What we learned today, Tuesday 31 August
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Here’s a recap of the main stories of the day:
- Australia secures 500,000 early Pfizer doses in a vaccine swap deal with Singapore.
- Victoria records its first deaths from Covid-19 this year: a woman in her 40s and another in her 60s, both of whom died at home. The state will announce thresholds for reopening on Wednesday.
- New South Wales records 1,164 new cases, as the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, says the state will cut the number of international passengers it accepts so health workers within the hotel quarantine system can be redeployed to hospitals.
- The federal Indigenous affairs minister, Ken Wyatt, defends the vaccine rollout to the Indigenous population, a day after the first confirmed death of an Indigenous person with Covid-19.
- The prime minister, Scott Morrison, hints about the timing of the election.
Updated
Western and south-west Sydney continue to generate the majority of NSW’s new Covid cases, but other regions of Sydney are at risk of being classified an LGA of concern and placed under tighter restrictions including a curfew if local cases worsen.
There were 231 new cases in Canterbury-Bankstown, 225 in Cumberland, 152 in Blacktown, 81 in Liverpool and 69 in Fairfield – with these LGAs recording the highest transmission.
However, new cases were higher in the Inner West LGA, which recorded 17 new cases, than in Burwood, which is classified an LGA of concern but reported three new cases on Monday after a run of several days with zero new cases. Inner West is not currently an LGA of concern.
There were also 17 new cases in Camden, seven cases in Randwick, and four in Ryde. These areas are not currently considered LGAs of concern.
Despite cases flaring up, the NSW chief health officer, Kerry Chant, when asked last week why Burwood remained an LGA of concern despite recording a run of zero case days, said “one day is not a trend”.
You can read more about the Covid situation in NSW here:
Updated
Trigger warning for those of you who suffer from culture wars trauma: Coalition MPs want more school chaplains to help children suffering mentally because of “alarmist” climate activism.
Updated
The latest Victorian health department update also contains the rather disturbing news that people who gathered on a street corner to watch a fire in Glenroy on 19 August must get tested and isolate until receiving a negative result, as it has been deemed a tier two exposure site (all the exposure sites are listed here: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/exposure-sites)
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Two Victorians die at home from Covid-19
The Victorian department of health has confirmed a woman in her 60s from Hume and a woman in her 40s from Darebin, both local government areas in Melbourne’s north, have died of Covid-19. They passed away at home, the statement confirms.
They are believed to be the first fatalities from Covid-19 in the state this year.
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Gerry Harvey on ABC Melbourne just now: “I’m not talking about jobkeeper. There’s two subjects I don’t want to talk about to anyone - one’s the pandemic ... and two is jobkeeper, which everyone’s got a point of view on.”
Who is going to tell Harvey that ABC drive radio almost entirely consists of people talking about things that “everyone’s got a point of view on”?
Harvey Norman has announced it will repay $6 million in #JobKeeper after a record profit for the 2021 financial year.
— ABC Melbourne (@abcmelbourne) August 31, 2021
Harvey Norman founder Gerry Harvey joining @Raf_Epstein on #Drive now https://t.co/ny8UjJcrZa
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Victorian MP Shaun Leane, who is the minister for local government, suburban development and veterans in the Andrews government, has revealed he is receiving treatment for skin cancer. He is taking four weeks leave.
Wishing a speedy recovery to my friend, colleague in the Eastern bloc, and one of the nicest & decent blokes anyone will ever meet. Get well soon brother 🙂 @ShaunLeaneMP 💐 #springst pic.twitter.com/LLr6Y4ng5s
— Sonja Terpstra 🐓 (@TerpsMLC) August 31, 2021
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Afternoon all.
It sounds as if Gerry Harvey has had an interesting phone “interview” just now with ABC Melbourne’s Rafael Epstein.
Gerry Harvey now on @Raf_Epstein's show, straight off the bat:
— Antoun Issa (@antissa) August 31, 2021
"I'm not talking about jobkeeper."
Wow.
The very wonderful Nino Bucci will take you through the evening, so stay tuned for his updates.
Parliament continues for two more days this sitting, before going on a six-week break. I know there are a lot of rumours about an election being called in that break, but it is unlikely – half the population is still in lockdown, which would mean the campaign would have to be mostly virtual, because travel would be out for the two biggest states, and well, half the population is in lockdown, meaning people aren’t exactly feeling overly positive about the federal government right now.
And yes, Scott Morrison did say to the party room today that the election will be sooner than you think, but I don’t think he means in the next month. I could be wrong – none of us know for sure, because we don’t have fixed terms, so the date is basically a sword of Damocles above all of our heads.
Over that next six weeks, the situation in NSW is likely to get worse. If Gladys Berejiklian is right, it won’t peak until October. There is a pretty rough ride ahead for all of us, including the states not in lockdown, as the national plan argument in the wake of NSW’s case numbers heats up.
Just don’t expect any answers over the next two days. If Morrison’s mood this week has been any indication, things are unlikely to move on in the parliament this week, either.
I’ll be back tomorrow morning to cover off whatever malarkey pops up, as well as the Covid updates and other actual important things. As always, big love to Mike Bowers for all his hard work keeping us updated, and everyone in the Guardian brains trust for all of their work keeping Politics Live up and running, as well as making sense (they have pretty big clean-up jobs when things get very busy).
Thank you though, to all of you for coming along with us. You are all absolute champs and I know you are doing it while a lot of you are under extreme emotional and mental stress with lockdowns, work, family and just general pandemic fatigue. The community you have built here matters to us, and we thank you for spending part of your day with us, making the best of what is often a pretty shitty situation. Thank you.
Stay tuned with Nino and I’ll catch you tomorrow – take care of you.
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I doubt we will hear Josh Frydenberg go as hard against lockdowns as he did last year, when he launched a sustained attack on the Victorian government.
That doesn’t mean he won’t be pushing the case though.
I thought I’d share with you some heartfelt & heartbreaking letters I have received from members of my local community who have been doing it tough during the lockdowns.
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) August 31, 2021
Their stories are powerful & reflect the hardships being faced my millions of families across Australia. pic.twitter.com/pAPlpra3pm
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The women’s safety summit is being held (mostly remotely) next week. But as AAP reports, advocates are not happy with the solutions proposed so far:
The Morrison government says its commitment to women is “unmatched”, but advocates warn a historic opportunity to boldly legislate to end sexual harassment is being botched.
“In its current form, the respect at work bill is insufficient to really stamp out sexual harassment,” Lisa Annese, head of the Diversity Council Australia, said on Tuesday.
“Most people never make complaints, they tolerate behaviour.”
Sara Kane, chief executive of Green Circle Legal, said creating and facilitating a hostile, humiliating, offensive environment on the basis of gender should be expressly prohibited.
“The time is now, it’s 2021, we have the absolute magic moment to make a difference,” Ms Kane said.
Labor and the Greens want all of last year’s recommendations from Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins to be wholly reflected in the proposed laws currently before parliament.
The draft bill establishes that harassment is a legal and valid reason for dismissal and gives the commissioner more opportunities to put in place punitive measures such as stop orders on workplaces.
“The government’s commitment to women is unmatched,” Liberal senator Sarah Henderson said during Tuesday’s debate on the bill.
“Sexual harassment is a blight on our workplaces. It corrupts the bond of trust which workers should develop for one another, and clothes its victims in fear and shame.”
The proposed laws also expand the mandate of the regime to public officials, including members of parliament and their staff, public servants, and judges.
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Bill Shorten has accused the Morrison government of releasing “false financial information to hype its claims of NDIS budget blow outs”.
It is bad enough that NDIS Minister Linda Reynolds cruelly scapegoats people with disability to justify ideologically-driven cuts to the safety net.
But it is a new low to fake the numbers and pretend the costs are growing when her own figures show they are reducing.
Minister Reynolds must now apologise to the disability community for running a campaign of mistruth on such an important matter and come clean on the real figures.
Here are Shorten’s receipts from his statement:
LINDA’S CLAIM: Costs have continued to increase at a much higher rate than expected.
FACT: The NDIA reports (Jan-June 2021) average participant annual spend is $55,900. Which means Minister Reynold’s media release amount of $53,400 is actually a decrease of $2,500 per participant.
LINDA’S CLAIM: Scheme costs increased 18% July 2021 compared to July 2020.
FACT: There are 80,640 more participants in July this year than July last year – an increase of 20.5%. Which means per-participant cost is going down.
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Ben Butler has the latest on super funds failing the performance test:
Thirteen superannuation funds, including two associated with the Commonwealth Bank, that collectively hold the retirement savings of 1 million Australians have failed a new performance test, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data released on Tuesday morning shows.
The funds, which manage $56bn in assets, will now have to write to their members informing them of the underperformance and inviting them to use an online super comparison tool run by the Australian Taxation Office.
Among the big funds to fail the test are the FirstChoice Employer Super fund run by CBA subsidiary Colonial First State, which has funds under management of $10.5bn and more than 230,000 members, and the MySuper product offered by big financial services group BT, which has $17.2bn under management on behalf of more than 540,000 members.
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New Zealand just really keeps setting the bar at ever-increasing heights. As Tess McClure reports:
A New Zealand cabinet minister has become the latest public figure to be embarrassed by an unfortunate incident involving a video call after her live TV interview was interrupted by her son, who entered the room excitedly brandishing a phallic carrot.
Carmel Sepuloni, the minister for social development, was doing a live Zoom interview with Radio Samoa when her grinning son burst through the door behind her, holding an oddly shaped carrot he’d apparently found among the groceries.
The video is a top-shelf addition to the canon of remote television interviews being interrupted by irrepressible children – a genre that’s become increasingly common in the age of Covid-19, as interviews and meetings transition to video calling.
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Lorena Allam has updated the Wilcannia story:
There have been small anti-lockdown protests in a bunch of different cities today, including Melbourne, Sydney and even Brisbane, where there are no lockdowns.
Updated
The cut in international arrivals (overall) has been extended until October.
Gladys Berejiklian has quietly halved the state’s weekly caps on returning overseas travellers for September as the number of active cases in NSW approaches 18,000. About 750 people will be able to fly into NSW from overseas each week.
— James O'Doherty (@jmodoh) August 31, 2021
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Tanya Plibersek (in lockdown in Sydney) was asked on the ABC about whether or not she thinks vaccines should be mandated for teachers:
I think before we start talking about compulsory vaccination we should talk about vaccinating the people who are desperate to get hold of vaccine that can’t.
We have people contacting my office, members of parliament’s offices all the time, saying I have been searching everywhere for an appointment for myself or someone I love and I cannot get an appointment to get a vaccine.
So the first job is to have another vaccine available to people.
The second step is asking the questionm, where people are dealing with vulnerable people, people who are sick for example or who have compromised immunity, should they be able to work with those people if they are not vaccinated?
No, I don’t think so. I think if someone risks passing on Covid to a population that cannot get vaccinated, I would not be comfortable with that
Updated
NSW nurses' union tells Brad Hazzard to 'wake up to the crisis'
At the New South Wales Covid update earlier today, the state’s health minister Brad Hazzard faced a barrage of questions about the state health system’s ICU capacity.
When asked about staffing pressure concerns raised by frontline workers and the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, Hazzard took a swipe at the union, criticising it for its “negativity”.
“How about you get out and back everybody and be a bit more positive. That’s not helpful,” Hazzard said of the union’s concerns.
Hazzard’s comments have infuriated nurses across NSW who tuned into the press conference this morning, according to the NSW NMA, which represents 73,000 members.
The union has warned Hazzard that by ignoring the concerns being raised by nurses, he risks seeing overworked nurses quit, and that he needs to “wake up to the crisis”.
In a statement, the NSW NMA said:
What is not helpful, is the NSW Health Minister publicly dismissing these concerns and continuing to deny the fact our hospital system is at risk of reaching a breaking point. Our members are telling an inconvenient truth. One the NSW Health Minister refuses to acknowledge.
The fact is, in addition to the increased stresses of Covid-19, nurses and midwives are dealing with a significant reduction in staffing from forced isolation and redeployment of nurses to Covid-19 vaccination hubs, testing clinics and quarantine hotels.
It’s time the NSW government listened to what’s really going on in our public health system. Nurses and midwives are fatigued, burnt out and feel unsupported at work. We will lose some of our most valuable workers if the NSW Health Minister doesn’t wake up to the crisis we are facing and offer more support.
We call on the Ministry of Health to start utilising any nurses who were upskilled with critical care training last year while we still have experienced ICU nurses able to offer the guidance and clinical supervision that’s needed to care for COVID-19 positive patients, before the October peak hits. Our ICUs and the entire public health system was under strain before this pandemic, with excessive overtime and poor staffing ratios.
The current workloads are unsustainable. Enough is enough. The NSW government can’t continue to ignore the pleas from frontline workers and blame unions for giving our members a voice.”
On Monday, Guardian Australia revealed overworked Sydney intensive care nurses were increasing sedative doses for some patients to help manage their workload.
Updated
This is one take.
Singapore sends us 500,000 Pfizer doses in September. We send Singapore 500,000 doses in December. Scott Morrison has finally committed to net zero.
— Chris Bowen (@Bowenchris) August 31, 2021
Updated
Helen Haines’s attempts to suspend standing orders to debate the national integrity commission didn’t pass, after the government voted against it.
But it was supported (and seconded) by Anthony Albanese and Labor.
Updated
From Mike Bowers to you:
Anthony Albanese tries to send the government to its room:
There is a lot going on here:
Guess some things can’t wait for the group chat:
Updated
Greens senator and Djab Wurrung, Gunai and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe had a bit to say about the government’s vaccine roll out for First Nations Australians:
The Morrison government is putting First Nations peoples lives at risk by failing to listen to us. Overcrowded housing, food insecurity and an under-resourced healthcare sector in regional areas hurt us before the pandemic.
This pandemic has put a spotlight on government neglect, that has existed for decades.
The Maari Ma Aboriginal Health Corporation gave the Morrison government warnings and strategies for managing COVID-19 in western New South Wales 18 months ago. This was ignored, and now Wilcannia has the highest transmission rate in NSW.
Just last month, the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation was excluded from a national COVID-19 vaccine task force meeting, despite Aboriginal health services being primarily responsible for delivering vaccines to First Nations people.
How much proof do you need that this top-down approach isn’t working?
Non-Indigenous peoples vaccination rates are double ours in most states and territories. This shows First Nations people that we are not a priority for this government.
The Australian government hasn’t looked after First Nations people since colonisation, so this government needs to hand over control of our affairs back to the people.
People on the ground know what’s best for their communities.
Updated
Returning to an issue that came up in question time - whether the government might change its policy towards more than 4,000 Afghan refugees who are currently living in Australia on temporary visas (either temporary protection visas or safe haven enterprise visas), having arrived by boat.
Close followers of asylum seeker and refugee policy debates may have noticed the home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, didn’t give a direct answer when asked by South Australian MP Rebekha Sharkie whether the government might now provide these recognised refugees with permanent residency “given the horrendous events unfolding in Afghanistan”.
Andrews said the government was working with the Afghan community in Australia, and would “continue to do all that we can to support those people who are currently in Australia and who are on their way here”. Andrews offered to continue the discussion directly with Sharkie.
Refugee advocates have been urging the government to offer hope to those who have been on temporary visas for many years now, suggesting the conditions back home mean they can’t realistically return.
However, Guardian Australia understands there is no change to government policy. Andrews said last week Australia would maintain its policy that “no one who arrives in Australia illegally by boat will ever settle here”. The prime minister Scott Morrison (the former immigration minister who set up Operation Sovereign Borders) also told reporters two week ago:
I also confirm that those who … have not come to Australia the right way and are on temporary visas in Australia, they will not be offered permanent residence in Australia. That will not change. I want to be very clear about that. I want to send a very clear message to people smugglers in the region that nothing’s changed. I will not give you a product to sell and take advantage of people’s misery. My government won’t do it. We never have and we never will.
Updated
Our sport team has more on the AFL grand final:
The 2021 grand final will be played in Perth for the first time in AFL history after the game’s spiritual home, the MCG, was ruled out of hosting the showpiece game due to the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in Victoria.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and Victorian sports minister Martin Pakula confirmed the switch at a press conference on Tuesday, after Optus Stadium had been officially named standby venue last week.
The league had made it clear it wanted to hold the premiership decider in front of fans, but with the lockdown in Melbourne extending beyond the initial 2 September deadline – and as Victoria recorded another 76 local cases on Tuesday – the MCG was no longer a viable option.
Updated
AFL grand final to be held in Perth
For the second year in a row, the MCG will not host the AFL grand final.
The AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said it had become clear it won’t serve the Melbourne community to hold the final at the MCG.
It will be held at Optus stadium on Saturday, 25 September.
McLachlan:
To all Victorians, we will be back at the MCG bigger and better in 2022. You have stuck by our game all year, and I know how hard it has been, especially how challenging it has been for the community of football. It has been a tricky season, not only for the AFL, but for all your leagues.
I want you to know that the priority of the AFL is to have you back up and running for next season, as you have our support.
Updated
The Indi independent Helen Haines is now moving to suspend standing orders to debate this motion:
I move that so much of standing orders be suspended that would prevent the Member for Indi from moving the following motion:
That this House:
1. Notes that:
a. on September 8 it will be 1,000 days since the Prime Minister made an election promise to establish a federal integrity commission
b. the Prime Minister has failed to introduce a bill to Parliament to do so; and,
c. Parliament will rise in two days’ time for a six-week break, during which the Prime Minister could call an election at any moment.
2. Calls on the Government to:
a. abandon its Commonwealth Integrity Commission proposal, which retired judges and academic experts have described as ineffective and unamendable;
b. establish a strong, well-funded, wide-ranging, and independent integrity commission through the Australian Federal Integrity Commission Bill that I introduced to this House almost a year ago;
c. admit it has deliberately stalled progress on a reform that over 80 per cent of Australians across the political spectrum have called for as a matter of urgency;
d. admit is has failed to meet a key election commitment to the Australian people; and,
e. acknowledge that their inaction has compounded falling trust in Government at a time where trust in Government is crucial to our safety and prosperity.
Updated
Question time ends.
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Terri Butler to Scott Morrison:
“I refer to reports the secretary of the Department of Health wrote to intensive care doctors on Friday asking them whether they think the health system can deal with an influx of Covid patients. Eighteen months into the pandemic, why has the Morrison-Joyce government waited until now to check whether the hospital is coping?”
Morrison:
The assertion put forward by the questioner is completely false. It is just completely false, Mr Speaker.
If the Labor party cared to pay any attention to what was going on, they would know that for months and months and months, Mr Speaker, the secretary of the Department of Health has been providing regular updates to the premiers and myself ... about the status of the public hospital system and the public health system and their response capacity to the Covid-19 pandemic.
That has been happening since the outbreak of the pandemic and to suggest otherwise is just a deliberate attempt by the Labor party to undermine public confidence in the Covid response.
That is becoming a very regular thing – to undermine. They undermine the economic measures. They undermine the serious investment made by the commonwealth, some $6bn to support public hospitals.
There is a point of order on relevance and then Morrison starts again:
Since the beginning of this pandemic we have been working with the states and territories to bolster the ICU capacity ... the ability to move staff and resources around the country to respond to the needs that may present and may well present in the future. Because what we know about Covid is it is very uncertain.
There are new strains and we need to be prepared to respond and that is exactly what’s occurring. And the secretary of the Department of Health has been tasked again to do even further on that because that is part of the national plan.
The answer continues down the national plan track.
Updated
Just on Ken Wyatt’s earlier comments about vaccine hesitancy, it is worth re-reading this report from Lorena Allam and Nick Evershed from last week, which went through some of the issues.
Including this from Dr Jason Agostino, an epidemiologist:
Agostino said 90% of the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was under 60 and the challenge had been in gaining access to the recommended Pfizer doses.
“We were all geared up to deliver AstraZeneca into these communities, and with the changing advice, Pfizer became the preferred vaccine for under-60s and that’s where 90% of the population is,” Agostino said.
“So we needed to get Pfizer out there, and that only started to happen in late June and early July.”
So 90% of the Indigenous population was caught up in the advice change. And at one stage, the federal government’s own health minister was telling people they could wait for Pfizer. So it is not all down to “hesitancy” for no reason.
Updated
Somewhere in there, Vince Connolly, the WA MP who has lost his seat to a redistribution, undoes almost two weeks of work and once again reverts to asking dixers as if he has been taught socialisation skills from a prototype AI.
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Scott Morrison’s mood is not improving.
He takes a question on ICU capacity and turns it into something on home quarantine and Labor being negative on the national plan.
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Tony Burke to Scott Morrison:
“In his media conference today the prime minister was asked about changes to restrictions based on vaccination rates. And the prime minister said, and I quote: ‘Ultimately, everything is a state matter’. Won’t the prime minister take responsibility for anything?
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, that is just sad. Honestly, that is just sad, Mr Speaker.
The way that the opposition ... come in here and seek to twist and comments.
I was referring to public health orders and the public health social measures that are the province of the states and territories, Mr Speaker. These are not new powers of the states and territories. They have always had them. They haven’t been referred to them. They haven’t been granted to them. They are the responsibilities that states and territories have always had. The opposition needs to grow up.
Burke gets up on a point of order, but Morrison has already sat down and turned his back on the opposition (a common habit when he is annoyed) and is scanning the government benches.
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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
“The prime minister announced all aged care workers would have had at least one Covid dose by 17 September. But today News South Wales Health minister Brad Hazzard said he is ‘not at all confident that will happen’. Will the prime minister ensure that all aged care workers receive a vaccine by 17 September to protect them but also to protect the people in their care?”
Morrison:
The minister for health and aged care will add to this answer. I can confirm that [for] aged care workers currently, first dose outcomes are 78.8% and second dose outcomes are 56.7%.
Now, importantly, Mr Speaker, those they look after aged care residents, first doses 89%, and second doses 84.4%.
The primary reason that we are not seeing the same level of fatality as we saw during the Victorian outbreak has been principally the vaccination that was undertaken as the top priority of getting to every single residential aged care facility in this country and vaccinating those residents. That alone has saved we know hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of lives.
Hundreds and hundreds of lives. And I want to thank all those in-reach teams that made it their priority to do that. There are still challenges with the in-reach to reach all of those aged care workers but Lt Genl John Frewen and his team diligently work to that end
Greg Hunt then takes the answer, and repeats what we have heard before about what the federal government has set up to try and get aged care workers vaccinated (they were a priority group who were meant to have been vaccinated by easter).
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Ken Wyatt defends vaccine rollout for Indigenous Australians
Stephen Jones to Scott Morrison:
“This morning the New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro said in relation to the First Nations vaccine rollout: ‘Should they have been vaccinated earlier? Yes. It was all part of the federal government’s rollout of the vaccination program at the start of the year and it didn’t occur.’ Why did the prime minister get it so wrong?”
Morrison:
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Vaccinating and indeed the public health of our Indigenous population is a very high priority for the government and there have been many challenges there, as there often is, ensuring that we provide the best possible healthcare to our Indigenous Australians.
This program in particular has had its challenges within Indigenous communities. The minister for Indigenous Australians has been working very closely with Indigenous communities to address these issues.
Ken Wyatt:
In March of this year, AstraZeneca was rolled out to over 150 Aboriginal community controlled health services to enable Aboriginal people to access them.
Last year, there was an Aboriginal Covid vaccination committee stood up, co-chaired by Pat Turner, to develop a strategic approach to ensuring that there are adequate supplies provided to the ACCHOs.
In addition to that, are the many GPs to whom our people also access.
The continuation of the rollout of the vaccine program is complimented by the strategic coordination that we commenced in March 2019, where I worked very closely with ministers for Indigenous affairs out of other jurisdictions on the application of the biosecurity act to lock down communities in the first instance. And that work has continued.
Two weeks ago ministers for Aboriginal affairs were briefed on the status of Covid supplies and strategies within their jurisdictions. And what the commonwealth was doing. They have enjoined with us in addressing and giving priority focus to the needs of their community controlled health services. As well as aligning the resources that are available at the state and territory level.
In talking with the minister for Indigenous affairs from WA, he made the comment, ‘I must have further discussion with my colleague Roger Cook, the minister for health, so that we ensure that we lift our vaccination rates’.
I find it interesting when people talk about hesitancy not being an issue. ‘Cause really what that is doing is saying that Pat Turner and I are deceiving you on what the community is saying. The community is hesitant based on the information. I have listened to media interviews. Hesitancy is an issue that we have to overcome. And our work on the number of vaccinations is increasing.
We have 37% have had their first dose, 20.5% have had their second dose, so the numbers are increasing. We still have a lot of work to do.
And so we will continue to focus on making sure people are vaccinated and safe.
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Peter Dutton speaks on the two ADF personnel who were killed in a vehicle rollover in Queensland yesterday and gives his condolences.
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Andrew Leigh to Josh Frydenberg:
Gerry Harvey has now repaid $6 million in jobkeeper out of the $13bn that went to companies with rising revenue. Gerry Harvey think it is money [that] should be paid back. Why doesn’t the treasurer?
Frydenberg (who comes with receipts):
I thank the member for Fenner for his question. On 25 March this year, I did an interview on ABC radio, and I said the following.
‘I would welcome Gerry Harvey or any other major company that’s in the position to repay the jobkeeper payments back. I would welcome that, Mr Speaker.’
That is what I said in March of this year. Now, Mr Speaker, let me remind the House of another quote.
‘We have made it really clear for some time now that jobkeeper, which has been doing a lot of good in the economy, it’s the reason that we proposed it in the first place.’ Mr Speaker, that was said this year.
Who said that, Mr Speaker? Who said it was doing really good and they proposed it in the first place? Mr Speaker, the member for Rankin, Mr Speaker. The member for Rankin (Jim Chalmers). Only the Labor party could say that they invented a program that they are now criticising.
Anthony Albanese (on relevance):
The treasurer wasn’t asked about alternatives. We know we did support wage subsidies and we did support jobkeeper. That’s why we voted for it. But this is about the rorting. And the overpayment.
Tony Smith tells Albanese:
The leader of the opposition will resume his seat. And won’t use points of order to introduce new material. If he doesn’t sort of like the question that’s been asked, he can’t alter it by way of a point of order, is the point I’m trying to make.
I do just say to the treasurer, this was a specific question and I think he’s entirely relevant to it when he first got to the despatch box. But it isn’t an opportunity to range more widely on the topic.
Frydenberg goes on to talk about how great jobkeeper was and all the people who gave it snaps, but he doesn’t get back to the question.
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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question as to the prime minister. Most economists expect the economic growth to slow in the June quarter and it is now going backwards in the September quarter. Why does the prime minister not take responsibility for the fact that Australia’s economic recovery was always hostage to his failures on vaccines and quarantine?
Morrison:
Australia is one of the few countries in the world that after the Covid-19 recession of last year saw our economy grow back to a level higher than it was before the pandemic started, and that is before Delta hit, and saw 1 million people, a million people get back into work.
That was the product of economic policies that not only provided significant, in fact unprecedented economic support, both to individuals who had lost hours and had been stood down, through jobkeeper but also through ... the many other measures that supported businesses to see their way through at a time. Particularly last year at the outset of Covid when the uncertainty was at such a level that it was like looking into an economic abyss. And so the certainty that was provided by the government that stepped in with the single largest economic intervention in Australia’s history. Gave businesses, gave families, gave individual employees the confidence to be able to get up the next day and see it through, and do it again, day after day, month after month.
And the product of that was a million people getting back into work, particularly women and particularly young people, and that is something that this government did at a time of great challenge to the nation, and we continue to do it.
[Covid] affects countries all around the world, including across the Tasman in New Zealand, where they also fight this same challenge and so as we go through these more recent months where Delta strain of the virus is reaching its impact, we will get through it.
This government will continue to have the back of Australians and Australian businesses. We won’t be going after them like those opposite, we will be there to support them and we will continue to support them and with the national plan, as those vaccination rates, which are at world leading levels on a weekly basis per capita, with that, with that, we will see the Australian economy come back from the challenges that it has currently experienced, we will see that.
How do we know that? We have done it once and we will do it again, and we have done it by supporting the ingenuity and the resilience and the determination of Australians and Australian business people.
The people of this country have been through a lot, but I know that they will come through and they will be able to restore their livelihoods, they will be able to restore their lives, and that is the national plan.
Updated
Every time Josh Frydenberg says the unemployment rate has fallen to its record 4.6%, remember that is largely due to nearly 38,000 people leaving the labour force (they just gave up looking for jobs).
And nearly 40,000 people dropped off the official unemployment list – they are not considered officially unemployed, even though they are, because the ABS couldn’t track them.
Updated
Rebekha Sharkie to Karen Andrews:
Minister, I understand there are 4,427 Afghan refugees living in the Australian community on SHEV [Safe Haven Enterprise Visa] or temporary protection visas. Given the horrendous events unfolding in Afghanistan, [will] the government now provide these recognised refugees permanent residency visas?
Andrews:
I thank the member for her question, and I’m sure that she, along with everyone in the house and in this place is very much aware of the significant needs of outgoing communities, whether they are remaining in Afghanistan or whether they are here in Australia.
What I can say to the member and I am more than happy to continue this discussion, outside of this place today, what I can say to her is that, particularly the minister for immigration, both he and myself are working very closely with local communities here in Australia.
We need to understand and come to terms with a range of issues in relation to those people who have been in Afghanistan and are either on their way to Australia or have just come here. We need to continue to do the work that is necessary, with the Afghan community that is already within Australia. I can assure her that this work is under way. The minister of immigration is taking a leading role in that and we will continue to do all that we can to support those people who are currently in Australia and you are on their way here.
Updated
Milton Dick to the current deputy prime minister:
My question is for the minister representing the minister for agriculture. Can the minister explain how a text message sent by the message of agriculture to the deputy prime minister last Wednesday about the inland rail route appeared in the weekend Australian? Does the minister for agriculture agree with the deputy prime minister that the inland rail route is settled?
The current DPM is representing David Littleproud at the moment.
Peter Dutton:
That is not a topic that the deputy prime minister had any knowledge of ...
“What? Inland rail,” someone from Labor yells.
Dutton:
The text message sent to somebody else allegedly by somebody is not within the knowledge of the deputy prime minister, and the question is out of order.
Tony Burke argues for the question, and Tony Smith rules the bit about inland rail is in order.
TCDPM:
I genuinely thank the member for his question and at the start, the route is determined, it is absolutely determined, it has been through cabinet and we’re getting on with it, getting on with job.
He goes on, but really, it’s about visions and things and no one has time for it today
Updated
The current deputy prime minister apparently believes the Coffs Harbour overpass is one of the freedoms you were born with.
Updated
Susan Templeman to Scott Morrison:
Is the prime minister aware that today the New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard confirmed the gap between first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine in Sydney will be spaced out to eight weeks. Mr Hazzard said that, simply, there is not enough Pfizer in New South Wales or Victoria for the people who are now wanting it. Why didn’t the prime minister do his job on vaccines?
Morrison:
Mr Speaker, the decision to focus on first doses in New South Wales was a decision taken together between the commonwealth government and the New South Wales government and it was done so because of the outbreak that was occurring in south-western Sydney and to ensure that we maximise the use of vaccine in that part of the country ... To ensure that we lifted the level of resilience and to seek to slow that spread of the virus in those parts of New South Wales.
It was a very sensible plan. And we added to that plan and, indeed, in New South Wales the government has provided to New South Wales almost 1m additional doses beyond their allocations, Mr Speaker, both in bringing forward Pfizer doses and ... 500,000 specifically that was made available from the Polish arrangement that the government was able to secure, Mr Speaker and I was able to secure with the Polish prime minister*. (*The doses were announced as being for sale the previous month).
That is what our plan was. When those issues arose in south-western Sydney, to get the additional doses into New South Wales, supported by the New South Wales government.
Those arrangements were done directly between myself and the premier, Mr Speaker, over many days.
That was not done at the expense of other states and territories. The commonwealth did not divert, did not divert doses from other states and territories to New South Wales, Mr Speaker.
We maximise the use of the doses we had available and we went outside our borders and got more doses to support New South Wales that was facing the most difficult part of this crisis that they had seen over the course of the entire pandemic.
So, Mr Speaker, we have been supporting New South Wales heavily as they work through this difficult time, and what we know is that because we were able to vaccinate, in particular, those in residential aged care facilities, we know that the fatality rate of what we observed during the Victorian wave when the vaccine was not in place, some 4.2%.
That ... has now fallen to 0.45% in New South Wales this year, Mr Speaker, because of the work done to protect our most vulnerable people in that state, Mr Speaker, and, indeed, across the country.
So we will continue to work with New South Wales. I will continue to work with every single premier and chief minister, despite the criticism made of me for seeking to work with [them].
I will continue to work every single day as I have throughout the pandemic to continue to bring them together, Mr Speaker, to focus on the national plan which means that we can live with this virus, not live in fear of it.
Updated
Just a reminder that Poland announced it wanted to sell part of its vaccine stockpile in July and the Singapore deal is a ‘dose swap’ – 500,000 doses from Singapore (one would imagine with approaching expiry dates) in exchange for 500,000 of our doses later in the year.
Question time begins
We are straight into it today.
Anne Stanley to Scott Morrison:
The health service here is a First Nations health service in Liverpool, a hotspot. They say they have only been allocated 40 doses of vaccine a day and we are being asked to fill a Grand Canyon sized need with a handful of pebbles. Why did the prime minister say yesterday that challenges in the rollout had been overcome when they simply have not?
Morrison (does not answer the question):
Today and just before question time an additional 500,000 doses will be added to the sum 4.5m Pfizer doses that will be distributed over the course of September. [And] the 1m Moderna doses that will go out in September and the many millions more AstraZeneca doses.
And I want to thank all the GPs and pharmacists around the country who are doing such a fantastic job, together with the state hubs, nurses and others who are supporting those many points, some 9,000 points across the country, Mr Speaker, be they in western Sydney or in north Queensland or in Tasmania or in the west, they are doing an extraordinary job.
So much so that now as we approach the end of August, 35% of our population aged over 16 has had two doses and 58.7% have had their first dose.
Importantly, very importantly, those aged over 70, 87.4% of our most vulnerable have had their first dose and 62.9% have had their second dose.
Over 50% of over 50s have now had two doses of the vaccine, Mr Speaker. And what we have been able to do, over the course of September, and August, as we go into September, and over August, is by bringing forward doses, by getting access to those, an extra million doses we got from Poland, or the extra 500,000 coming from the arrangement with Singapore and I thank prime minister Lee and all those involved in that initiative.
The other irons we have in the fire mean that there are more and more doses and that means, Mr Speaker, that we are fast approaching the time where everyone in this country will have had the opportunity to have had a vaccine.
We are fast approaching that time and we want to thank everyone across the country for the sterling job they have done in rolling up their sleeves and getting vaccines as we are operating at vaccination rates on a weekly basis, on a per capita term that exceeds even those highest levels achieved in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Updated
Jim Chalmers had a little to say about Harvey Norman repaying some of the jobkeeper money it received just a short while go:
It’s a vindication of Labor’s campaign on Jobkeeper repayments and on the need for more transparency not less transparency when it comes to the errors made by the Treasurer in this program. I want to pay tribute to Andrew Leigh and other colleagues in our team and indeed others in the broader Australian community.
What we’re seeing here is a Treasurer who tells struggling small businesses in Sydney he can’t afford to help them at the same time as he sprayed around $13 billion to businesses that didn’t need help.
This Treasurer has got his priorities all wrong. Everything he touches seems to turn bad. That’s why he’s the Butterfingers of Australian politics.
He tells businesses in Sydney still waiting for support that the federal government can’t afford to help them at the same time as he’s wasted more money than any federal Treasurer in the history of the Commonwealth on businesses which didn’t need support. Some of them are paying that back, but not because of the Treasurer. They’re paying that back despite the Treasurer, who is more than happy for businesses to pocket money they didn’t need at the same time as small businesses who still desperately need help are being left in the lurch by the Morrison Government.
Updated
Our reporter Caitlin Cassidy says the Melbourne grand final public holiday will still go ahead, whether or not the MCG is empty on September 24.
The Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said:
I have no announcements to make about the footy today or any other major events. We want as many major events as possible and we want to get back to normal as fast as possible but they have to be safe. Finals footy and the grand final is a spiritual thing. It is part of our soul as a city and state but no football match is worth putting people in hospital, it just isn’t. This is a global pandemic and we have to make decisions that are based on the best evidence. I will leave it to others to make announcements about that event and any other major event.
Q: Last year the AFL grand final public holiday was replaced with Thank You Day, are there plans to do this?
Andrews:
It might be a go and get vaccinated day.
Updated
Singapore says vaccine swap allows both countries to 'support each other'
The new vaccine swap deal is with Singapore, which, incidentally, notched up the milestone of 80% of its population having been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 a few days ago.
That achievement is as a share of its entire population, not just adults.
Singapore’s ministry of foreign affairs has issued its own statement about the arrangement with Australia, saying it “will enable both countries to support each other in optimising our respective schedules for vaccinating our populations against Covid-19”.
The statement says:
As Singapore has made good progress in our national vaccination programme and possesses sufficient supplies to meet our immediate needs, we will provide around 500,000 doses of our existing stocks of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine for Covid-19 to Australia. This will help Australia accelerate its vaccination programme amidst its current increase in cases caused by the Delta variant.
In exchange, Australia will provide the same quantity of vaccines back to Singapore at a later date, after we have drawn down on our existing supplies vaccinating the rest of our population, including new incoming long-term pass holders as we open up our society and economy.
These returned doses would come in more useful for Singapore then, potentially as booster doses for specific segments of our population that could benefit from such boosting.
Singapore’s statement says the deal is an example of it and Australia “sharing best practices in our respective efforts to combat COVID-19” throughout the pandemic.
Updated
Labor caucus started with a condolence motion for senator Alex Gallacher, who died on Sunday after a battle with cancer.
Anthony Albanese said his story mirrored the Labor story, of someone who continued his “fight for fairness” in parliament.
Richard Marles recalled what David Feeney had said of Gallacher, that he was his “favourite grump”.
Labor’s shadow home affairs minister Kristina Keneally discussed a research paper she had written for MPs about the issue of right wing extremism.
The paper notes that right-wing extremists are exploiting fear during the Covid pandemic and spreading disinformation to boost their following, offering ideological answers, a community of support, someone to blame and avenues of action.
It also blames Morrison government members for enabling this through strident anti-lockdown advocacy, particularly MP George Christensen.
In his speech to caucus, Albanese criticised Scott Morrison for suggesting those pursuing zero Covid (Queensland and WA) were “cave-dwellers” and said Labor would offer a “positive agenda to make sure we open safely”.
Albanese said the way to improve the vaccination program is to “take it to the people” such as through school vaccination programs.
He labelled Josh Frydenberg the “most profligate treasurer in history” because of the billions spent on jobkeeper for companies that didn’t end up needing it.
Albanese said if the government goes to an early election this year then it means the government expects things will get worse for it in 2022.
Updated
Morrison gives hints about election timing in Coalition party room
In the Coalition party room, Scott Morrison revealed that the health minister Greg Hunt has been coordinating with states and territories and the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, to check the rules and ensure MPs can do their jobs when they return to their electorates.
Morrison gave a few hints about election timing, saying the election will be “sooner than we think”, but because time moves fast not because his view about an election in 2022 has changed.
He said:
You go the term and you do your job.
Morrison advised MPs that the next six weeks were critical for them, because Australians didn’t want to hear form their MPs over Christmas and then we’d be into an election year in 2022. That certainly points to an election early in 2022, perhaps called after Australia Day.
Morrison spoke about being “one team” with a “connected purpose” and called for his MPs to show “discipline”, as they did three years ago when they walked the narrow path to election victory.
The prime minister spoke about concerns in jurisdictions with zero Covid, saying these were “understandable” and “sensible” – but he noted that as Australia reopens safely jurisdictions would “end up in the same place” (open, and with zero Covid an impossibility).
Ahead of the release of the national accounts tomorrow, the treasurer Josh Frydenberg said lockdowns were costing the economy $2bn per week and government coffers $1bn per week.
He accused his opponent Jim Chalmers of “hubris” and suggested voters would punish Labor for prematurely preparing for office, as it did when Bill Shorten posed with his frontbench team for the Daily Telegraph.
Updated
There was a brief mention of Afghanistan in that presser, given the final withdrawal of US military personnel occurred overnight.
The foreign minister, Marise Payne, spoke with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, overnight.
The US State Department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, said the pair discussed “recent events in Afghanistan, including the attack on U.S. forces there”. In a brief statement, Price added: “They also discussed our mutual efforts to assist Afghan refugees and partners.”
Question time is in just under 30 minutes for those playing at home
There are still questions, but Scott Morrison turned away at the end of the answer and left.
Morrison says reopening plan 'essential to Australia's future prosperity'
Scott Morrison ends the press conference on this:
Let’s acknowledge what lockouts do.
Once we get to the point, and that is certainly the point we want to get past, 80% ... home quarantine needs to be a viable and widespread option for people who are travelling overseas and returning. And indeed people who are overseas and have been vaccinated by the vaccines that are recognised in Australia.
For that to occur then we need to get these home quarantine models up and running in states and territories across the country.
That means that people will be able to in states that aren’t locking others out, those states who have moved into those thresholds, there will be opportunity for people to go and travel and return to Australia and quarantine at home.
That people in those states [who] were overseas can come back to Australia. And the caps that are on flights coming into those places that have gone into that zone that aren’t locking others out, they will be able to receive more and more and it will be a big change.
And you know, in many states, and I think of states like South Australia for example when I discussed this with premier [Steven] Marshall yesterday, he is a strong supporter of the national plan because he knows South Australia will lead the students to come back.
They will need the skilled migrants to come back. They will need to be connecting up with all of those things that enable their economy to be successful.
And it is important, whether it is the tourists, students or skilled workers, the connection with the rest of the world, the trade that comes from that, all of that is essential to Australia’s future prosperity in whatever state you live on in this country. And that is why the national plan is so important.
The national plan connects us together again as Australians and connects us to the world again and enables Australia to secure our future in the Covid world.
Updated
Q: The National Cabinet is not explicit about state border closures. In your view should they be ended at 70% vaccination, 80%, or are you saying this is a state matter?
Scott Morrison:
Ultimately everything is a state matter, but I note that there was an agreement to the national plan which was to see Australians coming together.
And we want to do that safely, as a safe plan. This is a plan that has been based on the best possible scientific evidence, to ensure that we can open safely and connected together again safely. And that is exactly what I will be expecting all of us to be doing.
Marise Payne on ongoing dialogue with the Taliban:
The undertaking by the Taliban is one which has been closely watched by the international community and I am having contact with a number of counterparts [on] that.
And it is an expectation, in terms of the ability for safe travel and safe transit, that we are very focused on. We know that for those who remain in Afghanistan, it is a question of very significant concern.
It is the intent of those who have been granted 449 visas who are still in Afghanistan, temporary safe haven visas, they will be contacted through the processes of the Department of Home Affairs about what to do when it is safe, and the processing of those visas continues to be a priority
Updated
Scott Morrison is asked to respond to the WA Liberals election review.
Q: It is a scathing report that has come out about the WA Liberals, it talks about a new conservative force coming out in WA because of what has been going on there. It says there has been unethical behaviour, and it says what has been revealed is shocking and disturbing, it represents a party in decline and headed for the door. Can you respond to that report in WA?
Morrison:
I take the report very seriously and I expect the Western Australian division of the Liberal party to deal with it.
Updated
Q: What is your plan for states which impose hard borders with [NSW] consistent with the principles for states to impose hard borders when vaccination rates reach 70 or 80%?
Scott Morrison:
It depends where the vaccination levels are. If you have New South Wales or Tasmania well above 70% and you have other states that are below 70% ... the national plan doesn’t provide for them to move into phase B.
So you know, it is all a matter of where they are at any given time, and that is what the national plan sets out.
And the measures you put in place in one state, where there are no restrictions currently, you wouldn’t be expecting too much change in those states because they don’t have many restrictions at this point.
I mean, the real changes I think we will see in what is occurring in states like New South Wales and Victoria, which have much more serious restrictions in place, and the ACT, and so that is why the vaccination rates I think are so important, especially in those places.
But that’s why I give a big shout out to Tasmania. I think Tasmania is a great example. Tasmania has very low Covid rates, or zero Covid rates.
And they know they are just as vulnerable as anyone else to a Delta strain. And they have, despite the fact that they have very low and little Covid, they have got the highest double dose vaccination rate in the country.
So they are getting on with it down there, they have had the same dose distribution that everyone else has had, and they are getting on with it. Well done Tassie and a special shout out to Peter Gutwein. We have been in contact over the last 24 hours and I hope he is well and in recovery.
Updated
To the questions – and the main one for the day – that none of the states or territories seem comfortable opening up at 70-80% vaccination targets, when case numbers are so high in NSW.
Scott Morrison:
The sensitivity analysis that was conducted and shared with national cabinet on Friday reinforced the threshold is around 70 and 80%.
The issue is then what you do with 70 and 80%, and they suggested caution and I agree with that ... but I go back to the point I was making earlier, every state is coming at this from a different perspective, and in many states, where there are very few restrictions, they will see less.
But in states like New South Wales and Victoria and the ACT, they will see more because of the situation they are in, because everybody has a different starting point.
The Doherty modelling reinforced the thresholds, but it also said, as we are going through the short strokes of the actual measures in the 70- 80%, which in some states and territories could be a matter of weeks, not months.
But once you get into the 80% zone, of course you want the case numbers to be always necessarily lower. When you go into those faces, but it doesn’t affect what is actual thresholds are, you just, you are exercising appropriate caution in that 70-80% mark
Updated
Everyone loves Singapore, is the message from the presser so far.
Updated
Greg Hunt has caught the ‘doses of hope’ virus.
Where are those extra doses going?
We don’t know yet.
Scott Morrison:
This will greatly assist the national vaccination program as it brings in two important age groups into the program.
The 16- to 29s, which have already begun this week, and, of course, the 12- to 15-year-olds.
Remember there’s 1.2 million children aged 12 to 15 and they start with bookings from 13 September so this will greatly assist with both of those efforts. The doses will be distributed across our GP and state hub networks and across the states and territories, in total between both of those, it will be done on a per capita basis. We need to vaccinate the whole country and we need for those doses to go from one end of the country to the other and for them to be taken up.
Updated
I really wouldn’t be surprised if Scott Morrison broke into a rendition of Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ in this press conference.
Updated
Singapore agrees to vaccine 'dose swap' with Australia
Poland announced it was happy to sell some of its stockpile in July and Australia purchased some of them in August.
Now Scott Morrison is announcing a ‘dose swap’ with Singapore.
We’ll be boosting our September effort with a new dose swap deal with Singapore which will see 500,000 doses arrive this week for distribution next week.
500,000 more doses of hope.
That comes on top of the some 4.5m that we already have planned for September and the 1m Moderna doses and the many other millions of doses available from our AstraZeneca production to ensure we can continue on in September with the strong surge that we had over August.
It’s a dose swap deal which simply means we’re taking the 500,000 they have now, so we can put that into our distribution this month coming in September and we will provide them with 500,000 in December.
That means there are 500,000 doses extra that will happen in September that otherwise would have had to wait for several months from now accelerating our vaccination program at this critical time as we walk towards those 70% and 80% targets.
Updated
Scott Morrison press conference
The prime minister has called a press conference to defend the national plan. That’s after what seems an increasing level of concern over the number of cases in NSW, as the vaccination program rolls on.
Morrison:
Our vaccination program is central to our national plan. Our national plan enables us to live with the virus, not fear it.
That is our future. That’s what we’re moving towards with each and every dose that is administered all around this country. All states and territories are on this journey of the national plan but they’re starting from different places.
There isn’t a common Covid position across the country. The situation in Tasmania and Western Australia is of course very different to what we’re experiencing here in the ACT and New South Wales and Victoria, and different again in Queensland, South Australia and of course the Northern Territory.
But the place we’re heading to is the same. We may all be starting from a different point and that place is bringing us all together again. Connecting us again as Australians and to connect Australia to the world. That is the objective of the national plan. So with wherever we’re starting, the destination is what we share.
While state Covid updates were taking place, Scott Morrison spoke to Perth radio, responding to comments the state premier, Mark McGowan, made in an interview in The West Australian about the risks of opening up at 70%.
(McGowan has become known as “state daddy” in WA for his protectionist stance that has kept the state borders shut, but the state free of Covid-19.)
Morrison told 6PR radio there was concern about the situation in WA, because when Delta did arrive in the state, there were few restrictions to curb its spread and a lower vaccination rate.
One of the reasons that vaccination rates are much lower in Western Australia, it’s partly a product of the successes of there not having been any Covid and people think that borders protect people from the Covid.
Well, now I’m sorry to say that the Delta variant is stronger than borders, and the best protection is getting vaccinated.
That means that people will be able to go to Bali again, they’ll be able to go and travel again, families will be able to be reunited, businesses will be able to get the workers they need, the economy will be able to move forward.
Morrison said the national plan to live with the virus meant the virus would “eventually turn up” in the state, but this would be controllable through ways other than lockdowns.
He also said that WA had always been an “outward looking” state, and for that to continue it would need to accept the reality of living with the virus.
Updated
From Caitlin Cassidy:
In better news for regional Victoria, Brett Sutton says on day nine of testing, there have been no positive cases linked to an Echuca aged care facility.
The facility was listed as an exposure site after being visited by a worker with links to the Shepparton outbreak.
The worker was fully vaccinated.
Glenroy West School, the MyCentre outbreak in Broadmeadows and the current St Kilda outbreak are also down to their final cases in quarantine.
To the challenging areas:
We continue to see mystery cases on a daily basis, especially in the western and northern suburbs. I know everyone in Hobsons Bay and Wyndham and surrounds are aware that Covid is present in their neighbourhoods and the vast majority of people understand what they need to do to protect themselves and their families. Wherever you live in Victoria, and maybe particularly in these areas in Brimbank and Hume, the consequence of letting your guard down, even for a short period of time, is really significant.
It could mean the difference between you containing it to yourself and nobody else or introducing it to those you love, your extended family, your friends. Taking it to a parent who lives in another household could be an absolute tragedy, taking it to your friends and people sometimes think my friends are young or they are vaccinated, it won’t be an issue for them but if they are infected and they transmit sometimes before they have symptoms to their households, that contain vulnerable individuals, sometimes not yet vaccinated individuals, those tragedies can play out. And the extent to which we can keep our guard up all the time is the extent to which we can end these restrictions at the earliest possible time.
Updated
Caitlin Cassidy:
Brett Sutton says the current outbreak is still disproportionately represented by young Victorians.
Of the state’s active cases, 182 are under nine, 125 are between 10 and 19, 177 are between 20 and 29 and 158 are between 30 and 39.
Less than a quarter of the state’s total caseload is over 40.
Updated
Caitlin Cassidy has the tail end of the Victorian presser for you:
Chief health officer Brett Sutton is breaking down today’s case numbers.
Forty five have been linked, with a number of remaining cases that came through late last night expected to be linked over today and tomorrow.
The 45 linked cases include:
- Seventeen cases linked to the MyCentre childcare centre outbreak, with a number of cases detected on their 13th day in quarantine.
- Nine further cases have linked to the Shepparton outbreak, with all of Shepparton’s new cases in quarantine throughout their infectious period.
- Three cases linked to Miller’s Junction shopping centre in Altona North.
- One linked to the Spotswood Learning Sanctuary.
- One linked to the St Kilda East cluster.
- One case linked to a legal office in Melbourne’s outer east.
- One case linked to Al-Taqwa College
- One case linked to Fisherman’s Bend retail warehouses.
- 11 cases linked to existing cases but have no known acquisition.
Brett Sutton also says he expects a larger number of today’s remaining cases to be found to have been isolating throughout their infectious period over the space of today.
Primary locations of concern remain greater Shepparton, Hobsons Bay, Hume, Moreland and Wyndham. But there have been further cases across metropolitan Melbourne including one in the Mornington Peninsula and three in Melton.
Updated
Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 12.45.
Updated
So get vaccinated, if you can, Daniel Andrews says:
We have very proudly across our state, we have championed the AstraZeneca vaccine and anyone who suggests otherwise is simply wrong.
The prime minister has on numerous occasions publicly and privately indicated to me that the number of AZ shots we have been able to get in arms is remarkable.
It is amazing. And it sets us in a stronger position.
Across our state, 2.6 million doses of AstraZeneca have been administered.
This is as of yesterday so that number will have grown slightly over the course of 24 hours. As of yesterday 940,000 double dose Victorians with AstraZeneca.
It is safe and it is effective. You need to talk to a health professional before you make the choice that it is the vaccine for you. The best vaccine as a chief health officer tells us is the one you can get today. Go online right now, there are literally thousands of AstraZeneca appointments available for you.
Updated
Just in case anyone was still unsure, Daniel Andrews says again, he won’t be opening up when case numbers are high.
So it is vaccination and low case numbers for Victoria. That’s the aim:
There has been a lot of discussion about mental health, a lot of discussion about the toll of lockdowns. Absolutely. Absolutely, lockdowns and rules, this global pandemic comes at considerable cost.
No one chose this. No one wants to be here.
But I just want to make a point, it is not easy to be in lockdown for all of those reasons and many more.
But none of us should kid ourselves that pretending that we can live with Covid when we have only got 35% of people vaccinated, none of us should pretend that that would be easier.
It would be a good deal harder than the very difficult time, the very difficult time that we’re having now. They are the choices.
And I will not make choices that guarantee that more people finish up in hospital. Against advice, I just won’t do that. This is bloody tough.
No one is pretending otherwise. Tomorrow I will announce thresholds, low numbers that we think we can contain. We will always push to get them as low as we possibly can.
But if despite our best efforts zero is not something we can achieve, I will make two points. It can’t be much more than zero, and secondly we are better off for having chased zero.
Otherwise it finishes off with thousands of cases. We don’t wish that on anyone and we certainly don’t want that here.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says don’t expect too much in terms of restrictions easing though (in relation to what he will be announcing tomorrow):
I want to stress for all Victorians, no decision has been made about what will be on that list and not on that list.
It is not like we have made a decision and I am not sharing it, it generally has not been made yet.
We’re looking at all manner of things that we might be able to do. But I do want to be very clear with the people of Victoria, this will not be freedom day.
It will not be an opening up type of day. It will be modest changes that hopefully can be meaningful in people’s lives will stop as much economic activity as is possible but they will be very modest changes because there is no middle ground here.
It is either very low numbers or very, very high numbers until we get people vaccinated. That is not today.
That is over the next few months that we will get people vaccinated to the national plan numbers of 70% and 80%.
So tomorrow I will stand here and we will explain to you what those thresholds are.
The low number that we can cope with, the low number that we can live with.
And the easing that we will be able to do over time, over coming weeks.
That will hopefully provide people with as much clarity as we can provide and I know each of you have spoken to me so many times about and ask questions, desperately wanting to know what the months ahead will hold.
If I could be more certain, if I could speak with more clarity in the midst of a global pandemic, then of course I would.
Some questions will be able to be answered tomorrow, some will not be.
What is certain is that if we do not stay the course on this, then we will have thousands of people being infected and then hundreds and thousands of people finishing up in hospital.
I don’t want that. And I won’t make decisions that make that a certainty. I just won’t do it.
Updated
Victoria to announce 'thresholds' tomorrow
There will be more of a plan outlined tomorrow for what Victoria is aiming for. But Daniel Andrews is sounding very Mark McGowan-ish here:
Daniel Andrews:
I know lockdowns are bloody tough. They are incredibly difficult for families, for businesses, for all of us.
But the choice is not between being open and being closed. The choice is between low numbers while we race to vaccinate or incredibly high numbers because we haven’t vaccinated enough people yet.
The central fact of the national plan, a small group of people unvaccinated we can cope with. A large group of people? Like 65% of the country, no.
No health system can cope with that. We will deliver the national plan, no doubting about that. We are pleased to have been an active part of writing it.
My conversations with the prime minister are always productive and they are regular. I will have another conversation with him tomorrow evening.
This is what we are going to do. The chief health officer and the government will today and throughout this evening finalise a detailed plan that will include thresholds.
If we cannot achieve zero despite our best efforts, how many cases can we tolerate?
It will need to be a low number. It cannot be in hundreds because it won’t be in the hundreds for long, it will raise and away from us.
Then, based on those thresholds and those low case numbers, we will make further announcements about things that can be eased. Those announcements will be made tomorrow.
Updated
Daniel Andrews 'we will deliver the national plan because we helped write it'
But it looks like there are elements of that plan he needs to talk to the prime minister about.
Daniel Andrews:
There are only difficult options with Delta. You either aim for very low numbers, or you will in fact have very high numbers.
It is the simplest way I can put it.
I remind people, there are more than 1000 cases a day in Sydney and they are locked down too. It is not like they are open. They are locked down as well. And their hospitals are under enormous stress, we wish them well.
If we didn’t have our outbreak and the challenges we face, we will be sending help to them. We can’t do that.
Because we have to be taking care of those who need us here right now and we need to continue to work to run these cases down to the lowest possible number.
Now, this is not just me talking. This is the national plan. And we will deliver the national plan after all, we helped to write it. And that work continues.
I will be speaking with the prime minister later this week about elements of the national plan and how Victoria can play a role in continuing to provide the detail and to make it the best plan possible.
But the central fact of the national plan is this: you can manage a pandemic of the unvaccinated when the unvaccinated is a small group.
If it is a big group and you open up and ease too much, you don’t have low numbers, you have very, very high numbers and that translates to many people in hospital. If there was another way, we would of course choose that. If there were other options, they were much easier, then we would use that.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
Can I just make a few comments about where we find ourselves right now.
As a state and as a nation, we can cope with a pandemic of the unvaccinated if that unvaccinated group is quite small.
That is to say, we will cope with unvaccinated people becoming infected and becoming sick when we have reached the 70% and most importantly the 80% vaccination target.
Today as I stand here now, Victoria and the nation has only 35% people double dose covered. 35%, not 80% vaccinated, 35% vaccinated.
The notion of trying to cope with a pandemic when you are open with very few rules, when so few people are vaccinated, we know what that would mean. That would mean not hundreds of cases, it would mean thousands of cases.
And as I said on Sunday and as I think Victorians know, these numbers are too high for us to open up. If we were to open up, this is a thing with Delta, you either aim for zero or a very low number and therefore keep the numbers low, or if you try other approaches the numbers get away from you very, very quickly.
Some people have been critical about our focus on zero. You either aim for zero or low numbers or you finish up with many zeros.
Sadly let’s not forget that the NSW outbreak started with just a handful of cases and they are reporting more than 1000 cases a day now.
We have to enter keep these numbers low if we can achieve zero that is a terrific outcome. If we can’t, we’re all the better having tried to keep the numbers as low as possible.
Updated
Victorian update – 'these numbers are too high for us to open up'
Daniel Andrews held his press conference a little earlier. We know that there were 76 new Covid cases – 36 were in isolation for their entire infectious period.
There are 52 people in hospital, 16 are in intensive care and 15 of those 16 are on ventilators. Andrews says it is shaping up as a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’.
Andrews then moves on to vaccinations:
There is a lot written and a lot said about people being hesitant but that is not our experience.
I think people are very keen to get vaccinated as quickly as possible and I am grateful to each and every one of them and of course to the teams of people in our state clinics, pharmacies and GP practices who are all working very hard to get the job done.
Our state clinics remain some of the most successful anywhere in the country per capita.
And in terms of this volume of work we’re doing, it is making all the difference and will continue to open more of them and look at new and innovative ways of getting vaccines into people’s arms.
There are literally millions of people who have come through our system and we know that as more vaccines become available throughout September, October, November we will reach the national plan targets of 70%.
Updated
The issue doesn’t seem to be that other jurisdictions don’t want to open up – it is that they don’t want to open to NSW when case numbers are so high – which the Doherty institute modelling says can happen, but also means there will be even higher case numbers, transitions and deaths during the transition.
If TTIQ – test, trace, isolate and quarantine – systems are under stress or not working at ‘optimal’ standards, then there can still be targeted lockdowns. The modelling relies on TTIQ working. Currently, in NSW, it is not. Outside of Victoria, the other jurisdictions haven’t had to push their TTIQ systems and no one seems keen to go from zero to woah in a couple of weeks.
Updated
That compares with what Gladys Berejiklian had to say about it:
I think what is really important to focus on is the fact that every single premier and chief minister signed up to the national plan. NSW intends to stick to that plan and we hope that every other state will stick to that plan.
I can’t account for what other state premiers choose to do or not to do. I’d be disappointed if anybody walked away from what is a plan we all signed up to.
We need to think of ourselves not just as citizens of a state but citizens of Australia and accept that we have friends and relatives, work colleagues that live in different states, that we have Australians wanting to come home and if not at 80% double dose then when?
That is why it’s really, really important for all of us to move together in a coordinated way but also to confront what NSW had to confront before any other state and that is that a lockdown doesn’t necessarily mean you get lower cases, because the Delta strain is different.
And what we also have to accept is that every state in Australia needs to learn to live with Covid.
We can’t pretend anymore that we can have zero cases whilst Delta is on the planet and I just urge all of our colleagues across the nation to work towards the national plan because that is in the best interests of our citizens across the nation and to make sure we plan as much as we can to support our hospital network during this time.
Updated
Andrew Barr is being very nuanced on the national plan here.
Which has been unusual for a leader in this climate. He doesn’t want to amend the plan for what happens at 70%, he just wants what was decided, followed – which doesn’t mean mass freedoms.
Barr:
I think the national plan talks about a 70% rate continuing to minimise cases in the community through ongoing low-level restrictions and effective track and trace and says that lockdowns are less likely but still possible.
And that the objective is to seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and fatalities.
As a result of Covid-19, keeping low-level restrictions in place.
We have talked a lot about the three effective measures we have to combat the virus.
Vaccination is a very significant one, it is the most effective thing we can do, but the two others test, trace, isolate and quarantine compose our response and the third is the public health safety measures.
The national plan talks about a very gentle step at 70%. A more significant step will be taken at 80%.
As I have outlined here, based on the ACT’s vaccination rates, by the time the nation reaches 70%, based on our current trends the ACT will be at 80% and by the time the nation reaches 80%, the ACT will be closer to 90%.
Now again, the national plan is very clear that in order to move to the next stage in that plan, both the national position and the individual jurisdiction must both be above the threshold. So it is a little bit academic for the ACT at 70%, because we will be at 80% by the time the nation reaches 70%.
But I have higher aspirations for protecting our community than just 80%.
Based on what we have seen already from the age cohorts who have had access to vaccination.
So the higher the vaccination rates we achieve, the more protected our community is and the less we have to rely on TTIQ and public health safety measures.
So the higher the national vaccination radius, the less we have to rely on those other two measures. So what we need is more Australians to get vaccinated more quickly. And we’re seeing that in New South Wales and we are seeing it in the ACT and I hope we see it across the nation.
Updated
ACT CHO Dr Kerryn Coleman says it is the unlinked cases she is watching the closest – there are currently 29 mystery cases as part of the outbreak.
She is also watching the proportion of cases who are infectious in the community.
So, it is under control – but under a close watch
Here’s the official release on the ACT’s extended lockdown:
As part of the extension of the lockdown, the chief health officer has recommended some further, minor amendments to the public health directions to commence from 5pm Thursday 2 September.
This includes doubling the outdoor exercise and recreation time to two hours each day. People who work predominantly outdoors such as gardeners and landscapers will be able to return to work under Covid-safe requirements and very small funerals and weddings can be held with Covid-safe measures in place.
A partial reopening of the construction sector will commence under stringent Covid-safe requirements from Friday 3 September. These requirements will be actively enforced by Worksafe ACT and ACT Police.
The government will continue detailed work this week with industry stakeholders on the strict Covid-safe measures that would allow other parts of the sector, such as residential construction, to recommence from 10 September subject to the public health advice at the time.
With the extension of the lockdown, the decision has been made to not return to face-to-face learning in ACT public schools during Term 3. The ACT Education Directorate is currently planning for how our public schools will operate during Term 4, with advice from the chief health officer.
The extension of the ACT’s lockdown will be supported by an increase in the ACT government and the commonwealth government’s economic support measures.
Updated
Andrew Barr:
Looking at vaccination, today we will cross 66% of 16-plus ACT residents with a first-dose of a vaccine and 42% of 16-plus fully vaccinated.
The numbers for 12-plus will be a few percentage points lower than both of those headline figures.
Bookings for 16- to 29-year-olds to access a Pfizer vaccine at an ACT government clinic will open soon.
So if you are in this age cohort and you want to wait for a Pfizer vaccine, please register on our My Digital Health Record system today so you are able to easily make an appointment online when those bookings open very soon.
Of course, if you wish to receive a vaccine sooner than can be offered through the ACT government clinics, then AstraZeneca is more readily available through GPs and pharmacies and you can get an AstraZeneca vaccine today.
Now, currently, with just a little over 40% of the territory’s population over the age of 12 with two doses of the Covid vaccine, there remain a lot of Canberrans at risk of serious and life-threatening illness.
So the priority for the ACT government over the next few months is to vaccinate as many Canberrans as possible as quickly as possible and to minimise the spread of the virus through sensible public health safety measures and effective testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine.
Updated
More retail businesses will be able to open for click and collect in the ACT.
But online learning will continue for the rest of term 3.
Term 4 is still under review – that won’t be decided until the first week of school holidays.
I’m sorry parents and guardians. You are all doing amazing.
From 5pm 2 September, people in the ACT will be allowed two hours outside recreation time.
Gardners and landscapers will be able to return to work in certain circumstances (Covid safe).
There will be more people allowed at funerals.
The construction sector will see a small restart (Covid safe plans in place) with the recreation construction sector most likely restarting from 10 September.
Updated
ACT extends lockdown to Friday 17 September
Chief minister Andrew Barr says the lockdown is proving to be “very effective” and has reduced the reproductive rate of the virus to less than one.
But they need that to continue to reduce the outbreak.
He says while the curve is down, it is “a slow process and it will take more time”.
There are still unlinked cases in the community.
So there will be another two weeks of lockdown for the ACT.
Updated
ACT records 13 new Covid cases
Seven are linked and six are under investigation.
Just four were in quarantine for their entire infectious period.
13 people are in hospital and three are in intensive care.
It does not seem like ACT will be coming out of lockdown as planned.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian:
There is no reason why anybody over a certain age should not have got the vaccine.
I’ve had the AstraZeneca. I’m 50 years old. I’ve had the AstraZeneca.
Nobody of a certain age should have any hesitancy with the AstraZeneca.
And it’s really important to know that when we open up, those that are unvaccinated won’t be allowed to to other things because they will be exposed.
That is why at 70% double dose freedoms will extend to people that are fully vaccinated.
We cannot afford to have the unvaccinated exposed to venues and we can’t afford to have the unvaccinated susceptible to disease, to get disease.
That’s why we’re urging everybody, giving people plenty of notice to say if you want to participate in the freedoms that come with 70%, that come with 80%, please, please get vaccinated but that is why, whether it’s our Indigenous communities, whether it’s our older population, those with immuno-issues or other co-morbidities, that is why we targeted a vaccination program.
The federal government clearly does and we’ve picked up some of the stuff that may should have perhaps happened a bit earlier but having said that this is why we have the strategy we have. It’s really important. That is why at 70% double dose I don’t want people who have chosen to be unvaccinated complain when we get to 70%.
Updated
'I don't want people who have chosen to be unvaccinated to complain at 70%'
Gladys Berejiklian says that there is no reason for people of a certain age to hesitate getting vaccinated with AstraZeneca. She points out that she is 50 and she received AZ.
She says she does not want to hear complaints from people who have chosen to remain unvaccinated, when NSW begins opening up at 70%, given they can go get AstraZeneca, now.
Updated
So Gladys Berejiklian says she is being more transparent and telling people what is going to happen – but she won’t go into detail about how bad it could be, based on the modelling she has received, because that is not ‘concrete’ information.
But the potential positives, which are also not concrete, is something she is happy to speak about.
Q: Almost 70% of people do not have two doses so most people are unvaccinated. You’re giving us concrete projections of when we’ll get to 70% first dose and double dose and 80% of first dose and double dose. You’re talking about October being the worst month for ICU. What does that look like? We’ve got concrete examples of the good news but not the bad news. What does October look like in ICU according to the modelling you have?
Gladys Berejiklian:
What October looks likes depends on what we do in September.
Q: What does it look like now?
Berejiklian:
I’m not going to pluck numbers out of the air. When the experts say that there’s a number of possibilities that could result it’s not appropriate to pluck numbers out of the air because I would be doing everybody disservice. What I can do is tell you what the rate of hospitalisations.
The fact is if you’re double-dose vaccinated, in all likelihood you won’t succumb to severe illness unless you have underlying conditions.
This is the important information we need to give our community. It’s not my job to pluck figures out of the I would never do that.
Given she is speaking about transparency, Gladys Berejiklian is then asked what she has been told the worse case scenario is for the health and hospital system.
She says she can’t do that.
The modelling changes every day and it would be inappropriate to say today it’s this and tomorrow it’s that.
We don’t know the answer as to what it will be in October but what we do know is in all likelihood when Michelle and her colleagues will be under the greatest pressure is October because you have accumulation of cases in an unvaccinated population. But once you get the high rates of vaccination, the rate of people in hospital and intensive care declines.
If we have anything concrete, we’ll provide that. What the public needs to know the most is this – for the last 18 months, our hospital system has been preparing for this.
Updated
Will NSW open up to international travel, even if it is locked out domestically?
Gladys Berejiklian:
That’s a conversation we’ll have with the prime minister with our national cabinet colleagues.
But I don’t understand why some premiers are walking away from the plan that all of us signed up to, what national cabinet signed off.
What the Doherty institute provides information about is irrespective of your case numbers, what you do with health measures at 70% and 80% is contingent on that.
What 70% looks like in NSW double-dose might be different to WA but it means we’ll be much freer and the key issue for us is, remember we are the largest population, the highest density, the highest diversity.
What matters is having our hospital system not overwhelmed and that’s the delicate balance we need to consider moving forward. So every day – and this is literal – every day what keeps me awake at night is making sure that our wonderful staff like Michelle are not overwhelmed in their jobs are and are able to take care of the people they need to.
The important thing to look at it is the number of people in hospital.
Come 70% when the vast majority of people are vaccinated, case numbers will matter but they’ll matter less when you’ve got higher rates of vaccination because that will tell you to what extent the hospital system can cope in a reasonable way with all the cases.
I’m having this conversation now because our citizens are entitled to have direct and transparent advice as I receive it so we can start thinking about Covid in a different way once we get to 70% double dose because the way that we deal with cases, the way we count things will be completely different once you have the higher rates of vaccination and that’s important, as confronting as it’s been.
I’m hoping in a few months’ time when people look back, they can say at least in NSW they told it like it was, they told us what to expect and the conversation we’re having now will prepare us for the higher rates of vaccination.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian has asked reporters to “stop screaming” at her as they ask questions.
She is pushed about whether or not NSW will go it alone with things like international travel, if other states won’t follow suit, if case numbers are high, even if 80% of the population has received a double dose of the vaccine:
We will follow what is in the national plan, that every single premier has signed up to.
Now, I hope premiers don’t back away from that plan but national cabinet signed off on what 80% double-dose vaccination would look like and that involves consideration of international travel, of welcoming more Aussies home and also, once we hit 70% double dose we’ll be thinking about, if not beforehand, how we treat people in quarantine when they’re coming home.
If you have fully vaccinated Aussies coming home, do you expect them to be in a hotel for two weeks in quarantine?
Can we look after them at home as we do all the Covid cases now?
There are lots of positive things to look forward to and that will depend on our double-dose vaccination but it also depends – and I don’t want to take away from this point – is that what nurse Michelle Dowd highlighted today is that all this depends on keeping pressure off our hospital system, our intensive care system, and that means getting vaccinated.
That allows our hospital system to cope but also makes sure that we have all these positive things to look forward to.
Now, the national plan is – if not at 80% double dose then when will we have international travel? 80% double dose and by then I’m assuming a certain cohort of 12-year-olds to 15-year-olds as well.
If not 80%, then when? There’s only one jurisdiction on the planet that’s managed to keep 80% double-dose vaccination outside of Australia.
I’m confident NSW can do that. I’m confident Australia can do that but it’s really important for us to move forward together.
Updated
But the issue for a lot of people, is they can’t all access a vaccine. Not everyone is a candidate for AstraZeneca and Brad Hazzard has just said what Victoria has also dealt with – there are not enough mRNA vaccines in Australia at the moment.
Gladys Berejiklian is asked about residents in hotspots who are being told they have to wait eight weeks in between their mRNA vaccinations, because of supply constraints, and what that means for the double dosed targets:
Obviously, the percentage or the vaccination rate in relation to second doses is based on the health advice. The best advice we have from Dr Chant and the public health team is we need as many people as possible to get that first dose in their arms. Once they have the first dose they have a level of protection and that’s why we followed the health advice and Dr Chant and the public health team have been clear about that.
The timing between the doses is based on what is going to give the maximum number of people maximum coverage in the shortest possible of time.
We are still estimating we will hit 70% double dose somewhere in October. it was the end of October.
If we keep the current rates of vaccination going, we could hit that in mid-October.
My message strongly, during September will be to get ready. If you’re a business, make sure your employees are vaccinated. If you’re a citizen make sure yourself, your families, loved ones and friends are vaccinated.
That’s our ticket to freedom. Vaccination is key for us moving forward in terms of getting back to normal and normal under Covid will still mean have your QR codes, still mean you have to check in, still mean you have to maintain social distancing and wear a mask in certain settings but will we be freer than today?
Absolutely. At it stage, the rate of vaccination ... in NSW will hit 70% double dose somewhere in October but what Dr Chant and I are now keen to see is that first dose go up to 80% ... that will give us an indication as to when we’ll hit 80% double doses.
Updated
Asked about the modelling Gladys Berejiklian has spoken of, which shows October is going to be one of the hardest months, Brad Hazzard says:
I’ve talked about this many times. The whole range of modelling – the Doherty institute has put out its publicly, what it is estimating is going to happen over the next few months. The figures are depending on the input. The most important input is how many people are going to get vaccinated. The short answer, as I said earlier, get out and get vaccinated. Don’t be so selfish or self-entitled as to think you’re different from the rest of us. You’re not. Go and get vaccinated and give the entire community a fair go, particularly frontline medical staff.
Updated
Meanwhile, while Brad Hazzard is talking about how there are not enough mRNA vaccines to meet the demand from the 16+ youth cohort, Scott Morrison said just yesterday that the challenges in the vaccine program “have been overcome”.
The fact that we’ve been able to bring forward doses, the fact that we’ve been able to achieve and realise additional supplies, and we have more irons in the fire that will see further doses we believe being made available in this country – all of this demonstrates the vaccination program that had its challenges earlier have been overcome”.
Not getting vaccinated 'self indulgent and selfish in the extreme'
Brad Hazzard is asked about the AMA’s call for vaccines to be mandated for everyone in the health system – including cleaners and support staff – and says he doesn’t believe it is necessary:
Talking to health staff, I think this pandemic has been a clarion call to nurses who are in the profession but also nurses who have left the profession to come back and fight this virus.
We’re at war and you heard what Michelle said. There’s enthusiasm for the entire team to be there fighting the virus.
If there are some who haven’t decided to respond to that, that’s a matter for them, but I’m confident that ... I see them, I talk to them every day and New South Wales health staff generally, doesn’t matter if you’re the cleaners making sure the virus is being cleaned out of the hospitals or whether it’s nurses, doctors, or front outpatients-serving administrative staff, they’re all working their backsides off, putting it in bluntly.
That’s why we keep saying give them a fair go, folks.
Go and get vaccinated. Not getting vaccinated is self-entitled and indulgent in the extreme in the middle of a pandemic. Go and get vaccinated and be fair to the rest of the community.
Updated
Brad Hazzard continues:
Unfortunately, the mixed messaging from the last 6 or 8 months on the vaccines, particularly AstraZeneca, has not been helpful to the broader community’s understanding of how important it is to get vaccinated from any vaccine you’re eligible to get.
As health minister in NSW I’m extremely frustrated about that and I think that frustration is shared by many of the health staff, the frontline health staff. But at the end of the day, it’s a worldwide pandemic. Let’s get real about this. It’s a worldwide pandemic. The federal government is doing their damnedest to get the vaccines and when they get it to us, we’ll get it into arms.
Updated
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is asked about frustrations from people unable to book in vaccine appointments – particularly young people, who in hotspots can’t get appointments until October.
Hazzard said there is just not enough mRNA supplies at the moment.
I know it’s a struggle because I know a lot of people would like to have the vaccine.
Simply put, there is not enough Pfizer in New South Wales or anywhere in the two major states – New South Wales or Victoria – for the people who are now wanting it.
We’re certainly asking the federal government to try and get us more Pfizer vaccine. What I would say is for older patients, for older residents, you can also have AstraZeneca, so if you’re 18 or over, have AstraZeneca.
I’ve got personal friends, family members who have had AstraZeneca. Go and have it. It’s a very good vaccine. It’s saved vast numbers of people right across the world from what is an extremely dangerous virus. This virus is killing people across the world in great numbers. Go and get vaccinated as fast as you can.
The system in NSW is working as best as it can as we’ve just heard from nurse Michelle, health staff at the frontline are desperate to see us all get vaccinated as quickly as possible because if we fail to get vaccinated, we’re putting our families at risk, we’re putting our community at risk and we’re putting frontline health staff at risk.
And I want to say this. If you over 16 and you can get the Pfizer, of course, look around. There are various opportunities on the booking systems. But you might have to be patient until the federal government can provide more Pfizer to NSW and indeed also to Victoria*.
*And to everywhere
Updated
There are currently 871 Covid-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 143 people in intensive care, 58 of whom require ventilation.
Gladys Berejiklian says she expects to see the peak of hospital admissions in October.
Michelle Dowd continues:
The Delta variant is so contagious that we have entire family groups in our hospital in some really tragic circumstances.
We’ve had parents, both parents of young children so sick that they need to be ventilated in our intensive care unit and separated from their children.
Sometimes they don’t have extended family to look after these children, or the extended family is so sick that we need to make alternative care arrangements.
This virus is literally ripping families apart. Many of our parents with Covid are young. They’re normally fit and healthy. They come from a variety of backgrounds but the one thing that they have in common is they are usually not vaccinated.
Michelle Dowd, the nurse manager at the Intensive Care Services at South Western Sydney Local Health District is the frontline worker who is giving today’s insight.
If you or your loved one is in intensive care right now for any reason, you may not be able to have visitors. We know it’s really hard at the moment to be separated from your support network but the amount of virus that’s circulating in the community just poses too much risk to our patients.
To or our Covid ICU patients, they can’t have visitors at all. Every day, we’re communicating with families over the phone and by video call to connect them. In the worst cases, at the end of life, we’ll connect a call with the family and hold the patient’s hands and provide as much care and comfort and support as we possibly can.
We know this is really hard for families. This is really hard for us as well. We normally work really closely with our families at the bedside when we look after our intensive care patients but looking after Covid patients is not just emotionally hard for intensive care nurses. It’s physically really hard work as well. These patients are some of the sickest we’ve ever seen.
Updated
There are 52 new cases in regional NSW, 32 of which are in Dubbo.
Parklea prison Covid outbreak grows
Dr Kerry Chant moves into the health update, which includes news of a prison outbreak, which has impacted prisoners:
We’re experiencing an outbreak at Parklea prison. There have been 43 new cases linked to Parklea Correctional Centre to 8pm last night meaning there are now 75 cases in total.
All of the new cases are inmates meaning a total of 74 positive Covid inmates and one staff member. The prison is in lockdown and appropriate public health action is occurring.
There’s vaccination going into the prison. There is infection control practitioners on site, clinical care from a virtual model supported by St Vincent’s Health. I’ve identified previously that prisons are vulnerable settings and ... we’ve been progressively rolling out vaccination to our corrective services staff and prisoners. We’ll redouble our efforts to continue to keep our prison and corrective services staff safe.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian:
To 8pm last night we had 1,164 cases of Covid.
Three people lost their lives and we extend our deepest condolences to their loved ones.
A female in her 50s, who did have underlying health conditions, a male in his 80s and a male in his 90s and, again we extend our deepest condolences to the loved ones of those three people.
Again, I wanted to stress the importance of vaccination and we’re looking forward in this week – perhaps we get to the 7 million ... or at least 70% first-dose vaccination in New South Wales would be amazing. Because once we know that you’ve signed up to your first dose, you’ll be getting your second dose.
Just brushing over the people who died still smarts. People are more than their commodities or underlying health conditions. Each one had a life outside of their health, an impact and people who knew and loved them.
Updated
NSW records 1164 cases of covid and three deaths
Gladys Berejiklian opens with a hope the coming spring is better than the winter.
She then moves onto the vaccination spiel, before getting to the day’s numbers.
Being the last day of winter, I can safely say that we’re looking forward to a better spring than we did winter. I’m pleased to report, however, that 67% of our adult population officially ticked over yesterday [and] have received their first dose of vaccine so it’s pleasing to know that we were officially 66-point-something per cent yesterday and 67% is now vaccinated.
We want to get to the magic 70% and 80% as quickly as possible. Can I please encourage everybody who has not yet made plans for vaccination to really consider September the month when them and their loved ones, your loved ones and your family are vaccinated. It’s so critical for all of us to have a more hopeful spring by making sure we get those vaccination rates up.
Updated
Labor announces new commitments to combat sexual harassment
Morning all. Labor has flagged some new commitments this morning implementing the Respect@Work report from Australia’s sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins.
The opposition is promising to deliver $24m for working women’s centres to provide confidential assistance and advice about workplace matters, including sexual harassment, wage theft, and discrimination, and $1.27m to establish a one-stop shop, within the Australian Human Rights Commission, to assist victims of workplace sexual harassment.
The AHRC will also get $1.5m to document the experiences of victims of historical sexual harassment at work. Labor says if it wins the next election, it will implement all the recommendations from Jenkins’ report.
That report contained 55 recommendations. The central one is employers should face an obligation to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate sexual harassment, discrimination and victimisation “as far as possible”.
The Morrison government has promised to implement a number of the proposals, but has baulked at the duty on employers.
Appearing before a Senate committee in July, Jenkins (who is currently leading a review into parliamentary workplace culture) urged the government to embrace the duty.
She insisted the current problem in workplaces was much larger than “a few bad blokes”.
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The party room meetings are going on this morning. We should hear what rah-rah go team! messages were shared (as well as the complaints) pretty soon.
For those who don’t know, the party room briefings is one of the weirder Canberra traditions. Sometime after the meeting concludes, an alert goes out for the briefing, where a nominated member of the party goes through the meeting’s minutes with the media. There are no names just ‘a member’ but you can usually work out from the topic or complaint who was going on about what.
It is all on background and can’t be attributed, so it’s all a little strange. But if you hear or read ‘told party room’, it usually started from the briefing
Labor’s Andrew Leigh, who has been leading Labor’s campaign to make companies who received jobkeeper and how much they received, public, is pretty stoked at the Harvey Norman news this morning:
Six months ago, Gerry Harvey flatly refused to repay. Does anyone imagine he would’ve repaid without huge public pressure?
Harvey Norman has given us the best advertisement for more transparency into the secretive, rorted jobkeeper scheme.
The repayment news (the $6m the head office received) comes a day after Josh Frydenberg ramped up his attack against the transparency moves, which he called an ‘attack on small business’
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For those wanting to follow along with Afghanistan, Helen Sullivan has you covered
The NSW press conference will be at 11am.
Victoria will be slightly after that and the ACT is expected at 11.45am.
The ACT cabinet met yesterday afternoon to discuss restrictions, so we should hear more about its plan for the lockdown which is meant to end later this week (although it is not looking promising).
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Harvey Norman repays some jobkeeper
The furniture, electrical and whitegoods retailer Harvey Norman has repaid $6m in jobkeeper wage subsidies. The move, announced in its annual report released on Tuesday, follows a long campaign by Labor to shame companies that claimed jobkeeper only to improve their financial position during the pandemic to voluntarily repay the money.
Harvey Norman announced a profit before tax of $1.183bn for the year ended 30 June, 2021, an increase of $521m from the previous year. Excluding the impact of property revaluation, profits were still up $415.8m or 66.4%.
A footnote in the annual report states:
Subsequent to the year-end, in August 2021, all of the wages support and assistance received by controlled entities in Australia of $6.02m (financial year 2021 $3.63m, financial year 2020 $2.39m) was repaid to the federal government via the Australian Taxation Office. No provision has been made in the statement of financial position … for this post year-end repayment.”
The key word there is “controlled entities” - ie stores and companies owned by head office. Labor estimates when franchisees are included Harvey Norman and its franchisees claimed a total of $22m.
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Jim Chalmers defended the Queensland government on Sky News this morning:
I haven’t spoken to the State Government about it today but my understanding is, as your reporter just indicated, that these places don’t come at the expense of people returning.
The Premier explained her reasoning behind the pause in the returning traveller program because demand was outstripping supply.
Part of the reason for that was some of the Federal Government’s failures on quarantine and on vaccines more broadly. And so I think Premier Palaszczuk explained her position and at the end of the day it’s a matter for them.
Queensland has recorded no new Covid cases (not surprising) but the main issue in the greatest nation on earth is still Covid related.
The state is hosting quite a few of the NRL finals and as part of that, the families of players have been moved into the state’s quarantine system, which has upset those who have been trying to get home, or attempting to see loved ones. Queensland paused its domestic hotel quarantine intake, claiming it was at capacity (it is taking in Afghan refugees).
Compassionate and health exemptions still apply, but the optics have still bitten.
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Oh good. The mouse plague will probably return as the weather gets warmer.
From the minister for agriculture David Littleproud’s office:
We’ve had good rain and are looking at a bumper harvest, and unfortunately these conditions are perfect for mice,” Littleproud said.
Taking action early will be important to keep mouse numbers down.
It’s important that farmers get out into the paddocks to look for damage or other signs of mice such as active burrows, and to act at the first signs of activity.
The Grains Research and Development Corporation produces material and information to help with mouse management, including printable chew cards for monitoring mouse activity.
But there is support available for farmers who have had their businesses impacted by mice.
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Scott Morrison has spoken to Tasmania Talks, praising the island state as the “vaccination capital of the country” due to its rate of 42% of people having received two vaccine doses.
Morrison is continuing his repositioning on what happens at the 70% rate of vaccination, noting that “we need to be cautious at that level” and observing that there won’t be “too much difference in Tasmania”.
Perhaps because Tasmania has zero Covid because its borders are shut. Nevertheless, Morrison said he would like to see “more movement” at that level, without explicitly telling Peter Gutwein to ease its ban on citizens from hotspots.
Morrison said:
The most obvious point is – Delta will come to Tasmania, as it will to every part of this country and the world. The best protection is not a border which costs jobs, mental health and keeps Australians apart. The best protection is a vaccine ... This is a safe plan. It’s not safe to keep living separate forever.”
Asked about Gutwein’s comments that he will “never cede away the state’s responsibility to act” to prevent a Covid outbreak, Morrison said it will still be possible to have targeted lockdowns in the future, as occurred in north-west Tasmania in 2020, and that these might be necessary for “specific communities such as Indigenous and rural communities” where vaccination rates are low. No word on the borders though.
Morrison said the 70% and 80% vaccination marks will be a “game changer”, comparing the NSW Delta outbreak to Victoria’s second wave last year, by noting the death rate from Covid has fallen by 90% (due to higher rates of vaccination and more success at keeping Covid out of aged care).
Asked how Tasmania’s health system will cope if it is already in crisis – Morrison argued that workforce pressures will ease because when staff are double vaccinated, their colleagues won’t all have to be furloughed if one of them contracts Covid.
There should also be more student nurses on hand to help.
Morrison concludes the interview by noting Australia is “getting very close” to reaching the target of everyone have the opportunity to be vaccinated before the end of October, suggesting this meant the rollout had made up ground.
The original promise was of course that we’d be fully vaccinate, before the government shifted the goalpost to say we’d all have one dose by then.
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Queensland Liberal National party senator Amanda Stoker has been ramping up her media appearances lately. She has always been a regular on Sky, but she is increasing the number of doorstop interviews she does, as well as the ABC. Stoker lost the battle with James McGrath for the number one Senate ticket spot, which leaves her at number three – winnable, but not guaranteed.
In the meantime, Stoker is embracing being one of the chosen few allowed to speak on behalf of the government. Here is the senator speaking to Sky News last night:
Look, I think you can expect that as Queensland, in particular, seems to want to shuffle back from its commitment to the national plan, they can expect less and less cooperation from the commonwealth government.
If we want to say, ‘we’re all in this together’, well, we’ve got a plan, let’s implement it together so that Australians can get back to all that is great about living in this country.
I fully expect that the leadership that we have seen and will continue to see from the prime minister and from the Morrison government’s leadership team, will keep ramping up that pressure – not for ourselves, not for a political point – but because Australians and Queenslanders need it. And our duty is to them. It’s not to Anastacia Palaszczuk’s convenience.
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Mark McGowan has once again used Facebook to respond to “eastern” state commentary (he mostly means the federal government and NSW).
But he does say he will be opening up Western Australia “in line” with the national plan (and health advice). Looks like for him, the benchmark begins at 80% of the adult population having been vaccinated – and he is clear that there will still be some restrictions under the national plan (as in, it is not just open slather woohoo, we are open).
You may have heard some commentary from the eastern states recently about WA and the national plan to transition out of the pandemic.
As I’ve repeatedly said: Western Australia will remove our controlled border with other states in the future, when it is safe to do so, and in line with the health advice and the national plan.
Some people want us to remove our border controls with Sydney when only 70% of adults are vaccinated (which is only 56% of the overall population).
By knowingly letting the virus in, it would mean we’d have hundreds of people die, have to wind back our local freedoms, introduce restrictions and shut down large parts of our economy. I don’t want to do that.
I don’t want to see people dying in nursing homes or aged care villages or disability centres or hospitals.
I don’t want to bring back harsh limits on local businesses.It’s just odd for the commonwealth government to keep arguing for this – to be clear, removing ALL travel restrictions, domestic or international, is not part of the national plan at either 70 or 80%.
When it is safe to do so we will open the borders – when an overwhelming majority of our population has been vaccinated.
We will get there – it might only be a difference of a few months – but in the meantime, it’s worth trying to keep Covid out for as long as we can so we can vaccinate as many people as possible.
Ultimately, these are issues for later. Right now, in August, the focus should be on dealing with the crisis in New South Wales.
The commonwealth government should be more concerned about getting the current situation under control, and trying to spare the rest of the country from the fate that NSW is suffering.
It’s not been well publicised, but Western Australia is lending its resources to help the health response in New South Wales. Our contact tracers are fully focused on the situation over east and we’ve sent across 250,000 N95 masks, plus Western Australian medical staff assisting in regional NSW.
The fact is, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are all going pretty well at the moment.
We are not living in caves – we have some of the freest, most open, exciting communities in the world – and we want to keep it that way while we get our population vaccinated.
The idea that we would prematurely decide to deliberately import the virus and shut down parts of the mining industry, is complete madness.
Right now, the most important thing we can do is get as many people vaccinated as possible. If you are reading this and haven’t already – please do your part, and book your appointment today.
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Scott Morrison is about to hit up Tasmanian radio now. But for those asking, here is the end of his Brisbane radio 4BC interview:
Host:
It’s been 15 days since Kabul fell to the Taliban obviously we’re great partners with the United States. Have you spoken to US President Joe Biden yet?
Morrison:
No, I haven’t as yet. I anticipate doing that, not too far away.
Host: Is that disappointing that he hasn’t contacted you we are a pretty strong ally.
Morrison:
We are and that’s not affected by that I mean we have been in constant contact with those who have been running these operations, and the foreign secretary and all, everyone who’s been involved in these operations through the military, and we’ve had a seamless relationship. I mean, we still have KC 30 they’re engaged in refuelling operations, we’re still supporting the operation that is happening more broadly across the Middle East, we’re able to get 4,100 people out of there.
