Coronavirus Australia news: government releases Covidsafe app legislation – as it happened
That concludes our coverage for the day. Thanks for reading. Stay safe.
Kristy McBain has been confirmed as Labor’s candidate for the upcoming by-election in Eden-Monaro.
The contest was triggered by Mike Kelly’s resignation.
You can read my colleague Katharine Murphy’s story on that news here.
In a statement, the Bega Valley Shire mayor said tonight:
I’m honoured to be endorsed as the Labor candidate for the upcoming Eden-Monaro by-election.
The last six months have been a tough time for communities right across Eden-Monaro, and people feel like they’ve been forgotten.
Our experience of the drought, the devastating bushfires and now Coronavirus has made me more determined than ever to stand up for our community.
I was here during the bushfires. I saw the devastation first-hand. I saw how much being here mattered, I saw how much leadership matters – and how much national leadership matters.
I was so proud of the people of our region and how they responded to such a huge threat and such terrible tragedy. I love these people and want to keep working for them, in the same way Mike Kelly worked tirelessly to deliver for the area.
Our community can’t be forgotten again – we need a strong voice in Federal Parliament. I want to be that voice.
NSW state transport minister Andrew Constance and former Liberal senator Jim Molan are expected to contest preselection for the Liberal party.
Let’s wrap up some of the main developments of the day.
The NZ PM Jacinda Ardern will join Australia’s national cabinet meeting tomorrow
The government released legislation for its Covidsafe tracing app
Victoria recorded a spike in active cases following the emergence of a cluster at a meat processing facility in Melbourne
A 15th person died at the Newmarch House nursing home in Sydney
My colleagues Paul Karp and Josh Taylor are flipping through the Covidsafe app legislation now.
Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp)
The #COVIDSafe app legislation has landed. It mainly creates offences for stuff govt said would be banned – eg the main offence of collection/use/disclosure by those not conducting contact tracing (pen: 5 years prison, 300 penalty units or both) #auspol#auslawpic.twitter.com/gc6fO2bT6c
There seems to be a very small amount of leeway if the collection is “permitted under an Australian law” – provided info is deleted immediately. pic.twitter.com/N48w485SEx
My reading is it pretty much says what they said it would. Lots of offences for misuse, and rules around how it works but I am not a lawyer, so I wait for those who actually are to point out the interesting bits. @Paul_Karp is going through here t.co/PNmw8hAJML
The government has released draft legislation that will put in place privacy protections for the Covidsafe tracing app.
“The draft bill I have released today will enshrine these protections in primary legislation and gives Australians confidence to download Covidsafe, continue the fight against Covid-19 and get our nation back to business as usual,” said the attorney general Christian Porter.
He said the bill would put in place a “clear process showing how the government would delete all Covidsafe data from the National Covidsafe Data Store once the pandemic is over”.
As the final step of our ‘triple lock’ of privacy protections, this draft bill will build upon the Biosecurity Determination and agreements with the states and territories to comprehensively guarantee that Australians’ data is in safe hands when they download and use Covidsafe.
The draft bill clarifies the enforcement mechanisms for the penalties that are already in place against misuse of data from the Covidsafe app. Criminal offences under the bill can be investigated by the Australian Federal Police.
Individuals can also have their complaints heard by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner or the relevant state or territory privacy regulator if appropriate.
More than 4 million people have now registered to use the app.
The government says the legislation will “reinforce” an earlier Biosecurity Act determination made by the health minister Greg Hunt that made it a criminal offence to collect, use or disclose Covidsafe app data for a purpose that is not related to contact tracing.
The federal sports minister, Richard Colbeck, was on Melbourne radio station 3AW earlier today, where he said he “wouldn’t rule out” the possibility of the AFL grand final being played in front of a crowd.
“I’d love to see that,” Colbeck said, though he described it as “less than a 50-50 chance”, according to 3AW.
The Victorian meat processing company where a cluster of Covid-19 cases has been confirmed insists its products remain safe to eat.
The Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said the facility began moving towards a shutdown when the outbreak was identified and is now closed, AAP reported.
“It’s not a risk to the general community and it’s not going to get out of control,” he told reporters on Monday.
The factory could not close immediately because of animal welfare issues, he said.
The bulk of workers who tested positive over the weekend were asymptomatic and were in quarantine before receiving the result.
Cedar Meats general manager Tony Kairouz said the company found out a staff member had Covid-19, after being admitted to Sunshine hospital for an unrelated matter on 27 April.
Two days later, the company found out that four staff who worked in one area of the plant had the virus.
All 350 onsite staff were tested for Covid-19 by 1 May.
“For the past few days our focus has been 100 per cent inward – on closing down the processing side of our business, taking care of staff and animal welfare,” Kairouz said in a statement on Monday.
The company had not tried to hide the outbreak, he added.
He told Melbourne radio 3AW earlier in the day that all the meat processed was in line with Australian food safety standards.
The health department is working with the company, which has agreed to close its facility for 14 days and undergo a deep clean..
Sports-loving South Australians have been told to be patient, with a decision on relaxing restrictions on training expected by the week’s end.
Health chief medical officer Nicola Spurrier says although local training is not off the cards, South Australians need to wait until Friday’s national cabinet meeting for more information, AAP reports.
“You need to be patient because we have one chance at this,” she said.
“It’s more damaging to lift things too quickly and then have to shut things down again.
“Working through all the ways to reduce the risk of transmission when people participate [in sport] and train is important.”
Premier Steven Marshall said the SANFL was in a good position to begin the season because it did not require players to travel interstate.
“We’d all like to see sports resume in SA,” he said.
“Competitions like the SANFL don’t have games interstate so they can get back to training as soon as it’s allowed.”
It comes as the state recorded its 12th consecutive day of no reported coronavirus cases, with the total remaining at 438.
My colleague Paul Karp has been looking at the submissions to the so-called ‘sports rorts’ Senate inquiry, including the suggestion that the program could be saved from constitutional challenge by being rebadged as a coronavirus stimulus scheme.
