The day that was, Wednesday 11 August
That is where we will leave the live blog for Wednesday. Amy will be back with you in the morning for the last sitting day of the week.
This was some of the news for the day:
- Melbourne’s lockdown was extended by one week after the state recorded 20 new cases of Covid-19. Fourteen of the cases were in isolation during their infectious period.
- NSW recorded its second highest case number day, with 344 new local cases of Covid-19.
- A man in his 30s from northern Sydney and a man in his 90s from south-west Sydney both died, bringing the total number of deaths associated with the current NSW outbreak to 34.
- Dubbo will go into a week-long lockdown.
- Late on Wednesday the western NSW areas of Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narromine, Walgett and Warren were also ordered into lockdown.
- The Hunter area is likely to stay under restrictions.
- Permits will be introduced on Friday for people who live on the Victoria-NSW border to travel between states.
- Cairns will emerge from a three-day lockdown today. Queensland recorded four new locally acquired virus cases linked to the cluster in Brisbane’s west.
- A 52-year-old Covid-positive Sydney man who travelled to Byron Bay, sparking a lockdown in the region, will be charged with breaching public health orders.
- Australia passed 14m vaccines administered. There was a new record in Covid vaccinations, with 255,964 doses administered on Tuesday, bringing the total to 14.2m across the country.
Until tomorrow, stay safe.
Updated
Several western NSW shires ordered into lockdown
Here’s the NSW Health release on the stay-at-home order for not just Walgett, but also Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narromine and Warren:
To protect the people of NSW from the evolving Covid-19 outbreak, new restrictions will be introduced for the local government areas of Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Coonamble, Gilgandra, Narromine, Walgett and Warren, effective from 7pm tonight until the beginning of 19 August 2021.
Following updated health advice from NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant, stay-at-home orders will apply to all people who live in these areas in Western NSW or have been there on or after 5 August 2021.
The rules for this area will be the same as those already in place across Greater Sydney, as well as Dubbo, Tamworth, Northern Rivers, Armidale, Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens, Singleton, Dungog, Muswellbrook and Cessnock.
Everyone in these areas must stay at home unless they have a reasonable excuse to leave. They also cannot have social visitors in their home from outside their household, including family and friends.
People still can have one visitor at one time to fulfil carers’ responsibilities or provide care or assistance, or for compassionate reasons, including where two people are in a relationship but do not live together.
Updated
Labor commits to changing intelligence laws to allow for Witness K inquiry
In the Senate, independent senator Rex Patrick has moved a motion to hold an inquiry into the spy operation targeting the Timor-Leste cabinet in 2004, during treaty negotiations to carve up the resource-rich Timor Sea.
The spy operation came to light after an intelligence officer, Witness K, and his lawyer, Bernard Collaery, helped the Timor-Leste government mount a case against Australia in the international courts.
Collaery is facing trial in the ACT supreme court for communicating protected information. Patrick wants an inquiry into how the spy operation was authorised, believing that it was not done so properly and was therefore not lawful.
This is a very important issue. It’s an important issue to make sure the Australian government has complied with the commands of the parliament in respect of collecting intelligence overseas. We also need to understand how we got into this situation where we’d done such a terrible thing to Timor-Leste.
Labor are not supporting the proposal. Manager of opposition business in the Senate, Katy Gallagher, says the Senate committee Patrick is referring the matter to – the legal and constitutional affairs committee – is “not the appropriate way to examine these significant issues”.
But Gallagher says there are “unresolved questions” about the operation. She says the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security would be the best avenue to hear the inquiry. But she said the Intelligence Services Act prohibits the committee from examining individual operations.
Gallagher then commits that Labor, if elected, will amend the law and ensure there is an inquiry into the operation and the subsequent prosecution of Witness K and Collaery.
“Further, Labor calls on the attorney general to provide an explanation to the Senate of the public interest in continuing to prosecute Mr Collaery,” she said.
The Greens supported Patrick’s referral, with senator Nick McKim describing the matter as “a sordid and disgraceful chapter, from start to finish”.
Updated
Walgett shire to go into lockdown at 7pm
Walgett shire will be placed into a week-long lockdown at 7pm after a case was recorded in the town.
The mayor of Walgett shire, Ian Woodcock, told Guardian Australia the council had just been informed about the stay-at-home orders by the NSW upper house MP for the region, Sam Farraway.
Woodcock said he understood the local supermarket would stay open but other businesses would shut.
Almost 30% of people in the town, 230km east of Bourke, are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, according to census data.
NSW Health will be issuing a statement shortly.
Updated
Walgett to reportedly go into lockdown
ABC and Nine are reporting the NSW regional town of Walgett will go into lockdown from 7pm tonight and will likely be for a week.
We will bring you more information when we have it.
#BREAKING: Walgett Shire will go into lockdown from 7pm tonight after a positive case confirmed there
— Gavin Coote (@GavinCoote) August 11, 2021
The Greens have expressed their disappointment that the disallowance to make ParentsNext voluntary did not pass the Senate (it was tied 16-16 so it failed).
Senator Rachel Siewert said:
ParentsNext is a degrading, punitive and coercive program. I’m very disappointed and distressed for the parents stuck in this punitive program.
I tried to disallow this program back in 2018 and it’s devastating to think of the harm this program has caused since then.
The government needs to reconsider, look at the very clear evidence and withdraw the regulation and make the program voluntary.
This program punishes and stigmatises single mothers.
Rather than being supported to raise their children women are being subjected to a mandatory program that is resulting in adverse outcomes such as having to give up work days and study to meet program requirements or lose their payments because their children’s medical appointments conflict with appointments with providers.
This government has an ideological approach to people on income support and it was heartbreaking to read the submissions to this inquiry, because the same issues we examined during the 2018 Senate inquiry are happening over and over again.
The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has been interviewed by youth news org The Daily Aus on Instagram. The interview is very focused on the impact of the lockdown on younger people. You can watch the interview here.
We will know tomorrow morning whether the high court has agreed to hear a case regarding the visa application for the youngest daughter of the Murugappan family, Tharnicaa.
The family is still in Perth after being put into community detention earlier this year.
I’ll be covering that case tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning, the High Court will determine if Tharni is granted special leave to have her case heard.
— Nic Holas (@nicheholas) August 11, 2021
We don't know how it will go but we DO know that her asylum claim has never been given a fair go. (The Federal Court upheld that ruling earlier this year.) #HomeToBilo pic.twitter.com/idhFP4E78b
Updated
NSW Health has published some new exposure sites in Dubbo and Byron Bay.
⚠️PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT – NEW VENUES OF CONCERN⚠️
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 11, 2021
NSW Health has been notified of new venues of concern in the Newcastle, Byron Bay and Dubbo areas which are associated with confirmed cases of COVID 19. pic.twitter.com/XYT4xb4Kr7
Sutton says despite the state going into lockdown on a zero cases day this time, Victoria should still celebrate “donut days” when we get zero new cases:
There’s been a critique of the celebration of donut days. A kind of fetishness, I think Osman [Faruqi] called it. It’s not a fetishness – it’s celebrating a really difficult achievement, and everyone knows what it represents. It represents the beginning of defeating another outbreak, which is no guarantee. It is no guarantee. In New South Wales, we’ve seen that.
And so we should celebrate the efforts that everyone makes for us to be able to get there with a recognition that we might have another challenge, on the same day, or just around the corner. But by God, the efforts that everyone needs to go through to be able to get there are so substantial and that sacrifice should be celebrated, whether it’s with one donut or 23, I don’t really mind, let’s enjoy it for those occasions, you know to recognise just how much everyone has made an effort to be able to get there.
Updated
Sutton can’t say what restrictions will look like once vaccination rates hit 70%. He said it would depend on the outbreak type:
We don’t know what the dynamics might look like ... depends on the cohort that gets affected with new cases if it’s in a very young student population who are not vaccinated at all, that’s going to be tricky. And it might be focused on schools.
If it’s an older population, we would have much greater confidence that it’ll end on its own or end with the contact tracing that we can do really effectively and rapidly now in that middle age group, you know, it might be more limited restrictions rather than the you know, the very harsh very strict lockdown that we’re in currently.
Sutton said he would like to see national standards in place. He says he hopes Victoria doesn’t end up going back into a two-week lockdown every four weeks until Christmas. He suggests the NSW border restrictions will be doing most the heavy lifting until the vaccination rate gets high enough.
I hope not. Look, we will continue to strengthen our protections at the border. For the permitted workers list, and in the management of exemptions, as much as possible. It will become less and less likely the higher our vaccination coverage gets, and we are really pushing ahead now we’ve seen a quadrupling of AstraZeneca first doses just in the last couple of days that’ll continued to increase. And I think we can see 200,000 Victorians, getting their first doses on a weekly basis.
Updated
Sutton says he hopes students will go back to school this term. That’s what they’re aiming for, but Delta complicates things:
We’ve seen pretty explosive spread in classrooms. We’ll try and manage that. Wearing masks is part of it, making sure that teachers and students who are unwell or symptomatic are not attending, and everything else that we need to do around ventilation and infection prevention and control but it’s not an easy space because the Delta variant, you know, largely unvaccinated group is hard to manage.
Sutton says the origin of this outbreak has not yet been determined or linked to the last outbreak, so it is likely that there was another transmission from elsewhere:
They can’t recall, they haven’t identified any of those exposure sites that we had laid out in fine detail. So it does seem more likely to me that it’s maybe a separate intrusion. That’s the word kind of dribbling along without, without being tested without being identified until, until it kind of exploded into school and other areas.
Can Victoria keep Covid from spreading from NSW? Sutton says he hopes so:
But there’s no guarantee and, you know, the whole of regional New South Wales is looking to do the same, but they’re still seeing cases cropping in daily. Central Coast and elsewhere so it’s a challenge, but increasingly if New South Wales can turn it around, and we can get high vaccination coverage.
He won’t comment on what he thinks would work for NSW as a strategy.
Updated
Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, is on ABC radio Melbourne at the moment speaking to Raf Epstein.
He says Victoria is beginning to get on top of the outbreak with more cases being in isolation during their infectious period.
He says he thinks the Melton family, who are included among five mystery cases today, were likely linked to exposure sites in Melton, but it is not yet determined.
For the father and son in Melbourne, there is proximity to cases in public housing but not yet determined.
He said with the mystery cases, at least, the effect of lockdown is they have limited movement despite being in the community while infectious.
Updated
The very lovely Josh Taylor will take you through the evening – Brett Sutton is about to speak on ABC radio Melbourne, so he will be bringing you all of those updates.
To make sure you don’t miss anything, I am going to say a quicker than usual farewell today – but I will be back early tomorrow morning for the last day of the parliament sitting (for this fortnight).
Please, take care of you. I mean that. Just be kinder than usual to yourself at the moment. It’s rough out there, and we all need a bit of coddling.
Updated
Here is some more of how Mike Bowers saw QT:
Updated
Katharine Murphy has fact-checked Barnaby Joyce from this morning’s interview on ABC Radio National.
It was quite the task, as you could imagine. But given David Gillespie is repeating his claims and it is nearly 5pm, it’s well worth the read:
Murph:
Joyce is currently the deputy prime minister of Australia. In a representative democracy, voters elect parliamentarians to make plans and legislate them. That’s their job. Signatories to the Paris agreement (and that’s Australia) have already signed on to achieving carbon neutrality by mid-century, or not long after. Paris is a beautiful, romantic city that famously stirs human emotions, but no government (certainly not the one led by Tony Abbott) signed the Paris agreement because of “emotion” or because of “the moral perspective of it”. That agreement was signed because political leaders accepted the science that was set out again by the IPCC this week – the science that shows humans need to move quickly to head off runaway global heating.
Updated
This is in relation to ending ParentsNext.
If the vote is tied, practice says the status quo stays – meaning no change.
No dice. Vote drawn 16-16, meaning the push is unsuccessful. https://t.co/yMHmaAatnO
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) August 11, 2021
Updated
David Gillespie is now trying to explain why the government can’t make a climate plan.
I think. It’s very confusing. The Nationals seem completely surprised that as part of the government for the past eight years, they might be responsible for contributing to government policy.
Q: 2050 net zero emissions, do you think we should move to that?
Gillespie:
We won’t sign a blank cheque.
Q: This is not about a blank cheque, it’s about a plan. You make the plan. Should you make a plan to get on a zero emissions by 2050?
