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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Josh Taylor, Luke Henriques-Gomes and Amy Remeikis

Australia coronavirus news: Labor ridicules $60bn jobkeeper error as government says scheme will not be widened – as it happened

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End of the day

That’s where we will leave the live blog for Friday night.

In case you missed it, these were the biggest news events of the day:

  • After a reporting error, the government revised down the number of jobkeeper recipients from 6.5 million to 3.5 million, cutting the cost of the $130bn program by $60bn.
  • Clive Palmer said he plans to take Western Australia to the high court over being refused entry to the state.
  • Restrictions were eased in South Australia, allowing people to return to pubs.
  • NSW announced plans to allow up to 50 people in pubs, clubs and restaurants from 1 June.
  • Australia’s coronavirus death toll rose to 101.
  • Wesfarmers announced up to 75 Target stores will close.

If you want to keep track of the latest coronavirus news globally, please check out our other live blog.

Until tomorrow, stay safe.

Updated

What a difference a day makes.

A short summary of how the jobkeeper numbers changed

Here’s a short summary of how the jobkeeper muck up happened:

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, announces jobkeeper on 30 March:

“Today, I announce that we are committing $130bn over the next six months to support the jobs and livelihoods of what we anticipate are being almost six million Australians, who will need that lifeline in the months ahead.”

Around 900,000 employers and sole traders express interest, and then enrolments commence in mid-April.

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, reports on 24 April that around 400,000 employers, covering 2.5 million employees have enrolled.

In his address to parliament on 12 May, Frydenberg says:

“There are now more than 835,000 businesses employing more than 5.5 million workers who are formally enrolled in the program.”

Then on 14 May, the treasurer announces the number of people on jobkeeper “now exceeds six million”.

Meanwhile, after collecting the tax file numbers and other information on eligible employees, the ATO begins paying out jobkeeper earlier this month. Three fortnights of payments have been made so far, and the next is set to be paid by Sunday.

It is then that the ATO realises it is paying out much less than expected, and goes back to check the numbers. The total number of employers is right, but the employees is way down.

The ATO determines it was an incorrect response on the enrolment form that led to massively inflated employee numbers.

So it’s not clear how the original number was determined, but I am sure there will be questions on it soon.

Updated

Clive Palmer plans to sue WA over hard border

The mining magnate and former senator Clive Palmer says he is planning to take Western Australia to the high court over the state’s hard border closure, after being refused entry.

Updated

Australian stock market closes for the week, via AAP:

The ASX has finished the week on a sour note, dropping 53.4 points with every sector except tech stocks closing lower.

The Australian share market has closed lower, rejecting a move above 5,600 as traders turned cautious amid fresh US-China tensions.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 benchmark index finished Friday down 53.4 points, or 0.96%, at 5,497 points, while the broader All Ordinaries closed down 52.2 points, or 0.92%, to 5,608.7.

The Australian dollar was buying 65.36 US cents, down from 65.71 US cents at the close of trade on Thursday.

Updated

The Australian Services Union is calling on the jobkeeper payment to be expanded now there’s a lot less money being spent than forecast.

The assistant national secretary of the union, Linda White, said the payment should be extended to employees who were excluded because of the ownership structure of their employer, such as dnata and Air Niugini.

“They should have access to the same financial support as other Australians,” White said.

“Dnata employees have been stood down without pay since March and are struggling to put food on the table for their families. It doesn’t need to be this way.

“Clearly there are now unspent resources that the government can use to make sure every Australian, regardless of the ownership structure of their employer, is supported through unprecedented economic turmoil.”

Updated

The government is still being cagey on whether jobkeeper should be expanded, but said this last week:

Updated

A lot of questions as to how the government estimated, on 30 March and before employers filled out forms, the scheme would cost $130bn and cover around 6 million employees.

I do not know, but I will try to find out.

Updated

Good evening, everyone.

This is the question on jobkeeper forms that caught up around 1,000 employers.

In some cases, employers put down they had 1,500 employees when they had just one.

With that press conference over, I’ll leave you with my colleague Josh Taylor. Thanks for reading.

Jobkeeper form 'could have been more straightforward', ATO says

On the form, Hirschhorn says: “With hindsight, perhaps the form could have been more straightforward.

“However, I do note that only 1,000 of the 900,000 employers misinterpreted that question.”

Updated

Hirschhorn says this is how the tax office figured out the mistake:

“At the start of this week, identifying that there was a discrepancy between the two numbers, the 6.5 million estimate and the 3 million or so applications we had already finalised and had been paying out, we decided to investigate and we identified the difference between the two was due, almost entirely, to misunderstanding of the question of the number of employees and people filling in, for example, 1,500 instead of 1.”

Updated

About 1,000 businesses filled out jobkeeper form incorrectly, ATO says

Hirschhorn says about 1,000 businesses misunderstood a question where the ATO asked how many workers the business expected would receive the jobkeeper subsidy.

He says that the questions was only for analysis purposes, and had no bearing on how much money was paid to businesses.

He says “the largest mistake” was “about 550 employers, instead of putting down one employee, put down 1,500 employees being the amount that they were entitled to in the first fortnight”.

Updated

The original forecast predicted 6.5 million people on the program.

Noting the lower number who are receiving the subsidy, Hirschhorn says “what this shows is that the economy has been more resilient than anticipated in the original estimates, which is good news”.

He says: “So the difference is a large difference – the difference between 6.5 million and 3.5 million.”

Updated

Jeremy Hirschhorn, second commissioner at the Australian Taxation Office, is addressing the media about the jobkeeper package.

He says 900,000 businesses have enrolled and 750,000 businesses have finalised their applications, which means the program is supporting 3 million people through the program.

“There are another 150,000 employers who have not yet finalised their applications, and we are expecting that there will be another 500-600,000 employees supported under the jobkeeper program,” he says.

Updated

Pubs in SA to open as govt clarifies relaxed rules

Pubs had previously been excluded from rules that allowed restaurants to reopen.

But the rules caused confusion, prompting the premier Steven Marshall to announce a u-turn on that decision this afternoon.

Updated

Labor frontbenchers Jim Chalmers, Tony Burke and Brendan O’Connor have issued a statement on the jobkeeper blunder.

Today the Morrison government has been forced to admit it has again seriously stuffed-up the roll out of the jobkeeper program.

This is a humiliating confession that the PM and treasurer were wrong by 3 million workers and $60bn dollars.

This just shows that you can’t trust a hopeless government with a good idea like wage subsidies for workers.

For weeks the Morrison government has been telling casuals and other excluded workers that the jobkeeper program was full when in reality it was 3 million workers short.

After all the lectures about fiscal responsibility, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have admitted to getting their numbers wrong by $60bn.

If they can’t get this basic maths right how can we expect them to get the recovery right?

Millions of Australians are being deliberately left out and left behind by this Morrison government.

This kind of serious economic incompetence is a threat to jobs, the economy and the recovery.

Updated

Jobkeeper applications only opened on 20 April.

Updated

The Greens education spokeswoman, Mehreen Faruqi, says:

The higher education sector is shedding jobs and crying out for support. It’s time to scrap the unfair rules excluding university staff from jobkeeper.

Desperate international students, who have been going hungry and falling into destitution, should urgently be given access to jobkeeper and provided with income support.

Updated

As some commentators have noted, the government said the package would cost $130bn in March when it was announced.

“At a cost of $130bn over the next six months, we are providing support to the Australian worker like never before,” Josh Frydenberg said at the time. “Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures.”

Here is our story from 30 March.

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert says:

The revised jobkeeper figures released today mean that the government has no excuse to return the jobseeker payment to $40 a day at the end of September.

Further, the government can top up the DSP and carer payments so that disabled people and carers can meet the additional costs they are facing because of the pandemic.

No one in a country as wealthy as Australia should be living in poverty and cutting income support payments to those who need it most is a choice, not an inevitability.

Updated

Today marks the first day since the widespread shutdown of sport that community football clubs in NSW will be able to participate in training, potentially paving the way for a weekend of play, albeit heavily restricted, in parks across the state this weekend.

Competition matches remain off limits for the time being, including friendly matches as part of training, and all sessions will have to adhere to the guidelines set out by the NSW public health order. That means a limit of 10 participants in a session, including coaches, and no spectators – parents cannot hang about to watch. Change rooms will remain closed and contact is still forbidden under the guidelines, so tackling is also off limits.

But at least training drills can be run, and fitness and skill levels worked on. A return to full match play has yet to be announced in NSW, but Victoria has already pencilled in 28 June, and Queensland 12 June.

Football NSW said it was committed to ensuring competitive play can resume “as soon as possible”.

“We are engaging with the NSW government as to when we may be able return to competitive play and management is currently developing a set of return-to-play guidelines which we will shortly forward to the appropriate authorities,” a statement read.

It’s a similar situation for Australian rules football in NSW, with a return to club-sanctioned small group training at community level in the state endorsed as of yesterday.

Rugby league training is still some way off with the NSWRL having indicated a return from 1 July, with a view to competition resuming from 18 July.

Updated

Stay tuned.

Albanese says the government should have had “in place basic mechanisms to check on the forms that were coming in”.

“If you look at the extent of this miscalculation, the fact that many businesses who should have put down one instead put down 1,500.”

Albanese contrasts the error to “the government’s actions when it comes to robodebt, whereby people who made an error on a document got letters, got chased up,” in some cases for money which they did not even owe.

Albanese says it is “just absurd for the government to say that it is not responsible”.

“The idea that we will ever again listen to Josh Frydenberg and think that he has any credibility at all is gone,” he says.

“The bloke in the government who produced mugs saying the budget was already back in black when that simply was not true – that mistake, and error of judgment, has been blown out of the water by this.

“They said they couldn’t expand the program because they’d drawn a line in the sand. What we know now is that that sand was, indeed, quicksand.”

He adds: “Can you imagine what the Coalition would be saying if this were a Labor government? Can you imagine what some of the media outlet headlines would be tomorrow if this was a Labor government?”

Updated

Albanese notes those who have missed out on the jobkeeper wage subsidy.

“Where there are 1 million casual workers who have not received support,” he says.

“Local government workers who have not received support.

“Entire sectors such as the arts and entertainment sector who have not received support.

“At the same time, this smug government has, time after time, repeated figures that are wrong to the tune of $60bn, and wrong to the tune of 3 million workers.”

Updated

Albanese: 'A mistake you could have seen from space'

Meanwhile, the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, has addressed the media in Sydney.

Albanese says the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, has lost all credibility.

“The government’s extraordinary revelations – that it isn’t 6.5 million people who are on jobkeeper, but 3.5 million. it’s not a $130bn cost, but $70bn – blows any previous mistake when it comes to economic figures in Australian history right out of the water,” he says.

“This is a mistake you could have seen from space, and this is a government that couldn’t run a bath, let alone be good economic managers.”

Updated

Will the reporting error impact the accuracy of the unemployment rate?

The treasurer says:

As you know, in the statement put out by Treasury and the tax office, they’ve made it very clear that the forecast remains for unemployment to peak at around 10% in this June quarter, but for the jobkeeper payment you are talking about the unemployment rate being another 10 percentage points higher, so it is having a very significant and positive effect.

Updated

Karvelas puts Frydenberg’s “draw the line somewhere” quote to him. The line is a lot different now, she says. Shouldn’t the government reconsider who receives jobkeeper?

In short, no, Frydenberg says.

“Again, we’ve been entirely consistent – the jobkeeper program and the jobseeker programs are to work in complement to each other,” he says.

Updated

Karvelas changes tack slightly. Does Frydenberg think the government can go back to the old jobseeker payment rate.

“Well, we’ve always been consistent that the programs that we’re implementing – namely the jobseeker coronavirus supplement that you are referring to, the extra $550 – that’s temporary,” he says.

“That was for the six-month period to reflect the problems ...”

Updated

Frydenberg is asked if he takes responsibility for the revised cost. He dodges the question.

“The ATO and the Treasury have made it clear what has occurred here,” he says.

“This was an unintentional reporting error by about 1,000 businesses and I’m sure those businesses ...”

Updated

Frydenberg continues:

No doubt the Labor party will say, ‘Go and spend it more here or there.’ The Labor party have never seen a spending proposal they haven’t supported, and a tax that they haven’t increased.

“We are a lot more principled and a lot more disciplined in relation to spending.

Updated

Frydenberg: No wholesale changes to jobkeeper

Frydenberg has been stressing that this is not an “invitation to spend more money”.

“We’re not making wholesale changes to the jobkeeper program,” he says.

“We’ll have a review, as we’ve always stated, midway through the program, and we’ll wait for the results of that review.”

Karvelas says that the discrepancy was not just a reporting error, but also a forecasting error.

Frydenberg says officials “also expected the economy to deteriorate further than it has”.

“So that’s why this is good news for the taxpayer, because the jobkeeper program – indeed, our coronavirus economic initiatives all involve borrowed money and therefore this is not an invitation to spend more money, but rather to ensure that the program gets to those people who need it most.”

Updated

The treasurer is asked why the mistake wasn’t picked up.

Frydenberg says the tax office and the Treasury have put out an “extensive statement tonight to explain what actually occurred, and it seems that some 1,000 businesses have made an unintentional reporting error in their enrolments for the jobkeeper program”.

“Importantly, there was no money that was sent out that shouldn’t have been sent out. There was no underpayments, there was no overpayments.

“But in Treasury’s, and the tax office’s, initial estimation as to how many people were covered by the jobkeeper program, they’ve had to revise that downwards in light of discovering this reporting error.”

Updated

The treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, is on the ABC with Patricia Karvelas.

He is trying to spin the revelation as good news.

“We are very pleased that the jobkeeper is supporting some 3 million employees according to the tax office. What has occurred is good news.

“We are using billions of dollars, yes, because the economy has not deteriorated by as much as Treasury forecast. This is all borrowed money.”

Updated

Universities Australia is also out of the blocks with a statement.

Its chief executive, Catriona Jackson, says:

“As we have said in recent weeks, without greater support universities face the loss of 21,000 jobs in the next six months and a significant reduction in the essential research undertaken on our campuses.

“We were disappointed that government has changed the regulations on a number of occasions to effectively exclude universities.

“We call on them to reconsider.

“Australia will need even more new ideas, new skills and new jobs to power economic and community recovery. Universities are the engine rooms of that renewal.”

Updated

Me too.

The Greens arts spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, says:

The massive revision on jobkeeper numbers today leaves the government with no excuse not to extend the program to casuals, migrant workers and workers in the arts and entertainment industry who have been excluded from the program.”

There is now $60bn already budgeted for jobkeeper that can go to saving more jobs.

The arts and entertainment industry has been one of the hardest hit by coronavirus restrictions and will be one of the last to recover, yet the government has left many artists and creatives without support due to the nature of the work.

The arts and entertainment industry needs a tailored package to save it and the government clearly has the financial capacity to do it.

Updated

Josh Frydenberg is coming up on the ABC shortly. No doubt he will be asked about his comments from last month.

Frydenberg said shorter-term Australian casual workers would be eligible for the $1,100 fortnightly jobseeker payment instead, while temporary visa-holders could access their superannuation, continue to work or return home.

“At $130bn … we had to draw the line somewhere. This is a massive call on the public purse and it is a debt that the country will pay for years to come and at six million people on the jobkeeper program, that’s nearly half the Australian workforce.”

Updated

Alison McMillan says what is “really important for us now is not to drop the ball”.

“We have seen evidence and pictures in the news and on the television of those who have clearly, quite quickly, moved back to the old ways of doing things and we must all follow the important physical distancing rules.”

Updated

Alison McMillan says there are 39 people who are still in hospital and seven of those are in intensive care.

Updated

Alison McMillan, the Australian government’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, is providing the daily Covid-19 update.

She says there have been 6,479 people who have recovered from Covid-19 in Australia, which she describes as a “really, really encouraging number”.

There are currently 506 active cases.

In the past 24 hours, there have been 15 new cases and one additional death reported across the country.

Updated

The statement from the Greens leader, Adam Bandt, begins with a one-word sentence.

“Wow.”

