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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Hannah Ryan (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Australia records highest day of coronavirus deaths as state government apologises for cruise ship failings

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What we learned, Monday 17 August.

That’s where I’ll leave you for now. Amy Remeikis will be back tomorrow morning. Thanks for reading (and bearing with me on my blog debut), and good night.

Here’s what we learned today:

  • Yet again, Australia has had its deadliest day during the pandemic, with Victoria recording 25 deaths overnight. The total death toll is now over 400. Those 25 deaths included one man in his 60s, four women and three men in their 70s, six women and four men in their 80s, and four women and three men in their 90s. Twenty-two were linked to aged care outbreaks.
  • NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian apologised “unreservedly” for the state’s handling of the Ruby Princess outbreak. She extended a particular apology to the 62 people who got coronavirus from the outbreak but were not on the ship themselves. Health minister Brad Hazzard and chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant also apologised.
  • Victoria’s inquiry into hotel quarantine began, hearing that advice given to private security guards about personal protective equipment was “inappropriate”.
  • New South Wales recorded seven cases of coronavirus overnight and Sydney Girls High closed for cleaning because of one of them. Berejiklian said her anxiety is “slightly higher” because of unexplained community transmission.
  • The federal government launched a new ad campaign targeted at young people, who might not get severe coronavirus symptoms but can spread the virus to more vulnerable people.

Updated

The first day of hearings in Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry has wrapped up.

The inquiry heard that a mandatory training module on Covid-19 for private security personnel working in hotel quarantine appeared designed for the general public, contained no advice on personal protective equipment and gave “confusing” and “clearly misleading” advice about mask use, my colleague Josh Taylor reports.

The home affairs department is down a chief medical officer, as Dr Parbodh Gogna has resigned to join Bahamas Petroleum Company. Gogna was also the Australian Border Force’s surgeon general.

A spokesperson for the department told me it and the border force wish Gogna well and will advertise for a chief medical officer role incoming weeks.

The department is well supported by a team of medical officers of the Commonwealth to provide strategic and clinical advice to the department and ABF in support of our functions.

Gogna’s resignation comes at a sensitive time for the department, which has recently flown immigration detainees to Christmas Island to relieve pressure on the immigration detention system. Infectious diseases doctors and refugee advocates have called for detainees to instead be released into the community to address the risks of overcrowding in detention facilities.

Updated

An aged care facility on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is isolating residents and has barred visitors while it awaits Covid-19 test results for three residents.

Three residents of the Immanuel Gardens facility in Buderim experienced respiratory symptoms this morning and have now been tested for Covid-19. The facility expects the results in the next 48 hours and says it is working with the Sunshine Coast Public Health Unit.

Updated

NSW police say a man has died after being pulled from the Bellinger River in NSW’s mid-north coast.

The 60-year-old was unresponsive when he was pulled from the water just before 3pm today. He was treated by paramedics but died at the scene. Police are investigating the circumstances around the incident and will prepare a report for the coroner.

Updated

Away from coronavirus for a second, Google and the ACCC have been going toe-to-toe today.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a media release saying an open letter published by Google “contains misinformation”.

“Google will not be required to charge Australians for the use of its free services such as Google Search and YouTube, unless it chooses to do so,” the ACCC says. “Google will not be required to share any additional user data with Australian news businesses unless it chooses to do so.”

Updated

Readers...please do not fly over the Victoria-NSW border:

But what will Victoria’s parliament look like? A bipartisan committee is going to figure that out.

Some more details on what parliament will look like when it returns next week:

  • The building will be closed to the general public (but enthusiasts will be able to follow proceedings along online).
  • Some passholders will have their access restricted – for example, former parliamentarians will lose automatic access to private areas of the building
  • School tours will not go ahead.
Parliament House in Canberra.
Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP
  • There will be no events in the function spaces and no dine-in facilities.
  • Marshals will hang around high-trafficked areas during the day.
  • Parliamentarians’ staff are being told not to travel to Canberra unless “absolutely essential”.
  • People travelling from greater Sydney and Newcastle are being asked to avoid attending retail or hospitality venues in the ACT, as well as high-risk settings like aged care facilities.

Updated

Here’s the government’s new ad:

The message is pretty clear: even young people who don’t get serious coronavirus symptoms can do real damage by spreading it to other people, including their parents.

🤔

Infectious diseases expert says advice hotel quarantine guards did not need PPE was 'inappropriate'

Victorian government advice to security guards working in hotel quarantine as late as early June stating that personal protective equipment was not required in escorting returned travellers was “inappropriate”, infectious diseases expert Prof Lindsay Grayson has said.

On the afternoon of the first hearing day, Arthur Moses SC, acting for private security firm Unified Security, showed Grayson a document provided by the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria regarding use of PPE in hotel quarantine.

The document states no PPE is required for security guards escorting guests for exercise breaks, or fresh air, or when bringing in new returned travellers, or interacting with them on the hotel quarantine floor.

Grayson said for each of these scenarios, recommending no PPE was “inappropriate” because use of PPE would minimise the risk of transmission of Covid-19.

They should have a gown, and a mask, eye protection, and ideally if they’re going to handle objects that belong to individuals that they wear gloves because those objects may be contaminated and cause fomite transmission.

Updated

Coatsworth is asked about Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine. He says it is important that the results of phase one trials of vaccines for novel viruses are shared:

We do not have that evidence at the moment and so once we get it, if it were to demonstrate that the virus was safe, effective and induced an antibody response, that would meet criteria to move into the second and third phases of the trials. But it just highlights the importance of making vaccine data as transparent as possible and, equally, having a very strong regulatory framework which Australia does have.

Containers with a new two-vector Covid-19 vaccine at Nikolai Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, Russia.
Containers with a new two-vector Covid-19 vaccine at Nikolai Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, Russia. Photograph: Rdif Handout/EPA

Updated

Coatsworth is asked about whether the aged care outbreaks make him concerned about the disability sector:

I think there are a variety of similarities [between the sectors] ... That said, there are very specific needs for Australians with disabilities, keeping in mind that disability is not a catch-all term for the many millions of Australians who live with disability. Not all [people] with a disability are more susceptible to infection from Covid-19 and equally, some with disability are very susceptible to infection. So there is a variety of tools and things that we have implemented in government including the disability advisory committee which is within the department of health and the liaison we have had with the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Insurance Association has been very productive to that end.

A healthcare worker arrives to remove a resident of Hambleton House into a patient transport vehicle in Melbourne.
A healthcare worker arrives to remove a resident of Hambleton House into a patient transport vehicle in Melbourne. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated

Now Coatsworth is talking about the mental health challenges of the pandemic, particularly in Victoria. He says there is a “clear need for a rapid intervention” in Victoria at the moment, and that there are concerning numbers coming out of that state, including increasing numbers of young people presenting to emergency departments due to self-harm.

Coatsworth is now taking questions. He’s asked about delivering face-to-face training in the aged care sector. He says infection control training in aged care facilities is not new, but is important.

“The best way to learn PPE is face-to-face with someone teaching you,” he says. There are a variety of ways to deliver this.

A worker wearing PPE is seen inside the Doutta Galla Yarraville Village in Melbourne.
A worker wearing PPE is seen inside the Doutta Galla Yarraville Village in Melbourne. Photograph: Erik Anderson/AAP

Updated

He has played the ad. It’s a short spot showing the virus spreading between a bunch of young people who went to work and socialised but didn’t know they had the virus – until someone ended up in the ICU.

Coatsworth explains the purpose of the ad:

As you can see, a very emotive, evocative advertisement that shows clearly how easily Covid-19 can spread from person to person and how, clearly someone who is a vulnerable member of the community could acquire Covid-19 from younger friends and family.

Updated

The federal government launches a new Covid-safety ad campaign aimed at young people

Dr Coatsworth is about to launch a new ad campaign, which he says is aimed particularly at young people. The idea is to show how quickly the virus can spread. He says it will “clearly and emotively” show “the severity of the virus and the impact it can have, not just on ourselves but on our loved ones”.

He emphasis that it’s people in their 20s who predominantly spread the virus, with the highest rate of infection of any age group.

Deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth.
Deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth. Photograph: David Gray/Getty Images

Often it is very difficult when you have mild symptoms from a respiratory virus to convince yourself you need to stay home and get tested, but it is so critically important that we do. Even though... 20- to 29 -year-olds have less of a risk of severe disease, we know from cases around the world that young people can find themselves in intensive care, young people can find themselves very unwell with Covid-19 and it may even be fatal to young adults.

