Coronavirus Australia live news: Police guard Cook in major show of force; Stadiums, borders to reopen
Hundreds of police have flooded Sydney’s CBD, surrounding a statue of Captain Cook, in a bid to scuttle a mass Black Lives Matter protest.
- National Cabinet agrees to more freedoms
- Dutton: Aussies won’t cop history rewrite
- Albanese calls for commonsense
- Street mural honours Goodes
- Sweden records new record in cases
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Major sports venues could be allowed to host up to 10,000 spectators by July, Scott Morrison says, plus Australians will have more freedom to hold large funerals and weddings and pubs and restaurants will be allowed to seat more customers. Peter Dutton says Australians won’t cop ‘ripping up history’ amid the ‘cancel culture’ backlash. Thousands of protesters are again preparing to defy COVID-19 social distancing rules to attend Black Lives Matters rallies on the weekend. In India, a top doctor has warned that the nation is sitting on a “ticking time bomb” as coronavirus cases spike dramatically.
Staff Writers 9.00pm: Boarded-up Churchill statue ‘shames Britain’
English broadcaster Piers Morgan has called the boardering up of a Winston Churchill statue to protect it from vandalisers “appalling”.
Following the death of George Floyd, statues across the US have been knocked over and covered in paint.
In a bid to protect statues in the UK, authorities boarded up the Churchill statue and the Cenotaph in central London.
In response, Morgan has tweeted the need to protect statues from vandalism “shames Britain”.
“The fact Sir Winston Churchill’s statue has had to be boarded up to stop people vandalising it is disgraceful.”
This photo shames Britain.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 12, 2020
The fact Sir Winston Churchill’s statue has had to be boarded up to stop people vandalising it is disgraceful.
He saved our country from the Nazis - and THIS is how we repay him? Appalling. 👇 pic.twitter.com/keXi9RPaYn
Christine Kellett 7.30pm: NSW Police in major show of force
NSW Police have been out in force to scuttle a mass Black Lives Matter Protest in Sydney’s CBD this evening.
A group of about 200 protesters were met with a major show of force, with police threatening heavy fines for the illegal gathering and shouting for them to leave. Officers were also pictured standing guard around a statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park, following a spate of vandalism of founding monuments that has spread across the world.
About 600 hundred officers, including from the riot squad and mounted police, ensured the protesters were unable to proceed en masse to Town Hall as planned, and they instead moved to Hyde Park at the last minute.
Earlier, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian pleaded with people not to attend the protest against Aboriginal deaths in custody, citing health risks after a mass protest in Sydney’s CBD last weeked attracted thousands.
Agencies 6.21pm: Protesters to spread out over Melbourne
Refugee advocates are spreading themselves across Melbourne to avoid hefty fines as they protest the indefinite detention of asylum seekers.
The Refugee Action Collective plans to hold eight rallies on Saturday attended by 20 people each despite warnings the protests could lead to COVID-19 outbreak. The refugee activists initially planned two protests - one at the Mantra Bell City Hotel in Preston where some refugees are being held, and another at a detention centre in Broadmeadows - but were threatened with massive fines from police.
The Mantra Hotel houses refugees who have been in detention for almost seven years and who have been in lockdown there in what they say are crowded and unclean conditions.
“As a global wave of protest spreads against racism and police impunity, it is outrageous that Preston police are threatening refugee supporters with their own peculiar interpretation of health regulations,” Refugee Action Collective spokesman Chris Breen said on Friday.
The group was told by police they would be fined if more than 20 people congregated outside the Preston hotel, another spokeswoman said. Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said hosting smaller protests was more responsible.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said a gathering of more than 20 would breach the chief health officer’s legal directions, so Victoria Police would have the ability to take action.
“I would be discouraging any protest activity at this time regardless of the cause, regardless of the level of passion that people have about these issues,” Ms Mikakos said.
A protester who attended Melbourne’s Black Lives Matter rally last weekend tested positive for the coronavirus.
READ MORE: Dennis Shanahan — ALP put bleeding hearts ahead of people
Agencies 5.25pm: Please respect health orders: NSW Premier
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has implored people not to attend illegal rallies in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign and refugees, arguing they are not safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A rally calling for an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody planned for Sydney Town Hall on Friday evening has been deemed unlawful by NSW Police because they weren’t formally notified.
The Supreme Court has separately prohibited a protest to “free the refugees” scheduled for Saturday afternoon on the basis the health risks “outweigh the rights of public assembly and free speech”.
READ MORE: Market draws breath after hard run
Agencies 4.05pm: Labor applies pressures over AusPost cuts
Labor has continued to pressure the government over regulatory changes at Australia Post, saying it will lead to one in four postal workers losing their jobs.
Australia Post and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has waved off the concerns.
“You know that there’s a by-election on when Labor turns to the odd scare campaign,” Mr Fletcher told parliament on Friday, days out from early voting for the NSW seat of Eden-Monaro.
The coronavirus pandemic has seen an explosion in parcel delivery and a sharp drop in letters.
Thousands of motorbike posties were being redeployed into delivery vans or warehouses.
READ MORE: States to reopen borders in July
Richard Ferguson 3.47pm: University boost: foreign students may return in July
States and territories with their borders open are set to see foreign students return as early as July, in a significant boost to the nation’s struggling universities.
Scott Morrison announced earlier in the day that foreign student pilot programs will go ahead if states and territories open their borders.
The Australian understands the ACT, Victoria and NSW will be allowed to start letting small batches of foreign students into their areas even if Queensland and Western Australia remain closed.
States and universities will divide the costs on both flights and quarantine, with the expenses to be negotiated with between individual institutions and state governments.
Government sources said it was too early to say where the pilot students would come from.
Queensland government sources also say they have developed a “safe corridor” plan to bring in foreign students once their borders have opened, and it is currently being reviewed by Queensland Health.
READ MORE: Universities rise to pandemic challenge
Matthew Denholm 3.15pm: Tasmania looks to late July to open borders
Tasmania will most likely lift its border restrictions in late July, says Premier Peter Gutwein, as he approved a raft of further COVID-19 lockdown easing.
Heralding the state’s achievement in recording its first day of no active cases, Mr Gutwein said he wanted to see what happened with border lifting in other states before making a final call on that issue.
“We want to keep an eye on what’s occurring in those other jurisdictions,” Mr Gutwein said. “Right across the country, more people will be mixing and I think it’s sensible to keep an eye on what’s occurring.”
However, with the state enjoying 27 days without a new coronavirus case, he announced a bringing forward of restriction easing, starting on Wednesday, June 17.
This will allow up to 80 people at indoor gatherings, such as in gyms, pubs, restaurants, weddings and funerals, with a limit of one person per four square metres. The number of people allowed to visit a private home will increase from 10 to 20.
A further “stage three” easing of restrictions that had been due to begin on July 13 would come forward to June 26, he said.
This would remove caps on numbers of people at a various events and venues but maintain the one person per four sq m rule. Stadium crowds would be limited to 25% capacity.
READ MORE: Building blitz to kickstart recovery
Max Maddison 1.55pm: SA relaxes restrictions, will open border on July 20
South Australia will lift its state border on July 20, says Premier Steven Marshall, as the state brings forward stage three restrictions.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Marshall said SA had recorded another day without any new cases of coronavirus, enabling the government to bring stage three restrictions forward from July to June 29.
Other relaxed measures include increasing room limits from 20 to 75, total venue capacity will increase from 80 up to 300 - although, social distancing protocols will still need to be observed.
Opening state borders will mean any interstate travel into SA won’t require two weeks quarantine. However, quarantine measures remain in place for international arrivals.
READ MORE: States to reopen borders in July
Richard Ferguson 1.50pm: Apologetic PM ‘not intersted in history wars’
Scott Morrison has apologised for any offence caused by his comments on slavery in Australia, and says he is not interested in history wars.
The Prime Minister told Melbourne’s 3AW radio on Thursday that Australia was not founded on the slave trade, and was attacked by Labor MPs for not talking about the stolen wages of Aboriginal workers and the “blackbirding” of workers kidnapped from the Pacific Islands.
Mr Morrison said he was saying the first NSW colony was built on slavery and that he acknowledged Australia’s darker past.
“If you go back to people like (anti-slavery campaigner) William Wilberforce and others, they were very involved in that first fleet expedition and one of the principles was to be that Australia or in that case, New South Wales, was not to have lawful slavery. And that was indeed the case,” he said.
“We don’t intend to get into the history books, my comments were not intended to give offence and if they did I deeply regret that and apologise for that.
“There have been all sorts of hideous practices that have taken place. And so I’m not denying any of that. OK. I’m not denying any of that.”
READ MORE: ‘Wilfully blind’ about slavery
Sarah Elks 1.25pm: Queensland border likely open July 10
The Queensland border will probably be reopened to interstate travel on July 10 - as the government’s own printed roadmap states — but that date will be confirmed at the end of the month.
National cabinet met today, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Queensland Premier had decided on a potential date to reopen the border.
But The Australian understands Ms Palaszczuk merely pointed Mr Morrison to the government’s online roadmap, which states interstate travel will be permitted on July 10 “subject to further planning and review”.
The border decision is reviewed at the end of every month.
There was confusion last month, after Ms Palaszczuk suggested that date could be pushed back to September. Both Ms Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young have said they wanted NSW and VIC to have four weeks of no community transmission for the border to reopen.
The tourism industry balked, and called for the roadmap to be honoured.
As recently as Thursday, Ms Palaszczuk said her intention was for the border to reopen in July.
“We are at one on this in terms of July, there’s no dissent on this,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “(The PM) has said July; I have said July.”
READ MORE: Premier ‘as one’ with PM on borders
Richard Ferguson 1.10pm: PM flags international student pilot program
Scott Morrison has flagged a pilot program to allow international students to enter Australia.
The Prime Minister said international students would be let back in once all state internal borders are open, and none will enter until then.
NSW, Victoria and South Australia have all expressed interest in taking small batches of foreign students to re-start the struggling international education sector.
READ MORE: China tells Australia to do some ‘soul-searching’ on racism
Richard Ferguson 12.55pm: More freedoms for funerals, pubs and restaurants: PM
Major sports venues could be allowed to host up to 10,000 spectators by July, Scott Morrison says.
National cabinet has agreed to let large venues — such as stadiums, theatres and concert halls — which hold fewer than 40,000 people to fill 25 per cent of their capacity as part of step three of the re-opening time-line.
“Events must be ticketed and seated,” the Prime Minister said.
“And social distancing rules will apply.”
The PM says sports stadiums with more than 40,000 seats could also be allowed to seat spectators by July. Scott Morrison says larger stadia will have to work with their respective state medical officers to work out how the 25 percent capacity rule could apply to them.
“For the larger ones I would venture that it would be the subject of a discrete approval for each venue that would be worked out with the Chief health Officer in each state or territory,” he said.
“So by the time you get into July there may be that type of opportunity for the rules that apply to those under 40,000 carry over to those above 40,000.”
He says Australians will have more freedom to hold large funerals and weddings by July, and pubs and restaurants will be allowed to seat more customers.
The 100 person cap on indoor venues will be lifted under the National Cabinet’s new step three rules. This will include weddings and funerals.
All venues will have to maintain the one-person-per-four-sqm rule.
Nightclubs will not reopen. Scott Morrison says re-opening nightclubs has led to spikes overseas.
READ MORE: Truckies, childcarers top employers’ new jobs wishlist
TESSA AKERMAN 12.45pm: Vic Police issue Black Lives Matter fines
Victoria Police have issued fines to three of the organisers of the Black Lives Matter protest.
Each of the organisers has been slapped with a $1652 infringement notice for breaching the Chief Health Officer’s directives, a spokeswoman said.
“As part of the post-event investigation, police considered a range of factors in relation to further enforcement activity but we have ultimately determined this to be the appropriate outcome,” she said. “No further fines will be issued by Victoria Police in relation to this protest.”
READ MORE: Now for second wave ... of protests
Sarah Elks 12.40pm: Two-year-old Queensland boy diagnosed
A two-year-old boy has been diagnosed with coronavirus in Queensland, bringing the number of active cases in the state to four. Health Minister and Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the boy had travelled overseas with his family before quarantining in Victoria, and then returning to Queensland.
Mr Miles said there were two people in hospital, one in intensive care.
He said it was “really important” that people abided by restrictions in place and not attend protests. Mr Miles said he was someone who “historically” defended the right to protest but now was not the time.
“It’s really important, just right now, that people find other ways to have their say,” Mr Miles said.
There have been two Black Lives Matters protests advertised in southeast Queensland to occur on Saturday, and a refugee rights protests in Kangaroo Point in Brisbane.
READ MORE: Gottliebsen — September shock could be nasty
Tom Whipple 12.35pm: Which blood type puts you at worse risk?
People with blood type A are at significantly higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, according to a study that has teased out the genetic factors that may explain why some people are so much worse affected by the virus.
The research, accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, looked at the genomes of more than 1600 people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 who needed help breathing, and compared them with those who had not contracted the disease.
Those who had blood type A appeared to be as much as 50 per cent more likely to need oxygen or a ventilator. About 42 per cent of Britons have blood type A.
The finding adds to other evidence in China that suggested blood type, which is genetically determined, may increase both susceptibility and severity. Findings from the genetics company 23andMe also imply a related corollary: that having blood type O is actively protective, good news for the estimated 44 per cent of people in the UK with that type.
READ THE FULL STORY here.
Richard Ferguson 12.30pm: WATCH LIVE | PM’s press conference at 12.40pm
The Prime Minister is due to speak to the media at Parliament House in Canberra at 12.40pm after this morning’s National Cabinet meeting. You watch his press conference live above.
Rosie Lewis 12pm: Shorten on protests: Right cause, wrong timing
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten has appealed to Australians not to attend Black Lives Matter protests on the weekend, declaring it was the “right cause” but the wrong timing.
The opposition’s government services spokesman refused to say if protesters should have JobSeeker payments taken off them — an idea left open by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on Friday.
“I don’t think it’s the main issue,” Mr Shorten said.
“Australians have been amazing. They have given up attending weddings, funerals, they can’t go to their sport, the theatre, the music. A lot of people have paid a big price for the public health emergency. So while I am an absolute supporter of drawing attention to the issue of black deaths in custody, while it is the right cause, it is the wrong timing.”
READ MORE: Peter Craven — Damned if they do, damned if they don’t
Max Maddison 11.35am: Sydney school’s ‘potential’ case revealed
The “potential” case of coronavirus from Rose Bay Public School was a person who worked at the primary school’s before and after school care, NSW Health has confirmed.
The update follows news that the school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs was closed due to an investigation by health authorities.
In a statement, NSW Health said two other cases had been confirmed, bringing the number of cases reported in the past 24 hours to three. Both cases were returning travellers in hotel quarantine.
Health authorities also recorded the highest ever number of tests in a reporting period with 15,220, compared to 9746 in the previous period. Over 606,000 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in NSW.
READ MORE: We must not cower to bullies: Joe Hockey
David Rogers 11.30am: ASX takes 3.4pc hit as second wave fears grow
The ASX is tumbling by 3 per cent in morning trade, adding to yesterday’s 3pc drop as investors second-guess the recent rally. Overnight, Wall Street’s Dow Jones index lost 1,800 points, or almost 7 per cent, as an increase in coronavirus cases and news of job losses punctured optimism that the US economy could recover quickly.
The stockmarket drop is leaving no sector untouched, with only 2 of the top 200 stocks managing a gain in early trade.
As the benchmark ASX200 trades lower by 2.98pc, just Infigen and Spark Infrastructure have bucked the negativity, albeit with only mild gains.
Banks are serving the biggest blow to the market — Commonwealth is off by 3.7pc as Westpac trades down by 5.6pc, ANZ down by 5.2pc and NAB lower by 4.9pc.
On the broad All Ordinaries, just 11 stocks are trading lower as the index drops 3.2pc.
FOLLOW THE MARKET LIVE — TradingDay blog
Rosie Lewis 11.20am: Gold Coast mayor demands border decision
Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has demanded national cabinet decide a date on Friday to reopen Queensland’s border, pushing for the restriction to be lifted 14 days after last weekend’s Black Lives Matter protests.
“After today’s national cabinet I’d like to know a date that’s going to open. Call it,” Mr Tate, a Liberal National Party politician, said.
“Whether the 1st of July, 10th of July so that airlines can plan, businesses can plan, we can restock, all of those things, we can mark it. You can’t just say ‘right tomorrow we open, bang’ because people can’t scramble and get ready in time.
“Work out the date because doing the maths, they say 14 days of quarantine, well last Saturday’s now six days (since the Black Lives Matter protests). It’d be great to have a statement to go ‘the minute the 14 days are over, there’s no positive cases out of that protest, it’s a great experiment, 20,000-30,000 people, open the border’. Say that.”
READ MORE: Van Onselen — Morrison wants speed up of reopening, protests or no
Max Maddison 11.15am: Tasmania on brink of defeating COVID-19
Tasmania stands on the brink of defeating COVID-19, with only one active case on the island remaining and 27 days without recording a new case.
With 226 confirmed cases in total, Tasmanian health said 212 people had recovered, while 13 have died after contracting the virus. Health authorities have conducted 39,346 tests, including 712 in the past 24-hours.
Despite several deadly clusters emerging early on, the decision by the Tasmanian government to enact draconian lockdown laws managed to suppress the outbreak.
READ MORE: US general sorry for joining Trump church walk
Tessa Akerman 11.05am: Infected protester didn’t have COVIDSafe app
The Victorian health minister has not strengthened advice for potential protesters this weekend despite a Melbourne protester who attended last weekend’s Black Lives Matter protest later testing positive for COVID-19.
The Victorian government has not released the man’s identity or photo, claiming it would discourage people from coming forward and being tested and breach his legal rights.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Annaliese van Diemen said the man, in his 30s, was with a group of friends who have been contacted, as have his other close contacts, however he did not have the COVIDSafe app.
“It would have been useful and certainly we remain encouraging of people to download the app,” she said.
She said many people feel passionate about many causes and the government was appreciative of sacrifices the public had made in not attending events, including weddings and funerals.
Health minister Jenny Mikakos said it was “incredibly inherently risky” for thousands of people to come together and the government had made it clear before the protest.
She said while most protesters were wearing face masks, it didn’t mitigate the risk of infection.
Two rallies in support of refugees are planned for this weekend and Ms Mikakos said plans to break up the protesters into smaller groups was a more responsible way forward.
She said Victoria Police had the authority to take action and there was an ongoing investigation into the organisers of last weekend’s protest and others who attended.
“It’s incredibly irresponsible to be having a protest at this time,” she said. “There’s still a pandemic in place … there are many ways to make your political views known.”
Victoria has recorded four new cases, with two being returned travellers currently in hotel quarantine.
READ MORE: China tells Australia to do some ‘soul-searching’ on racism
Richard Ferguson 10.55am: Liberal MP wants protesters to lose JobKeeper
Liberal MP Andrew Laming says the right to protest should not prevent state authorities being able to take COVID-related Centrelink payments off of Black Lives Matter protesters.
Dr Laming is pushing for marchers to lose COVID-19 payments and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said it was a conversation worth having.
“They’re not listening to the public health order ... it’s leading to even bigger rallies,” Dr Laming told The Australian.
“If they’re taking money from the taxpayer with one hand and compromising health with another, they should consider giving back those payments, if not the judiciary should consider that many of these people have been on COVID payments for months.
“They have the right to protest and assemble but in a de-congregated way.”
READ MORE: The crisis on our doorstep
Max Maddison 10.45am: Victoria reports new coronavirus cases
Victoria has recorded four new cases of coronavirus, however, none are linked to the Black Lives Matter protest, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says.
Two of the additional cases came from hotel quarantine, one was detected through routine testing and one case is under investigation, Ms Mikakos said. The four cases takes the total number in Victoria to 1703.
Speaking at a press conference, Ms Mikakos said none of the cases were linked to community transmission or to the BLM rally on Saturday.
Fears were sparked after a protester, who attended the BLM rally with tens of thousands, tested positive to COVID-19.
Dr Annaliese van Diemen said an uptick as a result of the protest would be expected to be seen “any time from now”.
“This is an infection that has an incubation period of anywhere between two to 14 days, so it could be even later than next week by the time that people incubate the infection and then become symptomatic and then get tested,” Ms van Diemen said.
READ MORE: Airbnb rebounding from COVID
Agencies 10.35am: Activists vow to defy protest ban
Refugee activists have vowed to push ahead with a planned protest this weekend despite the Supreme Court prohibiting the event amid the COVID-19 pandemic, AAP reports.
Justice Michael Walton on Thursday night granted a NSW Police application for the rally to be declared a prohibited public gathering.
The rally, which is being organised by the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC), is scheduled to take place at Sydney’s Town Hall on Saturday afternoon. RAC organiser James Supple told the court they were expecting a modest crowd of about 150 to 200 and that it could be held while observing social distancing rules.
But Justice Walton accepted arguments put forward by Lachlan Gyles SC, acting for NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, who cited health concerns. Justice Walton said that public health risks outweighed “the rights of public assembly and free speech”.
However, Mr Supple said the group was still planning to hold the rally and urged anyone attending to observe social distancing measures and health guidelines. “We’ll still be holding an event this Saturday, urging people to participate,” Mr Supple said outside court.
“As the court said, it doesn’t actually make it illegal to come to a protest, it just gives the police more powers.”
READ MORE: The march of stupidity
Agencies 10.15am: Labor fails to deliver on Australia Post plan
Labor has lost its bid to force parliament to block regulatory changes to Australia Post that unions claim could cost one in four postal worker jobs, AAP reports. Brought in due to increased demand for parcel services during the coronavirus pandemic, the changes would redeploy posties to warehouses and reduce letter deliveries.
“This is an issue that affects all Australians,” Labor leader Anthony Albanese told parliament on Friday.
But the government gagged Mr Albanese and shut down Labor’s attempts to stop the changes.
READ MORE: Qld gets massive coal boost
Richard Ferguson 9.45am: Labor senator defends MP protesters
Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy has denied MPs who defied public health orders were “breaking the law” when they attended Black Lives Matter rallies over the weekend.
The indigenous senator - who attended a legal BLM march in Darwin - refused to condemn any of her colleagues for attending protests, despite the fact health orders against the marches were issued under legislation and gazetted.
“People weren’t breaking the law ... none of the leadership weren’t saying don’t go or you’ll be arrested,” she told Sky News.
“I’m very proud of my Labor colleagues who did everything they could - whether it was the four of us who got tested or many others who held small vigils.”
READ MORE: Premier ‘as one’ with PM on borders
The Times 9.35am: Mandatory face masks slows COVID spread
The mandatory use of face masks slows the growth in Covid-19 cases by 40 per cent, according to a German study that scientists said was the best evidence yet for their use, Tom Whipple writes.
The researchers were able to use the introduction of masks in shops and public transport across Germany as a natural experiment. By looking at new cases in the days that followed, they concluded there was “strong and convincing statistical support” that the masks “strongly reduced the number of incidences”.
Other scientists cautioned that the findings were not robust enough to support the widespread use of masks, arguing that too many other factors could explain the results. The study, published as a discussion paper for the Institute of Labor Economics, addresses one of the most contentious areas of science during the pandemic, which has led to a split among researchers.
It will be compulsory to wear face coverings on public transport in England from Monday and there have been calls to extend the rules to include shops that can reopen next week.
READ MORE: Truckies, childcare top new jobs list
Max Maddison 9.20am: Cutting JobKeeper for protesters ‘a discussion’
Taking away Job Seeker payments from protesters flouting health orders is a “conversation that will be worthwhile having”, says Finance Minister Mathias Cormann.
Mr Cormann said the law should be applied to anyone who turned up to refugee protests, which still planned on going ahead, despite the Supreme Court ruling the gathering as “unauthorised”.
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Cormann said discussions about withdrawing the $1100 fortnightly payments from protesters was a possibility.
“That’s a conversation that will be worthwhile having,” Senator Cormann said. “But right now it’s up to the states to impose the rules that they inflict on everyone else.”
READ MORE: History outlives its own relics
Agencies 9.05am: New virus cases hit record in Sweden
Sweden has announced its highest daily tally of coronavirus infections, a record 1474 new cases that authorities say is due to a long-delayed surge in testing, AAP reports.
The country’s tactics to contain the epidemic have come under close scrutiny since it eschewed a lockdown in favour of mainly voluntary measures and its chief epidemiologist acknowledged last week it could have done more. Thursday’s figure took the total number of infections to 48,300 - though the Public Health Agency said the number of deaths was slowing.
Good to talk to @SwedishPM Löfven again tonight. We swapped notes on our #COVID19 responses and discussed doing more together on digitisation, technology, rare earths, supply chains, and reform of the WTO. pic.twitter.com/gD7sollKvY
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) June 11, 2020
Facing growing criticism from the opposition over a sluggish expansion of testing, the government last week pledged a further $924 million to increase testing and widen contact tracing across the country.
Deaths in Sweden caused by the disease have gradually declined from peak levels in mid-April of about 100 per day with the seven-day rolling average hitting 37 per day at the beginning of June.
The agency reported 19 new deaths on Thursday, taking the total to 4814 - many times higher per capita than in neighbouring Nordic countries but lower than the worst-hit parts of Europe including Spain, Britain and Italy.
READ MORE: Sweden left out in the cold
Max Maddison 8.50am: Albanese: You can’t pretend history didn’t happen
Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says we can’t pretend history didn’t happen, and attempts to go back “year zero of history” are unacceptable.
Mr Albanese said he had opposed past pushes to relocate Captain Cook’s statue in Hyde Park, Sydney, and would continue to do so.
Speaking to Sydney radio 2GB, the Opposition Leader said some “common sense” needed to prevail in debates removing television programs and pulling down historical statues.
The taking down of Confederate statues in the United States following Black Lives Matter protests has reignited the push to remove statues and monuments to colonial figures here.
When asked about Gone With The Wind - the 1940 Civil War epic which was taken down by HBO Max - Mr Albanese said that you cannot pretend films like that were not made.
“For goodness sake … a bit of common sense here,” Mr Albanese told host Ben Fordham.
“You can’t rewrite history, you have to learn from it. The idea that you go back to year zero of history, in my view, quite frankly, is unacceptable. It happened. You can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
“People can watch things, they can learn from them. Doesn’t mean everything they did was right, but it happened.”
READ MORE: Cancel culture saves no-one
Max Maddison 8.35am: Police deputy warns protesters: Don’t turn up
Protesters will face arrest if they turn up an unauthorised refugee protest this weekend, NSW assistant police commissioner Mick Willing says.
After successfully blocking the protest in the Supreme Court, Mr Willing said the message to protesters was clear, with anyone turning up to the unauthorised protest facing fines or arrest.
“A lot of people have gone through a lot of restrictions over the last few months and we just need to move through this as a community together. So the health orders are very clear and we will be enforcing them,” Mr Willing told the Today television program on Nine.
“People are liable to up to fines of $1,000 for breaching those public health orders. We don’t want to have to go down that track. But again, we are prepared if necessary. My message is really clear. Don’t turn up.”
READ MORE: Second wave, of protests, is coming
Peter van Onselen 8.20am: PM wants economy kick-start, protests or not
Black Lives Matter rallies will not stop national cabinet’s plans to get things moving again. Read more here
Max Maddison 8.10am: Street mural honours AFL great Adam Goodes
Indigenous AFL star Adam Goodes has been immortalised in a massive public mural in Sydney’s east.
The three-storey portrait of Goodes was painted on the corner of Foveaux and Crown Street in Surry Hills - just down the road from the SCG, where the dual Brownlow medallist made his name.
Created by several artists - Hamish McBride, Laura Paige, Megan Hales, Jacqueline Butterworth and Kailin Hegel - the mural comes amid simmering racial tension and rallies protesting indigenous deaths in custody across the nation.
The career of Goodes - one of the greatest Sydney Swans players in the club’s history - finished in acrimony after facing repeated racial abuse and incessant boos from opposition fans.
Goodes retired from the AFL in 2015.
READ MORE: Crisis in the heart of civilisation
Max Maddison 7.40am: Ripping up history books not on, Dutton says
The Australian public won’t embrace “ripping pages out of history books”, says Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, as he labels attempts to revise history as an “obscure” left-wing cause.
Mr Dutton said calls for Captain Cook statues to be placed in museums and the decisions to pull film Gone with the Wind were an “absurdity”.
"I don't think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history that you don't agree with or you don't like is really something that the public's going to embrace." @PeterDutton_MP on calls to remove Australia's colonial monuments and statues. #9Today pic.twitter.com/Xgrm1t0IA5
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) June 11, 2020
“Look, I don’t think ripping pages out of history books and brushing over parts of history that you don’t agree with or that you don’t like is really something that the Australian public is going to embrace,” Mr Dutton told the Today program.
“But I just really think airbrushing history or pretending that something didn’t happen is such an obscure sort of left-wing cause. I don’t think the mainstream public agree with it.”
Mr Dutton said it was important to learn from history, but removing it from television “didn’t make any sense”.
“There are good and bad parts of our history. You learn from that. And sit down - you see what Netflix has done and the ABC now is trying to do. I just think it is such an absurdity,” he said.
“You sit down with your kids, looking at some of these videos, explaining that slavery was a horrible period in the United States.”
READ MORE: Humour, history gone with the wind
Max Maddison 7.20am: Sydney school closes amid coronavirus probe
Sydney’s Rose Bay Public School will close today after a COVID-19 scare.
NSW Health notified the Department of Education of an investigation last night, which identified a “probable” case of coronavirus discovered in the primary schools’ community.
The school, located in the city’s eastern suburbs, said all students would learn from home on Friday. NSW Health has begun contact tracing, while the school will undergo deep cleaning.
It is the third coronavirus case at a school in Sydney’s east in the past month. One student tested positive at Moriah College and Waverley College in late May.
READ MORE: Labor put bleeding hearts ahead of people
Agencies 7.10am: Job advertisements rise across Australia
Job advertisements have risen dramatically across Australia, with Tasmania and Queensland leading the way, indicating business confidence may be on the rise in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, AAP reports.
New job ads posted on the employment website SEEK between May 25 and June 7 rose by 60.6 per cent.
This compares to rises of 26.8 per cent, 39.7 per cent and 49.2 per cent in previous three fortnights, SEEK said on Friday.
READ MORE: Victoria’s BRI broker praises China on virus
Agencies 6.50am: General: I was wrong to join Trump church march
General Mark Milley, the nation’s top military officer, says he was wrong to accompany President Donald Trump on a walk through Lafayette Square that ended in a photo op at a church, AP reports.
He said his presence in uniform amid protests over racial injustice “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” “I should not have been there,” the Joint Chiefs chairman said in remarks to a National Defense University commencement ceremony.
Milley’s statement risked the wrath of a president sensitive to anything hinting of criticism of events he has staged. Pentagon leaders’ relations with the White House already were extraordinarily tense after a disagreement last week over Trump’s threat to use federal troops to quell civil unrest triggered by George Floyd’s death in police custody.
Trump’s June 1 walk through the park to pose with a bible at a church came after authorities used pepper spray and flash bangs to clear the park and streets of largely peaceful protesters demonstrating in the aftermath of Floyd’s death.
Milley’s comments were his first public statements about the walk with Trump, which the White House has hailed as a presidential “leadership moment” akin to Winston Churchill inspecting damage from German bombs in London during World War II.
Milley said his presence and the photographs compromised his commitment to a military divorced from politics.
“My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics,” Milley said. “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”
READ MORE: US jobless rate hits 44 million
Max Maddison 6.35am: Virus cases pass 7.4 million globally
Global confirmed cases of coronavirus surpassed 7.4 million, John Hopkins University reports.
Global deaths are at 418,392. The epicentre of the crisis has moved away from the developed world and into Latin America.
New confirmed cases in Brazil climbed with 26,886 new cases reported overnight, taking the country’s total to 772,416, while Mexico saw a record daily high of 4883 new cases.
Already with 276,583 confirmed cases since the pandemic began, India recorded another day of over 10,000 cases.
While cases in the US appeared to have plateaued this week, the country saw another 27,234 new cases in the past 24-hours, sparking fears of another wave of infections.
READ MORE: Protests could undo good work
Agencies 6.25am: No mass protests, Britain’s health chief warns
British health minister Matt Hancock says people should not attend large demonstrations for public health reasons after protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement attracted tens of thousands over the last week, AAP reports.
“I understand that people want to show their passion for a cause that they care deeply about but this is a virus that thrives on social contact, regardless of what your cause may be,” he said at a daily news conference.
The United Kingdom’s death toll from confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose by 151 to 41,279 as of June 10, according to government data released on Thursday.
READ MORE: Hypocrisy unfettered in march of stupidity
Agencies 6.10am: Virus patient receives double lung transplant
Surgeons in Chicago have given a new set of lungs to a young woman with severe lung damage from the coronavirus, AP reports.
Northwestern Medicine on Thursday announced the procedure, which took place last Friday. Only a few other COVID-19 survivors, in China and Europe, have received lung transplants.
The Chicago patient is in her 20s and was on a ventilator and heart-lung machine for almost two months before her operation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The 10-hour procedure was challenging because the virus had left her lungs full of holes and almost fused to the chest wall, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, who performed the operation.
She remains on a ventilator while her body heals but is well enough to visit family via phone video and doctors say her chances for a normal life are good.
“We are anticipating that she will have a full recovery,” said Dr. Rade Tomic, medical director of the hospital’s lung transplant program.
Lungs accounted for just 7 per cent of the nearly 40,000 US organ transplants last year. They are typically hard to find and patients often wait weeks on the transplant list.
READ MORE: Language matters when we talk about race
Agencies 5.50am: China says new coronavirus cases all imported
China has reported a small spike in imported confirmed cases of coronavirus to 11. There were no new deaths or cases of local transmission in Thursday’s report, AP reports.
Chinese officials say just 62 people remain in treatment for COVID-19. In addition, 130 people are under observation and isolation for showing signs of the illness or testing positive for the virus without showing any symptoms, as a safeguard against them possibly spreading it to others.
China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths from COVID-19 - a figure that hasn’t changed in weeks - among 83,057 cases recorded since the virus was first detected in the central industrial city of Wuhan late last year.
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Agencies 5.15am: ‘A lot of people will die’: India’s virus time bomb
India has reported a record of nearly 10,000 new coronavirus cases, with health services in the worst-hit cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai swamped by the rising infections.
India’s tally has reached 286,579 confirmed cases, the fifth highest in the world, with 8102 deaths, including 357 in the past 24 hours.
“We are sitting on a ticking time bomb,” said Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, president of the Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum.
“Unless and until the government increases its spending on healthcare, things won’t change. A lot of people will die.”
The spike comes as the government moved ahead with the reopening of restaurants, shopping centres and places of worship in most of India after a lockdown of more than two months. Subways, hotels and schools remain closed.
The actual infection numbers are thought to be higher because of limited testing.
The health ministry said it was ramping up the capacity with daily testing of more than 145,000 people. The number of tests in India crossed five million on Wednesday. — AP
READ MORE: Pandemic accelerating in Africa
Simon Benson 5am: Protesters to again defy social distancing rules
Thousands of activists are preparing to take to the streets once again, defying health advice as an “industrial-scale” investigation is launched to prevent a second mass outbreak sparked by a Melbourne Black Lives Matter protester who tested positive for COVID-19.
As health authorities warn of a potential spike from last weekend’s rallies, the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday night banned a Sydney rally on Saturday planned by refugee activists.
NSW police warned that any protesters going to the Saturday rally — one of two planned for Sydney over two days — would be breaking the law and police would “take the appropriate action against them”.
Ahead of this morning’s national cabinet meeting, Scott Morrison said protesters who went to planned rallies — called by refugees activists in Sydney and Brisbane as well as BLM rallies in Sydney, Darwin and Perth — should be charged for breaking social-distancing rules.
Read the full story, by Simon Benson and Geoff Chambers, here.
Sarah Elks 4.45am: Palaszczuk insists July border opening the goal
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insists she and Scott Morrison are “as one” on wanting to reopen the state’s borders next month, as she resists growing pressure to allow interstate travel now.
The Prime Minister has said states should reopen their borders in July or risk losing public trust.
Ms Palaszczuk said she and Mr Morrison shared the same aim, despite suggesting last month that the border might not reopen until September.
“We are at one on this in terms of July, there’s no dissent on this,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“He has said July; I have said July.”
National cabinet will today review the latest epidemiology evidence and consider the impact of the weekend’s mass rallies against Aboriginal deaths in custody.
Read the full story here.
Additional reporting: Agencies
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