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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Calla Wahlquist and Amy Remeikis

Daniel Andrews announces 10 postcodes returning to stage 3 stay-at-home laws – as it happened

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Summary

Well – not the happiest of days for those living in the 36 Melbourne suburbs that are returning to lockdown for another month. Let’s recap the biggest developments of the day.

The updated lockdown rules for Australia are here. You can continue following our rolling global coverage of the coronavirus outbreak here.

If you’re in Melbourne, and particularly if you’re in a hotspot area, pay attention to social distancing rules and wash your hands frequently. Stay safe, stay strong and we’ll see you in the morning.

Updated

The ever-evolving explainer on Australia’s lockdown rules has been updated to incorporate the new restrictions on hotspots, which will come into effect at 11.59pm tomorrow.

Matilda Boseley ventured to the hotspot suburb of Keilor this morning to talk to locals about how they were feeling about the return to lockdown. This was a theoretical question when Matilda spoke to people this morning, but Daniel Andrews confirmed it this afternoon.

She spoke to a Muslim woman who said she felt targeted by recent media commentary that suggested, on no evidence, that Muslim families were responsible for the spread.

She said:

No one has come up to my face and said, ‘You are causing coronavirus’, but it’s little things. It’s the things you see online and little comments that are made... It’s not the nicest thing to hear because when this all started and it was on the other side of the city, no one mentioned race then.

Updated

Here is a map of all the areas of Melbourne subject to stage 3 stay-at-home orders.

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Thanks to developer Andy Ball for that map.

The full list of the postcodes, which stretch across 36 suburbs, is below. Again, the lockdown is based on postcodes, not suburbs, so if there is some confusion between the two for you, go with the postcode. You can check your postcode here.

  • Postcode 3038: Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens.
  • Postcode 3064: Cragieburn, Donnybrook, Kalkallo, Mickleham, Roxburgh Park.
  • Postcode 3047: Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana.
  • Postcode 3060: Fawkner.
  • Postcode 3012: Brooklyn, Kingsville, Maidstone, Tottenham and West Footscray.
  • Postcode 3032: Ascot Vale, Highpoint City, Maribyrnong and Travancore.
  • Postcode 3055: Brunswick South, Brunswick West, Moonee Vale and Moreland West.
  • Postcode 3042: Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie. (Australia Post lists Niddrie North as a separate suburb in this postcode, but the Victorian government release does not.)
  • Postcode 3021: Albanvale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans.
  • Postcode 3046: Glenroy, Hadfield, and Oak Park.

Updated

While Victoria was learning which suburbs would have to go back into lockdown, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed that nightclubs could reopen from tonight, but patrons had to be seated and maintain a 1.5m distance.

That’s right. You can’t dance if you want to.

Twitter has risen to the occasion.

Updated

We’ll celebrate anything, at this point.

Prime minister Scott Morrison was asked earlier today about the possibility of a suburb-based lockdown at a press conference in Lobs Hole, NSW, where he is on the campaign trail for the Eden-Monaro byelection.

He said he was working closely with Victorian premier Daniel Andrews — which is the same thing Andrew said.

And he said the outbreak should not prompt other states to extend their border closures, as Queensland and South Australia have, or close a previously unclosed border, as NSW has been pressured to do.

Morrison said:

I want to commend the Northern Territory government with how they’re dealing with this. The Northern Territory government has kept their borders open but they’ve said if you’re coming from one of those hotspots, then you have to declare it and you have to go into quarantine in the Northern Territory. That’s how this should be done. That’s the right way to do it.

There will be outbreaks. There will be hotspots, and you can’t just shut Australia up every time there’s an outbreak. We need to ensure our economy builds back with confidence and with resilience. So I think it’s important that the borders are open.

He continued:

There are ways to mitigate the risks that are coming out of Victoria, and, frankly, to resist all of Victoria makes little sense. There is a hotspot in one part of Melbourne. Admittedly, it’s very serious, it has our total focus, and it is of great concern.

But if you’re living in Wangaratta then you’re no more affected by what’s going on in those suburbs of Melbourne than if you’re living in Whyalla. So we’ve got to get some perspective, and that’s why I commend the Northern Territory government on the approach they’re taking. They have very sensitive communities in the Northern Territory and I think they’ve made this call absolutely right and are showing leadership that I think the other states should follow.

I take the point, but Wangaratta is just three hours drive from Melbourne and a lot of people who grew up in Wangaratta (hello) now live in Melbourne and return home frequently to visit family.

Not calling for a Wangaratta lockdown, but I reckon there’s been significantly more movement in recent weeks between Melbourne’s hotspot suburbs and Wangaratta than between those hotspots and Whyalla.

Updated

Western Australia has reported two new Covid-19 cases, both in hotel quarantine.

They are a man in his 40s, who travelled from the UK, and a woman in her 60s, who travelled from Pakistan.

Here’s a wrap of the Victorian announcement from our Melbourne bureau chief and health reporter, Melissa Davey.

Updated

One of the biggest takeaways from the Covid-19 committee inquiry hearing today is that, even though jobkeeper isn’t accessible to everyone who needs it, the arts industry is begging the government to keep it going beyond September.

Evelyn Richardson, the chief executive of Live Performance Australia, told the committee that the industry was talking about how nervous people were about jobkeeper running out because, even if businesses can reopen by September, “shows could get shut down for 24 hours, two days or two weeks”.

The Australian Festivals Association’s general manager, Julia Robinson, said providing jobkeeper until venues could reopen would prevent artists and workers from having to leave the live performance industry permanently.

We are a bit like a trade. It is not something you can learn in the classroom. You need to be on the ground learning these skills. Keeping those industries and those suppliers and those crew, keeping them on the books, is really important.

Updated

Oh :(

Burke says the Morrison government should extend jobkeeper and the increased payment to jobseeker past the planned cut-off in September, in response to some suburbs in Melbourne returning to lockdown.

More states may end up in a similar situation in the coming months, who knows. But it makes it increasingly ridiculous for the government to claim that all the protections, including jobkeeper, are going to fall off a cliff in September.

If they do that, at a time where the economy is going to be as fragile as this, they are simply pushing a whole lot of businesses and a whole lot of jobs straight to a cliff.

This is partly a valid point but mainly another call for the government to release the jobkeeper review before the Eden-Monaro byelection on 4 July.

Updated

Burke also makes a few points about the difficulty of closing the border between New South Wales and Victoria, which remains open and, both states have said, will not be closed.

There are, he says, “so many crossing points”.

Many, many, many more than there are between South Australia and Victoria, or New South Wales and Queensland.

As a person who grew up near the Murray, I’ll chime in and say I cannot imagine how you would police it. There are twin cities, twin towns, all along the Murray River. It’s barely a border.

I’ve also noticed that much has been made on Queensland requiring Victorians who want to travel north to undergo a 14-day quarantine, and pay for that quarantine.

That is exactly what WA has been doing for everyone since late March.

Updated

The Labor frontbencher Tony Burke is on ABC24, and is asked by host Patricia Karvelas about the success of Australia’s health response.

Says PK: “Because clearly our efforts to suppress the virus haven’t worked everywhere.”

Burke:

They haven’t worked everywhere, but they have worked. We are one of the most successful countries in the world at dealing with suppressing the virus ...

Certainly what we’ve done with social distancing and hand hygiene has made a real difference and a significant difference. And certainly, for Victoria, they will do the contact tracing as quickly as they can, they have taken very serious actions today. I think it would be a big mistake as a nation, if we were to look at there being a second outbreak and saying somehow we failed on the health response.

There’s a lot of aspects on the economic response where I’m concerned about where the government is heading, but in terms of the health response I wouldn’t think for a minute we as a nation should lose our nerve on how we got this far.

Updated

Leave the fruit bats out of it, please.

Kidd is also asked about the possibility of compelling people to take a Covid-19 test if they refuse, and he does not really give an answer.

Basically, Kidd says it is legally possible to compel people to take a test, or to detain them if they will not take a test. But he won’t say if this should happen, instead just saying it would be really nice and helpful if people do agree to take the test.

We know, from what Daniel Andrews said earlier, that about 900 people across hotspot suburbs have refused a test in the door-to-door testing program.

Kidd:

My request to all the people in Victoria, if someone approaches you and asks you to please do a test, please comply. These tests are there to protect us all. They’ll be protecting you and your health and wellbeing. They’ll be protecting your family, they’ll be protecting the wider community.

Testing is a fundamental tenet of the work we’re doing.

Updated

Kidd is asked if other states should reconsider the three-step plan to open up in light of the Melbourne outbreak.

Kidd:

We have said right from the outset that we expect to see outbreaks occurring and when those outbreaks do occur we move in, we test, we trace and we respond and that is exactly what happened in Victoria in response to the community transmission that we have seen over the past week or so, it is exactly what happened in north-west Tasmania with the outbreaks in the hospitals in Burnie and we expect this will continue to happen.

We are living in a world with Covid-19 at the moment, we still have people coming into the country, especially Australians repatriated from abroad, and so we expect that there will be continuing people coming into the country with Covid-19 and the risk that we will get further outbreaks occurring.

He said that “every state and territory needs to look at the three steps they’re moving to and make their decisions about which steps are appropriate, what restrictions can and can’t be used at this time, in their own states, for their own populations”.

All those decisions should be based on the “local epidemiology”, he says.

Updated

Victorian lockdown will 'save lives': Kidd

The deputy national chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, is speaking now.

He says the commonwealth supports the Victorian government’s actions, which will “save lives”.

This is the north-west Tasmanian model being implemented in a metropolitan setting in a large city. The action being taken in Victoria is appropriate. This action is in line with the national approach of test, trace and respond. The actions being taken by the Victorian government will save lives.

He says the level of testing conducted in Victoria over the past few days is “exceptional and unprecedented”.

We all remain very concerned about the outbreak in Victoria and the continuing cases of community transmission. The Australian government supports the widespread testing that continues in Victoria and the extensive contact tracing to identify those who may have been exposed to people infected with Covid-19.

Kidd says there were 71 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the past 24 hours (65 in Victoria) and there have been no additional deaths.

The total number of reported cases in Australia is 7,834, and 104 deaths.

Updated

What does the localised Victorian lockdown mean?

From midnight tomorrow, if you live in one of the 10 postcodes subject to the stage 3 lockdown, you will only be allowed to leave home for four reasons.

Those four reasons are shopping for food and essential goods, care and caregiving, exercise, and study or work.

Essentially, it’s back to late March for everyone in those suburbs.

The lockdown will remain in place until 29 July.

The postcodes again are 3038, 3064, 3047, 3060, 3012, 3032, 3055, 3042, 3021, 3046.

Businesses in those areas which have been able to open up, such as restaurants and cafes for dining in, and gyms and beauty salons, have to close again.

There will be a $5,000 support payment available.

From a Victorian government statement:

We know close personal contact has been the source of the spread. That’s why we need local residents to do the right thing: assume you may be infectious – and act accordingly.

If you live outside these locations, there’s only four reasons to come in: shopping for food and supplies, care and caregiving, exercise, and study or work – if you can’t do it from home.

Updated

And that’s it. That was... quite an update.

We’re expecting a national update from the deputy chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, shortly.

Is this outbreak linked to the Cedar Meats outbreak?

Brett Sutton:

No, the Cedar Meats virus seem to have been snuffed out in early June.

Updated

'Zero visitors' allowed in priority postcodes

The eternal question of whether people under stage 3 restrictions can visit their partner, or be visited by them, has reared its head. Again.

Chief health officer Brett Sutton says:

I don’t think that is settled as of today, we will work that through tonight and that will obviously be a direction from midnight tomorrow night.

What about visiting other relatives?

No, I think the issue about visiting homes is exactly that – that for relatives, you really shouldn’t in these priority postcodes. The ‘zero visitors’ is exactly that.

Updated

Andrews would not elaborate on the kind of behaviour that the staff in hotel quarantine are accused of doing, saying that would be the subject of an inquiry.

But he says it’s very basic, well-known procedures not being followed, such as staff sharing cigarette lighters.

He says something like sharing a cigarette lighter “might be seemingly innocent, quite low risk – it’s not”.

As I have said, I don’t know how many times I have said it now, this is wildly infectious and one slip up can be the difference between you getting it.

If you are a bit unfortunate and you were mild symptoms, you could literally go about your business for weeks. You might never even know that you had it, but in the process, you have infected who knows how many people, particularly if you are from a large family and your large family is socialising with other large families.

If you add on top of that — this is by way of example, I’m not quoting an actual instance — but if that sort of behaviour was then made worse and compounded by someone who, say, had tested positive but decided not to stay at home, that is when you start to see some of the challenges we are facing.

Updated

Daniel Andrews is asked if there’s a chance that tests could be made mandatory.

He says the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 “does allow if someone is an unreasonable risk to public health they can be detained”.

Those powers have not been used since the act was drafted, he says. But they want to avoid resorting to “forced tests”. Which, honestly, sounds awful.

Andrews says he looked at the issue of forcing people to get tests “very, very, deeply”.

There will be much more close contact involved in a compulsory test than in someone simply refusing and closing the door. That is not the desired outcome. I want people when they are asked, [there’s] someone standing at your door, you don’t have to do much, you just say yes and you make a massive contribution to our collective fight against this virus.

I want the answer to be yes. I would make the point for practical reasons, if someone for whatever reason decides that they don’t want to be tested, and we have reason to think that we’d be benefited by them getting tested, there will be much more contact in a forced test.

He says that if people do not want to get a test because they don’t want to have to stay at home and miss work while waiting for the test result, they will be eligible for a hardship payment of $1,500.

If refusal is due to pain or discomfort from a nasal swab, people can be tested using the new saliva test developed by the Doherty Institute.

Updated

Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, is asked how many of the recent cases can be traced back to quarantine hotel staff.

He says it “is a very significant proportion and it might be even greater”.

Which does not mean anything, really.

Are we talking about dozens? Hundreds?

Of those recent cases that have been analysed through late May and into mid-June, there were dozens that have been analysed. They don’t represent all of the cases that we have had over that period but they are the ones that are linking back to hotel quarantine.

Any hotels in particular?

You are well aware that both hotels have already had linked cases to them in terms of the staff, but I don’t have the full picture because we don’t have some of the most recent results, and they are a sample of all of those cases that occurred through May, June.

Updated

'It is Covid-normal'

Daniel Andrews has repeatedly said that if the lockdown of the 10 hotspots does not work, then the whole state could be locked down again.

These are extraordinary steps, these are not things we have had to do in the past, but such is the nature of this virus, it is so wildly infectious, that if we don’t take these steps now, we will finish up in a situation [where] we will be locking down every postcode.

He repeats that even people outside of the hotspot areas need to observe social distancing rules, get tested and stay home if they have any cold or flu symptoms, as well as maintain strict hand hygiene protocols.

It is not normal that we can go back to. It is Covid-normal that we all have to find, and I’m sad to say embrace, for the foreseeable future. There is no vaccine for this wildly infectious virus and none of us can afford the act like it is over because we want it to be over.

Updated

Andrews says he will not comment on the decisions of other states to extend their border closures with Victoria.

Be he says that people in the hotspots should not be travelling to NSW or anywhere else, because it’s unlikely to be one of the four allowed reasons to leave your home.

So that, I think, deals with that issue from a hotspot point of view.

On the health advice I have, there is no need for us to impose restrictions beyond that. And, indeed, it wouldn’t just be New South Wales that those families were not permitted to travel to, they would not be permitted for the purposes of food, care giving, work. That would be very rare if work had to be done in another state or a long way away from your home.

He says the diverted flights are only in relation to international flights where passengers would have gone into hotel quarantine.

So, domestic flights — or anything that would not require quarantine at the end — are fine.

I want all of our energies focused on dealing with the spike in cases and the lockdown. In some respects it stands to reason other states are not having to do the sort of door-knocking and contact tracing and mass testing we are doing and I’m deeply grateful for them inevitably taking those few hundred people [in hotel quarantine].

Updated

Daniel Andrews said he also requested additional support staff from the federal government.

That support will be:

  • 100 team leaders to help with the coordination of the suburban testing blitz.
  • 200 clinical staff to help free up other clinical staff
  • 500 commonwealth public servants, principally those already based in Melbourne, to help with the community engagement strategy, which is basically door-knocking.

Asked why he rejected the Australian Defence Force advice, Andrews says he expects the clinical staff will primarily come from the ADF but he was advised by Victoria police that they don’t need the ADF to help them enforce the lockdown on the street.

That’s primarily because ADF members don’t have the authority to enforce Victorian laws and Victorian public health orders.

And on police, Andrews says he does not “want to have to stand at this podium and report that hundreds and hundreds of people have received fines – and there is no need for me to have to do that”.

But he adds that “Victoria Police will not be mucking about”.

Updated

Schools in those 10 postcodes remain open at this stage. Andrews notes that Victoria is currently at the start of school holidays, and the decision not to close schools in that area may change before the end of holidays.

If that happens, he says, parents will be informed as soon as possible.

On the advice of the chief health officer, we are seeing no real evidence of transmission between kids and adults. We are seeing no real evidence that school attendance is a big driver of the spike in cases.

Updated

Andrews says outbreak linked to staff in hotel quarantine, diverts flights from Victoria

Daniel Andrews says he received a comprehensive briefing genomic report this morning, which is a particularly complicated form of contact-tracing report.

He says the report showed that “at least a significant number, and potentially more, of the outbreaks in the north of the city are attributable via genomic sequencing to staff members in hotel quarantine breaching well-known and well-understood infection control protocols”.

He continues:

That is unacceptable to me. I’m sure that will be unacceptable certainly to all of those who will be impacted by the restrictions that we have had to reimpose.

Andrews says the outbreak will be subject to an inquiry, led by a former judge.

He says the genomic sequencing takes several weeks, so this outbreak and failure of infection control protocols dates back several weeks. That means recent outbreaks aren’t necessarily linked to security guards in hotel quarantine.

Andrews says he also informed the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to “divert all flights away from Melbourne for the next two weeks”.

I will have conversations with other state leaders to explain that and to thank them in advance of the extra load that they will carry.

Andrews says the report is “the most comprehensive genomic sequencing report I have received throughout the pandemic and on that basis I have taken this action”.

This is deeply frustrating. This is unacceptable and we will have that judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of exactly what has occurred.

Updated

Andrews says people who live in those postcodes but work elsewhere will be able to enter those areas for work but not for other reasons (excepting care/compassionate – basically the same rules that applied when the whole state was under stage 3 lockdown).

Andrews:

You shouldn’t be going into those postcodes over the next four weeks unless it is for work, and only for work that you have to do in person. You shouldn’t be going into those postcodes unless it was, for instance, to get care or to give care...

We have to limit the number of people who are going in and out of these postcodes and sadly we have to ensure that residents – families within these postcodes – do not leave their home other than for those four permitted reasons, and again, only when they need to.

He said police would be “actively enforcing these suburban lockdowns”.

They will be patrolling throughout these communities and if people are out of their home then they will be politely asked ‘why are you out of your home?’ and if you are out of your home for anything other than a permitted reason, then financial penalties apply – on-the-spot fines apply.

He also said the main transport corridors “in and out of these suburbs will be the subject of booze bus-type checks”.

On school holidays, anyone who is already on holiday but lives in those postcodes will be allowed to remain on holiday, but anyone who has not yet left is asked to cancel.

Updated

The areas subject to the reinstated lockdown are:

  • Postcode 3012: Brooklyn, Kingville, Maidstone, Tottenham, West Footscray.
  • Postcode 3021: Alban Vale, Kealba, Kings Park, St Albans.
  • Postcode 3032: Ascot Vale, High Point City, Maribyrnong, Travancore.
  • Postcode 3038: Keilor Downs, Keilor Lodge, Taylors Lakes, Watergardens.
  • Postcode 3042: Airport West, Keilor Park, Niddrie.
  • Postcode 3046: Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park.
  • Postcode 3047: Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana.
  • Postcode 3055: Brunswick South, Brunswick West, Moonee Vale, Moreland West.
  • Postcode 3060: Fawkner.
  • Postcode 3064: Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickleham, Roxburgh Park and Kalkallo.

Everyone living in any of these 10 postcodes must obey the stage 3 stay-at-home orders or face on-the-spot fines. Andrews says police will be actively patrolling those areas.

Updated

Victoria reimposes stage 3 stay-at-home orders for hotspot suburbs

Well, that was probably expected.

Daniel Andrews has announced the reintroduction of stage 3 stay-at-home orders for hotspot suburbs, which means that from 11.59pm tomorrow night people living in those suburbs — which I’ll list shortly — will only be allowed to leave their home for four reasons.

The orders will be in place until 29 July.

Andrews said:

There will only be four reasons that you are permitted to leave your house and only if you really have to. For work or school, for care or care giving, for daily exercise, for food and other essentials. They are the acceptable reasons to leave, but only if you need to.

Updated

'Unacceptably high' number of cases: Andrews

Andrews says there have been 233 new cases of Covid-19 detected in Victoria since last Thursday. As previously reported, 64 of those were detected in the past 24 hours.

