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The Guardian - AU

National

Calla Wahlquist and Amy Remeikis

Victoria reports 51 new cases and seven deaths as NSW records seven cases – as it happened

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews during a press conference in Melbourne on Thursday as the state records 51 new cases of coronavirus and 11 deaths in the past 24 hours. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

10.00am BST

How things stand

That’s where we will leave our live coverage of the coronavirus situation in Australia. As always you can follow our global rolling coverage here.

Here’s where things stand:

The death toll from Covid-19 in Victoria passed 700. Seven more people died in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths linked to the virus since 1 January to 701. There were 51 new cases recorded in Victoria today.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has defended the introduction of an 8pm-to-5am curfew in Melbourne, after both the chief health officer and the police commissioner said the idea did not come from them. Andrews was asked to provide the evidence behind the reason to introduce a curfew and said he was “free to go beyond” the advice provided. The federal government has leapt on the suggestion that Andrews was not following medical advice in implementing the curfew.
NSW recorded seven new cases.
The NSW government is in chaos after the National party, coalition partners with premier Gladys Berejiklian’s Liberal party, announced they were moving to the crossbench over legislation to protect koalas but would keep their ministerial portfolios. (They do not agree with protecting the koalas.) Berejiklian has given them until 9am tomorrow to declare whether they whether they want to sit on the crossbench or remain in the ministry – if the former, she will go to Government House to swear in new ministry.
Prime minister Scott Morrison criticised Queensland for not giving a Canberra nurse permission to attend her father’s funeral. Morrison called premier Annastacia Palaszczuk about the case this morning, and shed a tear talking about it on his favourite Sydney radio station. Palaszucuk said she would not be “bullied” by Canberra. Queensland’s chief health officer later relented and allowed the woman to attend the viewing, but not the funeral itself.
The case revealed that the Australian Capital Territory remains a declared Covid-19 hotspot in Queensland, despite not having any new cases for two months.
The head of virus manufacturer AstraZeneca Australia said there was no change to the planned timetable for delivering the vaccine to Australia, despite the human trials being paused this week after one participant had a serious adverse reaction.
There were no “consequences” for people who were in charge of the health aspects of Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, the inquiry heard. It also heard that chief health officer Brett Sutton wanted to be made state controller in response to the pandemic, but was overruled by the health department.

We’ll see you tomorrow.

Updated at 10.06am BST

9.21am BST

As mentioned previously, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews was asked today to provide the evidence behind the 8pm-5am curfew that is in place under stage four lockdown in Melbourne.

He did not – though said he would later, so watch this space – but appeared to indicate in a press conference today that the curfew was introduced in a captain’s call.

He said:

If you want to put it to the prime minister, has he ever acted beyond, in any sense, the advice that [health department secretary Prof] Brendan Murphy or [chief medical officer Prof] Paul Kelly have given him, I think the answer will be he has.

You always have to reserve the right to operationalise and deliver the advice of the medical experts and the principles that they want achieved.

Berejiklian warns Nationals MPs she will strip them of portfolios if they move to crossbench

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued an ultimatum to National party MPs, saying they can either sit in cabinet or be on the crossbench.

“They cannot do both,” she says.

And if they do not comply, she will swear in a new ministry.

Ultimatum: NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Here’s Berejiklian’s full statement:

A government serving the people of NSW must respect cabinet and parliamentary processes.

This is more important now than ever before given the challenges facing our citizens.

I have already made clear to the deputy premier that his policy concerns are listed for discussion at an upcoming cabinet meeting and will be considered by the joint party room.

It is long established convention that members of cabinet must support Government legislation.

It is not possible to be the deputy premier or a minister of the Crown and sit on the crossbench.

I am and always have been a strong Coalitionist and deeply respect the National Party and all it stands for.

It is my strong preference that existing Coalition arrangements stay in place.

However, I have just made it clear to the deputy premier that he and his Nationals colleagues who are members of the NSW cabinet have until 9am Friday 11 September to indicate to me whether they wish to remain in my cabinet or else sit on the crossbench.

They cannot do both.

If required, I will attend Government House tomorrow and swear in a new ministry.

Updated at 8.25am BST

7.38am BST

The animal welfare spokeswoman for the Australian Greens, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has pointedly tapped her calendar following the federal government’s response to the national horse traceability inquiry. Faruqi established the senate inquiry back in 2018.

She said:

Ten months have passed since the committee reported, and six months have passed since the working group was announced. That group hasn’t even been established, let alone met.

The states and territories have an important role to play but this is no reason for the federal government to distance itself from this issue. A national register requires national leadership. It’s time for the [federal agriculture] minister to drive this process.

Greens Senator Dr Mehreen Faruqi. Photograph: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Updated at 8.03am BST

7.32am BST

Let’s dig in a bit to the daily case numbers from Victoria. There were 51 new cases reported today, bringing the rolling 14-day average to 70.1 cases per day in metropolitan Melbourne, and 4.5 in regional Victoria.

Remember, we’re aiming for a 14-day average of lower than 50 by 28 September to keep pace with the roadmap.

There are 1,483 active cases of Covid-19 in Victoria at the moment, of which only 72 are in regional areas that are currently under stage three restrictions.

Some 251 of the active cases are in healthcare workers, 763 are in aged care facilities, and 16 are in residential disability accomodation, split between six residents and 10 staff.

Other than aged care homes, the largest current outbreaks are:

Bulla Dairy Foods in ColacL 17 active cases;
Peninsula Health Frankston Hospital: 16 active cases;
Dandenong Police Station: 12 active cases;
Vawdrey Australia Truck Manufacturer: 11 active cases.

7.20am BST

Brett Sutton objected to decision not to put him in charge of Victoria's Covid response

The Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, was not appointed as the state controller of the state’s response to coronavirus – despite him wanting the job – in the early stages of the virus outbreak.

Under Victoria’s prepared response plan to outbreaks, the chief health officer is presumed to take on the role of state controller, but this was overruled by a deputy secretary of the health department against Sutton’s wishes.

Chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton was not impressed when he didn’t get the role of state controller of the virus. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Melissa Skillbeck, a deputy secretary who was in charge of emergency management at the time, testified before the inquiry into hotel quarantine on Thursday.

Under Victoria’s state health emergency response plan, known as the Sherp, the chief health officer of the state is presumed to take on the role of state controller.

However, after Covid-19 arrived in Australia in February, Skillbeck said she made the decision not to have Sutton in the role because of the demands on his time, and because his expertise was best used in other roles.

She revealed that Sutton disagreed with her decision.

Skillbeck said the state controller role involved a lot of “programming and logistics” rather than public health, and that Sutton was already extremely busy dealing with the outbreak. She said:

Already on 1 February, the chief health officer was engaged with the AHPPC … [and] as the response nationally evolved, the reasons I cite were only reinforced.

In particular the personal time requirement on the chief health officer ... his expertise needs to be in AHPPC ... in communications. The key tool we have to respond to a pandemic, particularly a novel virus, is educating and changing behaviour in the community. And that is essentially a communications task.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Ben Ihle, asked Skillbeck whether Sutton was “in agreement” with her decision.

No he was not.

Updated at 8.30am BST

7.17am BST

Karvelas asked if this is an appropriate tactic to take at this time as the NSW government is still working to control the Covid-19 pandemic and has been called, by former Coalition leaders, the best government in Australia.

Joyce:

What does that have to do with koalas?

Karvelas:

Quite a lot! I will help you out. Obviously there is a crisis going on. Is blowing up the government during one of the biggest crises we have seen in this country appropriate, good timing?

Joyce:

No! They are blowing up their own government because they had ample warning to deal with this issue, ample ... This issue has been under the surface; they have known all about it, and now they say this is a big surprise. The only big surprise is that you didn’t deal with this way back, and the only big surprise, don’t worry about the Nationals, keep pushing and pushing and bluffing, they will always fold.

I am glad they are not folding. No, you are not treating us with respect. You think we have to fold because we have to, when you put a guilt trip, be the best government. The best government would have dealt with this a long time ago, and the best government would have realised it should not have come to this point, and the best government would have brought into the room (planning) minister Rob Stokes and said, ‘Mate, forget it, drop the idea, stop it, it will cause more harm than it is worth.’ That is what the best government would have done.

Calling the pandemic a guilt trip is extreme Barnaby Joyce areas.

Updated at 7.20am BST

7.11am BST

Barnaby Joyce is on ABC24 now to add some grist to the chaos mill that is the NSW National party today.

Joyce said he supports the position of NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier, John Barilaro, but hasn’t spoken to him about it.

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

I think it is really important that the National party stands up and says enough is enough ... Basically the property rights. We have had to deal with fishing regulations, we have to deal with permits so we can’t control kangaroos, we cannot shoot a snake that is in the yard and will bite [my children]. I have to remove it. I don’t know how – charm it out of the yard.

We are sick and tired and it is like the straw that broke the camel’s back. .. None of us wanted koalas to die. There is not a person who wants anything but the best outcome for koalas, and we live with them.

He said the proposed NSW legislation was a “bureaucratic nightmare, and its bullish pugnacious overlord is by Sydney and we have had enough”.

Is it an issue worth breaking up a successful government, host Patrica Karvelas asked?

Joyce said:

I think this is an issue which premier Gladys Berejiklian has been doing a great job, to recognise it is not just an issue by itself, but a combination of so many issues that have come in and arrive at this issue. This is just the last straw and she should say, ‘Look, I think we have to really listen to them.’ This is not something that is a surprise. It has been discussed for quite some time. Remember, it was a regulation that would have been disallowed ... This is the only alternative John Barilaro has left.”

So Berejiklian should just fold to all their demands, basically?

Basically yes, says Joyce.

Is it acceptable for the Nationals MPs to say they will keep their ministerial portfolios despite moving to the crossbench?

I am absolutely certain that Gladys Berejiklian will still be getting supply ... You have to get something for the right of the Liberals to be the government, and that means the share of portfolios. If you don’t want the portfolios maybe you don’t want supply.

Updated at 7.16am BST

6.58am BST

While we’re talking about the evidence behind implementing a night-time curfew in Melbourne under stage four restrictions, it’s worth noting that police fined 46 people for breaching curfew in the past 24 hours.

As with all lockdown breaches (except not wearing a mask, which is $200) the penalty is a $1,600 on-the-spot fine.

Police also fined 23 people for not wearing face masks, and 28 people were fined at vehicle checkpoints – meaning they allegedly did not have an adequate reason for being out and about.

Updated at 7.00am BST

6.52am BST

In a bit of other news, the federal government has released its response to the recommendations of a Senate inquiry which called for the establishment of a national horse tracking scheme.

The inquiry was called off the back of this Guardian Australia report about ex-racehorses in the Echuca horse sales.

The response says the Australian government supports the establishment of a national working group to design a national horse traceability register. That working group was established following a Coag meeting in February (remember Coag? Remember February??).

The Australian government supports the establishment of a national horse register and notes that establishing a national register for all horses will require policy and regulatory design work to be undertaken by racing and animal welfare portfolios in each state and territory.

It is expected that the working group will report its progress to develop a register to racing and agricultural ministers via state and territory government racing officials and the agriculture senior officials committee.

But it says the federal government does not want to pay for it, and notes:

A national horse registration and traceability system could have substantial resourcing impact for states and territories, industry groups, farmers, and others with horses, such as pet owners and riding schools.

The Australian government agrees that the adoption of a co-investment model is desirable, however decisions about how a register is funded is likely to be a matter for state and territory racing ministers and racing agencies.”

You can read the full response here,

Updated at 6.58am BST

6.35am BST

Hello campers. Thanks to Amy Remeikis for taking us through the morning’s news.

I hope you are doing well this Thursday afternoon. Remember: do it for them.

Eight-month-old koala joey Jasper being weighed at Wild Life Sydney zoo in July. Photograph: Don Arnold/WireImage

Updated at 6.40am BST

6.28am BST

On that note, I am going to hand you over to the wonderful Calla Wahlquist for the afternoon.

I’ll be back tomorrow morning. You can reach me here and here if you still have questions.

In the meantime, please, as always, take care of you. Ax

Updated at 6.29am BST

6.27am BST

Dr Jeannette Young finishes taking questions and the press conference ends.

So the main takeaway there: you can apply to enter Queensland under any of the exemptions which include work, as well as personal exemptions (and no one will be turned away in an emergency medical situation), but you have to quarantine.

You have to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine. Some exemptions have been granted for people to quarantine somewhere else – their own homes, or another compound – but you have to quarantine if you enter Queensland from a hotspot.

Young basically said it was because when someone (or someones) didn’t, the state ended up with new clusters.

Updated at 6.30am BST

6.24am BST

Jeannette Young hopes to open aged care homes soon

When will aged care homes have their restrictions lifted in Queensland?

Dr Jeannette Young:

As soon as possible.

So, as soon as we can declare this recent cluster over, which will take a while longer, I would suggest at least another week, then we will be able to open up aged care.

Now, I am just so glad we did that because I think we should be OK in that aged-care facility at Laidley.

We not had any cases in the residents. It is not over yet. They are not through that risky period just yet, but we have not had any to date.

That is only because we closed down our aged-care facilities early on with this recent cluster and we asked staff to wear PPE and to be very careful and the staff member who tested positive was excellent, absolutely excellent.

I couldn’t have asked more. He followed the absolute text book process and wore PPE and kept himself separate and he was just fantastic.

So, we were, maybe I could say lucky there, but also we are just so careful in Queensland and I am so grateful that Queenslanders have gone along that journey and by being careful every single time I am absolutely convinced we have saved lives in Queensland.

Updated at 6.35am BST

6.22am BST

Dr Jeannette Young is asked again whether there is double standards for “normal” people:

No, no, because I will always give an exemption to someone who needs to come into the state because of a family reason and I have done that regularly and that will continue to happen under that new team.

So I have had many, many exemptions from people who are wanting to come up to support their grandchildren who are having children and they haven’t got parents here and they need to support them because they have got to go into hospital and look after other children.

So there are lots and lots and lots of exemption requests to support family, to support close friends, and they are always granted, but they are granted with a need for quarantine. No different to all of these other exemptions.

Updated at 6.23am BST

6.21am BST

Why can Tom Hanks gets an exemption and other people can’t?

Dr Jeannette Young:

Anyone can come into Queensland who has got a reason to come in that meets one of our requirements.

So, anyone can come to Queensland if they wish to see a dying relative or, indeed, a dying close friend.

Then the next part of that exemption is what they need to do when they come – and that is the same.

I have given exemptions to people in the sporting industry for a whole range of codes because it is important that we start that work, but they all go into quarantine.

I have given exemptions for people in entertainment and film because that is bringing a lot of money into this state and, can I say, we need every single dollar in our state.

We need to make sure that our economy is going ahead as much as it can, as long as it is safe.

So my first – the first thing the – thing I do before I make a decision about anything is: it safe to the Queensland population?

If it is safe, I look at how it can be done and whether that is the AFL, the NRL, whether it is swimming, tennis – all of the sports – cricket recently because we are coming know that season. Whether it is any of those, whether it is entertainment industry, film industry, whether it is agricultural, whether it is are sources and mining, construction.

Anything that will benefit our community because I actually believe that the economy has an enormous role in determining health and the health outcomes for Queenslanders, but before I agree to anything it is whether it is safe.

Updated at 6.29am BST

6.19am BST

Why is it Jeannette Young standing up and addressing the media and not the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk?

I just wanted to give some information this afternoon. I haven’t stood up for the last few days because I have actually been very, very busy trying to work through these clusters and so it was offered to me that I might like to stand up and give some information and an update where we are because, in actual fact, I think we have done exceptionally well, far, far better than I had even hoped, knowing that everyone always does do well at start of this most recent cluster and I think I can now see light at the end of the tunnel, which will be good because we have got a lot of places locked down at the moment. All of our aged-care facilities, disability facilities, hospitals and that is causing, I know, a lot of problems for people.”

Asked if the premier’s or her office asked or directed her to stand up for a press conference, Dr Young says:

No, the premier’s office didn’t. My team here did.”

Updated at 6.22am BST

6.17am BST

ACT a hotspot for Queensland despite no cases for two months

Q: Why is the ACT, which has had no cases for two months, still a hotspot as far as Queensland is concerned?

Dr Jeannette Young says it is all about staying two weeks ahead of any potential infections:

Canberra is defined as a hotspot because it is in the middle of New South Wales. We know there are cases around them. The other part is, you might remember there were a lot of cases in Batemans Bay, and a lot of Canberra have weekend residences they go to in Batemans Bay.

We have seen it happen.

Unfortunately for people who live in Canberra, they are deemed as being in a hotspot, need to be managed as such.

What we have to remember is exposures two weeks ago that will then lead to the problem.

We are always trying to project two weeks in advance, which makes it very difficult.

It is very hard. I can understand that for people who live in Canberra, to understand why they can’t freely travel into Queensland.

Updated at 6.34am BST

6.15am BST

There is a question about the family who have said they are unable to visit a father who has terminal cancer, because of the restrictions.

Dr Jeannette Young:

I can’t go into specifics of any individual case. I’m sure you know me well enough by now I’m not going to cause even more heartache to someone to have private information discussed publicly.

What I can say is exemptions are given for people to come to Queensland, to see dying relatives or close friends, but they need to go into quarantine if they come from one of the hotspots, to do that, and then, they are supported to go and visit their relative, or friend, if it’s in a hospital, that are supervised by the hospital, the hospital provides PPE, if it’s at the person‘s home, they need to organise someone to assist them because we will provide them the PPE but we need to organise someone to give assistance on how to use that PPE.

6.14am BST

Dr Jeannette Young is not usually this strong. She must be quite agitated by today’s commentary:

We have now had several outbreaks in aged care facilities in Queensland that we have been able to control, thank goodness, because we have now seen that Australia’s numbers who have died as a result of Covid-19 have reached over 700 Australians, and we know a lot of those have happened in the last month, a lot of them have happened in aged care facilities.

That’s something I’m absolutely adamant about. I will do everything I possibly can to stop that happening in Queensland because every single death is a really difficult death for someone, including me.

I don’t want to see a Queenslander dying from Covid-19 that I could have prevented. I can’t prevent every single death, but those that I can prevent, I’m absolutely adamant, I make no apologies, I will do my best to prevent.

Having said that, I also understand the awful situation for people coming into Queensland from interstate and overseas that can’t attend a funeral to mourn their loved one.

So we do have some processes in place to try and help with that. Of course, if they wish to, and the funeral home can support it and a large number have, then they can go and have a private farewell with a loved one in the funeral home.

That can be done, and has been done a number of times very safely due to the support of the funeral home, but they do need to wait 14 days before they can attend.

Updated at 6.18am BST

6.12am BST

Queensland’s chief health officer continues:

One thing I have always felt that has kept Queensland safer, and we are able to continue to have that increased risk of 100 people at a funeral is that I have always been very, very careful in making sure that anybody at a higher risk of having Covid-19 does not attend a funeral.

Those are people who come from hot spots, interstate, or anybody who comes from overseas. Although I understand the enormous toll this is taking on people who are coming here, to Queensland to attend a funeral of a loved one, whether that be a relative, or a friend, they can’t do that until they have been in quarantine for 14 days.

Because the last thing I would want to happen is to have an outbreak at a funeral, and by definition, there are always older people attending funerals. They are the people, we know, will always attend funerals.

There are very risky environment for spread of the virus because the nature of the service and what happens, and secondly because of the people that tend to attend those funerals.

So I do not want to see, in Queensland, any risk of people attending a funeral, getting exposed, getting Covid-19, and then going back to a vulnerable setting. Because people are able to – one of the exemptions for leaving an aged care facility is to attend a funeral.

Updated at 6.13am BST

6.10am BST

On funerals specifically, Dr Jeannette Young says:

There is one I would like to discuss specifically. That is exemptions for funerals. Right at the start of this pandemic, that was one of the hardest things that I had to face, because we know that funerals are very, very high risk, for transmission of the virus. Right at the start of this pandemic, the Australian health protection principle committee put forward a protocol for funerals. Initially we only allowed 10 people to attend a funeral, I’m sure everybody remembers that. Then we expanded that to 20. Now, in Queensland we allow 100 people because we know how important it is that families and their friends can grieve together as a group, that is extremely important.

But by doing that we have introduced a significant risk.

We know that and most recently we have seen in Sydney, several clusters related to funerals down there. So we know, having 100 people at a funeral is a risk. Most recently, when we bought back those tightening of restrictions, people can only gather in groups of 10, limiting visitors to aged care facilities, disability care facilities, and hospitals, and increasing use of PPE is, we did not change the restrictions for funerals. Knowing though that that is a risk.

6.09am BST

Dr Jeannette Young on the unit looking at quarantine exemptions:

The other thing I did want to briefly talk about, is the development and the fact we have stood up, a specialist healthcare support Centre, for people who need to apply for exceptions.

When we first went into this pandemic, it was thought that we would need to provide exemptions, for various people, to do things that were important, that weren’t allowed for under our directions.

At that stage was there would be maybe one or two of these a day. So I did them all personally myself because they were very important, because we know providing exemptions, results in a risk, to the general Queensland population, and I am extremely risk averse, and I’m not going to ever do anything that puts the Queensland population at risk.

So I took on that role, doing all of those exemptions myself. Once we got up to a 100 of those a day, I realised that was no longer feasible, although very, very important, just as important now, as at the start of the pandemic, I believe that other people need to take on that role, we have now stood up that team, there are 80 people in that team, who are providing that support, to look at every single request for an exemption.

We are now getting thousands a day. Because people are wanting to come to Queensland, or to be exempt from some of those directions within Queensland. And every single one of those exemption request is taken extremely seriously.

6.07am BST

Then we get to the nub.

Dr Jeannette Young

All of these, I do unfortunately need to remind people, go back to one, possibly two young women who contracted the infection in Melbourne and brought it back into Queensland. That’s the most likely scenario, and that’s even more likely now that we have done so much testing out there, and not found in other chains of transmission.”

A couple of weeks ago, Young said it was impossible to either prove or not prove the women who visited Melbourne and allegedly lied on their border entry forms (it’s in court).

Nek minnit.

Updated at 6.10am BST

6.05am BST

Qld chief health officer Jeannette Young speaks to media

Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, is holding a press conference – it’s late, so it is in response to today’s story about the woman who was not allowed to attend her father’s funeral.

We have not had any new cases in Queensland overnight, which is exceptionally good news, we are not out of the risk. Yet.

But we are doing much better than I thought we would when I first was notified of this cluster. Brisbane youth detention centre cluster looks like it is well and truly in hand. Should be able to declare that over in the next few days.

It looks as if none of the children who were in that centre, have contracted the virus, which is very good, and it looks as if all of the staff have now been managed and we haven’t seen any more spread. Then we had the academy cluster, and again that one is not complete yet, but we are getting more confident we have managed to control that.

Then we had the Arthur Gorrie centre cluster with a number of staff who were positive. Again we are hopeful none of the prisoners have contracted that infection there, so that is good news.

More recently of course, we had those staff at Ipswich hospital, who tested positive, now we have got a school of their associated with that, so we are working through that. It is really good news that today we have had no new cases.

Updated at 6.33am BST

5.53am BST

So now we have a hung(ish) parliament.

Nationals MP Leslie Williams is not joining the revolt to the crossbench, giving Libs 36 votes (against ALP 36). Williams is MP for Port Macquarie, home of the koala hospital #nswpol #koalas
— Linda Silmalis (@LindaSilmalis) September 10, 2020

Updated at 5.55am BST

5.39am BST

Here’s the official update from NSW Health:

Seven new cases of #COVID19 were diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 3,953.

Of the seven new cases:
•Two are returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine
•Five are linked to a known case or cluster pic.twitter.com/MmSE82FFKf
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) September 10, 2020

Updated at 5.51am BST

5.22am BST

I am still not sure how you can sit in cabinet and make government policy, and then sit apart from the government and abstain from voting on that policy you passed in cabinet, but here we are.

12 Nationals (or 13 if Port Macquarie MP Leslie Williams has joined them) holding 35 Liberals hostage in a mass revolt over koala policy 🧨#Nswpol #koalas
— Linda Silmalis (@LindaSilmalis) September 10, 2020

Updated at 5.28am BST

5.11am BST

The Productivity Commission chair, Michael Brennan, has appeared at the Covid-19 Senate inquiry.

