Australia coronavirus live: Victoria reports 11 new Covid cases, Biloela family daughter medically evacuated from Christmas Island
Biloela #Biloela
3.49am EDT 03:49
Approval has been given for the first phase of the $500m redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, reports AAP.
The National Capital Authority has given the nod for early works including the demolition of Anzac Hall.
The NCA had asked for further information on tree removal and replacement planting, noting that there were 595 trees in the precinct.
“A total of 455 trees are to be retained, while 140 trees are to be removed as part of the project,” the NCA’s chairman Terry Weber said in a statement on Monday.
The NCA will require that the AWM plant a minimum of an additional 250 native trees as a condition of approval for these works.
With this change noted, the NCA has concluded the proposal is not inconsistent with the National Capital Plan and the works have been approved.
The NCA, which has published a 1,200-page consultation report, received 601 submissions during its consultation process, of which three were in support.
Key concerns were the need for the expansion, tree removal, the impacts on heritage values and the cost.
The AWM argues the project will address constraints to the existing use of the building, improve the overall visitor and veterans’ experience and maintain its significance as a national cultural institution.
The current Anzac Hall is a bespoke building that is not extendable and is no longer fit for purpose to meet the memorial’s needs to tell the stories of recent conflicts.
New galleries created will provide the space needed to share the experiences of Australians who have served in conflict and operations in places including Somalia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Solomon Islands, East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.
Updated at 4.00am EDT
3.31am EDT 03:31
The Greens Immigration spokesperson Nick McKim has issued a statement after news the youngest daughter of the Biloela family has been airlifted to hospital.
This family’s treatment has been appalling and disgraceful.
They have been exiled to a remote island, and detained indefinitely, having built a life for themselves in Queensland.
Physical and mental health problems have always gone hand in hand with offshore detention – and yet their detention continues.
It is beyond unconscionable that they would be sent back to Christmas Island.
They must be resettled in our community urgently, before any more damage is done.
Updated at 4.00am EDT
3.27am EDT 03:27
NAB, casino operators may face Austrac action
National Australia Bank and three casino operators may need to pay hefty fines or overhaul their operations after a blitz by the financial crimes watchdog, reports AAP.
The bank, Crown Resorts, SkyCity and Star Entertainment on Monday revealed watchdog Austrac had serious concerns about their efforts to prevent money laundering and the financing of criminal groups.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) is a government agency tasked with making sure criminals cannot exploit the financial system.
Westpac recently fell foul of the watchdog after revelations its lax standards allowed child abuse groups and others to shift money overseas.
The bank paid a $1.3bn fine last year, and has other requirements to ensure its meeting legal obligations.
Austrac said fines were not being considered for NAB.
The two have been working to improve the bank’s controls since 2017.
However, Austrac could force the bank to make sweeping changes to its systems, as it did with Westpac.
NAB boss Ross McEwan said the bank was improving in this area and clearly had more work to do.
Crown Resorts’ woes continued after Austrac widened its investigation of the company to include its Perth casino. The watchdog has found the Perth venue has potentially serious problems in meeting anti-money laundering obligations.
Austrac is already investigating Crown Melbourne for the same reasons.
Updated at 3.31am EDT
3.24am EDT 03:24
Fiona Patten, an influential crossbencher and the leader of the Reason party in Victoria’s upper house, says the Victorian Liberal party’s latest attack on Daniel Andrews is “extraordinary”.
Asked if the issues raised today by the opposition were reasonable, Patten replied “no”.
“Sadly I saw her press release,” Patten said, referring to the shadow treasurer, Louise Staley, “which did send me down a rabbit hole of conspiracies.”
“I actually wish the bloke the best, he probably nearly lost his ability to walk,” Patten said of Andrews.
“I hope to see him back at work soon.”
Staley said today that Andrews had several questions to answer about how he injured his back earlier this year. She said he should not be receiving his premier’s salary and should instead be on an MP’s base pay.
Labor MPs have savaged Staley’s comments, saying the opposition was peddling conspiracies, with one accusing the Liberals of “vile and disgusting gutter politics”.
Updated at 3.28am EDT
3.04am EDT 03:04
Foxtel will save between $10m and $12m a year if legislation to halve its commitment to producing Australian drama becomes law, Foxtel has told a legislation committee.
The Morrison government’s broadcasting bill, which slashes Foxtel’s requirement to spend 10% of its drama budget on Australian content to 5%, has passed the house but is being reviewed by the senate.
Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany told senators the local drama quota cost the pay TV company $24m a year when it was at 10%.
Foxtel has welcomed the proposed reduction and said it won’t alter its commitment to Australian production which includes recent dramas Wentworth and The End.
The pay TV company told the senate it had invested $217m on lifestyle programming and $265m on drama programming in the last five years.
Delany said Foxtel earnings have halved in the same period of time as they’ve been swamped by international streaming services like Netflix, and yet they were subjected to laws that were decades old.
2.43am EDT 02:43
Melbourne-based Liberal MP Katie Allen wants the state government to provide more details on the targets for coming out of lockdown.
She tells the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:
I would like to know what the roadmap is. What we would be comfortable about opening up with. What is the yardstick? If they have in the back of their mind they are only going to open up certain places or not, we need to know. People are on the edge of their seats. The long weekend is coming up. We need to know what is going to happen.
Updated at 2.51am EDT
2.27am EDT 02:27
The ABC has confirmed the prime minister’s press secretary Andrew Carswell contacted ABC news director Gaven Morris at around 6pm on 1 June about the Four Corners story on QAnon.
“Mr Carswell asked if the Four Corners Program concerning QAnon was going to air,” the ABC said in a statement released after senate estimates.
“Mr Morris said it was and the PMO should answer the detailed questions that had been put to it. Mr Morris said the team had been in contact with the PMO on more than 20 occasions seeking answers to questions put in writing and it wasn’t tenable that the PMO did not respond to the questions. Mr Carswell said he would ensure answers were provided. That was the entire conversation.
“The PMO subsequently contacted Four Corners saying they would respond to the questions.
Knowing a response was expected to be included in the program, Mr Morris endorsed the program sent to the Managing Director for his approval.”
Anderson earlier told estimates that he reviewed the program and asked Four Corners for more details after the program was sent to him by Morris.
He said the PM’s adviser called about the program but no-one in the government had pressured the ABC to pull the program.
2.08am EDT 02:08
The vice president of the Australia Medical Association Dr Chris Moy has been asked on the ABC if the numbers in Victoria justify extending the lockdown.
He doesn’t answer directly, but here are his thoughts:
Look, the numbers are pretty much stable over the last few days and I think that is a positive thing. It is really a question of how many sort of contacts and how many sort of exposure sites they have got. I think that is just as important. Speaking to contact tracers, what they’re trying to work out is have they got to the edge of this, have they got it surrounded and have a reasonably good idea of where they are at with it? They probably have a much better idea about that first one that came from South Australia.
But this other one, [the Delta variant case] I think they are really starting from scratch at the moment and that is the worry because they really do not know where boundary of this is. Obviously not huge numbers but the fact that it’s came out of the blue is a real worry particularly because it looks like it is more of an infectious variant.
Updated at 2.13am EDT
2.03am EDT 02:03
Here’s the latest from the disability royal commission from, well, from me.
The commission is meeting in Adelaide this week, examining cases of abuse in disability care.
A South Australian family have told of their fear after receiving an anonymous letter warning their nephew would be “abused with cruelty, violence, regularly and repeatedly” and might be poisoned or drowned at his supported disability accommodation.
1.56am EDT 01:56
‘Biloela family’ daughter evacuated to Perth
The youngest daughter of a Tamil family being detained on Christmas Island while they fight deportation has been medically evacuated to Perth, according to change.org.
In a statement issued on Monday afternoon, Change said Tharnicaa of the ‘Biloela family’ was being medically evacuated to Perth after being hospitalised on Christmas Island with a suspected blood infection (septicaemia).
The statement said her mother, Priya, would accompany her to Perth but the other two members of the family would stay on Christmas Island.
