And with that, we’ll leave for today. Thanks for reading.
Updated
What happened today
Let’s take a look at what happened today.
- Victoria recorded 14 new cases and eight deaths.
- There were four new cases in NSW and none in Queensland
- Daniel Andrews apologised at the hotel quarantine inquiry, as he said he was disappointed no one could say who made a crucial decision to employ private guards
- Josh Frydenberg confirmed net debt at $491.2bn
Updated
A man accused of slashing a police officer across the head in Sydney’s CBD has been found dead in his cell, AAP reports.
Frederick Elrezz was facing a string of charges over the alleged assault of three police officers on York Street on 2 September, which left one covered in blood with a serious head wound.
The 32-year-old Lakemba man was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to murder, assaulting police and resisting arrest, and denied bail.
He was found dead in his cell 8.15am on Friday. Corrective Services NSW and NSW police are investigating the incident, which they said was not suspicious. A brief will be prepared for the coroner.
Updated
Michael O’Brien, the Victoria Liberal opposition leader, has repeated his calls for Daniel Andrews to resign following the premier’s appearance at the hotel quarantine inquiry today.
He said in a statement:
Daniel Andrews’ testimony to the hotel quarantine inquiry today proves Victorians can have no confidence in this arrogant, lying premier. Andrews and his ‘gang of eight’ have no choice but to resign.
Victorians have a premier who will not tell the truth. Victorians deserve better than lies and cover-ups from a premier whose second wave of Covid-19 has killed over 750 people and cost thousands of jobs.
This has been the most disastrous failure of public administration in Victoria’s history. Our communities and state economy have been crippled by the second wave. Daniel Andrews’ disastrous mismanagement of hotel quarantine has ripped the soul out of small businesses and communities.
Hundreds of deaths. Thousands of businesses closed. Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost. Millions of Victorians locked down. Andrews has failed his most fundamental duty to the people of this state. He must go.
Updated
Qantas boss Alan Joyce is likely to be called before a parliamentary inquiry into wage theft to be grilled over the company’s use of jobkeeper payments.
Labor senator Tony Sheldon wrote to the chairman of the economics reference committee, fellow ALP senator Alex Gallacher, today to ask for Joyce to front the committee.
Sheldon, a former Transport Workers’ Union boss, is angry about Qantas’s practice of not passing on the full jobkeeper payment to workers owed overtime money for work done in a previous fortnight.
Qantas lost a federal court case over the issue yesterday.
Gallacher told Guardian Australia he would invite Joyce to give evidence – subject to the approval of the committee at a meeting next week.
“I think it’s a matter of public interest,” he said.
He was particularly interested in whether Qantas sought ATO advice over the practice and what the ATO said in response.
Committee approval appears all but certain because crossbencher Rex Patrick, who holds the crucial swing vote on the committee, will support the move.
“I would support any call for the committee to invite Mr Joyce to appear,” he said.
Patrick said he hoped Joyce would accept any such invitation, but left open forcing Joyce to appear if necessary.
“We would deal with the issue of subpoena down track, if necessary,” he said.
Updated
The Senate inquiry into the Coalition’s jobs-ready graduate package has concluded – and unsurprisingly the government wants the bill passed and Labor, the Greens and independent Rex Patrick oppose it.
If Pauline Hanson’s One Nation votes with the Coalition, Jacqui Lambie and Centre Alliance’s Stirling Griff are the swing votes on this bill – but neither took part in the Senate education committee inquiry.
But Patrick used his dissenting report (titled Debt Ready Graduates) to pile pressure on his former Centre Alliance colleague to reject the bill.
He said:
The University of Adelaide articulated its concerns well in its submission with the bill assessed to deliver: … a 9% increase in Hecs charges [for the students] … a 15% reduction in federal support [for the university] … a very significant cut to core funding for university research. This bill is bad for students, bad for universities, bad for research, bad for South Australia and bad for Australia.
As we reported in September, Centre Alliance is negotiating with the government for more favourable treatment for South Australian unis.
But Rex isn’t having a bar of it:
The South Australian vice chancellors all agreed that the granting of regional status to their universities would be better, but overall would be a case of three steps backwards, two steps forward. Any amendments to the bill which addressed some funding issues would not solve the problems with student costs and the reduction in research funding.
Updated
Daniel Andrews tells hotel quarantine inquiry: I am sorry
Andrews has been allowed to offer some reflection.
If I can briefly make a couple of very important points. Mistakes have been made in this program. And answers are required. Those mistakes are unacceptable to me. I want to thank you, madam chair, and the board of inquiry and all your staff for the work you are doing and will do.
I want to make it very clear to each and every member of the Victorian community that I am sorry for what has occurred here. And I want to issue an unreserved apology to all Victorians and I want to say to you, madam chair, I await the final report, the conclusion of your work, so we can understand better what has occurred, and so that I, as leader of the government, can take the appropriate action to ensure that these sorts of errors never occur again.
That’s the end of Andrews’ appearance.
Updated
Andrews says he would have been told about the Rydges hotel in May “about the time the outbreak became clear via testing, tracing and the normal work that I am briefed on routinely”.
Updated
Moses: “Sitting here today, can you recall what infection control protocols you were referring to when you made that statement to Ms Sales?”
Andrews says “I’m not an infection control expert, Mr Moses”, but says “I’m able to make reasonable assumption, I would have thought. But the answer is no, Mr Moses, I cannot detail for you any precise terms the infection control protocols that were or weren’t in a particular hotel on a particular day.”
Updated
Moses is taking Andrews to his comments to Leigh Sales on 1 July where he noted that “there are a number of staff who despite knowing about infection control protocols have decided to make a number of errors. I will give you one example. We think one of these outbreaks may be attributable to people sharing a cigarette lighter, something as innocent as that.”
He’s asked who told him that.
Andrews:
My only recollection is that that will not have come from one single source; it will have come from multiple sources. As a result of contact tracing, chains of transmission, and other information that is provided to me on a routine basis.
Updated
Malcolm Turnbull has popped up on a webinar titled “A Deep Dive into the Unthinkable”.
Among other things, the former prime minister has spoken about tensions in the region, including between the US and China. He told his host, Peter Coroneos:
We don’t want there to be conflict in the region between anybody let alone between China and the United States, and I don’t think it’s at all inevitable – I think that’s quite misconceived, frankly. The important thing is that people keep cool heads and respect the sovereignty and the autonomy of other countries. That’s the critical thing.
Updated
Arthur Moses SC, representing Unified Security, wants to cross-examine the premier.
That is being resisted by counsel for Andrews.
Moses wants to ask the premier about comments he made on ABC 7.30, where Moses quotes him as a saying: “We have some very clear suspicions about what’s gone on here. There are a number of staff who despite knowing about infection control protocols have decided to make a number of errors.”
Updated
Ellyard: I take it you’d agree that it’s a matter of great concern that such an inquiry has been necessary?
Andrews:
The need to have an inquiry, the reality that what has gone on here ... is not only disappointing, it is unacceptable.
Updated
But Andrews won’t give a view specifically on what went wrong. He says he wants to see the board’s report before making his views known.
Updated
Andrews is taken to various documents that outlined changes to the program, including what has been referred to as a “reset”.
Ellyard: “What clearly emerges from those documents and the decision that the government has taken since late June is the recognition that there needs to be a greater focus on clinical matters and greater involvement of medical clinical expertise.”
Andrews agrees.
He also agrees the documents show the need for what Ellyard describes as “appropriate workforce, workforce with the skill sets and support that make them the right one for the job that needs to be done in a hotel quarantine”.
And he agrees the documents show the need for clear chains of command and lines of communication.
Updated
Meanwhile, we have this.
BREAKING: substantial parts of secret government data relied on to extend Melbourne's curfew MUST be handed to lawyers challenging the measure, the Supreme Court has ruled. Trial gets underway Monday. #springst #auspol #auslaw
— Shannon Deery (@s_deery) September 25, 2020
Andrews won’t give a view on what specifically went wrong.
I do not have a view. Also I do not know if it is appropriate to establish an inquiry and then seek to run it yourself, Ms Ellyard. You have looked through 200,000 pages of different documents and heard from many, many witnesses.
Updated
Andrews is asked what he was referring to when he said there were mistakes in the program.
I am referring to the fact this was a program designed to stop this wildly infectious virus from returned travellers into the community. That has clearly happened and that is clearly a failure and that is clearly the product of at least one area and perhaps other areas. I am not in a position to detail individual errors or mistakes or inefficiencies.
Updated
Ellyard notes the fact – which has been quite stunning at times – that different government departments have been cross-examining each other during the inquiry.
“That is evident itself that although there should not have been confusion there was,” she says.
Andrews says, leaving aside the cross-examination: “The fact that there is no agreement between agencies and departments is not desirable in any way.”
Updated
Andrews confirms his position in his statement that his view was that health minister Jenny Mikakos and DHHS were responsible for the scheme.
But there was, I think it is really acknowledged, and certainly it was acknowledged in my mind, that there was some procurement of hotels and other similar procurement activity that was led by the department of jobs, precincts and regions. Therefore for those opponents, that minister would be accountable.
Updated
Andrews says this situation would have been even “more concerning to me” because “that is not a decision at all, that is just a series of assumptions”.
Andrews says the lack of clarity about decision-makers were “some of the issues I confronted”.
“Which saw me on the 30th, advise the governor to appoint the board. I couldn’t get answers to these questions, even.”
Updated
Ellyard: Assuming Mr Eccles’ analysis was correct and it was an instance of collective decision-making, one would expect those who were part of the collective would know who they were and be able to identify themselves as part of that decision-making.
Andrews replies:
I would certainly hope so.
He says “it is very disappointing” that no one can.
Asked if it would be “equally concerning” that rather than a specific decision, there was a “ kind of creeping assumption that formed amongst a group” about the decision to use guards, Andrews says:
Perhaps even greater.
This an important moment.
Ellyard says the public has the right to know who made the decision:
“We should be able to say you made a decision to not only spend that much money but to give such an important function in this infection control program.”
She notes that the boss of the premier’s department, Chris Eccles, had referred to “collective governance, or, collective decision-making”.
Ms Ellyard, I want good and the best decision-making. I think it is very difficult to make judgments about that unless you can point to who made it. I don’t know that this ... I don’t. My understanding of collective decision-making does not remove accountability.
It does not remove, for instance, as the chair of the cabinet, the cabinet makes a collective decision. But I have made that decision because I am the chair of the cabinet. If a group of people meet, and a decision is made, then a similar formality will be born to those processes, come to those processes as well.
That is at least my practical experience from the many, many meetings and forums that I am the chair of. I don’t think collective decision-making makes it harder to determine what body and which people made a judgment, made a decision. That is why those forums had a record of decision and minutes ... They are an authorising environment.
Updated
Ellyard asks Andrews about the decision to hire private security guards.
The evidence [has been] to the effect that no one is claiming ownership of the decision, even though no one seems to have spoken against it at the time and no one who might have been the decision-maker seems to suggest if it had been them, it would have been a bad decision. There is just no one ... Do you know who it was?
Andrews says:
No, I don’t. That is the nature of the decision I made. This is why I set up the board of inquiry or recommended it to the governor, to get that answer, and quite a few others, Ms Ellyard.
Updated
We’re now looking at a meeting between Andrews and Scott Morrison on 23 June 2020. The meeting broadly discussed ADF support for Victoria.
Andrews says he doesn’t recall discussing support specifically for the hotel quarantine program in that meeting.
Updated
Eccles told the inquiry he couldn’t recall what he did with the alleged ADF offer from Gaetjens.
Andrews says he would have expected to know about the offer.
Given that it is so at odds with what I took away from the national cabinet meeting, I think it would have been very significant to me and I cannot predict what outcome it may have had but I certainly would have wanted to know, because it would have presented us with options that we otherwise didn’t have in a good-faith interpretation, very clear interpretation, of what had been decided at national cabinet.
Updated
Andrews says he had no expectation that ADF support was available for the hotel quarantine program.
I stress this is not as a point of criticism but leaving the national cabinet meeting I had absolutely no expectation whatsoever that in the establishment and the running of hotel quarantine there would be significant extensive ADF support. That was not the case for every state. A case I think had been well made in relation to New South Wales.
But I had no expectation at all that we would receive that type of support and these matters, some week or so later, were not drawn to my attention and in fact this is the first time I am seeing this email was in preparation for this.
Updated
Ellyard takes Andrews to an email from federal PMC boss Phil Gaetjens to the boss of the premier’s department, Chris Eccles. In the email, Gaetjens is said to have made clear the federal government was offering ADF support in hotel quarantine.
Andrews says he was not aware of the discussions between those two people.
Updated
We’ve turned to the issue of offers of requests for ADF support within the hotel quarantine scheme.
Andrews has said he was not aware of requests. Ellyard notes that Crisp gave evidence that in setting up the scheme, his view was that it wasn’t neccessary.
Andrews says he is only aware of that now, due to Crisp’s evidence. He says whether it was “required was not something that I would have been determining, which I think is the sequence of events you are describing”.
Updated
Ok then I’m here to summarise the Hotel Quarantine inquiry again - with an updated list of everyone who does not know who decided to hire security guards - so now we all know what they know - which is that everyone doesn’t know. The end. pic.twitter.com/9PUAhVE3As
— Sharnelle Vella (@SharnelleVella) September 25, 2020
Andrews says he can’t point to a specific meeting or document when he learned private security guards would be used in the program.
He adds: “I announced these arrangements at least in broad terms, on the 28th [of March], so I must have been informed of those final decisions prior to then.”
He says he doesn’t not recall having a view on the topic one way or the other.
Updated
Andrews agrees that issues of infection control were too important to be left to private contractors.
Yes, I think I can agree with that statement. Given what is at stake, given the seriousness and the infectivity of this virus, Ms Ellyard, I think that’s a fair statement.
Updated
We’ve moving on to the contracts: for hotel, security companies, and cleaning companies.
Andrews is asked whether he knew that the contracts placed requirements of the hotels and security guards to provide PPE.
He says he’s aware now, but wasn’t aware at the time.
Ellyard:
And the evidence that the board has received is, from looking at the face of the contract, those responsibilities relating to PPE and staff understanding infection control and so forth, they were outsourced by government to those private contractors, if you just look at the bare facts of the contracts?
Andrews:
I think that’s a fair statement, yes.
He agrees this was a risk to the success of the program.
Updated
Andrews has been taken a government document outlining the operation of the program.
He says he hasn’t seen it before, and that he normally wouldn’t receive such a document.
The document includes an organisational chart. Ellyard goes to the fact the the chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, was not the state controller – which would have given him oversight over hotel quarantine. Sutton told the inquiry he believed he should have been in the role.
I am aware of that evidence and I’m aware of that now and I was not, I was not aware of that at the time, when I think these matters were live, as it were.
Updated
Andrews on whether he was briefed on who was in charge of the scheme.
I might’ve had sense of departmental arrangements but I think agency arrangements; I would not necessarily be briefed specifically on that. It might come forward perhaps as something that the state control centre had done maybe, trying to if you like grouping together different agencies.
Updated
Andrews is shown a document that states that the objectives of the program were: 1: protection of public health; 2: the supporting of a continued viability of the tourism and accommodation industry.
This is what Andrews has referred to as “dual benefits”. Ellyard notes a home quarantine model would not have had the same benefits.
Andrews says those considerations are secondary.
The public health imperative was the principal objective and the second benefit was subordinate to that.
Updated
Q: Would we be right in understanding from the press conference that you gave on 27 March that at least to some extent the cost, particularly the cost of hotel rooms, was one of the reasons why this was a good option because it was going to be making use of the hotel rooms and potentially providing some work for people who had been displaced by Covid-19 restrictions?
Andrews says:
I think that there was potentially ... multiple benefits. The other point I would make is, as I look back on that time, even at $80m, which is a substantial amount of money, the cost associated both in lives, liberties and finances of widespread community transmission and this wildly infectious virus has had in so many other parts of the world, I dare say they were considerable factors for me and us at the time as well.
Updated
Andrews also agrees the government had responsibility from 27 March to identify and plan for all of those risks that we have been talking about.
He agrees that the program is costly, in both the demands it places on people, and in financial terms.
Updated
Andrews agrees that the government had assumed responsibility for the risk that may otherwise be posed by infections and for keeping people safe.
Updated
Andrews is asked whether he considered the “possibility of less extreme measures such as for example beefing up the monitoring of people who were isolating at home?”
He says:
I‘m sure I turned my mind to those matters, Ms Ellyard, but I think in some respects the notion of having a very large group of people in a more concentrated environment make compliance and enforcement from at least a, in a policy sense, an easier task. The other thing as well of course is we couldn’t be certain how many people, actual Victorians in Victoria, who had not travelled I mean, may have become positive. It seems an appropriate response to a significant risk at a time when we were trying to buy time to prepare our health system, at a time when we were expecting that things would unfold much like they had in some other parts of the world.
Updated
Andrews is asked whether it would be unusual that the chief commissioner would not be consulted in the formulation of a program such as hotel quarantine.
That would certainly not accord with custom and practice that I have observed throughout my time in public life and throughout my time as a minister of the crown and throughout my time as the premier of the state.
The inquiry has heard evidence that the decision to use private guards was made before police had been consulted.
Updated
Hi all, and thanks Amy. Let’s get stuck in.
I am going to hand over to Luke Henriques-Gomes for the afternoon shift, as this inquiry is going to go for a while, and you will all benefit from his fresh eyes and ears.
Josh Taylor will be listening as well.
I’ll see you on Monday morning. Take care of you. Ax
Updated
So far, we have learned the systems around the hotel quarantine program were not finalised on 27 March.
And that Daniel Andrews doesn’t know whose decision it was to use private security.
Daniel Andrews is shown a text stream conversation between staffers
Q: There’s a reference here, we’ll need something on food and security for people in hotels. And the discussion goes on. It appears it’s partly about whether the program would start that day, or the next day. But does this email – we’ll need something on food and security for people in hotels – suggest any decisions being made by you or in your private office about what the model would be?
Daniel Andrews:
I think my answer is no. I think it identifies that there’s a need and those matters have not yet been finalised.
Not at the time anyway.
Q: Would it have been within your private office that decisions of this kind would’ve been made about the model that was going to be adopted for the program?
Andrews: No, they’re very much, indeed, they’re a deeply operational matter. That would not be determined by my office or by my department, I would say. That would be out of character. We have emergency management structures and agencies for exactly those purposes.
Q: OK. It does appear, though, that relevant matters or what this member of your staff perceived as relevant matters were being raised with Mr Aida.
Andrews: I think for the purposes of what I would be announcing, that’s what I read this to mean. Not so much to determining them.
Updated
We then move on to why Daniel Andrews was mentioning “private security” in the early days of the program.
Q: Premier, you’re record as saying, police, private security, all of our health team can monitor compliance in a much easier way. That’s a reference in the fact people will be in hotels.
You’ve said already that at the time you participated in the discussion, the decision, or aware of the decision, you hadn’t turned your mind specifically to who was doing the enforcing. Did these remarks suggest that by that time you had an assumption, or understanding of what the enforcement model would be?
Daniel Andrews:
I have given this quite some thought, Ms Ellyard. I’m not certain why I mentioned police, private security, and our health team. Those three groups of people and not a fourth or a fifth group. I think, I go on shortly thereafter to talk about the fact it had not been settled.
I can’t clarify for you or outline for you why I chose those three groups. I’m afraid I have tried to search my recall of this and I simply can’t. I can’t provide you with detail as to why they’re mentioned and others aren’t.
Q: I take it from that answer, premier, you can’t recall what precisely was in your mind about the enforcement model, if I may use that expression. At the time you made these remarks?
Andrews: Yes. I can’t. I cannot recall that.
Updated
Daniel Andrews agrees that Victoria was attempting to establish what “was a very substantial logistical undertaking the stand up a complicated program within 36 hours”.
Andrews:
It would be fairly described as an unprecedented set of circumstances.
Q5. Was the decision of national cabinet announced by the prime minister on 27 March 2020 to introduce quarantine by means of mandatory detention of returning travellers in designated facilities made on advice from the chief health officers? If
so, when did you first become aware of that advice?
On the morning of 27 March 2020, the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) provided a written brief concerning the items on the agenda for the upcoming meeting of national cabinet.
The briefing noted that the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) to national cabinet may recommend that all returning travellers self-isolate in hotels, rather than go home, if the household has more than one person. It was expected that the advice would be addressed at the meeting by the chief medical officer for the Australian government (CMO), Dr Brendan Murphy.
Also that morning, DPC provided a written advice from the AHPPC, which addressed additional measures that could be adopted to control the spread of the virus.
Relevantly, that advice recommended an additional measure in relation to enforced quarantine arrangements for returned international travellers. The AHPPC recommended enforcing
the monitored placement of returned travellers in facilities such as hotels, in high-risk cases where those persons would normally reside with others at home.
The national cabinet considered the measure recommended by the AHPPC, but in respect to all returned travellers. The CMO was present at the meeting. That extended measure was ultimately agreed by national cabinet.
I am now aware that drafts of both the DPC written brief and the AHPPC written advice were provided to my office at about 11pm on 26 March 2020. I do not remember seeing or discussing those documents that night. The drafts are, relevantly, materially
identical to the final documents provided by DPC the following morning.
Updated
Heading now to Daniel Andrews’s statement, which Josh Taylor has passed on to me, here are some of the questions:
Which minister or ministers did you regard as accountable to you and to the parliament for the structure and operation of the hotel quarantine program?
7. At the start of the program, I regarded minister Mikakos and minister Pakula as responsible for informing cabinet about, and seeking cabinet’s endorsement of, the initial overall service model and costings that had been determined for the program.
They did so at the CCC meeting on 8 April 2020.
8. I then regarded minister Mikakos as accountable for the program. The CCC was provided with regular reports by minister Mikakos containing data relevant to Victoria’s response to the public health emergency, key insights from the data, as well as other updates, including in relation to the program.
9. From 8 July 2020, I regarded the attorney general as accountable for the program.
10. However, as premier and chair of the CCC, I regard myself as being ultimately accountable for the Victorian government and any decisions made about the structure and operation of the program.
Updated
Q: Did you have your own views as at this time of what high risk meant if we’re thinking about returned travellers coming from places where that may have been coronavirus infections?
Daniel Andrews:
Yes.
Q: What was your own view as to how to describe people as high risk?
Andrews:
Anyone returning from a country with little or no public health response, community transmission, posed in my judgment a very serious risk, perhaps even an unacceptable risk, for community transmission here. And I think the circumstances that we confronted at that time with the vast majority of cases coming from overseas, that would have informed that view.
Q: So that was your personal view that you held as at 27 March?
Andrews:
Yes.
Q: Thank you. We’ve been provided with a copy of the relevant extract of the minutes of that national cabinet meeting at which the decision was made ... Premier, this is the relevant extract from the minutes of the national cabinet meeting on 27 March 2020.
Andrews:
It is.
Q: And it speaks for itself, but relevantly it provided that all travellers would be required to undertake mandatory self-isolation at designated facilities.
Andrews:
Yes, it did.
Q: And that state powers would be used for the purposes of enforcing that mandatory self-isolation.
Andrews:
That is correct.
Q: Having regard to your pre-existing awareness of your work being done for the procuring of hotel rooms, did you have an assumption or an expectation after the decision was taken, the designated facilities in Victoria would be hotels?
Andrews:
I thought that most likely, Ms Ellyard. For a number of reasons. I’m happy to elaborate if you think that would be of assistance ... I was informed, and had a general sense, there were the thousands of hotel rooms that will be required, as was referred to in the cabinet document you brought up earlier. From the 20th, I believe, was the date of that meeting. Beyond that, it seemed logical that hotels would perhaps be the facility used. Given travelling parties are made up of different numbers of people, so you need different size rooms, you need separate bathrooms for the purposes of infection control, those sort of factors, I think, would work on my mind at that time. We hadn’t settled the matter. But hotels did seem logical.
Updated
Daniel Andrews did not know who made decision on hotel quarantine program
In his statement, Daniel Andrews says he does not know who made the decision to use private security in its hotel quarantine program:
Statement of the Premier. That’s that then. @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/jLd7L0Wsqf
— Sharnelle Vella (@SharnelleVella) September 25, 2020
Updated
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Rachel Ellyard, is going through the events which led up to 27 March and Daniel Andrews’ knowledge of those events, including what was said in national cabinet.
Updated
So far, the commission is establishing what Daniel Andrews knew about what was happening prior to 27 March.
This includes the hotel for heroes program.
Updated
Daniel Andrews is being played remarks from then police chief commissioner Graham Ashton on 23 March, during a press conference, where he mentioned issues with self isolation.
Ashton:
For us, we’ve already been seeing examples where the community haven’t been following requirements regarding self quarantine, incidents where with spot checks people have not been at home and they should have been. People have freely said, ‘We were at home for some of the time; at other times we were out shopping and doing things’, so clearly the message has not been getting through to the degree that we really need to see to make sure they can do it in the proper way.
Hence we’ve had a need obviously through the work of everyone involved in terms of making the right decision, to up the ante, and we are in a position now to be able to do enforcement for that. I should stress it will be part of, as well as having dedicated officers, it will be part of our general patrol work, making sure that people are complying with these arrangements as well. All the patrol work that will be done, including this everyday work as well.
Andrews is asked if he is aware of the remarks, and says he can’t remember if he saw the press conference, but they sound familiar.
Updated
Daniel Andrews faces Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry
Daniel Andrews has sworn on a Bible ahead of his evidence to the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry.
His opening statement has been tabled and we begin.
Updated
In Victoria at the current time:
- 4268 cases may indicate community transmission – an increase of one since yesterday
- 482 cases are currently active in Victoria
- 58 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including eight in intensive care
- 18,794 people have recovered from the virus
- A total of 2,635,282 test results have been received which is an increase of 12,460 since yesterday.
Of the 482 current active cases in Victoria:
- 468 are in metropolitan Melbourne under the First Step of our roadmap
- 11 are in regional local government areas under the Third Step of our roadmap
- 3 are either unknown or subject to further investigation
- Colac Otway has two active cases, Greater Geelong has one active case and Greater Bendigo and Ballarat have no active cases.
Of the total cases:
- 18,727 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 1192 are from regional Victoria
- Total cases include 9598 men and 10,507 women
- Total number of healthcare workers: 3516, active cases: 77
- There are 247 active cases relating to aged care facilities
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest cumulative case numbers are as follows:
- 256 cases have been linked to BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee
- 220 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping
- 140 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth
- 132 cases have been linked to BlueCross Ruckers Hill Aged Care Facility in Northcote
- 127 cases have been linked to Twin Parks Aged Care in Reservoir
- 124 cases have been linked to Cumberland Manor Aged Care Facility in Sunshine North
- 122 cases have been linked to Japara Goonawarra Aged Care Facility in Sunbury
- 121 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg
- 108 cases have been linked to Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee
- 108 cases have been linked to Kalyna Aged Care Facility in Delahey
In Victoria there are currently four active cases in residential disability accommodation:
- Total resident cases: 0; Total Staff cases: 4
- Active cases in NDIS homes: 3 (0 residents)
- Active cases in ‘transfer’ homes (State regulated/funded): 1 (0 residents)
- Active cases in state government delivered and funded homes: 0
Non-aged care outbreaks with the highest number of active cases include:
- 18 active cases are currently linked to the Casey community outbreak (total cases: 44)
- 16 active cases are currently linked to Footscray Hospital (total cases: 21)
- 10 active cases are currently linked to Alfred Hospital (total cases: 11)
- 5 active cases are currently linked to the Springvale shared accommodation outbreak (total cases: 5)
Ahead of Daniel Andrews’s appearance, here are the official figures from Victoria Health:
Victoria has recorded 14 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,118.
The overall total has increased by 13 due to one case being reclassified.
Within Victoria, nine of the new cases are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and five are under investigation.
Of today’s 14 new cases, there are four cases in Greater Dandenong and single cases in Casey, Frankston, Hobson’s Bay, Hume, Knox, Moonee Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Whitehorse, East Gippsland and Wodonga.
After further investigation two new cases above linked to regional Victorian addresses are associated with cases currently living in metropolitan Melbourne. These cases have not been in regional Victoria in recent weeks and both acquired COVID-19 in metropolitan Melbourne. These cases will be moved to the appropriate LGA in coming days.
There have been eight new deaths from COVID-19 reported since yesterday. One man aged in his 60s, one woman in her 70s, three women and one man in their 80s and one woman and one man in their 90s.
Seven of today’s eight deaths are linked to known aged care facility outbreaks. To date, 781 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
The average number of cases diagnosed in the last 14 days for metropolitan Melbourne is 25.1 and regional Victoria is 0.8. The rolling daily average case number is calculated by averaging out the number of new cases over the past 14 days.
The total number of cases from an unknown source in the last 14 days is 34 for metropolitan Melbourne and zero for regional Victoria. The 14-day period for the source of acquisition data ends 48 hours earlier than the 14-day period used to calculate the new case average due to the time required to fully investigate a case and assign its mode of acquisition.
Daniel Andrews appearance comes on the final day of the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry’s hearings.
The Victorian premier has deferred answering any questions on the program, until his appearance at the inquiry.
He is expected to be asked what he knew, when, and who else was involved, as the inquiry attempts to answer why Victoria’s program failed.
Labor’s Jim Chalmers has also responded:
I think there’s a lot of concern on behalf of vulnerable borrowers that the government is in a rush to relax lending standards in a way that tilts the balance in favour of the banks and the loan sharks against ordinary working people.
The royal commission recommended that these protections not be wound back or watered down. We need to take that recommendation seriously. We want to make sure that people who have the capacity to pay loans back are having access to finance, but equally, we need to make sure that people don’t get in over their head.
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The Business Council of Australia’s Jennifer Westacott, is, not surprisingly, pleased with the proposes to relax loan standards.
Credit is the lifeblood of a growing economy and it will be critical to creating the jobs we need to recover.
A strong banking and finance system has been critical to our success through the Covid-19 crisis and we must ensure that the system remains strong into the future to secure our recovery.
Changes announced today get the balance right to protect consumers and ensure those that need it can get credit, invest in their homes and businesses and grow.
These changes will ensure that small businesses can access credit and that means they can plan and prepare for the future.
Crucially, these changes remove unnecessary duplication and include strong new protections against predatory behaviour from some debt management firms.
We look forward to working with the government on the details of these proposed changes.
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Australia’s manufacturing workers’ union is not overly impressed with the government’s energy roadmap.
We should be putting this money where it could really make a difference - rebuilding Australian Manufacturing.
— Steve Murphy (@Murphy_Steve) September 25, 2020
There’s strong community support for #australianmade
Making things here, makes a difference.
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Daniel Andrews faces hotel quarantine inquiry at 2.15
Daniel Andrews will front the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry at 2.15.
Josh Taylor will be watching for you, but if you want to follow along live, you can do so here
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The Senate debate for this legislation is going to be very, very interesting.
BREAKING NEWS TODAY:
— Stephen Jones MP (@StephenJonesMP) September 24, 2020
The Morrison Government wants to scrap the responsible lending laws which require banks to check the capacity of a customer and suitability of a loan. The Banking Royal Commission recommended THE OPPOSITE. pic.twitter.com/9geoycruOr
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Consumer groups have warned of an impending disaster by loosening lending laws in a recession.
Ciara Glennon’s father, Denis, is speaking to the media about Bradley Robert Edwards being found guilty of his daughter’s murder after she disappeared in 1997.
Ciara was the third woman to go missing in the Perth suburb of Claremont. Her body was found three weeks later.
It was fibres on Ciara’s body, plus a scrap of DNA under her fingernail, which helped bring about Edwards’ conviction for two of the murders.
But while Denis has a lot of gratitude and heartfelt thank yous to give, he also has a message for the media. It’s important, for all of us, to hear it:
Since Ciara’s murder there have been countless heartbreaking setbacks.
And most were triggered by media reports containing selective information to support predisposed opinions. And the reports were, somewhat understandably, based on deficient interpretations of an ever-increasing labyrinth of evidence over so long.
The reports ... they serve little or no legitimate public interest value or purpose. The dramatic headlines, the subjective content repeatedly cast doubt on the investigative work of the police, and the analytical work of the chemists, the scientists, all of whom I know were working diligently and conscientiously with what they had to work with at the time they were working on the case.
And this form of reporting, I can assure you, inflicted needless additional suffering on my family.
The stomach-churning, sinking feeling such reports delivered is beyond words.
And I can assure you my family is not alone in making that observation. For over two decades, such reporting occurred. They’re on record. There’s no denying that fact. And I thought then that suspicion and scepticism do not have to be the prime currency of dealings between the media personnel and those seeking truth and justice.
Thank god we live in a civil society. But in a civil society, our society, we believe journalistic standards and editorial stewardship that tap the deeper wellsprings of what I’ve called the long-established principles of impartiality and empathy are indisputably superior alternatives.
Now, I quickly add, this observation from my family is not a criticism by us.
It is simply an observation. It is our lived experience. In contrast are those in the media who, with acumen and wisdom, crafted balanced reports that were sensitively worded, were transparent.
These were a welcome respite, and we thank the people responsible.
And I’d like to repeat that paragraph: I’d like to thank the people responsible for those balanced reports.
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The Australian Council of Social Services and consumer groups will hold a press conference soon to address the cut in the jobseeker supplement.
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Debt recovery remains on pause
The government’s debt recovery program remains on pause.
Today I've announced the temporary nation-wide pause on debt raising and recovery will be extended to 30 Oct, but it is important people keep Services Australia informed of any changes to their circumstances, including income activity, so correct payments are made. @ServicesGovAU pic.twitter.com/cggcYHAy6k
— Stuart Robert MP (@stuartrobertmp) September 25, 2020
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Bill Shorten has continued his exciting foray into “youth speak”.
Here is his latest statement on Stuart Robert:
What happens when you put Master of Disaster Stuart Robert in charge of the $1.5bn scheme to overhaul welfare payment IT?
According to an audit published yesterday by the Australian National Audit Office, Robert’s agency Services Australia has failed to monitor costs, failed to work out how to move information between systems, and failed to addressed cyber security threats.
The report found Services Australia:
- Did not monitor the cost of operating the current welfare system at all and so was ‘unable to … assess the ongoing value for money of this expenditure’.
- ‘Has failed to establish appropriate arrangements to migrate data to the future welfare payment system.’
- ‘Did not apply an appropriate framework to manage cyber security risk, as it did not either cyber security risk assess or accredit all elements of the system.’
Robert, who blamed imaginary hackers for one of the MyGov crashes he presided over, should have been paying more attention to genuine cyber security risks.
Clearly Robert is what online gamers would call a ‘noob’, someone who has absolutely no idea what they are doing.
Australians are sick of the endless tech bungles from this digital noob.
Noob comes on top of Shorten saying Scott Morrison needed to ensure he didn’t look “like a simp” to Donald Trump in August.
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Vincent Namatjira wins Archibald for Adam Goodes portrait
In breaking news outside Covid and politics:
Archibald Prize 2020: Vincent Namatjira named winner for portrait of Adam Goodes https://t.co/lVw9BRUVWm
— heldavidson (@heldavidson) September 25, 2020
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The Queensland election is at the end of next month and it is very close. The LNP primary vote, on polling, is increasing, and while the opposition would need to win nine seats to form government, it is not out of the question. Labor holds a two-seat majority but is looking at losing two seats at this stage, which is why you are going to see a massive ramp up, from both sides, over this issue.
Happy Halloween.
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Steven Miles finished with this, which was in response to Peter Dutton, who claimed the Queensland government had made its border closures for purely political reasons:
Well I’m not the one withdrawing the army from our borders. You know, it’s the army that have been there supporting our police, doing an incredibly important job keeping Covid out of our state – and I make this point again – not just from New South Wales, but also from Victoria.
When Peter Dutton comes out, calls me names, says he doesn’t support our borders, he might think he is just talking about NSW, but those border restrictions are also in place for Victoria.
And yet they happily continue to provide defence force support to NSW with the Victorian border, to the Northern Territory who don’t have a border with Victoria.
So you really need to put to them questions about why Queensland is so different? Why the army is being withdrawn from Queensland and not from those other states? Why we have this conga line of Morrison government ministers every day on every program out there attacking me, attacking Queensland, attacking our restrictions that have been so successful.
And the only difference is that we have an election coming up. So who do you think is making it political?
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Then Steven Miles, the deputy premier, stepped up, explaining his back and forth with Josh Frydenberg:
I understand Josh is offended because I thought he’d called me a liar about one thing, when actually he had called me a liar about a different thing. I accept that.
But both are important, both are true, both were being said by commonwealth government ministers, and a week ago Josh Frydenberg said it was a conspiracy to suggest that federal government ministers were being used to propagate a war against Queensland and a war against our efforts against Covid, and then yesterday and today he is part of that.
I mean they can call me all the names in the world they want to, but that is not going to affect my resolve, or Queenslanders’ resolve. to address this virus ...
I had done two radio interviews and then read a summary of his radio interview, which had happened at the same time as I was on another radio interview.
I saw that he had said what I had said was garbage, and I took that to mean that, given I had received a number of questions about whether we had requested a border extension, I took it to mean that was what he was talking about.
But actually, it turns out he was talking about the federal government’s use – misuse, in my view – of the army to propagate an argument with us in the lead-up to the state election. Now all of those facts are now clear.
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Annastacia Palaszczuk says ADF cut from Qld unfair and unreasonable
Back to Queensland. There is another back and forth with the federal government over the the redeployment of ADF personnel from the Queensland border.
Annastacia Palaszczuk had this to say this morning:
I am still very concerned that the Australian defence force, through the federal government, is withdrawing resources from the end of September. I have been advised that the Australian defence force will remain on the New South Wales and Victoria border until mid-October, Northern Territory [to the[ end of October and South Australia [to the] middle of October, and South Australia is trying, I understand, to extend that to the end of October.
I don’t think it is fair or reasonable that Queensland has been singled out here.
I had written to the prime minister. I had a response back from the minister for defence where it states very clearly that they would not be moving on Queensland.
Let me be very clear too: Peter Dutton said yesterday he does not support Queensland’s position on the borders.
To Peter Dutton, let me say this: there is a federal court case, this is a clear federal court case, that says Western Australia and Queensland borders have kept community transmission out of their states. Queensland joined that action with Western Australia, and of course that position was won over … over Clive Palmer, and the commonwealth’s evidence was also taken into account.
So my question is: why is Queensland being singled out? We are one country. Other states are allowed to have some relaxations, and once again I urge the commonwealth to reconsider and treat Queensland like everyone else.
Stop singling Queensland out.
I want the best for the people in this state. My job is to look after five million Queenslanders and you only have to look at our results. Queensland is doing a mighty job and that is because of everyone working together. And I don’t want to see – I know the police do an amazing job of making sure that the borders will continue – but in this circumstance I would’ve hoped that we could all work together in the interests of everyone during this time.
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And that is where the press conference ends.
Q: On the issue of jobkeeper and jobseeker, Australian taxpayers are being asked to foot the bill for the fact that Victoria has had a second wave. Obviously a lot more Victorians are receiving jobkeeper and jobseeker than would have been had we not had that second wave which did come out of hotel quarantine.Do you apologise to them for that?
Daniel Andrews:
Well, I have apologised on multiple occasions.
I am very sorry that we find ourselves in a situation where we have had to put restrictions in place to bring these numbers down. I have been very clear about that.
So what I would say is that the best thing we can do, whether it be in terms of income support, our economy getting back to that point where we drive the national economy, which is the story of this state in recent years, the best thing we can do is continue to drive these numbers down.
Don’t open too much too soon and find ourselves back in this circumstance in just a few months’ or weeks’ time. That is what we are focused on and that is why it is so pleasing, no doubt not just for Victorians but everybody across the country, to see these numbers falling.
That is the most important thing and why I make the point as I have many times: you can’t hope to keep the numbers low until you first get them low, and that is what the strategy is making possible.
There is pain, there’s many challenges in that, but that’s the only alternative that available to us.
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Q: Will you be deciding or announcing an economic stimulus package for both employees and employers in coming months?
Daniel Andrews:
A very big feature of the forthcoming budget will be jobs, investment confidence, repairing the damage that the pandemic has done to us and making sure that we can have growth and look after all of those that have been touched by this.
That will be a feature and it is fair to say ... that it will be in unprecedented terms, and it will be a package the size and scale of which this state will never have seen before, because that’s the nature of the challenge that we face.
Q: When the rates of jobseeker and jobkeeper are cut, particularly Victorians are going to lose a lot of disposable income, so I’m just wondering if there are any plans for a one-off stimulus for Victorians to get the economy going or put some extra cash into their pocket?
Andrews:
There will be a budget soon and the budget will deal all of our plans and they will involve, as I said, jobs and repair, but also capitalising on our core strengths and actually creating some new ones.
That is the sort of work that we are going to do. There will be infrastructure large and small, there will be support for individual families as well, we know that there are many people out there doing it tough but I am not in a position to make those announcements today.
Not for any other reason than those matters have not been settled. We are well advanced but we have not settled on those things and income support, if I’d take it, is what you’re talking about, that is primarily a function of the Federal Government and it should be.
They are the ones with the payment system, that is a long-standing practice, but where we can add to, in a long-term sense, some of the things the Federal Government will do, compliment the sorts of things, then we always stand ready to do that.
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Q: Premier, one on the decreases people are experiencing in the coming days with and JobSeeker payments, what do you say to people in the community who are now going to be suffering more financial hardship because of this argy-bargy between the state and government?
Daniel Andrews:
I wouldn’t describe the relationship of the Federal Government in those terms. They’ve made a decision and they can speak to why they’ve made that decision. That is not a decision that I have made, we just announced the biggest package of business support that the state has ever seen only a couple of weekends ago. In terms of the rate of JobKeeper, that is entirely a matter for the Federal Government and those questions should be referred to them.
Q: But it is going to be affecting Victorians more than anyone else.
Andrews:
Well, I don’t determine the rate of JobKeeper or JobSeeker. And I am not in a position to do that. That is a matter for the Federal Government, and the Federal Government are the ones that have made that decision and the Federal Treasurer is out quite often, he has lots to say about all sorts of different matters, I think that he should probably the one that you speak to about that.
Q: You represent Victorians, have you lobbied the...
Andrews:
I’ve had conversations with the prime minister. I don’t propose to go into the details of discussions they have had with the prime minister but I’ve made it very clear that there is a significant in need Victoria and we would very much welcome the continued assistance of the Commonwealth in meeting those needs.
I can only draw you to the prime minister’s comments, ‘we are all Victorians’, so if you want to know what has been done and why, then I think Josh Frydenberg, who is a Victorian as well, is exactly the person that you should speak to.
Beyond that, we will always lobby for additional support for our state. I think it would be fair to say that that has been a feature of the work that they have done over these last six years and many years before that.
They’ve got a federal budget coming up, and I think it is a fair conclusion to draw from some of the things that have been preannounced on some of the commentary out there that there will be significant support for all of those impacted by Covid-19, not just in Victoria but indeed right across the nation.
Q: A Bendigo businessman has taken out an ad campaign criticising you quite personally, what do you think of that campaign?
Daniel Andrews:
I haven’t seen the campaign. I understand some ads were run in some other popular TV shows, I wasn’t watching those shows. people are free to have their views advertising or criticism, doesn’t really work that well against this virus. I wish that it did.
Q: It was quite personal, especially targeting you, what do you think of the tone of that sort of campaign?
Andrews:
Not having seen the campaign I really can’t comment and, maybe I should put it this way. I don’t know whether it is personal or not but I can confirm for you that personal abuse doesn’t work against this virus either.
Q: There are legal proceedings about the curfew. It would be [sensible] for you to remove the curfew ahead of possibly being legally quashed, wouldn’t it?
Daniel Andrews:
I wouldn’t make that judgment. I think there are some people that are not big fans of that. This is a strategy that has worked. It is a strategy that has made the very important work of Victoria police just a little bit easier and I just don’t think that you can deny the fact that we have seen less movement, we have seen less of some of the activity that we know spreads this virus, but, again, it is best – I take no joy in making this comment – but as you rightly point out, that matter is in the courts right now and I’ll leave it to others to argue the various perspectives they have on that matter.
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Q: Are we any closer to knowing what Sunday may look like and any announcements?
Daniel Andrews:
Sunday, yes. We are working through all the numbers that have come to us throughout the week. The trends and change of transmission, the types of cases, the story, if you like, that sits behind each of those cases.
Tomorrow will be a long day and I think probably well into the evening.
We are very confident that we can take some safe steps, not big steps - I want to be very clear, the roadmap never envisaged really significant steps at the 28th - but we are on track, the strategy is working. I do hope to be able to talk a little bit more about how I think October will unfold and maybe give people some clarity around, because we are ahead of schedule, what might be possible.
Again, always subject to the case numbers. What might be possible in the next month, as we move towards that next trigger point. That may be able to occur sooner, but I will be in a bitter position to speak to that inn some detail on Sunday. Sunday, for clarity as sake, Sunday will not be a day where we are throwing the doors open and everyone gets to go back to Covid-normal.
We haven’t got to that point yet. But the good thing, the positive thin, out of these last few weeks since we announced the roadmap is we are ahead of schedule.
We are - when I say “we”, all Victorians through their amazing efforts and enormous sacrifice, are driving these numbers down. They are not low enough yet, but they are certainly moving that way. That means many things become possible and potentially earlier than we had thought.
Q: Is there any chance that perhaps either the curfew or the 5k radius may be changed on Saturday?
Andrews:
I can’t really comment on those matters until they are settled, but I think they would, certainly the 5ks would be poor in the significant decision, the decision that is probably beyond the scope of the 28th, but again that is my view at this stage. We still - no decisions have been made. That is the point I am trying to make. They will be made and we will make those announcements on Sunday.
Q: How can you have confidence in her when she clearly didn’t seek updates on key elements of the quarantine program?
Daniel Andrews:
I have told you...
Q: You haven’t said why.
Andrews:
I have answered the question.
Q: You haven’t said why.
Andrews:
I don’t want to run through a list that sees me to the point to the point where I have confidence in all of my ministers. I do. That is the answer to the question.
You are essentially asking me via another device to be commentator on evidence.
...That is why people when they are asked to appear, go and appear and answer questions.
But it is not for me to be drawing conclusions or making findings on evidence that has been led. That is, after all, I think pretty logically, that is why the inquiry was set up. That is the work they are doing. It is for them, in the first instance - there will be a day when you can ask me what I think about all of these matters and what I am going to do about all of these matters - but we have to have those matters settled first. I can’t speak to a report that hasn’t been written yet. I simply can’t.
Q: With all due respect, I am not asking you to comment on the hotel quarantine inquiry. I am just asking you why you have confidence in your Health Minister?
Andrews:
That is not the question you asked.
Q: Putting the quarantine program aside, why do you have confidence in her?
Andrews:
With an equal amount of respect, that is not what you said. You said “in light of various things, how was it that I...” I think I have answered that question.
Andrews continues to back health minister
Q: Yesterday you said that you have confidence in all of your ministers following your health minister’s evidence at the inquiry yesterday. Is that still the case?
Daniel Andrews:
Yes. And if that were to change, then ministers would not be ministers. That is why they are ministers because I have confidence in them and if that at any point changes, that changes.
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Q: More than 650 people have died since the second wave. Isn’t it only fair that someone should be held accountable for this and that is what it should look like?
Daniel Andrews:
The fact that Victorians have died, even one death, is a tragedy. That is a matter of great concern to me. It is a matter of great concern to every single Victorian. But it is appropriate for us to wait until the board has reported and made whatever findings they see fit to make, whether that be findings in fact ... observations and as well as any recommendations that they might see fit to give to us, and then it will be my responsibility at that point to take the action necessary to ensure that mistakes do not occur again. That is the responsibility that I have.
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Q: I am not asking you to suppose anything, though. Jenny Mikakos ...have said it was a shared responsibility, shared accountability and they weren’t the lead agency. But your government’s own pandemic plans have identified them as lead agencies. I am asking you why those pandemic plans weren’t followed from the beginning?
Daniel Andrews:
Again, you are pre-supposing that they weren’t followed. You are asking many to comment. DHHS was a lead agency and that was in the pandemic plan so that clearly wasn’t followed. That is the next point I was going to make. You are asking me the comment on evidence that has been lead. That is what you are ask something to de. I am making this point as respectfully and clearly as I can. I am not criticising you for asking the question.
I will not be a commentator on evidence that has been lid to the inquiry. I will wait, I will wait until the final report is handed down and then we will be able to look at the findings, the company industry and any recommendations that Judge Coate makes.
That is out of a respect for the process that I set up and it is also - it should be noted, that given I am appearing later on today, and I in no way, in no way, do I want to be going into that process where anyone might think that I have tried to guide that process, that I have drawn conclusions as a result of that process. It is not complete yet and I understand your frustration, but I do not believe that is the prompt way to go.
It is not a matter of being prohibited. It is not a sub-judiciary issue at all. It is a matter of allowing a process that has been established for good reason to run it course and then there will be - I will boldly predict - a very long press conference where you can take me to all of these matters and I will go through reach of them in a thorough, but as concise way, as possible.
Q: The Chair of that inquiry hasn’t prevented you from answering questions on running commentary, as you like to call it. I am just asking you, when we have health management applying for flu pandemic and there have been plans with Victoria Health when they identify DHHS as the lead agency in controlling a novel virus outbreak including the warrant, why wasn’t the Department of Health and Human Services at the very beginning been give than lead agency role?
Daniel Andrews:
This is where we are getting no - with respect and noting that I have on multiple occasions - I am not criticising you for asking the question. I am asking for you to appreciate the circumstances thattise fine myself in. What I am saying to you is, it has not been established - what you are putting to me is a series of conclusions. It is not for me to make those conclusions. It is not for me to establish those matters. I could not establish what has gone wrong and to whom you could attribute that at that time I established the inquiry.
That is exactly why I have established the inquiry, but - if I recall, your request said, “It seems”, you are pre-supposing a certain thin has happened. I am not going to do that. I am going to wait for a process that has pored over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, listened to and taken in, I assume, hundreds of hours of evidence. There will be, as I understand it, closing submissions next week and then the Chair and others will go away and write a report and they will come back and they will produce that report.
Q: We are not asking you to run the inquiry, they are just factual questions. The Victorian health management applies to pandemic response and also other novel viruses. The Department’s response priorities is to limit the morbidity and mortality, to limit the impact on the health and well-being of the community by ensuring rapid and early detection of the virus in the community and controlling the spread of influenza through various containment strategies including but not limited to isolation and quarantine. So clearly hotel quarantine, the isolation and quarantine was the responsibility of the Department of Health and Human Services, was it not?
Daniel Andrews:
What you are asking me is to ignore the fact that the very subject matter that you are asking me about is currently being actively considered by an independent process.
Q: I’m asking you...
Andrews:
I am not finding fault with your logic that you are asking on matters of fact and beyond that, on matters of opinion and judgement and I am not questioning your ability to ask those questions. What I am asking you to consider, though, is the fact that all of those matters and many more, whether they be matters of policy, principle, practice, or the performance of ministers and agencies, they are also, we surely all would concede, they are all being actively considered by an inquiry right now, live. It’s not a thing like, it’s not like they handed the report done yesterday, they are actually doing this work now, and it is for them, first, to make their findings, make any recommendations, draw any conclusions they see fit to draw and then there will be a time for me to speak on these matters and most likely many, many more. many, many more.
Q: In the middle of April, Caucus was told about the use of security guards. Jenny Mikakos was at a press conference at the end of March where the use of security guards were mentioned.
How is it possible that she only knew about private security guard use at the end of May?
Daniel Andrews:
What people knew, what they did and the degree to which that was right, wrong or indifferent, that is a matter that the board is actively examining today and every day until they produce a report, which will be an early November. I cannot and I will not pretend to be the chair of the inquiry. That is not why it was set up.
Q: Is that a standard that the community should be satisfied with? This is a senior member of your government that seems to have a doubt at fairly key moments during the pandemic response.
Andrews:
Again, it is not for me to draw those conclusions today. Those matters and many other matters will be matters that the chair of the inquiry could possibly make findings on. That is a matter for her. I know everyone wants answers, I want answers as well. That is why the inquiry was set up, but when you set up an inquiry, you need to be respectful of the work that is being done by that inquiry and I don’t believe it is appropriate for me to attempt to make findings. It is not appropriate for me to pretend to be running the inquiry. I am not. The inquiry is being run by others as it should be and I know it’s frustrating that the final report doesn’t come on the final day of evidence, but that is not the way these things work.
Q: The broader issue of whether the health minister should have been better across her portfolio, yesterday she said that she did not seek updates on the hotel quarantine program until two months later. Is that acceptable?
Daniel Andrews:
You are asking me to comment on evidence that has been led to the board of inquiry, and I’m afraid I’m not doing that.
Q: I’m asking you whether it’s appropriate for a health minister to wait two months to be updated on a program that ...
Andrews:
I’m terribly sorry. I’m appearing before the inquiry today and I’m not going to canvass issues that may well be directly asked about today. Nor will I be drawing conclusions on evidence that has been led to that inquiry. That is not my role; that is not respectful of the process that is going on at the moment.
I understand why the questions are asked, but if I’d try to write the report of the inquiry from the podium, five weeks before they will be actually handing down a report, the other point to make is that they have the benefit of having examined in some detail hundreds of thousands of document, hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, as well as having heard from many, many witnesses. I don’t believe that is appropriate. I am not writing the report. I am appearing before the board and I will not make any comments that may be interpreted by anyone trying to direct the findings of this inquiry, to direct the line of questioning.
Q: We are just asking you to answer simple questions about your minister.
You are asking me questions and it is my judgment that if I answer those questions then they will be cutting across the work of the board and they will be cutting across the findings the board may or may not make.
That is not something I am prepared to do. I have nothing but respect for this process, that is why I am assisting the process this afternoon. There will be a time for us to talk about all of these issues and more, and that will be when we all have the recommendations, the findings, the final report of this board and that is not for a number of weeks.
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And then it is on to the hotel quarantine inquiry:
Q: Will Victorians today finally be given the answers as to the key decision-makers in the hotel quarantine scheme.
Daniel Andrews:
I am not going to presuppose what questions they might be asked so I can’t provide you with an answer to that question, and I would note that while today is the last day of hearings, the report of the inquiry which gathers together not just evidence that has been given but hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, that is not due for some weeks, early November, I think is when they are going to be providing that report.
Q: Is it acceptable to you that your health minister says she wasn’t briefed on the hotel quarantine scheme and the infection control in the hotel quarantine scheme, given that the infection control was a crucial part of that?
Andrews:
I understand where the question comes from and I don’t want to be in any way difficult – I always endeavour not to be that way at all of these briefings – but out of respect for the process that I am actually part of, I will be appearing this afternoon, and I just don’t think it is appropriate for me to be commenting on evidence that is being led or anticipating in any way questions that might be asked.
My fundamental obligation is to answer the questions that are put to me today directly, factually, accurately, honestly as I can and that is what I intend to do.
Updated
Q: Do you think students will repeat a year?
Daniel Andrews:
The academic evidence from across the world shows that students do much better when they remain with their age-appropriate cohort.
There will be some cases, as there is every year, where some students will need to repeat a year but I think that the better pathway forward, which is what the educational experts and the experience from around the world shows us, the challenge, I think we can meet the challenge of filling in any gaps and we have some further announcements to make how next year might look a little bit different, both in terms of what is learned and some of that intensive focus on some of the basics that students may not have attained throughout 2020.
The important thing here is, we have time with those students that are in the lower year levels. Obviously for year 12s, we need to move them through the year as best we can, support them. I would just make the point that I have had conversations with a number of vice chancellors at various universities across the state and they are very confident that the scores, which are a ranking, will be as meaningful as they ever are, and they are very confident that at the end of first year university, so at the end of 2021, they will have everybody where they need to be in order to move into the second year of their course.
That’s no small thing but universities have a high degree of confidence that they will be able to do that.
Updated
Into the questions.
Q: What sort of effect do you think 2020 is going to have on some of these year 12s, and will it have a lasting effect?
Daniel Andrews:
We have a year 12 in our household, and this has not been an easy year for our most senior students, and the point that was just made about it being the very last year – so while we have time – and we will make some substantial announcements about catch up, filling any gaps for students who are coming back next year in those lower grades.
But this has not been an easy year for our senior students, and that is why the special consideration approach that we have taken so that no student is disadvantaged, the impact of Covid-19 on them and their performance will be taken into account.
It’s very important, and it’s important too, that while that’s there for those who are pursuing a more academic pathway, that it be there as well for those who are looking to be job ready and to move into perhaps further training – that training sitting alongside employment.
So I think this is a very good outcome but there is no diminishing how challenging this year has been. That is why a proper consideration and detailed analysis of every single student, not the notion of just those who might apply, not the notion of those who might, in a normal year, get that close examination of not just their scores but what sits behind that, every single year 12 student is being assessed with input from their teachers, with input at a very local level, and I think that is exactly the thing for us to do.
Updated
What does that all mean?
James Merlino:
In a nutshell, every single VCAL student will be individually assessed and special consideration provided if they have been impacted by Covid and they will receive their VCAL certificate.
Every single VET qualified student, if they have not been able to complete their VET qualification will be guaranteed enrolment at a tafe or sector provider next year.
...I am really, really pleased we have been able to get to this point so we can say today that every single year 12 student, whether they are a VCE student or a VCAL student, down an academic path or vocational path, every single year 12 student is being supported. In the impact of Covid-19 on their very final year of schooling will be recognised in their scores, their certificates and their pathways beyond year 12, I am really pleased we have been able to get to this point and I know that it will mean a lot to all students on a vocational path, all their families and I want to take this opportunity to thank very much all of our VCAL teachers and schools right across the state and teachers supporting students in their VET qualifications
James Merlino continues:
We’ve also got, across VCAL and VCE, so that our two year 12 certificates, across VCE and VCAL, we’ve got about 15,000 year 12 students undertaking a vet qualification, and a vet qualification is nationally recognised and federally regulated, so this is all about competencies and you need to complete units of competencies as a pathway to further training and employment.
So, for example, a certificate for plumbing, you complete that set to and that shows an employer that that person has the skills and competencies to begin a plumbing apprenticeship, so in many ways it is about safety in the workplace, you just must complete this work.
So for VET students this year, if they have been unable to complete their VET modification in 2020, we will guarantee them enrolment at a table or dual sector provider in 2021 and we will waive their 2021 VET fees which could save families hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
Victorian education minister James Merlino then moves on to student qualifications in the time of Covid, particularly for vocational students:
A while ago, the premier and I announced a range of supports for VCE students.
So individual assessment of every single VCE student, any student impacted by coronavirus, that would be reflected in their VCE scores and their Atar ranking.
They will receive their VCE certificate and their Atar before the end of the year, so there is absolutely no disadvantage for those students compared to students across the rest of the country.
Today we are announcing support for students on a vocational path in year 12 – and there is a lot of them.
They have faced some really unique challenges as a result of the pandemic and remote learning and that is about access to practical hands-on learning at school, at Tafe and at the workplace and there is also the impact or the connection to nationally recognised qualifications, which I will get to.
So this is quite unique and quite complex.
Firstly, we’ve got about 10,000 VCAL students in year 12.
Where they have been unable to complete units as a result of the pandemic, they will be receiving a credit as part of a special consideration process, so the special consideration for our VCAL students will look at the impact of remote learning and the pandemic on their ability to complete practical units, and this is all about hours for hands-on work.
Long absences, extra family responsibilities as a result of the pandemic, health of either the student or a family member, and of course, mental health issues.
So any VCAL student impacted by Covid-19, that will be reflected; they will receive credits for the units.
They will get their VCAL certificate just as VCE students will receive their VCE certificate. So that is the 10,000 VCAL students.
Updated
Daniel Andrews’s then acknowledges the sudden death of cricketing great, Dean Jones, from a heart attack:
I think every Victorian is saddened to see such a great Victorian lost to us so young. Dean Jones was not just a great cricketer, but a great person. I had opportunities to meet with him and I always found him to be an absolutely fantastic Victorian and I want to extend on behalf of all Victorians our condolences and best wishes, our love and support to all of Dean Jones’s family and of course to all of his many, many fans - a great Victorian has been lost to us and with all mourn that loss. I will at the propose time speak with him family about arrangements that they think would be suitable.
Obviously Covid-19 restrictions do have a direct impact on the number of people who can attend a funeral service, but there may be a time, subject to the wishes of his family, where we as Victorians can celebrate a life well lived and a life that we are all diminished by the loss of. His passing is something that is a cause of great sadness.
Just interrupting Daniel Andrews’s press conference for one moment:
Bank stocks have soared after the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, ditched responsible lending laws.
Shortly after 11am Westpac shares were up a whopping 6.5%, NAB up 6.3% and ANZ up 5.3%.
Australia’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth, was up a more modest 3.1%.
Daniel Andrews:
In terms of the Metro regional split, of the 14 cases today, 12 are if metro Melbourne. Two are in regional Victoria. That is to say they are recorded as being in regional Victoria based on the address, the postcode on their driver as licence.
I am advised, however, that those two new cases that are linked via their address to regional Victorian postcodes, both of those people acquired the virus in Melbourne and have not returned to regional Victoria.
These cases will not affect the regional rolling average or regional cases with an unknown source. I can further confirm there are four new cases in greater Dandenong and one in Casey.
I am afraid I don’t have further information as to whether they are linked to that Hallam cluster, but in the usual yes that will come forward as part of the chief medical officer’s media release later on today.
Updated
Daniel Andrews press conference
Happy day 85 of consecutive Daniel Andrews press conferences.
He is due to face the Victorian hotel inquiry in just a few hours.
As ever, he starts with the day’s numbers:
Fourteen new cases since my update yesterday of coronavirus.
Nine of those 14 cases are linked to known outbreaks and five of those 14 are under investigation by our public health team.
One has been reclassified.
There are 482 active cases in Victoria. That is the first time we have been below 400 cases for a considerable period of time and that is very pleasing.
I am sad to say there is now 781 Victorian whose have passed away as a result of this global pandemic.
Eight since my last report. One male in their 60s, one female in their 70s, there females and one male in their 80s one male and one female in their 90s.
Seven of those eight deaths are linked to aged care.
Can I of course extend my sympathies and condolences and best wishes to those eight families.
There are 58 Victorians in hospital. Eight of those are receiving intensive care and six of the eight are on a ventilator.
A total of 2,635,282 test results have been received since the beginning of the year, that is 12,460 test results received since yesterday.
That is another strong number and again I thank those, almost 12,500 Victorians, who went and got a test the day before. The results are coming back within 24 hours, 90% plus are coming back within 24 hours.
So we thank each and every one of those Victorian whose came forward and got a test.
Updated
NSW reports four new Covid cases
NSW has recorded four new cases of Covid – three are returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The fourth is the case we heard about yesterday, which came in after the 8pm deadline – his infection still remains a mystery, meaning NSW’s run of almost two weeks with no community infections has been broken.
The other case is locally acquired with no contact with a confirmed case identified. This case, a man in his 50s from South West Sydney, was announced yesterday and is included in today’s official numbers. Contact tracing and investigations continue.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) September 25, 2020
Updated
The Actuaries Institute has undertaken a review into Australia’s disability income insurance market.
Anyone who hasn’t had to deal with disability insurance may be surprised to learn there are about 850,000 disability insurance policies on the market – and they are not all created equal.
I hope you and your loved ones don’t have to try and find what you are covered for, if a disability ever impacts your ability to work.
Ian Laughlin, a former deputy chair at APRA, who led the institute’s taskforce review, said the market needed an overhaul – the sector lost $3.4bn over five years by selling complex products to individuals, which Laughlin said ultimately threatens its viability.
This is neither in the interests of customers nor the community at large.
...The Taskforce strongly believes that the problems are more deep-seated and diverse than just product terms and conditions.
Recommendations include:
- Insurers gain better insights into customer claims experience;
- Simpler and cheaper products with a focus on return to health and work;
- Strong controls over the level of benefits paid;
- Products that can be updated to allow for advances in medicine, technology and society’s expectations;
- Sustainability heat maps and a review of Board composition to ensure risks are understood and managed;
- Clear examples of best interest duty and changes to product ratings; and standardised collection of medical information and better underwriting and claims data.
Updated
Students are still striking for climate change, because Gen Z are capable of caring about multiple issues at once and don’t just drop an issue when it drops off the front pages.
A socially distanced school students strike for climate change happening now in Martin Place. Part of 500 protests nationwide @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/eYjmiIWmTB
— Jennifer Scherer (@jen_scherer) September 25, 2020
With the royal commission into the bushfires wrapping up, Save the Children is turning its attention to future bushfire seasons – it wants the child-friendly services included in all future bushfire responses.
We all saw the photos. We all saw how children were impacted.
Paul Ronald from Save the Children said it was time that was addressed:
At the height of the bushfires it was clear that the unique needs of children were not adequately met despite the best efforts of all involved, and this caused children to suffer unnecessarily.
Throughout the Black Summer bushfires there was a huge need for child friendly services and a willingness by organisations like Save the Children to provide them.
However, due to a lack of preparedness, these services were only ever available on an ad hoc basis, relying on the generosity of donors to provide funding and councils allowing access to evacuation and recovery centres.
In some cases child friendly spaces had to be put in parts of evacuation and recovery centres that were not fit for children to be in – where it was chaotic and distressing.
We cannot allow this to happen again, and we hope the royal commission’s final report makes recommendations as such. Children’s basic needs must be met in a systematic and appropriate way.
Updated
Linda Burney has responded to the Covid supplement cut, which came into effect today.
From her statement:
From today, an estimated 582,000* Victorians will be $300 worse off a fortnight when the Federal Government cuts the JobSeeker rate.
These changes come at the worst possible time for those in Victoria.
The Victorian coronavirus restrictions mean that many businesses will still not be able to open for another two months, and even then, many will not be operating at full capacity.
There are 15 JobSeekers for every job vacancy in Melbourne. And there are 30 JobSeekers for job vacancy in regional Victoria.
Reducing this payment when the employment options are simply not available will hurt the most vulnerable in our community.
It will also worsen the recession by removing much needed stimulus.
Social security recipients spend on local businesses and help sustain local jobs.
How many jobs will be lost when the Government cuts JobSeeker?
The Government needs to release Treasury modelling on the economic impact of its JobSeeker cuts.
The Federal Government needs to provide Australians with a comprehensive plan for jobs and economic recovery, not cut off support when Victorians still desperately need it.
*Includes all payments subject to the coronavirus supplement.
Updated
It seems like a million years ago, but we have seen the energy roadmap from the government announced this week.
Independent MP Helen Haines has her own plan, which she has released here.
The goal? Well, as Haines describes it:
We could have a sunbelt of 10,000 locally-owned renewable power stations stretching from Esperance to Carpentaria, bringing new jobs, new opportunities and an infinite supply of cheap, clean, local power to regional Australia.
Updated
Daniel Andrews will be speaking at 11am.
Updated
OK, now that I have had a moment to catch up, what did Josh Frydenberg actually say in his final budget outcome?
Well, the top line figure is the $85.5bn budget deficit. That’s about 4.3% of gross domestic product. That makes the 2019-20 result the nation’s largest post-war deficit – bigger even than what happened in the wake of the GFC.
Updated
In the last 24 hours, Victoria police have:
- Issued a total of 104 fines to individuals for breaching the chief health officer directions, including:
- 14 for failing to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four approved reasons.
- Eight at vehicle checkpoints.
- 51 for curfew breaches.
- 29,436 vehicles checked at the vehicle checkpoints.
- Conducted 2,568 spot checks on people at homes, businesses and public places across the state (total of 462,346 spot checks conducted since 21 March).
Please find below examples from the last 24 hours of breaches:
- Police intercepted a vehicle in Wyndham with five occupants from different addresses who were all more than 5km from their home address. Police issued fines to all vehicle occupants.
