What happened today
Let’s take a look at the day’s main events.
- Victoria recorded 12 cases and two deaths, further reducing the 14-day average
- The premier, Daniel Andrews, warned that a loosening of restrictions to be announced on Sunday will not be vastly different to the state’s ‘roadmap’
- NSW recorded no new cases, nor did Queensland
- It was confirmed Sydney’s famous NYE fireworks will go ahead, and restrictions for some gatherings were further eased in NSW
- In non-Covid news, Westpac reached a $1bn settlement with Austrac following a money laundering scandal
With that we will leave you for now. See you tomorrow.
There is one place in every major city across the globe that human connections occur that are filled with love, happiness, and hope - the airport. Today we witnessed a moment from the heart when we welcomed the first of our NSW friends who don't have to quarantine upon arrival. pic.twitter.com/6I0v6unoxX
— Adelaide Airport (@AdelaideAirport) September 24, 2020
I might point you to this piece where four people on income support talk about the reduction to the coronavirus supplement.
That change – a $300 a fortnight cut to the benefits of the unemployed, students and people on parenting payments – comes into effect tomorrow.
Updated
TikTok is fronting the Senate Inquiry into Foreign Interference through Social Media at 1400 AEST tomorrow. Should be fun. pic.twitter.com/2MYgbhXLU9
— Stilgherrian (@stilgherrian) September 24, 2020
Katharine Murphy and Paul Karp have been covering a speech from Josh Frydenberg today that marks out a shift in the Coalition’s approach to debt and deficit.
The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened struggles for Victoria’s already-vulnerable women who hold temporary visas, a new report says.
The Monash University study, published on Thursday, analysed 100 case files of women who experienced domestic and family violence during Victoria’s first lockdown, reports AAP.
From mid-March to the end of May, 92% of the temporary visa holders who sought help from the inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence reported perpetrators making recent threats to harm them or their children.
Some 87% had been emotionally abused, while more than 60% were threatened with deportation.
Almost a third feared deportation or being forced to leave the nation without their Australian-born children.
The majority of perpetrators were Australian citizens or permanent residents, the report said.
Updated
Just stepping away from Covid for a moment, Western Australia police have distributed a statement from the family and friends of Jane Rimmer.
They say they are “pleased that we finally have a verdict which gives us some answers about the abduction and horrendous murder of our beloved Jane”.
Some of their statement reads:
For our family and friends there have been 24 years of pain and anguish at the loss of our young, vibrant daughter, sister, niece and close friend.
Jane had her whole life ahead of her, and it is almost beyond comprehension this could have ended in such horrific, heinous circumstances.
Our family can now take some comfort today and the healing process can begin.
We want to thank the office of the director of public prosecutions and the WA police force for the way in which they have interacted with the family throughout this difficult time, and the extremely thorough and professional manner in which they have worked.
Updated
Australia’s share market has finished lower for the fifth time in the last six sessions and the Aussie dollar continued falling towards 70 US cents amid concerns about global economic recovery, AAP reports.
The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index finished down 48.0 points, or 0.81%, to 5875.9 points on Thursday.
The All Ordinaries index closed lower by 54.8 points, or 0.9%, to 6056.5.
The results followed a negative lead from US markets. Uncertainty over the presidential election result in November, and an impasse on providing more economic stimulus amid the coronavirus pandemic, have weighed on investors.
The Australian dollar was buying 70.35 US cents at 1620 AEST, down from 71.19 US cents after the close of trade on Wednesday.
Here’s an update from the NDIS:
There are now 19 active cases within the scheme, a reduction of three. That’s made up of eight participant cases (-2) and 11 worker cases (-1).
All the active cases are in Victoria.
Amy told you earlier today that the Victorian government has announced an $11m funding boost to food relief.
The federal social services minister, Anne Ruston, has announced the commonwealth will also contribute $4.22m to various charities that provide emergency relief.
Ruston said:
The Morrison government understands that Victorians have been doing it tough as they deal with the second wave of the virus.
This funding ensures emergency relief providers can support about 40,000 Victorians facing financial hardship with purchasing food, clothing, petrol or paying for utilities and housing.
Neither has mentioned it specifically, but the timing of the announcements are hardly subtle. The coronavirus supplement added to welfare benefits during the pandemic will be cut by $300 a fortnight from tomorrow.
Updated
Thanks Calla. Hello everyone, Luke Henriques-Gomes here. I’ll be with you into the evening.
Updated
I am going to hand over to Luke Henriques-Gomes, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Western Australia’s police commissioner, Chris Dawson, is talking to reporters in Perth about the conviction over the Claremont serial killings.
Dawson said:
This is an important and historic day for justice in Western Australia. Justice for the victims, their families. Justice for an evil murderer and rapist.
Today is a combination of more than three decades of investigations which involved over 700 offices directly allocated to these investigations, and there were hundreds more police and public servants who were contributing to this investigation, and a number of them involved in, for instance, bushland [searches], questioning and investigating leads or answering the tens of thousands of calls from our community.
Today’s outcome is also important for WA police force, it further reinforces our ability to investigate crime. We must never forget Jane, Sarah and Ciara, and the other many witnesses and victims, and the devastating effects these crimes had on their families. I wish to once again pay tribute to the victims and their families for their courage, their resilience, their dignity and the way they continue to carry themselves and their loved ones.
He adds:
It is fair to say that no other investigation has been more scrutinised, reviewed, criticised or publicised, but our team has never given up.
Updated
Josh Taylor has filed an updated report on the hearings of Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry today.
As reported earlier, the health minister Jenny Mikakos told the inquiry that she was not involved in the decision to use private security contractors to enforce hotel quarantine in Melbourne, because it was a “multi-agency response”.
The ACTU president, Michelle O’Neil, has commented on the federal court decision against Qantas, which ruled the airline had to pass the full $1,500 per fortnight subsidy on to workers.
She said:
We welcome the decision of the Court but it should never have been necessary for these workers and their unions to take their employer to court to get full and proper access to federal government emergency assistance.
This issue should have been resolved by Qantas months ago. The fact that Qantas workers and their unions had to take this case during this crisis to have the issue resolved is staggering, even by Qantas’ standards.
Airline workers have stood together during this crisis and demonstrated the power of working people standing up and demanding fair treatment, and the entire union movement stands with them.
Hamilton said it was for China to repair the Australian-Chinese relationship, and defended the Australian government’s position, saying:
Do we have pride as a nation? Or do we want to have our policies dictated by an authoritarian power on the other side of the South China Sea? I think most Australians have a pretty clear answer to that.
Hamilton said the Chinese Communist party had been carrying out “influence operations and interfering in Australian politics and institutions, like universities”.
The federal government decided three or four years ago to start pushing back, banning Huawei, introducing foreign interference legislation and a range of other measures. Beijing was very unhappy about that. And particularly since the Australian government called for an international inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing seems to have gone into vindictive mode and wants to punish Australia.
So, as we keep implementing measures to protect national security and our sovereignty as a nation, Beijing continues to retaliate.
I have to say, I mean, the Morrison government has made it very clear, in a calm but persistent way, [that] Australia will not sacrifice its national security or sovereignty. Really, the ball is entirely in Beijing’s court. If they stop interfering in Australian politics and try and influence Australian institutions, then the relationship can get back on track.
Updated
Prof Clive Hamilton, one of two Australian academics who has been publicly banned from travelling to China, has told ABC24 that he had no prior notice of the travel ban but decided some years ago that it was too dangerous for him to go there.
Hamilton and his colleague Alex Joske, who works at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, were named in the Global Times today.
Hamilton told the ABC:
I decided two or three years ago that it would be much too dangerous for me to travel to China with the government getting increasingly paranoid and vindictive. It isn’t the sort of place someone like me would go to nowadays.
Hamilton, wearing a hat, said it was “pretty clear” the ban was in retaliation for the Australian government excluding two Chinese academics.
It seems to be Beijing’s way of saying: well, if you’re going to do it, we’ll do it too. It’s a pretty petty response, I think. But that’s the kind of mentality that the Beijing government has.
Updated
Only 26,800 of the 35,700 Australians overseas want to return home
There are actually just 26,800 Australians stranded overseas who have registered with the government their wish to return home but are unable to do so.
Frances Adamson, secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, appeared at the Senate select committee on Covid-19 on Thursday afternoon and corrected the figure of 35,700 that Caroline Millar, deputy secretary of national security and international policy within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, had told the committee earlier, as we reported.
Adamson said 35,700 is of how many Australians had registered with Dfat that they are overseas, but only 26,800 of those also want to come home but are unable to.
Updated
Lee Rimmer, the sister of Jane Rimmer, murdered by Bradley Robert Edwards, has spoken to the media in Perth about Edwards’s conviction today for the murder of her sister and of Ciara Glennon in the late 1990s.
She told reporters:
I feel really good. At one point I thought he was going to be not guilty. We got the result we wanted. Now we just have to keep working for the Spiers family and hope someone finds Sarah.