Brennan presented to national cabinet in July about what sort of temporary deregulation during the Covid pandemic should be extended, and senators were keen to hear about what he’d advised.

Brennan set out his general view that the “flexibility of the economy” is an important determinant to the pace of economic recovery, and that economies with “light” regulation of labour and product markets have recovered quicker. While “not all regulation is bad” and the GFC was arguably caused by a lack of regulation, Brennan said Australia is “likely to face the opposite problem” and needs to encourage a greater “risk appetite” to get business investing.

He said states should consider extending some measures like relaxation on shop trading hours, rules relating to curfews of delivery of goods to retail outlets and the times that are available to conduct construction activity.

Many of these were put in place for six months but the disruption from Covid had gone on “longer than thought initially”. Likewise, the Commonwealth should consider the “strong case” to extend flexibility around electronic AGMs and signatures for lodging documents.

Liberal senator James Paterson. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

On industrial relations, Brennan said that emergency provisions to allow changes to enterprise agreements on short notice would “possibly not” become a core part of the IR system, and the “threshold would be much higher” to continue temporary flexibility like that, because it was put in to deal with the “immediate reality of shutdowns”.

He suggested that enterprise agreements could become more flexible if the interpretation of the “better off overall” test was changed. Over time it had shifted closer and closer towards “prescriptive” awards rather than allowing employers and employees to do things differently, while preserving “decent pay and minimum conditions”.

This inflexibility had “dulled the enthusiasm for genuine innovative enterprise bargaining” and there is now a challenge about how to “re-enliven the original intent”.

Liberal James Paterson asked about the Melbourne road map, but Brennan was very cautious. He said it was imprudent to express a view, and he wouldn’t comment on the “optimality” of the plan.

Updated at 5.27am BST

5.09am BST

Australian politics is really covering itself in glory today.

Nature must be healing.

(Via AAP)

Australia Post has admitted contacting the city of Melbourne and Pauline Hanson after more than 100 One Nation-branded stubby holders were not delivered to locked-down public housing tower residents.

But the agency denies its chief executive threatened the council or contacted Hanson directly about the hold-up.

Hanson sent 114 stubby holders in July with a note that read: “No hard feelings.” Days earlier she had called residents of the Melbourne towers drug addicts and alcoholics, claiming they were from war-torn countries and English was probably their second language.

Council officials overseeing the government-enforced lockdowns intercepted the parcels and decided against delivering them, concerned they could further inflame tensions.

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

In an email first published by the Nine newspapers, Australia Post warned the council it would notify the police unless the parcels were delivered without delay.

Australia Post claimed this did not amount to a threat and denied chief executive Christine Holgate personally intervened.

At the time, One Nation senators were considering whether to vote in parliament in favour of overturning a temporary relaxation of postal delivery rules.

“Australia Post confirms that Holgate did not speak to Hanson or One Nation on this matter, nor did she threaten Melbourne city council,” it said in.

But it confirmed it contacted both the city of Melbourne and Hanson about the matter.

Australia Post said the agency took its obligation to deliver mail seriously.

“Upon subsequently being made aware the items did not reach their ultimate destination, we raised it with the city of Melbourne and engaged with the sender in good faith to resolve the matter,” it said.

“Commonwealth laws prohibit any conduct which interferes with the mail, and make it clear that Australia Post is obliged to complete the delivery of Australians’ mail to the designated address.”

Hanson dismissed the controversy and used it to market more One Nation merchandise: “Talk about a storm in a stubby cooler.”

Updated at 5.13am BST

4.49am BST

There will be quite a few people who read these comments from Peter Dutton on the border closure who may have trouble picking their jaw up off the floor.

*cough Priya, Nadesalingam, Kopika and Tharunicaa COUGH*

Dutton:

I mean there needs to be an application of common sense and compassion here, and both of those ingredients are missing at the moment from premier Palaszczuk’s approach.

There are families who are just being treated like criminals and it’s unacceptable and at the same time you’ve got exemptions for sporting people and for business people etc that don’t have to do the quarantine or do the quarantine in a less onerous way.

Just the inconsistency of the approach and the way in which they’re applying these rules to some people but not to others just goes against our grain, and people are right to be angry and it needs to stop.

The premier needs to intervene in these cases. I’m sure the police are pulling their hair out having to implement these stupid rules that are dictated to them by health officials that are sitting in rooms that, you know, we’ll never know the names of, or never know who they are – these faceless bureaucrats – and making these decisions that are negatively impacting on people’s lives and scarring people at a time when we should be helping them, not hurting them.”

Updated at 4.54am BST

4.47am BST

Peter Dutton says Queensland premier is 'pigheaded'

This was Peter Dutton on the Queensland border, and the case of the woman who couldn’t attend her father’s funeral (she has now been allowed to attend a private viewing) on Sydney radio 2GB this morning:

The bureaucrats who are involved should have the discretion, should have the ability to look at these cases, to pull them aside and that should be the direction that’s given to them.

It’s also unnecessary. I mean coming from Canberra – where there are no cases; there have been less cases in Canberra than in Queensland – if you’re coming from northern New South Wales where there have been no cases, it just doesn’t make any sense and unfortunately, people are really suffering.

I mean the government’s job is to take care of people’s health, to make sure that they do everything they can to keep people safe and healthy. The mental health impacts on people – I mean this young lady tragically will be scarred for life – she’s missed her father’s dying moments, she’s going to miss the funeral and these are obviously moments that you can’t get back and the premier here in Queensland is just so pigheaded and people are suffering because of it. I really find it quite disturbing and it’s got to stop.

I mean this is Australia in the 21st century. There can be border restrictions put in place if there are good health reasons for it, but there’s no health reason, there’s no argument from the doctors here in Queensland for the borders to be shut. We’ve spoken about it over recent weeks; it’s all for political reasons and unfortunately a lot of people are suffering and feel the consequences of this action. People [inaudible] easily forget it. It’s a very bad outcome in many instances and we’ve been dealing with a number of cases in my own constituency where we’re just up against a wall with the Queensland government and they won’t explain why.”

Updated at 5.15am BST

4.36am BST

We have a joint finance ministers’ statement (the leaders have been chatting, but so have the finance ministers, both domestically and internationally).

NZ finance minister Grant Robertson hosted a call on zoom with his counterparts from Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

From Josh Frydenberg’s office:

New Zealand finance minister Hon Grant Robertson today hosted* a call with his counterparts from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

We shared experiences of using monetary and fiscal policy in our respective countries, as part of our governments’ economic responses to Covid-19. All nations have undertaken significant fiscal stimulus programs to protect households, support businesses and build a base for recovery. This is being complemented by major monetary policy interventions from independent central banks to support the functioning of the financial system and the flow of credit.

The meeting was highly productive, and highlighted similar economic challenges our countries are facing as a result of the ongoing pandemic. In particular, we acknowledged the importance of mutually reinforcing monetary and fiscal policies to support our responses to Covid-19. We agreed that these were working well together in our respective responses.

The meeting was the fourth in a series of regular calls between the five finance ministers, which focus on economic issues associated with Covid-19.

The sharing of experiences between like-minded partners is valuable, particularly as we collectively face common economic challenges caused by the global pandemic, which require monetary and fiscal responses. We will continue to discuss our respective responses and experiences as we rebuild our economies from Covid-19.”

*hosted on zoom.

Updated at 4.45am BST

4.32am BST

Greg Hunt has developed a habit of finishing his press conferences with sweeping “WE CAN DO IT” statements.

Today is no different, as he dons his best statesman’s voice to say:

Thank you everybody, and as I say, it is a day for hope and support. Six out of eight states and territories with zero cases within the community, numbers are very low in NSW, the trends are down in Victoria but there are still some agonising days ahead and there will be up days and down days, but today we focus on mental health and support, today we focus on providing compassionate support for all Australians everywhere.

But what I hear is:

We must move forward, not backward; upward, not forward; and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!

Updated at 4.38am BST

4.28am BST

Q: Firstly, do you think a royal commission into the Covid outbreaks in aged care would be warranted given there are now been more than 500 deaths in aged care due to the coronavirus? And on a separate matter – there are reports today that [there is] an error in Doherty Institute modelling the federal government used in formulating the early Covid responses. Did that error result in an overestimation of the potential threat of the spread of the virus?

Hunt:

Firstly in relation to the aged care, the current royal commission has already been addressing, so we have a standing royal commission into aged care and they have specifically been addressing the Covid-19 response as part of their work and that will, I understand, continue to be the case and we have made it clear that we believe that that’s an appropriate part of their work. So we’re in the fortunate position that that’s standing, existing, empowered and, in fact, has been under way.

Secondly, in relation to the Doherty modelling, my advice, my very, very clear advice from the department is that the underlying modelling had no error.

I think there was apparently one chart which was public-facing which had curve drawn in a particular place. That hasn’t affected our actions at all.

It wouldn’t have affected the actions at all because the underlying modelling and all of the work was correct and that hasn’t had an impact. So I got clear advice from my department on that.

I would say this: one of Australia’s great achievements, when you think our task was twofold – to contain the virus and in a world of extraordinary numbers, in a world of 27.8m cases and 900,000 lives lost, the world does look at Australia, an extraordinary outcome but obviously with a challenge in Victoria.

At the same time as containing, we built the capacity for 7,500 ventilation units, at a time when we saw the chaos and tragedy in Italy and Spain, France and the UK and New York and so many other places, provided that protection for Australia and it’s been an immensely important protection. It also allows us to be able to support the broader region around Australia.”

Updated at 4.41am BST

4.21am BST

I just saw Greg Hunt laugh.

2020 is full of surprises.

One Nation leader senator Pauline Hanson. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Q: Pauline Hanson believes she was being helpful by sending One Nation’s stubby holders to lockdown public housing tower residents. Isn’t this trolling by One Nation? Is it inappropriate during a pandemic?

Hunt:

Look, I’m sorry, I was completely unaware of that, I have to say. I would suspect that most people would not be influenced in any direction either way by the arrival of a stubby holder. Sorry, that is one of the more unusual things I have heard during the course of what has been a very serious pandemic, but in terms of those, I would say that people wouldn’t be particularly influenced in either direction by a stubby holder. I’m not sure whether the people in the towers were using stubby holders.”

Updated at 4.24am BST

4.20am BST

On the Victorian curfew, Greg Hunt says:

So with regards to the Victorian restrictions, I’ll let the Victorian government speak to the source and the origin of them, although we were somewhat surprised to learn that not all of the restrictions were based on medical advice.

Against that background, I think they should continue to review those restriction which is are not based on medical advice.

I think that is very important. I do know, of course, that Victoria has a strong human rights charter. I believe the freedom of movement provision, might be section 12 – others will know it better than me – but that Victorian human rights charter sets out under the relevant section that freedom of movement is a fundamental right in Victoria and so I am sure that that would only ever, ever be impinged upon if they have the strongest reasons.

It is important to review these. We review all of the federal restrictions – which have been limited and few in nature and number – on a frequent basis.

Updated at 4.22am BST

4.17am BST

Greg Hunt says there is no change to the timetable Australia is part of, in terms of the vaccine:

In particular, the advice that I had from the head of AstraZeneca Australia is that there is no change to the timetable for the delivery of the vaccine in Australia and they have no belief that it will be changed in terms of its nature, form or delivery, but they are always subject to the medical advice and in this case it’s what is known as an independent medical expert panel.”

Updated at 4.19am BST

4.13am BST

Greg Hunt gives update on AstraZeneca vaccine

Greg Hunt is holding a press conference. He opens with an update on the AstraZeneca vaccine:

The health minister Greg Hunt. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

At about 7.30 this morning I received a call from the Australian head of AstraZeneca.

The advice that I have, as of that time, is that the patient who had an adverse event is recovering and recovering quickly.

They are likely to be discharged from hospital within the next 24 hours. The best advice that AstraZeneca Australia has from the global firm and from Oxford University is at this stage the illness, although neurological in nature, is undiagnosed in terms of its specific form, and nor is the source known.

They indicated that two months ago there was another event where the trial was paused temporarily where somebody had an adverse event.

The medical expert panel reviewed it and it turned out that it was entirely unrelated to the trial. So the best advice is that the medical expert panel will now consider the patient’s case. Undiagnosed at this point in time and undetermined as to the cause of the particular event, but that this is part of the highest and most rigorous of safety oversight programs imaginable.”

