Interview with Studio 10

27 May 2020

SARAH HARRIS: Prime Minister Scott Morrison joins us now from a very chilly Canberra. It's nice to see you, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Nice to see you, too. Thanks for having me on.

HARRIS: Pleasure. You've certainly got your work cut out for you.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's a lot of work to do. We've got to get Australians back into work. We've lost so many jobs and we've got to get Australians back into jobs and the way that you do that is that you get workers and bosses together, and working out how they can come together to create more jobs in their businesses. If there's no business, there's no job and everybody loses, so we've got to find ways to make the businesses successful in coming out of this crisis so that they can keep the jobs on for those who are still there and bring some jobs back and create new jobs into the future. Jobs is the thing. That's what’s got to unite everybody. Because if we have got people in jobs they don't have to be dependent on welfare and income supports. I know that Australians would prefer to be in jobs and they're keen to get back into work and we need the businesses to create those jobs. That's what this is all about.

ANGELA BISHOP: Left wing unions and working with conservative government. What do you reckon your chances are?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're going to give it a go, Ange. We're going to give it a go. Look, I met with Sally McManus last week up in Sydney at our residence there in Kirribilli and we had a good, genuine honest chat. We're going into it with our eyes wide open. We know we've had a lot of differences but we all have to put our differences aside in a time like this. And so far, and when it came to pulling together the JobKeeper package and some of the industrial relations temporary changes we made there, that was done in good faith. So there's some runs on the board already. But we're going to have to put a lot more on the board. But we're not being unrealistic about this. I don't have false expectations. We're going to see how it goes, but we've set the clock on this. This is not going to go on indefinitely and if we can make the movement, if we can get the ground, then good.

JOE HILDEBRAND: PM, full credit to the Government for trying to get national unity on this, and I believe that there has been a lot of good faith on your part, including dropping the so-called ensuring integrity or union-busting bill. Another measure of good faith, talking about the JobKeeper package, would surely be, now that there is the unexpected windfall, extending it to casual workers who are working in the entertainment or festival areas. These are the kind of people who are not artists, they're often blue collar workers working cameras, stage hands, that sort of thing, who work on the last things that are probably going to be up and running in Australia. Big tourist draw cards - things like festivals, people who work hand-to-mouth already. Surely there is a case for extending the JobKeeper assistance to casual workers who have not worked for the same employer for a year or more? Surely that is something that the Government could easily do, has the money to d and would be a great gesture of goodwill, and also help to prop up the economy. Could you do it?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't think that I agree with your assessment. This is all borrowed money. There's no windfall. I mean, this is all money that has to be borrowed. Everyone who is entitled to get the support through the JobKeeper program is getting that support and that's what it was designed to do. And the JobSeeker program was designed as the general catch-all for those who didn't fall into that scheme. See, the two go together. They're both important. They both support all Australians and we've got five million Australians supported by this. I mean, Treasury estimated a worst-case scenario of what it might cost. Now, the good news is that it won't cost that and the taxpayer won't have to borrow another $60 billion over just six months. Think about that figure for just a second. $60 billion, it's not money we found behind the couch. 

HILDEBRAND: It would cost far less than $60 billion. It would cost far less than $60 billion and I understand that it is not money on trees and I don't think that we should spend it just for the sake of it. But surely it is not too much to say that this is a section of the economy that through no fault of their own…

PRIME MINISTER: But they get JobSeeker. JobSeeker is there to support people who aren't covered by JobKeeper and I'm not going to demonise JobSeeker. We've doubled the JobSeeker payments to support those who aren't covered by the other programs. That's what it was designed to do. Everyone who was able to get JobKeeper has been getting JobKeeper through this program. No one has been denied that, that it was designed to receive it. What JobKeeper doesn’t do, well, let me tell you what it does do. It supports people in permanent, full time and part time employment, people who are casuals and who have been there for 12 months. It doesn't pay state governments for their responsibilities and local governments, they have to deal with that. Or foreign governments. So this is how it was designed. Everybody who was designed to get it has been getting it. No one has been denied it who was designed to get it and no one is getting paid who wasn't designed to get it. So the program is working. JobSeeker is working and the two of them together are supporting over five million Australians at a cost of borrowed money to the taxpayer of $150 billion. So that's the size and scale of the support that's going on. Now, for specific sectors, whether it be in the media sector or the entertainment sector, or the tourism sector, there will be prolonged and more significant impacts over a longer period of time and we understand that and that's why we're addressing that through more targeted approaches. But JobSeeker is not a second best option. JobSeeker is an important economic support and I don't agree with the demonisation that has been made of JobSeeker. I think that it is a critical support and there are 1.6 million people who are relying on it.

KERRI-ANNE KENNERLEY: Prime Minister, Kerri-Anne here. I can't imagine how frustrated you have been, as an elected Prime Minister putting out a plan for what has been an enormous crisis in this country and in the world. And then having individual states not toe the line. So let's just pretend, for instance, I'm Annastacia Palaszczuk and Daniel Andrews. What do you want to say on the QT to me, or to both of those Premiers?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, first of all, I don't think that we should overstate this. I mean, by and large, the states and territories have worked incredibly well through the National Cabinet process. I mean, we have countries of just equal sophistication to ours, developed economies, good health systems, and they have had death rates a hundred times and more what Australia has had. So let's not just brush aside that. That has been the product of people working together, and particularly states and territories working together with the Federal Government. Now, on this issue of internal borders, that is not something National Cabinet ever agreed was something that was required. That is something that individual states have done off their own back. Now, I'm optimistic that will get sorted out, and I think that it is in the interest of jobs for it to be sorted out. At the moment, they will announce their timetables, but I wouldn't overstate it in terms of the level of working relationship between the states and territories and the Commonwealth. I mean, by and large, that's worked very well. The expectation that they're going to agree on everything, and states and territories aren't going to take unilateral decisions on some things, I think is unrealistic. I mean they're sovereign states and they'll make their own calls. But I was just going to say - they've got to be accountable for it, though. There is no medical advice that we received nationally.

HARRIS: It must be incredibly frustrating for you. You want to get the economy out of ICU, and you've got the curve that's more than being flattened - it's been absolutely smashed. And the states are just doing their own thing in spite of everything you're saying. That must be infuriating?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, no, I'm a lot more calm than that. It's important to be calm through all of these issues and that’s my job.

HARRIS: It must have been that trip you took earlier in the year. Still got the Hawaii vibes, the shakas?

PRIME MINISTER: I'll go home and turn Tina Arena on and she calms me right down on every occasion.

KENNERLEY: That's going to be a special concert.

PRIME MINISTER: But what's important... Now you've completely distracted me now! But the point I was going to make is, look, there are four states that have got borders that they've been operating. Let’s not forget that the three step process, none of that had anything to do with borders because we never recommended borders in the first place. But on steps 1, 2 and 3, we're pretty much all the way through step 1 now. I mean states are moving on all of these. In Western Australia, they're already into step two. So the states are implementing this plan. The one issue that is causing contention at the moment is this issue of internal borders. And I want to see those go. Of course I want to see those go. I think that Gladys Berejiklian has been making some very good points about that. But you know I'm not going to seek to aggravate that situation. I respect the other Premiers and it's for them to make those judgements. But I'm concerned about the economic impact, and it's time to let those borders go down. But I'm sure that common-sense will prevail in good enough time.

BISHOP: Prime Minister, in terms of the some of the industrial relation relations changes you're flagging, over the last sort of 12-18 months, we've seen some pretty terrifying cases of underpayments to employees, particularly across the restaurant industry and also in supermarkets. These sort of cases, are these industrial relations changes going to be able to ensure that workers in the future are not underpaid on this massive level? Is that one of your aims?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah that's one of the key areas in the compliance working group that has been put together which is dealing with that particular issue. Look I think that there are two types, or let’s say three types of things here. First of all, you've got an incredibly complicated awards system with multiple pay points, which makes it very confusing, often for small and medium sized businesses, to just work out what they should actually be paying. And so, you know, there's some honest errors that take place here. But there’s no, we can't have people not paid what they should be getting paid. Then you've got larger businesses which have got to get their systems in place to make sure that they're complying. And then, of course, there are other egregious cases where people are deliberately doing the wrong thing, and that's just not on. But that's one of the key areas that we want these employers and their employees to get together and work out how can we make sure that we get this right? And that means also simplifying things so it's not impenetrable to be able to work out, because you've got to pay someone something different if they're coming in and out of the kitchen or someone serving this or serving that. I mean it is a very complex system that's been built up year after year after year. And small and medium sized businesses, you know, mum and dad businesses, I mean, you need a degree in industrial relations half the time to work some of this stuff out. And they're just trying to run a business and give people a go and employ people.

HARRIS: NRL is back this weekend as well Prime Minister, you must be pumped!

PRIME MINISTER: I am excited. But I had a bit of bad news on that front in the last 24 hours, which is very disappointing but..

HARRIS: Not great to be a Sharks supporter right now is it?

BISHOP: Did six months seem a long time for you for a drug test result?

PRIME MINISTER: Sorry, I missed that? I couldn't hear that.

BISHOP: Did six months seem a long time for you to get a drug test result?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, ASADA runs all those sort of issues so I’ll leave that to them and we can't have drugs in sport, whether look in this case, a young fellow showed a lot of promise and seems to have made some pretty poor choices and I'm disappointed about that. But I can't prejudice that process, they'll keep going through that. But whether it is my team or anyone else's team, or my sport or anyone else's sport, there's no place for drugs in sport. Absolutely none.

KENNERLEY: Well there is a place for music, though Prime Minister,

PRIME MINISTER: ...Of our fairness as a sporting nation. Pardon?

KENNERLEY:  I've got Tina Arena just got back to me and she just said that she's very glad you're calm and wants to know your favourite song! See I've got Tina Arena’s little message back there.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, my favourite song is Unsung Hero actually, I’ve told her that, Unsung Hero is my favourite Tina Arena song.

HILDEBRAND: She’s singing I’m in Chains, is the song she wrote about the Queensland economy.

PRIME MINISTER: I’m just, I’m feeling soothed. I’m already feeling soothed and calm.

KENNERLEY: [inaudible] At least you’re not whingeing.

HARRIS: Prime Minister, we do appreciate your time.

PRIME MINISTER: No whining from me.

HARRIS: We appreciate your time. Thank you for taking the time to chat to us.

HILDEBRAND: Thanks PM.

PRIME MINISTER: All good. Cheers.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42829

Interview with Sky News Live

27 May 2020

PETER STEFANOVIC: Joining us from Canberra is the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Prime Minister, thanks for your time this morning. Just before we get to IR, can I get your reaction to that news out of Israel that Malka Leifa may well be extradited soon, your reaction to that? And when you think she may be extradited? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I welcome it very much, just as the Attorney-General has, and the Attorney-General travelled to Israel at the end of last year I understand it. It's an issue that Australia, and I personally, have raised consistently with the Israeli Prime Minister and others throughout that system. And so that news is very welcome. And I know the Jewish community more broadly here in Australia will be very pleased with this news. Now, there's still a legal process to continue. I understand there's potential appeal there still in that process, but that's said this is some news we've been waiting for for some time. And I want to commend all of those who've been campaigning strongly on this here in Australia and in Israel. This is a very good day for them, but the ultimate day is still a little bit away. And hopefully that will be soon.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, well, we'll get on to JobMaker and IR. Did you ever think that you would be borrowing from Hawkey's playbook?

PRIME MINISTER: Well you take your lessons in politics from wherever they are. And in times like this, the most difficult economic times we've faced since the Great Depression, then you've got to bring people together to find new solutions in industrial relations, in workplace relations. We've been spinning wheels for quite a period of time. And that is not going to help us get people back into work. And we've got to break out of those old moulds and put the weapons down, get people into a room and sort it out. And hopefully you know, I don't have any preconditions here and I don't have any guarantees to offer. All we can do is get people together and see if we can crack through some of these difficult issues on everything from how the awards can be made more simple - so how we can ensure people get paid properly, in greenfield sites as they're called, those new investments, there’s certainly so people will put the money in so they can create jobs. All of this is incredibly important to getting people back into jobs.

STEFANOVIC: Well unions have laid down the first marker already Prime Minister, they want to extend JobKeeper beyond September while also not reducing JobKeeper to the lower Newstart allowance. Are you open to that? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, these aren't the issues that are actually part of the five areas that we've set out. I mean, the government will make decisions on JobSeeker and JobKeeper, as we've said consistently they are temporary measures. And it's important, as I said yesterday, that we get the economy out of ICU as quickly as we can. We can't have Australians living on borrowed money for a protracted period of time, that dulls the economy and it doesn't get it moving again so we can create more jobs. So we're looking at those issues, as we've always said. But the process we've engaged in in, good faith, is in five key areas we've set out what they are. And I'm very, I welcome the fact that the ACTU, particularly Sally McManus, who I met with in Sydney at Kirribilli House last week, that, you know, we're going into this in in a good faith way, but the expectations, well we’ll see what happens.

STEFANOVIC: You're going to need the states to get on board with this as well right. And up until this point and it's been something of a rocky relationship in recent times. There's been a disconnect when it comes to schools and even borders as well. So why would this time be different? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the states don't have the same role to play in industrial relations. So, no, that doesn't require the states to be signing off on these issues. I mean, they’re employers in their own right, state governments. But what we've demonstrated through the National Cabinet, I think has been under-assessed here. I mean, the National Cabinet has worked together extremely well to manage Australia through this crisis. Yeah sure there's some issues at the moment about borders down there and whether it's Western Australia or Queensland or South Australia or Tasmania. Those states make their own decisions on those issues. The expert medical advice at a national level never recommended internal borders within Australia. And it's not good for the economy, particularly as we go into this next school holiday season. Those tourism businesses need that support. So those individual states, they’ll have to justify those decisions themselves and, because it wasn't something that came out of National Cabinet. But if you look across the broad scheme of what National Cabinet has done and how they’ve worked together, they've got more in agreement than not.

STEFANOVIC: Okay but is that a failure of National Cabinet, though? The fact that you set out that three stage plan and on the third stage, by July, you had hoped for interstate travel, several of the states have said, well, we're not going to do that until September. So for that point, is that a failure of National Cabinet?

PRIME MINISTER: Well No I’ve got to pull you up there Peter, no, no. Peter, I'm going to pull you up there, because that's just not right. Internal borders were never part of that, they should've never been in there in the first place, on National Cabinet’s agreements. They were individual decisions made by states. One of the reasons why the National Cabinet has worked is because it hasn't held itself to a standard that you've just suggested. Of course there's gonna be differences. I mean, to think there wouldn't be differences would be naive. And to assess it in that way I think is very unrealistic. I think we sometimes undersell ourselves in Australia. We look overseas and say, well, they did this, well they did that well. We don’t look at how well we've done here in Australia. Let's not forget here in Australia, there are countries overseas just as sophisticated as us, health systems, developed economies who have death rates a hundred times more than Australia. Now, I think that's something the National Cabinet can take some comfort in, that they have played a very constructive role in avoiding that death and destruction here in, in New South Wales, in every state of the Commonwealth. 

STEFANOVIC: Okay just on this ship that stopped in Perth. There is a bit of a blame game going on, Prime Minister, between the Premier of Western Australia and the federal government as well. Ultimately, who is responsible for this ship docking? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well the state authorities are responsible for the health of the human beings, and Agriculture is responsible for the health of any animals that ultimately go on these vessels and the Border Force deals with the clearances, which relate to passports and visas and all of these sorts of things and the border entry. So I mean the process is actually being applied here. Those individuals who have been tested positive, they've been isolated and they've been separated. Everyone else has remained on the vessel. So, you know, I'm not interested in the blame game on this. Everyone's doing the job they should be doing. And we'll work closely with the Western Australian government. But I tell you one thing we've got to be careful of here Peter, and that is we can't shut down the shipping industry of our trade, on the basis of coronavirus. I mean, we've got the systems in place and they can be managed and they can be protected and they are being. But if we're going to stop exporting our, whether it's our agricultural products or our resources or anything like this, then that is going to hurt our economy drastically. So I would caution people from getting too far ahead of themselves on this. There's a ship, there's some people on that ship who've got the virus. They've been isolated. That's what should have happened. And we'll work constructively with the West Australian Government to manage that vessel like so many others that we've had to deal with. Some of them have been far more complicated. But overall, we've been able to manage many, many, many of these vessels in recent months. 

STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister, I'm sure you are looking forward to the return of the NRL that starts tomorrow night. But there's been a bit of a blow in your team with one of the players testing positive for steroids. What are your thoughts on this? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm very disappointed. That's the first point. But there's an ASADA process which is ongoing. And so I’ll let that run its course and I don't want to prejudge any of that. But obviously, as a Sharks fan I’m obviously very disappointed and I’m sure the players and other club officials are similarly disappointed. And Bronson is an incredibly talented young footballer. And, you know, he made his debut last year,, he was electrifying to watch. So this is, I think it's disappointing, obviously, for the club but particularly for himself and his family and look I hope, he's a young fella and this will be putting a lot of stress and strain on him. It would appear, based on what we've seen, that some terrible judgements have been made on his part. And I'm sure people will get around him and support him. But there's no place for drugs in sport, doesn’t matter whether it's in my team or anyone else's team. We don't want drugs in sport. And that's the key message. 

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for joining us here. 

PRIME MINISTER: Thanks a lot Peter.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42828

Interview with Today

27 May 2020

KARL STEFANOVIC: The Prime Minister joins us now. PM, good morning to you.

PRIME MINISTER: G'day Karl.

STEFANOVIC: You are being called a modern-day Bob Hawke this morning. How does that sit with a very Liberal PM?

PRIME MINISTER: Well you take lessons from everywhere and particularly at a time like this, I mean Australians are facing some of the biggest hardship we have seen outside of wartime. We have got to try new things, we have got to do whatever we can to get people back into jobs. And I think what we have demonstrated particularly say through the National Cabinet is where we can bring people together from different perspectives we can achieve some pretty amazing things. We are now seeking to do that in the workplace, just getting employers and employees together, bosses and workers, others who are involved in that process to see what they can agree, so we can get people back into work. 

STEFANOVIC: Can you do a deal like Bob Hawke though? I mean do you honestly believe that all these parties, these mortal enemies will come together and smoke the peace pipe?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I hope so and there are no guarantees. And I think everybody is going into it with their eyes wide open but we have got to give it a go. Because making jobs is what this economy needs, it is what Australians need right now. So many have been put out of work and on reduced hours. And to get our economy moving again, then you have got to get things right in the workplace so those businesses can be successful. If businesses can be successful they can create jobs and they can pay wages. But everyone shares in that and everyone has a responsibility in it. And there has been too much conflict for too long. It’s time to put down the weapons, and get into a room and work through some of these hard issues that in the past perhaps people haven’t pursued them as effectively because the economy was going much more strongly. Well, it is under a massive test now and we can't afford that complacency anymore and we can't afford to hold on to things that at the end of the day just don't matter as much as people getting work.

STEFANOVIC: See, I don't want to be a prophet of doom but I have got Darryl Kerrigan pulsating through my head saying, "Tell him he is dreaming."

PRIME MINISTER: Well look, perhaps I am. Perhaps I am. But you have got to in this circumstance Karl. Because the country is up against this massive challenge and if that dream involves that people might work together in workplaces to create jobs and secure better incomes for people into the future and we come out of this crisis as strong as I believe we can, then that is a dream worth having.

STEFANOVIC: Okay, good answer. Unions are pushing to extend JobKeeper and JobSeeker schemes, are you willing to extend those in order to get those industrial relations reforms done?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that isn’t part of the discussions. What they are talking about is five key areas, and I will be really quick to explain them. The whole issue of casuals and full- time work. The awards, which is what most people working in small and medium-sized, or apprentices work off, the enterprise bargaining system, ensuring people get paid properly and compliance. And a lot of these new investments in greenfield areas on those new sites that those investments can go ahead. Because there’s certainty in those areas, they’re the five areas that they are working on and that's where I have asked them to come together. The government will be considering those other broader issues as we go to the Budget later this year and of course in the months ahead. But right now we want to focus on what is happening in the workplace itself and how we can make those businesses work better so they can create more jobs and people can have greater certainty of employment and their conditions.

STEFANOVIC: But you know only too well that is going to be a horse trade?

PRIME MINISTER: And it is going to be traded and it’s going to be discussed between those who have the most skin in the game and that is the people who work in these businesses and the people who run these businesses. That's where it has to stem from. It is not a discussion between politicians posturing about industrial relations and beating their chests or whatever it is. It is about people who have the most at stake and they are the people who work in these businesses and the people who run these businesses and own these businesses. That's where we have to get the commonality. They have been going down two separate grooves for too long and we need to get them together. We have booked the hall, and they will get in there and they will have the discussions. Let's see what happens. We have got our eyes wide open on this, we know it is a huge challenge. And maybe it will come to nothing Karl, but what I do know is as a government we can't afford to not endeavour to have this process be successful.

STEFANOVIC: Yeah, I like to hear that you booked the hall. That's good. Well the Premiers, meantime, don't really care what you say on the borders, do they? What, why haven't you been able to convince them it is safe to open the borders?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the National Cabinet has never agreed that there should be borders closed in Australia. That was never the medical expert advice that came at any time. Premiers and their governments in states, whether it is South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, have all made their own decisions and so they have got to justify those decisions. There is no doubt that those sort of borders do harm the economy, they do harm jobs and it is important that we get those removed as soon as possible.

