Category Archives: Melbourne

‘The plan is to drink all day’: sunny Melbourne celebrates its freedom day. First stop – brunch!

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As the first hints of summer creep into the air, residents crowd into cafes – but a grim new record Covid death toll casts a shadow

For the first time in a long time, there are plenty of people out on Melbourne streets as the sun rises over the city.

Just hours after lockdown lifted, cafe workers are out in the cool morning air, dragging chairs and tables out the front of the stores, anticipating hordes of brunch-starved customers.

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Australia politics live: Scott Morrison in last-ditch talks with Nationals on net zero

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Prime minister expected to push Liberals and Nationals to find agreement on emissions roadmap in meeting on Tuesday. Follow the latest updates live

And also worth keeping in mind – the Liberals don’t actually need the Nationals to move ahead with the climate commitments. Nothing is going to parliament (at least at this stage – because we are talking a 2050 plan) which means there is no danger of people crossing the floor.

Scott Morrison told the Liberal party room yesterday he planned on taking Australia’s commitment to net zero by 2050 to Glasgow as an NDC – a a nationally determined contribution – which doesn’t need the parliament either. It’s essentially a pledge which says ‘we intend to do this’, and makes it a little more official, rather than just a speech. He doesn’t need the Nationals for that either.

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Australian politics live: Victoria records 1,903 Covid cases, NSW 265; Liberals hear climate plan; Gladys Berejiklian Icac hearings begin

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Liberals hear climate plan; Victoria and NSW release Covid numbers; Tasmania snap lockdown to end tonight; Icac hearings begin into Gladys Berejiklian; Barnaby Joyce ‘hopes’ climate won’t split the Coalition – follow the latest updates live

The federal treasurer and Victorian Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg has once again ramped up his attacks on the Victorian Labor government over lockdowns (you may remember some of his speeches on the Victorian lockdown last year) a theme he continued yesterday, even as the state government announced an earlier than expected loosening of restrictions.

Daniel Andrews responded to that on ABC News Breakfast this morning:

Well, look, I would just say to Josh, this is not about you and your breathless political rants don’t work against this virus. This day and this week, and the weeks to come, are all about Victorians who have done an amazing thing.

They’ve got vaccinated in record numbers and in record time. And this is their moment. It’s not for Josh. And his endless criticism and negativity, I just don’t think it goes down very well in Victoria because it doesn’t work against this virus. So, I will say no more about him.

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Melbourne stabbing: two men in hospital after Brunswick shopping centre attack

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A man has been arrested at Barkly Square shopping centre and police say they are not looking for anyone else

Two men have been taken to hospital after being stabbed inside a Melbourne shopping centre.

Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the attack at Barkly Square in Brunswick just after 8am on Monday, and were taken to hospital in stable condition.

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‘Lives at risk’ in Melbourne detention hotel after three asylum seekers test positive for Covid

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Detainees have not been vaccinated and socially distancing is ‘impossible in the conditions they’re in’, advocates say

An asylum seeker inside a Melbourne hotel being used as an “alternative place of detention” by Australian Border Force says detainees are frustrated and scared after three of them tested positive for Covid.

Mustafa Salah, 23, has spent the better part of eight years inside Australian detention facilities offshore and within its borders.

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Australia Covid news live update: TGA grants provisional determination of Pfizer vaccine for ages 5-11; Victoria records 1,571 cases, 13 deaths

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So there has been a bit of drama in the South Australian parliament, with a Liberal party defector somehow taking the Speaker of the House role in a late-night upset.

Dan Cregan, who left the Liberal party to sit on the crossbench last week, managed to take the job in a secret ballot.

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Australia Covid live update: Victoria records 1,890 cases, five deaths; NSW 477 cases, six deaths; 10,000 vaccinated people to attend Melbourne Cup

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Victoria records 1,890 new cases and five deaths; NSW records 477 cases and six deaths; 30 new cases in ACT; 10,000 vaccinated people to attend Melbourne Cup; Perrottet says NSW wants ‘to open international borders as quickly as possible’, as lockdown for those fully vaccinated set to lift at midnight. Follow updates live

Speers pivoted from asking communications minister Paul Fletcher about holding social media companies to account to holding the federal government to account.

There was a lot of back and forth and at one point Fletcher referenced the resignation of Gladys Berejiklian as NSW premier as evidence of the failings of an anti-corruption authority.

The government’s proposed federal integrity commission wouldn’t be allowed to hold any public hearings. Why not? What’s there to hide?

David, the proposed federal integrity commission would have the powers of a royal commission to deal with criminal corrupt conduct at a commonwealth level. And of course ...

No public hearings, which is my question. Why not?

It will go through an investigation process.And then, if appropriate, it will refer material to the director of public prosecutions, and then you go through an open-court process.

This commission wouldn’t have public hearings. I mean, don’t you think voters, taxpayers, deserve to see what’s going on? I mean, we wouldn’t know about Daryl Maguire’s business dealings from his parliamentary office and kickbacks he was receiving. Don’t we need to see this stuff?

