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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Josh Taylor and Calla Wahlquist

NSW reports 11 new cases and Victoria reports six – as it happened

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What we learned today, Thursday 15 October

That’s where we will leave the live blog for Thursday.

Calla Wahlquist will be back in the morning to bring you more of the latest in Covid-19 news for Friday, but here’s what we learned today:

  • Victoria recorded six new cases of Covid-19 and no deaths. Around 400 people in the regional town of Shepparton are isolating at the moment as authorities look to quickly tackle any potential outbreak caused by a truck driver who didn’t disclose he had been there while infectious a fortnight ago. Cases, contacts and contacts of contacts are all isolating as a result.
  • New South Wales also reported six new locally-acquired cases and five cases in hotel quarantine. Three of the six cases are connected to the Lakemba GPs outbreak, and the state has urged people with symptoms to get tested, aiming at achieving around 20,000 tests per day.
  • Prime minister Scott Morrison confirmed the government will use the Howard Springs facility near Darwin to boost quarantine capacity to allow more Australians to return home.
  • The Australian federal police announced it would not prosecute ABC journalist Dan Oakes over the Afghan Files reporting into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by Australian troops. The news has led to calls for greater protections for reporting in national security legislation.
  • Unemployment is slightly up from 6.8% to 6.9% in the month of September, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
  • Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah is to leave the business and be replaced by former Jetstar executive Jayne Hrdlicka – a move that is certain to further enrage unions already dismayed by Scurrah’s exit.

We will see you back here tomorrow. Until then, stay safe.

Updated

Queensland has issued an alert for the venues visited by the woman who tested positive in Melbourne earlier this week, but had travelled from Townsville via Cairns, Brisbane and Canberra.

Authorities have said it’s likely she became infected in Melbourne, but have contact traced out of an abundance of caution. Here’s where she had been:

  • Georges Paragon Restaurant in Brisbane on 6 October from 7.30pm
  • Tha Fish in Cairns on 3 October from 5.45pm to 8.30pm
  • Vivo Palm Cove on 5 October from 5.15pm to 9pm
  • An additional time has been identified for ICON Cancer Care in Townsville on 30 September from 9 to 9.30am.

Updated

Not great.

Several of my very talented colleagues, Luke Henriques-Gomes, Calla Wahlquist, Lorena Allam, Stephanie Convery and Dr Ranjana Srivastava are all finalists for Walkley Awards for their coverage/columns/book.

The Bathurst 1000 is going Covidsafe, AAP reports.

The Mount Panorama race – starting at 11am on Sunday – normally attracts more than 200,000 people but will be capped at 4,000 spectators to ensure compliance with Covid-19 restrictions.

Everyone will be required to comply with this year’s Covid-Safe plan, which includes ticketed seating and physical distancing and bans on spectator camping.

Assistant commissioner Geoff McKechnie said police would be out in force and would not only focus on road safety and crowd behaviour. They’d be enforcing NSW public health orders and Covid-safe plans, such as business inspections and licensing arrangements.

“We’re working closely with NSW Health to ensure this year’s Bathurst 1000 is a safe event for everyone attending,” McKechnie said on Thursday.

“This year’s event is considerably different to what it has been in previous years, and while we encourage racegoers to enjoy the weekend, we also urge them to be responsible for their own actions and comply with orders in place for the community’s safety.”

race car drives in front of a green hill

Updated

AAP has some more detail on the special leave hearing for the high court tomorrow afternoon challenging Victoria’s lockdown.

Barristers for Mornington Peninsula hotelier Julian Gerner, top silks Bret Walker SC and Michael Wyles QC, pointed out in submissions pushing for an urgent hearing that Victorian residents have had movements restricted for months on end.

The stay at home directions have been in place since March 30, and those in metropolitan Melbourne are required to remain at home 22 hours a day unless they work in a permitted workplace.

“The present end date ... is a total of 98 days since stage four restrictions were announced on 2 August 2002,” they said.

“Mr Gerner is suffering the ongoing effects on his mental health of having his movement restricted, which in his circumstances, amounts effectively to a state of confinement.”

In their submissions, they say his business won’t be able to trade at the beginning of its most profitable period, which will impact its viability and add to the mental health strain on Mr Gerner.

The submissions also note comments made by World Health Organisation Covid-19 special envoy David Nabarro about the use of lockdowns to control the virus.

“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it,” Nabarro said in an interview.

The lawyers also hit out at the shifting end dates for the lockdown from August, to September to October.

My colleague Josephine Tovey has the latest on the US election news, in a day when there was a 2016-esque email “scandal” but it went much differently this time.

At the end of the interview, Greg Hunt urged the Victorian government to again take note of the mental health challenges, but to also “have faith in its own system because that’s what will give Victorians back stronger mental health, better health, and a pathway out of this”.

Updated

Greg Hunt is asked about the deaths in aged care homes in Victoria, and whether the federal government is responsible:

“We take responsibility for every case, every life lost or Australia.”

He points out the Medical Journal of Australia report last week that the lockdown measures nationally saved 16,000 lives.

He says there is a “shared approach, and a shared responsibility” and while the federal government is the regulator and funder, Victoria has responsibility for the public health response.

Health minister Greg Hunt is on ABC Melbourne. He’s essentially repeating his lines around why he wants Victoria to open up, the fact that Victoria is now below the commonwealth definition of a hotspot.

When Raf Epstein puts to him premier Daniel Andrews’ point today that there are over 4,000 historic mystery cases in Victoria, which is not the same anywhere else in Australia. Hunt says it “doesn’t make a difference” given they’re historical cases largely.

“They are historic. What matters is the contemporary cases that represents the actual number of cases that have been detected in the community,” he said.

He says the net impact of prolonged lockdown, including on mental health needs to be factored in.

Updated

The dean of the law school at Sydney University, Simon Bronitt, has put out this statement regarding the arrest of law professor Simon Rice at a protest at the university yesterday.

The arrest, force, detention and issuing of the infringement notice hardly settles the matter. I am confident that Prof Rice and the students affected will not lack for support from colleagues within the School, SULS and the wider legal/social justice community. We will #StandwithSimon, as we #StandwithWoj.

But these ‘fines’, which may be contested, will take many months to reach the courts. I welcome the vice-chancellor’s announcement that the university would be calling for an urgent discussion with NSW police, which shamefully has ignored repeated requests to discuss the matter with the university.

There are clearly many layers to the incident. Foremost, my immediate concern is for the welfare of our staff and students who are, or may be in the future, on the receiving end of a ‘hard’ style of public order policing in which demonstrators are funnelled and contained (some may say ‘kettled’), and then subjected to strategic arrests and interventions. From past experience, these controversial policing practices only serve to escalate tensions and violence in the management of otherwise peaceful demonstrations. To restrain any planned demonstrations within a lawful framework, it must be incumbent on the NSW police or indeed the attorney general to seek an injunction to prevent them proceeding – it is before the courts where the legal validity and proportionality of the public health constraints and reasonableness of planned police responses can be assessed.

Of course, my comments should not be viewed as stepping back from the university’s continued support for the valid intent behind the [Public Health Order], which serves to keep staff and students on campus Covid-safe. That said, how these laws are operationalised by the police on campus, day-to-day, is a matter on which the University community has a right to be consulted. That is standard of community policing, based upon respect for human rights, which regrettably was not on display yesterday.

Updated

Western Australia could review border closure at end of October

Western Australia’s coronavirus border closures remain “appropriate and proportionate” but should be reviewed at the end of the month, the state’s chief health officer has advised.

The advice, outlined in a letter to police commissioner Chris Dawson, comes after Andy Robertson said he was open to considering travel bubbles with other jurisdictions that had also gone at least 28 days without community spread.

All states and territories besides NSW and Victoria have met that benchmark, Robertson said in the letter tabled in parliament by premier Mark McGowan on Thursday.

He recommended the overall border closures be reassessed on 28 October and the NSW controls reviewed a fortnight later.

“NSW has reported 49 cases in the last week, which includes cases in hotel quarantine,” Robertson wrote on Wednesday.

“Given the testing and contract tracing being undertaken, this is expected to fall to less than five community cases per day in the next two weeks.

“The border controls are considered appropriate and proportionate at this time but it is recommended that they be reviewed in four weeks, particularly if they have less than five community cases per day.”

It could pave the way for WA to open its borders to low-risk states such as South Australia followed by NSW and finally Victoria in coming weeks and months.

Health minister Roger Cook added to the intrigue on Thursday, telling a Business News breakfast “we are now in a position to have to consider what we do with our borders”.

Updated

Labor’s shadow employment minister Brendan O’Connor was on ABC earlier, and he called on the federal government to stop attacking Victoria over the continued lockdown, saying Victoria was so close to beating the second wave and would be held up as the exemplar across the world for defeating the second wave.

He also said the unemployment figures today show Victoria has the lowest unemployment rate on the eastern seaboard, but he did expect restrictions to ease soon.

“This is an unprecedented contagious pandemic. Deal with that first. Then deal with the economy, of course. Look at Europe. They are going do close down again. Their health systems are going to be overrun again. They haven’t even hit winter. They are not through the peaks of the second wave. It’s going to get worse and worse. That, to me, is a reminder as to what could happen if Victoria opened up too early.”

He said treasurer Josh Frydenberg “hasn’t got a clue”.

He is no expert in this field. Yet he – every day he stands up and attacks the Victorian government, which is really disappointing, given he is from Victoria and has to understand the challenges on this front so we can open up our economy. I think we are very close, Patricia. We’re doing very well now. I think ... So, I hope – and I am sure everyone else does – we’re going to do well. I just wish the government would get off the back of Victoria and Queensland.

They choose to pick Labor states and never mention comparable things happening in other states. That’s not leadership. It is partisanship. In a pandemic, it’s irresponsible, frankly.

Updated

NSW Health explains why the state is not using hydroxychloroquine in Covid-19 treatment.

CC: Craig Kelly and George Christensen.

Victorian stowaway found in truck at Queensland border

A Victorian woman was caught trying to sneak into Queensland in a freight truck. I have questions.

Via AAP:

Police stopped the prime mover on Dumaresq Crossing Road at Texas late on Wednesday.

Chief Superintendent Ray Rohweder says the 41-year-old woman was found hidden behind the seat of a truck driven by a 61-year-old man.

“Because of the flagrant disregard demonstrated by both the passenger and the driver we decided it was certainly a case where enforcement action was required,” he told reporters.

A $4,003 fine for failing to comply with the Queensland border direction was issued to both the woman and the driver.

The woman was also denied entry to Queensland. The driver was allowed to continue into the state, Rohweder said.

Updated

Groups of up to 100 people will be able to gather for Remembrance Day services across NSW after an exemption from coronavirus restrictions was approved, AAP reports.

The one-off exemption eases the current gathering restriction of 20 people when they’re at community war memorials, provided they adhere to social distancing measures and have a COVID-19 Safety Plan in place.

Acting Veterans Minister Geoff Lee said Remembrance Day was a major event for both veterans and the broader community.

“Australians have paused to reflect and pay tribute on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month since 1918, so this is welcome news for our veterans community,” Mr Lee said in a statement on Thursday.

RSL NSW acting president Ray James said it would be “particularly meaningful” for the veteran community to see Remembrance Day gatherings take place after Anzac Day commemorations were cancelled.

The exemption is in place for Remembrance Day Services held before November 12.

ABC’s news director, Gaven Morris, is on ABC talking about the AFP’s announcement of no charges against Dan Oakes for the Afghan Files reporting.

He says the ABC is relieved but it is a “full farce” that it took three years for the investigation to end.

He says the statement that the commonwealth director of public prosecutions had “reasonable chances of securing a conviction” was not helpful.

He says the public interest test for such investigations should be done in advance, not in retrospect.

“Three years of lawyers and police and inquiries and government officials and AFP time and ABC time and legal time ... You put all that together and consider the public cost that this has – that this has cost us and you think surely there is a better way to ensure that the public interest test that applies to journalism is done upfront and not in retrospect.”

Updated

And the rest from the daily Victorian chief health officer update:

Two of today’s six new cases are linked to known outbreaks and cases. These cases are linked to the Chadstone outbreak and a community outbreak in Elwood. Four cases are provisionally linked to known outbreaks and cases – two are being investigated for links to a case from the Box Hill hospital outbreak, one is being investigated for links to a single case and one is being investigated for links to a previous case at Woolworths QV. That previous case most recently worked a nightshift while the store was closed to the public.

Of today’s six new cases, there are three in Whitehorse and single cases in Hume, Port Phillip and Glen Eira.

There are 175 active cases, with 21 in hospital. There are 14 cases among healthcare workers, and 25 active cases related to aged care facilities.

Updated

Here’s the list of locations of concern from the Shepparton outbreak the Victorian health department has issued this afternoon:

If you have visited any of the high-risk locations below during the dates and times identified you should get tested and quarantine for 14 days. Even if you don’t have any symptoms or only mild symptoms.

  • Central Tyre Service, Welsford Street, Shepparton on Wednesday 30 September to Tuesday 13 October
  • Mooroopna Golf Club Members Bar on Sunday 4 October from 11am to 2pm and Sunday 11 October from 11am to 2pm
  • Bombshell Hairdressing, Fryers Street, Shepparton on Wednesday 7 October from 9.30am
  • Thai Orchid Restaurant, Nixon Street, Shepparton on Wednesday 7 October from 7pm
  • Shepparton Market Place Medical Centre Midland Highway, Shepparton on Thursday 8 October from 9.15am to 10.15am

If you have visited any of the locations of concern below you should get tested and stay at home while you await your results. In addition, people should be vigilant for symptoms of Covid-19 and get tested again at the first sign of any symptoms.

  • Bunnings Warehouse Shepparton Benalla Road, Shepparton on Wednesday 30 September from 5pm to 7pm
  • McDonald’s Shepparton North Numurkah Road, Shepparton on Saturday 3 October from noon to 2pm
  • Lemon Tree Cafe Fryers Street, Shepparton on Wednesday 7 October to Monday 12 October
  • Mooroopna Golf Club Pro Shop on Sunday 11 October from 11am to 2pm
  • Caltex Kalkallo Service Centre South Bound 1340 Hume Freeway, Kalkallo on 30 September from 7pm to 9pm.

Updated

Western Australia has reported five new cases of Covid-19, all in hotel quarantine.

They are three women and two men aged between 25 and 30, who returned to Perth from either India, Nepal or Brazil.

There are 24 active cases in WA.

No new cases in South Australia today.

Save the Children Australia has estimated that 2.8 million people in Pacific countries will be forced to live on less than $2 with the pandemic plunging 500,000 more people into poverty.

The organisation has called on Australia to provide more support for the Pacific.

“Most Pacific Island countries have no social protection system to help them get through the pandemic. There is no safety net, no jobkeeper or jobseeker in the Pacific,” deputy CEO Mat Tinkler said.

“We know that cash is an effective tool to deliver immediate support in a safe and dignified way, and we’ve proven they can work at scale.

“While the additional $304m for the Pacific Covid-19 response announced in last week’s budget is welcome, it’s not nearly enough given the scale of the crisis in the Pacific, and the level of deprivation families are facing.”

Updated

Good afternoon everyone.

Looks like there is some severe weather in north east Victoria.

With that, I’ll hand you over to my colleague Josh Taylor who will take you through the afternoon.

Make a fresh cup of tea and I’ll see you in the morning.

ABC journalist Dan Oakes has spoken to ABC 24 about the AFP’s decision not to prosecute him over his reporting of alleged war crimes.

Oakes said that, after having the threat of prosecution hanging over him and producer Sam Clark for three years, the AFP’s statement had come as “a considerable relief”.

Yes, look, it is, as the statement from the federal police and the [commonwealth director of public prosecutions] said, they believe there was a reasonable prospect of conviction but it certainly wasn’t in the public interest that that conviction of those charges proceed.

He said that further legal reform was needed to ensure no other journalists face the threat of prosecution for public interest reporting.

Obviously, someone, somewhere has decided that it is not in the public interest to prosecute journalists or exposing what would, you know, reasonably be described as matters of significant public interest. The charges that they were considering laying against me were not necessarily related to national security, they were related to possession of stolen goods and disclosing defence information. So, you know, it does – yes, it does open up that question about are there reforms needed, but at this point in time, as I said, somebody somewhere has decided that it is not in the public interest to prosecute me or to prosecute Sam Clark as well.

He added:

We would argue, and we have always argued that those stories were definitely in the public interest. So yes, logically, there should be some discussion about whether there should be some sort of protections for journalists who are disclosing things that are in the public interest and I do not think anybody could argue that what we were reporting on is not in the public interest. Certainly the decision by the CDDP and the AFP reflects that.

Oakes noted that although the threat of prosecution had been dropped for himself and Clark, whistleblower and former defence force lawyer, David McBride, had been prosecuted over the matter.

Updated

I missed this election stunt by the ACT opposition leader, Alistair Coe, but in my defence it is quite underwhelming.

As The Australian’s Richard Ferguson pointed out, it’s not quite at the level of Boris Johnson driving a digger painted with the Union Jack through a wall of boxes marked ‘Gridlock’ to show the phrase ‘Get Brexit Done’.

The ACT election is on Saturday.

AFP says it will not prosecute ABC journalist Dan Oakes

The Australian federal police has said it will not prosecute ABC journalist Dan Oakes over his reporting into alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan by Australian troops.

That reporting was the prompt for the AFP raid of ABC offices in Sydney last year.

In a statement today, the AFP said there was a reasonable prospect of conviction should it choose to prosecute Oakes, but said that the “public interest does not require a prosecution in the particular circumstances of this case”.

Here’s the full statement from the AFP:

The Australian federal police (AFP) has finalised an investigation into allegations that ABC journalist Daniel Oakes obtained classified information.

The AFP submitted a brief of evidence to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution (CDPP) regarding three potential criminal charges relating to the matter.

The CDPP has advised the AFP that it determined there were reasonable prospects of conviction in relation to two of the charges.

In determining whether the matter should be prosecuted, the CDPP considered a range of public interest factors, including the role of public interest journalism in Australia’s democracy. The CDPP determined the public interest does not require a prosecution in the particular circumstances of this case.

As a result of this determination, the AFP has finalised its investigation into Mr Oakes.

Updated

Another 2,000 people are expected to be tested for Covid-19 in Shepparton and surrounds today. This was the scene at a drive-through testing site a short time ago.

Healthcare workers are seen at a drive-through Covid-19 testing facility in Shepparton, Victoria.
Healthcare workers are seen at a drive-through Covid-19 testing facility in Shepparton. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

And a walk-in clinic at Goulburn Valley Health.

People are seen waiting in line at the Goulburn Valley Health-Mcintosh Covid-19 testing facility in Shepparton, Victoria, Thursday, October 15, 2020. A Covid-19 outbreak in Shep.
People wait in line at the Goulburn Valley Health-McIntosh Covid-19 testing facility in Shepparton. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated

I regret to inform you that the deer that was on the loose in Sydney this morning and was captured and brought to Taronga zoo has been put down.

This also happened to the other deer, caught last week. In a statement, the zoo said the deer had “multiple injuries and was underweight”.

More from AAP:

A wild deer that bemused drivers by wandering along one of Sydney’s major arterial thoroughfares before dawn has been captured and euthanised at Taronga zoo.

Taronga zoo Sydney senior veterinarian, Larry Vogelnest was called in by police to help after a driver spotted the creature on an Anzac bridge off-ramp before dawn on Thursday.

Initial attempts to catch the deer were unsuccessful and it was tracked through the city until it was corralled in a rail corridor near Central Station around 8.30am, police said.

The deer was tranquillised before RSPCA officers loaded it into a van and took it under police escort to the zoo for assessment.

“Health checks determined it was a wild female adult deer that had sustained multiple injuries and was underweight and the decision was made to humanely euthanise her,” a statement from the zoo said.

The incident comes just weeks after two deer were spotted roaming around Sydney’s inner west last month. One of those had to be euthanised by the RSPCA.

Updated

Look, I try not to take sides in an election campaign, but New Zealand opposition leader Judith Collins has called Tasmania the “poor cousin” of Australia and I just won’t stand for it.

I am not entirely sure how this came up – Collins appeared to offer it off the cuff.

She was asked to describe her political campaign, and said:

It’s been relentless. Relentlessly positive...Every day has been another day to get out and share a vision for New Zealand that’s not another Tasmanian one; it’s been about us being a wonderfully exciting place to be.

And then:

We don’t want to be the poor cousin of the rest of Australia as such.

Listen, only Tasmanians are allowed to disparage Tasmania, and they only do that to lie to mainlanders so we don’t all try to move there and continue to drive up Hobart property prices.

The New Zealand election is on Saturday.

A senior NSW police officer is addressing the media on the NSW central coast about a fatal shooting by police of a man at Hamlyn Terrace about 9am today.

Police were allegedly called to a property at Hamlyn Terrace on reports of a stolen vehicle. They located it, and pursued a vehicle which allegedly had two people in it. The officer said:

After pursuing the vehicle, police entered a premises at Wyong where they identified the stolen motor vehicle had been parked. They identified a male person. They called upon that male person, who was armed, was armed with a long-arm [firearm]. And subsequently pointed that long-arm at police. As a result, a number of police have discharged their firearms at that offender. That person is now deceased. Overall, from this incident, a critical incident has been declared.

The Homicide Squad is currently now in Tuggerah Lakes Police District for the purposes of investigating the death of the offender and also the actions of police.

Immediately after noting that the investigation had only just begun, the commissioned officer (I didn’t catch his name) said he head been briefed by both the officers involved and the local commanders, and:

From my briefing, my view is very clear -the police have acted professionally. In fact, I believe their actions have been very courageous considering the actions of the offender. Having a double-barrel firearm pointed at you, fear of life, there can be no more strenuous position for a police officer to be placed into. They have my full support but, importantly, this matter will be thoroughly investigated for the coroner.

The man who died is yet to be identified, the other person who was allegedly in the car has not been located.

And while we’re talking about Icac, someone give Gabbi funding to make this a full-length musical.

A reminder that you can follow our coverage of the Icac hearing, which has gone into a private session for the moment, here.

Virgin Australia owners Bain Capital say they needed 'a different form of leadership'

After a day-and-a-half of silence, Virgin Australia’s owners, US private equity group Bain Capital, have addressed the impending exit of the airline’s chief executive Paul Scurrah.

What they have to say will only deepen union concerns that Bain plans to gut the airline under the leadership of cost-cutter and former Jetstar boss Jayne Hrdlicka.

Bain Capital managing director Mike Murphy said in a statement:

The challenges facing all airlines are extraordinary, and Virgin Australia requires a different form of leadership to survive in the long term. Given the environment, we need a hands on CEO with deep aviation, commercial, operational and transformation experience.

Jayne is the right person to take the business forward under Bain Capital’s ownership. She has extensive airline experience and I know she, alongside Bain Capital, wants nothing more than to see Virgin Australia prosper and thrive well into the future.

The statement came through as the Transport Workers Union were addressing the media in Sydney.

Meanwhile, another big Virgin union, the ASU, has joined the TWU in airing concerns over Scurrah’s departure. Assistant national secretary Emeline Gaske said:

The assurance given to 6,000 Virgin employees that their jobs would be safe, was based on commitments made by Bain during the sale process to remain a full-service airline.

If Bain starts to unwind these commitments and move towards a model of a low-cost carrier, this raises very significant concerns about job security for Virgin workers.

We are seeking an urgent meeting with Bain Capital to discuss their plans for the airline after the explosive news about the Virgin CEO.

Updated

Kaine criticised the federal government for offering “no-strings financial support” to the aviation industry back in March, which supported the companies without guaranteeing jobs.

He said the federal government “should attach strings right now to Bain Capital’s involvement in Virgin”.

It should require them to commit to those things it committed to back in August. For our part, we’ve written to Bain, we are still to receive a response. We wrote yesterday afternoon, we’re still to receive a response.

He added:

We want [them] to commit to what they’ve already publicly committed to. A commitment upon which the trust of the creditors, who voted for Bain Capital’s ownership of Virgin was based, and a basis upon which industrial negotiations have been conducted. Otherwise, this is going to go down as one of the biggest corporate swindles in Australia’s history.

And we can’t afford to do that with what is critical to Australia’s future, which is a vital second airline. If we don’t have a vital second airline, we will have an effective monopoly. That will mean the guts are ripped out of regional Australia. Prices go through the roof. This is not what Australia needs for aviation or for its economies.

Is the federal government going to stand by and let tourist operators – tourism, one of our key drivers out of our economy – are they gonna let it go by the wayside, simply because their approach is to hand out corporate welfare with no strings attached? The time has come for real accountability, real leadership to be shown by the federal government. The time has come for Bain to respond quickly to the union’s request to reassert the shape of this airline, not just in a glib line in an ASX release, but in the full way they did back in August.

He added:

There was trust in the management team at Virgin, a tough CEO [in Paul Scurrah] – when he gave his word, he would stand by it. What we’ve seen at Bain over the last 24-hours is all of the hallmarks of slippery, private equity doing backroom deals that are not in the public interest. It’s time for them to come clean, to build a relationship of trust with workforce and the Australian community, and it’s time for the federal government, Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg, and the transport minister, who seems to be perpetually missing in action, to stand up and hold this mob accountable.

tails of Virgin planes parked on the tarmac

Updated

The national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, Michael Kaine, is speaking now about CEO Paul Scurrah stepping down.

The TWU quite liked Scurrah, which is unusual. They’re not happy about the change.

Says Kaine:

Bain Capital, the new owners of Virgin, had repeatedly said that Paul Scurrah and the management team had the trust of Bain Capital. And what we’ve seen over the last 24-hours, after the unions blew the whistle on secret backroom wrangling, we’ve seen that turn on its head. And that is not a good start for a trust relationship in circumstances where Virgin is critical to our economy.

And neither is there much comfort in the ASX response that we’ve seen today from the administrators on behalf of Bain Capital. Sure, it’s encouraging that they’ve spoken about a full-service offering, but what’s not in that announcement is really what’s alarming. What’s not in that announcement are the previous commitments that Bain had given to the Australian people, and to workers, about the size of the workforce – 6,000 workers – about the commitment to regional areas and to the regional arm. About a commitment to starting up international operations again as Covid allows. It’s very alarming that these seem to be absent from the public statement today.

Updated

A legal challenge to Melbourne’s lockdown, being brought by Sorrento hotelier Julian Gerner, has been fast-tracked by the high court and will be put before an urgent hearing tomorrow, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The case was filed with the high court this week, and argues that restrictions including the 5km rule and requirement that essential workers carry permits is disproportionate and contrary to the implied constitutional right of freedom of movement.

The special leave hearing is set down for 3pm, the AFR reports.

As Paul Karp reported earlier, Scott Morrison is in Cairns helping out on the Queensland election campaign, and is speaking to the media. A lot of the points he is making, other than the confirmation of the use of Howard Springs, is repeating what he said on Cairns radio this morning.

Particularly this comment urging the Queensland government to re-open the border (which is an election issue at the moment):

Boasting about borders, for politics, is not health policy. Having borders for health reasons is health policy and should only be justified on those grounds, and it shouldn’t be done in a double-standards way. It should be done fairly and it should be done compassionately. I’ve made many private representations on those issues over the last few months.

He also mentioned again that he has been in early talks with the leaders of Japan, Singapore, and South Korea with a view to potentially including those nations in a low-risk travel bubble at some point in the future.

And then he repeated the commentary started by health minister Greg Hunt yesterday, around the high mental health risks of extended lockdown (98 days and counting) in Melbourne.

The next health decision, as we’ve demonstrated, with things like the massive support we’ve put into mental healthcare, particularly in Victoria, where they’re doing it so tough.

So, I’m hoping to see a positive response this weekend, to see Victoria able to ease up and take that terrible burden, economic and mental health burden, off Melbournians, off Victorians, this weekend.

Wild deer roaming Sydney caught and taken to Taronga Zoo

After a morning of running through the roads and rail corridors of the Sydney CBD, a wild deer has been caught and taken with a police escort to Taronga Zoo for assessment.

Commuters in central Sydney were warned on Thursday morning to watch out for a deer running across the inbound lanes of the Anzac Bridge in Pyrmont about 5.25am. Police were attempted to capture the animal but it escaped and reinforcements from the RSPCA and Taronga zoo were called in.

The animal delayed trains by around 15 minutes before exiting and being caught in Chippendale around 11.30.

A vet tranquillised the animal and police escorted it in the back of a van to Taronga zoo. A police spokesperson told the Sydney Morning Herald:

The reason for that is we were told the deer needed to get to the zoo as quickly as possible because if it was to wake up when it was in the van it would be distressed.

The deer will now be medically assessed by teams at the zoo.

Updated

Scott Morrison confirms Howard Springs will be used to boost quarantine capacity

Scott Morrison has just confirmed the government will use the Howard Springs facility near Darwin to boost quarantine capacity to bring returning Australians home.

At a doorstop in Cairns, Morrison said the government is in the “final stages of arranging” the use of the facility, which was also activated for emergency evacuations from Wuhan in February. He did not provide details about how many extra Australians will be able to come home on top of the existing 6,000 weekly cap.

Morrison criticised the Queensland government for not agreeing to use empty hotel rooms in Cairns to play a bigger role in hotel quarantine.

Australian evacuees, from the coronavirus-struck cruise ship Diamond Princess, are seen after arriving at the Howard Springs facility 30km south-east of Darwin, in February.
Australian evacuees from the coronavirus-struck cruise ship Diamond Princess are seen after arriving at the Howard Springs facility 30km south-east of Darwin in February. Photograph: Helen Orr/AAP

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Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is still talking in Melbourne, and he was asked about the vandalism of his electorate office in Noble Park.

His response?

Graffiti doesn’t work against the virus.

This is a remarkable answer, because it is both perfectly true and completely nonsensical. In fairness, I don’t actually know what he could say in response to this other than some version of ‘I know and I don’t care because I have not the mental energy to care about something so small right now, have you noticed we are in a pandemic’.

The Australian Greens have picked up on the bit in the Morrison government’s media talking points leaked this morning. Specifically, where they say they were unable to move forward with the proposed commonwealth integrity commission because of the pandemic despite apparently having the draft legislation written before the pandemic.

Here’s Adam Bandt:

The Liberals have spent thousands of words justifying why there’s still no federal Icac, when it would only take a vote in the House to implement the Greens bill that has already passed the Senate.

This has been an issue for going on a decade, and there has been legislation before parliament for several years. It has also been more than 18 months since this government announced they were fully committed to a national Icac.

We could have a federal Icac passed on Monday. The Greens’ bill has already passed the Senate and it’s right there, ready to go.

The excuse that the government is ‘too busy’ is utterly ridiculous. They’ve found time to attack the environment, jack up fees for uni students and weaken donations laws in the most recent sittings.

The debacle in NSW is proof positive of why we need a federal Icac. Dodgy behaviour by politicians doesn’t stop at the ACT border.

Updated

The ABC is reporting that the Australian government plans to extend the Howard Springs facility in the Northern Territory to allow for the repatriation of Australians currently abroad.

The facility has been used throughout the pandemic, starting with housing arrivals from Wuhan.

We are working to confirm this story. The ABC reports that the proposal will be announced after national cabinet tomorrow. They say it will allow for 1,000 returnees a month to be quarantined on the base.

They report there will be eight flights starting as early as next week, four each from the UK and India, underwritten by the Australian government.

A reporter asked Cheng if contact tracers had conducted a follow-up interview with the truck driver, and whether they had seized his phone to check his movements.

(Again, if only we had some kind of publicly funded national app for this?)

Cheng said they are health officers conducting a health interview, not cops:

Look, we’re not able to seize people’s phone or anything like that, but we certainly have gone back to him, gone through very carefully, you know, where he’s been and what he’s done. He’s confirmed where he’s been in Shepparton, and we really want people to tell us the truth.

I think there’s no hint that this person has done anything illegal, but we want people to know that when there is an interview with the contact-tracers, it’s like being in a consultation with a doctor. We want to know about things that are relevant to this. For example, you know, not – again, not this person, but in times gone by, cases have told us about who they injected drugs with. We’re not going to refer that to police. We just want to know what is relevant to controlling this infection and it is a safe space for people to tell contact-tracers exactly what they have done and we want to make sure people know that.

Updated

Cheng said that the decision to check back and require isolation to the third ring of contacts would “depend on the situation”.

That approach is being used in Shepparton, he says, because the exposure happened two weeks ago so the chance that it has filtered through several contacts is higher. That justifies the decision to put more than 400 people into 14-day mandatory isolation, he says.

What concerns us now is that there are, you know, there have been cases in Shepparton that have been infectious for a longer period of time, so almost two weeks ... There is the opportunity that the first case has infected someone and then may have caused onward infection to the secondary contacts. That really justifies that approach. But, for example, if we had a situation where it was – where we were really sure we got someone on the first day and, you know, we got to their contacts within 24, 48 hours, then there really isn’t the opportunity for that to spread on.

So we would probably isolate their household contacts, while waiting for those tests to come back, but it becomes less likely that there’s going to be spread to that secondary ring if there’s only that limited opportunity to do that. But where there’s a long period like in Shepparton, that is a different situation.

Updated

Cheng says that now that DHHS is checking back to the third ring of close contacts – which means they reach out not just to close contacts of a positive case, but those close contacts close contacts – this kind of slip should not happen again.

They would have been picked up in this new operation.

Cheng said contact tracers were aware, at the first interview, that the driver had spent the night outside of Melbourne.

So I think it was – we were aware that he’d spent the night out of Melbourne, but what we confirmed that – that he had been in Shepparton and where he had been in Shepparton. And we didn’t find any further places that he’d been to.

Updated

The Victorian deputy chief health officer, Prof Allen Cheng, is running through the timeline of the Chadstone cluster.

It goes like this:

The key players are the cleaner (who worked at Chadstone), the manager of the Butcher Shop in Chadstone, the household contact of the truck driver who travelled to regional Victoria, and the truck driver themselves.

The cleaner was tested for Covid-19 on 25 September. DHHS became aware of the positive result on 26 September. Says Cheng:

We weren’t told that they had been at Chadstone. We became aware of that on the 29th – sorry, on the 28th.

It was published on the DHHS media release on teh 29th, and in the online bulletin on the 30th.

The manager’s Covid test result became available to DHHS on 28 September. That is when DHHS connected it to the cleaner’s case.

The household contact of the truck driver was tested on 29 September, with the result available on the 30th.

The truck driver had already left home on the 29th, bound for Kilmore.

So wasn’t known – wasn’t known to be a close contact when that person left. Got home on the 30th, became sick the following day, so had spread the infection before the case knew that they were symptomatic. Was tested on the 1st [of October] and we got results on the 2nd.

There is unfortunately, you know, that slipping through the net, but a lot of the spread had occurred before they became symptomatic.

Updated

Back to that Victorian coronavirus press conference, the head of testing and engagement, Jeroen Weimar said that none of the tests processed so far from testing centres in Shepparton yesterday had returned a positive result.

I’m pleased to report that we had 350 results back from the testing yesterday so far. All of those results have been negative so far. So that is an encouraging move, of course we have a lot more tests that are being processed as we speak and we’ll be doing updates during the course of the day as those results come through.

As the premier said, there are 410 people in Shepparton who are currently isolating as close contacts and my thanks to them for doing so. We appreciate that it is a – it is a significant ask to have to self-isolate for 14 days on the potential risk of close contact.

Weimar said they now had 11 testing sites either open, or soon to be open, in Shepparton, and they prepared to stand up more facilities if needed.

Transport minister Jacinta Allan then ran through government infrastructure spending.

Updated

Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah to step down

Virgin Australia has confirmed our report yesterday that chief executive Paul Scurrah is to leave the business.

He’s going to be replaced by former Jetstar executive Jayne Hrdlicka – a move that is certain to further enrage unions already dismayed by Scurrah’s exit.

It’s understood there has been tension between Scurrah and Virgin’s new owners, Bain Capital, over the future direction of the airline, with Scurrah pushing for a full-service airline that could compete with bigger rival Qantas while Bain executives favour a budget offering.

Unions, led by Virgin’s biggest, the Transport Workers Union, are concerned that shifting to a budget offering will mean fewer jobs are kept than the 3,000 promised by Scurrah. It could also result in higher airfares if a stripped-down Virgin can’t meaningfully compete with Qantas on key routes such as the Sydney-Melbourne corridor.

In a statement to the ASX, Scurrah said:

I know there has been speculation about the shape of the airline into the future, and I have reaffirmed with Bain Capital that Virgin Australia will not be repositioned as a low-cost carrier.

Virgin Australia will be a ‘hybrid’ airline, offering great value to customers by delivering a distinctive Virgin experience at competitive prices. This will appeal to the full spectrum of travellers, from premium corporate through to more budget-focused customers.

Virgin said Scurrah would step down once the sale to Bain is formally completed through the execution of a deed of company arrangement. It said:

Paul Scurrah will remain as CEO and managing director until that time, supporting the completion of the DOCAs and handover of the business to Bain Capital, expected early November 2020.

Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah is stepping down from the role to be replaced by Jayne Hrdlicka.
Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah is stepping down from the role to be replaced by Jayne Hrdlicka. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Updated

Andrews: there are 400 people in Shepparton who are close contacts or second-tier contacts

Andrews said there were 400 people in Shepparton who either have Covid-19, are a close contact or a close contact’s contact.

That’s a lot of people. Some 1,862 people were tested in Shepparton and surrounds yesterday – on an ordinary day, says Andrews, about 60 people would get tested in a regional health district.

That is an amazing effort and I know that it is not a quick process. The results come back pretty quickly, but it is a time-consuming process because it was to be done safely. It is not like queuing for anything else. You have got to be distanced and have the PPE.

He said another 2,000 tests or so are expected to be undertaken today.

Following some discussions that I had with Suzanna Sheed, the independent member for Shepparton last night, we are making sure that people are receiving bottled water and some sense of support while they are queuing because there is some time taken, as I said before, to safely take those tests. We are also trying to move up and down the lines to pull people out who might see themselves as a closer contact to try to fast-track them. And we are making sure that we come to you in your home, if you are a particularly vulnerable person.

For instance a couple of constituents rang their local member Suzanna Sheed. They are in their 80s. They had waited for a period of time but it was too much for them to have continued waiting in the queue to get tested. We had 10 calls served yesterday and no doubt there will be more and we will visit you in your home, rather than you having to wait in a queue for a period of time.

He added:

I would again just make it clear that we have got about 400 people in the Shepparton community that are either cases, contacts or their contacts. So those three separate groups of people who are all linked through potential chains of transmission, they are isolated at home and they are isolated at home because of one person. That’s the nature of this virus. It spreads wildly. The number of people that can be caught up indifferent chains of transmission with even just one common element is many, many hundreds of people. That, I think, is just a very important reminder to all of us just how – if we needed reminded – just how quickly this can spread, just how important it is that people come forward and get tested.

testing clinic in Shepparton

Updated

To the virus figures in Victoria.

There are now 175 active cases in Victoria. Of the six new cases reported today, two are linked to known outbreaks and four are under investigation but Andrews said he believed they would ultimately be linked to existing outbreaks.

There are 21 Victorians in hospital, none in intensive care.

There are 14 active cases among healthcare workers and 25 in aged care. No cases in disability settings.

Some 15,439 tests were conducted yesterday – including a whopping 2,000 in Shepparton.

Updated

Daniel Andrews press conference begins

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has begun speaking in Victoria. He starts by marking the 50th anniversary of the West Gate Bridge collapse, in which 35 people died.

A section of the West Gate Bridge, supposed to be a beacon of modernity and cutting edge design, collapse. Many amongst that chaos, the flames, the heat, 34 Victorians lost their lives. Husbands, dads, sons and mates, countless more were injured. Even years later when the physical impacts had faded, the mental scars were as fresh as ever.

It also left a scar on our city. For many years after parents crossing the bridge would tell their kids of that terrible tragedy, mine included. From the rubble and the ash and the heartbreak, though, came something and an understanding that every worker matters and that every workplace should be safe. That awful history and the men and women who refuse to forget it came to define our modern system – Victoria’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. The creation of WorkSafe, health and safety inductions and assurance that workers and unions are consulted on the safety of work sites.

One day soon when the time is right, we will gather together at the memorial park to mark this occasion properly. Until then, of course we send our thoughts and prayers to those for whom today will be a very sad day and we recommit ourselves to making sure that every worker is safe at work and arrives safely at home.

West Gate Bridge with the Melbourne skyline behind it

Updated

Here’s the shadow employment minister Brendan O’Connor’s take on those unemployment figures.

A few more quick labour force stats for September (all seasonally adjusted figures):

  • Participation decreased by 0.1 points to 64.8%
  • The underutilisation rate increased by 0.2 points to 18.3%
  • The youth unemployment rate increased 0.4 pts to 14.5%
  • Full-time employment decreased by 20,100 to 8,540,300 people, and part-time employment decreased by 9,400 to 4,031,700 people

Women and men seem to be leaving the labour market at similar rates - participation is down 0.1 pts for men (to 69.6%) and 0.1 pts for women (to 60.1%).

Drilling down further into the state comparisons – Victoria seems to have lost 1.1% of its “employed persons” but unemployment decreased by 0.5%, due to a decrease in the participation rate (-1%). The underemployment rate of 14.9% is also much higher than the Australian average (11.4%), reflecting the lockdown.

There were states where employment nudged higher:

  • Queensland +1.3%
  • South Australia + 1%
  • Western Australia +0.2% and
  • New South Wales +0.1%

Unemployment is at 6.9%

Unemployment nudged up from 6.8% to 6.9% in the month of September, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Last month, labour force figures for August showed a surprise 0.7% drop in unemployment from 7.5% to 6.8%.

This is the second month unemployment has been better than expected but the September labour force statistics are not all rosy – 29,500 jobs were lost and underemployment also increased to 11.4%.

Overall the statistics are very flat. Monthly hours worked increased from 1,680m to 1,688m, up 9m hours.

State by state the Northern Territory had the biggest hit to employment (-5.5%) followed by Victoria (-1.1%).

A bit more detail about the new NSW cases, before we move to Victoria. The Lakemba GP cluster now comprises 15 cases, including household contacts.

The two cases under investigation are the person in Bargo, announced yesterday but in today’s numbers, and a man who lives in south-east Sydney. Close contacts of both have been identified, tested, and are isolating, and a close contact of the person in Bargo has already tested positive.

Some of the positive cases travelled on public transport while potentially infectious. Anyone on the following services is advised to monitor themselves for possible symptoms:

  • Train from Mount Druitt Station at 4pm to Auburn at 5.15pm on 8 October
  • Train from Auburn Station at 8.45pm to Rooty Hill Station at 9.30pm on 8 October
  • Train from Mount Druitt Station at 8.50am to Parramatta Station at 9.30am on 10 October
  • Train from Parramatta Station at 1.00pm to Mount Druitt Station at 1.40pm on 10 October
  • Train from Mount Druitt Station at 9.20am to Auburn Station at 10.05am on 11 October
  • Train from Auburn Station at 4.55pm to Mount Druitt Station at 5.35pm on 11 October

NSW Health said it strongly encourages people to wear masks when unable to physically distance, particularly in indoor settings and on public transport.

Updated

Brad Hazzard: 'Treat everybody else as if they have got Covid'

Back in Sydney, Brad Hazzard said the state government was “closely monitoring” coronavirus figures and testing numbers to see when it could ease restrictions. He said that the government wanted to ease restrictions, but would balance it with the health risks.

He said it was particularly difficult to make that call with testing numbers so low. NSW recorded 15,802 tests yesterday, and is aiming for 20,000 tests per day.

Hazzard said the best approach was to:

Treat everybody else as if they have got Covid and that might be the wisest course for everybody at the moment.

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard.
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

Updated

I just wanted to correct and apologise for my comments on the timing of Daniel Andrews’ press conference today. It is being held at 11.51am because that is the time that the West Gate bridge collapsed, 50 years ago today. Thirty five people died.

NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said public health officials had reached out to a “very large number of patients” of the Lakemba GP clinic to ensure they had broad coverage of any potential contacts.

Chant was asked if she was now “comfortable” that she had the shape of that particular outbreak, to allow NSW to go ahead with easing restrictions. Chant said:

My comfort level is going to go up and down. I was more concerned, I am less concerned today ... I am not going to bet on Covid.

She said the three new cases today were household contacts of previously identified cases.

The two unidentified cases include a man in his 50s in south-western Sydney. She said it could take some time to trace back connections, adding it was “not a forensic science”.

We ask people to go back over their credit card records, we ask people to validate with their family what they have done ... this is not a perfect science.

Chant said the reason she pushed back on releasing some information about people who tested positive to Covid-19 because that was “part of our pact with the public”. They agree to get tested and provide full and frank information about their movements, and public health officials ensure they are not identified at press conferences. It is not useful to have people “pilloried in public,” Chant said.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Updated

Brad Hazzard: 'Public health just want you to tell the truth and nothing but the truth'

Hazzard has picked up the reports of the Melbourne truck driver who did not fully disclose his movements to contact tracers and spread the virus to Shepparton, which is within the NSW border bubble.

Public health officials need to be able to track the trains of transmission. That’s impossible if people do not tell us where they have been.

Hazzard said that because Shepparton was in the bubble, NSW had to be on “very high alert in that southern area”, including placing more alerts on aged care facilities and health facilities on the NSW side of that border bubble.

We are not interested in any of your personal activities, we are not interested in any legal activities you may have been involved in, public health just want you to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

Updated

One of the other new cases is a household contact of a man in Bargo, who tested positive yesterday. The two remaining locally acquired cases remain under investigation.

NSW records 11 new cases of Covid-19, six locally acquired

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is giving the coronavirus update in Sydney.

He says the state recorded six locally acquired cases in the past 24-hours, twinning with Victoria, and five in hotel quarantine.

Three of the locally acquired cases are connected to the Lakemba GP cluster.

Hazzard said the testing numbers were still too low.

We are aiming to have at least 20,000 a day and while we have these positive cases still amongst us ... the emphasis that Dr Chant and I have is please get tested.

Updated

NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, and the health minister, Brad Hazzard, will give the coronavirus update at 11am. So, quite shortly.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews will give a press conference alongside transport minister Jacinta Allan at 11.51am, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the West Gate bridge disaster.

Updated

On Shepparton, my colleague Matilda Boseley is keen to speak to people in the town who are specifically impacted by the potential outbreak.

That could include people who are lining up to get a test; people who have to self-isolate for 14 days because they were at one of the high-risk locations; and people with health issues or other vulnerabilities that makes them particularly at risk from Covid-19.

You can reach her at Matilda.Boseley@theguardian.com or on Twitter at @MatildaBoseley

Updated

There are long queues for Covid-19 testing in Shepparton again this morning.

The town is clearly taking the outbreak very seriously, which is good news.

Daryl Maguire is back before Icac this morning and my colleague Michael McGowan is live blogging his evidence.

He is being asked about a “drop in” meeting between Maguire’s Sydney property developer friend, Joe Alha, and the premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Morrison is repeating the federal government’s definition of a coronavirus hot spot, which was set by the chief medical officer and is an average of 10 new cases per day over three days.

Queensland has said it will not open its border to any jurisdiction that has had any locally acquired case in the past 28 days.

He is making an argument that domestic tourism can be even more important to tourism providers than international tourists. Radio host John MacKenzie says that domestic tourists don’t do the experiences – they just book accomodation, no raft rides. Morrison says that in the next few years, Australians wanting to travel and have those adventure tourism experiences will not be travelling to Mexico or Thailand, they will be up in north Queensland.

Updated

Scott Morrison says the Queensland border should be open to domestic and New Zealand tourists

Prime minister Scott Morrison is still in Queensland, and he is doing a bit of a tour of local radio. He just spoke to John MacKenzie from 4CA Cairns and is lobbying for the Queensland government to open its domestic borders.

It’s all about tourism, Morrison said. He said that Queensland could have international tourists from New Zealand as early as Friday, when the first plane in the new trans-Tasman bubble arrives, but for its requirement for two-weeks quarantine.

He said those visitors would be coming in and visiting New South Wales and the ACT, but not Queensland.

We are opening up to New Zealand visitors to Australia and that is the only thing that stands in the way. And as you know New Zealand has a very good Covid record.

He added:

We have got to plan with or without the vaccine so we have got to be looking at ways for people to come to Australia anyway, safely.

Morrison said that could include extending the bubble to other countries deemed safe, and said the government was in “very early conversations” with Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

But he said the domestic tourism market could also help operators in Queensland recover, if they were able to travel without quarantine.

The big part of it, John, is domestic tourism ... about 70-80% of our tourism is domestic ...

The domestic tourism industry can have an enormous help for Queensland. Domestic borders should only be there for health reasons and only so long as it is absolutely necessary.

Updated

As always, you can follow our rolling global coverage of the coronavirus crisis here.

Updated

BHP held its annual general meeting at 5pm last night, a convenient time, and senior business reporter Ben Butler listened in.

He reports that the mining company batted away shareholder criticism of its intention to continue investing in gas, and also addressed the fallout from rival Rio Tinto’s decision to blow up a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara.

Chairman Ken MacKenzie said the latter incident had resulted in a loss of trust in the mining industry, but BHP would push ahead with its proposed South Flank project, over which, Guardian Australia has reported, the Banjima people have significant concerns.

Read the full report here:

RBA governor says monetary policy easing would help recovery

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has told an investment conference that further monetary policy easing would get more traction now that the Australian economy was starting to open up.

Via AAP:

Addressing the annual Citi Australian and New Zealand investment conference, Lowe said the board has been considering what more it could do to support jobs, incomes and businesses in Australia to help build the road to economic recovery.

“When the pandemic was at its worst and there were severe restrictions on activity we judged that there was little to be gained from further monetary easing,” Lowe said.

“As the economy opens up, though, it is reasonable to expect that further monetary easing would get more traction than was the case earlier.”

He said the board will continue to review these and other issues at its upcoming meetings.

There has been speculation the central bank is about to cut the cash rate to 0.10% from 0.25%, while making similar adjustments to its three-year bond yield target and its term funding facility rate for banks.

The board meets again on November 3.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe.
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe. Photograph: Jonathan Barrett/Reuters

Updated

A reminder that the accidental release of government talking points is not a disaster but actually an exercise in efficiency.

Police in Victoria have issued 70 fines for alleged breaches of public health rules in Victoria in the past 24-hours, including 18 fines for failing to wear a face covering.

Among those fined included a group of six people on a bus at Carnegie Railway Station, who all had different home addressed and allegedly said they had been visiting other friends.

A man was also fined for allegedly travelling by train to Geelong from Southern Cross Station to buy a backpack. Police say the man said he travelled to Geelong to buy a backpack because all the shops in the city are shut.

Police do routine checks against pandemic rules in Hosier Lane in Melbourne.
Police do routine checks against pandemic rules in Hosier Lane in Melbourne. Photograph: Chris Putnam/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Inside the war room to contain Victoria's aged care Covid outbreak

Melbourne bureau chief Melissa Davey has spoken to epidemiologist Hassan Vally about what it was like working in Victoria’s aged care response centre. Valley is based at Monash University, but was called in to help the public health response and began working from the aged care response centre in August.

He said:

It’s really hard to convey the stress and anxiety inside the centre in those first few weeks.

The biggest challenge for the team that I was involved in, in those early days, was getting timely and accurate data that was specific to what was happening in aged care centres so that decisions could be made on a daily basis as to where our resources and effort should be directed to. It was a very difficult task because of the complexities of the aged care sector where you’ve got the commonwealth government involved in various aspects of it, as well as the state. You’ve got data that was going to the commonwealth, and then also data from the state government, all collected on different timelines from different sources and this creates confusion.

We needed to get what we called ‘a single point of truth’, essentially making sure that we had one set of data that everyone agreed on.

Read the full interview here:

Updated

Senior NSW ministers are circling the wagons around premier Gladys Berejiklian.

NSW transport minister, Andrew Constance, was on Channel Nine’s Today Show this morning and said Berejiklian was in for another “tough day”.

We would never have guessed.

Says Constance:

Today is a tough day. There is no denial of that and we will move on from there. But she is a great person, a great leader.

He said Berejiklian was an innocent victim of the attempted wheelings and dealings of her ex-boyfriend, Daryl Maguire.

I am not nervous because I know Glad has done nothing wrong. She is an incredible leader.

She has been dragged into this. Not of her making. Very innocently, I mean, she was in a close personal relationship with him. She didn’t know the extent of his activities like we all didn’t.

And that is the tragedy here for her at a personal level.

NSW attorney-general Mark Speakman told ABC news this morning that there is “100% support for Gladys in the parliamentary Liberal party”.

She is the best premier in Australia. We have seen a one-in-100-year Covid pandemic. She has handled that magnificently.

This Icac investigation is into Daryl Maguire, it’s not into Gladys Berejiklian. She is not a person of interest. There is no allegation made by Icac against her, that she has breached any statute or any ministerial code.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian answers questions about what she knew about the business dealings of Daryl Maguire in the NSW Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian answers questions about what she knew about the business dealings of Daryl Maguire in the NSW Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

Did you know that today is global handwashing day? It’s true. It’s not just one day of 2020: global handwashing year.

Says ChildFund Australia’s chief executive, Margaret Sheehan:

While we await the development of a safe vaccine, washing our hands with soap and water is one of the most important tools we have at our disposal to keep ourselves safe from Covid-19.

The purpose of global handwashing day is to raise funds and awareness for people who do not have the facilities required to wash their hands – clean running water, access to soap, etc.

A thought, for anyone seeking to offset their existential dread with a bit of altruism.

Updated

Victoria police issued the following, not particularly illuminating, statement about the vandalism of Daniel Andrews’ electorate office:

Police are investigating a criminal damage incident that occurred in Noble Park overnight (15 October).

Investigators were told an office building on Princes Highway was graffitied and damaged by an unidentified person.

An investigation is underway and police urge any witnesses or anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

Updated

The World Health Organization’s special envoy on Covid-19, Dr David Nabarro, was also asked to comment on Donald Trump’s triumphant return to the campaign trail post-Covid recovery, in which he appears to have doubled down on his message that the virus is really not that serious.

Nabarro said:

It’s quite hard to encourage everybody to behave in a way that enables them to keep free of the virus if there are public figures who are suggesting that they can behave differently.

He said it was easy to underestimate Covid-19 but that it should not be underestimated:

Please take it seriously. The future of everybody in our world depends on us all taking it seriously and we will need to so until, for example, there is a vaccine available that everybody can take that works. Then we can start to behave differently. But for now we have got to behave in every single situation as if there is a risk of this virus.

Updated

Earlier, the World Health Organization’s special envoy on Covid-19, Dr David Nabarro, spoke to Fran Kelly on Radio National about his comments on the risk of extended lockdown as a method to control the virus.

Nabarro’s position is that lockdowns should be used to buy time “to build up the other elements of the response that are absolutely necessary for people to be able to get on with their lives despite the fact that the virus is still around, is a constant threat”.

So that’s a good contact tracing system, testing capacity, health system capacity, and possibly the ability to do limited localised lockdowns to control an outbreak. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that was the plan outlined by the Australian government back in April.

