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Watch live: Victorian coronavirus update
By Broede Carmody
Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino, Health Minister Martin Foley and the state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton are speaking after four locally-acquired cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in Victoria.
Watch the live press conference below.
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Anthony Albanese tells Labor not to ‘adopt the rhetoric of the Coalition’
By Nick Bonyhady
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has delivered a testy interview on ABC radio as he tries to distance federal Labor from the state party’s poor showing in a NSW state byelection.
He dismissed comments from the Hunter Valley mining union boss that Labor was failing to rebuild its vote with blue collar workers and told the party’s supporters not to “adopt the rhetoric of the Coalition” without naming Joel Fitzgibbon, the outspoken federal Labor backbencher from the seat of Hunter.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese at Parliament House yesterday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Mr Fitzgibbon had spent Monday warning the party faced oblivion if it did not loudly proclaim its support of workers in the resources sector.
Mr Albanese brandished Labor’s industrial relations policy in response, which includes a pledge to give coal miners employed by labour hire firms the same pay as their colleagues directly employed by mine owners.
NSW Labor leader responds to calls to step down
By Sarah McPhee
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay says today is “absolutely not” her last day in the job.
On Monday night we reported that Ms McKay was being encouraged to stand down following the party’s Upper Hunter byelection loss over the weekend.
Nationals candidate Dave Layzell was victorious and Labor’s primary vote fell by seven per cent.
Senior NSW Labor figures said a deal had been struck that would see the party’s general secretary Bob Nanva ask Ms McKay to step aside.
Leaving her home on Tuesday morning, Ms McKay was asked by Nine News whether today was her last day as Opposition leader.
“Absolutely not,” the Strathfield MP said.
She was further asked whether she would be standing down.
“Don’t believe everything you read in the paper,” Ms McKay replied.
Testing site in Melbourne’s north reaches capacity after 20 minutes
By Broede Carmody
A COVID-19 testing site in Melbourne’s north has closed after reaching capacity, according to Today show reporter Christine Ahern.
She reports that the testing site at Northern Hospital Epping had to turn people away 20 minutes after opening. Waiting times at Melbourne’s Royal Showgrounds have also blown out to two hours.
Melburnians are flocking to testing sites across the city today after yesterday’s four positive cases.
Deputy PM suggests rap moves could boost vaccine confidence
By Nick Bonyhady
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has responded to viral vaccination ad campaigns overseas with his own attempt at a rap dance.
“Can you rap?” Mr McCormack was asked on the Today show.
“Not very well,” the deputy PM said after bobbing his shoulders up and down.
“Maybe ScoMo or someone could do a bit of a rap better than I’ve just done,” he added.
Other countries including the United Kingdom have rolled out some of their biggest and best loved names, such as Elton John and Michael Caine, to encourage people to get vaccinated.
Australia has not. Research published in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age showed lingering doubts about getting vaccinated, especially among older people.
Chief medical officer Paul Kelly has backed the idea of incentives to encourage vaccination.
‘Handful’ of Aussies decline pre-Olympics vaccination
By Sarah McPhee
Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll says a “handful” of the 1700 Australians, including athletes and officials, bound for the Tokyo Olympic Games have declined to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Earlier this week, we revealed three members of Australia’s Olympic skateboarding team had tested positive after travelling to the US for a qualifying event.
Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll has said team vaccinations need to begin in May to ensure it was done in time for the Olympics.Credit:Sam Mooy
Mr Carroll told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Tuesday morning some of the athletes were out of the Games “because now they’ll find it difficult to quality”.
“There are a number of other skateboarder athletes who have qualified,” he said. “It’s not that they tested positive to the coronavirus, it’s just that it’s prevented them to complete their final qualifications.
“Many athletes around the world have had the coronavirus and recovered and are going to the Games.”
Mr Carroll told Nine’s Today show on Tuesday they had run vaccination hubs in Australian capital cities two weeks ago for a cohort of 1700 people attending the Olympics or Paralympics in Japan from late July to September.
