What we learned, Wednesday 12 August.
That’s where I’ll leave you for now. Amy Remeikis will be back first thing tomorrow. Thanks as always for reading.
Here’s what we learned today:
- Australia has again recorded its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic after Victoria recorded 21 deaths overnight. In another horror day for the state, another 410 cases were also recorded. The 21 deaths included two women and one man in their 70s. Six women and five men in their 80s. Five men and one woman in their 90s, and one woman in her 100s. Sixteen out of the 21 deaths were linked to aged care outbreaks.
- A dispute between the Victorian government and the federal defence minister over whether or not ADF personnel were offered for the hotel quarantine program continued after Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp released a statement saying ADF was involved in planning, but no personnel were offered or asked for.
- The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said there had been a number of “increases of concern” in regional parts of the state including Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat.
- New South Wales recorded 18 new cases of Covid-19 overnight, while the government announced residents returning from Victoria will have their hotel quarantine fee waived for the next month to ease the financial burden on returnees.
- The NSW government also announced a five day window for ACT residents stuck at the Victorian border to return home beginning tomorrow.
- The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, again upped her rhetoric on the importance of wearing face masks without making them mandatory as the state continues to grapple with a smaller second-wave outbreak.
- The aged care royal commission heard evidence that deaths in aged care facilities in Australia were the second highest in the world. Prof Joseph Ibrahim, the head of the health law and ageing research unit at Monash University’s department of forensic medicine, said the government had treated aged care with “an attitude of futility” during the crisis, something deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth later described as “insulting”.
Updated
A newspaper in western Victoria has announced its closure after the South Australian government’s announcement of tougher border restrictions today.
In a post on Facebook, Edenhope local paper the West Wimmera Advocate announced its next edition would be its last after “constantly changing restrictions, and more and more rules”.
“I don’t have the energy for negotiating a new print arrangement on top of everything else. Sorry, but I am burnt out.”
A committee stacked with Liberal and Labor MPs has said there is no compelling need for federal politicians to face a binding code of conduct and has recommended against establishing an independent parliamentary standards commissioner, my colleague Christopher Knaus reports.
AAP reports that an investigation has been launched after a 25-year-old Queensland man who allegedly fled mandatory quarantine after visiting a New South Wales Covid-19 hotspot surrendered to police.
The Queensland man has handed himself into police after allegedly fleeing mandatory coronavirus hotel quarantine in a rural town. Police began searching for the 25-year-old on Tuesday after he left a Toowoomba hotel on day nine of his two-week isolation period.
“That person has returned into quarantine ... Surrendered himself,” deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski told reporters on Wednesday.
The man had tested negative to Covid-19 after returning from a NSW hotspot and was not considered a high risk to the community.
Gollschewski said the man would now be retested “to make sure he remains Covid negative and give assurance to the community that whilst he was out there was no spread”.
The man has been charged with attempting to enter Queensland unlawfully and will appear in the Goondiwindi Magistrate’s Court in September.
Gollschewski said it was the first time a person had fled a police managed quarantine hotel while isolating, and an investigation was underway.
Updated
Department of health secretary Brendan Murphy has acknowledged that if face masks for aged care workers in Victoria were made mandatory earlier that the number of infections entering aged care homes could have been reduced.
When asked about the decision to make masks mandatory for aged care workers in Victoria from 13 July, the former chief medical officer told the aged care royal commission on Wednesday said “in hindsight you could have implemented that earlier, absolutely”.
“The situation changed very, very rapidly in Victoria in July,” Murphy said.
When asked if this would have led to less infections in facilities, he said “it’s possible, yes”, but noted it was speculation.
“Masks ... have added some value but they are no panacea,” he said.
The admission came after Murphy’s earlier request to respond to the allegation the federal government failed to develop a Covid-19 response plan for the aged care sector was shot down by the commissioners.
Updated
South Australia has announced tougher restrictions for people entering the state, as well as making Covid marshalls mandatory at licensed venues.
On Wednesday the state’s police commissioner, Grant Stevens, said the ongoing severity of the outbreak in Victoria had prompted the government to impose new restrictions on people living in border communities between the two states.
People in cross-border communities have been able to enter SA for a variety of reasons including school, work and medical appointments, but from 21 August those people will need to be approved as an “essential traveller”.
There will be exemptions for senior school students and farmers who own properties spanning across the border.
Also on Wednesday the SA premier, Steven Marshall, said Covid marshalls will now be mandatory in pubs, cafes, gyms, shopping centres and food courts.
We are looking to make sure that there is somebody who is responsible for the Covid-safe plan on licensed premises.
We will do everything we can to keep our state safe, keep as many people employed as possible and we’ve been working with the industry to identify ways that we can keep the same level of restrictions, and that means not increasing them even further like they are in other states.
Updated
A pub lunch attended by 10 Brisbane Broncos players last month is the latest biosecurity breach being investigated that could throw the NRL season into further chaos.
Very happy for the people of the ACT.
NSW/VIC BORDER UPDATE (12 Aug): ACT residents will have a brief window to leave VIC to travel to the ACT. NSW is allowing ACT residents with an Entry Authorisation Certificate to cross the border at Wodonga at 9am from 13-17 August inclusive. More details https://t.co/59BOCdW1EW pic.twitter.com/MsVUePEeKX
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) August 12, 2020
Updated
More coming out of Western Australia in that stoush between the state government and Clive Palmer.
Palmer's lawyers wrote to the WA Government on August 3 offering to withdraw his challenge to the hard border if they agreed to move the jurisdiction of his arbitration outside of Canberra to another "locale over east" according to A-G John Quigley.
— Jenna Clarke (@jennamclarke) August 12, 2020
A-G John Quigley: "Clive Palmer has an visceral hatred of Western Australia and he wants to travel to plunder $30 billion out of WA."
— Jenna Clarke (@jennamclarke) August 12, 2020
More to come at @westaustralian #wapol
NSW government issues guidelines allowing ACT residents to return home
New South Wales Health has just issued changes to border closure orders that will allow ACT residents to travel home from Victoria to the ACT by road from tomorrow for five-day period.
The amending order will begin on 13 August and allow ACT residents to travel through NSW from Victoria between 9am and 3pm each day, until 3pm on 17 August.
According to NSW Health, ACT residents located in Victoria can travel by road if they:
- Have sufficient fuel for the complete journey through NSW to ACT to avoid refuelling.
- Travel through NSW by the route designated by the commissioner of police without stopping except for fatigue or hygiene breaks at designated safe locations.
- While in NSW, only travel between 9am and 3pm.
- Maintain physical distance from people they are not travelling with.
- Carry their ACT Entry Authorisation Certificate.
- After transiting through NSW, re-entry to NSW will not be permitted for at least 14 days after initial entry into the ACT.
Anyone who breaches the Amendment Order can be subject to a $5,000 on-the-spot fine.
Updated
Almost 7,000 people have been granted exemptions from Western Australia’s coronavirus quarantine requirements since April, the Australian reports.
Figures tabled in the WA parliament show 6,661 people had been granted quarantine exemptions over the past four months.
Another 35,243 people from other states and 7,093 people from overseas were also allowed to enter WA between 12 May and 10 August.
Updated
My colleague Daniel Hurst has the latest on mining billionaire Clive Palmer and his threats of fresh legal action the Western Australian government.
“Clive Palmer pulled out of testifying to a parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s trade with China on the basis he had a cold – but then hosted a press conference with journalists in attendance on the Gold Coast as he threatened fresh legal action against the Western Australian government.”
Updated
And that’s all from the deputy chief medical officer.
Coatsworth is asked about evidence at the royal commission that having a high-level infection control specialist on the ground within 48 hours during an aged care outbreak has been shown to be beneficial.
He says it is being considered by national cabinet. He says that in the context of Victoria “clearly the volume is an immense challenge to be able to have high level infection control advice in a very short period of time”.
Coatsworth says that “in an ideal situation where there are not many, many, many concurrent outbreaks then that is a desirable thing to happen”.
Updated
Aged care allegations "insulting": DCMO
Coatsworth is asked about evidence in the aged care royal commission today that hundreds of residents will die prematurely because there has been a look of urgency and an attitude of “futility”.
He responds that some of the evidence in the royal commission doesn’t reflect the “totality” of the government’s response, and says it’s “insulting” to suggest there was an attitude if futility in Australia’s response.
This is a virus that disproportionately affects the aged in our community. That is not a statement of futility, it is a statement of fact. It’s a statement that our most vulnerable in the community needed to be protected.
The assertion that there was an attitude [of] futility towards death in residential aged care in Australia is frankly insulting to the entire Australian community who locked down to prevent deaths amongst our most vulnerable.
Updated
He’s then asked about advice from the federal government to aged care facilities which told them to prepare for 20% to 30% losses in staff if there was an outbreak. Centres like Newmarch in Sydney and St Basil’s in Melbourne have seen losses of 80% and upwards.
You know, what went on at St Basil’s and some of the other facilities that have been markedly affected has been entire shifts of staff, entire facilities worth of staff not being able to work either because they are affected by Covid-19 themselves, acquired largely from the community, or they’ve been furloughed as a decision to protect residents and what that has led to is entire facilities being without a workforce.
I just ask everybody to reflect as they consider what the federal government plans were and what providers planned for. There are very few organisations in Australia, in fact, I’d struggle to name one, that has a business continuity plan for their entire workforce being absent.
In a follow up, he’s asked whether those guidelines will be updated.
I think there are a lot of things that are being reconsidered by the AHPPC at the moment and every single jurisdiction is considering the document that was presented to national cabinet at the last national cabinet which was lessons learned from the Victorian aged care outbreak.
I draw your attention back to the fact that when you have a community-level outbreak of the extent we have had in Victoria and many other nations in the world on the first or second wave, residential aged care workers or health care workers are a significant part of our workforce so when the proportion of Covid is high in your community the number of affected facilities is very, very high and no government in the world as yet has been able to prevent the incursions of Covid-19 into residential aged care facilities, when you have a Covid outbreak of that sort.
Updated
Coatsworth is asked about the Russian vaccine announced by Vladimir Putin yesterday.
He says Australia knows “very little” about it.
We know very little apart from the media reports, of course. As we reflect on our own experience with research and development ... the critical principles of the scientific method, which would include making sure that data is openly available for scrutiny, particularly with a vaccine, the importance of regulation of safety and efficacy studies, these are all bits of information that you need to be able to understand about a vaccine.
So the more information we get about any vaccine produced by any country the better and we have held a consistent position as a nation that no matter who wins this race, that any effective, safe vaccine needs to be immediately provided to the world and countries around the world allowed to manufacture it.
Coatsworth is talking about vaccines and the funding announced by the federal government today.
He says he is “constantly astonished by the speed and the pace with which the global community is racing towards finding effective vaccines and treatments for Covid”.
We are everyday becoming more and more optimistic - cautiously optimistic - but optimistic nonetheless of a Covid-19 vaccine being produced and a number of Australian organisations, University of Queensland and Flinders University, are deeply involved in that.
He calls the funding announced today “very positive news in what is a difficult time for Australia”.
Updated
Deputy chief medical officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, is now up giving the daily Covid-19 update.
Good afternoon,
Police in New South Wales have charged a 65-year-old publican from Casino in the state’s west after he allegedly failed to comply with the state’s Covid-safe guidelines.
According to a statement from the NSW police the licensee was initially fined $5,000 after failing a compliance check last Friday. The pub owner admitted he did not have a Covid safety plan, saying a broken printer had prevented him making one.
At about 10.45am yesterday officers again attended the pub. When they arrived, the licensee was still unable to produce a Covid-19 Safety Plan. He’s now been issued with a court attendance notice and is due to appear at Casino Local Court on Thursday, 8 October 2020.
Separately, the licensee of a hotel at Tuncurry on the state’s mid-north coast was issued with a $1,000 fine following an investigation into alleged breaches of Public Health Orders over the weekend.
On Saturday, officers were conducting proactive patrols when they attended the hotel and identified a number of potential breaches.
