What happened today, Tuesday 1 June
And with that, another hectic day of news comes to an end. Here’s everything that went down today:
- Victoria recoded three new Covid cases overnight, with two linked and one under investigation.
- Victoria will also enact a “five-day vaccination blitz” for aged care workers, stepping into what was federal government process.
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Jo Dyer, the friend of the woman who made an historical rape allegation against Christian Porter, said in a statement Porter had “now twice impugned my honesty and integrity”.
- The defence department confirmed Peter Dutton’s office gave “feedback” on some media responses.
- A man in his 50s has tested positive to Covid whilst in hotel quarantine in Perth.
For everyone in Victoria, here is the Guardian’s quick guide to exposure sites and to lockdown rules this time out. Wishing everyone in lockdown luck and strength.
Updated
House prices were in the news today, again, but this time with some mind boggling numbers.
According to data released by CoreLogic today, Sydney has seen house prices soar by $1220 a day, and Melbourne house prices are climbing at almost $800 a day, with no signs of slow down.
That makes those markets some of the hottest in the world, with only Vancouver seeing house prices climb faster.
Sydney’s median house value in May climbed another 3.5 per cent to a record $1.186 million. Since the start of the year, it has grown by $34,200 a month or $8550 a week.
More out of WA now, with authorities saying the two positive cases were staying in adjourning rooms at the end of a corridor.
Deputy chief health officer Robyn Lawrence said at the presser that many recent cases of transmission in hotels elsewhere around the country had also come with people staying at the end of corridors.
WA’s chief health officer Andrew Robertson said a man flew into Perth from Colombia via the US on 21 May and tested positive on 23 May.
The man next door had arrived in Perth on 16 May and had tested negative to Covid-19 twice before he tested positive on his day 13 test.
It is not yet known how transmission occurred, but this particular hotel, the Pan Pacific Hotel, had previously advised WA Health that its rooms were “negative pressure”.
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WA man tests Covid-positive in hotel quarantine
A man in his 50s has tested positive to Covid whilst in hotel quarantine in Perth.
Authorities believe the man caught it from another guest in the hotel, in an adjacent room.
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An interesting tidbit from estimates earlier today, where deputy health secretary John Skerritt said “we don’t want to be the US” when it comes to vaccine advertisements.
Skerritt was asked about whether the government should be building a more robust public campaign of advertising and incentives to promote vaccine uptake.
He said the government needs to carefully “balance” public advertising and the public’s health priorities:
Our role from a policy point of view, is not whether the government or individual companies wish to offer incentives.
We don’t want to become the United States when it comes to advertising medicines, but we also don’t want to stand in the way of encouraging people to be vaccinated.
As a regulator of advertising, one thing we have undertaken to do … is to make sure that any incentives that are offered by companies do not contradict the legal requirements for advertising.
On the one hand you’d be silly to stand in the way of encouraging people to get vaccinated. But I don’t think we’re wanting people to either get free beer, a bucket of rice or an umbrella … We need to balance the public health outcome of getting vaccinated against a silly thing like ‘you get a set of steak knives if you go out and get AstraZeneca’.
Skerritt also revealed there had been five industry complaints on some of the promotional material the government has released.
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South Australian authorities have warned that the state could face further restrictions, as concern grows over the Victorian outbreak.
The state’s Transition Committee, which monitors policies through the post-pandemic phase, debated today the possibility of re-introducing restrictions to prevent another outbreak.
Police commissioner Grant Stevens said the committee debated possible “trigger points” for the state.
We can’t ignore the fact that there is a very concerning situation in Victoria, particularly in greater Melbourne, and the number of exposure sites is significant and over 300.
The reminder is for everybody that if you have the slightest symptoms, we need you to get tested so we can get as early an indication of whether or not we do have Covid-19 in our community.
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There has been quite a lot of discussion around the vaccination of aged care workers today, but I thought this tweet neatly captured why people are outraged:
Wowee. Just 32,833 of the aged care workforce consisting of roughly 350,000 employees (including cleaners, cooks etc) have been fully vaccinated as at May 30. That's less than 10 per cent. Estimates hears these figures are just within the fed program. https://t.co/kHUy8URLyc pic.twitter.com/N5JR85JlWm
— Olivia Caisley (@livcaisley) June 1, 2021
Good afternoon everyone, a quick thanks to Amy Remeikis for another expert shift on the blog. I’ll be taking you through the evening’s news, so let’s get stuck in.
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On that note, I am going to hand you over to the brilliant Mostafa Rachwani who shall take you through the evening shift.
Thank you to everyone who followed along with us today – we truly appreciate it and we love seeing you all back in the comments. We are working to keep them open as long as possible. It won’t always work out, but we are trying.
I’ll be back early tomorrow morning for more parliament and estimates. In the mean time, eat something just for pleasure tonight, and take care of you.
James Paterson finishes his Afternoon Briefing appearance with this:
I do know that Victorians have suffered too many lockdowns for too long and the Victorian government has implicitly acknowledged their own responsibility and that by commissioning an inquiry into their own hotel quarantine failures last year and it is having an enormous impact on Victorian citizens and small businesses who have suffered very much from this.
If the Victorian government thinks that further lockdowns are necessary, it is incumbent on them to provide the necessary economic financial support that Victorians may need to get through that.
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Labor’s Stephen Jones responds to that same question and says:
Firstly, there has been more federal government support go to New South Wales and Victoria. I do not begrudge New South Wales that, not because I’m from New South Wales but because I’m a member of the Australian commonwealth and one of the reasons with federated in the first place was because to ensure we have the strength of the united commonwealth enabling us to do with the challenges of a united commonwealth.
Nothing is a challenge like a pandemic, the one we are dealing with at the moment. Try as he may, you cannot get away from the fact that your vaccine rollout has failed and you have not stood up a quarantine system fit for purpose. That is the crux of the matter.
This is why we have the problem in aged care.
This is why we have this problem in Victoria because you have not stood up and this is all escaped from hotel quarantine which is, and I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I think hotel quarantine was not the right response 12 months ago.
When he needed to move quickly, absolutely, you think in hotel to set up a quarantine system but we are nearly 18 months down the road now.
We hope still not put in place purpose-built quarantine services.
It seems to me strange that if you want to bring a horse or a cat or dog into a country, you put them in a commonwealth biosecurity centre but you want to bring a human being into the country, it is hotel quarantine and it’s not a commonwealth responsibility! That is bizarre!
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Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson on Afternoon Briefing is asked whether or not the federal government should be providing financial support to Victoria during this lockdown:
The Federal Government has supported not just workers but businesses and university students and migrants the men in the community to make sure they can get through this.
There is a limit as to how much federal taxpayers can be asked to bear and it is the case of Victoria has had the most days in lockdown and the most number of lockdowns and Victorian Government has some responsibility to bear there.
They have the exact same capacity to go and borrow money to support businesses and workers and others in the community and I think we are getting to a point where asking the rest of Australia who has not had to go into the lockdowns repeatedly for long periods to subsidise the failures that have occurred in Victoria is getting unreasonable.
About 1200 Afghan nationals have been resettled in Australia since 2013 under a program to assist people who had put their lives on the line to help Australia in Afghanistan.
But officials have told Senate estimates they don’t have a breakdown on how many applications they have received since the announcement that Australia would pull its remaining forces out of Afghanistan by September this year.
Security guards and interpreters have raised concerns about risks to their safety amid the drawdown of Australian and international troops and the decision last week to shut the Australian embassy in Kabul.
Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, pointed to reports that the US and UK were planning to give safe haven to thousands of Afghan interpreters and guards, and said:
I’m asking whether or not the Australian government will do the right thing and provide pathways for those Afghan locals who assisted us ... These are friends of Australia and I think they deserve to be treated better than they have been thus far.
Hugh Jeffrey, a defence department first assistant secretary responsible for international policy, replied that the Australian government “does offer resettlement for identified locally engaged employees who are at risk of harm due to their employment in support of Australia’s mission in Afghanistan”.
We view the policy as a moral obligation, as do you, to current and former Afghan engaged employees that are locally employed.
These employees … do include interpreters, they provide vital support and have done over the years to the ADF to conduct their missions. The department has two responsibilities, to determine if these people have been employed by the ADF and indeed if they are at risk of harm, and then defence will go through a process of certifying those applications, and then the home affairs department will do the visa processing.
Jeffrey said his division had received more than 1000 applications since 2013, and had certified about 600 of those applications. Including the applicants and their families, about 1200 Afghan nationals had been resettled in Australia under this program since then, he said.
So would the Australian government follow the UK and US in making specific announcements to give certainty to local contractors? The foreign minister, Marise Payne, said the government was following “an ongoing process” and had been “engaged in providing visas of this nature over a period of years”.
“The granting of the visas themselves is a matter for the department of home affairs, but both defence and DFAT assess applications, as you would expect, to verify eligibility for a humanitarian visa. That system has been in place I think since Mr [Chris] Bowen was the immigration minister [in the Labor government].”
Wong dismissed the response as “a process answer” and asked how many would be resettled. Payne said: “That will depend on the number of applications and eligibility is determined under the regulations I referred to before”.
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Jo Dyer releases statement on Christian Porter
A friend of the woman who made an historical rape allegation against Christian Porter - which he strenuously denies - has sent the former attorney general a concerns notice over comments he made during his press conference yesterday afternoon.
Jo Dyer - who brought the case which saw Porter’s star silk Sue Chrysanthou SC restrained from acting in his now-defunct case - released a statement on Tuesday arguing Porter has “now twice impugned my honesty and integrity”.
Dyer claims that “Mr Porter implied legal proceedings I commenced against Sue Chrysanthou were part of an improper last-minute legal strategy to disrupt his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the ABC”.
And adds:
Yesterday Mr Porter alleged that, after “coaching” from Ms Milligan, I had destroyed important communications that may have had a bearing on his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the ABC. This is absurd.
There was nothing improper, illegal or sinister in my decisions to save or delete certain messages, decisions that were taken well before Mr Porter launched his now discontinued action against Ms Milligan and the ABC.
This afternoon Marque Lawyers sent a second Concerns Notice to Mr Porter in relation to his continuing defamatory comments of me.
The Guardian has not seen the Concerns Notice and has approached Porter’s lawyers for comment.
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Mark McGowan has said a crew worker on a ship which docked in WA has tested positive for Covid. That person is now in quarantine and poses little risk to the WA community.
McGowan:
When he came off the ship, I am advised it was in a Covid related matter, he had to go to hospital, that is not uncommon with ships visiting Western Australia, so everybody wore the appropriate PPE. We are advised the risk to Western Australia is very low but the ship is sailing, and that will reduce the pressure on our state as long as it goes immediately.
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Turning away from the vaccine rollout for a moment, Australians will not be required to provide identification in order to access adult websites for at least another 12 to 18 months. This came after the federal government indicated “considerable amounts of research” was required into whether it was possible to bring in the measures.
In response to a parliamentary committee recommendation made over 12 months ago on restricting access to pornographic websites to those over 18 years of age, the federal government said on Tuesday it agreed in principle with the idea, but more work needed to be done to see if it was feasible.
The esafety commissioner has been tasked with developing a roadmap for implementing a mandatory age verification system for pornographic material online but it would take some time:
The development of a comprehensive roadmap that adequately explores the complexities of regulating online pornography will require considerable amounts of research and stakeholder consultation over a 12 to 18 month period.
The government said the esafety commissioner will need to collaborate with state governments, the home affairs department, the Digital Transformation Agency and the Australian Cyber Security Centre to see if it is feasible, and ultimately make a recommendation to government.
The government has said it could ultimately end up using the DTA’s digital identity system as an age-verification system to access pornographic websites, but there will need to be advice from the ACSC on the cyber security around any systems (such as if a database of porn websites people want to visit might be something that could be compromised by hackers).
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At the Coalition party room on Tuesday, Liberal MP Jason Falinski peppered Greg Hunt with a pointed series of questions about the vaccine rollout.
These included how many doses GPs are getting, what they are getting paid, whether Pfizer is available at GPs, what they are instructed to tell patients, the efficacy of Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and whether it would be possible to publish the number of doses GPs are receiving.
Hunt answered the questions:
- GPs receive between 150 and 400 doses per week depending on practice size and utilisation rates
- GPs only give AstraZeneca, not Pfizer
- Primary health networks are sending out updated guidance about what the risk factors are for clotting
- Pfizer has a higher efficacy after the first dose but after the second they’re roughly the same at 93% or 94% efficacy.
- There is no evidence that the Indian strain renders vaccines less effective
- Doctors are paid $56 for two doses, which is more than the flu
The decision to roll out vaccines through GPs was a choice of the federal government and has been a constant source of tension with the states, which preferred using their own health systems and mass vaccination clinics.
The thrust of Falinski’s questions was about holding GPs - and the government - responsible for the rollout.
Hunt also revealed that the slowest vaccine rollout so far is in Queensland because - while GPs in all states and territories are dispensing vaccines at a similar rate - the health systems in other states, especially New South Wales and South Australia, are complementing the rollout at a higher rate.
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Labor is seeking formal advice from ASIO about how to prevent social media posts and other online activity being misused by foreign spies.
The opposition’s home affairs spokeswoman, Kristina Keneally, told caucus on Tuesday about the example of a senior public servant who posted images of his child on social media.
A foreign spy used the information to sign up a child to the same sporting team and struck up a friendship with the bureaucrat, which later came to the attention of intelligence officers.
Labor’s shadow national security committee will prepare advice in consultation with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation on how best to reduce the risk of foreign interference through their online activity.
(Via AAP)
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And on the same topic, but from a different perspective:
In the Coalition party room, George Christensen raised Christian Porter’s decision to discontinue defamation proceedings against the ABC.
Christensen framed this as the ABC having defamed Porter (which was the subject of the case, not proven) and that the ABC had settled the case.
He complained of systemic bias at the public broadcaster and urged the government to “strike while the iron is hot”, “starting with the chairman”(members believe he meant chairperson, Ita Buttrose).
This contribution was met with applause.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, responded that these were “live issues”.
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In case you missed it earlier today:
Christian Porter’s lawyers have been back in the federal court today, this time in preparation for a legal fight over what will now happen to the ABC’s still-redacted defence to the now-defunct defamation proceedings.
You may have read that on Monday the former attorney general agreed to drop his defamation bid against the public broadcaster, saying he had forced the ABC into a “humiliating backdown” despite failing to secure an apology or retraction over the February Four Corners article at the centre of the case.
Part of the agreement between the two parties was that the ABC’s defence would be removed from the court file, but on Tuesday lawyers for Nine and News Limited showed up in court to argue that the file should be unredacted.
Porter’s lawyers, obviously, disagree. Today was only a case management hearing, and we won’t know the result of that until another hearing either later in June or early next month.
But, in the meantime, federal court justice Jayne Jagot raised some doubt on Tuesday about whether or not the parties could simply remove the defence from the court file. She said the parties would need to convince her why it was appropriate.
“You’ve filed orders in a court, it doesn’t then become a matter for you about what is to be disclosed or not disclosed,” she said.
The ABC is pushing the matter, but again, predictably, Porter’s lawyers disagree. When
“Our position is it is a consent order between the parties,” Porter’s barrister Barry Dean said.
“That’s not the point,” Jagot responded.
“There is a fundamental issue about the integrity of the court file and why a court would allow the removal of a document from a court file,” she said.
It means that, in the short term, while the parties continue to publicly attack each other, the proceedings are not formally over.
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Mike Bowers was in QT.
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Submissions closed for this at the end of October 2019 – but the government has finally responded to the age verification for gambling and porn report.
You can find the whole response here but as Josh says, it is not exactly clear whether it is going ahead:
It's not really clear whether the government is going to introduce an ID wall for porn sites in Australia... sounds like the esafety commissioner is working on a way there but not there yet. pic.twitter.com/Jd2U23FHCE
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) June 1, 2021
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And back to estimates, here is where Brendan Murphy, who was identified by Scott Morrison as the source of the “not a race” comments (which Morrison picked up and ran with, like it was, actually, a race) discussing why he made those comments in the first place (he was talking about the TGA approval).
In #Estimates @MurrayWatt puts Morrison's #QT "Not a race" comments to Brendan Murphy. "How does it feel to be thrown under the bus by the Prime Minister?" Murphy says he doesn't feel like that and explains the comment referred to TGA approval, not rollout #Auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/UdJ1Zp6ncQ
— Naveen Razik 📰 (@naveenjrazik) June 1, 2021
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Just on those points, here is a reminder of Richard Colbeck’s performance in estimates today:
Anthony Albanese continued with that line:
The truth is there are real human consequences behind the government’s failure. It had two jobs this year. It had to fix the rollout of the vaccine and it had to have a national quarantine system. And what we’ve seen in both those areas is absolute failure. We’ve seen a government that’s been prepared to trumpet how well it’s going, that we were at the front of the queue, that everything was all hunky dory.
Greg Hunt, way back in January, remember when he said, “the Eagle has landed; we’re all set to go here”, when we’re not even in the top 100 countries when it comes to the rollout of the vaccine.
We have aged care workers working in multiple facilities. We have aged care residents who haven’t been vaccinated. And we have aged care workers who’ve been told, “just go off and get a vaccine somewhere, you’re on your own”.
The commonwealth government is responsible for aged care. The commonwealth government rollout of the vaccine in aged care facilities has been a debacle with human consequences.
And today, we’ve learned as well that the outbreak in the Arcare facility in Melbourne is linked directly to the failure when it comes to South Australian hotel quarantine.
So when it comes to this government, the idea that you say it’s not a race and then you back that up by saying that they’re comfortable with how it’s going, I don’t know what it would take for this Minister to actually be uncomfortable.
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Somewhere in between the Victorian press conference and question time, Anthony Albanese and Mark Butler held a press conference to talk about the government’s aged care vaccination roll out.
Here is part of it:
Albanese:
Richard Colbeck’s extraordinary performance before Senate estimates today makes it difficult to know where to start on the critique of his performance. But this has been a rolling maul of incompetence now ever since he was in the portfolio.
It’s extraordinary that Scott Morrison had the chance to move him when he had the reshuffle but he kept him in this job, in spite of the fact that we know in previous performances before the Senate, he wasn’t aware of how many deaths there’d been in aged care.
Today, again, he repeated the line where he said that he is comfortable with where we’re at when it comes to the vaccine rollout. That’s an extraordinary comment.
Australians aren’t comfortable with where we’re at with the vaccine rollout. That’s very clear. Australians aren’t comfortable with the fact that only eight per cent of staff in aged care are fully vaccinated.
Australians aren’t comfortable that only 355, or 1.5 per cent, of disability care residents have been fully vaccinated. Australians aren’t comfortable that 21 aged care facilities in Australia are yet to receive the first dose of a vaccine and in almost 600 facilities, the residents haven’t been fully vaccinated.
Australians certainly aren’t comfortable that this government has been caught out time and time again fudging the numbers when it comes to the vaccine rollout.
And Australians aren’t comfortable with this government leaving behind the older Australians who built our nation.
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The secretary of the defence department, Greg Moriarty, has warned against insider leaks.
At Senate estimates, Moriarty confirmed he had conveyed that message at a meeting of the senior leadership group had been held at the Australian Defence Force Academy in May.
Moriarty:
Myself, the CDF and other members of the senior leadership group were concerned that there were comments appearing in the press purporting to be from defence personnel.
The defence secretary said he had made clear his view that the department had procedures for engaging with media. For people to engage outside that process, Moriarty said, was “unprofessional and inappropriate”.
(Moriarty said neither minister Peter Dutton nor Dutton’s chief of staff had attended the meeting. The chief of the defence force, Angus Campbell, was in attendance.)
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Anthony Albanese also gives his condolences to Ray Strange’s loved ones.
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Defence confirms Peter Dutton's office gave 'feedback' on media responses
The defence department has confirmed Peter Dutton’s office has given it “feedback” on how it should respond to media enquiries, following reports he has ordered officials to keep responses as brief as possible.
Katherine Jones, an associate secretary of defence department, was asked at Senate estimates about a piece published by the Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter on 16 May.
The article, by the veteran defence journalist Kym Bergmann, said Dutton had “issued an instruction to the department containing the following extremely restrictive measures when responding to requests for information”:
- Responses are to be as brief and succinct as possible.
- Guidance is to limit responses to three paras, regardless of the breadth of the question(s); additional information can be offered on background.
- Capability-related interviews are unlikely to be approved, be rigidly flexible to revert to written responses.
Jones told estimates those quotes were not direct quotes, but “came from an email that was sent by someone within the department purporting to paraphrase” advice from the minister’s office.
Asked who wrote that email, Jones said it was “a low-level officer within the organisation”.
Pressed on who in Dutton’s office had provided that advice, Jones indicated “it was over the course of several communications and it would be with the media team in the minister’s office”.
In the course of engaging with the minister’s office around media issues, we received feedback in our ministerial and executive communication area. That general feedback and advice about expectations was then communicated more broadly to the senior leadership.
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Question time ends.
Scott Morrison gives his condolences to photojournalist Ray Strange, who passed away over the weekend.
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Is Scott Morrison “comfortable” with the vaccine rollout in aged care, given his minister Richard Colbeck says he is?
Morrison:
We want to keep rolling out the vaccination program as quickly and as safely and as efficiently as possible and that is why, Mr Speaker I am.
Mr Speaker, it is a good thing that particularly for those aged over 70, that we have got 53.65% of the population aged over 70 Mr Speaker having received their first dose.
Now that compares in New Zealand Mr Speaker, to 31.56 per cent.
The key part of our vaccination strategy which I referred to previously has been to focus on those particular populations that are most vulnerable and that is those who are in residential aged care facilities.
And the coverage of those residential aged care facilities Mr Speaker has been significant, has been significant, particularly as we go into the winter months Mr Speaker, and the coverage of all of those facilities on their first doses Mr Speaker, and we must now move quickly to ensure the balance of those doses are provided and the second most of those in residential aged care facilities but as we look around the world and we look particularly at countries... who have been successful in suppressing the virus and where the context of a rolling out the vaccine Mr Speaker.
A similar situation be it in South Korea or Japan or countries such as that where the virus has been suppressed, Australia and New Zealand equally suppressed, and we can point to a vaccination rate particularly for over 70s which is many times that of light countries so Mr Speaker, there is much want to do and we will remain focused on protecting the most vulnerable in our community as part of the national vaccination strategy which, in the past month Mr Speaker, in the past month has seen us go from 320,792 vaccine a week to 672,000 vaccinations a week, in one month, a doubling of the total number of vaccinations conducted every week Mr Speaker.
This is, this is where a vaccination program is getting to and that is to the great support and advantage of Australia.
There were not a lot of full stops in that answer.
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Scott Morrison continues his ‘we are the world’ style answer, as he tries to explain why the federal government is responsible for vaccinations and also, not responsible for aged care.
Mark Butler asks:
This morning, the aged care minister was asked if the government was responsible for the vaccine rollout in aged care, yes or no? The minister replied it is not a yes or no answer. So I ask the prime minister, is the government responsible for vaccine rollout in aged care?
Morrison:
The government is indeed responsible for the national vaccination strategy, right across the country.
We are doing it in partnership with states and territories, of course we are, general practitioners and a whole range of others who are supporting these efforts. In hospitals and elsewhere.
The national vaccination strategy was brought together by Professor Brendan Murphy who chairs the scientific advisory group on immunisation, but national strategy was pulled together which includes for aged care, and it was taken to the federal cabinet and endorsed and taken to the national cabinet and endorsed and all of the roles and responsibilities that all the various levels of government having delivering vaccination program.
And that’s why I’m pleased that yesterday, yesterday again, Mr Speaker, we saw over 100,000 people get vaccinated in this country.
In the course of May, more than two million Australians were vaccinated.
Now, at the end of last month, since the end of last month, the weekly vaccinations have doubled.
And that followed intervention that was undertaken by myself as chair of the national cabinet, bringing the states and territories together and since we put in place that additional plan which addressed the challenges faced by the ATAGI advice on AstraZeneca and the challenges on supply vaccines, Mr Speaker, we put the planning in place together, work together, and the vaccination rate doubled within a month month Mr Speaker*.
This is what the government does, it addresses problems, it gets people together, it focuses on the issue, and it addresses the challenges that Australia faces.
In Victoria we are facing challenges but we will overcome those challenges, the people of Victoria will overcome those challenges, the government of Australia will work, Mr Speaker with the Victorian government to ensure that our focus is on individual Victorians and to ensure that we open up Victoria Mr Speaker, as soon as we possibly can.
And Mr Speaker, from the data we see I hope it is particularly true for regional Victoria.
What we see in regional Victoria Mr Speaker, and the evidence that is there, we look forward to regional Victoria being open as soon as possible.
But we will work together, we will follow the health advice, we will listen carefully to what Mr Speaker, and we will continue to protect lives and protect livelihoods Mr Speaker.
That is the focus of my government and will keep fighting the virus, Mr Speaker, the Labor but it will keep fighting us.
*That is how Morrison is describing calling in the states to help with the vaccine rollout, after the federal government messed it up.
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Lols.
Now Tony Smith is rebuking Karen Andrews for creating interjections and for essentially creating outrage over two comments.
(You know, like when conservatives claim they have been ‘cancelled’ over little seen and little engaged with social media posts?)
Smith:
I will say to the minister, I heard one or two interjections that I could not decipher, and the response to that has now caused a wave of interjections.
She was asked a very specific question, we have instances where ministers say they will take the interjection, can I say they have no right to take the interjection, if anyone is going to intervene, I will, and there is not an opportunity to give those on the other side the character assessment, you are not asked about that because it is not within the standing orders.
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Karen Andrews has somehow linked Labor interjecting during question time to Labor being “soft on crime”.
That’s some galaxy brain thinking right there.
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Why did Prof Brendan Murphy say the vaccine roll out wasn’t a race? (As pointed to by Scott Morrison in his first answer today.)
Murphy says he was referring to the TGA approvals:
Health Department boss Brendan Murphy concedes he did say the vaccine rollout was not a race. He says he used it in the context of the TGA approval processes and says now the rollout is under way, it's not a very helpful phrase #estimates
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) June 1, 2021
He then manages to concede that it is not a helpful phrase. Speaking on not helpful, Michael McCormack said it as recently as this weekend.
Brendan Murphy: "We're now going and it's not a term I use anymore... It's not a race in the sense that we're not competing against anyone else."
— Tom McIlroy (@TomMcIlroy) June 1, 2021
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Of course, numbers are one thing – but how that money is being spent is another. Pat Conroy put out this release following defence estimates today:
Labor’s analysis of the latest Defence Budget papers reveals major declines in the availability of ships, helicopters and planes since the release of the 2016 Defence White Paper.
During this same period, sustainment costs have blown out by almost $5bn.
Sustainment of our weapons systems has been a basket case for far too long.
As reported today, all of the Navy’s major combatant ships have been out of action for more than half of every year since 2016.
Defence’s poster child, the Joint Strike Fighter, continues to be a major concern, flying only 64 per cent of its planned hours.
This is our newest aircraft and therefore should be our most reliable, so it’s concerning that it is already significantly underperforming.
Our critical platforms continue to be out of action far more than defence and the Morrison government plan and budget for.
This underperformance predates the Covid-19 pandemic and has continued in the last year.
Some of the lack of availability and cost blowouts are undoubtedly related to the long list of new equipment that is delayed under this Government, forcing older weapon systems to run longer than planned.
However, just as concerning is the fact that some of the Australian Defence Force’s newest equipment is nowhere close to meeting the required availability.
How can minister Dutton claim that he and the government have our troops’ backs when they cannot even ensure that our planes, helicopters and ships are available to the level deemed necessary?
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Peter Dutton continues with his ongoing series ‘we live in an uncertain part of the world’ and here is how much we have spent to keep you safe.
It of course, includes that Labor took money out of defence spending.
And another mention of “uncertain times”.
All of this is building towards a ‘who do you trust to keep you safe’ conclusion, which will be the narrative that gets louder as we get closer to the election
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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister and I refer to the fact that just 15% of aged care workers have been fully vaccinated, even though the government announced that aged care workers would be fully vaccinated by Easter.
In April the government announced it would establish 13 dedicated pop-up clinics to vaccinate aged care workers by the end of May, it is now June. Only three are operating. How many of those clinics are operating in Victoria today?
Morrison:
On workforce vaccinations some 72,707 vaccinations of staff and non-residents has been completed, 39,874 have received a first dose and 32,833 have received a second dose
One of the early decisions taken by the AHPPC when I looked into this matter by the national cabinet was whether aged care workers should have mandated vaccinations in aged care facilities, Mr Speaker, and when this was put to the AHPPC, the medical expert panel, they did not agree to recommend that, Mr Speaker, but I will ask the minister to add further to the answer.
Greg Hunt takes it and starts talking about something else – the five different channels workers can get vaccinated in.
Albanese jumps up:
The question was ... they promised 13 dedicated pop-up clinics to vaccinate aged care workers by the end of May, only three are operating, how many of those, it was just one question, how many are in Victoria today? I will give you a clue, it is a really round number. (The answer is zero.)
Hunt gets back to his answer and comes up with a lot of words to confirm there are no clinics in Victoria.
Hunt:
There are five channels for vaccination, one is commonwealth in reach, two is the pop-up program around Australia, 1,887 workers have been vaccinated through the pop-up program, and yes, those facilities are about to be established within Victoria. In addition to that, there is the general practice program, in addition to that there is a GP respiratory, GP respiratory program, and in addition to that there are state clinics. And in particular, state clinics are providing priority to aged care workers which serves the same purpose within the Victorian context as a pop-up in another context.
Updated
Clare O’Neil, who is Zooming in from Melbourne, asks about why the government has missed its own targets with the aged care vaccinations.
Greg Hunt gives the same figures we have heard multiple times today, but doesn’t answer the question. O’Neil’s camera angle means all we see is her head, which means we all see a very big screen slow shake of the head.
Updated
Mark Dreyfus (wearing a mask and asking his questions from a separate microphone away from the despatch box) to Greg Hunt:
The minister said that first dose Covid-19 vaccinations for Victorian aged care facilities were complete. But I have confirmed this morning that residents in an aged care facility in my electorate have still not have their first vaccine dose. How can the minister statement be true?
Greg Hunt:
I would be happy to receive the details of the facility because I have confirmed on multiple occasions with my department that all commonwealth facilities have been completed.
We did have drawn to our attention one facility which was misidentified as a commonwealth facility which, in fact, is under the responsibility of the Victorian government and I don’t know if that is the facility the Member has not named it but the department has reaffirmed the advice to senate estimates today that all commonwealth facilities have been completed. Including Jewish Care house which was raised by the member for McNamara last week.
And it was completed as we said it would be. And so I am aware that one case was raised on a television program last night and we have spoken with the granddaughter of the I believe it is the granddaughter of the resident in question and it has been confirmed that it is not a commonwealth facility so our advice is expressed and clear and absolute from the department that all commonwealth residential aged care facilities in Victoria have had a first dose.
Updated
And in RBA news...
RBA surprises no one and holds at 0.1%. The day house prices were confirmed at growing at tulip-mania type levels...
— Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) June 1, 2021
Just on those figures:
But they haven’t got “the most money so far” only on a per capita basis. In cash terms NSW got more JobKeeper with fewer lockdowns https://t.co/u63YkPQoAg pic.twitter.com/VcYdiUVlo7
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) June 1, 2021
Jim Chalmers to Josh Frydenberg:
Victorians wouldn’t be lockdown today if it wasn’t for the Morrison government’s failures on vaccines and quarantine. Why has this treasurer refused to provide any additional support to small businesses and workers hardest hit by these failures?
What kind of Victorian abandons Victorians in their hour of need?
Frydenberg:
This treasurer, this prime minister, this government has provided more support to Victoria than any previous government, Mr Speaker. More support than any previous government.
I know, I know the member Rankin’s maths aren’t too good ... He has been doing the numbers for some time, and he still can’t even get to two, Mr Speaker.
He can’t get to two.
But the reality is, we have provided, we have provided the Morrison government has provided more than $45bn already to families and businesses across Victoria.
Now the state treasurer of Victoria has confirmed that the state government has delivered $13bn, so that is more, that is less than one-third...
That is less than a third than what we had the federal level have delivered. The people of Victoria have received on a per capita basis more from the Morrison government over the course of Covid than any other state or territory.
More than any other state or territory. And we have provided more than $28bn of jobkeeper payments to the people of Victoria.
We have supported ... cash flow boost to the people of Victoria. We have provided around $5bn in jobkeeper coronavirus supplement payment.
Around $3bn in direct payments to veterans, to carers, to pensioners across Victoria.
And I remind the honourable member that Victoria is not the only state that has gone into lockdown after the end of jobkeeper. His own state in Queensland, in Brisbane, saw stay-at-home orders in late March, early April.
We know that the Perth metropolitan area and the Peel region also saw between 24 April and 27 April stay-at-home orders, Mr Speaker, and now in Victoria.
According to the Victorian government this is a seven-day lockdown.
And it is a short lockdown, and we anticipate it at the time of the budget that there would be outbreaks, and indeed that they would be short lockdown.
That is why we provided an unprecedented amount of support in this budget and in previous budgets, including $41bn in direct economic support to support and strengthen our recovery, the state of Victoria, as well as across the nation.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg is yelling a dixer answer on why the federal government doesn’t have to provide financial support to Victoria during this lockdown.
The answer is because the government has previously provided “unprecedented” level of support previously.
I am sure my boss will accept that I have previously performed my work duties, and so will not need to provide further work duties, as I can just point to my previous work. That’s how it works right? You do your job once, and then don’t have to do it again?
Updated
Stuart Robert just pulled out his phone to show Andrew Wilkie how people can see what they owe the government.
Just two clicks he says.
That’s assuming people know how to use MyGov. That they are technologically literate. That if they are, they have access to a smart phone, or an internet connection.
There is just so much patronising privilege in the display, it is actually difficult to take seriously.
This from someone who tried to charge the taxpayer nearly $38,000 for his home internet usage (he paid it back).
Updated
Just ahead of question time, Tim Watts gave a speech:
Last year 655 Victorians died from COVID-19 infections in aged care facilities, 64 of them in four facilities in my electorate.
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) June 1, 2021
My heart breaks for their families today as they ask themselves whether this government has learnt anything from the deaths of their loved ones. pic.twitter.com/9IzmvAOL6F
Mark Butler to Greg Hunt:
The minister’s comments on Thursday night contained no mention of first [vaccine] doses only. So why did the minister use the term “completed” in response to a question about a two-dose vaccine?
Hunt:
It has been absolutely clear as we have talked in question time and in multiple circumstances around the country, that the program we have been undertaking is to conduct the process of vaccinating aged care facilities, working through first doses and working through second doses. And it is absolutely and fundamentally clear, as Professor Murphy, Professor Kelly, Professor Kidd, who have all indicated in recent days that the first doses is a fundamentally important part and indeed provides critical context – a protection and the vaccination program which we have referred to on many occasions refers to the total number of facilities which have had those first vaccinations, and second vaccinations.
The advice that I have before me as of last night was that 2,544 facilities which have had first doses around the country, or 99 per cent, 100 per cent of those four jurisdictions...
Butler has a point of order:
The question was a very specific question in relation to advice the minister gave on Thursday night, not data now, but advice on a two-dose vaccine.
Hunt:
And to add to that, the advice received from the department shortly before question time, 1,957 facilities, or 76 per cent of national facilities have had a second dose.
And we have at all times drawn the distinction and pointed to the fact that we have a two-dose regime, our immediate task, immediate task was to set out and ensure that we are on a path to make every facility in Australia have that option of a first dose at the earliest possible time, and now we are at that point, where 100 per cent of facilities in four states and territories, Victoria, the Northern Territory, the ACT and Tasmania, have received that, with the remaining four states and territories to have that 1 per cent closed in the coming days, an expected 15, possibly higher is higher 17, but the stage of those 20 scheduled for the next two days.
It is very important thing, as the chief medical officer and the deputy chief medical officer and the former chief medical officer have emphasised, to have that first dose in place. And there has been some discussion and indeed I heard Professor Kelly makes some very clear remarks on this front last week, that the first dose is absolutely critical, that it provides the balance of protection.
...But in terms of, there was an indication that this was not a critical thing, and this was a discussion handled in question time of last week. As we say, 100 per cent of facilities across those four states and territories completed as we say on Friday, and 99 per cent across the country.
Updated
The current deputy prime minister is on his feet, doing his best to once again demonstrate the difference between meritocracy and mediocrity and why they are so often confused.
Updated
Greg Hunt admits in question time he misread the department advice when he said just six aged care facilities hadn’t been visited for their first dose – the department told estimates today, it was 21 sites, as of yesterday.
I did make an error yesterday. My mistake. My apologies. Nobody else’s fault but mine. The department’s advice was correct and the misreading was my fault.
Which is different to what the committee heard, as Sarah Martin reported earlier this afternoon:
Before the committee breaks for lunch, Michael Lye from the department clarifies to the committee that it was a departmental error that led health minister Greg Hunt to “conflate” the number of doses with the number of people vaccinated in the aged care workforce.
So everyone is Spartacus.
Updated
Scott Morrison uses a dixer on his New Zealand trip to say how well Australia is doing in its vaccine rollout.
Updated
As you could imagine, it is all about aged care and vaccinations.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Does the prime minister still say that vaccinating all the Australians, including aged care residents and workers, is, to quote him, “not a race”?
Morrison:
The reference to not a race Mr Speaker was first said by the secretary of the Department of Health, Professor Brendan Murphy, and the chair of the scientific and technical advisory group on immunisation, Mr Speaker, and I affirm his remarks.
I affirmed his remarks. I affirm the remarks of the secretary of health. Because all the way through, all the way through this pandemic, one of the key factors that both our government and the governments around the country and indeed governments in other countries is that we have always been mindful of the expert advice informing the decisions that we have taken.
And that reference was made by the secretary, Mr Speaker, and it was affirmed by me, Mr Speaker, in a way that was consistent in the way that I have always considered very carefully the advice provided by Professor Murphy.
If those opposite want to play politics with the advice provided by our medical experts, Mr Speaker, and seek to call into question the references made by the secretary...
...I share his view. The question for those opposite is why do they call into question the advice that is provided to the government...
There is a point of order from Albanese:
On direct relevance, the question asked the prime minister whether he will take responsibility for his own words. You cannot just flick past it and tried to say reframe the question that Labor is wanting to criticise someone else. He is the one who said it and the question asks him if he takes responsibility for it.
Morrison:
I do stand behind my words, I do stand behind my words. And my words were based on the expert advice of the chair of the scientific and technical advisory group Professor Brendan Murphy but he was not alone on the third of March 2021, where it says this is not a race, that is from Queensland Health, Mr Speaker, on their own Twitter feed.
So it is the medical advice in using that terminology at that time. I listen to the medical advice. Those opposite may want to call into question the advice provided by our medical experts such as Professor Murphy. But I certainly will not and they cannot run away from the imputation they have put in this place, right here and now, calling into question the judgement of Professor Murphy.
Updated
Before question time, two little snippets from defence estimates:
- Asked about the fresh review of the lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company, the defence secretary, Greg Moriarty, said the prime minister had directed the department “to do some work” and that is “close to finalisation”. But that work is yet to be presented to the minister, Peter Dutton, and through him to government.
- On the future submarine program, Penny Wong asks officials whether it’s still the case that the first new submarine will be delivered in 2032 and testing and evaluation would be completed by 2034.
Greg Sammut, of the defence department, said: “We haven’t changed that schedule at this point, Senator.”
Asked about then defence minister Kevin Andrews’ comments in 2015 that the submarines “must be delivered in time to avoid a capability gap in the mid-2020s”, Sammut said: “All I can say is it was never defence’s view that we could deliver submarines by the mid 2020s.”
Updated
It being Tuesday, the Labor caucus has also met today. It was mostly housekeeping, but there was a debate about a disallowance motion proposed by the independent Zali Steggall about gas development in the Beetaloo Basin.
Labor resolved to oppose the Stegall motion (which was the recommendation from the shadow minister Madeline King), but the decision triggered a debate.
I gather Ged Kearney and Libby Coker opposed the recommendation.
But Joel Fitzgibbon and the Norther Territory MPs supported King’s position. Fitzgibbon noted that Labor’s policy included a role for gas, so the party needed to be consistent.
Updated
And that is the end of the Victorian press conference.
What did we learn?
Two of the three cases we didn’t know about yesterday are close contacts of confirmed cases. A third is not, but was nearby exposure sites.
Victoria has launched a “five day blitz” to vaccinate aged care and disability workers who fall under the federal government jurisdiction, to try and speed up the vaccine rollout.
Still no word on whether or not lockdown will be lifted as scheduled on Thursday.
There is just under 10 minutes until question time. Get ready for that.
Updated
When will Daniel Andrews be back at work?
As the acting premier made clear yesterday, the premier released a statement in the not-too-distant past thanking Victorians for the warm wishes for his recovery, and indicating that his recovery was progressing well, and that he is expected to be back in June.
...Today is the first day of June and I’m pretty sure it goes for a few more weeks yet.
Updated
Are disability care workers working across multiple sites (like private aged care workers are, under the federal jurisdiction).
State disability minister Luke Donnellan:
We’ve got a couple of bits to that question. The residential sector in terms of residential accommodation got transferred as of last night fully to the commonwealth so we had 45% of the residential provided, 45% of residents for people with disabilities so that got transferred to the commonwealth as of yesterday and a process of transferring multiple facilities over time.
We had the worker mobility reduction payment in place and have had that up to literally last night in place to minimise one worker at one site, period.
That has been in place until last night.
I raised that with the federal minister, specifically to say that with the transfer of the 45% of the remaining residences, that worker mobility payment we won’t be paying any more because they are no longer under our governance and we are no longer responsible for them, under the NDIS agreement.
I raised that with the minister last night for consideration and I expect she will be back to me over the coming days.
Updated
Martin Foley:
I think we will only all be satisfied when every Victorian who is eligible to be vaccinated is vaccinated.
We can’t rest as a community – all levels of government need to put their shoulder to the wheel together to achieve that outcome. I am concerned.
It is why the government is prioritising today at the expense of other Victorians who would be eligible under the ceiling of vaccines that we’ve been allocated, to deliver to precisely those workforces that have priority access.
These are people who care for our most vulnerable residents who we saw in 2020 in Victoria and New South Wales to a lesser degree, the virus got into these workplaces not the residents or participants but through a workforce contact.
We need to make sure that those workforces are vaccinated, not just for their own good but primarily for the good of the people that they care for and look after.
Updated
Is Martin Foley concerned with how slow the roll out is going in disability care facilities?
Foley:
I’m always concerned that any committee transmission which we have in Victoria.
We’ve seen it in the last few days in private residential aged care and I’d be extremely concerned if it got into NDIS covered residential disability services.
My understanding is the Commonwealth have, through private contractors, committed to ramping up their in reach services into those disability services.
I understand that doesn’t cover staff, hence our announcement today that we want to prioritise those staff in our next 5-day blitz in this area.
If you can’t make it to one of our state blitzes, you have either a disability or residential aged care worker, the right to see your participating GP to get your vaccine.
Martin Foley on why the state government is now vaccinating private health care workers:
There were arrangements in place for the staff if they were there at the time, and there was leftovers and other arrangement on a different basis, but as a result of some of those issues, or the stay stood up a couple of weeks ago, to indicate that we were prepared to support the private residential aged care system through our systems, and Victoria we wrote to all of those providers, there was a degree of take-up, remembering of course that most of the vaccines that are in fact distributed in Victoria are still through the GP network, and many of these people, if they had been vaccinated, they had gone to their GP, but we do not have oversight of that data.
So we know from this most recent cases that are significant numbers of those private residential aged care service staff and NDIS disability staff, are not vaccinated, hence our priority call for the next five days.
Updated
Martin Foley continues:
Every day in the global pandemic is pretty grim, and we need to make sure that the hard work that all of Victorians are putting into this outbreak, that’s the real risk that we are facing particularly at a aged care setting, particularly at our high-risk private residential aged care settings, I take it into account.
Victorians have sacrificed more than anyone else around the nation when it comes to making sure that we – as we very recently had – 86 continuous days of no community transmission.
What to do is to make sure that our effort reflects the value of that sacrifice, and avoid the risk that we saw last winter of the devastation this causes private residential aged care. I think Victorians really expect that of the government, and that is what we will be doing.
Updated
Victorian health minister Martin Foley on the day by day proposition of the lockdown:
I am only as confident as the last test and the last piece of data that we receive, because we know that this is so unpredictable, whilst we increasingly come to understand how the virus moved, and our knowledge both in Australia and globally has gone ahead in leaps and bounds of the past 18 months, it is still in many ways a rapidly evolving virus that is of real challenge.
I cannot share with people what we have yet to land through our public health teams. As soon as we do have those recommendations from our public health teams, we will be back those announcements to the people.
Not-for-profit aged care providers have responded to news that the federal government is considering making vaccines mandatory for aged care workers.
Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) says the main issue is not mandatory vaccines. It is ease of access.
ACSA chair Sara Blunt says the government must stop blaming providers or workers for a rollout that is “its responsibility”.
If the Covid-19 vaccine is available at workplaces then we’ll see a significant pick up and improvements to coverage in aged care quickly.
The main issue right now is not whether the vaccine is mandatory, it’s whether workers can get easy access.
The government has to stop blaming providers or workers when the roll out is its responsibility. Our workers are amongst the hardest working yet poorly paid in the care and service industries and the fewer barriers we put in front of them to get a vaccine the better.
In Victoria in particular workers right now will be primarily concerned with the immediate health of the older people in their care and also themselves and their families.
Updated
Back to Victoria, Martin Foley says he doesn’t know if there will be a lockdown extension or not, but the aged care settings are “troubling”.
He says as soon as they get the advice, they’ll let people know, either way.
Updated
The federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told the Coalition party room the budget was put together when it was assumed there would be outbreaks across the country and short lockdowns and that’s why the government kept the foot on the accelerator with $41bn in related economic support.
He said:
Victoria came to us to ask for assistance, because it was a short lockdown we said it was a scale that could be managed at a local level. They ran a pretty desperate attempt to smear us when in reality the numbers tell a very different story, Victoria has received more on a per capita basis than any other state. We’ve already delivered $45bn plus to families and businesses, where the state government has delivered $13bn.
Updated
Back to health estimates and Katy Gallagher is now asking Colbeck about the five-day blitz running from Wednesday to Sunday just announced by the Victorian government.
Gallagher asks why it is being left to the state to “come in and basically do a blitz to get aged and disability care workers vaccinated to generate the momentum needed.”
Colbeck says the process of rollout is happening “collaboratively”.
I am very pleased that the Victorian government is giving preference to residential aged care staff given the health advice that we are providing the vaccine resource to the state.
Before the committee breaks for lunch, Michael Lye from the department clarifies to the committee that it was a departmental error that led health minister Greg Hunt to “conflate” the number of doses with the number of people vaccinated in the aged care workforce.
Gallagher said officials were taking the blame on behalf of Hunt.
Has Mr Hunt’s office been in touch? I can see what’s happened.
You’re taking the heat for his office coming and getting cranky at evidence.
We know. I have dealt with him on the phone. I know what he is like. Rude.
Updated
732 residences were physically checked yesterday, with help from the ADF. Eight individuals of “real concern” were not home.
They are being followed up through the enforcement division.
Updated
Still no confirmation the Victorian lockdown will end on Thursday. It is still a day by day watch and wait situation.
Jeroen Weimar:
There are over 300 exposure sites now on a website and I encourage people to use the website for this.
We’ve identified a number of retail strips. These are precincts we know some of our cases have been.
There are exposure sites at all these streets but I’m using this as a way to get people’s attention.
...We are now keen to starting to drain the swamp to see what else is out there. Is anybody else out there we haven’t caught? Is there anybody else not been caught by exposure sites?
There have been at least four cases in the current outbreak of 54 who are not known to other cases – but have come into contact with each other at one of the exposure sites.
So it is not necessarily face to face, or touch to touch contact.
Jeroen Weimar says this variant means that sort of transmission is happening more often:
What we’re seeing now is people are brushing past each other in a small shop, they are going to a display home, they are looking at photos in a Telstra shop.
This is relatively speaking, relatively fleeting. They do not know each other’s lives, and that is very different from what we have been before.
So if you have been to one of those exposure sites, get tested.
Updated
Rex Patrick is asking about the decision-making process for government grants for promising vaccines late last year.
He is also asking whether health officials were aware of ferret trials being done by CSIRO last year.
Yes, they were aware of the ferrets.
He is concerned about the secrecy surrounding the grant process, saying there is a “complete lack of transparency” around the program and the decisions made by the grant access opportunity committee.
Not really many Qs so far, but he is calling it a “corruption incubator”.
Patrick is giving a presentation about the US equivalent which releases more information publicly.
It is hugely concerning. This is like sports rorts but with people who have the ability to inject steroids into it.
This is all covered in secrecy endorsed by you people.
He says $20bn is awarded “behind closed doors” through the Medical Research Future Fund.
Brendan Murphy says it is not publicly disclosed who sits on the medical research future fund panels, but the conflict of interest policy process is “very very rigorous”.
Patrick is told that the National Health and Medical Research Council will appear for questioning later.
Updated
Clare O’Neil has responded to Richard Colbeck’s evidence in Senate estimates today:
Greg Hunt told the public yesterday that roughly 70,000 aged care workers had been vaccinated.
The truth revealed in estimates by health officials today is that number is less than half – about 32,800.
Less than 10% of the aged care workforce has been vaccinated and yet the virus is not only at large in our general community it is today being found within our aged care system.
The level of deceptive incompetence of this government and the minster responsible for aged care is utterly breathtaking.
Their negligence in aged care is callous, cruel and dangerous.
Victorians in particular right now must surely be disgusted.
The government must immediately deliver a detailed plan with clear vaccine targets for the aged care workforce. This is essential. Targets ensure urgency and right now the Morrison government display no urgency at all.
When will half the aged care workforce be vaccinated? When will three quarters be done? Targets must be set. Lives at at risk.
Updated
Vaccination waits in Melbourne at the moment are running at about a three-hour wait.
Updated
If you have been to any of these shopping centres in Melbourne in the last two weeks, Victorian authorities want you to come forward for testing – even if you are not symptomatic:
- Craigieburn Central
- Bay Street in Port Melbourne
- Clarendon Street in South Melbourne
- Pacific Epping, also known as the Epping Plaza
- The Epping North shopping centre
- Broadway Reservoir
Positive cases have been in those areas and authorities just want to make sure they are stamping out any transmission.
Updated
Katy Gallagher is continuing to target the government over the low vaccination rate among the aged care workforce.
Colbeck claims that “every worker in aged care has access through those various channels now.”
“They all have access to a vaccine and they have had for a period of time,” he said.
However he says that this has not been reported under the current system, which does not record occupation. Gallagher says that the government was avoiding its responsibility to the workforce.
“So you’re not responsible for vaccinating aged care workers ... and you are saying it is over to you aged care workers, go and get it done.”
She also questioned one of the channels – the Sonic clinics – saying just three were operating in NSW rather than the 13 promised.
Murray Watt then challenged Colbeck on how Australia compares with other countries, saying we were running 113th when it comes to doses per hundred people, behind countries such as Tonga, Panama and El Salvador.
Colbeck said Australia was in the “middle of the pack”, when compared with the progress of other countries at a similar stage of the rollout.
Updated
There is still a missing link between the person who contracted Covid in Adelaide hotel quarantine and the first City of Whittlesea and Port of Melbourne cases, which authorities are still looking for.
Updated
Victorian Covid commander Jeroen Weimar says of the 4,200 primary and secondary contacts of known cases who have been isolated, 75% have returned negative test results.
Updated
Victoria to enact 'five-day vaccination blitz' for aged care workers
The Victorian aged care and disability services minister Luke Donnellan says Victoria will undertake a “five-day blitz” and step in to vaccinate workers in vulnerable settings:
This means from Wednesday 2 June to Sunday 6 June, workers in the private sector aged care facilities and the residential disability sector, all managed by the commonwealth, will be given priority access to walk-in vaccination hubs around Victoria between 9am and 4pm when they present evidence of their employment.
The following vaccination hubs are participating in the five-day blitz including the Royal Exhibition Building, the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Sandown racecourse, the Melbourne Showgrounds, the former Ford factory in Geelong, Bendigo community clinic, Ballarat Mercure Hotel and Convention Centre, Shepparton Showgrounds, that Macintosh Centre, to Elgin racecourse and the Wodonga vaccination hub.
Aged care and disability workers are currently eligible to be vaccinated at state hubs but this is about stimulating that demand and getting more workers to get greater coverage at the private aged care sector and the disability sector.
We have concerns there isn’t enough coverage that is why we are stepping in.
It has been available but this is very much a call to arms of those workers on the frontline to come out and we will give you a priority lane so it makes it quicker and easier to get through it in a speedier time because we very much want to ensure we are protecting those audible people and the aged care facilities and stability sector from Covid-19.
