What we learned today
That is where I will leave you tonight. Thanks for reading.
Here’s what we learned today:
- Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the federal budget will be in deficit by $85.8bn in 2019 and $184.5bn in 2020-21. News of the largest deficit since the second world war was revealed during a budget update, when the government also announced it expects unemployment to reach 9.25% by December.
- Labor treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers criticised the government’s financial announcement, saying: “What we got today wasn’t a plan. It wasn’t even half an update ... It was a pamphlet.”
- Victorian workers who cannot afford to take time off while waiting for a Covid-19 test result will now be eligible for a $300 hardship payment, as the state announced a further 403 infections – its third-worst day yet – and five deaths. Thursday was the first day a mandatory mask wearing order came into effect for Melbourne.
- The Australian Medical Association has warned the aged care system in Victoria is on the verge of collapse, after federal health minister Greg Hunt announced 213 residents across 21 aged care facilities in the state have been diagnosed with Covid-19.
- New South Wales recorded 19 new cases, as it was revealed 153,195 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the state over the past week, compared with 99,875 the previous week.
- Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her government now considers the Sydney suburb of Fairfield a Covid-19 hotspot, and from 1am on Monday will not allow anyone who has been to Fairfield to enter Queensland. Like visitors from Victoria and other parts of south-west Sydney have experienced this week, anyone who has been to Fairfield will not be able to quarantine in Queensland and will be turned away at the border.
- The Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association has called for a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sydney next week to be postponed, and urged people not to attend if it does go ahead, “due to the inherent danger posed by mass gatherings” in spreading Covid-19. The NSW supreme court will rule tomorrow on a police application to prohibit the march.
Updated
An important, exclusive report on Victoria’s aged care system from my colleague Melissa Davey:
Doctors are warning the aged care system in Victoria is on the verge of collapse – a situation that will be worsened by the federal government’s impending announcement that the state’s part-time and casual aged care workers will be banned from working across multiple facilities to help contain the spread of Covid-19 through the sector.
Updated
SA Icac to probe country MPs’ use of accommodation allowance
South Australia’s Independent Commissioner Against Corruption has announced it will investigate country MPs’ use of an accommodation allowance over the past 10 years.
The announcement comes after three SA Liberal MPs learned they would have to repay more than $70,000 of taxpayers’ money claimed for accommodation in Adelaide.
Icac has announced it will further investigate the country members allowance, which gives MPs who live more than 75km from Adelaide $234 a night to spend on accommodation in the city, after three SA Liberal MPs learned they would have to repay more than $70,000 of taxpayers’ money claimed under the scheme.
The Adelaide Advertiser reported that one MP, transport minister Stephan Knoll, used the allowance to claim board at his parents’ home in Adelaide.
It also reported the state’s Labor opposition criticised primary industries minister Tim Whetstone for claiming the allowance for 12 days when he was on an overseas trip to the US.
Announcing the investigation on Thursday, Bruce Lander QC, the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption, said:
Earlier this month I commenced an investigation into the conduct of a number of members of parliament in respect of claims made by them for payment of the country members accommodation allowance.
I intend to make further enquiries in respect of all claims for the country members accommodation allowance by any member of parliament over the last 10 years.
I have discussed with the auditor general any activities he may be conducting relevant to the matter to avoid duplication. The auditor general has advised me that he does not intend at this time to investigate the matter in light of his office’s statutory responsibilities to audit the financial statements of all statutory public authorities.
In due course the auditor general and I will discuss what recommendations can be made for improvements to the manner in which claims are made for an allowance.
This investigation will be conducted in private, as is required by legislation.
Updated
A peak body for public health in Australia has sounded the alarm over the possibility Covid-19 related drugs and vaccines will not be shared equitably among all countries.
The Public Health Association of Australia has told a parliamentary committee the Australian government should consider mechanisms to override patents where necessary.
Addressing an inquiry into the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for Australia’s foreign affairs, defence and trade, association co-convenor Deborah Gleeson said Australia could look at the example set by Canada, which had passed emergency legislation to remove a requirement that negotiations with the patent owner take place before a license is issued during the pandemic.
I don’t think there are any easy answers. We really need to cultivate an environment at the global level where countries commit to sharing things equitably, where we don’t have this sort of nationalism that results in bans on exports of drugs and results in countries buying up supplies of drugs in advance, and things like this that prevent equitable sharing.”
Several Liberal committee members asked whether the group’s patent proposals could undercut innovation in drug and vaccine development - and whether Canada had faced blowback over its move.
Gleeson said the problems with the existing patent model were not new, although the pandemic had made the issue more pressing.
In the past, she said, countries that had issued compulsory licences - allowing a generic medicines manufacturer to produce copies of a patented invention without the permission of the patent owner - had faced a lot of opposition from the US and Europe where big pharmaceutical products were housed.
The US government issued an annual report “where it names and shames countries that it sees as not adequately respecting its intellectual property rights” while also applying bilateral pressure.
But Gleeson insisted that there were “intentionally agreed mechanisms which are meant to enable countries to meet the public health needs of their populations when they can’t do that in other ways” and predicted that more countries would embrace such actions as a result of the pandemic.
A worker at the DON Smallgoods meat production facility in the regional Victorian town of Castlemaine has been diagnosed with Covid-19.
As a result of the diagnosis, “the production shift and zone impacted” by the coronavirus-positive worker have been closed for deep cleaning.
A company statement said:
This is the first Covid-19 case among DON Smallgoods staff to date.
The employee is under the supervision of healthcare professionals. We are keeping in touch for regular updates on their condition and doing all we can to support them during this time. We are hoping for their full recovery soon.
In line with government advice, any employees showing cold or flu-like symptoms, have been in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case or have returned from overseas in the past 14 days are not allowed to enter our sites. We are instructing them to seek medical advice and follow all government guidelines.
Following the announcement of Covid-19 as a pandemic, DON Smallgoods implemented functional plans to minimise the risk of spreading the virus among staff. Some immediate steps taken at our Castlemaine facility include changes to closed-door policies, reduced physical meetings, increased our sanitation and cleaning regimes and banned external visitors.
We have also implemented workforce zoning to reduce movement and interaction across the factory while practicing social distancing, installed screens surrounding particular workstations where contact is a higher risk, and also introduced thermo-imaging equipment where all people who arrive onsite must pass a health scan by a registered nurse for entry.
Updated
The New South Wales supreme court has reportedly adjourned a hearing about next Tuesday’s Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney.
The hearing is now scheduled for 9:45am tomorrow (Friday).
Police in NSW are attempting to stop the rally from going ahead, citing health concerns about the risk of Covid-19 spreading at the gathering.
Prime minister Scott Morrison, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association have all called for the protest not to go ahead.
Updated
Bushfire royal commission reporting date extended
The governor general, David Hurley, has agreed to extend the reporting date for the royal commission into the past bushfire season, as a result of Covid-19 disruption.
Mark Binskin, the chair of the royal commission, had requested the extension.
David Littleproud, the minister for emergency management, said:
The royal commission has adapted quickly to continue its work in light of Covid-19 restrictions, however the royal commission chair has advised the government that the disruption caused by the pandemic placed unavoidable pressures on a number of stakeholders to provide information to the royal commission in a timely manner.
The chair has also advised that this short extension will provide the royal commission with the opportunity to appropriately consider the many hundreds of thousands of pages of material the royal commission has received in submissions, responses to papers published, and responses to requests from the royal commission.
Although the final reporting date has been extended by two months, the commission is expected to provide the government with interim observations on 31 August 2020, which will allow for work to be done in preparation for the next bushfire season.
Updated
The Queensland government have released more information about the decision to consider Fairfield a hotspot.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young has shed some light on why the directive, to people who have travelled to Fairfield, only comes into effect from 1am on Monday.
We’re giving people as much time as possible to come home to the safety of Queensland but that notice may not always be possible.
If an area where you are staying or visiting is suddenly declared a hotspot while you are there, once you return to Queensland, you will have to quarantine for two weeks in a hotel at your own expense.
Our job is to protect Queenslanders and, given the situation in NSW and Victoria, we need to implement tough measures.
The city of Fairfield is adjacent to Campbelltown city and Liverpool city, which are current hotspots, and is also where the Thai Rock restaurant is located, which has had a recent outbreak.
We are monitoring the situation closely every day and we will declare more hotspots if community transmission continues to increase.
I urge travellers to consider the risks of travelling to NSW at this time as outbreaks can rapidly spread and get out of control, as we’ve seen in NSW, Victoria and other countries.
A statement also said:
As of 1am Monday 27 July, people entering from this hotspot, in addition to existing Covid-19 hotspots, will no longer be able to quarantine in Queensland and will be turned away at the Queensland border.
The only exception to this is people who are needed in Queensland for essential purposes and Queensland residents, who can enter the state but will be required to quarantine in government-provided accommodation at their expense.
Updated
Fairfield in Sydney deemed Covid-19 hotspot by Queensland authorities
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has confirmed that Fairfield in Sydney is considered a Covid-19 hotspot to her state’s health authorities.
Palaszczuk tweeted:
In response to further outbreaks – and on the advice of our chief health officer – the city of Fairfield NSW has been added to Queensland’s list of Covid hotspots.
Anyone travelling to Queensland who has been in Fairfield in the previous 14 days will be directed to hotel quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.
46 cases have been identified in Fairfield connected to an outbreak at the Thai Rock restaurant. The declaration adds Fairfield to declarations in effect for travellers from Campbelltown, Liverpool and Victoria.
The directive takes effect from 1am Monday 27 July.
Anyone travelling to Queensland who has been in Fairfield in the previous 14 days will be directed to hotel quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) July 23, 2020
Updated
BREAKING: Fairfield LGA has been declared a hotspot by the QLD Government. Response to Thai Rock Wetherill Park cluster. No travel for residents from that area to Queensland from Monday. @9NewsAUS
— Chris O'Keefe (@cokeefe9) July 23, 2020
What happens if a resident in one state tests positive for coronavirus in another state and they want to get the data off the Covidsafe app? It’s complicated.
When you register on the app, you’re required to enter your postcode. This means that only the state you register in can download the data from your app. So if a Victorian resident travelled to NSW and then tested positive, initially the NSW contact tracers need to get the data from Victoria.
When Guardian Australia asked NSW Health about whether this had occurred, it referred the questions to the Victorian health department, which didn’t respond.
The federal health department took a week to respond, but said the privacy rules around Covidsafe allowed state departments to share data.
“Public health officials work with their interstate colleagues to assist contact tracing efforts, including information sharing, and can transfer responsibility for contact tracing a positive case back to a person’s jurisdiction of residence,” a spokesman said.
While initial responsibility for a positive case would fall on the state they reside in, health officials in the state the person was visiting are allowed to access the data for close contacts in their state.
“Health officials are also permitted to search the Covidsafe app for a close contact within their jurisdiction, regardless of where the positive case resides,” he said.
“For postcodes that fall into multiple state borders, both or all of those states will be able to search the record of the positive case.”
There are still no cases where a close contact not identified through manual tracing has been found via the Covidsafe app even with more than 300 downloads of contact tracing data.
Updated
Indigenous doctors urge people not to attend Black Lives Matter protest
The Australian Indigenous Doctor’s Association has called for a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sydney next week to be postponed “due to the inherent danger posed by mass gatherings” in spreading Covid-19.
The group acknowledges the importance of protest and drawing attention to discrimination against Indigenous peoples, but also notes “the historic devastation that unchecked viral contagions can bring to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”.
The warning comes after the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, condemned the protest, and after the NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, vowed to go to the supreme court to block the rally from proceeding.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has called the planned protest “appalling”.
For the sake of our elders and most vulnerable, AIDA urges people not to attend the Black Lives Matter protest marches in Sydney this weekend until the risks of further spread of Covid-19 can be mitigated.
We acknowledge the work of Black Lives Matter protest organisers in limiting the spread of Covid-19 in protests held so far, and do not link existing cases of Covid-19 to previous protests.
Despite this, as doctors we are bound to remind everyone that social distancing is still the best way to prevent the further spread of this potentially deadly new virus.
Covid-19 is spreading through communities in Victoria and in NSW, and restrictions on mass gatherings need to be respected.
The Australian Indigenous Doctors Association recognises the legacy of racism and calls for greater commitment to justice reinvestment strategies, diversion programs and culturally appropriate approaches that address the core issues of injustice raised by the BLM movement.
We do not encourage any action that will increase the risk of Covid-19 entering Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander communities.
We will continue to support the community’s rights to engage in advocacy and encourage people to protest by other means during this health crisis, due to the inherent danger posed by mass gatherings at this time.
Earlier, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation confirmed two cases of Covid-19 in Aboriginal communities in Ballarat, and called for the use of masks in communities outside Melbourne. (See the blog post below.)
Updated
Two confirmed cases of Covid-19 detected in Aboriginal communities in Ballarat have been described as “really concerning” by the state’s peak Aboriginal health body, which has called for communities in rural and regional Victoria to wear a mask.
In response to the cases, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation has also urged Indigenous Australians to stay home where they can, get tested, and self isolate for 14 days while waiting for their test results.
Jill Gallagher, its chief executive, said:
While news of two confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ballarat is really concerning, it is an important reminder to remain vigilant in looking after ourselves and our families to stop the slow of the spread of this virus, especially now since it’s entered regional Victoria.
To protect our loved ones and our elder Aboriginal communities, people must continue to stay home where they can, wear masks, practise good hygiene, practise physical distancing, and follow the limits for public gatherings.
We can’t force anyone to wear a mask outside of Melbourne and Mitchell shire, but as the peak Aboriginal health and wellbeing organisation we strongly encourage our communities in rural Victoria to wear a face covering if they own one.
Face coverings have been shown to reduce the risk of transmission and should be considered earlier rather than later for our mob.
Updated
On that note I’ll hand over to my colleague Elias Visontay to take you through to the evening.
Stay safe, stay well, stay at home.
I wanted to pick through the detail of the 403 new coronavirus cases in Victoria.
Fifty-two more healthcare workers have tested positive to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. It’s 239 active cases today, up from 187 yesterday. (This is slightly confusing because the total, pandemic-long number of cases among healthcare workers has increased by 60, from 469 to 529.)
There are 64 new cases in aged care settings, with 447 today –up from 383 yesterday.
The number of cases attributed to community transmission increased by 38 overnight. It’s now at 1,154.
There are 201 people in hospital and 40 in intensive care. That’s a reduction of four since yesterday – but, sadly, we know that five people have died.
Two more people have tested positive in the nine public housing towers that were subject to the hard lockdown, and three more have tested positive in public housing towers in Carlton.
In good news, an additional 114 people are listed as having recovered from the virus. The number of people who have recovered in Victoria is now 3,298. That’s less than the number of active cases, which as of today is 3,630.
Updated
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said today that unemployment in Australia is expected to peak at just above 9% in December. And yet yesterday the federal government announced it was cutting the $550 a fortnight coronavirus supplement for people on unemployment benefits down to $250 from 28 September – reducing the maximum fortnightly payment on jobseeker from $1,115 to $815.
Guardian Australia reporter Naaman Zhou spoke to a number of people who are living on the jobseeker payment about what the reduction will mean for them.
Here’s Bianca Martin, aged 32, from Toowoomba:
Things aren’t returning to normal. If I was in Melbourne right now, I would be devastated. They’re in the middle of a lockdown and they are saying they will cut the coronavirus supplement when coronavirus is still an issue?
It’s going to be really tight. My bills come to $408 a week. I will be down to $410. I’ll be partying hard with the $2 left over.
I’ll be cutting it very fine. I guess it’s still more than what it was before the coronavirus supplement.
And an anonymous person speaking from Melbourne:
It’s gonna put me pretty close to the poverty line. But I am doing a course and I have maybe 18 months worth of savings to hopefully get me by while I finish that course and to help me find work. It’s a course in individual support – that will enable me to be an at-home carer and there is a lot of work going around there.
The new rate was just enough to pay rent and get food for me and my son, and pay bills. Whereas the new new rate will be just enough to pay rent, but leave me with about $20 a day. It won’t be too great. I will be leaning on my savings.
You can read more here:
Updated
The RSPCA in Victoria has released some advice on how to introduce their pets to the startling reality of what they (that is, the human owners) look like in a face mask.
According to the RSPCA’s animal behaviouralist, Nikki Johnson, it would not be surprising if pets reacted differently to their masked humans.
One of the main ways pets communicate with their owners is by facial expressions. Masks remove much of this form of communication so it wouldn’t be unusual for them to feel uneasy with this new change.
Pets thrive off feeling safe and are quick to assess whether a new object is a potential danger or threat. When introducing your mask to them, it’s important to pair the experience with something desirable – such as a treat, fun game, praise or affection. This will help them associate the mask with something positive.
If you note your animal is showing fear, and it is safe to do so, consider removing or lowering your mask to normalise the situation and help them read your facial expressions. (Editor’s note: maybe do this at home, not once you’re out and about.)
Johnson said pets respond better to gradual change and recommended owners give their pets time to “investigate the mask and feel comfortable interacting with you when you are wearing it for short periods of time”.
She added:
It’s important cats are not forgotten in this discussion either. Some cats may have reactions to masks, particularly if they have negative associations with animal handling already.
A brief experiment with my own cat (no dog to hand) revealed absolutely no reaction to me wearing a face mask but she does like to sit on them if I leave them on the table, so my animal behaviouralist tip is to not do that.
Updated
He never sleeps.
The numbers don't lie. Morrison and the Murdoch Party finally and formally admit their entire, decade-long "debt and deficit" campaign against our government was a lie from beginning to end. #MorrisonsGiantDebtCon pic.twitter.com/XKentIXPdD
— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) July 23, 2020
Greens pan economic update as based on 'fantasy projections'
While we’re on the economic update, the Australian Greens have described it as a “plan based on austerity and fantasy projections that will lead to ongoing high unemployment”. They want the government to announce significant nation-building projects, which would create jobs.
They did call it a plan, though, so that’s one step up from Labor.
Here’s Greens leader, Adam Bandt:
The government is choosing to lock in a high unemployment future. Their unwillingness to invest in job creation is clear in the update released today, which assumes unemployment will remain officially at 9%, even if restrictions are lifted in 20-2021.
This is a forecast based on austerity and wishful thinking. If restrictions aren’t lifted within the government’s optimistic timeframe people will be out of work even longer.
If government debt is as affordable as the treasurer says, there should be a plan for full employment.
By investing in nation-building and planet-saving projects, we could guarantee a job for everyone who wants one, but instead the government is choosing a high-unemployment future.
A [second world war]-sized deficit requires a [second world war]-response to get people into meaningful, secure jobs.
Updated
Labor’s finance spokeswoman, Katy Gallagher, said the economic update released today was “at best” a one-year forecast.
The finance minister has been out saying the structural integrity of the budget remains intact. Well, how would we know? Because this update certainly doesn’t give us the answers that would support that kind of claim.
This is the seventh and eighth deficit from this government. The numbers are big, but we also need to remember that there were $170bn of accumulated deficits before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. This government set themselves a test about debt and deficit, and they had failed that test well before the pandemic hit.
In terms of the debt, this government promised to lower debt, but they have increased it every single year they have been in office. Seven years before the pandemic hit, the debt had already exceeded half a trillion dollars. And two-thirds of this increased burden was borrowed before the pandemic hit.
Updated
Labor has criticised the federal government for failing to present a plan for economic recovery in its update today, instead saying the plan would be released along with the budget in October.
The shadow treasurer, Jim Chalmers, said the federal economic update today showed that “the government expects 240,000 Australians to lose their job between now and Christmas”.
Now, Australians already knew that things were grim, when it came to jobs in the economy, but what they desperately wanted to hear today from the government was a plan with how to deal with that unemployment.
Australians who are looking to the government for a plan to deal with this jobs crisis in this recession, a plan to create new jobs in the recovery, would have been deeply disappointed by the government’s failure to present that plan today.
What we got today wasn’t a plan. It wasn’t even half an update ... It was a pamphlet.
He said the update had been delayed twice and Australians had waited “months” for an update, “and the government’s main message today is we need to wait a couple more”.
For us to play the role of a constructive opposition, we need something to engage with. The government needs to come forward with a plan for jobs where we can support it if possible, or improve it if necessary. But too many Australians are losing their jobs in this economy. The unemployment queues are longer than they need to be, because the government hasn’t come forward with the plan that Australians need and deserve for them when it comes to their jobs.
Updated
Advice on when to self-isolate following a coronavirus test has been redistributed and reiterated following the Victorian government’s discovery that one in two people who tested positive to Covid-19 this month did not self-isolate while awaiting their results, Hunt said.
Asked if there was any confusion, Hunt said the official advice issued in Victoria is “consistent nationally” and would be reissued to the AMA and GPs to ensure everyone is on the same page. Earlier in the pandemic, some of the advice issued to medical professionals said that if a person had not been overseas or in contact with a known case they did not need to self-isolate after being tested.
Hunt said:
If you have been tested, you should be isolating. If you have symptoms, you should be isolating and if you have been in close contact with somebody who has tested positive, you should be isolating. Those are the three very simple and clear positions.
I understand that there may have been, in some Victorian instances, some advice which related to earlier asymptomatic testing. My advice is that they have now updated that information for the public. A fair question but to Victoria’s credit they have now taken the steps to update them.
To be very, very clear, and I were to speak to the public for a second here. If you do have symptoms, if you have been in contact, if you have been tested, you do need to isolate.
Updated
Hunt said there are now 1,470 Australian defence force personnel in Victoria helping with the coronavirus response. Many are deployed in the contact tracing team, he said.
If more ADF personnel are required, the prime minister has said to the premier more will be provided. If more are required, more ADF personnel will be provided. So that is a standing national offer ... Our national success depends on Victoria’s success.
Updated
213 aged care residents in Victoria have tested positive to Covid-19
Hunt said 213 aged care residents in Victoria have tested positive to Covid-19, spread across 21 facilities.
Some 38 other aged care facilities have at least one staff member who has tested positive.
Eight home-based aged care services have also reported they have had some clients test positive to Covid-19, and four more have reported positive cases among their staff.
The national regulator has stepped in with the management of one particularly hard-hit aged care home, St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner.
Additional staff have been brought in. We are making sure that any residents who should be in hospital are immediately transported to hospital ... There is also a process of reaching out to the families. It is a very stressful time for these families at St Basil’s, and they rightly want to seek information. We have stepped in.
Hunt said the federal government had made 400 aged care staff available to supplement the workforce in Melbourne, with many aged care workers in self-isolation.
Wards have been opened within hospitals to ensure there is the capacity to receive patients that test positive. Masks have been made available, 5m masks for aged care facilities within Victoria. And we have stood up five mobile testing teams to test staff around the institutions, and if any institution has a positive staff member, all residents and all staff will be given tests on an immediate basis.
He met state and territory health ministers before the press conference to discuss hospital requirements, and said Victoria is well-placed in its ICU capability, in its ventilator capability, to deal with the expected increase in hospitalisations.
He had asked states and territories to have a “contingency reserve if it is needed, to assist with the workforce in Victoria”.
That is a very important thing, and that sense of national unity is strong. The sense of a single country, a single Australian community among the states and territories is very real.
Updated
Australia has now recorded more than 13,000 coronavirus cases and 133 deaths
Hunt said Australia has recorded 13,305 cases of coronavirus since 1 January.
The death toll, with five more deaths in Victoria overnight, is 133.
Globally there are more than 15m cases of coronavirus and 620,000 people have died.
He said 65,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Australia in the past 24 hours.
Updated
The health minister, Greg Hunt, is giving the national coronavirus update from his electorate office in Mount Martha on the Mornington Peninsula, which is in the greater Melbourne lockdown area.
He said he saw an “almost universal” adoption of face masks on his drive into work.
The way in which people are responding and supporting each other, they are keeping their physical distance, you can tell that there are looking after each other.
There is a distinctly Australian and human moment. And this is our moment. In decades to come, people will look back on this time. And I think they will rightly have a justifiable pride in the way Australians have conducted themselves.
So for Victoria, for Melbourne in particular, as we embark upon this new phase of the steps to protect ourselves and to protect our fellow Australians, the mandatory requirement of masks is confronting. It is difficult. But Australians and Melburnians are responding magnificently. And again, I want to thank them.
Updated
Meanwhile, the NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller is digging in.
The NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller ‘stands by’ attributing BLM protests to the spread of Covid-19 in Melbourne public housing towers, despite the Vic department of health saying it’s not true. pic.twitter.com/oqQ0q53VGV
— Michael McGowan (@mmcgowan) July 23, 2020
If you read this blog you already know, but Victorian health authorities have repeatedly said they have found no link between the Melbourne Black Lives Matter rally and any other known outbreak.
Pilots want it to be compulsory for all passengers to wear face masks
Australia’s professional association for commercial pilots has written to the government to ask that everyone in an aircraft cabin should have to wear a face mask.
The Australian Federation of Air Pilots said the move could stop the transmission of Covid-19 and protect Australians.
An email to the prime minister says:
The AFAP is concerned that if an onboard Covid-19 transmission were to occur, the public aversion to travel on aircraft could continue for an extended period of time.
Given the government’s Covid-19 strategy is one of suppression and not eradication, and the unavoidable risk of close community contact in an aircraft cabin, the AFAP’s executive committee has resolved to request the commonwealth government to address this risk by mandating the wearing of face masks in the cabin of passenger aircraft, and that this requirement be for the period of the Covid-19 crisis.
Updated
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, was asked again about the lockdown of prisoners in Victoria, after it was revealed that a prison guard who works for security firm G4S at the Port Phillip prison had taken a second job working as a security guard in Melbourne’s bungled hotel quarantine program.
A spokeswoman for G4S told AAP:
In recent days, we have received information relating to an employee who, in early April, undertook secondary employment with a security firm without our knowledge. The staff member concluded this contract work in late April. The matter is now the subject of internal disciplinary processes.
No staff or prisoners at Port Philip prison have tested positive to Covid-19 to date, but a prison officer at the Ravenhall Correctional Centre tested positive on Tuesday, sending that prison and five others into lockdown.
Last night Corrections Victoria confirmed a prisoner who was in protective quarantine at the Melbourne remand centre had also tested positive.
Asked, again, if he would look at releasing lower level prisoners, or people held on remand, early as a result of the outbreak, Andrews said:
We are not making any changes in that regard as a result of the pandemic.
Updated
Mikakos also addressed reports that the hospital in Wangaratta, in north-east Victoria, was left short a significant number of healthcare workers yesterday because the new, tighter border restrictions mean that any healthcare worker based in NSW who travels beyond the border bubble has to quarantine for 14 days upon their return.
That means doctors who live in Albury, which is less than an hour’s drive from Wangaratta, will have to quarantine for two weeks to attend regular shifts or consulting days in the regional Victorian hospital.
Mikakos said 80 NSW-based healthcare workers were unable to attend work at Wangaratta hospital yesterday. She said she’s talking to the NSW health minister about it.
He has given me a commitment that he will look at his issue. It is really important that healthcare workers, that is people who work in hospital and paramedics and others, are able to provide those services.
Updated
For Victorians who are expecting to give birth while living under the stage three lockdown orders, the health minister, Jenny Mikakos, provided some detail earlier today:
From today the rules that apply to maternity situations is a woman is able to have her partner or a support person with her for as long as is required for the entire labour and birth ... and then their partner or support person is able to be with them for a two-hour visit after the baby is born ...
We are trying to strike a balance there between compassion and safety. We ask for Victorians’ understanding at this challenging time.
Updated
The Australian Capital Territory has again recorded no new cases of Covid-19, and now reports just one active case. That means two people have been declared recovered (or moved) since yesterday.
NSW completes a record number of coronavirus tests in the past week
NSW has completed a record number of coronavirus tests in the past week, 153,195 compared to just 99,875 in the previous week.
There were 24,640 tests conducted yesterday, compared to 18,465 tests the previous day.
The highest number of tests completed in any one day over the past week was 27,000, which NSW Health said is “more than a 50% increase on the previous week”.
That’s about the same number being performed daily in Victoria, where the outbreak is obviously much more advanced.
Updated
Two schools and a childcare centre near Port Stephens on the NSW mid-north coast have been closed for deep cleaning and contact tracing, and a warning has been issued to people who visited a supermarket and a local cafe last week.
The schools have been caught in the tendrils of the coronavirus cluster around the Thai Rock restaurant in Sydney, which as of Thursday has grown to 46 cases.
A child who attended Tomaree public school and another, younger child who attends the Goodstart Early Learning childcare centre in Anna Bay both tested positive to Covid-19, in connection to the Thai Rock cluster.
They are reportedly connected to a 60-year-old man from the area who tested positive on Monday after attending the restaurant.
The Tomaree public school, Tomaree high school and Goodstart childcare centre were all closed today.
NSW Health issued a warning for anyone who attended the Woolworths at Salamander Bay on certain dates and times last week, and the Fingal Bay Café and Takeaway, to monitor themselves for symptoms and get tested if they develop.
The dates of concern for the supermarket are 17 July between 2.30pm and closing time, 18 July between 4pm and closing time, 19 July between 12.45pm and closing time, and 20 July between 3pm and closing time.
For the café, it’s 17 July between 11.30am and noon.
A drive-through testing site has been established at Tomaree Sports Complex at 20 Aquatic Close, Nelson Bay. It will operate this afternoon and then from 8am to 4pm for the next seven days.
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Greg Hunt to give national update at 1.15pm
The health minister, Greg Hunt, will provide the national coronavirus update at 1.15pm today alongside the chief nursing and midwifery officer, Alison McMillan.
Hunt will also presumably provide more detail about what’s happening with outbreaks in aged care, which is under federal purview.
Three people connected to aged care outbreaks were among the five Victorians who sadly died in the past 24 hours after testing positive to Covid-19, and aged-care residents have made up the majority of the 20 people with the virus who have died in the past week.
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So what’s driving the deterioration in the budget bottom line?
The government’s document says policy decisions it has made since the December 2019 budget update have reduced the underlying cash balance by about $58bn in 2019-20 and $118bn in 2020-21.
Here are two charts from the economic and fiscal update. Australia's economy set for largest annual fall in economic activity on official record in 2020. But govt insists its economic support packages have made a difference (would have been much worse without) @callapilla pic.twitter.com/3KZFe7bwrm
— Daniel Hurst (@danielhurstbne) July 23, 2020
This is largely spending in response to the Covid-19 crisis (with the single biggest measure being $86bn spread over two financial years for jobkeeper), but it also includes other measures like a $2bn commitment to establish the national bushfire recovery fund.
Meanwhile, the budget has taken a hit of $32bn in 2019-20 and $72bn in 2020-21 from what is known as parameter and other variations. These reflect the battering the economy is taking and things like the reduction in government revenue from tax. On that point, tax receipts have been revised down by $32bn in 2019-20 and $64bn in 2020-21.
What the government expects to pay out has increased substantially, largely as a result of Covid-19 response measures along with “the impact of automatic stabilisers including the payment of unemployment benefits”.
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Guardian Australia political editor, Katharine Murphy, also asked for some clarification on one item in the economic update.
The line in question says that income support for individuals (including the coronavirus supplement) will cost the budget $5.9bn in 2019-2020, and $11.6bn in 2020-2021, before providing a positive boost to the budget of $834m in 2021-2022.
Murph asked Frydenberg to explain the assumption behind that cost swinging to a positive line item in 2021-2022. He did not, but his office later provided the answer:
Answer to that question from @JoshFrydenberg office: the $834m return to the budget in 2021-22 is tax paid on the income #auspol
— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) July 23, 2020
Just wanted to set that out here, in case you were watching at home and slightly confused.
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In Canberra, treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the government will pursue industrial relations reforms when parliament returns.
I can tell you the first cab off the rank will be labour market flexibility and a continuation of the industrial relations reforms that accompanied the jobkeeper introduction.
Our view is that those flexibilities that apply both to the employer and give them the ability to change duties, to change hours and to change the location of staff should be continued, not just for those firms that meet the reapplied eligibility test, but should apply to those firms who are on jobkeeper right now.
He said the almost 1m businesses that are on jobkeeper right now “should be able to maintain that IR flexibility going forward”.
This is a discussion that the attorney general will have with the relevant stakeholders, because what we do know is that businesses have relied on those flexible labour market reforms to operate in this challenging environment.
And it is reasonable that if you were previously working in sales in the showroom, but your shop has closed, that your employer can ask you to help in the warehouse with the stocking. Something as reasonable as that, particularly as you’re getting the $1,500 jobkeeper payment.
That’s just in the jobkeeper setting at the moment, but Frydenberg said they are “also looking to expand in these reforms”.
That is, he said:
... as part of those five working groups, and those five working groups cut across enterprise agreements, they look at obviously greenfield sites, casuals, compliance and award simplification.
Those are the areas where we have said that we’ll continue.
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Back in Melbourne, premier Daniel Andrews says while daily coronavirus case numbers are stabilising, they are not yet declining. And he warns there will be more deaths.
The statistics tell you, the logic tells you, the maths of this is means that people will die.
And that’s really what’s at stake here, and you know there’s been the odd commentator who thinks that it’s not right to be straight with people.
I don’t think that’s alarmist language. It’s a fact. It’s a fact. We all need to work together, doing simple things, doing large and small things, each of us to protect each other.
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The spectre of the 2014 Australian federal budget never fades.
A reporter asks if the strategy introduced in that budget (“Matthias will remember this quite well”) to offset every new spend by reductions in spending elsewhere will be returned in this budget.
Frydenberg:
I’m sure both of us want to talk on that.
He says they will not be taking that approach.
... because clearly we’re in a very difficult and different time and so it requires a different approach.
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It will take 'a number of years' to pay back the debt
Frydenberg said it will take “a number of years” to pay back the debt.
We’re not putting a date on it because we want to grow the economy, and what I can tell you is we will be doing everything we can to get people back into jobs and ultimately to grow the economy, but the pathway to growing the economy is through skills programs, infrastructure investment and tax reform.
Back in Canberra, treasurer Josh Frydenberg is asked what the average Australian thinks about the escalating rate of commonwealth debt.
(I think the average Australian is probably more concerned about their personal household debt.)
Frydenberg says: “The public’s first concern is about their health.”
And our first concern is about the public’s health and that is why the prime minister has been on daily calls, that Matthias and I have both joined, with health minister, with the aged care minister, and with many others to actually work through the health challenge.
And we are absolutely focused on delivering an effective health response because that’s the best way of delivering an effective economic response.
He said the public’s other main concern was about jobs.
People want to maintain their jobs or to find a job in this very challenging economic climate. And 3.5m people benefited from the jobkeeper program and it has worked to meet its objectives.
Mathias Cormann suggests there was no alternative to going into debt.
You asked about the level of debt where we are here today. I ask you: what is the alternative? Are you suggesting that we shouldn’t have provided the support we did to boost our health system, to protect jobs, to protect livelihoods? I mean, in the circumstances what was the alternative?
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Four children are in hospital with Covid-19 in Victoria
The Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, says four children are in hospitals with the virus across the state.
We have children in our hospitals at the present time, four children.
Still speaking at the Melbourne press conference, Daniel Andrews said no one is immune to the coronavirus.
There are a lot of young people who have died of this in other parts of the world. There are a lot of otherwise healthy people who are not in the last moments of their life, they’re not in the last chapter they lost, they are much younger, they are otherwise healthy, and they become ill.
One of the people who died overnight was a man in his 50s.
This is not just something that affects people that are frail aged – that would be reason enough to do what we’re doing. But it would be wrong to assume that young people are somehow immune to this. Even otherwise fit and healthy young people can get sick and can die from this virus.
What’s more, you’ve heard us say a few times over the last few days, there is growing evidence on an international basis that many people are not getting over this lack of common cold. It is lingering, it has persistent chronic condition-type symptoms, whether it be shortness of breath for a prolonged period of time.
He added:
This is not something you want to get. It’s certainly not something that you want regardless of your age, gender, your faith background, your postcode, your income level.
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One of the key assumptions in the treasury modelling, which forms the basis for this economic update, is that Australia will reopen its international borders with a 14-day quarantine from 1 January.
Frydenberg said “decisions haven’t been taken about start dates for that” and repeats that it’s a dynamic, changeable environment.
In terms of the borders the assumptions re that it very gradually starts to come back, that the quarantine is applied, that you start to very gradually perhaps bringing in some international borders.
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Sam Maiden asks how many people will be unemployed, or underemployed, by Christmas. She says the unemployment rate – which is forecast to be 9% by Christmas, but the effective rate is expected to be higher – will be a more worrying number for many Australians than the headline figures on debt and deficit.
Frydenberg gives quite a long response, which boils down to: we do not know how many people will be unemployed because the employment market depends on the virus, and we don’t know what the coronavirus will do.
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Frydenberg is asked if the numbers show that Australia is unlikely to see a surplus for a decade, which would make the “back in black” mugs quite out of date.
He answers that question by not answering it, saying the Morrison government has “absolutely stood by all Australians”.
Cormann shuts it down more directly:
What you are essentially doing is you are making assumptions on a future which may or may not eventuate.
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Frydenberg was asked if there would be any specific incentives offered for the resources industry, one of the sectors that has fared best throughout the downturn.
He said mining had been a bright light on the balance sheet and they are looking to fast-track some resources projects in Western Australia “without compromising at all the environmental processes”.
Much of the investment in the resources industry is driven by China. Cormann said current diplomatic tensions would not change that.
Of course we have an important mutually beneficial relationship with China and we will continue to ensure it is in the best shape moving forward.
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Key points of the economic update
Here are some key points from the federal government’s economic update from a press release issued by Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann:
- The underlying cash balance is forecast to decrease from balance in 2018-19 to a $85.8bn deficit in 2019-20 and a $184.5bn deficit in 2020-21.
- Net debt is expected to be $488.2bn (24.6% of GDP) at 30 June 2020 and increase to $677.1bn (35.7% of GDP) at 30 June 2021.
- Despite the support to the economy from the measures the government has taken, real GDP is forecast to have fallen sharply in the June quarter by 7%.
