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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Michael McGowan now, Ben Doherty and Matilda Boseley earlier

People in west Sydney made to feel like criminals in own homes, inquiry told: as it happened

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced the state will commence a trial of seven-day home quarantine at the end of September. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

What we learned, Friday 17 September.

That’s where I will leave you for tonight. Here’s what we learned:

Updated

The Victorian government is introducing some extraordinary measures to prevent anti-lockdown protestors entering Melbourne tomorrow.

AAP reports that Melburnians heading into the city for a Covid-19 vaccination will have to show proof to pass through police roadblocks as the CBD is effectively turned into a no-go zone for Saturday’s planned rally, with public transport to and from the city suspended from 8am to 2pm and road checkpoints set up.

Emergency and essential workers will still be let in, along with thousands of people scheduled to get a vaccine dose at one of the two city-based hubs.

Victoria’s Covid-19 commander, Jeroen Weimar, on Friday confirmed 2,700 bookings at Jeff’s Shed and Melbourne Museum will go ahead, although no further appointments were being taken.

Despite the public transport network shutdown and no alternative arrangements being made, Weimar said there had not been a significant cancellation of bookings.

If you do not intend to attend for that vaccination appointment, that’s fine. There are alternative appointments available on other days.

We’d appreciate it if you could go online or give us a call and make those changes now so we don’t have staff standing around waiting for you to come forward.”

Updated

My benevolent and magnanimous colleague Michael McGowan is your steward from here on. Thanks all for your company, correspondence, and comments. Be well.

Rapid antigen testing to help restart jury trials in NSW

Routine rapid antigen testing will be introduced into the nation’s largest criminal court in order to return jury trials to Sydney.

Jurors will also need to be fully vaccinated to serve on trials as the NSW district court tries to address a growing backlog.

The court on Friday said it would build on social distancing measures implemented in 2020, which included larger jury rooms, individualised meals for jurors, and mandatory face-mask wearing.

About 200 trials have been vacated and countless others delayed since Sydney entered its current lockdown on June 26.

Other than select regional areas no longer in lockdown, most district courts – including those in Sydney and Newcastle – are not holding jury trials. The new jury trial regime will commence on 25 October.

Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court was closed last month after a confirmed Covid case
Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court was closed last month after a confirmed Covid case Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA

Chief judge justice Derek Price said the court had done “everything possible during the lockdown to keep matters progressing” with judges hearing judge-alone trials, sentence matters, appeals and other matters virtually.

“I am pleased to outline the steps that will be taken to enable the return of jury trials in a way that is in the interests of the health and wellbeing of all court participants,” he said.

Rapid antigen testing will apply to all court participants.

“If you get a juror summons, please answer it,” attorney-general Mark Speakman said.

In a normal year, the district court holds about 1000 jury trials. It also stopped empanelling juries for three months last year as a result of the pandemic.

Updated

An interstate truck driver has been arrested by Queensland police after ramming through a border checkpoint at an inland town 300km west of Brisbane.

The driver was refused entry to Queensland in Goondiwindi on Thursday, then returned on Friday, before ramming through check point barriers at the Keetah Bridge crossing near Yelarbon. The man was arrested the next day in the border town of Texas.

Both towns are along the Queensland-NSW border and are routinely patrolled by police due to the state’s Covid-19 entry restrictions.

Deputy police commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the driver has been charged with illegally entering Queensland in breach of a health order, and with wilful damage.

“That person was turned around. They didn’t have a right of entry at Goondiwindi, chose to go to another border crossing at Texas, tried to drive through it in a truck – didn’t work,” he said.

The truck driver has since been returned to NSW but will face Queensland court at a later date.

Police carried out 16,000 vehicle checks in the past 24 hours, with 191 people turned around.

Updated

Youth corrections officer in New South Wales has died from Covid-19

A youth corrections officer in New South Wales has died from Covid-19 after the outbreak within the state’s prison system, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.

On Friday afternoon a parliamentary inquiry into the spiralling outbreak inside the prison system heard there are now more than 40 Covid-positive corrections staff within the state’s prison system.

Those numbers do not include staff at the privately-run Parklea prison, where the outbreak began.

There are more than 300 Covid positive inmates across the prison system, including 84 indigenous people.

But the executive director of clinical operations at the justice health department, Wendy Hoey, has also confirmed that one officer has died as a result of the outbreak.

The inquiry is ongoing.

Updated

The man who ran the Minerals Council when it gave Scott Morrison a lacquered lump of coal that he took into parliament to goad the opposition has been appointed Australia’s ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

Former Minerals Council boss Brendan Pearson was most recently a senior trade adviser in prime minister Scott Morrison’s office and has held a number of roles in the department of foreign affairs and trade. He has also worked with global coal giant Peabody Energy.

Scott Morrison, then Treasurer, with a lump of coal during Question Time in the House of Representatives in 2017
Scott Morrison, then treasurer, with a lump of coal during question time in the House of Representatives in 2017. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Former finance minister Mathias Cormann, for whom Pearson also previously worked, took on the role of OECD secretary general in June.

Pearson’s appointment, like that of Cormann, has not been universally lauded.

Richie Merzian, climate & energy program director at the Australia Institute, said the appointment would damage Australia’s reputation.

“The Australian Government already has a reputation as a lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry and the appointment of a fossil fuel lobbyist to represent Australia at the OECD in Paris does little more than cement this growing global perception.

“Mr Pearson not only has a history of exaggerating the benefits of coal and ignoring its costs, but he oversaw one of Australia’s great public relations backfires, the 2015 ‘coal is amazing’ ads.”

The OECD provides advice, analysis and research on a range of issues including trade, health, employment, agriculture, aid, energy, education, the digital economy and environment policy.

While the ambassadorial role is usually staffed by a career diplomat, Pearson is not the first political appointment to the post. Wayne Swan’s chief of staff Chris Barrett served as ambassador from 2011 to 2014.

Updated

Western Sydney lockdowns, curfews leave residents 'totally alienated' from rest of city

Tiffanie Turnbull reports for AAP:

People in west and southwest Sydney have been traumatised and made to feel like criminals in their own homes, an inquiry into the state government’s handling of the pandemic has heard.

The majority of the 12 local government areas under the harshest lockdown restrictions are in the city’s west and southwest, which are hubs of multiculturalism and home to many people from non-English speaking backgrounds.

A group of community leaders on Friday told the parliamentary inquiry people in the region feel “totally alienated from the rest of Sydney”.

Many feel targeted because of their ethnicity.

While people in the city’s east have been pictured sunbaking at Bondi, some in its west have been arrested for watching a relative’s funeral at a distance from inside their car, the inquiry heard.

“We have been made to feel like criminals in our own homes,” Arab Council of Australia chief executive Randa Kattan said.

“That’s what happens when you find yourself flanked by police as you leave the 7-Eleven store.

“That’s how it feels when you wake to hear choppers hovering overhead.”

The disparity in lockdown approaches was embodied by the curfew placed on the hotspot areas, the council said.

Arab Council of Australia chief executive Randa Kattan speaks to an earlier press conference
Arab Council of Australia chief executive Randa Kattan. Photograph: Nikki Short/AAP

Premier Gladys Berejiklian had previously ruled out curfews, saying the measure did not work in the fight against Covid-19, but in late August introduced one after media pressure, claiming the advice from health and police had changed.

The curfew was this week lifted following a furious backlash, but community leaders say the damage has been done.

Amar Singh, President of Turbans 4 Australia, told the inquiry seeing military and police patrol the streets had been extremely triggering.

“Curfews is what we’ve heard of as migrant Australians from our mothers and grandmothers,” he said.

“Bringing in those things mentally made a very big dent, a scar, on the average person living in southwest and west Sydney.”

Kattan said the curfew broke a community “already on their knees” with the heavy lockdown.

“It is absolutely sadistic to roll it out when you have no evidence that it would work,” she said.

“It was just another message that you don’t matter.”

The measure also added unnecessary financial and job-related stress, Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey said, with the vast majority of people in the area not working nine-to-five jobs.

Shoppers wear face masks in Merrylands, in Sydney’s west
Shoppers wear face masks in Merrylands, in Sydney’s west Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/EPA

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke, who leads the southwest metropolitan area command, denied the area was being singled out.

“The numbers of fines across the three metropolitan regions are very, very similar,” he said.

“In fact, more have been issued in the central metropolitan region than have been in southwestern Sydney.”

Updated

NSW Health is holding a state-wide Covid-19 vaccination blitz this weekend (18–19 September 2021) to increase vaccinations among Aboriginal people.

Local health districts across NSW will have Aboriginal staff at 18 vaccination sites to provide a culturally safe place for Aboriginal people to get vaccinated.

“It’s been very pleasing to see services working together to rollout vaccinations, especially during the challenges of the current outbreaks,” Geri Wilson-Matenga, executive director Centre for Aboriginal Health, said.

“Working with our Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector is critical in enabling access to culturally safe vaccination options. These services have always provided the holistic wrap around care that is so important at this time.”

Wiradjuri elder and indigenous rights activist Aunty Jenny Munro receives a Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination clinic at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Redfern, Sydney
Wiradjuri elder and indigenous rights activist Aunty Jenny Munro receives a Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up vaccination clinic at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Redfern, Sydney Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

The NSW government is supporting Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS) to manage vaccinations for Aboriginal people, providing $4 million to support Aboriginal vaccination outreach.

“Aboriginal people aged 12 years and over can access a Covid-19 vaccine. You can talk to your GP, Aboriginal Medical Service, Aboriginal Health Workers or any vaccination hubs about getting your vaccination,” Wilson-Matenga said.

“Covid-19 vaccinations are safe, and will protect your and your parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, sisters and brothers from the virus. If you are vaccinated you are less likely to catch Covid-19, and less likely to pass the virus on if you do. You are also less likely to get really unwell and need to go to hospital,” she said.

A full list of clinics participating in the Aboriginal vaccination blitz weekend is available here.

Updated

Amid Covid, young people are facing challenges unthinkable for their parents at the same age. Only a long-term commitment to fix the system can help them, writes Omar Khorshid, president of the Australian Medical Association.

NSW: Hilltops LGA to go into lockdown

Back at home, and back on Covid.

From the NSW health ministry:

Stay-at-home orders will be introduced for the Hilltops and Glen Innes local government areas (LGAs) from 6pm Friday for seven days due to an increased Covid-19 public health risk.

These stay-at-home orders also apply to anyone who has been in the Hilltops LGA including Young and surrounding areas since 3 September, and the Glen Innes LGA since 13 September.

Everyone in the Hilltops and Glen Innes LGAs must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.

People who are fully vaccinated can attend an outdoor gathering of up to five people for exercise or outdoor recreation as long as all of those aged 16 or older are fully vaccinated.

To determine the extent of the risk and detect any further potential Covid-19 cases in these areas we are calling on the communities to come forward for testing in large numbers.

A strong response to testing will be a key factor in determining if these stay-at-home orders are extended beyond one week. High vaccination rates are also essential to reduce the risk of transmission and protect the health and safety of the community.

Covid-19 vaccination is available through NSW Health clinics, GPs, pharmacies and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS).

Updated

This is dreadful news. From the AP in the US:

Firefighters have wrapped the base of the world’s largest tree in a fire-resistant blanket as they tried to save a famous grove of gigantic old-growth sequoias from wildfires burning in California’s rugged Sierra Nevada.

For some context, the giant sequoia General Sherman, thought to be the world’s largest tree, is 84m tall, has a circumference at ground level of 31m, and is believed to be more than 2000 years old.

NSW: Glen Innes Severn shire to go into lockdown

Adam Marshall, NSW’s agriculture minister and MP for the Northern Tablelands, has confirmed in a Facebook post that the Glen Innes Severn shire council will go into a week-long lockdown from tonight.

I have just been advised moments ago by the health minister and NSW chief health officer that a decision has been taken to place the Glen Innes Severn LGA into a seven-day lockdown, from 6pm tonight, as a result of a known Covid case (announced yesterday) active in the community.

I am very sorry and realise this was not the news many of you were wanting to hear, especially small business owners, and I fully appreciate the stress and strain this will place on you.

However, in response to the Covid case and the fact that the individual had been active in the community while infectious, the NSW Chief Health Officer convened an independent panel of medical experts to review all the information relevant to the case in Glen Innes.

That panel determined and strongly recommended that a 7-day lockdown be imposed to protect the community and safeguard against further spread of Covid in Glen Innes, especially given the Covid-positive individual was active in the local community (and outside the community) for three days while infectious.

As announced at the time lockdowns were lifted across our region recently, if a case appeared which was active in the community, that LGA would be placed into a 14-day lockdown. Only 7 days has been recommended and agreed for the Glen Innes LGA based on the level of risk posed to the community.

Marshall said the lockdown rules would be the same as for the previous lockdown, with stay-at-home orders – with the same exceptions allowed – in force for seven days. The lockdown begins at 6pm.

Updated

New Doherty modelling advises ‘medium’ Covid restrictions until Australia reaches 80% vaccination

New modelling by the Doherty Institute being presented to national cabinet warns that maintaining “medium” public health and social measures would be “prudent” until Australia reaches 80% vaccination if caseloads are high – with “medium” measures previously defined as including stay-at-home orders except for work, study and other essential purposes.

The institute – which conducted the modelling informing Australia’s four-phase reopening plan – has updated its work after a dispute erupted within the federation about whether or not it was safe to ease restrictions once 70% of Australians over the age of 16 were vaccinated.

While the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned other premiers to stick to the reopening plan agreed by national cabinet, and ease restrictions at 70%, other leaders in other states queried whether the first run of modelling was a reliable barometer of the risks because it assumed low case numbers.

Hearing reports the Glen Innes Severn shire council, on NSW’s north coast, will go into a seven-day lockdown from 6pm this evening. Standby for more...

First Moderna doses to arrive in Australia tonight

The federal health minister has announced the first doses of the US-developed Moderna vaccine will arrive in Australia tonight, with one million doses due by the end of the weekend.

Greg Hunt told reporters:

“Tonight, the first shipment of Moderna arrives in Australia.

“Over this weekend the second shipment will arrive and that will be over 1 million doses arriving in Australia and then that will be followed consistently over the course of the coming weeks doses going forward.

“The significant outcome of that is that that means over 1800 pharmacies will commence distribution of Moderna next week, they will start aggressively during the week as they are ready and as supplies arrive to them.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt at parliament house earlier this month
Health Minister Greg Hunt at parliament house earlier this month Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

He said by next week, there will be 9000 ‘points of access’ for Australians to get vaccinated.

“My hope is that everybody, everybody who has not yet taken the vaccine will come forward over the coming days and weeks and there is sufficient vaccine for every Australian before the end of October, if not significantly earlier.”

70.5% of eligible Australians have had their first dose of a vaccine, Hunt said, some 14.5m people.

“That means that less than 2 million Australians to achieve the 80% rate. We are on track to do that.”

More than 24 million vaccine doses have been administered across Australia.

Updated

The head of Victoria’s Covid-19 response has slammed construction workers for blocking the streets of Melbourne in protest at new restrictions placed on tea rooms.

Dozens of workers set up plastic chairs and tables in the middle of Lonsdale Street in Melbourne’s CBD for their morning smoke break on Friday, forcing the cancellation of trams in the vicinity.

Similar protests also took place on Collins Street and Elizabeth Street in the city centre, as well as in Brunswick, Coburg, Kew, Parkville, South Yarra and Richmond, during the morning and at lunchtime.

The roads have now been cleared.

The action comes after the Victorian government imposed tough restrictions on the industry, with 13% of the state’s active Covid-19 cases linked to transmission at construction sites.

From 11.59pm on Friday, tea rooms at sites must shut, and food and drink can no longer be consumed indoors, while travel between Melbourne and the regions for work will be banned.

By the same time on 23 September, all construction workers will be required to show evidence to their employer that they have had their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Limited medical exemptions will apply, in keeping with the vaccine mandate for aged care workers.

Victorian state construction union secretary John Setka said the decision to close tea rooms was “appalling”, and was made without consulting the CFMEU.

“It’s not really a protest,” he told 3AW radio on Friday of the smoko stand-off.

“What they decided was, ‘If we can’t sit in the smoko shed, where do we have our break?’. So they’ve taken all the tables and chairs out into the fresh air.

“They’ve got nowhere else to have their smoko.”

But Victoria’s Covid-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said there was a “significant risk of transmission” in tea rooms.

“People are bending over backwards to keep the construction industry going and keep important sites going for important reasons. Please don’t,” he said.

