Watch live: Victorian Premier fronts parliamentary inquiry
Premier Daniel Andrews is speaking at a public accounts and estimates committee where he will be quizzed about his government's response to the coronavirus pandemic. You can watch his evidence live, below.
If your live stream is buffering, or cutting in and out, you're not alone. The load on this live stream is large, but if you're patient it should start running smoothly.
Victoria has recorded 19 deaths for the second consecutive day and 331 new coronavirus cases.
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Victorian Premier says ADF was not available for hotel quarantine security
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Premier Daniel Andrews says the Australian Defence Force was not available to help run Victoria's hotel quarantine program, despite reports to the contrary.
Why the Andrews government did not put police or the ADF in charge of the crucial quarantine program has been a contentious question since outbreaks among security guards at hotels have been identified as the likely source of Victoria's second wave of COVID-19.
Security guards at the Stamford Plaza in the Melbourne CBD have been linked to Victoria's second coronavirus outbreak.Credit:Getty Images
Mr Andrews has told today's public accounts and estimates committee in Melbourne that the ADF was not on offer to provide hotel security.
"I think it is fundamentally incorrect to assert that there was hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no. That's not, in my judgement, accurate," he said.
NSW records 22 new cases, eight linked to school
NSW has recorded 22 new cases in the latest 24-hour reporting period, with eight new cases linked to a growing Sydney school cluster, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced.
Tangara School for Girls, at Cherrybrook in Sydney's north-west, is emerging as a coronavirus hotspot in the city.
Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook is closed due to COVID-19 infections.Credit:Edwina Pickles
The independent K-12 school, which is run by the Opus Dei-established Parents for Education Foundation, is known for having a number of larger families enrolled.
Yesterday, there were a total of nine cases connected to the school. It is unclear at present whether the eight cases announced today bring that number to 15 or 17, due to two cases reported yesterday which would have been recorded in today's numbers.
Four of the 22 cases were returned travellers in hotel quarantine, two of which are from Victoria.
More details will be available when NSW Health provide their case update at 11am.
Ms Berejiklian said she expected the Tangara cluster would grow as household contacts were susceptible to the virus. She repeated her statements yesterday that non-government schools should not be conducting out-of-school activities as they may have if we were not in a pandemic.
The Premier added that coronavirus containment would be a "daily battle in NSW", encouraging people to come forward for testing after 13,000 tests were recorded in the latest reporting period, a drop in previous days' rates.
Andrews deflects key question on hotel quarantine
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
This parliamentary committee makes for great listening. If you're not already tuned in, you can watch the Victorian committee hearing in the post above.
We have finally gotten to the question on everyone's lips: Who made the decision to use private security guards in hotel quarantine and why was that decision made?
That question came from Nationals MP Danny O'Brien.
Security guards who contracted COVID-19 from returned travellers at the Rydges on Swanston hotel have been linked to Victoria's second wave of the virus.Credit:Penny Stephens
Premier Daniel Andrews responded by saying that on March 27, national cabinet decided to quarantine returned travellers in hotels.
"The exact nature of security arrangements, their adequacy or otherwise, that is appropriately a matter for [former judge Jennifer Coate] to look at [during her inquiry]," Mr Andrews said.
Mr O'Brien pressed the Premier on why the decision was made to use private security guards, to which Mr Andrews responded that security guards were used in other hotel quarantine programs in other states.
"This was just an extension of that program," Mr Andrews said.
As he has done during his daily press conferences in previous weeks, Mr Andrews deferred further questions about the hotel quarantine program to the inquiry headed by Justice Coate, which is due to hold its first public hearings on August 17.
A frustrated Mr O’Brien raised his voice, asking why the Premier has consistently refused to answer questions on hotel quarantine over the past month.
'Thank God': no new cases in QLD today
By Lydia Lynch
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has breathed a sigh of relief after no new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the state overnight after 6500 people were tested.
Two teenage girls who allegedly lied about a trip to Sydney have both returned a negative result. It has been 10 days since a case of community transmission was detected in the state.
Ms Palaszczuk said today marked 203 days since Queensland’s first case of COVID-19.
"Recently we learned just how much we value our days without new cases," she said referring to a recent scare linked to two women who spent eight days unwell across Brisbane's south late last month.
"We had a three-month streak of no community transfer until the selfishness of a few undid the hard work of the many ... anxiety crept back in to Queensland.
"But, thank God, the people of Queensland especially those in Logan, Springfield and Ipswich, responded exactly as a united community should."
Watch live: NSW Premier provides a COVID-19 update
Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and parliamentary secretary for the Central Coast Adam Crouch are marking a milestone in the $200 million Wyong Hospital redevelopment. They are also expected to provide a COVID-19 update.
'Ultimate vulnerability not whether someone got fed in five hours': Andrews on tower lockdowns
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Victorian Greens MP Sam Hibbins is also on the public accounts and estimates committee, which is questioning Premier Daniel Andrews this morning.
He pursued a line of questioning about the hard lockdown of Melbourne's public housing towers, noting that some residents waited days for food to be delivered, while a mother could not access clean syringes for her diabetic child and another mother was separated from her premature baby in hospital.
A decision to lock down the public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington and was confirmed in the three hours before the announcement was made, Mr Andrews said.
Police tape outside the public housing tower on Alfred Street when it was locked down in July.Credit:Getty Images
Mr Andrews said he acknowledged not every element of the response was perfect, but there was no manual to responding to a pandemic of this scale.
"The ultimate vulnerability here was not whether someone got fed in five hours, or waited until the next day to get groceries," he said.
"The ultimate vulnerability here is for this virus to get into the towers and infecting everyone."
Question to Andrews: Who decided who would run hotel quarantine?
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
The combative questioning from the deputy chair of the parliamentary accounts committee has continued.
Liberal MP Richard Riordan asked Premier Daniel Andrews whether Victoria's crisis cabinet decided hotel quarantine would be better run by people "who fix roads" than the health department.
The Premier replied: "People across the board are performing roles and functions that are a long way away from what they might be traditionally expected to."
Regional Liberal MP Richard Riordan at today's parliamentary accounts committee.
Throughout his questioning, Mr Riordan continued to interrupt Mr Andrews.
"You're asking me questions, and with all due respect, you don’t get to answer those questions by running another editorial," the Premier said.
Labor MP Gary Maas asked Mr Andrews several Dorothy Dixers about the process of contact tracing, Australian Defence Force personnel door-knocking efforts and the Victorian government's mental health packages.
Northern Territory may not reopen to Melbourne and Sydney for 18 months
By Mary Ward
The Northern Territory's tourism ads might still be playing on your TV, but Chief Minister Michael Gunner has said people from large cities with coronavirus outbreaks such as Melbourne and Sydney may not be able to visit for 18 months.
Speaking on ABC television about his territory's border controls, which forces permitted arrivals from "hotspot areas" to complete 14 days of paid quarantine before being allowed to visit, Mr Gunner said his government was "much more likely to add spots than remove them".
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner.Credit:ABC
"We have got an indefinite ban on Victoria, and Sydney keeps bubbling away to a point to I can't give you a date where that would ever lift," he said.
The entirety of Victoria and postcodes in greater Sydney and Newcastle in NSW are currently considered hotspots by the Northern Territory government.
Mr Gunner said the territory was "working towards at least an 18-month window" with its hard border controls.
Asked what would happen if outbreaks in other parts of the country, such as Victoria, were not brought under control by this time, he said he needed to put the safety of his residents first.
"I've got no idea when Victoria will ever get under control," he said.
"Premier Daniel Andrews is doing everything he can down there, but I've gotta do everything I can for the Northern Territorians as well."
Andrews says he will not sack Jobs Minister over quarantine bungle
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Premier Daniel Andrews has faced combative questioning from the parliamentary's committee and deputy chair, Liberal MP Richard Riordan.
Mr Riordan asked Mr Andrews if he would ask Jobs Minister Martin Pakula to resign over his department's involvement in the botched hotel quarantine system.
"No," Mr Andrews replied.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews appears before the public accounts and estimates committee.Credit:Screen grab
A $3 million inquiry, led by former judge Jennifer Coate, is investigating the links between Victoria's second wave of COVID-19 and the state's bungled hotel quarantine program, which was designed to protect the community from the virus by placing returned travellers in 14-day isolation in hotels manned by private security companies.
"Former judge Coate is running an inquiry … she has an inquiry set up under [the] Act of Victorian Parliament, broad terms of reference, [a] substantial budget, and will get answers that are required," Mr Andrews said.
Victorian Jobs Minister Martin Pakula with Daniel Andrews.Credit:Justin McManus
Mr Riordan said if former cabinet minister Adem Somyurek, a factional enemy of Mr Andrews, was sacked within 24 hours of an Age/60 Minutes investigation revealing branch stacking, why has no minister been admonished for the bungling of hotel quarantine.
The Premier said parallels could not be drawn between the two incidents.
Mr Riordan interrupted Mr Andrews' responses a number of times, to which the Premier repeatedly replied: "If you let me finish my answer."
The Premier added: "Some genomic sequencing has been provided … at least a significant portion of new cases ... [in the] second wave [are] attributable to [hotel quarantine]."
The committee hearing paused while attempts were made to adjust the volume of Mr Andrews' microphone.
He is giving evidence from a room in Melbourne's Treasury Place and was asked twice to move closer to the microphone.
Federal government pushes back on "no plan" aged care allegations
By Rachael Dexter
While Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is answering questions on hotel quarantine, federal Aged Care Minister Senator Richard Colbeck was doing the media rounds this morning after the Royal Commission into Aged Care yesterday aired damning allegations that the sector was woefully underprepared for coronavirus outbreaks.
Senator Colbeck defended the Morrison government’s track record, laying the blame on a number of other agencies for failures and delays, including the Victorian Department of Health and aged care facilities such as St Basil’s.
Mr Colbeck refused the allegation that there was no overarching coronavirus blueprint for the sector, stating there had been continuous ‘advice’ given to the aged care sector on COVID-19 screening and the need for surge-staffing since the pandemic began
"We provided advice to the sector on all of these elements starting back in January and February,” he told Radio National's Breakfast program.
When pressed by host Fran Kelly on why that advice was not enforced or regulated, Mr Colbeck said regulators couldn’t do their job because they weren’t allowed into facilities.
"You also need to recall that the regulator was restricted in its capacity to enter aged care facilities because of COVID-19," he said.
The decision to only make personal protective equipment mandatory for aged care staff on the 13th of July, two days after the death of an aged care resident, was one made by the chief medical group advising the government and not his department, Mr Colbeck said.
"That advice was given to the government on that date… by AHPPC [and] we enacted it straight away," he said.
Mr Colbeck pointed the finger at community transmission as the reason for high numbers of the disease entering aged care facilities in Victoria, where there are now 1765 active cases relating to aged care facilities.
"While there is community transmission in Victoria, all businesses are at risk," he said.
It was also revealed yesterday that the nation's aged care regulator was told of a crucial coronavirus outbreak at St Basil’s Home for the Aged, four days earlier than previously claimed.
St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Melbourne’s north has been one of the worst hit facilities, with at least 20 deaths linked to the facility.
On the Today Show on the Nine Network, Senator Colbeck said he was only made aware of "gaps" in communication between agencies last Friday.
"How did you [only] find out on Friday?” asked host Karl Stefanovic. "I mean that’s unbelievable."
"The Commissioner advised me on Friday morning," responded Mr Colbeck.
"That gap in the system has been fixed but might I point out, Karl, that was exposed by the fact that neither (Victorian) DHHS nor the provider (St Basil’s) had actually advised the Federal Government of the outbreak at the facility, which is part of the first 24-hour plan."
"We should've known the day before the 10th, when the commission found out. We should've known on the 9th when the outbreak [happened]."
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2020-08-11 00:13:00Z
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