More virus cases, youngest daughter of Tamil family evacuated from Christmas Island – as it happened

We’ll leave it there for now.

Here are today’s developments:

• The prime minister, Scott Morrison, called for Victoria to come out of lockdown “as soon as possible”.
• Victoria recorded 11 new cases, but all were linked to existing outbreaks.
• The Victorian government announced a $30m emergency relief package.
• Morrison was with the NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to announce $500m in joint funding for a new bypass over the Hawkesbury River.
• Ben Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial opened in Sydney.
• The youngest daughter of a Tamil family being detained on Christmas Island while they fight deportation was medically evacuated to Perth.
  

Thanks for joining us. See you tomorrow.

Approval has been given for the first phase of the $500m redevelopment of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, reports AAP.

The National Capital Authority has given the nod for early works including the demolition of Anzac Hall.

The NCA had asked for further information on tree removal and replacement planting, noting that there were 595 trees in the precinct.

“A total of 455 trees are to be retained, while 140 trees are to be removed as part of the project,” the NCA’s chairman Terry Weber said in a statement on Monday.

The NCA will require that the AWM plant a minimum of an additional 250 native trees as a condition of approval for these works.

With this change noted, the NCA has concluded the proposal is not inconsistent with the National Capital Plan and the works have been approved.

The NCA, which has published a 1,200-page consultation report, received 601 submissions during its consultation process, of which three were in support.

Key concerns were the need for the expansion, tree removal, the impacts on heritage values and the cost.

The AWM argues the project will address constraints to the existing use of the building, improve the overall visitor and veterans’ experience and maintain its significance as a national cultural institution.

The current Anzac Hall is a bespoke building that is not extendable and is no longer fit for purpose to meet the memorial’s needs to tell the stories of recent conflicts.

New galleries created will provide the space needed to share the experiences of Australians who have served in conflict and operations in places including Somalia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Solomon Islands, East Timor, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

The Greens Immigration spokesperson Nick McKim has issued a statement after news the youngest daughter of the Biloela family has been airlifted to hospital.

This family’s treatment has been appalling and disgraceful.

They have been exiled to a remote island, and detained indefinitely, having built a life for themselves in Queensland.

Physical and mental health problems have always gone hand in hand with offshore detention – and yet their detention continues.

It is beyond unconscionable that they would be sent back to Christmas Island.

They must be resettled in our community urgently, before any more damage is done.

National Australia Bank and three casino operators may need to pay hefty fines or overhaul their operations after a blitz by the financial crimes watchdog, reports AAP.

The bank, Crown Resorts, SkyCity and Star Entertainment on Monday revealed watchdog Austrac had serious concerns about their efforts to prevent money laundering and the financing of criminal groups.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) is a government agency tasked with making sure criminals cannot exploit the financial system.

Westpac recently fell foul of the watchdog after revelations its lax standards allowed child abuse groups and others to shift money overseas.

The bank paid a $1.3bn fine last year, and has other requirements to ensure its meeting legal obligations.

Austrac said fines were not being considered for NAB.

The two have been working to improve the bank’s controls since 2017.

However, Austrac could force the bank to make sweeping changes to its systems, as it did with Westpac.

NAB boss Ross McEwan said the bank was improving in this area and clearly had more work to do.

Crown Resorts’ woes continued after Austrac widened its investigation of the company to include its Perth casino. The watchdog has found the Perth venue has potentially serious problems in meeting anti-money laundering obligations.

Austrac is already investigating Crown Melbourne for the same reasons.

Fiona Patten, an influential crossbencher and the leader of the Reason party in Victoria’s upper house, says the Victorian Liberal party’s latest attack on Daniel Andrews is “extraordinary”.

Asked if the issues raised today by the opposition were reasonable, Patten replied “no”.

“Sadly I saw her press release,” Patten said, referring to the shadow treasurer, Louise Staley, “which did send me down a rabbit hole of conspiracies.”

