers, but as best we can, we hope to give people a roadmap, a clear plan about what coming out of stage four looks like, what opening up looks like, what finding Covid normal looks like.
I appreciate, I know and understand, very deeply, how challenging this is. But this strategy is working.
These numbers are coming down. Of course, that shouldn’t take away from the pain and the loss that those 23 families today are dealing with.
And sadly, there will be more tomorrow. That’s the nature of this wildly infectious virus.
The alternative to this, to basically ignore the fact this is transmitted very quickly, that it is a wicked enemy, and that we would, if we didn’t have these very challenging rules in place, we would simply see our hospital system completely and utterly overrun.
And that’s not just a matter of Covid patients not getting the care they need, but people who every day, heart attacks, strokes, motor vehicle accidents, people who need urgent care, they simply would miss out also.
As challenging as this is, the strategy is working. We do have to all of us look out for each other, provide whatever support we can to get to the other side of this.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says Victoria will be increasing the number of orange door centres - hubs where people fleeing domestic and family violence can find help.
He also makes clear that if you are in danger, you can of course leave your home, despite the lockdown:
Despite the fact we have stage four lockdown in metropolitan Melbourne, stage three in regional Victoria, it’s always permissible, always appropriate, if you feel like you need to leave home for your safety, if there’s a family violence issue, then of course you’re able to do it.
You’re not going to get into any trouble for going and getting the care that you need, getting away from that violence – that is a point that’s worth making, just so there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind.
We have a very strong record of investing in this sector. It is always disappointing to have to invest this sort of money, we would prefer to see far less of this sort of behaviour, but whether it be trying to change attitudes towards women and therefore outcomes for women, all the way through to very practical investments in the support system that is critical to providing safety and security and not just changing lives, but saving lives, then this is work that continues.
Updated
On the number of active cases, Daniel Andrews says:
There’s 3,308 active cases across the state. Those numbers continue to fall, which is good news. In terms of the regional-metro split, as I always point out, these numbers don’t perfectly reconcile just because there’s a number still being investigated. But there’s now 198 active cases in regional local government areas under stage three.
To give you an example, across a number of key regional communities that we’ve been speaking about, they’re key for that purpose, Geelong, the greater Geelong area, 71 active cases, greater Bendigo, 16, and Ballarat has six active cases. That’s a much better position than a few weeks ago.
Those numbers are falling. Those numbers will continue to fall as people go through their active period as a positive, and then we’ll see those numbers continue to fall. But there should be no sense of complacency in those communities or any community.
Regional Victorian numbers are low, we’re doing everything we can in a very strong partnership between the government, public health team, all the workers in this, as well as families right across regional Victoria, communities right across regional Victoria, we’ve got to continue to do everything we can to keep those numbers low.
But that’s a pleasing decrease and a steady decrease in terms of the number of active cases.
Updated
Daniel Andrews press conference
23 deaths is one of the worst days we have seen during this pandemic.
The Victorian premier goes through what we are allowed to know of them:
They include one male in their 60s, one female and four males in their 70s, six females and three males in their 80s and five females and three males in their 90s. 22 of those 23 deaths are linked to aged care outbreaks.
There are 532 Victorians in hospital. 29 of those are receiving intensive care and 11 of the 29 are on a ventilator.
I am hearing that Craig Kelly, never one to let an opportunity for promotion go by, headed into the federation chamber (where speeches go to die) to double down on his hydroxychloroquine conspiracy theories, after the government gagged a Labor motion to suspend standing orders and address it.
Siiiiiiiggggggghhhhhhhhh.
Updated
It’s worth pointing out how much the debate has shifted in Australia – and other countries – on Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative over the past few years.
In an interview with Sky News in June 2018, the then trade minister, Steve Ciobo, was asked about Australia engaging with it, and said “there’s certainly scope for Australian businesses to be involved in the Belt Road Initiative”.
He said history showed such pathways for trade had driven prosperity and peace.
As for government involvement, he said Australia would “engage in relation to this”. Ciobo said at the time:
“I mean, the bulk of the Belt Road Initiative is in relation to infrastructure. And as I said, Australia has a terrific track record with project financing, design, construction, maintenance, repair, all these types of things.
So we can certainly work together, and in fact when I was last in China, we signed an MOU for cooperation in third countries on Belt Road Initiative and other initiatives that we can do together. So we are playing a constructive and active role in that space right now.”
Given the apparent move against the Victorian deal with today’s announcement, Scott Morrison was asked at the press conference to explain the status of that 2017 MoU between the Australian and Chinese governments.
He replied that the arrangement reached with Ciobo in 2017 “was about cooperating in third party markets”.
“It did not sign up or endorse BRI. That was not an arrangement that endorsed the BRI.
It’s never been our government’s policy, under myself or the previous prime minister, that we signed up to or endorsed the BRI. That was not such an agreement in those terms.”
Earlier in the press conference, Morrison stressed the need for transparency. The federal government has previously refused to release this MoU.
When an FoI application was rejected, Ciobo said “both parties are required to agree to release the text of the MOU and China has not agreed to do so”.
Updated
After a huge amount of pushback, Daniel Andrews looks like paring back his request to the parliament to extend Victoria’s state of emergency from the 12 months he announced on Monday, to six months.
A week is a long time in politics. Practically a lifetime these days.
Scott Morrison is asked about it:
It’s a call he has to make. And the nature of those laws in Victoria are different to how the laws work in New South Wales, which I understand are sort of open-ended arrangements to how their legislation is set up.
