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Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria reports 15 new Covid cases and five deaths Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria reports 15 new Covid cases and five deaths
(32 minutes later)
NSW strives to boost testing as Victoria’s jobs minister and emergency services minister likely to face questioning over the use of private security guards in hotel quarantine. Follow all the day’s news liveNSW strives to boost testing as Victoria’s jobs minister and emergency services minister likely to face questioning over the use of private security guards in hotel quarantine. Follow all the day’s news live
Victoria will spend an additional $21.3m on drug and alcohol addiction support services
Daniel Andrews:
Behind every sign is a story. Same goes with ‘just to clarify’ points in Covid press conferences.
Daniel Andrews:
On the rolling averages, Daniel Andrews says:
There are just 14 active cases across regional Victoria.
As always, we start with a breakdown of the day’s numbers.
Daniel Andrews:
Oh good. The government is still planning on selling the NBN.
Because no service has ever become worse, once privatised.
In the context of this tweet from Daniel Hurst, here are some more 2010 Tony Abbott NBN gems:
and
Queensland’s deputy premier (and health minister) is still obviously still cranky at the federal government over how the last couple of months have played out.
Queensland heads to the polls at the end of next month (happy Halloween) and the discourse has been, at the risk of understatement, quite messy.
As reported by the Courier Mail yesterday, the federal government is pulling ADF troops off Queensland border patrols soon, to re-deploy them elsewhere.
That comes as Queensland opens up its borders to northern NSW, meaning more people will be heading through its checkpoints, meaning the Queensland Police Union is also cranky, because more police will have to be moved to the border to fill the gaps.
The federal government would say it has never been the advice of national cabinet to close the borders, so that each state has to manage its own closures as it sees fit.
So Steven Miles is cranky. But he took time out to talk about the CovidSafe app:
He thinks there should be someone looking at how it was marketed to people.
While my brain finishes rebooting after listening to that interview, you might also notice that Paul Fletcher also invoked the pandemic:While my brain finishes rebooting after listening to that interview, you might also notice that Paul Fletcher also invoked the pandemic:
So apparently, fast, reliable internet coverage was not necessary before then.So apparently, fast, reliable internet coverage was not necessary before then.
Q: Did you know at all the other party involved happened to be Liberal party donors?Q: Did you know at all the other party involved happened to be Liberal party donors?
Paul Fletcher: Not to my recollection, no.Paul Fletcher: Not to my recollection, no.
Q: So, you had no knowledge of who they were and their ties to the party?Q: So, you had no knowledge of who they were and their ties to the party?
Fletcher: I received a brief. The auditor general’s report makes it clear that the brief deficient in key points, and specifically the auditor general makes it clear that it did not set out what the valuation methodology was. This is all clear...Fletcher: I received a brief. The auditor general’s report makes it clear that the brief deficient in key points, and specifically the auditor general makes it clear that it did not set out what the valuation methodology was. This is all clear...
Q: Just to make it very clear, for my purposes – you had no knowledge that the people who taxpayers were buying the land off just happened to be donors to the Liberal party?Q: Just to make it very clear, for my purposes – you had no knowledge that the people who taxpayers were buying the land off just happened to be donors to the Liberal party?
Fletcher: That certainly was not known to me.Fletcher: That certainly was not known to me.
And then, like someone trying to watch a movie on the NBN during high-traffic times, we get an exchange which appears to show the minister buffering in real time.
Q: Let’s go to something that happened in your previous portfolio, when you were in charge of the infrastructure department. I speak, of course, of this scathing auditor general’s report that showed taxpayers forked out close to $30m for a parcel of land for Sydney’s second airport. The land was only worth a 10th of that, and it turns out the money was paid to people who just happened to be Liberal party donors. That, minister, is far from a good look?
Paul Fletcher: And the auditor general’s report makes it very clear that the valuation of the land and the methodology used was not disclosed even to senior officials of the department, let alone the minister.
Q: Should it have? I’ll ask you, did it ever pass your desk?
Fletcher: Well, the auditor general’s report itself makes it very clear this information was not provided to the minister of the day ...
Q: Did you ever see any documentation regarding this planned purchase when you were minister?
Fletcher: The auditor general’s report makes it clear that there was a brief that came to the minister, which did not disclose the valuation basis. The report is rightly critical of that. It’s made recommendations about things the department should do differently, not the minister, the department. And I welcome the fact that the department has now said that it will accept those recommendations.
Q: So, you saw a brief that had the close to $30m figure on it?
Fletcher: I did not. And the auditor general’s report makes it clear. There was a brief about the purchase of this piece of land. It did not include the valuation basis, and that is what the auditor general’s report, on its face, makes clear, and the report is critical of the department for concealing information, not just from the minister but, indeed, from senior officials of the department itself.
Q: Rightio. We’re talking about a large lick of taxpayers’ money here. Should you, as minister, have been more involved in this?
Fletcher: Well, ministers have to work on the basis of the briefs provided to us by a department. The auditor general, I think, has rightly identified that the department did not do the right thing. And the information that was provided to senior officials of the department was inadequate, by less senior officials, let alone what was provided to the minister.
Now, the department has rightly accepted the recommendations of the auditor general as to how they should change their procedures in the future, and I welcome them.
Thankfully, in 2013, industry publication Computer World compiled Tony Abbott’s comments on the NBN, which includes:
and
and
Still on Paul Fletcher, the ABC host asked him:
Do you regret, though, there wasn’t a bit more foresight? I do have memories of then prime minister Tony Abbott coming into the office, dismissing fast broadband as something only gamers and people watching movies would want?
Fletcher:
Paul Fletcher is having a doozy of a morning explaining why, after arguing against it for years, the government is now switching to fibre to the premises.
It apparently, was all part of the plan for the plan. And all is going to plan.
Fletcher:
Queensland has just five active cases of Covid, after reporting no new cases today.
It’s coming up to two weeks since the last community transmission of the virus was recorded.
Australia - where it is always some version, of 2012
Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference at 10am
Greg Hunt also spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning, about Australia’s involvement in what is essentially, an international vaccine co-op (if, and it is still an if, one is successful)
One of South Australia’s many Stephens, the health minister, Stephen Wade, is pretty excited the SA borders will be opening again to NSW.
Here he is earlier this morning talking to the ABC abut the benefits:
In more heartbreaking news: