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Watch live: Victoria’s COVID-19 update
By Broede Carmody
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton are due to provide a coronavirus update from 11am AEDT.
Watch live below.
Dan Andrews says focus is on pandemic not branch stacking
By Paul Sakkal
Premier Dan Andrews says his government’s focus remains on managing the state’s reopening as a corruption inquiry into Labor branch stacking enters its second day.
The Premier reiterated he had never engaged in branch stacking when he was a party official before entering Parliament, and refused to guarantee ministers adversely named in the branch stacking inquiry would quit cabinet.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Credit:Chris Hopkins
Mr Andrews declined to comment on evidence presented to the Independent Broad‑based Anti‑corruption Commission hearings, which began on Monday and led to the resignation of former disability minister Luke Donnellan who was alleged to have improperly paid for memberships.
“I didn’t expect, when I woke up yesterday morning, that he’d been calling me at lunchtime to tender his resignation. Obviously, I accepted that,” the Premier said.
When asked whether he had ever paid for the memberships of others, Mr Andrews added: “No is the answer to your question, I follow the party’s rules and I behave appropriately.”
Speaking outside state parliament, Mr Andrews said his team was focused on nothing other than Victorians’ “freedom, their health [and] their safety”.
Shadow Attorney-General Tim Smith said any ministers accused of wrongdoing in the course of the five weeks of hearings, prompted by reports in this masthead about widespread branch stacking, should stand aside.
Branch stacking refers to the practice of politicians, candidates, and factional operatives shoring up their internal party influence by paying for the membership fees of members, who then vote along factional lines to support preferred candidates in preselection. Branch stacking itself is not illegal, but it is against Labor Party rules.
“This Labor government is rotten to its very core,” Mr Smith said.
“This is what happens when you take people for granted, you take the trappings of office for granted. You start to rot from the head. At the end of the day, the buck stops with the Premier and his government looks increasingly corrupt.”
UK police say they won’t take action against Prince Andrew
By Broede Carmody
British police have announced they won’t be taking any action against Prince Andrew following a review into claims he sexually assaulted an American woman when she was 17.
Virginia Giuffre, who has family ties to Australia, claims she was trafficked by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein when she was a minor under US law. She has also initiated legal proceedings against Prince Andrew in an American court.
British police say they will not take any action against Prince Andrew, pictured.Credit:AP
The Queen’s second eldest son has long denied the allegations.
Victorian government to recruit 1000 overseas healthcare workers
By Cassandra Morgan
The Victorian government will recruit up to 1000 overseas healthcare workers to ease pressure on the state’s hospital system, authorities have announced.
The recruits will include nurses, midwives, doctors and other allied health professionals. The government will pay $2.5 million to help fund the workers’ relocation and give them dedicated support to relocate as soon as possible.
“This group were largely be made up of returning Australians who have wanted to come back to our healthcare workforce,” Health Minister Martin Foley said during Tuesday’s coronavirus update.
“To be eligible for this program, eligible healthcare workers need to have an existing employment contract with a Victorian healthcare service and have the active professional registration in place and to be ready to travel.”
The Victorian government will also introduce an allowance to support public-facing healthcare workers in the state’s public hospitals and Ambulance Victoria.
From this week until February 10 next year, eligible workers will receive up to $60 per shift.
Mr Foley said the allowance package amounted to $255 million.
“Really, this unprecedented investment directly into those frontline carers and workforce healthcare professionals is in response to the unprecedented times we are in … [and] the challenges that they are dealing with on our behalf require this unprecedented response.”
Five men, three women die with COVID-19 in Victoria
By Cassandra Morgan
As we reported earlier, another eight people have died with COVID-19 in Victoria.
They are: a man in his 90s from Hume, a man in his 80s from the Moonee Valley, a man in 80s from Monash, a woman in her 70s from Maribyrnong, a woman in her 80s from Whittlesea, a man in his 70s and woman in her 50s from Moreland, and a man in his 40s from Bayside.
Health Minister Martin Foley said 675 people are in hospital with COVID-19 in Victoria.