I think the concern the other day was the shock and the surprise to Victorians who were already in a pretty fragile and sensitive state.
And I’m pleased there’s been greater clarity around what the premier announced. I wasn’t the only person asking for that. I communicated that to him as a concern, as I indicated to you yesterday.
I’m sure Victorians are relieved and pleased to know there’s not – not just another 12 months of lockdown, there’s not enough six months of lockdown. There’s a matter for the premier to deal with through his parliament and what they agreed to provide. We have had our arrangements on a rolling three-month review and we deal with that and review it regularly.
This is why I was pleased to come to an agreement with the New South Wales premier that particularly when it comes on the issue the foreign minister and I have been working on, in terms of residents returning to Australia, we’re reviewing the caps on a fortnightly basis based on the most recent information.
One of the key lessons in the pandemic, you need to take things as they come. You need to deal with the information in front of you, because it changes rapidly. Lock yourself in too far out, and you can find circumstances change. Sure, you’ve got to give as much certainty as you can, and you’ve got to show the direction, the direction I want to clearly set is to reopen Australia again, just like we did back in June, and we’ve had a huge setback in Victoria, but we need to get back on that horse and go forward.
Updated
Q: Prime minister, the report that was released this week into the Newmarch House outbreak, earlier this year, revealed that there were mistakes that was made in that house that were repeated, repeatedly, in Victoria, especially at St Basil’s, issues with food and with staff being furloughed – given that this was months later and you’ve repeatedly said, and Richard Colbeck has repeatedly said lessons would be heard, given we’re seeing dozens of people dying in Victorian aged care facilities, why weren’t these lessons learned?
Why were mistakes repeated? And who is to be held accountable?
Scott Morrison:
I don’t share your analysis completely on that. I responded to a question on this in the House yesterday, where I set out the key findings and learning of the Newmarch report, and how they had been specifically applied, including in the case of St Basil’s, as well as a whole range of other facilities, and the events that unfolded with the Covid pandemic in Victoria, which had moved to a level we had not yet seen in Australia, and, as we know, have impacted healthcare facilities in Victoria and many other facilities in Victoria.
Whether it’s the aged care providers themselves who had been made aware of what was necessary in these circumstances, or the responsibilities of the federal government and the actions of the public health agencies, these lessons were certainly sought to be implemented in all of these cases, and the fact that, as I’ve reminded you all on a number of occasions now, in the UK, 56% of aged care facilities have had resident and staff.
That figure in Australia is 8%. 8%. And the number of facilities that have been acutely affected in Victoria has been four. Out of over 700 facilities in that state. Now, those four circumstances were unacceptable outcomes. And we’ve been very clear about that.
My fear when the Covid pandemic hit in Victoria was that we could have potentially seen far more. Because of the scale of that outbreak.
And as horrific as those four cases were, I’m so pleased it did not extend to so many more and the fact that we’ve reduced it down from 13 that we were watching very carefully, that didn’t all escalate to the levels we saw at Epping Gardens and St Basil’s and others, that’s come down to three, and that’s real issues in those three facilities and we’re monitoring them closely every single day. We’re dealing with a global pandemic where there’s no guarantees.
The only guarantee we can give you is of complete effort that dealing with every situation that presents.
Updated
Given the Liberal party is the party of individual rights – including for the states – how does this proposed legislation sit with that history?
Scott Morrison:
In terms of our history of federalism, I’m a passionate federalist.
That’s why I moved to establish the national cabinet because I know we get a lot more done together and the responsibilities of the states are very significant, whether it be on healthcare or on schools or on planning approvals and all of these sorts of things – there are many things that we can’t achieve in protecting the lives of Australians and the livelihoods of Australians if we don’t work together.
And I’m not seeking to change any of the powers here. I’m seeking to ensure that the powers that we have, and we’re responsible for, that we deal to and that is external affairs, that is foreign affairs.
That’s what the constitution invests in the federal government.
So I think honouring the constitution sits alongside the federalist tradition of certainly our party and this is a very important affirmation of that. I remember – I said this in my maiden speech in the parliament – you know, states are responsible for some things, federal governments are responsible for others and the best way to get along is for everyone to do their job and to do it as well as possible and not try and do others’ jobs and that’s what is certainly the way I’ve sought to approach this pandemic and the many other issues that are there.
We all just need to do our jobs and that’s certainly what we’re doing and, in many cases, those jobs combined, as we’ve seen around aged care – we have very clear responsibilities in relation to aged care, and the state governments have very clear responsibilities for public health, and in a pandemic, they come together and they overlap, so you have to work together.
Updated
There has been some discussion in New Zealand that the Australian terrorist who killed 51 people peacefully praying at two Christchurch mosques last year should serve his sentence in Australia.
I will not name him. You know who he is and what he did.
His sentencing is under way – if you can, please read the testimony of the families and loved ones whose lives were forever altered by his evil, who stand as shining examples of who we should all strive to be in the face of such human horror.
Morrison:
This is not a matter which the prime minister Ardern has raised with me.
It’s normal practice that criminals convicted of these offences serve their sentences in that jurisdiction, and that’s my understanding of what the arrangements are and no request has been made to Australia for that to be any different.
And I remember these events, as we all do, terribly and, once again, as New Zealanders in particular are brought to remembrance of that just unthinkable day, my heart goes out to them and it brings it all back, even as we stand here, it’s bringing it back for me.
