Category Archives: Western Australia

Coronavirus Australia live updates: 800 people forced to self-isolate after outbreak at Melbourne college

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Today’s meeting between federal, state and territory leaders will focus on removing social and border restrictions to jumpstart the economy. Follow live

On the bonuses that aren’t blingy watches.

In just the year to June, Australia Post paid $1.95 million in bonuses to 35 of its executives earning over $520,000 a year. That’s 648 Cartier watches - or 162 times the total Cartier watch spend. (Or about 27,850 Casio watches...) https://t.co/S8mmcqJmhh

We will probably be in a bit of a news lull while national cabinet is meeting and the US presidential election debate is on in about 25 minutes.

You can follow the debate in our other live blog here.

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Australian politics live: five Melbourne suburbs on Covid alert as Victoria and NSW premiers still under pressure

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A school student in Melbourne’s north tested positive to coronavirus, putting the suburbs of Dallas, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Preston and West Heidelberg on high alert. Follow live

Australia Post is up in the communications estimates committee hearing - that starts at 9

NSW has reported just one locally acquired case - another six are in hotel quarantine.

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ALP pursues government over land deal as Coalition defends childcare scheme – as it happened

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Melburnians can now travel up to 25km and spend more time out of the house; and federal parliament resumes with Senate estimates. This blog is now closed

To recap:

In the off chance you aren’t completely fed up with Covid-19 data, the federal health department has been publishing a weekly snapshot of how each state is going.

This is an interesting tool for assessing the success of contact tracing in various states, especially as the case load in Victoria continues to drop.

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Police say construction worker died after roof collapse at Curtin Unversity, Perth – video

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A 23-year-old worker has died after he fell 20 metres when a roof collapsed on a building being constructed at Curtain University in Perth, Australia.

Two other men were taken to hospital, one with serious injuries, following the incident on Tuesday

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Coronavirus Australia latest updates: Andrews and Berejiklian face no-confidence votes, as Queensland election heats up

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Victoria’s premier weathers upset after his top public servant resigned and NSW premier holds on after Icac revelations. In Queensland, opposition leader Deb Frecklington faces questions over event with Peter Dutton. Follow live

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    • The Queensland Liberal National Party has categorically denied claims it referred its own party leader, Deb Frecklington to the electoral commission over concerns about her fundraising events.

    The ABC reported this morning that the party referred Frecklington to the Electoral Commission of Queensland over a series of events, one where Peter Dutton was a guest, involving property developers.

    NSW Health have set up a pop-up testing clinic, and alerted to more venues, after two GPs in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba tested positive for Covid-19.

    Both doctors worked at the A2Z Medical Clinic, and are linked to a patient who was previously diagnosed with Covid-19, who attended Lakemba Radiology.

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    Coronavirus Australia update: Victoria reports 11 new cases and NSW 10 as Peta Credlin questions Daniel Andrews – live

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    The number of locally transmitted cases in Sydney is growing, dashing hopes of the Queensland border reopening next month. Follow live

    Scott Morrison says it is the GST top up with has allowed WA to declare a budget surplus.

    So, you’re welcome, Mark,” he says

    Q: The RBA has warned today that Australia’s historically low population growth rate will heighten the risk of falls in property values in the future. And Treasury has said your housing measures bring forward demand for future years. What will the Government do?

    Scott Morrison:

    Well, the impacts from the COVID-19 recession are obvious. Whether it’s programs like HomeBuilder and others, there will always be an excess of demand over the supply of housing in this country. Always has been. And that’s what has fundamentally driven house price values all around the country.

    And that is still true today. There is still a surplus of demand over supply. And that’s why our HomeBuilder program - and to give you an idea of its impact, what we’ve done in the housing sector is we’ve been unlocking and bringing forward the decisions that home builders want to make. And that will see some 20,000 homes built at a cost of around $500 million.

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    Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports nine new cases and Bondi beach to close as crowds reach capacity

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    Victoria to return to staged face-to-face teaching next week; treasurer Josh Frydenberg promises a jobs-focused budget. Follow live

    Here’s the latest case data from Victoria:

    Three of today’s nine new cases have been linked to known outbreaks or are considered complex cases. These are linked to the Butcher’s Club Chadstone Shopping Centre outbreak, with single cases linked to Corrigan Produce Farms Clyde North and Coles Williamstown. The other six cases remain under investigation.

    Anglicare is calling on the federal government to increase jobseeker and fund social housing projects in tomorrow’s budget announcements.

    “A permanent boost to jobseeker will add billions of dollars to the economy and at least 145,000 full-time jobs. The benefits would go straight to the areas that need them most,” Anglicare Australia executive director Kasy Chambers said in a statement.

    Social housing will offer relief for the tens of thousands of people who are homeless in Australia. It also boosts GDP, and creates jobs in construction for the regions that need it most.

    With the economy reeling in the wake of the coronavirus, we need to invest in projects that are shovel-ready. There is no time to waste. Social housing projects can get off the ground quickly – and they bring long-term benefits.

    The fact is that one-off payments and tax cuts won’t help people out of poverty. And they won’t boost the economy. A jobseeker increase and social housing will do both.

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    Pilot scheme: planes may be grounded but there’s work on Australia’s farms

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    With the airline industry at a standstill and farmers desperate for workers, aviation staff are finding opportunities in a new field

    The cabin of a harvester in the middle of a vast wheat field might be a strange place to find an airline pilot at work, but for Andrew King it all makes sense.

    King worked as a passenger jet pilot for Hainan Airlines but has been on leave without pay since the pandemic hit in February.

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    New Zealand refuses quarantine-free trips from Australia as ACT joins travel bubble

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    Jacinda Ardern says her country will not open up until Australia records a month without community transmission of Covid-19

    New Zealand will not reciprocate quarantine-free trips across the Tasman as the Australian Capital Territory joins Australia’s travel bubble with the country.

    On Friday, Australia’s deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, announced New South Wales and the Northern Territory would allow Kiwis to bypass the compulsory fortnight of quarantine on arrival from 16 October.

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    Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports four deaths and 13 new Covid cases as NSW records four

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    NSW records no new locally acquired cases for fifth day as pressure mounts over border closures and budget speculation intensifies. Follow all today’s updates

    In aviation news, the regional airline Rex has announced it will start flights between capital cities in 2021, as a competitor to Qantas and Virgin.

    Rex has signed letters of intent to lease six Boeing 737 planes, which will fly between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, AAP reports.

    Hi all, it is Naaman Zhou here. Thanks as always to Amy Remeikis for her blog captaining today.

    Pokies profits dropped sharply during the first wave of the pandemic, but are still in the billions, according to new figures released today and reported by AAP.

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    Coronavirus live updates Australia: NSW eases restrictions as Victoria records 12 new Covid cases and two deaths

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    Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos has told the hotel inquiry she had no role in the hiring of private security, while NSW Covid restrictions eased at schools and weddings. Follow live

    And that includes a breakdown of the current cases and clusters:

    In Victoria at the current time:

    Victoria Health has put out its official update:

    Victoria has recorded 12 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,105.

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    Bradley Robert Edwards found guilty of two murders in Claremont serial killings

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    Judge says the former Telstra technician is guilty of the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon but acquitted him of the murder of Sarah Spiers

    Bradley Robert Edwards, a 51-year-old former Telstra technician from Western Australia, has been found guilty of the murders of Jane Rimmer and Ciara Glennon but acquitted of the murder of Sarah Spiers in the Claremont serial killings case, Australia’s longest-running and most expensive criminal investigation.

    The Claremont serial killings refer to the deaths of Rimmer, 23, Glennon, 27, and Spiers, 18, between 1996 and 1997. All three women went missing after a night out at the Claremont entertainment district in Perth’s eponymous western suburb.

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    Western Australian toddler found safe after missing for 12 hours in dense bushland and poor weather

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    Joy and tears after three-year-old found hungry but smiling after wandering off from his parents’ home south of Perth

    Western Australian man Chris O’Reilly says he could have “ran on water” when news came through that his three-year-old son had been found safe after going missing in dense bushland south of Perth.

    The toddler had wandered off from his parents’ home at 7:30am on Saturday morning, after going to play outside.