“Now Scott Morrison has no excuse not to extend jobkeeper to all who need it, retain the new jobseeker rate, give a jobs and income guarantee to young people and invest in nation-building planet-saving projects to help the recovery.”

Before the “reporting error”, the Greens wanted the government to extend jobkeeper to all who need it, including all casuals, keep the boosted rate of jobseeker, and fund a jobs and income guarantee for young people.

Updated

GetUp’s national director, Paul Oosting, says in a statement:

Instead of cutting jobkeeper, why not expand it to all the casuals and people on temporary visas who need it? The funds are literally all there.

Jobkeeper was proof that the money for social spending was always there, there’s no justification to cut these vital funds that are keeping food on the table for families across the country.

We’ve heard devastating stories of people turning to the generosity of local restaurants providing free food to eat, families who have called Australia home for years now facing homelessness, and workers who’ve lost their jobs, with no way to return home.

This has been one of the government’s biggest policy failures in this pandemic, now they have the opportunity to step up and do the right thing.

If Scott Morrison doesn’t use this opportunity to extend jobkeeper to casual workers and people on temporary visas then he cannot say it’s because of the cost.

Updated

Clive Palmer barred entry to WA

Clive Palmer has been denied entry to Western Australia as the state government remains adamant interstate borders will remain closed for months, AAP reports.

Palmer wanted to visit WA for meetings with businesspeople, senator Mathias Cormann and potential 2021 state election candidates for his United Australia party but was knocked back.

A spokesman told AAP he had commenced a high court challenge to the border closure and would cite a section of the constitution that stipulates trade between states must be free.

Palmer accused the premier, Mark McGowan, of “denying Western Australians jobs and prosperity” by refusing to open interstate borders.

“He risks economic shutdown with his gestapo tactics,” the Queensland-based billionaire said in a statement.

McGowan batted away “bullying” from the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, over interstate borders earlier this week, saying he wouldn’t take advice from the state at the centre of the Ruby Princess debacle.

WA’s chief health officer, Andrew Robertson, says it will take at least one month to confirm community spread had been eliminated in affected jurisdictions and until then opening interstate borders was not recommended.

Meanwhile, McGowan remains under pressure to fully reopen intrastate travel after WA’s 13 regions were slashed to four vast areas on Monday.

The state Liberal leader, Liza Harvey, labelled his stance on intrastate borders “nonsensical”, given Perth residents could cram on to public transport but not visit northern regions or the Goldfields.

“Every day the premier dithers, another West Australian small business closes its doors,” Harvey said.

“Our tourism industry is on its knees.”

The health minister, Roger Cook, said on Thursday federal biosecurity zones had complicated reopening regional borders, but the police commissioner was working with the state solicitor’s office on dismantling them.

Only three active cases of coronavirus remained in WA as of Thursday.

Updated

We touched on this issue earlier this month. Here is what Paul Karp reported on 4 May:

On Friday Scott Morrison gave an update of the number of employers enrolled in the jobkeeper program, but didn’t know how many employees are receiving the payment.

A spokesman for the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, told Guardian Australia that as of midday Friday the figure was “740,871 employers covering more than 4.4m employees”.

The $130bn wage subsidy program can cover up to 6m employees, but Morrison gave some pretty big hints if it falls short of that the program won’t be expanded.

He said:

And at this point it is too early to make estimates about what the final reconciliation would be against the budgeted amount. And there are many calls, there are many calls on the budget in relation to Covid-19 and we do see some movement between jobseeker and jobkeeper. Remember the jobseeker payments, that costing related to the additional payment and there is also the uplift in costs for the commonwealth in relation to many other welfare payments that are happening at the moment as well, what’s called the automatic stabilisers. So I can assure you the commonwealth will be footing – that is, the commonwealth taxpayer – will be footing a very big bill and they understand that. And that’s why every single element of that we are considering very carefully and we’ve set the parameters for jobkeeper and for jobseeker and we have no plans to change that, apart from the administrative changes like the ones the treasurer announced last week.

Updated

An observation from the former Labor government adviser Sean Kelly.

Updated

And this is an interesting point from the Grattan Institute’s Danielle Wood.

Seems quite straightforward, no?

Hi everyone, this is Luke Henriques-Gomes taking over from Amy Remeikis. Thanks to Amy for her work. I’ll take you through the afternoon.

As Amy said, there is a national health update on the way.

And I’m sure there will be some more reaction to news that a reporting error means the cost of the jobkeeper package was overstated by $60bn.

Yes, I’m still digesting this, too.

Updated

And on that note, I’ll hand the blog over to Luke Henriques-Gomes for the next part of the day.

There is a national health update coming in the next 20 minutes or so and, of course, the continued fallout from Treasury and the ATO’s ‘reporting error’ bombshell.

I’ll be back on Monday. Have a wonderful weekend, and take care of you.

Updated

Suddenly, the official unemployment figures look real hazy too.

They were based on 6 million Australians being on jobkeeper. It turns out that there are only 3.5 million on jobkeeper. We have heard a lot in recent days, including from the Treasury secretary, the government and business groups, just how much worse the unemployment figure would have been if jobkeeper wasn’t helping keep 6 million Australians in contact with their employers.

But suddenly that number is 3.5 million.

Which means the 500,000 or so Australians who just dropped out of the labour force market – meaning they stopped looking for work and are not counted as either employed or unemployed – really matter.

Counting them would bring the number of unemployed people in Australia to about 1.3 million. Officially, it is hovering around 800,000. That 1.3 million figure brings the unemployment rate to just under 10%.

It is suddenly looking like that unofficial unemployment rate just got a lot more official.

Updated

This is a pretty fair take:

Updated

As has Adam Bandt:

Jim Chalmers has already responded:

Another day, another shambles from a treasurer who just can’t stop seriously stuffing up this key program.

This just shows you can’t trust a hopeless government with a good idea like wage subsidies for workers.

After all the lectures about fiscal responsibility, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg have had to admit to getting their numbers wrong by $60bn.

For weeks they’ve been telling casuals and others that the program was full when in reality they were 3 million workers short.

If they can’t get this basic maths right how can we expect them to get the recovery right?

Updated

Anthony Albanese has announced another doorstop on the back of the jobkeeper reporting screw-up news.

He’ll be up at 3.45pm.

Updated

Not only is that $60bn now free, Australia’s short- to medium-term economic outlooks, from the RBA to the government itself, have been based on $130bn being spent. Now, that has been revised down to $70bn.

This has massive implications. Massive.

Updated

What does it mean on a wider scale?

There is $60bn the government had planned to spend, which is suddenly freed up.

Expect the calls to expand the jobkeeper payment to other groups, including universities and foreign-owned entities to grow louder.

Updated

So what happened? Instead of reporting how many employees were eligible, businesses reported how much they expected to receive for their employees.

In that way, one became 1,500.

We are not joking. Here is the official release.

Joint media release with the Australian Taxation Office

Late yesterday, the ATO and Treasury advised the Government of a reporting error in estimates of the number of employees likely to access the JobKeeper program.

The enrolment forms completed by 910,055 businesses who have self‑assessed as eligible under the scheme had indicated that this program would cover around 6.5 million eligible employees.

The ATO’s review of these forms has found that around 1,000 of those businesses appear to have made significant errors when reporting the estimate of eligible employees on their enrolment form.

The most common error was that instead of reporting the number of employees they expected to be eligible, they reported the amount of assistance they expected to receive.

For example, over 500 businesses with ‘1’ eligible employee reported a figure of ‘1,500’ (which is the amount of JobKeeper payment they would expect to receive for each fortnight for that employee).

This reporting error has come to light as the ATO and Treasury have been analysing the amounts being paid out under the scheme, reconciling these with the estimates provided by enrolled businesses of the likely number of eligible employees. It was not picked up by the ATO earlier as their primary focus in the first fortnight of JobKeeper payments was on ensuring that JobKeeper payments were paid promptly to those eligible for them, and not paid to those who were ineligible. These initial estimates from businesses of employees covered are not linked to payments, and so were not as carefully analysed.