And Jenny and I were incredibly touched by meeting the survivors of that attack, and the incredible grace that they showed afterwards was astounding, and inspiring and so, to all those affected by that, including the Muslim community here in Australia, for whom it’s brought remembrance, still thinking, still thinking of you.
Now, on the other matter, there is only one sovereignty in Australia and it’s Australia: I mean we’re a sovereign Australians. We are all Australians and that’s where our sovereignty rests and that’s how I would respond.
Updated
It’s clear that the federal government’s concern over Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement is one of the major factors behind this announcement, even though Scott Morrison says he doesn’t want to prejudice the process by weighing in on any particular deal.
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, argued her department had “deep and broad expertise to assess whether arrangements with foreign governments are in the national interest”.
“When we don’t have a process of consultation, the commonwealth has no opportunity to review the proposed arrangements, nor to apply that expertise. We risk having an uncoordinated patchwork approach to contracts or MoUs or relationships and collaborations that could have an adverse effect on our foreign policy.”
It’s certainly true that the Victorian belt and road agreement has attracted concern in Australia’s national security establishment – and the scheme more generally has attracted strong pushback from the US government.
But it’s previously been reported that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not explicitly warn Victoria against such cooperation.
The Australian reported in May this year that senior Dfat officials had told the state government in May 2018 that its plans did not undercut federal government policy, and had also provided written feedback in June 2018.
The newspaper reported - based on Victorian government notes of a meeting with Dfat officials – that the then head of Dfat’s north-east Asia branch said: “There is merit from the relationship that you are proposing through the BRI.”
Dfat responded to that account by saying it had also urged Victoria to exercise “caution” to “consider the broader national interest”, the Australian reported.
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On belt and road initiatives, Scott Morrison says:
It’s important that, when you act in accordance with powers that are yet to be established, that you do not prejudice decisions and so I’m not going to say anything here and the Foreign Affairs Minister wouldn’t be saying anything here that could potentially prejudice any decisions that we might make after properly reviewing any agreements that are currently in place, because if we were to take decisions that were to cancel those, they should be done according to the proper process set up under the legislation so it would be irresponsible of me or the Foreign Affairs Minister, I think, to go into the specifics of any one agreement at this point.
There’s been plenty of commentary on the ones that you referred to.
There’s plenty of commentary on that. And matters have been raised directly with premiers where that’s been necessary, but we will act in accordance with powers established by the and my job right now is to get the support of these powers through the Parliament and then we’ll deal with individual instances.
And does Scott Morrison want a border appeal process put in place:
In relation to how any sort of a proper appeal mechanism works, well, in some states they do have them and what I’d be seeking is a harmonisation and a consistency in how states apply those.
They’re not federal borders. They are state borders, for states to administer, and they need to do so in a way which minimises the pain and the hardship and the inconvenience that is not necessary and that Australians, wherever they live, have the appropriate review mechanisms in place for any administrative decision that can impact on them and their livelihoods and, indeed, their health.
Will the federal government move to cancel state agreements with foreign powers?
Scott Morrison:
I’m not going to prejudice the outcome of any decisions the minister for foreign affairs might make. It’s important that, a) the legislation is passed – I wrote to premiers yesterday. I had already flagged with premiers and chief ministers at the national security briefing they had some weeks ago that we would have more to say in this area and flagged that they would be getting advice along these lines, and provided that to them yesterday and once the legislation has been through the party room, we’ll share that with the states and territories and work through that.
Any individual arrange the, it’s a clear test – if they’re inconsistent with federal foreign affairs policy, they’ll go.
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Scott Morrison continues that answer:
I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow at the bush summit, at Cooma, not far from here, but it is important that we continue to remove barriers where they’re not necessary, and where there are barriers, we have the most sensible, practical and time-limited arrangements and people know when they can come off so they can get on with their lives.
That’s always been my very strong view. National cabinet has never made one decision that supports the unilateral imposition of borders within Australia.
There is no resolution of national cabinet to that end, where states have made those decisions.
They’ve made them either, as I’ve said, with the commonwealth in the case of the Victoria and New South Wales border, or they’ve made them unilaterally on their own behalf and they are the ones who have to explain how that works and how it is administered.
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Will Scott Morrison attempt to legislate to stop border closures where they are deemed not to be necessary:
In relation to the border arrangements that have been put in place at a state level, as I said yesterday and I’ve said many times, Australia wasn’t built to have internal borders.
Having internal borders in Australia is an extreme response, which can be necessary in extreme circumstances and based on a proper medical advice and a very transparent process for doing that – and we saw in relation to the New South Wales-Victorian border – what occurred there was cooperation between the neighbouring states and, indeed, the commonwealth, the appointment of a border commissioner to try and resolve the many heart-breaking examples that we continue to work through today, and, you know, when borders get put up within a country like Australia, it is very difficult to try and avoid the sort of circumstances we’ve seen occur, very, very difficult to do that.
Obviously, when it comes to that particular border, and the very extreme situation we’ve seen in Melbourne, that it was agreed amongst both premiers and myself, that that was a necessary action and one that I hope is one that won’t have to remain, hopefully, for much longer, and particularly as the situation in regional Victoria confirms itself, hopefully it won’t be needed much longer.
But I am confident that in the relationship and the way we’re working together within the federation between New South Wales, Victoria and the commonwealth – and those matters, I think, can be properly resolved.
I’ve had similar discussions with the Western Australian premier about how those arrangements can best operate. The constitutional issues around this are not as clear-cut as the constitutional issues when it comes to the commonwealth’s foreign affairs powers.