Gillespie:
The first thing you have to do is meet your targets by 2030. As I said, many countries and many parties take the easy road out and kick it down the road, you know, another almost 30 years.
Q: You are only responsible in this country.
Gillespie:
No. We are a world leader in so many areas but we’re not getting the credit we deserve.
Q: 2050 net zero emissions. Do you think it is a feasible idea?
Gillespie:
Show us the detail and then we will.
Q: I can’t! You are the government! We haven’t seen the detail. Shouldn’t you develop it, with respect?
Gillespie:
We have a road map. We’ll use technology, Patricia, and that is what we are committed to. I don’t want to see my dairy producers shut down or my beef producers shut down. I want the timber industry to keep continuing capturing carbon to turn into manager and build houses. I don’t want cities to grind to a halt because we don’t have power to run them. Aluminium smelters and all those industrial parts of the modern world, we need cheap, reliable, affordable energy. We offshore a lot of manufacturing and in Covid we found out that we had been caught short and we have to have an industrial base in the country and we have got to have an affordable 24/7 reliable cheap energy and we will use technology to achieve that rather than break an aspirational 2050 commitment that is 30 years away.
Updated
NSW Health has updated its venues of concern:
⚠️PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT – NEW VENUES OF CONCERN⚠️
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 11, 2021
We have been notified of a number of new close and casual contact venues of concern associated with confirmed cases of COVID 19. pic.twitter.com/GKvlxO47Jz
David Gillespie, the regional health minister, who is also a doctor, is now in a circular conversation with Patricia Karvelas about whether George Christensen’s comments are “opinions” or not, despite previously saying he is wrong on the facts.
So Christensen is wrong on the facts (which he is) but he can say it, because it is his opinion, is what Gillespie is arguing here:
I’ll never stop George from speaking. If you can’t say your piece, what is the point of being here?
Q: What is the point if your facts are wrong is my point?
Gillespie:
Well, it is his opinion. He was giving his opinion and it has been pointed out by many people that the wearing of masks is part of the requirement for us to keep control of this very infectious virus but the main thing you have to remember is this is a one-in-100 year [pandemic] and a lot of people are under a lot of stress. You get information overwhelming people that don’t understand all the details and I have read the transcript of what he said and as I said, we’ve already had that conversation about masks and how it helps control things.
Updated
David Gillespie is on the ABC, talking lockdowns.
And he mentions this, which has been creeping into a lot of government MP’s rhetorics lately:
People discount the severity of this because we have managed it so well.
We are in a way victims of our own success.
Because we haven’t seen the carnage that you have seen in other nations and we know from what has happened in many countries overseas that this is a very infectious disease, but the mortality and hospitalisations in the UK aren’t coming like they came in the first wave because building up a herd immunity knowledge of how to fight a virus means that people don’t get as sick.
It means that if you are still excreting the virus, you don’t excrete as much. So it reduces the risk but is critical to get above 70-80%.
There has been no acknowledgement though, of the role federal government MPs/ministers have played in that attitude. From the “not a race” comments, to the “you can wait for Pfizer” to the “we have to learn to live with the virus” to “we’re doing better than any other nation in the world” to the “almost no other country in the world is living with the freedoms we are seeing in Australia” comments, which were made repeatedly, have all led to the “attitude” the government now says we have.
Updated
In NSW:
BREAKING: A person currently in Walgett has tested positive for Covid-19. They were tested on 7 Aug, returned a positive result today & considered to have potentially been infectious from 5 Aug, known to have also been in Dubbo & Bathurst during their infectious period @abcnews
— Lucy Thackray (@LucyThack) August 11, 2021
Meanwhile, in the Senate:
Important debate happening in the Senate right now – Labor's Pat Dodson moving to make the #ParentsNext program voluntary. Will be supported by Greens, who have been long-time critics of the scheme. #auspol
— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) August 11, 2021
For a refresher, head here:
Australia still doesn’t have a vaccination advertising campaign you’d want to brag about (arm yourself is not the campaign people were waiting for) so if those tasked with coming up with the new campaign are interested, there is always what Baltimore went with:
Baltimore's vaccine campaign is HILARIOUS 😂
— Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) August 9, 2021
Get the vax, Debra! pic.twitter.com/yWbjkczVn5
If you have the time, this is well worth it:
“The clinic opens up at 10am, but people today, for example, camped outside the [Lebanese Muslim Association]. They were out here from 9pm last night, they slept on the street, waiting for Pfizer.”
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) August 11, 2021
This story by @Rachwani91 is a must read. https://t.co/hQauE0Gz3U
Updated
Labor is really seeking to reinforce the fact that Josh Frydenberg was also involved in the car park funding (and it is worth noting again that two-and-a-half years on from the election none of the promised car parks in Frydenberg’s electorate have been built/started being built).
Here is part of a release from Jim Chalmers and Catherine King:
“The ANAO report tells us that the Prime Minister personally signed off on 27 commuter car park projects the day before entering caretaker for the 2019 election. Now we know the Treasurer was up to his neck in the scandal as well.
“It has been revealed -
- Around 10 per cent ($65 million) of the total funds committed for commuter car parks at the last election were in the Treasurer’s own electorate;
- Not one of the four commuter carparks the Treasurer promised his community is under construction or has been approved by local planning authorities; and
- One $15 million carpark is never likely to be built – because the train station it is mean to service is unlikely to exist.
“No wonder the Liberals and Nationals have racked up $1,000,000,000,000 in debt when Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg are presiding over the most wasteful government since Federation.”
Updated
After question time, Bill Shorten also made a personal explanation, following the rehashing of Scott Morrison’s criticism of Labor’s electric vehicle policy at the last election (which Morrison has attempted to rework as only criticism of Labor, not of electric vehicles).
Shorten said that Morrison was wrong then and he is wrong now, and that he himself now drives an electric vehicle – and that the weekend continues to roll on.
Updated
While we are discussing tactics, you may have noticed one of Labor’s new lines in there – “the Morrison-Joyce government”. It’s not unusual to hear that, but it usually comes from Nationals MPs when asking a Nationals minister a question, and even that has dropped off recently, given not everyone is keen to remind Australia that Barnaby Joyce is the current deputy prime minister, again.
But Labor wants you to remember. Hence the questions about the “Morrison-Joyce government”.
Updated
Just after question time, Anthony Albanese stood up and asked the Speaker: “Where is Barnaby Joyce?”
Joyce isn’t able to attend because he is in Armidale, which went into lockdown.
But he hasn’t appeared via video either.
Albanese:
Is it appropriate, just as the prime minister took questions virtually and was available, that the deputy prime minister should be available during question time, for members of parliament on both sides and on the cross benches to hold him to account and ask questions. I note that he hasn’t turned up, but he is on the payroll and it is expected at a minimum that ministers will be here.
Tony Smith says that all members have the option of using a video link, and their offices have been set up and staff trained to turn the electorate office into a virtual parliament office.
But he says it is voluntary for members to choose to take it up or not.
“And that’s all I will say on the matter,” he says.
Chris Bowen however does gets a shout out for having the best backdrop that Smith says he has seen.
It hasn’t been a good turnout for government MPs at key moments this week – including during the Closing the Gap statements. And while there do seem to be a lot of Labor MPs who are zooming in for debates and question time, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of videos on the government side (despite the absences).
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Updated
Sky After Dark presenters asked to speak at Senate inquiry
Sky News presenters Rowan Dean, Alan Jones and Rita Panahi have been asked to give evidence at a Senate inquiry hearing into YouTube’s temporary ban on Sky News Australia.
The Murdoch broadcaster was not allowed to upload new content to YouTube for seven days after violating its medical misinformation policies by posting numerous videos that questioned the public health response to Covid-19 or promoted unproven treatments.
The Google-owned YouTube permanently deleted 21 videos posted by Sky News Australia.
Radio broadcaster Ray Hadley, who has been vocal in his criticism of Jones on 2GB, has also been invited to attend, according to the schedule for the hearing which begins at 9am on Friday.
Guardian Australia revealed Sky quietly deleted from skynews.com.au at least 31 videos that questioned the public health response to Covid-19 or promoted unproven treatments.
The Sky chief executive, Paul Whittaker, has confirmed his appearance at the inquiry.
The media diversity inquiry is investigating why the broadcaster was suspended from YouTube for seven days and why the media watchdog has not taken any action.
The vice-president of government affairs and public policy for YouTube, Leslie Miller, and the director of public policy for Google Australia and NZ, Lucinda Longcroft, will give evidence for the digital platforms.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) will also appear.
Updated
Bathurst Correctional Centre in lockdown after Covid case
Michael McGowan has a statement from NSW Corrections on the Bathurst Correctional Centre lockdown:
The safety of all staff and inmates is our number one priority, and remains at the forefront of our decision-making while COVID-19 continues to pose a risk.
Bathurst Correctional Centre has today (Wednesday 11 August) been placed into a precautionary lockdown after receiving a positive COVID-19 test result from a fresh custody inmate.
The 27-year-old inmate arrived at the centre around 4pm on Saturday, 7 August and was subject to the existing strict COVID-19 protocols for fresh receptions.
He was granted bail and released on Monday, 9 August.
Inmates are tested for COVID-19 when they arrive in custody as a precaution. It was this sentinel test that determined he was positive.
The CSNSW COVID Command Post is working with staff to identify anyone who has had contact with the inmate.
A number of inmates have been placed into isolation as a result.
Contract tracing has commenced for any impacted staff, who will be directed to go for immediate COVID-19 testing and isolate in accordance with NSW Health advice.
Updated
Things are not looking great in Newcastle.
BREAKING: COVID cases surging in a Newcastle aged care home with 11 residents and one additional worker testing positive at Masonic Village Edgeworth. 10/11 resos fully vaccinated. But more cases expected with second staff working all last week and Monday morning @abcnews
— Ben Millington (@bmillington) August 11, 2021
Updated
Scott Morrison then ends question time, a smidge earlier than usual.
Updated
Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:
“Can the treasurer confirm that the funds he committed to communion car parks in his electorate, not one of them has been built, under construction and one is for a station which soon will not exist. How is he reducing congestion with car parts which do not get built?”
Frydenberg:
Mr Speaker, the first thing is the honourable member asked about car parks and he talked about how I, as treasurer, supported the commuter car park fund. The majority of our commitments are either being delivered or expect to be under construction within the next 18 months.
Two commuter car parks are currently operational at Beaconsfield and Hurstbridge, Mr Speaker. Three commuter car parks are currently under construction at Craigieburn and Croydon and Mandurah.
Around 15 commuter car parks will commence construction this year.
A further 16 commuter car parks, I am advised, will commence construction in 2022. I say to the honourable member, whether it is car parks in those electorates or in mind, we look forward to them being built.
(Worth noting that none of the carparks promised at the last election have been built in Frydenberg’s electorate. It has been almost three years).
Updated
Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:
“My question is to the treasurer – 10% of the total funds that he committed to commuter car parks at the last election were allocated to his own electorate.
“After more than two years, how many of the four car parks the treasurer promised have been built? How many have started construction and how many are no longer going ahead?”
Frydenberg:
We on this side of the House have supported community car parks, including in my own electorate, because we want to reduce congestion on our roads. Mr Speaker, we want to reduce congestion on our roads, with respect to the car parks in my own electorate, they haven’t been built as yet and we want them built.
I can tell you we will deliver more infrastructure to my electorate than those opposite ever will. Than those opposite ever will.
(Given those opposite are not in government, and can’t direct the budget, this is not surprising. It is a simple statement of fact).
... He would trip over his own shoelaces, the member for Rankin.
Community car parks are a way of reducing congestion in our cities.
I know the leader of the opposition supported his own community, commuter car park.
This will ease congestion and enable people to use public transport and it is the same principle those people adopted.
Updated
Andrew Leigh to Josh Frydenberg:
“Jan from Frankston is an aged pensioner who works part-time as a teacher. She received jobkeeper and she repaid more than $1000. She has to repay $15 a fortnight out of her pension. Billions of dollars of jobkeeper were gifted to firms with rising earnings. Why is the prime minister not asking them to repay a single cent?”
Frydenberg:
I’m very happy to take the member’s question because I can’t get a question from the Labor party’s 12th man.
The member for Rankin, he can’t even get a question up in budget week let alone in a normal week. And we have half the members on the front bench missing and he still can’t.