- A male in the Greater Dandenong area riding a bicycle with no helmet and no mask outside of curfew was spoken to by police. Stated he had fallen asleep at a friend’s house.
Updated
And here is the official announcement on the final budget outcome, which is handed down ahead of the next budget (in this case, 6 October).
Final Budget Outcome 2019-20 @JoshFrydenberg @MathiasCormann #auspol pic.twitter.com/Bj8uaZXvhp
— Political Alert (@political_alert) September 25, 2020
Updated
Q: Your home state of Victoria, you’ve been critical of elements of the Andrews government of handling. What is your view of the collective amnesia that no one can own up to or remember who was responsible for the quarantine?
Josh Frydenberg:
The inquiry was established to find answers. To provide the Victorian people with answers as to how that bungle happened. With such tragic consequences and we know the second wave can be traced back to the failures in quarantine. So far, the Victorian people haven’t got those answers. So we await those answers. We’ve seen recent correspondence from the prime minister be made public to Daniel Andrews, the ADF were offered to the Andrews government but were rejected in favour of private security guards and the tragedy unfolded from there. But our focus is on supporting the Victorian people get to the other side of this crisis, jobkeeper, through the December and March quarters is expected, 60% of those people on it will from Victoria. Already we’ve seen substantial federal support going into Victoria, there will be more federal support going into Victoria, over the period ahead, as a result of the jobkeeper programs and the other economic initiatives that will be outlined in the budget.
Updated
Q: The scale of the task coming up, you described it as a long, winding and bumpy road. What’s the risk of getting the recovery wrong?
Josh Frydenberg:
Well, obviously this is primarily a health crisis. And the trajectory, the speed of our economic recovery will depend on our success as a nation in managing Covid. And that’s why the government has placed so much focus on the testing and the tracing ability, and New South Wales has been a stand-out in that regard, they’ve had daily cases, but we haven’t seen the widespread community transmission that we saw in Victoria. That’s why the Morrison government has deployed Australian Defence Force right around the country to assist in this task. That’s why we’ve our chief medical officer working with the state medical officers to ensure that best practice is adhered to right around the country. If we get the environment in Australia to be Covid safe, and we’re able to successfully manage new cases, then our economic recovery will continue to head in the right direction.
Q: You have described it as long, windy and bumpy. What does that look like? For people out there who want to know what the future may bring, what does long, winding and bumpy look like?
Frydenberg:
This is not easy. It’s affected consumer confidence, it’s affected business confidence, there’s obviously been extensive new expenditures, particularly as more people have been unemployed. And it’s affected the revenue coming in, the receipts. Profits are not what they were from companies, and individuals are not in workforce in the same number, so they’re not paying income tax.
We have is a plan and the next stage of the plan will be outlined in the budget and in the most recent unemployment numbers, which surprised the economists, which surprised treasury, were a bit more encouraging than what people were expecting, that showed as the restrictions are being eased, people are getting back to work.
Updated
My lovely colleague Daniel Hurst has found the final budget update documents – if you’d like to look at the raw numbers, you’ll find them here.
Updated
Q: Millions of Australians will be $300 per fortnight poorer when jobseeker is reduced. Business groups are concerned about the flow-on effects. Deloitte Access Economics says the cut will reduce consumption by $504 a person, can we afford to take this money away given the need for stimulus in the economy?
Josh Frydenberg:
There’s two points you’re raising. You’re raising the impact on the broader economy and aggregate demand and the issue in respect to jobseeker. We have doubled the safety net.
We doubled the safety net going into this crisis, with the $550 jobseeker coronavirus supplement. Now, that’s transitioning down, just as the jobkeeper payment is transitioning down, from $550 to $250.
As a government, later this year, we’ll make a decision about further support for people in jobseeker, but we’re leaning in on continuing to provide support. As required. What our focus is on is getting people into a job.
Now, we’ve also extended the income free area from $106 to $300. So people won’t lose their JobSeeker payment but can now earn more. So $1,115 a fortnight can be earnt, or income can come in, in the context of someone who is on jobseeker without losing their payment.
So we’ve extended that income free area from $106 to $300. The second part of your question was about aggregate demand across the economy.
What the question assumes is that’s our only initiative to support the economy, and it’s not.
We have many initiatives and many more that will be in place following the budget in just under two weeks’ time to boost aggregate demand, to put money into the economy, to increase spending and economic activity and create jobs.
Updated
Obviously, consumer groups, who saw what happened during the global financial crisis and the banking royal commission, are concerned about the proposed changes to responsible lending legislation:
Consumer groups slam move to remove responsible lending laws #auspol pic.twitter.com/bldPt6Dvo3
— Political Alert (@political_alert) September 24, 2020
Q: Isn’t it more behavioural? They’ve been embarrassed, humiliated, for disgraceful behaviour, this is their reaction to it. It’s not about regulation. It’s their response to it.
Josh Frydenberg:
This is about the consumer. When you go to extend your credit card limit, and you’re asked to provide your Netflix subscriptions and you’re Uber Eats receipts and ore details that are unnecessary because you’ve been a long standing customer of the bank. And you, as a well paid ABC reporter, have money in the bank. Because those assets can’t be taken into account by the bank, in assessing the adequacy of your loan, they need to look at other factors and they have to ask for this extra information. We’re streamlining the provision of credit, quicker to access credit, while keeping the consumer protections in place.
Q: Just on changes to credit framework, we’re entering a period where you’re going to have consumers who are probably more vulnerable than they have ever been, isn’t this the time to strengthen consumer protection, not loosen it?
Josh Frydenberg:
The key point is that consumer protection will stay in place. So the government has made a number of changes, whether it’s the best interest duty for mortgage brokers, whether it’s in design and distribution obligations, where it’s the product intervention power, whether it’s the establishment of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, these are all in place to enhance consumer protections.
The flow of credit will be absolutely critical to our economic recovery. It will be important in the housing sector, it will be important in the retail sector, important in the tourism sector. But our current regulatory framework, with respect to lending, is not fit for purpose.
It’s become overly prescriptive, and responsible lending has become restrictive lending.
And the governor of the Reserve Bank has pointed out that banks have become risk adverse to the point they don’t want to make loans they fear may be going bad. We need our banks to be extending credit.
We need the regulation to be streamlined, we need customers to be able to access credit and we’ll have in place through APRA, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the appropriate risk based, principles based framework to protect customers.
Updated
Q: Under 6%, that target, last year the Reserve Bank had to take interest rates to 0.75% when employment was well below 5%, and called on extra spending from the government. You don’t have that ballast from the Reserve Bank now. You can’t rely on the RBA reducing, easing monetary policy much further. Does that make it even more difficult and put more pressure on you to provide fiscal support for longer?
Josh Frydenberg:
Well, fiscal policy is the main game in town. We don’t have the luxury that governments and banks had in previous crises by being able to reduce monetary policy, or reducing the cash rate substantially, by using monetary policy to provide stimulus across the economy.
The best contrast is what happened during the global financial crisis.
The cash rate came down by 425 basis points. And as you know, in the context of this crisis, the cash rate has come down by 50 basis points, down to 25 basis points.
A historic low here in Australia. But the Reserve Bank has played a key role in other ways this time.
It’s injected some $75bn of liquidity into the banking system, helping to provide a stable financial system through this crisis. And it’s been active in the secondary market, for purchasing of bonds, is to the tune of some $60bn already.
That’s an important role for the Reserve Bank to play in terms of targeting the yield for the three-year bond rate at 25 basis points. And so the monetary policy is working in different ways than it has in previous crises.
But fiscal policy is obviously dominant and we are very conscious of the role of fiscal policy and you’ll see that in the budget. Whether it’s bringing forward infrastructure spending or encouraging business investments to to boost aggregate demand to get people in work, and we’ve made significant announcements in the last two days, around the flow of credit and the responsible lending laws, yesterday, around insolvency reform changes, both of which don’t hit the budget bottom line, but both of which help create jobs and be an important part of our recovery.
Updated
Q: Yesterday, with your fiscal strategy, you talked about phase 2, kicking in when unemployment was comfortably below 6%. Are you prepared to estimate when that may be?
Josh Frydenberg:
You’ll have to wait for the lockup on 6 October. And we’ll print those forecasts for the unemployment numbers.
We will have numbers going out in terms of the unemployment rates and the expectation over the next few years. But what we do know is the Australian economy is fighting back against the virus. And we’ve seen that with the employment rate falling by its most significant amount in 32 years, from 7.5% down to 6.8% off the back of 111,000 new jobs being created. 60% of the new jobs have gone to women, 40% have gone to young people, with jobs being created right across the country, except of course Victoria, where 42,000 jobs were lost.
And where the effective unemployment rate jumped quite significantly from 10.5 to 13.1. And so, what we are seeking to do is have the economy open up, in a Covid safe way, people get back to work, and then that will drive the unemployment rate down.
But in the budget, you’ll see a number of measures which are designed to get more people into work, that’s by boosting aggregate demand, boosting business investment and that’s by supporting the economy to grow.
Updated
Mathias Cormann speaks to the numbers Josh Frydenberg has just announced:
The numbers we are presenting here today are broadly in line with what we presented to you in the July economic and fiscal outlook.
This is a challenging set of numbers, as we said then. But we know why we’re here.
We’re here because of the economic and fiscal impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we’re here because of the cost of the fiscal support, we necessarily had to provide to our health system to the economy, to businesses, to working Australians and to those Australians who lost their job through no fault of their own, as a result of this pandemic.
We are in a better position, though, than we would have been without six years of hard work to repair the budget and to bring the budget back into balance in 2018-19.
We also know where we want to go. We know where we want to get to.
We want to facilitate the strongest possible economic and jobs recovery, which will also help repair the budget again.
The budget on 6 October will provide the next instalment of our plan to help ensure that happens.
Despite all of the challenges, that we’re facing as a nation, and despite the challenging set of numbers we’re formally reporting today in this final budget outcome, Australia remains in a better, stronger more resilient position than just about any other country in the world.
That gives us a very strong foundation from which to rebuild, a very strong foundation from which to build the strongest possible economic and jobs recovery moving forward.
Updated
Net debt at $491.2bn
Josh Frydenberg moves on to Australia’s debt
Net debt increased to $491.2bn, or 24. 8% of GDP, and gross debt increased to $684.3bn, or 34.5% of GST in 19-20. These increases in debt levels reflect increased borrowing, due to the impact of a policy – of our policy responses to the Covid pandemic.
Finally, Australia’s debt levels remain lower than many comparable nations, with the average net debt to GDP ratio for advanced economies expected this year to be around 100%.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg delivers final budget outcome
Josh Frydenberg:
It’s important to emphasise that Australia approached this global pandemic, this health and economic crisis from a position of economic strength. Unemployment had fallen to 5.1% in February, down from 5.7% when we came to government. The numbers in MYEFO showed that GDP will grow by 2.25% in 19-20. And we delivered the first balanced budget in 11 years. Notwithstanding this strength coming into the crisis, our economy has been hit hard. And we saw that GDP fell in the June quarter by 7%. Not as much as it had fallen in France, as around 14%, as it had fallen in New Zealand, by 12%, more than 20% in the United Kingdom, but a 7% fall in the June quarter was a record fall for the Australian economy. The outcome for real GDP in 19-20 fell by 0.2% in line with which was expected.
Nominal GDP grew by 1.7%, slightly below 2% estimate, and 3.25% forecast in MYEFO. The unemployment rate was 7% in the June quarter, compared to 5.25% forecast at MYEFO. Today’s 2019-20 final budget outcome shows a fiscal result that was broadly consistent with the economic and fiscal update the government released in July. The underlying cash balance was a deficit of $85.3bn, or 4.3% of GDP, compared to the forecast surplus of $5bn, or 0.3% of GDP at MYEFO. This is a half a billion improvement from what was estimated in terms of the deficit, but a $93bn deterioration forecast at the end of the last year.
Updated
The changes to Queensland’s outdoor venue restrictions effectively doubles the amount of people allowed in – from one person per 4sqm to one person to 2sqm.
Updated
Queensland chief health officer says there are two people with Covid on a ship off Weipa – they will be evacuated and cared for in Cairns.
Updated
Annastacia Palaszczuk says the ADF will remain on borders in NSW, Victoria, the Northern Territory and South Australia until October.
But in Queensland, they are being re-deployed at the end of the month.
Palaszczuk has accused the federal government of ‘singling out’ Queensland, because it doesn’t agree with the border closures.
No new Covid cases in Queensland
Queensland has reported no new Covid cases.
Annastacia Palaszczuk is announcing the outdoor dining density rates are increasing.
Crowds for theme parks and outside events are also increasing (up to 1,000 people).
Stadiums are moving from 50% to 75% in terms of crowd numbers.
Updated
The rolling 14 day average – between 11 September and 24 September:
Metropolitan Melbourne:
Total cases – 352
Average per day – 25.1
Regional Victoria:
Total cases – 11
Average per day – 0.8
Overseas, interstate or no fixed address:
Total cases – 4
Average per day – 0.3
Total cases – 367
Average per day – 26.2
In terms of mystery cases – Covid cases with no immediately apparent source – there have been 34 community acquired cases between 9 September and 22 September (all in metro Melbourne).
Updated
Victoria records 14 news cases and eight deaths
While the rolling day average continues to head in the right direction, the number of deaths of people diagnosed with Covid in Victoria continues to shock.
#COVID19VicData: Yesterday there were 14 new cases & the loss of 8 lives reported. Our thoughts are with all affected.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 24, 2020
The 14 day rolling average & number of cases with unknown source are down from yesterday as we move toward COVID Normal. Info https://t.co/pcll7yB2RZ #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/an69qNYRxU
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will hold a press conference at 9am.
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Asked about the federal border closure, and whether stranded Australians should feel abandoned by the federal government, Peter Dutton blamed the states:
Well, they shouldn’t. They have a situation at the moment where the states have asked us to put a cap on the number of people coming in on planes because their situation, and this is a decision that they say is based on health advice, they have two weeks’ quarantine.
That’s a requirement, people coming back need to stay in a hotel room.
But then the state government has put a cap on the number of hotel rooms that are available and we’re saying to them, and the prime minister said for and weeks, please, lift those caps so that we can bring more Australians back.
The states have now agreed to that, we’re grateful for it and it’s why we are providing ADF support etcetera. But we would bring those Australians back today if there was room available within the hotels but the premiers have made a decision to cap those numbers, which means that we need to bring people back in a slower fashion than what we would want.
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Peter Dutton then followed up that comment, with this one:
Honestly when we had people who couldn’t go to their dad’s funeral and the same time the premier was approving people from Hollywood to come in and lay by the pool for two weeks, why wouldn’t we call it out?
It was just unfair and it was unjust. It has now changed.
And as we have said before, it was never based on medical or health advice. It was always based on the fact that Queensland is going to an election in a few weeks time and the premier was desperate to make sure there was no outbreak if Queensland. Fair enough, if you’re acting on health advice, I have no problem but I have called the Queensland government out where they’ve made political decisions that have negatively impacted on the lives not just of Queenslanders but people want to come and visit a sick spouse, a child who’s in hospital.
And, there was no common sense, there was no compassion and the premier has been caught out. And we were right to, I think, point it out on behalf of people who are contacting us, saying that their lives were being devastated by these silly decisions.
A bit of context – it was Peter Dutton’s department which approved Tom Hanks’s entry into Australia. Hanks was in quarantine, but yes, he wasn’t part of the state run hotel quarantine program. The production company paid for its own hotel and security. But it had the same rules. There wasn’t lying around the pool all day – it was under the same rules as the state quarantine program, which was one hour outside, under supervision.
While the national health advice committee has not advised borders be shut, the Queensland CHO has advised the borders be closed. As for exemptions, under Queensland law, the Queensland Public Health Act, it is the CHO who makes the decisions. The executive can make recommendations, but the CHO makes the decisions.
Of course none of that was raised in the ‘interview’ but there was a good old laugh about not picking a fight with Peter Dutton, so you know. Balance.
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Peter Dutton was on the Nine Network this morning, talking the Queensland border closures:
I just think we want to work very closely together and we’ve been able to do that, and as the deputy commissioner pointed out, the ADF and Queensland police have had a very longstanding relationship and a necessary one and the ADF personnel are going to provide support at the additional hotels that will be stood up to bring more Australians back from overseas. So that will be a very worthy task for them to be involved in. And already they’ve been involved in providing support to the Queensland police at hotels where people are quarantining. So I think it was obvious yesterday that Dr Steven Miles, who really just picks a fight every day on this issue, I think back-tracked pretty quickly when he realised what he said was actually factually incorrect. And I think the premier’s pulled him back into line.
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Josh Frydenberg and Mathias Cormann will hold their press conference at 9.15 today.
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Then we move on to Labor’s views on energy policy.
Q: Do you support Mark Butler’s view that coal and gas won’t underpin Australia’s future prosperity because there is a lot of people unhappy in the Labor Party about those comments. Where do you stand on gas?
Jim Chalmers:
I think gas has a role in the economy, there is a lot of investment that’s gone into gas in recent years. There are jobs associated with it. Our manufacturers in particular rely on it, not just for energy but also for production.
Q: So, Mark Butler got it wrong?
Chalmers:
No, it is possible to acknowledge that at the same time we acknowledge the future will be increasingly renewable. We have the opportunity in this country to build new sources of energy, which are cleaner and cheaper. We can do that without abandoning some of our traditional strengths.
Q: You do have a problem in the party with different views on this, there are schisms we are all seeing?
Chalmers:
I think there is agreement that there is a role for gas and the future will be increasingly renewable. The task for government is to work out how we can get the cleaner and cheaper energy so businesses can invest and we get the jobs which are important and reduce our emissions.
People have different emphasises, not just political parties but around Australia but I think we can agree we have a big opportunity in this country to have the cleaner energy, gas will have a role to play but the future is overwhelmingly renewable.
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Will Labor support the government’s plan for spending, come budget time?
Jim Chalmers:
Two things about that and we’ve been consistent when saying when times are tough as they are now in the teeth of the deepest recession we had in almost a century and when times are tough, yes, the government should step in and should support jobs and people.
We have been consistent about that during the global financial crisis, since then, and now, that is an important principle that we’ve been consistent on, the other side of the parliament has not been consistent on that.
But the other point is this, the government says they think it is time to support people in the economy.
At the same time their actually withdrawing support from the economy.
Jobseeker will be cut today.
Jobkeeper will be cut on Monday.
And that means billions of dollars less circulating in the shops and small businesses and local economies of this country.
So they say they want to support people, at the same time they’re actually withdrawing support and I don’t think that makes a lot of sense when we have got high unemployment, one million people unemployed and in the teeth of the recession.
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Labor’s shadow treasurer also has many thoughts about where the economy was ahead of the pandemic:
This is a government that promised a surplus in its first year and every year, and delivered six deficits before the pandemic, debt was at a record high before the pandemic and that is a significant piece of history.
We have been consistent all along and acknowledged the impact of the virus on the budget. We said the highest priority is supporting people and their jobs but every dollar is a borrowed dollar and we need maximum bang for buck and measure the effectiveness and see what it means for people and their employment.
The new budget strategy the treasurer’s just announced and I think we will get another record deficit announced later today. I think we need to see that in the broader contest of a government that hasn’t hit any budget targets so far. We are heading towards a trillion dollars in debt and unemployment that is unacceptably high and for a long time.
Jim Chalmers had a chat to ABC News Breakfast this morning, about the government’s plan to relax lending requirements:
Obviously, we want people who can afford to repay loans, whether it’s ordinary workers or small businesses.
We want them to be able to access finance if they have got the capacity to pay it. We want to make sure that any lending is responsible though. We want to make sure that people don’t get in over their heads. We want to make sure that people aren’t caught in debt traps.
So, we’ll have a look at what the government’s is proposing. It wouldn’t kick in until March so we’ve got time to consider it and consult widely on the proposed changes.
The government does have a bit of form, unfortunately, at going easy on the banks and loan sharks at the expense of ordinary people.
We will have a look at it. If it makes sense we’ll support it but if it tips the balance far for in one direction we’ll have something to say.
Peter Dutton is showing no signs of slowing down his attack on the Queensland Labor government.
There has been an escalation of words between Dutton and the deputy premier Steven Miles, who not so long ago took the opportunity to remind people publicly that Dutton was “one of the few people to have actually, personally brought Covid-19 into Queensland”.
Yesterday, Dutton accused Miles of acting like a “school boy” after Miles accused Josh Frydenberg of lying.
(That was over the decision to pull ADF troops off the Queensland border – Frydenberg said Queensland had not asked for the personnel to stay on longer, Miles released letters showing a request had been made to keep them on.)
Anyways, the Queensland election is not being held until the end of next month, so you’ll be hearing a lot more of this back and forth.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on #Qld's border closure to NSW:
— @MartySilk (@MartySilkHack) September 24, 2020
"It was always based on the fact that Queensland is going to an election in a few weeks and the Premier was desperate to make sure there was no outbreak in Queensland."#qldpol #auspol #QLDvotes
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From today, the jobseeker Covid supplement will be cut.
There are almost a million people out of work and Melbourne is still under lockdown.
The supplement will be cut by $300, dropping the payment to $815 a fortnight.
That is going to have massive implications. Massive.
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Here is a little more on the lending reforms, which flips the onus of responsibilities for loans, from the banks, to the customer.
What could possibly go wrong?
The Morrison government wants to roll back standards legislated a decade ago which were intended to stop consumers signing up to unaffordable loans and unsuitable credit products.
In an effort to increase the flow of credit to help kickstart economic activity, the government wants to pare back responsible lending obligations that require Australian credit providers to make inquiries about the customer’s financial situation to ensure products are suitable.
The government will announce plans on Friday to transfer due diligence responsibilities from lenders to borrowers, allowing credit providers to rely on the information provided by borrowers unless there are reasonable grounds to suspect the information they are providing is unreliable.
Banks have complained about the responsible lending obligations regime being too onerous and complicated, and the government says the current consumer protection framework has created an atmosphere of excessive risk aversion among lenders, which has restricted the flow of credit.
Good morning
Happy Friday!
We’ve all almost made it through week 39 of 2020. It’s practically the home stretch now. Or at least the corner before the home stretch.
The big news today is Daniel Andrews fronting the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry. That will come this afternoon. Andrews is one of the most anticipated witnesses for the hearing, his appearance coming after several of his ministers already fronted.
But first, he’ll do his 85th consecutive press conference.
Queensland has opened its borders to ACT residents from today (huzzah) and is looking at almost two weeks with no community transmission of Covid.
South Australia is opening back up to NSW entirely, although there are still people keeping an eye on the potential for community spread after a taxi driver tested positive for the virus. NSW had one case of Covid under investigation yesterday, after a short run of no community transmission.
Federally, it is still about pre-budget announcements.
Murph and Paul Karp have the latest on that:
We’ll bring you all the news as it happens.
You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.
Ready?
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