Sydney man tests positive; Melbourne travel limit scrapped – as it happened.
Morrison Victoria Covid nsw Biloela Vaccination: A Sydney man in his 60s who works as a driver, including transporting international flight crew, tests positive. This blog is now closed. New Sydney Covid case visited Bondi venues while potentially contagious.
What happened today in Australia
That’s where we will leave the live blog for Wednesday.
Here’s what made the news for the day:
- Victoria is set to further ease restrictions from midnight Thursday, including the removal of the 25km radius rule and needing to wear masks outdoors in Melbourne.
- Victoria reported five new cases of Covid-19, all linked.
- A Bondi resident tested positive for Covid-19, with transmission believed to have occurred in his role as a driver for international flight crews.
- The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has continued his Europe visit, meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and visiting the OECD.
Morrison Victoria Covid nsw Biloela Vaccination
Scott Morrison was asked whether Australia would put up more candidates for international posts after former finance minister Mathias Cormann secured the top job at the OECD.
Morrison said it was a “statement of Australia’s contribution”, and said it was in line with comments he made years ago about “positive globalism”.
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“For it to go in a positive direction is when you have a rules-based order which is a functional and efficient and is being implemented across all economies whether it is at the WTO or the ITU or any of these bodies. All of these bodies, whether we like that or not, and we like it more often than we don’t, they, we need to ensure that across our partners that we are collaborating well.
Now in this case it was the right decision for Australia to put forward a candidate for the OECD just like with the comprehensive test ban treaty organisation where we have also just been successful. That has been something where Australia believes it can make a difference and make an effort. Whether it is the ITU, the United States has a very good candidate.
It really is about where best and who best and what ensures that the standard setting and the operation of the rules-based order works most effectively. Mathias Cormann being the secretary-general of the OECD is not a statement of Australia’s ambition, it is a statement of Australia’s contribution. We will make a contribution where it best assists that broader international effort and Australia’s international interests.”
‘Still a long way to go’ on French submarine contract issues, PM says
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is holding a press conference at the OECD in Paris.
He was asked about his meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, with regard to the $50bn submarine contract. Morrison said it was a “very positive discussion” on a wide range of issues, including that contract:
“We are coming up to important gates in that contract and there have been issues that we have had to address over particularly the last eight months and president Macron and I have a very, very open and very transparent and very friendly relationship where we can speak candidly to each other about these issues but what is most important is we understand the strategic imperative of our broader relationship.”
He said Macron has “been taking a very active role” in the contract, but there was still a long way to go, and noted Naval Group has “gates” coming up in the contract it will need to meet in September:
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“The scope to works, the master schedule, total costs, these are all the next steps. Contracts have gates and that’s the next gate.”
Stephen Jones MP (@StephenJonesMP)
The Govt has done a deal on contentious super bills. We don’t know what. This is what’s at stake:
👉🏼locking workers into dud funds
👉🏼Axing life insurance for dangerous occupations
👉🏼Excluding the worst funds from scrutiny
👉🏼Allowing Frydenberg to take over super investments
After the WA government announced it would change the law governing access to its QR code check-in app, limiting it purely for contact tracing after WA Police revealed they’d accessed it twice for “serious crime” investigation, I asked other states what they were doing.
So far, New South Wales and Victoria have responded.
New South Wales said there had been no access to the data by law enforcement. The public health order also says QR code data must only be used for contact tracing purposes.
Victoria’s acting premier, James Merlino, said he wasn’t aware of Victoria Police accessing the data, and the data could only be accessed by court order.
Also worth noting that in various jurisdictions, the data is only held for a set amount of time – 28 days in NSW and Victoria.
Interestingly, neither of the state’s police force were able to tell me, and passed me onto the holder of the data.
In the Senate, the government has just moved an hours motion proposing that its trio of super bills be debated this evening after 7:20pm, then once all the second readings are done, will be voted on tomorrow.
The main bill – Your Future Your Super – proposes that workers be “stapled” to the first superannuation fund they join to prevent account duplication. It passed the lower house earlier in June, after the coalition removed a controversial power for the minister to be able to ban certain types of investments.
The Senate has voted by 33 votes to 30 in favour of the hours motion, with One Nation’s Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts giving the coalition the votes to limit debate – usually a sign a deal has been done to pass the bill. Labor, the Greens, Jacqui Lambie and Rex Patrick voted against the move.
Labor suspects the deal may involve a bid to lift the cap on concessional contributions for those aged 67 and over based on the fact this is an amendment One Nation has previously proposed.
My colleague Paul Karp will have more information for you soon, but the government in the Senate has moved to suspend standing orders, to bring on debate for its super bills tonight. It succeeded, with the backing of most of the cross-bench. Labor and the Greens are opposed to the bill, and voted against it.
Peter Dutton and Shane Bazzi ordered to mediation
Paul Karp
Guardian Australia has confirmed that the defence minister, Peter Dutton, has been ordered to mediation with refugee activist, Shane Bazzi, who he is suing for defamation over a tweet.
At the first case management hearing for the matter on Wednesday, Justice Richard White reportedly said it “would not be amongst the biggest defamation cases that have come before the court” and “should be able to be settled”. Dutton will have to personally attend mediation, which will be conducted before 31 August.
The prospect of success is not high unless Dutton has a change of heart because – as Guardian Australia reported on Sunday – Bazzi has already deleted the tweet and committed not to make the accusation again, but Dutton pressed on, seeking an apology and damages. Bazzi is defending the case on the basis it was a fair comment or honest opinion.
The New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association says hundreds of nurses have walked off the job at two Central Coast hospitals – Long Jetty Continuing Care in Toukley and Wyong Hospital – for two hours on Wednesday afternoon in a protest highlighting concerns about staff safety and a call for nurse-to-patient ratios.
The union says there is widespread understaffing, regular overtime, and less time to properly care for patients, and says the NSW government has so far refused to negotiate with the union
The two hospitals remain open to the public with life-preserving staff available.
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