Good afternoon. Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein says that from today if you travel by air or from tomorrow if you travel by sea to Tasmania, you’ll be required to stay in mandatory government-designated hotel quarantine at your own expense.
The cost will be $2,800 per individual, or $3,800 for couples, or between $4,300 and $4,800 for families, depending on the number of children.
There are also hardship provisions available.
The exceptions are people from Victoria or the hotspots in NSW, who will be asked to go back home.
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Twenty-five new cases recorded in Epping Gardens aged care cluster
Twenty five more cases have been linked to the Epping Gardens aged care outbreak, which prime minister Scott Morrison this morning said was the outbreak that was currently of most concern.
There are now 115 cases linked to the Epping Gardens aged care home in Epping Gardens, up from 90 on Thursday.
The biggest outbreak remains St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner, which increased to 124 cases today, up 13 from yesterday.
Estia aged care facility in Ardeer had 104 cases, up 10 from yesterday.
Kirkbrae Presbyterian homes in Kilsyth had 87 cases, up six from yesterday.
Estia aged care in Heidelberg had 82 cases, up 15 from yesterday.
The outbreak at Menarock Life aged care in Essendon increased by one, to 63, and Glendale aged care in Werribee increased by two, to 58.
Baptcare Wyndham Lodge in Werribee remained stable at 52 cases, while Outlook Gardens aged care in Dandenong North increased by six cases to 55, and Arcare aged care in Craigieburn increased by three to 45.
The following aged care homes reported their first case:
- Homestyle Aged Care in Point Cook – one staff member tested positive.
- Bupa Aged Care in Templestowe – one staff member tested positive.
- Royal Freemasons Bendigo – one staff member tested positive.
- Cumberland Manor in Sunshine North – one staff member tested positive.
- Gary Smorgon House in Caulfield – one staff member tested positive.
- Florence Aged Care Facility in St Albans – one resident tested positive
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The federal court hearing challenging Western Australia’s hard borders will finish today. Here’s how it’s going, from AAP:
Clive Palmer’s federal government-aided challenge to Western Australia’s tough border stance is wrapping up in the federal court as the prime minister repeatedly tips the state will lose.
The Queensland billionaire argues WA’s border closure is unconstitutional and damaging trade while premier Mark McGowan says it is necessary to protect citizens and is based on expert health advice.
The case continued for the fourth and final day in Brisbane on Friday, with WA’s solicitor-general, Joshua Thomson, saying no community transmission in the state since mid-April shows the border closure is working.
“His [WA chief health officer Andy Robertson] judgments have actually proved to be good ones,” Thomson said in his closing submissions.
He urged Justice Darryl Rangiah to give no weight to the evidence of Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases expert engaged by Palmer, who accepted he used assumptions from a “plausible but optimistic” UK study.
Thomson also took aim at the quality of evidence by infectious diseases expert Peter Collignon, who was engaged by the commonwealth and argued in favour of “targeted quarantine” for people from states with high levels of community transmission, such as Victoria and NSW.
Palmer’s barrister Peter Dunning said WA could reopen its border entirely and reduce the risk of an outbreak to “very little” by employing a suite of measures.
The state had high levels of contract tracing and compliance with “inconvenient” Covid-19 rules, and had experienced community transmission that didn’t lead to an outbreak, Dunning said.
The matter will ultimately be decided by the high court.
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As might have been expected, the Senate inquiry’s robodebt hearing has descended into a fight over public interest immunity.
The government services minister, Stuart Robert, has sent a new public interest immunity claim to the committee chair, Rachel Siewert, during the hearing.
Siewert and Labor’s Deborah O’Neill are furious, saying that the claim could have been made in advance given the government and department had plenty of advance notice of today’s hearing.
It was questions from Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick that brought the hearing to a halt. He has asked the secretary of the Department of Social Services, Kathryn Campbell, whether legal advice was sought about the program and the cost of that advice. He is not asking for the advice itself to be provided, though he notes it would be subject to parliamentary privilege in court anyway.
Campbell has refused to answer, backed by Liberal senators Wendy Askew and Amanda Stoker.
She read from Robert’s letter, which states that the commonwealth defence against Gordon Legal’s class action claims for unjust enrichment and negligence could be prejudiced if the fact that legal advice existed or did not exist was made public.
O’Neill accused Campbell, Robert and the department of deliberately seeking to delay and obfuscate.
The committee is now holding a private meeting over the issue.
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There are currently 12 people with Covid-19 in hospital in NSW and eight in intensive care, with four of those people on ventilators. About 90 people are being treated for Covid-19 in non-acute, out-of-hospital care.
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More detail on the new Covid-19 cases in NSW
Six of the 21 new coronavirus cases reported in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm last night were connected to the cluster around the Apollo restaurant in Potts Point, NSW Health has said.
Two of the new cases are still under investigation, and two are in returned travellers in hotel quarantine. One more case is linked to another known case, the source of which is still under investigation.
Three of the new cases are connected to the cluster at the Our Lady of Lebanon church in Harris Park.
Two each are connected to the clusters of the Thai Rock restaurant at Wetherill Park, the Mounties Club in Mount Pritchard, and the funeral gatherings cluster.
The final case was acquired in Victoria.
There total size of the biggest clusters in NSW are:
- Thai Rock restaurant in Weatherill Park – 94 cases
- Crossroads hotel – 57 cases
- Funeral gatherings cluster – 23 cases
- Potts Point cluster – 19 cases
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Secretary of social services department apologises for ‘any hurt or harm’ caused by robodebt
The secretary of the Department of Social Services, Kathryn Campbell, has apologised for any hurt or harm caused by the robodebt program.
Campbell, also a former secretary of the Department of Human Services, which created the program, echoed the apology made by Scott Morrison in parliament last month.
She told a Senate inquiry into the robodebt inquiry today:
The department and the agency also apologise for any hurt or harm.
Services Australia’s Michelle Lees says 145,000 people have been refunded so far through the robodebt refunds program. That’s worth $224m.
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Your daily gallery of Daniel Andrews giving a press conference is here. There are a lot of close-ups and an admirable use of hand sanitiser.
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In a bid to drive down the number of people who were still going to work while awaiting test results for Covid-19, Victoria has paid out 4,200 $300 payments for people in insecure work who were unable to take sick leave while awaiting test results.
The emergency payment is being managed by the Victorian jobs department, and has paid out over $1.26m already, with 5,200 applications.
Guardian Australia has spoken to people who have applied for the payment, and they have said it is relatively simple. In terms of proof, you can provide payslips, or sign a statutory declaration if you don’t have payslips, indicating you could not work your shift while waiting for test results.
One casual worker Guardian Australia spoke to said by the time they had received a response via text message that they’d receive a payment, they’d already had a negative test result, but had missed two shifts, so the payment would be useful for the next pay cycle.
Those who test positive are able to get a $1,500 payment if they have no access to sick leave. Andrews said there was not an insubstantial amount of people applying for, and getting this payment, but he did not have the data on Friday. He said the data would be released in the coming days.
Despite the payments available, Andrews said in almost one in four cases (130 out of 500) where the ADF has visited the home of someone who tested positive for coronavirus, that person wasn’t at home.
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Some breaking news from Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam.
A leading criminal barrister, Phillip Boulten SC, said there is “sufficient force in the evidence” about the cause of David Dungay Jr’s death in custody in 2015 to make a prosecution for manslaughter or assault of the guards involved “viable”.
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