Australia news LIVE: Verry Elleegant wins 2021 Melbourne Cup; NSW eases more restrictions; Victoria records 989 new local COVID-19 cases, nine deaths

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet will await advice from the corruption watchdog before considering whether rules around private phones and technology used by ministers need strengthening.

Mr Perrottet on Tuesday said he and many members of Parliament used a private phone, following evidence to a corruption inquiry that his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian was urged to use more secure communication methods by her then-boyfriend Daryl Maguire.

“I have a private phone and I think many ministers and many members of Parliament do that to keep your professional work separate from your private discussions,” Mr Perrottet said.

He said he was unfamiliar with WeChat – the app recommended by Mr Maguire as being more secure – but said he was sure many members of Parliament used WhatsApp in their private communications.

Read more here.

COVID restrictions in NSW schools will ease slightly from next week, with assemblies and presentations allowed outdoors, day excursions permitted, and music ensembles and lessons back for instruments that can be played with a mask.

From Monday, community use of school sites can resume, while fully vaccinated volunteers will be allowed on site to help with the canteen or uniform shop.

Sport will be allowed between different year levels on campus, and inter-school sport will resume out of school hours. Dancing is also back on the cards.

The ban on using instruments that require air (such as brass and woodwind) comes despite the extremely low risk children face from COVID, and the fact that nightclubs can reopen dance floors.

Meanwhile, the NSW Education Department says about 4900 teachers in the public sector are yet to be fully vaccinated ahead of the deadline on Monday, when all school staff are required to have had both shots to be allowed onto school sites.

Read more here.

More than 16,000 Victorians are still without power, as providers work to repair damage caused by catastrophic winds and storms that lashed the state last week.

Retiree Michelle Gallant and her husband David Rose, who live near Montrose in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne’s east, were among those who lost power on Friday morning.

They are facing another day reliant on a generator, which they're grateful they purchased after the Dandenongs were rocked by horrific storms that caused mass power outages in July. Ms Gallant and her husband lost power for six days then.

“For us, it’s inconvenient,” Ms Gallant said. “It’s costing us about $30 a day in unleaded petrol - I didn’t realise it would run into quite that much.”

Ms Gallant said while the generator keeps the fridge going and the lights on in the evening, there isn’t enough power to run the washing machine.

She is thankful that she and her husband didn’t have their home damaged in the winds, and said they would keep a close eye on the radar over the coming hours as they worried about more trees falling.

It's day five without power and water, too, for Amy Campion, as the water tank on her property relies on an electric pump. A large tree from her front yard took down power lines and, further down her street, another tree took down more wires and crushed a car.

At Healesville in the Yarra Valley, Gerry was looking at his power being restored at 11.59pm. In the last major storm before this one, he lost power for 10 days.

“It is becoming tedious that it takes [so] long to fix problems,” he wrote to The Age. “Clearly there are not sufficient people employed to do maintenance or emergency remediation.”

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said yesterday that some customers were likely to be without power until the end of the week.

Verry Elleegant has won the 2021 Melbourne Cup, with jockey James McDonald aboard for his first Cup victory.

The mare took the win ahead of pre-race favourite Incentivise in second and Spanish Mission in third.

“I never thought I’d win one,” an emotional McDonald told Channel 10 after the race.

“I want to swear, I really do.”

Read more here or follow our live coverage here.

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has ruled out an increase in mortgage interest rates next year as he attempts to get the nation’s jobs market so tight that employers have to offer sizeable pay increases just to retain workers.

Following its regular monthly meeting this afternoon, the RBA board left the official cash rate at 0.1 per cent and announced it would maintain its policy of buying $4 billion in government bonds a week until mid-February.

Dr Lowe, in a rare press conference to explain the bank’s thinking, forcefully pushed back on suggestions that home buyers could be facing an increase in their repayments next year.

“I think that’s a complete overreaction to the recent inflation data. I still struggle with the scenario that rates have to rise next year,” he said. “The latest data and forecasts do not warrant an increase in the cash rate in 2022.”

Dr Lowe said while it was entirely plausible the cash rate could increase in 2023, it was still more likely that 2024 would end ultra-cheap lending.

He said a key issue continued to be wage growth, which is currently at just 1.7 per cent. The bank is forecasting it won’t get to 3 per cent, a 10-year high, until 2023.

Read more here.

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Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has stepped up to accuse Prime Minister Scott Morrison of “gaslighting and backgrounding” against French President Emmanuel Macron over the submarines deal.

One day after Mr Macron accused Mr Morrison on camera of lying about the deal, Mr Morrison cited secret text messages as proof that he gave the French leader fair warning the deal would be dumped.

Mr Albanese says the Prime Minister’s line that he won’t accept sledging against Australia was taking a personal criticism then “using this nation as a human shield”.

“The attempt at damage control by selectively leaking private text messages is quite an extraordinary step for an Australian prime minister to take,” Mr Albanese said.

“The leaking of this text message is a considerable escalation of the conflict.

“Diplomacy requires trust and it requires sombre engagement between leaders.”

He said Labor wants to see the relationship with France repaired, not an escalation of diplomatic hostilities.