Updated at 4.38am BST

3.57am BST

The woman who was at the centre of Scott Morrison’s plea today will be allowed to attend a private viewing of her father to say goodbye after her family has held their funeral.

She will be escorted to the funeral home, and then escorted back, a spokeswoman has confirmed.

Updated at 3.59am BST

3.37am BST

John Barilaro, who is rumoured to have his eye set on Canberra and the federal Nationals leadership, has effectively removed the Nationals from the NSW coalition, plunged the Berejiklian government into minority after vowing to abstain from government votes (unless its to do with regional NSW), and removed itself from joint party room and leadership meetings – unless the koala protection legislation is scrapped.

NSW deputy premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

But he wants the NSW Nats MPs to keep their ministerial portfolios and stay in cabinet, and stay on as deputy premier.

Cool, cool, cool.

I’d add him to my list of Australia’s greatest thinkers, but I already broke twitter with that yesterday, and I don’t think it has recovered yet.

Updated at 3.46am BST

3.33am BST

“This is all over a koala protection policy,” is maybe the most Australian reason for a political party blowing up the show.

3.31am BST

I would actually pay Disney premium streaming prices to watch this.

It's understood the Premier @GladysB has called the Dep Premier @JohnBarilaroMP to a meeting today to explain the Nationals decision... #nswpol @7NewsSydney
— Alex Hart (@alexhart7) September 10, 2020

Updated at 3.32am BST

3.27am BST

Qld CHO gives exemption for woman to go to funeral viewing after PM plea

The funeral was to be held at 2pm.

Qld’s Chief Health Officer, Jeannette Young, will give a Canberra woman an exemption from hotel quarantine to have a private viewing after her father’s funeral today. The CHO does not normally grant exemptions for funerals and the woman complained of being locked out.
— Sean Parnell (@seanparnell) September 10, 2020

Updated at 3.45am BST

3.27am BST

A travel agency was asked to conduct welfare checks on people in Victoria’s hotel quarantine in the weeks before a man took his own life.

The state’s inquiry into its hotel quarantine program has heard that welfare checks were “not sufficient” and not frequent enough after a man killed himself in the program in mid-April.

Earlier the inquiry was shown a review that said the man did not receive a welfare check until five days into his detention. Another report from 29 April, shown to the inquiry, also said that reviewers were “concerned” that welfare checks were being conducted by unqualified people who worked in a travel agency.

It said: “Team concerned these are not sufficient (only two required across 14 days) they are completed by non-clinical people – either at [health department office at] 50 Lonsdale or via Hello World [travel agency].”

Prof Euan Wallace, the CEO of Safercare Victoria, the organisation which conducted the review, confirmed that Hello World conducted some welfare checks, but defended the practice.

“Hello World had been engaged by the department of health to conduct a series of welfare checks, with pre-approved scripts,” he told the inquiry. He then said they performed “excellently”.

Earlier the inquiry heard that the welfare check team fell behind schedule because “they did not have enough staff to match the required workload”.

The man received only one welfare check in the nine days he was in hotel quarantine before he took his own life.

Support services are available at:
- Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800 (all day, every day)
- Suicide Callback Service – 1300 659 467 (all day, every day)
- eHeadspace - 1800 650 890 (9am-1am daily)
- Lifeline - 13 11 14 (all day, every day. Online support 7pm-4am daily)
- Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636 (all day, every day. Online support 3pm-midnight every day)
- In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Updated at 3.31am BST

3.25am BST

The people of Queensland are with you Sarah. As is Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP

Share your support for Sarah and her family.

There has not been a COVID-19 case in Canberra for over 60 days. pic.twitter.com/ZtlqXi6Ed4
— Karen Andrews MP (@karenandrewsmp) September 10, 2020

3.19am BST

Not just the cabinet. NSW’s deputy premier is on the crossbench.

I don't understand how you are on the cross bench and in cabinet #StopTheKoalas
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) September 10, 2020

Updated at 3.20am BST

3.18am BST

This is good news: the Juukan Gorge parliamentary inquiry is going ahead after it was forced to postpone hearings because of quarantine issues.

Liberal MP and committee chair Warren Entsch. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

From the committee:

The committee will soon commence a new series of remote access public hearings involving a cross section of stakeholders.

Committee chair Warren Entsch assured all stakeholders of the committee’s resolve to visit Western Australia at the earliest possible date.

‘It is vital for the committee to see the destruction first hand and share the experience – and the consequences – of this policy failure with the traditional owners,’ Entsch said. ‘It is vital that we hear directly from those most affected, the traditional owners of this country, and that can only be done in a meaningful way on country.’

In the meantime, the committee has urged all stakeholders to be aware of the potential consequences of proceeding with actions that could cause irreversible damage to heritage sites.

‘No government and no company wants another Juukan Gorge on its conscience,’ Entsch said. ‘If nothing else, the ongoing damage to Rio Tinto’s reputation should give pause for thought for all concerned.’

Further details of the inquiry, including terms of reference, can be found on the committee’s website.”

Updated at 3.23am BST

3.17am BST

Looking outside Australia for a moment – Save the Children has launched its “protect a generation” report, which is the largest survey of children and their caregivers since the pandemic was declared six months ago.

It surveyed more than 25,000 children and caregivers from 35 nations.

As you would expect, those from the poorest households have suffered the most, missing out on education, losing family incomes and at greater risk of violence at home.

Save the Children Australia CEO Paul Ronalds said the pandemic was making inequality worse:

The poor have become poorer. Children are missing out on accessing even basic health services. The digital divide means kids are losing their education.

Governments must prioritise the rights and needs of the most deprived and marginalised children as they prepare to rebuild. For Australia, that means supporting its neighbours.

While Australia has responded to the global Covid-19 crisis by deploying health experts, providing medical supplies and financial support to Pacific Islands governments, the scale of the crisis has not been matched by the type of vision and action needed.

Even though there is so much happening at home, we must look beyond our shores. Our Pacific neighbours are in crisis. Not only would strong intervention by Australia protect our own interests, but it will literally save lives and livelihoods among our neighbours.

Covid-19 doesn’t respect borders or boundaries, and it won’t be over for anyone until it’s over for everyone.”

You can read the report here

Updated at 3.28am BST

3.12am BST

NSW Nationals withdraw support from Liberals

The NSW Nationals have withdrawn their support for government legislation over their objections to koala protections, which came into force in March, saying that the Liberals will need “to earn their votes” on legislation, rather than having guaranteed support.

National Party leader and deputy premier, John Barilaro, said his party would abstain from voting on government legislation except when it was legislation that affected the regions or which the Nationals deem important.

Without the Nationals, it will not be possible for the NSW government to pass legislation without support from Labor.

“We will not green light just anything the government puts up,” Barilaro said.

He said his ministers would continue to attend cabinet and expenditure review committee but would not no longer automatically support the Liberals.

“We are equal partners; we are not a junior partner and we will fight for the regions, “Barilaro said.

The Nationals insist they have not pulled out of the coalition, and its MPs remain on the front bench.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian is still to respond to Barilaro’s declaration. Barilaro has ruled out voting with Labor to bring down the government or block supply.

The breakdown in the coalition – at least at a working level – is the most serious crisis to hit Berejiklian’s government at time when she is grappling to keep the coronavirus pandemic under control.

Barilaro said he would not be lectured to by city-centric people over koala protections.

“Today the National party is standing up for regional NSW” he said, adding that the new koala Sepp added more green tape.

Updated at 3.19am BST

3.11am BST

The ABS has also looked at the number of people with disabilities in aged care, and the number of carers. The data tells its own story:

Disability

In 2018 there were 4.4 million Australians with disability, 17.7% of the population, down from 18.3% in 2015.
The prevalence of disability increased with age – one in nine (11.6%) people aged 0-64 and one in two (49.6%) people aged 65 and over had disability.
Disability prevalence was similar for males (17.6%) and females (17.8%).
5.7% of all Australians had a profound or severe disability.
Almost one-quarter (23.2%) of all people with disability reported a mental or behavioural disorder as their main condition, up from 21.5% in 2015.

Of those with disability (living in households):

one-third (33.4%) of those aged 15 and over had completed year 12 or equivalent, up from 31.4% in 2015
one in six (16.1%) aged 15 and over had a bachelor degree or above, up from 14.9% in 2015
37.9% of those aged 15-64 said their main source of personal income was a government pension or allowance, down from 41.9% in 2015
59.7% of people had their need for assistance fully met, down from 62.1% in 2015
one in 10 (9.6%) aged 15 and over had experienced discrimination in the previous 12 months because of their disability, up from 8.6% in 2015
labour force participation for those aged 15-64 has remained stable since 2015 at 53.4%, in contrast to an increase in the participation rate for people without disability (84.1%)
11.4% of those with a profound or severe disability (aged 15-64) were working full-time up from 7.9% in 2015.

Older people

One in every six Australians (15.9% or 3.9 million people) was aged 65 and over (up from 15.1% in 2015).
Most older Australians (persons aged 65 years and over) were living in households (95.3%), with 4.6% living in cared accommodation.
Half (49.6%) of all older Australians had disability (similar to 2015).
1.3 million older Australians living at home needed some assistance with everyday activities, and of these, almost two-thirds (65.9%) had their need fully met (down from 69.2% in 2015).
Two-thirds (68.1%) of older Australians (who reported income) lived in a low income household (a household earning less than $756 a week).
Almost all older Australians had participated in social activities at home (97.4%) or outside their home (94.4%) in the previous three months.

Carers

There were 2.65m carers, representing 10.8% of all Australians (down from 11.6% in 2015).
Females were more likely to be carers (12.3% of all females) than males (9.3% of all males).
There were 235,300 young carers (under the age of 25), down from 274,700 in 2015.
3.5% of all Australians were primary carers.
Seven in 10 (71.8%) primary carers were women.
More than one-third (37.4%) of primary carers had disability, twice the rate of non-carers (15.3%).
The most common reason primary carers gave for taking on a caring role was a sense of family responsibility (70.1% of all primary carers).
Half (50.2%) of all carers lived in a household in the lowest two equivalised gross income quintiles, twice that of non-carers (25.6%).

Updated at 3.49am BST

3.10am BST

The ABS has looked at who owns Australian businesses. It has put together this report, based on information from Dfat.

You can find the whole report here:

In 2018-19, there were 275 Australian parent enterprises with a controlling interest (ie more than 50% of the voting power in the direct investment enterprise) in 5,176 Australian-owned foreign affiliates.
Of the 5,176 Australian-owned foreign affiliates:

4,622 were small-to-medium businesses (with 0-199 employees);
554 were large businesses (with 200 or more employees).

In terms of the location of Australian-owned foreign affiliates (by country):

US had 932 operating affiliates or 18% of the total number;
UK had 608 operating affiliates or 12% of the total number;
New Zealand had 561 operating affiliates or 11% of the total number.

Number of employees

The total number of employees of Australian owned foreign affiliates were 412,000 in 2018-19.

With regard to the number of employees of the Australian-owned foreign affiliate, by industry:

Manufacturing had 77,000 employees or 19% of the total number of employees;
Financial and insurance services had 74,000 employees or 18% of the total number;
Mining had 59,000 employees or 14% of the total number;
Professional, scientific and technical services had 49,000 employees or 12% of the total number.

In terms of the number of employees of the Australian-owned foreign affiliate, by location (country):

New Zealand had 66,000 employees or 16% of the total number of employees;
US had 62,000 employees or 15% of the total number;
UK had 44,000 employees or 11% of the total number.

Updated at 3.41am BST

3.09am BST

Andrew Giles has responded to the extraordinary story the SMH and Age ran this morning, containing allegations the Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate intervened to have Pauline Hanson stubby holders sent to residents of a public housing tower under police lockdown, at the same time she was attempting to win Hanson’s support for a Senate vote.

Giles:

The Australia Post CEO has serious questions to answer, following bizarre and disturbing revelations that she intervened to help Pauline Hanson send divisive material to public housing residents in lockdown in Melbourne.

Senator Hanson’s wrong and hateful remarks about public housing tenants saw her get sacked from morning TV.

At the same time, Australia Post was prepared to help Hanson add injury to insult to vulnerable people, while they were battling coronavirus.

