World news – Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records 28 new Covid cases and eight deaths – latest news

Covid-19 restrictions ease in regional Victoria today as economists and international students call for expansion of jobkeeper. Follow all today’s news

The prime minister will be holding a press conference shortly – he is continuing the energy push.

In April 2020, travel restrictions led to a 95 per cent reduction in Australian airline passengers compared to the same time last year. The Sydney-Melbourne route, which was previously the second busiest flight corridor in the world, saw passenger numbers fall from 742,000 in April 2019 to 17,000 in April 2020, a fall of around 98 per cent.

“COVID-19 has created some of the most difficult market conditions in Australian aviation history and it’s critical that when the industry starts scaling up domestic flying, any potential damage to competition is identified quickly and acted on,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

“A lot has changed since the Treasurer directed us to take on this new role in June. Domestic airline travel was expected to be on its way to returning to more regular operations by now but infection spikes in some states and tighter border restrictions have delayed the recovery.”

“Australia’s domestic airline industry over the next few years may look quite different to the one that went into 2020,” Mr Sims said.

“Air travel is vital for the economy in a country as large and geographically dispersed as Australia. Competition must be safeguarded through this period so our domestic airline industry can meet the needs of consumers, and the economy more broadly.”

The streets of Beechworth are still empty, nine hours after the relaxation is restrictions in regional Victoria took effect. It has never been a struggle to get a park here on a weekday, but when I met the federal MP for Indi, Helen Haines, at 8.30am, our matching Mazdas – hers bright orange – were the only cars on the block.

“An easing of restrictions, while so welcome, is not going to be met my parties in the street.”

The historic town is three hours drive north of Melbourne. It lost January trade to the bushfires and had one busy weekend – the Opera in the Alps in March – before the pandemic hit and the state went into lockdown.

The experience of having restrictions eased in May only to go back under in July has left them burned. It is good news, but for how long?

This is Beechworth, nine hours after the easing of restrictions. It’s as quiet as it was yesterday. I grew up 10 minutes down the road and have never seen it so empty.If this is your patch, please DM me. Would love to see how you’re getting on. pic.twitter.com/hDwNo5uMDO

The Victorian Opposition is moving a no confidence motion against Daniel Andrews. It’s expected the motion will be tabled today, but it won’t actually get debated until the parliament’s next sitting, which will be next month.

This is a government that has proven itself to be incompetent, dishonest and with no vision or hope for Victorians,” AAP reported opposition leader Michael O’Brien as saying.

By moving a motion of no confidence, every member of the Legislative Assembly will have to make a decision – are they going to vote to protect Daniel Andrews’ job? Or are they going to vote to protect Victorians’ jobs?”

It has as much chance of getting up as the NSW Labor’s no confidence motion had in the NSW parliament. None.

(Michelle Loielo is also a member of the Liberal party and has previously stated her intention to run for pre-selection for the Liberal party at the next election)

It takes courage to stand up to an overbearing Labor Govt.Michelle Loielo is courageous.She + her pro bono legal team are challenging Labor’s punitive curfew in @SCVSupremeCourt.@LiberalVictoria support Michelle’s action because Victoria shouldn’t be locked down unlawfully. pic.twitter.com/hqOOdHQnpq

NZ GDP fell 12.2% in the June quarter, NZ Stats reports. Biggest quarterly fall on record. Annual growth at minus 2% (worst since 2010).

Senior Liberal Andrew Constance has just slammed Deputy Premier John Barilaro for refusing to rule out splitting the Coalition. Constance says he’s angry and relations in the coalition have never been worse. @2GB873

Click through to the blog embedded in the article when you have time. It is worth the read.

The OECD’s interim economic outlook for Australia is out – and shows a slower than expected recovery for the economy.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development now believes the Australian economy will grow by just 2.5% rather than 4.1% as it had originally predicted for 2021.

There is some good news – it thinks the economy will contract by 4.1%, not 5% for this year.

The yellow worm has dived by more than 10 per cent today, thanks to just 28 new cases and a particularly big day falling out of the 14 day window. pic.twitter.com/x0XOu4XqHu

The rolling 14 day average for metro Melbourne is now 44.4 (from 3 September to 16 September)

But there were still 83 cases of Covid with an unknown source between 1 September and 14 September in metro Melbourne. In regional Victoria, there was just one mystery case.

The number of new cases here made me gasp. I know it is about the seven- and 14-day averages but this, in terms of case numbers, is very good news.

#COVID19VicData: Yesterday there were 28 new cases reported and 8 lives lost. Our thoughts are with all affected. The 14 day rolling average is down from yesterday as we move toward COVID Normal.Info: https://t.co/pcll7yB2RZ #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/rB84oMGltl

Lyell Strambi, the chief executive of the Melbourne airport, was talking to ABC News Breakfast this morning about raising the arrival caps for Australians wanting to return home:

The constraint is these arrival quotas. And in Victoria’s case, that’s zero. But that is driven by hotel quarantine. But here in Victoria, you know, we did have those problems with hotel quarantine early on, but, you know, that’s been taken over by the Department of Corrections and it’s now working very well. And there is spare capacity. And I just think, you know, there’s a real danger here that we’re starting to lose our humanity on this issue. It seems to be Covid protection as a priority over everything else. And I don’t think that’s acceptable.

National cabinet is tomorrow but don’t expect any more progress on an agreement to what a Covid hotspot should be defined as.

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SOURCE: https://www.w24news.com