As it happened: Victoria records 11 new local COVID-19 cases; Christian Porter discontinues defamation case against the ABC

And that’s stumps. It’s been another big day – thanks for following along.

Here are the highlights:

• Former attorney-general Christian Porter discontinued his high-stakes defamation claim against the ABC just days after the parties agreed to attend mediation behind closed doors. He claimed the outcome was “a humiliating backdown by the ABC” but the broadcaster said it stands by it “stands by the importance of the article” which remains online with an editor’s note attached.
• Victoria recorded 11 new local cases on Monday, including six new ones reported after the usual midnight deadline. Acting Premier James Merlino said it was too early to say when events such as weddings and funerals could resume.
• The vaccine rollout hit a milestone on Monday with Health Minister Greg Hunt saying a record 630,547 Australians were vaccinated in the past week. However the stoush between the Victorian and federal governments continues as Victoria blames Canberra for the slow rollout (which is weeks behind schedule) and also seeks a JobKeeper-style wage subsidy.

Broede Carmody will be back at 6.30am. Have a great evening!

In a change of pace, former foreign minister Julie Bishop has worn one of Carla Zampatti’s final ever designs in a tribute to the late designer on the opening day of Australian Fashion Week in Sydney.

Ms Bishop confirmed the navy lace top was one of the final creations by Zampatti, who died on April 3 after sustaining serious injuries in a fall on March 26.

Julie Bishop attends Fashion Week to give a tribute to Carla Zampatti. Credit: Brook Mitchell

“Timeless, flawless, elegant and without pretension, Carla Zampatti’s designs reflected the woman she was,” Ms Bishop said at a ceremony to dedicate one of the spaces at Carriageworks as The Carla Zampatti Runway.

Zampatti’s daughter, Bianca Spender, also spoke at the event.

“A classic runway show still reigns supreme as the most compelling way to launch the creative vision of a collection,” Spender, who has her own fashion label, said.

“Mum was aware of this, and continued to be motivated to showcase her designs on the runway more than 110 seasons on!”

Other highlights of day one included a welcome to country – a first for fashion week – and London-based designer Jordan Dalah, who is famous for his oversized, voluminous garments.

Next week’s opening State of Origin match was due to be played in Melbourne, before Victoria’s COVID outbreak threw a spanner in the works.

Today the NRL abandoned plans to play the blockbuster at a neutral venue in exchange for an $8 million bid from the Queensland government to stage the game in Townsville.

Brad Fittler’s Blues will now be forced to play the first two games of this year’s series north of the border.

NRL boss Andrew Abdo said last week neutral venues including Canberra, Perth and Adelaide were being lined up as contingency plans for the June 9 match, but on Monday the league confirmed it would be hosted at Townsville’s new 25,000-seat stadium.

It will be the first time since the first two Origin games in 1982 that NSW have had to play two consecutive games in Queensland.

Read more here.

We’ve been talking a lot about the federal government’s delayed rollout of the vaccination program, particularly in aged care facilities.

Homes were to be vaccinated in phase 1a of the rollout, which began on February 22 and was meant to take six weeks.

Under the Commonwealth’s rollout program, states are responsible for offering vaccinations to frontline healthcare workers, quarantine workers, and public sector aged care workers and residents.

Victoria’s COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar last month.Credit: Scott McNaughton

Victoria’s COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar revealed today the state had reached 100 per cent of coverage for quarantine workers and frontline healthcare workers in the 1a category.

About 85 per cent of the wider healthcare workforce have received at least one shot.

He said the government administered the first dose of the vaccine to everyone involved in the public aged care system by April 19 and about two-thirds of residents and staff in public aged care had received their second dose of the vaccine.

NSW has also vaccinated 100 per cent of its quarantine workforce, but does not report the number of healthcare workers who have had the vaccine.

Vaccine Operations Centre head Commodore Eric Young said all 596 of Victoria’s aged care facilities have had first dose visits, and 382 of those have received second doses meaning 36 per cent were still waiting for second doses in the coming weeks.

The number of aged care staff who have been vaccinated remains unclear, with the federal government working to compile data from GP clinics and state-run hubs to find out the total.

This afternoon my colleagues David Crowe, our chief political correspondent, and health reporter Rachel Clun, pushed Health Minister Greg Hunt hard on whether he accepts any responsibility for the slow vaccine rollout that Labor says is the Morrison government’s fault.

Here’s Clun, who started by referring to the government’s initial promise of a six-week rollout, which we’re now more than three months into.

Mr Hunt defended questions about Australia’s vaccine rollout being behind schedule.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“For weeks now we’ve had ample and sufficient supplies of both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. So why has it taken so long to do these really vulnerable populations? And you accept that is a failing of the government?” she asked.

Mr Hunt did not directly answer the question, instead focusing on the states and territories where the rollout is going well.

“So every day, we’re pushing to make sure that as many people are vaccinated as possible. At this point it’s 100 per cent of [aged care] facilities in Victoria, Northern Territory, Tasmania, and the ACT,” he said.

“There are six facilities across the entire rest of the country which have had their own individual circumstances [and not been vaccinated], and we expect that they’ll all be covered within the coming days. Every day we working with the facilities, on the basis of what we have and the capacity to deliver into them.”

The Coalition is keen to downplay the slowness of the vaccine rollout. Yesterday Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said the program is “not a race”.

Former attorney-general Christian Porter said outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday that the outcome was “a humiliating backdown by the ABC” and the article was “sensationalist”, “one-sided” and written in such a way that people would “assume guilt”.

He said he would run at the next election, was committed to his West Australian seat of Pearce and was not seeking to return as attorney-general after moving to the portfolio of Industry, Science and Technology.

Mr Porter outside the Federal Court in Sydney on Monday. Credit: ABC

“I never thought that they would concede that the assertions that were put in the article could never be proven, couldn’t be proven to the criminal standard or the civil standard,” Mr Porter said.

He said the ABC “asked us into mediation”. Mediation is common in Federal Court defamation cases and it is not unusual for the parties to attempt to settle proceedings before a trial.

“You can never turn the clock back on this sort of reporting, and that’s why it was so wrong,” Mr Porter said.

“What the ABC itself has said is that a civil inquiry would not produce a result that proves the accusations that were contained in their article.”

Read more here.

Former attorney-general Christian Porter is holding a press conference shortly after he has discontinued his defamation claim against the ABC.

Unfortunately we’ve had technical difficulties with our live stream. We’ll have a post with his comments shortly.

Christian Porter has discontinued his high-stakes defamation claim against the ABC just days after the parties agreed to attend mediation behind closed doors.

Federal Court Justice Tom Thawley granted an order on Thursday restraining Mr Porter’s former barrister, high-profile defamation silk Sue Chrysanthou, SC, from acting for the federal Liberal minister in the defamation case on the basis that she had previously advised a potential witness for the ABC.

Christian Porter in Parliament on May 27.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

In a statement on Monday, the ABC said: “Christian Porter has decided to discontinue his defamation action against the ABC and Louise Milligan.

“All parties have agreed to not pursue the matter any further. No damages will be paid.”

The ABC said it stands by the story, which remains online but now has an “editor’s note” attached.

Read more here.

Health Minister Greg Hunt says a record number of COVID-19 vaccinations occurred in the past seven days.

“This week 630,547 Australians came forward to be vaccinated,” Mr Hunt said.

That is twice what it was four weeks ago. Nationally 4.24 million doses have been delivered.

Mr Hunt said the 99-year-old woman had received a first dose of a COVID vaccine. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Hunt confirmed that a 99-year-old resident at Arcare Maidstone in Melbourne’s north-west has tested positive for COVID-19 while a second person, aged 95, has not tested positive but is being re-tested on the “advice of medical authorities”.

The elder woman, who does not have any symptoms, will be transferred to hospital, Mr Hunt said. Both had received a first dose of vaccines.

Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler said earlier the federal government should explain why aged care workers had been allowed to work across multiple sites from November, after initially banning the practice to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during the pandemic last year.

Here’s an interesting tidbit from data journalist Craig Butt.

Yesterday, there were 30,701 vaccine doses administered nationwide, and of those more than two thirds (20,909) went to people in Victoria.

Sunday’s total was particularly noteworthy, up four-fold on the previous Sunday.

You can compare how each state is progressing in the chart below.

Meanwhile, one of Melbourne’s largest all-girls’ schools has been forced to close after a staff member tested positive to COVID-19.

Methodist Ladies’ College in Kew said it was informed today that a staff member based at its year 7-12 campus had returned a positive test result.

“We are working closely with the Department of Health, and with immediate effect, we have closed our Year 7-12 campus,” the school said in a message on its website.