Tony Smith:
The treasurer will get on with the answer.
Frydenberg:
... Welfare recipients had an obligation to report jobkeeper as ordinary income, Mr Speaker. Because the question went to the importance of jobkeeper and the payments under jobkeeper, let me remind the House what the governor of the Reserve Bank said, that jobkeeper program is really about keeping people in jobs. It has done a remarkably good job of that. We know from the Reserve Bank that at least 700,000 jobs have been saved.
Smith:
I just want to say to the treasurer, I understand the points he is making but he needs to be relevant to the question that was asked.
Treasurer:
Mr Speaker, the relevance to the question is that jobkeeper has been a remarkable program for all of those who have received it. People who are on welfare.
Smith:
The treasurer will just resume his seat for a second. The leader of the opposition will cease interjecting.
It is relevant to the question to answer whether or not the billions of dollars in jobkeeper that were gifted to firms that had rising earnings, whether or not they should have been asked to repay a cent.
The point I would make, I can see that is the point those on my left want to focus on, but there was another question there as well about a pensioner from Frankston being asked to repay. The treasurer needs to bring himself to those points.
Frydenberg:
With respect to people on welfare, that they had to treat it as ordinary income, that is the response to that. In response to the member’s interjection, his point of order, when he refers to the billions of dollars were paid under jobkeeper, let me remind that when treasury did a review of jobkeeper, it said the following. It said it had been well targeted, the payment went to businesses that experienced an average decline in turnover in April of 37% against the same month a year previous, and it went to businesses at which the job separation rate had doubled following the introduction of operating restrictions just before jobkeeper was introduced.
We put it in place for six months, we extended it at a tapered rate of another six months, and those opposite continue to diminish the success of that program which has been part of Australia’s remarkable economic recovery.
Updated
'We are absolutely determined to continue the success of the resources sector': resources minister
In the midst of all the ‘we are acting on climate’ talk, here is the resources minister, Keith Pitt (who no longer sits in the cabinet, after Barnaby Joyce’s reshuffle of the Nationals following his leadership win):
When we look at the alternatives, we know that those opposite will say one thing in Moranbah and a different one in Melbourne. Mr Speaker, we had an announcement for the member for Isaacs and the member for Sydney at the last election and what did they commit to?
A $14 million funding package for the Environmental Defenders Office.
So they say one thing in Melbourne, and then another thing in the regions, and then they are defending those who want to stop projects in the country.
We want to deliver more jobs and strengthen our economy right across the country.
Yes, Mr speaker, they also said the Coalition cut all funding to the EDO, well, yes we did, Mr Speaker. We are absolutely determined to continue the success of the resources sector. It is helping to carry our country and congratulations to those hardworking men and women.
Updated
Breaking into Covid news for a moment:
#BREAKING Bathurst jail has today been placed into a precautionary lockdown, after there was a positive COVID-19 case there. Statement from Corrective Services here. pic.twitter.com/GOzCzUfVIq
— Claudia Vrdoljak (@VrdoljakClaudia) August 11, 2021
Updated
Barnaby Joyce this morning also said that it wasn’t the government which came up with the emissions plan, it was the CSIRO.
Which is also not true – the CSIRO can provide advice, but it doesn’t make government policy. Only the government does that.
A word on deputy PM's interview on RN where he said its CSIRO not the government that comes up with a plan to reduce emissions(!?). He seems unaware his own government has promised to submit to the UNFCC before COP26 a "Long Term Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Strategy"
— Graham Readfearn (@readfearn) August 10, 2021
Updated
Scott Morrison is rebuked by the Speaker. Again
Terri Butler to Scott Morrison:
“This morning on ABC radio, the deputy prime minister said about net zero emissions: ‘We don’t actually come up with the plan.’ Is the deputy prime minister right?”
Morrison:
Our plan for achieving our climate commitments, Mr Speaker, and our goals, have been worked through either cabinet and we have completed those.
We will do exactly as we did before the last election. At the last election, Mr Speaker, we set out our commitments to 2030 and how we would get there and we did that, by all sectors and the initiatives that were put in place to ensure that we could reach that.
Others didn’t think we would be able to make that commitment, Mr Speaker, and just like they didn’t think we would be able to make the 2020, commitments which we did and we met them and we beat them, Mr Speaker.
And we were engaged in exactly the same considered and detailed process to ensure, Mr Speaker, that when we make a commitment, we can tell people in regional Australia, we can tell them up in Newcastle and the Hunter, you can tell them over, in Whyalla, and we can tell them anywhere in this country, what it will mean for them, what the costs will be, Mr Speaker, and how this will impact on their livelihoods and on their regions and how together we will be able to reduce emissions and ensure the viability of economies right across this country.
That is our process, Mr Speaker, that is what we do, we are up front with the Australian people and the world because no country reports their quarterly emissions or emissions reductions better than Australia. Australia is, to the best of our knowledge, the only country in the world, Mr Speaker, that reports emissions by quarter, every gas, every bit, every quarter.
That is something Australia should be very proud of and something other countries should be doing. We are very transparent about this and we will be very transparent about our plans and how we endeavour to meet the important goals that we are setting out to ensure that we address climate change and at the same time, ensure that we do not take away the industries and jobs that Australians depend on.
Now, Mr Speaker, our government is not going to write a blank check on this. We are not going to write a blank cheque. We won’t legislate away a blank check, which is what the leader of the Labor party and the Labor party will be doing, Mr Speaker.
They will spend your money and those of Australians around the country, they will do that unfettered with an unqualified commitment and it will all fall on the people of Australia.
What we will do is consider this carefully and have a clear plan which we can take Australians with us on. But those opposite boast in what they do in this area ... Let me quote another member of the chamber.
(He begins quoting Joel Fitzgibbon).
Tony Smith:
I would just say to the prime minister, it is not a question of because one person was quoted that you can quote another.
You need to be relevant to the question and it is not a matter of just adding something else in.
Morrison:
That was the member for Hunter.
Smith:
I will say to the prime minister and I’m going to make this as clear as I can, that a question that asks about a quote, didn’t ask any about any other quotes and the option is not there to simply decide you will add another quote in a political attack.
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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
“I refer to the IPCC report, which this week [said that] without effective action on climate change, Australia faces [increasing] intensity and duration of fire weather events. Will the Morrison-Joyce government commit to net zero emissions by 2050?
Morrison:
The leader of the opposition will be aware that the government policy is to achieve net zero as soon as possible and preferably by 2050.
The IPCC report that was released and commented on yesterday is a very serious report. It’s a report that affirms the position that the government has been taking, to take action on climate change and to make sure we continue to reduce emissions. Australia has reduced emissions by 20% on 2005, we have met and we have beaten our Kyoto target.
We will meet and we will beat our Paris commitment for 2030. We will exceed those commitments and I’ll tell you why.
Because Australian households, Australian businesses, Australian farmers, Australian manufacturers, all of them are making the changes at their businesses, supported by the policies of our government. Whether it has been to put the solar panels on roofs, we have the highest level of that in the world.
It would be rolling out renewable technology and investment, which is eight times the global average, greater than the EU and countries even like Germany.
But what we also note and why technology not taxes is so important, and why commitment without plans is a danger, Mr Speaker.
What’s important is that technology drives the changes that are needed.
... Because I know, Mr Speaker, on this issue of net zero by 2050 the opposition has made an unqualified commitment, a blank cheque commitment, with no plan, that will see, Mr Speaker, a policy put in place by those opposite, because, they are not supporting technology, they are voting against technology, in this parliament.
And if you are not going to back technology there is only one thing you will back and that is taxes.
The leader of the opposition, the Labor Party, I should say, on this important policy issues, the policy has always been to tax their way to these commitments*. Not invest through technology.
On our side of the House we focus on the climate action necessary to achieve not only results in Australia but make sure the technology developed can be made available and supported through developing countries of this world, which account for two thirds of global emissions. China alone accounts for similar emissions, in fact more than all OECD countries combined. That’s where the solutions ... need to be applied.
*This is not true and hasn’t been true for many years. The ‘blank cheque’ comments Morrison has been repeating since Tuesday are an attempt to have people remember the 2019 election, when Bill Shorten didn’t put a cost on Labor’s climate policy, and instead asked what was the cost of inaction. So that is what that is in relation to – you’ll hear it a lot. But there is no talk of taxes. And Labor hasn’t announced its policy as yet. Which is another of the government’s and Morrison’s attack lines. So there is no plan, but it has a blank cheque, which they won’t say how they will pay for, but it will be through taxes. Make sense? Exactly. It’s not meant to – it is just an attempt to muddy the waters.
Which should seem familiar – remember this?
Peta Credlin: "It wasn’t a carbon tax, as you know. It was many other things in nomenclature terms but we made it a carbon tax. We made it a fight about the hip pocket and not about the environment ...
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) August 11, 2021
.. that was brutal retail politics and it took Abbott about six months to cut through and, when he cut through, Gillard was gone".
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) August 11, 2021
Technology/taxes.#qt #auspol
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Chris Hayes to Scott Morrison:
“My question is to the prime minister and I refer to the report in the Daily Telegraph which reported how QAnon became a killer Covid-19 conspiracy in Australia, families torn apart by lies. What is the Morrison-Joyce government doing to combat the dangerous spread of this information by QAnon during this pandemic?”
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, crazy rubbish conspiracies have no place when it comes to the public health of this country, and this government will have no association with it as we demonstrated yesterday in this House.
Ensuring that we take all steps we can to deal with misinformation is what this government is doing, and is up to all of us as members to seek to do everything we can to make sure we are countering that in our own community.
I’ve been pleased to be engaging with the ethnic community leaders, multicultural committee leaders, especially in NSW. I thank those faith leaders across NSW, especially south-western Sydney, who have been countering the misinformation that has been occurring in their communities. I especially thank those of the Pacific community in this country, and the faith leaders of their communities telling their congregations how important it is to get the vaccine and listen to those conspiracy theories that can prevent them from getting the vaccine.
We are working with countries in the region, especially PNG, an issue I speak to regularly with the prime minister, who is very concerned about the misinformation being put throughout his country regarding vaccination. We are working to support him in his efforts in Papua New Guinea as well, as countering misinformation is a task for all of us, and a task for the government and one we are acting on.
Greg Hunt:
Thank you and to add to the prime minister’s answer, the Department of Health engages in a myth-busting process, in terms of public information. We would work exactly as he says with communities across the country, the provision of material in multiple languages – we have worked with SBS on that front.
In particular one of the things we have to deal with is medical misinformation. I refer to the words of the esteemed professor Greg Dawe of the Kirby Institute: anti-AstraZeneca is one of the great blights on Australia’s Covid-19 response. He is highly esteemed, as is Prof [John] Skerritt who said if AstraZeneca hadn’t been [available] in NSW, there would be deaths in their dozens every day.
Unfortunately, there are those that have spread material and information that does not accord with the high standards. Quote: ‘feels like Australia is being shortchanged with inferior vaccine’. Quote: ‘the issue is the rest of the country is going to be offered a lower efficacious vaccine, the AstraZeneca’. Quote: ‘we are about to unleash 51 million doses of AstraZeneca’. It is the Labour party’s candidate for Higgins.
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Zali Steggall to Josh Frydenberg:
“To the treasurer, despite what has been said, small businesses in Sydney and Warringah are struggling badly. One local business owner has said to me the worst lockdown since the pandemic started is being met with the worst government support stop. Another local owner of the hospitality business told me he is getting 65% less government support than he was last year.
“Small businesses desperately need increased financial support, a mandatory rental code to assist in their negotiation with landlords and confirmation of ongoing support from post-lockdown. Treasurer, last week you failed to provide people in my electorate with answers and you were flippant telling them they will bounce back. Will you announce further support for the small businesses?”
Frydenberg: (short answer is no)
Mr Speaker, the honourable member may be interested to know that between the federal and state governments, there will be about $1 billion a week going into New South Wales, which is equivalent to the amount of money that jobkeeper and the cash flow boost were providing into New South Wales at the peak of the pandemic last year.
Now, Mr Speaker, the initiatives that we announced for NSW in terms of economic support are very significant.
There is both the income support for workers, for families, where you see payments of $450 a week for those who have lost between eight and 20 hours a week.
