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

Coronavirus Australia: Qantas and Jetstar to scale up flights in June and July - as it happened

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With that, we’ll leave you for the day. Thanks for reading. Stay safe.

Summary

Let’s wrap up the main events of today.

  • The Morrison government unveiled its homebuilder program, although it’s been criticised by economists and Labor for its design.
  • NSW recorded a week with no Covid cases.
  • Biosecurity restrictions will be lifted in WA.
  • In good news for the proposed “travel bubble”, New Zealand expects to eliminate Covid by 15 June.

Updated

Queensland’s judicial system has been buried under a backlog of some 18,000 magistrate’s court cases which are expected to take a year to clear.

The build-up is because the magistrates court heavily scaled back operations in mid-March because of coronavirus as jury trials ceased in the supreme and district courts, according to AAP.

The magistrates courts are due to resume, while a jury trial has been set down for the district court on June 22, according to correspondence sent to Queensland’s legal fraternity.

Several hundred cases are expected to be scheduled for both the Brisbane and Southport magistrates court when they return in the coming weeks.

Updated

On the issue of airlines, Catherine King, Labor’s transport spokeswoman, says in a statement:

The Morrison government’s underwriting of the domestic network has kept a small number of flights in the air over the last two months, but if they let their agreement expire next week many regions around Australia will suddenly find themselves without access to the air routes that are vital to their economies.

Throughout this crisis the Morrison government has refused to extend jobkeeper to thousands of aviation workers and allowed Virgin Australia to fall into voluntary administration through a lack of support.

The government cannot allow regions across our country to be left without flights.

Updated

South Australia is once again free of active Covid-19 cases, AAP reports.

SA Health says a woman who tested positive to the infection when she arrived from Victoria last month has now been cleared of the disease.

The woman had arrived on 24 May after travelling from Britain.

She was given an exemption on compassionate grounds to come to Adelaide to visit her dying father despite only spending about a week in quarantine in Melbourne.

But after missing an email from their Victorian counterparts, local health officials failed to meet her at Adelaide airport, forcing her to identify herself to police.

She had tested negative for coronavirus while in isolation in Victoria, but tested positive after arriving in SA, forcing about 20 people she had been in contact with into self-isolation.

SA had previously cleared all its active Covid-19 cases on 15 May and had not reported a new case for about three weeks before the woman’s arrival.

The state’s total remains at 440 with 436 of those now cleared.

Four people have died from the disease.

Updated

A few in the disability community have made a similar point.

Further to my last blog post on the Australia and India virtual summit, the two countries have agreed to work together to support the rules-based maritime order in the Indo-Pacific region.

A statement issued by Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, said the two countries would expand their cooperation on maritime safety and security, including by building stronger links between coastguard and civil maritime agencies, and by developing deeper navy-to-navy engagement.

Payne did not directly mention China or the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, but underlined the need to respect the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

She said the Joint Declaration on Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific “commits our nations to supporting the rules-based maritime order in the region, founded on respect for the sovereignty of all nations and international law, particularly the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”.

“Importantly, the partnership extends to working together to strengthen maritime domain awareness throughout the Indo-Pacific, and combating transnational challenges such as people smuggling, arms and narcotics trafficking, climate change, terrorism, and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.”

Payne said the two sides had also signed an agreement to cooperate on cyber and critical technology issues. They would aim to “promote and preserve an open, free, safe and secure Internet, enhance digital trade, harness critical technology opportunities and address cyber security challenges”.

Morrison meets Modi via video-link

Because of coronavirus-related travel restrictions, Scott Morrison met with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, by video-link this afternoon.

In the “virtual meeting” – the opening portion of which was open to the cameras – the pair agreed to elevate the relationship between Australia and India to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Previously Australia and India had what the diplomats call a “strategic partnership”.

Morrison went big on the theme of building trust:

“In a time like this we want to deal very much with friends and trusted partners, and this is a partnership which has stood the test of time, and is during the course of this current crisis.”

Morrison told Modi he hoped to see an increase in the levels of trade and investment flows between Australia and India, because the current levels were “not where you or I would both like them to be, but they are growing, and they can grow a lot faster”.

“But I think the comprehensive strategic partnership that we are forming today going to a whole new level of relationship will continue to build the trust. Because we want commercial and training relationships that are built on trust.”

Updated

The Queensland government has less than a week to prepare its defence against two challenges to its constitutional right to keep the state’s borders closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

AAP reports that the high court in Brisbane on Thursday ordered the government’s lawyers to submit their case by Monday ahead of two 12 June directions hearings for challenges by outspoken billionaire businessman Clive Palmer and Travel Essence.

Palmer’s challenge through his flagship company Mineralogy is expected to be heard by the full bench on 29 June.

The Travel Essence challenge, which is understood to be a consortium of six plaintiffs, is not as far progressed with the chief justice, Susan Kiefel, likely to indicate when it will be heard on 23 June.

Updated

The Grattan Institute is pretty categorical about the government’s homebuilder scheme.

Is it a well constructed package?

“No, I think this is a case of where classic retail politics has got in the way of the economics,” Grattan’s Brendan Coates tells Patricia Karvelas.

Updated

This will be one to watch.

Staying with the protests, the Labor MP Peter Khalil says on the ABC he is hoping to go to the Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne on Saturday.

The Liberal MP Katie Allen says she won’t be, but that’s because Covid-19 restrictions are in place.

Khalil gets a question about the fact the premier is saying people should not attend, which he sidesteps.

Updated

Returning to Victoria, Victoria police has outlined the figures around Covid-19 fines by local government area.

The issue has been picked up by the Victorian Greens MP Tim Read.

The party quizzed authorities about the fines at a recent parliamentary hearing and said it “highlights that Melbourne (590), Greater Dandenong (333) and Frankston (297) were the localities with the highest number of fines issued”.

“There is a wide variation across Victoria in the rate at which fines have been issued,” a statement read.

“For example, almost five fines were issued per every 1,000 head of population in Corangamite – almost double the rate of any other area in Victoria.”

Updated

Coming up tonight ...

Updated

There have been 6,813 reduced rent agreements lodged with Victoria’s Consumer Affairs authority up to 11 May 2020.

The figure is contained in answers to questions lodged with Paec, a Victorian parliamentary committee.

