Coronavirus Australia live news: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews dismisses calls for his own resignation
Daniel Andrews has dismissed calls from Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien for his resignation, saying he does not ‘run from problems and challenges’.
- Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos quits
- Victoria records 12 new cases, one death
- Virus deaths ‘could double to 2m’
- Why virus lethal to some, not others
- No answers from Andrews on hotels
Welcome to our rolling coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has quit cabinet and the parliament in the wake of evidence given by Premier Daniel Andrews at the hotel quarantine inquiry.
The Times 11.05pm: How South Korea managed Covid
South Korea appears to have cracked the code for managing the coronavirus. Its solution is straightforward, flexible and relatively easy to replicate.
The country has averaged about 77 new daily cases since early April and recently suppressed a spike in infections. Adjusting for population, that would be the equivalent of about 480 cases a day in the U.S., where new daily cases have averaged about 38,000 over the same period. Total deaths in the U.S. due to Covid-19 just surpassed 200,000.
South Korea halted virus transmission better than any other wealthy country during the pandemic’s early months. It was about twice as effective as the U.S. and U.K. at preventing infected individuals from spreading the disease to others, according to a recent report from a United Nations-affiliated research network. South Korea’s economy is expected to decline by just 0.8% this year, the best among the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s forecasts for member nations.
Read the full story here.
AFP 10.05pm: Badminton world tour postponed to 2021
The Asian leg of the 2020 badminton world tour scheduled for November has been moved until next year in Bangkok, officials said, in the latest disruption to the sport due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The sport has seen international matches called off throughout the year as authorities around the world restrict movement and public gatherings in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus.
The Badminton World Federation said three tournaments under the tour were now scheduled to be played back-to-back in mid-January, with the finals at the end of the month.
It said the Asian leg of the games originally planned for November were no longer “viable” and decided the Asian leg of the tour should be played in Thailand.
“The January dates provide BWF with the best possible opportunity to resume and complete the HSBC BWF World Tour for 2020 as part of our return to international badminton,” it said in a statement late Friday.
Two of the tour’s Super 1000 tournaments will begin on January 12 and 19, with the finals to be played on the 27th and ending on the 31st.
The news comes as the sport’s bosses around Asia elected not to take part in the Thomas and Uber Cup matches set for October, with the event in Denmark called off last week.
The Cup has been postponed three times this year and will not take place until 2021.
Next month’s Denmark Open is the only top-level event confirmed on this year’s calendar.
Read more: Sports grants legality not investigated
Rachel Baxendale 9.15pm: Andrews responds to hotel staff cases
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has cited the “wildly infectious nature” of coronavirus when asked to respond to revelations that since August 1, there have been 12 reports made to his government of positive cases among staff at two quarantine hotels.
While Victoria’s hotel quarantine program stopped taking new arrivals in June following coronavirus clusters among private security guards at two hotels which have been linked to the state’s second wave, two other hotels have provided quarantine for vulnerable community members who cannot safely isolate at home, including residents of Melbourne’s public housing commission towers.
These hotels are the Brady Hotel and Hotel Grand Chancellor in Central Melbourne, although the Grand Chancellor‘s involvement in the program ceased on September 14.
Asked to respond to a story in The Saturday Paper that 12 reports of positive cases among staff were made, including private contractors, none of which have been publicly disclosed, Mr Andrews told The Australian: “I’m happy to come back to you on all of those matters.”
“The issue around the wildly infectious nature of this, I think, is well known, and there are issues that come direct from it,” Mr Andrews said.
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 8.05pm: ‘Outstanding choice’: Andrews on Foley’s appointment
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has indicated that his new health minister Martin Foley may not have been the first person offered the job, but disputed any suggestion that Mr Foley was not his first choice to replace Jenny Mikakos.
Asked how he came to select Mr Foley, Mr Andrews said: “I rang him and asked him and he said yes.”
Asked why he was the right person for the job, Mr Andrews cited Mr Foley’s previous experience as Mental Health, Equality and Creative Industries Minister, with portfolios in the Department of Health and Human Services.
“As a DHHS minister with experience in this portfolio in broad terms, as the mental health minister, I thought he was an outstanding choice,” Mr Andrews said.
“That’s why I asked him and he said yes, and he will be sworn in soon, and he will do in this portfolio exactly what he has done in all the different portfolios he has held.
“He will work hard and do a very good job. If I wasn’t certain of that, I wouldn’t have made that phone call.”
But asked whether Mr Foley was the first person he rang and asked, Mr Andrews said: “Honestly, I have many discussions with many different colleagues, and the minister is going to do an outstanding job.”
Asked whether that meant Mr Foley was not his first choice, Mr Andrews said: “That’s not the correct inference for you to draw from anything I’ve said today, and that’s not right.”
Read more: Mikakos resignation: Andrews says ‘right decision’
Rachel Baxendale 7.45pm: Andrews backs DHHS, secretary Peake
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he still has confidence in Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kym Peake, despite telling the hotel quarantine inquiry that he regarded outgoing Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, Secretary Peake, and their department as having accountability for the bungled hotel quarantine program.
Mr Andrews’s comments come after he described Ms Mikakos’s decision to resign as “the appropriate course of action”, and after Ms Mikakos stated in her resignation letter that there were “clearly matters” relating to the program “that my department should have briefed me on.”
Asked whether he maintained confidence in Ms Peake, Mr Andrews said: “Yes.”
Asked whether he was worried and frustrated by evidence heard in the inquiry that Ms Mikakos was not sufficiently briefed by her department, Mr Andrews said: “It will be for others to find whether there was sufficient briefing.”
