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| Coronavirus Australia live update: Morrison pledges to rebuild economy without tax hikes, as Victoria reports 15 new cases | Coronavirus Australia live update: Morrison pledges to rebuild economy without tax hikes, as Victoria reports 15 new cases |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Scott Morrison to outline Coalition’s manufacturing reboot in press club address; NSW reports two new cases in hotel quarantine; Queensland expands NSW border bubble. Follow live | Scott Morrison to outline Coalition’s manufacturing reboot in press club address; NSW reports two new cases in hotel quarantine; Queensland expands NSW border bubble. Follow live |
| WA premier Mark McGowan is holding firm on WA’s hard border: | |
| As AAP reports: | |
| Reopening the borders to South Australia and the Northern Territory would provide Western Australia with no economic benefit, Premier Mark McGowan says. | |
| With other states and territories beginning to reopen their borders, WA remains isolated in its refusal to subscribe to a targeted COVID-19 “hotspots” regime. | |
| WA’s borders have been closed to anyone except designated workers and people exempted on compassionate grounds for almost six months. | |
| Like WA, SA and the NT have managed to stamp out community transmission and have had low coronavirus case numbers. | |
| But Mr McGowan says there is no point in pursuing a travel bubble. | |
| “There is no benefit,” he said on Thursday. | |
| “All we’ll do is lose jobs were we to open to those (jurisdictions). | |
| “The other states want us to open the border so that West Australian tourists will flood east, not so that people from the east will come here. | |
| “They’re only saying all this for very self-interested reasons because we have higher incomes, we have people that are more used to travelling and therefore we’ll have more tourists go from Western Australia to the east.” | |
| The comments are likely to frustrate industry groups that have called on the McGowan government to provide certainty on the easing of border restrictions. | |
| Mr McGowan remains adamant the borders won’t come down until the eastern states go 28 days with no community spread. | |
| He highlighted reports that passengers from the Ruby Princess cruise ship may have infected up to 11 people on a flight from Sydney to Perth. | |
| “When we get calls from other governments around Australia, particularly NSW, to bring down our border, all I’d say is they have had significant policy failures in the east that caused the spread of the virus into Western Australia in the early days,” Mr McGowan said. | |
| “We’re always very careful about our borders to protect our people. If only they’d been more careful, we would’t have had some of those cases come to our state.” | |
| Victoria Health has put out its official data release: | |
| Victoria has recorded 15 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,183. | |
| The overall total has increased by 14 due to one case being reclassified. | |
| Seven of today’s 15 new cases have been linked to known outbreaks or complex cases. Three are linked to aged care (Bupa Edithvale, TLC Noble Manor in Noble Park and Opal Hobsons Bay in Altona North) and four are linked to the Butcher Club at Chadstone Shopping Centre. The other eight cases remain under investigation. | |
| Of today’s 15 new cases, there are five cases in Casey, two cases in Greater Dandenong, Maribyrnong and Monash and single cases in Boroondara, Glen Eira, Wyndham and Yarra. | |
| There have been two new deaths from Covid-19 reported since yesterday: one woman aged in her 70s and one woman in her 90s. One death occurred prior to yesterday. | |
| Both of today’s deaths are linked to known aged care facility outbreaks. To date, 800 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria. | |
| The average number of cases diagnosed in the last 14 days for metropolitan Melbourne is 15.6 and regional Victoria is 0.3. The rolling daily average case number is calculated by averaging out the number of new cases over the past 14 days. | |
| The total number of cases from an unknown source in the last 14 days is 19 for metropolitan Melbourne and zero for regional Victoria. The 14-day period for the source of acquisition data ends 48 hours earlier than the 14-day period used to calculate the new case average due to the time required to fully investigate a case and assign its mode of acquisition. | |
| The Fair Work Commission will hand down its decision in the Patrick’s Terminals industrial relations dispute at 3pm. | |
| For those wondering, Jacqui Lambie will announce tomorrow how she plans on voting on the refugee mobile phone bill. | |
| Lambie is the deciding vote. | Lambie is the deciding vote. |
| The bill seeks to strip mobile phone access from refugees and asylum seekers who are detained in our detention centres. It’s often their only link to the outside world. | The bill seeks to strip mobile phone access from refugees and asylum seekers who are detained in our detention centres. It’s often their only link to the outside world. |
| Don’t kid yourselves, though – the bill, if successful, won’t stop mobile phones being available. It will just means they will be smuggled in as contraband, forcing refugees and asylum seekers to pay insane, inflated prices to access something that provides them much needed contact outside of their locked-in world. | |
| Q: Is manufacturing the way out of the crisis? | Q: Is manufacturing the way out of the crisis? |
| Anthony Albanese: | Anthony Albanese: |
| Anthony Albanese has responded to Scott Morrison’s speech: | Anthony Albanese has responded to Scott Morrison’s speech: |
| Helen Haines has some questions for Michael McCormack (I mean, we all do, mostly just ‘why?’) about a new regional fund that locks her electorate out – despite what it has been through since the bushfires. | Helen Haines has some questions for Michael McCormack (I mean, we all do, mostly just ‘why?’) about a new regional fund that locks her electorate out – despite what it has been through since the bushfires. |
| Just a reminder, this announcement is estimated to create (conservatively) just 8,000 jobs a year; 80,000 is a 10-year-plan number. | Just a reminder, this announcement is estimated to create (conservatively) just 8,000 jobs a year; 80,000 is a 10-year-plan number. |
| It’s 8,000 jobs (annually) across six sectors of the manufacturing industry. | It’s 8,000 jobs (annually) across six sectors of the manufacturing industry. |
| And Scott Morrison finishes up. | And Scott Morrison finishes up. |
| Meanwhile ... | Meanwhile ... |
| Q: You’ve had the retirement incomes review since July. There is a big debate going on about the future of the superannuation contribution and you will make a decision in a few months. Why don’t you release that fact-based report immediately so the debate can be better informed? | Q: You’ve had the retirement incomes review since July. There is a big debate going on about the future of the superannuation contribution and you will make a decision in a few months. Why don’t you release that fact-based report immediately so the debate can be better informed? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| Q: One of the big impacts on the economic growth for the next financial year will be the migration mix. We know that permanent migration will fall probably to one of its lowest levels. Are there mechanisms where refugees who are in Australia on temporary protection visas can help fill that void, given we know these are remarkably resilient tarps, highly skilled, highly motivated that want to make a contribution? | Q: One of the big impacts on the economic growth for the next financial year will be the migration mix. We know that permanent migration will fall probably to one of its lowest levels. Are there mechanisms where refugees who are in Australia on temporary protection visas can help fill that void, given we know these are remarkably resilient tarps, highly skilled, highly motivated that want to make a contribution? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| Q: New mechanisms was the crucial word – new. | Q: New mechanisms was the crucial word – new. |
| Morrison: | Morrison: |
| Q: You mentioned a few times that up to 40% of costs for industries – cost structures – are gas ... Are you willing to enforce retailers to reduce their price closer to the wholesale price for those industries? | Q: You mentioned a few times that up to 40% of costs for industries – cost structures – are gas ... Are you willing to enforce retailers to reduce their price closer to the wholesale price for those industries? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| Q: More than 90% of Australian’s pharmaceuticals are manufactured offshore. You have set a priority focus on medical products. Does that include pharmaceuticals? Does that industry, given the circumstances we have seen, [get to be] geared up more quickly with a bit more government money? | Q: More than 90% of Australian’s pharmaceuticals are manufactured offshore. You have set a priority focus on medical products. Does that include pharmaceuticals? Does that industry, given the circumstances we have seen, [get to be] geared up more quickly with a bit more government money? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| Q: We are talking today about developing the manufacturing industries of the future. I want to ask you about apparent deep problem with the manufacturing industries of the present. COVID aside, the data from the website today of the Department of Employment and skills, which is just pre-COVID, shows serious skills shortages in areas like sheet metal workers, fitters, mechanics, panel beaters, bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, glaze years, plasterers, plumbers, electrician, refrigeration mechanisms - it goes on and on. We are going to have a record pool of young potential employee, record skills shortages. What will you do to match those two issues? | Q: We are talking today about developing the manufacturing industries of the future. I want to ask you about apparent deep problem with the manufacturing industries of the present. COVID aside, the data from the website today of the Department of Employment and skills, which is just pre-COVID, shows serious skills shortages in areas like sheet metal workers, fitters, mechanics, panel beaters, bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, glaze years, plasterers, plumbers, electrician, refrigeration mechanisms - it goes on and on. We are going to have a record pool of young potential employee, record skills shortages. What will you do to match those two issues? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| Q: You have been critical of Labor in the fast for failing to quantify the costs of their climate and energy policies. So, in that vain, has the government quantified the cost to taxpayers of your gas-led recovery? Obviously you have telegraphed $53 million in the budget next week. But you have also foreshadowed opening a number of new gas basins, you have fore shadowed potential underwriting of infrastructure and common sense tells us that some of these projects may require taxpayer indemnities. So, what is the total cost? Has the government modelled the impact of these initiatives on your own government’s climate policies? And also where do your employment estimates come from, given the Grattan Institute in a forthcoming report indicates that only 1% of manufacturing workers work in gas-intensive manufacturing. | Q: You have been critical of Labor in the fast for failing to quantify the costs of their climate and energy policies. So, in that vain, has the government quantified the cost to taxpayers of your gas-led recovery? Obviously you have telegraphed $53 million in the budget next week. But you have also foreshadowed opening a number of new gas basins, you have fore shadowed potential underwriting of infrastructure and common sense tells us that some of these projects may require taxpayer indemnities. So, what is the total cost? Has the government modelled the impact of these initiatives on your own government’s climate policies? And also where do your employment estimates come from, given the Grattan Institute in a forthcoming report indicates that only 1% of manufacturing workers work in gas-intensive manufacturing. |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| *You know what you can create with wind and solar? Hydrogen. Imagine that. | *You know what you can create with wind and solar? Hydrogen. Imagine that. |
| Q: Given that we can probably expect tax cuts next week, what are the methods by which you can get households to consume and spend in the stimulatory way that the budget requires? | Q: Given that we can probably expect tax cuts next week, what are the methods by which you can get households to consume and spend in the stimulatory way that the budget requires? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |
| Q: You don’t want them to save it? | Q: You don’t want them to save it? |
| Morrison: | Morrison: |
| Q: My question is how do you encourage people to spend it? | Q: My question is how do you encourage people to spend it? |
| Morrison: | Morrison: |
| Q: On your comments on sovereign manufacturing capability plans, you said the crisis is not an excuse for protectionist policies to subsidise inefficient firms to make things here locally. Do you consider a government procurement protectionist? In other words, a state or federal government agreeing to underwrite the manufacture of critical products here? Is that protectionist or otherwise? | Q: On your comments on sovereign manufacturing capability plans, you said the crisis is not an excuse for protectionist policies to subsidise inefficient firms to make things here locally. Do you consider a government procurement protectionist? In other words, a state or federal government agreeing to underwrite the manufacture of critical products here? Is that protectionist or otherwise? |
| Scott Morrison: | Scott Morrison: |