The committee also said there had been 216 disagreements between tenants and landlords referred to Dispute Settlement Centre Victoria for specialised mediation.

As of 11 May, no rent relief payments had been made.

Updated

Victorians urged not to attend Black Lives Matter protests due to coronavirus

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has said people should not go to the Black Lives Matter protests scheduled for Saturday, citing coronavirus concerns.

Although police have said they will not issue fines at the event, which more than 17,000 people say they plan to attend, Andrews said Covid-19 rules should still be followed and that the restrictions were “there to keep people safe”.

“I’m not going to the protest. I would suggest to other people they shouldn’t go to the protest either,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“I understand the depth of feeling on this issue, but I might make the point this way – enough people have been hurt.

“Let’s not do anything on the weekend that compromises safety, let’s not do anything on the weekend that potentially spreads the virus.”

The health minister, Jenny Mikakos, said: “Black lives do matter. We know that Aboriginal people are more susceptible to becoming severely ill if they contract coronavirus, and I urge them to heed the advice of the chief health officer to follow all of the health advice, and that is to stay home.”

Event organisers Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance have shared a list of Covid-19 precautions that must be followed, including wearing masks, bringing hand sanitiser and maintaining social distancing, according to AAP.

“We will protest because we believe that standing up for Black peoples right to life is an ESSENTIAL SERVICE,” they posted on Thursday.

“We are working closely with health authorities to make sure the march will be as safe as can possibly be.”

Updated

Victoria Covid update

Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has issued the state’s daily update.

It says:

  • Total cases increased by eight to 1,678.
  • No new deaths were recorded, keeping the death toll in Victoria at 19.
  • Seven people are in hospital, including two in ICU.

“Of yesterday’s cases, six were detected in returned travellers in hotel quarantine and one case is under investigation,” the statement said.

“The remaining case is a household contact linked to the outbreak at Rydges on Swanston, which now has 13 confirmed cases.

“The department is working with Global Resource Recovery in Laverton after two employees tested positive last week. These cases are part of the Keilor Downs family outbreak.”

Updated

My colleague Matilda Boseley reports:

Pressure is mounting on governments to reopen trans-Tasman travel as industry groups ask for travellers’ expressions of interest in New Zealand flights leaving as early as 1 July.

Australia’s trade surplus eased in April to a seasonally adjusted $8.8bn amid widespread restrictions to check the spread of coronavirus.

AAP reports that the result was better than market expectations for a surplus of about $7.5bn and comes after the trade surplus more than doubled in March to a record $10.6bn.

Exports of goods and services dropped 11% to $37.5bn, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The fall was mainly on account of lower exports of iron ore and coal, natural gas and machinery.

Imports were down 10% to $28.7bn.

This was mainly on account of lower demand for gold, fuels and lubricants and services.

Updated

Qantas and Jetstar to scale up flights in June and July

Qantas has announced the airline and its low-cost carrier Jetstar will scale up flights on domestic and regional routes in June and July, AAP reports.

Capacity will increase to 15% of pre-coronavirus levels, or more than 300 return flights a week by the end of June, the airline says.

Australia’s flag carrier is currently operating domestic capacity at just 5% of pre-coronavirus levels following government restrictions on travel and has stood down two-thirds of its 30,000-member workforce until the end of June.

Qantas says it could boost domestic flights up to 40% of the group’s pre-crisis domestic capacity by the end of July, depending on demand and further relaxation of state borders.

“We know there is a lot of pent-up demand for air travel and we are already seeing a big increase in customers booking and planning flights in the weeks and months ahead,” the Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, said.

“These additional flights are an important first step to help get more people out into communities that rely on tourism and bring a much-needed boost to local businesses.”

The airline will boost services on capital city routes, particularly Melbourne-Sydney and a number of routes to and from Canberra.

It will also increase intrastate flights for Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.

Qantas said it would also begin flights from Sydney to Byron Bay after the route launch was postponed due to the coronavirus.

Grounded Qantas aircraft parked at Brisbane airport
Grounded Qantas aircraft parked at Brisbane airport. The airline and its low-cost carrier Jetstar will scale up flights on domestic and regional routes in June and July. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

Updated

A Western Australian police statement says roadside breath testing is set to resume in the state.

“The WA police force are to recommence roadside random breath testing (RBT), including the deployment of breath and drug buses on Saturday 6 June 2020,” it said.

“The high-volume static testing was temporarily suspended in mid-March 2020 due to the health risks associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Roadside testing continued, through random and targeted high-visibility traffic patrols during this period.

“The re-commencement of breath and drug bus operations is occurring, following extensive consultation with the Department of Health.”

Updated

Some news for those in South Australia from AAP.

Speeding motorists will be fined more after the South Australian government announced a 1.9% rise in fees, fines and charges for the next financial year.

Under the scheme, drivers caught exceeding the limit by less than 10km/h will be fined an extra $3, totalling $180, while motorists speeding 10-20km/h will be charged $408, up by $8.

Those guilty of not wearing a seatbelt will pay an extra $7, costing $388, and motorists using a mobile phone will have their fine rise by $10 to $544.

Announcing the increase on Thursday, the state government said it was in line with the standard indexation rate and was below the current rate of inflation.

Updated

Hi there, thanks to Amy for her work today.

I’ll be with you for the next few hours. Get in touch on luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com or @lukehgomes.

On that note, I am going to hand you over to the brilliant Luke-Henriques-Gomes.

I’ll be back next week when parliament resumes on Wednesday. Until then, please, take care of you.

Things are getting back to normal in Queensland politics as well – two ministers, Steven Miles and Mick Di Brenni, have just allowed themselves to be filmed weightlifting to celebrate gyms being reopened in that state today:

Miles:

I know a lot of people have missed their chance to get to the gym through iso life. And so whether you’ve been hanging out for a spin class, a step class, to get on a tready or to pump some weights, now is the time to get out and do it. It’s great exercise, really good for your mental wellbeing, and I know for a lot of people it’s a social opportunity as well.

Of course, we are still asking you to maintain your social distance, wipe down your gear after you’ve used it, but that’s all the kind of thing that’s covered off in this Covid-safe plan.

There is an election in October. Not that that could have anything to do with weightlifting for the cameras.

Updated

It looks like politics as usual has returned to Tasmania:

Air New Zealand is looking at resuming some sort of pre-Covid normality.

New Zealand is hoping it can say it has been successful in eliminating Covid-19 on 15 June.

AAP reports Air New Zealand is getting ready to boost its schedule:

In a further sign of New Zealand’s recovery, the national carrier will return to half of its pre-coronavirus capacity next month.

Air New Zealand says it plans to operate at 55% of domestic capacity in July and August after Kiwis showed their appetite to return to the skies.

“We’ve been encouraged by demand from leisure travellers recently and we’re also expecting demand for business travel to continue to build,” the Air NZ executive Scott Carr said on Wednesday.

“As a result, we have been working to add more flying to our domestic schedule from next month and this includes additional services for the July school holidays.”

North Island resort town Taupo and South Island city Timaru will come back on line next week, bringing the number of domestic destinations to 20.

Air New Zealand has slashed international services due to Covid-19, but is still running flights to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Los Angeles and Hong Kong for those people permitted to move between countries.

Updated

For a visual on what is happening in the retail industry, here is Grogs:

Queensland has just three active Covid-19 cases in the state

Queensland’s health minister, Steven Miles, says the state is down to just three active cases of Covid-19.

A truly incredible result. Two of those are currently in hospital. One is in ICU and they are receiving ventilation.

We’ve now tested 198,292 people.

That’s an increase of 4,416, so close to that target we set ourselves of 200,000 a little time ago.

And the intrastate tourism flights are on the increase.

Miles:

The Queensland government is really pleased to welcome the announcement today by Qantas and Jetstar that they will provide 62 additional flights into regional Queensland, intrastate flights into regional Queensland. There is now no excuse, no excuse not to plan your Queensland getaway.

The seven new flights into Cairns, seven into Townsville, eight into Rockhampton, seven into Mackay, three to the Whitsundays, right across Queensland you will now be able to fly to some of those tourism hot spots.

Updated

Parliament should be fun next week.

This was part of Jim Chalmers’s speech to workers rallying in Brisbane, after being left out of Jobkeeper:

Josh Frydenberg yesterday was boasting that our recession is better than the Americans’. Well, that’s cold comfort, isn’t it? That kind of boast, that it’s better than it is in America as America tears itself apart in lots of ways, or this boast that things are a little bit better than he thought they might have been a couple of months ago doesn’t pay your rent or your mortgage, does it? That doesn’t put food on your table, or school shoes on your kids. We need and expect much better from this government.

Updated

About 35 million hectares of Australia burned during the 2019-2020 bushfire season, the bushfire royal commission has heard.

That’s about 4.5% of Australia’s total landmass, or one Germany.

Andrew Colvin, the head of the National Bushfire Recovery Agency, said that figure came from the federal department of agriculture, water and the environment. The footprint of areas that are eligible to receive emergency bushfire assistance is much smaller – 111 local government areas in New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

Colvin said the differences between payments available in each jurisdiction created confusion and he wanted to implement “no wrong door and one-stop-shop principles” to make it easier for those impacted by fire to get assistance.

“It would be ideal that a victim of a bushfire only ever needs to talk to one person and tell their story once, because every time they have to tell their story we’re effectively retraumatising that individual.”

Colvin said the emergency response at relief centres was “overwhelming” even to him and there should be a single national coordination point for all disaster relief responses.

“I can only imagine what it was like for somebody who was trying to bring their life back together … We should be trying to do better here.”

Charities, other government agencies like Services Australia, and bushfire victims have all told the royal commission the same thing – they want one point of entry for assistance.

Shane Stone, the coordinator general of the National Drought and Northern Queensland Flood Response Agency, said that the overarching structure of support should be national and permanent but that the actual assistance on the ground had to be led by local communities.

“There is no greater sceptic than the Australian public when you turn up and say ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’. You need to get boots on the ground quickly and that’s part of our ethos, boots on the ground.”

He added:

“At the end of the day you will be judged by how quickly you arrived on the ground and how quickly you delivered the first support for people caught up in a dire situation.”

Updated

Greta Thunberg is also trending in Australia.

At least that gives him another column idea. His latest offerings have been so tired, they’ve put hyperactive toddlers to sleep.

You can read the full Guardian Australia report here:

Updated

Thredbo has released its daily lift pass price list (it plans on reopening for the season from 22 June).

It looks like a very expensive day out:

One Day Lift Pass Prices*

  • 22 to 64 years: $159
  • 18 to 21 years: $149
  • 13 to 17 years: $95
  • 5 to 12 years: $85
  • 65 to 69 years: $85
  • 70+ years: $40

*This year, there are no discounts for multi-day passes or based on seasonality. Four and under pricing TBC.

Updated

Scott Cam is currently trending on Australian Twitter.

At one time the TV personality worked in construction.

He has spent the past two decades or so wearing shorts and steel-capped boots on TV, earning the Gold Logie, because apparently, at some point, he was considered the cream of Australian TV talent.

He’s now being paid $347,000 by the government as a national careers ambassador, because there is nothing like a boomer to convince teenagers to take up a job. (And seemed quite cranky at the idea that people might want to know what he was getting paid, despite it being taxpayer-funded.)

But from what I can tell, no, homebuilder was not his idea.

Updated

My colleague Paul Karp is looking a little more deeper into the homebuilder policy and wants to hear from you if you have done a $150,000 renovation, or are considering one that will cost that much, or know someone who has.

What will $150,000 buy you, in the reno stakes?

The homebuilder scheme is available to owner-occupiers spending $150,000 or more on “substantial renovations”.

We’ve heard from quite a few readers that their renovations were big but didn’t cost anywhere near that.

Now we want to hear from readers who have either spent or worked on a renovation costing $150,000 or more. What does that kind of money buy you?

Please email paul.karp@theguardian.com

Updated

Meanwhile, there is also this happening behind the scenes, which deserves more attention:

It is not just NSW having problems with the pay freeze policy.

Queensland’s Labor government is having a moment as well.

Updated

I missed this. But the prime minister addressed the “get off my lawn” incident on Ray Hadley’s program this morning:

It was quite funny because we were out there at Googong which is you know a housing estate like so many all around the country, and people are very house-proud and this bloke had just built his house and all the media was standing on part of his lawn that he’d re-seeded.

And so he wasn’t yelling at me but he came and said “get off my lawn”. So I ushered them all off the lawned area and he was quite happy then, he said thanks and went back inside. So it was, it was quite funny actually.

Updated

Adam Bandt says Coalition's homebuilder program 'will make housing inequality worse in Australia'

Adam Bandt has responded to the $688m (forecast) homebuilder program:

Public money should be used to create construction jobs and tackle homelessness by building public housing, not to lift house values for people who can already afford large renovations.

We should build homes for the hundreds of thousands of people who are homeless or on public housing waiting lists, not hand out granite benchtop grants.

More than a million people are in housing stress, about to default on their mortgage, or on public housing waiting lists, but Scott Morrison is using public money to make the problem worse.

Everyone deserves the dignity of a safe and secure home. However, this package will make that a more distant goal for millions of people. It will make housing inequality worse in Australia.

Through this scheme, a couple on $200k a year with no mortgage could turn their $1.4m home into a $2m+ mansion. Meanwhile, a single parent on the public housing waitlist will see the median house price drift further out of reach.

Over 116,000 people face sleeping rough each night, but instead of putting a roof over their heads, Scott Morrison has decided to hand out granite benchtop grants to people with incomes and wealth high enough to weather the corona crisis.

Perversely, Labor’s saying the grants are too restrictive and don’t allow people to upgrade their swimming pools. Instead of backing big government investment in public housing, Labor is calling for the superannuation industry to build homes, which will do little to address the growing public housing waiting lists.

If Labor’s only contribution to fixing this appalling policy is to secure the inclusion of lap pool grants, they will have comprehensively abandoned working class people in Australia.”

Updated

Linda Burney spoke to the Seven Network this morning about what it felt like to see the video of a NSW police officer sweeping the legs out under an Indigenous teenager he was arresting, which the police commissioner Mick Fuller has acknowledged “could have been handled better”, but added that the officer may have been having “a bad day”.

The officer’s conduct is under investigation.

Burney:

I think my reaction was the reaction that most people would have. Looking at that power imbalance at the scene and understanding that the policing that we saw with that young boy is not appropriate, and I note that the family talking about legal action, so I don’t want to make too much more comment. I think the most important thing, with your show and with people making public comments is to talk about constructive ways to rebalance the relationship between Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal people, Aboriginal young people and the police.

... I think there have been some remarkable efforts between Aboriginal communities, Aboriginal organisations and police commands to overcome a history – a terrible history, of police and Aboriginal people.

I mean, people need to understand that it was actually the police – whether they wanted to not, that were the main instrumentality in the forced removal of Aboriginal children. And most Aboriginal families can relate to stories of overzealous policing with their young people.

But as I say, the most important thing is to use this as an opportunity to examine what has happened in terms of the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendation some 30 years ago, and to also work constructively between governments, the community and the police force, including the police union, to address some of these issues.

Updated

Here is that whole question and answer with Scott Morrison on Australia entering recession:

Q: Prime minister, Wayne Swan could never say the word “deficit”, can you say “recession”?

Morrison: It’s certainly something that I never wanted to see happen in Australia ever again. I really didn’t want to see a recession ever again in Australia. And as a government, we worked so hard to bring the budget back into balance, to create one and a half million jobs. And there were many sacrifices that had to be achieved to get Australia’s economy back on track and to see Covid-19 hit it like a torpedo is absolutely devastating. And so where we find ourselves now is heartbreaking. But what you do is you respond and you pull together and that’s what the country is doing.

I think one of the things Australia has done to its credit and is a reason for our success compared to so many other countries, countries just like ours, sophisticated developed economies, democracies. They’ve been hit by the same risks that we have. But Australia’s resolve has been so much better and one of the reasons for that is that people were drawn together. As a government, we have brought people together. As a prime minister, I’ve sought to bring people, the treasurer the same, all of my ministers in our federal cabinet, working with states, territories, industry, the various groups that are impacted, day in and day out, to bring Australians together to get through this crisis and today is another example.

Prime minister Scott Morrison at a media event for the homebuilder stimulus package on Thursday.
Prime minister Scott Morrison at a media event for the homebuilder stimulus package on Thursday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA

Updated

The prime minister says he doesn’t want Australians to “import” America’s race issues, here.

Anyone who has been paying attention should know there is no need to import something which has always been part of the systems we, ourselves, built in this nation.

New Zealand says it will eliminate coronavirus by 15 June

New Zealand has set a date – and a definition – for eliminating Covid-19 from it’s shores:

(via AAP)

New Zealand finally has a date for when it will achieve its lofty goal of elimination of Covid-19: June 15.

After weeks of urging by public health experts and government wrangling, the country’s Health Department has settled on a definition of elimination of the deadly virus.

New Zealand has followed an elimination policy path since the arrival of the virus, eschewing lighter approaches by countries including Australia.

The Kiwi approach, including a seven-week lockdown, is paying dividends.

On Thursday, health officials announced they had found no new cases of the virus for the 13th straight day, from thousands of tests.

Just one person in New Zealand has Covid-19, an Aucklander currently isolating who is due to be asymptomatic this week, should the virus follow a normal course.

Australia currently has 491 active cases.

However, the final Kiwi case is irrelevant to whether New Zealand has eliminated the disease.

The Ministry of Health now says elimination can be declared 28 days after the last case from a “locally acquired unknown source”, or community transmission, has completed their treatment and tested negative.

According to the ministry, New Zealand’s last case of community transmission tested positive on 29 April, and was in isolation until 18 May.

“As per the definition of elimination, the 28-day period would be counted from that person’s exit from isolation,” a department spokeswoman told AAP.

That means when director general of health Ashley Bloomfield holds his regular daily briefing on 15 June – 28 days from 18 May– he will be able to say New Zealand has eliminated Covid-19.

Of course, a subsequent discovery of another case of community transmission would restart the clock towards the elimination milestone.

The date has symbolic meaning but Bloomfield said it wouldn’t stop the government’s ongoing work to prevent new cases.

“Elimination is an ongoing process,” he said.

“It may well be there is no domestic onshore transmission or onshore infections of Covid-19. It would be great if we reached that point and it’s increasingly looking like we are.

“But our elimination strategy is ongoing because we clearly still have measures at the border and a desire to open up the border in a safe way.”

Health and safety signage at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.
Health and safety signage at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Updated

The Australian Council of Social Services is also not thrilled with the homebuilder program:

The Australian Council of Social Service rejects the federal government’s plan to provide large grants to home builders and renovators as a wasted opportunity to address the backlog of urgent social housing repairs and the shortfall in social housing stock.

Australian Council of Social Service CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said:

There is no argument that the construction sector needs a shot in the arm, but this money will not go where it is most needed. It will largely benefit those on middle and higher incomes undertaking costly renovations, without any related social or environmental benefits.

The risk is that it will saddle people with huge debts that they may not end up being able to afford, especially given the uncertainty of the job market.

We are in a recession, with more and more people struggling to pay rent, which will only lead to greater homelessness.

We should be focusing on ensuring everyone has a roof over head, not on government support for people who are relatively well off to upgrade their roofs.

Updated

Retail spending fell 17.7% in April

The ABS has another update on retail spending:

Australian retail turnover fell 17.7% in April 2020, seasonally adjusted, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Retail Trade figures.

This is a minor revision to the fall of 17.9% published in the preliminary retail turnover release of 20 May 2020. The fall follows a rise of 8.5% in March 2020.

“Covid-19 continued to affect retail trade in April with many retail businesses closing their physical stores during April due to restrictions relating to social distancing,” said Ben James, director of Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys.

“There were record falls in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-35.4%), and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-53.6%), as well as a large fall in department stores (-14.9%).”

Food retailing (-17.4%) led the falls in dollar terms this month following unprecedented demand in March. Spending in food retailing remains 5.1% above the level of April 2019, likely reflecting additional meals being consumed at home during April 2020. Other retailing (-14.4%) fell after a large rise in March, while household goods retailing (-0.1%) saw a minor fall in sales as falls from closures of some physical stores were offset by a rise in hardware, building and garden supply retailing.

In seasonally adjusted terms, there were falls in Victoria (-21.1%), New South Wales (-17.5%), Queensland (-15.7%), Western Australia (-16.8%), South Australia (-14.6%, Tasmania (-17.5%), the Australian Capital Territory (-14.9%), and the Northern Territory (-7.7%) in April 2020.

The closure of physical stores in some industries led to a rise in online retail turnover, which contributed 11.1% to total retail turnover in original terms in April 2020, up from 7.1% in March 2020. In April 2019, online retail turnover contributed 5.7% to total retail. Additional analysis noted that online sales made up over 20.5% of sales across household goods retailing, clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing, department stores, and other retailing.

Updated

Biosecurity restrictions to be lifted in Western Australia’s north

AAP has an update on Western Australia’s biosecurity restrictions:

Coronavirus-related biosecurity restrictions are set to be lifted in Western Australia’s north, allowing travellers to return, but access to 274 remote Indigenous communities will remain off-limits.

The commonwealth has agreed to the state government’s request to remove the restrictions for the Kimberley, shire of Ngaanyatjarraku and parts of the East Pilbara on Friday.

There are no active cases in WA’s regional areas and no positive cases reported in remote communities.

However, as of Thursday, there were 26 active cases in WA, including 20 crew members from the Al Kuwait livestock ship.

“All Western Australians are urged to be aware of the high vulnerability of remote communities and to follow the restrictions to help keep them safe,” WA Aboriginal affairs minister Ben Wyatt said.

A raft of Covid-19 restrictions are being eased on Saturday including raising the limit on gatherings to 100 people, with 300 allowed in venues with multiple divided spaces.

Many businesses will resume trading, including beauty parlours, cinemas and gyms, while Perth Zoo will again be open to the public after closing for the first time in its 122-year history.

Updated

The federal government has processed more than 220,000 claims for bushfire assistance worth more than $240m, and some 84,000 families received a share in an additional $33m in disaster relief made available to people with children, the bushfire royal commission has heard.

The bulk of those applications, about 216,000, were for the one-off $1,000 disaster recovery payment. About 11% of applications were rejected, and it took an average of six days to be declared eligible.

A further 4,950 people were found eligible for a 13-week short-term income support payment, the disaster recovery allowance. A third of all people who applied for that support were rejected and the average processing time was 35 days.

Michelle Lees, the deputy chief executive of Services Australia, said that applications were rejected if people’s primary residence was outside an eligible local government area, or if damage to their property wasn’t sufficient, or in the case of the DRA if they couldn’t prove income loss.

Services Australia also trialled the use of facial recognition technology to identify people who had lost identification documents, using drivers licence photos in Victoria and South Australia and passport photos in other jurisdictions.

She said the different recovery payments available at commonwealth and state level could be “confusing” and she would support a single point of entry for recovery payments.

“So in my opinion, there may be some benefit to looking at whether those arrangements are consolidated in some way, or reviewed in some way, to consider whether it might be beneficial for individuals and more efficient to have one entity administer the payments.”

(A previous version of this post referenced fraudulent claims - that was in relation to a Queensland floods report, not the bushfires)

Updated

Murray Watt:

Does it undermine the functioning of the national cabinet for the prime minister to say things like, “There is no doubt that those sorts of borders do harm the economy, they do harm jobs and it’s important we get those removed as soon as possible”?

Phil Gaetjens: Not in my view, senator.

Watt: So it’s a sovereign right when it suits the prime minister, but it’s not a sovereign right and something he disagrees with [it]. Is that how it works?

Gaetjens: Well no, I wouldn’t say it works that way.

Updated

Murray Watt wants to know why the prime minister has been attacking states over not opening their borders, given the states have their own powers of decision making in those areas.

Most recently, Scott Morrison said this while speaking to Brisbane radio 4BC:

Well, we need to open the borders. It’s simple. I mean, that’s what’s going to get flights moving again and that’s why that’s so important. And the timetable that the national cabinet has is that interstate travel will be up and running again in July and so we need to get to that point and if we can do it sooner, I think that would be fantastic. I mean, states are taking their own health advice on this. But as you know, the national cabinet never made a decision to close any borders down.

Phil Gaetjens:

I think what the prime minister was referring to, was it was never a decision of national cabinet, to close or restrict borders, and it has never been the advice of [the national health advice committee] that that occur. I don’t think he was saying anything about national cabinet.

And, I, again I do not agree with the formulation that he attacked any state or territory.

Updated

NSW records one week with no community transmission

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says there have been just two people return a positive Covid-19 test in the last 24 hours:

Can I thank the more than 11,300 people that got tested in the last 24 hours. That is an outstanding result and one which we want to maintain. And during that last 24-hour period, there were only two cases, both in quarantine.

We have gone a full week without a community-to-community transmission, that’s a great result.

We want to keep that going as much as we can especially given restrictions are easing, have eased, and this long weekend is an opportunity for people to enjoy the best that New South Wales has to offer in a safe way.

Can I please stress to everybody that whilst we are doing very well, we’re probably doing better than we anticipated at this stage of the pandemic, however we have to be cautious, we have to be vigilant, we have to be safe to make sure that even the mildest symptom means we get tested and stay home until we get the all-clear.

The success will only continue with the good citizens of New South Wales continue to bring themselves forward for testing which is so important. Please know for some of us who may have been tested five or six weeks ago, if you get another set of symptoms, it means you have to go back and get another test.

That is really important. You may have had a test already some time ago, but then you developed symptoms again. Please take that test because that will make a huge difference.

Updated

Could the national cabinet make a decision that the federal cabinet alter?

Phil Gaetjens:

We’ll be having a look at these things I suspect, and we will be making the detailed, if you like, rules that apply to that again and supply them the national cabinet for them to make their ultimate decision.

So the rules haven’t been finalised yet for national cabinet.

Well, we will work because we actually have to set up, not more national cabinets being set up but we now have to set it up in terms of a different and longer-term structure.

Updated

Phil Gaetjens tells Kristina Keneally his judgment is the national cabinet federation reform committees would also be covered by cabinet-in-confidence rules – and therefore exempt from FoIs.

Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Philip Gaetjens on Thursday.
Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Philip Gaetjens on Thursday. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Katy Gallagher says the Covid-19 committee still can’t get a straight answer on when chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy first briefed the cabinet on Covid-19.

Gallagher says both Health and Treasury have referred questions on modelling to PM&C. Which hasn’t answered the questions.

PM&C’s bosses says they have not advised the other departments to avoid the questions, and would only provide information on cabinet in-confidence protocols.

Updated

A reminder that homebuilder (I will probably continue to call it a bunch of incorrect names because we have so many two-words mashed together policy names now, even Orwell would raise a brow) may not spend as much as the government has laid out ($688m is in the forecast cost).

As Josh Frydenberg says:

It is a demand-driven program, but we’re expecting between 25 and 30,000 new builds or significant renovations and it’s temporary. It’s going to run till the end of the year.

We’re undertaking a review in the month of June and in the economic update that I and the finance minister will provide in July. It will include any changes that come out of the review into the jobkeeper program.

But we do recognise that some industries, some sectors, will recover more slowly than others and that will be a function of the restrictions that may need to stay in place because of the threat from the coronavirus.

I’m talking particularly about the tourism sector and the impact of the international borders being closed. But we are responding, we’re looking at the art sector and a package of measures building on what we have already announced there already.

Today we’re making an announcement about the housing sector and we’ll continue to do what is necessary to get the economy to the other side of this pandemic.

Updated

This is what Peter Whish-Wilson was asking about.

Expect to hear a lot more of this, as the committee’s recommendations are eventually rolled out. We already know, thanks to Adam Morton, that they believe gas needs more investment.

Here is the exchange between Kristina Keneally and Nev Power about what he is being paid, and his transport choices:

On pay (there was a mistake last meeting, after the PM&C mixed up how much he was paid).

KK: So if I can just confirm that the contract published on Austender shows that you are being paid $294,079.50 for your work. Is that correct?

NP: I believe that’s correct. Senator.

KK: Thank you and is your position full-time?

NP: Yes, it is.

On transport:

KK: OK, and when you conduct your role as chair, do you travel on your private jet?

NP: Yes, I do.

KK: Did you travel on your private jet to this hearing?

NP: I’ve been here since Monday ... or Sunday ... Monday.

KK: You’ve been where? Canberra?

NP: I’ve been in Canberra since Monday.

KK: And did you travel there in your private jet?

NP: I did.

KK: OK.

And on the guests on his plane:

KK: Mr. Power I do need ask though the Sydney Morning Herald is reported on the fifth of May that you’ve been [with] some West Australian government MPs on your private jet to and from Canberra, including the attorney general, the finance minister and the assistant to the prime minister Ben Morton, is that correct?

NP: Yes, that’s correct. I was going back I think that was predominantly for a trip back for Easter and offered them a lift.

KK: And have any other ministers or government MPs flown on your private jet since you were appointed as chair?

NP: No, I don’t believe so.

KK: OK. And Mr Porter was on at least one of those flights. Did you discuss industrial relations with him?

NP: No, I did not. I pilot the aircraft and therefore up to the front, not in the cabin.

KK: All right then. And in you pilot it all the time when you fly these government ministers?

NP: I did.

Updated

Peter Whish-Wilson is trying to find out why all members of the Covid-19 commission have not submitted conflicts of interest declarations.

They weren’t asked to.

Updated

Marise Payne has released a statement after meeting with Pacific Island women ministers:

The Pacific Women Leaders agreed to continue to work together to explore new ways to enhance the wellbeing of women and girls, including through social and development measures.

The inaugural virtual gathering considered the needs of women and girls in government and community responses to the pandemic. The meeting of 30 Pacific women ministers, parliamentarians and senior civil servants from 18 countries affirmed our commitment to:

· Address critical needs for women healthcare workers’ to access necessary resources, such as childcare, in order to carry out vital work safely

· Encourage measures and policies to promote gender equality, which have become more critical as the pandemic heightens the risk of violence against women and children

· Ensure recognition of the vital role women must play in the economic recovery of the region

Pacific women must lead in the region’s response to Covid-19 to ensure the interests of women and girls are at the forefront of government responses.

Australia’s Covid-19 Response and Recovery package includes a focus on the most vulnerable, particularly women and girls, with an additional $16m to address the differential impact of Covid-19 in the community. This builds on the Australian government’s existing programs to support gender equality and empower women and girls in the Indo-Pacific region.