You see payments of $750 to those who have lost 20 hours or more, and for people who are already on income support, welfare, they receive a payment of $200 if they have lost eight or more hours of work. On top of that, we are providing very significant support to businesses across NSW with a program designed with the NSW government, being delivered by Service NSW.
He goes over old ground, but none of it is pointing to more support and ends with:
I say to the honourable member, we understand how difficult it is for businesses across NSW and that is why we continue to put enormous economic support in partnership with the NSW government to work, supporting the people of NSW. By sticking together, we will get through this.
Which may raise some eyebrows in Melbourne so high they hit Cairns.
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Ed Husic to Scott Morrison:
“Covid-affected areas from Mt Druitt and Blacktown need walk-in vaccination hubs to boost vaccination rates in these communities. It was indicated that she wanted to set up these hubs but the premier needed more vaccines from the Morrison government. If the prime minister had just done his job, wouldn’t the vaccine hubs be available now?”
Greg Hunt gets the nod for this one:
I note that in the last 24 hours off the back of additional supplies which the government has made available, 200,000 additional doses of Pfizer coupled with the bring forward of over 180,000 doses, that New South Wales has administered a record number of vaccines: 106,000 in the last 24 hours and in particular that includes 30,000 from the state vaccination clinics and 76,000 from our GPs and our pharmacists.
I do want to note the role of pharmacies. On Monday there were 7,777 doses delivered by our pharmacies. Although there have been over 56,000 and these doses are increasing every day, particularly across New South Wales, particularly across Sydney, particularly across western Sydney.
We have 321 pharmacies delivering vaccines in NSW and that is growing to 584 in NSW by the end of this week so what we’re are seeing is a significant increase in vaccines that is leading to a significant increase in vaccinations.
He then starts talking about things happening around Australia and begins to ramble, finishing with a ‘get vaccinated’ message.
Updated
Greg Hunt keeps using the population of Adelaide as an indicator for numbers of people, and I don’t think he realises it is not as effective as he thinks it is.
He then tried the population of Wollongong, which again, I don’t think works.
Just say the number.
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Anne Stanley to Scott Morrison:
“Last week the prime minister told the house he supports the premiers and all the work they do to save lives and livelihoods. Does the prime minister support the NSW premier’s decision to mandate vaccinations for construction workers in the eight local government areas affected by Covid-19?
Morrison:
I have always supported the premiers acting on the urgent medical advice that they need to address in serious situations in the states and territories.
Whether that’s the premier of NSW, the premier of Western Australia, or Victoria, all of those premiers, whether acting on that medical advice, which they are privy to that, to address the very urgent situation in New South Wales.
That is what they are being advised to do, to arrest the growth in cases in NSW, that will suppress those cases and drive them down and enable premiers to be in a position to make their lockdown effective.
And I believe that this is what the NSW premier is seeking to do, just like the Victorian premier, who right now is extending the lock down.
These are the necessary decisions with the Delta strain of the virus that must be put in place.
What I’m keen to do as prime minister is make sure we are supporting the actions of the states and territories.
Morrison then talks at length about the support being provided to NSW – financial support, vaccine supplies and defence force assistance.
So yes, we are supporting the New South Wales government in every which way we can
Updated
The government is really pushing the idea that any criticism or questioning of its statements, policies and decisions is ‘talking things down’ and ‘negativity’.
It’s part of the rebranding of the government’s response, and part of the strategy to try and get everyone to forget what happened between last year and now, and to gloss over the many missteps which have led us to this point.
Every time Scott Morrison is faced with his own words, he disagrees with the premise of the question, denied it was what he said, or the context was wrong, then seeks to rewrite the history.
Recent examples – that he has always supported the premiers in their lockdowns, that he has always been a supporter of electric vehicles, that he only meant ‘it’s not a race’ in terms of TGA approval, and that it is the Delta strain which has meant Australia has had to change its response.
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Mark Butler to Scott Morrison:
“Last September the prime minister announced stranded Australians would be home by Christmas and Australia be open by Christmas. Now the prime minister is again announcing Australians can look forward to everyone around the table at Christmas time.
“Why does the prime minister always focus on announcements and not delivery?”
Morrison (with a new line at the end):
I want all Australians to be around that table at Christmas.
That is something I would think, that the [opposition] wouldn’t be criticising, Mr Speaker.
That is something I would think all those in this House would be wanting. Australians to have their loved ones protected over the course of this year, so they can all gather around the table.
I don’t know why that would be a point at which the government would be attacked by the opposition. I simply don’t understand it.
What I can tell the member who raises this issue is what I referred to last year. I was referring to the number of people registered at the time, of getting Australians home, and as we know we not only got that number of people home by the end of last year – many many more.
Because, Mr Speaker, as Australia continued to make sure that people in this country were protected as best as we possibly could from the ravages of Covid-19, that wasn’t the case overseas and more Australians joined those to get them home.
... In this phase of the national plan we have all agreed it is necessary to reduce the amount of rivals coming to Australia because of the Delta strain.
The Delta strain has changed everything. That is the position understood and agreed by premiers, chief ministers and myself. Together we are implementing the national plan. The Labor party is undermining the national plan.
Updated
In light of Scott Morrison’s answer to a dixer on how great Australia is doing with the vaccination program now, you might find this piece from Sarah Martin a good read:
Updated
Question time begins
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
“Yesterday in question time, the prime minister said ‘it doesn’t matter how you start the race, it’s how you finish the race. It’s how you finish the race and we are going to finish this race, as a government’.
“Why then did the prime minister repeatedly say earlier this year the vaccine rollout was not a race?”
Morrison: (with enough ‘Mr Speakers’ to cause eyes to twitch all over the chamber):
I’ll tell you, Mr Speaker, what Covid-19 is not. It’s not a political game.
It’s not a political game. It is something affecting the lives of every single Australian. The jobs of every single Australian.
And I thank the leader of the opposition for repeating what I said in the House yesterday. That’s exactly as the government is approaching this challenge. And he makes reference to comments early in the year. Things have changed a great deal since then, the one thing that has not changed, is the importance of doing this in a way that is safe and careful.
... It’s important we approach this quickly and carefully ... with the utmost urgency, which our government has already and always been doing.
I can tell you, since 10 June, two months ago, the vaccination of the population has gone from 3.5% double dose to 23.7% double dose. A single dose vaccination has gone from 23.4% to 45.4% over the last two months.
And today we get the news of a further record day of doses delivered. Of over 250,000 doses, on one single day, and over the past week averaging at more than 200,000 doses a day.
We are continuing to move forward with the national plan takes ... with clear vaccination targets that take us to the next step and the step beyond that and where the country needs to get to.
By the end of this year we will have made great progress for that plan. It’s not just about making sure we get there as we make progress every single
... And we continue to suppress the virus in the first phase because we want to make sure every member of your family is around that Christmas table at the end of this year, suppressing that virus now is incredibly important. We will run this race, we will not, Mr Speaker, treat Covid-19 like a political game as the opposition has been doing.
(The ‘it’s not a race’ comments were also made after the TGA had approved the vaccine).
Updated
Switching over to the chamber and it seems like everyone has managed to make 90-second statements without needing parliamentary censure, so that seems like progress.
On the ABC, Mike Freelander says Labor’s caucus is yet to be briefed on the Doherty Institute modelling.
Australia has avoided another censusfail, with assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar reporting that there were no issues with people filling out their census forms last night.
As of 8am this morning, there were 6.2m census forms filed to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which equates to about 16m Australians (one form for each household).
Unlike the disaster of 2016 that saw the site go down on the day, the census site stayed online. Peak users hit at 8.06pm last night, with 140.8 submissions being received a second.
The ABS had said there were no interruptions or wait times and no security breaches.
People can still submit their census form online, and the ABS said it would follow up and tally the paper forms people filled out over the next few weeks.
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Nationals MP Darren Chester (minister turned backbencher after Barnaby Joyce’s return to the leadership) has a dream when it comes to Australia’s climate policy. (He was speaking to the ABC):
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if for the first time in 13 years we get some bipartisanship, get your point in the Labor party and the Coalition could agree to take our nation forward in a constructive way rather than the destructive debate we have had.
Excuse me while I laugh in Tony Abbott.
It’s almost as though destroying something for the sake of destruction has real-world, long-term consequences.
Updated
Australia’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth, has responded to allegations by the activist investor group Market Forces that new climate targets it unveiled in its annual report today aren’t consistent with the international Paris agreement target of less than 1.5C warming by 2050.
Short story long: it says they are.
The criticism by Market Forces, which we reported here, focused on CBA’s use of “glide paths” to reduce carbon that have an end point of 2070, not 2050.
But a CBA spokesman says the bank has “used a scenario which is consistent with the Paris agreement, uses the best currently available data and has been relied upon by peer banks globally”.
Bank executives think the scenarios, developed by the International Energy Agency, have the best data at the moment.
But the CBA is open to switching models if something better comes along. A spokesperson said:
In our annual report we have said that we will review our reference scenario within the next 12 months having regard to the availability and quality of data.
The bank remained “committed to playing our part in limiting climate change in line with the goals of the Paris agreement and supporting the transition to net zero emissions by 2050”.
Market Forces also criticised changes to CBA’s lending criteria that it says make it easier for it to lend to things like coal railways or ports that may not actually dig fossil fuels from the ground but are somewhat adjacent.
These projects would still have to pass the bank’s usual environmental screening and something like a coal railway might struggle to get funded anyway because the industry is in steep decline.
That explanation is unlikely to satisfy Market Forces, setting the stage for a battle at CBA’s annual meeting in October, where the activist group has put a motion calling for tighter curbs on fossil fuel lending on the agenda.
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Pauline Hanson was disendorsed by the Liberals in the 1990s.
She has her own political party. So I am not sure why she would expect to be on the bus with the Coalition, except for the fact that her voting record shows, more often than not, she supports them:
George Christensen was right to speak out and has my full support. I know what it is like to be thrown under the bus by Liberals, Nationals and other so-called "conservatives". Morrison, Joyce and the Coalition voting with Labor to condemn him was nothing short of gutless -PH
— Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 (@PaulineHansonOz) August 11, 2021
Updated
Anthony Albanese spoke to Sydney radio 2SM this morning, where he was asked about George Christensen and he was fairly magnanimous to Scott Morrison – for a moment.
Host: Why isn’t the prime minister calling it out? Why isn’t Scott Morrison censuring this man?
Albanese:
Scott Morrison in the end voted for the motion that I moved on the floor of the parliament.
Host: OK.
Albanese:
But there was a 15-minute speech from myself followed by 15 minutes from Scott Morrison in which he did not mention the name of George Christensen, or named him as the Member for Dawson. It was like Voldemort from Harry Potter. He was the person who couldn’t be named.
Now, that’s not leadership. Leadership is calling it out, saying this man is peddling misinformation, people shouldn’t be listening to him, he should be behaving responsibly. And that’s what leadership is. And I think the prime minister failed the test yesterday by going one step forward but then failing in actually calling it out explicitly, which is what people have to do when there’s misinformation.
They should call it out explicitly, name it, say it’s wrong. This is a guy who attended the rally in Mackay on the day that those rallies occurred a couple of Saturdays ago where we saw police assaulted, we saw a police horse assaulted. We saw despicable behaviour against our frontline police officers, men and women who are bravely protecting us as a community who deserve better. And the fact that the prime minister couldn’t name him in a 15-minute address to the parliament was, I think, quite astonishing.
Updated
The Dubbo lockdown came into effect just over 15 minutes ago.
It will last at least a week.
Updated
We are now on the downhill slide to question time – but there is time for a small break, so make sure you go get some lunch, or at least look at some memes.
It’s going to be another rough hour or so.
Updated
Are you a hospital or healthcare worker in Sydney who is affected by capacity issues resulting from Sydney’s Covid outbreak?
We just heard NSW health minister Brad Hazzard talk about how some hospital workers who are close contacts are being asked to work in wards throughout what should be a self-isolation period.
We’ve also heard that patients from some Sydney hospitals are being sent to regional facilities to be treated.
If you know anything about these matters or more broadly about worker shortages and capacity issues at Sydney hospitals, contact me at elias.visontay@theguardian.com.
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Our colleague Antoun Issa is among those trying to get tested in Melbourne today:
Chatting to friends in Melton who are now reluctant to get tested because of long wait times. I'm of course urging them to do so, but this is an obvious consequence of not anticipating a testing surge in areas with exposure sites. #covid19vic
— Antoun Issa (@antissa) August 11, 2021
NSW police have put out a statement announcing that a court notice has been sent to a Sydney man who is in hospital in Lismore in NSW’s northern rivers. The man will be charged with breaching a public health order (but he has not been charged as yet):
A man will be served a Future Court Attendance Notice today for breaching public health orders after he visited the Byron Bay and surrounding areas.
Following inquiries, including appeals for public assistance, the 52-year-old man from Rose Bay will be charged after he allegedly travelled from Sydney to Byron Bay and the surrounding area, without a reasonable excuse and in contravention of the public health orders.
The Future Court Attendance Notice will be served on the man at the Lismore Base Hospital with strict bail conditions.
He will appear at Lismore Local Court on Monday 13 September 2021.
Inquiries are ongoing.
Updated
Does George Christensen, a government MP, who has the government’s party on his letterheads and sits with the government on the parliament benches, represent the government?
No, according to his deputy leader, David Littleproud:
No, he represents himself and the people of Dawson, and the people of Dawson, obviously, will reflect to him about those comments.
But they do not reflect, as the National party clearly said yesterday in supporting that motion by his peers. We sent a powerful message that we do not support his comments.
So government MPs, elected under government party banners, who make up the government, do not represent the government.
Good to know.
It comes after Christensen was accused of using parliament to spread misinformation about Covid-19.
Updated
Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said Victoria was “on the heels” of the virus, and the aim was to get 100% of cases in isolation during their infectious period in the next week. He was asked whether one week would be long enough to get the outbreak under control. He said he hoped so:
We never know what the days will bring. We know what will work in these circumstances. If testing is high, if anyone who is symptomatic is getting tested and we can identify those actual cases of coronavirus out there, then we can control them. When we control them, they are quarantining, we get ahead of it and there are no new exposure sites.
Premier Daniel Andrews said people needed to brace themselves for it being another week but said the restrictions would not last longer than they needed to.
Sutton was also asked whether NSW planning to ease restrictions when 50% of its population were vaccinated made him nervous and whether it meant Victorians would be prevented from travelling to the state. He said it wasn’t his decision but indicated travel rules would be in place until late in the year:
There might be some tweaks to the restrictions within greater Sydney but we will protect Victoria with all of the mechanisms that we talked about – our work permits, all of our permit systems, the classifications for zones, the border controls and the agile roving controls by VicPol are all mechanisms to protect Victoria. To the extent that it needs to go late into the year, it will go.
New South Wales can get to a point where those risks are diminished and that will be great for them. That will be much better for Victoria, no question.
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Daniel Andrews on Covid testing in Melbourne:
We have brought in more people, we have expanded with additional staff. That is monitored every day. It is a good problem to have – people coming forward to get tested and I am grateful to them.
The last thing I want is people with symptoms coming forward, getting tested and actually contributing to the spread of the virus. We have to be cautious ... It takes time. We look at this every hour, every day. If there is more we have to do then that is what we will do. That is what the record show.
Updated
NSW public schools allowed to cancel HSC trial exams if needed
Public high schools in New South Wales have been granted permission to abandon their HSC trial exams if Covid restrictions present difficulties for year 12 students to take the tests from their homes.
A NSW department of education spokeswoman has confirmed that the Education Standards Authority has made changes to its rules about school-based assessments so that some schools can postpone their trial exams “or develop an alternative assessment suitable to learning from home, if they need to”.
Schools will consider what is in their students’ best interests when making decisions about trial exams, and communicate any alternative to parents/carers and students in writing,” the spokeswoman said, noting that individual public schools have always had the ability to determine the timing of their trials.
Guardian Australia is aware of at least one school in Sydney that has taken the decision to cancel its trial exams and will instead calculate students’ internal marks based on previous assessments earlier in the year.
As greater Sydney remains under strict lockdown and snap lockdowns are called in regional areas of the state, individual public schools are now able to determine if they proceed with trial exams.
The rule change follows the NSW state government changing its position last week to allow year 12 trial exams in Sydney to be online only, with students in areas worst-hit by the Covid outbreak not set to return to class for weeks.
However some schools have concerns about the ability for the online delivery model to fairly assess its students, with student access to equal learning environments at home a determining factor for at least one school that has decided to cancel its trials.
Guardian Australia’s Anne Davies asked Gladys Berejiklian about the cancelled HSC trials at the NSW Covid press conference just now, however the premier did not specifically address that part of her question. She instead talked more broadly about students returning to schools in coming months in line with vaccination uptake in the broader adult community.
Beyond the HSC, the NSW department of education has hired consultancy firm KPMG to help design a back-to-school plan for the entire school system that could result in students from different year groups returning for a designated day of the week, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.
Updated
Victorian press conference summary
The NSW and Victorian press conferences occurred at the same time – a very big thank you to Josh Taylor for keeping us updated from Melbourne, given the important lockdown information.
Here are the main points:
- Victoria recorded 20 new cases, five of which are still under investigation, although authorities are “confident” they will be linked in a day or two.
- The Melbourne lockdown has been extended by one more week, because of the number of mystery cases.
- There were 41,571 tests across Victorian overnight (there have been 250,000 tests this week alone).
- Some 13,800 people have been placed into home quarantine as primary contacts.
- And 236,651 people have received their vaccinations this week in Victoria. More AstraZeneca slots are opening up. Pfizer is dependent on supply.
- There will be new border permits for Vic/NSW border residents, which Daniel Andrews says is necessary to track movements.
Updated
NSW press conference summary
- Today was the second-worst day for Covid infections, with 344 new cases. Almost 100 were in the community while infectious and 100 were still under investigation.
- Two more people died in hospital as part of the outbreak; a man in his 80s and a man in his 30s. Neither was vaccinated. The man in his 30s had underlying health conditions.
- Dubbo is in lockdown from 1pm after two cases were found there.
- The Hunter is unlikely to come out of its seven-day lockdown on Thursday, after 14 new cases.
- There are 62 people in ICU. Three of them are in their 20s and seven are in their 30s, with six in their 40s. This variant is hitting young people. Only five people in the ICU had received one dose of the vaccination. Everyone else was unvaccinated.
- Some 4.5 million people in NSW have received at least one vaccination.
- A vaccination rate of 50% of the eligible population may mean a “slight”
easing of restrictions, possibly in areas with high vaccination rates and low infections.
- The rental moratorium expiry is being looked at.
- The exemption to travel to look at property is being looked at.
- The issue of Sydney people travelling to the regions for vaccines is being looked at.
Updated
The NSW press conference ends.
Updated
With regards to NSW hitting vaccination targets, we have this new table in our vaccination tracking page which aligns with what Gladys Berejiklian is saying about November – essentially if we maintain the current average rate of vaccinations we’ll hit 70% of 16+ by early November, and 80% of 16+ by late November.
Updated
Q: Yesterday you told the inquiry it wasn’t appropriate to question Dr Chant’s advice. Given the level of lockdown, it’s seven weeks, 5.5 million people are locked down. Do you maintain that? Do you think people have a right to understand better the health advice that’s being given?
Brad Hazzard:
Absolutely. What my concern was more ... the questions were loaded politically, with not necessarily the logical outcome.
They were drawing their own conclusions, not all of them. Some of the questions were very good but some were a little challenging on that front.
I guess I would say Dr Chant works very hard, extremely hard, and so does the whole public health team, and I think challenging what I would see ... as her integrity in terms of her decision making was not appropriate. That’s what I was really saying.
Updated
A staffer has been yelling “last question” for the last 10 minutes in this NSW presser
Brad Hazzard says NSW lawyers are still looking at the exemption that allows people to travel to look at property.
Updated
NSW asks parents to keep kids out of childcare if possible after transmissions
Dr Kerry Chant says NSW is seeing a number of childcare centre transmission and asks for people to keep their children out of childcare, if possible.
We are seeing a number of childcare centre outbreaks and I think we have given advice if you can keep your children home safely please do so. We are seeing a number of cases in childcare centres – often introduced through the staff or the children. And the children can in many ways transmit between themselves.
Updated
Our colleague Antoun Issa is one of the Melbourne residents trying to get tested at the Melton testing site – he says he was turned away:
I was turned away at the Melton testing site in Melbourne’s outer west, where there are incredibly long queues after several exposure sites were listed in the area. The staff member directed me to Sunbury or Werribee – both 20-30 minute drives. I went to Sunbury, where I’m currently in a very long queue moving at a pace of a metre per 10 minutes.
Covid testing queues are incredibly long in Melbourne's outer west. Turned away from one site because it was full, drove 20 mins to another suburb, also full. Can we ramp up testing capabilities @VictorianCHO in areas where there's exposure sites? #COVID19Vic
— Antoun Issa (@antissa) August 11, 2021
Updated
Long waits for Covid testing in Melbourne's west
Looking at Victoria again for a moment:
There are up to two-hour waits at testing sites in Melton and Caroline Springs. Daniel Andrews said staff at those sites could be expanded as needed but people should look at other possible sites:
I recommend to people to go to the website and have a look there. Not everyone has to go to the same site. You might travel a little bit further away from home but get through much, much faster.
The website indicates more than 200 across the state. I’m not for a moment saying that people will get tested within one minute of turning up. You will never have a system like that. It has to be done carefully and cautiously. Go to the website and it will detail the options. There are many options. If there is a need for further options, we will look to do that. We don’t have unlimited highly trained staff.
We don’t have the opportunity to put a testing centre on every single corner, so we are very grateful to everyone who is coming forward. There will be some delays, that’s the nature of this. We do everything we can do minimise those.
Updated
The restrictions in NSW (Sydney and surrounds particularly) will remain in place until AT LEAST 28 August, Gladys Berejiklian says.
But the rental memorandum runs out in seven days.
Berejiklian says authorities will look at that.
Asked about people who have lost income and can’t pay their bills, Berejiklian says there is support available.
(NSW has no special income support payment – she is talking about the business supports and the disaster payment here. Victoria has a $450 payment for someone who might have to miss a shift to be tested She says:
If you look at the work Service NSW is doing I would suggest at least half their energy is going towards providing extra support to businesses to get the grants and dollars out the door.
I’m advised by the end of next week at the very latest the backlog will be dealt with and I appreciate how frustrating it has been for businesses.
I want to thank Service NSW and Services Australia who are providing the payments. I want to understand external parties like banks who have instituted certain policies the support customers during this difficult time.All of us appreciate the stresses everybody is going through but know we have always taken a very ball approach in New South Wales to ensure the economic support is there so people don’t feel they have to breach the public health orders.
Updated
It looks as though there has been quite a bit of narking on people over the NSW “singles bubble”.
Gary Worboys:
Again, I would say that we get a thousand calls to Crime Stoppers every single day, people providing us with information that kicks off an investigation.
An investigation is exactly that. They would go and ask those people about how they came to be there, when did that singles bubble start, why did it start.
The police will satisfy themselves that that singles bubble arrangement is in fact within the order. If it’s not, police will taking action and let other people decide in terms of the reasonableness of that action.
Updated
Back to the NSW press conference, and deputy police commissioner Gary Worboys is asked about compliance:
I refer back to the question about the testing at Albury. People who step well beyond the orders.
If someone is going to look at a piece of real estate, however, there is the appointments that are made, the time that’s taken, there’s a whole range of things that police can investigate to see whether that journey was bona fide in terms of its reasonableness, in terms of the orders. That will form part of the investigation for sure.
The inquiries into the man who tested positive in Byron Bay continue.
There is a question about increasing fines to force compliance (which has never worked).
Worboys:
Look, I think when we’ve seen people in these country communities devastated by people travelling from greater Sydney out into the regional and rural areas. Police have issued any amount of infringement notices – $1,000 on-the-spot penalty is a considerable penalty for some or more for many of us to endure.
People can also be put before the courts, that’s the minimum that can happen, and police will always look at what is the best outcome. And what the community expect how people should be dealt with.
Updated
Looking at Victoria again for a moment:
The Victorian Covid commander, Jeroen Weimar, has gone through the 20 cases in Victoria today.
They are:
- One student at Al-Taqwa college, and five household members of other students at the college. All in isolation.
- Five household contacts of students at the Mount Alexander college. All in isolation.
- Four cases associated with the Caroline Springs shopping centre, two of those associated with the Jolly Miller case, one with the YPA Estate Agency and one with the Edwards Sourdough bakery. Two of those cases were not in isolation.
The remaining five cases are mystery cases that were infectious in the community. Weimar said he was “confident” the cases will be linked in the next day or two. Three are a family from the City of Melton; two parents and a child. The child was already isolating as a contact of another primary close contact but there is no direct link yet.
A father and a son in City of Melbourne also tested positive. The son is a grade 1 student at St Michael’s primary school who was not at school while infectious, but his classmates are classified as tier one exposures while the rest of the school is tier two.
His father works at the Chin’s Eye Clinic at RCH. Patients and staff are being contacted and part of the hospital is being listed as a tier 2 exposure site.
Weimar said the Caroline Springs Square shopping centre and the City of Melton were the main focus for contact tracers now.
Our focus really moves to Caroline Springs shopping centre where we’ve seen 29 positive cases already …
The second priority location for us is Melton, particularly the City of Melton High Street retail areas – we now have 13 active cases in the City of Melton area, six of those are new cases today. We are doing a lot of work around Melton High Street, a number of retail sites – 13 exposure sites already listed. I expect to see more during the course of the day. My callout to anyone who is using Melton as part of their retailing activity, please come forward and get tested.
Updated
On the woman in the Covid testing clinic who was allegedly punched in the face, Brad Hazzard said he has not heard of that case, but he has heard of Covid workers being abused:
I have had health staff tell me at various stages there have been people who have behaved absolutely abhorrently to our frontline health staff and have assaulted them.
My message to them is we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Those people are there, well trained, very caring to look after you. Any assaults like that I’m quite sure the police will bring down the full force of the law and so they should.
Updated
Brad Hazzard is asked about the pressures on the health care system, particularly in specialty wards like the mental health wards, after staff at one hospital in the Blue Mountains were asked to come into work despite being close contacts of a confirmed case:
I understand that a patient [at] a dedicated mental health unit with normally 30 patients. The staff there are highly trained mental health staff.
A lady came maybe on 4 August, she had obviously a very disconnected thought process. A few days later she had a temperature and was given a Covid test. It was returned positive.
The staff were then obviously asked – they were looking at how many were vaccinated. About 70% of the staff were vaccinated, I thank them for that. Double vaccinated.
But, they can’t draw staff from general wards as they are highly trained mental health staff.
The discussion took place with the infectious diseases specialist, and the concern was that the patients were all moving back and forth in the ward, and the nature of the mental health, disorder, processes, lead to a decision of what was the balancing act here?
The balancing act that was determined appropriate was that staff be asked to wear full PPE during the rest of their shift, and that is what occurred.
No staff have been positive. I have to say, it remains a big challenge.
Updated
There IS a case in Shellharbour. Dr Kerry Chant:
That case has tested positive and it does have links – the person works in greater Sydney and travels [from] Shellharbour … My understanding is the gentleman largely worked from home but was – had activities where he travelled to Sydney for work.
Updated
There is a question about whether any of the new cases can be linked to the anti-lockdown protests.
Dr Kerry Chant says she can’t say because they rely on people to say where they have been:
Our contact tracers really try and extract as much information from people, and that is why I stand up here every day trying to appreciate people’s cooperation.
Part of me gets very frustrated at what people have done and our focus at that point in time is really to find out where they have been, who they have been in contact with, and any other ... issues are dealt with separately.
But it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t cause me great frustration and anger that people have chosen to do the wrong thing at such a challenging time.
Updated
Asked about people from Sydney travelling to the regions to get vaccinated, Dr Kerry Chant says:
There has been an exception for people who, for instance, live in border areas ... If you live [for example] in Bowral and need to go to Campbelltown for your vaccine, that was the purpose and intent of allowing that.
I am appalled that people would think, at this point in time, that that is OK.
Also, it is taking vaccines away from people in Albury, which I don’t agree with. There is plenty of access to vaccine in Sydney. I don’t see that is a reasonable reason to travel many hours for that, so if you could provide details I would be happy to get police to follow up with that case.
Updated
Permits will be needed for Victoria-NSW border bubble travel
Dipping back into the Victorian press conference:
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has announced people living in border communities with New South Wales will need to apply for a permit to travel in the bubble. People can apply from tomorrow but the permit will not be enforced until 6pm on Friday.
Andrews said the way the virus was travelling across NSW meant the Victorian government needed to limit and have oversight over who is travelling in the border bubble:
But it is not good enough to limit movement. We need to know who is moving. Before anyone says, why would you do that? If this virus can get from Sydney to Byron Bay, to Armidale, then only a fool would think it couldn’t get to Albury. It absolutely can. We need to go beyond a bubble.
We need to have permits. People apply once, have their permit and then have a clear sense of who is moving within those border towns. Logic tells you there is every chance that it comes to those border – those southern New South Wales communities, and then there is a potential risk of coming into Victoria. We need to have as much information as possible about who is moving in that border bubble.
Updated
Dr Kerry Chant then weighs in:
The premier has asked us for things that are very low risk that we potentially could look at, and we also know that at the moment the disease is a differentially spread.
That may change and that is what we are working with communities to stop happening.
We do know the risk profile in different communities is different and it may be that we can do some things in some areas where they haven’t seen any cases, if the situation remains in place.
The premier has asked us to provide advice on what would be low risk activities.
I am currently concerned about our case numbers, and my focus is on seeing those case numbers get as low as possible ... My total focus and that of our team is working to drive these numbers down.
And we need to have the community on board, and we need to have that community responding if we are going to prevent any further escalation of numbers.
Updated
Back to NSW.
Gladys Berejiklian is asked if she is giving people false hope with her “50% vaccination will lead to easing of restrictions” message, and says:
I think it is important to say to people that if we have higher rates of vaccination there’s every chance you can do something more than what you can today.
We have seen how the incentive of getting back to work in the last few days has really ignited people to get vaccinated.
These incentives work.
If we can incentivise people to say, if you are fully vaccinated you might be able to undertake an activity which you can’t now, that is a positive.
I think most people would appreciate that. September and October will be challenging months in terms of public policy, how we move forward, because we wouldn’t have reached the 70% but we will have increased vaccination rates. And some parts of greater Sydney are demonstrating quite lower numbers of cases.
Updated
Melbourne lockdown extension explained
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has announced a seven-day extension to the sixth lockdown, meaning people in greater Melbourne will not exit lockdown until at least 11.59pm on Thursday 19 August.
Andrews said the five mystery cases in the 20 new local cases today meant an extension was required:
The fact that outbreaks that are already challenged by the fact that we can’t determine where the original source, where the index case was and how they got it, and the fact that through information overnight, through these results overnight, we have added in fact to the number of mysteries, the number of unanswered questions out there – that’s why sadly today the cabinet of the government we have met and we have determined to accept the advice of the chief health officer to extend for a further period of seven days, until 11.59pm next Thursday.
This is very challenging, I know, for every single Victorian who would like to be going about their business, they would like to be open and have a degree of freedom. That is simply not possible because of this Delta variant. The extreme infectivity of this virus, in a very short space of time, if we were to open, we would see cases akin to what’s happening, sadly, in Sydney right now.
Updated
Q: So it is no longer the end of August, it’s now looking at September, October. Is that August target now dead in the water?
Gladys Berejiklian:
No, no, please, I’m not sure if people aren’t listening to what I’m saying.
If we have 6m jabs it gives us opportunities to think about how we can ease restrictions that we currently have for people who live in communities with low case numbers but high vaccination rates. There are communities in greater Sydney in that situation.
But it does mean having careful thought to what are regarded as low risk, because we do not want to increase the spread, we want to see case numbers going down.
But this is a different proposition to what life means at 70%. It means more confidence that more people will be out of hospital, we can ease strict restrictions in place.
Please note that they are two different things. Lockdown now, plus some opportunities to live life differently in September and October, is very different to what life looks like when we get to 70%.
I want to be very clear about that.
For example, we have noticed in the past few days a huge demand for people who want to get back to work in those local government areas, for example in the construction centre, coming forward and getting vaccinated. We want to thank them for that.
People who previously thought, I can wait for vaccinations, they are now incentivised.
If it means getting back to work, people are incentivised to get the vaccine.
That’s why I am calling out to everybody to say, please get vaccinated, because there could be opportunities, there will be opportunities in September and October for us to say to the community if you are vaccinated you might be able to do a certain level of activity which you can’t now.
They are conversations we are starting to have. They will be based on the health advice. Low-risk activities, where people are vaccinated, that they can go out and do, and it is important for us to send a strong message that vaccination prevents hospitalisation, reduces a spread, and gives us the chance for people to live more freely.
But make no mistake, the 70% double dose, as the Doherty report says, which we accepted and I support, is when life will look very different to what it does today.
Updated
Q: Yesterday, Dr Chant made it clear that ... a 70% vaccine threshold would need to be achieved before we see some level of easing of restrictions. Why do you keep insisting that 50% could be enough to ease some restrictions?
Gladys Berejiklian:
Dr Chant and I have been absolutely aligned on this issue.
The Doherty report says if you want significant freedoms you need 70% of your population fully vaccinated, and we have made it clear from the outset that the NSW government commends and supports the findings of the Doherty Institute and intend to implement policies in that regard.
However, we are currently in lockdown and if during September and October we have higher rates of vaccination ... there are opportunities for us to see what additional freedoms we give people.
Does it mean we will live like before the outbreak?
No, but what it does mean is that people will be able to do more than they can today.
These are the issues and opportunities we are discussing with health experts …
Of course, all of us strongly support 70% double vaccination is the point in time by which we start living like we did before the outbreak, and of course – and then between 70 and 80% there is a transition.
Once you have 80% of double vaccination, that means that we no longer focus on the number of cases, we focus on the number of hospitalisations.
When you have such high rates of vaccination, people can live more freely and we can focus on keeping people out of hospital rather than counting cases. As Dr Chant and other experts have said, you then transition to a stage where you regard Covid as more like the flu as opposed to a sinister virus, which is taking and threatening human life.
Updated
Victoria extends Melbourne lockdown by seven days
This was expected but will hit no less hard.
Victorian authorities have decided to extend the Melbourne lockdown which was due to end tomorrow for seven more days, after community transmission continued.
Updated
Dr Kerry Chant on the NSW regions:
In terms of the Hunter cases, 14 new cases across Hunter New England. The majority of those cases are linked, but some are still unlinked.
Those unlinked cases are the ones that concern is the most.
Central Coast has also reported two new cases and they are under investigation, but preliminary assessment indicates that both of those cases travelled outside of the Central Coast, and so preliminary information is that they probably acquired their infection outside the Central Coast.
Again, we ask the Central Coast community to be very vigilant and come forward in testing.
Dubbo, two confirmed cases that came in. A woman in her 40s and a young child. Because of those cases we have recommended a lockdown, which the government has put into place.
It is critical that the lockdown is complied with in Dubbo, and even though it comes in to place at 1pm today we are asking people to make those decisions and act in a way as if it is in place at the moment. We would like to see increased testing opportunities and, locally, those opportunities have been stood up.
Updated
A woman in her 40s and a young child in her household have tested positive for Covid in Dubbo, which is why the lockdown is in place.
There had been sewage alerts that Covid was in the community before this.
Updated
Dubbo will enter seven-day lockdown from 1pm
Dubbo will enter a seven-day lockdown from 1pm after two positive Covid cases were detected in the region.
Updated
NSW CHO Dr Kerry Chant has given a rundown of the people in the ICU – no one who has had two doses of the vaccination is intensive care:
The 62 cases in ICU, and again quite a young profile; three in their 20s, seven in their 30s, six in their 40s, 14 in their 50s, 13 in the 60s, 16 in their 70s, three in their 80s.
It is also important to know that 57 people in ICU, 57 of that 62 are not vaccinated.
Five people have received one dose of the vaccine. You can see that the vaccine works.
We haven’t got anybody in ICU that has received the two doses of the vaccine, and even the pattern we would have expected proportionate to vaccination status, those people not to be in ICU with one dose, so even one dose does afford protection.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian:
It will be the most challenging of months for New South Wales. How we live until we get to 70% double dose vaccination rate.
Can I stress this – myself, the minister, Dr Chant, every member of the government, we are committed to reducing case numbers.
This is always our intention. We know what works and what doesn’t. We’re learning as weeks go by.
We really want to encourage everybody to please stick to the rules.
Please know that when people do as they are asked the results are there.
It is just a handful of people doing the wrong thing that really causes grief for everybody, causes setbacks.
I know that police and health are working together, even until last night and during the day today to see what further we can do in relation to compliance, because we know a strong police presence – the ADF support on the ground – is making a difference.
Updated
So almost 100 cases were infectious in the community and 100 are still under investigation:
One hundred and forty-three cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 36 were in isolation for part of their infectious period. Sixty-five cases were infectious in the community, and the isolation status of 100 remains under investigation.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 11, 2021
Updated
Hunter region unlikely to come out of lockdown, NSW premier says
The Hunter is unlikely to come out of lockdown, Gladys Berejiklian says, with more cases reported in that region. The lockdown was set to be in place until Thursday.
Updated
There have been 4.5m vaccinations in NSW.
At the current pace, NSW will hit 80% of eligible people fully vaccinated in the middle of November.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian says more areas could be added to the areas of concern:
In Canterbury-Bankstown the cases are still high but we are seeing that trend and we know that the intensified efforts are starting to bear fruit.
However, local adjoining government areas, or suburbs of Bayside, Burwood, and the inner west are seeing an increase in cases.
They aren’t at high levels yet but we do not want them to get higher.
Please note if you live in those suburbs around the Bayside, Burwood and Inner West councils be on extra alert. Come forward for testing.
We don’t want to include you in those local governments of concern but we may have to do if case numbers don’t at least stabilise or start going down.
We are at a stage now whether those decisions will be provided by health experts over the next few days if we do not see a decline in those areas, especially those parts who are close to those other areas of concern.
Updated
NSW update – 344 new cases recorded and two deaths
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says at least 65 of the new Covid cases were infectious in the community.
Two people died – a man in his 80s and a man in his 30s. The younger man had underlying health conditions.
Despite the high number of cases, Fairfield is stabilising and there has been a decline in Canterbury-Bankstown cases.
Updated
Queensland summary
It was a shorter press conference than what we have seen lately, as Queensland feels like it is on top of the latest outbreak.
So what do you need to know?
- There have been four new cases, all linked and all were in home quarantine.
- Cairns will come out of lockdown at 4pm, although social restrictions like venue and gathering limits, and mask wearing remain in place.
- Some 15,000 Queenslanders received a vaccination yesterday.
- And 40% of the eligible Queensland population have received at least their first vaccination shot.
Masks work. Wear your mask.
Updated
Both New South Wales and Victoria will hold their press conferences at 11am.
We’ll bring you what we can from both. NSW will get the first go with more cases and reportedly a lockdown in Dubbo. But we won’t miss Victoria and we will bring you everything you need to know from that as soon as we can.
We tend to keep them as seperate as possible to cut down on confusion, but I’ll let you know which jurisdiction I am talking about if the posts get a bit mixed.
Updated
That’s where the Queensland press conference ends.
Updated
Dr Jeannette Young says masks work:
Masks are so important, I can’t stress this enough. They are really, really important for the Delta variant. Last year at the start of the pandemic, there was a lot of concern about fomites [surfaces holding the virus] and how some people would manage masks and how they use them.
We now know it’s actually that physical barrier that as you breathe out, it traps the virus and if you’re on the other side, you then have a double protection of the person who is engaging with you, he might have the virus and you are breathing in.
They work, they are really, really good, so please, I know they are awful, I hate them and I am sure I got home at night with a dry throat because I’ve been talking all day through them and I’m sure that’s the case with the teachers and I do sympathise, I really do, but it’s important. And for teachers, please avail yourselves of the vaccine that’s been made available to you because we now know with the Delta variant, kids are at risk of getting it and spreading it so kids are likely to spread it to teachers.
Updated
On people who have been trying to avoid the mask mandate in south-east Queensland (and now Cairns), Yvette D’Ath says:
As the chief health officer has said, for those who are so vulnerable that they can’t wear a mask, they should think about whether they should be moving around the community a lot anyway, just for their own safety, particularly at this heightened level of restrictions.
But it’s really disturbing to hear that. People shouldn’t be trying to find ways to work around the rules.
This is about keeping them safe as well as the broader community. If you don’t have a mask on, you are risking yourself getting the virus.
It is not worth trying to come up with a fake excuse not to wear a mask.
If you’ve got a genuine reason, that is fine and we’ve said this before ... we’re not expecting businesses to become police officers and direct people that they must show proof.
But we do ask for common sense, we ask for people to do the right thing because they are putting themselves in the community at risk by just flouting the laws around wearing masks. And having said that, can I say wherever I go, the majority of people are doing the right thing, they are wearing their masks, and we thank them for that.
Updated
On the aged care vaccination rates in Queensland (a federal responsibility) Jeannette Young says:
I am very, very concerned, so I would like to see every single resident in aged care fully vaccinated but it is their choice, remember.
That is their home, that is where they live and if they’ve chosen not to be vaccinated for whatever reason, that is absolutely their choice.
We are mandating, and national cabinet made this decision, as of the 17 September, and I definitely want to see it before then, anyone who works in aged care must have had at least one dose of the vaccine and we are monitoring that.
For our Queensland Health aged care facilities that we run, we are really strongly managing that and pushing that out. I do plead that every single person who works in one of our aged care facilities anywhere in the state, if you haven’t already, come forward and get your first dose and get yourself second dose as soon as are able to, eight weeks after the first dose for AstraZeneca, three weeks after the first dose for Pfizer.
Updated
Dr Jeannette Young says Queensland Health is looking at whether it can give a border exemption to the family of the woman who was holding her baby when she tripped while trying to avoid a magpie in Brisbane. Her five-month old daughter suffered critical injuries and did not survive. The woman’s family are unable to travel to Queensland to provide support because of border closures.
Young says they are working out what can be done.
Updated
Will Annastacia Palaszczuk release the focus group research her government received?
No.
It was market research and sentiment testing. And, no, it won’t be released.
Q: Why?
Palaszczuk:
Because every state and the federal government has also done the exact same market research and sentiment testing.
Q: There’s no reason not to release it?
Palaszczuk:
Go and ask all the other state premiers and the prime minister to release theirs.
Updated
Will Queensland look into drive-through vaccination centres?
It depends on supply of vaccines, Annastacia Palaszczuk says:
We will look at all options. Because we know that national cabinet has set very high targets of 70% and 80% vaccinations. I heard reports this morning that BBC News was saying that over 75% of people in the UK now have been administered with the vaccine. That’s what we need to see here in Australia. So, as soon as we get that supply, we can administer more vaccines.
Updated
Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath says 40% of eligible Queenslanders have had at least their first vaccination.
Updated
Queensland’s CHO Dr Jeannette Young wants to see children with underlying health conditions vaccinated:
Then there is another group I’d like to get vaccinated – that is children. Because of the Delta variant, children 12-15 who have significant underlying diseases.
So, [the] Children’s Hospital is managing that process. It’s really important that those children come forward and get vaccinated with Pfizer as soon as they’re able to register and get an appointment. Well ... not at this stage. The Atagi advice is that it’s children who have significant underlying diseases ... cystic fibrosis, lung transplants, children with significant diseases – it’s really important they are protected.
Updated
Dubbo in regional NSW will reportedly go into lockdown, after cases there:
#BREAKING: The Dubbo LGA in regional NSW will go into a snap lockdown from 1pm today. The ABC has been told there are two positive cases in the region. Two local schools have been closed. @abcnews #COVID19nsw
— Chelsea Hetherington (@chelsea_hetho) August 11, 2021
Updated
Annastacia Palaszczuk:
So, thank you, Queensland. I’m so proud. A week ago, I think everyone was worried about where we would end up with this cluster. It was our biggest challenge. And Queenslanders absolutely rose to that challenge, and it’s through your hard work that we’re in this fantastic situation today. And just as Cairns has done that as well, well done, Cairns. Every single person in the community needs to be commended.
Cairns to come out of lockdown at 4pm
In Queensland, 23,999 tests were done in the last 24 hours.
In Cairns, there were 4,476 tests.
More than 15,000 vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours.
And Cairns is out of lockdown.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, for doing the right thing,” the premier says.
The same mask mandates and restrictions which are in south-east Queensland will now apply in Cairns.
Updated
Queensland records four new Covid cases, all in home quarantine
As usual, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk starts her press conference with a good morning to the Facebook Live viewers as well.
There has been a big push in the Queensland government to extend its social media presence.
There have been four new Covid cases, but all are linked and all were in home quarantine.
Updated
The Queensland press conference is being held in the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane – which is open as a mass vaccination hub.
More than 200,000 people have registered for an appointment to receive their vaccination.
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Also, yes, there is this point on focus group polling:
Karen Andrews thinks Palaszczuk has "questions to answer" over Qld Covid polling.
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) August 10, 2021
Do Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have questions to answer about the $1.1m of polling their offices received?https://t.co/4ufgI0erX5 pic.twitter.com/oat5ViibgB
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Karen Andrews suggests kids cut down on disposable fashion to help environment
Home affairs minister Karen Andrews has given her opinions on a range of issues, including the environment, western Sydney and leadership, in a talk with Brisbane radio station 4BC.
Here she is on the Covid situation in western and south-west Sydney:
Q: We have to help them. It’s not racist to say that these people can’t speak English and a lot of these families, you know, they have to go to work and everything. If you say something, people say, “You’re racist.” It’s not being racist – we’re trying to help these people.
Andrews:
Absolutely. Look, I agree with you there. We do need to support fellow Australians, people who are living here that really need our assistance. So yes, I agree with you and I don’t think we should hold back in our support for these people. We’re doing a lot federally to support them with various programs and I think all Australians want to see Sydney – south-western Sydney, western Sydney – come out of this pandemic as soon as possible.
And on the environment:
Andrews:
Look, it does come back to a fair bit of personal responsibility. And I mean, I can add one to your list, which is disposable fashion. You know, kids going out there – well not just kids – everyone going out there and buying way more than they need, which generates quite a lot of waste.
So there’s a whole range of things that we need to be looking at. But personal responsibility is a key part of it.
Now, many people have looked at what they can do with recycling – and that’s great, you know, let’s do that and let’s do more where we can. But you’re right, everyone’s got multiple electronic devices now. We do use a lot of energy in our homes. Some of us do have solar cells on our roof, that’s great, but we have to work our way through to how we’re going to deal with these things over the longer term, and personal responsibility and our ability to manage our own circumstances in terms of the power that we’re using is pretty critical.
(So Australia’s emissions are too small to count internationally, but what you do in your home is “pretty critical” is the message from government MPs. Cool.)
Oh, and on leadership (she was responding to questions on Annastacia Palaszczuk and her response to questions on focus group polling on Covid responses yesterday), Andrews said:
You know, you do need to turn up and face the tough questions and answer it the best possible way that you can. I mean, running and hiding and coming up with a range of excuses is not the sign of a good leader.
Which seems to ignore how long Scott Morrison has gone between press conferences when issues have popped up (as well as his habit of turning and leaving as questions are still being asked when topics get a little uncomfortable).
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Australia is nominating someone for the UN’s international court of justice in The Hague (to sit on the bench, not stand in front of it, in case you were wondering).
From Michaelia Cash:
The independent Australian National Group – a body of eminent Australian jurists who serve as members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague – has nominated Professor Hilary Charlesworth AM FASSA for election as a Judge of the International Court of Justice. The Australian Government has supported the nomination by the Australian National Group.
Professor Charlesworth is a leading scholar and jurist who has made a significant contribution to the study and practice of international law, including by serving as judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice.
Professor Charlesworth is currently the Harrison Moore Chair in Law and Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School and a Distinguished Professor at Australian National University. She has been a visiting professor at several law schools in the United States, France and the United Kingdom and has also held both an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship and a Laureate Fellowship. She has been President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, as well as being closely engaged with the Asian Society of International Law and the American Society of International Law. She is a graduate of University of Melbourne and has a Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard Law School.
The election will take place at the United Nations headquarters in New York on 5 November to fill the vacancy resulting from the passing of Judge James Richard Crawford LLD, FBA, AC, SC on 31 May 2021, whose term was due to conclude on 5 February 2024.
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Further to Paul’s post on the childcare bill:
First Bill up for debate in the Senate today is for the 2021 Budget's Child Care Subsidy changes which will remove the annual cap and increase rates for 2nd+ children aged under 6 in child care.
