Summary
We’re going to leave things here for this evening. Here are the major developments 0f today:
- The Australia Defence Force has been called in to help in Tasmania, where two major hospitals have been shut down. ADF personnel will reopen and operate the North West Regional Hospital’s emergency department after the hospital has been deep-cleaned and while staff are in quarantine.
- Earlier in the day, there was confusion over the Tasmanian outbreak, with the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, telling a New Zealand committee it was linked to a dinner party with hospital staff. He has since backtracked from that after criticism from the premier, Peter Gutwein, who said Murphy was “commenting on a rumour”.
- The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has stood down all its musicians due to the impact of the crisis.
- Western Australia will introduce legislation for residential and commercial tenancies to prevent evictions for six months.
- Scott Morrison warned that Australians could not become complacent about social distancing. Despite promising signs the country is flattening the curve, the prime minister, Australians should expect restrictions to continue for many more weeks.
- Tasmania recorded its sixth Covid-19 death, a 91-year-old woman at Mersey Hospital. The national toll is now 62.
- A South Australian intensive care nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital tested positive for Covid-19.
- Virgin Australia put its shares into a trading halt as it looks for financial assistance to keep going and considers “restructuring alternatives” due to the coronavirus crisis. It has been seeking emergency assistance from the government to stay afloat.
Thank you for following along with us today. See you again tomorrow.
Updated
And in some breaking, probably not very surprising news, the Tour de France has been postponed.
Because of social distancing restrictions, the race can’t being on its start date of 27 June. It is unclear if cycling’s biggest event will be scrapped from the race calendar.
And some more bad news out of the arts industry. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is standing down all of its musicians because of the impact of the coronavirus crisis.
It has also stood down 12 administrative team members. In a statement, the MSO said remaining essential workers would take a 20% salary cut.
The orchestra, which had been live-streaming performances to empty concert halls a month ago, is unable to deliver performances because of physical distancing restrictions.
“As a result, the MSO has lost a significant portion of its revenue, being ticket sales, as well as the flow-on effects on donations and corporate sponsorship,” the organisation said in a statement this evening.
It says the stood down staff will remain employees and it hopes they will return to their roles as soon as possible.
Chairman Michael Ullmer said:
Our overriding objective is to preserve this great organisation so that it can prosper into the future, and to do this it must have the financial strength to survive this crisis.
It is with great regret that we have no other option at this time other than to enact a stand down of our musicians, and we have instructed MSO management to commence a process of ‘hibernation’ effective today.
Updated
And finally, the PM is asked about the Ruby Princess debacle and why the ship was allowed to dock.
He says the NSW government has “been very clear about what has happened there” and suggests it’s time to “move forward”.
We are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. There will be things that don’t go according to plan. That is not an excuse for it, that’s just a reality. And if we allow ourselves to be caught up in those things, sure, learn the lessons quickly. What should we have done?
As you say, the rules were very clear about it. The border force is not a health agency, they don’t have doctors, that isn’t what their job is. The New South Wales government has been very clear about what has happened there and I’m sure lessons have been learned and we can move forward.
Updated
Morrison uses the interview to speak about racism that has been experienced, in particular, by Chinese Australians since the crisis began.
The prime minister says early compliance with self-isolation measures by Australians returning from China had saved lives.
He says he is “massively disappointed” by attacks on Chinese Australian in recent weeks and months.
It’s just so wrong, it’s against who we are as a people. I mean, we’re all in this together. It was the Chinese-Australian community that actually protected Australia so early on in this virus outbreak around the world ... It’s not on. It’s not how we get through this together.”
Morrison says there’s more to be done to get protections in place before there can be any discussion about easing of restrictions.
He says again that is “many, many weeks away”.
“We want to avoid the horrific scenes we have seen overseas. I mean, this idea of herd immunity, they are not achieving that in Italy or the United States. Or the United Kingdom for that matter. And look at the horrific scenes there. I don’t want to see those in Australia. So we need to be very careful.”
Scott Morrison has given an interview with SBS.
Political reporter Brett Mason asks him what success on the other side of the coronavirus crisis looks like.
Morrison says:
Well, ultimately, we will get Australia back to normal. But there will be many steps between that point and where we are now.
This is something that we have to get used to and we have to get used to it at a much higher level of economic activity and be able to cope with that in the future.
He warns that “no country has found the magic formula to this yet but Australia is better placed than most and many because of the strong position we went to this end”.
Updated
The World, a private cruise ship sailing off the coast of Western Australia, has been spotted making star-shaped patterns over the past few days.
10 daily reports on the small mystery, which the premier, Mark McGowan, was asked about last week. At the time, he said “we don’t really know why she’s doing that” but the ship was off Geraldton “doing laps”.
Today, a spokesperson for the ship said it was a bit of fun and also part of a navigation exercise to give crew onboard some extra experience.
It is also a recognised holding pattern that covers maximum distance in the smallest possible sea area. The lay-up provided an extra training experience for the ship’s crew and added an element of fun.
Updated
Defence force called in to help in Tasmania
The Australian Defence Force has been called in to help in Tasmania, where two hospitals have been closed due to outbreaks of Covid-19.
About 40 defence and seven civilian medical workers were arriving in Burnie by today, before moving to the North West Regional Hospital as soon as the deep clean has been completed.
In a joint statement, the defence minister, Linda Reynolds, and the health minister, Greg Hunt, said the ADF personnel would reopen and operate the facility’s emergency department, after staff were sent home for two weeks’ quarantine.
Reynolds said:
The temporary closure of the North West Regional Hospital and its emergency department would deprive the community of much-needed medical assistance at a crucial time.
The deployment of Defence medical practitioners will ensure critical services are maintained.
Updated
Some more breaking news out of Tasmania. The state has recorded its sixth coronavirus death. The national death toll now stands at 62.
Tasmania has recorded its sixth coronavirus death, a 91yo woman at the Mersey Hospital #politas #covid19tas
— Emily Baker (@emlybkr) April 14, 2020
Updated
A few other points from Scott Morrison’s interview with Chris Kenny on Sky News:
On the issue of schools, the prime minister said governments across the country had been working to try to get a consistent approach. He said the medical advice remained that children were not at risk from going to school, but authorities needed to continue to work through issues, including safety of those teachers who are in vulnerable groups.
Ultimately, we need to get kids back into school and that’s increasingly being recognised around the world.
Morrison said the national cabinet would chart a way towards getting the economy operating at a much higher level than it was now, “so it can support people’s incomes, which will reduce the need to rely on taxpayers more broadly through the income supports that we’ve put in place”.
He described the national cabinet as “the most effective we’ve seen the federation” operate.
Updated
And a little more from that interview with the prime minister:
National cabinet is due to meet again this Thursday, and it will start to look at charting a way out of the current situation.
But Morrison said it was important to get the timing right on any easing of restrictions. He noted that different states had different enforcement regimes.
He said the behaviour of Australians over the Easter long weekend had shown that people had been getting the message about the need for vigilance.
I thank them genuinely for the way that they are seeking to co-operate proactively with the measures that we’ve got.
I believe that that will mean that that will enable us down the track to have, you know, a different type of regime in terms of how these things are enforced.
And I have no doubt that the states and territories will be considering that positively. I mean, there’s got to be a reward for all of this great effort that’s going in. And there will be. But we’ve got to make sure that’s done at the right time.
Updated
PM says Australia cannot let down its guard over social distancing
In an interview on Sky News, Scott Morrison appears to be treading a fine line between thanking Australians for practising physical distancing and encouraging people not to let their guard down.
The prime minister said Australia had “put itself in a good position to be able to deal with what is a global calamity”.
We don’t want to end up like New York or like London or like in Spain or in Italy or any of these places. And the decisions and actions we’ve taken together as a country and the discipline and patience shown by Australians has meant that we’ve been able to avoid those horror scenarios which, you know, Australia is not immune to.
