What we learned today, Friday 16 October
That’s where we will leave the live blog for Friday.
We will be back in the morning to bring you more of the latest in Covid-19 news from across the world, but here’s what we learned today:
- Victoria recorded just two new cases of Covid-19 on Friday and no deaths, as anticipation builds for the announcement on Sunday for more restrictions to ease in Melbourne and across the state. There are now just 157 active cases in total across Victoria. A high court challenge of Victoria’s lockdown is unlikely to be heard before early November.
- The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry will hold an extraordinary hearing on Tuesday 20 October at 2pm, after the inquiry sought more call records as part of an investigation into who made the decision to use private security guards in the botched program.
- New South Wales recorded one locally acquired case and five cases overall. People who attended the Great Beginnings childcare centre in Oran Park between 2 and 13 October have been told to get tested and isolate for 14 days since their last visit.
- Queensland announced more relaxed restrictions, with up to 40 people allowed to gather in homes or public spaces and up to 40 people allowed to dance at weddings.
- Prime minister Scott Morrison announced the Howard Springs base in the Northern Territory will be used to quarantine people returning from overseas between now and March. It will allow an extra 5,000 Australians trapped abroad to get back home.
- The Australian federal police has opened an investigation into the $30m land deal for the Western Sydney airport. Taxpayers were charged 10 times the value for the land.
- There were emotional scenes as the first flight from New Zealand carrying passengers who don’t have to quarantine for two weeks arrived in Sydney.
We will see you back here tomorrow, and Sunday for those Victorians, like me, who are keen to bid farewell to some restrictions this weekend.
Updated
The joint standing committee on electoral matters has recommended legislation be introduced to guarantee the Northern Territory and the ACT at least two seats each in the House of Representatives.
The NT was at risk of losing one of its seats due to population distribution.
The government (as you’d expect on a joint committee) has agreed to the recommendation and legislation should pass this year.
Fantastic news for the Northern Territory. Minister Mathias Cormann sent me a message today to inform me that the JSCEM report recommended the Government legislate to maintain a minimum of 2 seats for the Territories and this should pass Parliament by the end of the year.
— Senator Dr Sam McMahon (@senator_sam) October 16, 2020
Updated
Hazzard also indicated there could be more restrictions eased in NSW soon, but it was too soon to say what those changes were. He said it depended on being assured the numbers were under control.
Updated
Just on that NSW Oran Park childcare centre outbreak – there are now four cases there, in total, NSW health minister Brad Hazzard told 2GB radio. Two of those will be counted in tomorrow’s numbers.
A student at Oran Park high school has also tested positive. Hazzard said the school would be cleaned over the weekend, and parents would be alerted via text messages if it couldn’t open up before then.
He said people in Oran Park with any symptoms should get tested.
Updated
They just raised a good point on the ABC regarding that $30m Western Sydney land deal. Now that the Australian federal police are investigating it, public servants before Senate estimates next week will decline to answer questions, citing the AFP investigation.
I have long memories of this from when the AFP was investigating the leak about the Australian Workers’ Union raids to media a few years back, and the investigation took quite a while.
Updated
Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, has described Scott Morrison’s announcement about extra flights for stranded Australians and the use of the Howard Springs quarantine facility as “too little, too late”.
The prime minister announced this afternoon that the government was working with Qantas to arrange extra flights from London, New Delhi and Johannesburg, with priority given to the most vulnerable Australians.
Wong provided us with her response a short time ago:
“According to Qantas, the charter flights announced by Scott Morrison today will get just over 1,300 Australians home. That leaves almost 28,000 still stranded, facing more cancelled flights, expensive business or first class fares – all with no guarantees they’ll be home by Christmas. This announcement is too little, too late – with too many stranded Australians still left behind.”
Updated
The high court challenge to the lockdown in Victoria is unlikely to get a hearing until early November, AAP reports.
Justice Virginia Bell on Friday held a fast-tracked directions hearing, just four days after the case was filed on behalf of Mornington Peninsula hotelier Julian Gerner and his business, Morgan’s Sorrento.
The state of Victoria said it was still to decide how it would defend the case and asked for another week to file papers.
Justice Bell called for the case to return to court on Tuesday afternoon for another directions hearing, with a view to a hearing on 6 November.
While the state government had had the claim since Monday, it needed time to determine whether to fight it in full or only on legal grounds, barrister Kristen Walker QC told the high court on Friday.
The case returns to the court on Tuesday at 2.15pm.
Updated
Here’s the latest from the daily Victorian chief health officer press release:
There have been a total of 4,931 people tested across Shepparton since the concerns about an outbreak there.
One of today’s new cases is a household contact of an existing case.
The other case, which remains under investigation, relates to a patient at the Royal Children’s Hospital. All close contacts are being tested and isolated.
Of today’s two new cases, there are single cases in Greater Dandenong and Knox.
Active cases are at 157, 14 people are in hospital and none in intensive care. There are 10 active cases among healthcare workers, and 14 in aged care settings.
Updated
NSW upgrades advice on childcare centre
NSW Health has said all staff and children who attended Great Beginnings Child Care Centre at Oran Park between 2 and 13 October must isolate for 14 days since they last attended.
A family and an educator at the centre have tested positive since 8pm last night, linked to a previous case reported on 13 October.
The centre closed on 13 October and has not reopened.
Updated
I asked the Digital Transformation Agency whether this was true, and whether the Covidsafe app was going to stop working on 2 November, and was told they are “already aware of this issue and it will be resolved prior to API 28 expiring”.
Software engineers are warning that the $70m #CovidSafe tracing app by @stuartrobertmp is wide open to hackers & stalkers - and is unable to be updated. Govt must detail what it plans to do. #auspol https://t.co/nhVpBBm8s5
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) October 16, 2020
The new hearing for the hotel quarantine inquiry comes at the end of a week where the inquiry requested more phone records from premier Daniel Andrews’ private office, the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and from Telstra, over the mystery of who made the decision to use private security in the botched program.
The head of DPC, Chris Eccles, resigned after his own phone records showed he had called then-police commissioner Graham Ashton at a key point in time on 27 March, when the program was announced. That was in contrast to the evidence he gave the inquiry.
A new hearing is surprising, largely because the inquiry finished holding hearings at the end of last month, prior to this new evidence coming to light. It suggests there could be something in the phone records that requires witnesses to be called back before the inquiry, or perhaps even new witnesses who have not appeared before.
The inquiry is still due to report to government on 6 November.
Updated
Hotel quarantine inquiry to hold another hearing
We have just been informed that the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry will hold an extraordinary sitting at 2pm Tuesday 20 October.
The inquiry has not provided any more detail yet.
A number of Covid-19 clusters in NSW are causing concern for South Australian authorities but there have been no moves to reimpose border restrictions, AAP reports.
Premier Steven Marshall said five clusters are of concern to SA, but particularly the one centred on Bargo, 100km southwest of Sydney.
On Thursday a new mystery case was reported there – a man in his 70s – suggesting the virus had spread further than the hotspot clusters of Sydney’s west and south-west.