Importantly this reporting error has no consequences for JobKeeper payments that have already been made to eligible businesses, as payments under the scheme depend on the subsequent declaration that an eligible business makes in relation to each and every eligible employee. This declaration does not involve estimates and requires an employer to provide the tax file number for each eligible employee. By contrast, the only use of the information collected in respect of the reporting error was to provide an early estimate of the number of expected employees likely to access the JobKeeper program.

Updated

'Reporting error' downgrades jobkeeper from $130bn to $70bn

This is pretty incredible:

Updated

Australia’s credit outlook has moved from stable to negative, but maintains its AAA rating from the Fitch ratings agency.

Ratings like this dictate how easy it for countries to borrow money, as well as the interest rates on those borrowings.

As AAP reports:

Fitch said it expects Australia’s economic growth will fall sharply in 2020 and government spending in response to the health and economic crisis will cause large fiscal deficits and a sharp increase in government debt.

It forecast the $2tn economy to contract 5% this year driven by a plunge in economic activity during the second quarter due to virus containment measures.

“While these measures have effectively curbed the spread of the virus, they also constrained household consumption and reduced business sentiment and investment,” Fitch said.

It expects a gradual economic recovery to begin in the second half of 2020 affirmed Australia’s rating but said a downgrade is possible in the absence of a fiscal consolidation strategy or if there is economic or financial sector distress.

Fitch said fiscal deficits are set to swell at both the federal and state levels as a result of the discretionary fiscal measures such as the jobkeeper wage subsidy program and economic contraction.

It forecast the government deficit to rise to 6.9% of GDP in 2019-20 and 9.0% in 2020-21, from 1.2% in 2018-19.

Fitch’s move follows a similar action by S&P Global Ratings in April, when it downgraded the outlook on Australia from stable to negative as a result of the government’s stimulus measures.

The federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said Fitch’s action is a reminder of the importance of maintaining medium-term fiscal sustainability.

“Our measures are temporary, targeted and proportionate to the challenge we face and will ensure Australia bounces back stronger on the other side, without undermining the structural integrity of the budget which Australians have worked so hard to restore,” he said in a statement.

Updated

AAP has this report:

Labor powerbroker Joel Fitzgibbon has been accused of “weaponising foreign policy” in explosive comments criticising the government’s handling of China relations.

Fitzgibbon has accused the Coalition of demonising China and its communist system, raising concerns about consequences for agricultural trade.

He also criticised the Turnbull government for targeting China through tighter investment thresholds and the foreign influence register.

The Nationals deputy leader, David Littleproud, believes that’s a sackable offence.

“This a member of Anthony Albanese’s frontbench that is openly undermining his leadership by weaponising foreign policy, our sovereignty and our security,” he told reporters in Toowoomba.

“Anthony Albanese, who once before brought in Joel Fitzgibbon and gave him a rap over the knuckles, either gets rid of him or shows he doesn’t have the ticker to lead a competent government.”

Updated

We revealed this morning that the government’s federal integrity commission plans were further delayed due to the Covid-19 crisis.

The attorney general, Christian Porter, said draft legislation for its Commonwealth Integrity Commission (CIC) – now more than two years in the making – was ready for release before the pandemic hit.

It has not materialised.

Porter said the government had been forced to redirect its focus to the crisis, but remained committed to releasing the draft. He has not nominated a new timeline for doing so.

The Transparency International Australia chief executive, Serena Lillywhite, has just issued a statement accusing the government of using the crisis to “sidestep accountability, control, oversight, and scrutiny”.

“Like many governments around the world, the Australian government appears to be using the double health and economic emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic to sidestep accountability, control, oversight and scrutiny of political decisions, economic bailouts and the use of executive and discretionary powers,” Lillywhite said.

“Times of emergencies – including Covid-19 – create corruption risks. The need for transparency, accountability and political integrity has never been more important.

“In times of emergency, corruption and violations of our standards of political integrity can undermine our democratic processes because the usual safeguards and oversight mechanisms are not in force.”

Updated

The Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, says his health advice is not to reopen the borders to the southern states:

We are in the safest place in Australia – because of that I know that there are calls for us to relax our hard borders.

Being at zero cases is just more proof that the problem is not [the same for us as it is for] the rest of Australia.

That is why we need to keep our border secure for now.

The danger of coronavirus is still out there and we need to keep it out there. Cases are dropping down south and that is great news.

They are getting better every day but still not good enough. This week alone a school has been shut down in Sydney after a positive case that nobody can explain.

In Victoria, they have new cases at a health service and a construction site.

I am not taking a shot at those states or their leaders. Dan and Gladys are doing the best they can in really tough times.

I know they are both working extremely hard. We all have different views on what to do next. What they do is up to them, what we do is up to us.

Our chief health officer’s advice remains the same. The threat is still real and we need to stay vigilant and our hard borders should stay in place for now.

It is not for ever, it is for now.

Updated

In better retail news, Myer has announced plans to reopen all its stores (bar one which is undergoing renovations) by next Wednesday.

In a statement to the ASX the retailer said a trial reopening of 24 stores had gone well.

The Company is pleased to announce that it will reopen all of its remaining stores from next Wednesday, 27 May 2020, excluding Karrinyup (WA), which is expected to reopen on Saturday, 30 May 2020, when refurbishment works are completed. Click and Collect services will also be available at all stores nationally.

All stores will operate in a manner that protects the health and wellbeing of customers and team members, with enhanced safety and cleaning measures. These enhanced measures include increased frequency of cleaning, protective items such as hand sanitiser stations, social distancing and contactless payments.

Updated

That was quick

David Littleproud urges boycott of Wesfarmers stores

David Littleproud also called for a boycott of Wesfarmers stores, which include Target and Kmart, after the announcement it would be closing and repurposing scores of Target stores across the country.

It is doing that because Target stores were in economic trouble even before the Covid pandemic shut down the economy.

Littleproud says the company should be taught a lesson, by people not shopping there – even though logically, that would suggest more stores end up closing.

It just goes to show they don’t give a rat’s about us.

Australians should vote with their wallets and not go near them.

... I’ll be saying to everyone don’t shop at these stores,” he said.

Go and shop at those outlets that are prepared to support not just metropolitan Australians but regional Australians.

Littleproud then appeared shocked that a big business would seek to exploit a capitalist society:

They make a lot of money. They make billions out of Australians.

If they want to turn their back on the most vulnerable, it just goes to show that corporate Australia has lost its way morally.

Anthony Albanese was asked about the boycott call from Littleproud:

Look, Australians will make their own decisions, but I’ve got to say, I’m not sure what a boycott for Wesfarmers means except people not going into stores and further job losses. I am not sure what Mr Littleproud’s comments would result in, and how that would be constructive.

Updated

It must be under 25C in Queensland – David Littleproud is wearing a jumper.

In talking about the federal government’s trespassing laws, he says he understands people want to be vegetarians and “everyone has to be angry about something these days”, but the farm trespass is too far.

Updated

Cruise liners may have started taking bookings again, but the ban on cruise ships docking in Australia has been extended to September.

Asked how NSW will police the changes, the customer service minister, Victor Dominello, says:

We’re going to continue to work with industries.

We’ve had a number of meetings with them already. That will continue, to finetune the implementation of this.

But it is absolutely critical, as the health minister has said, that we find out, get the details about the patronage. Because we need to know – we need to be better than a CovidSafe app.

If there is an outbreak, we need to know, and we need to contact those people in the event that there is. But the point is we’ve got to use this period in June to ramp up in a safe way.

In many ways, build the hygiene muscle so that, as we do open up, it’s a much safer environment.

Updated

NSW might be leading the way in terms of the bigger states opening up its hospitality industry again in bigger groups, but it also leads the way in active Covid cases.

The health minister, Brad Hazzard, says NSW has been doing “very well” and has the contact tracing ability in place.

He says all diners will have to register their details:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, in fact, I know, just going to my local cafe, there’s a piece of paper there and they ask you to write your name and phone number.

That’s the sort of thing that we’ll be doing.

Each one of us are effectively soldiers in a war against this virus. And each one of us has to be prepared to live our lives in a little bit different way as we get our old lives back.

And certainly, in the same way when you ring up a restaurant, you’d normally give your name and phone number anyway to make the booking.