“We all need to be humble on this and recognise the privileges that those of us who are still able to work can get. If you can’t sit next to your mates having a sandwich, that doesn’t seem a huge burden to bear.”

Victorian Covid-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar
Victorian Covid-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Opposition spokesman Tim Smith said the construction industry has been “treated abysmally like every other industry has been throughout this pandemic”.

“You’ve now got the CFMEU, as part of the Labor party, protesting against this Labor government, because they’re being treated as poorly as the rest of the community,” he said.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday said the tightened restrictions were backed by health advice and designed to keep the construction industry open at its 25% workforce cap.

The industry was earlier this week warned it risked losing its authorised worker status amid the launch of an enforcement and vaccination blitz.

In NSW, the entire construction industry was shut down for two weeks as cases escalated.

Subs purchase: Indonesia 'deeply concerned' by Pacific arms race

Australia’s decision to build nuclear-powered submarines as part of a security pact with the US and UK has disquieted its largest near-neighbour. Indonesia says it is “deeply concerned” by the “continuing arms race” across the Asia-Pacific.

Jakarta’s foreign affairs ministry has issued a carefully worded statement on Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines program.

It reads, in full:

1. Indonesia takes note cautiously of the Australian government’s decision to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
2. Indonesia is deeply concerned over the continuing arms race and power projection in the region.
3. Indonesia stresses the importance of Australia’s commitment to continue meeting all of its nuclear non-proliferation obligations.
4. Indonesia calls on Australia to maintain its commitment towards regional peace, stability and security in accordance with the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.
5. Indonesia encourages Australia and other parties concerned to advance dialogue in settling any differences peacefully. In this regard, Indonesia underscores the respect for international law, including UNCLOS 1982, in maintaining peace and security in the region.

Flag bearers hoist the Indonesian national flag during a ceremony to mark the 76th Independence Day at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia last month
Flag bearers hoist the Indonesian national flag during a ceremony to mark the 76th Independence Day at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia last month Photograph: KRIS/PRESIDENTIAL PALACE HANDOUT/EPA

Diplomatic relations between Canberra and Jakarta, characteristically unsteady, are currently at their strongest in years. Indonesia was the first stop for foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Peter Dutton last week, part of an overseas itinerary that has also included India, South Korea and the US.

Updated

This is life on the front lines of Covid:

Regardless of who they get to speak at the sanitised press conferences, no-one has come close to describing the strain the healthcare system is feeling. It’s buckling.

A paramedic in south-west Sydney says hospitals are unrecognisable, and “it all feels very apocalyptic”.

New South Wales will introduce a home quarantine “pilot” for international arrivals, as the state works towards opening international borders.

The pilot, which will be run as a partnership between the NSW government and the commonwealth, will trial a seven-day home quarantine program for about 175 fully vaccinated people.

NSW minister for jobs, tourism, investment and western Sydney, Stuart Ayres, said that the state’s high vaccination rates have meant the government could announce the “next step” in the reopening strategy.

“We’re going to, at the end of this month, conduct a trial that changes the way we do quarantine. It gives us a chance to test seven-day quarantine in the home.”

With that, I might leave you for the day (and the week), and hand you over to the amazing Ben Doherty.

Here is what we have learnt during our time together:

  • NSW will begin a trial of home quarantine for returned international residents. Fully vaccinated travellers in the trial will only need to quarantine for seven days not 14.
  • NSW also recorded 1,284 new cases and 12 deaths including two women in their 20s.
  • Victoria recorded 510 new cases and one death. From this weekend Melburnians will be able picnic outside with members of another household. This can be groups of five if everyone is fully vaccinated or two if not.
  • ACT has recorded 30 new cases, one of its highest-ever days.
  • Queensland recorded one new case, a close contact of the Sunnybank cluster who was in home quarantine.
  • The Chinese embassy in Canberra has accused the Australian and US governments of a “staged farce” after ministers at the Ausmin talks criticised China over a range of issues including human rights in Xinjiang.
  • South Australia’s premier has promised that everyone working on the old French attack-class submarines will find work again in the state, many on the new nuclear program.
  • Tasmania will begin a trial of home quarantine for fully vaccinated residents returning from regional NSW.
  • New Zealand will not be reopening its trans-Tasman travel bubble any time soon, as case numbers in Australia rise and numbers in New Zealand continue to drop.

See you all next week!

Updated

Just normal things happening today in Melbourne then...

Torres Strait faces virus risk from PNG, federal MP says

Torres Strait Islander communities are at risk from a growing Delta outbreak in Papua New Guinea due to a lack of essential goods, supplies and healthcare, federal MP Warren Entsch says.

Treaty Islands like Boigu and Saigai sit in close proximity to mainland PNG but are recognised as part of the Torres Strait.

Much of their food and healthcare supplies prior to the pandemic came from the neighbouring PNG town of Daru, which is now in the grip of a Covid-19 outbreak, reports Fraser Barton from AAP.

Daru is roughly 50km from Saigai but treaty villages 4km from Australian territory have been cut off from the delivery of goods from the Torres Strait.

Federal member for Leichardt Warren Entsch, says these treaty islands are at risk of travelling to Daru for essential supplies like food, fuel and healthcare needs.

He has labelled the response by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as “a bloody disgrace” as only two supply rounds to the islands have been organised since the pandemic began, the last of which was in February of this year.

Early this year I was able to convince the department to supply basic food items for the treaty villages and we actually did two deliveries...

The problem that we had was that instead of buying it, or sourcing it from stores on Saibai and Boigu where it always comes from, they bought it out of Port Moresby.

They had the capacity to supply food that the people understood and can cook, but now they decided to source it out of Port Moresby. The meat protein they come with like sloppy soup. They couldn’t eat it.

In the Torres Strait, 69% of the eligible population have received their first dose, and 51% of people are fully vaccinated as at 10 September.

But until the population is fully inoculated the threat of Covid-19 will be ever-present and Entsch says the region still faces other healthcare issues.

“It’s going to be devastating in Daru. At the end of the day, if you want leprosy, cholera, tuberculosis encephalitis, meningitis ... It’s all there...

I just know what’s going to happen and I’ve been warning them (DFAT) for ages, and they just continually deny that there’s a problem.

Neither the ministers, nor any of the staff are not aware that there’s a problem.

If this gets into these treaty villages, and then extends to cross to Australia, then the DFAT has to accept responsibility for it.

Comment has been sought from the department.

Updated

Canberra has recorded 30 new Covid-19 cases as some residential construction sites are shut down for “unforgivable” public health breaches.

Of Friday’s cases, 19 are linked and most of those are household contacts of existing infections, reports Georgie Moore from AAP.

Just 12 were in quarantine throughout their infectious period, with at least 14 in the community for some of the time.

Chief minister Andrew Barr told reporters:

Today is not the first time that we have seen new daily case numbers in the 30s...

And it is too early to know if this is a one-off. But it is clear that this is not a good number.

He labelled significant breaches of public health restrictions reported at residential construction sites “unforgivable”.

It’s simply not good enough. And the sites have been shut down.

Look at all those hard hats! Very salt of the earth!

Back to the ACT and this doesn’t seem super encouraging.

Chief minister Andrew Barr says he plans to discuss hospital capacity at national cabinet today as the modelling “looks quite scary across Australia”.

The modelling would indicate case numbers will go from thousands to tens of thousands” when NSW opens up. Says health capacity “appears to be insufficient for the massive number of cases

Tasmania aims for 90% vaccination by 1 December in order open for Christmas

Secondly, Gutwein has formally set a goal of 90% of the population vaccinated by 1 December, in order for the state to safely open its border in time for Christmas.

I’m just trying to get clarity on if this is a hard and fast requirement for reopening or more of an aspirational goal.

He also challenged Tasmanians to reach 80% vaccination by Melbourne Cup Day ... because the vaccination rollout is a race ... I think? (I genuinely adore public policy being based on puns.)

Updated

Tasmania to trial home quarantine for residents returning from NSW

There are two main updates from the Tasmanian press conference.

Firstly premier Peter Gutwein has announced that, from next Friday, the state will begin a trial of home quarantine conditions for Tasmanian residents returning from NSW.

The trial will last at least 30 days before its effectiveness is assessed and only Tasmanians coming from regional NSW will be eligible to quarantine at first.

