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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Lisa Cox, Luke Henriques-Gomes and Amy Remeikis

Morrison rules out Covid-19 pay cuts for ministers or senior public servants – as it happened

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Today's coronavirus developments

And that’s where we’ll leave it for this evening. Today’s wrap-up:

  • The ACT recorded its third death due to Covid-19, a woman in her 60s who was a passenger on the Ruby Princess.
  • South Australia announced a testing blitz over the next two weeks when anyone with symptoms will be tested for coronavirus.
  • The social services minister, Anne Ruston, intervened to ensure about 15,000 people with disabilities will keep a $100-a-fortnight extra allowance during the Covid-19 crisis following claims some had lost the payment due to the shutdown.
  • The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, said authorities are hopeful the Ruby Princess will depart from Port Kembla by this Sunday.
  • The Melbourne Writers Festival announced this year’s event will be held entirely online.
  • The chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said children make up 2% of Covid-19 cases.
  • A man was jailed in WA for repeatedly sneaking out of quarantine in a Perth hotel.
  • Rita Wilson has told a US TV station she experienced “extreme side effects” after being treated with the experimental Covid-19 drug chloroquine in a Gold Coast hospital.

Thank you for following our updates today. Stay safe and well and we will see you again tomorrow.

Updated

We showed you some video earlier of a 94-year-old woman leaving the Austin hospital in Melbourne after recovering from coronavirus.

AAP has some more on that story:

A Victorian great-great grandmother has survived coronavirus.

Maureen Appleby, 94, left the Austin Hospital on Wednesday with a guard of honour after kicking coronavirus to the kerb.

“I fought it back, I got there,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

“Two men came to visit me - I thought they were out of Mars. They were in white uniforms with big black glasses, I thought I was dreaming.”

Nurses formed a guard of honour and cheered on the Covid-19 survivor as her son John wheeled her out.

She was diagnosed a week ago with Covid-19, while in hospital after breaking her ribs in a fall.

Austin Hospital’s associate professor Jason Trubiano said Appleby “has defied all odds”, and was in the high risk category.

“She is over 90 and really that is an amazing effort,” he told reporters.

Her son also left hospital after contracting Covid-19 via an unknown community transmission.

Appleby has words of wisdom for others: “To not get scared. Just to take life as it comes and to fight back,” she told Nine News.

For now, she’s at home in Rosanna ready to enjoy a lamb roast.

Updated

My colleague Naaman Zhou has a new story about Rita Wilson.

Wilson has given an interview with the American TV channel CBS in which she says she experienced “extreme side effects” after being treated with the experimental Covid-19 drug chloroquine in an Australian hospital.

Wilson and her husband, Tom Hanks, were admitted to Gold Coast University hospital in Queensland for treatment, where Wilson said she was given chloroquine after she developed a fever of 38.9C.

The drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are used to treat malaria, but their ability to treat Covid-19 is still disputed by experts, despite being touted by the US president, Donald Trump, as a “game changer”.

“They gave me chloroquine,” Wilson told CBS. “I know people have been talking about this drug. But I can only tell you that – I don’t know if the drug worked or if it was just time for the fever to break.

“My fever did break but the chloroquine had such extreme side effects, I was completely nauseous, I had vertigo and my muscles felt very weak … I think people have to be very considerate about that drug.”

Updated

Morrison says pay cuts for ministers or public servants 'not under consideration'

Scott Morrison has told an interview with Perth radio station 6PR that pay cuts for himself, ministers or senior public servants are not under consideration.

“We’ve already said there won’t be any pay rises right across the public service and this is not something that’s currently before us … it’s not something that’s being considered,” he said.

Morrison said public servants were working longer hours than ever on the Covid-19 response, including those working to process applications for jobseeker and jobkeeper payments.

“I’ve got people in the public service who are working like they’ve never worked before I suspect,” he said.

“They do a great job and they’re as much on the front line saving people’s livelihoods frankly as nurses working in hospitals.”

Updated

Earlier we brought you the Melbourne Writers festival announcement that the festival will be run as an online program this year.

The Sydney Writers festival, which was due to be held for a week from 27 April, is also running a digital program and has tonight announced its first event:

Updated

Malcolm Farr has a little bit more on the government’s position on an app that would track contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The federal government has promised a systematic assessment of the privacy impacts the app, which could delay the prime minister’s preferred two-week deadline for its rollout in Australia.

Earlier today the government suspended local content quotas for Australian drama, children’s and documentary television, while also announcing $54m for regional media.

Paul Karp has some more details on those announcements here:

The Australian Financial Review is reporting more than 1,400 exemptions to the foreign travel ban were granted between 24 March and 8 April.

The AFR reports that companies in the ASX top 20 have successfully lobbied for exemptions to the ban and resources companies have argued that certain skilled workers were required at foreign mining and oil and gas sites.

Updated

Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says the state is recruiting more paramedics to its Covid-19 efforts.

Palaszczuk said this evening an additional 60 paramedic graduates would do fast-tracked training this month. It follows the earlier deployment of 45 additional paramedics across the state.

The state’s health minister, Steven Miles, also said today that more elective procedures could resume after being suspended in the expectation of Covid-19 hospital demands.

Queensland today had its lowest daily increase in confirmed Covid-19 cases in a month, with five new cases confirmed.

Updated

I’m going to leave you for the night. My colleague Lisa Cox will be taking over from here. Stay well.

The Australian Financial Review is reporting that Deloitte has asked its staff to agree to a pay cut of 20% for five months.

The AFR says the firm’s partners will also face a 25% pay cut as the company deals with the downturn caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Deloitte has about 10,000 staff and about 900 partners.

Melbourne Writers Festival will be held online

Full statement:

Melbourne Writers Festival will transition to an online program for 2020 to ensure the safety of artists and festivalgoers during the COVID-19 crisis.

The profound impacts of the pandemic have made it impossible to proceed with events planned for 7–16 August in venues at the heart of the city’s literary precinct, including the newly renovated State Library Victoria and the Wheeler Centre.

However, MWF is determined to deliver a smaller online program to keep literary arts audiences connected as COVID-19 cuts a swathe through the cultural and artistic life of the city.

The Festival’s head of programming, Associate Director Gene Smith, said his thoughts were with the hundreds of writers, artists and thinkers whose work and income would be affected by the change.

‘The unprecedented nature of this pandemic is difficult to reckon with, as a people and as an industry. MWF cannot be all that we had planned for it to be in 2020, but we are committed to delivering literary programming online before returning to our full format in 2021,’ Smith said.

‘Our team is at home thinking, reading and preparing for a very different MWF20.’

‘We will work with writers, publishers and our valued partners and supporters, and look forward to sharing news about our online program in coming months. In the meantime, we urge MWF audiences to continue supporting writers by engaging with their online work, their digital events, and by buying their books from independent booksellers.’

The Festival will contact all pass and voucher purchasers in the coming week to discuss the provision of full refunds.

Following on from the ABC’s story on this that we shared earlier, John-Paul Drake has been doing the rounds. Here, his “blunt message, is more of a hand gesture ...

Updated

One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has posted an interview she did on Sky News to her Facebook with an accompanying statement ruling out voting for a GST increase.

Hanson said:

“I will not support a GST tax hike to pay for the ... coronavirus rescue package, it is that simple.

As I have been saying for 25 years, instead of going after hard-working Aussies, we should be doing more to force giant multinationals to pay their fair share.

“Let’s start with those companies extracting the natural gas off Australia’s North West Shelf. They export over 50 billion dollars worth of gas but are paying a pittance in tax.

We could also look at slashing our multi-billion dollar foreign aid budget, including all our payments to useless United Nations groups such as the World Health Organisation.

The last thing we should consider is inflicting more pain or Australians who are already doing it tough.”

Of course, everything with a grain of salt and subject to change, but good to lay the markers down.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson is asked whether he’s like to see social distancing rules to be eased.

Before he was in parliament, Wilson was a long time Institute of Public Affairs policy director. You may be aware that IPA has been leading calls for the government to reopen the economy, despite warnings from public health officials that this would lead to more deaths.

“Well I think it’s easy to make comment from the sidelines, when you have a lot of evidence and data before you addressing the full extent of the challenges, and they’re not always specific to one community,” Wilson says.

“That’s what the states are doing, the federal government doing, working constructively together. None of us are enjoying this, you’re not enjoying it, I’m not enjoying it, it’s necessary to protect the health, lives, and wellbeing of many Australians.

“We also have to consider the full scale of what happens if we repeal them, if we get a second wave, then we’re forced back into the same situation again. My objective and my hope, I guess, and certainly I expect the prime minister and the Premiers’ objectives is to do this right, once, so we don’t have to repeat it.”

Some good news from Melbourne.

AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, has provided more substantial comment on the high court ruling the police raid on Annika Smethurst’s home was invalid.

Kershaw told reporters in Canberra that both the Smethurst matter and the AFP raid of the ABC headquarters are under review by its new “sensitive investigation oversight board”.

Asked what he would say to Smethurst, Kershaw replied:

“I think only that, you know, every Australian has the right to challenge these types of matters and it’s been challenged and we live in a great democracy and we respect the court’s decision.”

Kershaw said that material collected in the Smethurst raid is currently “quarantined” while it takes legal advice – although as the solicitor-general Stephen Donaghue noted in court in November, the AFP’s undertaking not to use the material expired at the end of the case.

Asked if the material could be used in a prosecution against Smethurst, Kershaw replied:

“That’s a legal question. I guess, speculating on that wouldn’t be right. But there’s a difference between, I guess, illegally obtaining evidence and admissible evidence and that’s a question we have asked our in-house legal team.”

There is a discretion for courts to admit evidence, even if it is illegally obtained.

Asked about the investigation into former intelligence officer Cameron Gill, Kershaw confirmed “the matter is still current”.

Updated

Chalmers is asked if the government should extend jobkeeper beyond six months. He says that “remains to be seen”.

On schools, Chalmers says Scott Morrison should stop sending “mixed messages” to parents on schools.

He says: “First he said it was entirely a matter for the states, then he releases a video where, you know, he’s telling kids to go back to school. It’s not clear what he means by the kids of essential workers, one day he’s saying that means every worker, other day he’s got a more limited idea of essential workers.”

Updated

Chalmers says the jobkeeper package should be “extended to more workers”.

“One of the powers the treasurer has from the new legislation, he with a stroke of a pen can include or exclude different categories of workers,” he says.

“Those more than a million casuals who are currently excluded, some of the temporary workers and other workers, they’re been deliberately excluded from the scheme. The unemployment rate will be higher because Josh Frydenberg refuses to exercise those powers.

“The first thing he should do is extend it to more workers. That will maintain the connection between those workers and their employers, and it will make it easier for us to recover.”

Labor’s treasury spokesman, Jim Chalmers, is on the ABC with Patricia Karvelas.

Chalmers dismisses Josh Frydenberg’s claim that the IMF economists finalised their forecast before the announcement of the government’s jobkeeper package.

“The report makes it very clear the IMF board took into account developments all the way up to their meeting on 7 April, a week after the jobkeeper package was announced.

Chalmers adds: “What they said was they expect the Australian downturn to be deeper than in the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, Korea, and other countries. They expect average unemployment not to peak until next year, some time down the track. And they also expect the Australian economy to be smaller at the end of next year than it was at the beginning of this year. It wasn’t in especially good nick before the virus hit.

“I think all of these things are pretty concentrating conclusions. Even with the very welcome packages that the parliament has legislated, the jobkeeper package and other packages, we’re still expecting to see hundreds of thousands of Australians join the unemployment queues and that’s a very worrying development.”

Updated

Shortly after the national deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth finished speaking, the Victorian chief health officer, Brett Sutton, tweeted the following statement reiterating Victoria’s position that students should, if possible, remain home.

Sutton said: “My advice to the Victorian government was and continues to be that to slow the spread of coronavirus, schools should undertake remote learning for term two.

“This is because having around a million children and their parents in closer contact with each other, teachers and other support staff has the potential to increase cases of coronavirus not just in schools but across the community. By having remote learning, it can contribute to physical distancing and therefore supports efforts to drive transmission down.”

These comments immediately follow Coatsworth saying at a press conference that the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s advice remains that schools are “safe places because of the low rates of transmission”.

Updated

Spurrier says that testing will now be opened up for anybody in South Australia who has acute respiratory symptoms, but also people who have “just got mild symptoms”.

“So that might be a cough, a sore throat, a runny nose or a bit of shortness of breath - we would like to have you tested. We also know that, with coronavirus, you can have a fever. So, if you’ve just got a fever, it is also worth considering having testing done.”

Updated

Nicola Spurrier, SA’s chief medical officer, says there are no new Covid-19 cases recorded today.

“There’s zero cases today. So, if you remember from yesterday, we had 433, and we still have the 433 cases we reported yesterday.”

Spurrier says 279 people have recovered from coronavirus in the state, which represents 64% of all cases.

There are 10 people in hospital but only one person in ICU, she adds.

Updated

SA announces testing blitz

The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, has started speaking to the media in Adelaide.

He is announcing a “testing blitz” over the next two weeks which will allow people with any Covid-19 symptoms to be tested for coronavirus.

“So anybody in the community here in South Australia who have got any of the symptoms which lend themselves to coronavirus can go off to one of our 54 rapid testing and assessment clinics in South Australia and be tested,” he said.

“They will be able to be tested in South Australia. We have 54 in total, 48 of them in country SA.

Updated

Coatsworth says authorities are not considering issuing PPE gear to teachers.

He says that he can’t rule out cases within schools.

“And it’s clear, from what I’ve just said, that there will be cases amongst children. The question becomes - how many of those are actually going on? And - what transmission happens as a result of that? And it seems, from what we understand at the moment, that that transmission is very low.”

Here is Coatsworth explaining the Covid app that the government would like people to download.

What the app would do would be able to determine who you had been closer to for greater than a 15-minute period, which is what we can fine as ‘close contact’ through Bluetooth technology, and that information would be stored locally and privately on an individual’s mobile phone, only to be released if the person was diagnosed with Covid-19.

So, with that in mind, you can imagine the contact tracers have to call individuals and their recollection of contact might not be perfect, so it provides an added information technology source of that information so that the contact tracing can be even better than it already is at the moment.

Updated

Coatsworth says the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee’s advice is that schools are “safe places because of the low rates of transmission”.

“However, I can confirm today for you that the AHPPC has indeed been considering how to make schools even safer - even safer for staff, for teachers, in their essential role in this Covid-19 epidemic, and that that advice is being considered by National Cabinet this week.”

Updated

Children make up 2% of Covid-19 cases, deputy CMO says

Coatsworth is asked about the evidence around Covid-19 and children. This is in the context of children returning to schools.

He says: “It quite clearly affects a lower proportion of children, and we know - in Australia - that about 136 children between the ages of 5 and 18 have been affected, representing only 2% of our total number of cases.

“So, those raw numbers alone demonstrate the lower propensity or likelihood of children to get infected.”

Updated

Pressed on the role of the WHO given the Trump administration’s decision to halt funding, Coatsworth says “when there’s a pandemic affecting every nation in the world, one needs a multinational organisation”.

