Australia news LIVE Victoria records 1420 new local COVID-19 cases 11 deaths NSW records 594 new cases 10 deaths Paul Toole to become NSW deputy premier
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NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says changes to the state's reopening road map are being considered as the 70 per cent double-dose vaccination target is expected to be reached today.
But he said he was “committed†to Monday as the day the state will leave lockdown.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Deputy Premier Paul Toole, left, this afternoon.Credit:James Brickwood
“We made the decision and it’s the right decision to not set a date but a vaccination target,†Mr Perrottet told reporters this afternoon before new Deputy Premier Paul Toole was sworn in at Government House.
“While we hit 70 per cent today, we [said we] would do it on the Monday afterwards.â€
Crisis cabinet is meeting this afternoon and will discuss NSW’s full road map out of lockdown.
“I think there is an opportunity for some changes and I have had those discussions [with health officials] this morning,†Mr Perrottet said.
Homeless people could have contracted COVID-19 when they were housed in an apartment building in Melbourne's east due to the operator’s shoddy safety practices, a watchdog has alleged.
Keyun Enterprises, which operated an accommodation business, Comfy Kew Apartments in Kew, has been charged with breaching the Occupational Health and Safety Act, after housing a number of homeless people as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response in September last year.
WorkSafe alleges Keyun failed to put a COVID-19 Safe Plan in place, and to ensure that contractors signed in on entry and people wore masks on premises.
“As a result of these failings it is alleged patrons and contractors at Comfy Kew Apartments were exposed to risks to their health and safety,†the watchdog said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The matter is listed for a mention hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on November 30. It comes a week after WorkSafe charged Victoria’s Health Department over last year’s mistakes in hotel quarantine that drove the state’s deadly second wave of COVID-19.
WorkSafe charged the Department of Health with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, alleging the department failed to provide a safe workplace for its employees and failed to ensure people were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.
Melbourne's Royal Childrens Hospital’s chief executive Bernadette McDonald has confirmed the hospital’s cancer ward is now a tier-1 exposure site.
A parent of a patient visited their child a few days ago and has since tested positive. Affected patients and any visitors during that time will be subject to isolation until 14 days since the exposure.
Royal Children’s Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald speaking to reporters this afternoon.Credit:Getty Images
“Our aim is to keep everyone safe,†Ms McDonald said at a press conference this afternoon.
“This is something we're seeing on a regular basis and that's why we have our screening processes in place so the minute that somebody is positive we can find out about that and try and keep people out of the hospital as much as possible.â€
The hospital currently has 12 COVID positive patients in its care.
Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp has been handing out $1000 prizes for the fully vaccinated, after the city council announced all staff and visitors to its facilities must have two doses of a jab by November 5.
Every day until Sunday the council is providing multiple $1000 shopping vouchers for Melbourne Central, Queen Victoria Market and the Emporium worth a total of $50,000.
Freya Mansfield, 12, received a $1000 prize from Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp.Credit:Joe Armao
Chief executive Justin Hanney said the “complex decision†to compel staff and visitors to be vaccinated was not taken lightly. The mandate does not apply to those with a medical exemption and next steps were still being worked through, he said.
“Vaccination will be required to enter any City of Melbourne site, including libraries, recreation centres, community facilities, and administration offices including Town Hall,†Mr Hanney said in a statement.
“We believe that COVID-19 vaccination is the best way to reopen our city, while protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and our broader community. Our people have overwhelmingly told us they agree.â€
Victoria has already declared that essential workers will need to have had their first COVID-19 vaccine dose by October 15 to continue working on site. Those workers must then be fully vaccinated by November 26.
If you're just joining us, here's a summary of the day's major headlines so far:
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the state's workforce of 90,000 teachers had a vaccination rate similar to the broader community, but could not say what the vaccination rate was.
Ms Mitchell said the department had only begun collating data on the vaccination rate in recent days.
"The last amount of numbers that I got yesterday, I think it was close to 5000 staff had already indicated that they were vaccinated," she said.
"We've got more than 90,000 staff on our system and that data is being collected... I know that our teachers have known for a long time that they need to be vaccinated, and we'll be able to provide updated figures very soon."
The deadline for all teachers to be fully vaccinated is November 8.
Incoming NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole says regional lockdowns in future would be managed on a case-by-case basis, highlighting they would not necessarily be determined by local government areas.
"It might come down to a locality. And that's exactly how we'll look at it, so it will be looked at and under a different lens," he said.
"Do I think we'll be going back into areas where we lock down the whole local government area? That's up for consideration.
Mr Toole alongside NSW Nationals deputy leader Bronnie Taylor, right. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
"But I would say that for a lot of cases, we can actually localise it to particular towns and communities."
Mr Toole has been a member of the state's crisis cabinet throughout the Delta outbreak.
Premier Dominic Perrottet has congratulated Mr Toole and the new deputy leader of the Nationals Bronnie Taylor.
Mr Perrottet said Mr Toole was a "fighter," who had been a strong voice in the government, standing up for regional farming communities.
"I know he will bring a steady hand to our efforts to get NSW safely back open and on the path to recovery," he said.
"Bronnie Taylor has been a powerhouse and worked tirelessly as Minister for Mental Health at a critical time, ensuring vital support is there for people who need it in the aftermath of drought, bushfires and the pandemic."
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says the Commonwealth should be doing more to support state and territory public health systems.
He said that while Prime Minister Scott Morrison calls it “shakedown politicsâ€, Commonwealth funding arrangements are “partnership politicsâ€.
“We welcome the support that the Commonwealth has brought over the course of the pandemic, but the inescapable truth is that some of those partnership arrangements have expired,†Mr Foley said during today’s coronavirus update.
“The Commonwealth continues to cap its health expenditure contributions at 6.5 per cent inflation [and] the health sector is running well and truly above that as people get treated for more complex conditions longer in a COVID environment.
“What we need is community partnership, and not the blame-shifting politics that we’ve seen from the Commonwealth.â€
He said other states and territories had expressed the same views.
Premier Daniel Andrews has insisted he always acted with integrity and declared he would not stand down after it was revealed an anti-corruption probe was investigating his dealings with the firefighters union to broker a deal to end a long-running industrial dispute.
“If you want to know what’s going on at IBAC [Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission], who they’re talking to, what they’re talking to them about, then you should go and have a chat to IBAC,†Mr Andrews told reporters outside Parliament House this morning.
Premier Daniel Andrews outside Parliament House on Wednesday morning. Credit:Getty
This masthead revealed today that IBAC was examining the conduct of the Premier and a senior public servant over their role in controversial deals that benefited the United Firefighters Union and its boss, Peter Marshall.
The Victorian opposition has called on the Premier to resign for being the subject of an IBAC investigation.
“I behave appropriately at all times,†Mr Andrews said. “I’m focused always doing what is the appropriate thing to do.â€
Read the full story here.
An ACT court has unanimously allowed Bernard Collaery’s appeal to a secrecy order on his trial after it was previously ruled large parts of the hearings into his alleged efforts to expose a secret Australian operation to bug East Timor’s government should be held behind closed doors.
The ACT Court of Appeal today handed down its judgment into an appeal brought by Mr Collaery’s lawyers into the order made under national security laws to hold the trial largely in secret.
The court said in its judgment that it doubted that a “significant risk of prejudice to national security†would be caused by the disclosure of certain information.
Instead, the court said the non-disclosure would create a “very real risk of damage to public confidence†in the court system.
Mr Collaery, the former lawyer for an ex-spy known as Witness K, was challenging an order made by the ACT Supreme Court last year to accept former attorney-general Christian Porter’s application to invoke the National Security Information Act, which governs how courts should handle sensitive information.
The NSI Act requires the court to give “greatest weight†to the Attorney-General’s views about the national security implications of a case, which has resulted in large portions of the hearings being held in secret.
The ACT Court of Appeal held a two-day hearing in May into the order, which was also closed to the public.
Witness K was in June handed a three-month suspended sentence for conspiring to reveal classified information about intelligence agency ASIS’s bugging of East Timor’s cabinet rooms during sensitive oil and gas treaty negotiations.
But Mr Colleary has decided to fight the charges against him, which relate to the alleged disclosure of information to both the East Timor government and the Australian media.
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