Marshall said on Friday:
We are increasingly concerned about clusters in NSW.
I don’t think there is a decision [on borders or other measures] which is imminent.
But our focus since day one has been to listen to the expert advice, act quickly and keep the people of South Australia safe. That won’t change into the future.
Updated
Labor’s shadow transport and infrastructure minister, Catherine King, has welcomed the Australian federal police investigation into the Western Sydney airport land deal and says Labor will pursue it in Senate estimates next week.
This is a piece of land, the acquisition of which the deputy prime minister told us was a bargain and it was a good decision and the prime minister dismissed as being just an issue of poor process. There is something very fishy about what has gone on here.
Labor welcomes that the Australian federal police is investigating. And we will have questions for the department and ministers at Senate estimates on Monday but it’s absolutely vital, if we’re to have any confidence at all in the Morrison government’s billions of dollars that is going into Western Sydney airport, billions into infrastructure programs, we need to get to the bottom of what has happened.
King says Labor did not make the referral to the AFP.
Updated
No new cases in South Australia.
South Australian COVID-19 update 16/10/20. For more information go to https://t.co/mYnZsG7zGQ or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/pCfjoklhGG
— SA Health (@SAHealth) October 16, 2020
Here’s more detail from AAP:
Federal police are investigating possible criminality in the sale to the Commonwealth of a parcel of land near the Western Sydney airport.
An auditor-general report found the federal infrastructure department did not show appropriate due diligence in paying $30m for the 12ha Leppington Triangle, which was worth only $3m.
It paid 22 times more per hectare than the NSW government spent on its portion of the land.
An Australian federal police spokeswoman told AAP on Friday the agency was conducting an investigation to identify potential criminal offences relating to issues identified in the auditor-general report.
“This investigation remains ongoing, and it is too early to speculate on potential outcomes, so no further comment will be provided,” she said.
Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack recently described the sale as a “good decision” despite it being “very much over the odds”.
The audit also found infrastructure department officials had engaged in unethical conduct and failed to ensure proper probity.
The department has since appointed an independent investigator to examine the land deal and staff conduct throughout the purchase.
Updated
AFP investigation into the $30m Leppington Triangle land deal
The ABC is reporting the Australian Federal Police has launched an investigation into the land for the new Western Sydney airport that the government paid ten times too much for.
#BREAKING The AFP have launched an investigation into the Leppington Triangle land deal, criticised by the Audit Office. The Commonwealth paid $30m for a plot of land valued at $3m @politicsabc #auspol pic.twitter.com/TNG9dLdxhR
— Matthew Doran (@MattDoran91) October 16, 2020
Interesting to see South Australia has set up a pop up testing clinic. It could be nothing. We haven’t had reports of any local cases from there, but we will update you when that information comes through.
It could just be concern over the local transmission cases in NSW, given people from NSW can now travel into SA.
Elizabeth COVID-19 pop-up testing clinic.
— SA Health (@SAHealth) October 16, 2020
📅 Mon 19 Oct to Sun 1 Nov
⏰ 9am - 5pm
📍 Corner of Goodman Rd and Elizabeth Way.
Get tested if you have any symptoms, even if mild:
▪️ fever or chills
▪️ cough
▪️ fatigue
▪️ sore throat
▪️ runny nose
▪️ shortness of breath. pic.twitter.com/ZXFu8qe6u8
Interesting thread from a WA minister.
They may not like it. They may not agree with it. But it’s there - and it’s keeping us safe.
— Rita Saffioti (@Rita_Saffioti) October 16, 2020
We shouldn’t confuse speculation on potential future decisions, with the current health advice.
If you watch the politics around borders, the federal government is putting pressure on Queensland, and then Victoria over the ongoing restrictions, but very little on WA, where it is very popular, or Tasmania.
Or the fact that all the other borders, including SA and NSW, are still closed to Victoria. There’s not even a discussion around when that will change, yet. (To be fair, we can’t go further than 5km from home.)
Updated
With that, I’ll hand you over to Josh Taylor who will take you through the afternoon.
Melbourne friends, my fingers and toes are crossed for some restrictions to be eased on Sunday. Stay well, don’t lick anyone outside of your bubble, and I’ll see you next week.
Final question is should the Western Australian borders come down now, given that the chief health officer of WA has told a parliamentary committee that travel bubbles between states should be fine?
(As someone with an extremely squishy niece who I have not yet been able to meet because of the border closure: yes please.)
Morrison said:
That’s a matter for the Western Australian government. Again, I’ve had no quibble with the Western Australian government about the decisions they’ve made. They should be made on health advice.
Where there are borders, domestically, in this country they should only be there for as long as they need to be and they should come off as soon as the medical advice permits that. And that’s the only reason why those borders should be in place. And the Western Australian premier has always said that those borders have been there for those reasons.
And I’ll leave it to others to make judgements about what has been said by the Health Minister and the Chief Health Officer in WA. They also need to be done on a consistent basis and there can’t be double-standards about it, and there needs to be common-sense applied to ensure that the wheels of commerce continue.
He added:
Borders, of course, can provide some further protection. They are no substitute, though, for a world-class contact tracing system. There are no substitute for a world-class testing regime. They’re no substitute for ensuring Covid-safe behaviours and practices. Sometimes people can get a bit more confident when the borders are up and ignore some of those practices, and that actually puts everybody at great risk. You may forget the virus but, I can tell you, the virus won’t forget you. We need to continue to manage our Covid response on that basis.
A reporter asked how damaging the “scandal” involving NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian was to the Coalition’s chances of re-election.
Unclear whether this question is about re-election chances in NSW (next election scheduled in 2023) or federally (could be as early as next year).
Morrison said he had worked with Berejiklian for years and she was “an extraordinary leader” who had set “the right bar, the gold standard, as I’ve called it, when it comes to contact tracing and testing arrangements here, and outbreak containment”.
This is the same thing he has said in response to this question all week.
Updated
Asked who decides whether an Australian seeking to return home should be considered vulnerable or placed on the priority list, Morrison said that assessment is made by the department of foreign affairs and trade (DFAT). It can be based on “a broad spectrum of circumstances,” he said.
A reporter asked how a vulnerable person can afford to pay for a plane ticket (even a subsidised one) and cover the cost of their quarantine.
Morrison said the federal government had provided DFAT with $65m to support people who may be “in a difficult situation,” which included zero-interest loans, emergency cash assistance provided by consulates, etc. He then praised the compassion and diligence of the Australian consular corps – which I don’t think was under question.
Updated
Morrison was asked about senator Eric Abetz’s comments in senate estimates this week, asking Chinese-Australians to denounce the communist party.
He said:
There is only one pledge Australian citizens should take and that’s the pledge they take when they become an Australian citizen.
Updated
A series of questions about whether Morrison could have phoned in to national cabinet from Queensland, rather than postponing the meeting to next week.
Journalist: Premier, did you attend a Liberal Party function last night?
Morrison: No.