He says the Australian government “100% backs the role of the World Health Organization in providing a key role in managing this Covid-19 pandemic”.

Updated

Asked if the WHO has “dropped the ball” on wet markets, Coatsworth says there has been “contentious issue with regard to infectious diseases for longer than the Covid-19 outbreak”.

He says: “There have been calls for many years for their regulation and there is evidence in the current outbreak that wet markets may well have been involved with the inception of Covid-19.

“So, I suspect those calls are not new, they will continue, and the regulation of wet markets will be a matter for discussion with the World Health Organization and those governments where wet markets are prevalent.”

Updated

Coatsworth says “this is a period of maintaining the gains that we’ve made”.

He says:

It may feel, to a lot of us, like limbo. But I can assure you that it’s not. Charting a way out of where we are now with Covid-19 will be very challenging. And perhaps even more challenging than the way in. But the way that you, as Australians, can help us meet that challenge is to actually stick with us - stick to the physical-distancing restrictions that we’ve got in place, stick to the hygiene advice that we have been providing to you, doing all the things that Australians have been doing to help lower those case numbers.

Updated

Thanks Amy. We’ll get straight into this press conference with the deputy chief medical officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, which has just kicked off.

Updated

The deputy chief medical officer, Nick Coatsworth, is about to give the national Covid-19 update.

Luke Henriques-Gomes will take you through that, as I sign off for the day.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I’ll be back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, as always, you can reach me here and here and I’ll do my best to keep answering your questions as we work our way through this. In the meantime, take care of you.

Updated

As others much better versed in geopolitics than I have already pointed out, the US ceding more control of a global body to China is perhaps not the greatest long-term move.

Updated

Penny Wong and Chris Bowen have issued Labor’s response to news that the US under Donald Trump (who, by-the-by, has ordered that country’s stimulus cheques have his name on them) has stopped its contributions to the World Health Organisation:

While we recognise there is considerable room for improvement at the WHO, none of that improvement will happen by walking away or asking it to do more with less.

Now, more than ever, the world needs a strong, effective and well-resourced WHO.

And Australia needs a strong and effective WHO to help tackle the spread of Covid-19 in the developing countries of our region.

As with all United Nations organisations, the WHO is driven by member states, and only as effective as shared international resolve.

As former Republican adviser and President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, said today, the WHO

Is only what the major powers, including the US, allow it to be. It navigates a world of sovereign states.

Developed countries should not need to rely on the WHO for their domestic response to pandemics like Covid-19. But many of our closest neighbours cannot tackle this crisis without the WHO, and the world will not emerge from this crisis without it.

This is also a reminder for all countries that perceptions of national influence over international organisations diminish the standing and capacity of those organisations - to everyone’s detriment.

While we respect the right of all states to engage with international organisations on their own terms, the world needs more collective action and resolve to make the WHO better.

Updated

The ABC has this story some of you may find interesting:

An Adelaide shopper has attempted to return thousands of dollars’ worth of supplies to a local supermarket after stockpiling them at the start of the coronavirus panic buying outbreak, a retailer says.

But the man, who initially tried and failed to re-sell the goods online, has been refused a refund.

Drakes Supermarkets director John-Paul Drake said the man called the supermarket to try to get a refund on 132 packs of toilet rolls and 150 one-litre bottles of hand sanitiser.

He said the shopper had bought the goods, worth around $10,000, with the help of a “team” of stockpilers when panic buying surged about four weeks ago.

As readers have pointed out (and we have reported previously) part of the issue is the definition of a wet market.

A wet market is basically a fresh food market. The produce is “wet” – ie, fresh, as opposed to “dry” markets, which sell stores such as cereals and grains.

The markets in question here sell wildlife which, most people who have traveled through Asia or are familiar with the markets, know are much more rare.

You may have seen some images of crayfish being sold in Asian markets as an example that the current rules are being flouted. If you are shocked by that, I recommend you avoid any fish market in this country, where you may see *shock* exactly the same thing.

Updated

You may have noticed we have revised the Australian death total down to 63 – it was first reported as 64, but there was a double up in the data.

I apologise for the confusion.

Updated

GetUp has emailed its supporters seeking donations for a campaign in support of various social reforms to support people through the Covid-19 crisis, including income protection and free childcare.

The campaign aims to force the Morrison government to retain the reforms, but also answers GetUp’s critics who say it only ever attacks conservative governments and supports progressive parties like Labor and the Greens.

From the email by Paul Oosting, GetUp national director:

We need to live up to our independence with a massive campaign in support of the Coalition government’s recent social reforms – so they stick. We’ll commission ads, polling and a comprehensive report by leading economists to show Morrison just how popular these reforms are ...The reforms Morrison has passed will keep millions out of poverty, millions in work, ensuring that everyone has a roof over their head and access to healthcare when they need it most.

The whole thing has real killing the Tories with kindness vibes, because in conservative circles a big endorsement from GetUp is not a good thing.

In fact, GetUp name checks all its enemies campaigning against the measures - the Institute of Public Affairs, Advance Australia, and even the Murdoch Press which it says has “waged a relentless campaign to smear the GetUp movement and question our independence”.

Updated

We’ve reported on some of the privacy concerns watchdogs have with the app the government wants people to download, as a way of contact tracing Covid-19 interactions.

Scott Morrison has doubled down on the app perhaps being part of the trade-off for loosening restrictions, when speaking to Perth radio 6PR today.

As AAP reports:

TraceTogether uses Bluetooth to plot people who had spent 15 minutes or more in close proximity to a person with coronavirus.

They then share the records with authorities when asked to be part of a tracing investigation.

Mr Morrison said using location information may be necessary to save lives and livelihoods.

“If that tool is going to help them do that, then this may be one of the sacrifices we have to make,” he told 6PR radio on Wednesday.

The prime minister said the app would be a more efficient way of contact tracing coronavirus cases.

“What would happen then is the health authorities, who are the only ones who’d have access to that data, would contact those people just like they do now,” he said.

He said the digital information would prevent a reliance on people’s memories.

“At the end of the day [that] would mean we’d save lives and save more livelihoods,” Mr Morrison said.

Singapore, where about 20 per cent of people have signed up to the app, has provided coding information to Australia for development.

Updated

The response to Paul Fletcher’s announcements today has not been universally great.

Here is Screen Producers Australia’s representative Matthew Deaner, who is worried about the impact suspending Australian content quotas will have on an already struggling local industry:

A complete suspension is also a very blunt tool when it is considered that some sub-types of production are still able to be commissioned, including animation and documentary.

Suspension of commissioning activity essentially knocks out demand for these productions, which would have been crucial in keeping people in jobs in the industry during the wider shutdown.

It is imperative that these quota suspensions are strictly limited in time, so that when production activity can resume, there is sufficient commissioning activity to stimulate the rapid upscaling of production to drive the delivery of much-loved content and to reignite employment in the sector, which will be vital for the wider economy.

The government must institute a rigorous, evidence-based and open process to determine whether the suspension should be extended into 2021. This will require a detailed assessment of supply and likely production activity and must preclude any potential for gaming the suspension by broadcasters who have already publicly indicated their pre-coronavirus preference to dial down commissions in complete contravention of regulatory obligations.

Updated

Part of the issue with the World Health Organisation and its position on wet markets is there have been some contradictory positions.

A spokesman for the WHO says reports it backs the reopening of wet markets is incorrect.

But then World Health Organisation advisor Professor Marylouise McLaws told the Seven Network this morning it could be done with monitoring.

Seven Network



Updated

Meanwhile, on the Gold Coast

In the interview on 6PR, Scott Morrison also gave short shrift to certain commentators who have claimed that the sweeping response to Covid-19 may be worse than the disease. When asked what he made of those criticisms, Morrison said:

I think they should google Italy, the United Kingdom, New York - any of these countries will do - Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and look at the horror show that’s happening there and ask themselves the same question.

Morrison argued that Australia had bought itself time to find a way out of the crisis.

Absolutely I think we can, and no country at the moment has been able to successfully chart that course yet, but we’re in a better position than many and most to be able to do that.

Updated

In an interview just now on Radio 6PR, Scott Morrison said he sympathised with US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the World Health Organisation. But he also noted the WHO did good work in our region.

I sympathise with his criticisms and I’ve made a few of my own. I mean, we called this thing weeks before the WHO did. If we were relying on their advice then I suspect we would have been suffering the same fate that many other countries currently are.

We were calling it a pandemic back in mid-January.

When asked whether the WHO was pandering to China, Morrison said:

Look, I’m not going to get into that, but what I am going to say is: while I have many criticisms of the WHO, and most significantly the unfathomable decision that they’ve had about wet markets - and there are lots of different kinds of wet markets, I’m talking about the ones that have wildlife - I won’t go into a colourful description, but to be sanctioning that is completely mystifying to me. But that said, the WHO also as an organisation does a lot of important work including here in our own region, in the Pacific, and we work closely with them. So we’re not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, but they’re also not immune from criticism and immune from doing things better.

Updated

Australia’s death toll now stands at 63.

Updated

ACT Health has released a statement on the third death:

The ACT chief health officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, is today advising the Canberra community of the ACT’s third death from Covid-19.

The individual, a female in her 60s, died at the Canberra hospital. The individual acquired Covid-19 while on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

“It is with sadness that I report that the ACT has recorded its third death from Covid-19,” Dr Coleman said.

“I offer my sincere condolences to this person’s family and friends.

“My thoughts are with you in this very difficult time.”

Dr Coleman said this most recent death was a stark reminder of the danger of this disease, at a time when the number of cases were falling in the ACT.

“The very sad reality of this disease is that it is most dangerous for the elderly and the vulnerable, who are at a greatly increased risk of complications,” Dr Coleman said.

Updated

ACT records third Covid-19 death

We will have more information on this very soon

Anyone wanting more information on today’s ABS figures on international arrivals, can find them here.

Updated

The communications minister, Paul Fletcher, has commented on the Smethurst high court decision, telling reporters in Sydney it shows the AFP is “subject to the rule of law”.

Fletcher says he hasn’t read the decision yet but he understands the high court found the “legal requirements when executing a search warrant ... weren’t met” and the raid therefore was “not validly executed”.

Fletcher said it was “entirely appropriate” for the court to make that decision, but declines to weigh in on the fact that prosecutions are still possible because police were not ordered to delete material.

Updated

We asked Kristina Keneally, Peter Dutton’s shadow counterpart, if she had heard about the AFP fraud taskforce. She had not, beyond what was said on the radio:

Peter Dutton boasted on 2GB that he established a dedicated taskforce in the AFP to tackle jobkeeper ‘fraud’ but there are no details about when this taskforce was established or how many officers are dedicated to it.

How are we supposed to believe that the taskforce exists if the minister for home affairs isn’t able to provide these simple details?

... Peter Dutton hasn’t explained his failure to stop the Ruby Princess spreading coronavirus across Australia and now is failing to explain a taskforce he claims to have established.

Dutton is due to have a chat with Hadley tomorrow, where we are *sure* we will learn more.

Updated

[Continuing from last post]

So we asked again. When was the taskforce established? How many officers were assigned to it? What form did it take?

The AFP replied:

We’re aiming to provide further details at a later date, but at this stage this is all we can provide.

For the record, here was the exchange where the home affairs minister brought up the taskforce, himself:

Ray Hadley: OK. Just one final thing; last night this unbelievable jobkeeper bailout was passing through parliament – $130 billion – the like of it you’ve never seen before, probably never see again. But it’s to save the economy and we applaud the government for doing it.

But you and I lived through the largesse of the Rudd government with what happened with the financial crisis then. Are you at all concerned, as I am, the way it’s been dealt with, that there may be some opportunity for the dudders to take hold? Because you know and I know every time, whether it’s NDIS, whether it’s preschools, whether it’s childcare centres, as soon as the government says we’re going to fund something, some low bludger formulates a plan to steal money from us? And I’m fearful that even if a small amount of money is stolen – we’re talking about billions of dollars being stolen – are you fearful we got a job in front of us to keep the lid on it?

Peter Dutton: Ray, it’s a good point actually because we’ve established a taskforce with the Australian Federal Police and investigators within Centrelink and within Services Australia because there will be an element of fraud, and those people need to hear a very clear message that now, more than ever, you are more likely to be caught and now more than ever, you have incredible scrutiny on these payments and if people do the wrong thing, then they can expect a search warrant to be executed by the Federal Police or they can expect their assets to be frozen.

There are other cases we’re looking at, I was only looking at this morning in terms of people committing fraud against Australian taxpayers, against the commonwealth, and the police will restrain assets. They’ll move very quickly to charge those people that have deliberately done the wrong thing. There will be those people that claim with good intent and they’ve done the wrong thing, the money will have to be repaid and they’ll go through all of that process, but the people you’re talking about, the criminals, who would exploit the system, the technology that we’ve got now to apply algorithms, look at transfers, to look at the way in which money is being diverted to different shelf companies, etc, those people are going to be under a lot of scrutiny. So, I think they should think twice about what they’re doing.

Updated

AFP fraud 'taskforce' questions

Last week, Peter Dutton had his regular love in with Sydney radio host Ray Hadley, where he mentioned a fraud “taskforce” had been established in the AFP to deal with people who might be trying to rip off either the jobkeeper or jobseeker program.

He was pretty definitive about it:

We have established a taskforce with the Australian Federal Police and investigators within Centrelink and within Services Australia, because there will be an element of fraud and those people need to hear a very clear message, that now, more than ever, you are more likely to be caught, and now more than ever, you have incredible scrutiny on these payments, and you can expect a search warrant to be executed by the Australian Federal Police and you can expect your assets to be frozen and there are other cases we are looking at ...

So Paul Karp and I asked the AFP what was happening with the taskforce. When was it established? What was its name? Was it specially set up for Covid-19?

It took a little bit, but the AFP media team eventually responded with:

The Commonwealth Government is providing significant stimulus and support measures to protect Australia’s people and the economy as a central element of the Government Covid-19 assistance response.

The Australian Federal Police is working closely with partner agencies across the Commonwealth as a Covid-19 Counter Fraud Taskforce to ensure the support measures make it to those who need it.

The Taskforce is focused on the prevention of fraud against the Covid-19 economic stimulus measures, together with identifying and taking action against those who seek to commit fraud against the measures or any other welfare or support programs.

Which makes it seem like the AFP is talking to other agencies, and using the word “taskforce” to make it seem like a special unit.

You may also note that it didn’t answer any of the questions.

Updated

In his official statement, Josh Frydenberg has taken the “always look on the bright side of life” message to heart, when it comes to the IMF modelling:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects economic growth in Australia to rebound despite the global economy facing a downturn ‘far worse than during the 2009 global financial crisis’ as a result of the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

The IMF is forecasting the global economy to fall by 3.0 per cent in 2020 which compares to a fall of 0.1 per cent in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.

Economic growth in Australia is projected by the IMF to fall by 6.7 per cent in 2020 as the world deals with the economic fallout from the coronavirus.

However, the IMF is forecasting Australia to grow by 6.1 per cent in 2021, faster than the economies of the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Updated

Not unexpected, given what was happening, but still extraordinary to see charted out like this

Man jailed for breaking WA quarantine

I mean, Romeo and Juliet was due for an update.

From AAP:

A man who ignored a coronavirus quarantine directive and repeatedly snuck out of a Perth hotel to visit his girlfriend has become the first Australian jailed for the offence.

However, he will only serve one month behind bars.

Jonathan David, 35, pleaded guilty in Perth magistrates court to two counts of failing to comply with a direction.

He was sentenced on Wednesday to six months and two weeks in prison but the majority of the term was suspended.

That means if he commits another crime over the next 12 months, he could be forced to serve the rest of the prison sentence.

He was also fined $2,000.

David had travelled from Victoria and was sent into quarantine at the Travelodge hotel in Perth for 14 days, but instead snuck out and used public transport.

Police said he even wedged open a fire exit door at the hotel so he could leave and return without staff seeing him.

A police prosecutor previously described David’s actions as “gross stupidity”.

Magistrate Elaine Campione said David had been “more than foolish” and was “selfish in the extreme” during a state of emergency.

Updated

Jim Chalmers, on the Trump administration’s decision to halt funding to the WHO, says from Labor’s point of view, the solution is “to look for outcomes, not arguments”.

Updated

The Digital Rights Watch chair, Lizzie O’Shea, says people are right to be sceptical of any Covid-19 tracing apps pushed by the government:

No public trust means people will hesitate to install the app, and not-very-subtly coercing people by saying restrictions could ease if surveillance increases is an appalling way to start.

They certainly need to do better than suggesting that privacy implications will be examined by the attorney general. Everything about this needs to be transparent. The code must be independently audited. There needs to be a clear benchmark for when data will no longer be collected and the app deactivated.

Even without the atrocious track record our federal government has when it comes to surveillance, getting sufficient buy-in with a voluntary app seems to be very difficult in other countries. We’ve seen uptake at 10% to 20% of populations overseas, and it’ll take twice that to be remotely useful. There are a lot of design decisions that will have to be made well, and if history is any guide, that is highly unlikely.

Updated

The union which looks after posties wants the government to put on emergency flights to ensure regional and rural Australia keep getting their deliveries:

The CEPU communications union national president, Shane Murphy, said:

Our posties are delivering essential items to the most vulnerable in our community – people who can no longer just duck down to the shop to pick up the medicine or other essential items they urgently need.

If passenger flights aren’t viable, we need emergency freight flights to ensure our mail and essential packages can continue to get to those who need it most.

Australia’s domestic flights have been cut down to just a few routes, which has caused a ripple effect, including for postal deliveries.

Updated

Paul Karp has a statement from the AFP on the high court case today:

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) acknowledges the decision of the High Court handed down today (Wednesday 15 April, 2020), relating to the AFP search warrant conducted at the residence of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst.

The AFP will now consider the decision and will act in accordance with the ruling.

The AFP has no further comment on the matter at this time.

Updated

Australia won't follow US lead and pull WHO funding, Josh Frydenberg says

Would Australia follow Donald Trump in cutting funding to the World Health Organization, a reporter asked.

Josh Frydenberg said he respected the decision of “any sovereign country in relation to who they fund and what they fund” but that Australia did not intend to pull its funding:

In terms of Australia, we see the World Health Organization playing an important role, particularly in our region, and that’s important to Australia.

Frydenberg said Australia’s funding of the WHO did not mean the government had agreed with it on everything. He highlights wet markets in China as one matter on which the Australian government and the WHO disagreed, saying it was “unbelievable – it’s extraordinary that the World Health Organization sees it fit for these wet markets to continue in China”.

The WHO has actually called for those markets to be shut down.

Updated

All Australian lives should be valued equally, Frydenberg says

Josh Frydenberg also appeared to obliquely reference arguments suggesting that social distancing measures should be lifted because the coronavirus is only deadly to the elderly, which is clearly a horrible argument.

He says:

We need to move away from this mindset of thinking that the coronavirus is an older person’s virus. It’s not an older person’s virus, it’s not a younger person’s virus. It’s a virus that affects all of us.

I mean, the median age of those who have lost their lives from the coronavirus is around 80. The median age of those who have been hospitalised from the coronavirus is around 60. The median age of those who have contracted the virus is 47. But if you look at the greatest cohort ... that’s those aged between 20 and 29. Which indicates that those people are contracting the virus.

Some are going to be dealing with it more than others but they’ll also be passing it on to others and we need to treat every Australian equally here. We need to value every Australian life equally.

Updated

Frydenberg is asked about privacy issues surrounding the mobile phone app that the government announced yesterday, which is intended to track people who test positive to Covid-19 and anyone they come into contact with to help with contact tracing.

Obviously, there are pretty significant privacy concerns involved.

Frydenberg says that’s a matter for the attorney general. He says the app is being modelled on a similar one used in Singapore. He stresses the app would be voluntary, “it’s an opt in, and the privacy issues are being worked through by the attorney general”.

Is it true that social distancing measures will be restricted if 40% of the population sign up to the app, a reporter asks?

Frydenberg says:

Well, again, this app is important in contact tracing and obviously we’ve got increased testing that’s taking place and we’re seeing progress in bending the curve, but my message, and the prime minister’s message, the health minister’s message, has been consistent and clear.

We will continue to take the best possible medical advice that’s available to us and that’s served the nation well. If you look abroad, if you look at Japan and you look at Singapore, they thought they were having great success in beating back the virus yet they saw a second wave of cases and they’ve had to put tighter restrictions in place.

So he is not going to promise any benchmark against which restrictions would be lifted.

Updated

Frydenberg was asked why the IMF predictions show Australia’s unemployement rising to 7.6% this year, and again to 8.9% next year.

He says the calculations were done before Australia announced its $130bn jobkeeper payment.

The other point to make is at the time that the IMF were putting together their figures, the Australian curve was heading in the wrong direction, if you like. We were seeing an exponential increase of more than 20% a day in the number of cases of coronavirus-affected people.

Since that time, we’ve bent that curve and we’re seeing a growth of less than 2% per day and our health measures are making significant progress. So I’d ask you to take those factors into account because, of course, the success on the health side helps also determine the broader economic impacts that are also taking police.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg talks up Australia’s economic response package, which is valued at about $320bn or 16% of GDP. That’s bigger than many other countries, he says.

Frydenberg also said he would have a phone meeting with his G20 counterparts tonight, and a phone hookup with the IMF tomorrow night.

From Australia’s perspective, our messages are clear and consistent. We must continue to see the trade in essential items like health supplies at this time. And the current crisis should not be seen as a cause for protectionism. We will also continue to support emerging economies and many of those developing economies who do not have the established health systems that we see in Australia and in other nations.

These are messages together with the need for continued synchronised action by central banks, including the Reserve Bank of Australia, are vitally important to ensure that the Australian economy and the global economy get to the other side of the coronavirus.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg is talking in Canberra now about the economic forecast released by the International Monetary Fund overnight.

The IMF predicted a 3% contraction in the global economy and said the impact of the “Great Lockdown” would be a recession of a size not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The treasurer says the IMF predictions are “not surprising”.

They reflect the reality that we’re in. And the severe economic impact that economies around the world are facing as a result of the spread of the coronavirus. They also underline the importance of the major support packages that countries like Australia have announced.

Updated

Condolences for sixth person to have died in Tasmania

Peter Gutwein has offered his condolences to the family of an elderly woman who died after testing positive to the coronavirus. The woman was the sixth person to have died after testing positive to Covid-19 in Tasmania. The death toll in Australia stands at 62.

The 91-year-old woman reportedly died at the Mersey hospital in Devonport. The premier said his thoughts were with the woman’s family.

The total number of cases in Tasmania now stands at 165, including 57 people who have recovered.

Updated

Tasmanian premier says vilification of healthcare workers 'not acceptable'

Tasmania’s premier, Peter Gutwein, is talking in Hobart now, and he appears to be taking aim at people who are sharing theories online about the actions of healthcare workers on the north-west coast.

That group of people includes the federal chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, who yesterday had to backtrack on saying that an “illegal dinner party of medical workers” was responsible for the spread of the coronavirus in the Burnie area.

Gutwein said:

I want north-west coasters just to pause for a moment and reflect on the fact that the people that have supported them in their healthcare centre and their health centres now for decades are people that should be acknowledged for the work that they’ve done. And this shouldn’t be an opportunity for those that want to get online and vilify and take aim. That’s not acceptable …

Anyone that’s thinking about lining up a healthcare worker, taking a potshot at them, should just draw breath and accept that there is a process under way. We will work through it. We will get to the bottom of it, and then we will explain fully what has happened.

Updated

The Victorian parliament will be recalled for an emergency sitting next Thursday, 23 April, to allow the passage of legislation on the tenancy reforms, announced today, and also “urgent appropriation bills” to allow for public sector workers to be paid.

There will be fewer than usual MPs in each house and only a skeleton staff present.

The parliamentary public accounts and estimates committee is also conducting an inquiry into the management of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg will also be discussing the IMF report. He has called a press conference for 11.25.

Updated

Quarantine is ending for Australian passengers on cruise ships that docked in WA – but there is no way for some of them to get back to their home state.

As AAP reports:

More than 240 Queenslanders are trapped in Western Australia after their cruise on the Vasco Da Gama docked in Fremantle in late March.

Quarantine for the 242 Queenslanders ended on Saturday, but with domestic flights cancelled they remain stranded on the west coast, a spokesman for Queensland Health says.

“The WA government is trying to negotiate flights with the airlines. Their quarantine ended on Saturday but they’re still paying for their hotels and food in the meantime,” he told AAP.

WA Health Minister Roger Cook said he would work to get passengers home as quickly as possible.

“We have difficult circumstances at the moment because flights have been severely interrupted and getting people out to their state of origin may take, in some cases, some days,” he said at a press conference.

“But we’ll work as quickly as we can with the airlines, other governments and those people to make sure their transition is as smooth as possible.”

Updated

The Victorian parliament will sit next Thursday in an emergency sitting to pass some of the Covid-19 legislation the Andrews government has put forward.

Updated

On top of land tax relief, the Victorian government is putting more money into mediation for landlords and tenants for rental relief, if Covid-19 has impacted someone’s income.

Dan Andrews:

The key point here, though, is that even with a good-faith agreement, there will be many tenants who are left under financial stress.

And the definition, if you like, of, that is if your rent represents more than 30% of your income, then you are under real stress. If that’s the case –so you’ve got a good-faith negotiation, you do a deal, reduce the rent by a certain amount, but still that rent represents more than 30% of your obviously reduced income, then there will be rent assistance, some $80m worth of rent assistance, that will be available to the best part of 40,000 tenants right across the state.

But just quickly, those tenants, after a negotiation, if they’re still in rental stress, if they earn less than $100,000 a year, less than $5,000 in savings, then we will make available to them up to $2,000 in rental assistance.

That assistance will go directly to the landlord and obviously we’ll support that ongoing tenancy, but also support landlords.

Updated

Daniel Andrews is holding his press conference. He is giving a very polite “no thank you” to the federal government message to send kids back to school, en masse, at least in his state.

If you think about it, common sense simply dictates if you’ve got a million kids getting to and from school, a full complement of teachers, parents moving around the community, dropping kids off, picking them up, that is not at all consistent with social distancing rules and not consistent with the sort of numbers that every single Victorian can be proud of – some stability in these numbers is critical. That is saving lives.”

But schools remain open for anyone who still has a job or can’t educate at home.

Updated

Jim Chalmers will speak about the IMF’s predictions for after the “Great Lockdown” at 11.30am.

At least I’ll get a glimpse of Brisbane.

Updated

With Australia in the suppression stage of Covid-19, it clears some of the air for this book, which will be released next week.

We hear he is attempting to see if one of the virtual launches can take place on a kayak.

Paul Fletcher will hold a media conference at 12.30 to discuss that new package.

Updated

For the record, when asked today, both Dave Sharma and Dan Tehan said they would speak with their children about whether or not they were comfortable with being physically sent back to school, and make decisions from there.

Schools are open for essential workers (anyone with a job) and for parents who have no choice. But even in the classroom, school would look very different, with the past few weeks spent developing online and distance learning, which means the lessons are more of a one-size-fits-all kind.

Another of the special charter flights designed to get stranded Australians home has landed – about 115 Australians who were in Peru touched down in Brisbane last night. They have been sent to hotels for the two-week quarantine.

Paul Fletcher has released this statement:

The Morrison Government today announced a package of measures to help sustain Australian media businesses as they do their vital work of keeping the community informed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures include:

  • Tax Relief – A 12-month waiver of spectrum tax for commercial television and radio broadcasters
  • Investing in Regional Journalism – A $50 million Public Interest News Gathering program
  • Short-Term Red Tape Relief – Emergency suspension of content quotas in 2020
  • Harmonising Regulation to Support Australian Content – Release of an Options Paper developed by Screen Australia and the Australian Communications and Media Authority, commencing a fast-tracked consultation process on how best to support Australian stories on our screens

Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, the Hon Paul Fletcher MP, said “Many Australians are doing it tough right now and the media sector is sharing that pain, especially in regional areas. Broadcasters and newspapers face significant financial pressure and COVID-19 has led to a sharp downturn in advertising revenue across the whole sector.

We’ll have a full report to you on the high court decision regarding the validity of the warrant used to raid Annika Smethurst shortly – but in the meantime the high court has published its full judgment and a summary.

From the summary:

Today the High Court unanimously held, in answer to questions stated in a special case, that the warrant relied upon by officers of the Australian Federal Police (“the AFP”) to authorise the search of the residence of the first plaintiff, Ms Annika Smethurst, was invalid and should be quashed ...

The High Court unanimously held that the warrant relied upon by the AFP was invalid on the ground that it misstated the substance of s 79(3) of the Crimes Act, as it stood on 29 April 2018, and failed to state the offence to which the warrant related with sufficient precision. The entry, search and seizure which occurred on 4 June 2019 were therefore unlawful. Having made this finding, it was not necessary for the Court to consider whether the warrant was invalid on the ground that s 79(3) of the Crimes Act, as it stood on 29 April 2018, infringed the implied freedom of political communication. Nor was it necessary to consider the validity of the order that had been made under s 3LA of the Crimes Act requiring Ms Smethurst to give assistance to enable a constable to access, copy or convert data on a computer or data storage device. The Court unanimously ordered that the warrant be quashed. A majority of the Court declined to grant the injunctive relief sought by the plaintiffs, pointing to the plaintiffs’ inability to identify a sufficient right or interest that required protection by way of a mandatory injunction.

That’s the key bit – Smethurst has won, but the court has not ordered the material to be deleted. That’s why it’s only a partial win, and Smethurst and her source are still exposed to risk of prosecution.

Updated

Minister intervenes to keep mobility allowance

The social services minister has intervened to ensure about 15,000 people with disabilities will keep a $100-a-fortnight extra allowance during the Covid-19 crisis following claims some had lost the payment due to the shutdown.

After Guardian Australia raised the prospect that recipients were likely to lose the allowance due to the pandemic, Anne Ruston said on Tuesday night she had asked her department to cease eligibility reviews for the mobility allowance.

She also revealed that a longstanding plan to scrap the payment from July was “under review”.

The $99.50 payment is paid to people whose disability, illness or injury who cannot use public transport without substantial assistance and is designed to cover travel costs for work or study. It is regularly reviewed by Centrelink to ensure recipients meet these strict eligibility requirements.

Ruston told the Guardian: “I have directed my department to cease all reviews for mobility allowance in recognition of the unprecedented circumstances surrounding the Coronavirus outbreak and has had a significant impact on people’s daily lives.”

On Tuesday the Guardian spoke to Michael, a 69-year-old age pensioner from regional New South Wales who said he had stopped receiving the allowance after his eligibility was reviewed last month.

Michael, who uses a wheelchair, said he was unable to confirm the dates and hours he would spend doing a Tafe course and continuing his regular work as a consultant.

Advocates are already frustrated that people who receive the disability support pension have been excluded from the $550-a-fortnight coronavirus supplement, along with age pensioners and carers.

Jeff Smith, the chief executive of People With Disability Australia, told the Guardian people with disabilities were already facing higher food delivery costs and increased prices on some essential goods and services.

“We do not want to exacerbate the increased costs that people with disability are experiencing through the Covid-19 pandemic by restricting access to the Mobility Allowance,” he said.

Services Australia earlier this month was forced to warn disability support pensioners that there could be unintended consequences for people who switched to the jobseeker payment to receive the higher rate.

Updated

Dan Tehan has been sent out to boost’s today’s government message – “say thank you to teachers” – which doubles as, “We want you to send your kids back to school, please start doing that.”

The education minister says the medical expert advice has not changed and it is safe to send children to school, which is, has been, and remains, the federal government’s preferred option.

Tehan:

The medical expert panel, which is the panel which is made up of the chief medical officer from the commonwealth, and all the state and territory chief medical officers, has given guidance to schools about making sure we look after the safety of our teachers. They are continuing to monitor that and to provide that guidance.

So, some of the things that they have suggested have been extra sanitiser at schools, extra washing of hands, having lunchtime breaks done at different times for different cohorts.

If there are teachers who are 65 years or older, giving them a different role, which doesn’t involve teaching in the classroom. They are going to continue to monitor this on a daily basis.

Updated

Not Covid-19 related, but still very important:

Updated

Here is a bit more of Dave Sharma speaking to Sky News about Donald Trump’s decision to halt funding to the World Health Organization and what Australia might do:

This reckoning has been coming for some time. I think a lot of countries, Australia included have been less than impressed with the WHO’s performance.

He says he thinks that a lot of countries, including Australia, will “have a pretty good forensic look” at how the WHO operates when the immediate crisis of the global pandemic passes.

I think it’s incumbent upon all of us though [to review the] performance of key institutions throughout and that includes the World Health Organization.

We are a significant donor to the WHO as well, in terms of assessed contributions and also voluntary contributions, so I would expect we will be having more to say on this, once the worst of this crisis is behind us.

Sharma says he would expect countries like Australia, the United States, Japan and South Korea, to come together to “demand some significant reforms to how the WHO operates after this crisis”:

It is probably a little too premature for us to be talking about what that looks like, we still need to be dealing with this crisis for now, but certainly in the wash-up, that is something we will need to look at closely.

Updated

We spoke about this again yesterday, but the arts is going through a very, very rough time in Australia at the moment.

A lot of performers and associated support workers are locked out of jobkeeper because they don’t have that year-long link with one employer.

Production has ceased in many, many cases – albums have been pushed back and projects have been put into the never never.

A whole year of work for many creatives has just disappeared overnight.

Screen Producers Australia wants the government to set up a $1bn screen content fund to stem some of the losses:

The production industry is currently facing a difficult and uncertain future. Coronavirus containment measures have seen almost all production activity cease, with devastating economic and employment impacts,” said SPA CEO Matthew Deaner.

We are therefore calling on the Government to implement a $1 billion screen content fund over the forward estimates to amongst other things, top up the existing tax offsets, assist with insurance risk, support those who have fallen through the cracks and supplement Screen Australia; and the immediate extension of content obligations onto SVOD services, to help share the load.

Our industry is ‘shovel ready’ but it is only direct and timely action along these lines which will ensure that we are able to get back on our feet and restart the production of quality Australian content for our nation’s entertainment and education and to capitalise on export opportunities.

Updated

Six people playing tennis on closed public tennis courts in Maribyrnong and 10 teenagers at a skate park in Dandenong are among 52 people to be issued with on-the-spot fines for allegedly breaching Victoria’s social distancing orders in the past 24 hours.

Police in Victoria also charged eight teenagers “socialising together at a closed school” and found “multiple instances of private gatherings at residential properties”, a spokeswoman for Victoria police said.

Police in Victoria conducted 824 checks on homes, businesses, and “non-essential services” in the past day, the spokeswoman said.

Updated

The federal government has settled a federal court case brought by the tourism operator APT challenging the legality of the health minister Greg Hunt’s order that all cruise ships leave Australian waters as soon as possible.

APT’s small cruise ship, the Caledonian Sky, is moored in Darwin and the company doesn’t want it to leave Australia.

Counsel for the commonwealth, Jeremy Kirk SC, told the court that the parties had reached an in-principle deal during a brief hearing conducted via video link this morning.

Details of the settlement weren’t made public during the hearing.

Updated

Following on from Josh Taylor’s story on the Covid-19 tracing app, Apple has released its mobility data.

Updated

And the response from a Nationals member.

He’s right. It’s exactly like blaming Wagga Wagga for something that happened in Brisbane, and we all know *exactly* why some people pushed for this to happen.

A reader has just pointed me in the direction of this story in the Daily Advertiser, which covers Wagga Wagga.

The council has voted to cut ties with its Chinese sister city, Kunming.

The paper reported that Paul Funnell, the councillor who put the motion forward as “saying it was not a “knee-jerk reaction” to coronavirus, nor a debate fuelled by racism, but an attempt to set an example:

We must end that relationship arrangement and not condone such behaviour.

This action is in no way stopping international trade, communication or the opportunity to deal with China in a fair, transparent and mutually beneficial manner.

What it does do is say we will not tolerate lies and subterfuge.

That council is part of Michael McCormack’s electorate, for anyone wondering.

Updated

Karen Andrews is back beating the manufacturing drum again today, continuing to use every formulation of words other than “subsidy” as she talks about Australia growing the sector. Here she is on Sky this morning;

Let’s actually talk about what Australia’s needs are and that is to make sure that we do build a very strong manufacturing sector. And quite frankly, that work was well under way last year to look at what the future of manufacturing was going to be in this country. Since then we’ve obviously experienced the issues with the coronavirus, Covid-19. So we will re-look again at what the options are for us. But let’s understand that we actually need to bring businesses with us. We need to bring consumers with us and they need to get behind the push for a stronger manufacturing sector in Australia.

Obviously, government will do its part. We’re certainly looking at how we can stimulate through procurement ourselves; that work is under way. But let me be clear, we can’t be all things to all people. So we’re not going to be able to manufacture everything that we want. What we want to do is be in a position that we are in a good place to manufacture what we need and that means establishing the right supply chains.

Updated

“Schools are open, teachers will be at schools in Queensland and they are open for essential workers,” Annastacia Palaszczuk says, adding that she thinks Queensland has “the balance right”.

“Anyone who is in the workforce is considered an essential worker,” the premier says.

Updated

Queensland has issued 884 tickets for breaching physical distance and restriction rules since the “campaign” began last month.

Updated

The Queensland chief health officer, Jeannette Young, says she is a “little concerned” with the numbers of cases coming from interstate, with 17 of the most recent cases having been contracted over the border.

Queensland has closed its borders – all people crossing it now need a permit, including Queensland residents.

Updated

Queensland records lowest overnight Covid-19 total since March

The Queensland health minister, Steven Miles, says Queensland has recorded five new cases in the last 24 hours, which is the lowest number since the beginning of March.

Those five positive cases came after 1,434 tests.

Queensland has had 999 confirmed cases of Covid-19; 442 have recovered.

Twenty-three people are in hospital, 11 people are in intensive care and 10 people are on ventilators.

Updated

There is nothing from the PM on this as yet but we are assured that if there is something to say we will hear about it.

Updated

Jim Chalmers has responded to the IMF’s latest report;

In its World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecasts a 6.7% contraction in the Australian economy in 2020, with unemployment expected to rise to an average of 7.6% in 2020 and 8.9% in 2021.

The IMF doesn’t share the prime minister’s assumption that employment in Australia will miraculously “snap back” to normal on his six-month timeframe.

The outlook highlighted that the IMF expects the Australian economy to be smaller at the end of the 2021 recovery, with elevated unemployment, than it was before the coronavirus hit.

Expectations of persistently high unemployment is a sobering reminder of the devastating economic impacts of this diabolical health crisis, and highlights the need to protect as many jobs as possible now.

The IMF says countries should rely heavily on measures like wage subsidies, which Labor called for and supported in the parliament, and has warned against withdrawing support too quickly in a way that could jeopardise the recovery.

Unemployment will be higher than necessary and persist for longer than necessary if the treasurer doesn’t exercise his powers to include more casuals and other workers left out of the jobkeeper scheme.

Updated

The Hobart Mercury reports that the Tasmanian premier, Peter Gutwein, helped a pregnant nurse jump start her stalled car after a night shift, which is a very personal way to offer health workers support.

Updated

The IMF has given this period in history a name – the “Great Lockdown”, which they anticipate will rival the Great Depression in terms of economic impact.

Updated

More than 25,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the United States.

Donald Trump has announced the US will defund the World Health Organization in the middle of a global pandemic:

All of the aid that we send will be discussed in very, very powerful letters and with very powerful and influential groups and smart groups, medically, politically and every other way. We will be discussing it with other countries and global health partners.

What we do with all of that money that goes to WHO and maybe WHO will reform and maybe they won’t. But we will be able to see.

As you know, in other countries hit hard by the virus, hospitals have been tragically forced to ration medical care and the use of ventilators.

But due to our early and aggressive action and skill of our healthcare workers and the resilience of our healthcare system, no hospital in America has been forced to deny any patient access to a ventilator, with all of the talk you have heard where some states wanted 40,000 ventilators.

I said that doesn’t work: 40,000. They ended up with 7,000 or 8,000. And they had no problem – 40,000 ventilators for one state. Ridiculous.

Updated

US freezes WHO funding

Donald Trump is standing in the rose garden, accusing the World Health Organization of mishandling the coronavirus pandemic and confirming that the US will halt its payments to the organisation – which make up about $500m a year – in the middle of a global pandemic.

Updated

NSW working for Ruby Princess departure by Sunday

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, gave his update, which includes a departure date for the Ruby Princess:

In terms of the Ruby update, we are working with Carnival Cruises and Border Force and Health and looking for a hopeful departure date of this Sunday. We will be working towards that.

Overnight, we did see a 20-year-old man come off the Ruby with another appendicitis. He is now in the NSW health system, being treated. There is no suggestion he has coronavirus.

Overnight, we only saw a handful of tickets issued for isolation or non-isolation, which I think is a really good sign, that whilst we got through a challenging weekend, that people generally are coming on the journey and I can only again thank the community and the police for working through this difficult time.

Updated

Anglicare Newmarch House aged care cluster

The NSW chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, says there are 214 people under the care of NSW Health and 29 people in ICU, with 18 of those ventilated.

And at the Anglicare Newmarch House aged care facility, there’s been a total of 10 cases. Six amongst the staff and four amongst the residents have tested positive.

As you’re aware the first case reported there was in a healthcare worker who worked whilst she had very mild symptoms. And I have spoken to the director of the public health unit and this person is absolutely mortified.

So I think I would urge people to remember that the symptoms of Covid can be incredibly mild and the key point is do not go to work. It doesn’t matter how mild those symptoms are – runny nose, sore throat – just a scratchy throat in this case.

Please don’t go to work. And I would particularly urge you, if you work associated with providing care to the elderly, the aged and disability, to have that incredibly high awareness of even minor changes in your health.

But I would like to reiterate that that worker is incredibly distraught about the circumstances.

Obviously my thoughts and wishes go out to the families that have been impacted by the Covid in the nursing home.

Updated

It’s Gladys Berejiklian press conference time, which must mean it is about 8am.

She says NSW recorded just 16 positive tests for Covid-19 overnight, from 1,300 tests.

NSW will also waive licence fees for businesses.

Updated

It might also be worth pointing out, as the schools issue pops up again (and will again and again) and we get more messages like this, the government has also cancelled parliament until August.

Updated

The national cabinet (the council of Australian governments, or Coag with a fancy name and less bureaucracy, but still made up of democratically elected leaders, just in case Naomi Wolf is still confused) meets tomorrow.

As we know, part of the conversation will be looking at what conditions would need to look like for governments to consider loosening restrictions.

As Josh Taylor points out in this explainer, an app monitoring who you have come into contact with might be one of those conditions.

Updated

On the schools situation – it is pretty much situation as-it-was-for-the-end-of-term-one.

Schools are open in most states for the children of “essential workers” and those who have no other choice. Everyone else is online or remote learning.

The difference in term two though is parents have had to juggle at-home teaching with work. Whether or not that will lead to a return to classrooms, where in some cases attendance dropped by more than 70%, is for parents to decide.

Updated

In a video posted to Facebook this morning, Scott Morrison urged teachers to return to the classroom.

He said some vulnerable children “won’t get an education at home”:

We cannot allow a situation where parents are forced to choose between putting food on the table through their employment to support the kids and their kid’s education. And I know teachers don’t want to force those choices on the parents either, because if we do, of course, thousands of jobs would be lost, livelihoods forsaken.

Morrison appeared to push back against states who have advised all children of non-essential workers to stay home:

The expert medical advice throughout the coronavirus to date has not changed. When it comes to the safety of children going to school, I have consistently advised that the risk remains very low.

Now I know you want to be there for your kids in your school, particularly those vulnerable kids. Those kids of parents who need to be at work, who need to send their kids to school. And I know teachers will be working with their school leadership to do everything possible to ensure we continue to give our kids the best possible education, even in these difficult circumstances.

Victorian students will begin term two today but the majority of students will be using online learning programs from home. Queensland schools are set to start on Monday and NSW students will return on 28 April.

Updated

As the US death toll from Covid-19 continues to rise, Donald Trump has declared he identifies with Captain William Bligh, who may have navigated his way to land after the mutiny but didn’t fare so well in the rum rebellion.

Updated

Good morning

We begin today with the same issue that really kickstarted Australia’s Covid-19 experience – the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

That one cruise can be linked to at least 600 of Australia’s Covid-19 cases, and 18 passengers have died after contracting the virus.

A NSW police investigation into why passengers were allowed off the ship, and whether or not all the information was given to Australian agencies, is already under way.

Now, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has ordered a commission of inquiry with “extraordinary powers” as well.

That inquiry, to be headed up by the silk Bret Walker, is expected to last four months, which means it will return its findings before the NSW police return theirs.

Berejiklian:

It is important that answers are provided quickly for the people of NSW. I have decided that the quickest path to answers is through a powerful and independent inquiry.

That will be the big news out of the premier’s press conference which is coming up at 8am.

We’ll have that, and everything else that happens today. Amy Remeikis is with you for the bulk of what feels like the 121st day of March.

Ready?

Updated

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