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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Luke Henriques-Gomes (now) and Melissa Davey and Amy Remeikis (earlier)

Australian PM announces free childcare as Covid-19 death toll rises to 24 – as it happened

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Summary

Let’s wrap things up there. Thank you for spending the day with us.

Before I go, here are the main events and developments of the day.

  • Childcare will be free during the Covid-19 crisis, the government announced.
  • The national death toll reached 24.
  • Western Australia announced it would close its borders from Sunday night.
  • Tasmania banned greyhound racing, sex work and garage sales during the crisis.
  • Cases linked to the Ruby Princess have now topped 500.

Take care. We’ll see you tomorrow.

Updated

My colleague Paul Karp reports that Labor is concerned millions of Australian employees could be left without leave entitlements due to a “loophole” in the government’s jobkeeper scheme.

Labor has called for a parliamentary committee to be called to scrutinise the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis while parliament is mostly on hold. Such a process is in place in New Zealand.

The Turnbulls appear to agree.

Updated

Sales: What chance do you give students of returning to school in term two?

Tehan:

So we’ll work with the state and territories who have the jurisdictional responsibility for this and we will make sure that we’ve got the best possible arrangements in place so that they will continue their education in term two.

Sales: But not at school? Not physically at school?

Tehan:

What we’ve made very clear is we want the option to be there for those who can’t safely look after their children at home to be able to go to school and get their education at school. And all the states and territories are committed to doing that.

We will continue to work with the states and territories to ensure that we’re getting the best learning outcomes we can for our children this year. The pandemic is going to take a lot away but, as the PM has said, we want to make sure that education to the best of our ability isn’t one of them.

Updated

The federal education minister, Dan Tehan, has told Leigh Sales on 7:30 that people who are paying fees for a childcare centre but keeping their kids at home to self-isolate will still have a place.

And they will no longer have to pay after the government made childcare free for the next six months.

Sales:

If you need to send your child to childcare, your childcare centre will be open for you, but if you choose to keep your child at home, the place you’ve got will still be available for you down the track when the pandemic is over?

Tehan:

Yes.

Updated

Fuller is asked about the Ruby Princess. The Guardian reported this week that about 10% of the country’s cases were from that ship. Passengers were allowed to disembark in a decision the NSW health minister now agrees was a mistake.

Fuller is asked who is to blame, Border Force or the NSW health department. He doesn’t really say.

There’s another party in this, which is obviously the captain of the ship and the crew on the ship and whoever made contact with NSW. So I’m looking at that matter as the broader part of the responsibilities coming in.

Obviously I wasn’t involved in the operation at that time. But I will go back and look at the 000 calls and the calls from the actual ship itself, and try and get a feeling for what information was provided at the time. I think that’s an important starting point: what information was provided to the NSW government or the federal government.

Updated

NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller is on 7:30. Leigh Sales notes that cruise ships are one of the largest sources of infections in Australia.

Sales:

In New South Wales, 20% of all confirmed cases have come from cruise ships. There are still eight of them in NSW waters, containing nearly 9,000 people.

Sales says there are at least 21 ships carrying thousands of people docked off the coast of Australia. She asks Fuller how testing these people onboard will work. He says:

If anyone is ill on the ships, we need to get them off and we have been doing that regularly, working between the ports authority and the police marine area command and health. In terms of the eight ships we currently have docked or off the coast of NSW, it’s putting our health people on with a third party provider that are experts in this area.

Fuller says the cruise companies have indicated they would be willing to sail out of Australian waters if their crews test negative.

Updated

The PM stresses that the “health advice we have is that there is no health reasons why children can’t go to school”.

Asked if taxes will increase to pay for the government’s massive stimulus funding, Morrison does not address this directly.

Obviously there will be a heightened debt burden as a result of decisions we have had to take. They have been necessary decisions. Otherwise the calamity for Australian households economic will be disastrous. We have taken the decisions of government to step up and to make this commitment to provide people with an economic lifeline over the many months ahead.

But you are right, we will have to then work hard on the other side to restore the economy. Now, that’s why we are being so careful not to have things that tie the economy and the budget down off into the future. We do need to snap back to the normal arrangements on the other side of this.

Updated

School to return after the holidays, PM says

Morrison says schools have been planning for a “balance – a combination of distance learning” and, for those who can’t “provide a learning environment at home, for the children to be able to return to school”.

School will return after the holidays. They just won’t be holidays that most school students have known for a long time. And when they go back, it’s the learning that matters, and we hope to have an arrangement that can return as much to normal as possible.

But we have to accept that there will be, for some protracted period of time, this combination of distance learning, and for those who can’t do that at home, no child should be turned away.

Updated

Morrison stresses that life probably won’t go back to normal until there is a vaccine. (This may take 12 to 18 months, experts say.)

Morrison says:

The issue is, ultimately, there needs to be a vaccine. A vaccine ultimately enables everybody to go back to life as it was. In the meantime we have to be careful that if we are ever to ease restrictions that we just wouldn’t then see a rush on the virus again ...

It is a very difficult balancing act but the best thing for Australia is to ensure we minimise the disruption as much as possible, and we keep the strong health measures in place and we hold that balance for as long as we possibly can.

Updated

Is the government’s advice still pointing to six months of the current restrictions? Yes, Morrison says.

This is going to be a whole new normal for Australians for some time to come yet. We think six months is the most reasonable estimate of that at the moment. I certainly hope that it may be sooner than that, but it could also be longer.

Updated

Morrison addressed on channel Seven if there was a chance that the free childcare that he announced today could continue after the crisis was over.

He is categorical:

No, it won’t. These are special conditions to deal with the crisis that we are in, and like with all the arrangements we are putting in place, the jobkeeper program, the jobseeker Covid-19 supplement, all arrangements are being done on a temporary basis.

All measures we are putting in place are designed to get us through the crisis period of the Covid-19 virus. And one of our key principals has been not to load up the budget in years into the future. So that will enable us to get back on to a sure footing once the crisis has passed.

Updated

The channel Seven and Nine interviews ran at exactly the same time. I will shortly bring you what the PM told Michael Usher on Seven.

We are also awaiting NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller on ABC 7:30.

Updated

Grimshaw asks the PM what he says to his kids about the crisis. He notes that he became emotional during his press conference today.

We talk about what happens every day, and keep our kids’ focus on the here and now, and what will happen tomorrow and the day after, and what’s happening at school, talking to their friends, keeping their lives as normal as possible.

Updated

Morrison is asked how the country will pay for the many billions in stimulus measures the government has announced.

He essentially says these things will be worked out after the crisis is over, but makes one notable comment, which he claims somewhat unconvincingly is not a criticism of Labor:

We’ve been careful to ensure they don’t go on forever. The support we are still providing is for a fixed time – we haven’t committed to over 12, 18 months, which is what happened after the last financial crisis. I don’t mean that as a criticism, simply an observation.

Updated

Grimshaw presses Morrison: what will be different in six months? The PM says:

Our hope is over the next six months we will be in a different position in terms of the way that the virus is moving through the community. That doesn’t mean that everything else can change, and will have to assess that at the time based on the best medical advice.

There is a lot of uncertainty around this. I can’t shield people from uncertainties when they are genuine.

Updated

Morrison is asked which parts of the crisis will be over in six months when, as is predicted, it might take 12 to 18 months for a vaccine to be created.

What I am trying to do is make it very clear that those who think this can all be done in a couple of weeks, with the lockdown, as they call it, that is not true. I am the only leader in the world at the moment talking about a much longer time frame. I am trying to get Australians to understand there is no quick fix. The six-month period is based on early modelling, which shows how we move through a peak and go through to the other side. It returns to lower levels.

The deputy chief medical officer is absolutely right [that we need a vaccine to eliminate the virus], that is why the whole world is working on a vaccine. On the other side, we can look at how we might ease restrictions, we have to be careful about that. What I am trying to get across to Australians is we are in this new normal for some time, we have to do things that we can keep doing. And when we are doing it, stay positive, stay connected, and we have to stay strong.

Updated

Morrison is asked what benchmarks or trigger points the government is looking at when it considers its decisions. He says:

I wish it was that easy. There are many factors that play into this. The one we constantly look at is the daily rate of increase, but also the community transmission rate – that is what is happening between Australians. We have been watching that, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria. Other places have lower rates, and the overall numbers of community transmission in NSW and Victoria is still relatively low. We are watching those rates.

You can have spikes, like we have seen in the backpackers in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. We saw earlier cases, around places like Ryde and Eastwood; you have to move on those very quickly. That has been the example of other countries like Korea and Japan, and I have spoken to the Japanese prime minister, I spoke to him earlier this week.

Updated

Grimshaw asks if the government has modelling, and what it says. What would the peak look like? Morrison doesn’t really give specifics.

It changes almost every day, the more we do these things, to keep a distance, to ensure we are following the rules, that saves lives, that decreases the impact on the health system at the highest peak.

Morrison stresses that “when you close the borders, you can’t close them to Australians”, and “that is who has been coming back”.

Grimshaw puts it to him that although the curve is flattening, that might be to do with the fact that borders are now being more tightly controlled. She suggests maybe it is community transmission that is not under control.

Morrison:

Community transmission at this point is very low, is the one we are watching most carefully. We have seen a slowing in the overall rate, but that community transmission, where someone has contracted it from someone who has contracted it from someone else in Australia ... this is the issue we have to keep very focused on, and we are.

That is why we have the restrictions in place, right across the committee, led by the national cabinet, all the premiers and chief ministers who have agreed to put their restrictions in. They are having an impact, they have to be sustainable too.

We have to keep doing this for the next six months. It’s fine for people to go even further and harder. If you can’t keep that up, you will end up putting the population at greater risk. We have to be careful and keep it sustainable.

Updated

Over on Nine, Tracy Grimshaw asks Scott Morrison if he wishes he had closed the borders sooner.

He is pretty comfortable with the timing of the government’s decisions:

Everything we have done is to take actions based on medical expert advice. That was the advice of the time and we took it. We continue to be guided by that advice, go with that critical decision. There were countries in Europe that did not. The issues with a couple of particular groups that have come through, a couple of cruise ships and events like that, about three-quarters or two-thirds of the cases we have have been imported from overseas.

Updated

Scott Morrison is set to appear on channels Nine and Seven shortly.

I’ll attempt to bring you the key moments from both interviews.

Updated

Meanwhile, for this week’s the Frant, Jan Fran explains why YOU NEED TO STAY HOME.

Updated

My colleague Daniel Hurst has written this explainer about the government’s new childcare changes.

Updated

[Cont from previous post]

The Electrical Traces Union state secretary, Peter Ong, said of the Queensland premier’s suggestion that public sector wages were now on hold:

Many of our members have seen their family income halved through their partner becoming unemployed, with some also seeing their kids moving back home due to their severe loss of incomes. With many falling through the social security safety net they were relying on, these pay increases [are] to keep them afloat.

We have been fielding calls all day from concerned members who feel betrayed and abandoned. We will be holding meetings tomorrow to discuss the way forward while we continue to demand further information from the government about the background to the decision and how we can navigate a fairer outcome.

As it stands, the premier has single-handedly thrown out the rule book of negotiations and good faith by making decisions on the run without consultation. This decision, if implemented as stated, will deny frontline workers their rightful remuneration increases, which have been negotiated in good faith, with some taking years to achieve.

In something more akin to the Newman years, it seems the Labor state government has thrown hard-working frontline essential workers to the wolves at the very time we need them the most.

In one breath they talk about what a great job our frontline public services workers are doing, then in the next denying them wage increases that have been earned through productivity gains and improvements. Some of these workers have not had pay rises for two years.

These are the public sector workers who make sure ventilators and vital hospital equipment are safe, they ensure our rail and road networks are safe for commuters and our communities. And of course without power industry workers, there would be no working from home, no Netflix, no air conditioners and many other things our community often takes for granted.

Workers risking their lives to keep fellow Queenslanders safe deserve far better from a premier who seems to have gone weak at knees when attacked by a rabid rightwing media pack, cheered on by a former premier who sacked more than 12,000 public service workers.

We believe we can find a way to work with the premier and treasurer to help bolster the economy, but suppressing wages is not the way. We call on the premier to sit down with us and other unions to properly consult about the options available. It is the right thing to do.

There’s no response yet from the Together union.

Updated

The Queensland branch of the Electrical Traces Union is fuming at premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s public comments that wage increases for state workers were now “on hold”.

The premier made the comments in a television interview this morning and reiterated them at a press conference.

It appears those public comments - made in the wake of pressure from conservative columnists and the former premier Campbell Newman - were the first any in the union movement had heard that increases might be halted.

ETU state workers had negotiated a 3% increase. Most public servants, represented by the Together union, had been voting on whether to accept a 2.5% wage offer.

The ETU state secretary, Peter Ong, has released a statement saying Palaszczuk has gone “weak at the knees when attacked by a rabid rightwing media pack”, and even compared her to Newman.

Attacking Newman’s record of public sector job cuts and privatisations has been Labor’s go-to campaigning tool for five years in Queensland.

Updated

McGowan confirms that overnight there were eight new cases in WA. Yesterday, he says, there were also six new cases in the Kimberley region, which is of “grave concern”.

Yesterday, we had six new Covid-19 cases in the Kimberley, bringing the total to at least 11, with further outstanding results being awaited. Of the six new case, five were health care workers – three in Broome, one in Kununurra and one in Halls Creek. All cases are currently self-isolating and contact tracing is underway to determine the source of the infection and identify and isolate close contacts.

He announces there will be new measures to restrict travel in the Kimberley.

Effective from midnight tonight, or 11:59pm, additional restrictions will be in place in the Kimberley region. New boundaries in line with the four local government areas are now in place. People must stay in their local government area. The same usual exemptions for essential purposes will apply.

Updated

McGowan acknowledges that sometimes the new rules will not work perfectly. “It will cause frustration, and for that I’m sorry.”

He adds that to 5am today, 12,930 people approached a checkpoint to travel through.

An overwhelming majority of people met the exemptions threshold, with 86 people refused access and told to turn around. It continues to be a significant task to staff and manage these checkpoints. So please, I ask everyone to avoid travel and to stay at home.

Updated

McGowan says there will be exemptions in place:

In effect, we will be turning Western Australia into an island within an island. Our own country. These are drastic steps, but also sensible and workable.

He says of the exemptions:

A number of specific exemptions will be implemented. These exemptions will be in place to ensure our state can continue to operate and function. We need to make sure our state continues to work and our economy continues to be productive. It is as simple as that.

The exemptions are currently being finalised but they will include people who perform work functions like health services, emergency services workers, transport, freight and logistics, specialist skills not available in WA, national or state security and governance, and courts and judicial services.

There will also be exemptions for Fifo workers and their families. However, strict 14-day self-isolation measures will need to be followed when they first enter Western Australia. We have worked closely with the resources industry to come to a solution that ensures this important industry can continue to operate.

McGowan adds of fly-in fly-out workers: “This includes relocating families to Western Australia for the time being.”

He says further exemptions will also apply “on specific compassionate grounds”.

Updated

McGowan says there will be a “hard border” from Sunday night. His message to Western Australians is to “come home now”.

Based on the medical advice, we will move to introduce a hard border closure effective from midnight, or 11:59pm, on Sunday night. This is what we are planning for.

We’re finalising the arrangements but I want the message to be absolutely clear to any West Australian who is thinking of coming back to WA: you need to come home to Western Australia and come home now.

I cannot stress that enough. If you are an eastern stater and thinking about visiting Western Australia, forget about it.

Updated

'Island within an island': WA to close its borders

The Western Australia premier, Mark McGowan, is announcing the temporary closure of the state’s border. He says:

I’ve already flagged that we would move to a harder border closure. We currently have restrictions in place for people coming into Western Australia, and requiring 14 days of self-isolation. Those restrictions are working well.

But it makes sense that we go further now and close the border. It won’t be forever – it is a temporary closure to make sure we limit the spread of the virus in WA. Some might think it’s over-the-top and unnecessary. I can assure them that it’s not.

Updated

You might remember CDP mutual obligations suspended immediately. It followed campaigning from Indigenous health groups, which Guardian Australia’s Indigenous Affairs editor Lorena Allam reported on at the time.

Wyatt says the remote work-for-the-dole’s mutual obligations have now been suspended under the community development program (CDP).

Welfare mutual obligations overall have also been suspended until 27 April.

Wyatt notes that payment suspensions have also been suspended and seems to suggest that some of the changes adopted during the crisis might continue into the future.

We’re in an unusual time in this country and we have to be flexible in the way that we deal with programs. This might provide an opportunity for the way in which we consider CDP for the future.

Updated

Karvelas says the plan for remote communities was to keep them isolated. She suggests that has now “failed”, so what now?

Wyatt says:

In one sense it hasn’t failed because it was amongst [health] professionals who self-identified and went into isolation.

And the community contact was not had by them. It hasn’t failed in that sense, and the communities themselves are very conscious of their engagement with other people outside of their community and they’re making it very clear that they do not want their communities affected by Covid-19 because they understand and appreciate the implications of it.

Updated

Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt has just appeared on the ABC and been asked about six cases that have been confirmed in the Kimberley.

Patricia Karvelas asks if there is a need for blanket testing in these communities.

Wyatt says:

I don’t think you need blanket testing but if they’re tracing, then they would consider each person they trace on a merit basis and the contacts they have.

So those judgements will be made by the health professionals together in those communities. I’m encouraged by the way in which the partnership is extremely strong.

Our communities in the Top End have been complying with the restrictive movements we’ve put into place. Our Aboriginal leaders are stepping up and making sure the messages are very clear: stay in our community, stay strong and stay strong on protecting our communities. And hopefully the children do not lose key people within those community.

Updated

Thanks to Mel for her work just now. I’ll be with you into the evening.

I’m handing over our live coverage to Melbourne reporter Luke Henriques-Gomes, who will take you through the rest of the evening. Thanks for following out reporting so far.

Updated

NSW authorities board Ruby Princess

The government has begun plans to fly doctors from a private company to at least seven cruise ships floating off the coast of eastern Australia.

As my colleagues reported, six crew members from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has now had more than 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus, have been taken to Australian hospitals after falling ill. The ship remains off the coast of Sydney with 1,100 crew onboard.

Scott Morrison said earlier that Australia had an obligation to provide healthcare to people who were sick and within our territorial waters.

NSW police said in a statement issued just after 4.30pm that authorities had boarded the Ruby Princess:

A joint operation has been conducted with Australian Border Force to facilitate a medical assessment on the Ruby Princess. The marine area command provided an escort for NSW Health and an independent medical team to board the ship earlier today.

“No police officers boarded the vessel. Additionally, the NSW police force is assisting with a number of medical evacuations and transfers of Australian crew members from several cruise ships anchored off Sydney.

During today’s joint operation, a 66-year-old crew member was transported from the vessel requiring medical care.

NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller will provide an update on the evolving operation regarding the management of cruise ships tomorrow morning (Friday 3 April 2020).

Updated

Shadow health minister Chris Bowen has been asked by the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas about why Labour believes a Senate committee of a joint select committee should be established to scrutinise the government’s Covid-19 response. Bowen says:

More parliamentary oversight is unquestionably a good thing. We are talking about billions of dollars, and lives. It makes eminent sense to have more scrutiny, more accountability and more transparency through whatever mechanisms.

The government has rightly, as the executive, a lot of powers here. But they’re accountable to the people through the parliament. We’ll talk to the crossbenchers in the House and the Senate. There’s already been some of those discussions.

Bowen is asked if this demonstrates a break from bipartisanship. Does Labor believe the government is failing? Bowen replies:

No. Bipartisanship does not mean being silent. Bipartisanship does not mean walking away from parliamentary accountability. It means giving the government support for everything they want to do and appropriately as the opposition, calling for more, calling for accountability and transparency and more action. That’s what we’ve been doing. A breakdown in bipartisanship would be refusing to cooperate with passing legislation or criticising actions they’re taking. What we are doing is constructively suggesting what more could and should be done.

We think a parliament should be sitting and have been very cooperative in obviously coming up with ways where the parliament can sit more safely, with few staff and all those arrangements. But that doesn’t mean we think the parliament should shut up shop.

Updated

The ABC’s Patricia Karvelas has spoken to education minister Dan Tehan following the government’s announcement earlier today that around 1 million families will receive free childcare. Karvelas asks how the measure would apply to parents working from home – would they receive free care too? Tehan says:

So the idea is that we will, as of Monday next week, be moving to a new system. And if parents have an existing relationship with the childcare centre, and their child is attending that centre and they’re working from home, yes, they will get free childcare. We want as many people being able to work as we possibly can and we want them to be able to access childcare as they need to make sure that their children are being looked after while they’re working and helping us deal with the pandemic.

He confirms that parents don’t have to be working. If they’ve got an existing relationship with the centre and their children are attending that centre, then they’ll get it for free under the arrangement. Tehan is asked to respond to comments from Early Childhood Australia that even with assistance, jobs from the sector may go. Tehan responds:

We are doing everything we canto put in place new arrangements which mean that as many centres can stay open as they possibly can and as many workers will keep their jobs. So, for instance, with the jobkeeper, 60% of a centre’s cost on average are wages. So with the jobkeeper payment in place, plus this, we think that centres should be able to remain open and they should be able to keep holding on to their work force.

Updated

Victorian Labor to donate pay rises to Covid-19 effort

In an interview with the Redland City Bulletin, Liberal MP Andrew Laming has directly contradicted the prime minister Scott Morrison. Just a few hours ago, Morrison was very clear that the “new normal” in Australia was “one that we now need to get used to and settle into for that haul over the next six months”.

“That is something that will go against the grain for so many, but we adapt. We can change the way that we live, but it doesn’t change who we are,” Morrison said.

But Laming told the Bulletin that the measures could be relaxed in as little as three weeks:

Looking at the bending of the curve, I’m suggesting in about three weeks we are going to hit an equilibrium point. At that stage you can look to revisit some of your lockdown measures.

We just mentioned calls from the opposition leader Anthony Albanese to establish a joint select committee to interrogate the government’s Covid-19 response.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has also said a cross-parliamentary committee is needed to oversee the government’s pandemic response. Bandt has written to the prime minister and Albanese along withcrossbench MPs and senators to request the formation of the joint select committee. Bandt said:

We need more democracy during this crisis, not less. This pandemic is perhaps the greatest challenge Australia ever has faced on its home turf. Now is not the time to be putting democracy on hold.

The Greens want parliament to resume and sit through this crisis, potentially online, as far as the health advice permits. The government has cancelled parliament, but that’s no excuse for rule by decree. The Greens’ pressure in parliament has already contributed to students getting increased payments and wages guarantees being legislated, and with continued oversight we can ensure even more people are helped and no-one is left behind.

A similar approach has been set up to oversee New Zealand through its lockdown. It needs to be cross-parliamentary and powerful, while not diverting resources that are needed to tackle the pandemic.

Updated

New restrictions for Tasmania

Thanks Amy Remeikis for her live blog coverage today, Melissa Davey here taking over for the next little while. Some breaking news from Tasmania:

Updated

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese is speaking to ABC Melbourne’s Rafael Epstein about government transparency, and whether modelling should be released that projects the expected number of deaths and infections. I have written before about why calling for the modelling isn’t necessarily a simple ask.

Nonetheless, Albanese says seeing the detail behind decisions being made federally and by the states and territories would build trust in government. Epstein asks whether releasing models might just panic people. Albanese replies:

I think people know this is very serious. They know we are preparing for a peak we certainly haven’t reached yet. This is a scary time, that’s the truth. I believe we need transparency.

He says scrutiny of government stimulus spending was needed.

We’ve also written to the auditor-general asking for an ongoing national audit office considering the rollout of expenditure on an ongoing basis. It will be independent of the political process but when we are talking about such large sums of money we think it would be appropriate.”

Albanese did say the government deserved credit for changing its position on income support. Asked if he had gotten to know the prime minister better as a person throughout the crisis, Albanese replies:

You do develop relationships and have conversations with people but I’m not sure that I understand him any better as a result of this. I’m not sure our relationship is improved as a result of this. I’m always prepared to have respectful conversations with people, I also am prepared to have private conversations that stay private. I do think it’s good [that] on a range of issues, he’s listened to the opposition.”

Updated

The national cabinet will meet again, as scheduled, tomorrow.

On the agenda now, is the rent relief plans, as well as what do to with the year 12 exams this year.

The states seem to be closer to an answer on rents, so hopefully we will have answers for you there soon.

I am going to hand over the blog to Melissa Davey. Thank you so much for joining me this week. I’ll be back on deck, early, on Monday morning. In the meantime, please, take care of you.

Updated

Victoria records sixth Covid-19 death

Victorian health authorities have reported another coronavirus death.

The national toll would now be 24.

Updated

Goodstart Learning Centres have released a statement – they are not happy with the government announcement.

As a company with an annual turnover of over $1bn, the jobkeeper wage subsidy is a little more complicated – you need to see a reduction of 50% in turnover, to be eligible.

So Goodstart would not necessarily be able to register for the wage subsidy, which forms 50% of this package:

Our centres are open but experiencing increasing numbers of absences across most of the nation. While it varies dramatically from state to state and region to region, Goodstart will require support to continue to operate if the situation continues or worsens as expected.

Last week we had to tell our 3,000 casual educators that we were no longer in a position to provide them with ongoing work.

Many of them are extremely distressed and looking for assurances that we will be able to provide assistance through the jobkeeper scheme.

We are seeking urgent advice from the federal government on whether our organisation – the largest in the country and a not-for-profit – will be eligible to apply for the jobkeeper scheme.

If we can access the scheme we will also require ongoing payment of the childcare subsidy to ensure our 665 centres remain open, employing 16,000 people in community in Australia.

Staying open during the crisis for the children of essential services workers and families in vulnerable circumstances is vital.

When the Covid-19 crisis is past, we will be an integral part of the rebuilding of the nation.

Goodstart Early Learning urgently requires access to the jobkeeper scheme and a viability package to keep our centres open and retain our dedicated highly trained educators and teachers through the next six months in order to continue the essential support we provide for vulnerable children and essential services workers.

Updated

The Public Interest Journalism Initiative is mapping all of Australia’s newsroom closures (and service cutbacks), which have increased at an alarming rate, as the coronacrisis takes hold.

You can find that here.

And please, no crowing, no matter how much you may disagree with particular news organisations. There are a lot of communities who are not being served any longer because of recent announcements – a lot of local government meetings not being covered any more, as well as community groups going without much-needed publicity. This is not good news for anyone.

Updated

If you want to know just how far this government has come on issues, just a year ago, this is what Dan Tehan had to say about Labor’s childcare subsidy election policy.

I mean this is a fast track to a socialist, if not communist economy. It is unheard of …

... When they say it is going to be free, taxpayers are paying for this.

Updated

If anyone still has questions on the childcare announcement, the government fact sheet, is here.

Updated

Half of all people on temporary work visas in Australia have lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 economic shutdown, a UnionsNSW survey has found: four in 10 are skipping meals to save money, and some face being left homeless.

Almost all - 98.7% - are excluded from all government income support.

There is significant and growing concern that Australia’s massive economic stimulus measures - in particular the jobkeeper wage subsidy, and jobseeker payment (formerly Newstart) - exclude more than 1.1 million people in Australia on temporary visas.

“Many temporary migrants are already slipping into poverty and have limited healthcare, if any at all,” Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said.

“Putting hundreds of thousands of people on the breadline is deeply immoral at the best of times. When you are fighting a pandemic, it is downright reckless.

“Temporary migrants have paid taxes and contributed to our national economy. It is inconceivable we would now let them go hungry.”

The survey of 3,700 temporary visas found:

  • 50% of temporary migrants are now unemployed as a direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A further 18% have seen their hours significantly reduced.
  • 51% are currently living off savings and expect these to run out within a matter of weeks.
  • 98.7% of temporary migrants are receiving no form of government income support during this time of hardship, and only 1.5% have accessed support from a charitable organisation.
  • 20% of temporary migrants are currently sharing a bedroom to reduce expenses, while 26% are unable to pay rent and feel they soon will be evicted and 3.5% currently have no place to stay.
  • The basic human right of access to food is now in question, with 43% of temporary migrants already skipping meals on a regular basis as a financial consequence of COVID-19.
  • Temporary migrants are particularly vulnerable to current work restrictions, as 35% and 25% are normally employed as casual and part-time respectively, with 46% having been employed as a waiter, kitchen hand, cleaner or retail assistant.
  • 19% of respondents planned to leave Australia if unemployed although, this option has been cut off. 33% are expecting to rely on partners or friends in order to endure the crisis, while 32% anticipate government support in order to survive.

Of 3,700 respondents: 67% are on a student visa, 11% are on a working holiday visa, 6% are on a graduate visa, 6% are on a bridging visa and 5% are on a sponsorship visa (other smaller visa classes make up the remainder).

Labor’s Amanda Rishworth, who has been talking about the need to do something about childcare for some time, is happy with the government’s announcement:

Many Australian families were already struggling to pay childcare fees prior to the current crisis, and this has only been made worse as many parents have lost income. Today’s long-awaited announcement of fee relief is welcomed.

Providers have been desperately asking the government for increased support over the past fortnight, as their revenue has been slashed by plummeting enrolments. Labor sincerely hopes today’s announcement of guaranteed income for providers will be enough to save centres from permanently closing their doors.

The government has promised their jobkeeper payment will support providers to retain their early educators. It is absolutely vital that every early learning provider will be able to access the jobkeeper payment, and we will be working closely with the sector to ensure this is the case.

Labor also welcomes the announcement of funding for preschool for another year. Labor continues to call for long-term preschool funding, rather than continued one-year rollovers that leave the sector and families in limbo.

Updated

The sing-kumbaya-and-hold-hands approach Scott Morrison wants from commercial landlords and their tenants isn’t working, fast food franchiser Retail Food Group says.

RFG says customer numbers at franchisees’ Donut King, Gloria Jean’s and Michel’s Patisserie stores, which tend to be within shopping centres, are down about 50%.

Remember, shopping centres remain open under social distancing rules, even though food court tables are closed.

Executive chairman Peter George said about 90 franchisees had closed their stores as a result.

He said “RFG was increasingly frustrated and disappointed by the general lack of progress it is experiencing when dealing with landlords, and the unwillingness it had observed amongst lessors to provide meaningful relief in response to current circumstances, particularly shopping centre lessors”.

He said the guidelines issued by national cabinet were “conceptually sound” but “fail in terms of practical application due to the significant power imbalance which exists in favour of landlords”.

“In reality, it is our experience that tenants have very limited bargaining power to drive meaningful and timely outcomes in these circumstances.”

Updated

There still seems to be a bit of confusion over the childcare announcement.

We are working on finding out whether or not it applies to family day care.

But

If you have a child enrolled in care, you will not have to pay.

The government will pay 50% of the centre’s operating costs, based on enrolments in early March (before the restrictions were put in place)

The staff pay will be covered by jobseeker.

Childcare will not be means-tested, for this period.

If you have a child enrolled in a childcare centre, or eligible after school or vacation care, then you, as a parent, will not be paying the childcare fees – the government will pay the centre.

Updated

Mathias Cormann says he will be increasing the number of finance updates, given the amount of money being spent:

The Australian National Audit Office each year reviews the annual report prepared by the Department of Finance on the use of the advances to the finance minister during any given year.

That report is tabled in parliament.

This already happens as a matter of course, it is appropriately already business as usual and will of course apply in relation to the use of the $40bn advance legislated by the parliament.

Given the size of the advance to the finance minister approved by the parliament last week, I also committed to issue regular updates on each use on every Friday where one or more determinations have been made in that week to allocate funding from an advance.

Beyond that, the government agreed that I would seek the concurrence of the shadow finance minister, on behalf of the opposition, for any given proposed expenditure above $1bn.

The government welcomes scrutiny of the overall Covid-19 economic response package, given its size and significance.

In relation to the advance to the finance minister, there are longstanding well-established transparency and reporting requirements in place, which we have further enhanced in the current context.

We will continue to work constructively with the opposition and all members of parliament as we work to protect people’s health and support Australians through this crisis.

Updated

RSPCA NSW is shutting down its shelters for walk-ins.

People looking to adopt a pet can still do so online.

And it looks like the restrictions have more and more of us looking to adopt pets – in the past two weeks, there have been 500 pets adopted. That is an increase of 28% from the same time last year.

At the Petbarn adoption centres, there has been a 48% increase on the same time last year.

Updated

Food security an increasing issue for remote Indigenous communities

Remote Aboriginal communities are reporting rising tensions because food security is fast becoming a problem.

The Central land council in Alice Springs, which represents thousands of remote people now living in lockdown under biosecurity laws, says it’s concerned that residents will defy orders and continue to travel to regional towns, putting themselves and their communities at risk.

“In one community store a lettuce costs $10. People pay $5.50 for tinned steak when they could buy it at a major supermarket for $1.70,” the CLC’s chief executive officer, Joe Martin-Jard, said.

“We need immediate freight subsidies and supply guarantees for these stores so they can reduce their prices and don’t run out of essential supplies,” he said.

Even before the pandemic, remote community residents paid, on average, 60% more in their stores and it was common to travel to regional towns to buy cheaper groceries.

With that option now gone they are forced to rely on community stores where food and other essentials are becoming increasingly unaffordable and scarce.

The CLC wants governments to boost emergency food relief programs and work with Coles and Woolworths to set up a separate online ordering system for remote aged care, nutrition and other services affected by the supermarkets’ limitations on bulk purchases of food and hygiene products.

“Governments have assured our constituents that they will have everything they need in their communities to stay safe and well during this difficult time.

“We are holding them to this promise.”

Updated

Recap of childcare announcement

So to quickly recap that announcement:

  • Childcare will be free for the next six months.
  • Priority will be given to parents who have an essential job (anyone still working) or those in the vulnerable category.
  • The money will be paid to the centres – 50% of the fees, plus the jobkeeper wage subsidy.
  • The funding will apply from 6 April.
  • It will be based on the number of children enrolled in care for the fortnight leading up to 2 March.
  • After-school care and vacation care should also be covered.
Scott Morrison with education minister Dan Tehan and attorney general Christian Porter (far left) at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra
Scott Morrison with education minister Dan Tehan and attorney general Christian Porter (on the far left) at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has sought to clarify how the state will enforce rules and regulations about social contact.

Last night the Queensland police released a statement that said there was “confusion around what people can and can’t do” and that police would aim to clarify how to implement public health orders.

Palaszczuk said the state wanted to be flexible in situations where family or close friends were providing support to one another. That means partners who live separately can visit one another; adult children can visit their parents.

“When you are going outside, no more than two people,” Palaszczuk said. “You have to keep your distance.

“No family is exactly the same, we all have different family living arrangements and we all have to know that we don’t want people to be totally socially isolated.

“No house parties, no large dinner parties, no mass barbecues.

“The people in your house should be the people in your house. But if there is one or two extra people who come into your house that is not breaching the law.

“But we need to be shrinking our world. That means we don’t want to have a lot of extra contacts. Don’t invite strangers into your home. Your home is your castle, you are in charge of that castle. It is your responsibility if you have one person or two people into your home that social distancing is observed ... and I will not hesitate to clamp down further if people are doing the wrong thing.”

The state is also now closing many areas of its national parks.

Updated

The constitutional expert Anne Twomey has spoken to the Guardian about the legality of Queensland’s hard border closure, which will come into effect from tonight.

The constitution states that “trade, commerce, and intercourse among the States, whether by means of internal carriage or ocean navigation, shall be absolutely free”.
Until now states that have “closed” their borders have not really closed them – people have still been allowed in, but subject to local public health orders they isolate for 14 days.

Queensland now intends to turn back anyone who does not have a specific exemption to enter the state.

Twomey wrote for The Conversation last month that states could impose restrictions on movement at their borders for legitimate ends, such as protecting the public from disease.

But she says that as restrictions become greater “bigger questions will arise about whether the laws are reasonably appropriate and adapted to achieving the legitimate end of protecting public health”.

“If a person especially affected by the law (eg a person turned back at the border and refused entry) brought proceedings in a court challenging its validity, the state would then need to present evidence to the court to establish that its law was reasonably appropriate and adapted to protecting public health.

“A court would need to take into account the type of exemptions the state has made and the medical advice and modelling it is relying on in formulating its laws.

“I don’t think any of us, sitting out in the (socially-distanced) public seats, can make that kind of assessment because we are not privy to the evidence.

“On the one hand, I think the courts would give the states a fair degree of leeway in the circumstances, given the serious health and economic nature of the crisis and the need to deal with the situation urgently without time to undertake deep analysis of the various options.

“On the other hand, if a court got a whiff of a state seeking to exploit the situation for protectionist or other reasons, I think it would not be impressed and might come down quite hard on any state that did so.

“Frankly, however, I doubt that any state has had the time to contemplate taking advantage of the situation. My impression is that they have been flat-out dealing with a rolling emergency, so I really doubt that the laws have been manipulated in any inappropriate way. But that’s just a personal view.”

Updated

Scott Morrison says national cabinet will meet again tomorrow (which we knew).

His message in that press conference, other than the childcare initiative, was to remind everyone that these restrictions are in place for at least six months.

Not 90 days. Not three weeks. At least half a year. At least.

Updated

We have had a lot of questions from parents (and teachers) about what is going to happen with the year 12 exams this year.

Dan Tehan didn’t give all the answers, but he did offer a hint here:

Can I just say one other thing – and it goes to what the PM was talking about, what he is talking about with his families – there are a lot of parents out there at the moment, especially those that have year 12 students who are contemplating what their VCE is going to look like this year and what that will mean for pathways into work, in vocational education, into university next year.

All the education ministers have this as the top of their next priority list. We wanted to deal with childcare. We want to deal with childcare regulation, which the states and territories have been very cooperative on.

Our next thing is to look at what it means for VCE students and can I say to all of those VCE students out there and their parents, this is the next on our list of priorities.

Obviously, there are numerous issues that families are facing, but this is one I am getting a lot of feedback about which is of concern and we will be addressing this in the coming weeks.

Updated

Dan Tehan says the new (short-term) childcare policy will also be in place for after-school care and vacation care:

Well, those after-school services will be able to look at these new measures that we have put in place and if they can start up, then we would even count them to start up.

Can I also say there is also measures as part of this for those offering vacational care. So that will, the way that arrangement will work is that we will go back to the term 3 holidays of last year and look at what payments were made there over those vacational periods and then we will be able to offer assistance to those who are offering vacation care.

Updated

On the issue of commercial tenancies, Scott Morrison urges landlords and tenants to “work it out”:

When it comes to dealing with the tenancy issues, this has been a key focus of the work of the national cabinet over the last week or so, and I want to thank whether it is the retailers groups, the landlord groups, the banks and others. They all have been engaging very constructively in how we can deal with this very difficult issue of particularly a retail tenant, in the majority of cases, who has had to either shut their doors or had a significant reduction in their revenue.

Now they are obviously greatly assisted by the two measures we have recently put in place, the jobkeeper arrangements and the cashflow arrangements we put prior to that, that can provide up to $200,000 to these businesses.

There will be a significant disruption to the normal tenancy arrangement. What we are seeking to do, working with the states, is to ensure that there are the appropriate incentives in place for landlords and tenants to get together, particularly those who are under great stress.

... I would urge landlords and tenants to work this out. They are going to need each other on the other side.

They are going to need each other – they are going to need the premises and the landlord is going to need the tenant.

I tell you what the great incentive for a landlord is, if that tenant goes bust and can’t pay rent, then no one is paying rent and they will be looking for a tenant in a very bad market six months from now.

My advice to landlords is sit down with your tenants and work it out.

Updated

Asked if the banks should consider cutting their dividends, as New Zealand banks have done, Scott Morrison says:

That is a matter that has been considered by the Council of Financial Regulators and that is not a move that has been decided at this point or has been considered at this point.

I am aware of the decision of New Zealand agencies. At this point, the Australian government and, in particular, through our financial regulators, we have not received that advice to move to that level.

Updated

Has the government turned its mind to how it is paying for all its announcements ($200bn and counting). Franking credits, it seems, stay.

Scott Morrison:

Well of course we have given great consideration to the capacity of the commonwealth to support the announcements that we have made, and that has been done on the advice of our Treasury officials and working closely with the Australian Office of Financial Management, and this is going to put a great strain on the country, clearly, but it is one that is absolutely critical, given the circumstances that we face.

But we still have been, even in these unprecedented announcements, we have exercised [control] in this.

We are very conscious of the size of these commitments and what can be done.

That is why I said the other day, there will be some who will think it is too much and some who think it is too little.

What we have done is sought to calibrate these commitments consistent with what the country will be able to withstand and, no, we’re not reconsidering franking credits and these sort of things.

Ultimately, when we come out the other side of this, we will have to address the many challenges that we have taken on.

One of the important principles, though, that we have put in place is to ensure that the measures are temporary and they do not provide long tails of expenditure.

Now, as we know, and it is an observation – it is not intended as a criticism – it is just learning from history.

When we went through this last time there were long tails on expenditure and there were structural changes to expenditure.

There are not structural changes here. Whether it is what the minister of education, Dan, has just outlined to you, or what the attorney general was outlining in terms of industrial relations, there is a snapback to the previous existing arrangements on the other side of this, and so there is an intensity of expenditure during this period and then we have to get back to what it was like before, and then we have to deal with the burden that will be carried out of this period of time.

Updated

Will parents who have taken their kids out of childcare have their fees waived?

What we have said is for those parents who have removed their children from childcare, going back to 23 March, centres have the ability to be able to waive the gap fee dating back to 23 March.

Updated

Dan Tehan says the childcare policy will be in place for at least six months, with a review, and repeats that essential workers will be given priority – those who are still working and can’t work from home – but it is still open to everyone:

So the way it will work is we are going to have it for six months, so there will be a one-month review.

The initial 12 weeks up to 30 June with a second 12 weeks and then obviously there will be an assessment made of the situation, where we are at in terms of flattening the curve with the pandemic, what the requirements are, and then we can look to see whether we would then obviously look to evolve back to the existing system.

So that is the arrangement that we have currently got, but we will continue to assess and review as we go on.

Obviously, all those people who are connected currently to a childcare centre, we want them to be able to get access to that centre and for those who need to up their hours or up their days, obviously that is a discussion that they are going to have to have with their centre themselves, but what we do want is for everyone to use common sense in this area.

We want people to understand that the priority will be given to those who need to be working. The priority will be given to those who can’t care for their children.

Updated

Asked about the role of parliament in the crisis, Scott Morrison says MPs are better off in their electorates:

The difficulty in calling the parliament together is a practical one, frankly.

We have got people coming to Canberra and moving to other parts of the country. As we need to call the parliament together we will, and it will continue to do its job.

Equally, our parliamentarians, while they may not be meeting here, I know they are working incredibly hard in their communities.

Their phones are running hot every day connecting people up in their communities to care and support and the many programs. Frankly, they have got a bigger job to do out there in their communities at the moment than they would have here because their community needs them in their community, because they are local leaders who can help lead their communities through what will be the very difficult months ahead.

Updated

The prime minister then gets a little emotional when he starts talking about his family.

To be honest, I am pleased that my family is with me. They have joined me in Canberra. That is a great comfort to me and I hope it is a comfort to them.

But they sustain me and we are just like any other family, I suppose, in many other respects.

You talk to your kids about what this means and I suppose the really difficult issue for all of us is trying to imagine the world on the other side of this and to give your family some positive and encouraging news about how amazing Australia is and how we all come out of this. And I think back to my grandmother and how she lived through the depression, and I remember as a kid being told stories by my grandmother about what they used to do as a family to get through and we are doing the same thing in our house.

We are keeping each other entertained, as I said the other day. Jigsaw sales are soaring, I understand.

You have got to keep your family positive and keep connected and together. To us, our faith is very important to us. That helps us get through each day. But every family is different. Stay together, Australia.

Updated

Scott Morrison says the acting immigration minister is working on the changes Labor was speaking about a little earlier, which involves repurposing health workers who are in Australia on temporary working holiday visas, “as we speak”.

Now the nurses, foreign nurses. As you know, we moved several weeks ago to ensure that student nurses could have their hours relaxed and I think, from memory, there was about 20,000 in that category, to ensure that they could be made available into the health system and that has been important.

Equally, there are backpackers who have a whole range of skills in both the health sector, in other critical sectors and I know in the agricultural sector, with the great, I suppose, irony of what we are seeing at the moment is those parts of our community have been suffering for so long with drought in particular now have seen some rain and they are looking to get a crop in and there is a bit of work going on out there and they need people.

We have to be careful ... that we don’t basically pick up the virus from the cities and transfer it to the regional parts of our country, which are for now less affected, and we are working on that issue right now, I have got to say with the NFF and others, to ensure we can deal with some of those labour needs out in the agricultural sectors.

Those who are here as backpackers, they also work in areas of not just healthcare, but in disability care and aged care and a range of different care settings, and they are an important part of that service. So we are looking at how we can ensure that they are better utilised during the course of this current crisis.

There is more work to be done there and the immigration, the acting immigration minister is working on those issues as we speak.

Updated

Should parents be worried about sending their children to childcare, given schools have gone pupil-free? (A move Scott Morrison was against.)

What we always have said in the health advice has been very clear and it is has not changed.

There is no health risk to children going to school or going to childcare. So that hasn’t changed.

Absolutely no change.

That has been the clear and consistent advice that the government has received and that I have relayed on these issues, as have the premiers.

They all have said that. The health advice is clear. Children can go to childcare and children can go to school.

What schools have moved to largely now and will continue to is a model of providing education of both distance learning for those children who can have an appropriate environment provided at home for them to do that, and where there are parents who can’t do that, either because they are working and if you have got a job, that is an essential job, then they need the ability for their children to go to that school.

We have had great cooperation from the teachers’ unions, from the schools, ensuring that no child is being turned away on that basis.

Now what we are doing here is ensuring that the same arrangements exist for childcare centres, so people who have those jobs won’t have their livelihoods put at risk.

I don’t want a parent to have to choose between feeding their kids and having their kids looked after. Or having their education being provided.

This virus is going to take enough from Australians without putting Australian parents in that position of having to choose between the economic wellbeing of their family and the care and support and education of their children. I won’t cop a situation where a parent is put in that place with their kids.

Updated

The former means test will not be in place for this child care initiative. If you are an essential worker (anyone still working, preference for those who are unable to work from home) or in the vulnerable category, you get first dibs in the centre places, but everyone, no matter their income, who has a child care place, will be eligible for this.

Scott Morrison again says that Australia needs to prepare for all these measures, including the restrictions, to be in place for at least six months.

There has been a bit of commentary that promising signs means Australia should restart its economy. Morrison says there is no chance of anything even resembling that for six months at least.

Updated

Can anyone take advantage of the free childcare, including those working from home?

Dan Tehan says there will be a priority list:

So what we are going to ask the centres is to prioritise and they should prioritise obviously those who need their children cared for because they are working and working where they can’t care for their children safely at home.

For them to prioritise as well vulnerable children who need that continuity of care as well and then to re-engage with those parents who have taken their children out of care to see whether they can be accommodated as necessary as well, but there is a clear priority list that we want centres to take into account.

The most important of those are those essential workers and the vulnerable children.

Scott Morrison doesn’t want the media to use the phrase “shut down” because he says it is scaring people into thinking the stores and essential services will be closed.

Scott Morrison also dropped in this figure – we have tested about 1% of the population for the coronavirus.

Another figure that I should have be relaying to you is Australia has now reached a testing rate of more than 1,000 tests per 100,000population.

That is 1% of the population. We are the first country to the best of our knowledge that has been able to exceed that mark.

Asked why it has taken so long for a childcare package, given the angst, Dan Tehan said the government acted as quickly as it could, but the solution was not easy:

Now, the old system is quite a complex system. It was drafted for a prepandemic time. What we needed to be able to do with reductions in attendances is look at how we could put in place a new system which would adjust for that.

That required looking at ways to do this outside the current legislative framework and this is incredibly complex piece of work to be able to do and, can I just say to all of the officials in the education system who have worked tirelessly on this for the last week, for the sector who have liaised with the government on this, thank you for your support because they have fully understood the complexity of what we we have done in turning a system upside down and putting if place a new arrangement, which we are able to announce today and our hope is the payment will flow before Christmas.

Here is how the government has announced the childcare changes in its statement:

Around one million families are set to receive free child care during the coronavirus pandemic under a plan from the Morrison Government that will help deliver hip pocket relief and help the early childhood education and care sector make it through to the other side of this crisis.

Under the plan, the Government will pay 50 per cent of the sector’s fee revenue up to the existing hourly rate cap based on a point in time before parents started withdrawing their children in large numbers, but only so long as services remain open and do not charge families for care. The funding will apply from 6 April based on the number of children who were in care during the fortnight leading into 2 March, whether or not they are attending services.

The plan provides funding certainty to early childhood education and care services at a time where enrolments and attendance are highly unpredictable. This, along with the JobKeeper payment, means services can offer free education and care.

... “If you have terminated your enrolment since 17 February, then I encourage you to get back in contact with your centre and re-start your arrangements. Re-starting your enrolment will not require you to send your child to child care and it certainly won’t require you to pay a gap fee. Re-starting your enrolment will, however, hold your place for that point in time when things start to normalise, and you are ready to take your child back to their centre.”

“We will also make payments of higher amounts available in exceptional circumstances, such as where greater funding is required to meet the needs of emergency workers or vulnerable children.

“The Government is also providing certainty to the preschool sector in recognition of its importance to a student’s formal education.”

The Morrison Government will also provide $453.2 million for preschools in 2021 to support almost 350,000 children to attend preschool. The funding injection comes on top of the $3.2 billion the government has delivered for preschool education since 2014.

Child care services seeking health and situation information about COVID-19 should contact the 24/7 National Coronavirus Health Information Line on 1800 020 080. Information is also available from https://www.dese.gov.au/news/coronavirus-covid-19

Updated

Mass IR changes announced

Christian Porter is now announcing the changes to Fair Work awards. The man in charge of pursuing the ensuring integrity union busting bill, is now publicly praising unions and their leadership.

Behind the scenes in a quiet and cooperative way, there have been a series of reforms to modern awards and the IR system.

That has been done cooperatively and quietly, but it has been utterly critical to saving what I believe to be tens of thousands of jobs.

It probably is fair to say that there has been the type of change in three weeks inside the award system that you might otherwise wait 30 years to see.

The reform has been temporary. It is meant to last for as long as this crisis lasts. It is critical and ultimately it has been incredibly cooperative.

So, there are 121 modern awards. There have been very significant changes to three: restaurants, hospitality and what is known as the clerk’s award.

While that is only three of 121, they correspond to about 2 million workers.

These have been applications by agreement between the employers and the unions in each of those sectors and they have been approved in record time by the Fair Work Commission.

The changes to those three awards have meant things like this: An individual worker who was performing one type of duty in one type of classification can go and move and perform another type of duty in another type of classification.

They have facilitated working from home arrangements. So, remarkably, some of the awards were so inflexible it was actually unlawful to work from home.

Of which of course there is a great amount occurring in Australia at the moment. They also have allowed for, by agreement, things such as taking longer durations of annual leave at reduced rates.

Those types of changes are absolutely critical. They would have saved tens of thousands of jobs.

It is not a matter of the government claiming credit for those changes. We are here to thank the parties who have facilitated those changes. That is the ACTU, the Australian Industry Group, individual employer associations, individual unions like the SDA, have changed terms and conditions for 2 million workers to ensure that tens of thousands of jobs have been saved.

Updated

The education minister, Dan Tehan, explains how the free childcare initiative will work (it’s free for parents and will cost the government $1.6bn).

The way it will work is that we will look at what 50% of the fees up to the rate cap were in the fortnight before 2 March and we will pay you that amount on a fortnightly basis.

We will also make sure that it it is calibrated with jobseeker.

Now 60% of the costs of a childcare centre are the wages.

So with jobkeeper we are helping to support the sector to the tune of over $1bn. With this payment, we will be helping the sector to the tune of $1.6bn and this will ensure the sector to make sure that they remain open and are providing this care for parents for free.

Now there are some conditions that we are asking if the sector are to receive these payments.

The centre must remain open. It must provide care for those parents who need their children cared for.

They must also seek to re-enrol those parents who might have dropped off. So if they need care, they can get that care as well.

To help and assist with that, we are backdating to 23 March the requirement that the sector must pursue from parents a fee.

So we are waiving the gap fee for parents going back to the 23 March.

So the hope is that now all parents who need will get the care they want and those who have sought to disengage from the childcare sector will re-engage with the sector.

Updated

Scott Morrison:

There is a new normal here in Australia and it is one that we now need to get used to and settle into for that haul over the next six months.

That is something that will go against the grain for so many, but we adapt. We can change the way that we live, but it doesn’t change who we are.

What I have seen from Australians in so many cases is exactly that sort of attitude. While we have to be isolated, we can still remain connected and Australians are finding innovative ways to achieve that and I think that is tremendous.

Because through all of this, we must always maintain who we are as a people – our character, our principles, our values – and to live them out. We are a strong society.

We are a liberal democratic society and, as I said in the House, we will demonstrate to the world here in Australia how such societies can deal with these sort of challenges our way, the Australian way. So stay positive, Australia. Stay connected, stay strong. We will get through this together.

Updated

Scott Morrison and his leadership team will meet (through teleconference) with Anthony Albanese and his leadership team again for an update.

The legislation that has been announced in the last week (wage subsidy) is still being drafted.

Updated

Once a politician who referred to “union thugs” as easily as I eat chocolate, Scott Morrison has thanked the ACTU boss, Sally McManus, for the work she has been doing and said there is no longer a “blue or red team”.

There are no more unions or bosses. There are just Australians now. That is all that matters. An Australian national interest and all Australians working together and I thank all of those who are coming together in that spirit and that will be very important as we move to put in place the arrangements that we are for this jobseeker program and the many things that relate to that.

Updated

Scott Morrison:

If you have a job in this economy then that is an essential job, in my view, in terms of running of the economy and it is important that all of those parents who have children, that they get access to the childcare and those facilities will be there for them in the many months ahead.

The education minister will take you through the specifics, but what we will be doing is we will be ensuring for those parents who are still in that position where they are needing that childcare, it will be free.

We will be putting in place support arrangements to childcare facilities, some 13,000 of them, to ensure they remain open and be there for their parents to ensure they can do what they need to do each day.

Like it is essential that the schools out there, they can take the schools they need to take each day from those same parents so we can continue running Australia each and every day.

Government announces free childcare

Six minutes into the press conference, Scott Morrison addresses the reason why he called the press conference – childcare.

Parents who need to send their children to child care, will receive FREE care.

Updated

Perhaps directed at some media commentators, mostly those he is very friendly with, Scott Morrison says Australia needs to strap in for the long haul:

As we know, over these last couple of weeks, and particularly in this last week, this is getting very, very real for Australians, as they continue to adapt and change their daily lives to what it is going to be like for us for many months ahead.

We are one of the few, if only, countries that have been talking about the coronavirus pandemic as being one that we are going to have to live with for at least the next six months. I have been very clear about that.

For a very simple reason – I really want Australians to understand that we need to be in this for that haul. It will be months. We need to make changes that we can live with and that we can implement day after day, week after week, month after month.

Updated

Scott Morrison is starting this press conference by giving a rundown of the last 10 weeks.

Updated

Scott Morrison press conference

The prime minister, the education minister and the attorney general are holding a press conference.

We are getting reports of big queues outside some Centrelink offices again, including Bondi Junction.

That’s worrying, given we know there is a cluster in Bondi, which is why there is the free Covid-19 pop-up test clinic at Bondi Pavilion.

AAP also has an afternoon update on the stock market. Falls on Wall Street didn’t help.

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index was down 146.4 points, or 2.78%, at 5,112.2 at noon AEDT on Thursday, having earlier fallen by more than 3.5% amid Covid-19 volatility.

The All Ordinaries index was also down, plunging 142.1 points, or 2.69%, to 5,148.6 at noon.

Updated

This is what the Greens want from the childcare package:

As priorities, the government must:

  • Commit to paying the child care subsidy to centres based on pre-pandemic enrolment numbers, and remove the requirement for parental co-payments for absent children.
  • Extend jobkeeper payments to all childcare workers, including casuals with less than 12 months’ service, and commence these payments as a matter of urgency.
  • Scrap the child care subsidy activity test.

Updated

Ruby Princess cases top 500

Those new figures out of NSW mean that there are now at least 576 coronavirus cases linked to the Ruby Princess across the whole country.

On Tuesday we revealed that there were at least 229 cases interstate – according to the health departments of every state and territory. That number will inevitably be higher today, as we’re still waiting for the other states to release their latest numbers.

But as of Wednesday, there were 78 in South Australia, and as of Monday, there were 70 in Queensland, 43 in Western Australia, 22 in the ACT, 18 in Victoria, 3 in Tasmania and 2 in the NT. Add that to NSW’s announced 340, and you get 576.

That’s 11.5% of our national total of coronavirus cases (4,976).

Updated

A vaccine is still *at least* 12 months away. At least.

But AAP has an update on the work one of the agencies working on one, the CSIRO, has been doing:

Ferrets at a high-security Victorian lab will determine if two potential coronavirus vaccines can proceed to human trials within months.

Australian scientists from the CSIRO have been trusted to determine if the two vaccine candidates are effective and safe enough to test on humans.

If all goes well with the ferrets, phase-one human trials could begin later this month or in early June.

But even then, a vaccine won’t be widely available until the end of the year at the earliest.

“The end of the year would be an optimist’s view. Early next year would be closer to the reality, all things working well,” the CSIRO’s director of health and biosecurity, Rob Grenfell, told reporters on Thursday.

The agency will spend the next few months working out if the candidates – developed by the University of Oxford and US company Inovio Pharmaceuticals – are effective and harmless.

The ferrets, deliberately infected at a high-containment biosecurity facility in Geelong, were vaccinated a few days ago.

They seem relatively well so far apart from having slight fevers.

“Eventually we will challenge the ferrets – we’ll inoculate them with some of the virus and see how they compare to unvaccinated controls,” said Prof Trevor Drew, the director of the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory.

If the vaccines are effective, immunised animals should no longer shed the virus.

... Ferrets were chosen as the test animal because they have the right receptor cells in their lungs to allow infection, and have proven to be a suitable animal model in the past for research into Sars, influenza and even Ebola.

Updated

This is just one cruise ship operator:

Updated

Ratings agency Moody’s says it may downgrade the ratings of Australia’s banks due to the coronavirus crisis.

In a report out this morning, it says broad and growing disruption to the economy, together with record low interest rates, will hurt the profitability of the country’s banks.

The banks will also have to set aside more money to cover bad loans, Moody’s says.

But the agency says the effects on the banks – and the economy – of the shutdown will be reduced by the government’s support packages and cheap money for banks from the Reserve Bank.

“Fiscal measures and partial government guarantees to facilitate credit to small and medium-sized enterprises, wages subsidies and debt rescheduling efforts by banks, will relieve immediate pressure on borrowers and help minimise a potential wave of bankruptcies,” Moody’s says.

“The magnitude of deterioration in the economy will ultimately depend on the length of the disruption.”

Updated

The prime minister will make the childcare announcement at 12.45.

Updated

Asked about NSW’s plan for a military-style operation to test cruise ship crew members, Kristina Keneally called on the federal government to take responsibility.

The issues were “complex” and beyond the capacity of any single jurisdiction to solve.

Keneally said all options including support from the Australian Defence Force should be considered. She said the nation “cannot afford another mistake” such as allowing Ruby Princess passengers to disembark in Sydney.

Chris Bowen also weighed in to the debate about government modelling about the coronavirus pandemic.

In short, he’s in favour of releasing it:

“If we want the Australian people to trust governments, governments have to trust the Australian people and that includes releasing as much information as possible.”

Updated

Ruby Princess cases now at 337

NSW Health has released its latest update. The number of cruise ship cases continues to grow:

As at 8pm, Wednesday, 1 April 2020, an additional 116 cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed, since 8pm 31 March, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in NSW to 2,298.

There are 231 Covid-19 cases being treated by NSW Health, including 43 cases in our intensive care units and, of those, 20 require ventilators at this stage. More than 50% of the remainder of cases being treated by NSW Health are through hospital in the home services.

Sadly, a patient died yesterday in Orange base hospital from Covid-19. There have now been 10 deaths in NSW, including this death.

NSW Health passes on our condolences to the family of this patient.

The 14-day isolation period for passengers from most cruise ships that came into Sydney, including Ovation of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas, Celebrity Solstice and Ruby Princess, is close to completion.

NSW Health has undertaken a thorough review of confirmed Covid-19 case numbers within the system to update the total NSW number of passengers from cruise ships, and a number of cases have now been accurately linked to cruise ships.

Current cruise ship voyages into Sydney linked to confirmed Covid-19 cases are the Ovation of the Seas which docked 18 March (74 cases), the Voyager of the Seas which docked 18 March (34 cases, as well as 5 crew members), the Ruby Princess which docked 19 March (337, as well as 3 crew members) and the Celebrity Solstice which docked 19 March (11 cases).

The Bondi pop-up that began yesterday had 119 people tested within the first few hours. This pop-up responds to a cluster of coronavirus cases in the Bondi area and we encourage people who meet the broadened testing criteria to visit the clinic for testing.

If you are living or working in Bondi Beach or Bondi Junction and have a fever or history of fever or symptoms like a cough, shortness of breath or sore throat you can visit the clinic and be tested. The tests are free.

This pop-up clinic is a particularly important testing centre for young backpackers staying around Bondi as we are seeing a number of cases in this community. The clinic is open 9am to 4pm seven days a week.

There has been a confirmed case in a teacher at Kambala school. The school is non-operational today as further investigations are under way.

There has been a confirmed case in a teacher at Wylie Park girls high school due to a positive case of Covid-19. The school is non-operational today as further investigations are under way.

St Mary’s senior high school is non operational today due to a student of the school returning a positive test for Covid-19. Contact tracing and further investigations are under way.

NSW Health is providing information to keep the community informed about Covid-19 while also protecting the privacy of patients. We will keep providing information to the people of NSW as it becomes available.

Updated

And for anyone needing some light relief, before we get into the afternoon announcements:

Optus has reported a 1,000% increase in people using video conferencing software Zoom.

The company’s new CEO, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, told ABC’s AM program that data traffic is up between 10% and 15% and voice is up 20%.

“I think that is because people are doing the conference calls, and I like to think they’re doing the checking in with family, friends and calling one another to offer support,” she said.

In addition to Zoom going up 1,000%, Cisco’s Webex is up by more than 500% and Microsoft Teams more than 100%.

The federal government today also announced it had amended regulations to allow telcos to deploy temporary infrastructure like “cells on wheels” in areas where there are outages or issues, in response to the outages experienced during the bushfire season.

Updated

There has been a lot of talk this week about Australia flattening the curve. Here is the daily count by state and territory:

Covid-19 chart

You can see more charts and read about the ‘curve’ here:

Updated

The Australian Energy Council has thanked the nation’s energy networks for their assistance in pulling together a relief package.

The AEC’s Chief Executive Sarah McNamara said the relief package announced by Energy Networks Australia today recognises that retailers and network businesses both have a part to play in supporting businesses and households in financial distress.

“This package, when implemented, should complement the hardship and payment plan measures that retailers already have in place.

“It is critical that this package is implemented quickly, with clear guidelines so small business customers can realise the benefits immediately. We will be working with network businesses to achieve this outcome and to ensure consistent support for businesses and households in financial distress across retailers.

I am getting a lot of queries about why the racing industry is continuing, given most other sport in Australia has temporarily shut down.

The leagues themselves made the decision to close down after the travel restrictions made it too difficult to continue. It wasn’t a government directive.

At the moment, racing says it can continue, within the physical distance and gathering rules.

Updated

As expected (and a little later than Dan Tehan had let on), the government will be announcing a bailout package for the childcare industry today.

Updated

'Where is Peter Dutton,' Kristina Keneally asks

Kristina Keneally is also stepping up her criticism of Peter Dutton’s handling of the cruise ship issue:

Why has there been deafening silence from Peter Dutton? For heaven’s sake, where is Peter Dutton?

We have a border security crisis on our hands and we’ve heard nothing from the home affairs minister.

When he was diagnosed with coronavirus I was one of the first to wish him well, I wished him well in letters since, and I wish him well today, but the minister for home affairs has turned up on TV and radio and he said he’s feeling well and capable of working from home, so if that’s the case, it is incumbent he stand up and explain to the nation how this border security failure occurred and what steps he’s going to take to ensure that those responsibilities handed to the state governments are being implemented in a way that ensures Australians stay as safe as possible when it comes to the spread of the coronavirus.

I look forward to Peter Dutton standing up in whatever form he can, whether it is from home, on radio, an interview through Zoom or Skype. We can do it, and if he can’t, perhaps the prime minister needs to look at appointing an active home affairs minister because we’re talking about nothing less than the security of our Australian borders.

Updated

Chris Bowen says the government needs to think about repurposing the 1,100 or so health care workers in Australia on a temporary working holiday visas.

It is a sensible move, we think. It complements what they’ve already done, which we welcomed, and it would be a natural addition to the steps already taken.

Clearly the horticultural industry is very important and these visa arrangements make perfect sense in normal times, but in this crisis it makes no sense to have qualified nurses picking fruit.

Updated

Doctors call on government to release asylum seekers and refugees

More than 1,200 doctors from across the country have signed a letter to the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton (as well as ministers Alan Tudge and Jason Wood), urging the government to release asylum seekers and refugees from detention facilities to protect them from Covid-19 infection.

Detainees held in immigration detention centres and ‘alternative places of detention’ such as the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel in Brisbane and the Mantra Hotel in Melbourne, have people living, eating and sleeping in close proximity, escalating the risk of Covid-19 transmission.

Many of those in detention have been brought to Australia under the medevac laws for serious health conditions, but have not yet been treated, and so are acutely vulnerable.

Doctors and advocacy groups have been in discussions with the minister and his department for more than a week, but these talks have broken down, sources have told the Guardian, with a refusal from the government to consider releasing significant numbers of asylum seekers and refugees into the community temporarily.

The government is planning to move asylum seekers and refugees from detention centres to hotels commandeered as alternative places of detention, but advocates say this will not address the risk of close contact, or the impossibility of social distancing.

The letter, penned by the clinical professor in paediatric infectious diseases at the University of Sydney, Dr David Isaacs, reads:

Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers who were transferred from Manus and Nauru for medical treatment are still being held in closed detention, many without the medical treatment they need.

They now face the risk of Covid-19 infection. Transmission of Covid-19 in institutions is a significant risk.

Detainees are held in relatively crowded conditions, made worse by communal meal and activity arrangements in the hotels and detention centres.

An employee guarding people seeking asylum and refugees detained in a Brisbane apartment block has tested positive to the novel coronavirus.

Detention conditions in Australia would likely lead to rapid spread, posing a risk to guards and thence to the rest of the Australian community.

At the Mantra Hotel in Preston, an already high-risk environment is compounded by the fact that the hotel is used by airline crews, with personnel constantly coming and going from the hotel.

This poses dual risks of infected detainees infecting the airline crew or detainees being infected by the airline crew. Failure to take action to release people seeking asylum and refugees from detention will not only put them at greater risk of infection (and possibly death), it also risks placing a greater burden on wider Australian society and the health care system.

Not only should detainees be released, we call for the resources of IHMS to be put at the disposal of the government to help provide the health services needed in the wider community to bring Covid-19 under control.

We call for the release of people seeking asylum and refugees in detention immediately into the community, as the correct measure to take from both a humanitarian and public health perspective.

Updated

Scott Morrison will hold a press conference in the next hour.

The Northern Territory health service is putting out its daily update:

The Northern Territory has recorded two new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) overnight.

A Darwin woman in her 20s has tested positive for the disease after returning from Bali on flight JQ82 on Friday 20 March.

She had been in self-quarantine since that time and is now in Royal Darwin Hospital.

Passengers on flight JQ82 should be in self-quarantine until Friday 3 April. If they feel unwell they are urged to contact their doctor or the Centre for Disease Control to arrange testing for COVID-19.

An Alice Springs woman who recently returned from the Gold Coast has also been diagnosed with COVID-19.

She is in the care of Alice Springs Hospital after being in self-quarantine since her return.

Under national medical guidelines, contact tracing on her flights is not required due to the delay between her return and becoming unwell.

There have now been 21 cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in the Northern Territory, all acquired interstate or overseas.

Bernard Collaery, who is being prosecuted for disclosing classified information when he was the lawyer for Witness K, who revealed Australia’s spying on East Timor, has won a Covid-19 related delay in proceedings against him.

The ACT supreme court was to conduct a hearing on the scope of national security information in the case from 7-9 and 14-17 April.

But Collaery applied to vacate the hearing dates, citing the fact Covid-19 shutdowns made it more difficult to prepare his case, and both senior counsel acting for him have underlying health issues that put them at risk.

At first the attorney general, Christian Porter, neither opposed or supported the application – but he has now agreed to vacate the dates, according to Justice Mossop: “because of the difficulties in making available the witnesses whose affidavits he wished to rely upon and who had been required for cross-examination. Five of the six witnesses relied upon by the Attorney‑General are agency heads who participate in the Secretary’s Committee on National Security which operates to support the National Security Committee of Cabinet. By reason of the Covid-19 pandemic and the actions of the Australian Government in response to it, each of those persons is very heavily engaged in activities unrelated to this court case.”

In a decision on Tuesday, Mossop acknowledged that granting the application would likely delay the matter by “many months”. But because of difficulties in cross-examining witnesses, the interests of maintaining confidentiality and the “general desirability of participating in a reduction of human interaction”, Mossop agreed.

The matter will be back in court for a mention on May 1, but the TL;DR is Collaery’s prosecution will be delayed by months, at least.

Updated

While we are talking about police powers, we want to hear from you, if you have had experience with police under their new powers.

There is also talk of the need to freeze private health premiums, given that most of the services can’t be offered because of Covid-19, and the private hospitals have struck a deal with the states. The funds have decided to hold off on their latest premium rise. But premiums are still being charged.

The high court will hand down its decision on the George Pell appeal on April 7, at 10am.

The RBA will also hold a meeting that day.

Parliament will be the day after.

Updated

NRL Island: It may sound like a desperate pitch for a bad reality TV show, but the NRL season may yet be saved after the manager of a luxury resort near Brisbane outlined an audacious plan to house all 16 teams at the Tangalooma Island Resort and play the entire competition in Queensland.

David James told League Life on Fox Sports on Wednesday night the complex on Moreton Island can fit up to 1,500 guests – more than enough for the estimated 500 or so players and staff. The sprawling grounds, including a grassy airstrip, would be adapted to accommodate training sessions under the proposal, while players would be transported by private boats and buses to locked-down stadiums to play games.

“The greatest thing is we can isolate the place. We can lock it down,” James said. “We started talking about it a few weeks ago and we put together a plan logistically about how we can isolate players into the resort itself.

“We’re off the coast of Brisbane and we want to go through a process with the NRL and the Queensland government – and the NSW government for that matter – whereby we’re testing players before they come into an isolated, clean Covid-free environment.

“From there, we do the training and then we can ship them back into and out of Brisbane to the Gold Coast and to Redcliffe to play their games and then back into the isolated area.

“We’ve got a fleet of high-speed ferries and catamarans … bus charters would be organised from our wharf in the mouth of the Brisbane River that would take people straight into the stadiums.”

Increasingly desperate to play some form of the season after play was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic, plunging the game into an unprecedented financial crisis, the NRL is currently exploring its options within the changing framework of government and health officials’ advice.

“[There’s an] opportunity worldwide for getting the great game of rugby league out there in the American markets and advertising Queensland and Australia and saying ‘look, we’re a country that thinks differently’,” James added.

Updated

Also, just a reminder, that the 90-day sunset clause in the NSW police powers (which was part of the original ministerial direction) is an *at least* guide.

Same with Victoria.

There are no promises that this will be over by June. Don’t plan for that.

The home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, has been speaking about the standoff over cruise ships in limbo off the Australian coast. In an interview with 2GB, he accused some of the cruise ship companies of misleading authorities about the health of those on board:

“It’s clear that some of the companies have been lying about the situation of the health of passengers and crew on board, so what we’ve agreed to do with NSW is to look at each of the vessels. I need to get an honest picture of what’s happening.”

Dutton said a private company called Aspen Medical – together with state health authorities – would “do a proper assessment of what’s happening on board”.

The approach may vary from ship to ship.

“Some of these ships will move off and go back to their port of origin, some of them we may be able to extract the crew and fly them back to their country of origin, some of them – because they’ve been out there for more than 14 days – there’s no presence of Covid-19 on board. Others we do have concern about.”

Dutton said the Australian Border Force commissioner had already issued directions for a number of vessels to depart Australian waters “and we’re working through that with each of the companies now”, but added:

“We’ve also got to be cautious about the fact that if you force these boats to set sail, and they end up having people die or people who are seriously sick by the time they get a couple of hundred nautical miles off the coast, they’d turn around and come back. So we’ve got to deal sensibly with each of them.”

Updated

Queensland has had four residents die from coronavirus.

Two in Toowoomba and one in Caboolture.

A fourth Queenslander, a woman from Noosaville, died in Sydney, but the state is counting her as one of its losses.

Updated

Greg Hunt will hold a press conference in Melbourne this afternoon, to talk about the 20,000 training places the government is offering registered nurses to train for the Covid-19 epidemic.

Updated

As reported, Labor wants the auditor-general to keep an eye on the Covid-19 spending:

Labor has written to the Australian auditor-general to request that the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) instigate an audit program to scrutinise government spending in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the last three weeks alone, the government has announced just over $200bn in direct financial support, designed to support workers and businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Labor has consistently said that we will be constructive, responsible and supportive of the economic responses the government has announced in response to the health and economic crisis caused by Covid-19.

The priority, of course, must be to get help to those who need it quickly. However, it’s also important to ensure that such eye-watering sums of taxpayer money are spent as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Due to the unprecedented amount of taxpayer funds being spent over the next 12 months, and with the extra ministerial powers to change government payments which could lead overnight to billions more in spending without parliamentary approval, Labor believes that appropriate scrutiny by the ANAO is needed to ensure the highest levels of accountability and good governance are met.

Such scrutiny is particularly crucial at a time when the parliament is sitting less regularly due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation.

Updated

The temporary suspension of grassroots football competitions and associated training sessions has been extended until at least May 31, Football Federation Australia said in a statement on Wednesday night.

“Football people are resilient, have a strong moral compass and, consequently, I am sure our community will understand this position,” said James Johnson, FFA’s CEO.

But for many community clubs which rely on actual games being played to survive, the continued hiatus is worrying, as Scott Heinrich writes:

Updated

Queensland confirms third coronavirus death

The Queensland health minister says there was another death in the Darling Downs overnight. That is Queensland’s fourth death. The nation’s death toll has risen by two today, to 23.

Steven Miles:

An 85-year-old man passed away in the Darling Downs health service hospital overnight in Toowoomba.

All of our condolences, the condolences of the whole of Queensland, go to that gentleman’s family, which is, of course, grieving right now, and each of these deaths reminds us of just how important our effort to stop the spread of this outbreak, to slow the spread of this outbreak, is.

The longer we can slow it, the better our hospitals will be able to cope with demand, the more lives our doctors and nurses and health staff will be able to save, and that is what is at stake here. Queensland lives.

People in your community, your neighbourhood, maybe even your family, and so when we ask you to do things which are often inconvenient, sometimes are very inconvenient, sometimes very impactful on your work or your business, please know that we are taking this seriously because it is serious. This virus is deadly.

Updated

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszuczk, appears to have bowed to pressure to put proposed public sector pay rises on hold.

The wage freeze has been championed by the former premier, Campbell Newman, for a week or so. You might remember Newman from his shock 2015 election loss, which owed a lot to privatisations and public sector job cuts.

Public servants are in the process of voting on whether to accept a proposed enterprise agreement that gives them a 2.5% wage increase, plus a one-off cash payment of $1,250.

But the push to freeze public sector pay has gathered momentum via commentators like Newman, and a series of news and opinion pieces in the Australian and the Courier-Mail.

Asked about the wage offer on Sunrise this morning, Palaszczuk seemed to say it was no longer on the table.

“Well, let me make it very clear. All of that is on hold,” she said.

“It’s on hold. We’ve got people out there who have lost their jobs. They’re hurting. And you know, we’ve got frontline services out there, our nurses, our doctors, our firefighters, our police. They’re doing a great job for Queenslanders. But in this climate at the moment, everything must be put on hold.”

Updated

NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller has released a media statement, which includes all caps:

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has issued directions to stop the spread of Covid-19, which kills people.

You must stay at home unless you have a reasonable excuse for leaving.

Shopping for food, travel to work or school, medical treatment or exercise are all reasonable excuses.

Exercise is important for physical and mental health. The list of exercise types is endless and it is not possible to list them all; and some forms of exercise are more active than others.

The important thing is that people comply with the two-person rule when doing exercise, or that they only exercise with their household.

As I keep saying, a good rule of thumb is that if you are questioning whether you should be doing something, it is best to give it a miss.

Treat every situation like YOU have the virus.

DO THAT.

SAVE LIVES.

Updated

Victoria has topped 1,000 cases of Covid-19. The current number now sits at 1,036, up 68 from yesterday. It is not really meaningful to look at daily rises in isolation, rather than as a trend, but yesterday the increase was only 51.

The number of cases from community transmission has increased to 57 – a 46% increase from yesterday, when it was 39. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s been a sudden jump in community transmission, as a lot of those cases were previously listed as under investigation.

A woman in her 70s who had tested positive to Covid-19 died in a Melbourne hospital yesterday, taking the total number of deaths of people with Covid-19 in the state to five.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said the cases in Victoria ranged from people in their early 90s to “babies”.

Thirty-six people are currently in hospital – four more than yesterday – and six remain in intensive care. Some 422 people (significantly up from the 343 listed yesterday) have recovered.

That’s 40% of all cases.

Updated

Victoria has also made some changes to its flu immunisation program. Pharmacists can now give the vaccine to children over 10, and more pharmacists can travel to workplaces (or aged care homes) to deliver the vaccines.

Jenny Mikakos:

We want to remind Victorians that each year, sadly, we lose many Victorians from the flu. The flu can cause serious illness and also death.

So it’s important that whilst Victorians are rightly concerned about coronavirus, they also get their annual flu jab. We will make it easier for people to do that. From yesterday, Victorian pharmacists have been able to give a flu vaccination to children aged 10 years and up. It was previously 16.

So we’re making it more convenient for families to present to a local pharmacy and be able to get more members of their household vaccinated. The other change that started from yesterday is we’re making it easier for pharmacists to participate in workplace-based immunisation programs.

Updated

Victoria has also struck a deal with its private hospitals, bringing another 9,000 beds into the hospital system.

Four thousand health workers have registered their interest in working with the state in its Covid-19 response.

Updated

Victoria records 57 cases of community transmission

The Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, is providing an update for her state.

Victoria has had another 68 people diagnosed with Covid-19 since yesterday. Fifty-seven cases in total in Victoria are believed to be community transmission.

The death toll, including the most recent death, for Victoria is five.

Updated

The government is still working on getting Australians home. Peru is one of the more difficult cases.

Australians and New Zealanders were able to leave Nepal late yesterday and should land in Brisbane later today (and head straight into quarantine).

Speaking to ABC radio overnight, Penny Wong said while there are frustrations, people also need to remember that a lot of the people became trapped very, very quickly.

People have to remember how quickly this happened. The advice from Senator Payne that those who want to come home should come soon because, you know, commercial options will dry up was the 17th of March.

That was immediately followed by a ‘do not travel’ warning to Australians, and by the announcement from Qantas and Virgin that they were discontinuing their international operations. So in that period of time since the 17th of March, commercial options have rapidly dried up for many Australians.

In addition, Australians such as those in Peru, or elsewhere, have not been able to access whatever commercial options were available because of domestic lockdowns and transit restrictions.

So, we have thousands of people who are overseas, many of whom were trying to comply with the advice the government gave them when they got it, but have not been able to. And that goes to the unprecedented nature of this crisis. Now, I do want to recognise that the Department of Foreign Affairs has been working very hard in this circumstance.

I know that our consular network is overwhelmed, to a great extent, and people are working extremely hard. But the reality is we really do need more from government to keep Australians safe. Every day we delay puts more Australians potentially at risk.

Updated

Victoria records fifth coronavirus death

A woman in her 70s has become Australia’s 22nd death from coronavirus.

She is Victoria’s fifth fatality.

Updated

The South Australian premier has sent $50,000 to the artist’s benevolent fund:

“The Arts and Culture sector is one of the industries hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis,” said Premier Marshall. “Many individual and independent artists have already lost their jobs, and our arts organisations are under severe pressure. We must support them.

“Alongside federal and state government individual income and business supports, initiatives such as the Artists’ Benevolent Fund will be critical in sustaining our arts and cultural sector during this challenging time.”

The Artists’ Benevolent Fund provides one-off financial assistance to Australian visual artists in crisis as a result of fire, flood, storm, serious illness, major accident, declared state or national emergencies, or some other unexpected catastrophic experience. The Fund is administered by NAVA.

The Minerals Council of Australia and the main mining unions have joined together to help the industry through Covid-19:

The AWU, CFMEU and the MCA are united in their determination to implement strict Covid-19 health and safety protocols to keep people in work and sites operating where it is safe to do so.

Existing models of employment such as fly in, fly out (Fifo) and drive in, drive out (Dido) should be maintained, provided the safety and wellbeing of mine workers and local communities is not compromised.

The AWU, CFMEU and MCA have agreed that a range of Covid-19 protocols will be implemented dealing with the following matters:

    • strict measures to minimise the risk of workers being exposed to Covid-19 in mining workplaces
    • strict processes for encouraging self-isolation by workers
    • comprehensive systems to manage any positive Covid-19 tests for workers at a mine site or who have been at a mine site, which would only involve quarantine at mine sites in exceptional circumstances
    • appropriate travel and accommodation conditions for Fifo and Dido workers
    • education and communication with workers and local communities.

The MCA and resources unions also agreed to work together to minimise any long-term job losses in the industry as a result of Covid-19 and noted that employers are meeting medical costs associated with Covid-19 testing for workers.

Updated

The national cabinet (the council of Australian governments, or Coag, with a fancy name) will meet again tomorrow. Childcare and residential tenancies remain on the top of the agenda.

While there has been a moratorium on evictions over the next six months, there is no relief package as yet. It’s apparently complicated, with the states so far unable to agree about stamp duty and land tax changes. For landlords who use an investment property as income, suddenly stopping that income is an issue.

But there have been reports – you may have seen them on social media – of property agents telling tenants who have reported financial difficulties to look into accessing their super, so they can continue paying the rent.

Unions are getting involved with that – they say tenants should not be forced to sacrifice their retirement security.

There is a lot resting on the national cabinet solution. They have been working on it for weeks now, but it is getting close to the point where they need to provide an answer.

Updated

The ABC is turning one of its channels into an educational resource.

Labor’s Tanya Plibersek and Michelle Rowland thanked the national broadcaster and said all the indexation funding freezing cuts should be reversed.

Yesterday the ABC announced that, working in partnership with states and territories, and with initial financial assistance from the New South Wales and Victorian education departments, it will provide curriculum-aligned content and mini-lessons for primary and secondary school children over its ABC ME television channel and make them available on ABC online and catch-up platforms.

This will support children’s home-schooling, particularly the three per cent of Australian households with children under the age of 15 who do not have internet at home.

It will also complement the ABC’s existing suite of educational programs and resources which Australian children know and enjoy.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is placing the education system, teachers, parents, carers and children under great pressure.

Ensuring every family with children has quality resources to support continuity of learning is a challenge for which the ABC is uniquely placed to assist, given its Charter obligations to provide programs of an educational nature.

Labor congratulates the ABC for innovating to support young Australians at this time of unprecedented uncertainty.

There can be no doubt. From drought to bushfires, floods and now coronavirus, the extraordinary events of 2019-20 reveal how reckless, ideological and short-sighted calls to cut or privatise the ABC are.

It is time for the Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein’s update.

He says two travellers toured the state, returned home, then tested positive for Covid-19.

As you look at their travel itinerary, you’ll see that they really did tour almost the entire state.

Gutwein:

It’s almost a fortnight since these travellers left Tasmania. And it is absolutely prudent that we take any steps that we can to prevent any potential spread, to make sure that anyone who was at the locations on the days that have been identified, and who may develop or develops respiratory symptoms over the past 14 days to contact the public health line.

I want to thank those businesses that we’ve been in touch with for their cooperation at this difficult time.

And while the windows are very small for possible transmissions, it is important that we take every step that we possibly can to track and trace these matters. In terms of flattening the curve we know that we have to work very hard to do that, and I want to thank Tasmanians for getting on board and helping us. I want to just reiterate to Tasmanians that it is absolutely clear. Stay at home unless you’re going to work or you’re volunteering.

Updated

Good god, people. You can’t shoot the virus.

Updated

The Herald Sun reports that power will stay on during the coronacrisis.

Updated

Parliament is returning on Wednesday to pass the jobkeeper legislation. Tony Burke says parliament should be sitting as usual because of how much money is being spent. Labor will be supporting the legislation but says there should be checks and balances in place to ensure the government remains accountable.

Our view has been that the parliament should be sitting now, that that’s been our view and we don’t stop for a minute regardless of what legislation there is in making that call.

Now more than ever, parliament should be sitting. People are in a situation where there’s a crisis, and they want to be able to know that the government is fully accountable.

It will be a smaller parliament sitting, once again, and MPs will most likely have to go into quarantine when they return to their home states.

If Labor and the Greens don’t get their way (and they most likely won’t) parliament is not scheduled to sit as normal again until August. It can be recalled for emergencies – when there is legislation to pass.

Updated

The Fair Work Commission is reviewing industry awards and pushing the idea of “pandemic leave” for those who can afford to take unpaid leave, or annual leave at half pay.

It’s proposing any changes in awards remain in place until at least 30 June.

Updated

The Morrison government has struggled to make the case that greenhouse gas emissions have been coming down on its watch. In reality, updated data shows they have more-or-less flatlined since it repealed the carbon price scheme in 2014.

That will change this year. The most obvious industry to be affected by the coronavirus shutdown is aviation, which is responsible for about 4.5% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

An analysis by the Australia Institute has found emissions from aviation could drop by nearly 9m tonnes (about 1.7% of national annual emissions) if the reduction in flights lasts six months and 13m tonnes (about 2.5%) if the shutdown lasts nine months.

Globally, the International Air Transport Association has estimated a 38% cut in air travel this year, equating to a 352.7m tonne fall in emissions (equivalent to about two-thirds of Australia’s total climate pollution). There was also a short-term 25% decline in carbon dioxide from China, the world’s biggest emitter, as people were told to stay home and factories shut.

Analysts say these cuts will be little more than a blip in global emissions if normal practice is resumed once the coronavirus crisis has passed and policies to transition to clean energy slow.

On aviation, the Australia Institute makes the point that major airlines have committed to going carbon neutral using 2020 as a baseline year. Given this year will end up as a record low year for emissions, will that commitment stand?

And will the reliance on teleconferencing during the pandemic translate into a change in habits once the threat from the virus has passed, and lead to a cut in work-related flights? Sydney-to-Melbourne (and vice-versa) is famously one of the busiest air routes on the planet.

“If we can work well together online now, perhaps it will permanently reduce the need for business travel and slow emissions over the long term,” the Australia Institute’s Richie Merzian says.

The NT has locked itself down pretty tight and it is working to protect vulnerable Indigenous communities.

The chief minister, Michael Gunner, says at this point, the biggest risk is a travelling Territorian accidentally spreading the virus to a vulnerable community. Hence, there will be checks at along the way.

The AFP is sending 102 police to staff checkpoints.

AFP officers will be stationed throughout a number of remote regional communities to support national efforts to protect Australians and limit the spread of COVID-19. Deployed members will work alongside NT Police colleagues, with a key focus on preventing the spread of COVID-19 into remote Indigenous communities.

The AFP’s deployment comes after a request for assistance from NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker APM. NT Police will remain the lead agency in the NT, with AFP providing assistance as required.

The AFP members will assist with enforcement at biosecurity checkpoints throughout the NT and with border control at Darwin and Alice Springs Airports.

The deployment will be phased, with groups arriving for pre-deployment training over the course of this week. The first tranche of deployed members will be split between Tennent Creek and Katherine respectively.

Updated

Australia’s sports clubs are trying to keep their heads above water, with most sport in Australia cancelled (racing is continuing).

But a lot of their members are also struggling, having lost their jobs, or having their business or industry disappear overnight. Clubs still want members to pay their fees. A lot of members can’t.

The Collingwood boss, Eddie McGuire, had a very Eddie McGuire response to that, when asked about it on Nine News in Melbourne yesterday.

*Disclaimer, I am a Collingwood fan forever, but if you are struggling, you should give your club a call in terms of your membership. No football team is worth losing your home over, or worrying how you will put food on the table.

Updated

The hospitality industry is pushing for its casual members to be included in the jobkeeper wage subsidy.

Casual workers are only eligible if they have been employed in the same business for 12 months. In industries like hospitality and retail, that leaves a lot of people out.

Updated

But after Victoria’s backflip yesterday on the issue of visiting partners (you now can), Mick Fuller, who had already given the OK for visiting partners in NSW, doesn’t look as though he will be budging on any of the exercise restrictions.

In terms of the new isolation powers, certainly lots of questions about exercise. I get it, and we want people to be able to stay fit and physically and psychologically healthy. And we’re trying to make sensible decisions in relation to that.

But, of course, if I said it’s OK to sit on a park bench, then everyone is going to go to the park.

And we’re going to end up back where we started, on the hot day at Bondi beach a couple of weekends ago. One person said they were gonna go for a swim and we ended up with 10,000 people.

This is all not without its challenges and we’re continuing to take a sensible approach.

Updated

NSW police commissioner says he'll review every ticket under new police powers, which last 90 days

If you get a ticket for disobeying the new physical distance and gathering restrictions, the NSW police chief will be taking a look at it. If he thinks it is unfair, it will be withdrawn.

Mick Fuller says he won’t be doing that for any other tickets, or imagines he will be doing it again, and he says he won’t be asking for an extension of the powers when they expire in three months’ time.

Three tickets were issued in the previous 24 hours in relation to isolation, and we put that information out to the media, and the explanation.

We’ll continue to do that.

Four men in a park drinking alcohol, not exercise.

Three of the men left, one refused to go. He got a $1,000 ticket.

You know, I think it’s entirely appropriate. I’m reviewing all of these tickets personally, which would never happen again for any other time. And I’ll continue to do that.

And if I think it’s unreasonable, it will be withdrawn immediately and we’ll make personal contact with the individual. But police are out there.

We’re doing our best to protect the community and in a very different way than what we normally do.

And I just would ask that the more the community works with us on this, and they understand that we’re trying to slow the spread of the virus by minimising unnecessary contact. The safest place is at home, in isolation. And, of course, there’s lots of carve-outs for people who need to work, and we want you to go to work. So, from us, we will continue.

There was a good question yesterday about when is the turn-off period for these orders. It is 90 days. People will have gotten the message by then, hopefully. And we won’t be talking about the powers, we’ll be talking about what does it look like coming out of this.

Updated

Mick Fuller is giving the NSW police update.

There are now 3557 people quarantined in NSW hotel rooms.

Another 500 travellers are expected today.

There are also about 200 returning ADF personnel, who were deployed in the Middle East. They will also be quarantined in NSW hotel rooms.

A further 116 cases have been confirmed in NSW since yesterday.

That brings the state’s total to 2,298.

Forty-three patients are in ICU and 20 of those patients need ventilators.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian is holding her morning press conference.

She asked NSW businesses to “retool” yesterday, to help provide necessary health supplies to the state’s hospitals and health clinics. Since then, more than 500 businesses have registered.

Updated

Still on ships, the Maritime Union of Australia says three container ships are due to dock in Darwin this week, despite not having undergone the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

The union says wharfies have been stood down after refusing to unload a container ship in Melbourne. It wants to make sure that the Australian health department guidelines are enforced to prevent the spread of the coronavirus:

MUA Northern Territory Deputy Branch Secretary, and National Indigenous Officer, Thomas Mayor said the failure to quarantine vessels arriving in Darwin and other ports close to Indigenous communities could have devastating consequences.

“Remote Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable, given the large numbers of people with chronic health conditions, which is why the Northern Territory cannot relax strict measures to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19 at the port,” Mr Mayor said.

“The arrival of these three vessels at Darwin Port, with no quarantine measures, threatens to spread this deadly virus into our community.

“The Australian and Territory Governments should be doing everything possible to prevent the foreseeable risk of coronavirus arriving on commercial vessels, including through the enforcement of strict 14-day quarantine periods, and proactive testing of crew members on international vessels before work commences on them.

“This should be coupled with measures on the wharves that protect local workers, including physical distancing measures, strong hygiene, cleaning, and appropriate personal protective equipment.”

Updated

With so many people trapped on ships just off the coast, Mick Fuller says he is working with Border Force to find an answer.

Anyone who requires urgent medical attention, we bring off and put into our hospital system.

But in terms of working with Border Force and the Australian federal government, you know, we are looking at an external health provider who has expertise in this type of situation, and that is the sort of operation we will start to engage in, in the coming days.

Now, in saying that, a ship left two nights ag, and there’s information that over the next couple of nights another couple of ships will refuel and restock and go back to their original port, or their port of origin.

So, we are chipping away, and it’s just important that the people of New South Wales understand why I’m holding the line on this. It’s really about the safety of the people of New South Wales.

How soon would that happen?

We expect in the next couple of days that we will start. You could imagine, you know, dropping doctors, specialists across eight ships, 9,000 people, you know, it’s a big task in itself.

But just from my perspective, if someone needs to come off because of urgent medical reasons, they are being extracted quickly through operations, our Marine Area Command.

So, we are taking a sensible but pragmatic approach to these cruise ships.

Updated

You may remember the WA premier, Mark McGowan, got a little frustrated yesterday, with the German cruise ship Artania for refusing to leave the Fremantle port.

He’s asked the commonwealth government to get involved. Christian Porter says Australia has a humanitarian responsibility and it’s not as easy as just sending the boat on its way.

While you are ruminating on that, there are also about eight cruise ships sitting off NSW’s coast.

The NSW government has put the police commissioner, Mick Fuller, in charge of that. He had a chat to ABC News Breakfast this morning:

We have eight cruise ships that are currently either docked or off the New South Wales coast. These are passenger cruise ships. At the moment, they’re just shy of 9,000 people, crew, on these ships.

We have repatriated a number of Australians. And we have taken off around 14 people for either medical reasons or compassionate reasons.

There was three ladies who were pregnant. So, we are continuing to work with owners of these ships and we’re in constant dialogue, making sure that anyone who needs medical attention, urgent medical attention, is getting it.

But the bottom line is that, from my perspective, if you think about the journey that we’ve been on from New South Wales, it’s been about trying to manage the spread of the virus and manage that in a way that doesn’t overload our hospital systems.

Because the ICU bed capacity with ventilators is key to this, and at the moment New South Wales government is trying to treble that, in case we have a surge of people.

And we know around the world that when the hospital systems become overwhelmed then lots and lots of people die.

So, my fear is, by bringing 9,000 people off the cruise ships into isolation, not knowing if they have the virus or they may develop symptoms, that would absolutely overload our hospital system and everything that we have done to this point would be for nothing.

Updated

There are two big policy issues for the national cabinet to discuss tomorrow – rental relief for those who are struggling and childcare.

There are a lot of questions over what to do with the daycare sector, which remains open but is struggling itself with falling enrolments.

Updated

Wimbledon has been cancelled for this year. It is possible that some other tournaments will follow suit.

The last time Wimbledon was cancelled was the second world war.

Updated

Good morning

Parliament will be back next week to legislate the jobseeker payments and Labor would like it to remain sitting, as usual, to keep a check and balance on the government’s powers while the parliament is in “emergency mode”.

Australia’s death toll is 21, after a death in Orange late yesterday.

Prince Charles has recovered from coronavirus and says he was lucky to have a mild case, but wants everyone to stay inside.

Retired healthcare workers are being called back into work, as health services around the country attempt to prepare for what could be coming.

And the government is trying to work out what to do with the cruise ships sitting off the Australian coast.

We’ll have more on all of that, plus everything else that happens today.

Let’s get into it.

Updated

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