Journalist: Why wasn’t there another plane sent for you?
Morrison: There was. It arrived this morning and we got on it and flew back this morning.
Journalist: Could it have come earlier?
Morrison: Not to get us back in Sydney at a reasonable time, no.
Journalist: There wasn’t a security facility in Townsville...
Morrison: Not for the purpose of this meeting. The national cabinet is not just me on the end of the phone. There’s the secretaries of the prime minister and cabinet’s department, there is the chief medical officer, who was flying up to Sydney for that event. We can’t help mechanical failings of planes. They happen from time to time. When they happen we reschedule arrangements. Simple as that.
He said there were no urgent matters for national cabinet to consider today.
Updated
Morrison also commented on the low daily case numbers out of Victoria today, with just two cases in 24 hours. It’s a “pleasing set of numbers,” he said, before proceeding to emphasise the financial and emotional impacts of the extended Melbourne lockdown.
You know, Victorians have kept up their side of the bargain. Victorians and, in particular, Melbournians, have done their bit to see this second wave that occurred in Victoria be brought under control, to arrest it. And that has come with great sacrifice.
Some 70,000 jobs have been lost in Victoria over the last two months. The impact on the mental health and anxiety of Melbournians, and Victorians more broadly, has been significant. We’ve worked together with the Victorian government to provide support through additional mental health services, and to work closely with them with the deployment of the ADF and so many others to assist Victoria as they’ve gone through this difficult period. But at some time you’ve got to step off the shore and start moving forward again.
We’ve been in contact, of course I spoke to the Premier the other day, we’re working with him as he prepares his next stage. They are all decisions for the Victorian Premier but I know Victorians are hoping on the weekend they’ll see some significant relief from the significant impositions that have been there that have been put in place by the Victorian government to get this second wave under control. We cannot be complacent about this. We see what is happening in Europe at the moment – devastating results there, further restrictions coming in, curfews in major European cities. Melbourne has been going through that. And we don’t want to see Melbourne or Victoria go back into that situation again.
But the Premier has made it clear that they have improved their tracing capability and it’s time to ensure that we can now move forward and give Victorians and Melbournians the opportunity to build back, to recover what has been so terribly lost over these recent, very difficult months and I’m looking forward to those announcements on the weekend, and I’m sure Victorians are. They’ll be, along with the rest of the country, urging the Premier to move as far as he possibly can go, because Victorians have earned it. They’ve done the right thing.They’ve kept their side of the bargain. Now it’s time, I think, for them to be able to move further forward. We look forward to those announcements on the weekend.
Morrison also announces that Nick Warner, the inaugural director-general of the office of national intelligence, will retire in December.
People who are quarantining at Howard Springs will still have to cover the cost of their 14-day stay, as is the case at all other hotel quarantine facilites.
The cost is $2,500 per individual and $5,000 for a family, for the whole of the stay.
Morrison said the national security committee of cabinet today also discussed progress toward allowing people to travel to Australia from other Covid-safe areas, as the first flights for New Zealand land in Sydney.
We’re very, very many months off that. It will involve a traffic light system. It will look at home isolation to corporates who are returning from various parts of the world and put in place their own corporate arrangements for quarantine that would meet standards that would need to be in place, that would be at least equivalent to what is done in the publicly-run facilities or supported, I should say, through the hotel quarantine arrangements for returning Australian citizens.
And so that means that we can work to try and get back to a new kind of normal for Australia, as much as getting Australians home is our top priority when it comes to utilising these quarantine arrangements, our other priority is to get Australia back to a safe level of engaging with the rest of the world.
The priority areas for non-citizens are international student travellers, and business visitors.
Morrison said the federal government would support flights out of the United Kingdom, and then India and South Africa, to allow Australians in those locations to purchase a flight home.
Says Morrison:
Not all of those will necessarily go to Howard Springs. But those flights, which are being done by Qantas ,particularly the UK flights, the seats on those flights are being sold by Qantas. But Qantas has the priority list of vulnerable passengers who are in the UK that get the first opportunity at those seats on those flights.
Our High Commission there is contacting all of those individuals and giving them the opportunity, through Qantas, to be on those flights so they can return.
But the good news is of the around about just over 4,000 Australians who are identified and DFAT identified as vulnerable on 18 September, just over a quarter of those have now been able to return to Australia and we’re making very good progress on ensuring that more and more Australians are getting home.
And as those places continue to open up at our major points of entry, when we can get, in particular, Melbourne back online, that will make a big difference, and we look forward to that happening as soon as that can. I’ve obviously raised that with the Premier some weeks ago but there remain challenges there at this point in time, but we look forward to being able to pick that up again.
Howard Springs will be used to quarantine about 5,000 people
Morrison said he will meet with the chief minister of the Northern Territory Michael Gunner this afternoon about the use of the Howard Springs base as a quarantine centre to increase the number of returning travellers that can be accepted into Australia.
Under a new agreement struck between the federal government and the NT government, Howard Springs will be called the Northern Territory Centre for national resilience.
This agreement will extend out, on this arrangement, until the end of March with both the opportunity to extend that agreement and expand that agreement should additional capacity to become available at that facility.
That would give us, roughly, over that period of time, given the two-week quarantine period plus the cleansing of the facility in between groups coming through, of around about 5,000 people over that period of time.
This arrangement is intended to supplement the more significant arrangements that we have in continually lifting the caps at our major ports of entry into Australia, which is now, as a result of the changes we put in place at the last National Cabinet, just over 5,500 weekly capacity of people coming into each of those areas and going into hotel quarantine.
Prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking now in Sydney
Scott Morrison begins by saying it was “unfortunate” that the national cabinet meeting was not able to be held today. He cancelled it because his RAAF plane was facing technical difficulties last night.
But the national security committee of cabinet, including Morrison, did meet, and decided on Howard Springs.
Updated
The first flight from New Zealand has landed in Sydney
The first flight from New Zealand carrying passengers who don’t have to quarantine for two weeks in Australia has landed at Sydney airport.
Emotions spilled over as most of the travellers were returning Australians or family members long seperated by the pandemic and border restrictions.
Some were seeing children or grandchildren for the first time, some returned to see sick parents or siblings, and some were star crossed lovers, finally reunited.
NSW tourism minister Stuart Ayres likened the outpouring of emotions to a particularly romantic film.
It’s been like living in a scene of the movie Love Actually, so many compassionate reasons for coming home.
Passengers travelling from New Zealand are able, from Friday, to enter New South Wales and the Northern Territory without having to quarantine for 14 days.
There is still no trans-Tasman bubble, however, given Australian residents cannot enter NZ without quarantining.
Updated
While we’re waiting for Scott Morrison to start his press conference in Sydney, this is what opposition leader Anthony Albanese had to say earlier today about the PM postponing national cabinet due to airplane troubles.