Coatsworth also notes that younger people are more likely to be in insecure work.

Updated

Dr Nick Coatsworth is up now with a national coronavirus update.

He starts by running through the new case numbers in each state.

We have hit a tragic new milestone in the Covid-19 epidemic for Australia, the highest number of deaths recorded in a 24-hour period, 25 people losing their lives to Covid-19. My heart goes out to friends and family who are morning deaths of loved ones today.

Good afternoon,

While we wait for Dr Nick Coatsworth to speak in a few minutes, my colleague Josh Taylor is tuning into and tweeting about the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry, where the use of PPE by security guards is being discussed.


There is a national Covid update coming up at 3.30pm, with Dr Nick Coatsworth.

My colleague Hannah Ryan, making her debut on the blog, will take you through that and anything else which happens this afternoon.

Thank you again for joining me today. I will be back early tomorrow morning to see what Tuesday has in store for us. Hopefully some better news, because we could all do with some of that. In the meantime, eat the thing, watch the thing, or just don’t do the thing, if that helps you feel better. You have my permission.

I’ll see you tomorrow. As always – take care of you. Ax

Updated

Early readers of today’s blog may be interested in this update via AAP:

An alleged Melbourne car thief accused of flinging a police officer into the air as he clung to a stolen vehicle is understood to have tested positive for Covid-19.

The 30-year-old has been charged after vision emerged of the getaway in South Yarra on Friday afternoon.

The St Kilda man was allegedly breaching Melbourne’s stage four lockdown rules when spoken to by police, before he fled to the stolen car in a nearby car park.

Police tried to stop him from driving away, with one of the officers grabbing onto the side of the vehicle as it reversed into two parked cars.

In footage of the incident, the force of the impact threw the officer into the nearby cars, but he escaped with only minor injuries.

Police say the accused then fled in the stolen car, dumping it in a street before being arrested a short time later.

He was taken to hospital where he was discovered to be infected with Covid-19 and placed under police guard, Nine News reported.

Victoria police confirmed in a statement that his trip to hospital was for a “non-related medical condition”.

The St Kilda man’s case was heard briefly in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.

He’s facing 20 charges including recklessly causing injury, exposing emergency workers to risk, assault, theft of a 2015 Range Rover and unlicensed driving, and is due back in court on 2 November.

He also faces fines for breaching stay-at-home restrictions.

Updated

A very big thank you to Benita Kolovos from AAP for compiling this timeline of the Victorian hotel quarantine issues.

You’ll need it in the coming weeks:

  • Late 2019 – The world’s attention is drawn to Wuhan in China, where reports are emerging of unknown pneumonia-like disease.
  • 10 January – Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton issues a health alert with respect to patients who have travelled to Wuhan and experienced the onset of fever and respiratory symptoms within two weeks of their return.
  • 20 January – The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee meet for the purpose of considering a national response to Covid-19.
  • 29 January – Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy recommends anyone who has travelled from Hubei Province in China self-isolate for 14 days. On the same day, the Victorian public health regulations are amended to require that the Department of Health and Human Services be notified of any positive Covid-19 cases.
  • 30 January – The World Health Organisation declares Covid-19 a public health emergency.
  • 1 February – Designated state controller for health appointed in Victoria. Not the chief health officer as outlined under Victoria’s plan for an influenza pandemic, developed in 2015.
  • Early March – Arrivals from a range of countries including Italy, South Korea, and Iran monitored. Travel bans instituted for travellers from China.
  • 11 March – WHO officially declares coronavirus a pandemic.
  • 15 March – Inaugural national cabinet meeting.
  • 16 March – Health Minister Jenny Mikakos declares state of emergency in Victoria, returned travellers instructed to undergo 14-days of quarantine at home.
  • 27 March – National cabinet decides returned travellers will be subject to mandatory 14-day quarantine “at designated facilities, for example, in a hotel”. Meeting held at Victoria’s State Control Centre, chaired by Emergency Management Victoria Commissioner Andrew Crisp, where it is decided private security companies will be engaged to enforce quarantine requirements.
  • 28 March – First travellers placed in hotel quarantine from 11:59pm.
  • 25 May – A staff member at Rydges on Swanston tests positive to Covid-19.
  • 27 May – Outbreak at Rydges on Swanston first identified by the Department of Health and Human Services.
  • 31 May – Victoria’s state of emergency extended for three weeks ahead of stage-three restrictions easing the next day. Four new Covid-19 cases, 74 active cases.
  • 6 June – No new Covid-19 cases for the first time since 5 March.
  • 9 June – Students return to school.
  • 17 June – Stamford Plaza outbreak identified. Victoria records 21 new Covid-19 cases - its highest increase in more than a month.
  • 21 June – Further easing of restrictions.
  • 26 June – Concerns grow about the program after it’s revealed 30% of travellers are refusing tests. Confirmed Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
  • 29 June – Hot spot suburbs in Melbourne’s north and north-west return to lockdown and all international flights into the city are put on hold for two weeks.
  • 2 July – Inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program announced.
  • 4 July – A full lockdown is announced at short notice for nine Melbourne public housing towers. Victoria records 108 new cases – its first day above 100 since late March.
  • 6 July – The Victoria-NSW border shuts for the first time in a century.
  • 8 July – Melbourne and Mitchell Shire placed into stage-three lockdown for six weeks.
  • 13 July – Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton tells ABC Radio it was conceivable all current cases in Victoria could be traced back to outbreaks stemming from the hotel quarantine system.
  • 17 July – 428 new Covid-19 cases – the record daily total in Australia
  • 20 July 2– Hotel Quarantine Inquiry begins. Victoria records 275 new Covid-19 cases, the 15th consecutive day of triple-digit increases in new infections.
  • 2 August – Victoria records 671 cases and seven deaths. State of disaster declared, stage four restrictions imposed.
  • 5 August – Stage four restrictions delay the beginning of public hearings at the inquiry by two weeks.
  • 11 August – New details emerge about the scheme at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee Covid-19 inquiry.
  • 17 August – Public hearings at the hotel quarantine inquiry begin. Victoria records its highest daily death toll of 25 and 282 new cases. More than 300 Victorians have died and almost 8,000 cases remain active.

Updated

The health minister, Greg Hunt, has defended the ongoing ban on Australians leaving the country unless they are granted an exception - an issue that is causing increasing disquiet among federal politicians, including on the Coalition backbench.

The Australian Border Force allowed 22,640 citizens and permanent residents to leave Australia between late March and the end of July, despite receiving a total of 91,950 applications, the Nine newspapers reported yesterday.

The same article quoted from Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who described the exit measure as a “pretty extraordinary restriction on people’s liberty” and argued the focus should be on arrivals to Australia rather than departures from the country.

At a virtual media conference this afternoon, Hunt was asked to explain why people faced these measures to leave the country. He said the government had been following the advice of its expert panel and that the government wanted to ensure there was no additional burden placed on hotel quarantine as a result of returning Australians.

He said the exemptions for leaving Australia included returning to a principal place of residence, compassionate reasons, or national or economic interest.

Pressed on why it applied to departures, Hunt said: “Because at some stage they’ll have to return - and we’re working within the medical advice.”

Might there be room to loosen the cap on international arrivals sooner than anticipated? Hunt said those caps on arrivals were tightened after the Victorian hotel quarantine system was closed down by the Victorian government. He said he hoped that Victoria would be able to reintroduce hotel quarantine “at some stage soon” with the necessary high standards in place. If hotel quarantine resumed, Hunt said, “that will take pressure off the system”.

Hunt said the other states and territories had been “very careful” in their approach to how many people the hotel quarantine system could accept safely, and he agreed that it was important for them to take care.

The government would listen to the states and territories’ honest assessment of safe capacity and act accordingly.

FFS.

The number of international students who have contacted me, asking what they can do, as well as those on temporary visas – who have paid their taxes and followed all the rules – is heartbreaking.

There will be ramifications beyond the pandemic over Australia’s response to some very important visitors.

Updated

There are plenty of very valid reasons expat Australians haven’t come home yet. But Indonesia’s visa amnesty end means there will be quite a few forced to.

AAP has an update on what WA is doing now and it looks like there will be an influx of returning Australians:

The Western Australia premier, Mark McGowan, will seek urgent advice about a potential influx of travellers scrambling to return home from Bali.

Australians in Indonesia face fines from Thursday after the nation’s immigration authority announced it will not automatically extend expired visas or stay permits.

The department of foreign affairs and trade’s Smartraveller website warns flights to Australia are very limited and those who overstay permits could also face detention or deportation.

Coronavirus is widespread in Indonesia, the website adds.

Health workers spray disinfectant at motorcycles before a drive-in music concert in Bali, Indonesia.
Health workers spray disinfectant at motorcycles before a drive-in music concert in Bali, Indonesia. Photograph: Firdia Lisnawati/AP

It is unclear what impact the potential influx of returned travellers will mean for existing caps on international arrivals.

Perth airport is currently limited to taking about 525 international passengers per week.

McGowan said on Monday he hadn’t been contacted about the issue but would seek urgent advice from the commonwealth.

“We have to cope with large numbers of people still coming into the country. At any given point in time we have between 1,200 and 1,500 people in quarantine hotels,” he said.

“What we don’t want to have happen is problems in running those as they’ve had in Victoria, and that’s really a numbers game.”

Federal health minister Greg Hunt said it was up to the states and territories to determine whether they were able to accept more returned travellers.

“They’ve been very careful in their assessments and I think it’s important that they are careful and will be guided by their honest judgment as to their safe capacity,” he said.

The WA premier said he hoped legislation allowing the state to charge returned travellers for hotel quarantine would pass through parliament this week.

Western Australia premier Mark McGowan.
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AAP

It will be retrospective to 17 July.

“People have now had six months to come home,” he said.

“There’s a limited set of exemptions in hardship cases. We expect there’ll be about 10 per cent of people eligible for that. But other than that, people will be paying.”

McGowan did not rule out a return to having people quarantine on Rottnest Island, saying it could be closed and repurposed within three days.

“Some of the health professionals don’t particularly like Rottnest because it has some distance from the hospitals,” he said.

“But my view is it’s a great fallback option, particularly if we have a large number of people that we might not have expected come in from overseas.”

Updated

The arts and entertainment “rescue” package won’t pay a cent until restrictions are lifted.

So expect more of these announcements.

Updated

Another thing Covid has changed?

How we work:

A new study from UNSW Canberra and CQUniversity has found that working from home has enabled employees to have more autonomy over their work, be more productive, and gives them more time with their family.

The study, partnered with the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), also showed that almost two-thirds of managers have stated that they’ll be more supportive of employees working from home in the future.

UNSW Canberra academic Dr Sue Williamson said this is a major finding as previous research conducted in this area had found a lot of managerial resistance to working from home arrangements.

“The current Covid-19 pandemic forced the majority of organisations to remote working, including agencies from the Australian Public Service. This was a major change for these departments, many of which did not have a strong working from home culture, so it is encouraging that there now seems to be this shift in attitude,” she said.

CQU Associate Prof Linda Colley said that overall the research shows that working from home is good for individuals, families and organisations.

“Post-pandemic, APS organisations would do well to continue enabling employees to work from home,” she said.

Employees, however, are still reporting some resistance from managers and their organisations, which points to a disconnection between the two.

The study surveyed almost 6,000 APS employees about how they had worked from home during the current pandemic.

Updated

Parliament is back next week and you are going to hear a lot more about the superannuation guarantee.

The compulsory super contribution is meant to rise from 9.5% to 10% next year and then keep increasing. It has been legislated, and one of the few things the Coalition said it would do at the election is keep it.

But now a lot of government MPs are starting to speak out against the guarantee, and the minister in charge of superannuation, Jane Hume, told ABC radio this morning she was “ambivalent” about it.

That has her Labor counterpart, Stephen Jones, seeing red:

Labor created the superannuation system and it has transformed this country.

It’s providing more dignity and more security in retirement for older Australians, but it’s also creating a pool of national savings which are more critical now than ever.

This is a savings tool which is available to invest in local enterprise, creating jobs and we will be calling on this over the years to come to help us recover from the Covid-19 recession. To hear from the minister responsible for superannuation this morning that she’s ambivalent about committing to an election promise, that she’s ambivalent [about] implementing the legislation parliament has already enacted, is nothing short of outrageous.

We know that the government set up this retirement incomes review as a stalking horse for their campaign to attack workers’ superannuation.

They’ve been sitting on it for the last three weeks. We learned this morning that the minister and the treasurer has got the 650-page report and that they won’t release it.

We demand that the report is released and we demand that the government [confirm] its commitment to superannuation. The superannuation that they went to the last election promising that they would leave intact. It’s time for them to stand up today and confirm that commitment.

Updated

Covid will change how we live forever.

Vale, wine tastings.

Christine Morgan from the National Mental Health Commission is giving updates now.

As the minister has said, this is a time which is challenging for all of us in terms of our mental health and our wellbeing. And the thing I hear most frequently is, ‘Gosh, do we have to keep going?’

We are fatigued. It is challenging. But we do know if we do take access of all of those services that are available, if we reach out we’ll get to the other side of this.

As the minister has said, we were asked to have a look at what the commonwealth could do to assist our colleagues in Victoria ... to make sure we can unlock all of the services and all of the access points that we possibly can.

So we started with looking at what was actually happening in Victoria. Not surprisingly, we are seeing with the re-imposition of restrictions that even more people are coming forward for help with their mental health, and thank goodness they are. And we’re seeing more severe presentations.

And what is happening is that far too many people, without knowing where else to go, are going to the emergency departments of our hospitals, which is really putting stress on a part of our system that we can help.

So, in conjunction and in collaboration with the Victorian government, we’ve had a look at what can the commonwealth do to try and ensure that people can access the mental health services they need in their communities, so they don’t have to go to hospitals.

Updated

Greg Hunt is holding his iso-press conference.

He’s talking about the mental health support being offered as part of the pandemic response.

Hunt is standing in front of an Australian government banner, but you can still see the kitchen sink poking out from the side of the shot.

Training modules for security guards in hotel quarantine contained no advice on personal protective equipment, advised against mask use, and were “confusing”, according to lead infectious diseases expert Prof Lindsay Grayson.

The hotel quarantine inquiry heard on Monday that a training module developed by the federal government that security personnel working for private contractors were required to undertake was “confusing” and “clearly misleading” for staff working in a healthcare environment like hotel quarantine.

In line with early advice for the general public at the time, one slide in the training suggested, in July, that mask use was not required, and a quiz at the end marked users as incorrect if they said that everyone should wear masks to prevent Covid-19.

Grayson said the mask advice at the time was not correct for people working in settings looking after people potentially Covid-19 positive.

On PPE use, Grayson said there was no information other than to seek information from local authorities.

“My assessment of this training module is that it’s hard to know who their target audience is, and elements of it, and the majority of it is like a training module for the general public, rather than someone who is going to come into direct contact, will indeed be responsible for, managing Covid patients,” he said.

The mask guidelines were later updated, but Grayson said the new guidelines, which ask people to wear masks in areas where there is local community transmission, would be confusing to most people because most people would be unaware of where there is local community transmission.

“I think this is unhelpful. It could be better targeted.”

Updated

Anthony Albanese started the week off by talking to Sydney Radio 2GB about the federal government’s aged care response:

This is just a tragedy. Too many families are saying goodbye to their loved ones over FaceTime, not able to even have the normal human experience that I had when my mother departed. And that must be just heart wrenching.

And you have aged care workers put in a position whereby they’re the ones who are holding the hands of these elderly Australians – who have contributed to make Australia the great country that we are – as they pass.

We need to do better than this. And after you had the issues in New South Wales in March and April with Newmarch House and other facilities, the bells were ringing, but no one was listening. It’s good that there’s a national response team being established now, but it should have happened much earlier, and it shouldn’t have taken the Aged Care Royal Commission to suggested it.

It should have been the government that was on top of this because we know from a report on Saturday that in phone hook-ups between national officials and state officials, the relevant people were pointing towards overseas experience – which was when you have an infection, remove those people, get people out or separate those people who are infected and those who aren’t by using hospitals.

That is best practice that occurred in Europe with much better results than we’re seeing here in Australia.

Updated

Queensland premier says borders likely to be closed until Christmas

For those who missed it, Queensland has announced it is likely to keep its borders closed to NSW and Victorians until Christmas. At least.

