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Australia coronavirus live: Virgin tells ASX it is going into administration as NSW announces staggered return to school – latest updates Australia coronavirus updates live: Virgin tells ASX it is going into administration as NSW announces staggered return to school – latest news
(32 minutes later)
As Australia’s infection rate falls, state and federal leaders will discuss lifting ban on elective surgery at meeting on Tuesday. Follow all the latest news, liveAs Australia’s infection rate falls, state and federal leaders will discuss lifting ban on elective surgery at meeting on Tuesday. Follow all the latest news, live
Victoria police deputy commissioner Shane Patton spoke in Melbourne this morning about the scrapping of bail reporting conditions. That press conference with treasurer Josh Frydenberg and deputy prime minister Michael McCormack is due to start very soon, as is a press conference by the Virgin chief executive Paul Scurrah. Which is great news for me, the person trying to liveblog them both.
From Friday, bail reporting conditions will be suspended for all alleged offenders because of social-distancing measures.Patton said 40,000 alleged offenders travelled to police stations in the state every month, putting people at risk of Covid-19. Virgin Australia administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said more than 10 parties were interested in taking part in recapitalising the airline.
“The accountability regime if anything is going to be more stringent,” Patton said. Alleged offenders will have to follow stay at home directions from the chief health officer and each of their cases will be assessed by police individually. He said expressions of interest would be sought in the next three weeks and then he would run a sale process of about a month.
Chief executive Paul Scurrah said the airline initially sought a $1.4bn loan from the federal government, convertible into shares - which would have wiped out the company’s existing shareholders.
He said that after long negotiations, mainly to deal with the government’s unwillingness to nationalise the airline, Virgin Australia on Monday made a final request for $200m.
This was also rebuffed and that evening the company’s board put it into administration.
However, Strawbridge said the government still had an important role in getting the airline back on track, although he did not explain what that was.
The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, and the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, are due to address the media in Canberra in about 10 minutes. They’ll be speaking about Virgin Australia going into administration.
The Virgin Australia administrator Vaughan Strawbridge says the airline doesn’t plan to make any of its 10,000 staff redundant as the company looks for a new owner.
Speaking to the media this morning, Strawbridge said employees who were still employed would continue to receive their wages, and those who are stood down would continue to get the jobkeeper allowance. Entitlements were preserved, he said.
“Hopefully we can maintain all the jobs, or as many as possible, through this process,” he said.
The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, has weighed in on Virgin’s financial woes, calling for a complete government takeover of the airline. I probably wouldn’t hold my breath on that one. He said:
The owner of a massage parlour in Frankston and a person found drunk on a train in Frankston, despite their residential address being in Geelong, are among 89 people to have been fined in Victoria in the past 24 hours for breaching social distancing laws.
The owner of the massage parlour was fined after two workers were found in the venue, which is among a category of businesses banned from operation on 28 March. The two employees of the massage parlour also received the $1,600 on-the-spot fine.
Five other people were fined for carpooling in Williamstown.
We wrote about concerns that Victoria police have not been transparent in their use of emergency Covid-19 powers this morning.
Virgin Australia’s frequent flyer scheme, Velocity, has frozen redemptions since the airline went into administration.
Redemptions are frozen for an “initial period” of four weeks, Velocity said:
Your Points aren’t going anywhere. They will remain in your account.
Your existing Points will not expire through this period. We will be extending the expiration period for your existing Points by the timeframe of the pause.
You can continue to earn Points with our partners, although you won’t be able to redeem them during the pause.
The Victoria police deputy commissioner Shane Patton spoke in Melbourne this morning about the scrapping of bail reporting conditions.
From Friday bail reporting conditions will be suspended for all alleged offenders because of social-distancing measures.Patton said 40,000 alleged offenders travelled to police stations in the state every month, putting people at risk of Covid-19.
“The accountability regime if anything is going to be more stringent,” Patton said. Alleged offenders will have to follow stay-at-home directions from the chief health officer and each of their cases will be assessed by police individually.
There would be increased checking in on high-risk people by police, he said.There would be increased checking in on high-risk people by police, he said.
Patton added it would be difficult for alleged offenders to leave the state with current flight restrictions in place.Patton added it would be difficult for alleged offenders to leave the state with current flight restrictions in place.
“This is one less lawful activity allowing them to be out in the community,” Patton said. “This is one less lawful activity allowing them to be out in the community,” Patton said. “There’s no leniency.”
“There’s no leniency.” OK, I’ll leave that there. The Cairns regional mayor, Bob Manning, is speaking on the ABC. Virgin is a major employer up there.
