Australia news LIVE: Two ‘likely’ COVID cases identified in Melbourne’s north; Cable car accident in Italy kills 14 people

Home Affairs boss Michael Pezzullo has confirmed he did not run his “drums of war” speech by the government before posting it to his staff on Anzac Day, saying it was not part of “some government communications plan”.

The Opposition has been scathing of Mr Pezzullo’s speech in which he said: “In a world of perpetual tension and dread, the drums of war beat – sometimes faintly and distantly, and at other times more loudly and ever closer.”

The Home Affairs secretary told a Senate estimates hearing that he sent the speech to his minister Karen Andrews after it was published on the department’s intranet. He also said that he was not alerted by The Australian that it would run the speech in full as an opinion piece in the newspaper.

He said the point of the speech “was neither to advocate nor to glorify war, but to lament for peace… and an acknowledge of the significant price that has been paid by many generations for the freedoms that we have”.

“It is clearly on its face not a statement of policy… nor I would contend is it an assessment or warning of imminent danger,” he said.

Labor has accused the government of exaggerating the chances of war occurring as part of a political strategy, with Mr Pezzullo’s speech posted days after Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the chances of a conflict over Taiwan could not be discounted.

“I have absolutely no interest in the conduct of the next election from the point of view of how it is conducted and who wins it,” Mr Pezzullo said.

“My only interest I have in it is on the declaration of the polls and the outcome, I need to pick up my blue book or my red book in terms of speaking to my minister.”

Transport Minister Jacinta Allan says it’s too soon to connect the two new likely cases discovered on Monday to the misidentified Woolworths exposure site in Melbourne’s north.

Ms Allan also urged caution given the two cases hadn’t been formally confirmed and said the two people are assisting contract tracers to urgently track down close contacts.

“It’s understood these two people are connected to each other,” she said.“They are now participating in extensive contract tracing interviews. It’s too soon to draw any conclusions about the connection between these two cases and previous cases.”

On Friday, Victoria’s Health Department admitted it named the wrong business as an exposure site during a single COVID-19 outbreak earlier this month.

People who visited Woolworths Epping during a one-hour period on May 8 were advised to get tested and isolate after a Victorian man tested positive to coronavirus after returning from hotel quarantine in South Australia.

“At this stage it’s important to wait for the advice from the public health team. What we continue to urge Victorians to do is to continue to urge what they’ve been doing for a year or more.”

Ms Allan especially urged people in the northern suburbs to get tested if they experience symptoms.

Our health and state politics teams are making calls and we’ll be sure to bring you more on this developing story as soon as we can.

While we wait for details to come through from the Victorian government’s coronavirus update, here’s some more detail from NSW:

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she feels sorry for NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay, after the party was defeated in the Upper Hunter byelection by Nationals candidate Dave Layzell.

“I actually feel sorry for her,” Ms Berejiklian said on Monday. “NSW politics is tough.”

She said she was deeply grateful to the community for supporting the Coalition.

“[I ] will work my guts out to keep the community safe and strong,” she said.

Asked about facing an alternative leader of the Labor party, Ms Berejiklian said she is focused on doing her job.

“That’s a matter for them … I’ve got enough on my plate to worry about,” she said.

She would also not be drawn on the potential of a byelection in Gareth Ward’s seat of Kiama.

“I don’t delve into the hypotheticals,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Mr Ward stepped down as families, communities and disability services minister earlier this month after it emerged he was the subject of a police investigation into allegations of sexual violence. He denies any wrongdoing.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has dismissed claims from one of his backbenchers that Labor’s poor showing in a NSW byelection on the weekend foreshadows the party’s fate at a federal level.

Appearing with Eden-Monaro MP Kristy McBain, who won a by-election against the government federally last year, Anthony Albanese said there were a raft of factors at play in the NSW state contest.

He argued that Labor had not held the state seat of Upper Hunter for nine decades, had done better this year than in some past elections, and had turned in triumphant performances in the Queensland and WA state elections.

“If Scott Morrison wants to argue that there are federal implications behind a by election result in one seat in New South Wales, then he should apply that I think, to Western Australia and Queensland, which are the big two resource states in this country,” Mr Albanese said.

In response to questions about whether Labor’s stance on the environment and resources federally played into its state loss, Mr Albanese pointed to the party’s industrial policies, which it argues will give miners more secure jobs and better pay.

Want to go deeper? SMH state political editor Alexandra Smith filed her analysis on the election last night.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and the state’s chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant are holding a press conference in Sydney.

Dr Chant says health officials have been provided “very preliminary” details about the Victorian COVID-19 cases.

“There are going to be some cases reported from Victoria,” she told reporters on Monday. “I think it provides a warning to the community that we have seen, just two weeks ago, a case within NSW where we couldn’t find the missing link.

“We don’t know anything about these cases … the risk is that there’s an incursion.”

Dr Chant urged everyone over 50 to talk to their general practitioner about getting a vaccine against COVID-19, and people in any other eligible cohorts to get vaccinated too.

“Those people that are contemplating delaying vaccination need to consider that this risk is present and they can’t assume that they will not be exposed to COVID in the coming months,” she said, noting colder, winter months present “another challenge”.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said 1100 people aged over 50 have booked to get their AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine this week at Sydney’s Olympic Park mass vaccination hub.

However, she reiterated that people in that category should speak to their GP first.

Ms Berejiklian said the GP network across NSW administered 85,000 AstraZeneca doses last week.

NSW Health said there were no new locally-acquired coronavirus cases, and two overseas acquired cases, recorded in NSW in the 24-hour period to 8pm on Sunday.

There have been 1,097,515 vaccine doses administered in NSW to date, including 345,393 by NSW Health to 8pm on Sunday. Federal Government providers, including GPs, had administered 752,122 up to 11.59pm on Saturday.

We have just had an update from our tech crews and unfortunately we will not be able to bring you a livestream of the Victorian press conference with state government minister Jacinta Allan.

We do have reporters at the event as well as monitoring remotely to bring you all the breaking news in quick time.

We are still waiting on the Victorian government press conference to start. The media invitation for minister Jacinta Allan’s event went out well before the alert from the health department.

We are still aiming to bring you a livestream of the press conference and live reporting of what is said there.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is giving an update on coronavirus vaccinations. Note the Victorian press conference is no longer going to be available for livestream.