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The Guardian - AU

National

Calla Wahlquist (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Victoria records 76 new Covid cases, NSW reports nine and Qld eight as 1m jobs lost – as it happened

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10.24am BST

Summary

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

Here’s where things stand.

Victoria recorded 76 new coronavirus cases and 11 new deaths – that’s 21 more than yesterday. Premier Daniel Andrews said that could be due to the usual Wednesday spike, and said the rolling 14-day average was still falling – it’s now at 74.5 in metropolitan Melbourne and five cases per day in regional Victoria.
NSW recorded nine new cases, five of which were linked to Concord hospital.
Queensland recorded eight new cases of Covid-19, one of its largest daily figures for some time. Five are linked to the corrective services training facility and three to Ipswich hospital.
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard accused the Queensland government of playing “loopy politics” over the continued closure of the NSW-Queensland border.
Almost one million jobs were lost between the March and June quarters.
AstraZeneca, the company working with Oxford University on its Covid-19 vaccine, has paused its phase three trial after one of the participants had an “unexplained illness”.
Australia has cancelled the visas of two Chinese academics.
There are 23,000 Australians who are currently overseas and trying to return home, and international flights to Australia last week had 26,000 empty seats between them.
US actor Tom Hanks has returned to Australia for the first time since contracting Covid-19 while working on a movie on the Gold Coast in March. He is in hotel quarantine – although not one of the usual hotels used to house ordinary travellers.

Thanks for your company. Stay well, wash your hands often, and we will see you in the morning.

Updated at 10.28am BST

10.19am BST

Melbourne is bracing for another anti-lockdown protest with more than 1000 people on Facebook RSVP-ing to attend a “freedom walk” amid stage four restrictions.

Last Saturday’s rally attracted about 200 attendees, and police handed out 180 fines.

Actor Tom Hanks is in hotel quarantine in Queensland

Tom Hanks – yes, the Tom Hanks – is back in Queensland, and premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the A-lister is in mandatory quarantine after it was suggested by opposition MPs that he had skipped the queue.

From AAP:

Liberal National party MP Laura Gerber asked if Hanks was in mandatory quarantine like the general public after he flew into Gold Coast on Tuesday night.

Hanks tested positive for Covid-19 during the filming of Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis Presley biopic in March and underwent 14 days of self-isolation on the Gold Coast.

Palaszczuk confirmed Hanks was in mandatory 14-day quarantine, but in a hotel separate from the public under the film industry’s Covidsafe plan.

Actor Tom Hanks. Photograph: Matt Licari/Invision/AP

“Under that plan they have to stay in the place for two weeks just like everybody else and they will have random checks, as my understanding, by the police,” she told parliament.

Palaszczuk says the Elvis film is bringing more than $100m and 900 jobs into the Gold Coast economy.

She defended the border policy as recommended by chief health officer Jeannette Young, saying if it wasn’t in place Queensland could be in a situation like Victoria.

“I don’t know what the future holds, I don’t know if all this could be at risk if at the end of October, if the LNP is in office and the borders are open,” she said.

Updated at 8.29am BST

8.00am BST

Sydneysiders, rejoice. The Sydney Opera House will reopen its harbourside restaurants the Opera Bar and the Opera Kitchen from tomorrow. They have been closed since March.

Opera House CEO Louise Herron said:

The reopening of two of our popular dining venues is a positive first step in our phased approach to resuming events and experiences across the site.

Nothing is more important to us than the safety of everyone on site, and we are closely following NSW Health guidelines and advice. We look forward to welcoming people back to our theatres, tours, other dining venues and shops soon and will provide more detail in the coming weeks.

To celebrate its reopening, Opera Bar will offer a new food, wine and cocktail menu that features Australian producers, a series of new experiences for Sydneysiders to enjoy, and live music celebrating local artists and DJs. Opera Kitchen will reopen for all-day dining from breakfast through to dinner offering all of their signature favourites. For the first time, patrons will be able to book ahead for tables at both Opera Bar and Opera Kitchen.

opera bar and opera house with harbour bridge in the background — The Sydney Opera House’s restaurants will open tomorrow, for the first time since March. Photograph: James Gourley/AAP

Updated at 8.08am BST

7.47am BST

Rudd also gave his thoughts on the destruction of Juukan Gorge, saying Rio Tinto “will soon be known in Australia as Rio TNT”.

I think, for Rio Tinto, it has blown up its own reputation as anything approximating a responsible corporate citizen in Australia...

So, for the company, they should be hauled over the coals. If there’s a fining regime in place it should be deployed. The executives responsible for this decision should no longer be executives....

For our Indigenous brothers and sisters this has been an appalling development. For the company, I think their reputation now is mud.

7.45am BST

Meanwhile, former prime minister Kevin Rudd has been on the ABC talking about the last two correspondents for Australian media outlets in China, who were yoinked back to Australia this week after midnight visits from Chinese authorities.

Rudd was asked by the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas if this signalled a new “dangerous phase” of the Australia-China relationship. He replied:

I believe it has been trending that way for quite sometime and without being in the business of apportioning responsibility for that, the bottomline is the trajectory is all negative. It is just one further step in that direction and deeply disturbing if your fundamental interest here is press freedom and your interest is the proper protection of foreign correspondents in an authoritarian country like China.

Rudd said that although the ABC’s Bill Birtles and the Australian Financial Review’s Mike Smith were told they were questioned in relation to the case of another Australian citizen and journalist, Cheng Lei, “we don’t know what has actually driven this particular roundup of these two Australian journalists”.

But in the broader bilateral relationship, I think you’re right, when Beijing looks at the world at the moment it sees its number one problem as being the United States and the collapse in the US/China relationship which is now in its worst state in 50 years. And secondly, in terms of its most adverse relationships abroad, it would then place Australia. And I simply base that on what I read in each day’s official commentary in the Chinese media.

In terms of what Australia should do in response, he said:

If I was in government [it would be a time] to keep our powder dry, if possible rebuild this element of the relationship. And if not, take whatever actions are then necessary.

But it’s far better to be cautious about your response to these questions than to automatically jump into the domestic political trenches and try and score domestic political points in Australia by beating your chest and showing how hairy chested you are at the same time.

Updated at 7.49am BST

7.35am BST

Let’s take a brief break for some hand gestures from the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews addresses the media during a press conference in Melbourne, Wednesday, September 9, 2020. Victoria has recorded 76 new cases of coronavirus and 11 deaths in the past 24 hours. — We’re all doing fine. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews addresses the media during a press conference in Melbourne, Wednesday, September 9, 2020. — Just take all your bad feelings... Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews addresses the media during a press conference in Melbourne, Wednesday, — Can’t say clearer than that. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

7.14am BST

While we are waiting for the outcome of a Rio Tinto board meeting, which could decide the fate of CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques, Noel Pearson has told the ABC that the mining company’s internal review into the destruction of Juukan Gorge was “inadequate” and the financial penalty against Jacques and two other executives, who lost a combined $7m in bonuses, was “small pocket money”.

Pearson said the internal review (which you can read about in detail here) doesn’t explain why the three executives lost their bonuses. It found the fault which allowed the destruction of the 46,000-year-old site to go ahead was structural and systemic, and not the fault of any individual – and yet three individuals lost bonuses.

We don’t know what they did or what they didn’t do in their roles as the senior executives of the company. The truth about what was omitted or what committed by these officers of the company needs to be properly disclosed and it is my view that the submission that the company put forward to the parliamentary committee on Northern Australia (again, in more detail here) is not a full disclosure. It is evasive. It is failing to answer in a straightforward manner many of the questions that have been put on notice about.

Pearson told host Patricia Karvelas that Rio Tinto was previously the best practice example.

Rio Tinto were the leading company. We thought they were.

the cliff of Juukan Gorge — Juukan Gorge in 2013. The investigation into the Rio Tinto blast was ‘inadequate’, Noel Pearson says. Photograph: PKKP Aboriginal Corporation/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 7.32am BST

6.59am BST

There are 23,000 Australians trying to get home, and 26,000 empty seats on the international flights which landed last week

International airlines flying into Australia have calculated that planes have landed with 26,000 empty seats in the first week of September as a result of the strict international arrival caps.

The 26,000 figure is slightly more than the 23,000 Australians overseas who have registered their intention to fly home with the government, but who cannot access flights.

The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia, which represents airlines including Qatar Airways, Etihad and Singapore Airlines, said that “only about 4,000” of the 30,000 seats available on the 140 flights into Australia in the first week of September were filled. Flights are often limited to carrying less than 30 passengers.

BARA chief executive, Barry Abrams, has called for governments to boost hotel quarantine limits, to allow airlines to take at least 100 passengers a flight to cover costs.

The figure follows intense pressure on the government to find a solution to ease the arrival cap of 4,000 passengers per week. The federal government has argued it is implementing the caps at the request of state and territory leaders concerned about hotel quarantine capacity.

However Labor has called for federal quarantine solutions, including specific quarantine sites similar to those set up for evacuees from Wuhan earlier in the pandemic.

Australians wishing to return home have complained their economy and business class tickets have been repeatedly cancelled, with reports airlines are prioritising first class passengers in an effort to remain profitable under the caps.

The Guardian has previously reported flights into Australia are landing with as few as four passengers in economy.

Updated at 7.23am BST

6.45am BST

NSW schools have been advised to have a maximum of 75 students per exam room when the HSC gets underway next month.

NSW accuses Queensland of 'loopy' politics

The New South Wales government has also ramped up its attacks on the Queensland government.

After Gladys Berejiklian said she would not stop criticising leaders who have closed their borders to NSW, the NSW health minister has gone a step further.

Brad Hazzard:

I can only express my anger, my supreme anger, at the Queensland premier’s decision which in my view broadly across the border currently is nothing more than base loopy politics. I’m appalled by what’s going on up there.

Updated at 4.50am BST

4.45am BST

Deputy chief health officer Dr Nick Coatsworth has held a press conference somewhere in the midst of all that, on the pause of the AstraZeneca vaccine trial (which is the Oxford University vaccine)

He says it is too early to jump to conclusions about why and that these pauses are normal:

A trial stopping for these reasons, a vaccine trial stopping for these reasons is, in fact, quite normal in routine vaccine development.

So whilst we are in an unusual situation with Covid-19 being a new pandemic virus, the fact that a vaccine trial may pause because of an adverse event is not a new thing at all. Pauses are often short.

In a matter of days sometimes.

But we’re not able to speculate on the effect of this particular pause because we simply don’t have enough information at the moment from either the trialists or AstraZeneca about the nature of the adverse event, and that’s because it’s being investigated.

Updated at 4.46am BST

4.41am BST

I think we all need a bit of a breather after those few hours.

Phew.

4.37am BST

Chris Bowen has also responded to the AstraZeneca vaccine trial pause:

Labor supports the federal government in continuing their engagement and agreement with the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

News today that AstraZeneca has “voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee” is a process to be expected during clinical trials to ensure vaccine safety.

We understand the relevant data monitoring safety board should provide a full explanation of any adverse reactions of the vaccine and we appreciate the transparency of AstraZeneca as they investigate findings. We also wish the best for any trial participant suffering adverse reactions.

We support comments by the deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth today on waiting “to see exactly what the adverse reaction was and whether they attribute it to the vaccine”.

There is no guarantee that the two deals now secured by the government, the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca and University of Queensland/CSL vaccines are the silver bullet to Covid-19.

Thus the federal government must expand their investment in a range of potential Covid-19 vaccines.

Over 6bn doses of vaccines through more than 50 agreements were secured by other countries before Australia secured agreements for these two vaccines.

The government also needs to plan now for how we will manufacture and distribute enough doses for all Australians in the event that it is a different vaccine candidate that is most effective.

Labor repeats our call to the government to engage and invest in vaccine development — at home, in our region and around the world.

Updated at 4.42am BST

4.33am BST

Cassandra Goldie again on the unemployment benefit:

I think anybody who says, “Well, what could you do besides making sure people have enough money to live on?”, have actually never experienced what it’s like not to have enough money to live on. There is no alternative to having an adequate, enough income.

You know, the breaking news today is the best form of welfare is not a job. We need jobs, but we – the best form of welfare is an adequate social security system for when you don’t have a job.

So we need to be doing both. We need to be growing jobs, that is exactly what we should be doing. I hope you heard that from us today.

We have very clear proposals for what we could do to create job opportunities for people. No one needs to preach to people affected by unemployment about the importance of jobs. Yeah?

Let’s stop breaching at people trying to survive on JobSeeker about the value of jobs.

Let us give people enough income to be able to pay for fresh food, for vegetables, for medicines, for the cost of housing, all the basics that everybody knows you’re not going to find it in some kind of fantasy land. You’re going to need money to be able to deliver those basics.

Updated at 4.35am BST

4.32am BST

And then Paul Zahra rounds out that issue:

I think where I would add to that conversation is really about the fact that I think we’d all welcome a tax cut. I think - timing is probably not great. The quickest way to stimulate the economy, we hope we demonstrated today, is from a retail recovery and the quickest way is to do that is give money to the Australians who need it most, the people on the lowest income and young people who are predominantly in that lower income group. That’s what we should be doing above everything else.

Updated at 4.54am BST

4.31am BST

Cassandra Goldie answers that same question on the tax cuts:

I would also say, let’s not forget what they will cost to the budget and what they will cost and the choices that we would be making about what we’re not going to do.

I mean, we have to learn lessons from history here. Every time we have had a kind of a stimulus package, like, you know, the global financial crisis, it didn’t take that long before we ended up with what was it – cuts to community services, cuts to social security, cuts to the basic protections, people less powerful in society.

That is what happened. So the GFC was caused by, you know, well – you know, men, white men, and ... and the price for it was ... by younger people, lower income women and their children.

By the time we got pre-Covid, we had for single parent families – 40% of the children living in poverty because of the kinds of cuts and decisions that were made.

Let us learn lessons from the past. If we got this meh approach on tax cuts even from our, say, Deloitte, how about we put them away for now and we spend billions in aged care and billions in child care and billions on social security and we know it will create jobs and we know it will make lives better and all of us can feel a little bit better about the decisions we make today when we look back in a decade’s time.

Updated at 4.55am BST

4.30am BST

Just on that, when the ANU’s Ben Phillips looked at the tax cuts, he found that there would be a slight increase in inequality

4.27am BST

Chris Richardson on the tax cuts (which look like being brought forward):

I have a minor hesitation about tax cuts simply because some of that money is less likely to be spent.

Now, I don’t mind it as stimulus if it stops other things happening. I think that would be a problem if it’s happening over and atop a bunch of things that we need, then I welcome it as stimulus.

Just be aware the bang for buck as pure stimulus is a bit less than some other things.

And why it’s a bit less is because the top 1% of our personal taxpayers pay 16% of all - am 17% of all personal tax. And the top 20% of personal taxpayers pay 60% of it. And so if you give a tax cut, by definition – because it’s the top end who pays by far the bulk of personal tax cuts, and they have more of it, they may be more likely to save.

So the key point about tax cuts as stimulus, fine. What worries me is that we start to think about tax cuts, the debate that we have had so far is – is mostly around fairness and that’s gotten these tax cuts wrong.

Most of what you have heard is, I would say, incorrect. Treasury says the same.

If you actually look at the Treasury analysis of – would these three phases of tax cuts change the share of tax paid by low, middle, high income earners?

The answer is no. Do go back and look at that. So don’t say no to tax cuts because they’re unfair. Say no to tax cuts if you think they’re going to get in the way of better stimulus that creates jobs faster.

Updated at 4.56am BST

4.26am BST

Chris Richardson says now is the time to do something bold with industrial relations:

What we can do around reforms including industrial relations, this is absolutely the moment where you want ambition around that.

I want us to try. As a simple example of something I’d like to see, this crisis revealed all of a sudden that we spent 40 years adding a range of rules and regulations on Australia that made sense 99.99% of the time but not in a pandemic.

One of the things I’d love to see is, in effect, a legislative big red button that allows federal – and you can have it – it’s got a pass – got to be triggered with a two-thirds majority, three-quarters, but in a future crisis, we want to be able to have flexibility to do a bunch of things.

Updated at 4.57am BST

4.20am BST

On the debate over migrant workers, given Australia’s unemployment rate, Chris Richardson says:

Let me go through the basic numbers first.

The borders are closed.

By the middle of 2021, we would estimate that population in Australia will be almost 300,000 less than it would otherwise have been.

We’re not getting the migrants, foreign students, tourists temporarily here.

That’s a lot of people. That in itself is 1% of population. Migrants on average are young adults and more skilled than existing residents.

That’s how they qualify to get in here in the first place. That combination means you get a more than 1% impact on the economy.

And we won’t make that up again.

There are a number of things that – our migration program is huge, it’s incredibly important, we can do it better. We do a lot of things right.

If we talk about where we have to go from here, as being a war for jobs, a battle for jobs, some people say, so we shouldn’t let migrants back in.

Let’s wait until the unemployment rate is down. And I do – it’s, you know, I understand how people think that, but this is an incredibly thing to understand, migrants, when they come in and take a job, they earn money and they spend that money and that creates the next job.

Our job task, or job battle is certainly no harder and maybe even easier once – it’s going to depend on health and vaccines and all those things, we should not keep them closed for unemployment reasons.

That would be – to use the technical jargon – dumb.

Australia had the debate before. In the 1970s, all the people coming into the job market and stealing jobs and unemployment will be high forever – and those evil people were married women, and again, you know, whether you’re a married woman, a migration or a Martian, you don’t steal jobs.

You earn an income, you spend it, you create the next job. Sure, we can do better things, we can do better training for the migrants who are here, not just for the migrants, everyone here, for the changed job needs of this new economy.

There’s a bunch of things for us to be scared about, genuine things. But migrants and jobs – no, debt, no, because the flip side of that debt is the magnificent spending that’s getting us so much at the moment.

Updated at 4.24am BST

4.17am BST

Australia’s communications minister, Paul Fletcher, has been asked about Chinese state media reports about raids in June on Chinese journalists in Australia.

During an interview on Sky News, Fletcher declined to comment on the specifics, saying he would leave it to the prime minister and the foreign and defence ministers.

But when asked whether Chinese journalists should be worried about their freedom to report in Australia, Fletcher said Australia was a democracy governed by the rule of law.

“The free press is an important part of democracy. Of course we have journalists from many, many different countries living and working and reporting in Australia. Of course they do so subject to the Australian legal framework and laws concerning defamation and we do have laws in relation to national security considerations when it comes to material being published. But the key point is: governed by the rule of law and those laws apply to all journalists and indeed all Australians.”

Labor’s agriculture and resources spokesperson, Joel Fitzgibbon, had earlier responded to the issue involving two Australian journalists who had to return to Australia after a diplomatic standoff.

Fitzgibbon – consistently one of the most outspoken in the opposition regarding the government’s handling of the relationship with China – said it was “the lowest point in our relationship since Tiananmen Square” and he sheeted home blame to the Australian government.

“When the security of Australians living in China comes under a cloud, then we know we’ve got a very serious problem on our hands,” Fitzgibbon told radio 2CC on Wednesday.

“I think that if the complexities of the relationship had been handled better by Canberra then we might not have seen this week this very, very serious development.”

Chinese embassy with Australian flag behind it

Updated at 5.00am BST

4.14am BST

Other than raising jobseeker, what else needs to happen, according to Chris Richardson, is there good spending and spending?

There is absolutely. Not just in infrastructure, there’s better ways to spend money and worse ways to spend it. First key thought, if you want to repair the budget in Australia, you have to repair the economy.

So we’re talking about things, unemployment benefit, maybe aged care, whatever. We’re talking about things where we may want to take decisions that cost things, but 99% of the things we have done have been temporary.

We haven’t broken the budget. But the economy is suffering.

We need to get the economy back. How do we get the economy back? We need spending and government can do that directly. Infrastructure spending, that money is spent. Unemployment benefit, that money is likely to be spent. The ABS has given us the data that if employed, you’re twice as likely to be saving money than the unemployed with government benefits. You can do a range of things.

Within infrastructure, I’m really keen that we don’t just do anything. We do the stuff that’s going to make sense.

The weighing up the costs and the benefits. That may mean including more smaller stuff, in regional Australia, not necessarily so many picture opportunities.

Updated at 4.16am BST

4.11am BST

It is all happening this hour.

Chinese Embassy statement on the alleged ASIO raids on Chinese journalists: “we have provided consular support to Chinese journalists in Australia and made representations with relevant Australian authorities to safeguard legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens”
— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) September 9, 2020

4.10am BST

And why it matters:

The scheduled end of the jobkeeper payment will take away 130,000 retail jobs ... [these] are on the line if we return the jobseeker payment to its old base rates. 2.2 million Australians are receiving the coronavirus supplement, according to the Department of Social Services.

Social security recipients spend 58% of their payments on retail goods.

Out of work Australians will spend $326.9m at supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies, essential merchandise stores and other local small businesses.

These numbers are powerful. But they don’t paint the full picture. This is about to become even more personal, given the unemployment rate is forecast to increase significantly. Possibly at levels never experienced in this country before.

Every Australian will be indirectly or directly affected. With a brother, a sister, a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, or a friend, or a former colleague, likely to be on jobseeker. We need to spend our way out of this recession.

They say never waste a crisis. So to put this new awareness of the impact of retail to good use, and to have a sustainable recovery, we need to normalise some of the spending realities.

Updated at 5.23am BST

4.09am BST

Paul Zahra:

Household spending is the biggest part of our economy, it accounts for 56% of all spending. Covid has put a spotlight on retail for governments. We can clearly see you can’t have an economic recovery without a retail recovery. Close to every dollar a minimum wage earner spends ends up in the retail economy.

We saw glimpses of this when the GFC hit and prime minister Kevin Rudd’s economic stimulus dollars went straight into the retail economy. Unfortunately, we are far from a retail recovery. Retailers have been surviving and not thriving.

Whilst we’ve seen a reasonable retail performance in recent months since widespread lockdowns, this result has been underpinned by support measures, including superannuation withdrawals and jobkeeper and jobseeker payments.

Which have been stimulating much of the retail spend around the country in recent months. Of course in hard-hit locations like Victoria, and CBD locations due to not having tourists and people working from home, retailers are not tracking well at all. We are starting to see the emergence of a two-tiered or two-speed economy, those recovering and those continuing to suffer. It’s very concerning to imagine what will happen when the effect of these support measures wear off.

Updated at 4.10am BST

4.08am BST

On why Paul Zahra believes stimulus should continue:

Retail performances is a truth bellwether for the economy. A retail failure is highly visible, we can see the impact of the store closure on street police.

There’s a for lease sign every day. A retail failure is emotional, we miss our conversations with that shop floor staff member. They know more about our lives than our friends do.

We’ll worry if they’ll be OK, if their family will be OK. We question what it means for the broader community if that business was such a staple in our world can fail, what does it mean for other businesses?

It hits our confidence, our consumer confidence, and ultimately our mental health. Everything is interlinked. Confidence and certainty are intrinsically linked to spending, spending is intrinsically linked to jobs.

These jobs and job losses affect young people, many who earn a living while studying to secure their future. They affect women, who find the part-time and casual opportunities align with their family responsibilities.

They affect older workers and those left out of other opportunities. And they affect hundreds of thousands of other Australians in the retail supply chain. Every dollar given in social security is spent.

Every dollar spent in retail gives someone a job. From sales staff to manufacturer, to the truck driver delivering the goods. One person’s spending is another person’s income. We need this spending to continue.

Updated at 5.06am BST

4.07am BST

Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra has just delivered his speech:

The pandemic has highlighted the impact of the retail sector, the pandemic has given all Australians an understanding of the power of retail, and its impact on our economic fortunes.

The $325bn retail sector is our largest private sector employer, employing an estimated 1.2 million Australians, that’s one in 10 Australian workers. Beyond the macronumbers, it has shown us how the personal relationship is between Australians and retailers.

Retail workers are on the frontlines of the Australian economy. From the supermarket worker to the pharmacist, from our local gift shop operator to our favourite shoe store, these essential workers have bravely served us and have kept us fed, clothed and entertained.

They were the first faces we saw, welcoming us on the other side of lockdowns. They were our first return to normal life. Unfortunately in Victoria, in the coming weeks, amongst the first signs of the economic collapse.

Updated at 5.13am BST

4.05am BST

Back to the Asio tip I put in a few posts back:

Police currently dealing with a situation outside ASIO’s headquarters in Canberra @abcnews @abccanberra pic.twitter.com/hiPkhWZ8j6
— Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) September 9, 2020

4.04am BST

Greg Hunt has also announced new measures “to help provide increased protection to help reduce the number of healthcare workers being infected with COVID-19”

Firstly, a new partnership has been established between the Infection Control Expert Group (ICEG) and the National COVID-19 Evidence Taskforce led by the Living Guidelines Consortium.

With so much evidence emerging so quickly, this partnership will bring together Australia’s leading infection control practitioners, many of whom are frontline clinicians, with other senior healthcare workers, to review the latest evidence on infection prevention and control during COVID-19.

The partnership will contribute to national infection control guidance by providing consensus guidelines on specific infection control issues that have emerged during COVID-19.

Secondly, the AHPPC has endorsed an expansion of national surveillance of healthcare worker infection to ensure we have a better understanding of COVID-19 among healthcare workers at the state and territory level.

This will provide more information on the type of healthcare workers who are becoming infected and enable state and territory governments to target their investigations and interventions based on national-level data.

Thirdly, the Australian Government has funded a new network of epidemiologists – or “disease detectives”. These ‘COVID-NET’ epidemiologists will be available on request by state and territory public health units to assist investigating healthcare worker outbreaks. They will also gather and analyse data on healthcare worker infection at a national level.

4.02am BST

Chris Richardson gets to the nub of the issue – as an economist – on why the unemployment benefit needs to be permanently increase:

Right now we need certainty more than ever. And providing certainty around that will be vital.

But that’s not the only reason that the arrival of the virus has strengthened the case for a stronger unemployment benefit going forward.

Number one, we used to have 5% unemployment. Now we have 10% or about to be 10% unemployment.

If this was Australia’s largest fairness fail as a nation and we addressed it front on at the start of this crisis, right, if it goes back to the $40 a day, it’s going to be twice as bad, because it’s going to be affecting the incomes of twice as many people.

Number 2, ironically an extra dollar spent on unemployment benefits will be better than you have ever seen it creating jobs. Because the economy is in so much trouble.

That dollar will do much more work. And the last point, and again, something that people I think haven’t noticed, right, postcode by postcode, suburb by suburb, town by town, this crisis hit hard where we already had the highest rates of unemployment.

We’ve had the most, relatively the most job losses where unemployment was already the highest. That means our - particular regions are doing it really, really tough, and an extra dollar of unemployment benefit does double duty.

It does extra heavy lifting at the moment as the best targeted most effective regional spending we can do. So there’s a great case.

Updated at 5.12am BST

3.58am BST

And another sidenote, it looks like there has been some sort of “incident” at the Asio building in Canberra. I understand the AFP police will release a statement soonish.

Updated at 4.03am BST

3.57am BST

Just stepping away from the National Press Club for a moment, as Greg Hunt has made a statement on the pause of the AstraZeneca vaccine trial:

Health Minister @GregHuntMP statement on COVID-19 Vaccine Development #auspol pic.twitter.com/7ciTTVa5rA
— Political Alert (@political_alert) September 9, 2020

Updated at 4.04am BST

3.55am BST

Chris Richardson on why the government needs to spend big:

If the Reserve Bank is already essentially on the sidelines, that says government, government decisions are – they are making a bigger difference for us than at any time you have ever seen.

And so far, sew beautifully well. It’s incredibly important to understand, we do need governments to keep going, right? To go hard and to go smart.

You want governments to do smart, you want our governments to take on reforms, right, and again, many different things, but let’s rise to another challenge in this year of challenge.

Why do you want reforms? Because they can make the Australian economy, Australian prosperity, grow faster and that creates more jobs faster.

And that’s something we owe to younger Australians for the battle they have been in, and lost their jobs. And go hard as well. Go hard is to keep spending.

And again, sure, people are worried about the debt, don’t forget, debt has never been cheaper, cheap as chips. The actual cost of this fight for our lives and livelihoods is much, much less than you think it is.

You really, really want governments to keep spending in this current crisis. Never have the dollars done greater good than right now.

Updated at 3.57am BST

3.53am BST

And then moving forward, here is the crux - Chris Richardson on what is coming:

Of course this story is far from over. 2020 has been a war for our health.

The next war is a war for our jobs. And a war for health is – has many beneficiaries, but perhaps older Australians, we’re protecting older Australians. The next battle, the battle for jobs, particularly will be about a battle for younger Australians. And both entirely vital. These are battles we need to fight. As a nation. But it will be tough, right?

The battle against the virus is a sprint. Both history and economics tell us the battle for jobs is going to be a marathon and a tougher marathon than anything you have lived through.

Because this is the first time you have lived through a recession and recovery in Australia in which the Reserve Bank is basically doing everything it can do. If the Reserve Bank is already essentially on the sidelines, that says government, government decisions are - they are making a bigger difference for us than at any time you have ever seen.

Updated at 3.58am BST

3.51am BST

Chris Richardson continues:

People have misunderstood what it happening right now.

And I am desperate to get this thought across. The higher debt is incredibly obvious and newsworthy. We’re not really remembering that the truth impact of this is a combination of the debt and how much it costs.

The interest rates.

And although debt is going up a lot, interest rates have gone down even more.

And they’re set to stay down as the Reserve Bank has promised us for at least three years. I would say, nailed to the floor for longer for that.

And that means something really important. Treasury updated its budget numbers six weeks ago. I’m a sad loser of a human being, I got to page 60, right, and the chart there.

And that chart said something that is no surprise. But I suspect will surprise a bunch of people. The cost of interest, the amount of interest the federal government is paying right now is headed down. Down in absolute – down as a share of the economy. In fact, the lowest that we’ve seen in the better part of a decade.

Why? Because interest rates have fallen so spectacularly. The defence of our lives and our livelihoods is a lot cheaper, this is a great investment, the investment point Cassandra was making, it’s a great investment and it’s a lot cheaper than you think and even better, we began this, we entered this crisis with a beautiful asset sitting in our back pocket.

We had a decade or more of toxic arguments, many of them in this room, but how to repair our budget, but as a nation we did rise to the challenge.

We entered this crisis with a healthy budget and lower government debt than most other nations around the world.

And that has been perhaps the hidden asset we noticed the least through this.

Updated at 3.58am BST

3.49am BST

Chris Richardson:

Of course, defending our lives and our livelihoods does not come cheap. And in any other circumstances, I would be worried about all the spending that we’re doing.

But I am absolutely not worried about what we’re doing today. Every taxpayer dollar is precious, right? It’s really important what we do and don’t do with it. But you have never lived through a moment in which a dollar of taxpayer money is doing greater good out in the Australian economy right now, protecting lives, protecting livelihoods.

And some people worry about the debt and I absolutely, absolutely understand it and ordinarily I would be worrying about it too.

But that’s the point, this is not an ordinary economy.

3.47am BST

Chris Richardson from Deloittes is up next.

There’s enough evidence already in place to say that so far there’s a pretty simple conclusion to be drawn. Protecting lives, protecting livelihoods, turns out to be the same thing. The nations that are having the most success at protecting lives are also the ones having the most success at protecting livelihoods. That’s not rocket science.

If people are scared, if families are scared, if businesses are scared, they’re not spending as much and the damage to economies is deeper.

And Australia recognised that early and fought on both fronts early and has been doing very well.

3.46am BST

Cassandra Goldie:

That’s why Acoss firmly opposes the stage two and stage three person income tax cuts even more in the face of this recession. Costing $12bn, the stage two tax cuts will offer to people on six-digit salaries, who have jobs, up to $50 per week.

But if you’re on a low or modest income, if you’re lucky, you may get $5. Giving dollars, this proposal would give dollars to people most likely to save the extra dollars, and giving to people who probably need it the least.

The good news is that delivering a permanent adequate increase to jobseeker provides income support to people who need it, and who are most likely to be spending it, delivering on supporting jobs and the economy as well.

Updated at 3.59am BST

3.45am BST

Cassandra Goldie:

There is no way that the community sector will be able to deliver, will be able to respond to the scale of financial distress and the human price that would be paid if we don’t fix JobSeeker for good, and extend income support to people living here in Australia on temporary visas.

Cutting income support from those who need it the most would be a dangerous mistake on every front. And including for jobs.

For while people on higher incomes are right now saving because they can afford to do so, people on lower incomes are spending on the essentials of life, data from alphabeta shows from January to June this year, people on 100,000 or more had cut their spending by up to 8%.

But over the same period, people on low and modest incomes had increased their spending, in some cases, by up to 23% on the essentials they need.

3.44am BST

Cassandra Goldie continues:

The cuts to income support currently scheduled to occur in 15 days’ time and at the end of December will worsen - there is no question - the already mounting mental health and housing crisis the country faces.

Just as Anglicare showed just last week, even with the doubling of JobSeeker, just 1% of rental properties are affordable for single people, and we know the big pressure now in the housing situation is for low income housing.

Prices are going up as people try to find an affordable place to live. One of the best protectors of people’s mental health is to deliver basic financial security.

Right now, all over Australia, there are young people, parents, people with disability, older people, families, migrants, people from all walks of life, who are deeply distressed about how they will cope.

And I know some are watching this broadcast today, including those of you who are locked down in Victoria, helping to keep us safe. We must all do everything we can now to support your voices to be heard.

3.43am BST

Cassandra Goldie from the Australian Council of Social Services was speaking on jobseeker:

Overnight, for the first time in decades, people hit by unemployment in Australia could finally cover the basics. The essentials of life. And I want every member of the federal parliament to know just how extraordinary that change has been for people affected.

Thousands have been sharing with us what that $550 has meant to them, to bring a smile.

What a difference that increase has made to their lives. As Karen told us just recently, “I can finally afford decent fresh food, meat, I can pay for petrol, I can get my car fixed. I can afford the medications I need. My son can go to school with decent school lunches. I am no longer skipping meals to ensure that my son eats. But most of all, I can afford to live in a decent place I can call home.”

But she goes on. “If the government takes this away, my family will suffer again.

And others tell us they are terrified of what is just around the corner.

As of today, the increase to JobSeeker is not permanent, unless the Federal Government acts, in just 15 days’ time, more than 2 million people, job seekers and parents, face a devastating cut, first of all $300 per fortnight, to their already sparse incomes.

Then at the end of December, jobseeker will go back to $40 a day, unless the federal government acts. When we predict that unemployment will be 10%.

And in many cases, in many location, much higher. One million children will be affected by these cuts if the federal government does not act. And I want to remind everyone today, right now, around Australia, there are more than one million people who have been completely excluded from income support.

Migrant workers, overseas students, people seeking asylum, part of workforces, part of communities, contributing to this country, left completely behind in a truly desperate situation.

Updated at 3.59am BST

3.36am BST

National Press Club speakers on 'rebuilding from crisis'

The National Press Club is hearing from three speakers today.

Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra.

ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie.

Deloitte Access Economics’ Chris Richardson.

All three are talking about “rebuilding from crisis – the economic and social case for household and business certainly”.

Updated at 4.00am BST

3.25am BST

Labor’s Linda Burney was on ABC radio this morning, in Michael McCormack’s neck of the woods, where she was asked about jobseeker:

No, I really reject that idea that it’s too generous. And also reject the view that it is – the amount of jobseeker is stopping people from applying for jobs. There are lots of reasons about why some vacancies do exist, but we do know – and these numbers are very real – is that it is much more difficult to get a job in the regions than it is in the cities. In the cities, the average is that there are about 13 positions – sorry, 13 jobseeker for every position. But when you go to regional Australia, on average, there’s about 28 people on jobseeker for every single position.

...The amount will be reduced come the end of this month. I think it’s going back to an additional $250 over the base rate of the old Newstart. We do know that the danger – or what Labor is calling for from the government is a permanent increase to the rate of jobseeker. And that should be announced immediately so that people can actually plan for their future. We know that the old amount of Newstart which was about $40 a day was an absolute disincentive for people finding work.

The point that you raise about individual areas like meat works and fruit picking there are – it is much more complex than saying that jobseeker is too generous. Jobseeker is not too generous, in fact, the government needs to increase the base rate permanently.

And on those who don’t want to go fruit picking, for example?

Burney:

Well, I understand that a lot of the fruit picking – people who pick fruit are people who come in for seasonal work from other countries and obviously that’s very difficult at the moment, and many people that are on particular visas also pick fruit. And that’s also extremely difficult at the moment with Covid-19.

So the idea that just because you’re on jobseeker that you can uproot your family and yourself and go to a regional area is not a practical one.

And I do think that there is reasons that some industries that can’t find enough workers, they need to look at their industries, they need to be talking to the government, which does not have, in my view, a jobs plan.

There has been so many cutbacks, particularly in regions, of universities; of infrastructure projects; of things like TAFE courses. I mean, you would be seeing that in Wagga and right across the Riverina.

Updated at 3.31am BST

3.17am BST

Alan Jones is the latest speaker announced at the Conservative conference, CPAC.

Jones “hates to put it as bluntly as this, but the country is in a mess ... but this is the mess you get into, if you want to allow politicians to control your lives”.

He joins some of Australia’s greatest thinkers, including Craig Kelly, Mark Latham and Daisy Cousens.

Updated at 3.20am BST

3.12am BST

Another 2 NDIS participants test positive for Covid in Victoria

Another 2 people who participate in the NDIS have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

(The cumulative total is 23)

Updated at 4.44am BST

3.08am BST

OK.

Going back and taking a look at some of the other breaking news from that press conference – the ABS stats on job losses, it is clear to see that those with more than one job have suffered the most.

That is our most insecure and vulnerable workers – people who needed two or more jobs to make ends meet.

We know that has been happening for quite some time. When I was in Caboolture for the Longman byelection (doesn’t that seem like another world) I spoke to people who were worried about people losing their second or third jobs – which would have tumbled them well below the poverty line, instead of hovering just under it.

Secondary jobs fell by almost 20% in the June quarter. These workers are less likely to be covered by jobkeeper.

Main jobs fell by 5.5%.

If you couldn’t make ends meet with just one job BEFORE the pandemic, you have almost Buckley’s of making it work now.

This is just another of the hidden crises within the unemployment and job data. And why cuts to the social safety net rate will have such a huge impact.

Updated at 3.11am BST

3.02am BST

On the future of jobkeeper and jobseeker for Victorians, given the lockdown is continuing (the rate is to be tapered from the end of this month) Daniel Andrews makes a comment which seems to be for an audience of one – Scott Morrison:

I will be having some conversations with the prime minister later on this week and it is best that I have those conversations with him rather than broadcasting my message. I don’t think that necessarily achieves anything. I am not interested in – at all – at all in the politics of this. I am just not. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. Politics is of no use in the fight against this virus. That has always been my view and that won’t be changing.

Updated at 3.11am BST

3.00am BST

Is there any more information on the impact these lockdowns are having on Victorians’ mental health?

Daniel Andrews:

I will come back to you on the mental health demand. We made some announcements recently in terms of a significant boost to further fast-track some of the interim recommendations of the royal commission.

That was everything from counselling services for high-prevalence disorders that are of a lower level all the way through to some more acute mental health beds.

There are a number of different groups, some people who are experiencing mental illness for the first time, some people who have a mental health condition and it has been made worse by the situation we find ourselves in. We are trying to make investments in all those different areas.

I can come back to you on – in terms of the kind of demand trends but I haven’t had a spike or any step change brought to my attention in recent days. In terms of financial assistance, economic support, I will make those announcements soon.

Updated at 3.05am BST

2.58am BST

Again on today’s numbers:

This number is higher than yesterday, but the trend is with us. The numbers are falling, we are getting down to very small numbers. We have got to be smaller before we can safely open up and stay open.

That is the key here. There is simply no benefit for anyone – unless a restaurant can do a year’s worth of work in three weeks, it doesn’t make any sense.

Being open for just a few weeks and then being closed again, that is not a strategy. It could be popular for a short while but that is not my concern.

Whether I’m criticised or I am praised, this is about doing it right thing, not doing what is political or popular. If that is – that’s just the way it is. I am trying to be as frank and clear as I possibly can be.

Updated at 3.06am BST

2.57am BST

We have seen the mid-week numbers tend to skew higher when it comes to Victoria’s case number – why?

Daniel Andrews:

You are right to point out there are patterns and trend throughout the week. I don’t think this is at odds with that. The second point is that percentages can be a little misleading when you get down to numbers that are as small as this.

We will get to a point where to go from one case to two would be a statistical jump when in fact it isn’t.

As the numbers get smaller, as the strategy works, we have just got to be careful about how we measure that. The other thing is we have 14-day averages for a valid reason. It is about finding a trend over a 14-day period, not pinning every setting and all your hopes on one particular day.

Given all the variables that we know, so that is why, if I can make point further to [a previous] point, when we get further into this and we have to make judgments on the 13th and 14th day of a 14-day period, if there is an outbreak, if there is a report, a spike in cases on that given day, or in the two or three days before the end of that relevant interval, then we would look at the unique circumstances of those and we would have to make a judgement about how confident we are that we have essentially contained it to just those people.

That’s the common sense that goes along with this all the way through.

If there was another way that didn’t absolutely make it likely – in fact more than likely that we had to lock down again, I would have chosen that path and everyone would be happier and we wouldn’t be having this sort of debate.

I want to be clear with all Victorians, the notion of some other far easier, far quicker opening up was not an option, it wasn’t an option. If it had been we would have chosen it. That is just the fact of these things.

Updated at 2.59am BST

2.53am BST

And again, on the modelling debate:

As I have said to you, though, we have an amazing medical and scientific community in this state. I am very proud of them. I know many of the people who have a very different view to me and a big team.

It is not just one doctor or one premier, it is lots of people who have worked to deliver that model and lots of other modelling along the way. The key point is you can have differences of opinion, that is fine but at some point you have to call time and say we can’t have an endless debate about the inputs into a model.

This is live, it is not a trial. It is not an academic paper or a doctoral thesis. It is a strategy in safe and steady steps to get the place open, with as little risk as possible that we have to close it down again.

That will be informed – and another thing, they are not stone tablets, it is not static. It will be updated, rerun and assumptions we have made will be able to be replaced with actuals – real case numbers, as well as the impacts of different behaviours as they change in real terms, particularly given that some parts of the state, particularly regional Victoria, will be well and truly ahead of the settings here in metro.

A woman poses in from of a mural in Port Melbourne. Photograph: Speed Media/REX/Shutterstock

Updated at 2.58am BST

2.48am BST

He is asked that question again, because he didn’t really answer it.

Daniel Andrews:

It is very important that we choose our language carefully. It would seem some in the community – some are of the view that a conservative approach using your use of that term is somehow a bad thing. Do it, open up, stay open.

There is only one way to get to that point. Trying to wing it, trying to say “Look, the model says there is a 65% chance we will be closed again”, that is a 40% chance we won’t be, so “Let’s go with that”.

I don’t think anybody would be particularly pleased, if faced with that modelling, I had made a different choice, albeit a more popular choice but just like the opening up, I don’t think the popularity, if you were someone who was guided by that, it wouldn’t last very long because you would have to stand here and say “Even though the modelling told me I shouldn’t have done it, I yielded and we opened up and now I have to shut you down”.

Updated at 2.56am BST

2.47am BST

Are the assumptions being used in the modelling right? What about if there were improvements in contact tracing? Did the modelling take into account that (we still haven’t seen the modelling)

Daniel Andrews:

You need to make assumptions that you can have high degrees of confidence and get to the point that you are predicting. But you also need, I think, to appreciate that as case numbers come down, while the task is, in a manual sense, in the number of hours worked, it gets easier but the margin for error becomes almost zero.

So if you are chasing my numbers anyone to keep them low, then your margin for error almost isn’t one, so you have to balance all those factors together.

The exact inputs into any model, though, I just want Victorians to be clear, it’s not like I sat down and pretended that I was a data scientist.

We have a very large team of people who are putting together what they believe is a roadmap for a dependable, fair representation of many different things that are variable, that is the nature of modelling.

That is why it is not one input or 50 inputs, it is 1000 different factors programmed in but it speaks directly to the point I been trying to make the last few days, that the actual beat assumptions every day, database modelling every day.

That is why as every day passes, there is by absolute, there is no question, that there is reassessment, reappraisal, we don’t run the modelling again every day because it takes a day to run, but we will put in batches of data, actual data and that will then test how accurate some of the assumptions we made were and are.

2.45am BST

Did Daniel Andrews present a “worse case scenario”?

Andrews:

Some people have chosen to use that phrasing (Bill Shorten among them) and I’ve made the point that the worst-case scenario has been open just for a few weeks and then being closed again, that is what I regard as the worst case.

However, if we had done differently, and we had said let’s assume what could be argued to be unrealistic improvement, not just on that area but in any area, then your question would be how confident are you that you can deliver those improvements?

You always have to have, I think, Conservative is not the right word, you have to have a realistic approach to these things.

There is always more out there than you think. With so much community transmission, you know what you know and there will be mysteries out there, that is the nature of mystery cases and some of those will never be closed out and some you will never be able to track back with any degree of certainty to say this is no longer a mystery case, I can attribute this to the following circumstances, the following setting, the following groups of people.

You have to be realistic and cautious.

Because unless you are prepared to say let’s chase what is more popular and let’s just spend all of 2021 bouncing in and out of lockdowns, that is the only way you can go.

Updated at 2.55am BST

2.42am BST

Are the lower case numbers linked to lower testing numbers?

Daniel Andrews:

I don’t have exact data now but the percentage positive cases to test taken, that is the real key.

See because the testing numbers dropped so low that you are finding so many positives and that’s when you know that you are not testing enough people.

We have remained above the threshold is, we remain above the WHO threshold as well in terms of how many people you should be testing to get a decent picture, but at the same time you have testing that is about finding individual cases and sentinel testing, which is about trying to give you a picture of is there something you are missing beyond the anyone person?

And then you have the other stuff in terms of wastewater which gives you an aggregate picture beyond that.

I have no advice, that these numbers, the test numbers are at a point where we do not believe they are a reliable proxy for how many cases are actually out there but having said that, what we know is that not every single person has symptoms is coming forward and getting tested and perhaps we cannot ever achieve that. We also know that with a number of people there will be no symptoms hardly at all, or symptoms so mild that you cannot even register them.

They are the asymptomatic positive you can be particularly infectious, and they neither infectious, and that are some of the other challenges we face, it is silent, all too silent and I think we all know how fast moving it can be.

Updated at 2.54am BST

2.41am BST

Is the plan too hard and fast?

Daniel Andrews:

It is eight clear roadmap of safe and steady steps but for instance, we have not put a date on when regional Victoria will take its next step or steps, and we did not subset regional Victoria into 10 different regions because we knew it would not be six or eight weeks, they are on the cusp, they are on the cusp of those targets now.

Community transmission is obviously an issue as well, you have to make sure you don’t have any of those, but regional Victoria will be able to take a step and maybe two, quite soon.

But we have to be ready for that with workplace safety plans, with all the enforcement that has to go on to make sure we are not, again, for the purposes of being popular, letting people go back to something approaching Covid-19 normal, only to find that we have cases and have a problem.

That is a difficult balance and the tail of this is stubborn but the lag, what I do today, I and the rest of Victoria will not see the impact of, the problem potentially of, for 10-14 days, that is the other wicked nature of the thing.

2.40am BST

Back to Victoria, and Daniel Andrews is being asked about the criticism of the modelling he is using to extend the lockdown.

Models work with data - what data you put in, can determine what you get out.

Did the models take into account a gentler approach?

Andrews:

We have an amazing scientific and medical community in Melbourne and across the state and if you have 100 in a room they would come up with at least 100 views and may come up with something they agree on and many they do not.

At some point, this is not a university exercise, it’s not an academic exercise, it’s not a doctoral thesis, even though it may be the third or fourth one, at some point you have to call and say right, this is the plan, let’s get the job done otherwise you would literally have an ongoing almost endless academic and theoretical debate.

This is not a controlled trial.

This is life. It is happening and at some point you have to make the call. Now, having said that though, we have been critically that actual assumptions.

Data, actual real data, beats modelling every single time. As every day passes, we input real data, real change of transmission, patterns, any other information we have got and the model that we will run and run and rerun again and if we see a step change, if we see a stubbornness that is more significant than we thought then of course reserve the right to go and say OK, what the epidemiology of each individual case, noting that an outbreak in one household that you reckon has got completely locked down, it could be six cases but it’s not the same as three or four mystery cases in three different parts of Melbourne that at least one other case for each of them, maybe two, and a whole network of close contacts.

So, the modelling helps you make a decision but then you monitor in real-time, and the actual data will always trump any assumptions that you have put into the modelling.

2.37am BST

Almost a million jobs lost between March and June quarters

We have all felt this, but the ABS has confirmed it:

Total filled jobs fell by 6.4 per cent and hours worked fell by 9.8 per cent between the March and June quarters, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, Bjorn Jarvis, said: “The Labour Account provides the most comprehensive measure of total job losses during the COVID-19 period – a fall of around 932,000 jobs. This echoes what we have previously seen in falls of employment in Labour Force Survey data and changes in jobs in the indexed payroll data.”

The record decrease in filled jobs followed a small decrease of 0.1 per cent in the March quarter. The decrease between March and June was more pronounced in the private sector (down 7.1 per cent), compared to the public sector (down 1.9 per cent).

The number of secondary jobs in the labour market decreased by 19.6 per cent, with the rate of multiple job holding falling to 4.9 per cent of all employed people (from around 6.0 per cent prior to the COVID-19 period).

The number of job vacancies decreased by 42.1 per cent over the quarter, and was down 43.3 per cent on June quarter 2019. Vacant jobs accounted for 0.96 per cent of all jobs in the June quarter, the lowest since March 2002.

“In line with the impact seen in other indicators, the largest declines in hours worked since the March quarter were in the Accommodation and food services industry, down 36.0 per cent, and Arts and recreation industry, down 35.5 per cent,” Mr Jarvis said.

2.34am BST

On compliance, the premier says:

On the level of compliance and people staying the course, we have seen some particularly selfish behaviour from some people and I will make the point as I have many times, it is unfair, it is wrong to look at the behaviour of some and use that in any way to take away from the amazing job that the vast, majority of Victorians are doing.

It is possible to be angry, to be frustrated but deep down to know that the only way out of this is to follow the rules and I think many Victorians are doing just that.

They are doing the right thing, playing a massive part in our collective fight against this but at the same time, they’re not pleased to do it.

I have tried to acknowledge that as frankly and as often as I can. No-one’s pleased to be under these rules but opening up for a short time and then not being able to stay open, that won’t do much for anger levels or our fight against the virus either is point I am making. I don’t get a sense that people are not following the rules.

People know and understand, as difficult and challenging as - it is by no means the preferred predicament to find yourself in but you can’t ignore the reality that we face. That is no answer.

2.33am BST

On persuading the majority to come along with the plan, Daniel Andrews says:

This is not normal. That is the first thing and this is not a political discussion. It is just not. Politics has never been less important to me and the fight that we are all in. If your party allegiance, if your frustration, if your anger, if your sense of weariness with the predicament we’re in were effective in fighting this virus, that would be a terrific thing. It isn’t.

2.32am BST

And the anger about the roadmap?

Daniel Andrews:

All I say to people is if anger and frustration were like a vaccine against this virus, then we would all be in a much better position.

I just say to people, the notion that I have chosen this way to go and there were 50 other options I could have chosen, that’s not in any way accurate.

We would all like to be open tomorrow. Myself included.

But to do that is not an act of leadership, that is to cave to some of the pressure that is there, to be driven by anger instead of the epidemiology, to be driven by opinion instead of science and data and doctors.

That is not what I’m about. What it will mean, as I have said to you collectively many, many times, and I’ll continue to say to Victorians, the worst case scenario here is being open for two or three weeks and then I am here not reporting 70 or 50 or 30 cases,

I am reporting 200 and 300 and 400, it has gone again.

The thing about it is this: Just like anger and frustration is not a vaccine against this, although I understand why people are frustrated and angry, I am not criticising people for that.

On the issue of contact tracing is not a vaccine either, it is about limiting the spread.

It is not about eliminating the spread. It gets very challenging, particularly when you have large numbers. At smaller numbers, and this is the point around the waste water testing.

The point was made about regional Victoria, absolutely it will be of amazing importance in regional Victoria for a long time. In Melbourne, we will get to a point where the numbers are so low that it will have a similar effect to regional Victoria, not so much in being able to isolate to a small group of suburbs but it will validate that it is still here.

It is on this side of town rather than the other and that will inform us a asymptomatic testing in higher risk work places.

If it is out there and it got into them, abattoirs, for instance, it could take off again or the general warnings about, if you have got symptoms, we have found it in treatment plant X, please go and get tested.

It will have a utility across the whole journey but it will get more and more important the smaller the numbers are.

2.31am BST

On the criticisms of Victoria’s contact tracing, Daniel Andrews says:

I had a detailed conversation with Alan Finkel this morning before coming in for this, about those very issues and whether is it a realistic number at say 75% are closed out, swab to close-out, within 48 hours? Is it 80%, 90%?

It is almost certainly not 100% because there is always a handful of people that you can’t get to for whatever reason. I think that task becomes – it is never easy but it becomes easier the less cases you have and it becomes more important to get the percentage up as high as you can, the less cases you have.

On the metrics that are the agreed national cabinet metrics, every case contacted and interviewed within 24 hours of us being notified and laboratory times have come right to you and we are doing multiple courier runs, so not waiting for a whole day of samples to pile-up and sending them off to the lab.

They are being sent multiple times during the day which has been going on for a while and that finds you hours. So that is in the 90s, that first metric.

There are a number of people that you just can’t find, despite our best efforts, multiple door-knocks and phone calls. Then there is the second category of the close contacts within 48 hours. We are very close to 100%.

My last look at it yesterday, it was 99. Something, so it is a tiny number of people that we can’t make contact with.

Updated at 2.34am BST

2.29am BST

But what does it all mean?

Nick Crosby:

Someone has excreted coronavirus at some stage in the catchment of Apollo Bay. I will defer to health on any significance of that result but as I said, our method is well validated and it means someone at some stage hast excreted coronavirus into the catchment.

2.29am BST

Nick Crosby from Melbourne Water is also there, and talks about the, um, testing process:

It starts principally in the bathroom, right. Many people who are infected will excrete in their stool. It can also be washed off their hands or if they’re using tissues, they might discard them in the toilet. Then there is the timing issue. If there is one person in a catchment, then the sewage makes its way to the treatment plant and then you have to sample it at a certain time to detect that.

In small locations, then the transit time might be as low as 30 minutes. In locations like Melbourne, then it is between eight and 12 hours. But we do mostly use auto sampling which assists us with the sampling, in that we’re sampling over a 24-hour period once an hour and we can posit that into one pool sample.

Updated at 2.35am BST

2.25am BST

Testing commander at DHHS Jeroen Weimar is at the press conference with Daniel Andrews, talking about the sewerage testing:

What we’re doing, we are taking samples at the 25 sample locations to see if there are changes in the level of coronavirus present in the waste water.

Apollo Bay is interesting. It was of the 25 sites the one location where, at the start of the work two weeks ago, there were no positive traces at all of coronavirus because we have had no confirmed cases to date there.

Then, on 1st September we picked up the first positive sign of some traces of coronavirus in the Apollo Bay water catchment and we picked it up again a second time on the 5th of September.

I am grateful to all the residents who have come forward over the last few days to get tested.

We encouraged, as of Friday and Saturday, people to come forward if they had any remote symptoms within that community and I am pleased to say people have come forward over the last few days to do just that.

To date, all the test results have come back, apart from nine of the tests from yesterday, they will have their results later on today - to date, all the tests have come back negative. We continue to implore people if you’re in the Apollo Bay area and you have remote symptoms of coronavirus, please come forward to get tested.

It is yet another one of our ways or tools that we can use to ensure that we maintain a high level of testing across the Victorian community and as the level of cases reduces, as the level of community transmission goes down, we need to be vigilant to look for the remaining cases out there and get to them as quickly as we possibly can.

Updated at 2.27am BST

2.19am BST

Wastewater testing will be rolled out across 25 sites in Victoria, after testing of the wastewater in Apollo Bay found traces of the virus.

People in Apollo Bay are being urged to come forward for testing.

This seems to be a media release about the sewerage testing in Apollo Bay that showed an unidentified car the Premier mentioned on the weekend. Residents there urged to get tested @abcmelbourne #springst pic.twitter.com/WD8J3AMC0l
— Bridget Rollason (@bridgerollo) September 9, 2020

2.16am BST

Five of NSW's new cases linked to Concord hospital

Here is that detail from NSW Health:

There were 20,852 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 12,494 in the previous 24 hours.

Of the nine new cases to 8pm last night:

One is a returned overseas traveller in hotel quarantine
Seven are linked to a known case or cluster
One case from southeastern Sydney has no source identified at this point.

One case attended Tattersalls City Gym, and one is a household contact of a previously reported case linked to the CBD cluster. Both of these cases were isolating. There is now a total of 68 cases linked to the CBD cluster.

Five of the locally acquired cases are linked to Concord Hospital. Two healthcare workers, one patient and two household contacts of the patient.

The two healthcare workers worked at the hospital while potentially infectious but reported having no symptoms while at work and wore personal protective equipment while caring for patients. Contact tracing is underway.

Twelve people associated with Concord and Liverpool have now tested positive for Covid-19, including eight healthcare workers. Investigations into the source of these infections are ongoing.

Non-urgent surgery at Concord has been cancelled until Friday. The hospital will be closed to all visitors from 8am today (Wednesday 9 September) until 10am Friday 11 September to enable deep cleaning of all wards.

Following a boarding student at Kincoppal Rose Bay School testing positive to Covid-19, 100 students have been identified as close contacts – not all boarders as previously reported. All close contacts, including teachers and students, have been placed into quarantine. The school has been cleaned and the boarding facility remains open to some year groups.

As a number of boarding facility staff have been quarantined due to close contact with the case, there is reduced capacity to supervise students in the boarding facility. This has resulted in some year groups having to return home.

Cases attended the following venues while infectious. Anyone who attended at the following times is considered to be a close contact and is being directed to get tested and isolate for 14 days. They must stay isolated for the entire period, even if a negative test result is received:

Albion Hotel, Parramatta Beer Garden and Pavilion, on Saturday 5 September between 8.15pm - 11.15pm for at least an hour.
The Crocodile Farm Hotel, Ashfield on Friday 4 September between 5.30pm - 6.30pm for at least an hour.
The New Shanghai Night restaurant, Ashfield on Friday 4 September between 6.30pm -8pm for at least an hour.

NSW Health is also directly contacting patrons identified as close contacts at these venues. Patrons who were there for less than an hour at these times are considered casual contacts and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop and remain in isolation until they receive a negative result.

Anyone who attended the following venues or travelled on these trains at the following dates and times are considered a casual contact and 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:

Macquarie Shopping Centre, including Food Court, Coco Tea, Myer, Time Zone and Tommy Gun’s Barbershop, on Saturday 5 September from 2:00pm - 5:00pm.
The Railway Hotel, Liverpool on Friday 4 September from 10:00pm - 11:30pm.
T1/T9 North Shore Line on 7 September between 9:17 - 9:29am from Milson’s Point to St Leonards
T1/T9 North Shore Line on 7 September between 9:53 - 10:14am from St Leonard’s to Milsons Point

Updated at 2.51am BST

2.12am BST

Daniel Andrews tells media work permits will need to be reissued. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Daniel Andrews on work permits:

Permits will need to be reissued over the next few weeks as the dates on them expire.

There will be some further advice put up on the website later today but employers will be able to use the template that they already have.

They can simply amend the dates on it and reissue based on those steps.

We will – and the different categories that different industries find themselves in, we will have further guidance – we have tried to reduce the administrative burden as much as possible but if those permits are going to be accurate and effective, particularly for the purposes of curfew, they do need to be reissued.

When it comes to childcare permits, those didn’t have a date on them and there is still a couple of weeks to run in terms of the likely shift, we hope, once we reach the 30-50 case trigger in metropolitan Melbourne.

These were not dated, so there will not be a need to reissue those.

They will be live and current for as long as they need to be.

If we could find a way where employers didn’t need to reissue permits and still have them valid and a degree of formality with them.

They need to be contemporary and represent who is working and the circumstances under which they are working so police have the clearest and easiest sense of who should be out and about, who can be out and about after curfew, therefore they need to be remade.

There will be further advice on the website later today.

Updated at 2.28am BST

2.10am BST

On the rolling seven-day average, Daniel Andrews says:

The metropolitan 14-day rolling average is 74.5. The regional Victorian rolling average is five cases. That means across the board it is an 80.8 average across both regional and metro Melbourne.

Updated at 2.19am BST

2.08am BST

Colac has 30 active cases (five new).

Greater Geelong has 15 active cases (one new).

Greater Bendigo has just two active cases .

Ballarat has no active cases.

Updated at 2.19am BST

2.06am BST

There are just 82 cases of Covid in regional Victoria- seven new cases today in the regions, but numbers overall in the regions are staying low.

2.05am BST

Daniel Andrews press conference

There have been almost double the amount of tests in Victoria as yesterday, when there were just over 8000 tests. Today it is just over 16,000.

Daniel Andrews:

I can confirm there are 19,688 aggregate confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria. That is 76 new cases since yesterday. There have been 694 Victorians who have passed away because of this virus, an increase of 11 since yesterday’s report.

One female in their 60s, three females and two males in their 80s, three females and two males in their 90s.

We send our best wishes and sincere condolences to each of those 11 families nine of those 11 deaths are linked to outbreaks in aged care.

There are 196 Victorians who are currently in hospital. 20 of those are receiving intensive care and 12 of those 20 are on a ventilator.

Updated at 2.16am BST

2.04am BST

NSW records nine new cases of Covid

Nine new cases of Covid have been recorded in NSW in the last 24 hours. I’ll get more detail on those in just a moment.

Gladys Berejiklian is holding her press conference – NSW will be manufacturing its own ventilators now – and will also have capacity to export the ventilators to other countries in the region.

Berejiklian renews calls to business to tell them if there is something NSW could be manufacturing:

Don’t be afraid to tell us if you want some help in retooling what you’re doing. If you want to start a supply chain that may not exist in New South Wales, if you want to start manufacturing something we may not do, let us know

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has told businesses to tell her government if they need help retooling for manutacturing. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Updated at 2.21am BST

1.55am BST

Australia’s domestic intelligence agency has refused to confirm or deny reports in Chinese state media that agents questioned Chinese journalists and searched their property in late June.

The claims were published overnight amid fallout over the plight of two Australian journalists who arrived back home yesterday after a diplomatic standoff over a push by Chinese security officials to question them and temporarily block their exit.

It also comes after Cheng Lei, an Australian citizen and business journalist for the Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, was taken into secretive detention in China in mid-August.

The Chinese embassy in Canberra posted a link on its website to an article in the Global Times – a nationalistic state media outlet - that said an Australian intelligence agency “recently raided the residences of Chinese journalists in Australia, and questioned them, seized their computers and smartphones, and asked them not to report the incident”.

The article attributed the claims to “a source close to the matter” and accused Australia of displaying hypocrisy in upholding freedom of the press. The article referred to the episode as a “serious political incident” that was “poisoning relations” between the two countries.

Another state media outlet, Xinhua, said the journalists were interrogated for several hours on 26 June – the same day the Australian federal police – as part of a joint investigation with Asio - raided the Sydney home of the New South Wales upper house Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane over alleged foreign interference.

A third outlet, China News Agency, said four journalists from three Chinese media organisations in Australia were questioned over alleged breaches of foreign influence transparency laws.

When approached by Guardian Australia seeking confirmation of the details, a spokesperson for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said: “As is long-standing practice, Asio does not comment on intelligence matters.”

The AFP referred enquiries to Asio.

1.51am BST

Scott Morrison had a chat to Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, on the phone last night.

Abe is stepping down – his party is holding a presidential style election to find his successor – most likely to be chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga

The call between the two leaders was described as “very warm” by the notes, and Morrison wished Abe, “a true friend of Australia” all the best with his health, thanking him for his “deep friendship, leadership and vision, which have elevated Australia-Japan ties to new heights, embodied in our Special Strategic Partnership”.

Abe thanked Morrison and “echoed [Morrison’s] sentiments about the wreath-laying in Darwin, that it would be a moment they never forget”.

Morrison told Abe “he was widely acknowledged as the region’s senior statesman, and that he had regarded PM Abe as a mentor who had guided his understanding of the strategic challenges in the Indo-Pacific.”

Updated at 2.01am BST

1.43am BST

Joel Fitzgibbon had a chat to Canberra radio 2CC about Anthony Albanese’s upcoming speech. He also had a chat about what a post-Covid Australian economy was going to look like, in terms of manufacturing in Australia:

I think Covid-19 is going to going to be a bit of a wake-up call to, not only on the jobs front but of course on the self-sufficiency front. And I’ve made the point many times, in defence we pay a premium for local content here in Australia, because we think there is good reasons to do so. And I think there’ll be some rethinking, or at least I hope there will be, in a number of other areas. Our problem of course is that, you know, when we build a frigate, we might build four of them. In the United States, they build a frigate, and they’ll build 100 more, and another 100 more to export, so they’ve got those economies of scale that we lack here in Australia. But it can’t be just about the economic textbook, it’s got to be about the Australian interest and self-sufficiency. And again, I do believe there’ll be a bit of a rethink and that will be a welcome thing.

And then the shadow agricultural minister was asked if he would eat meat grown in a lab:

Yeah, I would. And I was a bit surprised by a survey suggesting young people aren’t all that keen because I’ve always worked with the theory that while it seems like an abnormal thing for old blokes like me and you – sorry Stephen – to do, my grandkids or great grandkids will not know any different, and therefore won’t challenge or question the idea.

They will have grown up with it so I think it will come and it will be a very, very important development, globally, not just here in Australia because I’m no Greenie as you know, Stephen, but we probably can’t grow the global animal herd for slaughter, much bigger – or maybe even sustain the current levels – in an environmentally sustainable way.

So, this will be an important means of making the way we live more sustainable environmentally.

Updated at 2.01am BST

1.08am BST

Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference at 11am

1.08am BST

We still don’t know if the participant had the vaccine as part of the trial, or the placebo. It might be sometime until we get all the information, including how long the pause will last for.

The New York Times is reporting the “pause”
in the #AstraZeneca #OxfordUniversity #COVID19 vaccine trials comes after a human participant developed “transverse myelitis”,
a condition that affects the spinal cord. https://t.co/YjOCb0HC1P
— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) September 8, 2020

12.44am BST

Queensland reports eight new cases

This is one of the bigger daily numbers we have seen in Queensland for some time – but all eight were in isolation

Five are related to the corrective services training academy cluster – the family of the person who was first diagnosed. They were in isolation.

The other three are related to the Ipswich hospital cluster – two more health workers and one of their children. They were also in quarantine.

Wednesday, 9 September – coronavirus cases in Queensland:

• 8 new confirmed cases
• 29 active cases
• 1,143 total confirmed cases
• 990,944 tests conducted

Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,091 patients have recovered.#covid19au pic.twitter.com/U3r37Ud59U
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 8, 2020

Updated at 2.21am BST

12.37am BST

Robert Booy, a University of Sydney professor of vaccinology, told the Guardian that pausing a trial based on one participant’s reaction “is more likely the product of being super careful” as opposed to being a problem with the vaccine.

Booy, who has previously worked in vaccine development at Oxford, said he understood why details of the adverse reaction have not been released, as reports of specific side effects and “too much detail of a halt can bias a study” if the issue turned out to be an anomaly.

He said pausing vaccine trials was not unusual.

“When you’re vaccinating over 10,000 people, there will, by coincidence, be weird and wonderful things happen to participants that were going to happen anyway. So they need to pause the trial to carefully examine what’s happened.”

Booy believes the trial will likely resume in about a month if the investigation into the participant provides “reassuring findings”, however he said more questions about the vaccine’s safety would be raised if further incidents of the same adverse reaction are reported.

“This could have just been a high fever, and it turns out they’ve got appendicitis,” he said.

“My bet would be that they find something in this participant that is not causal [from the vaccine]. It’ll take them about one to two weeks to ascertain this, and then they will probably restart the trial in a month,” Booy said.

Updated at 1.42am BST

12.34am BST

The impact of Covid on working holiday visas in terms of the flow-on effects to the agricultural sector has been well canvassed.

Now the committee looking at working holiday visas is turning its attention to other matters – because people on working holiday visas don’t only work in agriculture:

The joint standing committee on migration will be holding three days of hearings for its inquiry into the working holiday maker program on 9, 10 and 11 September.

Committee chair Julian Leeser noted that the hearings so far have mostly focused on working holiday makers and the agriculture sector, and the committee will turn its focus to other important matters.

“In our inquiry so far, we have received much evidence on the impact of border closures and the departure of approximately 50,000 Working Holiday Makers on the agriculture industry,” Leeser said in a statement.

“This week’s hearings will further explore the broader context of the Working Holiday Maker visa, as the Committee talks with representatives of the tourism industry, and organisations and individuals involved in protecting Working Holiday Makers from exploitation in the workplace.

“Crucially, the Committee will also hear from some Working Holiday Makers themselves, about their experiences of the program.

“The Committee has received a large amount of correspondence from Working Holiday Makers both onshore and offshore and will be taking this into account when making recommendations.”

Updated at 12.45am BST

12.18am BST

The international blog with Helen Sullivan is up and running:

12.11am BST

The development of a promising Covid-19 vaccine has been put on hold due to an adverse reaction in a trial participant.

A spokesman for AstraZeneca, the company working with a team from Oxford University, told the Guardian the trial has been stopped to review the “potentially unexplained illness” in one of the participants.

As part of the ongoing randomised, controlled global trials of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine, our standard review process was triggered and we voluntarily paused vaccination to allow review of safety data by an independent committee.

This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials. In large trials illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed to check this carefully.

We are working to expedite the review of the single event to minimise any potential impact on the trial timeline. We are committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our trials.”

The vaccine, which had been expected to be publicly available as early as January 20201, is one of two projects the Australian government plans to spend $1.7bn on as part of a deal to ensure free vaccines for all citizens.

On Monday, the Morrison government committed to buying 33.8 million doses of the vaccine, if it was successful.

12.10am BST

Deputy chief health officer Dr Nick Coatsworth was on the Seven network when the AstraZeneca vaccine trial pause came through.

He also says it’s a normal part of the vaccine process, and shows that safety is paramount:

In a way, this reinforces that despite the accelerated nature of vaccine development, safety is at the forefront of everybody’s mind and it would be fairly standard process if there is a very severe reaction and they are not sure whether [linked] to the vaccine as well.

They are gathering all the information and holding the trial for the moment. We’ve got to keep in mind the tens of thousands of people have now received this vaccine so this is a testimony to the rigour and the safety focus that people are putting on vaccine development.

So what does it mean?

Obviously, we will see what happens with these reports for the Oxford vaccine and by no means puts that vaccine completely off the table.

But that is a reason why the Australian government is investigating and investing in multiple technologies, multiple potential vaccine candidates. We know that not all of them are going to go to market and that is why we have got so many
different vaccine candidates, I believe over 160 around the world at the moment, that are being tested and we have invested in several of the leading candidates.

12.00am BST

The Grattan Institute has taken a look forward at Australia’s economy.

It’s not a rosy picture.

Australia is in for a long and damaging economic slump, unless governments inject substantially more fiscal stimulus. New analysis by @BrendanCoates and @MattCowgill: https://t.co/9OvlYdODAO
— Grattan Institute (@GrattanInst) September 8, 2020

11.59pm BST

The key line there: the reporting obligations are set by the Department of Health.

And apparently, according to an independent reviewer, those reporting obligations are so limited, it can’t work out how federal funds are being spent.

Updated at 12.03am BST

11.58pm BST

The royal commissioners looking into aged care in Australia, engaged BDO to analyse where federal funds are being spent on aged care.

They have found that there “is insufficient financial transparency about the use of funds from Government and people in care, which in 2018–19 totalled approximately $25 billion”.

From the royal commission’s site:

BDO used the Department of Health data, which is not available to the public, and concluded that there are large differences in the way in which individual aged care providers structure their operations and the costs they incur such as interest, management fees and rent. These expense items can range from 0% to 100% of total expenses for different individual aged care providers.

BDO expresses their view that the aged care industry’s overall financial performance is unclear because of what they consider to be limited reporting obligations, aged care providers’ use of group entity structures, transactions between related entities and the delivery of non-aged care activities by some providers. The industry’s reporting obligations are set by the Department of Health.

BDO assessed aged care providers’ profitability and viability using a framework in which they had regard to accounting profits, cash flows and various other measures of a provider’s ability to access capital. Using this framework, BDO concluded that for 2017–18:

74% of aged care providers were profitable, 13% were unprofitable, 4% were unprofitable but had positive cash flows, and 9% were profitable but had negative cash flows.
53% of aged care providers were ‘viable’, 8% were ‘not viable’, and for 39% viability could not be determined because it was dependent on them being able to secure additional capital.

11.49pm BST

AstraZeneca has confirmed it has paused its phase three trial:

This is a routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated.

Updated at 11.57pm BST

11.47pm BST

Asked again about Daniel Andrews, particularly about the criticism about him coming from the federal sphere, Gladys Berejiklian says:

I think all of us – I would be the last one to criticise him because I – you know, I have a lot of empathy for what he’s going through, but I say that I don’t think – I think it’s appropriate, I should say, it’s extremely appropriate for people to express their views on what they think works and what doesn’t work.

And the NSW premier says she won’t be laying off her criticism of premiers who have closed borders:

And I have been extremely critical of the other premiers and I’ll continue to be because I don’t understand why they got their borders up against New South Wales.

If we’re going to where this indefinitely or until there’s a vaccine, we need to be a bit more compassionate and sensible about what this is doing on a human level but also what it’s doing to our nation’s economy. And I don’t know what New South Wales is being – or New South Wales citizens and businesses – are being prevented from meeting with loved ones or conducting business. The rates of community transmission, touch wood, in New South Wales are very, very low.

Updated at 11.57pm BST

11.45pm BST

Gladys Berejiklian says she “absolutely” empathises with Daniel Andrews when asked about the criticism of the Victorian premier:

I do feel there are things that we know are working when you’re managing a pandemic.

New South Wales, we know what works. Part of our structure that is working is we have a very decentralised public health system.

So we have obviously the public health experts that sit in the Department of Health but we also have regional local area health districts – 16 of them.

They have been outstanding. If [there is] a case in any of those districts, the clinicians and experts are able to go down and they know their local community.

If there are cultural differences or other sensitivities we need to be aware of, that local area health service or district is able to provide that intelligence, but also get on top of cases.

So there’s a lot of things we have that are unique. But ironically a pandemic causes you to rely, or forces you to rely, on different things in your system and, fortunately for New South Wales, our system is well suited to dealing with a very contagious, unrelenting disease, and – but again, contact tracing is just one part of the story.

Updated at 11.55pm BST

11.43pm BST

Asked about comments yesterday by the ABC’s health adviser, Dr Norman Swan, that NSW was “lucky” in its handling of the pandemic, and didn’t necessarily have the “gold standard” in contact tracing, as Scott Morrison says, Gladys Berejiklian says:

I don’t believe in luck but I say this: I think contact tracing is important, but it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

So, yes, I’m very proud of our public health team and what they have been able to achieve, but they have been supported by all government agencies, police, Service New South Wales – we have a special entity in New South Wales called Service New South Wales which essentially is the touchpoint with our citizens.

So through that website and through those services we’re able to communicate to our citizens and support the efforts of our health team.

I think what’s worked in New South Wales is our structure, our governance.

Contact tracing is absolutely a key part of this but, in isolation, it doesn’t work. You can have the world’s best contact tracing but that needs to be supported by whole-of-government approach.

Updated at 11.53pm BST

11.41pm BST

Gladys Berejiklian is speaking to the ABC.

She is asked about the Queensland border closure:

There’s no reason why any state should have borders closed to New South Wales. Our rate of community transmission by global standards is very low.

We have demonstrated our ability to control the spread. We have demonstrated our resilience in having a completely open economy, but for the Victorian border. I think people would understand why Victoria is an exception.

But no other state or territory really can suggest that New South Wales isn’t managing the pandemic.

And I just don’t understand why the borders are still there. Maybe it’s a New South Wales thing – we think of ourselves as Australians as well as people from New South Wales.

Families are being torn apart, businesses aren’t being able to do what they do, goods and services aren’t getting around our nation.

And we won’t feel the effects of this for another six to 12 months when businesses start not being able to cope even further. And, remember, please, that New South Wales and Victoria essentially generate GST revenue to subsidise the other states.

With Victoria out of action, New South Wales has to do the heavy lifting. But we can’t if other states don’t let us interact with them, which is exactly what’s happening.

Updated at 11.52pm BST

11.39pm BST

Oxford University vaccine trial paused

Axios is reporting the AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine trial has been put on pause – that’s the Oxford University one – after an adverse reaction in a participant.

It’s not known how long the trial hiatus will go on for. The person who had the adverse reaction is expected to recover.

Australia has signed a deal to access doses of the AstraZeneca’s vaccine once it is ready – but it is not the only one Australia has an eye on.

Updated at 11.50pm BST

11.23pm BST

That jump to 76 may seem alarming after the last report of 55 new cases – but testing had also dropped. The 55 cases were from just 8,704 tests.

We don’t know how many tests were done yesterday so we still need to wait for more information.

Updated at 11.42pm BST

11.20pm BST

Victoria reports 76 new cases and 11 deaths

#COVID19VicData for 9 September, 2020.
Yesterday there were 76 new cases reported and we are sad to report 11 lives lost. Our condolences to all those affected. More information will be available later today. pic.twitter.com/ikKiuRV4ZW
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 8, 2020

Updated at 11.27pm BST

11.15pm BST

Meanwhile in Queensland, cases are still popping up.

St Edmund’s College in Ipswich, where the most recent cluster has seen 200 staff from the Ipswich hospital sent into isolation, has also been closed for two days after a Year 11 student tested positive for the virus.

11.09pm BST

In other news, 2020 has defeated the Kardashians.

Keeping Up With the Kardashians – the show that launched them all – is over, after 14 years and 20 seasons.

Kim, there’s people that are dying.

Updated at 11.41pm BST

11.06pm BST

The Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain has been closed for a week and its operators fined $10,000 after multiple Covid breaches.

As AAP reports:

The Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain has been shut down by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing for breaching regulations on two occasions.

The pub was caught hosting two birthday parties and not following COVID-19 safety plan requirements, just a day after receiving a penalty notice for other COVID breaches.

The venue will be closed for seven days until next Wednesday in addition to copping a total of $10,000 in fines from Liquor & Gaming and NSW Police.

Liquor & Gaming inspectors can temporarily close venues for second and third offences, under the current public health orders.

“The venue was fined $5000 after our inspection on 5 August,” Director of Compliance Dimitri Argeres said.

“Inspectors identified an out of date COVID-19 safety plan, inadequate sign-in processes relating to not recording times of entry and digitising records and a lack of physical distancing between chairs and tables.”

A penalty notice was issued for those offences on August 7 and when NSW Police returned the following day they found 32 guests at a private function dancing, standing and mingling while drinking alcohol.

Police fined the venue another $5000 and referred the matter to Liquor & Gaming, which reviewed CCTV and confirmed multiple breaches.

Inspectors from Liquor & Gaming, SafeWork NSW and NSW Fair Trading have so far issued a total of 108 fines to NSW hospitality businesses, amounting to $480,000.

The pub apologised on Facebook saying “we did not fully understand every aspect of the changing regulations and we should have”.

The pub has since implemented a number of procedures “that go above and beyond what is required of hotels to ensure the safety of our staff and patrons”.

Updated at 11.40pm BST

10.49pm BST

Here is a taste of Anthony Albanese’s speech today:

Australia can be a 'renewable energy superpower', Anthony Albanese declares, while noting resources exports will continue through the transition #auspol https://t.co/ubXqLkXGc8
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) September 8, 2020

10.47pm BST

I honestly thought this had already been cancelled but I guess I just assume anything fun is cancelled this year.

But for those who didn’t know, the Tamworth country music festival for 2021 is officially cancelled.

It was all a bit too hard, what with the travel and mass gatherings restrictions, so it’s all off – although the Golden Guitar awards will be held virtually.

It will be the first time in almost 50 years the event has not been held.

Updated at 11.40pm BST

10.44pm BST

A steep rise in Covid cases (the seven-day average is 2,199) has prompted Boris Johnson to reinstate restrictions on gatherings in the UK.

Social gatherings of more than six people will be banned in England from 14 September. Except in schools. And workplaces. Or “Covid-secure” weddings, funerals and sports.

So yup. Should definitely fix it.

Social gatherings of more than six people to be banned by law in England from Monday, amid rise in coronavirus cases https://t.co/zOnxrsA3eo
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) September 8, 2020

Updated at 11.39pm BST

10.34pm BST

Boarders at Kincoppal Rose Bay school of the Sacred Heart were sent home and into isolation after a positive Covid case.

The ABC reports that a third student from the school has tested positive. That will be in today’s numbers from NSW.

Updated at 11.38pm BST

10.31pm BST

Anthony Albanese will be delivering one of his “vision” statements today.

Labor hasn’t decided on its policy platform yet but has laid out what it believes is important in a series of statements Albanese has been delivering since taking leadership.

Today is Labor’s vision for the regions.

Updated at 11.38pm BST

10.21pm BST

Good morning

Victorian contact tracers are off to New South Wales to study its contact tracing system as the debate about Victoria’s preparedness to deal with the pandemic continues.

Daniel Andrews said yesterday that there were experts in the Victorian contact tracing system, who have been studying other jurisdictions, but there were still things that could be learned.

Here was the Victorian premier yesterday:

They have done an amazing job and we are very, very grateful for that advice, providing us with those second and third opinions, giving us that sense of confidence that there is a culture of continuous improvement and we are finding sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, but there is always that work every single day, every shift, to try and be better.

So Australia’s chief scientist, Alan Finkel, is taking Victorian health authorities to NSW to see what else could be done – particularly the decentralisation of the NSW system. Questions about what Victorian authorities did between the first and second wave continue, with Andrews asked whether the contact tracing team had been disbanded after the first wave. Andrews has just said everyone is constantly learning, and one thing they’ve learned is if you think you’ve beaten the virus, you haven’t.

Yesterday the ABC’s health adviser, Dr Norman Swan, said he believed NSW had just got lucky. But the prime minister has called the state’s system the “gold standard” in contact tracing so that is where Victoria is off to.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, also spoke to Melbourne radio 3AW yesterday and admitted that at the beginning of the second wave, “numbers got beyond Victoria’s [tracing] capacity to deal with every case in a timely way”.

I wish the system were as robust then as I know it is now. I can’t say it would have been stopped with a NSW system.

There will be more on that today, as well as budget news as the federal government puts together its October document, and all the other news that pops up, both in coronavirus and politics.

You have Amy Remeikis with you this morning.

Ready?

Updated at 11.37pm BST

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