Police said:
Of note, a 21st birthday gathering was underway, which inquiries revealed had been booked for 10 people, however, numerous others were in attendance. Further, social distancing was not being adhered to, in particular in the pub’s gaming area.
The licensee has been fined $1,000, and police say that “investigations remain underway into the planned birthday party”.
Updated
Deputy chief medical officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, will be hosting the national Covid update in a short while – Michael McGowan will take you through that.
Thank you again for joining us this morning. We’ll be back early tomorrow morning. Please, until then – take care of you. Ax
Updated
The education department has updated its website today to confirm a childcare provider can reject transition payments to allow their sole trader/independent contractor educators to keep claiming JobKeeper. It follows our story on family day care on Monday: https://t.co/pWgexNTBT1 pic.twitter.com/CzuUeFYzmj
— Daniel Hurst (@danielhurstbne) August 12, 2020
NSW residents returning from Victoria have welcomed the announcement of a “grace period” for hotel quarantine fees, but say there are still other issues making the border rules confusing and difficult.
Natalia, a new mother who travelled to Victoria to be closer to family before she was caught in the lockdown, said it is still unclear whether all NSW residents will be allowed to return to the state.
She told Guardian Australia she had left Sydney before the pandemic, while on maternity leave, and now had to return for work in the midst of the health crisis.
It was always the plan that I’d return back to Sydney. The timing [of the border closure] could not have been worse ... We fled fires in Sydney now we have to flee Melbourne and the pandemic.
Natalia said she and her partner would save $4,000 thanks to the moratorium on fees, which had been discouraging them from returning.
However, they were still worried about being turned away under other restrictions, including the fact that people now cannot cross via car, and must fly into NSW.
I assumed of course I would be able to return because I was a NSW resident and my job is there, but when I looked into the details I was blown away by how strict the restrictions were.
Even if we have a permit to cross, we might be turned away at the border because the discretion is reserved for the people at the border. We pack up our life, hold our eight month old baby in our arms, and could be turned away, it’s like a Cold War drama.
The person at the border could just have a bad day. My driver’s license is NSW, I have a job in Sydney, I am hoping that the person on the border will see it that way.
The decision for us not to have to pay for the quarantine is significant, it means I can save around $4,000. We will now move now, in the next three or four weeks. It’s solved one problem but there are quite a few others.
Updated
And some more cheery news ahead of tomorrow’s jobless figures (via AAP):
Wage increases have shrunk to their lowest level in over two decades and economists fear the worst is yet to come as the coronavirus fuels unemployment.
Consumer confidence has also slumped over fears the second wave will not be contained within Victoria, signalling trouble ahead for retail spending.
The June quarter wage price index grew just 0.2% , the slowest rate since the Australian Bureau of Statistics began collecting the data in 1997.
The annual rate of wages growth was dragged down to 1.8%, also a record low.
It was the first full period that captured coronavirus social and business restrictions.
“Covid’s impact on the labour market has spread to wages,” BIS Oxford Economics chief economist Sarah Hunter said.
“Looking ahead, wages growth is likely to remain very weak given the collapse in employment and depressed economic environment.”
Economists expect the monthly labour force report due on Thursday will show the jobless rate rising to a 22-year high of 7.8% in July, compared with 7.4% in June.
Private sector wages grew by just 0.1% in the June quarter while public sector wages were slightly more upbeat, rising 0.6%.
Wages fell in the construction, wholesale trade, accommodation and food, real estate and professional services sectors.
Updated
Continued from the Victoria Health update:
Cases currently linked to key outbreaks are as follows:
- 202 cases have been linked to Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown.
- 123 cases have been linked to Melbourne Health Royal Park Campus.
- 60 cases have been linked to the Woolworths Distribution Centre in Mulgrave.
- 59 cases have been linked to the Linfox warehouse in Truganina.
- 29 cases have been linked to Diamond Valley Pork in Laverton North.
- 21 cases have been linked to Hazeldene’s Chicken Farm in Bendigo.
- 18 cases have been linked to Caroline Chisholm Catholic College in Braybrook.
The department is also investigating an outbreak Corio Village Shopping Centre and Peninsula Private.
More information will be available in coming days as these investigations continue.
Updated
Victoria Health has released its official update:
In Victoria at the current time:
- 2,961 cases may indicate community transmission.
- 7,877 cases are currently active in Victoria.
- 662 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including 43 in intensive care.
- 7,271 people have recovered from the virus.
- More than 1,874,615 tests have been processed – an increase of approximately 19,927 since yesterday.
Of the total cases:
- 14,351 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 957 are from regional Victoria.
- Total cases include 7,544 men and 8,030 women.
- Total number of healthcare workers: 1,967. Active cases: 1,079.
- There are 1,932 active cases relating to aged care facilities.
Updated
Clive Palmer’s near $30bn damages claim against the West Australian government would force the mass closures of hospitals and schools, the premier has claimed while defending an extraordinary bid to block the suit.
Palmer’s Mineralogy company is pursuing WA for damages over a 2012 decision by the then Liberal government to refuse to formally assess its proposed Balmoral South iron ore mine in the Pilbara.
Late on Tuesday, WA attorney general John Quigley told state parliament Palmer and his associated companies Mineralogy and International Minerals were claiming a total of $27.7bn minus costs – a figure Palmer disputes.
Premier Mark McGowan has labelled the move “obscene” and is urging the state opposition and crossbenchers to support unprecedented legislation to block the claim.
“He is trying to take our money and if he’s successful that would mean mass closures of hospitals, of schools, of police stations, mass sackings ... it is an extreme risk to Western Australia,” McGowan told reporters on Wednesday.
“I will not risk selling Western Australia down the drain to Clive Palmer.”
Palmer claimed he and the WA government had previously agreed to mediate the dispute, adding the proposed legislation, which would terminate the arbitration between the two parties, would damage the state’s reputation.
“The attorney general really says that he thinks ‘we’re guilty and we’re going to have to pay up’,” he told Perth radio 6PR.
“I think it would be very bad to do. Western Australia’s been a very successful state based on the sanctity of its state agreement and its sovereign risk.
“If it passes this act, all that’s out the window. Its credit rating’s liable to go down and people that have invested in this state will be worried about what’s going to happen.”
Palmer said the damages were yet to be assessed, labelling talk of a $30bn claim “bulls***”.
Updated
Department of health secretary Brendan Murphy has attempted to clarify “inaccurate statements” made during the aged care royal commission that the federal government failed to develop a Covid-19 response plan for the sector.
Before giving evidence at Wednesday’s aged care royal commission, Murphy asked if he could take “three or four minutes” minutes to respond to the concern outlined by senior counsel assisting Peter Rozen on Monday, at the lack of a specific plan.
The commissioners take several minutes discussing whether to allow Murphy the “indulgence” he has requested.
Commissioner Tony Pagone said the request “comes a little bit out of left field”, and the former chief medical officer’s request is rejected.
Rozen notes “Professor Murphy became part of this panel at the request of the solicitors acting for the Commonwealth, a request that was received by the Royal Commission’s solicitors late on Monday”, after Rozen had outlined that evidence would show there was no specific Covid-19 response plan for the aged care sector.
For more on Wednesday’s hearing, head here.
Updated
Some of the workplace infections breakdown Daniel Andrews was talking about earlier this morning is being released.
Interesting data from Vic Govt on outbreaks by workplace @abcmelbourne pic.twitter.com/rk0hfSseTm
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 12, 2020
Updated
CBA boss Matt Comyn has just finished talking to the media after today’s release of the bank’s profit results.
He says the second Victorian lockdown will have a “sharp impact” on Australia’s economy, but is hopeful it won’t last for long.
Signs of economic decline out of Victoria as it entered the six-week lockdown included a 20% increase in requests for help from customers and falls in spending - although Comyn said these weren’t as steep as the falls seen in the nationwide lockdown in March.
Clearly the broader lockdown in Victoria and Melbourne is going to have a sharp impact.
We certainly hope that, as I’m sure everyone does, that it’s short-lived.
CBA is the country’s biggest bank, so its customers are a reasonable sample of the economy at large.
In other bad economic news today, consumer sentiment has collapsed, with Westpac’s index falling 9.5% in August, and wages figures for the three months to the end of June show the lowest increase, just 0.2%, since the Bureau of Statistics started the index in 1997.
CBA is forecasting a 4% fall in GDP this year, with 2% growth next year (which is still not great).
Updated
Four more probable cases in New Zealand
The New Zealand prime minister is up in front of the press for the second time today.
The global blog with Helen Sullivan will cover the press conference.
But there are four more probable cases in New Zealand, on top of the four cases it reported this morning
They have all been put into quarantine.
Updated
This is an awful, heartbreaking graph.
Australia's first death from COVID-19 was recorded on 1 March. It took:
— George Megalogenis (@GMegalogenis) August 12, 2020
* 80 days to reach 100 deaths (20 May)
* 73 days to reach 200 deaths (1 August)
* Nine days to pass 300 deaths (10 August)
Breaks my heart to see these numbers. Graph via @FT pic.twitter.com/WDC7XN0Yed
You can follow along with Jacinda Ardern’s press conference here:
Updated
As expected, Teddy Sheean is getting his VC (80 years later).
Updated
"Oh god": The response of commissioner Lynelle Briggs after today's aged care royal commission heard from @Health_Workers' Diana Asmar that some aged care staff are limiting themselves to two face masks per shift as they struggle to get enough PPE https://t.co/0gFB31MLDi #auspol pic.twitter.com/abgElZGHyU
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) August 12, 2020
Jim Chalmers had some thoughts on consumer confidence:
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment showed that:
- Consumer sentiment fell 9.5% in August and is down 20.4% over the year.
- The ‘economy, next 12 months’ sub-index fell by 19.2% and is down 43.8% over the year.
- There was a significant increase in the Unemployment Expectations Index of 14.6 % and is now 22.6% higher than one year ago.
Australians are increasingly anxious because unemployment is rising and will continue to rise in the face of the Morrison government’s failure to come forward with any new ideas for the recovery.
Despite collapsing confidence, deteriorating investment and rising unemployment, Scott Morrison is preparing to withdraw vital economic support from September without a plan to get the economy moving again.
Updated
Dreamworld’s operators have announced the Gold Coast theme park will reopen on 16 September.
Sea World reopened in June.
Updated
Jacinda Ardern is holding her second press conference of the day – we should have that very soon.
You can follow it on our global live blog here.
Updated
Labor’s Stephen Jones says the corporate watchdog has concluded the early release super scheme was targeted by organised crime syndicates:
In answers to parliamentary questions taken on notice by ASIC, the regulator noted that it had received referrals from nine separate Commonwealth agencies relating to the scheme, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
Referrals included ‘serious and organised crime targeting early release of superannuation payments (ERS) real estate agents encouraging tenants to access ERS to meet rental payments, credit providers advising borrowers to use ERS meet loan repayments and members of the public being charged fees to access ERS.’
Labor and the industry repeatedly warned the Government that the poor design and implementation of the scheme is putting billions of dollars in Australians’ super at risk.
The scheme which relies on automatic self-assessment has been mired in controversy.
Updated
Vic gov has announced mental health support for business owners; pic.twitter.com/HVSUMpwIoF
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) August 12, 2020
Q: Climate change, Covid, wearing masks, not wearing masks, all these things have become culture wars. How has that been allowed to happen when there are so many smart people around seemingly not going on the front foot to defend these things?
Larry Marshall:
You got me. I don’t know where to start there. Sorry.
Q: The platform’s yours...
Marshall: (nervous laughter)
I have no idea how to answer that, sorry.
Updated
Asked about machines and tech replacing humans, Dr Larry Marshall says Skynet isn’t coming any time soon:
Machines can’t create knowledge or have ideas and there are some things humans are better at, than machines but there are things they can do together to make it better.
The area science and technology can help - hey, last time I checked we’re an island, continent, whatever you want to call it. No Australian state created COVID-19, it came from out there, it didn’t come from here.
It’s here now within our borders so closing down us to the outside world so we can control it, absolutely.
