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12.55am BST
Our friends at AAP have reported that NSW contact tracers are interviewing positive Covid-19 cases more quickly as case numbers across the state slowly decline.
AAP:
The number of people to be fully interviewed by contact tracers within a day of their positive result nearly doubled last week, data published by NSW Health reveals.
Contact tracers fully interviewed 58% of new cases within one day of notification in the week ending September 20. The week before, tracers only reached 31% of people within that time frame.
12.43am BST
Finally, Speers asked Joyce about the Murugappan family, who this week were granted 12-month visas but are not allowed to return to the town of Biloela where they raised their two daughters.
Speers:
Earlier this year you said you would fight for the Murugappan family for their return to Biloela. What have you done in the past week [as acting prime minister] to help with that fight?
We have a cabinet system of government and I’ve had discussions with previous ministers. My views don’t change. They surround the fact that the girls were born in Australia …
… You are acting PM, did you express those views to the minister. He made a decision this week to keep them out of Biloela.
Look, I’m aware of the decision, right, and I’m not going to go into any discussions or otherwise what I might have had with ministers or not had with ministers, that’s my right of the … Once you start doing that, people stop having discussions with you.