Coronavirus Australia live updates: Nazi, Chinese flags attached to telecommunications tower in regional Victoria

Police have struggled to remove a Nazi flag and are on the hunt for a criminal after the symbol was tied to a phone tower with a Chinese flag.

less than 2 min read

April 13, 2020 - 5:06AM

Victoria Police are on the hunt after a Nazi flag was attached to a telecommunications tower in the regional town of Kyabram.

The flag was tied to two Chinese flags and had "#COVID-19" written across it.

Police estimate the flags had been attached to the top of the Telstra tower before the sun came up yesterday.

Their difficult location meant a Telstra team had to be called in with workers removing the flags this afternoon - more than a day after they were attached.

Kyabram Senior Constable Shane Roberts told the ABC the flag had not been easy to take down.

"It's making people upset understandably," Senior Constable Roberts said.

"We have no idea where it's come from but we're canvassing local businesses for footage and witnesses and obviously we're appealing for anyone who may have seen anything at all.

"We've never had anything like this previously so it's a bit out of the blue."

RELATED: Follow more coronavirus news

There are more than 6300 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia, with 2863 in New South Wales, 1281 in Victoria, 983 in Queensland, 431 in South Australia, 523 in Western Australia, 144 in Tasmania, 102 in the Australian Capital Territory and 28 in the Northern Territory.

The death toll now stands at 61.

This live blog has ended.

Updates

Nazi flag flown in regional Victoria

A Nazi flag has been removed from a phone tower in regional Victoria, more than a day after it was first seen by horrified locals.

Victoria Police are investigating after the flag was attached to the Telstra tower in Kyabram, in the north of the state, early Sunday morning.

The flag, tied to two Chinese flags, had the phrase "#COVID-19" written across it.

A large swastika has been planted on the top of a phone tower at Kyabram. There are also two Chinese flags being flown from there too. #9news #9NewsMelb #9NewsAus pic.twitter.com/tf1sZOZDzS
— Maggie Raworth (@MaggieRaworth) April 13, 2020

Kyabram Senior Constable Shane Roberts told the ABC the flag had not been easy to take down.

"It's making people upset understandably," Senior Constable Roberts said.

"We have no idea where it's come from but we're canvassing local businesses for footage and witnesses and obviously we're appealing for anyone who may have seen anything at all.

"We've never had anything like this previously so it's a bit out of the blue."

Police are collating CCTV from surrounding homes and businesses but believe the flags were attached after 12am on Sunday.

A Telstra spokesperson said a technician had removed the flags this afternoon.

"It is disappointing to see that people are spreading hatred at a time when we all need to work together, and that our infrastructure is being used to promote this message," the spokesperson said.

"Our focus is on ensuring our customers can keep connected when they need it most — luckily there was no damage to our tower and no services have been impacted."

Qantas investigated by Transport Workers Union

Australia's Transport Workers Union has turned the heat on Qantas as the airline continues to be hit by coronavirus.

In a statement earlier today, the TWU said it was compiling evidence about conditions Qantas staff were working in at Adelaide Airport before a coronavirus cluster was found among baggage handlers.

More than 750 Qantas staff from Adelaide Airport are in self-isolation after a cluster of 34 coronavirus cases was found.

The union will give its evidence to SA Health before the end of the week.

"Information the TWU is gathering also includes evidence that workers had been complaining about filthy conditions and lack of cleaning in staff rest and eating areas at Adelaide Airport for months," the union said.

TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said the union had spoken with Qantas workers, some of which felt "very let down by their employer".

“We are seeking the advice of senior counsel on how best to hold Qantas to account. Carnival Cruises is being investigated over allegedly withholding information from the authorities," Mr Kaine said.

"Qantas has serious questions to answer over how it has handled the exposure and spread of the virus among its staff and into the community."

When could Australia's lockdown end and what would open when it does?

Health Minister Greg Hunt has been questioned on when exactly Australia's lockdown could end – and what would be opened when it does.

On A Current Affair tonight, Mr Hunt said he wouldn't jump the gun, urging Aussies to be patient.

"I won't pre-empt the planning that the medical experts in the National Cabinet are doing, they are considering that this week," he said.

"There are still more to go, right now we have to stay the course and be patient because when you look at countries that are very proactive with coronavirus, including South Korea, Japan, Singapore, they had to tighten restrictions because there had been an increase in cases.

"Only minor but they all had to tighten restrictions and we want to avoid that challenge of the early signs of a second wave."

Staff, students isolate after coronavirus case at school

Staff and students of a prestigious Adelaide school are being asked to self- isolate following a coronavirus diagnosis.

A staff member from St Peter’s Girls Early Learning Centre has contracted COVID-19 and may have worked one day while infectious.

As a precaution, 10 children who attend the centre have been placed in self- isolation along with four other staff members.

The St Peter’s case was one of two new virus infections confirmed today, taking South Australia’s total to 431. There have been four COVID-19 deaths in the state.

Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Michael Cusack said 240, or more than half, of the state’s cases had recovered, describing it as “encouraging”. But he cautioned against early calls to lift restrictions.

“It would be wrong to imply we are over the back of this and we’ve seen the worst,” Dr Cusack said.

“I don’t think we should underestimate the risk for the public if we withdraw restrictions at too early a stage.”

Dr Cusack also pointed to the continued investigation of the so-called airport cluster which had forced about 750 Qantas staff into self-isolation.

The cluster of 34 confirmed cases comprises 18 baggage handlers, 13 of their close contacts and three other Qantas staff.

The Transport Workers Union has called for a full investigation into how Qantas handled the outbreak among its Adelaide Airport workers.

“The evidence we have gathered so far shows that Qantas knowingly exposed other workers to the coronavirus after it became clear that a worker at Adelaide Airport had contracted the virus,” South Australian branch secretary Ian Smith said.

But Qantas rejected the union’s claims and said it had co-operated fully with all of SA Health’s directives.

The airline said staff impacted by the self-isolation directive included cabin crew, pilots, customer service staff, engineers and baggage handlers.

It said some employees had already served all or the majority of the required quarantine period and all staff would continue to be paid for their period of self-isolation.

– AAP

Government 'close' to committing tens of millions to bail out airlines

The government has spent the Easter Long Weekend chatting with Australia's airlines and is reportedly "close" to giving them a hefty sum to keep domestic flights going.

Qantas and Virgin could be given "tens of millions" of dollars to keep domestic flights going through Australia's coronavirus lockdown, 9 reports.

The deal would be on top of the more than a billion already pledged by the government.

Deputy PM Michael McCormack told the ABC earlier today the government would be making sure Aussies could get home after their 14-day hotel quarantine.

"We also need, of course, to transfer people around from capital city to capital city. So we'll be looking at that," Mr McCormack said.

"We'll be looking at what we can do in conjunction with the airlines, who are cooperative."

Northern Territory again reports no new cases

The Northern Territory has again reported no new cases.

The territory's last positive coronavirus case was on April 6 – a woman in her 30s who had returned to Darwin from Sydney.

All 28 cases of coronavirus in the Northern Territory are related to international or interstate travel, with no cases of community transmission.

Six of those have recovered.

Optimism for Aussie markets

Signs of a flattening coronavirus curve in Australia and higher oil prices could bolster the local share market as it resumes trading although US futures were pointing to an overnight drop on Wall Street.

The session after the Easter holiday is always difficult to predict, with the Australian market playing catch up to two US trading sessions, as Wall Street does not take Monday off for Easter, CommSec chief economist Craig James said.

Still, “there’s reasons to be encouraged.”

“The Federal Reserve has come out with an amazing amount of monetary stimulus,” Mr James said, referring to the US central bank’s plans to inject another $US2.3 trillion ($A3.6 trillion) into the US economy to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus crisis.

Australian energy producers such as Woodside Petroleum and Santos could get a boost after Saudi Arabia and Russia called off their oil price war, with the OPEC+ production cartel reaching a historic agreement to cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day for May and June in a bid to shore up prices.

Brent crude prices were up three per cent to $US32.78 a barrel on Monday afternoon.

Locally there has been some encouraging signs on the coronavirus front, with just 33 new cases in the past 24 hours.

The release of March jobs data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday will give some sign of how badly the coronavirus crisis has damaged the economy although figures were collected early in the month before the lockdowns were implemented, Mr James said.

Economists are tipping Thursday’s announcement to show a loss of 30,000 jobs with unemployment rising from 5.1 to 5.4 per cent.

It won’t be until April’s jobs figures are released in May that the impact of the lockdowns on employment will be known, Mr James said.

The ABS will also report tourism figures for February on Wednesday.

– Derek Rose, AAP

Only two new cases of coronavirus in South Australia

Only two people have tested positive for coronavirus in South Australia in the past 24 hours.

State health authorities said there remained an "active" cluster among 34 Qantas workers and that 750 of their colleagues were self-isolating.

South Australia now has 431 cases of coronavirus.

WA records another single-digit increase in coronavirus cases

Western Australia has had another small increase in its coronavirus cases, confirming just six in the past 24 hours.

Health Minister Roger Cook said two of those had come from the state while the remaining four were foreigners.

The tourists had come from the Artania, an international cruise ship that is currently docked at Fremantle and in quarantine.

The ages of the six confirmed cases were 33 to 70 years old.

Western Australia now has 523 cases with 28 in hospital.

People 'given multiple warnings' before tickets

NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller has praised officers for showing discretion with the state's $1000 coronavirus fines.

"Many of the tickets were people who were given multiple warnings, which I think is really good indication that police are doing their best to apply this power reasonably," he said.

Police issued 58 COVID-19 related Penalty Infringement Notices over the past 24 hours and more than 200 over the Easter Long Weekend.