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| Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria records five new Covid cases and three deaths | Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria records five new Covid cases and three deaths |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Melbourne’s stage four restrictions ease, with more people returning to workplaces. Meanwhile, analysts urge government to spend more to support recovery as jobseeker wage subsidy cut. Follow live | Melbourne’s stage four restrictions ease, with more people returning to workplaces. Meanwhile, analysts urge government to spend more to support recovery as jobseeker wage subsidy cut. Follow live |
| Josh Taylor will have a story on the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry very soon. | |
| In the meantime, AAP has put together this report: | |
| Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry has heard the program failed due to a “multitude of decisions, actions and inactions”. | |
| Delivering closing submissions to the inquiry on Monday, counsel assisting Tony Neal QC said there was no suggestion those who set up the program worked other than with “the best of intentions and to the best of their ability”. | |
| “Bad faith or corruption is not what the evidence shows,” he said. | |
| Mr Neal said public servants were given just 36 hours to set up the program, following a national cabinet announcement on March 27. | |
| Within two and a half months, the “hastily assembled program failed at two locations ... and with disastrous consequences”, he said. | |
| “It will not be suggested that a single decision or a single actor caused the hotel quarantine Program to fail in its objective of stopping the spread of COVID-19 into the broader community,” Mr Neal sad. | |
| “A multitude of decisions, actions and inactions, many of which compounded the effect of the other, ultimately expressed itself in the outbreaks which subverted the very reason for the existence of a hotel quarantine program.” | |
| Victoria’s second wave of coronavirus, which resulted in more than 18,000 new infections and 750 deaths, can be traced back to outbreaks among security guards at the Rydges on Swanston and Stamford Plaza hotels in mid-May and June. | |
| The inquiry has held 25 days of public hearings and heard from 63 witnesses, including returned travellers, security guards, hotel managers, senior public servants, ministers and Premier Daniel Andrews. | |
| But no one has been able to say who made the decision to use private security guards, rather than the police or the Australian Defence Force, who assisted in other states. | |
| The premier apologised unreservedly to Victorians when he appeared before the inquiry on Friday. | |
| “Mistakes have been made in this program and answers are required,” Mr Andrews said. | |
| “I want to make it very clear to each and every member of the Victorian community that I am sorry for what has occurred here.” | |
| The three lawyers for the inquiry will each make submissions on Monday, before the $3 million inquiry hands down its findings on November 6. | |
| Retired judge Jennifer Coate heads the board of inquiry. | |
| The decision to use private security in Victoria’s botched hotel quarantine program was not a decision at all, the counsel assisting the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry has said in closing submissions, but Victoria police’s strong preference played a role in the “creeping assumption” to use private security. | |
| Counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard told the inquiry on Monday that the evidence before the inquiry points to no one person ultimately making the decision to use private security guards on 27 March, when the program was announced. | |
| The inquiry has heard on that date, in meetings among senior public servants in Victoria, including emergency management commissioner, Andrew Crisp, and then Victoria police commissioner Graham Ashton, a “creeping assumption” emerged that private security would be used to guard hotels, not police. | |
| Ellyard said because there was no decision, there was no consideration of whether it was appropriate or not, so it was a failure in decision making. | |
| She said although Victoria police strongly denies its preference influencing the decision, the “consensus was influenced and strongly influenced we would say, by everyone at that meeting understanding what Victoria police’s preference was. | |
| Labor’s Catherine King has responded to Michael McCormack’s comments that paying 10 times as much as the value for a piece of land not needed for another 30 years would one day be seen as “a bargain” (McCormack was speaking to Sydney radio 2GB). | |
| From King’s statement: | |
| Patrick Terminals has launched a bid to terminate maritime union strikes across Australia blamed for delays at Sydney’s Port Botany. | |
| After the Maritime Union of Australia notified the stevedores it intended to take a 24-hour strike at Port Botany on Friday, the company hit back with an application to the Fair Work Commission to terminate its industrial action. | |
| Earlier, the industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, signalled the federal government would probably intervene on the company’s side. | |
| Patrick’s CEO, Michael Jovicic, said the MUA industrial action in pursuit of 6% annual pay rises was inflicting serious harm on the business, customers, importers, exporters and shipping lines. He said: | |
| This is interesting. | |
| NSW Health has released its official update – testing numbers are also down in New South Wales: | |