Nabarro said:

A strong lockdown can lead to increased poverty, increased hunger, in sometimes increased malnutrition, and it’s that set of additional consequences that we’re doing everything possible to try to avoid and that’s why we say put in place your disease control measures, make sure they are functioning, because that will help you avoid having to go into lockdowns and that has to be the way of the future.

Kelly then asked how these comments applied to Melbourne, which has been under some form of stay-at-home orders for 98 days.

(We returned to stage three at 12.01am on 9 July. Stage four began at 6pm on 2 August, which was 74 days ago. I know; I also hate that I counted that up and now know how long it’s been. Imagine if we had all stuck to our 30-day yoga plans.)

Back to Nabarro. On the question of whether the lockdown in Melbourne should now be lifted, he said:

That can only be a decision made locally, and it’s really difficult for somebody sitting here [in Geneva] to make a sensible comment on it. But let me give you the way in which I would be approaching it: I would be wanting to ensure that there are the capacities throughout the state to be able to pick up people with the disease and to test them, get the results in quickly, and also that there are public health personnel at local level who can make sure that they isolate. For many countries building up this capacity has been very difficult.

He added that wealthy nations are actually less equipped to deal with an outbreak of this kind than developing nations, which have more frequent infectious disease outbreaks.

The problem with what we might call advanced nations or wealthy nations is they haven’t been dealing with these kind of problems for a long time, so they are having to rebuild a whole set of systems that really haven’t been there before. That I would suspect is the reason that Victoria has taken quite a number of weeks to be able to get to a position where they think that they can safely release the lockdown. And I respect that. What everybody wants to do is to make sure that when you do release the lockdown that you’ve got the systems in place to reduce the likelihood that you’ll have to go into it again.

Kelly asked if, looking at Victoria’s case numbers alone, with a rolling 14-day average of fewer than 10 cases, Nabarro thought it would be safe to end lockdown. He said, again, that it depends on the strength of the systems you have in place, and on the population’s discipline in maintaining physical distancing and good hygiene practices.

The most difficult thing when dealing with a dangerous virus that causes an infectious disease is how you behave when your numbers are low. It’s then that you need to be on your most alert. If I was responsible for health in Victoria, I would at this point be really encouraging everybody to take this very seriously because if you continue as you are you can get down to almost zero or zero virus which would make you the envy of the world. What you don’t want to do is relax when you have got a few cases and then have a great spike building up again. That would be really unfortunate and it’s the last thing that the authorities would want, it’s the last thing that the people of Victoria would want …

If I had one message for the people of Victoria it would be for now, and for the foreseeable future, do take the physical distancing, masking, hygiene, self-isolation and protecting those most vulnerable really seriously. Now is the time when you need to get all that in place so that when lockdown is released you don’t get the kind of rebounds that we see here in Europe.

Updated

Victoria has recorded six new cases of Covid-19 and no new deaths

Now this is a good number. Victoria has recorded just six new cases of Covid-19 and, wonderfully, no new deaths.

The 14-day rolling average in metropolitan Melbourne is now 8.9 – down from yesterday – and the number of cases with an unknown source in the past fortnight stands at 15 – up one from yesterday.

It’s not yet clear what this will mean for the flagged easing of restrictions on Sunday – we’re still well above the target of a 14-day average of five per day.

The prime minister’s office has accidentally released its daily talking points to the media, again. This is allegedly an accident although it is a wonderful shortcut because sending the talking points gets reporters to report on the talking points, without the prime minister or others having to do any actual talking. True efficiency in government.

Three bits may be of particular interest to readers of this blog.

First, there is a suggested response if a pollie is asked that the budget doesn’t do enough for women. The answer, is apparently, that “every measure in the budget is a measure not just for Australian women, but for all Australians”. So it’s the women-will-drive-on-these-roads argument.

Second, the talking points include a suggested response if politicians are asked about jobseeker rates. It includes this line:

No one is saying it’s easy to get by without a job which is why the Morrison government is absolutely focused on helping unemployed Australians be work ready and creating jobs so working-age Australians have the opportunity to gain financial independence.

And third, the talking points specifically address the promised commonwealth integrity commission and say the government will release draft legislation “as soon as possible after the more immediate priorities concerning the management of the COVID recovery have been dealt with”. They then say that legislation was ready for release before the pandemic hit, which makes the inability to release it during the pandemic a bit confusing.

As always, the talking points are more illuminating in what they do not say than what they do. It’s also good to remember that the reason politicians sound like they are all singing from the same songbook is because they are – it’s emailed daily.

Updated

A wild deer has been spotted in Sydney. Again.

You may recall that last week two wild deer were spotted on the loose in Sydney’s inner suburbs, and police managed to capture one of them but not the other.

We may have discovered what happened to the second deer.

Last Thursday the deer were spotted in Leichhardt, Balmain and Annandale. This single deer was spotted near Pyrmont.

Updated

Daniel Andrews' electorate office vandalised

The Mulgrave electorate office of the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has been vandalised overnight, with the words “SACK DAN” spraypainted across the window and the door.

Channel Nine also reported that there was a brick lying on the footpath outside the office on the Princes Highway at Noble Park, which they say appears to have been used in an attempt to smash the window.

The Victorian premier’s office was vandalised overnight.
The Victorian premier’s office was vandalised overnight. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated

Good morning,

Hundreds more people are expected to be tested for Covid-19 in the northern Victorian town of Shepparton today after three people working in a tyre shop tested positive on Monday. Some people were turned away from testing sites as long queues formed yesterday, but another drive-through testing site has been set up today.

Anyone who attended the following locations in Shepparton is advised to get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of symptoms: the Central Tyre Service in Shepparton on Wednesday 30 September to Tuesday 13 October; the Mooroopna golf club members bar on Sunday 4 October and Sunday 11 October; the Thai Orchid restaurant on Wednesday 7 October from 7pm onwards; Bombshell Hairdressing on Wednesday 7 October from 9.30am; and the Shepparton Market Place Medical Centre on Thursday 8 October from 9.15am to 10.15am.

Anyone who attended Bunnings Warehouse in Shepparton on 30 September, McDonald’s Shepparton North on 3 October, the Lemon Tree Cafe in Shepparton any day between 7 and 12 October, and the Mooroopna golf club pro shop on 11 October is advised to get tested and self-isolate at home until they get the result.

The tyre shop employees are believed to have caught the virus from a Melbourne-based truck driver who stopped off at the town two weeks ago but neglected to tell contact tracers. The same driver is believed to have spread the virus to Kilmore, an hour north of Melbourne, and contracted the virus from someone who worked at the butcher shop in Chadstone shopping centre. The Chadstone shopping centre cluster has grown to 35 cases.

That driver has now been referred to police, with Daniel Andrews saying:

You don’t get in trouble if you tell the full story, I want to make that clear to people. You potentially do get into trouble if you don’t.

In New South Wales new cases have been discovered in south-western Sydney, leading health authorities to issue a warning about two tutoring facilities.

Anyone who attended Al-Jabar – A Different Class of Mathematics in Auburn on Thursday 8 October from 4.30pm to 8.45pm, and Sunday 11 October from 10am to 4.30pm; and ACE Tutoring in Parramatta on Saturday 10 October from 9.30am to 1.20pm, has been asked to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of their test result.

Anyone who attended the Westfield shopping centre in Mount Druitt on Monday 12 October from 11.30am to 1pm is advised to monitor themselves for symptoms and get tested if they develop.

In other news, Gladys Berejiklian has survived a no-confidence motion moved by the opposition leader, Jodi McKay, over Berejiklian’s relationship with the former NSW MP Daryl Maguire. Maguire is expected to return to the witness box at Icac today after admitting yesterday that he sought to “monetise” his parliamentary office, received thousands in a cash-for-visas scheme, and tried to set up introductions for business opportunities using his parliamentary connections. Berejiklian has repeatedly said she will not resign.

Let’s crack on. You can reach me on Twitter @callapilla or via email at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com.

Updated

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