Annastacia Palaszczuk wants no community transmission before she opens up the state again.

(That’s assuming she wins the election, on 31 October.)

But there is no evidence of community transmission in Queensland, and the premier wants to keep it that way.

I think we’re going to continue to see restrictions in Victoria up until Christmas time. That’s very unfortunate for people living there but it’s a serious situation.

...We do not have any intention of opening any borders while there is community transmission active in Victoria and New South Wales.

Western Australia has given no indication it will be opening its borders.

Last week the NT chief minister, Michael Gunner, said the NT was unlikely to open its borders for at least another 18 months (assuming he wins his upcoming election as well).

Updated

George Christensen has Craig Kelly-ed all over his social media today.

So many of the “all lives matter” squad really seem to have an issue with public health policies designed to protect lives.

Updated

Because this is Australia, the secretive spy agency which has untold increased and ever growing powers to spy on people, is making cute little jibes on Twitter.

Lols! Mass surveillance! ROTFL

Here is the statement Gladys Berejiklian put out on the Ruby Princess inquiry:

Updated

At the press conference in Melbourne, which has just finished after an hour, Daniel Andrews was asked when he would take a break.

Today is the premier’s 45th straight press conference in a row – the last day I can find without him giving a press conference is 2 July.

It’s worth noting that Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, hasn’t fronted the press conference every day. He even took some actual days off, prompting a brief online panic over rumours he had quit because he went for a walk near his home without his phone. So you can imagine why Andrews might want to show up every day – we don’t need headlines about how the premier has resigned because he had a nap and didn’t immediately respond to texts.

Andrews is asked: “You do have colleagues, you’ve got a deputy … do you not trust your colleagues to step into the breach?”

Andrews does not like being told to hand the baton, or the podium, to another. He said:

I don’t’ know that you believe that, and I don’t know that that’s really … we are all working very hard. There are many different roles that ministers play, sometimes it’s standing at a podium, and sometimes it’s doing other work.

I won’t ask people to work harder than I do. I never have, and I never will, and I will be here until this is done … I wouldn’t want anyone to think that me being here is a function of anything other than me being accountable for the job that I do.

A deserted and wet Swanston Street in Melbourne
A deserted and wet Swanston Street in Melbourne’s city centre. Photograph: Speed Media/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

The press conference ends with Daniel Andrews asking if there were any more questions (there weren’t).

The NSW press conference, for those wondering, ended with a media adviser calling out “last question”.

Updated

Asked if he will appear at the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry, Daniel Andrews says he has not yet been called but:

If I’m called, I’ll be there.

Updated

There is more data coming this week – health worker infections will be coming in the first half of the week, and there will also be a breakdown on the number of quarantine breach cases referred to the Victorian police and the outcome of those referrals.

Updated

We are back in Melbourne – thank you so much to Calla for saving me there and keeping an eye on the presser while I watched the NSW one – Daniel Andrews is giving an update on the contact tracing teams:

My last update which would be as of Friday, I think we’re up to about 2,600 people. They don’t necessarily all work at exactly the same time, but it’s a big team.

There’s shifts, there’s outbreak teams, there are people doing interviews, there are people doing data management, there are people doing doorknocking and the coordination of that doorknocking.

There’s then teams of people who do teaming and tasking, so everyday demand is slightly different so you reorganise and reallocate resources as best you can to meet the challenge you face that day or that week.

It’s a big team. It’s from both commonwealth, state, other states, and indeed the private sector and I think they’re doing a – they’re doing a great job in very, very challenging circumstances.

The most impressive thing - I have a meeting I think three times a week, we sit down with the public health team and go through things and a lot of this nuts and bowls stuff is what we talk about.

The really impressive thing about them – it’s not only a massive team with a massive task, but they’re also, every day, they’re looking for ways to improve.

How do we find a few minutes here, a few minutes there, maybe an hour? How do we get to more people faster. And that’s – that’s a pretty impressive thing to be improving your performance while your task is getting much bigger every week, every month, that’s a – that’s something they should be very proud of and I’m certainly proud of them.

Daniel Andrews addresses the media at this morning’s press conference
Daniel Andrews addresses the media at this morning’s press conference. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated

Victorian government ministers will be among those called upon to give evidence at the inquiry into the state’s hotel quarantine program.

In his opening statement on the first hearing of the inquiry into the program, senior counsel assisting Tony Neal QC said ministers, along with senior public officials, those involved in setting up and overseeing hotel quarantine, security guards, nurses, authorised officers and cleaners would be giving evidence before the inquiry in the coming weeks.

There are now more than 180,000 pages of documents submitted to the inquiry, and Neal said evidence provided suggested there was a lack of clarity around which departments – between the health department and jobs department and Emergency Management Victoria – were responsible for which part of the program.

“From the very beginning, it seemed, there were multiple and potentially overlapping areas of responsibility between departments,” he said.

He said a recurring theme was the need to balance the public health imperative against the personal and medical needs of the more than 20,000 returned travellers, the majority of whom did not have Covid-19 – and the 14 days lockdown was a severe imposition on them.

He said the program also demanded much on those who were working within it, working long hours, often outside their area of expertise.

Neal said some evidence suggests the command structure of the program was not at all clear. “For some participants in the program, it was not clear who was in overall command of the operation.”

He said the first two days of hearings would focus on the nature of Covid-19 as an illness, and the extent to which infections now seen in Victoria can be traced back to international travellers.

The hearing continues.

Updated

Victoria’s family violence minister, Gabrielle Williams, is appearing alongside Daniel Andrews this morning and has announced $20.41m in additional funding for family violence prevention services.

Most of the money will go towards services targeted at perpetrators, including young people who are being violent in the home and the men’s referral service, which is a phone line for men who are concerned about their own abusive behaviour.

Williams said calls to that referral service were up 11% in the past four weeks, compared with the same period last year. Some of that is tied to an ad campaign the government ran in July, according to Williams. The ad showed a man displaying abusive behaviour. She said:

Men did reach out on the back of that ad, recognising in that ad their own behaviour.

Williams said police in Victoria had conducted more than 16,000 compliance or safety checks on known family violence cases since the pandemic began, and detected 4,436 new family violence offences, ranging from breaching violence restraining orders to assaults. More than 558 people have been charged and remanded as a result, and a further 470 people will appear before court.

She said family violence under lockdown was a “complex picture”. In both the first and second lockdown, she said, family violence services had seen a “dip” in reporting when the lockdown began. That corrected when things opened up after the first lockdown – she expects the same thing to happen again:

There’s what the data tells us and then there’s what is invisible in the data which tells us just as much … so those dips in the data tells us what we were expecting, in terms of the challenges in reporting that people have when they are not able to move around the community and reach out for help.

Victoria’s minister for the prevention of family violence Gabrielle Williams addresses the media this morning
Victoria’s minister for the prevention of family violence Gabrielle Williams addresses the media this morning. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Updated

In Melbourne, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, said the number of coronavirus cases in regional Victoria were “down considerably,” after a testing blitz at the weekend. There are now 436 active cases in regional areas that are under the stage-three restrictions.

Of those, 155 are in the greater Geelong area, 47 are in greater Bendigo and 27 are in Ballarat – the three regional cities cited as being of most concern last week.

Andrews urged people not to dismiss a sniffle they may have as a cold or the flu, saying that because of social distancing that’s less likely.

“If you come forward and get tested and then wait for your test results at home, then given we have so many flu in Victoria today, because of social distancing, physical distancing, if you have symptoms, no matter how mild, there is every chance that you have got this.”

Andrews said there are now 2,009 active coronavirus cases in aged care spread across 119 active outbreaks.

To date, at least 216 of the 334 people who have died with Covid-19 in Victoria were either aged care residents or connected to aged care services.

A nurse wearing a face-shield conducting a Covid-19 test is silhouetted at a Drive through Covid-19 Testing facility on August 14, 2020 in Geelong, Australia.
A nurse wearing a face-shield conducting a Covid-19 test is silhouetted at a Drive through Covid-19 Testing facility on August 14, 2020 in Geelong, Australia. Photograph: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

Updated

So is NSW chasing an eradication strategy?

No, says Dr Kerry Chant:

What is is we always have to recognise that we cannot go back to normal.

So until we have a vaccine or an effective treatment, we can never go back to normal.

I think the information or the emergence of the disease in New Zealand highlights that case in point. So whilst ever Covid is in this world, and we don’t have an effective vaccine or an effective treatment, we have to be Covid-aware.

Our lives have to change. We have to maintain our social distancing, we have to maintain – we have to maintain our border measures, we have to understand how we can prevent reintroductions.

But we can never be complacent about Covid and that’s the difference between elimination versus what I’m saying is the ideal goal which will be no community transmission.

Updated

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says she won’t open the border to NSW until community transmission is down to zero. Is that possible?

Dr Kerry Chant:

I think that’s a really difficult question and I don’t think I can give a straightforward answer, unfortunately. I think that we are, as we have been saying, on a knife’s edge and if we – it’s pleasing to see that some of our data is showing that the community’s behaviours are changing, it’s pleasing to see a number of you wearing masks and the data suggests that on our public transport and when people are in supermarkets and shopping centres, the proportion of people wearing masks increased.

I think people have increased their awareness around social distancing and there have been changes in sort of non-essential gatherings.

So my answer will be – if we are able to I suppose if I’m an optimist, if everyone works together, I think it is achievable, but it really is going to require an incredible community response, an incredible business response, but ultimately we have a choice and for me as a health official, having no community transmission is desirable from the minimising the impact on the community because having low levels of grumbling transmission of this virus just poses so much risk.

Police officers at a checkpoint on the Queensland-New South Wales border in Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia, 23 July 2020.
Police officers at a checkpoint on the Queensland-New South Wales border in Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia, 23 July 2020. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPA

Updated

Dr Kerry Chant on non-government schools, such as the Tangara School for Girls, not being bound by the new NSW school rules:

I’m very pleased that last week we spent a lot of time discussing some of the learnings. I think going into term three, we have had a number of cases in schools and from that, we have reflects the learnings.

Some of the learnings is, again, to re-enforce those very basics about making sure sick children aren’t sent to school, make sure schools have very robust processes that they exclude anyone that has got symptoms compatible with Covid until they have a negative test.

And some of that basic social distancing and hand hygiene that we need to enforce is base Hunter Valley-level protections in our schools.

What we then identified is some other activities have posed increased risk and that’s the basis of the advice we have provided.

In engagement with the non-government sector and education, I’m very confident that the schools will embrace this. In fact, they have actually asked for very clear guidance and clear strong language of what we think is appropriate and not.

We have issued that guidance and I believe that the sectors will be – implement those recommendations. If they don’t, then obviously we, with the minister’s approval, we have other powers to do public health orders, but we have achieved many things by people just applying good common sense and working cooperatively.

I have also written, again, to churches and community leaders who play such a pivotal point – part – at the moment and, again, reminding them of some of the learnings that we have had from our recent clusters associated with places of worship. Again, as the minister said, this is a time where we’re continuing to learn and it’s important that we share those learnings about how Covid has been transmitted.

Updated

Sadly, the NSW chief medical officer has come down with a bad case of “learnings”. At this point, it seems as contagious as Covid.

The whole purpose of this is to actually get down to no community transmission.

We know this virus is very challenging and what we have learned is even having very, very low levels of grumbling transmission mean that you only then need one transmission event, which is non-recognised, to set up that chain.

I think you can see that from some of the information we have presented. If we go back and look at the Crossroads cluster, that spawned many, many other cases in a chain. It wasn’t actually the direct transmission on that time, but there were subsequent cases.

And if we hadn’t recognised that cluster, many of those individuals, like members of the community now who are not presenting for testing, wouldn’t have been recognised. They would have then passed it on to their loved ones and we would have set up basically community transmission in Sydney and then potentially seeded rural areas.

And it basically mirrors what’s occurring in Victoria and we have to heed those lessons.

Sydney Girls high school
Sydney Girls high school this morning, after it was closed for cleaning because a student has tested positive for coronavirus. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Updated

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, is asked about reports of difficulties staffing northern NSW health services because of the Queensland border ban:

The northern area health services has been working very hard to try to get additional staff to make sure that the Tweed hospital and the others, Lismore and so on in that northern area, are fully staffed.

I have also raised the issue with the Queensland health minister who has been as helpful as he can be within orders are. We’ll continue to – we’ll continue to try to make sure that all of our people in New South Wales are getting the appropriate support. Having said that, there’s also, the premier’s pointed out exemptions and if there are particular cases that require it, then I will be personally talking as I regularly do to minister [Steven] Miles.

Updated

This is a very different Gladys Berejiklian to the one who was demanding Queensland open its borders to everyone:

If there’s a safer way to give people more freedom, we will do that, but please also know that people south of our border coming into New South Wales have more freedom than they do in Victoria because they’re at stage three in regional Victoria.

So clearly we appreciate those issues and we also appreciate that there are always exceptions whenever there’s a border closure, you have to allow those essential services and workers to come across.

You have to allow those with humanitarian and exceptional circumstances.

And that in itself is a huge piece of work because it does mean that health and police have to be involved in that activity. I would like to see, you know, health’s 100% focus on contact tracing but because of these compliance and exemptions, it does put pressure on our resources.

Wherever we can, we try to be as black and white as possible in relation to the borders. Once you start going into grey, it becomes very difficult to monitor and have compliance.

It is a balancing act and a difficult balancing act, but if there are opportunities for us to ease the pressure on our communities, especially in Albury and I’m in constant contact with Mr [state MP Justin] Clancy and I want to thank him for being a strong advocate for his community.

I want to thank him for contacting me frequently and regularly on the challenges his community is facing. We are working very hard to try to ease the pressure and stress on his community.

Updated

I'd rather have the blame for being too harsh than too soft, NSW premier says

Gladys Berejiklian has also changed her tune on border closures.

Markedly so.

She is asked about the NSW-Victorian border issues and whether she can make it easier for those communities and says:

We want to, of course, make sure that our border communities go through as least angst and disruption as possible, but we also have to be aware that the level of community transmission in country Victoria is not readily known.

So we don’t have confidence that the rate of transmission in Victoria in regional Victoria in particular is to the – is under control to the extent that we would like and so I certainly – put it this way: I’m not suggesting we’ll continue to having the trajectory of fewer cases but to get from the first transmission we had from a known Victorian source to today that’s taken six weeks and that’s from one case.

We’re still worried because there could still be unknown sources in the community.

I can’t stress enough how virulent the disease is, how difficult it is to control and how much effort goes on behind-the-scenes and I know it’s a joint effort with community and police, but these health detectives are 24/7 are literally trying to look under every nook and cranny to stop the spread and I put that in connection because I know our border communities are suffering, but please know that I am in contact with the Victorian premier, he raised a few issues with me as did the prime minister.

And we’re working through those issues, but I would rather have the blame for being too harsh than too soft and allowing the disease to get - the last thing we want is for the disease to get into regional Victoria – regional New South Wales. That won’t help anybody.

Updated

But there does seem to be some lingering angst over the role of federal agencies.

Gladys Berejiklian:

This is something none of us expected to deal with ever. Forget the pandemic, but border protection isn’t something the states traditionally look after.

And whilst I don’t want to take away from the mistakes that were made, but many people were thrown into situations they hadn’t experienced before and I’m not excusing the mistakes made because clearly some people should have acted the differently and that was outlined in the report.

Pushed on that point, Berejiklian says:

I can only comment with what comes within the responsibility of state government and I want to limit my comments to that. The only comments I eat make to federal agencies, at least two of the five recommendations do relate to the protocols being amended and established between federal and state agencies, and we’ll make sure that occurs.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian:

Can I say – and this is why I have expressed by deepest apology in every which way I can – our role now, my role as the premier, is to deal with this pandemic and we need to ensure we have continuity in all the roles people have.

Mr Walker acknowledged there were no systemic issues but there were mistakes by individuals at a particular time. I know that lessons have been learned. I know that many people are suffering as a consequence of what they perhaps perceive they should have done and didn’t do, and what I have to think about in my role as the Premier is how can we get through this pandemic in the best way possible?

And in that way, my decision is to ensure that we have continuity of people who are conducting those expert roles and make sure that the lessons are learned and to make sure that all the recommendations are accepted, but also to give comfort to the community that we will also work with those federal agencies Mr Walker identified in relation to establishing those protocols.

Gladys Berejiklian at this morning’s press conference
Gladys Berejiklian at this morning’s press conference. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Updated

Asked if the police investigation is still necessary, Mick Fuller says:

I think you need to respect that the questions that were asked at the special commission of inquiry certainly are different to one when you’re investigating criminal negligence.

I think also that the special commission of inquiry has to move a mountain in a very short amount of time and I think they did an outstanding job with that.

But in terms of the criminal investigation, I think it needs to run its course and we need to take time – if we need to interview every person who was on that ship.

Updated

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, outlines the criminal investigation under way into the Ruby Princess debacle:

There are still 13 police working full time in relation to that collecting evidence.

Obviously the special commission of inquiry report is important, but what is also important is that evidence that sits behind that.

The roles of the special commission inquiry and the criminal investigation are different.

So from our perspective that we will continue to look at anyone who had, I suppose, a role or responsibility in the Ruby Princess.

There is no time frame on when that will report back.

Updated

The inquiry linked 28 deaths to the decision to allow passengers from the Ruby Princess to disembark.

So there have been three apologies (Dr Kerry Chant also apologised) but so far no consequences.

No one will be losing their job over the Ruby Princess debacle, it seems.

Updated

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, then drops the dreaded “learnings” while apologising for the Ruby Princess.

Three times so far:

I’m also sorry that people’s lives have been impacted by decisions in this 100-year pandemic.

There were learnings obviously immediately from the circumstances which, as the premier’s has highlighted, led to another 14, I think it was, ships not being allowed to come into Sydney.

I also want to stress that in this one-in-100-year pandemics, that there are learnings everyday by New South Wales Health and those learnings have continued to enable us to get to where we have got today which obviously in terms of the pandemic is a positive position.

Having said that, I do ask the community to listen to the words of Dr Chant and New South Wales Health and certainly to work with us to make sure that we can try and achieve an even better outcome for the entire community.

Updated

Very low cases of flu in NSW

Runny nose? Sore throat? Cough? It’s most likely not the flu, says Dr Kerry Chant:

Some of the information that we have received recently is that people are tending to think their illness is influenza.

They’re saying, “It’s OK I got flu-like symptoms. I must have influenza. I don’t need a Covid test.”

It is essential at the moment – we have very low rates of influenza circulating.

So if you have symptoms, respiratory symptoms of cough, fever, sore throat, runny nose, headache, aches and pains, it is most likely that you have Covid, not flu.

And so it is essential that people don’t just think, It’s influenza or it’s another respiratory virus, and come forward for testing.

As the premier indicated, we are concerned that there are low levels of transmission still occurring particularly in areas of western Sydney and south-western Sydney.

It is essential that anyone with symptoms, particularly in those areas, come forward for testing to allow us to stop any further transmission.

Every day we are identifying one or two cases of unknown source cases.

Updated

Seven new cases of coronavirus reported in NSW

There have been seven new cases of Covid diagnosed in NSW in the last 24 hours, the chief health minister, Dr Kerry Chant, said:

Of the seven new cases reported to 8pm last night, six were locally acquired and one was a traveller in hotel quarantine.

Three of the locally acquired cases are close contacts of cases linked to the chopsticks Asian Queen Elizabeth as Smithfield RSL. Two are close contacts of the case linked to our Lady of Mercy college whose source is still under investigation.

One case that I have just referenced – attended the Sydney Girls high school at Surry Hills whilst infectious on 6, 7, 10 and 11 of August and the school is closed for cleaning and will reopen on Tuesday, 18 August, and contact-tracing is under way.

Another case worked at the Parramatta local court and the person last attended the Parramatta local court on Wednesday, 12 August, and the positive result was received on Saturday, 15 August.

As a precaution, cleaning of the courthouse took place on Sunday 16 August and all close contacts have been identified and are being contacted.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian:

Again I say not only have lessons been learnt, but clearly – clearly – those circumstances should and will never happen again in New South Wales because of the lessons learnt and also because subsequent to those mistakes and subsequent to the way in which that issue was handled, New South Wales prevented, I think, up to 13 or 14 other cruise ships from docking in Sydney.

So the lessons were learnt very quickly, but unfortunately in particular for those 62 individuals, the lessons weren’t learnt soon enough and again I apologise unreservedly on behalf all of those individuals and agencies who made those mistakes.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian says lessons have been learnt and will never be repeated:

Fortunately Mr [Bret] Walker says there weren’t systemic issues. He has full confidence in those – in those agencies continuing to work on the pandemic and I think we can say that since that time we have learned a lot.

We have learned so much since those horrible mistakes and, as the premier again, I want to apologise to anybody, especially those 62 individuals who got the virus as a secondary or tertiary contact because of the way in which those passengers disembarked the ship – and to anybody who continues to suffer loss and trauma and angst and health concerns as a result of those mistakes.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian apologises 'unreservedly' for Ruby Princess mistakes

The NSW premier offers an apology:

Can I now apologise unreservedly to anybody who suffered as a result of the mistakes that were outlined in the report undertaken by individuals within the health department or the health agency and I extend that apology unreservedly.

In particular to the 62 people who got the virus in secondly or tertiary way.

Those 62 people who weren’t on the ship but somehow contracted the virus as a consequence of that disembarkation.

And I want to say I can’t imagine what it would be like having a loved one or being someone yourself who continues to suffer and experience trauma as a result and I want to apologise unreservedly that – to anybody who is continuing to suffer or has suffered unimaginable loss because of mistakes that were made within – within the health agencies.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian says her anxiety is 'slightly higher' given community transmission

Gladys Berejiklian gets the main press conference broadcast today, because she is responding to the Ruby Princess inquiry report which was handed to her government on Friday.

But first – there is some anxiety:

While the case numbers have been pleasingly declining, my anxiety remains the same, if not slightly higher, because every week we have had undetected or unsourced cases.

Health is working overnight 24/7 to find the genomic links or find those links between the cases that don’t have a known source and existing clusters.

I mean, potentially the virus is continuing to spread in particular parts of south-western and western Sydney and that is a big concern because if you look back to Melbourne, Melbourne didn’t get worse because of the number of cases they had, they had undetected community transmission which then unknowingly got to a stage where it did – it did form a number of different clusters and we certainly don’t want that to happen here in New South Wales.

Updated

The 25 Victorians who died in the last 24 hours are:

One man in his 60s

Four women and three men in their 70s

Six women and four men in their 80s

Four women and three men in their 90s.

Twenty-two of those 25 fatalities are linked to aged care outbreaks.

There are 657 Victorians in hospital – 44 of those are receiving intensive care and 32 of those 44 are on a ventilator.

Updated

Daniel Andrews has lost the 11am slot race today, at least for the ABC.

Updated

So in essence what Stuart Robert is saying there is nothing needs to be done to prevent something, because the government reacts when something becomes a problem.

Awesome.

Updated

And that continued:

Q: So your argument as to why you would not put one in place is because it’s too complicated for you to manage, is that in essence what we’re saying here, because it’s so different from the age care setting that you can’t think of a comparable or another version where you could keep this community safe?

Stuart Robert:

The community is being kept safe. Everything the government is doing is in cooperation with the states and territories. There has been four disability reform councils, there’s numerous supports in place to manage this and the results speak for themselves. Adding a payment paying the disability workforce for 108,000 Victorians who provide support to them isn’t going to magically keep everyone safer, what’s being put in place right now is working exceptionally well.

Q: Except that limiting the movements of a casualised and transient workforce actually keeps people safer, just as a first principle.

Robert:

I don’t accept it’s actually possible to limit a workforce that is working across 105,000 individual homes in Victoria to 108,000 – [interrupted]

Q: … during a pandemic you can’t conceive as the commonwealth minister of some sort of system at least in the short term, that might be a safe gap system that could prevent infection?

Robert:

… right now everything we’re putting in place is working exceptionally well. The only infections, with 39 participants out of 400,000 across the country, is in Victoria.

Nowhere else. No other states and territories. It’s only in Victoria … where putting settings in place in Victoria hasn’t seen the infection numbers grow, it is seeing it well managed.

Putting another payment across the top is not needed at this stage.

Updated

Stuart Robert spoke to ABC radio in Melbourne this morning about why disability care was different to aged care:

Q: Minister, the state government wants a payment for the casualised and very transient disability workforce to minimise movement during this pandemic. Why won’t the commonwealth create one?

Robert:

Because, while the disability workforce has some similarities with the aged care system the two systems are fundamentally different. You’ve got, in Victoria, a couple hundred aged care facilities, I suppose, in Victoria there is 108,000 individual NDIS participants, of which only 5,300 are in a residential setting. And the average number of residents is three. So it’s a very different workforce, a very different setting. And fundamentally different from aged care.

Q: Meaning?

Robert:

Meaning that, for example, 108,000 to 109,000 participants, 54,000 are under the age of 18, 106,000 of them are living in their own homes right across the state. Many of those have got supports including attendant care, so coming to cook or clean or wash or bathe or get out of bed.

Others have therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy others have community supports. It’s a fundamentally different workforce, doing different things to aged care.

So the idea of taking an aged care mobility payment and putting it across other sectors is simply not appropriate.

Updated

The first public hearing in the Victorian inquiry looking at the state’s hotel quarantine program is about to begin. It is all online.

You can follow along here.

Updated

11am is going to be busy.

That’s also when NSW is holding its press conference.

Updated

Looks like we are still spending money somewhere:

Entertainment retailer JB HiFi has been buoyed by customers spending more on electronic equipment to shore their home offices during the coronavirus pandemic, posting a 21 per cent profit for the 2019/20 financial year.

The profit of $302 million came as sales rose 11.6 per cent to $7.9 billion across the group, which includes stores in both Australia and New Zealand and the Good Guys whitegoods retailer.

The group is paying a dividend increase of 47 cents per share – or 33 per cent – to $1.89 per share.

Australian sales accelerated from March as customers spent more time working, learning and seeking entertainment.

(Via AAP)

Updated

Some more grim statistics from AAP.

This pandemic is just heartbreaking on so many levels.

Melburnians have been in strict lockdown for several weeks, with restrictions also placed on regional Victorian residents.

There has been a 33 per cent rise in Victorian children and young people presenting to hospital with self-harm injuries over the past six weeks compared to the previous year.

Over the past month, Victorian use of Beyond Blue services was 90 per cent higher than the rest of the country.

Victorians used Lifeline 22 per cent more than other Australians, with calls to Kids Helpline also higher than other parts of the country.

The state’s demand for Medicare-funded psychology sessions is up six per cent on this time last year.

Tony Abbott was prime minister for less than two years.

Come the start of the parliamentary sitting, Scott Morrison will have sat in the PM’s office for longer than him.

NSW school students have some new rules.

As AAP reports:

Formals, dances, graduation ceremonies, choirs and all social events have been banned in NSW government schools in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.

A string of school closures, the latest being Sydney Girls High on Monday, has prompted the NSW Education department to announce new COVID-safe rules.

From Wednesday all public schools in the state will be required to adopt the changes to ensure communities remain safe inside and outside the school gate, said an education department statement issued on Monday.

Anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 is prohibited from returning to school until a negative test result has been reported.

Under additional measures for term three:

* Students must remain within their relevant class or year group to limit mixing

* Schools must not travel outside their local community or zone, including between rural and regional areas

* Interschool sport and zone carnivals are restricted to 100 people per venue and must be held in the local area

* Spectators, including parents and carers, are not permitted within school grounds or at sporting events held during school hours

* All group singing and other chanting activities, as well as the use of wind instruments in group settings, are not permitted

* Dance activities and drama group work can continue under a COVID-19 Safety Plan

* School formals, dances, graduations or other social events are not permitted

* Schools may hold a Year 12 assembly at school without parents to recognise the completion of school or consider delaying events until later in the year.

However students and staff required to support HSC students are permitted to undertake activities to meet their HSC requirements with COVID-19 safety measures in place.

Organisations that use school buildings or grounds must utilise a COVID-19 safety plan and encourage strict compliance.

The new restrictions are in addition to existing health advice for schools, including maintaining good hand hygiene, physical distancing for adults and the banning of non-essential school visitors.

Barnaby Joyce had this to say about the federal government response to aged care, while on the Seven Network this morning:

Aged care facilities by their very nature, they have comorbidities, they have people who have great exposures to diseases, and that means the capacity when we have something like Covid that gets into a centre, an aged care centre, it’s obvious it’s devastating, and 90% of them unfortunately have died in Victoria.

But it’s not just the deaths; it’s also the people who are sick. Well, they are on to it now.

Maybe they should have got on to it earlier, but they are on to it now and that’s the main thing. We can’t start scoring points. We’re trying to have people save their lives.

Nice little switch between “they should have got on to it earlier” and “we are trying to save lives” there.

For the record – the “they” and “we” he references there are one and the same. It’s the federal government.

Updated

The equity gap between generations has reached a 20-year high, the Actuaries Institute has found, in a new report.

Cool, cool, cool.

Falling rates of home ownership, government spending that skews to older Australians and the deteriorating environment are some of the factors that have driven a wider gap in equity between Australia’s young and old.

“We are all very used to the idea our children will live better lives than we do,” said co-author Dr Hugh Miller said.

“We expect continuous improvements in government services, better products, higher incomes, and improved health. But an increasing majority of parents fear that as today’s children grow up, they will be worse off financially than their parents. There are a broad range of economic, housing and environmental issues that appear to be worsening.”

The main findings are:

  • Intergenerational Equity Index shows the gap between generations at a 20-year peak
  • Wealth impacts and government spending favour 65-74 year olds
  • Younger people ahead on health, education and social but lag on economic, housing, and environment measures

Updated

Victoria to get 15 new mental health clinics

There is more money coming for mental health in Victoria.

From the PMO and health minister’s offices:

The Australian government will provide an additional $31.9m to create 15 mental health clinics across Victoria and further enhance essential support during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Australian government recognises the ongoing Victorian restrictions needed to stop the spread of the virus are having a significant impact on the mental health of individuals and communities in Victoria.

$26.9m of the new funding will establish 15 dedicated mental health clinics across Victoria, with nine clinics in greater Melbourne and six in regional Victoria.

The clinics will be located at existing GP clinics, headspace centres or other community sites where people usually access general healthcare. A list of these locations will be announced within the coming weeks.

The clinics will support GPs by providing access to multidisciplinary teams of mental health workers, including psychologists, mental health nurses, social workers, and alcohol and drug workers.

The clinics will provide on-site mental health support, but may also arrange referrals to more intensive mental healthcare or social supports if needed. This could include referral into emergency care or into an in-patient facility in a private hospital.

Updated

Australia's death toll from coronavirus passes 400

Australia has reached a new milestone in the pandemic today: the 25 deaths reported by Victoria – the highest total so far – also brings the nation to more than 400 deaths.

Updated

Victoria records 25 deaths and 282 new Covid cases

More terrible news.

Updated

Disability inquiry to focus on impact of pandemic

There has been a lot of focus on aged care (rightly so) but what is happening in disability care is deserving of attention as well.

AAP reports on the coming hearings in that space:

People with disability, their families and advocates are expected to testify before a royal commission about their experiences during the coronavirus pandemic.

The royal commission into violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability will hold public hearings next week on the impact of Covid-19 and its associated restrictions.

It will hear from about 40 people with disability, their families, advocates and experts as well as government representatives.

Among them are those who have encountered months of isolation and rising fear, poor communication or mixed messages from authorities, as well as the inability to access protective equipment and basic supplies as they deal with their ongoing issues during the pandemic.

Evidence will be heard from a woman who is an accomplished professional in her field and a mother of one whose disability means she is unable to speak or move and has been on a ventilator since 2018, a commission spokesperson said.

Other witnesses include the mother of a teenage girl with Down syndrome whose school excluded her from online classes and tried to have her assessed as more severely disabled to gain greater funding.

The hearing will focus on the response of the federal government to the pandemic. The commission will look at the responses of state governments in a future hearing.

Soon after the pandemic began the commission heard through submissions and calls to its hotline that people with disability were experiencing serious threats to their wellbeing.

In March it issued a statement of concern.

It called on Australian governments to ensure responses to Covid-19 included dedicated strategies and took all necessary measures to protect and support people with disability.

This should include ensuring appropriate guidance, support and funding to meet the particular needs and requirements of people with disability.

The four-day hearing starts on Tuesday and will be livestreamed on the royal commission website.

Updated

Oh, and what about those domestic gas shortages which are predicted to hit around 2024?

Angus Taylor:

It’s primarily in the southern states. We’re seeing record production in Queensland, but in Victoria and New South Wales, we have seen real challenges to production as Bass Strait’s supply starts to diminish.

We want to see more supply coming in in the southern states.

That’s why we want to see the New South Wales government, and Victorian governments, encouraging more supply into the market.

The New South Wales government’s been working its way through approvals for Narrabri development – it’s good to see the Victorian government raising its moratorium for conventional onshore gas.

We want to see more gas coming out in the southern states. That’s crucial to ensure that we have an affordable supply of energy and feedstock for our manufacturers in those states, as well as for households where, of course, gas plays a hugely important role in energy bills.

Updated

So what can the government do, other than just talk about how they would like to see gas prices come down?

Angus Taylor:

We saw significant reductions through the establishment of the heads of agreement originally.

We want to see the same thing happening this time around. I mean, it’s due to expire by the end of the year.

We’ll be working with the gas suppliers and customers over the coming months. I’ve had discussions with all parts of the industry in recent weeks as it’s become apparent that we are seeing these lower spot prices, but they need to be translated to contract prices.

The ACCC, of course, will be watching this very closely, and we’ll be working closely with the ACCC and stakeholders to get a good outcome for Australian manufacturers.

Angus Taylor is now speaking about the ACCC report into Australia’s gas prices.

tl;dr – gas prices are not falling by as much as they should. Quell surprise.

Taylor:

We are seeing spot prices falling quite dramatically in Australia, as they are around the world. Our local short-term prices are reflecting that.

And that’s flowing through to wholesale electricity prices, which is great news – it means there’s good deals on the market for businesses and for households.

But we do want to see these lower spot prices – short-term prices – being passed through into contracts, particularly for manufacturers. Our manufacturing sector relies on being competitive internationally, having an affordable, reliable supply of energy, and that means we need to see pass-through.

The ACCC makes the point there has been some pass-through, but we need to see more.

We’re working towards heads of agreement with the gas suppliers by the end of the year. The first round of this, several years back, saw a significant reduction in contract prices. We want to see those contract prices reflecting international prices in the coming months and years.

Updated

We have some more information on the New Zealand election situation, from our global blog:

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has moved the general election to 17 October, a month later than the original date of 17 September.

Ardern says the biggest risk to overcome will be ensuring 25,000 election workers are well-protected as they go about their work.

She said she considered moving the election by just two weeks but the election commission said this wasn’t enough time for it to prepare for the new date.

“I am proposing that parliament reconvene tomorrow,” Ardern said, “Under the circumstances, I consider it important that parliament can consider these issues.”

Parliament will now dissolve on 6 September. Advance voting will start on Saturday 3 October. The governor general has been advised of the new election date.

“Covid is the world’s new normal,” Ardern said. “I know the uncertainty Covid has caused is incredibly difficult ... I do not intend to change the election date again.”

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announces that the general election will be delayed until 17 October due to disruptions caused by Covid-19 restrictions
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern announces that the general election will be delayed until 17 October due to disruptions caused by Covid-19 restrictions. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Updated

Back to regional Victoria and Prof Eugene Athan says there is cautious optimism the number of infections is doing what it is supposed to be doing – and going down.

Regional Victoria is in stage-three lockdown. Athan says:

The broader picture suggests that we’ve followed the metropolitan pattern with a gradual decrease, with the increased restrictions.

We’ve seen a reduction in numbers. Just in the last week or so, about a third of the number of new cases that we had been seeing over the last fortnight.

We’ve been doing contact tracing for the whole region to the South Australian border, and so we’ve had rapid responses in relation to case detection and contact tracing. So I think it’s been quite an effective way to contain the pandemic locally.

Updated

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, the health minister, Brad Hazzard, and the CMO, Dr Kerry Chant, are all up at 11am – they’ll be responding to the Ruby Princess report.

Oh, the police commissioner, Mick Fuller, is there too.

Updated

Prof Eugene Athan is an infectious disease expert with Barwon Health who has spoken to the ABC about Covid-19 outbreaks in regional Victoria:

Initially, we saw connections linked to Melbourne outbreaks – so we always could connect back to our contact tracing – a connection to Melbourne, say a worker or family member.

More recently, as we’ve seen significant local clusters, they’ve been associated with high-risk situations like the meatworks, both in Geelong and in Colac.

And in those cases in Portland, they were small family clusters that have now stabilised in number.

Updated

The visa amnesty for Australians sheltering in Bali is ticking down. The Indonesian government extended the tourism visas for Australians at the beginning of the pandemic but, from Friday, fines of $100 a day will be applied to those who don’t have a local sponsor.

Australians who live in Bail will have to leave and apply for a new visa to return.

There are approximately 7,000 Australian expats living on the island, and 3,000 other visitors.

The local tourism industry has been devastated after shutting down in March. About 1.3 million Australians visit Bali each year.

Updated

New Zealand postpones national election by a month to deal with coronavirus outbreak

As expected, New Zealand will delay its national election as it deals with a Covid-19 outbreak.

Updated

Sydney Girls high school has been closed for cleaning after a student was diagnosed with Covid-19.

Contact tracers are working out who her close contacts are but, in the meantime, all staff and students have been asked to self-isolate.

Updated

Here is a bit more about what Jane Hume, the assistant minister for superannuation, had to say about the super guarantee:

The prime minister has reiterated just again last week that that legislative rise is already there in legislation.

But Dr Philip Lowe from the Reserve Bank pointed out that a rise in the superannuation guarantee inevitably comes with a trade-off that there is a relationship between the superannuation guarantee, and wages and wages growth …

This is not a new conversation we know that not just Philip Lowe with the Reserve Bank but also Acoss, and Grattan and even Industry Super Australia has said that it is a trade-off between wages and superannuation guarantee.

And it would be irresponsible for a government not to consider that, particularly in light of a pandemic of the economic impacts of Covid planning.

Assistant minister for superannuation Jane Hume.
Assistant minister for superannuation Jane Hume. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Jane Hume repeats that the superannuation guarantee is already legislated – which it is.

But she avoids the question of whether that will change or be put off.

Parliament sits from 24 August.

And the retirement income report is in, and with the treasurer, Hume says, from her quarantine in Melbourne. She says it is up to the treasurer when it is released.

Updated

On ABC RN radio, assistant minister for superannuation Jane Hume was talking about the superannuation guarantee – raising the legislated super from 9.5% to 10% from next year until it eventually hits 12% from July 2025.

It’s a Labor policy that the Coalition has never been a huge fan of. With the economy in trouble, there is a lot more noise about delaying the raise.

Hume says she is “ambivalent” about the scheme and it should be based on the circumstances of the day:

It’s going to be a political decision that needs to be made, whether that trade-off is worthwhile.

The trade-off is wages now for retirement savings later.

Updated

Good morning

Welcome to another week of Covid coverage across Australia. If you’re in Melbourne, you’ve crossed the threshold of week three of the six-week stage-four lockdown and, from what we have seen with the latest data, there is good news to be had – things are heading in the direction we need them too. Huzzah! Not that it’s anywhere near over – there is of course, stage-three after stage-four – and the number of people still dying is a tragedy. There are slivers of light but we can’t ever forget that behind those numbers we hear every day are people.

In Melbourne the inquiry into the state’s hotel quarantine program continues. As AAP reports, the infectious diseases expert Lindsay Grayson is among three witnesses to appear at the inquiry’s first public hearing:

Professor Grayson wrote a blistering comment piece in the Age newspaper in July.

“It’s time to discuss the reality – namely, that the Victorian health department is one of the worst-funded and dysfunctionally organised in the nation,” he said.

He praised staff, singling out chief health officer Brett Sutton.

“But the system they work in is paper-thin,” Grayson said.

He is the professor of infectious diseases at the University of Melbourne and the director of infectious diseases and microbiology at Austin Health.

Professor Ben Howden from the Doherty Institute and Dr Charles Alpren from the Department of Health and Human Services will also give evidence at the hearing, which will cover topics including infection control and contact tracing.

In NSW, we should learn more about the response to the Ruby Princess report Bret Walker handed down – but it doesn’t look as though there will be much action beyond “let’s make sure we don’t do that again”.

We’ll cover all that and more as it happens. It’s also a national cabinet week, which means we’ll be hearing a lot more about the border closures. But, at the end of the day, the states are going to do what the states are going to do. We might see some improvements for border communities and freight, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on freedom of movement being restored. At least not yet.

You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.

Ready?

Updated

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