What happened today, Thursday 26 August
With that, we will close the blog for the day.
Here’s a quick run through of the day’s biggest events:
- NSW has once again set a new record for daily case numbers, with 1,029 cases recorded today. Three people died, all in their homes and all men, aged in their 30s, 60s and 80s, and all lived in western Sydney.
- The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, also announced some restrictions will be eased from 13 September, including allowing households in Sydney LGAs of concern one extra hour outside, and outside of those areas adults who have been fully vaccinated will be able to gather in groups of five.
- Victoria recorded 80 cases of community transmission, with no word on when the lockdown will be lifted as scheduled next week.
- The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, also announced that vaccination passports will be on the national cabinet agenda tomorrow.
- The ACT recorded 14 new cases today, all linked to known cases.
- The prime minister, Scott Morrison, told reporters today 639 Afghanistan evacuees have arrived in Australia but the situation was deteriorating.
- The Queensland government today announced its intention to build a dedicated regional quarantine facility in Toowoomba, with the first stage to be ready by the end of the year.
- Qantas has reported a $1.8bn loss, with the CEO, Alan Joyce, saying these were “big numbers”, and that it was a “tough time” for the industry.
Updated
Service NSW’s permit system for authorised workers in the 12 LGAs of concern has finally gone live, just over 24 hours from when it is due to be implemented.
However, the current application process has a section where applicants will need to list the addresses they intend to visit, which is not very helpful for delivery drivers, Uber drivers and the like, who may not know what area they will be visiting.
Earlier today, businesses from western Sydney spoke to the Guardian about their frustrations at the rollout and the system being implemented:
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Crown Resorts names Ziggy Switkowski as chairman
Crown Resorts has announced Ziggy Switkowski will succeed Helen Coonan as chairman, as part of the “planned succession process”.
In a statement, Crown welcomed Switkowski, saying he was “one of Australia’s most experienced corporate leaders” and that he was “well suited” to meet the “challenges” Crown was currently facing.
Coonan was also quoted in the statement, saying it was her aim to “stabilise and strengthen the business” following the recommendations of the Bergin inquiry:
I have always sought to act in the best interests of Crown and endeavoured to consider the impact on our shareholders, customers, and employees. I am confident the Board’s selection of Ziggy as chairman will reinforce the organisation-wide commitment to our reform program.
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The ABC is reporting that NSW has recorded another death tonight, a man in his 60s, who was an inpatient at Nepean hospital, and acquired the virus earlier this month.
The death is the 80th in NSW since the start of the Delta outbreak. We’ll bring you more details as they come in.
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#Insiders host @David_Speers says a plan to vaccinate 12-15 year-old children is likely to be signed off on at tomorrow's National Cabinet meeting #AfternoonBriefing pic.twitter.com/RB34PqJqhQ
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) August 26, 2021
The tax commissioner has bucked an order from the Senate to produce documents revealing which companies received jobkeeper wage subsidies because treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, made a public interest immunity claim over the documents.
The tax commissioner Chris Jordan had until 4.30pm today to comply with the order spearheaded by independent Rex Patrick.
Frydenberg wrote to the Senate president, Scott Ryan, on Thursday explaining the basis of the immunity claim was made “on the grounds that the disclosure of individual taxpayer information would harm the public interest by undermining public confidence in taxation laws and taxation administration.”
Frydenberg said companies provided the Australian government with information in confidence to receive support, and the order would retrospectively reveal their identity. One wonders why the government didn’t make it a requirement of the scheme that the companies claiming money be published in the first place.
Jordan, who has made his own public interest immunity claim, wrote that he was in an “unprecedented situation” of the Senate demanding the documents while they are subject to another claim from the government.
Jordan noted if the Senate accepted the government’s claim, it would relieve him of an obligation to provide the documents, so the Senate will have to decide that first before he decides whether to disclose or not. Looks like a bit of a game of chicken is developing here.
Patrick said:
Australians have a right to know which large employers have received taxpayer money and how much they received.
The information the Senate asked for is not related to an employers’ business or taxation information, it is related to the amount of public money they were provided. It is no different to grant money or the total amount of money received under a government contract, which is already published information.
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Well, in some good (but perhaps predictable) news, South Australia has recorded zero new cases:
South Australian COVID-19 update 26/8/21. For more information, go to https://t.co/e4B14m8DML or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/SqSTDFZbqc
— SA Health (@SAHealth) August 26, 2021
The NRL has fined Cronulla player Josh Dugan $50,000 and kicked him out of his team’s biosecurity bubble, in what is his second breach of Covid protocols in less than two months.
Dugan was charged by NSW police earlier this week for attempting to travel to Lithgow with a friend.
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Good evening everyone, and a quick thanks to Amy for her usually stellar job on the blog throughout the day. There’s still much going on, so let’s dive in.
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The wonderful Mostafa Rachwani will take you through the evening and tomorrow’s blog will be back to Covid and news, with Politics Live not resuming until Monday.
I know I say this every evening, but thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who follows along as we balance parliament and Covid news. You all make it a lot easier than it might be. Thank you for your messages, and for your notes – even if I don’t respond, I do read them.
Mike Bowers remains my hero and Politics Live couldn’t function without Katharine Murphy, Daniel Hurst, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin, so please take a moment to thank them if you can, as well as everyone in the Guardian brains trust, who keep the blog alive, and are my eyes and ears outside parliament.
And happy international dog day! If you need a feed cleanser, you’ll find some absolute delight in this thread
Happy international dog day – I've moved around too much and lived in too small flats for dogs - so hit me with photos of yours and liven up our feeds x
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) August 25, 2021
Remember to be kind to yourself. And to take breaks. It’s rough out there. Eat the fudge, drink the guilty pleasure, watch the brainless entertainment. It’s important to have breaks.
And please – take care of you.
Updated
That’s pretty much it for parliament this week – although the sitting will continue from Monday.
National cabinet is being held tomorrow, where the issues of vaccinations for 12 to 15-year-olds will be discussed, along with vaccine passports and of course, the “national plan”.
There really hasn’t been a lot of nuance in that plan of late – nuance apparently another thing we have lost this pandemic – but the lines are split between Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian using the plan as the way out, and pretty much everyone else wondering how it will work if NSW case numbers aren’t under control by then. It won’t be lockdowns, it will be lockouts, with states like South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland still enjoying relatively normal life (if you don’t count not being able to travel, or move freely).
And while the Doherty Institute analysis does model how Australia can begin to reopen at 70 and 80% eligible population vaccination rates, it does also include targeted lockdowns, and increased cases, hospitalisations and deaths during the transition. Scott Morrison keeps talking about the plan allowing the nation to “open up safely” but it is not going to be safe for everyone. That’s the transition. That’s going to be what people have to accept. It was somewhat easier in the UK and the US, where people were forced to get used to high case numbers, under pressure health systems and deaths, because the virus was never under control in those countries. Which the federal government, Morrison in particular, would point to, repeatedly, especially in defence of the delayed vaccination program, when he would say “you’d rather be in Australia than anywhere else right now”.
But now, the federal government, and NSW government want everyone to move to getting used to living with the virus, in a way they haven’t had to. And yes, it will be the unvaccinated who suffer the most, and yes, there will have been chances for people to have been vaccinated by then. But it will be still be very confronting for a lot of people. And the more existing cases there are when Australia opens up, the faster that confronting transition will seem.
That’s the balance the states are trying to deal with. It’s going to take time, because of the messaging Australians have received throughout most of this pandemic.
Morrison wants Australia reopened and life almost back to normal by the end of the year, anticipating a lot of the anger of how this year has been handled by the federal government will have evaporated by the time the election is held, probably in March. The ideal scenario is that he can convince people that Labor wants to keep the nation in lockdowns, or “in the cave” and that blame will start to turn to the premiers, if the health systems don’t hold up.
The premiers, particularly those in Labor states, have seen that move coming, and are urging a more cautious approach.
And tomorrow, they all come together again. What happens in the national cabinet is only half the story. Most of the time, they are quite congenial. It’s the messaging after that you have to pay attention to.
Updated
The government has lodged a public interest immunity claim to stop the tax commissioner from having to give documents to the Senate naming large employers who received jobkeeper – and how much they got.
Rex Patrick is not happy:
Australians have a right to know which large employers have received taxpayer money and how much they received.
The information the Senate asked for is not related to an employers’ business or taxation information, it is related to the amount of public money they were provided. It is no different to grant money or the total amount of money received under a government contract, which is already published information.
There is huge controversy around the abuse of the jobkeeper scheme, a program set up to assist struggling businesses during the pandemic.
Jobkeeper was a wage subsidy scheme for businesses significantly affected by Covid-19. And yet some businesses took it, improved their profits and then paid larger dividends to their shareholders and bonuses to their executives.
Those companies that abused the taxpayers’ goodwill should pay it back.
Updated
WA might get the AFL grand final if the MCG can’t – now it is also getting the third Bledisloe Cup Test.
Optus Stadium in Perth will host the third test on 5 September (the All Blacks had pulled out of an earlier date because of Covid concerns).
Updated
The amazing video team have the clip of what happened in parliament today, with Julian Hill letting loose at Karen Andrews.
Updated
For those focussed on Afghanistan:
BREAKING: French prime minister says France will no longer be able to evacuate people from Kabul airport after Friday night. https://t.co/Wluc5vqnX7
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 26, 2021
That continues:
Patricia Karvelas: Hang on a minute. It was about lack of vaccine for preferred groups. It was. And it was always about the way you managed the program. You can’t just blame it on them, can you?
David Gillespie:
I’m not going to blame it on them, it’s just that the premise that it wasn’t planned for and that there was a failure of policy, I dispute.
The nature of the rollout has been, there’s been widespread hesitancy initially because we did think that we’ve suppressed it and many people thought what’s the point because there’s no cases.
It was the same in the non-Indigenous population and still in some states, people think they don’t need to go out and get vaccinated. As soon as it reared its ugly head again in New South Wales and in Victoria, you’ve seen vaccination rates go up because people realise the best thing they can do to get themselves and their family and reduce the risk of them ending up sick like these poor people in ICU is to be vaccinated.
PK: Are you saying the federal government doesn’t take responsibility for the low vaccination rates in those communities that are now dealing with this wave?
Gillespie:
Look, the buck always stops with us but we’ve had a system in place and been rolling it out as fast as possible.
The surge into these areas wasn’t a thing that was planned. One case in these areas triggered a whole lot of events which you’ve seen unfold. And we’ve had a ramp-up of vaccine delivery and we’ve also had a ramp-up of vaccine acceptance.
It’s a two-way street, PK. And what you will see is that we are getting ahead in the right direction to get those numbers that are part of the plan to get us back to a more normal life.
Updated
Nationals MP David Gillespie, who is the minister for regional health, is on Afternoon Briefing now where he is being asked about vaccinations in Indigenous communities (which was meant to be completed by Easter and...well, see for yourself):
Q: What you need to do then is have people in these vulnerable communities ready and protected but they’re sitting ducks in those communities. And they are vulnerable Aboriginal people largely. And it was your government’s job to get them vaccinated to protect them from this scenario. In that sense, you failed.
Gillespie:
Well, I disagree with that totally.
Q: They weren’t vaccinated. They weren’t ready for this wave, were they?
Gillespie:
There is a thing called voluntary vaccination. There have been involvement with the Aboriginal community controlled health organisations and distribution of vaccine around the whole network since the very beginning. There were plans in all these regional and rural areas.
All the engagement with both the states have this scenario planned. But there is a thing called vaccine hesitancy which has been pointed out is quite profound amongst many of these communities.
We have been doing a great job to turn that sentiment around both with engagement with the Indigenous people and with other people. Other people besides Indigenous are equally vulnerable to this in small communities. We have rolled it out as quickly as possible. They were behind, yes, but there is a reason. It wasn’t because of lack of vaccine or lack of distribution...
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Labor shadow health minister, Mark Butler is speaking to the ABC about vaccinations for Indigenous communities (and particularly for western NSW):
We’re deeply concerned about the position of Aboriginal communities particularly in remote parts of western New South Wales. But they’ve done a fantastic job and to get some relief will be welcome. But it was a terrible day in New South Wales. The worst result we’ve had in the 18-month long pandemic. The six worst days, case numbers wise, for the whole 18-month pandemic.
And on 12 to 15-year-olds (the Atagi advice is due very soon, if it hasn’t already been given to the government, and vaccinations of this cohort will be discussed at tomorrow’s national cabinet meeting) Butler says:
It just doesn’t make sense, I’m sure, particularly to parents to have a national plan to end lockdown safely but 12 to 15-year-olds aren’t included within it when they have access to the vaccine.
I don’t understand why the prime minister wouldn’t do this. He persists with the position he’s adopted of excluding them from the count, for the plan to end lockdowns safely, then at the very least he needs to tell parents what percentage of our 12 to 15-year-olds will be fully vaccinated before we move to the next phases in the national plan.
We are desperately behind the rest of the world. Canada has fully vaccinated 60% of their 12 to 15-year-olds because they started three months ago.
Many European countries and Israel started months ago as well. Yet not one of our 12 to 15-year-olds, 1.2 million of them, are fully vaccinated yet. And we have seen them become the frontline in this disastrous accounting of 0-18-year-olds of 40% of new cases.
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The joint parliamentary committee into intelligence and security measures, is holding a public hearing tomorrow into the latest round of security legislation:
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) will be holding a public hearing tomorrow as part of its review into the Migration and Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020.
The Migration and Citizenship Legislation Amendment (Strengthening Information Provisions) Bill 2020 amends both the Migration Act 1958 and the Australian Citizenship Act 2007.
The Bill amends the Migration Act to safeguard protected information provided by gazetted intelligence and law enforcement agencies to refuse or cancel a visa on character grounds, or revoke or set aside such decisions (Protected Information).
Chair of the committee, senator James Paterson said:
The committee will hear from various government and non-government witnesses on the importance of safeguarding protected information where it is in the public interest while balancing the need for transparency.
Public hearing details:
Friday, 27 August 2021
9:30am – 2pm (AEST)
Committee Room 2R1, Parliament House, Canberra
A program for the hearing can be found on the committee website.
Updated
I know there has been a lot of focus on Queensland and Western Australia as being fans of the lockout – but let’s not forget South Australia (Liberal government), which has also been pretty quick on the border shutdowns.
And it has a population which is also living relatively free, while keeping borders largely closed.
AAP has an update on AFL crowds in the state:
A last-minute increase in crowds at Adelaide Oval for upcoming AFL finals has been approved with 20,000 fans to be allowed, but the decision has angered the state’s hospitality sector.
Port Adelaide is due to play Geelong in the second qualifying final at the oval on Friday night, with Melbourne playing the Brisbane Lions in the first qualifying final on Saturday.
In recent weeks, crowd numbers were capped at 15,000 because of COVID-19 restrictions but Premier Steven Marshall said everyone wanted to see more fans allowed in.
“Clearly, we would like to see the capacity increase if it is safe to do so,” he said on Thursday, before the increase was announced.
“Our primary responsibility is to make sure that we keep South Australia free from this Delta variant. We want to keep it at bay, no South Australian wants to see us go into lockdown.”
With SA Health approving the 5000-seat increase, the extra tickets went on sale on Thursday afternoon.
In a statement, Port Adelaide said it was thrilled more of its members would have the opportunity to attend the match on Friday.
However, it said with the stadium well below capacity, many would still miss out.
But the decision was not welcomed by SA’s Hospitality Owners Collective, which questioned why the increase was allowed when restrictions remained on licensed venues.
“A licensed venue can’t have dancing. We are still singing in masks. Seated consumption for our patrons,” the group said.
“But Western Australia came out of lockdown about the same time and have zero restrictions.
“The hospitality industry respectfully asks you to stop kicking us while we are down and do something to help us get off our knees.”
Updated
Mostafa Rachwani, whose coverage of what has been going on in western Sydney has been extraordinary, has an update:
Businesses in western Sydney have described their frustration and confusion at the rollout of the permit system for essential workers in the region, which has still not launched less than 48 hours from when it is due to be implemented.
The permits, announced by NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller on 20 August, are supposed to be used from Saturday by authorised workers leaving or entering an LGA of concern.
On Thursday morning, the link to apply for the permits said information regarding the permits will be available “soon”.
NSW hospitals warning: nurses and staff ‘flat out’ and ‘exhausted’ as Covid numbers soarRead more
A spokesperson from Service NSW said the applications will be open from Thursday night, and that the process should take “a couple of minutes”
Here is how Mike Bowers saw the last QT of the week.
Updated
This will be worth watching:
EXCLUSIVE: Tonight on @theprojecttv - Waleed Aly speaks to Biloela’s Nades, Priya, Kopika and Tharnicaa Murugappan about their poor health & fears of being deported to Sri Lanka. This is the first time they’ve been able to sit down as a family and be interviewed. @HometoBilo
— Georgia Done (@GeorgiaDone7) August 26, 2021
Updated
The chamber has moved on to an MPI, which is (you guessed it) on what Labor sees as the Morrison government failures.
Anthony Albanese opens with this line attributed to Oscar Wilde:
It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame.
That was followed by the suggestion that Scott Morrison’s heart wasn’t in the job – only his ego (you can see where this is going).
Updated
That is the second time Tony Smith has ‘named’ someone this term – the Labor MP Nick Champion (who has also been booted more than any other MP by Smith) also had that honour.
Updated
Labor MP Julian Hill suspended for 24 hours over Afghanistan visa outburst
The vote was just held.
Ayes 25, Noes 14.
That means Julian Hill is out of the chamber for 24 hours.
Updated
So when a member is officially ‘named’ it means the House then decides on the consequences.
In this case, it is a suspension.
Standing order 94a boots you from the chamber for an hour. A suspension is a longer period of time, determined by the House.
Updated
Tony Smith addresses how Julian Hill left the chamber:
Just before people depart, when I ejected the member for Bruce under 94a, his behaviour on leaving was completely unacceptable.
I will not repeat everything he did other than to say that when members are asked to leave under 94a they must do so immediately without comment or abuse to anybody and I said at the time I would deal with that at the end of question time and a number of matters.
I am not going to wait for the member for Bruce to finish his one hour and come back to the House.
The course of action I’m taking, I’m making very clear, I am going to name the member for Bruce now and the matter will be dealt with one way or the other by the House and we can get on with the business.
I name the member for Bruce.
That means the House will now divide on whether or not Hill is suspended from the chamber.
Updated
Question time ends.
But it is an issue the government is worried about, given that Ken Wyatt has a dixer on it – which is how the government addresses issues it needs some clear air on.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Eighteen per cent of First Nations Australians are fully vaccinated. Just half of aged care workers are fully vaccinated ... Eighteen months into the pandemic, why are so many vulnerable Australians so at risk, particularly given the prime minister said so many of these groups would be fully vaccinated by Easter?
Morrison starts off by talking about vaccination numbers (something government MPs have been doing for a while – rattling off a lot of numbers ahead of answering any questions) and then he gets to this:
We know that vaccination program will continue to move forward in the months ahead.
And it will move into those communities where vaccination rates are below where they need to be. The program will ensure they do reach those programs.
It is up to every member of the House to ensure we do everything we can to promote that program in their community, to create confidence in that program so people will come forward and access that program.
In states where they are lagging, to encourage them to go and get vaccinated. In many of those places, it is often because the level of Covid has been so low, and I would say in Indigenous communities where the minister for Indigenous Australians has been doing such great work.
And to encourage them because when they have seen Covid coming into the communities they have become aware that simply by being remote does not make you immune. When we have seen that occur, we have seen those vaccination rates rise.
The vaccination program and its success and its rate of vaccination as we are seeing now will see, I believe, based on the rates we are achieving now, the 70% and 80% rates under the national plan are very achievable.
That gives Australians hope, it gives Australians great hope, that national plan, the save plan, the Australian plan being done in the Australian way to give Australians hope for the future, that is rolling out across the country. I want to thank the members for the great support of the plan and promoting it through the country. I encourage other members to do the same.
Updated
The main difference between Australia and the UK and the US systems?
The federation and jurisdictions largely united on what to do.
Susan Templeman to Scott Morrison:
Will the prime minister act on the constructive proposal that Labor outlined in the 2020 budget reply and establish an Australian Centre for Disease Control so that Australia adopts international best practice, and also is much better prepared for future pandemics?
Greg Hunt takes this one and takes a very long time and uses a lot of words to say ‘no’:
I note the member has put forward the American model and the European model.
The results from those countries, through the course of the pandemic – and this is an important moment to reflect – has been badly different to that which occurred in Australia.
In the United States, we have seen over 600,000 lives lost. In the UK, we have seen over 125,000 lives lost. In the UK, we are seeing, tragically and agonisingly, almost 100 lives lost each day. In the United States, almost 130,000 cases each day.
We respect their approaches, but we have followed the Australian way, and the Australian way has saved lives and protected lives.
Compared with those two nations, which have the model which the leader of the opposition has advocated, we have saved 45,000 lives – 45,000 Australians are with us today.
If we had taken the approach of those other countries, they would not be here. Do we believe that the Australian system has served Australia well? Yes. Every day, we are working through the national cabinet, the AHPPC, through the scientific and technical advisory – Atagi, the Therapeutic Goods Administration ... The ALP is basing its approach for Australia on models which most agonisingly have led to, or been part of, a process which has contributed to catastrophic loss of life.
Not in the thousands, not in the tens of thousands, but the hundreds of thousands.
... The point is, those structures did not protect those societies. What we did is we embedded the chief medical officer of Australia inside the national security committee, inside the national cabinet, and the national incident centre which radiates out from that, created an Australian model, led to results that are profoundly different. I have to remind the opposition that in the end, in this global pandemic, we have had struggles and challenges and we are not untouched, but that has wreaked havoc on a scale that we haven’t seen in 100 years and we have been mercifully spared from so much, but there is much more to do.
Updated
Meanwhile, in the Senate:
The man accuses the woman of being angry because he doesn’t know the answer to the question he was asked. Classic. pic.twitter.com/Ec6rVpw0XP
— 💚🌏 Sarah Hanson-Young (@sarahinthesen8) August 26, 2021
Sarah Hanson-Young had asked about coal subsidies.
Updated
Paul Fletcher decides now is the time to talk about the NBN:
[Labor did a] hopeless job under the NBN rollout and let’s just be thankful they are not responsible for the vaccine rollout.
Catherine King to Scott Morrison:
When will all 12 to 15-year-olds in Australia be fully vaccinated and will the prime minister commit to including them in the 70 and 80% threshold?
Morrison:
As I have already foreshadowed, 12 to 15-year-olds will be vaccinated in the plan for the vaccination, and that will be addressed by the national security committee on Covid this afternoon.
At that meeting, we expect to receive the final advice from Atagi that is necessary to enable that process to commence.
General Frewen has been preparing that plan in anticipation of that, and we will make further announcements after that process has been completed.
The national cabinet is meeting tomorrow. We will have the opportunity to inform them of those arrangements. They will of course have an important involvement in that process, those 12 to 15-year-olds.
The Doherty Institute, which has provided the scientific modelling that is forming the basis of the national plan, has made it very clear that they have not considered it necessary to include this age group in overall vaccination targets, but it does not mean that they shouldn’t be vaccinated. Of course they should be vaccinated.
The government will ensure they are vaccinated. I have two daughters aged 12 and 14 and I think it is very important they will be vaccinated. They will be. There are 1.2 million between that age group of 12 and 15 who will need to be vaccinated in that cohort.
As I have already mentioned, 1.9m doses were administered in just one week. It is entirely possible, and I note the interjection coming from the member for Ballarat. The answer to her question is contained in the advice provided by the government, to the government, by the Doherty Institute. If you want to take issue with that advice, she can, but we are going to continue to act consistent with that advice.
The advice has been incredibly helpful in framing that plan. I want to make it clear to the parents of Australia that the government will be ensuring that we are vaccinating children aged 12 to 15 consistent with. It is consistent with advice and we will make it a priority with the broader population.
Updated
Patrick Gorman to Scott Morrison:
The prime minister confirmed a week after announcing an MOU with the West Australian government to build a quarantine facility at Jandakot airport, and one day after asking parliament to authorise the works, that facility has now been canned in favour of a new site, which is highly contaminated. Eighteen months into a pandemic, isn’t this a failure prime minister?
Morrison:
This is supported by the West Australian government, and that facility to be developed on that side. Depending on a feasibility study that was undertaken it was found to be safe and suitable.
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Mike Bowers, who is in the chamber, tells me that Scott Morrison became quite agitated as it was happening and spoke to Peter Dutton (the leader of the house), who then went and spoke to the Speaker about it (Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke were also included).
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We are working on getting you that clip because it is not something we see every day in the Australian parliament – an actual display of emotion.
His continued yelling after he was asked to leave means the Speaker will have a bit more to say about the breach of practice at the end of QT.
Labor MP accuses home affairs minister of 'killing my constituents'
Karen Andrews gets up to answer a dixer on the Afghanistan evacuation, and the Labor MP Julian Hill, who represents more Afghan-Australians than any other MP in the parliament, cannot contain his anger.
He yells “you are killing my constituents” across the chamber as Andrews stands up. He is booted out of the chamber by Tony Smith but doesn’t stop and keeps yelling as he leaves:
There are thousands of Australians and their loved ones who are only in Afghanistan because you haven’t processed their visas for years and now you are leaving them to die.
Updated
Greg Hunt again defends the health system, despite the pressure the NSW system is under.
Health systems holding up under increased cases under the national plan is crucial to its success.
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Peter Dutton’s daily dixer on Afghanistan includes this:
The focus for Australia now is to make sure that we can provide support to those people that we have [evacuated] ... we have in the United Arab Emirates where people are staying before they come to Australia to settle and to start a new life that once they could never have dreamed of.
The fact that we have through the Australian Defence Force, the work of Dfat and of home affairs and others been able to provide that opportunity is a great credit to our country.
Updated
Michelle Rowland to Scott Morrison:
How many hospitals in New South Wales are unable to accept ambulances carrying Covid patient because they are stretched beyond capacity? How many Covid patients are forced to take long journeys in ambulances from western Sydney to the north shore? Eighteen months after the pandemic began, almost a year after the Delta strain emerged, why has the Morrison-Joyce government left western Sydney so vulnerable?
Morrison: (after referring the specific matters raised to the NSW government) speaks on the federal health funding for NSW (which increases each year, with the population):
What I will note is that the federal government, through the national health reformer grant, has ensured that funding for NSW hospitals has grown from ballpoint $3bn in 2012-13 to $8bn in 19-20.
That is an increase of 86%. An 86% increase in the funding support from the federal government going [towards] hospitals.
... In March of last year we established the private hospitals guarantee and in NSW right now private hospitals have already provided more than 300 nurses to support the NSW public health response and they have also made 19 private hospitals available to the NSW response.
I would be grateful if the member could convey that to her constituents of the significant support being provided to the NSW hospitals right across the state and specifically in western Sydney as well.
Updated
In the Senate, Marise Payne has urged the Taliban to “uphold human rights” and allow people who wish to leave Afghanistan to do so. The foreign minister also acknowledges the distress of people who have family and friends in Afghanistan.
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Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
Today Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced construction has begun for a fit-for-purpose quarantine facility in Toowoomba. It will be up and running before the end of the year. No less a document than the Constitution tells us that quarantine is a commonwealth responsibility. Isn’t the only reason Queensland has been forced to go it alone is because the prime minister wouldn’t do his job?
Morrison:
No.
(That’s the whole answer.)
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The current deputy prime minister, who not that long ago was saying regional Australians didn’t give a shit (his words) about Covid in cities like Melbourne because coal prices are high, is now yelling about the vaccination program, so Australians can “go back to the Australia they were born to”.
(Not all Australians were born here.)
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Milton Dick (fun fact, Milton is his middle name – Dugald is his given name) ensures The Croods discourse goes for a third day:
Last year, the prime minister said that Australians need to come out from under the doona. Now he says to Queenslanders and West Australians we need to come out from our cave. If the prime minister had done his job on quarantine and vaccines half the country wouldn’t be in lockdown. Why doesn’t the prime minister stop ridiculing Queenslanders and West Australians and accept responsibility for the health and economic crisis that he helped create?
Scott Morrison:
I made no such reference to West Australians or Queenslanders.
What he is saying is completely and utterly false. Member for Ballarat. They either support the plan or they don’t. They either do or they don’t. And if they don’t, then at what rate, Mr Speaker, do they believe at what point of vaccination Australia should open again?
Tony Burke has an interjection:
On direct relevance – there are many things that can be relevant on this question but it doesn’t ask about alternatives, doesn’t invite commentary on the opposition, doesn’t invite them to have some argument with an imaginary friend that he is doing now.
Morrison continues:
I was simply trying to make an explanation, to use an analogy from a children’s animated movie, which I have enjoyed with my children on many occasions. It is a simple story that says at one point, as a nation, all of us at some point have to be clear that we have to move on and live with this virus*.
At some point, like the young female character in that movie, she decided she wanted to go and face the future, go out there and deal with the challenges in the world, and she brought her whole family with her**.
There was a sequel to that movie, and that says something, there is a lesson in that***.
When you embrace these things, prepare for the future, when you move forward, that is the encouragement I am giving Australians, that is the plan we have set out.
Those opposite may not share my view, but I know that our national plan will give Australians the hope and confidence that will not only lift vaccination rates, because we need to see those vaccination rates lifted in Queensland and Western Australia.
We need to see that, certainly, I am sure the member would agree. We need to target those communities that aren’t vaccinating as quickly as we see in New South Wales and Tasmania, the ACT, the Northern Territory.
One of the reasons the national plan is so important, and we say to those who are getting vaccinated that when you get vaccinated in phase C, you will have exemptions, you will be able to do things as vaccinated persons because you have taken decisions to make sure you are not such a health risk to others.
The national plan, which I was explaining, using those analogies, gives people confidence, the incentive, which is lifting vaccination rates and getting Australians to where we want to be.
*The Croods is not about living with a virus. It’s about a family forced to leave their cave after a natural disaster and eventually finding a fertile land.
**The family only left the cave because it was destroyed in one of the natural disasters.
***The lesson is animated movies make money. It still took seven years or so for the sequel to get off the ground, and its run was interrupted by Covid. In Australia, a screening of The Croods 2, was an early Covid exposure site.
Updated
The first dixer is on the national plan to which Scott Morrison repeats his case:
The plan is not about a freedom day. There is no special day in a calendar. This plan is based on vaccination rates and based on a staged, careful reopening in phase B and phase C at 70 and 80% vaccination rates.
This is a plan that accepts and acknowledges and understands that Covid zero as a future plan is not sustainable and is not realistic, as other countries are beginning to also learn. It is a plan that is clear about the risks.
It is careful to ensure it has the flexibility to deal with vulnerable populations, especially our Indigenous populations, to deal with the challenges and ensure we prepare for that time of phase B, particularly in public hospitals. It is a plan that recognises vaccinated Australians, because they present a lower health risk to themselves and the community, can be exempted from any restrictions that otherwise will need to apply.
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Question time begins
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
I refer to the Delta strain that was wreaking havoc in India by April. So bad that the prime minister told Australians that returning Australians would be locked out or locked up. Delta leaked into Melbourne in early June. On June 24, the prime minister said, I commend premier Berejiklian for resisting going into a full lockdown. With more than 1,000 cases today, why won’t the prime minister accept responsibility for the consequences of his actions?
Morrison:
Over these past 18 months, going back to the beginning of the pandemic when Australia moved when almost all other countries didn’t, we moved, declared the pandemic before the World Health Organization.
Before closing the borders, we put in a system with the states and territories that saw 123,000 people arrive, and some 4,200 cases kept in quarantine over that period. An extraordinary job by the states and territories, as we agreed at the time to put the program into place, very similar to what New Zealand, Taiwan, South Korea and other countries did, who continue to use those mechanisms.
In a pandemic, you either need to adapt, but situations in place that enabled you to cope with what was an incredible surge, and the result of the efforts, the economic support of jobkeeper, the cashflow boost, all of these measures over many months, and the result – 30,000 lives saved in this country.
One million back in work. The economy remains resilient. Australians can look forward with hope to the national plan that says at 70 and 80% they will be able to live with the virus.
... I would say quite specifically, the national plan framed by the federal government – supported by the national cabinet agreed in July and August in the heat of the Delta strain – sets out the plan that enables Australia to live with the virus. The leader of the opposition makes reference to the Delta strain in India.
I remember the leader of the opposition wasn’t terribly supportive of the government moves at that time.
To ensure that it wouldn’t come through. Remember the critical call comments by the Labor party due to our stance, I will remember that. We will stick with the national plan, continue with it.
We will go forward with confidence and safety, and ensure we can live with the virus into the future.
Updated
Remember how Ray Hadley on Sydney radio 2GB yesterday demanded the prime minister apologise to the Australian Defence Force for comments made as part of the release of the Brereton report, which found “credible” evidence some members of the SAS participated in war crimes? (The investigations are still ongoing and will likely be ongoing for years. As far as we know, no one has been cleared.)
Scott Morrison didn’t apologise.
Peter Dutton, the defence minister, did.
I said when I came to this portfolio that I would have the back of our soldiers and to make sure that they hear that message very clearly.
If people have been wrongly accused and they’ve now been cleared of that* then I do apologise for what they have been through, what their families have been through, and they know it had a big impact on the partners and families of those who work there or haven’t been accused of anything. They’ve obviously got a tightknit group and where the wives are friends, they obviously feel the pain of what that particular family is going through, so it reverberates across the ADF community, and I have tried to deal with that process.
If people have got criminal charges to answer, then that is a matter for the courts, but for the rest, we move on from that chapter now and I want us to concentrate on the amazing work of the ADF in our country’s name.
*This has not happened
Updated
Scott Morrison also referred to vaccinations as the “march of hope”.
Updated
Scott Morrison’s transcript from his morning press conference has just lobbed in my inbox.
Here is what else he had to say about the Afghanistan evacuations:
We will be moving to a post-evacuation resettlement phase and we are already working through those plans with other partners about how that can be achieved. It won’t be easy, but these are situations that have been faced on many other occasions where people have been seeking our humanitarian support through our formal program. And so already plans are under way to how we will then move into the next phase. Right now, we’re seeking to get people out of Kabul and then we will move post that mission to the next phase, which would see us resettle additional people not just this year, but in the many years ahead.
Updated
AAP has pulled together the nation’s Covid snapshot, for those wanting dot points:
- Australia has fully vaccinated 30% of its population aged 16 and above, while 52.8% have had one jab.
- NSW recorded its third consecutive day of 800-plus new local Covid-19 cases and three more deaths, but the state’s health minister says life will be “pretty damn good” within months due to vaccinations.
- Meanwhile, in regional NSW six new Covid-19 cases at Goodooga in the remote north-west are of significant concern to authorities.
- Victorians are ignoring coronavirus symptoms to the point where some children are fainting and vomiting at school. The state recorded 71 new Covid-19 cases, 55 of which were not isolating.
- The ACT is encouraging under-30s to register for a Pfizer vaccine in Canberra after the city recorded another 14 coronavirus cases
- South Australia has begun a trial to electronically monitor people in quarantine that could allow Australian returned travellers to isolate at home.
- Western Australia’s premier has cast doubt on the likelihood of allowing full interstate travel by Christmas, saying NSW could face months of restrictions as the state’s tourism industry calls for a “no jab, no fly” coronavirus vaccination policy for all interstate arrivals.
- The Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, has expressed concern about the territory’s Covid-19 vaccination rates amid the ongoing NSW outbreak, with about 40% of territorians fully vaccinated.
- Scott Morrison has declared lockdowns will be unsustainable once widespread vaccination coverage is achieved, and that Australia will need to shift focus to hospitalisations rather than coronavirus cases.
- Childcare centres and after-school services in coronavirus hotspots will be subsidised to keep afloat during lockdown.
- Young teenagers are likely to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the near future with even younger children to follow next year, amid concerns about the numbers of kids catching the virus.
- Children aged 12 to 15 living with a disability will be added to Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout from Wednesday.
Updated
Andrew Hastie was on Perth radio 6PR this morning and was asked if we knew how many Australian citizens were still on the ground in Afghanistan.
He said that was the “next step of planning”.
Q: Do you have a sense of how many Australian citizens are still on the ground who want to get out of there, plus Afghan allies who would like to get out of there and who are likely to qualify for humanitarian or other visas; and what happens beyond 31 August?
Hastie:
Well, that’s the next step of planning, and that’s what government is working on right now. And it’s a fluid situation, as I said. And things will become clearer as advice is updated and the situation continues to evolve. And people just need to be patient. Our ADF, our Dfat, our home affairs people are doing the very best that they can in very trying circumstances.
Updated
You may have noticed the ‘Morrison-Joyce government’ line there.
Nationals MPs always refer to it as the Morrison-Joyce government, but Liberals tend not to – so Labor is hoping to remind city voters that Barnaby Joyce comes as part of the package deal with a Scott Morrison government.
Labor’s Brendan O’Connor and Matt Keogh are happy with the information commissioner’s decision to release documents on the potential for the submarine maintenance contract to be moved from Adelaide to WA:
“After years of withholding information from the public, the Morrison Joyce Government has been ordered to release a study that examined the potential move of hundreds of submarine maintenance jobs from Adelaide to Western Australia.
“Labor welcomes the Information Commissioner’s ruling that Department of Defence Documents relating to the future location of Full Cycle Docking be made public.
“After three years of pressing the Morrison Government on the need for transparency in this project, this is a significant step forward.
“Labor expects the Morrison-Joyce Government to abide by the ruling of the Information Commissioner and release the Full-Cycle Docking Transition Study.”
Updated
There is talk of travel bubbles slowly opening up (to be fair there has been talk of that for well over a year now) but there are still tens of thousands of people trying to get home to Australia.
University of NSW researchers are looking at the impact at what the international travel restrictions have had on our health:
Researchers from UNSW Medicine & Health are undertaking a new study examining the effects of international travel restrictions on individuals around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
— UNSW Medicine & Health (@UNSWMedicine) August 5, 2021
Complete the short 7-10 minute survey here 👉https://t.co/PmIiUiPGaV pic.twitter.com/DoL4saN12z
Updated
We are all up to date with the latest Covid news – question time is in about an hour, so take a break, make another coffee (or two) and try and get some sunshine (or at least some fresh air from somewhere).
Breaks away from screens and doomscrolling in these times are very important. You’ll be able to catch up on anything you missed very quickly, if you need to.
Updated
For those who missed it, there were 14 cases of Covid reported in the ACT, all linked and all but one in isolation for their infectious time.
Updated
Victorian summary
Victoria recorded 80 new cases of community transmission.
Of those, 67 are linked to current outbreaks and 41 were infectious in the community.
There are 36 people in hospital, 11 in intensive care and eight requiring ventilation.
Twenty-three of the 36 people in hospital are aged under 50, and include seven people in their 20s and one baby.
There were 33,932 vaccines administered in the past day.
There is no word on whether or not the lockdown will be lifted as scheduled next week (but it is looking unlikely).
The ADF has been requested to help with the response in Shepparton, which is becoming a major concern.
Updated
Victoria’s Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar said they are still investigating exactly how the virus spread from Glenroy in Melbourne’s northern suburbs to Shepparton, about two hours out of the city.
The two outbreaks have been genomically linked, but the actual contact tracing work is still ongoing to figure out which people crossed over and when.
Weimar says:
“We have a number of lines of inquiry still about potential movements from the Glenroy area and the Shepparton area, and we are liaising with a number of different departments to run those inquiries to ground.”
Weimar says 23 mystery cases were linked to other outbreaks overnight, and 40 mystery cases are still under investigation. That includes the 13 from today and some from yesterday.
He says that the 18 cases reported in Shepparton were marked as not in isolation because it’s still such a new outbreak — the response only began on Friday and Saturday, so people did not have a chance to be locked down before they became infectious.
But many were isolated for at least part of their infectious period.
There are currently 450 healthcare workers attached to the Royal Melbourne Hospital who have been furloughed after being identified as a close contact. The emergency department opened up again today, which is good news.
And in further good news, all of the staff who were working at Monash Medical Centre when a positive case came into the emergency department were wearing tier three PPE, so none have had to be isolated.
And with that, the Victorian press conference has ended.
Updated
Senate inquiry to look into Australia's involvement in Afghanistan
Jacqui Lambie has got this up in the Senate:
Good to see the Senate unanimously back my inquiry into Australia's involvement in Afghanistan.
— Jacqui Lambie (@JacquiLambie) August 26, 2021
We'll now get to look not just at our messy and chaotic exit, but what got us there, what kept us there, and where we go from here.
We got things wrong. It's time we ask why. pic.twitter.com/iomtAsqANK
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Vaccination passports on national cabinet agenda
Daniel Andrews said the national cabinet meeting tomorrow will discuss “passport matters and restrictions on unvaccinated people”.
That started being done by us, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory. The commonwealth have held the pen on that much more in recent times. I’ve got a document to read this afternoon, after I’m finished with you guys.
He says that if more Pfizer is made available to Victoria, he will use it, but at the moment all he knows about future doses is “a few hints”.
Hundreds of thousands of people made appointments. There’s no hesitancy here. I will take whatever the commonwealth government has got. Hundreds of thousands of doses is fine by me.
He added:
I assume (the commonwealth is) working as hard as they can to find whoever the next Poland is, to see if we can get more stock. How much do we want? We want as much as we can get. I’m confident that Victorians will do whatever they have to do to make an appointment and turn up to get the first and second jab. They know that getting to 80 per cent is our way out of it.
Updated
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has slapped down an attempt by the federal agriculture minister, David Littleproud, to get Victoria to renew a scheme to allow fruit pickers from the Pacific Islands to fly in and quarantine in Tasmania, before going to work on Victorian farms.
Littleproud wrote to his Victorian counterpart this week.
Andrews said he will negotiate directly with Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein on the agreement that was struck in March, and did not need to go through Littleproud.
He said:
I don’t deal with minister Littleproud. I deal with his boss, and it might be news to him but his boss is not Barnaby Joyce, his boss is Scott Morrison and that’s who I deal with. Scott Morrison hasn’t raised any concerns about this with me even though we talk multiple times a week.
Andrew continued:
I want to thank Tasmania, they are doing a good job. We are doing some stuff for them, they are doing the work is for us, a terrific outcome, really good. And I am not aware of any problems with it.
Now was not the time to be creating problems if you think you may get some political advantage out of it, it is just silly.
Updated
Victoria’s current restrictions are due to lift on 2 September, which is next Thursday. This feels unlikely, but premier Daniel Andrews will not say that. He says he’ll announce what is happening with restrictions “as soon as we can,” but plainly not today.
A reminder that there were eight cases when Victoria went into its sixth lockdown, and we’re now at 80. But vaccine rates continue to increase.
He was also asked to confirm that it is unlikely children will return to face-to-face learning before the end of term three, which is 20 September, and wouldn’t be drawn on that either.
He said:
We are going to get our kids back as soon as it is safe, and that is not now, we would simply have a situation where, you know, you’re talking about a million kids, teachers, staff parents of not more, moving back and forth all over the community everything today, you will just spread the virus from that..
Is it fair to say it’s pretty unlikely they’ll be back before the end of term three?
No, what’s fair to say is that everyone would love an answer to that question and I would love nothing more than to give you a definitive answer but I can’t.
Has he given up hope that the AFL grand final will be hosted in Melbourne?
Andrews:
No.
Does he seriously think we’ll be happy to have thousands of people at the MCG at the end of September?
It will be very difficult for us to have major events anytime soon, that is just a fact. But no decision has been made on that and I’m not here to make any announcements about that.
Andrews said people should not “weaponise” the grand final.
Everyone loves footy. No one in Australia loves footy more than we do here in the great state of Victoria but no footy match is worth being locked down for longer.
What does he think about WA standing by to pick up the grand final, and that it is not allowing people in for compassionate reasons but is happy to take in AFL players?
Andrews:
I’m sure they try in all their decisions to strike the best balance they possibly can. We don’t begrudge the fact that other parts of the country have got zero cases. But they got zero cases today. I don’t know what they will have next week or the week after, none of us know.
Updated
The David Littleproud v Daniel Andrews battle is not one I predicted in this pandemic.
"I don't deal with Minister Littleproud. I deal with his boss, and it might be news to him but his boss is not Barnaby Joyce, his boss is Scott Morrison... Scott Morrison hasn't raised any concerns about this with me even though we talk multiple times a week."
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) August 26, 2021
Senate passes three electoral bills
Let’s head to the parliament for a moment:
The Senate has passed three government electoral bills unamended, after Labor decided on Tuesday to back the changes.
The three bills:
- Require parties to have a member in parliament or 1,500 members, up from 500, to be registered
- Give old parties a monopoly on words used in their name
- Reduce the period of pre-poll to a maximum of 12 days
- Clarify what counts as “interference with political liberty”, specifying that “violence, obscene or discriminatory abuse, property damage and harassment or stalking” can constitute a breach of the existing section
- Raise the penalty for interference with political liberty to three years in prison
- Allow the electoral commissioner to classify someone a “designated elector” who must use a declaration vote to prevent them casting multiple votes
A fourth bill, to lower the threshold for registration as a political campaigner, has not been considered yet. Labor is opposed to that bill.
Updated
And Daniel Andrews finishes on this point:
That’s why New South Wales is locked down. That’s why every other state has, at various points, locked down.
It’s why the prime minister and every leader in this country have signed up to exactly this policy. And it’s why the national plan is so important, that we get to 70 and we get to 80% [vaccination], and then we can have so many of our freedoms back.
Hopefully we have options before then, because we’ve kept numbers low and they continue to fall. That’s the plan. If there was another way, of course, we would choose that. Of course we would. There simply isn’t.
Updated
Daniel Andrews continues there:
They are not choices that I will make. They’re not real options, in fact. They’re not real options at all. This is incredibly difficult for everybody across Victoria.
We know and understand that. That’s why we’ve all gotta commit and then recommit to following the rules, doing the right thing, and continuing to drive these numbers down. We have done it before.
We can do it again. In any event, there is no other option than to pursue this strategy. And if you’re doing it, you might as well do it properly. If you’re doing it, you might as well aim for the best possible outcome. Only time will tell whether that can be achieved. But there’s no other option.
Daniel Andrews addresses the issue of schools:
There’s a lot of commentary about schools. I appreciate it. I understand how challenging it is. We’ve got two, admittedly they’re older kids, two school-aged kids at home. Brett has got three younger school-aged kids at home.
We know and understand this is very, very challenging. But I just want to say to those, there’s been a bit of commentary about, why don’t you just open them up?
As difficult as homeschooling is, I think opening schools up against medical advice and literally thousands of kids getting quite sick is even worse.
So, again, I’ve made this point a number of times: people are entitled to their views, people are entitled to criticise, they’re entitled to have, you know, theories and views on all manner of things. That’s fine. No one is criticising that.
But at some point the question has to go back, well, what’s your alternative? And if the best you’ve got is open the schools against medical advice, and then have kids bring this home into family after family after family, that’s not a strategy that I will pursue.
Updated
The breakdown of the cases in Victoria today makes that headline figure of 80 cases seem a bit less terrifying. Let’s go through them.