STEFANOVIC: They are not listening, are they?

PRIME MINISTER: They will take their own health advice in their own states but I want to stress, the national medical advice that came from the expert panel that has driven all the other decisions never recommended closing borders.

STEFANOVIC: Okay. Given the terrible diplomatic relations between Australia and China, have you reached out to your counterpart Xi Jinping to sort it out or are we heading for more trade heartache?

PRIME MINISTER: Well look, I would simply say this, Karl. And Australia has only ever acted in our own national interests and we have only ever acted in a way that has not sought to be offensive in any way, shape, or form. And I would simply ask what offensive steps has Australian taken in relation to this relationship? And my answer is none. We are being ourselves, we have always been consistent about what we say. We say it in private and we say it in public. So it is an important relationship. We will continue to work that relationship honestly but on the sure ground of Australia's national interest and we will never resile from that.

STEFANOVIC: They seem pretty offended if we haven't done anything?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is for others to explain to me what the offence is. I mean Australia has simply acted in accordance with our national interests. We have acted as a good global citizen whether it comes to multilateral trading forums or indeed through the World Health Assembly. None of our actions have been targeted in any way shape or form at China. It’s been, we have a partnership with them. We are living up to that partnership.

STEFANOVIC: One final question. The Sharks are back this weekend. But your club has been rocked by a drug scandal involving young gun Bronson Xerri. Quite the blow for you and the club huh?

PRIME MINISTER: Well it is very disappointing. That process is still ongoing with ASADA so I will let that play out. I mean, he was a very talented young player, there is no doubt about that. He’s as quick as lightning. This is very disappointing and look, I feel for the players and the club but there is no tolerance for drugs in sport. And ASADA should do their job and they should follow that through and there are no exceptions. It would appear - and I hope it is not the case - but it would appear that he has made some very poor decisions. I hope that that is not the case.

STEFANOVIC: Prime Minister on an upward note, and thank you for agreeing the other day that the Broncos would take out the premiership. I appreciate it. 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it is good to have the footy back on.

ALLISON LANGDON: Tell him he is dreaming.

PRIME MINISTER: That's a dream I will let only you have. And a few Broncos fans too I suspect.

STEFANOVIC: OK. I'm happy to have that dream. PM thank you for your time today, appreciate it thank you.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42827

Q&A, National Press Club

26 May 2020

SABRA LANE: Prime Minister, going to the last part of your speech there, it sounds like an accord version 2.0, if you like. Has the government already communicated to key groups like the Business Council, the Small Business Council, the ACTU, to say, "We'd like you to sit in a big circle, smoke the peace pipe, and get this thing done and dusted in the next four months"?

PRIME MINISTER: Yes, we have.

LANE: What's their response been?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I’ll allow them to explain their own responses. I think one of the keys when you bring people together is you don't speak for them, you let them speak for themselves. We've booked the room, we've hired the hall, we've got the table ready. Whether the chairs will be as rickety as the ones I saw in Auckland a few years ago, I don't know. But our job is to bring people together and we've been doing that through this crisis. And though I've got to say, it's been one of the greatest privileges to work with people across the spectrum. The National Cabinet has been a great example of that, and I thank the premiers and chief ministers again for the good faith in which they've engaged. Sure, we haven't agreed all the time, but the relationships are stronger now than they have ever been, despite those disagreements. I hope to see something of that nature replicated in this process. But it's not for the government to stick their nose in here and start predefining what these outcomes are. We need people to get together and sort this stuff out. As I say, they've been caught in grooves for too long, and grooves going in parallel lines and not coming together. And that's why I'm hoping this process will achieve. It may succeed. It may fail. But I can assure you, we're going to give it everything we can and I'm very grateful of the engagements that I've had with the sectors that you've nominated. It's been in good faith and it's been honest, and it requires everybody to leave a bit aside. I acknowledge and respect that as well. I think the government has led by example in the announcements I have made today.

LANE: To my colleagues, I have a long list today, more than 20 journos. Please, one question per person in order to get through as many people as we can.

PRIME MINISTER: Andrew, and then Katharine.

LANE: Brett Mason.

BRETT MASON: Brett Mason from SBS. I'll be very quick. Given the warnings about the downward spiral of protectionism, what role do you see migration playing in Australia's economic recovery?

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, it's a very good question, Brett, and it's one of the concerning economic figures we have. And if you've got a job in the residential construction industry, and Michael Sukkar's here, and Josh I know have been working on some plans here. It's an issue that has been a key topic of discussion amongst the premiers and chief ministers and myself. We're looking at net overseas migration, I think, falling to about 34,000-odd I think, Josh, next year. When you think that, you know, it was the great Professor McDonald who set a figure of between about 160,000 and 210,000 as being what you need in this country to maintain a GDP per capita growth, then there's obviously a big gap there. Now, that's a short-term gap, but it's going to be one of the real impacts of this crisis, because our borders aren't opening up any time soon. Sure, we'll be working with the higher education sector, but I note 80 per cent of the international students that come to Australia are here. They're here. The way it's talked about, you'd think they weren't. But about 80 per cent are here. We'll work constructively with that sector. As I say, I was speaking with Prime Minister Ardern this mornin and we'll continue to have our discussions about the trans-Tasman safe travel zone, and it may well be that Sydneysiders can fly to Auckland before they can fly to Perth, or even the Gold Coast, for that matter. But I can assure you I won't be holding back on expanding the size of our markets for our goods and our services to wait for some other borders to clear.

LANE: Chris Uhlmann.

CHRIS UHLMANN: Prime Minister, you said - Chris Uhlmann, Nine News - you said you rejected protectionism. How important is the multilateral trading system to the world and given the United States seems to have abandoned it and China wants to change it, what role do you see for Australia in trying to make sure that system continues to work?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the role we've been playing, Chris, as you'd know, I mean there's been a lot of difficulty in dealing with the appeals system in the WTO and we've actually worked together closely with China to actually pull together an alternative system that can get us around this current hurdle. So, Australia's for trade and so we'll work with people in the multilateral fora that are for that as well. I mean, in Europe, our focus is very much on the free trade agreement we're seeking to put in place with the European Union. And of course, the gun is fired, effectively, on the arrangement we're seeking with the United Kingdom. They'll be very important for Australia. But the global multilateral trading system rules are incredibly important for Australia and they have to work. So you'll continue to see us advocate for them, seek to reform them, and to work with those who want to achieve those same ends. And that's what you can expect. because we're an open trading nation and we always will be.

LANE: Rosie Lewis.

ROSIE LEWIS: Thanks for your address, Prime Minister. Rosie Lewis from The Australian. Just to expand on Chris's question, do you believe China has become a riskier country for Australian businesses to invest in, especially given recent actions taken against barley and beef?

PRIME MINISTER: I think that's a judgement Australian businesses can only make and, like any business, they have to weigh up the security of the markets in which they sell to and the risks that are associated with those and those risks will move, from time to time. They'll ebb and flow and we would like to see stable, reliable, dependable markets all the time for our products and services. But those are not decisions that governments make for businesses, be they primary producers and exporters or be they resources companies or industries or, indeed, service companies working in the aged care area on training or things like this. 

I think one of the most exciting parts of the China Free Trade Agreement - China-Australia Free Trade Agreement - was the ability to actually sell aged care services into China. I've said that on many occasions before. But, you know, businesses have got to weigh up their own risks and make those assessments. Austrade can assist with those things on the ground. What I'm pleased to see - Mathias and Josh and I this morning reviewing those iron ore trading figures this morning and we're very reassured by what we're seeing on those patterns compared to what had been around in the past. Australia has a very bright trading future and businesses will make their judgements about how they participate in that.

LANE: Business does look to government, though, for guidance on travel. There is a website saying do not travel. If they want to do business with China, for example, they do look to you for clues.

PRIME MINISTER: And as I said, that sort of advice is applied by Austrade, in particular. But it's very unique and specific to the sector you're working in. There's not a general position that applies right across any one market. But we always work to ensure that those markets can be as viable and sustainable and profitable for our businesses as they can be. Ultimately, they'll make their own calls based on all of that advice, including what they hear from the government.

LANE: Andrew Probyn.

ANDREW PROBYN: PM, Andrew Probyn from the ABC. Katharine couldn't join us today so you’ve just got me. All the best to Katharine as well. One of the secrets, Prime Minister, of the accord in the '80s was that the Hawke government greased the wheels with a social wage - things like Medicare, superannuation, higher family payments, childcare payments too. When you come to the table on pushing for industrial relations reform, what are the sorts of things that you can offer the employees and the union movement?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, all of the things you've just talked about are all central features of our government services delivery. All of the things you've talked about. We have reformed childcare. We have increased the subsidies that are available, particularly to the most disadvantaged workers. We have got record funding for schools, record funding for hospitals. We do have a social security system which is the envy of the world. That is the product of the last 20 or 30 years and it's something, I think, we will have an absolute commitment to maintaining. 

This is why I keep coming back to the point about the economy and what we've learnt about it during the course of this crisis. When you've had consistent economic growth for almost 30 years, it can be taken for granted. And as Treasurer, I used to warn about this as well. But I think no one has any doubt now that if you don't look after the growth in your economy, then you can't guarantee any of the things you've talked about. You can make big, bold promises about them, and you can talk about how important they are. But you can't fund them. And so that's why my point today has been that unless we focus on the success of that business that is going to employ someone, then there's nothing really to offer. Because there's no economy to offer it from. And so that's why we've got to get our priorities right. That's why we've got to get the order right. Now, if we can make that work on those supply-side reforms, as they're sort of known technically, then all of the things Andrew has just talked about will be able to be guaranteed. I can guarantee hospitals, schools, the aged pension, childcare, one of the world's most generous pharmaceutical benefits schemes, on the basis of a strong economy. And if you don't put businesses at the centre of that economy, you can't make that pledge.

LANE: Mark Riley.

MARK RILEY: Mark Riley from the Seven Network. Prime Minister, in your speech, you observed that the industrial relations culture in the country has been typified by tribalism, conflict, and ideological posturing. What's your message to those elements of your own party who might see this as an opportunity to finally neuter the trade union movement?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that is not the objective of this process. That is not the government's policy and never has been. I think everybody's got to put their weapons down on this. Everyone does. And that's what I'm hoping for and that's what I'm seeking to achieve. And I think that's what Australians demand. And I think Australians will take a very dim view of anyone, or any group, or any organisation, that isn't prepared to come and sit down on this table and give it a go at the Prime Minister's and ministers' invitation.

LANE: Phil Coorey.

PHIL COOREY: G'day, PM. Phil Coorey from the AFR. On enterprise agreements, you said we've got to get back to basics. There's a general agreement amongst both sides of the argument on that, whether it's the labour movement or the business community. One of the villains that has been singled out by the business community is the Better Off Overall Test, which people say sort of violates the spirit of Keating's original no-worse-off test. Do you want to see the BOOT either removed or replaced with the original Keating model, or at least the industrial umpire given wider powers of discretion when interpreting agreements and applying the BOOT?

PRIME MINISTER: I want to see employers and employees sit down around a table and talk about those very issues and find a way forward, Phil. I'm not going to prescribe it for them. Because whatever they agree is more likely to be sustained and maintained into the future. But what I want them to focus on is an understanding that, if there's no business, there's no job. There's no income. There's nothing. And the success of the enterprise is what all those involved in it need to be committed to and in return for that commitment, there must be a sharing of the benefits and the success of that organisation back to employees, back to the shareholders in that business and those who are running it. And so, Phil, what I'm trying to do differently about this process is not run out there with an IR shopping list. I haven't seen that work in my political experience in the time I've been in the Parliament. All that's tended to do is force people away from the table, not draw them to it. So I think, you know, the issues you're talking about are obviously very important to business, and the concerns that employees have are also important to them. But we're only going to get through it if they can work this through. Now, sure, we'll take an, I think, active role in this process and try to take those discussions forward. But at the end of the day, I'm asking everyone to focus on getting that business back on track, making money, so they can pay employees and they can employ more of them. It's really that simple. Thanks, Phil.

LANE: David Crowe.

DAVID CROWE: Thank you, Sabra. Thank you, Prime Minister. David Crowe from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. PM, every year, the Mitchell Institute does a study of spending or investment in skills and training. Now you've highlighted a reform plan there. But we have seen total investment in VET fall from, I think, $9.3 billion in 2013 to $7.7 billion in 2017. Now, that's total national investment, it’s not just the federal money. But you’ve set out your ambitions - in order to achieve them, do you need to commit more funding, and is money the problem here?

PRIME MINISTER: I don't think money's the only problem here, David, but you're not going to invest money in a dud system. That doesn't fix it either. And that's why I'm saying that we need to have this system more focused on what it's actually supposed to do, and that is that someone who's looking for training can get trained with skills that an employer might actually want. Now, that's not happening to the degree it needs to for our economy to grow again in the way it needs to. That's why I made it pretty clear - I'm very, very interested and very committed to investing more in a better system. And if we can achieve a better system, where we can have some confidence that the investment that we make turns out more people with more skills that businesses need, great. Because there's a return on that investment. And you rightly say that there has been that fall. Because, notwithstanding the fact that the Commonwealth is legally obliged to spend an indexed amount every year on skills - which is around $1.5 billion - that is not the case for the states and territories. And as I noted, we've seen that taper off. So the Commonwealth spending money, doesn't mean the states will. And so what - I mean, Jay Weatherill used to talk about, when he was Premier, he used to have this idea that skills education should actually transfer to the Commonwealth. That effectively, states should look after everyone from 0 to 18, and the Commonwealth looks after it from 18 onwards. That was a very interesting idea. I talked to Jay about it when he was Premier. But that's not what we're proposing because, like in the hospital system and the education system there is a partnership between the Commonwealth and the states in supporting and delivering these services. And I think the Australian people believe that is how it should be too. But I wouldn't say it's a very effective partnership at the moment. That's not, I think, necessarily a fault of the participants. But it is a fault of the design of the system we're working to. So, in faith, I hope we can redesign that system and it will see greater investment. But investment that goes somewhere.

LANE: Katina Curtis.

KATINA CURTIS: Katina Curtis from AAP. Thanks for your speech. You've talked a lot about the importance of getting people together in a room to come to an agreement. We have seen an example of that in the last few weeks with the universities and the union getting together in a room to come to an agreement that workers would take pay cuts in order to keep their jobs. But some individual universities aren't sticking to that agreement, and they've cut jobs instead. So, how can you guarantee that by bringing people together in these five working groups, that what is done, the deal that's done in the room will actually be stuck to, including in parliament?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, no one can give you guarantees on everything. The only way you're going to get the strength of an outcome through this process is if you engage in it seriously and in good faith and you seek to build the cooperation that is needed for these agreements to stick. That's true in any relationship. A business relationship, an employer/employee relationship, in any partnership. It's about the relationship you build. And what I'm saying is the relationships have got pretty sick. And they need a bit of counselling. And that's what this process, I hope, will do. It'll bring people together again, and they can rediscover why they're together in the first place. And that they depend on each other for their success and their shared success. And I think there has been a real disconnection along these lines. Employers have felt that their investments and their sacrifices and risks aren't always appreciated, and employees can often feel ripped off and feel like they're not getting a fair share of how the business is going. Well, you've got to start there. And let's see how we go from there.

LANE: Michelle Grattan.

MICHELLE GRATTAN: Michelle Grattan from The Conversation. Some issues inevitably have been pushed to the side during the pandemic crisis. So I just wondered if you could give us an update on a couple of those. Do you still aspire to have an Indigenous recognition referendum next year? And what's your timetable now on the religious freedom legislation and the anti-corruption body?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we haven't had the opportunity to revisit those latter two points because of the crisis, and it's not something the Cabinet has considered now for some time. And when we do, then we'll make any announcements that we might make on those matters. When it comes to the Indigenous recognition, what the Minister for Indigenous Australians has continued to do is conduct his process. The timetable for that will depend on when and if that sort of consensus is able to be achieved for it to be successful.

LANE: Kieran Gilbert.

KIERAN GILBERT: Prime Minister, close to a million workers have gone on the dole through the crisis. A lot of them because they didn't qualify for the JobKeeper, one of the parameters set by the government and Treasury. What's your message to them today as to why they're not getting JobKeeper, particularly when you've got a now a $60 billion mistake? What is your message to those people who otherwise might have received a bit more?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I don't buy into the demonisation of JobSeeker. I don't. JobSeeker and JobKeeper - and it was actually the JobSeeker changes we announced first - we announced them as a priority. Because the JobSeeker measures is the ultimate social safety net for all of those who are affected. That is what is intended to catch everyone who finds themselves out of work. JobKeeper was designed for those who worked in businesses, who have full-time jobs, part-time jobs, or what were effectively full-time casual jobs. That's who it was designed for. It was not designed to pay the bills of state governments or local governments. That is their responsibility. Nor was it designed to pay the bills of foreign governments. And those policy designs were put in place and everyone who falls within those designs is getting JobKeeper. That's who is intended to get those payments. And JobSeeker was set at a commensurate level. Because, remember, JobSeeker is not the only benefit you get. JobSeeker, when you're on JobSeeker, you get access to a range of other benefits which includes rental assistance, Family Tax Benefit payments, and a whole range of other benefits and allowances and that has meant that those, in fact, on JobSeeker, in many cases may well be getting more than those on JobKeeper. So I don't accept the argument particularly put by the Labor Party that JobSeeker is some sort of second-best option for Australians. 

I mean, the Labor Party like to accuse us often of saying that we demonise the former Newstart. Well, that's basically what they're doing now, by sending that message to Australians. My message to Australians and that of the Treasurer and the entire government is that we designed a system, through cashflow allowances for businesses, for JobSeeker, for JobKeeper, and the myriad of other payments and benefits, to get them through and that's what it is doing whether it's in any of those different programs. And it's been very successful in that 5 million Australians are benefiting. Now, you raise the point about the JobKeeper estimates. When JobKeeper was designed and first costed, the uncertainties were extreme. And it's always been my practice and, indeed, the Treasurer's, and I always like it when Treasury does it too, that they are cautious in their forecasting. It's been said to me, if you're going to miss the mark, it's better to miss the mark on the right side of the line. I can't say that about when the Labor Party was in government. They missed the mark often, and on the wrong side of the line. Forecast revenue, didn't turn up, spent it anyway. That's not what's happened here. What Treasury has done is made an estimate of what they thought could be the case. It was the worst-case scenario, effectively, that they were forecasting, estimating. We are now in what is their best-case scenario and that is something we should welcome. We acknowledge that over at the Tax Office there was a tracking mechanism that was put in place that wasn't leading to anyone getting a payment they shouldn't. Everyone that was entitled to that payment was getting that payment they should. But the tracking mechanism made it look like we were heading to the worst-case scenario. But, thankfully, we weren't. And I see this as a relief. And, as I said the other day out in Murrumbateman, if your builder comes to you when you're building your house and they say, "This is going to cost 350 grand or worse still 500 grand" and you go, "That's a lot of money I've got to borrow.” Then they come back to you and go, "I got that estimate off - it's actually going to cost you $350,000 or $250,000." I tell you what, you don't get disappointed with the news, and you don't borrow the rest of the money to put a heated swimming pool on the roof, I think as Barnaby recently said. You don't do that. So what we have done is acted responsibly. The estimates were provided to deliver a program that is doing its job. And for those for whom that program isn't designed to assist, JobSeeker is there for them, and they're getting that support at record levels.

LANE: Prime Minister your speech went a little bit over. Are you happy to take a couple more questions?

PRIME MINISTER: Always happy to.

LANE: Excellent. Clare Armstrong.

CLARE ARMSTRONG: Thank you Prime Minister, Clare Armstrong from the Daily Telegraph.

PRIME MINISTER: I have spent a lot of time with these guys over the last couple of months.

CLARE ARMSTRONG: You have flagged tax reform as another important part of the recovery agenda, states are now lining up with their ideas. New South Wales today flagged fringe benefit tax as an area that could be considered. What is your timeline for reviewing those established revenue mechanisms and broadly what do you see the burden that the state should be taking in this new era of consensus and collaboration?

PRIME MINISTER: Well I think their contribution so far has been great. Now of course they haven't been providing the same sort of fiscal supports to the economy like the Commonwealth has. I mean, Josh, we're some, I think we’re over $150 billion, they would be around about $30 billion - combined. So, the Commonwealth is certainly doing its share and five times over on those things but, of course, the states have significantly greater health expenditures, which we're meeting 50-50 when it comes to COVID and so on. So we have got a good partnership I think and a great example of this was when we took the decision at National Cabinet, a very important one, which was that incoming Australian returning residents and citizens would be quarantined in hotels. And the states immediately agreed that wherever they come in, that state would meet the bill. Knowing that New South Wales, in particular, was probably going to bear the biggest burden on that. But there wasn't a quibble about it. And the - I suppose the solidarity of that group was we just got to solve the problem. And I think the states and territories have been in very good faith as we have worked through this and it's been a privilege to work with them along those lines and I hope, and I will have more to say about this after we’ve had further discussions about it as a National Cabinet how that may translate into future arrangements for that body. And issues around tax will certainly, just like the skills issues I've identified today, will be important topics for them. But the way I think National Cabinet works best is it's got a mission, it has a purpose. It's just not a broad agenda of whatever happens to be thrown up by the various state bureaucracies or federal bureaucracies. It is actually designed to, in this case, manage the crisis. And the health and the economic impacts of that going forward, creating jobs, I think, is the issue that we've all got our minds now focused on. 