- However, the easing of health restrictions in line with the health advice is expected to deliver an increase in economic activity from the September quarter and beyond.
- On a calendar-year basis, real GDP is predicted to grow by 2.5% in 2021, after a fall of 3.75% in 2020.
- The unemployment rate is forecast to peak at about 9.25% in the December quarter although labour market conditions are expected to strengthen beyond 2020.
Frydenberg said Australia had faced a “health and economic crisis like nothing we have seen in the last 100 years” and the economy had taken a big hit.
He said every resource had been marshalled by the government to defend the nation from the impact of the coronavirus.
We can see the mountain ahead as Australia begins the climb. We must remain strong; we must draw strength from our resilience as a nation and a people. We will get through this.
Cormann, the finance minister, added:
So yes we find ourselves in a very challenging fiscal position but we need to keep things in perspective. We are in a better, stronger, more resilient position than most other countries around the world.
Updated
Andrews said there were 201 Victorians in hospital, 40 of those in intensive care.
There are now 3,630 active cases across the state, and the death toll, with five more people dying in the past 24 hours, is 49.
Sixty-nine of the new cases are connected to known outbreaks, and 334 are under investigation.
Andrews said:
I can’t provide too much detail about each of those but to the extent that I can let me just run through those five individuals. There is a male in his 50s. There is a female in her 70s connected to aged care, and a male in his 80s – again connected to aged care – a male in his 90s, also connected to aged care. And a male in his 70s not connected to aged care.
We send our best wishes and support to each of those families. This will be a terribly challenging time for them. They are in our thoughts and prayers.
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Victoria announces $300 hardship payment for people to self-isolate after coronavirus test
In Victoria, the premier, Daniel Andrews ,has announced a hardship payment of $300 which will be available to anybody who has taken the coronavirus test and needs to remain off work to self-isolate until the results are in.
It follows concerns that people in insecure work and without sick leave were working while awaiting test results, spreading the virus.
The $300 payment would be important to containing spread and that people would no longer have an excuse not to isolate. He said applying for the payment would be quick.
It’ll be a relatively simple and easy process. It essentially requires you, for instance, to provide a payslip. If you’re in a position where you’re not able to do that, then a statutory declaration to that effect, which will be done as simply and as easily as possible.
Paperwork is always important but it’s about making sure that we get those payments out as fast as possible. What we’ve got at the moment is people who feel unwell, but don’t want to go and get tested quick enough because they’re fearful of not being able to go to work.
This $300 payment will go a long way to supporting those families, and having them make much better choices. If you’re sick, get tested quick and then isolate until you get a test result. If you were then a positive case, then you would be eligible because those same insecure work circumstances apply, you would be eligible for a further $1,500 payment, and we would make sure that we made those payments as quickly as possible.
This is about trying to make being an earner doesn’t compromise or see you making bad choices for every other family across our state so this ensures that people are no worse off.
Updated
Meanwhile, the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, is talking in Canberra running through the fiscal supports the Australian government has put in place, and foreshadowing – with very little detail – a five-year economic plan to pull the country out of the recession.
We are doing all of this against the backdrop of an economic and fiscal outlook that remains highly uncertain ... but we are in a better, stronger, more financially resilient position than just about any country in the world.
Cormann said the detail of the five-year plan will be unveiled in the federal budget in October, which will also have the full four years of forward estimates. They are only dealing with two years today, 2019-20 and 2020-21.
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NSW has recorded 19 new coronavirus cases
NSW recorded 19 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.
The 19 new cases are:
- Three people associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster
- Nine people associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster
- Three cases still under investigation
- One south-western Sydney resident who acquired their infection in Victoria and has been self-isolating since arriving in NSW
- Three returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
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Frydenberg said Australia was still performing stronger than other comparable nations.
Despite our increased debt levels they remain lower than many comparable nations will exit this crisis with.
He said that globally the average debt ratio is expected to exceed 100% by the end of 2020.
Updated
Here are the key numbers:
- Two deficits, $85.8bn in 2019-20 and $184.5bn in 2020-20.
- Net debt $488.2bn at 30 June 2020 and $677.1bn the following year.
- Tax receipts are down $31.7bn in 2019-20 and $63.9bn in 2020-21.
- Growth will fall by 3.75% this year and GDP is forecast to be 2.5% higher next year.
- Unemployment to peak at 9.25% in the December quarter.
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Frydenberg said the coronavirus has had “a significant impact on the budget bottom line”.
He said the Australian government has introduced fiscal support measures worth $164bn, or 8.4% of GDP.
99% of that spending is over the financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Our measures have been temporary, they have been targeted, and they have helped to maintain the structural integrity of the budget.
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GDP to fall by 3.75% in 2020
Frydenberg says the coronavirus crisis means Australia’s GDP will fall 3.75% in 2020, but grow by just over 2% in calendar year 2020.
In the financial year 2019-20, he says, the real GDP will fall by 0.25%, and in 2020-21 it will be 2.5% down.
Frydenberg:
The coronavirus crisis has led to unprecedented economic support to the tune of around $11tn. Here in Australia the Morrison government has deployed $289bn ... the equivalent of 14.6% of GDP.
Our economic strength going into this crisis has given us the financial firepower to respond.
He said a significant decline in tax receipts and a large increase in government payments had led to a “dramatic change in the budget position”.
These harsh numbers reflect the harsh reality we face.
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Victoria has recorded five new deaths from coronavirus, and 403 new cases
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says Victoria has recorded 403 new cases overnight, and five new deaths.
Four of the people who died were in aged care.
The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has begun giving the economic update.
We’re also expecting Daniel Andrews to step up soon. I’ll cut to that with the numbers when we get them.
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Before we hear the Victorian numbers today, I wanted to point you to some work from my Melbourne colleagues Josh Taylor and Ben Butler, pulling on the thread of insecure work that the premier, Daniel Andrews, said yesterday was one of the drivers of people failing to self-isolate when they fell sick or were awaiting Covid-19 test results.
The Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary, Luke Hilakari, said insecure work was “literally killing older Australians”. His comments are part of an ongoing push from the union movement for paid pandemic leave.
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WA having problems with hotel quarantine system
Western Australia is experiencing problems with its hotel quarantine system, according to a report by the ABC.
The ABC reports that it conducted multiple interviews with people employed to enforce the system, and were told the quarantine system was “a time bomb”.
The second wave outbreak in Melbourne has been attributed to failures in the Victorian hotel quarantine system, which saw infection control measures breached and guards contracting coronavirus and spreading it to their families. The inquiry into that failure began on Monday and a national inquiry is also under way.
The ABC reports that people working in the hotel quarantine system in Perth have reported similar concerns to those in Melbourne, including a “near-total reliance on private security contractors for monitoring guests”, repeated face-to-face interactions between people in quarantine, staff not wearing full PPE, regular rule breaches, and regular threats of abuse to staff from people in quarantine.
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There are 40 schools and more than 120 childcare centres in Victoria closed due to the coronavirus, according to the Victorian department of education and training.
The department publishes the list of all closed schools, childhood centres and TAFEs here, updated daily. It says that not all closures are due to Covid-19 – this is the general school closure list.
But a number of you have written to me to say that you know of schools which are closed which are not on this list. Keep letting us know – we’ll try to keep you across it.
The lockdown project that made the rest of us feel completely unproductive, an enormous 750kg laughing kookaburra built on to a boat trailer by Brisbane man Dr Farvardin Daliri, has begun its journey to Townsville.
Daliri started making the kookaburra over Christmas, then decided to add the mechanism to make it laugh when he was stuck in lockdown in Brisbane in March and April. He’s taking it north for the Townsville cultural festival, stopping in “as many towns and cities as possible along the way”.
You can follow its journey on Facebook.
Updated
Police are stopping people not wearing face masks, which are now mandatory in greater Melbourne and the Mitchell shire.
Most people are wearing them.
These photos make me miss the Melbourne CBD. She’s so pretty in winter.
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South Australia has spent up big on stimulus packages
About 90% of South Australia’s $1bn coronavirus economic stimulus package was spent by the end of the financial year, figures released by the SA government suggest.
More on this from AAP:
The treasurer, Rob Lucas, said it was critical to have funding support over a longer period, not just three months.
The package was announced in March to provide financial relief and support to local businesses and not-for-profit organisations hit hard by the pandemic.
“In the same way the federal government has extended its jobkeeper wage subsidy, we are ensuring there’s a steady supply of stimulus funding injected into the SA economy,” Lucas said on Thursday.
“The last thing anyone wants is for support to simply fall off a cliff within the first three months of a pandemic. That would have been counterproductive.”
Stimulus money which was able to be spent quickly included $10,000 cash grants for small businesses and not-for-profits, with $186m already paid.
More than $13m has also been spent on giving eligible homeowners a one-off $500 cash boost and bringing forward the 2020-21 cost-of-living concession to help with everyday expenses like water, gas and electricity bills.
However, Lucas said there would be inevitable delays with some elements of the package, like the land tax transition fund.
“Ultimately, we are committed to support SA businesses and jobs through the greatest economic challenge of our time,” he said.
All infrastructure works are required to undergo usual planning and procurement processes, which could result in projects starting later than planned.
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A reminder that if you’re doing exercise that causes puffing (jogging, running, very hard cycling) you don’t have to wear a face mask under the rules in place in Melbourne and the Mitchell shire.
Just completed my morning walk wearing my mask. Found breathing a laboured effort. Not complaining but I wonder if one side effect might be that a lot of senior people do not continue with their very valuable exercise? That said vast majority of people conforming which is good
— Jeff Kennett (@jeff_kennett) July 22, 2020
I’m also going to add that while a three-layered mask is the ideal and offers the best protection, if you find it difficult to breathe through when walking you could, if you are also practising social distancing, try wearing a lighter mask.
Updated
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and health minister, Jenny Mikakos, will give the coronavirus update at 11am.
Which, as mentioned earlier, is also when we understand the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will give the economic update.
Updated
As always you can follow our rolling global coronavirus coverage, steered in Australian daylight hours by the inexhaustible Helen Sullivan, here.
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Victorian treasurer says deficit likely to be $7.5bn
The Victorian state budget is likely to have an operating deficit of $7.5bn in the 2019-20 financial year, the treasurer, Tim Pallas, said.
The figures came from updated economic modelling based on existing conditions in Victoria and the six-week lockdown and comes ahead of the national economic update, later this morning.
He said tax revenue, including revenue from GST, is expected to be $8.5bn lower over the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years, compared with pre-pandemic forecasts, as a result of lower property tax revenue, declining payroll tax, and reduced GST.
And he said gross state product in Victoria is forecast to fall by 5.25% this calendar year.
The expected deficit is also due to $3.4bn support for businesses and households, including $503m in payroll tax refunds, $22.6m in refunds for liquor licence fees for businesses, and $771.3m in business support grants.
The unemployment rate was at 7.5% in June, and is expected to peak at 9% in December.
Pallas told reporters in Melbourne this morning:
The economic devastation caused by coronavirus is simply eye-watering. And for many individuals it will be both traumatic and devastating. And we need to recognise that. We need to give you as clear and as accurate an assessment of the situation as we can.
Right now we’re focused doing everything we can to support tens of thousands of Victorian businesses, workers, families who are doing it tough. Getting control of the virus is not only good for our health, it’s good for the economy. The sooner we get on top of the virus the sooner we can repair the economic damage it has caused.
Updated
The Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will give the economic update at 11am. I’ll bring you that as it happens.
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If you’re worried about getting materials to make your own face masks, I’ve heard of the following being used:
- Reusable shopping bags (like supermarket green bags) for the outer layer or middle filter layer.
- Old cotton T-shirts.
- Old flannelette sheets (particularly good for the inner layer, next to your face).
- Old exercise clothes for the outer layer, which is recommended to be waterproof.
- The elastic from old fitted sheets for the ear loops.
- Shoelaces, ribbons or bits of fabric sewn into a tube for the ties.
- Bread ties, picture wire (ends bent in) or heavy aluminium foil – like a heavy disposable baking tray – for the nose clip.
Updated
The rules and FAQ around when you have to wear a mask or face covering in Melbourne and the Mitchell shire were updated again late yesterday, before the rule coming into force today.
First, the basics. The face covering has to cover both your nose and mouth. It could be a mask, a face shield, or just a bandana or scarf or balaclava – so long as your nose and mouth are covered, so are you.
The greater Melbourne metropolitan region and the Mitchell shire are the only areas where the mandatory rule is in place. In regional Victoria it’s requested that you wear a face covering in circumstances where you cannot socially distance, like at the supermarket or on public transport, and in NSW – particularly areas around identified hotspots – it’s recommended that you do.
We’ll focus on the Melbourne/Mitchell shire rules for now.
It is only mandatory for people over the age of 12. But kids aged 12 and over must wear a face mask at all times (exemptions below) including at school.
Valid reasons for not wearing a mask are:
- You suffer from a relevant medical condition, such as one that creates breathing difficulties, a serious skin condition on the face, or a disability or a mental health condition that makes wearing a mask difficult. This also includes persons who are communicating with a person who is hearing impaired, where the ability to see the mouth is essential for communication.
- That can include people with asthma, although it depends on the individual.
- If you are engaging in a a profession that requires clear enunciation and visibility of your mouth (again, so people can lipread). So that’s teachers while they are teaching in the classroom, journalists doing live broadcasts, etc.
- If wearing one would create a risk to that person’s health and safety related to their work.
- You’re doing a training session, or competing, as a professional sportsperson.
- Running or jogging. You have to wear your face covering once you stop running.
- You’ve removed it to eat, drink, smoke or vape.
- You’re receiving dental or medical care that requires access to your nose or mouth.
- During an emergency.
You can also be asked by police, bottle shop staff and bank workers to remove your mask prove your identity.
You must carry a face covering with you when you leave your home if you live in Melbourne or the Mitchell shire, even if you don’t need to wear it while undertaking your current activity.
But if you have a medical condition that prevents you from wearing a face covering, you don’t need to carry one.
Updated
Victoria police will 'show discretion' in enforcing mandatory face mask rule
By now, hopefully, most residents of Melbourne and the Mitchell shire will have bought or made a face covering to wear when they go outdoors. If you haven’t, here are the government’s instructions for making one using materials you probably have at home.
The public health direction making it mandatory to wear a face mask in greater Melbourne and the Mitchell shire, the areas now subject to a stage-three lockdown, came into effect at midnight last night. There are some exceptions which I’ll go through in a minute.
But first, police said last night that although they are able to issue $200 on-the-spot fines for people in Melbourne and the Mitchell shire who are not wearing masks, they will “exercise discretion” for the first week because it’s a new rule.
A police spokesperson said:
Police will exercise discretion over the next seven days, as we understand that for many people this is a significant adjustment. We understand that the vast majority of Victorians are trying to do the right thing and our exercise of discretion will reflect that.
That said, we do expect people to follow the Chief Health Officer’s directions and will not hesitate to issue fines to people who are obviously and blatantly showing a disregard for community safety by failing to wear a mask.
For example, if a person has a mask and refuses to wear it when requested then that person can expect to be issued with the fine.
Similarly, if a person persists with entering a supermarket when requested not to do so due to the absence of a mask then that person can expect to be issued with a fine.
People who are concerned about a large breach of the mask rule – that is, a mass gathering where people are unmasked, not just your neighbour not wearing one – can call the police assistance line on 131 444.
But the advice is to only call that line if it really is a mass breach, many adults are gathering maskless, a business is clearly flouting the rules, etc. Don’t call for just one or two people.
You may have heard the Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, yesterday requesting that people keep in mind that there are legitimate reasons for not wearing a face masks and not to assume that people they see maskless are deliberately flouting the law:
There will be people with medical, behavioural, psychological reasons not to wear a mask. Certainly don’t make an assumption that they should be the subject of your ire.
Updated
The Western Australian government has announced $3m in funding to support the local manufacture of personal protective equipment.
Under the fund, WA businesses that want to manufacture PPE including masks, face visors, coveralls and ventilators can apply for grants of up to $500,000.
There is also funding of up to $20,000 for companies wanting to undertake a feasibility study into the viability of a PPE manufacturing proposal.
The WA premier, Mark McGowan, said the fund would help businesses recover from the impact of the coronavirus:
These grants will help successful businesses move towards manufacturing PPE right here in Western Australia, and move towards being less reliant on obtaining PPE from outside the State.
The health minister, Roger Cook, said the funding would “help establish a reliable local supply [of PPE] in the future”:
Although the COVID-19 case numbers in Western Australia remain very encouraging, we cannot afford to be complacent, and these funds will help our State prepare for the future.
Updated
In Queensland nightclubs have been warned to follow their Covid-19 safety plans. Which, you’ll recall, involve not dancing.
More from AAP:
Queensland police deputy commissioner, Steve Gollschewski, said the majority of nightclub owners were doing their best and falling into line with measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
However, he’s just as concerned with clubbers flouting social distancing advice and failing to respect how potent and contagious the virus is.
“We are coming into another weekend and we are looking at nightclubs ... and after last weekend we saw improved compliances from the businesses,” he said. “Whilst many of the venues are trying to do the right thing patrons still aren’t getting it.
“We are still seeing large numbers of people gathering, still seeing people not taking it seriously ... social distancing is with us and for some time yet.”
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NSW 'on a knife-edge', AMA says
Sticking to NSW for a moment, the state president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Danielle McMullen, said the next two weeks were critical in keeping the outbreak under control:
We are on a knife-edge. NSW Health is doing absolutely everything it can to trace new transmissions and contain clusters but ultimately it will be up to NSW residents if we are going to curtail spread of the virus.
Everyone is feeling the fatigue from this pandemic but we’ve got to keep our guard up. That means frequent handwashing, physical distancing and getting tested at the first sign of a sniffle.
McMullen said it would take two more weeks to see whether the outbreak in NSW could be contained:
I’m urging all residents to take the hit now – avoid all non-essential travel and large social gatherings – and hopefully in two weeks we’ll be rewarded with reduced numbers of new cases.
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Prof Jodie McVernon, an epidemiologist and adviser to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, is speaking on Radio National about the confusion surrounding when people who may have the coronavirus have to self-isolate.
I’ve already mentioned the figures Daniel Andrews mentioned yesterday, about nine out of 10 people not self-isolating from when they first felt sick and one in two not self-isolating after they got a test.
Andrews said at his press conference yesterday that the advice about this has been clear – but McVernon says it is complicated.
And I know, from my own experiences and from what you have told us, that not everyone who gets a test has been told to self-isolate until they get their result.
McVernon says people who have possible coronavirus symptoms should immediately self-isolate, get a test, and remain isolated until they get their result. That has always been the advice, she says.
But many people have got tested as a precaution, without showing symptoms –and the national guidelines on that are that people without symptoms do not necessarily have to stay home. Yesterday Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said the state was only offering symptomatic testing at this stage (although the symptoms can be very mild) unless people work in a target industry or are a close contact of a confirmed case.
Says McVernon:
I think there’s a lot of confusion out there because the way we’re using testing is so broad. Clearly if you have symptoms then you should self-isolate and once you get the test you should self-isolate until you get the result.
People who are symptomatic are meant to stay home, but the national guidance has been that people who are testing just because they feel like it do not necessarily have to stay home.
In NSW, the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has reiterated that people identified as a potential close contact of a positive case have to self-isolate for 14 days even if they test negative. That’s in an attempt to stamp out the outbreaks seen in NSW this month.
McVernon said she wished them every success:
I think there’s a really active case-finding response there ... I really wish them every success in getting them under control.
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In a small bit of good news, because we need it: all the social distancing we’ve done since the pandemic began has significantly cut the number of deaths caused by the flu.
Just 36 people died of the flu in Australia between January and June, compared with 430 same period last year.
But, sadly, 128 people have died after testing positive to Covid-19.
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The Victorian treasurer, Tim Pallas, is also giving an economic update today. He will be up at 9am and, in a phrase that I suspect will become commonplace, the media alert says “face coverings advised”.
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Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, yesterday pointed the finger at insecure work as one of the main reasons why people in Melbourne were going to work when sick, or worse, when awaiting coronavirus test results.
He told reporters yesterday that nine in 10 people who tested positive over a two-week period in July told contact tracers that they had not been self-isolating since they first showed symptoms – that is, they had been going to the supermarket, seeing friends and family or even going to work. One in two said they continued to do so after they got tested while awaiting their results.
There is a $1,500 hardship payment available in Victoria for people who do not have sick leave but it’s only available to people who have tested positive to Covid-19.
Sally McManus, the secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said if we want to make sure people stop attending work the minute they get symptoms we need a better form of income support, which kicks in much earlier.
She said it could be equivalent to jobkeeper and payable when people report they are unwell. Asked by the Radio National Breakfast host, Fan Kelly, if the cost of that would not be enormous, McManus said:
Well, at the moment it will cost more than it would if the policy works. If the policy works then we will stop the virus and it will cost nothing.
So, at the moment it is at its peak, but if we introduce it now it will drop down and, let me tell you, it’s a drop in the ocean compared to lockdown.
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Good morning,
Josh Frydenberg will reveal the largest budget deficit since the second world war when he gives the budget update today. It’s due to a combination of the unprecedented fiscal support unrolled to support workers through the coronavirus and a massive contraction in revenue caused by the same. Not helping is the fact that the economic growth in Australia had last year already slowed to the lowest level since the GFC.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, police have said they will show discretion over the next week in enforcing the mandatory wearing of face masks, which came into effect at midnight last night. Face masks, or other facial coverings like a bandana or scarf, are mandatory whenever people are out and about in the greater Melbourne and Mitchell shire lockdown areas and are recommended throughout the rest of the state. There are some exceptions, including teachers who are delivering lessons and reporters doing live crosses.
An explanation on why our on-air Melbourne reporters won’t be wearing masks during their crosses to @BreakfastNews (but will have them on before and after). These are the official guidelines from the @VicGovDHHS. Hearing-impaired viewers need to see reporters’ faces. pic.twitter.com/COOrpvjU9G
— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) July 22, 2020
Children under 12 and people who cannot wear a face covering for a medical or behavioural reason are also exempt. I’ll bring you more of the police comments on this in a moment.
Those of us in the Melbourne and Mitchell shire lockdown area have now been under lockdown for 14 days. So, happy anniversary. Yesterday Victoria recorded 484 new cases in 24 hours – higher than the previous national total. And the state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has said we can expect a few more days with case numbers about 500 to 600.
In NSW, residents and staff at the Ashfield Baptist Homes aged care home are awaiting the results of coronavirus tests after a staff member tested positive following a meal at the Thai Rock restaurant in Sydney’s west. The staff member in question didn’t work while symptomatic. As of yesterday there were 37 cases associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster.
In Melbourne there are 45 aged care facilities with at least one Covid-19 case, split about 50-50 between residents and staff.
Let’s crack on. You can follow me on Twitter at @callapilla or email me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com.
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