But what we need to do is use science and technology to isolate the hot spots of the virus because the virus doesn’t recognise state lines or state borders and exponentials never quite go to zero. Our focus should be not shutting ourselves down as much as finding where the virus is focusing our effort to fight in those areas is my opinion.
I would argue that it depends on the person.
Updated
Asked about whether or not we did enough to prepare for a pandemic, given there had been some warning from scientists, the CSIRO boss says:
We prepare for a lot of things and thankfully most of them don’t happen so, that’s good.
The pandemic thing, so, again, 10 years ago the United States recognised that you can’t talk about doctors or not one hand and vets on the other.
There used to be a separation between the health of animals and plants and the health of humans but they recognised a decade ago they’re interconnected. 70% of the diseases we worry about come from animals to humans so CSIRO had been focused on foot and mouth disease, helping the environment.
Not that much on human health.
The thing we did four years ago was shift over in to recognising they’re both the same and then we realised we have one of the oldest and largest genetics groups in the country but they’ve been focused on crops and optimising for yield.
Those same people, the same smarts, applies to human genetics and by partnering with some of the amazing medical researchers in the country, and by far more are outside the CSIRO than in it, but by making the partnerships that I can bring the best of each of us together to focus on pandemics and that’s what woke us up to it. That’s why I think we were well prepared, why we were able to deliver I think the world’s fastest animal trial of a vaccine.
Updated
Q: Should our government be entering commercial arrangements with vaccine manufacturers even though one might not be actually developed or found?
Larry Marshall:
There’s some things I can’t say obviously. But I would argue that there’s two ways to deal with this. You can keep your powder dry, and get it done. And tweet about it once you’ve done it and people are getting vaccines or you can blow your trumpet now and hope you can deliver later.
I think the Australian way is just shut up and do it and, you know, you can shout about from it the rooftops once you’ve succeeded.
Q: Do you think we will succeed?
Marshall:
I’m optimistic.
Asked about the supposed Russian vaccine, CSIRO head Larry Marshall says:
CSIRO’s looked at over 200 vaccine candidates and when I say we have, we’ve done it in partnership with just about every university and medical institution in in country and globally with SEPI. We chose a small number with SEPI and WHO to focus on because, you know, it’s like invention.
We can have brilliant ideas, can -- can do brilliant inventions, we think that’s 99% of the effort but everybody who’s built the business knows the idea is just the first step and most is developing into developing real. 80% of vaccines fall over before they get to save lives.
We’re focused on finding the vaccines that can deliver. Because of the collaboration that happened across Australia we were able to develop one of the fastest animals trials to get the vaccines and that went into human trials in the UK and US. We need to watch those. If those can deliver those can have a solution. We need to watch as they go through human trials, phase 2 and 3. We got them them -- them there faster. And it’s great for the world.
Q: That’s a diplomatic sidestep. Would it be un-Australian to saying yes to try the Russia vaccine.
Marshall (taking a sip of water first) You know... Having looked at 200 vaccines, I probably trust our people in ACDP to tell me what jab to take and I probably more worry about the vulnerable people in society having the jab before I did. If you’re over 70 your risks if you get this disease are high. Through your 50s they’re not so bad if you’re young, they’re much lower.
I think we have to focus on protecting our vulnerable people and then protecting the rest of us.
Updated
Aged care facilities have been ramping up staff cuts throughout the Covid-19, according to the head of the relevant union, who has said it took more than a month, and media attention, to be granted a meeting with the aged care minister Richard Colbeck to discuss the “astonishing” issue.
On Wednesday, the aged care royal commission heard evidence from Annie Butler, federal secretary of the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation, who said that while a survey it conducted of members showed 76% reported no increases in staff at their facilities, they had received feedback from workers and employers that staff cuts in the sector had surged since March.
Butler said that before the lack of staff increases to cope with the pandemic, and reports of cuts became clear, she had requested a meeting with minister Colbeck on 4 March to discuss the issue. She said the meeting with Colbeck was only granted on 4 April, after she followed up the request with health minister Greg Hunt’s office and “unfortunately” resorted to contacting media outlets “to try and get proper attention put on this issue”.
She said there has been an “urgent” requirement to increase staffing in aged care facilities throughout the pandemic that remains unresolved by the government.
There was supposed to be money dedicated specifically for increasing staffing and skills but there’s no accountability. There’s no checking of where that money has gone. There is no requirement of providers by the government to say ‘tell us exactly how and where you have increased the skills and to show that you are prepared’.
Subsequently we continue to see this situation and what, to us is most astonishing of all, even in Victoria right now but in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and some parts of New South Wales, aged care providers are actually cutting staff.
We were told at the time we did our survey that some providers had cut staff from 1 March but over the last month or two, the feedback from members and even from employers directly, that they’re cutting staff has increased.”
Carolyn Smith, WA state secretary of the United Workers Union, said various government guidance and policies for aged care since the Covid-19 pandemic began, failed to consult with sector workers to understand their needs and infection risks.
“The absolute lack of involvement and communication with care staff who are doing the majority of work in the facilities, I think is negligent to the extreme,” she said.
Updated
Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse.
FRIDAY 8/14 pic.twitter.com/uBieV7zoKj
— Nickelback (@Nickelback) August 10, 2020
I guess Prof Brett Sutton will be happy though.
Updated
Dr Larry Marshall finishes his speech with this:
Covid-19 will continue to disrupt but we can harness that disruption and build a more resilient country in the process.
As we head into international Science Week in a few days, there’s never been a more important time for science and it’s power to unite us around big visionary programs that make the impossible possible.
We have an opportunity to treat 2020 as a call to action albeit a dreadful one, to come together as we did a hundred years ago and focus our collective efforts and resources on solving our future challenges, to secure our jobs, our wealth and our way of life. Others harnessed electricity. Walked on the moon, switched on the internet. This is our moment. This is our time. This is our future. It’s time to leap.
Updated
Anthony Albanese had a press conference where he was asked about the aged care royal commission:
All of the reports about aged care are of real concern. I think people don’t want to hear bickering between different levels of government. What they want is to have confidence that older Australians are being looked after.
And there is clearly an absolute need for the federal government to have a plan in place. It’s extraordinary that after Newmarch a plan wasn’t put in place.
Because the bells were ringing loud and clear. But the federal government wasn’t listening.
And what we need to do is to make sure, in terms of aged care, that appropriate plans are put in place at a national level, that we have best practice across the nation. Because we know that older people are particularly vulnerable during this pandemic.
Updated
Dr Larry Marshall, the chief executive of CSIRO is delivering the national press club address today.
He’s talking about where investment will be needed after the immediate emergency of the pandemic passes:
In addition to forecasting the bright future for Australia if we make the right investments, it also predicted the slow decline of our great industries if we don’t reinvent them.
Critically, it detailed six great national that we face if we are to secure our wealth and our way of life. Our environment. How do we make sustainability profitable so that industry and environment become partners and not competitors?
Our food security and quality, how do we give Australian exports an unfair global advantage in our health and wellbeing, how do we prevent more Australians from joining the 11 million currently suffering chronic disease?
Our future industries, how do we create more high-value Australian industries and reinvent the old ones so that our children can enjoy a better quality of life that we have.
Our energy, how do we navigate Australia’s transmission to zero emissions without derailing our economy?
And finally our national security. How do we protect Australia from risks like cyber viruses and real ones so that we can grow in both the real world and the digital world? Now, these are big, broad themes but we don’t need to look any further than this year’s drought, bushfires, pandemic and now recession to see that they aren’t just about tract ideas.
We need a different kind of partnership to deliver real solutions that breakthrough the seemingly impenetrable roadblocks barring our way. And so today we’re announcing a new program of missions to support Australia’s future.
That will help us deliver on our six great challenges and accelerate the pace and scale at which we can address each one, focused on outcomes that lead to positive impact, new jobs and economic growth.
Each mission represents a major scientific research program aimed at making specific breakthroughs not unlike solving prickly pear or curing the rabbit plague or inventing the first flu treatment or creating fast wi-fi. But let me stress these are not just CSIRO’s missions.
Their size and scale require us to collaborate widely across the entire renovation system to boldly take on challenges that are far bigger than any single institution.
We’re working with government, universities, industry and community to co-create these missions. Some will be led by CSIRO, some will be led by others, but all will have the collective focus of our technology and investment. CSIRO will commit at least $100m annually to this program and we’re calling for partners to join us in a team Australia approach to solve our seemingly unsolved obvious challenges.
Updated
Clive Palmer is holding a press conference in a Gold Coast park about his $30bn legal action against Western Australia.
He is using phrases like “natural justice” if you want to know how it is going.
Here is one of the ads playing in Victoria at the moment – they began showing on Monday.
June went from knowing she ‘didn’t feel quite right’ to 32 days in ICU.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 12, 2020
She's home now but her body continues to feel the impacts of #coronavirus (#COVID19). Hear about her experience 👇
Find out more about how you can protect your family: https://t.co/E3R4iczbHH #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/ebJhJ4eTYR
Updated
Dr Nick Coatsworth will host today’s national Covid update.
That’s at 3.30pm.
More than 1,000 aged care workers have contracted Covid-19 in Australia, the aged care royal commission has heard.
Diana Asmar, secretary of Health Workers Union, told the royal commission on Wednesday that of the union’s 6,000 members – which include carers in aged care facilities as well as cleaners, kitchen staff and clerical workers – “we believe there has been over a thousand of our members in aged care” who have tested positive for Covid-19.
However, she noted this figure is not based on official government statistics, but had been arrived at based on calls received from members and calls the union made to facilities experiencing outbreaks.
Asmar said:
Unfortunately, our members right now feel like they’re on the bottom of the Titanic ship. They do not have access and proper access to what we believe the PPE.
A lot of our members unfortunately are suffering with the Covid experience of their residents that they know who have been dying.
Updated
Never waste an opportunity I suppose.
The Canberra Libs have crashes Andrew Barr’s presser at Kippax, doing street stalling while border updates are made pic.twitter.com/4hwgTv9B0B
— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) August 12, 2020
Updated
Victorian jobs department secretary Simon Phemister has confirmed it was his department that was responsible for procuring private security contractors for the Victorian government’s $80m hotel quarantine program, but said it was not his department that made the decision to use private security.
Speaking before the Victorian parliament’s committee overseeing the government’s response to Covid-19, Phemister said that at a 4.30pm meeting on 27 March of officials from several departments, the decision was made, based on advice “from experts” to use private security, and from that point, it was up to the jobs department to procure private security.
Contrary to media reports, jobs minister Martin Pakula said the firms were not chosen based on some need to meet a social inclusion goal. Phemister said security and health were the only concerns in choosing the firms.
Pakula also revealed at the hearing that over 21,000 international students, who aren’t eligible for any federal government payment, had received $1,100 support payments from the Victorian government, while 1,593 people had received $1,500 payments after testing positive for coronavirus while not having access to sick leave.
That is up from 1,099 last week.
Updated
Morning recap
So a little bit on there, this morning.
For those who need a recap:
- Victoria recorded 410 new cases of Covid-19 and 21 deaths, making it Australia’s deadliest day in the pandemic.
- A breakdown of workplace infections is coming.
- A breakdown of health worker infections – was it picked up at work or in the community? – is coming.
- The dispute between the Victorian government and the defence minister over whether or not ADF personnel was offered for the hotel quarantine program continues. Emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp has released a statement saying ADF was involved in planning, but no personnel were offered or asked for.
- Daniel Andrews all but confirms it was Victoria which first suggested the hotel quarantine program to the national cabinet.
- NSW has recorded 18 new cases of Covid.
- Many are linked back to the Tangara School for Girls in Sydney’s north-west – a non-government Catholic school. A prayer and study retreat is under investigation as the potential source of the original infections.
- Masks are strongly encouraged for NSW residents in situations where they can’t properly social distance.
- Returning travellers from Victoria will not have to pay for their own quarantine in NSW after a grace period was established.
- Stranded ACT residents at the Victorian/NSW border have been given four days to get home.
- The aged care royal commission has been absolutely damning again, today, for the federal government. See Elias Visontay’s posts for more.
Updated
NSW residents returning from Victoria to have hotel quarantine fee waived for the next month
On returning Victorian travellers, Gladys Berejiklian says:
There were some months when overseas travellers came back to New South Wales when they didn’t require to pay for their hotel quarantine and now they do.
Under the circumstances, we want to give a grace period for New South Wales residents returning from Victoria.
We feel that there are a number of applications on hardship grounds where New South Wales residents who may have lost a job or been down there for very tragic family circumstances want to come back home.
And in order for them to be able to do that in a timely and safe way, for the next month, of course, you still need to do your hotel quarantine, but you won’t need to pay for it. We do want to give a month’s grace.
Not only is that better for people who are facing hardship, but it also means health resources don’t have to go into distinguishing those legitimate cases of hardship versus those that don’t.
We really want to make sure that all of our health resources at the moment go into that vital contact tracing.
So for returning visitors who come, New South Wales residents coming back from Victoria, who must come back through Sydney – yes, you do have to do hotel quarantine.
That doesn’t change. But you won’t be required to pay for it.
Updated
'You should be wearing a mask' says Gladys Berejiklian
We move from the Victorian press conference to the NSW press conference. It is still not mandated, but masks are strongly, strongly encouraged in NSW says the premier:
Gladys Berejiklian:
In terms of our own individual behaviour – please know that if you’re in an environment where you can’t guarantee social distancing, you should be wearing a mask. I have done that when I’ve done my grocery shopping.
I have done that when I’ve walked in a shopping mall, and my expectation is that other people were to do that as well.
And if I were to catch public transport, which I used to and I love doing – I would also be wearing a mask.
We can be stronger than that in the evidence we’re giving. Whilst compliance is increasing and we’re pleased with the take-up that has been there, we need it to go further.
Because our concern is the accumulation of unknown sources.
I also want to stress – can we please ask communities in western Sydney and south-western Sydney where there has been the higher level of community transmission to please come forward and get tested.
We know for some communities, that is not something that they’re used to doing. But we really need to know that anyone who has the mildest of symptoms and anyone who feels that they may have been exposed because they’re a direct contact or a venue they may have visited, or a place of worship may have been compromised with exposure, we really need people to come forward and get tested.
In terms of mask wearing, can we also again reiterate how important it is for people in plays of worship to be wearing a mask.
Because in places of worship, we know that when people know each other and the health advice and the updates tell us that you have a greater chance, statistically, of getting the virus from somebody that you know well – a friend, a contact or someone you see often – rather than a random occurrence. And it is this setting, this familiarity, which sometimes causes complacency that all of us need to be on top of as well.
Whether it’s a friend, a family member or somebody that we engage with in our day-to-day lives.
Updated
Victoria Police have also issued their update for the past day:
Police have issued a total of 184 fines to individuals for breaching the chief health officer directions, including:
• 24 for failing to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four approved reasons
• 16 at vehicle checkpoints
• 58 for curfew breaches
• 19,051 vehicles checked at the vehicle checkpoints
• Conducted 5,127 spot checks on people at homes, businesses and public places across the state (total of 260,275 spot checks conducted since 21 March).
Please find below examples from the last 24 hours of breaches:
- A man who travelled from Mooroolbark to Mansfield to pick up a friend.
- A man from Pakenham who came to Dandenong to hang out with some mates and wander the streets.
- Four men who were found in a parked car in Flemington during the curfew hours. The group told police they were “just chilling”.
- Multiple people attending convenience stores in the Metro Melbourne area to purchase food, cigarettes or drinks during the curfew hours of 8pm–5am.
Updated
Queensland police are looking for a man who has breached hotel quarantine in Toowoomba (the man has tested negative to a Covid test).
Police are currently searching for a man who breached mandatory hotel quarantine in Toowoomba.
The 25-year-old man returned from a New South Wales hotspot and was directed to hotel quarantine for 14 days.
Police will allege the man has left on the ninth day.
The man received a negative Covid-19 test and is not considered a high risk to the community.
Updated
Meanwhile, the federal parliament sitting on 24 August and the prospect of some MPs appearing by teleconference has raised some interesting questions, as Katharine Murphy reports:
Christian Porter has signalled to Labor advice will need to be sought to ensure that all statements are covered by parliamentary privilege if MPs are allowed to contribute via video conferencing during the pandemic.
In correspondence to the manager of opposition business, Tony Burke, seen by Guardian Australia, Porter expressed a number of concerns about the reliability of technology, and said it would be important to establish clear criteria to ensure MPs didn’t use remote conferencing “as a convenience rather than a necessity”.
Porter said the Speaker of the House, Tony Smith, had told him video conferencing could work “based on recent experiences of virtual contributions in parliamentary committees”. But Porter, the attorney general and manager of government business, expressed scepticism.
“Perhaps this would be a rare occasion where the first use of an IT communications solution on a scale and in a context previously untested occurs seamlessly and without incident,” Porter said. He cited a recent hearing of a parliamentary committee where the proceedings were plagued by drop outs and poor connections.
Updated
Has Daniel Andrews spoken to Scott Morrison about the Linda Reynolds statement?
Andrews:
No, and frankly, I think that the chances of me wasting his time or mine on that media release or statement or whatever you want to call it, are very low.
When we next speak or text or WhatsApp or whatever the communication method is, it will be about matters that are all together to do with our partnership and the fact that we’ll work incredibly hard, together, to get to the other side of this. That’s what we’ll anticipate spend our time on. That’s what we always spend our time on.
Updated
Q: There’s been some public reporting but no confirmation that the hotel quarantine idea was first raised by you at national cabinet. Is that true?
Daniel Andrews: I’m limited in what I can say about national cabinet. But we had a program already stood up in its early stages around vulnerable Victorians.
We didn’t think it was appropriate to have 20,000-plus people flying into Melbourne just on an honesty basis going home.
We thought that there would be a percentage not doing the right thing and that we would finish up with more cases.
We put that case and it was agreed by our first minister colleagues and we set about actually delivering on the specified timeline what national cabinet had agreed to.
Q: So that’s a yes, you were the first to raise it?
Andrews:
Again, I am not going to be running a blow-by-blow of national cabinet, even if I wanted to.
That’s not necessarily something that I’m allowed to do.
It is essentially, it has the same status as the federal cabinet or our cabinet and it is really important that I don’t in any way undermine the way that that process works. It is a very free-flowing discussion, it’s a very frank place. It needs to be given the subject matter that it is dealing W and there are rules and I’m not about breaking those.
So that is a yes though. Confirmation it was Andrews who raised hotel quarantine as an idea in national cabinet.
Updated
Q: Troops have only been involved in numbers in – high numbers – for a couple of months in Victoria. It does really seem to have been a theme throughout the pandemic that Victoria has been on the face of it reluctant to involve the troops?
Daniel Andrews: Well, that is not just right. That’s just not right. That’s just not right.
Q: But that is how it appears.
Andrews: How it appears and the facts are not always the same thing.
Q: Why you didn’t ask for ADF involvement much earlier?
Andrews: That’s just not right. We’ve had hundreds and hundreds of ADF personnel in Victoria for more than two months. They’ve been here for a lengthy period of time.
Some of them have been here from when I first requested help with the bushfires between Christmas and New Year.
So I’d simply say to you – how this looks, I’m much less worried about that. In fact, I’m not concerned about that. What I’m concerned about is doing my job and driving these numbers down.
If others have time to issue statements which are then contradicted in clear terms by the emergency management commissioner who is on the ground doing this work, that’s great I’m glad that they have enough time to do that. I’m glad that there’s other people who think that the best contribution they could make is to be playing politics. As Raf asked me before – I haven’t got time for that and I’m not interested in it.
Q: Maybe we wouldn’t have the second wave if the ADF were called in.
Andrews:
People are entitled to their views. What I’m putting to you are the facts of these matters. We’ve got to keep working hard, in partnership with the ADF.
That’s the great in some ... In some respects that’s the disappointing thing in some circumstances.
I wouldn’t want any Victorian to think that ADF were doing anything other than a sterling job alongside a big, big team of Victorian public serve ens, other commonwealth public servants.
People from emergency services who were all working very, very closely together. And we’re very grateful for the support that we have, and that support has been longstanding.
It has built up over time and different roles.
For instance, we had many hundreds of people who were involved in the testing blitz that we did running big test sites. We’ve had people who are experts in tasking, logistics planning of the they’ve been at the state control centre for the entire journey. We have people from Emergency Management Australia in there as well. It’s a big team. The need changes and so, too, does the profile of staff. And that’s why we’ve seen numbers grow.
And they’ve not grown in the last couple of months. They’ve grown – albeit in different increments – across the whole journey. We’re very grateful that they’re here and if we need more in the future, we’ll be certain to ask. So regardless of statements issued from Canberra, the most important thing is the dialogue that I have, the ultimate dialogue with Canberra and that’s me talking to the PM.
And every time I’ve asked for something, the answer has been yes and I’m grateful for that.
Updated
Daniel Andrews on the ADF offer:
Let’s be very clear about this. It has been consistently put to me that me or others have consistently said no to help.
That’s simply wrong. That is simply wrong.
And the notion that that has occurred – that’s just not right. And that is what I was going to yesterday.
I was asked a question: why did you do one thing and not the other? What I was saying was I’m not entirely certain that the other was on offer. And Commissioner Crisp goes to that.
That shouldn’t be read as a criticism. Neither my comments yesterday nor any time during the pandemic or at any time could be construed as a criticism. Absolutely not. They are doing a sterling job. While they were out doing that work, others decided to issue a statement yesterday.
I can’t speak for that. That’s ... wasn’t ... Not under my hand, not under my signature. You would need to speak to the federal minister. I think commissioner Andrew Crisp had been clear today. My only regret is he’s had to take himself away from other important work to be issuing statements.
Updated
Daniel Andrews on Linda Reynolds:
The defence minister yesterday decided that she would issue a statement. She’s perfectly entitled to do that.
It made a number of claims. Andrew Crisp issued a statement that I think is at odds with that.
For my purposes, that clears the matter up. I don’t know the federal defence minister. I don’t deal with her. I deal with the prime minister.
I do know Andrew Crisp. I think Victorians know Andrew Crisp as well. I direct you to the really clear statement that he’s issued.
Updated
Q: Your press release from March 27 says it’s been agreed that the Australian Defence Force will be engaged to help the implementation of the hotel quarantine arrangements.
Daniel Andrews: Yep.
Q: Why weren’t they, given you said they were going to...
Andrews: I don’t think you have... I don’t agree with the way you have constructed it. The release that was issued directly after the national cabinet decision to establish hotel quarantine is one thing. I think, if you look at Andrew Crisp’s statement, he talked about ADF being involved in the establishment of the program. I don’t see consistency there.
Q: Although he is the emergency management commissioner, he hadn’t fronted a single press conference over the coronavirus pandemic?
Andrews: He is very busy. He is very busy doing important work.
Q: He was busy during the bushfires. Maybe can you walk us through what kind of – what the Defence Force ...
Andrews:
No, I’m not going to be here interpreting these matters. The defence minister has issued a statement. That claims various things. The emergency management commissioner has issued a statement. That provides the facts of the matter. I really can’t offer any more than that. Other than to stress, yet again – you know, I can’t speak for the federal defence minister. I can’t speak for statements she’s made. That’s entirely a matter for her.
What I can do, though, is be really clear with you, that Andrew Crisp as issued a statement. I don’t think it could be clearer or plainer. People can make their own judgments.
Updated
Q: The [emergency management Victoria commissioner Andrew Crisp] statement doesn’t address the June 24 events, but addresses events in March and April. You said yesterday that it would be a matter for him to address the fact that he did make a request on June 24.
Daniel Andrews: That’s right.
Q: Why [didn’t] he addressed that?
Andrews:
You need to speak to him. June 24 is a month after the outbreak at Rydges. This will be borne out by others. But I think that the notion that that would have been in any way material to the challenges in hotel quarantine, I think, is not right. That’s a month after Rydges. So, we can deal with that. There are other processes that will deal with that. But, again – emergency management Commissioner Crisp, who I know and who I think Victorians know very well for the leadership that he’s provided whenever he’s been called upon to do that, he’s issued a statement. I would direct you to that. Again, I will make the point, so there is no doubt whatsoever. The only quarrel, the only argument, the only fight that I’m engaged in or will ever be engaged in, until this is over, is the fight against this virus. We are deeply grateful to the ADF and the commonwealth government for the contribution they’re making. I can’t speak to statements issued by the Defence Minister. That’s entirely a matter for her. But I can – but I can direct you to comments – very clear comments – made by Andrew Crisp. You will need to draw your own conclusions.
Updated
Stranded Canberrans allowed home
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, has announced ACT residents stuck at the NSW/Victorian border (where they have been since last Friday when their travel approval was revoked) have four days to get home.
NSW will help with the travel arrangements.
They will be allowed to travel from 9am and 3pm for each of the four days.
(It’s less than a four-hour trip, so it will just allow those who haven’t made it to the border because of the mix-up, to get to the border.)
Updated
Q: Would have it been better and was it a possibility to ask the ADF for public health people – those more senior contact tracers – not the nurses who do the 24-hour interview, but the senior public health positions that it seems we did not have?
Daniel Andrews:
I would not – in broader terms, I’m happy to be specific if people want me to – the only quarrel – the only argument, the only fight that I’m interested in and engaged in is against this virus.
I will be incredibly careful. You have asked me a fresh question. I don’t read this in any way – no one should have ever read in any way that I was critical – I want to be careful that no one reads into what I’m about to say.
I’m not certain that the ADF have that sort of public health physician – those sorts of people.
We have asked for medical teams. Every time we’ve asked we have got exactly what we ask for. It does take time.
It isn’t just a switch you flick. We have hundreds and hundreds of ADF personnel on the ground as we speak, knocking on doors. Senior people doing work in the State Control Centre, all the way out to mobile testing sites.
Across the board. We’re deeply grateful to all of them. They are doing a sterling job. I would just make the point – they have been here since – some of them, not all – but some have been here since before New Year’s Eve, when I asked them to come.
I actually requested them to come. I think that’s what the record will show. Then they went to Mallacoota, helped get people out of there in the fires. That seems a long time ago. The ADF has been there for us.
We are grateful – very grateful to them. On the issue of capability. Let me check. I’m not sure they could fill an order like that. That isn’t a criticism. That isn’t necessarily what they would do. I think it’s a fair bit that any public health physician who is prepared to be part of this response is on the tools.
They are there doing that important work. I don’t think there’s too many of them that have said no. That’s why we’re so grateful.
Updated
On improvements to contact tracing timings, Daniel Andrews says:
...Every day - every day - we’re looking for minutes and hours, if we can find them - continuous improvement.
And that’s - that’s challenging even if you had relatively stable numbers, even low numbers. Even low numbers.
Like there are countries around the world - some close to us - that have cases today for the first time in a long time. They will be looking to run the most efficient contact tracing. They may do more than they did the first time. Other states, aim sure, are doing the same thing.
We are literally - pull the thing apart every few weeks, look for different things you might be able to improve, put it back together and move to the next phase. To do that while you have got cases going up - or even if they’re stable - 400 cases - that could be as many as 2,000 close contacts. You throw in workplace outbreaks, then you’re talking about many more than that. It’s a big, big job.
On the modelling Matilda was talking about a little earlier – about the move from stage four to stage three, Daniel Andrews says:
I think this key point is that the – the secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance – he will model on whatever is most certain.
At this stage, we have got stage four running for a period of time. He’s used that period of time. And then modelled what that looks like.
He will then have had to make – he and his team – will have had to make other best estimate assumptions about what settings are beyond that. The thing about modelling is that it is all dependent upon the underlying assumptions you make.
Modelling is important – it is very important – but what is more important and has always guided me more is the actuals.
What’s – not what you think is going to happen, not a theory, but the actual practice – what’s actually occurred.
That’s why, for instance, we can perhaps make more – we can draw more conclusions from actual case numbers over the last week, than question can trying to predict what next week looks like, let alone – what was the time frame he used?
September and then after that. We’re into October. I would love to be able to confirm for you what we’re going to be facing in October. We can’t know that. We can only assume.
That’s what assumptions and modelling is about. The real data is the key here. Off that modelling, off international experience, from logic and from science, the science of this virus, our experts remain convinced that this strategy will work, but I would just say – that’s a theoretical issue.
The practical delivery of this strategy really does depend upon literally millions and millions of decisions that are made by individuals and families each and every day. That’s why we all have to – we have just got to find a way to stay together. We have to find a way to stay strong.
And we have got to find a way to – to get to the other side of these rules, to stay the course, as it were. We are staying apart. That’s critically important. But that sense of unity has never been more important, I think. That’s really, really central to this strategy working.
Updated
Tim Pallas has also outlined the unemployment situation in Victoria:
The updated modelling indicates that Victorian job losses will peak at an estimated 325,000 Victorians. The unemployment rate is likely to peak at around 11%, which is the highest rate since the 1900s … We’ve seen over the past few months a headline rate of unemployment is not capturing the full story going on in the labour market because large numbers of people have left the labour force, or are working fewer hours than they want. So there’s a hidden impact.
He has suggested the unemployment situation will “will get worse before it gets better”.
Updated
Back to the Victorian committee for a moment (it will help give some context to some of Daniel Andrews’ answers at this presser).
The Liberal MP Bridget Vallence has grilled the treasurer over the lack of state government support for sole traders, something she also questioned the premier on yesterday:
Treasurer, you said that, and I quote, ‘We haven’t given up on a single industry, or a single job.’ That’s not quite true. Is it true that you have given up on around 400,000 sole traders in Victoria? Haven’t you?
After some back and forth Pallas replied:
Firstly, it is not true that we are not providing any support for sole traders, that is far from true. In fact, sole traders can access a range of existing supports, including state government support ... sole traders are benefiting from our tenancy support package, including vital rent relief to help them through this pandemic and get on the other side of the crisis. Sole traders are eligible, of course to the jobkeeper program, sole traders are also eligible for our government’s $36bn business advisory and wellbeing program to help them adapt to navigate their way through this crisis.
Vallence:
If they’re not renting any property that doesn’t help them, and if they’ve actually forced to close and reopen your final point won’t help them either.
Updated
NSW records 18 new cases
NSW Health has put out its official update – which includes the announcement quarantine charges will be waived for NSW residents returning from Victoria:
Of the 18 new cases reported to 8pm last night:
- 13 were locally acquired and linked to known cases
- one is a returned traveller from overseas
- two were locally acquired, without a known source
- two were acquired in Victoria
NSW residents returning from Victoria will have their hotel quarantine fee waived for the next month to ease the financial burden on returnees.
The charge will be waived retrospectively and apply to NSW residents already in hotel quarantine after travelling from Victoria.
A second health care worker at Hornsby Hospital has been diagnosed with COVID-19 but did not work while infectious.
Close and casual contacts have been instructed to isolate, monitor and test for COVID-19 should any symptoms present.
Staff who had contact with the first positive case have been self-isolating for 14 days and tested for COVID-19. There is no impact on the services being provided at the hospital’s Emergency Department.
Hornsby Hospital has a clinic available for people who require testing for COVID-19. For anyone who develops COVID-19 symptoms, stay home and get tested.
A third confirmed COVID-19 case has been identified at Our Lady of Mercy College. Because this new case is not directly linked to the previous two cases, the source of the infection is unknown.
Due to the concern about the virus spreading within the school, NSW Health and the school agreed to close the high school for 14 days to allow for contact tracing and to reduce the risk of the virus spreading at the school.
Students and staff have been advised to self-isolate for 14 days, monitor their health and get tested for COVID-19. Students and staff will return to onsite learning on Monday 24 August.
Parramatta Public School will not be open for on-site learning today after a student tested positive to COVID-19. The school is working closely with NSW Health to identify and notify close contacts. Students will continue to be supported through existing learning from home arrangements while the school is thoroughly cleaned.
It was confirmed yesterday that two people who were infectious with COVID-19 attended the Wildginger restaurant in Huskisson on Saturday, 8 August 2020 from 7.45pm to 10.30pm. Patrons and staff who were at the venue during this time must self-isolate for 14 days and get tested for COVID-19.
Anyone who attended the following venues during the dates and times below are advised to isolate, monitor and test for COVID-19 should any symptoms present, however mild:
- Rhodes Ikea on 8 August, between 1:20pm-2:20pm
- Parramatta Westfield on 5 August between 4pm-5:30pm and 8 August between 12pm-1pm
- Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club from 5pm on 7 August to 1:30am on 8 August
- Castle Towers Shopping Centre on 7 August between 3:30pm-5pm
- Baby Bunting, Penrith on Saturday 8 August between 1.15pm-1.45pm
Updated
Daniel Andrews says authorities are also working on a workplace breakdown of the infections. He says he hopes to have that information soon.
Updated
More than 3m single-use face masks and just under 171,000 multiple-use masks have been sent to vulnerable Victorians.
Updated
On PPE equipment for health workers, Daniel Andrews says:
I can confirm is around 68m gloves, 19m surgical masks, 2m face shields, they are ready to be distributed to health services whenever they are needed. Our hospitals, they make requests for PPE on a daily basis.
Sometimes more than once per day. Via a dedicated online portal. The standard is for orders that are received before 11am – so, an order received just an hour ago – that will be shipped out to the hospital by the following day. Ninety-eight per cent, in fact, of those orders are received by the hospital who ordered them if the order is placed before 11am the following day.
It can take a little bit longer if an order was to come through in the afternoon. I think at any – we are talking about these sorts of volumes, to be able to achieve that 98% successful delivery rate in good time, I think that is a credit to a big team of people who are working as hard as they possibly can.
If people are interested, I can certainly take you through total numbers. In fact, I will, just for the purposes of clarity. There are 2,173,507 face shields that have been delivered out to health services.
Doesn’t mean they have all been used. Some will be sitting, if you like, in mini-stockpiles at local hospitals and health services. Eighty-nine million of – I will round the numbers off, because they’re almost 90m gloves.
Just under 5.5m gowns, about – just under 300,000 hand sanitiser containers, just under 3m masks, and surgical masks. That’s what’s been taken from our stockpile over the journey. That’s since March this year.
They have been all delivered out to health services. The majority – well, certainly the majority of that will have already been used.
Some will be held in reserve. It’s not quite a just-in-time system, although we’re given 98% of orders out the next day, it almost is. Just in terms of orders that we have placed.
Updated
On health workers, Daniel Andrews says:
We do know we have a growing number of health workers. So today’s update was 1,079 healthcare workers who are active cases. I understand that is of great concern to them, to their families, and to every single Victorian. Those who care for us, we have to do everything we can to take care of them.
He says authorities are working out on the breakdown of where the workers contracted the virus – whether it was within the community, or at work. At this point, he says, it seems like community transmission is the main infection site:
I’m going to be able to provide you early next week with a very detailed breakdown of workforce transmission.
So who is getting the virus to the best of our knowledge and detailed analysis, how they’re contracting the virus. That work is currently ongoing.
And it is quite a complex task to essentially track back to that index case each and every one of those healthcare workers.
But I do hope to be able to – and I’m confident I will be able to – give you both a breakdown of different roles and functions within the health system, but also a sense of whether people are getting the virus at work or whether they’re getting it in other settings, patient-to-staff transmission, staff-to-staff transmission.
All that work is being done now. I can, however, confirm that our early analysis, by our expert team, is showing that the majority of healthcare workers are acquiring coronavirus outside of the workplace.
That’s – I’m not making any judgments about that.
That is what the data is telling us.
Updated
Active Covid cases in NDIS homes
Daniel Andrews moves on to disability care:
We have active cases in NDIS homes, which are community residential disability accommodation services, some 56 active cases in what are known as transfer homes – they’re state government-funded but on part of a track to fully transition to the NDIS 2024.
