Where things stand
We will leave our Australian coverage of the coronavirus crisis here for the day. You can follow our ongoing global coverage here.
This is where things stand:
- Australia recorded 85 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, 75 of which were in Victoria, seven in NSW and three in South Australia.
- It’s the biggest daily tally in Victoria since March. But health authorities have declined to call it a second wave, saying that it is “a community outbreak”.
- Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, says the outbreak “will get worse before it gets better” and it is a “concerning number” of new cases.
- Sutton says Victoria is looking at its options for controlling the outbreak, and it’s possible that could include some form of lockdown. But what that would look like, and whether it would be restricted to just the 10 hotspot suburbs, we don’t know. He has also raised the possibility of re-examining the value of encouraging healthy people in Melbourne to wear masks.
- Scott Morrison says the number of new cases in Victoria is “of great concern [but] is not surprising”. Coalition MPs have spoken against the possibility of a return to restrictions, or border restrictions between Victoria and other states.
- But the ACT government has advised people to avoid travel to Melbourne.
- South Australia says its three new cases are all of people in hotel quarantine, who were on a repatriation flight from Mumbai, India. Chief public health officer, associate professor Nicola Spurrier, said that they have not had issues with people refusing tests in quarantine but they do know that only a tenth of South Australians who had cold and flu symptoms at the time of a recent survey went to get a Covid-19 test.
- The Covid-19 spike in Victoria has caused chaos for the AFL fixtures, with Queensland imposing stricter quarantine requirements. Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has suggested the grand final should be held in Perth.
We will see you tomorrow. Stay well, and if you feel sick: get a Covid-19 test and stay at home until you’re cleared.
Updated
#BREAKING China says will restrict visas for some Americans over Hong Kong row pic.twitter.com/U3f0wiBAZk
— AFP news agency (@AFP) June 29, 2020
This sign has appeared outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
It comes as China’s state media has claimed Australia is ramping up spying efforts against Beijing.
From AAP:
The Chinese Communist Party-run Global Times tabloid accuses Australia of waging an intensifying espionage offensive through sending spies to China.
It also claims Australia is instigating defections, spying on Chinese students and feeding “fake news” to the media to hype up theories about Chinese spying.
The story, which is based on an anonymous source from a Chinese law-enforcement agency, says Australia tried to install wire taps in the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison avoided addressing the issue directly when asked about it.
“I wouldn’t be relying on Chinese state media for your sources for questions,” he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.
The Global Times published photos of “spying materials” including a compass, a USB flash drive, a notebook, a mask, gloves and a map of Shanghai, said to have been seized from arrested Australian agents.
The state-owned newspaper warned Chinese agencies would take a harder line on Australian espionage operations.
Liberal MP and former diplomat Dave Sharma suggested the report lacked credibility.
“This is a classic disinformation campaign designed to muddy the waters,” he told Sky News on Monday.
It comes days after a NSW upper house MP was raided by ASIO and federal police over allegations Chinese agents had infiltrated his office.
Updated
The army is here.
The big beast has landed.
— Simon Love (@SimoLove) June 29, 2020
70 (ish) ADF personnel on board for the #Covid19aus response in Victoria. @10NewsFirstMelb #springst pic.twitter.com/CfUSKLJ2i2
This is the uniform of the public health teams that will be knocking on doors in Melbourne’s ten hotspot suburbs over the next few days. There will be 800 public health workers conducting spot-testing around the suburbs.
If you see them at your door, don’t hide behind the couch. Widespread testing is key to getting control of this outbreak and ensuring we can all get back to regular-ish life.
We are asking Victorians to please be vigilant.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) June 29, 2020
Our public health team can present identification on request and will not ask for payment or bank details. Testing is free.
If there are scammers in your area, please call the @VictoriaPolice assitance line on 131 444.#COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/UEmBVX7sWW
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Swimwear brand Seafolly under administration
One of Australia’s best-known swimwear brands, Seafolly, has gone into administration, blaming the “crippling financial impact of the covid-19 pandemic”.
Seafolly’s 44 stores in Australia and 12 overseas are to remain open, the administrators, Scott Langdon and Rahul Goyal of KordaMentha, said.
They said gift cards and points earned under the company’s loyalty scheme, Beach Club Rewards, remain valid.
The administrators plan to sell the business.
“Given the quality of the brand and its reputation, there will inevitably be a high level of interest in purchasing the business”, Langdon said.
In breaking news, gunmen have attacked the Pakistan stock exchange building in the city of Karachi.
Four assailants have been killed along with two security guards and a police officer, police have said. More here:
Is Malcolm Turnbull... on TikTok?
You have to be very brave to face questions from the ferocious scary @murpharoo
— Malcolm Turnbull (@TurnbullMalcolm) June 29, 2020
Honestly, just posting this tweet from the former PM as an excuse to re-share this masterpiece.
Hahah. This is AH-MAZING ! #COVID19AUS pic.twitter.com/EFFL6h2gCS
— BLM (@dameyon) March 30, 2020
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Ambulance Victoria paramedic tests positive for Covid-19
Ambulance Victoria has confirmed that one of its paramedics has tested positive for coronavirus.
They are the second Victorian paramedic to test positive since the pandemic was declared in March.
In a statement, Ambulance Victoria said:
In neither case was Covid-19 acquired on the job.
Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker said the organisation has maintained an unwavering focus on patient and paramedic safety over many months.
“Paramedics wear personal protective equipment to every case they attend to protect their patients and themselves from the risk of infection.”
Updated
Victorian health authorities have issued an update on the Covid-19 situation in that state. It’s pretty much as described by Jenny Mikakos this morning.
So, that’s 75 new cases reported yesterday, with the overall total increasing by 71 (four cases were reclassified and subtracted off the Victorian total) to 2,099.
Of those, 288 cases are active and nine people remain in hospital, one of whom is in intensive care.
Fourteen of the new cases are linked to known outbreaks, 37 were identified through routine testing, 23 cases remain under investigation and one case was detected in a returned traveller.
Of the 2,099 cases in Victoria, 271 are confirmed cases of community transmission. That’s 13% of the total.
Some more stats: just over 84% of reported cases of Covid-19 were detected in metropolitan Melbourne (makes sense, as many were in hotel quarantine) and 15.5% were detected in regional areas. Fifty-two per cent of people confirmed to have coronavirus are men.
More than 792,000 Covid-19 tests have been conducted in Victoria, and 2.4m in Australia as a whole. So, a third of all tests in Australia were done in Victoria.
Updated
The Greens are calling on the government to release the names of the regional media outlets receiving funding under the $50m public interest news gathering program.
Many regional newspapers have suspended publishing due to underlying financial pressures exacerbated by the pandemic, raising concerns about the loss of local voices and erosion of vital democratic scrutiny.
The federal communications minister, Paul Fletcher, announced this morning that the successful applicants for a share of the $50m included 92 publishers, 13 radio broadcasters and five television broadcasters, as reported earlier. The government started contacting successful applicants yesterday and is not revealing the business names at this stage because the grant agreements are yet to be signed.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who is also her party’s communications spokeswoman, said funding for small and independent publishers had been “a very long time coming and may just be well and truly too late for some”.
She called on Fletcher to tell Australians who would be receiving this taxpayer funding and who missed out:
Waiting until a deal is signed between successful applicants and the government isn’t good enough. If the big industry players have benefitted while our small and independent publishers have hit the wall, then the government has failed regional Australians once again.
With funding cuts set to rip the ABC apart, and local content quotas all but gone, some regional areas will have no other local news content. Public-interest journalism is being obliterated on minister Fletcher’s watch and he needs to start advocating much harder to save it at the cabinet table.
Updated
The vice-president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Chris Zappala, has just spoken to Patricia Karvelas on ABC24.
He was asked if he supported a suggestion from Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, that Victoria reconsider the question of whether people should wear masks as a precaution against community transmission of Covid-19.
Zappala says wearing a mask potentially “diverts attention and vigilance” away from physical distancing and good hand hygiene.
He says:
The AMA has always been comfortable with the advice that we have had in this country: the wearing of masks by well people in the community is not required.
There are a couple of reasons for that. One is that we want to make sure there are enough masks for people who are sick in hospitals and those sorts of things. But the other, perhaps more relevant and practical reason is that I would be very concerned they would give a false sense of security. As soon as you touch it or wear it for too long, take it on and off, it is no longer effective.
I’d be interested to see the studies behind this, because my layperson, completely un-expert gut feeling is that wearing a mask would make people more vigilant, because it is a constant physical reminder on your face that we are in a pandemic.
Updated
In non-virus news, the Australian government was today ordered to pay almost $3m in damages to a Northern Territory cattle company, after the federal court earlier ruled a 2011 decision to ban live cattle export was invalid.
The federal government has already said it is considering appealing against the decision.
From AAP:
The federal court class action of about 300 members was led by Brett Cattle Company.
Justice Steven Rares on Monday ordered the government to pay the company $2,936,936.99 damages, as well as its legal costs.
In relation to other group members, he again found [then-agriculture minister Joe] Ludwig’s decision was invalid and he committed misfeasance in public office.
The next step involves the arrangement of a scheme to resolve the claims of the other members.
Michael O’Meara SC, for the government, noted his client had 28 days to decide whether justice Rares’ decision will be appealed.
The case was put over to 20 August for a case-management hearing.
Updated
Western Australia has recorded no new active Covid-19 cases – again. It currently has four active cases.
This is despite the reopening of pubs this weekend, and one particular pub in Rockingham, the Swinging Pig, shouting a round for the venue after premier Mark McGowan turned up to celebrate.
Updated
ACT warns against travel to Melbourne
We deserve this.
Just in: The ACT’s Health Minister has now expanded travel advice to Canberrans travelling interstate, with greater Melbourne now a no go zone. Advice was previously a don’t travel to just the virus hot spots
— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) June 29, 2020
Updated
Nicola Spurrier says 7.5% of South Australia’s population has not undergone a Covid-19 test at some point, and she urged people to get a test if they had any symptoms.
But a recent phone survey found that not everyone with cold and flu symptoms was going to get a test.
Spurrier says:
People will be looking at Victoria and looking at the number of cases there, which has been climbing, and we have been very fortunate in South Australia. But I have said before and I will say it again: we expect to see some cases here, but we won’t know we have got cases unless everyone of you who get symptoms gets tested.
The last South Australia Health phone survey found that 20% of respondents said they had respiratory symptoms that day or in the past week, but only 20% of those with symptoms had gone to see a doctor and only 12% of those with symptoms had gone to get a Covid test.
Spurrier says:
That is a little bit disappointing and I want to encourage people, if you get a cough or cold, or start to get a sore throat, runny nose, headache and a fever, get a Covid-19 test.
We are lifting the restrictions and it’s really exciting, it’s lovely to see people out and about. But is so important everybody gets a test done.
Updated
Spurrier says South Australia has not had marked issues with people refusing to take a Covid test in hotel quarantine – unlike Victoria, where 30% of returned travellers were refusing a test.
She suggests that one reason for the low refusal rate may be because the nurses who administer the test in SA do a total health check, not just a Covid test, and build up a relationship over the full 14 days of quarantine.
I think, having that good relationship, that good health practitioner-patient relationship helps us to get those samples when we need them.
Updated
The chief public health officer for South Australia Health, Associate Prof Nicola Spurrier, is also giving an update this afternoon.
As mentioned, SA has reported three new cases today. Spurrier says the three new cases recorded today are people in hotel quarantine who had flown into SA from Mumbai.
They are a woman in her 30s, a woman in her 40s and a three-year-old girl. All are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms.
They are all separate travellers, and to date their families have tested negative. They will be tested again on day 12 of quarantine.
Spurrier says there were no breaches of security or PPE and all doctors and nurses involved are being monitored for symptoms, and will also be tested at a later date.
It takes the total number of recorded cases in SA to 443.
Updated
If this isn’t a second wave, a reporter asks, what would a second wave look like?
McMillan says a second wave would be widespread community transmission, not just localised to a few suburbs in Melbourne.
We would see a wider spread of community transmission across the country. We are seeing this localised to a particular area of Victoria, and Victoria are working very hard to contain that and minimise the spread.
But we are watching this very closely. The label is less important than actions we take, and the actions we are taking [are] a positive to containing the further spread. We do, as [Victorian chief health officer] Brett Sutton has said this morning, we could anticipate to see an increase with numbers in coming days, as all of those measures that have been put in place over the weekend come into effect.
Updated
McMillan says we have seen an “enormous achievement in Australia” in suppressing Covid-19, but it is “not the time to be complacent”.
That means that anyone with any symptoms at all of cold or flu, or a loss of taste or smell, should stay at home and only leave their house to get tested.
This really does mean stay at home. Don’t have visitors around, don’t go to the shops and definitely don’t go to work.
McMillan adds:
We hear suggestions that young people are saying this is a disease for the older part of the community. I am here to reinforce [that] we are seeing young people catching Covid-19 and transmitting it across the community. While they may have mild symptoms, they have the potential to infect large numbers of other people, and so this is a call to everyone to do the right thing.
Updated
'Community outbreak' not a second wave, senior medical officer says
Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Alison McMillan, is giving the national Covid update now.
Australia has recorded 85 new cases in the past 24 hours: seven in NSW, three in SA and 75 in Victoria.
Fifteen people remain in hospital and one in intensive care. The death toll is unchanged.
McMillan says it is not a second wave but a “community outbreak”.
I want to reassure all Australians that while we are very concerned about what we see in Victoria, what we have is a community outbreak, and one part of the city, and one state of the country.
But this is very serious and we all need to take note, as we have warned that this pandemic is not over.
Updated
The lovely Calla Wahlquist will take you through the afternoon.
I’ll be back tomorrow to carry you through the day’s updates. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Take care of you.
Updated
We should have a national update on the Covid situation very soon.
Updated
It’s not just Queensland – South Australian premier Steven Marshall says the 20 July date set down by the SA government to open its borders to Victoria and NSW (it’s pretty much open to everyone else at the moment) is under consideration.
We’ve still got three weeks, but that is now under a cloud.
We will look very closely at this and update the people of South Australia as soon as we possibly can.
We are very concerned about the numbers coming out of Victoria at the moment, there’s no doubt about that.
And WA is staying shut for the time being (this comes via AAP):
WA chief health officer Andy Robertson on Monday said he wouldn’t be advising the state government to reopen borders until Victoria’s numbers significantly improved.
He told ABC radio:
If we look at Queensland, they haven’t had any cases now for three or four weeks. NSW has had some, but they’ve got low levels.
If either they’ve got no community spread or we’re fairly confident that what little community spread [exists] is well under control and being effectively managed, that would be the time we would provide that advice [to reopen].
Updated
Then there is this, from the Australian Medical Association:
(via AAP)
Queensland would be justified in keeping its border closed for another week, if not two, because of a second Covid-19 wave sweeping Victoria, says the country’s peak doctors group.
The Australian Medical Association’s Dr Chris Moy says he’s not advocating the sunshine state remain closed but there are genuine concerns about the outbreak in Victoria, which has had more than 150 cases in the past three days.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will announce on Tuesday when the next easing of restrictions will be triggered and possibly when the borders, which have been closed since March, will reopen.
The state has just two active cases and recorded just one positive test in the past week.
Updated
It’s looking very unlikely that that Queensland will stick to its border re-open date of 10 July, given the situation in Victoria.
That’s not inside knowledge, that’s just looking at the tea leaves. WA has already said no, and it wasn’t planning on reopening its borders until August.
Intrastate travel seems to be the future in WA for some time.
.@MarkMcGowanMP has "put in an official request" to @Qantas to lower WA airfares. Says there is "significant activity" in accommodation in July for school holidays & the government will continue to underwrite airlines & incentivise carriers to offer affordable prices #wapol
— Jenna Clarke (@jennamclarke) June 29, 2020
Updated
OK, we have that list of Victorian schools where a student has tested positive confirmed (sorry it took some time – I am one person and not everyone gets back to me when I would like).
They are:
Maribyrnong college
Queen of Peace Parish primary school
Footscray high school
Port Phillip specialist school
Al-Taqwa college
Aitken Hill primary school
Updated
The AFL chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, has addressed the quarantine changes brought in by Queensland Health. (Queensland teams that travel to Victoria will have to quarantine, as well as teams that play people from Victoria.)
We also said at the start of this season that it will be a season like no other. We have to be flexible, agile throughout the season in order to buy all claims of the season plus finals ... Football people love predictability. This is a season where adaptability, order and routine has been and continues to be difficult.
Flexibility and agility are the key traits needed to navigate the challenges provided by the Covid-19 pandemic and the different situations in each of the states and territories where we play. We are all going to have to get used to not having predictability, order and routine.
That is what season 2020 is all about. It is a challenge. And those who accept and adapt to that challenge, those who show their resilience, will be those who do best.
Updated
Again, the government reported a $60bn underspend on the jobkeeper wage subsidy. It had budgeted for 6 million workers, but the subsidy is supporting 3 million workers.
And it doesn’t seem like you can call the subsidy you have pointed to as helping to keep the economy afloat, as well as keeping employees connected to their employers, a “cash burn”.
Again, the government is preparing you for when these measures are switched off. There will be a “phase 3” of stimulus, but it will be targeted towards particular industries.
Updated
This was the whole exchange when it came to jobkeeper:
Ray Hadley: Jobseeker, jobkeeper. People, they get confused about jobkeeper and it was only meant to be there to September and the government said, OK, we’re doubling the payment in relation to jobseeker. It goes to $1,100 a fortnight, not $550 or thereabouts, depending on other benefits you get with rent. And there are people jumping up and down today saying, well, you can’t do this, you’ve got to leave it there. If we leave jobseeker where it is at the moment, we’ll all go broke, won’t we?
Scott Morrison: Well, just on jobkeeper, so not taking into account the old Newstart payment. I mean, that’s got a cash burn of over $10bn a month.
Hadley: $10bn a month?
Morrison:
A month. So, you know, the budget figures at the end of May we handed out on Friday, and it has a deficit already up around $60bn, and we haven’t finished the month yet – sorry, the year yet. So, obviously, we said at the time it was temporary. It can’t be sustained forever at that level.
But equally, we’ve got to look at what’s happening post-September. There are a number of industries that will continue to be affected by restrictions, particularly in the aviation sector, in the tourism and hospitality sector, particularly those that were highly dependent on international travel. There’s lots of parts of the events and entertainment industry, the conference business, things like that.
So those companies are still going to be very down on what their normal turnover is. But for many other companies who are currently on jobkeeper, then thankfully their turnover would have been getting up above those previous downturn levels.
So, you know, we’ve got to get this right, Ray. I know people want to know what’s going to happen at the end of September. We gave ourselves six months, not three months with this program, which means when we make the next decision about the next phase – and there will be a next phase of this – that we get it right.
And, you know, rushed decisions are never smart in an environment when you’re spending that amount of money and you want to make sure it’s targeted to the people who get it, who need it most.
Updated
The Covid payment ends in September. That will take jobseeker back down to $40 a day (unless the government makes a permanent change. An extra $150 or so on the old $275-a-week payment is currently being floated.)
But at the moment, with job ads down, job shifts down and stores and restaurants operating at a reduced capacity, demonising those on jobseeker seems an odd choice.
Updated
And here are the income rules for jobseeker:
Your payment will reduce by 25 cents for every dollar your partner earns over $994 per fortnight. This amount may change if they get pharmaceutical allowance or rent assistance.
If you get both jobseeker payment and jobkeeper payment you need to report your jobkeeper payment to us as income. This may mean you’re no longer eligible for jobseeker payment or another Centrelink income support payment.
If you don’t report it to us you may end up with an overpayment and you could get a debt.
Updated
For those who missed it a little earlier, here is the entire Scott Morrison quote on “a lot of anecdotal feedback” about people turning down shifts because they are receiving a higher rate on jobseeker:
Well, on jobseeker, we doubled the payment with the supplement because we knew unemployment was going to be rising steadily, and it has, and that’s been devastating. And Australians, your listeners, only know too well about that. And the prospect of someone getting another job in the short term was pretty remote, and so we knew we had to boost the supplement for a period.
What we have to be worried about now is that we can’t allow the jobseeker payment to become an impediment to people out and going and doing work, getting extra shifts. And we are getting a lot of anecdotal feedback from small businesses, even large businesses, where some of them are finding it hard to get people to come and take the shifts because they’re on these higher levels of payment.
And so we’ve just got to make sure that we continue to provide what is a reasonable level of support in the middle of the worst recession we’ve had since the Great Depression. But at the same time, we can’t let the help get in the way that we’re giving to people.
And so these aren’t easy decisions. They’re very complex. Our opponents are going around and stamping their feet and smashing their fists on the table, demanding to know. But they clearly don’t appreciate just how complex and intricate this decision is. There are a lot of moving parts.
And so the Treasurer and I and the finance minister, we’re in constant meetings with constant advice, you know, working through all this. I mean, I’ll see the actual report for the first time today that the Treasury has done. So there’s still a fair bit of work before we can get those decisions right.
Updated
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is continuing its special series looking at Australian’s spending habits during the pandemic.
The latest report examines what Australians plan to spend money on once restrictions are loosened further:
The ABS head of household surveys, Michelle Marquardt, said:
This survey showed us a mixed picture of what Australians plan to spend their money on once restrictions ease.
Many Australians reported decreased spending on eating out (87%), childcare fees (85%), recreation or leisure (79%), public transport (73%) and personal care (64%).
Of these people, a majority expected to increase their spending on recreational activities (74%), eating out (74%), private transport (73%), personal care (70%), childcare (66%) and public transport (55%).
On the other hand, the majority of Australians who had reduced expenditure on household furnishings (72%) and clothing and footwear (52%) expected to continue to spend lower amounts on these items as Covid-19 restrictions ease.
The ABS’s survey was conducted mid-June and asked about domestic and international travel intentions, as well as how soon people intended to travel after restrictions were lifted.
More than half (55%) were planning to go on a domestic holiday while less than a third (29%) were planning an international holiday.
Of those planning a domestic holiday, 20% intended to go within the following month and a further two-thirds (68%) within the following six months. Those planning international travel were more likely to intend to travel within six to 12 months (44%) or later (31%).
Updated
Ahhhh – the Queensland cabinet is meeting today, where it will make the decision on the borders, with an announcement to come tomorrow.
Right now, with what is happening in Victoria, 10 July (the publicly declared date on the roadmap) is looking shaky. Western Australia has decided it won’t be opening its border in August, as planned, although Tasmania and South Australia look like moving ahead with their reopen plans (the back end of July).
Scott Morrison was asked about Queensland today:
[Annastacia Palaszczuk] made her statement about July 10 previously and the people who would be the biggest losers from that border not opening up are the people of Queensland.
The people of Queensland need their economy to refire and resurge. There are Queenslanders who aren’t in jobs who need their borders open and I have been very consistent and advocating to all the premiers and chief ministers, regardless of what side of politics they come from that it is important to get these borders open.
I welcome the decision by the Tasmanian premier, the South Australian premier, and while we have a serious outbreak in Victoria, I will be speaking to the premier again later today, and we will put every resource that we need to deal with that outbreak in Victoria.
Victoria has our full support is I know it has the premier’s full support here in New South Wales. Thing about the national cabinet as it is a place to work together and support each other and were it not for the great support that each of the states are getting from each other, I think we would be finding this a much harder task than it is.
Updated
Another concern:
CHO Brett Sutton says there are more than 2,500 close contacts of confirmed cases being managed in Victoria: "We're at the limits of managing that number"
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) June 29, 2020
Updated
While the government is pushing the $11bn a month for jobkeeper, it is worth pointing out that jobkeeper came in at under $60bn from what was predicted. It is supporting 3 million workers, instead of the 6 million the government had budgeted for.
Updated
Australian government chief nursing and midwifery officer Alison McMillan will give the national update at 3pm.
Updated
Further to the Queensland Health announcement that Queensland teams must quarantine if they play in Melbourne, or a team from Melbourne is this AAP update on the AFL:
Six AFL clubs have been impacted by a round five fixture reshuffle forced by fresh Queensland coronavirus protocols that have thrown the season into chaos.
Queensland health officials have issued new directives that will force Brisbane and Gold Coast into 14-day quarantine should they play a Melbourne-based club.
The Lions and Suns would also have to quarantine if they played in Melbourne, and against any team that had been in Melbourne in the preceding 14 days.
The directive has forced the AFL to recast round five scheduling as Victoria’s coronavirus spike continues to worsen, announcing 75 new cases on Monday.
Richmond’s scheduled game against West Coast on the Gold Coast has been postponed.
Instead, Carlton will play St Kilda at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne - a game initially scheduled for Sunday.
Richmond will now play Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday, with the Eagles now to meet Sydney on the Gold Coast on Saturday.
The AFL’s general manager of clubs and broadcasting Travis Auld says more fixturing changes loom beyond this round.
“I want to thank the Queensland government ... for their support of the AFL season and for helping us to make the changes this week that are in line with their quarantine requirements related to Covid-19 hotspots,” Auld said in a statement.
“Since the beginning of this Covid-19 pandemic we have said consistently that every decision we make will be anchored in the advice of government and the chief health officers and that we would always rely on their advice.
“We understand the decision of the Queensland government.”
Auld said the AFL would work through the implications for the following rounds before announcing any changes required for rounds six and seven.
On Victoria, Scott Morrison:
It is of a serious concern and the increasing number of cases that we are seeing and Victoria, while of great concern is not surprising, given the nature of the outbreak we are seeing there at the moment, I intend to get further information on that later today and speak to the premier but whatever additional resources the premier may need, then I am sure we will be able to fulfil those requests.
At this point, no additional support has been asked for from the Victorian premier, we are already providing significant support as the other states are whether in testing or additional resources to assist with tracing of contacts.
Updated
Scott Morrison's press conference begins
Scott Morrison is holding his press conference – and he repeats a figure he said this morning on Sydney radio 2GB, as the government begins preparing Australians for when jobkeeper ends, in late September:
When you are burning through cash at a rate of almost $11bn a month on jobkeeper then obviously that is not something you can continue in that form forever and that is why the government is being very careful in the considerations we are having, we are not rushing to any decision, we are working carefully through all the various elements.
Updated
Expect higher case numbers from Victoria in the coming days
Brett Sutton says he believes the number of people diagnosed with Covid in Victoria is going to get higher, before it gets better:
I think it will get worse before it gets better. It is a concerning number.
But it is very hard to make reductions in this space. What I would say is that we know what works already. We just need people to do it.
So that means runny nose, sore throat, fever, whatever the symptoms are, stay-at-home, get your test, don’t interact with other people until you have that test result back and you are well.
What about the next 24 hours?
A lot of the results are through already from the testing of the last couple of days, but more results will come through today and tomorrow that have been taken earlier.
Yes, I expect that there will be at least as many positive cases as we have had over the last 24 hours.
What is encouraging is that we are finding so much that is out there. We have had 50% coverage in some of our hotspot suburbs.
That will effectively find and isolate all of the transmission in those places, but we have to bear in mind that there are people still moving about and it only takes one to go to a setting and exposing dozens and dozens of people.
Updated
'Nothing is locked in and nothing is off the table'
What would another lockdown look like?
Professor Brett Sutton:
We have to think through what will make a difference in this current challenge.
It is a little bit different. We know that transmission is occurring across households and it is people seeing too many others across too many vulnerable settings where transmission is occurring.
We know that for a lot of our settings, restaurants and other places that have really taken up the CovidSafe code, if you like, that the risk of transmission in those settings is well-managed, and so it may not look the same in terms of shutting down a lot of those settings because that is not where transmission is occurring.
We have to dig down to the epidemiology in current circumstances and I think it is going to have to focus on limiting the number of interactions that people have and making sure that if you are symptomatic, you are staying at home. That has to be the focus.
Is the government looking at broader lockdowns?
We are looking at whatever options will work in these circumstances. Nothing is locked in and nothing is off the table.
Updated
The Victorian chief medical officer says if the decision is made to lockdown parts of Melbourne, it won’t be taken lightly:
It would be a harder step but it has to be proportionate.
We know what the consequences are available down in terms of fatigue in people positive behaviours.
We don’t want to drive people out of suburban areas into new unaffected areas.
So there is a balancing act in terms of making the call on a lockdown. We know that it is a real challenge for businesses, it is a real challenge for people in their homes if that is what is required.
But it is absolutely an option and we flagged the possibility of using it and we will use it if it is required.
The reproduction number for the virus in Victoria was up above two last week. Professor Sutton says it is now above one, but authorities want to see it drop below one.
The effective reproduction number has come down, but it is not below one. It needs to be below one in order to drive numbers down. And when you have got a number of outbreaks, it really doesn’t matter what your R is. You have 75 new opportunities for transmission to others. If people are doing the right things, it doesn’t matter if you have 75, but a proportion of those people continue to go out with symptoms or to see a number of other people, maybe even just prior to having symptoms, then that is a risk of ongoing transmission.
Updated
Professor Brett Sutton says authorities have needed to see where the transmissions are coming from, before making any decisions on lockdowns or the like - basically, they want to make their decision based on the data:
We are still going through those numbers. The cases that we are seeing now had their transmission five or six days ago.
So we do need the time to see whether some of the really more intensive communication and engagement makes a difference to how people are responding behaviourally.
We absolutely want people to get the message that if they have symptoms, they shouldn’t be going and visiting other people, they shouldn’t be going out to any other setting, including work, because that is where we are seeing transition at the moment.
There is still an opportunity for that to turn around. If it isn’t, absolutely, the public health directions are changing the law is something we have to consider because we have to do whatever is required to turn this around.
As you can see from Nick Evershed’s updated chart, this is the worst count Victoria has had for ‘local’ cases and ‘under investigation’ cases since the pandemic began:
Victorian lockdowns to be considered 'over the next couple of days'
Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, is also at this press conference.
He says the number of cases picked up in the last 24 hours is “absolutely concerning” and says the question of whether a lockdown is necessary is one which will be answered in the next couple of days:
Clearly big numbers today. Absolutely concerning, and a lot of these, all of the settings we have seen in recent days, outbreaks occurring across multiple households, across work and other settings, but we know what will turn this around, and it is people stepping forward for testing, but also isolating when they have symptoms.
What we are seeing is transmission across settings because people are still going out with symptoms.
So whether or not a legal direction I think is a conversation to be had over the next couple of days. We are not there yet. But we do know that the solution is there already. With these people not having unnecessary contacts across multiple households, across multiple settings. That will control transmission.
Updated
What we know from Victoria
So what we know from the Victorian tests in the last 24 hours:
- More than 15,000 tests
- 75 people tested positive for Covid-19
- 37 from “routine testing” – people who went to clinics
- 23 under investigation
- 14 linked to an established outbreak
- One returned traveller in hotel quarantine
- Six considered community outbreak (this could change depending on how those cases under investigation or picked up through routine testing are categorised)
Updated
The saliva test is being used for people for whom the nasal test is too difficult – like young children, or the elderly, or those who just can’t handle the thought.
Updated
Professor Sharon Lewin* from the Doherty Institute is taking questions about the saliva test it has developed, and its effectiveness (NSW has said it will stick to the nasal swab test for now).
The saliva test has been evaluated in multiple other laboratories in other countries, and five large studies using saliva have been published including our study for Melbourne, and validated it, what we did was collect 600 specimens from the Royal Melbourne Covid-19 testing site.
Each person, sorry, had a conventional throat swab done and at the same time gave a sample of saliva.
Amongst those 600 participants, in that period of testing, there were 39 positive tests, and the saliva test picked 87% of those 39 tests, and that’s how we develop an evaluation of any new test, we look at sensitivity, how many times does the test get it right? 87% of the time, and we also look at specificity.
*I incorrectly named professor Lewin as Professor Deborah Williamson after mishearing the introductions at the press conference in an earlier version of this post.
Updated
Most of the new cases have been linked to known outbreaks, but Jenny Mikakos says there are some linked to schools:
We also have a number of cases that are linked to a number of schools.
Obviously there have been school holidays, those schools are already closed and all the schools will be thoroughly cleaned and there will be contact tracing their involving both staff and students being followed up and obviously the school communities being notified schools are Queen of Peace parish primary school, Aitken Hill primary in Craigieburn, [Footscray] High school, Port Phillip specialist school, and [inaudible]
We also have a childcare centre in Abbotsford that is being closed for cleaning until Wednesday following a positive case and cleaning and contact tracing is under way there as well.
We have a healthcare worker that’s tested positive at the Melbourne clinic in Richmond and close contacts among both patients and staff will be identified and contacted and the facility will be cleaned.
We also have a staff member at the Red Cross processing facility, that’s called the lifeblood Red Cross processing facility, and there is contact tracing under way and cleaning will be undertaken as well.
These cases come through in many instances very late in the course of the previous evening and if there are further links to known outbreaks or any other vulnerable settings that are identified we will be sharing those with you over the course of the day.
*The minister had said Fitzroy high school, but we hear you saying it is Footscray.
Updated
The 75 positive tests came from 15,000 tests yesterday
Related to the Victorian news is this from Queensland Health:
#Breaking Queensland sporting teams across all codes must quarantine for 14 days if they play a Melbourne team in Qld, play a match in Melbourne, or play in another state against a team who has been in Melbourne in the preceding 14 days, new @qldhealthnews advice says.
— Lucy Stone (@ljstone09) June 29, 2020
To put this into perspective, Victoria has only had three other days during this pandemic, where there were more than 75 positive tests. That includes at the height of the Australian first wave.
Jenny Mikakos says the investigations as to how some of these people contracted the virus, is still continuing:
As I said, there’s a number of them that are still to be determined whether there is a link between new cases and known outbreaks and we believe that those numbers may well increase during the course of the day.
We will have further details and will be sharing them with you as the day progresses.
There is now a link that has been established between the North Melbourne family outbreak and the Brimbank family outbreak.
Four of the new cases have been linked to this outbreak, and the department is investigating the exact nature of the link there. We also have three new cases that are security contractors who were already in quarantine from the Stamford Plaza, so they have undertaken their day 11 tests as is standard practice where we have an outbreak, so those people are already in quarantine as part of that, that brings that total to 23.
Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos says:
Today we have 75 new cases of coronavirus in Victoria. Obviously we are concerned by the increasing number and the upward trend and we are monitoring the situation very closely.
This takes us to a total of 2,099 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria.
There is a net increase of 71 cases as four previous indeterminate cases have been reclassified.
The breakdown is: we have one case in hotel quarantine, 14 linked to outbreaks, 37 were detected through routine testing and 23 are still under investigation and as you would appreciate, as new cases come through in some cases very late into the previous evening, we are still looking and the department is still looking at potential further links to known outbreaks of those ones that are both through routine testing as well as the ones under investigation.
Thankfully, we have no new deaths reported overnight, that number remains at 20.
We have six new cases believed to be community transmission, taking that to a total of 271, and there are currently 288 active cases in Victoria. Nine people in hospital, one in intensive care.
Updated
Victoria reports 75 new covid cases
Victorian authorities are updating that situation now – but 75 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Updated
NSW has reported seven new positive tests of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
All of those are returned travellers who are in hotel quarantine.
We are waiting on the Victoria health press conference to start.
There have been more than 90 Covid cases reported in Victoria over the last couple of days.
Updated
And again, there are about 1.6m people receiving jobseeker at the moment.
There are about 3m people receiving jobkeeper (the wage subsidy).
There were less than 90,000 job ads and the rate is falling at the last count.
It’s all well and good to say “go get a job”, but you can’t if there are no jobs.
“Oh, people could go fruit picking, or work in an abattoir” critics, including National MPs say. “There are jobs going begging.” Putting aside the temporary nature of many of those jobs, if you move to an area with higher unemployment, which many of Australia’s regional and rural regions have because there is not the diversity of industry, then you can lose your benefits for six months.
Updated
In case it needs to be said, again, it shouldn’t matter that jobseeker recipients will include people who have never had to walk into a Centrelink previously.
If $40 a day was too little to live on before the pandemic – which we know it was, because the moment the economic implications became clear, the government doubled it – then $40 a day is too little to live on, full stop.
Updated
The ABC leaves the deputy prime minister’s press conference to talk to a man who is wearing an actual snake across his shoulders.
Asked again, McCormack comes up with this:
We are looking at all those things as we speak and I am going back to Canberra again this afternoon to sit on expenditure review committee meetings and to do the necessary reviews about jobseeker and jobkeeper.
We’re looking at measures, we are talking to people. Young people, older people, business people, people who have lost jobs, people who are on welfare for the first time in their lives.
It is tough, I don’t deny that it is very, very tough for some people who have lost their jobs, who have had jobs all their lives and suddenly find themselves on the welfare queue.
For them it is very difficult and I understand that and that is why we are continually reviewing it, continually making sure we have got the right assistance measures in place.
We have already put on the table $260bn, even, of assistance to help the nation get through this crisis, but it is a global pandemic.
It is a difficulty that is being experienced worldwide and we, as a nation, have done very, very well economically and healthwise to address these issues and I say thank you to each and every ordinary everyday Australian for helping to get us through this crisis, but there is a way to go yet.
We are not out of the woods, both healthwise and economically as you have just said, it is very difficult for those people who have found themselves unemployed. We, as a government, will do everything that we can to incentivise businesses to get back to where they were somewhere before Covid-19, so that we can give those people the dignity of work and certainly for those people who can’t find work we will do everything we can to endeavour to assist them in every way possible.
Updated
Michael McCormack, the deputy prime minister, who is the leader of the Nationals, which represents some of the poorest electorates in Australia, is asked about whether or not the jobseeker allowance should be allowed to revert to its former rate of $40 a day.
He responds with this:
Jobseeker, and Newstart, was only ever a stopgap [because] the best form of welfare is a job and that’s why as a government, in our first term, we helped small business create 1.5m jobs and we wanted to double that. Of course no one was expecting Covid-19 to hit and hit as hard as it has, but we are the government of jobs.
Whether it’s the federal Liberal-National government or indeed the New South Wales Liberal-National government.
We are job creators through small business, lowering taxes – as far as the federal government is concerned we have got the lowest tax rates – we put all those measures in place, jobkeeper included, to help people and businesses through this crisis, and it is a crisis.
We will indeed continue to meet on a daily basis to help the nation get through this, and we will get through this.
Parsnips also spend most of their time underground, feeding on manure.
Updated
Anything better than absolute disaster these days is an “improvement”.
(There will be more troughs before we are out of this. Many more, across years.)
Yep, the economy has improved - but improved from absolute disaster. Now, it's just terrible ... here, from the AMP, a measure of economic activity pic.twitter.com/ZEZJsAdwKR
— Shane Wright (@swrighteconomy) June 29, 2020
Updated
While we are on (re)announcements, this is what Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian will be holding a press conference for:
The federal and state Liberal and Nationals governments will support nearly 5,500 jobs across New South Wales through a joint $1bn investment in shovel-ready infrastructure projects and road safety upgrades.
The funding will be allocated to three key priorities:
- $240m to fix 11 congestion hotspots around Sydney, supporting 1,000 direct and indirect jobs;
- $382m to help local councils upgrade roads across regional NSW, supporting 3,500 direct and indirect jobs; and
- $398m for road safety projects in regional areas, supporting 950 direct and indirect jobs.
This is part of the federal government’s bring infrastructure projects forward plan – which was in gear before the pandemic.
Updated
Paul Fletcher will hold a press conference at midday to discuss this (re) announcement:
The fund was announced in April
Updated
As expected ...
(via AAP)
Shares have slumped by more than 1.5% early on the Australian market as investors fret over the impact of a continuing increase in coronavirus cases in the United States and other countries.
The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark index was lower by 100.7 points, or 1.71%, at 5803.4 points after the first 15 minutes of trade on Monday.
The All Ordinaries index was 101.9 points, or 1.69% lower, at 5909.9.
The energy sector fell 2.9%. Its woes were compounded by falling oil prices.
Financials had the next biggest loss, down 2.63%.
Property dropped 2.61%, and consumer discretionary stock were down 1.99%.
Stocks on Wall Street finished last week sharply lower as coronavirus infections in the US hit an all-time high, prompting states like Texas and Florida to reverse course on the reopening of businesses.
Updated
We expect the Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, to give an update on how many bovid cases her state has recorded in the last 24 hours, within the hour.
Updated
On the poll numbers, Scott Morrison said the numbers he was most interested in over the weekend were 40-22 (which was the result of the Sharks-Manly game, in favour of the prime minister’s team).
Updated
Scott Morrison to see jobseeker report 'today'
Asked about the future of the unemployment benefit, Scott Morrison says:
We knew we had to boost the supplement for a period.
What we have to be worried about now is that we can’t allow the jobseeker payment to become an impediment to [getting] people out and doing work, you know, getting extra shifts, and we are getting a lot of anecdotal feedback from small businesses and large businesses where some of them are finding it hard to get people to come and take the shifts, because they’re on these these higher levels of payments.
And so we’ve just got to make sure that we continue to provide what is a reasonable level of support in the middle of the worst recession we’ve had since the great depression.
But at the same time, we can’t let the help get in the way that we’re giving to people.
And so these aren’t easy decisions. They’re very complex. Our opponents are going around and stomping their feet and smashing their fist on the table demanding to know, but they clearly don’t appreciate just how complex, and intricate this is, so with this decision is there a lot of moving parts. And so the treasurer and I, and the finance minister, you know, we’re in constant meetings with constant advice, you know, working through all this, I mean I’ll see the actual report for the first time today, that the Treasury has done.
So there’s still a fair bit of work before we can we can get those decisions right.
Updated
Scott Morrison is chatting to Ray Hadley on Sydney radio 2GB ahead of his 11.15am press event.
He is asked about what is happening at the end of September and says there “will be a next phase” of stimulus, but it will be “targeted to the people who need it the most”.
That’s on jobkeeper, the wage subsidy. So the so-called “zombie businesses” the ones which are staying open only through jobkeeper, will drop off, and those in industries which are restarting will also most likely be cut off – but other industries, such as aviation – will get some extra help.
Updated
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is expected to announce when that state will open its borders.
The roadmap that state laid out (publicly) says 10 July is the date.
Palaszczuk will confirm whether the state is going ahead with that date, or not, today.
I’ve seen a couple of comments about deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth speaking to the media instead of Brendan Murphy – Dr Coatsworth has been speaking to the media for months, as one of the deputy chief medical officers.
Prof Murphy finished up as chief medical officer on Friday – he had been due to finish his term earlier this year, but stayed on for consistency through the immediate pandemic response. He had been due to take up the Health Department secretary role, a job he will start soon (one would assume he gets a short break).
Prof Paul Kelly, who is also a deputy chief medical officer, will serve as the acting chief medical officer, in the meantime.
Updated
ABF officer at Melbourne airport tests positive for Covid
#BREAKING: A worker at the Australian Border Force base at Melbourne Airport has tested positive to the coronavirus. #9News pic.twitter.com/M3JIwlxkG0
— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) June 28, 2020
Helen Sullivan has the international Covid news covered off here, for those interested:
Speaking of the Victorian blame game, Barnaby Joyce continued it this morning on the Seven Network, where he was unchallenged after saying this (in response to a question about the Covid app)
I’ve written my name down when I’m down at the pub, and I suppose that is something you have to do.
As you know, I wasn’t a big [fan] of the app. Not by reason of its efficacy, but by reason of liberties – just like I support vaping, not by reason of me vaping, I support other peoples’ right to do it.
The biggest problem we have had with COVID is things such as Black Lives Matter demonstrations because everyone got together – 30,000 of them.
[Again, authorities have said, repeatedly, there was no evidence of spread of the virus at the protest. The protests were being held at the same time as restrictions were being lifted and the federal government was telling people to “get out from under the doona”. There were protests in every state and territory, including NSW. And so far, only Victoria has seen an increase.]
And this is the issue, we’ve got to drag people back to it is important, this disease can get back out, and social distancing is vital if you want to try and keep this thing at bay. I mean, I know even in my own sort of logic and approach I started to become lax because I thought well, if 30,000 people want to be on the street together at a protest, why am I worrying about being too close to one person. But I’ve got to change the way I think back to where we were and so does everybody else, and so does everybody else. That’s the only way we are going to stay free of this disease.
Updated
For those wanting to know more about the Grattan Institute pandemic report, Daniel Hurst has broken it down for you:
The blame game for the uptick in Victorian cases goes on – despite, as all the health authorities are pointing out, that an increase in cases was expected when restrictions began to lift. It might be Victoria now, but with the virus still in Australia, and likely to be for some time, it could be any state. Particularly once borders reopen.
At the same time as the protests were being held for Black Lives Matter, and Eid was being celebrated, restrictions were being lifted. The federal government was saying it was time to reopen the economy. People, who didn’t attend the protests, or aren’t Muslim, were gathering in groups again socially. And the virus did what viruses do, and spread.
But that hasn’t stopped MPs and commentators, many of whom were screaming for restrictions to be lifted and for life to co-exist with covid for the benefit of the economy, now pointing fingers.
Sky News’s Peta Credlin pointed her finger and got burned by facts.
An editorial which aired during the Credlin program on Friday 26 June at 6pm AEST, incorrectly linked Melbourne’s South Sudanese community to a Covid-19 outbreak.
Peta Credlin and Sky News Australia accept these comments were inaccurate and sincerely apologise for any offence caused by the remarks which have been removed from all platforms.
Peta Credlin will also address this issue on her program on Monday 29 June at 6pm AEST.
Updated
Meanwhile, politics is very much returning to normal.
George Christensen says he's joined the right-wing social network, Parler.
— cmwlsn (@cameronwilson) June 28, 2020
You will be pleased to know that he follows nearly 10 Australian QAnon accounts. pic.twitter.com/IUU4GOparo
Updated
On Australia going with suppression of the virus, rather than elimination, Coatsworth says:
It’s always going to be a balance of the effects that a prolonged elimination strategy with the potential economic effects of doing so.
I think to assume that an elimination strategy would have [been]done and dusted with a few more weeks of restrictions would not be accurate.
Moreover, you know, we have 10 million cases now around the world and we know that things like hotel quarantine are not perfect systems, even with the new restrictions that have been put around them.
We never thought at the AHPPC that elimination was a realistic strategy. We still don’t. Even for those states with no cases at the moment, there is still a significant possibility of importation of Covid-19.
So, suppression, heavy suppression, and elimination in those states where that was possible, I think, will still in the long-term prove to be the correct strategy.
Updated
There have also been the reports of returned travellers who refused to be tested for covid while in forced quarantine. Those people will now be forced to spend another 10 days in hotel quarantine before they are allowed out, as they are in NSW.
But Nick Coatsworth said it was important not to get too distracted by the reports, as there was no evidence they had contributed to the most recent outbreak (neither have the Black Lives Matter protests).
I think the first thing to say is that these outbreaks in Victoria are not the result of people who haven’t been tested leaving quarantine.
So, that’s an important message to make.
I think the Victorians had led the way with the testing regime in quarantine of having an early test at three days and a latest at 11 days.
[There were] a variety of reasons why people didn’t want to be tested, including children, parents not wanting a swab being given to children. But now people have a choice to be tested at the end of quarantine or not. It is just if they choose not to, they will be staying in quarantine for another 10 days.
Updated
One of the many, many deputy chief medical officers we all discovered we had, Dr Nick Coatsworth, had a chat to ABC Breakfast this morning.
He was asked about the Victorian situation and said it may be necessary to reinstate some restrictions in some areas:
What we have seen in the past week is an unprecedented effort to control an urban outbreak in a major Australian city.
Keeping if mind, the Victorian health system is the one that managed to do 160,000 tests in two weeks.
… They have gone door-to-door in those affected local government areas, to communicate with the households who are in the thick of it down there, and make sure they understand when and where they can get tested.
So, I think it’s probably too early to say what the effect of that will be, but it’s certainly a major effort going on, and there’s every reason to suspect that it will be able to be brought under control.
Premier Andrews left open the possibility of increasing restrictions in certain geographic areas.
But certainly the coming days and the coming numbers will be very important to have a look at it.
Updated
Scott Morrison is up at 11.15(ish) today, for a press conference.
Updated
AAP has an ASX update as the pandemic continues to cause the share market to yo-yo:
Shares are likely to fall at the opening of the trading week on the Australian market mainly on investor concerns about the coronavirus remaining out of control in the US.
