End of the blog
That is where we will leave the live blog for Wednesday. Here’s what you might have missed from today:
- Another worker and former guest of Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn quarantine hotel have tested positive for Covid-19, in addition to the two reported yesterday, bringing the total number of cases linked to the outbreak to eight.
- Chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton said a nebuliser medical device in the room of an infected family could be to blame for the cluster, and the Holiday Inn has been closed for cleaning.
- Plans to increase Victoria’s weekly cap on international arrivals from 1120 to 1310 from next week have been put on hold.
- South Australia will reimpose its hard border for Greater Melbourne residents from midnight tonight.
- The Northern Territory has listed four Melbourne areas as COVID-19 hotspots – Sunbury, Maidstone, Sunshine and Taylors Lakes.
- NSW will revert to the two-square-metre rule for venues from Friday and will remove the obligation to wear masks except on public transport or in taxi services. Only gyms will maintain the current four-square-metre rule.
- It could take six years for the world to be vaccinated against Covid-19, and more “sinister” variants could emerge, so the developed world must practice vaccine altruism and share with developing countries, infectious diseases physician Sanjaya Senanayake told the National Press Club.
Until tomorrow, stay safe.
Updated
Victoria’s health department has just announced two new exposure sites connected to one of the new cases out of the Holiday Inn:
- The Commonwealth Bank, Glen Waverley, between 1.30pm and 2.45pm on Tuesday 9 February
- HDBC Bank, Glen Waverley, between 2.15pm and 3.30pm on Tuesday 9 February.
There’s usually a bit of overlap with these things, particularly if memory is hazy on exact times.
Update: new exposure sites.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
Initial exposure sites and times include:
Tuesday 9 February
- Commonwealth Bank, Glen Waverley: 1.30pm - 2.45pm
- HSBC Bank, Glen Waverley: 2.15pm - 3.30pm pic.twitter.com/IiKclyd1fd
Updated
Victorian quarantine hotels to be reassessed for ventilation risks
Victorian health officials plan to reassess every hotel used in the government’s quarantine program for ventilation risks, following an outbreak at the Holiday Inn.
Victoria’s deputy chief health officer, Melanie Van Twest, has told ABC Melbourne that previous assessments were “certainly adequate” but were conducted up to three months ago.
She said the new assessments would be carried out by an independent expert but the process could take as long as six weeks.
It comes after an outbreak at the Holiday Inn forced authorities to move quarantining guests out of the hotel at Melbourne Airport. The outbreak has been blamed on a nebuliser, an aerosol-based medical device.
Van Twest said there was not a problem with the “whole program”, but a “problem with exposure at one particular hotel”.
She said:
That exposure has been controlled and everybody involved with that exposure is now safely in quarantine.
Asked about the testing of workers in the program, Emma Cassar, the commissioner of Covid Quarantine Victoria, said rates were in the “high 90s”.
Asked if testing rates should be 100%, Cassar said authorities were aiming for 100% but said current rates were good. “We’re doing really well,” she said.
When asked if Victorians should be worried about hotel quarantine, Cassar replied: “We’ve got this.”
Updated
The dog days of Covid-19 have meant a litter of future guide dogs is being trained in Australia before starting working life in Canada, AAP reports.
Four labrador puppies are set to spend the entire year in Melbourne learning to become qualified dog guides on the other side of the world.
At Vision Australia’s Seeing Eye Dogs site in Kensington, Rex, Harley, Bridget and Oscar came together for the first time on Wednesday to be put through their puppy paces.
The cross-continent collaboration is the brainchild of CNIB Guide Dogs, which raise, train and match dogs with blind and visually-impaired Canadians and often acquire puppies from an Australian breeder.
With the coronavirus pandemic interrupting international transport links, the charity was forced to think outside the box to find a solution.
“Vision Australia and CNIB have had a longstanding relationship,” CNIB president Diane Bergeron said.
“We contacted them and asked if their puppy carers could raise our future CNIB Guide Dogs until travel restrictions are lifted and they said ‘absolutely’.”
Jane Bradley, Seeing Eye Dogs’ manager of puppy development, said the team was happy to help.
“There’s a strong tradition of collaboration in the international dog guide fraternity,” she said.
“We’re excited to work even closer with CNIB Guide Dogs and also create history.”
The Canada-bound puppies will remain in their carers’ homes until early 2022 or air travel allows them to make the journey abroad.
Updated
A man holding a mask has been fined $774 for refusing to put it on at an airport in northwest Tasmania, AAP reports.
The 51-year-old from Victoria disobeyed several requests from police officers to wear the face covering at Burnie airport on Monday morning.
It became mandatory in late January to wear masks on all flights to and from Tasmania.
The man did not have an exemption to not wear or remove the mask, police say.
“Our main priority is to educate the public, but on occasion it is necessary to take action against those individuals whose behaviour puts others at risk,” Inspector Gary Williams said.
“Now is not the time to become complacent and we continue to seek the support of the community to keep all of us safe.”
Mask compliance in the state’s northwest has been high overall, police say.
Updated
Australia’s highest court has rejected a constitutional challenge to the continued detention of a terrorist following the expiration of his jail sentence, AAP reports.
Victoria’s supreme court in December granted a continuing detention order allowing authorities to hold Abdul Nacer Benbrika behind bars for an extra three years.
Benbrika challenged the constitutional validity of this, specifically whether the commonwealth could give the supreme court the power to impose the detention order.
The high court of Australia on Wednesday upheld the ability of the supreme court to do so.
Benbrika is an Algerian-born self-proclaimed Islamic cleric who was jailed in 2009 for a maximum of 15 years.
He led a terror cell that spoke of attacking Melbourne’s Crown Casino and bombing the MCG and has been in custody since his 2005 arrest.
Supreme court justice Andrew Tinney last year ordered Benbrika remain in custody until November 2023.
The judge found it was highly unlikely someone with Benbrika’s narcissistic personality traits, and sense of religious and intellectual superiority and infallibility, would have changed his extremist views.
At the time of his arrest, Benbrika posed a very real danger to the community at the time of his arrest, Tinney said.
He added it was only the intervention of law enforcement that prevented potential mayhem and tragedy.
Home affairs minister Peter Dutton cancelled Benbrika’s Australian citizenship last year.
Updated
Labor MP Stephen Jones has added to calls for Crown chair Helen Coonan to leave the role as chair of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority after the damning report on Crown Resorts’ Sydney casino licence.
Jones told ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that it was “absolutely bewildering” she could still hold the role:
“Clearly her role at least is untenable, even if the shareholders of Crown decide that she can continue in her role in that body. Clearly there are further questions to be answered in relation to this whole messy affair.”
Liberal senator Andrew Bragg didn’t address whether Coonan should go, but said as a federal politician it was improper for him to make a call on what action should be taken against Crown given the states are dealing with it, but he said he would focus on any allegations of transgressions by Crown under federal law, which federal regulators would look at.
