Australia news LIVE NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian resigns Victoria records 1488 new coronavirus cases Queensland records two cases easing grand final concerns

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The Queensland government is providing an update on the coronavirus situation in that state.

Former NSW Liberal MP Pru Goward has joined critics of the corruption watchdog’s timing in announcing its investigation into Gladys Berejiklian and says her successor will face a challenging task stepping into the role during the pandemic.

Ms Goward said NSW residents had grown accustomed to the “very certain steering of this woman” during the pandemic and said Ms Berejiklian had a mind “like a steel trap”.

“She understands the issues and understands the trade-offs. She understands the risks very well and of course for somebody to step into her shoes at this point will be a real challenge for them and obviously for us.

“And it’s, as she herself has observed, unfortunate that ICAC should have chosen this time.“
Ms Goward said she thinks that “in the end ICAC is going to say well there is not enough here”.

“I mean, as is so often the case with ICAC findings, they destroy a person’s career but never actually lead to any legal outcome.”

When asked about Ms Berejiklian’s successor, she said Sports Minister Stuart Ayres and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet were “very closely involved” with the management of the COVID crisis.

“So if it were one of those two I don’t think a lot would change because I think they are very well on top of it,” she said.

“I’m not sure about Rob [Stokes]’s involvement in the management of the pandemic but she certainly always relied on Rob because of his great intelligence and experience.”

Ms Goward said she wouldn’t assume Mr Perrottet, a member of the right faction, would be chosen.

“I mean, he’s been a great treasurer and is a great performer, but I’m saying in a state where the moderate faction is so dominant it would be extraordinary to me if he were just given it.”

NSW Liberal Party president Phillip Ruddock has raised concerns over the method and timing of the corruption watchdog’s public investigation into outgoing Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

The former federal attorney general said he believed the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption should operate like a department of public prosecution, which establishes whether a person has a case to answer before announcing they are the subject of an investigation.

“If you look at the way in which serious issues of criminality are dealt with, you don’t put people on trial by innuendo until you have established there is substantial issues and people have had a chance to address them,” Mr Ruddock told Seven Network on Saturday morning.

“She has not had a chance to address them and you will not be putting someone on trial for those issues unless they have been put and you had a chance to address them.

“In my judgement, we deal with these issues with probity, ensure there is a case to answer before you put people’s reputations on the line.”

Mr Ruddock did not weigh in on who he believes should replace Ms Berejiklian, but said he hoped the Liberal partyroom dealt with the matter quickly.

Queensland has recorded two new local cases of COVID-19, and has again avoided lockdown. Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the two cases were linked to the existing aviation cluster and were household contacts.

Ms D’Ath said the animal handler who travelled from NSW has also been determined as a negative case.

But health authorities remain confident the aviation cluster is being controlled, with the NRL grand final on Sunday still expected to go ahead at 75 per cent capacity.

Ms D’Ath said there would be pop up vaccination clinics around Suncorp Stadium for people looking to get jabbed ahead of the game.

A football and netball club on Victoria’s south west coast has been identified as close contact COVID-19 exposure sites.

Warrnambool Football Netball Club was declared a tier-1 site on Tuesday, September 28 between 7am and 12pm.

Anyone who attended the club during that timeframe has to immediately get tested for COVID-19, and quarantine for 14 days, regardless of whether they receive a negative test result.

Tobacconist Northpoint, also in Warrnambool, was identified as a tier-2 or casual contact site on Monday, September 27 between 9.10am and 9.40am.

Several other venues in the coastal city were also identified as exposure sites late on Friday night.

Also among the late-night exposure site additions was Rowville Medical Clinic in Melbourne’s south-east, which was declared tier-1 on Thursday, September 28 between 4.50pm and 5.40pm.

Two playgrounds in Victoria’s north were declared tier-2 sites, as was Castlemaine Hospital about 120 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, and an early learning centre in Flemington.

A full list of Victorian exposure sites can be found here.

The 1488 new COVID-19 cases posted for Victoria is a fresh record for daily infections in the pandemic topping the 1438 from two days ago.

The state also recorded two deaths for the period.

Victoria has recorded 1488 new community cases of coronavirus as 36,878 vaccines were administered on Friday.

The Victorian Department of Health has tweeted this morning that the new infections take the number of active cases in the state to 11,591.

Aged care advocates say visits should be allowed at all nursing homes in Victoria if people coming to see fully immunised residents have also had a double dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Most residents and staff in Australia’s 2600 aged care homes have now had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and the NSW state government this week announced from October 11 aged care residents could have two visits daily. Visitors must be fully vaccinated for coronavirus and aged over 12.

But Victoria’s rules on visitors to aged care homes do not mention vaccination, instead stipulating residents can have visitors for reasons including their “physical or emotional wellbeing”, or if they are living with dementia.

Emily Riglar’s grandmother, who the family has asked not be named.

Victorian homes interpret the rules in different ways; some welcome visitors while others insist relatives can only come into a home if a resident’s physical or emotional wellbeing takes a dramatic downturn.

“We can’t view residential aged care homes as some sort of prison,” said Paul Sadler, chief executive of Aged and Community Services Australia, which represents not-for-profit homes.

Physiotherapist Emily Riglar has seen the impact of Victoria’s strict rules for aged care visits on her 94-year-old grandmother, who lives by herself in a retirement village.

Ms Riglar’s grandmother, who the family has asked not be named, had a stroke last year and visitor restrictions and a lack of access to physiotherapy have taken a toll.

Read the full story here.

Hi, it’s Mathew Dunckley, digital editor at The Age, here picking up the blog for the rest of the morning.

One of the biggest developments in recent days for Victoria was yesterday’s announcement from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews that all authorised workers would need to get vaccinated.

The announcement was welcomed by business groups for providing some certainty but concerned civil liberties organisations and others.

The move raises a number of practical questions such as how will it be enforced, who does it affect and what happens if you can’t track down a jab appointment?

There’s a great article from Michael Fowler explaining all those things and more that you can read here.

Every person on Victoria’s authorised worker list must have their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by October 15 to continue working on site.

Announcing the news on Friday, Premier Daniel Andrews said those workers must be fully vaccinated by November 26.

Premier Daniel Andrews has announced mandatory vaccines for authorised workers.Credit:Eddie Jim

He estimated the new requirement would apply to up to 1.25 million Victorians.

While NSW enforced a mandate on authorised workers in local government areas of concern, this is the broadest mandate applied so far in Australia.

We’ve answered your questions about the mandate here.

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