Coronavirus Australia live news: WA Premier Mark McGowan refuses to give ground on quarantine limits
WA Premier won’t say if he’ll ease restrictions on arrivals from states on the cusp of meeting their Covid thresholds.
- Our AAA credit rating can survive
- International borders our biggest risk: Palaszczuk
- Private firms axed in SA overhaul
- NSW restrictions eased further
- Queensland opens border to Victoria
Welcome to The Australian’s live coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Global ratings agency Moody’s says Australia’s economy will not emerge from the COVID-19 crisis permanently weaker, paving the way for the country to remain one of the few AAA-rated nations in the world. Queensland will open its borders to Victoria from December 1, but Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says international doors should stay firmly shut. Private security guards are now banned and hotels will no longer be used for quarantine in an overhaul of the SA quarantine system.
Rosie Lewis 8.45pm: Business urges start of two-way NZ travel
Two-way travel between Australia and New Zealand would begin by Christmas under a plan being pitched to the Morrison government, in a bid to inject billions of dollars into the economy and boost struggling industries.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will unveil a new trans-Tasman travel bubble proposal on Thursday, with the first flights to lift off on or around December 21 between Canberra and Wellington.
Once proven to be safe, routes would expand to other airports.
Remy Varga, Rachel Baxendale 8pm: City needs CBD oil to ease the pain
Private businesses in inner Melbourne say the CBD needs help returning to its pre-pandemic glory after they were forgotten in the Victorian government’s multi-billion-dollar state budget spending spree this week.
With the bulk of workers out of the office and international tourists barred from entering the country, restaurants, cafes and tourist attractions are bracing for a grim holiday season.
Melbourne Star Observation Wheel head of operations and finance Darren Greenbank said the world-famous tourist attraction had kept turning over the 231 days it was closed in the pandemic, meaning maintenance and lighting bills kept coming despite the massive drop in revenue.
AFP 7.15pm: Tokyo to urge residents to avoid ‘non-essential’ outings
Tokyo’s governor will urge residents to avoid non-essential outings and ask businesses serving alcohol to shut early as the country battles record coronavirus infections.
Japan has seen a comparatively small outbreak of the respiratory disease, with just over 2000 deaths and 135,400 infections, and it has not imposed the strict lockdowns seen elsewhere.
But it is now battling a third wave, reporting record numbers of daily infections nationwide in recent days.
Neither of the governor’s new calls will carry any enforcement mechanism, local media said on Wednesday. Even a state of emergency declared in the northern spring during a spike in infections did not carry punishments for those who defied calls to stay home or close their doors.
Tokyo has already raised its virus alert level to the top of a four-tier scale, and national broadcaster NHK said Governor Yuriko Koike would now call on residents to “refrain from making unnecessary and non-emergency outings”.
Other local media added Ms Koike would also ask businesses serving alcohol to close at 10pm starting from Saturday for approximately three weeks.
Businesses complying will be eligible for compensation.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said last week Japan was on “maximum alert” over the virus, and his government has been forced into a U-turn on a controversial domestic tourism campaign.
It initially insisted it would not scale back the so-called Go To campaign, but reversed course and has allowed individual regions to choose to opt out.
So far, hard-hit Osaka and the northern city of Sapporo have been excluded from the programme, which subsidises travel inside the country in an attempt to help the struggling travel and hospitality industries.
Eli Greenblat 6.30pm: Harvey Norman enjoys Covid sales bonanza
Working from home and lockdown spending help retailer Harvey Norman more than double pre-tax profit over four months. Read more here
Paul Garvey 5.46pm: WA won’t be pushed into border reopening guarantees
Western Australian premier Mark McGowan is refusing to guarantee he will drop quarantine requirements for arrivals from Victoria and NSW, despite both states sitting on the cusp of reaching the state’s key COVID thresholds.
Victoria is on track to record 28 straight days without any community transmission of the virus on Friday, which would meet the guideline set by the state’s chief health officer before he dropped those quarantine requirements for other jurisdictions. NSW is on track to meet that target next week.
Queensland on Tuesday announced it would reopen its border to NSW and Victoria by December 1, but Mr McGowan said his state would take other factors into account when weighing up whether to open up its border to the country’s two most populous states.
“We will get advice on the 28 day mark, if there are no additional cases,” he said on Wednesday afternoon.
“The sorts of things you take account of are sewerage testing, you take account of their border arrangements, people who might have come from other infected places, and their testing regime.
“We will be cautious and we will be careful and we won’t take risks. We will adopt those principles the whole way through.”
The WA government, which has enforced the most stringent intrastate border restrictions during the pandemic, on Wednesday launched a mandatory QR code registration system for the state’s bars and restaurants that will come into effect from December 5.
The state has not recorded a case of community transmission of the virus since April, but health minister Roger Cook said it was important for WA to further bolster its contact tracing systems in case there was another outbreak.
“While to date WA remains free of community transmission, we need to have processes in place in case it is required by our WA health and response teams,” Mr Cook said.
READ MORE: ASX reverses 2020 falls after Dow record
Remy Varga 4.30pm: Friday release for Andrews’ extra hotel inquiry statement
An additional statement from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to the hotel quarantine inquiry is expected to be released on Friday.
Chair Jennifer Coate will hear additional submissions from counsel assisting Tony Neal QC at a final hearing.
As well as Mr Andrews, additional statements from Police Minister Lisa Neville, former Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles and former Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kym Peake are expected to be tendered.
Both the top public servants resigned after appearing at the inquiry.
It is understood no witnesses will be recalled.
READ more: Botched hotel quarantine cost $195m
Richard Ferguson 4.10pm: Cancelling terrorist’s citizenship ‘best way to keep Australia safe’
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says cancelling the citizenship of convicted terrorist Abdul Nacer Benbrika is the “best opportunity” to keep Australians safe.
Benbrika on Wednesday was the first terrorist on Australian soil to have his citizenship cancelled by the federal government.
Mr Dutton on Wednesday said he will do whatever is possible within Australian law to keep Australians safe from Benbrika.
“The Commonwealth has made its position clear on the risk we think he poses to the Australian public,” he said in Brisbane.
“This is a very serious action and the penalties highlight that. We believe it is appropriate to take the action that we have, and that is before a court at the moment.
“We will do whatever is possible within Australian law to protect Australians, that remains our priority in relation to Benbrika.”
READ the full story here.
Richard Ferguson 4pm: US ambassador clears way for first Biden appointment
US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse will leave Canberra at the end of the year, making way for US president-elect Joe Biden to make his first diplomatic appointment to this country.
Mr Culvahouse is close to outgoing president Donald Trump — having led Mr Trump’s vice-presidential candidate search when he first ran for office — and he was once Ronald Reagan’s top White House lawyer.
“I’m a political ambassador, a political appointee,” Mr Culvahouse said in Brisbane.
“I understand those rules and political ambassadors almost without exception, return home when there is a change of administration.
“And I expect between now and January 20, I will head back to the United States.”
READ more: US Ambassador blasts China over Morrison ‘grievances’
Patrick Commins 3.50pm: Australia’s AAA credit rating can survive Covid: Moody’s
Global ratings agency Moody’s says Australia’s economy will not emerge from the COVID-19 crisis permanently weaker, paving the way for the country to remain one of the few AAA-rated nations in the world on the other side of the pandemic.
In a new report on Wednesday, the New York-based firm said despite the most severe contraction on record in the June quarter, Australia was “unlikely to face a lasting drop in potential growth or weakening in fiscal strength over the longer term”.
The welcome vote of confidence from one of the three major in international ratings agencies comes as the nation charts a surprisingly brisk path out of the COVID-19 recession, with Victoria’s success in suppressing the second wave of virus cases paving the way for the removal of internal borders as community transmission of the disease dwindles to zero.
Moody’s said the Morrison government’s “substantial policy response is helping viable companies to survive the related shock to demand and to avoid the destruction of productive capacity”.
“Stimulus in response to the coronavirus outbreak does not significantly threaten fiscal strength over the longer term,” the report read. “Rather, the package highlights Australia’s flexibility and capacity to use fiscal policy to support its credit profile in a difficult global economic environment.”
But Moody’s warned that “a major driver of Australia’s potential growth rate will be the extent to which productivity growth picks up from the relatively weak levels experienced before the pandemic” — underlining the need for further policy reform as the economy transitions off emergency income support.
READ MORE:
Matthew Denholm 3.30pm: Tasmania opens border to Victoria from Friday
Tasmania will open its border for quarantine-free arrivals from Victoria from Friday.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the decision — after eight months of border restrictions — would mean people arriving from Victoria would no longer need to quarantine for two weeks.
“(But they) will be health screened at the border along with our other visitors,” he said. “I know this will be welcomed by so many who have been waiting months to reunite with loved ones. People arriving in Tasmania from Victoria from this date should register their travel and contact details via the Tas e-Travel system to receive a Tas e-Travel QR code.
“Public Health is continuing to monitor the situation in South Australia, and we will provide a further update regarding current restrictions tomorrow.”
READ MORE: How to get 50 people over for Christmas
Rachel Baxendale 3.05pm: No quarantine model will ever be ‘zero risk’: Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says no hotel quarantine model will ever be “zero risk”, as his state prepares to accept international arrivals for the first time since the program was shut down in July after sparking a deadly second wave of coronavirus.
Mr Andrews’ comments come after South Australia revealed on Wednesday it had reversed its policy on quarantine and would now ban private security guards and cease using hotels, and after The Australian revealed this week that the NSW hotel quarantine scheme had been beset with thousands of incidents, with 169 security guards sacked and at least four overseas arrivals absconding from facilities.
“I would just say no model will ever be zero risk. We’ve seen that in recent days in other parts of the country, whether it was some of the reporting out of NSW, some of the incidents, the reporting out of Adelaide, you’ve got to build the strongest model possible, get the risk down to the lowest level, and then work as hard as you can to mitigate that and manage that,” Mr Andrews said.
“There is no zero risk framework here, but there’s a good deal of care and attention and hundreds and hundreds of hours of work going into this and I’ll have more to say about it soon.”
Victoria is due to begin receiving an initial maximum of 160 international travellers a day from December 7, for the first time since clusters of coronavirus in security guards working at quarantine hotels in late May and early June sparked a second wave of coronavirus which killed 800 people and put the state in stay-at-home lockdown from July to October.
Despite 26 consecutive days with no new known cases of coronavirus in Victoria, Mr Andrews warned there was still “every chance that there are a handful of cases out there.”
“This is a wildly infectious virus. You’ve always got to assume there’s more there than you know,” he said, talking up the 16,409 tests processed in Victoria in the 24 hours to Wednesday.
“That will be among the highest in the country if not the highest, but not everyone gets tested,” Mr Andrews said.
“Sometimes the symptoms of this thing are so mild that they don’t register with people. The other factor is that not everyone gets tested as quickly as they should, so they can be exposed to someone else and inadvertently spread this virus. So we always have to assume that there’s some out there bubbling, simmering if you like, and the key point here is to have a set of rules that assumes that, allows us to open up, but again, stay safe and stay open.
“It’s COVID normal and COVID safe that we need, not normal, because even 26 days in a row of zero, that’s not a vaccine.”
READ MORE: Private firms axed in SA quarantine overhaul
Angelica Snowden 2.05pm: International borders our biggest risk: Palaszczuk
Swathes of people coming into Australia from overseas is the country’s biggest risk and international borders should not come down, Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says.
After she announced the border with Victoria would fall and Queensland would welcome travellers from the state after December 1 after 28 days of zero mystery COVID cases, Ms Pałaszczuk said the pandemic continued to rage in the northern hemisphere.
“The last thing we would want to see is plane loads of people coming here with COVID,” Ms Pałaszczuk told Sky news.
“I do not have any jurisdiction over the international borders, but I will say this, the biggest risk to Australia is a large influx of people coming from international destinations,” she said.
“I absolutely accept that Australians should be returning home and we are all doing our part to help them. But the biggest risk to Australia and our economy and to our health is if the international borders were to come down.”
The comments came after Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the airline would seek to make COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory for anyone travelling in and out of Australia in a bid to ramp up international travel next year.
When a vaccine is available, Mr Joyce said passengers will be required to prove they had a vaccination before they board a flight.
He also revealed passengers on repatriation flights operated by Qantas were already being tested before they boarded and when they arrived in Darwin. He said the aim of the measure is to potentially reduce the mandatory quarantine period from 14-days to seven or even five.
READ MORE: Travel complaints up 500 per cent
Angelica Snowden 1.45pm: War Memorial’s war crime allegations plan
The Australian War Memorial has sparked controversy over a plan to acknowledge the Brereton inquiry by allowing exhibitions to portray allegations of war crimes truthfully.
Memorial director Matt Anderson said the cultural institution has always accepted the facts and will continue to do in their exhibitions.
“All we have said we will do is acknowledge the facts of the Brereton report and from there allow due process to take its course,” Mr Anderson said.
“My job is to ensure the allegations … are placed in the context of the remarkable service of Australian men and women in the Middle East over the last 30 years,” he said.
Mr Anderson said findings of the report – which accused Australian special forces soldiers of murdering 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners – still needed to be investigated.
“What I will do is tell the story of the sacrifice of servicemen and women in Afghanistan who have done remarkable things in our name,” he said.
Earlier Scott Morrison urged people not to get ahead of themselves because there were no “specific plans” for portrayals of the Brereton report’s findings in the memorial yet.
“The War Memorial board which has oversight over this has people on there like Tony Abbott and corporal Daniel Keighran is on there … and the list goes on so there are a lot of people with a lot of experience on there,” he told 2GB.
“I think we should just wait to see how the (War Memorial) is proposing to handle this very sensitive matter.
“And my simple point is we have got a board that sits over those decisions, which has got a lot of very sensible people … who have a good understanding of how this issue needs to be sensitively dealt with.”
READ MORE: ‘Don’t strip my dead son’s award from us’
David Penberthy 1.15pm: Private firms axed in SA quarantine overhaul
Private security guards are now banned and hotels will no longer be used for quarantine in a complete reversal of the management of South Australia’s Covid quarantine system following an infection bungle.
Instead, all positive Covid cases will be moved out of medi-hotels to a new, dedicated facility staffed solely by SA Police and Protective Services workers.
Premier Steven Marshall announced the overhaul on Wednesday after it emerged that an expatriate couple who returned to SA and was believed to have caught the virus overseas was subsequently found to be part of the Parafield cluster, which forced last week’s snap lockdown.
That discovery means the couple was likely to have caught the virus while housed at the Peppers Hotel, where people who are part of the Parafield cluster had been working as cleaners and kitchen hands, suggesting a possible breakdown in safety within the hotel.
The announcement by Premier Marshall is a major shift against his former reluctance to manage quarantine using only police and protective services employees.
He has said previously that it would be logistically impossible to manage quarantine properly using police alone and that extra workers were required to bolster numbers.
READ the full story
Richard Ferguson 12.30pm: Cormann given 8 DFAT staff to help with OECD bid
Former finance minister Mathias Cormann has a team of eight diplomatic staff helping his bid to be OECD secretary-general.
News.com.au reported on Wednesday that the Department of Foreign Affairs had dedicated some of its staff to help Mr Cormann’s bid to run the major international economic forum
A DFAT spokesman said in a statement DFAT staff were “temporarily” helping Mr Cormann with strategy, policy advice and communications.
“The taskforce consists of 8.5 dedicated staff, made up of a taskforce manager and campaign strategist, strategy and policy advisers, a visits manager, two graduates and a communications specialist,” the DFAT spokesman said.
“The OECD is a world-leading international economic organisation. As we tackle COVID-19, work by organisations like the OECD will help us find recovery solutions – this candidacy is a high priority for the Government.”
Scott Morrison on Wednesday defended using an RAAF jet to fly Mr Cormann around Europe for his campaign, and said the former Liberal senate leader risked getting COVID on commercial planes.
READ MORE: Swan secure in top Labor job
Robyn Ironside 11.40am: Travel complaints up 500 per cent: guess why?
Travel has topped the list of COVID-related complaints in 2020 with the consumer watchdog reporting a 500 per cent surge in gripes.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report on the impact of COVID-19 on consumers and fair trading, revealed 24,210 travel-related complaints had been received in the year to October, up from 4052 the previous year.
The report observed that the huge increase was “unsurprising, given the immense impact that domestic and international travel restrictions and the subsequent cancellation of travel bookings, have had on both consumers and travel businesses”.
It noted that the situation had been complicated further by the fact most insurance policies excluded cancellations resulting from the pandemic.
In an effort to address the issues, an ACCC task force engaged directly with around 50 travel businesses to “effect behavioural change on issues impacting hundreds of thousands of Australian consumers”.
“In many instances this engagement resulted in travel businesses changing their approach to ensure they were offering consumers refunds or other remedies for cancelled travel in accordance with their entitlements under the terms and conditions of their contract,” said the report.
“The ACCC recognises that many businesses in the travel sector have assisted consumers by implementing hardship policies and providing refunds for those consumers in exceptional circumstances of health or financial hardship.
“Unfortunately, other businesses have been less willing to accommodate hardship claims.”
READ the full story
Will Glasgow 11.20am: Hopes China row has cooled after PM comments
Beijing has acknowledged Scott Morrison’s “positive comments” about China in a sign the seven-month diplomatic spat with Australia’s biggest trading partner may be cooling.
“China noticed Prime Minister Morrison’s positive comments on the global influence of China’s economic growth and China’s poverty alleviation efforts,” said foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Tuesday evening in Beijing.
“We hope Australia will make independent, objective, sensible choices that serve its own interests,” the foreign ministry spokesperson said at a daily press conference.
Those comments were a notable change from the bombastic tone Chinese foreign ministry has used about the Morrison government since April when it enraged Xi Jinping’s administration by Australia’s championing an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.
READ the full story
Angelica Snowden 11.15am: NSW restrictions eased further than expected
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she has been able to relax COVID-19 restrictions further than she expected this morning, announcing a host of changes to health measures.
Ms Berejiklian confirmed households can host up to 50 people as long as an outdoor space is utilised, but with a maximum of 30 indoors.
NSW recorded no new cases of locally acquired #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 25, 2020
Four cases were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine. pic.twitter.com/CVAf5MhAp1
A total of 50 people will now be able to attend outdoors gatherings, like picnics or barbecues.
For smaller hospitality venues up to 200 square metres, they can now apply the one person or two square metre rule.
“We are pleased to announce that today health is looking very closely at being able to apply that two square metre rule indoors across all hospitality venues,” Ms Berejiklian said.
She also confirmed from December 14 the public health order which requires employers to allow staff to work from home will be repealed
“Private companies and organisations can make decisions about what they do with their employees into the New Year,” the Premier said.
The news came after no new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the state overnight.
READ MORE: Neil Perry and Qantas go back to the drawing board
Angelica Snowden 10.50am: ‘No significant breaches’ at SA medi-hotel
South Australia’s chief health officer says she is absolutely sure no one was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” at the Pepper’s medi-hotel where a recent COVID outbreak started, but subtle details were still being looked at.
“What is really clear is that there were no significant breaches identified which we could have said – yes, that’s definitely how it was transmitted so it is much more subtle than that,” Dr Spurrier said.
“There was also absolutely no incidents of staff going into the travellers’ rooms and certainly no inappropriate behaviour at all,” she said after communicable disease experts reviewed CCTV footage of the hotel.
A security guard was the “index” case for the cluster, not a cleaner, Dr Spurrier also confirmed.
South Australia’s police commissioner Grant Stevens said policing resources were “stretched” amid the state’s lockdown and after it was announced police, not private security, would guard a dedicated COVID facility.
“I’m not pretending that we’re not under pressure at the moment in terms of our resources,” Commissioner Stevens said.
“Over the last few days and over the course of the Parafield cluster and the events that occurred in the last ten days or so, our resource allocation to COVID-19 response activities has been over 600 people a day,” he said.
“This is a significant diversion from what you might call core policing activities.”
Commissioner Stevens said he was aware “some disciplinary actions” had been taken against some security staff “based on noncompliance with PPE protocols” but said he did not know how many had been sacked.
READ MORE: Airlines scramble extra flights
David Rogers 10.40am: ASX recoups 2020 losses after DOW’s record gains
Australia’s share market has turned up for the year, after rising one per cent to a nine-month high of 6713 following strong gains on Wall Street, where the Dow topped 30,000 for the first time.
If it ends above 6684 the index will close in positive territory on a year-to-date basis for the first time since February 26.
The index fell as much as 39pc early this year from a record high of 7197.2 to a 7.5-year low of 4402.5 on the COVID crisis and has since rebounded by 52 per cent.
Value stocks in the Energy, Utilities, Financials, Consumer Discretionary and Materials sectors are outperforming.
READ: Trading Day live blog
Angelica Snowden 10.35am: No new cases in SA, cluster remains at 29
South Australia has recorded no new coronavirus cases, leaving the Parafield cluster at a total of 29 infections after two returned international travellers were linked with the outbreak yesterday.
The state’s chief health officer Nicola Spurrier confirmed the news and revealed the couple were genetically linked with the coronavirus outbreak.
“They had the same strain of COVID as the Parafield cluster,” Dr Spurrier said.
“They were in the Peppers Hotel, so that immediately let us bring the conclusion that those people had contracted that not from coming overseas but actually during their stay in the Peppers Hotel,” she said.
Premier Steven Marshall also announced a string of new measures to improve hotel quarantine.
South Australia Health will now transfer all positive COVID cases from medi-hotels to a dedicated health facility which will be exclusively managed by South Australia Police and South Australia protective security officers.
Speaking #live with a local #COVID19 update for #SouthAustralia. Tune in: https://t.co/A2E3AD4lUv pic.twitter.com/yqXilvakod
— Steven Marshall, MP (@marshall_steven) November 24, 2020
Mr Marshall also announced a string of new measures to improve hotel quarantine.
South Australia Health will now transfer all positive COVID cases from medi-hotels to a dedicated health facility which will be exclusively managed by South Australia Police and South Australia protective security officers.
Under the new measures, the old Wakefield Hospital in the CBD could be used as the dedicated coronavirus facility.
He also announced staff who work at the dedicated facility will not be deployed to other medi-hotels, or high-risk environments, including aged care facilities, correctional facilities or hospitals.
Mr Marshall also said he would ask National Cabinet to consider testing all returning Australian citizens before boarding their flight from overseas “with a view that they must have negative test results before boarding”.
Once these new measures are implemented South Australia will gradually start to accept returning overseas arrivals again.
READ MORE: Evictions will rise if debts upheld
Angelica Snowden 10.05am: ‘No decisions’ on stripping award from special forces
Scott Morrison has refused to weigh in on plans to strip Meritorious Unit Citation from 3000 special forces task group members until Chief of Defence Force Angus Campbell finalises his recommendations.
General Campbell said last week he accepted Justice Paul Brereton’s recommendation he ask the Governor-General to revoke the Meritorious Unit Citation for all special forces task groups who served in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013.
“I’m waiting for General Campbell to be able to finalise his set of recommendations about what he proposes to do and I know this is a very sensitive and controversial issue,” the Prime Minister said.
“I mean we haven’t seen a report like this before and there are obviously things that need to be addressed,” he told 2GB.
“There is a proper justice process that pays to go through as we said, where you’re always innocent until proven guilty in this country that’s what doing things by Australia’s rule of law means.”
Mr Morrison said “decisions have not been made” on the plan yet.
“Let’s just see how each step unfolds … This is a very hard issue for Australia to deal with.”
He said reforms need to take place in the military and defence force veterans themselves acknowledged that.
“I mean it’s important that the justice process obviously (deals) with specific incidents,” he said.
“But there’s also issues around chain of command and things like that and they also have to be addressed in terms of reform.
“Those are matters that I know are being dealt with and I will wait to see the next stages that the Chief of Defence Force recommends.”
READ MORE: SAS must put honour before glory
Richard Ferguson 9.30am: PM defends Cormann use of RAAF jet for EU tour
Scott Morrison has defended former finance minister Mathias Cormann’s taxpayer-funded tour of Europe to secure the OECD secretary-generalship, saying he could get COVID on commercial jets.
Mr Cormann has travelled to several European countries in his OECD bid so far and used an RAAF jet to travel, which reports say cost $4000 every hour of flying.
The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that Australia had never achieved as high level a global position as the OECD secretary-generalship, and the use of an RAAF jet was putting safety first.
“That’s funded by the government because the government is taking this bid very seriously,” he told 2GB radio.
“This is a very important position. The OECD is going to play a very important role in the global economic recovery … there really wasn’t the practical option because of COVID.
“If Mathias was flying around on commercial flights, he would have got COVID.”
Angelica Snowden 9.25am: Palaszczuk ‘won’t hesitate to close border again’
Annastacia Palaszczuk said she would not hesitate to declare an area a hotspot if an outbreak were to occur.
“Let’s take for example if there was another issue like what they had in Victoria and say it happened in Sydney, and all of Sydney went into lockdown well then we would declare Sydney a hotspot,” she told Sky news.
“I mean it’s just common sense.”
She insisted chief health officers from all states and territories regularly talked and agreed on hotspot definitions and defended her right to close borders again should another outbreak occur.
“The High Court upheld the situation that states can make the decisions to look after the health of their citizens and use strong border measures to protect the health of the citizens,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk also said her relationship with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was “fine” after the pair went weeks without talking due to disagreements about borders.
After Ms Berejiklian failed to isolate when she waited for the results of a COVID test, Ms Palaszczuk said: “When I had my COVID test I had to stay home until I got the all clear”.
READ MORE: After COVID-19 comes the spending wave
Angelica Snowden 9.05am: Queensland borders open from December 1
Confirming the Queensland borders will be open to Victoria and NSW from December 1, Ms Pałaszczuk said border passes will no longer be required for travellers from NSW who visit Queensland, and the same arrangement will likely be in place for Victorians.
She committed to reviewing border arrangements with South Australia at the end of the month.
Queensland Premier @AnnastaciaMP has confirmed that the Sunshine State will reopen its border to travellers from Victoria on December 1.
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) November 24, 2020
More on this story: https://t.co/lJSwP5zbZM pic.twitter.com/tkzbJ80dhs
Angelica Snowden 8.45am: Victorians ‘good to go’ for Queensland visits
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has welcomed the news of Victoria’s 26 days of no new cases as “wonderful” and congratulated Daniel Andrews on stamping out the virus as she opens the border to the southern state from December 1.
“Victoria would be good to go to come up to Queensland … it’s absolutely wonderful news,” Ms Palaszczuk told Sunrise.
“Congratulations to Daniel Andrews and his team down there and to all Victorians,” she said.
“We look forward to welcoming you to Queensland, and please stop by and say hello.”
While Australia was “doing a great job”, Ms Palaszczuk said there was still real danger in the virus escaping hotel quarantine.
“Australia is doing a great job … but there is real danger in taking too many overseas international arrivals back into Australia if our quarantine systems cannot cope,” she said.
“What’s happening globally means more and more people are coming back to Australia – they are coming into hotel quarantine and hotel quarantine has to be absolutely solid … or we can see an outbreak of what we saw happen in Victoria and also as we’ve seen in South Australia.
“States can only do so much when it comes to hotel quarantine and let me also say now is not the time to open up any international borders at this time.”
READ MORE: Rivals end bitter border battle
Rachel Baxendale 8.40am: Victoria records 26th straight day of no new cases
The opening of Queensland border to Victoria comes as the southern state records its 26th straight day with no new cases of coronavirus, and its second with no active cases.
The results come after 16,409 tests were processed in the 24 hours to Wednesday.
No new cases, lost lives or active cases reported yesterday. 16,409 test results were received – thank you to everyone who got tested. More detail: https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz#StaySafeStayOpen #COVID19Vic #EveryTestHelps pic.twitter.com/aASVMquJ3Z
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 24, 2020
Angelica Snowden 8.30am: Queensland opens borders to Victoria
Victorians will be able to visit Queensland after Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the opening of the state’s borders this morning.
Earlier, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he was confident Ms Pałaszczuk would welcome residents from his state in early December.
Mr Andrews said there were no active cases in Victoria and also announced as of midnight there were no new cases recorded.
Victoria's Premier @DanielAndrewsMP talks about the state's COVID-19 success, reopening of borders and whether international tennis stars will be able to skip quarantine for the Australian Open. pic.twitter.com/QPZkERfHwH
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) November 24, 2020
“I don’t criticise other states for putting their state first.,” Mr Andrews told the Today Show.
“The time has come for those borders to be open because we have got our case numbers down very low … there have been no active cases or no new cases for a long run now,” he said.
“The time has come to open those borders and I am confident that is exactly what will happen.”
After the Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas handed down a budget that forecast net debt would reach $154.8bn by 2024, Mr Andrews said borrowing costs were at an all time low and argued the massive debt was necessary.
“We won’t get people back to work unless we get the economy growing, the way to do that is to invest,” he said.
READ MORE: COVID-19 leaves courts ailing
Angelica Snowden 8.15am: Morrison ‘thrilled’ over border openings
Scott Morrison says he is “thrilled” Queensland will be open to Sydneysiders and hopefully to Victorians.
“It’s great to see the people reuniting in Queensland and think with Christmas coming up that is especially important,” the Prime Minister told 2GB.
“It is important we open up safely in Queensland and that we remain safely open … I think business needs that assurance,” he said.
Mr Morrison said he was confident in Queensland’s contact tracing system should any coronavirus outbreaks occur, which he said he hoped would ease business concerns.
While there have been “disagreements” at National Cabinet meetings about border closures, Mr Morrison said overall the country has done “extremely well” at managing COVID-19.
“We have to run the country by the Constitution and public health is the responsibility of state governments,” he said.
“We work together as best as we can … the National cabinet has been something that no other country has done that has a federation like this.
“While there has been some disagreements the outcomes of how we performed both on the virus and containing its impact and the economic results we’ve got … are some of the best in the world.”
He also described the recent COVID-19 scare in South Australia as a “bit of a false alarm”.
READ MORE: Women ‘at heart’ of pandemic recovery
Angelica Snowden 7.50am: Be responsible over future outbreaks: Malarndirri McCarthy
Labor senator Malarndirri McCarthy says she supports quick and decisive action, such as border closures, if there are future coronavirus outbreaks.
“I think that we have to be responsible here,” Senator McCarthy told the Today show.
“If I look at the Northern Territory, which is where I represent clearly, we will shut down quickly,” she said.
“Our First Nations communities have been critical in terms of the decisions made by the chief health medical officer here and I don’t think there is any real apology for that … we would act very quickly and decisively.”
It came after Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced Sydneysiders will be able to travel to the northern state from December 1.
A host of other restrictions are also set to ease in NSW, with Gladys Berejiklian set to unveil the new rules today.
Senator McCarthy said the announcement will be a “beautiful gift”.
READ MORE: Rivals end bitter border battle
Angelica Snowden 7.30am: Virus in Liverpool sewage testing
Residents in Sydney’s south west are again being asked to get tested for COVID-19 – even if they have the mildest symptoms – after sewage testing revealed virus fragments at the Liverpool treatment plant.
PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT – LIVERPOOL
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 24, 2020
The discovery of #COVID19 virus fragments in sewage at the Liverpool sewage treatment plant has prompted renewed calls for residents to get tested.
The virus fragments were detected through the state’s ongoing sewage surveillance program. pic.twitter.com/pc93XqcD46
NSW Health said the virus fragments were detected through the state’s ongoing sewage surveillance program and could mean there are undiagnosed cases of the virus in the area.
“NSW Health is concerned there could be other active cases in the local community in people who have not been tested and who might incorrectly assume their symptoms are just a cold,” NSW Health said in a statement.
The sewage plant services 40 suburbs in the state’s south west.
READ MORE: Premier admits to breach of isolation
Angelica Snowden 7.10am: Rural US hit hardest after ignoring cautions
The coronavirus is resurging across the US but is hitting rural areas especially hard where people have been sheltering less than anywhere else in the country, as almost 200,000 COVID cases were recorded on Tuesday.
While new virus cases broke records, Americans in rural counties were leaving home about as much as they did before the pandemic struck, a Wall Street Journal analysis of coronavirus case data from Johns Hopkins University and cellphone mobility metrics from data firm SafeGraph found.
In cities, people have remained more hunkered down.
Infection rates for the week ended November 14 were about 60 per cent higher in rural areas than in urban counties, according to the figures from Johns Hopkins and federal government data identifying county types.
Residents of rural counties had retreated to their homes in the spring, when lockdowns were ordered across the country and the virus was ravaging urban centres, the data showed.
But most rural areas saw relatively few cases, and people began to head out again.
In many rural counties, the percentage of people who went out each day is back to what it was before the pandemic hit.
in mid-November, people in rural counties spent an average of almost five hours away from home each day, about 20 per cent more than people in urban places.
As the virus spreads, some heavily rural states have begun implementing new COVID-19 measures, reversing months of resistance.
North Dakota and Iowa issued new mask rules after long dismissing them as unenforceable or ineffective.
Hospitalisations are surging alongside new cases, especially in rural locales.
The Dakotas have the most people in hospitals per capita, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project.
That’s a shift from the spring, when hospitals in mainly urban states like New York and New Jersey were overflowing with patients.
Residents in rural areas are less likely to wear masks and are overwhelmingly Republican, Carnegie Mellon University associate professor of statistics Ryan Tibshirani said.
He said more republican politicians have objected to mask mandates and lockdowns.
Researchers have found that higher income areas social distance more than those with lower incomes, which include many rural areas.
Rural places are also more geographically spread out and lack the convenience of rapid delivery available in some major cities, where many people are working from home.
The World Health Organisation has reported cases in the US exceed 12 million and just under 250,000 have died.
READ MORE: Trump backs start of transition process
Janet Albrechtsen 6.55am: Let’s not lose sight of the need to manage risk
Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd have spent an inordinate amount of time blaming News Corp for bringing their political careers to an end. Still fixating on themselves, it’s easy to see why their colleagues noticed their shortcomings long before the media and voters did.
While the ABC has offered them an absurd number of platforms to vent their spleens and demand a royal commission into the Murdoch media, here is a suggestion for how two former prime ministers could better spend their time in service to the nation.
If Rudd and Turnbull want to be associated with a royal commission that genuinely improves public policymaking in our democracy, they should suggest one that investigates the management of risk by government responses to COVID-19. As former PMs, they could kick off a valuable debate about the necessity and challenges of assessing risk in policy making. This subject won’t arouse ABC journalists, but it would be a major contribution to public policy in this country.
Both men could follow former British PM Tony Blair who, after leaving office, spoke frankly about the importance of risk. Blair lamented how politicians shy away from discussing the importance of risk — and the consequence, he said, is “we are in danger of having a wholly disproportionate attitude to the risks we should expect to run as a normal part of life”.
READ Janet Albrechtsen’s commentary in full
Angelica Snowden 6.40am: New NSW easing means end to working from home
Key COVID-19 restrictions are set to be rolled back in NSW on Wednesday including a boost to visitors allowed at homes, more patrons able to fit into smaller hospitality venues and an end to working from home.
The Premier Gladys Berejiklian is expected to announce smaller hospitality venues – up to 200 square metres – will be allowed to operate under a one person per two square metre rule from December 1, The Daily Telegraph reports.
A repeal of a public health order which said employees should be able to work from home where “reasonably practicable to do so” is also anticipated in a bid to drive more people back into the office and the city from December 14. A maximum of 50 patrons will be allowed.
And ahead of Christmas up to 30 people will be able to visit households, an increase from 20. And outdoor gatherings will increase to 50.
The changes are expected to be signed off this morning, with Ms Berejiklian set to make a formal announcement today.
It came after Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday announced Sydneysiders would be able to visit Queensland from December 1.
Ms Palaszczuk is expected to allow residents from Victoria into the state from December 1 as well and will make an announcement today.
READ MORE: Finally, rivals end bitter border battle
Jacquelin Magnay 6.15am: Europeans plan to ‘save Christmas’ from lockdown
Politicians across Europe are looking to “save Christmas’’ as lockdown measures are to be temporarily eased during the festive period.
In what appears to be almost universal timing, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany have prepared new rules for Christmas which will allow a relaxation of current highly restrictive coronavirus rules so that people can meet up with family members.
Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland have agreed on a common set of temporary rules, allowing three households to mingle indoors for five days over the Christmas period.
At the moment in England there is no mixing of households- indoors or out, although lockdown is to be replaced with tiered levels of rules from next week.
Politicians are trying to balance real fears of a third spike generated by family gatherings against threats of public disobedience.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier in the week from his isolation at 10 Downing Street: “We all want some kind of Christmas, we all need and we feel like we deserve it. But what we don’t want is to throw caution to the winds and allow the virus to flare up again forcing us to go back into lockdown in January.”
The government announced a reduction in quarantine time for contacts of positive cases from 14 days to five, opening up of travel, and increased rapid testing. But the Christmas plans were released on Tuesday evening, just hours after the latest daily death figures were updated, with another 609 people dying with coronavirus.
While a Christmas Eve drink at the village pub is off the agenda the Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said the governments were aware of people’s desire to get together: “We wanted to allow a window, it’s permissible for three households to come together but only in a private dwelling or place of worship or outside. Because it can be done it is not the case people should do it if they don’t have to: there is a risk when households are coming together; try to limit interaction.’’
In acknowledging a lockdown-fatigued public was intent on getting together for Christmas regardless of the pandemic, senior cabinet minister Michael Gove said the government didn’t want to ‘’let things go too loose over Christmas’’ and so the opportunities to meet friends and family would be only allowed in a restricted fashion.
Across the Channel in France, president Emmanuel Macron was this morning preparing a national address to tinker with lockdown measures, allowing greater movement beyond a 1km radius and reopening non-essential shops in a three-stage easing. He was expected to announce a 30 person limit on church gatherings for Christmas services. In France, like the UK, infections appear to be declining, with 4452 new cases, but deaths, which numbered 500 on Monday, plateauing.
Meanwhile German state premiers have agreed that Germans will be allowed to mingle for Christmas between December 23 and January 1, temporarily increasing household contacts from five to ten people and allowing more than two households to gather.
But in Italy, which has imposed a no-ski edict, the government is considering imposing even tighter travel restrictions so that movement throughout the country is further limited. More than 800 people died of the virus on Tuesday, with 23,232 new infections.
A draft plan prepared for the Spanish government, which announced 170 deaths on Monday, suggests that festive gatherings will be limited to six people with early morning curfews in place for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.
READ MORE: Tory rebels hold fire on new rules
Patrick Commins 6.00am: Iron ore surges, tourism to follow
Australia’s economic recovery has received a significant boost, with Chinese demand sending iron ore exports surging to a record high and the tourism industry declaring Queensland’s reopening of its borders with Sydney and Victoria will add hundreds of millions of dollars to the national economy.
But as optimism grows of a smooth and rapid exit from the worst downturn in almost 100 years, Reserve Bank deputy governor Guy Debelle said it would take years to undo the damage from the COVID-19 recession and cautioned the Morrison government against prematurely withdrawing support.
Speaking at an Australian Business Economists event on Tuesday, Dr Debelle said a clear lesson from the previous global recession in 2008 was “be careful of removing the stimulus too early”. “A number of European countries learned this lesson to their cost after the global financial crisis,” he said.
READ the full story
Rebecca Urban 5.45am: Women ‘at heart of pandemic recovery’
Victorian women will be helped back to work thanks to a dedicated $150m wage subsidy plan, in recognition of the severe impact of COVID-19 on female-dominated industries.
The Victorian government has pledged to put women “at the heart” of the state’s recovery by creating 6000 new jobs.
At least one-third of the funding will go towards supporting middle-aged women, by providing incentives to businesses that hire women older than 45.
The package, part of a broader $250m subsidy to create 10,000 jobs unveiled in the 2020-21 state budget, will be complemented by initiatives to encourage women into male-dominated trades jobs and a dedicated $10m fund backing female entrepreneurs.
The focus on women, whose workforce participation has fallen sharply since March, is in stark contrast to the recent federal budget, which invested heavily in incentives for businesses to hire young people.
READ the full story
Ewin Hannan 5.30am: Public sector wage bill to lift 21 per cent
Victoria’s public sector wages bill is forecast to jump 21 per cent over the budget forward estimates, increasing by $2.9bn this financial year before rising by $3.5bn to $37bn by 2024.
Public sector employee expenses, which are the state government’s largest expense, are predicted to rise by 9.5 per cent this financial year, and will be at least $2bn higher annually than forecast in last year’s budget.
However, the government has deferred plans to impose almost $2bn in efficiencies across the state public sector, citing the need to respond to the pandemic and focus on economic recovery.
Annual wages growth in Victoria is predicted to be just 1 per cent this financial year, rising to 1.75 per cent during 2021-22 and 2 per cent in the 12 months to June 2023.
The budget papers show government employee expenses, including superannuation, are forecast to grow from $30.69bn in July 2020 to $33.6bn by mid-2021.
The wages bill for the 2020-21 financial year is now forecast to be $2.4bn higher than forecast in last year’s budget.
READ the full story
Coffee when pregnant may be OK, study finds
Pregnant women are held to a stringent list of dietary guidelines, but one of the most common vices – coffee – may be safer than previously thought.
Chalmers dilutes mergers overhaul
The Treasurer’s decision follows industry concerns that the reforms were too complex, risked stifling investment and could kneecap deal-making activity.