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Australia coronavirus live: Scott Morrison provides update on national cabinet meeting – latest news Australia coronavirus live: Scott Morrison sets out three conditions to lift lockdown – latest news
(32 minutes later)
Kevin Rudd slams Donald Trump’s ‘lunatic’ WHO decision as state and federal leaders discuss Australian school attendance. Follow all the latest news, liveKevin Rudd slams Donald Trump’s ‘lunatic’ WHO decision as state and federal leaders discuss Australian school attendance. Follow all the latest news, live
So it looks like the economic ‘snap back’ is on the back burner for some time now. Asked to talk to his post restriction Australia economic policy settings comment again, Scott Morrison says:
Up until now, the government has been determined to keep a ‘business as usual’ on its election promises stiff upper lip. There is another question on whether or not the government will be bailing out Virgin.
That is no longer the case.
Which means anything the Coalition went to the election on, is now up in the air
Scott Morrison on the unemployment figures released today:
The national cabinet has agreed on a set of “national principles” on school education when it comes to handling the Covid-19 issue. In short, leaders emphasise the value of providing education within classroom settings, but acknowledge that it is up to state and territory governments and the non-government school sector to make operational decisions.
There is also a need for schools to offer teachers and staff a safe working environment.
The full list of principles is as follows:
1. Our schools are critical to the delivery of high quality education for students and to give our children the best possible start in life. Our education systems are based on the recognition that education is best delivered by professional teachers to students in the classroom on a school campus.
2. It is accepted that during the Covid-19 crisis, alternative flexible, remote delivery of education services may be needed.
3. Our schools must be healthy and safe environments for students, teachers and other staff to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of education to students.
4. State and territory governments and non-government sector authorities are responsible for managing and making operational decisions for their school systems respectively, subject to compliance with relevant funding agreements with the Commonwealth.
5. Decisions regarding the response to Covid-19 in the schooling sector must continue to be informed by expert, official, national and state-based public health and education advice, consistent with these national principles.
6. All students must continue to be supported by their school to ensure participation in quality education during the Covid-19 crisis.
7. The health advice consistently provided by the AHPPC is that attendance at a school campus for education represents a very low risk to students.
The advice also notes that appropriate practices must be employed at schools, like at other workplaces, to provide a safe working environment for school staff, including teachers, and that the specific AHPPC advice regarding school campuses should be followed.
This is the first time Scott Morrison has admitted that the policies he took to the election can’t stand up in a post-Covid Australia:
Scott Morrison:Scott Morrison:
This press conference is going to be, as reported, on schools. We are aware of their interest in that, it has not got much beyond that, New Zealand has been in a state of even more extreme lockdown, that has been their process.
Scott Morrison is at the podium: So we are aware of that but we are not at present contemplating any border changes at the moment, we will work closely with New Zealand, we have all along, and our measures have largely mirrored each other, New Zealand decided to go a lot further but I note the outcomes we are getting are actually on a per capita basis better than what is happening in New Zealand, that is not a criticism that is just to say we managed to get as good if not a better outcome.
Let the preamble begin. What did Scott Morrison mean when he said election promises would be “reconsidered”?
Michaelia Cash has released her official statement on today’s jobs figures: The modelling, which we will link to, is what the chief medical officer says is helping to inform the measures Australia is using:
The Refugee Coalition Action group has reported the Villawood immigration detention protest has ended: Prof Brendan Murphy is leading the slideshow Daniel Hurst was talking about there.
The prime minister will be joined by the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy – it is looking more like that will be happening at 2.30pm now. He led into it by talking about why the restrictions have to be carefully lifted, and not just thrown off at once:
There will be a slideshow, apparently. I imagine this will show some of the ‘road map’ conditions for loosening restrictions, but it could also be a ‘look how well we have done’ story, to go along with a 40-minute preamble to whatever the new announcement is. According to slides handed out to journalists at today’s media conference, Australia is estimated to be currently detecting approximately 92% of all symptomatic cases, while each state and territory is individually estimated to be detecting over 80%.
Presented without comment: The slides argue that Australia has one of the highest reported detection rates globally.
And here are one of the reasons questions are rightly being raised over the contact tracing app the government wants Australians to download: The high detection rate doesn’t mean the outbreak is out of control in Australia, just that we don’t seem to be missing symptomatic cases.
It doesn’t seem like anyone is completely sure of how it would work. Because either it swaps phone numbers, which is different to the explanations which have been given so far, and Stuart Robert has let the tidbit drop, or it doesn’t actually swap phone numbers and the minister doesn’t actually know how it works. The Doherty Institute is currently working on the next phase of modelling using Australian data to work out the current state of the epidemic, which will be known as “nowcasting”. This new work will include rolling “forecasts” to estimate what might happen with the outbreak over the coming fortnight.
Further to some of the issues that asylum seekers and refugees under Australia’s care are experiencing is this statement from the Public Health Association of Australia: Scott Morrison on schools:
And you’ll hear from the prime minister at 2.15, now that national cabinet has broken (for the day, not as a unit). Scott Morrison:
You’ll no doubt hear more about both the schools issue and the contact tracing app, tonight That was quite the 15 minutes.
National cabinet is ticking along. What have we learnt?
The big issue still seems to be schools and how the states should go about reopening them. The health advice panel says, as it has the whole time, that it is OK to reopen schools. The states, led by Victoria, which is the strongest on this, says that goes against the limit on gatherings – not just inside the classroom, but what is happening outside, during pick-up and drop-off. Restrictions to remain in place for at least another four weeks, but easing is on the agenda
Don’t be surprised if the contact tracing app is also pushed more, as part of the conditions needed to be in place for the restrictions to be lifted. The government wants increased testing - including those with no symptoms – as well as larger scale contact tracing (downloading the app) and localised lockdown ability to be put in place, before restrictions are loosened.
For it to work, the government wants at least 40% of the population to take it up. It will be able to tell the government who you have been in contact with, or near, if someone tests positive. Parliament may return next month
As with everything though, that comes with a lot of privacy issues. How much are you willing to trade off? Post restriction Australia does not include election promises
G20 nations have decided to allow developing nations to suspend debt repayments, as the globe attempts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Schools have seven national principles, as federal government pushes return to on-site learning
But that doesn’t mean repayments to private banks have to stop. And there is, as several advocacy groups have pointed out today, no plan for long term debt relief. We will be seeking - and I will be raising this with the opposition at our regular meeting - with the opposition and the government this evening - that we will be looking to have a trial week of Parliament in May and that would be returning to the normal business of Parliament.
That would not be the Parliament coming together to consider necessarily Covid-19 related measures but if they do need to be considered, of course they can be but we want to send a very clear message that we are well ahead of where we thought we might be at this point and that would mean that we might be able to - I would say will be able to - having the Parliament meet again on a regular basis, but obviously we just need to trial how that is going to work.
We will have to work obviously within the arrangements that we were able to establish a few weeks ago.
There are a lot of logistical issues we have to run through, there are not a lot of flights at the moment which will make it difficult, but there are also some border closure issues for a number of states which also have to be resolved and I am sure we will be able to deal with that through the National Cabinet as well.
It is important that Parliament goes about that work and we are in a position to do so, so I look forward to Parliament being able to resume and continue to do the legislative work that it does.
On the ‘six month’ time frame the government has been using, Scott Morrison says don’t expect everything to be back to anything approaching what you knew as normal, anytime soon:
But the restrictions that are in place will stay in place for at least another month:
And Scott Morrison on that third condition – localised lockdown ability:
Scott Morrison on the second condition – increased contact tracing/downloading a tracking app: