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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Mostafa Rachwani and Elias Visontay (earlier)

Victoria achieves Covid 'elimination' and South Australia records no new cases – as it happened

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison. China has formally announced it will implement tariffs as a temporary anti-dumping measure on Australian wine imports. Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

What we learned today, Friday 27 November

And with that, we’ll wrap up this live blog. Here is what we learned today:

  • Victoria officially announced it has eliminated the virus after it recorded no new coronavirus cases for the 28th consecutive day, meeting the official definition for elimination. New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland also recorded no new cases.
  • The Chinese government announced it will implement tariffs on the Australian wine industry as an anti-dumping measure. Australia’s trade minister, Simon Birmingham, said the move makes the Chinese market “unviable” for Australian wine makers, and accused China of having other motivations.
  • Thirteen ADF members have been issued with administrative action notices in light of the war crimes report. The soldiers will have a chance to respond to the notice before a decision is made on their service.
  • Details have been announced for repatriation flights for Australians stranded overseas, and it appears some may not make it in time for Christmas. The 10 further flights will bring Australians from London, Frankfurt, Paris, Chennai and New Delhi to Darwin where they will quarantine.
  • The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, announced the state will lift all border restrictions on Victoria from next week. The border is set to open from midnight on Monday night.
  • Much of southern and eastern Australia is bracing for a heatwave this coming weekend, with total fire bans issued for districts in South Australia, Victoria and NSW. Bushfires are already raging in South Australia and on Fraser Island in Queensland.

Updated

Some terrible news out of Townsville, where a four-year-old has died in a hot car.

Updated

Samoa has confirmed its first case of coronavirus, and it is a case imported from Australia.

After fighting for 11 months to keep the virus from its shores, the positive case was detected in a 70-year-old Samoan citizen who travelled to Apia from Melbourne, who was being repatriated home.

“We confirm that there is one positive case after we tested all 274 passengers in quarantine yesterday, in view of the end of their quarantine period tomorrow,” the chief executive of Samoa’s ministry of health, Leausa Dr Take Naseri, told a press conference on Friday.

Naseri said the 70-year-old positive case and his wife had been moved to a dedicated Covid-19 isolation ward at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole II Hospital.

You can read more on the story here:

Updated

Returning to Icac for a moment, a long-running investigation has found that although there was no corrupt conduct, the state’s water policies were undermined for a decade by departmental favouring of the irrigation industry.

Icac looked at multiple complaints and allegations, over almost a decade, concerning complaints of corruption involving the management of water, particularly in the Barwon-Darling area of the Murray-Darling Basin.

“Ultimately the commission was not satisfied in relation to any of the matters it investigated that the evidence established that any person had engaged in corrupt conduct for the purposes of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988,” it concluded.

You can read more on the story here:

Updated

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed what we’ve all known for a while, saying the pandemic has put the brakes on marriages in 2020.

According to a report released today, the number of new marriages has fallen by more than 30% during the first six months of the year.

Nonetheless, some did persist, with James Eynstone-Hinkins, the director of the ABS health and vital statistics section, saying restrictions meant couples were reconsidering their dream day.

“Despite the restrictions, nearly 10,000 weddings went ahead between April and June 2020,” Eynstone-Hinkins said.

The data also covered marriage and divorce in 2019, showing a decade-long decline in marriages continued into 2019-20. There was also a drop in the rate of divorce in 2019, also matching the dropping divorce rate over the past decade.

The data also showed the most popular season to marry was in spring, the most popular month was March and the most popular day was Saturday 19 October. Things to keep in mind if anyone wants their wedding to buck any trends.

Updated

Access to Fraser Island is being restricted as a huge bushfire burns through thousands of hectares.

Holidaymakers are now being urged to stay away from the island and those already on the island are told to restrict their movements.

The fire has already burnt through 72,000 hectares of the island, since it started from an illegal campfire in mid-October.

To help consolidate control lines, reinforcements are today being sent to the island, ahead of an expected unfavourable wind change.

Updated

In NSW, a row over Icac funding has led to a budget standoff.

AAP has the story:

A move to give the anti-corruption watchdog an extra $7.3m has led to a constitutional standoff in the NSW parliament.

The NSW lower house voted on Friday afternoon to send the parliamentary budget bill straight to the state’s governor for royal assent – without the funding boost agreed on by the upper house.

It is the first time in more than 20 years the parliament has referred a law to the governor disregarding changes made by the upper house.

Under an amendment to the bill introduced by the Greens in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, the Independent Commission Against Corruption would get an extra $7.3m in funding for 2020-21. All non-government parties supported the amendment.

But the government says the upper house does not have the power to amend the parliament’s budget.

The treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, moved in the Legislative Assembly on Friday to send the Appropriation (Parliament) Bill to the governor, Margaret Beazley, to be signed into law without the upper house amendments.

Perrottet invoked a rarely used part of the state’s constitution when moving the motion.

“The Greens and One Nation do not write the budget, the government does,” Perrottet said, adding that they should “learn their place”.

The Speaker, Jonathan O’Dea, acknowledged the issue was “unsettled” and said he would leave it for the Legislative Assembly to decide what to do.

The opposition leader, Jodi McKay, said she was “shocked and very concerned” that the government would not agree to the additional funding for Icac, which is said to bring its funding in line with inflation increases.

It was “extraordinary and unprecedented” that the government would seek to refer a bill to the governor without upper house changes, she said.

“They are ignoring the will of the upper house, which passed this amendment with significant support and that is how the parliament should work,” McKay said.

Labor and the Greens want Icac’s funding model to be determined independently, arguing that it has been starved of the funds it needs to run complex investigations. Currently, a cabinet committee signs off on its funding requests.

Updated

A total fire ban has been issued for areas in northern Victoria for Saturday.

With temperates forecast to climb well into the 40s, the CFA is taking no risks.

Updated

The ACT has reported one new coronavirus case today, a diplomat in her 50s.

The 120 Australians who have returned on repatriation flights are all now in quarantine, with everyone being tested at least twice, once today and again in 10-12 days, or if they develop symptoms.

Updated

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has spent five hours answering questions on the hotel quarantine program in testimony to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.

The Nationals MP Danny O’Brien demanded to know whose decision it was to use private security guards in the program, and what happened after the national cabinet meeting on 27 March.

“At the end of the national cabinet meeting, a decision had been made that there would be a hotel quarantine system and various people in the government – most notably those who have direct responsibility for operational matters – went and operationalised that decision,” the premier said.

Andrews said he would wait for the hotel quarantine inquiry to complete its findings next month before he spoke on who authorised the decision to use private security.

The premier was also quizzed on whether the government could have improved on its communication with multicultural communities during the pandemic, saying interactions “could never be perfect”.

Updated

Simon Birmingham defends Australian winemakers after China sets tariffs

Australia’s trade minister, Simon Birmingham, says the Chinese market will become “largely unmarketable, unviable” for Australian wine.

“These are very significant impositions on Australian wine.”

“Australia defends to the hilt our winemakers, their integrity and the commercial-based proposition and environment in which they operate.”

He calls the findings in the preliminary investigation “erroneous in fact and in substance”, but says the government will appeal the findings.

He says Australia reserves its right to take the issue to the World Trade Organization, and accuses China of having other motivations to their actions.

Updated

The bushfire warning comes as much of southern and eastern Australia braces for a heatwave this weekend.

Temperatures are expected to soar to 40C and above in regions around South Australia, Victoria, NSW and the ACT.

There are also elevated fire warnings for NSW and the ACT, where temperatures at night could be pushing for a November night time record.

NSW Health earlier today urged people to be cautious with the weather, stay indoors where they can, stay hydrated and check on their loved ones.

Updated

A bushfire warning has been issued for areas in South Australia:

David Littleproud has continued discussing the tariffs on the wine industry, calling for clarity and discussion between the two nations:

It needs to be clarified in a mature way that we can transparently get an understanding. It’s why we continue to reach out, to try and get that understanding.

We expect to be treated with the respect, as a sovereign nation, to make our own decisions. We will not be for turning.

Updated

Two Australian bulk carriers that had been anchored off the Chinese coast since late June were allowed to dock on Thursday, according to shipping analysis provided to Guardian Australia.

According to intelligence company, Kpler, the Dong-A Astrea had left Hay Point with more than 172,000 tonnes of metallurgical coal on 3 June. Four days later the Dong-A Eos departed Gladstone with 94,000 tonnes. After reaching Jingtang Harbour, both ships then waited for more than 22 weeks before discharging.

The Guo Tou 303 also discharged on 20 November at Lanshan in China after loading metallurgical coal at Dalrymple Bay on 12 August.

It follows revelations that at least 60 ships carrying Australian coal have been stranded off the Chinese coast for more than four weeks, some as long as 23, after Chinese importers were told to stop accepting Australian coal in October.

On Wednesday China’s foreign ministry did not address the specific cases, but said in recent years Chinese customs had found “many cases where the imported coal didn’t meet our environmental protection standards”.

China’s coal imports have been affected by numerous factors including the pandemic, including quotas for both coking and thermal coal being reached already, and analysts have been cautious in how they interpret the data. However, Guardian Australia’s examination of anchored vessels showed Australian-origin ships made up the vast majority of those waiting for extended periods of time.

The South China Morning Post reported today China had lifted its quota on thermal coal for 2020 by 20m tonnes until the end of the year, but that Australia was unlikely to benefit.

A Shaanxi-based analyst told the Guardian some ships were “willing to gamble”, and wait around in the hope there would be a new quota issued before the end of the year.

“The main reason is that the profits of imported coal are large enough, and traders are willing to gamble, even waiting is profitable.” However, she said that it was unlikely that all of vessels would be able to unload.

On Wednesday Indonesia signed a US$1.46bn deal to sell more coal to China over the next three years. Indonesia, Russia and Australia are China’s biggest coal suppliers.

Updated

David Littleproud says 'perception' is China tariffs have little to do with wine industry behaviour

Australia’s agriculture minister, David Littleproud, says there is a “perception” that the tariffs imposed by China have little to do with the behaviour of the Australian wine industry.

“If that is the case, that would be in contravention of the trading rules Australia undertakes with all nations we have free trade agreements with.

“We will, as the Australian government, will support the wine industry closely in being able to respond to the tariffs placed on the industry.

“We have 10 days to appeal, and we will work closely with the industry on that.”

Updated

The general has rejected calls for his resignation in light of the findings.

“We need to follow a deliberate and methodical and fair process, and respect every individual’s privacy and right of reply.”

He also reiterated the report’s conclusion that if the military’s leadership had known of the war crimes, the unit would not have been recommended for a meritorious unit citation.

“There is now a process to be followed as we consider all those recommendations on individual and collective rewards.

“So much good work was done by so many people in Afghanistan and that is absolutely not forgotten on me. We are all committed to making sure that legacy is understood, preserved and we honour the sacrifice of so many.”

Updated

Thirteen ADF members issued with administrative action notices after war crimes report

The chief of the army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr, is speaking now in Canberra, and has announced that 13 individuals have been issued with administrative action notices in light of the war crimes report released last week.

An administrative notice is not a termination, it will give the individuals a chance to respond to the notice before a decision maker will consider whether their service should be terminated or not.

Chief of army Rick Burr speaks to the media in Canberra this afternoon
Chief of army Rick Burr speaks to the media in Canberra this afternoon. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

More now on China-Australia tensions, with Xinhuanet also taking a shot at Australia, publishing an op-ed calling for “independent sensible choices” on the relationship:

Another choice quote:

“Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice held by some Australian politicians have thrown China-Australia relations into an icy-cold situation.”

A Global Times piece has taken aim at Australia as China pushes ahead with the new tariffs on wine.

Some choice quotes include:

“Australia has tied itself onto the US’ anti-China chariot .... it has parroted the tone of Washington and blamed China for not reflecting on itself. This is nonsense. Has Australia ever thought twice before taking aim at China?”

“Australians will know how it feels like to walk into the dark.”

Updated

The anti-dumping measures announced today will see tariffs of between 107% and 212% on Australian wine imports, effectively doubling or tripling the price of Australian wine in China.

The “temporary” tariffs take effect from Saturday, with no fixed end date, China’s ministry of commerce said.

The ministry said its investigation, first announced in late August, had determined Australian wine was being dumped in China, and this had caused “substantial damage” to the domestic industry.

“After filing the case, the Ministry of Commerce conducted an investigation in strict accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of China and the WTO rules, and made the above preliminary ruling,” the ministry said.

Additional reporting by Lillian Yang

Updated

Listed wine exporter Treasury Wine Estates has suspended trade in its shares as it digests the announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce of anti-dumping measures against Australian wine.

In a statement to the ASX, the company said it was “reviewing the details of the provisional measures as a matter of urgency in order to update the market”.

“The company requests that the trading halt be effective immediately and remain in place until the earlier of the commencement of normal trading on Tuesday 1 December 2020, or the release of an announcement by the company in relation to this matter,” it said.

Chinese alcohol producers had previously asked for a retrospective tariff on Australian wine, but it’s not clear from Mofcom’s announcement how the anti-dumping measures it has announced will work or how much they will cost Treasury and other Australian wine producers.

File photo of bottles of Penfolds Grange, made by Australian wine maker Penfolds and owned by Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates
File photo of bottles of Penfolds Grange, made by Australian wine maker Penfolds and owned by Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates. Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Updated

Shares in Treasury Wine Estates plunged 11% this morning after reports the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has decided to impose anti-dumping measures on Australian wine.

The company, which produces prestige wine Penfolds Grange, went into a trading pause on the stock exchange at about 12.20pm ahead of an announcement from the company.

Treasury is a big exporter to China, where the Grange brand is in high demand. But as well as the pricey red, it also sends a range of cheap wines to China.

Updated

China announces tariffs on Australian wine

The Chinese government has formally announced it will implement tariffs as a temporary anti-dumping measure on Australian wine imports as a result of a trade investigation.

The move has just been announced on the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s website, and has also been reported on the hawkish state media outlet, the Global Times.

Confirmation of the tariffs follows months of deteriorating relations between Beijing and Canberra that has resulted in halts and directives against imports of other Australian products.

Updated

Thanks Elias, another stellar job this morning.

Good afternoon everyone, I am still in deep mourning over Maradona, but I think I’ll be able to pull myself together to take you through this afternoon’s news. Let’s dive in.

Updated

I’m passing the blog over to my colleague Mostafa Rachwani, who will take you through the next part of the day.

I’ve been Elias Visontay. Have a great afternoon and weekend.

Call records and text messages from the office of Victorian premier Daniel Andrews are among dozens of documents to be released by the hotel quarantine inquiry on Friday afternoon.

The inquiry held its final hearing on Friday to table the new evidence and affidavits it sought after questions were raised by media outlets in October about missing evidence that could show who made the decision to use private security in hotel quarantine in Victoria.

Among the new evidence are call records from former police commissioner Graham Ashton, which the inquiry sought directly from Telstra because Victoria Police was unable to provide incoming call records which might show who Ashton spoke to in the early afternoon of 27 March, when the program was announced. It was in a six-minute window that Ashton came to understand private security would guard returned travellers rather than police.

Other documents go to chief health officer Brett Sutton’s knowledge of the use of private security prior to the outbreak at the Rydges hotel that led to Victoria’s second wave. Sutton has denied knowledge prior to the outbreak, but was included in emails mentioning the use of private security in April.

A third set of documents go to the role the Department of Health and Human Services played in the running of hotel quarantine.

The documents are expected to be released this afternoon, with call records unrelated to the inquiry left out for privacy reasons.

More submissions from police minister Lisa Neville and the chief commissioner of police Shane Patton will be published on Monday.

Head of the inquiry, Jennifer Coate, said there were over 60,000 documents provided to the inquiry and 300,000 pages in total. The inquiry will hand down its final report on 21 December.

Updated

Chief of army, lieutenant general Rick Burr, will hold a press conference at 1:30pm regarding “administrative action Defence has taken against a number of serving Australian Defence Force personnel in response to the IGADF Afghanistan Report recommendations”.

This tweet, from the hawkish Chinese state media outlet the Global Times, re Australian wine imports.

This morning I’ve been speaking to passengers of United Airlines flight UA863, which was due to fly from San Francisco to Australia last night but was cancelled due to a technical fault, leaving 30-35 Australians in doubt about their return.

Shortly before Anthony Albanese’s press conference, passengers were informed the airline had rebooked the entire flight – saving them from paying for business class fares or returning as late as January.

A spokesperson for United told Guardian Australia:

Last night, United flight 863 from San Francisco to Sydney was cancelled due to a mechanical issue.

We received approval from the relevant government authorities to make an exemption to Australia’s capacity restrictions. We are contacting the customers to notify them and assist in scheduling their journey home.

We operate daily flights to Australia from San Francisco and three weekly flights from Los Angeles, which will increase to five weekly flights in December. All of these routes fly in accordance with Australia’s capacity restrictions.

An Australian government spokesman said the infrastructure department has revised the airlines passenger caps, so all affected passengers can take the flight arriving 28 November.

If affected passengers are unable to make that flight, the department will work with the airline to re-accommodate them in coming days.

Updated

South Australia will remain shut to international flight arrivals until at least 7 December, premier Steven Marshall has announced.

The continuation of the halt to international flights will decrease Australia’s capacity to repatriate and quarantine Australians stranded overseas by about 600 per week.

Marshall reiterated SA is “100% committed to the national repatriation program and getting Australian citizens back home safely” and that a resumption of international arrivals in SA will be staged.

Updated

South Australian premier Steven Marshall also announced further changes to Covid-19 restrictions from next Tuesday.

The patron cap on licensed premises will be lifted, provided they use a QR code-based tracking system.

The density rule of one person per four square metres will remain for all indoor events, while outdoor events will resume the one person per two square metre rule.

Funerals, weddings and private functions will be allowed to have 150 guests.

Home gatherings will remain at 10 people.

South Australia records no new cases

South Australian chief health officer Nicola Spurrier announces the state has recorded no new cases of Covid-19.

Spurrier also warns the state is considering making rules regarding the wearing of masks:

A little note about masks today ... It is very important for us in South Australia at the moment, and we are even looking at changing our restrictions next week, that we all need to be wearing a mask when we are out and about and in close physical contact with other people.

She says there are 23 active cases in the state, and there are 31 cases linked to the Parafield cluster.

There were 12,322 people who were tested yesterday.

One woman with Covid-19 remains in hospital.

Updated

South Australia to open border with Victoria from 1 December

South Australia will lift all border restrictions with Victoria from next week.

South Australian premier Steven Marshall said the restrictions will lift as of midnight on Monday night (ie 12:01am on Tuesday morning).

Marshall said:

From 1 December, we will completely normalise our border arrangements with Victoria and this will be a huge relief for many people who have been adversely affected by these border restrictions.”

Updated

Anthony Albanese also speaks on an announcement from the Northern Territory’s Gunner government that it will double the quarantine space for international arrivals at Howard Springs, from 500 per fortnight to 1,000.

Albanese said:

That’s a good announcement, but why is it that the Gunner government said very early on that they would make the facility available but the commonwealth did nothing to advance that project. If we are going to get Australians home, it needs national leadership.

Why is it that on so many issues at a state and territory government that are providing leadership and the national government is following

Updated

Federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking in Sydney now about Australians stranded overseas.

He says there are Australians who have been unable to access flights home for so long that they are being cut off their Centrelink payments because of the length of time since they’ve been back to Australia.

“We have a government that maintains complacency, we have a prime minister who doesn’t accept responsibility for the things that he is in control of, which according to our constitution include, of course, control of our national borders, but also includes control of quarantine.”

Albanese is also speaking about the issue of Australians whose United Airlines flight home from San Francisco yesterday was cancelled due to technical issues, with passengers potentially having to wait months for another flight because of the strict daily arrival caps at Australian airports.

Albanese notes that in the last 15 minutes he has heard that passengers are being offered flights today.

Updated

New South Wales records no new local cases

New South Wales has recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19.

There are four returned travellers in hotel quarantine who have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Grocon, the building company behind some of Melbourne’s tallest buildings and Sydney’s Ribbon project, has called in administrators after a stoush with the New South Wales government over harbour views from a development at Barangaroo next door to Crown Resorts’ new casino.

Andrew Knight, Craig Shepard and Mark Korda of KordaMentha have been appointed administrators of 39 companies within the Grocon group.

The companies that Grocon boss Daniel Grollo has put into administration aren’t associated with the group’s ongoing projects, including Ribbon and an office development in Collingwood Grocon has been building for the Liberman family’s Impact Investment Group.

Foreshadowing the move earlier this week, Grollo was keen to point the finger of blame at the NSW government, which Grocon is currently suing in the NSW supreme court in a dispute over sightlines at Barangaroo.

Both James Packer’s Crown and Grocon claimed rights to harbour views; the government settled with Crown but has continued fighting Grocon in court.

