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| Australia coronavirus live: Rudd slams Trump's 'lunatic' WHO decision as national cabinet to meet – latest updates | Australia coronavirus live: Rudd slams Trump's 'lunatic' WHO decision as national cabinet to meet – latest updates |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| State and federal leaders will discuss Australian school attendance at Thursday’s meeting. Follow all the latest news, live | State and federal leaders will discuss Australian school attendance at Thursday’s meeting. Follow all the latest news, live |
| More indications of how long this is going to roll on: more than 600,000 Australians have registered to withdraw money from their superannuation funds. | |
| If you don’t think that is going to have a roll-on effect when people go to retire, you haven’t been paying attention. | |
| The ABS should be delivering the March unemployment numbers today. | |
| We know they are not going to be good. We all saw the queues outside Centrelink offices. That was only a month ago, and there are still people struggling with the system. | |
| The ABS counts anyone who works an hour a week as “employed”. Keep an eye on the underemployment numbers, which were already not great before coronavirus hit. That is where some of the real pain will be felt – people just not able to get enough hours. | |
| As this rolls on and the economy contracts, you’ll also see people give up on trying to find work – those who just fall off the grid. | |
| This is the first page in what is going to be a very, very difficult chapter in Australia’s economic history. | |
| Everyone is coping with the restrictions and isolation life in their own way, and you’ll find no judgement here. | |
| But for anyone who may have found themselves reaching into their pantry a little more than usual, the Conversation has an article on the comforts of comfort foods that you might find interesting. | |
| But seriously – whatever gets you through. You do you, boo. | |
| The states are also beginning to roll out the next stage of their own stimulus packages: infrastructure. | |
| Gladys Berejiklian says NSW will be bringing forward regional infrastructure projects. Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a contract for M1 work and Daniel Andrews has made some level crossing announcements. | |
| Looking at the IMF analysis, as well as the Treasury modelling, there is going to have to be a lot of things built over quite a long period of time as well as ongoing stimulus from the federal government to keep the Australian economy afloat. | |
| Which is also going to mean, there is no “snap back”. Particularly for the most vulnerable Australians, who previously were forced to live on $40 a day. | |
| Gladys Berejiklian (must be close to 8am, I only tell time by daily press conferences and phone battery percentage these days) says just 11 New South Wales residents tested positive for Covid-19 overnight. | |
| That comes as testing rates went back to 3,000, which is the good news – transmission rates aren’t increasing even with wider testing. | |
| Five of the new cases came from the Anglicare Newmarch aged care home, where a worker recently tested positive. That brings that cluster to 15, including nine residents. | |
| Nineteen people are still on ventilators in NSW and 26 people are receiving intensive care. | |
| The Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi says while some of the states have come to the table with some positive steps for residential tenants, the piecemeal approach is not in the best interest of tenants. The Greens want the federal government to step up: | |
| A group of Australian professors have come together to protest the US decision to defund the World Health Organization. | A group of Australian professors have come together to protest the US decision to defund the World Health Organization. |
| This is part of the letter the group have written: | This is part of the letter the group have written: |
| With Australia still in the suppression stage, and looking at how it begins to lift the physical distance restrictions which have been put in place, our view has turned to the rest of the world. | With Australia still in the suppression stage, and looking at how it begins to lift the physical distance restrictions which have been put in place, our view has turned to the rest of the world. |
| Scott Morrison has pointed to what is happening in parts of Europe and the US as an example of how the virus could have spread without the restrictions which were put in place. | Scott Morrison has pointed to what is happening in parts of Europe and the US as an example of how the virus could have spread without the restrictions which were put in place. |
| Australia’s two main political parties have also said they won’t be following the Donald Trump to halt funding to the World Health Organization. | Australia’s two main political parties have also said they won’t be following the Donald Trump to halt funding to the World Health Organization. |
| Former prime minister Kevin Rudd had a few things to say about the Trump reaction, which he called a “lunatic decision” in an op-ed in the Economist. | Former prime minister Kevin Rudd had a few things to say about the Trump reaction, which he called a “lunatic decision” in an op-ed in the Economist. |
| Rudd, who is part of a group of former global leaders who make suggestions on how the world could be run, says Germany, France, Britain and Canada should come together to defend institutions such as the WHO, following Trump’s decision. | Rudd, who is part of a group of former global leaders who make suggestions on how the world could be run, says Germany, France, Britain and Canada should come together to defend institutions such as the WHO, following Trump’s decision. |
| As AAP reports: | As AAP reports: |
| [Rudd] suggested the bloc of countries, which could also include Singapore and the European Union, be dubbed the M7 and “become the thin blue line that, for the interim at least, protects us against an increasingly anarchic world”. | [Rudd] suggested the bloc of countries, which could also include Singapore and the European Union, be dubbed the M7 and “become the thin blue line that, for the interim at least, protects us against an increasingly anarchic world”. |
| Rudd did not include Australia. | Rudd did not include Australia. |
| “They could start by issuing an immediate joint statement that together they will now fill the funding gap left by the lunatic decision by Mr Trump to axe America’s financial contributions to the WHO,” Rudd wrote. | “They could start by issuing an immediate joint statement that together they will now fill the funding gap left by the lunatic decision by Mr Trump to axe America’s financial contributions to the WHO,” Rudd wrote. |
| The M7, “given that Sino-American relations are beyond the control of any of us,” would form a core group of constructive powers to reform, fund and politically defend WHO, the World Food Program, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and WTO, he said. | The M7, “given that Sino-American relations are beyond the control of any of us,” would form a core group of constructive powers to reform, fund and politically defend WHO, the World Food Program, the Food and Agricultural Organisation, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and WTO, he said. |
| Meanwhile, schools will be on Australia’s national cabinet agenda once again, as the Morrison government attempts to convince the states to start planning for full on-site attendance. That is not a change in position – that is what Morrison has always wanted. He just lost the battle with the states the first time round. Let’s see what happens now that he can point to the curve actually flattening. | Meanwhile, schools will be on Australia’s national cabinet agenda once again, as the Morrison government attempts to convince the states to start planning for full on-site attendance. That is not a change in position – that is what Morrison has always wanted. He just lost the battle with the states the first time round. Let’s see what happens now that he can point to the curve actually flattening. |
| We’ll have that, and everything else that happens today. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day. Ready? Let’s get into it. | We’ll have that, and everything else that happens today. You have Amy Remeikis with you for most of the day. Ready? Let’s get into it. |