Coronavirus Australia news: more deaths expected at Newmarch House, minister says – as it happened

With that, I’ll leave you for the night. Thanks for reading. Stay well.

Separate to the aged care regulator, the Aged Care Royal Commission is also looking into the situation at Newmarch house.

Let’s review some of the major developments from today.

• The aged care regulator threatened to revoke the licence of the operator of stricken Newmarch House
• Victoria reported 17 new cases, with confirmation a concerning cluster at a meatworks has now spread to an aged care worker
• The government agency responsible for the Covidsafe app admitted it wasn’t working properly on iPhones

The attorney general, Christian Porter, has announced $63.3m boost to frontline legal services during the Covid-19 crisis.

The government said $20m would go to domestic violence services, while $29.8m would fund other Covid-19 issues such as tenancy disputes, insurance, credit- and debt-related problems, and work-related claims.

Morrison won’t weigh in on Donald Trump’s comments about the potential benefits of injecting disinfectant.

He says the president has explained what he meant – Trump says he was being sarcastic – and “I don’t propose to go over them”.

Morrison is asked whether world leaders have been asking him how Australia has done “it” – it being minimising the spread of and deaths from Covid-19.

The PM notes he spoke to Boris Johnson recently, who was “very much asking that exact question”.

He says he took Johnson through Australia’s measures on border control and tracking and tracing.

Morrison says he was speaking to the Queen too, who was also asking how Australia had performed so well: “She’s so pleased that down under we’re doing well.”

My colleague Paul Karp is also watching this interview with the PM.

Samantha Maiden chances her arm with the PM over the report that Tony Abbott is being courted to run in Eden-Monaro.

Scott Morrison won’t buy in. He wishes the outgoing Labor MP, Mike Kelly, well.

“There will be a preselection, there will be a candidate,” he says of the Liberal party process.

Does he imagine Abbott is interested in returning to parliament?

“I don’t believe he is,” Morrison says.

Scott Morrison is asked why schools be open when parents cannot hold a birthday party for their children.

The PM explains that the premiers sought to make the rules as simple as possible.

“On schools I admit there’s been some confusion there,” he says.

But he says the clear advice is that children are safe at school.

Of distance learning, he acknowledges: “It’s not the best for the kids’ education.”

Scott Morrison is doing a live Q&A with Samantha Maiden on news.com.au as we speak.

The prime minister is asked when the lockdown might start to be wound back.

He notes that some states, – WA and SA, for example – have already begun to loosen some restrictions.

Morrison expects some restrictions might be loosened after the national cabinet meeting on Friday but he doesn’t want to pre-empt any announcements from the states.

“Until there is a vaccine there isn’t the possibility of getting fully back to normal,” he adds.

But the aim is to get as close to normal as possible, and he says it “will take a couple of months to get back to that position”.

The aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, tells the ABC more people are expected to die at Newmarch House.

Patricia Karvelas asks him if the facility should be shut down.

“I don’t think that’s the case,” he says.

Colbeck says the Aged Care Quality and Safeguards Commission has intervened to ensure the situation at Newmarch improves.

“There’s no question that things have improved at the facility,” he says.

A McDonald’s request to waive overtime rates and set shifts for part-timers in the fast food industry has been knocked back by the Fair Work Commission.

The Australian Financial Review reported that the full bench of the commission had rejected the urgent bid from employers to alter the fast food award.

The application was rebuffed despite backing from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the AFR said.

Instead, the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, a new leftwing rival to Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, opposed the changes to the award as an “outrageous attack” on workers’ rights.

The commission rejected the urgent application, saying it did not have evidence before it that McDonald’s revenue had been hit during the pandemic. But the proposal will be considered in more detail at a later date.

Channel Seven’s Mark Riley reports on the nightly news that national cabinet is set to allow gatherings of up to 10 people in the family home after its meeting on Friday.

Some good news from a little earlier today.