Amid calls from some within Labor caucus for Police Minister Lisa Neville and Jobs Minister Martin Pakula to take more responsibility for the hotel quarantine program, Mr Andrews said the pair “absolutely” had his confidence.
Asked whether he would describe their decision at “appropriate” should they decide to resign, as he has Ms Mikakos’s, Mr Andrews said. “Well, they haven’t, so I’m not certain what the question is.”
“You ask do I have confidence? Yes. If I didn’t, they wouldn’t be ministers. It’s very, very simple,” Mr Andrews said.
The Premier said the same of Ms Mikakos less than 24 hours before she resigned.
Health Minister-designate Martin Foley, who has worked with DHHS as mental health minister, said he had faith in Ms Peake.
“I have nothing but confidence in both the secretary and the department, and I look forward to continuing a very productive relationship with them,” Mr Foley said.
“I have every confidence not only in Ms Peake but all the professionals I deal with within the Department of Health and Human Services to provide all the information and support I need.”
Read more: Inquiry shows why nothing has stuck to Andrews
Rachel Baxendale 7.05pm: Andrews should follow Mikakos: O’Brien
Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said Daniel Andrews should be following his outgoing health minister Jenny Mikakos “out the door”.
“Jenny Mikakos had a lot of flaws as health minister, but there’s no way that she was involved in the decision to say no to the ADF or to say yes to private security guards,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Jenny Mikakos is being used as a scapegoat by Daniel Andrews. It is not Jenny Mikakos’s fault that (offers of) the ADF were ignored. It’s not Jenny Mikakos’s fault that private security guards were engaged.
“That was a decision that was taken by the government.”
Mr O’Brien said it was clear Mr Andrews knew ADF support with hotel quarantine was available, “because on the very first day of hotel quarantine his press release said so.”
“He said so at his press conference,” Mr O’Brien said.
“We know that Daniel Andrews knew that private security guards were going to be used, because on the 28th of March, he said so at his press conference, and he can’t explain why.
“To hear Daniel Andrews say today that he was planning to dig in and grip onto his job because he wanted to face up to the challenge of the rebuild, all Daniel Andrews is doing is running away from accountability.
“The longer Daniel Andrews decides to try and dig in to his job, and hold on to power, the less accountable he is for the damage he’s done to Victoria: over 750 deaths, tens of thousands of businesses shut, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and millions of Victorians locked down.
“This is the consequence of the second wave, of Labor’s second wave, of Daniel Andrews’ second wave.
“It’s about time this Premier took responsibility for what he’s done to the state. It’s about time Daniel Andrews followed Jenny Mikakos out the door, and gave Victoria a fresh start under leadership that we can trust.”
Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier said Mr Andrews had claimed to have confidence in Ms Mikakos up until Friday, despite having ten days earlier written a submission to the hotel quarantine inquiry stating he believed she was accountable for the hotel quarantine program.
“This is a dysfunctional government, and it’s a government that is at war with itself,” Ms Crozier said.
She said she wished new health minister Martin Foley well in his new role.
“But it’s got to have somebody who understands health. This is very critical, and the health union itself didn’t have confidence in Jenny Mikakos,” Ms Crozier said.
“They said she didn’t know the difference between clinical and non-clinical staff, so I’m just hoping Martin Foley understands the very real differences, and the really big issues that are facing Victoria, because we’ve got real issues here.”
Read more: Premier, Mikakos in the mother of all bust-ups
Rachel Baxendale 6.45pm: Andrews dismisses calls for his own resignation
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has dismissed calls from Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien for his resignation, saying he does not “run from problems and challenges”.
“No, I will not,” Mr Andrews said when asked whether he would resign.
“I don’t run from problems and challenges. I’ve got a very important job to do, and that is to continue to get these case numbers down, and then to begin the biggest recovery project that our state has ever seen,” he said.
“It will be truly unprecedented both in its size, scale and nature, and that’s what’s needed.
“This is a one in 100 year event, so my answer to your question is no, I have an enormous amount of work to get done, and I’m going to get it done. Because that’s what I do. I get on get things done.”
Asked whether he was committed to remaining Premier regardless of what the hotel quarantine inquiry finds when it hands down its report on November 6, Mr Andrews said: “I’m committed to the job I’ve got, and it’s a very, very significant job, and I work hard every day to make sure that I do the best that I possibly can.”
“That’s what I’m focused on. What I’ll do after the board of inquiry’s report comes down is I will take the action necessary to make sure that these sorts of errors can never happen again,” he said.
“That’s the role I’ve got. I can’t presuppose what those recommendations will be though, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to speculate on them, other than to say I think it’s almost certain there will be certain actions, there’ll be things that need to happen, and I will make sure they do.”
Asked whether he should be taking personal responsibility for the fact that the inquiry heard no one in his government or public service briefed him or took public responsibility themselves for putting private security guards in hotel quarantine and ensuring that appropriate infection control safeguards were in place, and himself resigning, Mr Andrews again said: “No. I think I have dealt with that.”
“I just want to make a broader point: just because, through the production of documents and the giving of evidence, we don’t have an obvious answer to many of the questions that saw the board of inquiry established, that does not for a moment mean that the board won’t make findings about many of those issues,” he said.
Read more: Newspoll: Victorians back Daniel Andrews over COVID response
“That’s the nature of their work, and that’s why I’ll wait just these few weeks to get what I’m confident will be a well considered and comprehensive report.”
Mr Andrews denied that his position as leader of a system which had failed to provide answers as to who was responsible for the problems in hotel quarantine was a failing on his part, saying: “No, I don’t accept that at all.
“On that test, then I wouldn’t have established an inquiry,” he said.
“The inquiry has been established because there are answers that need to be there. They aren’t. They may be though when the board of inquiry makes its findings.
“So while I know it is particularly frustrating for you and for me that some of those questions can’t, and Victorians, that those questions can’t be answered, the broad may well draw conclusions, they may well come to these matters. That’s entirely a matter for them.”
Read more: Andrews must regain trust to continue
Rachel Baxendale 6.20pm: Premier denies giving Mikakos an ultimatum
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has denied outgoing Health Minister Mikakos had been given an ultimatum by his office on Friday evening before she announced her resignation.
“No. I don’t believe that’s accurate in any way. I did not speak to the Minister before she resigned, and I have not spoken to her since,” he said.
“We had a very, she sent me a text. She’s resigned. She’s no longer a minister.”
Mr Andrews refused to say what was contained in Ms Mikakos’s text.
“I think you would understand that I’m not necessarily going to be going into those details,” he said.
“It was simply to inform me of the fact that a letter had been sent. I was already aware of that.”
Pressed on whether Ms Mikakos had effectively quit via text, Mr Andrews said: “No, she had written to the governor. I had the letter. I was informed as to the action she had taken.”
“I was asked the question had I spoken to her, and I indicated to you ‘no’, but for the purpose of completeness, she had sent a text to me some hours after that. I was well aware of the steps she had taken,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews said Ms Mikakos had not attempted to phone him regarding the resignation on Friday evening.
“No. Although I was on the phone quite a bit about all manner of different things, but no, I don’t believe so.”
Asked whether Ms Mikakos’s decision had come as a surprise to him given evidence he gave at the quarantine inquiry on Friday indicating he believed Ms Mikakos and her department were accountable for the hotel quarantine program, Mr Andrews said: “I don’t know that this is a consequence of evidence I gave yesterday. I don’t know that there’s a link. I gave evidence that was under oath.”
Challenged over the fact that Ms Mikakos stated in her resignation letter that she was leaving her job “unfinished ... in light of the Premier’s statement to the Board of Inquiry and the fact that there are elements in it that I strongly disagree with,” Mr Andrews said: “Well then, you’ll need to speak to her about that, how it is she came to that view.”
“I really can’t offer any more than that. I gave evidence yesterday. I provided a statement that had been prepared well before then to which I attested yesterday. That was made available to the inquiry and I don’t necessarily think I can add much more than that.”
Read more: Mikakos right to resign: Andrews
Rachel Baxendale 6pm: Somyurek hits back at Andrews over absence
Former Labor powerbroker and Andrews government minister Adem Somyurek has hit back at the Victorian Premier, after Daniel Andrews declared his absence from state cabinet “has not diminished the cabinet”.
Mr Andrews was responding to a question over his loss of three minister in four months at his first press conference on Saturday following the resignation of his Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.
Ms Mikakos’s departure follows those in June of Mr Somyurek and his factional allies Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott amid branchstacking allegations.
Asked whether he had confidence in the make-up of his cabinet given the recent resignations, Mr Andrews said: “Yes. I am. Otherwise that wouldn’t be the make up. It would be a different make-up, wouldn’t it?”
Pressed over the fact that he had promoted Mr Somyurek to cabinet a second time following the 2018 election, despite Mr Somyurek having been forced to resign in 2015 over bullying allegations, Mr Andrews said: “Might I boldly venture Mr Somyurek’s absence from cabinet has not diminished the cabinet.”
“I might put it in those terms. Or the work of the cabinet. You raised him. I didn’t, but I will observe that,” Mr Andrews said.
Minutes later, Mr Somyurek tweeted: “At least I wasn’t responsible for the death of 760 people.”
At least I wasn’t responsible for the death of 760 people
— Adem Somyurek MP (@AdemSomyurek) September 26, 2020
Earlier this week Mr Somyurek penned an opinion piece for The Australian arguing the Premier’s decision to concentrate power in his office and eight-member Crisis Council of Cabinet during the coronavirus pandemic had meant a “previously well-functioning cabinet government was thrown into chaos.”
Rachel Baxendale 5.45pm: Union secretary tipped for Mikako’s spot
Labor MPs have speculated that former Australian Services Union Victorian secretary Ingrid Stitt will be the upper house MP promoted to cabinet to fill the vacancy left by Jenny Mikakos’s departure.
Socialist Left convener Mat Hilakari, the brother of Trades Hall boss Luke Hilakari and a long time staffer to MPs including new Health Minister Martin Foley has put his name forward for Ms Mikakos’s vacant Northern Metropolitan seat.
However, other Labor members are pushing for a woman to get the role, with former Hume mayor Casey Nunn receiving support from some quarters.
“I think Martin and I acknowledge the hard work that he’s done as a DHHS minister in the portfolios of Mental Health and others, and I think that he is well equipped to be right at the forefront of our fight against this virus, and in my experience, he has the skills, the background and the absolute will to see this strategy through,” Mr Andrews said.
Read more: Premier, Mikakos in the mother of all bust-ups
AFP 5.30pm: Paid sick leave to weather Canada’s second wave
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday reached a deal with the opposition leftist New Democrats on paid sick leave for all Canadian workers during the pandemic, avoiding possible snap elections.
The minority Liberal government earlier this week had in a so-called throne speech proposed sweeping new measures to help Canadians weather a second COVID-19 wave.
But its agenda and a bill to enact key parts of it faced possible defeat in parliament, as the Tories and Bloc Quebecois withheld their support and the New Democratic Party (NDP) made demands for increased social spending to prop up the government.
With the defeat of the bill — and its agenda — the government would have fallen.
In a last-ditch effort to gain NDP support, the Liberals boosted a weekly benefit for those unable to work during the COVID-19 outbreak, including to care for children or relatives.
And it agreed to NDP demands for the two week paid sick leave for workers who must isolate after being exposed to the new coronavirus.
In exchange, the NDP said it would back the bill as well as support the government’s agenda in a confidence vote that is expected to follow in the coming weeks.
“If this agreement is reflected in the bill,” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh told a news conference, “we will support the bill, and we will also support the throne speech.” The bill is to be presented to parliament on Monday.
Singh would not disclose the specific amendments to it, except to say Liberal concessions will mean “millions rather than thousands” more Canadians will have access to paid sick leave.
Read more: Rival nations go easy on Chinese students
John Ferguson 5pm: Mikakos, Andrews in major bust-up
Daniel Andrews and Jenny Mikakos have had the mother of all bust-ups.
Once close allies, Andrews conceded on Saturday that Mikakos did not even bother to speak to him before quitting.
Instead, the end came in the form of a Mikakos text and a strident statement from the Health Minister defending her behaviour.
In normal circumstances, this would be the cause of terrific concern to any premier.
But Mikakos has probably done him a significant favour, handing taxpayers the first major scalp of the hotel quarantine scandal.
Andrews is standing behind the secretaries of his own department and health, making it possible (but not certain) that Mikakos will be the only major political victim of the crisis.
Read the full analysis here.
David Crossland 4.35pm: Illegal wedding blamed for city lockdown
A big illegal wedding has been blamed for sending a German city into partial lockdown after a third of more than 300 guests tested positive for COVID-19.
The mayor of Hamm, in North Rhine-Westphalia, criticised rule breakers who attended multiple events earlier this month tied to a Turkish wedding, despite the state having imposed a 150-person limit on gatherings.
Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann said his city’s infection rate was now almost double that needed to trigger lockdown measures, at 99 per 100,000, and authorities were struggling to trace the thousands of people listed as close contacts of those who had fallen ill.
“All this because of one family celebration. Of course I’m angry,” he said. “It’s pretty clear what went wrong: it started with a hen party at which people danced very close together and tears were shed.
“Then there was the actual wedding with several hundred guests at which distancing and hygiene rules weren’t adhered to either. That led to a large number of corona infections.
“Because a handful of celebrators jettisoned all decency, distance and their masks, 180,000 people (Hamm’s population) are suffering. They behaved as if corona did not exist. That cannot be allowed to happen.”
READ MORE: Trump plans to nominate Barrett to fill court vacancy
Christine Kellett 3.51pm: New Health Minister backs embattled department
Victoria’s next Health Minister in waiting says he has full confidence in top bureaucrats at the Department of Health and Human Services after his predecessor Jenny Mikakos said she had not been properly briefed over the hotel quarantine fiasco.
Martin Foley, currently the Minister for Mental Health is expected to be sworn in as Ms Mikakos’s replacement later today.
“I have nothing but confidence in both the secretary and the department, and I look forward to continuing a very productive relationship with them,” Mr Foley has told a press conference announcing his appointment.
“We are in the coming off of the second wave of a global pandemic, which Victorians have made enormous sacrifices.
“It is outstanding, and I look forward to working with those professionals and communities to continue the driving of those infection rates down, so we can get a COVID-normal reopening of Victoria under way and in doing so build the kind of health system that we would expect Victorians want to have to keep those infection rates down, and that’s exactly what I’ll be doing.”
Premier Daniel Andrews would not be drawn on whether Mr Foley was his first choice to replace Ms Mikakos, but said he was sure he would do “an outstanding job”.
“(Mr Foley) is a DHHS minister with experience in this portfolio in broad terms, as the Mental Health Minister, I thought he was an outstanding choice. That’s why I asked him and he said yes, and he will be sworn in soon, and he will do in this portfolio exactly what he has done in all the different portfolios he has held. He will work hard and do a very good job. If I wasn’t certain of that I wouldn’t have made that phone call.”
READ MORE: Why Jenny Mikakos’s parting shot is revealing
Rachel Baxendale 3.20pm: Martin Foley to replace Jenny Mikakos
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says it was “appropriate” for Jenny Mikakos to quit as Health Minister, insisting it was her decision and he had not sought her resignation.
Mental Health Minister Martin Foley will replace Ms Mikakos in the Health portfolio and will be sworn in later today.
“I did not speak with the Minister before she resigned, I have not spoken to her since,” the Premier said.
“She sent me a text.”
“I believe it was the appropriate course of action (for her to resign).
“She is a very, very hardworking person. I wish her the best for the future.”
In a written statement released before his delayed daily briefing, the Premier said:
Jenny Mikakos has today resigned her ministerial position. I believe that is the right decision.
“I would like to thank Jenny for her many years of service to the Parliament and to the Government. I acknowledge her commitment and hard work in all of the portfolios she has held as a Minister. I wish her well.”
More to come …
Chris Smyth 2.46pm: Quarter of the UK living under tighter restrictions
More than 16 million people in Britain are living under heightened COVID-19 restrictions after bans on visiting friends and family were extended across northwest England and parts of Wales were put in lockdown.
A quarter of the country will be subject to regional restrictions after new measures were announced yesterday to fight the second wave of the coronavirus, with official figures suggesting that the epidemic is gathering pace again.
Ten million people in London were put on notice that tougher restrictions were likely in weeks. A government source said that if rates did not stop rising “household mixing would be the next thing you go to. London might be two or three weeks behind the north. But next week we will look at the data again.”
Tory MPs calling for Boris Johnson to resist further measures have been emboldened after Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said that “our lives can no longer be put on hold”. He told MPs on Thursday that “we need to learn to live with [the virus] and live without fear” as he announced that the government would subsidise only viable jobs.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, blamed a testing shortage for allowing the virus to run out of control in the capital. “We should be following what’s happening around the country and stopping social mixing of households,” he told The Guardian. “I say that with a heavy heart.”
