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/26/australia-coronavirus-live-update-sydney-quarantine-hotel-scott-morrison-qld-health-defence-latest-news

The article has changed 23 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 14 Version 15
Australia coronavirus live update: Victoria reports 149 new Covid cases and 24 deaths as NSW records six cases – question time live Australia coronavirus live update: Victoria reports 149 new Covid cases and 24 deaths as NSW records six cases
(32 minutes later)
Premier Daniel Andrews urges more Victorians to come forward for testing and Queensland reports one new case. Follow all the latest news and updates, livePremier Daniel Andrews urges more Victorians to come forward for testing and Queensland reports one new case. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
Professor Paul Kelly:
Acting chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, is giving today’s update:
The parliamentary joint intelligence and security committee report into press freedom is also due to be tabled this afternoon (it was slated for after QT).
Home to Bilo have responded to the news Isabella and her mum Huyen have been released from immigration detention:
At the National Press Club earlier today, Wang Xining, the deputy head of mission of China’s embassy in Australia, argued that diplomatic channels between the two countries remained open, at least at the level of officials.
But he said there were “some shadows” over the relationship “so we need to make our position much more clear in order to remove the shadows”.
He played down talk of Australian ministers like Simon Birmingham and Marise Payne being unable to secure a phone call with their Chinese counterparts, saying he did not think the embassy in Canberra had received any requests for such a call – although he left open the possibility such requests may have been made via the Australian embassy in Beijing.
After the National Press Club event ended, Wang fielded a few more questions from reporters, seeking to clarify the claim that no specific requests for calls had been made:
Pressed on any such request would also be handled in a timely manner, he repeated the original formulation: “It will be done in a diplomatic manner.”
He said China hoped the Australian side would work with us to create a good atmosphere for the relationship to grow.
Victoria Health has also issued its official data:
In Victoria at the current time:
4,116 cases may indicate community transmission.
3,488 cases are currently active in Victoria.
578 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including 39 in intensive care.
14,572 people have recovered from the virus.
A total of 2,132,679 test results have been received which is an increase of 13,480 since yesterday.
Of the 3,488 current active cases in Victoria:
3,135 are in metropolitan Melbourne under stage 4 restrictions.
203 are in regional local government areas under stage 3 restrictions.
139 are either unknown or subject to further investigation.
11 are interstate residents.
Greater Geelong has 66 active cases, Bendigo has 23 active cases and Ballarat has six active cases.
Of the total cases:
17,026 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 1112 are from regional Victoria.
Total cases include 8,906 men and 9,663 women.
Total number of healthcare workers: 2,799, active cases: 434.
There are 1,487 active cases relating to aged care facilities.
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest cumulative case numbers are as follows:
211 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping.
195 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner.
169 cases have been linked to BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee.
159 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer.
138 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth.
120 cases have been linked to Cumberland Manor Aged Care Facility in Sunshine North.
118 cases have been linked to Twin Parks Aged Care in Reservoir.
113 cases have been linked to Outlook Gardens Aged Care Facility in Dandenong North.
111 cases have been linked to Japara Goonawarra Aged Care Facility in Sunbury.
109 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg.
In Victoria there are currently 50 active cases in residential disability accommodation:
Total resident cases: 13; Total Staff cases: 37.
Active cases in NDIS homes: 39 (13 residents).
Active cases in ‘transfer’ homes (state regulated/funded): 11 (0 residents).
Active cases in state government delivered and funded homes: 0.
There is a national Covid update coming up in the next few minutes.
We’ll bring you any news from that when it starts.
Over in the Senate, we’ve just heard a rather interesting development in the case of Bernard Collaery, the former ACT attorney general on trial for talking about Australia’s spying on its tiny, developing neighbour Timor-Leste during oil and gas negotiations.
Collaery is fighting the allegation that he disclosed protected intelligence information and has subpoenaed documents from a bunch of agencies and entities, including Woodside, the operator of the oil and gas fields.
The Senate has just heard that the government, through attorney general Christian Porter, intervened in the case to stop Woodside documents going to Collaery before it could have a look. It was using powers in the National Security Information Act to determine whether any of the documents needed to be kept secret.
“How is it possible that an energy company such as Woodside could be in possession of documents that could contain matters related to national security? Or is this simply the attorney further abusing the NSI Act?” Patrick asked.Responding on behalf of Porter, Marise Payne, the foreign affairs minister, said the intervention was appropriate, reasonable, and not uncommon in such cases.She said the information in the Woodside documents may have included “national security” information, which, under the act, includes material affecting international relations, including economic relations with foreign governments.“It was appropriate for the attorney-general to have an opportunity to consider whether to issue a certificate under the act, or whether any other formal application or claim ought to have been made in relation to any documents produced by Woodside,” Payne said.“The application was allowed by the court. Ultimately Mr President, I would note to the chamber and to senator Patrick, that the commonwealth did not seek any protection orders and the documents were provided to the parties.We’ll have more on this story shortly.
And question time ends.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is addressed to the prime minister: Why won’t the prime minister take full responsibility for the consequences of his $1.7bn cut to aged care which made older Australians worse off before the pandemic and left residents of aged care homes more vulnerable to the deadly Covid virus?
Morrison:
Albanese interjects to ask for the question to be addressed.
Morrison continues:
YupYup
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
I refer to comments of the Liberal MP for Monash, Russell Broadbent, who yesterday said he’d sounded warnings bout the Aged Care sector for years “but I was ignored completely”. If the Prime Minister won’t listen to Labor and won’t listen to his own royal commissioners, will he at least listen to his own backbench and acknowledge that his cuts of $1.7 billion have contributed to the problem? I refer to comments of the Liberal MP for Monash, Russell Broadbent, who yesterday said he’d sounded warnings bout the aged care sector for years “but I was ignored completely”. If the prime minister won’t listen to Labor and won’t listen to his own royal commissioners, will he at least listen to his own backbench and acknowledge that his cuts of $1.7bn have contributed to the problem?
That is in relation to this story from Murph:That is in relation to this story from Murph:
Morrison:Morrison:
Exceptionally normal behaviour from a government MP, personally saved from a pre-selection dumping by at least two prime ministerial interventions.Exceptionally normal behaviour from a government MP, personally saved from a pre-selection dumping by at least two prime ministerial interventions.
Ken O’Dowd once again learns what his very burning question for the minister is, at the same time we do.
Keith Pitt, continuing his love of wide striped ties, tells us O’Dowd is known as the “member for coal”.
I know some other names for O’Dowd from people on the ground, but my oma raised me better than that.
Chris Bowen to Scott Morrison:
The government’s report on the deadly Covid outbreak at Newmarch House said families reported weight loss, dehydration, pressure sores and increases in urinary tract and skin infections amongst fragile residents. Why hasn’t the prime minister taken full responsibility for the consequences of his $1.7bn cut to aged care?
Morrison:
And while we are on the subject of the aged care royal commission, here is part of the submission from the counsel assisting the commission, Peter Rozen QC:
Given the prime minister keeps referring to how he called the royal commission into aged care (while also disputing the ‘assertions’ the counsel assisting the commission has made) it is also worth remembering that he only called the commission, after months of reporting of how terrible aged care standards were in some homes, which was then knocked out of the park by a Four Corners series on the issue.
It wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. It was in response to a call that had become too loud to ignore.
Labor has asked aged care minister, Richard Colbeck about Liberal MP Russell Broadbent’s comments in Guardian Australia that aged care is a “disaster waiting to happen” because “profit became more important than care” and that he had warned the government but was “completely ignored”.
Colbeck replied:
“I don’t concede the government has ignored or dismissed Broadbent’s concerns,” Colbeck added, citing the ability of any Australian to make a submission to the royal commission – an opportunity senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has taken up to raise concerns.
In the final supplementary, Labor asked how many more aged care residents might still be alive if Colbeck’s warnings were heeded.
Colbeck replied:
Vince Connelly’s latest dixer performance appears to channel ‘baby discovers it has hands, and is transfixed’.
Two stars.
Greg Hunt is laying out how the aged care budget is increasing year on year.
Which it is.
Because more of the population is getting older.
Peter Dutton is apparently filling out birthday cards for constituents while sitting in question time.
Happy Virgo season.
Back to Victoria for a moment:
A two-year-old child who has spent her entire life in immigration detention in Melbourne has been released with her mother.
Isabella Lee Pin Loong had lived at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation centre since her birth. Her mother, Vietnamese woman Huyen Thu Thi Tran, sought asylum in Australia by boat in 2011 and has been detained for almost three years.
Isabella’s father and Huyen’s husband, Paul Lee, lives in the community.
Isabella and Tran left the detention centre on Wednesday afternoon after Tran was issued a bridging visa.
Tran’s lawyer Alison Battisson described the release as “absolutely extraordinary” and “an incredible event to happen”.
The only other children in detention are Kopika and Tharunicaa, part of the so-called ‘Biloela family’. Before they were taken to Christmas Island, the Tamil family was also held in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation.
“There is still a family detained on Christmas Island with two young girls who used to play with Isabella, so one playmate is out but two remain,” Battisson said.
Tran’s bridging visa does not entitle her to stay in Australia permanently, but it does mean that she can live in the community for now. She had previously been assessed by the government as not engaging Australia’s protection obligations, and was not able to challenge the decision in a court.
The government had indicated its intention to deport her as recently as April, Battisson said.
Isabella has not seen her father in person since March, when immigration detention visits were halted because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s going to be very overwhelming for Isabella in the beginning because she’s never had proper interaction with the greater community,” Battisson said.
But, she said, “the difference for this young girl’s life is actually life-changing.”
So what else does the RMIT ABC fact check say on the aged care funding debate?
So what does that mean? Overall it has increased. But money has been taken from some areas to fund others.