PoliticsNow: WA opens: ‘lockdown has done its job’ says Mark McGowan
Mark McGowan has lifted a 3 day lockdown in Perth and Peel Region, but interim restrictions will continue for four more days.
- WA lifts lockdown after 0 cases
- Hotel quarantine ‘not fit for purpose’
- WA freedom ‘50-50’
- WA Premier silent over lockdown
- Delhi lockdown extended
Welcome to PoliticsNow, our live coverage of the latest headlines from Canberra as well as news on the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Interim restrictions will stay in place in Perth and the southern region of Peel for the next four days after WA Premier lits lockdown. Australia is defying the COVID-19 pandemic causing renewed havoc in the rest of the world, with the latest virus scare appearing to be contained in WA.
Ellie Dudley11.15pm: Johnson faces calls to resign
Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign over reports from unnamed sources that he said he would rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than order a third COVID-19 lockdown.
The British Prime Minister’s alleged comments first appeared in a front-page headline in the Daily Mail on Monday, and have since been supported by the BBC and ITV.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the report was “not true” and had been “categorically denied by practically everyone”.
“None of this is serious,” he told Sky News. “The Prime Minister has been utterly focused on delivering, alongside Cabinet colleagues, the response to COVID,” he said.
British Labor MP David Lammy took to Twitter to say the comments were “venal, selfish and irresponsible.”
Meanwhile, SNP leader in the UK parliament Ian Blackford called for Mr Johnson’s resignation.
“These comments are utterly abhorrent. If they are true, @BorisJohnson has a duty to resign,” he said.
“The Prime Minister must now come to Parliament to give a statement, and face questioning, on these shocking claims and the growing Tory sleaze scandal engulfing Westminster.”
Mr Johnson has been the subject of intense criticism over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, where more than 127,000 people have died from the virus.
READ MORE:Budget ‘must focus on women’
Ellie Dudley 10.35pm:Council suspended as probe ordered
Central Coast Council in NSW has been suspended and will be the subject of a public inquiry, after it was revealed the council was more than half a billion dollars in debt.
Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock on Monday announced the million-dollar inquiry, conducted with planning law expert Roslyn McCulloch as commissioner.
The council currently holds an accumulated debt of $565m, and forecasts an operating loss for the 2020-2021 financial year of about $115m, according to a 2020 interim report into the council’s “crisis”.
“The performance of Central Coast Council, particularly concerning financial management, has been of great concern to the local community,” Mrs Hancock said.
“On behalf of all Central Coast ratepayers, I want to see the council performing in the best interest of the community and this public inquiry will help get to the bottom of the issues which have impacted its performance, resulting in my suspension of councillors and appointment of an interim administrator.”
Ms Hancock said the decision to hold a public inquiry also means the local government election scheduled for the Central Coast in September will now need to be postponed until late 2022.
“My decision to order a public inquiry aims to give the community the best possible chance to restore confidence in its Council,” Mrs Hancock said.
“As such, I have formed the view that it is in the public interest for all Central Coast councillors to remain suspended during the public inquiry process.”
READ MORE:Social media is work of ‘evil one’: PM
Stephen Lunn 9.50pm: NDIS checks ‘a danger to disabled’
Claims by the agency administering the NDIS that “sympathy bias” by doctors could be inflating claims by applicants in the $21bn-a-year scheme is not backed by evidence, a peak disability advocacy body has warned.
In its submission to an ongoing parliamentary inquiry on the NDIS, People with Disability Australia joined more than 100 disability groups to slam the government’s plan for the scheme’s 430,000 participants to undertake mandatory independent assessments by a team of outsourced health professionals, warning it is a one-size-fits-all approach for people with vastly different requirements.
“We are very concerned this increasingly automated process will not adequately consider individual need and circumstance,” the PWDA submission reads.
Geoff Chambers9.15pm: Aged care ‘needs a $7bn boost each year’
The Health Services Union and leading aged-care providers are urging the Morrison government to boost funding well above an extra $10bn over four years in next month’s budget to repair and future-proof Australia’s aged-care system.
With Josh Frydenberg finalising the funding model for a record spend on aged care in response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, the sector says at least $7bn in extra investment a year would be required.
The Australian understands there was resistance inside government to increase the Medicare levy or introduce a special aged-care improvement levy to find the extra money.
HSU national president Gerard Hayes said the homecare system, which has been bogged down by backlogs, would require an extra $4.6bn annually to provide for current users, those on waiting lists and extra levels of care for those with higher needs.
“Scott Morrison and Richard Colbeck have a tsunami of need coming their way. They seem to think scrambling on to the closest sand dune will save them. It won’t,” he said.
The HSU, which last year launched a national aged-care campaign reaching 500,000 people in swing seats, is expected to bankroll a full-scale election ad blitz contingent on the budget and Labor’s budget-reply.
Mr Hayes, who represents 95,000 members of whom one-quarter are in aged care, said the HSU expected “much more of Anthony Albanese, who has a huge opportunity in his budget reply speech”.
Stephen Lunn8.30pm:Dogged plea for budget dementia assistance
Australians living with dementia are calling on the Morrison government to use the May federal budget to increase funding for better specialist care services, proper dementia training for care workers and dementia-friendly design in nursing homes.
Peak advocacy body Dementia Australia has written to Scott Morrison calling on him to adopt all the aged care royal commission’s recommendations on dementia care, saying the Prime Minister has a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to support the almost half a million Australians with dementia and the 1.6 million more people who are involved in their care.
The letter, seen by The Australian, states that dementia is “one of the largest health and social challenges facing Australia”.
Matthew Denholm7.50pm: White has momentum but Gutwein in box seat
Neither leader landed a killer blow but Rebecca White probably won the day, with her call for voters to forget one year of COVID-19 and judge the Liberals on seven years in office.
White, who has recovered well after a disastrous start to Labor’s campaign — caused by rogue candidates and party infighting — appears to have momentum going into the last week before Saturday’s election.
Having successfully established health — the government’s Achilles’ heel — as a key issue, White used the final debate to urge voters to see past Premier Peter Gutwein’s COVID popularity. “This election is not about COVID or the last year,” she said.
Rhiannon Tuffield 7.10pm: PM speaks of doing ‘God’s work’ in video
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has told a national Christian convention he was “called to do God’s work” as Australia’s leader and revealed he has performed spiritual healings while at work.
In a video, Mr Morrison, a Pentecostal Christian, said he looked for signs from God while on the 2019 election campaign trail, and had practised the evangelical tradition of the “laying-on of hands” and praying while working.
The vision was filmed at the Australian Christian Churches conference on the Gold Coast last week and circulated by the Rationalist Society.
In his speech, Mr Morrison said he and his wife Jenny had been called upon to do God’s work.
He also called the misuse of social media “the work of the devil” and urged other believers to pray against its “corrosive effect on society”.
Tom Dusevic6.40pm:Inflation is fighting back from the dead
Reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. Inflation is fighting back, as the property boom, supply shortages and cost of living pressures spark outbreaks in the economy.
Internal Commonwealth Bank data shows average rents paid rose sharply in the March quarter, by an estimated 2 per cent, almost unthinkable with the collapse in the number of temporary migrants such as students and skilled workers.
“We forecast a strong lift in rents that may not be expected by the street,” CBA economists said, adding underlying inflation would continue to rise this year.
Near-zero official interest rates and government grants to boost the housing industry are pushing up building costs and leading to fierce competition for labour and materials.
The latest National Australia Bank business survey showed 11 per cent of companies reported materials were a “significant constraint”, the highest since the survey began in 1989, and one-quarter of firms responded in the same way about labour.
Matthew Denholm5.55pm:Gutwein targets Labor costings in poll debate
In the last debate before Saturday’s Tasmanian election, Premier Peter Gutwein alleged major shortfalls in Labor policy costings, while Rebecca White sought to neutralise COVID-19 as a poll issue.
The at-times feisty exchange, staged late on Monday in Hobart’s Town Hall by Sky News and The Mercury newspaper, comes as polls and pundits suggest a narrowing of the election contest.
Mr Gutwein sought to undermine Labor’s fiscal credibility, pointing to alleged errors in its costings. He told the audience of undecided voters that Labor’s promises amounted to $2.7bn — a figure disputed by Ms White — and would have a disastrous impact on the state budget.
“In terms of Ms White’s commitments — $1.3bn in recurrent spending, while our’s is at $800m — which push the budget back into deficit almost immediately,” he said.
Mr Gutwein said Labor’s costings on promised land tax cuts and school lunches “don’t add up” and that only the Liberals could deliver the majority government needed to keep the economy growing and to respond quickly to COVID-19.
Ms White sought to tear down the chief reason for Mr Gutwein’s popularity: his handling of the pandemic, and instead focus voters’ minds on health, education and housing.
“This election isn’t about the last week or the month or the year,” Ms White said. “It’s about the last seven years of a Liberal government, under which we’ve seen health waiting lists swell out to be the worst it’s ever been.
“(There are) 50,000 Tasmanians waiting to see a specialist – one in eight Tasmanians waiting for an appointment. That might be you or someone you know.”
READ MORE: Federal Labor weighs Tasmanian branch takeover
Ellie Dudley 5.35pm: Industry group pans WA lockdown
Australia’s peak industry association has lambasted WA’s weekend lockdown.
Claiming there was “no evidence” the lockdown was the reason the slowly rising number of cases receded, the Ai Group criticised the impact on businesses.
“There is no evidence that a disruptive lockdown ‘worked’ after it was enforced in response to a small, controllable number of localised cases and no benchmark by which to judge that success,” Chief Executive Innes Willox said.
“The Perth lockdown was instead another demonstration that many of our states have zero faith in their tracking and tracing systems, the health system or in the common sense of their communities.”
the lockdown will have adverse effects in disrupting many industries and weakening the public’s confidence in the borders remaining open, Mr Willox added.
“Given that lockdowns and border closures are all that our states — except for NSW — have to offer in response to even the mildest outbreak, industry across the country will now have to factor in the potential for major disruption into their thinking around investment, supply chains, labour mobility, employment and training,” he said.
“WA was already seen as a difficult state to deal with during the pandemic. Businesses reported staff being unwilling to travel there because of the uncertainty and fears of being locked in or out. The latest lockdown will only exacerbate those concerns.”
READ MORE: Accelerate tax cuts, Frydenberg urged
Ellie Dudley 5.15pm: Tehan avoids questions over flights
Tourism Minister Dan Tehan has avoided being questioned over Western Australia’s decision to cut their number of international arrivals, saying he was “not going to get into a should-they-shouldn’t-they debate.”
WA premier Mark McGowan said on Sunday that Mr Morrison had agreed to temporarily reduce the number of returned overseas travellers the state takes from 1025 a week to 512, in response to rising hotel quarantine cases.
The reduction starts on Thursday and ends on May 30.
Asked whether Mr McGowan’s decision was measured, Mr Tehan said “the most important thing is that here in Australia we should understand how fortunate we are”.
“The more Australians we can bring home, the better, but we also have to make sure we do that as safely as possible,” he told ABC.
“I think the best thing is that we understand how fortunate and how lucky we are here in Australia, and what we should be able to do is have these discussions in a very constructive way through National Cabinet.”
READ MORE: Academic backtracks on Uighur abuse article
Ellie Dudley5.00pm:Aussie cricket stars flee Covid-tainted IPL
Two Australian cricketers have become the latest to pull out of the Indian Premier League on Monday, as case numbers skyrocket and the country plummets further into crisis.
Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson’s franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore tweeted that the players are “returning to Australia for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of #IPL2021”.
“Royal Challengers Bangalore management respects their decision and offers them complete support,” it added.
Official Announcment:
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 26, 2021
Adam Zampa & Kane Richardson are returning to Australia for personal reasons and will be unavailable for the remainder of #IPL2021. Royal Challengers Bangalore management respects their decision and offers them complete support.#PlayBold#WeAreChallengerspic.twitter.com/NfzIOW5Pwl
The IPL returned home for a 2021 season without fans after last year’s tournament was played in Dubai at a time when India never recorded more than 96,000 cases per day.
This year’s competition has attracted criticism for continuing even as India’s latest surge of cases hit 350,000 infections a day and almost 3,000 deaths, leaving the healthcare system in tatters.
Rajasthan Royals said that AJ Tye also flew back to Australia on Sunday.
The bowler was quoted by Australian radio station SEN WA that more Australian players may also return home shortly.
“Some of the guys are very interested in what route I took home and how I approached it. Others guys are just happy to make sure I’m OK and make sure I’m in a good space,” Tye told the station, according to its website.
“There are some concerns. I’m not sure if I’ll be the only one, but that’s too early for me to say.” India star spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also withdrew from the glitzy tournament on Sunday to support his family during the pandemic.
READ MORE:Covid exodus from the IPL begins
Charlie Peel4.45pm:PM agrees to fund 50 per cent of Olympics
Scott Morrison has agreed to a 50/50 funding split for the potential 2032 Brisbane Olympics, but is yet to agree to pay for half of the $1bn refit of the Gabba.
The federal government’s share of the funding will be significantly more than its contribution to the Sydney 2000 Games.
Ms Palaszczuk last week said time was running out to meet a deadline on Monday to provide assurances to the International Olympic Committee, which has identified Brisbane as its preferred bidder.
She had asked for the federal government to fund 50 per cent of the cost to host the games, similar to an agreement before the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Mr Morrison is understood to have written to the Queensland premier agreeing to a 50/50 funding partnership on Monday.
That money would include funding critical infrastructure needed to host the Games, but funding for the Gabba rebuild has not yet been agreed on.
The funding is contingent on the federal government having a greater say in decisions about the planning of the Games, including the establishment of an independent Games co-ordination authority.
READ MORE:Annastacia Palaszczuk’s funding demand is a whole new Games
Rhiannon Tuffield4.35pm:Qantas passengers await tests days after flying with infected man
Passengers on a flight from Perth to Melbourne that transported a COVID-infected man are still waiting to be tested for the virus almost a week after touching down.
All passengers on the Qantas flight QF778 were contacted and all ground crew tested after the man returned a positive test last week, sparking fresh community transmission fears.
All 10 staff exposed to the case tested negative.
Of the 241 passengers, 156 have all tested negative, but Victorian MP Ben Carroll confirmed there were still passengers who were waiting for a test.
“We’ve still got further outstanding tests that are happening today and tomorrow on that Perth flight, and we’ll have updates during the week,” Mr Carroll told reporters on Monday.
The man, 54, from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, flew to the city on Wednesday and returned a positive test result on Friday after becoming the third person to contract the virus at Perth’s Mercure Hotel.
His household contacts – a spouse and two children – have all returned negative test results.
The passengers on his flight, as well as hundreds of people who were at Melbourne Airport at the time, were last week asked to get tested and quarantine for 14 days.
The man, who was asymptomatic, was notified of his close contact status as he touched down in Melbourne and has been in isolation since then.
Victoria’s COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar said efforts to test all remaining passengers were continuing.
“Yesterday we had people doing home visits to passengers who hadn’t picked up the phone,” Mr Weimar told ABC radio on Monday.
“We’re very confident we’ve got good engagement and response from all the people on the plane and we’ll continue on that vein.”
Meanwhile, players and staff from North Melbourne football club have all returned negative results after playing at Perth’s Optus Stadium on Saturday night.
Great news. All our staff and players’ COVID tests have come back negative.
— North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) April 26, 2021
The team was granted an exemption to return to Victoria on Sunday and were tested on arrival and forced to isolate.
Victoria recorded no new cases of COVID-19 on Monday from more than 12,000 test results.
READ MORE:Coaches call on AFL to fix game’s biggest problem
Ellie Dudley4.20pm:Australia’s vaccine rollout progress revealed
A total of 1,937,300 vaccine doses have been administered as part of Australia’s contentious roll out, with 3408 shots given on Sunday.
The commonwealth has administered 1,293,268 doses in total, with 1738 people injected over the 24 hours to Sunday night.
With the ANZAC Day public holiday being honoured on Sunday, vaccine numbers were particularly low.
NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the NT reported that no vaccines were administered yesterday.
Meanwhile, SA, Victoria, WA and the ACT all administered less than 600 jabs each.
The current vaccine dose tally across the states is as follows:
NSW - 192,336
Victoria - 188,259
Queensland - 136,196
WA - 88,361
Tasmania - 33,633
SA - 53,871
ACT - 25,334
NT - 15,042
READ MORE:We’ll all be rooned by culture of criticism
James Hall3.50pm: Flight delay lands passengers in Brisbane hotel quarantine
Passengers travelling on a flight from Perth to Brisbane were forced into two weeks’ hotel quarantine after their flight was delayed by about five hours.
Flight VA 469 was due to arrive in Queensland at 8.10pm on Friday, hours ahead of the midnight cut-off for interstate travel.
But the flight was delayed and didn’t arrive until 1.20am on Saturday, with Queensland health authorities updating travel restrictions while passengers were flying across the country.
While travellers were in the sky and out of reach of phone reception, Queensland Health adopted border restrictions for Perth and Peel after West Australian Premier Mark McGowan plunged his state’s capital into a three-day lockdown.
On arrival in Brisbane, passengers were escorted to buses and taken to hotels in Brisbane for the mandatory 14-day quarantine, with Virgin blaming an engineering failure on the delay.
The airline had previously adopted a policy to inform passengers of border closures to allow customers the opportunity to forego the flight and mandatory quarantine, but the timing of Friday’s announcement meant passengers were unable to be told of the border restriction change.
“It is our priority, and we work very hard, to update guests where possible on restrictions announced by states and territories prior to travel, including at departure gates,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson said in a statement to NCA NewsWire.
“We have worked, and continue to closely work, with all relevant authorities on managing the impacts of border closures.”