In this case, it would more likely be, though – and we’re working through this with industry – that each person who goes in would also give their name and phone number. That would certainly help keep all of us safe.

(We are about one press conference away from a ‘we’ll fight Covid in the pubs’ line.)

Updated

Brad Hazzard, the NSW health minister, then steps up the analogies, by comparing the virus to a track and field athlete:

NSW has always led the way, and again NSW is leading the way.

We will not let this virus beat NSW. But as we do open up, and as we do make sure that our economy will lead again this nation, I also want to make sure that all of us understand that this virus is still out there, it’s still lurking, and we still have to be careful.

The way that we’re moving forward is in a cautious and sensible way.

It has the maximum of 50 people in a cafe or restaurant, but a lesser number if the cafe or restaurant, defined by the four-square-metre rule, requires a lesser number.

So, for example, if you had 80 square metres, you would have 20 people. That’s the basic lesson. Just do the basic maths.

And, of course, my advice to all of us is, as I’ve said many times, as we open up our economy, we don’t need to open ourselves up to the virus.

By just being cautious, we won’t.

It is not a high jumper, it is not a long jumper.

Just maintain the social distance of 1.5 metres, and also hygiene – washing your hands like you’ve never done before. If you arrive at the restaurant, the first thing you should do is use hand hygienic cleaner, or go and wash your hands.

Then sit down, enjoy your dinner, do what NSW residents have always done, have a great night out with your friends, but be cautious, be careful, and this will work to the advantage of the entire community, but also keep you safe.

Updated

From this comment, it seems the NSW minister for customer service, Victor Dominello, doesn’t get out that much.

He compares the virus to both a dance and whack-a-mole. Pick an analogy, dude.

Well, today’s announcement is about ramping up so that, hopefully, we can then open up all in a safe environment.

We are working with industry to make sure that we have a Covid-safe environment, whether it’s cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs.

We know that we’re in the hammer-and-dance phase of this pandemic. That means we have to dance with the virus. But if it pops its head up, we have to hit it, and hit it hard, fast and local.

And we will put regulations in place so that, if there is an outbreak, we go hard, fast and local.

Because we have to make sure that we protect the health of the people, and also the health of the economy.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian says NSW’s happy hour is going to look very, very different:

We already know that, for many of these businesses, they won’t be coming back at all.

But for those who are viable, for those who have managed to hang on, we’re ensuring that we can work together to provide that safe environment.

Things will be very different.

Imagine even something as simple as having joint cutlery on a table won’t be able to exist any more. A simple buffet won’t exist any more.

There will be strict guidelines to ensure this happens safely. Because the last thing we want to do is have to shut businesses down because they haven’t complied.

And the last thing we want to do is go backwards. Now, we know this is a big step. But the regulations and rules we’ll be putting in place will be very strict to make sure safety is paramount.

But it is a significant time in the history of our state. And we have a no-regrets policy, firstly in keeping the community safe, making sure everything we do is to protect lives and save lives.

But also in relation to making sure people aren’t long-term unemployed, and that we can bounce back from the devastating economic shock.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian:

However, this will be with very strict guidelines in place. It has to be in adherence to the four-square-metre rule.

So some venues are small in space, they will only be able to have as many customers as is allowed in that space according to the four-square-metre rule.

Nobody will be able to take bookings of more than 10 people. A maximum booking of 10 people.

And also nobody will be able to be standing up in these venues. You have to be seated at a table, even if it’s a pub. You have to be seated at the table, you have to be served at the table. There is no mingling, no standing around.

There are strict guidelines in place, which will ensure that we can do this safely.

Gladys Berejiklian announces a timeline to move to stage 2 restrictions from 1 June
Gladys Berejiklian announces a timeline for NSW to move to stage 2 restrictions from 1 June. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

NSW relaxes restrictions even further

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, along with her deputy premier, John Barilaro, treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, health minister, Brad Hazzard, and customer service minister, Victor Dominello, has announced New South Wales residents can expect stage 2 restrictions from 1 June.

Pubs, cafes, restaurants and the like can have up to 50 patrons.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian has called another press conference for 12.30.

Could there be a further loosening of restrictions coming? (Probably, yes.)

Updated

The UK is finally looking at forced quarantine for travellers.

As AAP reports, Australia is hoping for an exemption, although Australians returning would need to spend 14 days in forced quarantine:

Australians flying into the United Kingdom could be excused from spending 14 days in quarantine.

Trade minister Simon Birmingham discussed the exemption with his British counterpart this week.

Australia argues its success in bringing the disease under control at home makes it a low-risk country abroad.

Several UK cabinet ministers support the idea but others do not want to complicate the system.

The belated UK coronavirus quarantine regime is expected to start next month.

“We welcome any recognition that Australia has led the world in the successful containment of Covid-19, which clearly means that travellers coming from Australia would pose a low risk to the rest of the world,” Birmingham told AAP on Friday.

“However, transmission from overseas continues to present a risk to Australia’s ongoing suppression of Covid-19 and restrictions on travel in and out of Australia will remain for the foreseeable future.”

Australia has since March effectively banned international travel and forced all incoming passengers to spend two weeks in hotel quarantine.

Updated

The Chinese state council premier, Li Keqiang, is addressing the nation as part of the annual congress, and has broken with tradition by not giving a GDP prediction.

Obviously there is always some raised eyebrows over whether or not the named figure is correct, but it is useful for international observers because it gives some idea of where the CCP thinks the economy is headed.

Not naming a figure this year, in the wake of the pandemic, is very telling.

Chinese premier Li Keqiang delivers his speech during the opening session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing
Chinese premier Li Keqiang delivers his speech during the opening session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing. Photograph: Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

And for those who need a bit of a laugh

It was on, in New Zealand

Pushed on Joel Fitzgibbon’s comments, after turning the first question into a ‘well-this-is-what-the-government-haven’t-been-doing’ answer, Anthony Albanese says:

I speak on behalf of the Labor Party and when it comes to the government and people in the media parroting the government lines, that’s up to them.

This is a government that doesn’t have a plan on so many areas, doesn’t have an economic plan.

I expected last Tuesday Josh Frydenberg to make some comments about what would happen in the recovery to boost employment.

What are they doing about the fact that today Target has announced 14,000 job losses?

That’s what Australians are really concerned about - job losses - and they’re concerned about economic security.

What we have as government ministers, often let off scot free... You have Peter Dutton, whose become the Queensland state Coalition spokesperson out there doing press conferences about Annastacia Palaszczuk at the same time, when he was the minister in charge of Australia’s borders, but allowed in the Ruby Princess.

I would say the government should worry about doing its job and having a plan for the country.

Albanese says he has not spoken to Joel Fitzgibbon about China comments

Anthony Albanese says he has not spoken to Joel Fitzgibbon over his ‘demonising China’ comments.

He says this is Labor’s view:

Labor was at one with the government in saying there should be an inquiry, that’s just commonsense.

When you have 300,000 lives lost, I saw that as completely unremarkable that you would have an inquiry, and that’s good that that’s going ahead.

We need to make sure that the Australian government and ministers should be in contact with their counterparts in China, like they should be in regular contact with their counterparts in other nations.

We simply can’t afford the job losses that would result from the sort of incidents that seeing with barley, but if it spreads to other industries as well, that clearly is not in Australia’s interests, so the government needs to always stand up for our own national interests.

We need always to diversify as much as possible, that’s just commonsense that that should occur in terms of risk management, but we also need to ensure that we continue to have a good economic relationship with China.

In the past, the government has trumpeted the China free trade agreement and economic partnership. It’s up to the government to explain further why it is that they’re not getting that contact with their Chinese counterparts.

Updated

The Labor leader also says the government’s local government project funding announcement is welcome, but that communities which were impacted by the summer bushfires need more.

Very clearly they have been forgotten. There is no additional support for local government in those communities with to day’s announcement, and there is a great deal of concern that when the cameras left, so did some of the support. I’ve been traveling in affected communities this week, and they do feel that there is a lack of support there.

