What happened today, Thursday 27 May
We’re going to wind the blog down for the evening. Another big day, here are the main events:
- Victoria will enter a 7-day lockdown tonight as authorities race to control a fast-growing Covid-19 cluster.
- Victoria recorded 12 new Covid-19 cases.
- The Victorian government opened up the vaccination program to 40-49 year-olds. The vaccine booking line crashed during the day.
- Western Australia and Tasmania announced hard border closures to people who have been in Victoria, Queensland declared Victoria a hotspot meaning arrivals from the state will go into hotel quarantine, and the Northern Territory will require anyone who has been in greater Melbourne and Bendigo to go into quarantine. NSW said it will require people arriving from Victoria to observe the stay-at-home rules for the duration of the Victorian lockdown.
- The Australian Securities and Investments Commission launched legal action for unconscionable conduct against big financial services group AMP for charging fees to dead people.
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Christian Porter’s defamation bid against the ABC has suffered a blow after a federal court judge ruled his high-profile barrister, Sue Chrysantou SC, would have to stand down from the case.
See you again tomorrow. Take care Victorians.
Updated
Via AAP:
Dozens of passengers have been booted off a train in outback South Australia after the Northern Territory closed its border to Melbourne and Bendigo.
The Ghan train from Adelaide to Darwin was forced to make a pit stop at Marla, 970km north-west of the SA capital, on Thursday.
Thirty-two guests from greater Melbourne and Bendigo, who boarded the Ghan on Wednesday, were taken off the train and put on a bus back to Adelaide.
Journey Beyond, the operator of the iconic outback rail service, said it would ensure the group was provided overnight accommodation upon arrival.
“Effected guests on the south-bound Ghan Expedition who disembarked in Alice Springs and those on the Indian Pacific disembarking in Adelaide will also be accommodated overnight,” it said in a statement.
“We appreciate our guests’ experience have been significantly impacted through no fault of their own, or ours, and we are working to help manage their individual circumstances as best as possible.”
South Australia chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said a number of passengers had been at high-risk exposure sites in Victoria.
It comes as more than 25 domestic flights out of Melbourne have been cancelled as states and territories close their borders to Victoria over the growing Whittlesea cluster.
Melbourne airport was still busy as many travellers made a mad dash to catch the last flights out of the state before the seven-day lockdown begins just before midnight on Thursday.
Virgin Australia pre-emptively cancelled more than 10 services in and out of Melbourne prior to the shutdown being confirmed.
The carrier has been inundated with calls and is asking customers who are not travelling in the next 72 hours to call back later.
Virgin said it would directly contact any customers impacted by changes to flights due to lockdown, including Melbourne services.
Updated
Christian Porter’s defamation bid against the ABC has suffered a hammer blow after a federal court judge ruled his high-profile barrister would have to stand down from the case.
In a judgment with potentially far-reaching consequences for Porter’s case against the national broadcaster, Justice Thomas Thawley said in a ruling on Thursday that Sue Chrysantou SC would have to relinquish the brief because, he said, she had received confidential information which was relevant to the case and could present a “danger of misuse”.
A “fair-minded member of the community” would have believed Chrysanthou “should not act for Porter”, Thawley found. Even if he had concluded there was “no risk or minimal risk, I would have reached the same conclusion”.
Michael McGowan has the full story here:
Updated
The wonderful Lisa Cox will take you through the evening now.
I’ll be back on Monday when parliament resumes for the second week of sitting – and we will also have estimates, so huzzah.
A massive thank you to Mike Bowers, my partner in all things blog crime, Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp, Sarah Martin and Daniel Hurst for dragging the political blog through another week. And to the entire Guardian brainstrust for making sure I stay across everything happening across the country.
The news blog (not politics live) will be back tomorrow, to keep you on top of all the news, including obviously, what is happening in Victoria. We are really thinking of you Melbourne. I know that doesn’t help change anything, but in case you need it – eat all the things, watch all the trashy TV and do whatever it is that makes you feel better about this coming week. No one else in Australia can truly understand what it is you are going through, but there are a lot of us thinking of you. I promise not to utter the words “Victoria, you’ve got this”, because really, that must just cause an eye twitch at this point.
And of course, thank you to everyone who joined us this week – and every week. You make everything a little easier.
Thank you again – and as always, take care of you.
Updated
A review of how an illegal campfire got out of control and burned more than half of the World Heritage listed K’gari island has called for better co-ordination across Queensland state government agencies in responding to bushfires.
The Queensland government says it supports either wholly, or in principle, all 38 recommendations made in the review, published today by the office of the Inspector-General Emergency Management.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk ordered the review after some 85,000 hectares of the world’s biggest sand island, also known as Fraser Island, burned over two months last year.
The fire, which started on 14 October, forced the island to be closed to visitors and saw an aerial bombardment of more than 13 million litres of water dropped on the flames.
The review called for better co-ordination across state agencies, a consistent approach to managing bushfires in world heritage areas and increased engagement with the Butchulla people, the traditional owners of the island.
Fire and Emergency Services Minister Mark Ryan said the recommendations “will help drive improvements for bushfire prevention, preparedness, response and recovery in the future and I know [Queensland Fire and Emergency Services] is already making this work a priority.”
The Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation, whose rangers helped fight the fire and manage the response, said it welcomed the review’s recommendations, particularly those asking for prescribed burns based on cultural practices to be incorporated.
Veronica Bird, the corporation’s general manager, said: “The Butchulla community has expressed their concerns about the longer-term implications of the fire and the impact to the island’s flora and fauna.”
We want to see our cool, cultural or mosaic burns reintroduced to the island as a management tool reducing the potential for bushfires. That way, we protect the future health and meet our cultural responsibility, for K’gari.
Updated
Bill Shorten is now speaking to the ABC - he is asked about the prime minister suggesting he will now fast track the Victorian quarantine hub proposal:
The Prime Minister, has always got this perpetually studied look on his face when something goes wrong, as if he just wished he knew someone who knew a Prime Minister who could do something.
Heavens to bessie, this is why he got elected, he went to the last election wanting to get things done, now he’s acting like the suggestions boss at the local factory, where the states come up with an idea that he will weigh up.
What is wrong with Scotty taking the initiative rather than waiting for states to do the heavy lifting?
A reader has just sent through this message they received from the Northern Sydney Local Health District – they are now a Pfizer only hub.
Thank you for booking your Covid-19 vaccination with Northern Sydney Local Health District. To enable us to provide vaccines to a greater number of people, from 31 May, Royal North Shore Hospital will be transitioned to Pfizer ONLY vaccination hub.
We will therefore need to reschedule your Astra Zeneca dose – to [local] Hospital.
We apologise for the inconvenience this causes. This will be at the same date & time of your existing booking. To confirm or reschedule your booking, please contact 02 9485 7807 (Mon-Sat 8am-4pm).
Updated
Linda Reynolds was also asked a little earlier by Patricia Karvelas if she had any regrets over how she dealt with the Brittany Higgins’ allegations:
My main regret is, obviously, saying what I did in my office, and I have apologised publicly and privately to Brittany Higgins for that and I have also those comments. In relation to everything else that I did, at that time, I did – and as I have said publicly in the Senate – I did in good faith, and I followed the advice that I’ve received both from finance and from the AFP.
Updated
The foreign minister Marise Payne says she has written to her Iraqi counterpart to call for the release of detained Australian citizen Robert Pether.
Pether has been held without charge in Baghdad for roughly 50 days, after the engineer travelled to Iraq to resume work on the construction of the country’s new central bank headquarters. The project was mired in a contractual dispute.
When he arrived for a meeting with representatives of the Central Bank of Iraq, Pether was arrested. Payne told Perth radio on Thursday that she had taken the matter up with Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Hussein.
It is a very distressing time both for [Pether] and his family. So, we’re strongly advocating his case, both for his rights and his welfare to the Iraqi authorities. What I asked the foreign minister is to seek his release if there is no clear basis to detain him, as you say, and no charges have been laid. And we are continuing to seek advice from the Iraqi authorities on what charges, or whether charges, will indeed be brought against him.
Payne said Australian diplomats were “closely engaged with Iraqi authorities” and were seeking clarity about the nature of the complaint against Pether.
And if it is indeed a civil matter, a contractual matter, then we would seek for it to be treated in that way. We don’t interfere in the legal systems of other countries, as we would say they should not interfere in ours. But we do advocate strongly for Australians who are impacted in circumstances such as this. And it is vital that we have access to those governments and access to their systems to advocate in that way. And in this case, we definitely do.
Updated
Linda Reynolds is then asked about the slow rollout of Covid in disability settings. She says:
As I said at the beginning, it has been less than optimal... but I think what happened is that there was an underestimation about the difficulty in this particular group, and 26,000 does not sound like very many when you have a look at the whole population, but these are people who are located in 9,000 separate houses, they also have very individualised requirements about how we can accommodate a disability, and any other particular requirements they have.
So we’re pretty confident, in fact I am very confident that new provider-based approach that the health minister and I will be talking about next week will deliver the outcomes that we want.
Updated
The ACT has just sent out new health advice:
From 11.59pm tonight, anyone who has been to the City of Whittlesea in the past 14 days must get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result. If you have been to the Whittlesea LGA in the past 14 days, please get tested for Covid-19.
ACT testing locations are available here (www.covid19.act.gov.au/stay-safe-and-healthy/symptoms-and-getting-tested).
If you have been to the Whittlesea LGA in the past 14 days but did not indicate so on your declaration form, please call ACT Health. Additionally, from 11.59pm tonight the ACT government will introduce a new ‘stay-at-home’ requirement for anyone who leaves Victoria after 11.59pm tonight (27 May 2021) and then enters the ACT.
There are new exposure sites in Victoria. Please regularly check the list of exposure locations on the ACT Health website for 14 days after you last travelled from Victoria. Call ACT Health on (02) 5124 6209 if you have visited an exposure site that has been listed since you completed your declaration form.
Please remain vigilant for symptoms and get tested if you have any symptoms, no matter how mild.
Updated
Linda Reynolds is on the ABC – and is asked about the first lockdown without jobkeeper, and says:
This is a time yet again for the federal government and state government to work together. We know how to do that, and we have done is very well. That is a discussion going on between the prime minister and the acting premier, and we will do everything that we can.
We have already committed an additional 130,000 vaccines... We are wrapping up in terms of disability, we are wrapping up visibility vaccinations in Victoria for those on the NDIS. Across government, including the military, we are doing everything that we can.
Updated
Probably less than that – but we all know where they’ve heard about it from.
i reckon less than 1% of australians would know what critical race theory is pic.twitter.com/cx2V4BD6TM
— CAMERONWILSON POSTING HIS Ws (@cameronwilson) May 27, 2021
Updated
Scott Morrison, who is due to head to New Zealand, was in Pakenham on 20 May – when NZ has drawn its line – so we are waiting to see what this means for his trip.
Updated
New Zealand has extended its pause of quarantine-free travel with Victoria for seven more days in response to the outbreak in Melbourne.
The government has also directed all people who have travelled from the greater Melbourne area to New Zealand since 20 May to self-isolate immediately and get tested.
They are required to stay self-isolating until they receive a negative test result. That constitutes a legal directive, not just advice from government – it is an offence not to comply with the New Zealand order.
Officials estimate that about 5,000 people will need to be tested and self-isolate.
Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealanders in the greater Melbourne area should “hunker down, follow the rules”.
The pause in quarantine-free travel between Victoria and New Zealand is now due to end at 7.59pm on 4 June but remains subject to review.
This is the first extended pause in travel between New Zealand and Australia since the travel bubble opened.
Updated
Melbourne AFL round-11 games to go ahead with no crowds
AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan is giving an update on this round of AFL games in Melbourne.
As indicated earlier by James Merlino, the games will go ahead – but with no crowds.
The one sticking point is the Melbourne Football Club – they are in isolation waiting for the results of Covid tests after a player was identified as a contact of a confirmed case. Once those results are back, a decision will be made.
Updated
Victoria has had really bad luck with super-spreaders.
You may have seen Paul Kelly just confirmed that one of the cases was a super-spreader. That is one of the reasons the virus has spread so quickly in Melbourne.
Updated
Back into estimates for a moment:
Australia Post executives are still being questioned in Senate estimates. The organisation’s acting chief executive, Rodney Boys, is asked whether he will maintain the good relationship with licensed post offices (LPOs) that was built by Christine Holgate before she was dumped from the role.
Boys is in the middle of talking up his efforts to listen to LPOs and maintain positive relationships when senator Malcolm Roberts pipes up, saying:
I’ve just had a text message from [chief executive of the licensed post office group] Angela Cramp and she’s saying ‘he has had no contact with LPOs since he took over the role, he has not responded to anyone’.
The text appears to temporarily flummox Boys. He says:
I haven’t had direct contact with Ms Cramp. As I said, I sat down with the chairman of [the Australia Post licensee advisory council] and I’m out in post offices and corporate LPOs alike ... on a regular basis.
Updated
Is Australia considering holding back the Pfizer second dose, to get more people vaccinated with the first dose?
Professor Paul Kelly:
That has been a decision that has been made in some other countries, particularly those having very large outbreaks, so that’s worth consideration, at this stage we haven’t changed that approach which has generally been for every person who has second doses in reserve to give to them after three weeks, but let’s see how it goes over the next week in terms of cases and numbers and so forth, and a large number of those contacts are in that age group as you have pointed out to it certainly is worth considering but at this stage, no change to that approach.
Gap between flu and Covid vaccine 'remains advice in general', Paul Kelly says
This is the danger when you announce something as a supplementary answer during question time – Paul Kelly says he has changed the flu and Covid vaccine gap advice ONLY for the aged care facilities in Victoria.
Kelly:
On the separation between flu and Covid-19 vaccines, that advice based on the Atagi [the Australian technical advisory group on immunisation] advice sought early in the vaccine rollout, that remains the advice and general. It was mentioned by my colleague Commodore Young about those few aged care facilities, very high vulnerable groups in the community – we know what happened last year in Victoria, in terms of the high [mortality] rate in those settings.
Those very few aged care facilities in Melbourne and Victoria that have not yet received one dose was mostly because they had the flu vaccine in the last couple of this and it was being delayed. I sought advice specifically for that situation – aged care facilities in this high-risk area – from Atagi, they reinforced the benefit of having vaccine and not waiting for the Covid-19 vaccine, and the settings at this time outweigh the risk of shortening that interval.
I wrote to those facilities today to give my advice that should be changed for this specific event at this specific time. To be very clear: the general advice around Australia and outside of aged care is to keep the two-week gap.
Updated
Paul Kelly:
My heart goes out to the people of Victoria, they have suffered through last winter, with a lockdown and so forth. I really hope this will be a short one and to get on top of this issue, I have had many discussions with my Victorian colleagues over the last few days. It is the right thing to do given what has happened, especially in relation to the more transportable variant, with increasing numbers and especially the increase in high-risk settings where transmission would have occurred.
It is clear there has been a super-spreading event from one of the members of the current cluster, especially in the workplace. That points to high risk at this time in terms of transmission through the community. I know it’s tough and difficult to go through these matters and I have many friends down in Melbourne who tell me how difficult it was last year.
Let’s hope it’s just for a week but it is necessary and Victorian authorities are doing the right thing right now and have our support.
Updated
Paul Kelly ended his opening statement with this:
I would say, like every outbreak, we deal with an infectious disease, and I have done this through my entire professional career – there are multiple things that happen in relation to outbreaks, some due to the environment that outbreak commences in and spreads, and some of those are due to human behaviour, and some of those are due to the virus. What we learn from this particular breach from hotel quarantine touches on all of those things. It’s important to learn from those to see what we can continue to do to improve quarantine but hotel quarantine remains essentially safe.
Updated
So far, Paul Kelly has not mentioned the new advice on the flu vaccine/Covid vaccine administration.
Updated
Paul Kelly press conference
The chief officer is out of his health committee meeting and giving a national update.
He says it is the seventh time he has declared a commonwealth hotspot in Australia since the declaration requirements were laid out
Updated
Question time ends.
That was wild, though. Seriously – that was a pretty amazing announcement Greg Hunt just dropped in there.
The health advice has changed – you no longer have to wait to have the Covid vaccination if you have had the flu vaccination and vice-versa.
The wait, from what I have seen, was so any effects from the flu vaccination (aches, pains etc) were not confused with the Covid vaccination and vice-versa.
Not that the two vaccines were thought to have interacted with each other. But now, given the situation in Victoria and just how many vulnerable people remain unvaccinated, Paul Kelly has changed the advice.
It perhaps could have been telegraphed better than through a supplementary question-time answer.
Updated
In the midst of all of that, WA backbencher Vince Connolly, whose seat has been earmarked to be abolished by the Australian Electoral Commission, has been in the parliament for two years now and still seems surprised to find he has hands every single time he stands up to deliver a dixer.
I have never witnessed anyone so assuredly confident by their awkwardness and so willing to inflict it on everyone else.
Updated
So the health advice changed today. In response to the Victorian outbreak. Because more vulnerable people need to be vaccinated ASAP.
So, yup.
Greg Hunt on the change of advice:
I have the chief medical officer’s letter. I will have a copy sent to the chamber. We always respond to the circumstances of the day. I will come up, with the grace of the house, read the relevant parts of the letter from the chief medical officer.
It is a response to the Victorian outbreak and the ability to to make sure people are vaccinated:
Thank you for your continued efforts to ensure a populations are protected. You may be aware that the co-administration of a seasonal influenza and Covid-19 vaccine on the same date is not routinely recommended.
This advice is generated by our independent medical expert and was developed on an absence of data on the safety and effectiveness of those vaccines being administered on the same day.
I advise that I have consulted with experts and can assure that given the absorbing Covid-19 M ecological situation in Victoria it is my recommendation that ... residents in aged care settings are vaccinated as soon as possible against Covid-19.
This will mean that is a shortened interval of time place between the administration of influenza and the Covid-19 vaccine.
It is important to note that this will not have an impact on the effectiveness of the vaccines but will ensure that our most vulnerable are protected at a time when Covid-19 is circulating more readily within the community. Thank you, again, for your continued efforts.
Professor Paul Kelly, chief medical officer
Updated
Mark Butler is following up on the change in medical advice on when you can get the Covid vaccine and the flu vaccine. It’s a fairly major change in policy – the advice has been you have to wait 14 days.
Now you don’t.
That’s something Greg Hunt just dropped in as a supplementary answer to a question issued to the prime minister.
Which is *head explosion emoji* given what we are all going through.
Surely this could have been done in a better way?
Updated
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister. Back in March the prime minister said the vaccine rollout was not a race and last week he said he was not quote overly troubled about low vaccination rates. Does the prime minister regret these statements?
Morrison:
Throughout this pandemic, we have taken proactive steps to ensure that lives and livelihoods are protected and Australia has succeeded like other countries have not. But that does not mean that we are in any way out of the challenges of Covid-19, as the recent impact in Victoria has demonstrated.
That is why I always encourage Australians to take those vaccines, and you take them by engaging with their local GP to put in place that network of GPs all around the country who are doing about two-thirds of the vaccinations around Australia.
By the end of this week, Mr Speaker, we anticipate 4 million doses will have been administered, despite the fact that we have had to deal with medical advice which has changed the nature of the AstraZeneca vaccine used for those under the age of 50, and also because of the supply disruptions we saw earlier in the year. It is true that we did not take the approach of emergency procedures to take through the approval processed through the TGA, Mr Speaker.
We did not go through that process of cutting any corners or taking a different process because we wanted Australians to be assured that the approval processes for those vaccines went through proper checks and balances. And it is because of that that we were able to identify issues of clotting ... and Australians can make their decisions as to ensuring their health interests are respected and protected according to the decisions they wish to make.
Whether it is the $7 billion we have invested in drawing these vaccines are available, not just now and not just over the months ahead but the Moderna vaccines that have been accessed by the government for booster shots next year – because we know that this pandemic is raging. It is not going anywhere, Mr Speaker.
There are no silver bullets. There are no certainties in the middle of a pandemic. Our response is to work with Australians.
Our response is to support Australians.
What others are fighting is up to them but we will keep fighting the virus with other Australians right around the country, working with state and territory governments. And importantly, I want [people] to know that there are 28 commonwealth-funded respiratory clinics in Victoria that can be accessed now.
I also want to remind people about the pandemic-leave disaster payment available for people in Victoria where, if they have to stay home for 14 days to be isolated because they are a contact or they are undertaking testing, they can access that.
Updated
Morrison and Hawke's office were consulted about sacking after Higgins allegation
Finance department officials have revealed a meeting on 4 April 2019 to discuss the process for terminating the employment of the person accused of sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins.
That meeting was attended by departmental officials, a representative of the prime minister’s office, special minister of state Alex Hawke’s chief of staff, and defence minister Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff.
Labor wants to know who from the prime minister’s office was in attendance. It was a verbal discussion – the department doesn’t appear to have taken a file note, but has taken that on notice.
The Liberal staffer was later sacked on 5 April, 10 days after Higgins disclosed on 26 March that the incident in Reynolds’ office was an alleged sexual assault.
Updated
Both Katie Allen (Liberal) and Julian Hill (Labor) were booted by Tony Smith just then.
Updated
Sussan Ley sounds like she is barely holding on to her voice for this dixer.
Not a great day to have a sore throat.
No gap between flu and Covid vaccinations needed, Greg Hunt says
Further to Elias’ post a few minutes ago, Josh Burns is back with another question for the prime minister:
Earlier in question time you said a Jewish aged care centre would receive its first vaccination of the Covid-19 vaccine tomorrow. My office has spoken to the CEO, who says it can’t be tomorrow because they have only just had the flu vaccine. Don’t elderly Australians deserve better than this?
Scott Morrison:
That is the advice provided to me by the department. It is working with all those facilitieswe have been working over the last few days. As the health minister noted, 582 of the 598 residential aged care facilities have received their first doses, seven facilities will be [vaccinated] today.
Tony Burke:
On a point of relevance, while I respect this important information, it is not relevant to this, and this question goes exactly to whether the information we have been provided to date in question time has been accurate or not.
Tony Smith:
It was a specific question. The prime minister needs to address himself to the specifics of the question, not to any other element.
Morrison:
Prior to the member taking the point of order, the point I was seeking to make was seven facilities of those remaining will be completed today. The remaining ones, which refers to the one the member has raised, will be completed tomorrow.
I can’t speak in every case to the level of engagement that has taken place – that is our advice, so we will take further inquiries after question time today and I’m happy to come back to the member and confirm these arrangements. As the member would appreciate, with a large number of facilities, that is the advice I have from the Department of Health. We will confirm that advice and be happy to report that back to the member.
Then Greg Hunt steps up to announce a fairly major change in health advice:
I am happy to be able to provide additional advice: the chief medical officer of Australia was specifically asked to address the question of facilities who had had flu vaccination within two weeks and whether that should be prevention for a further vaccination. His advice is it should not be a prevention, and the issue raised by the member’s not a barrier to [receiving the Covid vaccine]...
Not only is that our advice, but the very question raised by the member for McNamara was one we have discussed in relation to the practice which had been to allow a gap of two weeks between the flu vaccine and subsequent vaccination. The chief medical officer’s advice ... is that is not a barrier, not a reason, for a facility to not be scheduled. The advice we have is that the vaccination process will proceed.
Updated
Mark Butler to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister. The infection that sparked the latest outbreak in Victoria was sparked by aerosol spread and quarantine in Adelaide, the latest of a series of outbreaks caused by poor ventilation and hotel quarantine. Given the prime minister’s refusal to implement a national quarantine, why has he refused to implement strong standards on aerosol and ventilation to stop these outbreaks with hotel quarantine?
Morrison:
I don’t accept the assertions made by the member made in posing that question. Matters involving the source of this latest infection have been considered by the South Australian state government, and I note they have noted their protocols were followed*.
I also note the recommendations provided by the Halton review to establish a national facility were adopted by national cabinet and in particular by the commonwealth, and the facility at Howard Springs, at a cost of half a billion dollars, which I’m advised to pick up on the question asked yesterday – capacity will be at 2,000 this month. That capacity won’t be realised for some time yet in terms of number people there.
The capacity has been reached to go from 850 to 2,000, that was the recommendation of the review into national quarantine facilities around the country. The member will be aware a number of weeks ago the Victorian government put forward I think a very favourable proposal. One of the important things about that proposal is that it does not propose that hotel quarantine be discontinued, it says, Mr Speaker, this facility be put in place in addition to hotel quarantine facilities.
And so we will continue to implement those recommendations, we will continue to work with the states and territories, to support them with the work they do and to undertake the work we are responsible for.
*Yes, protocols were followed. But an unknowingly infected person opened their door to collect food, and less than 30 minutes later, on at least two occasions, a nearby hotel quarantine resident opened their door to collect their own food. The two rooms were at the end of the corridor where there was no real ventilation. And we now know about the danger of airborne particles, which is why hotels are not considered fit to purpose. They have single ventilation systems.
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List of Victorian vaccine hubs accepting walk-ins
Here is a list of the vaccination centres in Victoria accepting walk-ins.
There is currently a very high volume of calls to the Covid-19 vaccine hotline. If you are trying to book an appointment at a vaccination centre, you are encouraged to call later this afternoon.
Alternatively, the information you are seeking may be available online. Visit “book your vaccine appointment”.
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Labor senator Nita Green is pressing Australia Post’s acting group chief executive, Rodney Boys, on whether his organisation is contemplating using contractors to deliver small parcels.
The issue of potential privatisation of parts of Australia Post was a key issue in the recent Senate inquiry. The inquiry recommended the government rule out privatising Australia Post or any of its services, including parcels. Boys dances around the question, saying:
Operationally we talk about how we can be the most effective and efficient as we can, all the time.
Green responds:
I’m inclined not to interrupt you ... but I am being very direct in my questioning and you need to answer my question.
Boys again gives a vague answer about shifting its services to make them more efficient. Green moves on, despite saying Boys has not answered her question.
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Joanne Ryan to Greg Hunt:
My question as to the health minister. Yesterday I asked how many of the Victorians infected in the latest Covid-19 outbreak had been vaccinated. The minister undertook to seek that information. So I ask again, how many of the Victorians infected in the latest Covid-19 outbreak had been vaccinated?
Hunt:
I am not aware that any person who has been infected has been vaccinated, and I think that’s a non-controversial statement, and what I am noticing here is there are two applications which are coming through today.
Firstly, the opposition is indicating that in some way shape or form if the commonwealth were operating the quarantine system the result would be different, and we think all the states and territories are doing a fantastic job...
Tony Smith:
Can I just say to the minister ... he is making some observations and understand he wants to do that, but he can’t do that when he was not asked that question.
He was asked a very specific question.
The minister can come back either to the dispatch dispatch box by either way of written answer, but it was a very specific question, and you said you believed you answered it in the first sentence, and in that case, that’s the end of the matter.
Hunt interrupts to say he answered in the first sentence but was making some observations, but Smith is having none of it.
Smith:
You just told me you answered it in the first sentence...
Updated
Rob Mitchell to Scott Morrison:
Last week, the disability royal commission heard that 99% of residents in disability care facilities have not been fully vaccinated. How many residents in disability care in my state have not been fully vaccinated?
Morrison:
We updated the house on the overall numbers of those in residential facilities who are getting disability care, and we updated those figures, and 8,400 doses have been administered, and that was significantly higher than the previously reported figure, which was just around thousand. And that is because there are many residents in disability residential settings who are accessing the vaccine through measures other than the in-reach program.
I am happy to come back to the member with a more detailed number on the situation in Victoria, because that is something the Department of Social Services, and particularly Service Australia, is working [on] with the providers, both in those residential facilities and dealing directly, to ensure we can get a more accurate assessment of the number of those individuals who have been able to access vaccinations in other settings.
This is a high priority, particularly for the minister of the NDIS, working with those providers and operators to ensure the in-reach services that have been so effective, as the minister has been outlining. In aged care settings 97% of those facilities have been supported by those in-reach services, and as a program that comes to a conclusion, those same in-reach services can be used to support the in-reach program into those residential settings for disability services.
So there have been two populations over the course of this pandemic, where our concerns at the start of the pandemic, some 18 months ago, were of great concern, and they were those indigenous Australians, particularly in remote communities, as well as those Australians who live with disabilities. And over the course of this pandemic, Mr Speaker, the level of incidence of cases that we have seen both for indigenous Australians, in particular in remote settings, and Australians living with disability has been very very low.
I think that is testament both to the protection and support that has been put around, whether it be those indigenous communities – and I particularly want to pay credit to the chief minister in that respect, who we have worked closely with many of those communities, I know he has worked closely with minister Wyatt to that end – but also in the area of supporting people with disabilities. The incidence of Covid in the group of Australians has been very low, particularly as I understand by the national standard.
Updated
Just 10% of NBN Co’s lowest-paid workers were paid bonuses in 2020, Senate estimates has heard.
It was reported yesterday that hundreds of NBN Co’s highest paid employees, on $200,000 a year or more, received an average of close to $50,000 in bonuses in 2020, in a year where the company paid out nearly $78m in bonuses to staff and executives.
In Senate estimates on Thursday, the company’s chief executive, Stephen Rue, revealed just 10%, or 179 employees, in the lowest wage band received bonuses.
NBN Co argues the payments are not actually bonuses but at-risk pay, which means it is a component of their salary but they only earn it if both individual and company targets are met.
Rue said those employed in NBN Co were paid the “median” salary of others in the same industry:
We compare the salaries of each individual – I go through the spreadsheet by the way – and compare salaries to market conditions. And I can tell you that people on all bands are paid around about the median of market.
Labor senator Kimberley Kitching at one point questioned financial services minister Jane Hume several times on whether the bonuses were paid using taxpayer money, but Hume replied each time that NBN Co is “a government-owned entity”.
It is a grey area. NBN Co has so far relied on a mix of taxpayer funding and private debt to build and operate the network, and is still operating at a loss despite revenue flowing in with millions on the network.
Updated
I have received a few messages about the closing of comments - I am sorry I can’t respond to everyone just now, because we are in QT, but I hear you. I know it is frustrating - but as we are seeing going through the high court right now, there are a lot of things the court considers media companies responsible for, and that includes comments - on stories, and social media.
Our moderation team is very mighty, but it is not endlessly resourced and it takes a lot of work for them working through all the comments on the blog. We are in an environment where we have to be extra cautious, to protect us, yes - but also you.
If you need to reach me in the meantime, you can get me here and here. We are working on solutions, but it’s a little tight at the moment.
Scott Morrison was asked about the delay to covid vaccinations at the Jewish Care aged care home in Windsor, one of the 16 aged care homes in Victoria yet to receive a first dose of vaccine.
Earlier today, the operator of the home rejected aged care minister Richard Colbeck’s suggestion that unvaccinated homes were the result of residents choosing not to have the vaccine.
Morrison just told Labor MP Josh Burns, the member for Macnamara that includes the Windsor home, that the facility’s vaccinations would take place tomorrow.
This appears at odds with comments from the CEO of Jewish Care, Bill Appleby, who told Guardian Australia they were scheduled for June.
Either the prime minister has misspoken, or it has fast tracking facilities ahead of informing the operators and families of residents.
You can read more about the aged care homes in Victoria yet to receive a single vaccine dose here:
Updated
Greater Melbourne will be declared a hotspot* under the commonwealth’s declarations, allowing it to access commonwealth support.
*An earlier version of this post said hotpot, so apologies. I can not tell you what flavour it would have been. Hopefully comforting.
Updated
The head of Australia Post, Rodney Boys, the acting group chief executive, says the organisation is reviewing yesterday’s damning inquiry report into the Christine Holgate affair and will respond “as appropriate”.
The inquiry this week recommended the resignation of Australia Post’s chair, Lucio Di Bartolomeo.
In his opening statement, Boys said:
For the past three months we have treated this inquiry seriously and cooperated fully and extensively with the committee.
We are reviewing the report and its recommendations and intend to respond as appropriate.
Expect plenty more questions to come on this.
Updated
Josh Burns to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister. Aged care residents in Windsor were meant to get their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on 11 May – the appointment was cancelled at the last minute, they have not received their first dose. Aged care is your responsibility, vaccine rollout is your responsibility. Why are residents in this facility and my electorate being made vulnerable.
Morrison:
What was the name of the centre?
Burns:
It’s the Jewish care aged care facility in Windsor.
Morrison:
I’m seeking to answer the member’s question. He asked a very specific question about the Jewish care residential homes in Windsor. Dose one is scheduled, I understand from the schedule, for 28 May ... This is one of those facilities that the minister was referring to earlier. That is tomorrow, and there is a small number of centres that remain to receive their first dose. The Jewish care residential home centre in Windsor will be given the first dose tomorrow.
Updated
Brett Sutton has again spoken of his crankiness when the work of contact tracers was questioned today:
I think I've been pretty calm over the last 16 months and I hope I've always been respectful. But I *will* get fired up when contact tracers are attacked. They do extraordinary work and do it brilliantly. 10,000 contacts found! The false narrative hurts real people, mentally. (1)
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) May 27, 2021
Now is not the time to try to find an imaginary scapegoat. It's the time to support Victorians going through another really tough time. We know what to do now and we'll do it like no other. You've gotta love Victorians for how we support each other. (End)
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) May 27, 2021
We just had a dixer on how lower taxes are supporting Australians though the pandemic.
Today. On a day when Victorians are going into a lockdown without a wage subsidy.
When casual workers have lost a week’s worth of shifts.
Tax cuts.
Adam Bandt to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the prime minister. In my electorate of Melbourne shoulders are slumped and hearts are heavy as we face another lockdown. You said you would put the national cabinet on a war footing.
Why isn’t there strong national quarantine which may have stop the latest outbreak? The US has managed to fully vaccinate 50% of its adult population, so why can’t you even break 5%? This is a Morrison government in meltdown. This is a Morrison government lockdown in Victoria. In Victoria we have done our fair share to stop the third wave, so why haven’t you done yours?
Morrison:
I thank the member for his question, and to all of his constituents I will say these next seven days will be very difficult for his constituents. But I have no doubt, in the same way Victorians have faced previous challenges just like this one, as people in NSW have, in Queensland and Western Australia, even quite recently, the same process that works to protect people on those occasions will work also here. I’m confident the contact tracers working in Victoria right now, working to track this down, and this circuit-breaking lockdown up to the next seven days will provide them with further opportunity to be able to identify those who need to be isolated and so Victoria can soon reopen soon.
Mr Speaker, it is true the commonwealth has put half a billion dollars into the national resilience facility in the Northern Territory, that is a direct result of the recommendation put forward by the hotel quarantine review to the national cabinet. It is true the national cabinet arrangements put in place to support hotel quarantine – which I note as a measure that is used in other jurisdictions, including New Zealand – and I can report that Australia hotel quarantine has been even more effective than in the New Zealand situation. That has been a very effective way when you consider that over 300,000 people have come through the hotel quarantine system in Australia and there are 20 cases where we have seen breaches. But why we have been able to do as well across the states and territories is the additional measures that have been taken, through the contact tracers, through the isolation and test, that enables these brief lockdowns to be in place and then be lifted and to make sure Australia can go on with being in a way with this virus that few countries in the world can.
Mr Speaker, it is my job to continue to focus on working with the states and territories, to focus on those who are most affected, and those are your constituents and the many constituents who are Victorian member for this parliament. It is not my job to be distracted, Mr Speaker, by those who might seek to engage in some other process. I will simply stay focused on the job of working with Australians, and the premiers to continue to keep Australians safe and protect lives and livelihoods, as we have done over the past 18 months.
That sound you hear is the hubris fog settling over the federal parliament.
Updated
The current deputy prime minister is warned by the speaker for heckling as Adam Bandt asks a question.
That has cheered me up.
Mark Butler to Scott Morrison:
The prime minister keeps describing Australians who have only received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine as “vaccinated”. Given the prime minister knows full well that these vaccines require two doses, why does he continue to use such misleading language about such a serious public health issue?
Before Morrison steps up, Tony Smith issues a general warning:
Members on my left. The prime minister will pause. A question has been asked, it is ridiculous that people behind the questioner start yelling out what the answer should be. I’m not going to warn anyone again, I am now issuing a general warning. Your behaviour is appalling. The prime minister has the call.
Morrison then attacks Labor for the implications in the question:
As the member would know, whether on a first dose or the completion of two doses – as the member would know, one of the great attractions of the AstraZeneca vaccine is the medical evidence that the significant level of protection against serious disease that is afforded by that first dose, so to suggest that someone who was not – has only received the first dose is not afforded any protection from the vaccine, that would be misleading.* That would be misleading, and [what’s] suggested by the member, by putting that, I think is being misleading by putting it in that way. I will ask the minister for health to add further.
*No one is suggesting you don’t get a level of protection from one vaccine dose, just that you are not “vaccinated”. You need two doses. Two. That’s why you are getting two doses. Because to be “vaccinated” you need both doses.
Hunt steps up with more moralising:
I am respectfully but deeply concerned by the implications of the shadow minister that implies that the first dose does not provide significant protection, significant and fundamental protection, and that is the case around the world.
As members may know, one of the fundamental decisions which the United Kingdom made was in fact to stretch out the second doses in order to ensure that as many people as possible received a first dose at the earliest possible time*.
They settled on a 12-week difference between first and second doses on the basis that the medical advice that would provide the maximum protection to the maximum number of people at the earliest possible time.
This in fact has been a global strategy, but it was reaffirmed in the advice of the Therapeutic Goods Administration and their decision to recommend a 12-week differential, which serves two purposes: it is deemed to be the optimal period of time, the optimal period of time at which the dose should be given, but it also serves the purpose of ensuring that as many people as early as possible are vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
I understand that on many occasions the opposition has done their best to assist the vaccine rollout, but this particular question, I have to say, must be a source of deep disappointment to many, because it is implying that there is inadequate protection; it is implying that a first vaccine does not work, and it is implying that a dosing strategy based on medical advice is not the appropriate thing to do. So there are many things that the opposition has done to assist, but this is not one of those moments of which they should be proud.
*The UK did this because it was on actual emergency footing, given the number of Covid cases in the UK, and had to move to start vaccinating people as quickly as possible. So we are either on emergency footing and need to do the same thing, or we are not and living life in a way which is “enviable” to the rest of the world. It can’t be both ways. No one is saying you don’t get a measure of protection from the first dose, they are saying you need both to be “vaccinated”, and in Australia our numbers on that are very low. Not that we know how low, because we aren’t getting those figures, unless the states put out the number of second doses they are giving as part of their programs.
Updated
This may be a record
I was kicked out of #qt today in under a minute.
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) May 27, 2021
For the record my interjection was asking the PM to stop with the hollow praise for Victorians doing their job on the frontlines until he does his job and fixes quarantine and the vaccine roll out.
In Senate estimates, Labor is probing the finance department’s evidence that the Liberal staffer who allegedly raped Brittany Higgins in the defence minister’s office did not have his employment terminated until 5 April 2019, 10 days after he left the office.
Labor’s Katy Gallagher draws a contrast between the 10-day delay and the sacking in March 2021 of another staffer for a “lurid act” within hours. The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, lays responsibility for the 10-day delay squarely at the feet of then-defence minister Linda Reynolds. He said:
I can’t speak for senator Reynolds’ office and the process regarding when they completed the paperwork. They were processes conducted by that office, within that office.
Earlier, finance department officials said Reynolds’ office requested advice on the process for sacking on 4 April, then advised on 5 April that it had sacked the Liberal staffer.
Updated
The nation is in no mood for Tip Top and his bread loaf impersonations today.
No mood.
Richard Marles to Scott Morrison:
Is the prime minister aware there are 237 aged care facilities in my state where residents have not been fully vaccinated? Twenty-nine facilities where residents have not even received their first dose? This morning the aged care minister said he was very comfortable with the vaccine rollout. How can the government be comfortable with older Australians being less so vulnerable?
Morrison:
The figures that the member referred to in his question are not current and I will allow the minister for ageing care and health to update you on those figures, Mr Speaker.
But what I do know is this: in Victoria today, more than 50% of those aged over 70 have been vaccinated. Over 50% of Victorians aged over 70 have been vaccinated, and that is important. That is important as we go into this challenge, and what we faced in previous challenges, and I will ask the minister to update the house on the status of vaccinations in aged care facilities. The member for Ballarat, the minister for health, has the call.
Greg Hunt:
Thank you very much, and to add to the prime minister’s answer, approximately 97% of aged care facilities around Australia have been vaccinated so far.
That means 4,322 visits to aged care facilities around the country, in particular that across age and disability care there are 327,000 vaccinations, and very specifically in the Victorian context, there are 598 residential aged care facilities in Victoria, 582 of those have received at least their first dose, seven are to receive their first dose today and the remaining nine tomorrow, and that will bring the residential aged care facility within our home state of Victoria to 100%. What that does is provide a very important measure of protection to the most vulnerable, that is why we have prioritised them, and why we have made sure that teams from around the country have been going into aged care facilities in every state and territory, in particular in the Whittlesea local government area there are 16 residential aged care facilities all of which have not only been vaccinated but have been vaccinated twice.
So these are important protections and I want to thank all of those who have been vaccinating, and all of those in particular who have been facilitating that. In addition to that, as the prime minister has said, we now have over 50% of Australians over the age of 18 who have had an initial vaccination – over the age of 70 that have been vaccinated, so over the 50% of Australians over the age of 70 that have been vaccinated, these are important and significant developments.
Updated
The first dixer is all about saving “lives and livelihoods”.
Scott Morrison is talking about “togetherness” and challenges and Australians working together.
It’s a rehash of his opening gambit in his press conference. Which is a change from Josh Frydenberg’s response in August – when we all, certainly, weren’t in this together.
Here is how Frydenberg responded to the Victorian lockdown then:
This has to be the biggest public policy failure by a state government in living memory.
What we’re seeing in Victoria is a lack of a roadmap out. I will call it out, the prime minister will call it out.
And then in October, in a motion commending Victorians for defeating the second wave, Frydenberg linked a suicide his friend had told him about to the lockdowns:
It all comes back to the failures in hotel quarantine, which we still have no answers for but which we still do.
A friend of mine said that a friend of his had taken his own life because he lost his job in Victoria.
In the same message, he said others had started to self harm. These are not unique cases. These are across the state. This is the price that has been paid during the lockdown.
I am so happy to join with all those in this place in celebrating the fact that the numbers have come down, but do not pretend there has not been a price. The price has been immense.
So no, we haven’t always “all been in this together”.
Updated
Question time begins
As expected, it is straight into the Covid response (Tim Watts is thrown out in the first couple of minutes, so Tony Smith is still not playing).
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Will the prime minister acknowledge he had two fundamental jobs this year? To get the Covid vaccine rollout right and to create a safe national quarantine system. And this week, he has been shown to have failed at both.
Morrison:
I have had two very important jobs from the day this Covid pandemic first hit this country in January of 2020: to save lives and to save livelihoods.
Mr Speaker, that is what I government has been doing, in concert with all state and territory governments around this country, and most importantly, with the people of Australia, whether it is frontline health workers or those keeping Australians employing people in their businesses, those working in community organisations around the country, manning the phone lines, supporting people with the mental health, wherever they may be. Australians have been doing their job and we have been doing our job to support them, each and every day.
Whether it was the jobseeker and jobkeeper initiatives, the more than $20 billion in health support that we have put in place in concert also with the states and territories, each and every single day, Australians have been working together, this government has been working, our government has been working together with the state and territory governments to ensure that Australia is in a position, even despite the very significant challenges that we now face in Victoria. And in Victoria, as I have just remarked outside of this chamber, they will go through a difficult period over these next seven days, but we have faced these challenges in the face of Covid before and we will overcome them again. But the way that we will do that is by working together, staying focused on the problem, and solving the problem together, and ensuring that we open up Victoria as soon as possible.
Updated
From the Melbourne Football Club:
Melbourne players and football department staff have today undergone coronavirus testing and will isolate until they receive a negative result, after a player was present at a tier-one exposure site on Sunday.
It is expected that players and staff will be cleared in time for tomorrow night’s clash with the Bulldogs, pending negative test results.
Regardless of his test result, the player present at the Tier One exposure site will undertake 14-days mandatory isolation as per government regulations.
Given it is late in the week, the club is confident there will be little disruption to its round-11 preparations.
Updated
Question time is in about five minutes. I think we know what it is all going to be about.
Updated
Mark Butler speaks on the need for an expanded vaccination program - across the nation
The commonwealth has delivered 1.4 million doses of vaccine every week, but still only 500,000 vaccinations are occurring.
There is certainly a surplus of supply.
Now, if that means states in particular, with the doses they have [been] delivered by the federal government, are able to start expanding the scope to younger Australians. That is all well and good, but from this building, from Scott Morrison, the priority must be immediately to vaccinate the most vulnerable members of our community ... I heard him crowing about the fact that 50% of older Australians over the age of 70 have been vaccinated.
Well, that is not right. They have received a single dose. This is a two-dose vaccine, so we have to make sure older Australians are fully vaccinated before winter comes, and winter is coming next week.
As Anthony has said, we have to make sure aged care residents and disability facility residents – 99% of whom who are still not fully vaccinated – that they are vaccinated as a priority.
So, for sure, if there are additional doses available, particularly at state level, get as many injections into people’s arms. But in February Scott Morrison promised the most vulnerable members of our community would be vaccinated by Easter, and still too many of them are not.
Updated
Anthony Albanese has also held his press conference:
Our thoughts today with our Victorian friends. And Australia stands with Victoria at this extremely difficult time. This will be tough.
It will trigger memories of how tough 2020 was, and the long lockdowns that occurred then.
So I say to Victorians, stay safe, stay strong, Australia stands with you. Because what we know is that this virus, and this outbreak means that an outbreak somewhere is capable of spreading everywhere, and that is why you are doing a service to all of Australia with the sacrifice that is being made.
It’s particularly tough because this could have been avoided. Labor has been saying for a long period of time that the government had two jobs this year: to get quarantine right, and to get the rollout of the vaccine right.
The origins and because of this outbreak come from hotel quarantine in Adelaide, and have resulted in a circumstance whereby there are now many thousands - will need to deal with the contact tracers and of course, the disruption to life and business in Victoria will be substantial over the next seven days.
Today, we wanted to repeats the four essential elements of a plan that we have been advocating.
The first of those is dedicated quarantine facilities, second, to get the vaccine rollout rate, third, and appropriate public information campaign, and fourth, the manufacture of mRNA vaccines here.
This four point plan would make a difference, it has been obvious that the plan was required for a long period of time.
And yet, we have circumstances whereby, just to give one indicator there are 237 aged care facilities in Victoria in which people have not been fully vaccinated.
There are 29 of those facilities, haven’t had a single dose. That’s not good enough. The Morrison government has to accept its responsibilities to lead rather than to always be looking to not take up what is its job to do. Effective quarantine, and effective rollout of the vaccine.
Here is how the federal government treated Victoria’s quarantine hub proposal just a month ago:
Less than one month ago Scott Morrison had a different political strategy on Victoria’s proposal for dedicated quarantine facilities.
— Tim Watts MP (@TimWattsMP) May 27, 2021
He’s failed Victoria https://t.co/Sn1o7L0ro4 https://t.co/YFVm1V5nxK pic.twitter.com/k7Z8aXg20K
Updated
As my colleague Calla Wahlquist points out, looks like some of the Melbourne vaccination hubs are going rogue – and are allowing 40-49-year-olds to walk in for a vaccine without an appointment:
Jeff’s shed has a queue running the length of the convention center. They’re letting in people 40+ for walk-ins pic.twitter.com/voSidmdm3x
— mike🌵blackney (@kurtruslfanclub) May 27, 2021
We are receiving enquiries about walk-ins. Bookings are always prioritised (made by calling 1800 675 398), but eligible groups can walk-in from 9am-4pm at our vax hub @MCEC. We recommend checking the @VicGovDH website for wait times before leaving: https://t.co/mPBB6TtQkU
— The Royal Melbourne Hospital (@TheRMH) May 27, 2021
40-49 year olds will be eligible for Pfizer from tomorrow, and as such can book or walk-in then.
— The Royal Melbourne Hospital (@TheRMH) May 27, 2021
Updated
So you may have noticed in there, there was no actual answer to the question.
The speed-up in vaccinations has happened where the states have taken it into their own hands.
There is no plan as yet for a national approach to expanding the vaccination program to beyond those over-50s.
There is no campaign to counter vaccine hesitancy.
Updated
Will the federal government finally do a vaccination campaign, given the hesitancy?
Scott Morrison uses this question for a wide-ranging fatherhood statement that doesn’t actually answer the question.
I am pleased the numbers each week have been growing and growing – not that long ago we talked about a week with vaccinations of 350,000, now it is well over 500,000, and that will build in the weeks and months ahead, especially when they are supported by additional supplies coming through from Pfizer ...
There is no doubt, as I move around the country, while it is wonderful and enviable around the world, that Australians can live like we are living here in this country, notwithstanding the very significant difficulties Victorians will face over the next seven days. That way of living can of course lead to some hesitancy when it comes to coming forward on those vaccines. These events I think will set out very clearly that this is an insidious virus, it hasn’t gone anywhere, it’s not giving up, it continues to attack wherever it can and wherever it well and it continues to be as dangerous, and I would argue even more dangerous, today than it was a year ago. Because what we are seeing now is, as the virus has ravaged the developed world, it is now ravaging the developing world.
With that and the multitude of cases we can continue to expect to see in places, as we already see in India – and we took some very strong decisions on India to protect Australians – we will continue to see this occurring in the developing world.
This week I spoke to the prime minister of Vietnam, we ... [are] supporting them with additional vaccine over the second half of this year. I spoke to the prime minister of the Solomons yesterday [about] the support we are giving to them on vaccines, as well as the prime minister of PNG.
This virus will continue ... It does make it does not matter whether it is Victoria, Western Australia or far north Queensland – the vaccines are there. Make a booking, talk to your doctor, please get vaccinated. Thank you very much, everyone.
Updated
National cabinet is not scheduled to meet until Friday week.
It is no longer on “war footing” (it was never on war footing – Scott Morrison called it that, but really all it was was a couple of extra meetings).
Morrison says that is because it got “so much done” in that first week.
Updated
It’s amazing what a few lost state elections have done, and the subsequent election reports which found state border closures were popular: suddenly, the prime minister is very strong on the federation, and how the states will make their own decisions.
Scott Morrison:
At the end of the day this is a federation, states have their authorities and powers and they will make as they see them in the best interest of the state and territory.
Updated
PM says Victoria quarantine centre proposal could be sped up
Scott Morrison now says he thinks the purpose-built quarantine centre Victoria has proposed could be sped up:
We are working closely with the Victorian government to address the challenges Victorians are facing right now, and in private conversations I had with the acting premier I know was his intention with working with me, and the excellent relationship between the health minister in Victoria and Greg Hunt here federally, I want to assure Victorians the Victorian and federal government are working hand in glove to get this job done. The only thing that matters is their health, safety, jobs and protecting them and getting them through these next few days ahead.
We are working with the Victorian government, they put forward a few weeks ago a very useful proposal, I discussed this yesterday with James Merlino. Know we are highly favourable towards this, we think this can be done quicker, that is one of the things we are working through with them now. One of the useful elements of this proposal is that it adds to capacity, it is not in place of hotel quarantine, they propose this to be in addition.
I want to commend the Victorian government for keeping the repatriation flights going on, not reducing caps, to make sure the flights can also keep coming as we seek to bring Australians home even in the middle of challenges they face in the next seven days.
I would describe it as a highly cooperative arrangement focusing on mild problems ahead and working together to address them.
Updated
Does the government need to ‘turbo charge’ the program? And was it too early to take national cabinet off ‘war footing’ (spoiler - there was never any ‘war footing’. There were just more meetings)
Scott Morrison:
We put the measures in place which brought all of those things forward, which restates to do and we were keen to support them to do as well, so bringing forward the over 50s, which we have done, bringing forward the greater state based vaccination clinics, which was particularly done in Victoria, I was in Victoria last week, they were opening a further one of those, and I commended the Victorian State Government for doing that as with other state governments moving to do this.
The challenges that the Health Minister and Victoria and the acting premiere noted about the program today, related to the supply issues out of Europe, and the advisory groups regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine.
They are the reasons that were identified by the Victorian government, and they are right to identify those.
So, there are cases in Victoria and in paths right around the country for - for people to go and get their vaccination and we encourage them to do just that.
It’s hard to... reconcile that with the international experience.
When you look at countries around the world, which had far worse COVID experiences, and of course, entered into the vaccination program in emergency measures, well before Australia, whether it is in France, Canada, particularly now in Singapore, it’s hard to marry that with international experience, but what is important is exactly what the doctor was just saying, and I have said in Health Minister have said that this is a further reminder to Australians about the importance of getting vaccinated.
I am pleased that we are now over 100,000 who were vaccinated yesterday, and we want to see that continue. I am pleased that particularly in Victoria, more than half of those aged over 70 have been vaccinated, but also right around the country, as I indicated, we expect about 4 million by the end of the week but it is still a long way to go.
There are many things that need to operate is doubly one of the wings of containment are in effect right now with the work being done by contact races.
What we have also learnt to the course of COVID is there is no simple one measure that provides any guarantee of certainty here, it requires all of these measures working together, but more importantly it requires governments to work together, patiently and cooperatively, and for Australians to work together to ensure we overcome this latest challenge, because in the COVID wells, the challenges will come, and we have boys been very upfront about that.
No system is foolproof, so when challenges come like this from time to time, you address them, you address them together, calmly, patiently, understanding of the difficulties that this clearly will impose on Victorians over the course of the next seven days, and seek to minimise the disruption and that dislocation as much as possible.
Updated
Greg Hunt has announced $2.6m to support the mental health of frontline health workers.
“We just need to focus on working the issue, and working together – that’s how we have come through on every occasion,” Scott Morrison says.
The federal government is very worried that Australia could be seeing what has happened in Taiwan and Vietnam and other countries which did well on suppression but have seen a resurgence of cases following a slowed vaccine rollout.
Greg Hunt steps in to call the lockdown regrettable but necessary:
Today is a difficult day for all Victorians, and we recognise that these are highly regrettable but necessary restrictions under the current circumstances. We have been through this before, we will get through this again.
Updated
Scott Morrison “commends” the Victorian government and the state’s contact-tracing team for the job they have done:
I want to command the Victorian government and the acting premier for their efforts over recent days, in particular, and I want to thank the contact tracers in Victoria for the very difficult job that they are engaged in.
With so many different points of contact that we have here, being able to work through that information on the many thousands of contacts that they are working through, I think they are doing a tremendous job. And I commend them for the job they are doing, remembering that there are many rings of containment to ... deal with the virus and protect Australians from the virus.
The work that is done enforcing those public health orders in the state through the quarantine system ... and then there is of course the contact tracing regime that has been so effectively used, not just now in Victoria but in other states that have confronted these exact same challenges. And Australians have been to come through this, and once again we will come through. No matter what our success has been, today that is no guarantee, or certainly, against a very challenging virus that continues to test not only here in Australia but all around the world.
Updated
The prime minister says the expert health committee is meeting to discuss what is happening in Victoria.
Scott Morrison holds press conference
Scott Morrison begins:
Once again we are faced with the challenge in the ongoing battle against Covid-19, the challenge and battle that we have faced many many times. And on each occasion, together we have overcome.
There are no certainties, no guarantees, in a global pandemic and against a virus, an insidious virus such as this.
Our defence has always been a steadfast resilience of the Australian people, working together, putting in place the best possible set of protections and systems that has seen Australia been able to come through and protect lives and livelihoods like few other countries in the world.
But that, of itself, provides no guarantee ... The virus will continue to seek to strike anywhere around the country, as it has on this occasion.
The next seven days in Victoria will be very challenging. Of course we are very mindful of the distressed and the difficulty this will impose upon people right across Victoria as a result of what has been described, rightly, by the acting premier as a circuit-breaking lockdown.
Updated
NSW changes Victorian travel advice
New South Wales has now also released new health advice for Victorian travellers:
Anyone travelling to NSW who has been in Victoria after 4pm today (Thursday) must follow the stay-at-home measures that will apply in Victoria, which were announced by the Victorian government this morning.
This means anyone arriving in NSW who has been in Victoria since 4pm today must remain at their home or place of residence in NSW for the seven-day duration of the Victorian measures.
People will only be permitted to leave their places of residence for limited reasons, including shopping for essential items, medical care, caregiving, outdoor exercise and essential work or education, if you cannot do it from home.
People subject to the stay-at-home measures in Victoria should not be travelling to NSW unless they are permitted to do so.
NSW residents in border communities will have different requirements, recognising the daily interaction of residents in these communities with regional Victoria.
For NSW residents living along the Victorian border, the seven-day stay-at-home requirement will only apply to people who have been outside the border region in Victoria since 4pm today. The border communities are defined by the map which was used for the previous “bubble” arrangements.
Anyone arriving in NSW by air, rail or road from Victoria (except those travelling within the defined border region) must complete a travel declaration that confirms they have not attended any of the growing number of venues of concern. Anyone who has attended a venue of concern must not travel to NSW; instead, they should follow the health advice on the Victorian Health website.
The declaration form is available on the Service NSW website, and can be completed in the 24-hour period before entering NSW or on arrival. The information gathered via the travel declarations is vital in allowing NSW Health to contact travellers if necessary.
NSW Health continues to urge people have been in Victoria since 12 May to check the Victoria Department of Health and Human Services website regularly to see if they have visited any of these venues of concern, and if so, immediately follow the relevant public health advice.
If you attended any of the venues identified at the times listed, please contact NSW Health immediately on 1800 943 553.
NSW strongly advises against all non-essential travel to Victoria at this time. People who do choose to travel will be required to follow the Victorian stay-at-home requirements on their return to NSW.
Updated
Anthony Albanese has responded to the lockdown:
My heart goes out to everyone in Victoria going into lockdown.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) May 27, 2021
The truth is that you never should have been put in this situation – because the Federal Government should have fixed quarantine.
Victoria, stay safe. Stay strong. Australians are with you. pic.twitter.com/xv7Siubapw
Anthony Albanese and Mark Butler were meant to hold a press conference of their own at 1.30 in the opposition leader’s courtyard, but that might be put off because of the prime minister’s press conference
Greg Hunt will join Scott Morrison, along with Dr Omar Khorshid, the president of the Australian Medical Association.
Greg Hunt has cancelled his press conference - because the prime minister is now holding one.
Scott Morrison will be up at 1.10 - in the courtyard.
Updated
So South Australia, the Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland and now Tasmania have now closed their borders to Victoria, or to parts of Victoria.
Here is Queensland’s announcement:
From 1am AEST Wednesday 26 May, anyone arriving into Queensland who has been in the City of Whittlesea local government area on or since May 11 will go into hotel quarantine unless they have a valid exemption. Restrictions also apply to anyone entering Queensland who has been to any of the exposure venues in Victoria.
From 1am Thursday 27 May, everyone arriving from Victoria is required to complete a border pass. Anyone of those arrivals who have been in the City of Whittlesea local government area on or since 11 May and are a non-resident will be turned away unless they have an exemption to enter the state. Queensland residents or those given an exemption to enter the state will go into hotel quarantine.
Restrictions may also apply if you are already in Queensland but visited the Melbourne region of Victoria on or after 18 May 2021.
Updated
Adam Morton has reported on this significant court case in Australia:
The federal court of Australia has found the environment minister, Sussan Ley, has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis in a judgment hailed by lawyers and teenagers who brought the case as a world first.
Eight teenagers and an octogenarian nun had sought an injunction to prevent Ley approving a proposal by Whitehaven Coal to expand the Vickery coalmine in northern New South Wales, arguing the minister had a common law duty of care to protect younger people against future harm from climate change.
Justice Mordecai Bromberg found the minister had a duty of care to not act in a way that would cause future harm to younger people. But he did not grant the injunction as he was not satisfied the minister would breach her duty of care.
Corporate watchdog pursues AMP for charging fees to dead people
The corporate regulator has launched legal action for unconscionable conduct against big financial services group AMP for charging fees to dead people.
AMP’s habit of harvesting cash from graveyard clients was exposed at the banking royal commission in 2018 - all up, it charged fees to around 10,000 people who were no longer around to argue with the bill.
However, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission is only pursuing AMP over about 2000 dead clients, because the rest of the alleged misbehaviour occurred before a six-year cutoff period for launching civil litigation.
Asic alleges AMP reaped more than $500,000 in insurance premiums from the dead customers, plus $100,000 in advice fees.
In a statement, AMP said it had changed its systems and paid $5.3m in compensation related to the 10,000 accounts held by dead people.
Group general counsel David Cullen said:
AMP has taken this matter very seriously and we will now carefully consider the allegations raised by Asic.
We have been assisting ASIC with its investigation and will continue to engage constructively as part of the legal process.
Updated
In other news:
YouTube has contacted Guardian Australia to say it is now “actively” removing comments from Sky News Australia’s YouTube channel that violate its community guidelines.
We reported that Sky News Australia’s YouTube channel published more than 9,000 comments mostly celebrating and mocking the shooting of a Black Lives Matter activist in Britain who is fighting for her life.
A spokeswoman for YouTube said on Thursday:
We are removing comments that are violative of our policies and will continue to do so as we keep monitoring the comments on the video.
The move comes three days after the social media platform was advised of the thousands of hateful comments aimed at the black community that were posted.
The racist and violent comments, which could be described as hate speech, appear below a short video news report uploaded on Monday about the activist Sasha Johnson. Johnson remains in a critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound to her head in an incident in south London.
On Wednesday YouTube said:
We take the safety of our users very seriously and have strict policies that prohibit hate and harassment on YouTube, including content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups.
Our community guidelines apply to videos and comments alike. Any flagged content found to violate our policies is removed from YouTube immediately.
Updated
Tasmania closes border to Victoria
Tasmania is also putting restrictions on people entering the state from Victoria.
Arrive after 2pm today and you are going into quarantine.
Here is the announcement:
Victoria has been declared a high-risk area from 2pm Thursday 27 May by Tasmanian public health authorities.
The declaration was made in response to Victoria announcing a state-wide lockdown and additional cases of Covid-19 being detected in the community.
Anyone intending to travel to Tasmania after 2pm Thursday May 27 who has been in Victoria in the 14 days prior to their travel will not be able to enter Tasmania unless approved as an essential traveller. Quarantine and other requirements are in place for essential travellers
Tasmanian residents, who have a suitable residence to undertake 14 days quarantine, can apply to enter Tasmania as an essential traveller. If you don’t have a suitable residence, you will be required to quarantine in government-designated quarantine – fees may apply.
Anyone who arrives before the declaration takes effect will be allowed to enter Tasmania – unless they have been in the Whittlesea local government area in the last 14 days or any of the identified high-risk premises.
Anyone currently in Tasmania who has been in Victoria in the last 14 days is asked to monitor themselves for symptoms and book a test if they develop any cold or flu symptoms – even if only mild. Call the public health hotline to arrange a test.
The situation is evolving, please check the travel alert page regularly for an updated list of high-risk premises. If you have been at any of the premises at the dates and times identified, please call the public health hotline on 1800 671 738.
Updated
Let’s adopt the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and let people on bridging visas work: Broadbent
The Victorian Liberal moderate Russell Broadbent has used a contribution in parliament’s federation chamber to do two significant things. He has called on the government to accept the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Broadbent has told the chamber Australians need to acknowledge our historical role in the suffering of Indigenous people as the first step to healing.
Broadbent noted Indigenous Australians had “extended the hand of reconciliation when they gave us the generous Uluru Statement from the Heart”.
He added:
As a nation, we should show grace and embrace it.
Broadbent said including the voices of first nations people in national policy-making “should be non-negotiable to the government”. This was essential for healing, he said, so what were we afraid of?
Continuing with his decency theme, but turning his focus to asylum seekers, Broadbent said it was time to face hard truths as well. He said it was time for Australians to “look at where the rubbish is”. People in Australia on bridging visas needed opportunity, and that meant opportunities for economic participation.
Why can’t we be sensible and let them work?
He said there was “nothing to fear from people being employed while on a bridging visa”, considering the whole country was “desperate for employees” given the international border remains closed.
Updated
Victorian lockdown
There was a lot in that press conference, so let’s recap
From midnight, Victoria will go back into lockdown - for the fourth time.
You can leave your house only for five reasons: caregiving, essential shopping, exercise, essential work and to get vaccinated
If you are a single household, you can invite one person into your bubble.
All non-essential stores are to close.
Take-away is still OK.
Masks must be worn everywhere.
Major sporting events will continue, without crowds.
There are now 10,000 people who have been identified as a primary or secondary contact of a confirmed case.
Twenty-six people have been diagnosed with this cluster.
More than 150 sites (including private homes) have been identified as exposure sites.
One person is in the ICU.
Updated
The Victorian press conference has ended.
Updated
The comments under this are ... something.
Today’s announcement of another lockdown is difficult for Victorians.
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) May 27, 2021
We have got through this before & we will do so again.
Please continue to follow the medical advice & if eligible to get vaccinated, I strongly encourage you to do so.
Stay safe & look out for one another. pic.twitter.com/LQ0fXYp0lr
Updated
International flights are continuing - including repatriation flights from India.
Martin Foley says it is unlikely the lockdown will be extended beyond the seven days.
Brett Sutton says he doesn’t regret not putting the state into lockdown earlier, because the data had to be analysed. He says:
We have to act on the information before us at any time. We had to analyse everything that we knew yesterday. [And there are] detailed discussions with cabinet. There is a detailed process of writing up dozens and dozens of pages of public health directions today, that will be charter compliance that will make considerations about all of the things that you are weighing up in terms of the constraints that are very serious. So we had to go through that process.
I am confident that Victorians know what to do. They will not wait until midnight. I would also encourage them, if they have got plans that they can put off now, that before this afternoon, this evening ... cancel them, because we really need to start these measures as soon as possible.
They become mandated from midnight, but Victorians know the right thing to do – we have done it before and we have done it better than anyone.
Updated
Why is the vaccine program extended to 40-49-year-olds happening now? Why not earlier?
Martin Foley says it is because authorities needed to make sure they had enough supply for the second dose in two weeks’ time.
Updated
There are about 150 exposure sites, but you won’t find them all on the Victoria Health website – there are quite a few private residences among them.
The exposure sites on the health website are the public ones.
Updated
You’ll find the whole statement on the lockdown here:
Full statement and latest information on the circuit breaker restrictions in force from 11:59pm tonight, below.
— Dr Sandro Demaio (@SandroDemaio) May 27, 2021
The full PDF with detailed information is at the bottom of the page/link. 👇👇https://t.co/6fn04JRPiN #covid19vic
Updated
Why is it all of Victoria?
James Merlino:
We’ve got a bigger spread of exposure sites, more than 150 exposure sites across the state ... so we’ve got to make sure. And there is also the risk of people in metropolitan Melbourne moving into regional Victoria and spreading transmission of the virus.
There is very strong advice from public health that this needs to be a statewide lockdown, a circuit breaker, and we will make an assessment, public health leading an assessment every day in terms of how we are tracking.
It is seven days.
If it can be earlier, it will be, but it is a seven-day circuit-breaker lockdown for the entirety of the state.
In terms of people who live on the border, and work interstate, the people living in Victoria but work in New South Wales, for example, one other changes we’ve made – and this is subject to New South Wales and South Australia – but if [they] have close to the border and you work interstate in New South Wales and South Australia, whatever that occupation is, that person can continue to go to their place of work. And that is another difference to what we’ve had in the previous circuit-breaker lockdown.
Updated
James Merlino says he understands how tough this will be on Victorians:
This impacts on families, our schools, businesses.
No-one wants to be in this position but I think the community also understands that we’ve got to follow public health advice. We’ve seen overseas what happens if this thing gets away.
We must follow public health advice.
My view is that as tough as this is for everyone, I think people appreciate that we just got to do this and Victorians have shown what a brilliant job they do and while I’m here, as education minister, one sector of our community, it will be parents and carers of our children and young people, students at school, our workforce.
We will have remote learning for a few days next week.
I do my department as a pupil free day tomorrow and a government school system so that our teachers and staff can focus and prepare for a few days of remote learning next week.
My message to parents and carers is to trust your school and your child’s teacher
They know what they are doing. They did a brilliant job last year and earlier this year they will do a brilliant job again.
In terms of Catholic education and independent schools, a recommendation is they have a pupil free day to allow staff to prepare for remote learning for a few days but that will be a decision they will make.
In terms of support, particularly for those kids that struggled with remote learning, this year we’ve got more than 5600 tutors as well as our existing teaching staff and other education support staff so we got 5600 tutors particularly focused on supporting those kids that really struggled.
James Merlino is asked again if Victoria has enough vaccine supply.
(The vaccine booking line is currently down in the state – it crashed with the news 40-49-year-olds are now eligible to book in).
As the health minister and myself and others have said over the last few days, in terms of supply, we’ve got what we need now.
For the duration of the year, and beyond, how confident we are will depend on the supply that is coming from the commonwealth. But in terms of right now, we have the supply that we need and I acknowledge and thank the commonwealth for the additional supplies that have been announced.
That must be prioritised to disability workers, residents and aged care and other settings. We must make sure that our most vulnerable citizens are vaccinated as quickly as possible and that is responsibility of the commonwealth.
Updated
Passengers who have been to Melbourne and are on the Ghan are being offloaded.
On board the Ghan. Passengers who have been to Greater Melbourne in past 14 days offloaded in Marla and getting put on a bus back to Adelaide. @7NewsAdelaide @sunriseon7 pic.twitter.com/i986dXIqsO
— Amanda Bachmann (@akbachmann) May 27, 2021
Updated
WA closes its border to Victoria
This was expected:
Following updated health advice related to the COVID-19 outbreak in Victoria, Victoria will now transition to a 'medium risk' jurisdiction under our controlled interstate border, effective from 10am today (27 May). This returns us to hard border arrangements with Victoria. pic.twitter.com/AJYoabLjXr
— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) May 27, 2021
And anyone who has arrived in WA from Victoria between 16 May and 6pm 25 May must now present for a Covid-19 test within the next 48 hours, and remain in self-quarantine until they receive a negative result.
Updated
The Australian Retail Association has also responded to the lockdown:
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said the Victorian lockdown is a devastating blow for retailers, and consumer and business confidence and again highlights the threat of Covid is far from over.
ARA CEO Paul Zahra said the seven-day lockdown is set to cost over a billion dollars in terms of lost retail trade.
“We support the Victorian Government in their response to keep the community safe, but we can’t ignore the significant impact this lockdown will have on retailers, the Melbourne CBD and small businesses in particular,” Mr Zahra said.
“Victorians have been to hell and back over the past year or so, and just when we thought the worst of Covid was behind us, it’s reared its head again mid-year.
“Businesses no longer have JobKeeper support payments available to them and Victorian small businesses in particular will be under significant stress – this is a huge blow to their confidence.
“A seven-day lockdown is expected to cost retailers over a billion dollars in terms of lost trade. This isn’t just a financial cost – it’s a social one as well. This lockdown will have an enormous impact on people’s health and wellbeing and will shatter fragile confidence levels for the second half of the year. This will also set back the valiant efforts of State and local government to restore confidence and foot traffic within Melbourne’s hard-hit CBD.
“Online, click and collect and home delivery is still available in Victoria and we encourage people to use those options for getting the goods and services they need.