That is an unacceptably high number and one that poses a real threat to all of us, not just in those hotspot suburbs but indeed in every suburb and ultimately every community across our state.

The suburbs with the highest number of new cases are Broadmeadows, Fawkner and Auburn Vale.

Andrews says 928 people refused to be tested in Broadmeadows alone.

Now I can’t change that. That’s happened. All I can do is encourage those people come forward and get tested today.

Updated

Andrews said 17,416 tests were performed yesterday. More than 93,000 tests have been conducted in the testing blitz over the past three days, and 37,000 doors have been knocked on in the 10 priority suburbs.

Thousands of those tests are yet to be processed, he says.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking now.

The senate select committee on Covid-19 has heard from representatives from the regional and visual arts sector. They also criticised the government’s recently announced $250m coronavirus recovery package for the arts.

The executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, Esther Anatolitis, questioned why the package would not be managed by the Australia Council, which the industry has “huge confidence in”.

There is no need to create a parallel process that takes the expertise away from taxpayers’ money and adds a layer of duplication.

Inquiry committee member senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the arts package was less than a third of the funding offered under the government’s homebuilder scheme, despite the fact that, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released this morning, 23.9% of arts and recreation jobs have been lost compared to 5% in the construction sector.

Anatolitis said there was “no comprehensive consultation” with arts organisations around the package, and it was concerning if the package did not ensure funding was distributed across the sector.

Updated

Thanks to the wonderful Amy for seeing us through a busy morning.

We are standing by to hear from Daniel Andrews and Jenny Mikakos at 3.15pm but, as Amy pointed out, they often do not start on time.

Updated

Calla Wahlquist will take you through the busy afternoon. You have Daniel Andrews and Jenny Mikakos coming up in the next 30 minutes (Victoria’s press conferences don’t have a habit of starting on time) and then Australia’s deputy chief medical officer Prof Michael Kidd will hold a national update at 4pm– the second national update in a row.

That’s interesting because we have only been getting the national updates a couple of times a week lately.

Thank you for joining me today. I’m sorry if you are unable to visit family because of the Covid situation in Victoria. We are all thinking of you guys and hope the outbreak is brought under control soon. Take care of you.

Updated

The Senate’s select committee on Covid-19 is live broadcasting day one of its three-day public hearing. The focus of today: how coronavirus has impacted Australia’s arts sector and whether the government is doing enough to keep it afloat.

The first session heard from representatives from the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA), Regional Arts Australia and Regional Arts NSW.

The main takeaway so far is that the jobkeeper and jobseeker schemes have not been designed with the arts sector in mind.

For one thing, witnesses pointed out that 51% of public galleries are owned by the local government and 13% by universities. This means that none of the people who work there have been able to access wage support because government-funded entities are exempt from jobkeeper.

NAVA’s executive director, Esther Anatolitis, also said that in the arts sector it was not only normal to work as a casual, but “jobs with durations of only a few months is a mark of success and attainment in your field”.

A visual artist, or a curator, or an exhibitionist, is not creating the same art for the same gallery every year if they are at that fantastic level where they are invited and in demand. And [because jobkeeper is available only to those who have worked for at least 12 months in the same organisation] that mark of success is what is disadvantaging workers in visual arts in particular.

Esther Anatolitis
Esther Anatolitis says it is common in the arts to work as a casual. Photograph: Sarah Walker

Updated

Don’t be surprised if Victoria announces localised lockdowns.

Yesterday, the chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said authorities wanted to gather data before they moved forward with anything, as they wanted the decision to be based on science.

There will be difficulties – with the spread among family groups, that makes locking down harder. Families will still meet, and closing businesses doesn’t necessarily help with that.

That’s the same problems with mask wearing – will families wear it when they are at home together?

Still, 14 days of double-digit cases, with community transmission – and today, no cases from hotel quarantine (which is where most of the other cases reported across the nation are coming from) - means Victoria will be seriously looking at the next step in the plan developed by the national cabinet: lockdowns.

Updated

We are waiting to hear whether Victoria has progressed whether or not it will be doing localised lockdowns or recommending masks.

Updated

In other Victorian cases:

  • A second healthcare worker from the Orygen youth health facility in Footscray has tested positive. The healthcare worker was a close contact of the original case and had been in quarantine.
  • Two additional staff at the Al-Taqwa college in Truganina have tested positive, as have two staff members at Camberwell grammar school.
  • Students at two new schools have tested positive: one was a student at St Bernard’s college in Essendon, who attended school while infectious, and two students from Moreland primary school in Coburg have tested positive. Cleaning of relevant classrooms and common areas at all schools will be undertaken and contact tracing is underway.
  • Positive cases have been identified at five childcare centres. All centres will undergo a deep clean and contact tracing has begun. The centres are: Guardian Childcare and Education in Pascoe Vale; the Grove Children’s Centre in Coburg; Little Steps Family Day Care in Sunshine; Clare Court Children’s Service in Yarraville; and Kids on Queens Parade in Fitzroy north.

Updated

Victoria’s cases linked to outbreaks:

Updated

For those who missed it, Victoria recorded its 14th day of double-digit Covid cases today.

In the past 24 hours, 64 people tested positive. They have reclassified four previous cases (which had been duplicated) so the state’s total was revised to add an additional 60 since yesterday.

But none of the cases were in hotel quarantine.

Within Victoria, 13 new cases are linked to outbreaks, 20 new cases have been identified through routine testing and 31 cases are under investigation. No new cases have been detected in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

Updated

Daniel Andrews will address the media at 3.15pm.

Updated

The national Covid update has been moved to 4pm.

Federal LNP MP David Littleproud has asked the Queensland premier to waive the fines of south-west country pubs that were fined by police for ignoring social distancing rules. He said:

I hope the premier will see that these fines are too harsh.

The Roma Royal, one of the pubs fined, has bled thousands of dollars already because of the shutdown and this fine could be the last straw.

I’m not condoning the breaches of social distancing that were identified but a fine of $6,672 could send this pub broke.

What is needed here is education. To make sure the importance of social distancing rules are learnt and that those rules must be followed. But don’t bring down a country business.

Country pubs are often the place for the local community to gather and gives towns their character.

They employ local people, which in turn puts keeps families in the region and puts money into other businesses.

Premier Palaszczuk has the chance to reconsider the severity of the fine and give the country pub a break.

I ask the premier, please don’t send them broke.

Keep this plea in mind the next time someone is fined for doing something they didn’t understand – like, I don’t know, meeting their mutual obligations in what can be a very confusing welfare system.

Updated

The Queensland chief health officer, Dr Jeanette Young, is asked about Gladys Berejikilian’s claim that Queenslanders had taken the virus to NSW.

Berejiklian said:

We’ve already – can I put on the record – ironically we’ve already had people from Queensland and WA bring the disease to New South Wales.

So we’ve already experienced that level of interstate transmission, if you like, and we’ve dealt with it.

Dr Young responds:

There was one case early on that we think that someone came along the coast, sailed down the coast of Queensland, and they ended up being confirmed in New South Wales.