“There are a small number, and I do mean a handful, [who] have declined,” he told 2GB. “We are working with their sports. Sometimes it’s medical reasons, which is fair. Others, there’s an objection to it, which we respect.
“We do strongly recommend, highly recommend, that not only just the athletes but the officials are all vaccinated.”
Mr Carroll said he had made COVID-19 vaccination compulsory for Australian Olympic Committee staff and other contractors. He said close to 90 per cent of all athletes and officials at the Games will be vaccinated.
Athletes will be confined to the village and competition venues and are not allowed on public transport or the streets, while families, friends, tourists and sponsorship staff are all barred.
“The load on the Japanese public from the Olympic Games is not like previous Olympic Games,” Mr Carroll said.
Four local cases of coronavirus in Melbourne
By Broede Carmody
Melbourne’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.
Victoria’s health department says there are four local cases in the community. It appears these are the same four cases revealed yesterday, which would mean no additional cases were detected last night.
However, Victorians have been told to brace for more positive cases today and later in the week.
Meanwhile, more than 8000 vaccine doses were administered across Victoria on Monday. Just under 15,000 test results were received.
Italy’s Eurovision winner returns negative drug test
By Broede Carmody
The lead singer of the Italian rock band Maneskin, Damiano David, has returned a negative drug test, according to the organisers of Eurovision.
It comes after days of speculation that the winner of this year’s European song contest had been caught snorting drugs when a camera cut to him leaning over a table during the live broadcast. However, the singer has dismissed the rumours – fuelled by social media – and says he was leaning over the table because his guitarist had just broken a glass.
Damiano David performs with Maneskin at Eurovision.Credit:EBU
The European Broadcasting Union says it has reviewed all the available footage from the evening in question, as well as the negative drug test, and now considers the matter closed.
Read the full story here.
Concerns Melbourne’s COVID-19 outbreak has spread
By David Estcourt
The Victorian boss of the Australian Medical Association says authorities’ current concerns are that the string of COVID-19 cases in Melbourne’s northern suburbs have spread to as-yet undiscovered locations throughout the city.
“The worry is of course that it spread elsewhere in Melbourne,” Julian Rait told the Today show. “There’s a risk there might be multiple cases of course at this stage. That’s what the government I am sure is concerned about.”
Australian Medical Association Victoria president Julian Rait.Credit:Justin McManus
Dr Rait said the recent outbreak reiterated the need for ongoing investment in public health services, which, despite the government’s efforts to scale up in the last 12 months, required years of investment.
“I think that it just emphasises again that there needs to be long- term investment in public health,” he said.
“You can’t just reinvent a first class contact tracing system overnight. Although they’ve tried to obviously upscale it over the past 12 months. This requires years of investment and building expertise and a number of different personnel so they actually can have very sound public health knowledge.”
Dr Rait was followed by Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, who said authorities needed to move quickly to identify anyone affected but urged against another lockdown in Victoria.
“What we don’t want to see is state premiers pressing any panic buttons and closing down their entire states because we need open borders,” Mr McCormack said.
“We need people to be able to move freely throughout our country. We need the economy to of course make sure it can tickle on nicely as it has been thanks to measures we put in place.”
Detained Belarusian blogger appears in state video; allies claim duress
By Broede Carmody
Yesterday we brought you news of how the Belarusian government scrambled a warplane so it could force a passenger jet to land and arrest a dissident journalist.
Various nations, including the US, have condemned the arrest and several airlines say they are now avoiding the airspace over Belarus.
Belarusian security checks luggage on the grounded Ryanair flight in Minsk on Sunday.Credit:AP
The blogger in question, Roman Protasevich, has now appeared in a state-sanctioned video saying he is in good health and acknowledges having played a role in organising anti-government protests in Minsk last year.
Protasevich’s supporters say the video was made under “physical and moral pressure”. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has faced mounting pressure in recent months due to mass protests over last year’s election result, which raised concerns from international observers. Lukashenko has been in power for almost 27 years and 35,000 people have been detained since August.
Read our latest coverage here.
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2021-05-24 23:21:26Z
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