I mean, we can sometimes have complacency in this country. We’re optimistic people. And that’s great. But we also have to keep our sense of realism about the risk.
Morrison added:
Yes, we’ve had a good couple of weeks, but that does not a virus beat. And that’s why we have many more in front of us before we could even possibly contemplate the easing of restrictions.
Updated
I’m going to leave you for now. My colleague Lisa Cox will steer you through the evening. Have a great night.
Updated
The NSW Teachers Federation has called for schools and kindergartens to open in stages when health restrictions are finally lifted.
“What we are suggesting, at that right time, is that we start with year 12 and kindergarten,” federation president Angelo Gavrielatos told the ABC.
Then move onto year 7, and slowly pad it out in order to be able to best meet the needs of students at a time when there are, of course, still risks associated with the spread of this pandemic.
Updated
Hospitals should restart elective surgeries: Liberal MP
The Liberal MP Andrew Laming, who is a former GP, has raised concerns about the decision to stop category 2 and 3 surgeries.
He tells the ABC:
There is a lot of morbidity adding up there that the hospital simply won’t be able to clear when we reopen them.
I am arguing that hospitals, in particular outside of Covid hotspots, should be opening up, both private and public, because they can switch back to Covid in 24 hours, and as long as there is plenty of PPE they should be treating Australians sooner rather than later.
Updated
Birmingham says reports that more people are booking cruises now than before the virus hit is “madness”.
He says of the report in the Australian Financial Review: “Sounds like madness to me. That’s blunt, isn’t it?”
I would say to Australians that now is not a time to be making bookings for travel unless you have an iron-clad insurance policy, because we cannot guarantee when you will be able to undertake that travel, that clearly areas that have been proven to be higher risk are likely to be some of the last areas where that travel is permitted again.
Birmingham says cruise travel would likely be the “very last thing that is reactivated again, given the difficulties Australia has faced with the cruise sector so far”.
Updated
Karvelas asks Birmingham how quickly might the domestic tourism industry be back up and running?
Birmingham says issues such as schools would be looked at first.
It is important to recognise that there may still be continued differences in terms of the rate of incidence in some states relative to another. That may mean it takes longer for us to see that domestic travel across state borders freed up again, but perhaps it may free up a little sooner in some states to travel within the states. Anything that gets people back into tourism businesses will be very, very welcome for those many struggling tourism operators.
Birmingham won’t answer when asked if people in southern states could reasonably expect to head up to Queensland during the winter school holidays.
He says that would be a matter for the Queensland government, but adds that he “dearly, dearly hope[s] we continue to see single-digit reporting of cases”.
Updated
Birmingham notes that the government “can’t save every business in Australia”.
Now, Virgin’s case is one that, as I say, if it needs to be discussed we will talk about it around the cabinet table. We want to save as many jobs as we possibly can. We can’t save every business in Australia. We’ve been clear about that. There will be some, and if the circumstances are there they cannot be saved, we will look to the market to resolve it. If we can save jobs, we will do so sensibly using taxpayer dollars, that’s what we’re doing already.
Updated
Next up is the trade minister, Simon Birmingham. He’s asked if the government is considering taking a stake in Virgin, as Labor has suggested, rather than offering the airline a bailout.
He doesn’t really want to get into it. Birmingham says it’s a hypothetical, but Patricia Karvelas says it’s a reasonable question.
“There are many options that could be available to governments. They’re hypothetical unless the government chooses to take them. Virgin made public, I think, that there are issues they face.”
He adds when pressed if it’s a live option and what the benefits would be: “There will be considerations if it comes to it that we will have around the cabinet table.”
Updated
As the interview comes to an end, Lambie is asked about her life right now and acknowledges that the “world of isolation is very difficult” for her.
“I’m a people person, so not to be out there doing all the touchy feeling and hugging people has been quite difficult for me. It is very quiet out there. It’s a very quiet world down here at the moment.”
The Tasmanian senator is asked if she would like to see a conversation about lifting restrictions.
Lambie says she wants to see the curve “come down a little bit more yet and I wouldn’t be willy-nilly”.
“... if that means we pay the price for 2-4 weeks before we lift restrictions, I think it’s better to be safe than sorry, no doubt about that.”
On a bailout for Virgin and whether the government should take a stake in the airline, as Labor has argued, Lambie says it would “common sense”.
Well, we have a stake in Qantas. I would have thought it would be common sense, if we have an opportunity to have a stake? Virgin, why not? We don’t have a big fleet of RAAF planes. We might have a war against a virus, but we don’t know what the wars of the future will bring. Quite frankly, I don’t have a problem with that. If that means we’re going to get a stake in Virgin airlines for our own national security, so be it. Let’s do it.
Updated
Lambie says she would like the federal government to “come out ... and say they have a plan of action and give us some direction if this does end up in the terrible crisis that could end up and we need to know what is going on, to give us peace of mind”.
She declines to give a view on whether she agrees with Anthony Albanese’s assessment that the blame for the outbreak in north-west Tasmania lies with those responsible for the Ruby Princess debacle.
Lambie says she has been on the phone to the treasurer (presumably Josh Frydenberg, not the Tasmanian treasurer).
We know that we don’t have the equipment down here so if it gets bad we won’t have ventilators, won’t have the medical equipment needed, so I’ve been on the phone to the treasurer this morning saying, mate if this gets bad, please, get the whiteboard going, because we will need to move quickly and need need a lot of equipment down here quickly and fast, otherwise we will lose lives at a phenomenal rate. There is no doubt about that. That is worst case scenario.
Updated
Lambie says: “Either way we’re in a predicament now where we had an extra 47 people from that hospital since Thursday being diagnosed with the virus. That is a problem we’re dealing with today.”
The Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie is on the ABC. She’s asked what she made of Brendan Murphy’s “illegal dinner party” comment.
Lambie says she’s happy to leave it in the hands of the premier, Peter Gutwein, who she believes “won’t muck around”.
“I can tell you, this has been going on, if it has, he will come down on them like a hammer,” she says. “There’s no doubts about that.”
Updated
There will be exceptions to the six month ban on eviction in limited circumstances such as property damage.
McGowan says:
“I want to make it very clear. This is a moratorium on eviction, not a moratorium on rent. Rent must still be paid. If a tenant can’t pay their rent they’ll still have to pay it later.”
He adds that “we are not legislating to require a reduction in rent for residential tenancies”.
McGowan says: “I urge affected landlords and tenants to respectfully talk to each other and come to an acceptable agreement for the 6-month period. This is a state of emergency, we’re all in this together.”
WA to introduce protections for renters
The Western Australia premier, Mark McGowan, announced the government would tomorrow introduce new legislation addressing residential and commercial tenancies.
He says this will include:
- A six-month moratorium on evictions for residential and small commercial tenancies.
- A code of conduct for commercial tenancies.
- A freeze on rent increase and no interest on rent arrears.
McGowan says the bill will be introduced to parliament this week.
This legislation is designed to prevent tenants suffering severe financial difficulty from being forced to move out or made homeless. We must put a stop to this. I don’t want to see someone who has lost their job because of Covid-19, then forced out on to the street by their landlord. As a result we will introduce a moratorium on residential evictions for six months.
Updated
McGowan says the state “can’t let out guard down”, but adds:
If we get to a point, based on the best health advice, we will move to ease or tweak some restrictions in a methodical and measured way. As premier I have a responsibility to always act in the public interest ... Any adjustment in restrictions will be based on the best of health advice.
But McGowan stresses the state’s borders will remain shut for a “long period of time”.
Updated
Western Australia update
In WA, the premier, Mark McGowan, has started his own press conference.
He says there was a decline in active cases of 41 since yesterday, which was “thanks to a big jump in recovery”.
He says:
These kind of numbers are a demonstration of the positive response this state has had to minimising the spread of coronavirus. Significant restrictions have been imposed across our community and state.
Updated
Kelly acknowledges that Australia is in a “much better place than I thought we would be at this point”.
He adds:
How that translates into the future is still a crystal ball thing. And we need to take on board our improving modelling, our improving epidemiological understanding of this virus. We will look at the research that’s coming in relation to better treatments, to preventive treatments and to vaccines, and all of these things will be really important to take into account.
As we’ve seen right throughout the time since we’ve first found out about the new virus in early January, a day is a long time in this fight against the pandemic.
And that concludes the press conference.
Updated
Murphy is asked for the specific start date of the “six month” period that the prime minister, Scott Morrison, has referred to as the likely length of Covid-19 restrictions.
I’d have to take it on notice. I was thinking about it this morning to make sure I had the six months right. September is around the six-month mark. I think the six months is an indicative time. That was given by the prime minister early on in relation to this to really stress that this is not a short-term thing. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon.
There may well be during that period some opportunity because we have gotten on top of this so far and flattened the curve in relation to new cases in Australia. There may be some opportunity to roll back some of the restrictions. But at the moment we have to stay at course and the six months is an indicative time which we get us through winter, through the usual flu season and then maybe a time to reassess. But at the moment that’s how it is.
Updated
Kelly is pressed again on Brendan Murphy’s “illegal dinner party” comments:
In terms of the ongoing investigation in north-west Tasmania, surveillance is part of that. These things are taken onboard and if it’s just a rumour they’ll discount it, as Professor Murphy has done as well now. I think we’ll move on with that investigation and they’ll get to the bottom of it and we’ll know more in the coming days.
He is asked to address the fact that the nurses’ union believes Murphy should issue an apology.
I won’t make a statement about that but we absolutely appreciate the work all healthcare workers in Tasmania and north-west Tasmania, [and] around Australia, are doing. And certainly the comments made by the chief medical officer I’m sure wasn’t meant to take anything away from that incredible appreciation we have of the work that all healthcare workers are doing.
Updated
Question: Can you provide an update if possible on ... app development in tracking contacts and cases?
Kelly:
So one of the things that’s been looked at is the use of apps or some other digital technology to do that. Google and Apple have talked in recent days about their own investigations. Several other countries are indeed using such apps. So that is part of the broad discussion the government will be having in relation to the next steps.
Updated
Kelly is asked about airlines such as Qantas sitting passengers side by side. He says there have been specific and strict criteria applying to international arrivals.
In terms of domestic flights, we have put out the very strong advice to people, and indeed several states have put their own restrictions in relation to this, that people should not be travelling domestically unless it’s absolutely essential. They should not be travelling if they are sick.
Anyone who has come back from overseas has spent their two weeks of quarantine before getting on a domestic flight. For all of those reasons, plus the very short duration of most domestic flights in Australia, we don’t see this as a high-risk setting.
Updated
Kelly is being pressed on what the advice to the national cabinet will be. Does it suggest certain low risk restrictions can be lifted? Which sectors might be affected?
He declines to reveal the advice, but says:
The general principle is let’s look at where we are in terms of the epidemic and we have flattened that curve and decreased to a very large extent the new cases each day. There’s a range of matters we have also done around capability of the healthcare system to be able to respond to a large outbreak. We’re not currently having a large outbreak but we need to have those things absolutely ready in the best way we can do in case it did brick out and we had more cases.
In terms of what is done next, that’s a very difficult and balanced decision that needs to be made by a government.
Updated
Kelly addresses in general terms the the considerations around reopening some sectors of society.
The question is what do we do next? We definitely don’t want to just open up everything that we’ve dampened down on so far because we’ve seen in other countries what has happened with an uncontrolled epidemic, and we cannot afford to do that in Australia.
And so there will be a range of matters that we will put to national cabinet to consider, but particularly the strategies moving forward. And then, within that, would be what to look at in terms of the restrictions which may be least risky in relation to increasing the number of cases and, on the other hand, having the most benefit for the wider society.
Updated
Should state governments start housing healthcare workers in hotels?
Kelly says a couple of states have offered that option. But broadly speaking, he says that’s a matter for the states.
Asked about reports around aged care homes, Kelly says it is “a concern that a healthcare worker did go to work I believe for several days whilst they were sick”.
Number one message: if you are sick, please stay at home. In relation to casual workers, that is an extra issue. And we need to look at that in terms of support that might be able to be put in so that there isn’t that incentive to continue to soldier on because that is so dangerous, particularly in aged care and other vulnerable group settings.
Updated
Kelly reiterates that Murphy clarified his statement but that the so-called illegal dinner party “was mentioned to him at some point”.
But that is an ongoing investigation. I understand the police are involved. So I’m not going to comment on that further.
Updated
Kelly is asked about the chief medical officer Brendan Murphy’s claim that an “illegal dinner party” in Tasmania was responsible for the outbreak in the state’s north-west. Murphy has since retracted that statement.
Kelly is asked for the source of Murphy’s initial claim. He sidesteps that question.
The Australian chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, did make a comment in discussions with the New Zealand parliamentary committee this morning. And he referred to the suggestion that a dinner party may have been the source of some of the transmission in north-west Tasmania. It related to healthcare workers and the two hospitals in Burnie.
Whilst this possibility had previously been mentioned to him following initial investigations, he was informed that the contact tracing was not yet confirmed and that such a dinner party had occurred. So he has retracted that statement or clarified that statement in relation to that.
Updated
Kelly says he is pleased that people took social distancing seriously over Easter.
Over the Easter break, people really did listen. We saw that Australia was taking those messages very seriously. And I’m sure we won’t know for a couple of weeks because it does take a couple of weeks for us to know what the effects of measures going forward or being taken back will have in relation to the numbers of cases.
But I’m very confident because Australia has been so cooperative with each other in relation to this – to keep ourselves protected, our families protected and the whole community protected – that we are in a very good place. Much better than many other countries around the world.
Updated
The deputy chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, says he is pleased by the “small number” of new cases reported yesterday.
But “part of that would be due to the Easter long weekend and less testing”.
Kelly says the Australian Health Protection Committee met today to finalise its advice on “next steps”, which will be taken to national cabinet on Thursday.
Updated
Hello everyone. Thanks to Amy for her efforts today. I will be with you for the next few hours.
The deputy chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, is expected to provide an update shortly.
Updated
As we have reported, national cabinet will meet on Thursday.
A sketch of what would need to happen to start talking exit strategies will be discussed. As well as schools – which is a state responsibility and decision. For the first six weeks or so of term 2, you can expect most states to stick to what was happening in the last weeks of term 1 – mostly distance learning.
Schools are “open” but mostly pupil-free, for parents who have no other choice.
Still, that will be under discussion. That is me done for the day, so I will hand you over to Luke Henriques-Gomes for what is left of day 45 of March (at least that is what it feels like).
Thanks very much for joining me today. I’ll be back tomorrow. Take care of you.
Updated
At his press conference earlier today, we asked Anthony Albanese about Australia’s overarching strategy on flattening the curve.
Essentially, we wanted to know whether he saw flattening the curve as the right approach, or should we be going with a New Zealand-style elimination strategy?
The Labor leader replied:
With regard to health and the targets, we think that the governments, plural, have got it basically right at the moment. This is what we were calling for. We would have preferred the controls of airports and ports to be much stronger earlier. We would have preferred some of the constraints to be done earlier.
Albanese said it didn’t make sense when people were told on a Friday that they had to stop large public gatherings on the following Monday, but that it was “fair enough for 30,000 people to go watch the footy next to each other the day before”.
We think, though, that as time has gone on, these issues have been worked through. It was possible, perhaps, early on to work to an elimination of the sort of New Zealand model if you really shut down the borders a lot earlier. We didn’t do that.
We did shut down the border with China very early. That was a good decision. And that made a big difference, no doubt. But we continued to receive people from overseas, whether by air or by sea. And that is where a majority of the infections have come from.
We’re working well in terms of community transmission at this point in time. But we need to continue to be vigilant.
Updated
The ACTU has joined the list of people calling for the government to do something to save Virgin, warning that Australia is on the verge of seeing another Ansett situation.
ACTU president Michele O’Neil says the government needs to act to save 16,000 jobs:
The funding for aviation announced last month by the federal government is not being spent because it is mainly fuel excise relief. Obviously, that only helps airlines if planes are in the sky.
The original package made sense when airlines were operating 60% of flights, but it doesn’t now when they’re down to something like 5%.
The Morrison government must release a new package of support and provide urgent assistance to Virgin, in conjunction with state governments.
We stand ready to work with the federal and state governments to protect jobs in this crucial industry for the Australian economy.
Updated
Western Australian primary school children will receive the flu vaccine free, state health minister Roger Cook says.
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And of course, because it is Josh Frydenberg, when asked what the plan is to get those 700,000 additional unemployed back in work when the crisis begins to stabilise (as well as, one would imagine, the 700,000 or so people who were already unemployed before coronavirus hit), we get another “team Australia” moment:
We will do what we can to incentivise. It will be a Team Australia moment. We will look at the economy as a whole, work as we’ve done constructively with the states, key stakeholders, the unions and big business [who] have been involved in the discussions ahead of the jobkeeper package passing the parliament.
Of course, we are looking to cut red tape at every opportunity to streamline those opportunities. So I believe that more jobs will be created on the other side of this crisis. I think there will be the recovery phase, Australia will be well positioned for that. But there are certainly some challenges ahead.
Updated
Will the GST be increased to 15% (an idea which was already being floated before the Covid-19 crisis)
Josh Frydenberg says no:
We have no plans to change the GST.
What we are focused on is growing the economy. The economy today is 16% larger than when we came to government. And by virtue of growing the economy and creating more jobs, then you see both expenditures go down and revenue go up.
And we’ve done that while lifting health and education spending to record levels. So, we’re the party of lower taxes. We’ve shown our track record indicates that.
And, of course, the will be a debt burden that will be left to pay for years to come. But we will approach those issues in the considered way that we have done in the past.
Again, these are not binary choices. Presenting it as so is not only lazy, it is dangerous. And more than a little heartbreaking.
On this commentary that the “young” will be made to pay for the response put in place to protect the vulnerable and “old” (an issue that apparently was not a problem when it came to criticism of removing franking credits, but I digress), Josh Frydenberg says:
I think we’re all affected by the coronavirus, young and old.
I think it is quite indiscriminate in the way that it can challenge people’s health, and you saw in the United Kingdom no less a person than the prime minister of that country go into intensive care.
He’s not a senior citizen, if you like. He’s still a pretty sprightly, relatively youthful person. And yet he was struck down by the virus.
And I think we have a responsibility, as a country, to look after our fellow Australians, regardless of their age, regardless of their income, regardless of their background, and that’s what we’ve done in this case.
We’ve taken the medical advice and put in place stringent measures and they are flattening the curve.
But just as previous weeks have been tough, the weeks ahead will be tough, and tougher in some cases.
In regards to the economic measures we have put in place, they are designed to support businesses and keep people in a job and help people young and old alike.
Updated
On Australia’s aviation industry and whether, at the end of this, Qantas could end up with a monopoly, Josh Frydenberg says:
You’re speculating about the future and nobody knows where those issues will end up.
What I can tell you, though, is as a government we are absolutely committed to the aviation sector. We’ve already announced over $1bn worth of support measures from regulatory and fee changes to other support for freight services and the like.
Australia’s been well served by having two major airlines operating in the domestic market.
But Virgin and Qantas are both publicly listed companies, both with substantial share holders.
And I know that obviously that sector has been very badly hit by the impact of the coronavirus and in both cases they continue to talk to their key shareholders about the road ahead.
Updated
Josh Frydenberg is speaking on the Treasury assumptions that were released today, showing another 700,000 people are expected to be unemployed by mid-year, doubling the unemployment rate to 10%.
As we have mentioned, those figures do not take into account underemployment. The Australian Bureau of Statistics considers you to be employed if you have worked an hour a week.
Asked about underemployment, Frydenberg deflects.
Updated
Anyone looking for a distraction from Covid-19 might want to tune into Apollo 50, which is recounting Apollo missions from 50 years ago, in real (replayed) time.
This has just happened (50 years ago).
Lovell: "Houston, we've had a problem."#Apollo13#Apollo50
— Apollo 50th (@apollo_50th) April 14, 2020
I am not going to lie – when they went to stir the cryo tanks, my stomach clenched.
Updated
Still in New Zealand:
#BREAKING Burger King is in receivership as lockdown hits the fast food chain.https://t.co/VNx98eZjV1
— nzherald (@nzherald) April 14, 2020
Brendan Murphy says he got 'illegal dinner party' wrong
The chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, has walked back his claim to a New Zealand health committee this morning that an outbreak in the north-west of Tasmania was potentially due to “an illegal dinner party” (it is very strange typing those words and I hope it never ceases to be strange) after the Tasmanian premier called him to task for passing on a rumour.
Professor Murphy says he got it wrong:
This morning in discussions with the New Zealand parliamentary committee I referred to a suggestion that a dinner party may have been the source of some of the transmission in the north-west Tasmania cluster of cases.
Whilst this possibility had previously been mentioned to me, following investigations I am confident it has not occurred. Tasmanian officials are continuing their investigations.
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Anthony Albanese says that if it were the case that Australia was going to lose the two-airline model, the government should intervene.
The idea that Virgin can disappear and someone will just come in and pick up what’s left is just a triumph of hope over reality, which is why people in the government are talking about opening up Australian domestic routes to foreign carriers, which would carry foreign workers and pay foreign wages.
Asked about whether any mooted assistance should be available to other airlines, Albanese said it was Virgin that was particularly requiring support at the current time, but added:
Of course this isn’t about favouring one airline or another. This is about favouring an industry structure that serves the national interest.
Albanese said, however, that taxpayer money should not be given unconditionally. There was no reason why the government could not make a financial injection through equity with the ability to sell that stake down the track, he said.
This is an ideal time. If anything, this is the bottom of the market, that’s for sure.
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And the ACT has recorded no new cases for another day.
ACT COVID-19 update 14 April:
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) April 14, 2020
ZERO new cases today.
3 people are in hospital.
75 people have recovered, almost three-quarters of all ACT cases.
In total: 103 cases, 2 deaths.
6,291 negative tests recorded.#canberra #covid19aus
Updated
Victoria Health has also released its official update:
The total number of Covid-19 cases in Victoria is 1291. That’s an increase of 10 from yesterday.
There were no new deaths reported yesterday. To date, 14 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
The total number of cases is made up of 672 men and 619 women, with people aged from babies to their early 90s.
There are 122 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria that may have been acquired through community transmission. Forty people are in hospital, including 15 patients in intensive care, while 1,118 people have recovered. More than 71,000 Victorians have been tested to date.
Of the total 1,291 cases, there have been 1029 in metropolitan Melbourne and 236 in regional Victoria.
Updated
The deputy chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, will deliver the national Covid update at 3.15pm
Updated
The deputy commissioner of Victoria police, Shane Patton, has told reporters in Melbourne that over the long weekend 532 infringements were issued for non-compliance with restrictions. That’s a total of 1,249 infringements since 21 March.
There have been 20,933 compliance checks ensuring people are quarantining.
“It’s important we use discretion, that we maintain public confidence in us,” he said.
On a daily basis every infringement will now be reviewed. Patton said he would review every infringement personally to ensure fines pass the “common sense” test.
That comes after a Victorian couple were fined for posting holiday photos on Facebook over the Easter weekend, even though the photos were taken years earlier.
Patton says police have withdrawn “less than 10” infringements so far.
Yesterday, police received about 1,500 calls from the public to report others for breaching the laws.
Updated
More very sad news for the media world and the communities it services.
Sad news for regional media - Australian Community Media is closing 4 printing presses including Canberra, and suspending printing of 'a number' of non-daily papers. https://t.co/vGiYStpak9
— Sally Whyte (@sallywhyte) April 14, 2020
Josh Frydenberg will hold his press conference at 1.30pm.
Labor leader dismisses idea of economic 'snap back'
Anthony Albanese also raised his eyebrows at the idea that at the end of the six-month period the government has set, all of Australia’s safety net settings can just “snap back” to their pre-Covid levels.
He says people need to remember to have compassion once the immediate crisis passes:
What is extraordinary about the politics of this time, how many arguments the government was completely against, they’re now in favour of.
They have acknowledged the fact the jobseeker payment represents a doubling of the old Newstart allowance; they have acknowledged that $40 a day simply isn’t enough for people to live on.
So it’s clear to me that the idea that you would just return back to $40 and do it in a way which the prime minister implies with snap back, you do it instantly, would provide a massive shock to the economy.
We have been reminded during this crisis that Australians do depend on each other. We’re looking after each other. We need to carry that spirit forward, well after this crisis has gone.
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As predicted, there is more on the need to build Australia’s manufacturing sector back up. Anthony Albanese:
We also need to have a plan emerging out of that crisis. And part of that plan needs to be to support Australian manufacturing, to support the Australian aviation industry, to support the Australian flag being on the back of Australian cruise ships, and ships carrying freight, so that we actually represent a strengthening of our national interests coming out of this crisis.
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Anthony Albanese says Virgin, which went into a trading halt this morning, needs help.
The idea that a new airline will just step in if Virgin isn’t able to continue and take up that position is, frankly, a fantasy.
We need to recognise that that is the case. So today I say to the government: stop the bits-and-pieces support, provide support for our airline industry. If that needs equity injections to ensure that that government investment by taxpayers is protected, then the government should go down that route.
And it should go down that route sooner rather than later. Because we know the pressure on these airlines isn’t about to become less for a long time.
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Anthony Albanese has held his press conference. He says there are more challenges to come, particularly for the economy.
What we’re seeing and continuing to see are some positive signs, but of course we can’t be complacent.
We also need to recognise that there are particular challenges. And one of those challenges is in the aviation sector. This is a major challenge for our country. We have directly and indirectly some 15,000 people that are dependent upon Virgin Australia.
Our two airline system in Australia has served the country well. And today’s announcement of support for some flights will not go anywhere near enough to what is actually required to ensure that the two-airline system in Australia will be able to continue in the future.
Updated
SA intensive care nurse tests positive
South Australia Health has released this update: an intensive care nurse, working at the Royal Adelaide Hospital with Covid-19 patients, has tested positive for the virus.
COVID-19 Update 14 April 2020: An intensive care unit nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH), working with COVID-19 patients, has tested positive for COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/rXmAUknL2L
— SA Health (@SAHealth) April 14, 2020
Updated
Amnesty International recording police 'over-reach'
It won’t surprise anyone who belongs to a minority, or has a particular “look”, that Australia’s law enforcement officers haven’t exactly shied away from enforcing the new powers the physical distance rules have given them.
Man who had lost his job and was sitting in his car, smoking and drinking a coffee while staring at the water by himself says he was fined by police for breaching social distancing rules.
— Josephine Tovey (@Jo_Tovey) April 13, 2020
Some troubling cases of enforcement here by @mmcgowan https://t.co/syOf3LMG0V
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that has been the case.
Amnesty International Australia and the Grata Fund want clear and PUBLIC guidelines released, so people know exactly the framework they are operating under.
To monitor this, a website where people can report incidents of police over-reach has been launched.
At the end of its first week of operation, 28 inappropriate or concerning police interactions have been reported. Over recent days police have issued and then retracted fines to people going mountain biking, putting holiday snaps on social media, and to a teenager taking driving lessons.
We understand the need for restrictions on movement in response to a one-in-100 year pandemic, but that response should still have human rights at its core and should be proportionate and applied with common sense.
While these reports concern us, what’s really alarming is the potential for vulnerable people in our community to be unfairly targeted.
It’s hard to understand the utility of harassing a homeless person who doesn’t have the luxury of self-isolation, or of picking on Indigenous kids who are already grossly over-represented in the prison system.
Updated
New Zealand’s health director general says it is “clear” the country has now “passed the peak” and is working towards random testing to make sure any community transmission is caught early.
Updated
For a catch up on the Tasmanian situation, which has seen the phrase “illegal dinner party” enter the Australian lexicon, head here:
New Zealand’s health director general, Ashley Bloomfield, is giving an update on what NZ is doing.
It is now banning group dinners in aged care centres, to try to ensure there are no further outbreaks.
Updated
My colleague Helen Sullivan has summed up the issues with the coronavirus tracker for those wanting a bit more information:
For those who may have seen the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker suddenly spike to over 2 million cases worldwide, it was an error in figures for Florida, with 100k cases added to Okaloosa county. This was corrected, and current cases stand at 1,918,855. https://t.co/zf7EBG7GYt pic.twitter.com/EZ9awq81A7
— Helen Sullivan (@helenrsullivan) April 14, 2020
Updated
A lot of Australia’s artists, and associated support staff, aren’t covered by the wage subsidy – because they don’t have that year-long association with one employer.
Those who operate as sole traders have options, but that leaves a lot of people out.
Updated
Sarah Hanson-Young says there is a solution to the arts crisis Australian workers are seeing – streaming giants could commit to more local productions:
The bigwigs of video streaming like Netflix, Stan and Amazon should be regulated to support Australian made stories and entertainment.
During the Covid-19 shutdown Australian households are logging on and streaming more content than ever before. Meanwhile Australia’s cultural, arts and entertainment industry is being decimated by the government’s corona response.
It’s no surprise that it’s Australian artists and entertainers that are keeping us all sane as we remain cooped up inside in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. What is more surprising is unlike in other parts of the world, Australia has no obligations on big streaming companies to fund, invest and create Australian content or tell Australian stories.
Now is the time for the government to make a real difference in protecting and enhancing our national identity, culture and voice by issuing requirements for big players like Netflix, Amazon and Apple to put genuine support behind Australia’s screen and music industries.
Updated
Anthony Albanese will hold his press conference at 12.45pm.
Updated
There have been a few questions about coronavirus case number blog – there was an error with the John Hopkins data, apparently, which was quickly found and corrected, for anyone who was wondering why there has been a change.
The ACCC’s run of allowing coordination has continued – this time for life insurers:
The ACCC has granted interim authorisation allowing life insurers to coordinate to ensure frontline healthcare workers are not excluded from coverage due to potential or actual exposure to Covid-19.
The interim authorisation, granted to the Financial Services Council (FSC) and its members, means that exposure to Covid-19 cannot be used as a reason to decline life insurance coverage to a frontline health worker, or to charge higher premiums or apply risk exclusions to any new policy.
The FSC members’ commitment applies to workers including, but not limited to, doctors, nurses and all hospital workers; ambulance workers and paramedics; people working at GP surgeries or clinics; people working on Covid-19 vaccines; pharmacists; police; aged care workers and volunteers supporting people with Covid-19.
“This is a stressful time for everyone, but especially those working at the frontline of our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s sadly understandable that such workers may consider life insurance coverage at this time,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
Updated
Confusion over Tasmanian outbreak origins
Right, so what just happened?
The CMO Brendan Murphy told a New Zealand health committee this morning they needed to keep a lid on the virus infections, telling them:
We thought we were doing really well then in the last week we had a cluster of 49 cases in a hospital in Tasmania just over the weekend. Most of them went to an illegal dinner party of medical workers.
Then not half an hour later, the Tasmanian premier, Peter Gutwein, said the CMO had been commenting “on a rumour”.
I spoke to Brendan Murphy, a short while ago. To be frank, Brendan was commenting on a rumour.
At this stage, there has ... our contact tracing has not identified a dinner party of health workers.
However, I accept that this is a serious allegation, and it’s something that needs to be followed up, and so we will retrace our steps, but, importantly, I’ve asked the Tasmania Police to investigate this matter, and that will be started today. We need to get on top of this.
So Tasmania will investigate whether or not there was a dinner party, as it tries to work out the origins of the north-west outbreak, which has caused two hospitals to close and put just under 5,000 people into a strict lockdown.
Updated
Virgin in trading halt
Airline Virgin Australia has put its shares into a trading halt as it looks for financial assistance to keep going and considers “restructuring alternatives” due to the coronavirus crisis.
The debt-laden company is bleeding cash because its planes have been grounded for weeks by sweeping travel restrictions and the effective end of corporate travel.
It has been desperately seeking ways of staying afloat, including going to the Morrison government with a $5bn plus industry-wide bailout proposal that would have included it getting a $1.4bn loan.
But any prospect of taxpayer funds being used to prop up Virgin Australia has been bitterly opposed by its bigger rival, flag carrier Qantas.
Its chief executive, Alan Joyce, has repeatedly attacked Virgin Australia as mismanaged and said government money should not be used to prop up the largely foreign-owned airline.
This kind of language has drawn the ire of competition tsar Rod Sims, who has launched an investigation into Qantas’s behaviour.
Other possible sources of money for Virgin include its foreign shareholders – although they themselves have been hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic – or a sale of its debt to a vulture fund. Administration would be the last resort.
Updated
The short version of that?
Get your smokey eye tips and lols from Insta. Not your health advice.
Updated
RACGP President Dr Harry Nespolon, who heads up the college which looks after GPs, has had to release a statement on something one would think should be covered under common sense – DON’T GET YOUR HEALTH ADVICE FROM CELEBRITIES.
More of the Pretty People have come out with anti-vaccine propaganda, prompting Dr Nespolon to come out with this statement:
These comments from Isabel Lucas and Taj Burrow are extremely unhelpful. It may well be a new vaccine that halts Covid-19 and saves millions of lives around the world.
Vaccines are one of the great success stories of modern medicine but the rise of the anti-vaxxer trend has led to unfounded doubts about the safety of vaccinations.
So please once again I urge people to get their health advice from healthcare professionals, not actors or surfers or models or celebrity chefs.
Don’t rely on social media and apply a ‘sniff test’ to posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like – ask yourself whether the information is reliable and trustworthy.
The best sources of information on Covid-19 include the RACGP website and the official health.gov.au website, not celebrity Insta posts.
Updated
Peter Gutwein:
But I do want to make this point – regardless of whether or not that party took place, it does not change the fact that we need to get on top of this outbreak.
It does not change the fact that we need to all work together on the north-west coast and across the state to ensure that we follow the rules and that we get on top of this thing as quickly as we possibly can.
Updated
CMO was commenting on 'rumour', Tasmanian premier says
Now we get to the medical worker dinner party news.
Peter Gutwein says he spoke to the CMO this morning:
To be frank, Brendan [Murphy] was commenting on a rumour.
At this stage, there has ... our contact tracing has not identified a dinner party of health workers.
However, I accept that this is a serious allegation, and it’s something that needs to be followed up, and so we will retrace our steps, but, importantly, I’ve asked the Tasmania police to investigate this matter, and that will be started today. We need to get on top of this.
We need to understand whether or not there is any strength to the rumour because, at the end of the day, I am certain that there are many hard working health professionals on the north-west coast who feel that their reputations are being maligned, people that have done the right thing, and we need to understand exactly what’s occurred here.
Updated
There have been 150 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in Tasmania. 57 people have recovered.
On easter Thursday there were 103 cases in Tasmania.
Today, there are 150 – the 47 new cases are ALL linked to the outbreak in the north-west, which has resulted in two hospitals being closed down for cleaning, and put nearly 5,000 people under a strict stay at home order.
Updated
The Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein is holding his press conference now:
Updated
CMO tells NZ colleagues Tasmanian health workers had 'illegal dinner party'
Australian chief medical officer Brendan Murphy has given a briefing to a NZ health committee. Sky News New Zealand correspondent Jackson Williams reported professor Murphy as telling his Tasman colleagues the country needed to be prepared for “further outbreaks”:
We thought we were doing really well, then in the last week we had a cluster of 49 cases in a hospital in Tasmania just over the weekend. Most of them went to an illegal dinner party of medical workers.
Geez...As reported by @jacksonw____ - Aust CMO Brendan Murphy has dropped a bit of a bombshell to a NZ Committee: "A cluster of 49 cases in a hospital in Tasmania just over the weekend...but most of them went to an illegal dinner party of medical workers!"
— Thomas O'Brien (@TJ__OBrien) April 13, 2020
The Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein has previously dismissed questions of a dinner party as “social media rumours”.
“To be frank, I’ve never taken much notice of social media,” he said, when this was last raised on Monday.
“The key thing here is we work through this.
“The contact tracking and tracing will determine how this has occurred and, importantly, what the epicentre of it is.”
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian said a little earlier today that the Ruby Princess police investigation would likely to take six months.
AAP has a bit more on that:
She said her government would seek legal advice this week before considering the establishment of a commission of inquiry.
“If the police are able to publicly provide to the community in five months’ time about everything they’ve uncovered ... that is a positive for the community because any commission of inquiry would take at least six to 12 months,” Berejiklian said.
“We will not be leaving a single stone unturned.”
NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller said he was willing to release all findings to the public if permitted and that authorities had interviewed 200 witnesses over the weekend.
He said Covid-19 testing is still underway for crew members on the ship and daily conversations are taking place with NSW Health on moving the ship. Once NSW Health gives the all-clear on the health of crew members, Fuller will ask the ABF to instruct the ship to return to its port of residence.
The commissioner on Monday said the disease was most likely spread onboard by an ill food handler.
Updated
National cabinet will meet on Thursday.
That’s when discussions on what conditions need to be in place to loosen restrictions will begin.
There is no prime ministerial press conference planned at this stage, for today, but like everything lately, that too could change.
Jason Clare was on Sky News this morning.
He has been one of Labor’s go-to spokespeople as the corona crisis rolls on.
Kristina Keneally and Chris Bowen have led the charge on criticising the government (Peter Dutton mostly) over the Ruby Princess debacle.
This morning, Clare was on board:
Look it’s a disaster. One in 10 people who have got the virus in Australia are linked back to that cruise ship. One in three people who have died from the virus in Australia are linked back to that cruise ship. You’ve got 1,000 doctors and nurses and kitchen hands in the hospital system in north-west Tasmania that are in effective lockdown now, because no one was checked when they got off that cruise ship. You’ve got 5,000 people in Tassie who are in quarantine.
If I was in Tasmania at the moment I’d be bloody angry because there’s been a massive failure of border protection here. It just goes to show if you don’t check people when they get off a cruise ship, then it can cause all sorts of mayhem. We’re witnessing that in Tasmania right now.
Tasmania’s first case in the north-west was a passenger from the Ruby Princess ship. It has since had to close two hospitals and put 1,200 health workers and their families – so about 5,000 people into a strict lockdown, to try and contain a cluster.
Updated
So early days, yes. But not a lot of change there.
If Australia decides to turn towards onshore manufacturing, there will be ramifications in the free trade world as well.
How do we balance that? No answers there yet, either.
Karen Andrews:
I think we will still be a free trading nation. But we’re going to have to look at what we need to do to make sure that in a time of a crisis we are able to support ourselves.
Updated
That interview continued:
Fran Kelly: It can’t happen without some kind of government investment. If it’s not subsidies, and you say it won’t be subsidies, will it be more investment in R&D and certainly more investment in our universities and TAFEs you think, for instance? I mean we’ve had cuts to those areas in the last few budgets. Will we be reversing those cuts?
Andrews: Well with Tafe, there’s been a lot of money that’s gone into the vocational education sector. And let’s not …
Kelly: [Interrupts] It’s a mess. It’s a mess. The Tafe – the higher education sector.
Andrews: Well if we look at vocational education and training, it’s clearly an area that needs a lot of work because it’s considered to be a second rate option and people don’t tend to look at their skills and the benefits that come out of vocational education and training.
So a lot of work is being done to turn around that perspective and encourage people to look at the jobs that they would get if they follow a VET pathway. But yes, it does need some work and it actually needs the state and territories to come together with the Commonwealth and work their way through what some of those issues are. Now in my dealings with the states and territories on vocational education, there has been a strong willingness to deal with these issues because we understand we’ve got significant skills shortages that we have to start addressing. So that work needs to continue and we have to have the skilled workforce of the future.
Updated
We said a little earlier that you are going to hear a lot more about Australia’s manufacturing sector as this crisis rolls on – and how it will be one of the sectors that the government wants to build upon, now that holes in our supply chains have been exposed. Manufacturing in Australia, makes up just over 5% of the economy. It’s a pretty small base to start from, and without government subsidies, it won’t grow much higher.
Fran Kelly questioned Karen Andrews on this very thing on RN radio this morning.
Kelly: ...Once the crisis is over, do you think Australians will be prepared to subsidise because that’s what we’re talking, isn’t it? Subsidise these manufacturing based to be onshore.
Andrews: I prefer to look at it as a recognition that they need to ensure their supply and what about …
Kelly: [Interrupts] Well you can use the word recognition. But do we mean subsidy when we’re talking recognition? Do we mean government subsidy of some degree?
Andrews: I’m not talking about government subsidies at all. And interestingly, when I met with all of the manufacturing representatives during the last year, they weren’t talking about subsidies either. They were talking about how we could strengthen our manufacturing capacity here …
Kelly: [Interrupts] And how we do that?
Andrews: By looking at where our key markets are; where we can value add - things such as battery development. We’ve got the critical minerals here. Let’s look at the value add. So let’s not just continue to dig things up out of the ground, stick them on a ship and send them overseas. Let’s value add to them here. Let’s look at our advanced manufacturing capabilities here but in key areas. And I’m saying that that should be us looking at food and it should be us looking at defence and it should be us looking at things such as emerging industries like space.
Labor’s finance team responded to the Treasury modelling, showing unemployment is expected to hit 10% a little earlier today. It says there will be more people unemployed then needs to be, because of the restrictions on what casuals can access the jobkeeper program. (The government has again ruled out expanding the programs to casuals who have been employed for less than a year by the one employer).
The Commonwealth Treasury expects hundreds of thousands of jobs could be saved by the wage subsidies Labor called for and supported in the parliament.
Our goal throughout has been to see those workers maintain a connection with their employer.
Expectations for double digit unemployment are a sobering reminder of the devastating economic impacts of this diabolical health crisis.
If these numbers eventuate, something like 1.4 million Australians will be jobless and many of them won’t immediately “snap back” to work.
The unemployment rate will be higher than it would be if Josh Frydenberg exercised his powers to give more casual and other workers access to jobkeeper payments.
When unemployment spikes in the next few months remember hundreds of thousands of job losses could have been prevented if the treasurer picked up his pen and included more workers currently left out and left behind.
The release of these figures will be a welcome development but no substitute for a full set of updated economic and budget figures and forecasts which should be released in the next month in lieu of a full budget.
Updated
The IMF will release its April 2020 world economic outlook at 8.30am eastern time, which means it should land in Australia around 10.30pm AEST.
That will give more of an idea of where the global economy sits right now.
Updated
For those who’d like the whole release:
Media release @JoshFrydenberg: Jobkeeper payment supporting millions of jobs https://t.co/sw8V5JwY38 pic.twitter.com/aZNFdwclvg
— Australian Treasury (@Treasury_AU) April 13, 2020
Doubling of the rate is another 700,000 people out of work. That makes the number of people without work in Australia about 1.4 to 1.5 million.
And that doesn’t take into account the underemployment numbers – the ABS counts anyone with an hour of work as “employed”.
Updated
Tuesday, 14 April – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 13, 2020
• 11 new confirmed cases
• 998 total confirmed cases
• 74,013 tests conducted
Sadly, five Queenslanders have died from coronavirus. 442 patients have recovered.#coronavirus pic.twitter.com/CxP4IMuwrX
New South Wales reported seven additional cases, but reminded people that Easter Monday meant that testing rates were reduced.
The Queensland health minister, Steven Miles, said Queensland kept its testing rates steady:
I want to thank all of the health staff who worked around the clock through the Easter weekend to keep us all safe.
All of these results are a credit to them.
And testing rates continued right through the weekend, so it’s not the case that those low numbers at the weekend represent a reduction in testing.
In fact, the broadening of the testing criteria has seen testing rates continue and a very, very low positive testing rate.
Updated
Dr Mike Ryan, the World Health Organisation emergencies program executive director, says it is too early to start planning a mass lift of restrictions.
He was speaking from a global sense, but he meant it for indivudual nations.
Now is the time for vigilance. Now is the time to double down.
Now is the time to be very, very careful and that does not mean that countries cannot begin to create an exit strategy.
It doesn’t mean that countries shouldn’t be actively planning to do that.
But, as the director general said, there are ... in that sense, there are still things that need to be done.
You can’t replace lockdowns with nothing. You must replace a lockdown with a very deeply educated, committed, empowered and engaged community.
We are going to have to change our behaviours.
Updated
And finally (at least for this morning) Scott Morrison confirmed that the national cabinet will be meeting to set out what the terms are for a loosening of the restrictions.
And then it will only be a roadmap, not a release form.
You’ve seen in places like Singapore and Sweden and other parts of the world where the virus has just taken off again.
We can’t have those sort of things happen here in Australia.
We have to do everything we can do to prevent that. We’ve learnt a lot over last few weeks.
When we get a health system to even higher level of response we have one of the strongest testing regimes in the world. It would need to be stronger still to ensure that we can stay on top of any outbreak in the future.
The immediate response capacity to outbreaks, wherever they might come, we’ve got to be able to slap down on these things very hard if we’re to look at easing of restrictions.
We’re looking at how that can be achieved.
I wouldn’t want to mislead people. We’re still many weeks in to go on this. That’s important to keep on top of the virus and while people are being amazing in complying with what we’ve been asking for we can’t allow that to be eroded by being premature in the easing of any restrictions.
Updated
The prime minister has also doubled down on who is in and who is out of the jobkeeper wage subsidy plan.
The one million or so casuals who don’t have a year long relationship with the same employer, are out:
We’ve got to draw the line somewhere. That’s what the jobseeker is for.
For those who aren’t eligible for jobkeeper, then we’ve doubled the rate of jobseeker. They also get our access to things like rental assistance and arrange of other benefits.
Which means they are certainly not forgotten. The strongest social safety net we’ve ever seen in this country for those out of work is now in place.
We’ve got the jobkeeper program to keep six million Australians connected to their employer. So this is unprecedented in its scale.
Over $200bn now has been committed to supporting our economy for people in the economy. The businesses and jobs to get through the other side.”
Updated
Scott Morrison told the Nine network that the government does not expect to see Australia’s unemployment rate hit 20%.
That was the projection before the government took up the wage subsidy idea.
But Morrison says that he no longer sees it going that high:
That’s not our advice. What we’re seeing in other countries is far worse.
We came into this crisis, which is a dual one – a health crisis and an economic crisis – in strong shape.
Our balance sheet was strong. We bought the budget back into balance so we’re able to do the things now and cushion that blow.
It’s a big blow.
I don’t want do lessen that in terms of how we speak of it.
It’s a serious impact on our economy. It’s impacting people’s livelihoods.
It’s heartbreaking. Despite all that hardship Australians have responded so well. And they’re doing their best.
Updated
Ruby Princess police investigation to take up to six months
Gladys Berejiklian has told reporters in Sydney that the NSW police investigation into what happened with the Ruby Princess, will take at least half a year.
Detectives seized papers and the ship’s version of the black recorder box, last week, and have begun interviewing the crew.
More than 600 of Australia’s confirmed Covid-19 cases originated from the cruise ship, and 18 passengers died after contracting the virus.
New Zealand has also released its treasury modelling.
As AAP reports:
A raft of treasury modelling released on Tuesday shows a wide range of possible outcomes for the South Pacific nation, which is almost three weeks into a country-wide shutdown to fight the spread of Covid-19.
The modelling suggests the Kiwi economy, as a whole, will not recover coronavirus-induced losses until 2024.
But for now, the New Zealand government remains focused on minimising job losses and is preparing further fiscal stimulus to assist with that aim.
It has currently spent around $21bn by boosting spending on wage subsidies, welfare payments, tax subsidies, injections into the health system and more.
With a further $19bn of targeted fiscal support, the modelling shows New Zealand’s unemployment figure peaking at 8.5% in the June quarter of this year, falling back to 5.5% next year.
The official unemployment rate prior to the pandemic arriving in New Zealand was 4%.
Treasury secretary Caralee McLiesh said GDP growth could fall by as little as 0.5% this year or as much as 23.5%.
The forecasts rely on New Zealand being able to loosen the screws of its severe lockdown next week, as hoped, and spend another month in a lessened lockdown.
The best case scenario relies on borders being closed to foreign visitors “for up to 12 months”, but otherwise New Zealand can return to something close to normalcy.
On release of the figures, finance minister Grant Robertson admitted much of New Zealand’s prosperity was out of his control.
“This global pandemic is dramatically affecting countries and their economies around the world,” he said.
“We are seeing dire forecasts for global growth and unemployment levels rising rapidly in many countries. As an open, export-led economy, New Zealand will feel these global effects for some time to come.”
But he maintained New Zealand was well placed to fight the worst effects of the pandemic “due to our strong public health system, low debt and growing economy”.
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Victoria to expand testing to anyone who shows symptoms
The Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos says Victoria will bring forward the recruitment of 120 paramedics.
They will be recruited in May and June.
Victoria is also expanding its testing criteria – anyone with a fever, cough or sneeze – or any of the other Covid-19 symptoms – will be able to be tested.
“This is, in fact, the most generous, the widest testing criteria that exists in the nation at the moment,” she said.
The expanded tests will be at any of the 40 public screening clinics, as well as the pop-up GP clinics.
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In Victoria, another 10 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
That brings the state’s total to 1,291.
There are 40 people in hospital and 15 people who need intensive care.
So far 1,118 people have recovered from the virus in Victoria.
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Westpac has just made an announcement to the Australian stock market, with the bank preparing to write down its assets by $1.4bn.
It’s not just Covid-19. In fact, the coronavirus impact seems to be just a fraction of what Westpac is preparing to set aside – it may seem like it happened a million years ago, but Westpac is preparing for its Austrac penalties.
The bank’s CEO, Peter King, told the ASX:
These items, along with their cash earnings impact, include:
- Provisions and costs associated with the Austrac proceedings and response plan of $1,030m after tax.
- An increase in provisions for customer refunds, repayments and litigation of around $260m after tax.
- A reduction in the value of several assets costing around $70m after tax.
- Costs of changes in the provision of group life insurance of around $70m after tax.
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The NRL’s dream of getting its season back underway at the end of May is resembling more of a pipe every single day.
Scott Morrison, who once couldn’t end a press conference without yelling ‘GO SHARKS’ says there will be “no special arrangements” to get the league back up and running.
Morrison told the Seven network the NRL will have to follow all the health restrictions already in place.
All of these things will be subject to the health advice and the health clearances that are necessary ... the health advice has to be paramount.
I have no doubt that the NRL and the other codes understand that and they will comply with that.”
NSW’s authorities are giving their daily update.
Days are no longer marked by time, but by phone percentage used, and what time leaders stand up to update the 24 hour figures.
Seven people tested positive for Covid-19 in NSW in the last 24 hours.
225 people are in hospital/under the care of NSW Health, with 32 people in the ICU and 19 needing ventilation.
Increased testing is encouraged for these areas (as previously reported):
- Broken Hill
- Byron
- Dee Why
- Lake Macquarie
- Macquarie Park
- Manly
- Manning
- Nowra and South Nowra
- Port Macquarie
- Ryde
- Waverley
- Woollahra
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'Unfathomable' to reopen China's wet markets
Greg Hunt says Australia stands against the World Health Organisation, when it comes to China reopening its wet markets (a wet market sells fresh food and produce, and can include live animals).
Hunt, speaking to the ABC this morning, says it’s a terrible idea:
Well, there is a very real likelihood that this disease arose from a wet market in Wuhan.
It’s clear that these are dangerous vectors.
And in our view, it is unfathomable.
So we might disagree on this issue with some of the international authorities, but our job is to protect Australians, and I would imagine that around the world, the vast majority of people would have a similar view.
Scott Morrison used the same word “unfathomable” when chatting to the Nine Network this morning, on the same topic.
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Dentists have been given a new item number, so they can perform consultations over telehealth.
Other than for emergencies, most dental services have been stopped under coronavirus – but they should now be able to perform virtual consultations, for anyone who might be a bit worried about what is going on with a tooth or gum.
The Australian Dental Association want private health providers to provide the normal rebates.
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Annastacia Palaszczuk was also out and about this morning, with the Queensland leader speaking to ABC News Breakfast.
She was fairly...blunt, when it came to explaining the restrictions were here to stay for the foreseeable future:
It’s not going to be lifting restrictions in the next week or two.
It’s simply not going to happen, Lisa, and please, we don’t want to give your listeners any false sense of hope that suddenly there’s going to be planes flying in the sky in the next two months and tourism is going to be back to normal, because we are in a world pandemic.
You only have to listen to the World Health Organization. They were saying this morning, “You have to be extremely cautious about how you lift those restrictions”, because we’re dealing with a virus here, and the virus operates at all different manners and we need to make sure that we don’t end up like the US and Europe with those high spikes of coronavirus outbreaks, and our hospital systems being overwhelmed.
So this is a marathon. It is not a sprint. And we’ve got to take each day and each week as it comes.
Josh Frydenberg is also out and about this morning – here is his release explaining the rising Australian unemployment rate:
...Treasury expects the unemployment rate to rise to 10% in the June quarter from 5.1% in the most recent data.
In the absence of the $130bn jobkeeper payment, treasury estimates the unemployment rate would be 5 percentage points higher and would peak at around 15%.
More than 800,000 businesses have already registered for the jobkeeper payment which will allow the economy to recover more quickly once we are through to the other side of the crisis.
The government’s economic support 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.
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6,366 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Australia so far.
Greg Hunt says that shows a continued slowing of the growth rate of the virus.
That’s a very difficult thing for all of the businesses and families, but for defeating this virus, it’s just an immensely important asset and personal contribution by everybody.
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Scott Morrison is running the morning TV gauntlet.
So far, the message is – these restrictions are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Scott Morrison says there are still "many weeks" to go before possible easing of restrictions. Hey, it beats 6 months!! #auspol #COVID19Aus
— Paul Karp (@Paul_Karp) April 13, 2020
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Good morning
The figures are starting to roll in, giving a picture of what the Australian economy will look like under coronavirus and beyond.
Treasury has estimated Australia is headed for a 10% unemployment rate. Josh Frydenberg has been quick to remind people that without the wage subsidy, it was headed to 15%.
But it’s still 700,000 people losing work. Which means, you can expect to hear a lot about how Australia is going to become more self sufficient on the other side of this. Don’t be surprised if the return of the manufacturing sector is high on the agenda.
Scott Morrison is out and about today ahead of national cabinet. We’ll bring you that, and everything else as the nation continues to grapple with life in a pandemic. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day.
