What we learned today, Friday 4 September
That is where we will leave the live blog for this evening. If you want to follow the latest global coronavirus news, you can follow our global live blog here.
Here’s what we learned today:
- Victoria recorded 81 new Covid-19 cases and 59 deaths, however only nine of these occurred in the previous 24 hours. The figure included 50 people who died in aged care facilities in July and August who have now been added to the state’s tally. On Friday, Victoria extended its eviction moratorium until 28 March.
- New South Wales reported eight new coronavirus cases, one of which was in hotel quarantine. Two previously announced cases have been linked to the CBD cluster, which has grown to 57.
- State and territory leaders have agreed to a roadmap to reopen their hard border closures by Christmas, which will rely on a nationally consistent definition of a Covid-19 hotspot. Western Australia was the only state not to agree to the plan.
- National cabinet also discussed an agriculture workers code to allow farmers to cross borders more easily, however WA, Queensland and Tasmania will not be a part of the code.
- A plan to boost the strict international passenger arrival caps was also discussed, however no details were outlined about how or if the limits – of 4,000 arrivals into Australia per week – will be increased. At least 23,000 Australians overseas who want to come home but can’t have registered their intention with the government.
- The AFL has responded to a Covid-19 breach on the Gold Coast that Richmond’s Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones were involved in. The pair will not play again this season, having been slapped with a 10-match suspension and sent home from Queensland.
Updated
BREAKING: Qld Premier Palaczszuk says she did NOT agree to discuss the @ScottMorrisonMP hotspot plan to reopen by Xmas. Siding with WA. Not on the “bus”.
— Mark Riley (@Riley7News) September 4, 2020
Queensland Health has expanded its list of venues linked to Covid-19 cases.
In a statement, the authority has said “anyone who has been to these locations at the times specified should monitor their health and if they develop any Covid-19 symptoms, even mild, get tested and isolate until they receive their test result”.
- Johnny Furniture, Booval, on 29 August between 9.30am and 10am
- Spotlight, West Ipswich, on 29 August between 10am and 10.20am
- Fantastic Furniture, West Ipswich, on 29 August between 11am and 11.10am
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Labor has slammed the commitment out of national cabinet to boost Australia’s international arrival caps as “an announcement to make an announcement”.
The criticism, by way of a joint statement from the opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, and opposition home affairs spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, follows Scott Morrison’s comments that states excluding New South Wales “would be open, and work with us to take further flights”.
Earlier in this blog, we highlighted how the announcement that came out of national cabinet did not explain how or if the current limit of about 4,000 arrivals per week will be increased.
Today Scott Morrison made an announcement that he might make another announcement in the future – ignoring the urgent need faced by 23,000 stranded Australians.
By the government’s own numbers, 3,450 of those stranded overseas are considered financially or medically vulnerable.
Mr Morrison conceded there is a need to “boost the capacity for inbound arrivals into Australia” but did not give a timeframe for when there would be a plan to meet that need.
How much longer will the tens of thousands of Australians stranded overseas have to wait for an announcement to turn into action to get them home?
Labor is again calling on the Morrison government to take urgent action to stop airlines price gouging, increase quarantine capacity and put all options on the table to repatriate stranded Australians.
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Richmond’s CEO, Brendon Gale, has spoken of his disappointment at the actions of Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones. He also admitted his club has got a few things wrong in recent months.
Gale said:
Richmond – like all clubs – has a responsibility to the game, and the broader AFL community, to observe the Covid-19 protocols that the AFL has put in place. Clearly Callum and Sydney did not meet that responsibility this week, and we are incredibly disappointed.
The club can’t ignore the fact that off-field we have got some things wrong in recent months. We need to own that as a club and get better. We all accept that this has been a difficult year, but it is no excuse for some of the mistakes we have made.
These players made very poor decisions after consuming too much alcohol, choosing to leave the club’s hub in the early hours of Friday morning, and in doing so potentially putting themselves, their teammates and the AFL season at risk.
Their decision to attend a venue while outside the hub was also completely unacceptable, and in no way aligns with what we stand for as a club. They have let down themselves, teammates, our members and supporters, our partners and the entire AFL industry.
Yes, young people can make mistakes, but we expect better. There is absolutely no excuse for what took place. We do however recognise we need to support and educate them. They have learned a very hard lesson and we need to help them earn back the trust and respect of the club.
Both players are extremely remorseful and apologise for their actions. That apology extends to the Queensland government and police who have far more significant matters to attend to in these difficult times.
We are a strong, successful club and we will work hard to deliver a club that meets community expectations and makes our members and supporters proud.
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NSW Health has issued an alert to patrons of Kuleto’s Cocktail Bar in the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown.
Anyone who visited between 6.30pm and 9.30pm for at least one hour on Friday 28 August “must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days since they were there (until midnight on 11 September), and stay isolated for the entire period, even if a negative test result is received”.
The bar has been closed for cleaning.
Two further alerts have been issued for gyms in Sydney.
Visitors to Bondi Platinum Fitness First in Bondi Junction on Monday 31 August between 7am and 5pm, could be contacted by NSW Health about whether they are considered casual or close contacts of a person with Covid-19. Anyone who attended at this time who develops the slightest symptoms of Covid-19 should immediately isolate and get tested, a statement said.
NSW Health is also assessing potential contacts of Covid-19 cases who visited Randwick Fitness First on Sunday 30 August between 10am and 2pm, Monday 31 August between 11am and 4pm or Tuesday 1 September between 8am and noon.
While authorities will contact those considered close or casual contacts of the above cluster, anyone who attended the Randwick gym from Sunday 23 August to Tuesday 1 September should be alert and get tested if they have even the slightest symptoms and isolate until results are available, a statement said.
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AFL players suspended over Covid breach
The AFL has acted quickly and decisively on this morning’s Covid breach on the Gold Coast. Richmond’s Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones will not play again this season, having been slapped with a 10-match suspension and sent home from Queensland.
The club has been fined $100,000 for the breach – $75,000 for this offence and a further $25,000 that was the suspended amount from a previous breach. The $100,000 will be included in Richmond’s 2021 soft cap.
The league has also given a few more details on exactly what happened in the early hours on Orchid Avenue at Surfers Paradise:
“Stack and Coleman-Jones breached the protocols after taking an Uber, visiting a non-approved Gold Coast venue and becoming involved in an incident that involved Queensland police. Stack was detained by police and released a short time after.”
AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon said:
It is a privilege to be able to continue our competition, and with that privilege comes responsibility. The actions of the players are not only irresponsible but disrespectful to the competition and everyone associated with it.
There is simply no excuse for this breach. The two players knew the rules and chose to ignore them, putting the safety of everyone at risk. The behaviour of the players is not what we expect, regardless of whether any protocols are in place or not.”
The AFL’s action followed Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk tweeting this:
AFL players caught breaking COVID rules should be sent home. Queensland won’t tolerate it. I know the AFL takes these issues seriously and will take appropriate action.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 4, 2020
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The National Farmers’ Federation chief executive, Tony Mahar, has spoken about the announcement out of national cabinet of a national agriculture workers code to allow farm workers to cross borders more easily. Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia have refused to join.
Mahar told the ABC he “would have liked for all the states to have signed up”:
Agriculture goes right across the country and doesn’t stop at state borders ... But we wanted to congratulate those five states and those premiers that have recognised the importance of agriculture and the importance of farmworkers moving up and down the countryside.
Tasmania and WA obviously have a couple of large geographical barriers that separate them from other states, and from a Queensland perspective there are some measures in place already that do allow a level of transition from one state to another. So what we’re really hoping for is that Queensland jumps on board.
What is really important is that the on-ground border patrols, police or health departments or anyone else, actually understand and apply that code so there is no hold-ups at the border for machinery or livestock transport of that sort of thing.
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The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was celebrating the AFL’s decision to stage the grand final in her state just two days ago, has called for tough penalties to be meted out to the two Richmond players arrested on the Surfers Paradise strip in the early hours of this morning.
With the AFL and police investigating the incident, which left Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones with facial injuries, Palaszczuk wants the pair thrown out of the state.
Palaszczuk tweeted:
AFL players caught breaking Covid rules should be sent home.
Queensland won’t tolerate it. I know the AFL takes these issues seriously and will take appropriate action.
Regardless of the outcome of the police investigation, the players are facing hefty fines and bans from the AFL, should they be found to have breached the league’s strict Covid protocols.
Updated
National cabinet agrees it needs to boost international arrival caps
One of the announcements out of national cabinet was that leaders “agreed that we needed to further boost the capacity for inbound arrivals into Australia, particularly for those Australians seeking to come home”.
However, Scott Morrison did not outline any detail of exactly how the arrival caps – which currently allow for about 4,000 passengers to enter Australian quarantine hotels each week – would be further boosted to help repatriate the 23,000 Australians (at least that’s how many have registered with Dfat) who want to come home but can’t.
He noted New South Wales had been doing “all the heavy lifting”, suggesting its intake of about 350 passengers per day into Sydney airport would not be increased. Morrison said he “got agreement from those other states and territories ... that they would be open, and work with us to take further flights in those places if we can get the planes to fly there. These are commercial flights, they’re not flights run by the Australian government”.
However, this appears to suggest the issue is that not enough planes are flying into Australia, which doesn’t acknowledge that the caps have meant some planes are flying into Australia with less than 30 passengers. Guardian Australia previously reported on economy cabins with just four passengers.
The caps are designed to ease pressure on state and territories’ hotel quarantine regimes. Since they were introduced by national cabinet in July (at the request of the premiers and chief ministers), growing numbers of Australians, many who have had flights booked for months and others who left the country with a valid exemption to visit family on compassionate grounds, have had their flights into Australia cancelled.
They complain airlines are repeatedly cancelling their economy and, increasingly, business class tickets, while still selling more expensive seats on those flights, as they seek to remain profitable under the caps.
This week, the government announced it would make further loans available to help with temporary accommodation, daily living expenses, and even flights home for those stranded.
However, Labor has called on the government to introduce more federal quarantine solutions, hinting at designated quarantine facilities in regional areas similar to the effort to repatriate Australians from Wuhan and elsewhere at the beginning of the pandemic.
The caps are set to last until 24 October.
Updated
Cricket Australia has confirmed Sydney will host host all 59 games of this year’s Women’s Big Bash League this summer, as Channel Seven said it had held “constructive” talks with CA over this summer’s broadcasting deal.
More in this report:
The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, has announced some easing of restrictions.
SA restrictions update - From Saturday 5 September:
— SA Health (@SAHealth) September 4, 2020
• The maximum number of people able to attend a wedding or funeral will increase to 150 people.
• Consumption of food and alcohol can resume for people seated at a bar, as long as the bar is not near any food preparation area. pic.twitter.com/q1gEIsHG9o
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Tourism & Transport Forum’s chief executive, Margy Osmond, has welcomed the national cabinet announcement of an agreement from seven of the eight states and territories (excluding Western Australia) to move away from hard border arrangements and towards a national hotspot definition by Christmas.
Our industry remains on its knees in the fight of its life and has each month been losing thousands of jobs and $6bn in activity from the forced shutdown of domestic travel alone.
The rapid and piecemeal implementation of complex and inconsistent domestic border has been stifling our industry’s ability to recover and we are pleased that almost every state and territory has adopted this new framework to provide some real hope for our sector’s future.
The tourism industry now calls on each of the committed states and territories to rapidly progress an agreed national definition of a hotspot using the commonwealth’s own definition as the logical starting point.
Ongoing border closures particularly between states and territories with very low cases is crippling the tourism industry and must be replaced by this practical new Covid-19 management system as soon as possible and we will support the dedicated national coordinating mechanism to progress this goal.”
Osmond also labelled as “a real breath of fresh air” the potential to welcome tourists from New Zealand as part of Australia’s national hotspot model, something mentioned by Scott Morrison.
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Peter Gutwein on plan to reopen borders by Christmas
Peter Gutwein speaking on Tasmania’s agreement, along with five other states and the Northern Territory, for a plan to reopen borders by Christmas:
We as a state, we have already outlined our steps and it fits broadly within that national aspiration, but again I would make the point if circumstances change we will not do anything to risk the health of Tasmanians.
It was agreed that this plan would be developed, as the prime minister has previously indicated, as I have said, in time for Christmas.
I think regardless of any aspiration to open up, certainly we won’t be ceding our responsibility in terms of our borders to anyone.
There will continue to be, until a vaccine is found, cases and outbreaks, and we will need to continue to be agile and responsible for the safety of Tasmanians and I want again to make this point that we should fully expect to see a case in Tasmania.
Updated
Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein is holding a press conference now.
And on that note, I am going to go pour myself the largest glass of pinor noir I can find, and go stare at a wall for a few hours.
Thank you to everyone who joined me for the parliament sitting. It has been quite the fortnight and I have really appreciated everyone who has followed along, sent messages, or commented.
Melbourne, we are keeping everything crossed for you this Sunday that there is *some* good news. It doesn’t look like there will be any big changes coming in the next two weeks, but for those who have done lockdown alone, I hope there is some wriggle room. For those who are struggling to stay motivated, or are climbing the walls, or just want to randomly scream at nothing, I hope there is some relief. But go ahead and scream if it helps. Whatever gets you through at this point.
I’ll be back on Monday, but Elias Visontay will be with you for the rest of the afternoon today. We’ll be back with live coverage across the weekend and of course, from early Sunday, when Daniel Andrews announces those roadmaps.
In the meantime – take care of you Ax
Updated
Mark McGowan, who gave the entire nation a laugh when, at the height of the pandemic, he struggled to contain his own mirth at being asked if it was illegal to go for a run and get a kebab in WA (it was not) is asked about a series of mock flags for WA going around at the moment.
He says:
During times of crisis, you’ve got to be able to laugh. You’ve got to be able to have fun. So debating funny flags or singing funny songs or doing funny dances, I think adds a bit of lightness to what is a traumatic period.
Updated
Mark McGowan did not come to play today (although could we just drop the “sippers” burn? We all drink coffee and wine. It’s delicious and sanity-giving.)
Asked about critics of the border closure in WA:
We’ve got rules around federal parliamentarians coming here – as long as it’s work-related, obviously they can come and engage in work-related events.
Other than that, they’d be required to, you know, not mix and mingle.
But I think that’s a fair – a fair balance. Other states have said that the prime minister. I think if the prime minister wants to go to Queensland he’s got to go into a hotel and quarantine for two weeks.
So we’re not actually putting that obligation on the prime minister of Australia, but we’re saying if he comes, he would need to go into a sort of – he can come and do work and all that sort of stuff but if he’s not doing that, you’d be required to stay away from from mingling with people.
That’s a fair balance.
I’d urge the prime minister if he wants to come here, come and have a look. It is a great model. I’d be happy to show him around. In terms of the commentators, I have seen some of the commentary out of the east and I think it shows a grievous and shocking misunderstanding of Western Australia.
I think some of the commentators might hang out on the north shore of Sydney sipping their lattes and sipping their pinot grigio and I don’t think they have any clue about what’s going on here, about the economy, about the jobs and how we support them. I think those commentators in the east, they really need to learn a little bit about our state.
Updated
Given the bus analogy we just heard from the prime minister:
Not everyone has to get on the bus for the bus to leave the station. But it is important the bus leaves the station, and we all agree on that.
I have been reminded of the last time Scott Morrison and bus made headlines:
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) September 4, 2020
But that bus would have no problems getting across the borders. No one was on it.
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Commonwealth definition of 'hotspot'
And the commonwealth definition (which is yet to be agreed upon) for a hotspot:
Here’s the commonwealth’s definition of a COVID hotspot that Morrison wants to use as a starting point for a national definition - though it was far from clear reaching a national agreement would actually happen pic.twitter.com/FTio4Lwxnk
— Katina Curtis (@katinacurtis) September 4, 2020
Updated
Mark McGowan says he won’t set a timetable, because he has done that and then Victoria happened.
And then he is asked what he is looking for to see the borders taken down:
Well, the health advice would take into account the elimination of community spread in the east.
That’s what would have to occur. And so, if the health advice provides that – says that that has occurred, well then, that allows us to move towards removing the borders.
But I’d just remain you all, Western Australia isn’t the only place with a border. The commonwealth government has a border.
The commonwealth government has a border to the rest of the world. There’s no pressure on them to say: “When that’s coming down?”
The arguments are exactly the same.
There’s community spread in the east, therefore, we’re not bringing down the border. The commonwealth has a border with the rest of the world, there is community spread around the world; they’re not bringing down the border.
Updated
And he finishes with:
The Western Australian model has worked at this point in time. Lives and jobs have been saved at same time. That’s a great outcome for our state.
In closing, the prime minister has announced a new model for national cabinet which I support.
Not everyone needs to agree on everything for some states to make changes. That’s fair enough.
Australia’s national cabinet has worked very, very well. It’s world-leading and has meant, as a country, we have done better than nearly anywhere else in the world. But that doesn’t mean we all have to agree on everything every time. Geographic and economic differences can be reflected in decision-making and that is what has occurred today.
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Mark McGowan continues:
Some people want our hard border arrangements to be changed prematurely against our health advice. I just can’t do that. I’ll be clear again: the hard border will stay in place for as long as the health advice recommends it.
By almost any measure, Western Australia is in an enviable position in the new Covid world. We’ve worked so hard to achieve this and we must do everything we can to maintain it.
Right now, a hotspot model of travel restrictions is simply not as effective as a hard border given the level of community transmission in other states. A hotspot model relies on factors outside of our control and it significantly increases the risk of an outbreak. And for that reason, at this stage, the hard border will stand until the health advice says otherwise.
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Mark McGowan:
Western Australia is the engine room of the national economy. Prematurely reopening the state’s borders will risk both the state and national economies.
If we had an outbreak that led to the disruption or closure of the mining industry, it would have a significant impact across the country.
It wouldn’t just impact WA and WA jobs. It could result in a devastating reduction in financial support for jurisdictions, including the commonwealth, across Australia.
We need to remember that will also be in front of the high court in our border battle with Clive Palmer. The outcome of the high court is extremely important. The federal court ruled on the findings of fact recently.
The federal court heard evidence from Mr Palmer, the federal government and Western Australia – expert evidence. This included the prospect of a hotspot system being used instead of the border controls.
The ruling was crystal clear. I want to quote from federal court Justice Rangiah’s finding:
‘The border restrictions have been effective to a very substantial extent to reduce the probability of Covid-19 being imported into Western Australia from interstate.’
He also stated: ‘The border restrictions were replaced by that suite of measures, plus a hotspot regime involving either quarantining or banning people from entering designated hotspots ... would be less effective than the border measures in preventing the importation of Covid-19.”’
Less effective than the border measures. This is important to note.
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'Business confidence is buzzing' in WA, says Mark McGowan
Western Australia may actually have seceded.
Mark McGowan:
In WA, we have positive economic activity. Business confidence is buzzing. And retail trade is increasing.
And businesses are hiring. Our retail growth figures, out today, are outstanding. As I said, WA has gone 146 days with no community transmission. WA’s border restrictions are working well.
Unfortunately, the success of the hard border also comes with some consequences, particularly for families who haven’t seen each other for a long period of time. I feel for those people. I also cannot see my mother and father, and my brother, in New South Wales.
But I want to thank so many people for their understanding and commitment to doing the right thing, as we monitor the situation. Because of our measures and success in controlling community transmission, we’ve been able to rapidly relax restrictions.
We’ve been able to reopen nearly every almost of the state’s economy and life in WA has returned to normal, virtually, in a Covid-safe way.
Forecasts show WA has the most positive economic outlook of all states. We are the state going forward most quickly. For 2019-20, WA is the only state where our domestic economy grew by 1.1%. All other jurisdictions shrank. This shows the positive direction WA was heading in before Covid. But it also shows that we avoided the worst of Covid in that states with closed borders fared significantly better than those with open borders.
Updated
Mark McGowan is now holding his national cabinet press conference:
He says WA has gone 146 days with no community transmission.
Today at national cabinet we discussed border controls at length. It was a productive discussion but I made it clear that Western Australia will not be agreeing to a hotspot model or a hotspot definition which replaces our successful border controls.
Western Australia has always avoided setting an arbitrary deadline on borders. A date will be set when our health advice recommends it, but that might be some time away. We went through this before and then Victoria happened.
Opening and closing borders just causes more confusion and it isn’t a good outcome for the state’s economy. The prime minister and other states respect and understand our decision given the unique factors for Western Australia and the very positive direction our economy is heading. Unlike the rest of the country, WA is not currently in a recession. So we won’t be prematurely reopening our borders.
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Gladys Berejiklian on the hotspot definition:
There was no definition agreed but a consistent definition of what is a hot spot could ensure states had no excuse to keep their borders up.
There was a consistent, national health approach to what a hot spot was defined of that would give states both courage and imprimatur to bring down their borders. Ours experience in New South Wales is one you need to consider a hot spot.
So the information we worked off today is a constructive start.
I think the important thing is that most states and territories agreed we should have that definition because then there’s really no excuse for anybody to be hiding behind not having those definitions.
I am very sorry for everyone who can’t see a loved one in an aged care home, fathers’ day or not.
But Gladys Berejiklian explaining why aged care home restrictions can’t be lifted, literally minutes after calling on Queensland to lift its border restrictions, which have been closed after its CHO had concerns over community transmission in NSW, is something:
I think they have but the health concern is I think there could still be undetected community transmission.
When you have a cluster in a known suburban context it is easier to deal with.
When you have people coming in CBD and a cluster, and one of those from the cluster ended up in Shoalhaven and because of that seeding position, health has decided to take this cautious approach. It is not my position to overrule that as disappointing as it is for all of us. On Father’s Day I always think of my family and friends who’ve lost their dads but this Father’s Day I will be thinking of those who can’t see their dads and I say that genuinely and sincerely
Less than two minutes after calling on Queensland to open its borders, which have been closed on the health advice of its chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, Gladys Berejiklian says she can’t overturn a ban on visiting aged care centres ahead of Father’s Day, because she can’t overrule the health advice her CHO has given her.
I can’t overturn the health advice. I’m really disappointed about that. We did have hopes that by this time we would be able to give hope to families. Look, I feel horrible about that. But it would be an inappropriate for me to overrule the health advice especially if, heaven forbid, the disease got into one of our aged care facilities.
But what the health department and Dr Chant have asked is each aged care facility consider the appropriate way to improve the stress. Whether it is allowing them to come to glass windows or making sure there is technology available to communicate with families.
I can’t tell you how much I feel that angst. We were hoping for better news. But for critical issues like this, we cannot overrule the health advice. That’s what’s kept New South Wales where we are. If the New South Wales health advice deeming it too unsafe at this stage for various reasons we have to respect that.
Updated
But Gladys Berejiklian is excited about the possibility New Zealand residents may be able to travel to Australia.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian is using her national cabinet press conference to push Queensland to open its borders:
In relation again to New South Wales-Queensland borders I urge the Queensland premier to consider carefully the impact the borders are having on our citizens on either side.
When I think about the impacts of people, I don’t think of them necessarily on either side of the border. I think during a pandemic you have to look at this issue from a compassionate perspective, a human perspective and appreciate that people with medical challenges with compassionate reasons or just to get to work need to be considered and I urge the Queensland premier to consider all of those issues moving forward, especially given where New South Wales is in the pandemic and what we’ve demonstrated.
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So what do we have from that national cabinet?
Nothing really.
There has been an agreement to come to an agreement.
There is an aim to have all states open their borders by Christmas – seven out of eight have agreed to work towards that.
Western Australia is the hold-out there.
Updated
Paul Karp tries again to get a question in on this story ...
... but the prime minister calls time on the press conference and leaves the podium.
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Scott Morrison on disaster season:
This is what Emergency Management Australia is putting together with a plan [for states and territories]. We will see a much greater rainfall over the summer. With the El Nino and the soil moisture increases creating the risk of flooding across south-eastern Australia and in north-east Australia. The risk of cyclones also but we also learned today that the bushfire risk in south-west WA and northern Australia is also related to these events.
For things like cyclones and floods, most of that response, if not all, is largely contained within states and territories and they are more likely to deal with those issues and they are the first responders for dealing with those events and the immediate recovery and aftermath.
We have arrangements in place to be able to respond to their specific events. One of the challenges going into this season is to have Covid-safe responses. The bushfire in WA in particular – if we have to move people from one part of the country to another, ADF personnel or others, we need to have arrangements to make sure it is safe. These disasters, whether they are bushfires or floods or cyclones or indeed pandemics, they expose challenges and we have the best people to deal with these challenges. Plans and preparations are in place.
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Paul Karp is trying very hard to get a question in on sports rorts.
He is being ignored.
The prime minister moves on to preparing for disaster season.
(It has been a year since the Queensland bushfires kicked off Australia’s last fire season, if you are wondering how time has been travelling.)
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Does Prof Paul Kelly think, in his medical opinion, that a farmer in NSW can go across the border to Queensland?
He doesn’t answer the question.
Several questions have come to this already and the prime minister has answered this really. We have to start a hotspot definition so that is what we are working on so that we can get that absolute clarity about these matters. At this point, Queensland has made the decision about how they look at risk in terms of people coming across the border and that is their decision to make.
... We look forward to the day when there can be transparency about these things. Part of that is the hotspot definition but part of that is an understanding of cross borders that we can be sure of the information held on one side of the border and shed with another is absolutely crucial.
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Is Queensland agreeing to the commonwealth hotspot definition?
Seven of eight states ... “have agreed the management of hotspots is something we should pursue as part of our plans. To be achieved in December.
The commonwealth definition of a hotspot is the starting point for defining that at the acting chief medical officer will work with the states to get a greater precision on that by that definition is available for people to see and it’s clinical basis.
Yeah, but what is Queensland doing?
The commonwealth definition is the one I clearly believe is backed by the scientific work done by the acting chief medical officer. The definition that we provided is obviously the one that I think is appropriate.
What states do is a matter for them ultimately but what we have agreed to do today is to actually move to a hotspot model.
We do not have one necessarily working in Queensland.
We have a hard border operating in Queensland and what we agreed to do is to move towards adopting a hotspot model with as far as possible a common definition and the commonwealth provides the starting point for how that is defined.
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On Tony Abbott and the debate raging in the UK over whether he should be given a trade job or not, given his past and present of being Tony Abbott:
Scott Morrison:
I wish the former prime minister well. He knows a lot about trade and he did a lot of great work for Australia on trade when it came to the free trade agreement with Japan and Korea. The fact we have trade surpluses for record periods of time speaks well to his trade credentials so I wish Tony well.
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What about people going home for Christmas. Should they get interstate border restrictions?
Scott Morrison:
Wherever you put a border up – and this is why ... I’ve been quite honest about this. It may be unintended, but the reality is you get some very cruel and get some very hard outcomes for people’s lives.
My primary concern, particularly at the moment, is to be ensuring that we can get people to medical treatment. And Australians should be able to access a hospital in whatever state it’s in.
Because they’re Australian hospitals. And it’s important that we facilitate that. And I want to thank, particularly, the New South Wales and South Australian governments, and I want to particularly thank the health minister in New South Wales, Brad Hazzard. I’ve dealt with Brad on a number of these cases now, getting people into surgery, getting people into hospitals. Blasting through some of the bureaucracy that can occur, that inevitably arises because there are border arrangements in place.
This is why I agree with the New South Wales premier that, the sooner you can get this done, the better. And that must be the goal.
So, whether it’s defence force personnel looking to go home, whether it’s kids at boarding school at the moment in Covid-free areas, wanting to go home to a Covid-free area for the holidays, and not have to spend two weeks in a hotel in a capital city and be away from their parents – I find that heartbreaking too.
So, these are the practical issues that need to be resolved. Now, I welcome the fact that the Queensland government has set up this new unit, which I understand is operational today.
Good, a number of specialists there, particularly in the medical area that will be looking at particular cases to ensure that people can get from A to B to get their treatment. I welcome that. There’s been a lot of discussion about this.
There’s been just some absolutely awful cases, and so that as a first response, I welcome that. But as long as you’ve got these borders like this, particularly in the eastern states, where there is a lot of movement for these purposes, you are going to get these outcomes.
That’s why seven out of the eight states and territories have agreed today is so important, to avoid that. That’s the only way you will ultimately get to avoid it.
Updated
On jobkeeper – and Annastacia Palaszczuk’s comments that tourism operators were losing some of the payment (because it tapers from the end of this month) and they need it (while also keeping the borders closed):
Scott Morrison:
Jobkeeper is a national program, and it’s transitioning. And it’s extended and expanded out until the end of March.
And jobkeeper has been a lifesaver for businesses, particularly tourism and hospitality businesses, not just in Queensland but many other places.
But the best way for tourism businesses to revive is to have more tourists. It’s pretty simple.
That’s what I know they want. And we need to do that in the best and safest way we can. And so I think many of the things we agreed today provide a plan to achieve that.
Updated
And some more on the New Zealand suggestion:
I wouldn’t describe it as the ‘bubble’. I wouldn’t say necessarily it will be a two-way bubble. That will be up to the New Zealanders. But if we can get to a position where we understand how the hotspots can be identified in New Zealand, then that would mean, hopefully, between now and then we may well be in a position for New Zealanders to come to Australia and experience Australia, which will be great for our tourism industry, and we’d welcome that, and it would also take a lot of pressure off rooms in quarantine, which means more Australians can get home.
So New Zealanders could come to Australia, but it would be up to New Zealand if Australians could go there.
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Should Victoria be going it alone with its proposed “traffic light” system for lifting restrictions?
Scott Morrison:
Well, first of all, I mean, premier Andrews will outline his plan, I understand, on Sunday. That will be his plan, the Victorian government’s plan. That is about reopening an economy from stage 4 lockdown into its next phase. What we’re talking about, and what we’ve talked about today, isn’t about stage 4 going forward.
That is about how Australians can move around the country, how hotspots are defined, how information is shared. So, they’re two different tasks.
So, it’s not like he has a very prescriptive plan from the commonwealth about how he opens up Victoria. We have engaged with him and the national coordinating mechanism has provided a lot of information and support, and potential ways that can be done.
That is true. We have engaged with him on all of those. And I’ll have further discussions with the premier. But, ultimately, what the premier does in Victoria will be a matter for him, and he will define how that works.
Now, they have been engaging industry far more than I think happened on the way in, for the way out.
I welcome that. I know there’s been a lot of feedback, and issues raised with that system. I’m aware of elements of it, but I haven’t seen the full package myself. I’m sure that is still being worked on by the Victorian government.
But I do like it that they are talking to industry about how this can happen. I think in these situations it’s always best, if it’s as simple as possible, that it is a negative list based approach.
What I mean by that is it’s always talked about a black list and a white list, but what that means is that you have a number of things you can’t do rather than specifying the things you can, and leaving the rest in a rather ambiguous state.
That was a principle that we used in the early phases of the pandemic, when we said what you couldn’t do, and therefore if that wasn’t one of those things. We’ve always found that to be a more simple and clear approach, and avoids any ambiguity. The premier is going to have to make decisions with his health advisers about the level of cases.
I mean, the number of cases is still too high. And one of the things I know the premier is keen to avoid – and I believe Victorians, I think, would have some sympathy with this – is they don’t want to have gone through all of this terrible restriction that they’ve gone through, these many weeks and more weeks to come, only to seek to re-emerge and relapse.
They would want to be confident that the way out was sustainable and built up the strength and the capabilities so they would never have to go back to this. And I know that’s an issue that the premier is considering very carefully. And they’re the issues that the premier will be working through, and I wish him well with doing that. And he and I, I’m sure, will speak further about that between now and then.
Updated
What is being done to get more stranded Australians home?
Scott Morrison:
We’re doing everything we can, to help people get home as quickly as we can.
We obviously have restrictions based on the requests made to us by the state about how many people can come in and be in quarantine at any one time.
New South Wales have had to do the heavy lifting on that. What I got agreement out from those other states and territories today was that they would be open, and work with us to take further flights in those places if we can get the planes to fly there. These are commercial flights, they’re not flights run by the Australian Government.
They’re commercial flights, which aren’t - I’d be surprised if they were running at anything other than a massive loss on every single flight.
And so to get them to go to places that would enable us to get more Australians back into the country, I think it would be very useful.
The idea that New Zealanders would not have to go into quarantine because they’re coming from COVID-free areas would also free up places in quarantine.
Equally, if states aren’t requiring Australians coming from areas where there is no COVID cases, like the ACT, and that they don’t have to go into hotel quarantine in places, well, that obviously frees up more capacity as well.
And so I think the agreements we’ve made today to go down a hot spot path is a concept I think will also free up some of that movement.
As I said, we’ve given additional resources and support to DFAT to assist people in hardship. And our consular offices are doing everything they can to support people in those arrangements.
But ultimately it means we need to have more arrivals coming back into Australia, and for that to happen, then we have to have confidence that the quarantine arrangements will be able to withstand that. Otherwise we open the country up to a different kind of risk.
Will the federal government use its financial levers to ‘encourage’ states to come on board?
Scott Morrison:
That’s not my approach. The idea that because a premier or a chief minister might have a different view to me about how we should go forward is not a reason for me to punish through withholding funds to states and territories for essential services. I’m not about that. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to work together with people. And I think some have made those suggestions. I don’t think they’re practical suggestions. We will continue to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on in every state and territory, and I will seek to bring states and territories together as best as I can to ensure we’re all heading in the same direction.
Many of you who stand in the courtyard now have been covering this place for a very long time. The idea that there are differences of view between states and territories will not come as an earth-shattering conclusion to you.
I mean, that has been the mainstay of how states and the commonwealth have been seeking to work together for 120 years, almost. I think today we have arrived at an even more practical way of dealing with our differences.
And to acknowledge that they occur. A system that doesn’t think, or is designed around a principle that everyone will agree every time on everything, just, frankly, doesn’t pass the pub test.
Scott Morrison on the new arrangements - )we are no longer on a bus, we are getting kids in a car):
I’m not going to hold Australia back when one or two jurisdictions, at this point in time because of their own circumstances, don’t wish to go along with the path that the country is seeking to go in.
I think that’s just common sense.
I think that’s just practical. I think that’s what people would expect of me.
That’s what you try and do every day. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a business or a community organisation or you’re a parent, you try and get all the kids in the car!
And you try and do - everybody at the same place at the same time. Particularly if they’re teenagers, that gets a lot harder and they’ll do their own thing every now and again.
I know you were going to make the obvious comparisons, I would encourage you not to, and to resist that temptation.
What I’m saying is that we all seek, in each and every day, to try and get as many people going in the same direction as possible. And what we have achieved, I think, today is a common-sense set of rules as to how we can take the federation forward.
I consider, you know, all of my partners as premiers and chief ministers in the National Cabinet, we’ve come together all as the adults in the room on this.
So, I can make that one really clear, to ensure that we’re going forward and doing the best thing we believe is in the interests of the country.
Acting chief medical officer Prof Paul Kelly:
There is an in-principle agreement that we will have a hotspot discussion in seven out of eight jurisdictions.
That’s been agreed. More than that – and I can report from the Australian Health Protection Committee yesterday – eight out of eight jurisdictions agreed that hotspots are to be used by the commonwealth in relation to what we may offer in support to various states that are experiencing hotspots.
That was agreed by all of the chief health officers and myself. But, of course, hotspots also guide what happens locally in states, and that’s absolutely their prerogative to work with that.
And, indeed, what happens in terms of border restrictions, and as the PM’s mentioned, that’s a commitment that we’ve had to go forward and to look in more detail in that.
The transparency of data across borders is absolutely crucial to that, as well as the clarity of what is being done and why, as well as, of course, the public health readiness if there was an outbreak to occur, particularly in places where there hasn’t been a case for some time.
We have to be absolutely ready and be committed to do that if it occurs.
Updated
26m cases of Covid-19 around the world
There have been 26 million cases of Covid diagnosed across the globe now.
Updated
And the meeting also heard that the unifying of agreements (outside of borders) are coming together.
Scott Morrison:
The treasurers, through the treasurers’ subcommittee of national cabinet, recommended today some great work that treasurer Frydenberg and his counterparts had been working on. We have now reduced 82 existing agreements between all the states and territories to five core agreements. I never thought I would ever say that.
There’s still a lot of work to do, then, on consolidating the content of those agreements, but that was adopted by national cabinet.
We also agreed to the tasking of the national cabinet subcommittee on energy. That will task them with some short- and medium-term priorities, and that does include the resetting of the gas market.
We received, importantly, a briefing today from the Bureau of Meteorology, a briefing that I’ve received, along with other senior cabinet ministers, regarding the upcoming summer season. And we agreed that Emergency Management Australia would immediately be tasked to convene with the states and territories to ensure there was a seamless operational arrangement between states and territories that was Covid-safe, that would mean, given the prospect of bushfires, whether in particular in northern Australia and south-west Western Australia, or indeed cyclones and floods in other places, that the movement of emergency services workers, bushfire firefighters, and defence force personnel could be done as quickly as possible.
We obviously don’t want firefighters doing two weeks in hotel quarantine when there’s a fire burning in south Western Australia.
We need these arrangements to work first time, and so Emergency Management Australia has been tasked with that. And we also noted again our benchmark report that has provided on the social impacts of what is occurring with Covid-19.
Updated
The New Zealand travel bubble is under discussion – but it might only be one way for a while.
Scott Morrison:
I spoke to prime minister Ardern this morning, and what I advised her was that Australia will be looking to apply the same hotspot approach to New Zealand. So that means when we’re in a position to do so, and when the acting chief medical officer has come to a set of arrangements with New Zealand, then we would be able to have New Zealanders come to Australia. That doesn’t mean Australians can go to New Zealand.
That’s a matter for prime minister Ardern. But if there’s no Covid in Christchurch, and there’s no Covid in Queensland, then there’s no reason both of them can’t come to Sydney. And that will mean, I think, an important boost for our tourist economy, whether it’s in New South Wales or anywhere else.
And so prime minister Ardern was very happy to have further discussions on that, but ultimately that’s a decision for our border and people coming in to Australia. But we would just need to ensure that the arrangements in place of identifying hotspots and things of that nature were well understood and were practical.
Updated
On international arrivals:
On international arrivals, it was agreed that we needed to further boost the capacity for inbound arrivals into Australia, particularly for those Australians seeking to come home.
We noted that New South Wales has been doing all the heavy lifting on this, and they really are at their capacity for the time being. And so, as I discussed with cabinet during the course of this week, the transport minister will be working with others to see if we can get flights that currently all seek to come to Sydney, to see if we’re in a position to try and get them to go into other ports, whether that be in Perth, in Adelaide, in Darwin, the ACT, or elsewhere, even Tasmania. Premier Gutwein was keen to be part of this, if that’s possible.
We want to get more Australians home. And we need to do that safely as well, and not compromise the quarantine arrangements we have here as well. About almost 4,000 Australians are coming home every week, but we know there are many more who are trying to get home, and further support has been provided to DFAT to assist those Australians, particularly in hardship, overseas.
Updated
Next part of the plan:
The second thing that was agreed was the agricultural code has been adopted by five out of the eight states and territories. Those who didn’t join were Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, but they will look on, again, to see how that process works, and particularly South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria will begin immediately.
And I think the premier of Victoria may have indicated this in his press conference.
They will begin immediately to put that prescriptive code in place to facilitate greater engagement of agricultural workers and other important workers in the agricultural sector, so as to not dislocate what is occurring in the ag sector between those three states and territories. Again, I thank them for their support.
Updated
The prime minister continues:
Western Australia has a very different border and a very different economy than most of the other states and territories where these decisions have been made.
There are not large border towns. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, there are virtually none along the Western Australian border.
Their economy is of a much greater scale than the South Australian and the Tasmanian economies.
So they will watch carefully, they will look on, and the thing about our new way of working in national cabinet is the door always remains open. And they are always able to join us at a subsequent time.
But this, I believe, will give us a more sustainable way forward. ‘Cause it’s not just about now till December. In the absence of a vaccine, we may have to live this way for years, and we need it to be a sustainable and workable for as long as possible.
And so I need to encourage everyone that we need to look just beyond not just the “now”.
No one is asking anyone to take anyone’s borders down now. No one’s asking that. It’s about when we get to the next stage and what the next stage looks like, and then how that works not just for the next few months, but potentially years, but let’s hope that that’s not necessary.
Updated
What is the plan?
Scott Morrison:
As you know, the New South Wales and Victorian premiers are very keen to get their border down as soon as it’s safe to do so. And so bilateral arrangements, which would become a trilateral arrangement - and I welcome the participation of South Australia in joining in that same way to ensure that those issues around the Victorian border, with their neighbouring states in New South Wales and South Australia, South Australia will join that process with New South Wales and Victoria, which the commonwealth is also a part of.
But whatever that bilateral or multilateral arrangement might be to deal with specific issues in different parts of the country, that forms part of the plan. Tasmania, I note, in particular already has a goal of having its border down in December as well.
And I welcome their commitment to that, as I do all the states and territories who have committed to this today.
Now, Western Australia has set out some very specific circumstances in their state as to why they won’t be joining that aspiration at this time.
That said, they wish us well, and they will participate in that process, where they’ve got things they believe that they can offer.
And I believe there are many things they can offer in that process. So, they are not standing completely separate for that process. They will continue to work with us. But, for them, they have got their path set, and we respect that.
Scott Morrison:
The componentry of that plan, there’s things that need to go into it – not its final form – but the key areas of actions that need to take place, they will be brought up through both the AHPPC, the medical expert panel on the health measures that are necessary, and what’s called the national coordinating mechanism, which is on the economic side of the things that need to be achieved.
What’s different about this plan from the last one is it just isn’t about how many people you can have in a cafe – as important as that is – it’s about how the testing regimes have to work, the availability of passenger manifests for people moving around the country, the sort of surveillance testing arrangements, which can be, frankly, through the testing of sewage or, more broadly, the specific testing arrangements and the sort of ratios you need to hit to ensure that you can have a confidence about the level of outbreak, if it were to occur in any place.
In all of these areas, there’s a necessity to put the protections in place so as we open up we can be confident and states can look at each other and be more confident about how people can move between the various jurisdictions.
It means that we need to have a good understanding, and an open data room between states and territories, to know what the incidence of outbreaks are or case numbers are, and the source of those things, so states can make decisions in confidence as part of a plan.
Updated
Seven out of eight states and territories in agreement
Scott Morrison:
So, we agreed today, seven out of eight states and territories, we agreed that before you know what you’re gonna do, you’ve gotta agree about where you want to get to.
And we agreed today with the objective that was set out in the May plan to be, at the end of that step 3 process, which we will seek to ensure is even better defined, we said before we wanted to get there in July.
And the virus prevented us from achieving that. Seven out of eight states and territories want us to get back to that position in December of this year.
And I thank them for that commitment. And that, having that ambition is not enough, and that aspiration that we will now fashion a revised plan – just like I outlined the last one – to get us there, over these months that are ahead.
Updated
Scott Morrison:
Now, almost six months later, all the states and territories sit in a different position.
And they’re coming from a different point of risk. And so it is not surprising that they all have different outlooks about what their challenges are right now, and what they might be in the months ahead.
So we’ve decided that this notion of 100%, absolute consensus on any issue is not a way that the national cabinet can indeed work.
And so what we will do is we will set out areas where we can come together, and get as many states and territories as possible to come around that agreement.
Not everyone has to get on the bus for the bus to leave the station.
But it is important the bus leaves the station, and we all agree on that. We all agree on that.
Even when, on occasions, some might not want to get on, they know we need to keep moving forward, and that is supported, and that’s what we agreed to do today.
And I think that is a change in the way our federation works.*
*It’s not really. That is how the federation has always worked. States have their own powers.
Updated
Scott Morrison goes through the history of the national cabinet.
And then he moves to the nub of the issue: the national cabinet, which has not been unified in its decisions for quite some time, and which was never going to be in agreement today, no longer has to official agree.
So today we made a number of agreements. The first one, I think, was to acknowledge that how the national cabinet worked also needed to evolve. One of the reasons Coag and its predecessors never worked was there was the unrealistic and, frankly, not very practical expectation that it could only ever operate on complete 100% consensus. That sets the federation up to fail. Australia is too diverse a place. The challenges are too disparate to think that, on every single issue, every state and territory is going to come to exactly the same point. That is not a realistic expectation.
Updated
He continues:
Not just the place, as wonderful as it is, but how we make Australia work.
And that is the task of all of those who come and meet in this place, in our federal parliament, but it is also the job of all of those who come together in our state parliaments, those who form governments and seek to work together in the ways that our federation intended.
This year, the year of the Covid pandemic and the Covid recession, has tested us like we haven’t been tested in many generations. And, you know, at times it has felt like Australia could break apart.
But it’s at those same times I have been encouraged by that all of us have understood just how important Australia is.
At the times when sometimes our frustrations have been greatest, and the tensions have been at their peak, that has been exactly the same time when we have been reminded of just how important it is that we continue this great work of our federation.
Updated
Scott Morrison starts his press conference with a comment on the federation:
Australia is something we can never take for granted. And I’m not talking about Uluru or the Great Barrier Reef or the Opera House or the great wildernesses that are across our country. I’m talking about us. I’m talking about our federation.
I’m talking about who we are as a nation. And in every generation, we must continue to define who we are, how we make Australia work, what we hope to achieve, how we protect it, how we make it stronger.
And our federation, some almost 120 years later, remains a happy work-in-progress. Sometimes it doesn’t feel that happy, but I tell you, the goal is one that I think all Australians would share. And that’s what brings a smile to our face when we think of Australia.
Updated
Scott Morrison press conference
The prime minister has stepped up to the podium in the prime minister’s courtyard.
He is delivering the national cabinet update.
Labor has called on the Morrison government to make representations to the Trump administration after the US announced sanctions against international criminal court officials.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, argued this week that the ICC “continues to target Americans” as he announced sanctions against officials, including the chief prosecutor of the court, Fatou Bensouda. The Trump administration objects to the court’s decision to open an inquiry into war crimes committed by all sides in Afghanistan.
Labor issued a statement on Friday saying it objected to the sanctions because the work of the ICC was “vital to upholding international law and the multilateral rules-based order”.
Penny Wong and Mark Dreyfus said in a joint statement that conflicts and human rights abuses continued to occur even as the world was grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic.
They said the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, had previously spoken of the importance of preserving “norms that underpin universal human rights, gender equality and the rule of law”.
“We urge the minister to express to her US counterpart that this decision does not help preserve those norms ... Labor calls on the Australian government to work with aligned nations to support its important work.”
Updated
The blame game
Well this is certainly quite the visual.
The good people at Streem (a media monitoring company) have put together a graph of how many times “blame” was used in media reports related to Covid as opposed to “work together” over the past six months.
March is blue, August is yellow, for both terms.
So the switch in narrative is not just something you are imagining.
Updated
I can think of a few moments here where maybe some rational thought could have kicked in.
Via my colleague Mike Hytner:
The AFL and Richmond Football Club are investigating a breach of Covid protocols after two players were arrested and fined by police following a late-night altercation outside a strip club on the Gold Coast.
Richmond said it was aware of a breach of the strict AFL protocols early on Friday morning, when police were called to a disturbance outside the Hollywood Showgirls venue at Surfers Paradise.
The players, named as Sydney Stack and Callum Coleman-Jones by the Courier Mail, both suffered facial injuries in the incident.
“Richmond has become aware of a breach of AFL Covid-19 protocol by two of its players in the early hours of Friday morning,” a statement posted by the club said.
“The club immediately reported the breach of protocols to the AFL and is working with the league to investigate the matter. The club is not in a position to comment further until the investigation is complete.”
AFL players, their families and club staff are housed at resort hubs in Queensland as the league seeks to finish the coronavirus-impacted season away from Victoria.
Richmond said the two players were not in the same quarantine hub as many other AFL players and their families who have recently arrived on the Gold Coast.
“The players have been based inside the club’s player hub on the Gold Coast having already undertaken a 14-day quarantine in July,” it said.
“They are not part of the current quarantine hub where AFL officials, players and family members are undertaking the required 14-day quarantine period.”
But players are still obliged to adhere to the league’s strict Covid protocols and the pair face hefty fines and possible bans if a breach is confirmed.
The incident comes just days after the 2020 grand final was awarded to Queensland, with the premiership decider to be hosted at the Gabba in Brisbane.
Updated
Meanwhile:
Creditors of stricken airline Virgin Australia have voted to accept a takeover deal put forward by US private equity group Bain Capital.
The deal protects the entitlements of staff and Bain has also agreed to honour flight bookings and credits already in the Virgin system.
But bondholders owed about $2bn are likely to receive less than 10c in the dollar. Trade creditors, such as suppliers, do somewhat better at around 14c in the dollar – plus, they get to keep an important customer alive.
Today’s vote ends a saga that began in April when the airline collapsed into administration after the federal government rebuffed its repeated pleas for a bailout.
Now the airline needs to rebuild itself in an industry still largely shut down, and against a bigger rival, Qantas, that has been extremely aggressive.
The process is likely to result in further job losses in the already battered aviation sector, against the backdrop of soaring unemployment and a deep economic recession.
Updated
So the prime minister will be up in the next 15 minutes to give the national cabinet update.
Updated
'Do. Not. Protest,' says Daniel Andrews
On the planned protests, Daniel Andrews says:
Don’t. It’s not safe to protest. It’s not smart to protest. It’s not lawful to protest. I make this point again. I don’t care what you are protesting for or against: don’t protest. The worthiness or otherwise of your cause, which is a pretty personal thing anyway – ultimately no protest is safe at the moment. We need all of us to as best we can contribute to these numbers going [down] not contribute to them potentially going up.
And on the vision of police arresting people who have allegedly incited people to protest on social media:
People will make their own judgments and come to their own conclusions whenever they see footage or reports of a particular incident.
I am not in the business of criticising police. I am in the business of supporting them to do very challenging work. I want to thank them on behalf of all Victorians, all law-abiding Victorians.
Updated
Q: Did the prime minister declare that the national cabinet can no longer operate on a consensus basis after Queensland refused to accept the hotspot definition?
Daniel Andrews:
I wouldn’t see that as an accurate statement but what I would also say to you is that I’m not the chair of that group and I have been pretty steadfast around not impinging on the chair’s obvious right and authority to brief you on the business of that group.
It is a very, very important forum and served us all well, and arguably once we can get the health problem here – and indeed have it settled across the nation – the job of economic repair will be, I think, it will be enormously, significantly supported and much more effective for the work of national cabinet.
I will let the PM brief you on outcomes of national cabinet.
I don’t think he will mind me indicating that we have had some very productive discussions, NSW, Victoria and SA, on agriculture particularly as we come into the grain harvest season.
This is – I’ve had a lot of – in earnest I mean, we’ve had a lot of feedback on those issues about agricultural workers being able to move, people who own property, whether it be in southern NSW or eastern South Australia.
I’ll leave to it the prime minister to talk about the details of what was a particularly productive meeting. I didn’t stay for all of the agenda – I had to be here with you ahead of question time – but it was a very good meeting.
Updated
Daniel Andrews did not address national cabinet about the plan he will be announcing on Sunday as it is still being formed.
He said he would speak to the prime minister, again, over the weekend.
Updated
Daniel Andrews on the reopen debate:
Let me make a couple of points. I wouldn’t describe it as self-interest.
I think business are about profits and about their people too. I am not criticising businesses for wanting to get back to normal; there is nothing wrong with.
I grew up in a household where my mother and father spent every moment of their working life in some of the businesses that we are talking about. Milk bars, cafes, franchises – not one but two small goods franchises.
Meat processing and farming. I worked in these businesses, the moment I was old enough to do it.
I know and understand that businesses want to get back open for the best of reasons. But the key point here is being open for a few weeks is not an answer.
That is not an answer and that is not an option that I will choose. That is not a decision that I will make. Instead, we will see this off and then we will find a Covid normal that we can defend and that can be long lasting.
When I say, ‘I know the pain that businesses are going through’ it is my background that I look to as well as the very eloquent, sometimes emotional, the very passionate pleas that I get from businesses across the whole state.
We are listening, we hear you, but the notion of being open for just a couple of weeks, that’s not a decision I’m going to make. What that really says to every other Victorian, every other Victorian, is that everything you’ve given, everything you’ve sacrificed doesn’t need to count for something. It absolutely does. It absolutely does.
The only thing that works here is to see this thing off, properly defeat it, and then lock in a Covid normal not far a few weeks but for many, many months.
Updated
Is it worth having the conversation about elimination and suppression again, given Queensland is demanding two cycles of no community transmission – four weeks of no cases – before it opens the border again (so we are clear, the ACT would meet this requirement).
Daniel Andrews:
There are many different opinions and many different journal articles and different reports. The national cabinet-agreed strategy is one that is about trying to aggressively suppress this down to a very low number but it is not that World Health Organisation agreed definition of essentially long periods of time, so two full replication cycles if my memory serves me correctly. So 28 days of zero cases every single day. That is not what national cabinet has signed.
Updated
To be fair, it hasn’t been a consensus approach for months now.
BREAKING: @ScottMorrisonMP has declared national cabinet will “no longer be run on a consensus approach” after QLD refused to agree to a national definition of hotspots to reopen borders 1/2 @newscomauHQ
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) September 4, 2020
National cabinet press conference due at 1.15pm
The national cabinet press conference will be held at 1.15pm.
Updated
Daniel Andrews on the delays in reporting deaths:
The key point here is that there needs to be, and we are reporting today, a greater alignment of information held by private aged care providers, commonwealth authorities and state authorities and having them all together so that we can update the numbers and be as accurate as possible.
That is what we are all working towards. Can I say that there is no quarrel between any of those three parties.
We are all trying to be as complete and as accurate as we possibly can.
That’s why we would always prefer that all the data arrived at exactly the right location in as timely a fashion as possible but where you need to – I will give you an example: I’m sure that Brendan Murphy would have preferred not to have to write to every private aged care provider in the state and remind them that they need to make sure that they report.
I’m sure he would have preferred not to do that. That isn’t the issue here.
The issue is let’s get all the data together and report it faithfully and let’s make sure we are as accurate as we can possibly be.
Updated
Brett Sutton says state needs 'ongoing downward trajectory'
Here is the key quote from Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton today:
I think we still have all of the week ahead but the trend needs to continue down. We wouldn’t be happy opening up at 80 cases a day and with 10 mystery cases. We would need to have an ongoing downward trajectory to be satisfied with that.
It really doesn’t look like there will be much, if any, move on stage four restrictions come 13 September.
Updated
There has been confusion over the number of people who died in the last 24 hours.
Daniel Andrews says:
50 from July and August, three that are from September but not yesterday and six that are from yesterday.
Given that I have not been able to, all this week, where we have done groupings of very recent days, the previous day and one or two days before, I have each day given you the gender and the age decade in which those people can appropriately be accounted.
Why has there been a lag in the reporting of some aged care deaths, now around 100 historical deaths?
Prof Brett Sutton:
We live in a federation of state and territories. There are complex reporting and obligations under various bits of legislation and directives.
So as I say, the death reporting to the commonwealth is an obligation of those aged care facilities. No one is doing the wrong thing here.
The notifications of coronavirus to DHHS in Victoria is an obligation for medical practitioners and laboratories in Victoria so we have to reconcile those together. We’ve gone through an audit process to try make that as robust as possible and we want to get it right.
The alternative is to have reporting that is too much like guesswork or that might have some recall ... of already reported figures. So the figures that we are giving now are locked in. They are the ones that have been properly reconciled and are accurate. It does take time to get to that point.
Updated
Chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, says Victoria is at the “stubborn” tail of the epidemic.
Anyone who has had to lose a large amount of weight understands that those last five kilos or so are the hardest to shake.
So 81 new cases today. This is the stubborn tail of the epidemic curve. It’s an overall increase of 79. So still trending down in terms of the seven-day average but it is stubborn. I guess on a positive note, this is out of 25,000- odd tests processed yesterday so that represents a 0.3% positivity, so three positive results in 1,000 people tested, which is pretty good. It is terrific to see 25,000 people coming forward for testing.
We would really like to see that on a daily basis. In relation to the 53 historical deaths, the reconciliation process with the commonwealth does have some complexities.
There are mandatory reporting requirements for deaths from aged care facilities to the commonwealth but of course the public health and wellbeing act in Victoria has mandatory reporting of the coronavirus cases here so there does need to be a reconciliation of those reported deaths to make sure that they are coronavirus positive cases that are in our system and of course we work very closely with the commonwealth, the Victorian aged care response centre and those facilities to make sure that that reconciliation is as accurate as possible and that we are using the same national definitions.
Updated
Tim Pallas, the treasurer* explains:
I suppose every body would understand the importance of a home in the current environment, the security of a roof of your head but the sanctuary in these difficult times.
Everybody needs the piece of mind to appreciate that their home is a place that will stay with them during this difficulty and of course the virus, as we know, is constantly evolving and so the government is continuously adjusting its response in terms of the support that we can give to the community at large and in this respect we have assessed how the virus is presenting, the length of time that we know that people will need security and certainty in terms of their residences going forward and we’ve made a number of decisions.
So we’ve decided to announce that we’re ensuring greater certainty and security for residential tenants and landlords by extending the eviction and rental moratorium until 28 March 2021.
Now, we know that the pandemic has significantly disrupted the rental market and we recognise that there’s an ongoing need to support households who are experiencing rental distress.
So we’ve seen more people facing housing and financial distress with renters particularly hard hit due to the coronavirus and the convergence of factors including their age and their employment conditions.
So as they’re feeling greater uncertainty in terms of their material circumstances, the one thing they shouldn’t have to feel is that their home is at risk, ... intention to increase those asset holdings now to $10,000.
So in practical terms that ensures that families do have a capacity to amass some funds albeit relatively modest, you’d appreciate, the figure of $10,000 without seeing their access to that rent relief being in any way compromised.
*I had my head down and mixed up my Victorian ministers
Updated
Victoria extends eviction moratorium
We were speaking about this earlier this morning - Victoria is now extending its eviction pause until March 28.
That’s another six months of relief for some people who really need it.
And then he moves on to this:
Now, I don’t want to be forecasting into much detail what the alternative might look like, but I will just make this point.
It’s been made a few times and I don’t want to make it again the notion that you could open for a short period of time and then have this get away from us, potentially with many thousands of cases in a month or two months, or three months’ time.
I want people to be focused on the fact that it would not just be those who became gravely ill and died of the coronavirus, as significant as that is – every death is a tragedy, we would see more coronavirus deaths – but we would also see, and I would ask every business leader, every worker, every person across the state, just to think about this – if there is someone in your family that you know has at some point had a heart attack and needed urgent care, had a motor vehicle accident and needed urgent care, had a stroke and needed urgent care, had a premature baby and needed urgent care, all of those services would be compromised as well if we are overrun by this virus, if we simply cannot meet the demand, not just of Covid patients, as critically important as they are, but it goes well beyond that.
A health system that is overrun for all patients. All patients. Regardless of whether they are coronavirus patients or people who present, many hundreds every single week, for the care that they need.
Updated
Daniel Andrews then moves to how the restrictions will be lifted given the number of business groups who have come out today demanding to have restrictions lifted for business and industry.
Reading between the lines, it looks like there won’t be any big changes from 13 September:
I fully appreciate and understand the pain and the challenge that those businesses are facing.
What I would say is this is not a choice. This is not something we are choosing to do.
There is simply no alternative but to ease out of these restrictions in a safe and steady way. And I know we all want this to be over. We all want the same thing.
But the notion of opening up quickly, the notion of opening up in that way is not a responsible thing to do. It is not a safe thing to do.
And it will not be a lasting thing that we do. It will be five minutes of sunshine and we will be back into these sorts of restrictions again.
And that will be no good for any business. I know and understand what is this is asking for;I know and understand why they are asking for that, but there is only one alternative, there is only one option.
And that is to do this in a safe and steady way. Because if we don’t do it in a safe and steady way, everything that Victorian workers, families, businesses, will count for nothing. Every single thing, every contribution, every sacrifice that has been made will count for nothing.
Updated
Some other data:
Daniel Andrews:
There are 4,369 cases with an unknown source – that is an increase of eight since yesterday’s report.
There are 297 healthcare workers who are current active cases.
And we send our best wishes to each of them and thank them for the work that they do every hour of every shift right across our state.
There are some 2,060 active cases across the state – stabilising and indeed falling.
The regional breakdown, 124 are in regional local government areas under stage three; regional Victoria, again, the numbers remain low and are trending in the right direction and we’re very grateful to each and every regional Victorian who was playing the part in keeping those numbers low.
To think we might be into double digits in the not-too-distant future, that is a really pleasing outcome of those communities where we had the greatest degree of concern, when we’re up towards, or in excess of 500 cases.
Greater Geelong: there are now 38 active cases, two new since yesterday. Greater Bendigo seven active cases, one nuisance yesterday. And Ballarat is just three active cases and no new cases since my update yesterday.
Updated
There were 25,031 tests yesterday which is an increase on the teens we have been seeing the past couple of days, and a figure making authorities feel like they are getting a better idea of how much virus is out there.
Updated
Daniel Andrews press conference
The Victorian premier is giving an update on today’s data:
I want to stress today’s report, reported to include 50 tragedies, 50 people who passed away prior to yesterday.
This is in relation to a reconciliation of data between private providers, the commonwealth, and our public health team. Everyone is doing their very best to reconcile the data as quickly as possible but I will let Prof Sutton speak to that in more detail in a moment.
Of those nine deaths beyond the others they have just spoken about, there are two males and one female in their 70s, one male in their 80s, two males and two females in their 90s, and one female in her 100s.
Eight of those nine deaths are linked to aged care outbreaks. There are 329 Victorians who are in hospital, 20 of those are receiving intensive care and 13 of those 20 are on a ventilator.
Updated
David Littleproud had a chat to Adelaide radio 5AA this morning about the need for uniformity on agricultural border passes:
Yeah look, this is just plain insanity. The reality is we are allowing freight transport companies to let truck drivers in Covid hotspots in Melbourne drive right across the country without any worry at all, they get a permit and off they go. But a farmer who has a farm on one side of the border cannot go up to tend to his animals or tend to his crops even though he’s outside a Covid hotspot just because unfortunately, we’ve got bureaucrats in capital cities making arbitrary decisions predicated on capital cities, not understanding this thing called common sense that regional Australia is a little bit different.
We’re not asking states to tear down their border restrictions in any way sense or form. We’re just asking a fair go like that given that the transport industry.
We’re just saying you can do the same with agriculture in a safe way, but we’ll continue to allow food to be put on your plate and clothes to be put on your back. That’s all we’re asking for. If you don’t do that, you are going to see that there will be pressure on prices, because if farmers can’t get to it, and they’re about to have a bumper year, after so many hard years of the drought, and now this is another kick in the guts, where they simply just can’t go and tend to animals.
And there’s actually some very serious animal welfare issues that are playing out on this, as well as health issues. And right across the state, I’ve come up with a code that now our chief medical officer of the commonwealth has given written approval too, that he believes will keep us safe, that will allow agriculture to keep going keep going, so it’s now up to the premiers.
Updated
Richard Marles had some things to say ahead of national cabinet this morning:
Today we have the national cabinet and high on the agenda is going to be state borders.
The truth of the matter is that the prime minister lost his way on this issue months ago.
The lion’s share of the responsibility of the internal borders within Australia has to lie with the commonwealth government.
There should be a sensible set of protocols around the terms on which borders close and the basis upon which they reopen. But obtaining agreement around that has to be the responsibility of the prime minister.
And in that he has absolutely failed. And in the absence of that I don’t blame Annastacia Palaszczuk or Mark McGowan for taking the positions that they are in doing what anybody in their circumstances would do. But what we’ve seen on the part of the federal government is a complete failure to have leadership in this space.
And as a result the national cabinet is that in name only. I mean really, we see the prime minister claiming this is a great step forward in the federation but all it actually means is that when premiers agree, the prime minister tries to take credit and when they don’t he seeks to blame them.
And as a result the only contribution that we’ve seen in this space today is the unedifying spectacle of Morrison government ministers doing nothing but complaining about state premiers.
We don’t need government by whingeing. We need government by leadership.
And Scott Morrison is failing that. A cabinet by any name should be led by its leader, who should then bring people along with them.
But on both counts Scott Morrison has failed when it comes to the national cabinet. So I certainly hope that in today’s national cabinet we see a change to that and we do see some leadership from our federal government but I’m certainly not holding my breath.
Updated
Stuart Robert has responded in the independent review into Ann-Marie Smith’s death:
The NDIS quality and safeguards commissioner, Graeme Head AO, has today released the report from the independent review commissioned by the commissioner in response to the tragic death of National Disability Insurance Scheme participant, Ann-Marie Smith, in South Australia. The review was conducted by former federal court judge, Alan Robertson SC.
Smith’s death remains subject to a criminal investigation by South Australia police, which has resulted in a charge of manslaughter against her former carer.
The review examined the adequacy of the regulation of the supports and services provided to Smith and the action taken by the NDIS commission in the exercise of its regulatory functions.
Robertson did not identify any significant failings in the NDIS commission’s performance of its functions. Robertson also made a number of broader observations for legislative and policy changes to better support vulnerable or at-risk NDIS participants.
Robert said he shared the deep distress and concern felt across the Australian community in response to the death of Smith.
“The government has already taken action to strengthen systems and processes to bolster support for vulnerable or at-risk NDIS participants,” he said.
“Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, the national disability insurance agency has reached out to about 70,000 participants who have been identified as being at greater risk, not just to coronavirus but to the impacts of the pandemic, including isolation.
“Proactive outreach activities to check-in on NDIS participants will be a key feature of the NDIS going forward.”
A number of Robertson’s observations go to improved information sharing between the NDIA and the NDIS commission, as well as with state and territory governments. In recognising this, the NDIA and NDIS commission have already agreed a memorandum of understanding and a range of operational protocols that provide for improved two-way exchange of information.
Robert said this was already assisting the NDIA in identifying vulnerable or at-risk participants who may require more regular check-ins, and providing the NDIS commission with enhanced information to monitor and investigate provider practices and processes.
A number of the observations involve responsibilities of state and territory governments outside of the NDIS, such as child protection, public guardian or law enforcement. At their meeting in July 2020, disability ministers agreed to a project to improve the identification and support for vulnerable or at-risk people with disability. This project is ongoing and is due to be finalised in by the end of 2020.
“I welcome state and territory governments’ commitment to reducing the risks for people with disability, and look forward to continuing our collective work to improve the quality and safety of supports and services accessed by people with disability,” Robert said.
The Robertson review has also supported specific legislative changes that build on steps the government is already taking to strengthen and expand the regulatory framework as a result of feedback from other inquiries, such as the independent review of the NDIS legislation by David Tune AO.
Robert said the government would consider these changes alongside existing proposed legislative amendments, in close consultation with people with disability and state and territory governments.
Updated
Victorian premier Dan Andrews to give update at noon
Daniel Andrews will speak at midday.
Updated
AAP has an update on the New South Wales cases:
Another Sydney school has been forced to shut after being linked to a positive Covid-19 case as NSW has recorded eight new cases of the virus.
All staff and students at Regents Park Christian School are advised to monitor for symptoms but those who attended after-school care on Monday and Tuesday must isolate for 14 days.
The case, which was deemed Covid-positive on Wednesday night and is linked to a previously reported infection, was one of the eight NSW cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.
Of the eight, one was a traveller in hotel quarantine, three were connected to the City Tattersalls Club gym cluster and two to the St Paul’s Catholic College Greystanes cluster, taking the size of those clusters to 57 and 14 respectively.
St Pauls and nearby Girraween public school reopened on Thursday after deep cleaning.
On Thursday NSW Health issued an alert for a church service at Life in the Spirit Ministry in Prestons, saying anyone who attended on 30 August required to self-isolate for 14 days.
On Friday health authorities added New Brighton Golf Club in Moorebank to that list, with patrons on the evening of 28 August deemed close contacts and told to self-isolate.
With Father’s Day on Sunday, NSW Health also advised against visiting Sydney, Blue Mountains or Central Coast aged care homes at the weekend.
Earlier this week the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, suggested rules around nursing home visits may change for the weekend if virus case numbers remained low.
“This decision has been reached after careful consideration of the risks of Covid-19 being introduced into an aged care facility while the CBD cluster is brought under control,” NSW Health said on Friday.
The transport minister, Andrew Constance, warned on Friday warned against complacency as summer nears.
“There’s no doubt people are going to want to travel around and we’ve just got to be mindful the virus is still amongst us, it can spike up at any point as we’re seeing,” he said.
“Everyone this Sunday, being out and about, be mindful you’ve got to do all the good things.”
Meanwhile, Berejiklian has hit out at Queensland’s demand that NSW eliminate community transmissions before it considers reopening its border.
Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said on Thursday that NSW needed to pass 28 days without any community transmission before the border rules would be reassessed.
“The guideline that’s been set by the Queensland government in relation to when they reopen their border is a pretty tall order,” Berejiklian said on Thursday.
“I don’t know anywhere on the planet where a society could function productively during a pandemic and get an assurance you’re going to [get] zero cases of community transmission.”
There are seven cases in NSW in intensive care, with four ventilated.
Updated
John Setka of the CFMEU has written to Daniel Andrews and Brett Sutton about the covid standards in the construction industry:
“The commercial construction industry has continued to lead workers safely through the pandemic. Our priority has always been to protect the safety and livelihoods of our members.
“We implemented extreme safety measures well beyond those we were required to do in the early stages of the pandemic to ensure the protection of all construction workers.
“These procedures meant we were better placed than any other industry to continue working and we must be allowed to do just that – not only to protect the livelihoods of the 300,000-plus Victorian construction workers but to lead the recovery of the Victorian economy.
“Some of the measures we have in place are:
- onsite infectious disease awareness training
- onsite temperature checking
- site mapping
- Covid-safe jobsite fogging
- on-going mobile testing by Incolink having tested over 18,000 construction workers to date with only seven positive confirmed cases
- continuous medical grade sanitation cleaning
- rostered breaks and split start times
- social distancing also put in place for hoists, lunchrooms, and toolbox meetings
- digital mapping trials are ongoing.
“The success of these safety measures is evident with the onsite Covid-19 confirmed commercial construction cases continuing to be at a minimum with only three cases in the past six weeks and zero cases in the past three weeks.
“As the backbone of this country, the 300,000-plus Victorian construction workers across all sectors must go back to work now.
“The onsite Covid safety measures will continue to be an absolute priority, in the provision of protection for the construction industry and the community at large.”
Updated
Auckland to stay locked down for fortnight
New Zealand will continue locking down Auckland for another fortnight.
Jacinda Ardern says authorities think there might be cases they have missed, so they need another two weeks.
Updated
Eight new cases in NSW
NSW has recorded eight new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours - one in hotel quarantine and the other seven are linked to known cases.
Updated
Alan Tudge was also on ABC radio this morning, speaking about the government’s attempts to lure big companies to Australia.
He was asked how the government thought this would work, given Australia’s borders are closed – and 23,000 Australians are stranded overseas – and that’s just those who have registered to want to come home. There could be up to 100,000 if this goes into next year.
Q: Before we get to the details of this announcement, is it a little odd to be putting out the welcome mat for businesses when at least 23,000 Aussies are stuck overseas because flights keep getting cancelled?
Tudge: Well this is an initiative, which is about creating jobs for Australians in Australia, because if we attract businesses to our shores, we attract investments to our shores. Of course, in that process, we will be creating further jobs here and that is what this initiative is all about: job creation for Australians.
Q: But given our international borders are still closed, how quickly is this going to happen?
Tudge: Well it will take some time. We are not going to have a flood of people obviously next Monday. This is an initiative, which we are just kicking off today, and it will run for two or three years. And we’re going to be targeting some of those really high value businesses and trying to attract them to our shores. And in doing so creating those jobs, as well as targeting some of that exceptional global super talent out there, people who are entrepreneurial, some of the top scientists, some of the tech wizards who are in demand globally, and again be attractive to them, invite them to our shores to help generate jobs for Australians here.
Updated
Given all the expanded powers, this must be totally fine right?
— Australia Defence Association (@austdef) September 4, 2020
Jacqui Lambie has deciding vote on mobile phone ban legislation
Jacqui Lambie is the deciding vote in the mobile phone ban legislation.
The bill will make it illegal for refugees and asylum seekers to have mobile phones – their only lifeline to the outside world – in Australia’s immigration detention centres.
Think about how often you have used your phone in isolation.
And then write to Lambie to let her know what you think.
Updated
The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry continues today.
Noel Cleaves from the health and human services department says it was the most “intense” work experience he has ever had:
I would have to say it was the most intense work experience I’ve ever had in my 35 years work. We worked very long hours in the first weeks. They declined a little bit after that but I would have to say they never declined substantially but the first few weeks we were doing regularly 16-18 hours days regularly without breaks and then every two to three days – nights a senior AO would have the responsibility of being on call for the AOs in the hotels who were working night shift and also a secondary role of being on call for the Victoria police – police operation centre. Primarily that was around the advice but very occasionally it required physical attendance.
Updated
While having a read of Tasmania’s restrictions, I found this fun one:
Restrictions remain in place for dancing in all venues where food and alcohol is consumed because of the increased risk of close contact, particularly where alcohol is consumed, and difficulty of tracing contact among patrons. This restriction will be in place at least until the end of 2020.
Dancing will only be permitted when it is pre-arranged, held in a separate room to where food and alcohol is consumed and contact information is recorded. For example, the following could occur:
- a pre-arranged dance class in a separate room of a pub;
- dance classes or dancing in a community hall; and
- water, tea, coffee and other non-alcoholic drinks could be consumed in the same room as a dance class or dancing.
The only other exception is dancing at a wedding reception. The wedding couple, their parents/guardians and other bridal party members can dance.
The management of risk associated with these activities must also be covered in a venue’s COVID-19 Safety Plan.
If someone hires a venue, such as a community hall, they share with the venue owner/operator the responsibility for managing dance and other activities, including physical distancing and facilitating a safe entry and exit to the premises.
Updated
Meanwhile, the same workplace concerns which happened before the pandemic, are still an issue.
Media release: Over $1.2 million recovered for food and retail workers https://t.co/MGHfBKdWGz
— Fair Work Ombudsman (@fairwork_gov_au) September 4, 2020
Updated
But in short, Queensland will not be budging on borders.
Annastacia Palaszczuk said the debate had been “intense” and “intimidating” but she will “not give in to intimidation”.
Queensland has done extremely well by relying on the expert health advice of Dr Young. And let me make it very clear. They will not be changing that course anytime soon because you have seen the great results that have been occurring in Queensland.
Western Australia is also not budging.
The Northern Territory’s Michael Gunner had previously said he would be keeping his borders closed to hotspots for another 18 months (which would take us into 2022)
Tasmania won’t be opening up until at least December.
South Australia has said it would consider allowing ACT and NSW residents to travel across its borders, but is yet to make a decision.
In short, there won’t be a national unified position on this.
Updated
The Queensland CMO, Dr Jeannette Young, said she advised the government to close the borders.
“My advice is driven by health and that is the only issue that I consider,” she said last month.
Peter Dutton, who is a member of the federal government, and not privy to Queensland government advice, says differently:
I don’t have any problem with borders being closed if that’s the recommendation of the health authorities, but in Queensland it’s not.
And the trouble at the moment is that we have got a situation that is all political and we are seeing a lot of people suffer. I think the mental health issues that – [inaudible] – that the borders are open as soon as possible.
But New South Wales is dealing with community transmission but zero cases, if that’s the test for success, we are going broke. Businesses will close, those jobs won’t be there, so we have got to think about what’s happening today, but what happens over the next six months and the borders closed at the moment means complete devastation for families in Queensland and there is no reason for it.
Dutton is talking about the federal health advisors, who have not advised the national cabinet to close borders – but have repeatedly said it is a matter for the states CMOs to decide themselves.
Updated
Unfortunately for Matt Canavan, today is Jersey Day.
"I just have a simple request for the Premiers" @mattjcan "Take off the football jerseys and put on the Little Johnny Australian tracksuit for a change" #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/RINmbFIHND
— Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) September 3, 2020
JERSEY DAY IS HERE! Join me and our Australian Defence Force in wearing your favourite sporting jersey to raise awareness for organ donation. You can register your decision at https://t.co/OwtRnPTTQy #jerseydayau #donatelife #YourADF #OneDefence #AusArmy #AusAirForce #AusNavy pic.twitter.com/nmWU2bbBbC
— Alex Hawke MP (@AlexHawkeMP) September 3, 2020
Tomorrow is Jersey Day to promote awareness of organ donation. #OrganDonation saves lives – that’s why I’m registered as an organ donor. So wear your favourite sporting jersey tomorrow and start talking about organ donation. https://t.co/IpSgLEkCaC#jerseydayau #DonateLife pic.twitter.com/mG0oin7NMi
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) September 3, 2020
Just to be clear, there have been nine deaths in Victoria in the last 24 hours.
The 59 figure includes 50 deaths from between July and August.
So in the last 24 hours, nine people died and 81 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Victoria.
But there were another 50 deaths from aged care facilities, of people who had been diagnosed with Covid, who had not been officially recorded in the toll before today.
Updated
It is worth pointing out that this is a debate happening in the UK, but being talked about here.
Statement from Christine Forster @resourcefultype in defence of her brother @HonTonyAbbott pic.twitter.com/0gGwSSEmbD
— Thomas O'Brien (@TJ__OBrien) September 3, 2020
Australian politics:
(via AAP)
A former colleague has come to the defence of Tony Abbott after he was labelled a misogynistic, homophobic climate-denier.
The former prime minister has come under heavy scrutiny after it emerged he was being lined up for a senior trade role in the United Kingdom.
He has also been criticised for suggesting older people should be left to die from coronavirus, to spare younger generations from the economic burden.
Senior coalition minister Mathias Cormann, who served under Mr Abbott, said he had a distinguished record.
“From where I sit, Tony Abbott is clearly a giant on Australian politics who has made a great contribution over a long time,” Senator Cormann told Sky News on Friday.
“Not everyone will agree with him, but people are entitled to their views, and that’s the way things work in a democracy.”
Mr Abbott has previously said he felt threatened by homosexuality, opposed same-sex marriage, and was accused of misogyny by fellow former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Julia Gillard was asked on UK television for her views on Abbott and declined to get involved with the debate.
And for those counting, as of 22 August, Scott Morrison has sat in the prime minister’s office for longer than Abbott.
The latest Victoria figures, which include the previously unreported deaths, means that 81 people who had been diagnosed with covid died in aged care facilities from July, but were not officially reported until very recently.
We expect to hear from Daniel Andrews around 11am at this stage.
Earlier this week, Victoria’s chief medical officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said to expect more deaths to be reconciled to the state’s total.
But still. Seeing 59 is absolutely shocking. And it takes the state’s toll to 650.
Updated
Victoria records 81 new cases and nine deaths in the last 24 hours
Those numbers for Victoria have been confirmed:
The 59 people who died includes 50 people who passed away in aged care facilities in July and August who have been added to the total.
#COVID19VicData for 4 Sep 2020.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 3, 2020
There were 81 new cases and sadly 59 deaths. This includes 50 people in aged care who passed away in July - August. The State & Federal govts and Aged Care sector worked together to reconcile data and update Victorian reporting related to deaths. pic.twitter.com/KSUpRCJmXa
Updated
Queensland has opened up a new area in its travel bubble - Moree.
That was after a group of school boarders asked the premier to be able to travel home, and then back again, given there was no transmission in their home town.
Annastacia Palaszczuk isn’t budging on the rest of it as yet, and says that there are teams of people working on exemptions
We have a team of 80 people working on this. This is about the government working in the best interests of families during these very difficult times. We did not cause this pandemic.
This is a world pandemic. No-one asked for this. We know that families are not seeing each other at the moment. There are international borders up. Scott Morrison has put out that that is going to be extended for another three months. So families are not going to be united for Christmas.
And that is going to be very tough on families. And we know it’s going to be tough on families over the next few months because we are in this global pandemic.
The other issue I just wanted to address before handing over to Dr Young is that we’ve had some concerns about borders going to Moree and of course we want to make sure that we are putting the best interests of these young people front and centre.
And that is why we will be adding Moree to our travel bubble. This is going to be great news for those families to ensure that they can be home for school holidays.
Queensland has reported no new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.
It has been two weeks since a woman in her 70s was diagnosed, sparking a new cluster (of which the original transmission is still a mystery) so that is very good news.
You can follow along with all the international Covid news with Helen Sullivan here
Anthony Albanese was on Sydney radio 2SM this morning, where he was speaking about Richard Colbeck:
Look, the only reason why he remains there is Scott Morrison’s stubbornness, who has issues with a range of ministers in the past events and issues that are still running. Ministers like Angus Taylor are still there even though there’s no explanation about the documentation. We have involvement of ministers in sports rorts, and it all seems to be just swept under the carpet. But what is of great concern here isn’t just – I’m not terribly concerned about Richard Colbeck – I’m concerned about aged care residents and them getting care.
I put forward a week ago, a very practical plan for aged care – an eight point plan: minimum staffing levels; making sure they have access to proper training; a better surge Workforce Strategy; more transparency in accordance with what the Aged Care Royal Commissioners have already called for. And you know, minimum staffing levels and we get no response effectively from the Government on those issues. The Royal Commission, in one word summed up what they thought the state of aged care was last October – on the 31st of October last year – so before the pandemic, one word: neglect.
There are reports (most recently Sky News) that the state will record 81 new cases – down from 113 yesterday – and 59 deaths.
There is no breakdown, but given the 41 deaths which were recorded in one day earlier in the week included 22 people who had died previously, I don’t think that awful toll is just from 24 hours.
We’ll let you know when we have the official numbers.
Updated
The Victorian case numbers for today are delayed, which lately means authorities are reconciling numbers.
That has meant additional deaths from the past are being added to the total for today, after changes were made in how aged care facilities report deaths.
Meanwhile, it looks like there is finally some progress on this issue, which is well overdue.
Via AAP:
Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt is in talks to buy the rights to the Aboriginal flag.
Mr Wyatt is having discussions with Indigenous artist and copyright holder Harold Thomas, who designed the flag in 1971, and the non-Indigenous company that owns the commercial licensing rights.
“I commit to doing everything I can to bring about a resolution that respects not only the artist of the flag but a resolution that respects the rights, enterprise and opportunity of all Australians,” he said on Friday.
The confirmation comes days after it was revealed Labor is drafting legislation that would compel the minister to negotiate with the copyright holder.
The long-running issue recently resurfaced after the AFL was unable to use the Aboriginal flag during its Indigenous round.
Ahead of the national cabinet, Murph and Paul have put this together:
Scott Morrison is expected to secure agreement from some but not all state and territory leaders on a definition of hotspots when they meet on Friday with a review of the current cap on international arrivals also on the agenda.
The prime minister has been ratcheting up pressure on the premiers for weeks to reopen their borders, and the commonwealth has been working up a definition of a hotspot with a view to replacing current border controls with localised lockdowns to control coronavirus outbreaks.
Morrison on Thursday urged his state and territory counterparts to come together, remove restrictions, and “make Australia whole again by Christmas”. The premiers of Victoria and New South Wales, as well as the two territory leaders, are expected to agree with the commonwealth’s approach.
But ahead of Friday’s national cabinet meeting, the premiers of other states looked highly unlikely to yield. The West Australian premier, Mark McGowan, declared border restrictions had been “successful” and Queensland has made it clear it wants to stick with the current arrangements.
As a side note, money is very cheap for the states (and nation) to borrow at the moment – and I’m told that there is no difference between the interest rates for a AAA economy and a AA1 economy at the moment, so as the state budgets roll out, keep that in mind.
Treasurer @timpallas says $2.5bn has been drawn down on the $24.5bn credit facility available to Victoria for #covid19 @10NewsFirstMelb #springst pic.twitter.com/mKXdhGsckT
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) September 3, 2020
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In case you missed it yesterday, the travel ban was extended another three months until December.
Previously, the government has said that it was “reasonable” to assume the international border would remain closed until at least mid-next year.
Ahead of national cabinet, while there has been a lot of attention on Labor premiers Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark McGowan over Queensland and Western Australia’s border closures, it is worth remembering that South Australia and Tasmania haven’t budged either, and they have Liberal premiers. And no forthcoming state elections, unlike Palaszczuk and McGowan. (Elections are being blamed for the hard border closures in Qld and WA)
Plus, New South Wales has only very recently moved on a border bubble with its Victorian border communities – it kept that airtight despite the pleas for almost two months.
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Meanwhile, we are hearing a lot about tax breaks, and tax cuts (moving forward the legislated tax cuts has been in the works for some time - and Scott Morrison deliberately mentioned it again in question time this week, to keep that ball rolling), but you have to wonder - if people are already feeling unsettled and saving their incomes, which we know from the national accounts, where household savings went from 6% to almost 20%, how will tax cuts stimulate the economy?
Here is AAP on Peter Dutton floating using tax breaks to bring in international companies to Australia:
Foreign-based companies could soon be lured to Australia with the incentive of tax breaks.
Senior cabinet minister Peter Dutton hopes the plan gets off the ground.
“We need to grow jobs,” he told the Nine Network on Friday.
“It’s OK that we’ve got support in place at the moment with JobKeeper and JobSeeker - that’s fine and that’s a good thing - but to get to the next stage we need to have investment.”
Australia has plunged deep into recession after the economy shrank seven per cent in the June quarter.
More than one million Australians are unemployed and 400,000 more are expected to join the dole queue before Christmas.
The jobless rate is still expected to climb to 10 per cent by the end of the year and remain stubbornly high for many months.
Labor deputy leader Richard Marles wants to hear more than “hope” from senior government ministers.
The opposition argues tax breaks alone are no substitute for a comprehensive plan on jobs.
“Small business is facing the biggest crisis it has in Australia’s history and we hear nothing from this government about what they are going to be doing for them,” Mr Marles told the Today Show.
“We need to have a jobs plan from this mob right now.”
Meanwhile, Tony Abbott continues making headlines in the UK.
“Tony Abbott is a homophobe and a misogynist”
— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) September 3, 2020
Health Sec @MattHancock: “He’s also an expert on trade”#KayBurley
JM pic.twitter.com/92IFWVcDYH
Updated
Come the end of this month, and the insolvency amnesty, which allowed businesses to continue trading while insolvent, comes to an end.
Given the additional lockdowns in Melbourne, as well as the border closures, and the impacts of the recession, which saw households hold on to as much money as possible, the 30 September expiry is expected to bring a rush of heartache.
So the government is considering extending it.
But given the backbench is already getting antsy over how much and how long government support and subsidies will be rolled out for, there is also rumblings in the party room about deadlines, which is one of the reasons why the prime minister is pushing for hotspot definitions.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre receives a new report of cybercrime every 10 minutes, while more than a third of serious incidents to which it responds are targeted at Australia’s critical infrastructure sectors, according to its annual cyber threat report.
The ACSC, which is part of the Australian Signals Directorate, responded to 2,266 cybersecurity incidents in the year to June 2020. It also “received 59,806 cybercrime reports at an average of 164 cybercrime reports per day, or one report every 10 minutes”, says the report, which is being released today.
The defence minister, Linda Reynolds, said ASD was “using its offensive cyber capabilities to strike back against foreign cybercriminals and disrupt malicious cyber activities targeting Australians.”
Of the 2,266 cybersecurity incidents to which the ACSC responded over the 12-month period, 803 (or about 35%) were reported by federal, state or territory governments. The report says another 35% of incidents over the period were reported by “Australia’s critical infrastructure sectors including electricity, water, health, communications and education”. The most common type of cybersecurity incident was malicious email, followed by a compromised system.
The report says there was a spike in cyber security incidents in April linked to Covid-19 themed cyber crime. “Throughout the pandemic, there was an increase in reported spearphishing campaigns and an increase of Covid-19 themed malicious cyber activity”.
It also says the national cyber security incident that was made public by Scott Morrison in a media conference on 19 June was identified by the ACSC “as a Category 1 cyber incident, as it involved the sustained targeting of Australian governments and companies by a sophisticated state-based actor”. Category 1 is the most severe of six categories on the scale. However, the table included in the report indicates there were no incidents in 2019-20 that involved “a sustained disruption of essential systems”.
Updated
Good morning
We’ve all made it through another week – what now feels like the 76th of 2020 – so huzzah for us.
The parliament sitting ended with the government pushing through it’s EPBC legislation, without debate, in the House, which essentially seeks to bring back Tony Abbott’s “one-stop” environment check shop. That led to a rush of frustration and anger from non-government MPs, and will now be fought out in the Senate come the October sitting.
But Scott Morrison has another fight on his hands today – it’s national cabinet and the prime minister wants a unified definition on what makes an area with a Covid outbreak a “hotspot”.
Victoria is a maybe. NSW is a yes, and South Australia is a probably. But Queensland and WA are not on your lifes, the NT doesn’t seem inclined and Tasmania is kinda happy where it is.
So it’s not looking great for a unified decision.
Also on the agenda – the international arrival caps, which is under discussion, but doesn’t look like having any changes made.
In terms of national cabinet meetings, this one is shaping up as one of the first where not a lot of progress looks like being made. It’s been described as a test for Morrison, but it’s actually just the federation. The states don’t like to give up powers.
And it now being September, the six month pause on evictions, and loan repayments, is coming to an end in some jurisdictions. That was set up in March, following national cabinet meetings, but is rapidly running out of days. That’s going to bring a whole raft of other issues, as people continue to struggle to find work in a depressed economy.
But Melbourne is also one day closer to learning what the plan is for the next month. Stage four restrictions were meant to be in place until September 13, but looking at the numbers - which were in three figures again yesterday - it doesn’t look like they will be low enough for restrictions to lift in two weeks time. But it has been a long, hard, frustrating and lonely winter for a lot of Melbourne residents, so at the same time, they need some hope that things will get better. It is a tough line to walk. We’ll find out more on Sunday.
We’ll bring you the day’s events as they happen. You have Amy Remeikis with you.
Ready?
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