I think they’re very clear. So I think we’re talking about a different area of grey and, you know, the national cabinet has achieve many great things over these last six months and I can understand that Australians are frustrated that the border issues through that process are not being addressed as well as we’d hope.
That has not been, through any lack of effort, I can assure you, on the federal government’s part, but it does demonstrate that the constitutional powers that sit around internal borders are vague when it comes to dealing with specific circumstances. It’s all about proportionality.
And when you’re looking at a border between Victoria and New South Wales, that’s one set of circumstances. In other places, it’s different. I will continue to work to ensure we have a transparent and fair process, that there are appropriate appeal rights in place, for people who are affected by these decisions. It affects their lives.
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OK, so that bill is very important and long overdue and we should have a stronger recycling sector in this country and we all should think about where our waste is going.
But this came to ahead because our south-east Asian neighbours started sending our rubbish back.
They were no longer taking it.
That’s what caused this to come to ahead.
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Following the thank you, Scott Morrison moves to a new recycling and waste reduction bill:
The recycling and waste reduction bill will phase in the end of 645,000 tonnes of processed plastic, paper, glass and tyres that Australia ships overseas every year.
The bill will implement the export ban on waste, plastic, paper, glass and ties agreed by the then Coag in March of this year, one of the final agreements in Coag. At the same time, the reforms to the regulation of product stewardship will incentivise companies to take greater environmental responsibility for the products they manufacture and what happens to those products and materials at the end of their life.
The bill complements the recycling modernisation fund and national waste policy action plan, which will create 10,000 new jobs over the next 10 years. That’s a 32% increase in jobs in the Australian waste and recycling seconder and these reforms will drive a billion-dollar transformation of Australia’s waste and recycling capacity. It’s our waste.
It’s our responsibility. We’ve got to deal with it and recycle it and repurpose it and reuse it here to both drive drive jobs in the recycling and improve the quality of our environment.
This is a key issue I’ve been raising, not just in the Pacific Islands Forum – and I only just spoke this morning to the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, but it has also been an issue that I’ve been raising in the East Asian Summit and with our Asean friends and colleagues where waste plastics in oceans is destroying communities, it is destroying their livelihoods, it is destroying their health and this was a pledge that I said we would honour and follow through on and I think this is a great day for demonstrating Australia’s leadership when it comes to an export ban on these waste products.
When I talk to kids in schools, that’s what they talk to me about, they talk to me about those plastic bottles and the things in the oceans – whether it’s their rivers and oceans and streams, or those floating around in the Pacific or around the seas of south-east Asia and so I’m very pleased that the they’re introducing that bill today, as the minister for foreign affairs is also.
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This was the motion Labor’s Chris Bowen tried to move against Craig Kelly’s hydroxychloroquine conspiracy theories which he has been floating in parliament, and on his MP social media, (which have been endorsed by Pete Evans), which the government shut down:
I seek leave to move the following motion —
That the House:
1) notes that:
a) on 25 August 2020, the member for Hughes gave a speech in the federation chamber supporting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19;
b) in his speech, the member said that “media bias”, “groupthink” and the “complete abandonment of reason” were driving a “war” on hydroxychloroquine and “the big hand of government … interfer[ing] in a doctor-patient relationship”, and cited a number of medical commentators including:
i) Professor Christian Perronne, who is being investigated by the French College of Physicians for his comments on hydroxychloroquine;
ii) Dr Harvey Risch, who was rebuked by 25 Yale University colleagues for promoting “conspiracy theories, purported hoaxes, and the views of zealots”; and
iii) Dr Kulvinder Gill, who was criticised by other Canadian doctors for misleading tweets on hydroxychloroquine;
c) in Australia, potential therapies are assessed for safety and efficacy by the independent Therapeutic Goods Administration, and the TGA “strongly discourages the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 … or prevent COVID-19”; and
d) the National Covid-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce, comprised of 29 peak health bodies, has also advised that “hydroxychloroquine is potentially harmful and no more effective than standard care”;
2) affirms that it is the responsibility of all public officeholders to acknowledge and support the independence and expertise of the TGA and counter misinformation and conspiracy theories.
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Daniel Andrews and prevention of family violence minister Gabrielle Williams will be up at 11am.
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Scott Morrison press conference
The prime minister seems a little puffed as he begins this press conference.
It is colder than my heart in Canberra today. And the morning has been pretty full-on for everyone in the building, so I get it.
He starts the press conference which has been called to talk about the proposed foreign investment veto with a thank you:
Can I start today, before moving to the reason for today’s press conference – and I’m joined by the minister for foreign affairs – to thank Australians, whether they be in the hotspot of Melbourne or they be in regional parts of the country where they’re dealing with the incredible frustration of border restrictions, can I thank the small businesses of this country, the large businesses of this country, keeping people in work.
This has been a very difficult time, a very frustrating time, a very anxious time.
And Australians have just kept their determination up, their positivity, wherever they can.
And I want to thank tell, just simply thank them and ask them to continue to demonstrate the goodwill and the good faith they have, despite the frustrations and the limitations and the anxieties that they have to cope with every day.
As we gather here in this parliament, under different circumstances to usual – the circumstances faced by many Australians, particularly in Victoria and in those border regions – is something quite different and I just want Australians to know that we get that. And we know that. And we very much appreciate what you are doing each and every day.
