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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Calla Wahlquist (now) and Luke Henriques-Gomes and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

More than 10,000 in Victoria refuse testing as state records 66 new Covid-19 cases – as it happened

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Where things stand

We will leave our rolling coverage of the coronavirus crisis in Australia there for the day. As ever, you can follow our ongoing global coverage here.

Here’s where things stand:

Thanks for your company. Goodnight, stay safe, and we’ll see you in the morning.

Updated

An update on the markets, from AAP:

The Australian share market has finished the week up 2.6 per cent after four straight days of gains, closing 0.4% higher on Friday.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished Friday up 25.2 points, or 0.42%, at 6,057.9 points, while the All Ordinaries index gained 21.4 points, or 0.35%, at 6,163.7.

“A little uneventful, a relatively quiet day,” said CommSec market analyst James Tao.

“Of course there is the US public holiday, the fourth of July, which takes a little bit out of our market today,” Mr Tao said.

Wall Street, where the S&P 500 rose 0.4% overnight, won’t resume trading until Monday.

For the week the ASX200 closed up 153.8 points, or 2.6%, with Monday’s losses followed by four days of gains.

The index has only had four losing sessions in the past three weeks.

Updated

The bushfire royal commission has wrapped up four days of hearings examining the cooperation and coordination between state agencies.

Hearings will resume on Monday.

AAP reports:

A Victorian volunteer firefighter deployed in NSW said the Country Fire Authority crews could not interact with any of their Rural Fire Service counterparts because they did not have compatible communication equipment.

“This on its own was extremely dangerous,” the volunteer said in a commission statement.

Bruce Forrest, the captain of Victoria’s Beechworth Rural Fire Brigade, said fighting bushfires on the border was always challenging because the radio communications do not work.

“All you can do is line of sight,” he said on Friday.

“Hopefully you’ve got a UHF radio and the RFS have got a UHF radio and you’re both on the same channel, because the Murray River’s between you.

“Apart from getting out and waving, there’s not much you can really do.”

Forrest said usually crews deployed into NSW would have a command vehicle that had contact with the local RFS and then disseminated the messages through to the trucks.

Another volunteer firefighter deployed interstate said different radio systems, frequencies and protocols all add to the inability to communicate effectively on the fireground.

Queensland volunteer John Stalker said maintaining effective communication with other state personnel could also be a problem, as the fire, police and ambulance services used different radio technology to organisations like the SES and the parks and wildlife service.

The noise, difficult terrain, heat, poor visibility, wind and dust during a bushfire all made communication difficult, let alone being faced with different radio technologies.

“It just is extremely difficult and also extremely dangerous and it also doesn’t help effective fire management,” Stalker, from the Samford Rural Fire Brigade, said.

Updated

Lawyers have warned that the policing of Melbourne’s 10 locked down postcodes could lead to an increase in police targeting marginalised communities, Melissa Davey reports.

Daniel Nguyễn, the advocacy coordinator of the Police Accountability Project, said:

We are concerned that this militarisation and policing crackdown will disproportionately impact communities already weary of being targeted and exacerbate their sense of isolation during this lockdown.

Here’s the official update on coronavirus cases in WA. There are no new cases recorded today.

I wanted to point you to the full statement from Northern Territory senator Malarndirri McCarthy, on the decision of the Australian Electoral Council to remove one lower house seat from both the NT and Western Australia, and give Victoria an additional seat.

We mentioned this in the blog earlier.

Lower house seats are determined on population, but the NT only has two lower house seats as it is, Solomon, which covers Darwin, and Lingiari, which covers everything else.

McCarthy said:

If no action is taken, this means the Territory will see its representation in the House of Representatives halved, consisting of one, enormous electorate.

Labor has introduced a bill in the Senate, with the support of the Nationals Senators including CLP Territory Senator Sam McMahon, to maintain the Northern Territory’s representation in the Parliament.

Rather than immediately supporting the bill, the Morrison Government referred the bill to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM).

We strongly encourage Territorians to make a submission to the bill inquiry and urge Liberal Senators to act now by supporting Labor’s bill to protect the Northern Territory’s representation.

If Senators don’t act and these changes become permanent 250,000 Territorians, including 27 per cent of the population who are First Nations people, will be represented by a single Member of Parliament.

A single seat in the Territory will be the most under-represented in Australia.

It makes no sense for different communities of interest from Darwin to Alice Springs, and Christmas Cocos (Keeling) Islands to the Tiwi Islands, to be represented by just one MP.

The Northern Territory’s strategic and economic importance alone demands better representation.

While we’re in Western Australia, the Aboriginal affairs minister Ben Wyatt earlier today announced that the King Leopold ranges in the Kimberley would be renamed the Wunaamin Miliwundi Ranges.

The new name was decided in consultation with the Wilinggin Aboriginal Corporation and Bunuba Native Title Corporation. It uses the name in both languages for the ranges, Ngarinyin (Wunaamin) and Bunuba (Miliwundi).

The rangers were named, on non-Indigenous maps, by explorer Alexander Forrest, great-great uncle of Twiggy, in 1879. Leopold 2 had never visited WA and had no connection to the state.

You may remember King Leopold II, monarch of Belgium from 1865 to 1909 who presided over atrocities in the Congo in which between two and ten million Africans died, from seeing statues of him covered in red paint last month.

The vandalised statue of King Leopold II of Belgium in Ghent on June 30, 2020. The statue was vandalised during a protest action amid discussions to remove all Leopold 2 statues due to the misdeeds in his personal property Congo.
The vandalised statue of King Leopold II of Belgium in Ghent on June 30, 2020. The statue was vandalised during a protest action amid discussions to remove all Leopold 2 statues due to the misdeeds in his personal property Congo. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images

Wyatt said:

It has troubled me for years that an extraordinary area of Western Australia should be named in honour of a person who is widely regarded as an evil tyrant with no connection to our state.

Kimberley MP Josie Farrer, a Gidja woman, said:

The former name of these spectacular ranges was not worthy and did not reflect the deep cultural history of these lands.

Updated

Western Australia has ended a longstanding, and long-criticised, practice of having justices of the peace hear criminal matters in regional and remote courts.

The change is in line with a coronial recommendation made 11 years ago in the inquest into the death of Ngaanyatjarra elder Mr Ward, who was “cooked to death” in a prison transport van in 2008.

Mr Ward was arrested for drunk driving on 26 January, 2008, and denied bail by police. A justice of the peace was called to extend that bail the next morning, and was briefed by police while standing outside the door to the cell where Mr Ward was held. The JP denied bail, despite later conceding he was unaware of his responsibilities and was unaware of the presumption for bail.

Mr Ward died in custody in 2008. Source: Deaths Inside.
Mr Ward died in custody in 2008. Source: Deaths Inside.

Urgent criminal matters will now be heard by Perth-based magistrates who will hear the case over video-link.

Justices of the peace will still be allowed to authorise search warrants for the time being, if they have appropriate training, attorney general John Quigley said.

Quigley said:

It is now fitting and appropriate that all matters coming before the WA courts are heard by a magistrate, who thanks to technology can be present in any court across the State.

One of the recommendations handed down by the then State Coroner in 2009 in relation to the tragic death of the late Mr Ward was that the ‘department of the attorney general review present procedures to extend the availability of video conferencing, and in the absence of available video conferencing, give consideration to increased use of telephone conferencing so that decisions, particularly those relating to the liberty of the subject, can be wherever possible made by qualified magistrates’.

In 2011, the Standing Committee on Environment and Public Affairs Report on the Implementation of the Coroner’s Recommendations in Relation to the Death of Mr Ward and Related Matters reiterated the Coroner’s recommendations.

He thanked justices of the peace who have volunteered their time and made a “significant contribution”.

Updated

I’m going to hand over to my colleague Calla Wahlquist. Hope you all have a great weekend.

A Black Lives Matter protest set to attract hundreds in Newcastle has been authorised by the NSW Supreme Court.

NSW police on Thursday made an application to prohibit the assembly, scheduled to begin at Civic Park on Sunday from 1pm and expected to draw about 500 people.

The court on Friday heard the event would proceed regardless of any decision made, but that defendant Taylah Gray, a 23-year-old Wiradjuri woman who is also one of the organisers, would withdraw if it was deemed unauthorised, reports AAP.

Justice Christine Adamson said Gray had cooperated with police and that it was more likely the public health risk would be minimised – through wearing masks, using hand sanitiser and physical distancing by her presence.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant told the court via video link that while the event presented a low risk, she was “vigilant” about the evolving situation in Melbourne.

NSW police assistant commissioner Max Mitchell said the Newcastle protest would bring about an “unnecessary and unacceptable risk” of coronavirus exposure, whether authorised or not.

Updated

Australian shares have finished higher for a fourth straight day, in a during a mostly quiet session that served as a break from recent extreme volatility.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index finished on Friday up 25.2 points, or 0.42%, at 6,057.9 points, while the All Ordinaries index gained 21.4 points, or 0.35%, at 6,163.7.

The Australian dollar was buying 69.36 US cents, slightly lower from 69.29 US cents at the close of trade on Thursday, reports AAP.

Updated

A second Black Lives Matter protest will be staged in Adelaide this weekend, with organisers calling on people to continue the fight against violence and racism.

Anyone attending Saturday’s rally has been asked to wear a facemask and has been told that social distancing will be enforced, reports AAP.

Recent changes to Covid-19 density rules in South Australia, which now allow one person to every 2 sq m at large gatherings, should make it easier for protesters to abide by virus restrictions.

The SA police commissioner, Grant Stevens, said a Covid-19 management plan had been submitted to SA Health for the event but he was unaware if it had yet been approved.

Stevens said police would deploy the level of resources deemed necessary.

We will have that level of response that is sufficient to address any concerns we have in relation to ensuring the safety of the people.

Updated

Labor has criticised the federal government for “confusing small businesses” with “inconsistent advice” after a jobkeeper compliance crackdown led to 8,000 sole traders who have been receiving jobkeeper payments being warned they may have to pay the money back.

The criticism of the “bungled” scheme comes in response to a Guardian Australia report on Thursday about the compliance checking procedure, which has been dubbed “robodebt 2.0” by affected businesses – mainly sole traders who were previously told they were eligible and already received payments.

The businesses targeted by the crackdown mostly began operating recently and therefore have not been reporting their income for a full financial year, and have been told they are not eligible and may have to pay back the $1,500 a fortnight wage subsidies received, despite the ATO website outlining how new businesses that prove a 30% reduction in income can qualify for the scheme.

Brendan O’Connor, the opposition spokesman for employment and industry and for small business, and Stephen Jones, the opposition assistant treasurer, said in a statement:

Concerning reports have emerged that thousands of small businesses who applied for jobkeeper, were approved by the ATO and subsequently paid their employees at the jobkeeper rate may be forced to repay the wage subsidies, highlighting ongoing issues with the design and bungled rollout of the scheme.

The Morrison government should be doing everything it possibly can to support small businesses and ensure as many Australians remain connected to the labour market as possible, rather than confusing small businesses with inconsistent advice on jobkeeper eligibility.

Australians have worked together to combat the virus, but more work must be done by the Morrison government to ensure the hardest-hit Australians are not left out and left behind in the first recession in three decades.

Updated

Amy stressed the importance of this story earlier, and I’m going to do the same.

It seems particularly egregious on the same day that, as my colleague Calla Wahlquist reported, there has progress made on the new Closing the Gap strategy. About 30% of the Northern Territory population is Indigenous.

The following story is from AAP:

The Northern Territory is set to lose one of its two lower house seats unless the federal parliament unites to save it.

The Australian Electoral Commission has finalised its determination of how many seats each jurisdiction is entitled to based on the latest population numbers.

The coalition and Labor have teamed up to try to guarantee two seats for the NT no matter its population.

A parliamentary committee is examining legislation from NT Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy – which was backed by Nationals senators – to lock-in the status quo.

Submissions to that inquiry close on 10 July.

Senator McCarthy is calling on Territorians to make a submission.

If the changes go ahead 250,000 people, of which 27% are Indigenous, would be represented by one lower house MP.

McCarthy said in a joint statement with Labor’s two NT MPs:

A single seat in the territory will be the most under-represented in Australia.

The Northern Territory’s strategic and economic importance alone demands better representation.

Despite its size, the NT exports $12bn worth of goods each year.

The AEC has also announced Victoria will gain another electorate at the next federal election, rising to 39, while Western Australia will lose one of its 16 seats.

The redistributions for these states will take place through much of next year, with the new seat boundaries and names likely to be decided by September 2021.

The next federal election is due by September 2022.

Updated

Pat Turner, the co-chair of the joint council on closing the gap, said the version of the draft national agreement that was finalised in a marathon meeting today did not include all that Indigenous people wanted, but was a significant step forward.

The draft national agreement does not include everything that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want, but I know that we have pushed governments in their commitments because the Coalition of Peaks have been at the table.

There is a significant difference from what governments alone were prepared to commit to in December 2018 and where we are now. That change has come about because of the work of the Coalition of Peaks.

Turner said the strategy set out in the draft agreement was underpinned by the priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and based around the four priority reform areas, mentioned earlier, which she said were “overwhelmingly supported” by the 51 peak Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations involved in the process.

The Coalition of Peaks have always said that targets alone do not drive change. We have seen this from the past 10 years. It is the full implementation of the priority reforms that will make the difference to our peoples’ lives. This is where we need to focus governments to focus and this is exactly what the new national agreement will do.”

Turner repeated the line from the official communique that “expected parity dates are not fixed dates”.

Ken Wyatt and Pat Turner in Canberra today
Pat Turner (right), pictured with Ken Wyatt in Canberra today, says: ‘I know that we have pushed governments in their commitments because the Coalition of Peaks have been at the table.’ Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

The joint council on Closing the Gap has finalised a draft agreement on the new closing the gap strategy, which will be considered by the national cabinet later this month.

In a communique issued a short time ago, the joint council, which is co-chaired by the Indigenous affairs minister, Ken Wyatt, and Pat Turner, the chief executive of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, said the agreement would establish four priority reform areas and 16 national socioeconomic targets, including justice targets. The targets themselves will not be announced until after they have national cabinet approval.

They also addressed the issue of target dates for achieving parity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, after a leaked draft report anticipated Australia would not achieve parity in incarceration rates until 2093. Wyatt said yesterday that date was too far away, and suggested that figure was always going to be removed from the report.

It is understood the Coalition of the Peaks, a group of 51 peak Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, had already listed the unsatisfactory parity dates as a key issue for discussion at today’s meeting.

The communique said:

It is our collective ambition to reach parity between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians. The ambition of the targets take all governments beyond a business-as-usual approach and will require an increased effort by all parties. Expected parity dates are not fixed dates. With the full implementation of the priority reforms and a significant joint focus on the outcome areas, parity will be achieved earlier.

The four priority reform areas are giving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples a shared role in decision-making at a national, state and local level; building on the Indigenous community-controlled sector; structural reform of mainstream agencies to address systemic racism; and better data collection and sharing.

Updated

The Victorian opposition wants the state parliament to return next week, citing the Andrews government’s mishandling of hotel quarantine.

Michael O’Brien, the Liberal leader, said the terms of reference of the independent inquiry announced by Daniel Andrews did not include the role of government ministers in the debacle.

O’Brien said:

That is why Parliament needs to be recalled immediately.

The Liberals’ upper house leader, David Davis, said:

Victorians pay their politicians to serve them, and with parliament not scheduled to sit for another seven weeks, we think it is only fair that parliament is called back so the Andrews Labor government faces the music for its stuff-up.

Updated

Kidd is also asked about conspiracy theories around Covid-19. It was suggested by Victoria’s health minister, Jenny Mikakos, that this was among the reasons that people had declined tests.

Kidd says:

If you hear different theories and you are not sure about it, do a search, look at the Australian government advice – it comes from the best experts we have right across the country, based on evidence around the world.

Do not listen to the theories that you may be coming across on social media.

Michael Kidd
Michael Kidd has warned against believing coronavirus conspiracy theories circulating on social media. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Kidd says decisions around testing – such as whether it should be mandatory – rest with the Victorian government. But he can’t imagine a situation where national authorities would recommend such a move.

Kidd is asked about suggestions from the Victorian government that there is potentially a “super spreading” responsible for significant community transmission.

He doesn’t confirm this, saying “it’s difficult to know”.

We have not yet identified lots of people who are so-called super spreaders in Australia.

Updated

Kidd says he wants to thank people in Melbourne who are in the new lockdown zones.

I know this has come as a shock to many of you. And it is caused a great deal of concern and distress.

Please know that the rest of the country supports you and we are grateful for you for doing all you can to stop the spread of Covid-19.

By following the restrictions in place inVictoria, you are not only protecting your own family and friends, you are protecting everybody in our country.

Updated

Kidd says the situation in Victoria is a “warning for everybody in Australia”.

We continue to be very concerned about the outbreak in Victoria and the continuing cases of community transmission.

However, Kidd also notes the daily growth in cases numbers appears to have stabilised, which suggests restrictions imposed by the Victorian government are working.

Updated

Deputy chief medical officer Prof Michael Kidd has started the daily national briefing.

There are 66 people who have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Australia over the past 24 hours, he says. These are all in Victoria.

Across Australia, there are 27 in hospital, including seven in intensive care.

Westpac has revealed it underpaid about 8,000 staff members and will now repay about $8m in total.

The underpayments relate to long-service leave and were discovered as part of a review of the bank’s payroll arrangements.

Westpac’s group executive for enterprise services, Alastair Welsh, said in a statement on Friday afternoon:

We apologise to anyone impacted by these errors and our priority is to make payments as soon as possible.

We are committed to putting things right for our people and preventing the issue from reoccurring, and we will continue to check our processes to ensure employees receive their correct entitlements.

Updated

AAP has more on the apparent concerns about “smuggling of Victorians” into Queensland.

Police will randomly stop freight and heavy vehicles crossing into Queensland to check they aren’t hiding Victorians or anyone else travelling from the southern state.

The move comes as Queensland prepares to open its doors to all states and territories except Victoria from 10 July.

State disaster coordinator Steve Gollschewski said on Friday:

We’ve already had people try and test the system all the way through, so we’re just going to make it really certain that people aren’t doing that.

The real key to this is the infections are currently in Victoria.

If we can make sure none of those people that have got that infection get into this state without being detected, we’ll be in a really good space.

Passes that were used to cross the border in recent months are now invalid and must be replaced by one of three new border declarations.

From noon, anyone entering Queensland must state that they have not travelled to Victoria in the previous 14 days.

Those that have can either return to Victoria or go into forced quarantine at their own expense.

Penalties will apply to anyone caught smuggling people over the border or lying about being in Victoria.

Updated

Hi everyone, Luke Henriques-Gomes here. I’ll be with you for the next short while. As Amy mentioned (and thanks to Amy for her work this week), there’s a national update on the way.

You can get in touch by emailing me luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com or getting in touch on Twitter @lukehgomes.

Thank you to everyone who joined me this week. I am going to hand over to Luke Henriques-Gomes for the rest of the afternoon.

There is a national update coming at 3.30pm.

The Covid blog will be back tomorrow - and I’ll be back tomorrow from about 5pm to cover the Eden-Monaro byelection.

Have a lovely afternoon, and please - take care of you.

Updated

Meanwhile ...

Updated

While we are on sports news, AAP has an update on next year’s Australian Open as well:

The 2021 Australian Open will proceed in Melbourne – and Melbourne only – despite Victoria’s alarming Covid-19 spike.

Victoria on Friday reported another 66 coronavirus cases, the 17th straight day of double-digit infection numbers, prompting talk that the season-opening grand slam may need to shift to either Sydney or Brisbane.

But that won’t be happening, according to tournament boss Craig Tiley, who is continuing to plan for six different scenarios, ranging from a worst-case broadcast-only event to as close to business as usual as possible with strict biosecurity measures in place.

Tiley told AAP:

Nothing has changed for us in terms of our planning.

The environment around us has changed, and will continue to change, as we’ve seen with the current spike in Victoria. We’re optimistic the additional measures currently in place will be successful – and restrictions will continue to be eased over the coming months.

So I’m confident we will run the Australian Open in Melbourne and other events around Australia in January and we’re working closely with all our authorities on the regulations regarding mass gatherings, physical distancing and increased hygiene that are being put in place.

The reality is, Melbourne Park and its two-kilometre precinct housing not only state-of-the-art tennis facilities but also a plethora of bars and entertainment hubs is the only location in Australia equipped to stage a slam.

A total of 33 courts are used during the tournament, including three with retractable roofs, with an additional 18 available at nearby venues.

World tennis’s biggest names and their entourages enjoy a four-storey player pod with gyms, medical and treatment rooms, ice baths, warm-up facilities, change rooms, a beauty bar, concierge and transport reception.

Tiley said:

All this will be in one self-contained area, which will be crucial in Covid times.

Updated

AAP has an update for the A-League fans:

Victoria’s A-League clubs remain hopeful they’ll be able to avoid heading into a New South Wales hub until after they’ve completed their remaining fixtures against each other.

Western United and Melbourne Victory will restart the season on 16 July, before United play Melbourne City on 20 July.

United remain optimistic those fixtures will be played at AAMI park before heading to NSW for the remainder of the season, despite Victoria’s AFL clubs all opting to leave the state next week amid the state’s Covid-19 spike.

United coach Mark Rudan told reporters on Friday:

We have been briefed on the possibility of us moving to NSW to play those games.

However, we feel quite confident that we’re all doing the right thing and the three Melbourne clubs are working hard to do the right thing as well.

If we can look after one another and play in a safe environment, we’d prefer to stay here in Melbourne and play in Melbourne.

I mean there are no guarantees that going to Sydney, that it’s not gonna be affected either.

So we’re working hard to try and maintain the fixture as it is - meaning we play Victory first up, and then four days later Melbourne City.

Rudan said there had been concerns among some United players with young families about potentially heading into a hub.

Melbourne City skipper Scott Jamieson, whose partner is eight months pregnant, has already had to move out of his home – in a “hotspot” suburb – and into a hotel temporarily.

Jamieson said ideally City, which only have three regular-season games left, wouldn’t be in a hub for an extended period and hoped flying in and out of Sydney could be an option if they couldn’t play in Melbourne.

While other teams have jam-packed fixtures, City will play just three games in 23 days, with at least 10 days between each game.

Jamieson told reporters on Friday:

I’d be totally for it and understanding – throw us into that hub if our games were similar to the others.

But ... we tried to help the league, we tried to help the FFA by uprooting when everything was unstable by going to Newcastle and playing Central Coast.

So obviously [with] the government, these things are out of the FFA’s control, but I think common sense would hopefully prevail here and if the government allows it, then we get the opportunity to maybe fly in and fly out of Sydney.

There’s no issues with that, but putting us in a hub with 11 days in between games is probably extreme.

If the government allowed you to fly in and fly out, it’d be a real cost to the FFA, but we could obviously charter in and charter out.

We’d be able to prepare at the CFA, which is only used by Melbourne City players and our staff, so we’re safe as anyone.

Scott Jamieson
Scott Jamieson training in Melbourne a fortnight ago. The Melbourne City skipper, whose partner is eight months pregnant, has temporarily moved out of his home in a “hotspot” suburb and into a hotel. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Updated

As for the immediate future of the season, Gil McLachlan says:

The South Australian and Western Australian clubs will return home after round five, and six respectively.

Port Adelaide will return to Queensland to play matches in round six and seven.

Sydney and Great Western Sydney will also remain based New South Wales at the present time, but with matches scheduled for both clubs in Queensland, while the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast sons will each have a period in New South Wales before later returning to Queensland.

Collingwood and Geelong will have the New South Wales for one game before flying to Perth as previously planned.

St Kilda, North Melbourne, Essendon and Richmond will be based in Queensland.

Hawthorn and Melbourne will be based in New South Wales.

As part of this move we will play a total of 45 games in clubs will then return to Victoria for a short break after that 30 today. And we will reassess our options depending the Covid-19 situation across the country.

If we are unable to do this we will make the appropriate adjustments.

It is important to be able to give our clubs, players, umpires and officials greater certainty by planning the time they will be away, where they will be located and also they will be playing against.

All 10 AFL teams to move interstate

The AFL CEO Gillion McLachlan says all 10 Victorian teams will be relocated:

Every day we will throw up a different challenge. We have a different fixture today then we had yesterday, and the situation has changed across Australia, so must our response. Talk about being flexible and agile, and we will continue to ensure that our decisions will keep in mind the advice of governments and health authorities.

Those same governments and health authorities have been instrumental in ensuring that our competition continues, but it is slightly different format.

Part of the revised fixture is to temporarily relocate all 10 Victorian based teams out of the state for 32 or so days, and move them to bases in Queensland, New South Wales, in Western Australia, where they will undergo the various quarantine measures while also continuing to adhere to the strict protocols the AFL has in place.

By the end of Monday, 14 clubs will have temporarily moved out of Victoria for the next block of matches. As you can imagine it has been a major logistical exercise to organise fixture, source training grounds and secure accommodation in such a short period of time.

I want to thank the government of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia for their support in allowing us to continue our season through different states.

Updated

This is another issue which should have your attention:

Here is the entire statement from NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller.

I reviewed the circumstances of the incident at the time, and I stand by my decision to proceed with a Penalty Infringement Notice.

The discontinuation of the case by the ODPP is a matter for them.

Again, that is the statement, in its entirety.

Updated

For context, Mick Fuller reviewed all the NSW police fines for Covid-19 restriction breaches.

Annastacia Palaszcuk has enjoyed a lighter moment in Covid-19 news.

She was talking about Queensland becoming the AFL hub:

Queensland is coming to the aid, or you could say the salvation, of the AFL season and we are going to be hosting in Queensland, of course, through the quarantine and the agreements with the Chief Health Officer, the following teams: St Kilda, North Melbourne, Essendon, Western Bulldogs, Richmond and Carlton.

So, essentially, Queensland’s going to be the home of the AFL and, you know, they should give us a grand final after this”

That is a throw back to Queensland’s numerous, and ultimately fruitless, attempts at hosting a grand final – most recently when the ANZ Stadium redevelopment was announced and the NRL said no.

I’m no fan of the Lions (I’m never forgetting 2002-03) but the game has more than its fair share of fans in Qld.

She continued:

I think four teams, from memory, are going to be on the Gold Coast and two on the Sunshine Coast. So there’ll be a lot more matches here.

Of course, the Gabba [Brisbane] and Metricon [Gold Coast] will be gearing up for this. Of course, our restrictions are 50% of the public will be able to see these sports stars in action. I know Queenslanders will get out and support Victoria. This is one way we’re helping Victoria as well.

Updated

The AEC has responded to the AFP arrest of a Sydney man over the Eden-Monaro emails:

The AEC is aware of action recently taken by the Australian Federal Police in relation to a series of spam emails circulated regarding the Eden-Monaro byelection.

The AEC takes this matter, and all electoral integrity matters, very seriously. The AEC initially referred the matter to the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce for consideration on 10 June 2020 and has continued to provide evidence to support the investigation.

The Australian Federal Police – a member of the taskforce – is the lead agency on this matter and the AEC will not be providing any further comment.

Updated

A friend who lives near this hotel has kept me updated on the comings and goings – there is not a lot (obviously) although each TV station seems to have a favoured spot for live crosses.

Updated

For those chasing more information on the Peter Dutton federal court story from earlier today, Ben Butler has you covered:

It shouldn’t be allowed to slip through the cracks, so a reminder - the Northern Territory will be left with just one House of Reps member after the AEC determination. And two senators.

That’s three people to represent 247,225 people.

Tasmania, which has 537,012 people, has 17 representatives in the federal parliament (12 senators and 5 house of reps MPs) because it is a state and the state’s have different quotas under the constitution - they are guaranteed five seats)

The ACT, with 429,179 people, has three federal seats and two senators.

I mean, how can that make sense.

Updated

We are getting another national Covid-19 update.

Prof Michael Kidd, one of the deputy chief medical officers, will have that at 3.30pm.

We have only recently started back with daily updates – before the Victorian outbreak, they had dropped back to a couple of times a week.

Updated

Don Harwin to be reinstated to NSW cabinet

Gladys Berejiklian has taken Don Harwin back into her cabinet.