OK I’ll leave that there. Cairns regional mayor Bob Manning is speaking on the ABC. Virgin is a major employer up there. He says he’s “encouraged” by the airline moving into administration because he’s “optimistic” about the potential for Virgin or any other airline to fill the need for a low-cost carrier option in Australia servicing regional areas:
He says he’s “encouraged” by the airline moving into administration because he’s “optimistic” about the potential for Virgin or any other airline to fill the need for a low-cost carrier option in Australia servicing regional areas. Albanese has also accused the government of “rightwing ideology” after the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, flagged deregulation of industries and IR to get the economy moving after the Covid-19 crisis:
Albanese has also accused the government of “right-wing ideology” after finance minister Mathias Cormann flagged deregulation of industries and IR to get the economy moving after the Covid-19 crisis. Albanese didn’t answer a question about how much equity he’s calling for the government to invest in Virgin. He’s also shrugged off the fact Virgin was already in financial difficulties, saying it’s “absurd” to suggest the airline would be in the position it is today if not for Covid-19:
Albanese didn’t answer a question about how much equity he’s calling for the government to invest in Virgin. He’s also shrugged off the fact Virgin was already in financial difficulties, saying it’s “absurd” to suggest the airline would be in the position it is today if not for Covid-19.
Albanese is asked why Labor wants the government to intervene when the airline’s administrator says it has already received expressions of interest to recapitalise Virgin. Why not just let the market do its thing, essentially.Albanese is asked why Labor wants the government to intervene when the airline’s administrator says it has already received expressions of interest to recapitalise Virgin. Why not just let the market do its thing, essentially.
Anthony Albanese is still taking questions about Virgin in Sydney. He’s asked why the government should prop up an airline when the uncertainty created by Covid-19 means we don’t know what the aviation industry will look like on the other side. He says it’s still crucial to prevent Qantas having a monopoly.
Good morning. It’s all Virgin Airlines today. Anthony Albanese and co are still addressing the media and we expect to hear from the company soon.
In the meantime, the New South Wales treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, has issued a statement on negotiations with the company. You may remember that yesterday the Queensland minister for state development, Cameron Dick, gave the NSW government an absolute serve over their attempts to woo the airline away from Queensland.
It’s still unclear how Virgin’s decision to go into voluntary administration may affect those negotiations.
Here’s what Perrottet has to say this morning:
I might leave you there for this morning, thank you for reading.
My colleague Michael McGowan will take you through the news for the rest of the day.
More from Anthony Albanese:
Anthony Albanese is now addressing media at a press conference:
The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, as released a statement on Virgin Australia entering administration.
As my colleague Daniel Hurst mentioned earlier the unions have been calling on the Morrison government to step in a save Virgin Australia.
This is the message from Australian Unions this morning:
The Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director, Simon Westaway, says the collapse into administration of Virgin Australia “represents a further significant challenge for Australian tourism facing off against the already massive impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and previously the summer bushfire crisis”.
He said tourism employed about 1 million people and it was “logical and important that our Australian-based airlines maintain sustainable operations in order to help achieve this”.
Virgin Australia’s chief executive, Paul Scurrah, and one of the airline’s newly appointed administrators, Vaughan Strawbridge, will front the media at 10.30 this morning and hopefully answer some of the questions everybody has about the airline.
While the airline’s announcement this morning made it clear it wants to keep operating on the other side of the coronavirus crisis, it was silent on several crucial issues.
These include what will happen to the jobs and entitlements of about 10,000 workers, the future of the poorly performing budget offshoot Tiger, which is a logical candidate to be shut down, what happens to around $1.2bn in flight bookings, and the value of people’s frequent flyer points.
The latter are held in a separate company that isn’t in administration, but it’s not clear what that means in terms of redeeming them for flights in the future.
Strawbridge will also need to deal with banks and other financiers owed about $4.8bn. The airline’s fleet is heavily mortgaged; just in November it issued about $700m in junk bonds.
As voluntary administrators Strawbridge and his fellow Deloitte partners are in charge of navigating the process from here on in.
Victoria has just released its numbers for Covid-19 cases overnight.
It has reported an additional seven cases, bringing the state total to 1,336.
This number is made up of 641 men and 695 women, with people aged from babies to their early 90s.
Yesterday the state reported only one new case.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said this fluctuation in the number of positive Covid-19 cases was due to an increase in the number of tests being completed and an increase in the number of travellers returning from overseas on repatriation flights: