Good evening, and welcome to our daily roundup of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic in Australia. This is Naaman Zhou bringing you the main stories on Thursday 16 April.
Morrison lays out three conditions for restrictions to be lifted
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said current restrictions would continue for at least four weeks but there are three conditions that need to be met before they are eased. They are: increased testing, better contact tracing (“lifted to an industrial capability”) and the ability to lock down localised areas, similar to what happened in the Tasmanian north-west this week. Morrison also says some of the Coalition’s election “policy framework” may not be able to be delivered once the crisis is over.
Stuart Robert claims app swaps phone numbers
The minister for government services, Stuart Robert, has said the government’s proposed coronavirus tracking app will work by swapping the mobile phone numbers of people who are in close proximity. The app, which Morrison has said will roll out in 14 days, may be delayed as the attorney general checks it for privacy concerns. Robert’s comments sparked confusion as to which app (of many kinds) the government would use. “[If] we are in close proximity for 15 minutes because we are waiting in a queue, our mobile phone numbers would swap securely,” he said as an example.
All Ruby Princess crew to be tested within 48 hours
All 1,100 crew on board the virus-stricken Ruby Princess will be tested for Covid-19 by Saturday, NSW Health announced. Currently only 25% of crew have been tested, with half of those tested returning positive results. More broadly, NSW authorities also signalled towards testing anyone with mild symptoms. The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said that anybody who “works in an industry where you are in contact with a lot of people”, especially vulnerable people, should get tested if they have symptoms. Previously that only applied to people in certain suburbs.
24 hours to change EBAs
The industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, announced a change to workplace laws that gives workers only 24 hours to consider changes made by their employers to their enterprise bargaining agreements. Previously, if an employer moved to change an EBA, workers had seven days to consider it before voting to accept or reject. That has now been changed to 24 hours, in what the Labor party said was “robbing workers of an important safeguard”.
Immigration detention centre protest
Armed riot police entered Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre to end a protest by refugees who were worried about the danger Covid-19 posed to their health while in detention. Three men had been protesting on the roof of the Blaxland compound since Saturday but were removed by police on Thursday. Refugee advocates say they do not know where they are now.
School guidelines
The federal government announced a broad set of national principles about the return to school, but said that states and territories still retain the ultimate control. In NSW, Berejiklian said they were aiming to have children back in school by term two, week three (which starts 11 May), but that the current remote learning would continue for the start of the term.
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Jobs data
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the unemployment figures for early March. This was before the main impact of Covid-19 hit the economy, yet the data still showed a 0.1% rise in the unemployment rate, taking it to 5.2%. Chief economist Bruce Hockman said this showed a “small early impact from Covid-19” and the April data would arrive later.
Parliament to resume next month
Morrison said he would talk to Labor about having “a trial week of parliament in May”.
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