Health News at Your Fingertips

Here are the latest coronavirus case numbers from around Australia on Tuesday, as the country records at least 41 deaths from Covid-19:

ACT

• Deaths: 1
• Cases: 1,027
• In hospital: 64 (with 4 people in ICU)

NSW

• Deaths: 23
• Cases: 9,656
• In hospital: 1,513 (with 71 people in ICU)

Queensland

• Deaths: 0
• Cases: 5,207
• In hospital: 466 (with 15 people in ICU)

South Australia

• Deaths: 3
• Cases: 3,215
• In hospital: 228 (with 17 people in ICU)

Tasmania

• Deaths: 1
• Cases: 1,096
• In hospital: 49 (with 2 people in ICU)

Victoria

• Deaths: 12
• Cases: 10,184
• In hospital: 482 (with 25 people in ICU)

Western Australia

• Deaths: 1 (historical)
• Cases: 7,929
• In hospital: 249 (with 8 people in ICU)

AAP is covering the court case a former Manus Island security guard has brought against the Commonwealth and security firm G4S:

Commonwealth government failures led to a deadly riot at the Manus Island detention centre, a lawyer has told the Victorian Supreme Court.

Iranian asylum seeker Reza Berati died and 77 others were injured in the three days of riots from February 16 to 18, 2014.

Former Manus Island security guard Chandra Osborne has brought Supreme Court action against the federal government and security firm G4S, alleging they were warned about increasing violence but still put her at risk.

Ms Osborne is seeking compensation for loss of earnings after she allegedly suffered serious psychiatric injuries as a result of the riots and unsafe working environment.

Counsel representing G4S Australia, Jack Rush QC, said there was no causal link between Ms Osborne’s injuries and the actions of the security firm.

In his opening remarks on Tuesday, Mr Rush told the Supreme Court G4S was acting as agents of the Commonwealth and therefore should be entitled to indemnity.

Mr Rush said G4S had no control over the Manus Island infrastructure and held no powers to arrest or search detainees.

He said in the weeks leading up to the riot, G4S managers contacted the Commonwealth about rising tensions and the need for fences to be improved.

Emails shown to the court on Tuesday outlined G4S’ requests for an additional 100 security guards at the site, warning there was increasing intelligence detainees would try to push down fences.

The emails noted detainees understood they would not be brought to Australia, but they wanted more clarity around resettlement.

Mr Rush said the Commonwealth did not communicate with the detainees, which led to the increased tensions.

“It was a complete failure of the Commonwealth to identify what was going on in the centre,” Mr Rush told the court.

The Commonwealth will give its opening remarks on Tuesday afternoon.

The Greens have also launched a new arts policy today, with a pledge for artists to receive a minimum $250 gig fees at publicly funded events.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

It’s time the federal government stepped in and our arts and culture policy at this election is streets ahead of any other political party running in this election.

The Creative Australia package includes support for artists, producers and crews in events, major festivals, live performances, including today’s announcement of a minimum $250 fee for publicly-funded gigs.

The arts helped us get through Covid. They helped us get through the bushfires. And it’s time we help them get back and get the show on the road.

The Greens leader, Adam Bandt, entered the rate rise chat:

Whether interest rates go up this month or next month, it’s going to keep getting harder to buy a house and harder to rent, because Liberal and Labor both have policies that push up house prices.

We’ve got to change this broken system that gets billions of dollars every year to make housing more expensive, that gives tax handouts to people who already got 10 houses to go and buy their eleventh.

First-home buyers are locked out, people can’t afford to rent and people are homeless in this wealthy country of ours.

It is time for a different approach to tackle the housing crisis.

Government needs to build a million affordable homes over the next 20 years that people can rent for 25% of their income or buy into for $300,000.

It’s only by government building affordable homes that we will make sure everyone in this wealthy country of ours can have a roof over their head.

Because whether it’s interest rates going up this month, next month or in the future, housing is going to get more and more expensive unless we have a different approach.

AAP has a question and answer on Labor’s home equity share policy:

What if I die?

• There are three options if the owner of the house passes away. The house can be sold and the equity will be passed on after the government takes its cut, depending on how much of a stake it has left in the house. If the person’s descendants want to keep the house, they can either buy out the government’s stake, or if eligible, take over the scheme.

What happens if I get a pay rise and earn above the cap?

• If you begin earning above the cap, there will be a two year grace period where you can negotiate with the government to buy back more of the house’s equity.

What if I want to sell but haven’t paid back the government?

• If you sell the house, the government takes the percentage amount of its stake from the sale price.

Who pays the fees?

• The scheme’s user pays the fees when buying the house. This is offset by the government not charging the homeowner rent on their portion of the house.

What happens if I want to move and rent out my home?

• The scheme is designed for users to live in the house and renting is not permitted. But the government will consider allowing the homeowner to rent the house out in exceptional circumstances on a case-by-case basis.
• Moving interstate can count as an exceptional circumstance for an exemption to be provided.

What if I renovate and the home’s value increases?

• Any renovations will only benefit the owner and an independent evaluation will be undertaken when the property is sold to ensure all capital gains from the renovations go to the owner.

What if the house is not insured and becomes damaged?

• The home must be insured.

There has been a lot of talk about the independents, but the Greens, who have held the climate line years before it went mainstream, are also hopeful of holding the balance of power in a hung parliament.

Josh Butler has this story:

We are less than an hour away from the RBA announcing its rates decision.

Usually, when there is a big change, or something which needs explaining, a press conference is called for after the meeting. I haven’t seen any alerts yet, but it is still early.