I think the outcomes last week where a very popular and highly competent premier stood down highlights some of the flaws in the model. So we don’t support a model where you are presumed guilty unless you can prove your innocence.

Your government, of course, tried to scrap Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. You were worried about protecting free speech. Now it sounds like you want to go in the other direction and make it harder to say things that can be considered racist.

The test, David, will be the impact on the individual. If a reasonable person would consider that it was intended to harm and if it’s menacing, harassing or offensive – those words, by the way, taken from an existing provision in the criminal code dealing with online content. So what we’re doing is leaning in on this issue and all of the issues that arise in relation to online safety. Our government’s taken a leadership position on this since we came to government. The Australian eSafety Commissioner, set up in 2015, is world-leading ...

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Australia Covid live news update: Victoria records 1,838 cases, five deaths; NSW reports 646 cases, 11 deaths; restrictions eased in south-east Qld, Townsville

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Greg Hunt says Australia’s vaccination rate has hit 81.5% first dose and 60.2% second dose; Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is being investigated for not wearing a mask in public; Victoria reports record high number of new Covid cases; NSW records 646 local cases, 11 deaths three days ahead of reopening; Dr Kerry Chant says a new strain of Delta is circulating in Sydney; restrictions eased in Townsville and south-east Queensland; 44 new cases in New Zealand. Follow all the day’s news live

So, today is the final Friday under (this) lockdown in NSW, with the state due to emerge from stay-at-home orders on Monday.

But you’d be forgiven for losing track of what you can and can’t do once lockdown is lifted, considering the changes made and many, many annoucements.

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Australia news live update: Melbourne to set Covid lockdown world record, Dominic Perrottet set to become NSW premier

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Melbourne overtaking Buenos Aires as city that has spent most days under stay-at-home orders. Follow all the updates

When it comes to Melbourne now, by some counts, becoming the most locked-down city in the world, premier Daniel Andrews says he is proud of the sacrifices Melburnians have made over the pandemic.

Yesterday he called on Melburnians to make a final push before lockdown ends in coming weeks, reports Callum Godde from AAP.

We are going to get past this. We are going to end this lockdown and open up, and all that we will enjoy then will be a result of all that we have given.

If we let it rip last year, we would have had severe mortality and morbidity. It’s just that we haven’t had the same luck as other place.

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Australia Covid news live update: Victoria records 1,220 cases; NSW announces new rules for 70% vaccine milestone; Brisbane readies for NRL grand final

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NSW reports 10 deaths amid ‘dramatic drop’ in new Covid cases with 70% double-dose target in sight; cases continue to rise in Victoria amid vaccine mandate protests; Queensland readies for NRL grand final at Suncorp Stadium tonight as state records no new local Covid infections; ACT records 38 new local cases; 32 of New Zealand’s 33 new cases in Auckland. Follow live

Speers has asked Husic what he thinks of the state government’s plan to open up once 70% of adults are vaccinated?

Husic:

As someone who lives in a locked down LGA, who represents residents who have gone through some of the toughest measures across the LGAs in Western Sydney, we clearly want to get out of this.

As Labor has said, we at the national level support the national plan and believe that we do need to get out as quickly as we can, but it does require in particular a focus on the safety elements of this.

Icac is actually not allowed under law to delay or defer investigations. What do you think, though, about the criticism that it has chosen a terrible time to do this?

In response to your question first off, I would say that it is a bit hard for Gladys Berejiklian to make that point when she started cancelling her own press conferences, her daily press conferences. If this was such an important time, she would be there every single day. I think that needs to be borne in mind and I would urge people to consider that, but I guess overall I would understand, the two points I would quickly make:

I understand how people are confused and disoriented about the events of Friday, seeing the premier go that quickly, but it is important to emphasise that ... this explosive event was lit in 2020 when you had a New South Wales premier appear before Icac as a person being monitored, a person of interest, and clearly there was an issue there, and the reality is Icac did not force Gladys Berejiklian to resign, she did that of her own accord, following 12 months of saying that she wouldn’t do that.

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How Melbourne’s ‘short, sharp’ Covid lockdowns became the longest in the world

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Australia’s second-largest city’s strategy has left it economically and psychologically depressed after initially succeeding in reducing case numbers to zero

It has been a long 19 months in Melbourne. As of Tuesday 5 October, Australia’s second-largest city will have been in lockdown for 246 days – overtaking Buenos Aires as the city that has spent the most cumulative days under stay-at-home orders.

By the time Melbourne’s current lockdown lifts at the end of the month, it will have spent 267 days in lockdown – 45% of the time since the coronavirus pandemic was declared on 12 March 2020.

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Victoria Covid restrictions: Melbourne lockdown, curfew and regional Vic coronavirus rules explained

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Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews has announced a further easing of restrictions as the state reaches its 80% first-dose vaccination target. Here’s what you need to know about schools, travel, childcare and work

Melbourne restrictions eased slightly from Wednesday 29 September when Victoria hit its 80% first dose vaccination target.

The Moorabool shire and Shepparton were to enter seven-day lockdowns from 11.59pm on Friday 1 October.

Shopping for essentials;

Authorised work, if you cannot work from home, or education;

Exercise for up to four hours;

Caregiving, compassionate and medical reasons;

To get vaccinated.