| This is the second day in a row that NSW has had no new cases, either locally acquired or in hotel quarantine. | This is the second day in a row that NSW has had no new cases, either locally acquired or in hotel quarantine. |
| There were 6,353 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 12,333 in the previous 24 hours. | There were 6,353 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 12,333 in the previous 24 hours. |
| NSW Health thanks the community for all they have done towards reducing Covid-19 numbers and continues to ask people to remain vigilant and come forward for testing immediately if symptoms like a runny nose, scratchy throat, cough or fever appear. | |
| This is particularly important with the start of school holidays and increased movement of people around the state. | This is particularly important with the start of school holidays and increased movement of people around the state. |
| Locations linked to known cases, advice on testing and isolation, and areas identified for increased testing can be found here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates. | Locations linked to known cases, advice on testing and isolation, and areas identified for increased testing can be found here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates. |
| NSW Health is treating 63 Covid-19 cases, including three in intensive care, none of whom are being ventilated. Eighty-seven per cent of cases being treated by NSW Health are in non-acute, out-of-hospital care. | |
| A controversial welfare program that has seen single mothers forced to take their children to activities such as playgroup and StoryTime at the library to keep their benefits has been extended for three years.The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, confirmed on Monday the government had signed new contracts with ParentsNext providers, which are a mix of not-for-profits and private companies.Guardian Australia reported extensively on problems with the scheme in 2019, which included many mothers having their benefits suspended, often unfairly; providers failing to inform sick participants they were exempt from the scheme; and inadequate support for domestic violence survivors.Before the 2019 election, the government announced changes to the scheme, labelled “demeaning” by critics, but has remained committed to it.Cash said on Monday the program would help people get into assisted “eligible parents with young children to plan their next steps towards study or work”. It was an part of “getting people back into work and rebuilding our economy from the impact of Covid-19”.She also said the extension of the contracts would “provide certainty to the sector”.ParentsNext is compulsory for some people who receive parenting payments and have children between six months and under six years old. The majority are single mothers. | |
| Aside from reports participants have faced requirements such as taking their children to playgroup, others have claimed they have been pushed into unsuitable education courses just to keep their welfare benefits. | |
| Then we get to the statements the prime minister has made criticising Victoria’s contact tracing system. | Then we get to the statements the prime minister has made criticising Victoria’s contact tracing system. |
| Q: Would you say our contact tracing system is just as good as New South Wales? | Q: Would you say our contact tracing system is just as good as New South Wales? |
| Daniel Andrews: | Daniel Andrews: |
| Q: Do you get frustrated when the Prime Minister seems to undermine Victoria’s system and continually [say that]. | Q: Do you get frustrated when the Prime Minister seems to undermine Victoria’s system and continually [say that]. |
| Andrews: | Andrews: |
| Q: Would you consider giving up payroll tax in return for something like an increase in the GST? | Q: Would you consider giving up payroll tax in return for something like an increase in the GST? |
| Daniel Andrews: | Daniel Andrews: |
| Q: You said you held Jenny Mikakos accountable for a scheme which sparked the second wave which called more than 750 people. Is that a low standard to still have confidence in a minister? | Q: You said you held Jenny Mikakos accountable for a scheme which sparked the second wave which called more than 750 people. Is that a low standard to still have confidence in a minister? |
| Daniel Andrews: | Daniel Andrews: |
| Q: I’m asking about confidence ... | Q: I’m asking about confidence ... |
| Andrews: | Andrews: |
| Q: What was the redeeming feature as to why you still had confidence in the minister? | Q: What was the redeeming feature as to why you still had confidence in the minister? |
| Andrews: | Andrews: |
| Q: Have you spoken to Jenny Mikakos? | Q: Have you spoken to Jenny Mikakos? |
| Andrews: | Andrews: |
| Q: If you had such confidence, how come that hasn’t warranted a phone call? | Q: If you had such confidence, how come that hasn’t warranted a phone call? |
| Andrews: | Andrews: |
| Q: Do you plan to ramp up use of the Covidsafe app? | Q: Do you plan to ramp up use of the Covidsafe app? |
| Daniel Andrews: | Daniel Andrews: |
| Daniel Andrews says he “hasn’t turned [his] mind” to when he will release the findings from the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry – whether it will be on the day the government receives it, or shortly after. | Daniel Andrews says he “hasn’t turned [his] mind” to when he will release the findings from the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry – whether it will be on the day the government receives it, or shortly after. |
| But it will be released. | But it will be released. |
| Andrews doesn’t know how much the inquiry has cost. | Andrews doesn’t know how much the inquiry has cost. |