Today’s main developments
And that’s where we’ll leave the blog for today. Thanks, as always for reading.
A huge day today, with the news in the afternoon that US president Donald Trump has contracted Covid-19.
We’ll be back tomorrow with all the news over the weekend, and Amy Remeikis will be back on Monday.
Here’s what happened today:
- US president Donald Trump announced he had contracted Covid-19, prompting the ASX to fall 1.5% over the day.
- Travel with New Zealand will start in two weeks, after the government announced the long-awaited trans-Tasman travel bubble. However, only NSW and NT will participate at first, and Australians are not yet allowed to travel to New Zealand without going through quarantine.
- Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie confirmed she will vote against the government’s proposed bill that would remove mobile phones from immigration detention. In an email statement, she said 96% of the people who contacted her told her to vote no.
- Tasmania announced it would open borders to “safe and low risk” jurisdictions from 26 October, which applies to SA, Queensland, WA, the ACT and the NT. Premier Peter Gutwein said NSW was under consideration, depending on case numbers.
- NSW reported no new community acquired cases for seven days in a row.
- Victoria reported seven new cases and two deaths.
- NSW Health issued an alert about a flight from Melbourne to Sydney on 27 September that carried an infectious passenger, but said there is no risk of infection to the public, as passengers would already be in hotel quarantine.
- The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said she struck a deal with her Nationals colleagues over koala policy that previously threatened to dissolve the Coalition.
- The ASX fell 1.5% today, mostly as a result of the Trump announcement.
Updated
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has called on his party to choose an Indigenous person to take the parliamentary vacancy left by former health minister Jenny Mikakos, AAP reports.
“We’ve got an opportunity now, a moment, and I don’t think we should miss it,” Andrews said on Friday.
He said it was with a “heavy heart” that his colleague of many years had resigned.
“From that great sadness comes an historic opportunity for us ... to commit to justice for Aboriginal people and a true partnership with First Nations peoples,” he said.
“It presents an opportunity for the Labor party to do the same thing.”
A reporter asked if he was referring to Prue Stewart, who works in the office of Indigenous affairs minister Gabrielle Williams.
“I’m not going to comment on individual candidates but it’s an outstanding field and it strikes me as quite obvious that there is an opportunity for us to do something very, very special,” he said.
“I have known for my entire adult life that if you are genuinely committed to better outcomes for Aboriginal people, then they need to be led by Aboriginal people.
“I think we’ve got an opportunity right now, a moment, that is precious, and I don’t think we should miss it.”
President of Victorian Labor and state secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union Susie Byers said on Friday she would not contest the seat vacated by Mikakos.
“I’d be thrilled to see Labor elect its first First Nations woman MP to the upper house,” she tweeted.
Updated
Some medical opinions on Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis:
A Victorian supreme court judge has defended the credibility of the professor who signed off on Melbourne’s coronavirus curfew, AAP reports.
Associate professor Michelle Giles came under attack in the court on Friday, accused of being evasive when questioned about her decision to extend the 9pm to 5am curfew until later this month.
The validity of the curfew is being challenged by cafe owner and aspiring Liberal MP Michelle Loielo, who says it infringed on her human rights.
Her barrister Marcus Clarke QC said Giles, who gave evidence on Thursday about her decision to renew the curfew, had been “prone to long speeches and frequently evasive”.
He has argued Giles didn’t independently consider how the curfew would impact on human rights, and instead acted at the behest of the premier, Daniel Andrews, to continue the restriction.
But Justice Tim Ginnane defended Giles, saying she didn’t come across at all evasive to him.
“She did, on one view, come across as someone who had taken her job very seriously,” he said.
Giles said it was one of the most important decisions she had ever made.
“I knew these decisions would have impacts on people, I’ve never pretended otherwise but my role was ... to protect public health, to protect people from coronavirus,” she said.
But Clarke argued the decision had already been made and announced days before Giles signed off on the measures on September 13.
Andrews discussed the measures at press conferences on September 9 and 13.
“We say it’s plain common sense she was dictated to. The premier of this state says there’s a curfew in place ... he’s quite plain when questioned that it’s his decision,” he said.
Ginnane said that was an unusual position for a person to be put in, where the decision had been announced before it was authorised.
But Giles’ lawyer Jason Pizer said an important factor was the professor’s understanding she always had the option of not signing one or any of the directions.
“That’s critical. If it weren’t for that – if she understood she had no choice, she had to sign – we’d be having a very different discussion,” he said.
Ginnane will hand down his decision at a later date.
Updated
Some more detail on that NSW Health alert about the flight from Melbourne to Sydney.
Jetstar has issued this statement to my colleague Josh Taylor:
We’ve been advised that a passenger who travelled from Melbourne to Sydney on 27 September has tested positive, and we are working with NSW Health to follow the necessary contact tracing procedures.
“Passengers travelling on flights to and from Melbourne are required to wear masks on board flights and throughout the airport.
“The safety of our passengers and crew is always our number one priority and we have extra measures in place to ensure the health and wellbeing of our customers, including enhanced cleaning and masks and sanitising wipes.”
Updated
West Australian premier Mark McGowan has again waved away questions over when the state will reopen its borders, AAP reports.
Asked today whether WA would consider a travel bubble with South Australia and the Northern Territory, he said there was “no benefit” and it would only result in WA losing tourist dollars.
The federal finance minister, Mathias Cormann, who is from WA, accused McGowan of keeping the borders closed for the purposes of economic protectionism, which he said was “explicitly prohibited in the Australian constitution”.
McGowan shrugged off the attack, highlighting the federal government’s short-lived intervention in support of businessman Clive Palmer’s legal challenge against WA’s border closures.
“Had they been successful when they were doing that, when the virus was raging in Victoria, chances are the pandemic would have come back to Western Australia and the economy would have been devastated,” he said.
“I’m very comfortable our cautious approach has kept the health outcomes good and the economic outcomes outstanding within Western Australia.”
With all other states and territories set to reopen by Christmas, the premier again refused to put a date on when WA’s border restrictions might end.
But he said the removal of lockdown restrictions in Victoria would influence how things progressed in coming weeks and months.
“The advice from the chief health officer is they’ll watch what happens in Victoria and see how it goes and whether there’s any third wave,” he said.
“My fear is if you act too early, if you’re not cautious, the virus comes back and we end up in a situation that Melbourne has been going through for months and months.
“A bit of caution goes a long way ... that’s why we’re doing this.”
Updated
South Australia has added to its hotel quarantine capacity by adding another hotel to its program
SA currently has about 900 people in supervised hotel isolation but has the capacity to take more, AAP reports.
Police commissioner Grant Stevens said another hotel had been added, taking the number of facilities now in operation across SA to five.
“The repatriation of Australians is an ongoing commitment we have and we’re doing our bit to support that,” Stevens told reporters.
“Obviously, that comes with a resource commitment from a police, health and security point of view.
“We won’t make a further commitment to increasing the number of hotels available until we know we can properly resource it and safely manage the people.”
Updated
Experts have responded to the aged care royal commission’s report yesterday, saying that it did not go far enough.
The special report into Covid-19 made six recommendations and said the sector was “insufficiently” prepared for the pandemic.
But aged care experts and advocates said they feel let down by a much-anticipated report.
Prof Joseph Ibrahim told Guardian Australia the report was “pretty benign in terms of an investigative approach”.
“The public should understand this was a fact-finding mission not a critical analysis,” he said.
Our full story is here:
Jacqui Lambie to vote against government’s ban on phones for asylum seekers
Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie has just confirmed she will vote against the government’s proposed bill that would remove mobile phones from immigration detention.
In an email statement the senator said:
I was on the fence about it, because I thought there were some good points and bad points to the bill. I asked the public what they thought, and I got over 100,000 people write back to me.
96% of them wanted me to vote no.
Updated
The NT chief minister, Michael Gunner, has welcomed the trans-Tasman travel bubble, saying it is a “big win” for the territory’s economy.
The NT and NSW are the first two Australian states and territories to be included in the bubble, meaning that New Zealanders will be able to visit from 16 October.
“The fish are biting, the beers are cold, and we can’t wait to share the territory lifestyle with our Kiwi cousins,” Gunner wrote on Facebook.
Under the plan, New Zealanders will be allowed to enter the NT without going through quarantine, as long as they are not from a designated hotspot.
Gunner added on Facebook: “Anyone who has been in a Covid-19 hot spot in New Zealand will not be allowed to come here.”
Updated
More on the trans-Tasman travel bubble, which the government is calling a “safe travel zone”.
It means an extra 325 passengers a week will be able to enter Sydney, because New Zealanders won’t need to enter hotel quarantine.
In a joint statement from PM Scott Morrison, deputy PM Michael McCormack, foreign minister Marise Payne, health minister Greg Hunt and home affairs minister Peter Dutton, the government said it was looking to opening up with other countries as well.
“We are committed to opening up both domestic travel within Australia and travel with New Zealand, as well as other low risk countries as soon as the health advice says it is safe to do so,” the statement said.
“Passengers from New Zealand will be able to travel to Australia, quarantine-free, from Friday, 16 October, provided they have not been in an area designated as a Covid-19 hotspot in New Zealand in the preceding 14 days.”
That will use the definition of a hotspot as a three-day rolling average of above three locally acquired cases a day.
“There are currently no Covid-19 hotspots in New Zealand,” the government said. “The last locally acquired case with an unidentified epidemiological source occurred on 21 August 2020.
“Normal visa requirements will apply and travellers returning to New Zealand from Australia will be required to comply with New Zealand’s travel requirements.
“The Australian government will provide increased Australian Border Force support at airports to support the establishment of green lanes of travel for New Zealanders and collecting information on arrivals to assist with contact tracing if required.”
Updated
An explainer on the knowns, and the known unknowns around Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis:
NSW premier strikes a deal with Nationals over koala policy
In NSW news, premier Gladys Berejiklian says she has struck a deal with her Nationals colleagues over the state’s koala protection policy, AAP reports.
“I am very pleased to say ahead of the cabinet meeting on Tuesday the NSW Coalition has rested on a very balanced and fair approach,” she said on Friday.
“It was never our intention to have to go through the process we did, but that is what it is.”
Berejiklian said the deal ensures koalas are protected but also that farmers are not adversely impacted by the policy.
Acting deputy premier Paul Toole said under the changes farmers will be primarily able to continue doing what they’re currently able to do.
“Unless there are significant changes to the use of your land, you will not be impacted by the Sepp – that’s when it triggers off,” he said. “Farming has been taken out of that Sepp.”
The NSW agriculture minister, Adam Marshall, said it was a “huge win” for agriculture, farms and the environment.
He said the deal will ensure agriculture and farming will continue to be regulated by existing land management codes and private native forestry will still be regulated under the existing code arrangements.
The agreement comes three weeks after NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier, John Barilaro, threatened to implode the Coalition if concessions to the policy weren’t made.
Shortly after, Barilaro announced he was going on mental health leave for up to four weeks.
The policy will be debated at a 6 October cabinet meeting.
Updated
Alert for Melbourne to Sydney flight
NSW Health has issued an alert to passengers and crew on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney.
A passenger, who was returning to NSW from Victoria, tested positive while in quarantine today, and is believed to have travelled while infectious.
“The majority of passengers on the Jetstar Flight JQ510 which left Melbourne at 11am on 27 September are already undertaking mandatory hotel quarantine,” NSW Health said.
“NSW is contacting 47 passengers travelling with special permits or quarantine exemptions or crew. Those deemed close contacts of the case have been advised to immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days and stay isolated for the entire period, even if a negative test result is received.
“This traveller tested positive to a Day 2 test in hotel quarantine and is believed to have travelled while infectious.
“There is no ongoing risk of infection to the general public.”
Updated
World markets have moved downwards on the news Donald Trump has coronavirus.
Shortly after 3.20pm:
The Australian ASX200 index was down about 1.4%.
In the US, futures markets for the benchmark S&P 500 index fell about 1.5%.
And the UK FTSE 100 is looking at a fall of about 1%, according to futures market data.
Hi all, it’s Naaman Zhou here. Thanks to Amy Remeikis as always for her work.
As we reported a few minutes ago, yes, US president Donald Trump does have coronavirus.
We’ll be bringing you the big updates on that here. But for the most frequent developments, consider also following our global liveblog, which is running here:
And a reminder also that Trump, who is 74, appeared on stage with Joe Biden, who is 77, in the presidential debate earlier this week.
Trump is 74 pic.twitter.com/fmGE9CoRhv
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) October 2, 2020
The benchmark ASX 200 index suddenly turned south shortly before 3pm, eating away at gains made during the day.
The ASX had opened the day lower but, until Trump’s announcement, was on course to recover much of its early losses off the back of good news about Australia and New Zealand agreeing to a travel bubble.
And on that note, I am going to hand the blog over to Naaman Zhou and just take in this week.
And it has been A week.
Thank you to everyone who has joined me this week. I will be back on Monday, where we will also be blogging the budget – it is back to Covid and politics live from next week, so I hope you’ll join us.
If you have a question, you can reach me on here and here. But please take a moment to switch off and do something for yourself this weekend – even if it is just taking a moment of silence.
These last three months are going to be pretty tough.
Take care of you. Ax
Updated
Donald Trump's twitter reports he has Covid
Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2020
Updated
So the only jurisdiction without a reopening plan is Western Australia (no one expects Victoria to open up just yet).
And yet from the commentary you would not be blamed if you thought Queensland was the only one with closed borders.
Updated
Tasmania to open borders to 'safe and low risk' jurisdictions from 26 October
At this stage, that is South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory.
Premier Peter Gutwein says NSW is under consideration for the next week (it is just waiting out the possibility there were infections from the taxi driver who (unknowingly) worked while infectious).
Updated
That continues:
In Victoria at the current time:
- 4273 cases may indicate community transmission – no change since yesterday
- 261 cases are active
- 38 cases are in hospital, including four in intensive care
- 19,068 people have recovered
- A total of 2,722,218 test results have been received which is an increase of 12,550 since yesterday.
Of the 261 active cases:
- 256 are in metropolitan Melbourne under the second step of the roadmap
- 3 are in regional local government areas under the third step
- 2 are either unknown or subject to further investigation
- Colac Otway has one active case and greater Geelong, greater Bendigo and Ballarat have no active cases.
Of the total cases:
- 18,797 are from metropolitan Melbourne; 1,192 are from regional Victoria
- Total cases include 9,625 men and 10,550 women
- Total number of healthcare workers: 3,547, active cases: 40
- There are 111 active cases relating to aged care facilities
Updated
Victoria Health has issued its official data release:
Victoria has recorded seven new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,191.
The overall total has increased by eight due to one case being reclassified.
One of today’s seven new cases have been linked to known outbreaks or complex cases. This case is linked to cases at the Western Health Sunshine hospital. The other six cases remain under investigation.
Of today’s seven new cases, there are single cases in Hume, Melton, Monash, Moreland and Wyndham. The remaining two are under investigation.
There have been two new deaths from Covid reported since yesterday. One man and one woman both aged in their 80s.
Both new deaths are linked to known aged care facility outbreaks; 802 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
The average number of cases diagnosed in the past 14 days for metropolitan Melbourne is 12.8 and regional Victoria is 0.2. The rolling daily average case number is calculated by averaging out the number of new cases over the past 14 days.
The total number of cases from an unknown source in the past 14 days is 14 for metropolitan Melbourne and zero for regional Victoria. The 14-day period for the source of acquisition data ends 48 hours earlier than the 14-day period used to calculate the new case average due to the time required to fully investigate a case and assign its mode of acquisition.
