Coronavirus Australia update: jobkeeper changes kept under wraps as authorities claim Victoria outbreak ‘not a second wave’ – live news

The covid supplement, which doubled the unemployment benefit to $1100 a fortnight, is due to end in September. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who believed it would be feasible to return the payment to the old rate of $40 a day. But the government has not said what it plans to do with the payment when that September date rolls round.

Reports in News Corp papers on Sunday said the government was planning on a permanent increase of $75 a week above the old rate. But the minister in charge of social security payment, Anne Ruston said it was news to her:

What I can say about the story that was written today is there is no submission to the effect that has been reported in the paper,” Ruston said yesterday.

We are very focused on the temporary measures we need to put in place to make sure that we can get Australians through this pandemic to the other side.”

Back on that interview between Professor Brett Sutton and Dr Norman Swan, the Victorian chief medical officer said the spike in cases in that state wasn’t because Victorians weren’t, in the majority, following the social distancing rules, but because Australia pursued a suppression strategy, rather than an elimination one, when it came to the virus:

It wasn’t through the fact that people fatigued more in Victoria or gave up earlier, but we certainly weren’t quite there in terms of absolute elimination compared to other jurisdictions, and because of that, those changed behaviours means that there’s every chance that that ticks up again.

That’s not an issue if you’re in a state with no transmission at all. You can’t have 100,000 people in a stadium there, if there’s no virus there, it doesn’t matter how many people are interacting. That’s what happened in New Zealand.

It is still not the advice of Australia’s health authorities (or at least the ones who sit on the expert health panel advising the national cabinet) that everyone in Australia should wear a mask.

Victoria’s chief medical officer, professor Brett Sutton, had a chat to the ABC’s health expert, Dr Norman Swan, on RN this morning about that very topic:

When asked whether people should be wearing masks, Sutton said health authorities were looking at this.

I take the perspective that when you are really trying to drive numbers down to maintain your test and trace capability it needs to be considered. I have got a team working up some advice now and we will talk about masks in those type of settings for people to choose it and provide some guidance on the masks that work and how much protection you get.

I am certainly not of the view that people become complacent and behave differently and that it actually puts them more at risk. It is pretty clear that wearing a mask might provide more physical distance between you and others as they see you wearing it.

The Eden-Monaro byelection will be held this Saturday and you’ll be hearing a lot about it this week – and how it is standing in the way of learning about government policy.

The jobkeeper review is with the government, but you won’t learn what its plans for the wage subsidy are until after the byelection.

Same goes for jobseeker. There were reports in the weekend News Corp papers that the government was planning on raising the unemployment benefit by $75 above the old $40 a day rate, but that has since been denied by the government. You’ll find out, we are told, after the Eden-Monaro byelection.

Meanwhile, all eyes remain on Victoria, after another 49 positive cases were reported in the state yesterday. Daniel Andrews had warned the testing blitz would mean reports of higher numbers, but it is the levels of community transmission which has people worried.

Over the next three days, Keilor Downs and Broadmeadows remain the focus with Maidstone, Albanvale, Sunshine West, Hallam, Brunswick West, Fawkner, Reservoir and Pakenham, also considered priority testing suburbs.

But health authorities aren’t calling the Victorian situation a “second wave”. (Apparently there is no definition on a second wave).

Yesterday, deputy chief medical officer, Professor Michael Kidd, described it as an “outbreak”.

“This is not a second wave,” he said. “What we’re seeing in Victoria is exactly what was planned when we have outbreaks occurring across the country.”

We’ll have updates on the Covid-19 situation as they come, as well as politics and other related policy news. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.