They will have to be double vaccinated, have evidence of a negative Covid-19 test and must have no other occupants in their home.

Updated

By the way, here is a look at the NSW daily case number graph now that we have today’s numbers.

Call me an optimist, but we really are starting to see something that looks suspiciously like a downward curve.

When it comes to that ACT news, Greg Jericho says it best.

ACT records 30 Covid-19 cases

The Australian Capital Territory has recorded 30 Covid-19 cases overnight.

Speaking of tense Chinese-Australian relations let’s jump back to South Australia where the federal finance minister Simon Birmingham has just been asked about the fairly inflammatory comments about the submarine deal from the pro-Chinese government newspaper, the Global Times, warning Australia not to act provocatively or China would “certainly punish it with no mercy”.

Well, look, I have to The Global Times make many reckless comments over the years and these are in line with that type of recklessness...

I’m not going to speculate in terms of internal discussions within Chinese government and Chinese media.

I reinforce that Australia makes these sovereign decisions in relation to our defence capabilities, the same as any other nation makes such decisions, including China.

We do so in a spirit of seeking to ensure security across our region. Our desires to see peace and security the Indo-Pacific region, because that is so crucial to the sovereignty of Australia and the sovereignty and action, indeed, of our many other fellow nations across this region.

Chinese embassy hits back at Australia and US over criticism of human rights violations

The Chinese embassy in Canberra has accused the Australian and US governments of a “staged farce” after ministers at the Ausmin talks criticised China over a range of issues including human rights in Xinjiang.

The embassy also accused Australia of “sliding further down on the road of harming China-Australia relations” and of lacking independence from the US.

The joint US/Australia statement, issued this morning, expressed “ongoing concern regarding the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea that are without legal basis”.

Australian ministers Marise Payne and Peter Dutton and their US counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin also “expressed grave concerns about the PRC’s campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang”.

This statement has just arrived from a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canberra:

We firmly oppose and reject the unfounded accusations and erroneous remarks against China on issues related to the South China Sea, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other China-related issues in the Joint Statement of Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (Ausmin) on 17 September.

Those assertions, in disregard of basic facts, violated international law and basic norms governing international relations and grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs.

This petty move to put pressure on China will be of no avail but a staged farce. We urge the Australian side to abandon the outdated Cold War zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical perception, handle its relationship with China in a genuinely independent manner, stop sliding further down on the road of harming China-Australia relations, and do more to enhance mutual trust and promote pragmatic cooperation.

Updated

Victorian press conference:

Reporter:

Do Victorians have to be prepared, though – if case numbers are going to go up, we’ll see more Victorians die if we open up?

Foley:

Current projections continue to see case numbers go up and as we see case numbers go up, we see more Victorians treated in the community through the Covid positive pathway arrangements at home.

We see more people admitted to hospital and we see, sadly, a small number continue to die, like we had tragically another death to report this morning. The best thing we can all do is if those numbers increase, get ahead of that increase by following the rules, getting tested and getting vaccinated.

They are the best things we can all do to assist our frontline healthcare workers.

Updated

Martin Foley is up responding to a release published today co-signed by 120,000 health workers warning against prioritising “getting on the beers” before double dose vaccination targets are met

Foley:

I’ve been talking with all of those organisations regularly, including in the last few days, and they’ve shared their concerns very forcefully. These are people who for 20 months now have been at the frontline of our public health response and know from last winter just what an outbreak can mean, with over 800 deaths in Victoria, particularly from our private aged care facilities.

These people, whether they’re ambos, whether they’re salaried officers, nurses, clinicians, the entire public health workforce, have been working like never before in a system that has been busy like never before. And they’ve expressed, quite rightly I think, their concerns about what would happen if we continue to have high levels of uncontrolled infections in our community.

We’re working with them and with our health services to make sure that we have plans in place to try to avoid that. But the best thing we can do as Victorians is to make sure we follow the public health rules, that we get tested and get vaccinated. That’s how that scenario gets avoided. In the likelihood that there will be continued increases in infections, we are working with the health services and all of those groups to put in place the best way in which we can manage increased demands.

Updated

Still unclear if Melburnians can get on the beers during the weekend's picnics

There still isn’t a great deal of clarity on whether picnickers will be able to get on the beers or will be required to keep their masks on while socialising. Weimar says the “spirit” of people’s picnics is important to consider.

Weimar:

It’s OK for five people, fully vaccinated, two households, and dependants to come together and enjoy a picnic. Let’s not abuse it. The questions yesterday around the fine details of picnic versus playground versus vaccination versus drinks and coffee and masks, there’ll be a detailed answer to that question but also a spirit. If we’re seeing large groups of people all hanging out together without masks on holding coffee cups, that’s not what we’re trying to achieve. We’re trying to reduce the numbers of infections in our community so we can get rid of this thing.

Updated

Marshall:

All of those who have been working on the Attack class programs will have a job in South Australia. I think all of the employees at Naval Group Australia will find jobs in South Australia because, at the moment, there are more than 20,000 jobs on offer in South Australia.

You would have seen yesterday with those incredible employment statistics which came out from the ABS that, in fact, South Australia now has the very highest level of full-time employment we have had in the history of our state stop so there are no problems in finding work here in South Australia.

Updated

The SA premier is also at this presser, and you better believe he is wearing a hard hat too.

And because he is wearing a hard hat, you know he is speaking directly to the blue-collar workers of South Australia.

Steven Marshall:

It’s a happy day for South Australia. We are in a massive high still after the announcement yesterday. That we will be building a nuclear-powered submarine fleet right here in South Australia at Osborne on top of keeping full cycle docking, extending the life of the Collins class and doing that work here in South Australia. And of course, the Hobart class upgrade will take place right here at Osborne.

So billions of dollars’ worth of work and huge jobs, jobs now and into the future, jobs for decades and decades to come. We are talking to the workforce right around the state at the moment, they are the reason that we won this work. We have got unequivocally, the very best maritime, shipbuilding and submarine building and sustainment workforce anywhere in the world. That’s what gave the federal government, the confidence to invest here in South Australia for decades and decades to come.

Of course, we know that it is tough times for the Naval Group at the moment. I spoke to John Davis again this morning. The workforce there are obviously shocked with this news. My strong message to them is that we want you to remain here in South Australia and remain in the defence industry. There is so many jobs in this state.

Updated

Wow has it been more than 10 minutes without me mentioning the word “submarine” on the blog? Let me fix that.

Federal finance minister Simon Birmingham is donning the hard hat and high vis today, speaking from the ASC docks in South Australia where our new nuclear power submarines are expected to be built.

He has reassured that Australians working on the French submarines who were effectively fired yesterday morning via international press conference when the new nuclear deal was announced, will be able to enter expressions of interest for the new decades-long build.

All of those affected by yesterday’s decision in relation to the attack class program will be in a position to register their interest, skills ... with ASC and from that, we will be delivering on the commitment we made as a government to ensure that skilled designers and ship builders, those who have been working so hard on that program, are able to transition into other parts of the defence industry program.

This is about providing a jobs guarantee the skilled workforce so that we can maintain and keep those skills deliver all the many other aspects our shipbuilding programs in the years and decades to come.

Updated

NZ delays reopening trans-Tasman travel bubble as 11 new cases recorded

New Zealand will not be reopening its trans-Tasman travel bubble any time soon, as case numbers in Australia rise and numbers in New Zealand continue to drop.

Deputy prime minister Grant Robertson confirmed today that while the pause in quarantine-free travel had been due to expire next week, it would now be extended for at least a further eight weeks. Today, New South Wales announced 1284 new cases and 12 deaths, and Victoria announced 510 new cases. New Zealand reported 11 new cases in the country, all based in Auckland.

New Zealand’s coronavirus outbreak has topped more than 1000 cases, but daily case numbers have been trending steadily down. All of the new cases today are in Auckland, and two are yet to be epidemiologically linked.

Director of public health Dr Caroline McElnay said:

We are closing in around this outbreak, and ... we can be cautiously optimistic about the containment of it.

Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said “protecting New Zealand from any possible further spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19 is our absolute priority”.

We have made great progress to contain our current outbreak and are working hard to ease restrictions next week. Reopening quarantine-free travel with Australia at this point could put those gains at risk.

Robertson said it was “somewhat unlikely that in November we would make a quick decision [to re-open the bubble], but we want to continue to have the ability to assess it”.

There are a total of 1007 cases in the outbreak, more than half of whom have recovered.

Four new locations of interest outside of Auckland have been added to the ministry of health Covid-19 website, after a truck driver who tested positive for the virus travelled outside of the city, which is in a level four lockdown – the highest setting.

The driver, who is an essential worker and permitted to leave the boundary, was transporting food supplies to supermarkets in Hamilton, Cambridge and Tauranga.

Updated

But of course the Victorian marathon presser is still going strong.

Covid commander Jeroen Weimar is asked why Geelong hasn’t been placed back into lockdown. Geelong has 13 active cases, two more than Ballarat.

Weimar:

We talked about this yesterday and the day before. The issue with Geelong is we’ve got – we have clearly identified sources of acquisition.

There’s a bit of work to do in one case in today’s numbers and we’ll be interested to see where that transmission came from. Primary close contact are defined. They’re isolating.

We don’t have wastewater pinging where we don’t expect it to ping in the Geelong area so it’s a risk we can just about manage at this point in time. If we’re seeing multiple cases springing up day after day after day, the chief health officer will review that closely.

Updated

Wow! The NSW press conference was ended by media advisors after just 36 minutes! That has to be a record, especially on a day that such big news was announced.

Victorian press conference:

Jeroen Weimar has been asked about protests in Melbourne today against restrictions on Victoria’s construction industry.

Construction workers are no longer allowed to travel between Melbourne and the regions for work, and will be required to receive a first dose of a vaccine from next Thursday after ongoing transmission across worksites and tearooms in the sector.

Reporter:

Some of the construction workers are sitting out and blocking city streets at the moment, protesting the fact that they can’t have lunch or a smoko together.

Weimar:

Yeah ... I mean I suppose I’d say two things. We’ve seen a number of examples, and I appreciate people think it’s amusing, but when you have people across the industry in the construction industry and they’re in a small cabin or hut enjoying food and drink together, that’s a significant risk of transmission.

The CHO has talked about it many times. It’s a self-evident risk we need to manage. The weather is getting better and it doesn’t seem unreasonable to partake in those activities outside, preferably not on tram tracks.

I think I’d appeal to the industry and to the employees, so many sectors, so many employees would love to be at work. So many of us would love to be working almost normally and actually, people are bending over backwards to keep the construction industry going and keep important sites going for important reasons.

Please don’t. I think we all need to be humble on this. If you can’t sit next to your mates having a sandwich, that doesn’t seem a huge burden to bear.

Updated

NSW press conference:

Reporter:

With the situation in Redfern with the social housing towers, do you know how many people testing positive are Indigenous?

Deputy chief health officer Dr Marriane Gale:

I don’t have exact figures on how many have tested positive and are Indigenous ... we know that our local services work very closely with the Redfern AMS and have done so since the start of the pandemic.

There are Aboriginal health workers involved in supporting residents in the towers because clearly, there are a number of Aboriginal families implicated with the situation and those housing blocks.

That’s where things are at the moment.

Updated

Victorian press conference:

Victoria has no plans to reduce the interval period between Pfizer doses.

Reporter:

When Pfizer supply ramps up in the coming weeks, is there enough capacity, enough staff, to cut the gap from six weeks to three weeks?

Weimar:

Look, at the moment, across the GPs and state clinics, we’re running at 500,000 doses every single week. I expect we’ll beat that this week. GPs are starting to ramp up activity. We’re due to get pharmacists administering Moderna in the coming weeks. We’ll continue to rise our numbers. I’m expecting to hit around 270,000 in the next week or so and we’ll keep pushing numbers up as supply becomes available.

30% of Victorians have not had a first dose and we’re determined to get first-dose appointments done. That’s what gives you the most significant step-up in your protection from the virus. So we’re not intending at this point to reduce that interval period. Supplies are still somewhat constrained and I want to make sure we get as many people through their first doses as fast as we can.

Updated

Following the relaxation of restrictions in Victoria, Berejiklian has been asked if she would consider allowing those in the 12 western Sydney LGA’s of most concern to travel up to 10km from their home rather than five.

Seems the answer is “maybe soon, but not quite yet”.

Berejiklian:

It is possible that if the health advice reflects that we will. But we are really keen to make sure all of us moved together. If the health experts give us that advice, nothing would give me greater joy...

We’re getting there [with vaccination rates]. I want to encourage everybody to say that the second we get the green light to ease off on anything we will. But just stick with us until we can make those announcements. We need to stay the course.

As you know, modelling told us we would reach a peak sometime in mid-September. We are kind of around mid-September now, a bit over mid-September, we don’t know whether there worst is behind us in terms of cases. So it is best for us to make sure we stay the course for a little bit longer until we know for sure and then obviously health can re-evaluate all of those settings.

Updated

NSW press conference:

Now you might be asking “if we are living with Covid-19 now, why have hotel quarantine at all?”, well you are in luck because the reporters at the press conference are asking the same thing.

Here is Berejiklian’s answer:

I think I made the very point several times about a month ago, saying given the number of cases we have in the community versus the number of cases in hotel quarantine that we have to re-examine, as part of the national plan, how we transition from the current system to a better system which reflects what is going on and what living with Delta means.

Only one strong measure we have now we didn’t have before, those are very effective vaccines. When people are double vaccinated with the vaccines, which our Australian health authority regards a safe and effective, obviously we can look to that.

Today is the start of that process. It’s the start of a process where returning Australians, returning groups of people who have received double doses of a safe vaccine can have alternative arrangements instead of the two weeks in a hotel, and nothing would give us greater joy than having our hotels returned to tourists and having our hotels returned to others, apart from those Australians having to do hotel quarantine and, certainly, no other states have still got New South Wales residents or other residents in the hotel system of their own citizens in their own quarantine systems for their own state.

We should all be thinking about how we transition, how we move to the new system.

Updated

Victorian press conference:

Covid commander Jeroen Weimar is turning to anti-lockdown protests that had been planned for this weekend. Public transport in Melbourne will be suspended for six hours on Saturday as part of a large-scale police operation to stop the protests from going ahead.

Weimar says there has been “no significant” cancellation of vaccination bookings because of the protests, but no additional transport shuttles will be organised for people who had booked in to receive a vaccine:

Victoria Police are leading the operation and the management of those issues, I can confirm we have 2,700 vaccinations booked in at Jeff shed and the Royal Exhibition Building for Saturday. People coming for those vaccinations will be able to cross police checkpoints with evidence of their appointment.

So please either online evidence or print it off at home and use that. We are not, of course, taking any more bookings for vaccinations at Jeff shed or the REB for that particular day so only those currently booked in. If you do not intend to attend for that vaccination appointment, that’s fine. There are alternative appointments available on other days.

We’d appreciate it if you could go online or give us a call and make those changes now so we don’t have staff standing around waiting for you to come forward.

Given the logistical management for Vic Police and transport partners tomorrow anyway, we won’t start arranging additional transport shuffles for people. There are alternative appointments available at those locations on other days or in other 55 clinics across the stay.

If you live locally and it’s the nearest centre for you and you can walk there, please carry on and do that. If you’d rather not come in for your appointment, that’s fine. Make an appointment for a Sunday or Monday next week or another day. There are appointments available.

Updated

Victorian press conference:

Jeroen Weimar is breaking down today’s regional cases. There have been nine new cases outside of metropolitan Melbourne:

We have three further cases in Ballarat following a strong day of testing yesterday. The three positive cases we have now means we have nine active cases in total in Ballarat across three different households. All the three active cases today are known household primary close contact so that is a somewhat encouraging sign.We have 187 identified primary close contact of those active cases. Two-thirds of them have already returned a negative test result and I expect the remaining of those results to come through in the next day or so. We do, however, have around 30 exposure sites across Ballarat.

We have two new cases in Geelong. One of those is an employee at a call centre in Melbourne. So we’re working through some contact tracing there and the source course, we’re still working out where they’ve obtained infection from. Their partner works in Melbourne...

We have a case in rural or western Victoria in the East Wimmera. This individual has been isolated very closely. They live in a fairly remote location. We have a pretty good line of inquiry around that possible source of acquisition. We need to land that in the coming day or so. We have two new cases in Mitchell Shire. One of those is a construction worker in Melbourne.

The other is a result that came in late last night and we’re investigating that this morning. Finally, we have one further case in the regional results today from the La Trobe Valley. That’s an individual who works at two fast food restaurants in Traralgon. We have 36 primary close contact in the area.

Reporters have raised an interesting point - the trial is only open to fully vaccinated people, but what about Australians returning from the US who have received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine which hasn’t been approved by the Australian TGA?

Here is what the NSW toursim minister has to say:

I want to draw a distinction here. The TGA does accredit different types of vaccines. The TGA is working through the accreditation of international vaccines at the moment.

We will work closely with the Commonwealth on that. That is slightly different from the approvals to be used here, the vaccines we are using in Australia.

We know there is a diversity of vaccines. We want to be able to work with the Commonwealth to ensure that the TGA can accredit different types of vaccines, so Australians who have used different vaccines can still come home.

Reporter:

It is only three vaccines the TGA have approved at the moment, Johnson & Johnson is excluded?

Ayres:

That’s correct.

OK, it seems the trial will be of 175 people, not 125 like the minister previously stated.

Ayres:

[Participants] will deftly be informed before they arrive. It’s random in the sense that we are only using a small group people but we will want to ensure that the cohort represents all the different conditions that we need to test in this trial.

We are talking about 125 people. It’s going to be conducted over four weeks, 30 people a week, we want to ensure we get that spread across different types of accommodations, different types of age groups and conditions.

We want to be able to learn of the hotel quarantine system needs to transition to when we got home-based quarantine.

Updated

The prime minister is part of this NSW home quarantine plan as well.

Here is a bit from Scott Morrison’s press release on the program today:

This is the next step in our plan to safely reopen, and to stay safely open.

NSW has carried the lion’s share of quarantining returning Australians and will be leading the way with this trial that could set the standard for the next phases of the way we live with Covid-19.

This could mean more families and friends being able to reunite more quickly, more business being able to be done here, and more workers for key industries being able to fill critical jobs.

Victoria’s outbreak is still disproportionately affecting young people:

85% of all cases are under the age of 50.

A quarter of the total cases are in their 20s.

Victorian press conference:

Foley says there is still a steady growth of cases in Melbourne’s eastern and south-eastern suburbs, as well as ongoing transmission in Melbourne’s north and west.

Ninety-five per cent of today’s cases are in northern and western suburbs, including 276 across Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park and Broadmeadows. Thirty-eight new cases have been detected across Cranbourne North, Pakenham and Dandenong.

A new vaccine clinic will open at Dandenong’s Palm Plaza, including a pop-up site at Hallam mosque. Another site will be opened at Eastlands shopping centre which will initially be able to administer 300 doses per day, ramping up to 1,200 in a couple of day’s time.

Updated

Ayres:

It’ll be about [175] people, selected by NSW police and NSW Health and we want to be able to test across different cohorts. Families, singles, older people, younger people, people in different forms of work.

This is a trial and about testing different types of accommodation, apartments and homes. We want to ensure we get the spread right. This isn’t about prioritising individuals or people who have been overseas.

It’s about ensuring we conduct the trial properly, build the base of evidence so we can remove our hotel quarantine system for the majority of people who are coming into Australia.

What I mean by that is those that are double vaccinated so we can ultimately remove them from having to be in our hotel system.

Updated

Seven-day home quarantine trial to begin 'at the end of the month'

NSW tourism minister Stuart Ayres is giving details about this new home quarantine trial now.

He has confirmed that the trial will start with around 175 people including Qantas aircrews.

Today is an important step in the reopening of NSW to the rest of the world. Our roadmap is really driven by the fantastic vaccination take-up rate by NSW citizens and because of that, today we are able to announce the next step on the reopening strategy.

We’re going to, at the end of this month, conduct a trial that changes the way we do quarantine. It gives us a chance to test seven-day quarantine in the home. We will conduct the trial with approximately 175 people.

They will be broken across two cohorts. We have been working with Qantas aircrew and staff are a number of months now and will include some of those people in this trial to conduct their quarantine at home.

They are doing shorter turnaround times with some of their existing crew in the 14-day quarantine so there are a logical cohort to do this with. We’re also going to work with police and health to select from returning Australians, do go into this home-based quarantine trial.

This will build on the evidence collected through the South Australian trial as part of the national plan where we utilise technology, particularly facial recognition and location-based services apps on your phone to allow police and health to continue to check in on a person during their home-based quarantine.

Updated

NSW press conference:

Gale has confirmed there has also been a positive case recorded in the regional town of Young.

We also identified a positive case living in Young reported to 8pm last night and overnight, that person’s household contacts have also tested positive.

There are a number of exposure sites in Young and, as we speak, NSW Health is providing advice to government around recommendations for the people of young but I’d like to urge anyone living in Young to please monitor for symptoms, look at public health advice and come forward for testing.

Updated

Victorian press conference begins

The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, and Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar are up now, confirming that, of today’s 510 new local cases, 124 have been so far linked to current outbreaks. There has been one new case detected in hotel quarantine.

Sadly, there has been one further death overnight, a woman in her 50s.

There are now 4,697 active cases across the state and 208 people in hospital, including 49 in intensive care and 32 requiring ventilation. As of yesterday’s cases in hospital, 87% weren’t vaccinated, 12% were partially vaccinated and two were fully vaccinated.

Victoria has now passed the milestone of 70% first vaccine doses, allowing a modest easing of restrictions from 11.59 tonight.

Foley:

In regards to tests, a very solid day yesterday, some 55,476 tests were processed. I can say that 2,079 of those were in Ballarat. A week ago on the same day, just some 300 tests were processed in Ballarat. So the people of Ballarat have come out in great numbers to get tested. There were 43,993 vaccines delivered at our state-run hundreds yesterday, another daily record for our vaccination clinics. We’ve now administered more than 3 million vaccines through the state-run clinics. That’s a substantial figure. That’s approximately about 50% of the figures overall.

Updated

Two women in their 20s died from Covid-19

Before we hear more about the quarantine program, the deputy chief health officer, Dr Marriane Gale, is giving the details of those deaths overnight.

This includes two women in their 20s, one of whom was living in a disability care facility.

Among these people are two who were in their 20s, three people in their 50s, one person in the 60s, two people in their 70s, three people in their 80s and one person in their 90s.

Of these 12 individuals who sadly passed away, seven were not vaccinated, two people had received one dose, and three were fully vaccinated.

I’d like to provide a bit more detail about several of these tragic deaths.

Firstly, the woman in her 20s from western Sydney died at the Nepean Hospital. She had received one dose of a Covid vaccine and had underlying health conditions.

A woman in her 20s died at Gosford hospital. She was not vaccinated and was a resident of the life without barriers group home in Wyong where she acquired her infection.

Three people passed away your residence of aged care facilities in Dubbo. They include a woman in her 80s who died at the Holy Spirit aged care facility. She was fully vaccinated and is a first are linked to an outbreak at this facility.

A woman in her 90s was fully vaccinated and a man in his 80s, partially vaccinated, died at St Marys Villa aged care facility in Dubbo. There are now three deaths associated with an outbreak at this facility.

Two people from western Sydney, a man in his 50s and a woman in her 80s, died at their homes and their Covid-19 infections were diagnosed after their death.

Neither of these individuals was vaccinated.

Updated

NSW will begin home quarantine trail for returned international travellers

Berejiklian has made a significant announcement today: once the state reaches the 80% vaccination level they will likely begin allowing Australians returning from overseas to quarantine at home rather than in hotels, with a trial of the program starting in several weeks.

I can confirm that New South Wales’s government has started work and planning on our 80% plan and what happens at 80% double dose.

One of the things that we expect to occur at 80% is to consider our international borders. That Aussies returning home through Sydney airport but also our citizens having the opportunity to go overseas when previously they weren’t able to and I’m pleased today to be joined by Minister Ayres who ordinarily is a minister for major events and tourism and a whole range of other matters but today he will pleasingly be announcing a home quarantine trial that will be done in New South Wales which will start in the next couple of weeks.

The planning works are being done and Minister Ayres will talk about that now but it’s really opening the doors what home quarantine will look like for us moving forward. For those returning Australians who have double dose vaccinations, they will be able to consider having a home quarantine setting rather than having to be in a hotel, similar to the hotel behind us now it has had thousands of people come through it in the hotel quarantine system.

Updated

NSW has also just passed the 50% double vaccination mark.