Today, Scott Morrison was supposed to be chairing the National Cabinet. But what we have is that has been abandoned because the Prime Minister would have us think that there is only one plane that the VIP fleet have access to, rather than the multiple planes that he has access to, as well as, of course, the RAAF base which is just near Cairns, in Townsville. It would appear that the Prime Minister has prioritised campaigning and fundraising for the LNP rather than doing his day job of looking after Australia in these very difficult circumstances. As Nick Cave says in, ‘Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!’, ‘I don’t know what it is but there is definitely something going on’.
Bit of pop culture from 2008 for ya. He continues:
I have consistently said that this is a Prime Minister who’s good at announcements, but not good at delivery. And it appears now he can’t even deliver himself to a National Cabinet meeting. These meetings are important. Notice is given well in advance. And at a time, one week after the Federal Budget, I would have thought that it was appropriate for the Prime Minister to bring together state premiers and territory leaders together with the Prime Minister on these issues.
It’s also the case that the Budget, of course, has sunk just one week afterwards. The Prime Minister should hope that the new subs sink as well and as efficiently as this Budget has. Because it’s got nothing to say for all those people that are left behind, particularly women, people who are over the age of 35, a whole range of people who look to the Budget to have something in it about childcare, about housing, about other issues to immediately stimulate the economy. Because yesterday, we saw that the unemployment rate is still going up as support for the economy is going down. That makes no sense whatsoever to me. It’s very clear that last Tuesday night’s Budget really didn’t have any vision in it. The only vision that this Prime Minister is interested in is division. And he’s been in Queensland sowing division, once again being critical of Labor leaders whilst not being critical, ever, of leaders of the Coalition
Meanwhile, in Western Australia, this could be the last weekend under any form of Covid-19 restrictions (except for the hard border, which will remain).
WA is tentatively slated to move to stage five, which is no restrictions other than the border, on 24 October. West Australians are waiting to have that timeline confirmed by government.
Will this be the last weekend of stage 4 restrictions for WA? Will stage 5 come into effect next weekend as per the revised plan? #wanews #perthnews pic.twitter.com/V0rQJ4pkcp
— Lisa Barnes (@Barnsy_Lisa) October 16, 2020
I am not sure if this news is as devastating for Australians as it is for our friends in the UK.
But, according to eagle-eyed chocolate consumers, one of the 12 sweets available in a box of Quality Streets has been missing in recent weeks.
Nestle said that production of the chocolate caramel brownie was affected by changes they had to make during lockdown.
A Nestlé spokesperson said:
In order to keep Quality Street production going during the Covid-19 lockdown period, we made some temporary changes to the way we operated, such as running fewer lines for a time.
As a result, some consumers may find that they do not have all 12 varieties of Quality Street sweets in their mix.
Read more here:
In Victoria, Jeremi Moule has been appointed the new secretary of the department of premier and cabinet, replacing Chris Eccles who stepped down on Monday after producing his phone records for the hotel quarantine inquiry.
Moule was previously the deputy secretary of governance policy and coordination, in the same department. He has been in the Victorian public service for 19 years.
Premier Daniel Andrews said:
I am delighted Jeremi has accepted the role of Secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet. He has a proven track record of driving reform and innovation across government and is exceptionally well respected across the public sector.
Prime minister Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 2pm in Sydney. He is expected to announce the details of the plan to extend the Howard Springs quarantine facility and underwrite flights to help more Australians to return home.
The press conference will be held in Sydney, so he has made it out of Queensland.
Rio Tinto is giving evidence to the parliamentary inquiry on the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site for Juukan Gorge.
It’s the second time the company has appeared, and CEO Jean-Sebastian Jacques is again taking the lead. But, as he alluded in his opening statement, a fair bit has changed since that first appearance on 7 August. For one, Jacques has agreed to resign his post, as has the head of Rio Tinto iron ore, Chris Salisbury, and the director of corporate affairs, Simone Niven.
Jacques told the inquiry:
Since our first appearance before this Committee on 7 August, we have taken actions.
There has been further evidence submitted to this Inquiry, which we have reflected on.
Most important were the testimonies of Traditional Owners, especially the Puutu Kunti Kurrama Pinikura (PKKP) People who appeared before you earlier this week. [And here’s the report on their submission]
The loss they have experienced was further reinforced to us at Rio Tinto, and is felt by the entire team.
Jacques said Rio was taking a “remedy approach” to rebuilding its relationship with the PKKP and other traditional owners, moving to strengthen its cultural heritage processes and modernise its agreements with TOs. He also mentioned the cultural heritage management review, released in August.
He continued:
Our submissions and testimony before this Inquiry are based on our understanding of the facts that we have reviewed extensively.
I would like to clarify a few points.
Number 1. As we have stated, although we should have known, no member of the current Rio Tinto executive team – this means me and my direct reports – were aware of the extreme archaeological and cultural significance of Juukan until May 2020.
The Executive Committee did not see Dr Slack’s 2018 report, which was not escalated.
However, we were clear in our submissions that members of the Rio team did know of the significance of the rock shelters from as early as 2005.
Number 2. We believe we secured Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) during our seven-year negotiation with the PKKP leading up to the Participation Agreement.
As per YMAC’s evidence this week, this negotiation was extensive, comprehensive and supported by legal, heritage and other experts for PKKP.
Number 3. Our Section 18 was submitted on the basis that Juukan 1 and 2 would be disturbed due to the mine development program at Brockman 4. And our section 18 submission did include as an attachment the complete ethnographic report prepared by Dr Heather Builth in 2013 and the archaeological report prepared by Dr Michael Slack in 2008.
Number 4. Following the blast at Juukan Gorge we agreed with the PKKP on the terms of a moratorium on mining activity across a specified area around the site as we work through the remedy process.
Number 5. We know we failed to live up to the standards we expect of ourselves.
There were a number of missed opportunities in our relationship with the PKKP over the years, and in our actions.
Key information was not escalated, we did not pause enough when new information emerged, and we were inflexible at times in our approach.
Updated
While this blog was covering the Victorian daily coronavirus press conference, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian was facing a fractious press conference of her own.
The embattled premier has backed her previous testimony before Icac that her relationship with Daryl Maguire started in 2015, and said she will resign only “when I have done something wrong”.
Berejiklian batted away questions raised by new evidence before Icac this morning, saying she was not aware of it. She was asked by reporters if she actively limited what she knew of Maguire’s business dealings.
“Absolutely not,” she said.
Asked about new evidence raised this morning, the premier said: “I’m not aware of what has happened this morning, but I say this: I have been supportive as a witness to the proceedings and I will continue to do so.”
She is asked: “Do you stand by your testimony that you gave on Monday that the relationship started in 2015?”
What I will say is whatever I have said openly and transparently is in the evidence.
She is asked: “The phone taps told you he [Maguire] stands to make $1.5m ... Can you hand on heart say you didn’t know what he was asking about?”
Hand on heart, I did nothing wrong.
You can follow our rolling coverage of the Icac hearings here.
Updated
The Morrison government has demanded that China rule out taking “discriminatory actions” against Australian cotton producers as the industry raised fears of becoming the next target in widening trade tensions.