I welcome the fact that we’ve seen again the continuation of lower numbers than we have seen in Victoria – nowhere near what we’d like them to be and the fatalities we continue to see are devastating and particularly for the families directly involved – and, of course, we know that we will continue to see that for some time yet as the impacts of the community transmission, as it’s worked it’s way through the Victorian community, will continue to have those impacts.
But that said, Victoria has turned the corner and we will continue to invest our efforts in assisting them to ensure that we can continue to get this outbreak under control and return life in Melbourne and across Victoria, to as normal as you can in a Covid-safe world, as soon as we can and working with the state and territories to ensure that other restrictions, wherever they can be reinformed, can be removed as soon as possible.
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Over in the House of Representatives, Chris Bowen has tried to suspend standing orders to talk about Craig Kelly’s continual vocal support of hydroxychloroquine, which the national health expert committee advising the government has advised against as a Covid treatment, on his social media - and the parliament - but was gagged by the government.
Kelly thinks the response to hydroxychloroquine, which experts have told us is no more effective in treating Covid, but can have dire consequences for patients, is because of “media group think”.
Kelly’s preselection was saved by Malcolm Turnbull, and then Scott Morrison – both of whom made personal interventions when his branch wanted to dump him.
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Penny Wong says aged care minister 'has to go'
Penny Wong finishes with:
The fact is, Senator Richard Colbeck has lost the confidence of the Parliament.
He has lost the confidence of the public. And he has to go.
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Penny Wong is also finishing up her reply. She repeats her comments from late yesterday:
When we look at Senator Colbeck’s performance in the Senate. When we look at his performance in the Senate Select Committee. When we look at his performance as a minister - that is the question.
Would you trust your parents, your grandparents, your aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters wives or husbands to Senator Colbeck’s care?
Well, if not, why would you expect other Australians to trust their loved ones to his care?
And why would you accept a prime minister forcing Australian’s support for their elderly loved ones in Senator Colbeck’s care. It is that simple.
And if you wouldn’t want him to be in charge of the care of your loved one, why do you expect others to.
Richard Colbeck then leaves the Senate, as Penny Wong gets to her feet to respond.
Wong asks him to stay. He doesn’t.
Richard Colbeck:
Mr President, for us, this has never been about politics, the operation of the national cabinet demonstrates that order.
Labor can have their gotcha moments.
They can ridicule and show disrespect to our most senior medical officials on the use of language covert maintenance.
The “gotcha” moment was the aged care minister not being able to answer how many aged care residents had died during the pandemic.
There are interjections, and Scott Ryan has to call for order.
Colbeck continues:
Mr President, Labor playing its games will not change a thing for the Australians who need our help the most.
For me, this has never been about politics.
I’ve invited the shadow minister to the table on many occasions.
At any at any time. She has asked, I’ve called many Labor MPs in Victoria, to give them information on outbreaks that are occurring in their electorates, so they can assist their constituents, with their issues.
I’ve worked closely with my counterpart in Victoria cooperating on many of the issues in the interest of senior Australians in Victoria and their loved ones and I acknowledge and thank him for his cooperation, responding to this cruel virus and its impact on communities remains my focus.
And again, my sincerest condolences to all of those who have lost loved ones.
Mr president, We are all ultimately responsible for the decisions made to protect the people we love the most.
That is my focus to deliver the plan to keep senior Australians safe. I thank the Senate.
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Aged care minister Richard Colbeck defends record during pandemic
Richard Colbeck is detailing his response during the pandemic, and defending his record.
He is about to finish his speech, and said this:
We have been there every step of the way. Every day. We have not stopped, planning, adapting and implementing.
Mr President, I met a couple of weeks ago with a friend who I hadn’t seen for 30 years. She came to talk to me about the death of her mother, four years ago. And her concerns about the loss of dignity her mum felt in a residential aged care facility.
I sat with her while she cried because she hadn’t been able to address that issue for four years.
She came into my office we sat and we talked, and we worked our way through what could be done, what will be done, and try and I tried to help her with her pain.
And Mr President, it’s those sorts of stories, and those that we heard from the royal commission that drive me that drive the government to improve the residential aged care sector in this country.
As someone who has watched someone they love go through what Colbeck’s friend was describing – the loss of dignity – I understand what he is saying. But the Coalition was in power four years ago. It had been in government for almost a term since then. These problems are not new. The pandemic has laid bare problems we all knew existed.
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The last parliament sitting for the week is about to start.
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Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 10am to talk about the proposed foreign veto powers.
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Aged care minister to provide 'explanation of his administration of his portfolio' to Senate
Richard Colbeck has been ordered by the Senate to front up and explain his administration of the aged care portfolio during the pandemic.
That will happen at 9.30am.
Penny Wong will seek to reply after Colbeck delivers his statement.
It might be worth remembering this is what Wong said about the aged care minister yesterday, while speaking to the ABC (it was not in response to a question, she asked to make a comment at the end of her interview segment so she could get it in).
Wong:
Can I just say something quickly about Richard Colbeck? You know, I sit in the Senate every day with this bloke, and I tell you, Patricia, I would not trust the care of my parents to him.
Patricia Karvelas: That’s a really strong point to make... You wouldn’t trust the care of your own parents with Richard Colbeck, why not?
Wong:
I genuinely do not believe this man understands what it is to be a responsible minister in the portfolio.
I do not believe he is competent.
I think, you know, we watch him in the Senate, talking about process and webinars and letters and talking, in circumstances where it is clear he has been warned by their own taskforce, by their own royal commission, and by the events in Australia in the sector itself this year.
I mean to suggest that the workforce, they didn’t plan for a withdrawal of the workforce, when we saw what happened in Newmarch House, is extraordinary.
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Chris Bowen was asked about the government’s foreign investment veto bill while talking to Sky this morning.
It doesn’t seem like Labor had any advance warning this was coming. The responses are by rote:
Well, I mean, if the government would like to show us the bill, we’ll work through it. But on the matter, in the substance of the matter, of course, governments have to work together to ensure our national sovereignty.
Minister Payne actually welcomed the Victorian MOU on the belt and road initiative when it was signed.
So did Minister Birmingham so they’ve changed their tune quite considerably. Fair enough, circumstances change. But if circumstances do change, I think it would be good for the Federal Government to sit down in good faith with the Victorian Government and work the issues through. It is not unusual for states to engage in ensuring that their interests around the world are furthered.
I mean, states have representatives around the world. States have had agents in London for decades, and states have representatives I know in various cities in China and Indonesia, pursuing trade deals on behalf of the states.
Now, yes, foreign policy must be the responsibility of the commonwealth, if the Commonwealth has any concern about any agreements, and I heard Minister Payne say there is 135 I think she said such agreements.
Then they have a right to ensure that they’re consistent, but that’s best done working with the state governments. And I do know also, while we’re on the topic that the federal government does have an arrangement under the Belt and Road initiative that former Minister Ciobo signed, which they still haven’t released.
So if we want to be, you know, trying to ensure transparency, maybe the federal government could get their own house in order first, and release that document so that we could see what’s in involved in that.
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Queensland Health has completed its genome testing of the virus infection which sparked the most recent cluster, but can’t find any definitive link with the virus infection one of the women who returned from Melbourne and allegedly lied on her border declaration. They can’t prove it either way.
The QCS trainer lives in Forest Lake (one of the areas where the cluster has popped up) and has not been in any prisons, but he has trained some staff, all of whom who have been put into isolation, along with his close contacts.
All the children detained in the Wacol youth detention centre where a woman in her 70s tested positive for Covid last week (in a mystery infection) have been tested for Covid, and have tested negative.
The staff testing is still under way.
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Queensland reports two new Covid cases
Queensland has reported two new Covid-19 cases.
One is in hotel quarantine and the other is the Queensland corrective services academy trainer.
There have been almost 20,000 tests in Queensland in the last 24 hours, so two cases is a good result.
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As we have reported, Anthony Albanese is at the press club today, where he will be talking about the government’s aged care response during the pandemic.
But there is another tricky issue for Labor on the horizon – what to do about the government’s proposed foreign investment veto for the states (and territories and universities).
Given that it will be Labor-led states like Victoria which will be in the firing line, there will be a lot of discussions on this one.
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(Just a content warning for this post, as it deals with suicide data)
The Coroners Court of Victoria has released its latest suicide data, in the first report of what will be ongoing monthly public data reports on suicide from the court.
The report looks at the number of deaths by suicide from 1 January 2016 to 26 August 2020.
It has found no increase in suicides during the Covid lockdown period, compared to the same time last year.
There were 466 deaths by suicide in Victoria this year, compared with 468 the same time last year (all, still way too many).
State coroner Judge John Cain said the data release was important for public education on mental health:
There is clearly growing awareness and community concern regarding mental health and suicide ─ and everyone should have access to the facts.”
While it is encouraging to see there has not been an increase in suicides to date, our focus is to prevent all suicide deaths and see the figures go down.”
Open, transparent discussions are critical to reducing suicides, but must be handled with care.
The release of these data reports will enable accurate and safe conversations about suicide in Victoria.”
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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The House of Repesentatives has a busy day of legislation introduction (it’s almost as if parliament hasn’t been siting and there is a lot to do)
Introduction of bills
o Civil Aviation Amendment (Unmanned Aircraft Levy Collection and Payment)
Civil Aviation (Unmanned Aircraft Levy)
o National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention
National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention (Consequential Amendments)
o Radiocommunications Legislation Amendment (Reform and Modernisation)
Radiocommunications (Receiver Licence Tax) Amendment
Radiocommunications (Transmitter Licence Tax) Amendment
o Clean Energy Finance Corporation Amendment (Grid Reliability Fund)
o Recycling and Waste Reduction
Recycling and Waste Reduction (Consequential and Transitional Provisions)
Recycling and Waste Reduction Charges (General)
Recycling and Waste Reduction Charges (Customs)
Recycling and Waste Reduction Charges (Excise)
o Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals)
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Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will be holding her press conference at 9am.
Victoria reports 113 new cases and 23 deaths
More terrible news out of Victoria.
#COVID19VicData for 27 August, 2020. 113 new cases detected in Victoria yesterday. We are sad to also report an additional 23 lives lost. More information will be available later today. pic.twitter.com/bmyArndpsb
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 26, 2020
The ABC just spoke to a cleaner who works for Qantas named Tony. He has worked for the airline for the past decade, along with his wife and son.
He’s lost his job and the interview was just heartbreaking. This is happening all around the country at the moment and it never gets easier hearing it.
Scott Morrison, who, I mean, I’m in his federal electorate, ‘cause I’m one of your constituents, you should try and help all people that this has occurred to, help them out. Try and help us out so that we can keep our jobs. If we’ve got jobkeeper happening until March 31, March 2021, then we should at least have Qantas keep us on until 2021.
And see what happens. But like I said, I mean, I’m in Scott Morrison’s electorate, so help me out, mate. I’ve got a mortgage. I’ve got a wife and a kid that has already been pushed out. And I don’t know what to do after this. I’m 55 years old and I’ve tried to grab jobs. And nobody’s hiring me. And I’ve got a long list of qualifications.
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All Queensland correctional facilities in lockdown after academy officer tests positive
All Queensland correctional facilities are in lockdown from last night, after a Queensland Corrective Services officer at the training academy tested positive for Covid.
The lockdown went into place last night and remains in force until at least this morning, until Queensland Health provides further advice.
Queensland’s latest cluster was sparked after a woman in her 70s, who works in the operations centre of the Wacol youth detention centre, tested positive for Covid last week.
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Joel Fitzgibbon has turned his attention from fights he is having within his own party, to what is supposed to be Labor’s actual political opponents – the government.
The shadow agricultural minister isn’t too impressed his government counterpart has called another inquiry into the dairy industry. He wants action.
(David Littleproud said this inquiry would be different to the other inquiries because ... reasons.)
Fitzgibbon: Australia’s struggling dairy farmers face yet another inquiry. They needed help, not more talk, a long time ago.
In April 2018, the ACCC produced a report to government after an exhaustive 18-month-long inquiry into the Australia’s dairy industry. The Morrison government has now announced yet another inquiry while a Senate committee inquiry is still in progress.
Dairy farmers have made it clear to the committee that they need help now and will be disappointed that the Morrison government has announced another inquiry.
Queensland dairy farmer, Mr Trace made it clear to the committee that dairy farmers are desperate for real action to fix the farmgate milk price, stating that:
“We need to get the farmgate milk price up so that we can sustain the industry. That’s what we need. It could be solved in a day with the right people in a room. We need the political will to do it, and that’s what the farmers are doubting.”
The treasurer says the ACCC will:
… undertake an inquiry into harmful imbalances of bargaining power between farmers, intermediaries, including processors, and retailers in the domestic supply chains of perishable agricultural goods in Australia.
In its 2018 report the ACCC concluded:
… farmers’ lack of bargaining power means that they are unlikely to benefit from an increase in the retail (or wholesale) prices of private label milk or other dairy products. Even if processors were to receive higher wholesale prices from sales to supermarkets, this does not mean the processors will pay farmers any more than they must secure milk. Farmers’ ability to capture their appropriate share of profit.
The ACCC identified the obvious; farmers don’t have any relationship with Coles, Woolworths, or any other retailer. They deal only with the processors and there is a clear market power imbalance between the two.
If the Government is saying the ACCC was wrong, it should make that clear and invite it to re-visit this issue. The Treasurer also says:
… the ACCC will also examine the effectiveness of the new Dairy Code of Conduct including by considering options to extend the code across the entire domestic dairy supply chain.
So, the government is already questioning its own Code of Conduct, its only meaningful response to the last ACCC inquiry. And it’s doing so even though the ACCC report said there is no relationship between farmers and retailers.
If the government is serious about finally helping our struggling dairy farmers, it will extend the terms of reference for the latest inquiry to include an investigation of the merits of a mandatory minimum farmgate milk price in each dairy region.
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Tanya Plibersek was also asked about the proposed foreign investment veto plan, in relation to how it would impact universities.
She told the ABC:
I think it is important that, where it’s beneficial for Australia, we cooperate with other nations.
We have some great discoveries that way. We get some really super-smart people to come and work in Australia and pass on their knowledge to Australians that work with them.
That sort of academic cooperation is something that we should value. We need to be careful that, when it’s happening, if there are things that are discovered or invented, that, for example, have military application, that that transfer of knowledge is handled very carefully or, you know, protected here within Australia.
We need to be careful about intellectual property, to make sure that patents lodged benefit Australia, that we capture the value of that discovery and of that inventiveness here in Australia.
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Sydney gyms and hospital cafe on coronavirus alert
AAP has some information on NSW’s latest health alerts:
A Covid-19 health alert has been issued for anyone who recently attended a dance class at an inner Sydney gym after a third person who visited another CBD gym was diagnosed with coronavirus.
NSW Health said anyone who attended the City Tattersalls gym between 8am to 2pm on August 19, 21 or 23 should get tested for COVID-19 and isolate at home for 14 days.
Other members of City Tattersalls should get tested if they have even the mildest symptoms.
One of the gym-goers went to the ground-floor Windscreens Cafe at Randwick’s Royal hospital for Women on Tuesday morning and authorities are trying to trace anyone who might be have been a close contact.
NSW Health also says anyone who attended a 7.40pm dance class at Virgin Gym at Zetland in the inner east on Monday should get tested and isolate at home for 14 days.
Anyone else who attended the gym from 7.30-10pm on Monday should monitor for symptoms and get tested if they appear.
Meanwhile, a trainee bus driver worked for three days between August 20-24 while infectious on routes in Blacktown, Rouse Hill, and Mt Druitt.
Meanwhile, Riverstone High School, Wyndham College, both in Sydney’s north-west, and Schofields Public School in the west, were closed on Wednesday while coronavirus tests for students were processed.
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said one year 12 student had returned a positive result and would be included in Thursday’s case numbers.
Another student had an “equivocal” result and will be tested again, while two other students returned negative results but would be retested as an extra precaution.
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And what does Steven Marshall think of the government’s proposed foreign investment veto powers for states?