That’s what that’s around about four times, what our original estimate was, so you know I understand that these comments but the US president needed to do what he needed to do, I needed to do what I needed to do, and that will get 4,100 people out, and we had extraordinary cooperation from the United States, there were no issues there, to raise, because we were just getting the job done.
Host: Well he contacted Spain and Italy and France and all these other mobs and others, now he didn’t give us Pfizer vaccine I think we’re on the nose with him.
Morrison:
No, not at all. I mean, I mean, I’ve just don’t agree with that. I’ve been dealing with the United States on many issues, and we continue to do that.
And you know, I’m not precious about these things I just focus on getting the job done.
Host: Okay, Prime Minister Scott Morrison thanks so much time, thanks so much for your time, sorry, on 4BC Breakfast.
(phone hangs up)
There he is. I don’t think he liked the Joe Biden questions.
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Morrison defends Afghan refugee allocation
AAP has covered off what Scott Morrison said about how many Afghan refugees Australia will accept during his interview with Adelaide radio 5AA this morning:
Scott Morrison has rejected calls to take more Afghan refugees in a special-one off intake outside Australia’s regular humanitarian cap.
The United States has officially withdrawn its remaining troops from Afghanistan, which is now controlled by the Taliban after 20 years of western forces’ involvement.
A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the war-torn nation with many trying to flee the regime left behind, despite 122,000 people being evacuated including more than 4000 in Australia’s mission.
The prime minister said Australia’s commitment to allocate 3000 places of its 13,750-person humanitarian cap this financial year was in line with previous efforts.
In 2015, the Abbott government announced a special one-off intake of 12,000 people from Syria.
“Let me remind you what happened with Syria, we did 12,000 in that first year. Of that 12,000 we did 3000 in the first year,” Morrison told 5AA radio on Tuesday.
“What I’ve said is, we will do, we think, at least 3,000 this year. I actually think it will be more.”
He said the challenge would be working out ways to get people out of Afghanistan through partner agencies and countries.
“If the overall intake has to be increased to accommodate those additional numbers then it will be.”
Morrison said Australia evacuated four times the amount of people initially expected.
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Following on from Lorena Allam’s story on Wilcannia – and how the federal government was warned in March 2020 of the potential for disaster during a Covid outbreak – Labor’s Linda Burney says there are other vulnerable populations in western NSW at risk:
With 10% of Wilcannia's population contracting COVID, @LindaBurneyMP says the spread into vulnerable Aboriginal communities in western NSW was preventable.
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) August 30, 2021
"My fear is this will leak out of those communities & reach other vulnerable populations. There are lessons to be learnt." pic.twitter.com/KarwjmH1ri
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Victoria records 76 new Covid cases
45 of these cases have been linked.
We don’t have any other information at this stage – that will come with the morning update, which will be sometime around 11.15am or so.
Reported yesterday: 76 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 30, 2021
- 32,162 vaccine doses were administered
- 50,848 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/lW2TC4nqAC
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Five Covid-positive Sydney men fined
We’ll get the NSW update in a few hours. Meanwhile, AAP has an update on the policing:
Five Covid-positive men have each been fined $5,000 after NSW police found them unmasked and mingling outside in Sydney’s south-west.
Officers were patrolling Leppington on Monday morning when they saw the men sitting at a table on the footpath.
“None of the men were wearing face masks,” NSW police said in a statement.
“Officers stopped and spoke to the men, who revealed they had tested positive to Covid-19 in rural NSW and had been ordered to self-isolate for 14 days after being escorted back to Sydney last Monday.”
The men - aged 23, 25, 26, 31 and 32 - were each fined $5,000 for breaching Covid-19 health orders and escorted back to their homes to continue their mandatory isolation.
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The host ends the interview and says goodbye – but Scott Morrison seems to hangs up without saying goodbye.
“Scott Morrison, thanks so much for your time on 4BC Breakfast,” the host says. The only sound is a phone hanging up.
“There he is. I don’t think he liked the questions on Joe Biden.”
Scott Morrison says he has not yet spoken to US President Joe Biden about the Afghanistan evacuations.
He says the alliance remains strong and “there were no issues to be raised because we are just getting the job done”.
He does not agree with the host that Australia is “on the nose” with the US.
Daniel Hurst has been following Australia’s Afghanistan evacuation – and the fallout.
The Australian government’s newly appointed adviser on resettling Afghan nationals has predicted the “residual trauma” among those fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan will be “amongst the highest levels of any groups we’ve ever resettled”.
Paris Aristotle, the co-chair of an advisory panel announced on Monday, also said he welcomed signals from the government that it was open to taking more than the 3,000 Afghan nationals it initially pledged to accommodate by June next year.
“If the government decides to do that, I am absolutely confident that we have the capacity to do it well,” he said of an increased intake.
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AMA says vaccinations for healthcare staff must be mandatory or reopening Australia will be a 'disaster'
Australian Medical Association president Dr Omar Khorshid wants vaccinations for the healthcare system made mandatory – and the legal protections to make it happen – including cleaners, receptionists and contractors “as soon as practical”.
As Khorshid says:
Australians must understand that we will be living with Covid-19 for a long time to come and that will inevitably involve a longer, heavier than normal reliance on our doctors, nurses, hospitals and allied health.
We need to bring these workers and the environment they work in, out of crisis mode and the first step towards that is to protect them through vaccination.
This is about healthcare worker safety and the safety of patients, and not about vaccines by force.
AMA proposes nationally consistent public health orders of state and territory governments to authorise mandatory vaccinations across the healthcare system for all staff as soon as is reasonably possible.
We’ve said plans to reopen Australia will be a disaster unless our health sector is ready, and that will mean having a fully protected medical workforce.
There is widespread uncertainty as to whether other occupations and workplaces can also mandate vaccinations. The law needs clarity to give employers and employees certainty.
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The Scott Morrison radio morning blitz moves to Brisbane radio 4BC.
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The interview finishes, as they all do at the moment, with the national plan.
Scott Morrison:
We’ve got to implement the national plan, that’s why it’s so important.
And I know, across Queensland where cases, you know, particularly up north, they’ve been very few and far between.
And I know there will be people who will be concerned, they’ll go ‘well, hang on, we haven’t had it up here. So, you know what, why do we have to go and open up to other states and other countries and all the rest of it’.
Well, if there’s any place that understands the importance of being connected to the rest of the world and the rest of the country, it’s north Queensland. And it’s in particular Cairns.
And so for those jobs, for those livelihoods, for the future of north Queensland, the national plan is essential. And it’s safe*.”
* ‘Safe’ is something Morrison has recently started adding to his national plan spiel. And for many people, it will be. But the transition is going to be rough, and it will not be safe for absolutely everyone. There will be, under the Doherty modelling, increased Covid cases, hospitalisations and deaths – the more existing cases there are when the reopening happens, the higher those numbers will be. It is not an argument against the national plan, it is just the facts.
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Asked about what new variants of Covid could do to Australia’s plans, Scott Morrison says that is what the booster doses are for.
Australia plans on rolling out boosters from early next year.
There are reports emerging from South Africa of a new variant already, so this is not going to be something which just ends.
Morrison also says that he and “Jen” had a trip to north Queensland booked, which they had to cancel because of the NSW outbreak, so he too is feeling the effects.
It’s all paid for, but like many Australians, we’ve had to delay our Queensland holiday but I look forward to taking that at some point, whenever that is, taking that up.
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The host of the Cairns radio station accidentally hung up on Scott Morrison, so the interview has begun with a great start.
Morrison starts by congratulating Cairns on its vaccination rate, which is higher than the Queensland average.
He moves on to tourism, and says when 80% of the (adult) population is vaccinated, more travel bubbles will be possible, as long as Queensland moves to home quarantine. South Australia is trialling it at the moment, with plans to spread home quarantine for vaccinated people across the country.
Cairns radio 4CA has moved on to Two Hearts by Phil Collins.
Far north Queensland really knows how to rock a morning.
Murph has the details on the latest Essential Poll:
Australians are concerned about any “living with Covid” strategy that would lead to a significant increase in hospitalisations and deaths – and a majority in the latest Guardian Essential poll think governments should not end current lockdowns until a substantial proportion of children are fully vaccinated.
Amid sustained political, epidemiological and community debate about Australia’s four-phase reopening strategy, the latest Guardian Essential survey of 1,100 respondents finds only 12% of the sample would be comfortable with any transition that increases deaths and hospitalisations.
While senior Coalition players such as the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, have declared elimination of the Delta variant is impossible, saying Australians must learn to live with the virus, 44% of Guardian Essential respondents (including 37% of Coalition voters in the sample) believe the current strategy should be getting Covid-19 cases down as close to zero as possible.
The United States has officially withdrawn from Afghanistan, with its last plane having left Kabul.
Australia pulled out over the weekend. There are still people who need evacuation. The US is hoping to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Taliban to facilitate some of those evacuations.
You can follow the latest developments here:
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Scott Morrison is doing the radio rounds this morning. He was on Adelaide radio 5AA earlier this morning – now it is Cairns radio 4CA.
First he has to wait for Nickelback’s Photograph to finish playing. You just know the prime minister would be a Nickelback fan. You just know it.
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Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein spent the night in hospital after he was admitted yesterday amid reports he had become “unwell”.
We don’t know much more than that, other than he is expected to be out of action for most of the week.
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John Barilaro, speaking to the ABC this morning, was also asked about concerns the NSW health system may not cope under what is coming . As Elias Visontay reports, that includes concerns from the AMA:
Barilaro said plans were in place:
Well, we know there is stress and there is pressure, so we are planning for it, like I said, we are replanning, recalibrating the system, to see what we can do, and identify the opportunities within New South Wales Health.
We have one of the largest health systems and networks not just in the country but in the world. It is an integrated connected network and has the ability to tap into the private sector. We are planning for it. As I said, NSW Health will have more to say about this as we get close to the restrictions being lifted, as we get closer to October. Are we under stress? Of course the system is under stress, but we can manage through it.
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It is party room meeting day, where the MPs gather (mostly virtually lately) to receive the rah-rah from the leaders, air complaints and ignore elephants in the room.
Scott Morrison started the week a little cranky – he ended question a bit earlier than usual yesterday and was pretty annoyed at Labor bringing up the reports Gladys Berejiklian had called him an “evil bully” to colleagues. Berejiklian has denied it, and Morrison said she had sent him a message reassuring him she had not said it. But it was obvious he was not happy yesterday.
We’ll bring you the updates from those meetings later in the day.
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Good morning
Happy Tuesday.
The best thing we can say about it, is it is not Monday. It’s just that sort of week.
Victoria’s Covid exposure sites have hit 1,000, with Victorian authorities already confirming the seven-day “circuit breaker” lockdown, now in its 26th day, will be extended. We are waiting to hear for how much longer and what restrictions will remain in place.
In NSW, now in it’s 10th week of lockdown, with cases continuing to rise, deputy premier John Barilaro says the next couple of weeks will be worse. He told the ABC this morning:
As we get through September and October case numbers will continue to rise. Our vaccination pathway is accelerating. There will be a crossover point at some point in the weeks ahead where we start to see how vaccination will actually play into putting downward pressure on numbers but what the final numbers look like, look, I can’t predict, I don’t have a crystal ball, but we are forecasting a rise and we’re preparing for it.
But it is western NSW which is particularly worrying, particularly in communities like Wilcannia, which is struggling to cope with the outbreak. It’s not just the virus, which is worrying enough – it is also getting basics into the community, such as food. Not that any of this should be new – as Lorena Allam reported yesterday, authorities had been warned a year ago of the potential catastrophe in the community.
Yesterday, an Aboriginal man in his 50s who lived in Dubbo became Australia’s first confirmed Indigenous death.
It was only last week that Barilaro was describing the situation in regional NSW as a “tinder box waiting to explode”. But there doesn’t seem to be a lot of answers. Here he was this morning:
I’m very concerned. I get up every day and talk about those infections in Wilcannia and Broken Hill, and it is regular.
It is ever day that there are new cases in those areas. We are focused We have refocused our priorities and resources. Should they have been vaccinated, yes? They should have been part of the [federal] program at the start of the year. It didn’t occur.
We are now going in hard and we are maximising what is happening in the central west, what’s happening in Dubbo. Thirty-three cases yesterday out of 51 cases in places like western New South Wales, places like Parkes and Forbes that continually show signs of this outbreak and we know with Delta we are struggling to contain it.
We’ll bring you all the Covid news as it happens, as well as politics, with parliament continuing to sit.
Of course, parliament will remain focused on the national plan, which has dominated over all else over the last sitting, as the government pushes forward with the reopening plan. There is slowly a little acknowledgement that there has been some nuance missed in the government’s message – yes, the nation can reopen under the Doherty Institute modelling, and no, Australia can’t stay closed forever and shouldn’t. But the transition is going to be rough. Particularly in jurisdictions where lockdowns haven’t been too common – which covers about 40% of the population at the moment. They have lockouts, not lockdowns, and life has continued pretty much as normal for a lot of people in those areas. “Learning to live with Covid” means accepting higher case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths than a lot of people have been used to.
You have Mike Bowers and Amy Remeikis with you on the blog, with Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst in Canberra. We’ll bring you a mix of covid and parliament as we continue to navigate life in a pandemic.
Ready? (It’s probably a four-coffee morning.)
