UPDATE: in news that is only possible in VIC, the govt has now confirmed from Friday night they will scrap all vx passports & must masks but keep all worker mandates on for now, with no info when they will end. So people can go anywhere, without masks - but cannot work there. They've provided no justification for how this is a proportionate response & the statement from Sutton is "a recommendation of a transition out of those mandates but they need to be worked through industry by industry." There is no explanation why attending is safer than working.

VAX PASSPORTS ARE GONEEEE. Close contacts don't have to isolate but they have to wear masks indoors for a week 😂😂 WTAF.

The Pandemic Oversight Committee meets again today to grill decision-making health officials. Starts around 10.30am and can be watched live here:
parliament.vic.gov.au/video-and-audi… Note: this is not the Independent Advisory Committee (IPMAC) who the mandate motion was referred to. There is currently no updated info on what's happening with that.

Kicking off the first Pandemic Declaration and Oversight Committee meeting - parliament.vic.gov.au/video-and-audi… HAHAHA this kicks off spicy.
Wells asks if Sutton can see everyone is sitting in a covid safe manner with masks.
Asks why Sutton is on Zoom rather than in the room with the Committee 'if he's happy to stand next to the Premier at a presser but won't appear here in person'.

A quick search on Seek shows roughly 5,000 jobs available in Healthcare/nursing in Victoria right now. Think they might be playing down how bad this shortage really is. Last month Sutton there were approx 300k people in VIC who were unvaxd & therefore locked out of the workforce. If only 5% of those were Healthcare, that's 15k qualified & experienced staff sitting at home twiddling their thumbs while their colleagues are getting smashed.

Damn I think a journo just asked how many staff were lost from the mandates (not being able to hear questions is the worst). This guy says Austin Health only had a few staff. MMM. That isn't true of some other health areas. IVF also got brought up! Merlino just says it will 'restart as soon as possible. I'm empathetic. As soon as we can boost & retstart services, we will.'
So he's basically just written off the concerns & said 'yeh this is terrible, can't tell you when it'll be back'.

Just to be unequivocally clear: it's confirmed that Novak didn't break any rules & there were no determined issue with his paperwork or exemption, which was valid. Hawke states this clearly in the court docs. He was deported for the govt not liking his public opinions. That's it. The Federal Court upheld the VISA cancellation (meaning they found no technical issue with the exercise of powers) that was made with Ministerial powers that have a legal threshold of 'well, I've personally decided this might be an issue so bye bye'.

We've kicked off the latest Novak hearing with over 12.5k watching the Federal Court YouTube stream.
Wood (Novak's side) kicking off the argument and starts with exactly what he said he would, how the decision itself was made and what binary logic may have been used.
Also that cancelling his VISA for a single reason is also a risk to stirring up antivx sentiment.

Yep it's Judge Kelly again.
This should be interesting 🍿 This is the link for those who missed it, it hasn't started just yet but the stream is live and there's almost 12k people watching:

Dan just got up & said a third dose will help stop transmission. Based on what data, from where? What evidence exists to support this claim? Seriously they could say this strain came from a unicorn farting & half the media would have a headline the next day 'UNIFART VARIANT'. 🙄 Once again he repeats that currently the vax is doing next to nothing to stop transmission.

Djokovic case is really off & kicking. His team of 3, including a SC (Wood) & QC (Holdenson), versus the single barrister for the govt. Theme of today: niche legal technicalities.

VIC gov updates. Anyone with covid who finds out by rapid test, they're now responsible for reporting their own case & doing their own contact tracing. The hotline for reporting will exist 'from some time tomorrow'. Lmao. Apparently a positive RAT is 90-95% accurate, so just as good as PCRs. But all the CHO advice on the Pandemic Orders is that they couldn't be used due to their high level of inaccuracy.

Comments on the Novak rejection and the inaccurate reporting of what the issue seems to be. There's a lot of very loose claims this is a 'VISA issue'. First up, no Aus VISA has been legally amended to be linked to vax status. Vax status is a fully separate & different doc requirement that while needed is not technically a 'VISA issue'. Claiming it is, is inaccurate.

They've got an actual doctor at this presser saying that the 'indirect benefit' of vaxing kids is they might stop school closures. Yeah, that's a policy decision - not medical. Utterly foul using this. They've trotted out a pediatrician dooming about the increase in positivity % in tests.
She has at least admitted that the only kids getting very unwell are those who have noted other health issues but they recover. Says even symptomatic kids unless urgent should recover at home.

Presser today sees socialist barbie & captain weiner pushing boosters & addressing the testing issues. We've got interchangable use of 'third dose' and 'booster'. Might need another media workshop guys, can't be breaking the echo chamber.

Comments on the Pandemic report tabled last week. 🧵 Tabled last week was 1/3 the required docs. It was the 'pandemic declaration report' required under sect 165AG that has to be published within 3 days. We're now waiting on the Pandemic Orders report (sect. 165AP), where the human rights advice is, which must be up within 7 days.

New Pandemic Orders are up.
Brief notes based off the main questions received.
In short - other than the under 18's being exempt now they changed very little except the fines, which are pretty outrageous. Bizarrely, they did the exact same penalty units for 'failure to comply with an Order'. For ALL the orders. It's 60 units for a person, 300 units for a company. That's $10,898.4 and $54,492. The govt will now fine you over $10k for not wearing a mask. This is not a joke.

In comparison, the NSW presser "we're asking the community to take personal responsibility". Dom is coming across confident. Tells journos to make sure they report on hospital numbers, not just cases.
"We trust our health system in NSW, we've invested in it heavily and we have confidence in our people".
This is like watching something from another country. Surreal.

Foley "these arrangements are modest". Fuckin understatement. Holy shit he's now on the third dose booster. These people are insane.

Comments on the Pandemic Bill/ SOE ending, etc.
- yes, they will have something in place before midnight tomorrow, they didn't dog half of Parl getting the bill through to not use it.
- a lack of a clear plan and/or info 24hrs before is ridiculous, unnecessary & sloppy goverance. - reminder that Dan is away so it'll be Foley & Merlino announcing whatever happens.
- had the first 🐦 come in about the mandates getting dropped. General rule is 3+ for validity. Stay tuned.
- NSW saying they won't change their plans only adds to the pressure for VIC to follow.

Hi @GabbyWilliamsMP
It wasn't misinformation, this happened to a real woman last night but thank you for publicly invalidating her experience. The upset response to seeing these posts was "This is why people don't speak up".

https://twitter.com/GabbyWilliamsMP/status/1468447724701831169

This may have been as simple as a misinformed volunteer or just a lack of clear communication from the govt on the rules, which has been a consistent issue this entire time. Ideally your statement, as unnecessarily defensive as it is, prevents any similar instance from occurring.