Asked what the verdict means, she said:
It means that, I think, hopefully get on with the rest of my life, without all this stuff.
Edwards was found not guilty of the murder of Sarah Spiers, whose body has never been found. Western Australian premier Mark McGowans made a plea for information about that to Edwards today.
The former WA police commissioner Karl O’Callaghan reiterated that plea. He told ABC news:
One of the challenges facing police now is without Sarah Spiers’ body, it will be very difficult to make forensic links. We’ve already heard the premier of Western Australia call on Bradley Edwards to say if he knows where Sarah is buried and I would reiterate that.
If we can get that information, we can solve this issue for the Spiers family and bring enormous relief and comfort and perhaps closure and peace for them.
Updated
Calla Wahlquist is on deck to take you through the rest of the afternoon. I am sending her all the virtual giant cups of tea.
Thank you so much for joining me once again. I’ll be back tomorrow - it is a big day, so make sure you rest up. Take care of you. Ax
Updated
For those wondering where most Australians are currently stranded:
The top five countries for #strandedAussies (according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) are:
— Kristina Keneally (@KKeneally) September 24, 2020
1. India
2. The United Kingdom
3. The Philippines
4. Thailand
5. South Africa#auspol
After spending a good couple of minutes, unprompted, to talk about Steven Miles’s comments this morning, Peter Dutton dedicates less than 30 seconds to discuss a federal court judge all but accusing a minister of the crown of breaking the law.
Q: What was your reaction to the federal court’s decision that a minister may have acted criminally?
Dutton:
Mr Tudge has made comments in relation to that, strongly rejected any claims that he has acted improperly, and the government is looking at the grounds for an appeal in relation to that case now. OK? Thank you very much.
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Q: Is the government concerned about the rise in extremists? Do you have any plans to describe any of those groups as terrorists?
Peter Dutton:
I just don’t care where terrorists might be on the spectrum, I don’t care what their motivations are, if their desire is to cause hurt or to commit an act of mass casualty. Asio just doesn’t discriminate on any basis other than working day and night to keep Australians safe and stopping these people exercising their evil ideology.
And in addition to describing any organisations, that is advice that is provided to me by Asio, and if that advice is provided to me we won’t hesitate to list those groups...
[It] is not a political decision to prescribe a terrorist organisation. That is an issue for Asio on all of the advice that’s available to them, both open-source and what they can collect otherwise, and then they will make a decision about whether that organisation, that individual, should be prescribed. And they can make a recommendation direct to the prime minister and the leader of the opposition and state ministers and premiers, and we go through that process now.
I think all Australians should be proud of the director general of Asio, he is a first-class public servant and [serves] his country with great distinction. And if he makes a judgement that there should be an organisation or an individual prescribed, then I will act on that.
Q: Is the government concerned by how much Asio is linking to rightwing terrorism?
Dutton:
I just think, one case is concerning, and yes, if there is an escalation, if there is a deescalation, doesn’t matter. If we’re about one individual who has the ability to cause a dreadful, most egregious act where literally hundreds of people could lose their lives, or the actions of – I won’t mention his name but the individual and New Zealand, and the devastation that that had on lives and families, and a community in that case, we have seen it elsewhere around the world.
Asio’s been able to thwart a number of attempted terrorist attacks in our country. Some of these people can be radicalised online very quickly and I don’t think Asio, for a moment, has any coloured glasses on that say that they are going to go more vigorously after that person or this person. They make their assessments based on direct and they neutralise that threat so that people in our country can live safely.
Updated
Peter Dutton has used his Austrac press conference to return fire at the Queensland deputy premier, Steven Miles, who this morning accused Treasurer Josh Frydenberg of “lying”.
That’s all over the Australian Defence Force pulling troops off the Queensland border to redeploy them elsewhere. Frydenberg said Queensland didn’t ask for additional personnel; Miles said Queensland had letters asking for an extension and released them to the media, and that it was time for federal government MPs to stop using the Queensland border controls as an attack in the lead up to the election.
Dutton has things to say, though:
I mean on a daily basis now, Mr Miles goes out and frankly makes a fool of himself in front of the press.
He’s done it again today. It is like watching a juvenile go out there on a university campus and engage in university politics. He is supposed to be the health minister and the deputy treasurer, deputy premier of this state, and he is acting like a school child.
His allegations today against the treasurer are frankly completely unfounded and it is no wonder he spent the hours since making those comments trying to backpedal from them. I think it is very clear that the federal government has provided significant assistance right across the country, but in particular here in Queensland as well.
Linda Reynolds, the defence minister, released detail about additional support from the Australian Defence Force to Queensland police and their efforts in quarantine facilities at our number of hotels here in Brisbane. But Mr Miles seeks, frankly, not to tell the truth every day and it is like watching a student public advocate in action.
His behaviour, frankly, is beneath the position of deputy premier and I think he should be embarrassed, frankly, by his outing again today, suggesting that the commonwealth is not providing support or that we have got motivations for some other reason is just a nonsense.
Frankly, the premier should pull him into line.
Updated
Further to that report, Alex Joske has commented:
Statement on @globaltimesnews report that I have been banned from entering China. I won't be doing interviews on this. pic.twitter.com/u1UTEgBqq7
— Alex Joske (@alexjoske) September 24, 2020
Reuters is reporting China has “banned two ‘anti-China’ Australian scholars from entering the country”.
That’s according to a Global Times newspaper report on Thursday citing unnamed sources.
The Reuters report says:
The Global Times, published by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper, identified the scholars on its Twitter account as Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske. It did not elaborate on why these two scholars were banned from entering China.
Updated
And that includes a breakdown of the current cases and clusters:
In Victoria at the current time:
- 4,267 cases may indicate community transmission – a decrease of one since yesterday
- 532 cases are currently active in Victoria
- 67 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including eight in intensive care
- 18,738 people have recovered from the virus
- A total of 2,622,822 test results have been received, which is an increase of 13,337 since yesterday.
Of the 532 current active cases in Victoria:
- 517 are in metropolitan Melbourne under the first step of our roadmap
- 10 are in regional local government areas under the third step of our roadmap
- 5 are either unknown or subject to further investigation
- Colac Otway has two active cases, Greater Geelong and Greater Bendigo have one active case and Ballarat has no active cases.
Of the total cases:
- 18,713 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 1,192 are from regional Victoria
- Total cases include 9586 men and 10,506 women
- Total number of healthcare workers: 3,514; active cases: 83
- There are 274 active cases relating to aged care facilities
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest cumulative case numbers are as follows:
- 256 cases have been linked to BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee
- 219 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping
- 140 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth
- 131 cases have been linked to BlueCross Ruckers Hill Aged Care Facility in Northcote
- 127 cases have been linked to Twin Parks Aged Care in Reservoir
- 124 cases have been linked to Cumberland Manor Aged Care Facility in Sunshine North
- 122 cases have been linked to Japara Goonawarra Aged Care Facility in Sunbury
- 121 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg
- 108 cases have been linked to Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee
- 108 cases have been linked to Kalyna Aged Care Facility in Delahey
In Victoria there are currently four active cases in residential disability accommodation:
- Total resident cases: 0; total Staff cases: 4
- Active cases in NDIS homes: 3 (0 residents)
- Active cases in “transfer” homes (state regulated/funded): 1 (0 residents)
- Active cases in state government delivered and funded homes: 0
Non-aged care outbreaks with the highest number of active cases include:
- 18 active cases are currently linked to the Casey community outbreak (total cases: 44)
- 16 active cases are currently linked to Footscray hospital (total cases: 19)
- 10 active cases are currently linked to Alfred hospital (total cases: 11)
Updated
Victoria Health has put out its official update:
Victoria has recorded 12 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,105.
The overall total has increased by five, due to seven cases being reclassified.
Within Victoria, eight of the new cases are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and four are under investigation.
Of today’s eight cases linked to outbreaks, five are linked to aged care (Estia Keilor, Edenvale Manor and Princeton View), one is linked to an existing outbreak (Casey community) and two are linked to complex cases which remain under investigation.
Of today’s 12 new cases, there are two cases in Brimbank and Moonee Valley and single cases in Casey, Hume, Melton, Monash and Wyndham. Three cases are subject to further investigation.
There have been two new deaths from Covid-19 reported since yesterday – two women aged in their 80s. Both of those deaths are linked to known aged care facility outbreaks.
To date, 773 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
The average number of cases diagnosed in the last 14 days for metropolitan Melbourne is 26.7 and regional Victoria is 1.1. The rolling daily average case number is calculated by averaging out the number of new cases over the past 14 days.
The total number of cases from an unknown source in the last 14 days is 37 for metropolitan Melbourne and zero for regional Victoria. The 14-day period for the source of acquisition data ends 48 hours earlier than the 14-day period used to calculate the new case average, due to the time required to fully investigate a case and assign its mode of acquisition.