A statement from the meeting is available here.

Updated

Liberal senator James Paterson is asking what the “policy” rationale is on replacing Coag with the national cabinet.

Phil Gaetjens says it will be more focused:

I think what they’re trying to do is extend the experience of the national cabinet dealing with a health issue to having that modality and method of dealing with issues as they arise, and it is an issue that is in the national interest for national leaders to actually address.

Gaetjens says moving to a “cabinet-style” decision-making process – which makes everything discussed subject to cabinet in-confidence and therefore outside of FoIs, is necessary for a “tightly focused leader driven management style”.

Updated

This is one way to describe a $60bn bungle.

Updated

We usually give you a dose of Peter Dutton on Ray Hadley on Thursdays, but it looks like Scott Morrison took his spot today.

The pair will have to wait until next week, when parliament is sitting, to have their catch-up.

Updated

The Covid committee has got under way – Nev Power has confirmed he flew his private jet to Canberra on Monday.

That’s in relation to this story from Samantha Maiden.

Updated

The Last Post ceremony is back at the War Memorial:

The Last Post Ceremony to take place at 4.55pm on 1 July will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the amphibious landings of the Australian 7th Division at Balikpapan in New Guinea during the second world war. The ceremony will honour Private Leslie James Hanlon of the 2/27th Australian Infantry Battalion, who was killed during Operation Oboe Two.

Director of the Australian War Memorial Matt Anderson said that he was looking forward to welcoming the public back to the daily ceremony and urged people who wished to attend to book a free ticket online.

Updated

On the planned protests in Australia in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Scott Morrison says:

In terms of some of the violence we’re seeing around the world today, for those Australians who find themselves in those situations, I would urge them to show great caution.

Already we have had to provide support for those in the media sector, for journalists who have found themselves in those situations, and of course we will continue to provide that support.

But I would urge people to be extremely cautious.

These are dangerous situations and people should exercise great care in where they’re placing themselves.”

Labor’s Jason Clare says he can’t imagine “too many battlers” have a lazy $150,000 around to renovate.

It reminds of the movie the Wizard of oOz. Remember when they get to the Emerald City and they hear the big, booming voice of the Oz. And Toto pulls the curtain away and you find that he is not that great and powerful afterwards.

The same with the housing package – all week we were told how big and old, and powerful it was going to be. Turns out it is not that big and powerful at all.

Updated

For that last quote from the prime minister, I add this as some much-needed context, from Chris Knaus:

Updated

Further to the “get off my lawn” comment:

Updated

News of recession 'heartbreaking', Scott Morrison says

Scott Morrison says he “really didn’t want to see a recession ever again in Australia”.

The last time the ‘R’ word was mentioned was during the election campaign, when Morrison hinted Labor’s tax plan could plunge the nation into an economic contraction. This is what he said, then, during the AFR conference in March 2019:

Whether you are in business, whether you are raising a family, whether you’re in retirement or entering into retirement, or whether you’re a young person coming out of university, I was one of those who entered the economy under Labor in the 1990s that went into recession.

We can’t go back to that, we must go forward and we have the plans to take Australia there …

I’m saying the economy will be weaker under Labor – that’s exactly what I’m saying, because they’re going to put $200bn worth of taxes and take Australia’s industrial relations system back to the times when we had recessions in this country.

I’m being very clear with Australians. No use on the other side going, ‘Oh, I didn’t really realise that it would have that impact.’ It will have that impact.”

Speaking at the HouseBuilder launch today, where Sky’s Thomas O’Brien says a neighbour yelled at people to get off his lawn, Morrison said delivering the news of a recession (which was Josh Frydenberg’s job yesterday) was “heartbreaking”.

As a government we worked so hard to bring the budget back into balance ... to see Covid-19 hit it like a torpedo is absolutely devastating.

Where we find ourselves now is heartbreaking.

Updated

Here are the HomeBuilder numbers as the government sees them:

From today until 31 December 2020, HomeBuilder will provide all eligible owner-occupiers (not just first home buyers) with a grant of $25,000 to build a new home or substantially renovate an existing home. Construction must be contracted to commence within three months of the contract date.

HomeBuilder applicants will be subject to eligibility criteria, including income caps of $125,000 for singles and $200,000 for couples based on their latest assessable income.

A national dwelling price cap of $750,000 will apply for new home builds, and a renovation price range of $150,000 up to $750,000 will apply to renovating an existing home with a current value of no more than $1.5 million.

The program is expected to provide around 27,000 grants at a total cost of around $680 million.

This increase in residential construction will help to fill the gap in construction activity expected in the second half of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In doing so, HomeBuilder will help to support the 140,000 direct jobs and another 1,000,000 related jobs in the residential construction sector including businesses and sole-trader builders, contractors, property developers, construction materials manufacturers, engineers, designers and architects.

Updated

(That difficult news by the way, was recession. We are in a recession. And while the March figures were bad, the June ones will only be worse.)

Updated

Scott Morrison was out at sparrow’s to speak about the construction stimulus package. He went to the Eden-Monaro electorate to tick off two boxes:

You wouldn’t want to be anywhere else other than Australia, particularly in times like this. When we look around the world and we see what’s happening. And Australia is certainly not immune from the difficult challenges that are being faced. But here in Australia, we’re doing better than many, and better than most, and that’s not just on the health front.

Even with the difficult news that we had yesterday that the treasurer had to share, Australia is making its way and, importantly, we’re making our way back. It’s going to be a hard road back.

There are many lives and livelihoods that are going to be impacted by the dreadful impact of the coronavirus, both on the health impact and on the economic impact. Jobs lost. Businesses closed. But Australia is reopening. And Australia is in that battle for jobs, and our government is in that battle for jobs. And in that battle for jobs, we’ve got to deal with the difficulties in the short term and we have to deal with the challenges over the longer term as well.

Updated

AAP reports that Tasmania is about to unveil its infrastructure spend:

Premier Peter Gutwein will on Thursday detail the two-year spend, which he has said will build infrastructure worth $3.1 billion.

The projects, including housing and roads, have been brought forward from a previously announced $3.7 billion four-year infrastructure plan.

“This will be a construction blitz and it will be far-reaching,” Mr Gutwein said on Wednesday.

“These are challenging times but now is not the time to sit idle.”

