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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Josh Taylor (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Q+A panel discuss Melbourne lockdown – as it happened

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Summary

We are going to close up the blog for the night now.

We will be back tomorrow with all the latest on Australia’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Here’s some of the biggest news of the day you may have missed:

  • Victoria accounts for 127 of the 140 new cases of coronavirus in Australia. It is the highest number of daily cases ever recorded in Victoria
  • New South Wales will shut the border to Victoria from midnight on Tuesday
  • There were two coronavirus deaths in Australia - a man in his 60s and a man in his 90s, both in Victoria, bringing the total number of deaths in Australia to 106
  • Two people tested positive in the New South Wales-Victoria border town Albury
  • One Nation leader Pauline Hanson was dropped from Nine’s Today Show after making racist and divisive comments about the 3,000 residents of public housing towers in Melbourne who are locked down at the moment.
  • WA premier Mark McGowan has called for the federal government to drop its support for a High Court case challenging the hard border closure.

Until tomorrow, stay safe.

When asked about leaving his defence ministerial role and almost immediately providing strategic advice on defence to EY, Pyne noted he was cleared of breaching the ministerial standards.

“My view is that there’s a ministerial code of conduct, it has two arms - one of those arms is that I’m not allowed to lobby anybody in the department of defence, the minister for defence, their officers, for 18 months after I retire.

“And I have completely complied with that. And I’m not allowed to use information that became available to me as the minister for defence for commercial gain, and I’ve entirely abided by that.”

Pyne said he was offering EY his skills and expertise in understanding how government thinks “because it’s actually quite a valuable capability in the economy - knowing how government works, and using those skills.”

And that’s where we will leave it for tonight.

Pyne discussed the role finance minister Mathias Cormann played in the week Malcolm Turnbull was ousted as prime minister, and said he wondered whether it could have been different if Pyne had been able to talk to Cormann in person.

“I missed him several times on the phone, texting, WhatsApp… I very firmly am of the view that Mathias believed that he was acting in the best interests of the Liberal Party, that he believed that Malcolm couldn’t win the next election, and he made an assessment that Peter Dutton would, and I think he was wrong.

Micallef says if Mad As Hell in its entirety was put on iView (ABC should do this), he’d want to review some of it to see if it holds up, and the same goes for some of his older works, in light of the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements where some older works have been reviewed or removed.

Boney says she’s happy to see Hanson gone from Today, noting she also says hurtful things about Aboriginal people.

Boney says she was heart-broken hearing Pauline Hanson’s comments about those living in the towers on Nine’s Today show this morning.

Boney says she grew up in similar housing.

“I felt completely heartbroken. I grew up in housing commission,” she says.

“I was thinking about all of those kids sitting at home watching, all of those people trapped in their apartments, watching and thinking, ‘This is what Australia thinks of us. This is what the rest of our country thinks - is that we’re alcoholics and drug addicts.’

“And that’s disgusting.”

Butler says it’s a cop out to suggest some new line has been crossed today with Hanson.

“She’s a public racist since 1996. She used her first maiden speech to say that we were in danger of being ‘swamped by Asians’ and used her second speech saying we were in danger of being ‘swamped by Muslims’.

“We’re not talking about someone who just woke up this morning a racist. Shows have been platforming her. Free speech is one thing, elevating racism in the discourse is another.”

Comedian Shaun Micallef says he thinks the community in Victoria isn’t divided right now.

“I get the sense anecdotally that everybody’s actually chipping in and helping. So I get the other sense - I get the sense that communities aren’t divided.”

Labor MP Terri Butler agrees, but Nine reporter Brooke Boney says those in the locked up in the towers may not feel that way.

“Do you think that people who are living in those apartment blocks think that the community’s coming together when they can’t leave their apartments or have anyone come in?

“I think it is heavy-handed. I can’t imagine walking out of my house and having police standing there saying, ‘Oh, sorry, Brooke, not today. Also, no-one’s allowed to come and see you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got inside - we’ll try to make sure you’ve got the things you need within the next 24 to 48 hours.’”

ABC's Q+A begins

Former Liberal minister Christopher Pyne is asked what went wrong in Victoria. He blames the obvious - the security guards in quarantine.

He says we are in a second wave and other states will have similar things in the future.

Updated

I’ll live-tweet the good bits from ABC’s Q&A program soon.

The situation is fast moving, and sounds like it was a miscommunication issue.

Looks like they’re being let in now.

Just waiting for some more information on whether volunteers are being turned away for trying to deliver food to the towers.

Sydney woman fined for escaping quarantine

AAP reports that a 39-year-old woman who managed to escape hotel quarantine in Sydney for about 45 minutes has been issued with a $1,000 fine.

Police on Saturday night were advised the 39-year-old woman had fled the Pitt Street hotel, contravening the public health order for air arrivals to remain in quarantine, NSW Police said in a statement on Monday.

A security guard confronted the woman as she approached a fire exit and following a short struggle, the woman allegedly ran off.

She was chased on foot before disappearing from sight.

The guard reported the incident and police began searching for the woman, who was found about 45 minutes later at Circular Quay.

The Potts Point woman was taken to hospital for assessment and was transferred to a hotel managed by NSW Health.

She was fined $1,000 for not complying with a noticed direction under the Public Health Act.

Police also allege the sprinkler systems in the woman’s hotel room had been significantly damaged and legal action is expected to be taken.

Updated

I am just going to take a short break for now. We will keep updates coming as news comes in.

My esteemed colleague Paul Karp has more on TikTok and the Liberal politicians who are concerned about its link to China.

Updated

It is worth noting in that last list that Wyndham, which has the second-highest number of cases now, has no locked-down suburbs.

Updated

Two in Albury test positive for coronavirus

NSW Health is reporting two cases of coronavirus in the Albury region, that is, close to the Victorian border. One is a returned traveller from Melbourne who came back before the hotspot restrictions.

NSW Health can confirm investigations are underway in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District after two suspected cases of COVID-19 returned positive results on preliminary testing.

Further testing is underway while, as a precaution, close contacts have been identified and placed in isolation.

One suspected case had recently travelled to Melbourne and had returned prior to hotspot travel restrictions coming into force.

NSW Health urges residents in the Albury area who develop even the mildest symptoms to come forward for testing.

The Murrumbidgee Local Health District will be opening a pop-up clinic at Mirambeena Community Centre, 19 Martha Mews, Lavington from 9.30am tomorrow to ensure additional testing capacity

Updated

For the first time since Saturday afternoon, there were more civilians than police visible on the Flemington Housing estate this afternoon.

By mid-afternoon today, after a distressing and chaotic weekend, things were finally beginning to look organised after a meeting of state government agencies, local government, community groups and NGOs yesterday afternoon.

The Flemington Community Centre, which was previously being used for Covid-19 testing, had been repurposed as an emergency coordination and food distribution centre.

Groups of obviously relieved police officers stood around, for the first time more or less equalled in numbers by civilian workers from the health department, workers from the Moonee Valley City Council and Victorian Emergency Services.

Pallets of milk and boxes of basic groceries were being wheeled into the estate, and “chain gangs” were formed to get the boxes of up the stairs and into the flats.

Previously, residents had reported that they had received no government provided food, although the Sikh Volunteers Australia and Trades Hall Council distributed food last night.

Yesterday afternoon, residents of the wider Flemington suburb were allowed to walk through the open air parts of the estate, which police had previously closed.

Local butcher Macca Halal Foods delivered care packages, and the Sikh Community Volunteers were providing food both to health workers conducting Covid testing and to residents of the towers.

A police officer on the estate said that it had been a stressful weekend.

“It doesn’t matter how well we behave, we’re still police and we’re everywhere. Of course it’s frightening,” she said. “But we were the only ones here for the first twelve hours.”

A translator helping with the testing said that it was taking longer than anticipated, but that it seemed the great majority of residents were agreeing to the tests.

Residents inside the nine public housing towers under lockdown translated an information sheet about the restrictions and public health measures needed to contain Covid-19 into 10 different languages.

This information was distributed within the affected buildings via social media and text messaging in just 24 hours.

Morrison is asked about growing concerns around TikTok, given its origins in China and claims around what data the app is collecting on its millions of users.

Morrison says “it’s a free country” for people to download apps but he said people should be aware of what the apps collect.

“I think it’s right for people to have an increased awareness of where these platforms originate and the risk they present.”

Morrison says he is not a TikTok user, and wasn’t aware of it until the meme involving him pushing back against ABC’s political editor Andrew Probyn and giving Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy a question. He said he thought Guy Sebastian started the meme, which I do not think is correct.

Updated

Morrison won’t concede the government has lost the Eden-Monaro byelection. He says the government got a swing to it on the primary vote and two-party-preferred. He says it will be very close, within a few hundred votes.

“So that is a performance that, you know, for those who believe that there would be strong protest against the government or that there wasn’t a protest fight against the government on the weekend, we were the only party that actually had a swing to us, and we’ll go in very close, will be a few hundred votes in it.”

Updated

Morrison backs fines for people refusing Covid-19 testing

Morrison says he supports fines for people who refuse a Covid-19 test but says it is ultimately a matter for Victoria.

“The commonwealth has no power over those things that’s purely a state matter. And they’ve got legislation down there which allows for that to be the case. So I mean that’s really a matter of Victorians.”

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison is on 2GB radio.

He says people need to be patient as the NSW-Victoria hard border is put in place.

He’s asked why the Victoria government hasn’t taken up the ADF help. Morrison says it is there when the government believes it is needed, and there are already a lot of Commonwealth officers helping out with testing and other efforts right now.

Here’s some more info on the ACT border closure for Victoria. It’s a full ban unless you get an exemption from the ACT or NSW government.

From midnight on Tuesday, anyone travelling to the ACT from Victoria will be denied entry unless they receive an exemption from either the NSW government or the ACT government.

Residents of the ACT or NSW will be able to return home, but they will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Further details will be finalised over the next 24 hours, and we will strive for consistency with NSW.

We are also strongly advising Canberrans to not travel to Victoria for any reason other than absolutely essential purposes. Once you return to the ACT, you will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.

We anticipate that these arrangements will only remain in place whilst the NSW and Victoria border is closed.

It’s important now that we do everything that we can to protect our community and support Victoria, and the rest of the nation, in stopping the spread of the virus.

The public health emergency in the ACT has been extended for another 45 days.

Updated

Greens leader Adam Bandt’s office has sent us these photos from the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency where they have been collecting food and goods for people currently locked down in the quarantined towers in Melbourne.

Melbourne distribution centre at AMSSA, the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency at 91-101 Boundary Rd collecting food and goods for people locked in towers.
Melbourne distribution centre at AMSSA, the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency at 91-101 Boundary Rd collecting food and goods for people locked in towers.
Melbourne distribution centre at AMSSA, the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency at 91-101 Boundary Rd collecting food and goods for people locked in towers.

Updated

Coles has repurposed a supermarket in Coburg to package up 1,000 boxes of food, including bread, dairy products, fresh meat, meat substitutes, cereal, pasta, tinned food, biscuits, and toilet paper.

“Each of the boxes is intended to be enough to feed four people for three days, and include forms for residents to request specific supplies to be included in forthcoming deliveries,” Coles says in its press release.

Some more of the food being dropped into towers in Melbourne.

The ABC is reporting that authorities are shocked about 1,000 people gathering for a bush doof in Wilsons Creek near Byron Bay on the north coast of NSW despite Covid-19 restrictions banning gatherings larger than 20 people indoors.

“[We have] an amazing level of concern that people believe that they can congregate to 1,000 people and disregard physical distancing and put at risk not only themselves, but the entire community of the North Coast,” the head of the northern NSW local health district, Wayne Jones, said.

Updated

And some more.

People from Victoria visiting the ACT will need to self-quarantine from midnight tomorrow.

Margaret Simons is reporting milk and bread is being delivered to the towers now.

Nasa Ige, the president of the Australian African association, tells the ABC that people in the Melbourne towers in quarantine have had to establish their own support network rather than rely on the government for essential supplies and information.

“The biggest concern is many are missing staples like bread and milk, and large families have to share small boxes,” he said. “No one is getting the supplies that have been given by the government; it is just lying in a corridor and no one wants to take them inside.”

He says the main medical request is for painkillers.

Updated

With the impending NSW-Vic border closure to come into force this Wednesday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said there would be some flights and train services for residents returning home and for those who have travel permits.

A Virgin Australia Group spokesman told the Guardian: “We’re reviewing our flight schedule for services between Sydney and Melbourne following the state government’s decision to close the border between Victoria and NSW from 12:01am on Wednesday 8 July.

“We’ll contact passengers directly if there’s any change to their flight.”

Virgin Australia was waiving applicable change fees for bookings to Melbourne made between 21 April and 30 September for passengers who can no longer travel or who want to change their booking.

Updated

No new cases in South Australia

No new cases in South Australia. There are three active cases in the state.

Updated

Michael Kidd on why the AHPPC doesn’t have a position on border closures:

There are certain issues that are more appropriate for the political leaders to make based on the local epidemiology in the states and the work they are doing to protect the populations they are responsible for.

Updated

Michael Kidd says the decision to close the border between NSW and Victoria was made by the premiers and PM, not based on advice from the AHPPC.

“The AHPPC doesn’t have a position on border closures but the commonwealth is supporting the decision by Victoria and NSW to close the border.”

Updated

Deputy chief medical officer Prof Michael Kidd says there have been 140 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia today.

Victoria accounts for 127 of those, there are another three in Western Australia, and 10 in NSW. The latter two are all returned travellers.

Thirty-four people are in hospital across the country with Covid-19 and five of those are in intensive care units.

Kidd reiterates the second spike in Melbourne is a national issue.

Deputy chief medical officer Prof Michael Kidd.
Deputy chief medical officer Prof Michael Kidd. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

“We are all at risk from a resurgence of Covid-19. The situation in Victoria reinforces for us all that Covid-19 remains a risk for all Australians. It is critical we all continue to stick to the measures in place to support everyone.”

He says most of those in hotspots should not be blamed for the second spike.

“The majority of the people who found themselves in lockdown in Melbourne, just like the majority of people across Australia, had been doing the right thing. These people have been maintaining physical distance, staying at home when unwell, very careful with hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette. They should not be blamed in any way. We all need to support each other during these very challenging circumstances.”

Updated

We are waiting on a national update shortly, but given most of the coronavirus news right now is about Victoria it’ll likely be just additional comments to what we’ve already been told.

Updated

Man arrested at Flemington tower

Victoria’s police commissioner, Shane Patton, confirmed at a press conference that a man from a Flemington tower has been arrested for attempting to leave the lockdown area and assaulting police.

“[Monday afternoon] we had a 32-year-old male who attempted to leave from one of the towers in Flemington ... A fight occurred where the police were assaulted, and that male bit one of the [officers] and so he was taken into custody and is being processed for assaulting and resisting police as well as an attempted Covid-19 breach.”

Victoria’s police commissioner Shane Patton.
Victoria’s police commissioner Shane Patton. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/EPA

Patton said that 500 police are stationed around the towers every day, but not necessarily a police officer on every floor.

“We’ve adopted a policing model where we have a number of police working in pairs, and they have two or three floors each to patrol ... as well as the use of CCTV cameras, to be able to determine whether there’s a need to respond to any specific areas if there’s non-compliance.”

Updated

Patton says it’s not just about enforcement but helping the residents of the towers get through “this extremely stressful period” (presumably the police presence is part of the stress).

“This is about police working with the community. You are the community we serve, you are the reason we are there. This is an opportunity for us to show, working together, what we can achieve and how we can get through what is obviously very significant and stressful for residents.”

Updated

Victoria’s police commissioner, Shane Patton, is giving an update on the situation in Victoria. He says there are 500 police a day in charge of the quarantined towers in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

He says they’ve got the resources, and defends the role of the police being in charge.

There has been speculation about the ADF; this is a policing role. Community engagement, community support, these are all key roles for Victoria police; we have legislative power and legislative authority to be able to conduct certain activities, and that’s why we are there.

There are a range of issues we may encounter through this quarantine period. This happens in any community but this community is reflective of other communities as well, containing some of our more vulnerable people, could have issues, mental health issues, family violence issues. There may be a range of emergency management issues we need to deal with.

Updated

I’m going to hand you over to Josh Taylor for the rest of the afternoon.