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    Rio Tinto CEO and senior executives resign from company after Juukan Gorge debacle

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    In a statement to Australian Stock Exchange the company confirms move that follows the blowing up of 46,000-year-old caves in Western Australia

    The Rio Tinto chief executive, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, and two other senior executives are leaving the global miner after its board bowed to intense investor pressure for strong action over its decision to blow up 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

    Rio Tinto said Jacques was leaving “by mutual agreement” with the board.

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    Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria reports 51 new cases and NSW records seven

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    Greg Hunt says Melbourne curfew should be lifted if ‘there is no medical basis’ for it as two more Sydney healthcare workers test positive. Follow live

    The woman who was at the centre of Scott Morrison’s plea today will be allowed to attend a private viewing of her father to say goodbye after her family has held their funeral.

    She will be escorted to the funeral home, and then escorted back, a spokeswoman has confirmed.

    John Barilaro, who is rumoured to have his eye set on Canberra and the federal Nationals leadership, has effectively removed the Nationals from the NSW coalition, plunged the Berejiklian government into minority after vowing to abstain from government votes (unless its to do with regional NSW), and removed itself from joint party room and leadership meetings – unless the koala protection legislation is scrapped.

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    Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria Covid cases drop below 50 for first time since June as NSW records four – as it happened

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    Melbourne’s stage 4 lockdown extended by two weeks in ‘roadmap’ as Victoria pursues aggressive suppression strategy. This blog has ended

    Thanks for following our live coverage of the coronavirus coverage in Australia. You can continue to follow our rolling global coverage here.

    A quick recap on what happened today:

    Asked if he would step down as premier if the hotel quarantine inquiry laid the blame for the outbreak on his office, Andrews said his responsibility was to keep going.

    My position and the responsibility I have is to see our state through this. What is what I’m focused on.

    Let me be as frank as I can be: Politics has never mattered less to me. Leadership is not able doing what’s popular, it is about doing what’s right.

    The politics of this, that is of no value. The only thing that matters is we all stay the course. We all keep following the data, the science and the doctors and get this done. Then move to the biggest economic repair job that our state has ever seen.

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    ‘It is about China’: foreign relations bill lambasted as ‘complete overkill’ on Q+A

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    Former Western Australia premier Colin Barnett calls legislation ‘patronising’

    The former premier of Western Australia Colin Barnett has blasted the federal government’s proposed foreign relations bill as “complete overkill”.

    Appearing on the ABC’s Q+A on Monday night, the former WA Liberal leader was asked about the intention of the legislation to be considered by parliament, which would give the federal government power to veto agreements that state and local governments and universities enter into with foreign governments.

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    Australia coronavirus live update: Victoria records 73 new cases and 41 deaths as NSW records 10 new cases

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    Figure of 41 deaths in Victoria includes 33 people who died in aged care but not reported until yesterday; legislation to extend but reduce jobkeeper and jobseeker payments will be considered by the Senate today. Follow all the latest news and updates, live

    This report from AAP earlier today:

    NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro, is calling for a national code to allow agricultural workers to cross state borders without permits.

    Twenty Victorian aged care providers have been found to be non-compliant with standards under the Aged Care Act since July.

    My colleague Melissa Davey has this report:

    Related: Twenty Victorian aged care homes ordered to improve 'inadequate' standards after Covid outbreaks

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    Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records 113 new Covid cases and 12 deaths as NSW reports 13 cases

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    Queensland cancels schoolies events after three new coronavirus cases. Follow live

    Coatsworth says he agrees with Scott Morrison’s comments that, even with a vaccine, there is not a “zero risk” of Covid-19.

    “It is not simply me agreeing with the prime minister, every chief health officer agrees with that,” he says.

    Coatsworth is asked about the Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who has been pushing the discredited drug hydroxychloroquine online as a treatment for Covid-19.

    He is asked: “Are you concerned about him using his social media to promote those views against the scientific advice?”

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    Coronavirus live update Australia: Victoria records 116 new cases and 15 deaths as NSW reports three new cases

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    Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates

    Virtual parliament has so far gone off without a hitch.

    Malcolm Roberts has been spotted on a screen - which means that no, he is not in Canberra. No sighting of Pauline Hanson either.

    "I'm very proud to be the first senator to be using our remote facilities as the chamber finally enters the 21st century."

    Greens Senator @larissawaters @SBSNews #auspol pic.twitter.com/XSV41x91WQ

    The ACT has reported no new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.

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