In the final Crown report, tabled in NSW parliament on Tuesday, here’s what Patricia Bergin SC had to say about Coonan:
“Ms Coonan accepted the serious corporate failings of Crown and notwithstanding those corporate failings is willing to, as she put it, stay the course. That commitment in the circumstances of the evidence that was exposed during the course of this Inquiry is no small matter. The burden of reformation will be great.
“The review of the Chairman’s evidence demonstrates that her character, honesty and integrity has not been and could not be called into question.”
Updated
There has been another death in custody in Victoria, with police reporting a 30-year-old Keilor Downs man died after being found unresponsive in the back of a police van on Friday afternoon.
Police say he was threatening self-harm at a hospital in Fitzroy at 12pm on Friday 5 February, and was taken in to custody over outstanding warrants.
He was later found unresponsive in the rear of a divisional van while the van was at the Victoria Police Centre on Spencer Street.
He died in hospital on Monday 8 February, and detectives from the homicide squad are now investigating, with oversight from officers from professional standard command.
Two more cases linked to Holiday Inn in Victoria
The Victorian health department has just advised there are now two more positive Covid-19 cases linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport outbreak. One is a worker, and another is a previous resident who left on 7 February.
They are currently determining exposure sites that might be linked to the former resident, but say there are no exposure sites linked to the worker.
There are now eight active cases linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak.
Two further individuals linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport have tested positive to coronavirus (#COVID19) today: a worker, and a previous resident who exited the facility on February 7. The number of cases linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak is now 8.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
Updated
Stevens says it’s not lost on SA police that the Australian Open is on at the moment, and a lot of people might be in Melbourne for the tournament now. He said it’s up to those South Australians in Victoria at the moment to make a decision on whether they can quarantine for 14 days once they return to South Australia, or if they need to cut their trip short.
South Australia to close border to greater Melbourne
The South Australian police commissioner Grant Stevens has announced a hard border for people coming from greater Melbourne after a couple of cases out of the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel.
As of midnight there will be a lockout for greater Melbourne for people entering South Australia unless they are a permanent resident, are relocating, or have one of the limited exemptions.
“With any incident of positive cases in any other jurisdiction, we watch closely. We’re looking for the indicators those jurisdictions are getting on top of whatever issues they have and their contact tracing and quarantining processes are effective and the community testing for Covid-19 is also at the level we believe is satisfactory to identify any community transmission.
So it’s a very dynamic and moving situation. Our steps in South Australia are taken with an abundance of caution to make sure we’re minimising the risk.”
He said SA may change its policy again based on more advice from Victorian authorities but they are providing this much notice now to allow people to adjust plans.
So far there have been no additional cases in Victoria outside of those who are directly linked to the hotel quarantine environment.
Burke says gig economy workers can be paid around $10 per hour in their work, below the minimum wage. He says Labor would empower the Fair Work Commission to “deal with these circumstances where they’re not empowered contractors running their own business.”
“They’re workers in an employee-like situation and that gives the Fair Work Commission the same flexibility that the platforms have in trying to make sure that we can get some minimum standards there.
As you know and as you previously reported, it’s not only a wage issue, it’s a safety issue on the roads.”
On the Porter press conference, Burke says it was “was absolutely next level weird”:
He invented a policy that’s not ours, then got a cost about it, and then got really worked up about the cost of the policy he had invented. He’s describing something that’s not in the speech, that’s not in the announcement, that’s not our policy and he’s really angry about it.
Well, good on him, but I’ve got to say, that media conference, he either knew he was lying or the bloke’s just lost it. The policy he was describing in no way represents anything that we have decided on.
He says the $20bn costing claim wasn’t just wrong, but based on something that doesn’t exist. He says it would have a saving to the budget.
On portable entitlements, it is Labor policy to consult with the states and territories, unions and others to work out where portable entitlements could be extended.
He says Porter’s comments at the press conference were “loopy”.
It’s not our policy. He’s made up a big fat lie. It’s not that I’m quibbling with the costings. The basis of the policy is already wrong. It’s entirely an invention. And the attorney general has just occupied the attention of the whole Australian media with something that I hope he knows is not true and I hope he’s not that deluded, because it’s loopy.
Updated
Labor’s shadow industrial relations minister Tony Burke is on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing to respond to what IR minister Christian Porter said earlier.
He said if the government got its IR changes on the definition of casual workers through the parliament, Labor would not let it stand if it formed government after the election.
The thing that would happen next is you’d see more casualisation than ever. You’d see a massive reduction in the rights of casuals. And you would see a situation where any employer who wanted to make sure someone never became permanent would simply make sure someone never became permanent. Those changes are a disaster for casual workers.
It gives all the power to the employer and if you ever wanted to fix it you can’t do a thing for the first 12 months and after that you can only do something if as a casual employee you can afford to go to the federal court of Australia. There’s no way we’d leave something like that in place. But we’re fighting it at the moment.
Updated
Crown director Packer connection severed
And just like that, the spectre of James Packer has been banished from the Crown boardroom... or not.
Crown’s just announced that Packer’s private company, Consolidated Press Holdings, has terminated a consultancy agreement with one of Crown’s directors, John Poynton - something CPH said it was going to do earlier in the day.
Two directors nominated by CPH, Guy Jalland and Michael Johnston, have also resigned from the Crown board today.
“Following the resignation of Guy Jalland and Michael Johnston as directors of Crown earlier today and the termination of the consultancy arrangement between CPH and John Poynton, CPH is no longer separately represented on the Crown board,” Crown said in a statement to the ASX this afternoon.
This is true, but investors may find it difficult to forget that Poynton came to be on the board in 2018 after being “nominated as a director by Consolidated Press Holdings Pty Limited to fill the vacancy created by Mr James Packer’s resignation from the Crown board” as Crown told the ASX at the time.
- An earlier version of this post heading said Poynton had resigned. That is not the case.
Updated
Here’s some more on the total fire ban in parts of western Victoria, via AAP.
A total fire ban has been declared for parts of Victoria’s west ahead of a forecast summer scorcher.
With temperatures tipped to climb near 40C in the state’s northwest, a total fire ban will come into effect for the Mallee and Wimmera fire districts on Thursday.
The fire danger rating has been accessed as severe in both regions due to the forecast heat and strong winds.
It follows a cooler and wetter than usual summer in Victoria, with a La Nina weather pattern active over southeast Australia.
“Overall we’ve had milder conditions,” Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan said in a statement on Wednesday.
“But what we’re seeing this summer is these hot day or days where the fire danger spikes so it’s important that we don’t get complacent.”
The CFA is warning grass fires remain a risk, courtesy of above-average rainfall in recent weeks and strong fuel growth.
“Grassfires are prevalent this season and can move at speeds of up to 25km per hour and jump highways,” Mr Heffernan said.
Thursday’s total fire ban outlaws any open-air fires being lit or remaining alight in the Mallee or Wimmera from 12.01am to 11.59pm.
The attorney general, Christian Porter, has had his department do some back-of-the-envelope calculations about what it would cost to extend sick leave, annual leave and long service leave to 3.5m casuals.
The answer? Anthony Albanese’s industrial relations policy amounts to a “$20bn tax” on business, Porter claims at a press conference in Sydney.
Fact check:
- Labor’s policy is to consider extending those entitlements industry by industry, not to give them to every casual overnight; and
- Even if that were the policy - that wouldn’t be a $20bn “tax” because it isn’t collected by the government, it would be a $20bn redistribution from employers to casual employees.
Porter said:”Everyone should be paid fairly but to propose up to $20 billion tax on business as business is struggling through the toughest times they have seen since world war two, is absolutely insane. … I mean, the scale of what’s being proposed and the danger of it to Australian business is almost unfathomable.”
Porter said if 3.5m casuals are required to give up their 25% casual loading on their base pay, it would cost the average casual worker $7,953 a year. That isn’t part of Labor’s policy.
Asked whether gig economy workers should be paid the minimum wage, Porter said: “No one in Australia should be paid under the minimum wage. That is contrary to the law of Australia that exists at the moment. That is an enforcement issue. That is not an issue about how you structure employment in Australia.”
That is incorrect. The minimum wage applies to employees – not independent contractors. So, if you are a gig economy worker like a ride-share driver or a food delivery bike courier you may not get paid the minimum wage – and it has everything to do with the structure of work.
Updated
Industrial relations minister and attorney general Christian Porter has been responding to news reports about Anthony Albanese’s speech tonight on Labor’s industrial relations plans.
He said his department had done the sums and he reckons proposals for portable leave and better entitlements and job security for people in insecure work would cost $20bn a year, which would be put on businesses.
(I have not seen this costing, and given it is based on public comments not a full outline of policy, take it with a grain of salt.)
Porter said casuals get up to 25% in loading for sacrificing other entitlements like sick leave and annual leave, and based on the Victorian trial – where the government is currently paying but has considered putting a tax on business for it – it would lead to businesses paying taxes to cover it for 3.5m workers.
“It’s one of the most unlimited, unqualified, quite outlandish promises that has ever been made in the history of industrial relations in Australia,” he said.
“I might also add that it would produce the completely bizarre and unfair result that a casual worker would actually have more pay and greater access to benefits than a permanent worker working the same hours.”
He said issues with people in casual work or in the gig economy being underpaid was about enforcement, not workforce structure.
Updated
Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police obtained at least 18 warrants for stored communications from someone who wasn’t authorised to allow it, a Commonwealth Ombudsman report has found.
The report, released yesterday, looked at how government agencies handled requests for communications between 2018 and 2019.
It found instances where federal and Victorian police were granted warrants to access material held by telecommunications companies by an Administrative Appeals Tribunal member who wasn’t authorised to hand out such warrants.
The AFP told the Ombudsman it had quarantined the data, while Victoria Police said it complied with the Ombudsman’s suggestions on how to manage the communications obtained under the warrants.
The tribunal refused to say, when asked by Guardian Australia, which member had mistakenly provided the warrants:
“When the AAT became aware of this issue, we reviewed our records and advised the relevant agencies. We reviewed administrative processes related to scheduling to ensure appointments are only made with eligible members.
We also approached members to confirm the accuracy of AAT records relating to the range of persona designata functions each was authorised to perform.
We do not publicly disclose the names of members who undertake persona designata functions. The issuing of warrants for law enforcement purposes gives rise to potential risks to the safety of people undertaking these functions. It is therefore not in the public interest to release information about their identity.”
Updated
These ATO “warrant out for your arrest” scam calls are still going. Sounds like they come and go in bursts.
Yesterday we received almost 200 reports of recorded or live cold-calls claiming an issue with the victim’s tax return or TFN. The ATO will never threaten you with immediate arrest or send unsolicited pre-recorded messages to your phone. https://t.co/eybWY7HAsW
— Scamwatch_gov_au (@Scamwatch_gov) February 10, 2021
WA seeks legal advice on Crown
WA premier Mark McGowan says the state’s solicitors are assessing the NSW report on Crown Resorts, which found the casino operator unfit to hold a licence in NSW.
Crown operates a casino in Perth, too, and the WA government has been pressured to respond to the report’s findings. McGowan says holding a casino licence is a privilege, and the state won’t tolerate criminality or unlawful behaviour.
“The Gaming and Wagering Commission will provide an outline of what should happen,” he said.
He noted he would need to consider the interests of 5,500 people working at the casino in WA.
McGowan said he would also consult with the NSW and Victorian governments – where there are also Crown casinos – to see if there will be a joint position held by all three states on the operator’s future.
Updated
About 300 jobs will be lost when global energy giant ExxonMobil closes one of the last remaining oil refineries in Australia, AAP reports.
The Altona plant, in Melbourne, has been operating since 1949 and supplies about half of Victoria’s refined fuel.
But the US-based company says the operation is no longer economically viable.
“We are grateful for the tremendous efforts by our employees to improve the viability of the operation,” said ExxonMobil Australia chairman Nathan Fay.
But the ExxonMobil site will be converted to an import terminal, with the refinery to continue operating for several years during the shutdown process.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said the state government has been in lengthy talks with ExxonMobil, and had offered help to try to keep the plant open.
“Every effort was made to try to get a different outcome, but they’ve made a decision,” Andrews said.
United Workers Union national secretary Tim Kennedy said the Altona workers were ExxonMobil’s top-ranked employees globally.
“The closure of the Altona site, without any plan to repurpose these workers’ skills for future industries, is a terrible, missed opportunity,” he said.
Federal energy minister Angus Taylor said the decision was extremely disappointing, but the closure would not affect Australia’s stockpile of refined fuel.
“The Australian government expects ExxonMobil will provide whatever support is required to assist workers and the community during this difficult time,” he said.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese blamed the closure on the federal government.
“It is a threat to our security as a nation,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
Updated
Independent senator Rex Patrick says the chair of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, Helen Coonan, should resign after the damning report on Crown Resorts’ Sydney casino licence.
Patrick made the call after the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) found Crown was not fit to hold a licence to run a new casino at Barangaroo, on Sydney Harbour.
Coonan – a former Howard-era minister – is also chair of Crown Resorts. Patrick has said the dual roles were problematic even before the report was released yesterday outlining the issues with Crown.
“The ILGA report released yesterday made damning findings about Crown Resorts’ management failures during the more than a decade during which Ms Coonan has served on its board. In light of that report, Ms Coonan should immediately relinquish her position as head of the AFCA,” he said.