...They’ve had a shutdown not for a period of weeks but for the entire year of 2020, and for some of them, going back even further. So there is a need to continue to support those communities, and it shouldn’t have taken a by-election to get an announcement such as we had a week ago for increased aerial firefighting to increase the capacity - something that was recommended and had a business case now two years ago.

Anthony Albanese says the deputy prime minister needs to apologise for the ‘people set their hair on fire over climate change’ comment.

Michael McCormack’s comment that ... and to quote him accurately, “A lot of people, I know, set their hair on fire about climate change,” is entirely inappropriate.

The fact is the government has conceded that climate change was one of the factors in the devastating bushfires that saw a loss of life, that saw thousands of homes lost, that saw millions of hectares burnt, and that had a devastating impact on the communities of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and I’d say to Michael McCormack that he should reflect on those comments and retract them, and we need to be very careful about the language that we use.

When it comes to climate change, it is real, we do need action.

It’s good yesterday there was some positive elements of the document put out by the government, including an acknowledgement that renewables were critical for dealing with the challenge of climate change, and that is a positive thing indeed. We will have more to say about that in coming days.

Updated

Labor leader Anthony Albanese brought this up earlier this week.

The Queensland transport minister, Mark Bailey, says given the continued cases in Victoria and NSW, it is appropriate for Queensland to review its border closures each month, and keep them closed for the time being.

What we need to see is NSW be in the same sort of ballpark as Queensland in terms of health outcomes.”

Updated

We were so busy seeing if we could get a loaf of white bread to talk, we never stopped to check if we should.

'A lot of people set their hair on fire about climate change,' says deputy PM

Michael McCormack gets a question on climate policy and gives a very Michael McCormack answer. It is so Michael McCormack that even he seems to have a moment of self awareness, and he calls an end to the press conference at the end of his answer:

Q: Do you support net zero emissions by 2050, which is a target a lot of other countries have adopted an Australia is yet to make a decision about. Would you see Australia seeking to achieve that target and should Australia seek to achieve that target?

McCormack:

It is 2020, we’re talking about 30 years in advance and a lot of people, I know, set their hair on fire about climate change and all the rest of it, yes, it’s important, for the farmers, it’s important, for their factories, it’s important.

What’s important also is the jobs for here and now and what’s important is we continue on a path to lower emissions, and we’re doing that while at the same time not taxing farmers out of business and making sure as best we can we can have a manufacturing industry, we can have people working in factories and industry and we’re not sending everything offshore to countries where they couldn’t care less about making sure they lower emissions.

We’re doing it in a right and responsible way while at the same time protecting the interests that protect Australia.

This is, of course, another Team Australia moment and of course we want the best outcome, the best environment for those future generations that will follow us.

That’s our legacy.

We will make sure we do it in a right and responsible way, and we are meeting all of our international agreements, like we said we would, and we’re doing it without taxing the hell out of farmers and businesses and families, who have the right to be able to turn on the switch and to get reliable, affordable electricity and power, and that’s why coal is so important and why a range of technologies is so important.

That’s what ministers Pitt and Taylor are working towards, the prime minister is working towards, that is each and every one of our goal.

Updated

Asked about India looking (at this very initial stage) open to expanding its trade with Australia, particularly when it comes to barley (and putting to the side some of the very different trade policy settings should that go ahead) Michael McCormack says he is still hopeful that China will reverse its tariff decision:

There is an old saying of a slow boat to China, but indeed, it is important that barley reaches the destination. It is important it reaches the port, and it doesn’t matter what the speed of the boat might be, we want to see it offloaded. Australian barley is the best barley in the world and I know particularly for our West Australian and South Australian growers, yes, we grow a lot of barley on the east Coast as well, my late father, Lance, used to do that himself. But particularly for Western Australia and South Australia, those growers have produced a lot of the barley which is indeed used by China. We want to make sure that that reaches its destination.

Asked about Joel Fitzgibbon’s comments, that the Coalition government has been “demonising” China, Michael McCormack says:

Well, this is a team Australia moment and Joel Fitzgibbon has once again failed the test.

Updated

On China, the deputy prime minister has been very well prepped on what he is authorised to say:

We will work through that in a measured, considered way as we always do, as people would expect the government to do. I know that Keith Pitt, Simon Birmingham, working with our Chinese diplomats, working through Dfat, working for the proper processes.

China knows that we produce the best resources in the world, and we will keep on doing that.

They will continue to need the product that we export, they will need them into the future. Yes, we will have a few hiccups along the way.

That is the case matter no matter whether it is Asia or where the case may be.

We will work through those in a considered way.

Q: Barley, beef, iron ore and today coal, how concerned are you about this decision in China to steer away from using Australian imports and to use domestic coal supplies instead?

MM: Coal is our third biggest export commodity to China. It is, and as I said, we will work through this and are carefully considered way. We understand that China is a big customer of ours. $147 billion of exports and we want to make sure that not only do we retain as many of those exports but indeed we increase them as time goes on.

And I have got every confidence that senator Birmingham as the trade minister, Keith Pitt is a resources minister, will be able to do just that.

Q: It is a bit difficult, isn’t it, to work through in any considered way when China won’t even pick up the phone or take a phone call from a minister. How do you then contact the Chinese authorities and talk to them, if they are not going to pick up the phone?

MM: I say again, I know I have got every confidence that senator Birmingham will be able to work this out in a rational, clear and proper way, working through our Dfat officials, working with China. China needs Australia just as much as Australia needs China, and it is a two way relationship. It has been happening for many, many years, and I am sure it will be happening for many more years to come.

Updated

Michael McCormack also wants you to know that the National party, which looks after the nation’s food bowls, and represents electorates which are already facing the impacts of climate change, is all in when it comes to coal:

Well, when you say large parts of the National party, I think you mean all parts of the National party.

We are all pro-coal.

But we are pro-coal, we are pro all technologies. We believe in technology rather than taxation.

If you ask Anthony Albanese, he will say one thing in bigger and one thing elsewhere.

If you ask our party, we will say exactly the same thing when we come to Canberra. We will say exactly the same thing wherever we are in Australia.

Because that is what the National party, who understand that there are many, many jobs in coal, many, many jobs in resources, many, many jobs in renewables, as well, and I know Mark Coulton’s electorate has a lot of renewable energy happening with solar farms and the like. Gas, of course, is important as well.

I have spoken to minister Angus Taylor on many occasions on the need for technology rather than taxation. That is the National party way, that is the government’s way. And indeed, this technology roadmap is a draft, it is in its draft form. So there will be opportunities for input into that progress comic process.

Updated

Michael McCormack gets to stand in front of a very big Australian government backdrop to announce the local government funding, so you know that his year has just been made.

He says there is no need to worry about how these grants will be spent, following sports rorts:

No colour coding. What they will be as councils will, for those councils who have already brought forward their projects and talked about their community priorities, that is going to be important, that we will take and assess those. The infrastructure department will be doing that. I will of course have a look at those as well but each and every one of the 537 councils across Australia will benefit from this. It will be based on what their roads to recovery funding is, and so it is based on their road network and the length of the road network, as well as, of course, the number of people department, very accountable, very transparent. Each and every one of the local government areas right across the nation will benefit from this. Regional, metropolitan, remote, the whole lot.

Updated

IbisWorld has looked at the Wesfarmers announcement it is closing and repurposing scores of Target stores around the nation and concluded it’s quite bad news for the department industry in general.

As the lockdowns ease, analysts expect the Australian retail market to look very different.

Declining discretionary incomes and fluctuating consumer sentiment have encouraged shoppers to favour discount stores over the past five years.

Revenue for the department stores industry is expected to decline at an annualised 2.0% over the five years through 2019-20 to $18bn. This trend includes an expected fall of 4.8% in the current year due to weak shopping activity resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wesfarmers has slowly rationalised Target’s store network over the past five years to focus on Kmart.

‘Consumer demand is becoming increasingly polarised, with shoppers seeking either ultra-low-cost or high-quality, ethically made goods. Target’s mid-market position has failed to appeal to either of these types of shoppers,’ IbisWorld senior industry analyst Daisy Feller said.

Updated

Steven Marshall is speaking again about the easing of the restrictions in South Australia, which has been a little confusing, because of just how many different licences venues there have:

We are allowing those businesses that have been trading with 10 outdoors now to have 10 indoors also with alcohol. So a small step.

Our major step, of course, is occurring on 5 June when we will be allowing indoor dining with alcohol right across the state.

Now there is some confusion and I would like to apologise for the confusion, which has occurred in South Australia with regards to the easing of these restrictions.

As I’ve said from day one, it is a lot easier to put these restrictions in place than it is to ease these restrictions. As it turns out, we have varied licences in South Australia and some patrons who have quite rightly asked the question is this a restaurant, I don’t know their licensing arrangement. So it is confusing and we acknowledge that.

We apologise for that confusion. What we are trying to do is lift the restrictions in an orderly way, which is going to allow us to keep the coronavirus at bay. As I’ve said repeatedly in my press conferences there are more cities and countries around the world with who have eased restrictions who have had to put them back in place. We are absolutely determined that doesn’t happen here in South Australia.

Then again, with discourse like this, why do you even need facts?

Karl Stefanovic: Peter, to you first of all, how dare that nasty dictator Annastacia Palaszczuk not listen to you.

Peter Dutton: Well, Karl, when she starts listening to me, we’ll know she is talking a bit of common sense, I’d say.

Richard Marles: We’re all in trouble.

Dutton: Look, I just don’t understand where she’s coming from. There was a document produced, and Steven Wardill actually has a good article in the Courier Mail this morning, a document that said 10 July was the opening date. So tourism operators in Cairns, for example, planning to open from 10 July. And then out of nowhere comes this September date and I think it caught the chief medical officer in Queensland by surprise as well. And, I just think she has painted herself into a corner and with no logic to the position.

Stefanovic: OK.

Dutton: Just come out and explain where the September date comes from and we can, you know, have a reasonable discussion.

Updated

It might be worth noting, again, that the Queensland LNP is not overly vocal on the border issue (as yet), probably, (and this isn’t based on anything other than chatter from Queensland), because Queenslanders are still OK with the border lockdowns.

It is a similar story in WA.

Michael McCormack has been allowed out to talk about the commonwealth’s $1.8bn local government funding package.

Here is what he said to the ABC this morning:

If councils come to us and say ‘we want to build street lighting, bus stops, want to put in refurbished Town Hall’, which are so much the fabric of regional centres, we will look at that.

We want to have local jobs, importantly local procurement, which will be one of the criteria of the $500m stimulus.

I had 400 councils write back to me when I wrote to them – I wrote to all councils.

Each and every one of those 537 councils will benefit.

They will put in their applications for what particular stimulus projects they want to do.

Noting that any road projects – they need to be new road projects, they need to be things that they weren’t working on pre-Covid.

They need to be new projects that they warrant to spend their money on, that they want to invest in, to help local jobs, because if there is one way – one day – of getting local jobs on the ground through this pandemic, it’s going to be through local councils.

That’s why we wanted to put in this injection of money and that’s why this cash will certainly help small, medium enterprises around the country.

Because if there’s one thing that local councils know how to do – spend money locally.

Updated

Year 12 students in Victoria will receive their ATARs by the end of the year.

Victorian education minister James Merlino has announced that Victorian students will be able to complete their VCE and VCAL and receive their results by the end of the year.

The positive outcomes [from community testing blitzes] meant that we could bring students back to face-to-face teaching earlier than anticipated, and students start from Tuesday next week. It also means that we can bring our exams forward our year 12 exams.

VCE exams will run between 9 November and 2 December this year.

It means they can celebrate finalising the big 12 before the end of the year, enjoy the summer break and then plan for their futures. It will mean no disadvantage for Victorian students in terms of university and other pathways. So the pathway for students will be exactly the same as for students right around the country.

Updated

It’s time for another review announcement!

This time, the national water initiative. In the last week, the government has been stepping up its quiet announcements – no biosecurity levy being one of them. This review is due by early next year.

The National Water Initiative (NWI) is a shared commitment by governments to increase the efficiency of Australia’s water use, provide investment confidence, supply security for rural and urban communities, and provide greater certainty for the environment.

The commission will assess whether the water reforms agreed in the National Water Initiative, along with any other subsequent reforms adopted by COAG, are achieving their intended outcomes.

The inquiry will examine whether governments have been successful in achieving the objectives, outcomes and timelines of reform ideas proposed under the NWI.

Reform of the water sector has been ongoing over several decades, with the last productivity review into the NWI completed in April 2019. The inquiry will also fulfil the statutory requirement for the second of the productivity commission’s triennial assessments of progress towards achieving the objectives and outcomes of the NWI required by the Water Act 2007.

The commission has been asked to provide further practical advice on ways in which the NWI could be improved, including specific advice to assist governments to progress their commitments to renew the NWI. Mr Drew Collins has been appointed as an associate commissioner to assist with this inquiry.

Updated

Peter Dutton was on the Nine Network this morning, where he again attacked the Queensland Labor government for keeping the borders closed.

The man, who leads a department which appeals court decisions on refugee cases time and time again, believes the Queensland border closure should be tested:

People are right to test that if they think it’s not. Because it is impacting on people’s lives.

Just excuse me while I choke on this irony.

Updated

Victoria’s Cedar Meat outbreak continues to grow with five new cases overnight.

Victorian education minister James Merlino has confirmed 12 new cases in the state. Four came from those in hotel quarantine, two from community screenings and one is still under investigation. This is significantly more than New South Wales, with only three new cases overnight.

The Cedar Meats outbreak has continued to grow over the past few days with small numbers of cases each day. Lately, the majority have been from household contacts of workers rather than staff members themselves.

The Victorian government has not yet confirmed the connection between these five new cases and the meat processing plant.

Cedar Meats Australia in Melbourne.
Cedar Meats Australia in Melbourne. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Updated

Wesfarmers to close up to 75 Target stores

Wesfarmers, which owns Target and Kmart has just made a pretty significant announcement to the Australian stock market – it will be closing up to 75 Target stores across the country.

Following the completion of the first phase of the Target review, Kmart Group has identified a number of actions to accelerate the growth of Kmart and address the unsustainable financial performance of Target.

These actions include the conversion of suitable Target and Target Country stores to Kmart stores, the closure of between 10 to 25 large format Target stores, the closure of the remaining 50 small format Target Country stores, and a significant restructuring of the Target store support office.

Wesfarmers is continuing its assessment of strategic options for a commercially viable Target and its remaining store network.

The signage for a Target store is seen in Sydney.
The signage for a Target store is seen in Sydney. Photograph: Paul Miller/EPA

Updated

[continued from previous post]

Senator Birmingham is being ignored by his Chinese counterpart.
Home affairs minister Peter Dutton said the stonewalling was part of China’s tactics.

“We don’t think they’ve got a legal basis for imposing these tariffs and we want them to change their position,” he told the Nine Network.

He said Australia would stand firm in its values after a push for global coronavirus inquiry stung China.

Thermal coal, which is used to generate power, is Australia’s second largest export to China after iron ore.

China has also announced new supervising rules for iron ore, with opinion divided on its impact for Australian exporters. Senator Birmingham is hopeful the changes could speed up the entry of iron ore into China through fewer batches being checked.

“Early indications of talking to the industry are indeed that this would provide an opportunity for benefits both to China and to Australia,” he said.

But the Global Times – considered a media voice of the Chinese government – has warned Australian iron ore imports could be hurt by political tensions between the two countries.

“This is another implicit warning to Australia,” Yu Lei, a chief research fellow at Liaocheng University, told the newspaper. “It is associated with how Australia has acted, and a general decline in demand for steel on the global level.”

Updated

The good reporters at AAP listened to Michael McCormack, which has saved me from having to do it, and for that I thank them.

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack is concerned coal exporters could face a tougher time selling the commodity into China.

The Chinese government is reportedly warning state-owned power plants not to buy new shipments of Australian thermal coal and instead favour domestic products.

Mr McCormack said trade minister Simon Birmingham and diplomats were attempting to fix the issue.

“Of course we’re very concerned by it,” he told the ABC on Friday. “But we have a two-way relationship with China. China needs Australia as much as Australia needs China and we want to make sure that whatever we do is in a careful and considered way.”

