Stuart Robert said in parliament last month that debt recovery work would re-start. Looks like the government is preparing for that to begin soon. Yesterday, Labor’s Kristina Keneally and Anthony Albanese said the party supported any move to offer safe haven to people in Hong Kong, following the passing of the latest Chinese security laws. Speaking in Eden-Monaro today, Albanese said that Labor maintained that position (and urged the Australian government to take a look at freedom of the press here as well) Labor has been expressing concern about the events in Hong Kong and Australia has responsibilities in the region. What we know is that the legislation that has been imposed is a breach of the handover agreement between Great Britain and the People’s Republic of China are regard to Hong Kong. It was supposed to be one country, two systems. The second system was democracy with freedom of the press, with freedom of association and those principles are important. Might I say for the ABC, freedom of the press is pretty important here too and I’d say that the Attorney-General has called in - he has to sign-off on any prosecution of journalists, the prosecution potentially of an ABC journalist for doing their job, for telling Australians what is in the public interest, is an outrage. Freedom of the press isn’t something that can be a matter of convenience. The timeline that the John Hopkins Centre for Health Security have put together here is terrifying. From 27 cases of an unidentified pneumonia in late December, to more than 10m cases around the world and 500,000 deaths. (reported) The Victorian update is due in about an hour, but Victoria police have confirmed an officer at the Werribee police station had tested positive, closing the station for cleaning (it closed on Wednesday, and re-opened on Thursday) The officer had been on prearranged leave when they began to feel unwell – they hadn’t been at work since 21 June, but six colleagues have gone into isolation as a precaution. Werribee is in Melbourne’s south-west. The hotspot areas have been in northern Melbourne. I am watching today’s Senate committee hearing into proposed migration laws which would allow Peter Dutton to ban mobile phones in immigration detention. This morning, several witnesses have raised concerns about the ability – or willingness – of authorities to provide sufficient means of communication for detainees, if mobiles were taken away. The Law Council’s Pauline Wright said she had “grave concerns” about the “quality, reliability and availability” of other forms of communications. The Liberal chair of the committee, Amanda Stoker, had put it to her that other forms that would be available would include access to landline, internet, fax, post and visits. Tessa Maybery and David Manne, of Refugee Legal, said the proposed laws could be the difference between some people being granted refugee status or being deported. Maybery said it was the organisation’s “direct experience” that some detainees without mobiles had been deported previously without being able to seek asylum. “History matters here,” said Manne. “There’s a long history of people who have been denied basic access to telecommunications facilities.” Labor’s Kim Carr said even if phones could well be “misused”, they could also be used to “enhance accountability”, such as in cases where asylum seekers and refugees have been the victims of violence within immigration detention. The government introduced a similar bill in 2017, but it was never passed and the legislation lapsed after the 2019 election. The Coalition argues phones pose an “unacceptable risk” because they have been used to organise criminal activity such as drug smuggling and escape attempts. Serco will appear later this morning, while the Department of Home Affairs will front the committee this afternoon. Anthony Albanese had a chat to the Nine Network this morning. It covered the usual issues and then ended with this: Q: You’ve had plenty to say on the attack about Scott Morrison throughout the course of this pandemic, either in parliament, outside or even prior to the pandemic. What do you like about him? Albanese: He is someone who I think is a family man. I think that him and Jenny have a good relationship. She’s a nice woman. When parliament was resumed, her and my son, Nathan, were chatting away and had a good discussion. And he has different values to me. But I respect anyone who wants to make a contribution of public life. You give up a lot to do that. He’s given up a lot in terms of his entry into public life. And I think that is deserving of respect. In case you missed it, this also happened late yesterday It is frankly outrageous, given what the stories uncovered, it is the journalist who is potentially facing charges. Helen Sullivan has the international Covid-19 situation covered From that ACT release: A new Public Health Direction has been issued this morning to complement the Victorian government’s “stay at home” orders in identified Covid-19 hotspots. Anyone identified as having been in a Covid-19 hotspot in Victoria will be required to quarantine in the ACT for 14 days at their own expense or return to their home jurisdiction at the earliest reasonable opportunity. Passengers on inbound flights from Melbourne flights will now be asked to provide identification when they arrive at Canberra Airport to support this new direction. Penalties and fines may apply to people who fail to comply with the Direction. Anyone already in the ACT who has been in a Covid-19 hotspot is strongly encouraged to quarantine for 14 days from the date they left the hotspot, even if they do not have any symptoms. In addition, anyone coming into the ACT from the greater Melbourne metropolitan area is asked to closely monitor themselves for symptoms of Covid-19. It is important to get tested for even the mildest of symptoms. The ACT is following in the footsteps of other jurisdictions and making anyone who has travelled to a Victorian lockdown area quarantine, at their own expense, if they come to the ACT This is a very good point (and if you are not following IndigenousX on Twitter, you should be). Daniel Andrews will be giving the Victorian update at 11am. There is a very important meeting today between the nation’s Indigenous ministers, addressing the Closing the Gap targets. Ken Wyatt spoke about it on ABC radio this morning: When you constantly fail you develop a sense of futility. I’ve heard people in our community and in my own family who say, “Well, we are never going to live to the same length of time as a non-Indigenous Australian so I may as well enjoy myself” and harmful behaviours are part of that. When we say, “No, if you change those practices” – let me say, Tom Calma with the smoking campaign has had an incredible impact in convincing the number of Indigenous people to reduce their smoking, alcohol, only 19% of our people imbibe in alcohol. But is problem is public so there is this broad perception. There are things that are making a difference and we are living longer. I am seeing 87-year-old Indigenous family members which I have never seen before. The latest polling has Labor ahead in Eden-Monaro. But just a reminder, this is one byelection that will not not change the course of government – if the Coalition wins, they have one more seat in parliament. If Labor wins, it is status quo. It’s a marginal seat and one, that until 2016, went with the government of the day. Any giant proclamations of what it means beyond the election result of Eden-Monaro is pushing it. But that’s just my humble take. In terms of Covid-19 media releases, this is among the weirdest I have received: A comprehensive testing program has found no traces of SARS-CoV-2 in Canberra’s sewage system. The testing program, carried out by experts from The Australian National University (ANU), examined Canberra’s sewage water for traces of the coronavirus which causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2. Testing sewage is a rapid and inexpensive way of tracking the coronavirus and potential community transmission. ANU environmental epidemiologist and project lead, Dr Aparna Lal, said the testing of daily samples throughout May found no SARS-CoV-2 in sewage from Canberra. “We tested 25 samples in May from Icon Water’s sewage treatment plant, covering the whole of ACT population, and found no traces of SARS-CoV-2 RNA,” she said. “This coincides with the period that the ACT was declared free of any new coronavirus cases.