READ MORE: Chinese tempers boil over at the UN
Rachel Baxendale 2.10pm: Premier Daniel Andrews delays daily appearance
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is due to address the media at 3pm, following the resignation of his Health Minister Jenny Mikakos earlier on Saturday.
It is also the first time Mr Andrews has appeared publicly since giving damning evidence against Ms Mikakos and her department, and his departmental secretary Chris Eccles, at the hotel quarantine inquiry on Friday.
In her resignation letter, Ms Mikakos said she was leaving her job “unfinished ... in light of the Premier’s statement to the Board of Inquiry and the fact that there are elements in it that I strongly disagree with.”
My media statement is attached. #springst pic.twitter.com/h0Quxyed2P
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) September 25, 2020
READ MORE: Why Powderfinger turned down the AFL Grand Final
Emily Ritchie 1.40pm: Mikakos finds support in unexpected quarters
Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, who quit over the hotel quarantine fiasco today, has received some surprising bipartisan support.
Liberal NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ assertion that Ms Mikakos was responsible for the quarantine system “lacked logic”.
“How could a Health Minister direct police to be involved?,” Mr Hazzard tweeted on Saturday.
“Sorry to see Jenny Mikakos resign. She has worked tirelessly in this pandemic.”
Federal Shadow Health Minister Chris Bowen also offered his words of support, tweeting that Ms Mikakos had “more understanding of ministerial responsibility in her little finger than Angus Taylor, Michael Sukkar and Alan Tudge combined”.
“I wish her the best,” Mr Bowen said.
Georgie Crozier, Victoria’s Shadow Health Minister, said it was “about time” Ms Mikakos resigned.
“It should have happened months ago,” Ms Crozier tweeted, calling for Mr Andrews to follow suit.
“A fish rots from the head down and Andrews has lied and tried to cover up the monumental failures of his government. He can’t think by Mikakos going all is fine. He needs to go too.”
The Health Services Union also welcomed her resignation, hoping it would end “bizarre” decision making in the portfolio.
Mikakos’s resignation is welcome. We hope to engage with a new Health Minister to put a stop to the bizarre decisions to contract out public hospital cleaners and other non-clinical workers during a pandemic and replace them from dodgy outsourcing firms. PPP’s must go! #springst
— Health Workers Union (@Health_Workers) September 26, 2020
Liberal Opposition leader Michael O’Brien said Ms Mikakos was right to quit over contact tracing failures and “dodgy” evidence at the inquiry, but “did not say ‘no’ to the ADF” running the hotel quarantine program.
“These decisions caused our second wave,” Mr O’Brien tweeted.
“Andrews is responsible. He should go.”
Mikakos should go because of contact tracing failures and her dodgy evidence to the Inquiry.
— Michael O'Brien (@michaelobrienmp) September 26, 2020
But Mikakos did not say ‘no’ to ADF.
She did not bring in private security for hotel quarantine.
These decisions caused our 2nd wave.
Andrews is responsible.
He must go.#springst https://t.co/E2R34nPXIy
Premier Andrews’ regular morning press briefing is yet to get under way, despite the relatively good news that Metropolitan Melbourne’s rolling 14-day average is now down to 23.6, with 12 new cases and one death in 24 hours.
READ MORE: John Ferguson — Mikakos won’t be sorely missed
Emily Ritchie 1.15pm: PM ‘not getting involved’ as Mikakos fires parting shot
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was “not his role to get involved” when asked about the resignation of Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.
While opening South Australia’s Osborne Naval Shipyard on Saturday — in what was his first visit to the state since March — Mr Morrison said he was only interested in aiding Victorians to get “back on their feet”.
He said he would not add fuel to the fire by commenting on the testimony of Premier Daniel Andrews at Friday’s inquiry into the hotel quarantine bungle, where he said he was not aware of the Australian Defence Force support on offer.
“I don’t think it helps, my commentary on those matters,” Mr Morrison said.
“It’s not my role to get involved in those matters that are being investigated in Victoria, they have their processes and I will respect those processes and let them get on with it.”
When asked directly if he believed Ms Mikakos had been “thrown under the bus” by Mr Andrews, Mr Morrison said: “I don’t have any observation to make.”
Ms Mikakos quit Daniel Andrews’ cabinet and the Victorian Parliament effective immediately, after the Premier yesterday laid the blame for the bungled hotel quarantine scheme at the feet of ministers and senior bureaucrats while giving evidence at the inquiry.
In a parting shot in her resignation announcement, Ms Mikakos said she was “disappointed my integrity has been sought to be undermined” and insisted her conscience was clear.
“I am deeply sorry for the situation that Victorians find themselves in,” she said.
“In good conscience, I do not believe that my actions led to them.
READ MORE: Angela Shanahan — Let’s give these poor politicians a break
Geoff Chambers 12.52pm: Nation’s debt skyrockets as economy sinks deeper
Australia’s pandemic-induced debt and deficit spiral has been fuelled by a $33.1bn slide in cash receipts and record government spending on COVID-19 payments, pushing the nation’s net debt to almost $500bn by the end of June.
The final 2019-20 budget outcome released by Josh Frydenberg on Friday showed a further deterioration of the nation’s finances as coronavirus restrictions and border closures triggered a free-fall in tax receipts and a spike in payments supporting $300bn in economic measures. The Treasurer said the combined effect of a $57.7bn increase in cash payments and a $31.8bn shortfall in tax receipts, excise and duties had delivered an $85.3bn deficit and wiped out the projected $5bn surplus forecast in December’s mid-year update.