There is a national update coming in about half an hour.

I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Thank you for joining me today, and please, as always, take care of you.

Updated

Mark McGowan said leaders need to stop telling other leaders what to do with their own states (in response to being told of Gladys Berejiklian’s call to open the borders to NSW residents)

I didn’t know that. Obviously I’ve been in a Cabinet meeting. But I think premiers should be able to make the decision in the interests of their own state without others trying to tell them what to do. And that’s what we are doing. We are keeping Western Australia as safe as we possibly can in this dire situation.

It’s been 86 days since WA had any community transmission.

Mark McGowan:

I’ve advised all the other premiers and the prime minister that we need to keep our border in place until it’s safe to bring it down. Now obviously that’s copped some criticism, but I think the cautious, considered and careful approach has paid dividends ... and we intend to keep doing that.

The best thing that could happen now is Mr Palmer withdrawing his high court challenge and the commonwealth stopped supporting him.

If I can just finish, that’s the best thing that could happen: Mr Palmer withdrawing his high court challenge and the commonwealth withdrawing its support for him.

Clearly there is no basis to this high court challenge now, especially the commonwealth, so I’ve written to the prime minister today – I’ve contacted him personally – to indicate I think it’s appropriate now they withdraw this legal action.

Updated

'This nonsense has to stop-' - WA slams border court challenge

Mark McGowan has also had enough of the Clive Palmer court border challenge:

As we know, Clive Palmer’s high court challenge is being supported by the federal government.

The announcement today between NSW and Victoria to close their borders is one that I support, but the idea our hard border is being challenged in the high court is now clearly flawed and completely unnecessary.

The high court challenge consumes the resources of many of our top public servants, from our solicitor general, our chief health officer and our police commissioner.

In light of the new Victoria-NSW border closure today, I’ve asked the prime minister to formally withdraw support from Clive Palmer’s high court challenge.

It does not make sense for the federal government to be supporting a border closure between NSW and Victoria but on the other hand challenging Western Australia’s border in the high court of Australia.

Quite frankly, the legal challenge, and especially the commonwealth involvement in it, has now become completely ridiculous.

This nonsense has to stop, and it has to stop now.

Western Australia’s island within an island strategy has been an integral part of our success. As a result WA is the most economically free state within Australia due to our relaxed restrictions, but we cannot get complacent.

Updated

WA asks for cap on international arrivals for Perth

Mark McGowan is asking for “one flight per three days” to slow the flow of arrivals into WA.

He says more WA residents are coming home now, as restrictions are beginning to ease in WA.

McGowan says the hotel quarantine is beginning to reach its capacity (and he wants people arriving into the state to pay for their own quarantine):

Perth is the western gateway to Australia, and over the last week we have seen a slow increase in arrivals into Perth.

We are not at the level we were out back in March or April. However, it is a noticeable increase. The reality is Perth and WA are the envy of the world.

For those Western Australians who have been stuck overseas for whatever reason, the desire to come home is now obviously stronger than ever.

Currently we have more than 1,100 people in hotel quarantine across five hotels in Perth plus a large number of people who have been directed to self-quarantine at home.

They have mostly arrived from interstate. Our hotel quarantine systems have been sound, with expert clinical staff overseeing the arrangements in other hotels. However, if arrivals increase, our resources will start to be spread thinly.

Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

That’s why the state government has now formally requested the federal government to put a cap on international arrivals into Perth airport consistent with the federal government’s support for the NSW cap.

I’ve asked the prime minister to agree on a cap for Western Australia – something in the vicinity of one flight per three days.

We need to slow the flow of arrivals into Western Australia. This will help us manage the arrivals and quarantine arrangements to the highest possible standard.

In addition, cabinet today approved the drafting of urgent legislation that will force any returning traveller, West Australian or not, to pay for their 14 days of hotel quarantine.

Updated

'We are entering a new and dangerous phase of pandemic'

Mark McGowan says the coming weeks are crucial for Australia:

The level of community spread inside Victoria is something that we haven’t seen before in this country.

There is no doubt about it - as a nation we are entering a new and dangerous phase of this pandemic. Victoria is doing all it can to bring the situation under control.

I’m pleased common sense has prevailed and the border will now close. I think that is a smart and correct decision, and I think it is long overdue.

Western Australia is here to help where we can. We have sent over one of our best public health professionals, and we have a team of people working from Perth helping with contact tracing in Victoria.

As a state, we are in the fortunate position of being able to help, but we cannot take anything for granted.

WA premier Mark McGowan says his state has recorded three new cases of Covid-19 overnight:

Like yesterday’s cases, the new cases are Australian travellers who flew into Perth recently from overseas.

Two of them are interstate residents who travelled from Indonesia, and the third is a West Australian on a flight from Doha.

Contact tracing is under way on both these flights to identify close contacts of the newly diagnosed cases.

It’s important to note that all these passengers are also in hotel quarantine.

There are now 12 active cases in Western Australia, 10 Western Australians and two from interstate. All are now in hotel quarantine. As you can see, the situation around the world and Victoria continues to involve evolve. Case numbers in some countries are at unbelievable levels. Other friends in Victoria are in an extremely serious situation. Suburban lockdowns, even specific residential building lockdowns. Things I don’t want to have to consider here in Western Australia.

The NSW border pass (when it is available) can be applied for at Services NSW

Applications will go online tomorrow.

You can travel from NSW into Victoria (for those asking if they can get home)

On whether or not the level of community transmission in Victoria will mean that more states will have to close their borders, Josh Frydenberg said:

The next couple of weeks will be telling. What happens then, in terms of the steps the Victorian government has taken, to make sure we can try to stop the rise in the number of cases with contact tracing and testing, we can continue to take the steps necessary. That will be critical.

Let’s see what happens in the next couple of weeks. It is a challenging period.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg was asked how much the NSW-Victoria border closure will cost (he was pretty quick with the numbers when it came to how much the Queensland border shutdown was costing).

When we talked about the Queensland borders we had the specific advice from the deputy chief medical officer, who said there were no medical reasons for those borders to remain closed.

What we are saying here, as we obviously want the recovery to continue apace, when decisions are taken – like these in relation to the spike – then we will have to look at that ...

There is no doubt that closed borders cost jobs but we are facing a significant spike in cases with Victoria.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg was asked about the NSW-Victoria closure:

I have to say this outbreak in Victoria, while serious and significant, is not a surprise.

We are going to see some outbreaks in the period ahead. Australia has had great success flattening the curve and that has allowed many of our sectors to start to reopen again, but there are going to be these challenges.

With regards to the border closures you are talking about, they are decisions the state premiers are taking based on the advice to them.

I won’t second-guess that advice – other than to say, we obviously need to make sure that our communities are safe and the economy continues to recover.

When it comes to the future forecast, we will obviously be updating those, and that will be part of our economic and fiscal update on 23 July.

Updated

Victoria records 22nd death

The Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, has reported Victoria’s 22nd death (and Australia’s 106th).

Updated

Steven Marshall says the SA transition committee is looking at the issue of NSW and ACT:

I think I have been messaging quite strongly for a long period of time that we are very, very pleased with the results in the ACT and NSW.

But there is a meeting tomorrow morning. I don’t want to pre-empt that. But we do want to open up our borders as soon as it is safe to do so.

In fact, I have been saying for a long period of time we don’t want to keep or borders in place one day longer than we need to. I think the securing of the border between NSW and Victoria will give a lot of comfort to the transition committee.

Updated

The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, says the NSW decision to close its border to Victoria “vindicates” South Australia’s decision to keep its border with Victoria closed for longer.

There is still no news on when the border with NSW and the ACT will open.

We need to make sure that there hasn’t been a rush into New South Wales from Victoria to date. We will be looking at it very, very carefully.

Updated

For the latest on residents who have been locked down in the Melbourne towers:

For those asking, pneumonic influenza (called the Spanish flu, although it was actually first recorded in Kansas in the United States – Spanish media actually reported on the virus and, lo and behold, Spain got stuck with the name) was the reason the border between NSW and Victoria was last closed, in 1919.

Updated

We’ll be finding out what this means for Canberra-Melbourne flights at 2pm. The land crossings apply to ACT residents as well.

Updated

We are attempting to get as much information as possible on the Victorian-NSW border closure.

Given it was NSW’s decision (based on health advice) that means it will be policed from the NSW side. Which means Victorians who are in NSW will be able to travel home to Victoria.

The applications for border crossings will be online tomorrow. From the Queensland experience, there will be delays.

Anyone from Melbourne – the whole of Melbourne – will be stopped from crossing the border from midnight. Anyone from the rest of Victoria will be stopped from crossing the border from midnight tomorrow.

If you have been in a hot spot you will have to self-isolate in NSW for two weeks. Police will be checking.

Updated

Also, countdown to Pauline Hanson, who has regular appearances on Sky News, as well as talkback radio shows, often appears in newspapers and has unlimited access to social media, bemoaning the fact she has been “censored” and “stopped from speaking out” because of political correctness.

Updated

I mean, this is a nation which has supported border policies so strict they have earned the admiration of Donald Trump, and we still have people in offshore detention, and we labelled refugees “boat people”, so no one should be surprised at how authorities are preparing for border closures domestically.

Updated

First we had Queensland police worried about people trying to cross the border in the back of trucks.

Now we have NSW police worried about people trying to cross the border by swimming across.

Mick Fuller:

Clearly it is a very long border. You know, someone could swim across the river, walk through – we will be using drones and other aerial surveillance at stops.

We will be focusing on roads because we know that is where most of the vehicles will be: on the four primary arterial roads ...

But nevertheless they will be policed. But nevertheless they will have services workers across a majority of those crossings, and there will be aerial and other surveillance 24/7 right across the border.

Look at this stage we know there is still an $11,000 fine and up to six months in jail. I have reached out to the health minister this morning looking for another infringement for those who come from Covid high-risk areas of Victoria into NSW.

We are seeking health orders for powers to turn people around. So there are certainly strong powers in place but we will be seeking additional powers around on-the-spot fines, especially for those who mislead NSW in their exemption application.

Updated

Pauline Hanson booted from Today

After first promoting her “controversial” (often media code for racist/divisive) views on its social media and asking “What do you think?” the Nine network appears to have deleted the tweet and now banned Pauline Hanson from appearing.

Hanson went to the Today show as a commentator after a spat with the host of rival Seven breakfast TV show, Sunrise, over questions she was asked about her views. This was after many, many months of her uncritically airing her views, ultimately giving her a platform where she launched her successful re-election bid.

Updated

There will be a national update at 3.30pm with deputy chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd.

Updated

People who are returning to NSW will be required to self isolate if they have come from a hotspot area – and it seems NSW is treating all Melbourne as a hot spot, given NSW is going to be turning away Melbourne travellers from midnight.

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says there will be checks:

When you cast your mind back to when the Covid-19 operation started, before the international lockdowns, we were relying on the same methodology where people returning from overseas were isolating for 14 days.

Police were conducting patrols and enforcing that, and we will continue to do that. We really want people to take this seriously. We have been giving warnings to the public around not going to Victoria, and ... if you come back, you really need to be mindful of any symptoms that are flu like.

Get yourself tested, but do not underestimate the pain that all Victorians are going through. And we don’t want to put New South Wales through that.

Updated

Anyone can apply for an exemption but not everyone will get one.

That is how Queensland has handled its crossing issues as well.

Updated

Melbourne travellers stopped from crossing into NSW from midnight

Gladys Berejikian says NSW will stop travellers from Melbourne ahead of the border closure:

Just to make two points clear: we already have police and health officials on our borders stopping anybody from the hot spots coming to NSW. We have already had that in place for a number of days.

The health minister will be ensuring that, come midnight tonight, so for the next 24 hours, the hot spots will extend to all of Melbourne.

Nobody from Melbourne will be able to cross the border in the next 24 hours.

Come midnight tomorrow night it will be all Victorians. We are taking that immediate action so the minister for health will sign a health order saying nobody from greater Melbourne and its surrounds can come to NSW tomorrow, but obviously tomorrow midnight, that is when all Victorians will be prevented from coming across the border unless they have a permit.

I want to say again, I appreciate the stress it might cause our border communities. I have already been in contact with a number of the local members in those communities to advise them that we will be working with police and services NSW to make sure their citizens have the opportunity to conduct their regular business in a safe way.

The next 72 hours, as the police commissioner said, will be difficult. Some people who normally travel across the border for their daily lives will be restrained until we get the permit system in place. We hope that will happen in the next two days.

Updated

Daniel Andrews wouldn’t say who brought up the border closure decision.

Gladys Berejiklian confirms it was NSW and said both Andrews and Scott Morrison “welcomed and understood the NSW position”.

Both were extremely supportive and understanding and, in fact, we are in this together, even though Victoria is going through this difficult time I don’t want Victorians to feel that they’re being singled out in any way.

This could very well be NSW at some stage in the future. This is very much a team effort. This decision was taken through consulting the prime minister and also consulting minister Andrews in Victoria.

I want to stress that what is occurring in Victoria is a new phenomena in Australia and we don’t want that to occur in NSW and we have taken this action.

This is the first time where we have had major community transmission, not based on overseas travel ... and that has triggered the NSW decision. Having said that, given the record of NSW, I do ask all the other states with the exception of Victoria, to open their borders to NSW.

Updated

Queensland has responded to the NSW-Victoria border closure.

Updated

On the border towns, the NSW premier says:

We have been in contact with a number of border communities to explain to them that whilst the next 48-72 hours will be difficult in terms of not letting anyone across the border, we appreciate that for communities like Wodonga, for freight going in and out of Eden and other places, there will be exemptions, permits available and Services New South Wales will be able to do that online and make it as easy as possible for people who live in those communities.

I want to stress that what is occurring in Victoria has not yet occurred anywhere else in Australia.

It is a new part of the pandemic and, as such, it requires a new type of response.

I say to all the other states around Australia, use this as an opportunity to now take off your borders with NSW because, in terms of jobs and economic activity, whilst all of us need to support Victoria during this difficult time and NSW, along with many other states, will continue to provide our support, whether it is through contact tracing, whether it is through doing thousands of daily tests and having health officials down there, we will support them in every way we can – but we also have an obligation to make sure we don’t create any further job losses in the rest of the nation and we support our economy and the rest of the nation by having free and open borders with the rest of the nation.

Updated

Asked about her previous comments on border closures, including that they were “crazy” given Australia was all one country, Gladys Berejiklian says:

Not at all. When we made those statements, or I made those statements, the vast majority of cases that NSW and other states were experiencing were from overseas travellers or the direct contacts.

What is happening now in Victoria is very different. What is happening now in Victoria is the overwhelming majority, I think in fact all of the cases that the premier Andrews announced today are from community transmission.

This is unprecedented in Australia. That is why the decision of the NSW government is unprecedented. We have not seen anything like this.

In fact, when NSW had the record number of cases a day in March in Australia, again the vast majority of our cases were either overseas travellers or the direct contacts. Because the Victorian situation is so different, it is actually a new phenomena in Australia and that is why, in consultation with the prime minister and premier Andrews, NSW has taken this decision, which in fact is welcomed by Victoria, because it releases resources from Victoria and allows us to monitor the border.

Updated

Exemption applications will be online from tomorrow

Mick Fuller:

The reality is in the first 72 hours, from midnight Tuesday this week, it will be difficult, not impossible, but difficult to make that crossing.

There will be delays while we work through who are essential workers.

We have learnt lessons from Queensland and SA. Services New South Wales by tomorrow will have an online application for an exemption.

We will take a sensible but pragmatic approach to those coming into NSW to ensure we protect the people of NSW.

Updated

ADF will help police NSW-Victoria border closure

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says police have been planning for a border closure as part of potential outcomes:

We know there are four primary road crossings, 33 bridges, two waterway crossings and multiple smaller roads.

The task is not lost on me in terms of the enormity of the logistics in this operation alone.

There are 11 local government areas [and] five police districts that will all have to pull together to make sure this operation is a success.

I have been in contact with defence department this morning and we will seek a fresh request for defence assistance with the border operation.

We will also, in the meantime, be relying on other emergency services.

Updated

Dr Kerry Chant says anyone coming in to NSW from a hotspot area has to self isolate:

In relation to the current settings we are advising that anyone returning from a Covid hot-spot area is required to self-isolate, and self-isolation really means staying at home, minimising your contact with anyone else, and it doesn’t mean going to work, engaging in any other social activities outside the house and also not permitting people into the house.