Of those, 144 are in intensive care and 100 are on a ventilator.
Of the COVID-19 cases in hospital as of Monday, just 7 per cent are fully vaccinated.
“And given the high number of vaccinations throughout our community, the fact that so many were either partially [vaccinated] or unvaccinated continues to speak volumes about the importance of being vaccinated to protect yourself and to protect your community and to keep out of hospital,” Mr Foley said at this morning’s coronavirus update.
He added that Victoria has reached 86.7 per cent of the population over 16 having received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The state will pass 60 per cent double-dosed later today, he said.
Two additional deaths at north-west Sydney aged care home
By Mary Ward
As reported earlier this morning, there were five deaths from COVID-19 reported by NSW Health this morning.
Two of the deaths were residents at the Hawkesbury Living Aged Care Facility in Richmond: a man and a woman in their 80s. Both were fully vaccinated but had underlying health conditions.
There are now seven deaths linked to the facility, where 40 residents and 13 staff have tested positive.
The other deaths were another man from the Nepean-Blue Mountains area, a man from western Sydney and a man from the city’s south east, all of whom were not vaccinated. They were aged in their 40s, 50s and 80s.
There are currently 766 COVID-19 cases in hospital across NSW, including 155 in intensive care.
Australia nears 70 per cent fully vaccinated target
By Rachel Clun
Australia is 1.3 million doses away from having 70 per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and over fully vaccinated.
Health Minister Greg Hunt says that, to date, 82.8 per cent of that age group has had one dose and 63.4 per cent are fully vaccinated.
“That’s just over 1.3 million second doses to get to the 70 per cent mark,” he said. “So Australians are stepping forward in extraordinary numbers on a continuing basis.”
They’ve only been eligible for four weeks, but more than 50 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds around the country have also stepped forward for a first dose.
“Our 12- to 15-year-olds are now at an extraordinary 53.4 per cent, and that’s in four weeks they’ve achieved that,” Mr Hunt said.
“In terms of vaccine supply, every state and territory has enough to meet all the demand for this week, next week, the week after, the week after that. So, what we’re seeing is huge volumes of supply, capable of meeting all of the demand.”
Qld vaccination clinics coming to Bunnings as state records zero local cases
By Felicity Caldwell
Queensland has recorded its seventh day in a row with no local cases of coronavirus, as the state is set to roll out vaccine clinics at hardware stores.
There were four cases recorded in hotel quarantine, including three from a ship off the coast of Queensland.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said from Saturday, vaccine clinics would come to Bunnings.
“More than two dozen sites have been identified across the state, so families can get their Bunnings sausage and a dose of the vaccine,” she said.
In Queensland, 70.21 per cent of people aged over 16 have received their first dose, while 52.7 per cent have received their second dose.
Second day of Victoria’s anti-corruption hearings underway
By Sumeyya Ilanbey
Lawyers for fallen Victorian Labor power broker Adem Somyurek will cross-examine federal Labor MP Anthony Byrne on the second day of public anti-corruption commission hearings investigating the misuse of taxpayer-funded staff and grants.
Mr Byrne gave evidence yesterday, the first day of the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission hearings, admitting his own branch-stacking and claiming former Victorian disability minister Luke Donnellan paid for the membership fees of other people. Mr Donnellan resigned from the ministry hours later.
IBAC is investigating allegations of what counsel assisting the commission, Chris Carr SC, on Monday described as “premeditated systemic rorting of taxpayer resources”.
Watch live below.
More than 90 per cent of residents in western Sydney vaccinated
By Laura Chung
More than 90 per cent of residents in Sydney’s west have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine as the city starts winding back restrictions.
In the Blacktown local government area, 95 per cent of residents 15 years and older have received their first jab, while 91.5 per cent of residents from the Cumberland LGA have rolled up their sleeves.
In the Parramatta LGA, 92.8 per cent of residents have received their first dose.
The Hills LGA leads with 95 per cent of its residents jabbed.
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2021-10-12 00:42:51Z
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