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| Australia coronavirus live: Scott Morrison sets out three conditions to lift lockdown – 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, live | Kevin Rudd slams Donald Trump’s ‘lunatic’ WHO decision as state and federal leaders discuss Australian school attendance. Follow all the latest news, live |
| Tehan says that it’s a possibility that parents will not be allowed onto school grounds. | |
| He says: “Obviously the medical experts will provide that advice but it’s very clear that the greatest risk to teachers comes from contact with other adults. | |
| “So every step that can be put in place which limits the ability of parents to interact with teachers and make sure there’s proper social distancing between teachers, obviously would make a lot of sense.” | |
| Does he accept that Victoria won’t reopen schools for the majority of students in term two at all? | |
| Tehan says: “Well, ultimately as the prime minister has made clear that will be a decision for the Premier and the Education Minister in Victoria. So they’ll continue to look at the situation there and if they think it’s possible to ease restrictions, I’m sure schooling would be one of the things they’d look.” | |
| Tehan is asked about the “principles” on schools that have come out of national cabinet. Karvelas puts it to him that ultimately states will just go it alone. | |
| “They’re important principles,” Tehan says. “And I think we shouldn’t dismiss them. And the first one is an incredibly important statement and the best way we can education our children is in the classroom and being delivered by professional teachers.” | |
| Hello everyone, and thanks Amy. Get well soon. We might start with the education minister Dan Tehan, who is speaking to Patricia Karvelas on the ABC. | |
| On that note, I am going to hand the blog over to Luke Henriques-Gomes and take my (non Covid) cold back to bed. | |
| I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Take care of you | |
| As promised, here is that link to the modelling the chief health officer just showed: | |
| To recap what just happened: | |
| A set of national principles have been set out for schools to follow | |
| But each jurisdiction maintains control over the decision of how to treat schools | |
| Listen to your own state or territory leader about what is happening in your area | |
| Three conditions have been set out for restrictions to be lifted | |
| More testing, including those without symptoms | |
| Better contact tracing, including government tracing apps | |
| localised lockdown procedures, including the ADF | |
| Parliament will return next month as a ‘trial’ for usual proceedings – not emergency Covid measures | |
| Elective surgery restrictions may be lifted next week | |
| Post restriction Australia will not have the same economic policy settings or election promises as pre restriction Australia | |
| Australia has reinstated its commitment to the World Health Organisation, citing its work in the Pacific | |
| Christian Porter has amended a fair work regulation, which allows employers to offer enterprise bargaining proposals for just one day for consideration, rather than a week. | |
| That was quite the hour. | |
| And this is how Christian Porter described it: | |
| The Government has approved a change to the Fair Work Regulations today that will give employers greater flexibility to rapidly respond to the extreme and urgent workplace challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, by reducing the time required for changes to enterprise agreements to be agreed by their employees. | |
| Previously, employers were required to give at least seven days’ notice of any proposed amendment before it could be put to a vote by workers. That time period – known as the access period – will now be reduced to a minimum of one day. | |
| Importantly, employers will still need to meet the essential conditions required under the “genuine agreement” test that is ultimately determined by the Fair Work Commission. This is a safeguard to ensure workers are able to make informed decisions about changes affecting the way they work. Employees will also still be able to vote down a proposed change to agreements. | |
| These changes have also been time-bound and will revert to the usual 7 day period automatically in six months. Having listened to concerns raised by the ACTU, the Attorney-General has also determined to review the operation of the changes in two months to assess whether the system has been operating effectively without misuse. If substantial evidence were to emerge that the changes are not operating effectively, the time period can be altered again at that point of two-month review. | |
| Importantly, the regulation change applies to all businesses with employees covered by EBA’s, including those not eligible for JobKeeper payments. | |
| “These changes are designed to enable companies to deal swiftly with urgent issues that are arising in their workplaces, such as health and safety issues associated with COVID-19,” Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Christian Porter said. | |
| “For example, businesses that have urgently needed to divide their workforce up into teams that rotate between working from home and in the office for social distancing reasons, haven’t been able to quickly implement those changes due to the mandatory access period. | |
| “In some cases, delays have been impractical and prevented employers from taking effective steps to improve the safety of their staff, or to ensure their businesses were able to function efficiently during these difficult and fast-changing times. | |
| “These changes are only temporary and will expire in six months, in line with other changes to working arrangements that have been recently adopted, such as the amendments to the Fair Work Act that were necessary to facilitate the roll out of the $130 billion JobKeeper package and I intend to review the operation of the change two months after it becomes effective.” | |
| The ACTU and Sally McManus is not: | |
| “Some employers have not stopped demanding rights be taken off working people. We saw some openly try to force changes to the Fair Work Act that would undermine people’s job security and rights at work in the lead up to Jobkeeper becoming law, those attempts were opposed by the union movement and were rightly refused by all political parties. | |
| “Having been denied a legislative pathway for their power grab those employers, who have not suffered serious downturn, have spent the last week lobbying the government to take away workers’ rights via regulation, they should be condemned, and the Government should stop listening to them. | |
| “By agreeing to these changes Christian Porter would be using his power to abolish rules that protect workers, their job security and their rights at work. | |
| “These changes will allow employers to ram through reductions in pay and undermine job security. | |
| “The current rules ensure workers have adequate time to consider any proposal to change an enterprise agreement, to discuss this with their employer, other workers and to seek advice. This change effectively takes away all these rights leaving workers exposed to employers seeking to exploit the fear caused by the pandemic and to pressure workers into rushed agreements, locking out their access to advice. | |
| “We are already seeing widespread abuse of the JobKeeper system, prior to the pandemic Australian business had an enormous problem with wage theft. We know that, sadly, too many employers will exploit the system if there are no safeguards for working people. The Government needs to stand up to big business and rule out undermining the job security and rights of millions of Australian workers. | |
| “Workers need more protections and safeguards at this time, not less.” | |
| On that post from Paul Karp a little bit ago, there have been, as you could imagine, mixed responses. | |
| The Business Council of Australia is very happy: | |
| “We thank the Attorney-General for listening and acting on the concerns of our members. Governments, businesses and the union movement are working together with the shared goal of keeping Australians in work and setting the economy up for recovery. | |
| “With borders closed, regular duties changing and normal business hours decreasing, employers need the maximum amount of flexibility to protect jobs, avoid retrenchments and strengthen the Australian economy. | |
| “These common-sense, temporary changes will enable businesses to collaborate with unions and workers to keep people connected to their employers and save jobs. | |
| “For thousands of workers, the changes will mean the difference between keeping their job or losing it because their employer was hamstrung by restrictive, time consuming processes to make necessary and reasonable changes. | |
| “Crucially, this will give businesses the capacity to retain their workers and ease gradually back into production once the recovery begins. | |
| “Large employers who aren’t eligible to claim JobKeeper assistance for their workers will now have room to move and stay afloat. For some businesses this will be even more valuable than a wage subsidy. | |
| “This is a welcome demonstration of the Morrison government’s willingness to listen, respond and prioritise the urgent things needed to keep Australians working and connected to their workplaces throughout this crisis.” | |
| G20 governments – of which Australia is one – have agreed to temporarily suspend debt repayments for the world’s least developed countries in response to the Covid-19 crisis. | |
| The rationale for suspending repayments is to free up money in these countries to fight the virus. Some 77 countries have had their debts to G20 countries suspended from May to the end of the year, worth about $12bn. | |
| The G20 has also called on private creditors to similarly suspend debt repayments. | The G20 has also called on private creditors to similarly suspend debt repayments. |
| “We support a time-bound suspension of debt service payments for the poorest countries that request forbearance,” the G20 said in a statement after finance ministers held an online meeting on Wednesday. | “We support a time-bound suspension of debt service payments for the poorest countries that request forbearance,” the G20 said in a statement after finance ministers held an online meeting on Wednesday. |
| But the debt has not been forgiven, as was being sought by a number of civil society organisations in Australia and around the world. | |
| Dr Luke Fletcher, the executive director of Jubilee Australia said: “The G20’s announcement gives struggling countries some temporary relief, but it will not help countries at risk of a debt crisis in the long term as they will have to pay the money back later. | |
| “To support low-income countries globally to respond to the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout, the G20 needs to move to immediate debt cancellation.” | “To support low-income countries globally to respond to the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic fallout, the G20 needs to move to immediate debt cancellation.” |
| The executive director of ActionAid Australia, Michelle Higelin, said many countries in the Asia-Pacific and Africa faced a “triple-threat” from Covid-19, an economic recession and the climate crisis. | |
| “Women and girls are already among the most impacted by job losses, increases in unpaid care and inadequate social protection,” she said. | “Women and girls are already among the most impacted by job losses, increases in unpaid care and inadequate social protection,” she said. |
| The rooftop protest at Villawood detention centre – against the risks of Covid-19 within the close and crowded confines of detention – has been ended by armed police. | |
| Three men who had been on the roof of the Blaxland compound since Saturday have been removed from the roof. Refugee advocates say they do not know where they are now. | Three men who had been on the roof of the Blaxland compound since Saturday have been removed from the roof. Refugee advocates say they do not know where they are now. |
| All other detainees have been transferred from the Blaxland compound to the Hume compound inside the main Villawood detention facility. | |
| But the concerns over the lack of safety for detainees being held at high-risk of coronavirus infection have not been resolved, Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said. | |
| “Swapping Blaxland for Hume has done nothing to rectify the inherent risk that is associated with the detention environment. | |
| “Everyone in Blaxland could have been more easily and safely released from detention rather than using armed police to end a peaceful protest.” | “Everyone in Blaxland could have been more easily and safely released from detention rather than using armed police to end a peaceful protest.” |
| Doctors have repeatedly said it is not safe for hundreds of people to be held in the close confines of detention, sharing communal spaces and eating together. An open letter protesting ongoing detention of asylum seekers and refugees has been signed by more than 1,200 medical professionals. | |
| The Australian government’s own health department website says people held in detention are at greater risk of contracting Covid-19 and greater risk of a serious infection. | The Australian government’s own health department website says people held in detention are at greater risk of contracting Covid-19 and greater risk of a serious infection. |
| Sarah Dale, the principal solicitor at the Refugee Advice & Casework Service, said the health and medical advice was clear that there was a heightened risk of a cluster in an immigration detention facility. | |
| “At RACS we have spoken to many people in detention, they are scared and they are anxious – they don’t have the option to socially distance when they share rooms with multiple people and see different staff coming in and out of these facilities. It’s the epitome of every situation the government has otherwise advised against.” | |
| The industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, will shortly announce that he is making a regulation to reduce the mandatory consultation period for enterprise agreement changes from seven days to 24 hours. | |
| What that means is employers can put proposed changes to pay and conditions to their workforce with just a 24-hour deadline to agree or prepare to fight the changes in the Fair Work Commission. | |
| The Australian Council of Trade Unions is greatly perturbed that this eases the way to cuts to pay and conditions. | |
| The regulation is a disallowable instrument, but the Senate is not due to sit until August, quite a long window for employers to seek changes. | |
| So there you have it – some criticisms, but Australia won’t be walking away from the World Health Organization. | |