Watch live: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will be joined by Treasurer Tim Pallas today at Queen's Hall in Parliament House a day before the delayed state budget is finally handed down, while NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is about to give a COVID-19 update.
You can watch Daniel Andrews live here:
And you can watch Gladys Berijklian live here:
Latest updates
'A very happy health minister': Restrictions ease in NSW with more flagged
By Mary Ward
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she is aware that she often says the easing of restrictions is "imminent" – but this time she really means it.
"Unless some major unexpected event occurs, we will be announcing further easing of restrictions, especially in light of the festive season and especially given how well NSW has been doing with community transmission," she said a short time ago.
Ms Berejiklian has previously flagged the next steps will be increasing the number of people allowed in a home and moving towards a two-square-metre rule at indoor venues, but she said on Monday she was still consulting health advice.
Brad Hazzard told reporters he was "a very happy health minister" noting NSW has recorded 16 days without a local case as he outlined previously announced changes, which came into effect today, including:
- Outdoor religious celebrations of 500 people
- Outdoor concerts of 3000 people
It is also now compulsory for all businesses in NSW to use a QR code to keep track of who visits their premises.
Mr Hazzard also let slip that new easing of restrictions may be announced on Wednesday, although the Premier stressed this was not finalised.
'We can't continue to ignore this as a nation': Andrews calls on federal government to adopt new scheme
By Rachael Dexter
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the idea of providing paid sick or carer's leave to workers had benefits beyond the lifespan of the pandemic.
"No business wants half their staff to go down with the flu in 2022 or 2021 when this pandemic is over. No business wants customers to be getting sick because staff had no choice but to go to work ... because they don't have any way of looking after a sick child other than sending them to school," he said.
"We can do better than that."
Mr Andrews also said the federal government was aware of the state's plans, and hinted that his scheme could be more widely adopted.
"The Commonwealth government are well aware of our views around insecure work and the fact that it's neither fair nor safe. It's neither profitable nor in any way sustainable. We can't continue to ignore this as a nation. I don't have those levers though.
"We can do things here and we will and if we can be an example to others then I'd always like to think that they might follow that."
Mr Andrews said although the union movement had been advocating for such a scheme, workers' eligibility for the scheme would not be tied to their union membership status.
"Whether it's a high union coverage or not, that isn't the issue," he said. "Of course I encourage people to join the union as I've done my entire working life. I would absolutely encourage people to do that but that's really a matter for them."
No new cases in NSW, previous mystery cases linked to cluster
By Mary Ward
A regional NSW family whose infections were previously not linked to any cluster have been connected to a south-west Sydney health clinic with known cases.
In a statement on Monday morning, NSW Health said cases previously reported in a family at Moss Vale had been linked to an existing cluster of cases at Liverpool.
"Intensive work involving epidemiological and genomic analysis and antibody testing indicate that the five cases in the Moss Vale cluster and the 13 cases in the Liverpool private clinic cluster are linked by an additional two people who had contact with both clusters," it said.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard today.Credit:Nick Moir
The state recorded five cases in hotel quarantine in Sydney, bringing its total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 4353 after a previous case was excluded.
NSW reopened its border to Victoria on Monday morning, after it was shut to stop the spread of the virus as Victoria faced rising coronavirus infections in July.
"It's really important for us, especially with the open-border policy that we have in place and with the summer season upon us with increasing likelihood of social gatherings in the festive season, that all of us take extra care and not being complacent," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Pilot scheme to provide sick and carer's pay for Victoria's insecure workers
By Rachael Dexter
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a two-year pilot program to provide minimum sick and carer's pay for workers in insecure employment in "priority industries".
Under the scheme, which will begin in late 2021 or early 2022, workers will be able to access up to five days of leave paid for by the government.
The announcement was made the day before the Victorian budget.
Mr Andrews said the fallout of the pandemic had shown the risks of insecure workers to public health.
"Insecure work is toxic. Insecure work isn’t just bad for those who work under those conditions, it’s bad for all of us and we pay a price for the fact that so many people – particularly those who work in public facing jobs – do not have sick leave," he said.
"You don't want to be served in a restaurant by someone who is sick. You don't want your elderly parent or grandparent to be cared for in a private aged-care facility by someone who's sick."
Tim Pallas, Victoria's Treasurer and Minister for Industrial Relations, said while the $5 million dollar trial – which will apply to hospitality staff, aged care workers, cleaners, security guards and supermarket workers – would be funded entirely by the state government, any future iteration of the program would be funded through employment levies.
"But at the end of the day, I think there is a very strong case to make that there will be an increase of productivity,” he said.
"This will also be an insurance against risk to the reputation of a company where they’ve been seen as places where people can get unwell largely because the people who served, who worked for you in those public facing areas were not."
Casualised and insecure work has been a major focus of Victoria's deadly second wave, with the majority of infections spreading through aged care facilities and other high-risk industries.
Families reunited at Melbourne Airport as flights from Sydney resume
By Carolyn Webb
A Point Lonsdale couple who hadn’t seen their grandchildren in 18 months were among hundreds of people flying into Melbourne Airport this morning – the first day of arrivals from Sydney after the reopening of the Victoria-NSW border.
Thirty-eight Sydney to Melbourne flights, many well under half-full, were scheduled to arrive at or depart Melbourne Airport today, a long way from the more than 150 daily flights between the two cities before the pandemic.
Alison Songsaeng, 43, arrived at 7.25am on the first Qantas flight, QF401, with her children Ailani, 6, and Patrick, 4.
Alison Songsaeng and her children Ailani and Patrick were greeted by Alison's parents, Brenda and Paul Heseltine at Melbourne Airport this morning.Credit:Simon Schluter
At the gate lounge, they walked into the arms of Alison's parents Brenda and Paul Heseltine, 69 and 71, who they hadn't seen in 18 months.
The Heseltines rose in the early hours and drove in heavy rain for two hours from Point Lonsdale to green their daughter and grandchildren at the airport.
Ms Songsaeng said it cost her $15,000 to come home for good from Koh Samui, Thailand, where she was working as a teacher.
They had to quarantine for two weeks in a Sydney hotel, which had been difficult, with the kids being bored and not able to run around.
Mrs Heseltine said she had phoned or video called her grandchildren every day when they were in Thailand, but nothing beat hugging them in real life.
Melbourne Airport chief executive Lyell Strambi said it was a great day for the airport, with many employees reporting to work for the first time in months.
He was confident the airport will return to full capacity of 100,000 passengers per day as travel restrictions ease. The number fell to a low of less than 1000 during the pandemic.
John Phelan, 57, and wife Deborah, 58, of Birrong, in Sydney’s west, flew from Sydney on QF 415 to see their eight week old grandson Albin – their first grandchild – for the first time.
They have not seem their son, Connor, 28, who lives in Altona, in Melbourne’s west, and his wife Emanuelle since Christmas.
"I'm excited. I can hardly wait," Mrs Phelan said. The first thing both Mr and Mrs Phelan said they wanted to do was "to hold the baby".
'We just wait for a miracle': Bali faces its biggest crisis as COVID-19 leaves hundreds starving
The coronavirus pandemic has left Bali reeling. People in Australia's favourite holiday island are starving, unable to pay the bills, and afford essentials like baby formula, nappies, and medicines, writes Marta Pascual Juanola.
In Bali, people are starving.
At this time of the year, Jimbaran local Yeny Fita Wulandari would usually be run off her feet, juggling jobs in a busy spa and thriving tour business in Poppies Lane, one of Kuta’s many buzzing laneways.
Kaki Nyoman had been eating plain rice and sambal for weeks by the time charity workers found him near Amed.
But this year, the mother-of-three can barely put food on the table.
International border closures in April delivered a terminal blow to Bali’s economy, obliterating the tourism industry and leaving a hole worth billions of dollars.
Government data places unemployment rates at 7.5 per cent, but not-for-profit organisations estimate the reality to be much higher – closer to 80 per cent, with official statistics unreliable due to the amount of people not registered as either employed or unemployed.
The situation has become so dire some are struggling to feed their families, pay bills, or afford essentials like baby formula, nappies, and medicine. Others are selling their cars, scooters, businesses and personal belongings in a desperate bid to make ends meet.
Australian charity worker Amanda Rialdi said she had come across elderly people so malnourished they could barely get out of bed; others had been abandoned by their family after becoming a financial burden.
In the eastern town of Amed, charity worker Michele Yoga said a 90-year-old blind man had been living off sambal and plain rice for weeks.
Confronting footage captured by workers at Sheppys Bar and Restaurant in Legian shows dozens of Balinese, including children, scrambling to get hold of free food packs from the restaurant as staff urges them to remain calm.
Victorian, NSW premiers to front media shortly
There are two state press conferences lined up for this morning so far: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Treasurer Tim Pallas will be seeking shelter from the rain inside Parliament House today, addressing the media at 10.30am AEDT in Queen's Hall between the two chambers.
And NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello and NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant will provide a COVID-19 update at Martin Place at 11am AEDT.
We'll do our best to bring you livestreams and headlines from the two press conferences as they happen.
Australia 'abandoned everyone on visas' during pandemic: ACTU chief Sally McManus
By Rachael Dexter
South Australia’s coronavirus outbreak – which briefly sent the state into the harshest lockdown ever seen in Australia – could have been avoided had working conditions for quarantine hotel staff been better, says head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions Sally McManus.
The virus first leaked out of one of Adelaide’s "medi-hotels" via a security guard who also worked part-time at a pizza bar. A kitchen hand from another medi-hotel also caught the virus, but told contact tracers he had simply bought a pizza from the same store.
South Australian officials sent the state into a hard lockdown over fears of a "super strain" of the virus, before the kitchen hand revealed he had actually worked at the pizza store where he caught the virus from his colleague. South Australian Premier Steven Marshall has launched a criminal investigation into the second man.
Police outside the Woodville Pizza Bar after it was announced a worker from the shop lied to authorities during a COVID-19 investigation, causing SA to go into a hard lockdown.Credit:Getty
The worker who lied to contact tracers was a Spanish man on a temporary graduate visa, and although the reason for his lie is still unclear, Ms McManus said she would not be surprised if he was being paid cash in hand out of necessity.
"We as a country completely abandoned everyone on visas in our country when the coronavirus hit. They can’t get JobSeeker, they can’t get Job Keeper, so of course they’re forced to work otherwise they will starve," she said on Radio National’s Breakfast program.
Ms McManus said the actions of the SA Premier to publicly lambast the worker did not speak to the reasons he might have lied.
"I can imagine there would be some reasons why he was afraid to tell the truth so I think blaming the individual when they could have put in place a gold standard there so that person was not working a second job in the first place is just deflection," she said.
"I’m certain there’s far more to this story than we know."
The ACTU secretary said the SA episode was a call to action to improve working conditions for quarantine staff to incentivise them not to work secondary jobs in high-risk environments.
"I think we need to stop mucking around about this, the coronavirus is the biggest threat to our health and our economy so that means that the people we have working at places like that need to be properly paid – so really well paid, not just the minimum wage – because they’re not doing a minimum wage, normal job,” she said.
"They’re doing one that covers a lot of responsibility and as we know a lot of consequences if something goes wrong."
South Australia’s Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that authorities could dictate to workers that they could only have one job, and said there was a similar level of risk from workers going to the gym or seeing family which also could not be policed.
Ms McManus said workers could be required to live by more restrictions to lower their level of COVID-19 risk, and be compensated for it as part of their wage.
"It’s such a tiny amount to pay to make these places safe," she said.
Victoria unmasked: 'Common sense' replaces outdoors edict
Mandatory mask-wearing in first Melbourne and then across the state was indeed controversial, particularly in the great outdoors. There were plenty of grumbles but advocates said it was worthwhile. Now Victorians can take as many gulps of fresh air as they like, so long as there are no crowds. Here is The Age chief reporter Chip Le Grand's analysis:
Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that masks are no longer mandatory outdoors.Credit:Chris Hopkins
Victoria can again breathe easy. After four months of having to cover our faces whenever we stepped out our front doors, we can let our masks slip.
We will still need to wear them in public buildings and outdoors when caught in a crowd but, for the first time since the second-wave epidemic crested, we will be guided by common sense instead of a hardline, public health edict.
The changed mask rule does three things.
It removes from our streets and parks the most visible symbol of our COVID winter, signalling that although the pandemic still rages in Europe and America and future outbreaks are likely, we are where we want to be at the end of this wretched year.
It puts an end to the silliest of culture skirmishes – thankfully it never quite reached the stage of warfare here – about whether mandating masks outside was a reasonable public health precaution or an elastic-strapped conspiracy against freedom.
It scraps the COVID restriction of weakest efficacy and refocuses the public health response where we know the risk of viral spread is greatest: in hospitals and nursing homes, at family gatherings and in confined, indoor public spaces.
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2020-11-23 00:24:00Z
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