Security guards hired for hotel quarantine in an attempt at social inclusion
By Richard Baker and Noel Towell
A senior Department of Jobs official has been removed from their role as evidence mounts that the decision to use private security guards at Melbourne’s quarantine hotels was partly driven by a well-meaning attempt to provide jobs under "social inclusion" policies.
A leaked email from another public servant, the department's deputy secretary for inclusion, also paints a picture of how rushed the implementation was, describing "heroic efforts" over a weekend in late March as bureaucrats became "expert in the delivery of hotel concierge services".
Rydges on Swanston, one of the worst sites of quarantine hotel infection.Credit:Getty Images
The revelations will increase pressure on the Andrews government over whether it put too much emphasis on finding jobs for marginalised Victorians without ensuring that those guarding hotel guests were trained in infection control and supervised by authorised officers.
Latest updates
Victorian Government COVID-19 update due at 11am
By Roy Ward
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is due to give his daily COVID-19 update at 11am this morning.
We plan to have a live stream on this blog for you to watch.
New local lockdown in England
The British government on Friday ordered a ban on gatherings of households in the northern English town of Preston in its latest localised clampdown.
"At the request of the local authority, Preston will be now be added to the list of areas included in the ban on households gathering in each other’s homes and gardens, effective from midnight tonight," the health ministry said. "Guidance will make clear that people should not be gathering with other households anywhere indoors."
Local lockdowns are already in place across Greater Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire, where residents can no longer meet each other inside their homes or in gardens.
Members of two different households are also banned from mixing in pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues, though these businesses have not been told to close.
Reuters
Morrison prepares a gas plan to boost economy out of the pandemic
By David Crowe
Gas projects will gain federal support to drive down energy costs for industry and households in what Prime Minister Scott Morrison calls a broader plan to lift the economy through the pandemic.
Mr Morrison backed the use of gas to help Australian industry solve its energy challenges, signalling he would act "in the months ahead" to tackle the problems caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has flagged a push to get more gas available for domestic manufacturing.Credit:Brendan Esposito
Three cabinet ministers are working on ways to cut gas prices, raising the prospect of measures in the October budget to address years of industry calls to boost domestic gas supplies.
The next test is a NSW regulatory decision due on September 4 on whether Santos can develop the Pilliga gas field in the state’s north on the condition all the gas goes to the domestic market.
Deadly mistakes in aged care outbreak
By Chip Le Grand
For the past three weeks, Louise Molony has lived apart from her husband and adult sons while sharing their Melbourne home. She has the virus and they don’t.
To keep things that way, their house is divided into COVID-19 red and green zones. To get to the kitchen, the men must walk out the front door, down the side of the house and enter round the back.
Residents of St Basil's aged care home are evacuated.Credit:Justin McManus
This snapshot of domestic quarantine - a lockdown within a lockdown in a house on a suburban street - is emblematic of a city enduring some of the world’s most severe restrictions.
Melbourne is under house arrest. All but “permitted” businesses have been forced to a chaotic halt. The cost is only guessed at: a forecast $12 billion hit to the economy; statewide unemployment nudging 15 per cent; a deep, prolonged recession that will shape all our lives.
What you need to know about Queensland's three-state border lockout
By Toby Crockford
The Queensland border slammed shut to anyone from New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, in a bid to stop travellers using interstate loopholes to get into the state.
As of 1am on Saturday, anyone who has come from these three areas will be turned around at the border and any Queensland residents trying to come home can only arrive by air and must pay the $2800 cost for their two-week stay in hotel COVID-19 quarantine.
Victoria continues to grapple with a COVID-19 outbreak and NSW is recording small numbers of new daily cases.
Meanwhile, the ACT was included in the new restrictions because a man allegedly drove from Sydney to Canberra before flying on to Cairns, via Brisbane.
Gold Coast Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said Queensland residents had poured back across the border in recent days in the lead up to the hard border closure.
Mystery COVID cases causing anxiety for NSW Health
By Kate Aubusson
Contact tracers are hunting for the source of a string of COVID-19 cases unknowingly spreading the virus among Sydney’s restaurants and pubs, as the government faces mounting pressure to tighten restrictions on the high risk venues.
The next several days will prove pivotal in determining the extent of the fallout from a busy weekend for three men aged in their 20s infectious with COVID-19 who visited 17 venues between them in Sydney’s inner-west, the CBD, the western suburbs and Newcastle.
NSW recorded 11 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday. It was a trickle compared with Victoria's 450 cases and 11 deaths, taking the national toll to 266.
In Sydney and Newcastle, hundreds of diners, revellers and shoppers have been directed to self-isolate and watch for symptoms after potentially being exposed to one of the infectious men.
Dismay grips Portland as police raid exposes new COVID-19 cluster
By Tony Wright
A wave of COVID-19 anxiety has engulfed Victoria's far south-west after a police raid on a Portland home revealed a man who had recently been released from jail was infected with coronavirus.
Five confirmed cases of COVID-19 have now been linked to the young man and three of the eight police involved in the raid were quarantined for more than a week before learning their tests were negative.
A COVID-19 testing station at Portland District Hospital.Credit:Tony Wright
Another cluster – linked to a woman who drove from Melbourne to care for her mother – produced eight confirmed cases and claimed the life of a 59-year-old man.
Until mid-July, only one case of coronavirus had been detected in the entire Glenelg Shire, which stretches from the Victoria-South Australia border to Portland Bay and almost 100 kilometres inland to Casterton.
WA delays easing of restrictions amid Victorian pandemic crisis
By Nathan Hondros
Premier Mark McGowan has announced a further delay in easing Western Australia's pandemic measures, telling reporters on Friday 'phase 5' restrictions would be delayed until at least August 29.
The easing of pandemic rules, which had been planned for next week, would have meant all restrictions would have been dropped in WA except for the 'hard border'.
WA Premier Mark McGowan.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
It would have permitted Optus Stadium to have been filled to its full 60,000-person capacity.
But Mr McGowan said the August 29 date was tentatively scheduled.
"I know this may cause some frustration for some sections of the community and the business community, but we need to be extra cautious here," he said.
"The nation is on high alert right now. We cannot afford to let our guard down and take unnecessary risks.
"As a nation we have entered the most dangerous phase of this pandemic."
'It’s dire': Contact tracing delays threaten coronavirus fight
By Aisha Dow and Michael Fowler
Victorians with coronavirus are waiting more than a week to be interviewed by health officials, stymieing efforts to contain the disease and threatening the success of costly lockdown measures.
Contact tracing is meant to be initiated within 24 hours, but the long delays are leading GPs to instruct their patients to call their close contacts themselves and urge them to be tested.
Stewart Taylor waited days to be interviewed by health officials after testing positive to coronavirus.Credit:Daniel Spellman
“It’s dire,” said Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, a former national Australian Medical Association president who runs a respiratory clinic in Altona North.
“There's a lot of early intervention that is being stymied.”
The AMA in Victoria says the problem needs to be urgently addressed for the state to avoid repeated hard lockdowns, and resurgent case numbers when it moves out of stage four restrictions.
'Entitled, defamatory and deceptive': student rebellion at St Paul's
By Jordan Baker
Sydney University's scandal-plagued St Paul's College has seen a dramatic dispute erupt between senior students and management, leading to a blistering letter accusing the students of entitlement and deception, and threatening them with expulsion.
The trigger was third-year students’ decision to push back against management’s failure to consult them about the COVID-safe guidelines and a decision to rent out the college gatehouse.
A dramatic fight has erupted at Sydney University's St Paul's College between students and management. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
But it comes after months of tension at the residential college, which was once known for its sexism and hazing but has been undergoing significant cultural change in the wake of a review by former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.
There was a period of relative peace after the review, but when a new warden took over the college last October, senior students began to feel shut out of decision making.
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2020-08-08 00:28:00Z
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