Now on issues of tax that will come through that process, it will come through other channels that the Treasurer will work on. There is a Budget in October. But I would simply say that our focus, as I said in the speech, is on what generates investment and what creates jobs. You ask someone for their opinion on tax, and they can give you volumes. But I'm interested in the stuff that's going to create jobs and create investment. And I believe they are two, and if we can agree some ways forward there, I suspect more of it is at the federal level certainly on income tax. I don't mean specifically personal income tax. All those issues, I mean that's the mix. We know what the mix is. I'm not dropping bread crumbs there or anything like that, I'm just saying tax is big. It is a complicated issue. We will work our way through it.

PVO.

LANE: Peter van Onselen.

PETER VAN ONSELEN: Peter van Onselen for Network Ten. Prime Minister, so many Australians have lost their jobs or taken significant pay cuts to be able to try to help their businesses survive. You say we're all in this together, but you won't follow Jacinda Ardern's lead and take a temporary pay cut. You're the third highest paid world leader. Your Cabinet earns twice what the UK Cabinet does. I know the go to response is to point to the wage freeze for this year, but freezing an increase in the wage just isn't the same. Would you reconsider just to show all those Aussies doing it so tough that it's true - we really are all in this together?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, Peter, I have no plans to make any changes to those arrangements. We will follow the same practises that we're applying to public servants right across the board. We're not singling anyone out when it comes to those issues and I will just keep doing a good job. That's my plan and I will be accountable to Australians for that job.

LANE: Shalailah Medhora.

SHALAILAH MEDHORA: Shalailah Medhora from Triple J. Prime Minister, you have said we can't keep borrowing against future generations, but young people now are at the coalface of this crisis. Youth unemployment and underemployment is skyrocketing. Young people are overwhelmingly working casually, overwhelmingly dipping into their super to make ends meet. Unfortunately, there are predictions that this will lead to dire mental health impacts for young people going forward. So my question for you is - is it time for older Australians, who have benefited from some of the peak times and from the policies, such as franking credits, for example, to accept that they will need to take an economic hit now in order to protect their children and their grandchildren?

PRIME MINISTER: The answer to coming out of this crisis is not setting one group of Australians against another. All Australians are in this together. I remind you of that fellow Andrew who was married to his wife for 50 years and couldn't give her the send off that she wanted. I had another letter, one I didn't read out, from a daughter. She would have been in her probably 60s. And she didn't get to see her mum in the aged care facility before she died. To suggest that any one group is not feeling the impacts of this one way or the other and to set it up as some sort of generation conflict, I think, is very unconstructive. It's not the approach of my government. We've all got to do what we've got to do. And I agree, it is hitting young people much harder. That's why we have invested in additional services on mental health. The biggest beneficiary of the process I've outlined today, if employers and employees can come together and get this sorted, will be young people. They will be the biggest beneficiaries. The jobs that we will create will go first and most rapidly to young people. That is the most important thing I think we can do to help them.

LANE: Prime Minister, on that note, thank you. Everybody, please join me in thanking the Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Thank you very much.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42824

Doorstop - Murrumbateman NSW

24 May 2020

SENATOR JIM MOLAN AO DSC: Ladies, gentlemen, thank you very, very much for coming out here on this beautiful Canberra morning. Nothing so good as on a Canberra morning as to be in a chocolate factory and a chocolate kitchen and a chocolate shop. We're here for a number of reasons today. We're here, firstly, and my job is to welcome the Prime Minister. But we're here for a number of reasons today. The Prime Minister will introduce our candidate for Eden-Monaro, our successful candidate for Eden-Monaro, someone who knows this area tremendously and has worked in this area for years, managed a two per cent swing in the last general election. We’re here listening to people about Robyn Rowe’s chocolate shop and also about Anthony Nicoletti’s cafe and restaurant in Jerrabomberra. So a great day. Thank you very, very much for coming and Prime Minister, I might hand over.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much, Jim, and it’s wonderful to be here with you, Fiona, and to Robyn and Anthony. Thank you for having us here at your place, a beautiful place, and we wish you every success [inaudible]. Australia is building back. Australia is fighting back right across the country. I said some months ago 2020 was going to be one of the toughest years Australians have ever faced. That has certainly proved to be true so far. In Eden-Monaro and the many, many communities that make up the electorate of Eden-Monaro, they have also experienced more than most, more than many, these terrible hardships. Whether it's fires, droughts or the one you can't see and that is COVID-19, it has had a devastating impact on businesses and families, on communities right across this very diverse part of the country. But this is a set of communities that will never want to be defined by what happened to them, but more by how they respond and how they’re building back optimistically. And over the course of the next few weeks when the byelection is held, there will be that opportunity to affirm a positive and optimistic way back. The build back that is occurring right across not just the communities of Eden-Monaro, but right across Australia. The supports that are there to enable, to support, to get in behind and encourage them forward with clear plans, whether it's with what we're doing with Snowy 2.0, a project of gigantic scale which has enormous benefits right across this region. Or with what's happening with the Kings Highway or the many other projects that are supporting communities that go right across the Eden-Monaro electorate.

All of this is about the road back. It's all about the plan to get communities back on their feet as they look optimistically forward to that future and those plans obviously need someone as part of the Government that can work with us to ensure we are making those plants hit the ground in the best possible way. There will be two years between now and the next election and there will be a lot to be done, because as much has been achieved in recent months as Australia has stared down COVID-19 and now the New South Wales economy, in particular, is opening up again. The build back from the fires earlier this year, more than $75 million in direct support going into the Eden-Monaro communities right across those affected. Whether it's over in Batlow or Tumbarumba or down in Bega or Eden or right along that coast. All of these communities being supported by those critical funding that has come when it is needed. And where it's needed to be fixed and done better, like the small business grant program of $10,000, working together with those on the ground to ensure that program worked better, then it has worked better and those supports have come through.

So now it's about the road ahead and how we work together to do that and the candidate that our Party has chosen here locally across the electorate, Dr Fiona Kotvojs, who stood for us at the last federal election, has the experience and importantly she has the local understanding, having been born and bred, having served as a volunteer whether it be in the Cobargo Bushfire Brigade, or serving in Lifeline or YouthLine, serving our country as a reservist in the Defence Force. I mean, Dr Kotvojs has experience and qualifications that people would spend a lifetime aspiring to, let alone achieving. This is exactly what Eden-Monaro needs right now. Someone who has that experience, who has those qualifications, who has worked her life here, whether it's achieving her post graduate qualifications in education as a doctor or working in the science area or working as she has in the areas of overseas aid. This is someone who knows how to get things done and has been doing it her own way, in her own family, on her own farm, in her own town and she has been doing it and now wants to take that experience and apply it to lead the way back for the people of Eden-Monaro as their representative. And that's why I'm so pleased that she's received that overwhelming endorsement of our local party members across Eden-Monaro. I’m looking forward to spending the time with Fiona in the months ahead, however long the Speaker will make the decision about when the byelection is called. But it will be an opportunity to lay out again and to affirm the plans that we have to support that build back from the ground up here across the many communities that support life here in Eden-Monaro.

So I want to welcome Fiona to our team as a candidate and she, I know, will leave no stone unturned, no community unvisited as she moves around and sets out how she will be able to take forward that plan, particularly over the next two years, two vital years for these communities. These are the years of building back and restoration and it will need someone on the ground as part of a government that can deliver on the ground for those communities in these vital times. Not a time for talking. It's a time for doing over these next two years and someone in the Government who can be able to make those plans a reality here on the ground. So I want to thank you, Dr Kotvojs, Fiona, for first of all, saying you're prepared to come back and stand again and to carry on what you started at the last election and to demonstrate once again that you're the right person to select the people of Eden-Monaro here, right across all the many communities that make it up.

So I want to invite Fiona to come and say a few words about how she intends to take things forward as our local candidate and then we'll be happy to take some questions on those and many other issues. Thanks, Fiona.

DR FIONA KOTVOJS, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR EDEN-MONARO: Thank you, everybody. I am truly honoured to be here today. It's a great pleasure. I'm honoured to have been selected by the members of the Liberal Party across this electorate in a democratic process to represent them. I'm honoured to be able to work for our communities across this electorate.

By way of background, I was born in Bega, born and bred there, spent time with my family, with my dad's work and my parents’ business travelling across Cooma to Tumbarumba and regularly up to Queanbeyan. My community is who I am. It has formed me and as a consequence of that, I give back to the community and I see that as critically important. So locally, I've been involved with the Dignams Creek community group now for many years. In Cobargo, I'm a member of the Rural Fire Service and have been for the last 15 years. I'm active in our local church and I also do volunteer work in two of our local primary schools a day a week for several years. More broadly, across the whole electorate, I'm on the Anglican Church Property Trust and that covers the whole of this electorate. I'm also a director with Oxfam Australia.

So for me, community is really important. And I believe that it's important to contribute, to give back and to serve and that's why I nominated to stand to work for this community as its representative in Parliament and to serve it in that way. My background and my experience means that I will be able to have the skills and the expertise to be able to do that. I have experience as a teacher in high school. I have experience owning and running two small businesses here in this electorate, so I know what it's like to be affected by COVID-19. I'm on a family farm down in Dignams Creek and yes, the bushfires did go over us. We spent three weeks while they were deciding what they would do and they went through the farm. So I know what the pain is like when you lose fences, you lose pasture and you lose your property. I also work in international development, and that's given me great skills in identifying problems in government service delivery and determining how to resolve and address those problems. I've worked on disaster relief programs and that at the moment is really critical. We need those skills to help restore our communities and work for the improvement of our communities as we move forward.

Why I'm standing and what I want to do in this electorate - First thing is to help restore all of our communities back to the way they were, build them back even better than they were before. I find it really exciting that so many of the communities have the resilience and are working to make themselves better into the future. And I look at what my local community is doing in the planning to make us a stronger community in the future. It's absolutely fantastic and I want to be there and help support that and work for that. I also want to help for youth and for our young people. When I finished high school, I had to go away for work and for study and unfortunately, that's still the case for many of our young people across the electorate. So for me, it's really important now that we work for the long term so that our young people have the choice as to whether they go away or whether they stay for their work opportunities. Having that choice is really critical.

So thank you very much for this opportunity. I really appreciate it. And, Prime Minister, if I can pass back to you. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER: Thank you, Fiona. Happy to take some questions.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when did you know about the JobKeeper bungle?

PRIME MINISTER: I was rung by the Treasurer late on Thursday night.

JOURNALIST: What was the process? What did you do?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the first thing was to ensure that we were able to understand the implications of this. And let me be clear about what has happened. What has happened is that when we first put together the JobKeeper plan, this was at a time of incredible uncertainty. No one could say for sure what the months ahead we're going to bring and we designed JobKeeper to be delivered to those who it is indeed being delivered to. And Treasury put forward an estimate of what they thought the demand for that program would be and they thought at that time that it would be reaching out to around 6 million people. Now, it has proved that that has not been the case and the demand is not as high as Treasury estimated and along the way, the information that we were getting back from the Australian Taxation Office was indicating that that initial estimate was accurate. But as we've all seen, there was an administrative error in how that information was being tracked by the Australian Taxation Office. That was relayed to Treasury and then that was relayed to the Treasurer and to me.

But I'd liken it a bit to this: If you're building a house and the contractor comes to you and says it's going to cost you $350,000 and they come back to you several months later and say, well, things have changed and it's only going to cost you $250,000, well, that is news that you would welcome. There are many things you don't know in the middle of a crisis and when you're designing programs and schemes the size of JobKeeper, there were many unknowns. And Treasury did the best they could to estimate what they thought the cost would be and the Taxation Office did the best they could to roll out that program as quickly as they could. And around three and a half million people will benefit from it. What we are seeing on JobSeeker is we're seeing an elevated level of people seeking that support. But I need to stress, JobSeeker and JobKeeper go together. JobKeeper is one program. It's not the only program. It's designed to sit with cash flow support and the many other programs we have had to help people through this crisis and put together that's going to help more than five million Australians. So sure, the estimate was overstated and the process with the Taxation Office to keep us updated on that had a flaw in it. We acknowledge that. I acknowledge that. And ultimately I have to take responsibility for those things.

But what it means is, is Australians won't have to borrow as much money. This is not money that is sitting in the bank somewhere, this $60 billion. That is all money that would have otherwise had to be borrowed, borrowed against the taxes that future generations would pay. And so the result of this is that the program will cost not what it was estimated to cost and that means for the taxpayer, their debt levels will be lower, it means the interest bill will be lower and it means that the Government will be able to ensure that it continues to provide the many other essential services without the burden of that greater debt. JobKeeper is doing its job. JobSeeker is doing its job. And the Government will continue to do our job to deliver that much needed support with as minimal cost to the taxpayer and the debt burden that they'll be asked to pay to get us through this crisis.

JOURNALIST: Are you ruling out using that money to extend the program, whether it's to more people or beyond September?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's not free money. It's not money that's just sitting somewhere that can be spent. That's all money, that money is actually sitting in the accounts of banks and foreign lenders all around the world and so if the suggestion is that we should be increasing borrowings more than would be needed to deliver the program that we've designed and delivering, well, the answer is no.

JOURNALIST: People were told the line was drawn in the sand at $130 billion.

PRIME MINISTER: No, that's not right. What people were told was we drew a line in the sand on the eligibility for that program. That's what the program was designed to do. We set the eligibility rules out. And why did we do that? Because we wanted to ensure that money, that support got to those businesses to keep them connected. Now, Treasury made an estimate of how much this would cost. That estimate was cautious. It overstated what the demand would be. Now, I remember in times past where people have made estimates of revenue, for example, they made estimates of revenue from the mining tax when the Labor government was in power and those estimates proved to be wrong. The only difference was they spent the money that never turned up. They estimated that the iron ore price would be at $185 or thereabouts permanently, estimated a whole bunch of revenue that was going to come in, which didn't. They spent it and Australians ended up paying more. Now, I accept that we would prefer that that error in the process of how the information was being collected by the ATO had not occurred. But it's not going to cost Australians more money. In fact, it's going to end up costing Australians less. And for a country that is currently carrying the burden of some $150 billion still in direct financial support to communities all around the country, that is a large cost and it's got to be paid back in and every dollar was borrowed. And I won't put an additional burden on Australian taxpayers any more than is absolutely necessary.

JOURNALIST: On our relationship with China, Australia joined Canada and Britain over the weekend to condemn China for expanding…proposing to expand its ability to monitor and oversee Hong Kong's security agencies. Why did the government do this? And are you willing to countenance doing it during this time could aggravate China further and perhaps lead to further trade restrictions?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, Australia has only joined with others to express what we have already expressed directly to the Chinese Communist Party Government in Beijing, as we did last and through the course of this week, late last week when we were advised that that was what they intended to do. And that's consistent with the position Australia has always held when it comes to the basic law and the proper position of one country and two systems, which we accept. And that statement is totally consistent with everything Australia has ever said about these issues. So I don't find the statement remarkable. I see it as completely consistent with everything we have ever said about this issue, both privately and publicly.

JOURNALIST: Mike Pompeo has also this morning issued concern about Victoria being part of the BRI, saying it could undermine, potentially undermine the United States’ security sharing with Australia. Are you concerned about Victoria being part of the BRI?

PRIME MINISTER: We didn't support that decision at the time they made it. And national interest issues on foreign affairs are determined by the Federal Government, and I respect their jurisdiction when it comes to the issues they're responsible for and it's always been the usual practise for states to respect and recognise the role of the Federal Government in setting foreign policy. And I think that's always been a good practice.

JOURNALIST: Back on JobKeeper, does the indications that given that sort of, I guess, Treasury were taking a worst case outlook of the economic damage done by coronavirus. Does this suggest, does this mistake suggest that the economy is actually tracking better than we were thinking? That unemployment won't hit 10 per cent, that the growth will be better than we thought. I mean, is there...

PRIME MINISTER: Well Treasury have already commented on that and they have indicated that the economy is tracking better than we expected it to back at the time when JobKeeper was put together. Now, there's been updates to what Treasury's view has been on where they think unemployment will go since that time and I'd refer you directly to that, and they haven't altered those estimates. But we are in a very uncertain time and what's important is that we continue to roll these programs out and make sure they hit the ground where there's been like Anthony's business here or other places around the country where it has proved to be an absolute game changer in providing the confidence support to those businesses.

I mean, from the day we announced JobKeeper, what we have seen is a more than 75 per cent bounce back in consumer confidence as measured through seven consecutive surveys by the ANZ. Now, it has been an important confidence booster and I welcome the fact that the demand for the program has been less than what Treasury estimated. Now, there are many challenges that the economy will face beyond September. We know that and there are particular sectors that will feel this for longer, particularly those who are particularly dependent on international borders. And we know we know that and we understand that and we'll be considering that carefully.

But I stress again, JobKeeper is not the only program that the Government has put in place to support Australians all around the country. There are many programs. There's the program, which is led by the Deputy Prime Minister, which has targeted support, including to the Mogo Zoo here and in the electorate of Eden-Monaro to ensure that private zoos could be able to keep their head above water when it goes through the COVID crisis. So there are many programs which are quite specific in detail. We're very mindful of the challenges in the media and the creative arts area. We're very mindful of the areas in housing construction or in parts of the country, whether it be in North Queensland or other places, that are deeply affected and will be more deeply affected than other parts of the country. That's why we've set up these many and different programs. JobKeeper is not one size fits all. It's not intended to be the sole form of support to everyone who is in need. That's why we have JobSeeker. That's why we have the cash flow allowance. That's why we have the targeted industry programs and funds. And that's why the investment which we are making, which is unprecedented, has been so great and the programs have been so varied to ensure we can meet the need where it exists.

JOURNALIST: There was an expectation that money was going to go into Australians pockets, given the tough times that we know so many people are continuing to go through you mentioned there that the arts sector and the entertainment sector, those who don't qualify for JobKeeper. How do you sell this to the Australian people that money shouldn't be redistributed to them?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, again, it wasn't a commitment of that amount of money. It was a commitment of a program that was estimated to cost that amount of money if that many people took it up. And that's completely different. I mean, the government announces programs and runs programs every year and Treasury makes estimates of what they'll cost and in some years it costs more, in some years it costs less. That was the estimate of that program. But just like the young couple who is trying to build their first house. If they get a better cost than what was quoted, then they're going to welcome that news. And the taxpayer who would have to borrow the money to pay higher levels of support, they need to be taken into account as well.

So we will continue to target our support and it will become more targeted as time goes on for this reason. The economy is reopening and New South Wales is leading the way on that reopening and I welcome that. It's something, as I think most people know, is something I've been pushing for some time. And so I welcome this and as the economy reopens, then large parts of the economy will no longer need to be dependent upon government subsidies and they'll be able to stand on their own two feet. Now, as more and more businesses can do that, then that means we will be able to target more and more of our assistance to those areas in greatest need and that has always been the government's plan. And so what we will continue to do is roll JobKeeper out each and every week to all of those that it was designed to provide support to and those who it was designed to provide support to are receiving that help. But the JobSeeker program, which is available to all of those you’ve mentioned at commensurate levels, they will continue to receive that support. I mean, we're running at about four times the daily average of people making claims in the social security services at the moment. That's because people are reaching out and depending on the social security net that we've strengthened and that's providing much needed support right here and right now.

JOURNALIST: At the World Health Assembly, Greg Hunt flagged again Australia's desire for inspection powers to be granted to the World Health Organisation. Is that something that the Government is going to continue to pursue given that China is clearly against that idea and in general, over the weekend, China didn't set a growth target as they normally do for their own economy. Are you concerned with things like coal importers being told to buy domestic coal in China rather than from places like Australia? That China's financial position, rather, is going to have an impact, not just the diplomatic situation, on Australia's trade.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's no doubt as our primary trading partner that the economic success or otherwise of China is going to have an impact on broader global demand and particularly here in Australia. I think that's a very straightforward assumption to make. But the other assumptions that are being made about what is occurring there and in relation to individual commodities and items I don't think necessarily holds up. I mean, we see this from time to time and I can understand in current circumstances why lines might be drawn by some, but I would caution against that. There is a regularity to some of these things as people in those sectors understand and well know. And so we'll continue to manage each of those issues on their merits as they should be done, and we would expect the same.

Now, Australia has advanced, I think, a very common sense idea and it's not directed at any one country. It would simply be the idea that in the future, including here in Australia, if there was ever something like this that were to occur again, that we might have the ability to ensure that we are able to access information as quickly as possible. That's not a criticism. That's, I think, just a very common sense and straightforward suggestion and we'll just work with the various agencies to see if that can be achieved.

JOURNALIST: You flagged the need for IR reform, tax reform. Can you outline why this will be important to get us through the back end of the COVID-19 crisis and will you be willing, be trying to implement your reform agenda in this term of Parliament, or will you be willing to take it to the electorate and win a mandate for it?

PRIME MINISTER: Australia is building back and my sole focus now, having worked so well with the states and territories to get on top of the COVID-19 challenge we face. Now, we're not out of the woods yet and we know we all have to be careful. And social distancing - well Fiona and I are practicing it, not so much the rest of you today - And that's a reminder. We need to continue to do that. We need to remain careful. We're building as we build back a COVID safe economy. So Robyn and Anthony's businesses can flourish again. That's why this is important. But the other job, the other curve we have to work on is the jobs curve and we need to do things that create jobs. And what I'm interested in doing is working with anyone in this country who wants to work with me to create jobs. I'm not interested in ideology. I'm not interested in all those other things. I'm just interested in getting Australians back into jobs.

Any premier, any chief minister, any union leader, any business, any business leader, anyone who wants to work with me to create jobs, we've got a partnership. And that's the way I'm going to proceed, whether it's on workplace relations, industrial relations, whether it's on skills development, whether it's how we get finance to businesses, whether it's how we access markets, whether it's how we deliver assistance, whether it's to bushfire affected communities right across the Eden-Monaro electorate and continue to do that as those businesses build back up and get their confidence. The thing that gets Australia back to where we want to be is making jobs. Job making is what I'm all about, and that's what my Government will be all about. And job making is honestly what this byelection is going to be about, because that's what we need here in Eden-Monaro. We need the jobs back here in Eden-Monaro and that means the businesses need to go forward and that means you've got to focus on the things you need to do positively and optimistically and that's what Fiona's campaign is all about. It's about that plan to get the jobs back, the businesses back, and we've got the plan to do that and the record, which is demonstrated in the past. And I need Fiona in my team to help me to deliver those jobs, as we have done before right here in Eden-Monaro.

JOURNALIST: Treasury forecasts are one thing. The ATO also got the numbers wrong, it failed to spot these errors initially. How can you be sure that there are no other mistakes when it comes to doing the numbers? How can Australian people trust that you are good economic managers?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is the government that brought the budget back to balance. This is the government that constantly exceeded expectations when it came to the financial performance of the budget year in, year out. That's how we brought the budget back into balance over six years. That's how 1.5 million jobs were created before we hit this COVID-19 crisis. So on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis, the track record of my government and the governments I have been part of proves the point. We know how to bring the budget back into balance. We know how to create the jobs and our plan is to create those jobs here. Whether it's the almost billion dollars in infrastructure that has either already been delivered here since our government came to office or is committed underway now and planned for the future, or whether it's the work we're doing with tax reform, which is delivering more money into people's pockets. Those tax...

JOURNALIST: But are you confident you haven’t got the numbers wrong?

PRIME MINISTER: It was the first question I obviously put to the Treasurer. And when things happen like this, it's one of the first things you do. You get the officials who have been involved in the program to go back over and look at all of the elements of the program. And that's, of course, what they would do. That's what a competent public service official would do and I have a great deal of confidence in our public service and the officials and there are many, of course, who live here in the Eden-Monaro electorate. I respect them greatly. But what happened here is we had Treasury make an estimate of what the cost of the program would be in a very uncertain time.

Now, what I know is as a result of this, not one extra payment was made that shouldn't have been made. There hasn't been any loss to the Australian taxpayer here. In fact, it's been the reverse. It means that the program will not cost as much and Australians will not have to borrow as much as they were previously being asked to do. And so that's why the government will continue to manage these issues very responsibly. You just don't go around and borrow $60 billion on a whim. You don't do that. You carefully consider every dollar you have to borrow and we responded very quickly on JobKeeper. It was an historic amount that was estimated. And I’ve got to tell you, on the day, it was a big gulp for the government to understand what we needed to do. But we didn't flinch. We knew this was necessary and we responded quickly. We made the estimates based on the best of information we had available to us, and they've proved to be overly cautious and as a result, the taxpayers of Australia will not be saddled with the same amount of debt that they might otherwise had been, had those worst case estimates materialised.

JOURNALIST: Should Josh Frydenberg take more of a responsibility here for this stuff up and Labor is calling for him to appear before the Senate COVID inquiry. Should he do that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think the Treasurer and I and all the members of the government who have been directly responsible for the administration of all these programs have done exactly that. I reject any suggestion otherwise. And in terms of Senate inquiries, well, as Senators know and as the Labor Party knows, they signed up to the Senate inquiry knowing full well that that doesn't extend to House of Representatives Members. So I find it a bit cute and I'm playing a bit of politics, frankly, about this. They signed up to the inquiry as it was set out and now, I think, to suggest that - they know that House of Representatives Ministers don't appear at Senate inquiries. That's not the normal practise. That's not the arrangement the Senate has. When Labor wholeheartedly agreed to having the review being done by the Senate, they understood that. So I think to now try and change the rules exposes that as just a bit of a political stunt.

JOURNALIST: On community sport, Prime Minister, we've had the sport tool kit come out released today. Can you explain to us how important it is to begin that process of getting our sporting clubs back into action? And just could I also put a question to Dr Kotvojs. We know that climate change is going to be a central issue in this upcoming byelection, especially given that the bushfires have taken place. Do you believe in a zero emissions target by 2050?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, you know what the government's policy is on that and it is the government's policy that we have a technology roadmap. Technology, not taxation, is our approach when it comes to meeting our emissions reduction targets and we're about a year ahead of our 2020 commitments and we're very pleased about the action that we've taken and the results we've got to achieve in the future. We have our 2030 commitments and we will deliver on those and we have the plan to deliver on those more importantly, and technology will play a vital role in ensuring that we meet the emissions reductions targets that we have set. And I have always believed that we will, because I have great confidence in our scientists and our technologists, in our industries who are all moving in that same direction. And the technology roadmap, I think, provides that national leadership that can keep us going down that path. Because, you know, it isn't conferences or taxes that reduces emissions. It's businesses changing their practices, using technology that actually reduces emissions, lowers their costs and makes it commercially viable. That's actually what reduces emissions. And that's what our government is committed to doing.

Now, on community sport, and I'm sure Dr Kotvojs can add to this from what I've just said, but on community sport, I have been passionate about seeing that come back into play. I mean, sure, it's great to see the NRL and the AFL getting back, but frankly, I think in Australia, sport isn't just something people watch. It's something they participate in and they particularly do it at a community level and at a community level it binds communities just like it does in many communities across the Eden-Monaro electorate. So my only comment on that is really to encourage people to closely follow the guidelines, to talk about them amongst the coaches and the support officials in each of the local clubs and to make sure that those rules are being followed. And that means we'll be able to get our kids back on the playing field and even the mature age kicking a ball around on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday afternoon. And the sooner we can do that, the better, because it's all about getting back to life as normal as it can be in a COVID safe world. And so I applaud the work that the AIS has done on community sport. There's been an enormous amount of collaboration to get that up and away, but it's going to take the active partnership, participation and good sense and judgement of people out on those playing fields all around the country to make sure it sticks and that means that we can keep doing it through the winter and then into the summer. But Fiona?

DR FIONA KOTVOJS, LIBERAL CANDIDATE FOR EDEN-MONARO: Thank you. I do thank you for your question. I thank you for the opportunity to make clear my position on climate change. So I believe that the climate is changing. I believe that humans contribute to that changing climate and I believe that we need to have a reduction in emissions, that we need to look at approaches to be adaptive and to have our communities resilient. So some of the strategies for that is having a great solid plan, which we do. We're on target to reducing emissions. For those of you who aren't aware, you know, Australia has the highest level of take-up in terms of solar power of any country in the world per capita. That's a fantastic thing. I'm one of those people. Our home is completely off grid, runs on solar. Our home is open on an annual basis for sustainable house days. So people come to have a look at our house and the practices that we have in terms of sustainability. I believe that we need to look at more adaptive and resilience strategies, looking at things about how we can increase the amount of water that is stored and available through dams, through groundwater recharge, other strategies. And things like bushfires, I mean, I know where I lived, the difference in areas where we had the fuel had been managed and the national parks and state forest had done hazard reduction burns. I know that those sections around our property, the fire came through with far less intensity, it was much easier to manage. The environment wasn't damaged to the same extent. You know, it's already reshooting, regrowing, there are birds, there are animals back there. In comparison to the areas where the fuel was not managed, huge difference. We need to look at those strategies and do that well.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the arts sector, most art industries are reliant on large volumes of people to be profitable. Given that the likelihood of tens of thousands of people gathering is not on the horizon any time soon, what certainty can offer given that there is clearly still demand? I don't know if you know but last night 80,000 Australians tuned in to watch Powderfinger have an isolation concert online. So there is economic incentive there to have some support for the arts sector [inaudible].

PRIME MINISTER: Well, there have already been a number of initiatives [inaudible] right now. And I expect to see that come through the Government in the weeks ahead. I will leave him to continue that work. I have no doubt he's being consulting on that plan. But like so many areas of our economy affected by COVID-19, in many cases businesses adapt to the COVID safe [inaudible] changes to the practices of this small business here in Eden-Monaro. And so that is going to continue to be part of Australia's economy. A lot of adaptation and there will be some sectors for whom that will be a bigger task than others and that's why we have more targeted measures in these sectors. We have already set aside funds to do that, in a fund which is overseen by the Deputy Prime Minister and we've already allocated some significant funding out of that program to affected industries. So we will continue to do that and that's one of many, one of many, and we’ll continue to ensure we’re providing support to boost the jobs. As I said, anybody who wants to work with me on creating jobs, well, my door is open.

JOURNALIST: Just on easing restrictions, you said you’re pleased with New South Wales but are you satisfied with the rate in which restrictions are being lifted across the country? Should the borders reopen? Annastacia Palaszczuk said that she won't reopen the Queensland border until September. Is that too long?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, National Cabinet has been working incredibly well together and one of the reasons it has, I think, is we all understand our own responsibilities and we focus on those and the decisions we have to take and we seek to align across all the parts of the country as much as we possibly can. When it comes to the issue of borders, that was not a decision of National Cabinet, that domestic borders should be put in place. That was a unilateral decision taken by those individual states and territories. Basically, there's been a version of it in Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. So that was not the product of the medical expert panel advice…

JOURNALIST: But for the sake of the tourism industry in this country...

PRIME MINISTER: Let me finish... So what I'm saying is is that there is no National Cabinet decision to have domestic borders and states and territories where they’re making those unilateral decisions, they are accountable to the people in their own states for those decisions and justifying why they need to be there and the health and the health protection they believe it may offer, and indeed the economic damage that it can create. And so it is very much an onus on those premiers to be able to justify those decisions, which was not a decision of National Cabinet, as to why that is the right thing to do for their states. Now, I think one of the reasons the National Cabinet has worked is I have not sought to interfere in their jurisdictions. But what I will say is I think New South Wales is leading the way on this. I think they’re setting a cracking pace. I really want to thank Premier Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet for the great work they're doing there to really open this up. And let's not forget, New South Wales is the state that has been most impacted by COVID-19, they are the state that has had the most number of cases and many of the most challenging cases and in many ways are most at risk. And they're moving ahead. And the next two years is all about doing just that and that's why here in Eden-Monaro to have the right person in the job, which is Dr Kotvojs as part of my Government, so we can keep this plan continuing to work here on the ground.

These next two years are incredibly important to the many communities of people who live here in Eden-Monaro. They need someone who is part of my Government to help us continue to deliver on the ground, the infrastructure and services, the grants, the support, the reconstruction plans. Whether it's how the orchards get rebuilt in Batlow or how tourism businesses, fisheries businesses, the forestry businesses up along the coast get back on their feet and create those jobs and indeed, the cafes, coffee shops here around, whether it is Jerrabomberra or elsewhere, Murrumbateman. That's where the jobs come from and all of us as leaders around the country, premiers, chief ministers, myself. Our job now must be to create jobs and make decisions that create jobs. And so I am urging all premiers to do just that. The more jobs there are, the less welfare that's needed, the less money that Australians have to borrow and the more we can get back to the life that we had not that long ago. Thanks very much.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42822

$1.8 Billion Boost for Local Government

22 May 2020

Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Minister for Local Government, Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government

The Federal Liberal and Nationals Government will deliver a $1.8 billion boost for road and community projects through local governments across Australia.

The package of support will help local councils support jobs and businesses by delivering priority projects focused on infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.

The new $500 million Local Road and Community Infrastructure Program and the bringing forward of $1.3 billion of the 2020-21 Financial Assistance Grant payment will also help communities battling the effects of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said local governments were playing a critical role in responding to the impacts of COVID‑19.

“Our funding boost will help councils accelerate priority projects that will employ locally and support local business and also stimulating our economy,” the Prime Minister said.

“These projects will cut travel times, make our communities safer and upgrade the facilities we all enjoy while also getting more people into jobs.

“We know this is going to be vital support, particularly for councils that have faced the combined impacts of drought, bushfires and now COVID-19.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said supporting councils to improve local roads and community infrastructure would have lasting economic and social benefits for communities, particularly those in the regions.

“This package will improve road safety and bolster the resilience of our local road networks, which will get Australians home sooner and safer, no matter where they live,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

“Projects could include constructing or improving bridges and tunnels, street lighting and heavy vehicle facilities such as rest areas.

“Providing support for social infrastructure projects such as new or upgraded bicycle and walking paths, community facilities, picnic shelters and barbeque facilities at parks, will help communities, especially those in regional and remote areas, stay connected.”

Minister for Regional Health, Regional Communications and Local Government Mark Coulton said investing in infrastructure and jobs was crucial to helping regional communities rebound from COVID-19.

“Our package enables councils to continue their proven track record of partnering with the Coalition Government to deliver opportunities for locals to be employed and businesses to benefit by providing materials and services,” Minister Coulton said.

“The package takes Commonwealth investment in local governments through the Financial Assistance Grant program to $2.5 billion this financial year, with a further $1.2 billion being distributed through other programs to deliver infrastructure, and provide relief from drought and bushfires.”

Guidelines for the Local Road and Community Infrastructure Program will be provided directly to local governments by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

Allocations under the Financial Assistance Grant and Local Road and Community Infrastructure programs can be found at https://investment.infrastructure.gov.au/lrci.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42821

Opinion Piece - Common Purpose for Economic Recovery

20 May 2020

Several weeks ago I said that Australians were a strong people, but with the pandemic upon us, we were about to find out just how strong we were.

Facing the most serious threat to our way of life in generations, Australians have stepped up.

We’ve adapted, made sacrifices, and made sure we have supported each other.

We’ve worked together – employers and employees to save jobs; banks working to save businesses and homes; and even in politics, we’ve found common ground on many fronts through the National Cabinet of States and Territories with the federal Government.

For many of us, the changes have brought home what is most important - the bonds of family, community and country.

It’s been really tough.

Millions of Australians have been hit by devastating job losses, reduced hours, and business uncertainty. A hard reminder about just how much we depend on a strong economy for the essentials we rely on.

At the same time we have experienced the vulnerability and frustration of isolation, especially tough on those who are older and were more vulnerable to begin with.

These sacrifices have enabled us to do what most countries haven’t.  We have been winning our fight against the virus, flattening the curve at the same time as boosting our health system. 

While we are no more immune than we were three months ago, we now have much stronger protections in place in our health system. 

Thousands of Australian lives have been saved because of the part all Australians have played. We now need to apply this same commitment to getting a million unemployed Australians back to work. That is the curve we now need to flatten.

Like a physical recovery, economic recoveries take time and effort.

Having taken up the fight to the virus and having bought time with emergency lifelines such as JobKeeper and JobSeeker programmes, we are now reopening our economy.

The National Cabinet has agreed on a three-step plan to achieve a COVID safe economy and society and is implementing that plan. Step one is almost done.

A key part of step one is finally getting kids back into school. This is also well underway, especially here in NSW.

Treasury estimates that step one will result in 250,000 people going back to work, including 83,000 people in NSW. And it will put $1 billion back into the NSW economy every month.

By the end of step three, 850,000 people will be able to get back to work, including 280,000 in NSW. With NSW representing one third of our national economy, re-opening NSW safely is a critical part of our national recovery.

In the coming months, we need to keep building confidence and momentum in our economy. This will enable us to shift our reliance from emergency assistance programmes like JobKeeper, to real and sustainable incomes that can only come by restoring jobs in the workplace. 

JobKeeper is an emergency $130 billion lifeline provided by the Federal Government to more than 6 million Australians in their time of greatest need. It’s the most expensive programme in Australia’s history. And then there is the doubling of JobSeeker payments to help all those who are unable to access JobKeeper through their workplace.

These are important emergency supports, but at more than $20 billion per month they cannot go on forever. There is no money tree. All of this money has to be borrowed and paid back.

The JobKeeper and expanded JobSeeker programmes are buying us valuable time to chart our way back, but they are not the plan.

Getting people back into real jobs in growing businesses is the only sustainable way we will get Australians and our economy back on their feet.

I am conscious of the size of the challenge. This is the biggest economic shock in Australian history – $50 billion lost to our economy in just over just three months. 

But looking to the future, I would rather be in Australia than anywhere else in the world.

The foundation of our recovery will be continued success on the health front.

That means having a COVID safe Australia. Relying on the capability we are building to track and trace the virus. More Australians downloading the COVIDSafe app will strengthen this capacity – it is vital to our national efforts.

As well, businesses, unions and governments are working on efforts to ensure our workplaces are COVID safe. For many businesses, that will mean adjustments to existing layouts, practices and policies.

Beyond the here and now, we need to look at policy settings across all areas and ask a simple question: Are they fit-for-purpose to create jobs and fire economic growth?

In the lead up to the Budget in October, this question will inform the decisions we make. On tax, on getting state and federal governments to work better together, on enabling workers and their employers to do better deals where they can both benefit, on getting rid of job destroying government regulation, on making energy more affordable and reliable, and making sure we are training Australians with the skills they need to be successful in their jobs.

This pandemic has shown we can never be complacent about the things we need to do to grow our economy and generate jobs. 

Whilst we face the greatest economic shock in 90 years, I am an optimist about what is ahead. Throughout this pandemic, Australians have shown each other what we can achieve when we work together.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43985

Veterans' Contribution to Australia's Workforce Recognised

18 May 2020

Prime Minister, Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Minister for Defence Personnel

Nine organisations and individuals who have made exceptional efforts in promoting the unique skills and experience of military veterans have been recognised in the third annual Prime Minister’s Veterans’ Employment Awards.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the personnel of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) embody the best of the nation.

“The skills our ADF personnel hone during their service are ones that are also needed in every single workplace which is what the Veterans’ Employment Program recognises,” the Prime Minister said.

“We celebrate those businesses who are supporting veterans and their families to fulfil their potential as employees and entrepreneurs.

“While I am disappointed the Awards ceremony could not go ahead this year, I want to recognise the amazing efforts of our veterans, and the employers and individuals around the country who are supporting employment for them and their families.

“Congratulations to all the winners of the 2020 Veterans’ Employment Awards for their exceptional leadership in demonstrating the value and ongoing contribution that our military veterans provide to our country’s workforce.

“I would like to particularly acknowledge the winner of the Outstanding Contribution by an Individual to Veterans’ Employment Award, posthumously awarded to Darren Edwards, the former Managing Director of Boeing Defence Australia.

“Darren set an example as a husband, a father, a former Army officer. Through his leadership he put the company at the forefront of recognising and promoting veterans’ unique skills and experience, offering work placements and mentoring, and partnering with a range of veteran support organisations.”

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Minister for Defence Personnel Darren Chester said the Government is committed to putting veterans and their families first, which includes helping former service men and women successfully transitioning into civilian life and to find meaningful employment.

“Each year, around 5,500 military personnel transition from service in the ADF — service that is overwhelmingly positive and good for the individual, good for the community and in the national interest,” Mr Chester said.

“The Award for Outstanding Employer of the Year went to professional consulting services company AeroPM for its commitment to transitioning veterans into civilian employment.

“AeroPM has recognised the incredible value of employing veterans and boasts a workforce comprising more than 90 per cent Australian veterans — congratulations and I look forward to reading about your future achievements.”

The Prime Minister’s Veterans’ Employment Awards celebrate veterans’ world-class training, leadership and entrepreneurial skills, and recognise organisations and individuals across Australia who promote and prioritise the employment of military veterans.

There were a record 129 nominations for the 2020 Awards, the highest in the Awards’ three-year history.  The high standard of nominations demonstrates organisations are recognising the value of hiring veterans.

The Awards are part of the Prime Minister’s Veterans’ Employment Program, which brings together a range of resources for veteran job-seekers and employers. The program includes the Government’s Veterans Employment Commitment, a public declaration that each signatory supports greater employment opportunities for veterans. To date, more than 250 organisations have signed up to the Commitment.

Further information about the Awards and the 2020 winners can be found on the Prime Minister’s Veterans’ Employment Program website; and images and other materials are available on Dropbox.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42820

Update on Coronavirus Measures

15 May 2020

The National Cabinet met today to further discuss Australia’s current COVID-19 response, easing restrictions in the coming months, helping Australians prepare to go back to work in a COVID-Safe environment and getting the economy moving again.

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, provided an update on the measures underway, the latest data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.

There have been over 7,000 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 98 people have died. There are now less than 1,000 active cases in Australia, and over the past week, daily infection rates have remained low. Testing remains high, with more than 950,000 tests undertaken in Australia.

We need to continue to have the right controls in place to test more people, trace those who test positive and respond to local outbreaks when they occur. These are precedent conditions to enable Australia to relax baseline restrictions and enable Australians to live and work in a COVID-19 safe economy.

National Cabinet again encouraged Australians to download the COVIDSafe app to ensure that we can protect Australians and continue to ease baseline restrictions.

More than 5.7 million Australians have already downloaded the COVIDSafe app. This is an enormous achievement but more is needed.

National Cabinet noted that the Governor-General extended the human biosecurity emergency period for three months from 17 June 2020 to 17 September 2020.

This will enable the Minister for Health to continue to exercise the emergency powers under the Commonwealth Biosecurity Act to prevent or control the spread of COVID-19.

The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, also provided an update on epidemiological modelling and the rare conditions - paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PMIS-TS) and Kawasaki disease. Professor Murphy advised that there were no cases of PMIS-TS or Kawasaki disease related to COVID-19 in Australia.

National Cabinet also received briefings from Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Chair Wayne Byers on the economic and financial situation.

National Cabinet will meet again on Friday 29 May 2020.

Mental Health

National Cabinet endorsed the Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Plan developed by the National Mental Health Commission, in conjunction with teams from New South Wales and Victoria.

The Plan acknowledges the significant impact that COVID-19 has had on the mental health and wellbeing of so many Australians, including mental health impacts from economic downturn through loss of income and job losses.

We have seen these impacts in increased calls for help to our crisis and support services, with Beyond Blue, Lifeline and Kids Helpline together receiving over 130,000 contacts in the last month, an increase of between 25 and 56 per cent for each service, compared with the same time last year.

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Pandemic Plan has three core objectives to:

1. Meet the mental health and wellbeing needs of all Australians to reduce the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in the short and long term;

2. Outline seven key principles and 10 key priorities to inform the jurisdictions as they respond to the challenges of COVID-19 during the response and recovery from the pandemic; and

3. Define governance, coordination and implementation requirements across jurisdictions to facilitate informed planning and decision making

National Cabinet noted that the Commonwealth will invest $48.1 million in the plan focused on:

• Improving data and research with more immediate monitoring and modelling of mental health impact of COVID-19, including boosting national capability in monitoring, anticipating and reacting to mental health impacts of the pandemic; expanding the national self-harm and suicide monitoring systems; and investment in the National Suicide Prevention Research Fund;

• Supporting vulnerable groups, by supporting services accessible in homes, workplaces, aged care, schools and other community sites - with a specific focus on vulnerable groups - aged care, carers and indigenous mental health support; and

• Better coordination and communications - more connectivity through improved service linkage and coordination, including a national mental health communication campaign to manage anxiety and encourage mental wellbeing and systems to guide the onward care of people contacting federal digital and telephone support services by connecting them to appropriate local services that provide outreach care in the home.

National Cabinet further noted Victoria’s investment of $19.5 million, announced today, to deliver mental health reforms and additional resources, staff and programs, as more people seek support as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

All governments agreed the need for each jurisdiction to ensure Australians receive the mental health services and support they require at this time, and in the coming phases of recovery and rebuilding.

Strong mental health will be a foundation stone as we move ahead, not just to productivity and the economy, but to family wellbeing, social cohesion, community functioning and national resilience.

Elective Surgery

All governments have been monitoring public and private hospital activity, and have reviewed the current situation in light of the restoration of elective surgeries and found:

• The spread of the COVID-19 outbreak has slowed, with new cases decreasing nationally since the restoration of elective surgeries;

• There is currently still unused hospital capacity in all jurisdictions across both public and private sectors, and harm to patients can be reduced by taking further steps to restore elective surgery; and

• PPE supplies need to be carefully managed and while there is a need to continue to actively monitor this and manage availability, supply lines are firming. 

Given the current situation and Australia’s response to COVID-19, it is now considered safe to reopen elective surgery activity in an incremental and cautious way, while maintaining necessary ICU capacity for any localised outbreaks of COVID-19.

National Cabinet agreed to reopen elective surgery, by removing restrictions and restoring hospital activity involving 3 stages.

It is a decision of each jurisdiction to determine which stage applies to its circumstances, the timeline for implementation and the level of normal surgical activity is safely restored in line with the agreed principles. The stages are: 

Stage 1 – up to 50 per cent of normal surgical activity levels (including reportable and non-reportable);

Stage 2 – up to 75 per cent of normal surgical activity levels (including reportable and non-reportable);

Stage 3 – up to 100 per cent of normal surgical activity levels (including reportable and non-reportable) or as close to normal activity levels as is safely possible.

Private Hospitals should mirror their own state’s approach to surgical activity unless agreed otherwise with the relevant state.
The level of elective surgery will be reviewed monthly from May 2020 by the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council (AHMAC), to ensure that it remains safe and sustainable, and in line with the agreed principles.

Remote Communities

National Cabinet agreed to a framework to inform decisions around lifting remote area travel restrictions as we move through the three-step plan for a COVIDSafe Australia.

This will help remote communities and governments manage risk and respond to cases early. It also recognises that the different circumstances across communities will require different approaches.

Our key concern is ensuring that appropriate arrangements are in place to minimise the risks of transmission and manage any cases or outbreaks that may occur. The restrictions in place in remote communities have followed requests from communities, organisations and leaders, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders.

National Cabinet acknowledged the success with no reported cases of COVID-19 among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities.  

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43984

Boost for Bushfire Recovery

11 May 2020

Prime Minister, Drought and Emergency Management

Local economic recovery plans will help towns and regions hit by bushfires get back on their feet as part of a new $650 million package of support from the Morrison Government.

As part of the Regional Bushfire Recovery and Development Program, bushfire affected communities will share in $448.5 million from the Morrison Government to support the delivery of local recovery plans with priority given to the most severely impacted regions, drawing on local voices and local governments in close partnership and as part of cost-sharing arrangements with states.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the National Bushfire Recovery Agency (NBRA) would lead work to drive a strong economic recovery so the more than 18,600 families and businesses in bushfire-affected areas could get back on their feet.

“The same communities that were hurting most from the bushfires are hurting from the impacts of COVID-19. The impacts have been devastating,” the Prime Minister said.

“This funding injection comes as the damage from the bushfires has made itself clear in the weeks and months after they passed and regions have been finalising the sorts of projects they want to get underway to build back better.

“Every community is different and every community is at a different point in their recovery. That’s why the projects that these funds will support are not one-size-fits-all – they will reflect community needs.

“This is about locals leading the recovery with the NBRA and our state and local partners ensuring our support gets to where it’s needed most.”

“I urge local communities to work with their state governments and to provide the National Bushfire Recovery Agency with their priority projects as soon as possible.

The support will back local projects and recovery plans, in specific areas, as well as initiatives that benefit all bushfire-affected communities. The projects could include those that build community capability and wellbeing, including through workshops and events, projects that focus on the landscape and water, replacing produce and stock, supporting local jobs and building future resilience.

Minister for Emergency Management David Littleproud said I’ve always wanted a locally led recovery not a Canberra led recovery. This is the mechanism to deliver that and to build it back better.

“We’re working side-by-side with families, small businesses, primary producers and the tourism sector to deliver a well thought-out economic recovery as quickly as possible,” Minister Littleproud said.

“We know and have seen firsthand just how severe the impact from the bushfires and now COVID-19 has been. The past six months have been incredibly tough for so many Australians.

“To date, the efforts of every level of government have been focused on emergency relief, the restoration of basic services, clean-up operations and the immediate wellbeing needs of people in the most severely impacted communities.

“While we recognise not all communities are at the same point of recovery, some communities are starting to consider longer-term planning. We’re here to support them with opportunities to rebuild.”

Minister Littleproud said the Government’s assistance came on top of more than $1.33 billion dollars rolling into bushfire affected communities which includes around half a billion dollars of grants and loans that has already flowed to families and businesses, as well as $214.9 million in disaster recovery payments and $240 million in Community Recovery Packages.

“We’re also stepping in to help regenerate Australia’s wildlife and habitats, better prepare our telco network for future emergencies, boost mental health support and help our forestry industry salvage their products,” Minister Littleproud said.

“These bushfires affected Australia in many ways and we’ll be dealing with the aftermath for a long time to come, but communities should know that our government will be with them every step of the way.”

The new support also includes:

• Forestry Transport Assistance ($15 million): To assist the forestry industry with the increased costs of transporting burned salvaged logs over longer distances to surviving timber mills or storage sites in bushfire affected areas in Victoria and New South Wales.  

• Community Wellbeing and Participation ($13.5 million) - backing Primary Health Networks with additional funding to provide critical, localised emotional and mental health support for bushfire affected individuals.

• Bushfire Recovery for Species and Landscapes ($149.7 million) - supporting efforts that go beyond the immediate devastation on species and natural assets through habitat regeneration, waterway and catchment restoration including erosion control, weed and pest management.

• Telecommunications Emergency Resilience ($27.1 million as well as $10 million from the mobile blackspots program) - strengthening telecommunications capabilities prior to future natural disasters, including the deployment of approximately 2000 satellite dishes to provide a link if other connections are damaged, plus batteries and solar panels, to rural fire depots and evacuation centres.

The $2 billion Bushfire Recovery Fund has been committed to programs and initiatives to support bushfire recovery in affected communities. This is in addition to those funds already available through existing disaster recovery measures.

• Over 16,700 applications for the $10,000 small business support grant have been approved – worth $167 million.

• More than 1300 applications for the $50,000 small business grant have been approved - worth $37 million.

• 1700 applications for the Primary Producer Grant have been approved to date, with a total of $106 million provided to primary producers to date.

To access support and to find further details, visit the National Bushfire Recovery Agency website at www.bushfirerecovery.gov.au

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42814

Update on Coronavirus Measures

8 May 2020

The National Cabinet met today to further discuss options for easing restrictions over the coming months, helping prepare Australians to go back to work in a COVID-19 safe environment and getting the economy back to a more sustainable level.
The Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy provided an update on the measures underway, the latest data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.

There have been 6,899 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 97 people have died. There are now only around 1,000 active cases in Australia, and over the past week, daily infection rates have remained low. Testing remains high, with more than 730,000 tests undertaken in Australia.

We need to continue to have the right controls in place to test more people, trace those who test positive and respond to local outbreaks when they occur. These are precedent conditions to enable Australia to relax baseline restrictions and enable Australians to live and work in a COVID-19 safe economy.

National Cabinet again encouraged Australians to download the COVIDSafe app to ensure that we can protect Australians and reset baseline restrictions. More than 5.3 million Australians have already downloaded the COVIDSafe app. This is an enormous achievement, but more is needed.

National Cabinet will meet again on Friday 15 May 2020.

Re-opening a COVID-safe Australia and economy

The National Cabinet met today to finalise the three-step plan to gradually remove baseline restrictions and make Australia COVID-safe.

Australia has so far been highly successful in ‘flattening the curve’. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Australia each day is very low. We can now begin to take careful steps to ease some of the restrictions that have helped us suppress the spread of this virus.

We are confidently and cautiously taking the first step to lifting restrictions. Our success so far means we have slowed the spread of COVID-19 and built the capacity in our health system to manage the impact of the virus. We can now start to progressively ease the restrictions we have in place. The AHPPC has provided strong advice on the conditions that must be met as we establish COVID safe ways of working and living so that we can reopen parts of the economy in the safest possible way while living with COVID-19. This means that many Australians can start getting out to the shops, undertaking some local trips and travel, visiting playgrounds and public parks, and having friends and family around with a bit more freedom.

But the National Cabinet is very clear: continued suppression of COVID-19 is about collective action. Success depends on maintaining our new community norms – physical distancing, good hygiene practices and downloading the COVIDSafe app to keep us all safe while we are out and about.

For businesses, this also means taking the time to prepare and develop a plan to operate in a COVID safe way to protect their customers and workers. With every one of us playing our part, we should all feel safe and confident in leaving the house and starting to do some of the things we've missed in the last few months – like getting back to work, having a quick bite in a restaurant or cafe, attending auctions and open houses, and participating in group exercise.

Each step we take needs to be underpinned by a strong commitment from all of us to:

• stay 1.5 metres away from other people whenever and wherever we can

• maintain good hand washing and cough/sneeze hygiene

• stay home when we’re unwell, and getting tested if we have respiratory symptoms or a fever,

• download the COVIDSafe app so we can find the virus quickly, and

• Develop COVID safe plans for workplaces and plans.

Our success depends on us making these behaviours part of our daily lives during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep us COVID safe.

Australian governments are taking a measured approach. Our three-step plan provides a pathway for jurisdictions to move towards COVID safe communities in a way that best suits their individual circumstances. States and territories are able to move between the steps on the pathway at different times, in line with their current public health situation and local conditions. They'll need to maintain steady case numbers and be able to rapidly contain outbreaks, which we're set to do - with our enhanced testing regime, strengthened health surge capacity, and improved ability to quickly identify people who may have been exposed to the virus.

For each of the major areas of restrictions we have set out three key steps between where we are now and where we want to be.

• Step 1 will focus on carefully reopening the economy, and giving Australians opportunities to return to work and social activities, including gatherings of up to 10 people, up to 5 visitors in the family home and some local and regional travel

• Step 2 builds on this with gatherings of up to 20, and more businesses reopening, including gyms, beauty services and entertainment venues like galleries and cinemas.

• Step 3 will see a transition to COVID safe ways of living and working, with gatherings of up to 100 people permitted. Arrangements under step 3 will be the ‘new normal’ while the virus remains a threat. International travel and mass gatherings over 100 people will remain restricted.

A detailed plan of the steps (PDF 174 KB), as well as a summary (PDF 175 KB), is attached.

Under the three-step plan, states and territories continue to make decisions to their individual circumstances and local conditions.

Jurisdictions may ease restrictions at a different pace. Individuals and business should look to local authorities for the most up to date information, or visit  www.australia.gov.au to be linked to state and territory resources.

Special arrangements will need to be continued in Indigenous biosecurity areas and for vulnerable groups.

National Cabinet also committed – as part of the three-step plan – to regular reviews and stocktake assessments of our progress every three weeks. We will be closely monitoring the situation as restrictions are eased. This will enable us to assess the impact of changes, track progress against our agreed precedent conditions, determine the pace of moving through the steps, and make any further decisions. The AHPPC and National Cabinet were very firm on this. We are prepared for an increase in case numbers or possible outbreaks, but relapse should not be an option. A second wave is not something we can afford to go through. The cost to our people, our economy, our social fabric, is too high. We should look to build success in each step, and move forward safely and with confidence.

So long as Australians keep living and working in a COVID safe way, we'll be able to keep case numbers low and continue taking steps on the pathway to relaxing more restrictions.

National Cabinet's goal is to have a sustainable COVID safe Australia in  July 2020. We've shown what we can achieve when we work together - we flattened the curve. Now, let's work together to get Australia COVID safe.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43983

Interview with Samantha Maiden, news.com.au

6 May 2020

SAMANTHA MAIDEN: Hi there, I’m Sam Maiden, and if you’re with us tonight it’s because you’ve got some burning questions for the Prime Minister, who has very kindly agreed to take some time out of his day and answer them. Good evening, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: G’day Sam, good to be with all of your readers and connecting up tonight. So hopefully I can answer a few of the questions for people. But can I just start off by thanking everybody for the patience and the great efforts they've been making over these last few months, I know it's been pretty frustrating and pretty tough, but we're making our way through and we thank everybody who's just been doing the right thing.

MAIDEN: Yeah. So the big question that, you know, most of our readers wanted asked is when do we get back to some sort of new normal? Are we going to get back to normal life? You've got a National Cabinet meeting on this Friday and some of the restrictions are going to be lifted. So, what can we expect?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I don't want to pre-judge any of those decisions that the Premiers will make on Friday. And, of course, every one of the states are in charge of what happens in their own states ultimately. But there already have been quite a few changes we've seen to date. I mean, particularly in the western states, in W.A., in South Australia and in the Northern Territory, they've been making some big changes. We've seen just in the last sort of 48 hours, Queensland made some changes on schools. New South Wales made some changes about two people being able to visit other homes so you’re going to see changes happen gradually. They're not all gonna happen at once and they'll continue to happen over the weeks and months ahead.

But until there's a vaccine, then there isn’t the possibility of us getting fully back to normal. But we want to get back to it as close as we possibly can, and that will take a couple of months to get back to that position. But look, I'm hopeful there'll be more restrictions eased as of this Friday and then the states will be able to announce when that will happen. But there's been a lot of good work to try and make sure that the businesses that people would go into would be safe for the workers, obviously, but also for the patrons who would come and the many other places where there's been restrictions up until now. But businesses and people have been very innovative in how they've been dealing with this. And as people have got to understand COVID-19 better, they've got even better at how they can keep themselves and their patrons and their staff safe.

MAIDEN: So Lynette Ridden, one of our readers is on Facebook. She was coming at it from the other side. She was saying, I'm really worried that we're going to loosen this up too fast, and we could see a second wave or third wave. How do you reassure those people that are worried that you're moving too fast?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, when we put all these restrictions in place about six weeks ago or thereabouts, I mean, it was a very different time, it was a very different place I know it was only six weeks ago. But since then, we've been able to triple our ICU capacity. Since then, we've been able to get access to all the testing equipment we need so we can stay on top of any outbreaks and we can move quickly where things occur in particular areas. Since then, we've been able to get the COVIDsafe app, of course, up and running and there's over 5 million Australians who have downloaded that. And that keeps individuals safe. I mean, people often say, well, why should I do this? Well the number one reason is it keeps you safe. It lets you know when you've been in contact with someone who may have Coronavirus, and then that means you can take decisions both for you to get treatment and as well as keeping your family safe. So the COVIDsafe app helps you and your family first and foremost. And the more people who do it, the more that we can track down. When we're going back to more normal arrangements, we can fight against the virus and protect it. So there's a lot more protections in place today than there were 6 weeks ago. And that's why we had to move so quick back then to shut so many things down. But now that we've got these protections in place, that means we can actually operate at a much higher level than we could before. And for the vast majority of people who contract the coronavirus, of course, it's a fairly mild illness. But of course, for those who have other frailties or comorbidities as they're known, then they're obviously at more risk. And that's why we've been doing all the things we've been doing to prevent people who are particularly at risk falling victim to this to this virus.

MAIDEN: Alright. School closures has been a massive issue from day one. And, you know, I think parents are really still quite divided over this. We had one parent, Kelly Bell, write in to say, why risk it? You know, why? Why should you open schools if I can't have a birthday party for my kids?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, there's two things here. The first thing is, is it always has been the medical advice right from the outset that children have been far less susceptible to this than they have been to normal flus. And I think one of the reasons people were hesitant at first is they thought the virus would work the same way as a cold or a flu would. And it turns out the medical research, and the experience is that's just not the case. And so children have always been at a much lower level of risk, they’re only about 2 percent of cases. That’s not to say that a child doesn't get it, but it's in a very rare set of cases and their experience with the virus is a very, very mild one compared to those at a more vulnerable age, particularly those who are elderly. So that has always been the medical advice. And I can understand while there was uncertainties in people's minds about this early, why they might have been concerned about their children going to school. And I think that drove some of the earlier discussion we saw. But it's only been proved week after week after week. And that's why you see Queensland now opening up schools. And I mean South Australia and Western Australia, they've got school attendances up over 70 per cent and that's only going to continue to climb. And that's been happening for a while now. And so what's been happening in schools has always been quite safe.

The issue in reopening schools has been to make the place safer for teachers. Now they've been more at risk in the staff room, catching it from each other than they have certainly in the classroom. Now, the second point you make though Sam and I think this is totally fair enough, the consistency that you try and get across all these different controls sometimes can be very difficult. And so the birthday party thing is a good example. Now, the reason that the Premiers decided to have that arrangement in place is because it would be confusing to say, ‘oh, you can have five kids around, but you can't have five adults’, and that would confuse the whole message about people staying at home and not going to other people's places. So in many cases, the National Cabinet has tried to keep it as simple as possible. Now it can't always work. It's not always 100 per cent consistent. We're dealing with a very complex situation and we try and keep it simple. Now, on schools, I admit there's been some confusion there, but I can tell you absolutely that right from the get go, the chief medical officer and the medical expert panel has been very clear that children, you're safe, your kids, to go to school. And I'm looking forward to it, my kids to be back at school on Monday.