— Michael Klapdor (@whobekindto) August 10, 2021
Bills Digest provides analysis of the Bill: https://t.co/8Hxvfwx5wW https://t.co/qwXlFw50SO pic.twitter.com/bF2KByM8na
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Queensland is expected to give its update at 10am.
Then there will be the NSW/Victoria juggle about 11am (on current indications).
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Here’s how the trend in Victoria looks, for those asking:
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Last night Senate debate on the government’s childcare bill exposed division in the Coalition that had earlier surfaced in the party room.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan told the Senate he will not be voting in favour of the Coalition’s bill, which increases the childcare subsidy for families with two children in care and scraps the subsidy cap for high income earners, at a cost of $1.7bn.
Canavan said his opposition was “not necessarily [to] the change in this bill itself” but the fact it “it seems completely out of whack and out of balance to me that we cannot find any assistance for those families who decide to look after their own children”.
In June Coalition women had angrily rejected suggestions that childcare subsidies encouraged women to outsource parenting.
Canavan said:
I support families and want to support families who make the choice to work and therefore have to provide and pay for childcare for their young children, but there are, of course, families who make the decision for one or other of the parents, or sometimes both, in combination, to look after their own children. We should support that choice as well.
He gave the example of two families earning $150,000, one with both parents working and the other with a stay-at-home parent. The family with both parents working would bank $7,000 in childcare subsidies while the family with a single breadwinner would get none, contributing to a difference in their tax bill of nearly $18,000.
Canavan also noted the changes primarily benefit high-income families:
I don’t have a fundamental objection to supporting families more. I do think, though, that families that are on over $200,000 a year, who this bill helps to support, shouldn’t be at the front of the queue for government assistance. If you are lucky enough to have a household income of that kind of amount – I’m in that category – and you decide to bring a child into the world, I think, primarily, it should be your responsibility to look after that child. There is some government assistance there but I don’t support the idea that through this legislation we would now spend another $1.7bn on the richest people in our community – the absolute top few per cent.
Liberal senator Gerard Rennick also raised concerns about the bill but debate was interrupted by the adjournment, so that is where we will pick things up this morning.
Rennick said his “problem with this bill is that it continues the arms race whereby the more we increase childcare subsidies, the higher childcare fees go”.
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Cash profit at the nation’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth, has soared by nearly 20%, reaching $6.8bn, the company announced this morning.
The spike in profit, which came amid the continuing coronavirus crisis, also fattened the wallet of chief executive Matt Comyn, whose take-home pay rocketed from $3.8m to $5.1m.
In its annual report – part of the flood of paperwork put out by the bank this morning – CBA makes much of its commitment to the environment and reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
But activist group Market Forces says the bank has actually watered down its previous commitment by adopting a “glide path” for fossil fuel sectors that doesn’t reach net zero until 2070.
Market Forces says CBA was also taking the watering can to a pledge to stop financing new fossil fuel projects that would be inconsistent with net zero by 2050:
The commitment previously applied to all “Banking and Financing activity”, but now only applies to “project finance”, meaning the bank could fund such projects via corporate lending or other means.
It also previously applied to all “New oil, gas or metallurgical coal projects”, but has now been narrowed to only “oil, gas or metallurgical coal extractive activity”.
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Here is how Victorian cases are looking:
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Some inner-west bus services in Sydney have been impacted because of staff shortages after two Leichhardt depot staff tested positive to Covid.
Transport for NSW warns there will be impacts from today, after other staff, including drivers, were deemed casual contacts and sent into isolation while being tested:
As a result of this, a significant number of bus services in the Inner West have been cancelled and will not be operating today and Thursday.
This will impact customers travelling on the following bus routes:
305, 320, 406, 428, 430, 431, 433, 437, 438N, 438X, 440, 441, 442, 445, 470, 502, 503, 504, 504X
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Victoria records 20 new cases
And here we go – 15 have been linked and 14 were in quarantine:
Reported yesterday: 20 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 10, 2021
- 23,811 vaccine doses were administered
- 41,571 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/yKBkbFxvRB
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We are still waiting on the official confirmation from Victorian authorities, as well as how many cases are linked and how many have been in isolation:
Hearing today’s number is 20 cases
— Rafael Epstein (@Raf_Epstein) August 10, 2021
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Nationals senator Matt Canavan has appeared on the Nine Network this morning agreeing with George Christensen’s anti-lockdown views.
He claims there no hospitals were overrun in western countries. Which may come as a surprise to people in the US, who couldn’t get into a hospital when they needed oxygen, because yes, they were overrun. Or when New York authorities were begging for ventilators. Or in the UK, where friends of mine who had Covid were told by ambulance officers not even to try for hospital, when they needed it, because they wouldn’t be able to get a bed.
The only pushback Canavan received for his misleading claims on national television was: “We will beg to differ about that.”
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The Queensland mass vaccination hub in Brisbane has opened this morning (just a few minutes ago).
It’s appointment-only and offers Pfizer and second doses of AstraZeneca.
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You may have noticed Scott Morrison deliberately mentioned China and its emissions in his IPCC defence yesterday.
Daniel Hurst reports that two of Australia’s former prime ministers have noticed a trend:
Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd have urged the federal government not to ramp up rhetoric against China for domestic political purposes, arguing that it could harm social cohesion.
Turnbull said he worried “that some of the political rhetoric, if played for the local rightwing media peanut gallery, can actually undermine something that is very precious, which is the success of our multicultural society”.
In a wide-ranging webinar discussion last night, Turnbull and Rudd reflected on Australia’s deteriorating relationship with China and the effect that could have on 1.2 million Australians of Chinese heritage.
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The Berejiklian government is facing calls to require all NSW public servants to be vaccinated and to introduce public health orders mandating that all public-facing workers in the private sector are as well.
The Committee for Sydney, an urban planning thinktank that represents member organisations in hospitality, entertainment, construction and universities, is also calling for the NSW government to set clear start dates for when different industries can reopen, provided they only accept workers and customers with vaccine passports.
Ehssan Veiszadeh, deputy chief executive of the committee, said this morning:
In this new phase of the pandemic, people may have the right not to be vaccinated, but they shouldn’t have the right to put others in danger. The evidence is clear: unvaccinated people pose a far greater risk to themselves and the wider community.
There is no reason why vaccine passports shouldn’t start being used now across industries that are already open, such as in retail settings and essential workplaces. Once we begin to emerge out of restrictions, these can be expanded to gyms, cinemas and tourist attractions.
Yesterday the committee issued a statement to its member organisations calling for the NSW government to nominate reopening dates for different industries, requiring the public sector to be vaccinated, and for public health orders mandating vaccines in other private businesses.
It said clarity from the government would act as an incentive for people who believe they can wait for others to get vaccinated for the reopening targets to be reached:
Government could initiate this by piloting passports across some of these settings. Setting a start date will help industries prepare their operations, and it will also provide a powerful incentive for people to get vaccinated now.
The committee argues that because of the size of the NSW public sector – the country’s largest employer at about 400,000 people across public facilities including schools, hospitals and police – and Sydney’s Delta outbreak, it is best positioned to set an example and act before businesses and the federal government.
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Miff cancels in-cinema screenings in Melbourne
The Melbourne International film festival is the latest Covid arts victim (although screenings will continue in the regions):
In light of the current COVID situation in Melbourne, and with the safety of audiences and staff at the forefront of their thinking, the board and management of Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) have taken the very difficult decision to cancel the in-cinema component of this year’s festival, planned to be delivered from Thursday 12 through Sunday 22 August.
Refunds will be issued to all patrons who have booked tickets for these sessions.
Despite this change, MIFF is committed to the extended delivery of the 2021 MIFF Play program – the festival’s online streaming platform – which has been beaming into living rooms across the country since last Thursday, alongside MIFF’s world-leading Extended Reality program, which is available to audiences, free, globally.
Given the current operating environment in regional Victoria, MIFF’s regional cinema season will continue.
Any required changes to the program line-up will be advised through local operators.
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I also don’t think anyone was suggesting slavery as the only other option here. (And obviously the conversation meant nothing, given that George Christensen was on Sydney radio first thing this morning talking about how unrepentant he was):
In Parliament yesterday, George Christiansen claims lockdowns and masks "don't work". @Barnaby_Joyce, Deputy Prime Minister, says he condemns those comments.
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) August 10, 2021
"I've had a conversation with him. That doesn't mean he's the slave of anybody."
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Meanwhile, Barnaby Joyce has popped up on ABC Radio National to remind everyone the Nationals are against a net zero emissions by 2050 commitment (which is not true; only some of the Nationals are against net zero, and you could rattle those names off easily enough, as they are the same ones who have always been against it).
Joyce, who seemingly has forgotten he has been in the government for the last eight years, and for about half of that has been the deputy prime minister, told the ABC it was because no one was telling the Nationals what was in the plan.
And they can’t support something without knowing what the plan is. Even though they are in government. Creating the plan.
Joyce wants to know what the plan is before he supports the plan, that he is supposed to help plan, because you can’t act without a plan, so someone needs to come up with a plan.
Barnaby Joyce = the definition of a circular argument - it's not the government's job to come up with a plan, but they can't act without a plan
— Lenore Taylor (@lenoretaylor) August 10, 2021
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Queensland LNP MP George Christensen has spoken to Sydney radio 2GB about being censured through a parliamentary motion yesterday.
The whole House, including the government, voted to support Labor’s motion disassociating the parliament with Christensen’s anti-lockdown and anti-public health measure comments yesterday (although Scott Morrison couldn’t bring himself to name or reference Christensen in his speech and just an hour or so later, cabinet minister Paul Fletcher declined five times on national TV to say he disagreed with Christensen’s views).
Christensen, not surprisingly, is unrepentant, telling 2GB that the censure motion was like “being flogged with wet lettuce”.
He’s retiring from federal politics at the next election so is feeling even more emboldened to do and say what ever he likes. And the government, which needs to keep him on their side of the benches for the rest of the term, because of its numbers, as well as keep the voters Christensen et al appeals to in the tent, is unwilling to rein him in. (Plus, with Barnaby Joyce back in the Nats’ top job, Christensen knows he has protection.)
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Good morning
Happy Wednesday!
It’s not just hump day; we’re also halfway through the parliamentary sitting. At this stage, there’s a week break and then it’s back into it, but you have to wonder whether any of the east coast MPs will risk going home, given how quickly Covid is changing the landscape. Although, it doesn’t seem like anyone is missing the deputy prime minister, who has been in lockdown in Armidale, and apparently, unable to zoom in for the sitting (he has answered no questions in QT and offered no contributions to debate).
After a record number of cases (for this outbreak) yesterday, NSW is braced for more bad news. Yesterday CHO Dr Kerry Chant, Gladys Berejiklian and Brad Hazzard all made points about people not complying with the lockdown, which led to increased transmission in the community. Seven weeks in and there is still a large number of people in each daily update who have been in the community during their infectious period. But the NSW government is not looking at paying people to stay home and is telling people to apply for the disaster payments. Instead, it is all about vaccinations. Vaccinations are very, very important but, given the stress the community is under, so is bringing transmission down. Today’s update will be with you around 11.
There was better news for Melbourne yesterday, despite the 20 cases reported. All were linked to known cases and, while 15 people were in the community during their infectious period, it’s hoped Melbourne’s almost instant lockdown will stop the spread. It’s looking unlikely that the lockdown will lift on Thursday as first planned though. Today’s numbers will give a better indication but, given authorities are still expecting cases, there’s a worry they haven’t found all those who may have contracted it. With some people not testing positive until after day seven from infection, authorities want to know they have everyone they need in home quarantine before opening further.
In Queensland, Cairns will learn if it comes out of its short sharp lockdown. Queensland still has 13,000 people in the south-east in home quarantine and has reinforced its border (added more police) after the NSW northern rivers lockdown.
All in all, the east coast appears to be in a holding pattern, with no one willing to take a breath until the nation reaches the Doherty Institute’s 80% (eligible) vaccination goal (there are still lockdowns anticipated at 70%).
We’ll bring you all those updates, plus everything else as it happens in parliament today. Mike Bowers is back (huzzah) and we have the whole Canberra team of Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp on deck.
It’s been a three-coffee morning and no doubt will get worse. I’m already reaching for the chocolate.
Ready?
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