He resigned for being a “distraction” in April, after he was fined for breaching Covid-19 restrictions following a media report, but he always maintained he had followed the rules.

He appealed the fine and earlier today, the court threw the fine out.

Berejiklian has since sent out a statement:

Following today’s court decision clearing Don Harwin of breaching Covid-19 restrictions in April, he will be reinstated to his former positions in the NSW cabinet.

Mr Harwin’s decision to resign from cabinet was appropriate when he received an infringement notice in April, but now that he has been cleared, it is appropriate that he return to cabinet.

Mr Harwin has always assured me that he did not break the rules.

Minister for finance and small business Damien Tudehope will be appointed Leader of the House in the Legislative Council and will continue to manage government business.

Following media reports about Mr Harwin’s property disclosures, the Department of Premier and Cabinet has confirmed that Mr Harwin made the relevant disclosures appropriately.

Updated

AAP has also broken down the data provided in the Victorian press conference:

TEST NUMBERS IN 10 VIRUS HOT SPOT POSTCODES SINCE JUNE 25:

* 3012 - Brooklyn, Kingsville, Maidstone, Tottenham, West Footscray

- 2502 tests processed

* 3021 - Albanvale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans

- 1998 tests processed

* 3032 - Ascot Vale, Highpoint City, Maribyrnong, Travancore

- 1476 tests processed

* 3038 - Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens

- 2815 tests processed

* 3042 - Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie

- 600 tests processed

* 3046 - Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park

- 2014 tests processed

* 3047 - Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana

- 3564 tests processed

* 3055 - Brunswick South, Brunswick West, Moonee Vale, Moreland West

- 1304 tests processed

* 3060 - Fawkner

- 1713 tests processed

* 3064 - Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickelham, Roxburgh Park, Kalkallo

- 4655 tests processed

Health minister Jenny Mikakos:

Obviously the population size of different postcodes does vary across those locations, so I don’t want the numbers to necessarily reflect more willingness than others across those communities.

Updated

South Australia is keeping its borders closed to Victorians, as well as NSW and the ACT (I am sure there will be just as much outrage as there was directed at Queensland. Any minute now.)

It was determined by the South Australian committee looking at these things, which includes the government and health officials, that it is all a bit to risky at the moment (the border is open to jurisdictions which are clinically Covid-19 free.)

AAP has some news on some people who were quite determined to get into the state:

Police also revealed on Friday that two men had twice been caught crossing into South Australia from Victoria in breach of the border restrictions.

The pair, who were travelling in a Volkswagen van, first crossed into SA at 4am on Thursday and were stopped at a checkpoint on the Dukes Highway at Bordertown.

Since they hadn’t completed an online application to enter the state and were deemed to be non-essential travellers, the men were told they would need to self-isolate for 14 days if they stayed.

The men opted to return to Victoria.

But 12 hours later, police found the van and the men bogged on a dirt road near Pinehill Road at Senior, about 28km north.

“Police will allege the pair had briefly returned to Victoria before re-entering South Australia, bypassing the border checkpoint and travelling along back roads towards Bordertown,” SA Police said in a statement on Friday.

A 23-year-old from Tarneit and an 18-year-old male from Dolahey in Victoria were each issued with a $1060 on-the-spot fine.

They were again given the option to self-isolate for 14 days or return to Victoria.

They chose to return and were escorted back over the border.

Meanwhile, a security guard monitoring returned travellers quarantined in an Adelaide hotel has been taken off the job for breaching safety protocols.

SA chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said the guard wasn’t wearing a mask and was dismissed by police.

“It didn’t put anybody at risk, but it was just a warning: ‘OK, you’ve been told you have to wear a mask. You’re not wearing it. You’re out of here’,” she told ABC radio on Friday.

“The police have a very, very strong presence and they are overseeing the security guards and that was how it was picked up.”

The guard has been required to self-isolate for 14 days.

Updated

If you do need to enter Queensland, the border pass can be found here

This seems extreme

I mean - other than me, is there anyone actually that desperate to get into Queensland that they would hide in the back of a truck?

Retail spending is up by double digits – mostly, because the stores are open again.

From the ABS:

Australian retail turnover rose 16.9 per cent in May 2020, seasonally adjusted, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade figures.

This updates the preliminary result of a 16.3 per cent rise published on 19 June 2020 and follows a fall of 17.7 per cent in April 2020.

“The gradual easing of social distancing regulations, and the re-opening of physical stores, bolstered retail trade in May,” said Ben James, Director of Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys.

“Retailers across a range of industries reported high numbers of consumers returning to stores, with some retailers noting levels similar to those seen in December.”

There were large month-on-month rises in clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (129.2 per cent), and cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (30.3 per cent), with both industries coming off very low levels of trade in April. Levels in these industries remain well below the same time last year.

Food retailing (7.2 per cent), household goods retailing (16.6 per cent), department stores (44.4 per cent) and other retailing (9.4 per cent) all recorded month-on-month rises in seasonally adjusted terms and are now at levels well above the same time last year. Retailers reported themes of continued spend on home improvements and high demand for recreational goods.

In seasonally adjusted terms the results were broadly consistent across the states. There were rises in New South Wales (16.5 per cent), Victoria (17.2 per cent), Queensland (16.6 per cent), Western Australia (19.7 per cent), South Australia (16.1 per cent), Tasmania (17.3 per cent), the Australian Capital Territory (12.2 per cent), and the Northern Territory (8.1 per cent), in May 2020.

Online sales contributed 10.1 per cent to total retail turnover, down on the 11.1 per cent contributed in April 2020, as physical stores reopened. This is still four percentage points higher than the 6.2 per cent seen in May 2019.

Updated

So the good news today, is obviously that the greatest game is moving to the greatest nation on earth.

Let this Queenslander have her moment.

In late March when all the newly-unemployed people were attempting to register for Jobseeker via MyGov and MyGov promptly fell over, the government services minister, Stuart Robert, said in an early afternoon press conference the site it was not because of everyone trying to get online, but because of a distributed-denial-of-service attack.

He then quickly walked it back in parliament that afternoon, saying it was just the tripping of DDoS alarms, not an actual attack itself.

Under Freedom of Information laws, the Guardian has learned Robert never received a written briefing on the DDoS issue, or the traffic issue on the day.

Several emails from Robert’s office to Services Australia and the Digital Transformation Agency told the agencies to respond to media inquiries suggesting it was, as had always been suggested, just a traffic issue.

It was only after his press conference that Services Australia asked Robert’s office to explain what they should say to journalists asking about the DDoS attack.

Unfortunately Services Australia has decided it is not in the public interest to release Robert’s office’s response to this, but we are endeavouring to find out.

Updated

AFP charges Blacktown man over Eden-Monaro emails

The AFP have released this statement

The Australian Federal Police has charged a 32-year-old Blacktown man over a spam email campaign related to the upcoming Eden-Monaro byelection.

The man was arrested during a search warrant at his house and later conveyed to Parramatta Police Station, where he was charged with one count of using a telecommunications service to menace, harass or cause offence, contrary to section 474.17 (1) of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth).

The man was released on police bail and is due to appear before the Blacktown Local Court on 2 September 2020.

The AFP commenced the investigation following a report from the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce and the Australian Electoral Commission on 10 June 2020.

The report related to spam emails, which appeared to be from legitimate sources, being sent from an unidentified user to the Australian community and various organisations.

The emails were assessed as offensive and harassing in nature.

The AFP investigation identified the use of a number of telecommunications services subscribed using suspected fraudulent identification documents. Investigators will
allege in court that these activities were linked to the 32-year-old man.

The AFP investigation into this matter remains ongoing.

Updated

13,000 people have applied to enter South Australia since the online ‘let me in’ application went live.

Steven Marshall confirms South Australia turned down the AFL:

There is a lot of talk about what’s happening with this season Can I just reiterate that we are working with the AFL.

We want to see this season get away. We want to see it completed. We want to see the South Australian teams back playing here in South Australia and we look forward to the day when we can have AFL played at the Adelaide oval to that 50% capacity.

That will be a great day. But at the moment, we are not in a position to do that. Our strong border position means that we can’t have Victorian teams or the teams from New South Wales coming into Adelaide without doing that 14 days of isolation.

So at this stage, it’s difficult. There is no possibility of a hub in the next couple of weeks but we will explore all options for the remainder of the season and we would love to see AFL at the Adelaide oval.

Steven Marshall appears to be holding a press conference to reassure South Australians that they don’t have the same issues as Victoria:

One of the other things that I would like to address today is our arrangements with regards to hotel quarantine.

We have seen some media reports over the last 24-48 hours about how this is done in other parts of the country.

Can I just say here in South Australia , SA police supervise the security operations with the hotel quarantine.

They do an excellent job. It is a robust system and it is a system that has worked extraordinarily well.

They work with SA Health nurses and doctors on site to make sure that we have very, very strict controls on every single returning Australian who are in that arrangement, that supervised hotel quarantine.

We have seen some media reports in other parts of the country where people have refused to take the PCR test.

I can confirm to the people of South Australia that we have 100% compliance with the testing regime that we have in place. It is not an optional arrangement in South Australia. It is compulsory and we have 100% compliance with testing. I can also allay people’s concerns as to whether or not people that are in that supervised quarantine have the ability to go out and get exercise. That is not the case in South Australia.

We have seen reports where some people on that quarantine arrangement have been allowed out for an hour of exercise per day. We have heard reports that they have been in fast food outlets. This cannot occur in South Australia.

South Australia had said no to the AFL.

This is about plan number 124,098 for the AFL this season.