MAIDEN: Right, okay. So how have you found home schooling, you know, you've obviously been doing that in Canberra, I imagine that Jenny may have been taking the [inaudible] yourself, but what's the information that you've been hearing about how that's been going and how do your kids feel about going back to school? They might like to stay in beautiful Canberra?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, my youngest actually does like staying in Canberra and it's nice to have her with me and that will be the sad part, is that they'll go back to Sydney and of course I'll be here and we'll be separated again. But that's a big part of this job. And we've always understood that. For my younger daughter, and then she's in K-6, so it's been a lot harder for them, I think with online learning. That hasn't worked, I mean, it's always best to have children learning in the classroom. That's the expert educationalist research. And that's I don’t think disputed, but for K-6 I think it's even harder for that to work online. And so I'm looking forward to her particularly being able to go back and they’re, going back five days a week at the school they attend. My oldest daughter, she's in year 7 and she's been doing all right on the online learning. And she's you know quite a disciplined, studious sort of type. And she's been doing it and Jen’s been supporting them both. But it is a big task, I think, for parents. Now, I haven't been there and Jen's been carrying the load like she always does, but it has, I think, put a lot of pressure on parents to be that. And I've liked how teachers have said to parents, look, don't beat yourselves up. I mean, teaching kids is hard. And, you know, you just got to keep doing your best. And I think that's what parents have been trying to do. But for those who have had to being working at home and sort of overseeing their kids learning at home, I think that's been a real problem. I think that's been hard on those parents. It's not the best for the kid’s education, and it's also not helping them do their job. So that's why that's good to see the schools opening up again.

MAIDEN: Yes. And perhaps at some point that will also happen in Canberra, that would be very calming for me. But one of our readers, a question in this space. She basically said, well, you’re calling for schools to open, why don’t you open Parliament? When’s Parliament going to go back to normal?

PRIME MINISTER: It’ll be open next week. I mean, we weren’t due to meet till next week anyway. So we've gone back in the week that we that we were actually scheduled to go back in. And we've actually had a couple of sitting days since this all started many months ago. So we'll be back here and we're coming back with our usual parliamentary sitting and we'll deal with the legislation that provides the protection for the COVIDsafe app. Don’t forget to download the app. But that law is already, its belts and braces. We've already got the biosecurity laws that are providing those protections and then we'll pass the other laws on the COVIDsafe app and that will go through next week. But there'll be many other bills we're dealing with next week. And so we're getting things back to normal.

MAIDEN: Okay. A couple of quick questions of things that have come up today and we'll get back to COVID. It’s been a bit of a kerfuffle about that seat Eden-Monaro it’s obviously quite a famous seat, and Australian bellwether seat. We had people putting up their hands, putting their hands down, people dropping out. And then tonight, there's been a report that Teena McQueen is pushing for Tony Abbott to put his hand up in Eden Monaro. Can you imagine Tony Abbott coming back to parliament in the seat of Eden Monaro at all?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I said when Mike Kelly said he was going to retire, and I wish I wish Mike and his wife all the best. Mike served in uniform. He served in the parliament. He's a good guy. And I thank him for all his tremendous service. And I'm sure his local community feel the same way. I said the Liberal Party is running, we’ve opened nominations. Some people have expressed interest and then others have said they know they're not going to go ahead. Nominations close on Friday. There'll be a preselection. There'll be a candidate. That's the way things run. And that's how I anticipate they will run.

MAIDEN: Do you imagine Tony Abbott might be interested in coming back?

PRIME MINISTER: I don't believe he is.

MAIDEN: Okay. So back to some other issues that come up today. Just in relation to the Ruby Princess, you said that you were quite upset to see that senior epidemiologist in tears on the stand, saying that things could be different, other people said that maybe the questioning from Bret Walker SC went a bit over the line, other people said you shouldn’t really be sticking your oar in one of those commissions of inquiry. Why did you feel the need to step in and defend those health officials?

PRIME MINISTER:  Every single day for months now, I mean, you’ve got to remember the chief medical officer and all his team have been meeting daily since the 22nd of January. They've been working incredibly hard. And that's that's what I've seen my health officials doing that here. And I know that's the same thing up in New South Wales and all around the country. They've been doing a great job. Now, I made it really clear in my comments today, I'm not looking to compromise in any way, shape or form and nor did I the integrity or independence of the royal commission, it needs to do its job. I respect it's what it needs to do. But what we saw there today, what we saw there was a public health official just trying to do her best. And she was there and put in that situation. And the subject of, I think, quite some aggressive questioning. And she broke down. And I think there are many health officials, many people out there just doing their best and they could be working in supermarkets, they could be working as nurses, they could be working as paramedics, they could be working as teachers. They can, they're all just doing their best. This is a really hard time. And I just wanted to express my empathy with her and to thank all of those people out there just doing their best. Give them a go. I mean, not everybody is going to get every call right, every single time. And the expectation that they might, I think, is very unrealistic. And so I think we've got to support people at this time. And sure, we’ve got to find out what happened there. It's a very serious issue. I don't doubt that at all. And so the inquiry is underway. But how you do things sometimes is very important, at all times. And I just hope that the royal commissioner would would reflect on that line that he took.

MAIDEN: Fair enough. Mother's Day is obviously coming up this weekend, and a lot of people are worried about whether they can visit their mums or their grandmas, particularly if they're in vulnerable, you know, age groups. What's your advice on that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well to follow the medical advice and to follow the rules that are in place in each state and territory. And look, we can put these rules in place and have, but at the end of the day, everyone's just got to exercise good common sense judgement. No one wants to see, particularly if they've got an elderly parent who they might be going to visit or a grandmother or something like that, you know, just exercise the proper care. That's that's what we're talking about. And I know it'll be really hard to be separated from your nan or and and your kids are going to want to see them. And I think parents can work out responsible ways that they can ensure that they can have that connection. And what is always a very important day to say thanks to mums, I'll be doing that just like my kids will be. And it's an important day for families, but it's gonna be different this year, like Anzac Day. You know, we thought we, when at Anzac Day, there wouldn't be the marches, there wouldn't be the large services. But, you know, we came up with a way to do it where people did feel connected and we could honor our ANZACS and it could still be a special day. And I have no doubt that Australians will find the same way because, you know, mums are just as spectacular and awesome and wonderful. And so I'm sure they will elicit the same innovation and affection from their kids that happens every year. They'll just find a different way to do it. So that's our task. Australia, let's be the most innovative in celebrating our wonderful mums this Sunday.

MAIDEN: You must have been pretty worried about two of the mums in your life because, you know, during the first phase of this period, you've had your mum and Jenny's mum come and stay with you. Tell me a little bit about why you decided to do that or why you wanted to get them to come together?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, firstly, they were on their own and we were in a position where they could stay with us. And of course, my mum lost my father earlier this year and she was living in a part of Sydney where she would have been quite isolated. My brother is a frontline health worker and they're very busy doing their job. And he's in Sydney, I'm here, and so for either of us, it would be very difficult to help and support my mum when she was in Sydney. And so we're in a position where she could come and stay with us. Now, the girls have loved having their mamma around, just as they’ve enjoyed having their nana around, which is Jenny’s mum. And so it was a place where they could be safe, where they could be together and be supported and that was done healthily and safely. And and so it's been great to have them with us. So we're really pleased to have that. So it's just me and Buddy the dog who are the only males in the house at the moment. So we'll be there celebrating Mother's Day on Sunday with the girls. It'll be a special one, but it'll be different because we won't have the rest of the family around.

MAIDEN: I feel like I did see a beer in the vicinity of that table, so hope you’re able to share a beer with the family dog on any appropriate juncture. Look, another question from a reader on playgrounds, [inaudible] if kids go to day care and back to school, can you please reopen playgrounds? Is that something that will be discussed on Friday?

PRIME MINISTER: It's something I know the medical expert panel is working through. This was a difficult decision when it was made some weeks back. I mean, we sort of wanted to keep them open, but the problem was how they were cleaned all the time. And it's also a place where parents congregate. So particularly at the time the decision was taken, we were trying to discourage people clumping together in groups and so when you take the kids to playground, you're often sitting there having a coffee and you’re catching up with other mums and fathers or others and that's what you do. And so that wasn't seen as a safe way or a thing where people might congregate in that way, particularly early on. Now, in schools, obviously, there's playgrounds, but in a school, the medical expert panel felt you could have greater confidence of the cleaning down of all the surfaces and all of those things that could be done in a school. But for local governments to be able to do that at every single play equipment all across the country, there was just deemed to be too high a risk. But look, I think it's quite possible in the not too near future that that might be able to be addressed and I'm sure the kids will be happy to get back on the monkey bars.

MAIDEN: Ok and if they get back on the monkey bars, hopefully they spend less time on Tik Tok. I’m not too familiar with Tik Tok.

PRIME MINISTER: Neither am I.

MAIDEN: Your creative responses to what I describe as border control, you do a lot of border control at press conferences, you know, either side [inaudible] circumstances in which the question is answered. And this has come in for some, you know, creativity on Tik Tok. We might not have a look at what one person has done with your border control in press conferences.

RECORDING: Andrew, Andrew, I'm sorry, you've had several questions- Andrew, I'm sorry, Andrew. I know, but you don't run the press conference OK? So I'm going go to other questions of members of the group. Katharine hasn't had a question. I'm happy to return to you. But let's just keep it simple, Andrew. Katharine?

PRIME MINISTER: I have seen that one, it's pretty good. That music has been used on a few others, people have told me. So anyway, I'm glad people are enjoying those press conferences. I mean, not many people watched press conferences, as you know, Sam, and I think people have been surprised at some of the interaction that regularly quite occurs between politicians and journalists at these pressers. And I think they've found that all a bit fascinating. But if it's entertained people, you know, happy to be doing that.

MAIDEN: Well, the nation thanks you for service in that regard. Look, in relation to a more serious matter, you've obviously spent a lot of time on the phone to world leaders. I imagine you’d be having a lot more conversations than you usually would on a lot more regular basis. When you've been on the phone to Boris Johnson or Donald Trump, have any of them never said to you, how did you do it? How did Australia flatten the curve?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, we're all trying to learn from each other. I mean, I had a very interesting chat with President Moon from South Korea a few weeks back and we learned a lot from them. And the same with Prime Minister Abe up in Japan. But I was talking to Boris the other night, and it's great to see him back and sounding so well. We were very, very worried we were going to lose Boris but he's back and he's full of beans, I can assure you from the chat we had the other night and he was very much asking that exact question. And I was able to take him through what we've done on the border shut down and then what we've done on the tracing and what we've done on the testing programs that we had in place and on ventilators and the restrictions we've put in place, so just talking through that. There's a lot of the common elements of how you deal with this are quite clear and this is why I said there's those three things we've got to have. We've got to have the comprehensive testing and we really are hitting that mark now. We've got to have what I call the industrialisation of those health workers there, those detectives that are tracking down every single case. And that's what the COVIDsafe app does. It helps those people to be able to find out whether you've been in contact with someone who has contracted the coronavirus. And, you know, hours count, minutes count, days count and to be able to do that effectively is really important. And the third one is to be able to have a localised response where there is an outbreak. Now, we've seen that on a number of occasions now and the responses, you know, there's one going on in Melbourne at the moment with the meatworks there. There was the north west Tasmania and we’ve had that awful situation out at Newmarch with the aged care facility. But let me just say this on aged care, if it's alright, Sam.

I mean, what's happening in Newmarch is just so hard for all the families and the communication, you know, as we've worked hard with the facility to get that up scratch. And I know these frustrations, but, you know, there's 2700 aged care facilities in Australia and only around 23 of those have had any sort of issues when it comes to the coronavirus and only a couple have actually had the more serious outbreaks that we've seen out at Newmarch. Melissa McIntosh and Stuart Ayers have done a great job working with the local community there. But I think we've got to keep that in perspective and when I was talking to Boris the other night, we were talking about aged care. Now, in the UK, for aged care, it's just been... I mean, there was a long period of time where they weren't even counting those who sadly passed away in aged care facilities and sort of gives you an idea of how serious it was. But it hasn't just been Boris. I had the great privilege and thrill  to speak to the Queen the other night and she was asking the same questions and she's so pleased that down under, we're doing well.

MAIDEN: So what did you tell her? I mean, did you say that it was to do with the border controls?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, she was very interested.

MAIDEN: Just on border controls in relation to the US, some people said early on that you should have closed the borders earlier in terms of the United States and that there was a bit of argy bargy in National Cabinet about that.

PRIME MINISTER: No, there wasn't, actually. The first border that we shut down was with mainland China, or Wuhan first and Hubei Province, but then mainland China. And what that meant was we were able to protect against the first big wave out of China. Now that wave went everywhere else, it certainly went to the United States, ultimately, or it may have already been transmitted there before their border lockdown. And it certainly went into Europe and right across the UK. So we got hit then by the second wave, but were able to move on it very quickly then through all the restrictions which ensured that we were able to get back to where we are right now. So we have had very effective travel restrictions on the way out and on the way in. But then we've backed that up with the comprehensive testing and with the tracing which has been done manually and will now with the with the tracing app, with the COVIDsafe app, that that will mean that those health workers who were the only people who have access to that information, will be able to track down people who have been exposed to the coronavirus and be able to isolate them. See this is - and I know I’m focusing a lot on the app, but it is really important - in the same way we were able to be so effective when people came from overseas and they went into the hotel for 14 days. That meant we ensured that anyone who potentially had the virus was isolated. Now, when the virus is in the community, you just can't do that. So you need to know who's been exposed to it and isolate them. Now, the only way we can do that really quickly is if we get enough people on the COVIDsafe app. So that's what it's for. It's only for one job, just one job. That's it.

MAIDEN: And just on the app, I mean, do you think there's any chance the US President Donald Trump is interested in it? Has he told you he is? And before you answer that question though, I just want to show you a clip of something that he said during this debate that created a lot of controversy. This is what he had to say about possible COVID cures.

RECORDING: Then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. As you see, it gets on the lungs and does a tremendous number of harm. So it would be interesting to check that so that you don't have to use medical doctors. But it sounds interesting to me.

MAIDEN: What was your honest reaction to that?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, the President has already made his explanation of those comments, Sam, and I don’t propose to go over them and we've been working with all countries. I mean, you asked me before about who's shown an interest in what we've done with the COVIDsafe app. I've had those discussions with Prime Minister Trudeau. I've had them, of course, with Boris the other night and I was talking to Bibi Netanyahu a little while back about this same thing. And we've had a lot more success, they tried one there, but then there were some issues with the legislation. Jacinda Ardern and I have spoken about it many times and it all came from a conversation I had with Prime Minister Lee a while back and we asked him if he could give us access to the code that they'd been using and we improved on that and now we are where we are, where I think we're on track, but we've got a bit more of a way to go. But I'm very pleased with the response from Australians. We just need a few more so keep downloading the COVIDsafe app.

MAIDEN: Hopefully they will. In relation to a few things if we start where we began about these questions. We have a question from Kerry Porter, “Why do you think workers in Coles, Woolies and Bunnings have been in contact with everyone, we haven’t seen that many cases?” That’s kind of interesting. And also, Brett Anderson had a very important question. Bunnings, when will they reopen the sausage sizzle? It is an essential service.

PRIME MINISTER: I like that. Look, there obviously will be cases in a whole bunch of workplaces and when we get to back to what I call a COVID, sort of, safe Australia, which is what we're aiming to get back to with a lot of the restrictions that are able to be pared away, there will still be cases. I mean, it won't be eradicated and there will still be outbreaks and the goal is not to bring it down to zero. That's not a practical expectation. It is to ensure that we can keep on top of it, that where there are outbreaks, we can shut them down, that where people who contract it, we can isolate them and we can ensure that the health system remains strong in the position to be able to respond. That way, we can keep the economy open and we can stay on top of the coronavirus.

So, why hasn’t there been more retail shops and so on? Well, I haven't seen the stats specifically on that. But what I would say is that employers in places like this have put in place social distancing and procedures to keep their patrons safe. And that's where I've seen businesses do amazing things to adapt to this new environment and we'll see them adapt more so into the future. I mean, I suspect, Sam, on the other side of all this, maybe there'll be some things that people take out of it in terms of how we work differently or shop differently in the future, even how we meet together. As you said, I've had so many meetings over the last six weeks and with not only with my own cabinet team but with others. And the telepresence facility facilities we've got have been really effective and we've probably had more connection and got through a lot more through that way than we might have ordinarily done if we'd all been meeting in person. So there will be some takeaways from this, but there'll be some things we'll be looking forward to again and a Bunnings sausage sizzle is certainly going to be on my list.

MAIDEN: Magnificent. We promised you, Prime Minister, that we'd let you go at 7.29pm. It is now 7.29pm so thank you very much for joining us here at news.com and listening to some of our readers’ questions and answering them. We appreciate it and happy Mother's Day.

PRIME MINISTER: Happy Mother's Day to you, too, Sam and everyone out there on Ozark, I will not spoil the ending for you.

MAIDEN: Magnificent, all right, thanks a lot. Have a great night.

PRIME MINISTER: Cheers.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42812

Interview with Ray Hadley, 2GB

6 May 2020

RAY HADLEY: Prime Minister, good morning to you.

PRIME MINISTER: G’day Ray.

HADLEY: How do you find the energy to keep going? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, Australians are amazing. I mean, I just see what they’re doing every day. And you know, that that only just charges us on. And I think, as it does you and everyone else. And, you know, we were in a very difficult time as a country, but we’ve more than measured up to it, I think. And we've done very well on the health side of things. You know, of course, that we're looking at just under 100 deaths. And each and every one of those is a terrible outcome for, obviously, those individuals and their families. But compared to overseas, we've done well. But we're now we’ve got to get people back to work. I need to get a million people back to work because people being out of a job is not success. 

HADLEY: Now, are you concerned that people are trying to equate those near 100  deaths to the financial imposition on this country, given what you and the Treasurer and your government have done to keep us, not keeping afloat, but just treading water until we're out of this particular horror?

PRIME MINISTER: Well the potential tragedy here in Australia, I mean, Australia was no more immune to things than they were in the United States or London or anywhere else. And this all could have happened here. And I remember back in mid-March, and late March, we were having daily increases of over 20 per cent a day. And so we could have very, very much gone down that path. And through what we've been able to do, we've been able to arrest that. But I've always said you've got to fight this battle on two fronts. You gotta fight the economic crisis and you've got to fight the health crisis. And that's what we've been doing all the way along. Now, on the healthside, we've done very well. But on the economic side, we’ve sought to cushion the blow with some of the biggest income, well the biggest income supports the country has ever has ever seen. And that is to get people through this and businesses through this to the other side. So we can grow again. And that's what we've got to focus on now. Keep the health situation under control and get get the businesses open and get the kids back to school, get the people back to work and get people earning again.

HADLEY: See, I have heard about this herd immunity. 71,000 in the USA are dead, the UK is heading towards 30,000, I’m not suggesting they’ve got herd immunity. But what I'm suggesting is even allowing for our lesser population, the fact that we keep it at this stage under a hundred and the clusters, of course, many of those deaths via Ruby Princess. I'll get to that a bit later. And Newmarch in western Sydney, but God only knows what would have happened, had you decided to go down a different path. And that's lost all your critics about what you're doing. You're saying, oh look we’ll never pay the debt off. But if you didn't do what you did. We're in strife?

PRIME MINISTER: Thousands, thousands, if not tens of thousands, and certainly in terms of people contracting the virus, potentially hundreds of thousands. And this idea of herd immunity, nobody's got herd immunity. I mean the United States haven't reached it, Sweden hadn't reached it, the UK hasn't reached it. I mean, you've got to get to about 60 per cent, two thirds sf your population. And even with all the death and devastation we've seen and all of those countries, they went nowhere near herd immunity and no one's going to reach that. And so the idea that that's some sort of path you can go down, that's a death sentence, and that's not something that Australia has ever contemplated. What we've done is to ensure we get good safe controls in place. And what we've built up now is, is protections. We've got our ICU capacity up. We've got our access to personal protective equipment up. We've got more respirators. We've been able to get large amounts of testing into Australia to have a comprehensive testing regime, we've got the COVIDSafe app, please download the COVIDSafe app, over five million people have that now, and our outbreak response capability has been built up. So that means with all of those things in place and people getting used to the idea of social distancing, particularly as restrictions ease. We've got some protections now that we didn't have six, eight weeks ago, which means we can open up in what I'm calling a COVID Safe Australia.

HADLEY: I know that the National Cabinet has worked really well. There's been great cooperation between the Premiers and the Chief Ministers and yesterday the New Zealand Prime Minister. But in relation to frustrations, you are also getting people back into school and getting back into jobs. Now I've got an email from a listener in south western Sydney. It's ridiculous, right? The children have to get back to school. I work in retail at Westfield out here. I suspect it's Liverpool, Westfield, and all I see are parents bringing their children shopping. Wouldn't they be better off at school than being in a large shopping centre, mingling with hundreds, if not thousands of people? And I go to my own shopping centre regularly, and that's what you see. The mums are out, the dads are out, and the kids are everywhere. And they're not being locked in a bubble somewhere at home. They're out and about, but why not at school?

PRIME MINISTER: Well the health advice has been consistent from day one on this. And one of the interesting things about the COVID-19 is it's very low rate of transmission and movement between children and particularly when it comes to severe cases amongst children. Children can safely go to school, schools have always been safe to fully open. And, you’ve got to make sure that workplace for those who work in it, for the teachers, others, is safe. But the same is true for supermarket workers. People working at petrol stations. People working in hospitals. People working in this Parliament building I'm sitting in right now. And in your radio station, wherever they happen to be. We've all got to have COVID safe work environments. And that's something we spoke of yesterday after the National Cabinet. Nev Power, who's heading up that COVID Commission together with the Attorney-General, has worked with Greg Combet and the industry and unions to ensure we've got some good tools out there for businesses to be able to open, keep their patrons safe, keep their workers safe. And that's what we have to focus on because that's what opens the economy up again. But yeah, we need kids back at school. We need people back at work. We need the businesses open again. They can't all open at once. And this Friday, we're going to consider all that again with a framework that will take us out over the next few months and what people can expect. But at the end of the day, the individual states and territories, they're the ones who have to make the calls about what gets opened when, they're the ones who have the authority over that. And you're right Ray. I mean, there has been differences between states and territories. I think the National Cabinet Federation has worked better than I've ever seen at work in my public life experience. But that's not to say we haven't had a few differences of view and a few of those have been robust. But that's all right. People respect each other.