It said the Queensland-born three-year-old had been unwell for 10 days. She was taken to hospital on Sunday.
The family was moved to Christmas Island in late 2019 after a court injunction prevented them being removed from Australia. That legal battle is continuing.
Guardian Australia has approached the Department of Home Affairs for comment.
A statement from Priya, distributed by Change, said:
I am feeling very scared and worried for my little girl. She has been sick for many days, it took a long time for her to get to the hospital. She is already asking for her papa, it is going to be very hard being away from her Dad and sister. It is very hard for our family to be separated when our daughter is sick.
The ‘Biloela family’ on Christmas Island. The youngest daughter, Tharnicaa, pictured here with her family on her first day of Kindergarten on Christmas Island in February, has been medically evacuated to Perth.
Updated at 2.10am EDT
1.35am EDT 01:35
Commodore Young adds that 7,777 people in disability residential setting have been vaccinated. There are about 22,000 across the country.
1.30am EDT 01:30
There are still four aged care homes yet to have a first-dose visit, Young confirms.
The remaining four are among the 2,565 aged care facilities across Australia.
He says 2,163 homes – or 84% – have had a first and second dose visit. Authorities expect to do another 290 homes this week.
In Victoria, all of the 596 homes have had a first dose visit, while 457 have had their second dose visit also.
Commodore Eric Young says 84% of Australia’s aged care homes have had a first and second dose vaccination visit. Photograph: Ferdi Limani/Getty Images
Updated at 1.37am EDT
1.25am EDT 01:25
Australia is now averaging 136,000 doses per weekday, Young says.
There has been an increasing uptake in the 50 to 69-year-old cohort.
Updated at 1.27am EDT
1.24am EDT 01:24
Young says the coming week will be “our biggest week”.
He says 1.1 million doses will be distributed to 2,500 locations across the country.
“This will include 71,370 doses of Pfizer and 41,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to state hubs and another 280,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to the primary care network across Victoria,” he says.
1.21am EDT 01:21
Commodore Eric Young says there were 832,000 doses of vaccine administered across the country, last week.
It took the total beyond 5 million.
Young says: “It took 47 days to get to our first one million doses of vaccine administered and just nine days to get to our most recent million.
He notes 327,538 doses of vaccine were administered in Victoria “through a combination of state and Commonwealth clinics”.
1.20am EDT 01:20
Kelly is also urging people to get vaccinated.
We had an expansion of the eligibility criteria on Friday, as a decision from national cabinet, so many more people are now eligible in Australia to get vaccinated.
He says you can check your eligibility at health.gov.au.
1.18am EDT 01:18
Chief medical officer confirms 16 new Covid cases in Australia
The chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, has stepped up.
He confirms there have been 16 new cases in Australia over the past 24 hours, with five of those overseas acquired in hotel quarantine. The other 11 are the new cases in Victoria.
Of those 11, nine of those are already in quarantine, they’re known contacts of cases so they’ve already, during their infectious period, being isolated from the community. So that doesn’t lead to any further risk. That’s a good thing.
Updated at 1.39am EDT
1.05am EDT 01:05
Rescuers are searching for a woman, 71, who failed to return from a bushwalk near Wangi Falls in the Northern Territory’s Litchfield National Park on Sunday.
A search is under way for a 71-year-old woman missing in the Northern Territory’s Litchfield National Park, reports AAP.
The woman failed to return on Sunday from a bushwalk near Wangi Falls, about 110km south of Darwin, NT police said.
Rescue specialists, police and park rangers started searching on Monday morning.
Superintendent Brendan Muldoon urged travellers in the area to keep an eye out for the woman.
“She is reportedly a fit and experienced hiker. However, the terrain is challenging out there and we have concerns for her safety,” he said.
The minimum overnight temperature in the park was 19C, with a maximum of 32C.
Much of the terrain near Wangi Falls is thick bush and hilly.
Updated at 1.17am EDT
12.57am EDT 00:57
Not everyone in the Victorian Liberals is on the same page on this it appears.
Opposition leader Michael O’Brien didn’t weigh in at a press conference today.