The idea is that it will make it easier for players to play in other states, if they aren’t in contact with Victoria while it deals with the outbreak.

Queensland to host Victorian AFL teams

The sunshine state will be the AFL capital, at least for the foreseeable future - Queensland will be hosting six Melbourne AFL teams:

The Saints, North Melbourne, Essendon, Richmond, Carlton and the Western Bulldogs are all moving up north.

The Saints will be based in Noosa - about 1.5hours from Brisbane (two if the Bruce Highway traffic is bad) and will travel down for games in the capital.

Anyways, given the press conference, this piece from earlier in the week is probably relevant

Home affairs minister Peter Dutton has avoided the prospect of being charged with contempt of court by making a decision in a case about an Iranian asylum seeker before a midday deadline, sources say.

We’re still awaiting confirmation from Dutton, but it’s believed he has refused a visa to the man at the centre of the case, who the federal court refers to by the codename AFX17.

Dutton was ordered to make a decision by midday in a blistering judgment handed down by federal court judge Geoffrey Flick yesterday

Updated

Mathias Cormann has released information on what spending he has approved this week (he made the commitment to do that when the pandemic began and parliament was shut down)

This week I made $250 million in additional funding available to support the Government’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic by using the Advance to the Finance Minister (the AFM).

The determination provided $250 million to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications for funding to local governments for delivery of road and community infrastructure projects, to boost economic activity and support the resilience of local communities.

This funding is part of a $500 million program and allows payments to be made from early in the financial year, before the next appropriation bills pass later this year.

The determination was made from the AFM that was appropriated by the Parliament in Supply Act (No. 2) 2020-2021.

The determination was signed on 2 July 2020.

This determination was registered on the Federal Register of Legislation, together with an Explanatory Statement (these are available at legislation.gov.au).

Victoria summary

So there was as lot of information there.

Let’s recount some of it:

  • 66 new cases
  • All but one were acquired locally
  • 10,000 people have refused to be tested
  • Reasons for that have included they believe the virus is a conspiracy, or they don’t think it is a big deal
  • As of yesterday, 207 of Victoria’s active cases were outside the hotspot areas
  • There is evidence of a “super spreader” after Victorian Health began genome sequence testing of the virus to see what was happening
  • Daniel Andrews won’t say which department was responsible for the decision to manage Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, which has been identified as one of the sources of the outbreak, but said it could be more than one
  • The health department was not involved in managing the contracts

Updated

The Victorian premier finishes up that answer with this:

I know that is sometimes hard to get all of us to get a head around but it is absolutely true. One person can be the difference.

Your poor behaviour, your bad decision can be the difference between an entire suburb being locked down, and entire postcode being locked down.

So, if we all follow the rules, if we all look out for each other, if we support each other at this time, we can bring some stability, we can drive down these case numbers, and we can then again resume opening up the Victorian economy.

Daniel Andrews:

Those in hotspot postcodes, you are on the frontline of this and we are deeply grateful to you.

We understand, we know this is very challenging and we would much prefer not to have suburbs locked down.

We will support you, we will get to you the things you need and part of that is an acknowledgement of the sacrifice, an acknowledgement that those families are on the frontline for all of us in the war against coronavirus.

In terms of the rest of Melbourne and Victoria, it is on us as well. You don’t have to live in a hot spot postcodes to follow the rules, and if people don’t follow the rules then you will be living in a hot spot postcode because I will have no choice but to shut down more and more parts of our city and potentially our state.

We don’t want to get to that. If you are sick, the only thing you should be doing is coming forward and getting tested. You can’t go to work, you can’t visit friends, you can’t pretend that you aren’t sick.

This thing is so wildly infectious. It only takes one person, one person, and you can finish up with entire suburbs locked down. That’s the fact of this.

Updated

But Daniel Andrews won’t say which department was responsible for the decision to have contracted security:

It is not necessarily a matter of one single department being responsible for this, and therein are maybe some of the challenges we face.

Those matters can be appropriately established by the judicial inquiry. That is why it has been set up, and I’m not for a moment trying to make the point that these are not serious matters, they are absolutely serious. That’s why a judicial inquiry has been set up.

Apologies for the long post, but given the inquiry, it is important to have his whole answer there.

Daniel Andrews is asked if he took part in the decision to have contracted security staff as part of Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, given other jurisdictions went with agencies such as their own police forces, or the ADF:

That’s a fair question, let’s just go back to the first part of this. National cabinet did not make a decision requiring ADF involvement.

National cabinet did not make a decision requiring law enforcement involvement. That has been reported and that is simply wrong and as someone who is in the national cabinet I would put it to you that I am well acquainted with the decision that was made.

On the issue of ADF support, it is simply wrong to say that the ADF is supporting hotel quarantine across the whole country.

It’s not a criticism of the ADF but the notion that there is not a security guard working anywhere in the country doing this other than in Victoria is not accurate.

The ADF are providing support and I am sure they are doing a fantastic job.

We had conversations with the ADF about doing the same thing, playing that same role here in Melbourne and it was deemed, I think, by agreement between the government and the Australian Defence Force that they would simply be replicating the work that Sky Buses are doing now and doing well.

Again, I can’t control claims and comments and opinions that are put out there, that is part of a free society, no problem at all, but the facts are the facts.

The notion that the ADF is running this everywhere except Victoria is just not accurate.

However, I would again make the point, I’ve not established a judicial inquiry chaired by a very well respected and highly qualified person to stand here and try to run her inquiry for her. I understand why questions are asked, the best way to answer those questions is to have a rigourous review, then provide a report with findings, with recommendations.

I’ve made the point you before, I am the leader of this government and I’d take responsibility and have accountability for these and all matters.

Understand that, I have never walked away from that, and nor would I. The best thing in my judgment is to focus on the things you can control and none of us can go back and change any of that.

We’ve got to be focused on what is confronting us right now and that is an unacceptably high number of cases and the real risk that we are not just shutting down 10 postcodes, but shutting down all postcodes. I want to do everything I’ve possibly can to avoid that.

Jenny Mikakos says she became aware of concerns regarding Victoria’s hotel quarantine program when there was the first case from a hotel:

All these questions will be examined thoroughly by the inquiry because employers had contractual obligations to provide training and PPE to their staff. We went above and beyond providing PPE to these hotels.

Clearly some people may not have followed all the infection control protocols, that is the only explanation we can give as to what has happened with those breakdowns of infection control.

Updated

Jenny Mikakos repeats that her department (health) was not managing the hotel quarantine contracts:

I can say is not my department.

It is not the Department of Health and Human Services and that is why it is important that the judicial inquiry completes its work, explains what role every agency played, what role every department played, who made what decision and who knew what and when.

What I can say to you is, my department did not manage those contracts. At no point in the process.

And the role of my department, we thoroughly examined it, and it should be. I have no anxiety about that whatsoever.

I support this inquiry, I think it’s important that we get to the heart of what went wrong here to make sure improvements can be made already, and there have been significant changes to this program.

The premier has explained there is a complete reset over the next two weeks with Corrections Victoria staff coming into manage the program. I welcome that and think that is going to make a world of difference to how this program works.

Updated

Jenny Mikakos continues:

We don’t know whether cases from the Ruby Princess came to Victoria and spread cases in Victoria.

We know some people from New South Wales did travel to Victoria and were directly related to the Ruby Princess.

No other state has subjected itself to the level of scrutiny that Victoria has.

So this genomic sequencing tells us part of a story but it is important that the judicial inquiry be enabled to thoroughly examine what went wrong here.

I have to say I am deeply, deeply frustrated by what has happened here.

Deeply frustrated because we were doing extremely well and only two - three weeks ago, we had some days of zero cases.

To see an upsurge of cases in two weeks is deeply frustrating to me and I know it is deeply frustrating to Victorians as well.

But we have managed this before and we will manage it again. We will drive this case numbers down and we will get some explanations about what went wrong with this hotel quarantine program. Everyone deserves to get some explanation.

You will get that explanation when that inquiry is completed. I know you will have, no doubt, many, many questions around the role of my department and others during this whole program. There has been many resets and changes along the way as we have explained on numerous occasions, with Alfred Health coming in and providing additional supports for the hotel that deals with the positive cases, and many changes being made along the way.

We should enable the judicial inquiry to complete its process so that we get to the bottom of what happened.

For those with questions on what a ‘super spreader’ of a virus is, the Conversation has a good piece here.

But basically, it is someone, for whatever biological reason, is capable of spreading the virus to more people than someone who doesn’t have that biology (although behaviour and environment can also play a role)

Early genomic sequencing points to 'super spreader' in Victorian Covid-19 surge

Jenny Mikakos says there is evidence of a “super spreader” in the Victorian outbreak:

As the case numbers are now up in the last two weeks, I sought some explanations. I wanted to know what had gone wrong.

On Tuesday, I received a briefing of a genomic sequencing report that seemed to suggest that there seems to be a single source of infection for many of the cases that have gone across the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne.

It appears to be even potentially a super spreader that has caused this upsurge in cases.

We don’t have the full picture yet and as Brett [Sutton] explains the other day, not all of these cases have yet been subject to genomic sequencing.

We need to enable that process to be completed and to be provided to the judicial inquiry in the fullness of time. But I was concerned about this and I know the premiere was concerned and it takes a great deal of clinical courage to admit that there are problems, that have been mistakes made and to actually call for a judicial inquiry.

No other state, as I understand it, has been doing genomic sequencing of its cases.

Updated

Jenny Mikakos, the health minister, also answers that question:

Firstly can I say that I welcome and support the judicial inquiry that the Premier announced the other day.

[Police minister] Lisa Neville explained yesterday that there was a national cabinet decision and, following that, there were arrangements put in place that were stood up, very, very quickly involving many agencies.

This is a multiagency response in charge of the hotel quarantine program from the site.

My department, the Department of Health and human Services, has not had and never had contracts with the security companies.

Its focus has been one, to provide a legal framework. There were legal direction signed off by the chief health officer that legally required people to be quarantining those hotels, then to provide the mental health, including the mental health, health and well-being support for those travellers in those hotels. But I have no concerns whatsoever about the role of my department in at the operations of this program being thoroughly examined by this judicial inquiry.

The other point I want to make is this, is that since January, I have been working every day, to make sure we have the appropriate health response to deal with what is an unprecedented health challenge in our lifetime.

To make sure that our hospitals have what they need, to make sure that our public health team has the resources to do the testing and contact tracing that is required.

And I am grateful to the premier for a nearly $2bn investment that has been put in place to make sure that our health system is able to withstand the challenges. And I think they are well prepared and ready to withstand even the increasing numbers of hospitalisations that we have had in recent days. That has been my focus, that will continue to be my focus.

My department, as will all agencies support and co-operate with this it judicial inquiry fully.

Updated

How can he still have that confidence, given what has happened?

I’ve answered your question.

We have a judicial inquiry, that is the appropriate way to go. I think a the former justice is someone who brings a lifetime of skill, a lifetime of a well proven record of the ability to get to the bottom of what has gone on here with absolute clarity.

There will be accountability, absolutely. And I am the leader of the government. I absolutely acknowledge this is unacceptable, what has gone on here.

And that is why I have established the inquiry and by the inquiry will do its work at arms length.

We will be independent, appropriate and get to the bottom of what has happened.

There are Victorian staff in there as part of a reset of this hotel quarantine. I think they are the best people given the work they do and the skills they have to guarantee that everything is being done appropriately.

Beyond that, we are focused where we should be focused and that is making sure that we contain, stabilise and drive down these case numbers in those hot spots postcodes, and indeed deal with every single positive case, every close contact of a positive case right across the state.

Does Daniel Andrews still have confidence in his health minister and the department, given what has happened in Victoria?

Yes, and what I am focused on at the moment is making sure that each of us, and it is a very large number of people, thousands and thousands of people, all working as hard as we possibly can to pull this virus up in those hot spots and to continue to provide support and care to those who are doing it tough.

And there are many families, and again I will take the opportunity to acknowledge that they are on the frontline of this, for them and for all of us, and no-one, no-one is in any doubt that it is tough.

And we send our best wishes, our thanks, and our support in very real and practical terms and I will have more to say about other ways in which we can support, particularly vulnerable people, in those 10 postcodes.

That is what has two dominate our work and our thinking.

That is what is dominating everything we’re doing day and night and we will not be diverted from that.

The most important thing is to pull this up, get on top it, contain it and then drive those numbers down so that we can get back to a program, a cautious program of easing. So that we cannot only have the appropriate public health response but also look to repair many of the really significant challenges we have across the Victorian economy.

Asked how the Balmain Woolworths worker was able to leave Victorian hotel quarantine without being tested for Covid-19 again, having previously tested positive for the virus while in quarantine Annaliese van Diemen says:

There is a standard set of release from isolation criteria that is agreed upon nationally and it is consistent as well with the WHO criteria and that is when a patient has had more than 10 days since the onset of symptoms, including 72 hours being symptom and fever free, they are released from isolation and clinically declared to be released from isolation.

The reason that doesn’t include a clearance dust is because people can shed this virus, weeks to months and the shedding virus is not the same as being infectious.

The man met the criteria and stayed for another two days on top of having the criteria because he was in hotel quarantine, he would have been released from any hotel quarantine in the country based on the criteria, including any hotel in Sydney with a person coming from Melbourne.



As of yesterday’s data, there are 207 active cases of Covid-19 in Victoria, which are outside the marked hotspot areas.

The deputy chief medical officer is asked whether she is asked about spread outside the hotspots and whether or not people are “dropping the ball”:

I certainly hope not. The message to everyone is stay home if you are sick, be vigilant and get tested if you have any symptoms at all and that applies across the state regardless of whether you are in a hot spot suburb, Metro Melbourne, or a regional area.

So, I certainly hope not and we absolutely are not changing our intensive case interviewing and contact tracing of every case regardless of whether they are in a hot spots suburb or not. So, that’s doesn’t change at all.

Updated

The most recent cases have not been examined, in terms of postcodes or whatnot, so there is no immediate information on those new 66 cases.

Updated

The deputy chief medical officer, Annaliese van Diemen, says the amount of community transmission has been concerning:

We are seeing increased numbers of community transmission because we know these cases are out there in the community.

So I suppose there is an important distinction to make in terms of community transmission. We designated a case after a day or two of investigation and looking doesn’t have a very clear link, that person may in the coming weeks when further links are made and if other cases come up, be taken out of that because it may be, that two outbreaks merge or this person gets linked to that person on that site when further information becomes available.

At the moment, we are really concentrating very hard on cases that come up and don’t have an immediate clear source of infection.

Updated

Daniel Andrews repeats that point about the possibility of other lockdowns/restrictions:

They will be made on data, they are not made by me. The ultimate action will be taken by me if it needs to be but it is on the best health advice and that is the criteria that the public health officials have ... That is why every day there is rigorous analysis of the data.

One day would not be enough to make a decision like that, you would need to look at the trend, you would need to look at where the virus is heading in a given area and then make what is a very serious decision and a very challenging one, but if it has to be made, it will be.

Updated

Other lockdowns not ruled out

Daniel Andrews says he can not rule out further restrictions or localised lockdowns:

The other way to make that clear to people is, as we approach one week, now, since the suburban testing blitz began in the intervening period obviously we have moved to the stay-at-home orders and those 10 postcodes but the weekend will be spent, many hours of the weekend will be spent analysing, considering, discussing back and forth what the status of other postcodes are, and then we will have further announcements to make if indeed we need to based on what that data tells us.

The clarity of that formula is very, very important.

Now, I can’t for a moment guarantee that formula wouldn’t at some point in the future change.

I have try to be as upfront as I can and saying they cannot rule out other suburbs being shut down, but the key point here is that if people follow the rules, if we keep getting the sort of test numbers and if the, I haven’t got the latest number today but we are well and truly over 1000 people who are out there doing contact tracing, it is probably closer to 1500 people, then you’ve got all of that force of people that are out there doorknocking, so many, many thousands of people, they will keep doing that important work and that will mean we can contain cases as they present, but I can’t rule out further restrictions and I certainly can’t rule out other postcodes on that formula being pulled into this.

Updated

Jenny Mikakos in response to a question, outlines where the cases are:

For the postcodes with the highest number new cases over the past week have been 3064, 3047, 3031, and 3060.

What I can tell you, because obviously we have both active cases as well as close contacts and it is important that the residents in those communities understand they have many, many families who are actually isolating as we speak in those communities because they are close contact, so the active cases doesn’t necessarily reflect that, but in terms of cases:

In 3012 there are eight active cases.

In 3021, 16 active cases.

In 3032, nine active cases

In 3038, four active cases.

In 3042, two active cases.

In 3046, 10 active cases.

In 3047, 25 active cases.

In 3055, three active cases.

In 3060 11 active cases

In 3064, 52 active cases.

In some of these postcodes, we might have in excess of 100 families or individuals, sorry, 100 individuals who are currently isolating as a close contact, so the risk factor is there, not just because we have active cases but because we have got close contacts who might potentially then test positive themselves because they have been exposed to someone with the virus, so the active case is not just the only number we look at, we look at a number of metrics and indicators of risk in those communities,

Updated

Daniel Andrews:

I can also confirm with you that they have had a conversation with the prime minister this morning and again expressed Victoria’s gratitude for the support we are receiving and we are very confident we will continue to receive.

The way that relationship works as if I asked for something then the answer is yes and that is a great comfort, I know, to me and my team and the public health team, and a great comfort I’m sure, too, to the broader community to think that governments are all focused on doing everything that needs to be done to make this strategy work, to contain this virus where it is at its worst, and then recommence a program of careful and well considered easing.

That is still some time off, I don’t want to – this is heavily caveat – but the relative stability, early signs of stability in these numbers is certainly much better than having this rate double and double again day on day.

We will only really have a clear picture once two things happen. Firstly, more days path and secondly, as each of those days path, Victorians come forward and get tested.

That is the most important thing.

Updated

There are 442 active cases of Covid-19 in Victoria at the moment.

23 people are in hospital.

Six people are in intensive care.

Covid-19 conspiracy theories impacting Victoria testing regime

More than 10,000 people in Victoria have refused to be tested for Covid-19.

The health minister, Jenny Mikakos, says the testing regime has been made harder by conspiracy theories:

That might be for a range of reasons, including that they may have already been tested in a different location, we are analysing that data to see exactly why people are refusing, but it is concerning that some people believe that coronavirus is a conspiracy or that it won’t impact on them, so what I want to stress here is that coronavirus is a very contagious virus.

It can go through your family very quickly, it can affect your neighbours, your loved ones, and your entire community. So for those individuals in those communities who have not yet been tested, we are urging them to get tested as quickly as possible.

Updated

Daniel Andrews:

I know and understand that those families in those 10 postcodes, you are on the frontline of this for all of us.

You are making enormous sacrifices, it’s about your safety of course but it’s also about the safety of the entire state. And I can’t say how grateful and how proud I am to think that people in those 10 postcodes are following the rules, are doing the right thing.

From my government to you, for my family to yours, I say thank you. Thank you so very much.

We will continue to support you in any way we can but be in no doubt, you have the gratitude of the government and of all Victorians because what you’re going through at the moment, being on the frontline in our fight against this virus is all about keeping the entire state safe.

And avoiding much worse outcomes. I thank you. I thank you very, very clearly. Thank you so much.

The Andrews government is announcing another $2m for mental health, focused on the hotspot areas under lockdown again, to ensure they can reach a counseling or support service, if needed.

Daniel Andrews:

I know it is frustrating, I know it is very challenging and people would prefer not to be in the circumstances we are in.

I understand that. We’ll desperately want this to be over. We got to get on top of this spike and these unacceptably high case numbers.

While it may be too early for us to be talking about friends, a day with 66 is obviously far preferable to seeing a doubling and then a doubling again.

We are starting to see – and all of the usual caveats, we can’t predict what tomorrow’s numbers will be, we do need more time in order to get a firmer hold on whether there is a positive trend there. But certainly, to see these numbers relatively consistent is a very pleasing. We will be able to talk in more definitive terms as the days pass. As we get further into what I think is the biggest testing program, certainly the most targeted, the most localised, focused testing program that anyone has done anywhere in the country, and when that service us so well.

Updated

Those results were from more than 24,000 tests taken yesterday.

Updated

Breaking down those numbers even further, it looks like all but one of those new cases were contracted locally.

Routine testing means from people who have gone to clinics. That means the contact tracers start working out if it is from a known outbreak, or community transmission.

Victoria reports 66 new Covid-19 cases

Daniel Andrews says there were 66 new positive tests in the past 24 hours.

Seventeen are connected to known outbreaks. One is from hotel quarantine. Twenty are from routine testing. Twenty-eight are under investigation.

Updated

NSW Health has reported no new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours

While we wait for Victoria, there has been some fairly big news from the Australian Electoral Commission - Victoria may be getting one new federal seat, while the NT and WA lose one:

A redistribution of federal electoral divisions will be required in Victoria and Western Australia.

The Australian Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers, made the determination today based on the most recent official population figures for the Commonwealth published, and provided to him, by the Australian Statistician.


“The figures show the population has increased sufficiently to result in Victoria increasing its entitlement by one seat. At the same time, the determination of entitlement requires Western Australia and the Northern Territory to each decrease by one seat,” Mr Rogers said.

  • Victoria: Increase from 38 to 39 seats
  • WA: Decrease from 16 to 15 seats
  • NT: Decrease from two seats to one seat

Mr Rogers said the Electoral Commission was scheduled to meet on Tuesday 14 July to direct the commencement of federal redistribution processes in Victoria and WA.


“Redistribution Committees will be appointed and the public will soon be invited to make suggestions and comments on matters affecting the drawing of federal electoral boundaries and the naming of electoral divisions,” he said.

We should have the Victorian results for the last 24 hours very soon

On Wednesday, I reported Services Australia had said it was going to pay back some robodebt refunds in “instalments”. The agency refused to give any more details.

But last night, the agency took to Twitter to say any refunds issued this way would be paid over “consecutive days”.

Meanwhile, there have been some tidbits handed to the Covid-19 committee in response to questions from Labor’s Murray Watt.

For example, you can add a further $47.1m to the robodebt bill. This is how much the government has spent “administering” the program this calendar year, that is, from 1 January to 31 May.

It’s unclear what the money has been spent on given the program has been mostly, though not entirely, suspended since November. Between 2015 and July 2019, Services Australia spent about $600m on the scheme (technically known as the Income Compliance Program.

As you know, it is now paying back at least $720m in refunds, and there may be further costs in interest and damages from the ongoing class action.

Another response given to the committee states that government ministers were not briefed on a March 2017 AAT decision which questioned the legality of the robodebt scheme.

And if there was any doubt debt recovery will return when the pandemic is over, labour hire company Chandler Macleod has been hiring new debt recovery officers for Services Australia.

Updated

Everything is completely normal with the NSW Nats and Liberals ahead of the Eden-Monaro byelection.

NSW arts minister, Don Harwin, resigned over an alleged breach of Covid restrictions (he had always maintained he was complying) but was later fined by NSW police.

Well, as Alex Hart reports, that fine has been withdrawn

From April:


Stuart Robert said in parliament last month that debt recovery work would restart. Looks like the government is preparing for that to begin soon.

Updated

Yesterday, Labor’s Kristina Keneally and Anthony Albanese said the party supported any move to offer safe haven to people in Hong Kong, following the passing of the latest Chinese security laws.

Speaking in Eden-Monaro today, Albanese said that Labor maintained that position (and urged the Australian government to take a look at freedom of the press here as well).

Labor has been expressing concern about the events in Hong Kong and Australia has responsibilities in the region.

What we know is that the legislation that has been imposed is a breach of the handover agreement between Great Britain and the People’s Republic of China are regard to Hong Kong.

It was supposed to be one country, two systems. The second system was democracy with freedom of the press, with freedom of association and those principles are important.

Might I say for the ABC, freedom of the press is pretty important here too and I’d say that the attorney general has called in – he has to sign-off on any prosecution of journalists, the prosecution potentially of an ABC journalist for doing their job, for telling Australians what is in the public interest, is an outrage.

Freedom of the press isn’t something that can be a matter of convenience.

Updated

The timeline that the John Hopkins Centre for Health Security have put together here is terrifying.

From 27 cases of an unidentified pneumonia in late December, to more than 10m cases around the world and 500,000 deaths. (reported)

Updated

The Victorian update is due in about an hour, but Victoria police have confirmed an officer at the Werribee police station had tested positive, closing the station for cleaning (it closed on Wednesday, and re-opened on Thursday)

The officer had been on prearranged leave when they began to feel unwell – they hadn’t been at work since 21 June, but six colleagues have gone into isolation as a precaution.

Werribee is in Melbourne’s south-west. The hotspot areas have been in northern Melbourne.

Updated

I am watching today’s Senate committee hearing into proposed migration laws which would allow Peter Dutton to ban mobile phones in immigration detention.

This morning, several witnesses have raised concerns about the ability – or willingness – of authorities to provide sufficient means of communication for detainees, if mobiles were taken away.

The Law Council’s Pauline Wright said she had “grave concerns” about the “quality, reliability and availability” of other forms of communications. The Liberal chair of the committee, Amanda Stoker, had put it to her that other forms that would be available would include access to landline, internet, fax, post and visits.

Tessa Maybery and David Manne, of Refugee Legal, said the proposed laws could be the difference between some people being granted refugee status or being deported.

Maybery said it was the organisation’s “direct experience” that some detainees without mobiles had been deported previously without being able to seek asylum.

“History matters here,” said Manne. “There’s a long history of people who have been denied basic access to telecommunications facilities.”

Labor’s Kim Carr said even if phones could well be “misused”, they could also be used to “enhance accountability”, such as in cases where asylum seekers and refugees have been the victims of violence within immigration detention.

The government introduced a similar bill in 2017, but it was never passed and the legislation lapsed after the 2019 election.

The Coalition argues phones pose an “unacceptable risk” because they have been used to organise criminal activity such as drug smuggling and escape attempts.

Serco will appear later this morning, while the Department of Home Affairs will front the committee this afternoon.

Anthony Albanese had a chat to the Nine Network this morning.

It covered the usual issues and then ended with this:

Q: You’ve had plenty to say on the attack about Scott Morrison throughout the course of this pandemic, either in parliament, outside or even prior to the pandemic. What do you like about him?

Albanese:

He is someone who I think is a family man. I think that him and Jenny have a good relationship. She’s a nice woman. When parliament was resumed, her and my son, Nathan, were chatting away and had a good discussion.

And he has different values to me. But I respect anyone who wants to make a contribution of public life. You give up a lot to do that. He’s given up a lot in terms of his entry into public life. And I think that is deserving of respect.

Updated

In case you missed it, this also happened late yesterday

It is frankly outrageous, given what the stories uncovered, it is the journalist who is potentially facing charges.

Helen Sullivan has the international Covid-19 situation covered

From that ACT release:

A new Public Health Direction has been issued this morning to complement the Victorian government’s “stay at home” orders in identified Covid-19 hotspots.

Anyone identified as having been in a Covid-19 hotspot in Victoria will be required to quarantine in the ACT for 14 days at their own expense or return to their home jurisdiction at the earliest reasonable opportunity.

Passengers on inbound flights from Melbourne flights will now be asked to provide identification when they arrive at Canberra Airport to support this new direction.

Penalties and fines may apply to people who fail to comply with the Direction.

Anyone already in the ACT who has been in a Covid-19 hotspot is strongly encouraged to quarantine for 14 days from the date they left the hotspot, even if they do not have any symptoms.

In addition, anyone coming into the ACT from the greater Melbourne metropolitan area is asked to closely monitor themselves for symptoms of Covid-19. It is important to get tested for even the mildest of symptoms.

Updated

The ACT is following in the footsteps of other jurisdictions and making anyone who has travelled to a Victorian lockdown area quarantine, at their own expense, if they come to the ACT

This is a very good point (and if you are not following IndigenousX on Twitter, you should be).

Updated

Daniel Andrews will be giving the Victorian update at 11am.

There is a very important meeting today between the nation’s Indigenous ministers, addressing the Closing the Gap targets.

Ken Wyatt spoke about it on ABC radio this morning:

When you constantly fail you develop a sense of futility. I’ve heard people in our community and in my own family who say, “Well, we are never going to live to the same length of time as a non-Indigenous Australian so I may as well enjoy myself” and harmful behaviours are part of that.

When we say, “No, if you change those practices” – let me say, Tom Calma with the smoking campaign has had an incredible impact in convincing the number of Indigenous people to reduce their smoking, alcohol, only 19% of our people imbibe in alcohol.

But is problem is public so there is this broad perception.

There are things that are making a difference and we are living longer. I am seeing 87-year-old Indigenous family members which I have never seen before.

Updated

The latest polling has Labor ahead in Eden-Monaro.

But just a reminder, this is one byelection that will not not change the course of government – if the Coalition wins, they have one more seat in parliament. If Labor wins, it is status quo. It’s a marginal seat and one, that until 2016, went with the government of the day. Any giant proclamations of what it means beyond the election result of Eden-Monaro is pushing it.

But that’s just my humble take.

Updated

In terms of Covid-19 media releases, this is among the weirdest I have received:

A comprehensive testing program has found no traces of SARS-CoV-2 in Canberra’s sewage system.

The testing program, carried out by experts from The Australian National University (ANU), examined Canberra’s sewage water for traces of the coronavirus which causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2.

Testing sewage is a rapid and inexpensive way of tracking the coronavirus and potential community transmission.

ANU environmental epidemiologist and project lead, Dr Aparna Lal, said the testing of daily samples throughout May found no SARS-CoV-2 in sewage from Canberra.

“We tested 25 samples in May from Icon Water’s sewage treatment plant, covering the whole of ACT population, and found no traces of SARS-CoV-2 RNA,” she said.

“This coincides with the period that the ACT was declared free of any new coronavirus cases.

Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst are continuing their reports into the rhetoric shifts surrounding the Covid-19 stimulus packages and what the reality is:

Australian unions have labelled it “cruel” of the government to suggest the unemployed are unwilling to work given the dearth of vacancies, record rates of unemployment and underutilisation among young people.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions president, Michele O’Neil, made the comments to Guardian Australia on Thursday, warning that “demonising young people … based on anecdotal stories” is laying the groundwork for cuts to jobkeeper wage subsidies and jobseeker unemployment benefits.

Updated

National cabinet is not* meeting today. (It’s next week.)

The next gathering will be focused on Victoria (understandably) but also the borders – Scott Morrison wants them all brought down, including to Victorians.

Not sure how he’ll go getting his way on that one.

* An earlier version of this post said national cabinet was meeting today. Cabinet is meeting today. I confused my cabinets.

Updated

The full judgment can be found here.

It includes this:

Why the Minister was “not available” and when he first became “not available” was not further satisfactorily explained.

What the Minister had been doing in respect to the making of a decision in respect to the Applicant for at least the last two weeks and since 10 June 2020 was also not satisfactorily explained.

Why the Minister has not given some priority to the making of a decision affecting the liberty of the Applicant was also not satisfactorily explained. He contented himself with the explanation: “I am not available”.

As explained on his behalf during oral submissions this morning, it would seem to be the case that he is “not available” because he is (presumably) on holidays or – as was put on his behalf – he was “on leave”.

If the taking of leave was presumably planned in advance, there was no evidence available to the Court as presently constituted to explain why that matter was not disclosed to the primary Judge on 18 June 2020 when an application was then being made to another Judge of this Court.

Also not explained is why the Minister was “available” to give instructions in this proceeding yesterday and “available” to give instructions this morning to proffer the assurance now being given, but “not available” to make a decision …

The lack of candour on the part of this Minister in not frankly disclosing such matters to this Court, together with the past conduct of this Minister in this proceeding, has been the source of considerable hesitation in the making any further order – even with the consent of the Applicant.

Updated

Federal court again warns Peter Dutton he could be found in contempt of court

The last I heard from secret squirrel Queensland spies was that Peter Dutton was holidaying in north Queensland.

Ray Hadley announced that the home affairs minister was taking leave last week (they usually have a weekly love-in conversation spot).

But it seems the federal court has some words for the home affairs minister.

Updated

You are reminded there is a (by)election campaign on when you get media alerts from the prime minister saying he will interviewed on Sounds of the Mountains at 8.10.

Updated

Simon Birmingham wouldn’t say what the government was likely to do but he did make a point of saying Australia agreed with the UK and Canada when it came to Hong Kong:

We have been working very closely with key partners, especially the United Kingdom and Canada, in terms of our positions here. We have very similar positions and perspectives when it comes to Hong Kong. We support the one country, two systems structure that was put in place.

We want to see respect for the basic law that underpins the way in which Hong Kong works as a unique but very important part of China. We want to see it supported in a way that enables the strengths of Hong Kong as an investment centre, a commercial centre, and a place with its own clear rule of law to be respected and to continue to provide the success that has supported Hong Kong for so long …

I don’t want to get ahead of what any final decisions by cabinet may be. As I said, this is about being prepared for eventualities, circumstances what we really want to see, our position remains one of respect and support for the one country, two systems approach, and for the basic law in Hong Kong and our desire to see Hong Kong continue to function with its own independent operations in terms of that rule of law, in terms of a system that continues to support it, as an investment and commercial hub, that has been so important to our region for so long.

This isn’t new. In 2015, Australia offered sanctuary to Syrian refugees, accepting 12,000 people from the conflict zone, above the usual refugee intake, with a focus on women, children and persecuted minorities.

Updated

Yesterday Scott Morrison confirmed that Australia was prepared to “step up” and help Hong Kong residents impacted by changes to Chinese security law, which basically make any protest action against China and the CCP illegal.

The UK has opened itself up as a safe haven for 3 million Hongkongers, providing the pathway for citizenship.

Australia was looking at options, Morrison said, and a cabinet meeting would review those options and then decide how to go further.

Simon Birmingham, who still plays the role of government spokesman (which he adopted during the 2019 election campaign), told the ABC that cabinet was working through it:

We have seen some very concerning situations and circumstances and scenes out of Hong Kong over quite some period of time now. The government rightly seeks to be prepared, the prime minister has asked for certain options to be drawn up for consideration through all the proper processes. It’s right for us to be prepared for any circumstances that may unfold …

We’re just working carefully through scenarios in terms of what could occur, what we may need to respond to, and they include scenarios around whether or not there may be individuals who need safe haven or circumstances where they, where they might seek to move their base or the locality.

Updated

Mathias Cormann has consistently denied rumours he wanted to leave, but that didn’t make them go away. He wanted out after the last election, according to the rumour mill, but then the Coalition government won. So he stayed. Although it has to be said that he hasn’t had his usual ... enthusiasm.

Phil Coorey at the Fin reports that Cormann is outty once the budget is handed down.

From AAP:

Finance Minister Matthias Cormann will reportedly quit federal politics after the October 6 budget.

The Australian Financial Review on Friday cited a senior government source as saying Senator Cormann plans to leave before the end of this year.

There’s speculation he could take a job with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or consider other positions in his home town of Perth in Western Australia.

Neither the WA senator nor the government has confirmed the report.

Senator Cormann entered the Senate in 2007.

The federal government usually delivers its annual budget in May, but the financial report was delayed this year because of the coronavirus.

The August release will follow a government budget update on July 23 that will outline the coalition’s plans for JobSeeker and JobKeeper and other economic issues.

Updated

Also – it is Friday.

Congratulations. You made it. Give yourself a moment.

Updated

Good morning

NSW Health workers are out in force, greeting planes, trains and automobiles coming in to the state from Victoria, checking temperatures and addresses, as the state attempts to head off an outbreak itself.

Victorians are welcome to visit NSW – as long as they are not from a hotspot suburb or have spent time in one. Same with NSW residents. You can’t visit a hotspot or spend time with someone who has.

Breaking the rules can now lead to up to an $11,000 fine or six months in jail. But it is the potential for an outbreak that has everyone worried. All the cases in NSW have lately come from hotel quarantine. But one case has NSW Health on alert.

As AAP reports:

Health authorities are urging people in Balmain to be on alert for COVID-19 symptoms after a local Woolworths supermarket worker tested positive to the virus.

The man had been in hotel quarantine in Victoria from June 11 to June 26 after flying from Bangladesh. He tested positive to COVID-19 on day four of his quarantine period.

He then flew from Melbourne [to Sydney] on June 26 – 14 days after he arrived and 12 days after the onset of symptoms.

He returned to work at the supermarket in Sydney’s suburb on June 27 where his employer noticed he had minor symptoms.

“The man worked in the self-service section of Darling Street Woolworths and while we believe him to be a low-level risk of infection we are taking every precaution possible to protect the people on NSW,” NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said in a statement on Thursday.

He worked at the store on June 27-28 and 50 employees are now in isolation after being identified as close contacts. The store has undergone a deep clean.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said anyone who visited the Woolworths store on either of the days the man worked should come forward and be tested if they have any cold or flu-like symptoms.

Health authorities are also contacting people who sat around the man on Jetstar Flight JQ510 from Melbourne to Sydney on June 26.

A man tested positive for Covid-19 in Darwin yesterday – the first time the NT has recorded a positive case since April, after he spent time with relatives, who live in what we now know is a virus hotspot, after he left his hotel quarantine. He stayed in isolation after arriving back home in Darwin.

We’ll take you through the day’s events as they related to Covid and Australian politics. It is the last day of byelection campaigning but the AFR reports that Mathias Cormann will leave the Senate after the October budget is handed down, so there might be a little overshadowing. We’ll keep you informed – you have a two-coffee Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day (and if you are wild, and making weekend plans already, I’ll also be covering the Eden-Monaro byelection tomorrow, so chalk that in as well).

Ready?

Updated

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