Updated
Jennifer Westacott, the chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, has welcomed the government’s changes to insolvency laws for businesses with less than $1m in liabilities (which moves us closer to the US style of dealing with insolvencies).
She said:
The treasurer’s changes to insolvency laws will give many small businesses a chance to get advice, keep trading and keep people in jobs.
For thousands of small business people, this will be a lifeline, giving them the chance to keep their doors open and get through this pandemic.
The changes will give thousands a chance to get advice, make a debt restructuring plan and keep their doors open. It will save businesses and jobs.
With careful safeguards and agreement from creditors small businesses will get the flexibility to plan a path out of insolvency and keep control of their businesses.
Big and small businesses rely on each other, so we welcome moves that will also keep crucial supply chains working.
Today’s announcement sets the groundwork for considering broader insolvency reforms for all businesses through a detailed consultation process. We look forward to working with the government on those reforms.
Updated
There are now 35,700 Australians stranded overseas who have registered their wish to come home but are unable to do so.
Caroline Millar, deputy secretary of national security and international policy within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, revealed the new figure - which is current as of 23 September - at a Senate select committee on Covid-19 hearing on Thursday.
Earlier, the committee heard from Australians stranded overseas by the cap on arrivals, a policy designed to ease pressure on hotel quarantine, but which has limited some flights into Australia to carrying as few as 30 passengers.
Updated
Meanwhile ...
#CovidCommittee hears there are now 35,700 Australians overseas trying to get home. @10NewsFirst
— Tegan George (@tegangeorge) September 24, 2020
Updated
Could everyone just take a moment to read Paul’s post there – and take it in?
Remember how Sally McManus took over the Australian Council of Trade Unions and said, in answer to a question, that “I believe in the rule of law when the law is fair and the law is right, but when it’s unjust I don’t think there’s a problem with breaking it”?
McManus was talking about strike action.
Government MPs lost their collective minds about how there was no excuse for breaking the law, and we all must follow the law of the land.
Now we have the ATTORNEY GENERAL, the first law officer of the land, shrugging at a federal court judge – who interprets and rules on the law that they he is meant to uphold – and says:
Obviously some robust statements were made with respect to the court, but the minister clearly rejects those conclusions. And ultimately, the minister’s responsibility in the government’s responsibility is to keep Australians safe.
... in response to that judge saying that “in the absence of explanation, the minister has engaged in conduct which can only be described as criminal” about a minister of the Crown.
Head. Desk. Despair. Repeat.
Updated
Attorney general defends minister against scathing federal court finding
At a doorstop earlier today, attorney general Christian Porter responded to the federal court’s finding that acting immigration minister Alan Tudge unlawfully deprived an asylum seeker of his liberty.
In a scathing judgment, the court said that “in the absence of explanation, the minister has engaged in conduct which can only be described as criminal” – but Tudge denies wrongdoing.
Porter said:
Well, it’s not the first time that in the robust environment of the law surrounding visa approvals that there’s been strong words said about what is, in effect, government undertaking its duties through the minister as a matter of policy, and we take a very strong view as a government on these matters. And just so that everyone’s aware ... there were character concerns, and they were based around allegations of criminality.
That person appealed to the AAT, who set aside the refusal to grant a visa and substituted it with a decision to grant the individual a visa. The court, in this matter, actually upheld the minister’s argument that the AAT had been incorrect in its decision to grant the individual a visa.
And obviously some robust statements were made with respect to the court, but the minister clearly rejects those conclusions. And, ultimately, the minister’s responsibility in the government’s responsibility is to keep Australians safe, including making appeal submissions to overturn decisions to grant people’s visas whom in the government’s view should not have been granted the visa ...
In these matters we of course listen to the court. But in this matter, the government took a very firm view that the original decision of the AAT to grant the visa was wrong. We argued that robustly in the relevant court that you’re speaking of and won that argument.
So the nation’s first law officer says all is fair if the minister thinks he’s keeping Australians safe? That’s a yikes from me.
Updated
Please check the expiry date:
This tells you everything there is to say about airlines in 2020#qantas #noreturnspolicy #literallysellingthefurniture pic.twitter.com/aZhO3fhTdI
— Madeleine Morris (@Mad_Morris) September 23, 2020
We have spoken a little about the conservative conference Cpac and its speakers on this blog before, so this is a very interesting piece.
Local right-wing Jewish group splits over whether to associate itself with notorious white supremacist for a second time pic.twitter.com/V1I90WgmMX
— Liam Getreu (@liamget) September 24, 2020
Updated
It continues:
Q: Isn’t it worse to finance counter-terrorism than be texting while driving? You can say it’s a different type of offence. You know it’s worse to finance child exploitation than text while driving, surely?
Porter:
Well, no one in government is defending Westpac’s record here – I mean it is abysmal. And there have been investigations which have linked the failures with respect to these matters to child exploitation matters overseas.
The point about most of these offences is that they deprive the government and our regulators and investigators of information, which makes it
in many instances impossible to know what actual crimes were facilitated by the failure to provide the information.So we simply don’t have the information that we would need to know what is the ultimate result of each of these individual failures to provide information.
The offences may in many instances - and we know at least in some instances - did have the effect of facilitating serious offences, but that is not something that we have information on with respect to each of those 23 million breaches by virtue of the fact that the breaches themselves are about a failure to provide information to government.
Updated
Westpac's $1.3bn fine an 'appropriate penalty', Christian Porter says
The transcript of attorney general Christian Porter’s press conference on the Westpac penalty has landed, and I am grateful, as it includes this exchange, which I missed the first time round (I was watching another press conference):
Q: Why should the board police itself? There’s no penalties, no deterrent for any individual who can facilitate these crimes?
Porter: Well that’s a question of law but you’re now talking about no penalties, whilst I’ve just announced to you the single biggest penalty in Australia’s corporate history, $1.3 billion.
Q: But that is $56.52c per breach - around 10c in the dollar for the amount of money that was facilitated offshore?
Porter: Is the suggestion that this penalty is too low?
Q: Well, I get a $1,000 fine if I get pinged with my cell phone while driving. This is $56; 52c if I’m potentially financing terrorism. How does that stack up?
Porter:
Well that’s not the way in which courts view the accumulation of these matters, so there were rules around the accumulation and concurrency of penalties. My view in this was that the original quantums that were being talked about were far too low, but that $1.3 billion represents an appropriate penalty in all of the circumstances. But I can say that simply getting your cell phone and doing the calculation of 23 million breaches divided by the $1.3 billion is not how courts treat these matters as a matter of law – it’s just not, it’s not.
Q: But how does that meet expectations? I mean it’s, sure the penalty should be more for more offences rather than less for more offences?
Porter:
Well they are different types of offences.
Updated
The Australian Council of Social Service’s chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, has spoken again about what the cut to the unemployment subsidy will mean, when it comes in tomorrow.
From tomorrow, 2 million Australians face losing $300 a fortnight from their already below-the-poverty-level payment of $1,100 a fortnight. That will impact 1 million children.
Dr Goldie said:
Instead of these devastating cuts, people need confidence that they will be able to cover the very basics until they can find paid work, with just one job available for every 12 people looking, and over twice that number of people for every job in regional Australia.
To get through this crisis and rebuild their lives, people need to know that the government has their backs – that they will be able to keep a roof over their head and three meals on the table, into next year.
The cuts and uncertainty about what will happen come December are deeply distressing for people and will no doubt be affecting people’s mental health.
There are a lot of things that are not in our control in this pandemic but one thing that the government does have control over is ensuring that everyone has enough to cover the basics of life, including a safe place to live.
Not only is this the right thing to do, it’s one of the best things we can do to support business recovery and job creation, with Deloitte recently finding the government’s cuts to the coronavirus supplement would cost the national economy $31.3bn and 145,000 jobs over the next two years.
We urge the government to immediately extend the current rate, which it has the power to do outside of a parliamentary sitting, and to announce a permanent, adequate rate of JobSeeker in the October budget.
Updated
I am now considering getting married just to have my friends compete for who gets a dance floor ticket.
Covid restrictions eased at NSW schools and weddings
AAP has more on the easing of restrictions in NSW:
NSW is easing Covid-19 restrictions around school and community life due to lower community-acquired Covid-19 case numbers.
WEDDINGS
- Up to 20 people in the official wedding party can take to the dance floor, where previously only the bride and groom were permitted
SCHOOLS
- Interschool activities can resume on Saturday with a Covid-19 safety plan
- School sport will return to normal next term but no parents on school sites
- Playing wind instruments, singing and chanting permitted with strict restrictions
- Year 6 formals and graduations permitted
- High school formals permitted after HSC
- Kindergarten orientation back on
- Year 7 transition back on
- Excursions and camps can resume with strict guidelines
- School choirs and musical ensembles to resume, as long as players keep a 1.5-metre distance from one another, or 3 metres for players of non-reeded woodwind instruments.