HADLEY: Now, I know that this is not your, and I’ll forward this to the Premier of New South Wales, but it's about these mobile services going back tomorrow. And it's beauty spas and things like that. They can start going out to people's houses. But this is typical of the email I get from someone who operates a business in south western Sydney again, it’s a day spa, 250 square meters, including seven private treatment rooms, employs seven staff. None of them working at the moment. Registered ABN always operated with strict hygiene procedures. Now we let people go to other people's home with no restriction on them going to someone's home for their mobile service. But here we are ready to go with the strictest protocols in place and we can't open. Would that be something that can be discussed on Friday? And I'll talk to the Premier about it. But it appears to me, if I can go and get a haircut this afternoon, a lady can get her hair done and dyed. I don't know why someone can't get their nails painted or, you know, their eyebrows plucked or something else. I just don't understand it.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look all of these things are being worked through by the medical expert panel, and by the Premiers. And Ray I know there's some frustration about what are going to be inevitable inconsistencies. I mean, playing the percentages on this is really what they're all trying to achieve. That doesn't mean in every instance there's going to be complete consistency between these things. It's a very difficult thing to manage. I mean, ultimately, you'd rather be regulating behaviour than activities. And ultimately in a COVID safe Australia, that's where you get to. So you don't have to focus so much on this shop or that shop or, you know, playing golf or playing footy or whatever it is. It's about the distancing, it's about the practices that you pursue as, in the behaviour that you have. And that's that's the biggest defence and downloading the COVIDSafe app and all of these sorts of things. That's what really gives you the protection. But I'd just ask the public to continue to be patient. I know that there are, I mean, we can draw a line, and I have no doubt you'll be able to find inconsistencies. I don't mean you personally, but generally people will find, they'll go, well why is that ok and why is that not? They fair questions, but I can assure you as much consistency is being achieved as is possible and the states, I'm sure will seek to move forward in the best way they can and try to avoid that. But you can't avoid it completely.

HADLEY: By the way, just through - no new cases of the virus in Queensland overnight, which is tremendous news. They've done that a number of times in the past fortnight.

PRIME MINISTER: And good on them on schools, too. That was great.

HADLEY: Yeah, yeah well she did, she said okay from next Monday we're going to have this, this and this back and by the I think late May the 25th, or 28th, they're all back, they made that announcement and I congratulated Annastacia Palaszczuk for being a leader when that, you and I've never discussed anti-vax before and I would have thought in the middle of this virus people who have that view would be at least pulling their heads in because what we're searching for across the world at the moment is a vaccination. To cure this one and I lived through and probably you didn't, but I lived through mates of mine with polio and people living in iron lungs, as did my parents. And I got the oral vaccine in about ‘63 or ‘64, which crushed polio. So I just don't understand, but this is typical. I've had comments to about Bryce Cartwright and his wife, and unless he gets a flu shot, he might not play rugby league. This bloke says, you have no clue what research Bryce and his wife have done, get off your high horse. If we have no say what goes on their body. We may as well pack it in. I wonder whether Kyle would be the first in the line to get a vaccine for the virus if it's some time in the next 12-18 months?

PRIME MINISTER: I reckon. When I was Social Services Minister, I started the ‘no jab, no play’ rule into the childcare facilities, and I think the same rule applies there. No jab, no play.

HADLEY: Exactly, well, I think you're right about that. Now, look, one of the things I've tried not to be critical of health services in any jurisdiction because I'm blowed if I know how they're doing it. And there are -

PRIME MINISTER: They’re doing an amazing job.

HADLEY: But, look, this is a… we may be on dangerous ground here. The Special Commission of Inquiry in New South Wales into what happened with the Ruby Princess. There are two different reports today. One by Yoni Bashan in The Australian, which talks about this young woman put before the Commission yesterday, Kelly-Anne Ressler. Now, it says, according to Yoni Bashan, she was not on the four person panel that graded the ship the low risk. She did not write the guidelines governing cruise ship arrivals. She's not a medical doctor qualified to give clinical advice. But yet somehow she ended up wearing the mistakes of an entire department, according to the Commissioner. Bret Walker SC, normally an affable man, became impatient and barked these questions, sharpening to a withering cross-examination which the woman eventually collapsed with emotion. Now, she apologised all the rest of it. I know we need to find out, Prime Minister, what happened with the Ruby Princess.

PRIME MINISTER: We do.

HADLEY: But I don't want one person to carry the blame and the weight. And this young woman this morning may be picking up the paper and saying, my God, I did all this to the country. And I don't want her to think that. Yes, she might have made mistakes along with her colleagues. But we need some compassion because they were not deliberate mistakes. There were mistakes made under pressure. And I would remind everyone, that ship arrived at 2 o'clock in the morning. I mean, doubt that the Health Minister or the Premier were awoken in New South Wales to say, what do you think about the ship coming in? Nor the bureaucrats above this woman.

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, I don't know about that, but I mean, I found those images and I wasn't able to see the whole video of it, Ray, so I sort of give that qualification. But I found that very distressing. I think it's our nurses and doctors and first responders, they're all doing a great job. But spare a thought also for those public health officials. I mean, I'm working with them every day here at Commonwealth level and across the states. They have been working day and night for months and months and months. They're all trying to do their best. And when you think about it and I mean, what's happening in Newmarch, I know was very upsetting. But when you think about the fact we've got 2,700 aged care facilities around the country and we've had issues in about only 23 of them and severe issues in only a couple. People, you know, they're not perfect, they're not going to get it right every single time. But I do know they're doing their best and they do deserve, I think, a bit of support and comfort at a time like this and a great deal of thanks. And I thank her for the great job that she's been seeking to do and I know we've got to get to the truth on this sort of stuff, but I mean, my first blush on that one, and that's not to call into question the independence of the Royal Commission or anything like that. But I found that a bit out of line, Ray, and I think to see her reduced to that under that sort of aggressive line of what would appear questioning, I know you've got to get the balance right on this one. And I would hope that Mr Walker would reflect on that.

HADLEY: Okay. Couple of things before you have to go. And by the way, I think and I think you'd agree, that when this is all over we need a national day for all of those emergency workers, be they health, police, ambos, paramedics, fire and rescue. We need a national day of thanks..

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah.

HADLEY: ...for the doctors, the nurses, the orderlies, the cleaners, the people that are in health.

PRIME MINISTER: Supermarket workers.

HADLEY: The lot of them that have worked through the crisis. Just a quick one. Mike Pompeo said there's enormous evidence that the coronavirus came from a research lab. He's not suggesting they did it deliberately, but a mistake was made that they didn't admit to. On the front page of the Tele today it says your Government is erring on the side of caution until perhaps you see proof. Do you think there is proof available? Would you be asking the Americans for that proof?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, look, I haven't seen anything that suggests that conclusively and all we've simply said is, of course, it's not. You can't rule it out and I haven't ruled it out. And we have access to a lot of information and I can only offer information that we have. But what this just demonstrates, Ray, is the quite straightforward, I think quite transparent, reasonable request that there be a proper, transparent, independent review as to what happened, where did it happened, how did it start? These are important questions and I don't intend to back off from asking them. I've written to all the G20 leaders and asked for this to be done at the World Health Assembly, which is on the 18th of May. Greg Hunt will be representing us through telepresence at that meeting. We'll be supporting motions being put forward by the European Union, which start as a first step to this process. It's important we do this. It's not directed at any one country. This could happen anywhere in many countries. And on what we've seen, the most likely outcome was the transfer from an animal to a human. These things can happen in wildlife wet markets and that's why we've separately had a view about the public health issues surrounding wildlife wet markets, and we don't back off from that either. And that just doesn't occur in China. There are many countries where these things are and we need to protect public health because a quarter of a million people are dead. And if we don't ask the transparent questions as, you know, a democratic free nation like Australia saying, look, you've got to have transparency. If this had happened in Australia, well, I would expect inspectors to come here and look into it and be open to that and I don't think that's an unreasonable thing. And I think what the US has said, what we've said, what the French President has said, what Boris Johnson said - I was talking to Boris the other night, I mean, this thing nearly killed Boris, and I can assure you he's pretty keen to understand what happened. So we're all working together, it's not directed at anyone. We just need to know because we can't have this happen again.

HADLEY: You see, one of the things... an email just popped up from Gympie in Queensland. Ask the Prime Minister how we distinguish between half a million flu deaths that occur every year and the COVID deaths. I mean, look, I'm sick to the back teeth, I have to put a tablet under my tongue before I answer that personally.

PRIME MINISTER: COVID-19, Ray, kills 10 times faster than the flu, at least. At least.

HADLEY: There is a vaccination for the flu, of course, which will minimise the impact on nearly everyone.

PRIME MINISTER: There's treatment capabilities and all these sorts of things. But this thing, yes, the overwhelming number of cases, the overwhelming number of cases are people that have a mild condition and we know that. But this has killed a quarter of a million people, at least, and I suspect the death toll is far higher than that in many countries, not because they're not disclosing it. It's just because, you know, the systems aren't there to know and we can't kid ourselves. This could have caused absolute carnage in Australia. The fact that it hasn't is to Australians’ credit. But now, as I was saying yesterday, we have to fight this war on two fronts. We can't... success is not standing up every day and saying no cases here or only five or 10. That is not success when you have a million people out of work and we've got to get them back to work, we've got to do it safely. We'll have a plan for doing that and we're going to ask for people's continued patience as we do that and understanding, understanding of those officials making those decisions. I mean, they’re doing a great job. I mean, you were talking about everyone working before, right? I mean, we've surged over five and a half million [thousand] people in the Services Australia and to Centrelink. They have processed a million claims in the last six weeks. I'm very proud of the work they're doing. We've got people who would normally work in the Department of Parliamentary Services here in this building in Canberra. We've set up conference rooms where they're on phones, taking calls and processing people's dole claims. That's what's happening. I mean, the public service response to this, I'm very proud of what they're doing. I mean, they cop a bit of flak every now and then, as you know. But I'll tell you, in this crisis, I'm very proud of our public servants, including the young woman who was appearing as part of the Royal Commission yesterday.

HADLEY: Okay. Just a final one. You fielded a call last night from Her Majesty. How does that operate? I mean, does she scroll down on her mobile, and ScoMo, I’ll give ScoMo a ring, have a yarn to him. I mean, I know there are protocols involved, you probably can't disclose all of it. But do you get approached by your office and they say, Her Majesty would like to talk to you and you say, look, I'm just a bit busy interviewing various people at the moment. I don't need to be disturbed. How does it work? 

PRIME MINISTER: Well, they get in touch and let you know that she would like to have a conversation and then obviously you do that and we arranged for that to happen last night, morning her time. But, I mean, she's amazing. Jenny and I got to meet Her Majesty last year at Buckingham Palace. It was a real highlight for Jenny and I, and we had a lovely chat. She's terribly interested in, you know, the daily things of life - your family, how Australians are going. She loves this country. She's been here many times and she regrets the fact that she can no longer visit so many places, including Australia. She was very interested to know how, not just with the COVID-19, very impressed by what's happening here. But she was very interested to ask about what was happening post the bushfires and I could tell her, you know, the responses that are in places there and as well as the drought. You know, she understands drought issues and rural issues really well and she was terribly interested in that. And she was particularly happy to know that the races were still running.

HADLEY: I know. I think she's watching Sky Central every Saturday, hearing from Ron Dufficy and Lizzie Jelfs. Look, I know that you've got to go, but I want to say one thing to you before we go. A few years ago, I had a blue with you, right. And it was a subject of much publicity. I want to apologise. No, no, I want to say it. I want to apologise. I think you've proven since your time, particularly this critical time, you will end up as one of our great prime ministers. I think you have handled yourself with class, dignity and distinction and a level of energy I've rarely seen. So accept my sincere apologies. You're a great prime minister and I appreciate your time today.

PRIME MINISTER: Well, Ray, that's very kind and very generous, and I thank you for that. But I'm just very appreciative of the Australian people. I said some weeks ago that we were going to be put to the test and we're measuring up. And to be able to tell the Queen last night that the people of Australia were measuring up was a moment of great pride. So thank you very much, I appreciate that and looking forward to footy coming back on, mate.

HADLEY: You've come a long way from being around the ground with the Continuous Call Team in the Southern Districts’ home ground to where you are now. Thanks for your time, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Good on you Ray, cheers.

HADLEY: All the best to you, thank you. That’s our Prime Minister, we’re in safe hands there, I think. Scott Morrison.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42811

Gold Coast's Largest Road Project Begins

5 May 2020

Prime Minister, Premier of Queensland, Minister for Population Cities and Urban Infrastructure, Queensland Minister for Transport and Main Roads, Minister for Industry, Minister for Industry Science and Technology

Works have started on the $1 billion Pacific Motorway upgrade from Varsity Lakes to Tugun, the Gold Coast’s largest road project.

Concrete safety barriers have been put up, VMS boards installed and speeds reduced to make way for the mammoth jointly-funded project, which will see the M1 transformed into at least six lanes from Brisbane to Tugun.

It comes as another milestone is reached on the $218.5 million M1 upgrade between Mudgeeraba and Varsity Lakes with the new Stapley Drive bridge expected to open to traffic next week.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Government had fast-tracked the project to help bust congestion and create a jobs pipeline to help in the recovery from COVID-19.

“We’re getting moving as quickly as we can to get shovels in the ground and workers on site,” the Prime Minister said.

“Our $500 million investment to upgrade the M1 will boost jobs and get workers home sooner and safer.

“This isn’t just a project with significant long-term benefits, it’s going to be delivering benefits right now with more jobs to help local workers as Australia moves past the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the project was not only about tackling congestion in Australia’s sixth largest city, but also keeping Queenslanders in jobs.

“This project will support more than 830 jobs and we’re going to keep delivering jobs and infrastructure for the Gold Coast and the whole of Queensland,” Premier Palaszczuk said.

“We’re starting before the current section is complete because we want to see progress and jobs continue.

“Getting started on this project sooner rather than later means when we come out of COVID-19, Queensland’s economy can support as many jobs as possible.”

Federal Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure Alan Tudge said the project would be divided into three packages, with the section from Varsity Lakes to Burleigh the first to be delivered.

“Start of construction has been fast-tracked because we know the delivery of major infrastructure projects like the M1 is essential to supporting jobs and economic growth at this time,” Minister Tudge said.

“It's rare to see a project of this size start construction within several weeks after contract award but we know it is vital to get this project up and running at a time when creating and maintaining jobs has never been more critical.

“This is just one of our major infrastructure projects that will be essential in the post-pandemic economic recovery.”

 Queensland Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said close to 80 per cent of businesses currently working on the first M1 upgrade between Mudgeeraba and Varsity Lakes were local, and that Gold Coasters would see that level of local engagement replicated on an upgrade five times the size, benefitting the city for years to come.

“The Queensland Government has secured $2.5 billion to build a better M1, and to create more than 2,000 jobs and plenty of work for dozens of local businesses,” Minister Bailey said.

“Getting shovels in the ground now means that once works wrap up on the Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes section in mid-2020, there won’t be a pause in much-needed jobs.

“Attacking coronavirus means going at it from all angles. That includes the economic front, where major construction projects like this are crucial to keeping Queenslanders employed and assisting businesses as much as possible.”

Federal Member for McPherson Karen Andrews said it was a win-win-win situation, particularly as the Gold Coast feels the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Getting this project started ahead of time is a win for jobs, a win for our economy and a win for Gold Coast drivers,” Minister Andrews said.

“By relieving the southern Gold Coast of the constant traffic bottlenecks, we can reduce travel times and increase freight efficiency.”

The project will feature the region’s first Diverging Diamond Interchange and more lanes for the 10-kilometre stretch between Varsity Lakes and Tugun and there will also be upgrades to the Burleigh Heads, Tallebudgera and Palm Beach exits.

It will also include building a new service road bridge over Tallebudgera Creek and connecting a new western service road (one lane each way) between Palm Beach (Exit 92) and Tallebudgera (Exit 89). The corridor south of Varsity Lakes will be preserved for a future rail extension.

The $1 billion M1 Pacific Motorway – Varsity Lakes to Tugun project is being jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments, with both governments contributing $500 million each.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42809

Air Force and Boeing Roll Out First Loyal Wingman Aircraft

5 May 2020

Prime Minister, Minister for Defence, Minister for Defence Industry

The first military aircraft to be designed and built in Australia in more than 50 years has been rolled out as part of a partnership between the Royal Australian Air Force and Boeing Australia.

The Morrison Government has invested up to $40 million in the Boeing Loyal Wingman – Advanced Development Program, alongside Boeing’s largest investment in a new unmanned aircraft program outside the United States.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new capability would help protect and support Australia’s most valuable Defence aircraft, and the pilots who fly them

“We’re investing to enhance the agility and capability of the Australian Defence Force so we can protect our nation and our allies. It means Australia can sharpen its edge and prepare for the future,” the Prime Minister said.

“Our investment also highlights our Government’s commitment to growing and developing our local defence industry, creating jobs and boosting our global export potential.

“The Loyal Wingman program has helped support around 100 high tech jobs in Australia. Such projects will be critical to bolster growth and support jobs as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The Loyal Wingman will have a range of more than 3,700 kilometres, enabling Defence to better understand how these types of aircraft can be used as a force-multiplier, helping to project power forward while keeping manned capabilities out of harm’s way.

Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds CSC said the partnership allowed Defence to bring innovation to Australia in an exciting, future-focused technology space.

“The program will examine how autonomous unmanned aircraft can support existing manned aircraft, such as our Joint Strike Fighters, Super Hornets and Growlers,” Minister Reynolds said.

“This is Australian ingenuity at its finest, and presents Australia and our allies with opportunities for critical capabilities to fight emerging global threat systems.”

Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said the program was welcome news for Australia’s defence industry, particularly suppliers from small businesses.

“This is a truly historic moment for our country. It’s the first time that Australian industry are locally designing, developing and manufacturing an aircraft of this type,” Minister Price said.

“This demonstrates the importance of the relationship that Defence has with companies like Boeing, and defence industry more broadly, and provides a fantastic example of the innovation we can achieve together.”

The first aircraft is scheduled to commence ground trials soon.

Imagery of the Loyal Wingman is available at:

• http://bds.navigon.net/downloads/1_ATS-Loyal-Wingman.jpg   

• http://bds.navigon.net/downloads/2_ATS-Loyal-Wingman.jpg  

• http://bds.navigon.net/downloads/3_ATS-Loyal-Wingman.jpg

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42807

Joint Statement - Prime Ministers Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison Announce Plans for Trans-Tasman COVID-Safe Travel Zone

5 May 2020

Australia and New Zealand are committed to introducing a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone as soon as it is safe to do so, Prime Minister Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister the Hon Scott Morrison MP have announced.

The Prime Ministers agreed to commence work on a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone – easing travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand. Such an arrangement would be put in place once it is safe to do so and necessary health, transport and other protocols had been developed and met, to ensure the protection of public health.

This arrangement recognises that Australia and New Zealand are both successfully addressing the spread of COVID-19.

Any arrangement would need to take into account state and territory movement restrictions.

“Building on our success so far in responding to COVID-19, continuing to protect Australians and New Zealanders remains an absolute priority,” the Prime Ministers said. “We will remain responsive to the health situation as it develops.”

The Prime Ministers welcomed the early interest of business leaders and other stakeholders in a trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone. Officials would work closely with these groups, including the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum, as planning developed further.

“A trans-Tasman COVID-safe travel zone would be mutually beneficial, assisting our trade and economic recovery, helping kick-start the tourism and transport sectors, enhancing sporting contacts, and reuniting families and friends.

“We need to be cautious as we progress this initiative. Neither country wants to see the virus rebound so it’s essential any such travel zone is safe. Relaxing travel restrictions at an appropriate time will clearly benefit both countries and demonstrates why getting on top of the virus early is the best strategy for economic recovery,” the Prime Ministers said.

The Prime Ministers noted they had worked closely together on Australia’s and New Zealand’s respective border settings since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Each country had allowed the other’s citizens to transit on their way home, and to enter the other country if they ordinarily lived there.

These measures reflected Australia and New Zealand’s special relationship, our Single Economic Market agenda, and the long history of freedom of movement between the two countries.

“Our relationship is one of family – and our unique travel arrangement means we have a head-start for when it is time to get trans-Tasman travel flowing again,” the Prime Ministers said.

“Once we have established effective travel arrangements across the Tasman, we will also explore opportunities to expand the concept to members of our broader Pacific family, enabling travel between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific island countries. We will work with interested Pacific countries on parameters and arrangements to manage the risks.”

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43982

Update on Coronavirus Measures

5 May 2020

The National Cabinet met today to further discuss options for easing restrictions over the coming months, helping prepare Australians to go back to work in a COVID-19 safe environment and getting the economy back to a more sustainable level.

The Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy provided an update on the measures underway, the latest data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.

There have been 6,849 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 96 people have died. There are now only around 1,000 active cases in Australia, and over the past week, daily infection rates have remained low.

We need to continue to have the right controls in place to test more people, trace those who test positive and respond to local outbreaks when they occur. These are precedent conditions to enable Australia to relax baseline restrictions and enable Australians to live and work in a COVID-19 safe economy.

National Cabinet encouraged Australians to download the COVIDSafe app to ensure that we can protect Australians and reset baseline restrictions. Nearly 5 million Australians have already downloaded the COVIDSafe app. This is an enormous achievement, but more is needed.

National Cabinet welcomed New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for a part of today’s meeting to discuss our countries’ approaches to combating the virus. We agreed to start work on a trans-Tasman COVID-19 safe travel zone, easing travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand. This arrangement would be put in place once it is safe to do so, with necessary health, transport and other protocols to protect public health. Any arrangement would need to factor in state and territory movement restrictions. A travel zone would assist both countries’ economic recovery, help kick-start our tourism and transport sectors, enhance existing sporting links, and reunite families and friends.
National Cabinet agreed to meet again on Friday 8 May 2020.

Establishing a COVID-19 Safe Australia - returning to work safely and confidently

The Chair of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission, Mr Neville Power, briefed National Cabinet on the importance of a proactive and consistent approach to supporting businesses and workers to safely return to work - drawing on the National COVID-19 Safe Workplace Principles that had been agreed by National Cabinet on 24 April 2020.

National Cabinet agreed that Safework Australia would be the single source of information, which will allow businesses to plan with confidence and consistency. A toolkit is being developed for businesses to use, to help them be work ready in a COVID-19 safe environment. National Cabinet encouraged businesses to be prepared for reopening, to protect their workers and protect their business.

Establishing a COVID-19 Safe Australia - removing baseline restrictions

National Cabinet agreed to establish a three step framework to gradually remove baseline restrictions to enable Australians to live in a COVID-19 safe economy. Details will be determined by National Cabinet on Friday 8 May 2020.
Individual states and territories will determine the timeframe for graduating between steps and individual restrictions to remove. This reflects the fact that states and territories are at different stages of the pandemic response, with 6 of 8 states and territories now recording multiple zero case days.

National Cabinet noted that the Northern Territory has announced that by 5 June 2020, it will be able to remove many restrictions, while maintaining social distancing, hygiene and travel restrictions.

It is National Cabinet’s aim to have a sustainable COVID-19 safe economy in July 2020. This will be subject to strong epidemiology results, testing, tracing and local surge health response capacity. National Cabinet noted that some health measures will need to be in place for a considerable period of time including social distancing, strong hygiene and international travel restrictions. Some jurisdictions may choose to maintain interstate travel restrictions.

Justice sector Preparedness

National Cabinet discussed the importance of making sure there is access to legal support for those Australians who need it during this time.

That’s why the Australian Government will provide an additional $63.3 million for the legal assistance sector:

• $49.8 million for additional frontline legal services, such as legal advice or representation, and with 40 per cent to be used for matters involving domestic violence; and

• $13.5 million for IT costs to support the sector’s transition to delivering assistance virtually and online

National Cabinet agreed that it is important to quickly finalise agreement of the National Legal Assistance Partnership to ensure continuity for services, such as Community Legal Centres. Under that Partnership agreement, the Australian Government will provide more than $2 billion over the next five years to help Australians with legal issues.

Given the importance of protecting victims of domestic violence, there was also a commitment from all Premiers and Chief Ministers that domestic violence orders will continue to be available and enforced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Managing COVID-19 in corrections facilities

National Cabinet agreed that jurisdictions will plan for and manage COVID-19 outbreaks in prisons in accordance with the Communicable Diseases Network Australia National Guidelines for the Prevention, Control and Public Health Management of COVID-19 Outbreaks in Correctional and Detention Facilities in Australia.

National Cabinet agreed that supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to corrections facilities should be considered a priority in the context of the national supply of PPE, as additional supplies become available and if COVID-19 cases are confirmed in the sector.

The Australian Government will, in partnership with jurisdictions, develop ‘Safe Travel Plans’ for newly released Indigenous prisoners including access to self-isolation accommodation and secure transport to designated communities.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43981

Update on Coronavirus Measures

1 May 2020

The National Cabinet met today to take further decisions to save lives, and to save livelihoods.

The Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy provided an update on the measures underway, the latest data and medical advice in relation to COVID-19.

There are over 6,760 confirmed cases in Australia and sadly 92 people have died. There are now only around 1000 active cases in Australia, and over the past week, daily infection rates have been very low, especially in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT, Queensland and South Australia.

Initial actions and measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia have been largely successful at slowing the growth of cases domestically and ensuring the national health care system has the ability to cope with cases, and surge when required.

We need to continue to have the right controls in place to test more people, trace those who test positive and respond to local outbreaks when they occur. These are amongst the precedent conditions to enable Australia to relax baseline restrictions.

National Cabinet encouraged Australians to download the COVIDSafe app to ensure that we can protect Australians and reset baseline restrictions.

The ability to find and contain outbreaks quickly will mean governments can ease restrictions while still keeping Australians safe. National Cabinet thanked the more than 3.5 million Australians that have already downloaded the COVIDSafe app.

Treasury Secretary, Dr Steven Kennedy, provided National Cabinet with an economic update for both the domestic and international situation.

National Cabinet agreed to bring forward the review of the first phase of removing baseline restrictions on Friday 8 May 2020, including an assessment of achievement against precedent conditions.

National Cabinet agreed to meet again on Tuesday 5 May 2020.

Industry Code for Aged Care Sector

National Cabinet endorsed the draft ‘Code of Conduct on Pandemic Procedures’ for residential aged care. The sector-led Code will encourage providers to act compassionately while balancing the challenges of COVID-19, taking into account the wishes of individual residents.

This Code of Conduct will drive a more responsive and consistent approach to visitation and communication across residential aged care. It  will also empower residents and their families to speak up and it will provide an agreed course of action to resolve complaints.

The Code has been developed by, and agreed with, peak bodies representing the majority of aged care providers and consumers, including:

• Council of the Ageing (COTA)

• Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA)

• Leading Age Services Australia (LASA)

• The Aged Care Guild (The Guild)

• National Seniors Australia (NSA)

• Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN)

• Dementia Australia (DA)

The Aged Care Visitor Access Code is available on COTA Australia's website. It is currently with individual providers and consumers for consultation until 7 May.

National Cabinet thanked the aged care sector for their cooperation in developing the Code and encouraged providers to adopt the Code once finalised to ensure consistency and transparency across Australia.

National Cabinet reaffirmed its commitment to the AHPPC recommendations which prohibit entry to a residential aged care facility for anyone who has not been vaccinated against influenza after 1 May 2020. This is an important safeguard against possible influenza outbreaks in vulnerable groups.

National Cabinet also recognised the Commonwealth’s additional funding support package of $205 million for the aged care sector.

National Principles for Sport and Recreational Activities

National Cabinet agreed that sport and recreation will play a significant role as Australia emerges from the COVID-19 environment due to the associated health, economic, social and cultural benefits it brings.

National Cabinet also agreed that the resumption of sport and recreation activity at any level must not compromise the health of individuals or the community; must be based on objective health information to ensure potential transmission rates are conducive to the safe conduct of sport and recreation; and should only occur where activity-specific, stringent, public and personal health measures are observed, and meeting minimum standards.

National Cabinet considered and endorsed ‘National Principles for the Resumption of Sport and Recreation Activities [PDF 350 KB]’ developed by the AHPPC in consultation with sporting bodies across Australia (Attachment A).

The Principles will help provide a pathway for a staged return of community and professional sport, as well as recreational activities, without compromising the health of individuals or the community.

It was noted that evidence to date suggests that even with similar mitigation steps, outdoor activities are a lower risk setting for COVID-19 transmission.

The staged return will commence an initial phase of small group (<10) activities in a non-contact fashion, prior to moving on to a subsequent phase of large group (>10) activities including full contact training and competition in sport.

The initial phase accommodates, where possible, for the resumption of children’s outdoor sport with strict physical distancing measures for non-sporting attendees such as parents, and outdoor recreational activities including but not limited to outdoor-based personal training and boot camps, golf, fishing, bush-walking, and swimming.

The states and territories will be responsible for sport and recreation resumption decisions, both at the professional and community level and will determine progression through the phases, taking account of local epidemiology, risk mitigation strategies and public health capability.

National Cabinet agreed that the ‘Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment [PDF 506 KB]’ developed by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) provides a guide to the staged resumption of sport and recreation in Australia (Attachment B).

For high performance and professional sporting organisations, the regime underpinned in the Framework is considered a minimum baseline standard required to be met before the resumption of training and match play.

National Cabinet also endorsed the AHPPC’s proposal to form a COVID-19 Sports and Health Committee comprising the Commonwealth Deputy CMO, Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Medical Director, an infection control expert, representatives of Federal, State and Territory Departments of Health, Sport and Recreation and relevant sports medical officers from the National Sporting Organisations, to closely monitor and report on any COVID-19 related issues or manifestations in the sector during the resumption phase, as well as any further and specific decisions about the resumption of sport – for a minimum of three months from commencement.

Key metrics to relax restrictions

National Cabinet endorsed medical advice from the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee which sets out key metrics to support decision making on the relaxation of restriction measures [PDF 253 KB] (Attachment C).

The AHPPC’s Pandemic Intelligence Plan, Precedent Condition report and the Australian National Disease Surveillance Plan also recommended public health and surveillance measures to achieve continued suppression of COVID-19.

Initial actions and measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia have been largely successful at slowing the growth of cases domestically and ensuring the national health care system has the ability to cope with cases, and surge when required.

For COVID-19 suppression strategies to be effective, Reff (the number of people a single case infects on average) needs to be less than 1.0. The Reff continues to be below 1.0 in all jurisdictions with sufficient local transmission.

In particular National Cabinet noted the significant progress against precedent conditions, ahead of any consideration of relaxation of baseline measures.

AHPPC advice is that of 15 precedent conditions needed to be in place to consider relaxing restrictions, Australia is currently on track to meet 11 conditions. Governments will expediate four conditions - surveillance (testing), state and territory surveillance plans and resources, use of COVIDSafe App and stocks of personal protective equipment - gowns and goggles. Further details of preconditions are in Attachment C.

Boarding Schools Arrangements

National Cabinet adopted the AHPPC statement on risk management for re-opening boarding schools and school-based residential colleges. The AHPPC has made a number of practical recommendations that these boarding schools and colleges should consider, including a reduction in the number of boarding students, staggered dining times and establishing procedures for quarantine. AHPPC advises that decisions around boarding arrangements should involve parents and ensure a clear understanding of any related issues, as well as risk management plans.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-43980

Interview with Ben Fordham, 2GB

1 May 2020

BEN FORDHAM: Scott Morrison, happy Friday.

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah you too, Ben.

FORDHAM: How good is an early mark?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, well, how good are Australians for putting us in this position that has enabled us to do it. They've been doing exactly what we've been asking them to do, and we've really been keen for them to get on and do that, which is great. But there's still a bit of work to do between now and next Friday. And the Premiers and I'll be working hard on that over the seven days ahead. But the key thing we're looking for now, the only real thing that is standing in our way to restarting that process to ease those restrictions, is that COVIDSafe app. We've got about 3, just over 3 and a half million people who have downloaded it and we need much more than that. So if you're on air, if you're listening this afternoon to Ben and you haven't downloaded the app, please do so. If you know someone who hasn't then please encourage them to do that. The sooner we can do that, the sooner we can go to the pub.

FORDHAM: Sometimes targets can help with these things. How many people do you need to download it?

PRIME MINISTER: As many as possible Ben and that's the point. Really, we need as many as possible and we don't want to sort of restrict it. So the more people that have downloaded the app, the safer everybody is. It's like putting on sunscreen when you go out into the blazing sun. You can't go out in the blazing sun unless you've got that protection in place. And we don't want SPF 1, we want SPF 50.

FORDHAM: I know there's a lot more work to be done and you've already said that, but do you feel a sense of relief about the way this has been handled, the way Australians have responded?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm very thankful and I'm very proud of my fellow Australians. We've taken it seriously and I know it's been frustrating and it's been, made people anxious and on occasions pretty annoyed. But they're still hunkered down and got the job done. We’re still not out of the risk zone. There's still a lot of risk out there. That's why these other things are important. But they know when they look up, you know, watch the telly and read the paper or whatever and see things online about what's happened in the United States or particularly in the UK and in Europe and in China and in other places, they know how bad this could get. And so they understand that we've got to get, as I said today, we’ve got to get Australia out from under the doona, mate. We've got to get it back operating and opening and having a low number of cases is great, but having high unemployment is not. And so we need the jobs and we need the businesses open and we need the safety and protection to enable that to happen.

FORDHAM: The National Cabinet is going to meet a couple of times in the next week ahead of those announcements next Friday. And the more people that download the app and the more we behave ourselves in the next week, I suppose, the more encouraging the news might be next Friday. And the timing's going to be perfect in the lead up to Mother's Day. I know your mum, Marianne, I'm sure she's waiting to see you, and I know the girls will be keen to go and see their mum as well, your wife, Jenny. So what would you say to all the mums ahead of Mother's Day next weekend?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I would love to be able to give a Mother's Day present on this and all, I'm sure, the Premiers would as well. I mean, it doesn't mean that you can have 50 people around for Mother's Day lunch. That isn't going to happen. We're still not in a position where we can have those big family gatherings and can't see that happening as soon as next week. But what we can see is, I think, some important steps next week. And I think what all mums would want is the welfare of their family to be in the best possible situation. And I know they'd be worried about, you know, kids of theirs who may have lost their job or they've lost their job or their partner or whoever and they will want to see Australia getting strongly back on their feet more than anything.

FORDHAM: Now, Peter Badel in the Courier-Mail is reporting just a short time ago the Queensland Government has cleared the NRL for take-off on May 28, but has warned the game not to blow its chance with another scandal. So it looks like we're heading back pretty soon. But you've made the point today about the New Zealand Warriors that they haven't got the all clear just yet from Border Force?

PRIME MINISTER: Not yet, but I hope it doesn't take too much longer. But the Border Force officials are doing their job and they're working through those issues. So when they've completed that task then they'll be able to make a decision, but then there will also be decisions required in the other states that could apply that, you know, will be caught up in this. So, look, we're getting close, right? I commend the NRL for having the ambition to get this up and going again, just as I do the AFL and I hear netball is doing exactly the same thing. I think we want to see these things happening, but it's got to be done in the right way and it's got to set the right example and the players have got to set the right example, too.

FORDHAM: You famously said about a month or so ago you were looking forward to going to the footy and clearly that didn't work out. But now you probably are looking forward to going and seeing the Sharkies again?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'm always happy, and looking forward to going to see the Sharkies, how soon we'll be able to have crowds at games, though, I think that there will be some time. But seeing them run around again, then that'll be great. And hopefully that can be achieved in the timeframe they've set out and what form the competition takes, well, it's not really 100 per cent clear yet. But I think Australians want to see that, it's a big part of who we are, sport. We enjoy it, we enjoy playing it. Today, we also agreed on some national principles not just on how we are going to deal with these elite codes, but also community sport and recreation. Things like playing golf and going fishing and doing stuff like that and they'll be part of the many things that will be considered next week.

FORDHAM: I was reading a briefing paper that Michael Pachi, our national political editor, sent me today. I think this came from your office. And on community sport, it was suggesting that to kick off it might be groups under 10 and non-contact and then gradually build up the groups larger than 10 and contact sports?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, yeah, that's right. The Australian Institute of Sport has done some really good and very detailed work on this. And so the medical expert panel that we have from all the states and territories, they've endorsed that and added a few things on top of that to guide how the states can get community sport going again. That's a huge part of how communities operate. They do gather around sport, but they'll have to do things differently. We're going to have to live with social distancing, one and a half metres, the hand hygiene, all of that. I mean, hand hygiene is a great idea at the best of times. I mean, one of the side effects we're seeing in all of this is we're actually seeing fewer people with the flu, because people are keeping their distances and following good coughing and hand hygiene etiquettes and things like this. But there are other areas where people need to remember that it's good to be COVID safe, but don't neglect the rest of your health. And we've put in place telehealth so you can get in touch with your GP. Don't neglect your mental health. We had Christine Morgan, who heads the Mental Health Commission, I appointed her as the national advisor on Suicide Prevention. Now, she's making that point as well. Don't neglect the other things in your health. It's just not about coronavirus. If you need to get your breast screening done, if you need to get your bowel screening done, if you need to go and see the doctor because you've been feeling a bit blue, do it. Telehealth enables you to do it.

FORDHAM: Prime Minister Scott Morrison joining us on the line. I'll let you go because I know you've got a busy afternoon. Just a couple of quick ones. You just mentioned hand health. When do you reckon we’ll be shaking hands again or is it something we should just think about maybe for 2021?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, it's hard to know, Ben, to be honest. I mean, the more things we can get back to normal, the better.

FORDHAM: But are there some things that won't go back to normal like that, do you reckon?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I certainly think that the way people crowd in. I'll give you a good example, and this isn't an indication of, you know, what we'll decide or agree on next week. All I'm sort of getting at is the problem we've got to be careful of with things like pubs is how people congregate in pubs. You know, they sort of cluster together around the bar, get very tight or they’re close together in small talking groups or, you know, around on some stools around a small bench, things like that, that's not going to work. But, you know, sitting down at tables with appropriate distance between the chairs and all that sort of thing, well, that's different. So we are going to have to think, and all the businesses. I’ll tell you what's been awesome is how businesses have thought under obvious pressure of the restrictions about how they can re-engineer their businesses and think how they do their businesses differently. More of them are going digital online. Now, that's going to be a good thing for them regardless on the other side of COVID-19. So businesses have been incredibly innovative and adaptive and they've had to do that under a lot of pressure. And so, you know, I honestly can't wait until we can get a situation where we can help them open their doors again but we've got to do it safely. That's why COVIDSafe, the app, slip, slop, slap the app as I said this morning, it's very important.

FORDHAM: Yeah, I know that schooling's been a bit different and sometimes it's the teachers who help the kids make the Mother's Day gifts so just don't forget for next weekend, okay, so I know that Lily and Abbey, they might be relying on you to make the purchase in the lead up to Mother's Day. So don't leave Jenny posted.

PRIME MINISTER: I won't leave Jen, I have right now, I think it was reported the other day, I have both my mum and my mother in law living with Jenny and I and the girls at the moment, because they’re all in the one household. So we’ll all be there together for Mother's Day on Sunday and you know, the pressure will be on, mate. I'll have to step up.

FORDHAM: Yeah, aim up. Thank you so much. And look, I'll say again what I said to you last time we spoke, and this is aimed at all of our leaders all across the country of all political persuasions. Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER: Good on you, mate. Thanks for that.

FORDHAM: Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling in.

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42806

New COVID-19 Payment to Keep Senior Australians in Residential Aged Care Safe

1 May 2020

Prime Minister, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians, Minister for Youth and Sport

Residential aged care providers will benefit from an additional COVID-19 specific support package totalling $205 million under targeted measures announced today by the Morrison Government.

It takes the total COVID-19 specific Federal Government funding for aged care to more than $850 million.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the latest injection of funds was aimed at ensuring aged care providers can offer reinforced levels of safety and care for those who need it most.

“Senior Australians are highly vulnerable to coronavirus and we are seeing the cost the pandemic is having on facilities around the country,” the Prime Minister said.

“This is about keeping those people in residential aged care, protected and safe.”

The announcement comes as National Cabinet assessed an aged care sector code of conduct for visitations to ensure residents can not only be kept safe but continue to receive the social and emotional support they need from their families at this time.

The payment – to all Commonwealth funded residential aged care providers – will be linked to the number of residents being cared for by each facility, and is aimed at covering the additional costs of caring for the health and wellbeing of residents during the pandemic.

The costs include additional staffing, training, supporting visitations and connections and the provision of personal protective equipment.

Facilities outside major metropolitan areas will receive a 50 per cent loading to cover the additional costs of providing care in these areas.

Providers will received around $900 per resident in major metropolitan areas and around $1350 per resident in all other areas.

Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said it was another measure to reinforce the sector and protect our loved ones.  

“The health, wellbeing and safety of elderly residents is our highest priority – and this measure helps reassure family and friends that everything is being done to look after their loved ones during this most difficult time,” Minister Colbeck said.

The latest round of funding follows the $235 million retention bonus paid to residential and home care workers to strengthen the workforce during the pandemic and $101 million to support providers directly impacted by an outbreak.

Additionally, the Business Improvement Fund has been extended for another year with $48 million in support as required by providers.

“This payment will ensure providers continue to invest in COVID-19 preparedness to protect the people in their care,” Minister Colbeck said.

“We are seeing how devastating the impact of COVID-19 can be if there is an outbreak in an aged care facility.

“While Australia is doing well by international comparison, we must remain vigilant – particularly in residential aged care to protect some of our most vulnerable Australians.”

https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-42804