Updated
Jacinda Ardern says New Zealanders must quarantine on their return
Stuff.co.nz has Jacinda Ardern’s response to the travel bubble. She says Aotearoa isn’t ready for Australians to visit and New Zealanders will still need to quarantine on the way back:
“I want New Zealanders to keep in mind that even if Australia [opens its borders for New Zealanders], that doesn’t mean they won’t have to go into quarantine on return. In fact, at this stage they will,” she said during a press conference on Friday.
“In our view, we are not ready to have quarantine-free travel with Australia. They have a very different strategy to us, and so they’re making that decision and that is their prerogative, but for now, we of course have to keep New Zealanders safe.”
Updated
But of course there was a dig at Queensland in that press conference.
Michael McCormack:
The Department of Health has undertaken a public health risk assessment of Covid-19 and New Zealand, which indicated that New Zealand posed a low risk of Covid-19 transmission to Australia.
The Australian government will provide increased Australian border force at airports to support the establishment of green lanes, and we will have the ADF helping as required, as need be, of travel for New Zealanders and collecting information to assist with contact tracing as required.
The establishment of quarantine-free travel to Australia from New Zealand will free up space, and this is a really important point for around an additional 325 passengers a week to enter quarantine in Sydney, so that by freeing up those 325 places, that means that more Australians from more destinations overseas can indeed then fill that 325 vacancies, so this trans-Tasman bubble means that there are going to be more places open for more Australians to come home from abroad.
Importantly, safe travel of New Zealanders to Australia will enable space in the quarantine system to be freed up for Australians returning, as I say, from other countries. If Queensland were to agree to this definition, around an additional 250 quarantine places could be freed up allowing Australians from other world locations to arrive in Brisbane along with uncapped flights from New Zealand.
South Australia has agreed to the government’s definition and is not included in this first round announcement. Perhaps their hotel quarantine places don’t count?
Updated
Dozens of studies into Covid-19 have been discredited as researchers rush to share their findings, sometimes cutting corners in the process. Adjunct professor of medical ethics at Bond University, Katrina Bramstedt, identified 33 Covid papers that have been either retracted, withdrawn or “noted with concern”.
Some of the world’s top scientific journals have been caught up in the retractions, including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, as reported by Guardian Australia.
Most of the suspect studies (56.6%) identified by Bramstedt originated in Asia, most of those from China. Her findings were published in the BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics, in a paper called “The carnage of substandard research during the Covid-19 pandemic: a call for quality”:
“Research normally occurs at the speed of a marathon but during a pandemic the pace is more like a sprint. This can increase the risk of honest error as well as misconduct. Patient harm that is significant, permanent and irreversible could result from using faulty research results.”
The highest-profile retraction this year was a study that found hydroxychloroquine increased the risk of death in Covid-19 patients, she said, known as the Surgisphere paper.
The paper and subsequent retraction prompted the Lancet to change its editorial policies in September.
Updated
Michael McCormack is again using “finding love” as a reason New Zealanders may want to come and pick fruit in Australia:
If Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister in New Zealand, wants to have Australians going to New Zealand, then that will be up to her and New Zealand as to how those arrangements can be put into place and under what conditions they can be put into place, but as I say: Northern Territory and New South Wales, very much open.
We welcome those New Zealanders coming here and it could well be that indeed some may avail themselves of this because we’ve got work to be done in agriculture and if that opportunity is there too they might even come over here and find love.
What is his obsession with single people?
Updated
South Australia will be the next cab off the rank, Michael McCormack says.
He doesn’t say why it is not included in this round, given it has agreed to the commonwealth’s definition.
Updated
Only jurisdictions that agree with the commonwealth’s definition of a hotspot are eligible to take part in the travel bubble.
Michael McCormack:
I have just [got] off the phone with [Northern Territory] chief minister [Michael] Gunner who says the fish are biting and the beers are cold and he wants to see as many of his New Zealand cousins and friends as possible, and I am sure they are being echoed right across the Northern Territory and I know that NSW is certainly going to welcome this announcement.
Any state or territory that imposes travel restrictions consistent with the commonwealth-based definition hotspot will be able to participate, and that is an important note.
The commonwealth hotspot definition has been developed by the acting chief medical officer Prof Paul Kelly and is robust and proportionate – and of course everything that we have done right the way through we have done on the best medical advice.
Everything we have done, we have taken, we have heeded that advice and we do so again today on the basis that the hotspot definition is robust and proportionate as of course it has to be. The commonwealth is comfortable in recommending that these people not be placed in mandatory quarantine.
The health department has undertaken a public health risk assessment of Covid-19 in New Zealand which indicated that New Zealand posed a low risk of Covid transmission to Australia.
Updated
MIchael McCormack on NZ-Australia travel
It’s a two-flag press conference for Michael McCormack.
I suppose slices of white bread need a stand.
To the announcement:
The establishment of a travel zone between Australia and New Zealand has been finalised.
Today I’m announcing the first stage of this arrangement, under which quarantine-free travel will be possible from New Zealand to NSW and the Northern Territory from Friday 16 October, 12.01am to be precise.
This will allow New Zealanders and other residents in New Zealand who have not been in an area designated as a Covid-19 hot spot in New Zealand in the preceding 14 days to travel quarantine-free to Australia, so there is a three x three definition.
It is three days with [fewer] than three cases. We are making sure that for those people who have been in New Zealand in that 14-day period, they are welcome to come to the Northern Territory, welcome to come to NSW, and this is the first stage in what we hope to see as a trans-Tasman bubble between the two countries stopping not just at that state and that territory.
Updated
Speaking of endangered species:
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Acting Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole and Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes will give an update on the Koala SEPP at 2:30pm #nswpol
— Political Alert (@political_alert) October 2, 2020
Michael McCormack will make a “significant” announcement at 1.30pm.
That will be the New Zealand one-way travel “bubble”.
There. Announced.
Updated
So, unconfirmed, but I imagine the official confirmation is very close. It looks like the Northern Territory and New South Wales will be the states open to New Zealanders for travel (and possibly South Australia).
Australians won’t be able to travel to New Zealand yet though.
Updated
NZ-Australia travel 'bubble' finalised
Still no need for those passports, just yet (unless you need to clean out an apartment in Rome, or become a trade adviser to the UK).
I am not sure what a one-way bubble would be called. Maybe a travel regulator?
EXCLUSIVE: #7NEWS understands details have been finalised for a travel bubble with NZ. It'll commence in two weeks’ time, but only with a few states and territories & only one way-ie New Zealanders will be able to travel to Aust-but Aussies can’t travel to NZ, just yet. #auspol
— Jennifer Bechwati (@jenbechwati) October 2, 2020
Updated
AAP has an update on where Virgin’s headquarters are heading (or not heading, if indeed, they don’t move from Queensland):
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has indicated a $200m investment deal with Virgin Australia could be sealed by Tuesday.
The deal being negotiated with the airline’s new owner, Bain Capital, is expected to keep Virgin’s headquarters in Brisbane and maintain regional air routes in the state.
The government is running out of time to finalise an agreement with parliament dissolved on Tuesday ahead of the state election on 31 October.
Palaszczuk expects to make an announcement about a deal early next week.
“Let me make it very clear: we support the regional jobs that Virgin brings,” she said. “And if you’re talking about growing the Queensland economy and backing the regions, we need Virgin, and part of that deal is about having the headquarters remain here in Queensland.”
The Liberal National party has pledged to end the talks with Virgin if it is elected.
LNP deputy leader Tim Mander has said that $200m would be better off invested in a tourism and marketing fund for the state.
He also promised to publicly release details of the negotiations, which the state government has kept in commercial confidentiality.
“It is just a waste of Queensland taxpayers’ money,” Mander said. “If it’s signed beforehand, we have said we will not rip up contracts – we’re not in the business of doing that. But if it’s not, it’s what we have to reconsider.”
Updated
It’s party time in the ACT
Subject to the ACT’s Covid-19 situation remaining stable, the following changes to the ACT’s public health directions will come into effect at 9am on Friday 9 October:
- All gatherings can increase to 200 people
- Hospitality venues with total usable space between 101 and 200 square metres can have a maximum of 50 people (excluding staff) throughout the venue
- Large indoor seated venues (for example Canberra Theatre, Llewellyn Hall) can have ticketed and seated events up to 50% capacity, up to 1,000 people provided they have a Covid-safe plan for each specific event
- Cinemas and movie theatres can sell up to 50% capacity of each theatre, up to 200 people
- GIO Stadium and Manuka Oval can have crowds up to 50% capacity with an appropriate Covid-safe plan in place for each specific event
- Enclosed outdoor venues with permanent tiered seating/grandstands can have up to 50% capacity, up to 1,000 tickets.
Updated
Daniel Andrews' 92nd consecutive press conference ends
And that is where the stream stops.
So Daniel Andrews’s 92nd consecutive press conference allows the premier one hour of no questions.
Updated
It has been an hour, and so far, Daniel Andrews hasn’t had to answer a question.
Some part of him would be enjoying this short break.
Updated
There is a lot of back and forth over what the difference is between a floor monitor and a security guard in the hotel quarantine system.
Eventually, we get this answer.
A floor monitor contacts Victoria police if something goes wrong, or someone leaves their room.
A security guard does that, and a bunch of other stuff, including escorting people out for their one hour of fresh air.
But floor monitors aren’t trained to confront people who might be stepping out of their room or doing the wrong thing. They won’t be crash-tackling people to the carpet.
Updated
Attorney general Jill Hennessy is next on the questions podium. She is asked about whether she will be taking responsibility if anything goes wrong:
I’m very clear about what my accountabilities are and my responsibilities are. I am absolutely determined and focused to that end, as is the team that I work with.
You know, there is, as the chief health officer outlined, an environment where you have got a wickedly infectious virus, it is absolutely critical that you are doing everything and anything to try and stop that transmission and the great difficulty, of course, is that we are continuing to kind of learn what the international science tells us about how to do that effectively.
But I don’t step back at all from my responsibilities and my accountabilities. And nor does the team that I work with.
I think there is – ultimately I’m accountable. I don’t step back from that. But I also am very, very conscious, particularly in the provision of healthcare, one of the most important things to do is not to create a culture where people won’t identify errors that they might have made or particular breaches. It’s really important. So, with that slight caveat, I don’t shy from my responsibilities at all.
And then why she believes the transition to the new system will be successful:
What we are doing is we are seeking to try and make sure that we put in place the best protections, the workforce being protected, and making sure that we’re building a culture of learning along the way, where people can identify improvements. That’s been a very strong feature of this culture and I would make the following point.
We have not had an active case related to our workforce for at least four weeks.
I think – you know, the risk is always crescendoing or a product of high community transmission activity, we have certainly been the beneficiaries of the incredible work that the health system and all Victorians have delivered in terms of those lowering.
But what we are increasingly satisfied with is the measures that we are putting in place to minimise those risks. But as you know, we can’t extinguish all risk.
Updated
It is going to be in the mid-30s in some areas of Victoria tomorrow. When, given the heatwaves, can people take off their masks?
Brett Sutton:
The issue with masks – and I understand that we’re down to very few active cases, known active cases in regional Victoria.
Masks make the difference between a super-spreading event and potentially infecting no one at all, or one or two individuals.
When you’re not wearing a mask, the ability to spread the virus to anyone around you is much, much greater.
So that’s a setting that we think is really important now. We will review it over time.
The settings will change. As these numbers are driven down, and I’m confident we have seen – you know, even today, we have seen a halving of the number of cases of unknown origin, we have seen halving of the number of active cases. So it’s totally heading in the right direction.
The settings should change over time. But, right now, the stakes are so high for regional Victoria that if there’s a seeding – and there are still people moving into regional Victoria in their hundreds, if not thousands – we need to protect everyone there from the possibility of a cluster that becomes an outbreak that becomes explosive numbers. That is a really high-stakes game.
Q: It is just three active cases in regional Victoria at the moment. How long would it need to be at zero for you to say to regional Victorians: “You can take your masks off.”
Sutton:
They are the cases we know about. But we’ve got ongoing high-risk workers moving into regional Victoria for essential reasons. They are doing the right thing. We have surveillance obligations for them, in terms of the testing program that Jerome spoke to the other day. But the risk of reintroduction is still there.
Q: Because of people leaving Melbourne and going into regional Victoria?
Sutton:
Correct. People will continue to leave Melbourne. We’re driving the cases down in Melbourne. The risk profile in Melbourne is changing week on week. So, that will change.
The settings will change for masks. But at the moment, as I say, it is so important to have zero cases in ongoing regional Victoria. I am sure regional Victorians are as fed up with masks as some of us are. But they are motivated to be Covid-free.
Updated
Why don’t authorities test everyone in hotel quarantine – all the staff, symptoms or not?
Brett Sutton:
There are potential unintended consequences when you test someone and they get a negative result.
They can behave in a way that they think they couldn’t acquire infection or don’t have infection.
That’s not the case when you’re tested for a virus.
It means you haven’t developed infection at that point in time – doesn’t mean you haven’t been exposed, doesn’t mean you couldn’t become positive the following day, symptomatic the following day. There are pros and cons to that approach.
Updated
On to questions on the Chadstone shopping centre outbreak:
Q: Can you update us on the cluster linked to Chadstone shopping centre? How many cases is that up to now?
Brett Sutton:
It is 11 now that are linked to the workplace – the Butcher Club in Chadstone. So, a number of individuals who are staff there, the entire staff are in quarantine, are considered close contacts for the purpose of contact tracing. There are other individuals who may be linked to that work site as well.
So, we have stood up both testing for asymptomatic staff at Chadstone more broadly, knowing they are there for prolonged periods of time over multiple days and, therefore, we’re happy to test those individuals without symptoms in the same way we would in an abattoir. But also testing for symptomatic individuals who are visitors to Chadstone. Anyone with symptoms can go to a testing site at chat chat.
Q: Of the 11, how many – are any of them a family of nine people that live in Frankston?
Sutton:
One is linked to that family ... one that I’m aware of.
Q: Do you know if any of these people have been moved to hotel quarantine or the accommodation ...
Sutton:
They are in supported accommodation. Yes.
Q: How many?
Sutton:
There’s ... the family in Frankston who are in supported accommodation.
Q: Right. And is patient zero in that cluster – do you know who patient zero is?
Sutton:
No, we don’t.
Q: It is a cleaner or Butcher worker?
Sutton:
We don’t know. We don’t know. The Butcher seems to be – or the setting seems to be – a subsequent site of infection or transmission. But who the index case was in this whole cluster is unclear.
Q: We’re told that one of the cases was a female cleaning contractor at Chadstone shopping centre who knew that she had Covid-19 but went to work anyway. Are you aware of that at all?
Sutton:
I’m aware of the circumstances. I won’t speak to individuals as we would normally not reveal – you know, potentially identifying details.
Q: I was at Chadstone on Wednesday. That butcher was still trading? Should it have been?
Sutton:
As soon as cases are identified, linked to settings, they are shut down, cleaned and the close contacts are told to quarantine.
Q: But I was there Wednesday. We knew Wednesday that the Butcher Club was linked to a concern there at Chadstone and cases at Chadstone. I saw it. It was still open, trading.
Sutton:
I don’t know what the specific details that were known at that time, but when an individual identifies they have worked at a work setting, and there are contacts in that work setting, that’s when it is shut down.
Q: It was saying on the news that this butcher had a positive case or shops in that vicinity – it would have been known at that time.
Sutton:
As I say, we close things down as soon as we’re aware that there are cases who are infectious who worked there.
Sometimes there are linked, but we are not aware that someone is infectious while they’re there. So, I can go back to the details. But that would be our absolute routine response.
Q: Would it surprise you that on Wednesday the shop was still trading then?
Sutton:
I would have to look at what was known as that time specifically in relation to an infectious individual being there.
Updated
Q: Has the person who caught the virus in an aged care facility, had they worked in the aged-care facility and they were also working in hotel quarantine?
Brett Sutton:
I can check that for you. I don’t know.
Q: I understand there was another person who contracted the virus earlier where we are told last week, or earlier this week we were toll another person has contracted the virus in a public housing setting. Were they also working in that setting or did they live in that setting? I guess why were they - they are two very vulnerable settings. Well, three, really. Why was there sort of movement between aged care and public housing and hotel quarantine?
Sutton:
So, as I think I explained the other day, authorised officers do need to work across different settings. They take the precautions that are normal, but obviously there was...
Q: Some of these people are cleaners, not authorised officers
Sutton:
That’s right. A DHS staff member was an authorised officer. So, some of these individuals need to work across different settings. They take those precautions. But if they have - had transmission occur, obviously they are told to isolate as soon as they get symptoms. That was the case in this instance.
Q: Is there any reason why cleaners should be moving from one of these vulnerable settings to another?
Sutton:
Look, I think - all settings are vulnerable in the sense that we would ideally like to have every single individual work in a single workplace. Cleaners need to work across multiple work places. That is the nature of that industry. We would love to see...
Q: Knowing what we knew and what we learnt from people moving from workplace to workplace?
Sutton:
The reality is people who are contracted to work across multiple sites, for the full work that they are entitled to, are a risk.
We would love people to be totally tied to a single site.
But if that site is only offering three or four hours of work per week, that isn’t a sustainable income for anyone.
So, there are individuals across different industries, but cleaning is one of them, who work across different sites.
Q: I absolutely understand all of that but these infections occurred at a time when we were in the process of locking down and people were having their work restricted for that very reason.
In those circumstance, is there a reason why we should have had cleaners moved from aged care...[to hotel quarantine]
Sutton:
For the same reason we had other individuals moving across different site, these are essential industries.
There is no question that cleaners were required through the COVID response as much as anyone else. They were essential staff.
So, we were totally focused on the fact that - there was a need for that workforce. But we were also obviously giving policy direction to minimise work across settings. It cannot be shut down completely. We know that is a challenge in different areas. It’s... You know, been addressed very, very substantially. We’re in a much better place now, but it was never one where you could step in and say, “You cannot work in more than one setting.”
It’s question time.
Q: What is the possibility that some, taking examples persons 1 and 3, 4 and 5, what is the possibility it has jumped from those two households at work?
Brett Sutton:
That wasn’t the conclusion that the genomic analysis came to. As I say, it is an solving science, but there was enough difference to really demonstrate that’s no two households looked to be more closely related to other community cases than to each other.
Q: Are you confident that this group of nine, I guess that is the end of the chain? Have they passed it on to other people?
Sutton:
No, they haven’t. There were very good behaviours for a start. People isolated and people identified their close contacts and those close contacts were followed up quickly and quarantined. There is no further transfer of transmission from those people.
Q: If the hotels are housing people that are Melburnians, they would have the strain that has been circulating in Melbourne. So how do we know that is not just a strain that the nine workers have picked up?
Sutton:
So the strain that is in Melbourne now is really die verging as we go through generations of transmission and there is enough difference across those sequences to really show it clustering around known, linked cases.
So when we see cases linked to a workplace we can see they are related, but they are different to other cases in Melbourne.
So it is not like there is a single strain that all looks the same for the thousands of cases in Melbourne. They are differentiating and they are showing that difference by virtue of the clusters that seem to be linked in households, in workplaces, in other other outbreaks look the same area those are different to others.
The press conference moves to Victorian CHO Prof Brett Sutton who gives an update on a recent outbreak, which includes people who worked in hotel quarantine hotels: the Brady and the Grand Chancellor.
Sutton says looking at the genetic relationships of the virus, for the six of the nine who were able to have genomic testing it shows it is most likely the infection was picked up as part of the community outbreak, not returned travellers.
What he is saying is there most likely wasn’t a breach – people who worked in the hotel quarantine hotels acquired the virus in the community is what he is saying.
If I can number the individuals, persons 1, 2 and 3 all worked for Spotless and were in a household together.
Again, transmission within that household looks almost certain to have occurred. Persons 4 and 5 also worked for Spotless and lived together.
One of these individuals was determined to have worked for a day whilst infectious, but without symptoms.
As you know, we take a period of 48 hours before the first symptoms as a potentially infectious period.
We know that people can transmit before they develop symptoms, but no one did the wrong thing in this space.
As soon as symptoms were detected, those individuals did not work. But we take that 48-hour period for the purpose of contact tracing.
So if anyone was a close contact in that 48 hours before the first symptoms, they are considered a close contact, they are quarantined for the 14 days, as you would for a symptomatic individual.
There is a sixth individual who worked for Spotless who also is linked. They did not work whilst infectious.
A seventh person was a Vic Poll member who didn’t work whilst infectious and was linked to a separate outbreak.
Person 8 worked in support services, cleaning services and again was determined to have worked while infectious but in the 48-hour period before developing symptoms the nine individual was a DHHS staff member.
Again, epidemiologically linked to the work at the hotels, but had contact with a known case elsewhere and, while not definitive, none of this is definitive in terms of genomics or epidemiological linkages, the transmission was thought to be more probable from that known contact.
That individual did not work whilst infectious. So really, the cases that occurred in these settings were absolutely a reflection of the very substantial community transmission in Melbourne at that time and, in fact, cleaning services are a vulnerable cohort for infection.
We saw a number of cleaners who developed infection right through that period. Obviously, they’re critical services, not just for the Covid response, but more broadly, and so it was a challenging period to see a number of cleaning staff infected, but, again, it is very gratifying to see the behaviours that meant that people were isolating as soon as they developed symptoms, which really limited the possibility of transmission between workers on these sites or to any other individual.
Updated
The commissioner of Corrections Victoria, Emma Cassar, explains some of the detail of the reset:
One of the things we have changed is strengthening infection control at Melbourne airport.
So when people arrive, that is as people come off the planes on the aero bridge, we will start the assertive screening there.
Anyone who is asymptomatic or has high temperatures will be taken straight to the health hotels, whether this is about a Covid response or broad care and treatment, it is really important that we keep to the strengthened infection-control procedures as early as possible.
Then we will do a lot of active engagement with returned travellers before they leave.
We know this has been a real challenge in Victoria and other jurisdictions which is the quicker we get information about returned travellers, their needs, their requirements, especially for larger families, we can accommodate them better.
So this will be up on the website and we will be really encouraging that early engagement.
The attorney has spoken about to improvements to infection control and, again, we leave no stone unturned.
We have looked at both our governance and procedures, our training and education, but, as we always have said, training is terrific and our training is face-to-face and has been endorsed by external infection-control experts and a previous CHO, but it is what we do on the ground.
It is that coaching, mentoring and constant spot checking that the training principles and infection-control practices are embedded into practice across the hotels. We really have looked at surveillance and compliance and audit and assure.
Once we have got people in hotels and they are ... well managed and mentored, we also need that independence and that assurance to ensure that we have the best possible standards.
In terms of our workforce, we have a highly capable workforce and this extends beyond the Corrections Victoria department of justice staff we have recruited to our airline partners who are doing a brilliant job.
In terms of the standards: so we have reviewed and updated all of the standards that have a basis within infection control.
So things like cleaning standards, waste standards, linen standards, food standards and all of the activities that are the foundation of how we can stop the virus spreading, have been reviewed and those standards set within the hotel contracts.
For our health partner Alfred, they are a world leader in infection control and we really have looked to strengthen the health model. In particular, a focus on mental health and that end-to-end healthcare for when people transition back to the community.
But I think the one message is that we are really confident in the reset and when flights arrive we will certainly be ready.
Updated
So what does this reset mean?
Jill Hennessy:
First and foremost, keeping Victorians safe and keeping our workplace safe. So infection-control procedures are absolutely critical.
Having strong and accountable leadership, in terms of the structures that we are now using to deliver emergency accommodation.
Making sure that we have got proper oversight, audit and proper checks and balances.
Training and really making sure that we continue to keep very, very focused on our infection controls ...there are also some very, very clear processes that we have put in place for those residents and staff to be able to report and to be able to raise any concerns about any potential issues and one of the important things to remember, particularly for those that are in our emergency accommodation programs that are COVID-positive and for those staff, is we are, and have in the Alfred Health Service, a very important partner, an internationally renowned hotel, and a very important part of that work is making sure that we are encouraging people to always identify risk.
To always identify opportunities for improvement. That is a very, very key and important part of the culture that is being delivered at that health hotel, which is now at the Novotel South Wharf.
We have strengthened the training and the induction and introduction for all staff.
There are very, very clear site requirements .
We now have got in place a very, very strong and effective fast-track when it comes to contact tracing for staff.
So if there is a positive case, and any staff member is impacted at all, we are alerted as soon as possible and that we have got right and rigorous responses put in place.
The people staying in these hotels of course are our fellow Victorians. They have come forward because they need somewhere safe to isolate. Our job right now is to make sure that we are supporting those Victorians throughout this recovery, that we are minimising the risks of transmissions, both within that community and also to the wider community.
We have reviewed all of the procedures and adapted, but we also know that we have got to make sure that we continue to look for opportunities for improvement.
With want Victorians to fell very, very assured -- we want Victorians to feel very, very assured with the accommodation program is a very, very focused one. It is under the highest degrees of management and scrutiny and we are focused on one thing - ultimately making sure that we reduce transmission to return Victoria to a position where we are absolutely managing this virus.
Victoria announces hotel quarantine 'reset'
Victoria’s attorney general Jill Hennessy outlines the “reset” to the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry ahead of the inquiry handing down its report in the near future.
I want to assure you that there has been incredible and tireless work done, as we have gone through an overhaul of the model of all aspects of the Covid-19 accommodation program.
They now all have been formalised under one operation and that operation now includes emergency accommodation for community members – those from Victoria who can safely isolate or who can quarantine at home and it also includes frontline worker accommodation.
As part of this reset, we have undertaken some really expensive and some very important reviews.
Everything from cleaning and waste disposal, from transport to baggage handling, from training to infection control, welfare and medical support, food, recreation, mental health support provision.
All of those things have been reviewed and there has been a program of transition in order to implement those very, very important chains. We also are very committed and dedicated to monitoring each of these steps very, very carefully along the way ...
We are very open to findings of all of our procedures at each and every single step along the way and, particularly, we are very focused on doing the work that needs to be done in preparation for those important conversations that the premier and the prime minister will have in due course, in respect of the return of international travellers.
Updated
Daniel Andrews then speaks about the recent Chadstone outbreak, and what could have happened if Melbourne was open when that outbreak occurred:
I will ask people who are frustrated and would like to have their businesses open and a freedom of movement that is not safe at the moment.
Imagine for a moment what a normal Chadstone would have looked like with that sort of - if that scene their you had played out when we had literally in the course of the day hundreds of thousands of people moving through that setting. It is not safe to op up now.
It will be soon when we have driven these numbers down even further. That case makes two points:
One, the response has been excellent, and I thank all of those who have been part of that.
Two, it makes the point very clearly, if we were to open up now, just as our modelling tells us, just as our experts confirm for it, one of it or even a handful of these events won’t be a handful of cases.
It will be many hundreds of cases. We will get to the point where we can take those safe steps, but it is only when they are safe they will be taken because to do anything different is essentially to say to Victorians that we don’t value all of the sacrifice that you have made. We do. All of us do. That is why we have to stay the course.
We are so, so close I am grateful to everybody who is putting in amazing efforts right across the state. That is why these numbers are falling. They don’t fall by accident. We just have got to see this thing through so with properly have defeated the second wave before with start taking the next steps.
Daniel Andrews press conference
One of the new cases is linked to a known outbreak – the other six are under investigation.
Both deaths – a man and a woman in their 80s – are linked to aged care.
Andrews:
There are 38 Victorians in hospital, four of those are in intensive care ...
A total of 2,722,218 test results have been received since the beginning of the year, which is an increase of 12,550 since yesterday.
Again, can I thank those 12,500 Victorians who just the day before went and got tested. It is, seriously it is THE most important thing for every Victorian to do.
If you have got any symptoms whatsoever, please go and get tested. It makes a massive difference to the completeness of the picture that we are working with, as well as in very practical terms.
If you get tested, if you are positive, we can support you, we can support your family and we can make sure that you don’t spread this virus, almost always unknowingly, to other people.
That allows us to continue to take safe and steady steps. That allows us to continue to drive these numbers down.
Getting tested won’t slow us down. Getting tested will mean that we are able to take these safe and steady steps, arguably, as quickly as possible. It is only if test numbers were to fall to very low levels that we would start to have real concerns about taking those next steps.
That is a good strong number. The performance in the last few days has been very good and I do genuinely thank, genuinely thank, every single person who has gone and got tested. The weather on the weekend will be better.
Can I ask every Victorian, if you have got symptoms this weekend, please don’t wait until Monday to get tested. Please get tested as soon as the symptoms are obvious to you.
We will get the result back to you within 24 hours and we can do all of the things that I just mentioned: protect you, protect your family and protect every single Victorian family.
Updated
No grinding. Leave room for Jesus.
Subtle dancing will be allowed from 4pm today in Qld. Jeannette Young: "I'm not sure what the definition of dancing is...I think if someone is standing up and wiggling their hips that is fine". @brisbanetimes
— Lydia Lynch (@LydiaLynch101) October 2, 2020
Updated
NSW chalks up one week with no locally acquired Covid cases
New South Wales has made it seven days without a Covid case being spread within the community locally. All cases for the past week have been in hotel quarantine.
For the seventh day in a row, NSW has not reported a single recent case of locally transmitted #COVID19.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) October 2, 2020
Four cases of returned travellers in hotel quarantine were diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Three were acquired overseas, and one in Victoria. pic.twitter.com/CWAHRCDVVm
Updated
Terri Butler has thoughts on the deregulation push:
This section of Mr Morton’s speech as reported in the Aus is plain wrong.
— Terri Butler MP (@terrimbutler) October 2, 2020
The Abbott 2.0 bill is
- inconsistent with the Samuel interim report;
- neither minor nor technical.
The real test is for the Govt: can they back the report & put up something serious?#auspol pic.twitter.com/GCWevGRreG
Updated
We won’t hear Labor’s budget reply speech until Thursday, but here is the theme:
People need jobs – fast. And governments should be creating them – fast.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) October 2, 2020
These are my priorities. They'd create jobs today. This is what Labor wants for Australia. pic.twitter.com/Q7WEikwX0W
Updated
The whole deregulation speech is here, if you feel the need to read it.
Speech The Hon Ben Morton MP: The Morrison Government's Deregulation Agenda https://t.co/pbVpe9xoHN pic.twitter.com/NagmJfJXMs
— PM&C (@pmc_gov_au) October 1, 2020
Updated
Daniel Andrews expected at 11.30am
It is 11.30am for Daniel Andrews today.
Updated
Labor’s Julie Collins has responded to the aged care royal commission’s Covid response report:
I am sure the public will have very little confidence that this government, or the minister, is up to implementing these recommendations by 1 December because what we have seen is that when it came to the royal commission’s interim report, very unusual of a royal commission to actually issue an interim report, the very first recommendation – the first one was to fix the home care wait list.
Here we are 12 months later, [and there are] still [more than] 100,000 older Australians waiting for home care.
What we know from Covid-19 is that older Australians are not going to want to go into residential aged care if they don’t have to; they will want to stay at home. The federal government has to fix that too.
Updated
Linda Burney was on ABC Queensland radio talking about the people the jobseeker changes were going to affect the most.
It’s your mum, your grandmother, or their friends.
The reduction in the jobseeker allowance is going to disproportionately affect older women, particularly women who are over 60.
And it’s very hard for those women to find a job because you face age discrimination. All those – all those issues, of course, that we are familiar with older people trying to get a job.
And the other thing, of course, is that quite often we will find that people in that age group, particularly women, are on jobseeker for some years ...
And the other thing is that a lot of those women are in rental accommodation, which is extremely difficult most of the time, and even more difficult now with Covid. So it’s an incredibly wide cohort of people.
One of the strong arguments, of course, that I’ve been putting forward, is that the government has reduced the amount of jobseeker way too early. And it would have been the view of the Labor party that it not be reduced at this rate. And the thing that’s really, you know, the really difficult thing is that people on jobseeker do not know what’s going to happen to them after 30 December, which is around Christmas, whether the government’s going to snap back to the $40 a day or increase the jobseeker rate on a permanent basis. There is absolutely no clarity about that.
Updated
This is an interesting story from AAP: two South Australian nurses who worked in Victoria during the height of the second wave to help provide healthcare workers with some relief aren’t being paid for the time they are spending in quarantine now they have returned home.
The two say they have been left out of pocket.
Tanya Clarke, from Mount Gambier, worked with Covid-19 positive patients in aged care at Melbourne’s Epping Private hospital during almost eight weeks of stage four restrictions.
Julie Wigzell, from Adelaide, spent seven weeks working at the same facility.
But both nurses, who have since tested negative to Covid, have been shocked to discover they and two other Adelaide health workers will not be paid for the two weeks they have to spend in quarantine.
Clarke is due to head back to the state on Monday when she will begin her 14-day lockdown.
Wigzell is in her sixth day of quarantine at the Pullman Adelaide hotel in the city’s Hindmarsh Square.
Clarke and Wigzell, who work for Healthcare Australia, say the operators of Epping Private hospital should pay their quarantine bills.
“I just feel we’ve helped out and contributed to the health of Victorians, we should be remunerated,” Clarke said in a statement issued by the SA branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
“We were told we would be paid and then all of a sudden the goalposts changed.”
ANMF SA branch secretary Associate Prof Elizabeth Dabars described their treatment as “appalling”.
“To be denied payment while in quarantine after making such a huge sacrifice just beggars belief,” she said.
Updated
The ACT’s chief health officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, will announce changes to public health restrictions that will see the ACT move to step 3.2 of its Covid recovery plan from 9 October.
There have been no new cases recorded in the ACT in the past 24 hours. A further update will be issued later today.
Updated
Melbourne's 14-day average Covid numbers drop to 12.8
Victoria has recorded another two coronavirus deaths, taking the state toll to 802 and the national figure to 890.
There are seven new cases, as Melbourne’s 14-day average drops to 12.8 and the regional figure to 0.2.
From 16-29 September there were 14 cases with an unknown sources in Melbourne and none in regional areas.
The latest numbers come as health authorities confirm two workers in the state government’s revised hotel quarantine program were on duty while infectious.
The health and human services department says the workers – among nine who have tested positive since the program was overhauled – were asymptomatic.
The DHHS also says the latest positive case was in late August.
On Thursday, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said he was confident in the program, despite reports subcontracted staff were hurriedly stood down over infection control concerns.
Staff from Spotless were replaced by police mid-shift on Wednesday at the Novotel in Southbank, after a healthcare worker told the Age she feared their practices would lead to further COVID-19 outbreaks.
Victoria’s hotel quarantine program was overhauled in June after private security guards caught the virus from returned travellers and spread it into the community, sparking the state’s devastating second wave.
The premier said the government had learned from mistakes made in the first iteration of the program.
He said the workers were taken off shift as part of a “transition to a new set of arrangements that is unfolding”.
Five of the nine hotel quarantine workers to test positive to coronavirus since the overhaul are Spotless employees.
One was a DHHS staff member and another was a Victoria police officer, while the other two were agency staff.
The Victorian government maintains they didn’t contract the virus at work.
The DHHS also said three of the infected staff members had contact with known outbreaks – one connected to Victoria police, one an aged care facility and one a public housing outbreak – while five were in households.
The other positive case was likely through community transmission, the DHHS said.
Victorian health authorities also insist a popular Melbourne shopping centre is safe for visitors as a Covid cluster linked to the site swells.
Of Thursday’s 15 reported cases, four were linked to the Chadstone shopping centre outbreak that has now grown to eight people and includes a family in Frankston.
Deputy chief health officer Allen Cheng said the centre had been deep-cleaned and relevant staff contact traced.
“It is perfectly safe to go back into Chadstone at this time,” he said.
Updated
Annastacia Palaszczuk:
We’ve now put together a road map which takes us to the end of the year, and we’re going to talk about easing some more restrictions.
Now, the reason we can ease the restrictions is because Queenslanders have done a brilliant job.
I want to thank all of the families out there, all of Queenslanders, for doing the right thing. Keep up the great work!
But just remember, too, if you’re sick - stay at home and get tested. So, what does that mean? So from 4:00 this afternoon, in some great news and in breaking news, you will be able to stand up inside and outside, whether it’s at a cafe, restaurant or a bar, and have a drink.
Now there’s only one proviso. We want to make sure people are keeping up with their social distancing.
But this is something the communities have been saying to me. I’ve been travelling this week out at Moranbah, out up to Cairns as well, and I love to see people enjoying the lifestyle, and the only reason we can do this is because Queenslanders have done a great job.
And I want to thank Dr Young because Dr Young has provided us with that health advice, which enables us to do that Secondly, with I’ve made it very clear that our borders have kept us safe.
We are looking very closely at New South Wales and if they do not have any community transmission for 28 days, we said very clearly that at the end of the month, we review the plans and that would mean there may be a possibility of opening up to New South Wales if there is no community transmission. But, of course, their health experts are also concerned about some undetected community transmission at the moment.
They’re about to go into school holidays. So we’ll be watching that space very carefully, and Dr Young will be watching that space very carefully.
Queensland releases new roadmap: open to NSW from 1 November
You can once again (from 4pm) stand up in a Queensland licensed venue and drink.
And from the beginning of next month (the day after the election) if you are from NSW you can enter Queensland again without quarantining.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has released the state’s new roadmap.
NEW ROADMAP: Today we’re releasing a new roadmap to easing restrictions for October, November and December 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/JkeHmXyDdu
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 1, 2020
Updated
Further to that previous post:
UGH.
Sorry I have been taking a little Craig Kelly-cation but I just checked in and
— vine picking influencer (@cameronwilson) October 1, 2020
the member for Hughes claims that newspapers "censored" full page letters about hydroxycloroquine he & George Christensen had arranged to be placed in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. pic.twitter.com/Mi5gI6u6zW
Updated
Yup.
If you fall off a building, and die upon impact, technically it wasn’t the fall which killed you. It’s hitting the ground. But the cause of your death was the fall.
Just as if you have cancer, you don’t technically die OF cancer. You die from complications caused by the cancer. But if you didn’t have the cancer, you wouldn’t have had the complications.
Saying people are not dying from Covid but with it, is just another example of stupid infecting our society. And for that, there is a pretty obvious cure. But hey, sure, plastic chefs dispense health advice now and are listened to so we deserve all the ugh we get.
#sunrise. Jeff Kennett is wrong. Perpetuating the myth about dying in aged care WITH Covid-19 or FROM it. It’s bullbleep. If you didn’t get it, you might have lived another precious 5 months or 5 years.
— Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) October 1, 2020
Updated
In a break from the usual transmission, Mathias Cormann addressed Western Australia’s border closure this morning.
It stands out because it wasn’t Queensland getting the federal smack.
Cormann was responding to Mark McGowan’s comments yesterday that there was no benefit to WA opening its borders (the hardest border closure in Australia) to South Australia and the Northern Territory:
I’ve had representations, you know, from people in recent times who have loved ones that are stuck interstate.
I mean, families are being inconvenienced. People aren’t able to visit loved ones in the Northern Territory, South Australia.
People interstate are not able to return home. I’m aware of quite a number of people stuck interstate. Again, if there is a public health reason for it, you know, that can be justified. But when there is no public health reason, then the usual freedoms that we enjoy as Australians should prevail.
And, you know, that is why we have an Australian constitution and when the states came together to form the commonwealth of Australia, I mean, one of the core provisions was there should be no borders between [states].
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Mathias Cormann has done a quick press conference in parliament where he was asked about the aged care royal commission report into the Covid response.
He had the same-ish lines as Peter Dutton (so you can guess what the talking points had in them today:
We’ve committed more than $1.6bn in additional resources for aged care since the beginning of the Covid crisis and that builds on a substantial record of resources in previous budgets and budget updates. We’ve immediately committed a further $40m in relation to various measures. We have accepted all of the six recommendations – implementations on four out of the six recommendations is substantially under way. But of course there will be more to say about this in the budget next week.
But Cormann did manage an apology with the pronoun ‘I’.
Of course I’m sorry. I mean, this was not a perfect situation.
We were dealing with a rapidly evolving pandemic and the reason we have a royal commission into the aged care sector is because the PM judged that was warranted to ensure that there could be a significant improvement in the way all of these relevant issues are dealt with and how matters are run in that very important sector.
But with the benefit of hindsight you always review these sorts of events and not while you’re actually in the process of making judgments.
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Victoria reports seven new cases and two deaths
We’ll have more soon.
Yesterday there were 7 new cases & the loss of 2 lives reported. Our thoughts are with all affected. The 14 day rolling average & number of cases with unknown source are down from yesterday as we move toward COVID Normal. Info: https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz… #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/ioyBBX5IgQ
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) October 1, 2020
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The international blog is up and running
For those who need a dose of irony this morning, here is that little speech straight from the home affairs minister’s mouth
Peter Dutton has attacked the Queensland Premier’s “lack of compassion” in her handling of border control. #9News pic.twitter.com/VXJRQLBk0U
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) October 1, 2020
It is time to play “Guess who said this?”
There is an incredible amount of frustration out there because there is no consistency, no compassion and no common sense in Annastacia Palaszczuk.
The goalposts keep shifting, she keeps moving when the borders will open.
I think all of this is being done for politics, and on the eve of an election, and that’s why people are upset.
If you are sitting in traffic this morning waiting to get across the border to see a medical specialist or a loved one and you are coming from an area where there has not been a single case, you can understandably be angry about it and that’s why the premier is being called out.
Did you guess?
Did you get it?
(It was Peter Dutton.)
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These never seem to get any better.
With 5 days to go until #Budget2020, it was good to sit down and chat with PM @ScottMorrisonMP about the importance of this year’s Budget.
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) October 1, 2020
This Budget is all about our economic recovery plan to create jobs, rebuild our economy and secure Australia’s future. pic.twitter.com/uP0YUctU5B
Rex Patrick wants national cabinet discussions public
Independent senator Rex Patrick thinks we should all know what is happening in national cabinet.
The national cabinet has taken over from the Council of Australian Governments meeting where leaders could discuss Coag, and what happened in the room. National cabinet though is under cabinet rules – it’s a secret. And so are the reports and documents it sees if they are labelled “cabinet-in-confidence”.
Patrick doesn’t agree that should be the case.
This complex but important #transparency matter will now be dealt with in a timely fashion and be heard by a Presidential Member of the Tribunal, likely a Federal Court Justice, but possibly three. See you at the Tribunal #scottyfromarketing. Game on! #auspol #FOI #RightToKnow pic.twitter.com/77FNg7UGjL
— Rex Patrick (@Senator_Patrick) October 1, 2020
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Queensland police are warning of delays at the Queensland border ahead of the long weekend.
Queensland opened its border to northern NSW residents yesterday, and there have been queues on and off since. The last time Queensland opened its border, I crossed into home about three hours after (about 3am) to avoid those lines (a 14-hour straight drive is nothing to a Queensland gal used to distances) but the lure of a long weekend in the Queensland sun is strong.
Be patient.
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Peter Dutton managed to find a way to blame Labor for the federal government’s Covid response in aged care while speaking to the Nine Network this morning.
Asked if the government was sorry, he said:
Everyone is sorry for the situation in aged care and it has been that way for a long time, and in fact it was one of the first acts that Scott Morrison did when he came into the leadership of the government, he called for this royal commission because nobody was happy with the Band-aids that had been applied for well over a decade or two. And the six recommendations have been recommended to the government and we will be implementing those, but there is a lot more work to be done and you will see that. In next year’s budget there is a big change coming in aged care.
The Coalition has been in power for almost seven years of that “decade”. It was in power for almost 14 years of the last “decade or two” he mentions.
The interviewer somehow forgets that “successive governments” were mostly Coalition governments (I know we have had a lot of prime ministers in the past two decades, but we still have a two-party system, and one of them has been in power for a lot longer in recent history) and asks Labor’s Richard Marles if more is needed to be done.
Marles:
More needs to be done but the starting point is for the commonwealth to take responsibility. Even as you listen to Peter today, everyone has to say sorry, not just the commonwealth, but the commonwealth is actually the body or the tier of government which is responsible for this. This is a real indictment on them. The word that’s used is deplorable.
Dutton:
Richard, you were in government. You did nothing about it.
Fact check: it is true that Labor did nothing about the Covid pandemic or its impact on the most vulnerable of our society when it was in government. But – and hear me out here – I am going to put that down to the fact that Labor hasn’t been in government since 2013 and Covid hit the world in 2019.
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Talks between the maritime union and Patrick Terminals will continue this morning after the two parties failed to agree to a new pay deal at Sydney’s Port Botany during negotiations at the Fair Work Commission yesterday.
After nine hours of behind closed doors negotiations on Wednesday, Paul Garrett, the union’s assistant secretary, said despite “somewhat fruitful” talks the parties had yet to strike a deal.
It comes after the union went into the negotiations offering a peace deal that would see the company’s existing workplace agreement extended for 12 months – maintaining existing terms and conditions – while providing a “reasonable” 2.5% pay rise.
Speaking briefly outside the Sydney Fair Work Commission on Wednesday night, Garrett said the union had taken a “sensible position” and had not asked for any additional conditions to the agreement.
The MUA has been accused of crippling operations at Patrick’s Port Botany facilities and risking nationwide medical shortages because of the action it has undertaken during the past month, including a “work to rule” policy that excludes overtime.
But Garrett called that “fake news”, and said comments by the prime minister, Scott Morrison, accusing the union of being “extortionate” were “ill-informed”.
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Good morning
Congratulations! You’ve made it to another Friday.
We are going to be living with Covid for quite some time – certainly beyond 31 December – but there is some lightness with the knowledge there is only three months left of this decade.
And there are just hours left in this week. Next week it will be all budget, then response to the budget, then the budget fall-out.
But for now we must be content with the drips and drabs the government lets out. This morning it’s deregulation.
Which also means new tax breaks.
As Katharine Murphy reports:
And of course, there is the possibility of travel outside of our shores (not all of us have official government business with the Vatican after all) with the New Zealand-Australia travel bubble being decided.
Although it may be a little bit longer before Australians can head to Aotearoa – it looks like New Zealanders will be travelling here before we can travel there. The hotspot definition is yet to be locked in, but we should know in the next couple of days what the progress has been.
Peter Dutton spoke about it with the Nine Network this morning:
We have looked at green lane arrangements where inbound tourists from New Zealand could be segregated from people coming off a flight from the US, for example, so that those people may not have to go into quarantine.
So we think in a country like New Zealand, where they have got comparable infection rates – so that is very low – and particularly given the special relationship with New Zealand there is the ability for that market to open up and the PM will have more to say about that. It would be a big win for tourism operators right across the country, big win for the economy and for jobs at a time when we really need them.
But the most important news today, as it has been since the beginning of the pandemic, is the lives impacted by the virus.
Late yesterday the aged care royal commission released its report into the Covid response. It found the federal government’s preparations had been “insufficient”, as Daniel Hurst reports:
We’ll bring you more of that and everything else today as it happens. You have a three-coffee Amy Remeikis at the helm, with the entire Guardian brains trust at your disposal.
Let’s get into it.
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