Look, we certainly will look at the detail of what is provided. The prime minister has raised this at the national cabinet. I think the agreement that we have is with the Shandong province and it’s an agreement that goes back 30 years.
We certainly haven’t contemplated a belt and road initiative here between the Chinese government and South Australia, but we do have a good working relationship with China.
We’ve got excellent exports. We got excellent investment coming into South Australia. International students. We want to maintain good relationships with China. We think this is really important. We understand where the prime minister is going on this. We’ll be supportive.
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South Australian premier Steven Marshall had a chat to the ABC this morning, where he spoke about when the state could open its borders to everyone:
There’s no forward-plan that we can see what’s going to happen in different jurisdictions in two, three, four months’ time. So we got to respond to keep our population safe.
But I think that that’s what we’re doing. In South Australia, we have opened our borders to Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania.
We’re looking very closely at the ACT and also New South Wales at the moment. All of our decisions are based on expert health input. We act as soon as we possibly can after receiving that health expert advice.
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Adani launches civil proceedings against activist
The Queensland election will be held on 31 October. The last election in that state was dominated by what would happen with the Adani coalmine.
That has calmed down in the last couple of years, but it doesn’t mean that the protests have stopped.
Adani has announced it has launched civil proceedings against one of the activists protesting against its Queensland operations “to protect our rights, as well as those of our employees and contractors, to carry out legal and legitimate business activities free from intimidation and harassment”.
It has released a statement saying it has filed a civil damages claim in the Queensland supreme court:
This legal action does not seek to limit free speech. As we have repeatedly stated, we believe a diversity of views is an important part of democracy.
The civil legal action seeks to limit the campaign of alleged harassment and intimidation orchestrated by [the activist] against our business that aims to prevent us from legally and legitimately pursuing our commercial interests.
I haven’t named the activist as I haven’t had a chance to read yet through the court documents as it is still before sparrows, but we will keep you updated.
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The attorney general, Christian Porter, will introduce legislation to create a new office of the National Commissioner for Defence and Veteran Suicide Prevention.
The national commissioner will have powers broadly equivalent to a royal commission, with a permanent role to monitor the implementation of its own recommendations to ensure long-term solutions are delivered.
Porter said:
As the prime minister said when he first announced this important initiative, this is about being continually vigilant when it comes to the care and wellbeing of our veterans, as well as those serving men and women who protect our community and our freedoms.“The national commissioner will be truly independent and deliver genuine transparency as it helps to uncover the root causes and contributing factors in ADF member and veteran deaths by suicide.
It will also provide the opportunity for families and those people who have been personally affected by an ADF member or veteran death by suicide to share their story in a safe and supported way.
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Good morning
Well, just hours after China’s deputy mission head of mission in Australia, Wang Xining, admitted there were “some shadows” over the relationship between the two countries, the federal government announced it is seeking new powers to review and stop agreements it judges to impact foreign relations.
That means state, territory and local governments (as well as universities) from be prevented or must cease entering arrangements which are considered to be detrimental to Australia’s foreign policy positions.
And what would that mean?
Well, for starters, Victoria’s belt and road initiative would be one of the first under the microscope.
As Murph and Dan Hurst report:
A planned stocktake of existing agreements will be broader than Victoria’s politically controversial belt and road agreement, but that deal has been viewed with concern by Australia’s national security establishment and it has also attracted criticism from the United States.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, used an interview in May to leave open the possibility of suspending some forms of information sharing with Australia if the Victorian deal resulted in projects that affected the safety of security networks.
Within hours the US ambassador to Australia, Arthur Culvahouse Jr, clarified that the US had “absolute confidence in the Australian government’s ability to protect the security of its telecommunications networks and those of its Five Eyes partners” and Pompeo was simply answering questions about “very remote” hypotheticals.
Closer to home, that most likely means another constitutional fight will be hashed out in the high court.
The federal government claimed intergovernmental immunity to stop officials from appearing at the NSW Ruby Princess special inquiry.
But is now flipping that to say it has powers to cancel agreements made by other jurisdictions. Can’t say the states will be too happy with that.
But the federal government does have responsibility over foreign affairs. So it will be a pretty big grey zone the high court will be asked to colour in one way or the other. It won’t be quick, or easy, so pay attention to what comes next.
Australia’s increasingly tense relationship with the CCP is one of the issues which has been bubbling away under the surface during the pandemic, but aged care remains the focus domestically.
Anthony Albanese will address the National Press Club today, with a speech titled “Government by neglect”. The aged care royal commission’s interim report released in October last year was called “Neglect”,if you were looking for clues over what that was about.
Meanwhile, Victoria is approaching the end of its fourth week with Melbourne under lockdown, and people are looking for some “what comes next” hope from premier Daniel Andrews. He is coming up to his 50th straight daily press conference, but in a sign that things look to have turned a corner, there has not been a lot of new Covid announcements in his daily briefings lately, outside the latest data.
We don’t know what stage three will look like for Melbourne, but we hope to find out soon.
NSW is still worried about low levels of community transmission – it recorded five mystery cases yesterday, from about 25,000 tests, which is keeping authorities on alert, while Queensland is crossing its fingers it has caught any lingering cases, recording just one positive diagnosis from 20,000 tests – and that person had been in isolation as a close contact of a known case.
We’ll keep you updated on all the political and Covid news as it happens.
You have Amy Remeikis with you for the day. Once I hunt down a coffee, we’ll be right into it.
Ready?
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