Australia news LIVE Victoria records 1838 new local COVID-19 cases five deaths NSW Premier brings forward changes to state road map

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NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant is due to provide a coronavirus update from 11am AEDT.

Please note this is a NSW Health livestream, not a press conference, so there are not opportunities for journalists to ask questions.

The stream is via Facebook. If it’s not appearing for you below, please refresh your browser. It won’t be available until 11am sharp.

Watch live below.

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Greater Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will remain Commonwealth hotspots until 11.59pm on October 14, meaning businesses in those areas will be able to continue accessing disaster payments.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly announced the change due to “continued occurrence of cases in the community, and movement of active cases poses an exposure risk to people in these areas”.

The change also means additional support will continue for childcare services, including additional allowable absences, gap fee waivers and support payments.

Professor Kelly urged Melburnians to continue to follow COVID-19 directions and get vaccinated.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell says teachers were told about the change to the state’s reopening road map before it was announced at yesterday’s press conference.

The initial three-phase return was whittled down to two stages yesterday. Kindergarten, years 1 and 12 will return on October 18 and all others years on October 25. The third stage had been set down for November 1.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell. Credit:James Brickwood

“We’ve just brought that final group forward a week,” Ms Mitchell told Nine’s Today Extra this morning.

“We’ve done that because vaccination rates in the community are high, we’re going to start to see more freedoms and I just think it would be irresponsible not to have our students back at school as soon as we can.”

Vaccination is mandatory for teachers, with a deadline of November 8. As of last night, 60,000 teachers had advised they were fully vaccinated, the Minister said. The number reported on Thursday morning was 45,000.

“Those numbers are growing every day by the thousands as that final data is collected,” she said.

In addition, according to federal government data, 63.25 per cent of those aged 12 to 15 in NSW had received their first vaccine dose as at October 6. The state’s first dose rate for 16- to 19-year-olds is 80.25 per cent.

Ms Mitchell reiterated face masks will be required for all teachers and students aged 12 and over, and “strongly recommended” for primary school students.

“That’s based on health advice for the beginning, for that return for school,” she said.

“If there’s opportunities to relax that as we can have a few less restrictions, as we start to live with COVID, whether that’s later this year or into next year, we’ll just have to take the health advice on that.”

France’s ambassador to Australia, Jean-Pierre Thebault, says his first task upon arriving in Canberra will be to assess whether or not Australia can be trusted, with every collaboration between the two nations to be revisited.

“We’ll have to revise everything,” the ambassador told Radio National.

Asked if the two countries can be friends again, Thebault replied: “This remains to be seen. That is exactly the reason for which I have been instructed to come back.”

The ambassador added that “trust is something you build”.

“Our relationship was not only about a [submarine] contract, and that is exactly the problem.

“[The way the cancellation was handled] has created a breach of trust. The crisis between our countries is that this [contract] was only the tip of a much deeper cooperation.”

Last month, Australia cancelled a $90 billion French submarine contract in favour of nuclear-powered vessels from America. At the time, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new deal had to be kept a secret due to national security concerns.

Less than 70 per cent of Victoria’s triple zero calls are being answered within five seconds and some are being left on hold for 13 minutes while waiting for assistance, according to the head of the service which takes emergency calls.

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority CEO Marty Smyth has confirmed two people in Melbourne have died from cardiac arrest after waiting around five minutes each for their triple zero calls to be answered.

A key performance indicator for the service is that 90 per cent of calls are answered in five seconds, but Mr Smyth said less than 70 per cent are being picked up recently and it’s “even lower on some days”.

“We can’t say that someone’s died because of the delay in the calls because only the coroner can relay the cause of death, but regrettably, yes, there have been delays and answering calls,” the ESTA CEO told radio station 3AW.

“Last year we were looking at probably 2000-2400 calls a day. This year, in the last couple of weeks in particular, we’re exceeding 3000 calls a day.

“I found one [call wait] the other day that was about 13 minutes, and then we had a couple of calls that lasted even longer than that … Fortunately, they didn’t [lead to catastrophic results].

“We found that about 40 per cent of calls don’t actually need an ambulance … so we’re absolutely asking Victoria to consider only calling triple zero if it’s an emergency.”

Mr Smyth said today’s announcement that former Victoria Police chief Graham Ashton will conduct a review into ESTA had been in the works for some time and was a “standard process” which began last week.

NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole has shut down any speculation that day trips from Sydney to regional areas will be allowed when the state’s reopening begins on Monday.

An ABC report emerged last night that a spokesperson from Mr Toole’s office had said such travel for fully vaccinated people excluded holidays, but permitted activities included attending attractions such as wineries.

Mr Toole told ABC’s Radio National this morning that under the current rules, visits to family members have been allowed for compassionate care reasons such as vulnerable people.

But he said visits for holidays or recreation have not been given the green light.

“Day trips to wineries are not allowed and they will not be allowed. That won’t be occurring,” Mr Toole said.

“People can’t be having recreational trips and they will not be allowed to go out [from greater Sydney to the regions] and have a holiday.

“It will be very well spelled out shortly so that people don’t start planning a day trip and going out into the regions.”

The Deputy Premier said it was raised last night after someone “pointed out the loophole” and he has asked Health Minister Brad Hazzard, NSW Health and legal about it “so there is no confusion”.

Mr Toole said further clarification will be provided this morning.

From October 11, Sydneysiders can travel within greater Sydney which includes the Central Coast, Wollongong, Shellharbour and the Blue Mountains.

Under the road map, holiday travel between greater Sydney and regional local government areas is not permitted until the Monday after the state reaches 80 per cent full vaccination. This target is expected to be reached later in October.

Victoria’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.

The state has recorded 1838 new, locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and five deaths. That’s Victoria’s second national record for daily cases in a single week (there were 1763 cases reported on Tuesday).

The Department of Health has not said how many cases are linked to known outbreaks or how many people were already isolating when they tested positive.

Zero cases were detected in hotel quarantine.

There are now 16,823 active cases of coronavirus across the state.

Today’s numbers are off the back of yesterday’s record 77,554 coronavirus tests.

Former Victorian police chief Graham Ashton will conduct a review into the state’s emergency call centre operator, which has been keeping triple-zero callers on hold due to the extraordinary level of demand for emergency support.

The Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) has been beset by staffing issues and glitches to its operating system since late last year. The problems have coincided with an unseen volume of triple-zero callers, driven partly by the amount of Victorians who deferred care during lockdowns and ended up exacerbating their ailments.

Late last month, calls to triple-zero reached levels not seen since the 2016 thunderstorm asthma event and some people were placed on hold for 13 minutes â€" much longer than the target time of five seconds.

Mr Ashton, who left the police force in 2020, will review ESTA’s functions and capabilities and report to the government with any recommendations by early next year.

Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes said emergency call takers “have done their absolute best throughout unprecedented demand from the pandemic â€" but we want to see where things can be improved”.

ESTA is investigating the case of a three-year-girl who died from a cardiac arrest near Bendigo late last month after the family’s triple-zero call was placed on hold for a minute and 41 seconds.

NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole has rejected any suggestion his state’s Chief Health Officer doesn’t support the amended road map out of lockdown.

As previously reported, Premier Dominic Perrottet has confirmed some elements of the NSW plan will be fast-tracked now that the state has exceeded its 70 per cent double-dose target. For example, from Monday, 10 fully vaccinated visitors will be allowed in the home (up from the five originally promised).

NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Mr Toole appeared on Sunrise earlier and it was put to him that Dr Chant did not endorse all of the recent changes. You may recall that Dr Chant was not at yesterday’s press conference.

Here’s what the Deputy Premier had to say in response:

No, that’s not the case.

I had a crisis cabinet the day before and Kerry Chant was in the meeting. We don’t make decisions without the support of NSW Health or Dr Kerry Chant.

I think it’s important we get the balance right between keeping people safe but also opening up the economy.

[The new plan] was endorsed by Kerry Chant and NSW Health and it’s a delicate balance, but ... I know the people are looking forward to Monday.

Key figures in the Andrews government were warned in 2018 that a taxpayer-funded grants scheme now at the centre of a corruption probe was being maladministered by ALP-aligned figures.

But the government sought to manage the concerns internally, according to sources and records obtained by this masthead.

Former minister Adem Somyurek is at the centre of the IBAC probe.Credit:Eddie Jim

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission now intends to hold public hearings into “allegations that public money intended to fund community associations was misused for party‐political work or other improper purposes”.

The hearings, to begin next week, are part of a probe into whether Labor MPs and Victorian public officials aligned with the ALP engaged in “corrupt conduct” by using public money or taxpayer-funded ministerial and electorate staff to improperly engage in political activities, including branch stacking.

Read the full story here.

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