Coronavirus Australia live update: regional Victoria opens up but Melbourne faces ‘ring of steel’ – latest news | Australia news

The prime minister has been doing the morning rounds this morning.

As we reported two weeks or so ago, Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese can’t enter Queensland without quarantining – so they can’t help with the state election campaign.

Morrison on the Nine network says he will “follow the rules like anyone else”

Federal parliament is sitting during most of October, which is when the Queensland campaign is at his height, so there is not a lot of time for either leader to attend.

Happy not-Friday. Time may not matter in 2020, but Thursday remains the worst day of the week, when politicians try to eke out the last vestiges of an announcement before everyone switches off on a Friday, and we all have at least one day of the grind to get through before the mental relief of ‘we’ve almost made it’ washes over us the next morning.

Today’s Thursday is no different. Politically, the government is doing what it can to push its latest attempt at an energy policy framework.

Angus Taylor, was on ABC radio talking about the government’s ‘gas led recovery’ and also mentioning how electric vehicles form part of the government’s energy strategy. (This is not new – they have been part of the strategy for a while).

But this was Scott Morrison’s response when Labor announced, at the last election, a commitment to have half of all new car sales be electric vehicles, by 2030:

Bill Shorten wants to end the weekend when it comes to his policy on electric ­vehicles where you’ve got Australians who love being out there in their four-wheel-drives.’’

So cool.

Regional Victoria has opened up, but Melbourne is still locked down, with a strengthened ‘ring of steel’ around the city. We should have more clarity on who is allowed out, and why, later today.

Meanwhile, it is still all about opening the borders, particularly Queensland. South Australia still have New South Wales on a watch and wait, but it was Queensland which was singled out again by Gladys Berejiklian yesterday. Not just for the border community at the Tweed, but for everyone in New South Wales.

The federal government is facing increased pressure from the opposition to solve the problem of 23,000 stranded Australians. Michael McCormack announced he had written to the states demanding they take more people through hotel quarantine. Mark McGowan said that was something which should have gone to national cabinet before the media. All the main players on national cabinet seem annoyed at someone else and we still have so long in the pandemic to go.

We’ll bring you all the news as it happens. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.

Ready?