- 20 cases are in the Shepparton and Royal Melbourne Hospital outbreak — that’s 18 in Shepparton and two linked to the hospital. As mentioned above, none were isolating for the duration of their infectious period but some were identified as primary close contacts so were partially isolating.
- 25 cases were identified close contacts of the Broadmeadows, Al-Taqwa Vollege and Caroline Springs clusters — they were all in isolation through their entire infectious period.
- Two were linked to the St Kilda East outbreak and were in isolation throughout.
- Nine cases were linked to Newport and Altona North, and were in isolation throughout.
- Nine were household close contacts of previous cases.
- 13 are as yet unlinked.
You may note that’s added up to 78, not 80 — we’ll try to figure out where the missing two have gone.
Victoria’s Covid response commander, Jeroen Weimar, says that some of the 13 mystery cases and the nine household contacts have an unknown quarantine status.
Some of them would have been in quarantine but most would not have been in full isolation and that makes the 80 we have today.
As of today there are 600 active cases in Victoria, of which 240 are people under the age of 20.
Weimar said:
We see this very much as an outbreak really impacting the young people and their households and the people they live with.
Updated
NSW Covid summary
There were 1,029 new Covid cases recorded in the past 24 hours
Of those, 185 have been linked to known cases and 844 are under investigation. The isolation status of at least 900 is under investigation as well.
Three people died, in their homes. All were men, aged in their 30s, 60s and 80s, and all lived in western Sydney. They were being cared for at home.
There are 698 people in hospital. Of those, 116 are in ICU and 43 need ventilation.
More than 6.2m NSW citizens have received at least one dose of vaccination.
The regional NSW lockdown has been extended to at least 10 September (some areas had been due to come out of lockdown this weekend).
From 13 September, households in Sydney LGAs of concern will be allowed an extra hour outside, as long as the adults have received two doses of vaccination.
Outside of those areas, from 13 September, adults who have been double vaccinated will be able to gather in groups of five, outside, within the 5km limit.
Gladys Berejiklian believes NSW could reach its 70% vaccination target by mid-October.
Updated
Andrews says some cases had symptoms for a week before test
Let’s head to Victoria again for a moment:
Daniel Andrews says some of the positive cases reported today are people who had symptoms for a week before getting tested.
The key point is to get tested as soon possible. So when you register a symptom, you cannot wait seven or eight days, as regrettably some of the positive cases today did wait before going to get tested, which meant they were in a community, out there unknowingly infecting other people and often the people they love the most, their family — very close family, their immediate family.
The Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said that everyone had to assume that they had the virus.
Sutton said:
You have to assume that you could be infectious, even without symptoms, at any time.
This virus has moved silently and with stealth across Melbourne and into regional Victoria. So please don’t say I’m not at risk because I’m not in this demographic, or in this part of Melbourne, or, in this workplace or in this particular sector. You are at risk if you’re in Victoria, if you’re in Australia. We simply can’t assume that we’re not at risk. Because, we’ll be surprised. All of a sudden, that test will turn around, you’ll be flabbergasted by it.
Updated
NSW mandates vaccines for all medical staff in state-run hospitals
The NSW press conference is coming to an end – with the news that NSW is mandating vaccines for health staff in state-run facilities.
Brad Hazzard said he has just signed the health orders to make that mandate:
I have just signed orders this morning which ensure that the medical staff in our hospitals will be required to get vaccinated. And, of course, also sign the orders that the federal government have asked to be signed in regards to aged care.
Again, it will be mandatory for staff, except with medical conditions and related matters, to actually get vaccinated. And I just ask all of our staff who haven’t yet been vaccinated - the majority have - please get out and take an opportunity to get vaccinated as well.
Updated
It is not just serious illness, but also death.
The transition to opening up may be rough – the Doherty Institute analysis looks at opening up at 70-80% eligible population vaccinated, but depending on the case load at the time, that will mean accepting increased cases, hospitalisations and deaths. More than the nation has been used to, given the lockdowns, at least at first.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian has been repeating the message that “all states in Australia” will have to deal with what NSW is going through, as part of the national plan.
At 80% we will live life much more freely but in a managed way. All states in Australia will have to come to terms with this. There has to come a point where leaders say ‘OK, enough is enough and we now have to accept we can’t live like this forever’.
We have to allow loved ones to come together and Australians to move freely in Australia. It is confronting, believe me, I know what it is like.
It is extremely confronting to have to honestly and directly say to your citizens that there is no easy way through a pandemic.
There is no easy way to open up and no easy way to say unfortunately some people get very ill, especially those that aren’t vaccinated.
It is a horrible situation but one which every single citizen of the globe has to come to terms with.
Our best way to do it is [in an as] managed way as possible by having high vaccine rates, being very responsible every time we open up and make a decision and making sure the community feels at all times that their safety and health is our first priority.
Updated
Back to NSW, where Gladys Berejiklian is asked whether her government has been negligent in letting Covid spread to vulnerable Indigenous communities.
She sighs and then says:
The NSW government has worked really hard to support all Indigenous communities across the state.
Our vulnerable communities were earmarked to be vaccinated by the commonwealth many months ago and we are addressing these issues now, stepping up as a state and supporting the commonwealth in those vaccine programs and thank you to the commonwealth getting us vaccines to those areas of concern.
We want to ensure everybody has the opportunity to get the vaccine as quickly as possible especially the most vulnerable and that is our plea. Our heart goes out to anyone who feels vulnerable because they aren’t vaccinated.
Those I we said everybody, please come forward and get that vaccine. There is a supplier, especially for vulnerable communities but also if wants to safeguard their family and loved ones.
Updated
ADF asked to help in Victoria's Shepparton outbreak
The Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has asked for ADF support to help manage the outbreak in Shepparton.
Eighteen of the new cases reported in Victoria on Thursday are in Shepparton, Victoria’s Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar says.
Weimar says that none of those cases were in isolation for the entirety of their infectious period but a number were previously identified as primary close contacts — meaning some were in part isolation. So that figure of only 39 of the 80 being in full isolation may be less concerning that it first appeared.
There are currently 16,000 people in isolation in Shepparton, about a third of the community. That’s causing difficulties with the operation of essential services like supermarkets and post offices.
Andrews says he sent the deputy emergency management commissioner, Debra Abbott, up to Shepparton last night to help coordinate the on the ground response.
Andrews said “every part of life in Shepparton and across the Goulburn Valley has been impacted by the fact that many people are not at work”.
He said the emergency response is “no different to a bushfire or flood”. But all support will be offered by public servants who are based in regional areas — not people from Melbourne.
The emergency management architecture will be in place but it will be in the main very, very simple things. Taking food to people’s doorstep. Getting scripts filled.
Everybody is focused on getting everybody in Shepparton things they need when they need them.
I want to thank the people of Shepparton for the amazing way in which they have joined together, looked out for each other to fight this virus.
There are substantial additional people on the ground today and that will build over time with public servants, people from all across regional Victoria. We do not want people from Melbourne going there at the moment for fear of taking the virus there. But regional Victoria public servants going back, dropping off food passes, doing the practical but very important things to assist the community of Shepparton and give them the support they require in their time of need.
Updated
Back to NSW – the return to school plan will be announced tomorrow.
There is another “please know” this time – “please know that we already have put in place and plans for a safe return to schools and we’re looking forward sharing those plans tomorrow”.
Gladys Berejiklian also says she welcomes the coming advice on 12 to 15 year olds being vaccinated, but at this stage, the September 13 small freedoms are not reliant on that.
Updated
ACT records 14 new Covid cases
But there is good news in the territory - all are linked to known cases and just one was in the community for part of their infectious period, and is being considered a “low” transmission risk.
Updated
Testing resources in NSW are under immense pressure – so only get tested if you need to.
Dr Kerry Chant:
A few days ago, to clarify, we removed surveillance testing for the moment and I urge people that are just getting testing because they want to, to not do that.
They are compromising public health response, including employers who are using PCR testing as a way of giving [reassurance]
We want to focus testing resources ... but clearly we also test as many people if they are household contacts of cases or in workplace we know transmission has happened so we want to see testing numbers getting to a more manageable area and those turnaround times background 24 hours and shorter.
Updated
Back to NSW now
New Zealand records 68 new cases
New Zealand’s coronavirus outbreak has grown by 68 cases, increasing the total number of cases to 277.
One previously reported case has been reclassified after being confirmed as a false positive.
The country is currently in a nationwide lockdown as it grapples with a Delta variant outbreak that has spread from Auckland to Wellington.
Of the 277 new cases, 263 are in Auckland, and 14 are in Wellington. The majority of the cases are Samoan and linked to a sub-cluster who assembled at the Assembly of God church in Māngere.
There are 495 locations listed for potential exposure, including schools, universities, hospitals, churches, bars, restaurants, airports, a casino and a rugby game. There are now more than 24,000 close contacts across the country. In August 2020’s outbreak there were 1,5oo close contacts identified.
Genome sequencing has linked the cluster to a returnee from Australia. It is not yet known how the virus was transmitted from the traveller, who was in quarantine, to the community, but a walkway and an atrium in the facility are being investigated.
On Thursday, the director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the NZ Herald a possible link has been established between the facility and a case in the Māngere sub-cluster – a development that could fill in the missing link of how the virus was transmitted.
Updated
More than 1m Victorians trying to get vaccination appointments
More than a million people tried to get an appointment for a Covid-19 vaccination in Victoria yesterday — the busiest day booking day of the pandemic so far.
It was the first day that anyone aged 16 and above could book in for a vaccine appointment at a state hub.
The Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said 200,000 appointments were booked in yesterday, compared to a daily average of about 30,000. And it was a record day for vaccines administered through state hubs, with 33,932 jabs administered.
It comes on one of the worst days of this outbreak so far — 80 cases were reported overnight, of which only 39 were in full isolation for the entirety of their infectious period. There are 36 people in hospital, including one infant. Eleven people are in ICU and eight are on ventilators.
Andrews said he knew it was a “challenging day” for those trying to secure an appointment. The website was crashing repeatedly and the phone line had hours long waits.
He says his daughter, Grace, was one of those who spent the day trying to get an appointment.
“At our house, Grace got an appointment at around dinnertime after being on and off the website from 6am yesterday. No different to any other family.
“The system does work and she has got an appointment on Sunday. But not all of her friends were able to get an appointment, and I would encourage people to go back and stick to it because it is the way out of restrictions and out of our hospitals being overwhelmed and our way back to normal life. Everybody getting vaccinated is such an important part of that.”
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And despite the earlier ‘prepare for life at 70%’ message, Gladys Berejiklian then applies some brakes:
Nobody from outside the household anywhere in the state is allowed into a household. I’ll make that clear.
Because of the restrictions in place and the fact we want to get case numbers down and the curve to turn, we can’t allow anybody outside a household no matter whether you have no virus in your committee and have never had that, the risk is still there.
The decisions we came to as the government were very much based on the health advice and the advice of the chief psychiatrist.
People coming together, enjoying the outdoor weather is a huge relief from a wellbeing perspective and it is safe, safer than any other option, and that is why we took that decision.
It is balanced and measured approach and what we will take starting to open up. I don’t want anyone to be concerned that when we get to 70% double dose, we will do anything which isn’t based on sound health advice but also appreciate our aim to live with Covid in a safe way.
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This is not the first time Dr Kerry Chant has mentioned “equity” when it comes to vaccination coverage.
So what does it mean?
We need to ensure that people who are busier, have to go to work, haven’t got time to make a booking, are concerned about access to their GP, can get a vaccine and there is no barrier for getting a vaccine.
We need to ensure that people that perhaps are homeless, people that may have other priorities in their life or other issues impacting their health and well, that we actually support them for vaccination because you can see that if you have pockets of low vaccine in our community, we will continue to struggle.
... I’m very keenly aware that we are only as good as what we have achieved in our most vulnerable communities. I want a homelessness level of vaccine high and our Indigenous communities to be highly protected by vaccination. I want our drug and alcohol clients, mental health clients, our justice health clients, our prisons clients, all of those groups, with very high vaccine rates.