China cooling on Australian coal could signal the latest escalation in trade tensions between the two nations.

Coal exports faced delays at Chinese ports last year. Beijing has slapped a prohibitive 80% tariff on Australian barley, while four major abattoirs have been banned from sending red meat to China.

Mr McCormack said Chinese steel mills and power plants would need high-quality Australian coal to operate.

“We want to make sure that our coal exports have a destination. China has long been a customer of ours. They know the quality of our coal, they know the quality of our iron ore and other resources.”

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack.
Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

But it is these comments from Joel Fitzgibbon, about this time yesterday, which have really caught the government’s ire (comments, which had to be walked back by colleagues such as Richard Marles later in the day)

While on Sky News yesterday, Fitzgibbon accused the Coalition of “demonising” the Chinese.

Certainly we have to be robust in defence of our national interest.

But let’s just recap what’s been happening here for the last few years, starting under Malcolm Turnbull.

We’ve been demonising the Chinese and their system of governance.

Malcolm Turnbull, for example, changed Foreign Investment Review Board thresholds, so that there were special discriminatory rules for the Chinese.

They deliberately constructed foreign interest registers with a clear intention of targeting China, for domestic political gain.

And of course, now we’ve had our most recent and current prime minister, basically saying things like we should send weapons-style supervisors into China, against their will. I have no idea how he thought he was going to achieve that.

So, there have been some problems here in our relationship with China for some time.

It’s our largest trading partner and we need to normalise this relationship again. We can see already through barley and the red meat sector some of the consequences when that relationship is not a healthy one.

David Littleproud has just announced a press conference ‘re Joel Fitzgibbon’s China comments’ for 9.30am.

Updated

Joel Fitzgibbon, as Labor’s agriculture spokesman, has come out hard in the last 24 hours over the trade barney with China – much harder than a lot of his colleagues.

He was on Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas yesterday, where he was asked about the coal situation:

PK: A state-backed Chinese coal group has called for a reduction in the use of Australian coal because local producers can’t compete. Two power stations will suspend imports from I think it’s July the 1st. Does that worry you?

JF: Well, I should say, PK, that there have been a number of events with our coal exports over the course of the last few years. This is not the first time there’s been some threat to our coal exports into China. But can I also say like – unlike many of our other commodities, China is not a key export market. It’s an important export market for our coal but of course our big export market for coal is to countries like Japan and South Korea.

Shadow minister for agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon.
Shadow minister for agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

State border stoush continues

Queensland and South Australia are holding firm on the border closures.

Queensland’s chief medical officer, Dr Jeannette Young reiterated to ABC radio this morning that she could not imagine the Queensland borders opening in the next month, at least.

We have to do the checks as we go along the way.

The very earliest I can see it happening is July. As to when it does happen – I really and truly don’t know.”

Meanwhile, the South Australian premier, Steven Marshall said much the same thing when speaking to ABC Breakfast, about his state:

We have been trying to sort of balance this issue. While we keep the strong borders in place, it does allow us to go a bit further and a bit faster than other states.

If we lift the borders straight away, then we can probably only go as fast as the slowest jurisdiction. My priority at the moment is getting people back to work in South Australia.

But the other states are doing really well. They are increasing testing, getting numbers down. I don’t think it will be that far down the track. At the moment we will be keeping our borders closed in South Australia.

...Well, look, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a crystal ball. We need to wait and see what happens in those other states, where they arrive at.

We won’t do anything that is going to let us having a second wave in South Australia.

When we look around the world, and we see cities and countries who have been in the same position in South Australia with low or no cases, more often, as they have lifted restrictions, they have had to put them back in place. We are determined to get this right. We are taking those things into account before we make a decision on state borders.

Updated

Nation's death toll rises to 101

The NSW chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, reports an 80-year-old woman, who had been diagnosed with Covid-19, died overnight in Concord Hospital.

Updated

It being Gladys o’clock, the NSW premier is giving the daily state update. Gladys Berejiklian says there have been three new positive results from 8,600 tests.

Berejiklian is also another round of infrastructure projects:

We want to save jobs. We cannot afford to continue to have the job losses that we’ve encountered in April.

That’s why I’m pleased to have with me today the minister for planning, who had announced the first tranche of projects that were going through a speedier approval process.

Now there’s a second tranche that he’s announcing today, which has the potential to put in an extra $5bn into our economy and create jobs.

That is something all of us should feel positive about, because anything we can do as a government to keep jobs, to save jobs, and to create new jobs, we know will help communities get through the next few months and beyond.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks to the media during a press conference in Sydney, Friday, 22 May.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian speaks to the media during a press conference in Sydney, Friday, 22 May. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

The government is cracking down on class actions, targeting those who fund them.

The Morrison government is ensuring that litigation funders are subject to greater regulatory oversight by requiring them to hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) and comply with the managed investment scheme regime.

Litigation funders are currently exempt from holding an AFSL and being categorised as a managed investment scheme. As a result, litigation funders do not face the same regulatory scrutiny and accountability as other financial services and products under the Corporations Act.

The removal of these exemptions will require litigation funders to obtain an AFSL from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. AFSL holders are obligated to:

• Act honestly, efficiently and fairly.

• Maintain an appropriate level of competence to provide financial services.

• Have adequate organisational resources to provide the financial services covered by the licence.

Removal of these exemptions will also require greater transparency around the operations of litigation funders in Australia.

That is due to come in, in three months time.

Updated

The Sydney Morning Herald has this story, detailing the latest escalation in trade tensions between Australian and China:

Australian coal exporters are facing the risk of tougher restrictions selling into China as government authorities in Beijing direct state-owned power plants to purchase domestic product instead.

The move threatens to add to escalating tensions between Australia and its largest trading partner and follows new customs reforms that analysts fear could lead China to delay cargoes of Australia’s most lucrative export, iron ore.

Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron is speaking to the ABC. He says the nation’s capital airport has gone from about 120 flights a week to two or three.

He has written to the Queensland and South Australian governments about setting up bubble to bubble travel, because the ACT is (known) Covid case free. So far, there has been no firm answer.

We’ve only had feedback at this stage. But I think you have to allow time for the premiers to consider these things.

They have obviously taken a very firm and clear line.

The thing with aviation is a date needs to be set for two weeks’ time or so that people can make bookings on flights and the airlines can schedule flights.

It’s not like just ramping up a cafe and turning up and changing from takeaway to dine-in again within 24 hours. The aviation industry needs a very clear timetable with firm dates. We need to know that we can restart these flights in a matter of weeks. Ideally by 8 June.

And certainly be well and truly up and running for the school holidays on 1 July.


Good morning

And welcome to today’s coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia.

We’ll bring you all the latest, including the escalating war of words over state border closures. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has said it doesn’t make sense to keep borders across Australia closed, given the number of new coronavirus infections has stabilised, and is opening her own state for regional tourism on 1 June.

But other premiers disagree. “We are not going to be lectured to by a state that has the highest amount of cases in Australia,” Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said. Mark McGowan lobbed a Ruby Princess comment towards NSW the day before. The national health advice is there is no reason not to reopen. The states say their health advice is to keep the borders closed.

The active (known) Covid-free states are working on whether or not they can create their own travel bubbles, which would exclude NSW and Victoria, something NSW really does not want. It is opening up its state to travel, with even the ski resorts open for business. As it was always going to, the moment politics was thrown back into the mix, any sense of national unity between the leaders is very quickly dissipating. Still, national cabinet will be held next Friday and it’s possible they can come to some sort of agreement, or at least a cease-fire, then.

It comes as South Australia eases some rules today: from Friday, cafes and restaurants can seat 10 customers indoors for meals along with 10 outdoors. The change has come earlier than expected and SA will also look to move to stage two ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, the commonwealth has announced it will be spending $1.8bn on local government projects, as it looks to kick start the economy with infrastructure investment. The economic recovery is the number one priority now, and you’ll be hearing a lot more about it on Tuesday, when the prime minister gives his national press club address.

We’ll cover all the day’s events as they unfold. You have Amy Remeikis with you this morning and the entire Guardian brains trust.

Ready?

Updated

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