He pointed to the report finding Crown was unwilling to believe any allegations made about its activities in the media as evidence Coonan has “precisely the wrong mindset for someone serving as chair of the AFCA, an organisation that is intended to provide an external dispute resolution scheme for consumers and small businesses who are unable to resolve complaints against the practices of Australia’s big banks and other financial institutions.”
“In her capacity as AFCA chair, Ms Coonan has been highly critical of the culture and practices of Australia’s banks including ‘in many cases, arrogant indifference to regulatory and compliance risk’.
Yet such a finding has now been made against Crown Resorts.
Two other Crown Resorts directors have now resigned. Whether or not Ms Coonan resigns from Crown is a matter for her and the company’s board and shareholders, but she should most certainly resign from the AFCA now. Otherwise the credibility of that financial watchdog will be severely diminished.”
Updated
A total fire ban will be in force for Mallee and Wimmera in Victoria tomorrow.
Thursday 11 February has been declared a day of Total Fire Ban for Mallee and Wimmera.
— cfa_updates (@CFA_Updates) February 10, 2021
No fire can be lit in the open air or be allowed to remain alight in the open air between 12:01 am and 11:59pm on Thu, 11 Feb 2021.
Know the rules, visit https://t.co/qTT4P4ne58 pic.twitter.com/FLKdSr3ril
Updated
Quite a blow-up in the Murray-Darling Basement plan parliamentary committee hearing this afternoon.
— Clint Jasper (@clint_jasper) February 10, 2021
Updated
With that I’ll be handing over to my colleague Josh Taylor. Thanks for reading and stay with us.
A great explanation of how an mRNA vaccine works from Senanayake: “I’m a simple-minded fellow. The way I think about this is if you think of the ingredients of a cake – butter, sugar, eggs, milk – that’s your mRNA vaccine. It’s delivered directly into the body cells and the cell – the kitchen machinery in the cell – makes a spike protein and that releases it into the body system.
“The AstraZeneca vaccine [which is not an mRNA vaccine], is very similar except you get a deliveryman, the adenovirus, holding onto those raw ingredients. The delivery man goes in the cell and gets killed. [Pause for laughter]. The spike protein is made by the cell and released into the system.”
Updated
The panel is asked about the independence of the WHO investigation, and whether it will be effective.
McLaws says: “We do have an Australian on there, Dr Dominic Dwyer. When he comes back, if he says that he has had full cooperation, he has.”
Senanayake adds: “In terms of whether it came from a lab in Wuhan, as you were asking, that seems to be very unlikely.”
Updated
Prof Mary-Louise McLaws has answered a question about the AstraZeneca vaccine and people being hesitant to have it if they think it won’t protect them from the South African Covid variant.
She has told the National Press Club that South Africa has “difficult circumstances that encourages not just spread, but also puts the virus under a lot of pressure to mutate”.
She said people should still get their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine because future doses and future vaccines might then be more effective.
“AstraZeneca is safe ... nothing bad will happen to you. It’s very safe.
“My take would be get the vaccine to prime your immune system ... have your first dose.”
Prof Robert Booy adds:
“We really need to understand that South African report is unpublished, it’s in a tiny number of people – 2,000, not 20,000.
“The key end point of protection from severe disease has not been addressed. The study is, in effect, irrelevant to our current [situation]. We need better studies in larger numbers over longer periods of time.”
Updated
Senanayake also says the world needs to start working on vaccines to predict the next global virus.
“It’s been 100 years between the Spanish flu and Covid. Well, let me tell you, in the last 50 years or so, we have seen over 40 new infections appear. Our global population is growing, we are impinging more and more on natural habitats and interacting with wild animals, and our interconnectedness globally has never been as great as it is now.
“Therefore, the next pandemic is not 100 years away - it is just around the corner.”
He says non-medical people, such as billionaires like Elon Musk, need to also start investing in and preparing for it.
“Get them to stop thinking about driverless cars and sending adventurous billionaires to space and maybe focus on predicting and preventing the next pandemic.
“I should add I have no issue with sending adventurous billionaires to space, it’s bringing them back to Earth afterwards that’s the problem.”
Updated
Dr Sanjaya Senanayake is speaking now at the National Press Club.
He says the rollout of vaccines must be improved in developing countries if we want to stop new variants emerging in other parts of the world that could undermine existing vaccines.
“If we continue this global vaccine rollout while in other parts of the world infection continues unchecked, then we will see more sinister strains emerge which might have further impacts on vaccine efficacy.
“Therefore, if you were a believer in vaccine nationalism – wanting the best impact ... in your own country – you also have to embrace vaccine altruism and ensure that vaccines are delivered in sufficient numbers, and in a timely manner, to the developing world.”
Updated
Here is our full story on Greg Hunt and Michael Rowland’s clash on ABC Breakfast earlier today.
Updated
WA reports two new cases in hotel quarantine
Western Australia has reported no new local cases of Covid-19, but has two new cases in hotel quarantine.
Some medical experts are speaking at the National Press Club today.
Prof Robert Booy is up first. He is providing some analysis of news that South Africa is pausing its AstraZeneca vaccinations after preliminary data showed it had a 10% effectiveness against the South African strain.
He says economic and social issues in South Africa also affect vaccine effectiveness.
“We have had reports in the last week of Johnson & Johnson, of Novavax, having 90% protection, but then in South Africa only 60% or so.
“I’d like to contend that the effect in South Africa may not just be the virus, but it might also be the population of the people because they live in such a crowded situation in many cases, apart from a few rich people ... the virus can spread more easily from person to person.
“So a 60% effectiveness in South Africa might actually be 80% in a richer country with less crowding and a better health system.
“Now, the South African variant is worrying us. I’m not trying to down play it, I’m just trying to put it into perspective.”
Updated
NT adds Victorian town of Sunbury to Covid hotspots list
The Northern Territory has added the Melbourne town of Sunbury to its list of Covid hotspots, meaning residents cannot travel to the territory without completing 14 days of quarantine at their own cost.
Three Victorian suburbs – Maidstone, Sunshine and Taylors Lake – were declared hotspots on Monday.
Anyone from these areas has to enter quarantine in the NT at a cost of $2,500 per person.
“People in the air at the time the [Sunbury] hotspot was declared will have the option to return home or enter mandatory, supervised quarantine at no cost,” the NT health department said.
“Those people who have arrived in the Northern Territory between 5 February and 8.59am this morning from the declared hotspot of Sunbury are strongly recommended to have a Covid-19 test and undertake self-quarantine until a negative test result is returned.”
Updated
Media companies facing fines for publishing details of Cardinal George Pell’s child sexual abuse convictions have also agreed to pay $650,000 to cover prosecution costs, AAP reports.
A dozen media companies pleaded guilty to breaching a suppression order in December 2018, which banned publication of Pell’s conviction.
A number of newspapers and websites published articles and editorials referencing a guilty verdict in the trial of a high-profile Australian.
More than 100 charges were laid by Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions more than two years ago, but they were whittled down to just 21 charges earlier this month, with 12 corporations pleading guilty to breaching the order made by county court chief judge Peter Kidd.
Prosecutors are calling for convictions and fines for the organisations, in a pre-sentence hearing in Victoria’s supreme court.
While the financial penalty is at the discretion of Justice John Dixon, the guilty companies have agreed to cover the cost of bringing the case against them. Will Houghton QC, representing News Corp companies, said that amounted to $650,000 between the organisations. That’s in addition to their own legal fees.
Houghton said the suppression order breaches by his clients – news.com.au, Brisbane’s Courier-Mail and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph – occurred because of an error in judgment.
He said a conscious and deliberate decision was made to publish the articles, but it was with the honest belief they did not breach a suppression order.
Houghton said the companies and their then-editors offered unqualified, sincere and personal apologies to the supreme court, the county court and Judge Kidd for the publication of the articles.
The hearing is expected to take two days.
Pell was last year acquitted of all charges by the high court on appeal and has since moved to Rome.
Updated
More from that Daniel Andrews press conference, where the Victorian premier has floated the idea of stripping responsibility for overseeing the Melbourne casino run by James Packer’s Crown Resorts from the current regulator, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation.
VCGLR has been heavily criticised for failing to discover money laundering and criminal involvement in junkets at the Melbourne casino – allegations that were explored at a hearing in NSW.
“Casino regulation may need its own bespoke authority,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne this morning. “That may be something we need to do.”
However, he rejected the idea that the VCGLR had been slow to act and said the government would make sure that only people of the highest probity held a casino licence in Victoria.
Updated
Daniel Andrews has been asked if he thinks the hotel quarantine system is still working, given five reported transmissions within the system in two weeks.
“Hotel quarantine – if we are in fact dealing with a highly infectious aerosolised virus, an airborne transmission challenge – is very very difficult, very difficult. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t admit that,” he replied.
He said that despite all the measures in place in hotel quarantine in Victoria “we may need to do more”.
Later, he said he wasn’t sure what “more” would look like, given the stringent measures already in place. I’ll quietly add that epidemiologists have had some thoughts on this.
Andrews said: “We haven’t had a South African case here yet. We want to do everything we can [to prevent that] and we want to do everything we can to limit the spread of the UK strain.”
He said he was concerned that the time frame for people testing positive appeared to be getting longer, saying: “We are testing people who test negative and then test positive.”
Later, he said: “We all have to accept that if you run a program like this, no matter how high the standards are … it’s not about if, it’s when, one of these cases will get out because it’s so, so infectious.”
Updated
Andrews also says he stands by his support for Eddie McGuire, even after the former Collingwood president resigned. The premier had given a statement on McGuire just a few hours before he resigned.
The premier was asked: “If you had your time over, would you still be as supportive of Eddie McGuire?”
“Absolutely I would be,” Andrews replied.
Earlier he said: “I wish him well. I think his statement speaks for itself.”
Andrews was also asked why he was “willing to condemn Margaret Court” but not McGuire.
“People are free to have views, that is fine,” he said.
Updated
In Melbourne, Andrews is asked in relation to Crown: “Would anything have happened [in Victoria] if NSW did not hold an inquiry?”
He says that is a “hypothetical question”.
Updated
NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is addressing yesterday’s report into Crown, which found it was unfit to hold a casino license.
“While we accept Commissioner Bergin’s report, the New South Wales government is awaiting independent advice from the liquor and gaming authority,” she says.
“It is their job as the independent regulator to absorb the report and give recommendations to government.”
She’s been asked whether the NSW government will accept legislation reforms recommended in the report.
“As I have said, we will await the advice of the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.”
Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has also been asked about the NSW report, given Crown has casinos in Melbourne.
He says he is bringing forward a five-year review. But he says he disagrees with the idea that the Victorian regulator failed.
“There will be a day to have a very long discussion about these issues, with respect, we do have to take the time to read the thing, understand it, speak to NSW.
“Once we have considered what was handed down, we will have announcements to make.”
Updated
Andrews says there is no reason to believe there was a “ventilation issue” at the Holiday Inn.
He says the nebuliser hypothesis does not mean that ventilation was lacking.
James Packer’s investment vehicle, Consolidated Press Holdings, has put out a statement following the resignation this morning of two nominee directors on the board of Crown Resorts, Guy Jalland and Michael Johnston.
“CPH & Mr Packer now believe it is crucial that Crown Chairman Helen Coonan and the Crown Board have the opportunity to meet with ILGA to progress Crown’s announced reform agenda,” the company says.
It says it will also end its consultancy deal with another Crown director, John Poynton, which it hopes will enable him to be considered independent.
With the resignation of the two CPH nominees on the Crown board and the ending of the consultancy with Mr Poynton, CPH will have no involvement on the Crown board.
The issue of CPH’s representation on the Crown board, and future communications between those representatives and CPH, were potentially complex matters for ILGA and Crown to resolve. The steps announced today take them off the table, giving Crown’s board clear air to work with ILGA in the execution of its announced reform agenda, and become a model casino operator. CPH supports these efforts.
The company is also happy that Bergin’s report found that Packer’s efforts to sell part of his stake in Crown to Hong Kong group Melco wasn’t a breach of Crown’s licence to run the new casino at Barangaroo in Sydney. You can read more about that transaction and why the inquiry looked into here.
Updated
Nebulisers not to be used in hotel quarantine in Victoria
Back to Victoria, Daniel Andrews says that a nebuliser is a “common device” that anyone with asthma or small children would recognise.
But he says they were already not allowed into hotel quarantine rooms, but authorities will make sure they are not used anymore.
“It’s not about blame,” he says. “These are quite common devices. They do not necessarily speak to a serious illness.”
“Anyone who is an asthmatic” or has a baby with breathing difficulties, would use it, he says.
“The same could be said with sleep apnea machines as well,” he says. “Let’s not be critical of someone who is in intensive care.”
Updated
NSW eases some Covid restrictions from Friday
In New South Wales, premier Gladys Berejiklian, is speaking after the state recorded no new cases of Covid-19.
This comes after a man in Wollongong tested positive for coronavirus on the 16th day after he started quarantine. That was announced on Monday.
Berejiklian says that it’s possible that was “an old infection”.
“It is unlikely to have contracted at in quarantine, so the best advice is that it’s either an old infection or else the person obviously has had an unusually longer incubation periodm which can happen,” she says.
She also says NSW will be raising its flight arrival cap on Monday, back to 3,000 people a week.
“It’s the right thing to do by Australians,” she says.
And she says that the chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, has signed off on a relaxing of restrictions on Friday.
Masks will no longer be mandatory for hospitality workers – but will still be required on public transport. And venues will be able to go back to the 2 square metre rule.
Updated
Victoria considering introducing N95 masks in hotel quarantine
The commissioner of Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria, Emma Cassar, says that the two workers “would have been in surgical masks and goggles at the time”.
She says that they are considering implementing N95 masks instead of surgical masks.
We held an emergency steering committee with our panel of experts and we asked that question of them and I think we talked about that on Monday, what we are doing, and the advice was not to move to N95s.
We are now reconvening that again today with a paper that suggested we do move to N95s masks.
She says that the reason staff don’t use N95 masks is because “the expert advice is if you are using N95s and you don’t go through the rigour, just as hospital settings and aged care do with fit testing ... you can actually put people more at risk.
“We know working in N95s is particular challenging in terms of, they are uncomfortable to wear and they are hard for staff to wear, but we don’t want to increase the risks by having staff who are poorly trained wearing N95s and increase the risk of contamination. We are taking that to our expert panel today.”
Updated
Sutton clarifies that the nebuliser is not the same as an asthma puffer or spacer.
He is asked: “The nebuliser is also a spacer?”
Sutton: “No, that is the foot=shaped attachment to the puffer use for Ventolin and other medication. The nebuliser is literally something that forces through to create a very fine mist for inhaling medication, it is also used for air purification.”
He says the mist hangs in the air – and “can travel for metres”, meaning that the transmission did not have to happen at the exact same time the nebuliser was used.
Because they are so tiny that particles can remain suspended in the air for several minutes and therefore if the door of the room is open, again forgetting a meal, that aerosolised virus can move out into the corridor.
We don’t have the exact correlation with the door being open, but as I say with aerosolised particles they can remain suspended in air for several minutes so it doesn’t have to happen at the same time.”
Updated
Holiday Inn outbreak likely spread by 'vaporiser' medial device into corridor
The chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has just said the “working hypothesis” for the Holiday Inn outbreak is that the virus was spread by a medical device that vaporises liquids into a “fine mist” in the air.
[The hypothesis is] these three cases are related to an exposure event that involved a medical device called a nebuliser and it vaporises medication or liquid into a fine mist.”
That mist can be suspended in the air with fine particles. We think the exposures are to that event, this nebuliser whereby the virus was carried out into the corridor and exposed the authorised officer, the food and beverage service worker and also the other resident.
That makes sense in terms of the geography and it makes sense in terms of the exposure time.”
Updated
NSW records no new local coronavirus cases
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Four new cases were acquired overseas.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) February 10, 2021
Four new cases were acquired overseas, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,940. pic.twitter.com/vuO1SUZAJE
Updated
Victoria won't raise international arrivals cap
Andrews has just announced that the state will not be raising its international flight cap back to previous levels, as a result of this outbreak.
A week ago, a range of states had agreed at national cabinet to raise the arrival cap. It had previously been lowered due to previous outbreaks.
“That will not be occurring on Monday,” Andrews says. “The prime minister has been informed of that. We believe that it is appropriate to have a very low tolerance, or perhaps no tolerance for risk.”
Updated
Family of three likely origin of Holiday Inn outbreak
Andrews says that a family of three in the hotel are the likely origin of the current outbreak at the Holiday Inn.
All three tested positive to a UK strain, and are returned travellers.
“The family of three who are three of the six cases linked to the outbreak at the Holiday Inn, this family was residing in hotel quarantine as hotel quarantine guests.
“We believe that the transmission of the UK strain occurred prior to them entering Victoria.”
Two members of the family are still in hotel quarantine, a third has been taken to intensive care.
“That person is dealing with some very significant health challenges and we wish them well.”
Updated
Andrews says 13 household contacts of the woman have been identified.
Each of them have been contacted, they are isolating at home. There are several high-risk individuals within that cohort.
“Last night as part of our rapid public health response, we arranged for them to be tested after hours, a special run if you like.
Five have so far come back negative and the balance of those results should be available to us today as soon as we are in a position to update you, then we will.
Updated
The worker who tested positive was a food and beverage worker, Daniel Andrews says.
She last worked on the 4 February and tested negative at the end of her shift. She developed symptoms on the 6 February. On the 8 February she was advised that she was a primary close contact related to the previous identified exposure at the Holiday Inn and was as such required to isolate and get a test. She got tested on the morning of the 9th and returned a positive result.
The woman visited some sites in Sunbury, which were also announced yesterday.
Updated
Andrews says the challenge now is “very different to what it was a month ago” due to the new variants.
I first want to make some comments about these variants of concern, these mutant strains. These are, as we know, highly infectious, hyper infectious.
This is a wicked enemy made more challenging by the fact that it is changing, it is a moving target, and that really does cause significant concern for all of us.”
Updated
Daniel Andrews press conference
Daniel Andrews is speaking now.
He says there are 16 active cases in the state.
He confirms that the two new cases reported by the health department this morning are the two cases that were announced yesterday – among a worker and a guest at the Holiday Inn.
Updated
The agency responsible for Australia’s energy systems has hired a London-based Australian utility executive as its new boss.
Daniel Westerman, raised in Melbourne and currently the chief transformation officer and president of renewable energy with the global utility National Grid, will take over as chief executive and managing director of the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo).
He replaces the New Yorker Audrey Zibelman, who left Aemo late last year, having overseen significant change in both the organisation’s culture and the electricity grid. She steered the creation of the integrated system plan, a blueprint for what the optimal grid of the next 20 years as it shifts to increasingly running on renewable energy.
Aemo said Westerman was a chartered engineer and experienced business leader who had been responsible for a British electricity transmission network and the development of distributed systems of rooftop solar and energy storage. He starts in May.
Zibelman has returned to the US to run X, described as a new “moonshot” initiative by Google’s parent company Alphabet to develop new technology to help deliver reliable and affordable clean energy.
We’re still waiting for Daniel Andrews to start his press conference, which was scheduled for 10.30am. It should begin soon.
Two Crown directors resign
Two Crown Resorts directors connected to James Packer’s private company Consolidated Press Hodings, Guy Jalland and Michael Johnston, have resigned this morning.
Crown’s closeness to Packer and CPH was criticised in an inquiry report, tabled in NSW parliament yesterday.
Packer and CPH received information not given to other shareholders under a secret arrangement, Bergin said.
Jalland largely escaped criticism in Bergin’s report but she said Johnston “failed his colleagues on the Board and the staff in China rather dismally” and “it would be appropriate for him to conclude his tour of duty as soon as possible”.
Crawford is asked about Bergin’s recommendations and whether they will be implemented.
I think most of the experts say that you can’t self-regulate in an industry like this. It’s clearly a possible target for organised crime. And we’ve got that in spades. It’s quite breathtaking what we’ve seen.
So we’ve got to move quickly, and I think that her recommendations ... my early indications were government are that they’re very accepting of her recommendations. That obviously needs to go to cabinet, but I’m getting a lot of good noise that is they think that it is appropriate.”
Updated
Meanwhile, Crawford continues, saying that Crown is now “under the cosh” to sort this out quickly.
“I don’t have a time frame but you will recall that the liquor licences granted for Barangaroo expire at the end of April. And they do expire. And so, we’re under the cosh.
“We want immediate change in some areas and I suspect some things will take a little longer. But let’s have a dialogue and let’s see if they’re cooperating. I’m quietly confident with Helen Coonan at the helm.”
Shares in James Packer’s Crown Resorts opened down by 5.42% this morning following the tabling in NSW parliament yesterday of a scathing report laying out its failure to control money laundering and criminal involvement in junkets at its casinos.
The report, written by former judge Patricia Bergin, also said regulators could have no confidence in several of the company’s directors – although others got glowing reviews.
There are also major implications for regulators in Victoria and Western Australia, which have failed to uncover the gross failures at Crown that Bergin has laid out.
Updated
“I have to say congratulations to you and the media and the push for that was the report on 60 Minutes and a couple of the newspapers and that’s been totally vindicated.
“When we started on this journey, we had no real idea where we were going to end up, and I think for all of us, it has been fairly breathtaking, the scope of the links to organised crime and the money laundering.”
Updated
Crawford continues:
There’s two parts to it really. One is the regulatory change and the framework going forward. And that’s really a matter for government. And so far, in my very brief discussions with the minister, I’m confident that the reforms to the regulation of gaming in the state and in casinos in particular, will be taken up by cabinet.
The second part is the regulatory side, that’s us. We have a huge responsibility to the people of New South Wales and we won’t let them down in getting this right.
Because, ironically, most of this bad behaviour that you’ll see about the money laundering – none of it has happened in NSW. We don’t want it to start here.
That having been said: if you thought that there is no money laundering happening in this state right at the moment, you’d be dreaming.”
Updated
Crown needs to 'blow itself up to save itself'
The chair of NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority, Philip Crawford, is speaking now about yesterdays’ findings against Crown Resorts.
“I don’t intend to go into detail and the findings of the Bergin inquiry,” he says. “Presumably you’ve all read it. But importantly, they’ve been found not to be suitable to hold the casino licence for Barangaroo. We now have a contractual obligation to consult with Crown and talk the issues through.
Crawford says he read a newspaper headline last night “about Crown needing to blow itself up to save itself”.
“That’s probably pretty close to the mark,” he says. “It needs a lot of change.
“A lot of concern we have with the links to organised crime. Bergin’s own terminology was that Crown had been infiltrated by organised crime.”
Updated
Melbourne Holiday Inn closed after Covid outbreak
The Holiday Inn near Melbourne Airport has been closed, effective today, after three people tested positive to Covid after working or staying there.
The hotel was used in the quarantine program.
A total of 135 staff were stood down and told to quarantine at home for a full 14 days, while 48 residents are being transferred to the Pullman Melbourne, and they will have to quarantine for extra days.
Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria confirmed the closure in a statement:
As a highly precautionary measure, the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport is being closed until further notice for terminal cleaning, and with detailed contact tracing and investigations underway.
All staff and residents at the hotel during the exposure period of 27 January and 9 February are considered primary close contacts and need to quarantine.
Approximately 135 staff across all programs at the hotel were stood down last night and instructed to quarantine for 14 days at home and get retested.
CQV has informed 48 residents at the hotel that they are considered primary close contacts. These residents began being transferred to the Pullman Melbourne from 8am this morning (Wednesday) to quarantine an extended number of days.
The transfer of the residents will be sequenced and coordinated, and there will be careful management of infection prevention and control measures.”
Updated
Search for Sydney swimmer suspended
The search for a swimmer reportedly missing in the water at Sydney’s Maroubra Beach has been suspended in the belief the person is safe, AAP report.
Police were called to the northern end of the beach just before 8pm on Tuesday, following reports of a distressed swimmer.
The witness told police the swimmer appeared to be struggling about 50 metres offshore.
Police conducted an extensive search of the beach, with the assistance of NSW Ambulance, NSW Surf Life Saving and the Toll Ambulance Rescue Helicopter.
CCTV was reviewed and a swimmer was seen leaving the water just after 8pm in the same vicinity and the search was suspended about 9.45pm.
Updated
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews will speak at 10.30am.
Victoria reports two community Covid cases
Victoria has reported two new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to midnight Tuesday.
Those two were previously announced late last night – they are another hotel quarantine worker at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne airport, and a guest of the hotel.
Earlier this week, the first worker at the Holiday Inn tested positive, sparking the wave of testing and notifications.
It was confirmed yesterday that that first worker had the UK variant.
Yesterday there were 2 new locally acquired cases reported. 22,849 test results were received. Thanks for getting tested, #EveryTestHelps. More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/YWynWuxAwC
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 9, 2021
Updated
Commonwealth Bank profit falls, but still in the billions
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has posted a fall in half-year profit in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, but the result is still in the multiple billions, AAP report.
The nation’s biggest lender on Wednesday revealed cash net profit, which excludes volatile items, totalled $3.8bn for the first six months of 2020/21.
This reflected a fall of 10.8% from the previous corresponding period.
Its statutory bottom-line result was $4.9bn, down 20.8%.
CBA chief Matt Comyn was upbeat about the bank’s prospect in the second half of the financial year, citing a boost to the economy from federal government stimulus measures.
“Although the outlook is positive, there are a number of health and economic risks that could dampen the pace of recovery,” he said.
CBA’s net interest margin – the profit it makes on loans – contracted by 10 basis points to around 2% in the first half, reflecting the impact of historically low lending rates.
At the same time, the funds it had to put aside to cover bad loans increased by $233m to $882m, although this was a big improvement on the $1.9bn booked in the second half of fiscal 2020.
“Arrears on home loans and consumer finance remain low, and are being temporarily insulated by Covid-19 support measures,” CBA’s earnings report said.
But the bank noted it was still seeing corporate loan vulnerability in the aviation, entertainment and leisure and tourism sectors - which were all hit hard by the pandemic.
CBA will pay its investors an interim dividend of $1.50 per share.
Updated
Here’s the video of that Greg Hunt and Michael Rowland exchange.
.@mjrowland68 asks Federal Health Minister @GregHuntMP why he attached a Liberal Party logo to a Government announcement about COVID-19 vaccines. pic.twitter.com/ccbwfrvAXk
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) February 9, 2021
Rowland also tweeted: “No, Minister, I don’t identify with the left. My job as an ABC journalist is to hold ALL sides of politics to account, as I was this morning.
“It was, and is, a simple question.”
The Queensland government is being urged to rethink its announcement yesterday of tougher laws and bail conditions for youth crime.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has been asked to deal with the underlying causes of youth crime like poverty and disadvantage rather than taking purely punitive action.
Queensland Council of Social Services chief executive Aimee McVeigh said increasing punishments won’t stop youth crime, AAP reports.
“The only way to reduce youth crime is to put in place the supports and programs that address the underlying issues faced by these children,” she said in a statement.
“The correct approach requires time, money and commitment. There are no shortcuts.”
Yesterday, Palaszczuk announced new measures such as GPS trackers for 16 and 17-year-olds and removing the presumption of bail for those caught committing serious offences while on bail.
She said the measures will target about 400 repeat offenders, most of whom are Indigenous, who commit almost half of all youth crime in the state.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, the Youth Advocacy Centre and Save The Children said funding programs to reduce social and economic disadvantage will proactively divert youths away from crime.
They said instead of taking reactive, punitive measures, the government should take a long-term perspective and invest in secure housing, mental health and family supports services and age-appropriate activities.
Save The Children executive director Matt Gardiner said the community sector already runs programs proven to divert young people away from the criminal justice system.
“These programs have been evaluated, and they work,” he said on Wednesday.
“Our initiatives have reduced offending rates and kept young people off the street, and as a result of these programs and others, youth crime is at an all-time low in Australia.”
Greg Hunt defends attaching Liberal logo to vaccine announcement, saying ABC host 'identifies with the left'
A pretty extraordinary exchange just then on the ABC.
Health minister Greg Hunt accused ABC host Michael Rowland of “identifying with the left” when asked why he attached a Liberal party logo to an Australian government announcement.
Hunt attached the logo to a social media post announcing an extra 10m doses of the Pfizer vaccine last week.
On the advice of the Scientific Industry Technical Advisory Group on Vaccine lead by Professor Brendan Murphy, the Australian Government has secured an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. pic.twitter.com/OHGZ0eepUx
— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) February 4, 2021
Rowland asked him why he did that, when taxpayers paid for the vaccines.
Hunt: “I know you have strong views ... we predicted that you seem to be the most exercised of any person in the Australian media about this.
Rowland interjected: “No, I don’t – I’m asking why?”
Hunt said that he had attached the Liberal party logo to the vaccine announcement because “I was elected under that banner, multiple members across multiple parties do that”.
“I’m a very proud member of that party with a great heritage and tradition in Australia and that’s part of the Australian democratic process.
“There’s no problem with identifying entirely appropriately within the rules. The origins and heritage of that banner under which we were elected by the Australian people.
Rowland: “Who paid for the vaccines?”
Hunt: “I know this is an issue for you. In many ways, you identify with the left.
Rowland: “No, no, minister, I find that offensive.
Hunt: “Come on, Michael. There’s nobody who’s watching you that don’t identify you as the left. You should be open about that. I’m open about my origins ... I’m bemused but I did predict to people that Michael Rowland would spend 50% of this interview on this topic.
Rowland: “It just struck me as odd – I asked the same question about the Labor Governments – a party political logo attached to an Australian government announcement.”
Hunt: “I win the bet with my office that you would spend 50% of this interview on that topic.”
Updated
Greg Hunt is asked about the vaccine rollout. ABC host Michael Rowland says: “In the vaccination map of the world, Australia is pretty much the odd one out. One in 10 Americans had their vaccination shots.” The health minister says:
The countries that you identify made overwhelmingly what are called emergency declarations ... Our Pfizer assessment by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, our medical regulator, was one of the full assessments in the world …
We’re on track to commence in late February and that advice was reaffirmed by the EU and by Pfizer only yesterday.
Our guidance remains commencing in late February, completion by the end of October for all Australians that choose to be vaccinated. Universal, free and voluntary. They’re our three principles.
Updated
Health minister Greg Hunt is speaking now, responding to the World Health Organization’s latest update on its investigation into the coronavirus’s origins:
I’m pleased this theory about labs and human-induced has been ruled out. That was never the advice, nothing that the Australian government has ever pursued. It appears overwhelmingly likely that it’s come from the animal kingdom – what’s called a zoonotic origin.
The WHO update said investigators could not find a clear source for the virus.
“I think it’s no surprise,” Hunt says. “We’ll await the final written report.”
Updated
The Australian government has urged all members of the Pacific Islands Forum to “work together to find a path forward” after the Micronesian countries – nearly one-third of its member countries – said they would leave en masse.
The disintegration of the regional forum has sparked alarm in Canberra, with the Labor party arguing that Australia should be worried about other countries filling a “leadership vacuum”.
A statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, issued overnight, said unity and cooperation across the Pacific were essential as the region faced multiple challenges, especially recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Dfat spokesperson said Australia valued highly the Pacific Islands Forum as the region’s pre-eminent organisation, which had played “critical role facilitating cooperation, and advocating for Pacific views on the global stage”.
Palau, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, and Nauru have quit over the selection of the new secretary general for the forum.
“Australia understands the disappointment of the Micronesian countries,” the Dfat spokesperson said. “Diversity and regional representation are critical to the Forum. We encourage all members to work together to find a path forward.”
Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, said a divided Pacific Islands Forum “makes tackling the challenges in our region even more difficult”.
Wong said: “The Morrison government has made a lot of announcements about its so-called ‘Pacific Step Up’ but if Scott Morrison doesn’t finally step-up, other countries will fill the leadership vacuum and that could cost us dearly. In the current strategic climate, a strong and united PIF is more essential than ever.”
Updated
Here is the full NSW Health alert for the Melbourne Holiday Inn, which was released late last night:
Anyone who worked or stayed on any floor of the hotel between 27 January and 9 February is now considered a close contact who must get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
The previous advice was that only people who had been on the third floor were close contacts.
There are more than 350 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW, many of which are open seven days a week. To find your nearest clinic visit: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/how-to-protect-yourself-and-others/clinics or contact your GP.
NSW Health continues to urge anyone in NSW with even the mildest symptoms, such as headache, fatigue, cough, sore throat or runny nose, to come forward immediately for testing, then isolate until they receive a negative result.
Updated
The chair of the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority, Philip Crawford, is due to speak at 10am.
What are Crown’s options? Anne Davies has this explainer:
Good morning everyone, and welcome back to our live coverage of Australian news and the coronavirus.
Both New South Wales and Victoria are keeping an eye on potential spread from the Holiday Inn near Melbourne airport. Victoria yesterday recorded two new cases of transmission related to the hotel. On Sunday a hotel quarantine worker tested positive and, on Tuesday afternoon, another worker and a former guest also tested positive.
NSW also issued an alert for any of its residents who were at the Holiday Inn between 27 January and 9 February, on any floor of the hotel. Previously, only people who were on the third floor had to isolate.
Late yesterday Eddie McGuire resigned as Collingwood football club’s president, and James Packer’s Crown casino was denied a casino licence in NSW, raising huge questions over the already partially built Barangaroo tower in Sydney.
We’ll bring you all the latest new as it happens. Stay with us.
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