Health News at Your Fingertips

A school in Melbourne’s north has shut its doors, after confirming in a letter to parents that a student had tested positive.

Mercy College at Coburg sent out the letter, announcing the school was shut earlier this afternoon.

Although the student was absent for most of last week, following advice from the Department of Health and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS), Mercy College Coburg has enacted a preliminary closure from this afternoon, as requested.

This closure will allow time for the school and the DH to work through any contact tracing that may be required.

Precautionary cleaning will also be undertaken.

Earlier today, Covid-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar also flagged that the Willmott Park Primary School in Craigieburn was associated with “possible” cases.

Sticking with the ABC for a bit, Professor Mary Louise McLaws, an epidemiologist, infection control expert and world health organisation advisor has just said she does not anticipate that Victoria will be coming out of lockdown on Friday:

We have a very high, very rapid increase over a short period of time.

I know this lockdown costs a billion a week and that would make the authorities very anxious about extending it but outbreak management usually says, forget about the modelling, but it usually says, if you give it twice an average incubation period, you will have time to flush out a lot of cases.

This is not a small cluster. You would expect to have that if you were going to do it properly, 28 days, sorry, but it has to go certainly for 14 days.

And we begin with Michele O’Neil, the national president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, who was on the ABC earlier, discussing the federal government’s reluctance so far to stump up any support for Victorians.

O’Neil addressed the acting PM, calling on the federal government to offer more support.

What I would say to Michael McCormack is he’s not talking to people who have no work and no income and cannot put food on the table and pay the rent this week because they are faced with a lockdown through no fault of their own.

They are trying to do the right thing, and they have been left without support. We are calling on the government to introduce jobkeeper two. The Victorian government support to business is welcome but it is not the same as a wage supplement.

We should be doing everything possible to make sure we support Victorians and of those businesses and workers affected in other states by this lockdown.

Good afternoon everyone, and a quick thanks to the always amazing Amy Remeikis for guiding us through what has been a hectic day so far. I will be taking you through the evening’s headlines, so without further ado, let’s jump in.

I am now going to hand you over to the wonderful Mostafa Rachwani to take you through the evening.

A reminder that social media counts as publishing – if you hit tweet or post, you are a publisher too and subject to the same defamation laws as a media company. Just something to keep in mind given today’s news.

Tomorrow, parliament and estimates will be back – and I’ll be there too. Thank you so much to everyone who joined us so far today. Victoria, we are keeping it all crossed for you.

Try and have a lovely night – and take care of you.

Christian Porter has denied all the allegations against him.

Mark Dreyfus has also responded:

As Labor said from day one, Mr Porter’s defamation action was never a substitute for a proper independent examination of Mr Porter’s fitness to serve as minister in Mr Morrison’s cabinet.

Mr Morrison can no longer hide behind this defamation action and must now explain what action he will take to satisfy Australians that Mr Porter is a fit and proper person to serve as a cabinet minister.

The ABC has added to its official statement:

The only costs that the ABC will be paying are the mediation costs.

Here is its statement:

Christian Porter has decided to discontinue his defamation action against the ABC and Louise Milligan.

All parties have agreed to not pursue the matter any further. No damages will be paid.

The only costs that the ABC will be paying are the mediation costs.

The ABC stands by the importance of the article, which reported on matters of significant public interest, and the article remains online. It has been updated with this Editor’s Note:

On 26 February 2021, the ABC published an article by Louise Milligan. That article was about a letter to the Prime Minister containing allegations against a senior cabinet minister. Although he was not named, the article was about the Attorney-General Christian Porter.

The ABC did not intend to suggest that Mr Porter had committed the criminal offences alleged. The ABC did not contend that the serious accusations could be substantiated to the applicable legal standard – criminal or civil. However, both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted.

The ABC stands by our investigative and public interest journalism, which is always pursued in the interests of the Australian community.

The ABC stands by Louise Milligan, one of Australia’s foremost and most awarded investigative journalists, and all our journalists in their independent and brave reporting on matters about which Australians have a right to be informed.

The ABC and Louise Milligan have responded to Christian Porter’s press conference:

Christian Porter ends his press conference with:

I was willing in this trial had it proceeded, which is what the ABC said they wanted to happen, but is not actually what they wanted, I would have said under oath exactly what I said in the press conference and what I am saying now that these allegations simply didn’t happen.