As it happened: Victoria records three new COVID-19 cases as outbreak spreads to aged care

Thanks for joining us for this Tuesday, the first day of winter. Here are the highlights at a glance:

Setting a cracking pace. Credit: Matt Golding

• The heated political debate over the vaccine rollout continued again today, with senate estimates descending into a shouting match over the slow progress. The Prime Minister was on the defensive in Question Time about his comments in March that the rollout was “not a race”, pointing to the health advice. Professor Brendan Murphy, when asked about this, said Australia did have less urgency earlier this year than the US and UK but such language was unhelpful now.
• The other big news topic was Christian Porter, a day after the former attorney-general discontinued his defamation proceedings against the ABC. Late this afternoon a friend of the woman who accused Mr Porter of rape, a claim he denies, threatened to sue him for defamation.
• Victoria recorded three new local cases today, none of which were in aged care. The government claims it’s too early to say whether the lockdown will end on Thursday night. Authorities are still looking for the mystery link that would explain how the virus spread through parts of Melbourne.
• Meanwhile house prices rose again to hit a new record in May. That sentence elicits either a sneaky fist pump or a groan, depending on your home ownership status.

Broede Carmody will be back at 6.30am to guide you through Wednesday. Goodnight!

There are still hours to run in senate estimates this evening but our press gallery photographer Alex Ellinghausen has already filed a set of very sharp images capturing the tone of the day that was in federal Parliament.

The ACT is leading all states and territories on the percentage of private aged care residents who have been fully vaccinated as of Monday, with 83 per cent of all residents having received their second dose.

The figures come from the federal government, which is responsibile for vaccinating older Australians in private facilities across the country.

Tasmania is next, with 70.1 per cent of aged care residents vaccinated. Queensland is third on 69.7 per cent.

About 68 per cent of aged care residents are fully vaccinated in NSW, while in Victoria that figure is 57 per cent.

South Australia is trailing the pack on 50 per cent.

Meanwhile 119,139 vaccine doses were administered nationwide on Monday, health department data shows.

Victoria comprised just over a third of that tally – 40,389 doses – while Tasmania had its highest turnout yesterday with 4400 people opting in.

Allegations of fraud in a $1.9 billion government leave scheme for the coal mining industry will be investigated by an independent review established by Attorney-General Michaelia Cash today.

Coal LSL is an unusual government corporation that takes in money from businesses in the black coal sector and then pays it out when one of the 53,000 current or former coal mine workers eligible wants to take long service leave.

Ms Cash announced the independent review today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has been a prominent advocate for a review, claiming that money is being paid out by the scheme to employers incorrectly and that workers are being left without the money to cover their time off.

The review will look into conflicts of interest in Coal LSL’s management and the “potential for, and instances of, identified fraud or breaches in good governance” before reporting later this year.

“The coal industry’s operating environment continues to evolve, and the laws currently regulating the scheme are not serving employees or employers as they should,” said Senator Cash, who is also industrial relations minister.

The CFMMEU’s mining division, workers and employers have also raised concerns with the scheme in the past, including about whether casuals are getting the right payments.

One Nation controls two crucial crossbench votes in the Senate on which the government often has to rely to pass its bills.

Here’s an interesting tidbit on the discontinued Christian Porter defamation case.

The Federal Court will hear a fight over media access to the ABC’s written defence to his claim, as lawyers for the federal Liberal minister say 27 pages of the document should be removed from the court file.

Mr Porter agreed to withdraw his high-stakes defamation case against the ABC yesterday after the parties attended mediation on Friday.

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

The Federal Court heard today that the ABC and Mr Porter had agreed as part of mediation talks that they would seek a court order that 27 pages of the ABC’s 37-page defence to his claim “be permanently removed from the court file”. The pages in question have been redacted in the publicly-available version of the defence.

However, no formal notice of discontinuance has been filed, meaning the case is not officially over.

A temporary non-publication order over the 27 pages was made in May, and now Nine Entertainment Co (owner of this masthead) and News Corp have briefed a barrister to fight the order and ultimately to access the unredacted defence.

Read more here.

A friend of the woman who accused Christian Porter of rape is threatening to sue the federal Liberal minister for defamation, a day after he agreed to drop his own defamation case against the ABC.

Jo Dyer – who won a court order last week to prevent Mr Porter’s high-profile barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, acting for him in his defamation case against the ABC – said in a statement on Tuesday that her lawyers had issued two defamation concerns notices to Mr Porter “in relation to his continuing defamatory comments of me”.

