Second McDonald's in Victoria closed over Covid-19 case – as it happened

And with that, we’ll be closing the blog for today. We’ll be back following all the news tomorrow. Stay safe and thanks for reading.

Here is what happened today:

• A Rockhampton aged care home was locked down after a nurse tested positive for Covid-19. Twenty-three residents and eight staff have since tested negative, but the centre has approximately 115 residents and 180 staff members in total.
• A staff member at another Victorian McDonald’s has been diagnosed with Covid-19. The Craigieburn Road West store has been closed immediately.
• South Australia announced it has zero active Covid-19 cases for the first time since the pandemic began. The state has now gone eight consecutive days with no new infections.
• Western Australia also announced it has zero Covid-19 patients in hospital, after a patient in intensive care recovered from the virus. Seven people remain active cases in WA.
• NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the state government will announce help for international students and higher education next week.
  
• Prime minister Scott Morrison announced the resumption of elective surgery, and $48m of funding for a mental health response plan.
• The Tasmanian government flagged a deficit of $716m in 2019-20, and peak unemployment of 12%.
• The AFL’s chief executive, Gillon McLachlan, announced the code will resume playing matches on Thursday 11 June.
• The National Rugby League announced the fixtures for the first two weeks of competition when it restarts on 28 May.
• Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, admitted on radio there was room for improvement in the state’s handling of the outbreak at the Cedar Meats abattoir.
• The Australian school climate strike movement held a virtual rally via livestream.

The deadline for expressions of interest in Virgin Australia has passed. While not all the bidders are out yet, it is confirmed that the parent company of IndiGo airlines is interested.

ABC News have just played the entirety of my colleague Paul Karp’s questioning of former sports minister Bridget McKenzie about the sports grants program.

McKenzie said it was the responsibility of the public service to raise concerns over her authority to issue millions of dollars in grants.

The former deputy Nationals leader was asked “why weren’t you a bit more inquisitive about whether you had any ability to make $140 million of sports grants?”

McKenzie replied: “It is the responsibility of the Australian public service to inform ministers around appropriate arrangements.

“It was never raised with me that this was an issue. This went through cabinet. This was approved by ERC ... so if there was an issue, there are multiple steps through that process that that should have been raised.”

Queensland Health say 31 people have tested negative at the Rockhampton aged care home where a nurse earlier tested positive.

23 residents and eight staff members were urgently tested today at the North Rockhampton nursing centre, which is in lockdown.

The home has approximately 115 residents and 180 staff. More people will be tested over the next 24 hours, the department said.

The chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said they had used rapid testing that gives results within an hour.

“We are isolating and testing residents and staff, using our GeneXpert rapid testing equipment,” she said. “That testing can return results within an hour but there’s limited capacity in Queensland and Australia. These samples will be run through our normal PCR testing regime as a precautionary measure.”

The nurse is believed to have been infectious on 3 May, and 70 people have been identified as close contacts through contact tracing.

Young said anyone in Rockhampton who had symptoms should get tested.

“It is likely this person has been infectious for almost two weeks and has been in the community on several occasions,” she said.

And sorry, just a quick correction on an earlier post. WA does not have zero Covid-19 cases, it has zero cases in hospitals.

There are still seven people with Covid-19 in the state. But it recorded no new cases today, and the last person in hospital is no longer testing positive, but remains in hospital. The previous post has been amended.

The Liberal party has revealed its two preselection contenders for the Eden-Monaro byelection.

Dr Fiona Kotvojs, who ran for the Liberal party in the seat last election, and Mark Schweikert, who is a local councillor, will run against each other to be the party’s nominee for the upcoming byelection.

Labor has already preselected its candidate, the Bega mayor, Kristy McBain.

And here are the fuller figures from the SA health update that announced zero active cases for the first time.

More great news, this time from WA.

There are no longer any people in hospitals in the state with Covid-19, after a patient recovered overnight. They are still in hospital, but no longer Covid-positive.

There remain 7 people in the state with Covid-19. The state reported no new cases today.

In media news, the Australian newspaper has appointed its first female editor, Michelle Gunn.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has said domestic travel in NSW will “happen soon” while on radio station 2GB.

She told host Ben Fordham: “I don’t think it is far away; it is a short time away, and we are making a plan to make it safe ... I’m pretty confident it will happen soon.”

But: “People are feeling anxious about the virus. And if their town has been virus-free they are worried that all these tourists are going to come in and that is going to change.”

South Australia has just announced it has zero active Covid-19 cases for the first time.

The state has now gone eight consecutive days with no new infections.

However, as the virus has an incubation period of 14 days, health authorities warned against complacency.

Here’s more on the new fixtures for the NRL’s return.

And Rugby Australia has announced its new chairman, Hamish McLennan, who is a former managing director of Network Ten.