I’ve been avoiding weighing in on the Black Caviar conversation because there is so much loud ignorance but it turns out I’m not that strong.

A thread, I guess. This is Rev, a retired sprinter turned retired broodmare. She’ll come up again later. So: caveats. I don’t know about her specific case beyond what has been publicly said by her connections; I have never worked in breeding; I’m not a vet. In this way, I’m the same as everyone currently sounding off.

I do own 3 retired racehorses and am anxiously devoted to them.

These are the new cases in VIC (in addition to the 4 announced yesterday).

-A man in his 20s who was at the MCG
-A man in his 30s who was at the MCG and then later the Wallabies game, who works at Trinity Grammar.
-Two teachers at Bacchus Marsh
-Two new from Young and Jacksons Both the new Young and Jacksons cases are men in their 30s. One is an ADF member who lives on the Cerberus naval base on the Mornington Peninsula.

The other is an office worker from Richmond.

Everybody right to go? Two more cases since Jeroen's presser earlier today.

So that's 18 cases now from those two outbreaks.

Scott Morrison is now announcing what the Federal government WOULD do to support Victoria, if hypothetically the state were to go into lockdown.

The difficulty of scheduling the federal press conference before Victoria calls theirs. He says the measures will apply to all states and territories "that may find themselves, hopefully not, in a situation where they would be in a period of lockdown".

They were considered at the national security committee today and will go to national cabinet tomorrow.

BREAKING: Seven new positive cases in Vic associated with the removalists. Four in Ariele apartments, all on the third floor. @MatildaBoseley One of the people at the Ariele apartments' elderly parents, who live elsewhere, have also tested positive.

The Victorian press conference is starting now with deputy CHO, Assoc. Prof. Daniel O’Brien. I'll bring the updates to the @GuardianAus blog. O'Brien says health authorities checked 269 addresses where people from red zones (read: NSW) are supposed to be isolating. Two were "deliberately not isolating" and have been referred to police. @MatildaBoseley

Victoria reports "two further separate incursions of covid from NSW."

So, that's three people positive with Covid who have been in Vic while infectious. The first is the removalist announced this morning. They arrived in Melbourne from Sydney as part of a crew of three on 8 July, delivered furniture to one address, collected from another, then went to Adelaide, arriving on 9 July.

Packing again. Do we think I still need my 2006 student diary? No? What about a year 12 classics SAC and an EFA card for a horse I haven’t seen in 12 years? Editors will attest this problem remains unchanged.

Victoria has recorded two new positive cases connected to the Southbank townhouse complex - they'll be in tomorrow's numbers.

Contact tracers began testing all residents yesterday - there are more than 100 units in the complex, more than 200 people tested yesterday. You'll recall from yesterday's presser that the first case in this complex is a person who works at Arcare Maidstone and has been quarantining in a hotel since they tested positive. So the transmission between them and case 2, who tested on Friday, happened some time ago.

Health minister Martin Foley is stepping up now.

As previously reported, there are two new locally-acquired cases who have been in quarantine throughout their infectious period.

Both are children. One is a contact of the Reservoir case, one of City of Melbourne case. Foley: "What these figures tell us, they continue to give us confidence, is that the system is working, and that the public health settings that we have in place at the moment are appropriate."

I am going to throw my ugg boot at the TV. PM:"we have always understood the role of the Commonwealth... we will be putting in place a NATIONAL framework [his emphasis] for circumstances where there are lockdowns imposed by state, public or health orders in areas that are defined as a Commonwealth hot spot by the CMO."

Victorian acting premier James Merlino, health minister Martin Foley, and CHO Brett Sutton are holding a press conference at 12pm. Here we go. Merlino says it was another record day for the number of people getting tested - more than 50 people.

There are more than 60 cases and more than 350 exposure sites.

Greg Hunt appears to be arguing that the medical expert panel COULD have acted earlier to stop aged care workers working across different centres, but didn't because there were no cases until last Monday?

And then he goes into saying we shouldn't expect to have zero cases? So why not... put those rules in sooner?

Scott Morrison was asked whether Ben Roberts-Smith should be stripped of his Victoria Cross, and whether it is appropriate for Kerry Stokes, the chairman of the Australian War Memorial, to pay for the legal defence of some soldiers facing allegations of war crimes. He doesn't answer the first, saying: "In relation to any individuals, the government is in no position to offer commentary on what is in the report as it may or may not relate to individuals. And that is intentional because the justice system is what has to deal with this issue."

I'm listening to the federal Juukan gorge inquiry hearings. The WA registrar of Aboriginal sites, Tanya Butler, is giving evidence. Sen Dodson is asking her about the de-registration of a huge number of sites in 2016. She doesn't seem to know what he's talking about? Which is interesting, because there was *quite* a big court case about it in 2015. Basically, the Aborignal Cultural Materials Committee changed its definition of a sacred site, leading to a de-registration of sites from 2008-2015. theguardian.com/australia-news…

The inquiry into Juukan Gorge is holding remote hearings of Western Australian witnesses today. First up is Cedric Davies, a geologist with long experience in the Pilbara.

He said he was "shocked" by the destruction of Juukan Gorge, with Rio usually expected to be a leader. But he said he was not surprised that the WA government approved its destruction.

"I think I would have been more surprised had the state not approved the s.18 to destroy the Juukan rock shelters."

Dodson:
Pad Dodson: "Mr Jacques, when did you first become aware of the significance of the Juukan sites"

Rio Tinto chairman JS Jacques: "Senator, I was made aware of the significance of the site son the Sunday evening, on the Sunday the 24th of May."

The day it was blown up. Rio Tinto iron ore CEO Chris Salisbury says that it was not possible to unload the blast holes once they had been loaded. He says they attempted to unload 8 holes, which took 10 hours and only seven were successfully unloaded.

(Mining experts, my DMs are open)

There are TWENTY witnesses listed for the #BushfireRC today.

TWENTY.

naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au/news-and-media… Ok, I was doing something else but I'm back now.

Dominique Hogan-Doran began the session by pointing to a response from the Bushfire Natural Hazards CRC, identifying a "long historical transfer of responsibility" for hazard prevention from individuals to the government.

The #BushfireRC is back on for the next few days, focusing on hazard reduction burns.

There are ELEVEN witnesses listed for today. They'll appear in panels. On the list are: Emma Campbell and Dr Steve Read from the federal agriculture department; Associate professor Kevin Tolhurst from Uni Melb, Prof Ross Bradstock from Wollongong uni, Prof David Bowman from Uni Tas...

Let's just recap what has happened in the protection/destruction of Aboriginal heritage in the Pilbara in the past few weeks, and the building campaign to speed up the very, very protracted efforts to amend the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA).

A thread. On 15 May, a group from the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) visited a rock shelter in Juukan Gorge, near Tom Price, where they planned to hold Naidoc celebrations. They saw blast holes drilled in the ground. The site was a mining lease owned by Rio TInto.

We've had a few well-meaning people email the #DeathsInside inbox asking for a names of all 432 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have died in custody since the royal commission because they want to write it on a banner or a sign for this weekend. A few points: 1. That list doesn't exist, or if it does we don't know about it (and we looked!). Our database is the only one I'm aware of that individually lists every death, and we only went back to 2008 because this work takes months and reports pre-2008 are often not easy to find.