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Chant says 'sky's the limit' on vaccine coverage and believes above 90% possible
Dr Kerry Chant says any future loosening of restrictions will be “calibrated and phased”.
The best thing we can do is get vaccinated as soon as possible and follow the public health rule so we can keep the case number is very low. But we would like to see is in living with Covid, very, very low levels of community transmission and what we would like to see is very high rate of vaccination.
As a public health doctor, I want to help my ED colleagues and my dream is to have us be the most vaccinated country in the world. For me, the sky is the limit and I think Australians can do it. We can achieve well over 90% vaccine coverage ... and this experience with Delta has demonstrated that we also need a strong equity focus.
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It of course means, from 13 September, police will be checking the vaccination status of people who are outside, as well as what they are already doing.
Dr Kerry Chant:
Police have been consulted on this ... but as the premier has said repeatedly, we have to give the community the benefit of the doubt.
The vast majority of people in the community do not want to see their loved ones subject to Covid-19 and are doing all they can.
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Chant says extra freedoms from 13 September are 'baby steps'
Dr Kerry Chant continues on that topic, saying the extra freedoms should be kept in perspective:
I think that one has to keep them in proportion. We’re allowing a household who has been doing it tough in south-western Sydney and western Sydney to sit in the park as a household, if all of the adult members are vaccinated.
I think whilst I hope the people of south-western Sydney and western Sydney appreciate that, for many they will go, ‘That’s not much.’
So, I think, to be perfectly frank, these steps are baby steps, recognising the serious situation we are in, and I think it’s important that we are allowing those interactions, that human interaction in an outdoor space, fully vaccinated adults, across the other local government areas – outside those local government areas of concern.
And the other factor that gives a safeguard is that if there is an uptick in cases outside those current local government areas of concern, as the premier has indicated, they might be in a designated local government area of concern.
Updated
Given that Dr Kerry Chant can’t say that NSW has hit its peak of cases, how does she have the confidence to allow those (very small) additional freedoms from 13 September?
(That would be an extra hour outside for households where adults are double vaccinated in LGAs of concern, and the ability for people outside those LGAS to gather in groups of five, within the 5km radius, as long as the adults are double vaccinated).
Chant says:
I think it’s about two things. One is the fact that we want to recognise the mental health impacts on the community.
By then, in September, the weather will be a nice time, and we know that outdoor spaces are less risk. What we’re doing is also incentivising vaccination, because to avail yourself of this you have to be vaccinated.
And again, in the local areas of concern, we’ve taken the precaution that is just open to the household group. And, again, it’s a thankyou to the community.
And I think we have to, at this difficult time, say to the community it can be different and you have increased your vaccination coverage, and this is about rewarding the community in a way that is very safe.
Updated
Dr Kerry Chant continues:
But we also need everyone to do the right thing. As you know, we see the predominance of cases in south-western Sydney and western Sydney, but you cannot be complacent anywhere. And we do see the fact that people bring it back to different communities.
And if people are not following the rules there, we can have additional bushfires. And at the moment, with our stretched system, we do not want to be fighting bushfires on multiple fronts.
And that’s why I’m so pleased as well that we have got the regional lockdown in place for two more weeks, so that we reduce that risk of any bushfires in the regions.
Updated
Chant warns NSW cases could keep rising with people tired and frustrated
Dr Kerry Chant warns that NSW may not have hit its peak as yet.
Chant:
My advice to government that the case numbers may well continue to go up before we see the trajectory of downward transmission.
As I said, the factors that go into that model is how we’re adhering to the mobility restrictions, how we’re individually behaving. We have seen some deterioration in some of those metrics because people are obviously feeling so tired and frustrated with the length and duration of the restrictions.
So, I can’t, in answering your question, the model is the model, but the inputs into the model also reflect how we as individuals behave, they also factor in how quickly we’re vaccinated, and whether the vaccine is getting into the places we need it.
So, it is critical that the people of south-western Sydney and western Sydney are afforded every opportunity to take up the vaccines as quickly as possible, and that has been the focus of our vaccination efforts to provide that access, in conjunction with the great work of general practice and pharmacies, who have also stood up to try and increase those rates.
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We move to the questions in the NSW presser.
This is always a very difficult time of the day for people in lockdown, particularly those in NSW and Victoria, who are, no matter what Gladys Berejiklian urges, riding an emotional roller coaster.
And everyone is going through their own personal hell within that collective purgatory. For some, the load is heavier than for others. Be kind to yourself, and to those around you. You’re doing great.
Dr Murray Wright:
Spare a thought for those people in your circle who may have experienced particular challenges during the course of the pandemic.
People who live alone. People who have experienced loss, whether that’s loss of their livelihood, their family, or a loved one, individuals who are still disconnected from their families because they’re interstate or overseas.
And also people who have been dealing with mental health issues, either pre-existing the pandemic or as a result of their experiences during the pandemic.
And don’t forget young people, because these individuals are beginning to make their way in the world, and that’s hard enough at the best of times, but much harder when you’re faced with all these sorts of constraints.
Dr Murray Wright says mental health is being balanced against the restrictions:
Restrictions are a necessity as part of the response to the pandemic.
But all restrictions and any modifications to those restrictions – either tightening them up or easing them off – all those decisions are made balanced against both the benefits and the risks.
And sometimes those risks are about the risks to community and individual mental wellbeing. And we have an active voice in considering the risks and benefits every step of the way.
We know that people recovering from sustained stress and depression often, as a result of those experiences, have disengaged from their family, their loved ones, their social activities, and they often feel quite defeated and pessimistic about the benefits of re-engagement. Sometimes their motivation and self-belief has been eroded as a result of those experiences.
And in any kind of treatment situation, it’s really important to help that person, or those individuals, identify what are the key things that matter to them in terms of their connections with others – whether it’s the workplace, the community, or their recreational activities – and to try and figure out ways to reconnect. In my opinion, that’s very appropriate for us now and going forward.
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The NSW chief psychiatrist, Dr Murray Wright is also at this presser. He again reminds everyone to take care of their mental wellbeing and says to remember, recovery is part of the mental health:
I wanted to say a few words about the concept of recovery as we use it in the mental health world.
It’s a really important word and a very important concept, and I think it has great relevance as we consider both from a personal and a community perspective what confronts us on the way forward in relation to the pandemic.
When I first began working in the mental health area many decades ago, people who were suffering from serious mental illness often developed a sense of pessimism and hopelessness about their condition.
It was seen as a chronic and recurring condition from which a person could recover, or they could suffer serious consequences and recurrences during their life.
Out of this sense of pessimism and, at times, hopelessness, grew the recovery movement during the 1980s and the 1990s. And the recovery movement demands to put the individual back in control of their destiny.
And it’s about self-determination, and it’s about the individual, notwithstanding the constraints and the risks and the challenges of experiencing a mental illness, taking control of their life and determining what matters for them. And a lot of it has to do with engagement, bringing engagement into the community, developing social cohesion, and developing meaningful activities with their lives. It’s highly relevant at this time.
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Dr Clare Skinner, a senior staff specialist in emergency medicine at Hornsby Ku-ring-gai hospital, is one of the experts at this presser:
Something that’s really important at the moment is that you do seek care if you need it.
We’re really concerned that people are avoiding seeking urgent medical care.
And while the system is under pressure, we’re doing everything we can to make sure the care is there for you when you need it.
So, if you have an emergency, please come to the emergency department. We’ve got a pandemic plan.
We’ve got the department to keep you safe. We’ve got full infection protocols in place and we’re all wearing personal protective equipment.
If you have another matter, please see your GP. Again, there are measures in place to seek urgent care, so please don’t delay.
I think everyone said thank you to the healthcare workers, but this is not about healthcare workers.
This is about all of us and what healthcare workers would like is for the community to pull together with us, because we really need your help flattening the pandemic curve.
So, please, follow the distancing rules. We know they’re tough but you’re doing a great job. Please get vaccinated. Please wear a mask. And please, if you have any symptoms at all, can you seek testing and care as soon as possible.
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These trends are going in all the wrong directions.
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The NSW deputy premier John Barilaro describes regional NSW as “sitting on a knife’s edge” when it comes to Covid.
“It is a tinder box waiting to explode,” he says.
This is in the same press conference Gladys Berejiklian has said to prepare for opening up.
Updated
Dr Kerry Chant repeats the message from yesterday – if you are at home and have been diagnosed with Covid, and you start to have trouble breathing or are feeling dizzy, call for help immediately:
So, if you’ve got any change in your breathing, difficulty breathing, dizziness, or your condition is deteriorating, do not hesitate. Although our system is clearly under stress, the best thing you can do is present early for care. Because by presenting early, it gives the clinicians the best chance of not having you progress. So, please, do not hesitate if any deterioration.
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Dr Kerry Chant:
We have 698 people admitted to hospital and 116 people in intensive care, 43 who require ventilation. The age range is from their 20s through to their 70s.
So, again, Covid can impact in a very serious way on all age groups, and there is no room for complacency.
The vast majority of people - 102 of the 116 people in ICU - are not vaccinated. So, again, please do not delay.
Access vaccines now. Vaccines are available through pharmacies, GPs, through the booking system, so go online. Please get vaccinated.
The man in his 30s died in his home in western Sydney
A man in his 60s also died in his home in western Sydney.
Updated
The NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant says there are people in the ICU who are in their 20s.
One of the three deaths was a man aged in his 30s.
Updated
We then get one of the first “please know” runs – Gladys Berejiklian says “please know” the health system is under pressure, but it is “able to cope”.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian then asks the community and industry to prepare for opening up more widely when NSW hits 70% double dose vaccination of the eligible population – which she says could be as soon as the middle of October.
That is when there will be more freedoms, Berejiklian says. It is unlikely though, given the caseload in NSW, that the other states will open to NSW until transmission is low, or they hit their own targets.
Contact tracers in NSW are completely overwhelmed.
Ninety-one were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 33 were in isolation for part of their infectious period. Sixty-one cases were infectious in the community, and the isolation status of 844 cases remains under investigation.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 26, 2021
Updated
'Additional freedoms' for vaccinated people announced from 13 September
Households in the local government areas of concern who have adults who have been vaccinated will get an extra hour outside for recreation, including picnics. This is in addition to the one hour of exercise.
Outside of those LGAs, five people can now gather outside including children – if the adults are vaccinated. That is within your 5km radius.
This doesn’t start until 13 September though. So a few more weeks.
Updated
NSW regional lockdown extended to 10 September
No one is coming out of lockdown in NSW this weekend.
The regional lockdown has been extended for another couple of weeks to 10 September.
Updated
NSW records 1,029 covid cases and three deaths
It is another record day of community transmission in NSW with more than 1,000 cases and three people dying.
Gladys Berejiklian opens with the vaccination numbers.
Updated
Asked whether Australians should be prepared for the evacuations to stop, Scott Morrison still won’t say the words:
For more than a week now I believe I have been preparing a strange about the difficulty of this operation and the extreme moral hazard of the environment in which we are operating. We will do everything we possibly can to get as many people out as safely as we can.
And so far, that has seen around 4000 people safely evacuated from one of the most dangerous parts of the world. And that has been done by Australians who have been putting themselves at great risk, for whom I other also have a very personal responsibility as Prime Minister to do everything I can to ensure that I am asking them to do things that are done on the basis of the balance of risk and putting their safety very high stop extremely high in our assessments.
...So I would say Australians, that when the time comes, when the operations are no longer able to be safely conducted, that we can say honestly to them about that Australians have done all that we possibly could have done in these circumstances to get as many people out as safely as possible. And the result of that, it will be more than 4000 by that time.
He nods yes that the time is coming soon. But won’t say when, if it will be earlier than August 31, or earlier than the US
Updated
Marise Payne then takes that question:
Those scenes are deeply distressing and have unfortunately be replicated on a number of times in the last days and weak in relation to a whole range of individuals trying to seek evacuation stop we have worked very closely with their advocates, their families, using countless telephone calls, countless direct contacts to try to bring them to points where they have been able to access Hamid Karzai International Airport in the days before we came to a point there where we are at today.
I understand as the Prime Minister said, and agree, that commenting on specific cases are really only exacerbates the danger that those people face and the exposure that that gives them is not helpful. But we have tried very, very hard 20 47, literally, to make sure that we are dealing with as many of those individual cases as possible.
I have seen, heard reports of the attacks on women, attacks on children, threats at checkpoints, invasions of transports, where children and families have been threatened in those transports, as they have been trying to get to the airport. The complexity of this is significant. But we are trying to contact as many, have tried to and continue to do so.
Asked about what is being done for people like the Australian citizen who was bashed by the Taliban while attempting to enter the Kabul airport, Scott Morrison says:
I will give you a general response because it is our view that providing specific responses on individual cases is not helpful to individuals.
So I will give you a general response.
And that is, the efforts we are put in place over the course of just over a week has ensured that around 4,000 people have been evacuated from Kabul. And that gives you an indication of how seriously the government has moved and taken great risk to achieve the evacuation of so many people in very similar circumstances to the ones there.
And so in so many cases, we have been able to evacuate people in these circumstances. It is a highly dangerous situation, we have been very honest about the nature of these challenges and the likelihood of being able to achieve everything that we would hope to achieve.
But we have to deal with the reality, the terrible, brutal and awful reality of the situation on the ground.
Now I have not sought to overtake expectations about this operation. At any step, I have been very clear, I have been very honest and I’ve been very candid about that. And that is difficult for the government to be daily making decisions. As I said the National Security Committee has been meeting every single day, and on many occasions more than once.
But I can assure you, anywhere we have been able to make, to make it possible to get people out we have been doing that. And there are 4,000 people who can testify to the actions of the government, the defence forces, the Department of Home Affairs officials and DFAT officials that have been able to achieve a result the compared to where we were last week, has so far exceeded our expectations about what we hope we might be able to achieve.
Updated
Scott Morrison is not overly effusive in his praise for the Queensland government decision to move forward with its own regional quarantine facility (at the site he rejected).
She [Annastacia Palaszczuk] has been at liberty to do that for months. We have made a very clear that that facility did not meet the national guidelines, and that is why we are going forward together at Pinkenba.
But as the Queensland government was always in a position to go ahead with that facility ... and to have people quarantine there rather than in hotels. That is entirely a matter for the Queensland government. And they have made that decision and they could have done that months ago if that’s what they wished to do.
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No one is saying it outright, but all of the language is pointing to preparing Australians that the evacuation operation is coming to an end.
Marise Payne:
We do understand that this is an extremely distressing situation for Australians, Australian family members still in Kabul, people with visas and for family and friends who are here in Australia.
We remain focused on the safe evacuation from Afghanistan for as many Australians and Visa holders as possible, for as long as possible.
Access to Hamid Karzai International Airport is extremely limited, it is extremely challenging in terms of checkpoints and difficulties in those processes, particularly through restrictions imposed by the Taliban of the movement of Afghan nationals and this has been a difficult period for Australian officials.
The fact that they have seen 4,000 take to the air to be evacuated from Kabul has been their motivation to keep going and they are still doing that.
Updated
It is up to Marise Payne to address the change in travel advice.
We have changed our travel advice earlier this morning. Our clear travel advice is now – do not travel to Hamid Karzai International Airport and if you are in the area of the airport, move to a safe location and await further advice.
Afghanistan remains highly volatile and dangerous. Be aware of the potential for violence and security threats with large crowds. There is an ongoing and very high threat of a terrorist attack.
That is the revised travel advice which we have issued. It is consistent with revised travel advice issued by both New Zealand and the United Kingdom in recent hours. Throughout this process, the prime minister and I have consistently emphasised that this is a highly volatile and dangerous environment.
All the way through this, our priority has been the safety of Australians, including our officials, our citizens, our local employees and families.
But we must listen to reports of credible threats. That is why we have issued a revised travel advice.
Updated
Scott Morrison:
Those operations remain in place, they continue even now, but the situation is deteriorating. We will continue to operate safely, but paramount in our operations is ensuring the safety of those Australians who are directly involved in the evacuation.
Updated
Morrison says 639 Afghanistan evacuees have arrived in Australia but situation 'deteriorating'
Scott Morrison:
There are a large number who are now accommodated at the United Arab Emirates and we thank the United Arab Emirates for the great support ensuring we can brings people safely there.
There are two transfer flights that are due to depart there today, one arrived this morning, 639 people who have been evacuated are already now here in Australia, including 221 arrived earlier today. Australian citizens, residents and pre-visa Afghan nationals are the priority for transfer flights back to Australia.
The Department of Home Affairs will continue the additional processing that is required for those we have uplifted out of Afghanistan on temporary visas and we will do further processing before they are transferred to Australia.
I want to thank the states and territories for their support in making sure that we have quarantine space available for them to be returned to Australia, that operation will now run for many days yet.
Updated
It sounds like the evacuation plan is winding down though.
Now he turns to Afghanistan.
“It remains a highly dangerous environment,” Scott Morrison says.
He says 1,200 people were evacuated on six Australian flights and one New Zealand flight. Australia has been involved in evacuating 4,000 people over 29 flights, which Morrison says is about “three times” what he and Marise Payne had anticipated they could do.
Updated
Scott Morrison says the final advice from Atagi will be coming “very, very soon” on vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds, and that “they will be vaccinated”.
Updated
Prime minister holds press conference
Scott Morrison opens with “today has been another day of hope”.
So he is going with vaccinations and the national plan, rather than the emergency situation in Kabul, as the opener.
Updated
We are now waiting on the prime minister – as we have reported, Australia has now advised people attempting to be evacuated from Kabul NOT to travel to the airport (which is a reverse of the previous advice).
Scott Morrison will be talking about that.
The Taliban have set a deadline of 31 August for evacuations. Peter Dutton has previously said Australia was in the “backend” of its operation.
Daniel Hurst will be following those developments today.
Updated
The Queensland government quarantine facility doesn’t impact the planned Damascus Barracks at Pinkenba facility (near the Brisbane airport) which the federal government is supporting.
It is in addition – so Queensland is hoping to have as many facilities as possible, as we move into the next phase of living with Covid.
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Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles says the government is in talks with airlines about how to get travellers to the Toowoomba quarantine facility, but buses are already an option (they are already bussing people to the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast for hotel quarantine – Toowoomba is about two hours away from the Brisbane airport).
The Wagner/Queensland government facility will be modelled on the Howard Springs federal facility – individual cabins, with no hallways linking each pod (so outside).
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Australia warns citizens and visa holders against travelling to Kabul airport
Australia has joined the UK and the US in warning citizens and visa holders against travelling to Kabul airport, citing the risk of a terrorist attack.
The latest travel advice, which comes ahead of a 31 August deadline for the US-led evacuation operations to cease, will come as a blow to Afghan nationals with connections to Australia who have reported difficulties reaching the airport.
Australia’s travel advice, updated on Thursday, also says anyone already close to the airport should leave and try to find a safe place to wait.
The travel advice says the situation in Afghanistan remained “highly volatile and dangerous” and large crowds brought a risk of violence.
“There’s an ongoing and very high threat of terrorist attack,” the Australian travel advice says.
“Do not travel to Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport. If you’re in the area of the airport, move to a safe location and await further advice.”
On Tuesday, guards who protected Australia’s former embassy in Kabul expressed fears that they were running out of time to escape Afghanistan, with the Taliban threatening to close the road to the airport and regularly firing over the crowds massing outside.
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“We want to keep you safe, and the best way to keep you safe, and keep Delta out of Queensland, is to build, as quickly as possible, a regional quarantine facility,” Annastacia Palaszczuk says.
She is holding her press conference at the Wellcamp site.
(Fun fact, it used to be called Brisbane West airport, but it had to change, after people flew into it thinking it was right near the capital, only to find they were hours away.)
500 beds will be online by the end of the year, with 1,000 to be ready by the first quarter of next year.
Updated
Queensland to build regional quarantine facility in Toowoomba
We alerted you to this possibility a few months ago, now Queensland is going ahead and doing it – building a dedicated regional quarantine facility in Toowoomba.
This is the site Scott Morrison rejected, so the Queensland government, along with the Wagner Corporation, who own the Wellcamp airport, are going it alone.
The first stage of the facility is anticipated to be ready by the end of the year.
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Scott Morrison doesn’t want to pick a fight with Queensland (because he needs Queensland and Western Australia at the next election if he is going to retain power) but Liberal National party senator Amanda Stoker may not have got that memo.
Stoker, who earlier this week pointed to the anti-lockdown protests, which Victorian police described as some of the most violent in recent memory, as evidence people were “eager to get to the resumption of the freedoms they know and love” told Sky News that Annastacia Palaszczuk needed to move forward on the national plan:
Look, no doubt she was rewarded at the election but she continues to double down on the politics of fear. And it’s not right. Leadership means understanding people’s anxieties, doing what’s necessary to make sure they are safe enough to feel confident for their future. And then doing what’s necessary for us to function in a balanced way.
It is not balanced that people suffer from mental health impacts from lockdowns that are potentially, over time, disproportionate to the risk they might face
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Scott Morrison to give 10.30am media conference
The prime minister has called a press conference for 10.30am.
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Linda Reynolds has responded to the news that Disability Services Australia has gone into voluntary administration. The service employs about 1,600 people and supports more than 1,500 people with a disability.
The government’s priority is continuity of support for NDIS participants. The administrator is working closely with employees, participants and their families to ensure this.
The NDIA and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission are also working closely with Disability Services Australia through this transition period.
The commission and the NDIA have well established protocols to ensure that participants continue to receive supports following the withdrawal of a provider.
Disability Services Australia have been clear that their primary focus remains, as it always has been, the welfare of its participants and employees.
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Daniel Hurst has been following the reaction to the Brereton inquiry:
A plan to reform the Australian Defence Force’s culture was kept hidden from public view for more than two months after it was approved by Peter Dutton, it has emerged.
The defence department has revealed the plan was approved on 26 May – but it was not released until 30 July, when it was posted on the department’s website without any public announcement.
The delay has prompted fresh claims the government has failed to be transparent in its response to the long-running inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
Qantas boss Alan Joyce’s declaration that restarting international flights in December “remains in reach” is a laudable aspiration.
And the cash Qantas continues to bleed with its international fleet still largely grounded gives him and Qantas plenty of incentive to make it happen.
But with Sydney still to reach the peak of its current outbreak (case numbers are likely to tip over 1,000 either today or tomorrow) and numbers in Melbourne that had been declining surging this morning to 80, neither city looks likely to come out of lockdown soon.
Indeed, economists at CBA expect the Sydney lockdown will last until November.
Joyce also assumes Australia’s vaccination rate will hit 80% of over 16s by December, as planned – something that everyone hopes will happen but is again by no means assured.
The prospect of flying overseas might feel a long way off, especially with NSW and Victoria in lockdown, but the current pace of the vaccine rollout means we should have a lot more freedom in a few months’ time,” Joyce said this morning.
It’s obviously up to government exactly how and when our international borders reopen, but with Australia on track to meet the 80% trigger agreed by national cabinet by the end of the year, we need to plan ahead for what is a complex restart process.”
Meanwhile, Qantas burned more than $1.1bn over the year to the end of June. Of this, Qantas says $386m was due to operating costs, with the rest down to one-off costs including making thousands of staff redundant and writing off aircraft it’s no longer using.
The company has $2.2bn in cash, so it has some time. But it also brought ahead selling off four old 747s and is keeping in storage two A380s it had planned to bring back into service.
No wonder Joyce is keen to get lucrative long-haul flights back into the air as soon as possible.
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Labor’s Linda Burney was on ABC News radio this morning where she was asked if she believed the government was doing enough for Indigenous communities in western NSW facing Covid outbreaks:
No, it’s really, really patchy. The ADF is out there, as we all know, at the moment, which is important, but the real issues are these is the capacity in those communities – I listened to a young woman, interviewed on your sister program from Wilcannia yesterday who talked about the fact that there are very few people left to do food, baby bottle, and you know nappy deliveries, because you’re either a close contact, or you’re infected.
