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Wesfarmers will pay permanent staff during lockdown
By Dominic Powell
Wesfarmers, the parent company of Bunnings, Officeworks, Kmart and Target, has said it will continue to pay its permanent staff at its shut-down Melbourne stores for the duration of the six-week-long lockdown.
Full and part-time workers who do not work during the period will remain fully paid, the company said.
Casual workers who regularly work 12 hours or more will also continue to be paid for those hours, however, casuals who work under 12 hours will only be paid the equivalent of two weeks of their rostered hours.
Chief executive Rob Scott said the recently announced stage four lockdown had resulted in “enormous hardship and uncertainty to the public” including the company’s 30,000 workers in the state.
“The restrictions on business activity including the temporary closure of in-store retailing has created further anxiety for team members and their families,” he said Wesfarmers is not eligible for the government’s JobKeeper stimulus package as it has traded strongly through the recent lockdowns, so it will pay staff itself.
“We can’t eliminate the uncertainty for our team members, but we can reduce concerns about a sudden and unexpected loss of regular household income that may otherwise occur because of store closures during the restrictions,” Mr Scott said.
“It would not have been possible to provide this support without the strong performance our teams and businesses have delivered through the early months of COVID-19.”
Some staff will continue to work in-store to fulfil online orders and orders for trade and business customers at Bunnings and Officeworks, however, Mr Scott said the company would continue to push for a change in the government’s rules to allow some of Wesfarmers’ businesses to trade.
“We look forward to working with the Victorian government in the coming weeks including on any opportunities to further refine the restrictions to ensure important products remain available to the community, where this can be done safely,” he said.
Less than 12 hours until ACT/NSW lockout, new Qld border pass system still not ready
By Toby Crockford
With less than 11 hours to go until anyone from NSW or the ACT is locked out of Queensland, the new online application system for border passes is still not up and running.
Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler says an X pass will be available for border residents and an F pass for freight workers, but apart from that, "exemptions will be few and far between".
Commuters are stopped by police at the Queensland/NSW border checkpoint in the Gold Coast hinterland.Credit:Nine
“The Department of Housing and Public Works are working on that [new border pass application system] as we speak," he says.
"There are some complexities around the IT system because it will involve an element of validation for your address, because we want to make sure that people only from the border zone areas are applying for those X passes."
We’re hopeful it will be [ready] this afternoon, but if that doesn’t happen we will have an interim measure at our border checkpoints and we will work with people on the side of the road.”
Chief Superintendent Wheeler says delays exceeded an hour at the Gold Coast border checkpoint.
“Delays today have been very predictably slow, the M1 and Gold Coast Highway as usual in these circumstances have been quite lengthy delays upwards of an hour," he says.
"I anticipate this will get worse as the day goes on, as we get into the evening, there will be that last-minute rush of Queensland residents returning home."
Are you sitting your VCE this year?
As we reported earlier the Victorian government has made a number of changes to the how final year exams will work for high school students this year.
Education Minister James Merlino has announced that every single VCE student will be individually assessed for things such as school closures, long absences, significant increases in family responsibilities as a result of COVID-19 and the impact of COVID-19 on mental health.
He said students will go into their exams "knowing that their final scores and their ATAR ranking will be a fair reflection of their year, and they will not be disadvantaged as a result of COVID-19".
WA dentist admits breaking self-isolation order after flying in from over east
By Kate Hedley
A Joondalup dentist who failed to comply with self-isolation orders after flying in to Western Australia from the east coast in June will be sentenced in October.
Nataliia Nairn, 30, was originally charged with two offences, but had six more charges added following police investigations.
Joondalup dentist Nataliia Nairn leaves court.Credit:Kate Hedley
She pleaded guilty to all charges in Joondalup Magistrates Court on Friday.
Nairn was caught when she was spotted at work while she was meant to be self-isolating.
The Emergency Act currently requires anyone returning to WA to quarantine for 14 days.
Police checks on Nairn’s home address during her quarantine period found she wasn’t there, and further checks found her at work.
Nairn made no comment outside court.
She faces a potentially hefty fine when she returns for sentencing on October 21.
No plans to have Sydney MPs self-isolate before Parliament, says CMO
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have answered a number of questions relating to Victorian MPs needing to self-isolate prior to attending Parliament in Canberra on August 24.
Earlier this week it was announced that Victorian MPs would be required to quarantine at home or in Canberra for 14 days before attending Parliament. Health Minister Greg Hunt has already said he will be taking part.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed Treasurer Josh Frydenberg would also be self-isolating for two weeks, after attending without the requirement last month. He said he expected most Victorian MPs would jump through the hoops to attend.
"For many of these members that means they'll be away from their family for a month, father of two young children, I understand that [and] I don't see that regularly these days either," he said. "But I'm sure all members of Parliament will understand their responsibilities here."
Asked why Sydney MPs were not facing the same restrictions, Professor Kelly said, although Canberrans were being advised by ACT Health to avoid travel to Sydney, there were no quarantine requirements in place as there are for Victorians.
The Prime Minister said he had spoken with Labor leader Anthony Albanese regarding the opposition's suggestion that Victorian MPs could participate in Parliament digitally, although he did not think MPs should be able to vote remotely.
"One of the points that the Leader of the Opposition and I very much agree on is that if you're voting in the Parliament then you've got to be here," he said. "We can't have a situation where people are sort of phoning in votes into our Parliament. You can have no confidence that you haven't got 14 people standing next to them when they make those votes. That's not on, that's not how the democracy works."
This is Mary Ward signing off the blog. Matt Bungard will continue our coverage through to the evening.
PM says he supports WA in Palmer case
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended his relationship with Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan, saying he has written to Mr McGowan giving his full support for the state government in their legal case involving Clive Palmer after the federal legal team previously issued advice seemingly in support of Mr Palmer's open borders argument.
"I have an outstanding relationship with the Western Australian government and we've pulled out of the case as they asked us to pull out," Mr Morrison said after today's national cabinet meeting.
Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit:Getty
He added that he had "set out important constitutional principles that [he thinks] will assist with that process".
WA’s Solicitor General has claimed the Commonwealth’s involvement and then eleventh-hour withdrawal in Clive Palmer’s legal challenge to WA’s hard border created “an egg that must now be unscrambled”.
During submissions in the Federal Court on Friday, Solicitor General Joshua Thomson SC made an application for the July trial to be vacated and a new trial granted without the Commonwealth’s evidence.
with Heather McNeill
No other states have indicated a need for disaster payments: PM
No other state or territory has taken up the federal government's offer for $1500 disaster payments for people asked to self-isolate and unable to attend work.
"I have written to all states and territories making that offer and none have indicated they'd like to take that up," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters on Friday.
Mr Morrison admitted that operating in a "COVID-safe economy" would be an ongoing challenge for Australia's governments until there is a vaccine. He said federal government support to Victorians this week were an example of this.
"We can't allow our economy to atrophy during this period," he said.
"JobKeeper and the cash flow supports have been so important to that end, ensuring we can keep our economy ticking over even at very low levels and, in this last week in particular, the discussions the [Victorian] Premier and I have been trying to keep the economy, even in Victoria, at a level of operation which will mean on the other side, when we come out the other side, we're not making it harder on ourselves to see it re-emerge."
Australia's 'tragic' youngest death had comorbidities: CMO
Responding to a reporter's question, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has said the man in his 30s who died from coronavirus in Victoria this week did have some comorbidities.
"I'm not going to talk about an individual case, but only to say ... all deaths are tragic and the death of a young person, young male in this case, is also tragic," he said.
"There were some comorbidities, but it does actually stress what I said before: this is not only an old person's disease. This is a disease for all of us and whilst most people only have asymptomatic or mild cases, occasionally they're severe and occasionally it can lead to death."
Asked about the latest health advice on masks, Professor Kelly said the AHPPC was currently meeting to discuss the effectiveness of different mask types, and whether it should be specifically recommending P2 or N95 masks for certain settings.
Vast majority of cases are in the young: CMO
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has said, despite rising cases in the elderly due to nursing home outbreaks in Victoria, the vast majority of coronavirus infections in Australia are in the young.
"What are we doing to engage with our youth to make sure that they know that this is not just a disease for elderly people?" Professor Kelly asked, speaking after his briefing at today's national cabinet meeting.
"That might be where we're seeing the deaths and that's very tragic but young people are getting infected, young people are transmitting the virus and young people sometimes are also experiencing the severe end of the spectrum of the disease."
Professor Kelly said premiers and chief minister had discussed issues in aged care facilities at today's meeting, particularly preparedness for outbreaks in light of the situation in Victoria.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison later clarified that all states and territories have agreed to establish preparedness plans for outbreaks in their aged care facilities.
There are now active coronavirus cases in all states and territories bar Tasmania and the ACT.
PM, CMO hopeful about developments in vaccine race
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has said "there is really strong optimism" around the development of a coronavirus vaccine in light of various results published this week.
"We have never had a vaccine for a coronavirus in the world before, but the very best minds in the world are concentrating on this," he said, adding that things which would usually take years were taking only months or weeks.
The world's biggest study of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Moderna and the US National Institutes of Health, gets under way. Credit:AP
Prime Minister made the following comment about the way out of the pandemic, after national cabinet was updated on the vaccine race across the world.
"Australia is positioning itself well to take advantage and be in a position to be able to manufacture and supply vaccines should they be developed ... [But] whoever finds this vaccine must share it.
"Any country that were to find this vaccine and not make it available around the world, without restraint, I think would be judged terribly by history and that's certainly Australia's view and we'll continue to advocate that view in every conversation we have as I certainly have."
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2020-08-07 04:48:00Z
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