The truth is, Scott Morrison and the Australia Post CEO, Christine Holgate, relied on a dodgy Senate voting deal with Pauline Hanson to cut postal services, which Labor opposed from the outset.

It’s extraordinary that instead of prioritising prompt and reliable delivery of mail and parcels, Ms Holgate was more concerned with assisting Pauline Hanson push her inflammatory and divisive agenda.

We need to get to the bottom of why the Australia Post CEO was working so hard to please Pauline Hanson.”

Updated at 3.43am BST

3.06am BST

No consensus on hotel quarantine, inquiry told

There was no “consensus” on who had responsibility for health in Victoria’s hotel quarantine, and it “fundamentally undermined governance and decisions”, an inquiry has heard.

The inquiry has just been shown an email sent by the CEO of Safercare Victoria, Euan Wallace, to a deputy secretary of the health department, Melissa Skillbeck.

Wallace earlier told the inquiry that Safercare had written a series of reviews of the program.

In the email, from 1 May, Wallace wrote that the program was confused over who had “overall responsibility” over detainees.

“The reviews are throwing up a number of issues,” he wrote. “Who is responsible for the quarantined detainees? There is not a consensus on this and a lack of consensus/clarity fundamentally undermines governance and decisions.”

Updated at 3.58am BST

3.04am BST

The House Economics Committee hearing on superannuation seems to be going well:

The Liberals’ war on superannuation continues. The House Economics Committee is meant to be following up on Royal Commission misconduct. Yet today the Liberals have called 5 industry fund bodies, mostly not mentioned by the Royal Commission. It’s a bizarre witch hunt. #auspol pic.twitter.com/oioOTdLBEE
— Andrew Leigh (@ALeighMP) September 10, 2020

3.03am BST

A man who took his own life in hotel quarantine in Victoria did not receive a welfare check until five days into his detention due to a lack of staff, an inquiry has heard.

Victoria’s inquiry into hotel quarantine is continuing today, and has revealed that the man only received one welfare check in nine days before he killed himself.

A review, conducted by Safercare Victoria, found the welfare check team was “unable to undertake welfare check calls to the planned schedule as they did not have enough staff to match the required workload”.

On the day of his death in mid-April, staff made at least five missed calls to the man. However, there was a delay of 24 hours from his last answered call until staff entered his room and found he had died.

The inquiry heard from Prof Euan Wallace, the CEO of Safercare Victoria, who said that nurses called detainees every day to check for their systems, and the welfare checks were a supplementary call.

“The initial plan was they would get a welfare check on day three and day nine,” he said. “By day five he had five phone calls from the nurse.”

The inquiry also heard there were more than 3,000 people in hotel quarantine by mid-April, and the system was set-up “extraordinarily quickly” which contributed to the workload for staff.

Support services are available at:

Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800 (all day, every day)
Suicide Callback Service – 1300 659 467 (all day, every day)
eHeadspace - 1800 650 890 (9am-1am daily)
Lifeline - 13 11 14 (all day, every day. Online support 7pm-4am daily)
Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636 (all day, every day. Online support 3pm-midnight every day)
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

Updated at 3.09am BST

3.01am BST

Meanwhile, Victorian Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie continues to put out her own statements on the border closures:

The human toll is mounting. State and territory leaders need to work in the interest of the nation, not their own political agendas, and use the federal chief medical officer’s advice to promptly set an agreed hotspot definition.

It is in times of crisis that the wheat is sorted from the chaff, and state and territory leaders must make difficult decisions based on the best information available to them and ensure they do no harm to the people, communities and industries that are affected by their decisions.”

Updated at 3.12am BST

2.59am BST

NSW records seven new cases

And then back over the border to NSW – it has recorded seven new cases of Covid today. Two are in hotel quarantine and five are linked to known clusters.

Updated at 3.16am BST

2.58am BST

Back to Victoria.

Why is all of regional Victoria being treated as one zone, given the low number of cases?

Daniel Andrews:

If we were gonna be leaving regional Victoria in its current settings for eight or nine or 10 weeks, then we would have divided regional Victoria up into half a dozen regions, for instance. Or even more.

But I just say to every regional Victorian, if you do that, if you start drawing boundaries, you have to defend those. You have to have police at checkpoints.

Otherwise communities that are open, where quite close by the community is not open because it has more cases, that community that’s got no cases, they are jealously guarding that, there’s a point of pride for those communities.

I have regular correspondence from at least one of those communities multiple times per day. I don’t always pick up the phone, because I’m sometimes doing other things.

But I have a unique understanding of how frustrating it is for those who don’t have much, or any, virus, and the fact that rules apply to them. If we were asking those communities to wait a long period of time, then we would have divvied up the state into lots of different zones.

As it stands now - and I can’t guarantee that this is the case - but if the trend continues, and the numbers are very promising, we’ll be able to take a step, or steps, as early as toward the end of next week.

And that then avoids having to divide the state up into regions, have police enforce all of those boundaries, and potentially have... Because that’s the other thing too.

If you’ve got certain venues open here, a community not too far away that’s closed, people will go where the hotels are open, where the restaurants are open, where a group of settings that are closer to normal apply.

Common sense just tells you that. Again, if we were asking people to wait months, then we would have done a different set of rules.

But we’re not asking that at all, and it could be as early as next week that those triggers are met.

If circumstances were to change - and this is the point of saying that Geelong was on - was not on notice, it was on close watch. We were carefully watching the numbers there, as we have been for a long time.

Those numbers are stable. Those numbers are, at this stage, not holding regional Victoria back from moving as one set of the rules, moving as one - uh, moving in one or two steps, that’s every single part of regional Victoria

2.57am BST

It’s allegedly over koalas, by the way.

Gladys Berejiklian wants new environmental protection laws for koalas. The Nats don’t want to see farms rezoned.

So the Nats have decided to effectively push the Berejiklian government into a minority government.

2.53am BST

NSW Nationals to leave Coalition over koala legislation

Meanwhile - the NSW Nationals have followed through on their threats to leave the coalition (effectively)

They won’t be attending joint party room meetings, or parliamentary leadership meetings, and will abstain from voting on government bills, unless it involves regional NSW

The NSW Nationals party room has today agreed they will no longer attend joint party room or parliamentary leadership meetings and will abstain from voting on government bills but reserves the right to support bills and motions important to regional NSW #nswpol pic.twitter.com/0SgLKGkYHj
— Political Alert (@political_alert) September 10, 2020

Never underestimate the Nationals ability to make something all about them.

Remember when the federal team decided to have a leadership spill on the day the parliament was holding a day of reflection over the summer bushfires?

Updated at 3.01am BST

2.52am BST

Q: Modelling shows Melbourne stands to lose $110bn over the next five years. The lord mayor says you need to start getting the balance right between lives and livelihoods. Do you have [a plan]?

Daniel Andrews:

I’ve had many conversations with the lord mayor and we work very closely together, and we’ll be making some announcements quite soon about a shared effort for the city of Melbourne.

There’s no question that there’s very significant costs associated with this global pandemic, whether it be in our capital city or in the smallest of country towns in our state, and the same goes for every other state, and indeed every other country across the world.

The real challenge here is let’s get the numbers down. Let’s open up and stay open, and then let’s begin what’s gonna have to be the biggest repair job that our state, and indeed our nation, has ever seen.

And the government that I lead stands ready to play a massive part in that rebuilding exercise. But you can’t get to the economic recovery until you’ve dealt with the health challenge.

Otherwise you’re just bouncing in and out of lockdowns, and nobody can plan with any certainty, no one can rebuild and repair. We have to try and avoid that, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Updated at 2.56am BST

2.51am BST

Q: Community legal centres that I’ve spoken to, they’ve not had a single public health infringement overturned. Now bearing in mind that they represent the most vulnerable in the community, they represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, they represent people who speak English as a second language, they’ve not had a single fine overturned. They take on cases where they think the fine has been issued inappropriately, or without good reason. Is that a concern? Is there a real concern that the most vulnerable are being disproportionately affected by this policing?

Daniel Andrews:

No. Ultimately, those matters, whether they’re overturned or not ... That’s not a political judgment, that’s not a policy judgment.

Each of those matters are dealt with on their merits, and despite the types of clients that would typically be assisted by a community legal service, that has no bearing on the matter.

The facts of the matter will be looked at, the circumstances of the matter, and a proper, impartial judgment will be made about whether the issuance of that fine was fair. That’s a process that’s well at arm’s length from the government, is independent in nature, and is based in facts, and nothing else.

Ultimately, if you want to put it to me that those vulnerabilities, which are well understood, are somehow more important than the overall vulnerability of many, many hundreds of thousands of Victorians, who, if they get this virus will either be gravely ill or die, I don’t think they are in any way equal.

I think there is a much greater vulnerability here. And the best way to avoid a fine is to follow the rules. If, however, though, for whatever reason, you were completely unaware of those rules or you had a legitimate case to make, then there’s an impartial process to work that through.”

Updated at 3.01am BST

2.50am BST

Q: Is that cases per day that you’re looking for to lift the curfew? Is there a threshold that you want?

Daniel Andrews:

The plan talks about the 28th. It may go beyond that. We will look at the data, we’ll look at where we’re at, we’ll look at how close we are to achieving the very low case numbers that are essential to opening the place up. It’s no more complex than that.”

Updated at 3.01am BST

2.48am BST

Has the Victorian government looked at whether there is an increase of concentration of people at supermarkets, because everyone is hemmed in to the same hours?

Lining up at a supermarket hours in Melbourne. Photograph: Erik Anderson/AP

Daniel Andrews:

Pre the curfew, the number of big supermarkets were not trading anywhere near their normal hours. I stand to be corrected, and I don’t have the exact closing times.

But they weren’t operating. Many are 24-hour stores, many go to midnight, and many of them weren’t doing that. There was already a concentration.

The other point is I think it’s highly unlikely that it’s increased in any meaningful way the concentration of people in a given space at a given time, because, of course, there are rules about shopping for what you need, when you need it, shopping one person from each household, once a day.

All of those things, I think they have a cumulative effect and probably a much bigger effect than what a number of people who might have to shop in hours that are different to their normal pattern.

The curfew will be on for no longer than it needs to be on.

That is to say, once there is no longer a clear imperative to drive down movement, and therefore contact with other people, and therefore the potential transmission of this virus, there won’t be a need for a curfew. We’re not at that point yet.”

Updated at 3.04am BST

2.45am BST

If Daniel Andrews says curfew is a “loaded term”, why doesn’t he remove it?

Andrews:

Well, again, I’ve tried to be frank and acknowledge the fact that it perhaps has a meaning that goes beyond the practical effect that it has.

But we’re not removing it because it works. And if we remove it and make the job of police even harder – because it’s not easy to make sure that people are doing the right thing - then that will just mean we potentially have more cases, and opening up safely and steadily is further away than it should be.

This is the right decision. It is limiting movement, it is making the very challenging work of Victoria police just that little bit easier. And on that basis, limit movement, limit the virus. It’s no more or less complex than that. And when we get down to numbers that are low enough for us to begin taking those really significant steps towards opening up, a curfew will not be needed.”

Updated at 2.46am BST

2.43am BST

How many other captain’s calls has Daniel Andrews made?

Andrews:

I wouldn’t describe it in those terms. If you want to describe it that way, then that’s entirely a matter for you.

Q: It has been described as that. You said it was ultimately your decision yesterday. How many other calls have you made without the advice of the chief health officer?

Andrews:

No, see, this is not the thing. This is not the issue. The government reserves the right to make decisions to operationalise advice from the chief health officer.

The notion that the government can’t do anything whatsoever unless the chief health officer provides it in detailed advice, that doesn’t make any sense. And that’s not the principle that operates here, or New South Wales, or any other Australian state, or at a national level.

If you want to put it to the prime minister, has he ever acted beyond, in any sense, the advice that Brendan Murphy or Paul Kelly have given him, I think the answer will be he has.

You always have to reserve the right to operationalise and deliver the advice of the medical experts and the principles that they want achieved. So, for instance, limit movement.

OK, how might we do that? What are the different ways in which we can do that?

And a curfew, as challenging and as difficult as it is to make a decision to impose something that has not been imposed before, there is simply no denying that it has played a part in limiting movement, and that limits the number of cases, and that gets us open sooner and it allows us to stay open.

Because we drive those numbers down so low. How you want to describe that is entirely a matter for you.”

