This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2020/aug/24/coronavirus-australia-latest-updates-health-economy-business-queensland-hotspots-victoria-hotel-inquiry-parliament-scott-morrison-josh-frydenberg-jobkeeper-follow-live

The article has changed 22 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 11 Version 12
Coronavirus live update Australia: Victoria records 116 new cases and 15 deaths as NSW reports three new cases Coronavirus update Australia: parliament resumes as Victoria records 116 new cases and 15 deaths – question time live
(32 minutes later)
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 updatesBrisbane 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
Anthony Albanese:
Anthony Albanese responds to Scott Morrison’s speech with one of his own:
Scott Morrison on the agreement to have an agreement for a Covid vaccine:
Labor’s Kristina Keneally is now conducting a pop quiz of Colbeck, asking how many aged care facilities have Covid-19 outbreaks and whether any have more than 100 residents who have tested positive.
Colbeck responded:
There are 126 aged care providers in Victoria with active cases.
He didn’t have a “detailed breakdown of every facility” in terms of the date of the outbreak and total number of residents and staff who tested positive, but he committed to provide it after Question Time.
“I don’t believe” any facilities have more than 100 positive residents.
Keneally rises to make a point of order that there are 210 cases at Epping. Mathias Cormann says this is “not a point of order” but rather the opposition “playing politics”, telling Keneally she should “be ashamed” of herself.
Penny Wong says it’s a very serious issue and an “entirely appropriate” question to ask.
Scott Morrison:
Scott Morrison:
Scott Morrison is detailing everything the federal government has done for Victoria since the Covid outbreak.
He is now in the thank you stage.
We are going to be here for a while.
Victoria police have put out their fine statistics for the past 24 hours:
Issued a total of 197 fines to individuals for breaching the Chief Health Officer directions, including:
31 for failing to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four approved reasons.
20 at vehicle checkpoints.
66 for curfew breaches.
6,960 vehicles checked at the vehicle checkpoints.
Conducted 2,204 spot checks on people at homes, businesses and public places across the state (total of 318,787 spot checks conducted since 21 March).
Please find below examples from the last 24 hours of breaches:
Police attended an address in the Mornington Peninsula where they found two men and two women in the garage eating and drinking. Three of the four people did not reside at the address.
Two women who were spoken to by police at the Dandenong Railway Station said they had travelled from Hastings to Dandenong on the bus. They then told police they were planning to travel to Drouin which was a further 67km away. When asked by police for their reason for travel they said they knew what they were doing was wrong but decided to travel anyway.
A number of people located at train stations throughout metropolitan Melbourne during curfew hours without valid reasons for travel.
Senate question time has started with Labor questions to aged care minister Richard Colbeck about his failure to remember how many people had died of Covid-19 in aged care.
Colbeck said:
And Kristy McBain is now officially a MP.
Kristy McBain is also about to be sworn into the House.Kristy McBain is also about to be sworn into the House.
Question time is going to be a bit later than usual today - there will be some speeches on what is happening in Victoria (and what has happened since June) before the questions begin
Sky News is reporting John Howard has “gone to hospital” but the former prime minister has told the network he is “fine”.
It is the downhill slide to question time.
The first since June.
Childcare is another issue bubbling along under the surface.
And Tasmanians are the most proficient hand washers
This is going to be a tough week for many for so many reasons.
David Littleproud has been doing media on this since Friday, but the Victorian Nationals have decided to take matters into their own hands:
A nationally consistent approach to border closures and quarantine processes is vital in allowing regional and rural communities to function, as we continue to navigate our way through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The call comes on the back of an announcement by the Queensland government that will see exemptions for farmers and agriculture workers to cross the NSW/Queensland border.
Leader of The Nationals in the Senate Bridget McKenzie, NSW Senator Perin Davey, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster and Member for Nicholls Damian Drum are calling on the NSW and Victorian governments to urgently replicate the move.
Senator McKenzie said if Queensland can introduce an exemption system, other states should be able to do the same.
Senator Davey said with Victoria’s daily infection numbers easing, there is no reason for border communities to not be given exemptions to cross the border.
Federal Member for Nicholls Damian Drum has called for critical workers to undergo Covid-19 tests so they can go about their daily work.
Federal Member for Mallee, Anne Webster has called for national codes for Agriculture, Health and Education to be implemented without delay.
Labor is still calling for aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, to be sacked.
A hearing of the faunal extinctions committee has had to be postponed after the Liberal senator David Fawcett was a no show.
Senators were due to grill department officials about the Australian National Audit Office’s scathing review of the government and bureaucracy’s administration of Australia’s national environmental laws.
That review, published in June, found the government had failed in its duty to protect the environment, the department had been ineffective in managing risks to the environment, that its management of assessments and approvals under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was not effective, and that the department had failed to properly manage potential conflicts of interest in its work.
This was also the report that found a correlation between cuts to funding and staffing and a slow down in decision-making timeframes, as previously highlighted by Guardian Australia.
The committee’s chair, the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said she was concerned today’s hearing had not gone ahead and senators had not had the opportunity to ask officials questions, given the report’s findings.
Hanson-Young also asked after the whereabouts of legislation the government said it would introduce this week as part of its plan to devolve environmental approval powers to state and territory governments.
Fawcett’s office would not comment on why the senator missed the hearing.
And from the member herself: