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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Mostafa Rachwani and Amy Remeikis

400 Melbourne residents given stay-at-home order – as it happened

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That's all for this evening – thanks for joining us

To recap:

  • Watch-gate dominated news today, with Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate to stand down after it emerged that the organisation spent $12,000 on Cartier watches as a reward for four senior managers.
  • An outbreak is feared at a north Melbourne school after a grade five boy at East Preston Islamic College tested positive. Two schools are closed and more than 100 social housing residents have been told to isolate. Residents across the city’s northern suburbs have been told to monitor for symptoms.
  • The royal commission into aged care, in its final hearing, heard today that there are reports of 50 sexual assaults a week against residents. A report said “allegations reported to the federal health department rose from 426 in 2014-15 to 790 in 2018-19”.
  • Mark Latham told the NSW parliament today that disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire had a key to premier Gladys Berejiklian’s home for many years.

Updated

Victoria police are investigating an employee at the Victorian health department who allegedly leaked the state’s restrictions roadmap.

The ABC is reporting that the department reported the matter to Victoria police, as it is against the Victorian public service’s code of conduct.

A document that outlined the state government’s roadmap out of restrictions was leaked to the Herald Sun in September, but it is not clear if the investigation is linked to that leak.

Updated

Magda Szubanski was targeted by a coordinated “avalanche of hate” from rightwing extremists online after she starred in an ad for the Victorian government encouraging mask use.

Australia’s e-safety commissioner, Julie Inman-Grant, told a Senate estimate hearing that the abuse Szubanski received after the ads aired was “volumetric cross-platform online abuse, which is coordinated by ostensibly white extremists [and] conspiracy theorists”.

Inman-Grant said attacks on Szubanski and the Australian human rights activist lawyer Nyadol Nyuon were all “coordinated rightwing extremist attacks”.

We’re aware of it, we’re watching it, but we also have education programs to try and address [it].

Szubanski, who revived her fan-favourite Kath & Kim character Sharon Strzelecki for the ad, had initially responded to the hate on Twitter.

You can watch the ad here:

“Volumetric attacks” are commonly organised in closed groups on Facebook or other platforms.

Guardian Australia has previously reported that politicians were targeted by one such group earlier this year as disinformation spread online about the Victorian lockdown being imposed for another year.

Updated

Guy Sebastian is back in the news.

The Australian Idol winner (I haven’t forgotten) was widely criticised in June for standing next to the prime minister as he announced $250m of emergency funding to the arts, widely viewed as too little and too late.

The singer took to Twitter today to push Scott Morrison to explain the delay in the delivery of the funds, after it emerged yesterday that only $49.5m of the rescue package had been allocated.

Sebastian was tweeting in response to Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who was reminding everyone of that June press conference.

A spokesman for Morrison told Guardian Australia the singer had made contact with the prime minister’s office on Thursday and the PM would respond to Sebastian personally.

Updated

Victoria police has defended the use of drones this grand final weekend, saying they’ve already been using them to monitor crowd numbers in public places, and that they won’t be using them to spy on people’s homes.

The assistant commissioner Luke Cornelius told the ABC that the use of drones was a “specialist capability”.

“We are not going to have drones hovering above pizza ovens in people’s backyards,” he said. When asked if helicopters would be used, he said the police had “bigger fish to fry”.

The drone unit said the force would use the drones in places of public gathering, such as beaches and parks, to provide police with “situational awareness of crowd numbers and any potential breaches”.

Updated

Mathias Cormann and Paul Fletcher have released a statement saying they have instructed the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, together with the Department of Finance to investigate senior managers at Australia Post receiving expensive gifts.

This comes after Senate estimates today heard Australia Post bought four Cartier watches in October 2018 worth $12,000 as a reward for four senior managers who helped secure a deal to allow more people to do their banking at post offices.

The statement says the investigation will involve an external law firm, and is due to be completed in a month.

The government expects all government entities, including government business enterprises, to act ethically and adhere to high standards regarding the expenditure of money, as the public also rightly expects. The independent investigation will determine whether or not these high standards were met.

The investigation will also examine the actions of board members in relation to this matter, and will report back to cabinet.

The chief executive of Australia Post will be standing aside from her position for the duration of the investigation.

Updated

Muslim community leaders in Victoria say they fear a “fresh wave of hatred” after a student at an Islamic school tested positive to Covid-19.

Two schools have been shut down, and more than 100 social housing residents told to isolate after a grade five boy who was meant to be quarantining attended classes at East Preston Islamic College for several days.

Adel Salman, a spokesperson for the Islamic Council of Victoria, said the community was preparing for racial backlash.

What I’ve heard from the community so far is ‘here we go again’, with [people] attacking the Muslim community, and using it as an excuse to again spread hate and lies and misinformation.

We’ve just come out of a pretty horrific and sustained attack on the Muslim community. There is a risk, in fact it’s more than a risk, it’s pretty likely that that is going to happen again.

Updated

Thanks Amy, and thanks again for your stellar work.

And on that note, I am going to hand you over to Mostafa Rachwani for the evening.

Everyone is still beavering away at the Guardian office, so make sure you check back for the news and analysis coming your way.

But it has been a GIANT week on the blog, and news land in general, so I also hope you get a small break from it all sometime soon. I’ll be back on Monday – but the blog will be up and running as usual tomorrow in what will most likely be even better hands, so I hope you join along.

Have a lovely weekend. Smell a flower if you can. Or not. If eating is your thing, do that. This year doesn’t count.

In the meantime, take care of you.

Updated

Annastacia Palaszczuk has responded to Gladys Berejiklian’s earlier demand that Queensland repay NSW the $35m NSW has spent on hotel quarantine for Queenslanders:

Bill Shorten appeared on Afternoon Briefing today. He was asked if he was concerned with the northern Melbourne suburbs Covid cluster and whether Melbourne could handle a third lockdown if that cluster were to get out of control:

I genuinely don’t know. I sincerely hope that does not happen. Again, coming to Canberra and watching the disconnect between the Morrison government and reality, they have all been standing up here quite bravely saying open everything up, open it up. And I know some people say that should happen, but one thing which you cannot take away from what has happened in Victoria is that once the second outbreak occurred, what the Victorian government has tried to do is crush it.

I saw an interesting statistic that one particular day in July when Victoria and Melbourne, Melbourne had 735 cases, England and France had the same number of cases on that day.

You dial forward to now, they now have 14,000, 15,000 cases per day and we are at less than five. So for better or for worse, we are on the path of crushing it and that is where I think we need to focus.

Q: You know big business has been concerned that the announcement should already have been made for reopening. Do you think they have been too slow to open?

Shorten:

I’m not going to second-guess at this point. I know people have been doing it hard and their big business and small business. As a federal politician, I tend to worry about the things that I can influence. I spent most of my time thinking about that. That is why I think the federal government needs to wake up and realise Victoria is still in the pandemic.

So dialling forward to the end of the year and early next year, we are still going to need jobkeeper. There are industry sectors who are getting no attention at all ... The travel agents, they employ 40,000 people around Australia. They have been wiped out.

There is no work but they have to go to work to try and recover all of their customers’ money from the tourism wholesalers and international customers.

... I’ve been talking to the live music industry, and by that I mean concert promoters, the people who run [theatres], venue operators, and they are the first to close.

And while they are self-sufficient and economically sound in the good times, they are going to need some help being able to keep staff on and not lose necessary skills. There’s a lot of things the federal government could be doing to help Victoria other than just be the critics from the cheap seats.

Updated

(No, I don’t have a Bvlgari anything – just a habit of browsing Instagram accounts of things I will never be able to afford in a gazillion years.)

And in answer to the person who sent me a message asking about my watch – I have an older model Apple watch that I pay off monthly, because it is impossible to do a daily blog and keep on top of all the messages I receive without the buzz on my wrist.

Updated

For those asking, Christine Holgate did not receive one of the Cartier watches – they went to four senior managers who worked on a project that involved increasing the amount of banking people could do at post offices.

It appears, at least from what I can see here, that Holgate is a Bvlgari fan.

Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate appears before a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra
Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate appears before a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

The Community and Public Sector Union has also responded to the Australia Post Cartier story:

The union’s deputy national president Brooke Muscat:

It is clear that the board and the CEO are more concerned with lining their pockets than public services and their workers.

This is the latest in a string of dodgy and selfish decisions made by management. Instead of focusing on essential public services, Australia Post has:

  • Frozen workers’ wages;
  • Forced workers to take leave during the pandemic;
  • Misled Parliament and lied about profits;
  • Refused to rule out redundancies;
  • Failed to act on customer aggression in contact centres;
  • Been slow to act on increasing workloads at contact centres; and
  • Tried to pay themselves fat bonuses in the middle of a pandemic.

The union representing Australia Post workers, the CPSU is calling for the resignation of Australia Post CEO and investigation into to the board.

“Our members having been working harder and longer to help the community in the pandemic, all while taking a pay freeze, and how are they rewarded? Not with a watch or a bonus I can tell you that,” Muscat said in a statement.

“Whether it’s watches in 2018 or big fat bonuses in the middle of a pandemic the Australia Post board and its management are out of touch.”

Updated

The Australian Financial Review’s Tom McIlroy has spoken to John Stanhope, who was the Australia Post chairman at the time of the watch purchase.

From the Fin story:

Mr Stanhope told the Australian Financial Review he didn’t remember the purchases. The port of Melbourne chairman said he would cooperate with an investigation by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

He said:

Quite frankly I can’t remember authorising it back in October ’18.

I’m surprised that you’re even asking. I haven’t been associated with Australia Post for 12 months and I haven’t even followed Senate estimates.

Australia Post is self-funding, but having said that they’re a government-business enterprise that is reportable to a minister and therefore the parliament so while it’s not taxpayer funded, it still has an accountability to the government.

Updated

The posties’ union has responded to the Cartier story and the request for Christine Holgate to stand aside while it is investigated.

Greg Rayner, the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union’s national secretary, said the problems at Australia Post went far deeper than watches and the largesse was a symptom of broader problems at Post and how management was out of touch with workers.

The pressure for posties and workers has been enormous, with mounting delivery backlogs due to the new-reduced service model.

A row of Australian Post boxes
The pressure on posties is enormous, their union says. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Updated

After high court officials told Senate estimates that eight former associates and one former staff member had come forward to give more information to the inquiry into Dyson Heydon, we’ve clarified how many of these were new complaints.

A high court spokesman said:

Further allegations about Mr Heydon were raised. The four individuals who made allegations to Dr [Vivienne] Thom were very clear that, although they wanted this information to be provided to the court, they were not making formal complaints and did not expect, or want, these matters to be investigated.

Dr Thom did not recommend that any further action be taken in respect of these discussions.

Some of the discussions related to Dr Thom’s earlier investigation. Dr Thom advised the court that those comments did not affect the findings of her earlier investigation and she did not recommend any further action.

Updated

Australia Post paid dividends of about $28m in the last financial year to its one and only shareholder: the government (therefore part of taxpayer consolidated revenue).

We heard in estimates that it paid close to $100m in bonuses. Of that, just over $21m went to frontline workers – the posties. Most of the rest went to managers and executives.

That’s the problem with government business enterprises: they are run as if they are part of the private sector. But they are owned by the taxpayer.

So it’s a weird grey zone where people from the private sector are brought in to run the organisation, and they run it as if it were a private corporation – which is what it is set up to run like – but it is accountable to the government.

Updated

Meanwhile, in Macquarie Street ...

Updated

Kath Sullivan does great work in this space (as does Lucy Barbour).

Updated

Victoria Health has released its official update:

More than 500 people in a number of northern suburbs have been advised to isolate to assist in controlling an outbreak of coronavirus.

In addition, any residents of the northern suburbs including Dallas, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Preston and West Heidelberg who are experiencing symptoms are being urged to be tested for coronavirus.

All of today’s five new cases are linked to these northern suburbs.

This advice follows the notification of a positive test result of a student who attended the East Preston Islamic College.

The college has taken positive steps to manage this situation and has been closed for deep cleaning. Staff and students who are close contacts - and their households - have been identified and are quarantining for 14 days.

A number of people related to the outbreak are observing quarantine requirements either at home or as part of the Covid-19 accommodation program and are being monitored by Austin Health and Banyule Community Health.

Extensive contact tracing is underway and we expect that as part of this work, additional cases will be detected.

Testing in the northern suburbs is available at:

  • Broadmeadows Central shopping centre at north carpark 1099–1169 Pascoe Vale Rd, Broadmeadows, from 9am-5pm.
  • Coolaroo Respiratory Centre at 512 Barry St, Coolaroo, from 9am–5pm.
  • Melbourne airport, terminal 4, level 2 (Mercer Dv exit off Tullamarine Fwy) from 9am–5pm.
  • Craigieburn Health Service, 274–304 Craigieburn Rd, from 9am–5pm.
  • Highlands Hotel at 301 Grand Blvd, Craigieburn, from 9.30am-4.30pm.
  • Austin Hospital at 145 Studley Rd, Heidelberg, from 8am–8pm.
  • Banyule Community Health at 21 Alamein Rd, Heidelberg West, from 10am–4pm.
  • Banyule Community Health at 14–32 Civic Drive, Greensborough, from 9am–4pm.
  • Northland shopping centre at Target carpark via Murray Rd, Preston, from 9am-5pm.
  • CB Smith Reserve at 79 Jukes Rd, Fawkner from 9am–4pm.

Updated

Tim Watts is asking on behalf of the Victorian MPs what the arrangements are for Victorian MPs in the coming sitting.

If they are to come, they will have to go into quarantine at home, now.

Tony Smith says it is under discussion – and the parliament is following the health advice.

Updated

Liberal senator Claire Chandler is on the attack over Australian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines about transgender people’s inclusion in sport.

Chandler’s concerns seem to be:

  • The commission concluded that participation should be based on a person’s affirmed gender identity not their sex as assigned at birth.
  • A statement that there is “limited research on impact of testosterone on transgender athletes performance”, which she disagrees with.

The sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, said the document was not a medical document, it was advice to sporting clubs and codes about the Sex Discrimination Act.

The Sex Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex and gender identity, and it has done so [re gender identity] since 2013.

Jenkins said there was an exemption relating to allowing discrimination for participation in sporting activity where “strength, stamina and physique are relevant”, which “does allow for single-sex sporting activities”.

Updated

It’s also Labor WA MP Patrick Gorman’s last day in the chamber for a while - he is about to take paternity leave.

Scott Morrison calls time on question time.

He then, on indulgence, sends well-wishes to all the teams playing grand finals - yes, including the women.

Anthony Albanese does the same thing.

Richard Marles to Scott Morrison:

Can the prime minister confirm, the [Leppington triangle sale] was referred to police, Home Affairs is investigating a scandal, taxpayer funded research by an ex- Liberal Party pollster has been shared with his office, his office recommended a long-term Liberal Party associate for a lucrative government contract and Australia Post spent $12,000 on Cartier watches?

Morrison:

Mr Speaker, what I can confirm is that this week Australia’s Triple-A credit rating was restored and once again, Mr Speaker, in the face of the biggest recession caused, of course, by COVID-19, the biggest recession we have seen in this country since the great depression, Mr Speaker, despite those challenges and the unprecedented investment to keep Australians in work, to provide that lifeline both for people’s jobs and their livelihoods, Mr Speaker, the unprecedented investment in health services and mental health services and the massive hit that that the Budget, Mr Speaker, Standard and Poors looked at the government’s fiscal management and economic management and they concluded that Australia’s balance sheet was as strong as when it went into the crisis. It was tested during the crisis, but was able to stand.

Anthony Albanese:

The question went to airport frauds, cash for visas, secret taxpayer funded market research, looking after Liberal Party mates and Cartier watches worth $12 grand - Prime Minister has not mentioned any of those issues.

Morrison:

I can also confirm this week it was revealed in the consumer confidence surveys for the first time since they began in the early 1970s that this budget has impacted positively consumer confidence. Australia’s confidence, more than any budget since that time, Mr Speaker. And that is exactly what Australians needed. They needed this budget to give them the confidence.

There is only one assumption that really matters in this budget, and that assumption that we have made as a government in putting this budget together, as we have continued over the course of this week, to outline the many measures that ministers have responded to in question is today.

Tony Smith: I just say to the Prime Minister you are now moving away from relating your material to the question.

Morrison:

Mr Speaker, what I am seeking to do is I was asked to confirm things and I have confirmed that there has been an historic response to this budget, Mr Speaker. That is the point I am making. And if I could go on in making that point.

...I can confirm that the government has provided lower taxes. That we are supporting business. That we are supporting Australians to get back to work. That we are providing record support through the job-training program, some 340,000 training places in partnerships with the states and territories. I can confirm we put $14 billion in new and accelerated infrastructure projects to support ACE further 40,000 jobs in this country. I can confirm that homebuilder is supporting construction jobs all around the country. I can confirm we are supporting manufacturing through the minister for industry’s plans to ensure that advanced manufacturing jobs will be here and I can confirm those matters because they assume that the Australian people know how to respond to a crisis. That is the assumption we have made about the Australian people and all decisions made. We believe in them first and foremost in how we recover from the COVID-19 recession.

You can lead a horse to water ...

Scott Morrison talks with Michael McCormack during question time
Scott Morrison talks with Michael McCormack during question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Scott Morrison talks again to Michael McCormack
The PM again confers with his deputy. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Shot

Paul Fletcher in question time
Paul Fletcher in question time. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Chaser

Scott Morrison and Paul Fletcher
Scott Morrison and Paul Fletcher. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Terri Butler asks Scott Morrison how there has been no time for a national integrity commission, but there was time for him to campaign for the LNP in Queensland for a week, including attending fundraisers.

Morrison was very thrilled to go to Queensland and talk the budget, don’t you know. It was all very important work.

Because Thursdays are the worst, we get more Michael McCormack.

Catherine King:

Are there any probity, integrity or corruption issues relating to western Sydney airport land?

McCormack:

Well, not that I’m aware of, Mr Speaker. There are investigations and I have talked about these ad nauseam this week under question from the member or Ballarat about the Leppington Triangle. There are investigations going on into that, conducted by Vivienne Thom, conducted by the Australian federal police, and conducted by the ANAO, an organisation I know the member for is very familiar with.

That last line has been said so many times this week, I was able to speak along with it.

Updated

God Dolly.

Andrew Gee just stood up. He’s the minister for decentralisation, apparently. Would not have been able to pick him out of a lineup if my life depended on it.

Updated

“Can’t anyone see that there is something fishy here?” the Labor senator Don Farrell says, back in Finance estimates, still prosecuting the Ashurst-investigating-a-former-employee issue.

Mathias Cormann counsels Farrell not to reflect on the integrity of the departmental officers. “You are reflecting on their motivations.” Farrell says he is trying to “reflect community views”.

Rosemary Huxtable says Ashurst dealt with conflict-of-interest questions in its public statement.

“Ashurst has assured themselves and us that there is no conflict,” the secretary says. “I think there is no conflict on the information that Ashurst has provided to us.”

Updated

Asked again about the delay in the federal integrity commission – based on the law firm used to review the branch stacking allegations, that Murph has been reporting on, Christian Porter says the government was too busy focusing on the pandemic.

I am just going to leave these words from Murph, here, in answer to that – the government managed to do plenty not related to Covid.

Updated

We’re expecting a written statement from Australia Post shortly. We’ll bring it to you when it arrives

Christian Porter is asked about the federal national integrity commission.

Anthony Albanese:

In the budget, the government established or announced extra money for more than 30 different grants and fun programs with at least $5.7bn. Given the writing that occurred with sports rorts, community development grants in the building better regions fund, in the absence of a national integrity commission, what guarantee is there that decisions will be made on merit instead of colour-coded spreadsheets designed to target marginal seats?

Porter answers by pointing to what Mark Dreyfus said about Labor’s proposed integrity commission, ahead of the election – that it would need a year.

The government proposed its integrity commission two years ago.

So, the time line for that commission was such that Labor supported it, as the leader of the opposition said

They would ready a bill for May 2020, this year, and the shadow AG went on to vote as well as time for consultation, eminently sensible, he also said designing a body as complex and significant as this is probably the work of government with all the resources available to government.

Mr Speaker, whether Labor, had they been in government, devoted all the resources of government in May, at the height of a global pandemic, to a significant, complex, intensive consultation on an integrity commission, or whether they would have applied all of the resources available to government to dealing with the pandemic, is thankfully something we will not find out. But it would have been a very strange decision.

It is also true, Mr Speaker, that the government received its first draft on the bill in December of this year, which I know, is much earlier, December of last year, much earlier than their time line of 12 months and one of the things we have been doing, one of the things that I have been doing is looking at ways in which you can prove that Bill, that draft, and one thing that I am absolutely convinced that draft must have is a mechanism to prevent vexatious, baseless politically motivated, time wasting referrals, and why is that? Because of the shadow attorney general.

Who has an Australian record...

Tony Smith:

The leader of the opposition will resume his seat. I just, I just say to the attorney, he needs to confine himself to the question to be directly relevant.

Porter:

They are the type of referrals this type of bill has to deal with, the type of referrals the New South Wales police commissioner has described as a great diverter of my time. And I close with the words of the shadow attorney general...

He is sat down.

Updated

Prime minister 'shocked and appalled' by Australia Post Cartier watch gift

Scott Morrison is taking credit for the Australia Post investigation.

Anthony Albanese to Morrison:

How is it that on his watch, in the middle of the worst recession in almost a century, with 1 million Australians unemployed, businesses collapsing in $1tn of Liberal debt, this government is taking action against the Liberal appointed Australia Post board, which spent $12,000, taxpayers money, on Cartier watchers.

A very cranky Morrison:

The accusation that the leader of the opposition just levelled against the government is false. Mr Speaker, earlier today, and this is brought to my attention by the report of Senate estimates, and I was appalled and it is disgraceful and not on, Mr Speaker!

So, immediately, I spoke with the shareholding minister and the minister for finance and the minister responsible, minister for communications and from those discussions the following actions in student and that was that there had to be an independent investigation done by the department, not by Australia Post, that the chief executive should stand aside immediately, Mr Speaker, that chief executive should stand aside immediately and that the independent investigation should look into the conduct of the board members and their governance as well as the actions of the management and executive.

That report will come back to me and my members of my cabinet and if Mr Speaker there are issues to be addressed with board members, then they will be addressed then, Mr Speaker.

This all happened within an hour, so appalled and shocked was I by that behaviour because Mr Speaker, as any shareholder would in a company raise their outrage if they had seen that conduct, by a chief executive, the management or the board, they would insist rightly on the same thing!

We are the shareholders of Australia Post on behalf of the Australian people, is that the action was immediate, and if the chief executive wished to stand aside, she has been instructed to stand aside, if she doesn’t wish to do that, she can go!

Updated

Back in estimates, Finance officials confirm that two contracts worth $25,000 were let to the law firm Ashurst to conduct the investigations into Michael Sukkar and Kevin Andrews.

Don Farrell wants to know why the investigations were outsourced?

Rosemary Huxtable says the department was keen the reviews happen “expeditiously”.

The secretary notes the Victorian branch-stacking controversy was in the public domain and it was viewed as helpful to conduct an independent investigation.

Farrell notes that Sukkar was “previously employed by Ashurst”.

Huxtable corrects that Sukkar was previously employed by Blake Dawson Waldron.

Farrell points out that the firm is now Ashurst. Huxtable says she’s not across the intricacies of that, but concurs that’s likely right.

Farrell asked why Sukkar’s previous employer was engaged to conduct the review?

David Da Silva says proper processes were followed.

Huxtable says Ashurst has addressed any conflict of interest or bias claims in a public statement.

Farrell persists: Did the department know that the law firm it engaged to conduct the review was “Mr Sukkar’s own law firm”?

Farrell notes this is a simple question. Da Silva says it’s up to Ashurst to manage any conflict of interest.

Farrell escalates, declaring Sukkar “used his own law firm” to investigate. Outrage ensues. Mathias Cormann says this is “false”.

“[Sukkar] didn’t make any decisions on who was conducting that independent review and I approached this with a completely straight bat,” Cormann says.

Outrage is continuing. Farrell says he didn’t mean Sukkar personally engaged the law firm, but he says this is a simple question requiring an answer: did Finance know Sukkar had worked at Ashurst previously?

Huxtable wants to take that question on notice.

Da Silva volunteers that he was part of the decision to appoint Ashurst, with the legal and assurance branch.

Farrell asks how many law firms were on the panel that could have conducted the inquiry instead of the law firm that was chosen.

Huxtable says she’ll take the question on notice.

The secretary says Ashurst had the skills to conduct the inquiry.

Updated

Labor’s Kim Carr has been asking race discrimination commissioner Chin Tan about whether there has been an increase in racism and rightwing extremism during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chin Tan said there had been a “substantial rise in race activities, particularly directed at some communities including Asian communities”. He said both racism and rightwing extremism had increased, and the two are “entwined”.

AHRC president Rosalind Croucher said the commission had “opened up a conversation around a national anti-racism framework” and the discussion was “ongoing”.

Attorney general department secretary Chris Moraitis said he had expressed “full support” for “working out the parameters of that”.

This is significant – because Labor has called for an anti-racism strategy. And whether you call it a strategy or a framework, it sounds like the wheels are in motion.

Liberal chair Amanda Stoker quotes previous years’ statistics to suggest there hasn’t been a large increase in race complaints. Chin Tan said the number “varies” but there has been an increase during Covid-19.

Updated

Paul Fletcher was also the cities minister when the Leppington triangle sale was made – the $30m purchase of land valued at $3m, 30 years before it was needed – and said he received a deficient brief from his department, and learnt only learnt key details of the sale in the auditor-general’s reports.

Updated

Anthony Albanese asks Paul Fletcher when he asked about the watches.

Fletcher says he only found out during the estimates hearing.

I indicated in my previous answer I was shocked to discover that when it was revealed in Senate estimates.

Labor interjects – Fletcher says he has concluded his answer.

Updated

Just a reminder, as Daniel Hurst reported, this was part of the exchange between Christine Holgate, who has been asked to stand aside while an investigation is carried out, and Labor senator Kimberely Kitching over the $12,000 for four designer watches for executive staff issue:

Kitching: Do you consider it appropriate to use taxpayer’s money to buy Cartier watches for already highly remunerated Australia Post executives?

Holgate: I have not used taxpayer’s money, we are a commercial organisation.

Australia Post CEO stood aside during investigation into Cartier watches

Then Paul Fletcher gets to this:

I was as shocked and concerned as everybody else to discover this.

When it was revealed in estimates this morning. I have spoken to the chair of Australia Post, I have explained … the boards and managements of government business enterprises need to take great care with taxpayers’ money. They need to take great care with taxpayers’ money.

I have informed the chair of Australia Post that the [executive] and asked the respective departments to carry out an investigation into this matter and I have asked the chair to provide the full support of the company for this investigation, and I have also asked the chair to inform the chief executive and she will be asked to stand aside during the course of this investigation.

This is a matter that the Australian government takes seriously. We expect the daily management of government business to deal with taxpayers’ money with scrupulous care and and it will examine the conduct of all involved in how the matter occurred.

Updated

Michelle Rowland to Paul Fletcher:

Why was $12,000 of taxpayers’ money spent on four Cartier watches by Australia Post executives?

Fletcher:

I thank the minister, the shadow minister, for her question.

Updated

Angus Taylor is doing his impression of a minister in response to this dixer.

Asked again about his comment, which is in Hansard – “On this side of the House, if you’re good at your job, you’ll get a job. That’s how it works” – Scott Morrison turns it into an answer on how Labor doesn’t understand the unemployed.

Morrison:

The flippancy of the opposition when it comes to the COVID-19 recession ... Honestly, it reflects very poorly on them, Mr Speaker. They come into this place glib, cheap insults, Mr Speaker, to those in this country, who are doing the hardest ... Mr Speaker, the hardest ... in generations.

Now, Mr Speaker, I am asked about this matter, of what has occurred with those who have lost their jobs in this country. One million people, Mr Speaker, in a matter of weeks, in a matter of weeks, fell out of employment or had their job reduced to zero hours. And since that time, Mr Speaker, more than 760,000 people have found those jobs again or their hours have been restored.

That has been our response to the Covid-19 recession, Mr Speaker. Those opposite don’t even seem to understand the Covid-19 recession was caused by Covid-19. Mr Speaker, those opposite don’t know how we got in the recession, Mr Speaker, so they have no answers when it comes to how to find a way out of it. This is the Labor party,

That has no plan for the economy of Australia, Mr Speaker, no plan whatsoever. They don’t even know what the impact of Covid-19 has been on people’s jobs, on their livelihoods, on their business Mr Speaker.

And we have been restoring the economy from the shocking losses, getting people back into work, restoring the health of Australians and Australians know that. And the sort of cheap rhetoric we have from the opposition coming here, flippantly, flippantly!

With political, political barbs, seeking to take advantage of unemployed people in this country, does them no credit.

The Australian people know they cannot trust the Labor party, they cannot trust the leader of the opposition, because they know when it comes to matters that really go to their security, their economic security, their national security, Mr Speaker, they know that this leader of the opposition just isn’t up to it.

In the fortnight the government cut the wage subsidy kobkeeper rate, payroll dropped, and so did retail spending. The unemployment benefit, jobseeker has been cut, with no word on whether what is left of the Covid supplement will remain beyond 31 December.

Updated

Meanwhile

Back in estimates, Finance officials have confirmed that a would-be informant approached the department concerning the Sukkar/Andrews investigations.

The department supplied an email address to that person. Officials say no further information was ever provided to that address.

Don Farrell wonders if crucial information ended up not reaching the investigation. The officials repeat that they provided a point of contact and no information was ultimately forthcoming.

The officials won’t say who the would-be informant was – whether he was a member of staff. Finance again won’t go into detail, given information in these investigations is provided on a voluntary basis.

The finance minister Mathias Cormann notes this is an important convention.

Scott Morrison is asked about this comment he made yesterday during question time, in defence of John Howard and Josh Frydenberg associate Peter Crone being given a contract with the Bushfire Recovery Agency (which apparently was news to the head of that agency, Andrew Colvin).

On this side of the House, if you’re good at your job, you’ll get a job. That’s how it works.

Morrison is asked why he said that, given there are people who are about to lose their homes if they don’t get a job – is he saying Australia’s unemployed haven’t been able to find a job because they are not good enough?

Morrison:

That is not what I said, Mr Speaker! That is not what I said, Mr Speaker! That is a rather ugly misrepresentation, Mr Speaker!

But what I said yesterday. Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, I was asked yesterday ... Two appointments in positions in the government Mr Speaker and that is what I was asked about and there are a million of people through the course of the Covid-19 recession found themselves out of work through no fault of their own.

The government has been absolutely clear about that and not only have we been clear about the fact that this Covid-19 recession which was caused by a global pandemic, something those opposite failed to appreciate, acknowledge or understand, Mr Speaker, by contrast, the government understands that people have lost their jobs through the Covid-19 recession and have lost their job through no fault of their own.

But we have gone beyond that by putting in place the $101bn jobkeeper program that have provided a lifeline to 3 million Australians and more, Mr Speaker and more, and more, and by doubling the jobseeker payments through the Covid-19 supplement to make Australians get through the worst of this crisis and cushion the blow.

Mr Speaker, in this country, in this country, when it comes to the response to the Covid-19 recession and the pandemic, the impact has been cushioned more so than any other country in the world today.

Only a handful of countries, South Korea, Finland, Norway, Australia and economies like Taiwan, Mr Speaker, can actually speak of this sort of way that we have been able to act to cushion the blows to the very constituent that you speak of.

That is why the jobtrainer program provides 340,000 places right now Mr Speaker and for the Labor party to come in here and take comments that are made and apply them to completely different contexts, is a grubby smear, Mr Speaker, and an insult to all of those Australians and seeking to misrepresent – the Labor party, they need to learn how to tell the truth.

Updated

Just visited the void for a few minutes as Michael McCormack took a dixer.

Moving on.

Once again, the Coalition has been in power in Australia for the past seven years.

It has been in power for 15 of the last 20 years.

Aged care is a federal responsibility.

When the royal commission reports about failures of “successive governments” it is absolutely right – but those governments have been largely led by the Coalition – and the last decade has been largely led by the people who are sitting in the house, on the right of the Speaker, today: the Coalition.

Updated

Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:

My question is to the prime minister: why has a government senator claimed that 668 deaths in aged care are not relevant on the same day the royal commission heard that one in five Australians in residential aged care have received substandard care and levels of abuse are, quote, “a national shame”. Why has the prime minister racked up $1tn of debt, $100bn of new spending in the budget but not fixed his broken aged care system, characterised by, according to the royal commission, neglect.

Morrison:

Its a wide-ranging question and I refer the member to my previous answer regarding matters in the Senate raised and that is why the government invested more than $1.5bn in response to the Covid-19 pandemic particularly in aged care.

Mr Speaker, the shocking news that we knew would come forward out of a royal commission into aged care when I initiated the royal commission, and I knew that Australians would have to prepare themselves and said we would need to prepare ourselves for some difficult and horrifying statements of practices that have gone on.

Over generations and decades in that matter was referred to by the royal commission himself in outlining what we would expect to see come forward and the areas that would be investigated over the many years.

Mr Speaker, every year our government has continued to increase investment in aged care by $1bn, every single year, and more, and in the most recent budget, the single largest increase in aged care places, the single largest, to ensure that we have more than triple the number of in-home aged care places since we came to government and in-home aged care places is one of the key recommendations made in the interim report of the royal commission that we responded to, both last year and we said we would respond in this years budget and we have, and we will keep responding, again in the media statement and again in next years budget in a comprehensive response in the royal commission recommendations handed down next year.

I thank them for the work they are doing in the Australians coming to the royal commission. Mr Speaker, earlier today, the leader of the opposition and I joined together to speak of the work that has been done since the very important royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse and what has flowed from that, and I believe the same thing will flow from the royal commission into aged care, which is why I initiated it because it is a matter we have to deal with as a parliament, government and we are dealing with that but there is more to do.

The royal commission will greatly aid us in that request to join us together to address these matters in aged care and that’s why I called and looking forward to its recommendations.

The news that comes from it is difficult for all of us because so many of us in this place have sat around cabinet tables on either side of politics and dealt with the issues of aged care. All of us know there is more to be done.

Updated

Question time begins

Julie Collins to Scott Morrison:

This morning at Senate estimates, Liberal senator Amanda Stoker repeatedly shut down questions about more than 680 deaths in aged care.

She made more time for tweets but that aged care deaths were not relevant. How on earth can the government claim that 680 deaths in aged care are not relevant but Twitter is?

Morrison:

Every single, every single death as a result of Covid-19 is a tragedy for every family and community that has suffered from the death and as we know the majority of those have occurred to those of the most vulnerable and those most vulnerable live in residential aged care facilities and it is appropriate that the royal commission dedicate ...[time to the] task of dealing directly on issues relating to Covid-19 and dealing with those in aged care facilities, the government takes that seriously and asked the aged commission to do that.

You reference to matters in Senate estimates today regarding the conduct of officers employed at the royal commission and it’s important that the commission engage in its work in a way that is completely nonpartisan and completely independent and I see it as the job of Senate estimates to probe into matters regarding integrity, I do, and that is its role and the role of this parliament, Mr Speaker, and questions raised in this chamber as indeed they are in estimates, that is the responsibility of members of parliament and that is what senators are doing whether its capacity as estimates and what it is what members do here.

The person in question is the media director for the royal commission – not a commissioner – and has impact on the evidence.

Updated

Over in Senate estimates, the Labor senator Don Farrell is exploring the recent investigations the Department of Finance undertook in relation to the conduct of Liberals Michael Sukkar and Kevin Andrews.

You can read the background to those investigations here. An official from the department says Finance has relevant records but doesn’t have statutory information gathering powers.

Farrell says these investigations rely on the subjects volunteering information. The official from Finance, David Da Silva, agrees that’s correct.

The department secretary Rosemary Huxtable notes the investigation ultimately went to an external party, and independent legal firm. Farrell asks what information the department expected to get from Sukkar and Andrews. What did the two Liberals provide?

“They provided information,” Huxtable says. She won’t go into detail. Another Finance official says the two were proactive.

“I can assure you we did a thorough review of our records,” Huxtable says. She says the law firm had further engagements with the two members.

Da Silva said the law firm sought information from the two members and they submitted information. Farrell asks whether the investigators accessed the key document about branch activities that set the first news reports in motion. Huxtable says “all relevant documents were considered by the investigator”.

It’s not clear what all relevant documents mean, and Huxtable is clear she doesn’t want to get into detail because information is furnished on a voluntary basis.

We have moved into the chamber – Richard Marles just did a “go Cats” 90-second statement, wearing a scarf.

Too soon for this Collingwood supporter.

Tony Smith, a Carlton supporter, says he is tempted to remove all the Richmond supporter gear from the chamber.

Updated

I do not know what to say about this.

Which party is the ball?

I know they are a favourite of MPs, particularly when they need to look ‘country’ but this may not have been the smoothest move.

As one gift guide says (with thanks to the SMH and the Age’s Eyrk Bagshaw for finding it).

It is not common to give gifts in a business setting as they are generally seen as bribes. However, sometimes after the first meeting, simple gifts are exchanged.

  • Do not open the gift in front of the other person unless requested.
  • Appropriate Gifts – fruits, chocolates, sweets, a perfume that is not alcohol based.
  • Gifts to Avoid – knives, alcohol and personal gifts, and with white wrapping paper, as it symbolises death and mourning.
  • If giving foodstuffs, remain sensitive to the Muslim avoidance of “non-halal” foods and gelatin.

Updated

We are now less than half an hour out from the last question time of the week.

Estimates appears to have given plenty of material today.

The standoff over the delivery of Pauline Hanson-branded stubby holders to public housing residents in north Melbourne was “a very unusual one”, according to Nick Macdonald, Australia Post’s general counsel.

As mentioned earlier on the blog, this is the case in July in which Melbourne City Council intervened to block the delivery of 114 parcels to households of the locked down towers just days after Hanson publicly disparaged the residents.

Nine newspapers published an email in which Macdonald wrote to the council saying Australia Post would consider notifying the police or other relevant authorities if the packages were not delivered.

The independent senator Rex Patrick wanted to know how often Australia Post had written to somebody indicating it would engage the police if they failed to deliver parcels or letters.

While there had been times where mail vans had been broken into, it seems this situation is unprecedented.

Macdonald said it was very unusual for Australia Post to release letters or parcels into the custody or control of a third party – in this case the City of Melbourne which had a role in managing the locked down public housing towers.

This was the first situation that was brought to my attention where we had a third party with custody of parcels – and in this instance it was over 100 parcels – deciding not to deliver them to the intended addressees, so I haven’t written a letter like that before, and I’m not aware of any other situations where a third party has intervened in that way and made a decision not to deliver mail as intended.

Updated

The Senate estimates hearing into Australia Post has fired up over bonus payments.

Australia Post told the hearing the total value of incentives awarded last financial year was $97.4m.

The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Australia Post was “quasi public, quasi private” and she raised concern about bonuses clashing with community expectations during a recession: “I can understand why people are pissed off.”

The Liberal party chair of the communications committee, David Fawcett, rebuked Hanson-Young, saying the “last bit of that was not appropriate for a parliamentary committee”.

Australia Post said the $97.4m in incentives was a total of several different parts, including $21.6m in “thank you” payments to frontline workers. The hearing was told the payment was made to 34,500 people such as posties, processing centres and drivers who had delivered through Covid’s “unprecedented times”. It was pegged at 1% of average earnings, so a postie might typically get $600.

Contractors and licensees were also given gift cards totalling $2.6m in thank you payments, because they were not direct employees.

Hanson-Young said her concern was not the thank you payments but those at the higher end.

The hearing was told the second part of the incentives was a total of $60.5m to 2,500 participants in the Australia Post corporate incentive plan. These ranged from general managers to heads of departments to senior managers.

Updated

Human Rights Commission president criticises executive 'overreach' during Covid

Rosalind Croucher, the Australian Human Rights Commission president, has delivered a scorching opening statement warning about executive overreach in Australia’s Covid-19 response.

Croucher noted that many emergency measures were enacted through non-disallowable legislative instruments that don’t receive as much scrutiny as legislation. Scrutiny, if it comes, comes after the fact.

Australian Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher.
Australian Human Rights Commission president Rosalind Croucher. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

She noted “extraordinary measures” including Henry the 8th clauses whereby regulations made by ministers can change the meaning of legislation agreed by parliament.

Croucher said that checks and balances on executive power are “integral to our democracy” but Australians have been “exposed to potentially unnecessary infringement” on their rights.

Croucher said:

I’m concerned by the lack of explanation and identifying which level of government is responsible for [aspects of the response].

For example, she cites repatriation of Australians overseas – which appears to be a federal responsibility requiring consular assistance, but the states determine how many people can arrive through hotel quarantine in each jurisdiction.

She warned Australia may not be meeting its responsibility in article 10 on the rights of the child – because caps on hotel quarantine prevent speedy reunification of families.

Croucher said Australia needs to embed a human rights approach into its emergency response to consider if measures are justified “at the time they are considered, not afterwards”.

Updated

In Victoria, Daniel Andrews has previously said health authorities are reviewing the data every day, watching to see if things change enough to ease restrictions.

What does that mean for Sunday’s announcements?

Frustratingly, again I can’t predict what the numbers will be tomorrow or the day after but once we have got those and we make final touches and final refinements to what is possible and what is deemed safe, then we will have more to say on Sunday.

That won’t be coming into effect hours later as indicated. They will need to be a few days as we ease into that but we’re still hopeful. But we do have to wait until Sunday.

And Bill Shorten also has a statement on job cuts at Stuart Robert’s department – in the midst of a pandemic.

The Morrison government must come clean on sweeping job cuts to Centrelink / Services Australia workers across the nation.

The secret jobcutter plan has sacked -

  • 420 Melbourne casual workers in Mill Park and Dandenong, many who worked at application processing centres helping clients for two years but won’t see a dollar in redundancy.
  • A reported further 180 workers based in Sydney.
  • Another 23 workers in Launceston who fear the axe will be swung on them next.

This could not be a worse action at a worse time.

How many Australian workers does government services minister Stuart Robert intend to sack during a pandemic recession?

Updated

Philippa Lynch, the chief registrar of the high court, has given evidence in Estimates about fallout from Dr Vivienne Thom’s bombshell review finding sexual harassment by former justice Dyson Heydon of court associates.

Lynch said:

The court has developed a supplementary HR policy that relates to chambers staff that covers things identified by Dr Thom. We’ve revised induction – so one of the justices takes the associates through that policy clause by clause. We’ve identified the senior registrar as the person available to assist chambers staff ... [And] all associates when they finish have an opportunity to have conversation with me about their experiences.

In particular, the new HR policy states that the obligation of confidentiality with respect to the court’s judicial role does not preclude conversations about “workplace issues”, she said.

Lynch reveals that in addition to the six original complainants, eight former associates and one former staff member engaged with the review process.

Independent senator Rex Patrick asked about cooperation with police. Lynch said the AFP had asked for a copy of Dr Thom’s report but because the information is sensitive the court has contacted the six complainants offering them to provide their sections of the report to the AFP. If the AFP wants to press the point, the court will get back in touch with the associates.

Patrick characterised this as impeding the AFP, but Jonathon Duniam rejected that view.

Updated

Michelle Rowland has responded to the Cartier watch revelations very, very quickly.

Revelations today in Senate Estimates that the Australia Post board and its CEO gifted four Cartier watches to highly paid executives are unacceptable.

Australia Post is a cherished national institution and it must set a high standard.

Today’s evidence that $12,000 was used on luxury watches does not meet that test.

The Australia Post Board is dysfunctional swamp of former Liberal politicians, party hacks, and mates of Scott Morrison.

This Board is incapable of executive oversight and must be cleaned up.

The embattled Minister, Paul Fletcher, needs to stop being taken for a fool by executives of Australia Post and NBNCo.

If he cannot get the waste in his portfolio under control, the Prime Minister must step in.

The focus of Australia Post must return squarely to what matters: community services, consumers, its workforce and enabling the broader digital economy.

Updated

Q: The community leaders in the Islamic community are saying that they are quite fearful that this attention of the case and this outbreak might spike another round of potentially blaming the Islamic community for the virus in Melbourne, what would you say to that?

Putting in this whole answer for the Andrew Bolts of the world, who I am sure are already madly scribbling sanctimonious bullshit from their offices which no doubt have many leather bound books and smell of rich mahogany.

Daniel Andrews:

This virus does not discriminate based on your postcode, where your mum and dad were born, the language you speak at home, the place where you go to pray or if you don’t go to pray.

This is not concerned with any of those things, the virus, and so should we be unconcerned with any of these things.

This is not a function of faith, far from it.

So nobody in the Islamic community should have that sense.

The other thing and I will also be very clear about this, there are some people in different communities, many communities, not just our community but many different communities.

Where there can be from time to time and I have had this very direct personal feedback, not just through a official channel but through talking to people over these past six months, there are some in different communities across the state to may feel a sense of shame or stigma that they have got a positive test.

Nobody should feel that stock nobody should feel that ever.

This is not about those issues, it’s about coming forward, getting tested, if you’re positive, you’re doing your job. You are doing the right thing in coming forward and getting tested. There is no sense of shame, in fact, we will praise you for the fact you have done the right thing. You haven’t ignored your symptoms, you have come forward and got tested and then we can work with you to stop you giving it to others then give it to others and so on and so on it goes. There’s no shame or stigma.