Updated
This is good news though.
Martin Foley:
I’m also able to advise that all staff and residents at Blue Cross Sunshine aged care facility have tested negative other than that one case reported on yesterday, the crossover worker between Arcare Maidstone and Blue Cross Sunshine.
There are being no positive tests further at Arcare Maidstone.
These sites remain under strict infection and prevention control measures and I want to particularly thank the Western public health unit for leading the work and thank the wonderful clinical staff and particularly the nurses from both Melbourne Health and Western Health who have stood into these important factual prevention and control measures and to support both those facilities as a result of their own staff having to be furloughed and quarantined.
I can also advise that another BlueCross facility which shared a worker advised that we talked about yesterday, that that site has been stood down as an infection risk as the particular worker was non-infectious at the period that they worked at the other BlueCross site.
Victoria Covid press conference update
Health minister Martin Foley is giving today’s update:
He says of the three new cases (there were nine in total in the 24 hours to midnight, but we knew about six of them yesterday) two have been linked – but one has not, as yet.
Foley:
Two of these three are primary close contacts who were quarantining during their infectious period which is good news. One is still under investigation.
They are not a contact and are not are directly linked to any exposure site but there is very close proximity to that exposure site and we are confident the investigation ongoing will uncover further crossover.
Our public health team are seeing more and more of this in this particular South Australian hotel outbreak playing out a bit differently to earlier outbreaks. There is evidence of casual acquisition instead of those indirect close contact my friends at a pub, family members.
Updated
Richard Colbeck says “every worker in aged care has access through those various channels to a vaccine”.
Those channels are – see your GP, go to the state/territory hub, or on-site vaccination if there are extra vaccines left over.
“They all have access to vaccines, and they have for some time,” Colbeck says.
But if a worker can get a day off to go get the vaccine, under their own steam, the government doesn’t know they have had it.
Updated
Katy Gallagher: “How many staff [have been vaccinated]”
Richard Colbeck: “You have asked a black and white question, where there is not a black and white answer.”
We also don’t know how many staff in disability care have been vaccinated.
In disability care settings, 3500 residents have received first or second doses – just 355 have had two doses.
That’s out of 22,285 residents.
Updated
He has said this practically every party room meeting this year.
And Scott Morrison again told Coalition members the election is next year, but to "think about what you'll say" and what the govt will have to achieve to seek another term. #auspol
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) June 1, 2021
Updated
The party room briefings have begun.
But they haven’t got “the most money so far” only on a per capita basis. In cash terms NSW got more JobKeeper with fewer lockdowns https://t.co/u63YkPQoAg pic.twitter.com/VcYdiUVlo7
— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) June 1, 2021
Updated
Moving on from red carpets to related matters. Labor’s Tim Ayres then turns his attention to the use of the Top Gun theme song when Scott Morrison walked into Williamtown back in February for a Joint Strike Fighter event.
“Very loudly, I think,” says Ayres.
Mel Hupfeld, the chief of the air force, says he is aware of that, because he was at the event.
Hupfeld quips:
I thought they were playing that for me - I was the only top gun in that group.
Were there any discussions about the music with the PM’s team in advance of the event?
Hupfeld says that event had been hosted by an industry partner, BAE Systems Australia:
My belief is that was put on as part of the organisation of that particular event on that occasion through the industry partner.
Ayres says it speaks to Morrison’s “self-importance”, adding:
Normally serious people don’t require theme music.
Updated
Greg Hunt said yesterday there were six aged care facilities waiting on their first dose of the vaccine.
Health officials said as of yesterday, it was 21.
Here is the table which was just tabled in health estimates:
This was just tabled in estimates. Vaccinated staff numbers (that are known) #auspol pic.twitter.com/ZozMMJO18R
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) June 1, 2021
All we know from the figures the government has is that just over 33,000 aged care staff, out of 360,000 or so staff nationally, have been vaccinated. That’s under 10%.
From Friday, aged care providers will have a new system to report vaccinations.
That’s from Friday. Until now, it has been voluntary.
Updated
'Protocol creep' blamed for PM red carpet treatment
The chief of the air force has blamed “protocol creep” for the red carpet treatment afforded to Scott Morrison when he visited a base near Newcastle last month - and has signalled he is “taking steps” to ensure there is no repeat.
There was a spirited exchange with defence reps at Senate estimates this morning about the prime minister’s arrival at RAAF Williamtown base last month. Morrison’s team posted the photo of his red carpet arrival on a social media platform - something that the Labor senator Tim Ayres described as “extraordinary”.
Mel Hupfeld, the chief of the air force, played down any suggestion that the prime minister had requested that sort of treatment.
But he said there was “some ambiguity” in the standard directive across the air force when it came to arrival protocols:
We would use a stair guard to welcome appropriate VIPs to various bases when they arrive. In the case that I think you’re referring to, there was an example where a red carpet was used. That was a decision that the base executives made and there were some ambiguities in our instructions
... The instructions just said that appropriate stair guards can be used for VIP visitors and a picture was included in our instructions that included a red carpet.
The base executives then took it upon themselves to use a red carpet for that particular arrival.
Hupfeld said he was taking accountability for “what I would call protocol creep within the executives on some of our bases”.
I am taking steps to remedy that to ensure that the use of stair guards is appropriate for ceremonial events, and in working across the defence enterprise now for ceremonial occasions, then my intent is to only use red carpet as a key example here for regal, vice-regal or head of state occasions, welcoming those types of personnel on to our military bases.
(That means limiting the red carpet treatment to visitors such as Australia’s governor general and heads of state of other countries.)
Hupfeld said his understanding was that the VIP operations team “will have advised the prime minister’s office that there would be a stair guard on arrival but they did not mention anything in terms of a red carpet”.
Updated
People who were in 1A - the highest priority vaccine cohort - were meant to have their vaccinations completed in six weeks.
That includes aged care.
14 weeks or so on, nationally, 64% of aged care residents have been fully vaccinated. And we don’t know how many staff.
Updated
The bells are ringing for the start of the parliament session.
What a day.
Updated
We are getting some more detail on the percentage of aged care residents who have been vaccinated in the 110 days the vaccination program has been running. Across the country, 64% of residents have been fully vaccinated.
In Victoria, just 57% of residents have been fully vaccinated.
Melissa Davey has read through some articles on the variant of Covid Victoria is currently dealing with:
While it may be good news that the variant involved in Vic's outbreak is B.1617.1 and not B.1617.2 [the more infectious of the two]. But what is concerning is that B.1617.1 carries a mutation that may more strongly associated with vaccine escape... https://t.co/OAfSJsSUDY
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) June 1, 2021
Updated
Today’s Victorian update will come at 12.30pm.
Updated
Malcolm Roberts: “What does that mean, I’m not a lawyer.”
Health official: “I was once, but it was a long time ago.”
Roberts:
Did you become honest, did you?
No, we have lawyers who are good friends. We have good friends who are lawyers.
He laughs.
Updated
Malcolm Roberts is going down the unproven Covid treatments question rabbit hole.
And yet, this is still somehow not as bad as when he questions climate scientists.
That is saying something.
Updated
Malcolm Roberts is now asking the health officials questions.
A cursed sentence.
Updated
So far, there have been 54 cases in this Victorian outbreak.
That includes the nine cases today (although we knew about six of those, so it’s three new cases).
Updated
We are still waiting to hear when Victorian authorities will hold a press conference.
Updated
AAP has been watching Treasury estimates:
Treasury boss Steven Kennedy says overseas events clearly show the pandemic is not over and there are heightened risks to Australia’s and the world’s recovery.
He told a Senate hearing on Tuesday the outbreak in Melbourne reinforces this point:
Despite this, here in Australia the domestic economy has continued to recover and grow strongly. The recovery has been stronger than from any major downturn in recent history. Australian economic growth outperformed all major advanced economies in 2020. We have seen employment and hours worked rise above their pre-pandemic levels.
He put this performance down to the success of suppressing the virus at a relatively low economic cost and that fiscal policy has been more effective than expected, complemented by expansionary monetary policy settings.
After contracting by 2.5% in 2020, Treasury now expects the economy to grow by 5.25% in 2021.
On the jobkeeper wage subsidy, Kennedy predicted in March that between 100,000 to 150,000 people could lose their job as a result of the program ending:
Early indicators suggest that while there have been some job losses associated with the end of the program, and there may be more in the future, the strength of the broader labour market has meant that many of these individuals are finding jobs.
Kennedy said Australian Bureau of Statistics data estimates some 56,000 people have lost their jobs in the four weeks that followed jobkeeper ending.
“We would expect many of those that have lost employment at the end of jobkeeper to regain employment in coming weeks,” he said.
Updated
No locally acquired cases in NSW.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and no overseas-acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 1, 2021
The total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic remains at 5,398. pic.twitter.com/UDPtOzOe9W
Updated
The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, says the government considered “a number of options” before deciding to close the embassy in Afghanistan.
Payne says the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had received advice that with the departure of international troops from the country, the risks to the embassy “would significantly increase” and that “mitigations” would not be able to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. It was a cabinet decision, she confirms.
Asked whether the decision was made before or after Payne’s visit to Kabul on 10 May, the minister says those government discussions were continuing during the time of the trip. The purposes of the visit included enabling discussions with Afghan officials, senior Nato leadership, Australians on the ground and other heads of mission.
Penny Wong wants to know whether the closure is really temporary, as the government said in the statement announcing the move last week.
Payne says: “It is a matter of ongoing discussion and engagement between Australia and other missions, other countries, including the US, UK, Nato itself, on the options ahead. I’ve had discussions as recently as last Wednesday with the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and those discussions are ongoing.”
Wong says she will be asking a series of question about visa pathways for Afghan nationals who have worked for the Australian government, including local interpreters and staff. The committee chair Eric Abetz says they can be pursued later in the day. You can see some recent Guardian coverage about the concerns for their safety here:
We’re in some bits and bobs detail in the health committee at the moment and now it’s on a short break until 11.15am.
Updated
Air Vice Marshal Robert Chipman, head of military strategic clarifies his evidence to Senate estimates. He adds that there were, in fact, discussions between departments about about the future of the embassy in Kabul - that was the purpose of those meetings, he says. He had been talking about his own contribution to the talks about the future of Australia’s footprint in Afghanistan.
Another official, Hugh Jeffrey, says he’s had discussions with Dfat for “over the last year or so” about the question of keeping the embassy open post-ADF drawdown.
Here is that latest ‘who is responsible’ exchange:
#melbournelockdown2021 Who is responsible for aged care staff? @10NewsFirst #auspol pic.twitter.com/H7zF06i1hJ
— Tegan George (@tegangeorge) June 1, 2021
The chief of the defence force, Angus Campbell, tells Senate estimates the plans to withdraw Australian forces from Afghanistan by September are consistent with last year’s defence update, prioritising a focus on the Indo-Pacific region:
The coalition drawdown is progressing smoothly.