NSW records 1,284 local Covid-19 cases and deaths

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is speaking now and has confirmed 1,284 cases have been recorded.

Sadly 12 people infected with Covid-19 have also died.

Authorities have pleaded with Queenslanders to make the most of a state-wide vaccination blitz this weekend, with 38 community hubs open for walk-in jabs, reports Tracey Ferrier.

There was one new local case of Covid-19 reported on Friday but it poses no threat.

It is linked to Brisbane’s Sunnybank cluster, and the person had been in home quarantine for their entire infectious period.

Health minister Yvette D’Ath says Queenslanders can walk into any of the state’s 38 community vaccination hubs this weekend and get a Pfizer vaccinated without an appointment.

Anyone aged 12 and over is eligible. There will even be a pop-up vaccination centre for footy fans. It will open this afternoon ahead of the two NRL matches to be played in Mackay.

Almost half of the doses needed to vaccinate all eligible Queenslanders have now been administered.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young said today:

We are starting to get that big ramp-up in vaccine supply that we’ve been promised for many months now.

It’s taken us since the 22nd of February, when we did the first vaccination of a nurse on the Gold Coast, to get half of the doses out the door. The aim is over the next month or two to get the rest out.

Queensland Health delivered more than 25,000 vaccines on Thursday with 58.17 per cent of eligible Queenslanders having had one dose of a vaccine, and 39.95 per cent now fully vaccinated.

D’Ath said Queensland had been getting less than its Pfizer allocation but she was hopeful that would be delivered by November, or earlier.

Updated

Notorious Sydney gang rapist Mohammed Skaf will leave prison next month after being granted parole with strict conditions.

Skaf, now aged 38, has spent two decades in jail after being convicted for a series of terrifying rapes in Sydney throughout 2000 involving another 14 men, including the ringleader – his brother – Bilal.

He first became eligible for release on parole in 2018.

The State Parole Authority on Friday said Skaf would be granted parole under strict conditions and 24/7 electronic monitoring.

Freeing Skaf at the end of his 23-year sentence in early 2024 without any conditions would have posed an unacceptable risk.

You can read the full report below:

It doesn’t seem these middle of the road tea room protests are winning the hearts and minds of Victorians though.

Speaking of 11 am, we are also expecting to hear from the Victorian leaders then, when they step up for their daily press conference.

THESE PEOPLE DO KNOW THAT OTHER TIMES EXIST RIGHT?

Okay, this has not yet been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia but Nine News is reporting that hotel quarantine will be wound back in NSW.

They’ve suggested that more than 100 people, including Qantas employees, will be able to quarantine from home for 7 days rather than the regular 14 in a control facility.

We will likely get more details at the NSW press conference in half an hour.

We are set to hear news about “quarantine arrangments” today at the NSW press conference.

That’s due to start in about 40 minutes.

So tradies in Melbourne are not happy at all about Covid-19 new rules which make tea rooms off-limits at construction sites.

Naturally, they have set up a tea room in the middle of Sydney Rd. There is definitely a Boston Tea Party joke in here somewhere.

Interestingly, the joint statement out of the Ausmin talks also includes a lengthy passage on climate change – and suggests Australia and the US agreed on the need for “ambitious” 2030 emission reduction targets.

The statement says the ministers, Marise Payne and Peter Dutton, and the secretaries, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, “noted with serious concern” the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They “emphasized the urgency of addressing the climate challenge, and pledged continued efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

The statement continues:

The United States and Australia will pursue opportunities to take enhanced actions during the 2020s with the aim of achieving net-zero emissions as early as possible. They discussed the need to take action through mitigation, adaptation, and finance during the critical decade of the 2020s to limit temperature rises, and address the impacts of climate change, recognizing that the impacts of climate change at 1.5°C are much lower than at 2°C.

They pledged to work together to strengthen the global commitment to climate action ahead of COP26 [the Glasgow summit in November] through ambitious nationally determined contributions with 2030 targets and to continue to strengthen efforts throughout this critical decade to keep a limit of 1.5 degrees temperature rise within reach. The United States and Australia both stress the importance of all G20 countries having communicated ambitious 2030 NDCs [targets] by the COP.

The statement says both countries “share an ambition to drive clean solutions, including new and emerging technologies, in support of an effective global response to reducing greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring economic growth and job creation”.

Our joint ambition is to make low-emissions technologies globally scalable and commercially viable to rapidly accelerate global emissions reductions, enable clean growth, and make achievement of net zero emissions by 2050 possible.

Both countries have also “committed to increasing our climate financing including for climate change adaptation and responding to the needs and priorities of small island developing states that are the most vulnerable to the future impacts of climate change”.

The statement also acknowledges the “global security threat posed by climate change”. The US secretaries and Australian ministers “committed to continuing cooperation on disaster response and resilience measures in defense planning, noting the threats to human security across the region, including pandemics, growing water and food scarcity, compounded by population growth, urbanization, and extreme weather events, in which climate change plays a part”.

The US Department of Defence pledged to share its Defence Climate Assessment Tool (DCAT) with Australia.

(As you can see, no specific new commitments from Australia, but noteworthy language in light of the growing international pressure on Australia to increase its 2030 targets and commit to net zero by 2050.)

Updated

Australia and the US have given a little more detail on their plans for a bigger US military presence in Australia.

Marise Payne and Peter Dutton met with their US counterparts, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin, in Washington overnight. They spoke to the press hours ago, but the formal joint statement has just been issued.

The statement notes that it has been 10 years since the establishment of the United States Force Posture Initiatives in Australia (Julia Gillard’s government and the Obama administration put in place the rotation of US Marines through Darwin). Citing the “strategic challenges of our time” that centre on the Indo-Pacific region, the statement says both sides have now “committed to significantly advance Australia-United States force posture cooperation”.

“The Secretaries and Ministers endorsed the following areas of force posture cooperation:

  • Enhanced air cooperation through the rotational deployment of U.S. aircraft of all types in Australia and appropriate aircraft training and exercises.
  • Enhanced maritime cooperation by increasing logistics and sustainment capabilities of U.S. surface and subsurface vessels in Australia.
  • Enhanced land cooperation by conducting more complex and more integrated exercises and greater combined engagement with Allies and Partners in the region.
  • Establish a combined logistics, sustainment, and maintenance enterprise to support high‑end warfighting and combined military operations in the region.”

For more on this, see our story from this morning:

Updated

Ummmmmmmmmmm...

Queensland records one local Covid-19 case

Queensland has recorded one new local Covid-19 case, lucky they were a close contact of the Sunnybank cluster who was already in home quaratnine.

NO TASMANIA! NO.

You do not have a big enough population for an 11am press conference! PICK ANOTHER TIME!

FYI: The Tasmanian premier is speaking to the media at 11am.

Google must explain what steps it has taken to ensure the company’s platforms and advertising capabilities are not “exploited for misinformation” in the run-up to the next federal election, Labor’s national secretary, Paul Erickson, has demanded.

In a letter to Google Australia’s managing director, Mel Silva, seen by Guardian Australia, Erickson raises a number of objections to recent interventions by Clive Palmer and Craig Kelly – activity he says undermines confidence in Australia’s public health response to Covid-19.

Erickson cites multiple videos on Kelly’s personal YouTube page “in which Mr Kelly promotes ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as effective treatments for Covid-19 or claims that Covid-19 vaccines are unsafe”.

Guardian Australia understands Google has now flagged some of the videos identified by Erickson, and the contents are under review.

You can read the full report below:

Heading away from the east coast for a second we are expecting an announcement at 11.30am AWST (1.30pm AEST).

We don’t know exactly what it will be yet but given we will be hearing from WA education minister Sue Ellery and vaccine commander Chris Dawson, it seems likely that it will be something to do with getting schoolkids vaccinated.

We will bring you all the updates here on the blog.

Updated

Scott Morrison really has been making the rounds this morning. While talking to Melbourne radio station 3AW he hit back at the suggestion that the new submarine would make Australia a nuclear target.

What we’ve done is what Australia should do in its national interest.

Australia has to stand up for itself and protect its interests and keep Australians safe.

Host Neil Mitchell:

Do you accept that what’s happened here has made China a more significant enemy of Australia?

Morrison:

No.

Updated

Here is what today’s case numbers look like on the outbreak graph.

Today is the second-worst day in the outbreak so far, with yesterday being the highest.

