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Victoria announces Melbourne to return to lockdown – as it happened

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Key events

Summary of today's events

That’s where I’ll leave you for tonight. Thanks for reading on what is a difficult night for everyone in Melbourne.

Here’s what we learned today:

  • The greater Melbourne area will return to stage 3 lockdown from midnight tomorrow for six weeks after Victoria recorded 191 new cases of Covid-19, the largest number of positive cases since the pandemic began. Announcing the resumed lockdown, premier Daniel Andrews said he knew “there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done because of this”.
  • Under the lockdown residents cannot leave their home unless it is for care or medical reasons, shopping for essentials, work or study that cannot be done at home, and exercise.
  • As previously during the lockdowns, retail stores can remain open subject to social distancing but cars and cafes will go back to takeaway only.
  • Schools will return as normal for years 11, 12 and VCE, as well as for students in special schools. All other students will have an extra week of holidays as more data comes in, but Victorian education minister James Merlino has flagged that those students may resume remote learning late in July.
  • The border between New South Wales and Victoria will close at midnight for the first time in a century. NSW police minister Mick Fuller said the 55 border crossings between the two states would be patrolled by 650 police officers.
  • South Australia also announced it would toughen its already closed border with Victoria. As of midnight tomorrow night, only SA residents travelling from Victoria will be allowed to quarantine in the state for 14 days.
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Victorian education minister flags possible return to remote learning for some Melbourne students

Perhaps unsurprisingly the Victorian education minister, James Merlino, has flagged a possible return to remote learning for students in Melbourne.

While premier Daniel Andrews said today that school holidays will be extended for another week for students from prep (or kindergarten, for New South Wales readers) to year 10, Merlino says staff and teachers will use the week “to prepare for a possible return to remote learning” from 20 July.

School holidays will be extended for a further week for other students who attend these schools. School staff will use this week to prepare for a possible return to remote learning for prep-year 10 from July 20.

— James Merlino (@JamesMerlinoMP) July 7, 2020

Federal education minister Dan Tehan has announced childcare gap fees can be waived for Victorians in lockdown areas.

In a statement Tehan said the government “will allow all services located in areas subject to stage 3 Covid-19 restrictions to waive parent gap fees if children are not attending child care for Covid-related reasons from Monday 13 July”. The government will also ease the activity test until 4 October for families whose employment is affected.

From Tehan’s statement:

This means that if a child is absent from care for Covid-related reasons, the child care service can waive their gap fee which means more money in the family’s pocket. It also provides certainty to families that they will retain their enrolment at the child care service.

Waiving the parents’ gap fees will also ensure child care services maintain their enrolments and continue to be paid the CCS, even if a child is absent for a Covid-related reason.

Our government wants to ensure that child care services remain open for workers and vulnerable families who need those services.

From Monday, services can access the $708m Transition Payment to support the return to the CCS.

The government will also ease the activity test until 4 October to support eligible families whose employment has been impacted as a result of Covid-19. These families will receive up to 100 hours per fortnight of subsidised care during this period. This will assist families to return to the level of work, study or training they were undertaking before Covid-19.

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“Before Monday night, food delivery had been patchy and disorganised. Residents say their main support has come from volunteer and community groups, including the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency, based in North Melbourne, and Sikh Volunteers Australia.”

Margaret Simons and Matilda Boseley on the situation on the ground for residents of the Flemington public housing estate placed under hard lockdown by the Andrews government.

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Daniel Hurst
Daniel Hurst

Australia risks a spike in poverty and homelessness if Covid-19 support measures such as the freeze on rental evictions expire in September, an inquiry has been told.

The federal parliament’s standing committee on social policy and legal affairs is conducting an inquiry into homelessness in Australia.

Jacqueline Phillips, the director of policy and deputy chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Services, called on the inquiry to focus on structural drivers of homelessness, particularly the lack of affordable housing, insufficient income supports and the impact of the jobseeker compliance measures.

Speaking at an inquiry hearing this afternoon, Phillips said federal, state and territory governments had shown in recent months an ability to respond quickly to the Covid-19 crisis. She said she understood that about 7000 rough sleepers had been housed temporarily in hotels - although there had been gaps and inconsistencies in the response, such as the exclusion of temporary visa holders from income support.

Phillips said the timing of the homelessness inquiry was “really critical” because of the scheduled expiry in September of several measures that were playing an “important role in preventing homelessness”. She said these included the temporary boost to the jobseeker payment, the moratorium on rental evictions, and the jobkeeper wage subsidy.

She said those factors “risk a spike in poverty and homelessness unless actions and decisions are made now to continue those measures in some form”.

“So the committee has an opportunity at this time to rethink our national response to homelessness in the context of economic recovery. We’ve got a very strong, compelling imperative for action on health grounds and also on economic grounds. And we urge the committee and the government to think boldly and to think systemically.”

She argued that the history of reforms in this area were that proposals were partially implemented and incomplete or under-resourced and often limited to the funding of pilot projects.

Two Victorian paramedics have tested positive for coronavirus today, Ambulance Victoria has said.

They are the third and fourth paramedics to test positive since the pandemic began in late January and are both in isolation with contact tracing underway.

Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker said the paramedics had been wearing personal protective equipment.

We take every precaution to minimise the rate of infection amongst our frontline workforce and we remind the community of their vital role in stopping the spread of Covid-19.

This means staying at home, getting tested if you’re unwell, washing your hands, and if you must go out, keeping a safe 1.5 metre distance from others.

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