The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan says the Andrews government's handling of the pandemic is one of the most catastrophic government failures in Australian history.
|The Australian’s Foreign Editor Greg Sheridan says the Andrews government's handling of the pandemic is one of the most catastrophic government failures in Australian history. It comes as the Victorian premier has once again come under fire for his assurances the state government was not offered Australian Defence Force support regarding hotel quarantine.
An email sent from the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister to Cabinet to the head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet entitled ‘Assistance Re Hotel Security’ was uncovered on Tuesday contradicting the premier’s previous statement on ADF support. “This is one of the most catastrophic government failures in Australian history since World War two, since federation,” Mr Sheridan told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “Daniel Andrews will not face the most elementary accountability.
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Andrews' $290 million stimulus package faces backlash over narrow eligibility | Sky News AustraliaThe Andrews government’s additional $290 million support package for Victorian business is facing backlash over its very specific eligibility criteria. \n\nThe package – unveiled on Monday by Premier Andrews – focused largely on boosting outdoor dining capabilities for restaurants, pubs and cafes, as well as establishing a sole trade support fund. \n\nThe fund would see cash grants from about $15,000 to $30,000 awarded to business owners of gyms, accommodation and food services, however, only those who were tenants or licensees on commercial premises would be eligible. \n\nUnder that threshold, only 30,000 of more than 400,000 sole traders would be eligible to receive a support grant. \n\nVictorian opposition leader Michael O’Brien called the criteria cruel as it excluded many struggling businesses. \n\nAustralian Hotels Association Victoria President David Canny told Sky News while it would help some small businesses, the industry remained “right on the edge”. \n\n “Our industry is right on the edge, mostly been closed since March, this is a little bit of a bandaid in many ways, it might get us through a couple of weeks but we need a genuine plan to accelerate out of this,” he said. \n\nImage: Getty
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COVID is ‘not the only health crisis’ Australia is facing: Peta Credlin | Sky News AustraliaSky News host Rita Panahi says the preoccupation with one virus will lead to “a cancer crisis” with people not receiving critical prevention treatments as experts have warned.\n\n“People aren’t getting those cancer screenings, they’re not presenting for blood tests, they’re not getting that early intervention … and people at the end of their lives are not getting the care they should be,” she said.\n\nSky News host Peta Credlin said of course coronavirus is important but “it’s not the only health crisis we’re facing as a country”.\n\n“It’s just got out of control. It’s absolute tunnel vision here in Victoria.”\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
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Illegal entrants to South Australia face fines, prosecution | Sky News AustraliaSouth Australia is lifting restrictions for travellers from the ACT from midnight on Tuesday.\n\nThe state closed its borders to all domestic travellers in March, requiring anyone who crossed the borders quarantine for a 14-day period.\n\nResidents from New South Wales and Victoria will still have to undergo quarantine upon entering the state.\n\nPolice have said they will be monitoring arrivals carefully to ensure people from New South Wales do not try and fly into South Australia via Canberra.\n\nAnyone found to have lied on declaration forms provided will face a $1,000 fine and possible prosecution.\n
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It’s clear Daniel Andrews will not be ‘taking the fall’ for hotel quarantine | Sky News AustraliaSky News host Paul Murray says it has now become abundantly clear who will be the fall person for Melbourne’s hotel quarantine debacle and “it’s not going to be Daniel Andrews”.\n\nMr Murray said despite Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ consistent claims that he will be held “ultimately responsible,” it’s now obvious the Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp will instead be held to account for the bungle.\n\nAll other states in the country used either police or the Australian Defence Force – or in some cases both – to guard their hotel quarantine facilities.\n\nHowever, Victoria opted to instead employ a private security company for the job, a move widely considered to be a major factor in the virus escaping the facilities causing the city’s second wave.\n\nIt has emerged from the COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry that Mr Crisp was the one who made the final decision regarding the use of a security firm.\n\n“So he (Daniel Andrews) could have overruled anyone who made any decision anywhere to make sure hotel quarantine worked, but because there was some very good money for some very well-connected security firms, well ‘we don’t want to get in the way’,” Mr Murray said.\n\n“The emergency management commissioner could never be overruled, but the chief medical officer could be overruled, the police commissioner could be overruled.”\n\nImage: Getty
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Victorians make legal challenges over Andrews government lockdown measures | Sky News AustraliaThe Andrews government has faced three court challenges over lost work as a result of the state's second wave measures.\n\nSmall business owner Michelle Loielo launched a Supreme Court writ claiming the controversial curfew was disproportionate, unreasonable and a violation of human rights.\n\nMs Loielo said lockdowns were responsible for a 99 per cent loss in her revenue.\n\nA separate class action was launched on behalf of retrenched workers who claimed their job losses were a direct result of Victoria's lockdown measures.\n\nThe lead plaintiff - a 21-year-old warehouse worker - claimed stage four restrictions were imposed as a direct result of hotel quarantine failures made by the Andrews government.\n\nThe court challenges join another class action launched last month.\n\nImage: News Corp Australia
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Premier Andrews ‘caught telling absolute porkies’ about hotel quarantine | Sky News AustraliaLiberal MP Tim Smith says “once again Daniel Andrews has been caught talking absolute porkies” in relation to Victoria’s failed hotel quarantine program.\n\nThe federal government submitted evidence to Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry on Tuesday contradicting Premier Daniel Andrews and Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp’s assertion the ADF never offered assistance for security in hotel quarantine in Victoria.\n\nMr Smith said “Andrews told a parliamentary inquiry just some weeks ago that he recalled no such offer”.\n\n“The man is a liar,” he said\n\nMr Smith said the “negligence of the Andrews government” had cost over 700 deaths, hundreds of thousands of jobs, livelihoods and businesses.\n\n“The Andrews Labor government couldn’t manage hotel quarantine and then the contact tracing was literally that of a third world country which ensured that we have had the longest lockdown in the world, even longer than Wuhan,” he said.\n\nImage: Getty
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