We think this is a prudent and precautionary approach but, based on the fact that we have seen increasing cases extending outside the hot-spot areas and recognising that there is often a lag between when cases are recognised and diagnosed, I felt we needed to get ahead of the potential spread to safeguard the seeding of NSW.

Updated

10 new Covid-19 cases in NSW

NSW has recorded 10 new cases of Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. The people who tested positive are in quarantine.

Updated

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, says the border closure with Victoria had been on the cards “for some time”.

He says the NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, told the government at 8.05am that it was time.

We have been considering this now for quite some time and the conversations have been many, as to how we could approach this, obviously trying to strike the balance between the health issues here for our residents but also the economy.

This morning at 8.05am Dr Chant conveyed to the government her team’s view – her view – that we now had to take further steps to safeguard NSW.

We have already taken in the last few days measures to stop any Victorians coming from hot-spot areas. Our concern, as the premier said, is that that seems to be spreading through the city of Melbourne and we do have concerns that it may in fact spread beyond Melbourne.

We’re hoping it won’t but we can’t afford that risk here in NSW. The decision has been taken that the borders will shut.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian says there is no reason for other states to have their borders closed to NSW.

At the moment, that is South Australia and Western Australia:

I also stress to the other states, now that New South Wales has taken this decision, and given where we are, there is really no excuse for any other state, apart from Victoria, to have any border closures with New South Wales, and I urge all the other states of Australia, in our national interest, to think about that, given this move by the NSW government, we now anticipate that the rest of the nation will be able to deal with each other directly without any hard border closures.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian 'we had to take this step'

Gladys Berejiklian says there has been no other choice but to close the border, as community transmission spreads:

What is happening in Victoria is very different which is why we have had to take this necessary step.

We wouldn’t have taken this step unless we absolutely had to and, in essence, it also takes pressure off Victorian resources because our police and our health officials are able to do their jobs on this side of the border and allow the Victorian officials, whether it is their health officials or their police, to focus on getting control of the virus.

I appreciate that the Victorian premier has already spoken to the media and he would have outlined the fact the community spread is increasing throughout Melbourne and we are also concerned, based on the health advice I received this morning, that there is no guarantee that some of the people in regional Victoria may have not been what they call seeding.

We don’t have any confirmation that nobody in regional Victoria is immune from the virus at this stage. Please know this is not a decision we take lightly but during the pandemic I have always said NSW will have a no-regrets policy and I thank both the prime minister and Mr Andrews for allowing us to move forward with this decision.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian is expected to hold a press conference very soon.

Updated

Victoria's worst daily total for Covid-19 case numbers

There was a lot of information in that press conference.

  • A 90-year-old man diagnosed with Covid-19 died in hospital overnight. His death is the 21st in Victoria and 105th in Australia
  • 127 cases is the highest number recorded in one day in Victoria The previous highest daily total was in March, when 111 cases were recorded. That is from 25,000 tests, but it is the community transmission which is the problem: 53 transmissions are under investigation
  • 16 people living in the locked-down towers tested positive overnight, bringing that outbreak to 53
  • There have been “significant” case numbers of Covid-19 in postcodes adjacent to the hotspot areas
  • The NSW-Victoria border will be closed from midnight tomorrow. It will be policed from the NSW side
  • Border permits will be made available for residents of border towns
  • Holidays will not be an excuse
  • Further ADF staff are being sent to Victoria.

Updated

Daniel Andrews finishes on this:

Just in conclusion - can I again say I am so grateful to all of those who are making enormous sacrifices, those who are on the front-line of our fight against this virus.

We’ll continue to support you, and we - all of us who aren’t living in locked down postcodes, all of us should not only be sending our best wishes, but following the rules in order to thank those who are in much more restricted circumstances than the rest of our state.

It’s not too much to be - not too much to ask that someone take a test. It’s not too much to ask that people use common sense and good judgement and for some - stop are pretending this is over. It is not over.

It is far from over.

And I appeal to you - if you want that to be the case, if you want to be on the other side of this with more opening up and less impact on your life, then we have all got to work together, we have all got to get tested when we’re sick and we all have got to follow the rules.

There have been no reports of anyone living inside the locked down towers refusing a Covid-19 test.

Daniel Andrews:

As far as I know, those who have been asked for a test have been part of program.

That will ramp right up today, and we’ll be able to provide you probably a more detailed report tomorrow. I just don’t think there’s any reason for people not to consent to a test in those towers.

There’s - in fact, anywhere for that matter. There it’s not too much to ask to be tested so that your results can be used to protect you, your family and, indeed, every single Victorian family. That is not too much to ask.

For some, it is a challenging process to go through, that’s why the saliva test can be used for those very - little kids, for instance.

We always try to do as best we can to make it as - as easy a process as it can be, but the results are very, very powerful. Look, to those residents, if anyone who doesn’t get tested, obviously the rules that apply to all residents now will have to continue to apply for them.

Potentially after the hard lockdown has ended. We would have to assume, as I said yesterday, that those residents were positive and, therefore, the most precautionary, the hardest set of restrictions, would have to remain in place for them. I don’t want to get to that.

I want everybody tested so we got real data, not theory, we got actually data and then we can make the best decisions that both protect public health, but also understand that this is a very challenging thing for people to be confined in their homes.

Going on holiday however, will not be an acceptable reason to cross the border.

Daniel Andrews:

I will leave it to Gladys to take you through the details. It is closed. It’s been enforced by them. This is obviously Australian issue of Victorians moving out rather than the other - the other way. So her requirements and the framework that she’s going to put in is really a matter for her

Daniel Andrews says the border towns will have a permit system “similar to other states”.

Gladys Berejiklian will detail how that works.

Freight has continued while South Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and Western Australia have had their borders closed.

Daniel Andrews continues:

I know it’s difficult. I know people are sick and tired and fatigued of this global pandemic, the rules, the restrictions. I get that. I understand that.

But this is where we’re at: there is no vaccine. It’s wildly infectious.

If people pretend it’s over all they’ll be doing is spreading the virus. And then we will finish up with even more rules that will be even less palatable.

We have all got to stay the course. We all have to do that. And it isn’t too much to ask that people just use common sense and good judgment.

It is real, it is serious, it’s not over and I just ask all Victorians – I can’t do this on my own. A team of thousands of Victorians can’t do it on their own. I need each of you to do the right thing. Otherwise, everyone is going to be back in their home in a lockdown. That’s what’s going to happen.

This could not be more serious. Could not be more serious. I’m not telling people what to do; I’m asking: work with me and my team and we will get this back under control and we will be able to resume our easing, our opening up.

The alternative is people pretend it’s over and it will be anything but over if some of this behaviour continues.

Updated

Further lockdowns not ruled out

Daniel Andrews once again warns of further lockdowns:

I understand it’s very challenging to be in those suburbs at the moment. But every single Victorian benefits from those.

Most notably where those virus are at unacceptable levels, those lock downed postcodes. I want to be clear - these are challenging numbers.

All of us have got a part to play in getting control of this virus, stabilising it, driving down case numbers, containing it and then getting back to a point where we can - we can resume our program of opening up.

That will be further away if people don’t do the right thing.

That will be further away still if people say,

“Well, I want this to be over so I’m going to pretend that it is.”

It isn’t. There’s a long way to run in this. And where we are now shows you that even a small number of cases, particularly if those cases coincide with people not following the rules, large family groups, where people are ill, going and visiting other large family groups and so on and so on, you can finish up with many hundreds and indeed thousands of cases as a direct result of that.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/AAP

This is serious, this is real, and no Victorian has any excuse but to take this seriously.

Otherwise, we will finish up in a situation where all post codes are locked down. No-one wants that and no-one through their actions and the choices they make should make that more likely, should contribute to that outcome.

Updated

Daniel Andrews says there has not been a reluctance to include ADF personnel in the Victorian response, and says ADF staff have been part of the response from the beginning:

There is no reluctance and while that matter – that point is made from time to time – those opinions are put as fact. I don’t know how many times I said but I’ll say it again: whenever I needed anything from the prime minister the answer is yes.

