Let’s wrap up today’s main developments.

  • Victoria recorded 42 new cases and, for the first time since 13 July, no new deaths
  • Restrictions will be significantly eased in regional Victoria from 11.59pm tomorrow
  • There were seven new cases in NSW and one new cases in Queensland
  • SA opened its borders to the ACT, though there was no decision made on NSW

With that, we’ll leave you for tonight. Thanks for reading.

ADF officer fined over hotel quarantine breach

An ADF officer and his female guest have been fined by NSW police after she was caught in his room during a stint in hotel quarantine.

NSW police said in a statement on Tuesday night that have issued fines to the serving officer, 26, and the woman, 56, who was also guest at the hotel.

A police statement said ADF officers were conducting a security check in the early hours of Tuesday when they heard a female voice in the room of a man, who was undergoing mandatory hotel quarantine.

“After the ADF officers conducted inquiries, the woman was escorted from the hotel’s quarantine area and police were contacted,” the statement said.

Both were issued $1,000 fines for failing to comply with Covid-19 directions.

The police statement said:

The woman was directed to check-out immediately and attend a Covid testing facility before self-isolating at her Hornsby home.

The man remains in hotel quarantine and the ADF are conducting further investigations.

Updated

The family of a man who had his head stomped on by a police officer say he is awake from an induced-coma but has no memory of the incident.

The senior constable was suspended with pay after footage shared on social media showed him appearing to kick the man’s head while the man was on the ground, AAP reports.

Video also showed a police car speeding up and hitting the 32-year-old, who has bipolar, before his arrest at Epping, in Melbourne’s north, on Sunday.

The family said the “hardworking, family-orientated man” has been left in an induced coma.

His brother, told the Nine Network on Tuesday night the man was now awake but had no memory of what happened.

“He was pretty sore from what happened, he can’t really move his neck much,” his brother said.

Both officers are the subject of a criminal investigation and the policeman the centre of the stomping incident has been suspended. He has not been charged.

Ibac is also investigating.

Nine News reported that the family was considering legal action.

Updated

My colleague Matilda Boseley has spoken to a man who witnessed the shooting in Melbourne today.

Here is my colleague Josh Taylor’s story on today’s hotel quarantine inquiry hearing.

South Australia will expand its police recruitment amid concerns extra demands because of the coronavirus pandemic are likely to persist into next year.

SA Police will take more than 100 extra staff over coming months, including 72 new cadet police officers and 54 protective security officers.

The program will cost up to $16m, AAP reports.

“Our response to the pandemic has required the diversion of resources from normal policing duties and there is no way of knowing how long this pandemic will continue to affect us,” police commissioner Grant Stevens said on Tuesday.

Updated

Cabinet minister Keith Pitt has said the federal government should consider setting up its own quarantine facilities, as pressure mounts for a solution to repatriate 26,000 of Australians stranded by arrival caps.

During an interview on ABC TV on Tuesday afternoon, Pitt was asked if he supported “quarantine stations beyond the states”, to increase Australia’s intake capacity beyond the current caps of about 4,000 arrivals per week.

Pitt said:

Well, if the advice is that it’s manageable, and the risk is low enough, well we need to look to all options, as do the states.

On Tuesday, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman told the Guardian there were now 26,000 Australians overseas who had registered their wish to return home with the government.

Warren Entsch, a federal government MP from Queensland, has also called for a federal quarantine solution, to be set up in Cairns, noting the city’s international airport made it suitable for such an initiative.

Entsch said:

Many of those hotels are empty because we cannot bring people in from anywhere. We’ve got a whole raft of hospitality staff that are sitting on jobkeeper that would desperately like to go do the job, they are very skilled at what they do.

We’ve got a hospital here that capacity was built way back in March, that is not being utilised for this purpose anymore because we don’t have anybody in there, but we’ve got the skills, and we’ve got the capacity to manage if there was anybody that needed to be treated.

So here’s an opportunity for us, they tell us that the reason they can’t bring people home is we’ve got no capacity because they choked in Brisbane they’re choked in Sydney and in Perth there are limited numbers.

Cairns is further from Brisbane than Melbourne is. We know what we’re doing. We’ve handled people for decades and decades, we’re one of the best tourism destinations in the country. And there’s no reason why we can’t handle this and handle it well.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan also threw his support behind the Cairns quarantine hub idea:

I fully support it ... I think Cairns has everything that it takes to do something like that, it’s got the hotel rooms.

It’s got a lot of people who are not in gainful employment right now because of the turndown to the hospitality sector, so it could staff the quarantine arrangements.

Updated

A fascinating column by Sarah Wilson on how the wellness industry was captured by ‘conspiritualism’.

Updated

Via the ABC, potential changes to the restrictions affecting border communities coming tomorrow.

JUST IN: @jclancyliberal says he has spoken with @GladysB and an announcement on cross border restrictions will be made tomorrow. The Premier says the public health order will be amended to provide "further relief for the Border communities." @abcmelbourne @abcsydney

— Ashlee Aldridge (@Ashlee_Aldridge) September 15, 2020

Today’s daily update from Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has just dropped.

As we noted earlier, Victoria recorded 42 new cases and, in promising news, no new deaths.

The 14-day average is 52.9 in Melbourne and 3.6 in regional Victoria.

Some further details below.

In Victoria at the current time:

  • 4,282 cases may indicate community transmission – a decrease of nine since yesterday.
  • 1,040 cases are currently active in Victoria.
  • 118 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including 11 in intensive care.
  • 18,079 people have recovered from the virus.
  • A total of 2,506,513 test results have been received which is an increase of 8,803 since yesterday.

Of the 1,040 current active cases in Victoria:

  • 987 are in metropolitan Melbourne under stage 4 restrictions.
  • 43 are in regional local government areas under stage 3 restrictions. There are no new cases in regional Victoria.
  • Five are either unknown or subject to further investigation.
  • Four are interstate residents.
  • One is an overseas resident.
  • Colac Otway has 22 active cases, Greater Geelong has four active cases, Greater Bendigo has one active case and Ballarat has no active cases.

Updated

A Melbourne cafe owner has mounted a legal challenge over Victoria’s coronavirus curfew, arguing it breaches her human rights.

AAP reports that Michelle Loielo filed a suit in Victoria’s supreme court on Tuesday, saying the curfew breaches her right not to be subjected to arbitrary detention.

The curfew, which affects metropolitan Melbourne, originally required people to stay home between 8pm and 5am, but was pushed back to 9pm from Monday.

Loielo, of the Mornington Peninsula, claims the curfew violates her right to freedom, liberty and security.

Court documents, filed by Marcus Clarke QC, argue the curfew direction is invalid on grounds of irrationality and illogicality.

It argues the curfew is not reasonably proportionate, and not based on relevant and reliable evidence in line with public health laws.

It says Victoria’s deputy public health commander Michelle Giles “failed to give any real independent consideration to whether it was appropriate to make the curfew”.

The originating motion calls for a trial by judge alone.

Updated

Australia’s share market has closed flat, while the Aussie dollar rose above 73 US cents after positive Chinese economic data and RBA minutes showing the bank is unlikely to interfere yet.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index closed lower by 4.7 points, or 0.08 %, to 5894.8 points on Tuesday, AAP reports.

The index reached a session high of 5919.2 in the first hour of trade, but then flattened.

The All Ordinaries index finished higher by 0.8 points, or 0.01%, to 6079.3.

The Aussie dollar was buying 73.29 US cents at 1620 AEST, higher from 72.83 US cents at the close on Monday.

Gov says camping for regional Vics allowed in-line with the other accom rules:
Only members of a single household;
Only intimate partners;
Only members of a single household and a maximum of 5 members of another household part of the nominated ‘household bubble';@abcmelbourne

— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) September 15, 2020

The CHO Brett Sutton will front the @HotelInquiryVIC tomorrow morning, to be followed by his Deputy Annaliese van Deimen (who was due last week but hearings ran over.. )

— Heidi Murphy (@heidimur) September 15, 2020

Scammers pretending to be Service Australia over text messages will be quickly blocked when identified under a new Telstra trial in conjunction with the federal government.

The trial, part of Telstra’s cleaner pipes initiative, will attempt to block SMS scam messages pretending to be Centrelink or other Service Australia services, and links in those messages, if they get through, will redirect Telstra customers to a block page.

Telstra will work with the Australian Cyber Security Centre and Service Australia to identify where all legitimate communications are coming from to ensure that those legitimate communications get through.

Defence minister Linda Reynolds told a press briefing that although there had not been a significant increase in activity from cyber criminals during Covid-19, the methods had been changed. There had been a rise in phishing campaigns and ransomware attacks, she said, as well as people trying to steal personal information by pretending to be government sources, like Service Australia.

These services are providing really important lifelines for millions of Australians today, and cyber criminals really [are] capitalising on Australia’s use of the services during the pandemic.

The program will be rolled out next year, with a proof of concept now completed.

Updated

Some potential Albury-Wodonga news here.

JUST IN: @jclancyliberal says he has spoken with @GladysB and an announcement on cross border restrictions will be made tomorrow. The Premier says the public health order will be amended to provide "further relief for the Border communities." @abcmelbourne @abcsydney

— Ashlee Aldridge (@Ashlee_Aldridge) September 15, 2020

Ibac to investigate Epping police incident

Ibac, Victoria’s independent police oversight agency, says it will investigate the Epping police incident from Sunday.

That’s the incident where police officer allegedly stomped on the head of a mentally ill man. That man was also hit by a police car.

The Ibac commissioner, Robert Redlich, said:

The community is rightfully concerned if someone is injured during an interaction with police.

Given the potentially serious nature of this incident, Ibac has determined it is in the public interest to independently investigate this matter.

Police said about 30 minutes ago both officers would be the subject of a criminal investigation.

The commission said anyone with information can get in touch here.

Updated

Labor’s social services spokeswoman, Linda Burney, has commented on a new Deloitte report warning the plan to taper then scrap the coronavirus supplement could cost 145,000 jobs.

We covered that report here.

Burney said:

Now is not the time for the government to be withdrawing economic support – the country is in a recession.

Prematurely winding back support will cost jobs and hurt the economy.

Labor has consistently warned of the impact of the December jobseeker snapback on jobs and the economy.

Social security recipients spend on local businesses and local jobs.

Australians on jobseeker are anxious and have no idea what their future holds. The government could provide them with certainty by delivering a permanent increase to jobseeker.

The coronavirus supplement – paid to about 2.2 million unemployed, parents and students – is due to be cut by $300 a fortnight on 25 September.

Updated

A leading economist expects the Reserve Bank will hold fire on cutting the cash rate any further amid rumblings on financial markets it could be reduced to 0.1%, AAP report.

The central bank slashed the cash rate to a record low 0.25% in March among a suite of measures to combat the economic slowdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Reserve Bank’s minutes of its 1 September board meeting, released on Tuesday, reaffirmed that fiscal and monetary support would be required for some time given the outlook for the economy and the labour market.

The board ... agreed to maintain highly accommodative settings as long as required and to continue to consider how further monetary measures could support the recovery.

The meeting took place the day before the June quarter national accounts showed the economy had contracted by a hefty seven per cent, confirming the first recession in almost 30 years.

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans said while there is speculation the cash rate could be cut to 0.1% in the future, he expects the central bank will remain patient.

“My personal view is that it is unlikely that they would move to such a low rate at this stage,” he said, noting Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has previously stated that 0.25% would be the effective low.

Meanwhile, a further rise in consumer confidence has disguised weakness among Melburnians who are unhappy about the drawn-out coronavirus lockdown.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence index – a pointer to future household spending – rose 1.4% last week, a second consecutive increase.

However, confidence was weaker in Melbourne, dropping more than 5% from the previous week.

“This suggests the announcement of the long path out of lockdown restrictions negatively impacted sentiment,” ANZ head of Australian economics David Plank said on Tuesday.

Updated

Neil Paterson also commented on the police shooting at Lilydale, in Melbourne’s outer east, this morning.

A man was shot by police and is being treated for his injuries, which are not life-threatening.

He said:

Police confronted a man who was armed with a knife, and made several and quite a number of requests for him to drop that weapon, and stay away from police.

The man did not back off from police after quite a period of negotiation, then rushed at the police members, where I can say that a number of shots were fired by two separate police members.

Shortly after those shots were fired, and another police vehicle arrived at the scene, and the man was provided with immediate medical attention and first aid. He was then transported to hospital where I understand he is still receiving treatment, but his injuries are not life-threatening.

Updated

Criminal probe over alleged police stomping

Police have confirmed a criminal investigation into officer who allegedly stomped on the head of a mentally ill man in Melbourne on Sunday.

An officer who drove their police car into the man will also be the subject of a criminal investigation.

Our reporter Matilda Boseley is at the press conference.

Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson says there will be a criminal investigation in the officer who allegedly stomped on the head of a mentally ill man in Epping on Sunday. @GuardianAus

— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) September 15, 2020

The officer who allegedly drove a police vehicle into the man will also be criminally investigated. - "In regards to the use of the police vehicle, I can say the driver of that vehicle, has had the authority to drive a police vehicle withdrawn"

— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) September 15, 2020

The deputy commissioner, Neil Paterson, said:

I formed the view that it’s an inappropriate use of force by a police member with regard to the kick or the stomp to the head of the men involved in that incident.

I’ve also formed the view that the use of force in using a police vehicle with the man involved in that incident is concerning. I can say that yesterday, Victoria police suspended the member involved in the kick, with pay, and that that matter’s now under criminal investigation.

In regards to the use of the police vehicle I can say the driver of that vehicle, has had the authority to drive a police vehicle withdrawn. That matter is also subject to a criminal investigation.

Updated

After that news, I am going to go rock in a corner, so Luke Henriques-Gomes will take you through the rest of the afternoon.

(To be clear, the earliest we are likely to head to the federal polls is the second half of next year, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t in for at least a year long election campaign dressed up as politics as usual.)

Thank you again to everyone who followed along. I’ll be back early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, as always, take care of you.

I am reliably informed that Scott Morrison also welded at that photo op and spoke about “the Sharkies”.

So yup. We are in campaign mode already.

Updated

Murph, who has followed Australia’s energy policy debate for at least two decades (and at least six prime ministers), has taken a look at the latest energy plan from the Coalition:

Updated

The Victorian parliament has released this report into Victoria’s state of disaster declarations

God good.

How did we get into electioneering so early.

Still, probably too early for anyone in the Coalition to do anything with koalas.

PM @ScottMorrisonMP meets Hope the wombat #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/ZfuDHD53lc

— Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) September 15, 2020

Updated

Mark Butler continued:

The CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Academy of Science, all of our key scientists and their equivalents overseas for two decades now at least have been warning us that we will see the impacts we are seeing. More intense droughts, more intense and longer fire seasons. We saw that over the summer just passed in Australia, we are seeing it in North America now. Australia needs to do its bit to meet the commitments we made as a global community to keep global warming below dangerous levels. At the moment under Scott Morrison, under Malcolm Turnbull, and Tony Abbott before him, Australia is not meeting those commitments. We need a more focussed commitment on climate action.

Mark Butler responded to the government’s energy announcement today:

Today’s gas announcement won’t deliver a single job in the timeframe Australia needs. We are in the deepest recession in almost a century. Within a fortnight the government will cut jobkeeper, cut jobseeker, and we will see 400,000 more Australians out of work between now and Christmas. Australia needed a jobs plan from the prime minister today. All we got was hot air.

Updated

You may have noted this part of that story:

Outram defended his decision to allow movie star Tom Hanks and his entourage into the country when so many Australians were desperate to get home.

The ABF boss said stimulating economic activity was one factor he was obliged to take into account.

But Outram insisted business travellers did not take precedence over people travelling on compassionate grounds.

That is exactly what Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said in answer to a question on the Hanks exemption last week. Young’s comment, which was part of a wider answer on a question directly related to Hanks, and also included how compassionate reasons were given the same consideration, not only received scathing attacks from the Queensland opposition, she was also sent death threats.

Updated

The Border Force boss has said yeah, nah to using federal facilities as quarantine sites for returning Australian travellers.

(via AAP):

The man responsible for enforcing Australia’s international borders is pushing back against growing calls to establish a federal quarantine facility for returning travellers.

More than 25,000 Australians are stranded overseas due to the closure of international borders.

The commonwealth has imposed a weekly cap on returning Australians to ease pressure on hotel quarantine systems run by the states.

Thousands of Australians are trying to get home but can’t get on a flight.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese wants the prime minister to use RAAF planes to bring them home.

“There’s something very practical that he can do because the RAAF VIP fleet is largely sitting idle,” Albanese told reporters on Tuesday.

Western Australia has joined calls for a federal quarantine facility for returning Australians after the Northern Territory said it was open to more international arrivals being housed near Darwin.

But Australian Border Force Commissioner Michael Outram said the proposal was not possible.

Early in the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government established quarantine centres on Christmas Island and at Howard Springs in the NT to house people returning from China and Japan.

Christmas Island is now being used as a detention facility.

And Outram says Australian Medical Assistance Teams (AUSMAT) used to staff Howard Springs are tied up elsewhere.

He said the doctors, nurses and allied health staff were drawn from the states and territories.

“Quarantine facilities can’t be run without medical professionals on the ground,” Outram told ABC radio.

“At the moment the AUSMAT capability, I imagine, would be pretty stretched because of the need for the states and territories to be running their own health services, plus other things going on around the pandemic.”

Outram said the ABF was working with the states to maximise hotel quarantine capacity, with about 12,000 beds available at any one time.

“But it’s not enough if I’m being honest,” he said.

“As long as the caps remain with the hotel quarantine in place it’s going to be difficult to envision a situation where the airlines will start bringing more passengers.”

The infrastructure department is working with international airlines to manage incoming flights.

“If that (hotel quarantine) cap was to be doubled overnight we’d be delighted, we could certainly facilitate those people through the border,” Outram said.

“I’ve got no doubt the airlines would take up the additional capacity.”

Outram defended his decision to allow movie star Tom Hanks and his entourage into the country when so many Australians were desperate to get home.

The ABF boss said stimulating economic activity was one factor he was obliged to take into account.

But Outram insisted business travellers did not take precedence over people travelling on compassionate grounds.

People trying to leave the country must also argue their case, with 47,000 people granted travel exemptions since the border closed in March.

Tony Abbott was recently allowed to travel to London as a representative of Australia, under a category that also accommodates government ministers and defence personnel.

Outram said the former prime minister was granted approval to address a parliament inquiry in the UK.

Updated

AAP has some news on a woman who was convicted of breaching quarantine rules in WA:

A woman jailed for sneaking into Western Australia in a truck from Victoria, breaching quarantine laws, has walked free after successfully appealing her sentence.

The woman was sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty in Perth Magistrates Court to failing to comply with a direction under WA’s Emergency Management Act.

Her lawyers immediately appealed the sentence, which was the toughest penalty handed down for a coronavirus quarantine breach in WA.

On Tuesday, supreme court Justice Jenni Hill found that the sentence was unreasonable and plainly unjust.

She imposed a six-month community-based order and ordered the woman to complete 50 hours of community service.

She was arrested at her partner’s Scarborough home on 11 August after travelling from Victoria by road without being detected.

The court heard the woman had spent a month in Victoria looking after her unwell sister.

She applied for and was granted an exemption to fly to WA but was required to quarantine in a hotel for 14 days at her own expense.

Police made inquiries after the woman, who is a WA resident, did not arrive at Perth airport as outlined in her application.

The woman, who tested negative to Covid-19, was remanded in custody and spent three weeks in prison before being granted bail by Justice Hill ahead of her appeal hearing.

The court heard she was unemployed, had a criminal record related to previous methamphetamine use and had low capacity to pay a fine.

But Justice Hill noted the woman unlike others who had breached quarantine, had not attended public places or private gatherings.

She said magistrate Andrew Matthews’ decision not to suspend the woman’s sentence was not reasonable under the circumstances.

“Whilst there are no express errors in the sentencing remarks of His Honour, it is difficult to understand, with the greatest respect to the learned magistrate, how a sentence of immediate imprisonment could have been reached,” Justice Hill said.

Individuals found to have breached WA’s strict quarantine laws face a maximum penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment or a $50,000 fine.

Updated

This is from a little earlier, but this is SA police commissioner Grant Stevens announcing the border changes:

I’m able to advise that effective of midnight tonight, the requirement to quarantine for 14 days will be lifted for people travelling between ACT and South Australia.

New South Wales, the 14-day quarantine period will remain in force for the foreseeable future until such time as South Australian health experts are satisfied that the community transmission issues which were occurring in New South Wales have abated to the degree that we can allow that movement from New South Wales into South Australia without adversely impacting on the risk to the South Australian community from a public health point of view.

They will be required to still fill in the pre-approval online, as with all other safe community transmission zones, and people will be required to declare that they have not been outside of the safe community transmission zone for the 14-day period prior to travelling into South Australia.

Now, you can only come into ACT by air, because to come by road, you would have to travel through New South Wales and then the 14-day quarantine period would apply.

It is simply not possible for us to be confident that a person driving between ACT and South Australia has not had contact with members of the New South Wales community. We’re hopeful that the situation with New South Wales will continue to improve.

My advice from Health is that they are doing an exceptional job with contact tracing and they are confident that the situation will improve there to the point at that where we can lift that 14-day quarantine. But for this current time being, people travelling from ACT must travel directly from the ACT to South Australia.

Updated

“Young Australians’ patriotism” seems a fraught term.

Interim report into the Working Holiday Maker program recommends the government appeal to young Australians' patriotism to fill gaps in agricultural work 🇦🇺

Also wants JobSeeker maintained for those doing low paid ag work 👩‍🌾 pic.twitter.com/Ufqi0CFW9F

— Jamie Travers (@JamieTravers) September 15, 2020

Updated

So, as you would expect, both Melbourne and Sydney are fighting for Qantas to base its consolidated headquarters in their respective cities.

The New South Wales treasurer Dominic Perrottet says he’s keen to see Qantas remain in NSW and has held discussions with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce over the last 24 hours.

He said suggesting NSW would get into a bidding war was “ the wrong terminology”.

He said the government would work with the airline to preserve the more than 10,000 jobs that Qantas has in NSW and he reminded Qantas about the payroll deferrals the airline has received from the Berejiklian government so far to help it weather the Covid-19 crisis.

Asked whether he would prefer to see Qantas located at Mascot, its current home, or the new aerotropolis at Badgerys Creek, Perrottet said he was “ relaxed about that”.

Updated

Anthony Albanese finishes with this:

The issue isn’t quarantining.

The quarantining is a responsibility of the national government.

It’s up to the national government to determine whether it be in hotels or whether it be in other facilities that are available.

And there’s lots of options which are there. The key thing is – people are desperate to get home. And we have not just the possibility of chartering commercial flights, but the Australian government have at their disposal, at any time, planes that are currently not being used, planes that can carry up to 100 passengers.

I travelled with the prime minister to East Timor, to Timor-Leste last year. The fact is that this fleet is available.

By and large, it’s sitting idle. There are two large aircraft, but there are other smaller aircraft available as well.

Certainly, when I was a minister, I travelled to South-East Asia on the smaller Challenger flights. Got refuelled in Darwin and refuelled in Townsville on the way back. There is nothing to stop those planes being utilised at the moment, and this is a very practical measure which the government could take.

I’ll just say this on the government’s plan in terms of jobs. And how it’s affected today.

If the government is serious about jobs, there are one million people unemployed in the Morrison recession.

We also know that there will be an additional 400,000 unemployed. We need action now. We need action now.

And the steps announced today – many of them very positive, but they are off in the future.

What we need is job creation now and the government has a test upon it in the leader to the budget to outline an immediate plan for job creation such as investment in social housing, be that new social housing or refurbishment renovation of social housing. If not, what they are consigning us to is a very long-term and deep recession.

Updated

On the government’s gas announcement today (and the fuel security announcement yesterday) Anthony Albanese says:

They ran a campaign for years saying that Liddell should stay open. What that did, of course, was provide uncertainty for AGL and companies that were saying that they wanted to invest in dispatchable power to replace the power that comes from the Liddell power station.

That was for year after year after year. And then they went to the last election saying that they wanted new coal-fired power plants. Matt Canavan has been on TV this morning talking about the commitment that they gave.

Today is the 19th attempt at an energy policy that isn’t a broad energy policy. No one is opposed to new gas if the investment is made there.

But the thing that has held back new investment across-the-board, whether it be gas or renewables, is uncertainty.

We wrote to the prime minister in June offering bipartisanship when it comes to energy policy. Having a framework there that would drive investment. The prime minister didn’t bother to respond to that proposal.

We’ll wait to see what comes. A lot of the announcement today ... How many times can you announce the initial proposal with Bass Link. It’s been announced time after time after time. It’s in there again today. We’ll wait and see what happens, because one of the things that has characterised this government is a gap between its announcements and actual delivery.

And it’s good at announcements.

It’s not good at delivery. And lots of the announcements today actually are pretty extraordinary.

One of the things that it’s announced yesterday is fuel reserves. We announced our support for that prior to the 2019 election. It was dismissed by the current government.

Bill Shorten announced it. They dismissed it and said that it would lead to higher taxes and higher prices at the bowser. Now that’s exactly what they announced yesterday. And today, part of the announcement is the industry... Calling for industry to have a voluntary Code of Conduct. And this is what they have to say from the policy paper, “If industry does not do this by February 2021, the Government will consider develop ago mandatory Code of Conduct.”

How tough of them.

Updated

Anthony Albanese when asked if the government should open federal quarantine facilities:

Of course, the federal government is responsible for quarantine. This states issue is just an excuse for non-action.

The Australian government is in charge of our border, or it’s in charge of nothing. It’s in charge of quarantine, very clearly.

This is a national government responsibility and there needs to be leadership shown here.

The only thing that is missing here isn’t hotel space – it’s leadership. And the prime minister can show leadership by giving his plane, which by and large is not being used at the moment, to bring Australians home.

...The commonwealth is in charge of our national borders. What we have right now is, frankly, the absurd situation nearby, as this pandemic has gone on.

The commonwealth has passed off more and more responsibilities to the states. But it is common sense which tells you that the states are not in charge of our national borders, and are not in charge of who comes in to this country by aeroplane. The national government is.

Updated

Anthony Albanese:

What we know is that Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia have all said – if the commonwealth assists with quarantine issues, that they are responsible for, then they would certainly encourage more people to come.

It’s not like there’s a shortage of hotel space in this country.

The prime minister might have noticed that tourists aren’t coming here and hotels certainly have available space.

So it is just beyond my comprehension how the prime minister can tonight duck and weave from responsibility on this issue.

The so-called national cabinet that’s proving itself to be neither national nor a cabinet is meeting again on Friday. Surely you can have outcomes, but the prime minister can do something more immediate with the aircraft that he directly has at his disposal.

Updated

Use RAAF VIP aircraft to bring home stranded Australians, says Labor

Anthony Albanese is holding his press conference – Labor is ramping up pressure on the government to start bringing home more than 23,000 stranded Australians.

That was the last figures – it could be up to 100,000.

Albanese:

The RAAF VIP fleet is largely sitting idle. Scott Morrison, who uses one of the fleet can carry 100 passengers, the Governor-General has the other large aircraft, and there are a number of smaller aircraft that can be used to travel particularly to the region. They could be put in place now. To bring Australians home.

We’re hearing stories that are flooding electorate offices around the country, of desperate people. We have a woman with a one-year-old child told to go to a homeless shelter. We have women who are about to give birth, desperate to get home.

...The government has access to these planes. What’s more, those who staff these planes need to get up their flying hours. They need to get up their hours in the air, and therefore, if those people aren’t using those aircraft, they’ll be flying around empty making sure that pilots get the training that they need and other air force personnel get the training and hours that they need.

There’s nothing to stop the government doing this practical measure. And today, I’m saying to Scott Morrison – do something because you are actually in charge. Scott Morrison continues to hand off everything to the states and territories and won’t accept responsibility. He clearly is in charge of our national boarders. He clearly is in charge of quarantine issues, and he clearly has access to the infrastructure through the RAAF VIP fleet that could be put in place right now, today.

Updated

The ABS has announced that property prices have dropped a whole 1.8% in the June quarter.

What does that mean? Well, if you couldn’t afford to buy a house before the pandemic, you still can’t afford to buy a house.

Residential property prices fell 1.8% in the June quarter 2020, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The falls in residential property prices were led by the Sydney (-2.2%) and Melbourne (-2.3%) property markets. House prices fell 2.6% in Sydney and 2.8% in Melbourne, while attached dwelling prices fell 1.4% in Sydney and 1.0% in Melbourne.

Head of Prices Statistics at the ABS, Andrew Tomadini, said: “All capital cities apart from Canberra recorded falls in property prices in the June quarter 2020.”

Through the year to the June quarter 2020, residential property prices rose 6.2%, with rises in all capital cities except Perth and Darwin.

“The number of residential property transactions fell substantially in the eight capital cities during the June quarter 2020, due to the effects of Covid-19 on the property market”, said Tomadini.

The total value of Australia’s 10.5 million residential dwellings fell by $98.2bn to $7,138.2bn in the June quarter 2020. The mean price of residential dwellings in Australia in the June quarter 2020 was $678,500.

Updated

The RBA has released its latest board meeting minutes. This is probably the key takeaway:

Members noted the important role that fiscal policy had played in supporting the economy since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Income transfers to households from the Australian Government had provided a substantial boost to household income and consumption, as well as to business cash flows. Members also noted that state and territory governments had played important roles in complementing these income transfers in the period ahead, mainly by increasing direct spending on goods and services and job creation.

Governments at this level had considerable experience to draw on in service delivery, employment and implementing direct purchases of goods and services. They also accounted for a larger share of public demand than the Australian Government. Members noted that debt levels relative to the size of the economy were low for the Australian and state governments.

Overall, public sector balance sheets in Australia were assessed as being strong. In an environment of record low borrowing rates and significant spare capacity in the economy, this meant fiscal policy was well placed to continue to support the recovery.

We have released the minutes of the September 2020 Monetary Policy Meeting of the Reserve Bank Board - https://t.co/5b07Mr94D2

— RBA (@RBAInfo) September 15, 2020

Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp made it clear in two meetings in late March that Victoria did not need the help of the Australian Defence Force in running hotel quarantine, the inquiry has heard.

In audio recordings of state control centre meetings on 27 and 28 March played to the inquiry on Tuesday, Crisp said twice that there was no need for support from the ADF for hotel quarantine.

“We can manage this…at this stage, we don’t need boots on the ground, so to speak,” he said on 27 March.

Crisp said he saw the role of the ADF to fill any gaps in capacity or capability that he saw in the program and there was no requirement for that at the time. He said it is his belief that private security could do the job.

I thought they would have been a suitable and appropriate workforce to use in the hotel.

I’ve worked a lot with private security and my thinking was that well-trained, well-supervised private security in this type of role would have been efficient and effective.

In late June, Crisp did eventually request the support of 850 ADF personnel to replace private security in hotel quarantine, at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services, but one day late he rescinded this request at the behest of the Department of Justice.

He said he was told Justice was looking into other options, including using police and corrections staff.

It remains unclear who exactly made the decision to use private security firms in the ill-fated hotel quarantine program.

The inquiry heard on Tuesday that Victoria Police made it clear in the 27 March meeting that the preference was that private security be used, and the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions was tasked to hire the firms, but Crisp said the decision had already been made prior to that meeting.

Updated

Labor has called for an investigation into whether Australian privacy laws have been breached after reports the personal details of about 35,500 Australians were included on a database compiled by the Chinese tech company Zhenhua Data.

The shadow assistant minister for cyber security, Tim Watts, wrote to the information commissioner today to request an investigation into “the extent to which the privacy of Australians may have been compromised and whether any Australian privacy laws have been broken”.

In a media release issued a short time ago, the Labor party said the reports that personal information may have been scraped from social media accounts and other sources “for potential use by foreign intelligence services” were “deeply concerning” and that the investigation should look into whether or not a data collection centre was located in Australia.

Zhenhua Data, based in Shenzhen, has denied any links to the Chinese government or military and insisted that it merely “integrated” public data found on the internet. There is no concrete evidence to suggest that a data collection centre has been set up in Australia.

Watts said the data security of Australian citizens was “now a national security issue” and he argued that an effective data protection regime was “crucial to our efforts to fight foreign interference”.

Labor senator Jenny McAllister, who chairs a Senate select committee into foreign interference through social media, said the reports about the database were “the latest in a long line of warnings that there are actors with the intent and ability to influence Australia’s democracy”.

The opposition also called on the government to ensure the Information Commissioner and her officer were properly resourced to complete the task, saying the office’s investigation into Cambridge Analytica was launched in March 2020, two years after the event.

The shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the protection of online privacy was more important than ever and a standalone privacy commissioner should be appointed.

Meanwhile, not that it will help the Wallabies but:

South Australia to open borders to flights from the ACT

New South Wales is still a work in progress.

But if you are from the ACT, you can go to South Australia – if you fly.

Driving will still mean quarantining.

But SA Police Commissioner says the caveat is you have to fly directly from the ACT to South Australia - driving through NSW will still require quarantine

— Trudy McIntosh (@TrudyMcIntosh) September 15, 2020

Updated

The jobkeeper payment will be tapered from the end of this month.

We have downgraded our labour market forecasts, and now don’t expect employment to recover to pre-pandemic levels until 2023 #ausecon @cfbirch pic.twitter.com/fUSPuhaG64

— ANZ_Research (@ANZ_Research) September 15, 2020

Updated

The NSW Liberals and Nationals have endured their first joint party room following the Nats threatening to sit on the cross benches over koala protections.

As expected Nationals leader, John Barilaro has hung onto the leadership of the junior coalition party and remains deputy premier.

Ever the diplomat, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the joint meeting was “extremely constructive” but she wouldn’t be talking about the details.

The koala habitat state environmental planning policy will be discussed in cabinet in October. How flexible the Liberals will be with their National colleagues remains to be seen.

Updated

Seven new Covid cases in NSW

New South Wales has reported seven new cases in the last 24 hours – testing rates have now dropped to about a third:

There were 8,835 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 9,316 in the previous 24 hours.

Testing numbers have dropped over the past two weeks, which is a concern particularly in areas like South Western, Western and South Eastern Sydney.

Of the seven new cases to 8pm last night:

  • Three are overseas travellers in hotel quarantine
  • One is from Victoria in hotel quarantine
  • Two are locally acquired and linked to a known case or cluster
  • One is locally acquired with their source still under investigation

One new case is a household contact of a previous case linked to Concord Hospital.

One new case is a healthcare worker at Liverpool Hospital. Source investigations are still ongoing and contact tracing is underway.

One new case is a returned NSW resident from Victoria. All passengers on the same flight from Victoria into Sydney are in hotel quarantine.

NSW Health can also advise a new additional case has now been confirmed in a student of Blue Mountains Grammar school. The school is now closed while further tracing and cleaning is undertaken. This case will be included in tomorrow’s official numbers.

While the number of locally acquired cases recorded in the past 24 hours is low, the virus is likely circulating among people in the community with mild symptoms. As such, the risk of outbreaks and a resurgence of cases remains.

It’s vital that everyone who does have the virus is tested and diagnosed, in order to stop further spread to others.

NSW Health is again urging anyone feeling unwell – even with the mildest of symptoms such as a runny nose or scratchy throat – to come forward and get tested, so cases in the community are identified as quickly as possible.

This is even more important with the upcoming school holidays, when people will travel across the state.

Locations linked to known cases, advice on testing and isolation, and areas identified for increased testing can be found here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates.

NSW Health is treating 86 Covid-19 cases, including six in intensive care, three of whom are being ventilated. Eighty-six per cent of cases being treated by NSW Health are in non-acute, out-of-hospital care.

Updated

Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp was unable to recall key details about meetings deciding the hotel quarantine program.

Crisp was asked about notes he made in a meeting with officials, including police minister Lisa Neville and then police commissioner Graham Ashton on 27 March, referencing security guards and ADF officers. Crisp said he did not recall the notes.

In a submission provided to the inquiry, read out in the hearing, Ashton has said he asked Crisp about Victoria Police’s role in the program, and he recalled Crisp saying private security guards were going to be used. He also said emergency management Victoria was assisting with the coordination of the program but the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions would be running it. Crisp did not recall this conversation.

Crisp’s predecessor, Craig Lapsley, also told the inquiry in a written submission that it would have been “prudent” for the state controller – to oversee the program – be someone like the chief health officer or someone with a medical background.
It was envisioned that chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton could have filled the role, but the deputy secretary of DHHS, Melissa Skilbeck, told Crisp it would be difficult for Sutton to take the role with his other obligations.

Skilbeck appointed Andrea Spiteri and Jason Helps from Emergency Management Victoria to the role. Skilbeck told the inquiry last week Sutton was against that decision.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian is holding her press conference.

Updated

Remember how all those economists signed that letter in April, saying how they supported the lockdown, because it was better for the economy in the long run?

Well, they still support the lockdowns.

Updated

Tax-free hardship payments for businesses 'under very active consideration'

Does Victoria want the government to keep jobkeeper and jobseeker where it is?

Daniel Andrews:

It’s an important question. I had a conversation with the prime minister on Sunday. It’s not about what I’d like. He’s made his position clear. What I have asked for, and what I believe to be under very active consideration is a tax-free treatment for all of the hardship payments made to those businesses.

I think that’s a fair and reasonable outcome. As for jobkeeper and jobseeker settings, that is entirely a matter for the federal government. But I thought it was appropriate and it’s pretty clear what the prime minister’s intentions are there.

I’m not seeking to necessarily have a debate about that, but what I thought was a fair thing to ask for beyond that, given that he’d made his position clear, was a tax-free status for some businesses now, when you add up all the payments that have been made by us over the journey, it is a significant ... For some businesses, it is a significant amount of money. And if that can have a tax-free status from a commonwealth point of view, given that we’ve made arrangements around payroll tax and jobkeeper, I think that’s a fair thing.

And I ... It’s not for me to make announcements but I know that that’s been actively considered and I think that’s been positively considered by the Commonwealth government, but it’s up to them to find a landing with that and to make announcements.

Updated

Q: The prime minister has told the hotels inquiry that he wrote to you three times offering ADF support. Why did you tell the Victorian parliament that there was never ADF support for the hotel quarantine on offer.

Daniel Andrews:

The prime minister’s representations to the inquiry – I’ll leave that to the inquiry to make recommendations and findings about that. I’m not interested in having a debate with the prime minister or anyone else frankly from his party. What I would say to you is my comments are consistent, my comments are accurate, my comments are supported by statements issued by Andrew Crisp as the emergency management commissioner. I don’t have much more to add beyond that. You’ll be appearing and some other ministers, I think f you’re asked to. Who funds the representation of those appearances? There are long-standing arrangements and these are no different to any other inquiry or royal commission process, or any similar process. So there’s no change. There they are long-standing arrangements. And they’ve not been modified or altered in relation to this.

Updated

Qantas wants to consolidate its headquarters to save on rent. Daniel Andrews says he has been chatting with Alan Joyce:

I had a productive discussion with Alan Joyce last night and we’ll be having detailed discussions, my team and his, and he and I will no doubt speak again. The process that they have announced today – I think they’ve made their announcement already – is one that we welcome. We think that we have a very attractive offer to make and we’ll work through that to try and have as many jobs as we possibly can in our city and state and it was a very, very productive discussion last night.

Updated

Q: On policing more broadly. We’ve had the incidents you mentioned and a number of other incidents including earlier this month – an Indigenous man who I think was riding his bike to work on the metro tunnel. He ended up with his arm in a sling, his bike broken. Allegedly he was called a black C-word by police. Do Victoria Police have a serious cultural problem?

Daniel Andrews:

No, I don’t believe so. And no, I don’t think that police would concur with the way you’ve described that particular event. They would have a different version of events but that’s not for me to advance. That would be for them to advance and I’m not sure whether there’s a court process or any other person...

Q: Are you alleging that that person is voicing untruths about...

Andrews:

I’m not alleging anything. It’s not for me to allege anything. I said police would take up the view of events and you’re free to test that with them. Whenever I don’t speak about a specific case, it will be for a good reason and I have where I’ve been save 20 do so, I’ve spoken at length and I communicated directly with the constable in Frankston who, it will be alleged, savagely assaulted – I thought that was the appropriate thing to do.

In broad terms, and in very specific terms – just so there’s no doubt – Victoria Police are out there doing very important work. They do it with professionalism. They do it with skill. They do with a genuine concern to keep the community safe. I’m grateful to them, but where an individual incident occurs, which I don’t think speaks to culture, where an individual incident occurs, it should be properly investigated and I have confidence that that’s exactly what will happen.

Q: There have been numerous individual incidents, though.

Andrews:

Well, if you think about the number of - I haven’t got the numbers to hand, but pre-pandemic - and I don’t believe this has changed - pre-pandemic, the percentage of incidents, the number of incidents as a percentage of the total daily interactions that members of Victoria Police have with Victorians, it is a low number. Every one of those incidents is taken seriously and that’s why I’d make, perhaps, a different judgement about police culture than the one that you put to me. People are free to have a different view. But I’m here to make it very clear on behalf of the government that we think, notwithstanding any individual incident that needs to be and will be properly and fairly and frankly investigated, we ... My view is that Victoria Police are out there working very hard for all of us to keep all of us safe. And whether it’s Covid issues, or the youth gang push that was announced yesterday, I think Victoria Police have a very broad brief and they are working very hard to make sure that pandemic and afterwards, they’re out there fighting crime and keeping the community safe.

Updated

On the incident which has left a man in an induced coma and a police officer suspended (on pay) Daniel Andrews says:

It needs to be investigated. I think the officer being stood down is the appropriate step to take. I’ll leave Victoria Police to comment in further detail. They’ll work out what should and shouldn’t be said in order to make sure we have a process that’s fair and that family members get answers. I’ll send my best wishes to that family. They’re obviously doing it tough at the moment to have their loved one in hospital gravely ill. It’s a significant thing

Q: A lot of people are expressing their displeasure with you and what you’ve been doing over the last few months. There’s a “give Dan the boot” campaign, including photos of boots out the front of your father’s funeral. Is that stepping over the line?

Daniel Andrews:

Oh, look, I’d say that we’re at our best and our strongest as a state when we come together, when we look out for each other. I think it’s equally try to say that we’re at our worst and our weakest when this nastiness, this divisiveness, comes into the challenges that we face.

I saw that photo, the photo was sent to me by someone. That’s not the front gate to that farm. I know that farm well. Those boots had been positioned not at the front gate but at a different gate to make a point. I’m happy for people to make their points, provided they’re not doing anything to spread the coronavirus.

But I’ll just say this – having different views to me, that’s fine. It’s a healthy part of our democratic society. But decency matters too. The last time I was in that shed, was when I carried my father’s coffin out of it, and I think that that is ... I won’t use the words that my father would use to describe that sort of act. That’s just ... Low. Low. And it has no place, no, no place. Have a different view to me, but leave my family out of it, and particularly the dead members of my family out of it. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Updated

Will Victoria restart hotel quarantine for returning travellers?

Daniel Andrews:

It’s too early for us to say. But we will resume flights coming into Melbourne and we will have arrangements in place that are as safe as they possibly can be to facilitate that. But at this stage, our focus needs to be elsewhere and I apologise for any challenges, any difficulties that that poses for people who have to return via other states but there’s no alternative. We need to be focused on really one thing and one thing only and that’s getting these numbers as low as we possibly can. There will be a time for those flights to resume.

Updated

Is the Victorian opposition right – are there now 100,000 people on the elective surgery waiting list?

Daniel Andrews says he doesn’t have the latest figures (so the opposition could be right):

There is an absolute sense of urgency but it has to be done safely. We’ll have announcements to make soon about the resumption of elective surgery.

We know that this has had a very significant impact on people in categories 3 and those in the back end of Category 2, but if you’re going to create space to take private aged care patients into our hospitals, if you’re going to provide them with the care and support that they need, then you have to create that space. And it wasn’t, beyond that also, the notion of, you know, there’s been a fair bit of hospital-based infection because of the wildly infectious nature of this virus, so it’s been appropriate to try and limit the number of people, many of whom themselves have underlying health issues, well beyond their surgery, limiting their movement in and out of health settings that was appropriate at the time.

But we’re getting very close to being able to have more to say about the resumption of elective surgery, but it won’t be 0 to 100. It will need to be staggered and then we’ll have more to say about a blitz as well, to make sure that we do the catch-up that’s very important also.

Updated

Does regional Victoria now need to wait on metro Melbourne to take the final steps to a normal Covid-normal life?

Daniel Andrews:

I think the answer I just gave in terms of we’ll be guided by the actual performance on the ground, few like, the actual number of cases, and what impact this opening up has. So we always reserve the right to make sure common sense drives us, the data drives us and the actual experience, so as you have days and weeks past, when you open, or much closer to normal – certainly more open than you were last week – you input those and they take the place of some of the assumptions that you made months and months ago, weeks and weeks ago.

It’s a constantly evolving thing, but I do, again, just stress the point that if numbers are important, yes, what sits behind those numbers in terms of the narrative of how the person got it, is it properly contained, and then that passage of time issue, because there’s that lag and you don’t start to see the impacts of whatever you’ve done, you don’t see the ... the virus isn’t visible to you for 10 to 14 days. Some passage of time is a very important part of this.

I know that’s deeply frustrating and everyone would like to go from one step to the next to the next in a space of days. But you can’t do that. You’ll literally have no sense of what each of those decisions has meant for the amount of virus that’s out there.

Updated

Given the size of some country pubs, why cap indoor dining at 20?

Daniel Andrews:

It’s not just about where people are sitting. It’s using bathroom facilities and things of that nature.

It’s a tough judgement to make and I fully acknowledge plenty of publicans and restaurateurs would love to have more inside than that. It’s as much as we can give them at this point. It’s more than what was foreshadowed but we think it is safe. 10 per space, maximum of two spaces, again, I’m not announcing this today, but if we get three weeks down the track and we think this is working well, then we, obviously, reserve the right to maybe add to this, to tweak it in different ways, to maybe grow the number of groups or the number of people outside.

All those things are on the table and that’s the key point about modelling versus data.

The actual data, what happens each and every day, not in the theoretical sense, but in a very real sense, that will inform the decisions – that has informed the decisions we announced today and it will inform any decisions we can make.

Just on that point, I know there’ll be some concern for people of faith across Victoria. This has been a really challenging year, not being able to come together to worship together.

That’s a really important part of those people’s lives.

We’re going to ... We’ve got an expansion here - 10 outdoors plus the priest, the Rabbi, the minister.

We’ll look at that over the next two or three weeks and based on the broader picture in regional Victoria, it is possible that we could have larger outdoor services, but we just need a little bit more time, just to see how ... what the impact of all this easing is. I know that will be of concern to many people. It’s certainly an issue that’s been raised.

Updated

Victorian authorities haven’t decided on whether or not you can camp in regional Victoria yet, and gyms are still closed – all classes must be outside.

Updated

Should people living in Melbourne feel like they are the only ones in Australia living under restrictions now?

Daniel Andrews:

That’s fair enough but respectfully I’d encourage people not to see it that way and instead see this as proof positive – not a model or academic exercise, not a theoretical thing – we have driven case numbers down to very low numbers in regional Victoria. That’s taken some time. We stayed the course and now we can open up. And that should be something that I think inspires confidence and a real sense of hope that the same thing can be achieved to the best of our ability across metropolitan Melbourne.

Updated

Can metro Melbourne expect to take two steps, not one, in the lead up to 26 October, if all goes well?

Daniel Andrews:

Case numbers are one part of this. The narrative or the story that sits behind these case numbers – where did they get it?

How much do we know? How confident are we that it’s actually contained? And the other thing here as well is the passage of time, as painful as it is, is also an important part of this.

And I’ll make the point again – decisions you make today, so these decisions that we’ve announced today, this amazing two steps in just a couple of days for regional Victoria, we won’t see the full impact of that from a virus transmission point of view for 10 to 14 days.

So sometimes, it isn’t just about case numbers and the story behind each of those cases. It’s also about allowing enough time to pass so that you can be clear, because of the late I of this virus, the nature of it, what the impact of any decisions you’ve made are.

The key point here – we will take steps as quickly as we can from a safety point of view and from that sense of certainty that what we’re doing doesn’t throw away everything that metropolitan Melburnians have done for months now.

We know it’s tough. It will be done as quick as it can safely be done. But, again, it’s back to those points I’ve made many, many times. If we do too much too quickly then we’ll be open, yes, and that will be fantastic, for a very short period of time.

And, you know, people are entitled to their views, but we’re not going to be pressured into doing something that is fundamentally unsafe. We’re just not.

Because I will not ... I don’t want to have to stand here in a few months’ time and say that, well, we actually did too much too soon. We went against the advice of experts and now we have to put restrictions back on.

Whatever those restrictions might be.

Updated

Can greater metro Melbourne be compared to regional Victoria, in terms of the modelling?

Professor Allen Cheng:

I think in a sense, you know, what regional Victoria are doing now will be a dry run for what will happen in Melbourne. I expect that, you know, we’ll be making the same sort of assessment hopefully in a number of weeks’ time to say that, you know, it’s safe for Melbourne to open up.

I think hopefully we will also learn things. We’ve certainly learned things from, you know, between the first phase and the second phase of this epidemic that, you know, we now know that, you know, for example, we’re encouraging a lot more activity to happen outside because that’s much safer.

So I think hopefully we will learn things from regional Victoria that we’ll be able to apply.

So, you know, we’re doing a lot of this for the first or second time and we... you know, we need that evidence to plan what we will... What the next step will look like in Melbourne as well. But a lot of the general settings have been put in place in Melbourne and they may be tweaked as more evidence comes in.

Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos is asked about when elective surgery will reopen in regional Victoria:

We are looking, of course, at a staged process. You may recall the reason we paused elective surgery to begin with was because of the private aged care crisis facing our state. I’m grateful to the nurses in particular but all the hospital staff who have stepped in to our private aged care facilities right across the state but particularly here in Melbourne and who have provided many shifts to support them. We are looking at a staged process of resuming elective surgery safely. There may well be two speeds - a faster process for regional Victoria in line with today’s announcement but we’ll have more to say about that very, very soon.

Updated

Here’s the official statement:

Statement on regional Victoria reaching the Third Step. pic.twitter.com/VNMnU3Y7zD

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) September 15, 2020

Deputy CHO, professor Allen Cheng says it is not just case numbers authorities are looking at when making these decisions – it is where the cases are coming from, how much testing there has been in the community, and attitudes towards self isolation:

80% of people that were diagnosed in the regions in the last couple of weeks were in isolation at the time of symptom onset, so, again, a high proportion of those not posing a risk for onward transmission.

In terms of the likelihood of unknown cases still out there, there’s been good testing, so in all regions and all LGAs, there’s been more than 1 test per 100 population in the last two weeks, so that’s essentially 1% of the population has been tested. In the areas where there have been cases, like Colac and Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong, there have been substantially more than 1 test per 100 people.

So we’d be relatively confident that we’re not missing anyone out there.

We’ve been doing sewage testing as you may know and there has been a positive in Apollo Bay but 10% of the population in Apollo Bay has been tested so we’d be confident there’s no unknown cases on the basis of that.

I think it would be fair to say that there will be more cases in regional Victoria.

Obviously, today is a day that we can say that it’s safe to start relaxing restrictions but the price of that is that we need to continue to be vigilant that workplaces and people need to be aware that if they become unwell, they need to get tested and go home, they need to pay attention to all the hygiene measures and wear masks and so on and observe all the restrictions to be careful.

So - I’m trying to give you the picture that it’s not just a number that we’ve been aiming for but a whole suite of things that we’d be looking at to make sure that it is safe for regional Victoria to open up.

Updated

That’s something we are hearing about more and more from the nation’s health experts – that people who have this virus and recover are left with health problems, including neurological issues and nerve damage. It’s not a flu. If you recover, chances are you aren’t just getting on with life as you did before.

Updated

Asked about the news that no one diagnosed with Covid died in the last 24 hours in Victoria, which is the first time since 13 July that has happened, Daniel Andrews says:

The reason I’ve not made a big thing of that is because I can’t be certain...[of the] status of people in hospital and people who are still gravely ill and there are many people still who are fighting this virus and it’s a very tough fight.

I can’t guarantee that that number holds tomorrow but what we do know is that those numbers have been coming down and that’s a direct result of lots of different work and different efforts.

It’s pleasing but I can’t pretend there will be no deaths tomorrow. It’s not a good thing to get, whether you’re frail and aged or otherwise healthy and young.

This has been glossed over a bit.

I want to make this point before I throw to [deputy CHO] Allen [Cheng] – there is growing evidence across the world that otherwise fit and healthy young people are getting this. It’s not fatal but it’s not a common cold either where you shake it off and can barely remember you had it a week or two later. It’s presenting in some as a chronic condition that has long-lasting effects.

This is not something anyone should treat lightly. It’s not something where anyone should think if they otherwise get it they’ll be fine. This is novel. It’s nasty and it spreads wildly. We have to focus on that. As tragic a as it is, there’s other cohorts and we’re learning more about this virus every day because it is a novel virus.

Updated

Can Melbourne residents take some hope from this that they might see an easing of restrictions themselves soon?

Daniel Andrews:

We’re not here to revise the timeline for metropolitan Melbourne, but I will say this – because we’ve been able to achieve very low numbers in regional Victoria and keep them low, drive them down to these very, very small numbers, then we have the freedom, the opportunity, to do some things in regional Victoria that would just not be possible in metropolitan Melbourne right now.

We will closely monitor exactly what occurs, both to make sure that we don’t have a problem in regional Victoria, but also to inform what is likely to be safe and steady once the time comes in metropolitan Melbourne.

So I know there would be many people in the hospitality sector who will have assumed that there would be no indoors. We believe it is safe to have those two spaces with no more than 10 people in each.

We think that strikes the right balance. That will be closely monitored. There’s rules about deep-cleaning. There’s rules about staff being healthy when they begin the shift. There’s a two hour limit.

So it’s not like you can sit there all day. All of those things – I’m confident that hospitality sector will rise to the challenge. They take the hygiene and safety of their venues incredibly seriously.

I think there will be a very important demonstration process for what might be possible in metro Melbourne. I can’t commit to that today because it needs to be monitored.

As I said, this is a hopeful day. This is a positive day. Regional Victorians have done a mighty job.

What’s more, this shows you, shows every Victorian you can get these numbers low if we all stick together, if we all work together and if we all stay the course. That’s where we are today and it’s a credit to every single person in regional Victoria.

Updated

What about in-betweenish areas, like the Mornington Peninsula.

Daniel Andrews:

The definition of what’s metro and what’s regional remains in place but I’ll have more to say about the enforcement activity on approach to the Mornington Peninsula.

I’ll talk about that tomorrow. Obviously, there are many second residences down there and it’s not appropriate as we come up to the school holidays and warmer weather, for instance, for people to be travelling to a second residence. That’s simply not on. That puts everything at risk. It’s unnecessary movement. It’s unlawful movement. And it should not be happening. And we’ll have more to say about exactly how we’re going to enforce that with particular reference to the Mornington Peninsula.

That won’t change its status as part of metro Melbourne, but hopefully it will give people who are permanent residents down in that beautiful part of our state, it will give them the reassurance to know that only those who live there will be travelling there and there won’t be people going down for day trips and things of that nature.

Q: What’s going to be the protocols for making sure Melburnians don’t get into regional Victoria?

Daniel Andrews: Again, there are rules in place now in terms of who can travel. Those rules are not so much the rules themselves changing but the enforcement will be beefed up even further.

Q: What will that look like?

Andrews: What it will mean is that you’ll finish up with even more cars being stopped. We’ll come back on the exact figure, the exact percentage tomorrow, but it will – I’m sorry to say it will mean that there will be significant queues, there will be travel issues, but I think that regional Victorians understand, and regional Victorians – certainly the message I get is they jealously guard the low numbers, the low virus status that regional Victoria enjoys today and they want to keep it that way. So there will be a time later in the year when we can have that freedom of movement. We can’t have it now, because it puts at risk everything that is possible in regional Victoria because the numbers are low. We’ll also have a bit more to say about the likely fine that you would be issued with if you were to be in regional Victoria from Melbourne without a lawful reason. This is very serious, very, very serious. We cannot have people making unnecessary and unlawful trips to regional Victoria and potentially taking the virus with them. Regional Victorians have given too much and achieved too much to put that at risk. I which won’t allow that to happen. So I simply won’t allow that to happen. So we’ve got to do everything we can to make sure people are stopped, fined, turned around and set back to the metropolitan address they should never have left.

Q: Second property-owners still can’t move to their second property?

Andrews: Correct.

Updated

Daniel Andrews:

This is a great day for regional Victoria. I am proud of regional Victorians. I am grateful to regional Victorians.

This is a day of hope and optimism. This strategy is working. It has worked in regional Victoria.

It is working in metropolitan Melbourne. You can get these numbers down and you must get these numbers down. If you’re going to open up and keep numbers low, there is simply no chance to do that unless you have got them low to start with.

Otherwise, we’ll be open, yes, but we won’t be open for very long. Well done, regional Victoria, this is an amazing effort and a really hopeful and positive day.

People in Melbourne not allowed to travel 'unnecessarily' to regional Victoria

But you can’t move from Melbourne to regional Victoria.

Daniel Andrews:

Just in terms of movement from Melbourne to regional Victoria, those reasons have not changed. You cannot be travelling to regional Victoria unless you absolutely need to.

Those reasons are particularly well-understood. We will have more to say about some changes, some enhancements that Victoria police will make in terms of the border between metropolitan melbourne and regional Victoria.

That will relate to the percentage of cars that will be pulled over, that will also relate to penalties.

We can’t have people travelling unnecessarily and unlawfully into regional Victoria from metropolitan Melbourne, and potentially taking the virus with them. We know and understand that regional Victorians have done a mighty job, an amazing job, to get these numbers down. That allows us to open up as we’ve indicated.

Updated

If you are headed out in regional Victoria, here are the rules for food and drink establishments.

Daniel Andrews:

This will be predominantly outdoor – that is for cafes, bars, restaurants, pubs.

Subject to gathering limits and density quotients. Only table service will be allowed.

And there will be a two-hour limit on bookings. For indoor service venues, they can open with a cap of 10 seated patrons per space.

Subject to a one to four square metre density rule. There will also be a maximum of two such spaces.

So, two spaces inside, a maximum of 10 each. So, for larger venues, that would be 20 people inside.

This is from, again, midnight tomorrow night.

For outdoor service, more customers can be seated. There are different arrangements there.

But essentially outdoor service venues, there will be a cap of 50 seated patrons per space, subject to density requirements at one per two square metres. Group limits of 10 apply as well. The key point there is that tables will need to be 1.5m apart. So, for many venues, larger venues, they will be able to have up to 70 people seated at any one time.

Others may have different outdoor areas, which are quite separate. Again, there will be advice, assistance, guidelines, very detailed conversations over the next 24 hours with various peak bodies.

Updated

What exactly does that mean?

Daniel Andrews:

To give you a sense of what these changes to the rules will mean, the four reasons to leave your home will no longer apply.

Gathering limits will increase and most workplaces will reopen.

Restrictions on businesses and visitors do remain in place regarding people caps, physical distancing, the wearing of masks, things of that nature.

But the key changes include:

Outdoor gathering limits will increase to 10 people.

Infants under 12 months are not included in the calculation of that 10.

The household bubble is introduced, where up to five visitors are allowed in the home from a nominated household.

School will be a staggered start over the first couple of weeks of term 4. And we will have more to say about the exact age groups, year levels, that will be coming back over those first two weeks of term 4. But that will be essentially all classes, all schools across regional Victoria will have as close to a normal term 4 as we can possibly deliver.

Hospitality and entertainment will be allowed, subject to gathering limits, and some other requirements around density.

Retail, of course, has remained open and will be expanded to include personal services such as beauty and tattooing, where a mask can be worn.

For real estate services, outdoor auctions will be permitted with a limit of 10 people.

All community sport will return for children, non-contact sport will be permitted for adults.

Gathering limits for weddings will increase to 10 people, and for funerals to 20 mourners.

Outdoor religious gatherings will increase to up to 10 people, plus one faith leader.

Tourist accommodation will open for regional Victorians in regional Victoria, for them to travel and holiday within regional Victoria.

Every business, every single business across regional Victoria, will be required to have a Covid-safe plan, and those plans will be enforced from 28 September.

Updated

Regional Victoria to open up 'in next 24 hours'

Daniel Andrews has some very welcome news:

Regional Victoria will be opening up in just the next 24 hours or so. It is a massive thing. It is a very positive thing. It is something we should all be very pleased and proud of the job that regional Victorians have done. This will be welcomed, I’m sure, and there’s no greater evidence to the people of Melbourne that these strategies, getting numbers low, is possible, and it is essential. You have no chance of keeping numbers low once you open up if you don’t first get them low via the restrictions and the rules we have in place. This is a credit to everyone in regional Victoria. I am proud of you. I am grateful to you.

The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry has heard the federal government has made a “voluntary” submission to the inquiry.

It is similar to the voluntary submission the federal government made to the NSW Ruby Princess royal commission (and then subsequently didn’t get witnesses to appear before the inquiry).

The submission has yet to be made public, but it was announced as Victoria’s emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp began giving evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday.

As part of his evidence, redacted recordings of the state control centre meetings in late March will be tabled.

These meetings were where the processes of hotel quarantine were established, including the decision to use private security firms.

Victorian police minister Lisa Neville is now also due to give evidence to the inquiry, as will premier Daniel Andrews next week.

This week Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton will appear, as well as police commissioner Shane Patton and former police commissioner Graham Ashton.

Closing submissions for the inquiry will be on Friday 25 September.

Updated

And here is your election line.

Scott Morrison:

Just whacking people’s taxes up and hoping for the best is not a plan.

That’s a gouge.

Our plan is to grow the economy again, so we can meet all of those challenges in the future. It’s that economy, employing people, people being in work, that pays for that.

Because the end result is investment. It’s jobs, it’s exports. And, above and beyond that, it is a confidence that Australians have in their future, to see over these difficult and dark times at the moment, to see past them.

Because when businesses can do that, they will invest. They will have a go. And our plan will ensure, I believe, that they will get a go.

That confidence that Australia will be that fair and competitive place to do business. So, we’re accelerating our efforts to ensure we move forward in this area on every front.

We will rebuild our economy. We will do it on the basis of a health plan that keeps Australians safe. We won’t be taking risks with people’s health to rebuild our economy.

We’ve said from the outset the two go together. And we will build that economy with more jobs, underpinned by our jobmaker plan, for affordable, reliable and secure energy we’ve discussed today.

And a country with greater control over its economic destiny. That’s what sovereignty is all about and that’s our plan.

Updated

I mean, he’s not wrong?

The PM’s announcement should have been made two years ago rather than wasting time with the Liddell political games. AGL gave plenty of notice, we are now on the catch-up. We still need an overarching energy policy.

— Joel Fitzgibbon (@fitzhunter) September 15, 2020

Or, as Murph says:

Shorter Scott Morrison: fossil fuels will require subsidy if private companies keep ignoring us and we have to go over their heads and build our preferred stuff. Renewables don't need subsidies #auspol

— Katharine Murphy (@murpharoo) September 15, 2020

Scott Morrison has just got to the nub of his speech – and his government’s plan:

To ensure affordable, reliable power, we need the market to deliver 1,000 megawatts of new dispatchable capacity of 2023-24, with final investment decisions by the end of April 2021.

Now, that’s less than eight months, and we’re counting each day.

So, this is the plan – if the energy companies choose to step up and make these investments to create that capacity – great! We will step back. If not, my government will step up and we will fill the gap. And to this end, Snowy Hydro is already developing options to build a gas generator in the Hunter Valley should the market not deliver.

Now, the commonwealth government would prefer not to step in. That is not our plan A.

But nor will we shy away from taking action to protect consumers and support jobs, including here in this region, and so many like it.

So I think there’s some certainty there about what the investment environment looks like and what the capacity need is.

And I’m sure we’ll get there, one way or the other.

Alongside critical firming capacity, we need better integration of renewables in the electricity grid. This makes renewables work.

Renewables are getting cheaper. That’s great news. Because we’re about affordable power, taking pressure off households.

Taking pressure off job-creating businesses. Grid cost solar costs fell 15% between 2015 and 2020, and are projected to fall further.

Falling technology costs will help put downward pressure on prices and emissions over the decades to come.

They have also brought grid-scale wind and solar generation to economic parity with traditional sources of generation.

Renewables like solar and wind don’t need subsidies. What they need is integration.

And without adequate planning and integration, rapid deployment of renewables can lead to delayed connection, curtailed output and congested transmission.

Our energy plan understands this, and includes measures to strengthen our transmission network to better move power to where it’s needed.

Having a renewable future isn’t just about winding a windmill – you’ve got to connect it up, and you’ve got to ensure it’s backed in by the reliable power that firms it when the wind isn’t blowing.

That’s not ideology, that’s just common-sense.

So today I announce that the commonwealth will work with state governments to accelerate three critical projects, and we’ll have more to say about this later.

Updated

Further to Matilda’s earlier post

Breaking: The police officer suspended over their involvement in yesterday controversial Epping arrest will be paid during their time off duty. @GuardianAus pic.twitter.com/wRPYKJ0eDu

— Matilda Boseley (@MatildaBoseley) September 15, 2020

Morrison: 'Coal will continue to play an important part of our economy for decades'

Scott Morrison is in Newcastle, delivering his gas speech.

Murph has covered the announcement here:

Morrison:

In Australia, you cannot talk about electricity generation and ignore coal.

For decades, coal-fired generation has been a source of competitive strength for our economy – reliable, low-cost energy. This is still true.

Analysis by the Energy Market Operator shows coal generation is still expected to comprise almost a quarter of the National Electricity Market in 2040. Coal will continue to play an important part of our economy for decades to come.

With new carbon capture and storage continuing to improve, it will also have an even longer life – not just here in Australia, but in our export markets as well.

And right here, and in regions like right here, that means jobs.

Now, my government understands this. The fact that we understand it is important.

So many of the livelihoods of this region, and so many other regions like it, depend on that.

And not everyone shares this view. Not everyone shares our view on this.

My government also understands that our energy market is evolving at pace – driven by changes in technology, economics and consumer preferences.

Consumers are having a big say about where they want their energy to come from. Our technology roadmap is there to chart a path well beyond these immediate days.

Updated

One of the police officers involved in a controversial arrest in Melbourne on Sunday has been suspended.

Videos posted to social media show a man was hit by a police car and appears to have his head stomped on by an officer while held down.

The man was taken to hospital on Sunday afternoon and placed in an induced coma.

The man’s father said his son was suffering from a bipolar episode and was hospitalised immediately prior to the incident.

A spokesperson from Victoria police confirmed a “senior constable from the Critical Incident Response Team was last night suspended following his involvement in a protracted incident”.

“Professional Standards Command continue to investigate the matter and are currently assessing all available information.”

Police did not name the officer or confirm if this was the person responsible for hitting the man with a vehicle, allegedly stomping on his head or both.

Guardian Australia has requested clarification to as whether the officer has been suspended with or with out pay.

Multiple civil rights groups in Victoria have called for the independent anti-corruption watchdog, Ibac, to investigate the arrest.

Updated

Regional Victoria is looking very good.

Cases with unknown source are for the period August 30 to 12 Sept. The one case with unknown source in regional Victoria was from 1 September, more than 14 days ago. #COVID19VicData #COVID19Vic

— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 14, 2020

Updated

Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference at 10.45am.

Updated

The Covid committee is meeting today, with today’s hearing focusing on mental health.

Beyond Blue, the Black Dog Institute, Mental Health Australia and the National Mental Health Commission will all appear.

You can follow along, here

Oh I don’t know, I’m sure there are reasons.

Like no one with any sense or idea of where the market is heading, or caring about our planet, thinking it is a good idea?

The Hunter Valley has the best thermal coal in the world. NSW imports over 90% of its gas. Why don't we just use the coal that is right there and build a coal fired power station?

— Matthew Canavan (@mattjcan) September 14, 2020

Ambulance Victoria have put together a thank you video for the Victorian community.

From the bushfires, to the pandemic and everything in between, it really hits you with just how shit this year has been. But it also does a lovely job of showing the slivers of light in between.

Ambulance Victoria

It’s no Tayne, but the message is one worth hearing*

*lady who coughed on me over the avocados, I am talking to you.

Certified young person Paul Rudd wants you to wear a mask. Listen up: pic.twitter.com/GTks5NUBmR

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) September 14, 2020

Updated

Queensland reports one new case of coronavirus

Queensland has reported one new case of Covid – but they are in hotel quarantine.

Updated

Scott Morrison will be talking more on how gas is the future (at least according to his government) at 9.45am.

Updated

It’s the first time Victoria has reported a day with no fatalities since 13 July.

Updated

Victoria records 42 new cases and ZERO deaths

This is absolutely fantastic news.

#COVID19VicData: Yesterday there were 42 new cases reported and 0 lives lost. Our thoughts are with all affected. 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/eTputEZdhs #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/8HC6ZuhECE

— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 14, 2020

Updated

Early reaction:

- AEMO? More gas generation not needed
- CSIRO? Gas generation = expensive electricity
- Economists? Gas extraction creates very few jobs
- Scientists? Gas incompatible with our Paris goals
- Investors? Gas has bad returns. No $.

Politicians? <Ignore experts> MORE GAS!

🤦🏻‍♂️

— Mike Cannon-Brookes 👨🏼‍💻🧢 (@mcannonbrookes) September 14, 2020

Updated

Remember how the government set up the National Covid-19 Co-ordination Commission, which was going to plot the economic recovery out of Covid? And then put Nev Power in charge, while he was on the board of a gas producer?

And then everything became “gas-led recovery”?

Well, it turns out the government is all “yay, gas-led recovery”.

Updated

A Sydney aged care home previously the centre of a large Covid-19 outbreak has confirmed that a resident who was believed to have the virus on Monday was, in fact, a false positive.

A spokesman for Anglicare’s Newmarch House said the resident “originally tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday at Newmarch House is now negative”.

The home has been Covid-19 free since 15 June after the virus ripped through the facility, infecting 37 residents, 34 staff and claiming the lives of 19 people.

“We are all relieved and sincerely appreciate the support received from NSW Health,” the spokesman said. “We are continuing our precautions and retaining our infection control procedures and other protocols for the time being.”

Updated

Luke Henriques-Gomes has taken a look at what cutting the coronavirus supplement from the jobseeker payment would mean. As we heard last week, and the week before and the week before that – it’s not good:

Maintaining Australia’s pandemic-boosted welfare payments won’t stop jobseekers from taking up work during the Covid recession, Deloitte Access Economics says.

Instead, cutting the $550-a-fortnight coronavirus supplement would “harm the economic recovery and decrease both GDP and employment across Australia”, the firm said in a new report.

The planned reduction to the supplement in two weeks – before it’s removed entirely after Christmas – would reduce the size of the economy by $31.3bn and cost the equivalent of 145,000 full-time jobs over two years, Deloitte said.

The report, for the Australian Council of Social Service, found the cut would hit hardest in already-disadvantaged remote and regional communities, as well as Covid-ravaged Victoria.

“The economy is in a deep recession, and so reducing government spending would hurt more than if the economy were in good shape,” the report said.

Updated

Chinese customs officials have increased screening of imported Australian wheat and barley amid increasing tensions between the two countries.

Australia’s agriculture minister, David Littleproud, confirmed that the general administration of customs China had issued a notice on 31 August to its officers “outlining heightened inspection of imports of Australian wheat and barley”. The notice made reference to incidents of non-compliance relating to barley.

Littleproud played down the significance of the move in a statement overnight:

It is not uncommon for China to issue these types of notices. I understand that there have been sales of wheat to China but the department will only be able to confirm the number of shipments when exporters have applied for relevant export certification.

The minister said there had been no non-compliance notices issued for Australian imports of wheat since before 2018.

Beijing’s decision to increase scrutiny of Australian wheat and barley was made around the same time it suspended a Western Australia-based grains exporter, CBH, over the alleged discovery of “quarantine pests” in shipments to China.

CBH vowed to fight that suspension but Chinese state media aired claims that the souring of the diplomatic relationship had “destroyed the atmosphere for dialogue”.

China had already introduced steep tariffs on all Australian barley exports to China from May onwards, which made the trade uneconomic. Beijing has also suspended import permits for some beef processing plants and launched a trade investigation into Australian wine.

Updated

Good morning

There may be some good news coming for regional Victoria very, very soon, if the number of Covid infections outside of Melbourne continue to fall.

Health authorities want a couple more days of low infections to be sure, but regional Victoria looks likely to be coming out of its restrictions very soon.

The South Australian transition committee is meeting today – it is working on whether or not to allow NSW and the ACT across its borders. The premier, Steven Marshall, has been hinting that it will be coming, but all he said yesterday is that everyone would receive plenty of warning.

Meanwhile, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said her government would reassess the border closures at the end of the month, as already stated, but she was prepared to lose the upcoming election, if it came to that – she said she won’t be shifted from following the health advice.

The Queensland opposition did some walking back of their criticism of the chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, yesterday – the LNP deputy leader, Tim Mander, had called her “power hungry” but the party leader, Deb Frecklington, said the opposition respected the CHO. Young now needs police protection, after receiving death threats.

And pressure is mounting on the federal government to do something to get more Australians stranded overseas home. Only about 4,000 arrivals a week are being accepted. The federal government blames the states because they have put caps on the number of arrivals they are willing to accept each week. Victoria pulled out once its second wave hit (due to failures in its hotel quarantine system) and NSW wants the other states to do more (it means Queensland). But the federal opposition wants the federal government to start using some of the facilities it has available to ensure that more people can be quarantined.

We’ll cover all those issues and more as the day rolls on and we enter our third decade of 2020. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.

Ready?

Updated

Contributors

Luke Henriques-Gomes (now) and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

The GuardianTramp

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