So we never quite worked out whether they got it while they were sailing along the coast, coming into a port or whether they had it when they first arrived into the waters of Queensland.

Updated

Queensland premier lashes border critics

Annastacia Palaszczuk is now giving her own return serve to border critics, including Scott Morrison:

I think, for a start, these border wars have got to stop.

I think a national leader should have been able to bring all of the states and territories together.

Frankly, I’m a bit sick that Queensland has been singled out as opposed to South Australia and Tasmania, just to name a few.

And perhaps if Victoria had been almost self-quarantined or quarantined, then the prime minister could have set a date for all of the other states and territories once Victoria was under control.

At the moment, what we have is a bit of a confrontation where fights are being picked at different states and, frankly, I don’t think it’s good enough.

I’ve been silent for a long time and I will not be silenced for standing up for what I believe to be right, for the health advice that I’m being provided for by [chief health officer Jeannette Young].

And Dr Young, and the advice that she has given us, has put Queensland in a very good position. We’re not out of it yet. We know that.

We know we’ve got a long way to go. But we have been able to open up Queensland faster.

I just want to share this with you, this is really important, because the total benefit of our internal restrictions being eased, that’s stages 1, 2 and 3, is worth about $1.82bn a month and is under 167,000 jobs.

Now, that’s a lot of people that are able to get back into work, into Queensland, and get the economy going in Queensland faster because of the health response that we have had here.

Annastacia Palaszczuk today in Brisbane
Annastacia Palaszczuk today in Brisbane: ‘These border wars have got to stop.’ Photograph: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Updated

Annastacia Palaszczuk also warns residents from travelling to Victoria:

Can I urge all Queenslanders: please do not go to Victoria. Please do not go to Victoria. Stay in Queensland.

We now have the crossover of New South Wales and Victoria school holidays. Our concern is people from New South Wales going into Victoria and then choosing to come to Queensland. That is why we now have the border declaration that must be declared. And if you falsify that document, it’s $4,000.

Updated

Back to Queensland, and it is also moving its own restrictions into stage 3, a week earlier than planned.

The health minister, Steven Miles, says:

Our limits on private gatherings will increase from a maximum of 20 to a maximum of 100 from 3 July, from this Friday.

That’s 100 guests at weddings, funerals, house parties and fitness classes.

From Friday, Queenslanders will be able to order a beer at the bar, play the pokies, order a counter meal or go to the casino. Kids’ sport will be back.

Contact sport will be back.

As well as spectators. I know many parents like me who will be looking forward to busy Saturdays racing from one soccer field to another.

In hospitality, pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes, the limit of 20 people per space will be lifted.

There will be no maximum of number of people per space or venue provided they have 4 square metres of floor space per patron.

In smaller patron, they will be allowed one person per 2 square metres, up to a maximum of 50 for venues between 100 and 200 square metres.

That’s smaller venues. In stadiums, we will allow them up to 50% of capacity or 25,000 spectators, whichever is the lesser. All of these new restrictions, though, require ongoing adherence to physical distancing.

Updated

Victoria confirms 64 new Covid cases

Over to Victoria for a moment, and the official numbers are out from Victoria Health:

The total number of coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Victoria is 2,159, with 64 new cases reported yesterday.

The overall total has increased by 60, with four cases reclassified due to duplications.

Within Victoria, 13 new cases are linked to outbreaks, 20 new cases have been identified through routine testing and 31 cases are under investigation.

No new cases have been detected in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

There have been no new deaths reported. To date, 20 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.

There have been 281 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria that have been acquired through unknown transmission. There are currently 321 active cases in Victoria.

Currently, nine people with coronavirus infection are in hospital, including one patient in intensive care; 1816 people have recovered from the virus.

Updated

Steven Miles, who is also the health minister, gives a nod to the political pressure Annastacia Palaszczuk was under previously with this decision.

While WA, SA, the NT and Tassie all had their borders closed as well, the focus was on Queensland – *cough, October state election, cough*.

I want to thank the chief health officer and the premier for holding firm on these decisions. If we had relaxed our borders sooner, as some called on us to do, these cases would be here now.

We would be battling these cases here now. It’s easy for those on the sidelines and even those in Canberra to make calls, but the responsibility for the health of Queenslanders rests with their government, their premier, their chief health officer.

These new restrictions will apply to people travelling from and in Victoria after midday on 3 July.

Updated

The deputy premier, Steven Miles, says the decision was made based on evidence.

I want to emphasise that there is no interstate rivalry here. We’re all in this together and we all need to work together.

It’s in all of our interests for us to suppress this virus across the country including, right now, in Victoria. We’ve now offered, and sent, our deputy chief health officer to Victoria to assist them.

We are undertaking testing here every single day of Victorian-taken samples. We have called today for expressions of interest for 40 nurses who we will deploy to Victoria to assist them.

This virus does not respect state borders and so we must enforce them.

These new, stricter rules will ensure that we contain the virus in Victoria.

Our message to Queenslanders is: please do not go there. Our message to Victorians is: please do not come here. Until these outbreaks are under control. We do not want to bring those cases here. We want to be able to use our resource in Victoria to assist them there.

Updated

The Queensland premier, who has had to stare down critics to keep the border closed (and is still facing a high court case which will decide what powers states have in the future) says the decision to reopen was not made lightly:

The chief health officer has provided government with very clear advice.

My number one concern is to protect Queenslanders and Queensland families.

That’s what you support me to do and that is what I wake up every single day wanting to ensure I do the best for this state.

These decisions have not been taken lightly. They have been given careful consideration from the chief health officer and from government. We believe we have the balance right.

We will do everything to preserve Queensland’s good record at preventing the spread of Covid-19 in our state. We are in a very good position at the moment, but we know at any time anything could change. We have good systems in place and we must do anything we can do to help Victoria during this time.

Updated

Annastacia Palaszczuk:

In relation to the other states and territories, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Northern Territory and ACT are all in a similar position to Queensland.

So, from July 10, people will be allowed to into Queensland after filling in a border declaration.

This border declaration is to ensure that no one has travelled to Victoria in the past 14 days.

If you falsify a document, you will face strict penalties and fines up to $4,000.

There is also one proviso here, and I hope Queensland families will understand this: if the chief health officer reviews any state or territory at any time and there is outbreaks of community transmission like Victoria, we may have to take further actions. So I just want to make sure that everyone is aware of that.

Updated

Queensland to open borders on 10 July as planned - but not to Victorians

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says that from Friday 3 July the state will be moving into stage 3 – weddings can have up to 100 people, contact community sport is back, there are no limits on outdoor spectators, and pubs and clubs will be able to have one person per 2 square metres.

Churches will be able to have family households sit together.

On borders, the premier says that “Queensland has very large concerns about the state of Victoria”, but the borders will be open to all other jurisdictions except Victoria from 10 July.

From 3 July, anyone who has travelled from Victoria will be prevented from entering or will have to pay, at their own expense, for quarantine in a hotel for two weeks.

Queensland has also sent its deputy chief medical officer to Victoria to help with the outbreak.

Updated

Sarah Hanson-Young has responded to the ABS figures, showing the arts and recreation industry has lost four times as many jobs as the construction industry:

“The construction industry is receiving a package worth three times as much as the arts and entertainment industry despite only losing 5.3 per cent of payroll jobs compared to 24% per cent.