Grollo reckons Grocon is owed at least $60m, which he has told Guardian Australia would pay every cent owed to creditors of the companies he’s put into administration.

But even before the Barangaroo stoush, Grocon was in a weakened financial position after taking heavy losses on projects in Queensland.

It was also hurt in its home state of Victoria by a long-running fight with the militant CFMEU over issues including construction of the Emporium shopping complex in the Melbourne CBD.

Buildings put up by Grocon include Melbourne’s Rialto and Eureka towers, both of which have been the city’s tallest until they were overtaken by new erections.

Updated

Northern Territory gains extra public holiday for 2020

The Gunner government has declared Saturday 26 December a public holiday.

While Boxing Day has always been considered a public holiday, when it falls on a Saturday, the public holiday is observed on the following Monday with no official public holiday on the Saturday.

Norther Territory chief Minister Michael Gunner.
Norther Territory chief Minister Michael Gunner. Photograph: Glenn Campbell/AAP

Speaking about the extra public holiday, chief minister Michael Gunner said the previous arrangement meant that “Territorians who are required to work on Boxing Day, sacrificing time away from family and friends, do not receive public holiday penalty rates”.

Gunner said the extra day off would “recognise and reward the Territory workers who have made extraordinary contributions to the Territory’s survival and success this year”.

Gunner said:

The Northern Territory is one of only three jurisdictions that doesn’t recognise both the Saturday and the Monday as public holidays.

For 2020, we will join the majority of states and territories in Australia by making both Saturday 26 December and Monday 28 December public holidays.

The government will enact a legislative instrument to declare Saturday 26 December a public holiday. This arrangement will mean the Territory’s public holidays over this period are the same as New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and the ACT.

Our frontline staff, hospitality and retail workers have gone above and beyond in delivering for Territorians this year – protecting us, caring for us, and serving us.

Updated

4-year-old among new NT quarantine cases

Three returned travellers quarantining at the Howard Springs camp outside of Darwin have tested positive for Covid-19.

The new cases are a four-year-old girl, a 39-year-old woman, and a 58-year-old man who arrived on a repatriation flight from New Delhi.

According to the Northern Territory government, the cases remain under the care of the Ausmat team at Howard Springs.

The total number of cases diagnosed in the Northern Territory is 53. All cases have been related to international or interstate travel, with no cases of community transmission.

Updated

Attorney general Christian Porter has announced the appointment of Grant Donaldson as Australia’s fourth Independent National Security Legislation Monitor.

Donaldson has been acting INSLM since July.

The INSLM independently reviews the operation, effectiveness and implications of Australia’s national security and counter terrorism laws.

In a statement, Porter congratulated Donaldson on his appointment, and said he “brings a wealth of legal and public policy expertise to the role”.

Porter noted that Donaldson served as the solicitor general for Western Australia from 2012 to 2016, and that he has held senior leadership positions in the Western Australian Bar Association and the Legal Practice Board of Western Australia.

Updated

Greg Hunt also said health workers and older Australians will have priority access to vaccines when they become available.

The health minister also warned that of the four vaccines Australia has acquired access to, “there will be ups and downs” as each vaccine progresses towards being ready for distribution.

What we’re seeing is very clear evidence that the world will have not just one but a series of effective and safe vaccines. And that’s, I think, good news for Australia, and good news for the world.

What we were focusing on in particular is that the general practice will be the cornerstone of delivery for most Australians for the vaccine. But we’ll work through a variety of different distribution mechanisms

Our first priority, as we’ve said, will be our doctors, our nurses, our aged care workers, our pharmacists, our pathologists, our health workers who are on the front line, our elderly, and other critical workers that are defined by the medical expert panel.”

Hunt also warned that Australia will have to manage Covid-19 “at least through 2021 and potentially beyond” because the world is not set to contain the virus as quickly as Australia.

The outside world is not a safe place.

We see that the outside world, beyond Australia’s borders, has enormous numbers of cases. And so we will, as a world, have to manage Covid-19, at least through 2021 and potentially beyond, and that has implications for Australia.

Australia has done incredibly well. We’ve still had heartache, we’ve still had tragedy, but the world looks at Australia and overwhelmingly says, ‘we wish we were Australia’.”

Telehealth to become permanent

Health minister Greg Hunt has just announced telehealth will become a permanent part of the Medicare system.