It was reported the passengers on VA 469 were given an exception and will not be required to pay for their stay in hotel quarantine, but Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace said there wouldn’t be further concessions for this unlucky group.
“I understand the circumstances but we take the health advice on this,” she told reporters on Monday morning.
READ MORE:‘Sorry, we’re full’: McGowan’s demand rejected
Robyn Ironside 3.20pm: Half-price airfares snapped up around country
Fewer than 200,000 half-price airfares remain from the federal government’s $1.2bn aviation support package, with the Deputy Prime Minister declaring the industry “bounce back” was well underway.
Michael McCormack said more than 600,000 discount fares had been snapped up in three weeks to destinations across the country.
“Our aviation industry is in a remarkable position compared to where it was just one year ago,” Mr McCormack said.
“Australians are taking trips in large numbers with airlines reporting sales dwarfing previous records.”
He said it was not only carriers such as Qantas, Virgin Australia and Rex who were benefiting from the surge in domestic travel.
“It’s also a win for jobs in our aviation industry, local small businesses who are now doing a roaring trade and for our tourism operators who have come back to life as a result of those half-price flights,” said Mr McCormack.
READ the full story
Paige Taylor2.55pm:WA to keep interim restrictions for four days
Interim restrictions will stay in place in Perth and the southern region of Peel for the next four days after WA Premier Mark McGowan announced he would lift lockdown from midnight on Monday.
“This is a fantastic result it shows the lockdown has delivered an immediate result,” Mr McGowan said.
“It was the circuit breaker we needed to limit community spread.”
This is another good result and can give us confidence as we continue to work through this situation - but we need to keep it up.
— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) April 26, 2021
The more people that get tested, the better. If you’re unwell or have been to any potential exposure locations, please get tested.
Until 12.01am on Saturday, adults and highschool students will still be required to wear masks and hospitality venues will open for seated service only except for Perth’s casino.
People will be able to go to work if they cannot work from home.
The easing of restrictions at midnight Monday follows tests on 29,963 people since health authorities confirmed that coronavirus had escaped from the room of a returned traveller from India and his wife. The virus infected a pregnant woman and her four year old child quarantining in a room across the hall and a 51-year-old man in the room diagonally across the hall. That man tested negative for coronavirus on Day 12 of his quarantine and on release he spent five days roaming Perth unaware that he had the virus. He infected a friend and a Perth man who was at the same restaurant as the man and his friend was also infected.
Contract tracers have so far identified 354 close contacts of the infected people and, of those, 222 negative test results have been returned.
READ MORE: Cheap air tickets ‘selling fast’
Rhiannon Down 2.45pm:McGowan lifts WA lockdown after zero cases
Mark McGowan has lifted a three day lockdown in Perth and the Peel Region, with tightened restrictions easing at midnight tonight.
WA has recorded zero new cases of COVID-19, after a returned traveller infected two people in Perth last week.
Some 354 close contacts have been tested with 222 returning a negative result. All 50 people linked to the Kitchen Inn restaurant in Cardinia have returned a negative result.
I can confirm that as of 12pm today, we have recorded no further local or overseas cases of COVID-19 in WA.
— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) April 26, 2021
Yesterday, another 13,027 tests were carried out across out COVID Clinics and private pathology clinics. pic.twitter.com/ly1c9QCdNm
Adeshola Ore 2.25pm:Hunt flags aid for crisis hit India
Health Minister Greg Hunt has flagged that the federal government will provide humanitarian assistance to India as the country battles a COVID-19 crisis.
The country has set another global record for rise in daily Covid cases or the fifth day in a row. On Monday India reported 352,991 new cases, taking the total number of cases beyond 17 million.
Mr Hunt said Australia’s national security committee would meet tomorrow and consider further measures to support India, saying the “humanitarian and health crisis” was on an “unimaginable scale.”
“India is literally gasping for oxygen,” he said.
“If those additional measures are recommended, we will take them with the heaviest of hearts but without any hesitation.”
Mr Hunt flagged that Australia could provide non-invasive ventilators to India, with an oxygen shortage in hospitals adding pressure to the country’s COVID emergency.
“We are in a strong position on that front because we don’t need them at this point in time,” he said.
READ MORE: Modi admits Covid storm
Rhiannon Down2.15pm:Kelly removed from Facebook for second time
Craig Kelly has been removed from Facebook for a second time, with the social media giant citing concerns about the spreading of debunked information regarding COVID-19.
The Hughes MP, who quit the Liberal party earlier this year over his controversial views, was suspended on Monday, with Facebook announcing it would not tolerate the spread of “misinformation”.
What type of world do we live in today, when the woke try & "cancel" Dr. Seuss, while ‘CyberPunk 2077’ is all the rage where "4 types of damage can be inflicted & resisted-Physical, Thermal, EMP & Chemical"
— Craig Kelly MP (@CraigKellyMP) April 24, 2021
Clearly promoting great Woke wholesome values ?? https://t.co/NLlrLaIW5spic.twitter.com/zXLIERXLAh
“We don’t allow anyone, including elected officials, to share misinformation about Covid-19 that could lead to imminent physical harm or Covid-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have clear policies against this type of content and have removed Mr Kelly’s Facebook page for repeated violations of this policy.”
Mr Kelly was also suspended from Facebook in February as part of a temporary ban over his promotion of unorthodox COVID-19 treatments and theories.
The temporary ban from Facebook was due to at least five posts he put up promoting drugs such as hydroxychloroquine.
The crossbencher described his suspension as a “dark day for freedom of speech”.
READ our live tech blog
Adeshola Ore 2.10pm:600,000 doses distributed last week: Young
Commodore Eric Young, who is now overseeing the nation’s rollout, said almost 600,000 doses of COVID vaccines were distributed across the country last week.
Another 500,000 doses are expected to be delivered across the country this week.
“Today, on a public holiday across most of Australia, we have vaccines going to sites across Australia,” he said.
Commodore Young said another 173,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine was going through batch testing by the Therapeutic Goods Administration over the next few days.
READ MORE: Covid ‘wildfire’ shakes India
Adeshola Ore2.00pm:Hunt: Government has confidence in hotel quarantine
Health Minister Greg Hunt has sought to assure Australians that the country’s handling of COVID-19 is “in control” amid a row over the hotel quarantine system sparked by Perth’s snap lockdown.
The head of the Australian Medical Association in Western Australia has labelled the hotel quarantine system as not fit-for-purpose and accused federal health bureaucrats of not accepting that COVID is airborne.
Mr Hunt said Australia was in a “very strong position” compared to countries abroad.
“We are in a position which people around the world look upon and wish they were us. And I think given some of the debate of the last few days, that context, that perspective is very important,” he said.
He said Australia had numerous rings of containment to deal with the threat of COVID, including border protection, testing, tracing and social distancing.
“It’s a system which I think can rightly be judged as one of, if not, the most successful systems in the world for protecting our national population.”
Mr Hunt said the federal government had “full confidence” in each state and territory’s hotel quarantine systems.
“They’ve overwhelmingly done a great job,” he said.
“This has been the frontline in our protection and half a million Australians have come home since mid-March of last year when restrictions were put in place.”
READ MORE:Academic backtracks on Uighur abuse article
Agencies1.30pm:Suva begins lockdown, dashing tourism hopes
The Fijian capital Suva entered a 14-day lockdown on Monday as the Pacific island nation battled to contain a COVID-19 spike following a “superspreader” funeral event.
The emergence of community transmission is a blow for Fiji’s hopes of opening quarantine-free travel bubbles with Australia and New Zealand, the source of most of its international visitors.
Around 100,000 people in the city must stay in containment zones and non-essential businesses are shuttered after the first community coronavirus cases in 12 months were detected.
A soldier contracted the virus at a quarantine facility and is believed to have transmitted it to a maid, who then exposed up to 500 people at a funeral.
The permanent secretary for health and medical services, James Fong, said four new cases emerged at the weekend.
“Three of the cases involved persons who attended the funeral that we have identified as a superspreader event, including a husband and wife who circulated through the community,” Mr Fong said.
It is not clear how the fourth person, a woman from the outskirts of Suva, became infected.
“She and her husband have been placed in quarantine, but prudence requires us to treat this case as a possible community transmission,” Mr Fong said.
“Because we cannot yet pin down the movements of these people and identify all their contacts, we are forced to take strict precautionary measures.”
Fiji has largely contained the virus through strict isolation measures and border controls, recording fewer than 100 cases and just two deaths in a population of 930,000.
Fiji’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism, which has all but evaporated during the pandemic.
Monthly visitor numbers were down up to 99 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, according to government statistics.
Australia and New Zealand opened a trans-Tasman bubble a week ago allowing quarantine-free travel between the two countries — although New Zealand has since suspended contact with Western Australia due to a COVID-19 outbreak in Perth.
READ MORE: Courts will decide if exit fines apply: law expert
Rhiannon Down 12.40pm: ‘NSW has been doing heavy lifting: pull your weight’
Gladys Berejiklian has hit back at suggestions that WA should limit its intake of returned travellers in light of the recent leaks in hotel quarantine.
The NSW Premier said it was important that all states share the burden of receiving new arrivals, after Mark McGowan moved to limit caps to 500 people in WA’s quarantine program.
“It is really important for all states to really pull their weight,” she said.
“I would be really happy to have a system that determined how many people you can bring back and how many Australians you can bring back based on the population of your state.
Ms Berejiklian said welcoming back returned travellers was an essential step on the path to normal life, and stressed it was important Australian citizens be given first priority.
“We have been doing the heavy lifting in New South Wales since the quarantine system has been put in place,” she said.
“We have been doing the overwhelming majority of people coming back to Australia have come through Sydney Airport. It is a big job and we have done it because we know it is in our state’s interests and in our nation’s interests.
“If we do want to look into the future to be able to welcome back skilled labour or look at welcoming back international students or tourists we need to get through the list of Aussies wanting to come home.”
READ MORE: Van Onselen: Not all smooth sailing for the PM
Rhiannon Down12.02pm:Exit fines up to courts, says law expert
Immigration law expert Kim Rubenstein says it is questionable if fines issued to Australians who leave the country illegally through New Zealand to a third country will be enforceable.
“A court would have to make this decision ultimately,” Professor Rubenstein told Sky News.
“Anyone who was found responsible would have a legal argument in response to say it’s actually an unlawful fine.
“But it would be a matter that would have to go to the courts and there are clear legal principles for a government to be able to legislate fines under the legislative powers under which it is acting.”
Professor Rubenstein also questioned the blanket ban on exiting the country, saying it was arguably not the “least restrictive” way of managing health needs.
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Rhiannon Down11.25am:No new local NSW cases, eight in quarantine
NSW has recorded zero new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and eight cases in hotel quarantine.
It comes as health authorities remain on high alert about the threat of travellers arriving from WA, who may have been close contacts.
“Western Australia Health continues to add close and casual contact venues visited by confirmed cases of COVID-19,” NSW Health said in a statement.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 26, 2021
Eight new cases were acquired overseas to 8pm last night, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,239. pic.twitter.com/ieijiLUhmz
“Anyone who has been in the Perth or Peel areas since 17 April should regularly check the WA Health website for updates on venues of concern and follow NSW Health’s public health advice.”
NSW Health administered 18,484 vaccines last week until Sunday, bringing the total number of doses delivered in NSW to 553,866.
ALSO READ:Perth waits to hear on lockdown easing
Rhiannon Down11.20am:Melb Anzac service ‘good feel' despite fence
RSL Victoria chief Jamie Twidale has defended the state’s Anzac Day commemorations, saying it was a “bumper” year for local services.
It comes amid intense criticism of Shrine of Remembrance for erecting fences around the forecourt area in a bid to enforce the 1400-person limit permitted for the dawn service.
“For the most part people were really excited. It was a really good feel on the day and it was a really good event,” Mr Twidale told 3AW.
“Most of the feedback has been quite positive. I have heard some constructive criticism and we really do want to learn from the lessons of this year so that if we are still in a pandemic environment next year we can do better,” he said.
About 4000 veterans turned up to march along St Kilda Road on Sunday, while only 1700 registered ahead of time.
Mr Twidale conceded fences around the Shrine were “not a good look”.
“The comparison to the football is not really a good comparison. When you go into football you have to stay in a zone … with a relatively small number of people and you’re not allowed to go outside that zone,” he said.
“I still empathise. It doesn’t look good. You see all these people at the footy, you see a fence at the Shrine. It doesn’t look particularly good.”
Mr Twidale said the controversial fences were not the RSL’s idea and they would have preferred waist-height barriers to manage crowds.
“The fence was not our preferred option. We would have preferred it was like in normal years where there is a waist-height fence,” he said.
ALSO READ:‘We honour Anzac spirit, decry threat of guilt’
Adeshola Ore11.10am:Time for new quarantine system, says Labor
Opposition Labor health spokesman Mark Butler has called on the Morrison government to shift the quarantine of returned travellers out of hotels, describing the current system as a “mess”.
It comes after the head of the Australian Medical Association in Western Australia said hotel quarantine was not fit-for-purpose, as the row over the system heats up amid a snap lockdown in Perth.
Mr Butler said hotel quarantine was never intended to be a long-term option and called on Scott Morrison to “fix this mess”.
“We have got to get a proper quarantine system in place that protects the broader Australian community but also ensures that Australians stranded overseas are able to come home,” he said.
“There should be a national system that has national standards. Instead what we see is very different arrangements in different states. That is not how a quarantine system should operate.”
He said an “effective” quarantine system would feature open-air options, pointing to the Howards Springs facility in the Northern Territory
ALSO READ:AMA WA blasts hotel quarantine
Agencies10.30am:EU to open door to vaccinated US tourists
US tourists vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to visit the EU in the coming months, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen says.
Signalling a major change in EU policy as vaccinations step up worldwide, Ms von der Leyen gave no timetable in an interview with The New York Times, but the Times said that the new rules could be in place by this northern summer.
The Times said the US’s rapid vaccination program, and progress in talks over how to use vaccine certificates, were behind the plan to allow the return of leisure travel from the US to EU.
Resumption of travel would depend “on the epidemiological situation, but the situation is improving in the US, as it is, hopefully, also improving in the European Union”, Ms von der Leyen said.
Greece said last week that travellers from the EU and five other countries who are vaccinated or have a recent negative COVID test will no longer have to quarantine on arrival.
The EU has said it wants to launch a vaccine passport for travellers, though plans have not yet been formalised.
AFP
ALSO READ:India crisis worsens
Rhiannon Down10.10am:Hotel quarantine row has become ‘political’
Grattan Institute health program director Stephen Duckett has slammed the federal government for its hands off approach to hotel quarantine.
“I think it is political,” he told Today.
“I think the Commonwealth Government doesn’t want to have a bar of hotel quarantine because it knows it can go wrong.
“It is really, really hard. Every state, every state has had breaches of hotel quarantine, and the Commonwealth just wants to wash its hands, and not step up to the plate.”
Dr Duckett said although medical knowledge of the virus had increased dramatically since the start of the pandemic, measures to prevent the spread had remained largely unchanged.
“What’s interesting is we have learnt a lot about how COVID is transmitted over the last 12 months,” he said.
“When we (thought) back in the early days, that COVID was transmitted by droplets, and so if you are 1.5m away, that was safe. That’s not the knowledge now.
“COVID is aerosol transmission, much more dangerous and much more dangerous to spread, and what’s happened is we haven’t changed our policies, though the knowledge has changed.”
READ MORE:‘Sorry, we’re full’ quarantine demand rejected
Jack Poynter9.50am:Where you can fly for just $75
Virgin Australia has drastically slashed prices on one-way fares to Melbourne, as the airline tries to boost sales while coronavirus restrictions continue to be eased.
Holidaymakers looking for a getaway to Melbourne or Victoria between July this year and March next year can travel for just $75 from Launceston.
A trip from Melbourne to Adelaide can be snapped up for as little as $79, while Hobart to Melbourne will set travellers back $99.
Prices have also been dropped to $135 on the Brisbane to Melbourne route.
Virgin said the Ready. Set. Melbourne sale would run from midnight AEST on Monday until 11.59pm on May 3, 2021.
The sale fares are available for select dates between July 14, 2021 and March 16, 2022.
The fares include baggage, seat selection and Velocity frequent flyer points.
Virgin Australia believes the sale will help get Australians back in the air as the domestic travel industry recovers from COVID-19 and harsh interstate border closures.
“We’re continuing to support the recovery of Australia’s tourism industry by offering our guests a premium experience at irresistible prices, and our massive sale blitz on flights to Melbourne start from only $75,” a Virgin spokeswoman said.
READ the full story
Adeshola Ore9.45am:AMA chief: hotel quarantine ‘not fit for purpose’
The head of the Australian Medical Association WA has accused federal health bureaucrats of not accepting that COVID is airborne.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan has refused to say whether his lockdown would end as planned on Monday night. Mr McGowan escalated his dispute with the federal government over quarantine arrangements, demanding a permanent reduction in the number of returned Australians through Perth.
Andrew Miller told the ABC that hotel quarantine was not “fit for purpose”.
“The problem is the infection control experts’ group federally who continue to deny the airborne spread problem, and that people need N95 masks all the time and negative pressure rooms in hotel quarantine, “ he told ABC Radio.
“You need to urgently, urgently change it and to start building as quickly as possible air-gapped facilities.”
READ MORE:McGowan’s quarantine demands rejected
Rhiannon Down9.30am:Relief as Victoria records no new cases
Victoria has recorded zero new cases of community transmission and no case in hotel quarantine in the past 24 hours.
It comes as a relief just days after a man in his 50s, who tested positive for the virus after leaving WA hotel quarantine, entered the state placing health authorities on high alert.
Some 12,680 test results received, as hundreds of Victorians who had recently returned from WA were forced to isolate.
As the vaccination efforts ramped up, 516 doses were administered on Sunday.
Yesterday there were no new cases reported.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 25, 2021
- 516 vaccine doses were administered
- 12,680 test results were received
Got symptoms? Get tested.
More later: https://t.co/0xmnS4N9DN#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicDatapic.twitter.com/M5riTRN4Qn
Rhiannon Down 9.25am:WA freedom ‘50-50’: state AMA chief
Australian Medical Association WA president Andrew Miller says the possibility of Perth and the Peel region being freed from lockdown is “50-50” and depends on today’s test results.
“We are still waiting on about 270 close contacts of the first gentleman who the government infected in the hotel today,” Dr Miller told Today.
“Once we get the results at lunchtime today, it could fall either way, at the moment.”
Dr Miller weighed into the debate surrounding hotel quarantine, after Mark McGowan called for the federal government to take over the program.
“I think that’s throwing it up as a distraction at the moment because they have been warned about all of this, to fix it for the longest time yet. But it is a good distraction. That’s what they should have been moving towards long before now.”
He said more remote, specially designed facilities would be best placed to contain the virus in returned travellers.
“We put up mining camps in a matter of months to run a mine,” he said.
“They would be much, much safer and cost a lot less than the disruption to the community and not less the anguish to everyone involved and infecting innocent people who now feel terrible because they have been infectious to others.
“Yes, the governments have a lot to answer for and yes we should be moving to something say 100 kilometres from the city would be fine. Close to the airport, and close to medical care and put up a mining style camp and people would be comfortable.”
READ MORE:Coalition lifts as support for PM rebounds
Agencies9.15am:Boris under pressure as Cummings fires up
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing growing scrutiny following explosive accusations by his former chief aide Dominic Cummings earlier this week that he lacks competence and integrity.
Mr Cummings, who stepped down as his top adviser in December, used a personal blog Friday to allege Mr Johnson tried to solicit potentially illegal donations to renovate his publicly-funded Downing Street flat.
He also claimed Mr Johnson suggested blocking an internal inquiry into government leaks, because the culprit identified was a close friend of the PM’s fiancee Carrie Symonds.
Mr Johnson’s office has dismissed the damning accusations, insisting all “reportable donations” are transparently disclosed and that the prime minister “has never interfered in a government leak inquiry”.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said Sunday the claims were “a massive distraction” and that she had been assured all rules have been fully complied with.
“This is tittle tattle that’s being promoted and I don’t think it addresses the key issues the people of Britain care about,” she told Sky News.
But the charges, which follow weeks of stories about allegedly inappropriate lobbying and sleaze involving Mr Johnson, his ministers and officials, have dominated news headlines and front pages this weekend.
Some Conservatives have joined the condemnation of the PM, with former attorney general Dominic Grieve, a long-time critic, branding him “a vacuum of integrity”.
AFP
READ MORE:Super serious about climate risk
Rhiannon Down8.40am:Calls for more rapid testing of returned travellers
University of NSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws has called for rapid testing of returned overseas travellers, following an outbreak in Perth linked to a man who had recently arrived from India.
“At the moment we’re using a PCR test that takes about a day to two days to get the results back,” Professor McLaws told ABC News Breakfast.
“And even the saliva PCR takes about six hours to get back. So you don’t know who you’re dealing with as soon as they land. Or whether or not after the 10th or 11th day while in quarantine they’ve been tested. Whether they have still remained negative when you send them out into the community.”
Prof McLaws said rapid antigen testing would allow health authorities to get on top of potential threats in new arrivals.
“I’m not suggesting that PCRs shouldn’t be done but they need to be augmented with this rapid knowledge,” she said.
“So rather than waiting a day and people are getting tested on day two. So they arrive on our soil, they go into a hotel and they go into a hotel with negative people, and they could be being infective to others.”
She also questioned the logic of allowing Australians to travel overseas to countries like India, which is currently the leading cause of new infections globally.
“We had about 854,000 new cases in 24 hours and over a third of those were from India,” she said.
“And then the next group, which was about 7 per cent was Turkey, and then the US. So you can see, India is really, sadly, pushing this.
“So you’d have to ask the logic or the safety of allowing people to go to India and come back because they will come back with a high probability of being infected.”
READ MORE: Breathing space for PM but he’s not there yet
Rhiannon Down 8.00am:AMA chief echoes McGowan quarantine call
Australian Medical Association Omar Khorshid says the lifting of restrictions in WA will come down to today’s COVID-19 results, as the city edges closer to the end of its three day lockdown.
“It is great news that there has only been two community-acquired cases so far as part of this outbreak,” he told Today.
“But if there has been two, there can certainly be more and I don’t think we can say we are in the clear yet.
“It will come down to what returns in results today, but we can expect some form of restrictions going into next week.”
Dr Khorshid said there was “no doubt” that CBD hotels were imperfect quarantine venues, following calls from the WA Premier for the federal government to intervene over the weekend.
“There are things they can do right now to make them tighter and safer, but at the end of the day, we agree with Premier McGowan that more specific and purposeful facilities should be made available in each state and territory,” he said.
“Because we are going to be relying on quarantine, we think, for at least the rest of this year and there is a good chance it will be going well into next year as well.”
Dr Khorshid said rampant case numbers overseas meant the virus was likely to test the effectiveness of vaccines and create new exposure risks.
“The reality is that we have a disaster going on around the world,” he said.
“You just look at India. That means more mutations are going to be coming, and we are not going to be absolutely certain as to how effective our vaccines are for quite some time yet.
“We need to be realistic here. We need to be planning for a future that does include ongoing border restrictions and also I think we need to be ready for the next pandemic so we are not caught on the hop.”
READ MORE:Federal government rejects McGowan quarantine demand
Rhiannon Down7.55am:Plibersek: remote quarantine better than hotels
Shadow Minister for Women and Education Tanya Plibersek has panned the hotel quarantine system, after a leak from the Mercure Hotel in Perth sent the city into lockdown last week.
“Look, I think hotel quarantine for the most part has worked quite well,” Ms Plibersek told the Today program.
“But a lot of the reason that we’ve had lockdowns, the Victorian lockdowns, again in Perth, has been because of hotel quarantine.
“Because someone in the hotels got the virus, it’s escaped out into the virus, often through people working in the hotel.”
Although Ms Plibersek said the better option was quarantine facilities in “remote locations”, the main focus for the country should be ramping up vaccination efforts.
“There are two things we need to do to get things back to normal,” she said.
“Get the population fully vaccinated, we have dropped the ball on that, and get our hotel quarantine right so that Australians who are stuck overseas can get home.
“We’ve still got about 40,000 Australians on the waiting list to get home. It’s just not good enough.”
READ MORE: Gottliebsen: Keeping the Frydenberg ‘boom’ on course
Rhiannon Down 7.45am:80 dead in Iraq hospital fire
More than 80 people have died in a hospital fire that ripped through an ICU ward in Iraq.
Health authorities reported 82 people had died and 110 wounded in the inferno, which consumed the COVID ward in Baghdad.
Health authorities said the fire was likely caused by a poorly stored oxygen cylinder that exploded on Sunday.
Many of the victims were believed to be on respirators and suffered burns or suffocated in the blaze, while the Iraqi Human Rights Commission reported that 28 of the victims were patients who had to be taken off ventilators to escape.
It’s believed the hospital had no fire detections systems, allowing the blaze to spread rapidly.
“It took just three minutes for the fire to reach most floors”, a fire service representative said.
READ MORE: NDIS funding could hit $50bn a year
Rhiannon Down7.20am: Perth waits to hear if restrictions will be eased
Perth is waking to its third day under COVID-19 lockdown, as the city’s two million residents anxiously awaits news on if restrictions will be extended.
The snap three day lockdown was introduced on Friday after a Victorian man, who spent five days in Perth, contracted the virus in hotel quarantine.
Media statement: COVID-19 update 25 April 2021 https://t.co/Y1jwu8mIWN
— WA Health (@WAHealth) April 25, 2021
Two close contacts have since tested positive as dozens of venues were listed as possible exposure sites and lines at COVID testing sites grew.
Landsdale Early Learning and Enrichment Childcare was added to the list on Sunday, with health authorities providing four dates when anyone who went there may have been exposed.
A Woolworths supermarket and Caltex Woolworths petrol station has also been added to the list.
The instructions have also changed for anyone who went to ThaiThymes restaurant at Lakeside Joondalup Shopping Centre on Thursday night. Instead of getting a test immediately and isolating until a negative result is received, patrons of the restaurant must get tested and complete the full 14 days of self-quarantine regardless of their test result.
There were no new locally acquired cases on Sunday.
READ MORE:Palaszczuk’s funding demand a whole new Games
Paige Taylor6am:Premier won’t say if he’ll end lockdown tonight
Australia is defying the COVID-19 pandemic causing renewed havoc in the rest of the world, with the latest virus scare appearing to be contained even as the West Australian Premier refused to say whether his lockdown would end as planned on Monday night.
With no community transmission across the nation on Sunday, thousands of people marched in Anzac Day commemorations in every city except locked-down Perth and a crowd of 78,103 was at the MCG for the Collingwood-Essendon match, a world record attendance at a sporting event since the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
The day of remembrance and relaxation for most Australians was in stark contrast to rolling tragedies in Europe, Africa and India, now the world’s worst coronavirus hotspot, where there were a further 349,691 cases and 2767 coronavirus deaths in the 24 hours to Sunday morning.
Mark McGowan escalated his dispute with the commonwealth over quarantine arrangements, demanding a permanent reduction in the number of returned Australians through Perth.
The WA Premier on Sunday refused to continue his agreement to quarantine 1025 returned overseas travellers a week in Perth unless the commonwealth helped by opening one or more of its facilities, such as defence bases or immigration detention centres.
He ordered a three-day lockdown of Perth on Friday after the virus escaped the hotel room of a couple quarantining at the Mercure after travelling to India for a wedding.
Mr McGowan would not commit to lifting the lockdown in full when it is due to end at midnight on Monday.
The latest outbreak has now infected two Perth residents who were never in hotel quarantine but came into contact with a 51-year-old man who was infected while quarantining at the Mercure on his return from China.
A pregnant mother and her four-year-old child were also infected while quarantining at the Mercure.
There are now 359 confirmed contacts of infected people, but West Australian health authorities reported no new cases of coronavirus from the outbreak on Sunday.
READ the full story here.
Rhiannon Down5.50am:India crisis worsens, lockdown extended
A lockdown has been extended for another week in India’s capital New Delhi, as the country grapples with the COVID-19 crisis.
The healthcare system has been put under severe strain by ballooning case numbers, with widespread reports of oxygen and equipment shortages.
India recorded another day of record high COVID case numbers and deaths, with 349,691 new cases and 2767 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest since the start of the pandemic.
New Delhi’s 20 million residents were plunged into another week of heightened restrictions on Sunday.
The mega city has become the new epicentre for the virus in the country with more than one quarter of tests returning positive results.
“We have decided to extend the lockdown by one week,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.
“The havoc of corona(virus) continues and there is no respite.”
READ MORE:Modi leads India into viral apocalypse
Stephen Lunn5.45am:Full NDIS funding could hit $50bn a year
Fully funding all NDIS participants would cost taxpayers $50bn a year, more than twice the current budgeted $21bn, yet successive governments had allowed eligible people with disability to expect full coverage, an architect of the scheme has warned.
In a scathing assessment of the National Disability Insurance Scheme, John Walsh, an NDIS board member from 2013-2020 and an associate commissioner of the Productivity Commission report that set out the case for it in 2011, said the scheme was no longer trusted, had lost momentum and was creating winners and losers in the chase for disability funding.
Mr Walsh’s submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the NDIS backed the introduction of a controversial new independent assessment process to determine “reasonable and necessary” NDIS funding for its 430,000 participants, saying without it the scheme would become unsustainable.
Read the full story here.
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