There is no judgement. No judgement. There is privacy. When you do that interview, is like talking to your GP. All we are interested in is the coronavirus information so we can stop the spread. It is not a cultural thing, not a faith being, not a postcode thing, it is everybody’s business because it will infect everybody unless we have the sort of measures in place that have put in place.

Daniel Andrews says he won’t go into how the latest cluster in northern Melbourne arose, but does say:

I don’t want to get into discussions about who has done what but I would say this, the virus might be airborne but if people do go from one house to another, which is not in accordance with the rules, this thing will hitch a ride.

That’s what happens and we can’t change what has gone on here. It is not a matter of blame, just a timely reminder yet again to the Victorian community that each of us make hundreds of choices every single day. There are millions of us so that means hundreds of millions of dangerous opportunities where things can go wrong every single day. It is why we had just got to stay the course on this and make good choices.

And a reminder that we have seen this across ALL communities (remember the Aspen crew) so I don’t want to see anything linked to particular communities here.

Still at estimates, Labor’s Kimberley Kitching is pursuing questions over the Liberal party affiliations of some of Australia Post’s board members.

Nick Macdonald, the general counsel, is asked whether Tony Nutt is a current or former member of the Liberal party.

Macdonald says he doesn’t know.

Kitching asks whether he’s ever heard references to Nutt as being an “iron fist in a velvet glove” or a “Svengali”.

“I have never heard those things mentioned.”

If you need a refresher on Nutt, here you go.

Updated

So, back to Victoria – it was a little confusing, but it seems like there are 16 cases across six households.

About 520 people are now self-isolating.

400 of those are linked to the East Preston Islamic College community.

East Preston Islamic College in Melbourne.
East Preston Islamic College in Melbourne. Photograph: Erik Anderson/AAP

Another 120 are residents of Broadmeadows public housing towers, who have been ordered into isolation, while testing is carried out, after a resident tested positive.

Updated

Australia Post spent $12,000 on Cartier watches to reward executives

Australia Post spent $12,000 to buy four Cartier watches as a reward for executives for their hard work on a project, a Senate estimates committee has been told.

Labor is using the communications committee hearing to scrutinise Australia Post over some of its spending decisions and use of corporate credit cards.

Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate appears before a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra, Thursday, 22 October 2020.
Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate appears before a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra, Thursday, 22 October 2020. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Under questioning, Christine Holgate, the Australia Post chief executive officer, said the watches were purchased in October 2018 and she described the events as follows:

There were a small number of senior people who had put an inordinate amount of work in and they did receive an award from the chair, myself on behalf of the board … They got watches … They were a Cartier watch of about a value of $3,000 each.

Holgate said she was not one of the recipients but the purchases were organised through her office. During the hearing, Holgate and her chief financial officer were unable to shed light during today’s hearing as to which corporate credit card it was incurred on.

When asked by Labor’s Kimberley Kitching whether it was appropriate to use taxpayers’ money to buy Cartier watches for already highly remunerated Australia Post executives, Holgate insisted it was not taxpayers’ money:

I have not used taxpayers’ money … We do not receive government funding. We are a commercial organisation … It was a recommendation from our chair that these people get rewarded.

Kitching said she was unhappy the chair had not fronted the estimates hearing.

Updated

Deputy chief health officer, professor Allen Cheng confirms that a case earlier in the week is a reinfection.

There have only been about seven or eight of those cases recorded in the world.

A healthcare worker is seen at a walk through Covid-19 testing site in Heidelberg West, Melbourne..
A healthcare worker is seen at a walk through Covid-19 testing site in Heidelberg West, Melbourne.. Photograph: Erik Anderson/AAP

So people who test positive having had infection previously do represent quite a difficult issue and the debate is whether they are persistently shedding viral fragments or do they actually have a new infection.

We have an expert panel to look at these and some of the factors we take into account is the clinical details of the first and second infection. Whether they have symptoms and how sick they are.

How much virus appears to be present in the first and second times. How long it has been since the first and second infection.

Obviously if it is very close, it is less likely to be a reinfection but if it is a long period of time, and particularly if they have had a negative test in between, is poorly more likely to be a reinfection.

We look at whether the person has a compromised immune system and whether they have had close contacts, the first and the second time. And then finally, we can also look at the genomic testing to see if the first and second strains are the same.

These take a little while to close out and we take a very precautionary approach to say, if we are not sure, if they are reinfection, we will say only if there is evidence to show otherwise.

They are very frustrating for the people involved. They aren’t common. We think that there are probably only a handful of reinfections is reported in the world. And at this stage, we happily do think that people have recovered from infection are mostly protected at least for the first few months after infection.

Updated

400 Melbourne residents issued stay-at-home orders

There are 400 people who have been issued stay-at-home orders, as close or secondary contacts of new cases in Victoria.

There are 105 active cases of Covid in Victoria and nine people in hospital.

Updated

Australia Post representatives say they don’t know why Melbourne City Council contacted the Australian Federal Police amid a standoff over the delivery of Pauline Hanson stubby holders to residents of locked down public housing towers in July.

A Senate estimates committee is examining the background to the 114 parcels that were sent by One Nation to residents of the towers in north Melbourne.

The parcels included stubby holders bearing Hanson’s photo and a quote “I’ve got the guts to say what you’re thinking” accompanied by a handwritten note that read: “No hard feelings”, according to a Nine newspapers report. The parcels were contentious because Hanson had publicly disparaged the residents of the towers days earlier.

Australia Post’s Rod Barnes told estimates he had become aware of an issue with the delivery just after 6pm on Friday 10 July and he made enquiries. He said Australia Post received verbal advice that the Melbourne City Council had referred the issue to the AFP.

“I don’t know why the council felt the need to involve the police but that’s what we were informed.”

Barnes said the delivery had been attempted as early as Wednesday – two days earlier.

He described it as “a very chaotic situation” and noted the sender had made enquiries through the sales team in Queensland on Thursday as to why the delivery hadn’t happened yet. Reports indicated Australia Post had also threatened to involve the police if the council continued to block the delivery.

Christine Holgate, the Australia Post chief executive officer, was asked by Labor’s Kim Carr whether there was any link between this issue and the tour Hanson was given of the Australia Post parcel facility less than two weeks after the standoff. Holgate, who flew to Brisbane to join that tour, said:

“None whatsoever … It was a coincidence.”

The City of Melbourne has previously told Nine newspapers it “consulted with Australia Post and also sought advice from the Federal Police about whether the delivery breached the Commonwealth Criminal Code”.

Updated

Daniel Andrews says that “out of an abundance of caution” there are now “hundreds” of people “locked up in their homes”, as they are close contacts of confirmed new cases.

That is not pleasant, but that approach means that for hundreds of thousands, indeed millions more, there will be a hopefully greater degree of movement following announcements we will hopefully make on Sunday. I do thank all those people for the contribution they have made. It’s not pleasant to be isolated from everybody. Only urgent medical care would be the reason you could leave, that is not a pleasant circumstance to find yourself in, but it does make a massive difference in pulling up this virus and stopping the spread of it.

Daniel Andrews press conference

The five people who tested positive for Covid in the last 24 hours were five of almost 18,5000 people who went and got tests for the virus.

That is a huge testing figure – well done Victoria.

Updated

The ABC has to pay Foxtel to access women’s sports games, the government has paid Foxtel $40m to broadcast.

That agreement is also commercial-in-confidence.

But I haven’t seen the good senator release an all bells ringing tweet about that.

Updated

The ACT has had its Covid-free streak broken by a returning diplomat – but they are in quarantine.

Updated

This seems like it was a million years ago.

Time has no meaning in 2020. It’s not linear. More like drops of acid rain falling all around us.

Sexual assault allegations in aged care rose to more than two per day in 2018-19

The final hearing of the aged care royal commission has heard some absolutely heartbreaking and shocking figures.

Peter Rozen QC, the counsel assisting the commission said that almost half of the more than 10,000 public submissions the inquiry received, half had references to substandard care (via AAP). The Coalition has been in power since 2013.

He said 588 mentioned sexual assault, and the number of allegations reported to the federal health department rose from 426 in 2014-15 to 790 in 2018-19.

It is more than two reports per day of sexual assault on average, every day of the year, Rozen said.

He said the rate of alleged sexual assaults per 100 residents nearly doubled over that period.

The report continued:

Rozen said there has been an absence of leadership by successive governments in aged care.

“Even though the aged care system caters for more than 1.2 million older people, governments have treated it as a lower-order priority.”

Recommendations suggested include a new planning regime based on demand-driven access to care rather than a rationed approach, as well as an independent process for setting quality standards.

A new enforceable duty of care, mandated staffing ratios in residential care, compulsory registration of personal care workers and an independent pricing authority to determine costs should also be implemented, Rozen said.

He said new aged care legislation based on human rights principles should be brought in to override existing laws.

“We submit that the weight of the evidence before the commission supports a finding that high-quality aged care is not being delivered on a systemic level in our system.”

“The level of substandard care is unacceptable by any measure.

“At least one in five people receiving residential aged care have received substandard care.”

Rozen said a “number of systemic failures” included a lack of skilled staff, poor planning, poor governance and leadership from providers and a lack of transparency generally in the sector.

But yeah, what about the tweets?

Updated

Kristina Keneally was ordered to ask questions about the National Archives or not at all.

She’s found a way to make her point, by asking director general David Fricker if cabinet minutes are archived and when they might be available (answer: after 20 years).

Keneally then asked Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam whether the Australian public will therefore have to wait a minimum of 20 years “to find out about cabinet disdain for the aged care royal commission”. There is outcry from Liberal senators, and Keneally loses the call again.

Amanda Stoker is now asking Fricker whether the government had warned him that releasing the Palace Letters to everyone at the same time (not first to Jenny Hocking) was unfair.

Fricker said Hocking was unable to come to Canberra but sent a research assistant who had “first hands” on the original documents. Fricker said there was “never a view” the public release should not happen because it was unfair.

Updated

In New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian is demanding Queensland and Western Australia pay back NSW for their residents’ hotel quarantine bill.

Berejiklian wants $35m from Queensland and about $8m from WA.

She says that since they closed their borders and are not taking in as many returned travellers, they can pay what it cost NSW to take in their residents.

National cabinet is going brilliantly.

Updated

NSW Health looks like it has reconciled a mystery case from earlier in the month:

The counsel assisting the aged care royal commission have made 124 recommendations.

You can find them here.

There will be a final report handed down in February.

Updated

Queensland has recorded no new cases of Covid.

So that is five in Victoria and seven in NSW – but six are in hotel quarantine.

Updated

The royal commission into aged care, in its final hearing, has heard there are reports of 50 sexual assaults a week against residents.

Take that in for a moment.

Then think back to what the government senators chose to raise with the attorney general department this morning.

Updated

Commonwealth spent $1.04m in legal fees blocking access the palace letters

David Fricker, the director general of the National Archives, has revealed the commonwealth spent $1.04m in legal fees blocking Jenny Hocking’s application to access the palace letters.

The National Archives lost in the high court, resulting in the release of the palace Letters on 14 July.

Fricker revealed that in addition to Jenny Hocking, there were other applicants who had asked for the palace letters.

Independent senator Rex Patrick is pissed that Hocking found out about the upcoming release from the media. Fricker replied that the National Archives did inform Hocking and the other applicants before the media.

Updated

It’s 11.30 for Daniel Andrews today.

Updated

Meanwhile, back in legal affairs estimates, where it has moved on to the national archives we have learnt that the legal fees to fight releasing the palace letters topped $1m.

Meanwhile, valuable archive information is disintegrating because there are not the resources to digitise it and there are almost 20,000 outstanding requests to access information contained in the National Archives.

Updated

Heading overseas for the moment – the FBI has sent out an alert to voters accusing Iran and Russia of attempting to meddle in the coming election.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said:

We have [identified] Iran sending spoof emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump.

You may have seen some reporting and is in the last 24 hours, or you may have even been one of the recipients of those emails.

Additionally, Iran is distributing other content to include a video that implies that individuals could cast fraudulent ballots, even from overseas.

This video and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots are not true. These actions are desperate attempts by desperate adversaries and know that even if the adversaries pursue further attempts to intimidate or undermine voter confidence, know that our election systems are resilient.

And you can be confident your votes are secure. Although we have not seeing the same actions from Russia, we are aware that they have obtained some voter information, just as they did in 2016. Rest assured we are prepared for the possibility of actions by those hostile to democracy.

Updated

After a private ‘meeting’ (debate) Labor has lost the call, and Amanda Stoker and Sarah Henderson’s questions and assertions in the committee about a public servant, during a session they called over “new information” they had just learned about, and ended at 10.10am, go unchallenged.

Australia Post is facing questions from Labor as to whether postal services have deteriorated as a result of changes made after the coronavirus pandemic began.

Under the ‘Alternating Delivery Model’ (ADM) announced in May, about 2,000 motorbike posties were set to trade bikes for vans or move into warehouses to cope with the increased load or parcels, with the frequency of letter deliveries also being cut.

A postal worker is seen delivering packages to an apartment block in Melbourne.
A postal worker is seen delivering packages to an apartment block in Melbourne. Photograph: David Crosling/AAP

Labor’s Kim Carr has asked about a survey of nearly 400 posties, conducted by the Victorian postal union, with 93% of respondents saying the model had degraded service quality, and 71% saying they were unable to take all their breaks to complete their delivery round, as per a report in The New Daily.

Rod Barnes, of Australia Post, said he would look into the reports, but indicated the data and information he had available to him did not back up the claims. He said it would be unacceptable if posties felt the need to speed up as a result of the volume of work, but every postie had a scanner and GPS positioning device that would allow these claims to be checked.

“I do take those safety reports seriously and I will look into those.”

Barnes said that half of posties in Victoria were having to start each day three or three and a half hours later than their colleagues, which impacted productivity. Australia Post understood this was not popular with posties. But Barnes said the decision not to have everyone starting at the same time each day was driven by Covid-safety needs. “It is simply not safe for us to do so.”

Updated

Labor’s Kristina Keneally has gone into Estimates to ask senator Jonathon Duniam whether any minister knew about Amanda Stoker’s line of questioning about tweets from aged care royal commission staff.

Keneally said that Coalition senators cared about “tweets” rather than spending their time asking about 683 deaths in aged care and the interim royal commission report titled Neglect.

Duniam objects that he can’t be expected to know whether ministers knew about the questions, and Stoker, in the chair controlling proceedings, accused Keneally of grandstanding.

Stoker said the Estimates committee had moved on the National Archives, and as Keneally persisted with the line of questioning shouted over her that she had to confine questions to the National Archives.

Liberal senator Sarah Henderson objected to Keneally’s “completely out of order and unruly” behaviour.

Keneally moved to have a private meeting to discuss whether she can ask about the Coalition “caring about tweets rather than deaths”. The committee suspended.

Just so we are clear, the royal commission on aged care is holding its final hearing today.

And Amanda Stoker and Sarah Henderson, are talking about old tweets from the media director.

Just to be clear – Amanda Stoker called back the AG’s department to ask about the tweets as it was a “new development” she was not aware of yesterday.

The committee is getting very heated.

Updated

Amanda Stoker brought in Chris Moraitis to ask him these questions.

Kristina Keneally has come in to ask questions about whether or not any ministerial staff helped prepare the questions.

Stoker says the committee has moved on to the national archives and the time to ask questions about the aged care royal commission and the AG’s department ended at 10.10am.

Updated

Amanda ‘oh golly’ Stoker, known for her free speech crusade, opened the legal affairs estimates committee by asking the AG department secretary, Chris Moraitis if he was aware of some of the private social media musings of Kate Hannon, who is the media director for the royal commission into aged care.

The chair of the Senate Legal and Constitutional affairs committee Senator Amanda Stoker.
The chair of the Senate Legal and Constitutional affairs committee Senator Amanda Stoker. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Hannon, who worked for News Corp and AAP (as well as Mike Rann) won a Walkley for her reporting on the kerosene bath scandal, which lost Bronwyn Bishop her ministerial position.

Stoker brought up posts Hannon made (again on her private account) three years ago, and asked if that was in breach of the public service act.

There was a high profile court case recently which found that private musings on private social media accounts can be in breach of the PSA.

Moraitis said he would review the tweets, as he was not aware of them.

Labor senator Anthony Chisholm said it seemed that the government was concerned with three year old tweets, than nearly 700 deaths in aged care.

Updated

The legal affairs committee has gone on break.

“Oh golly,” says chair Amanda Stoker.

“At 10.30 we will resume.”

Updated

Switching over to legal affairs estimates and the national archive boss is painting an awful picture – cost cutting has meant a huge downturn in the amount of work the archive can do – there have been issues accessing records – 19,000 applications are overdue – and there is a very real danger important archives are about to be lost in the next five years, because they don’t have the resources to digitise them.

Updated

There is another week to go.

Updated

Labor senator Kim Carr is leading the questioning of Australia Post. He says it’s an essential public service.

In a clear sign the questioning may become robust this morning, Carr said ongoing parliamentary committee scrutiny was needed to deliver better oversight of Australia Post.

“It’s not about personal animus to any individual, it’s about our responsibilities to ensure Australia Post operates in terms of its accountability to the Australian people through the parliament.”

He points to a recent Senate committee report on concerns about the way in which Australia Post was responding to questions put to it. Christine Holgate, the Australia Post chief executive officer, said she respected the comments, noted the organisation had engaged with Australian Government Solicitor, and said it had made a commitment to engage.

She said an external consultant had also been engaged.

It would smooth the blow somewhat, yes.

Updated

Peter Dutton has delivered a virtual speech to the SMH and the Age National Security Summit, which is being held today.

He says it would be a mistake to think that the international border closure has cut down on the risk of terrorism.

But in his speech, he makes just one reference to right-wing terrorism, which our security agencies keep telling us is a growing threat:

Since the Christchurch right-wing extremist attacks, the Australian Government has taken a number of steps to limit Australians’ and our exposure to terrorist and extreme violent material online, including introducing a criminal offence for content and hosting services providers that fail to remove access to abhorrent violent material expeditiously.

The Government continues to work with social media companies and industry bodies on a range of issues relating to online harms, including preventing terrorist and violent extremist exploitation of the internet and also countering child sexual exploitation and abuse.