I have got no issues with anybody from another state, anybody from another agency, anybody from another level of government, we are all working together.

Local councils, the state government, all of its agencies, some volunteer groups, a whole range of different partners, and indeed we have ADF and have had ADF support in the state control centre throughout – just as we did during bushfires.

So, again, I can’t ... determine the questions you ask me, but please don’t in any way interpret any reticence on the part of anybody on my team to get the job done and any and all personnel will be used. I am absolutely unconcerned – I could not care what uniform people are wearing. We have got to get this done, and we will.

Updated

Prof Brett Sutton says authorities are still learning how they respond to the pandemic:

I think we’ll have to get all the lessons of this as we have from cruise ships and, you know, one of those things is about everything that you do in the prevention space to make sure that there’s awareness among all of the residents about symptoms and stepping forward for testing, all of the things that we know work from a prevention point of view, the social distancing that can be done to the fullest extent possible, the hand hygiene, the cough etiquette.

But there are structural issues in the same way that cruise ships have, in the same way aged-care facilities have that make it more vulnerable.

Again, it’s not about the individuals who are in these settings although they have those vulnerabilities to more severe illness.

It’s about the structural issues that make this a challenging situation in terms of the outbreak potential and having the shared laundry, having tight spaces; lift wells, stairwells, and corridors and foyers are the challenges here. They’re not easy solutions.

Updated

More ADF assistance is arriving in Victoria to help with logistics, including taking over some of the mass testing sites to free Victorian staff to redirect to hotspots.

Updated

Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, says health authorities are watching the other areas surrounding the locked down suburbs:

[Local government areas] are one of the filters that we put our decision-making about – about restricted postcodes – but we also look at the rates within those postcodes depending on the population.

It’s a big population as a local government area. But they’re all for consideration on a daily basis and we will take appropriate measures if they reach thresholds that we have laid out ...

I don’t regard anything as inevitable but I also regard everything as being available to us as required. Again, we know what works; it worked through March and April and those measures are the physical distancing that we can all do and the isolation and quarantine of cases.

If that can be done through everyone doing the right thing both within the restricted postcodes under public health directions or more broadly through awareness and motivation and being in it together, then that would be overwhelmingly the preferable thing to occur. But if there are public health directions that need to overlay that in order to make sure that absolutely transmission is being suppressed, then, yes, that’s an available tool.

Updated

Daniel Andrews:

This is about limiting movement outside Victoria and the Victorian chief health officer is responsible for public health within Victoria.

So this is very much a decision that is made by myself, the prime minister and the premier of New South Wales.

I apologise for any inconvenience that it will cause those who would otherwise have travelled, but this is the right approach to take at this time given the still unacceptably high numbers of cases and the fact that our focus should really be exclusively on testing and finding the close contacts of those positive cases and limiting the spread of this virus ...

There’s nothing more or less to this than what I have basically announced. All three of us agreed that this was the appropriate step to take right now. There’s no more intrigue to it than that. It wasn’t a matter of – of anything other than a unified and joint position to take this step. That’s why I’m speaking to it now, Gladys will speak to it later. National cabinet has been informed about this and no doubt the prime minister will speak about this at some point also. There’s no more intrigue to it than that.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian will not be looking forward to her coming press conference (which is expected after this) given how often she chipped the Queensland premier for closing the borders in recent weeks, and pushed for the border to reopen by mentioning how NSW had kept its borders open throughout the pandemic.

But this is a virus. It doesn’t respect border lines. And there should be no gloating over decisions being made in regards to public health.

Updated

Daniel Andrews says he won’t get into “silly games” over who mentioned the border closure first.

I had a conversation with the prime minister, I had conversations with Gladys. All three of us agreed this was the right step to take ...

I’m not going to get into silly games about who was the first person to mention the word ‘border’.

It was a mature, proper and completely – completely necessary decision and the conversation reflected that. I’m not going to get into trying to dissect the conversation as to who rang who and who spoke first.

There’s been lots of conversations between offices, there’s been lots of conversations between leaders, and there was a three-way conversation an hour or so ago and we all agreed that this was the right step to take. And as for the practicalities and the delivery of this, Gladys will be doing a press conference a bit later on this morning and will be able to speak to all of those matters.

Updated

But the chief medical officer also acknowledges that adjoining suburbs may also need to be locked down:

They’re [new cases] are very much in that north-west corridor. Very much focused in the hot zone, if you like, but there is a significant number that are in the adjacent postcodes.

So it’s not just in those restricted postcodes. There’s significant spillover and so to use the bushfire analogy: there are literally spot fires adjacent to those restricted postcodes. But people are absolutely being engaged in those areas so there’s lots of door-knocking, there’s lots of test that’s occurring, and so we’re picking up the cases in those adjacent postcodes, but they’re not only in those restricted ones ...

We’re reviewing this on a daily basis. We do need to see whether the numbers in those postcodes, adjacent postcodes as well as the restricted postcodes, are stabilising, but, yeah, you’re right – we’re needing to watch those adjacent postcodes especially to see how to respond.

Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton
Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Updated

Victorian chief medical officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said more residents in the locked-down towers had tested positive to Covid-19:

The 53 total that we have now got for the towers does include 16 new cases as of today. But there are an additional 10 that were in earlier numbers that are now linked to those towers.

So it’s increase of 26, essentially doubling of the numbers from yesterday and really not unexpected, and is exactly the reason why these towers are in a hard lockdown and why we’re doing extensive testing across all of them.

Updated

The Victorian premier details some of the charities, agencies, advocates and businesses which have stepped up to get people who are under the police lockdown what they need.

This now includes halal meals.

The lockdown is for at least five days. Police are stationed outside (one officer for every six residents) to stop people from leaving their homes.

The housing minister, Richard Wynne, says medical, mental and emotional support is also being provided:

As of yesterday, approximately 400 tests were conducted in the towers yesterday and that will be significantly ramped up today, and as the premier has indicated we want to ensure that everybody living in those towers are ... tested.

I know that there’s been some commentary about, perhaps, people who have not necessarily received the level of support that they would have liked, but ... I just want to assure all of our residents that we are doing absolutely everything that we can to both reach out and support people in this really difficult time at the moment.

I think more broadly, as the premier has indicated, as somebody who is associated – well, I live next door literally to the North Melbourne estate – I know how difficult it has been for my neighbours who are doing, you know – this is tough. This is very, very tough, but I can assure all of the residents in those nine tower blocks that we are with them, we’ll stick with them and we will support them right through this incredibly difficult time.

Updated

Daniel Andrews continues:

I said yesterday and indeed the day before when we announced these arrangements that it would be a massive task and it is fair to say that no element of this is easy.

I want to reassure everyone in those towers, their family beyond those nine towers, and every single Victorian, that there are literally hundreds and thousands of people working, from police to social workers, to nurses and doctors, all the way through to people working in our supermarkets, people working in commercial kitchens, there are many, many hundreds and indeed it runs into the thousands of people and they are all doing their absolute best.

It doesn’t make it easier, it is very challenging to stand up something as quickly as this, but it is based on the best public health advice; it is the only option that the government had to do that important work of containing the spread.

Every single person, and there are many of them, they are out there doing the very best that they can. We will continue to work hard every hour of every day over this five-day period to get to every resident the support that they need and to get every resident tested.

That is the real key to giving us options and potentially having a different set of rules once the five days pass.

Updated

Daniel Andrews then moves on to the “hard” lockdown of the nine Melbourne public housing towers.

Residents were given 30 minutes’ notice of the lockdown, which is being carried out by police who are stopping people from leaving their buildings. Nowhere else has seen this response.

Andrews:

It is very important that we make sure that we contain the virus and that we can control the movement of everybody in those towers unless and until they are tested.

That process is well under way and it’s my expectation that each and every one of those residents gets tested and that the sooner that is done, the sooner we have those tests taken and the results back from the laboratory, the sooner we can assess the results and make judgments about what rules, what sorts of restrictions, what treatments need to be applied to those who have the virus, who reside in those towers and those who do not.

Staying inside your flat, inside your unit, is the safest and best thing to do.

It is not pleasant. I know it’s challenging. It is very challenging, but it is far preferable to seeing vast numbers of people with underlying health conditions infected with this virus, spreading it between each other and the inevitable tragic outcomes that will come from that.

