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Australia coronavirus live updates: Rudd slams Trump's 'lunatic' WHO decision as national cabinet to meet – latest news Australia coronavirus live updates: Rudd slams Trump's 'lunatic' WHO decision as national cabinet to meet – latest news
(32 minutes later)
State and federal leaders will discuss Australian school attendance at Thursday’s meeting. Follow all the latest news, liveState and federal leaders will discuss Australian school attendance at Thursday’s meeting. Follow all the latest news, live
The ADF is part of the clean up of the Tasmanian north-west hospitals which have been closed because of Covid-19 cluster.
Two hospitals have been closed, and won’t be re-opened until they have been specially de-contaminated.
That is still expected to take some time.
Little bits and pieces of other news are beginning to make their way back into the public consciousness, including journalist Annika Smethurst’s high court case, which found the warrant used to raid her was invalid, but was split on what the AFP could do with the materials it seized.
(Paul Karp has covered the case here)
The Law Council of Australia has responded to the case outcome, rightly pointing out the issues with Australia’s public interest journalism protections:
Pauline Wright:
Shares in Virgin Australia have been suspended from trade as the grounded airline desperately seeks a bailout.
The stock went into a trading halt two days ago but has so far been unable to secure a lifeline amid furious political debate over whether it should be rescued by the government.
“Whilst this consideration and these discussions have continued over the last two days including discussions which remain confidential and are incomplete, the company is not presently in a position to make an announcement to the market with respect to these matters,” Virgin Australia told the exchange on Thursday morning.
As Guardian Australia has reported, options under consideration include putting the company into administration.
Most of these seem legit to me. But I’m not a cop. Just the daughter of one, which means I’ve trotted most of these out whenever I was caught sneaking out of the house.
Peter Gutwein says Tasmanian schools will be open after the Easter break but it is the same story – schools are open but at-home learning is available.
It is Tasmanian premier press conference o’clock.
Peter Gutwein says four more people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the state’s north-west.
He says he has been “shocked” by social media comments criticising north-west health workers, and tells people to cut it out.
That would be the rumour that the north-west outbreak came after health workers attended what Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, described as an “illegal dinner party”.
But Gutwein says there has been no evidence in the contract tracing that any such dinner party occurred and Murphy apologised for passing on the rumour.
The story seems to have become a part of an urban legend and Gutwein has spent a big chunk of last week and this one debunking it.
Peter Dutton told 2GB last week there is an AFP taskforce which is meant to be looking into attempts to defraud the government’s stimulus payments.Peter Dutton told 2GB last week there is an AFP taskforce which is meant to be looking into attempts to defraud the government’s stimulus payments.
The AFP couldn’t tell us anything about the taskforce, other than it is talking to other agencies, but surely this would be covered?The AFP couldn’t tell us anything about the taskforce, other than it is talking to other agencies, but surely this would be covered?
The corporate regulator says it intervened to stop the corporate bookie Sportsbet offering bets on the stock exchange because of “concerns that the bets constituted a financial product that Sportsbet was not licensed to offer”.“The product was consequently withdrawn,” the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said this morning.This appears to conflict with Sportsbet’s previously reported reasons for pulling the bets – a fortnight ago Nine Newspapers said the company blamed a “lack of interest”. Sportsbet had offered the bets in an attempt to fill the gap left by professional sports being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Asic said: “Sportsbet identified to ASIC challenges in implementing its control framework in the current environment, with many staff working remotely.” It warned companies that they needed to make sure their compliance frameworks could cope with the crisis.The corporate regulator says it intervened to stop the corporate bookie Sportsbet offering bets on the stock exchange because of “concerns that the bets constituted a financial product that Sportsbet was not licensed to offer”.“The product was consequently withdrawn,” the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said this morning.This appears to conflict with Sportsbet’s previously reported reasons for pulling the bets – a fortnight ago Nine Newspapers said the company blamed a “lack of interest”. Sportsbet had offered the bets in an attempt to fill the gap left by professional sports being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Asic said: “Sportsbet identified to ASIC challenges in implementing its control framework in the current environment, with many staff working remotely.” It warned companies that they needed to make sure their compliance frameworks could cope with the crisis.
In other coronavirus business news, Australia’s fifth-biggest bank, Bendigo and Adelaide, withdrew its profit forecast, and the toll road operator Transurban said traffic volumes were down 5% or 6% in the three months to the end of March.In other coronavirus business news, Australia’s fifth-biggest bank, Bendigo and Adelaide, withdrew its profit forecast, and the toll road operator Transurban said traffic volumes were down 5% or 6% in the three months to the end of March.
So the message for schools across the country is mostly the same as it was for the end of term one.So the message for schools across the country is mostly the same as it was for the end of term one.
If you are able to keep your kids at home, you can do so. If you can’t, you can send them on-site.If you are able to keep your kids at home, you can do so. If you can’t, you can send them on-site.
This will be the message until at least the middle of term two.This will be the message until at least the middle of term two.
James Merlino echoes Daniel Andrews from yesterday, that the schools are safe – which is why they are all open – but that having 1 million students return to school, including having their parents gathering outside schools for drop off and pick up, goes against the Victorian health advice.James Merlino echoes Daniel Andrews from yesterday, that the schools are safe – which is why they are all open – but that having 1 million students return to school, including having their parents gathering outside schools for drop off and pick up, goes against the Victorian health advice.
Victoria’s education minister, James Merlino, says school attendance at government schools was 3% yesterday, which was the first day of term two.Victoria’s education minister, James Merlino, says school attendance at government schools was 3% yesterday, which was the first day of term two.
On schools, here is what we know so far:
NSW schools are open for essential workers and parents with no choice, with distance education/virtual learning the main go, at least for the first few weeks of term two, with a return to on-site learning to be discussed.
Queensland schools are open but pupil-free until at least 22 May, when the state will reassess.
Northern Territory schools remain open, with virtual learning on offer for those who wish for it.
Victorian schools are open but pupil-free – at-home learning is preferred. This is likely to be the case until term three.
Gladys Berejiklian has given a small hint about NSW’s school plans.
The national cabinet (Coag with a fancy name) will talk about how to return school attendance to normal when it meets today.
Queensland has laid out a distance learning/on-site for essential workers plan until at least 22 May (the first five weeks of term two).
Berejiklian says NSW schools will look the same for the first few weeks of term two, but she is working towards a normal term three.
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 judgment 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 will be 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 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 those renting. The Greens want the federal government to step up:
A group of Australian professors have come together to protest against the US decision to defund the World Health Organization.
This is part of the letter the group have written:
With Australia still in the suppression stage and looking at how it will begin to lift physical distancing restrictions, 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.
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.
The 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.
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 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.
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.
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.