Category Archives: Victoria

Queensland opens border to Victoria as NSW eases Covid restrictions – live news

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NSW to ease coronavirus restrictions, including the number allowed to visit a home; Queensland prepares for influx of visitors ahead of December 1 border reopening. Follow updates

Scott Morrison has defended providing Mathias Cormann a government-funded Royal Air Force jet so he can travel around the world as he campaigns to be secretary general of the OECD.

The prime minister said there was an “extremely high” risk Cormann, who recently resigned as finance minister, would catch Covid if he were forced to travel on commercial flights.

That’s funded by the government because we’re taking this bid very seriously and the reason we need him to do that in the Air Force jet is because Covid is running rampant in Europe, and this is a very important position, and the OECD is going to play a really important role in the global economic recovery.

There really wasn’t the practical option to use commercial flights in the time we had available, because of Covid. If Mathias was flying around on commercial planes, he would have got Covid. The risk of that was extremely high.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed Victorians will be able to enter her state without quarantining from 1 December, after Victoria announced no new cases on Tuesday.

It comes a day after the same reopening was granted to residents of Greater Sydney, as both Greater Sydney and Victoria achieved 28 days of no community transmission without an unknown transmission source.

I just heard and that’s wonderful news and can I congratulate Daniel Andrews, their chief health officer and all of Victorians because this is just such fantastic news. So it means on 1 December, Victorians can also come to Queensland and, of course, Queenslanders can go to Victoria as well. So very, very good news.

We’re absolutely prepared for the influx of people for the Queensland holidays. In fact, just yesterday, we saw a 250% increase in some of our tourism operators across Queensland. So that is absolutely wonderful news.”

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Victoria posts record $23.3bn deficit; Queensland to open border on 1 December – follow live

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Victoria records zero active cases for the first time since outbreak as SA plans to drop restrictions on 1 December – follow latest updates

Further to Andrew Hastie’s comments on the Brereton report, which we reported earlier, the WA Liberal MP has been on the ABC expanding on his call for greater parliamentary oversight of the military.

He tells Andrew Probyn:

Defence is a huge organisation. In order for parliament to exercise proper civilian oversight of the military you have to have a baseline understanding of the capabilities, the methods, and the operations of the ADF. If we can’t talk about those things in public, we can’t talk about them at all.

So we need to talk about them in a classified space and right now there is no such mechanism in the parliament to increase parliamentarians’ understanding of defence and therefore enable parliament to hold it to account.

Scott Morrison and the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, swapped notes on Covid-19 situations in their two countries during a phone call this afternoon.

A readout issued by Morrison’s office says the pair also discussed progress on vaccine trials and they “were encouraged by the more positive trajectory of their economies in the third quarter”.

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NSW-Victoria border reopens; Victoria drops mandatory outdoor mask rule – live news

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Restrictions on indoor gatherings are relaxed in Victoria as South Australia’s opposition calls for end to hotel quarantine. Follow the latest updates

South Australian premier Steven Marshall has reiterated his state is “not out of the woods yet”, a day after one new case of coronavirus was recorded in the community.

The comments follow a decision to lift the state’s Covid-19 lockdown early after authorities learned a key case linked to its emerging cluster out of a quarantine hotel had lied to investigators about working a second job at a pizza restaurant.

You don’t get a second chance to stop a second wave. The advice that we received from health was unequivocal. We had to go hard and go early. We didn’t want a second wave.

We didn’t want to have this seeded in South Australia so that we were managing multiple clusters on an ongoing basis until this particular infection actually, if you like, died out.

We think the people of South Australia deserve some answers on this and we will look at every opportunity for there to be some consequences for this person because it is really important that when a public health official asks you questions you provide them with accurate information otherwise lives can be at stake.

Labor’s Joel Fitzgibbon has backed the sentiment behind a speech to be delivered today by party colleague, Queensland senator Murray Watt, which indicates plans to “reset the party’s approach to coal and gas”.

Watt, the opposition minister for northern Australia, will say the ALP “treasures” every job created in the mining sector at a speech to be delivered in Rockhampton today, The Australian reports.

Federal MPs @Barnaby_Joyce and @FitzHunter talk about when international travel could resume and the Labor party's position on mining and agriculture. pic.twitter.com/nuxjsmFgPs

No doubt he wants to put labour back into the Labor party. And today he speaks to our traditional base, all those people in the hi-vis and blue collar outfits, working hard every day in Queensland.

All they want for us is to give credit to them for what they do, the contribution they make to our economy and community. And we want to encourage them to be proud of what they do as they should be.

We need to be ... very loud and clear in our expressions of support for those industries, and those who work within them.

The Labor party always supported the coal mining industry, it always supported the gas sector, the oil sector, etc our manufacturers, but for some reason we haven’t been that keen to say that loudly and proudly. And if that’s what we’re about to start doing well, I’ll be very very pleased.

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Coronavirus detected in Victorian sewage as state records 22 days with no new cases

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NSW records 10 cases in hotel quarantine, while Queensland announces two and Western Australia one

Victoria has only one active Covid-19 case but authorities are concerned about traces of the virus unexpectedly found at a Melbourne wastewater facility.

Victoria has gone 22 days with no new coronavirus cases while on Saturday New South Wales recorded 10 new cases in hotel quarantine. Queensland announced two new coronavirus cases and Western Australia one – all of which were in hotel quarantine.

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South Australia enters ‘circuit-breaker’ Covid-19 lockdown – live news

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Strict six-day lockdown begins today to allow for a ‘contract-tracing blitz’ to contain a coronavirus cluster that has so far infected 22 people. Follow live

A Queensland man will face court after allegedly killing a man with one punch outside a pub north of Brisbane.

Police say the 29-year-old and a 49-year-old got into a fight outside a pub on Aerodrome Rd, Caboolture, about 10pm on Wednesday.

Here are some photos from South Australia as the state prepped for lockdown yesterday afternoon.

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South Australia to shut down to contain Covid cluster as new national hotel quarantine worker testing rules announced – live news

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SA introduces ‘wide-ranging restrictions’ from midnight on Wednesday; $200 vouchers for Victorians to spend in regional areas. Follow the latest news

Insurance companies have lost a crucial test case on whether they have to pay businesses who shut their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic under business interruption policies.

The NSW Court of Appeal says they do, and has thrown out arguments from insurers that coronavirus is excluded from policies.

Meanwhile, a huge chunk of Darwin and surrounds is experiencing a blackout, with the temperature expected to climb to 35C.

Wide spread power outages affecting Darwin and surrounding areas. #DarwinNT Crew responding.

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Packed crowds and euphoric leaders: Australia revels in Covid-free days

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After a grinding lockdown in Victoria and punishing border closures between states, Australia has arrived at something like normality

When the premier of Queensland held her regular Covid-19 update on Friday she couldn’t help letting a smile creep across her face.

“Now, here’s a good one,” Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters. “I think all Queenslanders are going to be happy about it.”

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Western Australia opens hard border as Victoria records 15th day of zero coronavirus cases

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NSW, South Australia and Queensland all report Covid-19 cases of people in quarantine

Hundreds of people had started arriving in Perth and more were crossing into Western Australia by road after the scrapping of the state’s Covid-19 hard border closure on Saturday.

The move came as Victoria recorded its 15th day straight with no coronavirus cases or deaths.

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National cabinet endorses national vaccination policy – as it happened

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PM and premiers meet as Covid-19 cases plummet. This blog is now closed

The day is winding down so we are going to wrap up the blog. Here are the main events:

The rise of rightwing extremism has coincided with the emergence of social media “echo chambers” and easily formed online communities of interest, the head of home affairs has said.

Michael Pezzullo, the secretary of the department, appeared before a parliamentary hearing into social cohesion and nationhood this afternoon.

He was asked about recent testimony from the head of Asio that rightwing extremism now made up 30% to 40% of its priority counter-terrorism investigations. Labor committee chair Kim Carr wanted to know whether Pezzullo thought the trend coincided with the rise or rightwing populist groups in the US and Europe.

Domestically it would seem to me that the groups that are of most concern are those that would either promote or seek others to adhere to a philosophy or an ideology of extra-constitutional action, and worse of course extremist action, and worst of all violent action rather than moderating legitimately held differences of political, ideological, economic views through our democratic process.

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Foreign spies could target Australian politicians using ‘unwitting relatives or friends’, Asio warns – politics live

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Federal parliament returns; Asio chief warns of ‘real threat’ from foreign spies; incoming Biden administration vows to sign back up to Paris agreement. Follow all the updates

The Senate has just voted up a motion rebuking the government over the weakness of its preferred model of National Integrity Commission.

The motion was voted up 28 to 25 with Labor, Centre Alliance, Rex Patrick, Jacqui Lambie and One Nation combining to warn the Coalition over the draft bill’s inadequacies.

Greens senator Larissa Waters motion stated:

Senate just passed a motion 28:25 for a strong corruption watchdog, listing all of the features the Gov’s weak model leaves out. A defacto vote on the Gov’s bill - the Senate can see through the fig leaf of the Gov’s belated and pathetic model that wouldn’t stop a thing! #auspol

Richard Marles says Labor is not pursing a royal commission into the Murdoch media empire and will “let Kevin speak for himself”.

Andrew Leigh officially tabled the Kevin Rudd-led petition, which had more than 500,000 signatures, in the parliament today.

We have talked about our position in relation to the media over a long period of time. Now, this is not something we have been considering. This is something Kevin Rudd has been pursuing in his capacity as a private citizen. I mean, I obviously note it is a significant petition in terms of those who have signed up to it and it has been presented to the parliament appropriately. That is where the matter is that in terms of the opposition.

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Victoria’s hotel quarantine program revealed to cost $195m – as it happened

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Four new coronavirus cases recorded in NSW southern highlands as Victoria quarantine inquiry delivers interim report. This blog is now closed

That’s it for tonight, thanks for reading. To recap today’s developments:

The chief of the defence force, Angus Campbell, has released a statement about the inquiry into alleged war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Campbell said he received the Afghanistan inquiry report today, which examined the conduct of elite Australian forces in more than 55 incidents of alleged unlawful killings between 2005 and 2016.

Today I have received the Afghanistan Inquiry report from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF).

The independent inquiry was commissioned by Defence in 2016 after rumours and allegations emerged relating to possible breaches of the Law of Armed Conflict by members of the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan over the period 2005 to 2016.

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Australia news live: Victoria and NSW report no new Covid cases as Queensland pushed to open border

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Border restrictions continue to be eased as Australian politicians respond to US election result. Follow latest updates

The best doughnut, is a jam doughnut, followed closely by cinnamon.

Both fresh, of course.

Related: How doughnuts became Australia's symbol of Covid hope

News Hub reports New Zealand’s US ambassador has commented on the election. As government employees, ambassadors are prevented from indicating political views (despite being political appointments) but it looks like Scott Brown, for one, is feeling confident enough in the result to be a little honest.

From News Hub’s report:

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NSW-Victoria border to open on 23 November; Australia awaits American election outcome – politics live

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‘We need to keep moving forward as we live with Covid-19,’ Gladys Berejiklian says. We’ll also be bringing you Australian reaction to that election, as it happens

The Queensland election may be over, but that doesn’t mean the border wars have ended.

As AAP reports:

It’s like the whole of Australia – in terms of politics – has stopped right now.

It’s all about the US.

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Australia’s right is united by ‘up yours’ contrarianism and Mark Latham is its bellwether | Malcolm Knox

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Coronavirus didn’t kill the culture wars, it only sent them into a momentary recess

When Covid-19 hit, I’d been wondering for a long time what glued together the disparate positions of the religious right in Australia: for deregulation yet also massive taxpayer subsidy; for free enterprise yet also against the free movement of labour; for the equality of all freedoms as long as one, religion, is more equal than others; for “our children’s future” yet also against climate science.

During the coronavirus crisis, the patterns began to repeat: divergent positions coalescing under an intellectually amorphous but readily identifiable tribal banner. What unified that tribe was, for want of a better word, a contrarianism, what impolite adherents might call an “up yours” to political correctness.

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Dr Fauci praises Australia’s coronavirus response and Melbourne’s face mask rules

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America’s top Covid expert says Victoria lockdown and mask-wearing struck right balance between health and economy and he wished US adopted same mentality

America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has praised Melbourne’s response to the coronavirus, saying he “wished” the US could adopt the same mentality.

In an interview hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, Fauci said Australia was “one of the countries that has done actually quite well” in handling the virus.

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PM names new high court justices as Porter say war crimes investigation ‘detailed and extensive’ – politics live

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Melbourne lockdown lifted as Victoria records two Covid cases and two deaths. Senate estimates looks at Australia’s response to Doha airport incident. Follow live

Students at the University of Sydney have occupied a building on campus that houses the vice-chancellor’s office, in a protest against cuts to staff in medical sciences.

Approximately 50 students are in the building right now, chanting and asking for the vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, to meet with them.

USyd students are currently occupying the universities administration building, where senior management, including Michael Spence, have their offices. Students are refusing to leave until the university commit to reversing all staff and course cuts. #Auspol pic.twitter.com/dnEBFPXg7l

Daniel Andrews has released a statement on the Melbourne Cup:

I have today advised the Victoria Racing Club that connections of horses competing at the Melbourne Cup Carnival will not be permitted to attend the course.

The government has determined that next week is not a suitable time for gatherings of that nature.*

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The graphs that show Australia’s achievement in stopping second-wave Covid outbreak

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A visual comparison of the country’s epidemic curve compared with other nations

The Australian state of Victoria has achieved a remarkable reduction in Covid-19 case numbers after a lengthy period of restrictions.

To put this achievement in context – Australia has done what very few countries have achieved in effectively suppressing a second-wave outbreak from a high point of more than 700 new cases a day. Victoria has now recorded only two cases in three days and lockdown restrictions are being eased.

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Eggs Benedict and tattoos: what Melburnians are looking forward to when lockdown ends

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Some are packing their next few weeks full of activities, while others just want a chance to decompress

After a long dark night, there always comes the dawn, and for many Melburnians that dawn is a good strong coffee.

That’s certainly what retiree James Green missed the most. Visiting his local cafe is on the top of his list of things to do on Wednesday when hospitality venues in Melbourne are finally allowed to reopen.

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Daniel Andrews gives Covid update as Victoria records zero coronavirus cases and Melbourne lockdown lifted – live

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Premier expected to announce more details of city’s reopening after record-breaking Covid-19 lockdown, as federal parliament and Senate estimates return and questions continue over management of Australia Post. Follow latest updates

The rules for household visits will go through share houses, teenagers and who can visit who after a visit.

But they are complicated, so I will wait to go through them and then bring them to you once they are clear.

Back at Treasury estimates, the Labor senator Katy Gallagher is attempting to get either officials or the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, to acknowledge that workers earning less than $80,000 will get less tax relief in 2024-25 than they will get this year because of the one-off extension of the $1,080 offset in the October budget.

Treasury officials say the extension of the offset is a “classic stimulus measure” so it shouldn’t form part of an assessment of the tax scales in future years. They say this year’s budget includes extending the offset (the stimulus measure) and a tax cut through the bringing forward of the stage two tax cuts (a structural change).

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews says ‘now is the time to open up’ after Victoria records no Covid cases

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From midnight tomorrow night Melbourne businesses will be able to start reopening as restrictions ease. Follow all the latest updates

If I could shout you all one, I would.

Unfortunately, I don’t get paid that much.

the culture pic.twitter.com/mfUM4aFIFc

Daniel Andrews is asked if he would have done anything different in hindsight:

I don’t have hindsight. None of us do.

All we have his hard work and an absolute determination do not listen to the loudest voices, not be pushed to ignore the science, not listen to those who would appeal for us to act out of absolute frustration and nothing more than that.

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