The Australian SPI 200 futures contract was lower by 91.0 points, or 1.56%, to 5,757.0 at 0800 AEST on Monday.
Stocks on Wall Street finished last week sharply lower as coronavirus infections in the US hit an all-time high, prompting states like Texas and Florida to reverse course on the reopening of businesses.
For a third consecutive day on Saturday, the number of confirmed US cases rose by more than 40,000, one of the largest surges in the world.
The major indices fell than 2.0% and have provided a weak lead for their Australian counterpart.
The US virus cases have injected jitters into a market that has been mostly riding high since April on hopes that the global economy will recover from a deep recession as businesses open doors.
Gold prices have increased as worried investors flock to safe haven assets, while oil prices have fallen on weakening demand.
Australia itself is not immune from increasing virus cases. Victoria has recorded double-digit increases in new Covid-19 infections for 12 days running, and had 90 new cases over the weekend.
The ASX 200 fell 0.65% last week, with the US virus rate a major catalyst.
The Australian dollar was buying 68.50 US cents at 0800 AEST, lower from 68.83 US cents at the close of trade on Friday.
Updated
In the latest Newspoll, Scott Morrison’s approval rating has risen two points to 68%, but the Coalition has seen no electoral benefit – the two-party preferred measure remains at 51 to 49.
Updated
The Grattan Institute has released a report on moving the economy through the next stage of the pandemic – The Recovery Book; what Australian governments should do now
It includes this:
Without further stimulus, unemployment will remain too high and the economy will grow more slowly than it could for many years.
The Reserve Bank should use the tools at its disposal to further stimulate economic activity, although there are limits to how much it can help. Governments should start planning for sizeable fiscal stimulus to support the economy beyond October and into next year.
The recovery would be aided by ongoing reforms such as increases to jobseeker, rent assistance, and childcare that would cost at least $21bn over the next two years.
If governments want to get unemployment back down to 5% or below by mid-2022 then they will need to be prepared to spend another $20bn to $40bn on services,infrastructure, and social housing.
Both federal and state governments will emerge from this crisis with a lot more debt than pre-pandemic.
But they should not risk the economic recovery by moving too fast to consolidate their budget positions. Interest rates are at record lows and the debt position is manageable.
Governments can keep debt contained in the medium term by pursuing reforms to boost economic growth and by running tighter budgets after the economy has recovered.
Governments should not rely on bracket creep, increasing inefficient taxes, or welfare cuts to do the heavy liftingon budget repair.
If they do, the young and the vulnerable will pay twice: first with their jobs during the shutdown, and second with a higher tax burden, slower growth, and a weaker safety net.
Over time governments may need to reassess the appropriateness of their traditional anchors for macroeconomic policy. The Reserve Bank’s inflation targeting framework and the government’s medium-term fiscal strategy to achieve budget surpluses on average over the course of the economic cycle may no longer be fit for purpose.
Updated
Of the 114,000 or so voters in Eden-Monaro, about 16,000 have already lodged their vote.
For context, one of the reasons the government is planning on increasing the jobseeker (previously Newstart) rate, or that we are having the conversation at all, is because the government knows there is about to be a large group of people, who have never been on benefits before, about to be made unemployed.
When the wage subsidy runs out in September, there will be businesses that fold almost immediately, because there was no chance of them coming back after the shutdown. That is the “cliff” Labor is talking about. And that is why the government is warning the unemployment figures – already (unofficially) in double figures, is going to get (officially) worse.
So suddenly, after more than two decades of nothing, the government of the day is seriously talking about raising the rate.
Updated
The covid supplement, which doubled the unemployment benefit to $1,100 a fortnight, is due to end in September. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who believed it would be feasible to return the payment to the old rate of $40 a day. But the government has not said what it plans to do with the payment when that September date rolls round.
Reports in News Corp papers on Sunday said the government was planning on a permanent increase of $75 a week above the old rate. But the minister in charge of social security payment, Anne Ruston said it was news to her:
What I can say about the story that was written today is there is no submission to the effect that has been reported in the paper.
We are very focused on the temporary measures we need to put in place to make sure that we can get Australians through this pandemic to the other side.”
Updated
Back on that interview between Prof Brett Sutton and Dr Norman Swan, the Victorian chief medical officer said the spike in cases in that state wasn’t because Victorians weren’t, in the majority, following the social distancing rules, but because Australia pursued a suppression strategy, rather than an elimination one, when it came to the virus:
It wasn’t through the fact that people fatigued more in Victoria or gave up earlier, but we certainly weren’t quite there in terms of absolute elimination compared to other jurisdictions, and because of that, those changed behaviours means that there’s every chance that that ticks up again.
That’s not an issue if you’re in a state with no transmission at all. You can have 100,000 people in a stadium there, if there’s no virus there, it doesn’t matter how many people are interacting. That’s what happened in New Zealand.
Updated
It is still not the advice of Australia’s health authorities (or at least the ones who sit on the expert health panel advising the national cabinet) that everyone in Australia should wear a mask.
Victoria’s chief medical officer, professor Brett Sutton, had a chat to the ABC’s health expert, Dr Norman Swan, on RN this morning about that very topic:
When asked whether people should be wearing masks, Sutton said health authorities were looking at this.
I take the perspective that when you are really trying to drive numbers down to maintain your test and trace capability it needs to be considered. I have got a team working up some advice now and we will talk about masks in those type of settings for people to choose it and provide some guidance on the masks that work and how much protection you get.
I am certainly not of the view that people become complacent and behave differently and that it actually puts them more at risk. It is pretty clear that wearing a mask might provide more physical distance between you and others as they see you wearing it.
Updated
Good morning
The Eden-Monaro byelection will be held this Saturday and you’ll be hearing a lot about it this week – and how it is standing in the way of learning about government policy.
The jobkeeper review is with the government, but you won’t learn what its plans for the wage subsidy are until after the byelection.
Same goes for jobseeker. There were reports in the weekend News Corp papers that the government was planning on raising the unemployment benefit by $75 above the old $40 a day rate, but that has since been denied by the government. You’ll find out, we are told, after the Eden-Monaro byelection.
Meanwhile, all eyes remain on Victoria, after another 49 positive cases were reported in the state yesterday. Daniel Andrews had warned the testing blitz would mean reports of higher numbers, but it is the levels of community transmission which has people worried.
Over the next three days, Keilor Downs and Broadmeadows remain the focus with Maidstone, Albanvale, Sunshine West, Hallam, Brunswick West, Fawkner, Reservoir and Pakenham, also considered priority testing suburbs.
But health authorities aren’t calling the Victorian situation a “second wave”. (Apparently there is no definition on a second wave).
Yesterday, deputy chief medical officer, Professor Michael Kidd, described it as an “outbreak”.
“This is not a second wave,” he said. “What we’re seeing in Victoria is exactly what was planned when we have outbreaks occurring across the country.”
We’ll have updates on the Covid-19 situation as they come, as well as politics and other related policy news. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.
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