“I actually wish the bloke the best, he probably nearly lost his ability to walk,” Patten said of Andrews.

“I hope to see him back at work soon.”

Staley said today that Andrews had several questions to answer about how he injured his back earlier this year. She said he should not be receiving his premier’s salary and should instead be on an MP’s base pay.

Labor MPs have savaged Staley’s comments, saying the opposition was peddling conspiracies, with one accusing the Liberals of “vile and disgusting gutter politics”.

7 Jun 202103.04 EDT

Amanda Meade

Foxtel will save between $10m and $12m a year if legislation to halve its commitment to producing Australian drama becomes law, Foxtel has told a legislation committee.

The Morrison government’s broadcasting bill, which slashes Foxtel’s requirement to spend 10% of its drama budget on Australian content to 5%, has passed the house but is being reviewed by the senate.

Foxtel chief executive Patrick Delany told senators the local drama quota cost the pay TV company $24m a year when it was at 10%.

Foxtel has welcomed the proposed reduction and said it won’t alter its commitment to Australian production which includes recent dramas Wentworth and The End.

The pay TV company told the senate it had invested $217m on lifestyle programming and $265m on drama programming in the last five years.

Delany said Foxtel earnings have halved in the same period of time as they’ve been swamped by international streaming services like Netflix, and yet they were subjected to laws that were decades old.

Melbourne-based Liberal MP Katie Allen wants the state government to provide more details on the targets for coming out of lockdown.

She tells the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing:

I would like to know what the roadmap is. What we would be comfortable about opening up with. What is the yardstick? If they have in the back of their mind they are only going to open up certain places or not, we need to know. People are on the edge of their seats. The long weekend is coming up. We need to know what is going to happen.

7 Jun 202102.27 EDT

Amanda Meade

The ABC has confirmed the prime minister’s press secretary Andrew Carswell contacted ABC news director Gaven Morris at around 6pm on 1 June about the Four Corners story on QAnon.

“Mr Carswell asked if the Four Corners Program concerning QAnon was going to air,” the ABC said in a statement released after senate estimates.

“Mr Morris said it was and the PMO should answer the detailed questions that had been put to it. Mr Morris said the team had been in contact with the PMO on more than 20 occasions seeking answers to questions put in writing and it wasn’t tenable that the PMO did not respond to the questions. Mr Carswell said he would ensure answers were provided. That was the entire conversation.

“The PMO subsequently contacted Four Corners saying they would respond to the questions.

Knowing a response was expected to be included in the program, Mr Morris endorsed the program sent to the Managing Director for his approval.”

Anderson earlier told estimates that he reviewed the program and asked Four Corners for more details after the program was sent to him by Morris.

He said the PM’s adviser called about the program but no-one in the government had pressured the ABC to pull the program.

The vice president of the Australia Medical Association Dr Chris Moy has been asked on the ABC if the numbers in Victoria justify extending the lockdown.

He doesn’t answer directly, but here are his thoughts:

Look, the numbers are pretty much stable over the last few days and I think that is a positive thing. It is really a question of how many sort of contacts and how many sort of exposure sites they have got. I think that is just as important. Speaking to contact tracers, what they’re trying to work out is have they got to the edge of this, have they got it surrounded and have a reasonably good idea of where they are at with it? They probably have a much better idea about that first one that came from South Australia.

But this other one, [the Delta variant case] I think they are really starting from scratch at the moment and that is the worry because they really do not know where boundary of this is. Obviously not huge numbers but the fact that it’s came out of the blue is a real worry particularly because it looks like it is more of an infectious variant.

Here’s the latest from the disability royal commission from, well, from me.

The commission is meeting in Adelaide this week, examining cases of abuse in disability care.

A South Australian family have told of their fear after receiving an anonymous letter warning their nephew would be “abused with cruelty, violence, regularly and repeatedly” and might be poisoned or drowned at his supported disability accommodation.