Updated

The review of the jobkeeper wage subsidy program is due to start very soon. We know there are changes coming, including more industries which will be looked at, with the government moving to a more “targeted” narrative in how it describes it.

Here is what Josh Frydenberg had to say about that this morning:

Many people are receiving the particular income support payment payments that we’re providing. But, again, we’re looking at all the sectors, how they’re recovering as a function of the restrictions being eased. We’ll take what actions we can.

Updated

So from 10am in the Covid committee you have:

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Phil Gaetjens, secretary (appearing from 10am to 11am)

Stephanie Foster, PSM, associate secretary

Simon Duggan, deputy secretary economic, industry and G20

Caroline Millar, deputy secretary, national security

Cath Patterson, acting deputy secretary, social policy

Lachlan Colquhoun, first assistant secretary, national security division

National Covid-19 Coordination Commission

Neville Power, chair

Malcolm Thompson, deputy chief executive officer

Updated

Tanya Plibersek appeared on ABC News Breakfast to discuss the home renovation/build program the government just announced:

I guess the housing industry is one of the missed opportunities that we’re looking at now, because of course we support, Labor supports, extra investment in our construction sector.

It is a sector which employs over a million Australians, we’re talking about 500,000 tradies.

If we do have a training and apprenticeship element to that, it would be a good thing, but this program doesn’t have that. Of course, the other missed opportunity in the housing package is the missed opportunity of an investment in social housing. It is great to help people buy or renovate their home but when we were last in Government in the global financial crisis, we built 126,000 new public housing homes, we upgraded about 70,000.

We started about 80 homelessness programs. We have thousands being turned away every night in Australia from crisis accommodation, mums and kids fleeing violence, veterans sleeping in our parks.

It shouldn’t happen in a country like Australia and now is the ideal time to be building accommodation for those people.

Except social housing isn’t part of this package (although some states have their own programs).

Updated

Labor has some things to say about the meeting:

Australia is well-placed to help meet India’s economic aspirations. India is our second-largest source of international students, and Australia benefits from a 700,000-strong Indian-Australian diaspora.

But next month marks two years since former DFAT secretary, Peter Varghese, presented this Government with the India Economic Strategy, which was intended as a blueprint to transform our economic engagement.

Since then the strategy has gathered dust, continuing years of failure by this Government to adequately diversify Australia’s trading economy.

Under Scott Morrison as Prime Minister and Treasurer, Australia has become increasingly reliant on a single trading partner. The only economy that depends more on China than Australia is Hong Kong.

Instead of trade diversification, Scott Morrison and his government have overseen the proportion of Australian trade with China increase by a third – from 19.8 per cent of Australia’s total trade to 26.4 per cent.

In the same period, the proportion of Australia’s trade with Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the US has declined and the proportion of Australia’s trade with India has increased by a measly 0.7 percentage points – from 2.7% to 3.4%.

We recognise that India alone does not provide a magical solution on diversification, but the fact is that India has barely rated a mention by this Government.

Labor launched negotiations with India for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in May 2011. The most recent negotiation was 45 months ago, in September 2015.

We hope this week’s virtual summit yields more than headlines aimed at providing a distraction from recent trade issues with China, and instead marks a long overdue shift in emphasis and a serious plan for diversifying Australia’s interests.

After bushfires and coronavirus put their summit off, Scott Morrison will (virtually) meet today with India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi.

Unfortunately, Modi misses out on these “delicacies” …

Updated

The Housing Industry Association is, unsurprisingly, pretty happy with the HomeBuilder package. It says:

HIA estimates it could generate over $15 billion in national economic activity.

Most importantly this incentive will support hundreds of thousands of jobs across Australia.

The housing industry directly engages more than one million people – builders, trade contractors, designers, professional service providers and others. It provides jobs for many thousands more in the manufacturing and retail sectors, which supply the materials, products, white goods and furnishings that go into our homes.

This incentive will help to address the projected decline in housing activity over the next 12 months.

Updated

The Senate committee looking at the Covid response will hear today from Scott Morrison’s handpicked coordination committee chair – the man charged with kickstarting the economy – Nev Power.

It’s MPs’ first chance to chat to the mining and gas executive since he took over the role.

This story is likely to be a topic of questions, as is this one.

Updated

In case you haven’t seen it, this story from Melissa Davey and international Guardian colleagues is very, very much worth your time:

The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.

A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.

Data it claims to have legitimately obtained from more than a thousand hospitals worldwide formed the basis of scientific articles that have led to changes in Covid-19 treatment policies in Latin American countries. It was also behind a decision by the WHO and research institutes around the world to halt trials of the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine. On Wednesday, the WHO announced those trials would now resume.

Good morning

As expected, the government’s home renovation/building stimulus package will be announced today.

Following the theme of policies boiling down to two words jammed together, this one is known as HomeBuilder. You’ve got it for six months.

As Katharine Murphy explains:

The Morrison government will fund grants worth $25,000 for eligible singles and couples planning to build or renovate homes between June and the end of December, with the uncapped program estimated to cost taxpayers $688m.

With the March quarter national accounts indicating that Australia has entered the first recession in nearly three decades, the new tranche of economic stimulus designed to create a pipeline of work for the construction sector will be unveiled by the Coalition on Thursday.

To be eligible for the grants, singles need to earn $125,000 a year or less based on a 2018-19 tax return or later, and couples need to earn under $200,000. Building contracts need to be executed between 4 June and 31 December 2020.

Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities are investigating the death of an Australian man in Bali after he suffered respiratory issues.

As AAP reports:

An Australian man has reportedly died in Indonesia after complaining of breathing difficulties.

The man, aged in his 50s, died this week in holiday accommodation in Munggu, in Bali, according to media reports.

The regency of Badung’s police chief Roby Septiad said the man was with his Indonesian girlfriend when he complained of shortness of breath, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The woman gave him an unspecified “breath” medicine, believed to be Ventolin.

“At 3am [June 3], the victim complained of shortness of breath and hugged (the woman) until finally his body did not move,” the paper cited Mr Septiad as saying on Wednesday.

“[She] then reported the death to the owner of the boarding house.”

We’ll cover that, and anything else that happens as the day rolls on. You have Amy Remeikis for most of the day.

Ready?

Updated

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