Active cases in standard disability homes – one.
Residential clients – 20.
Staff cases is 61.
So, again, that is challenging but we have, again, a really important cooperative partnership there is, if you like, the mirror or the sibling incident control centralised command and control body that’s been setup down at the State Control Centre to similarly coordinate our response in disability care as we have done in aged care.
Any cases amongst vulnerable groups are concerned but I think important to note it is a really important partnership and one that has served us and will continue to to when it comes to those settings.
Updated
Daniel Andrews gives an aged care breakdown:
In terms of aged care shifts being carried out by nurses, hospital nurses, we’re up to 1,277 shifts that have been filled as at the 11th in private aged care facilities.
That’s a massive, enormous task. I’m grateful to each and before one of those nurses for stepping up and working in an environment that’s not their environment, that’s not what they’re paid to do.
They’ve gone beyond that and worked in some very challenging places some very confronting scenes but we’re all proud and we’re very grateful to every one of them.
I can confirm 476 aged care residents have been transferred from residential aged care to hospital due to coronavirus outbreaks. The majority of these patients are from active cases.
In terms of active cases, total active cases, 1,929. Active cases in public sector aged care, Victorian-government run sector, is six. In private aged care, 1,923. Active outbreaks, some 122 of those. Active outbreaks in public aged care, five of those.
Two are essentially part of the same facility. The total number of cases across-the-board in aged care 2,265. There’s a very significant challenge there each and every day.
Updated
Regional Victoria is put on alert
Daniel Andrews talks about some cases popping up outside of greater Melbourne:
We have seen some increases of concern to us in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. They have been stable. They’re very low numbers, but coming off such a low base, any additional cases are of concern to us.
So I suppose the point I would simply make to people right across regional Victoria, you’ve done a great job in following these rules right throughout the pandemic but it’s really important that each and every regional Victorian stays the course with this. I know it’s tough, I know it’s challenging, I know that we would prefer to be in a different set of circumstances, but even at low numbers we’ve just got to have that vigilance across-the-board so we can keep them low and, indeed, drive them down even further.
I made some comments yesterday about people really just stopping and thinking about whether travel to regional Victoria or travel from regional Victoria to metropolitan Melbourne is absolutely necessary. I just ask people to give that little bit of extra thought to that and if there’s any sense that that trip could be avoided, that that travel could be limited, well then that is conducive with less movement, less cases and getting to the other side of this.
Those stage-three restrictions are being followed by the vast majority of regional Victorians.
Updated
Daniel Andrews press conference
Once again, the Victorian press conference starts with a breakdown of the ages and gender of the people who have died in the last 24 hours.
There are two females and one male in their 70s. Six females and five males in their 80s. Five males and one female in their 90s, and one female in her 100s. 16 out of those 21 deaths can be linked to aged care outbreaks.
There are 662 Victorians that are in hospital – 43 of those are receiving intensive care and 25 are on a ventilator …
There are 2,961 cases with an unknown source – that’s 58 more than yesterday, 58 more of those mystery cases. There are 1,079 healthcare workers who are active cases.
There are now 1,929 active cases in aged care settings.
And that means the total active cases the 7,877 across Victoria.
Updated
Business confidence is down everywhere.
(via AAP)
The monthly Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell to 79.5 points in August.
It is now back down towards the low of 75.6 points in April, when Australia entered a national lockdown.
“The scale of the falls comes as a major surprise,” Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said on Wednesday.
“The biggest surprise was in NSW where sentiment collapsed by 15.5 per cent, well in excess of the 8.3 per cent fall in Victoria.”
Even in Queensland, where cases have been largely curtailed, there was an 8.1 per cent fall in confidence.
“This emphasises the fear of the unknown,” Mr Evans said.
Clive Palmer is doing a midday press conference.
Sigh.
The legislation they have passed to try and stop me and my company has been done a week after the Premier declared war on me and declared me an enemy of the State.#wapol
— Clive Palmer (@CliveFPalmer) August 11, 2020
Health sector Covid plan didn't address aged care, royal commission told
The aged care royal commission has been told the government’s public health response plan for Covid-19 does not specifically address how to respond to outbreaks in aged care settings, with an aged care expert saying there was a failure of “plain management that you teach to undergraduates”.
Prof Joseph Ibrahim, the head of the health law and ageing research unit at Monash University’s department of forensic medicine, spoke after the senior counsel assisting the royal commission, Peter Rozen QC, on Monday said neither the federal government or the aged care regulator had developed specific Covid-19 response plans for the sector – claims refuted by the aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, and the acting chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, on Tuesday.
On the Department of Health’s general public health Covid-19 response document, that the government offers as a Covid-19 response plan, Ibrahim said: “I think any person reading it would see that it doesn’t do that. It’s Australia’s health sector emergency response. It’s not Australia’s aged care sector response, just in the title.”
If you do a word search in the document, I think aged care appears 20 times, almost always in reference to high-risk groups, which include disabled groups, Indigenous population and there is no specific mention about the failures of the aged care system or what the operating environment is.
This health sector emergency response plan does not address what needs to happen in aged care. It simply says aged care is a high-risk area ... There’s fundamentally no gap analysis to prepare us. And that’s the first step in, I guess, any situation around a problem. You know, what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses, where are the gaps? It’s not there.
This isn’t complex scientific work. This is sort of plain management that you teach to undergraduates.
I’m surprised that the minister [Colbeck] is relying purely on public health specialists and infection disease specialists to manage aged care when the department and the minister know full well the circumstances in aged care are quite different.
Updated
Daniel Andrews should begin his press conference very soon.
Updated
What could go wrong?
(This came just hours after Russia’s announcement.)
President @realDonaldTrump just announced that we've reached an agreement with Moderna to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate!
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 11, 2020
There are now 3 vaccine candidates in Phase 3—the final stage of trials! pic.twitter.com/NQoAPrpKQe
Updated
David Martine, the secretary of the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, has shed a little light on what might be to come in terms of lockdowns. Martine was outlining to the committee what financial assumptions his department was making for the coming months:
We’re not actually are forecasting a bounce back in September quarter … Obviously they need to make some assumptions about what happens after the announced stage four.
So in terms of the modelling, we’re assuming for the remainder of the quarter that we move in from stage four into stage three. So that takes us to the end of September, and then for the December quarter, we’re assuming stage three migrating into a stage-two scenario.
So it seems that Victoria’s “stay-at-home” orders – a cornerstone of stages three and four – could extend beyond the six-week lockdown, which is due to end 13 September.
Updated
The man who travelled to the Northern Territory to launch the CLP’s political campaign has asked Australians to be patient with the interstate border closures that are keeping them from loved ones.
As AAP reports:
Australians desperate to see family and friends interstate are being urged to let health authorities contain coronavirus outbreaks first.
The Northern Territory could refuse visitors from some parts of the country for another year, while Western Australia warns its borders could remain closed for 18 months.
Christmas in Queensland is also looking unlikely for anyone south of the border.
The closures are creating immense stress for many families who live in different states and people with sick or dying relatives they cannot get to.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack acknowledged it was an absolutely awful situation for many people.
But he also urged people wanting to take interstate holidays not to get ahead of themselves.
“The virus has to be contained and minimised,” Mr McCormack told the Nine Network on Wednesday. “State premiers and chief ministers have made the border closures to protect their own jurisdictions.”
Victoria has reported another 21 deaths and 410 new infections.
Updated
Looks as though the Queen has given Teddy Sheean’s VC recommendation the tick of approval (once the recommendation is made, it’s more of a formality than anything):
The Governor-General, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), joined by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Michael Noonan AO, will make an announcement in relation to the awarding of a Victoria Cross to Ordinary Seaman Edward “Teddy” Sheean.
Updated
Medical bodies are ramping up their calls for more protection for healthcare workers:
The Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) and a coalition of medical, nursing and health and safety organisations have made an urgent appeal to the Victorian Government for comprehensive risk assessments of hospitals to protect healthcare workers and patients from COVID-19 across the state.
The ASA’s call for improved and consistent occupational health interventions in Victorian hospitals is supported by the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (AIOH), AMA (VIC), Australian College of Peri Anaesthesia Nurses (Vic) & National, Council of Procedural Specialists (COPS), Australian Institute of Health & Safety (AIHS), Indoor Air Quality Association Australia (IAQAA) and the Rural Doctors Association Victoria (RDAV).
“We have written to the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews, calling for an immediate risk assessment of hospitals be conducted by health and safety specialists to protect the health of our members, healthcare workers and patients,” said ASA President Dr Suzi Nou.
“Addressing risk management in this area must also include the provision of appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) and greater consistency of practices around the use of respiratory protection.
“We are growing increasingly concerned by the lack of health and safety expertise being engaged by the healthcare industry and call for immediate involvement of experts to implement fit for purpose, risk-based control strategies to manage the hazards associated with caring for COVID-19 infection in healthcare settings.
“Surgical masks do not provide adequate protection against SARS-CoV-2 in a healthcare setting with only P2/N95 masks providing such protection and we call for P2/N95 masks to be mandated in high risk clinical areas when interacting with known or suspected COVID-19 cases and for these healthcare workers to be offered fit-testing,” Dr Nou said.
Updated
Queensland is looking at ways to ramp up its Covid testing ability:
COVID-19 TESTS: We will launch a trial of coronavirus testing in community pharmacies.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 12, 2020
Queensland pharmacists will be provided with relevant training to conduct the testing, with samples to be analysed by Queensland Health.#covid19au pic.twitter.com/iMpF9jPJ1Y
Victoria facing $7.5bn deficit
Tim Pallas says Victoria is expecting a $7.5bn deficit from last financial year:
Accepting, of course, the extraordinary events of the bushfire and now the pandemic, the state budget was heading for surplus … a modest surplus. That is no longer the case. We’re expecting a deficit in 19-20 financial year of around $7.5bn.
The treasurer said this was due to spending required to control the virus as well as the loss of revenue caused by the slowing of the economy during lockdowns:
Quite frankly, any government that seeks to pursue surpluses in our environment would cause enormous misery within the community and the outcome of we will cause so much pain.
Updated
The Nationals MP Danny O’Brien has questioned Tim Pallas on whether the AFL will have to repay the Victorian government if the grand final is not held in Melbourne this year.
In a deal that stipulated the AFL grand final stays at the MCG until 2057, the Victorian government committed $225m for the renovation of Marvel Stadium in March 2020.
The treasurer, Tim Pallas, said he would need to take the question on notice and come back to the committee with an answer at a later date:
I can’t go to the specific terms of the arrangement’s circumstances that I think you’d have to accept Mr O’Brien are novel, and therefore will require the state to work through them. Certainly, out of respect to the AFL, we want to take the opportunity to talk to them about the consequences of this event.
He noted that no final decision had been made over where the AFL grand final will be held this year.
Updated
A reminder that Victoria has set up a “call to test” program.
If you're not able to leave home because of a health condition or disability, or because you're a close contact, you may be eligible for at-home testing for #coronavirus #COVID19.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 12, 2020
To find out if you’re eligible call 1800 675 398 and select option 9. Info: https://t.co/Zdf9seT4h3 pic.twitter.com/aH7A6dCTzp
Updated
Dan Tehan’s office has just put out this update:
The Morrison Government has provided an additional $6.1 million to support the viability of 84 child care services in regional, rural and remote communities.
Minister for Education Dan Tehan said the Government recognised that families that lived outside the capital cities also needed child care services.
The additional funding is provided through the Community Child Care Fund (CCCF)restricted non-competitive grant opportunity. More information can be found on the Department of Education, Skills and Employment website.
Updated
Australia aged care deaths 'second highest in the world'
An aged care expert has told the royal commission examining the sector that Covid-19 is “the worst disaster that is still unfolding before my eyes”, and warned that hundreds of residents will die prematurely because of a failure of authorities to act.
Prof Joseph Ibrahim, the head of health law and ageing research unit, at Monash University’s department of forensic medicine, told the aged care royal commission on Wednesday morning that the approach to keep residents in aged care facilities during outbreaks is “wrong and inappropriate”.