“These figures show how badly wrong the government has its priorities. If they are intent of saving jobs lost due to COVID19, these numbers need to be turned around, urgently.

“The government’s HomeBuilder scheme is uncapped, showing the Prime Minister is happy to give unlimited funds to an industry that is relatively unscathed in comparison to arts and entertainment.

“The Government should uncap the arts and entertainment grants package immediately. The arts and entertainment industry needs a proper commitment and real support from the Morrison Government.

Queensland is due to make its border announcement (ending months of OPEN THE BORDER rhetoric from conservative governments and politicians) as the state also prepares for an election in October.

My money is on the state opening, as planned, on 10 July - to all but Victorians.

Updated

Reports of 64 new cases in Victoria

The ABC is reporting it has multiple government sources reporting Victoria recorded 64 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.

The official update is expected at 2pm.

Updated

Things are about to get very busy, so if you are hanging on the announcements due to be made this afternoon, make a cup of tea and get ready.

We had a national update yesterday – but are getting one today as well.

The Australian government’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, will provide an update on Covid at 3pm.

Updated

Scott Morrison has popped up with the Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro to announce federal environmental approval for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro storage project – which just happens to be a few days before the byelection.

The prime minister said:

It’s exciting to be here today to announce the green light, the thumbs-up green light for the Snowy 2.0 project to now move to its full implementation phase.

Morrison said works would ramp up over the next two years and the jobs generated would help with the Covid-19 economic recovery.

We know we need to get this up and running to meet our timetable for getting this energy into the system, to getting our emissions reduction targets achieved, and ensuring that the jobs that are so necessary now – even more necessary now than when we first approved the final investment decision for this project, at a time as we’re building our way out of the Covid recession.

The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the approval included “$100m of investment by Snowy Hydro into this environment”. She thanked Snowy Hydro for its work on the environmental impact statement “to make sure that the threatened species, the communities, the precious amenity of Kosciuszko national park will be protected, remediated and even enhanced”.

In a statement, the government said the $100m would be spent on biodiversity and environmental enhancements, “including establishing an offset fund of up to $73.8m through the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to protect threatened species and deliver long-term conservation outcomes”.

We hope to bring you a full report later this afternoon.

The Tumut 3 power station at the Snowy Hydro Scheme in Talbingo, NSW.
The Tumut 3 power station in the Snowy Hydro Scheme in Talbingo, NSW. Prime minister Scott Morrison today announced federal environmental approval for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro storage project. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Western Australia is sending help to Victoria.

(The response from all the states has been the federation working at its best. Other states are helping with logistics and testing, and federal workers are helping to bolster local crews.)

Updated

It is still pretty difficult to leave Australia, but whenever those restrictions are lifted, the EU (for now) has put Australian passports on its OK list.

Numbers in Victoria are still being worked through, but it looks like case numbers might be down from what we saw yesterday.

The infections we are seeing in the past couple of days are from transmission about a week ago. Victoria did more than 15,000 tests in the 24 hours and found 75 positive cases.

This was the plan the national cabinet put in place, in the case of a localised outbreak.

And it’s worth remembering, again, that it could be any jurisdiction dealing with an outbreak as restrictions lift. Australia went with suppression, not elimination, which means the virus remains in the community and could be passed on.

Updated

We’ll be able to update this at 2pm, but so you get an idea of where we are at:

Updated

Oh, and that South Australian order for Victorians applies to the AFL as well.

Queensland moved that way yesterday – players from any code will have to quarantine if they play in Victoria or against a team that has been in Victoria.

That puts the AFL onto Plan E or G for the rest of the season.

Updated

Here is the official word from South Australia:

Updated

My Queensland spies are being very tight-lipped, but it is safe to say that Victorians will not be allowed entry for some time.

As for the rest of the states, where Covid is under control, it looks like that might be OK - helped by the fact that the re-opening is timed for after the school holidays.

We’ll bring you the announcement as soon as it is made.

Updated

The Senate committee looking at the government’s covid response is holding a public hearing today.

It’s looking at the arts response from about 1pm.

Updated

Queensland border announcement to be made at 2pm

It is going to be a busy afternoon.

We are going to get the new Victorian case numbers around then and we should hear from Queensland over what is going to do about its borders at 2pm.

Queensland police officers operating a vehicle checkpoint at Coolangatta on the Queensland-New South Wales border last month.
Queensland police officers operating a vehicle checkpoint at Coolangatta on the Queensland-New South Wales border last month. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Updated

New Zealand has recorded no new Covid cases for the first time in 11 days – the new cases (about 20) were from returning New Zealand travellers and are in quarantine.

Updated

The ABS has released today’s report – it’s on payroll figures:

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today show total payroll jobs increased 1.0 per cent between mid-May and mid-June.

Head of Labour Statistics at the ABS, Bjorn Jarvis, said: “This continued the gradual recovery in payroll jobs since mid-April (when total job losses were 8.8 per cent).

However, payroll jobs are still 6.4 per cent below mid-March, when Australia recorded its 100th confirmed case of COVID-19.”

“The recovery in payroll jobs between mid-April and mid-June represents around 30 per cent of the jobs initially lost,” Mr Jarvis said.

“Between mid-May and mid-June, the easing of restrictions saw payroll jobs increasing faster for the under 20s, up by 4.1 per cent.”

“Payroll jobs in the Accommodation and food services industry recovered by more than other impacted industries between mid-May and mid-June (3.8 per cent), but remained 28.6 per cent lower than in mid-March.”

“Western Australia (2.3 per cent) had the largest increases in jobs between mid-May and mid-June, and their total payroll job losses since mid-March were also the lowest, at 4.4 per cent.”

Mr Jarvis added: “Looking at the week to week changes, payroll jobs showed no change in the week ending 13 June. This follows an increase of 0.2 per cent in the week ending 6 June.”

Updated

For those looking for South Australian travel directions, you can find them here (and it should be updated, as needed).

Updated

NSW Health has put out its update for the day:

Five new cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed between 8pm on 28 June and 8pm on 29 June, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 3,189.

All of today’s new cases are those of returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

And then it gets weirdly personal.

Gladys Berejiklian:

I say to the other states they rely on New South Wales traditionally, they might be feeling happy now but in six months’ time when those jobs continue to go in their own states, they will be feeling the brunt of those decisions.

So I urge them to consider all of that. I urge them to consider how New South Wales has progressed and what what we’ve been able to show.

But, again, I say that with caution. I’d be the last one at all to feel that New South Wales can’t go through what Victoria is going through. Of course we can.

But we’ve demonstrated to date our capacity to leave our borders open and deal with the virus and, as I’ve said, we’ve had batches of cases from people from the ACT, from Queensland, from WA, and we’ve dealt with it, and that’s what we intend to do at this stage.

Gladys Berejiklian then points to interstate transmission at the beginning of the pandemic, as a reason to open the borders:

We’ve already - can I put on the record - ironically we’ve already had people from Queensland and WA bring the disease to New South Wales.