Campbell says the history of Australia’s longest war “will be painted in different hues” and “will be coloured, in part” by the Brereton inquiry and the work of the office of the special investigator.
He says he hopes that work “will be understood from the perspective of a larger canvass”. He wants the record to document the work of the ADF and partner agencies over 20 years, and that the national memory “never forgets what our men and women have accomplished”.
Asked about the current security situation, Campbell says the drawdown decisions were based on an assessment that “this was not going to be a conflict that was going to be resolved militarily” and that a negotiation involving the Taliban “would be necessary to see peace return to that country”:
The Afghan defence and security forces and the Taliban remain in conflict and that conflict sees violence broadly through the country but particularly with regard to the southern and eastern provinces of the country, a traditional stronghold of the Taliban and its partner organisations … We see a continuing level of violence in the country ... This is very much going be a negotiated settlement.
Penny Wong raises the closure of the Australian embassy, and asks whether there has been consideration of whether an embassy presence could continue.
Air Vice Marshal Robert Chipman, head of military strategic commitments, says he was involved in interdepartmental discussions in the weeks leading up to the government’s announcement to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Asked if the interdepartmental committee addressed whether the embassy in Kabul could remain open, Chipman replies: “Not specifically that I was involved in, senator.”
Updated
Richard Colbeck, unable to answer, or unwilling to say the words, is still faffing about in his answer to the question: ‘who is responsible for vaccinating aged care workers’.
Aged care is a federal responsibility. Vaccination is the responsibility of the federal government. Apparently, vaccinating aged care workers though, is not the responsibility of the federal government.
There are a lot of back and forths, including Colbeck telling Gallagher he feels “sorry for her”.
Gallagher: “Are you responsible, yes or no?”
Colbeck: “It’s not a yes or no answer.”
Eventually, the answer is its being carried out between the states and federal governments.
Updated
This has been an ongoing frustration for Mike Bowers and the visual reporters – some committees are throwing their weight around about where photographers and camera operators can stand to do their jobs – which means a lot of photos of the back of people’s heads.
The helpful people at the estimates Economic committee placed our photographic positions behind the heads of the Treasury Officials and Minister giving evidence, do I really have to explain again to members of the Aust senate why this will not work? #notTodayPlease @AmyRemeikis pic.twitter.com/ysRVbOttpy
— Mikearoo (@mpbowers) June 1, 2021
Updated
Katy Gallagher asks Richard Colbeck who is responsible for vaccinating aged care staff.
Three minutes later, Colbeck says it is a “combined” program.
The first submarine in the government’s $90bn submarine program must be built in Australia, according to Ronald Finlay of the naval shipbuilding expert advisory panel.
Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, has been grilling officials about the provisions in the strategic partnering agreement between Australia and France’s Naval Group, which the government has said requires the company to “spend at least 60% of the contract value in Australia over the life of the program”.
Wong wants to know if this means the first boat could be made in France, not Australia.
Finlay says there would be risks to the shipbuilder if they changed suppliers from ship 1 to ship 2, so the target would be getting into Australian contact as soon as possible to reduce risks. Finlay then makes a more definitive statement:
The first ship will be built in Australia … There is a requirement for ship 1 to be built in Australia.
What about the hull?
Greg Moriarty, the defence department secretary, says: “We are seeking to build as much of the hull in Australia as we can.”
Moriarty adds a caveat on a particular part of the hull:
The government’s clear intent is, if it is technically feasible, we will build it in Australia. If it’s not we will seek technical advice on where that hull part is best made.
Updated
Nine says it has now signed deals with Google and Facebook
Nine Entertainment has told the stock exchange its multimillion-dollar deals with Google and Facebook under the government’s news media bargaining code have been signed.
Along with other changes in the business including subscription revenue, Nine expects growth in the publishing division to be between $30m and $40m over the 2021-22 financial year. Nine said:
The deal with Facebook is for the supply of news video clips and access to digital news articles on Facebook news products, for a term of up to 3 years with a minimum amount payable over the term.
The 5-year agreement with Google includes the supply of news content (excluding video) for Google’s News Showcase and other news products. Google will also expand its marketing initiatives across Nine’s platforms. The amount payable is a fixed annual fee with modest growth in the early years.
Updated
Katy Gallagher is asking when the decision was made to prioritise residents over staff, and when people were told about that.
Richard Colbeck doesn’t really have an answer. He says aged care staff are still considered part of 1a.
Gallagher says it was never made public. Colbeck disputes that it was never made public, because he spoke to the sector about it.
Other words used here is that prioritising residents, didn’t mean that staff were not a priority. (But if you prioritise one group, it stands to reason that there is a shuffling in priorities.)
A health official says it wasn’t a prioritising issue, it was a “pivot”.
And the department pivoted a part of its policy (providing in-reach service vaccinations to residents, something which is not available to aged care workers, unless there are doses left over) which meant aged care residents were prioritised over aged care workers, except it wasn’t an issue of prioritising one group over another, it was a pivot. And it wasn’t announced, but it was made public.
That clear?
Updated
Richard Colbeck says the decision was made to vaccinate residents before staff, because authorities still don’t know if the vaccine protects against transmission of the virus.
So when the advice came down not to vaccinate staff and residents at the same time, the decision was made to prioritise residents.
He says that meant the rollout was “recalibrated”.
But he still can’t say how many aged care workers have been vaccinated.
Updated
Labor senator Murray Watt asks Richard Colbeck if he is actually “comfortable” with the aged care vaccine rollout.
Colbeck says Watt is verballing him.
Colbeck has said at least twice now, including this morning on ABC RN he is “comfortable” with the vaccine rollout in aged care centres.
The two have a back and forth, which ends with Colbeck saying he stands by what he has said in the media.
Updated
Back in defence estimates, the Labor senator Kimberley Kitching says AusTender contract notices indicate the government will spend $5.45m over three years on remuneration for members of the naval shipbuilding expert advisory panel.
Kitching says that works out to be about $1.8m a year, shared among six members. She suggests this is a higher rate than the former naval shipbuilding advisory board members received.
Officials caution that there is a daily rate, so it will depend on work performed. Officials also suggest the estimates include international flights and hotels but they are not spending anything near that rate, due to the Covid-induced move to virtual meetings.
The defence department has committed to clarify the details later in the day.
Richard Colbeck:
Well, senator, one important point is the issue in respect of transmission of the virus with vaccine, which goes back to the point that we were discussing earlier about compulsory vaccination ...
Katy Gallagher:
I’m not talking about that, it’s a red herring.
Colbeck:
It’s not a red herring, it’s actually important ...
Gallagher:
It actually is – you’re using it to focus away from the fact that you have been unable to roll out a vaccination program for residents or staff in aged care.
Colbeck:
You can get your Facebook moment, that’s fine.
Updated
Richard Colbeck still can’t say how many Victorian aged care staff in centres under federal jurisdiction have been vaccinated.
They just don’t have the data.
They haven’t been collating it.
Liberal senator Dean Smith tries to dig into Victoria’s response with Prof Paul Kelly.
Kelly says Victorian authorities have done an “extraordinary” job scaling up their testing and response and says he doesn’t have the detail but he believes authorities are “keeping very close to national benchmarks”.
“But not meeting them,” Smith says.
Kelly says he doesn’t have the most recent data, but he thinks it would be close, and says authorities are under intense pressure. He takes it on notice.
Updated
Just to recap what we have learnt so far in health estimates:
Health officials came without the information of how many aged care residents have been vaccinated.
No one can say how many aged care workers have been vaccinated.
Until recently, operators only needed to voluntarily report their workforce vaccination numbers.
There is no federal vaccine rollout for aged care workers. They can receive a dose if there is extra from the residential rollout, or work it out themselves.
The federal government is now asking for providers to tell them how many aged care workers have been vaccinated in their facilities.
There may be a survey to find out.
Updated
Over in Treasury estimates:
Treasury Secretary Dr Steven Kennedy says 52,000 people have lost jobs after Job keeper ended. "We would expect many of those who lost jobs due to jobkeeper will gain employment in coming weeks" - expects unemployment to be 5% by June 2022, 4.5% in 2023-2024 @9NewsAUS
— Jonathan Kearsley (@jekearsley) May 31, 2021
Updated
Over at the Senate estimates into defence, the $90bn submarine program is in the spotlight.
A cabinet subcommittee, the naval shipbuilding enterprise governance committee, has met twice since its creation last November.
The Labor senator Kimberley Kitching has asked members of the naval shipbuilding expert advisory panel whether they have made recommendations or provided advice to cancel the future submarine program on risk grounds.
Chair of the panel, US-based Vice Admiral William Hilarides, said any advice “provided directly to ministers to support cabinet deliberations” would be confidential, together with any recommendations.
The focus moves on to a capacity enhancement review. The Australian Financial Review reported on 1 May that “a major review into Australia’s submarine warfare capability is likely to recommend bringing forward upgrades for the navy’s frigates and Collins class submarines”. Was the naval shipbuilding expert advisory panel made aware of the capacity enhancement review?
Hilarides:
I think we became aware when we read it in the newspaper.
Updated
Federal court challenge to Australia's outbound travel ban rejected
Rightwing thinktank Libertyworks has lost its federal court challenge to Australia’s outbound travel ban.
On Tuesday the full federal court unanimously rejected Libertyworks’ bid to overturn the Covid-19 restriction, which had argued that the health minister Greg Hunt has no power to impose a blanket rule stopping citizens from leaving the country.
Justices Anna Katzmann, Michael Wigney and Thomas Thawley dismissed the application and ordered Libertyworks to pay the commonwealth’s costs.
The federal government had argued that, if successful, the case would have “driven a truck” through Hunt’s powers under the Biosecurity Act to impose measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 during the global pandemic.
This is the FOURTH defeat in a challenge to Australia's coronavirus restrictions, following Clive Palmer's loss on WA travel ban; failed attempt to challenge Vic lockdown on freedom of movement grounds; and the India travel ban being upheld. #auspol #auslaw
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) May 31, 2021
The case is the fourth failed challenge to Australia’s coronavirus restrictions, after Clive Palmer’s failure to overturn Western Australia’s travel ban, a high court decision upholding the validity of Victoria’s second wave lockdown, and the federal court rejecting a bid to overturn the travel ban from India.
Despite the ban, more than 140,000 Australian citizens and permanent residents have left Australia since the start of the pandemic under a regime of exemptions administered by Australian Border Force.
Updated
Rachel Siewert asks Richard Colbeck whether he has heard reports that aged care workers are being asked by some providers (their bosses) to get vaccinated on their day off.
Colbeck has not heard that.