Updated

On how it will work for border towns, such as Albury-Wodonga:

There will be a permit system and there will be further detailed arrangements announced by the premier of New South Wales a bit later on today.

There will be a facility for people who live on those border communities to be able to travel to and from for the purposes of work, the purposes of the essential health services they might need.

One example, the Albury hospital, run by us, that is on the other side of the border.

Some services can be accessed in Wodonga and others will only be accessed in Albury.

There will be specific arrangements put in place to make sure people can get, in that example, the healthcare that they need.

I will leave it to premier Berejiklian to make further announcements in the next couple of hours about some of the details of how that arrangement will be rolled out but that is the product of a joint decision and an agreement between the prime minister, myself and the premier of New South Wales, one that I think is the smart call, the right call at this time, given the significant challenges we face in containing this virus.

Updated

Victoria-NSW border to be policed on NSW side

Daniel Andrews:

That closure will be enforced on the New South Wales side so as not to be a drain on resources that are very much focused on fighting the virus right now across our state.

I am grateful to the premier of New South Wales for her support in giving effect to that. This is one of those precautionary measures, it is one of those things that I think will help us in broader terms contain the spread of the virus and what it means, for instance, is many staff who are currently being employed or deployed to take temperatures, to do all sorts of coordination work, whether it be at our airports or at train stations, for instance, will no longer have to do that work and can potentially be redeployed into arguably much more important roles.

I apologise for any inconvenience that will cause people who have unavoidable travel to New South Wales.

Updated

127 people diagnosed with Covid-19 is the highest daily total Victoria has recorded since the pandemic began.

It’s one of the reasons the decision to close the border has been made.

Victoria records 21st Covid-19 death

Daniel Andrews says a man in his 90s, who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 died in a Victorian hospital overnight

Sadly, it is my duty to inform you that a man in his 90s has passed away overnight.

He was in the care of one of our hospitals. We send our condolences and our best wishes to his family and love ones. His friends, this will be a very difficult day for them and we send our sympathies to each and every person affected by that tragedy. Out of respect for the family, I will provide no further details as to that person’s identity or any further details about that case.

If that changes over time, then we will but at this stage, we’re not in a position to shed any further light on the circumstances of that individual. I have got a couple of things I want to take you through.

That would bring Australia’s death toll to 105.

That brings Victoria’s total to 645 active cases.

There were 24,528 tests done yesterday

Victoria records 127 new Covid-19 cases

34 are connected to known outbreaks.

40 are from routine testing.

53 are under investigation.

Updated

For those asking, the NSW-Victoria border closure would include the ACT.

Labor’s Andrew Giles has condemned Pauline Hanson for her comments this morning:

Senator Hanson’s remarks do not bear repeating, but her conduct must be condemned by all sides of politics.

Now is a time for political leadership which unequivocally rejects racism, and the forces seeking to divide Australians.

Labor has been calling for a new national anti-racism campaign for many months.

Today, we seek the support of the Morrison Government in joining us in repudiating Senator Hanson’s hateful and hurtful conduct and supporting a new anti-racism campaign.

First time in a century NSW-Victorian border is closed

So Gladys Berejiklian, Daniel Andrews and Scott Morrison held a phone hook-up this morning to discuss the Victorian Covid-19 outbreak.

It was decided that given the amount of community transmission the best decision would be to close the NSW-Victorian border to try to stop the spread.

It would be the first time in a century the border between the two states was closed.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

Updated

There are about 50 border crossings between Victoria and NSW – as well as towns which share the border.

The logistics was one of the reasons the border didn’t shut down at the beginning of the pandemic.

Updated

We are getting more information, but it looks like the NSW-Victoria border will be closed from Tuesday night.

Reports Victoria-NSW border to close

The NSW cabinet is meeting today – it looks like it has made a decision to close its border with Victoria.

Gladys Berejiklian warned that was on the cards but said it was a last-ditch option that she didn’t want to have to enact given the border remained open throughout the beginnings of the pandemic. Dan Andrews had also warned of needing stronger measures.

But with Victoria continuing to record upwards of 70 cases a day, including 108 on Saturday, the ski season seeing people cross over and travel and people not socially distancing, it looks like it has made the decision to close it off.

Updated

The latest Festivals Australia funding projects have been announced.

These projects include:

  • $27,156 for Best Employment to develop and perform Unstop-Ability: Journey, a disability- and Aboriginal-led dance, music and drama production at the Inverell Sapphire City festival.
  • $95,000 for Ten Days on the Island to create mapali, a dawn celebration with fire, dance and other performing arts as the opening event for the 2021 Ten Days on the Island festival.
  • $35,000 for Big hART to deliver the Songs for Peace Prison Program, a series of music workshops for inmates at the Roebourne regional prison.
  • $26,460 for the Village Festival of New Performance to deliver The Game, a large-scale, interactive community competition that reinvents theatre sports as part of the Benalla festival.

Updated

Victorian update expected before 11am

We are expecting an update on the Victorian situation within the hour.

Updated

The national immunisation program has widened the eligibility for the meningococcal B vaccine:

For the first time Bexsero® is being made available free to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants under two – they are almost four times as likely to contract this disease as non-Indigenous children.

About 20,000 Indigenous children are expected to be vaccinated each year.

Meningococcal disease is rare but can have serious effects, even for survivors.

This and other changes to the NIP, based on expert medical advice, will target vaccines for Australians most at risk from meningococcal and pneumococcal diseases. The other changes include:

  • People aged 70 and over are now eligible for the pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar 13® to ensure more targeted protection for the elderly.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be eligible for three pneumococcal vaccines after they turn 50.
  • More people with medical risk conditions will have access to free pneumococcal, meningococcal ACWY and the Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines.

Updated

For the record, here was Pauline Hanson’s view on lockdowns when they applied to her in April.

Hanson was forced to isolate in a giant Queenslander, surrounded by paddocks and space in which she could take walks, was allowed trips to the shops and, crucially, did not have police stationed at her door to stop her from getting fresh air.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says new social distancing restrictions are absolutely ‘ridiculous’ and tomorrow she will go and [lie] in her paddock to see whether she will cop a fine for being outdoors.

On Wednesday, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has instructed Victorians not to visit loved ones or partners who live at a different place of residence, asking them to consider whether making social calls is ‘worth a life’.

However, on Wednesday evening the premier backflipped on that order, instead allowing couples who don’t live at the same address to again socialise with each other.

‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard it,’ Hanson told Sky News host Paul Murray.

‘No premier of any state is going to tell me whether I can go and see someone or not.’

Hanson also said the footage to emerge of a policeman fining a woman who was sitting on a park bench by herself is simply ‘bloody ridiculous’.

‘Well look, I’ll tell everyone I’m going to go and lie down in my paddock tomorrow. Let’s see if they will turn up and fine me because I’m out there in my paddock [lying] on the ground.’

Hanson said the regulations are simply ‘over the bloody top’.

Updated

Victoria's second wave 'a threat to overall Australian economic recovery': IBISWorld

IBISWorld analyst Yin Yeoh has taken a look at the Australian Covid-19 economic recovery:

The second wave of Covid-19 cases in Victoria is a threat to overall Australian recovery. It underscores just how quickly this virus can return, and should make other states and territories wary of relaxing quarantine measures too quickly ...

While Victoria has been the first Australian region to experience a second wave ... it is unlikely to be the last. Local outbreaks and lockdowns are likely to be the new normal for some time.

Yeoh’s report includes this breakdown:

In 2018-19, Victoria contributed 23.7% of Australia’s national GDP, with most of this productivity occurring in the wholesale (18.7%), retail (13.7%), construction (13.5%) and manufacturing (12.8%) divisions.

Overall Australian GDP is expected to decline by 1% in 2020-21, before recovering by 4.3% in 2021-22.

Updated

If you are looking for international Covid-19 news, you can find it here:

Victoria is the latest state to see additional infrastructure funding. The state and federal governments are adding $525m to money already announced to bring forward projects ranging from intersection and highway upgrades to pedestrian projects.

Updated

During his regular slot on the Seven network this morning, Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon was asked whether or not he was “happy” with the Victorian Labor government response to have police lock down residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne:

Well, I certainly wouldn’t use the word happy, Kochie. The circumstances are terrible. I’ve no doubt the police would have the powers, but I would look at the sort of analogy with the Ruby Princess.

Gladys Berejiklian was in trouble for letting people off the Ruby Princess, and now Daniel Andrews is in trouble for doing something similar, or in other words – sorry, doing the opposite – and keeping people in the tower block and locking them in. So it seems you can’t win in politics. But something’s gone terribly wrong in Victoria and accountability will be important, and it’ll be interesting to see how that runs out.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon.
Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

The 2020 global Sustainable Development report is out.

Australia has ranked third for its Covid-19 response (South Korea and Latvia were the only countries judged to have done better) but on overall progress on the United Nations’ sustainable development goals we rate 37th. You won’t be surprised that we are brought down by our (lack of) climate and environment action.

You can read the report here.

Updated

Pauline Hanson is trending on social media, after she was asked on the Nine network about the residents of the public housing towers which have been placed under an extreme lockdown.

Keep in mind that there were other outbreaks during the pandemic – including people who returned from skiing holidays and reportedly flouted self-isolation rules – who were not placed under police lockdown.

Hanson has responded exactly the way you would expect Hanson to respond. I am not going to add her comments here, because she wants the outrage. There is a Queensland state election in October, and she is looking for oxygen. (Her social media accounts are already retweeting the segments, which make a point of highlighting she has said “a lot of controversial things”.)

All I am going to say is that maybe we should stop asking Hanson for her opinion on things she has no expertise in. It’s damaging, ill-informed and does nothing but inflame situations. Feelings are not fact.

Updated

Dr Tony Bartone continued:

Let’s see what happens in Victoria over the next two to four weeks. If we can got those numbers right become down, if we can get the confidence that we have got these outbreaks under control and then assess, indeed, whether there has been any other outbreaks or any other failures in the process around the nation.

I think it is a real salutary measure to just look at and assess what we have achieved, assess what we have done in the last month or so and then slowly and sensibly continue to progress forward. It is a fine balance.

We can’t be in lockdown forever, absolutely not. But let’s not have to go back in reverse and then absolutely run the risk of a second wave and then really all the unnecessary harm and damage it will do to the society as a whole here in Australia.

Australian Medical Association President Dr Tony Bartone.
Australian Medical Association President Dr Tony Bartone. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Australian Medical Association calls for pause in easing of restrictions nationwide

The Australian Medical Association has called for a pause in the easing of all Covid-19 restrictions across the country.

The doctor lobby group wants all the states and territories to just take a breather and wait to see how the Victorian situation plays out, before moving forward with planned restriction easings.

It’s president, Dr Tony Bartone, said the next two weeks would be critical:

In such a wide country like Australia, an island continent, different geography in different parts of the country, it was going to be that the response was always going to be at different paces along the way.

Clearly, what we have seen is that there is almost this sort of competitive tension to be the first state to get back to full pre-covid ways and that sort of pressure, that sort of anxiety to get back to pre-covid normal behaviour has seen things like we saw on the weekend, the Queensland nightclubs when social distancing went right out the window, you might say.

If we forget all of those measure, all of the advice from the public health authorities and medical authorities about social distancing, hand washing, cough etiquette, staying away if you even have the remotest of symptoms.

Getting yourself tested and having the Covid app on your phone. If we forget that and become complacent we will see what happened in Victoria happen in other parts of the country and it was an appropriate point to pause and say, “Let’s just see how the hotspot outbreaks come to under control”, because clearly we are at an important juncture.

The next week or two will be critical in understanding how the response to our measures is actually coming out and, indeed, how we are able to go back to some sort of certainty about progressing forward.

Updated

Sussan Ley is on the ABC talking about this story:

Asked why it is taking so long and Australia has to wait until 2024 to act in a lot of these areas, Ley says:

Because there is different processes in different states ... We want to work with them so they are part of this and already they [are] reinvesting for new plans for bottles and containers, for soft plastics and consumers, too, as part of the kerbside collection. The point I come back to is clean streams of waste. Developing the way that we do that so that we actually make use of it and not see it as a problem to be dumped in the ground.

Updated

For first-hand accounts of what is happening in the communities which have been placed under the strictest lockdowns we have seen throughout the pandemic, you can find some views here:

Updated

Now that the Eden-Monaro byelection is over, we should be getting some sort of insight into what the government plans on doing with the wage subsidy, jobkeeper and the unemployment benefit.

Treasury has handed a report to the government, but we don’t know what is in it, as yet – we’ve been told we’ll learn that in “July”. The government is working on “phase three” of its support, which will be more targeted to industries which need it.

But as we know, the economy is not great. As AAP reports:

Deloitte’s quarterly Business Outlook released on Monday says Australia’s economy will shrink by 3% this year, while Victoria is set to be the hardest hit of the states.

This could have broad implications given Victoria makes up one quarter of the nation’s economy.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says Victoria’s spike in cases shows the need to be vigilant.

“We will continue to do all that is necessary to ensure Australia bounces back stronger on the other side,” he said.

Deloitte’s Chris Richardson says some sort of wage subsidy like jobkeeper will be needed that is limited to a smaller range of businesses – such as those tied to international borders – and the size of the benefit may need to be smaller, labelling it a “jobtweaker”.

He also argues for keeping the jobseeker dole benefit “stronger for longer” as an emergency safety net to fill the cracks in the economy caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Updated

Antoun Issa has taken a look at the future of remote working:

One of the residents who lives in one of the towers locked down by the Victorian government and police, has had a chat to the ABC this morning.

Yuqub Hashi said there was no warning, and unsurprisingly, “feels like jail”.

It caused a lot of confusion in my building specifically. We were basically rushed. We were caught by surprise. We didn’t know what was going on. We have a lot of people who live in our houses.

Talking about myself – there’s nine people who live in my home with a three-bedroom apartment. So it is very confined in my home.

We’re being told to stay at home, even though it’s confined.

Like, it kind of gets the feeling that we’re in jail.

And also, another thing would be – if you can see, like those are the public housing buildings that are in lockdown in Flemington.

Over there, that building, that’s in North Melbourne as well, and that one in Flemington, both of them as you can see, they’re privately owned buildings.

They are living in North Melbourne and Flemington. They are under normal restrictions but there’s no police presence there at all whatsoever, and there isn’t any stay at home where you can’t come outside.

They can go outside whenever they want to, but we can’t.

It’s given us the feeing that basically, because we live in public housing, it’s easier.

Like, it’s easier to shut you up, and like, it’s not fair.

Updated

Meanwhile, there is still talk of a trans-Tasman travel bubble – but not with Australia as a whole.

New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said it’s something which could be considered on a state-by-state basis – but she is waiting for Australia to make the call. Ardern told the AM Show:

It comes down to decision-making by Australia itself.

We’ve got our criteria for what we need to see – either as the country as a whole or state-by-state – in order to open up. Whether they choose to go state-by-state is a matter for them.”

You can read more about that here.

Updated

Good morning

It’s been a very rough weekend in Victoria, particularly for residents in nine inner-city public housing blocks who have found themselves locked down with police outside their homes – a response that has one officer for every six residents.

It’s intense and uncomfortable and there are still questions over why some of the city’s most vulnerable residents, many who escaped war-torn countries or abuse, are being subjected to what the Victorian government has termed a “hard” lockdown.

Yesterday the state recorded another 74 cases of Covid-19. The day before it was 108.

It has also meant the mask question is once again being asked.

As AAP reports:

The outbreak has prompted Victoria’s public transport union to call for all passengers to be required to wear face masks in Melbourne.

Acting chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the use of face masks was discussed at Sunday’s Australian health protection principal committee meeting.

“Masks can be part of the solution in times where there is community transmission and there is no other way of protection,” Kelly said.

“There are certain circumstances where they could be used ... [in terms of] out in the community, there will be further information from the Victorian authorities on that in coming days.”

Kelly cautioned that wearing low-grade masks could put people at greater risk.

“You can actually be more likely to get an infection in the respiratory tract, so masks are not without their problems,” he said. “They need to be used properly.”

Meanwhile, a full lockdown is not out of the question for Victoria.

We’ll keep you updated with the situation as it unfolds, as well as all the Covid-19 and political news from across the country.

You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.

Updated

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