Updated at 2.48am BST

2.41am BST

But some people do just want to be able to go for a jog when they want to.

Jogging in Melbourne. Photograph: Speed Media/REX/Shutterstock

Daniel Andrews:

I apologise for the fact that it is not possible for us to be ... this is the whole thing.

There will, from time to time – and we saw this prior to the curfew – there will be people who decide to make decisions, trying to assume, trying to assert that they have the right to make whatever decisions they like, even though those decisions aren’t just about them, they’re about risking the health and wellbeing of everybody.

And every exemption, every, every avenue that you give to people to be as close to normal as possible, there will be some people who will try and take advantage of that.

And that gets really challenging. It gets really challenging for Victoria police. This is binary, I know that.

It’s not the decision that was made easily. It’s not a decision that anyone enjoys making.

But it is effective, because it drives down movement. It will come off at a point. And then people will be able to not just go for a jog at 11, but the total number of reasons to leave your home will also expand.

We’ll get much closer to, firstly, the four reasons to leave, then almost unlimited movement. And at that point, there will be no need for a curfew, and at that point the curfew will come off.”

Updated at 2.50am BST

2.40am BST

Daniel Andrews asks – what is being limited by the curfew:

You can leave your home, one person, one hour per day, to go shopping for the things you need when you need them. That can only happen within curfew hours.

So that means going to the supermarket at 8.30pm or 10.30pm or 2 in the morning, that’s not an option.

So that’s a down side. The other reasons you can leave your home, you can leave your home to exercise for one hour, soon to be two hours, and for some rec activity, to sit in a park, for instance.

Obviously that’s not allowed outside curfew hours. So you wouldn’t be able to go for a jog at 8.30pm, 9.30, 10.30, midnight.

OK, that’s also a down side. The down side of not being able to do those two things in the dead of night is far outweighed, in my judgment, far outweighed by the fact that we are seeing case numbers fall, and those arrangements will be able to change. We’ll be able to remove that curfew.

The only things, apart from those two, apart from those two examples, the only thing the curfew makes almost impossible is illegal activity – leaving your home for reasons you are not lawfully allowed to do so.

That’s the key point that I’m making.”

Updated at 2.52am BST

2.37am BST

But shouldn’t people be allowed to see the data, given Daniel Andrews has said all the decisions are being driven by science and data?

Andrews:

I’m more than happy to try and get you some comparisons of some of the enforcement activity, pre-curfew and post-curfew. I think that will show there are significantly less fines being issued for people gathering against the law in other people’s homes.

But let me get you that data. I’m more than happy to do that. I think it’s important, though, not to fall into this trap where the only decisions the government can ever make about any matter are those that have been considered and advised by the chief health officer.

The chief health officer wants and provides, in many ways, very detailed advice, and that’s when those matters relate directly to public health.

Matters of enforcement, matters of ... In many different areas, the government is free to go beyond, the government is free to make some administrative decisions that make the enforcement of the principles that the chief health officer has put forward much more achievable.

For instance, again, if you limit movement, if you limit movement, then you limit the spread of this virus.”

Updated at 2.42am BST

2.34am BST

Q: Police say it wasn’t their idea, and the CHO said it wasn’t his idea. Whose idea was it?

Daniel Andrews:

As I said before, if people find fault with the rule, they can take it up with me ...

Q: I’m just asking whose decision was.

Andrews: Decisions are made by groups of people. And I can’t necessarily pinpoint for you the exact individual and the exact moment that it was suggested that we put a curfew on. What I’m saying to you is, anyone who’s displeased with that or doesn’t think that’s a proportionate measure, well, that’s a decision that I’ve made.

All these decisions are ultimately decisions that the government has made. And as the leader of the government, I’ll be accountable for that. But there’s no denying – simply no denying – that those measures have made the job of police never easy, but it has made it clearer-cut, it has made it somewhat simpler, and driving down movement ... There’s no denying less movement means less virus. That’s what all of these rules are about. And the curfew will come off when it is appropriate. And we’ve already foreshadowed that.”

Updated at 2.43am BST

2.33am BST

We are on to the questions. Daniel Andrews is asked about the need for the curfew, given that the CHO and the police commissioner have both said it wasn’t their idea:

Well, the police commissioner and police command have, throughout all of our decisions, been really clear with us that they need rules that are as easily enforced as possible.

The curfew, together with 5km rules, there’s a very long list of different decision that is we’ve made since the beginning of the pandemic; it’s always been clear to us that we need to make the job of police, the amazing work that they do, as simple as possible.

And I’ll go back to the point I made off the top: there are very few lawful reasons that you can leave your home at any hour of the day.

The curfew doesn’t change that. It simply means that it is much easier, much easier, for Victoria police to make that assessment about whether someone should, or should not be, out of their home.

And it does send a very clear message to people that there is a very real risk that if you are out of your home for an unlawful reason between 8pm and 5am, or soon to be 9pm and 5am, there’s every chance that police will catch you and police will fine you.

And what that’s done is it’s limited the amount of unlawful movement. That’s the key point here.

Unlawful movement. Movement that is against the rules. And movement that does nothing but potentially spread this virus.

So police are doing an amazing job, an amazing job. And with the rules that we have in place, and any decisions we make in the weeks and months ahead, we’ll always be [looking] to make sure that they are as simple and as enforceable as they possibly can be.”

Updated at 2.45am BST

2.30am BST

There are 30 workplace investigations at the moment but no prosecutions as yet (the investigations need to be completed first).

Updated at 2.45am BST

2.30am BST

But of course, there is a mental health toll to all of this.

Jill Hennessy:

In terms of Workcover claims, we’ve had about 297.

It’s interesting to note that a bit under half of those are not people that have tested positive for corona, but it has related to things like mental health and wellbeing, other issues associated with working in this environment as well.

And every single claim has been accepted and, again, WorkSafe is working hard with employers to make sure that some of the new frontiers of what the workplace looks like in a corona environment – and for many people that’s working at home – supporting employers and managers looking at trying to work out how we do that in a way that’s safe, both from a physical perspective from also from the perspective of mental health and wellbeing.

Again, I want to thank everyone, particularly the WorkSafe inspectors out there doing this work, and I want to encourage employers and employees to ring WorkSafe or the police assistance line if you have concerns or queries about a safe system of work.”

Updated at 2.32am BST

2.29am BST

The Victorian workplace safety minister, Jill Hennessy, gives a run down of ‘covid safe’ workplaces:

There was a blitz to make sure workplaces were complying (workplaces are still one of the biggest sites of the virus spread)

Victoria’s workplace safety minister, Jill Hennessy. Photograph: Scott Barbour/AAP

In terms of where we’ve issued notices of improvement to employers, I’ll just step you through the kind of issues that WorkSafe have been working very hard to ensure reduced and addressed quickly in workplaces.

There’s been some examples of employers not allowing workers to work from home where that’s possible.

There’s been some cases of missing and inadequate personal protective equipment. There’s been examples – and there is surveillance occurring – of failing to maintain appropriate social distancing in some of those workplaces.

In some circumstances, inadequate hygiene controls, a lack of health screening and not having procedures to deal with a worker testing positive.

Those have been at a very high level the sorts of issues that WorkSafe have been responding to in terms of the work that they’ve been doing in the course of the blitz.

And in terms of what some of the more granular examples of those things. An example is a transport and logistics company where reusable gloves are being used and they’re not being laundered properly; examples where in the construction industry there are administrative staff that could equally and effectively do their work from home. Those are the sorts of examples.

There’s, I think, a very great desire by employers and employees to ensure that their workplaces are as safe as possible and I want to thank and acknowledge all of the leaders from representatives of workers to industry leaders for the incredible commitment that they’re bringing to try and make sure that where we do have people back in workplaces that they’re as safe as possible.”

Updated at 2.35am BST

2.24am BST

On the modelling, Prof Cheng says:

It’s got a lot of commentary and just to say that modelling is only one piece of information that we’re using to decide on these thresholds that we’re doing.

And there is going to be a lot of judgment as we get to low levels.

Clearly in regional Victoria at the moment things are looking fairly good. We’re not seeing many unknown source cases.

The cases that we have, we know where they are. Colac is probably a good example of this. There has been an outbreak, so one case that arrived in Colac resulted in 30 secondary cases.

But we know where they are. We think we’ve got that under control and they didn’t have any cases yesterday. But obviously a situation that we’re keeping a very close eye on and these are the sort of factors that we’re going to look into as we make that judgment about whether we can transition to that third step to relax some of those restrictions.

But in terms of, you know, the five cases a day is not an absolute hard and fast rule and the date is not a hard and fast date.

We need to look at this every day. We’re going to look at, you know, the improvements that have been made to case management and contact management.

I thought I’d give you some comparisons about where other places were at a similar stage. So in New Zealand on 27 April, as they started to open up, they had five cases a day.

New South Wales on 15 May had 3.8 cases a day.

And in metropolitan Melbourne on 1 June we had six cases a day, but we had more unknown-source cases at that time.

So really this points to we need a substantially lower number of cases than we have at the moment – but we are getting there. You know, it wasn’t that long ago that we were talking about 500 and 700 cases a day and now we’re at 51 cases for yesterday.

Updated at 2.30am BST

2.22am BST

Deputy chief health officer Prof Allen Cheng echoes that regional Victoria could see itself free of stage restrictions very soon:

The average number of cases has come down in metro Melbourne to 70 per day over the last 14 days, with 154 that are unknown source in total over the last 14 days, and in regional, 4.5, as mentioned, and eight of those are unknown source.

We’re still looking, obviously, into the last of those cases to work out when the 14 days will be up, but obviously – and I’m sure all my friends in regional Victoria will be holding their breath and making sure that nothing else comes up in the next week or so but we hope that that will be some time later next week.

Updated at 2.28am BST

2.20am BST

He finishes on that point with:

I want to thank every single Victorian who is playing their part, and that is the vast majority, who are following the rules, doing the right thing, and that’s why case numbers continue to fall and that’s why, for instance, in regional Victoria we are close to being able to take substantial steps towards that Covid normal.

That’s not by accident. It’s the product of having rules in place, making them easy to defend, easy to enforce and the collective efforts of literally millions and millions of people all doing their part.

There are some who don’t but let’s not see the actions or the conduct of a very small number of people in any way detract from the amazing sacrifice that so many Victorians are making. That sacrifice must count for something.

Opening up too much too soon will mean it counts for exactly nothing. That’s not fair, that’s not right and that’s not the strategy that I will put in place.”

Updated at 2.36am BST

2.19am BST

Daniel Andrews:

People are, of course, free to have different views. The term ‘curfew’ is rather loaded but, at the end of the day, it is effective, just as all of these rules – as regrettable as they are – they are effective in reducing movement.

And if you don’t reduce movement, and the number of people that you come in contact with, then of course you don’t reduce the risk of this virus spreading. And of course, whilst ever you have a high risk of the virus spreading, then the rules stay on for longer. And you can’t open up.

That’s the basic logic of this. Common sense tells you we won’t need a curfew forever. We will need it for so long as it serves a useful purpose in helping police to enforce rules that are making it more likely that we can open and stay open.

Those rules will come off as we have indicated through that safe and steady road map. I know some people, many people, myself included, would like all of those rules to go away as soon as possible, tomorrow, the next day, but that would not be steady or safe or the responsible thing to do.”

Updated at 2.38am BST

2.19am BST

Daniel Andrews then addresses the curfew issue, ahead of questions.

Chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said the curfew in Melbourne was not his idea. Andrews said it helped police do their job, enforcing the health advice which was to limit movement. Police commissioner Shane Patton said the curfew was not something he had asked for.

Victoria police on curfew duty. Photograph: Erik Anderson/AAP

So here we are.

Andrews reiterates that the curfew makes it easier to limit movement and allow police to enforce it – and given the restrictions, the curfew wouldn’t really change anything except when you would be allowed outside for an hour’s exercise:

Andrews:

I want to make a couple of comments in relation to some of the rules that we have in place.

As I said yesterday the key to driving down case numbers is driving down movement.

If you don’t limit movement across the community, you won’t limit case numbers. We won’t have 51. We won’t have 41. We won’t have a falling number each and every day. We won’t get to the point where we can open up.