Jo Dyer, centre, outside court last Tuesday.Credit: James Brickwood

“Mr Porter has now twice impugned my honesty and integrity,” Ms Dyer said.

“This afternoon Marque Lawyers sent a second concerns notice to Mr Porter in relation to his continuing defamatory comments of me. He should be on notice that if I [emphasis in original] launch legal proceedings, I tend to see them through to their conclusion.”

Read more here.

For those of you commuting home this evening, here’s an eight-minute podcast about how China relations have galvanised Australia’s relationship with New Zealand.

Today’s Please Explain podcast covers Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s flying visit to New Zealand to meet his counterpart Jacinda Ardern.

The Queenstown meeting was dominated by coronavirus discussions as well as China’s growing influence and economic coercion.

Recent comments made Ardern’s ministers left Australian officials feeling New Zealand was out of step when it comes to diplomacy with Beijing.

But as tensions grow over everything from trade to human rights abuses, Ardern reaffirmed the relationship, describing Australia as “family”, and said it was an “important time for us to just continue to build and strengthen those ties”.

During Question Time today the Opposition decided against lobbing Industry Minister Christian Porter any questions about his decision to drop his defamation case against the ABC yesterday over its reporting of a historical rape allegation against him.

But earlier on Tuesday, Labor leader Anthony Albanese repeated his call for Mr Porter to face an independent inquiry over his fitness to be a minister when asked about the issue at a press conference.

Mr Porter in the House of Representatives this afternoon. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Well, it’s very clear that Christian Porter’s performance yesterday, where he attempted to spin what was a capitulation into somehow a victory, was quite extraordinary. There needs to be an appropriate, independent, arm’s length investigation into whether Christian Porter is a fit and proper person to serve as a Cabinet minister,” Mr Albanese said.

The ABC and Mr Porter agreed to settle the case, with Mr Porter extracting a concession by the ABC to add an editor’s note saying the accusations could not be substantiated to a legal criminal or civil standard. But the broadcaster maintained it had not paid any damages to Mr Porter, only his mediation costs. The article at the centre of the dispute remains online and Mr Porter has vehemently denied the allegation.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham rejected Labor’s renewed push for an inquiry when he was asked about it on Sky News.

“There’s not been grounds, I think, for any other change in approach, aside from backing the independence of our police forces and the independence of our courts. In that regard, the ABC has put clarifications up as a result of the settlement that it has reached with Christian Porter, paying parts of his legal costs. That’s a matter between him and the ABC,” Senator Birmingham said.

Back to senate estimates in Canberra. At the end of April, the Department of Health said 13 special pop-up clinics would be opened up to help vaccinate aged care and disability support workers.

So far, three of those clinics have been opened up – and all three are in NSW.

The department’s associate secretary Caroline Edwards said discussions were still under way with other states and territories about where those hubs should be set up.

“We haven’t set all the locations for them but that’s what the discussions are about,” she told an estimates hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

It comes after the Victorian government announced it would fast-track appointments for those workers to allow them to “jump the queue” at state-run hubs from tomorrow.

“What they will be doing is making sure that true priority is given to those people in phase one,” Department of Health secretary Professor Brendan Murphy said.

Aged Care Services Minister Richard Colbeck said the Commonwealth was pleased with the Victorian government’s planned blitz.

“We’re very happy with that announcement. We appreciate it,” he said.

Labor’s aged care services spokeswoman Clare O’Neil said it was breathtaking that less than 10 per cent of aged care workers had been fully vaccinated.

“The government must immediately deliver a detailed plan with clear vaccine targets for the aged care workforce. This is essential. Targets ensure urgency and right now the Morrison government displays no urgency at all,” she told this masthead.

“When will half the aged care workforce be vaccinated? When will three quarters be done? Targets must be set.”

Question Time has wrapped up at Parliament House, with Labor using the hour to focus its assault on the government’s vaccine rollout in aged care.

The Prime Minister was asked whether he agreed with Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck’s assessment, made in estimates today, that it was “not a yes or no answer” as to whether the government was responsible for the vaccine rollout in aged care.

Mr Morrison during Question Time today. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Morrison, it seems, disagrees: “The government is indeed responsible for the national vaccination strategy, right across the country,” he told the chamber.

“We are doing it in partnership with states and territories, of course we are, general practitioners and a whole range of others who are supporting these efforts.”