Ibrahim believes Australia’s rate of death in residential aged care is the second highest in the world, behind Canada at 80%, and that “we’re faring very badly”.
Ibrahim previously gave evidence to the royal commission before this week’s Covid-19 specific hearings, and said: “I didn’t think we would sink any lower following the royal commission findings from last year and yet we have”:
The human misery and suffering must be acknowledged. This is the worst disaster that is still unfolding before my eyes and it’s the worst in my entire career.
In my opinion, hundreds of residents are, and will, die prematurely because people have failed to act. There’s a lack of apathy, a lack of urgency. There’s an attitude of futility which leads to an absence of action.
The reliance or promotion of advanced care plans as a way to manage the pandemic and the focus on leaving residents in their setting I think is wrong and inappropriate.
When I voiced my concerns I have had comments saying that everything is under control, that I’m simply overreacting and causing panic.
We fail because we have treated residents as second-class citizens. There’s an absence of accountability. There still is and there is no consequences for failing to deliver good care in aged care.
"Hundreds of residents...will die prematurely": Professor Joseph Ibrahim, the head of health law and ageing research unit, at Monash University, kicks off the aged royal commission hearing on Wednesday. "(Covid-19) is the worst disaster...in my entire career" #auspol #agedcareRC pic.twitter.com/usb4koXTyQ
— Elias Visontay (@EliasVisontay) August 11, 2020
The Department of Health secretary, Brendan Murphy, and the aged care quality and safety commissioner, Janet Anderson, are set to give evidence to the royal commission later on Wednesday.
Updated
On the NSW cluster, AAP has this update:
The Catholic Opus Dei study centre linked to the coronavirus cluster at the Tangara School for Girls in Sydney’s northwest has closed for deep cleaning.
Eremeran Hills Study Centre in Pennant Hills is closed until further notice “because we have been informed by NSW Health that individuals who have attended activities organised by Eremeran have tested positive to COVID-19”, it says on its website.
“We have been in contact with the people affected and we are working closely with NSW Health to assist them in their contact tracing in order to contain the outbreak,” it says.
There are reports students from the Opus Dei-associated Tangara School at Cherrybrook recently attended a religious retreat organised by Eremeran and there are now 17 cases linked to the school, with authorities expecting that to increase.
“At this stage we can confirm that there was a recent retreat attended by five high school girls in year 10 and 11 organised by Eremeran. We are assisting NSW Health in their endeavours to ascertain whether this may have contributed to the outbreak,” Eremeran said.
Tangara has closed its secondary campus until August 24 and its junior campus until at least Wednesday after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed last week.
Eremeran offers monthly recollections and retreats for high school students through to university students and the spiritual element is entrusted to Opus Dei.
Six NSW school have been closed in the past week due to coronavirus outbreaks.
Parramatta Public School is closed on Wednesday for cleaning after a student tested positive to COVID-19.
The school is close to Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta, where two students tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week.
Batemans Bay Public School and Batemans Bay High School have reopened following their closure this week after students tested positive.
We will be hearing from Daniel Andrews within the hour.
Premier Daniel Andrews is giving a press conference at 10.45am @AmyRemeikis
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) August 11, 2020
Updated
A Senate committee is holding a hearing into press freedom today.
The ABC is appearing – you can find the managing director David Anderson’s opening statement here and the news director Gaven Morris’s opening statement here.
Updated
Queensland has no new cases of Covid.
Updated
Chris Bowen spoke to ABC radio RN this morning:
Labor is urging the federal government to increase funding for vaccine research so Australians have the best opportunity to get a coronavirus jab.
Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen is also worried the government hasn’t signed any advance purchase agreements, which other countries have done.
The federal government has put $5 million towards a University of Queensland study but Mr Bowen says the cheque needs to be bigger.
“We’re not investing enough in vaccine research,” he told ABC radio on Wednesday. “We’re putting all our eggs – and not very many eggs – in one basket.
“It would be unthinkable to think a vaccine breaks through and we just can’t get access to it in Australia.”
There is also $13.6 million on offer in grants to support possible vaccine development projects.
(via AAP)
Updated
“Cabinet confidentiality” seems to be the phrase of the hour in the parliamentary inquiry this morning.
Tim Pallas is being grilled over if he, as a member of crisis cabinet, was advised of issues with the hotel quarantine program on “day one”. Richard Riordan has demanded Pallas answer yes or no.
Pallas:
Well, no, I’m not answering the question as a yes or no question … it is not appropriate for ministers to disclose what is the content of matters that come before a cabinet committee.
Pallas has suggested the hotel quarantine program will be examined at the specific inquiry into the program chaired by Jennifer Coate. Reardon has questioned if cabinet confidentiality will be a problem in this inquiry as well.
Riordan:
Is it not true, treasurer, that most of the documents going to Commissioner Coate are in fact cabinet in confidence, which means we won’t hear from her at that point, either? So I guess she will be bound by the same rules that you are forcing on this parliamentary inquiry of Victoria, that the shield of cabinet confidence will ensure that no one ever knows what happened.
Pallas replied that Coate would have access to all appropriate documents and would “determine how she will describe what has been put for her”.
Updated
Over in the west, this is the big news:
(via AAP)
Clive Palmer has threatened to take his near-$30 billion legal claim against the West Australian government all the way to the High Court after the state put up legislation to halt the suit.
Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy company is pursuing WA for damages over a 2012 decision by the then-Liberal government to refuse to formally assess its proposed Balmoral South iron ore mine in the Pilbara.
Late on Tuesday, WA Attorney-General John Quigley stood in the parliament and told MPs Mr Palmer and his associated companies Mineralogy and International Minerals were claiming a total of $27.7 billion.
“To put that in context, the total net debt of the state of Western Australia is in the order of $35 billion to $40 billion and the budget of the state of Western Australia is approximately $30 billion,” Mr Quigley said.
“If the cost of Mr Palmer’s claim was shared equally amongst all Western Australians, it would cost every man, woman, child and baby in Western Australia more than $12,000.”
The attorney-general admitted the government’s bill to stop Mr Palmer’s legal action was “unprecedented”.
“This bill will remove the capacity for Mr Palmer, Mineralogy and International Minerals to pursue litigation and damages claims,” he said.
Mr Palmer slammed the emergency legislation, saying Mineralogy had sent its dispute regarding the planned mine to an independent arbitrator, which ruled against the government.
“The government must have determined that they’ve got no defence in the claims and they will lose. This is why they seek emergency legislation,” he said in a statement.
“This emergency legislation is unconstitutional. Ultimately this matter will end up in the High Court of Australia.”
Mr Palmer will hold a news conference in Brisbane at noon on Wednesday.
Updated
The Parenthood has crunched some of the new numbers from the ABS:
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics released yesterday shows women in Victoria have lost jobs nearly five times more than men between 27 June to 25 July this year, as the coronavirus pandemic fuels a “pink recession” across the state.
Payroll jobs as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics dropped by 1.5 per cent in Victoria in the month between 27 June and 26 July, as coronavirus cases escalated in Melbourne.
While payroll jobs held by men fell by 0.5 per cent in this period, it dropped by 2.3 per cent for women in NSW.
Georgie Dent, executive director of the Parenthood, said one of the best ways of increasing women’s participation in the workforce and solving the “pink recession” is providing quality, affordable early learning education and childcare.
Updated
Jacinda Ardern on the best-case scenario:
The best-case scenario is if we’re able to identify the source of the infection, that gives us a greater ability to ensure we have adequately contact traced and isolated individuals.
You will hear us continue to give updates as to whether or not we’re getting closer to that information. If we aren’t able to identify the source and we see positives that are difficult to link, that makes it more difficult. You won’t have to wait until Friday.
You’ll hear from us as we give continual updates.
There’s more from New Zealand in our global live blog.
Updated
Jacinda Ardern is giving a rundown of what she knew, when, and what she did, when to the media.
It is quite refreshing – it includes times, including when she informed the opposition, who she held briefings with, and where she was as she learned the information.
Australian politicians, take notes.
Updated
Liberal MP Richard Riordan has urged the committee to recall the premier, Daniel Andrews, after the federal defence minister, Linda Reynolds issued a statement contradicting Andrews when he said ADF assistance was not offered in relation to the hotel quarantine program early in the pandemic.
It remains unclear is the committee will move to recall the premier. It has moved on to interview the Victorian treasurer, Tim Pallas.
Updated
Further to Matilda’s post:
Whoops, someone’s PAEC mic was on when an off-camera spray was delivered. It’s been a long day.... (warning some colourful language) #springst pic.twitter.com/veZe561kAL
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 11, 2020
If you don’t have sound, that “unacceptable language” was a very forceful and quite passionate “fuck”.
Updated
It’s second day of the second round of hearing as part of inquiry into the Victorian government’s response to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Today’s proceedings have begun with this fun warning:
Before we begin today’s proceedings I would like to acknowledge that yesterday there was some colourful and indeed unacceptable language from unmuted microphone and remember these hearings have been broadcast live on the parliament of Victoria website, and they have been replied in the media, hundreds of thousands of people, including children could be seeing this footage of this day’s proceedings. Yesterday’s language was unacceptable. I remind all committee members to be aware of the mute function and the video function on their controls.
Updated
EMV commissioner says no offer of ADF troops sought or made in hotel quarantine planning
The head of Emergency Management Victoria has issued a statement. Andrew Crisp says ADF were involved “in the initial planning” of the hotel quarantine program but he “did not seek nor did representatives of the ADF offer assistance as part of the hotel quarantine program”:
Subsequent communications with the ADF on the 12th and 15th of April did not relate to the ADF assistance as part of the program.
So the commissioner says the ADF were involved in planning but there was no offer of ADF personnel and none were sought.
Statement from EMV commissioner Andrew Crisp on hotel quarantine. He says ADF were involved in planning but says no offer was made or sought for ADF personnel @abcmelbourne pic.twitter.com/RzN6LpHDyi
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) August 11, 2020
Updated
We don’t have the breakdown of the cases as yet.
Here were the case numbers linked to aged care as of the last update, yesterday:
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest cumulative case numbers are as follows:
- 193 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens aged care in Epping
- 174 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner
- 147 cases have been linked to Estia aged care facility in Ardeer
- 127 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth
- 107 cases have been linked to BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee
- 106 cases have been linked to Outlook Gardens aged care facility in Dandenong North
- 97 cases have been linked to Estia aged care facility in Heidelberg
- 88 cases have been linked to Arcare aged care facility in Craigieburn
- 79 cases have been linked to Aurrum aged care in Plenty
- 79 cases have been linked to Glendale aged care facility in Werribee
Updated
267 Victorians have died since the beginning of the pandemic.
249 of those deaths have been since May.
Twenty-one deaths in a 24-hour period is the most Australia has recorded in one day, since the beginning of the pandemic.
That’s 21 families who have lost a loved one, sooner than they would have.
It’s a terrible, terrible record.
Updated
Here is the official alert for those Victorian case numbers:
There were 410 new cases of #coronavirus (#COVID19) detected in Victoria in the last 24 hours. We are sad to report that there have been 21 deaths.#Covid19VicData pic.twitter.com/ddHx2bCGmu
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 11, 2020
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New Zealand is also shutting down its aged care sector immediately, to all but essential deliveries and workers.
Workers will not be able to travel between sites either – another lesson learned from watching what has happened in jurisdictions like Australia.
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Victoria records 410 new Covid cases, 21 deaths
There has been another horror 24 hours in Victoria.
Twenty-one people died.
A further 410 cases have been recorded
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Melbourne situation one of the reasons for NZ's quick lockdown
Dr Ashley Bloomfield says after seeing what happened in Melbourne, New Zealand decided it needed to act quickly:
We have seen in other countries, and jurisdictions, like in Victoria, in Hong Kong and in Vietnam, where a resurgence occurs that it is incredibly important to act early. Where the level of alert level that we are implementing here in New Zealand was not implemented in Victoria until some weeks after their first cases reappeared in the community.
That is why we are responding strongly and quickly. We have the systems in place to stamp it out. We have done it before and can do it again.
The Commonwealth Bank boss, Matt Comyn, reckons the Australian economy is “relatively well positioned” to navigate the coronavirus crisis despite ongoing uncertainty about how long it will go for and how bad it will be.
The CBA’s chief executive provided some economic Comyn-tary as part of the acres of material pumped out by the bank as it announced its full-year profit result this morning.
He continues:
We are starting from a position of fiscal and economic strength. Significant stimulus measures have supported the economy, there is a strong pipeline of infrastructure projects, and the outlook for mining and agriculture exports is strong.
The government has announced there will be some tapering of measures, but we anticipate continued, targeted support, and monetary policy is likely to remain accommodative for the foreseeable future.
We are, however, prepared for a range of economic scenarios. We have made provisions accordingly and will continue to monitor our lending portfolios closely as the situation evolves. We anticipate that lower credit growth and low interest rates will continue to put pressure on our revenue, requiring a focus on performance, efficiency and capital allocation.
Translated from bankerese, that means the bank is ready for things to turn to custard – and to make cuts to its operations if they do.
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Authorities have shut down the workplace of one of those infected, to test whether there was a chance the virus was picked up there.
New Zealand health authorities are also doing genome sequencing on the virus to see if it links back to any of the cases in quarantine.
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He continues:
The virus does not discriminate. There is no forced stigma in having contracted it. We want to find the virus, and we will, as we are with this family, with anyone who has it, to ensure that their health and wellbeing are looked after and we stop it spreading further in the community.
This is a New Zealand family that is cooperating fully and who deserve to have their privacy. None of the people who have tested positive there or indeed other managed cases requires hospital-level care presently.
Plans are in place to protect our communities and if we all do our bit we will get through this. I know that the virus re-emerging in our community has caused alarm and the unknown is scary. It caused anxiety for many of us.
We have been here before and we can get through it if we work together. We are working hard to put together the pieces of the puzzle about how this family became infected and work is progressing apace to look up the movements, follow the movements of the people who have tested positive and to contact trace anyone who may have had or been in contact with them. We are testing all close and casual contacts of the people who have tested positive for Covid-19.
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Ashley Bloomfield is giving an update on the New Zealand family who have tested positive for Covid-19 with no known source – but starts by saying they visited Rotorua while in the infectious stage:
The family are still in isolation at home and we are working with them about whether some or all the family might go into one of our quarantine facilities, the quarantine facility in Auckland. That’s an active conversation.
Meantime they are in strict self-isolation. Following further interviews with the public health unit with the people who have tested positive, that has revealed that one of the cases, a woman in her 20s, travelled to Rotorua on Saturday while symptomatic.
A family of four that travelled to Rotorua. We are working with urgency to find out what places the family may have visited while in Rotorua over the weekend.
But the important thing here, people in Rotorua and around the country should be vigilant about their health and sick advice if they have symptoms. We know Rotorua is a popular tourist destination and people will have been around there around the Motou and we fully expect that people were in alert level one with freedom of movement and people moving around the country that should we get a case it would in fact require a nation-wide response.
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New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is about to give the country an update after four cases of Covid-19 were confirmed late last night, from mysterious origins, and the country’s largest city, Auckland, was placed in level-three lockdown.
She will be joined by the director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, and the police commissioner, Andrew Coster.
Follow the press conference here.
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It seems Victoria’s hotel quarantine program could be in more trouble after a story in the Australian claimed a senior health official had been stood down on Tuesday after allegedly planning to sell alcohol at a profit to alcohol-dependent guests.
The department confirmed to Guardian Australia that a DHHS employee had been stood down from his role at the Brady hotel:
A formal investigation is under way. These are serious allegations and, if substantiated, are completely unacceptable conduct for a government employee.
It would be inappropriate to comment any further.
While the Victorian hotel quarantine scheme was paused for returned international travellers, the program has continued in a reduced capacity to accommodate Victorian citizens who are unable to isolate at home, this includes those who test positive but live with people who are immunocompromised. Unlike with returned travellers, this program is largely voluntary.
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And in Melbourne:
Opposition Leader @michaelobrienmp on @abcmelbourne with @LaTrioli is maintaining his stance that @DanielAndrewsMP should step down and resign, after “lying to parliament” (PAEC)@10NewsFirstMelb #springst
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) August 11, 2020
Andrew Leigh spoke to ABC radio Sydney this morning about the Canberrans stuck at the NSW/Victoria border:
They’re stuck in a sort of Kafka-esque nightmare where the ACT government would be happy to go to the border with a couple of police cars and escort everyone back. It’s a three-and-a-half-hour drive, no one needs to stop, just a full tank of fuel and they’d go straight through. And what the New South Wales government is saying instead is they should drive to Melbourne airport, abandon their cars, fly to Sydney, go into quarantine and then make their way back to Canberra.
They’d endanger themselves and it’d come at a huge expense. Instead, they can come through New South Wales – endangering absolutely no one – and be back home. I just can’t see what the New South Wales government’s problem is.
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I thought he was already an expert on it, but you do you, boo.
Some choice reading on Matt Canavan's bookshelf 📚 pic.twitter.com/Oua3vL6RdV
— Jamie Travers (@JamieTravers) August 11, 2020
New Zealand residents have just been sent this message:
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Gladys Berejiklian will hold her press conference at 11am.
For those playing along at home, that is the preferred time for the “we have something slightly serious to say, but it’s not terrible news” press conference.
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The other issue bound to come up in the Victorian parliamentary hearing today is the offer of ADF support to the Victorian government to help run its hotel quarantine program.
Daniel Andrews told the inquiry yesterday that he didn’t believe an ADF support offer had been made:
I don’t believe ADF support was on offer. It’s been provided in limited circumstances in New South Wales, not to provide security as such but to provide transportation from the airport to hotels.
Later that day, the federal defence minister, Linda Reynolds, issued a statement contradicting Andrews:
Throughout the pandemic the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has been postured to respond to requests for support from the states and territories at very short notice.
From 21 March 2020, ADF planning teams were established in every state and territory to rapidly facilitate any requests for support.
Following the Prime Minister’s offer on 27 March 2020 for ADF support to states and territories with the new mandatory 14-day quarantine period for international arrivals, the ADF discussed requirements with relevant state and territory authorities.
On 28 March 2020, Victorian authorities advised that Victoria was not seeking ADF assistance with mandatory quarantine arrangements. The ADF was consistently advised that its assistance was not required for any “public facing roles” in Victoria.
ADF officials asked whether Victorian authorities required assistance with its mandatory quarantine system on multiple occasions. No request for quarantine support was subsequently received from Victoria at that time.
On 12 April 2020, Victorian authorities reaffirmed to ADF officials that all quarantine compliance monitoring operations were within Victorian authorities’ capacity.
Defence agreed to requests for support to quarantine compliance from Queensland and NSW on 28 March.
Expect that to be picked up today.
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Commonwealth Bank sees headline profit jump but cash profit falls
CBA’s headline profit went up by 12%, to more than $9.6bn, during the coronavirus crisis as it sold off businesses it has been keen to shed as part of a move to simplify itself and become less scandal-ridden after the banking royal commission.
But its cash profit – the preferred measurement in the banking industry – fell more than 11%, to $7.3bn, after the bank wrote down the value of loans due to the pandemic.
The bank said 135,000 home loans were now on deferred payments, down from a peak of 154,000, while 59,000 business loans were in the same situation, down from a peak of 86,000.
And yes, the bank is paying a dividend. The prudential regulator had previously warned banks not to do this, but watered down its advice as the pandemic eased (except in Victoria, which apparently doesn’t count despite being 25% of the economy).
CBA will pay shareholders a final dividend for the year of 98c, down significantly on the payment the previous year, bringing the total payout for the year to $2.98.
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Good Shepherd (the micro loan not-for-profit) has commissioned research into how the financial downturn has impacted low-income workers.
As expected, it is not good news:
Young people in the workforce were among those most financially impacted, with half of those aged 14 to 24 now economically vulnerable.
Migrants who have been in Australia less than five years were far more likely to have had their work negatively impacted, compared with longer term migrants and Australian-born.
Good Shepherd’s CEO, Stella Avramopoulos, said the research by Roy Morgan Research offered hard evidence that the most vulnerable were bearing the greatest economic impact of the pandemic.
“These are shocking figures. Two out of five of all working Australians have suffered job losses, cuts to hours and pay or being stood aside. Even worse, those already on average and lower incomes are the most affected.
“Despite the government supports being offered during this pandemic, financial distress is now the most significant welfare issue facing Australia. We need long-term, structural changes to the social welfare safety net, with new service models and cross-sector strategies.
“People are overwhelmed, they are distressed and they often feel stigma and shame. This is a crisis that no one expected, it has hit suddenly and it is out of people’s control.”
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The Dog on the Tuckerbox may come to the rescue of the ACT residents who are stuck at the Victorian/NSW border.
Andrew Barr on @RNBreakfast: “This has been going on too long.” He reveals the ACT asked for help from the Prime Minister’s office but says a slanging match with Gladys Berejiklian won’t help get about 100 Canberrans home and into quarantine
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) August 11, 2020
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For more on why NSW authorities are concerned with what is happening in Sydney, read this story from Melissa Davey:
The ACT government has made some funding announcements for younger residents.
From Andrew Barr’s office:
The Government will offer a six-month payroll tax exemption for businesses who take on new or additional apprentices or trainees. This is a targeted effort in partnership with the private sector to create more job opportunities for school leavers and those looking to develop new skills.
The ACT Public Service graduate, cadet and apprenticeship program will also be extended to provide more positions over the next two years. We anticipate employing around 120 graduates, cadets and apprentices during this period.
There will also be recruitment of hundreds of new young teachers, police, firefighters, ambulance officers, nurses, doctors and allied health professionals in the coming years.
The impacts of social isolation on young Canberrans is another significant concern for the Government. That’s why we will be increasing the investment in targeted mental health support for young people. This program builds on the Mental Health Support Package previously announced as part of the economic survival package.
The ACT Government will also provide a $1.7 million Children, Young People and their Families Package to help ease the financial stress for young carers, foster and kinship carers and young people. The package includes one off payments to non-government service providers to help them deliver services.
The ACT goes to the polls on 17 October.
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Tasmania has recorded its first Covid-19 case in 20 days.
A man in his 60s, who had travelled to Melbourne for medical treatment, has tested positive. He had tested negative, but later tested positive when he returned to Tasmania – but he has been in medical quarantine apparently, since his return.
He is in the North West regional hospital in Burnie.
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Good morning
Well that was quite the night, internationally.
Auckland is back under restrictions after the New Zealand city recorded four mystery cases of Covid-19. Our neighbours had gone 102 days without any infections, and these four people have no obvious links to either travellers or to those in hotel quarantine. Late last night Jacinda Ardern announced that the city would be going back into stage-three quarantine to find not only the source but to lock down anyone else who may be infected.
At the same time, Russia claims to have approved a vaccine against Covid-19. Russia also claims to be a democracy, so you can see why some people are a little sceptical of Vladimir Putin’s announcement – which comes after just two months of testing. The World Health Organization is in contact and has said the Russian vaccine will have to meet its standards before it is approved, so watch that space.
Closer to home and Martin Pakula, who heads Victoria’s Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, faces a grilling from the non-government members of the public accounts and estimates committee today. He has been identified in media reports as the minister with oversight of the hotel quarantine program. Daniel Andrews and the health minister, Jenny Mikakos, would only say it was a “multiagency response” when asked who had oversight yesterday, while in front of the same committee.
And the source of the most-concerning NSW cluster, the outbreak linked to the Tangara school for girls in Sydney’s north-west is still under investigation, although Gladys Berejiklian gave a pretty good hint yesterday when she warned schools, particularly non-government schools, to cut out the extracurricular activities. The Sydney Morning Herald reports this morning a religious study retreat was under investigation as the source. At least 17 cases have been linked to the school, including 11 senior students.
We’ll cover all the day’s events as they happen – you have Amy Remeikis with you again for most of the day.
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