Limited outdoor social interaction will be allowed.

Queensland

New South Wales

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Australian Capital Territory

Northern Territory

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Stark divide: disadvantaged areas of Victoria have worst Covid vaccination rates

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Age, disadvantage and reduced access are mixing together in lower socio-economic areas to create a perfect Covid cocktail

Some of Victoria’s lowest socio-economic areas are still lagging behind on Covid-19 vaccination rates as the wealthiest local government areas surge ahead, creating a stark divide across the state.

The disparity has community leaders and epidemiologists worried the virus will sweep through some suburbs when the state opens up, if the vaccination rate does not pick up in vulnerable areas.

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How are Australia’s neighbours faring in the Covid pandemic?

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Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind

While Australians have focused on the Covid waves in Sydney and Melbourne, many of Australia’s neighbours have recently experienced their largest outbreaks so far. This includes Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and even Singapore.

Singapore surpassed Australia’s vaccination target weeks ago, but was now seeing more than a thousand cases a day. Fiji recently had one of the highest rates of Covid cases per capita – peaking at 1,850 cases in the middle of July. But the nation of 889,000 was now regularly administering more than 10,000 new vaccinations a day.

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Over 50% of Australians over 16 are fully vaccinated; Berejiklian reopening plans coming ‘next week’ – as it happened

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All the day’s news, as it happened. This blog has now closed

Enjoy your evening, all, and thanks for having me! Here’s just a taste of what we learned today:

In case you missed this earlier (I did) please enjoy this piece by Arwa Mahdawi on cancel culture, critical race theory and ... sexy seahorses.

It’s very easy to laugh at a bunch of rightwing moms clutching their pearls over sexy seahorses – but there’s nothing funny about the systemic, organised way in which conservatives are trying to rewrite history and restrict freedom of speech.

Related: Laugh at the outrage over ‘sexy seahorses’ – but there’s nothing funny about conservatives trying to rewrite history | Arwa Mahdawi

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Melbourne police break up anti-lockdown protest with non-lethal rounds and teargas

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Third day of demonstrations ends in a standoff between officers and protesters at the city’s war memorial

Police in Melbourne have again fired non-lethal rounds and teargas at anti-Covid lockdown protesters to end an almost three-hour standoff at the city’s war memorial during a third straight day of demonstrations.

More than 200 people were arrested. Two officers were injured by bottles thrown at them and one was hospitalised with chest pains, Victoria police said.

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Melbourne descends into chaos as police arrest 62 and fire rubber pellets at anti-lockdown protesters

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It started with construction workers opposing compulsory vaccinations but grew into a broader ‘freedom’ rally which shut down freeways and bridges

Police have fired pepper balls and stinger grenades at violent anti-Covid lockdown protesters on the streets of Melbourne as Australia’s second-largest city – under stay-at-home orders for the 233rd day in total – descended into chaos.

Protesters dressed as construction workers clashed with police for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, assaulting officers, smashing police car windows, throwing bottles and stones, and damaging property.

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Victoria set to shut down construction for two weeks after anti-vaccine mandate protest

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State government held crisis talks Monday night after Victoria police used pepper spray and rubber bullets to move crowd outside CFMEU office

The Victorian government is set to announce a two-week shutdown of the construction industry after a protest against mandatory vaccines for workers in the sector became violent.

The closure across metropolitan Melbourne, Geelong, the Surf Coast, Ballarat and Mitchell Shire was decided on Monday night after the CFMEU building was damaged and riot police deployed in chaotic scenes in the CBD.

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Victoria to receive ‘surge’ of Pfizer, Moderna vaccine doses as 392 cases recorded – as it happened

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Man in his 20s dies in NSW as state records 1,262 new cases; ACT records 15 new Covid cases. This blog is now closed

That’s where I will leave you for today. Here’s a wrap of what we learned:

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns has taken to twitter to slam the Berejiklian government for calling an end to the 11am daily press conferences.

“When I feel like I need to be accountable.”

❌ That’s not good enough.

Government accountability isn’t optional.

Reinstate the daily press conferences and bring back the parliament now.#nswpol #auspol

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NSW Labor says Berejiklian must hold daily updates; Queensland to reinstate border bubble – as it happened

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NSW confirms record high 1,542 cases; Victoria has linked 149 of its 334 new cases to known outbreaks. This blog is now closed

With that, we’ll wrap up the news blog for the day.

Here were the top headlines today:

Prof Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute that has provided modelling for Australia’s reopening plan agreed to by national cabinet, has responded to NSW’s roadmap to freedom that was unveiled this week.

Of the plan to reopen at 70% double vaccination in NSW, Lewin told ABC’s The Drum: “I think the with situation in NSW, I’d be going slowly, slowly”.

We will see interpretations that will vary around the country and I think that is going to cause confusion.”

When you don’t have optimal TTIQ then you’ve got to bring in public health measures. That’s why this slow exit from the lockdown is probably going to be important.

I think the biggest challenge for NSW at the moment is keeping an eye on the burden on the healthcare system.

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