Mr Frydenberg, who this week confirmed the government would prioritise jobs growth over budget repair until unemployment fell below 6 per cent, said the October 6 budget would focus on getting Australians back to work.
Read the full story here.
Susan Kurosawa 12.28pm: What international travel will look like post-COVID
What will international travel look and feel like in a post-COVID era? It’s too early for absolute pronouncements, but there are new technologies paving the way for lift-off.
I have noted a few such changes during recent hotel stays. Anyone who’s had a city staycation or a road trip in 2020 will have experienced touch-card payments (goodbye, cash), swipe-card entry (get lost, keys) stripped-down guestrooms (farewell pads, pens, stocked minibars and bedspreads), and social-distancing protocols at reception desks, in elevators and across dining spaces. Smartphone apps that can be used to check in and out of accommodation, open and close guestroom curtains, and control heating, cooling and lights? They’ll soon be de rigueur. GlobalData, an international analytics company, quotes one of its disruptive tech analysts (I am not making this up), who specialises in contactless travel technologies. Biometrics, for example, could mean the automation of an entire air journey from airport check-in and bag drop to security clearance and final boarding through “designated lanes equipped with facial recognition systems”.
Singapore Changi Airport has automated kiosks whereby “infra-red proximity sensors” can identify the “motion of a passenger’s finger as they point towards the options on the screen”. Abu Dhabi international airport has partnered with a UAE tech start-up to install touchless elevator panel technology “controlled by gestures, allowing people to command an elevator without physically pressing any buttons”. GlobalData says Hong Kong International Airport has “intelligent sterilisation robots” in passenger facilities and public areas. “The autonomous robots, equipped with ultraviolet lights and an air steriliser, can sterilise their surroundings in 10 minutes with 99.99 per cent accuracy.”
Read the full column here.
Agencies 12.05pm: Olympics could go ahead without vaccine
Olympic boss Thomas Bach said the Tokyo Games could take place next year even without a coronavirus vaccine, pointing to the success of the Tour de France.
Striking an optimistic note at a meeting with Tokyo 2020 organisers, he vowed to make the postponed event a triumph despite the uncertainties of the pandemic.
“We can see that sport is coming back slowly but surely, and that a number of big sport events have been successfully organised recently, including matches in different Japanese leagues,” he said via videolink.
Also very complex events like the Tour de France and others, which showed to us and showed to the world that we can organise safe sport events even without a vaccine.”
But a vaccine and progress in rapid testing “would of course greatly facilitate” holding the event, said Bach, head of the International Olympic Committee.
The 2020 Games were postponed earlier this year as the deadly new illness spread around the globe.
They are now set to open on July 23, 2021, and organisers are insisting they will go ahead in some form — and be safe for all involved.
Drugs companies are racing to produce an effective jab to counter a virus that has now killed more than 970,000 people around the world and infected almost 32 million.
AFP
Read the full story here.
Shae McDonald 11.30am: Three new cases as Queensland restrictions ease
Queensland has recorded three new cases of COVID-19 as restrictions ease across the state’s southeast.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement on social media on Saturday morning.
Two of the cases are crew members from an international ship, who are in hospital.
he third is an overseas arrival in quarantine.
It comes as restrictions on gatherings, aged care homes and hospitals were eased across southeast Queensland on Friday after 14 days of no community transmission.
Up to 30 people can now gather at people’s homes and outdoors, in line with the rest of the state.
Saturday, 26 September – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 25, 2020
• 3 new confirmed cases
• 7 active cases
• 1,156 total confirmed cases
• 1,094,924 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,141 patients have recovered.#covid19au pic.twitter.com/pzjNbQ5M4v
From 1am on October 1, density restrictions at outdoor cafes, bars and restaurants will reduce from one person per 4sq m to one person per 2sq m.
The sunshine state has also reopened to the Australian Capital Territory, with border controls only now in place for parts of NSW and Victoria.
READ MORE: Greg Sheridan — Trump will make history this weekend
Emily Ritchie 11.10am: NSW records just one new case in 24 hours
NSW has recorded just one new case of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to Friday night, a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.
NSW Health is now treating 72 coronavirus cases, including three in intensive care, none of whom require a ventilator. Eighty-eight per cent of cases being treated by NSW Health are in non-acute, out-of-hospital care.
With the start of school holidays on Saturday and an expected increase in movement of people across the state, NSW Health has appealed to the community to get tested as soon as symptoms appear.
NSW Health said testing numbers had declined in recent weeks.
READ MORE: Peter van Onselen — Too many join ranks of Australia’s pandemic forgotten
Rachel Baxendale 10.50am: Andrews signals slight easing of restrictions
Daniel Andrews has signalled an easing of coronavirus restrictions for Melburnians on Sunday which will go further than the plan set out in his reopening roadmap, but warned that he won’t be “throwing the doors open” until October.
However, the Victorian Premier refused to rule out dumping his controversial 9pm to 5am curfew, ahead of court proceedings on Monday brought by Liberal Party member and Mornington Peninsula business owner Michelle Loielo, challenging the measure.
Under the roadmap, Melbourne needed to reach a 14-day daily average of between 30 and 50 new cases of coronavirus by Sunday in order to move to a very slight easing of restrictions which would enable public outdoor gatherings of up to five people from up to two households, the resumption of childcare, and a staged return to the classroom for Prep to Grade Two and VCE students.
Read the full story here.
John Ferguson 10.20am: Mikakos resignation will deeply embarrass Andrews
The effect of the Jenny Mikakos resignation is to severely embarrass Daniel Andrews and immediately leave Victoria without a minister leading the coronavirus campaign.
Not that Mikakos will be sorely missed given the evidence to the hotel quarantine inquiry and the debacle that has become the government’s handling of the virus.
Whoever takes the job will walk into the role somewhat blind to the machinations of the department, although the obvious replacement would be the last health minister, Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.
Hennessy is capable and was largely gaffe free during her years in the portfolio.
As one of the Premier’s stronger supporters in the past, Mikakos’s resignation will destabilise the internal workings of the Cabinet but she has effectively been dead political meat for many weeks.
The strongest critics in the Labor caucus have severely questioned whether Mikakos should ever have been elevated to that role.
Mikakos’s shot at her own department is also telling, suggesting that important advice was kept away from her.
Read the full analysis here.
Remy Varga 9.45am: Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos quits
Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has announced her resignation following testimony given by Daniel Andrews at the hotel quarantine inquiry on Friday.
In a statement released on Twitter, Ms Mikakos said she has “never shirked her responsibility for her department but it is not my responsibility alone”.
“I am disappointed that my integrity has sought to be undermined,” she said.
“I know that my statement and evidence would have been uncomfortable for some.
“I have today written to the Governor of Victoria to resign my commissions as Minister effective today.
“I will also be resigning from the parliament.”
Ms Mikakos told Victorians she was “deeply sorry” but maintained she was not responsible for the failures of the hotel quarantine program.
“I am deeply sorry for the situation that Victorians find themselves in,” she said.
“In good conscience, I do not believe that my actions led to them.
“I thank Victorians for the privilege of serving them.
“I thank the Premier, my colleagues, my loyal staff, the Labor Party and the broader Labor movement for their support.”
Ms Mikakos’ resignation comes the day after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told the Coate inquiry he saw her as responsible for the hotel quarantine program.
The failure to contain the coronavirus among returned travellers sparked the state’s second wave, which has killed more than 750 people and kneecapped the state’s economy.
My media statement is attached. #springst pic.twitter.com/h0Quxyed2P
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) September 25, 2020
Prior to her resignation, Ms Mikakos served as Minister for the Coordination of Health and Human Services during the COVID-19 pandemic on Mr Andrews’ crisis council.
She also maintained responsibility for the health portfolio and like Mr Andrews belongs to Victorian Labor’s socialist left faction.
READ MORE: Gerard Henderson — Kept in the dark while Victorians suffer
Natasha Robinson 9.15am: Workers face weekly virus tests
A mass surveillance program will be rolled out at select workplaces across Victoria, under which every employee will undergo a saliva test for COVID-19 in a push to combat the spread of the virus and prevent a third wave.
The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity is undertaking a workplace saliva test pilot program at three police stations in Victoria where hundreds of officers and other employees are giving samples, with two asymptomatic cases already detected among people who had no idea they had come into contact with the coronavirus.
Following the pilot, it is anticipated that surveillance testing using saliva swabs will be rolled out in coming weeks at high-risk workplaces including abattoirs, industrial food preparation facilities, healthcare facilities and transport and constructions hubs.
Read the full story here.
Christine Kellett 8.40am: Victoria records 12 new cases, one death
Victoria has recorded 12 new cases of coronavirus in 24 hours, as well as one death.
That’s a fall from 14 cases and eight deaths yesterday.
The rolling 14-day average is now down to 23.6 in metropolitan Melbourne.
There are now 31 cases with an unknown source.
#COVID19VicData: Yesterday there were 12 new cases & the loss of 1 life reported. Our thoughts are with all affected.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 25, 2020
The 14 day rolling average & number of cases with unknown source are down from yesterday as we move toward COVID Normal. Info https://t.co/pcll7yB2RZ #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/AH7htALbeT
READ MORE: Universities under fire for poor quality teaching
Cliona O’Dowd 8.20am: Banks vow to maintain standards as rules ease
The nation’s banks have said they are ready to lend but vowed not to water down standards amid one of the biggest shake-ups for lending rules in a decade.
In a bid to kickstart the economic recovery, the federal government yesterday announced it would dump responsible lending obligations, brought in under the Rudd government in 2009, to unshackle lenders from excessive regulation and make it easier for borrowers to access loans.
Under new obligations, which have yet to be legislated, lenders will be able to take at face value the information provided by borrowers on which they will base their loan assessments. Borrowers will shoulder the responsibility of providing accurate information, unlike the current laws which place the onus on lenders to verify information contained in a borrower’s application.
Westpac chief executive Peter King praised the Morrison government’s reforms as a means of reducing red tape for consumers and speeding up the loan approval process.
“These enhancements would enable us to assess loan applications across specific lending products rather than a one size fits all approach. We will be able to streamline our processes, making it an easier and simpler process for customers,” Mr King said.
Read the full story here.
Susan Kurosawa 7.50am: What will travel look like post-coronavirus?
It’s too early for absolute pronouncements, but there are new technologies paving the way for lift-off for international travel, writes Susan Kurosawa for The Weekend Australian today.
“Smartphone apps that can be used to check in and out of accommodation, open and close guestroom curtains, and control heating, cooling and lights? They’ll soon be de rigueur,” Kurosawa says.
“Biometrics, for example, could mean the automation of an entire air journey from airport check-in and bag drop to security clearance and final boarding through ‘designated lanes equipped with facial recognition systems’.
“Singapore Changi Airport has automated kiosks whereby ‘infra-red proximity sensors’ can identify the “motion of a passenger’s finger as they point towards the options on the screen”. And Abu Dhabi international airport has partnered with a UAE tech start-up to install touchless elevator panel technology ‘controlled by gestures, allowing people to command an elevator without physically pressing any buttons’.”
Read the full story here.
Agencies 7.30am: Restaurant owners protest new lockdown measures
Hundreds of restaurant and bar owners protested in the southern French city of Marseille overnight (AEST) against new shutdown orders to curb surging coronavirus numbers, as the country recorded nearly 16,000 new cases.
Health Minister Olivier Veran announced the closures for Marseille and the surrounding region this week after contagion rates jumped, while bars and restaurants in Paris and 10 other cities will have to shut by 10pm starting Monday.
France’s public health agency warned that that epidemic was in an “ascending phase”, announcing that 15,797 new infections were registered on Friday, slightly down from the previous day’s record of 16,096.
“These numbers worry us because they raise the prospect of more admissions to hospital, more need for intensive care, and possibly more deaths,” Sophie Vaux, an epidemiologist at the agency, said.
Officials are hoping to get ahead of the flare-up before hospitals are overwhelmed, but critics accuse the government of taking arbitrary measures that will take a huge economic toll. — AFP
READ MORE: Chris Kenny — Nanny state spread crushes liberty, spirit
Angie Raphael 7am: Ship’s virus-stricken crew to be evacuated
Two coronavirus-affected people onboard a ship anchored off WA’s northern coast will likely be evacuated to isolate onshore and there may be others, the state’s health minister says.
Roger Cook said only one of the Patricia Oldendorff crew members was symptomatic and the other 19 people onboard would likely need to be tested.
“I think we have to be ready for the fact that there will be others who have contracted the disease,” Mr Cook said.
“An evacuation is the most likely outcome. They’ll isolate in Hedland and possibly in a hotel there.”
Read the full story here.
Agencies 6.30am: COVID-19 deaths ‘could double to 2 million’
The World Health Organisation has warned that coronavirus deaths could more than double to two million if infection-fighting measures are not kept up, as Europe tightened the screws faced with mounting cases and the US crossed another bleak milestone.
Overnight, global deaths reached 985,707 from more than 32.3 million cases.
The hardest-hit US crossed seven million cases — more than a fifth of the global total despite accounting for only four per cent of the world population.
“One million is a terrible number and we need to reflect on that before we start considering a second million,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan told reporters when asked how much higher deaths could mount.
But he added: “Are we prepared collectively to do what it takes to avoid that number? If we don’t take those actions … yes, we will be looking at that number and sadly much higher.”
The WHO warning came as Spanish officials expanded a lockdown in and around Madrid to cover one million people.
#Italy 🇮🇹 was the first Western country to be heavily affected by #COVID19. The government & community, across all levels, reacted strongly & turned around the trajectory of the epidemic with a series of science-based measures. This video tells the story of 🇮🇹’s experience. pic.twitter.com/ZjGNAuZnyl
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) September 25, 2020
Across Europe, new spikes were springing up, with Poland and France the latest to register record figures.
British authorities have announced restrictions now extending to one-quarter of the country’s population, while two supermarket chains said they were rationing purchases of certain goods to clamp down on panic buying.
Moscow ordered vulnerable residents to avoid infection by staying at home, while Israel ratcheted up its lockdown by stopping people from taking flights out of the country.
And in Brazil, the coronavirus fallout for Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous carnival grew as organisers postponed street parties in February indefinitely, a day after the official parades were scrapped. — AFP
READ MORE: UN ‘not perfect, must work for all’, Scott Morrison says
Angelica Snowden 5.45am: Why some contract lethal infections, others do not
Australian researchers have helped uncover why COVID-19 can be lethal, killing otherwise healthy people and sparing others.
New research reveals some people who contract the virus produce antibodies which suppress a set of “crucial” proteins used to protect the body from viruses.
The two new reports show the lack of proteins — called type-one interferons (IFNs) — is common among a group of coronavirus sufferers who contract a severe case of the disease.
One study found about one in 10 people with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia produced antibodies which targeted and neutralised the 17 key proteins.
“This study highlights the crucial role of type-one IFNs in protective immunity against SARS-CoV2,” the report read.
Read the full story here.
Ewin Hannan 5.30am: No answers from Andrews on hotel security guards
Daniel Andrews has admitted he does not know who made the decision to employ private security guards at quarantine hotels, laying blame at the feet of key ministers and public servants as he apologised to Victorians for the disastrous program.
As the final witness to appear before the hotel quarantine inquiry, the Victorian Premier joined Labor ministers, bureaucrats and emergency services chiefs in pleading ignorance about who decided to deploy guards, conceding there might not have been a decision but just a “creeping assumption” by government figures that guards would be used.
Mr Andrews said Health Minister Jenny Mikakos was accountable to him and parliament for the hotel quarantine program between April and July, a period where outbreaks from hotels triggered the state’s devastating coronavirus second wave.
His evidence puts a cloud over the ministerial future of Ms Mikakos given her evidence to the inquiry that she did not become aware of security guards at the hotels until late May.
Read the full story, by Ewin Hannan and Rachel Baxendale, here.
Rosie Lewis 5.15am: Jobseeker ‘can’t return to $40 a day’, MPs say
Coalition MPs say the JobSeeker rate cannot return to $40 a day next year, but warn the payment has been too generous during the COVID-19 pandemic and is discouraging Australians from finding work.
As JobSeeker reduced on Friday by $300 a fortnight to $815.70, Liberal and National MPs suggested a middle ground could be found between the current payment and the original $550 fortnightly Newstart amount.
Some were open to maintaining the existing JobSeeker rate beyond December.
South Australian Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey, whose seat of Grey has one of the highest numbers of Australians on JobSeeker or Youth Allowance, expected an announcement on the future of JobSeeker around the mid-year budget update in December and said any new rate must ensure stronger job participation.
Read the full story here.
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