- Community languages schools program will resume face-to-face learning
SPORT
- More than one parent may now attend community sporting activities if physical distancing of at least 1.5 metres can be maintained
- Accommodation facilities and overnight event organisers must implement a Covid-19 safety plan
- Carpooling should continue to be avoided
Updated
I’m sorry to report, parents of NSW, the recorder is now back.
Changes in restriction mean you can now have more than one parent on the sidelines for community sports.
Year 7s can have excursions and camps again.
Year 6s can have their formals.
Year 12s can have their formals (from 12 November).
And interschool activities, such as wind instruments and ensemble, will be allowed again.
Updated
The bureau of statistics has also released a more detail look at employment in the last quarter:
In seasonally adjusted terms, between February and May, employment decreased by almost 900,000 people (or 6.7%) while hours worked decreased by 9.7%. Employment then increased by around 450,000 (3.8%) and hours worked increased by 5.6% between May and August.
Chart 1 shows the movements in employment and average hours worked across industry divisions between February and May and May and August, in original terms.
Most industries recorded an increase in both employment and average hours worked over the most recent quarter, with the largest increases recorded in arts and recreation services (employment up 30% and average hours worked up 14%) and accommodation and food services (employment up 17% and hours worked up 20%).
These were also the industries that experienced the biggest declines between February and May.
In contrast, there was a large decrease in employment in electricity, gas, water and waste services (down 11%), following a large increase between February and May.
And who still has jobs?
People employed in wholesale trade in May were the most likely to remain employed in August, but were also the most likely to be employed in a different industry in August. Financial and insurance services, healthcare and social assistance and education and training had the highest proportion of people remaining employed in the same industry between May and August.
Administrative and support services, accommodation and food services and arts and recreation services had the lowest proportion of people remaining employed in August.
Updated
The ABS has taken a look at Australia’s population growth.
We have increased the population by 1.4% – but not by getting busy – the bulk of the increase came from migrants getting busy and contributing to our economy and prosperity as a nation.
- Australia’s population was 25,649,985 people at 31 March 2020.
- The quarterly growth was 113,900 people (0.4%).
- The annual growth was 357,000 people (1.4%).
- 38.2% of annual growth was due to natural increase, and 61.8% was due to net overseas migration.
Updated
Here is some more on Josh Frydenberg on why budget deficits and debt won’t matter for a while (not that they really ever have)
Despite the success of our response, the long-term effects of the pandemic mean that our previous Fiscal Strategy needed to be updated to respond to the current environment.
Our revised fiscal strategy is built around supporting the economy in the near term, to make sure Australians are back in work and businesses are back to business as soon as possible.
It maintains our core values as a government, with an enduring focus on fiscal discipline, lower taxes and containing the size of government.
And it lays the foundations for a stronger, more dynamic and more competitive economy.
Because that is how we will repair the Budget — not through higher taxes and not through austerity.
A stronger economy and a stronger budget position, with gross debt and net debt stabilising before heading on a steadily declining trajectory.
This will allow us to rebuild the fiscal buffers that allowed us to respond so decisively during the COVID-19 pandemic.
And that is what we owe to future generations.
Australian families stranded overseas are being told by travel agents and airlines that sending their children back to Australian unattended could be a solution to get them home sooner, the senate select committee on Covid-19 has heard.
The advice was allegedly given to Deanne Vowels - whose family’s flights home have been repeatedly cancelled since April - as a way of bypassing the impact of Australia’s cap on arrivals. Unaccompanied minors do not count towards an airline’s limit.
Her family of seven have been stranded in London since March.
She said the Australian high commission in the UK appeared to be unclear how this exemption worked, and advised her to start up a crowdfunding campaign.
“We may lose our homes, our jobs and everything due to a single policy," Deanne Vowels, who has been stuck in the UK since March with her family of seven, speaking to the senate select committee on Covid-19. Here's our profile of her from August https://t.co/lXkgIrW2bc #auspol pic.twitter.com/9cGfDqt1ZQ
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) September 24, 2020
Vowels spoke with Guardian Australia in August about how her family of seven has been forced to live in a trailer in London.
On Thursday, she also said “we may lose our homes, our jobs and everything due to a single policy”, of capping arrivals into Australia.
She said the government’s response to dealing with stranded Australians “feels like a long term boyfriend cheating on me”, that the government had “dumped me”.
“If you can get high paying actors and politicians and cricket players...and even lobsters in and out of Australia, surely you can get hardworking, good working [citizens] home.”
Josh Frydenberg is giving his speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Looks like Frydenberg is talking about a return to the Keynesian principles which underpinned Menzie’s post war budgets.
"It would now be damaging to the economy and unrealistic to target surpluses over the forward estimates — given what this would require us to do in terms of significant increases in taxes and large cuts to essential services" #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) September 24, 2020
NSW fireworks will go ahead – but crowds won't
Gladys Berejiklian gives a little more clarity over how Sydney will show out this clusterfork of a year:
I want to stress at the outset that, whilst the New South Wales government is working our way through holding some type of fireworks event on New Year’s eve, can I stress it will not be like any other New Year’s Eve we had.
The vast majority of us will be watching from home, but what we are doing is considering what options there are to do it in a Covid-safe way.
I want to be clear that the New South Wales government would never support or condone any activity which was not consistent with the health orders.
I really want to make that clear. We want to have some type of event that evening, however it will be vastly different from any other new year as eve any of us have celebrated in and around the harbour. I wanted to make that very clear.
We are still discussing and having negotiationsment we are hopeful that we will have a positive outcome, it will be extremely limited in a COVIDSafe way that is within the health orders.
So I would anticipate that if people are starting to plan ahead already, apart from a ticketed event at a restaurant or other formal ticketed venue, most of us will be watching it from home, although we are still considering discussions with local council whose have indicated they would like to have some opportunity for some Covid-safe activity in their public spaces and those discussions will be ongoing.
As soon as we have some firm outcomes, we will let the community know.
Updated
Weddings can have up to 20 people in NSW now - on the dance floor.
Updated
NSW reports no new cases of community transmission
NSW had no cases in the last 24 hours – which is up to 8pm last night – of community transmission, but one case came in after 8pm, which is still under investigation.
So it is not counted in today’s cases, but it is being checked out to see where it came from.
There was one other case, however they are in hotel quarantine.
Updated
A bit of breaking news outside of politics and covid - but still important - Bradley Robert Edwards has been found guilty of murdering two of three women were disappeared from the Perth suburb of Claremont in the mid-90s.
The cases became known as the Claremont killings.
Edwards has been found guilty of murdering Ciara Glennon and Jane Rimmer, but not Sarah Spiers who disappeared at the same time.
But no one is going to jail.
Q: Any Westpac representatives that will face penalties?
Nicole Rose:
I would argue that some Westpac executives have been punished by losing their jobs today.
Q: There will be no criminal convictions. Why not?
Rose:
We don’t believe that there has been criminal activity by the Westpac board. If you look at page 67, it will actually take you through what we believe the failings were by the board and they weren’t criminal.
Austrac CEO Nicole Rose is doing a press conference on Westpac. She is asked if people an have faith that the regulator picks up these breaches:
We regulate entities 15,000 that we monitor and regulate. Yes, some of these transactions were disclosed by Westpac. Others were discovered by AUSTRAC. Also than 30% of our compliance work is actually through self-disclosures.
Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos is now the third government minister to say they had no role in the recruitment of private security firms for hotel quarantine.
Mikakos told the hotel quarantine inquiry on Thursday that despite her department being the control agency for the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, she was not involved in any of the decision making around use of private security for the hotels for returned travellers in March, and she did not know who made the decision.
Mikakos said “with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been desirable” if she had been consulted, but said she did not become aware of the use of private security in the hotels until the outbreak of Covid-19 cases at the Rydges on Swanston in late May.
Mikakos said she had no reason to turn her mind to the use of security guards until the outbreak, and defended not having knowledge of it because she said it was a “multi-agency response” with shared accountability and shared responsibilities.
That means there are other departments who hold specific contracts. And I would expect that they would take appropriate action as the contracting party to ensure that obligations are met, under those contracts.
Updated
Q: At the beginning of the second lockdown the estimates was 250,000 Victorians would lose their jobs, have – are you aware of whether that was more or less or whether that was correct?
Daniel Andrews:
I have not had any revised modelling put to me. I can only assume that remains to the extent modelling on these sorts of things can be accurate, that remains broadly accurate as to the impact. Of course, there are, as a result of the road map there is about 101,000 people that are - or will, if we can take next step, will go back to work.
That obviously deals with a big – not all, but a big part of that. Of course some of the other matters we have just been talking about if we can get the percentage up then that will be more people, more shifts, greater output and we know that particularly from a food point of view as we go into what is the busiest season every year, that Christmas season, planning now really determines an output - and work now - determines what is on the shelves at Christmas time.
That is made even more challenging by the fact that Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Metcash make it very clear to me that they are already operating at Christmas levels now. It is a challenging thing.
Updated
Is Daniel Andrews concerned about what the drop in the jobkeeper rate will mean for Victoria, given Melbourne is still under restrictions?
I’ve had a conversation with the Prime Minister about this matter and I’ve made it clear to him that we would always want more support rather than less but those are matters for him and we can speak to the changes that are being made. I did ask for slightly different, but not an unrelated matter in relation to business, and indeed to a certain extent workers that hardship payments that we paid should not be tacked by the Commonwealth and I’m very confident that that’s exactly what will happen.
So – we have a positive discussion about the things that we need to talk about but that doesn’t mean we necessarily agree on every matter. I’m not interested in having a quarrel about it. I don’t think that’s necessarily productive, given where we are at and given how positive this news is but we always reserve the right to make requests, we always reserve the right to - whether it be tomorrow or in a week’s time - talk about different support we think the Victorian community need.
The pleasing thing is that the prime minister has continued – he has always maintained – and I don’t believe that his position has changed, that hardship would drive all the policy that the federal government were about.
The other thing here too is that there is a federal budget quite soon and whilst the federal treasurer has not shared with me the contents of that budget there is a fair bit of commentary in the media about that being a really significant program of investment and the best thing that I can do and the best thing I’d argue that we can all do is to get these numbers down, get business back open and get people back to work into their job. That’s what makes – that’s the ultimate fix to jobkeeper I suppose.
Updated
Q: Crime statistics show a 6.7% rise in family violence ... In the year to July which is the highest on record with 88,000 crimes. Applicants warn that this would happen and fear that the curfew might exacerbate family violence incidents, what is your response to this and why is the curfew still in place?
Daniel Andrews:
I don’t agree with that assessment. The latter one you just put to me. In relation to family violence increased rates of family violence being a feature of this pandemic, I’m not arguing against that, that is a fact and that’s why we’ve boosted support and why Minister [Gabrielle] Williams has been here on a number of different occasions to talk about not just more money, as important as that is, but doing things differently and making sure that services can continue to provide care and support to women and children and any other members of families who might need support as well as - not that you are pleased about any statistics in this area, but one point that I think Gab had made quite eloquently is the notion that there was a rise in the number of people committing family violence, by and large men, who were coming forward to get that behaviour-change support that they need to stop doing that, to be - to not be violent.
So there are lots of different trends here. It is a very significant challenge. That is why we have responded as best we can.
We know and understand that there will be more to do throughout this and indeed on the other side of it and I would, I suppose, respectfully point you to the fact that we - I think we are at 2.7 plus billion dollars in our time in office. It is more than every other Government in this nation combined but that is still not enough.
It is not a boast, it’s simply a statement of how big a challenge this is.
Updated
Q: The number of active cases in health workers has increased by 10 since yesterday. I think we have gone from 73-83. How concerned with you about that and how much of a problem are those stubborn numbers in health and aged care where the restrictions aren’t necessarily being to have any impact on them but they will have an impact on our ability to reopen?
Daniel Andrews:
I think that the – as your question developed it is health workers but it is, as you say, health and aged care. It is really important and it is public and private, it is right across the board. It is not even just clinical staff, it can include others working in those environments. I think the best answer to your question is there is a reason why we are not chasing zero cases everyday forever because we know that there are, as you say there are some very stubborn settings, they’re high risk for a reason. There is a reason why we see more and more of the virus in some of these settings, that is why it is important to do everything we can – I believe we are – but that’s the – I’m confident that the arrangements we have in place in those high-risk settings, it is not just clinical environments but industrial environments, workplaces beyond health and aged care and the like, I’m confident we have good, strong plans in there. We have seen significant improvement but for instance, I don’t know that that is the case, but you could equally ask me this question in a week perhaps where it would be the case, an outbreak in an aged care facility, very well contained, locked down, really good contact tracing. We know all the people who might have been affected, that could be six or seven cases. Could be even more than that. I’m not saying we would ever settle for that. We are all doing what we can to have zero cases in aged care, not in the sense of a state-wide issue but because we know how vulnerable the residents are, but this is wildly infectious.
Updated
Q: Annastacia Palaszczuk has written to the prime minister about ADF being taken away from border control. Within it she says, “I understand this is inconsistent with the approach taken with other jurisdictions including New South Wales and Victoria” were you aware that Annastacia Palaszczuk was writing to the prime minister?
Daniel Andrews:
No.
Q: Do you agree with her stance on border controls to use ADF?
Andrews:
The Queensland border is a matter for the Queensland government and how those arrangements are enforced, they’re so far away from the work that I’m doing that frankly I don’t have time to speculate on that. If she’s written to the prime minister I haven’t seen the letter. The letter is not addressed to me. I’d leave it to the two of them to sort that out.
Q: Just to confirm you are completely satisfied with the use of the ADF you have had in Victoria and you don’t think you should have gone further at any stage?
Andrews:
No, we’ve made requests and those requests have been taken seriously. We’ve received very significant support – I’m very pleased with the support that...
Q: You’ve received offers as well obviously?
Andrews:
Yes, I suppose you could term it that way but we have – we’ve asked for help, we’ve got the help and we are very pleased about this and very grateful to all of those who have done it. No different to bushfires, no different to when there is a gap, when there is a challenge, when there is a need for everyone to work together that’s exactly what we have done and what we always do.
Updated
Q: Do your experts have any idea what particular part of these stage 4 restrictions are having the best effect and which ones don’t have to same effectiveness?
Daniel Andrews:
...It is challenging to disaggregate what each of them accounts for. Risk needs to be - you need to get an aggregate picture.
...Similarly aggregate benefit is a really important context too and it is sometimes really hard to disaggregate, you are doing 15 or 20 thing, what does each of those account for. I think they all have to be seen as a package.
The package, together with the fact that the vast majority of Victorians are absolutely invested in seeing this thing off and doing it properly, that’s what’s delivering these numbers.
Q: Once the decision has been made on Saturday night when are the changes expected to come into effect?
Andrews:
That’s not been finalised yet but we will be quick about it. So we’ll try and make sure that there’s – the smallest amount of time between when we announce it and when they come into effect.
Q: Does that mean it won’t necessarily be a change come Monday?
Andrews:
Oh, no, I think we are probably talking about the difference between midnight Sunday and midnight Monday. It is difficult to answer because we don’t know the exact nature of what is going to be in that package. Some of those things there might need to be time and other things can happen midnight Sunday. Once we determine what is in that mix, in that package or series of anoints we will be able to give you that answer. In general terms we will as quick about it as we can be.
Updated
On to the possible announcements on Sunday.
Q: With Sundays slight relaxation, are you looking at more personal freedoms or just on businesses, are you having briefings with some business because they might be affected by these?
Daniel Andrews:
Both, both. But it is very clear that the road map as we announced a few weeks ago contemplates a much bigger step at the end of October and it’s never been the case that we felt that it likely that we could take those sorts of steps essentially a month early. We’re still working through the finer details of that and we will make those announcements.
All things being equal we are well and truly within that band – in fact, we are bettering that – whether that means we can fundamentally change, I think that is most unlikely but we are looking at other things we might be able to do but I just wanted to be very clear with people that their expectations should be of small, safe and steady steps as part of ... very important. But the trend is with us.
This strategy is working and we can be confident and positive about that. I think we are ahead of schedule but whether that holds and whether that has – we’ve been ahead of schedule for long enough to be able to change dates further into the road map, that’s not a decision that we can make now. I do hope to be able to have a bit more to say about that when I’m here on Sunday.
Updated
Q: You, yourself, have been a health minister, would you have applied the same arm’s length approach that Ms Mikakos has apparently taken in this pandemic?
Daniel Andrews:
I have been a health minister, that is correct. I think the second part of your question is not an accurate reflection of the work that the minister has done.
I wouldn’t agree with the way you have characterised the work that she does.
...I don’t need to draw comparisons, you can draw those if you choose to but it is a very challenging job. It is a very, very challenging job at any time and I think that every member of the team is doing the very best that they can. I’m not going stand here and do comparisons between my time as health minister and the current time because in some respects you can’t compare them. That’s the nature of a one-in-100-year event. It would be rather self-serving too I would have thought and I’m not really in that.
The questions move on to the offers of ADF support, following the release of letters from the prime minister’s office.
Daniel Andrews says he stands by his previous statements.
Let me be really clear with you. Whether you are making a, whether you are inferring in general or specific terms, reticence, that is simply not accurate.
That is not my view, not my position and if it were my position, specifically, more broadly, then we would hardly have 1000 ADF troops, and I think we have had something like 1500 doing all manner of work. I think in relation to asked about, I don’t have the documents in front of me, but I think I have already taken all of you at some length to the breakdown of those and I think you have been taken to those most recently so I don’t think those comments are accurate.
We are very grateful and all requests that have been made have been based on need and responded to and I’ve spoken with Commodore Hill on a number of occasions. I may have to speak to him again about different things. It is a very positive relationship.
Q: More specifically, in June 2012, support was requested and the next day was reduced to a couple of hundred. A week later, the Prime Minister started a series of letters offering more support which ones would assume you’re reluctant to take, considering the fact he kept offering this.
Andrews:
I don’t think you can assume that it all. There are many different letters that come, many different, they are not the only letter is a Prime Minister has written me or I him. Plus phone calls and messages and meetings. I’m not quite sure how many National Cabinet meetings we have had across the journey but many. I’m in regular contact, my ministers are if regular contact with their counter parts, my officials are in regular contacts. I wouldn’t draw that inference at all.
Updated
Q: So far the inquiry has not had an answer to that question [who was responsible for hotel quarantine] and do you expect that question to be answered tomorrow?
Daniel Andrews:
My only expectation tomorrow is to answer all of the questions that are put to me. That is what I will do. As to what I’m asked, that is not a matter for me but a matter for the council assisting. Is that a question you are able to answer, do you know the answer to that question? I will provide answers to any and all questions asked of me tomorrow by the inquiry. That is a simple question.
Q: Can you at least tell us whether or not you can answer us, do you have that information?
Andrews:
I am not here to answer questions that the inquiry will ask. By their very nature, they are questions the inquiry may or may not put to me. To be honest, I don’t think it is even appropriate for me to speculate about what they may or may not answer, less that be seen as me inviting them to cover certain material or not. That is entirely a matter for them and they will construct and terminate what they ask and the manner in which they ask it. That is the nature of an inquiry of this kind.
Q: Has there been any evidence presented so far that has come as a surprise to you?
Daniel Andrews:
Look, I am appearing tomorrow and I don’t think it is appropriate for me to be providing a narrative.
There will be a time for me to do that and I will do so in my typically clear and frank way but I do not think that is appropriate to do that now.
The evidence must first be considered by the inquiry and they must draw whatever conclusions they believe are appropriate, and me being a commentator on that evidence, I don’t think is helpful or in my judgement is appropriate.
What I would say though is, clearly mistakes have been made in this program, there is no denying that. That is why the inquiry has been set up and I think we should allow the inquiry to do its work rather than presupposing where [it will end]
Q: Are you concerned that the union that represents vows of healthcare workers, everyone who works there, nature, some of them workers you have shown support for every day during the pandemic, is calling for the Health Minister to resign?
Daniel Andrews:
I am very supportive of that workforce, not just in words but also in good faith bargaining, some election commitments we made specifically for that workforce, whether it is providing those workers with career advancement opportunities when they wanted to go and play different roles in the health system.
I have had the great fortune in my public life of meeting many members, not just of the clinical community, but those who support them and I am sure you have heard me say on many occasions that health services are delivered by teams of people and every member of the team, regardless of the role they play is a very important part of the team.
I have got nothing but respect for those workers. Others can form different views around some of those matters. My position is very clear. If there is an issue that needs raising, an issue that needs to be talked about or resolved, then I am happy to confirm for you that there is a regular process, all health unions are engaged in that and that is exactly as it should be.
If there is any specific issues that need raising, need to be addressed, then I am very confident that the officials I have mentioned, and indeed, many more a focus on those things and not as a function of me saying it from this podium, they have been focused on these issues for months and months.
Q: How much value do you place on the health workers union saying that they have lost confidence in the minister?
Daniel Andrews:
They are entitled to a view and have put that view and very terms.
I’m focused on and happy to commit to today is the chief officer, the chief health officer, they met regularly as I understand it, weakly in fact, with all health unions.
That is a very important part of their job. The minister attends, not necessarily everyone of those meetings but she has attended most of those meetings.
If there are issues if any of those groups have in the community, particularly health sector, want to address, we are more than happy to sit down and work with those issues.
Q: Do you have confidence in the Health Minister’s ability to continue in a portfolio?
Andrews:
I have confidence in all of my ministers or they wouldn’t be in my government.
Updated
Q: Are you concerned at all that appears like two ministers have no idea about where the critical decisions are being made in the department?
Daniel Andrews:
What I’m concerned to do is allow the process I have established to run its course and as you know, that is not concluded yet and when it is it will be a report and there will be findings and that’s a matter for the process to determine those matters. Once we’re finished with that, we’ll be able to have a detailed discussion.
Q: What does ministerial responsibility mean to you and are you confident that your ministers are taking proper possibility for their portfolios?
Andrews:
I am. All ministers are fully aware of the accountability for those matters that go on within their portfolio. That is a well understood concept and I’m very confident that everybody in the government fully understands that
Updated
The questions begin:
Q: Does your health minister lack [things like] basic competence and understanding of her portfolio?
Daniel Andrews:
No.
The Victorian government is announcing $11.3m in funding for community support, which includes food relief.
Updated
Sunday won't bring 'massive' changes in easing restrictions
Daniel Andrews then moves to manage expectations about what Sunday, the next benchmark in the roadmap out of restrictions, will bring:
In general terms, 12 cases is another very good day. These numbers are coming down.
The strategy is working, we are well on track on Sunday to make some further announcements and I’d just wanted to make the point that Sunday will not be a day of massive steps, the roadmap does not speak to that, it is not a day when we essentially through the doors open.
It will be, however, steady and safe steps, and that sense of gradual, continual progress is what we are able to do because we have a gradual and continued decline in these numbers. At 12 cases or at an average just under 30, that is still too much for us to take steps.
We have got to be safe, steady and cautious, otherwise those new settings simply will not last.
Today should be a day where Victorians are positive to have a another day of lowercase numbers. The trend is with us, the strategy is working and I’m very proud and every grateful to every single Victorian, which is the vast, vast majority of people doing the right thing.
That makes a big difference. The numbers do not come down by accident, they come down to the hard work and absolute determination by Victorians to follow the rules, play their part, come forward and get tested even if they’ve got very mild symptoms.
All of that amounts to a strategy that is working, a strategy that will get us to that Covid normal and the way we will get there will mean that we are able to stay there.
Updated
Daniel Andrews breaks from the Covid press conference for a moment, to speak about the death of 14-year-old William Wall:
I just wanted to pause for a moment and on behalf of all Victorians, send our love and support, our condolences and our best wishes to the family of William Wall.
This is a terrible tragedy and one that I think has touched every single Victorian and I know that this will be a terrible time for that family, and to every member of William’s family, we say how sad we are, and that we share in your grief, in your loss and any support that we can provide to you, we’re core stand ready to do that. This has touched, I think, the hearts of everything Victorian.
Can I also make a comment about how proud I am to think that emergency services, volunteers, members of the community, or did an amazing job.
They did their very best and sadly, that’s not the outcome that they or any of us wanted, but I did want to pay tribute to them. Whenever they are called upon, they always step up and it does make you very, very proud.
Victorian press conference
Daniel Andrews says the two people diagnosed with Covid who died in the last 24 hours were two women in their 80s.
Both were linked to aged care outbreaks.
Daniel Andrews:
There are 67 Victorians in hospital, eight of those are in intensive care and six of those eight are on a ventilator. A total of 2,000,620 tests have been taken since the beginning of the pandemic and we have received 13,337 results since yesterday.
That’s a strong number, another strong number in terms of the number of people that are going and getting tested and I think to each and every one of them, it’s very important thing that if you do, even the mildest symptoms, please get tested.
Please get one of the more than 200 testing sites across the state, you will get your result within 24 hours. Would ask that even mild symptoms, as soon as you register symptoms, please go and get a test. Don’t delay a day, don’t wait until the end of the week, please go and get those to today.
That is really, very, very important. Gives us the most accurate picture so that we can understand what the virus is doing and so that we can get each day closer and closer to that Covid normal, but again, thank you so much to those more than 13,000 people who got tested and the results were received yesterday.
Christian Porter was just asked why no one has faced criminal proceedings in the Westpac scandal and says:
Well, this is a prosecution that would have gone potentially to trial and no doubt in that trial there would have been any number of people called as witnesses and evidence given.
The statement of agreed facts as being finalised before a court at the moment some people have to wait to see precisely what is in that statement of agreed facts, but the reality is that people did lose their jobs.
I think, in these circumstances, quite properly and sensibly over these failings, but that, no doubt, is also going to be a matter for the board to consider on an ongoing basis, as to how these failings occurred because they were systemic and these systems have to be improved and rectified and repaired.
Julie Collins, Labor’s aged care shadow minister, has seen the latest report from the sector’s regulator, and she is not impressed.
From her statement:
The Morrison government’s aged care regulator has visited just one in six aged care homes to check infection control practises more than two months after fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 in Victoria.
The latest publicly available figures reveal just 448 aged care homes nationally have been visited by the Morrison government’s aged care regulator to check compliance with PPE and infection control arrangements.
It beggars belief the Morrison government thinks this is acceptable after seeing the deadly consequences of poor infection control practises in aged care.
In some states less than 5% of aged care homes have been visited to check infection practises and ensure safe use of personal protection equipment was being observed.
Even in Victoria just 160 visits, representing only 20% of aged care homes in the state, have taken place.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg will deliver his speech to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry at 11am.
It will be live streamed on his Facebook, apparently.
Daniel Andrews is about to step up for his 84th consecutive press conference.
Updated
AAP has an update on NSW fines:
Apres partying in the NSW snow resort village of Thredbo has prompted authorities to shut an overcrowded restaurant after skiers were caught doing shots at the bar shoulder to shoulder.
The Rivers Restaurant will be closed for a week from Friday for serious and repeated Covid-19 safety breaches after repeated visits from police and the liquor regulator.
NSW Police and Liquor & Gaming NSW officers visited the restaurant four times in July and September and identified several breaches.
It found too many people per square metre, a lack of spacing between seated patrons, mingling between tables and in queues, and people drinking alcohol while standing.
“The venue was repeatedly over capacity, groups were seated almost back to back and queues of up to 30 people stood shoulder to shoulder,” Liquor & Gaming Director of Compliance Dimitri Argeres said on Thursday.
“They also observed patrons drinking shots at the bar and consuming liquor while standing, including one of the business owners,” he said.
Initially the restaurant was warned, then its manager and event promoter were fined $5,000 each.
After finding yet more breaches on the fourth visit, it was deemed the premises presented a clear and significant risk to public health, Argeres said.
“As we come into party season with major events such as the Spring Racing Carnival, Bathurst 1000 motor race, the footy finals and schoolies celebrations, we’re warning all hospitality providers and function operators to stick to the limits around venue capacity and group bookings,” Argeres said.
Updated
The Victorian crime statistics agency has released some data on the number of fines issued for Covid-19 public health order breaches at the start of this year.
Up to the end of June, 6,062 fines were issued for breaching Covid-19 orders.
That is before the second wave, where many more fines were issued and many more restrictions introduced.
The stats show one in three breaches happened between midnight and 6am (before a curfew was introduced), almost one in five breaches happened over the Easter long weekend, and over half (58%) happened on the street or footpath.
Just 14% of the fines were issued in people’s homes.
The stats also reveal the 6,062 fines were issued to 5,474 people.
The average age was 29.5 years, and just one in four of those fined were women.
Ten percent were recorded as having more than one fine issued.
Updated
Elias Visontay has been following the stories of the more than 23,000 Australians unable to get home (it could be up to 100,000) from the beginning.
He’ll be watching today’s Senate committee.
Updated
Austrac CEO Nicole Rose will also give a statement on the Westpac fine. Which makes sense, as it is the biggest in Australia’s corporate history.
Westpac was put aside $900m for the fine, so $1.3bn is a big deal.
Daniel Andrews will address the media at 10.30am.
Updated
The senate committee looking at the Covid response is dealing with the issues of Australia’s stranded overseas today
The COVID-19 Select Committee is holding a public hearing today
— Australian Senate (@AuSenate) September 23, 2020
Live: https://t.co/9Lgw5iFZlr
More information: https://t.co/kjFKySE11i pic.twitter.com/XOgVLIagex
Queensland deputy premier accuses Josh Frydenberg of 'lying' over ADF request
The Queensland election is on 31 October, which means there is another 37 days of back and forth between the federal government and state government over borders and goodness knows what else.
This morning, it is over the withdrawal of ADF troops from the Queensland border. Josh Frydenberg said Queensland didn’t ask for an extension. Steven Miles says that’s not true, and like Kim Kardashian on national snake day, he has the receipts.
Miles:
There has been some conjecture this morning from the Federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, claiming that Queensland did not ask for ongoing assistance from the army on our borders so I would like to distribute for you correspondence between the police commissioner, sorry, the deputy commissioner the state disaster coordinator...when he asked for time and resources to meet the demand:
‘We are seeking ADF support to continue at our borders until the 19th October.’
Then, you’ll see the army wrote back to us to say, ‘ADF’s support to Queensland border operations will conclude on 30 September as previously advised’.
Now we’ve provided to you a letter from the premier subsequently sent to the prime minister making it very, very clear that we would support the army’s ongoing support on our borders.
This is yet another example of a federal government minister being sent out by the prime minister to attack our government in the local media here in Queensland. Being caught out lying. And I think it’s time, again, for Josh Frydenberg to apologise for the statements that he made this morning.
It is time for the federal government to stop using the Australian Defence Force, which after all is for all Australians to stop using them as a bargaining chip as a war against our Covid-19 restrictions.
Miles said it was time for the “conga line” of federal ministers and MPs criticising Queensland’s border controls and no one else’s, to stop.
Updated
Queensland’s deputy premier (and health minister) Steven Miles says with 14 days passing since the last infectious case in the Queensland community, this means additional restrictions in place in Brisbane and western Morton can be lifted:
They will be lifted as of 1.00am tomorrow and that coincides with the lifting of the ACT as a hotspot. That will allow for the visitors into aged care and allow for visitors in hospitals and allowing gatherings limits to increase from 10 to 30 so people can go ahead and organise that house party for Friday night.
Updated
On Sydney, Queensland CHO Dr Jeannette Young says the “risk is decreasing” but it is still “not ideal”.
She’ll be making the decision on whether or not to open the border to NSW as a whole at the end of the month – but given her language, I wouldn’t expect the border to open anytime ahead of November.
Updated
Queensland has announced no new cases of Covid today.
That is from more than 5,000 tests, which is the number that state’s CHO wants to have the numbers sit around.
Updated
Victoria records 12 new cases and two deaths
Victoria Health has released it’s daily total.
Metropolitan Melbourne’s rolling 14 day average is now 26.7.
#COVID19VicData: Yesterday there were 12 new cases & the loss of 2 lives reported. Our thoughts are with all affected.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 23, 2020
The 14 day rolling average & number of cases with unknown source are down from yesterday as we move toward COVID Normal. Info https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/U3lRKvideW
Updated
Christian Porter and Peter Dutton have responded to the Westpac settlement.
From the joint release:
Attorney general, Christian Porter, said the proposed penalty reflected the significant and systematic nature of Westpac’s compliance failures.
“While noting the penalty is still subject to the federal court’s approval, this should serve as a wake-up call to all financial institutions operating in Australia that the Government is serious about maintaining a strong financial system and won’t tolerate serious non-compliance,” Porter said.
Minister for home affairs Peter Dutton said the agreement shows that the government is serious about ensuring the integrity of Australia’s financial system while also protecting the community from crime.
“Banks have a responsibility to not let criminal activity go undetected and to protect Australians from serious and organised crime like child exploitation, drug trafficking and fraud,” Dutton said.
“They should be able to trust their banks and financial services they use daily to have strong systems in place to protect the community from crime. In this case, Westpac breached that trust and let their customers down, ultimately putting Australians at risk.”
The last line of the statement says the settlement will not be tax-deductible, which is not even something I had considered, but there you go.
Updated
Westpac settles with Austrac for $1.3bn in money laundering scandal
Remember the Westpac money laundering scandal?
It’s going to cost the bank $1.3bn in penalties (if the federal court gives the agreement its approval).
From Austrac’s statement: (read to the end for a OMG moment)
Westpac and Austrac have today agreed to a 1.3 billion dollar proposed penalty over Westpac’s breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act).
Westpac and Austrac have agreed that the proposed penalty reflects the seriousness and magnitude of compliance failings by Westpac.
The Federal Court of Australia will now consider the proposed settlement and penalty. If the Federal Court determines the proposed penalty is appropriate, the penalty order made will represent the largest ever civil penalty in Australian history. In reaching today’s agreement, Westpac has admitted to contravening the AML/CTF Act on over 23 million occasions, exposing Australia’s financial system to criminal exploitation.
In summary, Westpac admitted that it failed to:
- Properly report over 19.5 million International Funds Transfer Instructions (IFTIs) amounting to over $11 billion dollars to AUSTRAC.
- Pass on information relating to the origin of some of these international funds transfers, and to pass on information about the source of funds to other banks in the transfer chain, which these banks needed to manage their own ML/TF risks.
- Keep records relating to the origin of some of these international funds transfers.
- Appropriately assess and monitor the risks associated with the movement of money into and out of Australia through its correspondent banking relationships, including with known higher risk jurisdictions.
- Carry out appropriate customer due diligence in relation to suspicious transactions associated with possible child exploitation.
In reaching the agreement, Westpac has also admitted to approximately 76,000 additional contraventions which expand the original statement of claim.
These new contraventions relate to information that came to light after the civil penalty action was launched last year and relate to additional IFTI reporting failures, failures to reasonably monitor customers for transactions related to possible child exploitation, and two further failures to assess the money laundering and terrorism financing risks associated with correspondent banking relationships.
Updated
Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, will give an update on the Covid situation there, at 9am.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg finishes his interview with the ABC with a question on Paul Keating’s RBA intervention – and he gets very, very cranky with the last man to sit in his chair and guide Australia through a recession.
No, this was a very nasty, vindictive, unnecessary, misguided attack by Paul Keating.
The RBA has done very well through this crisis.
Unlike other crises, they didn’t have room to move on monetary policy.
During the GFC, the cash rate came down by 425 basis points.
That was equivalent to $100 billion stimulus into the economy. But because the cash rate was already low, during this crisis, it would only come down by 50 basis points.
What the Reserve Bank did, they pumped liquidity into the banking system to stabilise it, and they purchased government bonds on the secondary market, some $60 billion worth of government bonds.
So we worked very closely with the Reserve Bank. I note this morning, distinguished economists like Warwick McKibbin have slammed Paul Keating for his comments.
Why did he make the comments just two weeks after the Reserve Bank had made some comments about the superannuation guarantee and the trade-off between wages and that increase?
Many people are left wondering what is Paul Keating’s motives behind this nasty, unnecessary attack. We as the government value the independence of the Reserve Bank when it comes to monetary policy.
We’re in control of fiscal policy, but the Reserve Bank is in control of monetary policy, and the Reserve Bank has come a long way from the time that Paul Keating said he had the Reserve Bank in his pocket and it followed whatever he wanted.
It’s not the case today. The Reserve Bank is independent and he shouldn’t be attacking the bank like he has.
Updated
Q: The JobSeeker supplement will be reduced tomorrow. A lot of people are worried about that. Labor wants to know what is the treasury modelling saying about how many jobs will go when you are cutting the payment.
Josh Frydenberg:
We’re extending the payment.
Yes, but the payment is going down. (As is Jobseeker, which is significantly more impactful. People on Jobkeeper are eligible for top up payments from social services. People on Jobseeker just see their payments cut.)
Frydenberg:
At the end of the year we’ll revisit the rate for the JobSeeker coronavirus supplement and we’re leaning in to provide continued support. We recognise that people are doing it tough.
This money is really important to them. But we also know the best thing we can do to help people who are on JobSeeker is to get them into a job.
So you’ll see other initiatives in the budget in two weeks’ time designed to help create more jobs across the economy and in the more recent unemployment numbers, we saw the rate come down to 6. 8%, the ... single biggest drop.
A lot of jobs are going to young people and women, which is very welcome.
Josh Frydenberg will give a speech at the Australian chamber of commerce and industry today (hence the morning media blitz) where basically, he admits the budget is fukt.
It’s all about the “pivot” from concentrating on delivering a budget surplus (which the government promised last year with a whole black and white photo shoot, declaring ‘back in the black’, complete with coffee mugs) to the economic recovery.
Frydenberg is asked whether or not we will see debt paid off in our lifetimes.
Of course that’s the goal. But we know the economic shock has been like no other. Not just for Australia, but also for the rest of the world. Australia has fared a lot better than other nations. But there’s still a big hole in the economy. That’s why plans - and policies like JobKeeper, as well as the $750 payments, the cash flow boost to help small businesses with working capital has been so important.
What you’ll see in the budget in two weeks’ time is the transition out of those income supports, helping to get people into jobs, we’re also undertaking supply side reforms.
Today’s announcement about insolvency is an example of that. It doesn’t hit the budget bottom line, but it can be significantly important and helpful to businesses to be able to trade out of this crisis, cutting red tape, other tax incentives, bringing forward infrastructure, and other measures that we’re looking at.
Although I would argue that is the wrong question. Focussing on debt and deficit is something we have been taught to care about, but good government’s should be spending money to fill in the caps of the private sector. A budget surplus takes spending power away from the economy.
A big part of the reason for the insolvency changes is because we are headed to a massive cliff of insolvencies because of the pandemic. The government put a pause on any penalties for trading while insolvent at the beginning of the pandemic - something they have just extended, but when Jobkeeper comes off, many of these businesses will never re-open.
The number of companies entering external administration is down 46% compared to the same time last year, if that gives you any indication of what we are about to see happen when the stimulus is cut.
Josh Frydenberg:
We know that at least 2,000 insolvencies have been put on hold because of the temporary measures we put in place, that lifted the threshold for the statutory demands that can be made by creditors. This is now a permanent change and this will allow these businesses to work with an insolvency small business practitioner to come one a restructured plan over the course of 20 business days, then that would be put to the creditors and the creditors would have 15 business days to vote, if they vote 50 plus one in favour of that plan, then the current management, the current board will stay in place and trade out of the crisis.
Josh Frydenberg is the latest with an all-round announcement today.
Murph details it here:
But it essentially boils down to creating a two-tiered system for insolvency - big businesses will continue to work under the old system (creditors take control) but smaller businesses, with liabilities under $1m, will have a ‘simpler’ system - the owners will hold on to the company for 20 days, to come up with a restructuring plan - and then creditors will have to vote on whether or not they accept it shortly after that.
Here is how Frydenberg explained it to ABC News Breakfast this morning:
Well, these are businesses with liabilities of under $1 million. That covers around 76% of those business that’s are currently going through the insolvency process and 98% of those businesses have less than 20 employees.
So by and large and they’ll be small businesses whether they’re in the food industry, in the hospitality, or the retail industry, or indeed the tourism industry. And many of these businesses have done it very tough through Covid, they’ve had to close their doors because of the health restrictions, but we know they’re viable businesses. So even though the bills have been racking up, whether it’s for energy, for rent, interest on their loans and insurance bills, those bills have been wracking up. Instead of going into a liquidation process where they lose control of the company, we want those businesses to stay in control, to restructure their balance sheet, to work out an agreement with the creditors and get out on the other side of this virus.
Meanwhile, internationally, the pandemic risks undoing what gains there have been towards equality lower-income countries have made.
As CARE Australia reports:
A global survey of more than 10,000 people in 38 countries suggests the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted women’s lives significantly more than men’s. While losing their jobs and not having enough to eat were the biggest threats identified by both women and men, women were more likely to have lost their incomes and be skipping meals in order to feed their families.
The research, by the aid organisation CARE, is the first to compare global, quantitative data about women’s and men’s experiences since the pandemic took hold earlier this year.
CARE surveyed 6,200 women and 4,000 men in developing countries — including those on Australia’s doorstep such as Timor-Leste and Indonesia — and also analysed secondary data in wealthier countries such as Australia and the US.
Women were almost three times more likely than men to report rising stress, anxiety and other mental health issues, which many attributed to the increased demands of childcare during school closures.
Yesterday, Paul Keating released a statement, accusing the central bank of “indolence”:
...The Reserve Bank is now having another one of its dalliances with indolence.
Knowing full well that monetary policy can now no longer add to nominal demand – something that now, only fiscal policy is capable of doing, the Reserve Bank is way behind the curve in supporting the government in its budgetary funding measures.
For a moment, it showed some unlikely form in pursuing its 0.25% bond yield target for three year Treasury bonds and a low interest facility for banks.
But now, after 600,000 superannuation accounts were cleared and closed down, with 500,000 of those belonging to people under 35 – a withdrawal of $35billion in personal savings, and further demands arising from the employment hiatus in Victoria, the Deputy Governor of the Bank, Guy Debelle, yesterday strolled out with debating points about what further RBA action
might be contemplated.As history has shown, when a real crisis is upon us the RBA is invariably late to the party. And so it is again.
Josh Frydenberg had a few things to say in response, in defence of the bank, this morning. This was him talking to Sky News:
This is an extraordinary, unnecessary attack from Paul Keating. We value the independence of the Reserve Bank,” he told Sky News.
I think the bank has done an excellent job, we’ve worked very closely and co-operatively with them and I think providing that level of co-operation is a level of assurance to the Australian community, to the business community.”
Good morning
It’s another not-Friday, in another week of 2020. But there is some normality on the horizon.
South Australia is once again open to people from New South Wales, after NSW went 14-days, under SA’s definition, with no community transmission.
NSW would say it has gone two days. But that’s because it counts people who are part of known clusters - and therefore in isolation - as part of its community transmission definition. Other states only count the ‘mystery’ cases as community transmission.
It’s been 14 days since NSW has had a case of unknown origin, so SA is opening up. Queensland wants an extra couple of weeks of no community transmission before it does the same, although it will open its borders to northern NSW on 1 October.
Meanwhile, Queensland will consider whether it eases some of the gathering restrictions on south-east residents, after coming through its latest cluster fairly OK. There were only five active cases in the state as of yesterday.
In Victoria, health minister Jenny Mikakos is up at the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry. That comes after police minister Lisa Neville’s appearance yesterday. So far, from the evidence, we are no closer to learning whose decision it was, to use private security guards to lead the quarantine program. Daniel Andrews will appear tomorrow.
And federally, Josh Frydenberg has done the morning interview rounds, on his budget announcement, which amounts to - we need to move into coronacession recovery mode. That’s ahead of the coming October budget, which everyone is hoping will have some actual answers on how we are going to do that. It also comes after former treasurer and prime minister, Paul Keating, intervened yesterday to criticise the reserve bank for not thinking bold enough in getting Australia out of its economic crisis.
We’ll bring you all of that and more, as it happens. You have Amy Remeikis steering you through most of Thursday, which continues to be, the worst day of the week.
Ready?