So whether it be the curfew or the 5km rule or rules around how often you can leave the home to go shopping and how many people can leave the home to go shopping – all of these rules are about limiting movement.

Some of them limit movement in and of themselves and some of them make the job of enforcing the rules in a broader context easier and simpler.

If a curfew was removed tonight, the only change would be potentially that can you could jog at 11 last night.

You could maybe go shopping at 11 tonight if the supermarket were open.

That’s not been the case. Supermarkets, whether there was a curfew or not, have limited their trading hours. That’s a decision for them. But ultimately having the curfew simply makes the difficult and critically important job of Victoria police – and I will thank Victoria police, every member and their families, who are all contributing to the enforcement of these rules and it’s our job to make sure that that task – it never ends – but we’ve got to make it as simple as we can.

There are no lawful reasons to leave your home other than to go to work if you’re a permitted worker – to which the curfew does not apply – and to get care if you need urgent care and then the curfew does not apply to you.

The only limitations other than conducting gatherings in homes – which are unlawful – would be doing your exercise within the inside curfew hours, so exercising between 5am and 8pm, soon to be 9pm, or going shopping and having to go shopping during the day or the early evening as opposed to going shopping for the things you need when you need them very late at night.

Now that is a sacrifice but I would simply say I think that is worth it when it comes to limiting movement and limiting case numbers.”

Updated at 2.25am BST

2.14am BST

No new cases in regional Victoria overnight

The rolling average is also down.

Daniel Andrews:

There are 1,483 active cases in Victoria, so the number of active cases continues to fall.

That is very pleasing news.

In terms of the regional-metro split, there are 72 active cases in areas under stage 3, in regional Victoria.

That’s again pleasing to see those numbers from a very high base; they’ve stabilised, they’ve steadily fallen, and now we’re pleased to be able to report that there were no new cases in regional Victoria overnight.

Colac has 29 active cases, greater Geelong has 11 active cases, greater Bendigo just two active cases and Ballarat no active cases, so communities that were of some concern to us a few weeks ago, those communities have done a mighty job in following the rules, getting tested – indeed all regional Victorians have, from the smallest of country towns to some of these bigger regional cities, these numbers are low and that is in large part due to the amazing efforts that regional Victorians have made.

The rolling averages from 27 August to 9 September: metro Melbourne is 70.1, regional Victoria 4.5.

What that shows us is that regional Victoria are quite close to being able to take perhaps not just one step, but two. We have to be heavily caveated in terms of that. We need to make sure that we continue that trend going forward, but we’re confident that those numbers are low and getting lower and that means there will be an opportunity for us quite soon to take a step or steps towards that Covid normal for regional Victoria.

Updated at 2.26am BST

2.10am BST

Daniel Andrews press conference

The Victorian premier has stepped up for his 70th press conference in a row. He starts, as always, with the daily data:

Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

I’m sad to say there have now been 701 Victorians who have passed away as a result of this global pandemic.

That’s an increase of seven since yesterday’s report.

Four males in their 70s, two males in their 80s, one male in his 80s. Four those deaths are linked to outbreaks in aged care.

Of course we send our best wishes and our sincere condolences, our sympathies, to each of those seven families.

There are 169 Victorians in hospital; 17 of those are receiving intensive care and 11 of those 17 are on a ventilator.

There have been a total new of 2,443,583 tests that have been received, 14,805 additional results received since yesterday.

On that point those numbers obviously are higher than we had earlier in the week, but still we’d always like to see them up as high as possible, so everybody who’s got symptoms, even the mildest symptoms, please come forward and get tested.

Updated at 2.14am BST

2.07am BST

Not being able to get where you need to be in the face of personal tragedies is awful. But it is worth pointing out that the Australian borders are shut as well which is stopping people from being able to return home, to the country.

There are still 23,000 stranded Australians; 4,000 are being accepted back each week. There are estimates that more than 100,000 Australians will need or want to get home as the pandemic continues.

Border closures are heartbreaking for so many reasons. Including the international closure.

Updated at 2.10am BST

2.04am BST

Individual tragedies are shaping the Queensland border closures.

The decisions are being made by the chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, but the discussion is centered around the Queensland government.

2.02am BST

Both Ray Hadley and Scott Morrison became emotional talking about the loss of their fathers in that interview.

1.58am BST

PM gets emotional over Qld woman locked out of father's funeral

Scott Morrison is speaking to Sydney radio 2GB (which also broadcasts into Brisbane) about this story.

Sarah missed seeing her father before he died because of the quarantine restrictions Queensland has put in place, and now is asking for an exemption to attend his funeral.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says: ‘I will not be bulllied.’ Photograph: Dan Peled/AAP

And look, this isn’t about the premier of Queensland and me or anyone else ...

Surely, in the midst of all of this in Covid, in everything that everyone’s going through. Surely just this once.

This can be done. It can be done. There’s been no Covid cases in the ACT for more than 60 days.

I just hope they change their mind and I hope they let Sarah go to the funeral. I’ve done all I can; there’s obviously been discussions between our chief medical officer and raising that with him and health ministers, and I have these conversations with premiers on a range of issues all the time.

And I don’t seek to make them public I didn’t seek to make this one public. I rang the premier this morning, and I hope she will reconsider before two o’clock today.

Morrison gets emotional as he talks about the death of his father and says his plea is for an exemption to be made in this one case:

I just think that inside of everybody in the midst of what is an, awful year that we can provide at least on one occasion, hope to a family who just desperately needs the whole country to put their arms around them today because their families like so many others who’ve gone through the same heartache, there’ll be people listening to this call today, who have already had to go through this.

And that’s just awful. And as long as these types of things go on then these things are still going to keep happening but just today please. That’s my plea.

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, addressed the issue in parliament today, and said she had received a call from the PM today but would not be “bullied”. She said it was the chief health officer’s decision.

Ray Hadley, who spoke to Morrison for the interview, said the prime minister was “incapable of bullying anyone”.

Updated at 2.09am BST

1.39am BST

Covid really has turned most states into that town that banned dancing in Footloose. (I have never seen Footloose, but I get the general gist.)

AAP has compiled what you can and can’t do at weddings, depending on where you live. In most jurisdictions – no dancing.

It’s part of a wider focus on what the pandemic has done to the wedding industry which is one of the sectors which has not received a lot of attention during the pandemic but is suffering under the restrictions.

In most jurisdictions there’s no dancing at weddings. Photograph: Tetra Images, LLC/Alamy

* In Queensland 100 people can attend at a venue with a Covid-safe plan, 30 without a Covid-safe plan (backyard wedding), and the cap for people who live in restricted council areas is 10.

* In NSW 150 people can attend a wedding but the total number of people can’t exceed one person per four square metres.

* In the ACT up to 100 people can attend subject to the four square metre rule.

* In Victoria weddings in metropolitan Melbourne are banned and limited to five people in regional areas.

* In South Australia 150 people can attend a wedding.

* In Western Australia weddings are permitted so long as a one-person per two square metres rule is observed.

* There is no limit on the number of guests in the Northern Territory.

* Up to 500 people can gather for an outdoor wedding in Tasmania and 250 people can gather indoors, subject to the one person per two-square metre rule.

* There are restrictions on dancing in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia.

Updated at 1.49am BST

1.36am BST

Roy Morgan has released its latest poll on the Victorian lockdown.

As always, the usual caveats to polls apply.

70% of Victorians approve of the way Premier Andrews is handling is job, but 76% say the Victorian Government should compensate small business. The third Roy Morgan Snap SMS survey on Victoria’s Stage 4 restrictions shows 70% approval of Premier... #vicpol https://t.co/Xbo3koiFAJ pic.twitter.com/qAw37jnKDU
— Roy Morgan (@roymorganonline) September 9, 2020

1.23am BST

Daniel Andrews to speak at 11am

It’s 11am for Daniel Andrews.

Victoria police chief commissioner Shane Patton. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Today the questions will most likely be focused on Melbourne’s curfew given that chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton says he didn’t ask for it, and police commissioner Shane Patton said he didn’t ask for it either.

Updated at 1.29am BST

1.22am BST

Queensland has now carried out 1m Covid tests.

Queensland’s deputy premier and health minister, Steven Miles. Photograph: Glenn Hunt/AAP

Steven Miles, the health minister and deputy premier, told the parliament:

“It took almost six months to reach 500,000 tests, but [it] only took six weeks for us to double that and reach the magic million mark.”

Updated at 1.28am BST

1.19am BST

We are still waiting to hear when Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference.

We should learn that soon.

12.42am BST

No new cases in Queensland

Queensland has recorded no new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours.

Updated at 12.45am BST

12.40am BST

Did anyone have “Nationals threaten to quit NSW coalition over koalas” on their 2020 bingo card?

Via AAP:

NSW Liberal Catherine Cusack has blasted National party leader John Barilaro over threats that some of his MPs were willing to quit the government and sit on the cross bench over koala guidelines.

Cusack said he was disloyal to the government and is called for his resignation.

Barilaro said on Wednesday that four Nationals MPs intended to move to the cross bench – a move that would force the Berejiklian government into minority government – over recent changes to protect koala habitat.

Cusack told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday the move would “tear the government down”.

“This is an excellent government ... but we can’t continue on this track that he’s put us on,” she said. “I don’t believe that he is reflecting the views of country people on this issue.”

The Nationals were due to hold a virtual meeting on Thursday morning to decide what to do after recent changes were made to the state’s koala protection policy.

National MPs are concerned it will limit land use on farms and the ability to rezone areas for development as more trees are classed as koala habitat.

Even agriculture minister Adam Marshall and education minister Sarah Mitchell have spoken out over the issue.

Meanwhile, Cusack admitted she had sent angry texts to key rebels Wes Fang and Sam Farraway on Wednesday night telling the pair to “enjoy your short careers” and “the show will go on and be better without you”.

“I just feel that if these National party MPs don’t wish to sit with the government they should return their seats to the Liberal party,” she told 2GB.

“It’s so disappointing that these people could even think about using their position to move to the cross bench.”

Updated at 12.51am BST

12.31am BST

The finance department interviews should be very interesting.

The COVID-19 Select Committee is holding a public hearing this morning

Live: https://t.co/9Lgw5iXAcZ
More information: https://t.co/kjFKySmpCI pic.twitter.com/nVgPGsiU2z
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) September 9, 2020

Updated at 12.33am BST

12.29am BST

Clear as mud.

He says it wasn’t a decision he was involved with.
— Bridget Rollason (@bridgerollo) September 9, 2020

Updated at 12.33am BST

12.22am BST

It is no secret that women’s employment has been hit harder by the pandemic – women tend to work in lower-paid, insecure and casual jobs, which were among the first to be hit.

The ABS statistics show women’s employment dropped by 7.4% compared with men’s which dropped by 5.6% between February and March.

Associate Prof Elizabeth Hill, from the University of Sydney’s department of political economy, has done some analysis and come up with ways to improve both the economy and work security for women:

While economic stimulus has traditionally focused on large-scale physical infrastructure projects (which largely employ men), new research shows that there are more employment-intensive and gender equitable forms of stimulus.

For example, a study of seven OECD countries shows that public investment equal to 1% of GDP in labour-intensive care industries generates more total employment than investment in construction. If applied to the Australian market, it is estimated that this employment ratio would be nearly five to one.

This is not to suggest that stimulus should not be made in construction; only that government should take a more balanced approach to fiscal policy, Hill said.

She argued that greater investment in ECEC is a “triple-win” strategy that will:

generate billions of dollars in national wealth and boost GDP while supporting women’s employment;

increase demand for the sector’s services, creating more jobs;

allow for universal access, promoting all children’s education, wellbeing and life chances.

“They must be supported by two further measures: women’s inclusion in recovery planning leadership, and gendered employment analyses of all recovery policy options, including the impact of policy on unpaid work.

“Unpaid work must be included given its massive contribution to economic growth and productivity. Failure to do so will distort policy making.”

Updated at 12.32am BST

12.15am BST

This went out yesterday, but for those who missed it:

NSW Health is alerting the public after two confirmed cases of Covid visited the Eastern Suburbs Legion Club at Waverley on a number of occasions while infectious.

Anyone who attended the club between 5pm and 6.30pm on Friday 28 August is being directed to immediately get tested for Covid and isolate until they receive a negative result.