“Most retailers have an online sales platform, so if there’s items you would normally buy in store - check out the online purchase, collection and delivery options they might have.”
The ARA has called for focused efforts to bolster vaccinations and improve contact tracing within Victoria, along with targeted support to continue for small business and Melbourne’s CBD in light of this major set-back.
How long until Victorians can see the impacts of the lockdown?
Brett Sutton:
Some of it will be immediate in the sense that people who are close contacts now will not have 100 close contact themselves. They will have three, four, five and that does make a difference.
The real effects are still a few days away and it is fair to say that of the 24 cases we have got so far, all of that transmission occurred before we knew about the first case, essentially, so this is the time for the lockdown.
Updated
Brett Sutton says Victoria could probably provide 30,000 vaccines a day “easily” and the primary care system – GPs – could do even more.
He says if Victoria could get to 100,000 a day “that would be great”.
Updated
Was consideration given for people who are fully vaccinated not to go into lockdown?
Brett Sutton:
There is no question that getting vaccinated and been two weeks after your first vaccine gives you a level of protection.
One vaccine is not enough, but even for those who are poorly vaccinated and 12-14 days post at the second vaccine, it is problematic until we have clear directive from a national standard.
The lockdown starts at 11.59pm tonight. Where you are tonight should be where you are for the full week of lockdown. But don’t go rushing to a new residence if you don’t have to.
Updated
James Merlino says Daniel Andrews supports the lockdown:
I spoke to the premier this morning and yesterday as well – his recovery is going well. This was a nasty incident -– fractured ribs, fractured vertebrae, very lucky.
A very nasty injury and a long recovery. Anyone who has had a major back injury knows the duration, the pain of that recovery, but he is going well. He is walking. He put out a statement a little while ago that he hopes to be back in June. That will be subject to his doctor’s advice, but he is going well.
Updated
But why is Victoria going into its fourth lockdown?
James Merlino:
Across the country, we have had breaches out of hotel quarantine across the country. We have had community transmission across the world. This is a global pandemic where millions and millions of people have died.
We are not unique.
Where we are unique is the work we did last year, all Victorians, in defeating the second wave. We need to deal with the reality of this outbreak that originated as of a hotel breach in SA. We need to deal with a reality that a vast majority of our community in this country are not vaccinated, and that means that we need to have these circuit-breaker lockdowns.
Updated
Asked why no other state has gone through this like Victoria has, James Merlino says:
We are continually improving how we respond to the pandemic and I go back to the work that our contact tracers have been doing with this particular outbreak that originated from a hotel quarantine breach in SA.
As Professor Sutton and other experts have spoken about, there are others who are positive but do not shed and transmit. There are other individuals who are highly infectious. If you combine a highly infectious individual with high-risk transmission settings – bars, clubs and workplace – particular workplaces we are focused on at the moment, 10% of the workforce has returned a positive result, so when you have highly infectious people operating in a higher-risk settings, we do have transmission
Updated
Should Victorians be angry at the federal government?
James Merlino:
It helps no one if I am just standing here blaming circumstances or blaming individuals or governments …
It is a fact that the commonwealth vaccine rollout has been delayed and there are global reasons for that delay.
You have to supply, procure and deliver and we have seen a delay. We have also seen a reluctance from some people to get vaccinated when they are eligible, so it is a fact that we have aged care facilities where not one person has been vaccinated. These are facts.
We need to get this vaccination rolled out as quickly as possible, and that is why we have been doing a lot of work about how we can quickly expand what we offer at our state sites and that is why I am pleased that we have been in a position through Martin and his department that we can deliver the Pfizer vaccine for 40- to 49-year-olds.
Updated
Despite the booking problems, Victoria’s health minister says people do need to book for Pfizer (if they are eligible) because of supply issues:
With the nature of the Pfizer of vaccine, we do require people who are eligible, now 40- to 49-year-olds to book, and we ask you to do that through the phone system.
In regards to the AstraZeneca which is in the ... pharmacies and with primary healthcare providers, you would need to book with your GP.
We would encourage you to either phone or walk up if you are over 50 for the AstraZeneca.
So under 50 – book. Over 50 – you can walk in.
Updated
More on the vaccine expansion in Victoria just announced by the acting premier.
The commonwealth’s Covid-19 vaccination program will again expand in Victoria to include everyone aged 40 years and over from tomorrow, Friday 28 May. It means more than half of all Victorians will be eligible to receive either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.
Victorians aged 40 to 49 years will be able to access to the Pfizer vaccine at state-run vaccination sites. People aged 40 to 49 years receiving the Pfizer vaccine must book an appointment by calling the Coronavirus Hotline on 1800 675 398 – and can do so now – this is essential as not all vaccination centres will have the Pfizer vaccine available.
Victorians aged 50 years and over will continue to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, either through a state-run vaccination centre or a participating GP clinic. While many vaccination centres are accepting walk-in appointments for people aged 50 years and over, bookings via the 1800 675 398 hotline are preferred.
Since launching the first high-volume vaccination centres, the state-run program has expanded rapidly to more than 30 hubs across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. Victoria has experienced record demand this week for vaccinations and forward bookings.
For more information on Victoria’s vaccination centres, including locations and opening hours, visit coronavirus.vic.gov.au/vaccination-centres. For more information on the commonwealth’s Covid-19 vaccination program, visit health.vic.gov.au.
Updated
Brett Sutton gets very cranky when he’s asked what has gone wrong with Victoria’s Covid contact tracing, given that this is the fourth lockdown:
That is absurd. To finish, it is an absurd proposition that contact tracing has gone wrong.
We have talked about exactly what the contact tracing team have done here and it is extraordinary. Contact tracing is an integral part of how to get control. It does not do magic.
Every country in the world started with one or two cases in their countries.
Updated
Brett Sutton says contact tracers have seen this many primary and secondary contacts this soon before:
We haven’t seen that number previously.
Part of the reason for the big numbers we’ve seen is there were generations of transmission that occurred before the first case was identified to us.
There’s been opportunities to spread to people.
The other clear is element is the infectiousness of the virus. When we see a member become infected, almost all the household is infected.
It speaks to the infectiousness of this B161 variant, but also the cycles it’s going through.
It really is rapid and that’s led to the exponential increase.
Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton says the lockdown is necessary, given the number of exposures:
I do think we have to ready ourselves for seven days of this lockdown. With, as the acting premier said, thousands of primary and secondary close contacts.
They are individuals who have been exposed – any one of them could become cases over the next 14 days from their exposure.
So we really just need to see each and every day what new cases might emerge, hopefully, all of the positives will be they have been contacted, they’re in quarantine already, and that when they test positive, there’s no new exposure sites generated.
So the things to watch are the new cases that I’m sure will occur but whether or not they’re out and about in the community, whether there’s new exposure sites that are putting others at risk.
So they’re the things to watch. It would be great if the new cases I do expect, that they have – they’re amongst those 10,000 primary and secondary close contacts and there aren’t new exposure sites generated.
Updated
Are vaccine supply concerns the reason the vaccination program hasn’t been opened to everyone?
James Merlino:
We have a number of reasons why the commonwealth’s vaccine rollout has been delayed. And it has been delayed. That is a fact. It should – we should be at a much higher level, in terms of the number of people vaccinated than today.
These are supply issues the commonwealth is responsible for, securing, procuring, and then delivering the supply, so that’s been one of problems.
And of course the changes that were announced in regards to AstraZeneca had a hit on public confidence, but the third element is people have got to be willing to be vaccinated.
As the minister for health, professor Sutton and other public health experts say, these vaccines are safe.
And these vaccines, if people get vaccinated, it keeps our community safe. We would not be in this position that we are today, this necessary and difficult position, that we are today, if our vaccination rates were much higher than they are right now.
Updated
James Merlino says he knows this will be tough for business and events given that it is the first lockdown since the end of jobkeeper, but he says the Victorian government is looking at support. He does not go into detail about what form that support will take.
Updated
Variant travelling at a 'super quick pace', Merlino says
Will Victorians have to keep living with the threat of lockdown?
James Merlino:
Well, you go to last year, it was about defeating the second wave and ensuring we don’t have a third wave.
But there’s only – there’s only one path to defeating this pandemic, and the successful rollout of the commonwealth’s vaccine program, and an alternative to hotel quarantine, particularly for those who are very, very high risk.
Until we get to that point, until we have successfully rolled out the commonwealth’s vaccine program, and we’re stepping up where we can, the announcement we’re making today to extend the eligibility for people who can get a vaccine, from the priority cohorts to now anyone over 40, is what we can do to make sure we get there. But this is the commonwealth’s vaccine program, they’re responsible for supply, right now, we’ve got the supply we need, and that’s why we’re making the call to everyone.
No one – no one wants to be where we are today. But this is highly infectious, and it is running at a super quick pace.
Updated
Is Victoria confident in its contact tracers?
James Merlino:
They’re doing an extraordinary work. I just go back to what I said in my opening remarks, our contact tracers, within a 24-hour period, are identifying and locking down first, second and third rings of cases.
They have never ever worked as hard, as fast, and as effectively as they are right now. But despite that, this variant is moving at a faster pace.
So, our contact tracers are doing a brilliant job but we need to get on top of this.
That’s why we have advice from public health, given the circumstances, more than 10,000 primary and secondary contacts, more than 150 exposure sites right across the state of Victoria, Bendigo, on our border, right across metropolitan Melbourne, we need to have this circuit-breaker lockdown. We know it works.
We know it makes a difference. We’ve done this before.
Victorians know what to do. But the contact tracers are working more quickly than they have ever done before.
Updated
Vaccine booking line crashes
The vaccine booking line for 40- to 49-year-olds in Victoria has already crashed:
Vaccine booking phone number already in melt down! Can’t get through (a good thing, lots of ppl are keen!)
— Michael (@micaros) May 27, 2021
Updated
More testing sites are being set up around Victoria today.
There are about 196 of them.
Updated
On the vaccine program in Melbourne:
IMPORTANT: People over 50, who get AZ, don't need to book - can just walk up to hubs. Health minister Martin Foley says he "and many of my family" have had the AZ - very good point to make. It's not substandard, the health minister took it.
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) May 27, 2021
If you're 40-49 - booking essential. https://t.co/dGB2u4ZiWf
The ACTU has responded to the lockdown:
The Victorian lockdown will be the first to extend beyond a weekend since the Morrison Government prematurely ended the JobKeeper wage subsidy at the end of March, despite an uneven recovery and a failing vaccine rollout which meant that additional lockdowns were likely.
A lockdown with no support for jobs, especially those in sectors like hospitality, retail and aviation which are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, means many workers face an uncertain future with no guaranteed connection to work.
The Morrison Government bears clear responsibility both for this lockdown, caused by a combination of its lack of action on national quarantine standards and inability to efficiently distribute the vaccine, and for any job losses resulting from its short-sighted decision to end JobKeeper for all.
Victoria vaccination program extended to include over-40s
James Merlino then pleads for people who can get vaccinated, to do so – and also pleads with the federal government to move forward with a proper quarantine facility:
I can announce that from tomorrow morning, vaccinations at state sites will be expanded to include those in the 40- to 49-year-old age group, for the Pfizer vaccine, so that means now, if our state sites, if you’re over 40, you will eligible for a vaccine.
So we need you to call the hotline, we need you to make a booking. In terms of GPs, that will be a decision of the commonwealth, but in terms of the state sites that we run, we’ll be expanding it to 40 to 49, so I really encourage everyone, if you’re eligible, get vaccinated.
The reason why we are dealing with this outbreak today is because of a hotel breach in South Australia. That is not a criticism, it is just a fact, we have had breaches in hotel quarantine right around our country.
The only way through this pandemic is everyone getting vaccinated as quickly as you are eligible, and for the commonwealth to agree to an alternative quarantine arrangement, particularly for high-risk individuals and, in this case, we’re talking about a variant of concern.
If we had – if we had an alternative to hotel for this particular variant of concern, we would not be here today. If we had the vaccine, the commonwealth’s vaccine program effectively rolled out, we may well not be here today, talking about these circuit-breaker restrictions that we must impose to keep our community safe.
Updated
James Merlino is going through some of the rules:
For shopping and exercise, you need to stay within 5km of your home, unless your nearest shops are further away.
Masks must be worn everywhere, indoors and outdoors, anywhere other than your home, unless an exemption applies.
There are to be no visitors to your home other than an intimate partner.
Single bubbles will be permitted. If you live alone, you can make a bubble with another person.
And there’s to be no public gatherings.
In terms of what remains open, so restaurants, pubs, and cafes can provide takeaway only.
Essential retail, so supermarkets, food stores, petrol stations, banks, bottle shops and pharmacies, other retail stores can provide click and collect.
Childcare and kinders will be open as per the last circuit-breaker lockdown earlier this year.
Approved professional sporting events will proceed but proceed without crowds.
Authorised workers and workplaces – in terms of what will be closed or changed, schools will move to remote learning, except for vulnerable children, and children of authorised workers. Higher education will move to remote learning only.
Community support and recreation, accommodation, but there will be some exemptions that apply.
Hotels, clubs, TABs and the casino will be closed, indoor and outdoor entertainment venues, swimming pools, spas, saunas, indoor and outdoor springs, community venues, drive-in cinemas, amusements parks, creative studios, art galleries and museums, tourism, tours, and transport, and auctions can only happen online.
In terms of our health settings, aged care facilities: no visitors except for limited reasons.
In our hospitals, visitors only for end of life, to support a partner during birth, or a parent accompanying a child. In terms of ceremonies, funerals: a maximum of 10 people, plus those running the service.
Weddings cannot proceed unless end-of-life or deportation reasons apply.
And religious activities will not proceed other than through broadcast with a maximum of five people.
Updated
Seven-day 'circuit breaker' lockdown for Victoria
James Merlino says there is no other choice but to lock down the state, given the speed of the spread of this variant of the virus.
Here are the reasons you can leave home:
- shopping for necessary goods and services
- authorised work or permitted education
- exercise – a two-hour limit, with one other person
- caregiving, compassionate and medical reasons
and the fifth:
- to get vaccinated
Updated
James Merlino:
Our public health experts’ primary concern is how fast this variant is moving. We’ve seen overseas how difficult that movement can be to control.
Here in Victoria we’re seeing not only how quick it is but how contagious it is as well.
Our contact tracers identifying – are identifying and locking down the first ring, second ring and third ring within 24 hours.
They have never done that before. That’s the fastest our contact tracers have ever moved within a 24-hour period, identifying and locking down first, second and third rings of cases. But despite working as fast as this – and my thanks to all of our contact tracers – this variant is moving faster still.
The time between catching the virus and passing it on is tighter than ever.
For some of those cases I mentioned, for some of them ... how long it takes between the onset of symptoms in the first and secondary case is averaging just over a day. Now, to put that in some perspective, the usual transmission is about five to six days.
In some of these cases, within a day it’s been transmitted. The number of cases has doubled in 24 hours.
Unless something drastic happens, this will become increasingly uncontrollable. The vaccine rollout has been slower than we have hoped. It’s not where we hoped it would be, it’s not where it should be. If more people were vaccinated, we might be facing a very different set of circumstances than we are today. But sadly we are not. If we make the wrong choice now, if we wait too long, this thing will get away from us.
Updated
Victoria press conference begins
Acting premier James Merlino says one person is in ICU:
We said this time yesterday the next 24 hours were going to be particularly critical in terms of what our next steps will be.
To ensure we keep our state safe. In the last day, we have seen 12 linked new cases, bringing the total number of cases linked to the hotel quarantine breach in South Australia to 26. Sadly, we have one of those people in an ICU, on a ventilator, in not a very good way. In the last day, we’ve seen more evidence we’re dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded.
There are at least 10,000 primary and secondary contacts who are being required to be isolated.
Updated
Victoria in lockdown until 11.59pm 3 June
Journalists at the press conference have been handed a statement with the lockdown conditions:
Statement: @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/IqvtaXUkIJ
— Sharnelle Vella (@SharnelleVella) May 27, 2021
Page two pic.twitter.com/8AI5bGwq6w
— Sharnelle Vella (@SharnelleVella) May 27, 2021
Updated
Annnnd there has been a small earthquake in regional Victoria:
Earthquake about 10 minutes ago near Maldon in central Victoria, magnitude 3.0. Felt in surrounding towns. pic.twitter.com/EuYS4r8l1v
— Seismology Centre (@AusQuake) May 27, 2021
Updated
For those asking why is Victoria looking at a lockdown, while NSW didn’t when it had an outbreak in the northern beaches – I’d urge you to look at the geographical spread of where people infected with Covid have visited and just how spread out exposure sites are.
It’s a lot easier to contain an outbreak when people are all in the same area – like what happened with the northern beaches.
The latest Melbourne outbreak has spread across the city.
Updated
Queensland is being very Queensland amid all this (I can say that, as a Queenslander).
Via AAP:
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is in talks with the NRL to host the State of Origin opener in 13 days time, following a Covid-19 outbreak in Melbourne.
The MCG is currently the venue for the June 9 clash, but that could change if the Victorian capital goes into lockdown from Friday, as expected.
The virus cluster in Melbourne’s north expanded to 26 infections as 11 new cases diagnosed on Thursday.
Premier Palaszczuk says the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane or Queensland Country Bank Stadium in Townsville could host the clash on June 9, if needed.
“We’re putting our hand up – as I know other states will as well,” Palaszczuk told parliament on Thursday.
“We live in rugby league heartland. Queensland is the ideal place to kick off this year’s State of Origin.
“I can confirm that we’re in discussions with the NRL.”
Updated
For the record, no one is saying the states are failing and they want the federal government to “take over” quarantine.
I think people just want the federal government to *do* something on quarantine, given that it is a commonwealth responsibility, we are 18 months in, our vaccine program has been delayed, we have thousands of Australians still stranded overseas, eventually we will have to open our international border and we will be living with this virus for years to come.
“Fortress Australia” is, and always was, porous. And we still don’t have a plan.
Updated
This exchange between Stuart Robert and Kieran Gilbert on Sky News yesterday afternoon shows you where the federal government’s attitude to this is at.
This was after a question time when Scott Morrison accused Labor of blaming the states after he was questioned about the lack of purpose-built federal quarantine facilities and the slow vaccine rollout:
KG: The other question that’s been put, though, is why hasn’t the government, why haven’t you and other ministers said “OK, look, we’ve got to build a purpose-built quarantine facility out of the cities, out of hotels”? Because this Melbourne outbreak’s come out of a hotel.
SR:
We’ve seen a few issues in Victoria with hotels*. In March last year when the prime minister put together national cabinet, the states were insistent that they were to run quarantine. They’re the ones whose public health orders are being responded to. They’re the ones with the emergency services and health personnel. So it was at the states’ request that quarantine will be run out of states and territories. Now, we’re in this together. We’re working with the states and territories. There’s no criticism –
* It’s been all states. The latest outbreak is linked to an Adelaide quarantine hotel.
KG: [interrupts] But the prime minister is the prime minister. He’s your friend. He’s the nation’s leader. Why wouldn’t he just say ‘look, we’ve got to build this thing, we’ve got to get it done, take it out of the hotels’? It’s been said to him several times from Jane Halton, from the opposition, from everyone concerned yet it hasn’t been done.
SR:
The states and territories are still keen to continue to operate it. Now, at the same time …
KG: [interrupts] Override them.
SR:
… over the same time – well, you’ve seen the constitutional powers and the limit of them with trying to keep state borders open and our inability to do that because the states are supreme in their own states.
KG: But they’re now saying they want you to build one in northern Victoria, one in Toowoomba. Why is the government not jumping all over this?
SR:
So, we’ve expanded Howard Springs to 2,000. We’re going through with Victoria now in a very good proposal from Victoria, as the prime minister has said. And the issue in Toowoomba, of course, is we don’t have the details from the Queensland state government. Now, if they gave us all of the detail in the same vein that Victoria has, it may be a different discussion. But we’re working very constructively with Victoria on their proposal.
KG: Do you see why some, including the opposition, are saying that the government’s been sitting on its hands on this issue? It’s not like this proposal of getting the quarantine out of hotels hasn’t been around for some months now.
SR:
Again, we are working with the states and territories, and they were the ones that wanted to run quarantine. Now, states are now coming forward with alternative proposals, and the Victorian one’s a great case in point. We’re working really constructively with them.
KG:
So does the PM say at the election campaign to people if there’s a massive outbreak, look, it was the states’ fault? Is that where we get to?
SR:
Well, national cabinet was all about being in this together and doing this together. The decision was made together that states and territories would run quarantine. Now the opposition is saying that it’s not good enough the states and territories are running quarantine. And they’re criticising their state and territory colleagues, which I think is a bit harsh. States and territories are doing their best and they’re having a good crack at this.
KG:
I think they’re criticising you, to be fair. They’re criticising your government.
SR
Well, they’re saying we should take it over because they’re saying the states are failing. And I don’t think the states are failing. I think our relationship with the states on this is actually going quite well, and we’ll continue to work …
Updated
WA has also called a Covid presser – 9.15am WA time, which is 11.15am eastern time – so it looks as though that state will also be banning Melbourne residents.
Updated
Things got slightly heated over in the legal and constitutional affairs estimates a bit earlier, where Labor senator Kim Carr has been questioning officials from the administrative appeals tribunal about the appointment of former Liberal members.
Liberal senator David Van asked the AAT to calculate how much time and expense has been incurred answering Carr’s questions, prompting senator Rex Patrick to accuse him and the Morrison government of being “allergic to oversight”.
Van asked Patrick to “step outside” and say the same thing, prompting Patrick to invite Van to look at his tweets, which frequently express similar criticisms. A shouting match ensued.
The hearing earlier revealed that Jane Prentice, a former Liberal minister, was appointed in February to the AAT, a body that reviews government decisions, while still working for Counsel House, a lobbying firm.
Full-time AAT members must seek approval from the president before taking on other paid work. Carr asked if that approval had been sought and obtained.
The AAT officials couldn’t answer the question and took it on notice. Attorney general Michaelia Cash was asked when she first became aware of the matter. She replied:
I am aware of it now, Senator Carr, because you’ve just raised it, and it has been taken on notice by the registrar to provide you with more information.
Carr also questioned the AAT members about the number of part-time members who either have not finished a case or not worked a single day since being appointed.
There were 29 members who had not finalised a case in 2018-19, 18 members in 2019-20, and 18 members in 2019-20. Nine members had not performed a single hour of work in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and 13 in 2020-21.
AAT registrar Sian Leathem said that may be explained by resignations, members being appointed late in the financial year or other commitments:
There is also the case that we have a number of very specialised members that we only use when there is an operational need to allocate work to them and that would mean they were not allocated any work during the time period.
Updated
Victorian press conference to be held at 11am
We will get the major update in about 20 minutes.
We should be able to bring all those answers you want then.
Updated
The AFL may also have to prepare for delays:
#BREAKING: Blockbuster between the Bulldogs and Melbourne tomorrow night is in jeopardy, with Demons players and staff ordered into self-isolation this morning. We understand a Demons player attended one of the COVID-19 exposure sites in Melbourne in recent days.
— Tom Maddocks (@MaddocksThomas) May 27, 2021
Updated
States object to prime minister's national emergency powers
The Senate is holding an inquiry into the commonwealth’s new powers to declare a national emergency, which the prime minister can do unilaterally (without state and territory agreement) in certain circumstances.
The National Emergency Declaration Act was passed in December 2020 after the bushfire royal commission, and before what legislators feared could be another horror fire season.
Although it is already law, it is interesting that there is quite a lot of dissent from the states – including from Coalition governments in Tasmania and New South Wales.
The Tasmanian government submitted to the Senate standing committee on legal and constitutional affairs that it “does not support the commonwealth having power to declare a national emergency without the agreement of, or consultation with, states and territories”. It said:
Noting that the circumstances that would trigger a national emergency declaration would be exceptional, the Tasmanian government opposes any unilateral decision, declaration or action that affects Tasmania, or its interests, without prior consultation.
NSW argued that the condition of “nationally significant harm” could be open to broad interpretation:
Any Commonwealth efforts should be targeted at supporting States and Territories’ lead role in emergency response and recovery operations …
[The Act should] be aimed solely at improving Commonwealth arrangements for the provision of expedited assistance to the States, and not operate so as to disrupt or interfere with these arrangements.
NSW proposed consideration of “multi-agency national-level exercises” to test how the act could work.
The Australian Capital Territory called for a new requirement to inform the governments of all affected states and territories when a national emergency declaration is made, regardless of whether consultation has occurred.
The Queensland government said it shares the concerns expressed by other states and territories that the act goes beyond the scope of what was recommended by the bushfire royal commission, in not limiting the powers to natural disasters and not defining an emergency.
Updated
The other big international news today has been Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to Boris Johnson, giving evidence about the UK’s Covid policy:
Cummings lambasts Johnson in damning account of Covid crisis https://t.co/bQAcmcv9Qe
— Guardian news (@guardiannews) May 27, 2021
Updated
The government has no major campaign in place to combat vaccine hesitancy.
The messages from the health minister down, when it comes to AstraZeneca, have been confused – ie, please go out and get AstraZeneca, but we will have more Pfizer and Moderna at the end of the year.
Now Richard Colbeck, the aged care minister, while explaining why we still haven’t vaccinated all aged care residents – including 29 centres in Melbourne which are yet to receive a single dose – says “people have made their choice” over whether they want the vaccine or not.
Aged Care Services Minister, Richard Colbeck, on the vaccination uptake of aged care residents: "We offered them vaccination in residential aged care first because they were the most vulnerable... People have made their choices." @SBSNews #AusPol pic.twitter.com/mShcLpgwNo
— Pablo Viñales (@pablovinales) May 27, 2021
Updated
We are still waiting to learn when the Victorian press conference will be held.
Past experience says that the later it is, the more they have to say – there are a lot of details that need to be covered before announcing changes to health policy.
We’ll bring you the updates as soon as we have them.
Updated
We hope everyone is OK –
The public hearing scheduled for today by the select committee on mental health and suicide prevention has been cancelled due to illness. The hearing will be rescheduled and the revised public hearing program will be available on the committee website.
Updated
The House of Representatives has begun with a Labor thrust at Liberal MP Andrew Laming, as MP Julie Collins moved to suspend standing orders for a motion accusing him of reneging on a commitment to resign his parliamentary roles.
At the height of the controversy about his treatment of constituents, Laming said he would “step down from all parliamentary roles effective immediately”.
But since returning to parliament from health leave, Laming has refused to give up his position as the chair of a parliamentary committee on employment, education and training. The position adds $23,000 to his annual salary.
Laming now points to a 28 March statement in which he announced he had taken “health leave from all parliamentary, electorate and committee work”, claiming he never committed to permanently give up the chair’s role.
Education minister Alan Tudge moved that Collins no longer be heard. The government won that vote.
Laming then gave a personal explanation, saying he had “never resigned” and “never reneged” from a commitment to resign. He attempted to table a “health statement” about his period of leave but Anthony Albanese objected and it appears leave wasn’t granted. The House has now moved on to other business.
For those scratching their heads about what all this achieved – Labor has tried this move every morning this week and now has lots of footage of (male) Coalition ministers moving that female Labor members no longer be heard.
Updated
NT declares greater Melbourne and Bendigo Covid hotspots
This follows on from South Australia yesterday – but the NT is now declaring two areas in Victoria hotspot regions – meaning mandatory quarantine if you arrive in the NT and have been in those areas.
Here is the declaration:
- My directions issued at 5:53pm on 25 May 2021 are revoked and replaced with the following:
- These directions apply to any person who has arrived or who will arrive in the Northern Territory before 00:01 on 27 May 2021 who has been to any of the locations listed as ‘public exposure sites’ by the Victorian Department of Health on or about the relevant times and dates specified at the following link as updated by the Victorian Department of Health from time to time: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/exposure-sites 3
- Any person who has arrived or who will arrive in the Northern Territory before 00:01 on 27 May 2021 who has been in Victoria since 12 May 2021 must check the above website at least once per day and comply with these directions if a place they have been to becomes a public exposure site.
- Any person to whom these directions apply who has arrived in the Northern Territory or who will arrive in the Northern Territory before 00:01 on 27 May 2021 who has been to a ‘Tier 1’ site, must travel directly to a suitable place of quarantine and remain in that place, except to submit to testing for COVID-19 (or in an emergency). Once tested, the person must remain in the suitable place of quarantine until noon on the 14th day after the last day the person was in the ‘Tier 1’ site, regardless of whether the result of the test is negative.
Note: A person who has already had a test may be required to have further tests, at the direction of an authorised officer. - If a public exposure site that was a ‘Tier 1 site’ ceases to be a ‘Tier 1’ site, a person who is in quarantine by reason only of that area formerly being a ‘Tier 1 site’ is not required to remain in quarantine, provided they have been tested for COVID-19 and received a negative result.
- If a public exposure site that was a ‘Tier 2 site’ or a ‘Tier 3 site’ becomes a ‘Tier 1 site’, a person who has been to the site must travel directly to a suitable place of quarantine and remain in that place, except to submit to testing for COVID-19 (or in an emergency). Once tested, the person must remain in the suitable place of quarantine until noon on the 14th day after the last day the person was in the ‘Tier 1’ site, regardless of whether the result of the test is negative.
- To avoid doubt, a person to whom these directions apply is considered a person who is required to quarantine under my Directions for Territory Border Restrictions (No.49), and all quarantine requirements under my Directions for Territory Border Restrictions apply.
If a place of quarantine is deemed not to be suitable, the CHO will direct quarantine to be undertaken at the Howard Springs or Alice Springs quarantine facilities.
Updated
People have been preparing for the last few days for a potential lockdown:
Confirmation from @SwimmingAUS that their elite athletes were moved out of Melbourne yesterday ahead of the Olympic trials in Adelaide from June 12. Olympic champion Mack Horton and flyer Matt Temple among the more notable names.
— Phil Lutton (@phillutton78) May 26, 2021
Updated
This is not yet confirmed – we will most likely hear from the acting premier around 10.30 or so now, but it looks very likely:
Gov has landed on a 7 day lockdown and not just for Melbourne. From midnight. @abcmelbourne
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) May 26, 2021
Updated
I mean, 18 months on, I think we are very past this conversation.
Ahead of looming Melbourne lockdown - Defence Minister Peter Dutton tells Ray Hadley on @2GB873 "The New South Wales model is the model we've got to go with...we can't have closure of state borders.....we need to be able to have confidence in the contact tracing...." @9NewsAUS
— Jonathan Kearsley (@jekearsley) May 26, 2021
The Victorian police commissioner has not confirmed the lockdown but says police have been preparing for the possibility:
NOW | Chief Commissioner Shane Patton says police are preparing for the possibility of a lockdown.
— 3AW Melbourne (@3AW693) May 26, 2021
“We’ve been doing our planning...
we’ve unfortunately had the experience where we've done this before."
Updated
Where are Scott Morrison and Greg Hunt getting the “hotel quarantine has been 99.99% effective” stat from?
Mark Butler took a guess while a guest on Steve Price’s livestreamed radio show this morning:
I think what they’re doing, and I don’t really know, but I think what they’re doing is they’re just simply using the number of people who’ve gone through hotel quarantine. So that’s quite a lot of people coming home from overseas, and then dividing that by the number of leaks.
The problem though is it ignores the fact that every single leak is a massive disaster. The whole city of Melbourne is in huge disruption. I see speculation about the possibility of a lockdown being announced this morning. I don’t know whether that is right but I know that would be enormously distressing.
I’m not from Melbourne but my Dad lives in Melbourne. I’ve got other relatives and very close friends there. I know how triggering that would be for a city that was locked down for 111 days last year. To know that 40% of aged care facilities in Melbourne have not been fully vaccinated and I think, scandalously, 29 have not received even a single dose when they were promised all across the country to be vaccinated fully by Easter. Given what we know happened last year, I think must be very distressing for everyone.
Updated
For those trying to work out the number of Covid cases linked to this latest outbreak in Victoria, it’s at 26.
One of the 12 cases was mentioned by James Merlino at yesterday’s press conference. So that makes 11 new cases (the ones we didn’t know about) but 12 in total.
Updated
Day four of estimates is getting under way – a little bit later in the day we will hear from officials within the finance department who deal with Parliament House staffing issues, so we’ll bring you updates from that.
Updated
Victoria records 12 new cases overnight
The latest Victoria Health numbers are out:
Reported yesterday: 12 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 26, 2021
- 12,677 vaccine doses were administered
- 40,411 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco #COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/e9rfizWbGp
Updated
Richard Colbeck was pressed on the 29 Victorian aged care homes who were yet to receive any vaccines (aged care is a federal responsibility) outside the Nine studios:
I’m very comfortable with the rollout of the vaccination across the – across the country. About 85% of residents across Australia have taken up the vaccine.
And it’s been a significant logistical effort. There’s some providers who have put back their vaccine dates so that the residents can get flu vaccinations. We have worked with the providers to schedule them over the last 12 or 13 weeks to get the vaccines.
Updated
Here is a rundown of the various reports of a lockdown flagged for Victoria. No detail has been given about whether the lockdown will affect the whole state or just greater Melbourne.
The Age reports: “A source close to the government, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential decision, said cabinet was set to confirm final details of the lockdown on Thursday morning before announcing the public health measures.” According to the Age, this lockdown will last at least three days, with the finer details being discussed this morning.
The ABC is reporting that the cluster has grown overnight to 25 cases, with reporter Richard Willingham saying the lockdown will last at least five days. This is the problem with government leaks before the official announcement – there is confusion about how long the lockdown will last, and which areas it will affect, creating extra anxiety.
There has been no announcement of a press conference yet, we’ll keep you posted when we know the details.
Updated
We can expect the Victorian state government to continue to push for purpose-built quarantine facilities, given the situation that’s unfolding.
Yesterday the deputy premier, James Merlino, urged that more secure quarantine facilities be designed and built, with the outbreak in Victoria originating from a hotel quarantine breach in South Australia:
There is a sense of urgency about this. The best time to have had an alternative quarantine facility is 12 months ago and the next best time is now, so we are very keen to finalise those discussions with the commonwealth.
Updated
There are 29 aged care facilities in Victoria which are yet to receive a single dose of vaccine from the federal government.
Aged care minister Richard Colbeck was on the Nine Network this morning explaining why, as Melbourne looks about to enter another lockdown because of a Covid outbreak, sparked from a breach in Adelaide hotel quarantine:
They should be done in the next few days. We’ve prioritised those. We’ve been working our way obviously across the country. There’s about 600 facilities that the commonwealth has responsibility for in Victoria.
As you said, 29 of those left to be done. They were programmed to be done. They were programmed to be done this week or next week, so we’ll get those finalised as quickly as we can.
We’re actually going back over other facilities, particularly in those areas of Melbourne where there has been an outbreak. The average vaccination rate across aged care in Australia is about 85%. There’s some that are lower than that so we’re going back and offering people a second chance to take up a vaccine if that’s what they’d like, given the current circumstances.
Updated
Scott Morrison has also taken to reminding people how bad Covid could have been in Australia if it weren’t for the measures put in place (largely pushed by the states).
Yesterday he accused the opposition of “whinging” about the vaccine rollout and said people stopped him on the street to say how happy they were:
I know that Australians – because they approach me every time when I go out into regional Australia or the suburbs and cities of this country – they know here, in this country, they’re living a life during Covid like few are anywhere else in the world.
This country has enjoyed safety from this pandemic and an economic recovery like few, if any, other countries in the world.
Those opposite, Mr Speaker, may want to retreat into whinging and complaining and undermining the government, as we fight the virus and they focus on the politics.
(Nice order of importance there too, in terms of the geographical indicators he used in that sentence.)
Kristina Keneally spoke to ABC News Breakfast about that attitude this morning:
Well, if we take that argument from the prime minister at face value – well, 17 outbreaks in six months – “You’ve never had it so good, what are you complaining about?”
Let me tell you, the people of Melbourne today who are facing the prospect of another extended lockdown, they would disagree with the prime minister.
They would say, “You got a report, prime minister, some nine months ago from Jane Halton, your handpicked expert, who told you hotel quarantine is not fit-for-purpose.”
Hotels are for tourists, not for quarantine and medical purposes. We rolled it out at the beginning of the pandemic because we needed something quickly. But we now know so much more about this virus, we know it is airborne, we know hotels are not fit-for-purpose for quarantine.
Jane Halton gave the prime minister multiple recommendations and he has failed to act on a single one of them. He could be, for example, taking up Victoria’s offer of the Mickleham facility and expanding that.
He could be working with Queensland, with their offer to expand and work with him on a national quarantine system in that state.
He could be looking at Bladin Point in the Northern Territory. Yet this is a prime minister who thinks that this is not his problem. He wants to shove everything onto the states – everything is someone else’s responsibility, and nothing is his fault. In a national pandemic, and an international pandemic, that is simply not good enough from our prime minister.
Updated
Looking to some other news at the moment, a significant judgment has just come out of The Hague:
A court in The Hague has ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its global carbon emissions by 45% by the end of 2030 compared with 2019 levels, in a landmark case brought by Friends of the Earth and over 17,000 co-plaintiffs.
The oil giant’s sustainability policy was found to be insufficiently “concrete” by the Dutch court in an unprecedented ruling that will have wide implications for the energy industry and other polluting multinationals.
The Anglo-Dutch company was told it had a duty of care and that the level of emission reductions of Shell and its suppliers and buyers should be brought into line with the Paris climate agreement.
Updated
More than a year on from the start of the pandemic, after hotel quarantine breaches in all states and with no end in sight, you have to wonder why more people aren’t screaming for purpose-built quarantine facilities.
Scott Morrison has taken to saying that hotel quarantine is 99.9% effective.
But, as we are seeing from one of those 0.01% of failures, which is happening to Melbourne after a breach in an Adelaide quarantine hotel, the cost on communities is very, very high.
Hotel quarantine was set up in a couple of weeks in an answer to new problems. Hotels are not set up as quarantine spaces. They have shared ventilation, for starters. We have learnt more about the virus and more about the impact of airborne particles.
This is not something the federal government can continue to shrug off.
Epidemiologist @enenbee can't understand why there aren't more purpose-built quarantine facilities like Howard Springs.
— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) May 26, 2021
"I can't think of a rationale for not trying to improve quarantine. If it's the money, how much money is it going to cost to shut down Melbourne for a week?" pic.twitter.com/yl9gALLSk7
Updated
Meanwhile, back in 1950, John “lots of numbers” Troll has something to say about parents in the workplace:
.@JohnBB40921542 has commented “...This image reflects a soft politician incapable of doing what's good for Australia, regional or otherwise.”
— Anika Wells MP (@AnikaWells) May 26, 2021
I’m carrying 18 kg of gambolling twins, in heels, while voting on financial regulation.
John, your feedback has been noted. 🙏🏻 https://t.co/vMSA74AXqA
Updated
We are expecting the Victorian press conference to be held about 9.30am or so.
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I’m so sorry, Melbourne.
Another Lockdown is due to be announced later this morning. Case numbers have continued to climb overnight. Further meetings to decide length and how it will work to be held this morning. More than 70
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) May 26, 2021
Exposure sites. Lockdown at least 5 days. @abcmelbourne @abcnews
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We will hopefully be hearing from Victorian authorities soon.
The Herald Sun has reported the possibility of a five-day lockdown is on the cards, given the number of exposure sites.
That also includes Marvel Stadium – anyone sitting on level one, between rows five and 28 and level three between aisles six and 29 is considered a tier 2 contact – and must get a Covid test and isolate until results come in. (That was Sunday’s Essendon v North Melbourne game.)
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You may have heard a lot from Peter Dutton lately about defence spending.
Daniel Hurst has taken a look at a small slither of that spend:
Australia’s defence department has revealed it is spending $37m to hire private helicopters as it grapples with low availability of the trouble-plagued Taipan choppers.
The move comes as defence officials concede a fault found in one of the helicopters in 2019 – when it was on its way to pick up the Australian defence force chief, Angus Campbell – could have led to “catastrophic consequences” if left unfixed.
It has prompted the opposition to blast the Howard government-era acquisition of the Multi-Role Helicopters (MRH90), also known as Taipans, as “a farce from go to whoa”.
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Australia urged to encourage responsible global behaviour in space race
Australia needs to avoid adding to a global “race to the bottom” over military ambitions in space, amid concerns that the major powers are seeking to dominate space, according to a new report.
The Australian defence force is setting up a space division at the Royal Australian Air Force headquarters in Canberra early next year, with the government planning to spend $7bn on space capabilities over the next decade. The government has also launched an Australian Space Agency.
Dr Cassandra Steer, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University’s college of law who specialises in space law, said space was “a critical strategic domain for Australia’s civilian and military interests” but was “increasingly congested, contested and competitive”.
She said major powers were engaged in “a destabilising space arms race”, with China, Russia and the US rejecting the strategic restraint that had kept space a stable political and military domain.
In a policy options paper published by the ANU’s national security college today, Steer said Australia could act as a “middle space power” and encourage responsible behaviour in space. She argued Australian leaders should “avoid inadvertently contributing to escalatory rhetoric”. That meant avoiding descriptions of space as a “warfighting domain” or a “battlespace”:
Australia needs to be careful that, as it develops sovereign space capabilities, it does not accelerate a global strategic race to the bottom. Rather, Australia should focus on its ability to become an effective diplomatic space power – building on our history as a strong contributor to space technologies and arms control norms.
The paper calls on the government to invest in space literacy training across the Australian public service and for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to appoint a “space ambassador” with a dedicated team to influence the space agenda internationally.
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While you were sleeping, US president Joe Biden ordered an intelligence investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
Read the full statement by President Joe Biden on the investigation into the origins of COVID-19: pic.twitter.com/Lo4Y2g0IKQ
— National Security Council (@WHNSC) May 26, 2021
You can read the Guardian’s full story here:
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Good morning
We start this morning with the news that the list of exposure sites in Victoria has grown to 70.
I think we can expect further social distancing measures to be announced today in response to that – it’s a huge list.
It includes a NSW western Riverina sporting club in Tooleybuc, which is near the Victorian border. A positive case attended a football match at Cohuna which the Tooleybuc club was at.
Anyone who was at the Cohuna recreation reserve on Saturday 22 May between 12pm and 5pm must get a Covid test and isolate until they receive their results.
NSW has already officially asked all residents to rethink any non-urgent travel to greater Melbourne or Bendigo. South Australia has gone further and shut its borders to Melbourne residents as of 6pm last night.
We’ll keep across everything that happens as it does, as well as parliament and estimates. I know this is Politics Live, but we want you to have all the information you need as quickly as possible. As always, I’ll highlight important events – and we’ll pull out all the important information in stories where you can quickly find it.
You have Katharine Murphy, Mike Bowers, Sarah Martin and Paul Karp in Canberra. Our Melbourne team is also on deck keeping you abreast of all that is happening there. And you have Amy Remeikis on the blog for most of the day.
Melbourne, we’re thinking of you.
Ready?
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