With China the largest export market for Australia cotton, and with the trade worth about $800m annually, the government warned that curbs on producers’ ability to compete on a level playing field “could constitute a potential breach of China’s international undertakings”.
China’s National Development Reform Commission has started discouraging the country’s spinning mills from using Australian cotton, according to a statement issued by two Australian cotton industry groups on Friday.
Cotton Australia and the Australian Cotton Shippers Association said they were disappointed to learn of the changes, “particularly after we have enjoyed such a mutually beneficial relationship with the country over many years”.
Our industry’s relationship with China is of importance to us and is a relationship we have long valued and respected.
The Australian cotton industry will continue having meaningful conversations with stakeholders to fully understand this situation, and we will continue working with the Australian government to respectfully and meaningfully engage with China to find a resolution.
Read more here:
In other news, a police officer in Sydney has been charged and stood down after three women accused him of repeated sexual touching.
More from AAP:
The 37-year-old senior constable was charged on Thursday with sexually touching another person without consent.
Internal police investigators began looking into the allegations a year ago.
Each of the women are known to the man, police said in a statement released on Friday.
The officer is due to face Downing Centre local court on 26 November.
Updated
Daniel Andrews: 'I am a bit wary of apps'
Andrews then criticised the CovidSafe app (which has not been particularly useful in identifying contacts in Victoria) and also obliquely criticised federal Liberal MPs.
He was asked by Noel Towell from The Age if Victoria would introduce an app to track outdoor dining, or if we would use QR codes as they do in NSW. Andrews says he thinks the QR code system works well. Then he said:
I am a bit wary of apps. We had someone at the Alfred hospital the other day, it pinged from the floor above. The app may come into its own, it hasn’t yet. I hope it does.
He added:
I do hope that the app comes into its own, and maybe when we open up it will be of greater utility.
And then:
Those who are full-time commentators on Victoria they can have a bit of a look at that, closer to home.
Another reporter then asked if that was a reference to the federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.
Said Andrews:
Simon, if I wanted to mention the federal treasurer’s name, I would have....
There’s a whole bunch of people who are from Victoria but whether they are for Victoria is another point
Andrews then took a dig at the state opposition, and journalists who ask questions based off their briefings. It was in response to a question about a report that five Labor MPs had lunch together on the roof of parliament house. Was that contrary to Covid restrictions, the reporter asked?
Andrews:
There are some people who every single day of this pandemic have played cheap, nasty, political games with this. And I am not one of them, and I’ll never be one of them.
These numbers, two cases today, are not the product of some, some who would masquerade as leaders, playing politics every single time of this pandemic. And I am not wasting more of my time or of those watching
A follow up from the reporter: If you’re going to talk about them, why not name them?
Andrews:
Look at the Hansard from yesterday. I’ve made the point.
Updated
Andrews is asked whether contact tracers have finished their follow-up interviews with the truck driver who went to Kilmore and Shepparton.
He said:
We are still speaking to him, we are still working through how he gets treated in terms of enforcement matters.
He then clarified that the contact tracing element of that interview has concluded.
We don’t believe there’s another town he went to that we don’t know about.
Updated
Just going back to that point about not clashing with the AFL grand final – I am reasonably sure that’s what the questioner said, but I may have misheard. The grand final is 24 October. The preliminary finals are tonight and tomorrow.
The Super Netball final starts at 12pm on Sunday, that could be it.
Things are disintegrating.
A reporter asks Andrews about the restrictions as may apply to craft breweries which do not have a restaurant – are they able to open for outdoor service along with other restaurants or cafes?
Andrews says he will get clarification on that. He then says that a lot of people like craft beer, gets a thumbs up from one of the camera men, gets more thumbs up from his staff at the back of the room, and says “it’s a thing”.
He is then asked if this could be part of getting back on the beers.
I didn’t stipulate which beer you would be able to get back on, and we are not yet at that point.
I might have a slab or two, at that point.
Everybody laughs. Andrews appears to have reached that slightly odd place on the other side of tiredness, like a parent with a three-month-old baby.
Updated
On timing for Sunday’s announcement, Andrews said he is likely to make the announcement before the AFL grand final.
I will do everything I can not to clash with that important event.
We are now into a round of questions in which reporters ask Andrews what he plans to announce on Sunday, Andrews says he can’t say yet, and reporters try to guess.
A reporter asks: “Should I book a game of golf on Monday?”
Andrews: “You will have to wait until Sunday, and then you will know. I will not be playing golf – I would like to be, but I will have other work, other important work to do.”
He added:
I can tell you that clubhouses will not be open on Monday but if we can take other stops to give people back a few of the things that they love, the things that will give them a bit of sense of normality ... they are the sort of things we will be looking at.
A few more hints. Firstly, you can’t book a rural mini-break.
I can definitely confirm for you that the hard border between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria will stay. I can’t tell you how long that will stay.
Andrews said that they believe they can strengthen that border further, and if that occurs “we do believer regional Victoria will be able to go even further again”.
Updated
Andrews said he was a bit surprised that public health teams have not, so far, detected any more positive cases in Shepparton.
He said he would expect there would be – and warns that there are still 3,000 tests yet to be processed.
But you would assume those more than 400 contacts and close contacts who were asked to self-isolate by the public health team would have been tested first. And we still have no positive results.
Andrews was asked a question about the 17 mystery cases, many of which were detected in suburbs where we don’t have known clusters.
We don’t appear to have an epidemiologist or public health profession on deck today, so Andrews is giving his best shot at explaining how that could happen.
He says:
If I tested positive tomorrow, I can list my family, and I can list all of you. You’re the only person I’ve spent time with, and a few senior staff. If all of you test negative then I would be a mystery case.
He then says there are “mystery cases because it’s a mystery virus”.
Andrews’s tendency to pick up the public health questions and do a press conference without an expert present is the main criticism of his press conferences from epidemiologists I’ve spoken to over recent weeks. He is, they say, a very well informed lay person – but he’s not an expert. It would be unreasonable to expect him to be, but it’s why it’s helpful to have an epidemiologist on side.
He said the chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, and deputy, Prof Allen Cheng, are busy today looking through the case data.
Andrews was then asked a series of questions about whether he ought not have brought the proposed date for stage three forward from 26 October to 19 October.
That announcement was made following a few days of low daily case numbers, which happened to coincide with Andrews’s appearance before the hotel quarantine inquiry and Jenny Mikakos’s resignation. Rachel Baxendale, from the Australian, said it was a time when the government “needed some good news”.
Andrews said he was “not in the business of trading in good news”.
He later went on:
I was refuting the suggestion that I was manufacturing certain announcements for the benefit of PR. I would have thought, I would have thought... that I had established for the Victorian community that I was in the business of doing what was right, not what was popular.
Other reporters asked if it was likely we would see the rest of those stage three restrictions announced on the original date of 26 October. So, basically, ought we not have shifted the goal posts.
Andrews said he has not yet decided what will be announced when. He said it is possible that there could be small changes announced at different intervals – but would not be drawn further than that.
He said the decision about eased restrictions to apply from Monday would be finalised and announced on Sunday, “because that gives us two more days of data”.
In Victoria, health minister Martin Foley is being asked about the progress of the CRM – that’s the digitisation of Victoria’s contact tracing system.
He says it is “making good progress,” with trialling and testing underway. That system is being used now, he says, and is being built as they go.
Foley said:
The decisions that we are yet to make will be based on the data and the science and the advice at the time.
Premier Daniel Andrews butted in:
I wouldn’t want any Victorian to think that decisions on Sunday will be conservative in nature because of any deficiencies anywhere, because there aren’t any. The decisions will be conservative because this is a wildly contagious virus.
Andrews said the decisions he has made around restrictions are “among the hardest I have ever made in 20 years in public life”. He said they are difficult because there are hundreds of individual decisions that can play into what might happen – people deciding to see a friend when they have a slight sniffle, people deciding they don’t need a test.
He then appeared to rebut the ongoing suggestion that the greatest risk of transmission is in workplaces, saying:
That’s more dangerous than any meatworks. It’s as simple as that.
(That doesn’t change the fact that most of those cases in recent weeks being contracted in workplaces, or close contacts of people who got the virus in the workplace – that’s just a consequence of everyone being under lockdown.)
He adds:
The last thing any of us want to do is make a judgement that may be popular with some but ultimately undoes all of the hard work, the pain.
Andrews said “we are not just meeting national benchmarks, we are making new ones”. The national benchmark is to contact all of the first round of contacts within 48-hours, “we are doing it in 30”.
Updated
Back in NSW, the chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, says sewage testing has detected traces of the virus in Quakers Hill in Sydney’s south-west and west, and is urging people to get tested.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has welcomed today’s low numbers of new cases, and says that if Chant is happy with the numbers over the weekend, the state will announce eased restrictions next week. Berejiklian said:
They would depend on how the case numbers go in the next few days. We were hoping to make some announcements yesterday and today but we have held off.”
NSW Health has also issued new alerts for:
- Bargo Hotel, Great Southern Road Bargo, on 26 September 2020 between 7pm – 9pm.
- Spotlight Plaza, 147 Queens St Campbelltown, including the Spotlight store and Gloria Jean’s on 26 September 2020 between 11am – 1pm.
- Narellan Town Centre on 26 September 2020 between 3pm – 5pm.
But, because 14 days have elapsed since then, people do not need to continue to isolate if a negative test result is received.
Updated
Health minister Martin Foley is speaking now. He said that in October, 97% of Covid tests performed in Victoria returned a result within one day.
That’s an improvement from 93% in September.
There are now 10 sewerage testing programs around the state, which have not uncovered any new signs of Covid-19 beyond those earlier reported around Anglesea.
Foley says they are also trialling the use of saliva tests for workers in the food industry. It is being trialled at high-risk sites including those that have been the site of outbreaks previously, like KR Castlemaine.
Andrews says Victoria is 'well placed to take significant steps' to ease restrictions on Sunday
Andrews praises Victorians for sticking with the lockdown rules and said restrictions would be eased, from Sunday. It just will not be to quite the extent set out in the roadmap.
We as a state have been as stubborn as this virus in our resolve to defeat it, we are well placed to take significant steps on Sunday. It will not be everything that everyone wants because it is not safe to take all of those steps that are outlined in stage three.
He said if the current numbers continue “we are well placed to be broadly in alignment with what was set out in stage three”.
But he warned the numbers could “test our resolve”.
He said there was a “determination in the Victorian community to not fritter away all the great gains we have made. There is a determination to see this thing off”.
When that’s done, Victoria can turn “in unprecedented ways” to the economic recovery.
We haven’t listened to the loudest voices. We haven’t lost our nerve. We have stayed the course. That’s how you go from 725 cases to 2 cases. That’s the only way you go from 725 cases to two cases. Look at France. Look at the UK. Look at all of the US. They are not coming out of restrictions, they are going into them, and into a long and deadly winter.
Andrews says every Victorian can be proud of this achievement.
And I’m proud of you.
He sounds quite emotional. As are we all, in Victoria today.
Almost 5,000 tests have been conducted in Shepparton
Andrews said that almost 5,000 tests have now been conducted in Greater Shepparton. That’s just under 2,000 on Wednesday and the balance yesterday.
Excitingly, he said they had the results for 96% of the tests done on Wednesday.
The vast majority of Wednesday’s tests are back with us and they are negative.
The results of the tests conducted yesterday are expected this afternoon and into tomorrow.
But on essentially 40% roughly of those tests, we have had no positive cases.
There are now 13 test sites operational in the Shepparton region. The full list is here.
Updated
Both of the new cases reported today are in metropolitan Melbourne.
One is in greater Dandenong, a household contact of a known case. The other case, which is still under investigation, is a person in Knox.
There are currently seven active cases in regional Victoria, four in Mitchell Shire and three in greater Shepparton. Those three are the same three reported earlier this week.
There are now just 14 active cases in aged care.
There are currently 10 active cases among healthcare workers.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has just stepped up in Melbourne.
He says there are now 157 active coronavirus cases in the state, just two more than yesterday.
The last time it was two was on the 8th of June.
One of the new cases is linked to known outbreak, the other one is under investigation.
There are currently 14 Victorians in hospital, none in intensive care. Wonderfully, there are no new deaths to report.
There were 16,381 tests conducted since yesterday.
Andrews has urged everyone in Victoria with any symptoms to get tested without delay.
He said the day 11 tests from Kilmore are “almost all in. There are no positives”.
That critical incident team has been stood down.
NSW records one new locally-acquired case, four in hotel quarantine
NSW has recorded five new cases of Covid-19 in 24-hours, but only one is locally acquired.
The one new locally acquired case was linked to a known cluster.
There were 16,391 tests done in the past 24-hours – more than on Wednesday, but less than the 20,000 target that Brad Hazard has outlined.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was hoping to announce further easing of restrictions next week, if the chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant thinks it safe. Those changes were going to be announced yesterday, but were put off due to the Lakemba cluster.
Queensland allows more dancing and gatherings of up to 40 people as restrictions ease
Queensland has announced a further easing of coronavirus restrictions, starting from 4pm today.
Queenslanders can now dance if they want to. That is, if your wedding has a Covid-safe plan up to 40 people will be allowed to dance – choose wisely. Dancing will also be permitted at Year 12 school formals.
Gatherings of up to 40 people will be allowed in homes and public places, and outings from aged care facilities can resume.
It comes as the state recorded two new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24-hours, both of which were in hotel quarantine. There are four active cases in total in Queensland.
Friday, 16 October – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) October 15, 2020
• 2 new confirmed cases - acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine
• 4 active cases
• 1,164 total confirmed cases
• 1,179,441 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. #covid19 pic.twitter.com/zWNPzxBJty
Updated
Police in Victoria issued 89 fines for alleged breaches of public health directions in the past 24-hours, which is quite a lot.
That includes 12 fines to people allegedly not wearing a mask, as well as seven people fined for allegedly partying on Black Rock Pier, despite all living more than 5km away.
Daryl Maguire is in the witness box for the Icac for the third day in a row, and Michael McGowan is again providing live coverage.
The hearing begins with an exercise in who can say “m’learned friend” in the tone that conveys the most contempt: Gladys Berejiklian’s lawyer Arthur Moses or the counsel assisting the commission, Stuart Robertson.
I’m going to call it a draw but award the win to commissioner Ruth McColl SC, who responded to Moses’ submission objecting to some questions put to Berejiklian on Monday. MNcColl said it was:
An extremely elliptical submission and I don’t think we should respond, and we will proceed with Mr Maguire’s evidence.
Updated
My twitter feed appears to be working again. If you’re wondering what went wrong, Matilda Boseley is striving to find out.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and his new health minister, Martin Foley, will hold a press conference at 11am.
We are also expecting the Queensland coronavirus update at 9.30am Queensland time, which is 10.30am AEDT.
We can bring you some more details now on how the government is responding to reports of China clamping down on Australian cotton exports.
The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, and the agriculture minister, David Littleproud, are demanding that China “rule out any use of discriminatory actions against Australian cotton producers”.
This follows reports, published on the blog earlier today, that Chinese spinning mills have been told to stop buying Australian cotton. AAP reported the industry could soon face tariffs of up to 40%. The trade is worth $800m a year.
In a joint statement, Birmingham and Littleproud said:
We are aware of concerns about possible changes in export conditions for our cotton exporters and, in consultation with the cotton industry, are seeking to clarify the situation.
Our cotton exporters have worked hard to win contracts and establish themselves as reliable suppliers of high quality cotton in the Chinese market, which is an important input for many Chinese businesses.
China should rule out any use of discriminatory actions against Australian cotton producers. Impeding the ability of producers to compete on a level-playing field could constitute a potential breach of China’s international undertakings, which would be taken very seriously by Australia.
Updated
As always you can follow our rolling global coverage of the coronavirus crisis, here.
Epidemiologist says Victoria could go ahead with 'a lot' of the planned easing of restrictions
Deakin University chair of epidemiology, Prof Catherine Bennett, tells the ABC that today’s daily case numbers in Victoria (just two in 24-hours!) show that the state’s more “aggressive, comprehensive approach” to outbreak management was working.
It’s not even the standard contact tracing, we’re up to the more advanced, aggressive, comprehensive approach, that makes a big difference. If you can get in, work with community quickly, ask people to isolate, you’re more likely to have people in isolation, not only before they know their cases, before they know they’re infectious.
So far it suggests it wasn’t a big spreading event in Shepparton, which is great, but that extra caution and getting in fast should in fact allow the health department to close this down quite quickly...
We know from the department and the chief health officer yesterday, if we had these [outbreak management techniques] in place the week before, Kilmore and Shepparton wouldn’t even have happened, because that driver would’ve been asked to isolate as a contact of contacts.
This should give them reassurance that going ahead, with less restrictions, they’ll be able to be on top of outbreaks. Our numbers are really good. The last couple of days have been single digits. But most importantly there have been cases they have known about and in isolation already. That will give them confidence to take as big a step into step three.
Bennett, who has been supportive of easing restrictions if the contact tracing system is working as described, said that the step three changes slated to take place from Monday were “already cautious”.
I would like to see a lot of step three happen. There may be some compromises around having people in your home, it may have to wait a week or two, because we’ve still got the last cases we’re seeing linked to those outbreaks, but hoping to see something more substantial.
Updated
A parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of the 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site at Juukan Gorge is set to grill Rio Tinto again today.
The mining company is the only witness before the inquiry, staring at 12pm. It previously appeared before the inquiry on 7 August.
Earlier this week the Puutu Kunti Kuurama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the traditional owners of Juukan Gorge, gave devastating evidence to the inquiry, saying their trust in Rio Tinto was shattered.
They also released a video showing the destruction of the site, and showing traditional owners viewing the area for the first time after the blast in May of this year. I really encourage you to take five minutes to watch it, if you have not already. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this may be distressing.
As flagged yesterday, the high court challenge to the Melbourne lockdown brought by Sorrento hotelier Julian Gerner is listed for directions hearing at 3pm today.
The case, filed this week, is challenging the lockdown on the grounds that the 5km travel limit for people living in Melbourne, and the requirement for essential worker permits, is contrary to the implied constitutional right of freedom of movement.
The Victorian Legal Services Board has released data on the diversity of the Victorian legal profession. About 70% of registered lawyers in Victoria answered at least one question in the survey.
The results show that 78% of lawyers in Victoria were born in Australia, with the next most-represented countries of birth, in order, being the UK, Malaysia, New Zealand and China.
Forty-five percent of respondents identified their ancestry as Australian, 23% said English, 11% Irish, 9% Scottish, 8% Italian, 5% Chinese, 5% Greek, and 3% Indian.
Some 22% of respondents said they spoke a language other than English. The top languages spoken were Italian, Mandarin, Greek, French, Cantonese, German, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi and Vietnamese.
The Law Institute of Victoria president, Sam Pandya, is the first president with Indian heritage in the LIV’S 160 year history. He lobbied for the cultural diversity survey.
Pandya said:
The data is the first step in measuring and monitoring whether the legal profession represents the diverse community we serve and in improving access to diverse legal representation for the benefit of clients and the whole community.
Also, if you live on the internet, you may have noticed that Twitter is currently not working. It’s not just you.
The National Tertiary Education Union has lodged federal court proceedings against private education provider JMC Academy over accusations of wage theft.
NTEU president Dr Alison Barnes said that JMC “avoids minimum employment conditions” by not paying its lecturers as contractors, not employees.
JMC made a business practice of underpaying JMC staff, and undermined their retirement income by failing to pay superannuation.
NTEU alleges that in reality, JMC staff are employees by any reasonable definition, and are being substantially underpaid against the applicable Award.
The union will allege that JMC’s conduct amounted to “serious contraventions” of the Fair Work Act because it failed to meet the Educational Services (Post-Secondary Education) Award 2020.
Chinese spinning mills told to stop buying Australian cotton
In other news, China has stopped buying Australian cotton.
More from AAP:
Australian cotton growers could be the latest victims of increasingly bitter trade tensions with China.
Chinese spinning mills have been told to stop buying Australian cotton and the industry could soon face tariffs of up to 40%.
Australia sells about $800m worth of cotton to China each year and industry groups are disappointed by the changes in export conditions.
Cotton Australia and the Cotton Shippers Association are working with the federal government to investigate what is going on.
“The Australian cotton industry will continue having meaningful conversations with stakeholders to fully understand this situation,” they said in a joint statement on Friday.
“We will continue working with the Australian government to respectfully and meaningfully engage with China to find a resolution.”
Trade minister Simon Birmingham is seeking clarity from Chinese officials.
“Our cotton exporters have worked hard to win contracts and establish themselves as reliable suppliers of high quality cotton in the Chinese market, which is an important input for many Chinese businesses,” he told AAP.