The South Australian parliament continues to offer up surprises:

Victoria budget allocates $12bn to repair Covid-battered health system

Benita Kolovos

The Victorian government will spend $12bn to repair its Covid-battered health system with the treasurer, Tim Pallas, confident the worst of the pandemic is behind the state and a return to surplus will happen in the near future.

Pallas’s eighth budget, handed down on Tuesday, includes $2.9bn worth of new health infrastructure. This includes $900m to build a new hospital in Melton, in Melbourne’s west, $500m for Barwon Women’s and Children’s hospital, $300m for regional hospitals and $236m to double capacity at Casey and Mercy hospitals.

About $4.2bn will be spent to support pandemic response, including $522m to support hospitals treating Covid-19 patients, $1.1bn to purchase and distribute free rapid antigen tests this year to schools, hospitals and people with a disability, $284m for personal protective equipment and $258m to vaccinate Victorians against Covid-19.

A previously announced $1.5bn will be spent to help the state reduce its elective surgery list, while the government is also expanding its hospital at home program – of which the premier Daniel Andrews himself was a patient when he suffered a back injury last year – at a cost of almost $700m.

An unprecedented 7,000 new healthcare workers will be trained and hired, including 5,000 nurses and 400 triple-zero call takers.

It comes after several deaths have occurred in the state, with families blaming ambulance wait times, delays in the state’s triple-zero call-taking system and emergency department overcrowding.

Obviously Facebook runs Australia, duh.

Josh Frydenberg told a story at a Liberal event about how he was approached by a woman as he went to dinner with his wife, who said she was voting for him and identified herself as Dr Monique Ryan’s (the independent challenging him) mother-in-law.

To laughter, Frydenberg said the woman told him she was voting for him because he was a nice person who knew what he was doing.

Ryan told ABC News Breakfast yesterday that while her mother-in-law had told Frydenberg she was voting for him, she disputed other parts of the conversation as told by Frydenberg. Ryan also said she was distressed to see families brought into the contest.

Today, Ryan has tweeted this:

For those looking for election costings updates, you can find what the Parliamentary Budget Office has looked at here.

I missed the beginning of Scott Morrison’s interview with Melbourne radio 3AW host Neil Mitchell, but the transcript has just landed.

Here is how the first part played out:

Mitchell: So this dysfunctional system we’ve got with people dying and people suffering, that is the fault of the state government, is it?

Morrison: Well, they run public hospitals.

Mitchell: Not your job?

Morrison: Well, no, no that’s not that’s not fair, Neil. As I said, our funding increases to $32.7bn. We’ve already doubled it and … our rate of increase in spending on public hospitals has outstripped state governments right across the country. So we’ve increased our heavy lifting on hospitals every single year we’ve been in government and will continue to over the course of the budget.

Mitchell: So does that really mean there’s nothing you can do? We’ve got this crisis in health that is worrying the medical profession and is worrying the patients. And I just keep saying people have died and there’s nothing the prime minister can really do.

Morrison: No, I wouldn’t say that. I mean, I’ve just told you we’re increasing it.

Mitchell: But it’s not working. Why can’t … you sit down with Daniel Andrews and work out some sort of deal where more money gets spent … and you fund some of it?

Morrison: But, Neil, I don’t know if you’re picking up my point. We are increasing the spending. The overall amount of spending increases, it’s going to increase from $27 to $32 billion.

Mitchell: When’s it coming?

Morrison: … was given (inaudible) year. Well it goes to …

Mitchell: Where’s it going?

Morrison: … run their hospitals. That’s where it goes.

Mitchell: Well, it’s not working.

Morrison: … we are there. We are investing. We have increased our investment. Now we don’t run them, but we certainly fund them.

Mitchell: Well, do you remember Kevin Rudd in 2007 famously said on health, the buck stops with me. The buck stops with me. Where does the buck stop on health now?

Morrison: Well, the public hospitals, it stops with the state governments. On issues like Medicare and on mental health and things like that, there’s shared responsibility. And when it comes to funding, you know, the NDIS and aged care and all of that, that’s a federal responsibility and that’s what we fund. But you know, the thing about our federation is we’ve all got to take responsibility for the things we do and we’ve increased our funding for public hospitals, we’ve already doubled it … Now, that’s on top of the significant investments of over $40bn we put in extra just during the pandemic alone to ensure that our hospital system has survived this pandemic. And I’ve got to say here in Victoria, like in New South Wales and many other states and territories, but particularly in the two big states where the biggest pressure from Covid came, we shared that burden 50/50 and that enabled the Victorian hospital system to come through.

Mitchell: So … I don’t understand why that can’t be done again? Why you can’t say, OK, we’ll give you this extra money, but it goes straight into hospitals.

Morrison: Yeah, well at the moment we’ve got a plan that takes us out which increases our investment by more than $5bn a year. So I think that’s a very big investment. And the growth in our investment deal, as I’ve said a few times now, has greatly outstripped the increases we’ve seen from state governments. See it’s important we both do our share.

Given all the talk about housing policy, Sarah Martin has put together this helpful explainer:

Natasha May

If you have some burning questions for the former Nationals leader Michael McCormack, here is your chance to have them answered:

The event will be hosted by rural editor Gabrielle Chan on the Guardian’s Rural Network Facebook group. If you are not a member, search Guardian Australia Rural Network on Facebook and ask to join.

You can find that link here.

It is an undeniable fact that wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce should be brought back to all pub menus.

For some, like Jason Clare, obviously the sour cream wedge dream never went away.

Our video team have pulled together the lines from this morning’s line-apoolza – enjoy with your snack of choice.