A coronavirus testing clinic in Sydney. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

The cases also attended the club while infectious on the following evenings:

Tuesday 1 September
Friday 4 September
Saturday 5 September
Sunday 6 September.

Anyone who attended the club during these times must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received.

NSW Health is working with the club to contact and assess the exposure risk to members and guests.

Updated at 12.22am BST

11.52pm BST

Tony Higgins and Derek Robinson, two friends who went missing of the South Australian coast while sailing a boat from Coffin Bay to Goolwa late last week, have been rescued.

You can see both men on the boat. Excellent news.

Updated at 12.09am BST

11.48pm BST

Helen Sullivan has all your international Covid news, including the latest on Donald Trump admitting he deliberately played down the seriousness of the coronavirus.

The US president, Donald Trump. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

You’ll find that here.

Updated at 12.13am BST

11.39pm BST

We all need a bit of good news today, I think. This looks like it:

Two men feared dead after going missing in waters off the South Australian coast a week ago are alive.

Tony Higgins, 57, and Derek Robinson, 48, left Coffin Bay on the Eyre Peninsula in a 10-metre wooden-hulled fishing boat called the Margrel, bound for Goolwa, a week ago.

They reported engine trouble to a friend on Friday night saying they were going to divert to Kangaroo Island.

When no more was heard from the men, the friend raised the alarm on Sunday, prompting a large-scale four-day aerial search covering more than 103,000 square kilometres south of Port Lincoln.

SA police called off the search around 8pm on Wednesday but two hours later the men made contact with police, who worked overnight to work out where the boat was. It was stranded in Salt Creek.

A water operations unit headed out on Thursday morning to the south-east coast to help the men, who will likely be towed to Goolwa.

Alexandrina mayor Keith Parkes, who’s council area takes in Goolwa, told the ABC: “They’re so lucky.”

(via AAP)

Updated at 12.18am BST

11.22pm BST

Once again we need to know how many tests that result came from.

The seven-day average is coming down. Regional Victoria is close to meeting the targets the government has set but we will learn a little more today.

Updated at 11.32pm BST

11.21pm BST

Victoria records 51 new cases and seven deaths

No more data will be available until Dan Andrews’s press conference a little later this morning

#COVID19VicData for 10 September, 2020.
Yesterday there were 51 new cases reported and sadly 7 lives lost. Our thoughts go out to all those affected. More information will be available later today. pic.twitter.com/xgriowNMS1
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 9, 2020

11.09pm BST

Catherine King wants to remind you that Australia’s troubled airlines means troubles for regional communities:

Reports that Virgin Australia will cease flying 10 routes to regional centres across Australia are a devastating blow to communities already struggling though the first recession in 30 years.

These cuts, along with previously announced job losses, are the direct result of the Morrison Government’s decision to allow Virgin Australia to fall into administration and his government’s complete failure to come up with a plan for aviation.

The regional centres to lose services are Uluru, Tamworth, Port Macquarie, Albury, Hervey Bay, Cloncurry and Mildura.

Fewer routes will mean higher fares and fewer services to these regional communities. This will lead to fewer tourists and fewer visitors, costing more jobs in communities doing it tough.

While devastating, these route cuts are not unforseen. Appearing on Four Corners in June, Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah revealed that there is “zero doubt” the reborn airline will fly to fewer places. Labor has been warning of cuts to regional services since before the airline entered administration.

It is essential that Australia maintains two strong, competitive airlines as we emerge from this recession. The Government has paid lip service to this fact, but have failed to take any decisive action.

The Prime Minister is responsible for these route losses and any further job losses that come as a result.

11.02pm BST

ABC says JBS meat processor will sack 600 workers

The ABC reports that Australia’s largest meat processor, JBS, will sack 600 workers at its Ipswich plant.

It has blamed the drought, livestock shortages, Covid and inequity in the jobkeeper scheme for the position it finds itself in.

Updated at 12.22am BST

10.56pm BST

We're drinking more during the pandemic

Humans are going to human.

From AAP:

Two in five Australians have been drinking more alcohol during the coronavirus pandemic, a new study shows.

The Global Drug Survey Covid-19 special edition results released on Wednesday showed cannabis use has also increased.

Two in five Australian survey respondents reported drinking more alcohol since February, while about half of the cannabis-users surveyed said they increased their consumption over the same period.

About half of both samples said they were partaking in their vices alone more often than before the pandemic.

“Drinkers who reported having a diagnosed mental health condition were more likely to report increasing their drinking compared to February, before COVID-19 restrictions,” co-lead researcher Dr Monica Barratt from RMIT University said.

However, the survey also showed two in five Australians were also drinking less, and MDMA and cocaine use had decreased.

The decrease in illegal party drug consumption was largely attributed to the lack of access to settings like nightclubs, festivals and parties.

“Drug market shifts were reported too, including half of the Australian respondents saying availability of illegal drugs had decreased, one third reporting increases in drug prices, and one in five reporting decreased drug purity,” Ms Barratt said.

Over 55,000 people were surveyed across the globe, with the Australian trends fitting with larger international trends.

Forty-three per cent of all respondents reported higher alcohol consumption during the pandemic, with 39 per cent of cannabis-users also partaking more often.

The biggest increases in cannabis usage were recorded in Australia at 49 per cent, and the US at 46 per cent.

Updated at 12.25am BST

10.49pm BST

The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age have one of the stories of the day today:

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate threatened to call police unless the City of Melbourne delivered more than 100 of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation-branded stubby holders to every apartment in a locked-down suburban public housing tower in July.

Holgate’s written ultimatum, through her senior legal counsel, came days after Hanson had labelled residents of the Melbourne towers “drug addicts” and “alcoholics”, and at the same time Australia Post was attempting to win over One Nation’s vote to ensure a temporary relaxation in daily postal services was not overturned by the Senate.

Updated at 12.26am BST

10.46pm BST

Murph has a story on some of the first moves Victoria Labor is making in response to branch stacking:

Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin – the Labor veterans installed as administrators in the Victorian branch after an extraordinary federal intervention – have recommended the ALP ban cash payments for memberships and renewals as part of efforts to stamp out industrial-scale branch-stacking.

Labor’s national executive in June appointed Bracks and Macklin as administrators of the Victorian branch, and suspended all state committees, as the party grappled with the damaging fallout of the Adem Somyurek branch-stacking scandal.

As the first steps in their review of the branch, the two have recommended banning cash payments and the insertion of a mechanism within party rules to ensure that branch membership is comprised of “consenting and self-funding members, and that members act consistently with the values of the party”.

In a discussion paper circulated to members, Bracks and Macklin characterise those rule changes as a critical first step, and flag they will be “the first of many”.

10.43pm BST

Julia Gillard was on ABC News Breakfast speaking about R U OK day on behalf of Beyond Blue.

She was also asked about the interest in her 2012 misogyny speech in the UK after the appointment of Tony Abbott to the UK trade commission.

Yes, the speech has been getting a fair old outing in the United Kingdom and, you know, I stand by that speech, I’m obviously proud of that speech and I’m very proud of the fact that many women, including young women, have used it in their lives as their own kind of personal battle anthem, but I’m not in the business of commenting on what Tony Abbott might do next in his life.

Updated at 11.27pm BST

10.41pm BST

Today is R U OK day, which is a tough day for many, many people.

It's #RUOKDay, a reminder that every day is a day to start a conversation that could change a life.

Today, learn what to say after #RUOK so you can keep the conversation going when someone says they're not OK: https://t.co/ZgxxUnuUVx #theresmoretosay pic.twitter.com/DeGpdGoqSX
— R U OK? (@ruokday) September 9, 2020

Having conversations about mental health is very important. But there are also a lot of people out there who don’t appreciate being asked on a particular day if they are doing all right when they have been struggling for quite some time. Learning how to approach these conversations is a good thing to do. But there also needs to be a follow-up. And if someone says they aren’t OK, saying you hope they feel better soon is not it.

Learn and listen. This has been a tough year for a lot of reasons but for some people it’s one in a long line of tough years.

Be gentle on yourself and others.

Support services are available at:

Kids Helpline – 1800 55 1800 (all day, every day)
Suicide Callback Service – 1300 659 467 (all day, every day)
eHeadspace - 1800 650 890 (9am-1am daily)
Lifeline - 13 11 14 (all day, every day. Online support 7pm-4am daily)
Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636 (all day, every day. Online support 3pm-midnight every day)
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org

Updated at 11.27pm BST

10.28pm BST

Here is how the Greg Hunt comments played out in that Sky interview:

Q: Now you mentioned the situation in Victoria, your home state. The most draconian measure that premier Daniel Andrews has put in place to try and contain the virus in Victoria is the curfew in Melbourne. People locked in their homes effectively from eight o’clock at night to five o’clock in the morning.

Are you surprised by the revelations yesterday that the chief medical officer in Victoria did not recommend this? This was not a health recommendation; that the curfew is something that Daniel Andrews just decided to put in place for law and order reasons.

Hunt:

Look, I was somewhat surprised because until now, we’d understood that all of the actions taken had been taken on medical advice. I will respectfully leave that to the Victorians.

Most significantly though, the importance of having – whether it’s the vaccine or the contact tracing, is they are health protections. Strengthening contact tracing protects Victorians and protects the health of Australians, and in seven out of eight states and territories, that’s been incredibly strong and then.

Q: But minister – but minister, in the state of Victoria now, people are living under this curfew. By the time it’s lifted on current projections, that curfew will have been in place for three months. There was no medical advice that advised the curfew.

Shouldn’t Daniel Andrews lift it now for the social sake, for the mental health benefits of Victorians because it’s just not a medical initiative?

Hunt:

Well, as you know, in the recent days, the prime minister, myself, the treasurer Josh Frydenberg have been very, very clear that we want to see the health safeguards put in place so as these restrictions, all of the different restrictions can be lifted as quickly as possible, and there has to be a medical basis for any restriction because our normal state of being.

Q: Well, exactly. There’s no medical basis for the curfew. Should the curfew go now? ... I’m just saying there is no medical basis for the curfew. Daniel Andrews has admitted that. The chief medical officer has confirmed that. Should the curfew go now because it’s a draconian restriction and there is no medical basis for it?

Hunt:

So we would like to see all and as many of the restrictions lifted as soon as the medical conditions allow, and if there’s no medical basis for something, then obviously, that’s then something entirely within the remit of the Victorian government to address and we’d encourage them to consider that in the coming days.

Updated at 11.26pm BST

10.26pm BST

Good morning

Victoria’s curfew is once again being questioned. It’s not due to be entirely lifted until the end of October, which means Melbourne will have been under a curfew for three months.

The state’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, told Melbourne radio 3AW that the curfew wasn’t at his behest.

“No not against my advice, you know, the curfew came in as part of the state of disaster, for example, it wasn’t a state-of-emergency requirement.

“So you know, that was something that was introduced, but it wasn’t something I was against from a public health perspective.”

I had been under the assumption the entire time that it was something the police had asked for, which Daniel Andrews confirmed on Wednesday.

A curfew that says ‘unless you’ve got a lawful reason to be outside after 8:00pm soon 9:00pm out to 5:00am then you can’t be’ is much easier for Victoria police,” he said.

But Greg Hunt has waded in, saying if it was not based on health advice then it should be lifted. He told Sky News:

We would like to see all and as many of the restrictions lifted as soon as the medical conditions allow, and if there’s no medical basis for something, then obviously, that’s then something entirely within the remit of the Victorian government to address and we’d encourage them to consider that in the coming days.”

Daniel Andrews says it is about making the health advice enforceable:

It’s not a matter for Brett [Sutton], that’s not health advice, that’s about achieving a health outcome. His advice is, “Do whatever you can to limit movement.” Police then say, “We need rules we can enforce.” These are decisions ultimately made by me … What it means is no one’s sneaking out going to their mate’s place. No one’s going and doing things that they are by law not allowed to do.

You will hear a lot more about that today as the federal government ramps up its attacks on the Victorian government.

Meanwhile, Queensland and NSW continue to be at loggerheads over the border closure. There are more and more stories of people unable to visit sick and dying relatives, or see children, because of the restrictions.

Yesterday the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, accused Queensland of playing “loopy politics”. Queensland has set up a dedicated unit within its health department to look at exemptions but the complaints keep piling up.

We’ll bring you all the day’s events as they come. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.

Ready?

Updated at 11.23pm BST

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