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Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday,

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Speaker 1: the thirty first of May. My name is Sam Kazlowski,

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Speaker 1: and helping me make sense of today's news is special

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Speaker 1: guest Mariah lattis Making news today Victoria's circuit breaker.

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Speaker 2: COVID in Vietnam, some good news about the Fizer vaccine,

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Speaker 2: under chat about the Victorian rescue package. Here's today's Daily Digest.

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Speaker 1: Five locally acquired COVID nineteen cases were recorded yesterday in Victoria,

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Speaker 1: with the latest outbreak growing to thirty five cases. The

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Speaker 1: list of exposure sites has now grown to over one

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Speaker 1: hundred and seventy locations. Yesterday, the Victorian government announced a

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Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty million dollar business support package to

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Speaker 1: help businesses who have been hit the hardest by the

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Speaker 1: current circuit breaker lockdown. The package is designed for small

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Speaker 1: to medium sized businesses, including sole traders, and we're going

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Speaker 1: to break it down for you later in the episode.

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Speaker 2: Vietnamese health authorities have detected a new COVID nineteen variant

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Speaker 2: that the experts belief is a combination of the Indian and

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Speaker 2: UK variants. The latest variant was discovered through testing on

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Speaker 2: newly detected patients. Vietnam's Health Minister Nuen Tung Loong grabbed

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Speaker 2: the hybrid variant as more transmissible than previously known variants,

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Speaker 2: especially in the air, and that the genetic code of

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Speaker 2: the virus will be made available for global health authorities

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Speaker 2: and researchers soon.

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Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of Brazilians have protested against President Yayir

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Speaker 1: Bosnaro's handling of the pandemic. Protesters called for Bolsnaro's impeachment

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Speaker 1: and more widespread access to COVID vaccines. The protests come

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Speaker 1: as Brazil is experiencing another spike in COVID nineteen, with

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Speaker 1: seventy nine thousand new COVID cases yesterday and two thousand

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Speaker 1: COVID related deaths. An inquiry into the Bolsnaro government's handling

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic is currently being held in Brazil's Senate.

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Speaker 3: The good news, the European Union's Medicine Agency EMA has

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Speaker 3: given the green light for twelve to fifteen year olds

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Speaker 3: to receive the fires of by on Tech COVID nineteen vaccine.

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Speaker 2: Individual member states will now decide whether to offer the

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Speaker 2: vaccine to twelve to fifteen year olds, with Germany approving

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Speaker 2: the vaccine. On Thursday, the EMA's head of vaccine strategy,

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Speaker 2: Marco Cavaleri, said the vaccine was well tolerated and the

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Speaker 2: side effects in this age group were very much similar

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Speaker 2: to what we have seen in young adults and not

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Speaker 2: raising major concerns at this point in time.

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Speaker 1: So, as we said at the top of the podcast,

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Speaker 1: the Victorian government yesterday announced a two hundred and fifty

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Speaker 1: million dollars circuit breaker rescue package. You might remember on

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Speaker 1: Friday's episode, we chatted through the tensions that exist between

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Speaker 1: the Victorian government and the federal government in terms of

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Speaker 1: their response to COVID nineteen and who's responsible for what

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Speaker 1: in terms of everything from hotel quarantine programs, vaccine rollouts,

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Speaker 1: and now economics support. When Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas and

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Speaker 1: Acting Premier James Molino got up yesterday morning to tell

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Speaker 1: Victorians about the rescue package, they spent quite a bit

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Speaker 1: of time attacking the federal government for not stepping up

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Speaker 1: to the plate in terms of matching their funding. Here's

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Speaker 1: what treasure Palace had to say.

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Speaker 4: Now you'll hear a lot from the federal government about

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Speaker 4: the need for us to work in partnership well they're

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Speaker 4: not a silent partner. I like making speeches. I'll tell

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Speaker 4: you what they're not. They're not a tangible partner. We

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Speaker 4: need them to step up to the plate.

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Speaker 1: So the key bit of context to remember here is

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Speaker 1: that this is actually the first time there has been

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Speaker 1: a snap lockdown in Australia since the conclusion of the

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Speaker 1: Job Keeper program, which wrapped up on the twenty eighth

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Speaker 1: of March. Before we jump into how the federal government

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Speaker 1: responded to these claims from the Victorian government, let's quickly

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Speaker 1: run through some of the mechanics behind this latest program.

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Speaker 1: So the target here is small to medium sized businesses

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Speaker 1: and sole traders. The aim of the package is to

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Speaker 1: support businesses unable to operate due to the public health

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Speaker 1: measures in force this week. The package is broken up

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Speaker 1: into three main parts. First up, one hundred and ninety

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Speaker 1: of the two hundred and fifty million is going towards

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Speaker 1: the Business Costs Assistance Program, and that's a two and

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Speaker 1: a half thousand dollars grant for eligible businesses that can't

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Speaker 1: operate under the circuit breaker restrictions and can't transfer their

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Speaker 1: work to a work from home setting. So we're talking

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Speaker 1: about things here like restaurants and cafes, events suppliers, accommodation

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Speaker 1: venues and non essential retailers. Now you can't actually apply

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Speaker 1: for this program yet. It's been executed so quickly that

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Speaker 1: applications for the program only open on Wednesday. The Victorian

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Speaker 1: government expects ninety thousand small to medium sized businesses and

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Speaker 1: sole traders to be eligible for the payment. Next up

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Speaker 1: is the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund and this is really

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Speaker 1: for pubs and clubs and it's worth about forty million dollars.

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Speaker 1: Any Victorian business holding an eligible liquor license and a

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Speaker 1: food certificate will be eligible for a three and a

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Speaker 1: half thousand dollar check and that's per premises. Applications for

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Speaker 1: this program also open on Wednesday, and it's designed to

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Speaker 1: to fill the void of a lost weekend of business

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Speaker 1: for Victorian businesses. Finally, we've got the Victorian Events Support

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Speaker 1: Package and that comes in at about twenty million dollars

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Speaker 1: and that is specifically for operators in the events industry

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Speaker 1: who have incurred serious losses this week due to the restrictions.

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Speaker 1: One such example is Melbourne's new Winter Arts Festival Rising.

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Speaker 1: They had to pause their festival and cancel a huge

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Speaker 1: number of events this weekend. This was actually the first

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Speaker 1: year of the Rising Festival, and there's been reports that

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Speaker 1: a number of ticket holders have actually donated the total

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Speaker 1: amount from their ticket and are happy to repurchase in

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Speaker 1: order to support the hundreds of vendors, performers and organizers

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Speaker 1: who were involved.

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Speaker 2: Did the Federal government respond yesterday to the calls from

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Speaker 2: the Acting Premier and Treasurer so.

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Speaker 1: Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt did reply to the calls

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Speaker 1: from the Victorian government yesterday defending the Morrison Government's response

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Speaker 1: to the Victoria lockdown. Here's a little bit of what

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Speaker 1: he had to say yesterday.

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Speaker 5: We welcome the Victorian support. We think it's appropriate under

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Speaker 5: the circumstances. It builds on the forty five billion dollars

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Speaker 5: which the Commonwealth has provided to Victoria, far and away

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Speaker 5: the highest per capita economic support to any state or territory.

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Speaker 5: I think supplements the thirteen billion which Victoria is put

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Speaker 5: in place.

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Speaker 1: And in particular examples he used there were federal assistance

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Speaker 1: measures including the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment and the National

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Speaker 1: Health Emergency Crisis Payment.

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Speaker 2: We didn't hear from Morrison yesterday as he was in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand. Meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern,

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Speaker 2: but it's likely he will comment on the calls for

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Speaker 2: his government to match the Victorian program dollar for dollar,

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Speaker 2: as this is firmly a federal politics issue. Now, that's

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Speaker 2: all we have time for today, but in the meantime,

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Speaker 2: following the dailies news on Instagram at the Daily Oz.

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Speaker 2: It's where one hundred and ten thousand Australians get their

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Speaker 2: news throughout the day and we'd love for you to

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Speaker 2: become part of the community too.