So we’ve already experienced that level of interstate transmission, if you like, and we’ve dealt with it.

And that’s why I say to all the other states we’ve welcomed all the overseas travellers that live in other states.

We’ve even welcomed people who’ve come across your own borders to New South Wales, who had the disease, and we’ve managed that.

There is a path forward, because I don’t want to see further jobs go.

You know, the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have gone in New South Wales were tragic.

We know JobKeeper finishes in September. That’s just a blink away really. We’re in July tomorrow. Unless our state prepares for, that unless the nation prepares for that, we will see hundreds of thousands of other people who won’t have jobs, and will be in very difficult situations, and it is always about this balance that we need to find.


Gladys Berejiklian then says she hopes Queensland will open its borders as planned:

I understand the Queensland premier has something to say in the near future. I encourage her to open her borders.

New South Wales has demonstrated that you can have a covid-safe environment.

You have to be vigilant and I am very concerned about what’s happening in Victoria, especially given what we call the replication factor, the number of cases increasing by the day. I don’t know what today’s figures are for Victoria unless you guys know ahead of me.

I am certainly concerned by the rate of transmission down. There we are keeping a close watch on there. Having said that, we have also kept – New South Wales has kept its borders open during the entire time and we have managed to get to this place through vigilance and the hard work of the community and I ask everybody to continue that.

Updated

The NSW premier then says she is worried about social distancing in her own state:

Things can change very quickly in terms of the rate of community transmission and I urge everybody – I have noticed in and around my movements that people are starting to relax a little bit too much for my liking.

Don’t relax. Assume everybody in and around you has the disease. You have to.

We have to maintain the social distancing. We have to make sure businesses stick to their covid-safe plans. Just because we haven’t had the community transmission that has occurred elsewhere doesn’t mean it can’t happen and the way we stop it from happening is by maintaining the social distancing, the hand-hygiene and sticking to the rules and especially given we ease restrictions from tomorrow, it is a big day for us when we further ease restrictions and we do so with caution, we do so with confidence because I have been so humbled and pleased by the way in which our community has come together and really worked with us, whether it is an organisation, a business or even at an individual level.

Updated

NSW premier tells residents to ban Victorian hotspot visitors from homes and businesses

The NSW/Victoria border remains open but it might as well be closed given this sort of talk from Gladys Berejiklian:

Can I say to anybody: you are the boss of who comes into your home. Do not allow anyone from a hotspot in Melbourne, or from greater Melbourne, to come into your home.

You have the right to say no. Please, if you are a loved one, a friend or a family member, please don’t come up at this time until the community transmission is under control.

If you are a business in New South Wales, you should have those covid-safe plans in place already that prevent transition from one person to another but you have the right to ensure that anyone coming from a hot spot is not welcome on your premises.

These are all actions I encourage everyone to take at this time. Please note that we will continue to be vigilant here in New South Wales.

Updated

NSW bans Victorian from NSW games

Gladys Berejiklian says “Victorians are not welcome to purchase tickets” for games, of any code, which will be held in NSW.

I’ve not given any different advice to what the Victorian health officials are telling their people. Anyone in hot spots or in greater Melbourne should not be travelling, let alone interstate and certainly I appreciate the cooperation all the codes have shown the New South Wales Government in ensuring that ticketses are not sold to Victorians.

So whilst we obviously allow any player to play New South Wales so long as they have been through those strict COVIDSafe measures, and it doesn’t matter which state you are from, all the codes have been applying the strict Covid Safe plans which is what they should be doing, we don’t mind you playing in this state but unfortunately Victorians aren’t welcome to purchase tickments given the rate of community transmission down there.

South Australia had previously boosted police patrols at its border with Victoria, when cases in Victoria began to trend upwards.

Victorians have also had to apply online, ahead of time, if they want to enter South Australia.

It’s not a surprise that South Australia is changing its plans – the writing has been on the wall for the last week.

It hasn’t set a new border date for Victoria.

Updated

South Australia cancels plans to reopen borders on 20 July

The premier of South Australia, Steven Marshall, has just announced that the state will not be reopening its borders as planned on 20 July. He says the decision was made on basis of concerns about the recent outbreak in Melbourne and that there may be exceptions for travellers coming from NSW and the ACT.

A member of the ADF administers a Covid-19 test at Melbourne Showgrounds on Monday.
A member of the ADF administers a Covid-19 test at Melbourne Showgrounds on Monday. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Amidst the spike in cases in Victoria the state’s transport authority, Vic Roads, has sent an email to motorists urging them to get tested “If you have even the mildest of symptoms”.

The message says if you have any symptoms, you must get tested and should:

  • Stay home until you have your results
  • Not go to work or school
  • Not go on holiday
  • Not visit friends and family

To keep your family, friends and community safe you must:

  • Keep your distance from people you don’t live with – no handshakes, hugs or kisses
  • Wash your hands regularly
  • Have no more than 5 visitors at your home
  • Not meet in groups of more than 10 outside the home

“This is a wake up call,” the message email says. “We cannot be complacent. The only thing between us and a second wave, is what we do next.”

For more information go to vic.gov.au/coronavirus

Updated

We may be headed back into Westfield, but ANZ’s latest poll says we are not feeling confident about it.

Via AAP:

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence survey dropped 4.6% to 93 points, the biggest weekly decline since late-March.

The level is still far better than its low point of 65.3 in March, when fears about the pandemic were the highest but the sharp weekly decline means confidence remains well below the long-term average.

“The surge in Covid-19 cases in Victoria has dented consumer confidence,” ANZ senior economist Catherine Birch said.

Updated

The prime minister received the review into the stimulus measures yesterday, but you won’t find out what the government plans to do until later next month (once the Eden-Monaro byelection is safely done and dusted).

The Australian Council of Social Service is one of the many organisations pushing the government to take a serious look at jobseeker, the former Newstart allowance, and not send people spiraling into poverty:

Key facts:

  • There is one job vacancy for every 13 people on jobseeker or youth allowance (according to the ABS)
  • The percentage of people not able to meet their regular housing costs rose from 6.9% in April to 15.1% in May (according to Australian National University research, released today)

Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:

We have just experienced the largest fall in jobs since the great depression. More people than ever before will struggle to find paid work. We’ve just seen 6,000 job losses at Qantas and thousands more in retail, including at Woolworths …

People are desperate to find jobs but there are not enough available. The doubling of jobseeker to the current rate – $550 per week – is still $200 per week less than the minimum wage.

Updated

We usually have an alert from the Premier’s Office or Department of Health letting us know details for the daily press update about Covid-19. So far, press conferences have been held in the morning. However, we have had no alert about a press conference so far this morning.

A spokeswoman for the premier told me that’s because they have so much data to process.

There has been a massive testing blitz in hot-spot suburbs over the past few days, and hundreds of extra staff have been working to process that data.

The spokeswoman said this means the press conference has been pushed back to later in the day, with timing yet to be confirmed.

Updated

AAP has an update on Westfield shopping centres – seems we have returned in droves.

Shoppers seem to be flocking back to stores, with the owner of Westfield centres in Australia saying customer visits are at 86% of the level at the same time a year ago.

Visitor numbers have been helped by 92% of stores trading in Australian centres, following temporary closures.

Owner Scentre Group says more stores will reopen next month, following the relaxation in coronavirus restrictions.

It said cinemas, gyms and more dining outlets would reopen in July when more social distancing restrictions were due to be eased.

Updated

Helen Sullivan has the international coronavirus blog up and running:

Maybe pencil the Queensland announcement in for closer to midday.

There is no word out of that state over what it plans to do - but it doesn’t look like Victorians will have much chance of a sunshine state holiday in the near future (just based on the numbers)

WA remains closed to everyone, with intrastate travel the focus in that state.

South Australia has opened to everyone but NSW and Victoria, and is weighing up whether it sticks to 20 July to bring down all hard borders.

We are expecting the Queensland announcement on whether or not it will be sticking to its 10 July border opening date soon - mid-morning was floated, but there has been no set time given as yet.

It doesn’t look like we will be getting an update on the Victorian cases from the past 24 hours for a little while yet. The testing blitz means there is a lot of data to sort through, meaning we most likely won’t get an update this morning.

Updated

The professor would also like the finger-pointing to stop, saying it is not solving anything.

Don’t forget, the young have been hearing constant message from us that they are at less risk from acquiring this,” she said.

So, of course, they’re hearing a message that they want to hear and that is that they can go out and not socially distance. I’ve noticed itself.

So when we do send messages of truth, we also have to couch them in actually what it means for the responsibility. So, yes, they are at less risk of acquiring the disease but they still need to help the rest of us not acquire it.

McLaws also says a localised lockdown should be looked at, in response to the Victorian spike in cases:

Look, after [Sars in] 2003, I was tasked with reviewing the response in Beijing and myself and many of the experts in Beijing came to the conclusion that ring-fencing of that particular city would have changed the history, and ring-fencing has been used. It’s – in other words, instead of a full lockdown of, say, a state or a full city, it’s ring-fencing or shutting down hotspot areas. But it needs to be checked with people at the borders so that those of us who think that the rules don’t apply to us don’t leave or don’t enter for safety reasons. But it really does work. It’s not pleasant but it does work.

Updated

Prof Marylouise McLaws an expert in infection prevention and control, surveillance, hospital infection, outbreaks and patient safety at the University of New South Wales had a chat to ABC Breakfast this morning, about whether or not people in Victoria should be wearing masks.

Look, I sound like a broken record but it is only because I care about Victorians.

They have a rolling 14-day average that has gathered momentum. So 14 days ago it was at 79, averaging over 14 days, now it’s 386.

That’s an 80% increase. So, really, you don’t have time to debate this.

A mask, a non-medical mask, will increase your protection.

Whether or not you’ve got symptoms and you’re wearing a mask, you don’t want to give it to people but, also, it protects people from acquiring it.

It’s a shame that authorities have been slow to advocate masks particularly in the hot spots and particularly as WHO has put out a guideline on 6 June that says when you can’t physically distance, put on a mask, such as on public transport.

Updated

Still in Victoria, federal workers are on the way to help doorknock, coordinate community engagement and staff testing sites, as the state implements the national cabinet plan to put a lid on localised outbreaks.

Via AAP:

Hundreds of federal workers are headed to Victoria to help the state’s coronavirus fight after it recorded its highest case numbers in months.

Victoria recorded 75 new virus cases on Monday, the fourth-highest number since the pandemic began and the highest since March.

On Tuesday, the state requested help from the Australian government in the form of 800 workers.

One hundred team leaders will support coordination of the community door knocking happening in hotspot suburbs, 500 staff will form part of those community engagement/door-knocking teams and 200 clinical staff are being sent to fixed testing sites.

The commonwealth clinical staff will allow for state clinical staff to join mobile testing in hotspots and surrounding suburbs.

“This is a public health bushfire – just as we help out other states in summer, help is coming from across the nation now – and we are grateful for that,” a Victorian government spokeswoman said in a statement.

Updated

Melissa Davey has all the information on the Victorian spike in cases:

*sorry about the incorrect link in the earlier post (clipboard fails me again)

Updated

The prime minister is off to the Snowy Hydro site today – looks like Snowy 2.0 is about to get federal approval (not that it was ever in doubt) in the final week of the Eden-Monaro byelection campaign.

Updated

As we approach the end of the financial year, there are reminders all around us that 2020-21 is about to be one of the hardest ever, for many people. If not ourselves, then people we know.

Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp have had a look at two reports detailing the most immediate issues:

Rising rates of housing stress, particularly among younger Australians, and job losses among workers aged 51 to 65 show the Covid-19 recession is causing insecurity at both ends of the life cycle, according to two new reports.

Nearly a third of people who have lost work or had hours cut as a result of the pandemic are aged 51 to 65 – fuelling “rapid growth” in the number of mature-age, low-income Australians who may fall through the cracks of government support, according to one paper prepared by the Brotherhood of St Laurence and the Nous Group.

In a separate study, the Australian National University found the proportion of Australians not able to meet their regular housing costs jumped from 6.9% in April to 15.1% in May, with young people the hardest hit.

The Cyber Enhanced Situational Awareness and Response or Cesar – which is what we are calling the cybersecurity program, comes with the massive flag-waving price tag of $1.35bn.

But that is over a decade. Which makes it $130m a year.

And it looks like it is coming from the defence budget – so repurposed money

“This package is one part of our $15bn investment in cyber and information warfare capabilities that will form part of defence’s 2020 force structure plan to address the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape,” Linda Reynolds said in the press release.

Updated

Fresh off the “Australia has been the subject of a state-based actor cyber attack campaign for months, but we can’t tell you why we are telling you now, this moment” press conference the prime minister held, comes the news Australia wants to hire 500 new cyber spies.

Linda Reynolds was on ABC Breakfast this morning, with her best recruitment face on:

Malicious cyber activity against Australia and Australians have been increasing in style and sophistication. That’s why the government has announced our largest single-investment in the nation’s security history. It’s to do a number of things – first, to increase the technology and the research available to the Australian Signals Directorate and also the Australian Cyber Security Centre to make sure we can keep our nation safe. So, as part of that, we’re recruiting 500 new cybersecurity experts.

Updated

Good morning

All eyes are still on Victoria as authorities consider whether or not it needs to lock down areas where numbers of coronavirus cases have shot up, after 75 people tested positive for the virus in 24 hours – the fourth-highest daily total for Victoria, since the pandemic began.

It’s not as easy as just closing down the suburbs though – with transmission passing primarily through family groups, locking down shops and cafes again, may not stop the spread.

But authorities are warning people the daily totals could get worse before they get better.

It’s having an impact beyond those Melbourne suburbs as well. South Australia is reconsidering its 20 July border reopening date for Victorians, Western Australia has put its border reopen date off (it was to be August) and Queensland, which will announce its plans today, may change its date from the pencilled-in 10 July.

The latest Newspoll has Daniel Andrews losing eight popularity points, but he was coming from a high base and still sits at a 67% approval rating.

We’ll update you on the covid situation as information comes in, as well as let you know what is happening in politics as the day goes on. You have Amy Remeikis with you until mid-afternoon.

Updated

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