Hunt says that while “there’s not been much good” to have come from Covid, telehealth had been a positive.

The initiative for telehealth to be covered by Medicare was a temporary measure introduced earlier in the pandemic, and Hunt said there have now been 40 million telehealth consultations.

Hunt said:

One thing that has come from Covid is the fact that we have skipped a decade and jumped from 2030 to 2020 for the delivery of telehealth for all Australians.

The universal whole-of-population telehealth, and it will now be permanent.

I think it’s just a wonderful tribute to our medical professionals, but also to everybody who’s been involved. And for Australian patients, that’s transformative.”

Updated

The New South Wales government is planning a review of forestry operations in bushfire-hit coastal regions as tensions mount between the environment regulator and Forestry Corporation.

The review, which is still to be formally commissioned, will probably be carried out by the state’s Natural Resources Commission (NRC), government sources have told Guardian Australia.

My colleague Lisa Cox has this report:

Flights for stranded Australians not complete in time for Christmas

Details of the new series of Qantas repatriation flights reveal the government will not achieve the timeline it set itself of bringing home Australians stranded overseas by Christmas.

The 10 further flights will bring Australians from London, Frankfurt, Paris, Chennai and New Delhi to Darwin where they will quarantine.

However six of the flights take place after Christmas, with the last of the flights leaving New Delhi at the end of February.

Qantas
Six of the Qantas repatriation flights take place after Christmas, with the last of the flights leaving New Delhi at the end of February. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images

A Qantas spokesman told Guardian Australia all 10 of the government-chartered flights will be operated by 787 Dreamliner planes with strict safety protocols in place for crew.

The further repatriation flights will arrive from the following locations in Darwin on:

London, on 30 November 2020

Frankfurt, on 13 December 2020

Chennai, on 15 December 2020

Paris, on 17 December 2020

London, on 30 December 2020

New Delhi, on 1 January 2021

Frankfurt, on 3 January 2021

London, on 16 January 2021

New Delhi, on 18 January 2021

New Delhi, on 20 February 2021

Updated

Further Qantas repatriation flights will bring Australians home from France and Germany, according to an ABC report.

The report follows the Senate select committee on Covid-19 hearing on Thursday that there are more than 36,000 Australians overseas registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wanting to return home but being unable to do so.

The backlog is a result of flight availability issues stemming from caps on hotel quarantine spaces for international arrivals.

Australians registered in Europe have reportedly received emails from Dfat about the new repatriation flights, after the government previously chartered Qantas planes to fly Australians home from London and New Delhi.

Guardian Australia has sought clarification from Dfat and Qantas.

As the government scrambles to repatriate Australians by Christmas, there is also speculation it is looking to boost the capacity of the Howard Springs quarantine facility near Darwin, as leaders of other states resist further boosts to their arrival caps.

South Australia has also halted its weekly intake of about 600 quarantine places as it contains its outbreak.

Updated

From February next year, the federal government will push ahead with plans to strip charitable status from religious and community institutions that fail to join the National Redress Scheme set up in response to the royal commission into institutional child sexual abuse.

Social services minister Anne Ruston has this morning named four organisations who are still refusing to sign up to the scheme, Fairbridge Restored, Lakes Entrance Pony Club, Kenja Communications and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

On Friday morning, Ruston told ABC News “the Jehovah’s Witness (institution) will see that charitable status stripped if they don’t join up”.

While the government had been threatening stripping charitable status of groups that refuse to sign up, it has now given a February deadline for the groups to sign up.

Ruston said:

We believe probably about half of the organisations that we are seeking to join the scheme by 31 December will be impacted by the charitable status requirements.

We are hoping that the financial damage that’s likely to be done to the organisation by their favourable charitable status being removed, hopefully will encourage them and hopefully will encourage the Jehovah’s Witness to rethink their position.

When many of the organisations receive most of their funding through donations from their members, their supporters, not being able to claim their charitable status on that income will have a significant impact.

I say to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, it’s not for you to decide whether you’re doing the right thing. Let us decide whether the claims that have been made against your organisation, and we have some, whether they are valid.”

South Australia’s chief health officer Nicola Spurrier has issued a warning to anyone who visited the Woodville pizza bar in Adelaide after a suspected case from a customer picking up a takeaway pizza.