Updated
Greens senator Rachel Siewert can’t understand why the government doesn’t know how many aged care workers have been vaccinated. Richard Colbeck says they are asking providers for that information now, after a previous system of “voluntary reporting”.
Siewert is trying to understand why it wasn’t made mandatory in the first place. Colbeck says they are doing that now.
But until very recently, it was voluntary. And the government can’t say how many aged care workers have received either a first or second vaccination.
So based on the figures the health department has just issued, 44,333 aged care residents in Victoria have received a vaccination. Of those, 25,319 have received their second dose.
It’s 1 June. This was meant to be done by Easter, at the latest.
Updated
But officials can’t give a breakdown of how many aged care workers have received their vaccinations.
Updated
The information has come back – just over half the number of residents in aged care facilities in Victoria have received their second dose.
Victorian health officials have confirmed with the federal government officials there are NO new aged care cases in the new test results.
Updated
Prof Brendan Murphy, when asked how many aged care workers have received the vaccination, says it’s important to note that all Victorian aged care facilities have been visited for a first dose but people can’t be forced to have the vaccination.
Katy Gallagher gets cranky:
I’m not talking about forcing people. This is a new line from the government that seems to be coming out from last week, that it’s this kind of conscientious objecting that’s going on as a way of making it look like you’re not responsible.
Richard Colbeck jumps in and argues about “emotive statements”. Gallagher says if he wants to go back to emotive statements, she could ask him if he remembers how many people died in aged care outbreaks during Victoria’s second wave. (That’s because Colbeck couldn’t remember when he was asked.)
Updated
Across the country, 153,641 aged care residents have received a first dose of the vaccination. Richard Colbeck says that is out of 183,000 residents.
That is across the country. No one can say what the state breakdown is, as yet. They are going to try to get the information.
Updated
Katy Gallagher asks how many aged care residents are waiting for their second dose.
A health department deputy secretary says in Victoria, of 596 residential aged care facilities, 382 have had a second dose “visit” – but that doesn’t mean all residents have had their second dose.
The health department DOES NOT have the numbers of how many aged care residents have had two vaccinations. Instead, officials says says 85% residents have consented.
77,134 doses have been administered across aged care and disability – but we don’t know how many people that relates to, and whether they are in aged care or disability care facilities.
Updated
The aged care minister says a second resident who returned an “indeterminate” test result for Covid has since returned a negative test.
His understanding is there are two aged care workers who have tested positive, and one resident. The resident is in hospital as a precaution.
Updated
Richard Colbeck says aged care providers are required to report to the commonwealth when there is a new Covid case in an aged care centre.
He says he hasn’t received any reports, so he doesn’t believe any of the new Victorian cases today are linked to aged care.
Updated
Over in community affairs estimates, it is all about health and aged care.
Katy Gallagher asks Prof Brendan Murphy how many cases are in the latest Victorian outbreak. Murphy says he doesn’t have an updated figure – the Victorian authorities don’t give the information to the feds until they have tweeted it out.
Murphy says after the second wave, Victoria decided not to share the information with the federal authorities until it had released the information themselves.
Richard Colbeck is told the tweet has gone out. He says he hasn’t seen it as yet and his office hasn’t given him any information.
Updated
These numbers are absolutely incredible: 20,484 vaccine doses were administered and 42,699 test results were received.
Again, thank you, Melbourne and Victoria. None of this must be easy. But you keep turning up.
Updated
Victorian reports three more locally acquired Covid cases
This includes the six we learnt about yesterday, so it is three new cases (but nine in the last 24 hours).
Reported yesterday: 9 new local cases and 2 new cases acquired overseas (currently in HQ).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 31, 2021
- 20,484 vaccine doses were administered
- 42,699 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/NwsnE1Hgth
Updated
The latest estimates hearings will begin very, very soon.
In community affairs, it’s all about health this morning – and aged care minister Richard Colbeck will be appearing.
In the economics committee, Treasury secretary Dr Steven Kennedy will answer questions between 9am and 11am.
Updated
There is still no answer when it comes to financial support for people who have lost a week’s pay in the latest Victorian lockdown.
It’s the first lockdown without jobkeeper. So far, the federal government has not budged when it comes to offering any financial support for workers. Instead, Josh Frydenberg said the situation is being “monitored”.
If you’ve lost work in Victoria’s coronavirus lockdown, or you are in casual or insecure work, we want to know how you are coping. Tell us about your experience and situation here: https://t.co/KXFG8Wm0B5
— Stephanie H Convery (@gingerandhoney) May 31, 2021
Updated
Once again though, Richard Colbeck can not say how many aged care workers have been vaccinated. Because until very recently, the federal government was not collating that data. It is now relying on individual providers to give them that information.
Updated
Aged care minister Richard Colbeck has been doing the rounds this morning. Here he was on the Seven Network’s Sunrise program this morning – where he had the same lack of answers.
On the single site arrangements for aged care workers in the federal system Colbeck said:
The arrangements for single worker, single site were arrangements we are negotiated with the Victorian government so they didn’t have to put in place public-health borders to ban that, so we could maintain flexibility and workforce flows during the outbreak, last year. Some other states put in place public-health orders.
Q: Why did you overturn that in November?
Colbeck:
A couple of reasons; one, it’s not legal to limit somebody around their working circumstances, in fact the Health Services Union took Huntington’s aged care in New South Wales to the Fair Work Commission last year to stop them from implementing one worker, one site, and they were successful.
Q: OK, but you were paying extra, to combat that and you stopped those payments.
Colbeck:
That’s correct, so we put the arrangement in place, in circumstances where there was community transmission and a declared hotspot, that declaration has been made four times in Victoria, twice in Queensland, and once in New South Wales so that when there is community transmission, aged care providers can limit the number of workers who are working in more than one site.
Q: But why would have you kept it going until every aged care facility was fully vaccinated?
Colbeck:
Because the health advice we had was to put it in place while there was a hotspot, and that’s what we’ve done.
Q: You didn’t think it would come back? You didn’t think aged care facilities would be vulnerable again? Particularly coming into winter?
Colbeck:
Well, there is always the risk when there is community transmission, with Covid-19 in aged care, that’s the facts, that’s what the statistics showed us, and that’s why when there is a hotspot declared, it’s automatically triggered, and triggered the one worker, one site process.
So as soon as there is a hotspot triggered by the health authorities, the provisions are triggered by the process.
So once Covid has spread far enough for there to be a hotspot declaration THAT’S when the one worker, one site process for aged care. But only once it has spread.
Updated
The shadow aged care minister, Clare O’Neil was a guest on 7.30 last night, where she also laid out issues with the federal government’s aged care response:
Frankly, things that should have been done a year ago, when it became clear what a toxic combination it was to get aged care homes together with Covid. Some of the things I’d just point to - the Federal Government promised us that by March every single aged care resident and every single aged care worker would be fully vaccinated.
They have not met that target by any stretch of the imagination. So, there’s obviously a huge urgency here to vaccinate residents.
The thing that has been completely stuffed up though is the vaccination of aged care workers.
The Government initially gave us this commitment that aged care workers would be vaccinated. They didn’t deliver on it and, in fact, have left aged care workers on their own to manage their own vaccinations and, as a consequence, very few have been vaccinated.
So, I think we need to be looking there. And, of course, we’ve got this ridiculous situation where, still today, aged care workers in Victoria are working across multiple sites. That is because endemic issues face the workforce in aged care where a lot of people just have to work multiple sites to make ends meet.
Sally McManus has some thoughts on what has gone wrong with the aged care response:
What's gone wrong with Fed Govt vaccine rollout:
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) May 31, 2021
- no urgency
- no goal
- no transparency
- no communications
- no understanding of the casualised workforce
And no ownership of the problems.
Updated
Richard Colbeck says the “single site” staff order is sent out when an area is declared a hotspot. But it seems that when that hotspot declaration is lifted, so too is the order (and funding), which means staff go back to working across multiple aged care homes. I say “seems” because Colbeck doesn’t give a straight answer.
Updated
Fran Kelly asks Richard Colbeck where the “sense of urgency” is.
He says they are following the advice.
Updated
Richard Colbeck is speaking to ABC RN this morning. He’s the aged care minister. And he’s still “comfortable” with the vaccine rollout.
But he can’t tell you how many aged care workers have been vaccinated. Because there is no one collating that information. They have now asked for providers to give that information so they can’t try to work it out.
“I’m not going to give you a number I am not certain of,” he says.
Also, there is no real program to vaccinate aged care workers run by the federal government. The edict is to vaccinate staff where there are leftover vaccines once residents have been vaccinated. Beyond that, providers can set up a program themselves, or aged care workers can see their GP or attend a hub – work it out for themselves, in other words.
Colbeck says that was to cut down on confusion so there weren’t mixed vaccines.
"We're comfortable about where we're at [with the vaccine rollout]," says Federal Aged Care Minister @richardmcolbeck.
— RN Breakfast (@RNBreakfast) May 31, 2021
"Everybody would've liked to have done it faster but logistically, we've done it as quickly as we possibly could."
Updated
Christopher Knaus and Melissa Davey have taken a look at what’s happened with the federal government’s aged care response – and it doesn’t seem good. At any level.
Updated
Good morning
Welcome back to Politics Live.
Parliament – and estimates – are back for the first time this week, but it’s the events of yesterday’s non-sitting day which still has everyone’s focus.
The federal government is scrambling to explain how aged care is once experiencing a Covid outbreak, given everything the sector and the people in its care went through last year. Victoria’s Covid outbreak has shown the vulnerabilities in the federally funded and regulated aged care homes once again: while staff in state-run facilities cannot work at other sites, staff at private facilities – which are under the federal government’s jurisdiction – are still able to.
That’s become an issue in this outbreak – again – after a staff member caught Covid from a colleague at one centre and then worked at another centre.
So far the federal government have been unable to give a reason for it, other than there are not enough staff. Greg Hunt said yesterday the states could stop it through a public health order, but that would mean workers – who are working multiple sites to make a liveable wage – would be forced to lose pay. Policy and pay settings have changed in the state-run facilities. That hasn’t happened federally, despite the recommendations of the royal commission.
We’ll keep you updated on that, and everything else happening in Victoria. There are fears the lockdown could be extended beyond the end of this week – authorities did not sound confident yesterday they had it under control. There are more than 270 exposure sites and 4,000 people considered primary or secondary contacts. Each day has seen a stubborn four to five new cases – which have mostly been linked – but the sheer numbers point to an extension of the lockdown being likely. I’m so sorry. We’ll bring you all you need to know as soon as we can.
We’ll also let you know what’s happening in parliament and the estimates hearings – Mike Bowers is with you as always, along with Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst.
It being a sitting day, you have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day. I’m on to just my second coffee – but a third is absolutely calling me.
Ready? Let’s get into it.
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