We must remain alert to all types of extremism. Australia’s counter-terrorism laws and countering violent extremism programs are designed to apply irrespective of religious, ideological or political motivation.

Michelle Rowland has released a statement highlighting a disallowance motion a Liberal senator has put forward.

None of this is strange in 2020.

Rowland:

NSW Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has moved a motion in the Senate seeking to disallow Minister Paul Fletcher’s regulations which cut postal services.

It appears the Senator now understands what the Deputy Nationals Leader David Littleproud already knew – Minister Paul Fletcher cannot be trusted on Australia Post.

The disallowance motion follows a letter exchange where Minister Fletcher misled Senator Ferravanti-Wells on two points: one relating to the role of postal workers and the other the Minister’s excuses for not consulting.

Is Senator Fierravanti-Wells’ motion why Minister Fletcher initiated a panic consultation process in the past fortnight, writing to banks, unions, and other entities, about his service cuts?

If only the Minister bothered to consult back in March, instead of letting his ego override common sense.

Updated

The prime minister’s statement will be acknowledging the second anniversary of the national apology to victims of institutional child abuse.

Updated

Australia Post is up now at Senate estimates.

Christine Holgate, the Australia Post chief executive officer, used the opening statement to report “very strong” performance in parcel products during the pandemic (300m parcels have been delivered since Covid began, and 61% of group revenues now comprise parcels). But she noted a big fall in letter volumes.

Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate appears before a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra, Thursday, 22 October 2020.
Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate appears before a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra, Thursday, 22 October 2020. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

She said Australia Post had reported a profit last financial year, unlike some of its international counterparts.

Holgate said Australia Post was preparing for “a Christmas like no other”, given there would be more reliance on deliveries. She said there were plans to employ an additional 5,000 employees to cope with demand.

Updated

PM to make statement to the House

Scott Morrison has alerted that he will make a statement to the House of Representatives at 9.30am.

We’ll get you more detail on that as soon as we can.

Updated

There we go – the official, official word.

Updated

Victoria’s official case stats have not been tweeted yet (the DHHS website lists five cases linked to known clusters).

But the alert we told you about this morning is getting a boost:

Updated

And for the “but Sweden” brigade:

(And in the June quarter, Sweden recorded an 8.3 % economic contraction – Australia recorded 7%.)

Updated

The last time Greg Hunt said something like this (it was on his Twitter account this week) …

Daniel Andrews responded with this:

He’s a politician and I think he’s making that very clear to everyone who follows these tweets and everyone else who listens to his criticism.

I’m done with this. It’s an insult to the sacrifice that Victorians have made.

Politics doesn’t work on this and I’m going to call it out from now on because there are some people who have played politics every day of this pandemic, and Victorians are sick of it.

Updated

Australia Post is up at the communications estimates committee hearing – that starts at 9am.

Updated

NSW has reported just one locally acquired case – another six are in hotel quarantine.

Updated

You can find those figures here. The results are for the last 24 hours.

Updated

Victoria reports five new cases

The Victorian DHHS website is reporting five new cases – all with contact with a confirmed case.

The metro Melbourne 14-day average has dropped to 6.1 though.

Updated

A Curtin University researcher is looking into the experience of those using Australia’s mandatory employment services system – the job providers – and how that impacts the motivation and well-being of people who are unemployed.

With close to a million Australians unemployed at the moment – and more to come – as well as the impacts of the cut to jobseeker, it is more important than ever that we record what is happening. Data and research is invaluable when trying to make public policy better. And, while we already know what we need governments to do, we are in a whole other situation again – and that should be investigated.

If you are now unemployed, you can fill out the Curtin Uni survey here.

Updated

The Business Council of Australia head, Jennifer Westacott, has been on a media blitz this morning, outlining the BCA’s plan to open Australia’s borders.

Here are the main takeaways:

  • By Christmas, the state borders are open and there are clear national protocols in place for arrivals and departures, quarantining, local containment, and digital tracking and tracing
  • Careful and gradual reopening of international borders with priority given to:
    • returning Australians
    • international students, signalling to them we will be open for term one next year subject to agreed protocols for quarantining
    • targeted skilled visas for high-demand workers to support business growth in Australia
  • Targeted visas aligned to the Global Business and Talent Attraction Taskforce
  • Establish a nationally consistent, risk-based approach to quarantine
  • Establish a process to identify and begin negotiating safe travel corridors with low-risk countries

Updated

The National Farmers’ Federation has teamed up with the Backpacker and Youth Tourism Advisory Panel to try to get backpackers back in the country – in a Covid-safe way, of course.

The NFF and the backpackers advocacy group want the government to look at its three-phased approach “to safely resume the flow of backpackers” to Australia, and have written a joint letter to the government detailing the plan (WHM is short for working holiday maker).

The NFF chief executive, Tony Mahar, said:

A recent report detailed that without access to WHMs, the fresh fruit and vegetable industry may suffer a $6.3 billion reduction in value and the cost of fresh produce could increase by 60 per cent.

It may also place pressure on the availability of some varieties of fruit and vegetables as farms lack the staff needed to pick and pack this crop and plant the next one.

The NFF said that while employing Australians would always take precedence, a safe restart if the WHM program would help to address agriculture labour shortages:

Even with the welcome measures announced by government, such as the Federal budget subsidies designed to encourage Aussies to take up farm jobs, the horticulture sector alone is forecast to have to have worker deficit of up to 26,000 by March 2021.

Updated

Last night estimates also heard that the former foreign minister and our man in London, Alexander Downer, has added his name to the foreign influence transparency scheme register, after taking a job as the “consultant to the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar”.

Rex Patrick is not too happy about it:

Mr Downer’s decision to become an adviser to a well-known international tax haven sets a dubious standard for the conduct of former Australian politicians, especially those who have had the great privilege of serving at the highest levels of Australian Government.

While former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s recent recruitment to the British Board of Trade drew much attention and criticism, Mr Downer’s low profile engagement with a jurisdiction that serves as an international tax haven and centre for online gambling deserves some scrutiny.

In his registration Downer said he was a consultant “assisting the Government of Gibraltar in its free trade agreement negotiations with Australia”.

Updated

The Australian intelligence community is all abuzz after this account of “Havana syndrome” in CIA officials visiting Australia was published in GQ magazine.

Havana syndrome was named after the site of the US embassy in Cuba, where in late 2016 diplomats reported “sudden pressure in the skulls” and other sudden on-set issues, including vertigo and nausea, sleeping and concentrating difficulties, headaches and vision and hearing issues. Some heard a low-pitched noise before falling ill. There has been some suggestion that “microwave” attacks are to blame. Suspicion has fallen on the Russians. None of it has been proven (and if it was, it’s something the CIA and allies would keep to themselves) but it has been ticking along under the surface for quite a few years.

Now we read this in GQ:

In the fall of 2019, two top CIA officials, both in the clandestine service, traveled to Australia to meet with officials in that country’s spy agency. (Australia is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance with the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and New Zealand.) While in their hotel rooms in Australia, both of the Americans felt it: the strange sound, the pressure in their heads, the ringing in their ears. According to these sources, they became nauseous and dizzy. They then traveled on to Taiwan to meet with intelligence officials there. They felt it again while in their hotel rooms on the island.

Australian security agencies have not commented.

Updated

NSW Health has also issued a Covid alert for anyone who attended the Bathurst 1000 race at the weekend – which has been extended to residents of Bathurst itself.

That was after remnants of Covid were picked up as part of sewage testing. From NSW Health:

The sample comprises wastewater from over the past weekend, and could indicate current or a previous infection in someone who attended or worked at the Bathurst 1000 motor race, a visitor to Bathurst, or even a local resident …

NSW Health is urgently undertaking investigations, which include reviewing lists of all those known to have had the virus who attended or worked at the race.

Updated

Good morning

Late last night Victorian health authorities put five Melbourne suburbs on alert – Dallas, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Preston and West Heidelberg – after a student at the East Preston Islamic College tested positive for Covid.

Staff and students and close contacts are in self-isolation for 14 days. But, as part of an aggressive suppression tactic, additional patients linked to the outbreak, who live in a public housing block in Broadmeadows, have been asked to self-isolate for 48 hours to get tested and monitor for symptoms.

The Dallas Brooks primary school has been closed for deep cleaning after a close contact was identified at the school.

And an “extensive” community health door knocking program starts this morning in the identified areas, including in languages other than English.

We’ll bring you the updates on that situation, as well as how the rest of Australia is handling Covid today, as the day rolls on. We should hear from Daniel Andrews in his 112th consecutive daily press conference about 11am.

In estimates last night, we also learned that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s objective was to bring the 4,000 stranded overseas Australians assessed as “vulnerable” home – but, for the remaining 28,000, it is going to be a longer wait.

There were some other bits and pieces – including news that the government paid the Murdoch-owned Foxtel $40m (taxpayer money) to broadcast women’s sports, then the ABC had to pay Foxtel (taxpayer money again) to access some of those games to broadcast them so people without pay TV (most of us) could see them.

We’ll bring you that and everything else that happens today.

It’s the last parliament sitting for the week but there isn’t too much downtime – estimates and parliament will be back next week as well. We are cramming in a lot as this year winds down.

You have Amy Remeikis with you for the day. Ready?

Updated

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