However Spurrier cautioned the Covid-19 positive teenage girl’s link to the pizza bar was “not absolutely certain because of course we are dealing with a biological system”.

The pizza bar was the centre of South Australia’s outbreak in its initial days after a hotel quarantine worker who tested positive to the virus claimed he was a customer at the pizza bar, however he later revealed he actually worked there, which triggered authorities to ease harsh lockdown restrictions.

Spurrier told ABC News:

What we do know she did go to the pizza bar (is) she had pre-ordered so was in the pizza bar for a short period of time, and picked up on 14 November.

We know there were people cooking pizzas and working in that pizza bar who were infectious on that day.

It has been quite a long incubation period and her results are not absolutely clear-cut, but it absolutely means to everybody in South Australia who has bought a pizza from that pizza bar, and I think it must have been a pretty popular pizza bar, pretty good pizzas.

So if you have got a pizza from that pizza bar, you need to look at the dates on our website and get tested immediately and go into isolation.”

Spurrier also urged South Australians to wear masks this weekend.

Victoria officially eliminates Covid-19

Victoria has recorded no new coronavirus cases for the 28th consecutive day, meeting the official definition for elimination.

Welcome signs outside the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne.
Welcome signs outside the Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

On 11 August, there were 7,880 active cases in Victoria.

Updated

Almost a dozen Queensland police officers were forced into Covid-19 isolation on Thursday night after they came into close contact with an infected man in hotel quarantine.

The incident happened at the Rydges Hotel in South Brisbane on Sunday when police were called to check on a 41-year-old-man’s welfare, police say.

The man was later tested for the virus and returned a positive result, a spokeswoman said on Thursday.

All 11 officers are in either home isolation or hotel quarantine and have tested negative for the virus.

Once overrun with almost 8,000 active cases, Victoria will now learn if it has officially eliminated Covid-19.

That is despite elimination having never been the state’s official strategy against the highly contagious and deadly disease.

AAP reports that, Victoria which instead pursued a suppression plan throughout the pandemic, will nonetheless meet the official definition of elimination if no new cases are announced on Friday.

Health authorities say 28 days with no new cases means the virus has been eliminated from the community, given that period represents two 14-day incubation periods.

It would be a remarkable milestone for Victoria, considering there were 7,880 active cases on 11 August.

The last Covid-19 patient in a Victorian hospital was discharged on Monday, leaving the state without an active case.

Despite this, the Department of Health and Human Services revealed on Thursday afternoon that more virus fragments had been found as part of its wastewater surveillance testing program.

This time it was detected in a sample from a treatment plant in the Geelong suburb of Corio, with residents of the area and visitors from Saturday to Tuesday urged to come forward for testing.

Updated

Good morning, Elias Visontay here to take you through all the day’s news in Australia.

Victoria is on the cusp of officially eliminating Covid-19. While the state pursued a suppression strategy to contain its deadly second wave of coronavirus, Victoria will have eliminated the virus if it records no new cases today. The official definition of elimination is 28 days with no new cases, given that period represents two 14-day incubation periods.

  • The New South Wales government is planning a review of logging operations in bushfire-hit coastal regions, as tensions mount between the environment regulator and Forestry Corporation.
  • Almost a dozen Queensland police officers have been forced into Covid-19 isolation after they came into close contact with an infected man in hotel quarantine. Victoria, meanwhile, is expected to mark 28 days with no community transmission and the official “elimination” of the virus from the state today.
  • A $200m Chinese-built fishery plant planned for a Papua New Guinean island could allow Chinese-backed commercial vessels to fish legally in the Torres Strait, and has raised concerns about unregulated fishing in the same waters, potentially threatening the Australian industry and local PNG fishers.
  • A major Brett Whiteley painting set a new Australian art record on Thursday evening. Henri’s Armchair fetched $6.136m at auction, surpassing the 2010 record of $5.4m for Sidney Nolan’s First-class Marksman.
  • The cooling influence of La Niña may not be enough to save the Great Barrier Reef from another mass coral bleaching, experts have warned. With the world 1C warmer, modelling shows there’s still a significant risk of heat stress this summer.

If you see anything in your area or a line you think I should know about, you can get in touch with me by email at elias.visontay@theguardian.com or via Twitter @EliasVisontay.

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