I mean think about a town like Wilcannia, where one in every four people have the virus that’s what we’re talking about. And the other thing of course is that the – many of these towns, (a) don’t have supermarkets like Goodooga, don’t have doctors, don’t have medical services. So they have to travel to other towns and we don’t want people traveling from town to town. So those things need to be appreciated, plus the cultural considerations which are easy to articulate and important, and of course the fact that they are – the houses [inaudible] that there’s 15 or 16 people in a three or four bedroom home, and it is impossible to isolate.
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Also within the Qantas announcement – a nice little salvo to Western Australia – the airline is talking about shifting its Perth to London direct flights to Darwin, because of the “conservative” border policies of the WA government.
Qantas’ ability to fly non-stop between Australia and London is expected to be in even higher demand post-Covid. The airline is investigating using Darwin as a transit point, which has been Qantas’ main entry for repatriation flights, as an alternative (or in addition) to its existing Perth hub given conservative border policies in Western Australia. Discussions on this option are continuing.
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I’m sorry this isn’t going in another direction as yet – here is the Victorian data based on the latest figures.
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Dfat has updated its advice for people attempting to be evacuated from Kabul – it now advises people NOT to travel to the airport.
Updated: 26 August 2021
Latest update:
The situation in Afghanistan remains highly volatile and dangerous. Be aware of the potential for violence and security threats with large crowds. There’s an ongoing and very high threat of terrorist attack. Do not travel to Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport. If you’re in the area of the airport, move to a safe location and await further advice. Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families should register with DFAT: https://covid19.dfat.gov.au
Take all extra precautions for your safety. Remain vigilant and be aware of your surroundings. Our ability to provide consular assistance to Australians remaining in Afghanistan is severely limited. Australians in need of consular assistance should contact the Australian Government 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555.
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Victoria records 80 new Covid cases
67 of them have been linked to known cases and 39 were in quarantine for their entire infectious period.
Reported yesterday: 80 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 25, 2021
- 33,932 vaccine doses were administered
- 56,248 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/mca8o1PZIW
Of the 80 local cases, 67 are linked to current outbreaks and 39 have been in quarantine throughout their infectious period.[2/2]
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 25, 2021
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In his speech, Alan Joyce tries out the crystal ball predictions again (Qantas has previously made predictions on the reopening of borders and travel bubbles, but we all know the pandemic tends to get in the way of any plans, no matter how powerful your company).
Joyce:
Pending final decisions by government in the months ahead:
• We expect flights to countries with high vaccine rates to resume from mid-December ’21 onwards – that includes Singapore, Japan, the US, the UK and hopefully New Zealand.
• Flights to places with lower vaccination rates will restart from April ’22 at the earliest – like Bali, Jakarta, Manila and Johannesburg.
One of the biggest unknowns is the quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated travellers entering Australia.
If it’s 14 days in a hotel, demand levels will be very low. A shorter period with additional testing and the option to isolate at home will see a lot more people travel.
Like many elements of this plan, it relies on decisions by the Australian government.
We’re in regular discussion with the government and have shared our plans with them. While they don’t have a crystal ball either, they agree our broad assumptions are reasonable.
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The resources minister, Keith Pitt, has defended the Beetaloo Cooperative Drilling grant program after a highly critical Senate report.
A Senate inquiry report published on Tuesday said Empire Energy’s “close financial and personal relationships” with the Liberal party warrant an investigation into the government’s decision to award it $21m in federal gas exploration grants. You can see my colleagues’ story on that report here.
In an interview on ABC Radio National this morning Pitt was asked what role Empire Energy’s political donations or connections played in the decision to award it funding.
“None,” he replied. “Firstly, I wasn’t even aware until I saw media reports.”
Pitt went on to say there was political freedom in Australia. He said he worked on the basis of advice from an independent committee.
“I am the decision-maker, this is my program. I have no knowledge of what people do or don’t donate to political parties, and we are trying to bring forward what is an incredibly important resource in the Northern Territory.”
The interviewer, Fran Kelly, asked whether the energy minister, Angus Taylor, ever discussed Empire Energy with him before Pitt approved the grant.
“No, I mean we have discussions about what’s in the best interest of our country, our policies that we’re putting together. At the time, Fran, I was a member of the cabinet. I don’t think people would be surprised that the cabinet has discussions about the policies that are bring been put forward for approval.”
(For the record, the company denies that its links to the party played any role in the grant process and said it had followed due process and not lobbied Taylor.)
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Qantas reports $1.8bn loss
Qantas has posted its results, with the airline reporting a $1.8bn loss.In his speech, published to the ASX, Alan Joyce says:
“As we foreshadowed back in May, the Group has posted a statutory loss before tax of over $2.3 billion for the 2021 Financial Year.
At the underlying level, the loss was $1.8 billion.
Total revenue lost since the start of the pandemic rose to around $16 billion – and it’s likely to exceed $20 billion by the end of this year.
These are big numbers. And they sum up what continues to be very tough time for this industry, this company, and our people.
Sadly, behind those numbers are:
- thousands of lost jobs
- thousands of people stood down; and
- millions of cancelled trips.
International borders were essentially closed for the whole year, and there were only about 30 days when we didn’t face some level of domestic travel restrictions.”
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Elias Visontay has more on the NSW health system pressures:
The nurses union has rubbished New South Wales health minister Brad Hazzard’s claims that Sydney’s hospitals are coping with the city’s Covid outbreak, warning multiple facilities are under “enormous pressure” and have “very little capacity” in their emergency departments.
NSW set a new daily record on Wednesday with 919 local Covid cases. There were 645 Covid patients in hospital, with 113 people in intensive care, but transmission and exposure at multiple hospitals has sidelined significant numbers of health staff due to isolation requirements.
Despite assurances from Hazzard that hospitals in Sydney were “coping”, Guardian Australia has been contacted by people who had kidney transplants and heart angioplasties booked in at public hospitals, but had their operations cancelled and not rescheduled due to staffing shortages and Covid exposure within the hospital system.
And vaccinating aged care staff continues to be an issue, Sarah Martin reports, with the government’s mandate only covering residential aged care staff – about a third of the workforce:
The Coalition is facing calls from within its ranks to extend a Covid vaccine mandate for workers in residential aged care to all aged care and disability care workers.
Warren Entsch, the Liberal MP for Leichhardt, raised the issue with the health minister, Greg Hunt, this week, saying the mandate for the residential aged care workforce did not go far enough.
Katie Allen, a doctor before entering federal parliament, also backed the call for the government to consider extending the mandate to home care workers to protect the most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, Katharine Murphy and Adam Morton have the latest on the Energy Security Board rules, which may not have gone as Angus Taylor wanted:
Criticism from the renewable energy sector over proposed market rules, that some fear could prop up ageing coal generators, has led Australia’s Energy Security Board (ESB) to vow to work with industry players and all tiers of government to design a new system by 2023.
The contentious changes to energy market rules, which are intended to ensure the lights remain on while ageing generators exit the market, have triggered a significant backlash from the renewable energy industry and concern from some state and territory energy ministers.
The ESB released a draft of the rules in late July. The final advice will be made public on Thursday.
The board is proposing a capacity mechanism for Australia’s energy market. In capacity markets, power generators are paid when they can guarantee they can dispatch power at specific times. Some players in the renewables sector believe these payments will artificially prolong the life of coal generators.
The final advice, obtained by Guardian Australia, says in “recognition of significant stakeholder concerns over the significance of such a change to current market design, the ESB will work with stakeholders and jurisdictions to develop the detailed design of a capacity mechanism for ministers’ agreement in mid-2023”.
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In case you missed it yesterday, John Barilaro was forced to apologise after he compared a funeral in Wilcannia, held at time when it was not under lockdown restrictions, to a party in Maroubra.
As Lorena Allam reported:
The New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, has apologised after coming under fire for “highly offensive” comments he made comparing a funeral in the western NSW town of Wilcannia – attended by about 300 people in compliance with the health orders at the time – to ‘the 16 dickheads in Maroubra’ who spread Covid after having a party.
...Barilaro said he didn’t mean ‘to place blame’ and his comments had been taken out of context.
‘I was advised of a funeral in Wilcannia where between 100 and 350 people attended, some of which travelled from locked down areas, therefore breaking stay-at-home orders,’ the NSW Nationals leader said in a statement on Wednesday.
‘I was disappointed because we are going to great lengths to ensure the safety and protection of regional communities. But my intention is never to place blame but to encourage people to do the right thing and I apologise for any confusion or offence caused.’
Yesterday, Barilaro also blamed people from Canberra for a Covid alert in a regional NSW sewerage system (no, the sewage detection system cannot tell you where a particular digestive tract usually lives), prompting ACT chief minister Andrew Barr to say he did not want to get into ‘whose-poo-is-it’ arguments with the NSW deputy premier.
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National cabinet will meet tomorrow, where the main issue will be the vaccination of 12-15 year olds.
Children between those ages who have an underlying health condition should, in theory, be already able to access a vaccination appointment (although many are finding it difficult to get an appointment), but the plan is to open vaccinations to everyone in that age group.
Although that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to find appointments. Asked yesterday if supply (mRNA) would be available for as soon as Atagi provides advice on their vaccinations, Scott Morrison said it would be coming in the weeks and months ahead (when Australia receives more of its scheduled deliveries).
Which means 12-to-15-year-olds may become eligible for a mRNA vaccination, but it doesn’t mean they will be able to book an appointment immediately and in many jurisdictions, will likely have to wait until at least October.
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Good morning
Happy last sitting day for the week.
Not that it matters too much, with the focus rightly on everything which is happening outside of the parliament.
Gladys Berejiklian is doing all she can to convince people to start looking at vaccination and hospitalisation rates rather than the daily case numbers (which she calls an emotional rollercoaster) after another record day in NSW yesterday.
But with the health system under increasing pressure (Blacktown hospital joined Westmead in emergency measures late yesterday, as it struggled to cope with Covid patients), questions are arising about how much more the health system can take.
Still, some areas of NSW’s statewide lockdown may be released from the harshest restrictions by the end of the week and Berejiklian remains set on an “additional freedom” for people who are double vaccinated in areas which are still locked down.
Berejiklian is one of the most vocal supporters of the “national plan”, which Scott Morrison is now happily claiming as his own, as he too pushes for an end to lockdowns.
But a lot of nuance has been missed in the rhetoric. Morrison has been pushing the plan all week as Australia’s way out, talking of an end to lockdowns as the nation “comes out of the cave”. But late yesterday, the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, admitted that the Doherty Institute analysis the plan is based on does include “targeted lockdowns” for when test, trace, isolate and quarantine fails. With NSW’s contact tracing system under immense pressure, test results not coming back for days, and the mystery cases in the hundreds each day, the NSW test-trace-isolate-quarantine system has not held up in this outbreak. Under the Doherty Institute modelling that could still result in a targeted lockdown.
Morrison is also keen to start shifting the blame for Australia’s pandemic handling back to the states as he gears up for the coming election. He has set Christmas as his goal for “everyone to be around the table” (minus those overseas, with no plans to throw open the international border anytime soon) but the Doherty report sets out all states and territories hitting the 70-80% eligible population vaccination target, as well as the national average. With states which have been largely immune from mass outbreaks not seeing the same vaccination push as Victoria and NSW, that means not everyone will hit those marks at the same time.
Not surprisingly, not a lot of that is being spoken about as yet by the federal government. But it is coming.
We’ll cover everything that happens and more, with Mike Bowers, Katharine Murphy, Sarah Martin, Daniel Hurst and Paul Karp at your service, backed, as always, by the entire Guardian brains trust. Amy Remeikis is with you for the day. I have had just the one coffee so far after waking up a little later than usual, so I have a bit to catch up on. Still, it’s shaping up as at least another five-coffee day.
Ready?
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