“China should rule out any use of discriminatory actions against Australian cotton producers.
“Impeding the ability of producers to compete on a level playing field could constitute a potential breach of China’s international undertakings, which would be taken very seriously by Australia.”
China has targeted Australian beef, barley and wine in recent months and has reportedly enforced a go-slow on importing coking and thermal coal.
Home affairs minister Peter Dutton said the government was working closely with the cotton industry to ensure exports could make it to market.
Updated
This is the lowest daily case total in Victoria since early June.
Do you remember June? It was that time 40 years ago when we could go to the pub in small distanced groups and have holidays in regional Victoria.
It is very important not to get over-excited about daily numbers, knowing that what counts is the 14-day average and also knowing that many of those thousands of tests taken in Shepparton are yet to return a result.
Still. Two.
If you live in Melbourne and decided to have a bit of a morning celebration I would not blame you at all. I might even encourage it.
Victoria has recorded just two new cases of Covid-19 overnight, and no lives lost
Victoria has recorded just two new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24-hours, and no lives lost.
Two. TWO!
I can’t remember last time we had such a low daily figure.
The rolling 14-day average in Melbourne is now 8.7.
More worryingly, there are 17 cases with an unknown source in the past two weeks.
Yesterday there were 2 new cases & the loss of 0 lives reported. The rolling 14 day average is down in metro Melb & stable in regional Vic. More information will be available later today. Info: https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/gJmi0TdoKY
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) October 15, 2020
Sticking in Victoria for now, we are two days away from the much anticipated and extremely vague announcement of easing of restrictions.
If we were adhering to the roadmap released last month, that would mean that the two-hour exercise limit was lifted, there would be no set reason required to leave home, no limit on the distance you could travel, and you could have up to five visitors from another nominated household in your home. It would also mean outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people were permitted and a whole host of businesses – hairdressers, hospitality for outdoor dining, non-contact sports, etc – would be able to operate under a Covid-safe plan.
But.
That is only slated to happen if the rolling 14-day average was five or fewer cases per day. It’s currently hovering just under 10.
So what we are instead expecting on Sunday is a kind of partial easing of restrictions. A few treats for a city that will, by Sunday, have been under some degree of stay-at-home orders for 101 days. It’s anticipated that could mean changes to the rule which prevents Melburnians from travelling more than 5km from home without a permit.
The deputy chief health officer, Prof Allen Cheng, said his office has modelled a variety of different options – a 10km bubble, a 20km bubble – but didn’t say what might change.
The federal government has been urging Victoria to have faith in its contact tracing system, which is currently meeting federal benchmarks, to be able to keep a lid on any outbreaks in a city outside lockdown. It’s not clear whether Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and the Victorian public health team share that faith.
Updated
Nationals MP Damian Drum has been on Radio National talking to Hamish McDonald about the Shepparton outbreak.
Drum’s federal seat of Nicholls, named for Sir Doug, stretches from the Mitchell shire just north of Melbourne all the way to the Murray River. So both the Shepparton cases and the Kilmore outbreak are in his patch.
There are still just three confirmed cases in Shepparton, but thousands of people are awaiting test results and health authorities have said they expect the virus will have spread.
Drum told McDonald:
We are staring at a disaster but at the moment we may have averted it. It’s still stuck at three ... it feels like we have dodged an enormous bullet. But we know those numbers can change.
Drum said the Victorian government should have had outbreak strike teams standing by ready to send in and rapidly respond to an outbreak like this in regional Victoria. He agreed with McDonald that the Melbourne-based truck driver believed to have spread the virus to both Kilmore and Shepparton should not have been able to do so, and should not have failed to disclose his visit to Shepparton to contact tracers, but is not crying over spilt milk.
We can sit around all day and wonder about why it happened and should it have happened and, obviously it should not have. But we can also have this genuine conversation into the future about if you test positive to the virus and you sit down with contact tracers... my belief is you should hand over your phone and people should be able to check your location services just to see where you have been. A whole heap of people are going to be screaming and saying ‘my privacy rights’. I think the health of a community should be more important than your privacy rights.
Drum said that the alleged “ring of steel,” which is what police have called the barrier around Melbourne which is supposed to prevent unauthorised travel to regional areas, was “a ring of marshmallow, it hasn’t stopped anybody that wants to get out”.
When I travelled to Beechworth on a permitted worker permit to write this story, the day the $5,000 fines for breaching the “ring of steel” was announced, the checkpoint at the Hume Highway was unmanned. Just a bit of anecdata for you.
Drum says:
People just get waved through, they don’t work through the evenings, there’s no rock solid border around Melbourne keeping people in Melbourne. I have nearly given up on that one because the premier is just not going to act with a hard permit system, he is just not.
In light of that, he said, people had to focus on what was working, which is contact tracing and particularly the local contact tracing team at Goulburn Valley Health.
Updated
Small restaurants and cafes in New South Wales will have a bit of relief from today, with an easing of density rules for outdoor dining.
Hospitality venues are required to keep to a rule of no more than one customer per four squares of floorspace, which significantly limited the maximum capacity for small venues. From today, venues can double their available outdoor dining space and adhere to a two-square metre rule, provided they use QR codes to keep an electronic record of everyone who dined there.
The four square metre rule will continue to apply to indoor dining.
The eased restrictions also allow for up to 500 people to attend an open-air concert – 500 people! at once! – provided they stay seated and remain four metres apart.
Updated
Good morning,
The first international tourists to Australia in six months will touch down today, with three flights from New Zealand arriving as part of the new trans-Tasman travel bubble.
People who have spent the past 14-days in New Zealand are now able to travel to New South Wales, the ACT, and the Northern Territory without having to undergo quarantine upon arrival. However they will have to quarantine for two weeks on return to New Zealand. Prime minister Scott Morrison flagged yesterday that if the trans-Tasman file works, he is in early talks to consider expanding it to other nations that have been successful in controlling the coronavirus including Japan, Singapore, and South Korea.
Speaking of Morrison, he is still stuck in Queensland. His RAAF plane was grounded due to “technical problems”. Because of this, the national cabinet meeting scheduled for today has been postponed.
Premiers and chief ministers now phone in to national cabinet via secure video conference, and I am reasonably sure Queensland has the internet. But, for some reason, the PM won’t be zooming in.
It would have been the first national cabinet meeting in a month, and the first since the federal budget was released. On the agenda was the proposed expansion of the Howard Springs quarantine facility in the NT, which would allow Australia to increase its returned traveller caps and underwrite further repatriation flights.
Meanwhile, thousands of people in Shepparton are awaiting the results of their test for Covid-19, and hundreds more are still expected to present for testing. More than 400 contacts of three people who tested positive to Covid-19 in the northern Victorian town this week are already undergoing 14-day self-isolation. The virus has been in the community, undetected, for two weeks. And as Matilda Boseley reports, Shepparton is particularly vulnerable to an outbreak.
Let’s crack on. You can contact me on twitter at @callapilla or email me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com
Updated