The daily press conference times are also starting to file in, with Queensland leaders expected to speak at 10am AEST.

Victoria reports 510 new local Covid-19 cases and one death

The Victorian numbers are in and it’s not good news. They have recorded 510 new local Covid-19 cases and the death of one person.

Just 124 of those cases have been linked to known outbreaks.

Scott Morrison says Porter trust fund 'not ordinary'

Prime minister Scott Morrison was grilled once again this morning about the blind trust that part paid of Christian Porter’s legal fees.

On Thursday Morrison declined to say if Porter had given him advance notice before publicly declaring the payment of unknown size from unknown donors on his register of interests.

Morrison told ABC AM he had sought advice from his department because:

I always act in these areas precisely. I always act on best possible advice, I always want to ensure ministerial standards are fully understood in these contexts and the right decisions are made.

Asked if we could infer Porter will go – as Bridget McKenzie did in early 2020 – Morrison replied:

I don’t think you can confer [infer] anything. I think you can take it that I’m following a process which you would expect a prime minister to do, who believes strongly in ministerial standards.

Morrison again evaded directly answering whether he knew ahead of the public declaration. He said:

He [Porter] only most recently became aware of becoming a beneficiary and that beneficiary payment becomes available to him. So, these are complicated, these are not ordinary arrangements, that’s why we’re seeking to have a full understanding of them.

Morrison declined to discuss what he and Porter had talked about on Wednesday, beyond saying he wanted to ensure they had a shared view that ministerial standards are always maintained.

Morrison said he was “not going to speculate” on whether Porter paying the money back would be sufficient to keep his job.

Updated

The defence minister, Peter Dutton, has dismissed “outbursts” from China over Australia’s decision to develop nuclear-powered submarines, as he flagged plans for more US military aircraft to deploy to Australia.

Speaking after talks with the Biden administration in Washington, Dutton said Australia was a “proud democracy in our region” and “no amount of propaganda can dismiss the facts”.

The Australian government also renewed its request to China to resume high-level talks – an offer the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said “mature actors” would be prepared to take up.

Dutton and Payne joined their US counterparts for the annual dialogue known as Ausmin – the first since the Biden administration took office – but it was overshadowed by the fallout from the announcement of a new security pact among Australia, the US and the UK.’

You can read the full report below:

If you are confused by all this talk of nuclear submarines let me suggest Guardian Australia’s TikTok.

Give me 110 seconds and some houseplants and I’ll get you up to speed in no time.

Updated

Australia’s defence minister has hit back at China’s “embarrassing” and “immature” criticism of a nuclear-powered submarine deal with the US and UK, reports AAP.

Peter Dutton, speaking with Sky News from the US, launched a counterattack after a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman labelled the pact extremely irresponsible.

Frankly, I think they make the case for us.

Their comments are counterproductive and immature, and frankly embarrassing.

China foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijan said the decision to build nuclear-powered submarines intensified the arms race and undermined international non-proliferation agreements.

The export of highly sensitive nuclear submarine technology to Australia by the US and the UK proves once again that they are using nuclear exports as a tool for geopolitical game and adopting double standards.

This is extremely irresponsible.

Zhao said he was not aware of an open invitation prime minister Scott Morrison said he had extended to Chinese president Xi Jinping to discuss the arrangement and said Australia, the UK and US should abandon a “Cold War zero-sum mentality” and do more for regional peace.

Otherwise, they will only end up shooting themselves in the foot.

But Dutton made no apology for the nuclear switch.

We are a much safer country now because of this decision, and we will work with the French.

We understand their disappointment, but my job is to make sure that we keep our country safe.

Updated

The City of Melbourne is pushing to be allowed to introduce vaccine passports in a bid to reopen the arts, entertainment and hospitality venues that have been hit hardest by successive lockdowns.

Councillors will vote next week on the introduction of a “heath pass system” that would allow fully vaccinated people to enter participating restaurants, pubs and other venues. All staff in participating venues would also have to be fully vaccinated.

Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp said:

Nowhere in Australia has been hit harder by devastating lockdowns than Melbourne, and our businesses should be the first in line to reopen safely. They’re prepared to do whatever it takes.

Capp said operating an opt-in pilot scheme in the City of Melbourne could help refine the system before it’s rolled out statewide.

Councillor Roshena Campbell said the proposed scheme was “a temporary measure that will get our businesses back on their feet sooner while we continue to work towards vaccination targets”.

Updated

In Islam, it is essential that the dead are buried as soon as possible. The body is washed, prayed over, taken to the cemetery and buried, with some small prayer or invocation said by the grave.

It is usually a quick process, sometimes drawn out by lingering family, but one that can be shortened in times of difficulty, such as in a pandemic.

The family physically bury the body, read the invocations and line up to share condolences.

But with a large percentage of the Sydney Muslim community living in the 12 local government areas of concern, and under the toughest restrictions, the community has had to adapt.

You can read the full report below:

Morrison has been asked how he felt about that awkward moment where US president Joe Biden seemingly forgot his name, opting instead for “that fella from down under” and “pal”.

But the prime minister is keen for us to know that “pal” has been a long time nickname from Biden ... apparently.

Host:

We know your nickname has been ScoMo for quite a while, how do you feel about being called “that fella from down under”?

That fella from down under:

It was quite funny. We always speak privately, he refers to me as his pal.

I am looking forward to seeing him next week and will catch up in Washington and that will be another important opportunity.

Updated

Morrison:

We are very aware of China’s military capabilities and the military investment taking place around the world in that part of the world.

We are interested in ensuring international waters are international waters and international skies are always international skies and the rule of law applies equally.

There are no no-go zones where international law applies. That is important for trade, things like undersea cables, floodplains and where they can fly.

That is the order that we need to preserve. That is what peace and stability provides for and that is what we are seeking to achieve.

Now the prime minister himself has been out and about this morning spruiking the new submarine deal.

Given how clearly this new UK, US and Australian military alliance is intended to curb Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific, Sunrise has asked Scott Morrison if he is worried about repercussions from the emerging superpower.

We are just taking the necessary actions we need to take to keep Australians safe and have a peaceful and stable region in which we live.

The world is changing significantly in our part of the world. We have deep friends and partners in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The conversations I’ve had with regional leaders have been very positive [and consider it] a stabilising and a peaceful initiative that is very much in Australia’s interest and very necessary for Australia to undertake.

Updated

This is interesting. The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, says the nuclear submarines that Australia announced plans to build yesterday will cost more than our previous plan for diesel-power subs, which already had an eye-watering price tag of $90bn!

Plus, it looks like we are set to purchase only eight of the nuclear subs, rather than the original 12.

Safe to say these aren’t coming cheap!

Birmingham spoke to ABC radio a short time ago:

Through much of our history, we have been a long way away from the centres of strategic competition. Now that centre of strategic competition is perhaps most profound in our own region across the Indo-Pacific.

Finalisation of those costs is something that will be assessed through the 12-18 month process we’re now embarking on with the UK and US.

The prime minister’s acknowledged that it will likely cost more than we had assessed for the conventionally powered submarines.

Updated

Good morning everyone and well done, we made it to Friday! It’s Matilda Boseley here and first up let’s talk about picnics!

Yes, Melburnians are abuzz with weekend plans after the premier announced “modest” restriction changes from Saturday, including small outdoor gatherings, to mark Victoria reaching its 70% first dose vaccination target.

Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adults will be able to meet up with one other person from a different household for a walk or picnic, while that figure grows to five from two households, plus dependents, for fully vaccinated adults.

There is one small complication though – an exemption to the current ban on removing masks to drink alcohol outside of the home has not been granted, effectively making it illegal to have a tipple during picnics unless done under the mask, through a straw.

Other rule changes from 11.59pm on Friday include a doubling of the amount of time allowed outdoors to four hours, the expansion of the travel limit from 5km to 10km, and the reopening of outdoor gym equipment and skate parks.

Now, zooming out, we are also potentially awaiting some movement with the returned traveller quarantine system, with the prime minister and state and territory ministers meeting today for national cabinet.

They will be discussing the possibility of at home quarantine for people arriving in Australia from abroad. Queensland and South Australia are already testing mobile applications for home quarantine and Scott Morrison wants to know when states and territories will be ready to take more international arrivals.

With that, why don’t we jump into the day? There is plenty to get through.

Updated

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